April 8, 2024 • 52 mins
It's New Years Eve in Miami, Florida. The night life is popping, and people are ready to celebrate and party into the new year.
RJ Lockwood settled into his apartment with a gifted bottle of vodka intending to bring in the new year with some drinks and video games and the hopes of a possible visitor.
Days later, RJ's roommates return to Miami and find RJ dead on the floor.
Negligence and shaddy police work compromised the crime scene and any chance of finding RJ's killer.
Pack a bowl as we unpack this one.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Happy 420, I'm Kai and you are listening to Stone Cold Murder.
(00:08):
Just a PSA, if you have any information to help solve a crime, you can go to www.crimestoppers.com
to report any information anonymously.
Thanks for tuning in for Season 2, Episode 9, The Murder of R.J.
Lockwood.
This podcast contains material that may not be suitable for all audiences.
(00:30):
Listening discretion is advised.
Welcome back to Stone Cold Murder.
We have Gabriel on the pod today.
Thanks for being on.
Hello, hello, hello.
Hello.
Happy meeting you.
Absolutely.
Thank you so much for being on.
How are you today?
Amazing, amazing.
How are y'all?
Doing well.
Sick, sick, sick.
That is good.
(00:51):
All right.
Are you stoned?
Feeling good?
I'm doing every muscle in the world.
Hell yeah.
Love that.
So I am too.
So let's get into the case.
Tonight, we are talking about the murder of R.J. Lockwood.
Have you ever heard this case or heard about it?
Have not.
(01:12):
Okay.
No.
All right.
Well, let's tell you about it since we're stoned and ready.
Murder story starts out in Miami, Florida, New Year's Eve, 2003.
A call came into the police department at 1157 PM, but the caller made no sound when
the dispatcher answered the call.
(01:32):
911, what's your emergency?
Hello?
911, what's your emergency?
Hello?
No response.
The silent call lasted about a minute and then abruptly ended.
Since the call was made from a cell phone, there was no way to track the call and no
way to figure out where it had come from.
(01:54):
Nowadays, we could do that, but in 2003, that was not a thing.
Unfortunately, they could not trace where the call had come from and because they couldn't
track it, I'm sure they were super busy on New Year's Eve.
And it's in Miami, so things just kind of carried out as normal that night without thinking
too much of the call.
(02:14):
The next day, in a second floor loft in Northwest 20th Street in Overtown, one of the residents
there woke up late New Year's Day and noticed all the lights were on in the loft down the
hall.
He could kind of hear the air conditioning running too, but it wasn't kind of unusual
because it was 80 degrees in Miami, Florida, so air conditioning is kind of normal to have
(02:39):
on.
He noted the air conditioning and that all of the lights were still left on.
His neighbor Christian Webb, Stefan von Fouts and R.J. Lockwood lived in that apartment
with all the lights on.
And Christian and Stefan were both away for the holiday, but R.J. stayed behind in the
Miami loft.
(03:00):
Their neighbor had actually seen R.J. the night before on New Year's Eve and gave R.J.
a bottle of vodka to celebrate the New Year, but hadn't seen him since.
That neighbor said that by January 2nd he could smell death, but he wasn't really sure
where it was coming from, so not a good sign.
(03:21):
But you never know, it could be a mouse or whatever, stinky trash, you never know.
Two days later, on January 4th, that same neighbor woke up that morning and actually
vomited from the smell that was coming from the apartment across the hall, and he still
hadn't seen R.J. anywhere.
Ironically enough, that same morning, Stefan was returning home, and as he climbed the
(03:44):
stairs to the second floor loft, he caught a whiff of that smell, and he kind of thought
it was like putrid gas or a dead animal.
But of course he didn't think it was coming from his apartment, and he kept climbing the
stairs.
The loft's front door was locked at the handle, which was normal because it was one of those
automatic locks that just locked behind him, so he normally had to use the key when he
(04:06):
went in.
So he got out his key to unlock the door, and I'm sure by this time he was smelling
what was radiating from his apartment, but what do you do in that situation, you know?
You have to go in.
So he opens the door, goes in, and he recalls being in disbelief and horror.
(04:27):
He said, I didn't even recognize who he was.
He had a shaved head which was not normal for R.J., and his face was black and bloated.
He said, I thought it was a stranger.
Then he realized it was R.J.
R.J. was dressed in a black t-shirt, a lightweight black jacket, and he was laying face up on
a rug.
He was staring at the ceiling with his eyes wide open, and his face was super bloated.
(04:51):
Not a good scene to walk into at all.
I would be mortified.
R.J.'s cell phone was in his hand, and the last call being made to 911 at 1157 p.m.
on New Year's Eve.
That was the call that had come in.
That was not.
There was no answer.
It was his call.
(05:14):
Stefan took note of things around the apartment, and he didn't really see anything out of place,
but he did note that there was a six-pack of corona in the apartment.
It appeared to Stefan that R.J. had fallen backwards and maybe hit his head, and after
the initial shock wore off, he went outside to make a call to 911.
That's where I have a smoke break.
(05:35):
And we're back.
So after he made the 911 call, Stefan waited on the sidewalk until two police cars arrived.
The first on the scene was Miami officer Eugene Edwards.
Stefan directed him to the upstairs apartment and waited outside while the officers looked
around the apartment.
Now this is my opinion, but I'm feeling like you guys will probably feel the way I do by
(06:02):
the end of this.
From the very start of this investigation into R.J.'s murder, the police did like a
piss poor fucking job, and I'm going to tell you fucking why, but even from the beginning,
it's like fucked up.
After looking around the crime scene, one of the officers came back down from the loft
(06:23):
to interview Stefan.
He asked him about R.J.'s diet and his drug and alcohol history.
So I don't know.
I don't know.
It's interesting that you would start that off in the interview, but I digress.
So Stefan replied, I said the guy eats cheeseburgers and fast food all the time.
He'll go across the street and buy a 40.
You know, nonchalantly, they're young guys, so it's not too crazy of a thing.
(06:49):
But after he said that to the officer, he soon realized that the line of questioning
that he was being asked was being steered towards R.J. having an overdose.
Stefan said that's what they assumed when they got there.
It was an overdose.
One of the officers looked at him and said, well, it looks like your friend may have had
too much fun or something.
(07:10):
And don't get me wrong, I'm sure there's an uptick in overdoses on New Year's Eve,
but like it's really shitty for these officers to be like so calloused about it for one.
And for two, they didn't even look around the apartment enough to like know that that
was what happened for sure.
And they were just so set up on this narrative that they made up that they didn't take the
(07:33):
time to properly look over the crime scene, collect any evidence.
And instead, they just brushed it off as a stupid dude with tattoos and face piercings
who overindulged himself while partying and overdose.
This would be the first mistake these officers made.
Unfortunately, the officers on the scene told Stefan that he could leave and come back later.
(07:56):
So Stefan listened to the officers.
He came back to the loft with Christian who had returned to Miami later that morning.
When they arrived, R.J.'s body was being taken away.
And one of the police officers walked up to them and said, look, you need to get it cleaner
and get this place cleaned up.
Go ahead and just get it cleaned up.
So Stefan and Christian began looking through the phone book for like a professional cleaner,
(08:20):
but didn't manage to find one that they could like really afford because they're young
teenage guys, you know, trying their best.
So the building superintendent ended up actually offering to help clean up the loft with both
of them.
Sitting undisturbed on the floor near R.J.'s body was a plastic cup that was filled with
orange liquid, which was assumed to be vodka and orange juice.
(08:42):
They cleaned the loft, scrubbing down the floors and surfaces all around the crime scene.
They removed the rug a few days later and set it downstairs next to the dumpster.
R.J.'s body laid on that rug for days before his body was discovered.
So it definitely contained trace evidence and it was just taken out with the trash and
(09:05):
thrown away without even looking at it, which is a fucking bummer.
Stefan and Christian removed plastic that covered the windows, hoping to ventilate the room
a little bit because it smelled really bad in there.
And they gathered up clothes to move to the Radisson Hotel on Biscayne Boulevard.
According to Stefan, the six pack of Corona mentioned earlier was actually significant.
(09:29):
He said originally if R.J. were drinking alone, he would have just bought a 40 ounce bottle
of cheaper beer and he thinks that R.J. sprung for Corona because, quote unquote, the girls
were coming over.
R.J.'s friend Tino agreed that he didn't drink Corona unless someone else bought it.
He said he simply couldn't afford the expense.
(09:50):
Same with drugs.
Anthony said that while R.J. would dabble in club drugs, he wasn't, he was just too
broke to do anything normally.
The roommate didn't see anything missing and they both confirmed after looking around
that nothing in the apartment had been taken.
Stefan later saw a police incident report and was surprised at the way his comments
(10:12):
had been reworded.
It read, Mr. von Pfautz advised that the victim did not take care of his health and abused
alcohol and narcotics.
Homicide responded and advised unclassified until further investigation.
So that kind of like directly contradicts everything R.J.'s friend said about him.
(10:32):
R.J. had been known to do drugs, but he was not an abuser and they kept painting the picture
that it was an overdose and nothing else.
And that's where I have another smoke break.
All right, so we're back from the smoke break and R.J.'s body was transported to the county
(10:52):
morgue by an independent contractor hired by the medical examiner's office.
And this is actually a standard procedure when no medical examiner is present at the
scene of the crime.
And of course, they didn't call one because they didn't think they were dealing with
a crime.
They thought they were dealing with an overdose.
So in that case, they're like, we can wait on the autopsy.
(11:15):
R.J.'s body sat there for two days until the autopsy could be performed.
January 4th, the day R.J.'s body was discovered, the case sheet or number of bodies scheduled
for autopsies was extremely long.
And R.J.'s must have been near the bottom of the list.
But he was finally given an autopsy on January 6th and they began.
(11:38):
They very soon realized after they began that it wasn't quite what the cops had initially
suspected.
The autopsy revealed what should have been obvious to investigators if they took just
one little tiny bit of time or care to just investigate the scene.
(11:59):
R.J.'s cause of death was not an accidental overdose, but instead a gunshot wound to
the chest.
Gunshot wound to the chest.
How do you explain that?
How?
(12:20):
You told me how.
I mean, he was wearing a black t-shirt too, you said?
Yeah.
And there's literally not a way you should have been able to not?
See blood.
Or a hole?
There was an exit, was there not?
And an entry.
An entry for sure.
Even at the exit, at bullet points, if you could see some sort of blood, that would be
(12:45):
great.
Yeah, and like to be fair, his body was bloated and was sitting there for days.
Sure, fluid leaks out at about, you know, a couple days in.
Sure.
But a gunshot wound to the chest, I would think is fairly obvious.
I'm not a cop.
(13:07):
I'm not an investigator, but it seems like there would be blood somewhere.
Lots of blood.
So this is unsolved then, right?
It is unsolved.
Somebody shot this man in his home?
In his own house.
(13:28):
Yeah.
So how about that interview with the neighbors then because we only talked about one of them
though because there was me.
Yeah, and he had two roommates.
He had two roommates and a neighbor.
So the two roommates were out of town.
Yeah, and he was in this folk where when homie was entertaining somebody with a six pack,
what happened?
(13:49):
Yeah, that's the whole mystery of it all.
Who was this mystery person that he sprung the six pack for?
He said the neighbor said he was a girl, no?
They said, yeah, he was going to entertain quote unquote, the girl.
The girl?
Yeah.
(14:10):
Oh, Pearl?
Mm-hmm.
But then he doesn't hear a gunshot?
I don't know.
But it's New Year's Eve, so it's like in Miami.
So it's also like a happening in Busland City on New Year's Eve.
Yeah.
So cause of death was a gunshot wound to the chest and it was confirmed by Sandra Boyd,
(14:32):
who is an investigator with the Medical Examiner's Office.
That information was soon given to the police, who now have a murder investigation on their
hands instead of an accidental overdose.
And of course they freak out cause they're not expecting this.
They quickly make their way back to the apartment and obviously has already been cleaned up
(14:54):
because they told those boys, you better clean this place up and get it clean because it's
steam.
Clean it up.
And it's already been contaminated plenty by the roommates.
Yeah.
And, right.
Sometimes.
I wonder if they even did because they were so adamant about the drug overdose thing.
(15:19):
And we know people get treated shitty when, you know, they're drug users and he had tattoos
and face piercings in 2003.
Yeah, and it's like, not like it wasn't accepted, but it wasn't as accepted as it is now.
So like adding all of those things into one big pot made them just be like, yeah, he's
(15:45):
fucking druggy who party too hard on New Year's Eve and it's not really important to me.
And that's kind of what it got played off as, you know?
EOD then brought it for a couple days.
Yeah.
What is it to me?
You know?
She sucks.
So room has already been cleaned.
(16:08):
They asked Stefan to get down to the loft right away and when he finally arrived, he
found the doorways had been blocked off with yellow crime scene tape and that the area
was swarming with TV crew.
Detectives questioned him again and he said, I was trying to tell him about what I saw
when I got there, which was the same story I told them when I originally got there.
(16:30):
And all of the sudden they wanted to know new details.
I told them about the bottles of beer and vodka and everything had kind of been cleaned
up.
I did see two bottles of Corona sitting on the counter that were unopened.
Later, he would find more of the Corona in the fridge, which completed the six pack.
And when he and Christian had left on vacation, there were no Coronas there.
(16:54):
So they assumed that RJ had brought them or someone who was coming to the apartment brought
them.
At the time he found RJ's body.
He didn't notice any blood or sign of violence, which is interesting that the roommate didn't
notice blood either.
I don't know how.
I don't, I don't get how, but it must've been such a gross scene too.
Cause they said it smelled so bad.
(17:16):
I'm sure.
Yeah.
I don't know. Yeah, any body that sits there for two days is going to smell bad.
And they said he was really bloated too.
I wonder if there wasn't an exit wound and so then it's just like, it's internally bleeding.
And then he died, you know, he might've died immediately, but like he's just bleeding inside
(17:41):
or something.
But he didn't cause he got Corona.
That's true.
But that doesn't mean the bullet came out.
That's true.
He should be alive for a certain amount of time.
He gets the call 911 and then dies on his dial to 911.
Brutal.
Brutal.
But yeah, he didn't see any blood or signs of violence.
(18:04):
And he said it looked like RJ might've just like turned around and got surprised.
With not much to go off of, the investigators worked to retrace RJ's steps the night of
his murder and figured out a motive and try and figure out a motive for why someone would
want him dead.
RJ was a Richmond native and had only recently moved to Miami to live with his friends,
(18:26):
Stefan and Christian.
They both moved to Miami in 2003 to start a design and architecture firm and they signed
a lease on a second floor loft that was roomy enough to accommodate RJ at the time.
So, RJ decided to make the move to Miami in early October with just a cell phone, some
clothes, his records, and the hopes of landing a gig doing some lighting installation and
(18:51):
repair.
RJ's best friend Tino said the last thing I said to him before he left for Florida was
wherever you end up dude, you need to start taking some things seriously.
So, everybody was just trying to get him on the right track and help him out.
In this situation, you know?
A few weeks after he arrived in Miami, RJ began a relationship with a woman named Caitlin.
(19:15):
He and Caitlin planned to start a new chapter together after the new year and RJ had actually
met Caitlin while surfing on MySpace.
Which is, seems like so long ago.
But he found her on MySpace, he came across her photo and he said Caitlin was beautiful,
she had red hair, and she had a massive tribal tattoo across her back.
(19:39):
Which immediately he was like, fuck yeah.
So he clicked on her profile to get like a better look of her and he came across this
beautiful girl and her profile read, Caitlin, 27 years old, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, 27
year old mother of one perfect six year old girl and a terminal lip gloss addict.
(20:04):
I live in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, but I've been everywhere, including crazy.
But I'm back now.
Redhead, bipolar, obsessive, and somewhat skewed.
My life's mission is to continue my work as an agent of chaos.
I'm infamous for kissing gay men, sleeping with brothers and sisters, naked cowboy beatbox,
(20:29):
strip charades, drunken tantrums, and my superpowers are having men ask to marry me and summoning
old friends to my presence by sheer will.
Hail Eris.
So that's just the whole thing.
Yeah.
So RJ read that and he was like, fuck yeah, I'm about that.
(20:52):
I'm about whatever that is.
Absolutely.
Please do.
I just watched Inspector Gadget.
I swear to you, if I was Inspector Gadget in 2004, crime would be fucking obliterated.
Like I couldn't solve any crime just by access to people's fucking MySpace profile.
(21:14):
Yeah.
What the fuck?
Yeah, that was wild, right?
No, that's wild.
She said to continue my life work as an agent of chaos.
Damn.
There's so much of that to unpack that.
But he read that and he was like, fuck yeah, that girl.
(21:35):
I need, I need, I need that back tattoo, that whole profile.
Give me, give me, give me, give me.
So he decided to message Caitlin and he complimented her tattoo, which is a good move, I think.
That's a first step.
And the two instantly hit it off and they began instant messaging each other, like AOL
(21:58):
messaging, which is awesome to think about.
Caitlin was a manager for a Fort Lauderdale escort service called Eye Candy Escorts.
And she spent most of her days just talking to RJ as she worked and they talked about
anything and everything.
And they just really started to get to know each other over the first couple of weeks
of them messaging.
(22:20):
They began to make plans to travel and meet as friends and really just imagine a future
together.
Doing all that kind of cute stuff that people do when they're first liking someone, you
know, enjoying the possibilities of a new relationship and what that has to offer.
You know, letting their imaginations run wild a little bit.
(22:42):
And after two months in Miami, RJ hadn't found a job and was still struggling with
his finances.
So he took small jobs here and there, but the majority of his time was spent talking
to Caitlin.
Minutes turned to hours and Stefan and Christian would always tease him because he spent pretty
much his entire day on the phone with her.
RJ was head over heels for this girl and soon had no problem telling his friends and family
(23:07):
that he was in love.
Cute, cute, cute.
Caitlin, however, kept her love a secret because she was, but she said she was also madly in
love.
Both RJ and Caitlin thought that they had finally found the one, but up until this point,
they still hadn't met.
RJ and Caitlin spent hours upon hours talking on phone calls.
(23:28):
And even though that they were only 30 minutes apart, RJ and Caitlin never set up a meeting.
But finally in November, they finally set up a meeting date.
And when the night came, Caitlin canceled.
Time after time it seemed they set up a meeting and something would come up and Caitlin would
cancel.
(23:49):
RJ was starting to get a little bit annoyed, but continued talking to Caitlin.
He really saw like a future with her and he really continued to try and set up these dates
to finally meet.
And in December, Caitlin finally came clean with him.
She was living with her boyfriend who was a bouncer at a Fort Lauderdale strip club.
The two had been friends for six years, but hadn't been dating and had just started dating
(24:15):
for one year at this point.
Caitlin said that she wasn't looking for someone to hook up with or cheat on her boyfriend
with, but her and her boyfriend were falling apart before she started to talk to RJ.
And things just kind of happened.
RJ was of course shocked when she told him the truth, but he was too deep into the relationship
(24:36):
to let her go.
He made her promise to never lie to him again and she agreed and told him that she loved
him and promised to make it right.
They agreed to keep their distance until she could end things with her boyfriend, but only
a few days went by and RJ had reached a point where he just couldn't stand to not see her.
He called Caitlin and said,
Listen, we have to do this. We have to be face to face.
(25:00):
So, on the afternoon of Wednesday, December 17th, RJ had a friend drive him to Caitlin's
Fort Lauderdale apartment that she shared with her boyfriend, who was actually away
at work at the time.
And Caitlin said about this day, it was perfect.
Everything we thought it would be.
During their six week online relationship, they had both confessed their sexual past,
(25:22):
fantasies, and kinks, which Caitlin would describe as wild.
They liked to turn each other on over the phone and the sexual tension was bubbling
over when they finally met.
Which, yeah, I think would happen, you know, you build that up for so long and you cancel
and you cancel and you cancel.
You finally meet and you're like, damn, okay.
(25:44):
So, it's bubbling up and on that day when they finally first met, they went to a bar,
they shot some pool.
Caitlin drank Corona.
RJ had a Jack and Coke.
He made his move and he put an arm around her waist and he moved in for a kiss and Caitlin
said, the whole world just fell away.
It was like heaven.
I couldn't even convey how amazing it was.
(26:05):
The two spent the afternoon hanging out and making out until they picked up Caitlin's
six year old daughter for dinner.
The three hit it off and RJ told Caitlin that night that he was already in love with her.
RJ's mother Cheryl recalls a conversation she had with her son.
After the date, she said, my son said, you may have the grandchild you wanted after all.
(26:29):
Which seems like he was head over heels for both of them.
And after the dinner, Caitlin took RJ back to her apartment where they sat on the couch
and kissed some more.
He then made her take him home because he said he was too tempted to take it further.
So, he didn't want to cross the boundary.
So, she drove him back to Miami and they said their goodbyes.
(26:50):
After that date, Caitlin was tempted to immediately end the relationship with her boyfriend because
she was like, fuck, this is what I want.
This is who I want.
This made it like solid.
I'm going to end it right now.
But RJ told her not to break his heart so close to Christmas, which is kind of cute
and also sad at the same time.
He was like, nah.
(27:11):
Wait until after Christmas and yeah.
Like it'll be fine.
Don't break his heart.
And instead, RJ and Caitlin gave themselves a deadline.
They would wait until after the New Year so Caitlin's daughter could spend Christmas at
the apartment.
After all, it was only two weeks away.
After Christmas, it was soon enough, he told me.
(27:33):
Stay a little longer.
You know, we waited this long.
We can wait a little bit longer.
It's okay.
RJ also told her to get her house in order, he said.
I'm going to give you until New Year's, but after that, look out because I'm coming for
you and you're going to be mine.
That brings us back to the night of New Year's Eve.
As far as RJ's friends knew, he had something lined up for later that evening.
(27:56):
Frank Wilt, RJ's former construction boss from DC, owned RJ's cell phone.
He actually let him take it to Florida with him just because he liked RJ and he was struggling.
He was like, you can have the cell phone and take it with you.
You're a good dude.
So he let him have the phone, but he was actually able to provide cell phone records to the
(28:18):
police because he owned the cell phone.
They were able to find RJ locked plenty of minutes with Caitlin on December 31st, a 40
minute conversation a little afternoon, a 30 minute call after 3.30, a 15 minute call
after 4.11, 49 minute call after 4.56, and his last call to her was a 66 minute call
(28:40):
after a 66 minute conversation that ended at 7.30 PM.
They talked mostly about their plans and Frank Wilt had offered RJ a quick job in DC that
would start early in January.
Because RJ hadn't found a job out in Miami, he went ahead and took the job and he planned
to earn enough money so that when he returned to Florida, he and Caitlin could get a place
(29:03):
together in Fort Lauderdale.
Caitlin planned to pick him up on New Year's Day and then they would spend their first
night together and then she would take him to the airport early the next morning.
New Year's Eve, we were just a day away from being together, Caitlin says.
And that was all we talked about.
I'm going to see you tomorrow and we're going to be going together.
(29:24):
I'm going to go pick you up after you get off of work and I'm going to reserve a hotel
from work and on and on and on and on.
They talked.
It was all about being together and what we were going to do.
Some of it was very hot and heavy, but we had waited so long and everything was finally
cleared out of the way.
We were actually going to be someplace together where we could lay in bed and make love and
(29:46):
put our arms around each other and just be there.
Caitlin says she and her boyfriend had broken up days before, but they were still going
ahead with plans to host a birthday party for a friend at their apartment in Fort Lauderdale
on New Year's Eve.
So with RJ's roommates, Christian and Stephane back in D.C.
But you have a comment?
(30:09):
No.
I was like, I'll pause.
I'm sorry.
No, that situation is terrible.
Yeah, it's a lot.
Why would we do that?
Why would he be okay with this?
Crazy.
Yeah, I think he's just trying to be respectful, but also I think it was to his detriment a
little bit.
That's the thing.
You know?
Yeah.
(30:30):
His roommates were out of town for the holidays.
RJ had the loft to himself that night and his plans were basically to get a bottle of
champagne and just play PlayStation all night, which sounds like a solid game plan to me.
He was like, I'm just going to stay here.
She's got a party to go to.
I have a plane to catch the next day.
(30:51):
Fuck it.
I'm going to play PlayStation and get drunk.
But RJ's friend named Kaz was waiting in a hotel lobby with his New Year's date not too
far away.
And he had a few minutes to kill and he decided what the hell, I'll give RJ a call.
This was a little after 9 p.m.
And the two talked about RJ's plans for the night to which RJ replied, I'm not doing nothing
(31:16):
really.
I'm going to stay home and my girlfriend's going to come over with one of her friends.
Me and my girl and her girl.
We're coming over and we're getting freaky.
Kaz and RJ had a quick conversation before ending the call.
So Kaz is convinced RJ was expecting company that night.
He said the girls definitely called him that night.
He says, I'm 100% sure they were coming over.
(31:37):
I'm not sure what girls because Caitlin had a party definitely.
And there's no other mentioned girls in RJ's life.
So these are mystery girls.
At 10.05 p.m. RJ made a call to his mom in Virginia.
They talked for 26 minutes before he received another call.
He put his mom on hold and came back less than a minute later and told her, gotta go.
(32:02):
I got the girls coming over.
And then RJ said goodbye.
Oh, it's seeming like girls are coming over.
But like, we don't know.
The last person he called was at 11.32.
It was a friend named Pete who was staying at a Miami club not too far from the loft.
He asked Pete to come over with some cranberry juice, presumably for the vodka, that his neighbor had gave him.
(32:27):
But Pete didn't answer the call or return his messages.
The telephone logged one final call placed at 11.57 to 9.11.
According to Miami homicide detectives, there was no sound on the recording, which lasted less than a minute and then ended abruptly.
Kaitlyn was busy working on New Year's Day.
So the whole day came and went.
(32:50):
By the time she noticed that it was 5 p.m. and she still hadn't heard from RJ to confirm their arrangements that evening.
She sent a few AOL messages with no reply.
And she said, at first, I thought something had come up and that he couldn't get a hold of me.
It's crazy to think that, or it's a crazy thing to think about when you start to wonder if he got cold feet,
(33:13):
if he came to his senses or how well do you even really know anybody?
So she's starting to have all of these thoughts.
She's like, what the fuck? Why didn't he call me?
And according to Detective Frank Wilt, on Friday morning, January 2nd, Kaitlyn left a voicemail on his cell phone.
And it was something to the effect of, hey, RJ, hope you are not mad at me.
(33:36):
Call me when you're on the ground and when you get to D.C.
A few days later, there was another voicemail left on from Kaitlyn.
This time it was a bit more frazzled and it said, all right, I'm starting to get scared.
I want to know that you're all right and not dead in a ditch somewhere.
Then on January 5th, a day after RJ's body was discovered,
(33:58):
his phone received a message from a hysterical woman crying, saying, I'm so sorry I didn't tell you I love you.
Kaitlyn said the voice was not hers, nor did it belong to RJ's mother or sister.
So apparently his cell phone carrier was Nextel.
Do you guys remember them?
(34:20):
Nope. No, OK. Just me. I'm just the old one.
Thank you. Just kidding.
But they had a company policy of purging voicemails after only two weeks.
So they just customarily purged your voicemails off of your phone. Yep.
(34:42):
I'm so freaking pissed at Nextel.
Well, it said all of those voicemails were lost after just two weeks.
I was the detective on the case.
Kaitlyn said that she is not the most well-informed person.
She doesn't read newspapers or watch television news.
And so she was not aware of the news accounts of the murder.
(35:04):
She hadn't heard from RJ in a week and thought their relationship was over, despite all the plans that they had just made.
On January 9th, she received a call from Miami police detective.
The detective said he wanted to talk to her about RJ, but he didn't mention anything about the shooting whatsoever.
She was interviewed for about five hours, during which it became very clear that he was gone.
(35:28):
She said it wasn't until after all that that they finally told me that he was shot.
Kaitlyn says she had no plans or that she had no plans to drive down to RJ's loft on New Year's Eve.
And in fact, she had told RJ she'd be at home hosting a party right before midnight.
They were sitting at home eating ice cream cake and waiting for the ball to drop.
So she had an alibi.
(35:49):
There was actually a video taken at the party and it had been recorded and time stamped at about midnight.
The detective had seen the tape and he interviewed the other party attendees.
And Kaitlyn said that she is willing to take a polygraph test and do anything that they asked to find RJ's killer.
According to the detective, she isn't a person of interest in RJ's murder whatsoever.
(36:13):
She said to be hours away from everything you wanted and then to lose it all.
I just don't know how to get past that yet.
And that has always made me wonder.
Was there someone that didn't want us to be together?
Kaitlyn said.
Some of RJ's friends and relatives say that they believe she has more information regarding his death, which I kind of think too.
(36:35):
But that's my opinion.
Her former boyfriend also was interviewed by police in like mid-February, but nothing came of that either.
And three days after learning that RJ was dead,
Kaitlyn posted this message on an internet community that her and RJ frequented.
And it's a lot.
(36:56):
So on January 12th, 2004 at 7.59 a.m.
She posted a moment of silence for RJ Lockwood.
I don't know how I'm going to live with this, how I can possibly stand it.
RJ changed my life and I do not have the words to express what he means to me.
I'm so angry.
I want to scream and break things the way my heart is breaking.
(37:20):
It's been a long time since I hated anything, but I hate now.
I hate whoever did this.
I hate what was taken away from us, our dreams, plans.
RJ showed me what life could be and the kind of love and understanding I could never have imagined.
He taught me so much to be true to myself, never compromise, to live my life on my terms.
(37:43):
I will spend the rest of my life honoring his memory and living what he taught me.
But oh God, it hurts.
So much.
That was so much.
And for just like they met once in person.
Could you imagine having that much feeling for?
(38:05):
I mean, I guess it happens, but that's like a lot.
I should read it to better weed and acid.
Yeah.
One meeting and this is like a reset of like a month.
(38:26):
Yeah, like two months, I think, because they met in like October.
No, they met in November.
It's like New Year's.
So it's like that quick.
A lot. It's a lot.
That would like freak me out.
That kind of a message is too much.
She said, there's too much.
(38:47):
I'm going to live my life on my terms like he taught me to be true to myself.
I will spend the rest of my life honoring his memory and living what he taught me.
I don't want to like characterize or speculate about the things,
but he seems like a manipulator that just got a girl with a thousand red flags.
(39:12):
I'm not saying he's perfect.
No, no, no, no. I know that.
But like they were both about to run away and then a lover, another lover was like,
another boyfriend, perhaps.
Yeah. And I don't know.
That's a lot. Yeah.
(39:34):
So that was her whole message.
She left on that on the Internet for everybody to see her love for him
and her confession to live her life by the way he taught her.
So we'll just leave it at that.
The time elapsed from RJ's phone call to his friend Pete.
And the final call to 911 was 20 minutes from 1137 to 1157.
(40:01):
During that time, someone had entered RJ's apartment,
someone friendly enough for him to offer them a corona.
And then just minutes later, he was dead.
Sergeant Williams said no arrests are imminent.
And unfortunately, between the shitty investigation at the start of this case
and the lack of evidence, RJ's case remains unsolved.
(40:24):
And part of that is because they cleaned the apartment
before they could even, before they even knew it was a murder
because they didn't even look at it as a murder.
So they were like kind of doomed from the start to even figure that one out.
So before we get into our like final thoughts, I'll just talk about who RJ was.
(40:45):
RJ was a native to Richmond, Virginia.
He graduated in 1994 from Thomas Dale High School.
And he worked as a local dance club disc jockey in Richmond,
which sounds fun.
He learned to DJ and went by the name DJ Skywalker when he landed gigs,
which hell yeah, I'm about that.
RJ spent time in the Air Force and moved out to LA before returning back to DC.
(41:10):
He designed lighting and sets for dance clubs and did electrical work,
landing the occasional job after moving back to DC.
His mother Cheryl described him as artistically inclined.
And when his two friends, Christian Webb and Stefan von Fouts,
moved to Miami in 2003 to start a design and agriculture firm,
(41:35):
RJ began thinking about joining his friends in Miami.
RJ was 27 years old at the time of his murder,
and he was described as being somewhat between shaggy and gilligan,
which seems like a fun guy.
By RJ's best friend from back home in Virginia,
he said he wasn't malicious enough to have enemies.
(41:57):
The shirt off my back kind of friend everyone had in high school.
RJ made up for his lack of ambition with a rock steady loyalty and a carefree spirit.
Those who knew him said he spent his days chillin',
listening to music and drinking a 40.
One of Stefan's friends had designed a tattoo in remembrance of RJ.
It features a Chinese symbol with the word Skywalker,
(42:21):
manipulated to resemble a pelototic cave painting.
Stefan said he and Christian both planned to get the tattoo out of respect for their friend.
And he's also planning a multimedia art show celebrating the spirit of who RJ was,
the person he dreamed to be and who he was inside.
The working title of the show, he says, is Anti-Gravity.
(42:45):
It will feature various images of floating objects
and the illusion of things lifting off the ground and drifting away.
RJ was always talking about floating through space and being in the sky.
So, what are the final thoughts on this one?
My guy is a manipulator, for real, I have to say.
(43:06):
Because how do you do that after two months of knowing someone?
Regardless of whatever could have been involved, even to the environment,
why is it that she's adamant about his protection,
even though he was clearly involved in something to an extent that no one really knew?
(43:33):
Yeah.
You think he manipulated her?
In a way, I have to say, because his track writer is a DJ where?
In Virginia?
Yeah.
Yeah, and he had just, he met her like two weeks after moving to Miami.
(43:54):
Fast, I've got him.
Yeah, quick.
Very quick.
I have to say.
Which Miami is like a party town, not notorious for that,
so like you can get caught up in it so quick and just not be able to come back.
But you know how you learn all these things?
If you don't rule it as an OD.
(44:15):
Yeah, right, totally, yeah.
The OD part is really what gets me and baffles me.
That's what I was wondering.
You're so right though.
Yeah, but I was fucked.
The police fucked up.
What the fuck?
They always fuck up more often than not.
What number are we on?
Because that's sometimes the number of cases that have been fucked up.
(44:38):
Is that a common name that I put in the cases?
There's a pattern here.
Do I just like to say fuck the police on the podcast?
Is that what that is?
Do I just like doing that on the platform where I can hear it?
No.
You're talking to guys like fuck the police and we all have to say this around like five o'clock.
(45:02):
I'm going to say it every day.
You just step outside and collect a few at five o'clock, fuck the police.
During the cause.
It's like when we were all cooped up during COVID and those idiots went out and out at seven o'clock or whatever.
Todd would freak out every time and he'd be like, it's okay buddy.
(45:24):
Wild.
Yeah.
So gunshot wound.
Just.
Undiscovered dude.
So it's got to be another lover, right?
That didn't like he was breaking it off with them.
Yeah.
I wonder because he said the girls are coming over.
So I'm like wondering who those girls are.
(45:46):
Yeah.
And if or if that's a cover just for the girl he had to break up with.
And also they had all of these records of like they talked to his friend Pete and his mom, but like they didn't get that one minute call where he was on hold with his mom.
Like, right.
Yeah.
Who was that?
(46:07):
Who's that?
That's the person you're looking for.
Like dude.
Yeah.
It's not Pete or Cisco or whatever his friend was that was right next to him.
Like that one minute conversation where he puts his mom on hold.
Did you guys look into that?
It doesn't seem like it dude.
No, like that's.
(46:30):
That's gotta be who you're looking for.
You're looking for another.
Okay.
Even if he is.
Correct.
And it's a manipulator.
And this.
Yeah.
This life went super fast.
Yeah.
Then if he was actually serious about it.
If he was leaving, he'd had to have been like, well, I guess he doesn't have to, but if he respects the person enough, maybe he had to have been like, yo, I'm dipping.
(46:54):
Yeah.
Found a new wife or whatever.
And then.
Found a new wife or whatever.
She freaks out.
And pulls the fucking.
But that also means she already had a gun on her.
And I'm saying she, cause I'm assuming.
Assuming.
I'm assuming it's a girl.
Yeah.
Well, that means she came there plan to.
(47:15):
Where was this Miami?
Miami.
Might have girls carrying.
I wouldn't doubt it.
But.
I don't mean to interject the idea, but who's to say that it couldn't be self-inflicted.
Even if it's accidental, you know.
Sure.
Oh, a struggle.
Maybe he was.
They didn't find a gun.
(47:36):
Like who knows even if it was like, you know, maybe fatalistic.
Yeah.
You can never rule out all of that stuff.
That's true too.
But he had a cup in his hand.
He had a cup in his hand and the phone.
And no gun was found.
So there's no struggle probably.
(47:58):
So that's the only reason I would be like, but they also cleaned up everything.
So, but I wouldn't think they would throw away a gun.
No, you wouldn't.
Right.
As a roommate, you wouldn't find a gun and be like, well, especially when those roommates
are like, I don't think he owed.
Right.
They could be.
That could be totally true.
But he was gone.
(48:19):
Both of them had alibis.
So they could have been like, well, they use my gun to murder him.
But also, I don't know everything about that stuff.
I know from previous cases you've told me that they can like identify what gun from
the bullets.
Yeah.
They didn't see it.
They said nothing about the bullet.
(48:40):
They said nothing about that.
That I was shocked.
They didn't what kind of casing, not what kind of bullet traced back to the gun.
None of it.
Not finding a weapon.
It seems like you should be able to find some sort of.
I think they were kind of like, oh, well, we fucked up and it's clean now and there's
not really nothing we can do about it.
(49:03):
So sorry.
Like where did the bullet go?
The autopsy people found is they could have identified it then and what kind of came from
then.
Again, fuck every investigator in this.
It's bad.
We've definitely said this before, but it's really bad when us three are sitting here
like, what the hell are they doing?
(49:25):
And they're legit investigators getting paid to do this shit.
Yeah, you're true weed for a living guys.
Yeah.
Come on.
I work in a warehouse.
Dude, I'm not saying I know everything, but goddamn.
I didn't go to college.
Come on.
Yeah.
Like.
Smoke weed for a living.
Yeah.
So fucked up.
(49:46):
Anything else?
Any other final thoughts to carry us away for the day?
Sad as always.
Sad?
Always.
Yeah.
It's always fucked up.
Especially this one.
I feel like they were so quick to assume because of the way he looked, which same with the
Jelani day case.
They were just like, Oh, he drowned.
(50:08):
It's as soon as you have the piercings and tattoos and then drugs.
Or you're black or any of that.
It's just like.
They take A plus B and they say A equals C every time.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And then they did some algebra.
Remember that one?
They were like, she's trans.
(50:29):
So we're just going to say fuck you.
And we're not going to even like, no, the Rita has to case.
Um, Hester Hester, Hester.
Yeah.
Um, one episode eight.
I want to say or something like that.
Yeah.
Um, yeah.
She was murdered in her apartment and, um, the police were called from a neighbor.
(50:53):
They got there while she was still alive.
Um, they didn't transfer her to the hospital for an hour after they got there and responded
and walked around her body as she laid there dying and they won't come out and say it's
(51:13):
because they're transphobic.
What a lot of it is because they're transphobic.
It was upset.
Yeah, um, yeah.
And she died from cardiac arrest and, uh, blood loss, which tells you everything you
need to know about how long they took on that crime scene, how long they dilly dallyed to
(51:34):
get her help and how long they just disregarded her as a person just because of whatever feelings
they fucking had.
It's a disgusting day.
But she is the one that sparked the Trans Day of Remembrance that we celebrate every
year in November.
Um, she's like the reason for a good majority of that, but fucked up case all the way around.
(51:59):
So fuck the police.
Say it again.
And again.
And again.
But RIP to RJ.
Until next time, stay high, stay safe, and thank you for listening.
Happy 420, I'm Kai and you are listening to Stone Cold Murder.
(00:08):
Just a PSA, if you have any information to help solve a crime, you can go to www.crimestoppers.com
to report any information anonymously.
Thanks for tuning in for Season 2, Episode 9, The Murder of R.J.
Lockwood.
This podcast contains material that may not be suitable for all audiences.
(00:30):
Listening discretion is advised.
Welcome back to Stone Cold Murder.
We have Gabriel on the pod today.
Thanks for being on.
Hello, hello, hello.
Hello.
Happy meeting you.
Absolutely.
Thank you so much for being on.
How are you today?
Amazing, amazing.
How are y'all?
Doing well.
Sick, sick, sick.
That is good.
(00:51):
All right.
Are you stoned?
Feeling good?
I'm doing every muscle in the world.
Hell yeah.
Love that.
So I am too.
So let's get into the case.
Tonight, we are talking about the murder of R.J. Lockwood.
Have you ever heard this case or heard about it?
Have not.
(01:12):
Okay.
No.
All right.
Well, let's tell you about it since we're stoned and ready.
Murder story starts out in Miami, Florida, New Year's Eve, 2003.
A call came into the police department at 1157 PM, but the caller made no sound when
the dispatcher answered the call.
(01:32):
911, what's your emergency?
Hello?
911, what's your emergency?
Hello?
No response.
The silent call lasted about a minute and then abruptly ended.
Since the call was made from a cell phone, there was no way to track the call and no
way to figure out where it had come from.
(01:54):
Nowadays, we could do that, but in 2003, that was not a thing.
Unfortunately, they could not trace where the call had come from and because they couldn't
track it, I'm sure they were super busy on New Year's Eve.
And it's in Miami, so things just kind of carried out as normal that night without thinking
too much of the call.
(02:14):
The next day, in a second floor loft in Northwest 20th Street in Overtown, one of the residents
there woke up late New Year's Day and noticed all the lights were on in the loft down the
hall.
He could kind of hear the air conditioning running too, but it wasn't kind of unusual
because it was 80 degrees in Miami, Florida, so air conditioning is kind of normal to have
(02:39):
on.
He noted the air conditioning and that all of the lights were still left on.
His neighbor Christian Webb, Stefan von Fouts and R.J. Lockwood lived in that apartment
with all the lights on.
And Christian and Stefan were both away for the holiday, but R.J. stayed behind in the
Miami loft.
(03:00):
Their neighbor had actually seen R.J. the night before on New Year's Eve and gave R.J.
a bottle of vodka to celebrate the New Year, but hadn't seen him since.
That neighbor said that by January 2nd he could smell death, but he wasn't really sure
where it was coming from, so not a good sign.
(03:21):
But you never know, it could be a mouse or whatever, stinky trash, you never know.
Two days later, on January 4th, that same neighbor woke up that morning and actually
vomited from the smell that was coming from the apartment across the hall, and he still
hadn't seen R.J. anywhere.
Ironically enough, that same morning, Stefan was returning home, and as he climbed the
(03:44):
stairs to the second floor loft, he caught a whiff of that smell, and he kind of thought
it was like putrid gas or a dead animal.
But of course he didn't think it was coming from his apartment, and he kept climbing the
stairs.
The loft's front door was locked at the handle, which was normal because it was one of those
automatic locks that just locked behind him, so he normally had to use the key when he
(04:06):
went in.
So he got out his key to unlock the door, and I'm sure by this time he was smelling
what was radiating from his apartment, but what do you do in that situation, you know?
You have to go in.
So he opens the door, goes in, and he recalls being in disbelief and horror.
(04:27):
He said, I didn't even recognize who he was.
He had a shaved head which was not normal for R.J., and his face was black and bloated.
He said, I thought it was a stranger.
Then he realized it was R.J.
R.J. was dressed in a black t-shirt, a lightweight black jacket, and he was laying face up on
a rug.
He was staring at the ceiling with his eyes wide open, and his face was super bloated.
(04:51):
Not a good scene to walk into at all.
I would be mortified.
R.J.'s cell phone was in his hand, and the last call being made to 911 at 1157 p.m.
on New Year's Eve.
That was the call that had come in.
That was not.
There was no answer.
It was his call.
(05:14):
Stefan took note of things around the apartment, and he didn't really see anything out of place,
but he did note that there was a six-pack of corona in the apartment.
It appeared to Stefan that R.J. had fallen backwards and maybe hit his head, and after
the initial shock wore off, he went outside to make a call to 911.
That's where I have a smoke break.
(05:35):
And we're back.
So after he made the 911 call, Stefan waited on the sidewalk until two police cars arrived.
The first on the scene was Miami officer Eugene Edwards.
Stefan directed him to the upstairs apartment and waited outside while the officers looked
around the apartment.
Now this is my opinion, but I'm feeling like you guys will probably feel the way I do by
(06:02):
the end of this.
From the very start of this investigation into R.J.'s murder, the police did like a
piss poor fucking job, and I'm going to tell you fucking why, but even from the beginning,
it's like fucked up.
After looking around the crime scene, one of the officers came back down from the loft
(06:23):
to interview Stefan.
He asked him about R.J.'s diet and his drug and alcohol history.
So I don't know.
I don't know.
It's interesting that you would start that off in the interview, but I digress.
So Stefan replied, I said the guy eats cheeseburgers and fast food all the time.
He'll go across the street and buy a 40.
You know, nonchalantly, they're young guys, so it's not too crazy of a thing.
(06:49):
But after he said that to the officer, he soon realized that the line of questioning
that he was being asked was being steered towards R.J. having an overdose.
Stefan said that's what they assumed when they got there.
It was an overdose.
One of the officers looked at him and said, well, it looks like your friend may have had
too much fun or something.
(07:10):
And don't get me wrong, I'm sure there's an uptick in overdoses on New Year's Eve,
but like it's really shitty for these officers to be like so calloused about it for one.
And for two, they didn't even look around the apartment enough to like know that that
was what happened for sure.
And they were just so set up on this narrative that they made up that they didn't take the
(07:33):
time to properly look over the crime scene, collect any evidence.
And instead, they just brushed it off as a stupid dude with tattoos and face piercings
who overindulged himself while partying and overdose.
This would be the first mistake these officers made.
Unfortunately, the officers on the scene told Stefan that he could leave and come back later.
(07:56):
So Stefan listened to the officers.
He came back to the loft with Christian who had returned to Miami later that morning.
When they arrived, R.J.'s body was being taken away.
And one of the police officers walked up to them and said, look, you need to get it cleaner
and get this place cleaned up.
Go ahead and just get it cleaned up.
So Stefan and Christian began looking through the phone book for like a professional cleaner,
(08:20):
but didn't manage to find one that they could like really afford because they're young
teenage guys, you know, trying their best.
So the building superintendent ended up actually offering to help clean up the loft with both
of them.
Sitting undisturbed on the floor near R.J.'s body was a plastic cup that was filled with
orange liquid, which was assumed to be vodka and orange juice.
(08:42):
They cleaned the loft, scrubbing down the floors and surfaces all around the crime scene.
They removed the rug a few days later and set it downstairs next to the dumpster.
R.J.'s body laid on that rug for days before his body was discovered.
So it definitely contained trace evidence and it was just taken out with the trash and
(09:05):
thrown away without even looking at it, which is a fucking bummer.
Stefan and Christian removed plastic that covered the windows, hoping to ventilate the room
a little bit because it smelled really bad in there.
And they gathered up clothes to move to the Radisson Hotel on Biscayne Boulevard.
According to Stefan, the six pack of Corona mentioned earlier was actually significant.
(09:29):
He said originally if R.J. were drinking alone, he would have just bought a 40 ounce bottle
of cheaper beer and he thinks that R.J. sprung for Corona because, quote unquote, the girls
were coming over.
R.J.'s friend Tino agreed that he didn't drink Corona unless someone else bought it.
He said he simply couldn't afford the expense.
(09:50):
Same with drugs.
Anthony said that while R.J. would dabble in club drugs, he wasn't, he was just too
broke to do anything normally.
The roommate didn't see anything missing and they both confirmed after looking around
that nothing in the apartment had been taken.
Stefan later saw a police incident report and was surprised at the way his comments
(10:12):
had been reworded.
It read, Mr. von Pfautz advised that the victim did not take care of his health and abused
alcohol and narcotics.
Homicide responded and advised unclassified until further investigation.
So that kind of like directly contradicts everything R.J.'s friend said about him.
(10:32):
R.J. had been known to do drugs, but he was not an abuser and they kept painting the picture
that it was an overdose and nothing else.
And that's where I have another smoke break.
All right, so we're back from the smoke break and R.J.'s body was transported to the county
(10:52):
morgue by an independent contractor hired by the medical examiner's office.
And this is actually a standard procedure when no medical examiner is present at the
scene of the crime.
And of course, they didn't call one because they didn't think they were dealing with
a crime.
They thought they were dealing with an overdose.
So in that case, they're like, we can wait on the autopsy.
(11:15):
R.J.'s body sat there for two days until the autopsy could be performed.
January 4th, the day R.J.'s body was discovered, the case sheet or number of bodies scheduled
for autopsies was extremely long.
And R.J.'s must have been near the bottom of the list.
But he was finally given an autopsy on January 6th and they began.
(11:38):
They very soon realized after they began that it wasn't quite what the cops had initially
suspected.
The autopsy revealed what should have been obvious to investigators if they took just
one little tiny bit of time or care to just investigate the scene.
(11:59):
R.J.'s cause of death was not an accidental overdose, but instead a gunshot wound to
the chest.
Gunshot wound to the chest.
How do you explain that?
How?
(12:20):
You told me how.
I mean, he was wearing a black t-shirt too, you said?
Yeah.
And there's literally not a way you should have been able to not?
See blood.
Or a hole?
There was an exit, was there not?
And an entry.
An entry for sure.
Even at the exit, at bullet points, if you could see some sort of blood, that would be
(12:45):
great.
Yeah, and like to be fair, his body was bloated and was sitting there for days.
Sure, fluid leaks out at about, you know, a couple days in.
Sure.
But a gunshot wound to the chest, I would think is fairly obvious.
I'm not a cop.
(13:07):
I'm not an investigator, but it seems like there would be blood somewhere.
Lots of blood.
So this is unsolved then, right?
It is unsolved.
Somebody shot this man in his home?
In his own house.
(13:28):
Yeah.
So how about that interview with the neighbors then because we only talked about one of them
though because there was me.
Yeah, and he had two roommates.
He had two roommates and a neighbor.
So the two roommates were out of town.
Yeah, and he was in this folk where when homie was entertaining somebody with a six pack,
what happened?
(13:49):
Yeah, that's the whole mystery of it all.
Who was this mystery person that he sprung the six pack for?
He said the neighbor said he was a girl, no?
They said, yeah, he was going to entertain quote unquote, the girl.
The girl?
Yeah.
(14:10):
Oh, Pearl?
Mm-hmm.
But then he doesn't hear a gunshot?
I don't know.
But it's New Year's Eve, so it's like in Miami.
So it's also like a happening in Busland City on New Year's Eve.
Yeah.
So cause of death was a gunshot wound to the chest and it was confirmed by Sandra Boyd,
(14:32):
who is an investigator with the Medical Examiner's Office.
That information was soon given to the police, who now have a murder investigation on their
hands instead of an accidental overdose.
And of course they freak out cause they're not expecting this.
They quickly make their way back to the apartment and obviously has already been cleaned up
(14:54):
because they told those boys, you better clean this place up and get it clean because it's
steam.
Clean it up.
And it's already been contaminated plenty by the roommates.
Yeah.
And, right.
Sometimes.
I wonder if they even did because they were so adamant about the drug overdose thing.
(15:19):
And we know people get treated shitty when, you know, they're drug users and he had tattoos
and face piercings in 2003.
Yeah, and it's like, not like it wasn't accepted, but it wasn't as accepted as it is now.
So like adding all of those things into one big pot made them just be like, yeah, he's
(15:45):
fucking druggy who party too hard on New Year's Eve and it's not really important to me.
And that's kind of what it got played off as, you know?
EOD then brought it for a couple days.
Yeah.
What is it to me?
You know?
She sucks.
So room has already been cleaned.
(16:08):
They asked Stefan to get down to the loft right away and when he finally arrived, he
found the doorways had been blocked off with yellow crime scene tape and that the area
was swarming with TV crew.
Detectives questioned him again and he said, I was trying to tell him about what I saw
when I got there, which was the same story I told them when I originally got there.
(16:30):
And all of the sudden they wanted to know new details.
I told them about the bottles of beer and vodka and everything had kind of been cleaned
up.
I did see two bottles of Corona sitting on the counter that were unopened.
Later, he would find more of the Corona in the fridge, which completed the six pack.
And when he and Christian had left on vacation, there were no Coronas there.
(16:54):
So they assumed that RJ had brought them or someone who was coming to the apartment brought
them.
At the time he found RJ's body.
He didn't notice any blood or sign of violence, which is interesting that the roommate didn't
notice blood either.
I don't know how.
I don't, I don't get how, but it must've been such a gross scene too.
Cause they said it smelled so bad.
(17:16):
I'm sure.
Yeah.
I don't know. Yeah, any body that sits there for two days is going to smell bad.
And they said he was really bloated too.
I wonder if there wasn't an exit wound and so then it's just like, it's internally bleeding.
And then he died, you know, he might've died immediately, but like he's just bleeding inside
(17:41):
or something.
But he didn't cause he got Corona.
That's true.
But that doesn't mean the bullet came out.
That's true.
He should be alive for a certain amount of time.
He gets the call 911 and then dies on his dial to 911.
Brutal.
Brutal.
But yeah, he didn't see any blood or signs of violence.
(18:04):
And he said it looked like RJ might've just like turned around and got surprised.
With not much to go off of, the investigators worked to retrace RJ's steps the night of
his murder and figured out a motive and try and figure out a motive for why someone would
want him dead.
RJ was a Richmond native and had only recently moved to Miami to live with his friends,
(18:26):
Stefan and Christian.
They both moved to Miami in 2003 to start a design and architecture firm and they signed
a lease on a second floor loft that was roomy enough to accommodate RJ at the time.
So, RJ decided to make the move to Miami in early October with just a cell phone, some
clothes, his records, and the hopes of landing a gig doing some lighting installation and
(18:51):
repair.
RJ's best friend Tino said the last thing I said to him before he left for Florida was
wherever you end up dude, you need to start taking some things seriously.
So, everybody was just trying to get him on the right track and help him out.
In this situation, you know?
A few weeks after he arrived in Miami, RJ began a relationship with a woman named Caitlin.
(19:15):
He and Caitlin planned to start a new chapter together after the new year and RJ had actually
met Caitlin while surfing on MySpace.
Which is, seems like so long ago.
But he found her on MySpace, he came across her photo and he said Caitlin was beautiful,
she had red hair, and she had a massive tribal tattoo across her back.
(19:39):
Which immediately he was like, fuck yeah.
So he clicked on her profile to get like a better look of her and he came across this
beautiful girl and her profile read, Caitlin, 27 years old, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, 27
year old mother of one perfect six year old girl and a terminal lip gloss addict.
(20:04):
I live in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, but I've been everywhere, including crazy.
But I'm back now.
Redhead, bipolar, obsessive, and somewhat skewed.
My life's mission is to continue my work as an agent of chaos.
I'm infamous for kissing gay men, sleeping with brothers and sisters, naked cowboy beatbox,
(20:29):
strip charades, drunken tantrums, and my superpowers are having men ask to marry me and summoning
old friends to my presence by sheer will.
Hail Eris.
So that's just the whole thing.
Yeah.
So RJ read that and he was like, fuck yeah, I'm about that.
(20:52):
I'm about whatever that is.
Absolutely.
Please do.
I just watched Inspector Gadget.
I swear to you, if I was Inspector Gadget in 2004, crime would be fucking obliterated.
Like I couldn't solve any crime just by access to people's fucking MySpace profile.
(21:14):
Yeah.
What the fuck?
Yeah, that was wild, right?
No, that's wild.
She said to continue my life work as an agent of chaos.
Damn.
There's so much of that to unpack that.
But he read that and he was like, fuck yeah, that girl.
(21:35):
I need, I need, I need that back tattoo, that whole profile.
Give me, give me, give me, give me.
So he decided to message Caitlin and he complimented her tattoo, which is a good move, I think.
That's a first step.
And the two instantly hit it off and they began instant messaging each other, like AOL
(21:58):
messaging, which is awesome to think about.
Caitlin was a manager for a Fort Lauderdale escort service called Eye Candy Escorts.
And she spent most of her days just talking to RJ as she worked and they talked about
anything and everything.
And they just really started to get to know each other over the first couple of weeks
of them messaging.
(22:20):
They began to make plans to travel and meet as friends and really just imagine a future
together.
Doing all that kind of cute stuff that people do when they're first liking someone, you
know, enjoying the possibilities of a new relationship and what that has to offer.
You know, letting their imaginations run wild a little bit.
(22:42):
And after two months in Miami, RJ hadn't found a job and was still struggling with
his finances.
So he took small jobs here and there, but the majority of his time was spent talking
to Caitlin.
Minutes turned to hours and Stefan and Christian would always tease him because he spent pretty
much his entire day on the phone with her.
RJ was head over heels for this girl and soon had no problem telling his friends and family
(23:07):
that he was in love.
Cute, cute, cute.
Caitlin, however, kept her love a secret because she was, but she said she was also madly in
love.
Both RJ and Caitlin thought that they had finally found the one, but up until this point,
they still hadn't met.
RJ and Caitlin spent hours upon hours talking on phone calls.
(23:28):
And even though that they were only 30 minutes apart, RJ and Caitlin never set up a meeting.
But finally in November, they finally set up a meeting date.
And when the night came, Caitlin canceled.
Time after time it seemed they set up a meeting and something would come up and Caitlin would
cancel.
(23:49):
RJ was starting to get a little bit annoyed, but continued talking to Caitlin.
He really saw like a future with her and he really continued to try and set up these dates
to finally meet.
And in December, Caitlin finally came clean with him.
She was living with her boyfriend who was a bouncer at a Fort Lauderdale strip club.
The two had been friends for six years, but hadn't been dating and had just started dating
(24:15):
for one year at this point.
Caitlin said that she wasn't looking for someone to hook up with or cheat on her boyfriend
with, but her and her boyfriend were falling apart before she started to talk to RJ.
And things just kind of happened.
RJ was of course shocked when she told him the truth, but he was too deep into the relationship
(24:36):
to let her go.
He made her promise to never lie to him again and she agreed and told him that she loved
him and promised to make it right.
They agreed to keep their distance until she could end things with her boyfriend, but only
a few days went by and RJ had reached a point where he just couldn't stand to not see her.
He called Caitlin and said,
Listen, we have to do this. We have to be face to face.
(25:00):
So, on the afternoon of Wednesday, December 17th, RJ had a friend drive him to Caitlin's
Fort Lauderdale apartment that she shared with her boyfriend, who was actually away
at work at the time.
And Caitlin said about this day, it was perfect.
Everything we thought it would be.
During their six week online relationship, they had both confessed their sexual past,
(25:22):
fantasies, and kinks, which Caitlin would describe as wild.
They liked to turn each other on over the phone and the sexual tension was bubbling
over when they finally met.
Which, yeah, I think would happen, you know, you build that up for so long and you cancel
and you cancel and you cancel.
You finally meet and you're like, damn, okay.
(25:44):
So, it's bubbling up and on that day when they finally first met, they went to a bar,
they shot some pool.
Caitlin drank Corona.
RJ had a Jack and Coke.
He made his move and he put an arm around her waist and he moved in for a kiss and Caitlin
said, the whole world just fell away.
It was like heaven.
I couldn't even convey how amazing it was.
(26:05):
The two spent the afternoon hanging out and making out until they picked up Caitlin's
six year old daughter for dinner.
The three hit it off and RJ told Caitlin that night that he was already in love with her.
RJ's mother Cheryl recalls a conversation she had with her son.
After the date, she said, my son said, you may have the grandchild you wanted after all.
(26:29):
Which seems like he was head over heels for both of them.
And after the dinner, Caitlin took RJ back to her apartment where they sat on the couch
and kissed some more.
He then made her take him home because he said he was too tempted to take it further.
So, he didn't want to cross the boundary.
So, she drove him back to Miami and they said their goodbyes.
(26:50):
After that date, Caitlin was tempted to immediately end the relationship with her boyfriend because
she was like, fuck, this is what I want.
This is who I want.
This made it like solid.
I'm going to end it right now.
But RJ told her not to break his heart so close to Christmas, which is kind of cute
and also sad at the same time.
He was like, nah.
(27:11):
Wait until after Christmas and yeah.
Like it'll be fine.
Don't break his heart.
And instead, RJ and Caitlin gave themselves a deadline.
They would wait until after the New Year so Caitlin's daughter could spend Christmas at
the apartment.
After all, it was only two weeks away.
After Christmas, it was soon enough, he told me.
(27:33):
Stay a little longer.
You know, we waited this long.
We can wait a little bit longer.
It's okay.
RJ also told her to get her house in order, he said.
I'm going to give you until New Year's, but after that, look out because I'm coming for
you and you're going to be mine.
That brings us back to the night of New Year's Eve.
As far as RJ's friends knew, he had something lined up for later that evening.
(27:56):
Frank Wilt, RJ's former construction boss from DC, owned RJ's cell phone.
He actually let him take it to Florida with him just because he liked RJ and he was struggling.
He was like, you can have the cell phone and take it with you.
You're a good dude.
So he let him have the phone, but he was actually able to provide cell phone records to the
(28:18):
police because he owned the cell phone.
They were able to find RJ locked plenty of minutes with Caitlin on December 31st, a 40
minute conversation a little afternoon, a 30 minute call after 3.30, a 15 minute call
after 4.11, 49 minute call after 4.56, and his last call to her was a 66 minute call
(28:40):
after a 66 minute conversation that ended at 7.30 PM.
They talked mostly about their plans and Frank Wilt had offered RJ a quick job in DC that
would start early in January.
Because RJ hadn't found a job out in Miami, he went ahead and took the job and he planned
to earn enough money so that when he returned to Florida, he and Caitlin could get a place
(29:03):
together in Fort Lauderdale.
Caitlin planned to pick him up on New Year's Day and then they would spend their first
night together and then she would take him to the airport early the next morning.
New Year's Eve, we were just a day away from being together, Caitlin says.
And that was all we talked about.
I'm going to see you tomorrow and we're going to be going together.
(29:24):
I'm going to go pick you up after you get off of work and I'm going to reserve a hotel
from work and on and on and on and on.
They talked.
It was all about being together and what we were going to do.
Some of it was very hot and heavy, but we had waited so long and everything was finally
cleared out of the way.
We were actually going to be someplace together where we could lay in bed and make love and
(29:46):
put our arms around each other and just be there.
Caitlin says she and her boyfriend had broken up days before, but they were still going
ahead with plans to host a birthday party for a friend at their apartment in Fort Lauderdale
on New Year's Eve.
So with RJ's roommates, Christian and Stephane back in D.C.
But you have a comment?
(30:09):
No.
I was like, I'll pause.
I'm sorry.
No, that situation is terrible.
Yeah, it's a lot.
Why would we do that?
Why would he be okay with this?
Crazy.
Yeah, I think he's just trying to be respectful, but also I think it was to his detriment a
little bit.
That's the thing.
You know?
Yeah.
(30:30):
His roommates were out of town for the holidays.
RJ had the loft to himself that night and his plans were basically to get a bottle of
champagne and just play PlayStation all night, which sounds like a solid game plan to me.
He was like, I'm just going to stay here.
She's got a party to go to.
I have a plane to catch the next day.
(30:51):
Fuck it.
I'm going to play PlayStation and get drunk.
But RJ's friend named Kaz was waiting in a hotel lobby with his New Year's date not too
far away.
And he had a few minutes to kill and he decided what the hell, I'll give RJ a call.
This was a little after 9 p.m.
And the two talked about RJ's plans for the night to which RJ replied, I'm not doing nothing
(31:16):
really.
I'm going to stay home and my girlfriend's going to come over with one of her friends.
Me and my girl and her girl.
We're coming over and we're getting freaky.
Kaz and RJ had a quick conversation before ending the call.
So Kaz is convinced RJ was expecting company that night.
He said the girls definitely called him that night.
He says, I'm 100% sure they were coming over.
(31:37):
I'm not sure what girls because Caitlin had a party definitely.
And there's no other mentioned girls in RJ's life.
So these are mystery girls.
At 10.05 p.m. RJ made a call to his mom in Virginia.
They talked for 26 minutes before he received another call.
He put his mom on hold and came back less than a minute later and told her, gotta go.
(32:02):
I got the girls coming over.
And then RJ said goodbye.
Oh, it's seeming like girls are coming over.
But like, we don't know.
The last person he called was at 11.32.
It was a friend named Pete who was staying at a Miami club not too far from the loft.
He asked Pete to come over with some cranberry juice, presumably for the vodka, that his neighbor had gave him.
(32:27):
But Pete didn't answer the call or return his messages.
The telephone logged one final call placed at 11.57 to 9.11.
According to Miami homicide detectives, there was no sound on the recording, which lasted less than a minute and then ended abruptly.
Kaitlyn was busy working on New Year's Day.
So the whole day came and went.
(32:50):
By the time she noticed that it was 5 p.m. and she still hadn't heard from RJ to confirm their arrangements that evening.
She sent a few AOL messages with no reply.
And she said, at first, I thought something had come up and that he couldn't get a hold of me.
It's crazy to think that, or it's a crazy thing to think about when you start to wonder if he got cold feet,
(33:13):
if he came to his senses or how well do you even really know anybody?
So she's starting to have all of these thoughts.
She's like, what the fuck? Why didn't he call me?
And according to Detective Frank Wilt, on Friday morning, January 2nd, Kaitlyn left a voicemail on his cell phone.
And it was something to the effect of, hey, RJ, hope you are not mad at me.
(33:36):
Call me when you're on the ground and when you get to D.C.
A few days later, there was another voicemail left on from Kaitlyn.
This time it was a bit more frazzled and it said, all right, I'm starting to get scared.
I want to know that you're all right and not dead in a ditch somewhere.
Then on January 5th, a day after RJ's body was discovered,
(33:58):
his phone received a message from a hysterical woman crying, saying, I'm so sorry I didn't tell you I love you.
Kaitlyn said the voice was not hers, nor did it belong to RJ's mother or sister.
So apparently his cell phone carrier was Nextel.
Do you guys remember them?
(34:20):
Nope. No, OK. Just me. I'm just the old one.
Thank you. Just kidding.
But they had a company policy of purging voicemails after only two weeks.
So they just customarily purged your voicemails off of your phone. Yep.
(34:42):
I'm so freaking pissed at Nextel.
Well, it said all of those voicemails were lost after just two weeks.
I was the detective on the case.
Kaitlyn said that she is not the most well-informed person.
She doesn't read newspapers or watch television news.
And so she was not aware of the news accounts of the murder.
(35:04):
She hadn't heard from RJ in a week and thought their relationship was over, despite all the plans that they had just made.
On January 9th, she received a call from Miami police detective.
The detective said he wanted to talk to her about RJ, but he didn't mention anything about the shooting whatsoever.
She was interviewed for about five hours, during which it became very clear that he was gone.
(35:28):
She said it wasn't until after all that that they finally told me that he was shot.
Kaitlyn says she had no plans or that she had no plans to drive down to RJ's loft on New Year's Eve.
And in fact, she had told RJ she'd be at home hosting a party right before midnight.
They were sitting at home eating ice cream cake and waiting for the ball to drop.
So she had an alibi.
(35:49):
There was actually a video taken at the party and it had been recorded and time stamped at about midnight.
The detective had seen the tape and he interviewed the other party attendees.
And Kaitlyn said that she is willing to take a polygraph test and do anything that they asked to find RJ's killer.
According to the detective, she isn't a person of interest in RJ's murder whatsoever.
(36:13):
She said to be hours away from everything you wanted and then to lose it all.
I just don't know how to get past that yet.
And that has always made me wonder.
Was there someone that didn't want us to be together?
Kaitlyn said.
Some of RJ's friends and relatives say that they believe she has more information regarding his death, which I kind of think too.
(36:35):
But that's my opinion.
Her former boyfriend also was interviewed by police in like mid-February, but nothing came of that either.
And three days after learning that RJ was dead,
Kaitlyn posted this message on an internet community that her and RJ frequented.
And it's a lot.
(36:56):
So on January 12th, 2004 at 7.59 a.m.
She posted a moment of silence for RJ Lockwood.
I don't know how I'm going to live with this, how I can possibly stand it.
RJ changed my life and I do not have the words to express what he means to me.
I'm so angry.
I want to scream and break things the way my heart is breaking.
(37:20):
It's been a long time since I hated anything, but I hate now.
I hate whoever did this.
I hate what was taken away from us, our dreams, plans.
RJ showed me what life could be and the kind of love and understanding I could never have imagined.
He taught me so much to be true to myself, never compromise, to live my life on my terms.
(37:43):
I will spend the rest of my life honoring his memory and living what he taught me.
But oh God, it hurts.
So much.
That was so much.
And for just like they met once in person.
Could you imagine having that much feeling for?
(38:05):
I mean, I guess it happens, but that's like a lot.
I should read it to better weed and acid.
Yeah.
One meeting and this is like a reset of like a month.
(38:26):
Yeah, like two months, I think, because they met in like October.
No, they met in November.
It's like New Year's.
So it's like that quick.
A lot. It's a lot.
That would like freak me out.
That kind of a message is too much.
She said, there's too much.
(38:47):
I'm going to live my life on my terms like he taught me to be true to myself.
I will spend the rest of my life honoring his memory and living what he taught me.
I don't want to like characterize or speculate about the things,
but he seems like a manipulator that just got a girl with a thousand red flags.
(39:12):
I'm not saying he's perfect.
No, no, no, no. I know that.
But like they were both about to run away and then a lover, another lover was like,
another boyfriend, perhaps.
Yeah. And I don't know.
That's a lot. Yeah.
(39:34):
So that was her whole message.
She left on that on the Internet for everybody to see her love for him
and her confession to live her life by the way he taught her.
So we'll just leave it at that.
The time elapsed from RJ's phone call to his friend Pete.
And the final call to 911 was 20 minutes from 1137 to 1157.
(40:01):
During that time, someone had entered RJ's apartment,
someone friendly enough for him to offer them a corona.
And then just minutes later, he was dead.
Sergeant Williams said no arrests are imminent.
And unfortunately, between the shitty investigation at the start of this case
and the lack of evidence, RJ's case remains unsolved.
(40:24):
And part of that is because they cleaned the apartment
before they could even, before they even knew it was a murder
because they didn't even look at it as a murder.
So they were like kind of doomed from the start to even figure that one out.
So before we get into our like final thoughts, I'll just talk about who RJ was.
(40:45):
RJ was a native to Richmond, Virginia.
He graduated in 1994 from Thomas Dale High School.
And he worked as a local dance club disc jockey in Richmond,
which sounds fun.
He learned to DJ and went by the name DJ Skywalker when he landed gigs,
which hell yeah, I'm about that.
RJ spent time in the Air Force and moved out to LA before returning back to DC.
(41:10):
He designed lighting and sets for dance clubs and did electrical work,
landing the occasional job after moving back to DC.
His mother Cheryl described him as artistically inclined.
And when his two friends, Christian Webb and Stefan von Fouts,
moved to Miami in 2003 to start a design and agriculture firm,
(41:35):
RJ began thinking about joining his friends in Miami.
RJ was 27 years old at the time of his murder,
and he was described as being somewhat between shaggy and gilligan,
which seems like a fun guy.
By RJ's best friend from back home in Virginia,
he said he wasn't malicious enough to have enemies.
(41:57):
The shirt off my back kind of friend everyone had in high school.
RJ made up for his lack of ambition with a rock steady loyalty and a carefree spirit.
Those who knew him said he spent his days chillin',
listening to music and drinking a 40.
One of Stefan's friends had designed a tattoo in remembrance of RJ.
It features a Chinese symbol with the word Skywalker,
(42:21):
manipulated to resemble a pelototic cave painting.
Stefan said he and Christian both planned to get the tattoo out of respect for their friend.
And he's also planning a multimedia art show celebrating the spirit of who RJ was,
the person he dreamed to be and who he was inside.
The working title of the show, he says, is Anti-Gravity.
(42:45):
It will feature various images of floating objects
and the illusion of things lifting off the ground and drifting away.
RJ was always talking about floating through space and being in the sky.
So, what are the final thoughts on this one?
My guy is a manipulator, for real, I have to say.
(43:06):
Because how do you do that after two months of knowing someone?
Regardless of whatever could have been involved, even to the environment,
why is it that she's adamant about his protection,
even though he was clearly involved in something to an extent that no one really knew?
(43:33):
Yeah.
You think he manipulated her?
In a way, I have to say, because his track writer is a DJ where?
In Virginia?
Yeah.
Yeah, and he had just, he met her like two weeks after moving to Miami.
(43:54):
Fast, I've got him.
Yeah, quick.
Very quick.
I have to say.
Which Miami is like a party town, not notorious for that,
so like you can get caught up in it so quick and just not be able to come back.
But you know how you learn all these things?
If you don't rule it as an OD.
(44:15):
Yeah, right, totally, yeah.
The OD part is really what gets me and baffles me.
That's what I was wondering.
You're so right though.
Yeah, but I was fucked.
The police fucked up.
What the fuck?
They always fuck up more often than not.
What number are we on?
Because that's sometimes the number of cases that have been fucked up.
(44:38):
Is that a common name that I put in the cases?
There's a pattern here.
Do I just like to say fuck the police on the podcast?
Is that what that is?
Do I just like doing that on the platform where I can hear it?
No.
You're talking to guys like fuck the police and we all have to say this around like five o'clock.
(45:02):
I'm going to say it every day.
You just step outside and collect a few at five o'clock, fuck the police.
During the cause.
It's like when we were all cooped up during COVID and those idiots went out and out at seven o'clock or whatever.
Todd would freak out every time and he'd be like, it's okay buddy.
(45:24):
Wild.
Yeah.
So gunshot wound.
Just.
Undiscovered dude.
So it's got to be another lover, right?
That didn't like he was breaking it off with them.
Yeah.
I wonder because he said the girls are coming over.
So I'm like wondering who those girls are.
(45:46):
Yeah.
And if or if that's a cover just for the girl he had to break up with.
And also they had all of these records of like they talked to his friend Pete and his mom, but like they didn't get that one minute call where he was on hold with his mom.
Like, right.
Yeah.
Who was that?
(46:07):
Who's that?
That's the person you're looking for.
Like dude.
Yeah.
It's not Pete or Cisco or whatever his friend was that was right next to him.
Like that one minute conversation where he puts his mom on hold.
Did you guys look into that?
It doesn't seem like it dude.
No, like that's.
(46:30):
That's gotta be who you're looking for.
You're looking for another.
Okay.
Even if he is.
Correct.
And it's a manipulator.
And this.
Yeah.
This life went super fast.
Yeah.
Then if he was actually serious about it.
If he was leaving, he'd had to have been like, well, I guess he doesn't have to, but if he respects the person enough, maybe he had to have been like, yo, I'm dipping.
(46:54):
Yeah.
Found a new wife or whatever.
And then.
Found a new wife or whatever.
She freaks out.
And pulls the fucking.
But that also means she already had a gun on her.
And I'm saying she, cause I'm assuming.
Assuming.
I'm assuming it's a girl.
Yeah.
Well, that means she came there plan to.
(47:15):
Where was this Miami?
Miami.
Might have girls carrying.
I wouldn't doubt it.
But.
I don't mean to interject the idea, but who's to say that it couldn't be self-inflicted.
Even if it's accidental, you know.
Sure.
Oh, a struggle.
Maybe he was.
They didn't find a gun.
(47:36):
Like who knows even if it was like, you know, maybe fatalistic.
Yeah.
You can never rule out all of that stuff.
That's true too.
But he had a cup in his hand.
He had a cup in his hand and the phone.
And no gun was found.
So there's no struggle probably.
(47:58):
So that's the only reason I would be like, but they also cleaned up everything.
So, but I wouldn't think they would throw away a gun.
No, you wouldn't.
Right.
As a roommate, you wouldn't find a gun and be like, well, especially when those roommates
are like, I don't think he owed.
Right.
They could be.
That could be totally true.
But he was gone.
(48:19):
Both of them had alibis.
So they could have been like, well, they use my gun to murder him.
But also, I don't know everything about that stuff.
I know from previous cases you've told me that they can like identify what gun from
the bullets.
Yeah.
They didn't see it.
They said nothing about the bullet.
(48:40):
They said nothing about that.
That I was shocked.
They didn't what kind of casing, not what kind of bullet traced back to the gun.
None of it.
Not finding a weapon.
It seems like you should be able to find some sort of.
I think they were kind of like, oh, well, we fucked up and it's clean now and there's
not really nothing we can do about it.
(49:03):
So sorry.
Like where did the bullet go?
The autopsy people found is they could have identified it then and what kind of came from
then.
Again, fuck every investigator in this.
It's bad.
We've definitely said this before, but it's really bad when us three are sitting here
like, what the hell are they doing?
(49:25):
And they're legit investigators getting paid to do this shit.
Yeah, you're true weed for a living guys.
Yeah.
Come on.
I work in a warehouse.
Dude, I'm not saying I know everything, but goddamn.
I didn't go to college.
Come on.
Yeah.
Like.
Smoke weed for a living.
Yeah.
So fucked up.
(49:46):
Anything else?
Any other final thoughts to carry us away for the day?
Sad as always.
Sad?
Always.
Yeah.
It's always fucked up.
Especially this one.
I feel like they were so quick to assume because of the way he looked, which same with the
Jelani day case.
They were just like, Oh, he drowned.
(50:08):
It's as soon as you have the piercings and tattoos and then drugs.
Or you're black or any of that.
It's just like.
They take A plus B and they say A equals C every time.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And then they did some algebra.
Remember that one?
They were like, she's trans.
(50:29):
So we're just going to say fuck you.
And we're not going to even like, no, the Rita has to case.
Um, Hester Hester, Hester.
Yeah.
Um, one episode eight.
I want to say or something like that.
Yeah.
Um, yeah.
She was murdered in her apartment and, um, the police were called from a neighbor.
(50:53):
They got there while she was still alive.
Um, they didn't transfer her to the hospital for an hour after they got there and responded
and walked around her body as she laid there dying and they won't come out and say it's
(51:13):
because they're transphobic.
What a lot of it is because they're transphobic.
It was upset.
Yeah, um, yeah.
And she died from cardiac arrest and, uh, blood loss, which tells you everything you
need to know about how long they took on that crime scene, how long they dilly dallyed to
(51:34):
get her help and how long they just disregarded her as a person just because of whatever feelings
they fucking had.
It's a disgusting day.
But she is the one that sparked the Trans Day of Remembrance that we celebrate every
year in November.
Um, she's like the reason for a good majority of that, but fucked up case all the way around.
(51:59):
So fuck the police.
Say it again.
And again.
And again.
But RIP to RJ.
Until next time, stay high, stay safe, and thank you for listening.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!