MISSING: Bethany Decker

[00:00] Hi, crime junkies. It's Britt, and I have big news. One of my favorite seasonal shows, CounterClock, is back with a brand new season, and it is wild. Host Delia D'Ambra is digging into the 2008 Lane Bryant murders. I mean, this isn't just a recap. It is a reinvestigation. She's talking to law enforcement, people from the community, even sources who have never spoken publicly until now. And you know I love a show that asks all the questions. Listen to CounterClock Season 8 now wherever you get your podcasts. [00:41] Hi, Crime Junkies. Welcome back to another episode. I'm Ashley Flowers. And I'm Grit. And I hope you guys all enjoyed the bonus episode that we released last week about the Golden State Killer and how he was captured. If you guys missed that, make sure you're subscribed [01:00] schedule, they'll download to your device, your phone, whatever, automatically. And don't forget to keep sharing our show with your friends, guys. We love seeing it on Twitter, on Instagram. Keep tagging us. Keep telling your friends so we can grow the Crime Junkie community. And with that, on to the show. [01:30] you

[01:38] You know I'm obsessed with missing person cases, and especially the ones where we're pretty sure the person just didn't walk off on their own. Because I just can't get it through my head how another person could just make a human disappear off the face of the earth and leave no clues behind. And today is one of those stories. I also really want to cover this case because I can't find another podcast that has, so I think it's important that someone keep talking about missing person Bethany Decker. [02:08] Bethany is a young woman from Virginia. She was a star student at her high school and went on to study at George Mason University. She's one of those people I'm always baffled by who can do incredible in school without actually having to try super hard. During her freshman year there, she meets a young man named Emil Decker. He's in the ROTC program at their school and they end up dating for three years. They're young, they're in love, so Emil asked Bethany to marry him and [02:38] gets pregnant with their first child so by age 20 bethany has a husband and a baby boy named kai [02:46] And they start off pretty well, but it doesn't take long for the stress to set in. The stress of marriage, financial strain, and the stress of a new baby. That is a lot, and I can't imagine doing it at 20. Yeah, I got married at 20, no baby, but... [03:00] It was not a walk in the park. Yeah, it's hard. And Bethany is a wife and a mom, and she's still trying to go to school, and she gets a job to help with their finances. So she has a lot going on. And to pile on top of that, Emil's goal has always been to have a career in the military. So he begins training with the National Guard, knowing that the plan will be for him to deploy to Afghanistan eventually.

[03:25] He's gone all of the time for training, and Bethany is working and going to school, so they aren't getting to spend the kind of time together that it takes to make a marriage work. So naturally, things start to become strained between them. And the cherry on top of this Sunday is that Emil just got noticed that he's going to have to go to Camp Atterbury for training, and then he's going to get deployed. Hey, isn't Camp Atterbury located in Indiana? Yeah, it's like South Central Indiana. [03:55] and I had no idea until like six months ago that this was like going on down there. Camp Atterbury includes the Muscatatuck Urban Training Center which is this 1,000 acre real world simulation center. It's like a completely self-sustaining city and I'm not going to go too much into detail because the history of this place is like a whole episode in and of itself and it really is a fascinating story of like the history of mental illness in our country and the military and I'm [04:25] info on our website you definitely need to check it out but basically there was a time after insane asylums were deemed inhumane where people thought that the mentally ill shouldn't be in a hospital but they also like didn't want them like living among us so professionals thought they should all live together in their own community away from the quote normal people and somebody decided that [04:55] Center was established and it was called home for mentally unstable people but the people there were so-called inmates and they would have to work to earn their keep doing like farming or maintenance or professional services and they made this place completely self-sustaining like walled off from the rest of the world they had their own water source farm schools movie theater church it was this whole community completely isolated from the rest of the world and eventually the government

[05:25] and they like went in one day and just forced everyone out government took over the property but literally when they came in and cleared them out it was like overnight [05:37] And people said, when you went there, it looked like the whole town just disappeared into thin air. There were like dental tools and gauze still out because they were... [05:45] forced out in the middle of procedures people left their clothes and personal belongings like very creepy stuff it's naturally led to like all these ghost stories even though the people there weren't like killed they were just kicked out and now there's some crazy top secret military stuff that goes on there like and not just from the U.S. other countries from all over the world like come to this little town in Indiana to rent out this simulation center and they use it for [06:15] is where Emil was going right before he was leaving. And right before he goes off to training, Bethany starts texting with a guy that she met from work whose name is Ronald. Like, nothing crazy, but flirtier than you'd want your wife being with some dude, you know? So... [06:31] Emil ends up finding these text messages and he confronts her and she swears nothing is going on with this guy. It's just harmless flirting and he believes her. And this kind of opens up a bigger conversation. She tells him that she's been really unhappy. She feels like they rushed into their marriage. They rushed into having a child and she's just super stressed and she's not sure if this is what she wants anymore. But Emil says that they tried to patch things up and before he left he was actually feeling okay about their relationship.

[07:01] knew that they were gonna continue to work on it and like wasn't super shaky about where things stood [07:05] When he leaves, Bethany ends up moving into an apartment in Ashburg, Virginia, which is actually closer to where she worked. And she leaves her son with her mom to care for him, just so she can keep working and going to school. So I don't know, like, what the situation was or how permanent it was. I don't know that she, like, transferred custody into her mom's name. But she didn't feel like she could do all of that while raising a child on her own, while her husband was in training and then deployed. When Emil first leaves for training, things seem okay. [07:35] They're talking on the phone frequently, she seems happy, until out of nowhere, the calls just stop one day. [07:43] and he tries to reach her over and over calling, texting, nothing. [07:49] until finally he gets a hold of her one day. [07:53] And her phone picks up and sure enough on the other end it's her. [07:58] And before he can even speak into the phone, she just says, I don't love you. [08:03] do not talk to me anymore. And in the background, he hears a man scream something like man up and then like some expletives and then click. The phone just goes dead. And he knew for sure right then that she was with someone else. And he didn't know if it was the same guy that she was texting or someone new. [08:22] And it really didn't matter. [08:23] All he knew was someone was breaking up his marriage. So when he was deployed in October of 2010, he left not knowing

[08:31] the state of his marriage. Like, was he going to come back to a wife? Was he going to come back to a divorce? He had no idea. [08:36] Now sometime before he comes home for a short leave on January 17th of 2011, Emil and Bethany had planned a trip to Hawaii. I have to assume they planned this before she stopped talking to him and likely before he even left for training or while he was at training, but I don't know for sure. Either way, he gets back for leave on January 17th and he's so excited to see his son and to get a chance to see his wife in person and hopefully try and figure out what's been going on and see if they can work things out. [09:06] Well... [09:08] When he lands, he gets a bombshell greeting. [09:12] Bethany tells him that yes, she had been cheating on him. Ouch. What a welcome home. I know, but that's not the bombshell. The bombshell is that she was pregnant with this other guy's child. That escalated quickly. And that guy was in fact Ronald, who she had been texting with before he left. And Emil said in an interview that he wasn't even shocked. [09:35] I mean, he knew something was going on, but he felt like he was just getting blow after blow from her. So to learn about this sucked, but it didn't rock his world in the way that I think it would for most of us. He also said that he had just literally been at war for four months. So he was just happy to be home and be alive and be with his son. So it really put everything else into perspective for him. [10:00] Which, it's insane to think about not being...

[10:04] like, raging or devastated by this. But, like you said, having literally just been in a war zone, I guess I get how this situation seems pretty tame. Yeah, so they still end up taking this trip to Hawaii together that they had planned. And when he's home with her, Bethany wasn't as firm as she had been with him on the phone that last time they spoke. She said now she wasn't sure who she wanted to be with, and she just felt paralyzed, like she couldn't make a decision. [10:31] Well, when they get back from Hawaii, Bethany still can't decide. Emile says he's willing to take her back and he's willing to like put the work in to make their marriage work, but Bethany is torn. I mean, she's married to him and has a child with him, but she's literally also pregnant with this other guy's baby. Like she's very caught in the middle. [10:50] On January 28th, Bethany goes to her grandmother's house in Columbia, Maryland to visit for the day. And they were going to make homemade pizza, like have dinner together. And during their time, her grandma can tell that she's super overwhelmed. She was just not at peace with her life. She had so much on her plate for such a young girl. And her grandma said she handled it pretty well up until that point. But her family could tell that all of it was catching up with her and all of it was weighing on her now. [11:20] had had like a very close relationship and that day bethany was looking to her grandma for advice like what what do i do like this is a crazy situation that i'm in i don't know what where to go from here and her grandma just told her like what do you want for your life what are your dreams i know you feel obligated to all of these different people like your husband you have a boyfriend you have a baby and they have another baby on the way but like you're bethany you're you're not bethany the wife you're not bethany the mother like what do you need and she didn't

[11:50] that night. She just shared that she had never been more stressed and it was taking a toll on her. And her grandma said she seemed really distracted and almost frightened. And they said that they had never seen her like this before. [12:05] So later that evening, Emil actually comes over to join them for pizza. And he and Bethany were planning on staying the night at her grandma's. [12:13] And this is where the night turns strange. [12:16] They're all sitting down to dinner together. And as dinner goes on, Bethany is getting more and more anxious. She keeps checking her phone and every time she checks it, she's getting more agitated. Texts are coming in one after another and she tells her family that they're from Ron. [12:35] She was getting so worked up and almost paranoid, and finally she just gets up from the table, announces to everyone that she has to go. And her grandma begs her to stay, but Bethany just says, Listen, you don't understand what's going to happen to me if I don't go home. Things will get bad if I don't leave. And she grabs her phone, grabs her keys, and walks out the door, and walks out the door. [12:56] and Emil follows her. [12:59] When Bethany walked out of her grandmother's home, that would be the last time someone from her immediate family would ever see her again. [13:09] Her grandmother and her mother didn't know anything was even wrong though, [13:13] and that she was not [13:15] There until February 2nd. That's when Emil was scheduled to deploy back to Afghanistan. He and Bethany had a deal that really no matter what was going on with their marriage, she was going to see him off at the airport. But she didn't show up.

[13:29] Emil, the first thing he does is call her work and he learns that [13:34] not only has she not showed up to send him off, she hasn't shown up for work in a week. So he then immediately calls her mom and grandma and tells them and he says, listen, this doesn't feel right. I know that she would be here for this. Something is off and [13:48] But he had to just like leave it at that. So without knowing where his wife was, he leaves for Afghanistan after just like sounding the alarm to her family. It's a little weird that he left without knowing what was going on, right? I know people might be tired of hearing this, but again, you just never know how someone else is going to treat a situation. I mean, also, I don't know how the military works. I have a feeling that just not showing up after your leave is something that could get you in some serious hot water with them. Yeah, good point. [14:18] Either way, he leaves her family with this red flag [14:22] and [14:23] They try and get a hold of her that day, but no one's able to reach her. [14:27] But... [14:29] just like no one's able to reach her, no one can get a hold of her, calls, texts. They still don't file a missing person report. They say that they didn't think she was really missing at that time. Apparently, she was like a person who was really hard to get a hold of in general. It wouldn't be unusual for her not to return multiple calls and texts from somebody. So not reaching her... [14:51] And they weren't as bugged out about her missing Emile's deployment as Emile was because they kind of chalked that up to like, ah, you guys have had miracle problems, like she's seeing some other guy, she's pregnant with this baby, like maybe she's not gonna come. Like maybe you just want her to, but she wouldn't. But they still thought it was normal even after she missed work for a week. That's what I don't know. Like I don't know how much Emile told them on the phone. To me...

[15:13] I can get if you just couldn't get a hold of her and she didn't show up. But if... [15:17] he did tell them that she'd been missing work for a week. It's super strange to me. And the family all got polygraphed and stuff. It's all in the up and up. I think it was just like a huge miss on their part. [15:27] And it's the biggest mistake that they could have made because three weeks go by and no one hears from her and no one even knows that she's missing. And Britt, this is when I, I was like researching this, is when I texted you and... [15:41] with that message that was like, if I ever go six hours without responding to you, like sound all of the alarms. Like, I don't care what Eric says. I don't care if he's sleeping. Like six hours is the max that I should not respond. And then you like file a missing person report. Yeah. And I mean, we've had a couple conversations in the past week or so where I couldn't get ahold of you for like 10 minutes and started freaking out and trying to contact you on other platforms. Yeah. So three [16:11] and her family said that the fact that she was hard to get a hold of, coupled with the fact that she was in work, in school, they just thought that she was busy. [16:19] Yeah, but didn't her mom have her son Kai at this point? Wasn't it weird that she hadn't been around her child for three weeks? That I don't know. I would think that that would have stood out along with like the missing work and stuff. But I couldn't find anything about like the cadence of her visits to him. So I can't say. All I know is that it didn't stick out as unusual enough for her family to... [16:42] call the police.

[16:44] Over those three weeks, it's not like there wasn't anyone trying to reach her, but they just weren't getting any responses, and it just wasn't bothering them. So what made them finally think something was wrong? It was actually one of Bethany's friends. She hadn't heard from her for a while, and one day when she was on Facebook Messenger, she saw Bethany's name pop up. Like, she was online and active, so she reaches out and says hi and asks Bethany how she's doing, and she says right away, [17:13] When the response came through, she knew. [17:16] she was not talking to Bethany. [17:19] Full body chills. So like any good crime junkie, she didn't call the person out. She like kept the conversation going while she called Bethany's grandmother. [17:31] And she's like in a panic at this point. And her grandma answers the phone and she tells her like what's been going on. She tried to talk to Bethany. She thinks it's not actually her. And she said someone is impersonating her and I know it. And Bethany's grandma is like are you sure? Like maybe she's just having an off day. What is making you think this exactly? And she said I could tell right away that it wasn't her. So I started asking her questions that only she would know the answer to. Like stuff about our friendship or whatever. [18:01] to any of them and she's just avoiding all of the questions so bethany's grandmother immediately gets up gets dressed and goes to her apartment like this is finally a reason for them to be really concerned and when she gets there no one is home but bethany's car is parked in the parking lot but it's parked kind of weird like enough to cause concern for the family like it's not all the way

[18:26] And her family said it kind of looked like it was just pushed there maybe and quickly abandoned. And they said, quote, it's not how she would park. [18:35] Which is something that [18:36] would never cross my mind. I have no idea about someone's like parking signature. But I think they just meant that it looked out of place and not normal for anyone. When they find the car but know Bethany is when they finally call the police. And police jump on this right away because it's clear that no one has talked to her in weeks. And police are immediately concerned because instead of starting like one day or a couple days after a person goes missing, [19:06] on the last time she was seen. [19:08] They do the usual rounds, first talking to friends and family, trying to get a beat on where and when she was last seen. As far as Bethany's family knew, Emil was the last person to see her because he had followed her out of her grandmother's house the night she left. Detectives want to talk to him, but he's in Afghanistan, so they have to settle for exchanging some emails while they work with the military to get him sent back for questioning. [19:38] But that's the last time he saw her too. They didn't actually leave together, and she went back to her apartment, and he went back to the house where he was staying on leave. [19:47] For decades, some cold cases have been reduced to files in a cabinet, but not anymore. I'm Ashley Flowers, and me and my team on the deck have been traveling across the country to report on these forgotten cases. And in some instances, it's resulted in these cases being solved after decades.

[20:06] Join me every Wednesday as we revive these stories one card at a time. [20:12] Listen to the deck now. [20:14] wherever you get your podcasts. [20:17] Police start searching the fields near Bethany's apartment complex, but they come up with nothing. While they're doing this behind the scenes, they're also working on getting a search warrant for her apartment. And when it finally comes out and is released to the public, the community and I think Emil are all kind of shocked to learn that Bethany didn't live in her apartment alone. Ron actually lived there with her. [20:42] Also included in the search warrant is a blurb stating that Ron was actually the last person to see Bethany, not Emil. Wait, how did we come to that? Did we know that? [20:53] When did they find this out? [20:55] I don't know. You know, the police always know more than they let out to the public. So somehow they had to have known that she did make it back to her apartment with Ron after she saw Emil, but they're not telling us how they know this. And it's this love triangle that propels Bethany's story into the national headlines. She's a young wife, a mother, pregnant with another man's baby [21:25] And the news outlets come flooding in. And this is what makes me so frustrated with media and everyone's attention span. This was a huge story back in 2011. But who is talking about it now? How many podcast episodes are there about Bethany? Like,

[21:42] They take these stories, they chew them up, they use them for ratings, they spit them out, and then what? Like the families are just left... [21:49] with no help, no answers. And it just makes me... [21:52] Like, so mad. [21:55] As this is making its way through the public, two theories are starting to emerge. Either A, [22:01] Emil was angry when he found out about Bethany being pregnant with Ron's baby, and when she still couldn't decide between the two of them, even after their Hawaii trip and him offering to take her back, even though she was pregnant with another man's baby, like, he snapped. It was just too much for him to take. [22:17] Amen. [22:18] or theory B, [22:19] the new boyfriend, Ron, was pissed that when the husband came back, [22:24] into the picture, both of them like ran off to Hawaii together [22:28] And like him even being in town made Bethany question if she wanted to stay with Ron when she was pregnant with his baby. Emil even said that he thought there could be a third option where something sinister happened to her by a stranger. You know, he's just like... [22:44] The problem is we don't know anything. We have no proof of anything. [22:48] So... [22:49] I get that those are the two most likely theories, but we have nowhere to go. It could be anything. Right. When police do a search of Ron and Bethany's apartment, they take all of his electronics, phones, computers, hard drives, CD-ROMs, anything that can prove he tried to hack her Facebook or impersonate her online because they're pretty sure that she has been missing since she was last seen at her grandma's. And whoever took her or killed her was probably also the person trying to impersonate her on her Facebook account.

[23:19] Police still won't say what, if anything, they found on his computers or phone in that search warrant. But clearly, if they did find anything, it wasn't enough for an arrest because they didn't arrest Ron after that search. But they start to look at him more closely. And what they hear about him doesn't make them feel any better. Even though Emil didn't really know about Ron, Bethany's friends and families did. [23:45] They knew she was carrying on an affair. And from what I can tell, they didn't like push her towards it, but they also just kind of had this, you know, whatever makes you happy attitude about it. But as their relationship went on, things got kind of unsettling. Ron was very controlling. For example, one time she went to the mall with her friend and they were going to go shop and then have dinner. Well, when they're out at the restaurant, she would not put her phone down. She was constantly texting him. [24:15] she said she had to get home like she couldn't have dinner at the restaurant because she had to get home and make him dinner oh no no nope there were other similarly disturbing stories that came to light [24:26] Oh god, like what? [24:28] Like, she would have to text him pictures of, like, when she was hanging out with friends, who she was hanging out with, to prove that she was actually with that person and where they were. And he would follow her to her friends and family's houses, like, openly follow her to, like, let her know he was watching. But he would just sit outside their houses while she visited with them. You know, instead of going inside like a normal human. Yeah, it was totally a control thing.

[24:58] abusive to her. Now, [25:00] They're now telling these stories? Why did they get her out of there while it was happening? You know, I have no idea. But getting someone to leave a relationship like that is not an easy task. Usually their abuser can be very manipulative and like push your friends and family out of your life. So even if they're worried about you, they really don't have any kind of persuasion over you. And someone who is even as smart as Bethany can't figure out how to leave when they're so deep in like that. [25:30] day giving her a lifeline. Her grandma's like, [25:33] Stay here. She would have done anything for her. And her husband was with there trying to take her back, like trying to help her cut ties. And I think just as much physical damage as a person can do in an abusive relationship, they really wreak havoc emotionally and mentally. [25:49] Ron, of course, denied all of these accusations of physical and mental abuse. His story is that he saw Bethany the night she came home from her grandma's, and he said that she went to work the next day and just never came home. But her car was there. Oh, I'm not saying his story doesn't have holes. I'm just telling you what his story was. And it's weird to me, too, that, like, you guys lived together. If she went missing way back then, like, why didn't you raise any red flags?

[26:19] the investigation and about this time they finally get a meal stateside and [26:24] He tells them the same story he told in his emails, yes. [26:28] They had a troubled marriage. [26:29] but he was willing to forgive her of everything. He wanted her to be happy. [26:34] And that's that. [26:35] To be fair, I get why the police are still looking at him. [26:39] They always look into the husband, and two, this whole thing seems really unbelievable that he'd be like, [26:45] We're good. Oh, 200%? I have been cheated on? Like, you cheat on me, I'm not taking you back, you are dead to me. Just to clarify, dead to you, or they're actually dead? [26:57] dead i plead the fifth so anyways they really don't get anything more from a meal they don't get anything from their search and they have nowhere to go [27:07] Sheriffs expand on the search and they look in this undeveloped field near her apartment complex and they're like spanning out. They're using people on foot. They're using ATVs. They're using dogs. But they come up totally empty, like not even a clue. And at this point, five weeks have passed since the search for Bethany began and the sheriff's office makes an announcement about Ron. [27:30] When they started searching the field near the apartment, Ron stopped cooperating. He didn't want to answer any more questions, and he was just done with the investigation. Awesome. Um, I'm assuming that they did, but did the police ever look up her banking activity to see if any of her cards were used or any transactions happened? They did, and there was no activity on, like, any of her banking statements or her credit cards, and her phone and passport have not been used since she vanished.

[28:00] off of, just poof, vanishing into thin air. And months end up ticking by and the case just remained cold. [28:08] Then in early August, sheriffs get an idea. [28:12] They put a notice out to all of the hospitals and clinics along the East Coast asking if they've seen Bethany or telling them to be on the lookout for her. [28:22] because if she's alive, she should be giving birth soon. [28:26] So they put out this release to other clinics and hospitals, but it ends up being a dead end. Her due date comes and goes, and it confirms their biggest fears that Bethany and her baby are most likely dead. [28:39] Starting a new business can be intimidating. I mean, the amount of tasks you have to juggle can get overwhelming quickly. And it's like you have to be an expert in everything all at once. I mean, you think when I started Crime Junkie, I thought I would be running a merch store one day? I know. But when that day came, before I could even hire help, I had to expertly run a merch store. [28:59] And I did it with Shopify. [29:01] And you know what? It doesn't matter how big we've grown, how many team members we have who are actual experts now. We still use Shopify. Shopify drives e-commerce whether you're a household name like AudioCheckNow or if you're a creator just getting started like I was eight years ago. [29:17] The platform acts as your built-in business partner and simplifies all your tasks. Imagine the ease of building your dream store with hundreds of beautiful templates, leverage AI writing tools for product descriptions, and photo enhancements in seconds. You can even create email and social campaigns with ease. So start your business today with the industry's best partner, Shopify, and start hearing. Sign up for your $1 per month trial today at Shopify.com slash Crime Junkie.

[29:47] That's Shopify.com slash Crime Junkie. [29:53] - Despite having no solid leads, sheriffs have continued to keep working the case, keep trying to drum up something, and really nothing comes in after 2011. [30:04] until [30:05] Ron shows up on the police's radar in 2014. He is arrested and charged with the attempted murder [30:14] of his girlfriend after a 911 call came in about a domestic violence disturbance. [30:19] He literally had beat the living crap out of her and then shot her three times. What? Yes, with at least one bullet in her head. And miraculously, she ended up surviving and just losing one eye. But I think the justice system totally failed her because the attempted murder charge ends up getting thrown out on a technicality because of the way the search of his home was conducted. [30:49] and all of his charges were consolidated into like one sentence with a minimum of six years and just a maximum of eight years, three months. For shooting someone in the head. And then what? He's just... [31:03] Out roaming the world among us? Yeah, but from what I learned online, it seems that he's not a legal U.S. citizen. So after he serves his time, they're going to be deporting him back to Bolivia. I will never understand this. He more than likely had something to do with his...

[31:20] pregnant girlfriend disappearing and there's [31:23] Zero evidence [31:24] zero witnesses and zero body. Just gone. And the second time, it's this violent attack that people call 911. And I have to assume there's blood everywhere. I have no idea. And I think about that too. Was Bethany his first? Was Bethany planned? I mean, she had been with her husband on vacation, which had to really piss off someone as controlling as Ron. So maybe he had everything [31:54] it was like a heat of the moment thing I have no idea but what I do know is he's in prison now and unfortunately he's [32:04] In Bethany's case, there's just zero for the police to go on. They have to hope and pray that someone comes across Bethany's remains one day. Or maybe Ron confided in someone and that person can come forward before he's out free. [32:19] I mean, he did it once. He tried it a second time. I have no doubt that this will happen to another woman if he's let out of prison. For the record, does anyone not think it's Ron? I think a long time before his arrest, people still had questions about Emil. There was a reporter back at the end of 2012 that said a lot of people in the local community still thought it was Emil. I don't know if that opinion has changed after Ron's arrest and conviction, but I'm sure there's someone out there who thinks that the husband still did it. [32:49] hold onto that crazy husband did it idea despite

[32:53] other reasonable explanations. [32:55] The husband always did it theory does not work here for me. [32:58] I agree, and I don't think it's going to work for most of our listeners. [33:02] that are out there today. And if you guys want, you can head to our Facebook discussion group and kind of talk out your theories. Do you think Emile could have had something to do with it? Do you think Emile's theory that maybe there's a third person out there who had something to do with it? Or is it most likely the guy who had a history of domestic violence? Go to Facebook. Check out the Crime Junkie Podcast discussion group. And also, if you want to see pictures of everyone we're talking about today, go to our website, CrimeJunkiePodcast.com. [33:32] while you're there and get special announcements like about when we're opening our merch store because that is coming super soon. And you should also follow us on Twitter at CrimeJunkiePod and on Instagram at CrimeJunkiePodcast. And don't forget to stick around if you guys want to hear the prophet of the month story. [34:02] editing comes from Britt Prewatt. And all of our music, including our theme, comes from Justin Daniel. Crime Junkie is an AudioChuck production. So what do you think, Chuck? Do you approve? [34:13] *Mario grunts*

[34:27] All right, Britt and all of our listeners, I want to prepare you. This Puppet of the Month story is kind of heavy, and we have a submission form now for everyone. If you want to nominate your Puppet, you can go to CrimeJunkiePodcast.com, and there is a form you can fill out. [34:44] This month's Puppet, though, I took from our Facebook discussion group because the story was just so touching. I felt like we had to honor Beth and her dog. So we got a message from Beth that made me weep. And I'm just going to read exactly what she wrote to us, okay? Sounds great. I'm bracing myself. Yes, you should. All right, so Beth says, In October 2003, I had lost my dog. [35:14] at seven years old, and I was finally ready to think about adopting a new one. [35:18] I went to a local shelter just to see who they had. I hopped out of my car and there was the sweetest black and white basset hound looking pup who came over to me. I assumed he belonged to one of the workers so I gave him some pets and then went in to talk to them. And he followed me around and as I looked, never letting me out of his sight. [35:48] how much work went into a puppy. [35:50] Not part of her story, but shocker. I hate that when people do that. [35:54] His name was Oreo and they were going to be picky about who got him because he was a staff favorite and they wanted him to have a really good home. We talked for a bit more and when they realized I worked at a school they decided I was the one. I told them I'd be back the next day and I left.

[36:11] The next day I came back and I adopted him. It was October 30th. I took him home and my parents, who I lived with at the time, fell in love. He had perfect manners, never had an accident in the house, and was generally a perfect love bug. He stayed by me moving out, getting married, getting more dogs. Well, me one and then my husband one. Having my son, who most certainly was his baby, he didn't like anyone that he didn't know coming in the yard. [36:40] Getting divorced, losing the other dog I adopted to old age, my ex's dog moving out, dealing with depression and anxiety, us getting two more dogs, moving back in with my parents, and then losing my dad last month unexpectedly. Wow. [36:54] I'm already getting choked up. I know. I don't know if I can get through this. [37:03] I'm good. Okay. [37:06] About two weeks ago, he took a turn for the worse. He's 15. He's 15. [37:12] Oh, man, you might have to. I can't even do it. Okay, I'll take over. I'll try at least. Sorry. [37:21] He's a big dog, Basset Hound Border Collie Mix, and they don't live that old. He couldn't walk and barely ate. He stopped eating 10 days ago. Everything I read said that dogs can't live more than three to five days without food generally. We were finally able to get him to the vet today and put him down. My heart is broken into a million little pieces. I'm at the I'm never getting another dog again phase.

[37:47] I know it'll pass. I'm the crazy dog lady, but right now I'm never getting another. [37:52] My best friend said, anyone who spends more than 15 minutes with you knows that Oreo is in your heart. And now I have to find a way to go on without him. [38:02] My son is nine, and I have to help him deal with this when I don't know if I can for myself yet. [38:08] Anyway, if you've had this far, thank you. I have no point. I just wanted to talk to people who understand. Hug your dogs close tonight, give them an extra cookie now and then, and take too many pictures. [38:22] I'm weeping. You know you are. [38:27] So, Beth, thank you so much for sending in your prepped of the month. I think you summed it up perfectly in the ending. Thank you so much for sharing this with us. And I would encourage everyone to donate to their favorite shelter in honor of Oreo. [38:43] Yeah, thank you, Beth. And I'm so sorry for your loss. I can't imagine. [38:50] I very much feel that way about Charlie. For everyone who loves Crime Junkie, I need you to pray to whatever God that you believe in that Charlie lives forever because the second he doesn't. [39:01] Crime Junkies done because I can no longer go on. So... [39:06] I can't imagine what you're going through. I'm so, so sorry for your loss, but I know that, you know, for the time that you had him, you gave him the absolutely best life that you could. And that's literally all he could have asked for. And...

[39:18] And I hope that you're healing. And I pray that you can move on and give another dog a wonderful life. But I'm so sorry you lost your best friend. [39:28] Yes, like Brittany said, please. [39:30] In honor of Oreo, everyone donate to your favorite shelter, wherever you got your dog, or if you need a suggestion, I will put a shelter up on the Facebook page discussion group. [39:42] Sorry this one was a downer, but I felt like we needed to talk about Oreo and tell Beth that we're all behind her and we love her and we support her. Also, take Beth's advice, and if you do have your best friends still at home with you, hug them close, give them an extra cookie for Oreo tonight, and take a ton of pictures and send them all to us in the discussion group page. We love to see them. [40:12] you [40:30] Okay, crime junkies, you know I absolutely love a twist and a turn, especially when it comes to people who turn out to be someone they're not. That's why I have been obsessed with the podcast Chameleon. Every Thursday, host Josh Dean deep dives into a scam so bizarre, it will leave you wondering, how did they get away with that?

[40:49] It is truly one of my favorite podcasts right now and I've been listening for years. [40:53] I think you'll love it too. [40:54] Listen to Chameleon wherever you get your podcasts.