Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Alabama's Morning News.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
I'm jten joining us now the Sheriff of bib County,
Jody Wade, to talk a little bit more about how
the investigation is going and this horrific case with these
sex traffickers that are now in jail.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
Sheriff, welcome in. Thanks for being with me, Yes, Earth,
thank you for having me.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Well, I'm sure this is one of the most disgusting,
horrific scenes that you've ever come across, or crimes that
you've worked on in your career, and it's got to
be overwhelming to you and your staff. Are you getting
any help from the state or federal law enforcement agencies?
Speaker 3 (00:32):
We've gotten calls from every agency in the state and
on the national level. The Secret Services reached out to
us to help us with any kind of electronic devices
that we've taken into evidence to try to break those
so that we can determine if there's more suspects, or
where they're at, or how the money's being sent and
(00:53):
transferred and all those other things. So, yeah, we've gotten
a tremendous outpouring of offers for helping this investigation, and
it is overwhelming and it's a lot. So we're appreciative
of all the help that we've been offered and that
we're getting.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
I spoke with our Attorney General, Steve Marshall Friday about this,
and I asked him as well, what will your office
be involved with as far as this goes and moves forward?
And his response was any support that the sheriff needs
and the other agencies that may end up being involved
in this, And he said there was a possibility that
(01:27):
the FBI is in the bigger organizations on a federal
level maybe become involved in this, this being possibly federal
crimes that are involved here. Can you speak to whether
or not this is state or could be potentially federal crimes.
Speaker 3 (01:41):
Well, I'm sure as the investigation continues and as we
discover more leads and things like that, this is probably
going to get to the point where it's going to
reach outside of our jurisdiction. So when you have a
larger federal agency and a state agency that can come
in and help you with those apprehensions and prosecutions if
different crimes similar to this, you know, happened in other
(02:04):
states or something like that, Yeah, that they're going to
be a tremendous asset to help us in the investigation,
in the prosecution of other perpetrators and things like that.
So we've had a big outpouring of a support.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
You know, when you get a call like this from
you know, somebody in the community says, I've got to
report this situation that's happening here, you know, you realize, Okay,
we've got this or this going on X, Y or
Z crime.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
Let's go look at it and see what's happening.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
Is it rare that you walk in and all of
a sudden, Oh my gosh, this is worse and bigger
and more disgusting than I could have ever imagined.
Speaker 3 (02:40):
This would be a prime example. But because when we
were first made aware of it by the department team
and resources and my investigators immediately go to the scene,
they're like, okay, this is child abuse. And then as
they start digging deeper, they're like, oh my god, this
is child trafficking. And so it just kind of it
just kind of blew up from there. So sometimes you'll
see something small, not that that is a small crime,
(03:03):
but you'll see something you think is just relatively an
isolated event and then it turns into something big. So
sometimes you never know what you're walking into. And my
investigators have done a tremendous job in uncovering all these
details of this case.
Speaker 2 (03:18):
How did you find out about it? What was the
initial call or you know, way that you became aware of?
Speaker 1 (03:25):
Okay, we got to go take a look at.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
Was it a resident a family member who called or
made you aware that there needs to be something looked
at here?
Speaker 3 (03:33):
Well, as I said, the Department of Human Resources, one
of their case workers contacted my chief investigator, Chris Pooh
and made him aware of a suspicion that she had
and that's when he went and looked into it. And
as he started, you know, working the case and looking
into it, he saw what it was developing into and
called me immediately to tell me, say, we've got a
(03:54):
child sex trafficking ring here. So, and that's a good
thing about a small county is you know, people in
the county have my cell phone number. If something looks funny,
they'll call me. Most of them have you know, Christ's
cell phone number. They're going to call him. So a
lot of times in a small county, you don't have
the anonymity, if that's the correct word, that you would
in a larger county to where knows who their neighbors are.
(04:17):
So this type of thing is not an event that's
just something in big county. This happens at a lot
of different places, and there's a lot of different agencies,
law enforcement officers that work cases Unfortunately, very similar to this.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
Yeah, Unfortunately, this is rampant in our country and in
the state of Alabama, sex trafficking and kids being abused
like this, And a lot of times people think, oh,
this is like the Liam Neeson movie taken as far
as trafficking goes. No. Most of the time things like this,
and these victims are familiar. You know, they're with the
family members, they know these people. And when you looked
(04:54):
and investigated this, these kids that you've rescued and sent
to DHR at this point where all of these kids
tied to the criminals, all of them in some way
related or in the family.
Speaker 3 (05:05):
If they weren't related, they were children of some of
their associates. So it was like these were some strange
children that they were abducted in another state ball here
for the purpose of trafficking. Most of these victims, of course,
knew who their offenders were as far as the people
that's close to them, their caretakers, if you will.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
Well the mother, I understand one of her children was
one of the victims here that she was selling for
people to come have sex with.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
Is that or true? Yes, sir, that's just.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
I mean, I can't even fathom that you would do
that with a child like that, and watch what took
place here. It's just I mean, I hope these people
right in hell, and it seems every day. Jodie, we're
speaking with Jody Wade, the sheriff of vib County, and
what is taking place in this investigation.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
Are there others now.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
Involved that you're zoning in on, whether they're perpetrators or victims.
Are we scratching the surface of where this may end up?
Speaker 3 (06:02):
I'm afraid we are probably just scratching the surface. And
you know, as this case evolved from the initial report
and where it started, we don't know where it's gonna end.
We don't know how many unidentified perpetrators are out there.
They could be states away and traveling here for this.
I don't know that I'm speculating, but we're preparing for
(06:24):
the worst and hoping for the best, and unfortunately, in
this case, as bad as this sounds to say, the
easy part's over. We've got all the known victims in
a safe place where their protected love be cared for.
We've got the known local suspects. Now the hard work
begins to try to track down the unknowns that are
(06:45):
possibly out there.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
Well, you know that was my next question.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
Are these criminals, these perpetrators cooperating with law enforcement and
speaking more about this and giving you information that you want,
or are they just kind of tight lipped about all
of this cooperating at all.
Speaker 3 (07:02):
Some of them are cooperating, some of them are not.
I think the longer they have time to sit there
and maybe repent and con says, we'll get the answer
to all the questions that we have to better serve
these children. I feel like, you know, it's a little
of both. Some of them are cooperating to a certain extent,
some of them are totally cooperating, and some of them
(07:24):
are just.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
Prove it so wow.
Speaker 3 (07:27):
Like I say, I was working, And the longer they
have to sit there and may get their heads clear
and contemplate exactly what they have done, what they have
caused to these children, I'm hoping there might be just
a spark of conscience somewhere in their soul that they're
going to come forward and do the right thing.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
Yeah, we're talking with Jody Wade, the sheriff and bib County. Now, Jody,
I was talking, as I mentioned, with Steve Marshall, Attorney General,
this past Friday and the subject of the penalty for
folks like this. It's my opinion, if you come in
a felony sex crime against children like this, the death
penalty should be on the table. And he said, as
a matter of fact, we're looking at bringing that legislation
(08:03):
back up and trying to get that passed through in Montgomery.
Are you a proponent of Absolutely, these guys and gals
that are involved in this should face the death penalty.
Speaker 3 (08:14):
Absolutely. If anything deserves the death penalty, this is it.
My Senator April Weaver immediately reached out to me and
told me that she was already looking at bringing back
up some prior legislation that another senator or Conmersman or
something had bought up in reference to making child text
trafficking death penalty eligible. So my senator is already on
(08:38):
top of it, and I'm going to follow her leave.
But yes, death, I just wish it was swift.
Speaker 1 (08:43):
Yeah, amen to that. Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
Well, we know I've seen study after study on rehabilitation
and people that commit these types of crimes, from psychiatrists
to officials in law enforcement say these people cannot and
won't ever be rehabilitated. To me, it's like a spike
deer in the herd, and sometimes you got to call
the herd and take the bad ones out. Period, end
(09:06):
of a story you're no longer playing in society. Well, Jody,
I really appreciate your time with us this morning. Thank
you so much. God bless your team and everybody working
on this, and God bless those young children. It's just awful,
and I hope swift is the word in this and
getting these people brought to justice. Let's stay in touch, Jody,
I appreciate you, Yes, sir, thank you,
Alabama's Morning News.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
I'm jten joining us now the Sheriff of bib County,
Jody Wade, to talk a little bit more about how
the investigation is going and this horrific case with these
sex traffickers that are now in jail.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
Sheriff, welcome in. Thanks for being with me, Yes, Earth,
thank you for having me.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Well, I'm sure this is one of the most disgusting,
horrific scenes that you've ever come across, or crimes that
you've worked on in your career, and it's got to
be overwhelming to you and your staff. Are you getting
any help from the state or federal law enforcement agencies?
Speaker 3 (00:32):
We've gotten calls from every agency in the state and
on the national level. The Secret Services reached out to
us to help us with any kind of electronic devices
that we've taken into evidence to try to break those
so that we can determine if there's more suspects, or
where they're at, or how the money's being sent and
(00:53):
transferred and all those other things. So, yeah, we've gotten
a tremendous outpouring of offers for helping this investigation, and
it is overwhelming and it's a lot. So we're appreciative
of all the help that we've been offered and that
we're getting.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
I spoke with our Attorney General, Steve Marshall Friday about this,
and I asked him as well, what will your office
be involved with as far as this goes and moves forward?
And his response was any support that the sheriff needs
and the other agencies that may end up being involved
in this, And he said there was a possibility that
(01:27):
the FBI is in the bigger organizations on a federal
level maybe become involved in this, this being possibly federal
crimes that are involved here. Can you speak to whether
or not this is state or could be potentially federal crimes.
Speaker 3 (01:41):
Well, I'm sure as the investigation continues and as we
discover more leads and things like that, this is probably
going to get to the point where it's going to
reach outside of our jurisdiction. So when you have a
larger federal agency and a state agency that can come
in and help you with those apprehensions and prosecutions if
different crimes similar to this, you know, happened in other
(02:04):
states or something like that, Yeah, that they're going to
be a tremendous asset to help us in the investigation,
in the prosecution of other perpetrators and things like that.
So we've had a big outpouring of a support.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
You know, when you get a call like this from
you know, somebody in the community says, I've got to
report this situation that's happening here, you know, you realize, Okay,
we've got this or this going on X, Y or
Z crime.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
Let's go look at it and see what's happening.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
Is it rare that you walk in and all of
a sudden, Oh my gosh, this is worse and bigger
and more disgusting than I could have ever imagined.
Speaker 3 (02:40):
This would be a prime example. But because when we
were first made aware of it by the department team
and resources and my investigators immediately go to the scene,
they're like, okay, this is child abuse. And then as
they start digging deeper, they're like, oh my god, this
is child trafficking. And so it just kind of it
just kind of blew up from there. So sometimes you'll
see something small, not that that is a small crime,
(03:03):
but you'll see something you think is just relatively an
isolated event and then it turns into something big. So
sometimes you never know what you're walking into. And my
investigators have done a tremendous job in uncovering all these
details of this case.
Speaker 2 (03:18):
How did you find out about it? What was the
initial call or you know, way that you became aware of?
Speaker 1 (03:25):
Okay, we got to go take a look at.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
Was it a resident a family member who called or
made you aware that there needs to be something looked
at here?
Speaker 3 (03:33):
Well, as I said, the Department of Human Resources, one
of their case workers contacted my chief investigator, Chris Pooh
and made him aware of a suspicion that she had
and that's when he went and looked into it. And
as he started, you know, working the case and looking
into it, he saw what it was developing into and
called me immediately to tell me, say, we've got a
(03:54):
child sex trafficking ring here. So, and that's a good
thing about a small county is you know, people in
the county have my cell phone number. If something looks funny,
they'll call me. Most of them have you know, Christ's
cell phone number. They're going to call him. So a
lot of times in a small county, you don't have
the anonymity, if that's the correct word, that you would
in a larger county to where knows who their neighbors are.
(04:17):
So this type of thing is not an event that's
just something in big county. This happens at a lot
of different places, and there's a lot of different agencies,
law enforcement officers that work cases Unfortunately, very similar to this.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
Yeah, Unfortunately, this is rampant in our country and in
the state of Alabama, sex trafficking and kids being abused
like this, And a lot of times people think, oh,
this is like the Liam Neeson movie taken as far
as trafficking goes. No. Most of the time things like this,
and these victims are familiar. You know, they're with the
family members, they know these people. And when you looked
(04:54):
and investigated this, these kids that you've rescued and sent
to DHR at this point where all of these kids
tied to the criminals, all of them in some way
related or in the family.
Speaker 3 (05:05):
If they weren't related, they were children of some of
their associates. So it was like these were some strange
children that they were abducted in another state ball here
for the purpose of trafficking. Most of these victims, of course,
knew who their offenders were as far as the people
that's close to them, their caretakers, if you will.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
Well the mother, I understand one of her children was
one of the victims here that she was selling for
people to come have sex with.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
Is that or true? Yes, sir, that's just.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
I mean, I can't even fathom that you would do
that with a child like that, and watch what took
place here. It's just I mean, I hope these people
right in hell, and it seems every day. Jodie, we're
speaking with Jody Wade, the sheriff of vib County, and
what is taking place in this investigation.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
Are there others now.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
Involved that you're zoning in on, whether they're perpetrators or victims.
Are we scratching the surface of where this may end up?
Speaker 3 (06:02):
I'm afraid we are probably just scratching the surface. And
you know, as this case evolved from the initial report
and where it started, we don't know where it's gonna end.
We don't know how many unidentified perpetrators are out there.
They could be states away and traveling here for this.
I don't know that I'm speculating, but we're preparing for
(06:24):
the worst and hoping for the best, and unfortunately, in
this case, as bad as this sounds to say, the
easy part's over. We've got all the known victims in
a safe place where their protected love be cared for.
We've got the known local suspects. Now the hard work
begins to try to track down the unknowns that are
(06:45):
possibly out there.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
Well, you know that was my next question.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
Are these criminals, these perpetrators cooperating with law enforcement and
speaking more about this and giving you information that you want,
or are they just kind of tight lipped about all
of this cooperating at all.
Speaker 3 (07:02):
Some of them are cooperating, some of them are not.
I think the longer they have time to sit there
and maybe repent and con says, we'll get the answer
to all the questions that we have to better serve
these children. I feel like, you know, it's a little
of both. Some of them are cooperating to a certain extent,
some of them are totally cooperating, and some of them
(07:24):
are just.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
Prove it so wow.
Speaker 3 (07:27):
Like I say, I was working, And the longer they
have to sit there and may get their heads clear
and contemplate exactly what they have done, what they have
caused to these children, I'm hoping there might be just
a spark of conscience somewhere in their soul that they're
going to come forward and do the right thing.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
Yeah, we're talking with Jody Wade, the sheriff and bib County. Now, Jody,
I was talking, as I mentioned, with Steve Marshall, Attorney General,
this past Friday and the subject of the penalty for
folks like this. It's my opinion, if you come in
a felony sex crime against children like this, the death
penalty should be on the table. And he said, as
a matter of fact, we're looking at bringing that legislation
(08:03):
back up and trying to get that passed through in Montgomery.
Are you a proponent of Absolutely, these guys and gals
that are involved in this should face the death penalty.
Speaker 3 (08:14):
Absolutely. If anything deserves the death penalty, this is it.
My Senator April Weaver immediately reached out to me and
told me that she was already looking at bringing back
up some prior legislation that another senator or Conmersman or
something had bought up in reference to making child text
trafficking death penalty eligible. So my senator is already on
(08:38):
top of it, and I'm going to follow her leave.
But yes, death, I just wish it was swift.
Speaker 1 (08:43):
Yeah, amen to that. Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
Well, we know I've seen study after study on rehabilitation
and people that commit these types of crimes, from psychiatrists
to officials in law enforcement say these people cannot and
won't ever be rehabilitated. To me, it's like a spike
deer in the herd, and sometimes you got to call
the herd and take the bad ones out. Period, end
(09:06):
of a story you're no longer playing in society. Well, Jody,
I really appreciate your time with us this morning. Thank
you so much. God bless your team and everybody working
on this, and God bless those young children. It's just awful,
and I hope swift is the word in this and
getting these people brought to justice. Let's stay in touch, Jody,
I appreciate you, Yes, sir, thank you,
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