D (8:53)

And.

C (8:54)

And since Ellen trusted her judgment and thought Savannah seemed okay, she accepted that answer. And they hung up. And then all Ellen could do was wait for her daughter to get home. Except the hours continued by, and Savannah still didn't come home. Not at dawn, not at 8am and not ever. She also now wasn't answering her phone when her mother was trying to call. But Ellen was able to reach Savannah's other friends to ask if any of them had seen her that morning or heard from her or if they knew where she was. But none of them had. So finally, Ellen calls the police to report Savannah missing. One of Savannah's friends also filed a report once she heard that she hadn't made it home the night before. Because here's the thing. Yeah, Savannah liked partying. This wasn't unusual, but she loved her children even more. It wasn't like her to disappear well into the next morning without a word to her mother, to a babysitter, or anyone else. So the police leap into the investigation, and after talking to some of Savannah's friends, they were able to kind of build a timeline of the night she went missing. This is what they learned. Like I mentioned before, she left her mother's home at 9pm with plans to go to Dion's house with Jocelyn. And that's exactly what she did. She and Jocelyn met up with Dion at his place in Lexington, Kentucky. And then they hung out and drank for a while. But Savannah felt restless. She wanted even more. More people, more alcohol, more stimulation. This was her one night off. So eventually, she convinces these friends to go to a bar with her. And since she had been drinking, she left her car at Dion's house and carpooled to the bar inst instead. Now, when they arrived, the bar was packed with people, even though it was a Thursday night. And clearly, this is exactly what Savannah had been wanting. Everyone could tell she was happy to be out and about. She was striking up conversations with strangers. She was flirting with guys. Plus, she was drinking. And she kept drinking until she was very drunk. What if you could give a gift that brings your favorite holiday traditions and memories to life every day? Well, with an aura frame you can I talked about this last year but we have gifted aura frames to tons of family members over the holidays and it is amazing. I love that I can just upload photos for them. It is like the gift that keeps on giving. Aura Frames has unlimited free photos and video. All you have to do is download the Aura app and connect to wi fi and you can preload photos before it ships and then also keep adding like I said. So the person you give an aura frame to has some memories already loaded on it when they open it and they will just keep coming. You can't wrap togetherness but you can frame it for a limited time visit or frames.com and get $45 off or as best selling Carver mat frames named number one by Wirecutter by using promo code Payton at checkout that's P A Y T O N. Don't forget your code. That's Aura A U R A frames.com promo code Peyton this exclusive Black Friday Cyber Monday deal. Their best of the year. So order now before it ends. Support the show by mentioning us at checkout. Terms and conditions apply.

D (12:23)

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C (12:52)

Or 1:30 in the morning, her friends are ready to call it a night. They had plans the next day. They didn't want to stay out any later, but Savannah wasn't ready to leave. So Dion took off without them and Jocelyn stayed behind to try and convince Savannah that it was time to go. Except Savannah wasn't listening. She began noisily arguing with Jocelyn, kind of creating a scene. And things got so heated that a bouncer actually intervened between Jocelyn and Savannah. Now at that point, Savannah told Jocelyn, there's no way I'm gonna leave. But if Jocelyn wants to go, she can. Savannah was like, I'll be fine. I'll find another ride. And since she's an adult, her friend is like, okay, fine, you said I can and I'm gonna leave. So she leaves the bar without her. Now. Luckily, the place was still crowded and there were plenty of witnesses around, so the police were still able to figure out what happened next. Savannah keeps partying and drinking, and she stays until the bar closes at 2:30 in the morning. And after last call, she left with three men that she just met that night. Now, the investigators didn't know their names, but their faces did appear on the bar's security cameras. There was also a camera pointed at the lot where the men were parked. So the officers see Savannah get into one guy's car along with his friend. And they also had footage of the other man leaving in his car, too. But the whole group's together. So Savannah is in a car with two of the men, and then the other guy is driving in his own car alone. Now, from there, the police were quickly able to identify all of the drivers and ask them who they had been with that night. And that's how they learned that she had actually left with three men. Brandon Lewis, Isaiah Chase, and David Sparks. Now, all three of them were very cooperative when they learned that Savannah, who had left with them from the bar, was missing, or at least they came across as cooperative. All three of them consented to interrogations and shared more about what had happened that night. They said Savannah was very drunk. She didn't have her car, and apparently she didn't want to call a taxi or an Uber. And on top of that, she clearly wasn't ready to go home and go back to sleep. Based on the way she was acting, the men thought she wanted to hook up with someone, or at the very least, keep drinking and partying. So once the bar closed, the three friends invited her back to David's house, which was about an hour away. The idea was that all four of them could meet at David's and keep the night going. Now, Savannah was thrilled with the invite and agreed to go with them. Now, during this drive to David's place, this is when Savannah FaceTimed her mom. Like I had mentioned before, that's how the mom knew she was with two men. And then David, Savannah, Brandon, and Isaiah arrived at David's house. Now, David had plenty of alcohol on hand, so the four of them kept drinking until they were all very wasted. But it soon became clear that the alcohol was hitting Savannah pretty hard because according to the men, she passes out. And according to the statements they gave police, Isaiah and Brandon both decide the party is over at that point. So they carry her into a bedroom at David's house and lay her down on the bed so she can sleep. And then Brandon and Isaiah go home. They said they figured David would keep Savannah safe while she slept off the bender. And then when they woke up, Savannah would head home. And according to them, neither of them knew what happened after they left. Savannah passed out at David's house. Except then the police asked if they could pull Brandon and Isaiah's cell phone records. Like, hey, we got your story. Can we do this? And once they saw the men's photos and videos on their phones, it became clear that a lot more had happened that night. Both guys had a bunch of photos of Savannah with her clothes off. Now, in some of the pictures, she was awake. She was posing for the camera. But then as they go on, it's clear that in some of the pictures, she's unconscious. Some of the videos and photos showed the men touching her inappropriately while she was passed out. Now, the. The cops are like. And they asked Brian and Isaiah, what is this? This is illegal. And this is when the two of them changed their story. They still said that Savannah had come to David's house willingly. And once they arrived, she drank until she was blackout drunk. The whole time, she was flirting with all three of the men, kind of acting like she was interested in them. They say she even took her clothes off at one point and let them take pictures of her. And then she passed out before she even had the chance to put her shirt back on. Now, Brandon and Isaiah say at this point, they helped Savannah get into David's bed. But now they admitted that David's behavior took a disturbing turn once Savannah was passed out in his bed while Savannah was unconscious. According to the other two men, David took his pants and underwear off and acted like he was going to sexually assault Savannah. Obviously, she's not sober enough to consent if he's thinking he's going to have sex. She wasn't awake. So he's. He's committing a sexual assault. And Brandon and Isaiah didn't tell the police originally how they had responded to this. They don't tell police if they tried to stop him or if they were just like, david's his own person. He can do this. They did say that right away, David stopped what he was doing. Like, he. He was, like, going into it. And I was like, I'm just joking. And then he complained that he was frustrated because he thought he would have a chance with Savannah, and if she was still awake, they would possibly be hooking up by now. He made a show of trying to wake her up. Then the two men say when that didn't work, he groped her again while she was unconscious and not able to say no. But apparently, Brandon and Isaiah don't have any problems with this because obviously they took pictures of David touching Savannah's body. Like, this is just a fun, good time drunken night. Now, Brandon and Isaiah both said they left right after this, after taking the pictures, just like they had said in their initial statements. They told police they hadn't taken David's behavior very seriously. They thought he was a good guy who would never actually hurt Savannah. And it's hard to understand how they could mean this. I mean, they had already seen him groping her and they were like, taking pictures of it. Apparently they don't think that this is dangerous or have any problem with it. So needless to say, Isaiah and Brandon are like, when we left, she was there passed out with David. But police have an obvious problem with these statements. But they also now have a lot of questions for David, too. Now, he said that once Brandon and Isaiah went home, he went straight to sleep on the couch and left Savannah alone in his bed and didn't disturb her again. He says later that morning, she woke him to ask for his address. Now, David tells police he assumed Savannah was calling someone to pick her up and she needed to know where she was. So he says he gave her the information while on the couch and then goes back to sleep. He's hungover, he's exhausted. And when he finally wakes up for real, he claims Savannah is gone. David said he figured someone had picked her up and she had left. And he says if she has gone missing, it happened after she left my house because she was definitely fine that night and morning. Now, the police weren't sure if they should take David's statement seriously. After all, there were no witnesses around. Isaiah and Brandon do claim they left. So does David. Nobody could corroborate his claims that Savannah slept through the night and then left in the morning. And on top of that, the officers who handled the interrogation were just getting a bad vibe from all three, but especially David. But there's nothing concrete to act on. The whole time the police were questioning him, they just feel creeped out. They had a knee jerk reaction that they shouldn't believe everything he was saying. The problem was there wasn't any physical evidence to indicate that David was lying to them. And when the detectives searched his phone, David, they didn't see anything strange. There weren't more videos of him alone with Savannah. So the day after Savannah's disappearance, though, David had texted his sister to ask where she had bought a particular rug. That is a little sus right, but it's not hard evidence. And the police just have to keep looking for more clues. The problem was there weren't any more witnesses to talk to. There was no more physical evidence they could find to analyze. And at this point, the investigation was stalling out. They'd kind of put her timeline together, but now had hit a roadblock. Savannah's case was starting to become cold. And in the meantime, her friends and family still hoped that she was alive, that she was going to come home soon to her babies. They didn't want to give up on her if there was even a chance that she was still okay. So her loved ones set up a Facebook page called missing Savannah. And on it, they shared photos and missing persons posters encouraging people to contact a tip line if anyone spots her. They also posted updates from the police. They did everything they could to raise awareness, and thanks to their effort, the page actually racked up more than 42,000 followers. And while they didn't generate many usable tips, it was encouraging to know that so many people were supporting Savannah. And on top of that, the police organized massive searches all throughout Kentucky. They covered more than 200 miles, and these included fields and wetlands, the sort of places where bodies would turn up. But they also contacted childhood friends, old connections from church, everyone who had ever known Savannah. The police were open to the possibility that she might have just been overwhelmed and run away as a new mom. Maybe someone had helped her disappear. Except all of these investigations go nowhere. And frankly, Savannah's family doubted that she would ever leave her life intentionally. She would never abandon her children. So as the days passed, everyone's hopes begin to dwindle. They keep fighting for Savannah. But it felt like the efforts were going nowhere. And before anyone knew it, six months had gone by. It was now the summer of 2019, and still no one knew what had happened to Savannah that night.

E (24:32)

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F (24:52)

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C (25:28)

And then on Wednesday, July 10, 2019, at about 5pm the police finally get a new tip, but it wasn't the one they had been hoping for. See, a farmer who owned property outside of Lexington had been working near a strawberry patch, and he kind of noticed a bad smell, so he called the police, who then searched the area. Now, this tip is a little odd because law enforcement officers had actually already searched this exact strawberry patch in the search for Savannah. They had covered the ground with a fine tooth comb not long after Savannah disappeared. But apparently, they had missed something pretty major, because now, searching the second time, police find a body buried in the field about a foot and a half deep. The remains were badly decomposed. They couldn't identify the deceased until the coroner performed an autopsy. And that's when they confirmed it was Savannah. Now, unfortunately, her body was too badly deteriorated for the mortician to determine her cause of death. But it was very obvious that she hadn't died on accident or of natural causes. For one thing, her remains were attempted to be buried or hidden. And on top of that, when she was found, she was actually totally naked. Someone had used shipping tape to bind her feet together, and there were a bunch of trash bags in her grave with her, as well as a rug. I know all of this points to murder, and that is a scary detail. Now, this is a sad discovery, but it wasn't unexpected. Half a year had passed since Savannah's disappearance. Her loved ones had nearly lost hope that she would ever come home alive. Luckily, now that the police had found Savannah, they also had another key clue, because get this. The strawberry patch where Savannah was buried was actually on a family farm. It was a farm owned by David Sparks family. And the man who had smelled the odor in the strawberry patch was David's father, the last guy to have seen her alive. In fact, David must have known that his dad called the police before they had uncovered Savannah's body, because when search teams showed up to the farm, he was actually there and was visibly nervous. And as the investigators walked across the property, David made sure he was following them, keeping an eye on them. It's. It's very obvious that he is aware of what's happening. And now I'm gonna confirm to you if all of this wasn't strange enough, the rug Savannah was buried with looks exactly like one in David's home. And if you remember, he texted his sister, said, where did you get this rug? Investigators now know that Savannah had bled on it. So David had disposed of it along with her remains and then text his sister so he could buy an identical one and nobody would ever notice that it went missing. So now the police knew that Savannah had not safely escaped from David's property back in January. This is hard evidence, considering the rug she was buried with is from his house. And now they're doubting the story more than ever. Not to mention the way he was acting when they had showed up. Also, just the entire investigation. Less than 24 hours after Savannah's body was found, David actually drove to the police station. Keep in mind, cops had not asked him to come in. Detectives were just building a stronger case. They had no intention of arresting or interrogating him. At this point. They're gathering evidence, But David parked his car out front, left the keys inside the vehicle, and approached an employee at the station and said he needs to speak to a lawyer. David is turning himself in. Except here's where it gets weird. He freely admitted that the police had good reason to suspect him in Savannah's murder. But after turning himself in, he also insisted he was innocent. Before Savannah's body was discovered, David had actually told some friends that he felt like he was being set up to take the fall for a crime he hadn't committed. He acknowledged that his behavior on the night of the disappearance was creepy and weird, and David also knew it didn't look good that he had been the last one to see Savannah alive. However, he is adamant to police that he did not hurt her. Instead, he tells police, you are overly suspicious due to the circumstantial evidence and they were singling him out. Instead of trying to find the real killer, he was being set up. He also complained that his friends, including Brandon and Isaiah, were wrongly treating him like he was guilty. Apparently, Brandon and Isaiah had been texting him non stop since Savannah had gone missing. And they had been telling him, hey, if you had anything to do with this after we left, you need to come clean. Which is kind of ironic because the two of them hadn't really cared about justice for Savannah. On the night of her disappearance, she seeming as they took pictures of their friend groping her while she was passed out. Either way, David now said it was unfair that everyone assumed he was a killer when he hadn't done anything. That's basically the same thing he said when he turned himself in, too. David told the officers that he knew he Was about to be charged with savannah's murder. Because of how everything had played out, he says he was going to fight for himself, but he also wanted to be cooperative in the meanwhile. Sure enough, when he was charged with savannah's murder, David pleads not guilty. And then, because he didn't qualify for bail, he remained in jail While he waited for his trial. But one day, A guard was searching David's cell When he found something interesting. See, during his free time Awaiting trial in jail, David had been sketching, and in particular, he had drawn two pictures of naked women. And in one, the woman was tied up, and in another, the lady was free. One of the subjects in his drawings Looked a lot like savannah. While court officials couldn't identify the other woman, still, it was enough to make some people wonder, why is david drawing these two naked women? If he had killed savannah and now he was sketching her, did that mean there was another woman that was also a victim? It wasn't a lot to go off of, but many people believed David could have killed more than one person Based on what had been found in his cell. Except, of course, David denied all of these allegations. He still claimed he was not guilty. But by the time his court date rolled around, his legal strategy had changed. It was now December of 2020, and David was facing charges of murder, Abuse of a corpse, and evidence tampering. And in addition to all of the other evidence against him, Police had actually found traces of savannah's blood Inside his home, which is pretty concrete, Meaning something bad had happened to her in the home, Unlike what he said. So he actually changes his plea to guilty, and he admits that he had killed savannah and buried her body under the str robbery patch. Now, in his confession, he also said he'd acted alone. His two friends really had left. Nobody else had helped him with the murder or the COVID up. The problem is, is that to this day, David hasn't spoken in detail about how or why he did what he did to savannah. Meaning we still don't know Savannah's cause of death. It's also impossible to say if her murder was premeditated or if it was something that happened in the spur of the moment, an opportunity. That said, after his arrest, Officers did find a note David had written, and it was in his things, and it's unclear if he ever meant to send it to anybody. In it, he said he now knew what he was capable of and that he could, quote, Squeeze the last breath out of another human. So make of that what you will. As far as the Courts were concerned. All that mattered was that David was willing to acknowledge what he had done, not the question of how he had done it. So they accept his plea, and David was sentenced to 50 years in prison, the maximum penalty for his charges. And that's where this case ends. But before I wrap up this episode, there is one topic I want to touch on again. As this case came out, a lot of people felt tempted to judge Savannah for the decisions she made on the last night of her life. They were saying she shouldn't have been out so late alone, she shouldn't have gotten so drunk, she shouldn't have left the bar with strangers, she shouldn't have left her babies at home as a new mom. The problem with these criticisms is that they put the blame on the wrong person. Even if you disapprove of partying, drinking, casual hookups, you would probably agree that nobody deserves to be murdered for going out and having a good time. Women should be able to go out alone, get as drunk as they do, go home with whoever, and not be murdered. That is just the reality. Now, like I said before, do a lot of women take precaution because of the statistics and the reality we live in? Yes. But that doesn't deny the fact that no behavior should result in murder. And I don't want to forget what Brandon and Isaiah had condoned before leaving. Agreeing to the mood that was set, honestly could be a sequence of events that led to what happened. To this day, Brannon and Isaiah have never been charged with anything related to her murder. But what they did the night before is wrong and illegal. The good news is her real killer got caught after all. The majority of the blame lays with David, the man who took her life. Now, unfortunately, even though he's behind bars, there are a lot of other predators like him who are free today. It's why women take precautions. As long as these guys friends choose to protect them, agree with sketchy behavior, stand by them. The world is still a dangerous place. And it's sad that people, especially women, can't go out drinking, meet with people without needing to wonder if they're going to survive the night. But unfortunately, that is the world we live in today. And there aren't any signs that it'll change anytime soon. So as this case is wrapping up, please take a moment to think about Savannah as the amazing mother she was. Think of her family who loved her so much, who sat and did what they could to support her while she was missing. The pain and grief they have felt since she was taken too soon. That is the core of this story. Thank you so much for listening, and I will see you next time as we go further into the dark together. Goodbye.