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1:41

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1:43

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1:45

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1:47

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1:50

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1:52

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1:58

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a beer. Let's talk some true crime.

4:02

A 15-year-old girl walked

4:05

away from her home in

4:07

September of 2014. She

4:11

took only her cell phone. After

4:14

that, she was gone like

4:17

a whisper in the wind. Her

4:19

case was treated as

4:22

a runaway and then a missing

4:25

child. But many fear that

4:27

it is much, much worse. Did

4:30

she die in an accident? Was

4:33

she murdered? Was this

4:35

a human trafficking case? Or

4:37

did she indeed run away?

4:40

There are so many alternative facts

4:42

and so many unanswered questions in

4:45

this case. Starting

4:47

with the changing stories told

4:50

by the people in this girl's life, compounded

4:53

with the unverified information floating

4:55

around. There are so

4:57

many people close to her who

5:01

failed this girl that

5:03

we fear this case will never

5:05

be solved. This

5:07

is True Crime Garage and

5:09

this is the case of

5:11

Cassie Compton. In

5:23

September of 2014, Cassie Compton was

5:26

15 years old and

5:31

living with her mother Judy in

5:43

Stuttgart, Arkansas. Stuttgart

5:45

is a town of about 9,000 residents

5:48

that is famous for its rice

5:50

production and duck hunting. Every

5:53

year, thousands of hunters descend on

5:55

Stuttgart for duck season. And duck

5:57

calling competitions there are a big

6:00

deal. Sadly Cassie would go

6:02

missing from this town of 9,000 in September of

6:04

2014. Leading

6:09

up to the day in question, Cassie

6:11

and her mother Judy had

6:13

moved to Stuttgart just five years

6:16

prior, the two making the

6:18

move to Arkansas from Oklahoma in 2009.

6:20

Judy said the move

6:24

was prompted by her becoming a

6:26

piano player for the Stuttgart church.

6:29

Judy had been married to

6:32

Roy Compton and Cassie was

6:34

born December 4th, 1998. She

6:37

had three older siblings, two brothers

6:39

and a sister. The older siblings

6:41

remained in Oklahoma and when

6:43

Judy and Cassie moved to Arkansas,

6:46

it started off just the two of

6:48

them. We reference a KATV

6:50

interview with her older

6:52

brother Chris, where he

6:54

said that out of the four children in

6:56

the family he was the closest with Cassie.

6:59

Cassie did not have a relationship

7:01

with her father. This case is

7:04

unique in that we do not

7:06

have any personal friends of Cassie

7:09

who have spoken to the media. We

7:11

have only the word of adults who

7:13

knew Cassie, her mom, her

7:16

friend Hunter's mom, her stepfather to

7:18

be Brandon and her

7:20

brother Chris to tell us about

7:22

Cassie. The police have revealed

7:24

very little in this case. There have

7:26

been different stories that have been told

7:28

about who Cassie was and what

7:31

her life was like. Cassie's mom

7:33

Judy says they were very

7:35

close. She says her daughter was

7:37

a normal teenager. She liked bowling,

7:39

cookouts and movies, but

7:42

Cassie didn't go to school. She

7:44

was homeschooled. Her mom tells it that

7:46

Cassie said the kids at school were

7:48

mean to her and she didn't want

7:50

to go. So she studied

7:52

at home for her GED. Judy

7:55

has also said that this decision was

7:57

in part because of Cassie's severe allergies.

8:01

Judy has said that she was

8:03

allergic to quote the environment. I'm

8:06

guessing she's meaning everything Cassie

8:09

apparently had an EpiPen that

8:11

she kept in her backpack

8:13

and Judy told lots

8:15

of people reporters the police

8:17

that Cassie was bipolar and

8:19

or clinically depressed and That

8:22

she was prescribed medication for this

8:24

condition, but she didn't like to

8:26

take her meds and flush them down

8:28

the toilet however There

8:32

is no evidence that Cassie was

8:34

ever actually diagnosed by a doctor

8:36

and Prescribed anything

8:39

this according to the Stuttgart police chief

8:42

Mark Duke Duke was one

8:44

of the original officers who responded

8:47

to Cassie going missing and

8:49

he knew the family from a

8:51

previous Unrelated visit to the

8:53

home the lore about Cassie is that

8:56

she was not happy with her life

8:59

This is backed up by some evidence One

9:01

is that Judy told a private investigator

9:04

who worked closely with her her name

9:06

is Tina stores of

9:08

halo investigations That

9:10

Cassie had run away a couple of times before Although

9:13

she always came home on those

9:15

previous occasions after just a couple

9:17

of days and another was Cassie's

9:20

brother Chris Chris

9:22

said Cassie would confide in him and

9:24

say that she was unhappy She

9:27

was unhappy because of her mom's fiancee

9:29

Brandon Lee Rhodes Chris

9:32

said quote they would fight all of

9:34

the time They didn't get along and

9:37

she didn't want to be around him Well

9:39

Brandon was quite a bit younger than her

9:41

mother He was actually

9:44

closer to Cassie's age than Cassie's

9:46

mother's age. Yeah, the two met

9:48

through mutual friends. They end

9:51

up getting engaged in Brandon

9:54

was living with Judy in her

9:57

house on 15th Street in Stuttgart

9:59

with Cassie and Judy

10:01

obviously. Brandon had been in

10:03

Cassie's life since she was about 13 years

10:05

old. Cassie

10:08

had a black LG straight

10:10

talk smartphone and would

10:13

post often on her Facebook page

10:16

sharing information with her 93 friends on there.

10:20

Her page is not set

10:22

to private. Most of her

10:24

posts are very short. So

10:26

we get things like, I made cookies

10:29

or my cat had kittens. However,

10:31

it's not clear whether a post on

10:34

Cassie's page on February 8th, 2014

10:36

saying, I'm engaged and

10:40

a life event got engaged

10:43

was to be taken seriously. She

10:46

was only 15 at the time. The year before

10:48

on May 12, her

10:51

page marked a life event saying in

10:53

a relationship, but it's not clear who

10:55

this relationship was with. Neither

10:57

post tagged anyone else.

11:00

A lot of the timeline and

11:03

the days leading up to Cassie's

11:05

disappearance is

11:07

simply speculative. Since

11:09

Cassie didn't attend school, we

11:11

have some gaps and

11:13

police haven't really released much of

11:16

anything that they may

11:18

have obtained through her phone records. We're

11:21

going to go through what we

11:23

know about four consecutive days, a

11:26

Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday in September of

11:28

2014, starting with Thursday. The

11:32

Stuttgart daily leader reported that Cassie

11:35

had been to the doctor a

11:37

few days earlier for a bad

11:39

cold and was on medication. A

11:43

local familiar with the case

11:45

posted that Brandon Rhodes had

11:47

driven Cassie to the doctor

11:49

on that Thursday. We

11:51

don't know anything else about this doctor

11:53

visit. On Friday night, so

11:56

now we're at September 12th, it

11:59

is believed that Cassie was in the hospital. Cassie went to the

12:01

Stuttgart high school football game.

12:05

We have zero information on who she went

12:07

with or who she was hanging

12:09

out with. Now we go to Saturday, September 13th.

12:13

Cassie was going to hang out with her

12:15

friend Hunter Snyder. And

12:18

there have been some questions here, Captain,

12:20

if the two were in a relationship.

12:24

No one's ever said that they were boyfriend and

12:26

girlfriend. It's always been reported

12:28

and stated by the people that knew the

12:30

two that they were simply best friends, but

12:33

she's going to go hang out with Hunter Snyder.

12:36

I couldn't track down this guy's age.

12:39

From what I could read and what I could

12:41

find, I believe him to be close to Cassie's

12:43

age, maybe slightly older.

12:45

Yeah, I believe he's slightly older, but

12:47

he's been cooperative with police. And

12:50

as far as my research goes,

12:52

he's the only individual that police

12:54

have came out and said that

12:56

they've cleared him. Hunter's mom's friend

12:59

picked Cassie up at 1.30 on

13:01

Saturday afternoon and brought her to

13:03

Hunter's house. They

13:05

all left at 3.30 to go

13:08

to the Arkansas County Fair Demolition

13:10

Derby in DeWitt. After

13:12

that, Cassie spent the night at the Snyder's.

13:15

According to reports, Hunter and Cassie

13:17

were newish friends and Hunter is described

13:20

as her best friend, like we said. The

13:23

next morning they had Sunday brunch

13:25

and a quote, lazy day. In

13:28

the evening, Hunter took Cassie home to

13:31

her mom's house, which

13:33

was located on East 15th Street in

13:35

Stuttgart. This is not

13:37

in a rural area. It's urban. On

13:39

Google maps, it's the block of

13:42

East 15th Street between Grand and

13:44

College. So we

13:46

have both homes and businesses are in

13:48

this immediate area. We have

13:50

a one-sided text chain from

13:53

that weekend. These are texts

13:55

from Cassie to her mother

13:58

that were posted on Facebook. on a message

14:00

board from a user going by the

14:03

name Caring for Many, which

14:05

pulled this from a broken

14:08

daily leader article. So

14:10

this is a phone text timeline for

14:12

Cassie and she's communicating with her mother,

14:14

Judy, but we only get the one

14:16

side that was released. So on

14:19

Saturday, September 13 at 9 47 AM, Cassie

14:24

texts to her mother, nothing much.

14:26

I'm fine. Still got a cough

14:28

though, but it's getting better. Still

14:32

on Saturday. Now in the evening time at 6

14:35

56 PM, she replies. Yeah, two

14:38

minutes later, love you too. So

14:40

we get to hear the one side of that

14:43

conversation. Now we go to Sunday, the 14th starting

14:45

at 3 19 PM. She

14:48

tells her mom, text her, says, just

14:50

tired. Then three minutes later

14:52

at 3 22 PM. Yeah. Just

14:55

feel like I haven't got enough sleep.

14:58

At 6 0 2 PM. This

15:01

is where we start to get very near the

15:03

time in question here. She's texting her mom

15:05

at 6 0 2 saying, are you home? We

15:08

don't know what the reply was or she got one,

15:10

but one minute later, she's sending another text to her

15:12

mom at 6 0 3 PM

15:14

saying, be home in a bit. This

15:16

6 0 3 text appears

15:19

to be the last text from Cassie to

15:21

Judy. Now we go to

15:23

CNN and interview

15:26

with Tracy, who is Tracy

15:28

Tracy's Hunter's mom. Remember what

15:31

we know about this timeline so far

15:33

is Hunter is returning Cassie to

15:36

her mother's house on

15:38

this Sunday evening. This interview is

15:40

conducted by Jane Vallez Mitchell. So

15:43

Tracy Hunter's mom says he

15:45

left our house at 6 0 5 and he got back

15:47

by 6 45 talking

15:51

about her son Hunter. We live out

15:53

of town. So it was a bit, a little

15:56

bit by the time he got there and dropped her

15:58

off and got back home. she

16:01

did send him a text message saying

16:04

that she was going to go out

16:06

and quote find a pack

16:08

of cigarettes and

16:10

that is the last response he got from

16:12

her so she's telling the

16:15

public my son dropped her

16:17

off and here's some communication that the

16:19

two had after he dropped her off

16:21

and he had returned home. Well like

16:23

he said we have the communication between

16:25

her and

16:27

her mother and she's asking

16:29

hey are you home we don't know what

16:31

the reply is but again

16:34

we have this speculation we have people

16:36

saying that maybe Cassie

16:39

wasn't super comfortable in the

16:41

living situation with mom's

16:43

boyfriend or fiance Brandon.

16:46

We are kind

16:48

of overlapping this information here to show that

16:50

some of it it seems to stack up

16:53

nicely right if she's

16:55

texting mom at 602 saying are you home then

16:57

at 603 saying be home in

16:59

a bit and then we have

17:01

Tracy Hunter's mom saying that they the

17:03

two left our house at 605 so

17:06

that all seems to gel real nice. Based

17:09

off of what Tracy is saying

17:12

about that trip to drop Cassie off

17:15

it would appear to me captain that that

17:17

it was very likely about 625 ish

17:22

when Cassie would arrive home. Hunter

17:24

also told his mother that she wasn't

17:26

very talkative on the way home which

17:29

I think is more indication that she

17:31

didn't want to go home. Or wasn't

17:33

feeling well as the other text had

17:35

indicated. So now we got

17:37

655 p.m. this is when

17:43

we are told that Cassie text Hunter

17:45

saying that she was going to go

17:47

find or get some cigarettes. I

17:50

want everybody to to put

17:53

a question mark after this. Keep

17:55

in mind it's Cassie's phone that

17:57

sends this message to Hunter's phone.

18:00

I cannot sit here and say 100% that

18:02

Cassie text that message to Hunter. I

18:06

can tell you that her phone sent that message to

18:09

his phone, but I do

18:11

not know who scripted that text.

18:14

There was no back and forth, or not much

18:16

of a back and forth as far as

18:18

what we've been told here. In that

18:20

statement, in that text, she does not

18:22

mention getting a ride from anyone or

18:24

anyone coming to pick her up or

18:26

meeting anybody. She just simply says

18:28

she was going out to find some cigarettes. Cassie's

18:31

mom, Judy Compton, has

18:34

changed her story slightly

18:37

over the years. Some things

18:39

have remained consistent in her retelling of

18:41

the events of the evening of September

18:43

14th, but some things have not. Judy

18:46

was sick in bed

18:50

that evening and could not even get up

18:52

without having a dizzy spell. So

18:55

she remained in bed the whole time. She

18:58

said that she heard Cassie come in that evening. So

19:01

getting dropped off by Hunter, she

19:03

comes into the house that Sunday evening, to

19:05

which Judy then says that she shouted out,

19:07

Hi baby girl. But

19:11

she later said that Cassie did not come into

19:13

the bedroom. So she

19:16

says she heard her come into the

19:18

house. She shouts out to her, but

19:21

to be clear, she's saying, I never actually

19:23

saw her. I never saw her come. She

19:26

didn't come into the bedroom. Yeah, Cassie's mother

19:28

claims that she never saw her. I

19:30

believe she also says she never heard her. Which

19:32

is weird because there is a statement that

19:35

she says where, on

19:37

one occasion, Judy states

19:40

that Cassie denied dinner, which

19:43

sounds confusing to me, but, and

19:45

maybe to some others. But as we go

19:47

through these other statements, it will make a

19:49

little bit more sense. I

19:51

think a couple of things could both be true

19:53

here, Captain, right? She could

19:55

have not never heard

19:57

her daughter. Cassie

20:00

could have also denied dinner because Brandon lives there

20:02

as well. She could have, her

20:04

daughter could have told Brandon she didn't want dinner. And

20:06

that means, can mean that

20:09

mom didn't hear that interaction. Judy

20:12

says that she dozed off. She did

20:14

not hear Cassie leave when she woke

20:16

at about 8 PM. Cassie

20:19

was gone. After a

20:21

while, Judy's fiance, Brandon Rhodes started

20:23

calling around looking for Cassie and

20:26

the Sniders. So Hunter Snyder

20:28

and Tracy, who we've already talked about,

20:32

were the first call. Hunter's

20:35

mom Tracy told CNN, well, there

20:37

was three phone calls. They started

20:39

at about 9.14 that night. And

20:44

he first asked if Cassie was still at

20:46

our house. Hunter

20:48

told his mom Tracy that when he

20:50

pulled into Cassie's driveway at her house

20:52

to drop her off on that Sunday

20:54

evening, Cassie got out of

20:57

the truck and walked up the driveway toward the

20:59

house. Brandon Rhodes,

21:02

Judy's fiance, was

21:04

on the porch smoking and

21:06

observed Cassie walk up the driveway and

21:08

into the house. This is according to

21:11

Hunter. She

21:13

did not speak to him. He didn't speak to her.

21:16

Hunter turned around and

21:18

went home. Calling

21:21

around 645. When

21:24

Brandon called Tracy at 9.14 asking

21:26

if Cassie was still with them,

21:29

this made no sense, since

21:31

according to Hunter, Brandon had seen

21:33

her come home and

21:35

Hunter leave. Brandon

21:38

called back two more times,

21:41

saying they still hadn't found Cassie

21:43

and asking if Hunter had

21:45

heard from her. Tracy says she

21:47

kept repeating to Brandon through these phone calls

21:49

to go to the police department or call

21:51

the police and report her missing. In

21:54

the third phone call, he

21:57

said that he did. He

21:59

went to the police. department and they

22:01

told him it would be about 72 hours.

22:04

The Stuttgart police have not confirmed

22:07

that this happened but

22:09

a web sleuths verified insider

22:11

says that SPD

22:13

has acknowledged at some

22:16

point that Brandon Rhodes

22:18

did in fact ride his bicycle to

22:21

the police station that evening and two

22:23

officers took a statement from him and

22:26

told him to go home and see if the

22:28

teenager would eventually come home that night or call.

22:30

Now at 9 52 a.m. on

22:32

Monday so we've the whole night

22:34

has gone by we wake up

22:37

now we're at 9 52 a.m.

22:39

on Monday September 15th Judy

22:41

mom Judy spoke with two officers who

22:43

came to the house this is Kyle

22:45

Stokes and then lieutenant Mark Duke remember

22:48

he goes on to become the police

22:50

chief. The missing

22:52

persons report on Cassie says the

22:54

incident occurred on Sunday September 14th

22:56

between 6 52 and 7 p.m.

23:01

What a short little window

23:03

of time to having

23:05

question here. The description is

23:07

only a few sentences long on this

23:09

report it states quote on September 15th

23:12

2014 I met with Miss

23:14

Judy Compton she stated that her

23:16

daughter left the house located on 15th Street between

23:18

6 45 and 7 p.m. on September 14 2014

23:20

and has not returned. Cassie

23:26

Compton is a 15 year old with

23:29

blonde hair and blue eyes approximately 100 pounds

23:32

has a scar on her left cheek

23:34

subject was last seen wearing a blue

23:36

tank top and teal plaid shorts. Miss

23:40

Compton states her daughter has been

23:42

diagnosed with a mental disorder possibly

23:45

bipolar end quote. Well

23:47

a couple things before we move on

23:49

I always hate in these missing person

23:51

cases where when law

23:53

enforcement disassumes that

23:55

this person is missing without any foul play

23:58

but we have two parental figures that

24:01

are not being that cooperative and probably

24:03

not being that truthful. And

24:06

this report of what she was

24:08

last seen wearing, this is all

24:11

speculative. Her mother actually didn't

24:13

see her, nor did she hear her come

24:15

into the house that night. So

24:17

she is basing what she

24:20

was wearing off of

24:22

what she knows is missing from

24:25

her wardrobe at the house. Yeah and what

24:27

else was missing or what else wasn't missing

24:30

from the house? I find

24:32

it be interesting too. Cassie's overnight bag

24:34

that she had just taken with

24:36

her to Hunter's house was

24:38

found in her room. So if

24:41

she did in fact take that bag to

24:43

Hunter's, then we know that the

24:45

portion of the story where Hunter

24:47

returns her home happened. That

24:50

bag didn't make its way on its own. What's

24:52

weird too is her purse was also

24:55

in her room. I think

24:57

a lot of people find that extremely weird.

24:59

I don't find it to be as weird

25:01

because she's 15

25:03

and if in fact that text is

25:05

correct that she was going to go

25:07

find a pack of cigarettes, she

25:10

might have to go to a couple of establishments to

25:13

get somebody to sell her a pack of smoke.

25:15

She's not old enough to buy cigarettes and

25:19

it's a little difficult, right? If you walk into

25:21

the place with your purse strapped around you and

25:23

say, Oh, I, I don't have my

25:25

ID. It's a little more

25:27

believable if you walk in there with no purse

25:30

on you and say, yeah, I'm of age. I

25:32

just don't have my ID. Well, you first have

25:34

to believe that she is the one that sent

25:36

the text. The other thing too is her

25:39

cell phone's gone, but not her

25:42

charger. If

25:44

she wanted to go away for a good

25:46

amount of time or

25:49

even overnight, right? She's

25:51

according to her mother has

25:53

ran away on at least two previous

25:55

occasions, but came back within a couple

25:57

of days. Yeah. in

26:00

case of a runaway. The overnight bag she

26:02

would have taken with her, the cell phone

26:04

charger she would have taken with her as

26:06

well. And the captain's exactly

26:08

right. The

26:10

description of what she was last wearing is kind

26:13

of cobbled together based off of items

26:15

it might be missing from her room, maybe some

26:17

of what Hunter says she was wearing when she

26:19

was dropped off. And if

26:22

Brandon saw her that night or not.

26:24

Well, originally Brandon says that he did

26:26

see her and then later changes his

26:28

story. As said in the trailer, police

26:30

initially treated Cassie's case as a runaway.

26:33

It was reported in

26:35

the September 19th report

26:38

on KATV that

26:41

since there was no imminent

26:43

harm or possible death, that

26:45

Cassie's case didn't

26:47

qualify for a Morgan Nick Amber

26:50

alert. The Stuttgart police

26:52

said while they don't believe Cassie

26:54

has been abducted, they did file

26:56

Cassie's description with the National Center

26:58

for Missing and Exploited Children. They've

27:01

also been following up on leads

27:03

with the family in Kingston, Oklahoma,

27:07

according to this report. Remember, she has

27:09

extended family living in Kingston, Oklahoma. This

27:11

is about 375 miles away. So

27:15

this included her brother, Chris, who

27:18

said that he told police

27:20

that if she had run away, that he

27:22

believed that she would have come to him,

27:24

but obviously she didn't turn up.

27:27

Eventually what we get here, Captain, and

27:30

it's fairly quick, eventually

27:32

we get assistant chief, we

27:36

get assistant police chief, Steven Bobo,

27:39

that said that leads gathered

27:42

early on in

27:44

this case contradicted the runaway

27:46

theory. So

27:49

now we have to shift gears

27:51

and start saying, well, maybe something

27:53

else happened here. This

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cheers to you, Captain. Cheers to everybody out there and

32:33

listener land having a grand

32:35

time, I hope. Police,

32:38

one of the first steps that they were

32:40

going to take looking for Cassie, they're going

32:43

to look for leads, right? We need a

32:45

breadcrumb trail. If in fact she did go

32:47

off walking to go find some

32:49

cigarettes, as the text said, then we

32:52

need a breadcrumb trail leading

32:54

us from her house to where we

32:56

will find her. And

32:58

so they started checking surveillance footage at

33:01

the stores and businesses in

33:03

the nearby area. We

33:05

have a several businesses,

33:08

not limited to the ones that I'm going

33:10

to list here, but we have a Shell

33:13

gas station, a family dollar store, a

33:15

Walmart. So they collected

33:18

surveillance from all of these locations.

33:21

Apparently they were successful. You know, they show up

33:23

and they actually have footage to share with the

33:25

police, but none of

33:27

these stores seem to have any

33:30

footage of Cassie. About

33:33

two weeks after her disappearance, the

33:35

Stuttgart Police Department asked for assistance

33:37

from the Arkansas State Police and

33:39

the FBI. Law

33:41

enforcement announced an official search for Cassie

33:43

that would take place on October 4th,

33:46

calling for volunteers to help in

33:48

the search. They were

33:50

searching this area that's called

33:53

Cassco. And I think

33:55

this is rather important

33:57

here. So while the search

33:59

didn't turn up. anything, the

34:02

officials were calling

34:04

this search a recovery mission. That's

34:07

not good. It

34:09

doesn't sound to me like they were hoping to recover

34:11

a, an alive and well

34:14

Cassie, so they're calling this

34:16

a recovery mission. And according

34:18

to some of the locals, what

34:21

the rumor was at the time

34:24

was that they were searching this

34:26

specific area because of some cell

34:28

phone ping information. Now

34:31

at the time, we're

34:33

not told whose phone they're

34:35

pulling that information from. Later

34:38

is said that it

34:40

was Cassie's phone, that

34:43

they had some cell phone ping information

34:46

in this area, this Casco area.

34:48

Yeah. So we have no record

34:50

of Cassie on surveillance footage of

34:52

any of these stores. We don't

34:54

have any eyewitnesses claiming that they

34:56

saw her that night or in

34:58

that area. So really

35:00

this idea that she went anywhere,

35:02

we have

35:04

no evidence of it. Well,

35:06

but we have her cell phone movement.

35:09

So we do have some cell

35:11

phone ping technology

35:13

there. So we know that

35:16

her cell phone moved. Just

35:18

don't know if Cassie was with that cell

35:20

phone or if she was alive at that

35:22

time. And one

35:24

thing here regarding this. This

35:27

second, so there's a second search that takes

35:29

place, right? Well, you hear recovery mission. That's

35:31

not something you want to hear, but

35:34

then this other statement is something you definitely

35:36

don't want to hear. But I wanted to

35:39

set this up captain by saying, we

35:42

had mentioned that Brandon Rhodes,

35:44

the fiancee mom's fiancee, his,

35:48

what he's saying is that he wrote his

35:50

bicycle to the police department to report her

35:52

missing Cassie missing that Sunday night. That

35:55

wasn't because he was just looking to

35:57

get a little extra exercise. Brandon

36:00

did not have a driver's license.

36:03

While he was known to drive

36:05

illegally using Judy's car on occasion,

36:08

at all the locals say the same thing.

36:10

You would see this guy riding his bicycle

36:12

around town all of the

36:14

time. So on this second

36:16

search, they

36:19

are advising the volunteers. This search

36:21

starts off much closer to Cassie's

36:23

home, to the Compton residence.

36:27

And they tell the searchers immediately

36:30

you might be looking for some

36:32

small dismembered pieces here. And the

36:35

statement that they used to follow

36:37

that up with was that we

36:39

think that we might be looking for dismembered

36:43

pieces because it would be

36:46

easier for transportation

36:48

purposes. That to me,

36:50

reading between the lines seems

36:53

to indicate to me we might be talking

36:55

about trying to transport something without the use

36:57

of a vehicle. Hashtag ban the van. That's

36:59

just what I'm saying. Police also

37:02

search bodies of waters in

37:04

the area. They interviewed residents

37:06

along Cassie's suspected walking route. So

37:08

this is interesting here. They learned

37:10

that Cassie liked to walk to

37:12

the Walmart in one direction or

37:14

the laundromat or the Stuttgart apartments,

37:17

where she was known to hang out with

37:19

some friends. Okay, so these

37:21

are gonna be key areas. Now, one

37:24

thing we haven't done here in the garage in a long

37:26

time might be overdue, the

37:29

old pervert roundup. So on

37:32

this route, right? You go one direction from

37:34

the Compton home, you go to Walmart. You

37:36

go the other direction, it's the laundromat and

37:38

the apartments. Between

37:40

the apartments and the Walmart, we

37:42

have 15 registered sex offenders in

37:44

this area. The police department did

37:47

go door to door to their

37:49

homes inquiring about Cassie. None

37:51

of these individuals admitted to seeing her. And

37:54

according to what we can find,

37:56

no suspects came of any. of

38:00

this, of these interviews. I believe that

38:02

first law enforcement wasn't taking this super

38:04

serious. It's very common for a teenager

38:07

to get in an argument with her

38:09

parents and disappear for the

38:12

day. What'd you look

38:14

into the background of her? Cassie's

38:17

not in a good living situation and

38:20

they're not, I believe being

38:22

that truthful with law enforcement.

38:25

So now we have to start digging up, well,

38:28

what is their criminal

38:30

history and

38:32

what information can we get from them?

38:34

Can we give them a lie detector?

38:36

Can we obtain their cell

38:38

phones so then we can get cell

38:40

phone records from them? And that's what

38:42

law enforcement starts to do. Yeah. On

38:45

top of that, we're seizing the cell

38:47

phones belonging to Judy and the fiance

38:49

Brandon Rhodes. Now this

38:51

reportedly happened on October 3rd, which

38:54

is interesting to me because the

38:56

Cassco search took

38:58

place the following day, October 4th. That

39:02

could be coincidence. It's

39:05

tough to, that's a tough hurdle to clear.

39:08

Let's talk about Cassie's mother, Judy. The

39:13

Stuttgart daily leader reported the

39:15

following. This is on October

39:17

14th after interviewing Judy,

39:20

where she says the next morning, she's talking

39:23

about Monday, September 15th. She

39:25

says that she found that Cassie wasn't

39:27

in her bedroom and started texting Cassie.

39:30

After no quick response, she sent

39:32

another text, then started calling her

39:35

mother said, Cassie always answered her texts

39:37

and calls. She

39:39

called friends to see if Cassie was

39:41

there and she wasn't. It was then

39:44

that worry began to set in and

39:46

law enforcement was called. Those are Judy's

39:48

words. So this timeline is very

39:50

strange, right? Because Brandon

39:52

Rhodes claimed that he went through the police

39:54

station on Sunday night and told them that

39:56

Cassie was gone. Yet Judy is claiming that

39:59

she didn't know. her daughter

40:01

was missing until the following morning. That makes

40:04

no sense. Because

40:07

what this means is that she was unaware that

40:10

Cassie was missing and Brandon took

40:13

it on himself to call around and ask

40:15

people if they had seen her. Okay.

40:17

Yeah or somebody's lying. Look I get

40:19

it, the official report is that Judy

40:21

wasn't feeling well, couldn't get out of

40:23

bed without a dizzy spell but to

40:25

be completely oblivious to your daughter being

40:28

missing until

40:30

9.20 something the next

40:32

morning. Boyfriend doesn't tell you

40:34

anything. If that's all, none

40:36

of that is making any sense at all.

40:39

Well like I said, their stories keep changing.

40:42

At some point Brandon says, well I was

40:44

in the kitchen and I was cooking breakfast

40:47

for dinner and that he saw

40:49

her. And then later he says

40:52

that he never saw her but

40:54

we know that she did make it home

40:56

because of the items that returned. Yeah and

40:59

then we talk about she never sees her

41:01

daughter but then another version of the story

41:03

says that she heard her leave the house.

41:07

So that would kind of back up the

41:11

going out for cigarettes. And at some point

41:13

Brandon has a, he's in

41:15

the bathroom throwing up. He

41:17

has some kind of sickness going on. Yeah

41:22

and so look, maybe it's maybe the

41:24

past history that

41:27

she's reporting to police is true,

41:29

is truthful. But

41:32

regardless, let's say it is

41:34

truthful or it's a lie. Judy

41:39

totally contributed to the police's runaway theory,

41:42

either accidentally or on purpose.

41:46

And keep in mind the initial report,

41:49

she's saying Cassie was bipolar

41:51

or possibly bipolar even though there was

41:53

no evidence of that according to the

41:55

police. If

41:58

she was trying to set up. something she's

42:01

planting the seed that she ran

42:03

away and all she's unstable as

42:05

well. And I have

42:07

all types of problems with her mother. Her

42:10

mother is a or her

42:13

mother was a registered sex offender.

42:16

And that is because Cassie's

42:20

father, which is in jail and

42:22

he's in jail because he was

42:25

molesting his, which

42:28

I believe was his stepdaughter

42:31

and Cassie's

42:33

mother's story is that she didn't know what

42:35

was going on. And

42:37

basically what she was charged with was the fact

42:39

that she did know what was going on and

42:41

was basically protecting

42:44

her husband from getting

42:46

in trouble. Yeah. So this,

42:49

this takes a while to come out. Okay.

42:51

So this does, this is not a

42:53

part of the immediate information. Well,

42:56

not the immediate information from the, like

43:00

coming from the media, but

43:02

law enforcement would have known this from

43:05

jump street. If they

43:07

checked, right. Right. You don't,

43:09

you don't, there's, it's not the scarlet letter where they

43:11

just put a, a big

43:13

giant sign above your house that says registered sex

43:15

offender lives here. Uh, and to, to, to

43:18

say, Hey, wait 48 hours or 72 hours or

43:21

what have you. Look,

43:27

this is the other thing that bothers me. I

43:29

get that. All right. You have somebody that potentially

43:31

has a history of running away. I

43:33

get it that that is protocol in a

43:35

lot of the police departments and, and has

43:38

been for a long time. It's changed

43:40

in some jurisdictions over the

43:42

years, but in some

43:44

jurisdictions it's going to say, stay this

43:46

way. The thing I've never understood like,

43:48

okay. So Stuttgart is not like this

43:51

crime ridden area that in 2014, there

43:53

was not even, there was

43:55

not a single homicide that we are aware of.

43:58

Right. Cassie Compton may have been murdered. but

44:01

it's never been labeled homicide. So

44:03

in 2014 you have no homicides and it's not

44:07

a crime, it's not just

44:09

it's not this filthy seedy

44:12

horrible area where there's

44:14

just crime after crime after crime. If

44:17

you guys ain't got nothing to do let's

44:20

take this report seriously for a

44:22

couple of hours please, please.

44:25

But then then

44:28

as much as you you want to get

44:30

angry and and shake a

44:32

fist at law enforcement here you go what the

44:34

hell is going on at home? Because

44:38

that seems to be if there was a

44:40

problem that seems to be where it all

44:42

started. You're

44:44

not getting it's

44:47

difficult to say that the

44:49

the Judy and Brandon were

44:51

not cooperative because on

44:53

the surface it feels a little bit

44:55

like they're cooperative. They both reported

44:58

her missing, they

45:01

both attempted to describe

45:03

the situation, report the situation to

45:05

police, and

45:07

they are talking with police and mother

45:09

Judy's talking with the media and we

45:12

referenced some of those interactions with the

45:14

media and interviews that she was doing,

45:16

some on camera, some for newspapers, but

45:18

in most of those she's pleading to

45:20

her she's making a plea to her

45:23

daughter please come back you

45:25

know we're not mad at you it's

45:27

safe to come home and

45:31

whether there was anything bad going on at home or not

45:34

that that would appear that

45:36

there is some level of cooperation. What

45:39

makes it so that there is not

45:41

this perfect level of cooperation is

45:44

the changing stories. The

45:49

changing stories are very... it's

45:54

easy for me to get very angry

45:56

with this mother and I also think

45:58

that she may have no... No clue

46:00

what happened to her daughter. I think

46:02

both could be possible

46:05

all at the same time. Yeah,

46:08

but I think, look, I think the mother is

46:10

a loser. I think

46:12

she tried. She's never

46:14

won Mother of the Year award. Never

46:17

even been nominated. Well, we have, she

46:19

was on the register

46:21

of sex offender list because law enforcement

46:24

believed that she was protecting a child

46:27

molester. And

46:30

she was protecting a child molester that was molesting

46:32

her own child. So that's

46:34

what law enforcement, that's what that criminal

46:36

history tells us. We

46:38

now have a situation where she moves

46:40

to this new location. Okay, maybe that's

46:43

to better her life. Maybe that's to

46:45

benefit her child's life. But then the

46:47

child is not in school, doesn't have

46:50

a lot of friends. And

46:53

then what does she do? She moves in this

46:56

individual that's

46:59

quite a bit younger than she is. And

47:02

he doesn't have much going for him. He

47:04

might be loser of the year in that

47:07

county. And then,

47:10

yes, okay, so she's sick. She's not

47:12

feeling well. But it seems

47:14

like she also just believed whatever

47:16

story Brandon, her

47:18

boyfriend was telling her that night. And

47:21

instead of saying, hey, well,

47:23

we really need to take

47:26

this serious. She's almost giving evidence

47:28

to law enforcement why they shouldn't

47:30

take it serious. Now

47:33

I do have to applaud her because at

47:35

some point, she breaks up with Brandon, gets

47:39

him out of the house, and then

47:42

is hopeful, well, hey, maybe if

47:44

my daughter finds out that he is gone, and

47:47

if that is a possibility of why she

47:49

would want to run away, maybe

47:52

she would come back. And

47:54

so I do applaud her for that. Yes,

47:59

the difficult. thing here is that's when

48:01

her story changes to old Brandon was

48:03

in the bathroom throwing up that

48:06

night. Right. Well, that might've been something you

48:08

might want to tell the police about on,

48:11

on one of multiple times of

48:13

being interviewed or you did multiple interviews

48:16

with police and media before you ever

48:18

mentioned that now he's out of the

48:20

house. And now that's when you choose

48:22

it. So, all right, let's, we'll

48:26

peel back the curtain a little bit here because

48:29

she says she's sick. Couldn't get out

48:31

of bed. Dizzy spells, whatever. She

48:35

was on fentanyl patches at the

48:37

time. She, she

48:39

may very likely may have been air

48:41

quotes sick because of the drugs being

48:45

introduced to her body. Right. And

48:49

he later will have

48:51

meth charges and I don't think it was

48:53

his first time around on that. What

48:56

we're trying to point out here is I

48:58

don't, we can't say, I can't say definitively

49:00

that mom was doing anything

49:02

wrong to Cassie, that boyfriend mom's boyfriend

49:04

was doing anything wrong. What I can

49:06

say is what to put it past

49:09

them though. I'll wager a

49:11

Franklin and guess who's going to win the

49:14

Colonel once again, because I will tell you

49:16

mom done checked out a long time ago.

49:18

She started slapping on those fentanyl patches and

49:20

that's when she checked out. I think her

49:23

story changed a lot because she didn't know

49:25

up from down. Here's the other problem with

49:28

my issue with law enforcement. When

49:31

you start questioning the family

49:33

and you know, something's not right, but

49:36

then you question, well, where was Cassie

49:39

before this? And if you

49:41

started talking to her friend and her

49:43

friend's parents, you'd

49:45

quickly figure out that Cassie wasn't

49:48

in love with her home situation. And

49:50

so to me, that's a red flag. And

49:52

so maybe not day one, but by day

49:55

two, we're looking

49:57

at this case and with different eyes.

50:00

And both of these individuals, I

50:02

believe, failed their polygraph test. Now,

50:04

I don't think that's been reported

50:06

publicly, but I believe in one

50:08

of the interviews, the

50:11

mother stated that she failed the test, but

50:13

she believed because she was on drugs

50:16

or, or, or the

50:18

stress of her daughter going missing. I can't

50:20

remember what her horrible excuse

50:22

was. Yeah. So I, again, it,

50:25

those, it could be reasonable. It could be

50:27

that she couldn't physically give

50:30

a proper test with

50:33

what drugs she was on at the time, but this

50:36

was a mother that didn't work that

50:39

was on fentanyl patches and who knows

50:41

what else and

50:43

a loser boyfriend that

50:45

as the captain pointed out was closer

50:47

in age to Cassie, our victim, our

50:49

missing person, than he was

50:51

to his fiance. Now, okay. So

50:55

let's talk about her Hunter and Tracy.

50:57

Hunter is her friend that she stayed

50:59

the night at their home, hung out

51:01

with until she's dropped off and then

51:03

goes missing on that Sunday. And Tracy

51:05

is his mother. There's

51:08

good and bad with, with, with

51:10

that group in my opinion. But

51:13

one thing that it points out is when

51:15

we go through the timeline of that Thursday,

51:17

the Friday, the Saturday

51:19

and Sunday, what did we have

51:21

for Thursday and Friday? She went

51:24

to the doctor and it's

51:26

reported that she went to a high school

51:28

football game. No other information, 48 hours

51:32

of life, a family

51:34

life, and

51:36

we have two events that

51:39

were known about and now mind you, part

51:41

of that is she didn't attend school. Right.

51:44

She was to call

51:46

it homeschooled is not, I mean, she's

51:49

reading a textbook at home. Yeah. She's

51:51

hanging out at home. He watching cable.

51:53

He was responsible for her own education.

51:56

This is the, this is the best information

51:58

we get about that. that timeline, the four

52:00

days leading up to her disappearance

52:03

is from Hunter and Tracy.

52:05

Right. That gives

52:07

us several more events because

52:11

those are seem to be, that's

52:14

what we would have. I, I think to me

52:16

that just is more proof that, that

52:19

even though she lived under the same

52:21

roof as mom and boyfriend, they

52:25

were checked out. They were, they were

52:27

absentee. Yeah. Right. Put it

52:29

mildly. Right. If, so if they weren't

52:31

doing anything wrong at all, what

52:34

we do know is they weren't raising her.

52:36

Right. This is a child that was neglected.

52:38

Now, to say

52:40

that she was completely unhappy with her life

52:43

at home, that seems true based off of

52:45

what her brother Chris says. I'm

52:47

not so quick to believe Hunter and

52:49

Tracy as it appears that they

52:51

only knew each

52:54

other for like three weeks, but

52:56

Tracy seems to have fully diagnosed

52:58

the whole living situation of this

53:00

girl that

53:02

she knew for a very brief period of time

53:04

and knew very little about. Yeah. But here's the

53:07

thing. When you have a child that isn't neglected

53:09

and nobody's taking care of them, when

53:11

they get around a adult or a

53:13

parent that they feel safe

53:15

with, she might've shared so much information

53:18

with her just in a couple hours

53:20

of conversation. She

53:23

could have, but. But this would be better

53:25

conversation and more information that was, that

53:27

was shared between Hunter's mother than

53:30

with her own mother. And what

53:32

her mother has is a history

53:35

of turning an eye when

53:39

her child is being molested. And

53:41

I wouldn't put it past her

53:44

boyfriend, this Brandon Rhodes. I wouldn't put

53:46

it past him to, again,

53:49

there's no evidence of this, but if this person,

53:51

if, if Cassie is

53:53

not enjoying her home life and she hates

53:56

this individual, well, why does she hate the

53:58

individual? And is it possible that. And

58:00

again, Judy's story, very different, much more

58:02

vivid with detail at this point, saying

58:05

he's gone for a couple of hours.

58:07

And then when he returned, he went

58:09

straight into the bathroom and was sick.

58:13

Now eventually, Brandon, he's out of

58:15

Judy's house, out of her life.

58:17

He is arrested for squatting

58:20

in a vacant home. Yeah, because he

58:23

was homeless. And

58:25

he is also gets

58:27

charges of possession of methamphetamine

58:31

at the same time. Well, and like

58:33

you said, it's probably not his first run-in

58:35

with methamphetamines, but

58:38

his run-ins with law enforcement are

58:41

just gonna continue. Yeah,

58:43

he gets out on the charges that we

58:45

just talked about, but then he is

58:47

stopped for speeding in October of 2018.

58:53

And he still doesn't have a driver's license at

58:55

this point. He's arrested

58:57

in the car he was pulled over

58:59

and was searched. It was observed that

59:01

the passenger side window was broken out

59:03

and a military style bag was

59:06

lying on the front seat. Inspection

59:08

of the contents revealed an AK-15

59:10

rifle, loaded

59:13

with a 27

59:15

round magazine, gas mask, military

59:17

style equipment belt, camouflage shirt,

59:19

eye protection goggles, a large

59:21

nine inch fixed blade, another

59:23

knife, and a helmet. So

59:28

this is an arrest warrant affidavit

59:30

that was obtained by the timeline

59:32

podcast, which was an eight part

59:35

series, all based

59:37

around the missing Cassie

59:39

Compton case. And this is put

59:42

together by that Kayla Lafferty from

59:44

KATV. So she

59:46

spent extensive amount of time working

59:49

on this case and researching this case.

59:51

She gets her hands on this arrest

59:53

affidavit for Brandon,

59:56

Rhodes and the

59:58

affidavit states that the gun in tactical gear

1:00:00

had been reported stolen from a house that

1:00:02

Brandon was staying at at the time. And

1:00:05

in Brandon's wallet was found a piece of

1:00:08

paper with names, numbers and odd

1:00:10

statements on it. Brandon was interviewed after the

1:00:12

arrest. He allegedly said that he had been

1:00:14

paid 200 bucks by a man to follow

1:00:16

that man's wife and kill her. The

1:00:19

affidavit says quote, he stated he chose to

1:00:21

pose as a hit man because he knew

1:00:23

it would get him back into prison for

1:00:25

a long time and not hurt anyone. So

1:00:28

later he says he, you know, he made all this

1:00:30

up because he, he,

1:00:33

he wanted to spend a good amount

1:00:35

of time in prison. Yeah. And

1:00:37

one of his claims is so he can

1:00:40

work his missing,

1:00:42

you know, girlfriend's daughter

1:00:44

case from

1:00:46

the inside of the prisons. Yeah. Which is

1:00:48

funny too, because he also later would say,

1:00:51

Oh, I posed as a hit man to

1:00:53

get this long prison sentence, but

1:00:56

really what I was doing, I was going

1:00:58

after the people that took Cassie. Right.

1:01:03

So this is, we can keep going down

1:01:05

this rabbit hole of Brandon Rhodes, but what

1:01:08

I keep seeing here, I don't know if it's a

1:01:11

combination of his, of the drugs,

1:01:13

methamphetamine will fuck you up and

1:01:16

your life. Yeah. Make no mistake

1:01:18

about it. And unfortunately it's one of those

1:01:20

drugs that a one time

1:01:22

use could be that it could

1:01:24

be forever. So don't, don't

1:01:27

even experiment. This is not, this is not marijuana

1:01:29

where you can experiment and see if you like

1:01:31

it or not. This will

1:01:33

ruin you. And I don't

1:01:35

know if it ruined Brandon or if it's a

1:01:37

combination of his brain, his heart, his soul and

1:01:39

the drugs or what, but to

1:01:42

continue down the Brandon Rhodes road,

1:01:46

it's a long trip to crazy town

1:01:49

with this guy. I short trip. Well,

1:01:52

it's a short trip for him. It's a long

1:01:54

trip for us because there's many stops and it

1:01:56

veers off in many different directions. I

1:01:59

can't make heads or tails. of this dude because

1:02:01

I don't think he can make heads or tails

1:02:03

of the world. I really want to know what

1:02:05

the conflict was when she got home. And

1:02:08

that's something that her mom would probably

1:02:10

know if she wasn't passed out at

1:02:12

the time. Yeah. The

1:02:15

other statement too, that really

1:02:17

disturbs me among many

1:02:19

statements that are disturbing in this case, it's

1:02:22

from the arrest affidavit from the,

1:02:24

the arrest warrant affidavit. Right? So

1:02:26

this is taken to

1:02:29

be like a

1:02:31

sworn statement from

1:02:33

Brandon Rhodes himself. The

1:02:35

affidavit says, quote, he stated he chose

1:02:37

to pose as a hit man because

1:02:39

he knew it would get him back

1:02:42

to prison for a long

1:02:45

time and not hurt anyone.

1:02:48

You have to be

1:02:50

severely unstable or have

1:02:52

severe violent thoughts to

1:02:55

pretend to have committed crimes or an

1:02:57

attempt to commit crimes that you really

1:03:00

weren't attempting to do because you think that

1:03:02

the best place for you is to be

1:03:06

locked up so you don't hurt anyone. Was

1:03:09

that an ability he didn't

1:03:11

possess at other times in

1:03:13

his life leading up to that event? Well,

1:03:16

we'll hear from ex-partners of

1:03:18

him that he was controlling

1:03:20

and he had a short temper and, and

1:03:23

that he also had a

1:03:26

rough childhood, abusive childhood. That

1:03:29

is not to dismiss

1:03:31

anything that we think he did

1:03:34

or was capable of doing, but

1:03:37

that kind of puts some perspective

1:03:39

to all this. Again, was

1:03:42

there a conflict? He lost his temper,

1:03:45

did something disposed of her

1:03:47

body, but also people have

1:03:50

stated that he was very controlling and

1:03:52

had to have the information of their

1:03:54

cell phones or information from their social

1:03:56

media. So again, that would put in

1:03:58

to. play this idea

1:04:00

that this

1:04:03

individual was capable of sending

1:04:05

messages to people. Um,

1:04:08

pretending to be something

1:04:11

he wasn't, I guess at one point he

1:04:13

was making calls to this lady

1:04:16

that he was tracking and stocking

1:04:19

and made calls

1:04:21

and pretended to be a woman

1:04:23

and we have later on in

1:04:25

the case where somebody

1:04:27

contacted Cassie's mother

1:04:29

and pretended to be Cassie. And

1:04:34

so then one could question was

1:04:37

this individual Brandon, did

1:04:39

Brandon call her up and pretend to be Cassie?

1:04:41

Is that the same story of the 13 year

1:04:43

old boy? Because there was a 13

1:04:46

year old boy that was using a cell phone

1:04:48

that on multiple occasions called pretending

1:04:50

to be Cassie and they,

1:04:53

they were able to figure out. Yeah.

1:04:55

They figured out it was the teenage

1:04:57

boy. I'm just saying he was, he

1:04:59

was actually arrested and charged. Right.

1:05:02

And, but I'm just saying this

1:05:05

puts this still puts Brandon

1:05:07

in the realm of possibilities of

1:05:10

using Cassie's cell phone,

1:05:12

using Cassie's Facebook. Well,

1:05:15

who else was he contacting and

1:05:19

pretending possibly to be somebody else?

1:05:21

I'm just saying he has the capability of it because

1:05:23

we know he's done it in the past. There,

1:05:26

there are, we, we, we've been

1:05:28

circling like vultures around Brandon Rhodes

1:05:30

and we should be clear here.

1:05:33

There are other possibilities in

1:05:35

this case while he looks

1:05:37

to be a character that

1:05:40

nobody wants to invite over to

1:05:43

Thanksgiving dinner, let alone live with

1:05:45

under the same roof, have him come over

1:05:47

to my house. I'm not going to make

1:05:49

him some pancakes. Um, there

1:05:52

are other possibilities here. I mean,

1:05:54

he looks like prime suspect. Number

1:05:56

one, I believe the police have

1:05:58

never.