June 16, 2025 • 27 mins
Join C.J., host of Rainbow Crimes for the murder of young trans man Jacob Williamson.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Do you find yourself bored to work while eating your lunch?
Do you watch the clock waiting for work to be
over as you're sitting in meetings? Do you find your
boss's voice sounding like a howling banshee? Then don't wait
another minute. Tune into the Paranormal Peace Podcast. We are
ready to entertain you. Darkcast Network. Out of the shadows
come the Best of Indie podcast. I'm Crystal, and you
(00:23):
are listening to be on the Rampo True Crimes of
the LGBTQ. Hey, if you're hearing this, you're probably a
repeat offender of listening to this show, so I don't
(00:45):
have to issue any content warnings. Welcome back, baby, your
fairy pod mother missed you. Hey, they're Rainbow Warriors. It's
me your host CJ. And I would love to see
you in Denver July twelfth through the fourteenth for the
(01:05):
True Crime Paranormal Festival. So many great podcasters slated to
be there from Darkcast Network, Me Autumn from Autumn's Oddities,
Tiffany from True Crime Connections, Gina and Amber from Weird
True Crime, Danaka and Shannon of Murder and Mimosas, and
Michelle and Scarlett and Missing Magnolia's. On top of that,
(01:30):
Sarah Turney from Voices of Justice, Murder She Told with
Kristen Seviee, True Crime, Bullshit with Josh, The Troil Went
Cold with Robin Water, and so many more, including some
paranormal podcasts. I promise if you go, you're gonna have
a blast.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
I think I'm gonna do a raffle at my booth
like I did at the festival in Austin last year.
So if you show up, make sure you drop by
my booth and get your name put in to win
a gift bag. It'll be filled with merch and fun
stuff from Darkcauts network shows. Plus, if you go to
buy tickets, type in Beyond b e Yond at check
(02:13):
out and you'll get fifteen percent off your tickets.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
I'll leave a link to the festival's website in my
show notes. Please consider joining me over on Patreon, where
for the price of a cup of coffee each month,
you can be one of the Elite. You'll get your
episodes early, there'll be no ads, Plus you'll get a
bonus episode at the end of each month. As we
(02:37):
write our trustee unicorns to a beautiful location and I
tell you a story that I haven't told on the
regular show. Here. I'll leave a link to my Patreon
account in the show notes as well. Should you feel
so inspired. You might have noticed the past two episodes,
I've had some Patreon Rainbow Warriors record a dark Cast
(02:58):
opening and Beyond the Rainbow SoundBite. I would like to
open the opportunity up for all Rainbow Warriors to be
part of the show. If this sounds like something you'd
like to do, please record the following or something close
to it. Darkcast Network, Out of the Shadows Come the
Best of Indie podcast. I'm then you'll insert your name
(03:21):
here and you're listening to Beyond the Rainbow True Crimes
of the LGBTQ. Plus. If you don't have fancy recording equipment,
that's okay. Your phone should work. Once you have your
bit recorded, please email me at Beyond the Rainbow pod
at gmail dot com. I'll get you played on an
(03:43):
upcoming episode, and once again, I'll leave a copy of
the script in the show notes. For those mothers out there,
I hope you all had a great Mother's Day and
you don't have to have given birth to be a mom.
You could be a mom to fur babies. You could
be a surrogate mom to someone who needed you. I'd
like to start our main case out by telling you
(04:05):
about a beautiful woman in Laurence, South Carolina. She's a
birth mom and she's somewhat of a surrogate mom to others.
She has a huge heart, and she's been there not
just for her three birth children, but for other children
who might have been tossed away by their blood related families.
This woman is named Promised Edwards, and she had even
(04:29):
opened her home to these tossaway kids. Eighteen year old
Jacob Williamson a transgender boy who was just trying to
find his way in the world after coming out his
trans His birth family booted him out of his own home.
The day after Jacob moved in with Promise. He said
to her, I'm trans, I go by he and him,
(04:52):
and I want to be called Jacob. Promise responded with okay,
I love you, Promise. He also spends much of her
free time passing out stickers and such to schools, churches,
and all throughout our local community. The stickers have QR codes.
When these codes are scanned, they take you to an
(05:14):
online list of LGBTQ plus resources throughout South Carolina. Promise,
who Jacob called Aunt Lulu, was childhood friends with Jacob's
birth mom, and she had known Jacob since he was
born and he was called by his dead name of Kirsten.
When Jacob had come out as trans and his late teens,
(05:36):
many of his family members were freaked out by it.
They didn't understand gender dysphoria and they were not accepting
Jacob for living his truth. Promise stepped in and welcomed
Jacob into her home with open arms, finally giving Jacob
a safe spot to feel loved, accepted for who he was,
and supported. Jacob had only been living with Promise for
(06:00):
about a month and a half, but during his time,
he got himself a job at the waffle house and
he was dabbling with the online dating scene. He finally
felt as if he was coming into his own and
life was beautiful. He was extremely happy with his first paycheck.
(06:21):
He bought himself a pair of headphones, a fidget spinner,
and a chest binder. Since he bought it online, he
kept talking about how excited he was for the chest
binder to arrive. Jacob's birth mom and even promised said
that Jacob was young for his age, although Jacob's birth
mom refused to call him by his preferred name or pronouns,
(06:44):
but the two women did agree that Jacob was more
like a fourteen year old than an eighteen year old.
He slept with a stuffed owl that he absolutely loved.
He'd belt out singing Christmas carols in the middle of summer,
and he'd much rather play in a mud puddle with
younger kids than sit on a porch having conversations with adults.
(07:08):
Jacob loved to draw, He loved playing video games and
watching anime. He chose his name from the Werewoof character
Jacob in the Towilight movies. Jacob was super friendly and
he'd make people notice them and talk to him. Although
Jacob was in the process of transitioning from his assigned
(07:29):
gender at birth, he was still attracted to men. And
I'd like to interject something here. Years ago, when I
first came out, I'd met several people who were trans
and they were attracted to the same gender that they
were transitioning to, and I just didn't get it. I thought, Damn,
(07:49):
you're born a woman, You're transitioning to be a man,
and yet you're attracted to men, why not just remain
a woman and save yourself the heartache of shit that's
society's going to put you through. I didn't understand that
gender identity and sexual identity are two entirely different things.
(08:11):
It became a good wake up call for me much
later in life when I learned the difference between gender
and sexual identities and you, guys, I swear, I know.
I say this a lot, but doing this podcast has
taught me so much, and it's really opened my mind
incredibly to all kinds of things I just didn't understand before.
(08:31):
I think it's because before I hadn't bothered to educate
myself on topics. I didn't know about it at the time.
The past five years have been truly eye opening in
a good way. I share that with you in hopes
that maybe some of you have taken the same journey
with me. I don't know. Maybe you were already woke
(08:52):
while I was sitting in a corner sleeping so as
I was saying, Jacob was in the process of transitioning
into a man, and he was attracted to men On
a social media site he'd been talking to and getting
to know a man that he was starting to have
feelings for. The two would even have hours long conversations
(09:14):
over the phone. They started to chat on gaming sites
and playing video games remotely together. The man is twenty
five year old Joshua Newton. He lived in Monroe, North Carolina,
which was about a two hour drive from Jacob. One
of their conversations was about an amusement park that straddles
(09:35):
the border of North and South Carolina. It's called Carowins.
Joshua was completely shocked that Jacob had never been to
this amusement park before. Joshua and Jacob made plans to
go together for a fun filled day of thrilling rides
and getting to know each other even better. June thirtieth,
(09:56):
twenty twenty three, Joshua drove to Lauren, South Carolina, to
pick Jacob up for their date to Cara Win's and
then they had planned to sleep over at Joshua's house afterwards.
Jacob couldn't be more excited. It was his very first
date ever. His surrogate mom, Promise, had an eerie feeling
(10:18):
about Jacob's date. She told Jacob that she wasn't really
comfortable with him going. What was really setting off red
flags for her was that a straight man would want
a date a female to male trans person. Her spidy
senses were so powerful she even contacted the manager of
(10:38):
waffle house and she asked him to change Jacob's schedule
so he couldn't go, but it was too late. Promise
had even spoke to a woman who claimed to be
Joshua's mother. That woman told Promise not to worry, she'd
be right next door. The whole time. Jacob assured Promise
everything was going to be fine, in that Joshua was
(11:00):
pan sexual and he'd been through a lot of the
same things that Jacob had been through. Jacob continued to
say that he and Joshua were like kindred spirits. Before
he left, Jacob shared his location with Promise on his phone,
and then he got into Joshua's car at their meeting
spot of the waffle house and drove away. The last
(11:23):
words Promise said to Jacob were I love you and
I'll see you tomorrow. At eleven thirty pm, Promise called
Jacob to see how his date was going. Jacob sounded
annoyed with her. She asked what they were doing, and
Jacob replied, Joshua is showing me the woods behind his house.
(11:45):
Red Flag, Red Flag. Red Flag was piercing through promises thoughts.
At that point is when she took a screenshot of
Jacob's location, and then she just hoped that she was
being a worry wart for nothing. She checked Jacob's location
at twelve thirteen am, but Jacob's phone had been shut off.
(12:07):
When Jacob didn't appear the following day, back at Promise's house,
she tried to find him on her phone app locator,
but to no avail. She still did have his last
location screenshotted a home on beth Page Lane in Monroe,
North Carolina. Promise could only guess this was where Jacob's
state Joshua lived, and she had no way of knowing
(12:31):
that Joshua did live here but with his twenty two
year old girlfriend, Victoria Smith, and that Victoria was most
likely the female voice she spoke to claiming to be
Joshua's mother. As the days went by with Jacob still missing,
Promise was frantic and she reported a missing to the police.
(12:53):
Promise was able to provide Jacob's last known location at
Joshua's home and what Joshua drove, a green Saturn she
began distributing flyers between Laurens, South Carolina and Monroe, North Carolina.
With the two towns being over one hundred miles apart.
(13:13):
Jacob could be anywhere. Promise, couldn't sleep, eat, and she
didn't even brush her teeth For the next several days,
she just continually prayed for his safety. Promise in Jacob's
birth father both drove to him and Rod a search
for Jacob. They slept in their respective cars in a
(13:34):
Walmart parking lot just so they didn't have to drive
back and forth to Laurens. Meanwhile, police interviewed Joshua a
couple of times from his home. His home was a
trailer on Bethpage Lane. Joshua had even posted one of
his first interviews with police on his Facebook account. What
(13:54):
a smug son of a bitch. Even with all the hoping,
wishing and praying for Jacob's safe return, Jacob was anything
but safe. His body was located off to the side
of a very remote road on July four, twenty twenty three.
Jacob had been stabbed to death. This was in Pageland,
(14:16):
South Carolina, which is just over the North Carolina border,
a few miles from Monroe, where Joshua and his girlfriend
Victoria lived. Joshua and Victoria paired themselves with gothic personas
on social media and on gaming websites. They had only
been together about a year, and they had moved in
(14:38):
together after a month of dating. Victoria's online name was
his Master and Joshua's was her Demon. The day after
Jacob's date and most likely his death, Joshua and Victoria
were live streaming their video game playing on live meapp.
(15:00):
Joshua was dancing around and yelling it was fun, it
was fun. Not long later, Joshua would be arrested for
first degree murder, and Victoria at first was only arrested
for obstruction of justice, but that was later rescinded and
she too was charged with first degree murder. It's being
(15:22):
said that this most likely was not a hate crime
due to Jacob's gender identity. And if that's so, then
what was the motive? What's an eighteen year old got
an eighteen year old that was booted out of their
home and had nothing but the clothes on their back
and just got a job at waffle house? What do
(15:42):
they have that's really of value to kill him over?
I can only think that if it's not a hate crime,
it must have been a thrill kill. And if Joshua
enjoyed it that much, just think how many other victims
that the two of them could have if they hadn't
been caught. No trial date has been set yet that
(16:05):
we know of. It should be soon, though, since this
all happened ten months ago. I hope to God these
evil shits get the maximum sentence allowed. Rest and power,
Jacob our True Crime Quickie. This episode comes to us
from Texas, although the victim was living in Arizona. This
(16:28):
is another one of those horrific crimes like that of
Jacob Williamson that makes absolutely no sense as to why
it had to happen. And you're probably thinking, Oh, CJ,
isn't that almost all murders? Yes, I s'pose you're right, Warriors. Okay,
let's start at the beginning, because that's always a good
(16:48):
place to start. Two childhood friends, Iez Santa Cruz and
Rosa Medina. I believe both girls grew up in Arizona.
They went to school together, they played together, and they
became the very best of friends together. In high school,
both girls played on the same basketball team. And they
(17:10):
were still the best of friends. It was during their
high school years where Rosa's feelings became much stronger than
merely friendship with Inez. Rosa was in love with Inez,
and everyone around them knew it, both their friends and
their family. So Anez and Rosa tried to have a
(17:30):
romantic relationship together through high school, but the romance just
wasn't working, and by the end of high school they
were back to just being friends again. And I shouldn't
say just friends, best friends like they were before being
intimate with one another. After high school, Inez enrolled in
(17:51):
the Navy. This is where she learned skills to help
her secure a great job afterwards as a surgical technician
at a hospital and Thezona Rosa had moved to San Antonio,
Texas to live with her grandmother. Both young women would
venture into relationships with other people. One of Rosa's other
(18:12):
relationships would result in her burying a couple children, and
although Rosa had other people in her life, she still
hung on to her obsessive love for Renez. If she
found out that Inez was dating someone else, she'd be
pissed off, but the two would still talk to each
other over the phone On a regular basis. In August
(18:34):
of twenty twelve, both women were twenty seven years old.
Rosa had told Inez that she was working as a
photographer and she had booked a gig to work shooting
a wedding, but she had a problem though she didn't
have anyone to watch her kids. And when she told
this Ty Inez over the phone, she then asked Inez
(18:54):
if she would come watch her kids. While she weren't
ines who would do anything for her friends, and with
Rosa being one of her oldest and dearest friends, said
of course she would come watch her kids. Inez arrived
at the San Antonio Airport the Friday of Labor Day
weekend at baggage claim. She was seen on surveillance camera
(19:17):
picking up her bag. As she does this, a man
is also seen there waiting for her. He's watching her.
His name is Troy Ryder and he's thirty eight years old.
Troy had been dating Rosa for about a month. He
introduces himself to Inez as Rosa's photography assistant. Troy then
(19:39):
takes Ainez's bag out to his truck and he says
that he'll be driving her to Rosa's photography shoot. The
two get in and Troy starts to drive. He drives
Inez about ninety minutes out of San Antonio to a
remote area called a hunting lease. A hunting lease is
basically a hu huge amount of acreage. It's like a
(20:02):
ranch and it's sectioned off and they leased the sections
out to hunters during hunting season. The area out there
kind of looks like a desert surrounded by mountain ranges
and there's really no residential sections anywhere nearby. On the ride,
Troy offered Inez and iced tea, which just so happened
(20:22):
to be Inez's very favorite drink. She had no idea
that Troy had smashed up some benzo diazepines in the drink.
Benzodiazepines are a drug that's used for treating anxiety and insomnia.
They're basically used to calm a nervous system and they
make the consumer of the drug drowsy and extremely relax
(20:45):
But Troy had put an awful lot into this iced tea.
Upon arriving at the trailer on the hunting grounds, Troy
was sure that he put enough drugs in the tea
to kill Inez. But Inez wasn't even a sleep. She
was just very drowsy and lethargic, so Troy helped her
(21:06):
into the trailer to rest, thinking she might die from
the drugs in the trailer. He then left to a
campsite that he and two of his buddies were staying
at on the grounds. This act established an alibi for him.
The following morning, Troy returned to the trailer to take
care of Inez's body, but surprise, Ez was still alive
(21:31):
and she was frantic to find a phone signal. Then
Troy promised he'd take her to find a signal. He
drove her to a different area on the property and
he told her to get out and climb up on
some rocks to get her signal. As Inez did this,
Troy shot her in the back of her head when
she fell to the ground. He then shot her a
(21:52):
second time, and he put a big black trash bag
over her head. He removed her clothes in the hopes
of making her murder appear as a Mexican cartel hit.
He later aside the road on some rocks, and he
left before his buddies could see what he was doing.
On September second, Troy's buddies came upon Inez's body as
(22:15):
they were out hunting They immediately returned to the camp
and one of them phoned nine to one one. The
dispatcher sent the Edwards County Sheriff and the Texas Rangers
out to the location. Law enforcement met all three men
Troy included at their camp site and they had the
men lead him to the body. Once the police were
(22:36):
on the scene, they had the three hunters return to
their camp and they told them to wait there until
they completed their investigation because they wanted to interview the
men after initially believing the murder of their Jane Doe
was a cartel hit, just what Troy wanted them to believe.
Within a week, police were able to identify their deceased body.
(22:59):
They learned that the woman was Inez Santa Cruz of Arizona.
Ines's family was able to tell them of Inez flying
to San Antonio to visit her childhood friend. Police were
also able to snag a copy of surveillance video from
the airport, and it showed Troy Ryder talking with and
leaving the airport with Inez. By September twelfth, twenty twelve,
(23:25):
Troy was arrested for the murder of Anez. Once apprehended,
Troy confessed to the murder, saying that Inez was just
a hitchhiker he picked up. At his trial, he pleaded
guilty and he received a sentence of seventy five years
of incarceration, but because he did plead guilty, he was
able to avoid the death penalty. For years after, law
(23:50):
enforcement felt that there was someone else involved in Inez's murder.
They believed it was her childhood friend that she was
going to see, but they just couldn't prove Rosa's involvement.
After all, Rosa did have an airtight alibi with photos included.
Rosa had taken her daughters to a concert the day
(24:11):
Inez was picked up by Troy, and I'm sure police
asked questions like, but you knew your friend was coming
to visit you, why weren't you at the airport to
pick her up, which Rosa probably explained away as she
thought Inez was coming. The following day, police examined Rosa's
phone and they kept it for evidence. It had seemed
(24:34):
to them that the messages had been deleted, but technology
in twenty twelve wasn't as good as today's technology, so
they were not able to recover the messages. Still, multiple
law enforcement agencies remained on the case and investigating Rosa.
In June of twenty nineteen, using new technology, police found
(24:58):
the missing messages they needed to pin Rosa to Inez's murder.
They found a text for Inez the day before she
went to San Antonio. The message said that she was
boarding the plane tomorrow and would see Rosa soon. On
Rosa's phone. They also discovered a number of Internet searches
(25:18):
for date rape, drugs and how to hide text messages.
And then, after reinterviewing Troy in prison, he spilled all
the tea about Rosa. Rosa had been the one to
ask him to murder Anez. Rosa told him that Inez
was blackmailing her for working in a strip club, and
(25:40):
then Rosa told him that if anyone else found out,
she could lose her kids. Rosa wanted Inez dead and
she didn't care how A year later, in June twenty twenty,
Rosa was arrested. She never admitted to anything, her charges
were reduced to manslaughter. At her trial in twenty twenty two,
(26:02):
she finally recanted, and she pleaded guilty to conspiracy to murder.
For that she received descendence of eighteen years. Inez's family
didn't want to face Rosa in court, but Iz's mom
had sent letters to Rosa asking why Rosa has never
responded because she's a cowardly bitch. Rest in power, Iez.
(26:28):
Remember if you'd like to do an intro recording, I'll
leave a script for you in the show notes, as
well as my email address. Love your Rainbow Warriors. You matter.
It's not a crime to live your truth. I'm not
sure a murderer it would s
Do you find yourself bored to work while eating your lunch?
Do you watch the clock waiting for work to be
over as you're sitting in meetings? Do you find your
boss's voice sounding like a howling banshee? Then don't wait
another minute. Tune into the Paranormal Peace Podcast. We are
ready to entertain you. Darkcast Network. Out of the shadows
come the Best of Indie podcast. I'm Crystal, and you
(00:23):
are listening to be on the Rampo True Crimes of
the LGBTQ. Hey, if you're hearing this, you're probably a
repeat offender of listening to this show, so I don't
(00:45):
have to issue any content warnings. Welcome back, baby, your
fairy pod mother missed you. Hey, they're Rainbow Warriors. It's
me your host CJ. And I would love to see
you in Denver July twelfth through the fourteenth for the
(01:05):
True Crime Paranormal Festival. So many great podcasters slated to
be there from Darkcast Network, Me Autumn from Autumn's Oddities,
Tiffany from True Crime Connections, Gina and Amber from Weird
True Crime, Danaka and Shannon of Murder and Mimosas, and
Michelle and Scarlett and Missing Magnolia's. On top of that,
(01:30):
Sarah Turney from Voices of Justice, Murder She Told with
Kristen Seviee, True Crime, Bullshit with Josh, The Troil Went
Cold with Robin Water, and so many more, including some
paranormal podcasts. I promise if you go, you're gonna have
a blast.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
I think I'm gonna do a raffle at my booth
like I did at the festival in Austin last year.
So if you show up, make sure you drop by
my booth and get your name put in to win
a gift bag. It'll be filled with merch and fun
stuff from Darkcauts network shows. Plus, if you go to
buy tickets, type in Beyond b e Yond at check
(02:13):
out and you'll get fifteen percent off your tickets.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
I'll leave a link to the festival's website in my
show notes. Please consider joining me over on Patreon, where
for the price of a cup of coffee each month,
you can be one of the Elite. You'll get your
episodes early, there'll be no ads, Plus you'll get a
bonus episode at the end of each month. As we
(02:37):
write our trustee unicorns to a beautiful location and I
tell you a story that I haven't told on the
regular show. Here. I'll leave a link to my Patreon
account in the show notes as well. Should you feel
so inspired. You might have noticed the past two episodes,
I've had some Patreon Rainbow Warriors record a dark Cast
(02:58):
opening and Beyond the Rainbow SoundBite. I would like to
open the opportunity up for all Rainbow Warriors to be
part of the show. If this sounds like something you'd
like to do, please record the following or something close
to it. Darkcast Network, Out of the Shadows Come the
Best of Indie podcast. I'm then you'll insert your name
(03:21):
here and you're listening to Beyond the Rainbow True Crimes
of the LGBTQ. Plus. If you don't have fancy recording equipment,
that's okay. Your phone should work. Once you have your
bit recorded, please email me at Beyond the Rainbow pod
at gmail dot com. I'll get you played on an
(03:43):
upcoming episode, and once again, I'll leave a copy of
the script in the show notes. For those mothers out there,
I hope you all had a great Mother's Day and
you don't have to have given birth to be a mom.
You could be a mom to fur babies. You could
be a surrogate mom to someone who needed you. I'd
like to start our main case out by telling you
(04:05):
about a beautiful woman in Laurence, South Carolina. She's a
birth mom and she's somewhat of a surrogate mom to others.
She has a huge heart, and she's been there not
just for her three birth children, but for other children
who might have been tossed away by their blood related families.
This woman is named Promised Edwards, and she had even
(04:29):
opened her home to these tossaway kids. Eighteen year old
Jacob Williamson a transgender boy who was just trying to
find his way in the world after coming out his
trans His birth family booted him out of his own home.
The day after Jacob moved in with Promise. He said
to her, I'm trans, I go by he and him,
(04:52):
and I want to be called Jacob. Promise responded with okay,
I love you, Promise. He also spends much of her
free time passing out stickers and such to schools, churches,
and all throughout our local community. The stickers have QR codes.
When these codes are scanned, they take you to an
(05:14):
online list of LGBTQ plus resources throughout South Carolina. Promise,
who Jacob called Aunt Lulu, was childhood friends with Jacob's
birth mom, and she had known Jacob since he was
born and he was called by his dead name of Kirsten.
When Jacob had come out as trans and his late teens,
(05:36):
many of his family members were freaked out by it.
They didn't understand gender dysphoria and they were not accepting
Jacob for living his truth. Promise stepped in and welcomed
Jacob into her home with open arms, finally giving Jacob
a safe spot to feel loved, accepted for who he was,
and supported. Jacob had only been living with Promise for
(06:00):
about a month and a half, but during his time,
he got himself a job at the waffle house and
he was dabbling with the online dating scene. He finally
felt as if he was coming into his own and
life was beautiful. He was extremely happy with his first paycheck.
(06:21):
He bought himself a pair of headphones, a fidget spinner,
and a chest binder. Since he bought it online, he
kept talking about how excited he was for the chest
binder to arrive. Jacob's birth mom and even promised said
that Jacob was young for his age, although Jacob's birth
mom refused to call him by his preferred name or pronouns,
(06:44):
but the two women did agree that Jacob was more
like a fourteen year old than an eighteen year old.
He slept with a stuffed owl that he absolutely loved.
He'd belt out singing Christmas carols in the middle of summer,
and he'd much rather play in a mud puddle with
younger kids than sit on a porch having conversations with adults.
(07:08):
Jacob loved to draw, He loved playing video games and
watching anime. He chose his name from the Werewoof character
Jacob in the Towilight movies. Jacob was super friendly and
he'd make people notice them and talk to him. Although
Jacob was in the process of transitioning from his assigned
(07:29):
gender at birth, he was still attracted to men. And
I'd like to interject something here. Years ago, when I
first came out, I'd met several people who were trans
and they were attracted to the same gender that they
were transitioning to, and I just didn't get it. I thought, Damn,
(07:49):
you're born a woman, You're transitioning to be a man,
and yet you're attracted to men, why not just remain
a woman and save yourself the heartache of shit that's
society's going to put you through. I didn't understand that
gender identity and sexual identity are two entirely different things.
(08:11):
It became a good wake up call for me much
later in life when I learned the difference between gender
and sexual identities and you, guys, I swear, I know.
I say this a lot, but doing this podcast has
taught me so much, and it's really opened my mind
incredibly to all kinds of things I just didn't understand before.
(08:31):
I think it's because before I hadn't bothered to educate
myself on topics. I didn't know about it at the time.
The past five years have been truly eye opening in
a good way. I share that with you in hopes
that maybe some of you have taken the same journey
with me. I don't know. Maybe you were already woke
(08:52):
while I was sitting in a corner sleeping so as
I was saying, Jacob was in the process of transitioning
into a man, and he was attracted to men On
a social media site he'd been talking to and getting
to know a man that he was starting to have
feelings for. The two would even have hours long conversations
(09:14):
over the phone. They started to chat on gaming sites
and playing video games remotely together. The man is twenty
five year old Joshua Newton. He lived in Monroe, North Carolina,
which was about a two hour drive from Jacob. One
of their conversations was about an amusement park that straddles
(09:35):
the border of North and South Carolina. It's called Carowins.
Joshua was completely shocked that Jacob had never been to
this amusement park before. Joshua and Jacob made plans to
go together for a fun filled day of thrilling rides
and getting to know each other even better. June thirtieth,
(09:56):
twenty twenty three, Joshua drove to Lauren, South Carolina, to
pick Jacob up for their date to Cara Win's and
then they had planned to sleep over at Joshua's house afterwards.
Jacob couldn't be more excited. It was his very first
date ever. His surrogate mom, Promise, had an eerie feeling
(10:18):
about Jacob's date. She told Jacob that she wasn't really
comfortable with him going. What was really setting off red
flags for her was that a straight man would want
a date a female to male trans person. Her spidy
senses were so powerful she even contacted the manager of
(10:38):
waffle house and she asked him to change Jacob's schedule
so he couldn't go, but it was too late. Promise
had even spoke to a woman who claimed to be
Joshua's mother. That woman told Promise not to worry, she'd
be right next door. The whole time. Jacob assured Promise
everything was going to be fine, in that Joshua was
(11:00):
pan sexual and he'd been through a lot of the
same things that Jacob had been through. Jacob continued to
say that he and Joshua were like kindred spirits. Before
he left, Jacob shared his location with Promise on his phone,
and then he got into Joshua's car at their meeting
spot of the waffle house and drove away. The last
(11:23):
words Promise said to Jacob were I love you and
I'll see you tomorrow. At eleven thirty pm, Promise called
Jacob to see how his date was going. Jacob sounded
annoyed with her. She asked what they were doing, and
Jacob replied, Joshua is showing me the woods behind his house.
(11:45):
Red Flag, Red Flag. Red Flag was piercing through promises thoughts.
At that point is when she took a screenshot of
Jacob's location, and then she just hoped that she was
being a worry wart for nothing. She checked Jacob's location
at twelve thirteen am, but Jacob's phone had been shut off.
(12:07):
When Jacob didn't appear the following day, back at Promise's house,
she tried to find him on her phone app locator,
but to no avail. She still did have his last
location screenshotted a home on beth Page Lane in Monroe,
North Carolina. Promise could only guess this was where Jacob's
state Joshua lived, and she had no way of knowing
(12:31):
that Joshua did live here but with his twenty two
year old girlfriend, Victoria Smith, and that Victoria was most
likely the female voice she spoke to claiming to be
Joshua's mother. As the days went by with Jacob still missing,
Promise was frantic and she reported a missing to the police.
(12:53):
Promise was able to provide Jacob's last known location at
Joshua's home and what Joshua drove, a green Saturn she
began distributing flyers between Laurens, South Carolina and Monroe, North Carolina.
With the two towns being over one hundred miles apart.
(13:13):
Jacob could be anywhere. Promise, couldn't sleep, eat, and she
didn't even brush her teeth For the next several days,
she just continually prayed for his safety. Promise in Jacob's
birth father both drove to him and Rod a search
for Jacob. They slept in their respective cars in a
(13:34):
Walmart parking lot just so they didn't have to drive
back and forth to Laurens. Meanwhile, police interviewed Joshua a
couple of times from his home. His home was a
trailer on Bethpage Lane. Joshua had even posted one of
his first interviews with police on his Facebook account. What
(13:54):
a smug son of a bitch. Even with all the hoping,
wishing and praying for Jacob's safe return, Jacob was anything
but safe. His body was located off to the side
of a very remote road on July four, twenty twenty three.
Jacob had been stabbed to death. This was in Pageland,
(14:16):
South Carolina, which is just over the North Carolina border,
a few miles from Monroe, where Joshua and his girlfriend
Victoria lived. Joshua and Victoria paired themselves with gothic personas
on social media and on gaming websites. They had only
been together about a year, and they had moved in
(14:38):
together after a month of dating. Victoria's online name was
his Master and Joshua's was her Demon. The day after
Jacob's date and most likely his death, Joshua and Victoria
were live streaming their video game playing on live meapp.
(15:00):
Joshua was dancing around and yelling it was fun, it
was fun. Not long later, Joshua would be arrested for
first degree murder, and Victoria at first was only arrested
for obstruction of justice, but that was later rescinded and
she too was charged with first degree murder. It's being
(15:22):
said that this most likely was not a hate crime
due to Jacob's gender identity. And if that's so, then
what was the motive? What's an eighteen year old got
an eighteen year old that was booted out of their
home and had nothing but the clothes on their back
and just got a job at waffle house? What do
(15:42):
they have that's really of value to kill him over?
I can only think that if it's not a hate crime,
it must have been a thrill kill. And if Joshua
enjoyed it that much, just think how many other victims
that the two of them could have if they hadn't
been caught. No trial date has been set yet that
(16:05):
we know of. It should be soon, though, since this
all happened ten months ago. I hope to God these
evil shits get the maximum sentence allowed. Rest and power,
Jacob our True Crime Quickie. This episode comes to us
from Texas, although the victim was living in Arizona. This
(16:28):
is another one of those horrific crimes like that of
Jacob Williamson that makes absolutely no sense as to why
it had to happen. And you're probably thinking, Oh, CJ,
isn't that almost all murders? Yes, I s'pose you're right, Warriors. Okay,
let's start at the beginning, because that's always a good
(16:48):
place to start. Two childhood friends, Iez Santa Cruz and
Rosa Medina. I believe both girls grew up in Arizona.
They went to school together, they played together, and they
became the very best of friends together. In high school,
both girls played on the same basketball team. And they
(17:10):
were still the best of friends. It was during their
high school years where Rosa's feelings became much stronger than
merely friendship with Inez. Rosa was in love with Inez,
and everyone around them knew it, both their friends and
their family. So Anez and Rosa tried to have a
(17:30):
romantic relationship together through high school, but the romance just
wasn't working, and by the end of high school they
were back to just being friends again. And I shouldn't
say just friends, best friends like they were before being
intimate with one another. After high school, Inez enrolled in
(17:51):
the Navy. This is where she learned skills to help
her secure a great job afterwards as a surgical technician
at a hospital and Thezona Rosa had moved to San Antonio,
Texas to live with her grandmother. Both young women would
venture into relationships with other people. One of Rosa's other
(18:12):
relationships would result in her burying a couple children, and
although Rosa had other people in her life, she still
hung on to her obsessive love for Renez. If she
found out that Inez was dating someone else, she'd be
pissed off, but the two would still talk to each
other over the phone On a regular basis. In August
(18:34):
of twenty twelve, both women were twenty seven years old.
Rosa had told Inez that she was working as a
photographer and she had booked a gig to work shooting
a wedding, but she had a problem though she didn't
have anyone to watch her kids. And when she told
this Ty Inez over the phone, she then asked Inez
(18:54):
if she would come watch her kids. While she weren't
ines who would do anything for her friends, and with
Rosa being one of her oldest and dearest friends, said
of course she would come watch her kids. Inez arrived
at the San Antonio Airport the Friday of Labor Day
weekend at baggage claim. She was seen on surveillance camera
(19:17):
picking up her bag. As she does this, a man
is also seen there waiting for her. He's watching her.
His name is Troy Ryder and he's thirty eight years old.
Troy had been dating Rosa for about a month. He
introduces himself to Inez as Rosa's photography assistant. Troy then
(19:39):
takes Ainez's bag out to his truck and he says
that he'll be driving her to Rosa's photography shoot. The
two get in and Troy starts to drive. He drives
Inez about ninety minutes out of San Antonio to a
remote area called a hunting lease. A hunting lease is
basically a hu huge amount of acreage. It's like a
(20:02):
ranch and it's sectioned off and they leased the sections
out to hunters during hunting season. The area out there
kind of looks like a desert surrounded by mountain ranges
and there's really no residential sections anywhere nearby. On the ride,
Troy offered Inez and iced tea, which just so happened
(20:22):
to be Inez's very favorite drink. She had no idea
that Troy had smashed up some benzo diazepines in the drink.
Benzodiazepines are a drug that's used for treating anxiety and insomnia.
They're basically used to calm a nervous system and they
make the consumer of the drug drowsy and extremely relax
(20:45):
But Troy had put an awful lot into this iced tea.
Upon arriving at the trailer on the hunting grounds, Troy
was sure that he put enough drugs in the tea
to kill Inez. But Inez wasn't even a sleep. She
was just very drowsy and lethargic, so Troy helped her
(21:06):
into the trailer to rest, thinking she might die from
the drugs in the trailer. He then left to a
campsite that he and two of his buddies were staying
at on the grounds. This act established an alibi for him.
The following morning, Troy returned to the trailer to take
care of Inez's body, but surprise, Ez was still alive
(21:31):
and she was frantic to find a phone signal. Then
Troy promised he'd take her to find a signal. He
drove her to a different area on the property and
he told her to get out and climb up on
some rocks to get her signal. As Inez did this,
Troy shot her in the back of her head when
she fell to the ground. He then shot her a
(21:52):
second time, and he put a big black trash bag
over her head. He removed her clothes in the hopes
of making her murder appear as a Mexican cartel hit.
He later aside the road on some rocks, and he
left before his buddies could see what he was doing.
On September second, Troy's buddies came upon Inez's body as
(22:15):
they were out hunting They immediately returned to the camp
and one of them phoned nine to one one. The
dispatcher sent the Edwards County Sheriff and the Texas Rangers
out to the location. Law enforcement met all three men
Troy included at their camp site and they had the
men lead him to the body. Once the police were
(22:36):
on the scene, they had the three hunters return to
their camp and they told them to wait there until
they completed their investigation because they wanted to interview the
men after initially believing the murder of their Jane Doe
was a cartel hit, just what Troy wanted them to believe.
Within a week, police were able to identify their deceased body.
(22:59):
They learned that the woman was Inez Santa Cruz of Arizona.
Ines's family was able to tell them of Inez flying
to San Antonio to visit her childhood friend. Police were
also able to snag a copy of surveillance video from
the airport, and it showed Troy Ryder talking with and
leaving the airport with Inez. By September twelfth, twenty twelve,
(23:25):
Troy was arrested for the murder of Anez. Once apprehended,
Troy confessed to the murder, saying that Inez was just
a hitchhiker he picked up. At his trial, he pleaded
guilty and he received a sentence of seventy five years
of incarceration, but because he did plead guilty, he was
able to avoid the death penalty. For years after, law
(23:50):
enforcement felt that there was someone else involved in Inez's murder.
They believed it was her childhood friend that she was
going to see, but they just couldn't prove Rosa's involvement.
After all, Rosa did have an airtight alibi with photos included.
Rosa had taken her daughters to a concert the day
(24:11):
Inez was picked up by Troy, and I'm sure police
asked questions like, but you knew your friend was coming
to visit you, why weren't you at the airport to
pick her up, which Rosa probably explained away as she
thought Inez was coming. The following day, police examined Rosa's
phone and they kept it for evidence. It had seemed
(24:34):
to them that the messages had been deleted, but technology
in twenty twelve wasn't as good as today's technology, so
they were not able to recover the messages. Still, multiple
law enforcement agencies remained on the case and investigating Rosa.
In June of twenty nineteen, using new technology, police found
(24:58):
the missing messages they needed to pin Rosa to Inez's murder.
They found a text for Inez the day before she
went to San Antonio. The message said that she was
boarding the plane tomorrow and would see Rosa soon. On
Rosa's phone. They also discovered a number of Internet searches
(25:18):
for date rape, drugs and how to hide text messages.
And then, after reinterviewing Troy in prison, he spilled all
the tea about Rosa. Rosa had been the one to
ask him to murder Anez. Rosa told him that Inez
was blackmailing her for working in a strip club, and
(25:40):
then Rosa told him that if anyone else found out,
she could lose her kids. Rosa wanted Inez dead and
she didn't care how A year later, in June twenty twenty,
Rosa was arrested. She never admitted to anything, her charges
were reduced to manslaughter. At her trial in twenty twenty two,
(26:02):
she finally recanted, and she pleaded guilty to conspiracy to murder.
For that she received descendence of eighteen years. Inez's family
didn't want to face Rosa in court, but Iz's mom
had sent letters to Rosa asking why Rosa has never
responded because she's a cowardly bitch. Rest in power, Iez.
(26:28):
Remember if you'd like to do an intro recording, I'll
leave a script for you in the show notes, as
well as my email address. Love your Rainbow Warriors. You matter.
It's not a crime to live your truth. I'm not
sure a murderer it would s
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