November 6, 2023 • 69 mins
In July of 2010, 15-year-old Sidnee Stephens was a troubled teen with a history of mental illness and running away from home so, no one in her immediate circle was too worried when she went missing yet again. Then, her dead body was found in the town creek. The investigation into Sidnee's murder would be long and strenuous, but most of all, it would prove just how unbelievably cruel and shortsighted teenagers can be.
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(00:00):
Sword and Scale contains adult themes andviolence, and is not intended for all
audiences. Listener discretion is advised.He burned Chopolian and held it for several
minutes. He stopped, checked repoles, and there was a one. Welcome
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to season ten, episode two fiftytwo of Sword and Scale, a show
that reveals that the worst monsters youguessed it are real. This month marks
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the tenth year of Sword and Scale. I came up with this idea in
October twenty ninth of twenty fourteen,on my birthday. By the way,
thank you, thank you for wishingme a happy birthday. Yeah, and
now ten years later, here weare. It's amazing. Life is really
fucking weird sometimes. On July twentyfifth, twenty ten, a woman named
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Tracy Stevens found herself at the PinckneyvillePolice Department. She had reported her youngest
daughter, fifteen year old Sydney Stephens, missing over a week ago. Now
things were getting serious. No onehad heard from her. When did you
report her missing? Monday morning,the nineteenth, around seven o'clock in the
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morning is when I called nine oneone? Is that when you found her?
Missy? Yeah? Okay, doyou think she crawled out her bedroom
window. Or no, the waythat my house is set up, its
flit level, and her room isthe entire downstairs because it's actually on a
two bedroom house. And I alsohave a seventeen year old daughter. Where
do you live at? On WaterStreet? Right past the Gray School when
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it makes that little jig jog rightthere, Folden has her hairshop and all
that. Right behind there is awhite house. Most people, that's where
Jerry and Lois Fulton used to live. Oh Jerry. In case you haven't
figured it out, Pinckneyville is avery small town, the kind of place
where everyone knows each other. Intwenty ten had just over five thousand residents.
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We're talking tiny. It was unusualfor teenagers to disappear in towns like
this. In Tracy's modest split levelhouse, Sydney's bedroom was the entire downstairs
floor. Okay, so she hadto basically the run of the downstairs as
split level. Right. We gavemy son in the bedroom upstairs because he's
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the boy and we couldn't have theall share in the room, and then
the downstairs because it is pretty goodsize. I'm going to have to put
this on silence. This is her, Sydney's dad. Can I please answer
this one? Sure? Hello?Tracy's phone was ringing off the hook.
Sydney's disappearance was making the rounds throughtheir family as well as the small town.
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Sidney had an older half sister,Dakota, who was seventeen, and
an older half brother named Zachary.Dakota and Sydney were raised together by Dakota's
father until Tracy red that Sydney wasnot actually his biological daughter. Sydney found
this out when she was just alittle girl, and it really rocked her
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sense of being. So you foundher missing on the nineteenth, Yeah,
the morning of the nineteenth. I'vetold this story so many I'm sorry.
I know. I know it's okaybecause I I went to bed Sunday night
about eleven thirty quarter till twelve.She was there. She was in a
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good mood. She was fine.She had been playing with the dog.
Her and the dog were sharing stringcheese, They were sharing popsicles. Me
and her were watching squid Billies together. Let me ask you who lives in
the house with you, Me andSydney and my daughter Dakota. Okay,
and was Dakota at home. Duringthe Dakota had stayed the night at her
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boyfriend's house, Chad Bennett. Thoughhe lives with his grandparents out in Charlotte
Hills, Dakota was out with herboyfriend Chad, so it was just Sydney
and Tracy at the house. Well, Tracy was on the family computer.
Sydney played with her dog, sharinga popsicle in a cup. So her
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and the dog are both thrinking outof this cup. Whatever they do.
I know it sounds disgusting, butthey those two do it all the time.
She had wrecked her bike on Saturday, because it was like seven thirty
Saturday night before I even ran toeven come and pick me up. She
had wrecked her bike on Saturday andhad stretched up her legs and hurt the
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palm of her hand. I mean, and it was just that palm of
her hand was just really bad.She was mad because she wrecked her bike
and because her friends weren't home thatwas supposed to be home because they were
supposed to go camping, and thefriends of her that was on a Saturday
night, shoes that was that wasSaturday evening. Sidney was upset with her
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friend. But this wasn't unusual.Sidney was played with emotional problems. She
lived for druma and most people didn'twant it. They knew the things that
she had done in the past,you know, they just they didn't want
to deal with this. She wasshe was, She was a load.
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I mean she it was a lotjust to be your friend. And she'd
have friends for very short periods oftime and then the next thing, you
know, I never see or hearfrom him again. And she I was
like, so, whatever happened toso and so? Oh, well they
did this and piss me off orblah blah blah. They said this about
me or said that about me.It was always somebody else's cult. She's
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a teenager, first of all,and second, well, she's bipolar.
Sidney was a moody, sensitive teenager, and this was exacerbated by her bipolar
disorder. Sydney's mental illness was finallytaken seriously after found her in the laundry
room of their house with a ropearound her neck. She was trying to
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hang herself. Sydney was hospitalized andher whole life changed. Tracy was scared
to leave her alone after that.Things had gotten really bad again, which
resulted in Tracy having to install alock on her own bedroom door. Sydney
threatened to kill me and was hospitalizedfor that. About two years ago.
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She'd made threats that she had aplan one night that she was going to
slit my throat and then go aroundherself in the bathtub. Who was going
to help her? She was goingto do it all by herself. Apparently.
Sydney also ran away from home often, but she was always found.
She'd be spotted or one of herfriends would call Tracy. This time things
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were different. It had been aweek plus. Sidney left her purse in
her bedroom when she vanished, andnone of her shoes were missing. That
didn't make sense. So you're sayingshe went barefully. Yeah, and I
told the police this. I triedto tell them something was wrong. They
would not listen to me. Yeah. What's her status with her cell phone
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during this time frame? Where youletting her use her cell phone at all?
Or she Sidney does not have ase It's all gone. No,
it is all gone. Back inMay, she got suspended from school,
and the end of April I hadsurgery and she got suspended from school.
I took her cell phone away fromher because she got suspended from school.
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Sydney had been in some trouble lately. Dakota and Sydney weren't getting along.
Tracy was chalking it all up tothe fact that she had two teenage girls
under one roof. After finishing upon the computer, Tracy decided to go
to bed. I shall watch along one have been. I said,
you know, I'll see you later. She says, do you have to
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work in the morning, And Isaid yeah, and she said okay,
And I said good night, loveyou and she said good night, love
you too. No time you think. That was about eleven thirty courter till
somewhere right in there. The reasonsI can remember that she said love you
too is because nine times out often she hates me because I'm mom.
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She don't like my rules, shedon't like anything. So when she says
love you, you know I cansay it, and there's like she will
not answer me. So these timesshe answered me. So that's how I
know she was in a decent mood. Sydney was happy the night before she
vanished. That's what was so odd. Whenever Sidney disappeared in the past,
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she had been building up to amanic episode. Everyone could tell something was
about to implode. This time,Sydney was calm. The next morning,
she was gone, you know something, something's wrong, and I've been telling
the police all week long. Somethingwith all of this is not right.
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I haven't I haven't stayed at myI stayed at my house Monday night and
Tuesday night, but since then thereI feel like I'm being watched, and
Dakota gets the same feeling. Ifeel like I'm being watched. There's something
creepy about my house, and neitherone of us will go in there without
each other or somebody else. Whydo you think there's something? I just
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it's just something I don't know.It's just a gut feeling that something's wrong.
Another thing Dakota found on her vanity, which is by her bed on
the other side of the room.She found the stuff on her vanity had
been knocked over. Dakota just pickedall that up and just kind of sat
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it back up because it's not avery sturvy vanity and it wouldn't take a
whole lot to bump it. It'sjust that real. Then when did she
find that that was Monday evening whenme and her word woking through Sydney's room
trying to figure out if something wasmissing her and is there anything that you
could think of who her, ifsomebody body in particular. I just said,
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I know she doesn't have a lotof friends. I know she's made
a lot of people mad. Iknow she was into drugs. Who would
she have made really mad or orbeen involved with drug wise it would have
I would want to do something toher. I don't really know. But
the reason Tracy was at the policestation was because that morning they had found
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a body. Two men had beenfishing in the local river and spotted something
floating in the creek. When thepolice arrived, they pulled up the body
of a young woman. She waswater logged and banged up. She was
unrecognizable. The body had ratchet strapstied around her waist at one end,
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and it was tied to a cinderblock on the other. Whoever this was
had suffered multiple bullet wounds to thehead. The only identifying factor on the
body was a piece of jewelry.The dead girl wore a silver necklace with
a little musical note charm h you'regoing to try to identify this person who
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found we host not your dollar.I the detectives pushed a photograph toward Tracy
of the silver music note necklace.We got something you were seeing that before
Weber machine. That was That's whyI forgot all about that. That's something
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she just recent and I think youknow which crown? L Oh No,
what was that on? I hadseen her wear that, but I hadn't.
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I hadn't really paid attention whether ornot she has been wearing it light.
I don't work it was it ona necklace? What kind of necklace?
Apply? Then the girl was Sydney. The fifteen year old had been
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shot in the head, then tiedto a cinder block and thrown in the
river. But who on earth,in this tiny, close knit town would
want to kill Sydney. Fifteen yearold Sydney Stevens had been found shot dead
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in a creek and tied down inthe water. The teenager had a history
of mental illness and running away.Sydney's mom, Tracy, had reported the
troubled teen missing a week prior andtold police that Sydney had a long history
of running away in suicide attempts andthat she was also bipolar. Sydney had
lost a lot of friends over theyears and had dated some boys in town,
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but her mother couldn't think of anyonewho would want to kill her.
Starting from the inside and working theirway out, the detectives soon brought in
Sydney her seventeen year old Dakota forquestioning. They were only two years apart
and hung out in the same socialcircles. Though they didn't always get along,
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Dakota knew her sister, maybe shecould shine a light on her social
life. Can you tell me aboutyour on Sydney's relationship. Well, we
got along great till puberty. Thenit was the don't touch my stuff,
I hate you fall of this year'skind of thing, typical teenage sister.
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Yeah, things, but like,we got along great unless I was on
my period she was on her period. Then we absolutely did not want to
be around each other. Sure,but other than that we got along great,
unless she was trying to take mystuff when we were providing about chores
or something. Though the sisters bothloved emo music, punk bands and dressed
like your typical small town teenage gothchicks, Dakota and Sydney were very different
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people. Dakota, is you seeher room? There's yeah, there's dust
bunnies all over the place, buteverything is lined up, everything is organized.
Dakota is OCD and she knows youcould go in and move something to
a quarter of an inch and she'sgonna walk in immediately know that there's something
wrong in that room. So let'stalk about Sydney and her disappearing. Her
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disappearance is what everybody originally thought itwas. Where were you when you were
notified of her disappearance? Boyfriend's house? And who's your boyfriend? Chad Bennett?
Okay, does he live here intown? Where's he live at?
I don't know it's address, butit's the same little subdivision that plum one
lives. Okay, who called you? Text to Chad and said, how
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did you go to call him?When she makes upthing? He looked up
and said, follow your morman anuts And she asked by her sidneys or
anything wrong? But no, shesaid, Okay. I was like why
she's like, Sydney's missing again.I can't find her. And I texted
all my friends and said, Sydney'smissing again. If you see her or
know anyone that gets contact with her. Just call me in my mom.
That's why Dakota said she wasn't superconcerned. Sydney had gone missing many times.
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In fact, she'd run away justlast summer, but was found hiding
in the woods when she rated herselfout to a boy she had a crush
on. Dakota said that on thenight Sidney disappeared, she came home briefly
with her boyfriend Chad. She onlysaw Sydney for a minute in the kitchen.
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Oh, in the kitchen one timeto make food. All she said
was why are you putting that ina microwave? Okay? And other than
that, she was just Sydney.And when you were there from eleven eleven
thirty to three three thirty, didyou stay there at the house the entire
time? Yeah? Did you evergo outside in the yard anything like that?
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Do you smoke? No? Okay? Does Chad smoke? Yeah?
Oh? Did you go outside forhim to have a cigarette? Anything like
that? Smoked in because we didn'tsmoke in the house. Now they going
home, didn't care anymore, SoDakota and Chad left and went to meet
some of their friends at Buffalo WildWings for dinner. Then they went out
and did whatever dumb things teenagers do. Dakota slept over at Chad's house.
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The next morning, Sydney and Dakota'smom, Tracy, called her daughter to
tell her that Sidney was missing.And you call your mom and like you
said, you know, Sydney's gone. M So what time do you go
back to your house? I thinkhis grandma dropped me off about noon.
Chad leash worked about one. Takesthem a little over an hour to get
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ready. And I think she tookme and hand in my house at noon
because he went with us, droppedme off. Where's Chad work? Giltstairs
and Chester? Chad and Dakota hadbeen dating for a while now, and
things were as serious as serious gutsand teenage land. Dakota was obsessed with
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Chad. He was her entire world. Tracy was not happy about any of
this. Chad wasn't exactly the kindof guy you wanted your daughter to be
dating. A guy named Chad neveris right here. He was thuggish,
moody, he was a troublemaker,and if that wasn't bad enough, he
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ran his own gang called the PeeTown Saints. So what's the deal with
this? Explain this gang to methat they're all in I have no clue.
I find it stupid. And Itold him that it's stupid because if
you're gonna live in the down thefive thousand people where the majority of the
people a prisoners, you don't havea gang. Right. We forgot to
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mention that about Pinckneyville. Even thoughthe town has about five thousand people,
twenty two hundred of those residents areactually inmates at a prison, but they
by themselves as a gang. I'mnot quite sure. I think something happened
with the cops and the cops startedcalling it a game. I don't remember
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really, Well, what uh,why would you think the cops would classify
it as a gang? Because atfirst one I understood of it, it
was just a whole bunch of friendsthat had each other's back, and it
was just how any other friends thatare. And then someone told the cops
they were spray painting and getting illegalweapons and illegal drugs. And then the
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cops started saying that they were agang after they talked to them, and
now it's they thought, okay,well, who's the original gangsters? The
only ones I knew them were hadCarl James, Nathan, and Billy.
Dakota was playing it down, butthe Petown Saints took themselves very seriously.
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Dakota had become the queen bee oftheir little crew right after she and Chad
became official. What an honor.See, every one of them know that
if me and Chat are together andthey call, and then if I say
no, that's how it goes untilit goes, including because I'm Chad's girlfriend
and I don't want him hanging outwith someone, or if it's just supposed
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to be me and him, ifthey have a problem with that, they
can take it up with me andthen they So you know what that's telling
me? You're the head girl inthe gang. Dakota had become instantly cool
when she started dating Chad. That'swhat happens when you start dating at Chad,
you become instantly cool. Didn't you, ladies know that she was someone
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now to be feared and revered.You can be too, ladies. Just
go find yourself a Chad. Checkthe phone book. If y'all still know
what that is, I guess.But Dakota wasn't always a cool girl.
When she was little, Dakota wasextremely strange Tracy reported that for an entire
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year when she was in grade school, Dakota was convinced that she was a
dog and insisted that everyone treat herlike a pet. She didn't speak,
She just barked, what is itdog kin or canine kin? Animal kin?
These degenerate furries will stop at nothing. I'll tell you. After about
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a year of this nonsense, shestopped and went back to being herself again.
As Dakota grew into a teenager,she became moody and gravitated towards emo
and punk. She was obsessed withKurt Cobain and Twilight Brooks whatever that is.
Sydney really looked up to her bigsister. She wanted to be just
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like her. About Chad, howwas his relationship with Sydney? Where did
you always pick up? He didn'tlike Sydney a whole lot kind of.
I mean, he tolerated her becauseit was his girlfriend, Dakota's little sister.
You know, she never really therewas just one or two times that
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I can remember that they ever evenlike went together somewhere, like if Dakota
was going. I don't think Sydneyever went alone with Chad anywhere for she
liked him, but as far ashim liking, I mean her that he
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didn't really care for. Sydney wasdifferent because of her being bipolar, and
she would Sidney was all about drama, and Chad seemed that he didn't want
a lot to do with the drama. And I think I think more than
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anything, she just kind of goton his nerves. Tracy admitted that Chad
and Dakota would be annoyed if sheasked them to keep an eye on Sydney.
But the only thing that I think, what I was going to say
earlier is the only thing that Icould think of that Chad why he wouldn't
like her, Because with Sydney beingbipolar, there were times like whenever I'd
go to work, or if Ihad plans to go and do something or
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whatever, Dakota wasn't able to goand do what she wanted to do because
I would have to have her staywith Sydney. Not all the time.
There was dependent on how Sydney's moodwas and how she'd acted days before as
to whether or not I would leaveher by herself or if I would make
sure that Dakota was with her.Then the police got a hold of Chad,
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So I understand her Dakoe's voice,und was it right? Yeah?
And how long have you had Dakotabeen together? On the twentieth of this
month, it'll be year and ahalf. Okay, So you've been around
Sydney for a little while during thattime frame. Yes, sir, I
didn't really talk to her too much. I mean that's just every now and
then we'd have little conversations like saying, my old lady was in the shower,
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you know, something like that.So did you and Dakota ever hang
out with her and her boyfriends oranything? You guys never went to places
together or anything like that. No, she was really jealous of me and
Dakota like what we had because we'velasted for so long, and her boyfriends
the last for maybe a week ifthat. Chad claimed that Sidney would go
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through boyfriends quickly and that he didn'treally know any of them except that time
she dated his good friend Carl Daneus, who was her boyfriend that she'd been
seeing over the last four or fiveor six months. Anybody in particular,
Well, I know she was withmy body Carl for maybe two weeks.
Carl, Carl dan yeah, becausethey were together for a little bit,
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like I said, maybe two twoand a half weeks, you know.
But I know as soon as herand Carl broke up, she got real
mad at him because he's the onethat lent Turkish she did whatever? And
at what time frame they had beenin without happened with Carl where their own
before Sharan went the first time,The police decided they should get in touch
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with Carl Dane see if he knewanything about what happened to Sydney. But
before they reached him, they gota call from Sydney's older brother, who
said that when he ran into Carla day prior, Carl had told him
that he witnessed Sydney's murder. CarlDane was a greasy teenager with a shaggy
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mushroom cut and a red goat tee. The cops were familiar with Carl Dane.
He had been arrested for minor chargesover the year or is, mostly
drugs and stealing, so they broughthim in for you know, a little
chat. We don't know what youknow about what I happened to see.
I don't know did you talk toanybody last night? I said? Did
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you talk to anybody about Sydney's familyrecently? I turned to her brother yesterday
of the Donald's. Okay, Andwhat did you tell her brother yesterday?
Mc donalds? Nothing? Really?He was asking if I knew anything,
and I said I didn't. Soyou didn't tell her brother that you witnessed
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the whole thing? You're sure aboutthat? Yeah, I didn't tell him
that. I didn't tell him that. What did you tell him? I
told them I didn't know anything aboutit? Well, I mean, I
don't think that's pretty far off fromI mean, go see. Statements are
just complete opposite, aren't they.So how can anybody make a mistake about
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what what you said? I don'tknow. So did he get mad at
you after you talked to him?You seem pretty pissed while I was talking.
Why did you seem so pissed?It's it's his sister that all this
shit happened too. I'll be pastedif something having my sister too. Cross
story was suspicious and he was actingsweaty and strange. She seemed pretty nervous.
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Is there any particular reason when you'renervous? I'm not really no,
I don't really like being in caupstations. Did you use today, Sydney?
Yeah, when late March, earlyAirpril? How long about week?
One week? Why did it inso quick? Well, she got mad
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one day because I didn't take herfishing and she just left, you know.
So I went up to school nextday and I'm like, if Wena
act like, hey, you know, we're done. So you broke up
with her and she didn't break upa youth, Yeah, basically, So
if you ever make any says somebody, anybody about being mad at Sydney,
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I was mad at her for alittle bit, but I got over it.
Why were you mad at her?Since you broke up with her?
Just the way she acted when wealready had which was how she didn't get
it where she got mad. Carlsaid that he and Sydney only dated for
a week or so and that theydid normal couple stuff. The relationship wasn't
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that big of a deal. Wheredid you and Sydney go? Since you
were dating at the time? Setup at the park? You know,
when I city Lake, No,I'm out at her house. The longer
the detectives talked to Carl, themore they realized he was just a nervous,
lying teenager, You remember where youwere on Sunday ninety was a hay
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teeth. I was sitting at home. It's a pretty quick cancer. How
do you know where you were thatlong ago? I just remembered, you
know, I remember what I'm doing, you know everyone once in a while.
Carl claimed he was home with hisfriend James Glazier. Nothing happened,
they just hung out. Carl wovea story as he nervously tapped his toe
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and stuttered, what did you hearabout what happened to her? About her
missing Monday afternoon, this last Mondayor money before before. I had to
find that out, Chad. Andhe's like, you know, Sidney missing,
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and what did you find out thatSidney was? Sydney was dead just
a couple of days ago. Youknow it was on news. Nobody told
you. You just saw it onthe news. Nobody's talking about it since
then. Really. After the interview, detectives took Karl back to his grandfather's
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house, where he'd been living fora while. When they walked onto the
property, the police were taken throughthe garage and spotted something jarring. A
pile of cinder blocks and the sameorange ratchet straps, the exact same two
things that had been tied to Sydney'sdead body in the creek. They immediately
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arrested Carl and took him back tothe station before they even read him his
rights again. Carl said this allright, they were just tell me in
there, man, Okay, man, you can tell me how years of
people looking at a fause guy?What's that? Wait to tell you?
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Hears other looking at a fause guyif he was a guy? Well,
you're the guy, you mean.We'll talk about that. Let him come
in. We'll talk about it alltogether. Okay, show me how you
confess to a murder without actually confessingto a murder. That's how. What
is it you need to tell usI personally killed her? You were the
person that killed Sidney Steve Sidney Stevens. And how did you do that?
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Oh? Well, neither of thedoors were unlocked, so I climbed up
on the porch. That door wasunlost, So I walked down there.
Uh you're talking about Sidney Town,Okay, walked downstairs where she really was
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at. Yeah, she was therethat night, so I woke her up,
told her, hey, let's go. She didn't want to, So
I choked her out and in thecar? Who's car? My car?
Carl spoke quietly as he confessed tokidnapping Sydney out of her bedroom that Saturday
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night and stuffing her into his car. When you say you choked her out,
what do you mean by that?So passed out with your hands,
and she didn't try to struggle oranything. She tried, didn't scratch,
you didn't do nothing like that.You're shaking your head. No, no,
she didn't. So who else wasin the car? Nobody? Okay?
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So did you try to restrain heranyway? Put her in the trunk
to the bridge, shot her acouple of times, pushed her off?
What car were you in? ThePontiac? Is your grandpa's plan at?
Did you shoot her while she wasin the car? Where did you shoot
her atten? I'm not really prettysure. I didn't see where bulls And
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where was she at the bridge?Was she passed out there or was she
awake? She was passed out?Was she still breathing? I did see
it didn't sting like it. Carlsaid that after he shot Sydney and threw
her off the bridge, he wentback a few days later with that ratchet
strap and the cinder block so hecould tie it to her and keep her
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under the water. And how manytimes did you shoot? I shot four
times. I don't know how manytimes I hit? Shot four times?
With what twenty two pistol? Where'sthat pistol at bottom of the lake?
What? Like? I'm I'm toosure it's somewhere apparent it? Could you
show it? Show us? Ireally can't remember where it's at. I
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went on and got it, frummy player, Okay, where did you
get the twenty two pistol? Foundit? Well? I know you didn't
find any. But what did thatpistol look like? It looks like a
old time luker? What is it? Ruy Ruger? Twenty two? While
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a Sundays you decided to do thisat this point? What what triggered it?
Did you say you're somewhere or something? Or I don't really know.
I just heard she was a snitch? Okay? And is there something she
snitch on you about? Nothing Ican think about friends. Who's your friend
James? James, the one thatwe talked about being a pot dealer earlier?
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What was his last name? PleaserCarl's story wasn't adding up. It
would have been very tough for himto handle this operation all on his own.
Not impossible, but it's unlikely.Plus, by his own admission,
Carl dated Sydney for a week beforethey broke up. That's not much of
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a motive to murder someone, evenfor teenagers. The cops knew Karl was
a part of the pe Town Saintswhen they brought in James Glazier, they
found out he was also in thegang. James, I know at one
time he was part of a gang. Right, what's the name of that
(36:12):
gang? Petown states? Are youstill part of that gang? Yes,
you are still part of that gang? And what's your affiliation with the gang?
I am the head of the DoDand demand. With his childlike speech
impediment, James seemed years younger thanhe actually was. I mean he sounded
(36:34):
like about twelve and not seventeen.But in the grand scheme of things,
these boys were all still kids.Their brains were not fully developed yet,
and here they were at the policestation being questioned about a murder. That's
some great parenting, guys. Jamestook his duty as heads of the p
(37:00):
Town Saints very seriously, and toldthe cops the basic rules of the gang.
We don't hit women, we don'tlie to each other, we don't
steal from each other, and we'llalways by each other's side, no matter
what you said, your third incommand. Here's the two ahead of you,
Colin Jed Carl, who dang?See, how do you mean he's
(37:24):
ahead of you? He's second incommand? Okay? And what's his title?
Second command? What's his duties?He's one high of me, so
he makes sure I do my duties. I'm keeping everybody else. And here's
this other guy you're talking about,Jad Benner, and what's the O G.
(37:49):
And he's top original gamest. Jamessaid he was at Carl's house the
night that Sidney disappeared. In fact, James had been living at Carl's grandpa's
house for weeks. Now that thecops had Carl's confession, they knew that
James was wrapped up in this too. To my knowledge, your name has
(38:12):
been brought up, and now you'regonna be charging. You're not going to
leave here. That's not the timeto play games. The game, so
else the time for the truth.If you want to talk to us,
we're more than happy to talk toyou to get to the bottom of it,
because that little girl did not deservewhat happened to her. I know
what you're talking about. I didn'twant to know. One the people that
was there with you said you wasthere and used in on it. I
(38:36):
didn't do anything. I wasn't Nowell, I was at Carl's. He was
with Carl. You know where Carlis. No, I think he does,
moms. No, he's sitting backhere. He is in jail for
what you think he is charged with? First he said he did with first
degree murder. Would he do itwhen you was with it? When you
(39:00):
was with him? He said youwas, and he said here, said
he was with him the whole time. Yeah, for the last three weeks
you've been with me. He lefthis sight. Everything he's done, you've
done. That's when James asked tostop and have an attorney present. The
cops agreed and left the room.After a while, they came back and
James changed his mind. He didn'twant a lawyer. He was willing to
(39:23):
talk. He just wanted his momthere with him, so they brought her
into the room. Oh you don'twant to you need to? I think
No, matter what. You knowwhat, she didn't need to talk with
the cops. And I think that'sthe only say to keep Carl from hurting
you. Okay, okay, James, So you want to talk to us
(39:47):
now, right? Is the anylike I do? But he's scary,
James, there's no you can't.You know what the word to equivocate means.
No, Well, there's no,there's no compromise, okay. In
other words, you either want totalk to us or you don't want to
talk to us. Okay, I'lltalk talk. He's in jail. He
(40:10):
can't help me. He's in jail. Okay, he's on his lation.
James confessed everything. Carl hadn't donethis alone, and there was another boy
there from the gang, Robbie Mueller. They all drove to Sydney's house in
Carl's grandpa's car. Literal children murderingother children. He told us on the
(40:38):
way what he is doing, andhe said, if we have a talk,
we were dead. Okay. Whatdid he say? He told you
what we were going to do.What did he say? He told us
that we were this takes in thekill. He told us we will go
in to you, and he hadhis pants a twenty two pistol and if
we didn't cooperate, he would shootus on the spot. When they got
(41:00):
to Sydney's house, James and Carlsnuck in together while Robbie waited outside as
the lookout. Do you know whatI mean? He told me to wake
her up and the table RUPs.I tried, tried to run and scream.
What kind of tape do you have? I had very little, like
white tape, yes, okay?And then what happened? You have those
(41:21):
some Tracy that wake up together?Tracy woke up cold and shot. I
wanted he killed Tracy? How didyou know that that Carl was gonna shoot
Tracy? And she told us beforewe walked in, and he said,
no, leave, no witnesses.James tried to get Sidney to come with
them, but she fought this wouldbe quiet. She started walking and I
taped her hands up so told meto and I started taking my mouth.
(41:44):
When she read it and saw yourmom, I had to stop, but
glad anyone, Tracy died. That'swhen James and Robbie tackled Sidney and choked
her until she passed out. ThenRobbie and Carl dragged her out the door
while James pulled the car around.They shoved Sydney's limp body inside and Carl
(42:04):
took over in the driver's seat.And then we got back in the call
and Carl told us that if wewould talk he made this clip, he
would kill us on the spot.He did. Where'd you guys go?
We went down to almost a cutchtown down by the bridge. I closed
my eyes. Robbie toned around andcalled put like full shots. I hold.
(42:29):
Carl shot Sidney and then gave hisinstructions. He pointed to you know
what, me and Robbie told usto put your rig and we did.
He told me to kick right hereand told Robbie push right here, and
when I did, the whole bodywent with the head. James and Robbie
kicked Sidney's lifeless body through the railsand she tumbled down into the water with
a splash. The boys got inthe car and left. So then when
(42:54):
you get it went back buried thegun and the clothes, or does that
you buried again? We buried itbehind the ship. One the ship calls
Draffles house. Do you know we'vegot the gun? Yeah, listen to
James's reaction here. He's truly shockedthat the cops found the gun they buried.
(43:19):
Teenagers can be so fucking shortsighted,literally stupid, yet they think they're
so much smarter than everyone else.Have you noticed after burying the gun,
they buried all the clothes they werewearing, along with their latex gloves,
(43:40):
and nobody will find those. Justlike Carl had confessed, they came back
a few days later and attached thecinder block and ratchet straps to Sydney's body.
I did not really feel like touchon the body, I was saying
anything, so I dis drapped,like right here or yeah, and throw
it in. Well, how didyou get to her? She was in
(44:00):
the water, She was underneath thebridge, and she flowed back up towards
to the land. The detectives wantedto know if Chad knew about this,
after all, he was their gangleader, the original gangsta. Since Chad's
the leader, one te you knowabout this, I think I'm pretty sure
(44:22):
he probably knows you knew. Idon't know if he was the one who
told Carla to do it. Oh, Carl told Chad he was doing it,
But I think Chad might have knew. I mean, I don't know
though, because Coda is Chad's girlfriend, right was there was there ever a
time that you go, You andCarl and Chad talked about this in front
(44:44):
of Dakota. She was sleeping onetime, and me and Cole will talk
about it. I don't know ifChad was paying attention. She was in
the back on shadwell, I thinkthey were sleeping. Menaul were talking about
it in the front now, meand Cole talking and Chad and Coda fact
and they both had eyes posed onso it was and Dakota, ah well,
(45:06):
Dakota had claimed she knew nothing aboutany of this, even though she
was the Queen of the Pe TownSaints. But then Tracy said something in
passing that stopped the detectives dead intheir tracks. Sydney wrote a lot of
things down, thoughts, feelings,things that were kind of weird in my
(45:27):
opinion. There had been rumors awhile back, and somewhere written down in
a notebook that Dakota come across.It said something about at one point in
time Sydney had slept with Chad.The Dakota played it off like she was
the most confident girl in the world. She was always a little skeptical of
(45:51):
Chad when it came to other girls. Do you ever look at social No,
Okay, yes, I was gonnasay, it's only to see we
text, but most of the timeit's just text messages for me. Okay,
did you look at his phone thatnight? No? When was the
When did you look at it lasttime? I looked at an over of
months since I looked at it,cause there's been I've heard sometimes that he
(46:15):
was cheating on me. So Iwas looking there was going to see anything,
and I never seen anything. Mm. But it was just people during
the start stuff. Sometimes people aren'tstarting stuff some people. Sometimes they just
don't know how to go about.Yeah, telling somebody that they know that
they like, that they care aboutthat. This guy could be a cree
bow and he's messing around on you. M I hope he was somewhat.
(46:39):
What would happen if he was messingaround on me, I'd be very very
very upset. Yeah. If Dakotaadmitted she would be very very very upset
if Chad cheated on her with anothergirl. How much rage would fill her
if she thought that girl was herown little sister? Sydney Stephens was a
(47:44):
troubled teen with bipolar disorder and ahistory of running away from home, but
this time she'd really gone missing.She was found dead in a creek,
and her ex boyfriend Carl Dane,along with his friends James Glazier and Robbie
Mueller, had admitted to kidnapping andmurdering Sydney. The boys all belonged to
(48:07):
a gang named the pe Town Saints, and the head of the gang,
Chad Bennett, also happened to beSidney's older sister's boyfriend. Carl, James,
and Robbie were all arrested for Sydney'smurder, but it was still unclear
as to who truly killed Sydney.James confess to choking Sidney until she passed
(48:31):
out, while Carl admitted to shootingher. However, if she was already
dead when Carl shot her, thenJames was the one who actually caused her
initial death, not Carl. Thepolice needed to figure this out, if
only for the benefit of the family. Sydney's sister, Dakota, and Chad
(48:54):
basically walked free. Dakota was arrestedbriefly for obstructing an investigation. But was
released. There was nothing concrete tyingthem to the murder other than the suspected
motive and their affiliation. Carl,James and Robbie didn't have any real motive
(49:15):
to murder Sydney either, other thanthe fact that they didn't like her.
But Dakota had a motive. Shethought Sydney had slept with Chad, and
she was sick of the fact thatshe had to babysit her sister's mental illness
all of the fucking time. WhileCarl, James and Robbie sat in jail,
(49:38):
Dakota and Chad went on living theirlives. They even talked about getting
married. Tracy was beside herself becauseChad got Dakota something for her birthday that
costs over eight hundred dollars and shethinks it's an engagement room. Dakota was
about to turn eighteen, and Tracyknew that her daughter would no longer be
(49:59):
under her legal guardianship. I'm hereto death that she's going to take off
and go Mary Chad in twelve thirteenmore days. Like the police, Tracy
also had a feeling that he wasbehind Sydney's murder plot, so Tracy asked
her boyfriend's daughter to try to talkwith Dakota, and I had text Laura
(50:22):
and a couple other family members askingthem to please talk to some senten to
her to not marry this jerk,basically because I've talked to her until I'm
purple in the face and it getsme nowhere. Well, Laura, instead
of calling to talk to her,actually came out to mine in Randy's house
this evening inside outside for a coupleof hours, actually, at least outside
(50:44):
with nobody else around. And shemore opened up to Laura than she has
with me or anything else. Shewould say things about Chad and how much
his involvement was, and Dakota wouldeither agree or disagree with what she was
saying. The cops got Laura onthe phone and she relayed what Dakota had
(51:07):
confessed. I said, but ifChad is so innocent, then let the
evidence proves that he's innocent and youhave nothing to worry about. I said,
but you're sitting here worried right now, so correct me if I'm wrong.
As she has kind of looked atand she started bawling, and I
(51:28):
said, you know more than peopleknow. You know, and I know
that, I said, and Ihave known that, and she just all
she do is kind of shake herhead yeah, shake her head yeah,
shake her head yeah. And Isaid, now you tell me, is
it fair You want to keep yourboyfriend but your mom didn't get to keep
(51:51):
her daughter. And I just kindof and it sounds horrible because I was
crying too. Honest to god,I do care about the girl, but
I just kind of kept and itsounds mean, but I just kept kind
of breaking her down and breaking herdown and breaking her down. And I
said, now, look, letme help you. I can help you.
I can help you have a future. You can go to college,
you can you know all the realityof things I said. Or you can
(52:15):
keep things the way they are andeither end up in prison because you look
like a liar because you're not talking, or end up in a mental institution
because it'll fester at you and thatyou'll lose your mind. Dakota was a
scared little girl pretending to be tough, so she told Laura she would talk
to the cops on her terms.She's like anti authority, seventeen year old
(52:39):
kid. She doesn't want it tobe an investor or an interrogation on her,
and I told her it wouldn't it'dbe polite questions being asked, Okay,
you know what about this? Youknow? And she it really needs
to be anonymous as possible because she'sscared. I think there's more than she
(53:00):
let on to me, because shedidn't say a whole lot, but she
would agree or disagree. There wasa lot more than Dakota led on,
and everyone was about to find out. In the fall of twenty twelve,
Robbie Mueller decided to give a proferstatement to police, clarifying who actually killed
Sidney that night and why they allplotted her murder. Maybe Robbie was trying
(53:25):
to save his own butt, butmaybe he was telling the truth. The
state needed to charge these kids.Sydney needed justice, and this would get
them one step closer. I wasby the door and they walked up to
her. James went to was totape on her mouth, and she took
(53:45):
it off and stood up, andI guess thought it was a joke because
she just like normal, and thenactuating was going on, and then Carl
had to get a point at her, and that's when she kind of flipped
out and James grabbed her and theywrestled to the ground and everything, and
(54:05):
Carl walked over towards me and stoodby me, and uh, she was
kind of out wrestling and everything,and Carl told me help them, and
I went over and I put herin a chokehold. Sure, and she
went unconscious. This is just sosick and vicious. These boys had a
(54:30):
rule in their gang no hitting women, yet kidnapping and choking a woman until
she passed out was somehow acceptable.Sorry to bring her outside, right,
I forgot the door. She wokeup again, she said, put her
in it again. I did,and we ended up stumbling over. I
(54:53):
guess where the fire was at orsomething like that, because I know I
tripped and fell on my back andJames ended up putting her choke hold and
kept it on her for quite along time. He put her in chropuli
in and held it for several minutes, and uh he stopped checked her poles
(55:15):
and there wasn't one. It mustbe three four minutes. I'm guessing.
According to Robbie, it was Jameswho killed Sidney with his chokehold. If
Sidney was dead when they put herin the car, then Carl's gunshots were
not murdered. Robbie also told thecops that the Pe Town Saints had some
(55:37):
rules everyone had to follow. Yeah, you're not supposed to talk to myself
with the phone. Uh, I'mnot supposed to stay with Sidney, which
I would. It was part ofthe game's rules. Or excuse me,
the Pe Town Saints rules. Youcouldn't talk to certain people, and one
(55:58):
of them was Sydney. Yeah,it was unclear as to who made this
rule, Dakota, Chad, orCarl, but it was a rule that
the gang had written down on paperand told every member to memorize and follow.
Robbie then said that he heard Chad, James and Carl planning Sydney's kidnapping
(56:20):
and murder. It was Carl,James and Chad as my Chad's truck,
and I went in and use thebathroom. When I came out, it
was staying by his truck and IThe only words I ever heard was tell
me when you want to do it, and I'll make sure Dakota leaves the
door locked. Did you hear thatI'll make sure Dakota leaves the door unlocked.
(56:42):
James, Carl, and Robbie wereall looking at life sentences. If
they could prove their involvement, Chadand Dakota could face the same. The
town was disgusted with this savage murder, and the state wanted these bullies to
pay. About a week after Robbie'sproffer statement, the cops had to Coda
(57:04):
back in to talk. Now,she had dyed pink hair and it was
cut short. She looked skinny andsickly as she sat down. Here's the
thing. Jessica tells us that youmade a statement about you knew that they
were going to try to scare cityand I murder. Jessica tells us that,
(57:30):
okay. Jessica also tells us thatyou unlocked the door for Cad,
the sliding glass door, remember onthe balcony. She said, you guys
talked about that. Now you rememberwhen I talked to you about that.
You never would admit to me thatyou unlocked the door for cat. Okay,
(57:53):
why would Jessica tell you did?Tell us she has nothing to the
game. She has nothing the game. She didn't because saying what is the
reason she's saying that is she's sayingthat you believed that this is supposed to
(58:13):
what you told her, is thatyou believe that they were going to come
and scare scared as of the sleepingdeal with Chad, with Sydney and Jed
possibly sleeping together. I hold,let me finish and then you can go.
Well. She was briefly locked up. Dakota confessed to her cellmate that
she had left the door unlocked sothe boys could scare Sydney, and she
(58:37):
did it because her sister had sleptwith Chad. She's saying, you did
it, something could come in andscare not to kill her. And you
know she's she's not adding to this, she's saying, you know if she
(58:58):
even says in her statement she toldme that if she knew that they were
going to kill her sister, thatshe wouldn't have done it. I mean,
that's too detail. This doesn't makesense with what you're saying. I
see. I don't remember telling herthat though. And this one here,
she says that you come in andtold how much you hated your sister and
(59:22):
was glad that she was gone.She asked me why I was in jail,
and I told her what it wasfor, and I said, well,
I think it's so I have alot to do with my mom and
she was like, well why,I was like, well, I was
like, my mom thinks that Iwanted my sister did because she was apparently
sleeping with my boyfriend. But Inever knew if it was true or not.
It's what I told her, Andthen she asked me if I believed
(59:44):
it. I told her I reallydidn't know, because I knew that she
had taught me too poor, ButI didn't think that Sydney would want to
do that to hurt me. Well, Dakota was whimpering to the officers.
Chad was down the hall and theywere about to arrest them. You think
Chad is going to protect anymore?Is it doing it to begin with?
Well, you know, I thinkChad was protecting itself at the beginning on
(01:00:08):
those interviews that we conducted with him, and I also think he was protecting
you. But what you have tounderstand is Chad isn't ready to be arrested
right now too. One of thesedays, was Chad gonna tell us that's
gonna hurt you down the road,And that's what she said then too.
(01:00:29):
But he may say something like that, but you know what, you're the
one that's here first, right nowwith us, and you're the one that
can make it right. First.You're the one that's you know, you're
the one that's been hurting this entireto You're the one is living with this
your entire So what is it?What is it? What do I need
(01:00:52):
to? What did he ask you? The police pressed Dakota for hours until
she finally cracked. It took twoyears, but she admitted to the truth.
What did you do to that door? Tell me, huh, what
(01:01:13):
did you do it? Okay,look at you. Take your hands away
in your mouth and look at me. What you do and you unlocked the
door? I don't want to bepost to clear on something about this door.
Okay, you're telling the truth whenyou say that you have left it
(01:01:36):
unlocked, which I had asked youto. Is that right? And that's
the only reason you're telling, saysbecause it's the truth. I don't want
it to be because that's what we'vebeen talking about the whole time. Is
it the truth or not? Thep town Saints had planned Sydney's kidnapping and
murder together. Dakota was aware.Even though she didn't know everything, She
(01:02:01):
unlocked the door so they could executetheir plan. James strangled Sidney until she
was dead. Carl drove the carand shot Sydney. Robbie was forced to
go along at gunpoint. All theboys together rolled Sydney into the creek and
tied her down with a cinder blockand Chad. Chad allegedly provided the guns.
(01:02:30):
Chad organized the plan, Chad motivatedhis crew, but Chad kept his
hands clean. He was the ogafter all, he didn't have to get
his hands dirty. He just hadto point his finger and say go.
Fifteen year old Robbie Mueller took areduced sentence for his proffer statement. He
(01:02:53):
was originally given twenty six years,but after some complications with his lawyer,
the appeal, and a heartfelt courtdate where he received Tracy Stevens forgiveness,
he was given a lighter sentence.He will be out this year. James
Glazier got sixty years. Carl Danepleaded guilty to murder and was given sixty
(01:03:19):
years as well, but the daybefore he was supposed to be transported to
the prison, he hung himself ina cell. Chad Bennett was initially arrested
for kidnapping, home invasion and firstdegree murder, but in twenty thirteen,
all the charges were dropped. TheDA filed a nole prosequi, which means
(01:03:43):
he did not wish to prosecute thecase at the time. The reason there
weren't any witnesses to testify. Allthe living Petown Saints as well as Dakota
refused to testify against their precious leader, even though they were offered immunity.
Dakoto Wall was given twenty six yearson the home invasion charge. She is
(01:04:09):
now out of prison and living herlife. Judging by her Facebook page,
she seems to be doing just greatand by the looks of it, she's
even got a new boyfriend. SidneyStevens may have been a pain in the
butt little sister who required as muchattention as the next needy teenager, But
(01:04:30):
that was Sidney. She was fifteen. What fifteen year old is in a
bit annoying, moody and headstrong.She had an unstable upbringing and a lot
of severe mental issues. What Sydneyneeded was love from her family so she
(01:04:51):
would know that there was more tolife than this sad little cycle she was
stuck in. Instead, she gota neglected, rejected by her big sister
and left downstairs in the basement.Sydney would likely have grown up and matured
into a decent young woman. Maybeshe would have found therapy and tackled her
(01:05:15):
demons had on maybe not. We'reall imperfect, may all have our own
problems. The point isn't what Sydneycould have become. The point is but
she never got the chance to tryto become because of her own sister and
(01:05:38):
four displaced, dysfunctional boys who decidedto try to prove to each other just
how tough they all really were bykilling a defenseless teenage girl. The p
Town Saints were a bunch of childrenplaying gangster. Now one of them is
(01:06:00):
and the other will be in jailuntil he dies, and Chad Well,
Chad finally got his in twenty eighteen. He pleaded guilty to the home invasion
charge in order to avoid the firstdegree murder. He was sentenced to twenty
years in prison. Speaking of years, it took eight of them, but
(01:06:24):
justice was finally served. Rest inpeace, Sydney. He didn't find love
in this world, but maybe you'llfind peace in the next. Well,
(01:07:11):
that's gonna wrap it up here.Thank you for joining us once again.
If you haven't heard it yet,check out Certain Scale Nightmares. It's available
now for free on Spotify, Apple, all the things, and you might
like it. And there's like thirtyepisodes now, so go check it out
and stay safe. Hey, greatshow. Calling to Wayne on the figure
(01:08:08):
figure debate. So, I meangive a little background. I watched a
lot of Formula one, Moto Jookand The Space Out of Europe and all
the commentators are English and they sayfigure, So I'm pretty sure they invented
the English language. So I thinkyou went on the format time time,
Sword and Scale contains adult themes andviolence, and is not intended for all
audiences. Listener discretion is advised.He burned Chopolian and held it for several
minutes. He stopped, checked repoles, and there was a one. Welcome
(00:24):
to season ten, episode two fiftytwo of Sword and Scale, a show
that reveals that the worst monsters youguessed it are real. This month marks
(00:48):
the tenth year of Sword and Scale. I came up with this idea in
October twenty ninth of twenty fourteen,on my birthday. By the way,
thank you, thank you for wishingme a happy birthday. Yeah, and
now ten years later, here weare. It's amazing. Life is really
fucking weird sometimes. On July twentyfifth, twenty ten, a woman named
(01:49):
Tracy Stevens found herself at the PinckneyvillePolice Department. She had reported her youngest
daughter, fifteen year old Sydney Stephens, missing over a week ago. Now
things were getting serious. No onehad heard from her. When did you
report her missing? Monday morning,the nineteenth, around seven o'clock in the
(02:14):
morning is when I called nine oneone? Is that when you found her?
Missy? Yeah? Okay, doyou think she crawled out her bedroom
window. Or no, the waythat my house is set up, its
flit level, and her room isthe entire downstairs because it's actually on a
two bedroom house. And I alsohave a seventeen year old daughter. Where
do you live at? On WaterStreet? Right past the Gray School when
(02:38):
it makes that little jig jog rightthere, Folden has her hairshop and all
that. Right behind there is awhite house. Most people, that's where
Jerry and Lois Fulton used to live. Oh Jerry. In case you haven't
figured it out, Pinckneyville is avery small town, the kind of place
where everyone knows each other. Intwenty ten had just over five thousand residents.
(03:01):
We're talking tiny. It was unusualfor teenagers to disappear in towns like
this. In Tracy's modest split levelhouse, Sydney's bedroom was the entire downstairs
floor. Okay, so she hadto basically the run of the downstairs as
split level. Right. We gavemy son in the bedroom upstairs because he's
(03:23):
the boy and we couldn't have theall share in the room, and then
the downstairs because it is pretty goodsize. I'm going to have to put
this on silence. This is her, Sydney's dad. Can I please answer
this one? Sure? Hello?Tracy's phone was ringing off the hook.
Sydney's disappearance was making the rounds throughtheir family as well as the small town.
(03:46):
Sidney had an older half sister,Dakota, who was seventeen, and
an older half brother named Zachary.Dakota and Sydney were raised together by Dakota's
father until Tracy red that Sydney wasnot actually his biological daughter. Sydney found
this out when she was just alittle girl, and it really rocked her
(04:09):
sense of being. So you foundher missing on the nineteenth, Yeah,
the morning of the nineteenth. I'vetold this story so many I'm sorry.
I know. I know it's okaybecause I I went to bed Sunday night
about eleven thirty quarter till twelve.She was there. She was in a
(04:32):
good mood. She was fine.She had been playing with the dog.
Her and the dog were sharing stringcheese, They were sharing popsicles. Me
and her were watching squid Billies together. Let me ask you who lives in
the house with you, Me andSydney and my daughter Dakota. Okay,
and was Dakota at home. Duringthe Dakota had stayed the night at her
(04:55):
boyfriend's house, Chad Bennett. Thoughhe lives with his grandparents out in Charlotte
Hills, Dakota was out with herboyfriend Chad, so it was just Sydney
and Tracy at the house. Well, Tracy was on the family computer.
Sydney played with her dog, sharinga popsicle in a cup. So her
(05:16):
and the dog are both thrinking outof this cup. Whatever they do.
I know it sounds disgusting, butthey those two do it all the time.
She had wrecked her bike on Saturday, because it was like seven thirty
Saturday night before I even ran toeven come and pick me up. She
had wrecked her bike on Saturday andhad stretched up her legs and hurt the
(05:40):
palm of her hand. I mean, and it was just that palm of
her hand was just really bad.She was mad because she wrecked her bike
and because her friends weren't home thatwas supposed to be home because they were
supposed to go camping, and thefriends of her that was on a Saturday
night, shoes that was that wasSaturday evening. Sidney was upset with her
(06:03):
friend. But this wasn't unusual.Sidney was played with emotional problems. She
lived for druma and most people didn'twant it. They knew the things that
she had done in the past,you know, they just they didn't want
to deal with this. She wasshe was, She was a load.
(06:23):
I mean she it was a lotjust to be your friend. And she'd
have friends for very short periods oftime and then the next thing, you
know, I never see or hearfrom him again. And she I was
like, so, whatever happened toso and so? Oh, well they
did this and piss me off orblah blah blah. They said this about
me or said that about me.It was always somebody else's cult. She's
(06:44):
a teenager, first of all,and second, well, she's bipolar.
Sidney was a moody, sensitive teenager, and this was exacerbated by her bipolar
disorder. Sydney's mental illness was finallytaken seriously after found her in the laundry
room of their house with a ropearound her neck. She was trying to
(07:06):
hang herself. Sydney was hospitalized andher whole life changed. Tracy was scared
to leave her alone after that.Things had gotten really bad again, which
resulted in Tracy having to install alock on her own bedroom door. Sydney
threatened to kill me and was hospitalizedfor that. About two years ago.
(07:31):
She'd made threats that she had aplan one night that she was going to
slit my throat and then go aroundherself in the bathtub. Who was going
to help her? She was goingto do it all by herself. Apparently.
Sydney also ran away from home often, but she was always found.
She'd be spotted or one of herfriends would call Tracy. This time things
(07:56):
were different. It had been aweek plus. Sidney left her purse in
her bedroom when she vanished, andnone of her shoes were missing. That
didn't make sense. So you're sayingshe went barefully. Yeah, and I
told the police this. I triedto tell them something was wrong. They
would not listen to me. Yeah. What's her status with her cell phone
(08:18):
during this time frame? Where youletting her use her cell phone at all?
Or she Sidney does not have ase It's all gone. No,
it is all gone. Back inMay, she got suspended from school,
and the end of April I hadsurgery and she got suspended from school.
I took her cell phone away fromher because she got suspended from school.
(08:39):
Sydney had been in some trouble lately. Dakota and Sydney weren't getting along.
Tracy was chalking it all up tothe fact that she had two teenage girls
under one roof. After finishing upon the computer, Tracy decided to go
to bed. I shall watch along one have been. I said,
you know, I'll see you later. She says, do you have to
(09:01):
work in the morning, And Isaid yeah, and she said okay,
And I said good night, loveyou and she said good night, love
you too. No time you think. That was about eleven thirty courter till
somewhere right in there. The reasonsI can remember that she said love you
too is because nine times out often she hates me because I'm mom.
(09:26):
She don't like my rules, shedon't like anything. So when she says
love you, you know I cansay it, and there's like she will
not answer me. So these timesshe answered me. So that's how I
know she was in a decent mood. Sydney was happy the night before she
vanished. That's what was so odd. Whenever Sidney disappeared in the past,
(09:48):
she had been building up to amanic episode. Everyone could tell something was
about to implode. This time,Sydney was calm. The next morning,
she was gone, you know something, something's wrong, and I've been telling
the police all week long. Somethingwith all of this is not right.
(10:11):
I haven't I haven't stayed at myI stayed at my house Monday night and
Tuesday night, but since then thereI feel like I'm being watched, and
Dakota gets the same feeling. Ifeel like I'm being watched. There's something
creepy about my house, and neitherone of us will go in there without
each other or somebody else. Whydo you think there's something? I just
(10:33):
it's just something I don't know.It's just a gut feeling that something's wrong.
Another thing Dakota found on her vanity, which is by her bed on
the other side of the room.She found the stuff on her vanity had
been knocked over. Dakota just pickedall that up and just kind of sat
(10:54):
it back up because it's not avery sturvy vanity and it wouldn't take a
whole lot to bump it. It'sjust that real. Then when did she
find that that was Monday evening whenme and her word woking through Sydney's room
trying to figure out if something wasmissing her and is there anything that you
could think of who her, ifsomebody body in particular. I just said,
(11:15):
I know she doesn't have a lotof friends. I know she's made
a lot of people mad. Iknow she was into drugs. Who would
she have made really mad or orbeen involved with drug wise it would have
I would want to do something toher. I don't really know. But
the reason Tracy was at the policestation was because that morning they had found
(11:37):
a body. Two men had beenfishing in the local river and spotted something
floating in the creek. When thepolice arrived, they pulled up the body
of a young woman. She waswater logged and banged up. She was
unrecognizable. The body had ratchet strapstied around her waist at one end,
(12:03):
and it was tied to a cinderblock on the other. Whoever this was
had suffered multiple bullet wounds to thehead. The only identifying factor on the
body was a piece of jewelry.The dead girl wore a silver necklace with
a little musical note charm h you'regoing to try to identify this person who
(12:24):
found we host not your dollar.I the detectives pushed a photograph toward Tracy
of the silver music note necklace.We got something you were seeing that before
Weber machine. That was That's whyI forgot all about that. That's something
(12:50):
she just recent and I think youknow which crown? L Oh No,
what was that on? I hadseen her wear that, but I hadn't.
(13:13):
I hadn't really paid attention whether ornot she has been wearing it light.
I don't work it was it ona necklace? What kind of necklace?
Apply? Then the girl was Sydney. The fifteen year old had been
(13:33):
shot in the head, then tiedto a cinder block and thrown in the
river. But who on earth,in this tiny, close knit town would
want to kill Sydney. Fifteen yearold Sydney Stevens had been found shot dead
(14:24):
in a creek and tied down inthe water. The teenager had a history
of mental illness and running away.Sydney's mom, Tracy, had reported the
troubled teen missing a week prior andtold police that Sydney had a long history
of running away in suicide attempts andthat she was also bipolar. Sydney had
lost a lot of friends over theyears and had dated some boys in town,
(14:48):
but her mother couldn't think of anyonewho would want to kill her.
Starting from the inside and working theirway out, the detectives soon brought in
Sydney her seventeen year old Dakota forquestioning. They were only two years apart
and hung out in the same socialcircles. Though they didn't always get along,
(15:11):
Dakota knew her sister, maybe shecould shine a light on her social
life. Can you tell me aboutyour on Sydney's relationship. Well, we
got along great till puberty. Thenit was the don't touch my stuff,
I hate you fall of this year'skind of thing, typical teenage sister.
(15:31):
Yeah, things, but like,we got along great unless I was on
my period she was on her period. Then we absolutely did not want to
be around each other. Sure,but other than that we got along great,
unless she was trying to take mystuff when we were providing about chores
or something. Though the sisters bothloved emo music, punk bands and dressed
like your typical small town teenage gothchicks, Dakota and Sydney were very different
(15:56):
people. Dakota, is you seeher room? There's yeah, there's dust
bunnies all over the place, buteverything is lined up, everything is organized.
Dakota is OCD and she knows youcould go in and move something to
a quarter of an inch and she'sgonna walk in immediately know that there's something
wrong in that room. So let'stalk about Sydney and her disappearing. Her
(16:18):
disappearance is what everybody originally thought itwas. Where were you when you were
notified of her disappearance? Boyfriend's house? And who's your boyfriend? Chad Bennett?
Okay, does he live here intown? Where's he live at?
I don't know it's address, butit's the same little subdivision that plum one
lives. Okay, who called you? Text to Chad and said, how
(16:44):
did you go to call him?When she makes upthing? He looked up
and said, follow your morman anuts And she asked by her sidneys or
anything wrong? But no, shesaid, Okay. I was like why
she's like, Sydney's missing again.I can't find her. And I texted
all my friends and said, Sydney'smissing again. If you see her or
know anyone that gets contact with her. Just call me in my mom.
That's why Dakota said she wasn't superconcerned. Sydney had gone missing many times.
(17:08):
In fact, she'd run away justlast summer, but was found hiding
in the woods when she rated herselfout to a boy she had a crush
on. Dakota said that on thenight Sidney disappeared, she came home briefly
with her boyfriend Chad. She onlysaw Sydney for a minute in the kitchen.
(17:30):
Oh, in the kitchen one timeto make food. All she said
was why are you putting that ina microwave? Okay? And other than
that, she was just Sydney.And when you were there from eleven eleven
thirty to three three thirty, didyou stay there at the house the entire
time? Yeah? Did you evergo outside in the yard anything like that?
(17:52):
Do you smoke? No? Okay? Does Chad smoke? Yeah?
Oh? Did you go outside forhim to have a cigarette? Anything like
that? Smoked in because we didn'tsmoke in the house. Now they going
home, didn't care anymore, SoDakota and Chad left and went to meet
some of their friends at Buffalo WildWings for dinner. Then they went out
and did whatever dumb things teenagers do. Dakota slept over at Chad's house.
(18:18):
The next morning, Sydney and Dakota'smom, Tracy, called her daughter to
tell her that Sidney was missing.And you call your mom and like you
said, you know, Sydney's gone. M So what time do you go
back to your house? I thinkhis grandma dropped me off about noon.
Chad leash worked about one. Takesthem a little over an hour to get
(18:41):
ready. And I think she tookme and hand in my house at noon
because he went with us, droppedme off. Where's Chad work? Giltstairs
and Chester? Chad and Dakota hadbeen dating for a while now, and
things were as serious as serious gutsand teenage land. Dakota was obsessed with
(19:02):
Chad. He was her entire world. Tracy was not happy about any of
this. Chad wasn't exactly the kindof guy you wanted your daughter to be
dating. A guy named Chad neveris right here. He was thuggish,
moody, he was a troublemaker,and if that wasn't bad enough, he
(19:26):
ran his own gang called the PeeTown Saints. So what's the deal with
this? Explain this gang to methat they're all in I have no clue.
I find it stupid. And Itold him that it's stupid because if
you're gonna live in the down thefive thousand people where the majority of the
people a prisoners, you don't havea gang. Right. We forgot to
(19:47):
mention that about Pinckneyville. Even thoughthe town has about five thousand people,
twenty two hundred of those residents areactually inmates at a prison, but they
by themselves as a gang. I'mnot quite sure. I think something happened
with the cops and the cops startedcalling it a game. I don't remember
(20:10):
really, Well, what uh,why would you think the cops would classify
it as a gang? Because atfirst one I understood of it, it
was just a whole bunch of friendsthat had each other's back, and it
was just how any other friends thatare. And then someone told the cops
they were spray painting and getting illegalweapons and illegal drugs. And then the
(20:34):
cops started saying that they were agang after they talked to them, and
now it's they thought, okay,well, who's the original gangsters? The
only ones I knew them were hadCarl James, Nathan, and Billy.
Dakota was playing it down, butthe Petown Saints took themselves very seriously.
(20:57):
Dakota had become the queen bee oftheir little crew right after she and Chad
became official. What an honor.See, every one of them know that
if me and Chat are together andthey call, and then if I say
no, that's how it goes untilit goes, including because I'm Chad's girlfriend
and I don't want him hanging outwith someone, or if it's just supposed
(21:19):
to be me and him, ifthey have a problem with that, they
can take it up with me andthen they So you know what that's telling
me? You're the head girl inthe gang. Dakota had become instantly cool
when she started dating Chad. That'swhat happens when you start dating at Chad,
you become instantly cool. Didn't you, ladies know that she was someone
(21:41):
now to be feared and revered.You can be too, ladies. Just
go find yourself a Chad. Checkthe phone book. If y'all still know
what that is, I guess.But Dakota wasn't always a cool girl.
When she was little, Dakota wasextremely strange Tracy reported that for an entire
(22:06):
year when she was in grade school, Dakota was convinced that she was a
dog and insisted that everyone treat herlike a pet. She didn't speak,
She just barked, what is itdog kin or canine kin? Animal kin?
These degenerate furries will stop at nothing. I'll tell you. After about
(22:29):
a year of this nonsense, shestopped and went back to being herself again.
As Dakota grew into a teenager,she became moody and gravitated towards emo
and punk. She was obsessed withKurt Cobain and Twilight Brooks whatever that is.
Sydney really looked up to her bigsister. She wanted to be just
(22:56):
like her. About Chad, howwas his relationship with Sydney? Where did
you always pick up? He didn'tlike Sydney a whole lot kind of.
I mean, he tolerated her becauseit was his girlfriend, Dakota's little sister.
You know, she never really therewas just one or two times that
(23:22):
I can remember that they ever evenlike went together somewhere, like if Dakota
was going. I don't think Sydneyever went alone with Chad anywhere for she
liked him, but as far ashim liking, I mean her that he
(23:44):
didn't really care for. Sydney wasdifferent because of her being bipolar, and
she would Sidney was all about drama, and Chad seemed that he didn't want
a lot to do with the drama. And I think I think more than
(24:06):
anything, she just kind of goton his nerves. Tracy admitted that Chad
and Dakota would be annoyed if sheasked them to keep an eye on Sydney.
But the only thing that I think, what I was going to say
earlier is the only thing that Icould think of that Chad why he wouldn't
like her, Because with Sydney beingbipolar, there were times like whenever I'd
go to work, or if Ihad plans to go and do something or
(24:27):
whatever, Dakota wasn't able to goand do what she wanted to do because
I would have to have her staywith Sydney. Not all the time.
There was dependent on how Sydney's moodwas and how she'd acted days before as
to whether or not I would leaveher by herself or if I would make
sure that Dakota was with her.Then the police got a hold of Chad,
(24:52):
So I understand her Dakoe's voice,und was it right? Yeah?
And how long have you had Dakotabeen together? On the twentieth of this
month, it'll be year and ahalf. Okay, So you've been around
Sydney for a little while during thattime frame. Yes, sir, I
didn't really talk to her too much. I mean that's just every now and
then we'd have little conversations like saying, my old lady was in the shower,
(25:15):
you know, something like that.So did you and Dakota ever hang
out with her and her boyfriends oranything? You guys never went to places
together or anything like that. No, she was really jealous of me and
Dakota like what we had because we'velasted for so long, and her boyfriends
the last for maybe a week ifthat. Chad claimed that Sidney would go
(25:37):
through boyfriends quickly and that he didn'treally know any of them except that time
she dated his good friend Carl Daneus, who was her boyfriend that she'd been
seeing over the last four or fiveor six months. Anybody in particular,
Well, I know she was withmy body Carl for maybe two weeks.
Carl, Carl dan yeah, becausethey were together for a little bit,
(26:03):
like I said, maybe two twoand a half weeks, you know.
But I know as soon as herand Carl broke up, she got real
mad at him because he's the onethat lent Turkish she did whatever? And
at what time frame they had beenin without happened with Carl where their own
before Sharan went the first time,The police decided they should get in touch
(26:26):
with Carl Dane see if he knewanything about what happened to Sydney. But
before they reached him, they gota call from Sydney's older brother, who
said that when he ran into Carla day prior, Carl had told him
that he witnessed Sydney's murder. CarlDane was a greasy teenager with a shaggy
(26:48):
mushroom cut and a red goat tee. The cops were familiar with Carl Dane.
He had been arrested for minor chargesover the year or is, mostly
drugs and stealing, so they broughthim in for you know, a little
chat. We don't know what youknow about what I happened to see.
I don't know did you talk toanybody last night? I said? Did
(27:15):
you talk to anybody about Sydney's familyrecently? I turned to her brother yesterday
of the Donald's. Okay, Andwhat did you tell her brother yesterday?
Mc donalds? Nothing? Really?He was asking if I knew anything,
and I said I didn't. Soyou didn't tell her brother that you witnessed
(27:37):
the whole thing? You're sure aboutthat? Yeah, I didn't tell him
that. I didn't tell him that. What did you tell him? I
told them I didn't know anything aboutit? Well, I mean, I
don't think that's pretty far off fromI mean, go see. Statements are
just complete opposite, aren't they.So how can anybody make a mistake about
(27:59):
what what you said? I don'tknow. So did he get mad at
you after you talked to him?You seem pretty pissed while I was talking.
Why did you seem so pissed?It's it's his sister that all this
shit happened too. I'll be pastedif something having my sister too. Cross
story was suspicious and he was actingsweaty and strange. She seemed pretty nervous.
(28:23):
Is there any particular reason when you'renervous? I'm not really no,
I don't really like being in caupstations. Did you use today, Sydney?
Yeah, when late March, earlyAirpril? How long about week?
One week? Why did it inso quick? Well, she got mad
(28:45):
one day because I didn't take herfishing and she just left, you know.
So I went up to school nextday and I'm like, if Wena
act like, hey, you know, we're done. So you broke up
with her and she didn't break upa youth, Yeah, basically, So
if you ever make any says somebody, anybody about being mad at Sydney,
(29:07):
I was mad at her for alittle bit, but I got over it.
Why were you mad at her?Since you broke up with her?
Just the way she acted when wealready had which was how she didn't get
it where she got mad. Carlsaid that he and Sydney only dated for
a week or so and that theydid normal couple stuff. The relationship wasn't
(29:29):
that big of a deal. Wheredid you and Sydney go? Since you
were dating at the time? Setup at the park? You know,
when I city Lake, No,I'm out at her house. The longer
the detectives talked to Carl, themore they realized he was just a nervous,
lying teenager, You remember where youwere on Sunday ninety was a hay
(29:53):
teeth. I was sitting at home. It's a pretty quick cancer. How
do you know where you were thatlong ago? I just remembered, you
know, I remember what I'm doing, you know everyone once in a while.
Carl claimed he was home with hisfriend James Glazier. Nothing happened,
they just hung out. Carl wovea story as he nervously tapped his toe
(30:18):
and stuttered, what did you hearabout what happened to her? About her
missing Monday afternoon, this last Mondayor money before before. I had to
find that out, Chad. Andhe's like, you know, Sidney missing,
(30:41):
and what did you find out thatSidney was? Sydney was dead just
a couple of days ago. Youknow it was on news. Nobody told
you. You just saw it onthe news. Nobody's talking about it since
then. Really. After the interview, detectives took Karl back to his grandfather's
(31:06):
house, where he'd been living fora while. When they walked onto the
property, the police were taken throughthe garage and spotted something jarring. A
pile of cinder blocks and the sameorange ratchet straps, the exact same two
things that had been tied to Sydney'sdead body in the creek. They immediately
(31:33):
arrested Carl and took him back tothe station before they even read him his
rights again. Carl said this allright, they were just tell me in
there, man, Okay, man, you can tell me how years of
people looking at a fause guy?What's that? Wait to tell you?
(31:56):
Hears other looking at a fause guyif he was a guy? Well,
you're the guy, you mean.We'll talk about that. Let him come
in. We'll talk about it alltogether. Okay, show me how you
confess to a murder without actually confessingto a murder. That's how. What
is it you need to tell usI personally killed her? You were the
person that killed Sidney Steve Sidney Stevens. And how did you do that?
(32:22):
Oh? Well, neither of thedoors were unlocked, so I climbed up
on the porch. That door wasunlost, So I walked down there.
Uh you're talking about Sidney Town,Okay, walked downstairs where she really was
(32:43):
at. Yeah, she was therethat night, so I woke her up,
told her, hey, let's go. She didn't want to, So
I choked her out and in thecar? Who's car? My car?
Carl spoke quietly as he confessed tokidnapping Sydney out of her bedroom that Saturday
(33:04):
night and stuffing her into his car. When you say you choked her out,
what do you mean by that?So passed out with your hands,
and she didn't try to struggle oranything. She tried, didn't scratch,
you didn't do nothing like that.You're shaking your head. No, no,
she didn't. So who else wasin the car? Nobody? Okay?
(33:30):
So did you try to restrain heranyway? Put her in the trunk
to the bridge, shot her acouple of times, pushed her off?
What car were you in? ThePontiac? Is your grandpa's plan at?
Did you shoot her while she wasin the car? Where did you shoot
her atten? I'm not really prettysure. I didn't see where bulls And
(33:52):
where was she at the bridge?Was she passed out there or was she
awake? She was passed out?Was she still breathing? I did see
it didn't sting like it. Carlsaid that after he shot Sydney and threw
her off the bridge, he wentback a few days later with that ratchet
strap and the cinder block so hecould tie it to her and keep her
(34:15):
under the water. And how manytimes did you shoot? I shot four
times. I don't know how manytimes I hit? Shot four times?
With what twenty two pistol? Where'sthat pistol at bottom of the lake?
What? Like? I'm I'm toosure it's somewhere apparent it? Could you
show it? Show us? Ireally can't remember where it's at. I
(34:40):
went on and got it, frummy player, Okay, where did you
get the twenty two pistol? Foundit? Well? I know you didn't
find any. But what did thatpistol look like? It looks like a
old time luker? What is it? Ruy Ruger? Twenty two? While
(35:06):
a Sundays you decided to do thisat this point? What what triggered it?
Did you say you're somewhere or something? Or I don't really know.
I just heard she was a snitch? Okay? And is there something she
snitch on you about? Nothing Ican think about friends. Who's your friend
James? James, the one thatwe talked about being a pot dealer earlier?
(35:29):
What was his last name? PleaserCarl's story wasn't adding up. It
would have been very tough for himto handle this operation all on his own.
Not impossible, but it's unlikely.Plus, by his own admission,
Carl dated Sydney for a week beforethey broke up. That's not much of
(35:51):
a motive to murder someone, evenfor teenagers. The cops knew Karl was
a part of the pe Town Saintswhen they brought in James Glazier, they
found out he was also in thegang. James, I know at one
time he was part of a gang. Right, what's the name of that
(36:12):
gang? Petown states? Are youstill part of that gang? Yes,
you are still part of that gang? And what's your affiliation with the gang?
I am the head of the DoDand demand. With his childlike speech
impediment, James seemed years younger thanhe actually was. I mean he sounded
(36:34):
like about twelve and not seventeen.But in the grand scheme of things,
these boys were all still kids.Their brains were not fully developed yet,
and here they were at the policestation being questioned about a murder. That's
some great parenting, guys. Jamestook his duty as heads of the p
(37:00):
Town Saints very seriously, and toldthe cops the basic rules of the gang.
We don't hit women, we don'tlie to each other, we don't
steal from each other, and we'llalways by each other's side, no matter
what you said, your third incommand. Here's the two ahead of you,
Colin Jed Carl, who dang?See, how do you mean he's
(37:24):
ahead of you? He's second incommand? Okay? And what's his title?
Second command? What's his duties?He's one high of me, so
he makes sure I do my duties. I'm keeping everybody else. And here's
this other guy you're talking about,Jad Benner, and what's the O G.
(37:49):
And he's top original gamest. Jamessaid he was at Carl's house the
night that Sidney disappeared. In fact, James had been living at Carl's grandpa's
house for weeks. Now that thecops had Carl's confession, they knew that
James was wrapped up in this too. To my knowledge, your name has
(38:12):
been brought up, and now you'regonna be charging. You're not going to
leave here. That's not the timeto play games. The game, so
else the time for the truth.If you want to talk to us,
we're more than happy to talk toyou to get to the bottom of it,
because that little girl did not deservewhat happened to her. I know
what you're talking about. I didn'twant to know. One the people that
was there with you said you wasthere and used in on it. I
(38:36):
didn't do anything. I wasn't Nowell, I was at Carl's. He was
with Carl. You know where Carlis. No, I think he does,
moms. No, he's sitting backhere. He is in jail for
what you think he is charged with? First he said he did with first
degree murder. Would he do itwhen you was with it? When you
(39:00):
was with him? He said youwas, and he said here, said
he was with him the whole time. Yeah, for the last three weeks
you've been with me. He lefthis sight. Everything he's done, you've
done. That's when James asked tostop and have an attorney present. The
cops agreed and left the room.After a while, they came back and
James changed his mind. He didn'twant a lawyer. He was willing to
(39:23):
talk. He just wanted his momthere with him, so they brought her
into the room. Oh you don'twant to you need to? I think
No, matter what. You knowwhat, she didn't need to talk with
the cops. And I think that'sthe only say to keep Carl from hurting
you. Okay, okay, James, So you want to talk to us
(39:47):
now, right? Is the anylike I do? But he's scary,
James, there's no you can't.You know what the word to equivocate means.
No, Well, there's no,there's no compromise, okay. In
other words, you either want totalk to us or you don't want to
talk to us. Okay, I'lltalk talk. He's in jail. He
(40:10):
can't help me. He's in jail. Okay, he's on his lation.
James confessed everything. Carl hadn't donethis alone, and there was another boy
there from the gang, Robbie Mueller. They all drove to Sydney's house in
Carl's grandpa's car. Literal children murderingother children. He told us on the
(40:38):
way what he is doing, andhe said, if we have a talk,
we were dead. Okay. Whatdid he say? He told you
what we were going to do.What did he say? He told us
that we were this takes in thekill. He told us we will go
in to you, and he hadhis pants a twenty two pistol and if
we didn't cooperate, he would shootus on the spot. When they got
(41:00):
to Sydney's house, James and Carlsnuck in together while Robbie waited outside as
the lookout. Do you know whatI mean? He told me to wake
her up and the table RUPs.I tried, tried to run and scream.
What kind of tape do you have? I had very little, like
white tape, yes, okay?And then what happened? You have those
(41:21):
some Tracy that wake up together?Tracy woke up cold and shot. I
wanted he killed Tracy? How didyou know that that Carl was gonna shoot
Tracy? And she told us beforewe walked in, and he said,
no, leave, no witnesses.James tried to get Sidney to come with
them, but she fought this wouldbe quiet. She started walking and I
taped her hands up so told meto and I started taking my mouth.
(41:44):
When she read it and saw yourmom, I had to stop, but
glad anyone, Tracy died. That'swhen James and Robbie tackled Sidney and choked
her until she passed out. ThenRobbie and Carl dragged her out the door
while James pulled the car around.They shoved Sydney's limp body inside and Carl
(42:04):
took over in the driver's seat.And then we got back in the call
and Carl told us that if wewould talk he made this clip, he
would kill us on the spot.He did. Where'd you guys go?
We went down to almost a cutchtown down by the bridge. I closed
my eyes. Robbie toned around andcalled put like full shots. I hold.
(42:29):
Carl shot Sidney and then gave hisinstructions. He pointed to you know
what, me and Robbie told usto put your rig and we did.
He told me to kick right hereand told Robbie push right here, and
when I did, the whole bodywent with the head. James and Robbie
kicked Sidney's lifeless body through the railsand she tumbled down into the water with
a splash. The boys got inthe car and left. So then when
(42:54):
you get it went back buried thegun and the clothes, or does that
you buried again? We buried itbehind the ship. One the ship calls
Draffles house. Do you know we'vegot the gun? Yeah, listen to
James's reaction here. He's truly shockedthat the cops found the gun they buried.
(43:19):
Teenagers can be so fucking shortsighted,literally stupid, yet they think they're
so much smarter than everyone else.Have you noticed after burying the gun,
they buried all the clothes they werewearing, along with their latex gloves,
(43:40):
and nobody will find those. Justlike Carl had confessed, they came back
a few days later and attached thecinder block and ratchet straps to Sydney's body.
I did not really feel like touchon the body, I was saying
anything, so I dis drapped,like right here or yeah, and throw
it in. Well, how didyou get to her? She was in
(44:00):
the water, She was underneath thebridge, and she flowed back up towards
to the land. The detectives wantedto know if Chad knew about this,
after all, he was their gangleader, the original gangsta. Since Chad's
the leader, one te you knowabout this, I think I'm pretty sure
(44:22):
he probably knows you knew. Idon't know if he was the one who
told Carla to do it. Oh, Carl told Chad he was doing it,
But I think Chad might have knew. I mean, I don't know
though, because Coda is Chad's girlfriend, right was there was there ever a
time that you go, You andCarl and Chad talked about this in front
(44:44):
of Dakota. She was sleeping onetime, and me and Cole will talk
about it. I don't know ifChad was paying attention. She was in
the back on shadwell, I thinkthey were sleeping. Menaul were talking about
it in the front now, meand Cole talking and Chad and Coda fact
and they both had eyes posed onso it was and Dakota, ah well,
(45:06):
Dakota had claimed she knew nothing aboutany of this, even though she
was the Queen of the Pe TownSaints. But then Tracy said something in
passing that stopped the detectives dead intheir tracks. Sydney wrote a lot of
things down, thoughts, feelings,things that were kind of weird in my
(45:27):
opinion. There had been rumors awhile back, and somewhere written down in
a notebook that Dakota come across.It said something about at one point in
time Sydney had slept with Chad.The Dakota played it off like she was
the most confident girl in the world. She was always a little skeptical of
(45:51):
Chad when it came to other girls. Do you ever look at social No,
Okay, yes, I was gonnasay, it's only to see we
text, but most of the timeit's just text messages for me. Okay,
did you look at his phone thatnight? No? When was the
When did you look at it lasttime? I looked at an over of
months since I looked at it,cause there's been I've heard sometimes that he
(46:15):
was cheating on me. So Iwas looking there was going to see anything,
and I never seen anything. Mm. But it was just people during
the start stuff. Sometimes people aren'tstarting stuff some people. Sometimes they just
don't know how to go about.Yeah, telling somebody that they know that
they like, that they care aboutthat. This guy could be a cree
bow and he's messing around on you. M I hope he was somewhat.
(46:39):
What would happen if he was messingaround on me, I'd be very very
very upset. Yeah. If Dakotaadmitted she would be very very very upset
if Chad cheated on her with anothergirl. How much rage would fill her
if she thought that girl was herown little sister? Sydney Stephens was a
(47:44):
troubled teen with bipolar disorder and ahistory of running away from home, but
this time she'd really gone missing.She was found dead in a creek,
and her ex boyfriend Carl Dane,along with his friends James Glazier and Robbie
Mueller, had admitted to kidnapping andmurdering Sydney. The boys all belonged to
(48:07):
a gang named the pe Town Saints, and the head of the gang,
Chad Bennett, also happened to beSidney's older sister's boyfriend. Carl, James,
and Robbie were all arrested for Sydney'smurder, but it was still unclear
as to who truly killed Sydney.James confess to choking Sidney until she passed
(48:31):
out, while Carl admitted to shootingher. However, if she was already
dead when Carl shot her, thenJames was the one who actually caused her
initial death, not Carl. Thepolice needed to figure this out, if
only for the benefit of the family. Sydney's sister, Dakota, and Chad
(48:54):
basically walked free. Dakota was arrestedbriefly for obstructing an investigation. But was
released. There was nothing concrete tyingthem to the murder other than the suspected
motive and their affiliation. Carl,James and Robbie didn't have any real motive
(49:15):
to murder Sydney either, other thanthe fact that they didn't like her.
But Dakota had a motive. Shethought Sydney had slept with Chad, and
she was sick of the fact thatshe had to babysit her sister's mental illness
all of the fucking time. WhileCarl, James and Robbie sat in jail,
(49:38):
Dakota and Chad went on living theirlives. They even talked about getting
married. Tracy was beside herself becauseChad got Dakota something for her birthday that
costs over eight hundred dollars and shethinks it's an engagement room. Dakota was
about to turn eighteen, and Tracyknew that her daughter would no longer be
(49:59):
under her legal guardianship. I'm hereto death that she's going to take off
and go Mary Chad in twelve thirteenmore days. Like the police, Tracy
also had a feeling that he wasbehind Sydney's murder plot, so Tracy asked
her boyfriend's daughter to try to talkwith Dakota, and I had text Laura
(50:22):
and a couple other family members askingthem to please talk to some senten to
her to not marry this jerk,basically because I've talked to her until I'm
purple in the face and it getsme nowhere. Well, Laura, instead
of calling to talk to her,actually came out to mine in Randy's house
this evening inside outside for a coupleof hours, actually, at least outside
(50:44):
with nobody else around. And shemore opened up to Laura than she has
with me or anything else. Shewould say things about Chad and how much
his involvement was, and Dakota wouldeither agree or disagree with what she was
saying. The cops got Laura onthe phone and she relayed what Dakota had
(51:07):
confessed. I said, but ifChad is so innocent, then let the
evidence proves that he's innocent and youhave nothing to worry about. I said,
but you're sitting here worried right now, so correct me if I'm wrong.
As she has kind of looked atand she started bawling, and I
(51:28):
said, you know more than peopleknow. You know, and I know
that, I said, and Ihave known that, and she just all
she do is kind of shake herhead yeah, shake her head yeah,
shake her head yeah. And Isaid, now you tell me, is
it fair You want to keep yourboyfriend but your mom didn't get to keep
(51:51):
her daughter. And I just kindof and it sounds horrible because I was
crying too. Honest to god,I do care about the girl, but
I just kind of kept and itsounds mean, but I just kept kind
of breaking her down and breaking herdown and breaking her down. And I
said, now, look, letme help you. I can help you.
I can help you have a future. You can go to college,
you can you know all the realityof things I said. Or you can
(52:15):
keep things the way they are andeither end up in prison because you look
like a liar because you're not talking, or end up in a mental institution
because it'll fester at you and thatyou'll lose your mind. Dakota was a
scared little girl pretending to be tough, so she told Laura she would talk
to the cops on her terms.She's like anti authority, seventeen year old
(52:39):
kid. She doesn't want it tobe an investor or an interrogation on her,
and I told her it wouldn't it'dbe polite questions being asked, Okay,
you know what about this? Youknow? And she it really needs
to be anonymous as possible because she'sscared. I think there's more than she
(53:00):
let on to me, because shedidn't say a whole lot, but she
would agree or disagree. There wasa lot more than Dakota led on,
and everyone was about to find out. In the fall of twenty twelve,
Robbie Mueller decided to give a proferstatement to police, clarifying who actually killed
Sidney that night and why they allplotted her murder. Maybe Robbie was trying
(53:25):
to save his own butt, butmaybe he was telling the truth. The
state needed to charge these kids.Sydney needed justice, and this would get
them one step closer. I wasby the door and they walked up to
her. James went to was totape on her mouth, and she took
(53:45):
it off and stood up, andI guess thought it was a joke because
she just like normal, and thenactuating was going on, and then Carl
had to get a point at her, and that's when she kind of flipped
out and James grabbed her and theywrestled to the ground and everything, and
(54:05):
Carl walked over towards me and stoodby me, and uh, she was
kind of out wrestling and everything,and Carl told me help them, and
I went over and I put herin a chokehold. Sure, and she
went unconscious. This is just sosick and vicious. These boys had a
(54:30):
rule in their gang no hitting women, yet kidnapping and choking a woman until
she passed out was somehow acceptable.Sorry to bring her outside, right,
I forgot the door. She wokeup again, she said, put her
in it again. I did,and we ended up stumbling over. I
(54:53):
guess where the fire was at orsomething like that, because I know I
tripped and fell on my back andJames ended up putting her choke hold and
kept it on her for quite along time. He put her in chropuli
in and held it for several minutes, and uh he stopped checked her poles
(55:15):
and there wasn't one. It mustbe three four minutes. I'm guessing.
According to Robbie, it was Jameswho killed Sidney with his chokehold. If
Sidney was dead when they put herin the car, then Carl's gunshots were
not murdered. Robbie also told thecops that the Pe Town Saints had some
(55:37):
rules everyone had to follow. Yeah, you're not supposed to talk to myself
with the phone. Uh, I'mnot supposed to stay with Sidney, which
I would. It was part ofthe game's rules. Or excuse me,
the Pe Town Saints rules. Youcouldn't talk to certain people, and one
(55:58):
of them was Sydney. Yeah,it was unclear as to who made this
rule, Dakota, Chad, orCarl, but it was a rule that
the gang had written down on paperand told every member to memorize and follow.
Robbie then said that he heard Chad, James and Carl planning Sydney's kidnapping
(56:20):
and murder. It was Carl,James and Chad as my Chad's truck,
and I went in and use thebathroom. When I came out, it
was staying by his truck and IThe only words I ever heard was tell
me when you want to do it, and I'll make sure Dakota leaves the
door locked. Did you hear thatI'll make sure Dakota leaves the door unlocked.
(56:42):
James, Carl, and Robbie wereall looking at life sentences. If
they could prove their involvement, Chadand Dakota could face the same. The
town was disgusted with this savage murder, and the state wanted these bullies to
pay. About a week after Robbie'sproffer statement, the cops had to Coda
(57:04):
back in to talk. Now,she had dyed pink hair and it was
cut short. She looked skinny andsickly as she sat down. Here's the
thing. Jessica tells us that youmade a statement about you knew that they
were going to try to scare cityand I murder. Jessica tells us that,
(57:30):
okay. Jessica also tells us thatyou unlocked the door for Cad,
the sliding glass door, remember onthe balcony. She said, you guys
talked about that. Now you rememberwhen I talked to you about that.
You never would admit to me thatyou unlocked the door for cat. Okay,
(57:53):
why would Jessica tell you did?Tell us she has nothing to the
game. She has nothing the game. She didn't because saying what is the
reason she's saying that is she's sayingthat you believed that this is supposed to
(58:13):
what you told her, is thatyou believe that they were going to come
and scare scared as of the sleepingdeal with Chad, with Sydney and Jed
possibly sleeping together. I hold,let me finish and then you can go.
Well. She was briefly locked up. Dakota confessed to her cellmate that
she had left the door unlocked sothe boys could scare Sydney, and she
(58:37):
did it because her sister had sleptwith Chad. She's saying, you did
it, something could come in andscare not to kill her. And you
know she's she's not adding to this, she's saying, you know if she
(58:58):
even says in her statement she toldme that if she knew that they were
going to kill her sister, thatshe wouldn't have done it. I mean,
that's too detail. This doesn't makesense with what you're saying. I
see. I don't remember telling herthat though. And this one here,
she says that you come in andtold how much you hated your sister and
(59:22):
was glad that she was gone.She asked me why I was in jail,
and I told her what it wasfor, and I said, well,
I think it's so I have alot to do with my mom and
she was like, well why,I was like, well, I was
like, my mom thinks that Iwanted my sister did because she was apparently
sleeping with my boyfriend. But Inever knew if it was true or not.
It's what I told her, Andthen she asked me if I believed
(59:44):
it. I told her I reallydidn't know, because I knew that she
had taught me too poor, ButI didn't think that Sydney would want to
do that to hurt me. Well, Dakota was whimpering to the officers.
Chad was down the hall and theywere about to arrest them. You think
Chad is going to protect anymore?Is it doing it to begin with?
Well, you know, I thinkChad was protecting itself at the beginning on
(01:00:08):
those interviews that we conducted with him, and I also think he was protecting
you. But what you have tounderstand is Chad isn't ready to be arrested
right now too. One of thesedays, was Chad gonna tell us that's
gonna hurt you down the road,And that's what she said then too.
(01:00:29):
But he may say something like that, but you know what, you're the
one that's here first, right nowwith us, and you're the one that
can make it right. First.You're the one that's you know, you're
the one that's been hurting this entireto You're the one is living with this
your entire So what is it?What is it? What do I need
(01:00:52):
to? What did he ask you? The police pressed Dakota for hours until
she finally cracked. It took twoyears, but she admitted to the truth.
What did you do to that door? Tell me, huh, what
(01:01:13):
did you do it? Okay,look at you. Take your hands away
in your mouth and look at me. What you do and you unlocked the
door? I don't want to bepost to clear on something about this door.
Okay, you're telling the truth whenyou say that you have left it
(01:01:36):
unlocked, which I had asked youto. Is that right? And that's
the only reason you're telling, saysbecause it's the truth. I don't want
it to be because that's what we'vebeen talking about the whole time. Is
it the truth or not? Thep town Saints had planned Sydney's kidnapping and
murder together. Dakota was aware.Even though she didn't know everything, She
(01:02:01):
unlocked the door so they could executetheir plan. James strangled Sidney until she
was dead. Carl drove the carand shot Sydney. Robbie was forced to
go along at gunpoint. All theboys together rolled Sydney into the creek and
tied her down with a cinder blockand Chad. Chad allegedly provided the guns.
(01:02:30):
Chad organized the plan, Chad motivatedhis crew, but Chad kept his
hands clean. He was the ogafter all, he didn't have to get
his hands dirty. He just hadto point his finger and say go.
Fifteen year old Robbie Mueller took areduced sentence for his proffer statement. He
(01:02:53):
was originally given twenty six years,but after some complications with his lawyer,
the appeal, and a heartfelt courtdate where he received Tracy Stevens forgiveness,
he was given a lighter sentence.He will be out this year. James
Glazier got sixty years. Carl Danepleaded guilty to murder and was given sixty
(01:03:19):
years as well, but the daybefore he was supposed to be transported to
the prison, he hung himself ina cell. Chad Bennett was initially arrested
for kidnapping, home invasion and firstdegree murder, but in twenty thirteen,
all the charges were dropped. TheDA filed a nole prosequi, which means
(01:03:43):
he did not wish to prosecute thecase at the time. The reason there
weren't any witnesses to testify. Allthe living Petown Saints as well as Dakota
refused to testify against their precious leader, even though they were offered immunity.
Dakoto Wall was given twenty six yearson the home invasion charge. She is
(01:04:09):
now out of prison and living herlife. Judging by her Facebook page,
she seems to be doing just greatand by the looks of it, she's
even got a new boyfriend. SidneyStevens may have been a pain in the
butt little sister who required as muchattention as the next needy teenager, But
(01:04:30):
that was Sidney. She was fifteen. What fifteen year old is in a
bit annoying, moody and headstrong.She had an unstable upbringing and a lot
of severe mental issues. What Sydneyneeded was love from her family so she
(01:04:51):
would know that there was more tolife than this sad little cycle she was
stuck in. Instead, she gota neglected, rejected by her big sister
and left downstairs in the basement.Sydney would likely have grown up and matured
into a decent young woman. Maybeshe would have found therapy and tackled her
(01:05:15):
demons had on maybe not. We'reall imperfect, may all have our own
problems. The point isn't what Sydneycould have become. The point is but
she never got the chance to tryto become because of her own sister and
(01:05:38):
four displaced, dysfunctional boys who decidedto try to prove to each other just
how tough they all really were bykilling a defenseless teenage girl. The p
Town Saints were a bunch of childrenplaying gangster. Now one of them is
(01:06:00):
and the other will be in jailuntil he dies, and Chad Well,
Chad finally got his in twenty eighteen. He pleaded guilty to the home invasion
charge in order to avoid the firstdegree murder. He was sentenced to twenty
years in prison. Speaking of years, it took eight of them, but
(01:06:24):
justice was finally served. Rest inpeace, Sydney. He didn't find love
in this world, but maybe you'llfind peace in the next. Well,
(01:07:11):
that's gonna wrap it up here.Thank you for joining us once again.
If you haven't heard it yet,check out Certain Scale Nightmares. It's available
now for free on Spotify, Apple, all the things, and you might
like it. And there's like thirtyepisodes now, so go check it out
and stay safe. Hey, greatshow. Calling to Wayne on the figure
(01:08:08):
figure debate. So, I meangive a little background. I watched a
lot of Formula one, Moto Jookand The Space Out of Europe and all
the commentators are English and they sayfigure, So I'm pretty sure they invented
the English language. So I thinkyou went on the format time time,
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