Episode 271

<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>He's not all there, and he doesn't He never thinks,
<v Speaker 3>thinks through, and he doesn't care about repercussions. He's always
<v Speaker 3>been that way.
<v Speaker 1>Hello and welcome. This is season eleven, episode two hundred
<v Speaker 1>and seventy one of Sword and Scale, a show that
<v Speaker 1>reveals that the worst monsters are real. So we have
<v Speaker 1>a store that's loaded with all sorts of summer goodies.
<v Speaker 1>Head on over there. You can find it at Swordandscale
<v Speaker 1>dot com. Top of the page. Click the store link
<v Speaker 1>and you'll see all kinds of cool, cool summer a gear.
<v Speaker 1>It was just after midnight on October first, twenty twenty
<v Speaker 1>in Champagne County, Ohio, and police received a strange nine
<v Speaker 1>to one one call. The young man on the other
<v Speaker 1>end of the line didn't want to disclose what was
<v Speaker 1>going on over the phone. Instead, he asked an officer
<v Speaker 1>to meet him in person. Officer Daniel Fisher headed out
<v Speaker 1>to the parking lot of the Sheriff's office to find
<v Speaker 1>a young man waiting for him. The guy stood nervously
<v Speaker 1>beside his car. He extended his hand and introduced himself
<v Speaker 1>as Randy Rider. Randy told the officer that he wanted
<v Speaker 1>to file a missing person's report for his girlfriend, Whitney Hostler.
<v Speaker 1>He hadn't seen her in over twelve hours. He said
<v Speaker 1>that he lived at his parents' house with Whitney and
<v Speaker 1>their young daughter, but a lot of fighting had been
<v Speaker 1>going on between Whitney, Randy's mother, Valerie Rider, and his father,
<v Speaker 1>Rodney Senior. Now Whitney was missing and he didn't know.
<v Speaker 2>What to do.
<v Speaker 1>Officer Fisher decided to file a missing person since report
<v Speaker 1>and news of Whitney's disappearance spread through the small farming community,
<v Speaker 1>the police soon got ahold of Whitney's mother, Kim Long. Kim,
<v Speaker 1>of course, was distraught. Whitney had been living with the
<v Speaker 1>Writer family for about a year as Valerie and Rodney
<v Speaker 1>were helping the young couple raise their baby, but now
<v Speaker 1>Kim was being ghosted by the Writers. After Whitney's disappearance.
<v Speaker 4>How strange come out to his parents house and no
<v Speaker 4>one answer on the door on you out their home,
<v Speaker 4>but normally they would answer it. I'd call her her mom,
<v Speaker 4>his mom three times. You would think that I'm going
<v Speaker 4>to call her a bitch? Would I would call me back,
<v Speaker 4>knowing I'm worried? You know, why did the compact to
<v Speaker 4>come and tell me.
<v Speaker 5>My daughter's missing?
<v Speaker 6>You said you called her three times?
<v Speaker 7>Three times.
<v Speaker 1>Kim was beside herself, her daughter was missing, and now
<v Speaker 1>the writers were ignoring her.
<v Speaker 8>If I were you, I wouldn't try to make contact
<v Speaker 8>with them.
<v Speaker 6>Okay, I know.
<v Speaker 8>You want answers. I do, and rightfully so. I mean,
<v Speaker 8>you know, with you being mom, you you one hundred
<v Speaker 8>percent deserve answers.
<v Speaker 6>But with that being said.
<v Speaker 8>Unfortunately, I would not go out there. And the only
<v Speaker 8>reason why I'm saying that is because you know, I
<v Speaker 8>don't want her to be an incident out there where
<v Speaker 8>you know, you say something to her, she says something
<v Speaker 8>to you, and the next thing you know, we're involved.
<v Speaker 3>Right. I wasn't going to call you to come out here,
<v Speaker 3>I really was.
<v Speaker 7>I'm just so worried.
<v Speaker 3>I'm thinking of Myay.
<v Speaker 6>I can only.
<v Speaker 1>Imagine Whitney was twenty five years old and now a
<v Speaker 1>mother herself, but that didn't matter to Kim. She was
<v Speaker 1>still her baby girl, and she was worried, sick.
<v Speaker 3>No at all.
<v Speaker 8>Have you tried to call her again, I.
<v Speaker 4>Did text her, but she never and I tried to
<v Speaker 4>pay primates she never did.
<v Speaker 6>Was fun.
<v Speaker 5>Yeah, you kind of weird.
<v Speaker 8>Yeah, you text her in the afternoon, correct, and then
<v Speaker 8>you called her around.
<v Speaker 4>Nine about ten, about ten, it was about ten ten
<v Speaker 4>thirty from the hospital.
<v Speaker 7>I tried to video chatter and stuff, and she never answered.
<v Speaker 7>I just thought it was kind of weird.
<v Speaker 1>Kim had been reaching out to Whitney over and over.
<v Speaker 7>Close your eyes when.
<v Speaker 9>I can't imagine what you're going through. But like I said,
<v Speaker 9>we were investigating this as thoroughly as we possibly can.
<v Speaker 9>And you know, we've we've had we've had people on
<v Speaker 9>this since the very beginning, and like I said, we're
<v Speaker 9>going to continue to investigate this, you know, one hundred
<v Speaker 9>percent as.
<v Speaker 8>Thoroughly as possible.
<v Speaker 9>We want her home safe just as much as you do.
<v Speaker 1>Still, Kim couldn't let go of the fact that the
<v Speaker 1>Writer family was being so cold to her. It didn't
<v Speaker 1>make sense that she wanted to talk to them.
<v Speaker 4>Are you able to even have contact with them to
<v Speaker 4>get some answers.
<v Speaker 7>I mean, I don't know exactly where he worked at.
<v Speaker 7>I'm not for sure.
<v Speaker 3>I guess the day game.
<v Speaker 8>Yeah, we have spoken with everybody.
<v Speaker 1>The police had spoken with everybody in the household, Randy, Ryder,
<v Speaker 1>Rodney Senior, and Valerie. Rodney and Valerie insisted that Whitney
<v Speaker 1>had been picked up by a friend the other day,
<v Speaker 1>but Randy said he wasn't so sure. Something was going on.
<v Speaker 1>Definitely nobody knew exactly what it was. Whitney would never
<v Speaker 1>leave her daughter behind, especially since the girl was still
<v Speaker 1>a toddler. Whitney and Randy had been together for a
<v Speaker 1>few years, but their relationship was on and off. When
<v Speaker 1>they found out they were expecting a daughter, they decided
<v Speaker 1>that the best thing to do would be to move
<v Speaker 1>into Randy's parents' house. Rodney and Valerie were retired but
<v Speaker 1>still young and vibrant for grandparents, and they wanted to
<v Speaker 1>help the couple raise their baby girl. Randy had two brothers,
<v Speaker 1>David and Rodney Junior, but Randy was the only one
<v Speaker 1>still living at home. Rodney Junior was a bit of
<v Speaker 1>a screw up, and David was the golden child who
<v Speaker 1>now lived in Virginia Beach on his military base with
<v Speaker 1>his wife and two kids. He was willing to talk
<v Speaker 1>to police.
<v Speaker 3>I joined the military to get away from my family.
<v Speaker 8>Why is that, If you don't mind me asking.
<v Speaker 3>Him, I just they were nothing, nothing bad. It was
<v Speaker 3>just like I you could ask my other two siblings.
<v Speaker 3>I am considered the golden towel.
<v Speaker 5>Yeah.
<v Speaker 3>So like my parents, I always, I guess, depended on
<v Speaker 3>me a lot to help out with things around the house, vehicles.
<v Speaker 3>I've got a background in mechanics work, and it's because
<v Speaker 3>of that, because I was constantly worked on my parents' vehicles,
<v Speaker 3>both of my brothers. I mean, I'm not gonna I
<v Speaker 3>can't say I am a man I am today because
<v Speaker 3>my parents, and you know, I learned a lot from
<v Speaker 3>my dad. But I say it was kind of getting
<v Speaker 3>I've got my wife and maybe watch just had our
<v Speaker 3>second born, so it was like I felt like they
<v Speaker 3>were taking up too much of my time.
<v Speaker 8>I guess I just felt like you needed a change
<v Speaker 8>for you and your family.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, David was the favorite. Well, Randy the baby. It
<v Speaker 1>was a little more let's say, entitled.
<v Speaker 3>At the same time, I know Randy's history, Uh, I
<v Speaker 3>know how Randy is.
<v Speaker 8>When you say you know Randy's history and you know
<v Speaker 8>how Randy is, what do you mean by that?
<v Speaker 3>He's always been violent, just flat out says he's always
<v Speaker 3>had anger issues. He's always blamed a lot of stuff.
<v Speaker 3>I say, Randy always felt less privileged, I guess than
<v Speaker 3>myself or my older brother. Yeah, as far as like
<v Speaker 3>he never got a car for his sixteenth birthday, and
<v Speaker 3>Miss Matt well, it's also because he never earned it
<v Speaker 3>and he never saw things that way. He did a lot,
<v Speaker 3>Miss Matt. He he sees things differently from other people.
<v Speaker 3>Him and Whitney have always I've always been.
<v Speaker 5>Back and forth.
<v Speaker 3>There's been multiple times that my parents called me and said, hey, Randy,
<v Speaker 3>Whitney is trying to fight, and he started out the door,
<v Speaker 3>took off. I can go find him. So I'd have
<v Speaker 3>to go driving down the back roads in Saint Paris.
<v Speaker 6>And he just walking and walked.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, just be walking.
<v Speaker 1>Randy and Whitney began fighting a lot, and because they
<v Speaker 1>were under his parents roof, there was no hiding the
<v Speaker 1>inner pain of their relationship. Their business was out in
<v Speaker 1>the open.
<v Speaker 3>She was planning on leaving already and taking my niece.
<v Speaker 3>And then she found out that he was seeing another girl.
<v Speaker 3>Which this girl, out of all the girls he could
<v Speaker 3>have picked, he picked the worst one. To Whitney, it's
<v Speaker 3>like her arch nemesis, because Randy always had a thing
<v Speaker 3>with her when they were younger, and she found out
<v Speaker 3>Rainy was with her and Randy got her knocked up.
<v Speaker 1>Randy had been cheating on Whitney with a girl named Eliza,
<v Speaker 1>whom Whitney despised. When Whitney found this out, it was
<v Speaker 1>a huge blow. Then Eliza became pregnant and Whitney was livid.
<v Speaker 3>So she was just lit. She was pissed off and
<v Speaker 3>from minors saying they weren't at the house at the
<v Speaker 3>same time. If she was at the house and Randy
<v Speaker 3>would be gone and Randy was at the house here
<v Speaker 3>to go on.
<v Speaker 1>Whitney and Randy were passing like two ships in the night,
<v Speaker 1>avoiding one another.
<v Speaker 3>Randy was avoiding her, and when he finally came home
<v Speaker 3>on Wednesday, Yeah, Wednesday, he finally came home. She is
<v Speaker 3>when she had found out everything about Eliza, and she
<v Speaker 3>was waiting for him, and he said him and Whitney
<v Speaker 3>got into a fight since he got home.
<v Speaker 5>She was.
<v Speaker 3>Going off on him, straying, hiring, cussing and saying she
<v Speaker 3>was leaving and taking the baby. And I said to
<v Speaker 3>me that that would have smacked something for Randy.
<v Speaker 1>Whitney was distraught and planning on leaving. Maybe she had
<v Speaker 1>just taken off and decided she wasn't going to let
<v Speaker 1>Randy know where she was going. But then why would
<v Speaker 1>her mother, Kim not be aware. The whole town was
<v Speaker 1>on high alert looking for Whitney. Everyone was worried missing.
<v Speaker 1>Posters of her were sent all over the news and
<v Speaker 1>tagged up in every store. Whitney was unique with her
<v Speaker 1>bleached blonde hair, permanent cat eyeliner, and multiple lip piercings.
<v Speaker 1>She wasn't the kind of girl who would blend into
<v Speaker 1>a crowd. Then a few days later, the Sheriff's department
<v Speaker 1>received a frantic nine one one call.
<v Speaker 5>Hemergency.
<v Speaker 10>I'm at Kaiser Lakes State Park right after you come
<v Speaker 10>down the kais of Lake Road and turn in. Just
<v Speaker 10>found a body laying down here at the bottom of
<v Speaker 10>the ravine.
<v Speaker 11>Right the road.
<v Speaker 5>Okay, you found a body at the bottom of the ravine.
<v Speaker 11>Yes, it looks like it's a female. She's laying face down. Okay,
<v Speaker 11>lost on in pajama.
<v Speaker 5>Okay, all right, I'm gonna paint your fun so I
<v Speaker 5>can find out exactly where you are.
<v Speaker 11>Okay, Okay, just just just live just about a mile
<v Speaker 11>from here.
<v Speaker 5>Okay, is she in the water or.
<v Speaker 12>Is she wood?
<v Speaker 11>She's laying, She's laying on the ground.
<v Speaker 1>The woman's body was lying face down in the leaves
<v Speaker 1>and brush. Her skinny legs were twisted, and her hair
<v Speaker 1>was matted. She wasn't moving.
<v Speaker 5>Are you near the roadway there? I think, I think
<v Speaker 5>on my map age? Yeah? Yeah, Okay, are you with
<v Speaker 5>a vehicle? Where are you on play?
<v Speaker 3>Oh?
<v Speaker 11>I'm on foot. I'm walking with my dog.
<v Speaker 5>Okay, all right, if you want to step out towards
<v Speaker 5>the road, I'm going to send someone out there. Do
<v Speaker 5>you think that she's alive and breathing?
<v Speaker 10>No, I don't like it.
<v Speaker 11>All looks like she's been there for a while.
<v Speaker 1>Maybe the caller wasn't sure, but judging by her position
<v Speaker 1>and the leaves and the elements, she looked dead.
<v Speaker 11>No, I do not believe she's like looks like she
<v Speaker 11>might be in pajamas. She didn't have any shoes on,
<v Speaker 11>and she's got like a sweater, but looks like she
<v Speaker 11>has pajama bottoms.
<v Speaker 5>One. Okay, and you think she's been there for a while.
<v Speaker 11>Well, I went down and I didn't touch her. I
<v Speaker 11>went down, looking at her hands for kind of bruised looking.
<v Speaker 5>Okay, could you tell anything else about her? You know?
<v Speaker 11>Okay, No, she's laying she's straight down.
<v Speaker 5>She tasted down.
<v Speaker 11>Yeah, I mean, I don't.
<v Speaker 3>Know how it's okay, it's all right, tab.
<v Speaker 5>All right, I'm gonna update my unit's okay, they're on
<v Speaker 5>their way.
<v Speaker 11>Okay, I'll wait here.
<v Speaker 1>The caller waited nervously for the police to arrive. The
<v Speaker 1>girl in the ravine was lifeless as the breeze picked
<v Speaker 1>up and the leaves swirled around her. When the police
<v Speaker 1>finally arrived on scene, they carefully turned her over. It
<v Speaker 1>was Whitney. She had been strangled and her hands were
<v Speaker 1>turning purple. Her once beautiful, pale face was vacant. Whitney
<v Speaker 1>was gone. As the news of Whitney's body being found
<v Speaker 1>swirled around their small town, Randy's brother David had a theory.
<v Speaker 3>And I said, got under real pregnant. She was not
<v Speaker 3>happy about it, and see wade a friend to come
<v Speaker 3>home to start a fight, And I think that's what happened.
<v Speaker 3>They started a fight and it got out of hand.
<v Speaker 3>That's just my own personal opinion. I think Randy did
<v Speaker 3>it he's not all there, and he doesn't He never thinks,
<v Speaker 3>thinks through, and he doesn't care about repercussions. He's always
<v Speaker 3>been that way.
<v Speaker 1>Rumors began swirling around the small town, and Randy was
<v Speaker 1>at the crux of it all. Twenty five year old
<v Speaker 1>old Whitney Hostler had been reported missing by her boyfriend
<v Speaker 1>Randy Ryder. Less than twenty four hours later, her body
<v Speaker 1>was found at the bottom of a ravine a few
<v Speaker 1>miles from the home the couple shared with Randy's parents.
<v Speaker 1>Whitney's mother, Kim, was a wreck. She wanted to see
<v Speaker 1>her daughter's remains.
<v Speaker 7>Do you know of anything of anything that the body?
<v Speaker 3>What I can kid a kid.
<v Speaker 1>More painful? The Writer family was still ignoring Kim, and
<v Speaker 1>she wanted Whitney's things back so she could dress her
<v Speaker 1>for the funeral. Those things were trapped in the Writer
<v Speaker 1>family home.
<v Speaker 7>And another thing I want to ask is very important.
<v Speaker 7>How do I go about because she's got clothes and
<v Speaker 7>she got distresses up.
<v Speaker 5>In herself there at that house that she looked be appointed.
<v Speaker 7>And that's what I want to put her in. I
<v Speaker 7>want to know when I can go get her.
<v Speaker 3>Thought, I mean, I ken't go in that house obviously.
<v Speaker 7>Yeah, okay, I want to know when I can think
<v Speaker 7>better not touch her stuff.
<v Speaker 3>I'm telling you they better not touch her stuff that's mine.
<v Speaker 6>And I was just.
<v Speaker 7>Wondering when I can go up here or someone could
<v Speaker 7>I detex you you can meet me out there.
<v Speaker 3>Have you had any conversation or anything with Randy?
<v Speaker 7>No, I haven't talk with Randy.
<v Speaker 5>Okay, but my daughter Ina always.
<v Speaker 7>Tell me that they made an arrest in Springfield. And
<v Speaker 7>I'm not excluding Randy because I've got a date. I'd
<v Speaker 7>easy to hear who.
<v Speaker 8>Made an arrest in Springfield on.
<v Speaker 6>What I don't know.
<v Speaker 7>That's why you know, I don't believe anything. You don't
<v Speaker 7>have rumors fly around because everything's so high right now
<v Speaker 7>and out how a character. I don't know if it's
<v Speaker 7>even true. I'm not believing nothing.
<v Speaker 3>As far as the leading you, I am only going
<v Speaker 3>by your information.
<v Speaker 13>Yeah.
<v Speaker 9>As far as anybody else being arrested in connection or
<v Speaker 9>having anything to do with this case, that that's false.
<v Speaker 7>Did you know that Randy was in the house when
<v Speaker 7>that happened? Did you know he was in the house.
<v Speaker 7>I've got it on recording, and I need you to
<v Speaker 7>hear this. I need somehow to figure out how to
<v Speaker 7>say this to you.
<v Speaker 1>No arrest had been made, but rumors, of course, were
<v Speaker 1>flying as they do. Kim had also received a recording
<v Speaker 1>from someone that implicated Randy. Randy's brother David, had also
<v Speaker 1>received this mysterious video.
<v Speaker 3>You yeah, you you know about these videos?
<v Speaker 6>What videos with there?
<v Speaker 3>So I was, I've got one of them.
<v Speaker 7>I have a video.
<v Speaker 3>I don't know what's going on is recording them, but
<v Speaker 3>I got it from uh, one of my cousins. Her
<v Speaker 3>boyfriend was some girl or some thing that's been hanging
<v Speaker 3>around with Randy and Eliza and she's been recording randy conversations,
<v Speaker 3>you know, talking about everything. And the one I got
<v Speaker 3>was it was taken before Whitney's body was found, because
<v Speaker 3>you can hear in the video Eliza. It's a video
<v Speaker 3>of Eliza on the phone with Randy and I believe
<v Speaker 3>Whitney's mom. I believe Randy's was Whitney's mom at the time,
<v Speaker 3>and she is so Eliza is asking have you heard
<v Speaker 3>from her anything? Blah blah blah, and she's like, no,
<v Speaker 3>I haven't heard from her. So this this this point
<v Speaker 3>in time, Whitney is still missing. And then Randy goes
<v Speaker 3>on to say that she will be found in Kyler.
<v Speaker 11>Not it's not.
<v Speaker 3>Saying that they're going to find her dad, not like
<v Speaker 3>unless he is. He's talking about Kyler like thing, that
<v Speaker 3>she they're going to find her in Kaiser.
<v Speaker 6>That to me was just weird.
<v Speaker 3>How did he know they were going to find her
<v Speaker 3>in Kaiser.
<v Speaker 1>Whitney's body was found at the bottom of a ravine
<v Speaker 1>near Kaiser Lake. According to this secret video footage, Randy
<v Speaker 1>knew exactly where she was before the guy walking his
<v Speaker 1>dog came across her.
<v Speaker 6>Remember, the girl.
<v Speaker 1>Who Randy had been sleeping with behind Whitney's back, who
<v Speaker 1>was now pregnant with his child, was named Eliza. She
<v Speaker 1>had been talking all over town. Eliza was young, and
<v Speaker 1>with that she was stupid, and she clearly didn't understand
<v Speaker 1>how badly she was implicating the man she claimed to
<v Speaker 1>love so dearly. The police were also informed by a
<v Speaker 1>random citizen that he had been the suspicious man at
<v Speaker 1>Kaiser Lake around the time that Whitney was found there. There,
<v Speaker 1>he took the cops to the exact spot and described
<v Speaker 1>what he saw.
<v Speaker 14>With you guys, where exactly did you see this male subject?
<v Speaker 14>Debt with the crossbow down here, okay.
<v Speaker 6>So when you saw him in the wooded area, where
<v Speaker 6>did you seem? Well, I only see him coming out
<v Speaker 6>of the wood area.
<v Speaker 15>I just kind of seen him coming this way, like okay,
<v Speaker 15>so why walk from here all all the way around
<v Speaker 15>up this hill?
<v Speaker 5>Okay?
<v Speaker 6>So you walked from the beach area and.
<v Speaker 5>Then I turn around.
<v Speaker 6>But when I was coming back, he was probably like.
<v Speaker 15>Five hundred feet behind me back that way.
<v Speaker 5>It's like he just came out of nowhere.
<v Speaker 6>So where did you see him?
<v Speaker 3>So?
<v Speaker 6>I seen him down here to the bomb in the hill.
<v Speaker 6>So at the curve he stopped at the curve, okay,
<v Speaker 6>and then I just kept walking. I just thought it
<v Speaker 6>was just some redneck man. He ate cameo on he
<v Speaker 6>ad the You don't know which side of the woods
<v Speaker 6>he came from. I didn't see that, okay. So down here, yeah,
<v Speaker 6>down there okay. And then uh, and where did you
<v Speaker 6>see the vehicle? The vehicle was touched in the in
<v Speaker 6>front of that sign.
<v Speaker 14>They were like, okay, and you're talking about when you
<v Speaker 14>go down to the curve there there's a pole off
<v Speaker 14>on on the site.
<v Speaker 6>Yeah, but they had it tucked in. They're good Okay,
<v Speaker 6>it was a red car. Okay, you don't know what
<v Speaker 6>kind of a vehicle.
<v Speaker 15>Was a little compact look like like a Okay, but
<v Speaker 15>when around the corner he was standing in the middle
<v Speaker 15>of the.
<v Speaker 6>Road at what area on the Okay, this is when
<v Speaker 6>you mean mugs the hell out of me? Okay.
<v Speaker 15>And I almost yelled hiro ound the window, like you
<v Speaker 15>asked whole or or somebody like why you know, he's
<v Speaker 15>like but it looked like he had a crossbow or something.
<v Speaker 15>And this was at what time of the morning, between
<v Speaker 15>ten thirty and eleven o'clock?
<v Speaker 6>Okay, and I got him. I didn't really try to
<v Speaker 6>look at him.
<v Speaker 15>Too much because, like you know, I'm like, this is
<v Speaker 15>just some redneck guy that's you know, just angry at
<v Speaker 15>the road or something.
<v Speaker 3>You know.
<v Speaker 6>I didn't think much of it.
<v Speaker 1>The man in camo with a crossbow was acting super
<v Speaker 1>weird and freaked out the civilian like a lot. What
<v Speaker 1>was this guy doing and why was he mean mugging him?
<v Speaker 6>I didn't get that much. I tried to look at him,
<v Speaker 6>honest and he was alone. He was alone. Okay. So
<v Speaker 6>you didn't see any other vehicles in the area except Ford,
<v Speaker 6>and where was it at. It seemed like there was
<v Speaker 6>a dispute in the.
<v Speaker 15>Campground earlier that morning and that escalat come flying out
<v Speaker 15>of that campground.
<v Speaker 6>Okay, so it was all all the activity you saw
<v Speaker 6>is on this side. I don't know if it's helpful
<v Speaker 6>for you guys.
<v Speaker 15>Yeah, And the ranger told me it was like you
<v Speaker 15>probably should tell it. That's what I'm telling I just okay, Well,
<v Speaker 15>we're going to help out, you know, be a good citizen.
<v Speaker 6>No, you're fine. I will document the information that you've
<v Speaker 6>given me and put it in as or not. Well,
<v Speaker 6>any information that I gather is helpful.
<v Speaker 1>Between the campground fight, the escalade that went screeching out
<v Speaker 1>of the parking lot, and the mysterious man in Camo,
<v Speaker 1>this was looking odd for the sleepy nature park of
<v Speaker 1>Kaiser Lake. But did it have anything to do with
<v Speaker 1>Whitney's murder. The police had to take every tip they could.
<v Speaker 1>Randy was at the center of all the rumors, and
<v Speaker 1>even his own brother thought he did it. Then his
<v Speaker 1>other brother, Rodney, came to the police after his ex
<v Speaker 1>wife told him that he had admitted to finding bloody
<v Speaker 1>items at the house. Rodney wasn't so excited to be
<v Speaker 1>talking to the cops. Neither should you ever.
<v Speaker 6>I do have one other thing that I like to
<v Speaker 6>talk to you about.
<v Speaker 16>I guess some information in regard to some items at
<v Speaker 16>the house. Okay, and uh, we received a contact indicating
<v Speaker 16>that you have an ex wife.
<v Speaker 5>What's her name?
<v Speaker 16>We got information that there's.
<v Speaker 13>Potentially some items inside the house that pertain to the case.
<v Speaker 6>What can you tell me about that?
<v Speaker 8>Uh, there's.
<v Speaker 5>Dumbbows in our room?
<v Speaker 13>Okay, there's a metal stool.
<v Speaker 16>What makes the metal stool significant? Looks like there's blood
<v Speaker 16>on Okay, did you call in that at all? You
<v Speaker 16>say her room. You're talking about Whitney's room. I can't
<v Speaker 16>tell if it's blood or if it's pop What is
<v Speaker 16>this metal stool?
<v Speaker 17>Steps?
<v Speaker 5>What color? Is it?
<v Speaker 1>Yellow?
<v Speaker 5>And rusty?
<v Speaker 1>The step stool was hard metal and looked like it
<v Speaker 1>had blood on it. Rodney Jr. Also found another potentially
<v Speaker 1>bloody item.
<v Speaker 2>Was a white castle cup that has the same brown
<v Speaker 2>stuff on top of it.
<v Speaker 13>M And when did you find that?
<v Speaker 5>Saturday?
<v Speaker 16>This past Saturday? Where is it now?
<v Speaker 5>Did you do anything with it?
<v Speaker 13>Put it for safety in the safe?
<v Speaker 6>What kind of a safe?
<v Speaker 1>But the most important thing that he found was under
<v Speaker 1>Whitney's bed.
<v Speaker 16>So there's also another item. What about the handwritten? How
<v Speaker 16>many pages was that Warner boy who altered that? Do
<v Speaker 16>you have a clue who wrote it?
<v Speaker 3>As far as I know, Whitneys recursive?
<v Speaker 16>What did it say that I cannot tell you?
<v Speaker 5>I can't recursive?
<v Speaker 1>Man, the school system is really failing us. Cursive is
<v Speaker 1>a lost art.
<v Speaker 5>Guys.
<v Speaker 1>Instead, learn how to type on a really tiny keyboard.
<v Speaker 1>Also learn Mandarin. Anyway, the letter was one page in
<v Speaker 1>Whitney's cute cursive handwriting. It was a list of Randy's
<v Speaker 1>suspicious actions that she'd been keeping track of. Things like
<v Speaker 1>Randy had been sleeping on the couch, he wouldn't cuddle
<v Speaker 1>or say he loved the Whitney anymore. And she found
<v Speaker 1>out that Randy had been leaving his GPS location on
<v Speaker 1>so his new girlfriend would know where he was and
<v Speaker 1>they could meet up when he wasn't at home with
<v Speaker 1>his family. Well that's one use I hadn't thought of
<v Speaker 1>for those tracking apps. But above all else, Randy's brother
<v Speaker 1>David was also super concerned because Randy was trying to
<v Speaker 1>now leave the state.
<v Speaker 3>Said, I tried talking to the dead. I can't remember
<v Speaker 3>his name but that's what blows me away about Randy
<v Speaker 3>not being looked at the way I said, we just
<v Speaker 3>kind of feel he should be, and him being allowed
<v Speaker 3>to leave the state and stuff like that has been
<v Speaker 3>kind of bothering us the most.
<v Speaker 8>When he say he's leaving the state, where's he going?
<v Speaker 3>He was trying to go to Kentucky yesterday. He was
<v Speaker 3>trying to get one of our friends that we used
<v Speaker 3>to work with that lives in Kentucky. Now he's got
<v Speaker 3>a little border that lives in Ohio though, and he
<v Speaker 3>was coming up to seem for the day or the weekend,
<v Speaker 3>and Randy contacted him and was like, Hey, can he
<v Speaker 3>take me back out of Tunky with you?
<v Speaker 1>So Randy was trying to skip down and these mysterious
<v Speaker 1>videos kept coming back into play.
<v Speaker 3>Well, there's several of these videos, and she even said
<v Speaker 3>some of them. Randy states on the idea that he
<v Speaker 3>did and then I'm on Randy states in the video
<v Speaker 3>videos that mom and dad did it. My parents are
<v Speaker 3>not bad people. They're not they They're the type of
<v Speaker 3>people to give you the shirt off the back.
<v Speaker 7>They've taken in.
<v Speaker 3>Friends of my brother, my older brother's, friends of mine.
<v Speaker 3>I'm pretty sure they've taken in. Weren't you Randy's friends
<v Speaker 3>at one point? They are nice people and it's just
<v Speaker 3>just one of those things I don't I can't believe,
<v Speaker 3>and I won't believe I was Randy, and I'm not
<v Speaker 3>the only one. Even even besides our immediate family, like
<v Speaker 3>my grandfather, grandparents, my older brother and sister. There are
<v Speaker 3>people on the Champagne County Facebook page.
<v Speaker 5>Where no.
<v Speaker 3>Post was put. There are people in the comment session
<v Speaker 3>that no Rainbe that I don't know, but no Rainby
<v Speaker 3>and are saying Rainby did it.
<v Speaker 1>The videos were going to be a bombshell, and the
<v Speaker 1>police had to know what was said and how much
<v Speaker 1>truth they held. Finally, they got a copy of one
<v Speaker 1>of the recordings of Randy confessing to his friends what
<v Speaker 1>he knew, and it was a much different story than
<v Speaker 1>the rumors.
<v Speaker 13>So, dude, like what, you just walked into your fucking
<v Speaker 13>house that morning and everybody was.
<v Speaker 18>Already arguing.
<v Speaker 13>I wasn't home by sixteen minutes.
<v Speaker 5>She probably did.
<v Speaker 17>Before I told her.
<v Speaker 18>I'm not ready to go home, that I'm not ready
<v Speaker 18>for this work for words, this is life changing. Not
<v Speaker 18>even twenty minutes later, she started popping off one minutes.
<v Speaker 13>After that, she probably did.
<v Speaker 1>Randy said that he came home after Eliza dropped him
<v Speaker 1>off on September thirtieth and he heard his parents fighting
<v Speaker 1>with Whitney in the other room. Twenty minutes later, Whitney
<v Speaker 1>was dead.
<v Speaker 6>Hmm.
<v Speaker 1>Interesting.
<v Speaker 18>I was going to let her leave with my daughter go.
<v Speaker 18>Our mutual friend of ours has taken her to her
<v Speaker 18>mom's house in Media. But she's been getting this Section
<v Speaker 18>eight house for like the last six months, maybe one year, right,
<v Speaker 18>And because of COVID, they have green light they Texas.
<v Speaker 18>They texted me last week saying she got the green light.
<v Speaker 5>She took.
<v Speaker 18>The day after the day after they killed her. She
<v Speaker 18>was supposed to be event to her apartment. That friend
<v Speaker 18>that was going to pick her up gave her a
<v Speaker 18>brand new furniture that time, and not even months old.
<v Speaker 18>She had a whole house. But what it was was
<v Speaker 18>her step I find that wouldn he raped her well,
<v Speaker 18>doing shit and all that, And that's what proves.
<v Speaker 13>Me about faith.
<v Speaker 18>Basically told me when we got on Tall, you know,
<v Speaker 18>my mom's talking to her saying you love her, leave
<v Speaker 18>that baby.
<v Speaker 13>That baby's gonna.
<v Speaker 18>Get snatched and rape and blah blah, blah, and I'm like,
<v Speaker 18>you don't get in my life ever. And then when
<v Speaker 18>it's convenient.
<v Speaker 8>For you, you know, come right.
<v Speaker 18>And I was like, look at you. He's sitting there
<v Speaker 18>sucking in my face.
<v Speaker 13>Talking.
<v Speaker 18>You didn't think about hers face lager. I told him
<v Speaker 18>I shouldn't dropped. I was one half breath away and
<v Speaker 18>planting my following.
<v Speaker 1>Randy said that he was going to let Whitney leave
<v Speaker 1>with their daughter. She had an apartment set up and
<v Speaker 1>he was willing to go with her, but then his mother, Valerie,
<v Speaker 1>got involved. Valerie was concerned because Whitney had sexual abuse
<v Speaker 1>in her family, and she was convinced that if Randy
<v Speaker 1>and Whitney's daughter left the writer House, she too would
<v Speaker 1>be abused. According to Randy's story, Valerie wanted to stop
<v Speaker 1>Whitney from leaving just based on face value. What a
<v Speaker 1>concoction that is?
<v Speaker 18>I feel like I could love Tom. I started to
<v Speaker 18>push a lot time. My dad got me to the
<v Speaker 18>front door. I think right before he came out of
<v Speaker 18>the room, I think she's as he went back to
<v Speaker 18>pissed off from my little argument right there, and I
<v Speaker 18>was sitting in a litter room with my daughter, not
<v Speaker 18>even bought say that he came back out for a
<v Speaker 18>different question to look on his face that I either
<v Speaker 18>just did something I never thought i'd have to do,
<v Speaker 18>or I have seen something I.
<v Speaker 13>Thought i'd never seen.
<v Speaker 1>Randy said that Whitney Valerie and Rodney Senor were fighting
<v Speaker 1>in another room while he sat on the couch with
<v Speaker 1>his daughter. Picture it see if if it makes any sense.
<v Speaker 3>And you're noodle.
<v Speaker 1>When his dad came out, he had a look on
<v Speaker 1>his face that scared the hell out of Randy.
<v Speaker 18>I broke my hands out of my Das's hands, I
<v Speaker 18>grabbed his and I said, what the fuck did you do?
<v Speaker 13>He looked me down in my eye, And.
<v Speaker 18>That's the only reason I believe is probably my.
<v Speaker 13>Mom is he said I didn't do anything, but he
<v Speaker 13>said you need to leave, be gone for a few days.
<v Speaker 1>Randy said that Rodney Senior pushed him out the door
<v Speaker 1>and told him to get lost for a few days.
<v Speaker 1>He left his daughter there and split some guy. Randy is,
<v Speaker 1>I mean, what a dad father of the fucking year?
<v Speaker 1>I would say, if any of this is true, that
<v Speaker 1>is also why would you make up a lie that
<v Speaker 1>makes you look worse?
<v Speaker 18>What the fuck?
<v Speaker 3>Now?
<v Speaker 18>It's a pretty simple answer. Right, So is her family
<v Speaker 18>like not gonna let.
<v Speaker 13>You see a kid anymore?
<v Speaker 18>They have no control over it, says right now. I
<v Speaker 18>called him, the detective called me yesterday. That's only I
<v Speaker 18>don't want her family to have her. I don't want
<v Speaker 18>her family to have her.
<v Speaker 1>Randy requested that his toddler be placed under the care
<v Speaker 1>of CPS, an odd decision, but not if he was
<v Speaker 1>planning on leaving the state, and not if he truly
<v Speaker 1>knew that his parents were the ones who committed Whitney's murder. Still,
<v Speaker 1>why not give her to Whitney's mother? Why the lack
<v Speaker 1>of communication? Something was definitely not right. But Eliza's stepsister
<v Speaker 1>and Eliza's ex boyfriend and father of her son had
<v Speaker 1>come forward with some information that made Randy's story seem
<v Speaker 1>like it actually might hold some truth.
<v Speaker 19>So yesterday, right after my aunt's funeral, we all went
<v Speaker 19>back to my grandma's house and my stepsister, Eliza, went
<v Speaker 19>with us, and then she just left.
<v Speaker 13>I didn't even know she left.
<v Speaker 19>And then after that, it was around two thirty three o'clock,
<v Speaker 19>she messaged me and said, try to call Whitney.
<v Speaker 12>And I don't know Whitney personally, I just know that
<v Speaker 12>my sister was missing over my hot.
<v Speaker 13>The Whitney's boyfriend.
<v Speaker 19>So I told Whitney at one point, but she said,
<v Speaker 19>try to call Whitney. And I was like why, blah
<v Speaker 19>blah blah.
<v Speaker 5>She was like, just try to call her.
<v Speaker 13>So I tried to call her off Facebook and it
<v Speaker 13>just rang.
<v Speaker 5>No one picked up, It just rang, And I told her.
<v Speaker 19>She texted me and said any answer, and I said nope, and.
<v Speaker 7>Then I let it go.
<v Speaker 1>Eliza's stepsister said that all this happened before they found
<v Speaker 1>Whitney's body, so why was Eliza asking her to randomly
<v Speaker 1>call Whitney. It was really weird. Then Eliza and Randy
<v Speaker 1>called and started talking.
<v Speaker 19>And she said Randy and her both said we think
<v Speaker 19>that my mom did it, and I said, your mom
<v Speaker 19>did what? We think that my mom killed her and.
<v Speaker 11>I was like what.
<v Speaker 1>So that's when Eliza's stepsister called Eliza's ex boyfriend, a
<v Speaker 1>father of her children. She was creeped out and concerned
<v Speaker 1>about this strange confession from Randy and Eliza.
<v Speaker 5>Oh.
<v Speaker 19>We sat down and I was like, I'm gonna call
<v Speaker 19>I was gonna get more information to see what she
<v Speaker 19>knows and I told him the video, and he has
<v Speaker 19>a recording of them giving up every thing.
<v Speaker 3>Well, not necessarily giving, but there acts an awful calm
<v Speaker 3>for what's going on, you know what I mean, Like, right,
<v Speaker 3>laughing about the mother's.
<v Speaker 13>Child's missing, and he's in a laughing matter.
<v Speaker 3>What right?
<v Speaker 5>Me?
<v Speaker 13>Me and Eliza an't together.
<v Speaker 18>I don't care about her.
<v Speaker 20>If she's to be missing, I'd be worried, sick just
<v Speaker 20>for my daughter's sake in general.
<v Speaker 13>Right, he don't seem worried at all. That's what just
<v Speaker 13>confuses me, because, Okay.
<v Speaker 12>Another thing, like Whitney and Randy were together, living in
<v Speaker 12>the same househole and Randy was messing with Eliza, and
<v Speaker 12>Eliza is like crazy obsessed with this.
<v Speaker 13>Guy for some weird, uoply reason.
<v Speaker 12>Okay, when I was on the phone with them, before
<v Speaker 12>we got any type of recording or anything, Randy said
<v Speaker 12>that his mom looked him dead in the eyes and said, Randy,
<v Speaker 12>go and hire.
<v Speaker 1>The police were bogged down with rumors and secret video recordings.
<v Speaker 1>The whole investigation was hinged on small town gossip. But
<v Speaker 1>when Randy came down to the police station, he told
<v Speaker 1>the same story that he had told his friends. He
<v Speaker 1>came home from his girlfriend's house and heard his mother
<v Speaker 1>and Whitney fighting in the bedroom. Then his father, Rodney,
<v Speaker 1>came out with a terrified look on his face and
<v Speaker 1>told him he had to go.
<v Speaker 13>Okaid, where was mom talking in our room? Okay?
<v Speaker 21>So when I was sitting in the living room with airline,
<v Speaker 21>you can look through like the little three.
<v Speaker 22>Steps, you can look down into the dining room and
<v Speaker 22>you can basically see the falls the door in front
<v Speaker 22>of their room. Okay, And I feel like i'd seen
<v Speaker 22>my dad come out from my our room, and that's when.
<v Speaker 13>I watched him walk into I lost him walk all
<v Speaker 13>the way up.
<v Speaker 22>To me and from the dining room.
<v Speaker 17>The first thing he did.
<v Speaker 22>I was sitting on the floor there and just talking.
<v Speaker 13>To her, and he grabbed me on my wrist, pulled
<v Speaker 13>me up.
<v Speaker 17>He said, you need to go home now.
<v Speaker 2>He's like, you need to go now.
<v Speaker 21>And I'm like, why, what's going on?
<v Speaker 17>You guys just can't tell me.
<v Speaker 13>He said, you just need to fucking me dress me.
<v Speaker 18>He's like, you just need to go now.
<v Speaker 22>By this time, he probably got me all the way
<v Speaker 22>up to the door to get my shoes on, and
<v Speaker 22>I rarely got my shoes on.
<v Speaker 13>He was so panicked he just kept repeating himself.
<v Speaker 1>Whitney was supposed to be picked up by a friend
<v Speaker 1>that morning so she could start moving into her new apartment.
<v Speaker 1>When Valerie emerged from the bedroom, she was holding Whitney's
<v Speaker 1>phone and asking her son to help her text Whitney's friend.
<v Speaker 23>And then my mom come out with Whitney's phone and
<v Speaker 23>I was like, I'm locked, and I knew she had
<v Speaker 23>a lot of okay, even though I don't know the
<v Speaker 23>past it, but she was already a large.
<v Speaker 5>How do you know that? But I don't.
<v Speaker 13>I didn't I know it was unlocked.
<v Speaker 6>Did you see it?
<v Speaker 13>Yeah, Mom showed it to me. She said that.
<v Speaker 21>When he had told her it's a message Eligen to
<v Speaker 21>say not to come and pick them up, that she
<v Speaker 21>didn't want to hear me tall, But I know from
<v Speaker 21>where we were standing, and I kept trying to go
<v Speaker 21>back and see what was going on because they there's
<v Speaker 21>the way they switched their attitudes.
<v Speaker 17>My dad went really angry at me.
<v Speaker 21>They really concerned, not really concerned for me.
<v Speaker 13>But he looks like he just walked in and seen.
<v Speaker 21>Something that he probably never thought he'd ever seen, which
<v Speaker 21>is what initially worried me that something happened.
<v Speaker 13>So Mom was gonna message Elgin and tell him to
<v Speaker 13>not come and.
<v Speaker 11>Pick them up.
<v Speaker 1>Randy said that he knew something was up. He couldn't
<v Speaker 1>hear Whitney anymore, and the color had drained from both
<v Speaker 1>of his parents' faces. Still, Randy left as he was told.
<v Speaker 1>He didn't take his daughter, he didn't check on Whitney.
<v Speaker 1>He just grabbed his work stuff and left. Twenty five
<v Speaker 1>year old Whitney Hostler had been found strangled and then
<v Speaker 1>dumped at the bottom of a ravine in the small
<v Speaker 1>town of Urbana, Ohio. Whitney had been living with her boyfriend,
<v Speaker 1>Randy Ryder, two year old daughter, and Randy's parents. It was,
<v Speaker 1>after all, their house, but Randy had been cheating on
<v Speaker 1>Whitney with another girl and had gotten her pregnant. Whitney
<v Speaker 1>was devastated and subsequently had found an apartment to move into.
<v Speaker 1>She told the writer family she was leaving, and that's
<v Speaker 1>when things unraveled. Randy had been the one to alert
<v Speaker 1>the police when Whitney was missing, but multiple people, including
<v Speaker 1>his own brother, said that Randy was violent and entitled,
<v Speaker 1>and they wouldn't be surprised if he had murdered Whitney anyway.
<v Speaker 1>Randy's father, Rodney Sr. Spoke to the police as well.
<v Speaker 1>He didn't have exactly the best things to say about
<v Speaker 1>his son or the dead mother of his grandchildren Whitney
<v Speaker 1>for that matter.
<v Speaker 2>Whitney, in my opinion, loves that little girl as much
<v Speaker 2>as anyway.
<v Speaker 17>Yeah, but she I know for a fact that she
<v Speaker 17>told Randy before they had her that if they were
<v Speaker 17>going to try and have a baby, that he was
<v Speaker 17>going to have to take care of her because she
<v Speaker 17>wasn't doing it on her own.
<v Speaker 2>Randy can go to work and.
<v Speaker 17>Work all night on friendship, Yeah, he can come.
<v Speaker 2>Home and Whitney expects him to come in and stay
<v Speaker 2>up and take care of the baby all day long.
<v Speaker 13>Yeah, while she goes to bed because she was up
<v Speaker 13>all night off.
<v Speaker 2>Sitting outside easing one of the broken down cars out front,
<v Speaker 2>or in one of the yard chairs out back, smoking
<v Speaker 2>cigarettes and smoking marijuana.
<v Speaker 6>Yeah.
<v Speaker 24>So one appearing you can say is Whitney may have
<v Speaker 24>loved that little girl, Whitney probably.
<v Speaker 13>It sounds to me he wouldn't be in the goddom
<v Speaker 13>mother that Whitney needed to be to that.
<v Speaker 24>Little girl would that be a fair statement, because I
<v Speaker 24>don't want the words in your mouth.
<v Speaker 13>YEA a fair statement.
<v Speaker 1>But he did have a soft spot for Whitney despite
<v Speaker 1>her maternal shortcomings. In twenty nineteen, Rodney Senior had gotten
<v Speaker 1>sick and lost his job. Then Valerie had lost her job.
<v Speaker 1>The family went from living in a six bedroom house
<v Speaker 1>near town to a three bedroom house living on half
<v Speaker 1>their previous income. Plus Rodney was sick. He had to
<v Speaker 1>take daily shots for his condition, and Whitney acted as
<v Speaker 1>his nurse when no one else could or would.
<v Speaker 13>So Whitney give me Mark Covid my load loaden shots.
<v Speaker 13>So what you're saying, there's some good times with Whitney too.
<v Speaker 25>I've had a lot of good time in the wedding
<v Speaker 25>wh Whitney come to our house blaem and said that
<v Speaker 25>Randy's been telling her for years and years, which was zneian.
<v Speaker 25>Valerie hated her, good stand her, didn't want her around
<v Speaker 25>him and everything else.
<v Speaker 17>That's never better the truth.
<v Speaker 1>Rodney also had a major soft spot for his granddaughter,
<v Speaker 1>whom he and Valerie had basically raised from an infant,
<v Speaker 1>since Whitney and Randy were young, incapable parents.
<v Speaker 13>I mean she's two years old, and you give her
<v Speaker 13>a so phone and still say here and play with
<v Speaker 13>that so phone.
<v Speaker 17>Until she gives YouTube videos on and watches certain videos.
<v Speaker 26>She's learned all her colors, she's learned times of ten,
<v Speaker 26>all these YouTube videos, she's learning her shapes. So you're
<v Speaker 26>scared for Oh, I'm scared to death for her because I.
<v Speaker 11>Know she's she's she's not.
<v Speaker 5>One. She's not she, she's the meaning.
<v Speaker 26>She's gonna be traumatized when she can't go to bed
<v Speaker 26>without pop out.
<v Speaker 1>Valerie was also angry by the way Whitney and Randy
<v Speaker 1>were pairing, and told police that they had raised their granddaughter.
<v Speaker 6>We take care of her. What is that you have
<v Speaker 6>to ask them?
<v Speaker 25>Really?
<v Speaker 13>I mean we've always taken care of her. Okay, things
<v Speaker 13>she sleeps, or smokes or leaves or whatever. He does
<v Speaker 13>the same thing.
<v Speaker 1>Valerie was adamant that she was the true mother to
<v Speaker 1>her granddaughter. Nothing like a grandparent brawl. Just picture it
<v Speaker 1>Jerry Springer style with walkers being hurled across the room.
<v Speaker 1>That didn't happen, But it's still fun to think about
<v Speaker 1>me or I.
<v Speaker 27>Need to take care of her twenty four to seven.
<v Speaker 27>You can ask for other kids.
<v Speaker 13>You can ask my inlaws.
<v Speaker 5>We have her.
<v Speaker 1>Valerie said that when Randy confided in her that he
<v Speaker 1>was seeing another girl and had gotten her pregnant, she
<v Speaker 1>knew it was the beginning of the end, but she
<v Speaker 1>didn't want to lose her granddaughter. She didn't want Whitney
<v Speaker 1>and the baby to go, especially the baby.
<v Speaker 6>Though I said, we'll.
<v Speaker 5>Make Granby leave. She's like, I'm not staying here.
<v Speaker 27>She's like, wells he leaves, I'm not staying.
<v Speaker 13>I said, we will make him leave.
<v Speaker 27>I said, as long as she says, and you.
<v Speaker 13>Know, we can take care of her while you do whatever.
<v Speaker 8>I said, then we'll do that.
<v Speaker 27>And she was sitting there on the bed and she
<v Speaker 27>was crying and everything, and I mean, they fight and
<v Speaker 27>she tricks him like shit, and he is an asshole,
<v Speaker 27>you know, he does stupid shit. But I think that
<v Speaker 27>she was still kind of expecting him to be there,
<v Speaker 27>you know.
<v Speaker 13>I mean, she told him that.
<v Speaker 27>This was her apartment, and you know, she was gonna
<v Speaker 27>she was getting a job and everything.
<v Speaker 13>But I think she was still expecting him to be
<v Speaker 13>there and help and help with the baby and all that.
<v Speaker 17>And he told her flat out that she wasn't his responsibility, Whitney,
<v Speaker 17>not the baby Jay.
<v Speaker 5>He told Whitney.
<v Speaker 13>When did he tell her that?
<v Speaker 6>When morning?
<v Speaker 11>Yeah?
<v Speaker 13>Yeah, And I mean he told me that he flied out.
<v Speaker 27>That was one of the reasons why he's been staying
<v Speaker 27>away is to piss her off so that she would
<v Speaker 27>get the hell out.
<v Speaker 13>Okay, And I'm like, Raby your daughter.
<v Speaker 27>He's like, well, she's going to take her for a
<v Speaker 27>month and then she's going to bring her back to me.
<v Speaker 27>I said, she just stood there and screamed at you
<v Speaker 27>and said that she's taking.
<v Speaker 13>Her baby, that you are not getting her.
<v Speaker 8>Yeah.
<v Speaker 5>I don't know what you're thinking his mind. Yeah, Now
<v Speaker 5>what he thinks and what's reality is way two different things.
<v Speaker 1>Valerie and Rodney stuck to the same story. Yeah, the
<v Speaker 1>fight happened, but then some friend of Whitney's came and
<v Speaker 1>picked her up and they never saw her again. But
<v Speaker 1>the cops looked into that friend. It was the same
<v Speaker 1>one that Randy said as mother was trying to text
<v Speaker 1>from Whitney's phone. He never showed up, he never came over.
<v Speaker 1>Whitney's mother told him not to. Allegedly, Plus, everyone has
<v Speaker 1>a ring camera these days, even in rural Ohio, a
<v Speaker 1>place where UFO sightings are common.
<v Speaker 13>So what happened to Whitney, mister opportunity?
<v Speaker 23>She left?
<v Speaker 5>We know she left.
<v Speaker 13>She took her stuff outside on port. She had her bag,
<v Speaker 13>she had her jacket. I've been since.
<v Speaker 20>Lee fifty yesterday morning. Okay, I've worked all day. We've
<v Speaker 20>all worked all day on this. I know she ain't
<v Speaker 20>get in the car sway and leave. You happen to
<v Speaker 20>look around at your neighborhood, Maybe see the surveillance cameras
<v Speaker 20>in the ring doorbells.
<v Speaker 13>I mean, here's the thing. I know she ain't in
<v Speaker 13>a burkendy car. I'm a room car in your dragway,
<v Speaker 13>at the end of your dragway. I'm telling you, I'm
<v Speaker 13>a straight shooter. I'm in a bullshit Yet it didn't happen.
<v Speaker 1>That's when the cops pulled out pictures of Whitney's decomposing
<v Speaker 1>body and slammed them on the table in front of Valerie.
<v Speaker 1>She winced and turned away, her chubby arms wrapped tightly
<v Speaker 1>around her body.
<v Speaker 24>Do you see these marks? Does her fingerprints? Do you
<v Speaker 24>know what we can get from fingerprints? First of all,
<v Speaker 24>we can take fingerprints off human skin, and we're working
<v Speaker 24>on that right now. We can get DNA.
<v Speaker 13>Off human skin and off clothing.
<v Speaker 5>That is.
<v Speaker 7>Hurt.
<v Speaker 5>That is hurt.
<v Speaker 11>Is Whitney.
<v Speaker 26>Fast is Whitney.
<v Speaker 13>Whitney's laying dead at the bottom of a goddamn vine.
<v Speaker 13>Do you think that I spent my entire day saying,
<v Speaker 13>with my thumb and my ass tracking every spot where
<v Speaker 13>you said you were at, checking for cameras, looking at cameras.
<v Speaker 5>I know.
<v Speaker 13>The car that passed you slowed down and passed you.
<v Speaker 17>When you were doing this.
<v Speaker 13>Guess what, I'm not stupid. Don't treat me like I'm stupid.
<v Speaker 1>The cops had more evidence than Valerie expected, and she
<v Speaker 1>was starting to crumble under the weight of it all,
<v Speaker 1>under the guilt. That's how they get you, with your
<v Speaker 1>own guilt.
<v Speaker 13>I want to be able to tell the judge or
<v Speaker 13>to tell the prosecutor this is what happened.
<v Speaker 5>Did you target her?
<v Speaker 13>Would you plan it out? Or was this the heat
<v Speaker 13>of the moment? Thing you just lost the control? Was
<v Speaker 13>it an accident?
<v Speaker 5>Yeah?
<v Speaker 17>Okay, how did the accident happen?
<v Speaker 27>She pushed me, She shoved me back into the door
<v Speaker 27>because I asked her to leave the baby with us. Yeah,
<v Speaker 27>I mean we've had her twenty four to seven.
<v Speaker 3>We understand that.
<v Speaker 5>She said no, she said she's taking her.
<v Speaker 11>Yeah she did.
<v Speaker 3>She said she wasn't.
<v Speaker 21>We weren't going to see her anymore, especially since Randy
<v Speaker 21>got the other one pregnant.
<v Speaker 27>She shoved me into the door.
<v Speaker 6>She hit me because I kept telling her we have been.
<v Speaker 5>Taking care of her.
<v Speaker 13>She doesn't like to go anywhere else. She just kept
<v Speaker 13>screaming she didn't care.
<v Speaker 3>She was hers, she wasn't.
<v Speaker 5>She wasn't giving her a She hasn't taken care of
<v Speaker 5>her at all.
<v Speaker 1>So there it was a confession. Valerie killed Whitney because
<v Speaker 1>she didn't want to lose her granddaughter.
<v Speaker 11>Smart.
<v Speaker 1>Then again, what do you expect in rural Ohio.
<v Speaker 13>She was laying on the bed, okay, and I was
<v Speaker 13>holding her, and yeah, I had I put my arm
<v Speaker 13>around her and it went up because she moved and
<v Speaker 13>she tried.
<v Speaker 24>To hit me off and everything.
<v Speaker 13>And that was I mean, I must have.
<v Speaker 10>Squeeze too hard or something because I heard her.
<v Speaker 6>I don't know. It wasn't a gag or call or whatever.
<v Speaker 2>It was just like a.
<v Speaker 5>I don't even know.
<v Speaker 13>It wasn't a what would you consider natural sound right, Yeah,
<v Speaker 13>it was like like almost like a growl or something.
<v Speaker 1>Valerie confessed that while Rodney and the baby slept in
<v Speaker 1>the other room, she fought with Whitney and strangled her
<v Speaker 1>with her arms until she growled and died.
<v Speaker 27>I was sitting there shaking at first because I was
<v Speaker 27>freaking out.
<v Speaker 13>And where's Rodney Senior?
<v Speaker 5>During this time?
<v Speaker 23>He was in the bedroom with the baby.
<v Speaker 13>Sleep or waiting. I think he was asleep.
<v Speaker 27>And I went and woking up because I tried like
<v Speaker 27>shaking her and everything.
<v Speaker 13>And did you call nine one one and asked for help?
<v Speaker 8>I was freaking out. I had grabbed her.
<v Speaker 6>I did that.
<v Speaker 13>So what point did you put the plastic bag over?
<v Speaker 13>And scurriled the ductee? It was before Rodney came in,
<v Speaker 13>wasn't it? Why put the plastic bag over?
<v Speaker 17>Did she not want to see her face anymore?
<v Speaker 1>Thatn After she killed Whitney, Valerie panicked and put a
<v Speaker 1>dark plastic bag over her head, securing it tightly with
<v Speaker 1>duct tape. Then she went and got her husband. She
<v Speaker 1>said that she kept thinking about her granddaughter. She didn't
<v Speaker 1>want to call nine one one because she didn't want
<v Speaker 1>to lose the baby.
<v Speaker 13>He was fruked.
<v Speaker 19>He actually was passed out.
<v Speaker 13>What did he say when he saw it?
<v Speaker 19>Him?
<v Speaker 13>And he's like, what did you do?
<v Speaker 19>What happened?
<v Speaker 5>What did you tell him?
<v Speaker 27>I told him, I said she started screaming at me,
<v Speaker 27>trying to get past me.
<v Speaker 23>She was going for the baby.
<v Speaker 5>She was laming.
<v Speaker 1>Valerie said that she had Rodney pulled the truck around.
<v Speaker 1>They stuffed Whitney into a large Duffel bag and threw
<v Speaker 1>her into the bed of the truck. Then Valerie and
<v Speaker 1>Rodney's other son came home. They made him some food
<v Speaker 1>and acted like everything was normal. And that night they
<v Speaker 1>packed up their granddaughter in the truck and tried to
<v Speaker 1>find a place to dump Whitney. They struggled for a
<v Speaker 1>while until they remembered the Kaiser Lake ravine.
<v Speaker 13>So whose idea was it to dump her down the ravine?
<v Speaker 13>How did you get her out of the packet? Did
<v Speaker 13>Rodney help you do that?
<v Speaker 5>I just pulled her out.
<v Speaker 8>I went down.
<v Speaker 17>Who helped you get her out of the truck?
<v Speaker 5>Right?
<v Speaker 13>You did it by yourself?
<v Speaker 10>Was in the truck?
<v Speaker 13>Okay, I'm can I ask you a question? Okay, this
<v Speaker 13>wound that's on the bottom of the chin there's a
<v Speaker 13>there's a laceration under there that looks like seepings of blood.
<v Speaker 18>You see it.
<v Speaker 13>Did you drag when she came out? Was she face down?
<v Speaker 7>No?
<v Speaker 13>And I knew you dragged her across the lawn to
<v Speaker 13>roll her over. There's a law there, Remember that I
<v Speaker 13>got stuck. She shove her word of the ravine. How
<v Speaker 13>far did she go? Maybe halfway?
<v Speaker 5>So?
<v Speaker 13>Did you climbed down it?
<v Speaker 6>I had to go down.
<v Speaker 13>That's a elvastin ravine. Did you have any trouble getting down?
<v Speaker 3>Her?
<v Speaker 5>Down?
<v Speaker 3>Now? Up?
<v Speaker 5>Yeah?
<v Speaker 13>So she goes halfway down? You climbed down? Did you
<v Speaker 13>drag her? Did your carry her from there?
<v Speaker 5>I pulled her.
<v Speaker 3>Up?
<v Speaker 13>And you thought she was far enough in to be
<v Speaker 13>secluded or what? It was dark.
<v Speaker 1>That's when a car drove by. Valerie saw the lights
<v Speaker 1>and Rodney yelled at her. She got scared and stayed put,
<v Speaker 1>breathing heavily. Then she waddled herself back into the truck
<v Speaker 1>and they left. As they pulled into their driveway, the
<v Speaker 1>sheriff pulled up behind them. Valerie's heart stopped. You see,
<v Speaker 1>during the time they had been dumping Whitney down the ravine,
<v Speaker 1>Rodney had made that call to the police and reported
<v Speaker 1>Whitney missing. Ironic, isn't it?
<v Speaker 5>There wasn't I mean, because he pulled in and the
<v Speaker 5>sheriff pulled in behind us.
<v Speaker 23>I told him it was my fault.
<v Speaker 17>I should have stayed away from her, because.
<v Speaker 13>It was your fault. You should have stayed away from him.
<v Speaker 5>What I told him, I was sorry.
<v Speaker 1>After two separate trials, Valerie was found guilty of murder,
<v Speaker 1>felonious assault, tampering with evidence, gross abuse of a corpse,
<v Speaker 1>and three counts of possession of criminal tools. That's a
<v Speaker 1>new one. I haven't heard that one before. Possession of
<v Speaker 1>criminal tools. So to me, that says you can't own cutlery.
<v Speaker 1>What a weird law?
<v Speaker 3>Ohio?
<v Speaker 1>Can you own a flashlight? What about a crowbar? They
<v Speaker 1>got to title that one a little better anyway. Valerie
<v Speaker 1>is now serving twenty one years in prison. Her husband, Rodney,
<v Speaker 1>was sentenced to thirty six months in prison and parole
<v Speaker 1>for three years. Their son, Randy, for some reason, was
<v Speaker 1>never charged or held responsible for Whitney's death, even though
<v Speaker 1>if you step back and look at the whole thing,
<v Speaker 1>it's mostly his fault the entire scenario. He didn't do
<v Speaker 1>anything to protect his own child from the mother he's
<v Speaker 1>known his entire life. He knew what they had done
<v Speaker 1>and kept quiet about it, at least for a while.
<v Speaker 1>But I guess he was the most moral person in
<v Speaker 1>the story, and apart from, you know, protecting his own
<v Speaker 1>child from the mother that he's known his entire life.
<v Speaker 1>According to his girlfriend Eliza's Facebook page, they are still
<v Speaker 1>happily together today and have a few more kids. The
<v Speaker 1>whereabouts of the daughter he shared with Whitney, whom Valerie
<v Speaker 1>was so determined to keep in her care that she
<v Speaker 1>turned to murder is unknown. Valerie will be seventy three
<v Speaker 1>when she gets out of jail, and she'll still be
<v Speaker 1>a grandmother. She'll get her life back, but she'll never
<v Speaker 1>get to see that baby girl ever again, the one
<v Speaker 1>whose mother she murdered. That's over. You did that, Valerie.
<v Speaker 6>No one else.
<v Speaker 1>Babies having babies. That's where we're at in society in
<v Speaker 1>twenty twenty four, and that's what this all boils down to, reactive,
<v Speaker 1>emotional idiots putting their own feelings above all else. Maybe
<v Speaker 1>Whitney wasn't ready to be a mother, Maybe she shouldn't
<v Speaker 1>have been, and maybe Randy wasn't ready to be a
<v Speaker 1>father either. Maybe he should have quit while he was
<v Speaker 1>ahead instead of looking for more strange As they say,
<v Speaker 1>Valerie and Rodney thought they were helping by taking care
<v Speaker 1>of their granddaughter, But what they were doing was enabling
<v Speaker 1>the terrible choices that their son had made, the choices
<v Speaker 1>that he made, I might add, after they raised him
<v Speaker 1>in a way, they were enabling their own bad behavior.
<v Speaker 1>They were meddling, and really what choice did they have
<v Speaker 1>in the matter. But that child became a contentious pawn
<v Speaker 1>in the Writer household instead of the innocent human being
<v Speaker 1>that she is. Whitney was never given a chance to
<v Speaker 1>prove that she could mother her baby without Valerie and
<v Speaker 1>Rodney enabling her to still act like a child. Maybe
<v Speaker 1>if she had moved out on her own with her daughter,
<v Speaker 1>all the stresses of life and all the consequences that
<v Speaker 1>come with it. Maybe if she was alone under her
<v Speaker 1>own roof and forced to grow up, to mature in
<v Speaker 1>the real world and do what she needed to do
<v Speaker 1>to raise her daughter. Because when you have no choice,
<v Speaker 1>you gotta do what you gotta do. You got to
<v Speaker 1>grow the fuck up. If you're never given the chance,
<v Speaker 1>you never do. I think this is pretty common sense,
<v Speaker 1>is it not? Am I the crazy one? Perhaps? Perhaps?
<v Speaker 1>But Whitney never got the opportunity to find out because
<v Speaker 1>Valerie Writer thought she was the Mama Bear, the one
<v Speaker 1>with all the answers, the virtuous mom, the one we
<v Speaker 1>all celebrate with greeting cards every year and all the
<v Speaker 1>propaganda that comes with it. Despite all this, did not
<v Speaker 1>respect Whitney as a woman. She saw her as a child,
<v Speaker 1>and when the situation became unbearable, Valerie did the unthinkable
<v Speaker 1>and over corrected for her failure as a mother. So
<v Speaker 1>that's gonna do it for another Sword and Scale thank
<v Speaker 1>you so much for joining us once again. If you're
<v Speaker 1>in the market for more true crime, I highly highly
<v Speaker 1>suggest checking out Sword and Scale Daily, our morning news
<v Speaker 1>show five days of week. We also have a little
<v Speaker 1>show called Sword and Scale Nightmares, which a lot of
<v Speaker 1>you enjoy.
<v Speaker 19>Well.
<v Speaker 1>That's available just about everywhere. And also do not forget
<v Speaker 1>the latest episode of Sword and Scale Television with the
<v Speaker 1>story of a young man named Jordan DeMay. This is
<v Speaker 1>a pretty awful story because it's a clear example of
<v Speaker 1>how evil looks everywhere, especially in your pocket. So definitely
<v Speaker 1>a good one to check out parents anyway, enjoy stay safe,