May 14, 2025 • 38 mins
In April, Josh traveled to Texas and Louisiana for research. Each leg of that trip was thoroughly documented and will become individual Travelogue video episodes, running monthly on Patreon. Enjoy the audio from his day in the Dallas area, traveling to Godley, Glen Rose, Stephenville, Aledo, and Azle.
Future Episodes:
June: Lufkin
July: New Orleans
August: Washington state
To see the images, video, files, maps, and more, join Patreon at the Chipmunk level.
To learn more about the Bali trip and book your ticket, go here.
This episode was sponosred by Lumen. To get 15% off your Lumen, go to Lumen.me/TCBS
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/true-crime-bullsh--3588169/support.
Future Episodes:
June: Lufkin
July: New Orleans
August: Washington state
To see the images, video, files, maps, and more, join Patreon at the Chipmunk level.
To learn more about the Bali trip and book your ticket, go here.
This episode was sponosred by Lumen. To get 15% off your Lumen, go to Lumen.me/TCBS
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/true-crime-bullsh--3588169/support.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
This is a studio both and production. Hey everyone. Recently
I took a research road trip down to Texas and Louisiana.
I interviewed witnesses, went to locations Keys went to, scouted
out areas that we believe he hid caches, went to Laplace,
and visited locations of disappearances that we believe may be
(00:31):
connected to Keys. While on the ground, I took my drone,
road mics, video cameras, and dash cams and documented the
entire trip. And today I'm sharing with you the audio
from day one where I traveled the area surrounding Dallas
that we know Keys visited while his phone was off
and he told his family he was stuck in the mud.
(00:52):
These video episodes are available now monthly on Patreon to
all Patreon members at the chipmunk level and d and above.
Listen now or join Patreon to watch the footage, which
includes photos, videos from the scene, maps, evidence files, and more.
Next month, We'll be releasing a video log of the
(01:12):
Luffkin leg of this trip, which included going to Mount
Enterprise where Jimmy Tidwell disappeared from Vider, interviewing Christina in
person at the Restawan cemetery, going to the area we
believe Mark Julian Oldberry disappeared, and more. And in July
we'll release the New Orleans leg of the trip, where
you went to Laplace and scouted out the area where
(01:34):
keys as Cash was recovered. We also went further north
to where a disappearance occurred that we think Keys may
be responsible for. In these episodes, you'll get new information,
exclusive content, and insights and surprises. Think of these as
your peak behind the curtain as we're preparing the new
season of True crime Bullshit. So enjoy this bonus episode
(01:56):
and to watch the video and future videos from this
research road trip and others, join Patreon today at Patreon
dot com, slash Studio both and in addition to these,
you'll get thoughts and Feelings, bonus episodes, one on one interviews,
exclusive research roundtables, and more. And for those of you
(02:18):
interested in joining us in Bali, we have a handful
of tickets left, so join us in late September and
early October in the most beautiful place in the world
where we'll visit sacred water temples, night markets, the Monkey Forest,
and more, and you'll get an exclusive first listen to
the season seven True Crime Bullshit premiere. To learn more
(02:41):
or book your ticket today, click the Trova link in
the show notes and now enjoy this bonus research road
trip episode. Hey everyone, welcome to the first episode of
the Patreon exclusive series Research Road Trips. I'm hoping to
release one one of these every month. Obviously that's contingent
(03:03):
on whether we take any research road trips, but I
thought it was a great way to kind of share
the experience of being out on the road and researching
keys and presumably in the future other cases, and sharing
that with you all, so you can kind of learn
in real ish time what we're learning, and see what
(03:24):
we're seeing, and really get a sense of what it's
like to be out there, because often what happens is
you're driving place to place to check them out, and
in those drives you see things or realize things that
you never could have while looking at maps. And so
in this episode, you'll actually get to see text messages
between me and some of the researchers as I stumbled
(03:45):
upon something unexpected. So for this episode, we are focusing
on the first day of my most recent research trip,
which is in the Dallas area. The trip started in Dallas.
The night before I started our research, we had a
meet up at a Dallas hotel and a good friend
(04:07):
of mine who is I think a very important part
of the true crime podcast community, Jason Watts, came out.
For those of you unfamiliar with Jason, he was good
friends with Brandon Lawson, a twenty six year old man
who disappeared in Bronte, Texas in August of twenty thirteen.
Jason was integral in leading searches to find Brandon, and
(04:32):
eventually they did find his remains. Back in twenty twenty two.
Jason and I had become good friends just going through
the true crime podcast festival circuit, and he lives in Cleeburn,
so he wanted to be on hand to help.
Speaker 2 (04:47):
Me through this trip.
Speaker 1 (04:49):
He unfortunately was conducting a search for a different missing
person on the day that I was going to be
out on the road, So we kind of debriefed the
night before, and as we were going over all of
the locations that came up in our Keys research or
in our Keys sightings, he noted that there was a
fairly isolated lake with a boat ramp not far at
(05:09):
all from where a man believes that he pulled Keys
out of the mud in Godly, Texas, so we added
that to the itinerary. In fact, that was the first
place I went the next morning, so I drove out
there first just because it was the closest location to
the hotel, and I had a lot of ground to
cover that day. Ideally I would have done everything in
(05:32):
the order that we believe Keys did it, but that
would have taken significantly longer than the time that I
had allotted for this segment of the trip. And that said,
you will be getting two more of these episodes, which
will contain the rest of that trip. So I had
a lot of research to squeeze in a very short
amount of time. So I went out to this lake,
and on the map it appears way closer to where
(05:56):
Keys's truck was allegedly pulled out of the mud. It's walkable,
it's a straight line. In fact, the road that his
truck was pulled off of dead ends at this boat ramp,
So it would not be wild to presume that perhaps
Keys was on his way to that boat ramp when
he got a truck stuck in the mud. And we'll
(06:19):
talk about that location in a second. Because it was
a little confusing and interesting, and I don't really know
how to make sense of it just yet. But getting
out to this boat ramp, it's fairly isolated. You do
have to pay to access this area. However, I think
at night it's on our system and it would be
(06:40):
very easy to get in after hours, like very very easy.
In fact, I don't think even when I went through,
I engaged with anyone. I think it was just like
slip your credit card into a machine and pull out
a ticket. I actually had scheduled a Instagram live for
while I was there, so I'm just gonna go ahead
(07:02):
and play that now, and you can hear me in
real time on little location talking about it.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
Okay, sorry, I'm a little late traffic.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
I am out on the road.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
It is my first day of.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
Driving through the Dallas area doing some research, looking into
some stuff that we have discovered since last season or
during last season. I'm currently about half a mile from
where a man believes he pulled keys out of the.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
Mud in Godly, Texas.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
What's interesting is the road that that man believes he
found keys on leads to.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
A lake with a boat.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
Ramp, and I'm wondering if maybe that's where Keys was
on his way too. The first thing I noticed driving
out here is this is basically the first exit.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
After suburbia ends. So it's just like.
Speaker 1 (08:08):
Housing developed, housing development, housing development, and then nothing. And
so it strikes me as very much a place Keys
would come to. In fact, I could imagine him driving
down this highway and seeing this exit and being like, Okay,
this is where we're in the excerbs. Now this feels
like a safe place to be. So anyway, all that
(08:31):
is to say, if you have questions, ask them. I'm
gonna be live for only a little bit, probably like
ten minutes, so pop those questions in and I will
answer as many as I can. Where am I I
don't want to give too many details because there are weirdos,
but I'm at a lake in Godly, Texas, not far
(08:55):
from where Keys was pulled out of the mud.
Speaker 2 (08:59):
And as I was saying at the beginning, it's literally.
Speaker 1 (09:05):
Where he got pulled out of the mud, or allegedly
got pulled out of the mud, or half a mile
from there on the same road. The road he was
allegedly on dead ends into this boat ramp, So that
seems not like a coincidence. So let's see any other
questions where am I answered that stalker weirdos or towny weirdos? Well,
(09:31):
I just always you know, I know some other shows
who would report from the road and say exactly where
they were, and then they'd have people like show up
at their motels and harass them. So I'm not trying
to do that, So I guess stalker weirdos and I
am actively avoiding putting my finger over the mic, so
(09:51):
we don't have the same situation as last time. How
far is the road from the lake? The road dead
ends into the lake. That is the road. I can't
really see it, and that is the lake, so it
feels very intentional.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
How was it meet up last night? It was sparse
but fun.
Speaker 1 (10:14):
There were in total five of us, but we had
great conversations. Laney from True Crime Cases was there. Jason
Watt's friend of Brendan Lawson was there. We had a
very good time and it was pretty pretty well behaved.
(10:34):
So someone asked to see the area. This is it,
and it actually looks a lot like Lake Paris. But
and what's really interesting is before you get to the
(10:55):
actual lake itself, there's a river with a boat ramp,
that felt a lot like the boat ramp at the
Raquette River. I might pop over there in a second.
I'm very annoyed because I packed up all my equipment
and then realized my drone batteries were in a different bag.
So I will not be able to get drone footage today,
which sucks. But I do have a bunch of other equipment,
(11:17):
so hopefully we can get some good video that I
can share with you all later. Would this have been
chronologically between Samantha and the arrest, Yes, this would have
been while he was in Texas with his phone turned off.
He dropped his kid off with his mom turned off.
His phone disappeared for two and a half three days.
(11:39):
I think there's people fighting over there, and claimed to
be stuck in the mud. He admitted that he did
get stuck in the mud, but that he wasn't stuck
in the mud the whole time. And again, like I
said in last season, a man has come forward and
is fairly certain he's the one who pulled him out
of the mud just half a mile down the road
from here. Yeah, Kaz, says Jroline. No, I know, I mean,
(12:09):
Droleine is fine. She's just inoperable today, and I thought
about turning around, but I didn't realize until I was
about an hour away from the hotel. So I have
not looked at the mud yet. I was going to
do that first, but traffic was such a nightmare that
I didn't get here till obviously late, ten minutes later
than I was supposed to.
Speaker 2 (12:30):
So lake people are wild, so.
Speaker 1 (12:39):
I have not had a chance to go there yet.
I'm going to go there next and I was gonna
report from their report, but it's literally just the side
of a road. And I was talking to Jason Watts
and he was like, you won't run into anyone there,
but I wouldn't spend a lot of time there by yourself.
So the weather is great. Do you ever feel emotionally
(13:01):
attached to Keys? I mean, I feel like that answer
requires a ton of context, But.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
Not to him as a person.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
I think I used to when I was really immersing
myself in the files for the first time and getting
to know his life and his loved ones. I think
less and less as time has progressed. Do I have
any sort of attachment or interest in him as a
person outside the scope of the investigation. I also have
been doing this for a very long time, and I
(13:33):
think you know everything to know about him that can
be known. I do know, and so there's less interest
in who he was as a person. How deep is
the lake? Jason looked it up last night, and if
I recall correctly, it was like thirty or forty feet,
so not the ideal depth. But we also know Keys
(13:57):
went to at least lakes.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
Do I think there's a kit here? There could be.
Speaker 1 (14:06):
There's a place not far from here that kind of matches. Sorry,
there's this weird red truck that just keeps driving back
and forth and back and forth. Anyway, there's a place
near to here with a berm that kind of matches
the location that he buried the kit in Eagle River.
(14:28):
So I'm gonna check that out next. But I am
curious if there's something out here, because it just seems
like he was on his way here. I can't think
of any other reason he would have been on that
road other than to come to this lake, particularly if
he'd like planned out this trip and was looking at maps.
This is not Lake pat Kleeburn. This is Lake bren Burn.
(14:52):
I think bren Burn. There are multiple boat ramps there
are multiple outhouses. It's funny because there's a ton of activity,
but there's little pockets that are quiet. And because there's
a couple streams and a river, there are definitely areas
where you can go and be quite secluded and away
(15:12):
from people without being seen. Let's see, so he was
seen on the road to this lake. Yes he well,
probably a man believes he's the one who pulled keys
out of the mud half a mile down the road
that leads to this lake, Benbrook, Yes, Benbrook Lake. Funny,
how like not five minutes ago, I was like, I'm
(15:34):
not going to give my exact location, and here we
are Lake Benbrook, So yeah, that is it. I'm gonna
do a bunch of the Dallas stuff today and then
tomorrow we are leaving the area and heading east.
Speaker 2 (15:54):
I have a very packed few days.
Speaker 1 (15:56):
I think tomorrow's like six hours of driving and the
following day is I think like ten hours of driving.
Speaker 2 (16:03):
So we've got a lot to do.
Speaker 1 (16:06):
Have I identified and spoken with the man? Yes, he
was going to try to meet me out here today
but could not, But we have talked extensively. So this
lake is seventy eight feet deep, not thirty, so Yeah,
it is a Keys depth blake and with that, I
think I'm going to pop out of here. I will
be popping in and out throughout the day as we're
(16:28):
at interesting places.
Speaker 2 (16:30):
So stay watched this space.
Speaker 1 (16:33):
But thanks everyone, and I will catch you soon.
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this episode. So from there I headed back south down
to where this gentleman pulled keys out of the mud.
(18:57):
If you're watching this on video, I'm gonna pull up
our correspondence now and you can see exactly where on
the map it was, and then I'm going to put
up some go pro image that I took. What was
interesting about this is, you know, Jason had told me
it's a very isolated area and I probably wouldn't see anyone.
Speaker 2 (19:17):
And while it was.
Speaker 1 (19:19):
Very isolated, it was also heavily trafficked. And I don't
know if that's just people going to the lake. It
was a Friday, so maybe people were heading to the
lake for the weekend, or if it was just a
weird time of day that I was there. But I
could not pull over because A there was hardly any
shoulder at all, and B there was so much traffic
on this road at the time that I was there.
(19:40):
And what I'm wondering and I'm gone back and it's
really hard to tell. So there's a fence along the
shoulder of the road there, which would make it a
very hard to pull over, and be obviously even harder
to like pull off the road enough that you would
get a car stuck in the mud. We can't determine
whether or not that fence was back in twenty twelve.
(20:03):
The area that he highlighted on the map is also
interesting because it's.
Speaker 2 (20:06):
Not near anything.
Speaker 1 (20:09):
Further down on the road, there is a berm like
they call it the dip. You can look it up
on Google Maps, but it's a part of the road
that dips down and isn't super visible from the rest
of the road, and it's shrouded in shrubs and some
trees and.
Speaker 2 (20:25):
A little stream.
Speaker 1 (20:27):
And that was of great interest to me because we
know that the Eagle River Kill kit was buried under
a berm. But again, it was impossible to pull over
there and look around the closest I basically would have
had to go back to the lake to park and
then walk there because there was nowhere to pull over
anywhere in between those two spots. Again, a lot of
(20:49):
that is because of fencing that is up that we
don't know if it was there thirteen years ago. And
again I would have done that, but time was super limited.
I think like nine hours of driving to do that day,
and then had to get up at seven am the
next morning to do I think seven hours of driving.
So you know, that's the thing is when you're on
(21:12):
these trips and you have such limited time, you kind
of have to make decisions. And that is why sometimes
we have to repeat them because there's stuff we didn't see,
or there's stuff that has come up since. And so
unfortunately for me, I do think another Dallas trip is
going to have to happen at some point. All this
is to say the location that he pulled him out
(21:32):
of the mud is odd because it is near to
other parts of that road where there are trees, there's
a stream, you could be easily hidden from people. But
where he says the car was was like very exposed.
The one thing I noticed though, is where the car
was is not far from train tracks. In fact, I
was stuck there behind a train for a while. And
(21:55):
you know, we've talked a lot about power lines and
how keys could use power lines to it through the
woods very easily without being seen, and the same can
be said for train tracks. It's something that's come up
before in our research, and I think even on the podcast.
So that was interesting. But yeah, you can see if
you're watching the video now, it's a very exposed area.
(22:17):
So I don't I can't make heads or tails of it.
From there, I drove out to the Post Oak Cemetery
in Glen Rose, where Keys had a map to that
cemetery on his phone, like a photo of map quest directions.
(22:39):
And I'm going to play a clip with Joline asking
him about that.
Speaker 4 (22:42):
Now. One of the things that was on your phone,
there's a cemetery in text?
Speaker 5 (23:02):
Did you go to the cemetery in Texas? What was
the cemetery about one of Glenros Does that sound right?
Speaker 4 (23:12):
Yeah?
Speaker 6 (23:12):
I went to a few different cemeteries.
Speaker 5 (23:16):
What could you go to the cemetery for?
Speaker 6 (23:21):
That's a picture?
Speaker 5 (23:22):
What was on your phone.
Speaker 4 (23:25):
That r?
Speaker 7 (23:26):
Is that on map quest or something that?
Speaker 4 (23:28):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (23:28):
I think you took a picture of your computer.
Speaker 6 (23:30):
Is what it looks like?
Speaker 8 (23:34):
You get care of.
Speaker 6 (23:41):
Some problem with technology depending on it? Do you think
about it anymore?
Speaker 4 (23:47):
Oh?
Speaker 5 (23:49):
No?
Speaker 9 (23:49):
I that was mostly I was just looking for different places,
convenient locations.
Speaker 8 (23:59):
Uh didn't.
Speaker 9 (24:10):
Yeah, I I went to a lot of different places
because none of 'em really seemed like they worked out.
People were very nosy in Texas, so I wasn't any
I took me a while to find anywhere.
Speaker 6 (24:23):
Then I felt comfortable. Did you find that place?
Speaker 7 (24:39):
Well, I found a few different I didn't. I didn't take.
Speaker 8 (24:41):
Anybody on that trip.
Speaker 7 (24:42):
If that's what you're asking, I.
Speaker 6 (24:43):
Was that was That's what I was.
Speaker 7 (24:45):
That's what the thought process was. I didn't do it.
Speaker 8 (24:48):
But why a.
Speaker 6 (24:49):
Cemetery a disposal site, cemetery or abduction.
Speaker 9 (24:53):
Site, not an abduction site somewhere to take somebody.
Speaker 4 (24:58):
Okay, so you need to take the cemeteries out, kind
of like you talked about staking out some of these
other places.
Speaker 7 (25:06):
Yeah, I would go on a lot of those cemeteries have.
Speaker 9 (25:15):
Main and sheds and stuff that are usually pretty easy
to get into, so.
Speaker 5 (25:21):
I'm pretty remote. This one's in the middle of nowhere.
Speaker 1 (25:24):
Yeah, okay. I am at Post Oak Cemetery in glen Rose.
It's the cemetery that a map quest with directions too
was found on Keys's phone, I believe, or computer phone.
(25:50):
I don't think his intention was to abduct someone from here.
The cemetery is tiny, there's maybe two hundred graves, and
the likelihood of being here at the same time a
mourner or someone visiting a loved one's grave would be
here is very slim, but I do think perhaps it
(26:13):
was a place he was considering or maybe did bring
a victim to. There's a shed behind the church. It's
not visible from the road and it has no dead bolt.
Speaker 2 (26:25):
It's just a.
Speaker 1 (26:26):
Knob block that would be very easy to break into.
Speaker 2 (26:31):
And we're pretty much in the middle of nowhere.
Speaker 1 (26:35):
You can see the driveway to the cemetery or the
road in the cemetery actually goes behind.
Speaker 2 (26:41):
The church, so if you could park there and be
pretty obscured.
Speaker 1 (26:45):
There's a house right here, but I think with trees
and if it's at night, they're not really going to
see anything. So yeah, this is the post Oak Cemetery
in glen Rose, and I definitely think was planning on
bringing someone here.
Speaker 6 (27:04):
And so if if I could just go back to
the the when you're traveling in Texas, where you went.
I know you went to you went to Houston, New Orleans,
back to.
Speaker 1 (27:14):
Dallas, and then you said you went south on the
those days thirteenth, fourteenth, and did driving around south?
Speaker 6 (27:20):
Did you just stay in Texas?
Speaker 7 (27:22):
Yeah? I was, Yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 4 (27:27):
I don't.
Speaker 9 (27:27):
I don't know what I was thinking. I was, like
I said, I was kind of kind of out of control.
Speaker 4 (27:33):
There was.
Speaker 7 (27:35):
Forget the name of the town.
Speaker 1 (27:39):
I think it was.
Speaker 9 (27:39):
Called uh Glen, Glen Rose or Glen something, and it
was south of Cleeburn or something. And I stopped at
this uh river park and I was just hanging out there,
and there was it was getting pretty late.
Speaker 7 (27:58):
And there was u a woman who came.
Speaker 9 (28:04):
And she was going for a walk on the trails
up and down the river or something, and I almost
went after her. She had a big dog with her,
it was like a mastiff or something. But I was
gonna shoot the dog.
Speaker 6 (28:19):
I don't know.
Speaker 7 (28:19):
I was just I wasn't. I definitely wasn't planning things
through in Texas.
Speaker 8 (28:25):
I just wasn't.
Speaker 6 (28:25):
I was kind of just looking for something.
Speaker 1 (28:29):
Once I got to the cemetery, it was very very
clear that he was not going there to abduct anyone.
It's super isolated. There's maybe one hundred graves. I did
not see a single person while I was there. I
just think it's very unlikely that keys would happen to
be there while someone else alone would happen to be there,
let alone someone else at all. What I did notice
(28:51):
is a it is super empty and isolated, and be
there is a shed, and he talked about using cemetery
sheds to rape and kill people. There was a shed there,
so perhaps that was a place he had planned on
taking someone. Perhaps it's a place he did take someone.
From Glen Rose, I drove to Stephenville. If you're watching,
(29:16):
here is a copy of Keys's Alaska cruise itinerary that
has Stephenville, Texas and then some streets and some coordinates.
We were able to trace those coordinates to this specific area,
and once I got out there, I was like, oh, yeah, there,
this would be a perfect place for him to bury
a cash. It would also be a easy place for
(29:39):
him to harm someone without being seen from the road.
There are some apartments there they I think we're brand
new in twenty twelve. We're still trying to find out
exactly when those apartments were built. And then across the
street as a bank that was not there in twenty twelve.
So super isolated, but also just a quick, like three
(30:01):
minute drive into downtown Stephenville where there is a university.
So perfect location for him and actually Jordan was able
to pull up satellite images from June I think twenty twelve,
and you can actually see tire marks going into this area,
so it looks like around that time someone had driven
(30:21):
deep into the brush there. Again, I did not go
in because I like to follow the rules and I
was really pressed for time. I had brought my drone
and unfortunately when I pulled it out to fly it
over the area, it was not working. So it felt
like a big failure. The first day, in all honesty,
was not the most successful day of this research trip. Again,
(30:46):
we'll have to go back there at some point with
a team and hopefully with permission to actually get out
onto the grounds there. But you can see some images
and video that I took and the map from there.
I was going to go drive to Alido, to the
house that keys burned down, and it was funny when
I pulled up the maps, it gave me two different routes,
(31:10):
one going back through glen Rose which was gonna take
a little bit longer, or one more direct and shorter.
And it was so weird that the glen Rose route
came up because it was a longer distance and a
longer drive, and that just felt like I don't know
a sign. So I ended up driving back through glen
(31:31):
Rose and I'm so glad I did. I remember reading
about this, but it was not something that was ever
like super present of mind. Glen Rose is well known
because it's a like a fossil dig site. They've found
a bunch of dinosaur fossils there, and that's kind of
what the town has like built its brand on there
(31:53):
are you drive through the town and there's like dinosaur
shit everywhere. Everything is named after dinosaurs. And as I'm
driving through this main artery with all the dinosaur stuff,
I remembered he's a suicide letter and he references streets
made of dinosaur bones. And we know he was in
glen Rose because he had directions to it on his phone.
(32:16):
He even talked about being at a riverside park in
that area and staking out a woman who was walking
her dog, and he talked about maybe shooting the dog.
And there is a riverside park in glen Rose that
matches his description of it. So then we started talking
and I was like texting the team through voice text,
(32:36):
don't worry, like, am I making this up?
Speaker 2 (32:40):
Was this in the letter?
Speaker 1 (32:42):
And it was, and then we started texting about whether
there are other references to places he's been. It doesn't
necessarily mean references to things he's done or like clues
two crimes he's committed, because I don't know that he
would consciously do that, but I do wonder if you
would subconsciously do that or consciously reference places he's been.
(33:05):
And it just seemed weird to me. Roads made of
dinosaur bones, as far as I can tell, is not
like a common phrase, but it is something common to
people in glen Rose. So I'm so glad I took
this longer route, and I will thank Google Maps for
making this happen for us. From there, I went to Alito,
(33:27):
and sadly the lot that the house that he burned
down was on there is now a new house on that,
so I was not able to walk around. But I
went there a few years ago and with Charlie Worrel,
and we took some video and some images, So I'm
going to show that to you now, Soul.
Speaker 4 (33:49):
That would be their front driveway, so the house is
visible from the road, or would have been.
Speaker 2 (33:58):
But that makes sense.
Speaker 1 (34:00):
What's interesting to me is in all these places I went,
there were so many homes that were super isolated, and
this was not. It's in a neighborhood. There was a
house directly across the street. In fact, I remember while
we were there there were people like watching us walking
around the lot. So it's not a place that you
could easily conceal yourself the driveway. I think, as far
(34:24):
as we could tell, it would be possible to hide
a rental car behind where the garage was, But it
would be very hard for him to get in and
out of this neighborhood unseen, unless, of course, he got
there earlier in the morning, meaning like while it was
still night out. And if that's the case, that begs
(34:46):
the question why was he lying about when he arrived? So, yeah,
that was interesting, and I know we've talked about this before,
but he said that he had burned that house down
to create a distraction from the cops so he could
go rob the bank. That it was not true, because
I did it on my last trip there, and on
this trip. The ride from that Alito house to the
(35:08):
bank he robbed an Asel is minimum thirty minutes. It's
a different jurisdiction, I believe it's even a different county,
so it would not have been the same officers responding
to both calls. And he also slipped up later and
said that he went to a church to watch the
house burn. I have not been able to find that church,
but it's very clear to me one thing had nothing
(35:31):
to do with the other in terms of how he
was concealing his crimes, or you know, his motivation for
concealing his crimes. Also, we know there was a great
amount of time between the two. He says that he
burned the house down I think at like seven am,
and then he robbed the bank I think at around
one pm. I don't have the notes in front of me,
but I'll throw up the police report now so you
(35:55):
can see it and we can prove me wrong. So
from there I went back to Azel again. This was
pretty brazen. Unlike Tupper Lake, where the bank that he
robbed is on the edge of town, this bank is
right in the heart of downtown Azel. For all the
places I've been where I've known that Keys's committed crimes,
(36:16):
this is the one that shocked me the most because
it is just it would be so hard to get
in and out. It would be impossible to get in
and out without being seen. The bank is in the
heart of downtown and behind it is a thriving residential neighborhood.
There are no trees, there are no parks, There's no
place near this bank that he could run and hide.
Speaker 2 (36:37):
I was gonna love this.
Speaker 1 (36:49):
So he would have to run and speed out of town,
but then he would also have to drive through the
town to get out. It was just a very wild
choice on his part. And I can't make sense. So again,
all this time I spent out there, all these remote
and isolated areas, why he picked this specific bank. So yeah,
that was day one of the trip. Like I said,
(37:10):
it was not the most successful day of the trip.
In future episodes, we're going to talk about Mount Enterprise,
Lufkin Wells, Knagadoches, and viter. That was day two of
the trip, and then day three of the trip was
Laplace and Ham and Louisiana, and I think that day
(37:32):
was the most successful. Day two was very successful. I
got to meet Christina in person. We walked around the
Wrestlawn Cemetery where she believes keys tried to abduct her.
I went down to where Mark Oldberry went missing. I
went to James Mark Tidwell's house and Where's car was found,
and those days. I think we're very helpful to our
investigation and we'll give us new stuff to talk about
(37:54):
when the season comes back. But Day one was a
bit of a bummer, but also so glad I did it,
and I think really important. It just wasn't as successful
as I was hoping it would be, and so yeah,
I think we'll definitely do this trip again in the future.
You'll hear there were some hiccups down invited as well,
So yeah, that is it. I hope that these episodes
(38:17):
are valuable to you. I think, even notwithstanding me seeing
the video, seeing the images is probably really helpful. So
thank you for supporting the show at this level, and
I hope you enjoyed this. And like I said, more
to come. We'll do what I'm calling the Lufkin Day
next month, and we'll do the Louisiana Day in July.
(38:41):
So yeah, thanks a lot, you guys, See you soon.
This is a studio both and production. Hey everyone. Recently
I took a research road trip down to Texas and Louisiana.
I interviewed witnesses, went to locations Keys went to, scouted
out areas that we believe he hid caches, went to Laplace,
and visited locations of disappearances that we believe may be
(00:31):
connected to Keys. While on the ground, I took my drone,
road mics, video cameras, and dash cams and documented the
entire trip. And today I'm sharing with you the audio
from day one where I traveled the area surrounding Dallas
that we know Keys visited while his phone was off
and he told his family he was stuck in the mud.
(00:52):
These video episodes are available now monthly on Patreon to
all Patreon members at the chipmunk level and d and above.
Listen now or join Patreon to watch the footage, which
includes photos, videos from the scene, maps, evidence files, and more.
Next month, We'll be releasing a video log of the
(01:12):
Luffkin leg of this trip, which included going to Mount
Enterprise where Jimmy Tidwell disappeared from Vider, interviewing Christina in
person at the Restawan cemetery, going to the area we
believe Mark Julian Oldberry disappeared, and more. And in July
we'll release the New Orleans leg of the trip, where
you went to Laplace and scouted out the area where
(01:34):
keys as Cash was recovered. We also went further north
to where a disappearance occurred that we think Keys may
be responsible for. In these episodes, you'll get new information,
exclusive content, and insights and surprises. Think of these as
your peak behind the curtain as we're preparing the new
season of True crime Bullshit. So enjoy this bonus episode
(01:56):
and to watch the video and future videos from this
research road trip and others, join Patreon today at Patreon
dot com, slash Studio both and in addition to these,
you'll get thoughts and Feelings, bonus episodes, one on one interviews,
exclusive research roundtables, and more. And for those of you
(02:18):
interested in joining us in Bali, we have a handful
of tickets left, so join us in late September and
early October in the most beautiful place in the world
where we'll visit sacred water temples, night markets, the Monkey Forest,
and more, and you'll get an exclusive first listen to
the season seven True Crime Bullshit premiere. To learn more
(02:41):
or book your ticket today, click the Trova link in
the show notes and now enjoy this bonus research road
trip episode. Hey everyone, welcome to the first episode of
the Patreon exclusive series Research Road Trips. I'm hoping to
release one one of these every month. Obviously that's contingent
(03:03):
on whether we take any research road trips, but I
thought it was a great way to kind of share
the experience of being out on the road and researching
keys and presumably in the future other cases, and sharing
that with you all, so you can kind of learn
in real ish time what we're learning, and see what
(03:24):
we're seeing, and really get a sense of what it's
like to be out there, because often what happens is
you're driving place to place to check them out, and
in those drives you see things or realize things that
you never could have while looking at maps. And so
in this episode, you'll actually get to see text messages
between me and some of the researchers as I stumbled
(03:45):
upon something unexpected. So for this episode, we are focusing
on the first day of my most recent research trip,
which is in the Dallas area. The trip started in Dallas.
The night before I started our research, we had a
meet up at a Dallas hotel and a good friend
(04:07):
of mine who is I think a very important part
of the true crime podcast community, Jason Watts, came out.
For those of you unfamiliar with Jason, he was good
friends with Brandon Lawson, a twenty six year old man
who disappeared in Bronte, Texas in August of twenty thirteen.
Jason was integral in leading searches to find Brandon, and
(04:32):
eventually they did find his remains. Back in twenty twenty two.
Jason and I had become good friends just going through
the true crime podcast festival circuit, and he lives in Cleeburn,
so he wanted to be on hand to help.
Speaker 2 (04:47):
Me through this trip.
Speaker 1 (04:49):
He unfortunately was conducting a search for a different missing
person on the day that I was going to be
out on the road, So we kind of debriefed the
night before, and as we were going over all of
the locations that came up in our Keys research or
in our Keys sightings, he noted that there was a
fairly isolated lake with a boat ramp not far at
(05:09):
all from where a man believes that he pulled Keys
out of the mud in Godly, Texas, so we added
that to the itinerary. In fact, that was the first
place I went the next morning, so I drove out
there first just because it was the closest location to
the hotel, and I had a lot of ground to
cover that day. Ideally I would have done everything in
(05:32):
the order that we believe Keys did it, but that
would have taken significantly longer than the time that I
had allotted for this segment of the trip. And that said,
you will be getting two more of these episodes, which
will contain the rest of that trip. So I had
a lot of research to squeeze in a very short
amount of time. So I went out to this lake,
and on the map it appears way closer to where
(05:56):
Keys's truck was allegedly pulled out of the mud. It's walkable,
it's a straight line. In fact, the road that his
truck was pulled off of dead ends at this boat ramp,
So it would not be wild to presume that perhaps
Keys was on his way to that boat ramp when
he got a truck stuck in the mud. And we'll
(06:19):
talk about that location in a second. Because it was
a little confusing and interesting, and I don't really know
how to make sense of it just yet. But getting
out to this boat ramp, it's fairly isolated. You do
have to pay to access this area. However, I think
at night it's on our system and it would be
(06:40):
very easy to get in after hours, like very very easy.
In fact, I don't think even when I went through,
I engaged with anyone. I think it was just like
slip your credit card into a machine and pull out
a ticket. I actually had scheduled a Instagram live for
while I was there, so I'm just gonna go ahead
(07:02):
and play that now, and you can hear me in
real time on little location talking about it.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
Okay, sorry, I'm a little late traffic.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
I am out on the road.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
It is my first day of.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
Driving through the Dallas area doing some research, looking into
some stuff that we have discovered since last season or
during last season. I'm currently about half a mile from
where a man believes he pulled keys out of the.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
Mud in Godly, Texas.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
What's interesting is the road that that man believes he
found keys on leads to.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
A lake with a boat.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
Ramp, and I'm wondering if maybe that's where Keys was
on his way too. The first thing I noticed driving
out here is this is basically the first exit.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
After suburbia ends. So it's just like.
Speaker 1 (08:08):
Housing developed, housing development, housing development, and then nothing. And
so it strikes me as very much a place Keys
would come to. In fact, I could imagine him driving
down this highway and seeing this exit and being like, Okay,
this is where we're in the excerbs. Now this feels
like a safe place to be. So anyway, all that
(08:31):
is to say, if you have questions, ask them. I'm
gonna be live for only a little bit, probably like
ten minutes, so pop those questions in and I will
answer as many as I can. Where am I I
don't want to give too many details because there are weirdos,
but I'm at a lake in Godly, Texas, not far
(08:55):
from where Keys was pulled out of the mud.
Speaker 2 (08:59):
And as I was saying at the beginning, it's literally.
Speaker 1 (09:05):
Where he got pulled out of the mud, or allegedly
got pulled out of the mud, or half a mile
from there on the same road. The road he was
allegedly on dead ends into this boat ramp, So that
seems not like a coincidence. So let's see any other
questions where am I answered that stalker weirdos or towny weirdos? Well,
(09:31):
I just always you know, I know some other shows
who would report from the road and say exactly where
they were, and then they'd have people like show up
at their motels and harass them. So I'm not trying
to do that, So I guess stalker weirdos and I
am actively avoiding putting my finger over the mic, so
(09:51):
we don't have the same situation as last time. How
far is the road from the lake? The road dead
ends into the lake. That is the road. I can't
really see it, and that is the lake, so it
feels very intentional.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
How was it meet up last night? It was sparse
but fun.
Speaker 1 (10:14):
There were in total five of us, but we had
great conversations. Laney from True Crime Cases was there. Jason
Watt's friend of Brendan Lawson was there. We had a
very good time and it was pretty pretty well behaved.
(10:34):
So someone asked to see the area. This is it,
and it actually looks a lot like Lake Paris. But
and what's really interesting is before you get to the
(10:55):
actual lake itself, there's a river with a boat ramp,
that felt a lot like the boat ramp at the
Raquette River. I might pop over there in a second.
I'm very annoyed because I packed up all my equipment
and then realized my drone batteries were in a different bag.
So I will not be able to get drone footage today,
which sucks. But I do have a bunch of other equipment,
(11:17):
so hopefully we can get some good video that I
can share with you all later. Would this have been
chronologically between Samantha and the arrest, Yes, this would have
been while he was in Texas with his phone turned off.
He dropped his kid off with his mom turned off.
His phone disappeared for two and a half three days.
(11:39):
I think there's people fighting over there, and claimed to
be stuck in the mud. He admitted that he did
get stuck in the mud, but that he wasn't stuck
in the mud the whole time. And again, like I
said in last season, a man has come forward and
is fairly certain he's the one who pulled him out
of the mud just half a mile down the road
from here. Yeah, Kaz, says Jroline. No, I know, I mean,
(12:09):
Droleine is fine. She's just inoperable today, and I thought
about turning around, but I didn't realize until I was
about an hour away from the hotel. So I have
not looked at the mud yet. I was going to
do that first, but traffic was such a nightmare that
I didn't get here till obviously late, ten minutes later
than I was supposed to.
Speaker 2 (12:30):
So lake people are wild, so.
Speaker 1 (12:39):
I have not had a chance to go there yet.
I'm going to go there next and I was gonna
report from their report, but it's literally just the side
of a road. And I was talking to Jason Watts
and he was like, you won't run into anyone there,
but I wouldn't spend a lot of time there by yourself.
So the weather is great. Do you ever feel emotionally
(13:01):
attached to Keys? I mean, I feel like that answer
requires a ton of context, But.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
Not to him as a person.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
I think I used to when I was really immersing
myself in the files for the first time and getting
to know his life and his loved ones. I think
less and less as time has progressed. Do I have
any sort of attachment or interest in him as a
person outside the scope of the investigation. I also have
been doing this for a very long time, and I
(13:33):
think you know everything to know about him that can
be known. I do know, and so there's less interest
in who he was as a person. How deep is
the lake? Jason looked it up last night, and if
I recall correctly, it was like thirty or forty feet,
so not the ideal depth. But we also know Keys
(13:57):
went to at least lakes.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
Do I think there's a kit here? There could be.
Speaker 1 (14:06):
There's a place not far from here that kind of matches. Sorry,
there's this weird red truck that just keeps driving back
and forth and back and forth. Anyway, there's a place
near to here with a berm that kind of matches
the location that he buried the kit in Eagle River.
(14:28):
So I'm gonna check that out next. But I am
curious if there's something out here, because it just seems
like he was on his way here. I can't think
of any other reason he would have been on that
road other than to come to this lake, particularly if
he'd like planned out this trip and was looking at maps.
This is not Lake pat Kleeburn. This is Lake bren Burn.
(14:52):
I think bren Burn. There are multiple boat ramps there
are multiple outhouses. It's funny because there's a ton of activity,
but there's little pockets that are quiet. And because there's
a couple streams and a river, there are definitely areas
where you can go and be quite secluded and away
(15:12):
from people without being seen. Let's see, so he was
seen on the road to this lake. Yes he well,
probably a man believes he's the one who pulled keys
out of the mud half a mile down the road
that leads to this lake, Benbrook, Yes, Benbrook Lake. Funny,
how like not five minutes ago, I was like, I'm
(15:34):
not going to give my exact location, and here we
are Lake Benbrook, So yeah, that is it. I'm gonna
do a bunch of the Dallas stuff today and then
tomorrow we are leaving the area and heading east.
Speaker 2 (15:54):
I have a very packed few days.
Speaker 1 (15:56):
I think tomorrow's like six hours of driving and the
following day is I think like ten hours of driving.
Speaker 2 (16:03):
So we've got a lot to do.
Speaker 1 (16:06):
Have I identified and spoken with the man? Yes, he
was going to try to meet me out here today
but could not, But we have talked extensively. So this
lake is seventy eight feet deep, not thirty, so Yeah,
it is a Keys depth blake and with that, I
think I'm going to pop out of here. I will
be popping in and out throughout the day as we're
(16:28):
at interesting places.
Speaker 2 (16:30):
So stay watched this space.
Speaker 1 (16:33):
But thanks everyone, and I will catch you soon.
Speaker 3 (16:38):
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this episode. So from there I headed back south down
to where this gentleman pulled keys out of the mud.
(18:57):
If you're watching this on video, I'm gonna pull up
our correspondence now and you can see exactly where on
the map it was, and then I'm going to put
up some go pro image that I took. What was
interesting about this is, you know, Jason had told me
it's a very isolated area and I probably wouldn't see anyone.
Speaker 2 (19:17):
And while it was.
Speaker 1 (19:19):
Very isolated, it was also heavily trafficked. And I don't
know if that's just people going to the lake. It
was a Friday, so maybe people were heading to the
lake for the weekend, or if it was just a
weird time of day that I was there. But I
could not pull over because A there was hardly any
shoulder at all, and B there was so much traffic
on this road at the time that I was there.
(19:40):
And what I'm wondering and I'm gone back and it's
really hard to tell. So there's a fence along the
shoulder of the road there, which would make it a
very hard to pull over, and be obviously even harder
to like pull off the road enough that you would
get a car stuck in the mud. We can't determine
whether or not that fence was back in twenty twelve.
(20:03):
The area that he highlighted on the map is also
interesting because it's.
Speaker 2 (20:06):
Not near anything.
Speaker 1 (20:09):
Further down on the road, there is a berm like
they call it the dip. You can look it up
on Google Maps, but it's a part of the road
that dips down and isn't super visible from the rest
of the road, and it's shrouded in shrubs and some
trees and.
Speaker 2 (20:25):
A little stream.
Speaker 1 (20:27):
And that was of great interest to me because we
know that the Eagle River Kill kit was buried under
a berm. But again, it was impossible to pull over
there and look around the closest I basically would have
had to go back to the lake to park and
then walk there because there was nowhere to pull over
anywhere in between those two spots. Again, a lot of
(20:49):
that is because of fencing that is up that we
don't know if it was there thirteen years ago. And
again I would have done that, but time was super limited.
I think like nine hours of driving to do that day,
and then had to get up at seven am the
next morning to do I think seven hours of driving.
So you know, that's the thing is when you're on
(21:12):
these trips and you have such limited time, you kind
of have to make decisions. And that is why sometimes
we have to repeat them because there's stuff we didn't see,
or there's stuff that has come up since. And so
unfortunately for me, I do think another Dallas trip is
going to have to happen at some point. All this
is to say the location that he pulled him out
(21:32):
of the mud is odd because it is near to
other parts of that road where there are trees, there's
a stream, you could be easily hidden from people. But
where he says the car was was like very exposed.
The one thing I noticed though, is where the car
was is not far from train tracks. In fact, I
was stuck there behind a train for a while. And
(21:55):
you know, we've talked a lot about power lines and
how keys could use power lines to it through the
woods very easily without being seen, and the same can
be said for train tracks. It's something that's come up
before in our research, and I think even on the podcast.
So that was interesting. But yeah, you can see if
you're watching the video now, it's a very exposed area.
(22:17):
So I don't I can't make heads or tails of it.
From there, I drove out to the Post Oak Cemetery
in Glen Rose, where Keys had a map to that
cemetery on his phone, like a photo of map quest directions.
(22:39):
And I'm going to play a clip with Joline asking
him about that.
Speaker 4 (22:42):
Now. One of the things that was on your phone,
there's a cemetery in text?
Speaker 5 (23:02):
Did you go to the cemetery in Texas? What was
the cemetery about one of Glenros Does that sound right?
Speaker 4 (23:12):
Yeah?
Speaker 6 (23:12):
I went to a few different cemeteries.
Speaker 5 (23:16):
What could you go to the cemetery for?
Speaker 6 (23:21):
That's a picture?
Speaker 5 (23:22):
What was on your phone.
Speaker 4 (23:25):
That r?
Speaker 7 (23:26):
Is that on map quest or something that?
Speaker 4 (23:28):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (23:28):
I think you took a picture of your computer.
Speaker 6 (23:30):
Is what it looks like?
Speaker 8 (23:34):
You get care of.
Speaker 6 (23:41):
Some problem with technology depending on it? Do you think
about it anymore?
Speaker 4 (23:47):
Oh?
Speaker 5 (23:49):
No?
Speaker 9 (23:49):
I that was mostly I was just looking for different places,
convenient locations.
Speaker 8 (23:59):
Uh didn't.
Speaker 9 (24:10):
Yeah, I I went to a lot of different places
because none of 'em really seemed like they worked out.
People were very nosy in Texas, so I wasn't any
I took me a while to find anywhere.
Speaker 6 (24:23):
Then I felt comfortable. Did you find that place?
Speaker 7 (24:39):
Well, I found a few different I didn't. I didn't take.
Speaker 8 (24:41):
Anybody on that trip.
Speaker 7 (24:42):
If that's what you're asking, I.
Speaker 6 (24:43):
Was that was That's what I was.
Speaker 7 (24:45):
That's what the thought process was. I didn't do it.
Speaker 8 (24:48):
But why a.
Speaker 6 (24:49):
Cemetery a disposal site, cemetery or abduction.
Speaker 9 (24:53):
Site, not an abduction site somewhere to take somebody.
Speaker 4 (24:58):
Okay, so you need to take the cemeteries out, kind
of like you talked about staking out some of these
other places.
Speaker 7 (25:06):
Yeah, I would go on a lot of those cemeteries have.
Speaker 9 (25:15):
Main and sheds and stuff that are usually pretty easy
to get into, so.
Speaker 5 (25:21):
I'm pretty remote. This one's in the middle of nowhere.
Speaker 1 (25:24):
Yeah, okay. I am at Post Oak Cemetery in glen Rose.
It's the cemetery that a map quest with directions too
was found on Keys's phone, I believe, or computer phone.
(25:50):
I don't think his intention was to abduct someone from here.
The cemetery is tiny, there's maybe two hundred graves, and
the likelihood of being here at the same time a
mourner or someone visiting a loved one's grave would be
here is very slim, but I do think perhaps it
(26:13):
was a place he was considering or maybe did bring
a victim to. There's a shed behind the church. It's
not visible from the road and it has no dead bolt.
Speaker 2 (26:25):
It's just a.
Speaker 1 (26:26):
Knob block that would be very easy to break into.
Speaker 2 (26:31):
And we're pretty much in the middle of nowhere.
Speaker 1 (26:35):
You can see the driveway to the cemetery or the
road in the cemetery actually goes behind.
Speaker 2 (26:41):
The church, so if you could park there and be
pretty obscured.
Speaker 1 (26:45):
There's a house right here, but I think with trees
and if it's at night, they're not really going to
see anything. So yeah, this is the post Oak Cemetery
in glen Rose, and I definitely think was planning on
bringing someone here.
Speaker 6 (27:04):
And so if if I could just go back to
the the when you're traveling in Texas, where you went.
I know you went to you went to Houston, New Orleans,
back to.
Speaker 1 (27:14):
Dallas, and then you said you went south on the
those days thirteenth, fourteenth, and did driving around south?
Speaker 6 (27:20):
Did you just stay in Texas?
Speaker 7 (27:22):
Yeah? I was, Yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 4 (27:27):
I don't.
Speaker 9 (27:27):
I don't know what I was thinking. I was, like
I said, I was kind of kind of out of control.
Speaker 4 (27:33):
There was.
Speaker 7 (27:35):
Forget the name of the town.
Speaker 1 (27:39):
I think it was.
Speaker 9 (27:39):
Called uh Glen, Glen Rose or Glen something, and it
was south of Cleeburn or something. And I stopped at
this uh river park and I was just hanging out there,
and there was it was getting pretty late.
Speaker 7 (27:58):
And there was u a woman who came.
Speaker 9 (28:04):
And she was going for a walk on the trails
up and down the river or something, and I almost
went after her. She had a big dog with her,
it was like a mastiff or something. But I was
gonna shoot the dog.
Speaker 6 (28:19):
I don't know.
Speaker 7 (28:19):
I was just I wasn't. I definitely wasn't planning things
through in Texas.
Speaker 8 (28:25):
I just wasn't.
Speaker 6 (28:25):
I was kind of just looking for something.
Speaker 1 (28:29):
Once I got to the cemetery, it was very very
clear that he was not going there to abduct anyone.
It's super isolated. There's maybe one hundred graves. I did
not see a single person while I was there. I
just think it's very unlikely that keys would happen to
be there while someone else alone would happen to be there,
let alone someone else at all. What I did notice
(28:51):
is a it is super empty and isolated, and be
there is a shed, and he talked about using cemetery
sheds to rape and kill people. There was a shed there,
so perhaps that was a place he had planned on
taking someone. Perhaps it's a place he did take someone.
From Glen Rose, I drove to Stephenville. If you're watching,
(29:16):
here is a copy of Keys's Alaska cruise itinerary that
has Stephenville, Texas and then some streets and some coordinates.
We were able to trace those coordinates to this specific area,
and once I got out there, I was like, oh, yeah, there,
this would be a perfect place for him to bury
a cash. It would also be a easy place for
(29:39):
him to harm someone without being seen from the road.
There are some apartments there they I think we're brand
new in twenty twelve. We're still trying to find out
exactly when those apartments were built. And then across the
street as a bank that was not there in twenty twelve.
So super isolated, but also just a quick, like three
(30:01):
minute drive into downtown Stephenville where there is a university.
So perfect location for him and actually Jordan was able
to pull up satellite images from June I think twenty twelve,
and you can actually see tire marks going into this area,
so it looks like around that time someone had driven
(30:21):
deep into the brush there. Again, I did not go
in because I like to follow the rules and I
was really pressed for time. I had brought my drone
and unfortunately when I pulled it out to fly it
over the area, it was not working. So it felt
like a big failure. The first day, in all honesty,
was not the most successful day of this research trip. Again,
(30:46):
we'll have to go back there at some point with
a team and hopefully with permission to actually get out
onto the grounds there. But you can see some images
and video that I took and the map from there.
I was going to go drive to Alido, to the
house that keys burned down, and it was funny when
I pulled up the maps, it gave me two different routes,
(31:10):
one going back through glen Rose which was gonna take
a little bit longer, or one more direct and shorter.
And it was so weird that the glen Rose route
came up because it was a longer distance and a
longer drive, and that just felt like I don't know
a sign. So I ended up driving back through glen
(31:31):
Rose and I'm so glad I did. I remember reading
about this, but it was not something that was ever
like super present of mind. Glen Rose is well known
because it's a like a fossil dig site. They've found
a bunch of dinosaur fossils there, and that's kind of
what the town has like built its brand on there
(31:53):
are you drive through the town and there's like dinosaur
shit everywhere. Everything is named after dinosaurs. And as I'm
driving through this main artery with all the dinosaur stuff,
I remembered he's a suicide letter and he references streets
made of dinosaur bones. And we know he was in
glen Rose because he had directions to it on his phone.
(32:16):
He even talked about being at a riverside park in
that area and staking out a woman who was walking
her dog, and he talked about maybe shooting the dog.
And there is a riverside park in glen Rose that
matches his description of it. So then we started talking
and I was like texting the team through voice text,
(32:36):
don't worry, like, am I making this up?
Speaker 2 (32:40):
Was this in the letter?
Speaker 1 (32:42):
And it was, and then we started texting about whether
there are other references to places he's been. It doesn't
necessarily mean references to things he's done or like clues
two crimes he's committed, because I don't know that he
would consciously do that, but I do wonder if you
would subconsciously do that or consciously reference places he's been.
(33:05):
And it just seemed weird to me. Roads made of
dinosaur bones, as far as I can tell, is not
like a common phrase, but it is something common to
people in glen Rose. So I'm so glad I took
this longer route, and I will thank Google Maps for
making this happen for us. From there, I went to Alito,
(33:27):
and sadly the lot that the house that he burned
down was on there is now a new house on that,
so I was not able to walk around. But I
went there a few years ago and with Charlie Worrel,
and we took some video and some images, So I'm
going to show that to you now, Soul.
Speaker 4 (33:49):
That would be their front driveway, so the house is
visible from the road, or would have been.
Speaker 2 (33:58):
But that makes sense.
Speaker 1 (34:00):
What's interesting to me is in all these places I went,
there were so many homes that were super isolated, and
this was not. It's in a neighborhood. There was a
house directly across the street. In fact, I remember while
we were there there were people like watching us walking
around the lot. So it's not a place that you
could easily conceal yourself the driveway. I think, as far
(34:24):
as we could tell, it would be possible to hide
a rental car behind where the garage was, But it
would be very hard for him to get in and
out of this neighborhood unseen, unless, of course, he got
there earlier in the morning, meaning like while it was
still night out. And if that's the case, that begs
(34:46):
the question why was he lying about when he arrived? So, yeah,
that was interesting, and I know we've talked about this before,
but he said that he had burned that house down
to create a distraction from the cops so he could
go rob the bank. That it was not true, because
I did it on my last trip there, and on
this trip. The ride from that Alito house to the
(35:08):
bank he robbed an Asel is minimum thirty minutes. It's
a different jurisdiction, I believe it's even a different county,
so it would not have been the same officers responding
to both calls. And he also slipped up later and
said that he went to a church to watch the
house burn. I have not been able to find that church,
but it's very clear to me one thing had nothing
(35:31):
to do with the other in terms of how he
was concealing his crimes, or you know, his motivation for
concealing his crimes. Also, we know there was a great
amount of time between the two. He says that he
burned the house down I think at like seven am,
and then he robbed the bank I think at around
one pm. I don't have the notes in front of me,
but I'll throw up the police report now so you
(35:55):
can see it and we can prove me wrong. So
from there I went back to Azel again. This was
pretty brazen. Unlike Tupper Lake, where the bank that he
robbed is on the edge of town, this bank is
right in the heart of downtown Azel. For all the
places I've been where I've known that Keys's committed crimes,
(36:16):
this is the one that shocked me the most because
it is just it would be so hard to get
in and out. It would be impossible to get in
and out without being seen. The bank is in the
heart of downtown and behind it is a thriving residential neighborhood.
There are no trees, there are no parks, There's no
place near this bank that he could run and hide.
Speaker 2 (36:37):
I was gonna love this.
Speaker 1 (36:49):
So he would have to run and speed out of town,
but then he would also have to drive through the
town to get out. It was just a very wild
choice on his part. And I can't make sense. So again,
all this time I spent out there, all these remote
and isolated areas, why he picked this specific bank. So yeah,
that was day one of the trip. Like I said,
(37:10):
it was not the most successful day of the trip.
In future episodes, we're going to talk about Mount Enterprise,
Lufkin Wells, Knagadoches, and viter. That was day two of
the trip, and then day three of the trip was
Laplace and Ham and Louisiana, and I think that day
(37:32):
was the most successful. Day two was very successful. I
got to meet Christina in person. We walked around the
Wrestlawn Cemetery where she believes keys tried to abduct her.
I went down to where Mark Oldberry went missing. I
went to James Mark Tidwell's house and Where's car was found,
and those days. I think we're very helpful to our
investigation and we'll give us new stuff to talk about
(37:54):
when the season comes back. But Day one was a
bit of a bummer, but also so glad I did it,
and I think really important. It just wasn't as successful
as I was hoping it would be, and so yeah,
I think we'll definitely do this trip again in the future.
You'll hear there were some hiccups down invited as well,
So yeah, that is it. I hope that these episodes
(38:17):
are valuable to you. I think, even notwithstanding me seeing
the video, seeing the images is probably really helpful. So
thank you for supporting the show at this level, and
I hope you enjoyed this. And like I said, more
to come. We'll do what I'm calling the Lufkin Day
next month, and we'll do the Louisiana Day in July.
(38:41):
So yeah, thanks a lot, you guys, See you soon.
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