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A
Foreign. Welcome back to another episode of the Crime and Coffee Couple. My name is Allison.
B
And my name is Mike.
A
Hi, Mike.
B
Hey, Ali bear. How are you, my little bugaroo?
A
Oh, pretty good. We were just testing levels and stuff, and I totally forgot how to introduce this show. And I said, it's gonna be a banger of an episode.
B
Yeah, like the kids say the banger, and this is gonna be fire. All that stuff.
A
Yeah, I don't think they say banger, though.
B
They. Well, yeah, that's like, for songs. I think that's a banger.
A
I don't know, Mike, because I'm not a teenager, so I don't speak the lang.
B
Hey, you whippersnappers. If you could let us know if you still use the word banger or let us know some other cool lingo so we can kind of toss it into the next week's episode.
A
Well, we do live with a 14 year old girl and a 17 year old boy, so if anyone was going to know the language, it should be us. But I don't. The. The things change all the time. I cannot keep up with what's cool, what's not, what you're into.
B
They change on a dime. It's crazy. I was talking to a friend last night. We went out last night. We don't do it a whole lot, but we went out with some. Some fun friends and just had some nice dinner. And I was saying how, like, every restaurant, there's like all these trends that come and go so fast. Like, for instance, Dubai Chocolate. Like every single place, even gas stations, have Dubai chocolate for sale now, like $20 a bar. Yeah. Which is insane for some freaking pistachios and Shredded Wheat. I think.
A
Yeah. It's just because they can. Because it's that trend that everyone wants. So they're willing to drop $20 at a circle K gas station.
B
And here's the thing. At a Circle K gas station, you're probably not getting real Dubai Chocolate. I hate to break the news, but Costco, you probably are.
A
Well, I mean, it's just influenced by that Dubai Chocolate. It's the Shredded Wheat, the pistachio butter. And then I know our daughter makes her own cups with like strawberries, Nutella, pistachio butter and Shredded Wheat.
B
Yeah. So she probably saw that for like $300. But there's so many trends out there that, like, the restaurants try to get on them and then like bigger food chains and, you know, like Dunkin Donuts and whatever. And then all of a sudden, by the time they do this trend. It's, like, gone.
A
Right. Like, Starbucks right now is doing the Dubai Matchas and maybe a coffee drink too.
B
Yeah. And that's kind of what. Like, it's kind of the. The Dubai trend is almost gone already. So it's like it took them so long to develop this, and they wanted to make it good. And then it's like, oh, it's here. Like, it's. It's almost like if you're a small business, you're ahead of the game because you can move and pivot really quick. Sure.
A
Like, we go to an independent coffee shop up in Illinois, and if you're listening, nor, it's blissful brew. It's delicious. She creates everything herself. Everything's so unique. So that's. Somebody like, that can just be like, oh, I'm doing a Dubai chocolate.
B
Yeah. Today. Right. So, yeah, it's. It's interesting. Yeah. Kids, let us know what else is cool out there. I. We. I try to listen to the. The Tikt and the Instagrams and all those things. The Instas.
A
Why?
B
If you. I don't know. I don't like them trying to be cool. I just think it's funny.
A
What? Do you think you're cool?
B
No, not at all. That's what's funny about it is that I know I'm not. I know I'm 46 and I barely have hair and I'm gray, you know, here and stuff, and whatever.
A
That's what happens when you get older.
B
Yeah, exactly.
A
Now our nights out with our friends are discussing which reading glasses work well for them. That's no joke. These. There is a text I just opened. My friend had her readers because we were all passing them around the table. This is something 20 years ago, 10.
B
Years ago, even, like three, five years ago.
A
I couldn't have fathomed that these are our conversations now.
B
It's crazy. I looked around and I got my friend who's like, let me see. Like this. Moving his glasses and looking and, like, taking it away from his head. And I was like, wait, guys, why. Why isn't nobody turning on the lights on their phones yet? Because that's the next step. You know, you have these huge flashlights from old people.
A
Oh, my gosh. I legit cannot see because everyone's like, oh, wait, wait, when you're 40, it's coming for you. 40 came 41. I'm like, ha. Screw you guys. I can still see. Yeah. And then somewhere around 44 or 45, I was like, oh. And it wasn't a progressive thing. I swear to you, one morning, I could see the next morning, I was looking at my vitamins, and I was like, oh, shoot, the grim reaper's coming for us.
B
Yeah, it is. Then once I always tell the kids, you know, you guys are still growing and, you know, just as human beings, and, like, at 25, you start dying. That's just how it is.
A
I mean, I refuse to look at it that way, because that's just way too depressing.
B
I don't care how you look at it. That's what's happening in human b. I'm.
A
Going to bury my head in the sand and do the best that I can. All I could do is take care of myself, and. And that's it.
B
That's what you said to our plumber the other day, too. You're like, I just. I don't care how it happens. I don't know.
A
I want to turn the hot water on. And it's working. So this has been quite a week. We have had no hot water. I know we mentioned that in another episode, there was a leak. Our plumber got down in there, chiseled the hell through our son's bedroom floor. This gaping hot mess. And, you know, we're here in, like, February, and it's still hotter than balls in Tampa.
B
Yeah, it was, like, 80 yesterday.
A
The poor plumber is kneeling on our son's floor, just dripping in sweats. And so we've got that fixed, but there's still a gaping hole because we have to be responsible and fix it the right way, not just shove some sand down there. Well, that's because there's, like, this gaping, like, void around the leak, and we don't want our. Our house to collapse on it.
B
Yeah, I think that's a bad thing, a house collapsing. And Allison's a little mad because she just wants it to be.
A
I want it done. That's all I want.
B
And I was like, well, we're, you know, going through insurance here. We got to do it the right way, because then if it's not done the right way, it's on us, so we have to do it.
A
And then I'm at the vet with our dog getting all of her vaccinations. It's so expensive. The money is just pouring hemorrhaging out with the. Everything.
B
I know what's happening next.
A
And then Mike is texting me while I'm holding my dog, waiting for her to get, like, five shots, and he's like, oh. He drove down to Fort Myers, which is three hours south of us. And he's like, I forgot my key remote. And I was like, what do you mean? How did you leave the house without it? He's like, I was close enough to the remote to start the car. Most cars, when you back away, it starts alerting you. Key fob not in car.
B
Right.
A
Mike's car is electric. It's very inexpensive and it doesn't have that feature. You know what?
B
This car, I will have. You know, when the first person bought it, they paid over 40 grand for my car.
A
Are you kidding?
B
I have the MSRP in the thing.
A
Well, Mike paid about 12 grand for his car.
B
I did. Yeah. And it's got like a brand new battery, so it's like, it's fun.
A
It's a lot of fun. I drove it for the first time the other day, but so now he's hours away from us with no key fob.
B
Oh my God, it felt so bad. I was like, like I'm a pretty good and stressful situation. So I wasn't freaking out. I was like, okay, well this is the situation. I gotta find a way to figure it out. And I started going through my options. I'm like, I can call a dealer, try to get another key made, and that's probably gonna be 3, 400 bucks.
A
I'm like, whatever, pay it.
B
And my company would have definitely let me spend the night at the hotel there and just wait for an overnight delivery, but then they'd have to send it FedEx and UPS and like you said, maybe it doesn't arrive till 4 o' clock the next day or something. I mean, you can pay for 1030 delivery, but then that's another 150, so I may as well just get another key. So.
A
So luckily our, our son was off of school that day and he was willing to drive down and get Mike his key.
B
And I was like, ah, thanks buddy. So he, he was doing our. He was hoping to edit the video that day as, as you guys know, but he had spent what, four or five hours driving.
A
Oh yeah.
B
At least it wasn't all the way to Fort Myers. It was Punta Gorda.
A
Okay. I was like, man, when it rains, it pours.
B
But. But anyway, it could be way, way worse. Like, this is not bad.
A
I mean, we also had a family health emergency with. It's just been a lot all at once, so. But you know what? We just continue to push through because that's the only choice we have.
B
Exactly. That's all you can do.
A
All right, so shall we jump into this hot cup of coffee I don't.
B
Know why, but real quick, I just want to say, hey, thanks for being here for you, whoever you are listening, it means the world to us and like we are highly, highly motivated. 2026 is a year of crime and coffee couple. So you're still along for the ride and you're not necessarily on the ground floor. But hey, we're going to see where we take this.
A
Maybe you're in the middle ground.
B
Yeah. Thank you for whatever you do.
A
So you can wait. And once we get to the penthouse will never change though, that's for sure.
B
I'm not living in a penthouse, that's for sure.
A
So this is a listener suggestion from someone who chooses to remain anonymous. And thank you for that someone. This is the murder of Riley crossman. So in 2019, 15 year old Riley Crossman was a freshman at Berkeley Springs High School in the very small town of Berkeley Springs, West Virginia. This is a town near the border of Maryland and Pennsylvania. There's a population of less than a thousand. So her parents, Lance Crossman and Chantelle Oakley, they divorced sometime around 2014. So by 2019, when the story takes place, she was splitting her time between her dad and her stepmom's house and her mom's house at 15 Greenway Drive. So Riley suddenly went missing sometime between the night of Tuesday, May 7 and Wednesday May 8, 2019, when she was staying in the four bedroom house that she shared with her mom, Chantel Oakley, her 9 and 13 year old brothers, as well as Chantel's boyfriend of a year and a half. This is 41 year old Andrew or Andy McCauley. So at the time, Chantelle was working two jobs. She was just trying to make ends meet, keep afloat. So one was at a full time position at a solar company and the other part time at a restaurant. So since Chantelle hadn't been feeling well On Tuesday afternoon, May 7, 2019, she left her full time job early because she wanted to lay down and take a nap. She tried to get out of her shift at the restaurant later that night, but she couldn't find another waitress to cover her. So she was like, okay, well I have to go in, but let me get some sleep in between. So knowing how reliable Riley was, she sent her daughter a text and she was asking her if she could wake her up when she got home from school that day, which was about 3:30pm so that she could get herself ready for work. And there's a reason why Chantelle didn't just set her phone alarm to wake her up. She was an exceptionally heavy sleeper. People that are heavy sleepers are so, like, interesting to me because I can wake up at the sound of a pin drop.
B
Yeah, it's. And I'm. I mean, I can be a heavy sleeper, but like, I set my brain to say, you gotta wake up. It almost feels to me like our son's a heavy sleeper. It feels to me like it's just like you don't have that thing in your brain that can say, hey, you gotta wake up when you hear something.
A
And I don't know if it's like, for me, something that happened mostly after kids, but no, because when, even when I was a teenager, you know, you think in your mind when you have a baby, you, you innately just wake up when they're crying.
B
You were born at 45 years old, I truly was.
A
And even when I was a kid, I would wake up to anything. So a lot of the times I'm envious of heavy sleepers. It sounds great. But then they're like, getting up is impossible. I have to set like 15 alarms. So that's why she was asking her daughter to wake her up. And at 3:30pm, Riley did, just as Chantel had asked. So she went off to get ready for work and she watched as Riley headed toward her bedroom and. And this was the last time she ever saw her daughter alive. So after Chantel left for work, it was just a con, a normal evening for everyone else at the house. So Riley was home with Andy, this is her mom's boyfriend, as well as her two younger brothers, as well as her maternal grandmother. She stayed at the house until about 7pm so once grandma left, it was Riley, her two brothers, and Andy. So the last communication Chantel had with Riley was at 8:21pm she had texted her mom about a high school volleyball game. So at about 10:30pm When Chantelle was pulling into their driveway from work that night, she found it strange as she was out on the street getting ready to turn left or right into her driveway, that all the lights on the main level of the house were illuminated. And at 10:30 on a school night, that was weird. So now she pulls in and she goes into the house and she finds it strange now that the only light on is above the sink. So she found Andy and her two boys asleep in the living room. But when she spoke to Andy, it seemed like he was very much awake and had only maybe been pretending to sleep. That's just the feeling that she got, but thinking little of the situation and really Feeling truly exhausted from not only a long day of work, but also on top of not feeling well, Chantel went upstairs and headed to bed. So once now upstairs, she noticed that Riley's bedroom door was closed, but she could see light illuminated around it. So she planned to go in, pop in, say goodnight. But she walked into her room to do something. She sat on her bed, and then the next thing she knew, she was fast asleep. So Chantelle woke up the next morning with a start because she realized that she had forgotten to set her alarm. So she naturally woke up that morning and she was terrified that she had overslept and that her boys would yet again be late for school. So she immediately grabbed her phone, checked the time so she could say exactly it was 7:17 in the morning when she woke up Wednesday. Wednesday morning she realized that she hadn't overslept. So since she had been working two jobs, paired with the fact that she was this extremely heavy sleeper, her sons had a lot of tardies that year, so it was like the stressful situation for her. Every morning she was hoping to get there on time. So when she peeked into Riley's bedroom, she saw that she wasn't there. She was surprised because most mornings Riley had a habit of right around seven in the morning, she would come into her mom's room, say, all right Mom, I'm heading out to school. Are you going to get up to get the boys to school? That didn't happen. Chantel thought little of it. She just assumed Riley had left early that morning. So Berkeley Springs High School, where Riley attended it was just across the street from where they lived. So every single day Riley would walk to school. So school started at 7:45 in the morning. So Chantelle just assumed that Riley had left early just to give herself a little bit of time before classes started, to catch up with her friends and socialize. On top of that, Riley's boyfriend of nine months, this is Hayden Lacey. He was going on a field trip to Washington D.C. that day. So he was going to be gone all day long. And it was likely that she had gone to the school to see him before he got on the bus. So Chantelle drove her sons to school, and then when she got back to the house, despite the fact that Andy had already left for work a lot earlier that morning, like hours earlier, A.
B
Lot earlier than normal?
A
No, just like 5:30ish. She noticed though that he had left his cell phone behind. So she picked it up, maybe to move it. But she also came across text messages and phone calls on It. And she found it really weird that he had been texting their former employer and landlord. This is a man named Don Morgan. And they weren't on good terms with this man. So she was like, why the heck would he be texting Don? So he had sent Don five text messages. He also called him 12 times, like in the early morning hours. And when I'm saying that, I mean like the middle of the night. So one of the tax read was going to see if I could stay for a few hours. But Don never responded to that text. But either way, Chantel had to get ready to go to work. So she started to get herself ready. When she later confronted Andy about it, he initially denied that he had ever texted or called Don because he probably didn't realize that Chantel had picked up his phone and saw with her own two eyes that that was the case.
B
I wonder how that conversation went. Like, hey, did you text or call Don? Or have you talked to Don recently?
A
It was probably that probably, yeah, he was probably. She was probably testing him to see how he would respond.
B
Yeah.
A
And he lied on real quick.
B
I never check your texts or anything like that if I randomly pick up your phone so that she was looking at some stuff.
A
But I would think so.
B
Probably a good idea that you did.
A
I mean, naturally, sometimes if a phone lights up next to you, you look down and you're like, oh, blah, blah, blah. Is texting you?
B
Yeah, but it sounds like it was a little bit more probably, but good thing she did.
A
So she's telling him, you know, I know you're lying because I saw this with my own two eyes. So this is when he told her that he had been out with drugs on him, he was a drug user, he was an addict, and that he wanted to stop over at Don's house because he was afraid that the cops were going to catch him with the drugs on him. But he never got a hold of Don. So the day continued on as usual until about 3:30pm and this is when Chantelle texted her mom to see if Riley had come home from school because that was normal for her. So when her mom said no, Chantel immediately sent Riley a text. She was asking her where she was. But then she noticed that the text message didn't deliver. So when she tried to call her, it went straight to voicemail. She sent a second text that also went undelivered. So Chantel was sitting at work wondering if maybe Riley just forgot to mention that she had a dance rehearsal after school. So she just asked her mom, hey, could you just walk over to the school or drive over to the school, whatever, to see is Riley? There's. So then Chantel gets another phone call from her mom. And her mom tells her, no, Shant or Riley is not at the school. So then she got a hold of her boys and said, can you go into your sister's bedroom, see what if anything's there? And they said, yeah, Mom. Her backpack is in the room, which would give a picture that she had come back from school and set it there. But according to her mom, she's like, Riley's grandmother was like, no, she didn't come home from school. So when Chantelle left work at 5pm she went straight to the school to look for her daughter. And as she pulled into the parking lot, she saw Hayden, Riley's boyfriend, was there. He was just getting back from his field trip to from D.C. so Hayden was explaining that he hadn't heard from Riley throughout the day. He had been on a video call with her the night before. So on Tuesday night, their FaceTime call started at 10:29pm this was very normal for them. Oftentimes they would FaceTime through the night, even when they were both asleep. And that's very normal for teenagers. Our daughter sometimes during summer break, will literally be on a FaceTime call for, like, 48 hours.
B
Right.
A
They call them, like, FaceTime sleepovers. So, you know, she's starting to put a picture together of what went on the night before. And Hayden ended up saying that Sometime at around 12:30 in the morning, their FaceTime call got disconnected. This is Wednesday morning, the day we're standing in right now. So at this point in time, when the call disconnected, Hayden was already asleep. But before this happened, he heard Andy in Riley's room, and he was asking her to do the dishes for money. You got to be desperate to not want to do the dishes, to want to pay somebody to do them.
B
Yeah.
A
So about an hour and a half before the call ended, because, like I said, the call ended at 12:30. So this was right around 11pm she had texted her boyfriend and said, andy's in my room.
B
Shh.
A
Don't say anything about it so he can hear everything. About 15 minutes later, she sent her last text at about 11:17pm and she said, I'm scared. And then she said, babe. And these messages had been sent after Chantelle, her mom was already back home from work. So she's texting Hayden saying, andy is in my room right between 11 and 11:17pm and her mom is fast asleep in her Bedroom.
B
That really sucks, man. Because she wanted say goodnight to her and she just fell asleep.
A
Right. So either way though, had she walked in that room at 10:30, she would have fallen asleep anyway. So whatever happened probably still would have happened, even had Chantel popped her head in there.
B
Yeah.
A
So Hayden understood Riley's text message to mean that he shouldn't unmute himself on their FaceTime call, just in case he woke up and said something to her because Andy was in her room and would be on it or would be able to hear whatever he said. So when he later tried to get a hold of his girlfriend, he wasn't able to get through to Riley. So as one day, Wednesday progressed, Hayden was of course on his field trip and he hadn't heard from Riley. He did start to worry because this was very much out of the ordinary. Picture two teenagers in love. They're probably texting as much as they possibly can. So Chantelle continued to check around the school for her daughter. But when there was still no sign of her, she headed home, hoping that by the time she got back, Riley would just be there. So she got home, of course Riley wasn't there. She went into her daughter's room and she recalls feeling both angry and scared. It was so unlike Riley to go off and not check in. That just wasn't who she was. She would tell her mom, I'm going over to whoever's house. It wasn't until 6pm When Chantelle got an automated text message from the school that informed her that Riley had been absent throughout all of her classes that Wednesday. And then this was the point that her anger turned into a full blown panic. So at 6:04pm, Chantelle contacted the Morgan County Sheriff's Department to report her daughter missing. And then they or she contacted Riley's father, Lance Crossman. He lived about 25 minutes away and Lance hadn't answered the first call because he was tied up at an awards banquet for work. But then when he noticed Chantelle calling a second time, he knew that something must be wrong because she normally wouldn't do that. So as soon as he was told that Riley was missing, he immediately got into his car and drove over to Berkeley Springs. So Lance, along with other family and friends, they drove around town. They were all looking for Riley, all the while just trying to stay calm, hoping and praying. Lance is hoping and praying that he would find Riley in the park. Maybe she'd be with some friends and admits, yeah, I ditched school today.
B
Yeah, but you would have at least texted your boyfriend about it right.
A
So he continued to call and text her. And just as with Chantel, none were going through. So Lance stopped to talk to other teens around town. And again, we're talking about a very small town here. Everybody knows everybody in the high school. You live in Berkeley Springs. You all go to this high school. And none of them had heard from Riley, but one person said that they maybe saw her walking nearby. This sighting has never been verified. They didn't see her walking nearby. So in the meantime, the Morgan County Sheriff's Office arrived at Chantelle's house and began their investigation. Several volunteer searches were organized to cover ground searches throughout the area. And in the meantime, the family was truly frantic, unable to sleep or eat. You know, you're like caught in purgatory. You're in hell not knowing where your child is. So since the authorities weren't certain if they were dealing with an abduction and there were no leads, there was no reported vehicles of look for this. So an Amber Alert because of this wasn't issued. Since Riley didn't yet have her learner's driving permit, she had no access to a car. And Chantel and Lance were insistent that there's no way she ran away without telling us. So Lance described his daughter as a very gentle girl. She would never want to worry or hurt anyone. She would never leave her parents in this kind of hell worrying about her if she was just off doing something with friends. So her information was spread as much as possible to the public so that they could all keep a lookout for Riley. She was described as being 5 foot 6, weighing 125 pounds. She had blue eyes and blonde hair. She was a beautiful teenage girl. Since authorities weren't sure if she was abducted by someone who then forced her to change her hair color, that maybe they should look for girls of any hair color that fit that description. So when law enforcement asked Chantel if they could search Riley's room, this is on Thursday, they found her backpack, her wallet, her money, her school id, as well as her glasses. These were glasses that she absolutely needed to see. So all of these things reinforced that she had not run away from home. And then Chantelle, who was looking more closely, obviously now at her daughter's room, she's looking at it with another set of eyes. She's realizing that it wasn't how she found it. On Wednesday morning. She had gone into Riley's room. Wednesday morning after she dropped her sons off at school. She was getting herself ready for work. And that's where the only full length mirror was in the house. So routinely, Chantelle would go into her daughter's room, just check her appearance before she headed out the door to work. And she did this. But now Riley's glasses are positioned on the floor in a way that Chantel is like, no, I know they weren't there, because if they were, I would have stepped on them to get to the mirror as well as the backpack. Her backpack wasn't there when Chantelle walked into that room because it would have alarmed her. Like, oh, she either forgot it or she didn't go to school.
B
Right.
A
So concerning physical evidence was also taken from Riley's room. And this included a pillow, a blanket, and a Victoria's Secret ribbon. And all of these items had visible blood stains on them. So when tested, they proved to be Riley's blood, some of which were mixed with saliva. So the pillow especially. And when I say blood on it, like, you could clearly see it. It wasn't like little splotches.
B
Like, it wasn't like, oh, they had to find a little piece of DNA. It was like, yeah, we're talking like.
A
In an inch around, but like all over in multiple spots.
B
So this is a sloppy person doing this.
A
So based on the staining on her pillow with the blood and mix with saliva, it painted a picture that she had been bleeding from her nose, mouth, which showed that a pillow had been pushed into her face or her face had been pushed into a pillow, possibly to suffocate her while muffling her screams. So since Chantel's mom had left the house at about 7pm on Tuesday evening, Andy would have been the last adult to have seen Riley. So obviously, investigators are talking to this guy from the get go. They brought him in from for an interview on Friday, May 10, and he indicated that Riley had been in her room when he fell asleep on Tuesday night. And the last time he saw her was sometime between 9 and 10pm but we know that this isn't the truth because of the texts she sent to Hayden. So he went on to say that his friend had picked him up early for work on Wednesday morning, May 8, and they had driven to the Red Hill subdivision to do construction work. That's what the line of work he was in. So as Andy continued to recount his day, officers quickly noted multiple inconsistencies in his story. On top of the fact that he's saying, oh, no, I never saw Riley after 10pm yet her text at 11:17 is saying, Andy's in my room. Yeah, they know I'm scared.
B
They know this already, right?
A
So he's initially claiming that he never left the job site that day without permission to drive a work truck. Although this guy doesn't have a driver's license because, you know, why would a 41 year old man be able to drive and typically does not drive? He changed his story to say, oh yeah, no, I actually did leave the job site. Okay, so he said, I only lied because I was going off to get drugs at the Eagle Plaza store. So officers are like, listen guy, we don't give a crap about what drugs you're buying or using. We want to know where Riley is, who did you buy drugs from? We want to reinforce the story, verify it. He had no idea, couldn't tell any of the officers who he bought the drugs from, how to get in touch with any of them.
B
If you can't tell me that stuff, then you are a prime suspect.
A
Right. And obviously he would have contact information because how would they have planned to meet at the Eagle Plaza store?
B
Well, I get that, you know, you don't want to give up your source, your plug, if you will. And it's just like at the same time you're on the hook for murder here.
A
We have bigger fish to fry. There is a 15 year old girl missing and there is physical evidence in her bedroom that, that paints a terrible picture. And you were the only adult home with her at the time and she.
B
Said you were with her and she was scared.
A
Of course, Andy probably had no idea that Riley was sending those text messages or had even been on FaceTime at the time. So he doesn't know that that is, that evidence exists.
B
Thank God.
A
So Andy went on to say that he actually took the work truck back to his house so that he could get some drugs for himself and his coworker. And he spent maybe about 30 minutes at the house and then he headed right back over to the job site. However, according to witness statements, Andy had cocaine on him that morning. When he was picked up for work at 5:30am he would have had zero reason to go back to the house to get more because he had plenty. So when investigators spoke with Andy's co worker, Johnny Walter, he indicated that he picked up Andy at 5:30 in the morning in his green Dodge Ram King cab pickup truck. And although most mornings Andy was exceptionally difficult to wake up, there were many times these guys were rolling in to pick Andy up to get to work and his butt was dead arse asleep. So that particular morning, Andy had called Johnny more than 30 minutes before he normally picked him up. So right around Five in the morning. And he told Johnny that he was ready to go. This was something that had never ever happened before.
B
This is weird. He's calling us asking where we are, like what's going on?
A
So when they left for one job site to another, Andy took three heavy duty contracting grade trash bags saying that he needed them for another job. And just remember that because it is going to come back around. He then snorted cocaine. Because you do that when you're at work at around 9 in the morning.
B
Well, you got to wake up, you gotta perk up.
A
Some of us have coffee.
B
Oh, there's cocaine.
A
Some of us have the devil snow.
B
Right. I think that's what they all call it. Dandruff.
A
So he left by himself in the screen pickup truck shortly after 9 in the morning. And he told his co workers that he was going to meet a girl. And this was the first time he had ever borrowed that truck from Johnny. So there's a lot of weird things happening this morning that Andy doesn't normally do. So about an hour later, this is at 10 in the morning, Chantelle is at work. And she got a phone call from Andy's ex girlfriend as well as the mother of his two children. Her name is Denise Deaver. And she explained that when she was driving past their house, she noticed that there was a green pickup truck parked oddly on the property. It was backed in between the house in a small shed on the property. And you know, Denise is seeing this, she doesn't recognize the truck and she's like, is their house getting robbed? So I want to let them know. And that's why she called Chantel. So when Andy still hadn't returned to the job site by noon, his contractor, Howard Roarks, called to see where the heck he was. And it wasn't until sometime between 2 and 2:30pm when Andy finally got back to work. And he had been gone for close to five hours, specifically right around four hours and 40 minutes. Yet when he talked to authorities, he told them he had only been gone for maybe two hours. So when Johnny looked at the truck, he noticed that a bucket of drywall had spilled all in the bed of the truck truck. So Andy said it tipped over because he had been driving like a maniac and whipping turns. Although he initially said he was going to meet a girl in Spring Mills, when he left the job site at 9 in the morning, he told Johnny that he ended up driving to Falling Waters instead. So on May 12, law enforcement contacted Brandy Eggman. And this is a certified human remains detection Dog handler. So they were asking her if she could bring her dog in for the investigation. So when she examined the green pickup truck three days later on May 15, her dog Rock, alerted an odor of human decomposition, which signified the presence of blood, tissue, or bone that was in the bed of the truck. Specifically, under the utility box is where the toolbox is where the dog hit. So the very next day, this is May 16th. This is eight days after Riley had been reported missing. Based on routes that Andy had driven on Wednesday, May 8, there's CCTV footage from businesses and things like that. His truck is going in a certain direction. And that direction led officers from the Division of Natural Resources to Riley's body. And it was so badly decomposed, it was on an embankment near a road in rural Berkeley county, in an area that's known as Sleepy Creek Mountain. So when investigators canvassed area businesses and homes, like I said, for surveillance, they noticed this green truck that Andy was driving that day. It was going from the job site in Hedgeville to Berkeley Springs, all along these back roads, exactly to where Riley's body was ultimately found. It was headed to the location off a Tuscarora pike near the top of a mountain in Berkeley Springs. He had, like, basically pushed her body off of a mountain. And this was all on surveillance at around 12:26pm and then it was seen coming back 23 minutes later at 12:49pm so lying near her body, officers found two roofing screws that match the screws that were found in the green truck as well as in Andy's tool belts. There was a chalky white substance that was on Riley's remains as well as on the foliage around her that was consistent with the drywall mud that had spilled in the back of that truck. So while he had her body in the back of that truck, taking her to this rural mountain area, this idiot is whipping the truck around and spilling a bucket of drywall. And that was spilled onto Riley's body, which then transferred to the area around her remains.
B
What a complete, absolute idiot of a human being. God, he's so stupid.
A
So when tested, it proved to have the same chemical composition from what was found inside that truck. So three contractor grade trash bags were found at the scene. Andy asked his contractor buddy, hey, I need three of those trash bags.
B
And there they were.
A
There they were at the scene. Two were uphill. One was partially wrapped around Riley's arm. At least one of the bags contained some of Riley's clothing. Riley was wearing one shoe. The other was found in the trash bag. She also wore a shirt with a native American print no bra, red underwear, and blue denim shorts that were unbuttoned and unzipped. So according to Chantelle, the shorts that her daughter wore at the time of her death were something that Riley would have never chosen to wear for herself. Yes, they were her shorts. They were the last thing she would have picked. According to Chantel, her daughter hated the feel of denim. She would have preferred something probably like cotton, like leggings or something like that.
B
Yeah, your styles change and stuff and it's just like, yeah, that I don't like that anymore.
A
So the medical examiner noted that her underwear and her shorts had been pulled unusually high, exposing her vaginal area in a way that Riley would have never pulled her pants up that way. So you can put that together for what we can guess happened.
B
Yeah, we know.
A
So due to the extensive degree of decomposition, Riley's remains veins were identified using dental records of having a recent orthodontic spacers put into place. She had only gotten these spacers one week before in anticipation for soon getting braces. I mean, how heartbreaking. This girl hadn't even yet gotten her braces on in this disgusting 41 year old man is doing what he's doing with her.
B
I'll tell you, there's nothing bad enough that could happen to this guy ever in the history of human existence. Existence like any torture device, like smash his pelvis to bits and let him just crawl around like, I don't know, man, this guy's just absolute scum of the earth.
A
Scum of the earth. So after Riley's body was found, investigators spoke with Deborah Clevette. This is a woman who lives right near that area of Sleepy Creek Mountain. And she indicated that just at about noon on May 8, 2019, the day that Riley was later reported missing, the day that Andy drove that truck. Truck, she saw a man matching Andy's description sitting near the location where Riley's remains were found. He was with an older model Dodge Ram truck that matched the truck he was driving that day. So according to Deborah, the she saw that the emergency flashers were on on this truck. So when she drove up, she slowed down because she assumed that this man was stalled and needed some help. So as she was preparing to ask him if he needed assistance, he waved her by and he turned his head as if he didn't want to be seen. But she was able to see that he had what she described as stringy hair. So when authorities had spoken with Andy prior to finding Riley's body. He initially denied leaving the house in the early hours of Wednesday, May 8, but then he later changed his story and said that he had left the house on foot to buy drugs. So his Facebook GPS coordinates from his phone confirmed this story, as well as a person who sold him the drug. So they did confirm that, like probably somewhere around 1:30 and 4:00am this guy, he's not sleeping. He is combing the streets of Berkeley Springs on foot, buying drugs. So when Andy voluntarily gave his phone to investigators, they noted that he had deleted Facebook messenger text messages, including text messages that he had sent to Riley.
B
Yeah. You think Facebook doesn't keep track of everything that you do?
A
So stupid. These people who think that if they delete something on their phone, that it's just gone into the abyss.
B
Thank God he's a complete completely.
A
So Riley's phone, which has never been found, it went off and it died or it was placed in airplane mode. It left the network right around 3:13 in the morning. On Wednesday morning, the last activity from her phone was at 5:40am it was a FaceTime call to Hayden that he didn't answer. So was Riley still alive at 5:40 in the morning?
B
Heartbreaking.
A
Yeah. So he, you know, and I'll put the pictures of all of this together at the end, so I'm just gonna not go on about that. So phone records also prove that Andy had called Riley's cell phone three times on May 7th. So this was about 24 hours before all of this was going on with him. You know, her phone going off the network and all of that. So on May 7, sometime between 3 and 4 in the morning, he was hitting star 67 every time he called her so that it would block his number. So after she was reported missing, he made no attempts to contact her phone again. Like he knew that she wasn't going to be able to respond to it.
B
Weird.
A
Yeah. So according to Riley's autopsy, due to the extensive degree of decomposition and animal scavenging, her body had likely been exposed to elements for several days before it was found. Basically saying it. It fits with Wednesday. That is when her remains were discarded. So because the missing soft tissue on her body, the medical examiner was unable to determine if Riley had been sexually assaulted. They could also not say had she been strangled, had she died from asphyxiation? Because there are telling signs when someone is suffocated to death. They get, like, petechia, hemorrhaging in their organs and their eyes. Riley had no organs. Riley had no eyes. They were unable to See that and.
B
Say for sure, that's a really fast decomposition.
A
Very fast. And there was a lot of animal involvement here too.
B
Oh, my God, that sucks.
A
It's, it's heartbreaking. So because of this, her cause of death was unspecified, but obviously her manner of death was a homicide. But based on the evidence, in her bedroom, that pillow was placed over her face or her face was shoved into that pillow. So on the same day that Riley's body was found, 41 year old Andy McAuley was taken into custody. He was charged with first degree murder, concealment of a body and death of a child by child abuse. And he was held without bond. According to investigators, he had been a person of interest from the moment they walked up to that house and started that investigation.
B
Sure, sure.
A
So during the trial, which began In April of 2021, Andy did not take the stand in his own defense. I watched this on Court tv. So the prosecution believe that he went into Riley's room sometime during the night or early morning hours of May 7th or 8th of 2019. It's got to be the early morning hours of May 8th because she was actively texting Hayden at 11, 11:17pm so it's likely that he walked into her bedroom for sexual reasons. There's a reason why she text her boyfriend and said, I'm scared. So he then suffocated her to death with a pillow. Because her body had decomposed to the extent that her remains were skeletonized, none of this could be proven. But evidence paints a picture that this is exactly what happened. So according to phone records, Riley began texting Hayden about Andy being in her room at 11:01pm Then again at 11:17pm when she said she was scared. This was again about 30 to 45 minutes after her mother had gotten home. But Andy knew, everybody knew, that Chantel was the heaviest of sleepers. She wouldn't have woken up to the sounds of muffled screams coming from her daughter's bedroom down the hall. So either he concealed her remains in her bedroom, maybe he slid her body under her bed or in her closet. Closet. Thinking there'd be no reason for Chantel to check that on Wednesday morning. Or maybe he placed her remains in the shed. Based on what Denise Deaver had said, that she saw a weird green pickup truck backed between the house, oddly, by the shed.
B
Yeah, I'm sure.
A
So then of course we know he went back over to that house at about 10am on Wednesday. He wrapped her in the trash bags he had taken from work and he dumped her remains over an embankment, basically off a cliff. So on October 5, 2021, after four hours of deliberation over the course of two days, like, if I was a juror in this case, I'd be like, okay, why are we breaking for deliberations? Let's just huddle up real quick. Okay. Yeah, yeah. You in? You in? Yep. Guilty.
B
Yeah. I think we all know what we're going for here, right?
A
Right. I mean, we have concrete evidence that shows him driving to the very location of where Riley's body was found. That's how they found her body. Was. Andy led him. Led investigators to her body. So, Mike, I will have you guess. What verdict did they come back with?
B
I mean, guilty. And then if they don't have the death penalty, get it going right away. I know that. Death penalty, super expensive. Like, this guy needs to be wiped off the earth. He's a freaking loser scumbag. That sucks. Obviously, is a child molester and a child much worse murderer. It's like all those things are equally terrible. Like, this guy sucks. Sucks.
A
I mean, he had known Riley since she was somewhere around 13ish. And he did this to her.
B
I got so much to say.
A
So he was found guilty of first degree murder, death of a child by a custodian, by child abuse and concealment of a body.
B
That's an interesting charge. By a custodian. So somebody that's, like, responsible for her.
A
Yeah, he was her guardian. Wow.
B
So it's worse. That's what just should be.
A
Yes. This was somebody that was there as a trusted adult.
B
Yeah.
A
And he killed her. So on November 4, 2021, Andy was sentenced to two life sentences in prison without the possibility of parole. He will die behind bars. Thank God.
B
Do the whole world a favor and take care of it yourself. I mean, do one last favor for the world.
A
Well, we all know that child molesters don't do well in prison. So hopefully Andy's getting some, you know, things happening to him.
B
Yeah.
A
So during her victim impact statement, Chantelle described her daughter as. As the most amazing person anyone could know. She wanted Andy to have the harshest punishment possible for throwing her little girl away like a piece of trash. She went on to say he left her there for nine days. As we agonized, watching our misery, our torment. He's the only one that could tell us what happened to our daughter. Chantel listed the things that Riley would never be able to do. To graduate from high school, to get married, to have a family of her own. This case highlights the importance of taking care in who you allow into your home and into your children's lives. At 15 years old, Riley should have only been worried about school, about friends, about her relationship with her boyfriend, plans for the weekend, her next phase of life, what was going to happen after high school. Instead, her life was taken by someone who should have been there to protect her. Sorry.
B
No, I mean, there's so many thoughts here. So our friend doesn't listen to these episodes when it's somebody this age in this type of scenario because it's so hard to hear because we all have. Everybody in our friend group has kids this age.
A
And yeah, we have a daughter who's 14 and she's just so precious. And to think that this guy just walked into her room and she was scared and what happened to her and what, you know, what led to her death and just how terrified she was. Yeah, These are the things I think about while I'm doing the research. And you said as a mom, you know, it's like, my God, this precious little 15 year old girl.
B
And this kind of story needs to be spread and told because if it saves one sweet child, like that's like more than worth it, you know, if like somebody can hear this, be like, I'm dating somebody who's similar to this effing loser. And I've seen him looking at my daughter like somehow, some way. I know it's so hard to get out. We get nothing but comments about how hard it is to get out of these relationships. I don't know if he's abusive or not.
A
There was no reports that he was abusive to Chantel.
B
Well then it's already easier to get the hell out. Like, why are you dating this guy? Like that's so. I mean, I can't. You. We try to stay away from like victim blaming. Right? So I'm not blaming, but I'm like if I'm Riley's dad, what was his name? Lance.
A
Lance. Lance, yeah.
B
If I'm Lance, I gotta be infuriated with Chantel for dating this scumbag. And I'm sorry, Chantel, I know you didn't want to date a guy who murdered your daughter. I totally get that. That and I agree. But if Lance's sweet baby daughter is gone from this earth because his ex wife needed to date this complete loser scumbag, now it's not Chantal's fault. It's not your fault. I am so sorry for your loss. I know it's gotta be horrible. I mean, I feel so angry and so terrible at this. I can Only imagine the family. But if I'm Lance and his just like, wow, you dated this guy who was capable of like, you don't know. Obviously she wasn't gonna date him if, if she knew he was a murderer.
A
Of course not. And you know, she seemed like a, like, Chantel is a very well spoken, like, put together person. She was a very hardworking woman. And you know, she met this guy, he clearly struggled with substance abuse. She knew, she knew he was struggling with substance abuse.
B
And not all substance abuse people are murderers. You know, like, it's just, it's. These are not necessarily related, but it's not a good thing either. So I mean, you know, I highly recommend anybody dating somebody that's in a, you know, an addictive state. Like, like, you know, go to at least some like heavy end ass counseling, I guess.
A
And, and we know that addiction doesn't go hand in hand with sexual molestation of a freaking child and murder.
B
Right.
A
But you know, it's just so very sad and it's got to be so hard to be divorced parents and you know, say Mike and I got divorced and I can't control now what he does. And he picks up this woman who's now an influence in my children's lives and I think she's like the worst person in the world.
B
World.
A
You're like stuck. Like, what do you do? I, I am so sorry for people that there's. I know 50, more than 50 of marriages end in divorce. There's so many people that are dealing with heartache because they can't control what their ex is doing and their children are being exposed to it.
B
So half of these stories, I write down all the names in the beginning so I can try to remember. And half of the stories are like, well, the dad is this name and the wife is this name. You have ex wife. And then it's like, like just like America. It's. Half of, of the marriages don't last and it's really, really hard. And man, if I was Lance, I'd be trying to find this guy and just make sure he's dead somewhere.
A
Yeah. But you know, again, this guy is the scum of the earth. Like you're going to lose your freedom because of a disgusting human being. And you know, there are people online petitioning saying Andy is. He's been what, wrongfully convicted.
B
Yeah, they put them all into a pot. Put them all into a big fat.
A
Pot of boiling water in the hell.
B
I don't know, people that want attention. Like, this guy's a Scumbag. He's a loser. Like, I mean, he's, he's a scum of the earth.
A
Like, you know, and watching this case on Court TV and seeing his lawyer saying, you know, there's no evidence to prove that he did this, like, how.
B
Did we find her body? By following.
A
His remains were found, you friggin jackass.
B
He was lucky enough not to have left any DNA.
A
Right. He didn't. And that's what the defense lawyer obviously was honing in on, was that there was no evidence on her body that said it was Andy.
B
Yeah. And if they ended up finding that, it'd be just a guilty plea and it'd be case closed. But unfortunately they had to waste everybody's time and go through the trial process and do all these things when he's just a piece of garbage and like, God, like, just take care of him. Somebody in jail, just like wipe him away, please.
A
He is a bigger looking guy.
B
Who cares. Like, get 10 guys together.
A
So cases like this force us to confront the hard truth that sometimes the most dangerous place for a person, and this is a sad fact, isn't in a dark alley in the middle of the night. It's inside their own home. You look at statistics, sometimes home is the most dangerous place to be.
B
Well, and also they say that's where the most accidents happen and stuff because that's where you spend most of your time.
A
Yes, but most child abduction cases are from within. You know, this person. You know what I'm saying?
B
Yeah. 90, like somebody in the family, I.
A
Think like 1% a stranger abduction, something crazy like that.
B
And we get these, you know, a lot of stories and it's like, oh, stranger danger. But it's not stranger danger. It's like in your house, danger, somebody, some family members danger. Or close relative or family friend, uncle.
A
Who'S given a little too much attention to their niece.
B
Yeah.
A
You know, and it's just really disgusting.
B
Yeah. And I got to say, even like every thinking of people in their family who could possibly be capable of this, and it's like I can think of, you know, one and it's just like that's. I don't know, there's risks involved everywhere. And I. You got to weigh out the pros and cons of being in these situations. Like, is it worth put exposing, you know, just because nothing happened? Like, look at your family members and friends and stuff. And I don't know, I would say just consider it's okay to be rude. Right. Like to save your family's safety.
A
Yeah. For sure. It's just hard when you can't prove something, you know.
B
Oh, I'm not saying they could have done something different.
A
I'm sure most people looked at Andy and thought he was a scumbag. I mean, the guy was trolling the streets from 1:30 to 4 in the morning. Is that, you know, really somebody you want to be spending time with?
B
Well, he's an addict.
A
He's not. Meanwhile, Chantel is working her tail off at two jobs, like, from morning until 10:30, 11:00 clock at night. I mean, that woman was burning the candle at both ends. And this is just such a tragic case. But at the root of it, Riley Crossman lost her life at age 15 by someone she should have trusted.
B
And all her families and loved ones are, you know, lost. And her, like, siblings, the 9 and 13 year old, we didn't mention them. They were in the house when this happened?
A
Yep, yep. They were asleep downstairs because of, like.
B
Some sexual desire by this idiot scumbag. Like, I can't. That just gets me. Like, oh, my needs outweigh everybody else and I'm gonna murder this person. This teenage girl that has, you know, is gonna be getting braces soon. Like, that's the lowest, lowest scum of the earth. And somehow, like, please, Andy, if you hear this, just take care of yourself. Just, the whole world would be so much better without you. Like, I just wish your parents would have never had you. I just wish that you were never born. I wish that, that this, your parents were never born because of you. Like, it's just like you're scum of the earth.
A
Yeah.
B
Just everything you've ever talked to or touched, like, is worse because of you.
A
Worst human possible. That can hurt. I always say, like, people who prey on, like, animals, children and the elderly. You can't get lower than that. You are targeting people who are vulnerable because you are a weak, sad, and disgusting human being.
B
And there's another person we think of that does that.
A
Yes.
B
That's related to somebody that we know. So, yeah, sucks.
A
So anyway, thank you guys so very much for being here with us. We really do appreciate, you know, you listening. If you're running out of new episodes to listen to. I'm starting to run out of words here, if you haven't noticed.
B
I can take over here. I got this, baby. You talk for a good amount of time. So we have other episodes. We come out with bonus episodes every single Wednesday. Like, every single Wednesday for the past three years. We have bonus episodes. So if you become a subscriber through Apple subscriptions or Patreon on you get all of them and you can binge all you want. We'll make more.
A
And we will welcome you with open arms into our Crime and Coffee Couple blog. And until next time, bye.
Air Date: February 8, 2026
Hosts: Allison & Mike
In this emotionally charged episode, Allison and Mike delve into the tragic 2019 murder of Riley Crossman, a 15-year-old high school freshman from Berkeley Springs, West Virginia. Their discussion weaves personal reflections, lighthearted rapport, and incisive analysis, always keeping respect for the victim and her family at the forefront. The episode unfolds the complexity of Riley's disappearance and the chilling betrayal by someone trusted in her home, highlighting urgent lessons about safety, trust, and the unseen dangers within one's own walls.
Allison introduces the case as a listener suggestion and sets the scene in Berkeley Springs, WV, a town with fewer than 1,000 residents, near Maryland and Pennsylvania borders.
Background on Riley’s family situation:
The events begin on the afternoon of May 7, 2019, when Riley’s mom Chantelle, balancing two jobs and feeling unwell, asks Riley to wake her from a nap.
Riley does as asked; this is the last confirmed time her mother sees her alive.
That evening, the household consisted of Riley, her younger brothers, grandmother, and Andy McCauley (mom's boyfriend).
Last text from Riley to her mom is at 8:21 pm about a volleyball game.
Chilling Last Words:
(18:19) Riley’s final text to her boyfriend:
“I’m scared.”
– Read aloud by Allison (Riley, via text)
Mike’s Outrage at the Killer:
(35:12) Mike:
“There’s nothing bad enough that could happen to this guy ever in the history of human existence…”
On the Heartbreak for Riley’s Family:
(44:26) Mike:
“If it saves one sweet child, that’s more than worth it…if someone can hear this, be like, I’m dating someone similar to this effing loser…”
Hard Reality for Parents and Listeners:
(49:14) Allison:
“Sometimes the most dangerous place for a person isn’t in a dark alley in the middle of the night. It’s inside their own home.”
Full episode and show archives: Crime and Coffee Couple Podcast Website
This summary provides an accurate, detailed recap of the major facts and emotional tone of the episode, allowing new listeners to grasp the full arc of Riley Crossman’s tragic case as recounted with care and candor by Allison and Mike.