#560 - Solving A Murder Puzzle - Chicopee, Massachusetts

Summary

Small Town Murder Podcast Summary Episode #560 - Solving A Murder Puzzle - Chicopee, Massachusetts Release Date: January 11, 2025

Introduction In Episode #560 of Small Town Murder, hosts James Pietragallo and Jimmie Whisman delve into the harrowing murder case that unfolded in Chicopee, Massachusetts. Combining meticulous research with their signature comedic flair, the duo unpacks the intricate details of the crime, the ensuing investigation, and the eventual prosecution.

Overview of Chicopee, Massachusetts The episode begins with James and Jimmy providing a comprehensive overview of Chicopee, a mid-sized town nestled in south-central Massachusetts. With a population of approximately 55,636, Chicopee is characterized by its rich industrial history and diverse community.

James (06:14): "Chicopee, Mass. Is in south central Massachusetts. It's kind of like mid. Mid Massachusetts, we'll call it."

Jimmy (06:11): "It's a nice place."

Despite its seemingly quaint appearance, Chicopee grapples with economic challenges, evident in its median household income of $56,509, which is below the national average. The town's industrial decline has left remnants of its manufacturing past, contributing to its unique socio-economic landscape.

The Murder Case: Amanda Lynn Plass and Seth Green The focal point of the episode is the brutal murder of Amanda Lynn Plass in August 2011. Amanda, a 20-year-old waitress and artist, was tragically found dead in her apartment, having been violently stabbed multiple times.

James (15:23): "So champ, how long was that?"

This tragic event sets off a complex investigation, with Seth Green, a 27-year-old construction worker and Amanda's boyfriend, becoming the prime suspect.

Investigation Details Seth Green initially reported finding Amanda dead, describing the scene with blood on the floor and himself noticing the absence of his weed pipe and knife. Despite his statements, inconsistencies in his story and physical evidence led detectives to scrutinize his alibi.

Jimmy (16:04): "Oh, Seth Green. Why did I saw Seth MacFarlane?"

James (16:45): "Nah, you can go here all you want, head to Chicopee all you want."

Forensic evidence revealed significant clues:

• Bloody Shoe Prints: Determining a men’s size 7½ or a youth size 7.
• DNA Evidence: Amanda's fingernails contained DNA not matching Seth.
• Broken Porch Window: Indicated a possible staged burglary.

James (24:30): "Looking for a very small man, an average sized woman or. Or a very large 12 year old."

The investigation led detectives to explore potential suspects, including a man named Dennis, whose presence was hinted at through Amanda’s dry erase board scribbles ("Dennis was here").

Trial and Conclusion After extensive investigation and months of pressure from Amanda's grieving mother, the case against Seth Green intensified. Despite passing a polygraph and having a solid alibi initially, DNA and footprint evidence ultimately linked him to the crime scene.

James (63:45): "How do you explain that?"

In court, the prosecution presented overwhelming evidence, including:

• DNA from Amanda’s Fingernails: Matching Seth.
• Footprint Analysis: Aligning with Seth’s shoe size.
• Aggressive Nature of the Crime: Suggesting a personal motive.

James (72:21): "You were there for blood and a palm print on the broken window."

The jury deliberated for five hours before convicting Seth Green of first-degree murder, including robbery, leading to a sentence of life imprisonment without parole.

Aftermath and Reactions The community of Chicopee was left in shock, grappling with the loss of a beloved resident and the revelation of systemic issues within the local police force. Additionally, the episode sheds light on the misconduct of certain officers who mishandled crime scene protocols, sharing unauthorized photographs and breaching professional standards.

James (75:11): "It's fine. I'm telling you. Start the year out with greater peace of mind."

Legislation and Impact: Amanda's Law In response to the mishandling of the crime scene and the emotional toll on Amanda's family, Amanda's Law was enacted in Massachusetts. This legislation prohibits first responders from taking unauthorized photographs of crime scenes, ensuring the privacy and dignity of victims and their families are upheld.

James (78:51): "She said, yeah, body cameras should never be turned off. That wasn't the issue. The issue was personal cell phones."

Amanda's Law stands as a testament to the family's resilience and their pursuit of justice, aiming to prevent similar tragedies in the future.

Conclusion Episode #560 of Small Town Murder offers a profound exploration of a tragic event that shook Chicopee, Massachusetts. Through detailed storytelling and insightful commentary, hosts James and Jimmy provide listeners with a comprehensive understanding of the complexities surrounding Amanda Lynn Plass's murder, the investigation process, and the broader implications for the community and law enforcement practices.

Notable Quotes

• James (15:23): "So champ, how long was that?"
• James (24:30): "Looking for a very small man, an average sized woman or. Or a very large 12 year old."
• Jimmy (26:21): "That's kids."
• James (63:45): "How do you explain that?"
• James (78:51): "She said, yeah, body cameras should never be turned off. That wasn't the issue. The issue was personal cell phones."

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This summary captures the essence of Episode #560, focusing on the key elements of the Chicopee murder case while omitting advertisements and non-content sections to provide a clear and engaging overview for listeners and potential new audiences.

Transcript

[James Petregallo]

Hey everybody. Just gonna take a quick break from the show and tell you about noom. Has NOOM helped you? I believe it has.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Oh, it's got an app. You can do tracking. It's terrific.

[James Petregallo]

It does. And NOOM builds personal plans that can meet individual needs. That's the thing. Takes into account any dietary restrictions, medical issues, other personal needs that helps build a plan that works for you. And yes. So you've. I know that you've had your own personalized program here that you've been working on.

[Jimmy Whisman]

And weight loss, this is weight loss results that last. They stick around because you get yourself into a lifestyle change. That's what matters.

[James Petregallo]

That's mainly. You can't just say I'm going to cut that out for a month and then go back. That's not what it is.

[Jimmy Whisman]

You don't.

[James Petregallo]

So I'm glad it's helping you. That's great. And it really does. I like the psychology and biology based approach here. NOOM weight uses psychology. That's why they say losing weight starts with your brain but it also takes into account your unique biological factors. Jimmy. All of all of your all different multitude flora and fauna that goes on inside of you there. Stay focused on what's important to you with Noom's psychology and biology based approach. Sign up for your trial today at Noom.com, noom.com n o o m.com here. Based on 3.5 year study of actively engaged Noom users with minimum starting BMI of 25. Individual results may vary. Visit our website for more information. Hey everybody. Just gonna take a quick break from the show and tell you a little bit about Rocket Money. You wanna save money?

[Jimmy Whisman]

Always.

[James Petregallo]

This is what it's about. They found a subscription of mine that I paid for for years. You know how angry I was? I was equally as angry at that as I was happy that Rocket Money found it. Like, thank you for saving me. It's excellent. And that's what Rocket Money is. It's awesome. Rocket Money is a personal finance app that helps find and cancel your unwanted subscriptions, monitors your spending and helps lower your bills so you can grow your savings. You can't beat it. See all of your subscriptions in one place. You know where all your money's going. Create a personalized budget you can do too. It tracks all your expenses. You get alerts if bills increase in price. Rocket Money has over 5 million users and has saved a total of $500 million in canceled subscriptions, saving members up to $740 a year when using all the app's premium features. Cancel your unwanted subscriptions and reach your financial goals faster with rocket Money. Go to RocketMoney.com SmallTown Murder today. That's RocketMoney.com SmallTownMurderRocketMoney.com SmallTown Murder now back to the show. Hello, everybody, and welcome back to small town Murder Express. Yay.

[Jimmy Whisman]

And choo choo.

[James Petregallo]

Oh, yay indeed, Jimmy. Yay indeed. My name is James Petregallo. I'm here with my co host.

[Jimmy Whisman]

I'm Jimmy Whisman.

[James Petregallo]

Thank you folks so much for joining us today. All aboard the Murder train pulling away from the station. Here we go. We got some crazy stuff for you today as usual. But it's extra crazy if that's possible. I don't know. It's wild. It always is for express. We will get into that. First of all, head over to shut upandgivemerder.com Tickets for live shows are available. The slate for 2025 is set. There is one show we've yet to announce which will make sense why we delayed in announcing it when it comes out. Yeah, it'll be in a couple weeks here. So I think January 14th, we're releasing that. But Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, February 7th, you are up first. We are at the Munn, or not in Munn Hall. We're in Oakland this time.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Oakland.

[James Petregallo]

Carnegie.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Carnegie. Carnegie.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah. So head over there. Columbus the next night. Let's fill that bad boy up and start this year off right. Pittsburgh can't wait to do that. So shut upandgivemerder.com is where you get all those. Check out the fun places were coming this year. And then after that, if you've, you know, you've seen live shows, you've listened to this show, you should listen to crime and sports and your stupid opinions. Our other two shows as well.

[Jimmy Whisman]

You want more?

[James Petregallo]

You want more? We got more for you. Oh, yeah. Patreon.com CrimeInSports Just like the other show we do. That will get you all the bonus material you could possibly ask for. Anybody $5 a month or above. You get hundreds of bonus episodes immediately upon subscription that you've never heard before. And then you get new ones every other week. One crime and sp. Small town murder. And you get it all. Every last drop of it. This week, what we're gonna do for crime and sports. Back by popular demand. Cause it's so much fun. Personal ads. Oh my God, they're fun. Find out how people navigated love before the Internet. How they could bizarre. You could walk up to someone and say hello, or you could put an ad in the newspaper and then wait by your mailbox for responses. So there's that then for small town murder. West Memphis three. We're going to talk about that. We're going to very specifically talk about how did this happen? How'd they get to the point where they said, those are our guys? How did we get there? What's the evidence from. Without really any evidence whatsoever what led us there. We'll talk all about it. There's still people that think they did it too, by the way, that are like, those kids should fry. It's wild. Look, go to Reddit. It's insane. So we'll check all that out and more patreon.com crimeinsports and you get a shout out at the end of the show as well.

[Jimmy Whisman]

You bet.

[James Petregallo]

The regular show. So get into that. That said, I think it's time, everybody. Let's all sit back. What do you say? Collectively? And let's all take a deep breath, arms to the sky. Let's all shout, Shut up and give me murder. Let's do this, everybody.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Okay.

[James Petregallo]

Let's go on a trip, shall we? Let's do it. We're going to Massachusetts. Here we go. Massachusetts. This is Chicopee, Massachusetts.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Oh, Chicopee, Mass.

[James Petregallo]

Old Chicopee.

[Jimmy Whisman]

It's a nice place.

[James Petregallo]

Chicopee, Mass. Is in south central Massachusetts. It's kind of like mid. Mid Massachusetts, we'll call it. It's about an hour and a half to Boston and about three hours to New York City. The other direction sits in the middle there. And it is 15 minutes actually to Agawam, which was our last Massachusetts episode, which was the Music Box Murder. That was crazy shit. I remember that. But this is basically, there's Springfield in the middle. Chicopee is on one, like the south side of Springfield, and Agawam is the north side of Springfield.

[Jimmy Whisman]

How about that?

[James Petregallo]

It's just on the other side of Springfield, basically. Not on purpose, just the way it worked out. Population here, 55,636. So a little more than we usually do. But it's definitely a small town in the feel and how everything works here. Median household income here, less than the national average, actually, which is odd for me.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Really?

[James Petregallo]

Yeah. There's some towns in Massachusetts that are not affluent at all. If you. Yeah. Remember when we drove to the dispensary there going. We drove through like those weird trailer. Not even parks, just those bizarre trailer sections of the road when they were like, it was bad stuff.

[Jimmy Whisman]

The whole North Part of Massachusetts. Every town that dots that border is like that.

[James Petregallo]

It's like Framingham. Just weird funked industrial towns. They used to have factories and make shit. Now they don't. And now they are what they are.

[Jimmy Whisman]

It's a wild state.

[James Petregallo]

So median household income here, 56,509, which is well below the national average.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Very, very low.

[James Petregallo]

And then median home price. Massachusetts is a pretty expensive place. That's Also low, actually. $272,100, which is much lower than the national average.

[Jimmy Whisman]

I hate that we're telling everybody I know.

[James Petregallo]

Well, this isn't that great. I'm not going to end up here. So you can go to. Nah, you can go here all you want, head to Chicopee all you want. People enjoy nicknames here. They call it the crossroads of New England, which makes sense in that area. It is kind of. Everybody goes through there to go anywhere. And then of course, this one, which is a little less geographic. The kielbasa capital of the world. Didn't expect that, did you?

[Jimmy Whisman]

The amount of jokes that they're just leaving. You know, your town's called Chicopee for Christ.

[James Petregallo]

Chicopee chick, Opie. And then you got kielbasa capital of the world. Which I'm sure there's, you know, places in maybe Germany or Austria or something that would probably challenge you for that. Poland maybe. I don't know. Where the hell they said the world, huh? The world. Not Massachusetts, not the United States. Whole world. Little bit of history of this town. They've had a shitload of different. This is a big industry town and that's the thing. All these Massachusetts towns made shit. And they had a lot of industry and factories. And this is kind of the story of a lot of Massachusetts town.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah, it's the first place they landed for crisis.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah, there was cotton mills, wool mills, textiles, brass and iron foundries, paper making, footwear, factories for leather boots and shoes. The first friction matches were from here.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Is that right?

[James Petregallo]

Shipbuilding, everything was here. And then of course, the firearms company, Crescent Davis specialized in producing double barrel shotguns.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Really?

[James Petregallo]

Yeah. Specialized in cartoon shotguns in the old Elmer Fudd. The Ames Manufacturing Company made machines and brass, I'm sorry, bronze cannons and more swords than any other American manufacturer at the time.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Who gives a fuck about kielbasa?

[James Petregallo]

Yeah, they're the top sword maker, apparently.

[Jimmy Whisman]

That's amazing.

[James Petregallo]

Ames cast a number of bronze statues, including the Thomas Ball's monumental equestrian statue of President George Washington installed in Boston's public garden. That George Washington that was made here. Oh, the horse yeah, that was made here. Yep. Also, they made a lot of shit for the Civil War and everything like that. They also, during the 1800s, became a major manufacturing center for bicycles.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Huh.

[James Petregallo]

Mad Libs town. The town became two. Site of at least two bicycle factories. The Overman Wheel Company from 1882 to 1899, and the Spalding Sporting Goods Company.

[Jimmy Whisman]

No.

[James Petregallo]

Which was a big goddamn deal. That's where in the 1800s, if you wanted like a baseball glove or something like that, that's you ordered from their catalog. That's what they had.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Basketball.

[James Petregallo]

Yep. So they moved to the Overman Bicycles, moved to Hartford a little bit later. And, you know, basically the bicycle boom of the 1890s kind of died with cars. So that happened here. And by 1901, overman was out of business. So there you go. Reviews of this town, five stars. Here we go.

[Jimmy Whisman]

They love it.

[James Petregallo]

In my neighborhood. Everyone is nice and kind.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Everyone.

[James Petregallo]

Everyone up my street. Not one asshole on the whole. Not one pissy old lady that'll keep your bald. Nothing like that. Up my street, there's an elementary school. So me and maybe most of my neighbors and their children would walk up to the school and back. I hope you have kids there. Just taking a stroll. For me, it usually takes 10 minutes to get to school and back. Around this area, we've seen many different race, but everyone is so nice. Not race is just many different. One race. We would sometimes play outside during the summer with our longtime neighbor, and it would be the best summer. So you were a kid and you played outside during the summer. That's a really unique experience. Thank you for sharing your unique experience of playing outside in the summer.

[Jimmy Whisman]

As a child, you didn't have to be in school. You hung out with your neighbor outside.

[James Petregallo]

Wow, three stars here. I mean, it's okay. That's what they say. I can't really compare it to anywhere else as I've been here my whole life. Could use more stuff to do. School is meh. Yeah, it is meh. If you can't come up with a better adjective to describe it than meh, it's pretty meh.

[Jimmy Whisman]

This is a late teenager.

[James Petregallo]

We shouldn't even listen to any of.

[Jimmy Whisman]

The words they said.

[James Petregallo]

Nope, nope. Not bad. Just okay. Some crazy stuff to do. Some crazy stuff do be going on here, though. That's good. I'm happy to hear that. That's what I like to hear. Crazy stuff do be going on here, though. If you're around the right people, you can see actual crime going on here. Actual crime, Drugs, Also kinda a problem. The rinky dink roads are home. Okay? People are either very nice or just don't care. Usually neighbors are willing to converse. Lots of Hispanic people in these buildings where I grew up. I mean it's not exactly exciting just to exist here, but at least you don't get someone knocking on your door every day. What the fuck are you talking about, Utah? Are you saying the Mormons aren't bothering you? What are you saying? What the. Up in these buildings, occasionally something crazy happens. Cops are. I don't know.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Okay, they're cops.

[James Petregallo]

They're cops. Kids here are not gonna lie. Kind of jerks when they get past the third grade.

[Jimmy Whisman]

That's kids.

[James Petregallo]

That's kids. You named it. No guarantee. There may also be some gangs going on off topic. But crack is just exchanged at gas stations at night. Yeah, where else are you gonna buy crack? Like you pull up with all the people there. Still a nice suburb place. A kind of place you can get to know Jesus Christ. And then finally one star. A few really good neighbors. But can be dangerous depending on where you are. Some issues with collusion between the schools and other elected officials.

[Jimmy Whisman]

What?

[James Petregallo]

Memorial Drive is a headache. That means that schools and officials have to, I assume, get together to figure out what they're gonna do. And they don't want that. I don't know. I have no idea what else they could be talking about. Things to do here. The Chicopee Kielbasa Festival. Of course. It's the better be fucking capital of the world. You gotta have it. Yearly Memorial Day regional festival showcasing kielbasa, Polish culture and international foods. Games and vending and rides. We'll hold off on all the jokes of like the light bulb turning, you know? You know, Team Light. Team Light bulb turning and shit like that. We'll just. We'll just take a step back and not even say anything.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Move along.

[James Petregallo]

This is an article from 1989 about the festival. From 89 where they had the world's largest kielbasa.

[Jimmy Whisman]

How big was it?

[James Petregallo]

449 pounds. Holy shit.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Holy.

[James Petregallo]

The size of a fucking horse.

[Jimmy Whisman]

How long was that?

[James Petregallo]

It's insane. It took 15 minutes of the Chicopee or 15 employees of the Chickadee Provision Company 30 minutes to stuff the king kielbasa, which is Showcased at the four day festival. That Kielbossa's 13 pounds heavier than last year's record setter.

[Jimmy Whisman]

I got 13 more pounds.

[James Petregallo]

Measured 26ft 3 inches.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Holy shit.

[James Petregallo]

Come get my kielbasa, everybody. And the guy said we just try to make it Bigger each year. The kielbasa. Yeah, that's great. And it will be after, when it's over, the kielbasa will be cut up and donated to charities. Want a slice of kielbasa?

[Jimmy Whisman]

I mean how big of a slice is that?

[James Petregallo]

Like a pizza? Yeah, like a pizza. I think it's a large pie. That said, let's talk about some murder here.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Let's do it.

[James Petregallo]

Oh boy. Because we got a wild one. All right, let's do this. Let's go back. Not very far. Pretty much the world is just about the Same. August of 2011. Yeah, yeah. Your phone looked the same. Things were the same. Things are normal. Let's talk about somebody with a familiar name, but it's not the same guy. Seth Green. Really? Like the actor and the voice actor from Family Guy and Massachusetts. Yeah. Well, Rhode Island.

[Jimmy Whisman]

He is from Rhode Island.

[James Petregallo]

Well, I just mean Chris Griffin is from Rhode Island. The Family Guy character. He is from Rhode island maybe. And Robot Chicken he did and all that kind of shit. So this is seth green. He's 27 years old.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Oh, Seth Green. Why did I saw Seth MacFarlane?

[James Petregallo]

No, no. Well, the little guy works for Seth MacFarlane. Yeah, the little red headed guy. Yeah, the guy who you go, wow, man. The other Seth, he looks terrible. But it's like I feel bad for a guy like that because he was like a child actor. But teen actors are actually 22, so that's just what they look like. But you expect them to grow up and look different, but they don't. And then they look like just older children. But it's. That's because that's what he was done. It's kind of a tough thing. I feel bad for old Seth Green.

[Jimmy Whisman]

But he's got so much fucking money.

[James Petregallo]

Oh, he does. Great.

[Jimmy Whisman]

So Seth's done fantastic.

[James Petregallo]

This Seth Green is 27 and he doesn't have the same amount of money. He's a construction worker, so.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Oh no.

[James Petregallo]

27 year old construction worker Seth. And he. Yeah, please. And he just started dating a new young lady. The relationship is less than a week old. It's like six days old here.

[Jimmy Whisman]

They don't even know anything about each other.

[James Petregallo]

No. He met a young lady named Amanda Lynn Plass. P L A S S E Plass So Amanda, another Lynn. By the way, our regular small town murder this week had both the murderer and victim were named. Had middle names of Lynn. So Lynn or Amanda here, she's a little chick too. She's five one, about £100, 20 years old, big personality. She's known, Very outgoing, very free spirited. She's an artist. She has tattoos all over her. She's just a real kind of cool chick here. She's got big curly hair, lot of tattoos and she loves art. That's what she likes to do here is paint and do stuff like that. She's working as a hostess and waitress at Friendly's on Memorial Drive in Chicopee.

[Jimmy Whisman]

There you go.

[James Petregallo]

So Friendly's, if you don't know, if you're not from the east coast, is like a family sit down ice cream burger joint. Basically it's a little diner. Kind of not diner, but like a little.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Does it exist anymore?

[James Petregallo]

Yeah, they're here. They're in New York. We have them. Yeah. And like all the Friendly's ice cream as they sell at the grocery store here and shit. Their strawberry shortcake bars are top notch, delicious. Love them. So she's working there. I have friends that used to work at Friendly's and used to steal the giant things of ice cream.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Awesome.

[James Petregallo]

Like the.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Oh yeah, they rolled them out the door.

[James Petregallo]

Like the fucking 10 gallon ones. Yeah, yeah. And we put them in the car and be like, nobody has a freezer that can fit this. So we'd have to eat as much ice cream as we all could possibly fucking throw out. Throw out 8 gallons of ice cream. We used to steal that shit. So she's very well known to her regular customers as being real social, real energetic. People used to, people would request her as the, oh, I want to get. I want Amanda.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Get.

[James Petregallo]

Give me Amanda. Really? Yeah. She's the best. So that's how people are with her. Her mother said to know her is to love her. You would only have to meet her once and you were forever her friend. She'd never forget you. Nor would you forget her crazy curly hair, stunning green eyes covered in tattoos, her beautiful artwork. That's what her mom says. Now, her and Seth, like I said, it's a week old relationship and they are already like enmeshed after a week. Hot and hot and heavy to the point where he's already living in her apartment.

[Jimmy Whisman]

What?

[James Petregallo]

I mean, they've known each other a week and he's already. Not only is he staying there every night, which would be like, you know, things are going well. He's moving his shit in there. His stuff is there. Like he's got a stereo and shit.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Like, what could you have in common with somebody to. I don't know, that fast.

[James Petregallo]

Some people are like that. Some people like. Yeah, some people go for relationships and try to like be really enmeshed immediately and like they're looking to be in love. So you get two people like that who are like love at first sight people. And especially if you're artsy and kind of free spirited, you're not really. Usually they don't have the most practical thoughts as far as I barely met this guy and you go with your feelings and I think that's what's going on here. And he's like, he's just some construction guy who's like, I'm fucking this hot art chick, dude. She's awesome, you know. And they both smoke weed together. We'll talk about like, yeah, she's a cool ass chick, man. She lives. And I guess he's sort of living at 73 School street in Chicopee in a third story apartment. So that's where she lives, so. August 25, 2011. It's been about a week of bliss here between Seth and Amanda. And they had a quiet night that night. He got home from work and she did her thing and they were doing stuff. They smoked weed together that night as they do regularly. They're both daily weed smokers, it seems like. And he is also into art stuff. He's making jewelry while Amanda is painting that night.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Really?

[James Petregallo]

Yeah. So there's a real kind of an arts and crafts, not to be confused with Sarah Boone's arts and craft night, which is way different.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Very chill vibe though.

[James Petregallo]

Very chill vibe. They're kicking it, smoking weed, making shit like, sounds fun. You order a pizza, I'll go there. It sounds good, I'm in. So the next morning, this is the next day, August 26, 2011. Seth leaves for work, I assume at the crack of dawn, probably because he's a construction worker.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Or else he's late.

[James Petregallo]

Or else he's goddamn late. Absolutely. So she works the evening shift at Friendly's that night so she doesn't have to get up in the morning. So Seth said he called her in the afternoon of August 26th to say that he's going to be late and couldn't pick her up to get her to her job at friendlies by 5 o'clock as he was supposed to. He said he could, but now he's got to stay late at work. And so he's saying, I'm going to miss you by a little bit, I can't get you there by five. So telling her that a few hours ahead of time so she can get a ride. Which is, which is fine. But already he's like, they're doing like Daytime calls, and I can't, but, like, they're already together.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah, she's already relying on him on the floor for the ride tomorrow. That's.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah. So he said he got off of work and then drove to Friendly's to see if she had gotten picked up or not. And if she. If she hadn't gotten picked up yet, he was gonna grab her. So he stopped by, but she wasn't there. So he's like, oh, okay, Shit. Or drop her off. I meant, you know, see if she got dropped off and say hello to her. So he went to his grandmother's house for a little while, and then he went back to Amanda's apartment building, you know, because he sort of lives there. He's got his shit there. So he. When he gets back there, he sees that the porch window is broken, which isn't good. That's what he says. He says, I get there, porch window's broken. So then he opens the door and he said, quote, as soon as I walked in, I saw some red in the kitchen. My first impression was I thought it was paint.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Oh. Cause she was painting.

[James Petregallo]

She's painting. She was painting that day. And that's kind of what I wanted it to be. Then I noticed it wasn't just paint around her. I kneeled next to her. Then he tried cpr, but realized that she was dead. Amanda's on the floor, blood everywhere and dead.

[Jimmy Whisman]

And now he's got blood all over him. This is new. And. God damn it.

[James Petregallo]

I'm a just moved in. Oh, baby. So he dialed 911, and this is all his story of what he did. He called 911, police arrive. One of the detectives said, we met the boyfriend on the back porch. He was in the fetal position. That's not a. You know, that's not saying cold blooded right off the bat, but also people act. Who knows? You know what I mean?

[Jimmy Whisman]

Sure, sure.

[James Petregallo]

You show up. I'm sure lots of people killed their. Whoever the fuck, or, you know. Oh, God. Oh, no. I mean, that's. What else would you be like, yeah, I found her. I don't know. Fuck it. Hold on. I'm texting this chick and I look like, hold on, wait a minute. I got stuff going on here. So she said that he said there was no forced entry into her apartment, and police believed her assailant may have known her. So they get in there. There is blood on the floor, on the cabinet, on the counter. They find bloody shoe prints on the floor. Now they're trying to determine. They determine it's either a men's size seven and a half.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah.

[James Petregallo]

A women's size nine and a half or a youth size seven. They have not decided yet.

[Jimmy Whisman]

That is the added bonus that I have with my baby feet.

[James Petregallo]

That's. You get to. Yeah, you will fucking find me. You'll be like, oh, yeah, look for some guy tripping over his own feet and shit. They're huge.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Looking for a very small man, an average sized woman or. Or a very large 12 year old.

[James Petregallo]

One of the two. Or me at 12. So they find that she has been stabbed multiple times in her side and chest and her throat was cut as well. This is a lot. I mean, she has just been hacked up and had her throat cut. It's overkill is what they. And the detectives describe it that way too. They describe it as very violent overkill and possibly a crime of passion. Because this isn't like your normal robbery killing. You know, you usually kill someone as quick as you can. Not really work them over with a knife. So the bloody shoe prints which had dried, the blood had dried on the shoe prints, which helps them determine a time of death because they can see who she was talking to and when and after that. So they get the time of death down to between 4:10 and 5:00pm so very specific. That is a. Inside of an hour. Yeah. That's not bad. That's really good. A palm print is found on a broken window. On a window that was broken from the inside of the apartment.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Okay.

[James Petregallo]

Which is punched out, which seems like that's to make it look like a robbery is what people would do.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah, you punch out.

[James Petregallo]

Nobody breaks into an apartment by punching a window out from the inside. Once you're in, you don't need to break windows, just go out the door. So that's another thing. That's something. And they say palm prints, by the way, are individual, like fingerprints, in case you don't know that. So if you find a palm print, that's something. So she also sustained. Amanda did multiple blunt force injuries to her face, head and shoulders as well. So she was beaten, stabbed, her throat was cut. This all seems like a lot for her. Who doesn't really have any enemies or anything like that.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Very aggressive.

[James Petregallo]

She had scrapes and sharp force injuries to her face, neck, chest and abdomen, including six stab wounds and two slashes to her neck from chin to collarbone. This is a lot. There's a lot of violence, man. A lot of violence. She was found in a pool, large pool of blood in the kitchen here. Blood, blood stains throughout the kitchen revealed that she'd been stabbed multiple times in the course of a violent struggle.

[Jimmy Whisman]

What the hell?

[James Petregallo]

Smears of her hands on cabinets and. I mean, that's. You can tell when there's a struggle. According to the medical examiner who performed the autopsy, she died of injuries to her heart and liver, soft tissue and soft tissue due to stab wounds to her chest and abdomen. And they said in the course of a violent struggle, items of evidence, including bodily fluids and blood, saliva, sweat, skin cells are often transferred here. So they're looking for. This is 2011, so they want DNA and shit like that. They do fingernail scrapings and everything like that. And they do find DNA under her fingernails. It does not belong to her. Okay, so that's an interesting thing here. The medical examiner said she bled to death from a combination of stab and cutting wounds. He said the bleeding sent her into shock, and she would have been conscious minutes before going into shock and would have definitely felt the pain. It wasn't a thing where she was killed and didn't know what was happening. This was a struggle, and she put up a fight, and it was really bad. Now Seth Green notices that his weed that he left on the coffee table as well as his knife are not there. Okay, my knife is missing. That was on the table that probably caused all these wounds. And my weed is missing, which is what I notice when my girlfriend's been slaughtered in front of me. Hey, where's my weed? Which I guess maybe at that point I'd really need some weed, so I might notice that. Fuck. Yeah, my pipe scraper. He said he told the police that those are the only items he could see that were missing, were his weed and his knife. So, yeah, this is real weird stuff here. And the cops immediately do not trust Seth at all. No, they don't trust him. So they sit him down, they go, all right, Chief, let's talk polygraph. They don't even tell. The first thing they say is, let's do a polygraph. And he says, fine. And he passes a polygraph test. And also his shoe. He has an adult foot, and his shoe is not a seven and a.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Half old man wears a 12.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah. Or at least something there. So. And also, the palm print does not match him either. So he's cleared.

[Jimmy Whisman]

That's terrifying.

[James Petregallo]

That's it. He's clear. That's what I mean. They were hoping they could wrap this up quick and, you know, set this full of shit. And his alibi was good, too. He was at work till past five.

[Jimmy Whisman]

There's Somebody with a very small foot that's capable of really awful things out there.

[James Petregallo]

Really bad shit. So they said the person she fought with left a large amount of DNA under her fingernails.

[Jimmy Whisman]

A large amount.

[James Petregallo]

Large. She was fighting for her life. She was scratching. She's fucking clawing.

[Jimmy Whisman]

This guy got a whole bunch of him.

[James Petregallo]

Oh, yeah. They ran the DNA through the database. No matches. So that sucks. Could be a child they don't have. Tiny. Or a woman. That's the other thing they're thinking. There's no rape or anything like that. So they're thinking this could be. She might have pissed a woman off. Who knows? Is that. Does Seth Green have an ex girlfriend and stuff like that? There you go, you know, because that's what they're thinking. They said no. She seemed to live, you know, in her one bedroom apartment. She didn't really, you know, have enemies. But they said that the investigator said the impression is that she definitely knew her assailant. And she probably. This wasn't a random act. It doesn't look like this show Small Town Murder is sponsored by BetterHelp every January. It's a whole new slate clean. You bet it is. Blank pages all the way around.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Absolutely.

[James Petregallo]

Maybe you're ready for a new something in your life here. A little plot twist in your story that you've been wanting to revise a little bit. But life isn't about resolutions that are gonna fade away by February, by the, you know, right after New Year's. Think of therapy as an editorial partner. There you go. That's a good way to put it. Helping you write new chapters and creating the story of your life that you should have, that you want to have. That's what it's all about.

[Jimmy Whisman]

The one you deserve.

[James Petregallo]

The one you deserve. And we can't say enough about therapy. We all have problems and we all have issues and no, none of us.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Are a lot of the right answer all the time. Sometimes you need a little coaching. Sometimes you need an extra tool in the toolbox to cope and deal with the day.

[James Petregallo]

Write your story with better help. Visit betterhelp.com smalltownmurder today to get 10% off your first month. That's betterhelp h e l p.com smalltown murder now back to the show. Hey, everybody. Just gonna take a quick break from the show and tell you all sorts of good stuff about chime. That's what I'm talking about. There's so many extra fees you have to pay in life. Everything. You go to the airline, there's an extra ticket on that, there's extra fee on every fee, hotels fees, all this type of stuff. We're trying to make progress and the next thing you know, here comes another fee coming at you and it's more money than you expected and your whole math is thrown off and it's awful. Learn [e-mail] SmallTownMurder Chime is great with that stuff. I mean, you can't beat if you're things are a little tight, especially around the holidays or after the holidays. You need that money a couple days early or go grocery shopping. You got a car payment due. There's so many things that don't cross over exactly how you want them to cross over. Make progress toward a better financial future with Chime. Open your account in two [e-mail] smalltownmurder that's chime.com Smalltown Murder feels like progress Banking services and debit cards provided by Bancorp Bank NA or Stride Bank NA members FDIC Spot ME eligibility requirements and overdraft limits apply. Boosts are available to eligible CHAI members enrolled in Spot ME and are subject to monthly limits. Timing depends on submission of payment file fees applied out of network ATMs and.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Now back to the show.

[James Petregallo]

They said we're not locked into that, but it's the initial police theory that we're working on here. They said that there are a number of people that they've encountered while doing interviews with their friends who have information. And there are more who we know have information. We're trying to determine who we should have the most interest in. They're just trying to figure out what to do. So anyway, her mother said that she was a very happy, positive, free spirited, bubbly, energetic person. She always had a smile on her face and bent over backwards for anyone. A friend of hers said she was just a really down to earth, really good person. She loved music, especially folk and bluegrass, and played the acoustic guitar. This chick's cool.

[Jimmy Whisman]

2011. She's very fun.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah, I don't really want to listen to fucking bluegrass music that much, but it's fine if she can play it. That's cool. That's cool shit.

[Jimmy Whisman]

I mean, in 2011 it seems like she might be the only person on the planet that loved it.

[James Petregallo]

You know, Shit. Who's under the age of 60 and doesn't live in Iowa? Apparently in Iowa they love that shit. So. She was also good at tie dye and she would decorate shirts and blankets all the time. Her last Facebook post, she joked about sunflower power. That's the type of chick she is, you know what I mean? She's pretty cool and nice. And her boss at Friendly's said that she's literally loved by everyone. I was absolutely shocked about what happened. And by the way, they're making a plaque to hang in friendlies of her.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Oh, that's nice.

[James Petregallo]

That's really depressing. As you eat your sundae. As I eat my fucking banana split. That's very depressing.

[Jimmy Whisman]

So anything to cheer me up from that fucking plaque.

[James Petregallo]

No shit. This is really depressing. So they took examination grade, as they call it, photos of the foot impressions of the bloody footprints and made impressions to do comparisons. And they called all the first responders back. Anyone who had entered the house photographed the bottom of their shoes. Anybody have tiny girl feet? Any of you guys? No? Okay.

[Jimmy Whisman]

God damn it.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah. They also did footwear impressions. That's one of the things that excluded Seth Green was he was wearing leather work boots that were not seven and a half. So he's out. The next step would be they found out the shoes are Nike's. So they contacted Nike to try to help get help from them to determine what this was. They determined it's an Air Max shoe.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Okay.

[James Petregallo]

And we'll talk about either a nine and a half woman's or seven and a half men. That's what they decide. Enter. Mercedes Benz. No shit. That's this woman's name. Expelled. Exactly like the car. B, E N, Z. Mercedes Benz. One of Amanda's friends. She's 25. She worked at Friendly's with Amanda and was her friend. She said that Amanda was loving and caring and would give you the shirt off your back. Now, she said she was texting back and forth with Amanda all day, she said, at 4:20pm so we can move that time of death up from between 4:20 to 5 instead of 4:10. Mercedes got a text message from Amanda that Amanda needed a ride to work. So Mercedes said that she called Amanda just before five when she was about to pick her up. But Amanda didn't answer the texts or her phone call. She said, quote, I sat outside about five minutes before I left. And she said she wasn't concerned though, because she figured because Mercedes was late to get there, so she figured she must have just got another ride and now she's starting her shift and can't look at her phone.

[Jimmy Whisman]

So she showed up to the house and texted her and then took off.

[James Petregallo]

And then took off while she was.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Oh, my God.

[James Petregallo]

Inside, bleeding out on her floor.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Holy shit.

[James Petregallo]

Ben's texted her and said I asked her if she was mad at me because I was picking her up for work late, so she thought she was mad.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Oh, my God, the fucking guilt that girl must have.

[James Petregallo]

And they're like, hey, Mercedes, what size are your feet?

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah, shoes you wearing?

[James Petregallo]

You got some big feet on you or not? But turns out she doesn't fit this either. She doesn't fit the palm print, anything. So. Yeah, we're back to this now. Now, I was gonna say, were they fighting over tables at friendlies? She's not pooling her tips. What's going on? What's the problem? So October of time goes by now. Yeah, we're up to October now. And in October 2011, about a month and a half goes by, and there's a guy who says he was at a party in Chicopee when a man named Gio confessed to killing Amanda. Okay, That's. He goes to the police and says that. Now, police speak with a number of people who have been at the party and found nobody else heard any conversation like that at all. So this guy was saying it was like a conversation in the middle of the party, like, yeah, I killed that chick. Like, with a group of people. No one else said it happened. So then this guy, Coggins is his last name, who went to the police. He was charged with misleading the police.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Oh.

[James Petregallo]

And he pleaded guilty and served a sentence of 208 days in jail for it.

[Jimmy Whisman]

He lied for real.

[James Petregallo]

He lied for real for no reason. No reason, no benefit. I don't know if he wants. I don't understand it. So, yeah, I guess Coggins is a weed guy. He's a weed dealer. That's what he does. And this one guy said he talked with Coggins about doing work for him. He said Coggins, who was never paid, gave him some information, but it never led to the arrest or conviction of anyone. So he said he no longer talked to Coggins after he was arrested for misleading police. So after that, they have nothing. They have DNA, palm print, you know, liar, liars, they got all sorts of shit. But what they don't have is a viable murder suspect is the problem.

[Jimmy Whisman]

What are you gonna do?

[James Petregallo]

So weeks go by, months start to go by. Okay? The next thing that happens is November of 2012. So more than a year has gone by. Okay? Now, at this point, this is when a detective hears a guy named Corey Los Los. He comes to a detective and says, ryan Coggins, remember the guy who misled the police? Yeah.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Little liar.

[James Petregallo]

He's in jail at this point, not for that, for something else. He's in jail with this Corey Los guy. And Corey Los came to the cops and said this Coggins guy said he killed Amanda Plass. He told me, he said that they were in the same pod at the jail from November 1 through November 3. He said on November 3, Coggins told him that he killed Amanda Plass. So that's what they said. Now, as a result of the report by this guy, this Los guy, about Coggins confessing, Coggins was transferred to another pod and all of that. Now, later on, though, he's going to end up kind of dismissing himself of that story, saying that really didn't happen. He won't testify to it. He'll take the Fifth when asked about it. So. All right. Now mom is pissed. Yeah. As you might imagine here, this is. Amanda's mom is upset. She is doing everything she can to find the murderer. She sponsored road races and posted flyers in hopes of someone coming forward with some kind of evidence. Yeah, she started. And she's also calling the detectives every day. What do you got? What are you doing? What are you doing today? What are you doing today, guys?

[Jimmy Whisman]

Where can I meet you?

[James Petregallo]

You're not letting this go, guys. You're gonna fucking find this person. So the detectives had to keep pouring through the evidence, not saying they wouldn't have anyway, but you got some lady's mom calling you every goddamn day. You better keep looking at that fucking file. So they decide that they're gonna. They look through the photos and look through everything and look in all the photos of every single room and really concentrate on them. Really?

[Jimmy Whisman]

Every detail?

[James Petregallo]

Every detail. Maybe something got overlooked. So it's at this point where I don't know how this didn't get noticed, you know? Fucking 14 months earlier.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Is it in a picture?

[James Petregallo]

What'd they find in a picture? Written on a whiteboard. She has a whiteboard that. She writes shit. Vertically down the side is written Dennis was here 8, 11, 11. So August 11, 2011, which is 15 days before the murder.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Okay?

[James Petregallo]

So they're like, okay, who the fuck is Dennis? And how did we not see this? Number one? Because we've. They've exhausted everything, every person that's been in that apartment. They've checked all their palm prints, DNA, shoes, nothing works. It's. They're at the point where they're like, there's a guy. Dennis is written on a whiteboard. Let's find. Who knows. Heard of Dennis, and we don't know. We've Never interviewed a Dennis. So we don't know what's going on here. So they're like, if Dennis was here, we should interview him. Just anybody who's. Anyone who's in that apartment, they interviewed. So they.

[Jimmy Whisman]

He was. And he was there a week.

[James Petregallo]

Was here.

[Jimmy Whisman]

He was. She started dating this guy.

[James Petregallo]

Exactly that, too. So detectives, dig through Amanda's phone records and social media messages and ask friends and family, everything. Who's Dennis? Yeah, nobody knows. Nobody knows Dennis. Nobody's ever heard of Dennis fucking Dennis. So then they did a record search for anyone named Dennis who lived within like six blocks of her. Just anyone around there. Is there any Dennis's around there? They found two possibilities of Dennis's den I, Denis I and two den I. And they cross referenced the numbers with the ones on her cell phone records.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah.

[James Petregallo]

Does she know any of these people? So then they find out more on that in a second. They find out that her apartment had previously been broken into as well. Oh, but it wasn't reported to the police. That's the thing. Witnesses told police that Amanda thought she knew who had broken in. And in September 2011, this was right after the murder, one witness, who's a former boyfriend of hers, not Seth Green, he told investigators that Amanda thought a small Puerto Rican man who lived within a short walk and whose name he thought began with a D had broken in. Okay, okay. He also said he had seen the man walking around the neighborhood and would recognize him when interviewed again in 2012. In April of 2012, the ex boyfriend said a few days after the break, the break in, this guy that he had. The boyfriend had stayed at Amanda's place and they were hanging out together. And he said that she called the guy who she thought had broken into her place. She got his phone number and called him. Oh, she had his phone number because she had hung out with him one time. And we'll find out why Amanda had called them. And he. This is what the guy said. Amanda had called them. And I woke up. She said he was coming over to talk about it. I was there when the guy came over. It was about five or ten minutes later after she called. The guy was Spanish. He was probably between 21 and 23 years old. He had short hair. He had a little facial hair that was trimmed. He was normal thin. Normal thin. He spoke good English. When he came over, he was with his girlfriend or wife and their kid. They walked there. They said they'd been walking and I didn't see a car pull up. She was more heavy set and she was Spanish, meaning the girlfriend or wife. The kid was maybe three or four, a boy. The man told Amanda it was not him. She said a neighbor who lived on the third floor had seen him on the porch and that he had told neighbors that he was waiting for her, meaning the guy, the short Puerto Rican guy. So he was upset that she had called him without even asking. They stayed for only about five minutes. She told him that if he had the bowl, she wanted it back. He stole a. You're saying someone broke in and stole her weed pipe?

[Jimmy Whisman]

Stole my fucking bowl.

[James Petregallo]

Give my fucking bowl back.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Just give it back.

[James Petregallo]

That's a big deal, dude. I have a bowl. Like, I've had only a few bowls that I use all the time that. They're years. You keep them for. You clean them. I mean, that's a. You get a bowl that works nice and hits, right? That's your bowl, man. Don't fuck with my shit. It just doesn't feel right otherwise. It's just not the same. He said, I know that she had the phone number on her dry erase boards. One of those white boards with a wood frame around it. Okay, so his d. Small, possibly small shoes, small feet.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Sure.

[James Petregallo]

So investigators attempt to identify a small, thin Hispanic male who had a confrontation with her. And so that's what they're doing. They come up with two dentists to deny. Number one is a guy named Dennis who lives in the vicinity of her apartment here. The first, he had previously resided at. He doesn't live there anymore, but he had lived around there. He had an extensive board of probation record, including a number of violent crimes. Okay. Now, the woman he was living with at the time appeared to be a heavyset white female, not a Hispanic woman like the other one. So they don't know if that's the same or people break up and get back. Who knows? So anyway, investigators obtained her cell phone records, and the tell. His telephone number does not appear in any of their records. They really like this guy for a second, though. Then they run into Dennis number two. This is Dennis Rosa Roman, with a dash. Rosa dash. Roman. Okay, Roman. Roman, whatever. He's born in 1991, young guy. He has a police record of breaking and entering, a number of those drug distribution. And was convicted of domestic violence on his fiance as well.

[Jimmy Whisman]

He's so young.

[James Petregallo]

He's a real full house of asshole, this guy. He's got it all. Three kings. Three kings and two domestic violences. He's doing great. That's a full house, right?

[Jimmy Whisman]

I think so.

[James Petregallo]

So the background search on him revealed he had all these crimes, but there's no palm print on file for him because they only take palm prints during a major crime felon. They didn't consider any of these a major crime to take a palm print. Otherwise it's just fingerprints. So he had previously resided at 53 Cabot street, number 2R, which is about four blocks from the home of Amanda. He resided with a heavyset Hispanic female. Yeah, starting to line up here. They had a four year old son. This is all lining up. So they reported that on March 9, 2011 and on March 17, 2012, listed as the home telephone. They got his phone number here. His number does appear in her cell phone records. Yeah, according to the records, there was a total of nine calls between Amanda's phone and his phone. Four of the nine were outgoing calls from Amanda's phone. Five were him calling her.

[Jimmy Whisman]

She wants that bowl.

[James Petregallo]

She wants her fucking bowl back. Don't take my shit. The duration of the calls varied from a few seconds to 89 seconds, but they all occurred on July 28, 2011. And the last call was at 11:26am that time. So. Okay, we know that. Wow. So that's what we know. Now, October 29th, 2013 is when they talked to Dennis. So it's been two fucking years. Yeah, so now they talk to him. I'm sorry, they talked to. Based on. And like we said, this is based on the ex boyfriend. They bring the ex boyfriend in to say, this is. We have this guy. Is this the guy you saw?

[Jimmy Whisman]

Is this your dentist?

[James Petregallo]

Yeah. Before they say, we know you were over there because the boyfriend said so they want to make sure. Now, he said that day that Amanda had awoken him and said that she called the person. He was on his way over. So could you wake up and be over here? Um, when Dennis arrived, Amanda was on the back porch and it was 15 minutes later, this guy said that they showed him a photo array containing 10 pictures including Dennis. And he said none of the pictures rung a bell. However, he wrote, also, I didn't see any features I could remember. I know it definitely wasn't number six, because I know that guy. So it's definitely not. It's definitely not Frank, but it's not any of the other nine either.

[Jimmy Whisman]

The other might be a Dennis.

[James Petregallo]

There might be a Dennis. You never know. So they find Dennis here on the 29th. They call him and he said he was busy. So they go find him on the street and he says, I'm busy. And they go well, you're free to go. And he wanted to walk away, but the officers just walked with him. They go, you're free to go. And he goes, okay, turns away. And then they walk with him. Well, we're free to walk with you. So one guy, trooper, go anywhere you want. I mean, yeah, we'll follow you, but you can go there. Trooper Gibbons here walked and talked with Rosa, with Dennis while the other three officers followed. He asked what they wanted to talk about. And the trooper said that we want to go to the police station to talk with you. And he said, I don't want to go to the police station. Through this, he lit a cigarette, appeared very nervous. He asked what it was all about. They said, well, we don't want to talk about it on the street. We'd rather do it in the police station here. And he said that if I know what it's all about, I'll meet with you in a few days. In a few days, if you tell me when I'm not busy. So the trooper asked him if he knew a girl from Chicopee named Amanda. He said, I know a lot of girls from Chicopee and a few of them are named Amanda. Really?

[Jimmy Whisman]

Is that right?

[James Petregallo]

How many Amanda's do you know from one town in central Massachusetts? None.

[Jimmy Whisman]

I don't know one.

[James Petregallo]

I don't know any Giant City. Yeah. He asked, did something happen to this girl because I don't ever go to Chicopee anymore. And the trooper said it was Amanda who had tattoos on her chest. Do you know that one? Tattoos, lots of tats. And he said, oh yeah, I know her. They said, when were you last in Chicopee? He said it was a long time, couple years. When asked if he had a girlfriend in Chicopee, he said yes. You know all of that? He asked, can I go now? But the trooper asked him for a telephone number, saying. Because he said you would call so, you know, just in case we get mixed up here. He finished smoking a cigarette and threw it out on the pavement. Oh, big dummy. Yep. A female with a child came out of a building. And he said he had to leave because this is his girlfriend and kid. So they left.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Okay.

[James Petregallo]

Trooper said, great. And picked up his fucking cigarette, obviously, and put that in the goddamn bag for later. We'll have that some DNA on that. So there's there. Later that day, Dennis and his girlfriend went to the home of a friend of theirs named Melissa Hoy. Now, Melissa Hoye is not a confidant that you should be telling things to, because I know this because she went and told the police all this shit. This guy? Yeah. Dennis told Melissa Hoye about his encounter with police. So Melissa Hoy asked him whether the investigation concerned the victim, Amanda. And he said, oh, I don't know. So then Hoy showed him a picture of Amanda from the Internet and said, was it about this chicken? Oh, it was on her phone. Not even on the Internet. So it was off her phone. And she said that he got really quiet and put his head down. He admitted that he knew her and sold her weed occasionally. Okay. That night, Dennis returned to Hoy's home and apologized for lying to Hoy and his girlfriend. He said that he told them that he had gone to the victim's house to deliver weed that night, actually of the murder. But he said he didn't kill anybody or see any death. He said he heard voices outside from the inside. He heard voices. And he said an unknown white male opened the victim's door, grabbed the bag of weed out of his hand, and told him to get the fuck out of here, not come back. Now, when you're delivering weed, you don't have it in your hand like a pizza, by the way. It's in your pocket till you get in there.

[Jimmy Whisman]

And not in 2011.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah. Jesus. So November 1st, he calls Gibbons and says that, I gotta talk to you. I need to talk to you right now. Dennis calls the cops. Okay, he said that? Yeah, I gotta get down there. He said that it's been bothering him for two years since it happened. He said, I have to tell you something about that girl Amanda. Been bothering me. The trooper asked if he would come to my office in Springfield. Dennis said, no. He said, okay, well, meet me in front of the Westfield police station. So they do. They go over there. They're inside. They go. He agrees to meet with him there. So they bring him into an interview room. He's advised of his rights, waives those, everything like that. He tells officers here that he had met her once two weeks before the murder. He said, on the day of the murder. On the day of the murder, Amanda called him to ask for weed, wanted to buy some weed. When he approached the back door, he could hear a male voice arguing with Amanda. And he knocked on the door, and an unknown male answered and took the weed from him. And that was that. Hey, everybody. Just gonna take a quick break from the show to tell you a little bit about one of our favorites, simply safe.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Oh, simplisafe.coms I m p l I safe dot com.

[James Petregallo]

That's absolutely correct. And if you're anything like us. Most important thing for you is probably protecting your family from harm, right? I mean, nothing else matters. If people are coming into your house and murdering your whole family and robbing your house, what's the difference? That's why us here at Small Town Murder, along with millions of other Americans, we trust Simplisafe with our home security. It's great. Both our studios, our homes, everything that we have is protected with Simplisafe because it is the best security you're going to get. You can install it incredibly easy on your own. Even I can do it. And I can't put IKEA furniture together. It's so good. I'm telling you. Start the year out with greater peace of mind. Visit simplisafe.comsmall to claim 50% off a new system with a professional monitoring plan and your first month free. That's simplisafe.com/s I-m p l I safe.com small there's no safe like Simplisafe.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Now back to the show.

[James Petregallo]

Hey everybody. Just gonna take a quick break from the show to tell you a little bit more from our wonderfully fashionable friends over at Quint's. The holidays are here. Winter's here. I like it. I like being cozy. I like the fire. I like blankets. It's wonderful. When it comes to winter, it's like survival of the fittest. And I'm willing to do or buy whatever I can do to stay cozy. I'm going to be cozy whether you like it or not out there. Everybody telling you for the ultimate cold weather necessities made from premium materials. You got to check out Quint's. We like quints. I love the stuff I got from Quints. I got a really cool jacket that I'm wearing. Happily during this winter time. Jimmy got his fleece pants. Keeping cool right now. Doing well out there in Arizona.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Keep me warm next to an electric fireplace.

[James Petregallo]

That's what I'm talking about. Luxuriate in coziness without the luxury price tag. Go to quince.com smalltown murder for 365 day returns plus free shipping on your order. That's Quince. Q-U-I-N C E.com Smalltown Murder to get free shipping and 365 day returns. Quints.com SmalltownMurder now back to the show. Hey everybody. Just gonna take a quick break from the show to tell you a little bit about Thrive Market. Absolutely. Get yourself some delicious healthy food. And that's what we're post holidays. We're trying to get ourselves back together. So Thrive Market makes it so easy to find these better options without all this hassle. One of the favorite features that I like on here is the Healthy Swap scanner in the Thrive Market app. It's simple, really easy to use. You can scan any item and it'll suggest a cleaner, healthier alternative for it for groceries. And everything gets delivered right to your door and you get savings on every offer. Also, I like the smart cart thing. That's pretty cool. Yeah, it takes a little bit of stress out of the junk food replacement program here.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Okay.

[James Petregallo]

You create an account. Thrive Market asks the right questions and automatically builds a grocery cart tailored to your needs, filled with healthier alternatives for your favorite brands. So then you can just adjust it, add or remove items before checking out. So many cool stuff. So many cool items in there and stuff that I didn't know you could even make. Delicious. And they make it delicious and it's really good. Ready for a junk free start to 2025. Head to thrivemarket.com Small Town Murder and get 30% off your first order plus a free $60 gift. That's Thrive T H R I V E market.com SmallTown Murder thrivemarket.com SmallTownMurder he said he feared for his life because this unknown male and the male that had another guy had been following him in different cars. So he goes, now they're after me. So he said, I'm here to get. I need protection from you guys. I need police protection. He said, I've never been inside her apartment. That's what he says now. Never been, which we know isn't true. He said, I've never been inside her apartment. Well, I guess they talked on the back porch when he came over one time. So, yeah, he said that never at all he'd never been inside and that he identified a friend who was with him on the day that he got into the apartment. He said that he'd been hanging out with his friend, and the friend waited in the front of the home while he went around the back and the two left together on foot after they swiped the weed out of his hand. So the cop said, hey, can we maybe get some DNA from you? And he said, yeah, sure. And then he said, didn't you guys already take a cigarette off me? Anyways, he fucking knew.

[Jimmy Whisman]

He saw it.

[James Petregallo]

He knew. He said, I know you're investigating me no matter what. So. And anyway, he signs a statement, gives DNA. That's November 1, November 5, okay? They approach him at his Home and request another interview. They want him to do some follow up shit. He said he's willing to speak, but he was currently babysitting his girlfriend's baby, so he can't go now, not even his kid. So they said, well, what if we get you come down to the station with the kid and we'll have an officer watch the kid at the station? Yeah, we got blocks. We got plenty of shit. Yeah, there's those little molestation rooms. We bring them in to talk about shit.

[Jimmy Whisman]

They can play with the dolls that the kids point to for trouble.

[James Petregallo]

They can play with the bad spot dolls. They don't know what they're for. The kid's four. He doesn't know that it's a molestation doll. He has no idea.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah, we call that the Bloodhound Gang doll.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah, you know, it's fine. So they do that. He says, okay. At the start of the interview, he was friendly, laughing. And then he was expressing concern that his girlfriend may be angry if she found out that he had brought her child to the police station. So he said, I really want to help you guys, though. He said, this is terrible. You guys need help. I got to help you guys out. You know what I'm saying? You need people to help. I can understand that. I'm one of those people. He said, you got questions for me, man? Let's go. Like, let's do it.

[Jimmy Whisman]

He's got to know they have DNA that's in question.

[James Petregallo]

Oh, yeah, that's. Yeah.

[Jimmy Whisman]

What kind of. He's ballsy, man.

[James Petregallo]

Then he said, I got to get out of here before my girlfriend gets out of work. She's going to be mad at me. He said, I just have to hurry up. My girl's going to be out soon. You know, shit like that. My girl is getting out soon. I have the keys. I have her house keys and her phone. You know, I'm trying to wrap this up. She's going to be pissed. He said that yes, Amanda bought marijuana from him on multiple occasions, and on one occasion they spoke on the back porch. He showed the defendant a picture of a dry erase board with the phrase Dennis was here written on it.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Right. Remember when this happened?

[James Petregallo]

He previously denied being inside the apartment, but he admitted that, yes, he did step inside just to sign the dry erase board. But he wrote it. Yeah, Dennis was here. He wrote it. He said, I wrote it.

[Jimmy Whisman]

My God.

[James Petregallo]

He said that the board was located by the back door and that her bedroom did not look the way it was pictured in the photograph at the Time. And they said, well, how do you know this room didn't look like this? And he said, all I seen was a bed in her room. That's about it. So they said, did you ever smoke weed with him inside? With her inside the apartment? And he said, yeah, I lit a bowl once in the kitchen, placed the lighter on the counter and sat down on the couch. And then he said, well, I have been inside her house, but, like, I just don't want people to look at me like I'm a fucking murderer, you know? So I lie to police about it because that makes you look like less of a murderer.

[Jimmy Whisman]

He'll tell you everything.

[James Petregallo]

He then said, I seen that shit go down. I heard that shit, and I'm scared. So now he's saying, I was there.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah, I was a murder.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah. They said, well, you know, we've done a lot of processing on the scene. And, you know, he said, well, my fingerprints might be on a glass cup on the table, on a doorknob, maybe. And he said, what did you guys find? I want to know. I bet you do.

[Jimmy Whisman]

I can't explain it away.

[James Petregallo]

That's called discovery. And your lawyer will find that out after you're charged.

[Jimmy Whisman]

You'll know later.

[James Petregallo]

So he. The cop said that they found, quote, some things underneath the victim's fingernails and asked if he had ever had a fight with Amanda or a scuffle. And he said, no, of course not. And they said, okay, well, we're trying to find the friend that you said that was with you on the day of the murder, that you said. But we looked him up, and he was in jail that day. Like, the whole day. Like, woke up in jail, went to bed in jail, and then a few more days. He said, that's impossible. They were like, no, no, it's right here on the paper. He was in there.

[Jimmy Whisman]

State logs. He couldn't be anywhere.

[James Petregallo]

He's definitely there. Yeah, he was there. We know when people are in jail.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah.

[James Petregallo]

So, yeah, he said that. Look, I went there. I gave her weed through the window. At different times. She asked me about the theft in her house, which I didn't do. He said, I did write. Dennis was here. We smoked weed together. After they showed him pictures of the crime scene, he became upset. And he said, you guys trying to do what? What's up? I don't have no time here. I gotta go. I gotta get out of here. This is crazy. You guys are fucking with me. And he wanted to leave. And they said, well, we're investigating still. And he said, all right, but this, like. I wanna know. Like, this. I want to know. Like, this ain't cool. He said, this ain't cool.

[Jimmy Whisman]

You guys are real good at this. And I'm not.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah, this is bad. So. Oh, my God. So he's like, yeah, this is fucked up. And he said, I gotta go. And they said, well, you know, why do you think she might have been killed? And he said, I don't know. Maybe she owed some money or stole drugs from someone and maybe a fucking dealer got mad at her or something. They were like, okay. Then they were asking him about the day of. She called me to get weed. And they said, well, there's no telephone records of that. And he said, I smoke so much weed, I don't remember a lot of things. And maybe I got my days mixed up. That's what he said.

[Jimmy Whisman]

You're in your 20s, your brain's that.

[James Petregallo]

Much fried, that fried by 20, 21. Yeah. So then they go to him and they go, well, you know what you probably can see and what we can easily remember is these are DNA results. Yeah. See those? They say that they're under. Your shit's under her fingernails. How do you explain that?

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah.

[James Petregallo]

And he said, okay, yeah, check it out. All right, fine. This is what happened. I tried to save her from the killer. That's what happened.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Okay. All right.

[James Petregallo]

They said, well, who was the killer? And he said, I can't tell you that. I'm too scared.

[Jimmy Whisman]

She claws up her white knight.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah, that's what it is. Well, yeah, that's what he said. So nearly two hours into the interview, by the way, Gibbons, the trooper, stepped out of the room for nine minutes, at which time he learned that's the first time. That's when the DNA came in, was then. So then he went back and was like, hey, we got your DNA. And his response was, I know the fucking murderer, and I tried to save her life.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Okay?

[James Petregallo]

He said, I know the motherfucker. All right? This is exact quotes. The sergeant said, you know what? And he said, I know the motherfucking murderer. I tried to save her life. And they go, what did you do? And he said, I know the fucking murderer. And they said, what did you do to try to save her life? And he said, I tried to grab her, and the guy fucking tossed me down the stairs.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Look at me, I'm a little guy.

[James Petregallo]

I'm a little guy. Look at my shoes. They're tiny. They said, so why don't you tell me the whole story? Tell me everything that happened. And he Said, I can't. He's going to fucking kill me. And they said, well, why don't you tell me everything that happened? And he said, again, he's going to fucking kill me. What the fuck do I do? And they said, well, why don't you tell us everything that happened? And he said, I know. The fucking murderer. That's all I know. I can't give you any more. So we're like, okay. He tried to explain. He said, I tried to grab her. The guy fucking tossed me down the stairs. Then he said, I want a lawyer. I want to go home. I want to get out of here. I want a lawyer. That's it. And he got up and tried to leave. And they said, well, you're under arrest, asshole. Your DNA is under somebody's shit. He tried to resist being arrested, of course.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah.

[James Petregallo]

Obviously with all of this. And he repeatedly interrupted the booking process to tell police that they arrested the wrong person. And now you're putting his family in danger.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Okay, all right.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah. That is fucking wild. He also. He said that he's sorry. He apologized for not. He said, the victim grabbed me, and I'm sorry I didn't try to save her harder. While they're driving to jail, the transporting officer, Dr. David Gagnon. What is it with cops named Gagnon? Gaganon. I don't get it. Testified there was no conversation during the transport except when Dennis asked if they could stop at his girlfriend's house to tell her that he loved her. No, I only do that. Sure thing. He's a real romantic, this fucking guy. That's one thing.

[Jimmy Whisman]

You guys dropped me by the friendlies.

[James Petregallo]

And Frost, I really want to get a sundae. Really good butterscotch.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Get her a nice shake, a goodbye shake.

[James Petregallo]

Fuck, man. So he is printed, and they do the major prints, major crime prints, this time informed of Miranda rights. Um, and again, he says, at this police station, I went there to smoke. I went there to hang out with her that day. We smoked weed. I was there for about two hours. She told him to come back later to smoke more. He said, I wasn't. I lied about my friend. I wasn't with my friend, but I just wanted to say I was with my friend because I hated him and I wanted to get him into trouble. Okay. So.

[Jimmy Whisman]

So many stories.

[James Petregallo]

He said as he approached the apartment, he could hear the victim screaming, stop, Stop, stop, stop. This isn't right. Stop. Stop. He said he heard the sound of glass breaking. He pushed in the door and entered the house and found the assailant and the victim in the kitchen. He said the assailant was on top of the victim. He said he tried to separate them when the assailant pushed him back and brandished a knife. He then said that the victim grabbed him when he tried to help her off the floor. He said he fought with the assailant and eventually was punched in the jaw before or repeatedly before fleeing out the door. I'm just a little guy. He said, I feared for the safety of my family. That's why I lied. And they said, please identify this other person. And he said, I can't say nothing. I really can't. I hold to my word, I can't say nothing. And they said, hold your word to who? And they said, you're going to jail. Who are you holding words for? And he said, I know I'm going to jail, so I'm not saying no more. I'm so. I'm sorry, you have to charge me with this shit. I'm done. You can try this shit, but I'm done. So, yeah, he said, you know, he said after the murder, he looked down and said, wow, how do I get myself out of this? Yeah, so he wants his statements tossed, by the way.

[Jimmy Whisman]

All those.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah, yeah, I want all that shit gone.

[Jimmy Whisman]

He said, I want to do my own story. One draft.

[James Petregallo]

He said, officers lied and used trickery to obtain subsequent statements. Now he said that it's all bullshit. They showed me gruesome pictures. It was very upsetting and I wanted to stop the interview. I told them I wanted to go home, but they would not let me. That's what he said. So the cops here or the, the judge here says that. No, you, you. He. At one point he said, I don't know what's going on. You guys are trying to pin this on me. You guys trying to what? What's up? Because I don't have no time here. I gotta go. What's up? So he said that was an invocation of his rights. Oh, I gotta go. What's up? Which is not. You have to say specific fucking things here. So basically what they rule is that everything he said is fine and it's all in. Except that when he is brought out of the room and in the booking process, he said some shit. All of that is tossed out. That's after, you know, he pulled his rights and everything like that. But the rest of the conversations on the way to jail and everything else. And when he got to jail and started saying more shit, he was remorandized. So the shit that in the room counts. The shit outside the room doesn't. And then when they get back in another room, that counts too.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Okay. All right.

[James Petregallo]

So the trial comes up here. The jury is taken to both Amanda's and his apartment to see the crime scenes. They really want to take them, just to walk them from one to the other to show how close they are, just to show he had opportunity here. The Los guy was on the defense witness list because he's the guy who said that Coggins guy admitted to it. But before the trial began, he was brought into court and he chose to take his Fifth amendment right to not testify. Okay, and that was that for that guy there. Now, in opening openings here, the prosecutor tells the jurors that they're going to hear from Amanda's friends, they're going to hear from Mercedes Benz. Very exciting to put the time of death in there, they said. Little did Mercedes Benz know that Amanda Plass was lying in her kitchen on the floor, stabbed to death. While she was texting her, she said, you'll see pictures of the crime scene showing the struggle that occurred in the kitchen and how she was stabbed all over the kitchen. All this shit. The defense said, this is insane. He said, it's not my guy. It's another guy, a drug dealer. Who's the killer. Oh, my guy doesn't want to identify him because he doesn't think the police can protect him. But, you know, he did not do it. He knows the guy who did, though. That's what he said. He said he could have told, but he did not give up this guy's name because he's a man of honor.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Right?

[James Petregallo]

That's what it is. Um, so the. All the defense keeps bringing up is this Coggins guy. Well, he said he did it. Well, he said he did it. Well, he said he did it. By the way, they found out that the guy who said that Coggins said he did it and him never actually shared a pod at all.

[Jimmy Whisman]

What the fuck?

[James Petregallo]

They were never together in jail. The guy made it up right out. Pulled it directly from his asshole.

[Jimmy Whisman]

I wish these people would stop this shit.

[James Petregallo]

Stop it. So that's. I mean, they bring the DNA evidence. Dennis doesn't testify. It's not much of a trial. No DNA evidence. Footprint. His foot matches. By the way, it's a seven and a half. It's ridiculous. So the whole thing is fucking crazy. During closing arguments, they say that she was killed as a part of a robbery in which he took marijuana, her cell phone, and her boyfriend's Knife. That's all. It's pretty cut and dry here. They said there was no other guy. Just the defendant and the defense lawyer said everything she said, but the opposite.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Right.

[James Petregallo]

And then he sat down. So the jury goes out for five hours of deliberation, which really seems like a lot in this case.

[Jimmy Whisman]

In this case, yeah. They probably sat there trying to debate why. Why did he do it? Like what? But why? Doesn't matter.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah, yeah. His DNA is footprint. Everything's there. He's the guy who fucking did it. I mean, the DNA under the fingernails. I'm like, there you go. Goodbye, asshole.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Footprint in her blood.

[James Petregallo]

You were there for blood and a palm print on the broken window. And you're gonna say that you were trying to keep a person from killing her? That's not believable. Guess what? If I. No matter how afraid I am of somebody, if I'm on the fucking stand saying I'm the murderer, I'm giving that asshole up. We're not in the Mafia here. You know what I mean? We're just.

[Jimmy Whisman]

The other part is like, even if he said another guy did it, well, there's no other evidence of somebody else even being.

[James Petregallo]

That's the point. There's no. Where's his DNA? Where's his footprints in the blood? He floated above the mix.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah.

[James Petregallo]

You know, he levitated.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Drug dealer.

[James Petregallo]

Everybody, watch out. Jesus killed her. Watch out. He floats. He moves around. So he is found guilty of first degree murder, which is in the commission of a robbery. And everything else.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Not good.

[James Petregallo]

Not good. During sentencing, her mom testifies and says, that is Amanda's mom. Said that she would stop and give you her jacket if she saw you in the cold. Wouldn't hesitate to hand over money for food if you were standing on the corner. It didn't phase her to pick out all the red gummy bears for a child. Sunday, while working a shift at Friendlies, the kid who didn't like the red ones, apparently she said that life is taken too soon. The loss is felt every day, whether it's a song, a sight or thought, something that is lived with every day. So obviously this is very hard on the family and everything like that. So the judge says, calls it an unspeakable horror.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Agreed.

[James Petregallo]

That brought unbearable pain and unthinkable grief. And says to the family, to her family, you all have my utmost respect for your strength and courage. What the court can do for you can't bring your daughter back. But I can bring justice to this case. And he might as well. Said, and this Asshole in front of me. You, sir, may fuck off. Life without parole for my man Dennis here.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Not bad.

[James Petregallo]

So this is the system to work.

[Jimmy Whisman]

In a chocolate factory the rest of his life.

[James Petregallo]

There you go. So now shit gets real weird. By the way, how. Okay, this is a total side story to this trial that didn't come out for a while. 2013, two years after the murder, it is revealed that two Chicopee police officers who had been assigned to guard the door until detectives arrived, took photographs with their personal cell phones. The pictures were shared with other police officers and with coaches at a youth football game.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Why do all these cops think that that's so fucking funny?

[James Petregallo]

Hey, your kids really coming along at linebacker? Want to see a chick carved up?

[Jimmy Whisman]

What the fuck?

[James Petregallo]

Wanna see a 20 year old? This is Sergeant.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Bet you've seen some crazy shit. Oh, I'll send you a picture.

[James Petregallo]

Oh, I got it. Sergeant Keith LeMay and Officer Terry Deck each snapped photographs of the bloody scene on the third floor apartment with their cell phones. Deck passed the photograph on to nine fellow officers. LeMay later showed a photograph while taking. While explaining the importance of not contaminating the crime scene, then sent the photo to him at his request. He then this other guy passed it on to another cop who later showed it to parents at a youth sporting event.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah. Way to take your job seriously, dickheads.

[James Petregallo]

Wow. About two months later, the district attorney learned of the photo sharing and told the mayor. Said the mayor was deeply troubled by the allegations. So the police chief, who was then deputy chief in charge of internal affairs, conducted an investigation. Good. Was charged with incompetence. And then. Incompetence. The guy in charge.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Awesome.

[James Petregallo]

The officers were reprimanded and had to work some shifts without being paid. Okay, now he did. The prosecutor, the district court judge concluded they could not be prosecuted. Then the family sues the city and the police department and everybody else for unauthorized distribution of these things. They said it was intentional, reckless, extreme and outrageous. And the suit is settled for a hundred thousand dollars. Then Sergeant Jeffrey Godare gets fired. You cost us 100 grand, right?

[Jimmy Whisman]

So, been adjudicated. Incompetent.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah, adjudicated. A fucking moron.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Moron.

[James Petregallo]

How's that? Good. Excellent.

[Jimmy Whisman]

I hope you work at friendlies, you piece of shit.

[James Petregallo]

Now, in 2017, on the case with Paul Azahn does a. Does a story on here.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Sensational.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah, yeah. February 2020, he gets his job back. Jeffrey Gode gets his fucking job back. Yes. He went to a commission. A civil service commission ruled that he would be demoted to Patrolmen because of his conduct. This was the second time in his career as a police officer that he won an appeal with the civil Service Commission in 2016. The ruled in his favor after he was demoted for patrolman to patrolman for untruthfulness in a burglary case. Fire this asshole.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Why does he keep his job? What the fuck? There's fire. He's a bad cop. Fuck that guy.

[James Petregallo]

You suck. Fuck you, dude. Fuck you. Jeffrey Gobert, please. I won't drive through your town, so you can't pull me over ever. Lick my ass, you fucking jerk off.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Fuck you. Eat my balls.

[James Petregallo]

In my opinion, you're a terrible fucking cop.

[Jimmy Whisman]

You're an adjudicated moron. Fool.

[James Petregallo]

Moron. Idiot. Jesus.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Fuck that guy. That guy's gonna get a pension. That's fucked up.

[James Petregallo]

I hope not. So the family wants a new law, and it's been going on since 2014, of. We want a law that says that you can't do this. Basically, yeah.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Cops sharing shit is disgusting. It should be illegal.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah. Amanda's sister said, we need to actually tell people they can't do this and need to make sure there's a consequence, because those officers really didn't receive a consequence. Yeah, and they didn't. So that's the problem. By the way, Dennis appeals saying that the police officers violated his Miranda rights throughout the booking procedure and all that kind of shit. They say, no, get the fuck out of here. Eat dicks, jerk off. So one deadly mistake is another show that airs an episode on this in 2022, I believe the 2021 called hidden in plain sight. Then 2022, the law is passed here. It is called Amanda's law.

[Jimmy Whisman]

That's nice.

[James Petregallo]

It's against the law in Massachusetts for first responders to take unauthorized photographs of crime scenes now.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Wow.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah, that's pretty interesting. They said, you know, one of the people said, who's a mother? Oh, I'm sorry. Her mother. It's actually Amanda's mother said, you know, you could be on the Internet one day, and up pops an image of your child laying in a pool of blood. Once those pictures are out there, they're out there and you can't take them back. She said, yeah, body cameras should never be turned off. That wasn't the issue. The issue was personal cell phones, because people are like, well, they're on body cam. So the issue is personal cell phones and distributing them. You also need, like, a court order to be able to look at the body cam footage and a request to do that.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Cops don't have ability to share that with their fucking football.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah, they can't download that to their phone and show everybody. So it was dubbed Amanda's Law, and it was first introduced by state Rep. Joe Wagner, who refiled it. Each time the bill failed to make it across and be passed, he kept refiling it. He said, from that tragedy will come a good piece of law that will help other families who have had family members who are victims of serious crimes. Amanda is buried at the Chicopee Hampden county in Chicopee in Hampden county at the Saint Rose de Lima Cemetery. So she is there currently. Dennis is at the Sousa Baranowski Correctional Facility in maximum security. And I'm sure having a wonderful time being a very tiny man in jail.

[Jimmy Whisman]

He's in Max. Oh, boy.

[James Petregallo]

Oh, fuck. Yeah, he's in Max. He's a fucking violent murderer. He stabbed a chick six times and cut her throat. He's in fucking Max.

[Jimmy Whisman]

He's in trouble.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah, you're not getting lower for that shit.

[Jimmy Whisman]

So I'd like to show that cop wear on the doll. He can. What a. What a scumbag.

[James Petregallo]

So anyway, that's Chicopee, Massachusetts. Crazy shit. If you like the show, please get on whatever app you're listening on. Give us five stars. It helps a fucking ton. Head over to Shut up and give me murder.com. get your tickets for live shows. February 7th is Pittsburgh. February 8th is Columbus. That's first up. Get your damn tickets right fucking. Let's go, let's go. We can't wait for that. That's a lot of fun. Also, patreon.com crime and sports, anybody? $5 a month. Tons of bonus episodes this week. Personal ads for crime and sports, which of course you get. And then West Memphis three. How the fuck did that happen? Well, the beginning of it. There you go, Patriot. Was this guy involved? Patreon.com Crime and sports keep coming back and seeing us. Follow us on social media at Smalltown Murder on Instagram. Small Town Pod on Facebook. Keep hanging out with us and coming back. And until next week, everybody, it's been our pleasure.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Enjoy traffic control.

[James Petregallo]

If you like small town murder, you can listen early and ad free now by joining Wondery plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. Prime members can listen early and ad free on Amazon Music. Before you go, tell us about yourself by filling out a short [e-mail] survey.

[C]

You don't believe in ghosts. I get it. Lots of people don't. I didn't either until I came face to face with them. Ever since that moment, hauntings, spirits and the uncle unexplained have consumed my entire life. I'm Nadine Bailey. I've been a ghost tour guide for the past 20 years. I've taken people along with me into the shadows, uncovering the macabre tales that linger in the darkness and inside some of the most haunted houses, hospitals, prisons and more. Join me every week on my podcast, Haunted Canada as we journey through terrifying and bone chilling stories of the unexplained. Search for Haunted Canada on Apple Podcast, Spotify, Amazon Music, or wherever you find your favorite podcasts.