Episode 266

Sword and Scale contains adult themes and violence, and is not intended for all
audiences. Listener discretion these advice. Do you remember seeing No, no,
no, we understand where you're upset because of what you saw. We found
some of that yesterday. We've seen it too, and it's horrible. Oh
boy, it's time for some more murder stories. You're sick. Fuck.
This is swordin Scale, episode two hundred and sixty six. He's eleven.
Here we go. So I'm sure you've heard by now about swords Gell Television,
and now we have something new coming up this month. It's season two
of Sword and Scale Nightmares. If you have not had a chance to listen
to Swordscale Nightmares yet, listen to it you might enjoy it. It's True
Crime for bedtime, basically what we do here the stories that you all have
come to know and love, you weirdos, but without the clips, without
the nine one one jarring call that will wake you out of your slumber.
So you can actually put this on with a pair of earbuds and what do
they call the airbuds whatever and go to bed. A lot of people listen
to True Crime before going to sleep. Yeah, like I said, sick
Fox, about one hundred miles north of Casper, Wyoming, is a moderate
sized city known for being quote the energy capital of the nation. The city's
actual name is much less interesting. It's Gillette. Gillette, Wyoming produces and
distributes more coal than any other city in the United States, and is also
a significant contributor of crude oil in methane gas. As a developer of these
things, Gillette is an attractive place for people looking to make a lucrative and
honest living. If you're willing and able to work a strenuous, blue collar
job, there's good money to be made in Gillette. For many years,
thousands of men and women have taken advantage of the employment opportunities that Gillette offers.
Is often the case, when a city attracts a lot of people,
it also attracts a lot of crime. To combat that crime, this city
depends on the Gillette Police Department and the Campbell County Sheriff's Office. Back in
mid October of twenty sixteen, two deputy investigators at the Campbell County Sheriff's Office
were hard at work questioning a young woman named Kylie Collins. What don't you
get well, you told me, Well, you saw someone reported that at
my house or whatever. So I feel like you guys know stuff in your
withholding stuff for me. Well, I mean that's true. We do know
things that we're not going to tell you. We're concerned about these guys who
were missing and trying to locate them and find out exactly what happened there.
The reason that Kylie was being questioned was because about five weeks before this interview
took place, two young men who were last seen in Gillette had been reported
missing by their respective family members. One of those two men was thirty three
year old Philip Brewer. Philip was a Wyoming native who lived and worked in
Gillette. He was a father of two young sons who made a hard earned
living by working on an oil field. Philip liked to fish and ride snowmobiles.
He was an avid outdoorsman who was considered by his family to be a
kind and caring guy. Sadly, in September of twenty sixteen, Philip seemingly
dropped off the face of the earth and nobody could reach them. Eventually,
Philip was reported missing, and this led police to question his girlfriend shall Be
Warren. Did you guys start dating King Classia. When ream Philip started dayton
we went up and stayed with Tony in Helena, Montana in February. Philip
had lots of friends, but he was closest to his childhood friend, Jody
Fortuna, who happened to be the other young man that police were searching for.
Like Philip, thirty eight year old Jody loved the fish, He was
a rare rock collector, and he enjoyed the outdoors. Jody was a self
employed general contractor, and his work, along with the advice of his family,
led him to settle down in Helena, Montana. This move from Wyoming
to Montana put about five hundred miles between him and Philip, but that didn't
stop two friends from seeing each other. They'd often make week long trips to
hang out and visit each other. Philip and Jody were close, they were
like brothers. Philip considered Jody to be his best friend, but so did
someone else. Jody also remained close friends with his other childhood friend, Mike
Montano. I mean, I know that Mike Jody, I can't hardly know
that because they've been best friends forever. Jody was Mike's best friend and Jody
was Phillip's best friend. So I realized, I probably just threw a bunch
of names at you, and your brain is buzzing, so it might be
a little bit difficult to follow. So let's just recap for one moment.
Two guys go missing. Their names are Philip Brewer and Jody Fortuna. Philip
was dating a woman named Shelby Warren, the woman you just heard being interviewed,
and Jody had a friend named Mike Montano. Got it, Probably not,
but let's keep going. About a day or so before Philip and Jody
went missing, Philip and his girlfriend Shelby were driving around Gillette when they ran
into Mike Montano. According to Shelby, Mike told them Jody was coming to
visit all of them from my first drive and he said, hey, Jody's
on his way down here. I'll be here in an hour. I got
a job and he called Jody to help him with it, like a three
day job. He said it was okay. When the police questioned Mike Montana,
he confirmed much of what Shelby had told them. Mike explained that Jody
was his closest friend and that Jody had come to Gillette within days of his
disappearance. Mike also explained that he wasn't a big fan of Philip and didn't
particularly like being around him. So Jody'd gone around Jelett for a while.
He was coming back and worth all the time, maybe before he went back
to his month in Joy's box, being close on. And I didn't like
Philip after a few times, because he just said again. The friendship dynamics
that Mike explained to police were consistent with what Shelby had already told him.
Jody was Mike's best friend and Jody was Phillip's best friend. Everybody liked Jody,
Jody had lots of best friends, but Mike and Philip they didn't like
each other at all. Get alone, no, no, no, they
were like friend of these. The first time Jody brought Mike around, the
him and Philip agreed that they were going to fight, but that they were
going to, you know, one of these days that we're going to throw
down, and they were good with that. They just mutually knew that when
they were around each other, I didn't really like each other. Yeah,
putting things mildly. The relationship between Mike, Phillip and Jody was unusual.
There was a lot of built in tension between Mike and Philip, but that
wasn't the only thing that made things volatile. You see, these three guys
had a habit of sleeping with each other's girlfriends, who, of course to
each other, he's with my friend wants kids that Rob grew up there like
that, for lack of a better phrase, Jody, Mike, and Philip
swapped women, and none of them actually ever really checked in with each other
to make sure this was okay. Even Shelby admitted that in addition to dating
Philip, she'd also hooked up with Mike. You ever day, Jody,
every day? Mike? Sure, yeah, Pause there a minute. Despite
this weird behind the back woman swapping thing, whatever you want to call it,
Jody and Mike maintain their friendship. They grew up together and considered themselves
brothers. It's that weird thing young men do. Boys really, as they're
trying to figure out who they are, they formed these relationships where it's not
real, but they have a sort of camaraderie of sorts, a bond that
can't be broken, or so they thought. In twenty fifteen, Mike met
and began dating a young woman named Kylie Collins, and before long, Mike
introduced Kylie to Jody. In December of that year, Mike and Kylie took
a trip to Montana and spent a few days at JODI's house. He showing
me into coming out there, not where to Montana Jody did. Yeah,
Hollow, were up there only a week, but Jody was still fucking.
He was being fake, Okay, he was just get me up there to
get back any because he thought it fucked his girlfriend. H Jody had this
plan. He told me too, because he thought I fucked his girlfriend.
He was conferienced fucked mine. According to Myke, when Jody invited him and
Kylie to come visit, Jody fully intended to sleep with Kylie and he eventually
did just that. He made me a drink, and that's the last thing
I remember. He made me because we drink Crowning Coke, but now I
changed to crown and set up. He gave me a drinking. I drink
it and for my fucking a whole day, I was out. When I
woke up from that, I fucking Kylie was like, I don't know,
she was super high and just fucking act him where as fuck, Well,
anyway, he fucking come friend, and I was loved Kylie and then I
was like, fucking dude, you figure figure out me, then that's fine.
We're going. We're done. Mike claim that Jody spiked his drink and
while Mike was passed out, Jody and Kylie slept together. When Mike came
to, he suspected that they had sex, and he was pretty pissed off
about it, but he didn't say anything or make any accusations. Why rock
the boat, I guess from there, Jody only made things worse by taunting
Mike. Jody supposedly wore a T shirt that read Relax It's just sex a
smart ship and worried it relaxes just sex. Needless to say, Mike wasn't
having the best time at Jody's, so he and Kylie packed up their belongings
and headed back to Wyoming. Kyie fuck, either she realized that she suckered
or whatever, or she's part of it and she felt bad or something.
This is an awkwardy, so we went back home. Despite what happened in
Montana, the relationship between Jody and Mike seemed to weather the storm after a
short period of no contact, Jody and Mike reconnected in their bonds seemingly remained
intact. I suppose this is the first ignored red flag, or at least
one of them. A friend sleeps with your girlfriend and you say nothing about
it and just pretend like nothing happened. Yeah, I'm sure everything's gonna be
fine, just fine. But for Mike, he just couldn't discount the friendship
they'd built as children. I mean, you make a lot of poor decisions
as children, but I guess he just didn't want to come to terms with
that again. Mike claimed that they were like brothers, already like brothers and
said things like brothers but never visit or never noting that mom even those and
Jody's mom and Jody's family pretty much took care of me when my family was
fucked up. Right. In September of the following year, it was Jody's
turn to do the traveling, and Mike invited Joey to Wyoming. Mike told
Jody that in addition to visiting, Mike also had a three day contracting job
for Jody that would pay well. So Jody packed up his work here and
made the seven hour drive from Helena, Montana to joe Let, Wyoming.
When Jody arrived, he and Mike quickly linked up with Philip and Shelby.
Jody showed up, we started drinking, so all of us went out.
We started drinking there and then we went up to the bar. So you
say all of us as you me Philip, Jody, Mike. That night,
Philip, Jody, Mike, and Shelby went to their local casino,
the Sun Dance Lounge, where they continued to drink and party. We went
down to the Sunnets, shot a couple of games the pool. We had
a few drinks. We were drinking like we're having to get to the bar
and everything we need the bar. We went Joey's house. We just together
because you Shelby, Julian Philip Piata. We left went to my house where
they proceeded to drink some Bacardi okay by having their little bro man sting.
And after a few games of pool and a lot more drinks, this foursome
went to Shelby's house where they continued to drink even more. Things got pretty
rowdy among the guys as the testosterone started to flare along with the drama.
Mack Schell's and Joey stars dreaming Accardi went did g One, Jerry started acting
really fucking weird, like Jody knew I fi fu okay. According to Mike,
the interactions between him and Jody became awkward as the topic of Mike's girlfriend
came up. Meanwhile, Shelby and Phillips started arguing about all the money they
just spent at the casino. So he picked a fight with me that he
has before and still been drinking, and we're still fighting. He left and
Jody followed him. They stood up to Mike's I'm guessing what make should think
that well, because I was spying on him thereafter, and I think that's
what the Tahoe and Jody's car was. Andre Weiler, Mike, Phillip,
and Jody left Shelby's house and headed towards Mike's mobile home. At least that's
what Shelby assumed and tried to confirm when she drove to Mike's trailer park later
that night. Shelby claimed that she saw Jody's car park near Mike's mobile home,
so she knew that Philip and Jody must be there and decided to just
go home for detectives that seemed kind of weird. I mean, why go
there just to turn around and go home. The cops couldn't just take Shelby's
word for it, because this was the last night that anyone saw Jody and
Philip. In fact, both men had been missing for over a month,
and in all likelihood, this was probably the last night that Jody and Philip
were alive. Despite the efforts by police and the interviews they conducted, the
question of what happened to Philip and Jody remained unanswered for quite a while.
But in mid October of twenty sixteen, something happened that revealed their fate.
The Gillette Police Department received a report of a strange black pickup truck that was
parked on the road on the northern edge of their city. When an officer
arrived on scene to investigate, he noticed an overwhelming smell coming from the truck.
The smell was unmistake makeable. It was rotting flesh. The officer hoped
that this truck belonged to a hunter and he was only going to find a
rotting deer carcass in the bed of the pickup, But the officer wasn't so
Lucky. Instead, he found Philip Brewer and Jody Fortuna, but he didn't
find all of them. He only found a few chopped up pieces. In
early September twenty six, thirty eight year old Jody Fortuna and his childhood friend,
thirty three year old Philip Brewer were reported missing by their respective family members.
According to Phillip's girlfriend, Shelby Warren, she last saw Philip and Jody
at her home in Gillette, Wyoming. When questioned by police, Shelby explained
that she'd been drinking pretty heavily with Philip, Jody, and their mutual friend
Mike Montano that night. The collective intoxication led to Philip and Shelby getting into
an argument, and Philip ended up leaving Shelby's house, as did Jody and
Mike. Shelby assumed that they all went to Mike's mobile home, and her
assumption was pretty much confirmed when she decided to drive to Mike's trailer park later
that night. As she did this, she saw Jody's car park nearby and
went home, or so she claimed. When police questioned Mike about this,
he confirmed that Philip and Jody had gone back to his home, that n
but from there he couldn't recall much of what had happened. Everyone was really
drunk, and Mike claimed that when he got home he just passed out.
So what happens at your house? You guys cant do a big fight?
No? No, if I don't straight up black the fuck out. Mike
also claimed that when he woke up the next morning, Philip and Jody were
both gone and he didn't know where they went. Joey's solf was gone,
they were gone, and then just from there the fuck up weirdo. As
for Shelby, she told police that the last time she spoke to Philip was
at her house, but this wasn't the last known contact that Philip had with
someone. In the early morning hours of the next day, Philip apparently called
a friend and explained to them that he and Shelby were fighting. The main
reason for the call was that Philip was looking for a place to stay.
My girlfriend, Crystal has told me since then that Philip called her at five
point thirty and as her she was in Casper if he could come to stay
with her, telling me and her were fighting, and that was the last
year as far as everyone knew, this was the last time that anyone heard
from Philip, but it may not have been the last sighting of him or
Jody. A few days later, Shelby drove to Mike's trailer park with a
friend and they supposedly saw two men on or near Mike's porch, though neither
Shelby nor his friend could be sure that these men were Philip and Jody.
And when we drive by there, we can see from the road and we
seen two and I guess they're guys running out of Mike's house, Like I
remember one jumping off the stairs, you know what I mean, not to
used to jumping off. And I want to say. They didn't have shirts
on either, And we thought it was Philip and Joky. Why I should
think that, Like, I can't see that far anyway, And Benny said,
oh, there they are. No, Benny doesn't know for sure either,
and I'm like, well, I don't want to talk about the Philip
star. I'm not going there, So we just kept driving. Up to
this point, Shelby's story was mostly consistent with Mike's, but after Philip and
Jody disappeared, their respective versions of events started to conflict. Mike told police
that after he woke up from their night of drinking, Philip and Jody were
just gone and he had no idea where they went. But according to Shelby,
Mike knew a lot more than he was telling. I don't know how
many days it had been until Mike came to talk to me again. And
I believe he came to the house, my house to talk to me because
I wanted to know so one I think, so yeah, something like that.
He tells me that Philip and Jody took some guns of his to go
sell them, so he gave him some guns they went to go sell them,
and he hasn't heard from him since. Shelby accepted the explanation that Mike
gave her, but after a few more days went by, Mike flipped the
script on Shelby and started accusing her of knowing where Philip and Jody were.
Mike, he's coming around thinking that making me. He accuses me of knowing
talking to him, knowing where they are. You know, I'm like,
Mike, I seriously haven't talked to him. I don't know what's going on.
He thinks that he's making me think that they burned him and are off
doing something right, what have you seen? Mike doesn't have normal. After
Jody en Philip went missing, like, I started getting scared because Shelby and
this, He started fucking saying like, I'm like, you know what happened?
And she had like I mean yeah. On September seventeenth, twenty sixteen,
Philip and Jody had been missing for just over a week, and it
was around this time that Shelby started to become very concerned, mainly because the
seventeenth was her birthday and she knew that, despite any arguments she and Philip
were having, Philip would never let this day pass without at least giving her
a call. So my birthday was September seventeenth, So that day came and
I know Philip again, and then then I kind of knew. That's when
it kind of starts to really hit me too, that there's something else wrong.
There's something. And then Joni's mom gets a hold of me. She's
worried about it. She contacts me. I don't have no information for her,
and it gets quiet again. You know, I don't really hear from
Mike for a while. More days passed and no sign or content tact with
Philip or Jody. Their respective family members started to worry, and eventually missing
persons reports were filed for both men, though Jody's mom wasn't satisfied with leaving
the investigation solely in the hands of police, so she decided to drive from
Montana to Gillette. Her plan was to question both Shelby and Mike. Jody's
mom comes down here, and because I told her too that I think Mike
knows more the way he's telling us, and that she needed to, you
know, look at Mike, she spends a day here, goes out to
Mike, hum won't answer the door for her, So I meet up with
her and take her to Old Chicago and we corner Kylie. Then all of
a sudden, Mike answers the phone and he says he'll meet with Jody's mom.
In an attempt to reach Mike, Shelby and Jody's mom found and briefly
questioned Mike's girlfriend, Kylie Collins. As they were doing this, Mike suddenly
became available to meet with JODI's mom. Though, when JODI's mom finally met
with him, Mike convinced her that he knew nothing about her son's whereabouts and
that she should be directing her questions and accusations at Shelby. She calls me
to tell me that she's leaving. She's talked to Mike. He doesn't know
anything. She's like, you were the last one to see them, you
know, and kind of made me feel like I was suspect, right,
But I knew that Mike has that kind of effect on people, especially he
was like a sender her. What do you think of it? I think
that Philip was already drink drinking and on one when he when they got up
to Mike because we're fighting. I think that I know Mike's always had a
gun, what kind of gun? Hand gun? That Philip was probably drunken
on one and Nae either got into an altercation that way, If there was
an altercation between Philip and Mike, I think Jody would have tried to break
it up and got caught in the middle. By October fifth, Jody and
Philip had been missing for over a month, and Shelby had supposedly assumed the
worst. She suspected that Mike had killed both of them, and that he
may have been plotting this double murder for some time, as far as three
day. Jacos that Mike had Jody come down for and then we find out
there is no three day job. That's what Mike told him. I think
Mike leurbed Jody down here and told him he had a job for him.
And when he got here and it was no job, Shelby claimed to have
suspicions about Mike, and in turn, Mike had plenty of suspicions about Shelby.
Bear with me here because this is where the story starts to get a
little outlanded. Yeah, yes, I said starts. Mike believed that Shelby
was a drug dealer and at Philip and Jody were working with her, he
suspected that all three of them were involved in some sort of elaborate smuggling operation,
and whatever business they were doing together, they weren't letting Mike in on
it. And then when they figured learned that Joy, Shelby and all they
were like in bed together, you know, Joe, Shelby, Wills,
and they were all secret in about the relationship. They were all secret about
basically, and the way they were being it was like there leaning up to
something. And I can't say that she's not talking about that anytime I ever
fucking needed something run something. She had it. She's such a fucking dominating
weird bitch. She has to know everything going on. It's creamy about Una
told me that fucking Jal's the social path, that this is what his nace
is like. It was Sard become more realistic, you know what I mean
as Ken's carrier's caring. By October ninth, twenty sixteen, Jody and Philip
had been missing for almost forty days, but it was on this day that
they were finally found, at least some pieces of them were. The local
police and Gillette received a report of a pickup truck that was parked on the
northern edge of the city. The truck reportedly smelled like rotting flesh, and
when officers arrived on the scene, they confirmed that the information they received was
accurate. There was, indeed a very stinky pickup truck parked on the side
of the road. When officers opened the bed of the pickup truck, they
found two plastic tots, and inside those tots, well, what do you
think, yeah, several dismembered body parts. This was the moment that the
fate of Philip Brewer and Jody Fortuna was revealed. Both men were dead and
had been chopped into pieces. Tragically, this information did not stay within the
walls of the Gillette Police Department for long. The news of the gruesome discovery
quickly leaked to the families of Philip and Jody, and they learned about their
loved one's death and the state of their bodies through social media and various news
outlets. What followed was years of hardship for the families as they struggled with
the reality that their loved one's bodies had been mutilated. Many of you have
rand and heard about a double homicide Angelett Way, which was first recorded in
early October twenty sixteen. My younger brother, Philip grew wearing his childhood friend
Tony Furtuna were brutally murdered. The victims' bodies were not recovered until October eighth
and ninth. These bodies of these two men were mutilated and stored in plastic
toads and the back of up cup truck for over four weeks, while the
families and these men were francic toly searching for any information on their disappearances.
Once I got through the initial shock of my brother's murder, everything started to
set in the fact that my brother's body was mutilated so badly I never got
to see him when last time took a huge hole on me and the rest
of my family. The nature of these crimes stripped our families of any of
those choices and given my baby brother the proper aerial we felt he deserved.
After the body parts were discovered, they were quickly transported to a medical examiner.
Once there, the cause of death was determined. Unsurprisingly, this missing
per person's case became a double homicide investigation. Obviously, they're both dead,
and the main tended to kill him. Well, Philip was They was shot
by this here I guess execution style for lack of better words. Judy was
also shot in the back of the head and then shot in the back.
Both men had been shot to death before their bodies were dismembered. Strangely,
when the medical examiners attempted to piece together the bodies, they realized they were
missing several pieces. This, of course begged the question where was the rest
of them? At the same time, the homicide investigators were also trying to
piece together the story of how this all happened, and in order to do
that, they interviewed several people. One of those people was Mike Montano's girlfriend,
twenty two year old Kylie Collins. You grew up in Ly. How
many have you, Mike been together? Almost a year? Almost year.
Our year is October thirteenth, So you guys have lived When did you guys
move in together? Probably in November, but we've jumped around places we've lived
it lived with friends. When did you meet Jody for some time last year?
I've really met Jody like a handful of times, just us to live
here. Do you remember the last time you said? Adun't? I really
don't. It's been a while. Did he ever like stay at your house
with you guys? He I think he only came like once, and that's
since we've only had this trailer for this will go You been on going on
a third month, Like whenever Jody would like come or hang out, I
wasn't around, you know, because usually they're having a barrow time, you
know what in the time, you know. Mike and Kylie lived together in
a small trailer in July, and according to Kylie, she didn't know Jody
very well or see much of him because when Jody was around, it meant
that Kylie shouldn't be. As for Philip, Kylie claimed that she knew even
less about him. And you said you met Philip a couple of times.
I've met him once. Where was that? I never remember? I think
it was Mike's old place. So I don't know that much about Philip.
I really don't Philip, I don't know anything about If you're getting the vibe
that Kylie was trying to distance herself from Jody and Philip as much as possible,
you're not alone, The detectives clearly felt the same way, and they
quickly transitioned into another line of questioning about a very particular pickup truck. Was
it weird that you saw Mike's truck over there? Kind? But how come
I don't know? This is weird? Did you notice anything unusual about the
Trump? No? Did you ever see him putting stuff in the pickup?
Or wonder what was in the back of that pickup? I've never wondered.
I mean, I just I'm not going to go in question everything he does.
Wouldn't that be weird? Did you ever walk by the pickup and thing
pickup stinks? No? I remember, because when he parked their pickup,
he parked it back. The reason that the cops were questioning Kylie and Mike's
truck was because the truck that contained Philip and Jody's body parts belonged to Mike
Montano. Given that fact, the obvious assumption was that Mike murdered both men
and dismembered their corpses. And given the other fact that Mike and Kylie lived
together, the detectives clearly believed that Kylie knew a lot more than she was
telling. Since what there's say it too, I have not seen it.
I mean, was there something more going on? And we just get in
big fights. Well sometimes we'll get in big fights and we just kind of,
you know what I mean, for separate ways for a few days or
maybe a day or two, and then we can't stand not talking to each
other. We talk. Not only had Kylie tried to distance herself from the
murder victims, but she also tried to distance herself from her living boyfriend.
She claimed that, even though they were dating and lived together, Kylie would
frequently go days without seeing or hearing from Mike at all. Despite these well
blaytant lies, I mean, let's just call it what it is. The
detectives were able to get Kylie to admit that Mike did have a mean streak
and that he was a jealous man, especially when it came to other men.
And Kylie, you ever seen him get really pissed at somebody besides you?
Yeah, seen him before, but not like horrid mad. Did you
know the other day he punched him and choked him? No, Io,
Yeah, I heard about it. Did she say what happened or why or
anything? Because we heard that too, Because I used his phone to call
Mike. You used Kim's phone, so you got yell this or something.
He just I guess he said who's your who's your real? Whose side are
you on? Who whose friend are you? Or something to Tim. Naturally,
the police didn't only question Kylie. After the body parts were found and
police determined who the pickup truck belonged to, Mike Montano was promptly arrested and
brought into the interrogation room. We both know why we're here today. Okay,
the bit of your truck is a mindles torso it looks like two bullow
ones right here. I don't have no man my name, so I want
hope you guys got some ship cleared up these other fuckers before you know,
Andrew even bigger than Tagger, or if I can, if I will,
we'll assume that today. Okay, Mike was primed and ready to start pointing
fingers, but there was one major issue. The body parts were found in
his truck. It's kind of hard to blame someone else for a double murder
when you're driving around with dismembered pieces of the victims. As to be expected,
then, is too often the situation. When Mike was questioned, his
first concern wasn't Phillips or Jody's families or the heartache and trauma they were enduring
at the time. Mike's first concern was his own future work. And I'm
let's hit this cleared up. I'm not logically, there's no five percent prison.
Isn't a sentence for me? Five years for double homicide? What is
this guy smoking? I need some Given what the police found and where they
found it, it was pretty clear that Mike had murdered Jody and Philip.
But when Mike was questioned about this, he told quite a story, and
that story implicated not one, but two people, Philip's girlfriend, Shelby Warren
and his own girlfriend Kylie Collins. In mid October of twenty sixteen, thirty
seven year old Mike Montana was arrested after several dismembered body parts were found in
the bed of his pickup truck. The body parts belonged to thirty eight year
old Jody Fortuna and thirty three year old Philip Brewer, both of whom had
been reported missing just over a month before this gruesome discovery was made. For
police, there was little doubt that Mike had killed both men, but they
still had plenty of questions like how did they die and why did Mike do
this? Also, when medical examiners tried to put Philip and Jody back together,
they found that several body parts were missing, so where was Mike hiding
the rest of them? In an attempt to get answer to these questions,
Mike Montana was taken to an interview room and interrogated. I know this isn't
easy. I mean, there's anybody found in your truck, and I think
you want to get it off your chest? What went down and where it
went down? I I don't think I need it. Ken, you don't
think you killed him? No, I really really don't. But we'll figure
that out, okay. And listening to Mike's interrogation, it's obvious that he
was a very desperate man looking for any way to deny responsibility for the body
parts that the police had found in his truck. One way he tried to
do this was to point the police toward a potential suspect. You knew Shelley,
is shell me a Shelley? Or for I know Shelley? Do I?
No? I did. Throughout Mike's interrogation, he continuously talked about Philip's
girlfriend, Shelby Warren, and claimed that Shelby was an evil, manipulative sociopath
who could have orchestrated the killings of Philip and Jody. Oh, she's really
worried around money around around me. So they started tracking me basically like can
literally tracking me, Philip or tell me about hints about it which she could
follow people that normally hadn't the wood Philip, Yeah, experience with three while
we were now then three she and Philip, Yeah, what the things they
knew, the things that they were capable of, things that I thought were
just like well, like tracking me. According to Mike, he suspected that
Shelby had been spying on him and tracking his movements for months. Why she
would do such a thing, Mike wasn't sure, but he believe that Philip
and Jody knew all about what Shelby was up to. Despite his suspicions,
Mike maintained his relationships with them because he didn't want to feel lonely. Oh
what a sad guy. I saw signs young and I never time to him
by myself. It's hard to go to another. Eventually, you guys just
starts to talk lower centers. He should Mike claim that his friends were about
to enact some sort of unknown plot against him. Never mind, I don't
want whatever these people are smoking. It makes you too paranoid. Apparently,
Mike was obviously very paranoid. He didn't know what the hell the plot was,
but he knew there was one, and he suspected that his girlfriend Kylie
may have been in on it as well. Well, they're all fucking together.
There's just been a real secret about everything that they're doing. Okay,
I'm gonna be insecretive then too. Well, it seems that in like she
had no shit or no viva, just being were different. Yeah, and
I don't want to think that it was Kylie. The only fucking way they
could have manipulated and did this the way they did is if somebody was right
there next to me, and then I fucking trusted in love. Right.
Basically, Mike's story was that in order for him to end up where he
was, namely, having the body parts of two dead men in his truck,
did I mention that, yeah, he had been manipulated into that position,
because he would never have done this on his own, of course?
Okay, okay, solid argument, got it? Got it? Other people
clearly have been pulling the strings, and the only other people capable of pulling
those strings were the people closest to him. This included his girlfriend, Kylie.
Speaking of Kylie, after Mike was arrested, Kylie was quickly put on
notice that it was time to come clean about what she knew. So,
you know, Mike's in some serious trouble, right, That's why I'm at
all a semi member. I don't get what serious till one. I don't
get it at least charged the first agree? Murder? What? Yes,
that's why we're here today. What's first agree? I don't know the differences,
but did you kill somebody? On purpose. And there's two guys missing,
right, you know, it's Philip and Jody. So do you know
anything about that? Do you know anything about Phillips? I don't. I
don't. Today's the day if you know something to tell us, Okay,
okay, because we've been talking to and we're going to talk to a lot
of people. Okay, So if you know anything, however small you think
it may be, you need to tell us. Kylie maintained that she knew
nothing if Mike had killed Philip and Jody, she was completely unaware of it.
Mike, however, had already told these same detectives that Kylie knew everything.
According to Mike, after a night of drinking with Jody and Philip,
Mike blacked out. The next morning, he awoke to Kylie asking him what
he had done. The reason why I woke up that morning as Kylie came
over check on me out of nowhere. Okay, she woke me up the
trailer. Yep, good, what she said? She sad me what happened?
And I was like, what happened? She went to the bath before
she woke me up, straight to the bathroom and they were in there in
the bathtub. Who's there? Enjoy hold buddies, both of them in the
doub How are they in the doubs? Pop pile on top of each other.
She was swearing about the problem and no, no, nothing, There
was no blood anywhere in my fucking trailer. Nothing, dude, Okay,
what happened to him? I told you I got a fucking black the funk
out? That is all true? Okay. Supposedly, Kylie was the first
person to discover the dead bodies piled in hers and Mike's bathtub. When Kylie
was confronted with this accusation, she didn't handle it very well. And what
did you see? This is the time, this is your chance. You
understand why we have to know what I said? Why we need to know
you understand. I don't. No, don't good as you're doing. I
don't. We're asking you what you saw because Mike's already telling people, and
we don't want to just take his word for it. He's told somebody that
you walked in and said, I'm doing something. What are you talking about?
I want to know what you saw. I don't. M Kelly,
would you tell us you're gonna feel much better? I feel better? I
don't if I feel like this is what do you remember seeing? No?
No, no, don't don't talk. You know what? Talking to us
is a difference between seeing something and being involved in something. Do you get
what I'm saying? The detectives spelled it out for Kylie. She could either
be a cooperating witness or an accessory to a double homicide. What would you
pick? So? Do you want to tell us about it? Or you
don't want to talk to us anymore? I don't want to talk to I
have a lawyer or something. A lawyer or something. I don't know.
I don't think I need one. I just sorry. I feel like I'm
being trapped and I feel like you guys are not gonna be honest with I
mean, you guys are gonna say whatever and tow us whatever. You want
to make me say something? Right, Well, we're telling you what we
what we know. So do I know that you know that? Because I
know that. You know that we know it because you know it happened.
You know we know it because it's true because of what you saw. We
found some of that yesterday. We've seen it too, and it's horrible.
I mean, we understand where you're upset. By having seen that, but
it's bad. For the most part. The detectives approached Kylie with kid gloves,
but that didn't sway her. Kylie opted to deny involvement, at least
for now. Meanwhile, Mike continued to try and cast doubt on the likelihood
that he killed Jody and Philip. I honest to god, I could never
hurt Joey. Ever, that was the only reason why I don't think I
did it. Care please you guys obviously deceased in your top when you do
it. Fucking sat the day very well, fucking thinking what to do,
getting them what to do, the right thing to do, want thing to
do, and then Kylie was getting freaked out, which tell me to do
something or whatever. My claim that he didn't know how Jody and Phillips's dead
bodies ended up in his bathtub, but after he became aware that they were
there, Kylie pressured him into doing something about it. Fucking women, Am
I right? They're always just yapping away, just nagging about everything. Just
they always want a clean bathroom, no dead bodies, bad bad man.
Then and then what you do when you going to detail, how do I
think they cut one of them? In half with what just do a little
tiny fucking saw handsaw or electric so or handsaw? All right, So he
cut one and a half then one and temps that I had that hard?
Are you there, joys? I think? And then what did you do
with the other one? I kind of the other went up too. Did
you saw their heads off? Yeah? On their arms yep? Okay,
and they left their legs intact or do you saw their legs off to No?
I think I caught one half and it wouldn't fit or something like that.
So that's why I had to cut the arms off the other one.
And then I just went the same and the head yeah, And then kind
of came later and cleaned it again and shod like that. So only to
appease his girlfriend and ladies, you know how much we do for you,
Mike used a small handsaw to dismember Philip and Mike's so called best friend and
brother, Jody. According to the Medical Examiner, this had to be a
very brutal and messy affair, not to mention outright disgusting based on the state
of the body parts. There was a aggression behind what Mike had done,
especially when it came to Philip. Did you hate Philip? No, I
didn't hate Philip enough to fucking kill him. I mean I didn't like him.
I didn't trust him, And I've made that clear to everybody that I
didn't really like Philip. I didn't care for him. I think then he
fucking gets Jody into stupid bullshit and he's always getting trouble and bragg dragging everybody
with him. You know what I mean. Everybody knows that about Philip.
Everybody does. And my fucking tongue in your trio. He was just and
the reason I ask is guess he was kind of quite different than Jody.
Mike admitted to chopping up the bodies. That element of the crime was clear,
but there was still a big question that needed to be answered. The
police only found some of Jody and Philip in the back of Mike's truck,
So where were the other body parts? They should all be in the truck.
There's two bodies in those two totes. There should be Okay, all
their parts are in there. Yeah, that's why I'm asking, because I
don't think too. I don't know. Maybe they're in there, but I
don't know if two bodies can pit in those two toes. You tell me
my storage unit. After some pushback in a few lies, Mike admitted that
some of Jody and Philip were inside a storage unit that he and Kylie shared.
In fact, this storage unit is where Mike had been keeping the body
parts before moving some of them into his truck. So I got him on,
put him in the toes, put him in the car, the toes
anyone's from my car. Yeah, put the toes in my car. And
then Win put him in the storage and locked it up. From that.
From there, we're just coming in there and then like we driving, we
fucking shat like every day. Yeah. For nearly forty days, the body
parts of Jody Fortuna and Philip Brewer rod it in a storage unit. During
this time, Mike and Kylie made frequent trips to check on them and make
sure that they weren't discovered. Unsurprisingly, after only a day or so,
things started to get pretty stinky. I would smell that smell everywhere I would
go, still smell that smell. Fucking I still saw that snow. I
have never seen anything. Sure, it does not ever go away. I'll
eating sometimes I don't want to eat to cover up the smell. Mike poured
baking soda on the body parts, and Kylie gave him a few bug bombs
to keep the flies away. Still, they both knew that these were only
temporary solutions and that they were both going to have to dispose of the evidence.
Somehow, Kylie might the bottom on board and got messed up too,
and did the progress from there, and then they kept hitting commute. She
said that we did hear her the bodies right. Mike and Kylie agreed that
they wanted to dump the body parts out of state, so they packed up
Mike's truck with some of the body parts and drove to South Dakota. Why
they didn't take all of the body parts remains unclear. After arriving in South
Dakota, Mike struggled to find a suitable and well hidden in place, so
he gave up, turned around, and went home. After returning from South
Dakota, Mike parked his truck on the side of the road near his mobile
home and just left it there for days. Eventually, someone noticed the smell
and alerted police. She was with me driving around in your truck. Yeah,
you have both loaded on that day or whatever, and no, it
came back and I parked my truck and I just kept part. Everything Mike
had done was blatantly cruel and horrific, yet he maintained that his actions weren't
his fault. If Mike had done anything wrong, it was because the people
around him manipulated him into doing it. Call me surprised for someone not having
personal responsibility in this day and age. I'm not a fucking evil, wicked
person. I'm really really not. Like two days, dude, two days
I didn't find do nothing to I just sat there. Oh well, that
makes it better. As long as you wait two days, it's fine to
chop up some murder victims in your bathtub. AnyWho. Again, Mike admitted
to dismembering Philip and Jody, but he maintained that he wasn't capable of killing
them. When asked who might have done it, Mike was quick to offer
up a theory, and he was something before two insurgis and there's truth because
you can go and look at the fucking Ancel Roy pression. I was asked,
fuck out, need to know nothing. I have one fucking drink,
and I'd lacked down and didn't know shit until I woke up. In Surges.
Yeah. According to Mike Shelby, Warren had a known and provable history
of spiking Mike's drink with drugs and causing him to black out. People sure
do like to do that to this guy, don't they. Mike suggested that
Shelby planned and arranged the murders with the help of an unknown friend. According
to Mike, Shelby must have drugged Mike's drink, waited for him to pass
out, and then murdered Philip and Jody. Then she cleaned up the crime
scene and put the dead bodies in Mike's bathtub. Totally makes sense. Who
who do you think may I'm kill him? I think it's somebody that Shelby's
friends with. This one God, because Shelby and dinted about Philip and never
coming back and before you know what I mean, And how did they power?
Why would they put him in your bathtub? It made me a little
guilty. What was your thoughts of why you ended up going to kind of
out instead of saying, you know, if you don't think you did this,
why didn't you call for help or do something else besides kind of up?
And to me, it just looks like you know, I meaning,
there's no way I've never gotten away with anything. Mike's theory about how Philip
and jody ended up dead and his bathtub was obviously ridiculous, and cops knew
that they're not all dumb, but that didn't necessarily mean that Shelby was off
the hook. If you remember, from her earlier police interview, Shelby claimed
that she drove by Mike's trailer after seeing Philip for the last time. She
claimed that when she saw Jody's car parked outside, she just left and went
home, but the cops weren't entirely sure she was being honest about that.
In fact, when Shelby was questioned and before the details of the murder were
released to the public, Shelby seemed to have a pretty solid theory about how
everything happened. It's possible that during her police interview she accidentally lets something slip.
He was going to shoot him as well, What do you mean as
well? I understands well, because he stopped from Tony. I do you
know that? Ah, I guess, I don't know for sure. I'm
only assuming, how assuming that because they're dead and Mike this is my I
think he did it as you're here today. You're telling me the truth because
we're talking, dude, a lot of people, Okay, so you know
more? Are you somehow know more? Things? They're into Today's the day
I'm not. I don't know if they were. That's how I remember it.
Detectives didn't suspect that Shelby committed the murders, but they did wonder if
she witnessed it happen. At a minimum, they clearly believed that Shelby knew
a lot more than she was telling, but if that was the case,
they could never prove it. In fact, when it came to the details
of the murders, police weren't able to prove much at all because, frankly,
they didn't have much to work with. All they had was Kylie's refusal
to cooperate, Shelby's denials, and Mike's insane accusations, so the police were
never able to say with certainty when the murders happened or where. The prominent
theory among investigators is that Mike shot and killed Philip first, and that he
made Jody watch him commit that murder, then he turned the gun on Jody.
They also believed that Kyle Lly didn't witness this happen, but that she
did discover the bodies and helped Mike clean up the mess. Kylie knew,
dude, okay, and Kylie led, I mean, Kylie led the whole
mission to chop it up and get away with it. And the way she
handled this was just it gets me goosebums just thinking about how she did none,
what's whatever, like fucking it was nothing to her, like she's seen
it before, you know what I mean? And I'm not trying to why
I said, Kylie, Kylie, Kelly if she had no reaction, and
she had none, she didn't help her told me what to do with the
way I think about Kylie right now, I don't fucking I don't think I
ever knew Kye. I didn't want to do this. I didn't want to
do this. I did this because fucking I've Kylie told me I could.
I shouldn't fucking that we'd be together at me for a rapper, and that's
what I needed to do, and that's what I did. I would never
have done it if Kylie wouldn't have said, you know what I mean,
I would never have up his mind. As for the dismemberment. Mike admitted
to doing that, but he directed the blame at Kylie. He claimed that
he never would have chopped up the bodies had it not been for her encouragement.
And we all know that ladies love to encourage men to do things,
and men are happy to do them most of the time. Obviously, even
if that were the case, it wasn't going to mitigate Mike's responsibility. But
it did mean that Kylie was culpable, and she didn't do herself any favors
by continuously lying to the police. So, do you guys have a storageing
together or anything like that where you keep it extra stuff? Do you know
if Mike has a storage in anywhere that maybe? I don't know. He
wouldn't tell you if he did. You guys have been together. Yeah,
Kylie lied about just about everything, and cops could prove it. When Kylie
was called out for her lies, she did what she should have done right
away. She asked for a lawyer, but it was too late. The
damage was already done. As it often is, she'd already broken the law
by lying and hindering the investigation of a double homicide. And I'm going to
give you a minute to think about it. Okay, Well, I don't
get what don't you get what part is confusing you? I don't think you're
confused. You're not dumb. You're a smart girl. You know exactly what's
going on. So you sawna what Mike was doing, right, isn't that
about them? And you know who those people were? Right? And what
you saw happening was found on that truck yesterday when we searched it. Okay,
and we know you know what happened, So you can be a witness
and or a suspect because I know you assume your mouth of instru mind.
Wasn't your plan to kill people or to chop them up and put them in
plastic totes and hide them. I didn't get a lawyer then, Okay,
fair enough. In the end, Kylie did admit to her role in helping
to cover up the murders, and she agreed to testify against Mike if his
case ever went to trial. In exchange, Kylie did not face any accessory
charges, but she did face charges for misleading police. Ultimately, Kylie never
had to testify because Mike didn't take his case to trial. Montano's earlier pled
no contest to killing thirty three year old Philip Brewer and thirty seven year old
Jody Fontuna, dismembering their bodies in an attempt to dispose of them. Before
he was sentenced, Monteo apologized to Fortuna's mother. District Judge Michael Degan sentenced
to Michael Montano on Wednesday to sixty years to life in prison. Montana's former
girlfriend, twenty four year old Kaylee Collins, was also sentenced Tuesday to two
years in jail for interfering what the police investigation after the men were reported missing.
After Mike and Kylie were sent off to prison, the Brewer and Fortuna
families had no choice but to pick up the pieces of their lives and move
on. In an effort to do something good in her brother's name, Philip's
sister set out to have some of Wyoming's laws changed. Once Memorial was over,
my husband and I started researching the charges that the defendants were accused of
two counts of second degree murder and two counts of posts more to corpse mutilation
for the first offense, And when we looked up these penalties for corpse mutilation
were shot that Wyoming only carries after three years. Three years technically means that
a person charged with this crime could ultimately receive probation. I mean, I
knew deep down that I had to do something. I walked into the house
one day and told my husband that I was going to change to Wyoming state
statue on corpse mutilation for the sake of her brother. Philip's sister lobbied to
change the penalties for corpse mutilation in Wyoming, and after several years of fighting
for that change, she was successful. Because of her efforts, anyone who
dissects or mutilates a dead human body in Wyoming now faces a possible five year
prison sentence, a much more fitting sentence, I may say, for such
a horrendous crime. I finally was able to give back, to do something
extraordinary my brother and his legacy. I was humbled. I feel close to
my brother, and I know what how he wanted me to live my life
to the fullest. Even though he's the first thing on my mind when I
wake up and the last thing when I fall asleep, I feel comfort in
knowing he's proud of what I've accomplished and how hard I puished himself to be
the best I can be. Throughout his police interviews, Mike Montano repeatedly referred
to Jody as his brother. He claimed that their bond meant so much to
him that they were practically siblings. When you compare those claims to the way
that Philip's sister speaks out about her brother and the things that she did to
honor his life, Mike's claims about brotherhood sure do come across pretty hollow.
Mike shot and killed his so called brother, then he mutilated and dismembered the
body. The clear motive was never established in this case, but more than
likely Mike was driven by some very dark and deep seated resentment and jealousy.
I remember pulling the trigger. I really don't remember pulling the trigger in the
strip. I really don't. We'll let up to that, Like I don't,
huh, I don't know. Man, all the drugs, all the
time, they d me off all the time, this is what I would
can't give me and fucking whying about Kylie and being a prostituting shit with them
and just fucked up, like taking advantage of me and putting me down and
fucking making me a joke to everybody, and just fucking stealing from me everything.
They took everything in life. Mike was fed up with being the joke
among his friends. He was angry about Jody's sleeping with Kylie, and he
hated that Jody's friendship with Philip carried more mutual respect than his own friendship with
Jody. So what was probably a drunken and drug fueled rage, he lashed
out and shot both men to death. Then he chopped up their bodies in
allows the attempt to cover up the crime. On top of being a pathetic
psychopath who blames everyone else for his own actions, Mike Montana is also pretty
dim witted. Most dim witted people think that way. They think things belong
to them, that don't. They think the whole world revolves around them.
Something that was clearly lost on this idiot was a pretty basic and common sense
understanding about family. It's one thing to call someone a brother and claim to
have some sort of family like bond with them because you grew up together.
It's another thing entirely to actually live up to that claim. When Philip and
Jody went missing, Jody's mom drove five hundred miles from Montana to Wyoming to
find herself. That's what family is. She went out there to seek out
whoever it was that had last spoken to Jody and ask them a couple of
questions. After the body parts were discovered, Philip's sister worked her ass off
to get the laws in Wyoming changed as a way to honor her brother's life
and legacy. Those are the kind of things that family members do for each
other. They don't just sit around and talk about it while drinking beer.
Those are the kind of things that people do when they actually give a shit,
when they care. What they don't do is allow petty resentment to drive
them to commit murder, and they certainly don't mutilate and dismember the people they
love. That goes without saying. I hope maybe after sixty years in a
prison cell, Mike Montano will come to better understand that. But I wouldn't
hold my breath. So if you've been listening for a while, why don't
you head on over to our store and get something nice for summer? Head
to stordscale dot com and stay safe all right? This is Pam Whittaker from
Nottville, Tennessee. I recently had problems with my plus membership. It was
a glitch on my end, not on your own, but anyway, I
contacted customer support I E. Gerdy, and within ten minutes she had me
up and running on my Plus membership again. Like you say, she is
the best. Thank you again, Gertie.