Transcript
Advertiser (0:00)
At vrbo, we understand that even the best of plans sometimes need a little support. So we've planned for the plot twists. Every booking is automatically backed by our VRBO care guarantee, giving you confidence from the very start. Whenever you need help, it's ready before your stay, through the moments in between and after your trip. Because a great trip starts with peace of mind and maybe a good playlist. But we've got the peace of mind part covered. The search for a suspected killer resumes this morning in Ohio.
Annie Elise (0:31)
That is a vast, wide open area up in there.
Reporter (0:34)
We're told he ran off into the mountains after crashing his truck during a police chase.
Field Correspondent (0:37)
Crews are already out there preparing and getting ready to go Head back into those woods.
Tammy (Stacy's Mom) (0:42)
I'm holding up. I gotta be strong. What we have here is a horrible, horrible tragedy. I don't know why he would do something like this. He'd babysit my kids while we go out, you know, go grocery store shopping and everything else. I just don't know why he'd do things like this.
Annie Elise (1:02)
Hey, true crime besties. Welcome back to an all new episode of Serial Asleep. Hello, hello, hello. And welcome back to an all new episode of Serial with me, your true crime bestie, Annie. Elise. And I hope you guys are having a good start to your week so far. I don't know if you're listening to this on Monday when it releases, or maybe later in the week, but whenever you're listening, I hope you're having a great day. I hope you had a great weekend. I hope everything is going well for you in your life. And yeah, I just hope things are good and happy. Probably because I'm about to come all over it, if I'm being honest. So I'm like, trying to get you in, like a good mood, good vibes, because I'm about to dump all over it. And I know that I probably say this a lot, but trust me when I say today's case is on a whole different level. It's one of those stories that it really makes it feel less like real life and more like it is some fictional, dark, twisted Stephen King novel. Truly, it's hard to believe that this is even real. I mean, we are talking layers of family secrets, very disturbing relationships, multiple murders, missing children, and even more horrifying details that you will literally never see coming. It takes place in Lawrence County, Ohio. Not exactly a place where tourism is, like, booming or people are dreaming to visit, but it's as southern in Ohio as you can get. Right there on the border of both Kentucky And West Virginia, right in the heart of Appalachia. And most of the people in the area really have spent their whole lives there. It's where their families are from, where they have lived for decades. It's where people grow up, start their families and just remain. That's where they stay. Now. Todd and Stacy Holston were your happy all American family. They were a younger couple, both still in their 20s. But in Appalachia it's pretty common to get married and have kids while you're still young. The two of them had two boys. There was eight year old Devin, who was a second grader at Rock Hill Elementary School, and two year old Braxton, now Todd. Todd was a blue collar worker and he was often gone for long periods of time during the day at various work sites. And I wasn't able to find in my research or not whether Stacy worked or if she just stayed at home and watched the boys before they would go to school, manage the house, things like that. But either way, they both did whatever needed to be done to run the house and kind of balance the shared respons. And it really did seem to work for them. The family lived in a mobile home in the Pedro area right along State Route 93, a very long and windy road that is pretty far from any big cities and it's just surrounded by trees and farmland. So it was far enough into the country to feel more secluded. But it was close enough that the drive into town for groceries or gas or any sort of necessities really wasn't that bad. Now the home had a very big front yard, also this nice wooden porch where Todd and Stacy could just sit watching the boys play outside. It was beautiful. And what's even better was that a bunch of Stacy's family members all had homes nearby. So there was this sense of not only home and comfort, but community there as well. But as we know, even the most picture perfect families can have secrets behind closed doors. And in 2017, Stacy was keeping a big one. It was something that she certainly was not proud of. And it had been weighing pretty heavily on her for quite some time. It was a chapter of her life that she knew that she needed to close. She needed to put it in the past. But it wasn't going to be easy. You see, Stacy hadn't been the most faithful to Todd in the recent months. She was having an affair. And at first it started like many affairs start. She was leaning on this person emotionally. She was kind of having them become her confidant, things like that. But then there started to become a sexual aspect to it as well. And then from there things really crossed the line between flirting, a little bit of an emotional affair to like full blown intimacy, sex, the whole nine yards. And she knew that she didn't want her husband Todd to find out or anybody else for that matter. And she knew that it was time for her to end things and move on with her life. Mistakes were made, yes, but it wasn't too late for her to make things right. However, she also knew that this was probably going to be very messy, which, let's just be real. Any situation like that is, you very rarely will get out of an affair unscathed. There were also just with this one, way too many secrets involved. And I think that anytime somebody gets their feelings hurt after an affair or, you know, in the process of an affair ending, and they can get mean and they can get very vindictive. However, Stacy's situation was a little bit different. You see, this affair wasn't with someone in the community who maybe would pass by every now and then, or a local pastor who you only see on Sundays, or someone who, you know, you rarely bump into. Which, don't get me wrong, that would be bad enough. However, it would make the dissolvement of an affair much easier, in my opinion, because you're not worried about running into them frequently. You're not worried about, you know, them feeling a tie to you in any way. It's easier to part ways with somebody where there's a few degrees of separation. But in Stacy's case, well, Stacy had been secretly seeing a man named Aron Lawson, and he had grown up in Lawrence county his entire life, just like Stacy. So they had that in common. He also lived very, very close to where Todd and Stacy's house was. So that logistically made sneaking around way more easier for them. But unfortunately, and here's where things get a little bit twisted and a little bit, you know, uncomfortable. There's more to the story between the two of them because Aaron was very close with Stacy and Stacey's family. Not because he was a family friend, not because of the affair, but because he was also Stacey's cousin. Yes, you heard that right. Aron and Stacy were first cousins, which, look, I don't even know how something like that happens. I could maybe see in a twisted fictional novel type story or something like that where you meet someone, you're drawn to them, you're attracted to them, and then, oh my God, after you guys have sex, you're like, holy, we're related. Because you do A genealogy testing, or you find things out months later and you're like, oh, my God, this is so gross. What just happened? They knew they were first cousins and decided to bond very close, closer than most cousins do emotionally, remember? Then he became her confidant. Then it crossed over into sexual territory. And it's not only messy, but it's also ick, ick. And all of the incestual piece of it aside, let's talk about the fact that there will be no easy way to end this affair. It's your family. You're going to see them. You're going to see them at Thanksgiving, on holidays, all, you know, all the time. What? How on earth are you supposed to get out of this unscathed right now? It's not clear how the affair actually started, but based on my research, there wasn't one specific moment where they just decided to start sneaking around or when the relationship officially began. It seems as though it was more of a slow burn. Remember, they had known each other their entire lives. They had also spent a lot of time together. And they had been spending even more time together after Todd and Stacy moved into their house in 2017, because it was in that same area, that same community, and was within walking distance of a bunch of Stacy's other relatives. So, like I said, Stacy knew that what she was doing was wrong. But what's interesting is that Aron felt the exact opposite. He wasn't ashamed of this affair like Stacy was. In fact, he even confided in his mom, Stacy's aunt. He told her all about their sexual and intimate relationship. And he told her that he was absolutely infatuated with Stacy. He had never met anybody like her. He claimed that Stacy was the love of his life. So, I mean, they were in pretty deep, or at least on Aaron's side of things. It was early October 2017, and he could tell that something was off with Stacy. Usually he would walk over to her and Todd's house. He would spend time with her and with her kids. But lately there had been this, like, definite shift in her energy toward him. And then on October 6th, Stacy finally broke things off with him. Whatever they were doing, whatever their relationship was, it had to stop. So you would think that this would be something that they could both agree on, right? Things needed to end. Not only is this affair bad, but, like, we're family. We can't be, like, you know, get, you know, bumping and grinding when we're related. That's weird. And I mean, with most affairs, there's always kind of that lingering question of what if we just decide to be together for real? What if we leave our spouses? What if we run off into the sunset together? The married person could get a divorce, they could start over, maybe even have more kids, just have a fairy tale ending. But this obviously was not an option for Stacy and Aon, even if they wanted it to be. They were first cousins. They can't get married, they can't go off. They're not going to have children together. Well, let's hope they're not going to. But it's literally illegal in the state of Ohio to marry your first cousin, as it is in many other states. Or good reason. Although I will say, in my research, I did come across the fact that there are 20 states where it is legal. That's a little unsettling, personally, in my opinion. Which again, don't even get me started. If they decided to get married and then have kids together, it's just a lot of bad. So anyway, you would think that if they both know that there's no real future, that they would know that this affair is going to end at some point. It has to. But that's not how things went. Both of them were not in agreement about the separation. Aron did not take things well at all. I mean, he had just been telling his mom that Stacy was the love of his life, that he had never met anybody like her, that he was absolutely head over heels in love with her. So even though things were, yeah, really weird and quite literally incestuous, he was kind of going through this weird form of heartbreak when Stacy decided to end things with him. Now, Stacy, on the other hand, she felt a lot better after their breakup, or I mean, whatever you really want to call it. But granted, it wasn't like your typical affair where you will cut off complete contact, you'll never have to see the person again, and you can just go your separate ways. I'm sure it was awkward when she would still have to see Aaron around, but she also knew that this was the right thing to do. She still loved Todd. She wanted to move on. She wanted to make her life work with her husband. So all to say, Stacy was feeling a lot more positive about the future. Everything finally felt like it was going to be okay, or at least that's what she thought. What she didn't realize was that something much darker was waiting around the corner. And before long, that darkness would completely swallow her and her entire family. On the morning of Wednesday, October 11, Todd woke up very early for work to head to a work site at around 4:30am this wasn't really out of the normal. He worked long days. Sometimes he would have to show up at these sites extremely early and that was really kind of an average morning for them. So sometimes his work sites could be as far as an hour and a half away. So there definitely were some frequent early mornings. So whenever that would happen, that would leave Stacey there to get both kids up, ready for school, get Devin off to school. And everything about that morning was completely normal. It followed the usual routine. Really the only thing that was a little out of routine was that instead of riding the bus home from school that day, Devin was going to go to his grandparents house after school, which required him to take a different bus than he normally would. Now, because it was a small school and a very small rural area, Stacy just needed to write a note for Devin's teacher telling them about the change in the schedule. That's all she needed to do for him to take a different bus route home. It was just very, you know, close knit town, small communication, things like that, nothing like overly formal. So Stacy fed the kids, wrote Devin his note and got him on the school bus all before 7am now by 6:43am Todd had made it to his work site in Kentucky, which was about an hour and a half from home. But when he got there, right away he noticed something kind of odd. You see, Todd and Stacy were creatures of habit through and through. They followed a pretty similar routine every single day. So if something about the routine was ever off, it was pretty obvious. And in this case, usually, and especially when Todd was working so far away, Stacy would text him at some point in the morning asking if he made it to work safely. Mainly because the area was full of country back roads and even the most experienced driver could end up in some sort of driving trouble. Deer suddenly crossed the road or something like that. And besides, it kind of just made Stacy feel better knowing that Todd was safe and where he needed to be so that she could just go along with her day. I think a lot of us do that with our partners, right? Like hey, did you make it okay? Hey, how was school drop off? Just checking in, right. And for Stacy, again, this wasn't something that she just did on occasion or whenever she could make time for it, she always, always texted him. But by the time that Todd got to the work site that morning and pulled his phone out after clocking in, he realized that Stacy had never texted him. Now at first he just thought that it was strange and he went about his day being like, oh, this is weird, but okay, I'm not going to like, make a huge deal about it. He wasn't aware of any plans that Stacy had that day that may have made it difficult for her to check in. But regardless, he tried to just brush it off. But then as the day started to drag on and Stacy still never texted him, that's when things started to creep. Some bad thoughts started to creep into his mind. And what was even weirder to Todd in all of this is that she wasn't responding to any of his texts or calls and that that was really weird. Now, once Devin was at school, it was just Stacy and Braxton at the house. And while two year olds are definitely very demanding of your time and you have to pay very close attention to them, they also are at that age where they're becoming a little bit more independent. They're walking, they can stay distracted, they'll be playing for a little bit. So it's not like Stacy couldn't have just sat Braxton down really quick to play by himself while she either called Todd back or responded really quickly to one of his text messages. So understandably, Todd began to worry. He just couldn't shake this gut feeling that something was very wrong. Now fast Forward to around 6:30 6:45pm that day. Now, by this time, Todd was clocked out for the day. He was on his way home from work, but like I said, it was pretty far away, this work site, about an hour and a half. So he had a pretty lengthy drive ahead of him. And that entire drive home, he continued calling and texting Stacy, but she still wasn't answering. Now, by this point, he just could not calm his nerves any longer. Whether Stacy was sick or hurt, or maybe one of the kids were sick or hurt, he knew that something was seriously wrong here. So he pulled up his contacts and he called Stacy's mom, Tammy. Because if something's wrong, who better to call than Stacy's mom, right? She surely would know if there had been an emergency throughout the day or maybe she could see Stacy and walk over to the house. I mean, who knows? That would be a great person or a point person, I should say, to check in with. Plus, as I just said, Tammy only lived about a quarter mile down the road, so she would easily be able to jump in the car or even walk over there and be at the house in no time. And that's exactly what Tammy did. But within just a few minutes, Tammy called Todd back and she did not have good news. She claimed that the front door was locked, so she hadn't been able to get inside. And I'm not sure if the door being locked was out of the ordinary, but the fact that nobody had answered the door when she knocked, that definitely was weird. The 2 year old should have been at home, Stacy should have been at home. So why was nobody answering the door? Even if Stacy had her hands full or was tending to the two year old, maybe bath time, maybe dinner, maybe laundry, whatever it is, she would have heard something or said something. So when her mom, Tammy was greeted with nothing but silence, it was immediately concerning. Now, at that point, Tammy was asking Todd like, hey, well, what should I do from here? What do you want me to do? And like I said, at this point, Todd was worried sick. And Tammy was also starting to become just completely frantic and worried. So Todd told Tammy, you know what, you need to just l into the house if needed. I need you to get inside. We need to see if Stacy's okay. Break a window, kick in the door, do whatever, just get inside and get eyes on what is going on. He even said like, I don't care what you have to do, I will fix anything, I will replace anything. Just get inside now. Tammy did eventually gain access to the house, but from what I could tell, the sources didn't specify exactly what she did to gain entry. The front and back doors were both locked after Tammy went in. So maybe she got in through a window through a different means, I'm not really sure. But the main thing is the point being she got inside and then something really weird happened. She still had Todd on the line ready to update him as she got inside, when all of a sudden, Todd heard Tammy scream. Scream so loud. It was the loudest noise he had ever heard her make. He heard her yell out, oh my God. Then heard this very loud noise and then complete silence. True crime teaches us that everything leaves evidence, right? But here's something that most of us don't think about. Our lifestyle leaves evidence too. All the late night research sessions, the stress, the takeout, the processed snacks while binge watching documentaries. I mean your body is processing all of it and one organ that is doing a lot of the heavy lifting. Your liver. Your liver filters everything that you consume and it performs over 500 functions every single day, from energy production to digestion, metabolism and vitamin storage. And when it's overloaded, you can feel it. You feel sluggish, midday crashes, digestion issues. And that's where dose for your liver comes in. 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All he knew at this point was something was going on inside his house. What had that noise been? Why was she screaming? Had Tammy dropped the phone in shock after seeing something like what is happening here? So that's when he called Tammy's husband, Stacy's stepdad, Donald. Todd quickly explained everything that was going on to Donald. He said that he was on his way home and that now both Stacy and Tammy weren't responding. So if Todd couldn't be there to see what was going on himself, he felt like Donald was definitely the next best option. So Donald did the same thing that Tammy had done. He got in the car, headed down the road to Stacy and Todd's house to hopefully solve whatever the problem was. But then 10 minutes passed, then 20, and Donald still hadn't called Todd back. It's safe to say that Donald understood how panicked Todd had been. So there was no logical explanation as to why he wouldn't have called him back immediately to update him or even just to calm his nerves. If this was all some sort of weird misunderstanding or false alarm. Even if something was wrong with either of the kids or Stacy, that would have left two other adults with phones who could have easily called and explained everything. So something just was not adding up here. Luckily, though, by this point, Todd finally made it home. And from the way that nobody was answering, he already knew that something awful had to have happened. But what he walked into was something that he could have never imagined, not even in his worst nightmares. As soon as he walked through the front door, he saw a roan, which kind of put him at ease for a moment. It was a familiar face. It was a family member in the midst of all of this chaos. But before Todd even had time to think about why he was there or even where everybody else was during all of this, a Rone pulled out a knife and attacked him. Now, Todd was not a small guy, and in any other circumstances, he would have been able to block a Rone's attack for sure. But everything happened so incredibly fast, and Aaron had surprised him. He had the element of surprise. He just seized the moment and attacked him as soon as he walked through the front door. Now, you'd also think that multiple stab wounds to the head and neck would completely incapacitate a person, but not Todd, which I don't know if it was his adrenaline that was just going so high to where he didn't feel any of this, or if the wounds were more shallow than what I'm imagining and envisioning. But Todd was able to fight back through this knife attack. And shockingly, he was able to pry the knife out of Aron's hands. And somehow he even got on top of him, pinning him down on the living room couch. And he was in complete shock, kind of being like, what are you doing? What's going on? Like, I don't understand now what's odd in all of this, or I guess I should say more odd than your wife's cousin randomly being in your home and stabbing you, is that Aaron had this very weird look in his eyes and almost like a character in a movie coming out of a trance. And I'm sure that it's something that you really have to see in person. To really understand, which I don't wish that on anybody. But Todd claimed that there was this clear switch in Aron. Immediately after this switch. He seemed extremely apologetic. He claimed that there were people who were breaking into homes in the area, and he thought that Todd was a home intruder, Basically saying, like, hey, sorry, I was just trying to protect the house. I thought that you were a burglar. That's why I attacked you. And even though he had stabbed Todd multiple times at this point and probably had more than enough time to realize this was Todd, not some random intruder. So then Oron told Todd that Stacey and the kids were in their bedroom hiding and that everybody was fine. Everybody's okay. They're just in the bedroom and they're hiding. So for a split second, Todd felt at ease. But then the reality started to sink in, and he realized that something still just was not right. Aron had said that Stacey and the kids were in their bedroom, but he never mentioned Tammy or Donald. And Todd knew that Tammy and Donald were also supposed to be at the house. So where were they? And why wasn't everybody coming out of the bedroom after hearing Todd's voice and hearing Aaron attack him? Not to mention everything was still way too quiet. If Todd hadn't known any better, he would have figured that nobody was home at all. Now, given that Aaron had just stabbed Todd multiple times, accident or not, Todd was pissed. And he was also much bigger than Aaron. So he literally threw him out of the front door and told him, leave. Get off my property. Get the hell out of here. But what he didn't realize in that moment was that he just let a monster walk free. When Todd went back inside, he started to notice things that he hadn't noticed before. There was blood all over the floors. So much blood, in fact, that it was hard to track where it was even coming from. And that's when Todd started going room to room, just looking for his family. Now, remember, it was a mobile home. And I don't know the exact layout of it, but think of it as like a very long trailer with this long hallway and then bedrooms scattered on either side. And inside of his little son Devin's room was a horrific scene. Stacy was in there, lying on her back on a futon bed, a blanket on top of her body. But it was clear she wasn't just lying down and resting or taking a nap. She wasn't moving. And this blanket on top of her was completely saturated in dark liquid. Her body was also cold. Her coloring was off. And it was clear that Stacey was dead. And it was also clear that she had been dead for quite some time. Now, Todd wouldn't know it until later, but Stacy had been shot twice in the chest and once in the back. The gunshots had hit two vital organs, her heart and her lungs. And sadly, she wasn't alone. On the floor in Devin's room was Donald. His body hadn't been covered with a sheet or a blanket or anything else, and he, too was surrounded by a pool of blood. He had been shot once in the shoulder and once in the chest. He was dead, too. Stacy's mom, Tammy, was in the laundry room, but she wasn't hiding like Aaron had said. She had been shot once in the neck and once in the back. And for whatever reason, her body, too was covered with a blanket, which I cannot even begin to imagine. The trauma that Todd went through that day, going door to door of your home where you are supposed to feel safe, protected, comforted, and seeing your entire family annihilated, I mean, I just can't imagine finding your family slaughtered in your own home. Now, to make matters worse, all of the victims had been shot with a 20 gauge shotgun. And I'm sure a lot of you are probably very familiar with this, but shotgun wounds are a lot more brutal and gory than if somebody is shot with, say, you know, a regular handgun or Glock. They quite literally will shred you and rip you apart. So when I say that there was blood all over the house and all over the surrounding bodies, I mean, it. It was chaos. But by the time that Todd found the bodies and recognized what erone had done, a rone was long gone. Not only had Todd already kicked him out, but you see, he had already been planning his escape route. After he shot and killed Stacey's mom, Tammy, he grabbed her car keys to her truck, moved the truck around to the back of the house so that it would be out of anybody's line of sight when they went by the house, but also so that it would be close enough that when he would flee, he could jump in the truck and take off. And that's exactly what he did. Even though Todd was shocked and confused by everything that had just happened, not to mention the injuries that he had suffered from being stabbed multiple times by a roan, there was still one thing heavily weighing on his mind. He hadn't seen either one of his children in the house. And I'm sure that he was in a state of shock seeing the horrific things that he had just seen. But as a parent, I'll Just be the first to tell you, it doesn't really matter what else is going on. Your kids are always and always will be your top priority. And the fact that he didn't see either one of them, it was enough to send chills down his spine. So he quickly started searching the rest of the house. And that's when he found two year old Braxton. Now fortunately, Braxton was okay. He was just in another room, separated from the other bodies. There wasn't even a scratch on him, thank God. But he was all alone, this two year old little boy. And then that left the question of okay, well, where was Devin? Remember Stacy had arranged for him to be at his grandparents house after school that afternoon. But by this point Todd fully expected Devin to be home. This was now late in the evening. Now I'm sure that Todd, maybe in the moment, just tried to convince himself that, okay, maybe Devin, being the older brother, hid Braxton in this room away from the others to keep him safe. And then he went on his own and hid in another room. Devin was an amazing big brother. He was always looking out for Braxton. But Devin was nowhere to be found. So Todd wasn't really sure what else to do. He grabbed Braxton and he jumped in the car and he drove down the road to Tammy and Donald's house for help. Luckily, Tammy's brother was there. I'm assuming that he lived there as well. And Todd was able to use his cell phone to call 91 1. And I'm not sure if Todd had lost his phone in the struggle with a roan or if maybe he left it behind in a panic or what happened. But all to say, now he was finally able to call the authorities. He was able to make the 911 call, get help for his family, tell them what was going on, and get some medical attention for himself. And Todd was terrified. I mean, his wife had been murdered, their parents had been murdered. One of his children was missing. The person who was most likely responsible was also probably his own family member, his cousin, someone who he had trusted, someone who betrayed that trust in more ways than Todd even knew at this point. Someone who quite literally tried to kill him as well. This man was potentially responsible for a triple homicide. And Todd, feeling the weight of the fact that he led two of the victims right to him by asking them to go over to the house that night. And Todd's biggest fear in all of this was that Aaron kidnapped Devin in the process. Maybe he was going to try and use Devin for some kind of leverage, like a Hostage something to get what he wanted in all of this. Maybe he was planning on running off with him or raising him as his own. Who knows? But when I say that this case was a huge media sensation, I mean it through and through. It was a very tightly knit area. And word got around fast, which to make things worse, this guy who had just brutally murdered three people, potentially kidnapped a second grader and went on the run, he was nowhere to be found. I mean, it would be horrific even if he was reprimanded immediately and taken into custody. But that wasn't the case. Arone seemingly vanished. People were panicking, and word got around that maybe he was hiding out in the woods. And this part of Ohio is basically surrounded by woods in all directions, which means he wasn't just hiding out in some random forest somewhere. He could have been hiding out on somebody's property, behind somebody's house, lurking in their backyard, looking in their windows, even hiding out in a barn possibly. And who was to say that he wasn't hell bent on killing more people, maybe going on this weird murdering spree? Because remember, at this point, nobody is even thinking about what the motive could have been. Nobody knew about the affair. So it seems like he had some sort of psychological break and just started killing people and took off. Not to mention, Todd told the authorities, my son Devin is still missing too. Which they immediately put out a BOLO alert, be on the lookout, and the theories about what Aaron might be doing with Devin, they started spiraling out of control. What's even worse is that investigators had contacted Devin's school. And when they did that, they learned something very odd. According to the school, Todd had called the school earlier that day and had arranged for Devin to take his normal bus route home. Not the one to his grandparents house, not the one that his mom wrote the note about, but his regular route. Meaning it seemed like Devin had made it home that day after all. Now here's the thing. It might sound like all of this was happening over the span of multiple hours and they were making progress on the investigation. But the reality is that it was all happening in between Todd calling 911 and them going to the house to check out the crime scene. It all happened very quickly. So the police issued an endangered missing child alert because they feared that he had actually gone on the run with little Devin. But what they didn't realize was that that scenario was not the worst thing that could happen. Because once the police arrived, they realized that Devin had never been missing at all. But he also wasn't in the house, hiding from aroen in his own room, hidden underneath a pile of clothes, was Devin. And unfortunately, he wasn't alive either. He had suffered the same fate that all of his family members had. He had been shot twice, once in the arm and once in the torso. So now everybody was freaking out. Not only had this murderer killed three adults, but he had killed a child. A child that was his own family member. A child he had been close with, someone who trusted him. That is just a whole other kind of evil. And he was still out there on the loose. Okay, if you've listened to this show for a while now, you know that I am always looking for snacks that actually help me hit my protein goals without tasting like cardboard. And lately I've been reaching for David protein bars a lot. They are seriously impressive nutritionally. They have 28 grams of protein, only 150 calories, 0 grams of sugar, which is actually one of the highest protein to calorie ratios on the market. Jeremiah, my husband, who is like, you know, trail runner, ultra runner, all of the things, he actually has a 100 mile run coming up. He loves these as well. And he is very picky with what he puts into his body for fuel. But the real reason I like them is the texture. They are soft and doughy. They have these like satisfying chunks, these little crispy bits that make them feel like they're way more than like a protein bar. They feel more like an indulgent treat. And my current favorite flavors are blueberry pie and salted peanut butter. They are so freaking bomb. But there are a bunch of options like chocolate chip cookie dough, peanut butter, chocolate chunk, fudge brownie, red velvet cake batter, cinnamon roll. And the exciting news is that David is now available at Walmart stores nationwide. Also on Walmart.com where you can try a single bar for just $2.97. So don't just take my word for it. Go grab one yourself. Head to Walmart today to try a bar or to stock up on four packs of your favorite flavors like blueberry pie and salted peanut butter, sold exclusively at Walmart. You can Also check out Walmart.com to find a store near you. Today's episode is sponsored by skims. Now, I think I've talked to you about skims before, but before I found skims, I honestly never thought that much about underwear. I'd focus on the outfit. The dress, the jeans, the graphic tee, whatever bra or underwear I had on underneath was like an afterthought. But once I tried skims, I Realized how much the right basics actually change everything. And you know how sometimes you'll have, like a mix of everything. This for all my girlies listening. A mix of everything in your drawer. Different brands of underwear, different brands of bras. But then you always find yourself picking a certain one or, like going for the certain brand and like, leaving all the other ones behind. That is 100% what I do because they've just totally changed the game for me. One of my favorites is the Fits Everybody Scoop Bralette. I wear it every single day. It gives you that support, but it doesn't feel like a wiry type of bra. But you, like, feel, you know, good. And somehow skims manage to make something that is just like, actually supportive while still being incredibly comfortable. And their underwear is the same way. Super soft, stretchy fabrics. They hold their shape, they stay comfortable all day long. And it's one of those brands where once you try it, you end up slowly just replacing your entire drawer because nothing else really compares. So shop my favorite bras and underwear@skims.com and after you place your order, be sure to let them know that we sent you. Select the podcast in the survey and then choose our show in the drop down menu that follows. That way they know we sent you. But I'm telling you, their stuff is the best. Again. Skims.com. Now, what's really crazy is that Aon hadn't just immediately gone into hiding after fleeing the house. While he was at the house before, Todd came in and confronted him, and he had found some cash lying around the house that he grabbed and stole. So after leaving the house, he drove to the nearest store, blood soaked clothes and all, and he bought new, fresh clothing. Now, how nobody in that store found this guy who was covered in blood to be some sort of issue, I have no idea. I mean, the thought of being in a store and looking down the aisle and seeing this guy picking out clothing while he's completely soaking wet, head to toe in blood and not saying anything and not calling the police. How that happens, I have no idea. I mean, it's beyond. But in any event, he did get new clothes. He changed his clothes, then he left Tammy's truck abandoned and he went into the very dense southern Ohio woods. For the next two nights, there were dozens of police officers looking for him. They had sent dogs, drones, everything. But somehow he managed to escape every single last one of them. And Aaron was nowhere to be found.
