← Real Life Real Crime
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- [00:01]
Woody Overton
Ugh.
- [00:01]
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- [00:56]
Unknown Singer
She do me she do me I don't want no sugar in my coffee it make me me love and make me be hella in my co.
- [01:30]
Unknown Host
Warning Real Life, Real Crime. The podcast will contain descriptions of acts of violence or of things that are of a sexual nature. I don't get my information for these podcasts off the Internet. What you are hearing are descriptions of things that were told to me by the victims of the crimes or by the perpetrators who committed the crimes against the victims. Heed my warning, people. If you're gonna get offended or you think you might get offended, do yourself a favor and turn this podcast off now.
- [02:11]
Woody Overton
Thank you. Hello, everybody, and welcome to this episode of Real Life, Real Crime, the podcast. As always, I'm your host, Woody Overton. Before we get started, just want to tell each and every one of you listeners that I love you and I appreciate you and I'm so thankful for you. And I'm going to do something that I haven't done in a while before the episode begins, which is I'm going to give a promotion for another true crime podcast, which I'm absolutely in love with. The name of the podcast is A State of Perfect Balance, and it's hosted by Amanda Daniels, and I think her husband helps her with the research, y'all. Amanda and I started talking about promoting each other's shows because she liked mine and I like hers. And you know, I don't even listen to true crime podcasts. I've only listened to a couple, and that's the ones that you've heard me promote before. And I like all of them, but this one fits my style. She tells a story from a single narrative point of view, so there's no chit chat back and forth. And her descriptions are amazing. And it's about murders and crimes in small towns in Ohio that nobody's ever heard of. The details are simply fascinating. And I don't know where she gets her information from. I'm going to have to find out because I wish I could. And I work my cases myself. Most of them. Right. And I don't have the details and the information that she has, but let me introduce you to you real quick.
- [03:55]
Amanda Daniels
Hey, guys, I'm your host, Amanda, and this is the State of Perfect Balance.
- [04:05]
Woody Overton
Sam called on the phone and he.
- [04:07]
Unknown Caller
Said, for God's sake, Fred, get over here quick. I think they've killed Marilyn.
- [04:11]
Amanda Daniels
The State of Perfect Balance is a true crime podcast in a genre all its own. We are a husband and wife team researching, writing, and delivering stories in a way that focuses on victims and their families. Join us every other week as we look at murders in the smallest of towns across Ohio. The State of Perfect Balance. Now sit back, relax, and enjoy this episode brought to you by our friends.
- [04:37]
Woody Overton
So there you have it, y'all. That's Amanda with the State of Perfect Balance. Got to check it out. I've listened to more of her episodes, like I said, than all the other true crime podcasts I've ever listened to put together. And it's really well done, really well thought out, and just right up my alley. So if you go and you listen to it, let them know that real life, real crime sent you. And they're on Facebook and Twitter and Instagram, and she does videos and stuff like that. So y'all check it out. All right, so without further ado, we're going to start on today's episode. I'm going to tell you about this episode, y'all.
- [05:17]
Unknown Host
This is the second part of the Screwdriver Red series titled Vanished.
- [05:28]
Woody Overton
And it's probably the worst case that I've ever worked, especially dealing with a juvenile. It's just so much emotion involved in it, y'all. It's just horrible. And so last week, when I left you, you had heard about victim A and victim B, and you heard about the monster getting sentenced to seven years, and five of those years were suspended. So he served two years on, which should have been way more than a life sentence. Right now, he goes to prison, and even in there, I told you, he pulls his charming self. And normally a dude in prison who tries to kidnap or rape a woman, especially kids, whatever, they catch a hard time. But this guy, he's pretty slick, and he puts on this facade and he's likable. And like I told you, they even gave him the name Screwdriver Red nickname, and he's kind of proud of it. So he does his two years, he gets out, and I don't think that he ever stopped planning or fantasizing or dreaming about his past victims or what he was going to do to his new victims. Okay, so he gets out and he remarries and settles into a series of shitty jobs and ends up moving to the town of French Settlement, which is not far from where he grew up. He was a local boy, but he married Darlie and they moved into a single wide trailer off of Avell Lane behind Darlie's relative's house. So that's where he's at. And on February 1, 2007, I was working as a detective with Livingston Parish Sheriff's Office. And I was off duty around I guess it was like 5:30 in the Eden, I think I was watching the world news and my pager goes off and it's the radio room or communications telling me to call Detective Ben Ballard. They all. Detective Ballard. I don't know that he had been in detectives that long or maybe a year or so, I don't know. But what a great guy. Super, super guy. I always knew that he was going to do well. Very, very smart, very level headed. He's a firearms instructor and he worked his way up through the road in uniform patrol and just a great guy. And like I said, he was a people person, smart, intelligent. And since I left the sheriff's office, I know that he's moved up through the ranks and I think he ended up being warden of the jail or the parish prison. And then the last I heard, one of my friends told me the other day they think he's going to the FBI National Academy, which is a really, really special deal for local law enforcement. FBI puts on these national academies and it's tough deal to get into and it's a tough deal to pass. So congratulations Ben and good luck on that brother. I hope you're doing well if you're listening to this. But anyway, that day I called Ben, I'm like, hey man, what's up? He said, dude, he said, I need you down here in French Settlement. Said I got a young girl that's missing in. And he said, I just, he said man, I got a bad feeling about this one Woody. He said I got a bad feeling, can you come down? I said shit, yeah, I'm rolling out. You know, I'll be down there in about 30, 45 minutes depending on traffic that time of day, which is always shitty. And so I hauled ass, threw on some stuff, right? And I roll out and going as fast as can. It was like it was cold, man, I remember that day, it was already dark and it was cold and it was like that light rain, cold, right? That this doesn't Drench you all at once. But if you stand out in for a few minutes, you get soaked, you know I'm talking about. And so I remember driving down there. Now French Settlement is. I think it's actually called the village of French Settlement. But it's a small, small town like Mayberry style, no red light. There's one main road that runs through the town and the road is Louisiana Highway 16 South. And actually it goes. Highway 16 just dead ends into Louisiana Highway 22 just past French Settlement. But French Settlement, just absolutely best place on earth as far as you know that. I just love that part of the parish. I ended up moving just a couple miles down the road from there and, and that's where I live now. But the people down here are simply amazing. Anyway, like I said, it's a tough one, but Prince Settlement, it has a high school or K through 12. I think it's like maybe 400 something odd students total kindergarten through 12. And you know, they do have a football team and baseball, basketball. Sports is a big, it's a big deal. And it's kind of, I don't want to call it a swamp town, but there's water just basically just about everywhere around it, right Geographically you're looking at the river on one side and a lot of swamp area. It's just a small town. Everybody knew everybody in just a couple little restaurants, most of them being down by the water right on the diversion canal. And the chief of police had been there forever and was a good friend of mine. Now French Settlement was one of the towns I told you about when I worked uniform patrol that geographically French Settlement was considered on the east side of the parish. I spent a lot of time down there and not because of crime, but going down. And often their chief, Harry Brignac would back me up on calls and stuff like that. And we became friends, went hunting together a few times, et cetera. But volunteer fire department. Harry was the only full time cop. And I think he had one guy that worked part time, maybe on the weekends or wrote tickets, whatever, just I mean, sit. You couldn't ask for a better place to live and just a great community. Now where I was sent to or where I was going to, Ben's location was a place called Adell Lane. That's a Y, D, E L, L. And Adeline is just a little spur of a road that runs off Louisiana Highway 16 South. And when you turn on Adel Lane, the house that I was responding to, where the child was missing from would have been, I think the second doing it by memory. In my head, I think it's the second, no more than the third house on the left. So it spurs off. And there was one really nice home, and it was Acadian, what we call Acadian style house. And that's like a lot of the homes are down here with a bit of a porch on it and raised up a little bit. And most of them are made out of cypress, et cetera. So pull up. There are people everywhere, right? Ben came out and told me what was going on. He said that the girl that was missing name was Caitlin Adele, or Idaho, however you want to pronounce it, right? And she was 13 years old. Now, coincidence that my daughter's name is Kate Lee. She also was the same age y'all at that time as Caitlin, Caitlin Adell. And Ben said that Caitlyn lived. Her Mother Danette, and Ms. Danette worked in Baton Rouge. And that every day when Caitlyn would get off the school bus, they would talk by phone, right? And they did. That day. Caitlin said, hey, Mom, I'm home. And basically that's it. And then when Danette would get off work, she would call her on the way home and talk to her again. Well, when she did, that time had passed, and she calls and Caitlyn didn't answer her phone. And her mom said that immediately. Three red flags for her, right? Because she never went anywhere without her phone, and she always answered religious. She said she just got a sinking feeling in her stomach, and she kept trying to call. And when she didn't get an answer, she sent a neighbor over to go in their house and look for her because she just thought something was wrong. And the neighbor went in and looked in Caitlin's bedroom, and her school book bag was there, but Caitlin was not there. And so she told Mrs. Danette. And naturally, she gets really freaked out, right? And the word starts to spread. I told you, it's such a small community. And by the time Danette gets there and she goes in, she confirms that, hey, Caitlyn's not there and nobody's seen her. They talk to the relatives that live behind her, they talked to, you know, the neighbors across the street, etc. Nobody's seen her. And so she calls 911 immediately. She knew something was wrong. So the uniform guy goes out and he's like, knew this was a bad one or a bad apple, if you will. And he called the detective on duty, which happened to be Ben Ballard. So Ben says, the mom calls. She said, look, she says, she never ever doesn't answer her phone. He said it isn't going to be a runaway. It's not the typical boyfriend situation or the mom and her have been fighting. Said the dad doesn't live here, but they have a good relationship so it's not like a kidnapping situation or whatever in that sense, he said. Woody, I'm telling you, this is bad.
- [15:48]
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- [17:35]
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- [18:34]
Woody Overton
What's the deal? I said, what's his name? And he said, his name is Mark Lewis. And he said, but wait, Woody. He said, it gets better. He said, I got a phone call while I'm out here. Dispatch has somebody on the line that wants to give a statement. So I called the guy. His name is Craig Simoneau and he lives in Head island, which is just. It's not even a city, not even a village, not even. It's not even a community. It's just a name given pretty much by the locals for the area on the map. And that's where I live now. But this guy, his name's Craig Semino as Mark Lewis's best friend. And he said that Mark showed up at his house around 4:45pm he said, I saw him when he pulled into my driveway. I didn't think anything about it. He comes over all the time and said, I just kept watching TV. But he said after about eight to 10 minutes, he didn't come in. I was like, what the hell is wrong with him? He said, he put on. Put on my boots and I went outside. And as I'm rounding the corner to his truck, I'm about five or six feet away from him. I see he's been over messing with something and it was an extended cab truck, y'all. And he said, I see him bend over in the extended cab part messing with something. And when he hears me come, he jumps up, slams the door and he's like. He said, Craig Somerset said, I've never seen this look on his face before. He said, I thought he was going to cry. And he said, I've never seen him look like that. He said, then he jumps in the truck and he hauls ass and he's peeling out backwards so fast, he Hit the ditch and almost got stuck. And then he left. And I was like, what the fuck? And they said he called me a few minutes later and he said, look, man, he said, just let me back up for a second. Okay. Left it out. When Seminole came around, the front of the truck was about five to six feet away. And Lewis has been over in the truck doing something. He hears him and he jumps up and he slams the door shut. And he has that look on his face Simono said he had never seen before. Looked like he was about to cry or break down is what he said. He didn't say cry, said look like it was about to break down. And Lewis just blurts out, he said, I've been on the phone with my wife and I have to leave. And that's when he jumped in the truck and backed out of the driveway so fast he almost ran off into the ditch. And then he said a few minutes later, Louis called him and said that he'd been in a fight at work. And that was all. That's all it was. And some of us said he was thinking. I thought the fight would have been at the same day from the way he was acting. But then around 7pm, Lewis calls Seminole back and says that Caitlin Adell is missing and that the police were asking questions. And Lewis asked Simoneau to say that he was with him at 4:30pm to actually said, well, I need you to be my alibi. If the cops ask you, I want you to tell them I was with you at 4:30pm And Lewis said, man, I sure hope the cops don't think I have anything to do with Caitlin's disappearance. And so, you know, thank God Craig Semino called that in. And Ben Balor got that over the phone. And my next question for Ben was, what's this dude's criminal history? And I knew he'd have it because Ben was sharp like that. He said, well, he's got one charge or he did a two years for attempted simple kidnapping. And I was like. I said, that kind of fits, right? He's like, yeah. I said, well. And that's when he said that when Lewis came home, Caitlin's mom and then were standing out there. So when Lewis returned home to Adell Lane, his wife Darlie and the neighbors were outside discussing Caitlin's disappearance. And when Lewis walked up to join him, Darlie, the wife, his wife says something about the scratches on his face and reached out to touch him. And Lewis pulled away and went directly to his trailer and went inside. So he put it all together. And so I told Ben, I said, look, dude, I said, I mean, where is he? He said, he's, he's inside the trailer. I said, have you talked to me yet? He said, no, I was waiting on you. Sorry. I said, well, a couple things we're going to do. I said, one, we need to see his truck or make sure nobody. Just have somebody watch it, make sure nobody goes in the truck or takes anything out of the truck or fucks with the truck at all. And I said, secondly, I know Craig Simone told you that shit over the phone, but we got to get a voice recorded statement from him before we go deal with this dude. And I said, then we'll, we'll get our plan together on going in to talk to him. I said, if he lawyers up, we're fucked. And, you know, we don't have anything to go on. So hopefully we can get him to chat. Right? Other detectives arrived by this time, and we decided to take the recording from Craig Semino and told them to call us as soon as they did and. Or as soon as they had it on tape. And once they did, we went to Mark Lewis's residence. But I told Ben, I said, we're gonna play it light, talking to everybody, looking for any witnesses, and said, what we need to do is lock this dude into his story, whatever it's going to be. We need for him to give us a story before he lawyers up. I mean, if he's done two years already for a tenth of simple kidnapping, then he's no stranger to the game. And Ben was cool. I mean, this super, super smart. And we play well off each other. So we go to the trailer. Now the trailer is running horizontal facing Adele Lane. If you're looking at the trailer, Caitlin's house was just a little bit to the front and left of the trailers. And there was like a little, I mean, from the back door, Caitlyn's house, to the door, this trailer probably wasn't no more than 25 yards. So we walk up to the steps and knock on the door, and the lady answers it. And that's his wife, Darlie Lewis. And I introduced myself and Ben, Detective Ballard, and asked him we could come in, talk to him. So we're here looking into this appearance of Caitlin. She's like, sure, come in. And I asked her, does she mind stepping outside and speaking with another one of the Texas. And we would speak with her husband. And her husband was sitting in the kitchen. Okay, so when you walk into this trailer, stand in the doorway, I mean, it's small, y'all. You stand in the doorway. The living room is to you, to your right. And it has like a small couch and a TV in front of. I mean, it's really small, single, wide. And then directly in front of you is the kitchen, dinette table, and there's a wall. You're walking behind the couch, there's a wall to your left. And inside that wall is a washing machine and dryer, which open, facing the kitchen table. Sitting at the kitchen table, facing the door was this guy. And I looked at him and he's got strawberry blonde hair and he's just kind of sitting there, fucking little smirk on his face, almost smiling, not quite, but almost smiling. And he's got a cheap plastic cup, you know, like one of those 50 cent cups from the Dollar General Store or Walmart. It's blue and he's got ice in it because he's shaking it around, he's drinking from it. So anyway, she said, yeah, well, yeah, y'all come on in. I said, if you don't mind, step out and talk to. So the detective, and then we'll come out and talk to you. Etc. She said, that's fine. She's totally cooperative. The wife was. And so go in and say, man, how you doing? And extended my hand and shook his hand. I saw Woody Overton. I'm a detective with the sheriff's office. This detective, Ben Ballard. I said, we're looking and to what happened to Caitlin Adel? And he said, okay. And I said, so did you see her today? He said, nope, just like that, nonchalant. And meanwhile, y'all, this. This washer and dryer right here to my left. I mean, we're standing. It's not a. I don't know how wide this trailer is over the small. And the washer dryer is just running, running, running. I mean, the dryer, not the washer, the dryer's running. It's making that clinking, clink, clink, clink noise. And so I'm trying to talk to him. And I said, okay, look, man, I said, listen, we're talking to everybody, trying to piece together what happened. We know she got off the school bus at 3:00, and we know she talked to her mother shortly after that. I said, but since then there's been no communication. I said, I said, were you here today? He said, nope, I was at work. Okay? So now I'm looking at him. I closed the distance, and now I'm standing directly across the table from him. And I see the scratches on his face, but they are not what I would call scratches of a defensive nature. I've just been doing it long enough to know. And I couldn't really, like, quite place them at first. The scratches. I'm looking at the scratches on his face. I mean, like, they're fresh, fresh. Like, still a little bit of blood coming, but they weren't deep gouges or constant tear on the skin. It's almost like bumps in a line, right? But small, little. Little tears. I'm like, what the. And he's bleeding. He's got it. He's got a little bit of paper towel on his dab in his face. I say, hey, man, I said, what happened to your face? And he said, I was at work today and I got hurt. I said, well, where you work at? He said, I work at a towing place in Ascension. Paris. All right? And I said, but how you get scratches on your face working a towing place? He said, well, I was hooking up a truck to the tow truck, and the hitch popped off, and it popped me in the face. I'm like, okay. I said, I've hooked up a lot of shit in my life to a trailer hitch. I'm thinking this in my head, right? But I've never seen anybody have hurting kind of scratch. I just knew he's fucking full of shit. So I just kept playing nice, right? I want to keep him talking as long as I can. And so I didn't confront him at that point about the scratches. I was like, so that happened today at work? And he said, yeah, sorry. He said, were you here today? And he said, no, man. He said, I told you I was at work. I said, well, look, I said, listen, man, I didn't. I don't want to take up a bunch of your time. I said, you know, I got to talk to everybody. This little girl's missing. We gotta find her. Gotta find out what happened. You know, the clock is ticking. And maybe she ran away with a boyfriend, I don't know. I said, but you're getting talked to, and everybody's getting talked to, and I just need you to help me out, okay? So can you please just tell me where you were this afternoon? I said, you said you were working. He said, no, no, I left work at, I don't know, whatever time. He said, then I went to visit my mom in the hospital. I said, okay, which hospital? And he said, lady Lake. And he said, I was probably there from four to five or something like that, or maybe three to five. And I said, Okay. I said, then what'd you do? I'm thinking if he went, you know, that's easy to prove. He went to the hospital or not, right? Because they have cameras everywhere. And he said, well, then I went to my buddy's house. I said, who's that? He said, craig Simone. I said, where does he live? He said, in Head Island. He says, about four or five miles from here. I say, I know where Head Islands at. I said, what'd you do when. When you got there? He said, well, we hung out and watched TV. I said, @ his house? He said, yeah. And I said, all right. I said, what'd y'all watch? He said, oh, I don't know. We'll watch some movie. We sat around. And I said, but you inside his house? He said, yeah, man, I was inside his house. I said, okay. And he's got that cup that I sent, kind of shaking it around a little bit, right? And he's taking a sip of tea. And look, he never breaks eye contact with me. Just staring at me, dead, dead in the eye, looking at me. It's almost like he knows it's a game against a cat and mouse, right? And stare with dead eyes, y'all. I mean, then people say that and you hear about it or whatever, but if you ever see it, you'll know it. And he just had the eyes. It's just no soul. And so I'm like, okay, so you were at Craig's house until what time? He said, I don't know, man, like 7:00, whatever. He said, I. And I came straight home and I said, and how did you find out that Caitlin was missing? He said, I found out. When I got home, my wife and them were out there talking to some neighbors about it. I said, so you didn't know before? And he said, no, okay, well, now I fucking got him, right? We know Craig Simoneau is giving a sworn statement that Mark went over there between 4:45 and 5:30, whatever, is acting all freaked out. He's been over in the back of the truck, almost wrecks the truck getting out of the yard, calls him and says he's been in a fight of work, I guess, to try to explain the scratches on his face, which had to be like, really fresh. And then he calls back later and says, hey, man, I need you to alibi for me. Caitlyn's missing, and if the cops ask, I want you to say I was with you. Fuck. And we know we got it, but we don't close yet, so. So? So Far. I mean, where do you go from here? And so meanwhile, it's goddamn dryer was just. It started, it went. And I was like, it's interrupting everything and interrupt my train of thought. And I thought, you know who does laundry at this time of the evening? And he gets up, I swear, God, he gets up, walks around the table, and he had to squeeze by me, takes the dryer door, opens it and pulls out this big blue comforter. Now where I'm standing, I look to the left and you look directly down the hallway. And I think there was a bathroom on the first door on the right, and there was one at the end. And he walks past me with the comforter, and he goes down, he turns on the light. And you could see it because it's a real small bedroom. You see, the bed didn't have any sheets or sheets or comforter or anything on it. And he fucking puts the comforter on the bed while I'm trying to talk to him. And I'm like, okay. I waited and I whispered. Then I said, go ask his wife who does the laundry in the house. Go ask her right fucking now if Mark Lewis ever does the laundries. So he went and asked her, and he's making up the bed, and I mean, he didn't even say anything about going to make it up. And he comes back in, and Ben comes back in. Ben shook his head no. And so I was like, fuck, it got him again, right? So I said, mark, I said, you always do laundry in the house? He said, oh, yeah, man, I do laundry all the time. And I looked at Ben and Ben looked at me and I told him, I said, you know what? Why don't you give us a few minutes and we'll come back in, we'll go talk to your wife and just sit tight. And we had another deputy that was in there, stayed inside the residence and went out and confirmed with the wife. A we asked her, said, did you see the scratches on his face yesterday? Absolutely not. Did you see him this morning before he went to work? Absolutely not. When was the first time he saw the scratches on his face? She said, when he got home and he came up and I was out there talking to the neighbors. I said, or I asked her, I said, I know Ben's already asked you this. I said, but does he normally do the laundry? And she said, no. I said, would there be any reason for him to be washing the comforter out of that bedroom that's in the hall? She said, no, that's the guest bedroom. There'd be no reason for him to be washing that. Or. I said, or drying it. And she said, no, no reason. I do the laundry in the house, so. Okay. And I asked her about Caitlyn and their relationship. She said, Caitlyn was over there all the time, that Mark has kids over her age range, and whenever his kids came to visit, she would go places with them and stuff like that. And. But she always sat in the front seat of his truck with the kids, never in the back. And so I thanked her and I said, look, we're gonna need to get a statement from you, Etc. And I pulled Ben in the side and I said, look, man, we gotta move on this dude. I said, we're gonna have to get him out of here. He's too comfortable. He's sitting there drinking his iced teas in his own home. I said, we get him to the sheriff's office, up to my office to interview and really try to find out what happened. Said he's cold. And Ben said, that is ice cold, man. He said, you ever seen somebody look like that in the eyes? I said. I said, not too many. I said, but I know. I know that look, and it ain't gonna be good. And he said, so what we do? I said, I'm go in and ask him to come with us. And he said, and if he doesn't? I said, then we're going to arrest this ass for obstruction of justice. I said, I mean, I know it's weak. Normally, y'all, you don't get arrested for lying to the local police, right? But if you lie to a federal agent, that's really a law, but really kind of pushing it to try to arrest somebody for obstruction and justice on this. But it was all we had. But we knew he was lying. And it was. Of course, it was all circumstantial, but we knew he was lying. And so before we went back in, I called Charlotte Hebert, who was the lead prosecutor, if you will, for the 21st Judicial District Attorney's office. And she handled all the biggest cases, and y'all have heard me talk about it for just excellent, excellent prosecutor. And now she's a judge in Livingston. And I called her and I said, charlotte. I says, woody. And I told her what we had, and I said, listen, we got to get this fucking truck. I said, I don't know. It's enough to get a search warrant. I mean, I said, we can write it and try. She said, what'd you say his name was? I said, mark Lewis. And her Exact words were. She said, oh, my God. She said, I hope that's not that boy who kidnapped that girl from Cortana Mall those years ago with a screwdriver. I said, no, Charlotte. I said, there's no way. I said, only thing he's got on his record is an attempt at simple kidnap. And I said, he did two years. I said, you know, if he kidnapped somebody with a screwdriver, he'd been prison for life. There's no way this the same guy. I'm not thinking right. I'm not thinking at that time that they pled him down to the attempt at simple kidnapping. Anyway. She said, look. She said, write it up. We'll get it to the judge. I said, listen, the. The deal is the girl's missing. Craig said, I saw him digging around the back behind the seat in the truck, and I just don't want to. Want to lose any evidence. I don't want him to, you know, be able to lawyer up on us and call somebody or whatever. She said, I get it. She said, just do what you got to do and keep me posted. So we go back inside and I say, hey, Mark, I said, why don't you come with me, if you don't mind, to the sheriff's office, to my office, so we can sit down and talk. I said, you got laundry going on and people in your neighborhood, et cetera, et cetera, trying to ease. Ease him into it, right? Wasn't dumb. And he just looked at me and gave me that little smirk, that little smile, right? What other people would have said was a nice smile. I knew what it was about. And he said, am I under arrest? I said, absolutely not. You're absolutely not under arrest. I said, but you know what? I will advise you your Miranda rights. I said, you have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. I said, the rights of an attorney prior to enduring any questioning. You can't afford one the court of 0.1 for you. And he said, but I'm not under arrest. I said, nope. I said, will you come to the office with us? And I was going to arrest him right there on the spot if he said no. And then he said, I don't guess I have much of a choice. I said, oh, no. Absolutely, you have a choice. You could say no. I said, I'm asking you to freely and voluntarily come up here and continue our discussion. I said, this is not a comfortable place for me. I'm standing and having to go back and forth. I said, you know, everybody's working around here. I said, let's just go talk. I said, if you want to come talk. I said, it. The. Some of the things you said just didn't add up. And I want to expound upon him further. And he was like, all right, I'll come with you. So he put on some shoes, etc. And I said, you can ride with me, dude. And I had an unmarked extended cab truck at the time, and I let him get in and drove him. We chit chatted on the way to the office, and we get there, and I bring him in to my office, which is a little small office I told you all about off the stage Stairway, where I did polygraphs and everything else. But we also used it as our. Pretty much our interrogation room on anything big. And because the regular detective's office was all open and all shared, and we didn't have an interview room at the time to dedicate it to interviewer interrogation. So we got him in, and I'm like, here's the deal. Not gonna bullshit you. It's been. And I said, not gonna bullshit you. Said, you know, we got some issues. I said, you got fresh scratches on your face. I said, no, you don't have to like it. I said, just hear me out. I said, hear my logic why I wanted to talk to you further. I said, you got fresh scratches on your face. And said, now that we're in the light, you know, you have the different shirt on. You don't have your jacket thing on. I can see that you have some scratches on your arms. He was like, I told you I got them at work. I said, okay, I get that. And I said, but you told me today that you were at the hospital visiting your mother. He said, oh, yeah, yeah, I was. I was. So you understand we're sending somebody over there. Check that out. And he kind of shut up and just sat there and looked at me. I said, and your biggest problem is you told me you were inside Craig Simoneau's house watching TV and hanging out with him today. So. That's right. That's right. I said, what were you watching on tv? Said, man, I don't remember. I said, well, you know what? That's kind of strange. I said, what if I told you that Craig said, you're full of shit? And he was like, what are you talking about? I said, craig gave a tape statement stating that you pulled up to his house, that you never went inside, and that when he went outside to check on you, you Freaked out and hurried up. You were bent over in the. In the back cab of your truck messing with something. You heard him coming. You freaked out. He said you had a look on your face like you were about to cry. And you said that you'd been on the phone fighting with your wife or whatever. And he said you jumped in the truck and hauled ass so fast that you almost wrecked getting out of his driveway. I said, then you call him back and ask him to alibi you, right? He's like, no, no. I said, okay. I said, man, I'm not making this shit up. I said, I don't have a reason to lie to you. I said, but, you know, shit is not looking good for you. I said, now it's going to go one or two ways, you know, we're going to work this and build it, and you're either going to turn out to be a monster or something accidental happened with Caitlin that you know about. You just need to tell me now and explain it out. You know, it's the strangest thing because, I mean, this is probably, I don't know, 8, 9 o'clock at night, something like that. And he just. He didn't lawyer up. At any moment, I'm inspecting him. He knows we got him, right? But I guess he knows enough about the law that really, we didn't have shit as far as Caitlin's disappearance. We didn't have a body, we didn't have a crime scene. We didn't have anything. And he just gave me that dead look and started kind of smiling, little smile on his face. I'm like, this motherfucker is out there, right? And I said, so what do you have to say, man? He said, I don't know what you're talking about. He said, I was at his house. I said, okay. I said, that's cool. That's what you're going with, right? He said, yep. I said, no, listen, it makes absolutely no sense. I said, you're lying, and you know you're lying. I said, you got fresh scratches that are still bleeding. You're telling me a tow truck hitch popped up and hit you in the face? What about your arms, dude? Where'd you get the scratches on your arms? And it was like, oh, yeah, I got. I got to fight it. Or it was a tow truck or. I said, well, what the was it? Which one was it? You know? I said, you should still bleed, man. I said, it's fresh. I said. I said, did you kill Caitlin? Adel said, no, I didn't kill her. I don't know what you're talking about. I said, okay. I said, did you see Caitlin Adel today? No. And we started going round and round and round and. And we just warn him. And then Ballard war on him and he never lawyered the fuck up. And we went for hours. And then when I knew he wasn't going to change his story, I started using different angles, you know, and I asked him, are you a Christian? He said, absolutely, I'm a Christian. I said, well, you know what? You know, none of us are Jesus, so we all make mistakes.
- [44:44]
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- [45:18]
Woody Overton
Said, if you've done something to Caitlin, you need to be honest about it and ask for forgiveness. I said that whatever it is, if it's bad, if she's dead, you know, or she's hurt and he put her somewhere, you just need to tell us, man, you know, ask for forgiveness. That's the right thing to do. He was like, I don't know what you talk about. But he never got. He never raised his voice. He never got angry. It's just dead calm, no emotion, man. And so try the religion angle. I tried the accidental angle. It could have been an accident. I tried everything. And then even one point, I was seeing those really getting pissed off. It's getting late and we're taking little breaks, going outside and talk about what we were going to approach him next. At one point, I went in, I sat down, I just looked at him and he looked at me, and I'm staring at him. And I started going, Mark. Mark says Caitlin, I said, it's cold. It's raining out here. I mean, y'all is like 30 degrees and raining. By this time, it's dark. Mark, get me home to my mama. And as dramatic as that sound, I kept doing a representation of Caitlin's voice, begging him to do the right thing. He never flinched, never batted eye, sat there with that smile on his face. And that's when I knew we were fucked. And when you do the last resort of acting like a 13 year old victim. See, I mean, I know it sounds horrible, but we needed to get some information. We need to get some type of closure. And this was one of the tricks that I use. And when I acted like I was her doing the voice and everything. And he just could have gave a less. He didn't care. He never flinched, no emotion. Psychopath times infinity is what this is. And so go back out. And his wife was there by that time in the detectives area. And her pastor or Preacher or whatever he is, had brought her. And I told Ben and we talked to Stan Carpenter, everybody was there by then. And we came up with the idea of letting the wife go in to talk to him. We had nothing to lose at this point, right? I mean, so we talked to the wife, told her, said, hey, look, the comforter. Told her what Semino said. And we didn't give everything but the fresh scratches and all that. And we were going to let the wife go in and talk to him. And we did. And now we didn't have camera systems, we just didn't have it. Or audio systems. What we did have was a baby monitor. And we would turn it on in the room. I know it sounds crazy, right? And. But we had a baby monitor put the speaker in my office and the receiver on the other end, but I didn't have a chance to turn that on. But it's a little dead end hallway where I was at in the stairwell. And so I let him go in and shut the door button and shut it all the way. And that office is really small. And she's like, baby, baby, I love you. And she said, did you do anything? Did you do anything? You know what he says? First words out of his mouth. He says, don't let them get in my truck. She said, what are you talking about? He said, don't let them get my truck. Don't let them get in my truck, whatever you do. And she's like, what are you talking about? He said, don't let him get in my truck. And then he didn't think we could hear him, right? So she talked and then we let Preacher go in with her and they prayed with him and shed. And he's just a. Praying away and putting on all the. The front and all that. And so we go back out and meanwhile y'all. The search warrant had been being typed up for the vehicle. We had one of the detectives contact his employer who he said he was at work with, where he got injured that day. And he's full of fucking shit. He didn't even show up for work. Okay? So we had that on him. The case was ongoing, and everybody was working on. Everybody's busting their ass, but it would reach the wall with him. And after he talked to his wife and the preacher, I go back in with Ben Ballard, and he said. He said, I want a lawyer. I said, okay, that's. That's your right. You certainly can have one. And I said, but now you're under arrest. And he said, for what? I said, for obstruction of justice. He said, why? I said, because all the things I told you, all the lies I told you that you told me, and Craig Simoneau saying that. That you asked for an alibi, etc. I said, you know where Caitlyn is? I see damn well know where she is. I said, and we're going to prove it. And I'm a do your ass, and you better hope it's not for murder. And he just shut up. So cuffed him up, took him to the jail. But upon getting to the jail, and I had him take him into a holding cell, and I made him strip naked, and I photographed his body. He had the scratches y'all on. He didn't have anything on his groin area or his back or anything like that, but he had these scratches on his arms and a couple. Maybe a couple on one leg, but not as relevant or recognizable as they were on his face and his arms. And I photographed him and made him stand there naked. And I never in my entire life wanted to hit somebody as bad as I want to hit this dude now. I wanted to hit David Constance. I'm not gonna lie. But I'm standing in the cell, and this dude's naked, and he just doesn't show any emotion. I'm photographing him, the injuries or scratches on his body, et cetera, which become very important later on in the case. And that's it. Book them in obstruction of justice. And I'm going to conclude this episode. But I won't say this about. It's absolutely just horrible. And I'm not trying to do anything sensationalize the death of Kayla Nadale, but I do think it's a story that needs to be told, and there's a whole, whole, whole lot more to this dude than I've got to yet. Anyway, next week, going to go into the investigation and probably some of the court procedures. And then the following week, we probably will be concluding with another tragic thing that he's done since things actually a couple more bad things he's done. But anyway, I'm not going to go into it now. That's it for this episode. Real Life, Real Crime, the podcast. Until next week or ever. They'll let me catch you down on murder by you. All right, y'all, I want to make a couple announcements real quick. It's a tough story to tell. It just brings back a lot of memories for me. But I want to make a couple announcements real quick and. And I just want to tell everybody thank you for supporting the podcast. Real Life, Real Crime. It means a lot, and each and every one of y'all mean a lot to us. And we have all our different social media things. We have the three pages on Facebook, the regular Real Life, Real Crime open that's open to the public page has, I don't know, 600 and something members. But the one I'm most fond of is our private group page, which is Real Life, Real Crime. Friends, fans and crew. K R E W E. And we had like 800 and I think 850 members on that private group now. And if you're not a member of that group, I say it every week, but I'm saying it again. Send us a request and we'll get you approved because you're missing out. If you like Real Life, Real Crime and you're not a member of the group, you just missed out. I don't make any money off this page. I'm telling you because I care about you. I want you to get more experience out of. We have the most awesome group of fans. They interact every day and they do contests, etc. Our dream team moderators, the best in the business and they'll get you approved. And anyway, like I said, our fans get to post different things and it's a lot of true crime stuff and some contests and different things like that. A lot of fan interaction, people from all over the world. We are 65,000 downloads in three months in 91 countries around the world. We picked up a couple more countries since last week and I can't even begin pronounce half of them right. So. But that page, if you're not a member, check it out. Our YouTube, y'all, is you go to YouTube and you search channels. Real Life, Real Crime Podcast is what you put in and every one of our episodes on there and a lot of videos that I've posted being in different places. So check that out if you want to put a face with the name or I'm sorry, a face with the voice. And I said that last week also. And we're on instagram and Twitter. And so I'm gonna ask you to do this. If you like us, then please, like share and leave us a review. If you leave me a review, send me whatever your name is that your review goes by and I will personally give you a shout out on the next show. Okay? And y'all reviews are important. I read them all. Some of them funny as hell. Some lady left a one star this week. It was just hilarious on itunes and she wrote like a book. And I kind of took pride in the fact that I've ruined her day so bad that she had to take this long ass time to write this ridiculous thing. Called me everything from a racist to a drunk trail of trash or whatever. But so whoever you are left out, I really appreciate you. But if you want to leave a bad review, that's fine. If you want to leave a good review, that's awesome too. I don't care either way. I'll give you a shout out. If you send me a message, let me know. And I think we have. We're in the 150 something range on reviews on itunes. But my patron members, my gosh, I love you, y'all. I love all you of you. If you can't be a patron member, that's totally cool with me. Just please leave us a review and like, and share us. That's awesome. I can't ask for more than that. The patron members, I love you so much. The support is invaluable to the show. And I'm gonna give a couple shout outs to our newest patron members like I do every week. All the patron members get at least one shout out a month. But I want to welcome the newest members. One is Josie J, O S I E. And Josie, I don't know what your last name is, sweetie, but I really appreciate you becoming a patron member. And Josie is tier three. And we really appreciate you, Josie. Thank you for listening. Thank you for financially supporting us. Don't forget to use your benefits, the hotline, y'all, and working on the Jessica Chambers episode real soon. But thank you so much, Josie. I really appreciate you. And I don't know if I mentioned Ryan Horan last week or not, but Ryan upped his pledge. And I appreciate you, Ryan, and you're awesome. Ryan's on our third Facebook page, y'all, which is real life, real crime. The Lanyat page, meaning bonus or extra whatever occasion word. Ryan's on there every day posting cool stuff. He's a custom furniture builder from North Carolina. He's awesome, dude. Thank you, Ryan. For supporting us. And we appreciate your participation. And y'all use your hotline number. Y'all call in your questions. And then Ms. Aaron Ashwood is a new patron member. Aaron, we really appreciate you. And she is from Tasmania, Australia. Now, that's the shit, Aaron. Because when I was snow skiing when I was a young boy and they called me the Tasmanian Devil because I'd go down the mountain and take everybody out. But we love our Australians. It's our second leading country and downloads and we know our love. The Australians. Love their true crime. Really, really appreciate you, Aaron Ashwood and Laura, I think that Laura got you the other day. Laura N. Yarnell. Y A R N E L L But anyway, all the patron members, I appreciate you. Thank you so much. You're awesome and it helps us out, y'all. And we, we have new equipment. We're still figuring it out, but new equipment. And we're going to continue to strive and get better and bring you better content, etc, And I don't know how long the Screwdriver Red series is going to go for. At least a couple more weeks, but it's just such an important show. But after that, y'all, we're gonna be at Crime Con in New Orleans. We're gonna do a live broadcast podcast, her private group page. Real life, Real Crime. Friends, fans and crew. You're not a member. You better get one. Leave one before that because it's gonna be the. I'm gonna do a live polygraph. And so I'm sure we'll have some other shenanigans going on. And we have several fans that are coming to meet us. And we're gonna do something special, y'all, we'll begin reaching out to you. So if you're coming to Crime Con in New Orleans and you're a fan of Real Life, real crime, and I don't know about it yet. You have messaged me yet. Send me a message so we can add you to the list and plan on what it is we're going to do. But I love all y'all. We're rocking it. We, you know, it's just. I enjoy doing it. And Dream Team moderators, you know who you are. I love y'all. You're rocking it. Thank you for helping us grow. And I just appreciate each and every one of y'all. It's a lot of fun. As long as y'all keep listening, I'll keep laying down the tracks. So. And I'm Woody Overton, your host. That's it for this week. Thank you. Bye.
- [59:29]
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- [60:18]
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