Episode 273

<v Speaker 1>Sword and Scale contains adult themes and violence, and is
<v Speaker 1>not intended for all audiences.
<v Speaker 2>Listener discretion is advised.
<v Speaker 3>This would have had them in a pretty bloody scene.
<v Speaker 3>The body had like close to forty some stablings, and
<v Speaker 3>so somebody to see all that would be probably a
<v Speaker 3>lot to take airs.
<v Speaker 1>Oh boy, we got a doozy for you today. I
<v Speaker 1>think you're gonna like it. It's gonna feel like the
<v Speaker 1>old days. This is episode two hundred and seventy three
<v Speaker 1>of Certain Scale, a show that reveals that the worst
<v Speaker 1>monsters are real. I hate to be that guy, but
<v Speaker 1>we do have mouths to feed out here. We're not
<v Speaker 1>state sponsored like that communist NPR. So check out our
<v Speaker 1>store store dot Sword and Scale dot com.
<v Speaker 4>Mm hmm.
<v Speaker 1>About thirty miles south of downtown Chicago, is the birthplace
<v Speaker 1>of Michael Jackson. Gary, Indiana, nicknamed the Magic City for
<v Speaker 1>its technological advancements in the nineteen sixties, Gary is mostly
<v Speaker 1>known for being the most significant contributor of steel manufacturing
<v Speaker 1>in the United States. The city's main steel mill, named
<v Speaker 1>Gary Works, is the largest steel manufacturing plant in the country.
<v Speaker 1>At its peak, the city had more than two hundred
<v Speaker 1>thousand people living there since the nineteen sixties, though Gary
<v Speaker 1>has seen a steep population decline. What was once a
<v Speaker 1>bustling city brimming with innovation has largely become a place
<v Speaker 1>of abandonment and rural decay, much like a lot of
<v Speaker 1>cities throughout the US, especially in the last four years.
<v Speaker 1>It has since been dubbed the most miserable city in America.
<v Speaker 1>But plenty of people still live in Gary, Indiana. Many
<v Speaker 1>people call it home. The population currently sits at about
<v Speaker 1>seventy thousand. Back in the late spring of twenty fourteen,
<v Speaker 1>the year that Sword and Scale started, I might add,
<v Speaker 1>there was a young woman living in Gary who was
<v Speaker 1>excited to share some big news with her family. This
<v Speaker 1>young lady told her mother, father, and two older sisters
<v Speaker 1>that she was pregnant with twins.
<v Speaker 5>While I was the oldest or as the Midland during
<v Speaker 5>the eight or so.
<v Speaker 6>That's a cf one and I had back. He didn't
<v Speaker 6>have any. So she found out that she was pregnant.
<v Speaker 6>They think you know, you know she.
<v Speaker 1>In twenty fourteen, thirty six year old Geraldine Jones worked
<v Speaker 1>as a census surveyor in Gary, Indiana. She had grown
<v Speaker 1>up in tight knit Christian family and seemed thrilled to
<v Speaker 1>tell her two older sisters, April and Tamiko, that she
<v Speaker 1>was pregnant with twins. Sadly, that exciting announcement was followed
<v Speaker 1>up with some tragic news. A few months later, Geraldine
<v Speaker 1>told her sisters that one of her babies had died.
<v Speaker 1>After Geraldine broke the news about the loss of one
<v Speaker 1>of her babies, she seemed to fall into a deep depression.
<v Speaker 1>Then came the day that Geraldine was supposed to give
<v Speaker 1>birth to her surviving baby.
<v Speaker 7>That more than I've heard from her.
<v Speaker 6>And then I didn't That Monday, I didn't hear from her.
<v Speaker 5>In a war So I call. I called, like with
<v Speaker 5>a little you know. April Abel was like, well, she
<v Speaker 5>was leaving work trying to get to that foo. So,
<v Speaker 5>but the thing is, she didn't.
<v Speaker 6>Tell us what happened.
<v Speaker 5>She was ever so by this time I.
<v Speaker 6>Left work, you know, my dad's.
<v Speaker 5>Here, his wife is here, her sisters, and so we
<v Speaker 5>are kind.
<v Speaker 6>Of right around trying to re out what happened.
<v Speaker 5>When we lay find her at we caught up to
<v Speaker 5>North Lake and called. We went out to South late
<v Speaker 5>because we were already in that area, and then we
<v Speaker 5>went over to home of the hospital and they had
<v Speaker 5>no where about.
<v Speaker 1>Geraldine's family and friends frantically tried to find out what
<v Speaker 1>hospital Geraldine had gone to, but they never could. Geraldine
<v Speaker 1>was missing.
<v Speaker 6>Did she ever tell you who the baby?
<v Speaker 8>Yeah, we know who?
<v Speaker 5>Double was twenty years Randy.
<v Speaker 1>For much of her life, Geraldine was unlucky in love,
<v Speaker 1>but in March of twenty fourteen, her luck seemed to
<v Speaker 1>change when she met a young man named Randy Garrett.
<v Speaker 7>My first time meeting Randy was last year or Rochester.
<v Speaker 7>April was at getting married, and that was my first
<v Speaker 7>time meeting him when she when he came to the
<v Speaker 7>wind and with my sister.
<v Speaker 1>As far as to Miko and April could tell, Randy
<v Speaker 1>seemed like a good, respectable guy, and Geraldine was clearly
<v Speaker 1>all in on her relationship with him. Unfortunately, after only
<v Speaker 1>a few months of dating, Randy broke things off with Geraldine.
<v Speaker 9>Started out, you told me you met her back around.
<v Speaker 10>March into March last year.
<v Speaker 9>Okay, we're dating.
<v Speaker 11>But I started finding out more things about he was
<v Speaker 11>kind of being dissionest about something, kind of turning the off,
<v Speaker 11>things like that it just kept getting up and not
<v Speaker 11>not jigging, so kind of cut it off.
<v Speaker 1>Okay, Randy ended the relationship, but he couldn't completely walk
<v Speaker 1>away from Geraldine. A few weeks after the breakup with her,
<v Speaker 1>Randy was told that Geraldine was pregnant with twins and
<v Speaker 1>that he was the fun.
<v Speaker 9>How soon after that did she say she was pregnant?
<v Speaker 4>Uh?
<v Speaker 11>Had she called me like at the end of of
<v Speaker 11>that year and told me she was.
<v Speaker 9>So, that's about three months after you made.
<v Speaker 1>After learning that he was going to be a dad,
<v Speaker 1>Randy naturally committed himself to the role, even though he
<v Speaker 1>had no plans of continuing a romantic relationship with Geraldine.
<v Speaker 1>He decided that he was going to be a responsible dad,
<v Speaker 1>and good for him, we need a lot more of that.
<v Speaker 1>A few months after she told everyone about the pregnancy,
<v Speaker 1>her sister and friends through a baby shower for Geraldine
<v Speaker 1>and Randy attended.
<v Speaker 9>Actually went. It was actually a nice child. It was
<v Speaker 9>a nice shower. I think her friends put it on
<v Speaker 9>for to hand it off, decorated and she had fine.
<v Speaker 11>Garrett's girls thought, I'm like, wow.
<v Speaker 1>This extravagant baby shower was fun. It was a happy
<v Speaker 1>time for everyone involved. Unfortunately, the good times didn't last.
<v Speaker 1>A few months later, Geraldine told her sisters and Randy
<v Speaker 1>that one of her babies had died. Geraldine slipped into
<v Speaker 1>a deep depression, and when the day came for Geraldine
<v Speaker 1>to give birth to the surviving baby, nobody could find her.
<v Speaker 6>Like, I don't know what's going on. She okay, you know,
<v Speaker 6>I don't know. I don't know.
<v Speaker 7>Left work early. So it was a big mess today
<v Speaker 7>that we thought that she was wanted to have or
<v Speaker 7>had lost night. We never did fire her.
<v Speaker 1>Thirty six year old Geraldine Jones was missing and her
<v Speaker 1>two sisters, Tomko and April were very concerned. Meanwhile, about
<v Speaker 1>two hundred miles south of Geraldine's home, there was another
<v Speaker 1>woman who was having problems of her own.
<v Speaker 12>Nine when long words your emergency, ten West claith Street, Anderson, Indiana,
<v Speaker 12>going on there, I got some random test message and
<v Speaker 12>my girlfriend kind of came off of suicidal, and I
<v Speaker 12>was just wondering if you could send someone out there
<v Speaker 12>at check Lawrence, are you not and down? You know,
<v Speaker 12>I'm not on the Noblesville all right? What's your name, Phila?
<v Speaker 12>Her name Samantha Fleming. Samantha Fleming, Yes, And what you
<v Speaker 12>say in the text something about who was tired of
<v Speaker 12>all this shit, who didn't want to deal with it anymore.
<v Speaker 12>She was talking about her mother, and mother just came
<v Speaker 12>over or just kind of totally Random's never been to
<v Speaker 12>the title before, but I prefer to be safe.
<v Speaker 1>In twenty fifteen, twenty three year old Samantha Fleming was
<v Speaker 1>living in an apartment with her boyfriend in Anderson, Indiana.
<v Speaker 1>In March of that year, Samantha gave birth to a
<v Speaker 1>baby girl that she named Serenity. About a month later,
<v Speaker 1>April sixth, twenty fifteen, Samantha's boyfriend went to the Anderson
<v Speaker 1>Police Department and reported that Samantha and Serenity, we're missing my.
<v Speaker 10>Understanding that you reported to the place that you're.
<v Speaker 13>Ristmas.
<v Speaker 2>Yes, okay, and her name was Samantha, Samantha yes, describer.
<v Speaker 14>Jimmy, How how how was she.
<v Speaker 13>Birth?
<v Speaker 6>Uh July eighteenth, nineteen.
<v Speaker 1>Ninety three, Samantha and her boyfriend Rainie Stanley had only
<v Speaker 1>dated for less than a year, and Rainie wasn't the
<v Speaker 1>father of Samantha's newborn baby girl. The couple met online
<v Speaker 1>just a few weeks after Samantha learned that she was pregnant.
<v Speaker 1>They quickly became close, though, and moved into an apartment together.
<v Speaker 1>After the birth of Serenity, Rainie planned to formally adopt
<v Speaker 1>the child.
<v Speaker 13>Tell of you and Samantha together?
<v Speaker 6>Mm hmmm, proud about eight?
<v Speaker 13>Help do.
<v Speaker 2>I never probably for about welling talk for about a
<v Speaker 2>month prior.
<v Speaker 13>So what do we talked? We talked on.
<v Speaker 6>Online chat app. Yeah, that's okay.
<v Speaker 13>Do you hear Joe?
<v Speaker 1>Me?
<v Speaker 13>Did not? Did?
<v Speaker 10>She just did? The twenty fourth of March, What's what's this?
<v Speaker 13>What's this?
<v Speaker 10>Jos name Serenity?
<v Speaker 1>Funny, Samantha and her baby girl were reported missing. Unfortunately,
<v Speaker 1>since Samantha was an adult and presumably with her child,
<v Speaker 1>an Amber alert could not be sent out. Just didn't fit.
<v Speaker 1>Samantha's mom began handing out flyers asking everyone and anyone
<v Speaker 1>to help her find Samantha. On those flyers, she wrote
<v Speaker 1>the following. According to her boyfriend, Samantha and Serenity disappeared
<v Speaker 1>from their home and Anderson, Indiana, on Monday sixth, around
<v Speaker 1>twelve to fifty pm. Samantha left with only a few diapers,
<v Speaker 1>one sleeper, and some formula. Nobody has had any contact
<v Speaker 1>with Samantha. Her wallet was found near Fifth Street in Gary, Indiana.
<v Speaker 1>We suspect foul play. Eventually, the local media picked up
<v Speaker 1>on this story and began reporting about the disappearance of
<v Speaker 1>Samantha and her baby tonight.
<v Speaker 8>On the night Dde Anderson's leis are searching for a
<v Speaker 8>missing mother and her infant. Samantha and Serenity Fleming were
<v Speaker 8>last seen Monday morning.
<v Speaker 11>Twenty three year old Samantha Fleming and her newborn Serenity
<v Speaker 11>were reported missing by her boyfriend. Earlier this month.
<v Speaker 1>Two Indiana women, Geraldine Jones and Samantha Fleming, went missing.
<v Speaker 1>They lived nearly two hundred miles apart and seemed to
<v Speaker 1>have no connection to each other at all. The only
<v Speaker 1>similarity they shared was that Geraldine was expecting a baby
<v Speaker 1>in Samantha just had a baby. Weird For Indiana investigators,
<v Speaker 1>this was a baffling case that only became more bizarre
<v Speaker 1>and troubling as the events unfolded. As the police worked
<v Speaker 1>to make sense of things, so two did Geraldine's sisters. Ultimately,
<v Speaker 1>their paths converged. On the same day and at about
<v Speaker 1>the same time, Geraldine's sisters and police investigators came upon
<v Speaker 1>a horrific scene.
<v Speaker 13>Together.
<v Speaker 1>It came upon the aftermath of a brutal and senseless murder.
<v Speaker 1>In April of twenty fifteen, twenty three year old Samantha
<v Speaker 1>Fleming and her three week old daughter, Serenity were reported
<v Speaker 1>missing by Samantha's boyfriend, Rainie Stanley. Samantha and Rainey lived
<v Speaker 1>together in an apartment in Anderson, Indiana. According to Rainey,
<v Speaker 1>on the last day that Samantha went missing, a mysterious
<v Speaker 1>woman came to his apartment, claiming to be a case
<v Speaker 1>manager for Child Protective Services, which is also known as CPS.
<v Speaker 1>If you've paid attention to any episode in the last
<v Speaker 1>ten years, so did she.
<v Speaker 6>Disappeared Monday about twelve fifty So.
<v Speaker 10>This past Monday?
<v Speaker 2>Yeah?
<v Speaker 10>What did she do? How does she leave?
<v Speaker 13>All? Right?
<v Speaker 2>Caseworker camp in my house? I opened the door. She
<v Speaker 2>identified herself as a case manager. She was here to
<v Speaker 2>do a surprise visit. She looks she's yours in business life.
<v Speaker 13>She let herself in.
<v Speaker 2>I mean, you can ever consent to walk into my house.
<v Speaker 2>She takes it upon herself to sit down at my table.
<v Speaker 12>Didn't get her in good.
<v Speaker 10>She just says he was a case manager with DC's good.
<v Speaker 13>I told her.
<v Speaker 10>Samantha was sleeping. She told me I needed to wake
<v Speaker 10>her up.
<v Speaker 6>No, I didn't go on the way at Samantha.
<v Speaker 2>Samantha gets up and then she went on to mention
<v Speaker 2>a cinemata to courtate.
<v Speaker 10>Never seen him before in my life.
<v Speaker 1>Rainny explained to investigators that Serenity wasn't Samantha's only child.
<v Speaker 1>Samantha also had a son named Stephen. Before meeting and
<v Speaker 1>ultimately living with Rainie, Samantha had dated a different man.
<v Speaker 1>Allegedly that relationship was abusive.
<v Speaker 2>Supposedly, he held her, her friend and the baby seamen
<v Speaker 2>hostage in his house and wouldn't let him go.
<v Speaker 10>Punsibly, he'd beat her. I guess she done it a
<v Speaker 10>couple of times and the comp's been called out. At
<v Speaker 10>that time, he was.
<v Speaker 2>One called criminal confinement. Was charged criminal confinement for holding
<v Speaker 2>Prent hostage.
<v Speaker 1>With leonter Bleed after several domestic incidents. At court ruled
<v Speaker 1>that Samantha and her ex were unfit parents, so Samantha's
<v Speaker 1>son was placed into foster care. That ruling left Samantha
<v Speaker 1>completely devastated. She knew that she was and could continue
<v Speaker 1>to be a good mother in her mind, so she
<v Speaker 1>broke up with her boyfriend, moved out of their apartment
<v Speaker 1>and began doing everything she could to regain custody of
<v Speaker 1>her son.
<v Speaker 13>She will show.
<v Speaker 2>Yes, because she has to meet certain standards before she
<v Speaker 2>get a sumback. She has to meet with a therapists,
<v Speaker 2>me with a case manager.
<v Speaker 1>Given Samantha's child custody situation, it wasn't unusual for case
<v Speaker 1>managers from Child Protective Services to just randomly show up
<v Speaker 1>at Samantha's home. So Rainie claimed that he didn't find
<v Speaker 1>it strange or suspicious that this woman showed up at
<v Speaker 1>his door asking to see Samantha. Supposedly, this woman told
<v Speaker 1>Samantha that there was a scheduling mix up in that
<v Speaker 1>Samantha was due in court later that day. She explained
<v Speaker 1>that a hearing was going to be held about her son.
<v Speaker 1>In fact, a judge could rule that Samantha's son should
<v Speaker 1>be released from foster care and could go home with
<v Speaker 1>Samantha on that very day. Big news.
<v Speaker 2>She starts getting everything ready and help her clean out
<v Speaker 2>a bottle so she has a double of bottles to
<v Speaker 2>take you whether she gets the thri She was getting
<v Speaker 2>ready to go with her because this lady told her
<v Speaker 2>she has a court at three Lot and Gary, Indiana.
<v Speaker 13>She get brought.
<v Speaker 2>She was taking her girl, Frid. I don't think to ask.
<v Speaker 2>DCS comes around all the time. It's kind of normal.
<v Speaker 2>They're allowed to take her places.
<v Speaker 10>I don't think much of.
<v Speaker 6>It until I got outside.
<v Speaker 2>And what's funny is this lady came into holding up
<v Speaker 2>folder of paperwork.
<v Speaker 5>So she exactly, you know, she had.
<v Speaker 10>These papers for a reason.
<v Speaker 2>It's something to do with samanthas So she was trying
<v Speaker 2>to look professionally.
<v Speaker 10>She did a decent job of it.
<v Speaker 2>She knew more than what you would think someone else
<v Speaker 2>would know.
<v Speaker 13>Could talk to that she's been able to do.
<v Speaker 10>She sounds well did. She knows a lot about the case.
<v Speaker 2>I mean, my understanding is that they won't release that
<v Speaker 2>information to visit anybody.
<v Speaker 6>She knew about Stephen.
<v Speaker 1>According to Rainie, this CPS worker knew a lot about
<v Speaker 1>Samantha and her case. She seemed completely legitimate and suggested
<v Speaker 1>that Samantha should bring her baby daughter to the court hearing.
<v Speaker 13>And then she says something wizard.
<v Speaker 10>Yeah, she told her she had to take the time.
<v Speaker 10>It looked good for the judge.
<v Speaker 1>Rainie explained that Samantha was excited about the prospect of
<v Speaker 1>getting her son back, so he helped to pack a
<v Speaker 1>baby bag. A few moments later, Samantha, Serenity and this
<v Speaker 1>mysterious CPS worker, whoever she was, walked out the door.
<v Speaker 1>Rainie followed them outside, and it was only after he
<v Speaker 1>saw the caseworker's car that he started to think something
<v Speaker 1>about this situation just didn't feel right. The car was
<v Speaker 1>a white Ford Sedan, which wasn't unusual for a caseworker
<v Speaker 1>to drive, but Rainie noticed that the tag on her
<v Speaker 1>license plate was expired. Now that's odd. Rainy claimed that
<v Speaker 1>he didn't say anything about the tag, but he took
<v Speaker 1>a mental note of it and later wrote down the
<v Speaker 1>license plate number.
<v Speaker 15>Who are admitted the personal cast this plate the play
<v Speaker 15>number U gave us for in the end in two thousand.
<v Speaker 15>It was inspired right, was expired and that cars in
<v Speaker 15>there's white.
<v Speaker 13>People that said they didn't even to renew the plate.
<v Speaker 2>The players, I said, on attack, but they still have
<v Speaker 2>the play.
<v Speaker 10>They just didn't renew it. And they liked it because
<v Speaker 10>his wife subverse.
<v Speaker 7>So they got to play, and they talked.
<v Speaker 13>To both parties.
<v Speaker 2>And so I wonder if I didn't get the plate number,
<v Speaker 2>all you could.
<v Speaker 1>Have When the police followed up on that license plate number,
<v Speaker 1>the one that Rainey gave them. It led them to
<v Speaker 1>a middle aged couple who clearly had no involvement with
<v Speaker 1>Samantha Fleming at all. Essentially, Rainy sent the cops on
<v Speaker 1>a wild goose chase, which called his story in the question. Still,
<v Speaker 1>the police knew that Rainy was telling the truth about
<v Speaker 1>the CPS worker because Samantha and Rainey's neighbor also saw
<v Speaker 1>the one. In fact, this neighbor led her into the
<v Speaker 1>apartment building.
<v Speaker 16>She said she was from CPS, and I showed her
<v Speaker 16>upstairs and she had a paperwork, like, you know, a folder,
<v Speaker 16>a briefcase, stuff like that. She was dressed professionally. She looked,
<v Speaker 16>you know, like somebody who worked for CPS or something.
<v Speaker 1>The police also determined that whoever this woman was, she
<v Speaker 1>did not work for Child Protective Services. The CPS office
<v Speaker 1>and Anderson confirmed that there was no court hearings or
<v Speaker 1>home visitations scheduled for Samantha Fleming. One theory that investigators
<v Speaker 1>entertained was that this whole thing might have been orchestrated
<v Speaker 1>by Samantha. Maybe she arranged to have this fake government
<v Speaker 1>worker show up at the apartment so she and her
<v Speaker 1>baby could leave and escape another abusive relationship. But Rainy
<v Speaker 1>didn't come off as the abusive type, and he seemed
<v Speaker 1>to genuinely care about Samantha.
<v Speaker 10>Not that makes any dance sense that she's working for me.
<v Speaker 2>Wards, the only thing that's off was a suicidal time,
<v Speaker 2>and like she said, she just needed to. Then I cold,
<v Speaker 2>I don't want about it, and then I.
<v Speaker 10>Canceled the golf.
<v Speaker 1>Samantha Fleming went missing on April sixth, twenty fifteen, and
<v Speaker 1>by April sixteenth, there was still no sign of her
<v Speaker 1>and no news about who the fakes CPS worker was. Meanwhile,
<v Speaker 1>back in Gary, Indiana, the family of Geraldine Jones was
<v Speaker 1>finally able to find and make contact with Geraldine.
<v Speaker 17>Both of her.
<v Speaker 1>Sisters had frantically tried to find Geraldine on the day
<v Speaker 1>she was supposed to give birth, but they could never
<v Speaker 1>find out which hospital she went.
<v Speaker 6>To General Act.
<v Speaker 5>At this point, she wasn't talking to that anymore yet.
<v Speaker 5>I guess understand, you know, you know Wenerneder.
<v Speaker 1>When Geraldine first announced that she was pregnant, she told
<v Speaker 1>her family that she was going to be having twins. Later,
<v Speaker 1>she told her family that one of her babies had died.
<v Speaker 1>Somehow in her womb. The other one's fine, but this
<v Speaker 1>one's dead. How does that work? And that nobody seemed
<v Speaker 1>to care that she lost one of her children.
<v Speaker 17>Woe is me?
<v Speaker 1>Oh my god, You'll never believe how hard it is
<v Speaker 1>to be a mother, especially if they're currents.
<v Speaker 7>She wasn't talking to us, so all of a sudden,
<v Speaker 7>you know, she said, out a bad text message to
<v Speaker 7>It was a big text, get involved with my sister,
<v Speaker 7>my dad, me and and she said she didn't mean it.
<v Speaker 7>But I call and told that. Well, you know, I
<v Speaker 7>think it's not that message. I said, but you know,
<v Speaker 7>everybody was acting out of being concerned, you know, I
<v Speaker 7>told her, I said, you know that's not a message
<v Speaker 7>you send the people, but that's concerned about you. I said,
<v Speaker 7>you know, people only act out to be a concern,
<v Speaker 7>especially if it's a family member.
<v Speaker 12>You haven't a baby, right.
<v Speaker 1>Geraldine made amends with her two older sisters. Both of
<v Speaker 1>them were eager to meet their new niece. They wanted
<v Speaker 1>to see Geraldine's new baby girl.
<v Speaker 7>A couple of days later, I said, and I said,
<v Speaker 7>you know what, you know, I try and tell her.
<v Speaker 7>I said, well, I I guaid I want to come
<v Speaker 7>see the baby. So you know, I went back there,
<v Speaker 7>me and my daughters.
<v Speaker 13>We go by there, and so do you know about
<v Speaker 13>when the first time you saw the baby was?
<v Speaker 1>That Monday, Tamiko visited Geraldine's home and met with the baby.
<v Speaker 1>A few days later, Geraldine's older sister, April did the same.
<v Speaker 6>She finally said, you want to talk, So she changed
<v Speaker 6>my job with Bella.
<v Speaker 5>I living baby, and I wasn't there right to golf.
<v Speaker 6>So I told Toya to kill her.
<v Speaker 10>I was shipping her out.
<v Speaker 6>I told Toy to kill her.
<v Speaker 5>I'll be home in about an hour.
<v Speaker 4>Told Hi about the house, my house.
<v Speaker 8>My partment?
<v Speaker 6>Really is she in my apartment? And broke Bella. We
<v Speaker 6>talked and she apologies at Grabians. She came by, which.
<v Speaker 1>Geraldine reconnected with her family. Her sisters, April and Tamiko
<v Speaker 1>were thrilled to meet their new niece. In a perfect world,
<v Speaker 1>this would have been a happy occasion, but this certainly
<v Speaker 1>wasn't a perfect world. April and Tamiko noticed that Geraldine
<v Speaker 1>wasn't acting like herself. She was distant and strange. Something
<v Speaker 1>was clearly bothering her. There was also another and much
<v Speaker 1>bigger problem, the baby that Geraldine introduced to her family
<v Speaker 1>didn't belong to her. In case you haven't figured it out,
<v Speaker 1>that baby belonged to Samantha Fleming. In the late spring
<v Speaker 1>of twenty fifteen, thirty six year old Geraldine Jones told
<v Speaker 1>her family that she had given birth to a new
<v Speaker 1>baby girl. Geraldine named the baby Bella and introduced Bella
<v Speaker 1>to her older sisters, April and Tamiko. After they met
<v Speaker 1>the baby, Geraldine did something strange. She left Bella with
<v Speaker 1>her sister April and flew to Texas.
<v Speaker 5>Let's she usually telling her that she's ready to pressed
<v Speaker 5>and the people.
<v Speaker 6>And they've always been a first like.
<v Speaker 5>The whole part of or you know.
<v Speaker 1>Geraldine told her family that she was severely depressed and
<v Speaker 1>she wanted to be with her mom, who was living
<v Speaker 1>in Texas, so she left her home of Gary, Indiana,
<v Speaker 1>without her baby and flew to her mom's house. Once there,
<v Speaker 1>Geraldine tried to kill herself by taking an overdose of
<v Speaker 1>sleeping pills. Thankfully, her mom was home at the time
<v Speaker 1>she found Geraldine was able to call for help before
<v Speaker 1>the worst happened.
<v Speaker 3>Anything else I need to add she never said anything
<v Speaker 3>about wanting to hurt her son anything like that.
<v Speaker 10>The thing, I had been sick and I just wasn't
<v Speaker 10>able to get there.
<v Speaker 12>I really don't know anything in which she lost the baby.
<v Speaker 8>She wouldn't contact anybody, Yeah, not even no family, remember,
<v Speaker 8>so I didn't understand it.
<v Speaker 1>About after this failed suicide tempt, Geraldine was committed to
<v Speaker 1>a mental hospital in Texas. Her mom assumed that the
<v Speaker 1>loss of one of her babies, and perhaps the postpartum
<v Speaker 1>depression that came with the living baby, had caused Geraldine
<v Speaker 1>to do what she did. Meanwhile, back in Indiana, Geraldine's
<v Speaker 1>two sisters were starting to realize that this whole situation
<v Speaker 1>it was a little weird.
<v Speaker 13>Right when she left. Did you guys feel like something was?
<v Speaker 13>I mean, not that, but did you guys?
<v Speaker 3>Was you guys still like thinking, man, something is wrong here,
<v Speaker 3>like the saying all, yeah.
<v Speaker 4>I think that was wrong.
<v Speaker 7>But I just I was kind of upset because I
<v Speaker 7>was thinking that, you know, my thing was she had
<v Speaker 7>just had a baby, and then she didn't tip off
<v Speaker 7>to texts and I said, is a new baby? That's
<v Speaker 7>that was my main thing. I was upset that she
<v Speaker 7>had left the baby, right. I just thought maybe you know, right,
<v Speaker 7>people and some women go to the postpartum I thought
<v Speaker 7>maybe that was it.
<v Speaker 1>Geraldine's oldest sister, Tomiko, was mostly able to chuck things
<v Speaker 1>up to postpartum depression, but Geraldine's other sister, April wasn't
<v Speaker 1>satisfied with that. Na no, no, no no. In an
<v Speaker 1>effort to hopefully make sense of things, April decided to
<v Speaker 1>go to Geraldine's house in Indiana.
<v Speaker 3>And so then you went to Geraldine's house. Yeah, okay,
<v Speaker 3>what were you going there for?
<v Speaker 13>Exactly? Della galwa okay. And then Tomiko showed up.
<v Speaker 3>She kind of said this, and she wasn't saying nothing
<v Speaker 3>about it, but she said, April is the one that
<v Speaker 3>will dig for information.
<v Speaker 13>I'm the one that just kind of stand by.
<v Speaker 3>This was after you guys had received the call that
<v Speaker 3>Geraldine tried to commit suicide.
<v Speaker 13>That was all that.
<v Speaker 18>That's because I feel like something must have happened and
<v Speaker 18>soon had to happen where she felt at no point
<v Speaker 18>of return. So I need to figure out what I'm
<v Speaker 18>getting myself.
<v Speaker 8>I don't know what's going on.
<v Speaker 1>April arrived at Geraldine's house and she brought along the
<v Speaker 1>new baby. A short while later, Tamiko showed up there
<v Speaker 1>as well. As soon as they walked in the house,
<v Speaker 1>they knew something was wrong. They found empty bleach bottles
<v Speaker 1>scattered on the floor, and there was an unexplainable eeriness
<v Speaker 1>about the place. Everything just felt off.
<v Speaker 5>So she was just saying, it was just things that
<v Speaker 5>were there that just didn't really April here. And so
<v Speaker 5>when I sat elegent, it's on the table, you know,
<v Speaker 5>on the couch, I was looking.
<v Speaker 6>So she's, you know, she shows me the bucket and.
<v Speaker 2>And yeah, it was bleach and.
<v Speaker 19>Mullane and stuff in there.
<v Speaker 5>And far as the kitchen anything, I don't, you know,
<v Speaker 5>I just wanted to wash a bottle and.
<v Speaker 10>I set that bottle on the counter.
<v Speaker 6>But and I know it didn't know right, had I
<v Speaker 6>known that it might have been something, then.
<v Speaker 1>I got my head hig for April and Tomiko. Perhaps
<v Speaker 1>the most unsettling thing about Geraldine's house was a smell,
<v Speaker 1>A rank scent of rotting flesh mixed with pungent chemicals
<v Speaker 1>and bleach filled the house.
<v Speaker 5>And then like when I came in there and I
<v Speaker 5>was sitting there, I mean, you know, like you know,
<v Speaker 5>when the dark he came out, and it didn't it
<v Speaker 5>didn't really smell like dark.
<v Speaker 6>It smelt like something else, that is the pul damp.
<v Speaker 5>And she said she's been up, but it was like
<v Speaker 5>she just like it is.
<v Speaker 16>Yea other than the weird snows or anything out.
<v Speaker 5>Of the house that she served well, my sisters, no
<v Speaker 5>and well. And once she pointed out, I looked at
<v Speaker 5>the table, it was like a leech or and all
<v Speaker 5>the other stuff in there.
<v Speaker 8>I don't know.
<v Speaker 6>Why did you think that?
<v Speaker 9>What made you think that?
<v Speaker 6>She said that? Little things?
<v Speaker 10>I mean, whatever you noticed like.
<v Speaker 6>This just a snail burst of all.
<v Speaker 5>Into right, I don't know it by human.
<v Speaker 1>April and Tomiko spent some time looking around the house,
<v Speaker 1>but they never could locate the source of the awful smell.
<v Speaker 1>A short while later, April left while Tomiko remained at
<v Speaker 1>Geraldine's house with the baby.
<v Speaker 13>Where did she say she was going.
<v Speaker 7>To wire my nephews the money because he was coming
<v Speaker 7>He lived in Chicago and he was just coming home.
<v Speaker 1>As Tamiko waited in Geraldine's house, she looked out a
<v Speaker 1>window and noticed that a black car was slowly and
<v Speaker 1>repeatedly driving by the home. It seemed like the driver
<v Speaker 1>was lost in trying to find Geraldine's address.
<v Speaker 5>The banking and first time, I was sitting there outside
<v Speaker 5>of the black carve pad.
<v Speaker 6>And I just.
<v Speaker 13>You know.
<v Speaker 5>But then when I come back again and he had
<v Speaker 5>the police officers walking.
<v Speaker 1>It turned out that the black car belonged to the
<v Speaker 1>lead investigator who was trying to find Samantha Fleming. Through
<v Speaker 1>sheer coincidence, his path had converged with Tamiko and they
<v Speaker 1>both arrived at Geraldine's house on the same day.
<v Speaker 3>At the time, this lady is basically a missing person
<v Speaker 3>until we can, you know, prove otherwise. And we you know,
<v Speaker 3>we don't automatically assume something bad, So we're starting on
<v Speaker 3>the bottom.
<v Speaker 13>And we had this block number.
<v Speaker 3>With that block number come back to Geraldine and I
<v Speaker 3>just unblocked it the night before.
<v Speaker 13>So I called her phone and just said, hey, it's
<v Speaker 13>I told her who I was and what police department
<v Speaker 13>I was. Well, she never answered. I left it on
<v Speaker 13>the board.
<v Speaker 3>I was just gonna ask her, you know, I know
<v Speaker 3>you're the one that came that called and you're the
<v Speaker 3>one that came to Anderson to get her. You know,
<v Speaker 3>where is she at? Were you just trying to help
<v Speaker 3>her get away from this guy? Did you know her
<v Speaker 3>from Gary? And this was kind of like a setup.
<v Speaker 3>I was thinking, maybe she just tried to lure him
<v Speaker 3>away from this guy, and Samantha knew about it.
<v Speaker 13>Samantha still on the run somewhere.
<v Speaker 1>A few days before Samantha went missing, Samantha's mom received
<v Speaker 1>a phone call from a block number. When she answered,
<v Speaker 1>Samantha's mom spoke to a woman claiming to be a
<v Speaker 1>Child Protective Services case manager and this woman was fishing
<v Speaker 1>for information about Samantha. When the police unblocked the phone
<v Speaker 1>number that led them to gerald Deine Jones, she was
<v Speaker 1>the fake CPS worker.
<v Speaker 7>What's so strange? Like I said, I was sitting on
<v Speaker 7>the couch with the baby and I'm talking to her
<v Speaker 7>like she's gonna talk, I said. I said, they must
<v Speaker 7>be looking for somebody, right, But because I had no
<v Speaker 7>food that you you were looking for Burrus address.
<v Speaker 13>Before, No, just that day.
<v Speaker 3>I actually come to Gary that day to try to
<v Speaker 3>find Geraldine.
<v Speaker 1>When the investigator arrived at Geraldine's house, he met with
<v Speaker 1>Tomiko in the driveway, who then let him into the home.
<v Speaker 13>I could smell the smell.
<v Speaker 4>You know, you know, I thought it was and this
<v Speaker 4>is my aunt.
<v Speaker 7>Because I had never smelled a body before, so I'm thinking, like, Okay,
<v Speaker 7>it's a.
<v Speaker 3>Dead mountain, right, I mean I smelled that, you know, mice,
<v Speaker 3>but that smell itself would have been uh, there was
<v Speaker 3>a lot and it was kind of like it was
<v Speaker 3>kind of like a like I couldn't really tell one
<v Speaker 3>hundred percent it was because there was some chemicals and.
<v Speaker 15>April.
<v Speaker 7>April was like with me, she said, do you smell that?
<v Speaker 7>I said, And that's I thought.
<v Speaker 4>Maybe.
<v Speaker 1>Once inside the house, the investigator performed a search and
<v Speaker 1>he was able to find what Tamiko and April couldn't.
<v Speaker 1>In the back bedroom closet, there was a dead body
<v Speaker 1>wrapped in plastic and duct tape. The body had been
<v Speaker 1>folded in half, stuffed into a plastic tote, and was
<v Speaker 1>soaking in a shallow pool of bleach. Unsurprisingly, the body
<v Speaker 1>was later identified as twenty three year old mother of two,
<v Speaker 1>Samantha Fleming, and her death was determined to have been
<v Speaker 1>caused by multiple stab wounds.
<v Speaker 3>This would have had to have been a pretty bloody scene.
<v Speaker 13>The body had like close to forty some stab wounds, right,
<v Speaker 13>and so.
<v Speaker 3>Somebody to see all that would be probably a lot
<v Speaker 3>to take in, you know, just never dealing with that before, so,
<v Speaker 3>you know, that's a lot of stablishings.
<v Speaker 1>At this point, the truth of the situation started to
<v Speaker 1>become apparent to everyone. The baby that Tamiko and April
<v Speaker 1>had been caring for didn't belong to Geraldine. The baby
<v Speaker 1>was Samantha Fleming's missing daughter, Serenity. While disguised as a
<v Speaker 1>CPS worker, Geraldine lured Samantha and her baby away from
<v Speaker 1>her apartment. Then Geraldine stabbed Samantha to death and claimed
<v Speaker 1>the baby as her own. The investigators who were working
<v Speaker 1>on this case had a basic understanding of what had happened,
<v Speaker 1>but there are still so many questions, questions that only
<v Speaker 1>Geraldine could answer, like why or how did Geraldine choose
<v Speaker 1>Samantha as her victim, how did that happen, what was
<v Speaker 1>a connection between these two women, and obviously why did
<v Speaker 1>Geraldine do all this? After Samantha's body was discovered, Geraldine
<v Speaker 1>was promptly found in Texas and arrested a few days later.
<v Speaker 1>She was transported back to Indiana, where investigators attempted to
<v Speaker 1>question her.
<v Speaker 20>All this says, right here is just as you understand
<v Speaker 20>what your rights are, right.
<v Speaker 10>It's not saying you're waving the rights.
<v Speaker 20>It just says, you've read the statement and you understand
<v Speaker 20>what they are, and it says that we haven't made
<v Speaker 20>any threats, version or anything.
<v Speaker 10>All this says is that you just understand what they are. Okay, Okay, Okay,
<v Speaker 10>that's fine.
<v Speaker 20>Here's what we come down here, Ford, Okay, we come
<v Speaker 20>down here to talk to you.
<v Speaker 10>To try to get your side. There's two sighs to
<v Speaker 10>every story.
<v Speaker 4>Okay.
<v Speaker 10>There's a lot of un answered questions. Question you don't
<v Speaker 10>want any answering them run out at home, Okay.
<v Speaker 1>Unfortunately, Geraldine refused to talk to investigators and give her
<v Speaker 1>side of the story. Smart for her, bad for society.
<v Speaker 1>So in order to make sense of this homicide, the
<v Speaker 1>investigators spoke extensively with Geraldine's neighbors, friends, and her two
<v Speaker 1>older sisters.
<v Speaker 13>I mean, I know, you guys for the most part,
<v Speaker 13>believed that she was pregnant. I'd be it for all
<v Speaker 13>the part, Okay.
<v Speaker 3>Says she knew she had gained weight, but she wasn't
<v Speaker 3>like one hundred percent, you know, never really thought about it.
<v Speaker 13>Just took her word for it.
<v Speaker 18>But I'm the most in the family. I would say
<v Speaker 18>that I would be the most with the rowan tile
<v Speaker 18>glasses all, so something really happens.
<v Speaker 7>Then I find out everything.
<v Speaker 18>Like I've been found it out since she's been in jail.
<v Speaker 18>I've never had a doubt that.
<v Speaker 7>She was not pregnant.
<v Speaker 1>Ever, eventually, investigators learned that Geraldine was never pregnant. It
<v Speaker 1>was all a lie. She was a liar, and you
<v Speaker 1>should never trust liars. The lengths she went to keep
<v Speaker 1>that lie going were baffling. For nine months, Geraldine repeatedly
<v Speaker 1>posted updates on her social media about her fake pregnancy,
<v Speaker 1>which included sharing sonogram photos and updates about her frequent
<v Speaker 1>doctor visits. She was basically mommy blogging without being a mommy.
<v Speaker 1>Geraldine purposely gained weight and accepted maternity gifts from her
<v Speaker 1>friends and family. She even let them throw her a
<v Speaker 1>fucking lavish baby shower.
<v Speaker 6>What a cunt her those fake was not on the
<v Speaker 6>right term, or her attorney who attorney thing whatever.
<v Speaker 4>She was doing all whole things.
<v Speaker 8>But you know, and yeah, I mean she appears to
<v Speaker 8>be pant me and I never questioned it.
<v Speaker 1>April and Tamiko fully believe that Geraldine was pregnant it,
<v Speaker 1>but there was someone who had some doubts. Geraldine told
<v Speaker 1>her ex boyfriend Randy Garrett that he was the father.
<v Speaker 9>She kept insisting that she was pregnant.
<v Speaker 10>So I'm like, okay, I don't you know.
<v Speaker 9>I want to be responsible if she is.
<v Speaker 13>I want to know.
<v Speaker 9>So I was, I was saying, okay, I'll.
<v Speaker 11>Go to the doctor's pointing with you. But every time
<v Speaker 11>I would like try to go with her, something would
<v Speaker 11>come up. She'd be like, oh, I went yesterday. Oh
<v Speaker 11>I didn't tell you I went yesterday, or or she
<v Speaker 11>might have the point when she's like, okay, meet me
<v Speaker 11>out there. Then when when when I meet her out there,
<v Speaker 11>she might be already out there, she's coming out. Oh
<v Speaker 11>he had to reschedule. He had to he had to
<v Speaker 11>deliver a baby. Or would always be something pregnant enough?
<v Speaker 11>I mean she looked she looked.
<v Speaker 9>Stach in the stomach. It seemed like her face is
<v Speaker 9>getting more fuller. Did you ever touch your stomach at on?
<v Speaker 10>No, I never really touched her stomach. I never really
<v Speaker 10>touched her stomach, but.
<v Speaker 11>It it looked like she was pregnant.
<v Speaker 1>Geraldine lied and successfully convinced everyone around her that she
<v Speaker 1>was pregnant. That much the investigators knew. But the big
<v Speaker 1>unanswered question was Why why do you do these things?
<v Speaker 1>What's the fucking point? How dumb are you that you
<v Speaker 1>don't realize you're gonna get caught eventually? Why had Geraldine
<v Speaker 1>done any of this?
<v Speaker 13>You know, there's gotta be some underlying things going on.
<v Speaker 3>And basically everybody I talked to, and it's mainly her
<v Speaker 3>family and friends, all say the same thing.
<v Speaker 13>It's to me, she's carried this lie on so far
<v Speaker 13>with so.
<v Speaker 3>Many people that had left her no alternative but to
<v Speaker 3>finish it.
<v Speaker 1>In June of twenty fourteen, Geraldine told her family and
<v Speaker 1>ex boyfriend that she was pregnant. Nine months later, in
<v Speaker 1>April twenty fifteen, Geraldine needed to produce a baby if
<v Speaker 1>she was going to keep this lie going, because that's
<v Speaker 1>the thing about lies, You got to keep lying to
<v Speaker 1>protect the lie. But liars are usually pretty short sighted
<v Speaker 1>type people and don't really plan ahead much. They just
<v Speaker 1>plan for you to believe their bullshit.
<v Speaker 13>That's it.
<v Speaker 1>That's the extent of their plans. So Geraldine began hunting
<v Speaker 1>when she found a woman on Facebook who had just
<v Speaker 1>given birth to a biracial baby. This one checked the box.
<v Speaker 1>There weren't a whole lot of requirements put it that way,
<v Speaker 1>that woman was motive and opportunity. Motive and opportunity. That woman,
<v Speaker 1>by the way, was twenty three year old Samantha Fleming.
<v Speaker 1>But you already knew that, you know, trying.
<v Speaker 13>To figure out the connection.
<v Speaker 3>I don't think she knew the victim, and I don't
<v Speaker 3>think her and the victim of Matt. I think Geraldine
<v Speaker 3>smart enough. She was able to find out about this
<v Speaker 3>person either you know, online, Facebook, whatever, and had a
<v Speaker 3>lot of time to kind of and I'm just thinking
<v Speaker 3>myself the whole time. I keep thinking, somehow I think
<v Speaker 3>Geraldine ran across her herself because she spent she put
<v Speaker 3>a lot of time and effort into this pregnancy thing.
<v Speaker 3>I think she's pretty smart. I think she's very it smart.
<v Speaker 3>She's able to get in there and Facebook and all
<v Speaker 3>this stuff and somehow found this girl. But she had
<v Speaker 3>to know a little bit about her DCS history, and
<v Speaker 3>that's where I don't know, right.
<v Speaker 1>Samantha Fleming was very active on Facebook, and investigators would
<v Speaker 1>eventually come to find that pretty much everything Samantha was
<v Speaker 1>dealing with in regards to regaining custody of her son
<v Speaker 1>was spelled out on social media.
<v Speaker 13>Again.
<v Speaker 1>More mommy blogging Mommy, blogging can kill folks. Her Facebook
<v Speaker 1>posts and subsequent conversation in the comment sections went into
<v Speaker 1>great detail about her situation and the struggles she was having.
<v Speaker 1>Woe is me, got to tell everyone about it, So
<v Speaker 1>listen up, ladies. If there was ever a cautionary tale
<v Speaker 1>to warn people not to share their personal problems online,
<v Speaker 1>this is it. Pay attention. Geraldine used this information that
<v Speaker 1>Samantha posted that Samantha had shared online to pose as
<v Speaker 1>a CPS worker who was overseeing Samantha's case and take
<v Speaker 1>advantage of her. You see how the internet works? Are
<v Speaker 1>you starting to figure it out?
<v Speaker 3>She called the victim's mother two days before this incident
<v Speaker 3>happened anonymous, and they the mother gave her because she
<v Speaker 3>was claiming to be a DCS worker and knew enough
<v Speaker 3>information to make a sound good. The mother actually gave
<v Speaker 3>her the girl's number, so she was sinking her out.
<v Speaker 3>And then she called the victim and only said, I'm
<v Speaker 3>a new caseworker. I'm actually the supervisor. The other girls
<v Speaker 3>wasn't going to be on vacation, so I'm taking over.
<v Speaker 1>When Geraldine showed up at Samantha's apartment, the details that
<v Speaker 1>she knew about Samantha's case made Geraldine's disguise that much
<v Speaker 1>more convincing. Her act was so persuasive, in fact, that
<v Speaker 1>she was able to lure Samantha and her baby from
<v Speaker 1>her home into her car. Think about that. Geraldine told
<v Speaker 1>Samantha that she needed to appear at a courthouse in Gary,
<v Speaker 1>Indiana later that day because a judge was going to
<v Speaker 1>rule if Samantha could get her son back. When Samantha
<v Speaker 1>was in the car, Geraldine drove three hours from Anderson
<v Speaker 1>to Gary, Indiana. Investigators believe that after they arrived and Gary,
<v Speaker 1>Geraldine was able to lure Samantha into her home. She
<v Speaker 1>may have claimed that she needed to make a quick
<v Speaker 1>stop before going to the courthouse. Who knows what kind
<v Speaker 1>of lie she sold. Apparently she was very good at it,
<v Speaker 1>many criminals are. When Samantha stepped inside Geraldine's home, she
<v Speaker 1>had no clue as to the horror that awaited her.
<v Speaker 1>Geraldine attacks Samantha, stabbing her over forty times and killing her.
<v Speaker 1>Then she wrapped the body in plastic, folded Samantha into
<v Speaker 1>a plastic tub, and filled that tub with bleach. After
<v Speaker 1>the murder, Geraldine claimed Samantha's baby as her own. This
<v Speaker 1>story is insane. If you saw these events play out
<v Speaker 1>in a movie, you'd probably laugh your ass off for
<v Speaker 1>it being too unrealistic. It's like something you'd see on
<v Speaker 1>the Lifetime network in between reruns of Christmas in July.
<v Speaker 1>Maybe not Lifetime these days, maybe more like Oxygen, you know,
<v Speaker 1>the formerly gay network that now just plays true crime
<v Speaker 1>all day. Huh my nanny is a serial killer or
<v Speaker 1>lethal Soccer mom, those kind of titles. Yeah, that sounds
<v Speaker 1>kind of like this story. The major difference is that
<v Speaker 1>Geraldine's story is actually true. These are facts. I'm not
<v Speaker 1>making them up, and it's more outlandish than anything that
<v Speaker 1>could come out of a Hollywood producer's un original brain.
<v Speaker 1>Given how horrifically absurd this whole situation was, it begged
<v Speaker 1>the question, what in the world could possibly drive someone
<v Speaker 1>to act this way.
<v Speaker 13>I don't know if it's because of the boyfriend.
<v Speaker 3>Maybe she couldn't let it go and she was trying
<v Speaker 3>to hold on to him, so she kept this baby
<v Speaker 3>thing going.
<v Speaker 13>So then she has to find.
<v Speaker 14>A baby because the boy the Randy guys he said,
<v Speaker 14>we started dating, he goes I really liked her, but
<v Speaker 14>then it just seemed like, every time I turned around,
<v Speaker 14>she was wandering about something, and it was like, well,
<v Speaker 14>you know what it so, lie man, it's a habit.
<v Speaker 7>So I don't know if that's a part of you
<v Speaker 7>know what, of the issues she may have, you know whatever,
<v Speaker 7>let it.
<v Speaker 1>The prominent theory about Geraldine's motives is that she was
<v Speaker 1>desperate to hold on to her ex boyfriend, so she
<v Speaker 1>lied about being pregnant to keep him in her life.
<v Speaker 1>Geraldine wouldn't be the first woman to do that, but
<v Speaker 1>when you add the fact that she was also a
<v Speaker 1>pathological liar, it made for a very bad situation. Geraldine's
<v Speaker 1>lies painted her into a corner, and for her, kidnapping
<v Speaker 1>and murder seemed like a better option than just coming
<v Speaker 1>clean and admitting the truth. She had to keep the
<v Speaker 1>lies going to protect the other lies. Also, according to
<v Speaker 1>her sisters, Jordine was uncompromisingly desperate for attention. There's a
<v Speaker 1>lot of that going around. And something else that may
<v Speaker 1>have motivated her actions was jealousy.
<v Speaker 4>So when April got married and all of a sudden,
<v Speaker 4>I just remember coming down and Journie saying she was pregnant,
<v Speaker 4>and my first mind was, okay, she got pregnant on
<v Speaker 4>purpose because Abel was getting all attention with her getting married.
<v Speaker 17>Yeah, so as far as when she.
<v Speaker 7>Told me she was pregnant, I'd be believe her as
<v Speaker 7>she was pregnant.
<v Speaker 3>I don't know about April's part of it about being
<v Speaker 3>you know, her getting married and.
<v Speaker 13>The attention, that's probably some of it.
<v Speaker 3>But I think she sees this Randy guy, and miss
<v Speaker 3>Randy says the same thing to Miko April when you
<v Speaker 3>say she couldn't tell the truth for nothing, I think
<v Speaker 3>she started feeling like she was starting to.
<v Speaker 13>Lose Randy, and so she had to come up with
<v Speaker 13>because he says, next thing, you know, now she's pregnant.
<v Speaker 13>Had to keep it going.
<v Speaker 3>Maybe you know, was so used to not telling the
<v Speaker 3>truth but getting away with a lot of it that
<v Speaker 3>Randy wasn't putting up with it, and so it tested
<v Speaker 3>her and pushed her to the point where she's like,
<v Speaker 3>I'm going to show him.
<v Speaker 13>I'm going to really come up with a baby. It's
<v Speaker 13>like everything she did was a lie.
<v Speaker 1>Despite Geraldine's refusal to speak with investigators, they were able
<v Speaker 1>to obtain a pretty full grasp of this homicide by
<v Speaker 1>this sick, sick, sick woman. They had the how and
<v Speaker 1>the why. The only thing left to do was to
<v Speaker 1>deal with Geraldine.
<v Speaker 17>This truly is a tragic story.
<v Speaker 21>Police believe that Serenity, the newborn girl involved in this case,
<v Speaker 21>was less a month old when this all happened. Now
<v Speaker 21>that little girl left to grow up without her birth mother,
<v Speaker 21>twenty three year old Samantha Fleming after officers found her
<v Speaker 21>body full of stab wounds and stuffed inside of a
<v Speaker 21>closet in Jones's Gary home. That being said, just yesterday morning,
<v Speaker 21>Jones was extra dded back here to Indiana from Fort Worth, Texas,
<v Speaker 21>until she's currently being held at Madison County Jail. Investigators
<v Speaker 21>believe the motive behind the murder and kidnapping was all
<v Speaker 21>part of an elaborate plot for Jones to raise Serenity
<v Speaker 21>as her own daughter.
<v Speaker 17>And when I say elaborate, I mean it.
<v Speaker 21>According to police, Jones post as a child services worker,
<v Speaker 21>faked her own pregnancy and even through herself a baby shower.
<v Speaker 17>Now she sits in a cell awaiting her day in court.
<v Speaker 1>In twenty fifteen, Geraldine Jones was charged with kidnapping and murder.
<v Speaker 1>As she awaited her court proceedings, Geraldine made many jail
<v Speaker 1>house phone calls to her sister April sorright.
<v Speaker 8>You're not sorry, you start, you get sorry, you get
<v Speaker 8>called no, I'm not I'm sorry. So okay, then I
<v Speaker 8>guess you just deal with anything. I guess you. I
<v Speaker 8>guess you deal with you being sorry.
<v Speaker 2>I did it.
<v Speaker 8>I don't have anything to say. I don't have reathani
<v Speaker 8>to say. I have no compassion. My mind is all
<v Speaker 8>as up. My mind is so messed up from this stuff.
<v Speaker 8>I don't have any cause. And I'm a compassionate person,
<v Speaker 8>but this here, I don't. I don't, I don't. I
<v Speaker 8>don't have any I don't have any words. Everybody talking
<v Speaker 8>about you, everybody talking about your face on fucking everywhere,
<v Speaker 8>and just just would not stop. You just wouldn't stop.
<v Speaker 8>But you know what, that's something you have to deal with.
<v Speaker 8>That's something you have to deal with God with I can't.
<v Speaker 8>I can't do anything. I can't do anything. I can't
<v Speaker 8>fix it. I can't cover it up that I can't
<v Speaker 8>do anything. But I'm won't do it. I ain't gonna
<v Speaker 8>go into no debt, I ain't want nobody no money,
<v Speaker 8>and I'm not gonna stretch myself. I will go ask
<v Speaker 8>all this and that because I do it all the
<v Speaker 8>same time. I'm always stressing and frustrating myself about this stuff.
<v Speaker 8>I know not I'm doing it for somebody that don't
<v Speaker 8>even appreciate nothing and just life and then just somebody
<v Speaker 8>and treat me just like you treat men that everybody
<v Speaker 8>and everybody's journey and everybody, and you expect us for
<v Speaker 8>the same people that you fucking live you and that
<v Speaker 8>the for real thank and trying to kill yourself. You're
<v Speaker 8>a fan of Senior, this journey. You are so fucked up.
<v Speaker 8>I knew you were glad about a lot of shit,
<v Speaker 8>but I would never think this. And a millionaires, I
<v Speaker 8>want to say, would do those shit like this, Jordan.
<v Speaker 8>I wonder if if you would be a part of
<v Speaker 8>those shit like this, not in a million years they
<v Speaker 8>even but with any stammer innthing you have ever done
<v Speaker 8>a life, I would never think.
<v Speaker 2>This about you.
<v Speaker 8>I don't even know who you are. I don't know
<v Speaker 8>nothing about you.
<v Speaker 1>As you just heard, much of Geraldine's conversations with her
<v Speaker 1>sister involved April expressing her very justified frustrations with Geraldine.
<v Speaker 1>This went on for some time.
<v Speaker 8>Please don't sorry. The steak fucking quiet because I don't
<v Speaker 8>fucking feel like hearing that ship, and I don't feel
<v Speaker 8>like hearing the whole bunch of shit. I don't fucking
<v Speaker 8>feel like here the whole bunch of lives. I don't
<v Speaker 8>start to hear none of that, because that's all you
<v Speaker 8>have done the whole entire time, is fucking last the
<v Speaker 8>whole entire time. That's all you've done, manipulate, lack and
<v Speaker 8>do everybody all fucked up, and you just let everybody
<v Speaker 8>out here to deal with this fucking bullshit. Everything that
<v Speaker 8>you fucking sand out of your mouth is alive. Everything
<v Speaker 8>the ship you've done is so so fucked up, Jerdan.
<v Speaker 8>It is fucked up, and it is so fuck up
<v Speaker 8>because you expect me to be out here trying to
<v Speaker 8>get your money to get a fucking lawyer to help
<v Speaker 8>you get out because you fucked up. I'm sick of
<v Speaker 8>your ship, Jerdan. I'm so sick of your shit. I'm
<v Speaker 8>sick of the where you fucking treat me. I'm so
<v Speaker 8>tired of the way you fucking treat me, With the
<v Speaker 8>shit that you do to people you have no fucking regards,
<v Speaker 8>know nothing about nobody but your fucking self. The shit
<v Speaker 8>is so fucked up. Even when you say you fucking sorry,
<v Speaker 8>you fucking line, you sorry, you fucking got caught, You're
<v Speaker 8>not sorry, you fucking sorry, you fucking got caught. You
<v Speaker 8>have fuck the whole family, the family, your friends, your church,
<v Speaker 8>your loved ones, and the people that care about us,
<v Speaker 8>they care about Joe, motherfucking hands because they care about us.
<v Speaker 8>You fucked them too. And you want somebody to give
<v Speaker 8>your SIPs. You want somebody to run around bagging think
<v Speaker 8>offing a fucking dead, a fucking damn twenty five thousand
<v Speaker 8>fucking dollar lawyer to get your ass out, and you
<v Speaker 8>just kick fucking people, and you're still fucking line. You're
<v Speaker 8>still fucking line. I hope you kill one soul the
<v Speaker 8>fucking truth because you ain't told nobody, because the shit
<v Speaker 8>is fucked up every fucking day. Can't nobody eat he
<v Speaker 8>nobody fucking clay. And then a story just keeps the
<v Speaker 8>fucking unrabbling. Who does fish kind of shit?
<v Speaker 12>To people?
<v Speaker 8>Who the fuck does this kind of ships? People draw
<v Speaker 8>rane the fucking a damn dear, a fucking dear journey,
<v Speaker 8>You fucking lie a whole damn dear, You fucking lie
<v Speaker 8>about this ship and I feel sorry for your ass
<v Speaker 8>from the beginning, very fucking beginning, very beginning. I feel
<v Speaker 8>starry for your ass.
<v Speaker 1>If this isn't obvious. April was fed up with her sister,
<v Speaker 1>and she eventually told Geraldine that.
<v Speaker 17>She was on her own.
<v Speaker 19>Athul I have I know I'm messed up.
<v Speaker 8>I didn't have the ship. But you know something about
<v Speaker 8>in my heart that I look at you. You know
<v Speaker 8>what your nay, I don't. I can't tell you that
<v Speaker 8>I know that, and you know that I honestly can
<v Speaker 8>I tell you that. I know that. It is so
<v Speaker 8>messed up. My head has been spinning and going in
<v Speaker 8>all kinds of ways. And you know what, you got
<v Speaker 8>a fucking way of showing it. The love that you have.
<v Speaker 8>I don't need a drewe ring and now I love
<v Speaker 8>that you have your evil a coni and you do anything.
<v Speaker 8>It's like you're happy. Well sh is all fucked up
<v Speaker 8>for other people and they lize and all kind of
<v Speaker 8>shit is crazy. That's the love that you're as d
<v Speaker 8>I don't know that time. How do I'll be better
<v Speaker 8>left without it?
<v Speaker 16>How can you do it?
<v Speaker 8>I was just I want to pick up it? How
<v Speaker 8>could I try it? That's not think about that. That's
<v Speaker 8>remember about it.
<v Speaker 19>That's not true at all.
<v Speaker 8>I've never liked that about a shoe. I feel like that,
<v Speaker 8>Yes you have. You have act like that when I
<v Speaker 8>sit back and reflect yourself. When you love somebody, you
<v Speaker 8>don't shoot a way with two three people. That I
<v Speaker 8>know is true, you don't do it.
<v Speaker 11>Speak.
<v Speaker 1>In the end, though, April somehow found a way to
<v Speaker 1>forgive her sister and agreed to help her through her
<v Speaker 1>upcoming murder trial. I guess blood is thicker.
<v Speaker 8>Than water and I love you your range and you know,
<v Speaker 8>no matter what you steal, my sister, I don't care
<v Speaker 8>what those are, I still love you. I'm going to
<v Speaker 8>be like I said, I'm gonna do whatever you have
<v Speaker 8>I have to do no matter what. You just have
<v Speaker 8>to be strong and know that God is doing something.
<v Speaker 1>Unfortunately, for Geraldine, there wasn't much that April or God
<v Speaker 1>himself could do for her. Geraldine killed a twenty three
<v Speaker 1>year old mother of kids, and the police found the
<v Speaker 1>body in her house in a closet. The police also
<v Speaker 1>unraveled all of her lies and could easily prove beyond
<v Speaker 1>a reasonable doubt that Geraldine committed this murder. A potential
<v Speaker 1>death sentence loomed over Geraldine, and the best she could
<v Speaker 1>hope for was a deal from prosecutors, which she eventually got.
<v Speaker 1>In May of twenty eighteen, Geraldine pled guilty to voluntary
<v Speaker 1>manslaughter and criminal confinement. She was sentenced to thirty years
<v Speaker 1>in prison. Throughout the court proceedings, Geraldine made no statements,
<v Speaker 1>and after the plea, her attorney gave a brief statement
<v Speaker 1>to the press saying, quote, the state made the offer,
<v Speaker 1>and Geraldine was satisfied with it. She's ready to put
<v Speaker 1>this behind her. She's at peace.
<v Speaker 13>End quote.
<v Speaker 1>Geraldine was at PA. Well, isn't that nice? Isn't that
<v Speaker 1>nice for her?
<v Speaker 19>Do you know how long it's took for me to
<v Speaker 19>get here?
<v Speaker 8>Hell, four days.
<v Speaker 19>I traveled on the bus for two days, went through Louisiana.
<v Speaker 19>I mean, it went through so many different states. And
<v Speaker 19>then they took us to a holding place in Kentucky,
<v Speaker 19>and they were so mean to you, like they would
<v Speaker 19>make you sleep on the floor. They didn't give you
<v Speaker 19>one small bottle of soap. I mean, it's ridiculous. Even
<v Speaker 19>now I'm in lockdown. So it us And I ask,
<v Speaker 19>she said, because of my classification, Because I guess what
<v Speaker 19>I did. But my blunkie was telling me that because
<v Speaker 19>of what I did, I mean, because of the charges,
<v Speaker 19>that you want to be by yourself. But I'm thinking
<v Speaker 19>like that, I'm here, I don't see no TV. I
<v Speaker 19>only get out for an hour, and I was instantly
<v Speaker 19>in isolation, like I'm in one self by myself.
<v Speaker 1>During her calls from jail, Geraldine spent a lot of
<v Speaker 1>time complaining about the lousy conditions of the facilities she
<v Speaker 1>was transferred to and the poor treatment she received. It
<v Speaker 1>wasn't you know, yelpable. She probably wanted to speak with
<v Speaker 1>the manager or something. Never once in any of those
<v Speaker 1>calls does Geraldine mention Samantha Fleming. Never once does she
<v Speaker 1>talk about Samantha's two kids, who are now forced to
<v Speaker 1>grow up without a mother because of her. She doesn't
<v Speaker 1>talk about Samantha's mom or her boyfriend, both of whom
<v Speaker 1>were emotionally crushed by the murder that Geraldine committed. After
<v Speaker 1>everything she did, after destroying countless lives for no reason
<v Speaker 1>at all, Geraldine's world still only revolved around one person, Geraldine.
<v Speaker 1>You can call this woman a lot of things. She's
<v Speaker 1>a narcissist, she's a pathological liar. She's a killer. But
<v Speaker 1>if you want to encompass everything, you only need one word.
<v Speaker 1>Geraldine Jones is a monster. All right. That's gonna do
<v Speaker 1>it for another one. Thanks again for joining us. If
<v Speaker 1>you enjoy the show and want to support us, there's
<v Speaker 1>an easy way to do it at sword and Scale
<v Speaker 1>dot com. And while you're there, check out the latest
<v Speaker 1>episode of Sword Scales Television. If you like true crime,
<v Speaker 1>it's a pretty good docu series.