3 | All Muddled Up

Summary

Blunt Force Trauma

Episode 3: "All Muddled Up"

April 13, 2026 | Host: Troy Taylor (EchoSpace)

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Episode Overview

In this third installment of "Blunt Force Trauma," host Troy Taylor and his investigative team dive deep into the contested timeline and official narrative of Faithe Ely’s death on an Oklahoma highway in 2021, exploring inconsistencies in the investigation and unraveling the messy reality behind what was quickly labeled a "hit and run." Through interviews, forensic analysis, and the breakdown of call and CCTV records, the episode exposes how key evidence is contradictory, how the crime scene was handled (or mishandled), and why "nothing about this case simply adds up." The central theme is the chaos and unreliability of the official timeline, complicated by unclear witness accounts, flawed police work, and corrupted digital footage.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Phone Calls & Timeline Discrepancies

(00:46 – 03:08)

• Unclear Call Logs: Ryan (a key witness/boyfriend) cannot confirm when he received the pivotal call about Faithe’s death, as call logs only go back 90 days:

  "I had contacted my provider to try to get the call log so I can nail down the time and it doesn't go back more than 90 days. They told me I gotta hire an IT person to try to get into it. Oh, and I don't even know what that means." — Ryan (00:55)

• Device Forensics Attempt: The team considers extracting call logs from old phones to verify timelines, as the exact time of notification to family and friends is critical.
• Pivotal Question: If the call was received before 8:34pm, this would raise major doubts about the official timeline:

  "The key thing is… if that call is before 8:34pm there's some bigger questions there to be asked." — Co-investigator (02:55)

2. Timeline Analysis With Rosemary

(03:51 – 06:58)

• Event Window Mismatches: The investigators and Rosemary discuss the infeasibility of travel times in witness statements—arrival times of Caitlyn, Casey, and Ronica do not align with the supposed drive times and 911 call logs:

  "If Caitlyn and Casey got to the scene at around 9pm, even 9:15pm and it was a 40 minute drive, then the timeline just doesn't work." — Troy Taylor (03:51)

• Chain of Events Breakdown: The process from spotting Faith’s body, notifying family, and the authorities arriving is reconstructed, showing that "so much has to happen in that space," making the window for events impossibly tight (04:36 – 05:25).
• Key Audio Clue:

  "If you play it loud enough, you'll hear it. You can hear Ryan yelling, Mama, Faith is dead. Right at the End of the call. Right before it disconnects." — Investigator/Analyst (05:25)

3. Building a Verifiable Timeline

(07:30 – 10:27)

• Anchoring Times with 911 Logs: Researchers build the timeline around solid timestamps from 911 calls and first responder logs.
  • Bobby's call: 8:29pm
  • First 911 call: 8:34pm
  • Second 911 call: 8:37pm
  • First responders arrive: 8:43pm
• CCTV Footage Issues:
  • Four crucial CCTV clips (Best Western, Dollar General, Casino Gas Station, Lumberyard) show a suspicious truck—all are jumbled geographically and temporally.
  • Impossible sequence: The truck passes locations out of physical order according to the timestamps, implying data corruption or manipulation.

  "We have this truck like teleporting... none of which are in order of the location of the places where the footage was recorded." — Co-investigator (10:27)

4. Witness and Movement Reconstruction

(12:24 – 21:39)

• Re-walking Faith and Ryan’s Timeline: Detailed analysis of who was where, when:
  • Faith and Ryan argue, Faith departs; neighbors, "Smurf" family, and several witnesses' statements are overlaid with known times.
  • Plausibility checks on walking/running speeds and distances; corroboration attempted with third-party sightings.
• Key third-party witness:
  • Independent driver saw “a body” and “a man on a tailgate” (fits with Ryan’s account), but did not see the truck in question.

  "Nobody saw anything. Ryan is the only person to have claimed to have seen a truck and trailer, but otherwise no other witnesses." — Investigator/Analyst (21:39)

5. Testing the Official Narrative — Does the Hit and Run Timeline Fit?

(23:07 – 26:42)

• Walking speeds, truck speeds, and sequence of events are mathematically possible but practically improbable.
• Debate: Such a rapid confluence of Faith, a speeding truck, and Ryan’s actions could happen "physically... but it's not logical." (26:21)
• Proposed Next Step: Investigators plan to physically walk the route to replicate Faith's journey and test the timeline.

6. The "Speed Bump" Sound — A Disputed Detail

(26:54 – 27:47)

• Ryan’s Claim: He heard a sound "like a speed bump" as Faith was (supposedly) hit.
• Debunked by Investigator and Local: No one else, including a neighbor girl with an open window or Casey (local UPS driver), heard this noise.

  “There’s no way in hell he heard anything down there to prompt him to get off that tailgate.” — Casey, husband of Caitlin (27:38)

7. Official Response and Investigative Shortfalls

(28:23 – 30:12)

• Law Enforcement Doubts: Initial police and Highway Patrol found the scene suspicious ("hinky") and doubted vehicular involvement:

  "When Highway Patrol got there, they said, this is not [a] vehicle... Seminole County Sheriff... [was told] he needed to call OSBI because this was hanky and not vehicle related." — Ryan (28:23)

  • But OSBI overruled and did not collect scene evidence or properly investigate the site of the prior altercation.
• OSBI Decisions: OSBI ruled out key witnesses before pathology confirmation and without scene investigation.

  "No investigation at the house, no evidence collected from the house, no photos of injuries, and the conclusion was reached almost a month before the medical examiner even weighed in." — Narrator/Troy Taylor (30:46)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the confusion and frustration of the timeline:

  "None of it is reliable. I mean we can clearly cut out the lumberyard footage but… it even still puts into question everything else because it's all out of order." — Co-investigator (11:10)

• On law enforcement’s quick conclusion:

  "Agent Keen...straight told myself, Caitlin and Casey in the same room at the same time that Ryan, Ronica and Smurf have been ruled out this was a hit and run homicide. But...he didn't have his first encounter with [pathology] until April 29th." — Ryan (30:18)

• On official indifference to evidence collection:

  "OSBI, Agent Keen, told them no, did not give a reason, just said no." — Interviewee/Ryan (29:59)

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Timestamps of Important Segments

• 00:46 – 03:51: Initial doubts about call times and timeline-building efforts
• 03:51 – 06:58: Analytical breakdown of witness statements and event chain implausibility
• 07:30 – 10:27: Building a hard timeline around verifiable log data; CCTV confusion
• 12:24 – 21:39: Detailed movement reconstruction of Faith, Ryan, and witnesses
• 23:07 – 26:42: Test of the official narrative, walking/driving time possibilities
• 26:54 – 27:47: Disputing the “speed bump” sound claim
• 28:23 – 30:12: Law enforcement’s contradictory findings and procedural lapses
• 30:12 – End: Early closure by police, with critical evidence and investigative opportunities ignored

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Conclusion

“All Muddled Up” underscores the case’s central tragedy: with every close look, the official story grows more tangled and less believable. Verifiable data contradicts key witness accounts, the CCTV record is "all over the place," and the authorities’ premature narrative has left critical avenues unexplored. The episode closes by highlighting the urgency for new tips and renewed investigative attention to find justice for Faith Ely.

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Transcript

[Narrator/Troy Taylor]

What they did to your family.

[Investigator/Analyst]

You're lucky to make it out alive.

[Co-investigator/Researcher]

Streaming on Peacock.

[Investigator/Analyst]

These men are going to come after me. Taking them out. It's my only chance.

[Interviewee/Ryan]

Put a bullet in her head. From the co Creator of Ozark.

[Investigator/Analyst]

Looks like a family was running drugs. Execution style killing.

[Co-investigator/Researcher]

It's rare for the Keys. Any leads on who they might have been running for?

[Investigator/Analyst]

The cartel killed my family. I'm gonna kill them. All of them.

[Interviewee/Ryan]

MIA Streaming now only on Peacock.

[Narrator/Troy Taylor]

Please note, this podcast contains references to physical and sexual assault and graphic depictions of violence. Listener discretion is advised.

[Co-investigator/Researcher]

So do you know what time Ronica called you that night to let you know about Faith's death? Do you remember what time Ronica called you that night?

[Interviewee/Ryan]

I don't remember specifically and I have looked in my call logs. I had contacted my provider to try to get the call log so I can nail down the time and it doesn't go back more than 90 days. They told me I gotta hire an IT person to try to get into it. Oh, and I don't even know what that means.

[Co-investigator/Researcher]

Right, like the log files.

[Interviewee/Ryan]

Still don't know what that means, you know, So I don't have an exact time I can tell you. I had just gotten home 30, 40 minutes before the call. I met with Faith at Seminole. At 4 o', clock, we parted ways. About 4:30, I drove into Shawnee to see Caitlyn. Caitlyn wasn't there. I went over to visit with my mother, who lived in Shawnee as well. Visited with her for a couple of hours. And then I drove all the way back to Oklahoma City to my apartment where I was living. And like I said, I hadn't been home. It was after 8 o'.

[Investigator/Analyst]

Clock.

[Interviewee/Ryan]

I remember that. But it wasn't very long after 8 o'. Clock. I can tell you that when I got the call, I was informed that police were on the scene. And I spoke to an officer, someone who identified himself as an officer. That's the most I can tell you.

[Co-investigator/Researcher]

Do you still by any chance have your. The handset that you had back then?

[Interviewee/Ryan]

I found one of them. I've got a few of them. One of them I've had for the last, like, at least four years. I just replaced it, but I don't know if it was the one I had at the time or not.

[Narrator/Troy Taylor]

Okay, because what we can try and do, we can try and get into

[Co-investigator/Researcher]

the log files on that and then we should be able to get your call records from your log files for that time. The key thing Is, you know, if that call is before 8:34pm there's some bigger questions there to be asked.

[Interviewee/Ryan]

Yeah. And then who were the people I was talking to after Ronica? Who were they if they weren't who they said they were?

[Narrator/Troy Taylor]

As soon as I finish speaking with Amanda, I jump on a call with Rosemary. Things just aren't adding up in my mind and I need to see if she's seeing it too. I take her through everything I'm thinking and I'm happy when she confirms I'm not going crazy. If Caitlyn and Casey got to the scene at around 9pm, even 9:15pm and it was a 40 minute drive, then the timeline just doesn't work.

[Co-investigator/Researcher]

Right? So the, it doesn't add up. Right. Like if, if that's the case, absolutely doesn't make sense.

[Investigator/Analyst]

I don't, I don't think it's possible that Veronica could have. Veronica could have gotten there before 9:40 or 9:41.

[Interviewee/Ryan]

Right.

[Co-investigator/Researcher]

That makes.

[Investigator/Analyst]

There's no way she could possibly know she's dead until that point.

[Co-investigator/Researcher]

Right. The second 911 call is until 8:37pm and then at the end of that call, he comes down the driveway. Ryan's there with the cowboy, who then goes to Smurf's house. And that triggers Ronica leaving to go down to the scene. So you have the neighbour make that call. He's got to come down, see Ryan talking to the cowboy. The cowboy's got to jump in his truck, drive up to Smurf's, tell them that a Doberman is on the side of the road, Rocca's got to grab her keys, get in her truck, drive down to where Ryan and Faith are, figure out what's going on, get out her phone, find Amanda's number, because it's not gonna be saved in there because they don't know each other. Call Amanda, try to get Caitlyn, don't get her, Get Casey on the line, ask him to give the phone to Caitlin, explain it in a way that, you know, Caitlin understands what's going on. Like there is so much to happen in that space and that's gotta be what, like 10, 15 minutes at least.

[Investigator/Analyst]

Easy, easy, easy. And in the neighbor's second phone call, you know, the duration of that phone call is 4 minutes and 11 seconds. So his call ends at 8:41, 29. Very end of that call. If you turn it up, if you play it loud enough, you'll hear it. You can hear Ryan yelling, mama, Faith is dead. Right at the End of the call. Right before it disconnects. Seminole County 91 1. What's that? Emergency. Can you. Can I get your name, sir?

[Co-investigator/Researcher]

My name's Ryan.

[Investigator/Analyst]

I'm a boyfriend. Okay. Okay.

[Co-investigator/Researcher]

All right. Thank you very much.

[Investigator/Analyst]

You're welcome. And if anything changes, just give us a call back. Okay? All right. Thank you, sir.

[Co-investigator/Researcher]

Okay, bye.

[Investigator/Analyst]

Bye. So Veronica probably left the house at 8:40. It can't be that long. It's half a mile.

[Co-investigator/Researcher]

So then if Caitlin and Casey are correct about the time they got there, then. Then it doesn't make sense. This just doesn't fit.

[Investigator/Analyst]

Absolutely not. Absolutely not.

[Narrator/Troy Taylor]

Zootopia 2 has come home to Disney.

[Co-investigator/Researcher]

Let's go get ready for a new case.

[Investigator/Analyst]

We're gonna crack this case and prove we're the greatest partners of all time. New friends you are Gary Da Snake. And your last name? Desnake.

[Interviewee/Ryan]

Dream Team Hidden HABITATS Zootopia has a

[Investigator/Analyst]

secret rep. How Population.

[Co-investigator/Researcher]

You can watch the record breaking phenomenon at home.

[Interviewee/Ryan]

You're clearly working at.

[Narrator/Troy Taylor]

Zootopia 2.

[Co-investigator/Researcher]

Now available on Disney Plus. Rated PG.

[Narrator/Troy Taylor]

On the back of it all, Amanda and I pack her cell phone up and send it off to an analyst friend of mine to have the log files extracted. It's a few weeks into the investigation and Rosemary and I are on a phone call going through everything we can get our hands on, timeline wise. Anything and everything connected to the night of March 28th.

[Co-investigator/Researcher]

So I plugged in like everything that we had. You know, in terms of data points. Right. Like anything that we could verify. So obviously the first point is just to like plot in the 911 calls. Right. Because they're the easiest thing to say. Okay, we know these calls happened. So from what I can see, the first call. Well, the very first call is the Bobby call. Right. Which we've got at 8:29. Then we've got the first 911 call from the neighbour at 8:34. And then the second call at 8:37. And then from that same report we can see that the first responders arrived on site at 8:43pm

[Investigator/Analyst]

Right? Right.

[Co-investigator/Researcher]

Yeah.

[Narrator/Troy Taylor]

Okay.

[Co-investigator/Researcher]

And then the next piece is the CCTV footage. So some of the CCTV footage OSBI released to the public and asked for feedback on. Right. And so in particular they've got two or three clips of this light colored pickup truck with a dark trailer attached to it going past CCTV in the area. The interesting thing is that it is all muddled up. It is all over the place. Like the times, they don't make sense at all.

[Narrator/Troy Taylor]

In the days after Faith's death, the OSBI sought out CCTV footage from local stores and businesses in the hope of finding more information on the truck that was said to have hit Faith. In their search, they found four key clips, all purporting to show the same light colored truck with a dark trailer. The first, at 8:12pm shows the truck traveling southbound on Highway 56 past the Best Western Hotel. The second clip, recorded approximately 25 seconds later, shows the truck driving past a Dollar General store and also heading southbound on Highway 56.

[Co-investigator/Researcher]

The problem with that is that the Dollar General is north of the Best Western, not south. And the interesting thing is apparently these times were verified as well. So as being correct. So I don't know how but, but we have this truck like teleporting back north to go past the Dollar General 25 seconds after it goes past the Best Western.

[Narrator/Troy Taylor]

The next time the truck is seen is four minutes later at 8:16pm at the Seminole Nation Casino gas station pumping gas.

[Co-investigator/Researcher]

Well, this is the interesting thing too, right? Because the Seminole Nation Casino gas station is north of the Best Western.

[Narrator/Troy Taylor]

The truck has seen one final time at 8:27pm driving south on Highway 6 past a lumber yard.

[Co-investigator/Researcher]

And this is at 8:27, which is what? Yeah, like eight minutes and eight and a half minutes later, driving past a lumber yard that is not only north of the Best Western, it's also north of the gas station and just south of the Dollar General. And you know what the interesting thing is? You know, this is, from what I understand, all of the footage that was found. So we don't have any footage of this truck going north. It's not like it's U turning and going back up north because we'd have that footage, right? So all we have is this truck going south at all these different timestamps, none of which are in order of the location of the places where the footage was recorded.

[Narrator/Troy Taylor]

Rosemary goes on to ask, based on all of these timestamps, assuming at least one of them is correct, what time the truck in the footage would have arrived at the exact spot where Faith's body was found?

[Co-investigator/Researcher]

So if it's based on the truck that goes past the best Western at 8, 12 and 15 seconds, then at 65 miles per hour, which is the speed limit on that highway, it's getting to that point at about 8, 14 and 15 seconds. If it's based on the gas station, then you know, you're looking at like 8:21. If it's based on the lumberyard, then I Mean it's well out. It's like, you know, it's getting there at like 8:32, which doesn't even fit. That's past, that's beyond the bobby call timestamp. So footage from the lumber yard is completely unreliable. Right. Like that is well out of time. And the big problem is that, you know, because these times are so out of whack and because the locations are so out of whack, none of it is reliable. I mean we can clearly cut out the lumberyard footage but. But it even still puts into question everything else because it's all out of order. So all of it becomes unreliable.

[Investigator/Analyst]

It all happened around 8 o', clock, which was the verbal argument between Ryan and Faith drawing beer. Then they exit the house. Veronica follows her outside, grabs her from behind. They end up in a scuffle. Evidently very short lived according to them. Maybe possibly 30 seconds. Veronica heads in to take a shower or get cleaned up and Faith and Ryan sit on the tailgate. Faith exits. Ryan is sitting up the tailgate with space around 8 o'. Clock. 8:02, Brian goes into the house to check on his mom and get a drink of water. 803, Faith is spotted by some witnesses walking southbound on the west side of the road. At 8:04 Brian comes back outside and he sees Faith walking away heading south on 56. He goes to speak with the nerve son in law and Smurf's daughter, apologizing evidently for the ruckus and all the noise their kids had to witness. Then according to Smurf and the son in law and his daughter, he sat on the tailgate for approximately 10 to 15 minutes. Then we've got him hearing what he calls a speed bump or a truck or something going over a speed bump. He's assuming it's the truck trailer that he claims to have seen drive by. He starts to feel a little bit uneasy about that. Goes in the house to ask Smurf for a flashlight and tell his mom that he has a bad feeling and he's going to go look for her. So Ryan starts walking southbound and here's an interesting detail that he's walking east, not on the, on the side that he saw her walking on. So he goes to the opposite side of the highway and granted Oklahoma does say for safety reasons, walk against traffic walking on the other side of the highway. And I think a highway lane is about, so we're talking about 28 to 32ft wide is about, you know, an average measurement of a two lane highway. So he's searching with a flashlight from the east side to the west side. So it's going to be slow going. And I mean, I can, I can't back it up any more than having Ryan leaving the house at about 8:18. Anyway, he's walking at 8:18 and at 8:29. That's when the first 911 call comes in. Now he has to have crossed the highway, you know, not only walked the 0.6 miles, but crossed the highway in 11 minutes to get there at 8:29. And he claimed that he was walking. He didn't run until what he assumed was debris or trash on the other side of the road. When he, as he got closer, he realized it was Faith. That's when he ran to her and started yelling and trying to wave down cars. And then we've got the neighbor coming out to make his phone call. And you know, at 8:32, then he makes a call again at 8:37, letting you know the police know that Faith has deceased. The neighbor arrived at the scene. He hadn't made the 911 call yet, but saw Ryan with the cowboy, asking the cowboy to go get mother Ronica. So the cowboy leaves, right, I imagine around 36 or 37. And in between that time, another witness arrived around 8:39. So the cowboy has left at 8:38. A new witness arrives at 8:39. She recalls only seeing a man on the phone being the neighbor and she a man on his knees. Brian next to Faith face has a blanket on her now that the neighbor had brought out. So Veronica departs the house around 8:40. This is a really great. I mean, thank goodness we've got this second witness because she said about two minutes after her arrival, Brian told her, that's my mom backing out of the driveway down there. She's coming up here, which is at 8:40. And at this point. So the neighbor's still on the 911 call. His call duration is 4 minutes and 11 seconds. He starts call 8:37. Call ends at 8 hours 41 minutes and 29 seconds. And 8 hours 43 first responders arrive.

[Narrator/Troy Taylor]

I ask Rosemary if there are any third party witnesses she's come across that can be relied upon to help anchor the timeline down. And aside from the cowboy and the other woman who stopped to see if Ryan and the neighbour needed any assistance, she tells me there were two more. Sometime between 8 and 8:30pm that night, a man driving northbound on Highway 56 says he passed what he thinks may have been a body on the side of the highway. And a little further up the road, a man sitting on the tailgate of a truck swinging his legs.

[Investigator/Analyst]

He called in later, probably my assumption is he probably saw a news report and knew he was on the road at the time and thought he saw someone laying on the side of the road. But you know what? It's like, it's dark, and you're gonna pass it, and you're like, oh, my God, no, that's. He not possible. Because later. And he says that he thinks he saw someone on the side of the road and then driving further north, saw a person sitting on a tailgate swinging their leg, which is pretty crazy to me because I don't. I. I don't think the news or the police put out there that Ryan was sitting on the tailgate swinging his leg. The one thing that he says that actually fits somebody's narrative, somebody else's narrative that is completely, completely unrelated to the family or Ryan. But I mean, that. That again, muddles their timeline or the timeline, because he base was already down. This man also claims that he did not see any other vehicles on the road at the same time as. As he was there.

[Narrator/Troy Taylor]

And at 8:03pm there was a couple driving southbound on Highway 56 who spotted a girl walking down the highway just near Smurf's house. They maneuvered around her and continued driving.

[Co-investigator/Researcher]

The way I see it is there's kind of like. Like these two bookends of this, right? Like you've got the couple that drives past and sees, you know, not. I mean, we can't. We can't be 100% certain that it's faith. But it sounds like it makes sense because they see a girl on. On the road, walking down the highway at around 803-802-803, outside the front of Smurf's house. I think that's a pretty. Pretty logical conclusion to come to. The. You know, the fact that it is faith. And then you've got the first responders arriving at 8:43pm so in my view, that kind of bookends it. You know, you're talking about a window of at most 40 minutes where all of this has happened. So I think, you know, when it comes down to it, when we're looking at all of this, like, the seconds count, you know, 40 minutes for everything to happen is, you know, it's all compacted into this tiny little space. You mentioned there was a guy that said he called later, and he said he drove past what he thought was a body, and then he drove past someone sitting on the tailgate of their truck. That matches up with what Ryan said he was doing. So that kind of verifies that part of it. You know, theoretically, if his statement is accurate, which it kind of sounds like it would be because it fits everything else. He drives past Faith. She is there, and then he drives past Ryan sitting on the tailgate. So, like, those kind of pieces, we can say are probably somewhat reliable. Then you've got the cowboy who stops, and then he goes and gets Smurf or tells Smurf and Ronica, and Ronica, you know, drives down. Then you've got this couple that drive by, and then you've got this other woman who stops after the cowboy leaves. From what you've seen or what you've heard, do any of them see a light colored truck with a trailer or, you know, like any other vehicle?

[Investigator/Analyst]

Nobody. Nobody saw anything. Ryan is the only person to have claimed to have seen a truck and trailer, but otherwise no other witnesses.

[Co-investigator/Researcher]

So that, like, then that. What. What that tells us, Right, is that either there's one or two things going on here, right? Either that truck goes by right at the right time and turns off, you know, just past the neighbor's house, which means if that's the case, then whoever owns this truck probably lives in that area because, you know, you're taking main highways like this is. This is a rural area. You're taking main highways to wherever you're getting to. So if they're turning off, then they're. They must be local or there was no white truck that went down that way. Okay, let's try and play devil's advocate for a second and flip this around a little bit. And so, like, if. Okay, looking at specifically Ryan and Ronica and Smurf's statement and what we have in terms of those data points of the 911 calls, you know, I mean, I, like, hesitate to call the CCTV footage data points at the moment because they're all over the place. But, you know, let's anchor it around the Best Western and the Dollar General footage, which is around 812. All of that taken into account, and the fact that, you know, there is, what do we say, about a sixth of a mile between Smurf's house and where faith is found.

[Investigator/Analyst]

Yeah.

[Co-investigator/Researcher]

If we look at it from Ryan and Ronica's perspective, is it possible that forgetting that no one else saw the truck and forgetting that the footage is all over the place and forgetting what we know in terms of the fact that there, the scene just doesn't make sense. And that there is, there's no broken glass, there's no, you know, skid marks. There's no nothing to indicate an actual hit and run. Putting all of that aside for a second, does it fit into the timeline that it's, it's possible that they're telling the truth? Looking at Faith's height and weight to calculate like a gate for her and then looking at it in terms of her leaving. If, let's say that the couple that say that they saw her at the front of Smurfs three minutes past eight, it appears that she could make that walk somewhere between about 12 and 18 minutes, which is, you know, it's quite a big window. But let's put that in the middle of that and let's say 15 minutes, right? That then means that she's getting there at like 8:18. The truck passing the Dollar General and the Best Western, that's getting at the same spot. If it's going the speed limit at around 8:14. If it's going slower, let's say it's going more around the 25 miles an hour mark, it's getting to that spot at around 8:17. So looking at that piece alone, from my view, it is actually possible. Right? If that footage is reliable and let's say that, that you know, it is passing the Dollar general around that 8:12 mark, then it is getting to that spot around the same time, speed dependent, that Faith is getting there. But I mean, you know, the odds of driving down a 65 mile an hour highway at 25 miles an hour the whole way, I can't see it. But maybe if the truck's doing the speed limit, the odds of her getting there at the same time as the truck does is slim. So then let's step back. So Ryan's saying he's sitting on the tailgate of his mom's truck. He sees the light truck with the dark trailer go by and then he hears what sounds like a speed bump. He then gets up and leaves. So this is at 8:17. The first call then is Bobby's call at 8:29. So now we're saying that Ryan makes his trip out and he's there also within 12 minutes. And so if she can get there between 12 and 18, then logically speaking it is possible that he could have got there before that first call, right?

[Investigator/Analyst]

Yeah, I mean he could, he could.

[Co-investigator/Researcher]

What I'm getting at is like if you look at this and say, okay, it is just not at all possible then that, you know, this Kind of all breaks down completely once you start layering and all the other things. You lean toward the fact that none of this makes sense. But if you look at it in isolation, in terms of the timeline, and just say, is it possible for the truck and space to be at the same spot at the same time and then for Ryan to find her before that first 911 call from Bobby? It's possible, but it's not logical.

[Investigator/Analyst]

It's not logical, but it is physically possible.

[Co-investigator/Researcher]

Okay.

[Investigator/Analyst]

It's physically possible.

[Co-investigator/Researcher]

So the key thing then, what we need to figure out, and I think what we need to do then is we need to go and test exactly how long it would take to walk from Smurf's house to the point that she was found. You know, replicate the conditions and make that walk.

[Narrator/Troy Taylor]

The other piece that Rosemary and I keep coming back to is the sound that Ryan says he heard, like something hitting a speed bump, and whether it was even possible for someone to hear that so far away. We ask Amanda about it, you know,

[Interviewee/Ryan]

sounded like a speed bump, but the, the 15 year old girl at that house whose bedroom was on that end and her bedroom windows were open, she didn't hear it at all. No one, the only thing she heard, she didn't hear anything until she heard Ryan screaming, which is not going to be as loud as a speed bump.

[Co-investigator/Researcher]

It's absolutely not.

[Interviewee/Ryan]

Yeah, her dad didn't even hear anything.

[Narrator/Troy Taylor]

And Casey, Caitlyn's husband, he knows that stretcher road better than most, drove a UPS route through that area for three years, and he took that route specifically. He knows the distance, he knows the terrain, and he tells us flat out, there's just no way Ryan could have heard that from that tailgate.

[Interviewee/Ryan]

Like I, I delivered in that area for three or four years.

[Co-investigator/Researcher]

Okay.

[Interviewee/Ryan]

You know, it's like 0.6 miles from the, from where he was sitting at on that tailgate. Right. There's no way in hell he heard anything down there to prompt him to get off that tailgate.

[Narrator/Troy Taylor]

Like he's saying, looking at it all scientifically in terms of distance and speed, there's no question that the hit and run theory is possible. The truck and Faith can definitely have reached the same spot at the same time. And Ryan can also have reached that same spot prior to the Bobby call. But as Rosemary and I quickly discover, as soon as you start layering all of the other information across it, it becomes almost a statistic impossibility where nothing makes sense. The evidence of something else happening piles up incredibly quickly. The question Then becomes, what did law enforcement do on the night of and the days after Faith's death? And what drew them to the conclusion that it was a hit and run in the first place?

[Interviewee/Ryan]

When Highway Patrol got there, they said, this is not vehicle told us we woke up. Or the Seminole County Sheriff, Shannon Smith, that he needed to call OSBI because

[Investigator/Analyst]

this was hanky and not vehicle related.

[Interviewee/Ryan]

And that's how the OSBI company voxed

[Narrator/Troy Taylor]

the Highway Patrol called it in because it was hinky and that's their word. The sheriff decided it didn't line up as a hit and run. And on the OHP's own incident report, it clearly states that it's possible that this will actually be an intentional homicide. But when the OSBI arrived and took the lead, it seems the hinky feeling didn't go away. It just kind of got ignored. And nobody ever went back to Smurf's house to look for blood, to check for damage, to investigate the scene of the fight that everyone admitted happened.

[Interviewee/Ryan]

And every law enforcement official I talked to since then, I have asked them, can you think of one event or piece of information or anything that would tell you that same instant that you don't need to go down to that site? And every last one of them has told me they can't think of a one. And what Lieutenant Dansby and Trooper Baker both told me is that OSPI told them that night that they were. They learned of a physical altercation that happened at the house. And both the lieutenant and the trooper said they asked them, do you want us to go down to the house and start collecting evidence and documenting? And they said no.

[Co-investigator/Researcher]

OSBI said no.

[Interviewee/Ryan]

Yes, the osbi, Agent Keen, told them no, did not give a reason, just said no.

[Narrator/Troy Taylor]

On the 1st of April, Agent Keen visited Amanda, Caitlyn and Casey at her apartment in Oklahoma City.

[Interviewee/Ryan]

And he straight told myself, Caitlin and Casey in the same room at the same time that Ryan, Ronica and Smurf have been ruled out this was a hit and run homicide. But his statement showing the correspondence he had with the pathologist and Oklahoma Chief Medical Examiner's Office show he didn't have his first encounter with them until April 29th.

[Narrator/Troy Taylor]

Their first interviews were back to back in the same vehicle at the same location at the same time. There was no investigation at the house, no evidence collected from the house, no photos of injuries, and the conclusion was reached almost a month before the medical examiner even weighed in. So how did they rule them out? Faith's case is still open and her killer or killers have not yet been brought to justice. If you know anything about Faith, her death, or those who may be responsible, we'd like to hear from you. Please visit EchoSpace Media Tips and either leave a voicemail or send us a message. You can also find us on Facebook and Instagram unforcetraumapodcast if you're enjoying this podcast, please consider our subscriber option on Apple Podcasts or [e-mail] Echospacepodcasts where you get access to early episode drops, ad free episodes and bonus content across all of the Echo Space shows. If you'd like to keep up to date with progress on Faith's case, please visit and follow the justice for Faith Ely Facebook page. You'll find a link to it in the episode. Notes Blunt Force Trauma is a production of Echo Space written and hosted by Troy Taylor. Executive producers are Troy Taylor, Mark Tarulli and Fred Scherzer. Our main theme song is Lose My Mind by Maya Davidoff and the show also contains audio content from Moby Gratis.

[Interviewee/Ryan]

Ryan Reynolds here from Mint Mobile with

[Narrator/Troy Taylor]

a message for everyone paying Big Wireless Way too much.

[Interviewee/Ryan]

Please, for the love of everything good

[Narrator/Troy Taylor]

in this world, stop with Mint.

[Interviewee/Ryan]

You can get premium wireless for just $15 a month, of course, if you enjoy overpaying. No judgments. But that's weird. Okay, one judgment anyway. Give it a [e-mail] Switch upfront payment

[Investigator/Analyst]

of $45 for three month plan equivalent to $15 per month required intro rate first three months only, then full price plan options available. Taxes and fees extra terms at mintmobile. Com.