Jimmy Whisman (3:47)

I'm Jimmy Whisman.

James Petregallo (3:48)

Thank you so much for joining us today on another absolutely insane edition of Small Town Murder. If you've been listening, you understand that it's been crazy lately and it continues this week and it'll never stop. There's enough crazy out there for everybody. So we'll get into all of that. First though, head over to shutupandgivemerder.com get your tickets to live shows. First of all, April 19th is our virtual live show. It's a Saturday night. It's our 4:20 virtual live show. We do it every year. It's becoming a holiday tradition for us here. So we're very excited. You can watch. It's just like a regular live show. The pictures, the story. Except we're also in costumes and we're gonna smoke. I'm gonna force Jimmy to smoke weed at a strange and larger apparatus. But you can watch it anywhere in the world with Internet so you can be in your living room. We don't get a chance to go to 40 cities a year on tour and stuff like that. So this is the way you can see us if we're not coming to your town or if you can't get enough. So do that then if you wanna go to a regular live show, May 17 is the day to do that in Chicago Riviera. Get your tickets right now. Day before in St. Louis is sold out. So that's where you want to go and come see us, we're very excited for that.

Jimmy Whisman (4:57)

Is it May 17th?

James Petregallo (4:58)

I think it's May 17th. May 18th. It's the Saturday night of that weekend, whatever it is. The Friday is St. Louis 17th. Get your damn tickets now. So do that. That's Shut up and give me murder.com then you definitely, first of all, want to listen to our other two shows, crime in Sports, where we have a very long Evel Knievel series going on right now. So you definitely don't have to like sports. And then also Small town, or this is Small Town Murder, your stupid opin is what you want to listen to, which is reviews from all over the Internet where we make fun of them and it's a lot of fun. But then you want to get Patreon. Patreon.com CrimeaSports is where you get all of the bonus material. And it is a ton. Anybody $5 a month or above, you're going to get a giant back catalog of hundreds of episodes you've never heard before. New ones every other week. One Crime in Sports, one Small Town murderer, and you get it all, baby.

Jimmy Whisman (5:48)

You bet.

James Petregallo (5:48)

This week, what you're going to get for crime and sports, we're going to talk about fraternity hazing, okay? Some of the craziest incidences of it. And it goes back to the 1700s. This has been going on for. So is that right? Yeah, we're going to talk about that. Then for Small Town Murder, we are going to talk about the upcoming Karen Reed retrial, which is the woman who is accused of murdering her police officer boyfriend in Boston. And she says it's a conspiracy with the whole police force against her. And she actually had a mistrial the first time. So it's very interesting. We'll talk about all of that and more, get you ready for that. And that is patreon.com crimeinsports and you get a shout out at the end of the show as well, where Jimmy will mess your name all up. That said, I think it's time for the disclaimer. Look, this is a comedy show, everybody. We are comedians. The stories are 1000% real. Nothing's made up. There's nothing embellished for comedic effect or anything like that. No, no, no. We tell the stories straight and there's plenty of jokes to be made in there. You might go, well, where does that happen? There's a lot of places where that happens. People go, I think I can get away with murder. I'm gonna make fun of that person right away. You know what I mean? But what we don't do, what we never do, is we never make fun of the victims or the victims families.

Jimmy Whisman (7:04)

Why, James?

James Petregallo (7:05)

Because we're assholes.

Jimmy Whisman (7:06)

But.

James Petregallo (7:07)

But we're not scumbags. See how that goes. There you go. So if you think that sounds good to you, you're in for a wild show. If you think true crime and comedy should never, ever, ever go together. You might not en. But we think he actually might. So give it a shot. Either way, no complaining later. That said, I think it's time to sit back, everybody. Let's all clear the lungs here. Arms to the sky. Let's all shout. Shut up and give me murder. Let's do this, everybody.

Jimmy Whisman (7:37)

Okay.

James Petregallo (7:38)

Let's go on a trip, shall we? Let's do it. We are going to North Carolina this week. Gastonia, North Carolina.

Jimmy Whisman (7:45)

Yeah.

James Petregallo (7:46)

Oh, yeah, baby. Have you heard of the Gastonia, North Carolina before? I've heard of Estonia, the country. Isn't that where Brendan Fraser was from? An Encino man? I believe so. That's funny. That's a real country. But that's our only reference of it. A guy who wasn't even from there. He was from a cave. Yeah. Fake guy.

Jimmy Whisman (8:07)

Guy that dug out of a pool.

James Petregallo (8:09)

So this is in south central North Carolina, down near the border of South Carolina over there. It is about 30 minutes to Charlotte. So it's kind of a suburb of Charlotte really. So it's grown a lot in the last 30 years. And it's about two hours and 50 minutes to carry North Carolina. Our last North Carolina episode, which was Google Map My Murder, which was pretty funny because we just had this guy's entire. That's what. When we say where are there jokes to be made? I don't know when your entire murder plot can be just tracked and shown on a map that you've done yourself. That seems dumb. County here is Gaston County. So Gastonia, Gaston County, Gastone. Area code is 704 here. And they have several nicknames for this place. A nickname and a motto. We'll say. So the motto is Spindle City.

Jimmy Whisman (9:03)

Okay.

James Petregallo (9:04)

I don't know. Charlotte's. I don't know. Charlotte's the queen City. They're the Spindle city. I don't know. And then the other one, the motto is great place, great people, great promise, all the same. Yeah, that's just alliteration. So there you go. History of this town. We'll do a little bit because we got a lot of story for you today. It is named for William Gaston, who was a congressman from North Carolina. So they named the town after him and the county after him. I guess they had railroads that came through here. And where the two railroads crossed was kind of the beginning of the textile industry. They started building factories and stuff around there. So that brought jobs and all that kind of thing. And it started. More people started coming over here. The initial population of the town was only about 200 people. And the land area was less than a square mile. So that was the original. And it grew from there. So here's some reviews of this town. Because we've never been there. We don't know anything. And I have to say beforehand because I've gotten several messages lately with people angry at me personally for people. Other people's reviews of the town. These aren't our reviews of the town. We're not saying this. This is what other people have posted on the Internet. We're just reading them. So please don't get mad at us for it. That's crazy. Think about that for a minute. Here's one. Five stars. This town has helped me recover from my many problems in my past.

Jimmy Whisman (10:29)

The town did that.

James Petregallo (10:31)

The whole town started. I don't know. The water. Deplorable.

Jimmy Whisman (10:33)

I'm moving to Gastonia.

James Petregallo (10:34)

James.

Jimmy Whisman (10:35)

I've got so many fucking problems.

James Petregallo (10:36)

People who pick up the garbage helped out. It was wild. I look forward to spending the entirety of my teenage here, my teenage here, my teenage here. And find myself quite endorsed by the beauty of the community. Engrossed maybe.

Jimmy Whisman (10:52)

Is this person 11?

James Petregallo (10:53)

I think this person is. Yeah. A teenager I believe. And the beauty of the community and nature around me in day to day life. You're endorsed by that. I don't know what that means.

Jimmy Whisman (11:03)

How many problems could you have had?

James Petregallo (11:04)

You're 11. What happened? What was going on up till then? Jesus. Here's four stars. Gastonia is a small town right outside of Charlotte. It offers a safer and less hectic atmosphere that is still close to a big city. There's not much to do in terms of entertainment. But the city is growing and Charlotte's a half hour away and they got tons of shit going on. New developers are looking to make Gastonia the next Charlotte within the next few years.

Jimmy Whisman (11:30)

The next.

James Petregallo (11:31)

The next Charlotte. Right next to Charlotte's.

Jimmy Whisman (11:33)

Right there.

James Petregallo (11:34)

It's right. They already have a Charlotte. Now is a great time to move in before everyone else catches on to this small town's great potential. Are you a real estate agent? What are you talking. This is the sales.

Jimmy Whisman (11:44)

What do you want to bet nobody catches on?

James Petregallo (11:46)

Man. It's the population's grown a lot in the last 20 years or so. It's because it's a suburb.

Jimmy Whisman (11:51)

They can thank Charlotte for that.

James Petregallo (11:53)

It's just things were shittier in Charlotte so they went here, you know, here's one Star grew up in Gastonia and could not wait to leave. Small, nasty, boring town. It's nasty, nasty. I would never recommend anyone to live there. Never. And anyone isn't very strong. And then finally One Star. Gastonia is terrible. It is unsafe. People will get shot right in front of your house in broad daylight. What, all the time? Apparently it's just happening constantly. It's dirty. More so than your normal overpopulated city. The last person said it's a small, nasty, boring town. Now it's an overpopulated city. Which one is it? If you care about your family, don't move here. Jesus Christ.

Jimmy Whisman (12:39)

Did you just threaten my family?

James Petregallo (12:40)

I think so. They're definitely gonna be murdered on your front yard in broad daylight.

Jimmy Whisman (12:44)

If you move here, I'll kill your whole fucking family.

James Petregallo (12:47)

I'll kill em or I think that's.

Jimmy Whisman (12:48)

What they just said.

James Petregallo (12:48)

Somebody will. I'll make sure of it. As a matter of fact, in broad daylight. Now people of this town population here is about 79,000 right now. It was about 50,000 when our whole thing started here. So yeah, so it was a smaller town at the time. And it's still, from what I can gather, has a small town town ness to it because it's, you know, not a big city, it's a suburb. So way more women than men. Here it is 52.2% women. So I don't know what's going on here with that. Median age is right at the national average. About 38 family here it's about 46% married. A lot of people single with children. 25% are single with children, which normal. It's 10%. So race of this town, 58.2% white, 27.1% black, 2% Asian, 9.7% Hispanic. Hispanic. Which North Carolina, whenever we go there's a lot of mix. Everybody's mixed up in the cities, you know what I mean? I don't know about the out in the rural parts, but I don't know.

Jimmy Whisman (13:48)

How it is in the rural area. In fucking Marlboro.

James Petregallo (13:51)

Yeah, we know Charlotte and Raleigh because we play there, you know what I mean? So 58.1% of the people here are religious. And the number one religion here with a bullet by far is Baptist. It's 31% Baptist here by far. Baptists as we know are the Catholics of the south because in the Northeast it's all Catholic down here it's all Baptist. If you haven't heard that explanation in a while, it might sound crazy. So yeah, not a lot of anything else here going on. It's mainly just Baptist. The unemployment rate here, 5.9% which is a little above the national average, but not terrible. Median household income could be better though. The average in the rest of the country, 69,000. Here it is $52,990. Wow, that's not great there almost 20,000 less. I don't know because maybe it's. It's cheaper. So maybe cheaper than Charlotte. So you move there. I don't. Right there the cost of living here, 100 is average and regular across the country here it's 89. It's a little bit less. And the housing, median home cost here, $272,700. It's a bit steep, isn't it, for making 50 grand a year? That's rough. Yeah, that's tough. So maybe you're going to pull it off though and you're going to find a place and you're going to get in here before everyone else hears about it. Like that reviewer said. If so, we have for you the Gastonia North Carolina Real Estate Report. The average two bedroom rental here goes for about $1,090. So not too. It's under the national average.

Jimmy Whisman (15:32)

Not low enough.

James Petregallo (15:33)

Not super low. Here is a two bedroom, one bath, 480 square foot pile of shit is the best way to describe it. The side of it looks like it's falling apart before your eyes. Like if you touched it, you know, like old tape that's been in the sun. If you touch it, it'll like explode in 100. That's what the siding looks like on this house. It looks brittle. That's a good way to put it. It's really fucking bad. The ceilings and floors are intact. At least it's not falling in like some of the houses. But it's not great. And it says the only. This is the entire listing. Text quote property sold as is where is what? I think it's like a manufactured home. I don't think you're moving it though. It'll crumble to pieces if you tried.

Jimmy Whisman (16:20)

To put it where is.

James Petregallo (16:21)

Sold as is. Where is. I put that in there because I've never seen that before in a real estate listing and we've done this a lot. So here that house is 44,500 bucks.

Jimmy Whisman (16:32)

Okay.

James Petregallo (16:33)

And comes with like a quarter of an acre too. So there's that. Yeah.

Jimmy Whisman (16:37)

But there's no house.

James Petregallo (16:40)

There's not no house there. Here's a four bedroom, three bath, 2544 square foot. So like a nice, good sized family home here. It's on point. 79 acres. So not bad. Almost a an acre there, you know, Four fifths of an acre. It's nice porch, a nice deck. It's not bad. It's okay. There's some weird. It's painted a little weird inside in a couple of places, but it's not terrible. $499,000 for that. Seems a little high. And then here's a four bedroom, three bath, 4,028 square foot house on 1.59 acres. And it's a beautiful house. It looks like an old. It looks like a mini plantation house. It has those columns and shit. That's what it looks like. It has like in the yard, like this long walkway up to it. It's very pretty. It's a really nice house. The inside could be fucked with a little bit, but it's not bad. Amazing garden. 1.59 acres. So a little bit of land. Really nice garden. 899,000 bucks for that.

Jimmy Whisman (17:39)

Holy.

James Petregallo (17:40)

So steep though. You know, it's a little steep. Things to do here. Okay. The Gaston All American Fair. There we go. That's one of them here. The Gaston All American Fair brings rides, games and more. To where, Jimmy, you may ask. The East Ridge Mall, of course. Obviously. There we go. It's free to get in and rides and games will have a fee though. You can walk around for free. Armbands are $25 and will allow the rider to the wearer to ride unlimited rides for that day. So 25 bucks all you want. And for some reason, I don't know what they had last year, but it says there will be no contests this year.

Jimmy Whisman (18:22)

They don't want to hurt anybody's feelings.

James Petregallo (18:25)

No, not be contest. Which always makes me think when I hear something like that, it makes me think of slums of Beverly Hills. Ms. Ball is issuing no treats this year. Have you ever seen that movie?

Jimmy Whisman (18:35)

I don't think so.

James Petregallo (18:37)

Fucking great. You should watch it. Alan Arkin. Alan Arkin. Alan Arkin. Natasha Leone. What's her name? No, no, no. Natasha Leone. Yeah, her. Marisa Tomei is in it.

Jimmy Whisman (18:50)

How old is this?

James Petregallo (18:52)

98Ish. Oh, it's great. It's like.

Jimmy Whisman (18:54)

How old was Natasha Leone that she was in that.

James Petregallo (18:57)

17 some she says she plays. She plays like a 16 year old in the. In the movie. So it's set in the seventies. It's really funny.

Jimmy Whisman (19:04)

So she see my age?

James Petregallo (19:06)

I think so, yeah, she's about our age. Yeah, yeah, yeah. She's in the ballpark of our age. Yeah, yeah. There's also. There's also Gym Fest. J I M Fest. That's for us.

Jimmy Whisman (19:16)

Oh, what?

James Petregallo (19:17)

Finally It's a festival for us. Damn it. Gym Fest out west. A festival for unsigned artists. Oh, never mind. I don't want to go anymore.

Jimmy Whisman (19:29)

It was just Jim's here.

James Petregallo (19:31)

No, no, no. Not guys named Jim. Here is the bands Heartsick Heart would be sick if they heard you. In other words, Blackwater Drowning.

Jimmy Whisman (19:42)

What? Ew.

James Petregallo (19:44)

They're like an upbeat. An upbeat. Like a Spanish group. Obviously they're not death metal. I'm sure. Death of Uriah. Okay. Forever May Fall. Donnybrook, North Carolina.

Jimmy Whisman (20:00)

That's a fight.

James Petregallo (20:01)

That's a fight. Yeah.

Jimmy Whisman (20:02)

Yeah.

James Petregallo (20:02)

So I guess they're gonna brawl on stage. Done. Done. Our dumb har. Who mechanical band. Wither the Fallacy. Two Stroke Smoke. Oh yeah, you gotta have that. Two trucks. Two Stroke Smoke. Yeah, it smells nice and toxic. And Saving Darkness.

Jimmy Whisman (20:24)

Yeah, it was.

James Petregallo (20:26)

Let's pick who's gonna make it out of these bands. Who's gonna make it?

Jimmy Whisman (20:31)

I hope it's Two Stroke Smoke. They sound.

James Petregallo (20:33)

That sounds fun. I doubt it though. Just by their name. I don't think they're got a broad appeal. Let's just say here I'm going with Forever May Fall. Sounds like the name of a band, doesn't it? Yeah, they make like. Like chick. Like Evanescence or something like chick music.

Jimmy Whisman (20:47)

There's a band called into the Darkness and then one called Saving Abel. If those are two, maybe they're that saving. I don't understand. Saving darkness. I don't get the idea.

James Petregallo (20:56)

Saving. I don't understand any of this shit.

Jimmy Whisman (20:59)

Saving Darkness. I don't know. Yeah, they're setting the clock back.

James Petregallo (21:03)

Their whole point is to abolish daylight savings. That's what all their songs are about. Always midnight, always crime rate in this town. What we are interested in here is honestly shocking. The property crime is about double the national average.

Jimmy Whisman (21:18)

Wow.

James Petregallo (21:19)

Which seems they aren't kidding like a lot. Yeah, that Run reviewer was not bullshitting. And then violent crime, murder, rape, robbery and of course assault. The Mount Rushmore of crime is about a third above the national average.

Jimmy Whisman (21:31)

It's dangerous.

James Petregallo (21:32)

What's happening over here, man? What's going on? I think it's more dangerous than Charlotte. Honestly, I really do. I think Charlotte's crime rate's a lot lower than that. And I don't know. I've walked around Charlotte. It doesn't. Doesn't seem scary.

Jimmy Whisman (21:43)

I've never felt in danger. No Charlotte ever.

James Petregallo (21:46)

Or Durham. When we were in Durham, I didn't feel. They're fine. So that said, let's talk about some murder. Oh, boy, we're going to come in hot here. Okay. October 29, 2009. Let's go back to here. All right, now, on this day, police are called to what they call a crunch, A country gravel and dirt road. This is in. This is in York county, South Carolina, which is not far from here, but over the border, obviously into South Carolina. It's near Clover, South Carolina. That's the closest town to this area. They are here to investigate. Somebody had called in and said they think they saw a dead body down this road. Yeah, pretty sure I found a dead body. So they come up and they find the body of a female human being here. Best way to put it.

Jimmy Whisman (22:40)

Definitely found a dead body.

James Petregallo (22:41)

There's definitely a body. And it's a woman here. She'd been dumped on an obscure road where nobody would really notice her. It's just a dirt road out in the middle of nowhere outside of a small town. This is in York county, like we said. Now, she's dressed in a sweatshirt and socks. And that's it. Oh, nothing else. They said there was a striped sock on her toe and her naked calf protruding from a bush. That's what someone saw. They just saw a foot and a. And a calf. And then they called the cops. And then the cops came in. So they said the body was white. She's a white woman with blue veins visible beneath the skin. She had a long, deep gash in her side, but they didn't know. It looked like it could possibly be from an animal's claw of some kind. Possibly a claw, maybe not an actual, you know, cutting instrument wound there. So once. And they don't know how long she's been out here. So out in the middle of a rural, you know, nowhere, you're gonna. You could get clawed up by something. There's a lot of animals out there. There were more scratches along her body. They looks like these scratches are from dragging, like she was dragged from a car or something out into the location where she is right now. So she's naked from the waist down. She has on a hoodie, but it's pulled up above her breasts.

Jimmy Whisman (24:07)

Yeah.

James Petregallo (24:08)

And socks. And that's all she's got on. So, yeah, they. This is, I guess, just beyond a small concrete bridge. They said, yeah, it was, it was horrifying. Cop yelled, you know, they were looking after that because they said, well, where is the rest of her clothes, number one, and are there any other clues? So, you know, if you find a body, you then spread out in a circular area to fan out, search for it. So at one point, they are near a small concrete bridge in Gaston County, North Carolina. So they've crossed the line there. And they said they saw something red with smudges of mud that was half on the edge of the roadway and half in the brush. And so they, the one said, I think it's a red shirt. So they look into the woods here and they see something sparkling in the sun too, down near the red shirt. So they go down the hill and it's a short embankment where the shirt is located. And then one of the cops saw a pair of blue jeans with a diamond studded or rhinestone studded belt on it. And the jeans and belt were farther down near the actual creek that the road was named for here. So they then discover that inside the jeans, stuffed in there are a red bra and a black pair of women's underwear. So what she was wearing, seemingly stuffed inside there, the jeans had the belt inserted around the loop so it wasn't like ripped off or anything was still around the waist. So they look at where the clothing is recovered. The shirt is at the top of a ridge near the bridge. The jeans and bra and panties were down by the creek. They said it appeared somebody might have tossed them out of a car window while pulled over or even flung them out of a moving vehicle. And that's where they fluttered to, basically, they said, or maybe this is where this happened and then the body was moved perhaps. Yeah, we don't know. It might have happened there. Stripped her down and threw the clothes out or the opposite. So they're trying to know that the.

Jimmy Whisman (26:11)

Person that did this was also here.

James Petregallo (26:13)

Yeah, there's two places that where this are part of this crime scene now. So the items matched with the size of the woman that they found too. So they're pretty shorts and it's all the stuff she's missing is here. She's missing bra, underwear, jeans. Here's bra, underwear, jeans. Yeah, here they are. So that's interesting. Now they didn't touch the clothing. They had forensics come out and do all that kind of stuff. So in addition to that, near her clothing, they Find a crack pipe also like a used crack pipe. So now they don't know. Is that her crack pipe or is that somebody who dumped all this? Were they smoking crack? This seems like something a crack smoker might do.

Jimmy Whisman (26:56)

Somebody was smoking crack.

James Petregallo (26:57)

Somebody was smoking crack. Now they're going to initially call the cause of death undetermined, it's a homicide. But the what killed her is undetermined. They don't know that at that point. They do find out after doing some canvassing about the area here that two suspicious vehicles had been spotted on the road during the time that this body could have been dumped. So they learned that one was a Ford F150, a red Ford F150 pickup. And you know, they put that out there and they said it had tinted windows and a flatbed liner cover. So you know, one of the covers on the back there. It had been seen in the area of Robinson Yelton Road between noon and 1 o'clock on October 27th. That's just two days earlier. The second vehicle is a two tone Chevy S10 pickup with a blue top and tan bottom. Possibly an 87 to 90 model. Yeah, this is in 2009.

Jimmy Whisman (28:00)

So it's an old truck to be driving around.

James Petregallo (28:03)

Yeah. The thing is though, in the, in the country, everybody's got an old pickup truck.

Jimmy Whisman (28:08)

Yeah.

James Petregallo (28:08)

Like you're saying, anybody around here got an old pickup truck? It's everybody.

Jimmy Whisman (28:12)

Right.

James Petregallo (28:12)

Because you need to haul things and.

Jimmy Whisman (28:14)

You know, they got a new pickup truck that they drive to town for dinner, lady.

James Petregallo (28:18)

But they got the old one do the work. That's for the dirt roads and shit. For banging around. Yeah, Picking crap up from the. Taking shit to the dump and stuff like that. So they said that vehicle, the S10 pickup, had been seen in the area on October 25th and 26th between 9 and 10pm so at night. So they were like, okay. They think maybe that one of these vehicles belongs to the murderer, obviously. So they get an identification on this young lady and we find out is a young woman named Heather Marie Catterton. C A T T E R T O N. She's 17 years old.

Jimmy Whisman (28:58)

Oh my God.

James Petregallo (28:59)

Yeah, that's crazy. So they were like, whoa. They thought she was older initially. Initially they had her with the veins and such. They had her at 25 to 35 was what they. That when they released the press release out said a woman's body was found, a white woman between 25 and 35, blah, blah, blah, blah blah. So people that knew Heather weren't real worried because she's 17, not 25 to 35. Yeah. Yeah. So they're trying to figure out how the hell she would end up here. They find out that she's had a crazy home life. It's been rough for her. She had a rough relationship with her father. Her father's name is Nick. And she often ran away for days to a week at a time to just get out of the house. Now they also find out that she has a criminal record. At 17, she was recently charged with possession of cocaine and marijuana with intent to distribute.

Jimmy Whisman (29:55)

Oh, boy.

James Petregallo (29:57)

Yeah. The charges were pending, and she, I guess, only weeks earlier had gotten out of jail. Really? Yeah. So that's before that. So young. That's what I mean. There's gotta be something going on here. She's from Gastonia, North Carolina. She was not enrolled in school even though she's 17. They said that they found out she frequently would just stay with friends for long periods of time just to get her out of her house. She'd been in and out of the foster care system for years as well. Even though she has parents, they're not the best parents, it seems like. So the Department of Social Services took over the custody of Heather when she was 15. Her father explained it this way. Now, imagine they came and took your kid, and someone asked you what happened? Would this be your answer? They would say, activity has gone on. Could you be a little. Could you be more vague? Sir, that is really nothing close.

Jimmy Whisman (30:58)

It was illegal. Obviously bad for kids. Either way, not appropriate for a child. Right.

James Petregallo (31:04)

Dangerous. So they said. One night in their previous home, which was in Grover, North Carolina, a shot was fired by someone in the house, and Heather was placed in. In care of the Department of Social Services over child endangerment concerns, you know? Cause there's shots being bucked off in the living room.

Jimmy Whisman (31:25)

It was an indoor shot.

James Petregallo (31:26)

Yeah. No, in the house. A shot went off. So they were like, let's get the kid out of here. Maybe. That'll probably be good. If you're gonna be having fucking gunfights in here, you're gonna have duels in the living room. I'll take the kid. Social Services finally released her from its custody when she was 16. Because. And this is why Nick said they did this. Quote, they couldn't control her running away from these homes.

Jimmy Whisman (31:50)

Generally, this is gunplay, man.

James Petregallo (31:52)

No, no, this meaning the foster homes.

Jimmy Whisman (31:54)

She was running away from those.

James Petregallo (31:56)

Yeah. Now, generally, they won't release you because you're kind of a pain in the ass. You'll just Your custody will get tighter. That's how it works usually. So a little backstory. Nick and Heather's mom Stella never got married. They were never married. Stella had a four year old boy that she brought to their relationship. She and Nick had begun dating in 1983. Hey everybody. Just gonna take a quick break from the show to tell you a little bit more about our safest sponsor, Simplisafe. The days are getting longer. We got longer daylight hours, which means you might be spending more time away from your house, which gives burglars more time to rob your house. That's what happens here. FBI crime data shows that break ins are more likely during daylight hours than at night, actually, which you don't think of that. But you need to protect your home with Simplisafe's proactive security that helps stop threats before they even happen. We love SimpleLife because number one, they're great. The alarms are great. The cameras are high quality. I love the fact that they can tell somebody and yell at them to go away from your house and they can call the cops. And it's easy to install. I was so worried when we first got it. I'm not going to know how to do this. It's super easy. They have installation if you need it. But you can do it. If we can do it, you can do it. Visit simplisafe.comsmall to claim 50% off a new system with professional monitoring plan and get your first month free. That's SimpliSafe. S I m p l I safe.com small there's no safe like SimpliSafe.

Jimmy Whisman (33:31)

So now back to the show.

James Petregallo (33:36)

This show, Small Town Murder is sponsored by BetterHelp Therapy. Number one can feel like it's a big investment because it's a. It can be very expensive over time. But your state of mind is just as important as your physical health. If you had a physical problem, you wouldn't be going, well, I don't know, I'm going to go to the doctor and they're going to send a bill. You got to get it taken care of. So yeah, you know, traditional in person therapy can cost anywhere from 100 to $250 a session, which, that'll add up very fast. But better help. Betterhelp's different. Betterhelp online therapy. You can save on average up to 50% per session. That's incredible. This is an affordable way to do this. Your mental health is worth it and BetterHelp will put it in reach for you here. And we are huge proponents of therapy because I know for a fact here I have my partner sitting here next to me because of therapy, because it's helped him with a lot of problems and just give him the tools to cope. And that's what therapy can do for you as well. Your well being is worth it. Visit betterhelp.com smalltown murder today to get 10% off your first month. That's betterhelp h e l p.com smalltown murder now back to the show. They lived in South Carolina, just below the North Carolina border. Stella got pregnant with Nicole, which is Heather's older sister, who plays heavily into the story. And then add Heather after that. Heather is, when she's a kid, known as like the most cheery person in the world. She's a real upbeat kind of a young lady here. Nick worked as a plumber on new build construction projects. That's what he did initial easy stuff, but all right. Yeah, you don't have to fix anything. It's right. The drywall's not up yet. So have at it, my friend.

Jimmy Whisman (35:25)

Very easy.

James Petregallo (35:26)

Yeah, so he worked a lot though. He'd leave the house at 6 in the morning, get home at 7 at night type of thing. Yeah. Nick said we started off in South Carolina and things were going great. We were a family. So yeah, then he packed everybody up. They moved down to St. Augustine, Florida, where they lived for about five years. And so yeah, they would take the kids to the beach and have family days and shit like that. But once Heather was born, Nick said we had to cut back after Heather came along. Quote. But these was some really good, good times. That's an exact quote. Yeah, these are like real like country people. A lot of these people, a lot of their quotes are going to be real, real fucking Southern, loosey goosey with the grammar in the English. Yeah. Which is fine. I'm just warning you ahead of time.

Jimmy Whisman (36:21)

Playing loose and fast.

James Petregallo (36:24)

Playing loose and fast with the language, folks. So while she was in school, after her family moved from Florida to Grover, North Carolina, you know, where they would take her away for gunplay. Heather, I guess, is really good on computers and stuff like that. And like she would help the teacher out with shit and tell the other kids how to use stuff, use computers and stuff. In the 90s, not everybody knew how to use a computer. So someone knew how to use a computer was like a magic trick. Like, oh man, look at her. She knows how to use a computer. Fucking crazy. So now they had been. Nick and Stella had a lot of problems over the years and when they went back to North Carolina, things got worse when they broke up. Nick took the girls, Nicole and Heather, and moved to Gastonia. And Stella and her son that was around beforehand went. Went their own way. So she is around though, Stellic, because we know that for a fact based on something later that is pretty disgusting. That we'll talk about. So Nick said drinking was his big issue. Yeah, there's something in the mix here, and it's something. It's alcoholism. There's gotta be something. So he said that he drank a 12 pack every day and a case a day on the weekends.

Jimmy Whisman (37:39)

So, yeah, every day and a case a day. Okay. So he double beer, doubles it on, doubles it up.

James Petregallo (37:44)

Yeah, well, he has time. He's home all day then. Yeah, he's got to squeeze a 12 pack in from like seven to ten at night. That's a tough one in the six hour window. Yeah, yeah. Three hour windows.

Jimmy Whisman (37:53)

I can hammer. I can have another 12.

James Petregallo (37:55)

Oh, yeah, you can chill. So Heather started to rebel. Junior high, middle school era here, you know, that's. That's when she really started to do that. She started to look more toward her friends and social stuff and all that kind of thing here. Her dad said. So she found a family that was homeschooling, and she did that because she wasn't doing well in school, he said, and I was paying this lady who had four or five kids to homeschool her. Now that lasted until she was 13, when she didn't want to do any kind of school. And Nick's drunk all the time. Her mom's gone. And that's when social services start stepping in because she kept running away is what happened, which means 90% that she's probably. The fact that she runs away and tries to stay away means Nick is probably beating the shit out of her. Kids run away and stay away from physical abuse usually, or sexual abuse or some kind of abuse situation. They don't just. They're not just like, I'm gonna go start my own life, you know, for no reason. I'm just tired of things around here, you know, I just want to set up my own shot. So she was reported missing at least five times in one year when she was a teenager. In one year, one year, reported missing, two months. She's definitely to the police. Yeah. Oftentimes they would find her not too far from the home. She'd just be kind of away from there, though. So, I mean, she doesn't know where to go. She just doesn't want to be There she was having a hard time with the whole thing. Nick called her a daddy's girl and said she got into trouble because of her free spirited nature. That's all this is. She's just a free spirit. That's all. It's not that I'm a drunk who fires gunshots off indiscriminately and beats the shit out of my kids. She's just a free spirit.

Jimmy Whisman (39:51)

My daughter's a trollop.

James Petregallo (39:53)

Yeah, that's all it is, free spirit. I mean, and free spirit is getting arrested for drugs and being in the custody of the Department of Social Services and shit like that. That's pretty free. She's a free bird, all right. Now her brother, this is Stella's son, said that she was a joyful person, always high spirited, got along with everyone. Everyone always liked her. She always had a smile on her face. She always has a smile. But she's running away, so it's really hard to figure out. Nick said he lately had been encouraging Heather to study for her ged, but her several drug arrests in Gaston county kind of kept that from happening. And he blamed that on her friends. He said she's a good girl, but people she hangs out with are bad. Here's a picture of Heather, by the way.

Jimmy Whisman (40:48)

Well, she looks sad.

James Petregallo (40:51)

She literally has a lip out pouting, so I think that's a mugshot. That's why she's a pretty young girl though. She's, you know, nice. She looks nice. Nick said this, she's always been a good girl. She just got those teenage genes in her. Them teenage genes, they don't develop till she's about 13 and then they start a blossom and popping out of them kid genes. He said teenage inner teenagers nowadays think they can do anything and they're all grown up.

Jimmy Whisman (41:25)

That's different from the ones earlier.

James Petregallo (41:27)

Yeah, teenage genes. I've never heard that before. That's wild. He said she wouldn't even tell me who she was with because she knew I would come right then and get her. A father and mother can tell about their kids more than anyone else in the world. Parents know the signs. A lot of time they don't believe the signs, but the signs are there. Okay, so what happened to your daughter? Why didn't you. What's going on?

Jimmy Whisman (41:52)

Right.

James Petregallo (41:53)

He said that she was self aware and strong and that if someone attacked her, she would have definitely tried to fight off her attacker. And that's what everybody says. She's not a. She's not a meek child at all. She said. Yeah, Think about what she's been going through. She's been running away. She's been in foster care. She's fought. You know what I mean? She knows what she's doing. He said she was a very smart girl. She was street smart. That's what made me think that it couldn't be her when the body was found. Because at the first sign of trouble, as soon as the opportunity hit, she would have run like a rabbit. She would have done something. So now that's fine, I'm sure. But that means somebody tricked her, probably, or did something, whatever. So he said that he would have sacrificed his own life to protect her. Nick said, I just won't stop drinking, though. That's one thing I can't do.

Jimmy Whisman (42:42)

Sacrifice my whole liver for this.

James Petregallo (42:45)

Let me put down my Miller lot and we'll talk about it now. He said, I would definitely trade places with her. Anybody would for their kid that they love. It just breaks our hearts. Whoever did this couldn't have been in their right state of mind. They had to be some kind of monster or maniac. And then he said, please come forward and give peace of mind to everyone who loves her. Whoever it is, they're going to catch you anyway.

Jimmy Whisman (43:08)

That's happened before.

James Petregallo (43:09)

Yeah, no one's ever gotten away with it.

Jimmy Whisman (43:11)

I should just give myself up.

James Petregallo (43:12)

So fuck it.

Jimmy Whisman (43:13)

I'm gonna go ahead and do it.

James Petregallo (43:15)

He said they'd catch me anyway. Now they go back to when was the last time she was seen by people. And that is October 17, 2009, is the last time she was seen, which is 12 days earlier. And she was last with her friends Summer Hefner and her boyfriend, Michael Moore. Okay, so that's who she was with.

Jimmy Whisman (43:41)

That is the second time we've had a Michael Moore in a story.

James Petregallo (43:43)

A lot of Michael Moore's. Yeah, because one of the west Memphis three kids was Michael Moore, wasn't it?

Jimmy Whisman (43:48)

That's what it is. Yeah.

James Petregallo (43:49)

Yeah, we've had that. So anyway, it's not her. Not Heather's boyfriend. It's Summer's boyfriend, Michael. So they're a couple. They're hanging out with Heather. This is the kind of late in the day, October 17, 2009. Now they're gonna spend time that day drinking and smoking crack. That's what the group is as you do on a Saturday. Hey, you know what? It's my fucking weekend. Don't tell me what to do.

Jimmy Whisman (44:17)

Smoke crack with me.

James Petregallo (44:18)

I smoke crack. What do we do when we have a weekend off? Just smoke crack. I mean, what else is there to do?

Jimmy Whisman (44:24)

Walk down to the crick and smoke crack.

James Petregallo (44:26)

Smoke some crack. Why not? So that part of the intro of the Andy Griffith Show, I don't remember. I remember them walking down. They had a fishing pole and they were going in. And Andy didn't go, nah, Opie, you go ahead and drop it in your line in the water. I'm gonna go look at something over here. Then Andy dipped behind a tree. Fucking start lighting up the crackpipe. Catching anything yet? Oops. Nope. All right, we'll see. So anyway, this is fucking crazy. So they find out that they were also hanging out with another guy too, at some point during that day. A guy named Danny Robbie Hembury Jr. Danny Robbie. His real. His legal name is Danny Danny Robbie. And his middle name is R, O, B, B I, E. Danny Robbie and Hembury. So it's Eee all the way Junior. Of course, obviously, there's another Danny. There's another Danny Robbie Hembri Jr. As a matter of fact, there is another Danny Robbie Hembury because the third, because he has a son named Danny Robbie Hembury iii. Just. Just so you know, here, Danny Robbie.

Jimmy Whisman (45:34)

Wow, that's. That's one way to make sure you got a doctor in the family. Got a doctor right there.

James Petregallo (45:39)

There he is. Dr. J.R. right there. Dr. Junior.

Jimmy Whisman (45:46)

Oh, I bet you that's never happened.

James Petregallo (45:50)

Dr. Junior. Probably not. So. So Danny here, Danny had been dating Nicole, Heather's older sister, for a few months and had been hanging around the house, Nick's house, and like, staying over half the time and all that kind of shit for months now. So he knows the family. He's in the mix here. He's also known as a guy who knows his way around the streets in this area, knows a lot of people, has a criminal record and, you know, kind of has a. An into the underworld. And he might have heard. He might have heard something, basically. So they go to talk to Danny at Jacob's Food Mart out where he works. He's working out there. He's born in 1962, by the way, so way older than any of these people, which is another thing that's weird here. He's been dating Nicole, like we said. He's got a lengthy arrest record as we'll talk about here, a little bit about Danny Robbie here. Number one, he had just been released from prison in January of 2009. So that's number one. His parents are Danny Robbie senior, obviously, and Jacqueline. He's got a couple of siblings. He's got a sister and a brother. David and Kathy. He's the oldest or he's got. I'm sorry, there's a third, but I don't know who. The third sibling. I don't know the name. So he's the oldest of four children. His mother was 18 when he was born. His dad is a strict military guy. Oh, it's the opposite of Nick.

Jimmy Whisman (47:22)

Danny Robbie's been to jail or been to the Service.

James Petregallo (47:26)

Danny Robbie Sr. Was in the service for a while. Danny Robbie Jr. Couldn't fucking. No, he couldn't handle a service at McDonald's. He couldn't handle anything. He's got nothing here. So his stern father, not only is he a stern military man, but he's a stern vodka drinker as well.

Jimmy Whisman (47:45)

Oh, really?

James Petregallo (47:46)

Oh, yeah. And when he drank vodka, he became super violent. And the main lightning rod of his violence was Danny Robbie, obviously. Yeah. So that's how that goes, I guess. He's got a cousin here, Danny Robbie does. And they were like brothers. And Danny Robbie's cousin said they would party together all the time. And that Hembury's father, Danny Robbie Sr. Didn't react well when he learned his son wasn't behaving.

Jimmy Whisman (48:15)

They don't call him Danny. They call him Danny Robbie.

James Petregallo (48:18)

They call him Danny Boy. Everybody calls him Danny Boy.

Jimmy Whisman (48:20)

Oh, my God.

James Petregallo (48:21)

That's what everybody calls him. But I'm calling him Danny Robbie because it's fucking hilarious to me. Just makes me laugh. Just makes me giggle to call him Danny Robbie.

Jimmy Whisman (48:29)

I don't like Danny Boy. I don't like that at all.

James Petregallo (48:32)

No, I don't either. You're not Irish, are you? You're in North Carolina. Your. Your Irishness is a moot point down there, Danny Boy. Move to Waltham or Waltham or fucking Walpole or something if you want to fucking go by Danny Boy. That's some Massachusetts suburbs shit there. So apparently his cousin said that dad would, quote, beat the shit out of him all the time. He said he would use his hand, a belt, or any other thing that was close by to discipline both his sons. Not the daughters, just the sons he would beat the shit out of. At least he had some level of where the line is anyway. He had a line. Both the sons consequently suffer from mental illness. Shocking. Shocking as you do. Yeah. You beat your kids mercilessly with weapons and odd that they'll be mentally ill from that. Strange, right?

Jimmy Whisman (49:26)

Right.

James Petregallo (49:26)

Weird. So they said that Danny would often help to care for his siblings and stuff like that. His mom, Jacqueline said, quote, you couldn't ask for A better child as far as loving and caring. Until he became a teenager and started having these problems. Okay, his problems are a lot. He seemed to be a very nervous kid. They said he would like chew the skin around his fingernails and disrupt class and shit like that, you know, ADD type of shit. Yeah, that's what I mean. I didn't want to sit there either. So his parents took him to a pediatrician where he was diagnosed with depression at a young age. How old do we know again? No, I'm not sure. Young age though. But I mean he's getting beat constantly. He's terrified. In his own house. Yeah, that'll do that. He attended Hunter Huss High School, but dropped out before he graduated. He got married when he was 18 to a 16 year old neighbor.

Jimmy Whisman (50:28)

That should be illegal, right?

James Petregallo (50:30)

I mean, I don't know what the age of consent is in North Carolina. I'm not sure what the age of consent is in North Carolina. But I know her parents had to sign something for her to get fucking married. I think at 16. And he was already in trouble by then. His ex wife later on, but his wife at the time said he was already addicted to drugs then at 18 when they got married. Now he's not an idiot. He dropped out of high school. He did get his GED later while he's in jail as we'll talk about, because he's going to be in jail an awful lot. He never failed any grades in school or anything like that. He kept. Yeah, he kept it up.

Jimmy Whisman (51:07)

Just dropped out.

James Petregallo (51:08)

They said he had an IQ of about 90, which.

Jimmy Whisman (51:12)

Right.

James Petregallo (51:13)

It's not good. 80 to 90 is considered, quote, dullness. Oh yeah. And then 90 to 110 is normal average intelligence. And then okay, over 110, 120 is very intelligent. So an IQ score of 90 is in the normal range. It. That's right at the borderline of normal and a little dull. But definitely not like, you know, medically Forrest Gump, you know what I'm saying? Not Gumpian or anything like that.

Jimmy Whisman (51:41)

Tie some shoes. He's a shoe tying some bitches.

James Petregallo (51:43)

Yes, he's got plenty. He's got plenty going on. Now at the age of 10 is when they thought he was bipolar and put him. Or 12, I'm sorry. And they put him on lithium, which is really strong, really powerful shit. But we're talking early 70s. So there is not a lot of these drugs that we have now really popped in the 90s and early 2000s and late 80s. By the 70s it was we could drug you to where you sit there and drool, or you can just go about your business. Those are your options.

Jimmy Whisman (52:16)

Pretty much. He's 12.

James Petregallo (52:18)

Yes. Which I don't.

Jimmy Whisman (52:19)

Lithium.

James Petregallo (52:20)

I don't think that's good for your brain.

Jimmy Whisman (52:22)

Probably not. That's a heavy one, depending on the dosage. I mean, Yeah, I. Microdose mushrooms. I'm not tripping by any stress.

James Petregallo (52:32)

No.

Jimmy Whisman (52:32)

No mushrooms coursing through my body, but I know it.

James Petregallo (52:35)

I just dose them. I. I want to. I am tripping. I love those things. I love those things. They're great. So, yeah, he's married for 15 years. He's gonna be married from 80 to 95. And I'm sure most of that is just because he was unavailable to get a divorce because he was in jail. So I don't think that was 15 happy years of marriage. He has three kids. This fucking guy.

Jimmy Whisman (52:58)

God damn.

James Petregallo (52:59)

Three. Two sons and a daughter, which is wild. His mental illness as a child made him cut and burn himself all the time. He overdosed on drugs and alcohol a few different times where they'd take him to the hospital. He intentionally drove a car into a tree in a suicide attempt.

Jimmy Whisman (53:21)

That's an aggressive way to do it.

James Petregallo (53:22)

Terrible way to die there. Not a fun way to do it. Addicted to cocaine's his main. His main lady. He really loves. Really loves the blow there. Oh, boy. So from his teens, that's what he's really into, is that. And he struggled with this for years and years and years. They said his demeanor would change depending on whether or not he was using cocaine, they said under his wife at the time. Said under the influence, he would turn into a different person and he would hit her and be mean to her and all that kind of shit, which I don't know why you would do drugs to make you shittier. It sounds like you're not having fun.

Jimmy Whisman (53:59)

Right? That's what I don't understand. I mean, makes no sense.

James Petregallo (54:02)

You think he'd be hitting her and then he'd take. Then he'd snort a line and go, whew. I'm so sorry. I don't know what I was thinking there. You know, I feel much better now.

Jimmy Whisman (54:09)

They hit people.

James Petregallo (54:10)

It's fucking weird, man. Really weird. May 22, 1990. Let's catch up with old Danny Robbie here. There's an article in the newspaper. The headline is, two Clover men face charges and burglaries. Notice that Clover, by the way, is where he lived. Clover, South Carolina, which is right outside the town that Town is outside of where they found Heather.

Jimmy Whisman (54:33)

Yeah.

James Petregallo (54:34)

So he and another man have been charged in connection with two burglaries in which a car was used to ram into the front doors of area businesses. That's how they're gonna real sophisticated robbery plan.

Jimmy Whisman (54:46)

Our key is a Buick.

James Petregallo (54:48)

Not exactly Ocean's eleven here. You know, we're gonna get all of this. Well, you just drive it through the front window and I'll jump out and get shit. That's what this is. It's a totally different thing. So it's Danny, Robbie and a guy named Billy Eugene Knight here. And they were arrested and charged with third degree burglary. The front door of Ace Hardware at 4800 Old York Road in Newport was smashed in on May 15. And two packs of beer were reported stolen. Stolen from Ace Hardware. First of all, that's a great Ace Hardware. They sell beer too, which is. They should. That's smart. Probably need a 12 pack to put this drywall up.

Jimmy Whisman (55:26)

We're gonna build a deck. Hell, there's some Budweiser over there.

James Petregallo (55:29)

That's what I mean. But that's all they took. They broke in at full access to the store. Didn't take expensive tools or power tools they could sell. That's the most easily exchangeable commodity is power tools. You can sell those anywhere on the side of the road for fucking cheap if you wanted to. They stole two packs of beer. But the damage to the door is $1,500. So that's the main loss of the robbery, is the damage to the door. They stole like 8 bucks worth of beer maybe, you know, at the time. So minutes later, the front door was smashed at North's grocery store. And nothing was. That's what I mean. And nothing was reported stolen.

Jimmy Whisman (56:09)

Just broke the door.

James Petregallo (56:11)

Sounds like they're just joyriding through fucking doors. They just think it's fun to smash.

Jimmy Whisman (56:15)

In the building was pretty damn fun.

James Petregallo (56:17)

Do that again. Let's go to the groceries.

Jimmy Whisman (56:20)

More doors they got good and drunken for.

James Petregallo (56:22)

Forgot to steal shit from in there. I think that was fun. Oh, boy. So later on in 1993, in January of 1993, while he still lives in clover, he is arrested again for breaking and entering and larceny as well.

Jimmy Whisman (56:41)

Now this seems to be his thing.

James Petregallo (56:42)

Now it is. And apparently burglaries. This is not the only two times he was caught for this. There was a whole bunch of other ones in there. And he ends up receiving an 11 year prison sentence.

Jimmy Whisman (56:53)

He got 11 years sentence.

James Petregallo (56:54)

11 years for second degree burglary and criminal conspiracy.

Jimmy Whisman (56:59)

I want to jot that down somewhere so I can always remember that. Because people serve way less time for way worse things.

James Petregallo (57:06)

Oh God, the people get out for fucking. Bill Cosby's walking around right now? Yeah. What are we talking about? He's walking the fuck around right now.

Jimmy Whisman (57:13)

11 years and everything.

James Petregallo (57:15)

11 years for fucking breaking through front doors of Ace Hardware is a lot. So they get him good. In 1997 though, after serving three years, he is paroled. So that's not bad. That's February of 1997. He is paroled, but while paroled, he's not. You think he's gonna be on the straight and narrow? No. He's charged with more crimes in Gaston county, including two counts of robbery with a dangerous weapon, which is a step up from breaking through the door and stealing beer. And also financial transaction card fraud, driving while his license was revoked, and reckless driving. None of these things you're allowed to do on probation or on parole at all. They don't want you to have any. Like if you get pulled over for having a tail light out, you have to go call your parole officer and tell them you had a contact with police so they don't violated.

Jimmy Whisman (58:07)

Because I was doing something illegal. What were you doing? I had a tail light out. Yeah, that's definitely illegal. Anything higher than that. Come on, man. Yeah, you know, you can't get in trouble.

James Petregallo (58:16)

What are you doing this for now? While they get him back in there, he first, he was just a suspect. They rearrested him on a forgery case.

Jimmy Whisman (58:25)

Yeah.

James Petregallo (58:25)

While in custody, he confessed to several armed robberies that they didn't even. They didn't even.

Jimmy Whisman (58:32)

He's just too goddamn honest.

James Petregallo (58:34)

Too honest. They didn't even have him thought of for those.

Jimmy Whisman (58:37)

I just need you guys to close the books on these for me.

James Petregallo (58:40)

You know what? I don't want anybody doing any unnecessary footwork is what it is.

Jimmy Whisman (58:44)

It's tearing me apart that we're wasting.

James Petregallo (58:46)

Taxpayer dollars investigating this, don't want to do it anymore. And then he's chasing his tail. I mean, then what? So he said, I made up with it. He said he confessed to the robberies because he wanted to go back to prison. He said cuz he wanted to kick his drug addiction and he said he was clean while he was in prison and that's the way he's gonna do it. So he's like, I'm confessing cause I want you to send me back to prison so I can kick my addiction and live a normal Life.

Jimmy Whisman (59:16)

You got it, buddy.

James Petregallo (59:17)

That's right. He said he confessed to quote, set the record straight is what he wanted to do. The confessions came while police interviewed him on charges that he passed two checks that belonged to his father's account.

Jimmy Whisman (59:28)

Oh my God.

James Petregallo (59:28)

So he might not even have got sent back. And he was like, oh, I want to get sent back. He also talked to police. He said, I got another one you probably want to hear about. It's not, it's a lot older though. He said, yeah, all this stuff is from 93 to 97. He said, 97 on. He said, I got to talk to you about something that happened in 1980. He said it was. It's about a rape, beating and kidnapping of a Bessemer City convenience store clerk in 1980.

Jimmy Whisman (59:58)

Yeah, we do gotta talk about that one.

James Petregallo (60:00)

Yeah, he said that. Well, here's the article, by the way, from the Charlotte observer from September 11, 1980 when it happened so we can get an overview of the crime here. They said a 23 year old Bessemer City convenience store clerk was kidnapped and raped early Wednesday morning by two men who robbed the store. They said that the store was the pantry on North Carolina 274, just inside the eastern city limits. It occurred just after 3am the woman, who had worked the night shift at the store for almost a year, said that a man entered the store, pulled a knife on her and said this is a robbery. She said the man was in his early 20s, 5 foot 8 with curly blonde hair and a beard. Wore blue jeans and a T shirt with a 99 on it. Big Ricky Vaughn fan. But 1980 before that. Now that does not fit Danny Robbie's description at all. He's about. He's six foot, a little bit over brown hair. Doesn't fit at all. After the man took. Hates Ricky Vaughn, hates him. After the man took an undetermined amount of money from the cash register. The woman told police that he told her to walk toward a light blue pickup truck parked near the store. She said the truck had no tailgate. She told police a second man waited in the truck. She described him as young and slender with brown hair and wearing blue jeans but no shirt. That sounds more like him.

Jimmy Whisman (61:22)

That's our guy. Yeah.

James Petregallo (61:23)

She said she was ordered into the vehicle, driven to a secluded area near the old Lincoln Academy and the Grass Valley Golf Course near Crowders Mountain and was raped by both men. Fucking awful. That is fucking horrifying. The men then beat her, cut her with a knife and dumped her from the truck. A Fucking couple of pieces of shit. She was unconscious for a time after the beating, but then awoke shortly before 5am and ran through the woods to a nearby house. Yeah, she went to this house, but the house had no telephone. It was a rural area. Yeah, no telephone. So they had to, like, take her in their pickup truck to go get help. She had to sit in the back because no one sits up front but my dog, obviously.

Jimmy Whisman (62:08)

Yeah.

James Petregallo (62:09)

What was that? Planes, trains and automobiles or whatever. Yeah. So they took her to the hospital. They said that routinely. Police routinely check convenience stores during the third shift. And an officer had been to the store minutes before this happened to just do a quick stop in here, which unless you're going to sit there, a stop in is really pointless. Kind of pointless. So they said that they had no suspects and everything like that. So the. He's telling them all about this. The store, by the way, is now Jiggers Drive In.

Jimmy Whisman (62:41)

Don't like that.

James Petregallo (62:42)

Jiggers. Yeah. So he. Danny Robbie gives police a information about this and they reopened the investigation. He said, I have particular information about that crime. And he said, I haven't had. I haven't said I had anything to do with it, but I sure can solve it for you. Oh, yeah. He also told police he knows about a 1981 robbery in Kings Mountain and police are trying to find the victims there. Now, the detective said, quote, it's very unusual. You usually don't have them come forward and start talking about stuff.

Jimmy Whisman (63:19)

Right?

James Petregallo (63:20)

Yeah. That you haven't even asked about. Yeah, no. So they charged him with three armed robberies, one larceny and common law robbery, all dating back to 1993. They also charged him with forgery. And, yeah, maximum sentences for robbery with a dangerous weapon were 40 years at the time of the crimes. But he said that he hopes he can get out in less than 20 years. That's what he says at the time.

Jimmy Whisman (63:44)

Fingers crossed.

James Petregallo (63:46)

Wow. He said, I wanted to make sure I either never got back out or got help with my addiction. That's what he said.

Jimmy Whisman (63:53)

That's how strong addiction is, man. Yeah, I'll just sit in jail for hours, right?

James Petregallo (63:58)

May as well get out. I'm gonna do it. So he said that he could be incarcerated for the rest of his life. But he said, I believe if people see I genuinely want some help and I'm willing to put my life on the line to get this help. Somewhere along the line, I'll get help. Hey, everybody, Just going to take a quick break from the show to tell you a little Bit more about our fashionable, stylish friends over at Quint's. Spring's coming up. People want to travel. You've been in the house all winter. You want to get out, you want to do things. Vacation season's here, road season for us is here. And we're going to treat ourselves to some of the little luxe upgrades that we deserve with Quince's high quality travel essentials at a fair price, like lightweight shirts and shorts from $30 pants for any occasions and comfortable lounge sets. Also, you can get premium luggage options and durable duffel bags to carry it all. And the best part, all Quint's Items are priced 50 to 80% less than similar brands. We like Quints a lot. I've ordered stuff. I have a leather jacket, I have sunglasses, Jimmy's got pants. And I'm looking for more stuff because we gotta travel.

Jimmy Whisman (65:01)

So they got great flannels too.

James Petregallo (65:02)

They do. And I do need travel stuff too. So we need this for the road. Quince is going to help us out for the road. And for your next trip, treat yourself to the lux upgrades you deserve from quints. Go to quints.com smalltown murder for 365 day returns plus free shipping on your order. That's Q-U-I-N C E.com smalltown murder to get free shipping and 365 day returns. Quince.com smalltown murder now back to the show. Hey everybody, just going to take a quick break from the show to tell you a little bit more about sono bello. Oh.

Jimmy Whisman (65:38)

Sonobello.coms o n o b e l.

James Petregallo (65:41)

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Jimmy Whisman (67:12)

That is nice to be able to pop something down on the floor for him that looks like something that you'd put over rice or whatever and eat it yourself.

James Petregallo (67:18)

That's what I mean. Looks great. All you need to do, you fill out their 32nd quiz that Ollie has for you. They create a customized meal plan based on your puppy's weight and activity level and health info in general. There you get expert recommendations. Dogs deserve the best and that means fresh, healthy food. Head to ollie.com STM tell them all about your dog and use code STM to get 60% off your welcome kit when you subscribe today. Plus they offer a clean bowl guarantee on the first box. So if you're not completely satisfied, you'll get your money back. That's o l l I-e.com STM and enter code STM to get 60% off your first box.

Jimmy Whisman (68:00)

Now back to the ship.

James Petregallo (68:02)

He said if I can't be helped, I might as well be locked down like an animal for the rest of my life. He said, I knew with the check thing I'd be back out. That's why he confessed because he said they would have let me out pretty quick after that. That wasn't a big deal. He said he always used a BB gun to rob places, never a real gun. It doesn't matter legally in the eyes of the law.

Jimmy Whisman (68:24)

Right.

James Petregallo (68:25)

But it matters sentencing wise. Tremendous. Yes. To say that he couldn't have actually killed somebody. He wasn't actually to that level. He said, I never used a real weapon in any of my robberies. The only person that I ever could have got hurt in any of my robberies was me. Not to minimize or justify it. So that's, that's cards on the table. I need help. That's a good sign that he Might be growing up a little bit finally. So that was what you would imagine. But we find out, not so much because April 20, 1998, he's back in prison. Well, he was back in prison and then they detected him missing at 9:30am While they did count at the Manning Correctional Institution.

Jimmy Whisman (69:04)

He escaped.

James Petregallo (69:05)

He fucking escaped. He did all of that and then escaped.

Jimmy Whisman (69:08)

Escape.

James Petregallo (69:10)

This guy. Unforced error all day long. This fucking guy, man.

Jimmy Whisman (69:16)

Talk about regret.

James Petregallo (69:18)

Oh, shit.

Jimmy Whisman (69:18)

I didn't want to do this, I guess.

James Petregallo (69:20)

Officials locked down the prison because they suspected an escape attempt was coming up. They heard something. Somebody ratted, I'm sure. They said they don't know how he got out. There was no break in the fence around the minimum medium security prison, they said. But because he was missing, they assumed he'd escaped. Can't find him, so they said. Also he then stole a van from a convenience store on Interstate 20 in U.S. 21 on Columbia's north side near the prison. A white Ford Econoline van with MCEC contractors on the side. A big contractor van couldn't be a less fucking more conspicuous vehicle. Unless he stole a fire truck. That's crazy.

Jimmy Whisman (70:00)

Cop car.

James Petregallo (70:01)

Yeah. Holy shit. They said that although he doesn't have a violent past, they consider all escaped convicts to be dangerous. They said they did an inmate count and he wasn't there. So who the fuck knows? They figured out later that he scaled a wall at about 8:30am and they didn't find it for an hour that he was gone. And hours later, a York county sheriff's deputy saw a man resembling Danny Robbie. But he couldn't stop him, Couldn't get to him. So anyway, he had been transferred to this jail because Gaston's jail was full. And yeah, while working in this jail's kitchen, that's when he escaped. Wearing his kitchen white. Still.

Jimmy Whisman (70:42)

So wearing a very obvious.

James Petregallo (70:45)

Obvious prison outfit. Or he's a painter. One or the other, he's painting somewhere. Well, with the contractor van and a white outfit. He's a painter at that point. Done and done. Perfect. So he's like, either that or I gotta find an ice cream truck. One of the two. Fuck it. So he's described as humor man. Yeah, you know, all white. You know what I'm talking about.

Jimmy Whisman (71:06)

Slinging ice cream.

James Petregallo (71:08)

Why not? No one's gonna suspect that that's the least conspicuous vehicle.

Jimmy Whisman (71:14)

Somehow a mob hitman that did it for grace sake.

James Petregallo (71:17)

Mr. Softy there, he killed people from the van like crazy. So he's white, 6 foot 2, 200 pounds with brown hair and hazel eyes. So that's why I said that description didn't fit him earlier. He's wearing a prison uniform that may have had a white apron because he's a cafeteria worker. Now, April 21, here, they say they believe he's somewhere in his home county. They say York, in South Carolina. A York county sheriff's deputy spotted him again near Clover in a stolen van. The deputy arrest had arrested him several years ago. So he recognized him, knew who he was. Yeah, watched him get into the van and take off, but then was unable to catch him and stop him. Hey, dipshit, get out and fuck. Why are you letting him get into the fucking. Why are you letting him re. Steal this person's van? How about that?

Jimmy Whisman (72:09)

With the whole fleet of the goddamn thing.

James Petregallo (72:11)

Holy shit. April 23, a couple days later, he's captured. He was only three days on the outside. Not bad. He's charged with resisting arrest and he didn't want to go and escape. And escape. Yeah, from the arrest here, they got him at about 12:45am at a convenience store in Gastonia. That's that. So 1999, his brother dies in a car accident, it looks like here. And then his father's going to die the next year. So, yeah, it's all Robbie, Danny, Robbie Senior. Now, drugs are obviously a fucking problem.

Jimmy Whisman (72:49)

Clearly he can't shake them, man.

James Petregallo (72:51)

No, he really can't. When he gets out of prison in 2009, remember January 2009, he got out of prison for all this. He founds a little bit of steady work in Charlotte at an apartment complex, just to be in, like a maintenance guy fixing shit, you know, here and there. But this is who they're hiring to fix shit. So when you just go, yeah, I'll just leave my door open for you. This is who's coming into your apartment, everybody, to do maintenance or whatever. So you want to be there when that's going on. So I would say he had trouble keeping a full time job because he said drug use kept on going and going as soon as he got out.

Jimmy Whisman (73:31)

He's slave to it, for Christ's sake.

James Petregallo (73:33)

Yeah, he said at one point just about he would do just about anything you could get high or drunk on. That's what he would do. He said alcohol is my drug of choice, but crack cocaine, ecstasy, I mean anything really, that's what he's saying. But that's the hierarchy here, though. It's alcohol, crack cocaine, Ecstasy is fun. He claimed that through his life he'd been prescribed Hundreds of prescriptions and had at one time or another taken every psychiatric and narcotic drug ever made. He said during this time, 2009, when he got out of prison, he was supposed to be taking Neurontin and Ultram. When prescribed with other drugs, Neurontin is used to treat seizures associated with epilepsy in adults. And Ultram is a narcotic, like pain reliever. Okay, so he's got drugs narcotic style.

Jimmy Whisman (74:26)

Yeah. Okay, so like Oxys and shit. What's it called?

James Petregallo (74:30)

Ultram.

Jimmy Whisman (74:32)

Ultram.

James Petregallo (74:33)

Ultram. Never heard of it. Some fucking 2009 shit. I'm sure it's been pulled off the market because people's hearts were exploding or something. Who knows?

Jimmy Whisman (74:40)

Or it caused fucking tumors in your eyes.

James Petregallo (74:42)

Yeah, some fen phen, like issue. So he was prescribed both of them, he said, for neuropathy in his feet and joint pain. So that's who we're dealing with now. Now back to October 17th, the last time we saw Heather Marie Catterton. And she was with Summer Hefner and Michael Moore. So they spent time with Danny Robbie that day. In the late afternoon, I guess, Danny Robbie picked up Summer and her boyfriend outside of a store on Route 321 in Gastonia. They stopped at his mother's house and we'll talk about all of this. And then they continued to the house where Heather lived with her father because he was dating Nicole Danny Robbie. So both Heather and Nicole, by the way, are known at this time to have sex for drugs. Sure, they will have sex for drugs. Either one of them, apparently. Now, Summer, allegedly, according to everybody. I mean, I wasn't there. I don't know. Summer said that Heather was a prostitute who would trade sex for drugs, period. That's it.

Jimmy Whisman (75:50)

Yeah, it's. Men generally don't get that opportunity, so.

James Petregallo (75:54)

No, no, they would if they could. They said, I'll suck your dick. Not.

Jimmy Whisman (75:57)

Yeah, right, yeah, I'll let you suck my dick and give me drugs. No, that doesn't happen.

James Petregallo (76:03)

Yeah. So now she. Summer said that her and her boyfriend were at Heather's house along with Heather and Danny Robbie. And that Danny Robbie offered to buy some crack for the group, understanding that he would get sex in return. So. Wow. When you buy a pizza, that's not the understanding. Like, I'll go get the pizza. I got it. You don't expect someone to blow you before the last pepperoni is eaten. You know what I mean?

Jimmy Whisman (76:29)

It's so nice of you to pick up that sausage. Pepperoni.

James Petregallo (76:33)

That was great. Wow. Whip it Out. Come on. So eventually, the four left Heather's house, drove in Danny Robbie's car to a store. They said for the first several of several times that evening, a dealer would walk up to his car, sell him crack through his window, and they'd go. They said initially they went into the trailer home of one of Danny Robbie's friends, where they smoked all of his crack. Over the next several hours, the four of them went from place to place, purchasing and smoking more crack, drinking booze, having sex, and then looking for more money for more drugs and more alcohol.

Jimmy Whisman (77:08)

That sounds amazing.

James Petregallo (77:10)

That's a wild night, man. Minus the crack. That's a fun night.

Jimmy Whisman (77:14)

I mean, looking for drugs.

James Petregallo (77:15)

I don't have any crack.

Jimmy Whisman (77:16)

Doing drugs and getting blown off.

James Petregallo (77:18)

That sounds great.

Jimmy Whisman (77:18)

Sounds awesome.

James Petregallo (77:19)

Sounds awesome. So eventually here we'll talk about it, but the boyfriend's gonna end up getting left behind at a convenience store. And they ended up buying more crack. And then he ended up, Danny Robbie dropped later on Summer off at her boyfriend's mother's house at about 1am and Heather stayed with him. So that's what ended up happening here after they ended up at his house, Danny Robbie's house, where he lives with his mother. And after that is when they. Where he says he dropped Heather off at her house. So the last time Summer saw Heather was when Summer and her boyfriend got dropped off. Okay, last time. Now then she's found on October 29, 2009. Like we talked about the autopsy. Now with Heather, they conduct the autopsy. She tested positive for an amount of cocaine, which could have been lethal to a lot of people.

Jimmy Whisman (78:20)

Jesus. Yeah.

James Petregallo (78:21)

If you weren't, you know, weren't tempered to it. Yeah. So they said that her skin had undergone serious changes in color which would go along with decomposition. It's marbling pattern that forms on the skin from decomposition very early. Also, a fairly prominent area of skin slippage, or the top layer of skin kind of comes off. Sloughs. Off. Yeah.

Jimmy Whisman (78:46)

Yeah. That's a terrible word.

James Petregallo (78:48)

When there's decomps in the heat and they gotta roll them. Oh, they'll slough, they'll slough. And sometimes they'll pop because they're swollen.

Jimmy Whisman (78:58)

Yeah.

James Petregallo (78:58)

So sometimes the body will pop and it will be horrifying for everyone involved.

Jimmy Whisman (79:03)

Obviously, I did not know about the sloughing.

James Petregallo (79:06)

Yeah, the sloughing, that homicide David Simon book, they go over, like, crime scene stuff and it's like, roll the body and it sloughs.

Jimmy Whisman (79:14)

God. Jesus.

James Petregallo (79:15)

They were talking about finding somebody who was in a Baltimore attic in the summer, dead for like a week. So imagine how hot that is up there. I mean, we're talking 130 degrees. And just.

Jimmy Whisman (79:24)

Just wish it was a skeleton.

James Petregallo (79:25)

Yeah. And it popped. And everybody was bad for everybody, we'll put it that way. So that happened also. This was around her neck. This was going on. So they said this is not an easy autopsy because elements and insects and everything else had gotten to her. She'd been outside. It appeared that she'd been left on the side of the road for some time. They said that the. Her decomposition set in. They said marbling left leg and flank. Spotty skin condition. Green discoloration there. Skin slippage from the left side and back. Multiple additional foci F I o F O C I foci of skin slippage. Face, neck, abdomen, extremities, and a mild distension of the abdomen. Which means you're starting to swell.

Jimmy Whisman (80:13)

Yeah. Starting to blow.

James Petregallo (80:14)

Yep. The first thing they did was they washed her body. And they said there was dirt and debris all over her. So they said, quote, so having. This is the medical examiner. So having done that, it was apparent that she had a number of bruises and a number of scrapes to the skin. She had what looked like bruising to the right side of her face and inside corner of the right eye, some scrapes to the left side of her face. She also had bruises to the thighs to the bottom area. She had scrapes on her right side and a couple scratches in other places. So the medical examiner said, I had a concern that perhaps there was a violent element to her death. And one possibility that I did not want to overlook was that perhaps she had been strangled or smothered or something to that effect. They said her pupils and cornea were cloudy and poorly visualized, which is another indication they've been dead for some time. That's why when you pick out fresh fish, you look for. You don't want cloudy eyes. You want clear eyes. Means they're Less time has passed there.

Jimmy Whisman (81:11)

They're all gray. That's gross.

James Petregallo (81:13)

That's not good. So they said. That's one of the things here. They said the white part of her eye showed evidence of injury. And this type of trauma to the eyes is consistent with strangulation or asphyxiation.

Jimmy Whisman (81:26)

Okay. Some blood in the whites.

James Petregallo (81:28)

Yeah. So they said that the medical examiner felt the discoloration around the neck coupled with the trauma that her eyes showed showed that that's what they're thinking here. Now, after a while, after a real good autopsy, that she's probably strangled or asphyxiated in some way. They also said there was no bruising or external trauma around her neck, but that that finding didn't necessarily rule out anything. Basically, they said ultimately the final autopsy report indicated the cause of death was undetermined, but they're leaning homicide. They're leaning to strangulation, asphyxiation. Now, Heather's funeral. Danny Robbie offered to be a. Paul. A pallbearer at the funeral. It's the sister's boyfriend. And you know, whatever he said he wanted to help out the family in any way he could. He felt bad. He told Nick how sorry he was for the loss of his daughter repeatedly. And Nick was very appreciative of that. Said, oh, my older daughter's got a nice guy here. Nice crackhead. At the funeral, Danny Robbie signed the guest book. Then when it came time to carry the casket, he just took off. He didn't do it.

Jimmy Whisman (82:36)

Well, I mean, they're heavy.

James Petregallo (82:38)

I mean. Yeah. Wow. You just that you. Okay. If you say I'll be a pallbearer, you gotta do that. Like that's.

Jimmy Whisman (82:45)

You gotta stick around.

James Petregallo (82:46)

You gotta stick around, man. You. You offered to carry a dead person. Like that's a big commitment there.

Jimmy Whisman (82:52)

There's. There's six, right? Or is it. Yeah, it's six.

James Petregallo (82:55)

Six. Yeah, yeah, so. Or depending on who you are, one.

Jimmy Whisman (82:58)

Side'S gonna be heavier.

James Petregallo (82:59)

Yeah. I mean, I bet Ralphie May there was 12, but that's a different story.

Jimmy Whisman (83:03)

I would hope so. I bet there was one and it was a crane.

James Petregallo (83:06)

Yeah, probably. And we love Ralphie. No offense to Ralphie May.

Jimmy Whisman (83:09)

Greatest guy, the fucking shit Ralphie.

James Petregallo (83:11)

He would make fun of himself. Yeah, that's. I would assume a dead comics biggest regret is that he's dead and can't make fun of the fact that he's dead. It's like that's the ultimate thing. Self deprecating thing is I'm dead.

Jimmy Whisman (83:25)

Can't make fun of himself and B. Can't make fun of the people that are making fun of him.

James Petregallo (83:30)

Yeah, it's like, God damn it. But that's how a comic would think though. Like, oh man, this is. I can't even tell this story now. I'm dying. This sucks. So that's how sick and diseased we are as people. That's what we think about. So Summer said back on October 17th when this all started, she said she took a call from Heather. And Heather said, I just got out of jail and I'm at my dad's house.

Jimmy Whisman (83:56)

Great.

James Petregallo (83:56)

She had just gotten out of jail. They said she sounded defeated and tired, but happy to talk to Summer. She said, I need you to come over here now. So Summer said, I'll be right over. They often, I guess Summer and Heather often met at. At one of their friends houses here, Using the house as a staging area to decide whether or not they were gonna go where they're gonna go, party for the night, basically. So early afternoon, Summer is with her boyfriend, Michael Moore. They had no way of getting over to see Heather, so they started walking from their friend's house. They walked down the road. That's when Danny Robbie came up and picked him up off the side of the road. Hey, what are you guys doing here? Boy, what the hell? So they hopped in. He was driving down the road and he had never met the boyfriend before, Michael Moore. So they said he hung his hand out the window and said, hey, I'm Danny. And, you know, said, where are y'all going? And Sommer told him and Heather. And he said, well, that makes sense because Heather sent me to pick you all up. I just want to make. I want to take you to see her get on in. Yeah, why'd you ask then? You knew where they were going.

Jimmy Whisman (85:05)

I'm here to get you.

James Petregallo (85:06)

Rather than saying, I'm here to get you. He's lying. That's what that is. So Summer said, looked at her boyfriend, they looked at each other and they were like, all right, I guess so. You don't have to walk. So anyway, there's that now. Summer has always thought he was a little bit weird, this Danny Robbie here. She said, he's always up to something, scheming, contemplating, doing that kind of shit. He once explained how he had gone from. He explained that he used to go from dating. He had this one group, this one family, where he dated the mother and then moved on to the daughter. And he said, oh, yeah, I also did that with these people with the Cattertons. He said, I had promised Stella some things that I was now giving to Nicole, you know, my dick. Yeah, these balls. These balls. So they pulled up to Danny Hembry's mother's house here. Danny Robbie's mom and small house, red brick ranch style house with black shutters and all that kind of thing. Well kept yard didn't look like a piece of shit or anything like that, so that's fucking nice. Danny lived here with his mom. He had a bedroom and a den area kind of to himself down the hall from his mother. So Danny told Summer and her boyfriend wait in the car. He said, I won't be long. I'm just running in to get some money and to see my daughter. Okay? So they waited about 30 minutes and they talked about how weird he is. And they were like, jesus Christ, what the fuck is going on here? And she later said, Summer said, you know how you can just tell when people are strange? That was Danny Hembury. Yeah, that was him. He returned to the car, didn't say shit, and proceeded to go on to their friend's house. They said that, you know, they're all gonna go, whatever, smoke crack or whatever. This is going to Nick's house, which is Heather's house. Heather and Nicole's house next to dad. So at the house they get to the Catterton house. Danny, Michael Moore, Summer, they all get out of the car, walk in. Danny here goes about his business of hanging out with Nicole because that's where his girlfriend lives. So he goes and hangs out with his girlfriend. Summer's boyfriend sits in the living room. Summer went and found Heather. Heather was taking a bath. So she said this is the first time that Summer had seen Heather since Heather had been released from jail because she's had a bunch of fucking things there. She said she put on a little bit of prison weight, but she's still very attractive and looked like a kid.

Jimmy Whisman (87:40)

A little different.

James Petregallo (87:41)

Yeah, prison weight. Well, you take off baby weight, you put on prison weight. That's what it is.

Jimmy Whisman (87:46)

It's like baby weight minus the hope.

James Petregallo (87:48)

Yeah, it'll never end. It's a sadder wait. So Heather and Summer hung out in the bathroom and chit chatted here while Heather finished a bath. Very comfortable with each other here. Summer had. Summer said she had been clean for a while and hadn't been using drugs, but she was drinking that day. And they talked about.

Jimmy Whisman (88:11)

So clean.

James Petregallo (88:11)

She's not that clean. So they talked about what they were going to be doing to celebrate Heather's jail fucking release here. So as they're talking, Danny and Nicole walked in and Nicole, everyone's just hanging out. This naked 17 year old. Can we let a 17 year old bathe by herself, get fully dressed and then chit chat about what we're gonna do. So Nicole asked, what are you guys up to tonight? You guys have plans? And Heather and Summer didn't really seem interested in hanging out with Nicole and Danny. So. Yeah, and they all, they didn't understand it too because Nicole is like young and attractive and she's dating this guy who's twice her Age and a fucking scumbag, fucking ex convict. So they said his skin was like yellow and shit. He looked weird. He looked like he had hepatitis.

Jimmy Whisman (88:58)

Drug addict.

James Petregallo (88:58)

Yeah, yeah, that's what I mean. They said he had no job, he'd get up in the morning and just start drinking beer. They described him as waking up in the morning with a beer in his hand and going to bed with a crackpipe in his other hand. So pretty nice day. Yeah, they don't get it. So Danny waited till Nicole left. Nicole said, all right, whatever. And she left the bathroom. Then Danny kind of comes in conspiratorially. I don't know how much more conspiratorial you can be than being in a 17 year old's bathroom while she's bathing. But that's a separate issue.

Jimmy Whisman (89:31)

Feels like a conspiracy that's just take.

James Petregallo (89:34)

That level of weirdness and that's not even, that's brushed over. It's not even a big deal with this shit. So he said, y'all want to come off and get high is what he said to them.

Jimmy Whisman (89:44)

Y'all want to come off and get high?

James Petregallo (89:46)

He said, come on, I'll buy the dope. Okay, So I mean we're talking, it's a free sponsored evening now at this point, so. So he paused and Heather didn't respond. And he said, I promise a good time if you want to come. And they were like, okay. And. But they apparently that, that this is what Danny would say to girls. I'll pick, I'll buy the dope if you come and party with me. In other words, we'll fuck and I'll pay. That's all it is.

Jimmy Whisman (90:14)

I'm buying. So you're sucking?

James Petregallo (90:16)

That's it? Yep. So that's what he said. And you know, Heather, he liked. He seemed to be kind of interested in Heather even though he's dating her sister. And so yeah, he's like, she's all clean from jail and everything. Hadn't been on drugs in a while. Heather said, I ain't going anywhere without Summer. Get your ass out of here. That's what he told her. She told her. So Heather's not taking shit. She's not a meek 17 year old. She's been in foster care, jail, everything else. She's like, fuck out of here with your fucking pervert ass. So Danny looked at Summer and took a look at Summer and said, I don't mind her going, meaning Summer. And Summer said, I don't really know you. I'd never go with you without my Boyfriend. So then Heather said, get out of here. Go. Come on. Get the fuck out of here. I mean, I want to get out of the tub. I'm not doing it in front of you. So he said, all right, and he walked away. Now, earlier and through this, the girls had heard Danny and Nicole arguing with each other, which is they were always arguing with each other. Basically, whenever he wanted to get away from Nicole to go do what he wanted to do, he'd start a fight so he could leave. Danny later said he, Nicole wanted me to buy her something. I told her no, and she got pissed. That sounds made up. So Summer later said Nicole talked about going out by herself that night to go hang out with people and doing shit. So now Heather, Summer, Danny, Robbie, and Sommer's boyfriend Michael Moore, all take off. They go to a local store, like we said. They score some crack, like we talked about. Like Summer said, some guy came out and dumped it off in the driver's window. From the store, they drove to a friend's house on Chapel Grove, which is a trailer park, and his buddy was home. But as soon as Summer, Heather, Danny, and Summer's boyfriend got there, Danny's pal took Danny's car and left. All right, y'all take my trailer. And he got in the car and left. And it was kind of like if they said. It seemed planned almost. It was weird. Yeah.

Jimmy Whisman (92:16)

That is.

James Petregallo (92:17)

Yeah. So they arrive at the trailer, and he knew that Heather wanted to smoke crack. That's what she's into. So Somerset. They went off into a bedroom to go smoke Heather and Danny, Robbie. So they were gone for about 30 minutes. At one point, Summer walked in the bedroom to see what was up and make sure everything was okay, because she said she didn't trust Danny. And this is her quote. Summer said, quote, they was just butt naked.

Jimmy Whisman (92:48)

Is that what you do when you smoke crack?

James Petregallo (92:50)

That's it. You get. Yeah, that's fucking. Yeah. For sex.

Jimmy Whisman (92:55)

I want you to burn your shirt. Take it off.

James Petregallo (92:57)

Oh. If you've ever seen Dope Sick Love, you know that's. Yeah, there's smoking crack. And then that was the one couple there, you know, with a guy. You're the best al that guy. That's what they do. They'd smoke crack, and they'd be like, hitting the crack crack, going, baby, I'm gonna take you and fuck you and do all this shit. I was like, what is going on? So she said, they was just butt naked on the bed. Heather seemed fine. So Michael Moore starts walking down there. But Summer Stops him before he could go any further. And he said, they're all naked. Michael, let them be. They're all naked right now.

Jimmy Whisman (93:27)

There's a youngster in there with her tits out. Don't go in.

James Petregallo (93:31)

Heather said, that's fine. He can come in. Oh, boy, what's happening? So they said an afterward. This is Summer's quote. When they was done, we all got high. So after smoking that first round, Heather and Summer wanted more. You know, as crack goes, they said it's not a long crack. High is short. It's not a long thing.

Jimmy Whisman (93:54)

Leaves you unsatisfied and want more.

James Petregallo (93:56)

That's what I'm saying. So Danny told everyone that he wanted to go hang out inside another trailer nearby. It was an abandoned trailer.

Jimmy Whisman (94:06)

Those are the cool ones.

James Petregallo (94:07)

That's what you want. They said. It's a filthy mess. It's where like fucking teenagers and scumbags hang out. Yeah, beer bottles and empty crack vials and shit like that are all over the place. There's blankets, bug infested shit, broken glass, boarded up windows, mold, no electricity, piece of shit. When they got. They go there when they get inside. Danny said he wanted Heather and Summer to have sex together so he could watch.

Jimmy Whisman (94:30)

In here, in here, amongst this.

James Petregallo (94:33)

Cocaine's a hell of a drug. As Rick James once said, cocaine is such an incredibly powerful drug that as a gross old man, you can tell two teenagers, you'd like them to perform sex acts with each other in front of you, and they'll go, okay.

Jimmy Whisman (94:47)

In a disgusting environment, in a disgusting.

James Petregallo (94:50)

Moldy, shit covered trailer. Disgusting. So, yeah, he said that's what he wants. He wants them to do that. And he said that if you want to smoke more crack, you'll get on with the show. Put on a show for me. So Summer said, so Heather and me, we put on a show.

Jimmy Whisman (95:08)

Wow.

James Petregallo (95:09)

Jesus. When they finished this, Danny had a suggestion. Quote, me and Heather, by ourselves, we's going back to my mother's house so I can get some more cash to continue the party. Any y'all got a problem with that? So Summer and Michael said, no, that's fine. We'll wait in here in the scummy trailer.

Jimmy Whisman (95:30)

We'll wait for the crack.

James Petregallo (95:31)

We'll wait for the crack. So they did. Danny and Heather went off to his mother's house in search of more cash. Danny said something about two or $300 in cash his mother had stashed inside the house. That's. That's nice. Steal your. Stealing mom's savings for your old mother's God damn it. Fucking.

Jimmy Whisman (95:49)

That's emergency fund.

James Petregallo (95:50)

That is fucking gross. It was about 8:00 at night. Summer said it seemed like forever they were gone. Danny ended up with a giant jug of pennies. That's what he ended up coming back with. He said that's all he had left to his name. They hadn't located any cash back at the house there, so they, they decided let's go to one of those. Change into cash machines at a supermarket, coin star and pay 10% to that shit. So by 11 they had exchanged the cat, the change for cash at the supermarket and Danny bought more crack. Time to party again.

Jimmy Whisman (96:25)

So that is the last thing you have, man. Now you're gonna start pawning shit.

James Petregallo (96:29)

That's it. That's. Hopefully the night will run out before then maybe and you'll be, you'll be done. So they ended up going back to Danny's mother's house where Danny lives. And the idea was for Danny and Summer's boyfriend to swap Danny a Summer and Heather. They're going to trade, okay, Go back and forth. He. Summer said that didn't work out so well because you know, crack cocaine makes it to where men can't perform. Right? Right, yeah. Fuck your dick up.

Jimmy Whisman (96:59)

Yeah.

James Petregallo (97:00)

So instead they were like, fuck it and smoke more crack.

Jimmy Whisman (97:03)

Oh boy.

James Petregallo (97:04)

So when the crack was gone, Danny said, revisited another idea he said he needed. I know my mother has money hidden, he said, I know it, I know it, I know it. So he said, look, there's two or $300 stashed somewhere in this house. We just need to find it. So they all went out ransacking the house in a big treasure hunt. The whole four crackheads ran Mom's home, ran her. They couldn't find any cash. And there came to a point here where Danny began to get violent with Michael Moore. Summer said. She said a switch had flipped in Danny. He went from looking for money and willing to buy cocaine for everyone to a fucking maniac blaming everyone around him. Why they can't get more crack. Danny soon went after Michael, charging at him, saying, I'll shoot you, man. I'll whip your ass, I'll stab you, I'll cut you, I'll kill you. Just all the different methods. I'll do it. I'll overdose you. I'll do something. He was just freaked out. So they were like, what the fuck is going on here? Danny then locked Michael Moore out of the house after accusing him of finding and stealing the money.

Jimmy Whisman (98:11)

Okay, you have it. It's in your pocket.

James Petregallo (98:13)

It's in your pocket. Yeah. So Summer said, please, Danny, what are you doing? And Heather said, I'm getting the fuck out of here. This is getting too weird, you know what I mean? So, yeah. Now, Michael Moore, who had found some booze earlier stashed, was shit faced, drunk and coming down from a crack high, sitting outside on the stoop.

Jimmy Whisman (98:33)

Yeah.

James Petregallo (98:34)

Next thing you know, Summer says, it's freezing cold out there. Danny, please. And she put on her shoes and said, I'm just gonna walk home if you ain't gonna let Michael back in. So Danny approached the door and stood in front of it and then opened the door and motioned with his hand for Michael to come back in. He said, you sit on that couch to Michael. That's where he's allowed to sit. Okay, that's interesting. He says, you do not move and you do not leave this living room. You fucking understand me? Okay, sure, I guess so. Summer ran over, sat down next to Michael and didn't want him to say anything to Danny and make it worse. So Heather and Danny, after he suggested it, started to search the house for the money. You guys stay here. Me and Heather will search. So he said, look, it has to be here somewhere. But then they didn't find it. By after midnight, Danny said, let's just go. And Heather said, where are we going? And he said, alone. Just you and me.

Jimmy Whisman (99:34)

Oh, boy.

James Petregallo (99:36)

She thought about it for a second, then turned to Summer and said, I'll be back. I'm going with Danny. And. And by the way, about the sex, Summer said he liked rough sex. I noticed him pulling Heather's hair. And he said. She said, I never. I net quote. I ain't never done seen him strangling her or anything like that. I ain't never done seen him.

Jimmy Whisman (100:02)

I never done seen him.

James Petregallo (100:03)

Ain't. Ain't never done seeing him.

Jimmy Whisman (100:05)

Yeah, right. Don't seem so. She's saying, hold on. Ain't never ever.

James Petregallo (100:14)

Yeah, it's a double negative. I'm not positive. I got to remember how that works. If two negative numbers. Negative two plus negative two is negative four. Right.

Jimmy Whisman (100:24)

But I think you have to divide that by how many.

James Petregallo (100:26)

Or is it. Is it? Yeah, by that. The number of communicable childhood diseases that were preventable that they acquired, multiplied by.

Jimmy Whisman (100:35)

Amount of crack pipes in the pocket.

James Petregallo (100:37)

And the number of times you've had rickets, I believe is how it works.

Jimmy Whisman (100:41)

I think she's trying to say she's never seen him choke anybody, but he is into rough sex.

James Petregallo (100:47)

That's what she's trying to say. Yeah. Yeah.

Jimmy Whisman (100:49)

He likes it rough, but not like too rough. Not like that.

James Petregallo (100:53)

That's what I saw, anyway. Yeah, that's what I saw. I witnessed nothing I ain't seen. So I ain't witnessed nothing I ain't done. Witness nothing is what she said.

Jimmy Whisman (101:04)

Never know how.

James Petregallo (101:05)

Never ain't know how. So anyway, that is all to get back to the point to where Danny was talking to the investigators at the Food Mart. This is all the information they've had, is that Danny was there. Danny saw Heather that night. Who knows where Heather went after that? So he talks to them at the Food Mart, and he said the last time he saw Heather, the 18th, near 2 in the morning. Which is exactly what Summers said. He said something about partying with Heather, a girl named Summer Hefner, and Summer's boyfriend. He didn't want Nicole to find out that he was, you know, smoking crack and fucking his little sister. Her little sister, probably. He admitted to the cops he did have sex with Heather that night. They said, how'd the night begin? And he said, nicole and me, we got into a fight. She wanted something and wanted me to get it for her, and I told her I wouldn't. They asked about the Catterton family in general. And Danny then says this quote, look, I've had sex with Heather, Nicole and their mother, Stella. I fucked everything with a vagina in that entire family. I'll their grandmother if I could find her, but I think she's in a home somewhere.

Jimmy Whisman (102:13)

Stella's sisters better watch the.

James Petregallo (102:15)

Better watch their Aunt Diane. Better watch her. Oh, that's the crazy lady who killed people. Oh. So the cop said, had you seen Heather? Meaning between the time she disappeared and wound up dead. And he said, lots of people been asking me about Heather. I've been asking around, you know, and he said that I couldn't find anyone who done seen her. That's that. No one done seen her. So what do you want? So they said, do you have any ideas? Anywhere we could. Any direction, clues? He said. He said there was this one guy. He'd been looking for Heather. They call him the Marlboro Man. Great. We'll track him down.

Jimmy Whisman (102:58)

Don Johnson.

James Petregallo (103:00)

Who are we looking for?

Jimmy Whisman (103:01)

Yeah, was it Don Johnson?

James Petregallo (103:03)

Was he Harley Davidson or the Marlboro Man? I'm not sure which one he was. Call him the Marlboro Man. Great. So a male smoking. That's what we got at this point.

Jimmy Whisman (103:15)

Looking for a cowboy in snakeskin boots that have duct tape all over the table.

James Petregallo (103:19)

You know how it works. You know what you're looking for. He said, quote, he drives a red Dodge. I done seen him near the 17th. He was looking for Heather.

Jimmy Whisman (103:30)

They call him the Marlboro man because of that red Dodge. He, he got. He traded in his miles and got the.

James Petregallo (103:35)

That's what he got. The back, the tailgate's just a giant Marlboro logo. That's all it is.

Jimmy Whisman (103:40)

That's why the truck's red.

James Petregallo (103:42)

It looks like a pack of cigarettes actually, from the back, custom jobber. So the investigators are like, okay, that's actually good information because there was reports of a truck with that description in the neighborhood where she'd been found. So. Great. So one of the pickup trucks. Anyway, one of the investigators asked Danny where he had been that week. And he said he was working. And when he got off work, he'd go to his mother's house, eat dinner, then drive over to Nicole's. And he said he did that just about every day. And Nicole's family confirmed that Danny's employer confirmed that he showed him up for work and all that kind of shit. So, yeah, they're at a dead end here. So I don't know. I ain't seen her, so I ain't done seeing her.

Jimmy Whisman (104:24)

Ain't done never.

James Petregallo (104:26)

So they said, was there anything else about that night you can recall and tell us about? And he said just that Summer's boyfriend was an asshole and he couldn't do nothing, meaning get an erection. He said, so I wound up with Heather and Summer. I had to fuck them both. That's how it works.

Jimmy Whisman (104:43)

That limp dick motherfucker made me fuck two women that night.

James Petregallo (104:47)

That's right. Now the Summer, though, told police it was Danny who couldn't get an erection that night. So he's projecting. He's projecting erect. He's projecting his non erecting is what he's doing.

Jimmy Whisman (104:59)

He's projecting, not erecting.

James Petregallo (105:01)

It's a non erecting projecting, non erection projection is what that is. So he said he dropped Heather off at the Mighty Dollar that night. I assume it's a dollar store. He said, I went back home to my mama's and stayed till about 10 o'clock the next morning when my son came over. And then Stella's boyfriend and he said, call. Then Stella's boyfriend called and that's when he came up there. So they said, returning from home, dropping Heather off, he explained that he came home, quote, watched some porn and fell, jerked off after he just said he had threesomes and Twosomes and every other fucking kind of sum there is. He's like, I need to jerk it one more time.

Jimmy Whisman (105:45)

I came home and watched porn. I didn't jerk off. I just. I just wanted to get to the plot and get to the end.

James Petregallo (105:50)

And I got one that's got a real good story. I mean, it's real interesting. You actually fast forward through the fucking. To see what happens in the plot, which is rare for a porn.

Jimmy Whisman (106:02)

Yes. So she tips him after he delivers that piece.

James Petregallo (106:06)

So by the end of the week here, they have no real leads and they're just exhausted of dealing with all these crackheads. They have nothing.

Jimmy Whisman (106:13)

They have a crazy, crazy story to deal with.

James Petregallo (106:16)

Crazy story and all this type of shit. They don't know what's going on, but they do know that they have a dead 17 year old. Okay? Now, on the night that Heather's identity is released to the public, a friend of hers sees the news broadcast. Her name is Randy Saldana. Randy with an I. She's 29 years old at the time, and she lives in Gastonia. She's sitting in her sister Shelly's living room watching tv, and Heather's picture came up and she said, I know her.

Jimmy Whisman (106:44)

Yeah.

James Petregallo (106:44)

And her sister said, from where? And she said, fuck, I don't know. He said, I know her, I know her, I know her, I know her. And then she said, I got it. Jail. That's where I know her from. Yeah. She said, I saw her in jail. And the sister said, you mean you've talked to her? And she said, yeah, yeah, I talked to her. She said, I've also seen her around town from time to time. She said, and you know, she would not have gone down like that without a fight. She was a tough chick.

Jimmy Whisman (107:09)

Yeah.

James Petregallo (107:10)

So if someone you just did jail time with says, you're a tough chick, you're probably a tough chick.

Jimmy Whisman (107:15)

Yeah.

James Petregallo (107:16)

One thing for your dad to say it, but another for a fellow inmate to give you your props.

Jimmy Whisman (107:21)

They don't take shit off nobody. Yeah, it hits different when it's fucking.

James Petregallo (107:27)

I was in the pen with him. Yeah, yeah. Someone says, I was in the joint with that guy. You go, oh, shit. Yeah, he's probably a badass then. So now, Randy. A little bit of background on Randy here. She's got her sister. They're about a year apart. Her sister Shelly. They did everything together when they were kids. Shelly said, randy and I both grew up in Gastonia. We had good lives. We were raised for the majority of our lives by our grandmother. We Lived a very religious life. They attended the local Pentecostal Church of God every Wednesday and Sunday with their grandparents. Never drugs or alcohol in the home, ever. This is a teetotal and teetotal and God fearing home here. Shelley said it was as straight a life as you could lead. Prayer, family dinners, more prayer, tv, lemonade, Bible talk. That's what they did. They were whatever. Couldn't raise your kid in a more kind of wholesome, clean environment. Shelly said there were never anything that we could complain about growing up. We had good schooling, a good home. She did say, though Randy was never one to get out there and start trouble with people. It just wasn't in her. But look, if someone brought trouble her way, she was never going to back down. She would stand her ground. Still, Randy was brought up in a godly way. She had more sympathy for people than anger or animosity. She never really wanted to be ugly to anyone. That's her sister now. While in high school she got pregnant. Now. Yeah, okay, because that's you one way or the other. That's the thing. If you raised three kids like that, one of them's going to be a pastor, one of them's going to be a crackhead. It's just, you can't, it's not all the time. But yeah, overly anything is bad. Overly loose, alcoholic, beating you with a belt or this can lead to the same exact fucking place. Is the thing, and that's the weird part too is you see families, they have three kids, you know, two of them are fine and one of them is a fucking disaster. And you're like, okay, is that the parents fault? Whose fault is that? Is that just some people? Some people are a disaster? I guess. I don't know. Not that she is.

Jimmy Whisman (109:35)

Sometimes it's the youngest, but it just happens that way.

James Petregallo (109:39)

Sometimes it's the middle one. Who knows? So this episode is brought to you by IQ Bar, our exclusive snack sponsor. IQ Bar is the better for you. Plant protein based snacks made with brain boosting nutrients to refuel, nourish and satisfy hunger without the sugar crash.

Jimmy Whisman (109:57)

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James Petregallo (110:13)

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Jimmy Whisman (110:52)

Now back to the show.

James Petregallo (110:54)

Audible ignites your next action packed adventure with thrills of every kind. On your command, dive into the Silent Patient by Alex Michalides. A psychological thriller that will keep you guessing until the very end. Masterfully narrated by Jack Hawkins and Louise Freely. From electrifying suspense and daring quests to spine tingling horror and romance in far off realms, unleash your adventurous side with gripping titles. Discover exclusive Audible originals, hotly anticipated new releases and must listen bestsellers that hook you from the first minute. Because Audible knows there's no greater thrill than the one that speaks to you. Discover what lies beyond the edge of your seat. Start your free 30 day trial at audible.com wonderypod that's audible.com wonderypod in high school she got pregnant and she said that basically the boyfriend started coming around and causing problems for her and then some other guy. It was a big mess. So she gave birth to a son here and that and so that's how that goes. So that's Randy Saldana, her friend now. November 15, 2009 this is a little over two weeks after Heather is found. This is on another dirt road in York County. Two women are riding horses near the Kings Mountain National Military park when Catherine Sturgill here says to her friend, quote, it seems like a burn spot on the ground. Looks like somebody tried to set the woods on fire over there. Look at that. So Catherine gets off her horse and look goes over to the burn and she stood by what she described as a foot or the foot, I'm sorry, of the patch of scorched. The foot of a patch of scorched ground? Yeah. With Heather it's finding a foot. This is the foot. They said the patch of scorched ground was just about a little bit larger than a human being size. They said there was something inside the ring of char face up. The face is blackened by fire and melted off. So they thought it was. They also saw what looked like a human arm sticking up in the air with black soot all over it. So they said that black soot melted into it. They said the entire thing was Draped over a rotted log. And there was some kind of blanket or tarp melted onto this thing itself. Whatever this thing was, they thought it was a mannequin. This looks like a burned mannequin. Looks like somebody burned a mannequin. And she said it's in the shape of a human being. It makes no sense. They said the, the. Then they started seeing other areas that were unburned with skin exposed. And she said she saw the vaginal area was visible and unburned and one breast was exposed. A leg was burned at the foot and thigh and the entire neck and shoulders and head were charred and red. Jesus Christ. Some of it completely melted away. So they said it wasn't clear if the mannequins clothing had made the blackened, melted shit or they didn't understand what it was. So said it's really weird. Then noticed the feet of the mannequin were bound with a copper wire or cord with the. Looked like the plastic outer coating of the wire had been burned away.

Jimmy Whisman (114:09)

Melted like a, Like a twisted up hanger?

James Petregallo (114:12)

No, no, more like a. Like a cord.

Jimmy Whisman (114:16)

Like a. Oh, solid, solid wire cord.

James Petregallo (114:18)

Yeah, solid wire cord with a. Yeah, I'm thinking like a plug. Yeah, yeah. So she yelled up to her friend, someone set a mannequin on fire. That's what it looks like. So then she walks up to the. The mannequin here, the torso section, which was red and burned but intact. And she touched it. Why? Why, hey, why would you make sure by touching it? If you're not sure, call somebody. Don't touch it.

Jimmy Whisman (114:47)

Well, I don't want to make a phone call and make people come out here unnecessary. Like. Yep, seems like a waste of resources.

James Petregallo (114:55)

She poked it. She said, I wanted to make sure. And she then screamed, Call 911. Call 91 1. She said it felt it's soft. She said it was like dough.

Jimmy Whisman (115:04)

Oh, Jesus.

James Petregallo (115:06)

She's like, oh, God. Jesus. It's not a mannequin. Call 911. It's a body. It's a body. She said it felt like human flesh. So that is fucking horrifying. She calls the cops. They said this is a very rural area. There's only one residence on it that I know of. It runs through the state park and the area. It's a pretty isolated area. In other words, you could dump a body here pretty easily. So cops get out and the cops, when they get there, the initial cop turns to this captain and says, I think it might be a mannequin, captain. I don't think that's a real body. And the captain said, why you have.

Jimmy Whisman (115:41)

To touch it, James?

James Petregallo (115:43)

The cops have to touch it, not you.

Jimmy Whisman (115:45)

No, no. I mean, yeah, but she touched it.

James Petregallo (115:47)

And they still don't believe it. Didn't know they still don't believe it. So you get in there and fucking touch it. How about that? It's your goddamn job. So the captain's like. Like somebody pulling a prank. And they said, yeah, yeah, yeah. So they were like, yeah, that's what it seems like. So they approached the body. They got close enough to see the ridge detail on the bottom of the foot. And he said, nope, it's a person. I see. Yeah, that's not good. Mannequins don't have that. They don't put shit on the bottom of feet and mannequins. So they said that whoever placed this woman here had bound her legs together with a wire or a cord. So they were like, this is obviously a cover up of a violent murder here. Clearly. So then they realized, everybody realized that this is the second body found. This is less than seven miles from Heather's body. This is found. So the same fucking area. They're like, hold on. Yeah, these two, they know each other. They're from the same area. We'll find out what happened here. Yeah, it's pretty fucking crazy. And they said a second female having been burned, they said that shows that especially that's someone progressing and learning. The first body was found, identified easily got back. Now maybe we dump it and burn it so it doesn't get found that easily. So DNA testing comes back that it is the body of Randy Saldana, the young lady who saw Heather on tv. Yeah, her mother said, this is Randy's mother. Said, she told me she loved me. She told me she'd be back the next day, and I never saw her again. And then two weeks later they found her there. And she said, my daughter didn't deserve to be burnt and thrown out like trash. Nobody does.

Jimmy Whisman (117:29)

I mean, apart from the obvious. You know what I mean?

James Petregallo (117:34)

Yeah.

Jimmy Whisman (117:35)

Being. What's the word? When you're trash and they light you on fire and put you in a bag and give you your loved ones.

James Petregallo (117:44)

Yeah. When you're cremated. Yes, yes. I kept thinking, usually it's a professional does that. And it's not done in a field. Usually that's.

Jimmy Whisman (117:54)

Yeah. You can't just be tied up with.

James Petregallo (117:57)

Side of a dirt road. Yeah. So they go back and they talk to Danny Robbie again because, you know, he knows a lot and he knew a lot about the first One. So they said, what do you know about Randy Saldana? And he said, I've never had sex with Randy. That's his first. Not, I know her. I've never had sex with her. Which is how? If you ask me about any woman, I go, I've never had sex with her. Usually happens all the time. So I answer, shit, what do you.

Jimmy Whisman (118:25)

Know about Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen? Never had sex with them.

James Petregallo (118:28)

Never had sex with him. Okay, great.

Jimmy Whisman (118:30)

Perfect.

James Petregallo (118:33)

So they said that. Then he sat there thinking, and he said, randy did rub up against my arm one night. So I touched her, but I didn't have sex with her, but she touched me.

Jimmy Whisman (118:46)

Close.

James Petregallo (118:46)

Close. Yeah. So they're swabbing him for DNA at this point. And so they said, so there shouldn't be any of your DNA, sperm, saliva, nothing like that on Randy at all. And he said, no, no, absolutely. I mean, she rubbed on me. I mean, I don't know if that would. Whatever. But other than that, no. So then police are searching different places and looking around, and they find Randy's jewelry. When her body was found, her jewelry was missing. They end up finding her jewelry from Nicole. Heather's sister has Randy's jewelry.

Jimmy Whisman (119:22)

Why?

James Petregallo (119:24)

That's what they'd like to know. Here. Yeah. So they said that her aunt. This is Nicole and Heather's aunt said that the cops confiscated all of her jewelry, too, because some of it are not all of her jewelry, all of Nicole's jewelry, because some of it belonged to Randy. They also said as Nicole went through items in the closet in front of the cops, the cops pointed something out, bent down, and said, what the fuck is this? And she said, that's not mine. And it was a piece of cut electrical cord that was on the closet floor cut into a length, which. How many of those do you have around your house? Zero. I have zero.

Jimmy Whisman (120:01)

Yeah.

James Petregallo (120:02)

Zero. Cut electrical cords. Not a lot.

Jimmy Whisman (120:04)

Yeah.

James Petregallo (120:05)

They said, whose cord is this? And she said, that's Danny's.

Jimmy Whisman (120:09)

Oh, Danny's got an actual cord. Yeah.

James Petregallo (120:11)

So then they search Danny's car as well here. They search his car, and nothing is found in the car. Then they pop the trunk, and they find what he says is, quote, another piece of cut electrical wire in the trunk. He says to the other guy, look at this shit. And the guy said, that's similar to the piece of wire used on Randy Saldana's legs.

Jimmy Whisman (120:32)

Oh. Oh.

James Petregallo (120:33)

So they don't like that. So they go in before. They don't arrest Danny right now, because it could be a coincidence. Who knows? He could have been throwing out garbage and cutting up a thing. You never know. I mean, that's.

Jimmy Whisman (120:44)

We don't know.

James Petregallo (120:45)

Who the fuck knows? Could have been. He could have been making a fucking a ball strangler with it. He could have been making cock rings. We have no idea what this guy does.

Jimmy Whisman (120:53)

He's nuts.

James Petregallo (120:55)

We's legal. We make cock rings. So they're conducting a thorough background check on Danny Robbie now, and they learn that he was questioned in 2007 as the primary suspect in the 1992 murder of another local Gastonia girl. Yeah, so they're like, oh, my God. They keep finding more and more shit to talk about with this guy. So they called him up on the phone on November 17. They said there was a feeling among investigators they had to either scratch him off the list or put him at the top of the list. One or the other. He's involved too many ways in all this shit.

Jimmy Whisman (121:32)

Either all of it or none of it.

James Petregallo (121:34)

None of it here. He had alibis for both cases, but was still open to talking to police. But they said, who knows if he was telling us the truth? So they call him up and the cop says, listen, Danny, how are you? He says, and Danny said, good, good. What can I do for you? And he said, I'd like you. I'd like to know if you could come down to the sheriff's office and take a polygraph for me and clear some things up. We just want to confirm some information here. You know what I mean? That's it, right? So Danny tells him that, and I've been forthcoming, but he's starting to get a little pissed off, and you know that, cuz he says, quote, I'm getting now, though, y'all got me fired from my job. Oh, yeah. So they've been putting some pressure on him, and they followed him around and asked around about him, and they'd ask questions of his friends and his buddies and his work people and all that, you know, and they said, how so Danny. And he said, y'all went up there to my work site and talked to my boss.

Jimmy Whisman (122:24)

The guy.

James Petregallo (122:25)

Guy tried to say something else. And Danny said, listen, my mom's thinking of kicking me out of the house too. Now you guys are fucking me over. So the guy said, come on, Danny. And Danny just said, y'all went to my mama's house and you done told her I was smoking crack. Oh, you done told my mama you smoking. Smoking crack?

Jimmy Whisman (122:44)

That's the first time she found out.

James Petregallo (122:46)

Yeah. And they say he's. They Said, we never went to your job site, Danny, and we did not tell your mama anything that she didn't already know. Yeah. And Danny took a moment, took a pause, and then said, fuck you. Don't call me again, and hung up on the guy.

Jimmy Whisman (123:00)

Stop calling my mama.

James Petregallo (123:02)

December 4, 2009. Danny Robbie's arrested in Gaston county on a series of armed robberies.

Jimmy Whisman (123:09)

He's still robbing, huh?

James Petregallo (123:10)

He's still robbing. The change jar's gone. He's got nothing left now, so he's fired. So he was charged with robbing the Staybridge Suites on Porous Forest Pine Drive. And police said that he's also a suspect in the robbery of another motel and restaurant.

Jimmy Whisman (123:25)

That sounds like a bad place to rob.

James Petregallo (123:27)

Yeah. A Motel in 2009.

Jimmy Whisman (123:29)

That's all credit, right?

James Petregallo (123:31)

I would think. And all I could imagine is that late at night, there's probably one person working there. That's the only thing I can imagine is looking for solo proprietors here.

Jimmy Whisman (123:40)

Only place with cash is the Motel 6 by the airport in Austin.

James Petregallo (123:45)

That's the only one. They got a bunch of our cash, our deposit and change. That was in 2017. When we first started this. Hadn't made a dime off podcast yet, and so we got invited to south by Southwest, and, oh, boy, did we scrimp and scrape money together to get there and stay there. We had, like, no food. Listeners bought us a meal. It's like, we hadn't eaten in. Like, we ate, like, Jack in the Box the night before, and it was like, 24 hours later. We hadn't eaten food. It was bad. It was bad.

Jimmy Whisman (124:17)

I'm a. Can we get a room for this? And they're like, we need $100 more. I was like, that's all I have.

James Petregallo (124:23)

That's it. That's everything. Here you go. That was bad. We had change. Literally. That was bad shit. So they end up sitting down with Danny Robbie now. They give him his Miranda and all that kind of shit and record the interviews and everything. First of all, they picked him up and put him in the box. When they put him in the box in the interrogation room, they like to leave you in there for a while and see what you do.

Jimmy Whisman (124:44)

Sweat it out. Yeah.

James Petregallo (124:46)

Number one thing they like to see if you do is fall asleep. Yeah. Because that's like Homicide Detective 101 is the one who falls asleep in the box is a fucking. That's. That's your murderer right there.

Jimmy Whisman (124:57)

Yeah.

James Petregallo (124:58)

Innocent people are uncomfortable being in an interrogation room. And they pace and they look around and they knock on the door and go, where the fuck are you? And they do all that shit. So they return at 12:32am they look in there and he's sleeping. And so they tried to wake him up. And he was having a hard time sleeping on top of his arms. They're yelling at him, danny, Danny, Danny. They grab him by the arm and he slaps out of. Snaps out of it. Jesus Christ. So they asked, danny, can you wake up for me, buddy here maybe a little bit?

Jimmy Whisman (125:26)

Morning, snoozy.

James Petregallo (125:27)

Yeah. They said, you want to talk and get all your eggs in one basket and let's get it over with? The guy says to him, he said, you know, I don't want to sit there staring at you. So gave him the Miranda form, fills it out, all that good shit. And he said, you know what we want to talk about? And he says, yup, them robberies. And they said, okay, which one would you like to talk about first? He leaned back in his chair. Danny, Robbie takes a deep breath, and he says, y'all get them from York county up here, and y'all get me something to eat and let's talk about those murders. I'll tell you about them two girls.

Jimmy Whisman (126:01)

Get me a steak.

James Petregallo (126:03)

He said, you get me some food and grab the other people from the other county and we'll chit chat. So this guy was like, huh? He sat down to talk to him about armed robberies that he'd been arrested for. So he said, okay, sure. The last thing he expected to happen. That's not why he was here at all. So he goes back to sleep and then wakes him up again here. And he said that it would take some time to get that meal. And Hembre just blurts out, actually, York county, they wasn't killed there. They was just dumped there. They was killed in Gastonia. Oh, so they were. So no need to get the York county guys. Actually, you can probably handle this. So the guy, the detective said, okay. He's like, the recording of it is okay. He's, like, shocked. So they leave him in there for a few hours. They get hold of York county, and they all go to sit down with Danny here. He got some sleep now. They let him sleep in the box for a while. And one of the investigators said, well, you requested York County. We're here. And he said, quote, them girls wasn't killed in New York County. And as he's doing it, he's like this with his fingertip on the table. Okay, doing that.

Jimmy Whisman (127:23)

Not killed in York County.

James Petregallo (127:25)

And they said, no. And he said, nope. Eyes just dumped him there.

Jimmy Whisman (127:30)

I did.

James Petregallo (127:31)

I did. And the way he used dumped, they said was. He said, I just dumped them there, like real. They were like, disrespectful. They said, where did this happen at? And he said, I killed them at Mama's. Oh, that's nice. He said, I killed Heather downstairs in the laundry room and I killed Randy in my den. You'll find their blood all over the couch. And they said, at your mama's? And he said, yep, okay. They said, does your mom know? And he said, nope. They said, anybody else know?

Jimmy Whisman (127:59)

He said, nope, she didn't even know I smoked crack.

James Petregallo (128:03)

Yeah, you had to tell her that shit. They said, he talked about this as if he was just talking about going out to TGI Fridays the night before for some wings. Like casual, detached. Yeah, that's it. He talked about killing Randy. And he said that if you go downstairs in his mother's house, you can find where she bled. And I tried to clean up the blood. And they said, was that blood from her nose? And he said, yeah, I punched her in the nose after she was dead. I didn't figure she'd bleed or nothing. Why the fuck did you punch her in the nose after she was dead? Why would you. Why would you do that? Why would you fucking do that? So that's really weird. He remembered when he killed Heather, he said, quote, it was 4:30 on the 18th and I dumped her body that Sunday. So they said, well, what brought all this on? And he said, I killed Heather. Cause I don't know. I just did. I just wanted to. And I killed Randy for the same reason. Just wanted to, really. He said he used a bag on Heather. That's how he suffocated her. A fucking Walmart bag.

Jimmy Whisman (129:18)

Oh, Christ.

James Petregallo (129:20)

That just makes it worse for some reason. I don't know. Yeah, I don't know why that makes it worse. That it's a Walmart bag, smiley face on just makes it just trashier for some reason. If it was from like a decent grocery store, it wouldn't be as bad. But something about that just makes it way worse. It's horrifying, he said. And it took a long time too. He really is digging himself.

Jimmy Whisman (129:42)

She struggled then. What is that?

James Petregallo (129:44)

He said, well, that night, me, Summer and Heather had sex six or seven times. And then he said, quote, heather was a whore and she wouldn't quit. And she was just having to sell her body to the N words every now and then. But he says it full. It's one of his favorite words, honestly. Oh, he says it constantly. And I just released her from that. That's what he said. That's what he released her from.

Jimmy Whisman (130:11)

Hero.

James Petregallo (130:11)

He's a. Yeah, he's helping her. He said, I wasn't mad at her or nothing. She just. She's just better off now.

Jimmy Whisman (130:17)

God Damn.

James Petregallo (130:18)

She was 17. He could have maybe cleaned her up and had a whole other life in.

Jimmy Whisman (130:23)

A drug prison at the moment.

James Petregallo (130:26)

Yeah, man.

Jimmy Whisman (130:27)

She wasn't knocked out. He just put it over her head and hung on to her.

James Petregallo (130:31)

That's what I'm saying. Fucking. Yeah, that's what's wild. So he then said. Then he sat there for a minute and said, quote, I was gonna get her mama this week. Really was gonna kill Heather's mama too. Yeah. They were like, okay. So he said. Yeah, he said, you know, I was at someone's apartment the night before his recent. His arrest here. And he said Shorty was supposed to come over there. Shorty is apparently a local drug dealer. Yeah, and a black guy too. And I was gonna kill him too. Heather hated Randy. They fought over the same N word. Shorty, he fucks all them young white girls and he's 50 something. He gave them crack. They should be fucking me. I'm only 40 something.

Jimmy Whisman (131:16)

And you're doing the same thing he's doing.

James Petregallo (131:18)

Yes, exactly. So he then said about Randy, when she was around an N word, she tried to talk like an N word.

Jimmy Whisman (131:27)

Okay. We all do it.

James Petregallo (131:29)

Well, you talk around everybody that you are. Talk to an English person for an hour and you'll start. You'll start hitting it. It's just what people do.

Jimmy Whisman (131:38)

People.

James Petregallo (131:38)

It's how you meld into situations. That's how you are. Yeah. If I spend a week in Arizona, I can tamp down my accent. No, no, never. But I can tap down my accent. I come back to New York, I can't. It's everywhere. It's hard. It's harder.

Jimmy Whisman (131:56)

Why is James saying yee haw? It's been in Arizona. I don't know.

James Petregallo (132:00)

I've never said yeehaw in my life. Well, actually I have, but it's only a sexual thing. That's the only time.

Jimmy Whisman (132:07)

It's only when I.

James Petregallo (132:08)

Only sexual.

Jimmy Whisman (132:09)

It's only when I come.

James Petregallo (132:10)

It's only when I come. That's what I yell every time. I can't even. I don't even know why I do it. I just do.

Jimmy Whisman (132:17)

Just happens.

James Petregallo (132:18)

So he said that he just hated this about Randy and it disgusted him.

Jimmy Whisman (132:23)

Okay, so You're a racist, sir. That's your problem.

James Petregallo (132:26)

Oh, he's a huge racist. I love a crackhead.

Jimmy Whisman (132:31)

Fucking judging others.

James Petregallo (132:32)

This guy has no place to stand and say he's, quote, better than anybody, like, by birth or anything. You're a piece of shit. What are you talking about? He said, after he murdered Heather, he put her in the closet for a while and he said, quote, then I went upstairs, watched me some tv and made me something to eat. He's hungry. Afterwards, you know, he said. They said, well, how the. What did you do? You get a bag? How did you get down to a bag? Like, how did this happen? He said, well, after they had sex, he said, hey, Heather, we've got us some lighters downstairs in a cabinet inside the washroom. Can you go and fetch me one? They were. Their lighter died.

Jimmy Whisman (133:17)

Yeah.

James Petregallo (133:18)

So Heather got up and walked down into the basement. All she had on was the Hollister hoodie that she was found in and toe socks, which she was found in as well. Yeah, I don't know why she's wearing those. Those are weird.

Jimmy Whisman (133:30)

Comfortable?

James Petregallo (133:31)

Yeah. She liked him, apparently, I guess. The rest of her clothes were on the floor in his bedroom. His mother wasn't home. She went away for a few days to visit relatives or something. When Heather was downstairs, Danny, Robbie said he got up and without saying anything, approached her from behind. She had a flashlight in her hand and was searching on a shelf in the basement, looking for a lighter, he said, with some kind of cord. He couldn't recall exactly which one. He walked up behind her without speaking, placed it around her neck and choked her. She reacted by thrashing her arms and swinging the flashlight and smashing him in the head with it. And he said it wasn't hard enough to hurt, though. So he said she tried pulling the cord with her hands as she struggled. He said he wrestled her down to the floor. She stopped fighting, but wasn't dead. She was unconscious but not dead. So he said he let go of the cord and placed both his hands on her nose and mouth and pushed down tightly, trying to suffocate her. And he said that her legs kicked and her body convulsed. And they said. He described it so calm and like. Just like it was. He said, yeah, he said that acted out. He called it a process that wasn't easy. He said she just wouldn't die.

Jimmy Whisman (134:49)

Yes. She's 17, man. She's full of life.

James Petregallo (134:51)

Yeah. So it said it took over 10 to 15 minutes. He said he even placed his foot on her neck at one Point to hold her down, and she still wouldn't die. He said, I mean, I didn't want to hurt her or nothing. I just wanted her to go to sleep. Okay, so that is. Then he said it wouldn't work. So he grabbed a plastic Walmart bag nearby, placed it over her head, pulled it tightly as he held her down, and he said it seemed to work better, but she still wouldn't die. He said her arms and legs were still flailing. So then he said he hauled off and slammed the middle of her chest with his fist. Like, with the bottom of it. Like that. Like, live, damn it, but not die, damn it.

Jimmy Whisman (135:33)

That's doing the opposite motion of what you wanted to do, man.

James Petregallo (135:36)

Yep. And he said that stopped her heart.

Jimmy Whisman (135:39)

Wow.

James Petregallo (135:40)

Gave her a heart punch, apparently. So. Yep. He then walked upstairs, sat down, watched some tv, made himself sandwich, which is insane. He said that he did it. He said he freed her from a life of prostitution. He said, I released her for that. I wasn't mad or nothing. Now she's better off again. Like, this is. What the fuck?

Jimmy Whisman (136:03)

Doing God's work for you guys.

James Petregallo (136:05)

Yeah. Jesus Christ, man. What are we talking about here? He said, I didn't want to bruise her up or hurt her. I just wanted her to go quick is what he said. Wow. Okay, so no reason. Just wanted to. He said, it seemed like the best thing to do at the time. I mean, I wasn't mad at her. We wasn't fussing. We wasn't even fussing. I mean, what the fuck? Look, during this interview, he says in the middle of this, he goes, by the way, I also killed two prostitutes in Florida. And by the way, you know that Randy Saldana killed her, too. So.

Jimmy Whisman (136:39)

Yeah.

James Petregallo (136:39)

Yeah, killed her, killed the women down. So I got four total. Oh, wait, there's another one, too, I'm gonna tell you about in a little while. So they say. He said it was about November 11 with Randy. He said, I also killed Randy Saldana. I killed her because it was business. I was killing two birds with one stone. He said he. Wow, that is wild. He said, I killed Randy for drugs. Stella and her sister and Shorty gave me an eight ball, and a couple of girls asked me to kill Randy. He said he did it, like, as a murder for hire for an eight ball, which is wild. He said that when he and Nicole and Randy went over to the Catterton house that night, they got caught smoking crack in Nicole's bedroom. And she said Stella acted like she got mad at Randy for not giving her something this was Stella's way to remove herself from the situation and put me and Randy alone so I could kill her later. From Nick's. He said they drove to Shorty's where Randy and Nicole exchanged jewelry. He said, that's the jewelry, wasn't that they did it then they exchanged jewelry. It wasn't after he killed her or nothing. He said that he and Randy staged that scene, and Nicole got pissed and Randy left. He said, I never gave Nicole any of Randy's jewelry. He said he drove up on Randy as she walked down the street away from Shorty's, and he said he didn't need to ask her to get in. She just got in, and they planned to go hang out and smoke some crack. As they drove, Danny Robbie said he knew immediately he was going to kill Randy. But instead of taking her to his mother's house because mama was home, he said he drove her out to that abandoned trailer. And he said she walked into the trailer beside him. He said that he loved the feeling of power and craved it. He knew it was going to happen. So he said at one point, Randy had made some statement about Heather's death, and that pissed him off. That's all. All he needed to do. So all she needed to do. So as soon as Randy turned her back and said something, he grabbed her by the neck with two hands and, quote, choked her out. He said, she was so scared, she done pissed herself and said, what are you doing as this? And then he choked her unconscious, but she wasn't dead. She came to and said, why'd you do that? And he said, what you said about Heather. You disrespected me. And she said, I didn't mean it that way. Get me out of here. I don't want to be trapped inside here with no killer. And he said, look, everybody got me down as a suspect who done killed Heather. And she said, I'm sorry. I didn't mean it that way. And then he said, look, you want me to just take you back up the road, or do you want to go over to mama's house? She said, it's cold in here. And then said, take me to your mama's. And he said, okay. She said, can I shower when we get back there? And he said, yeah, but we got to wait till mama goes to sleep so I can sneak you in.

Jimmy Whisman (139:38)

He's 40, sneaking girls into mama's house.

James Petregallo (139:42)

Ugh. When they got to his mother's house, he parked his car and told her to be quiet. He needed to sneak her in Through a window on the side of the house. They tiptoed through the yard. He's shh and all that shit here. Pushed open the window, helped her get up to the edge of the window pane, pushed her ass and pushed her into the room. He climbed in behind her. Why does he have to climb in? He lives there. His mom knows he lives there.

Jimmy Whisman (140:04)

You're sneaking in yourself.

James Petregallo (140:05)

That's weird. So he collected his thoughts here. And then he said, I climbed back out the window and went in through the door and told Mom I was home. He said, yeah, why am I climbing in the window?

Jimmy Whisman (140:16)

What am I doing? I'm sneaking in my own shit.

James Petregallo (140:18)

He said he walked from his mother's room down the hallway into the den. Just outside her room, where Randy was sitting on the couch. He turned on the TV. Mama was reading in bed about 30ft away. He said, mama never comes down here because she know I like to watch porn and shit.

Jimmy Whisman (140:34)

Gross. Why does Mama know that?

James Petregallo (140:37)

Mama knows too much, man. Poor Mama knows you.

Jimmy Whisman (140:40)

Mama didn't even know you smoked crack.

James Petregallo (140:43)

Mama said, so this guy is the water boy, is who he is. So this is like the murderous water boy. That's what we have here.

Jimmy Whisman (140:51)

And Mama knows. He jerks off.

James Petregallo (140:54)

Mama doesn't want to walk in and see it. So after watching TV for about 10 minutes while sitting on the couch next to Randy, Danny Robby presumed Mama was asleep. So without a word, he said he just reached over and strangled Randy down to the floor. He said she went pretty fast, a lot faster than Heather did. He didn't know if she was alive or dead, though. So he cocked his fist back and punched her as hard as he could, right above her nose, between the eyes. He said that caused a lot of blood, which spilled all over the couch. And he said, ah, shit. So he took a look for a comforter or a blanket, found one, placed it over her, went into his bedroom and rested for two or three hours until he was certain that Mama wasn't coming out. So he said he went back for Randy, stripped off her clothes, rolled her up in a blanket, hoisted her over his shoulder and walked through the house. And he said that he realized when he got to the kitchen that she was still bleeding and had left a trail of blood throughout the house. So he said, shit. So then he put her down in the basement, and after cleaning up the quote, damn mess she made, he said, she made, she made. He then stuffed her in the same closet that he had Heather in for a few days and left her there for Several days.

Jimmy Whisman (142:12)

Wow.

James Petregallo (142:13)

He said, mama was in the kitchen reading as we was back in the den, and I killed her on the couch. Holy fucking shit. He said, I left her in here. In there for. Randy stayed two or three days in there in the closet. That is fucked. And he said he just wanted to. He said, that's it. He said, if those girls would not have been with me that night, they would not be dead. I did not intentionally kill those girls, and if I could bring them back, I would, but I can't. Not intentionally. He.

Jimmy Whisman (142:45)

That was an accident.

James Petregallo (142:46)

He tried, like, six different ways to kill Heather. So.

Jimmy Whisman (142:49)

Not intentionally. Those were.

James Petregallo (142:50)

Not intentionally.

Jimmy Whisman (142:51)

I made a lot of accidents.

James Petregallo (142:53)

I was just experimenting.

Jimmy Whisman (142:54)

Yeah.

James Petregallo (142:55)

He said that both of them died of. Later on the interview, he said, no, they both died of drug overdoses, and I just disposed of their bodies. And then he said, it didn't happen, so it freaking didn't happen. You know, they're like, you just detailed exactly what you did for hours. Hours.

Jimmy Whisman (143:12)

Is he on crack now?

James Petregallo (143:14)

It seems like he needs crack to think straight. So. Wow. A few weeks prior to this, that. When they. After they had discovered Heather, Randy's mom said that they. I'm sorry. They said that she thinks she met her before. And she said that at the funeral is when this all happened. At Heather's funeral is when he set his sights on Randy. She said, I think that's when he feasted his evil eyes on her. I really do. And she said, I went to the funeral. He was there. So he said, Nicole left the gravesite with Danny. It's shocking. Everyone walked up to the closed casket. I don't recall him walking up there. That's what Randy's mother said. Now, so they arrest him for all the murders, obviously. And Heather's dad, Nick said this. Nick is the most clueless man of all fucking time. I know you don't make fun of victims, families, but holy fuck, Nick. You know what? You're half the cause of this, bro. Number one, he said, from what I've seen of him meeting Danny, Robbie, he's never hit or shown any aggressiveness toward anyone. I know. I don't get it.

Jimmy Whisman (144:24)

Except for Heather.

James Petregallo (144:26)

Except for my daughter and my other daughter, who he. Wow. So, by the way, Randy Saldana's cause of death was very easy there. They said the condition of her body. She had bruises on her neck and a fracture of the cartilage there that. The hyoid bone that does that. And that's right in line with the confession of what he said. Manual Strangulation, by the way. Then he says, I got another one for you. Oh, Deborah Denise Ratchford. Goes by Mickey. She was 30 years old. That's the 1992 murder that he was a primary suspect for. He did it. He did it. He absolutely did it. Yep. They fetch. She was found Aug. 4, 1992 in a thicket of vines under a honeysuckle bush. Wow.

Jimmy Whisman (145:12)

So many that man, that is so far. Length of time between the two, between the three, yeah. There's gotta be more.

James Petregallo (145:19)

Well, she was in jail for a while.

Jimmy Whisman (145:21)

Okay.

James Petregallo (145:22)

So that, that helps. But they said a man taking a shortcut through Oakland park at about 7:45 discovered the body and obviously freaked out and called the cops. And the cops came and man, they noticed. He noticed a pair of women's underwear and blue jeans scattered along the road and then spotted a trail of blood. Followed the blood to find the body.

Jimmy Whisman (145:42)

Oh, don't do that. Don't follow.

James Petregallo (145:43)

Don't follow. You just walk away? Yeah. The guy said it didn't make her. Someone she knew, said it didn't make no sense. She didn't harm nobody. So it's fucking, it's ridiculous. She was just found in a park and the park was considered a high or not considered a high crime area or anything. So it was like maybe the occasional prostitution or something. It was right near a cemetery. Not usually the biggest, you know, high crime areas. So her mother said. I thought everybody coming up and down my street was a suspect after that. I wanted to stand face to face with the person who did it and ask, why did you kill my child? She was a good person. This poor woman had to wait 20 years for this almost. So yeah, she was found there, that's 1992. She had deep cuts to her chest and neck. That's how she died.

Jimmy Whisman (146:32)

She was gashed to death. Good Christ.

James Petregallo (146:35)

Yep. She said that her daughter was a lovely non violent person who got along with everybody. She grew up in Gastonia and, you know, was there. She, her family lived there. She worked at a textile mill and at a cafeteria. Sometimes lived with her mom on and off. During a six year period, though, she had been charged with larceny, assault with a deadly weapon, inflicting a serious injury, driving while impaired and assault on a law enforcement officer. She got into drugs is what that means. So anyway, that's going on now. The Florida women that he took claim to kill. So we have three that we know about now, those three. Now the Florida said he killed two there. He refused throughout the interviews to provide Details, but eventually provided the information that they're both prostitutes. Didn't recall their names, but he did bury their bodies on Merritt island in Brevard County. However, these statements about the murders conflicted with other important details. At one point he said he committed the murders in 92. At another point he said it happened in 2009. It's a big difference. So they never figure that out. They never find bodies on Merritt Island. They don't know. Yeah, it could have happened from 20 years ago. He is charged with the murder of Ratchford with Deborah Ratchford. Deborah Ratchford and Heather. And Randy Ratchford is the one from 92 that was just found. Yeah, Mickey. And in addition, another man is arrested with him too for the Deborah Ratchford murder. That is James Arthur Swanson, a 41 year old who was charged. But then they said they're gonna. They arrested him. He said, I'm not a hard fellow to find. I'm willing to go to any lengths to help y'all find who done this to this lady, but I did not do this. That man is telling a bare faced lie. That's not the. It's a bare faced lie. A lie on me. Not about me, on me. I'm innocent. Tell him a bare face lie on me. I'm innocent. That's his exact quote. So, nope, they dropped the charges two weeks later when they couldn't find a shred of evidence linking him to the murder other than Danny Robbie saying he was involved.

Jimmy Whisman (148:47)

Why would he say that?

James Petregallo (148:48)

He starts doing this to other people too, so. And four days later, he recants all his confessions and says, no, no, that didn't happen. His confessions to the ratchford murder, the 92 murder, and the two Florida murders. It's at this point also Nicole Catterton, Heather's sister, is arrested, charged with failing to comply with a court order. So, yeah, we don't know what that's about.

Jimmy Whisman (149:13)

What she doing? She didn't do it.

James Petregallo (149:15)

They didn't do it. Yeah, she was in cuffs. They took her away. They wouldn't say if it was related in any way to the murders or to Danny Robbie, but she doesn't end up having anything with that. So December 14, 2009, he is indicted and they say, this is from the prosecutor. Quote, the first time he came into court, he was acting like a rooster, cussing the judge and screaming and hollering.

Jimmy Whisman (149:38)

Is that what roosters do?

James Petregallo (149:39)

That's what Danny Robbie does. Yeah. They scream and holler at you.

Jimmy Whisman (149:42)

Yeah.

James Petregallo (149:44)

So, yeah, by the way it was. 522 N. Oakland St. Is where they found Deborah Ratchford there. So Danny Robbie here. Now they have a profile of him because they're trying to figure out if he's done more. So they got the FBI involved. This is multi state thing, so they say. This is from a book that I'll give you a title of at the end here about this case. Profile of serial killer, psychotherapist, social worker, certified addiction specialist and fellow at the American College of Forensic Examiners. John Kelly, who studied this case for this author and is my profiling guru for the investigation discovery series Dark Minds, said the guys like Danny Hembury give themselves away in their behavior. They can't hide from who they are. It always comes out. He said Mr. Hembry is a power and control focused killer. The killer that likes to use drugs as payment is extending his pleasure by extending his time and length of power and control. This is very difficult. This is very different than the killer that shows a victim a $20 bill, gets her in the car, drives to a location and kills her. That's too fast for these guys. More time equals more power and more control, which in turn equals more pleasure. That's what he's about, he said then also, by the way, before he recanted Deborah Ratchford murder confession, he took the cops to the location where her body was found.

Jimmy Whisman (151:14)

I didn't do it.

James Petregallo (151:15)

17 years ago. And this guy says when Hembury went out there to the Ratchford crime scene with officers, he was very particular about where the murder took place, about this, about that. It wasn't like he was saying over here and over there. He was very particular about the area and he was right on about all of it. So he did it.

Jimmy Whisman (151:33)

Yeah.

James Petregallo (151:33)

He said another thing with his D was his details. If you're going to make something up and lie, you don't give as much detail as he did. He gave details about, yeah, we picked her up. I was irritated because I had to get out of the car to let her get into the backseat. We were like, why would he say this stuff if he wasn't reliving it back in his head as he told us, which is also pleasure for him. So the state tries to join the Heather Catterton and Randy Saldana murders together for the trial, make it a two murder thing. The court denies that motion. They say no, one at a time. They said they're two in the same group, knew each other, similar lifestyle, around two weeks within each other seems like a perfect match. But they Said no. So the state elects to try the Heather Catterton murder first and tries to present evidence of the Randy Saldana and Deborah Ratchford murders under a 404B, which is a rule of evidence, prior bad act type of thing, and relevant shit. It's a very long story of what that is. So if you ever watch pretrial shit on, like, Court TV, they you'll hear a lot of 404 B. Shit is a big thing.

Jimmy Whisman (152:39)

Okay.

James Petregallo (152:40)

So the trial court conducted two hearings on this whole thing, and they said the trial court found several similarities between Saldana and Catterton murders, including that both were white females who engaged in prostitution. Both had died in the same guy's house within a matter of weeks. Physical evidence was consistent to show both bodies were temporarily stored in the mother's basement closet.

Jimmy Whisman (153:02)

Yikes.

James Petregallo (153:03)

And that he had disposed of both of them within seven miles of each other. So the court concluded that a lot of the evidence can be presented from the Saldana murder in this one because they were so similar, such a similar bad act. So, yeah, to show that he acted with a common plan, scheme or design. So there's that. Now they also what evidence they're going to bring in in the Deborah Ratchford murder. None of that will be admitted into this because of the length of time that went by. Different, you know, different way they were killed. Everything's different. So they said, that can't be. That's a different thing completely. So the murder trial for Heather Catterton, in the openings here, they give the openings. The defense says here, says Rick Beam, this defense attorney, which his real name is Richard, which is Dick Beam, which is pretty funny. He says that Danny Robbie fabricated the confession he made to police in order to cut himself a better deal in a string of armed robberies. Let's think about that logic for a moment. I don't want to go to jail for 20, so I killed a bunch of women.

Jimmy Whisman (154:08)

I want a break on that. So I'll tell you about these murders.

James Petregallo (154:12)

That's maybe the dumbest thing I've ever heard. He said it's very strange to normal people to tell police he killed somebody when he didn't. But everything in here in this case is abnormal. Danny Robbie wouldn't tell them anything if it would. Would tell them anything if it benefited him. He understood the criminal justice system and manipulated it. No, he did. He got himself arrested for worst crimes. That's not manipulating shit. And later on, the prosecutor will answer that in closings here. So they bring out Witnesses talking about finding her body and the events leading up to her death and all the shit. We already covered that we won't go over twice here because we're running out of time. So by the second day of trial, the state began to focus heavily on the evidence regarding the death of Randy Saldana. On the second day of trial, a witness described, that's the finding her and said it felt like human flesh. They bring in Heather's mom into this mess, and she said that her daughter used crack cocaine and had a sexual relationship with Danny, even though he was dating Danny's sister. She knew about this because she's the one. He said he was fucking her, too. The mom, Stella. I don't know if that's true or not. That's what he said. So Saldana's sister comes up, Randy's sister, and they asked her what kind of relationship you had. And she said, that was my sister. She was a very free spirit, very charismatic, had a heart of gold. They tried to object to that, but the judge allowed it. And she said, yeah, Randy was the type of person, if you asked her for something and you needed it, but the way we were raised, you gave it. You gave it with good intentions. She never really wanted to hurt anyone with the intentions of hurting anyone. She was the type of person, if she felt that she had known that she hurt your feelings, she would come back and she would freely apologize and admit to her wrong in that, for the most part. So she says that she's a nice person, basically. So anyway, the state argues that, you know, no authority prevents us from presenting this. You told us we could, so we do. Danny Robbie has to testify because they have him on video confessing to the whole thing. So he has to get up there and say why he would do that. So they're trying to discredit the confessions here. So he takes the witness stand, and he said, I went. He describes his whole life and how fucked up he was on drugs. He said, I went to beer. I went to bed with a beer and woke up with a beer here all the time. So that's how he is. He said that he once Summer left that one night, August 17, he and Heather smoked crack and had sex at his mother's house. He said, they went to bed, and when he woke up, she was dead. Oh, must have OD'd or something. Just dead in the morning. So that's what happened. So he said, I didn't. I panicked, so I just hid the body. So he said, randy Saldana. He said that he was performing oral sex on her while choking her at her own request. Yeah, that's what. That's how she got off. He said, long arms. So that's what I mean, he's got. He's like. Or he's turned.

Jimmy Whisman (157:19)

Long reach. I can have a titty.

James Petregallo (157:21)

I'm thinking he's turned. Think about it coming from this. Yeah, coming from the side there. He's got to. You got to really be creative when you're doing that. He claimed that this was an accidental death. Just trying to do, you know, erotic asphyxiation. And, you know, that's what they. So, yeah, he said, I just killed her, man. Not trying. That's what he said. Yeah, he said self preservation kicked in. I was working the system by going to South Carolina with two jurisdictions. It's kind of confuses the investigation. That's why he dumped them afterwards. He said, yeah, that's what happens. He said he attempted to explain why he would falsely confess to multiple murders. He said he'd been arrested for a series of armed robberies, and with his previous record, he could face a sentence of almost 100 years. So he claimed that he believed confessing to the other offenses would grant him leverage with prosecutors on the robbery charges. Yeah, they won't even. They'll dismiss those fucking things. Who cares about those? Now you're in for murder. But that he would not be convicted based on his false confessions once the police actually investigated. So he's like, I get him to drop the shit. Then they realize it wasn't even me that did it and it was a false confession, and then I'm scot free. That's how that works. He said the confession that the jurors watched was fabricated to serve his goal of manipulating the justice system. And he said none of the Florida murders, none of that was true. He said, quote, I throwed it all in. Throwed it, threw it, throwed it. He said, I throwed it all in. The police were eating it up. The story got bigger and bigger as it got went along. And he said he was just trying to play the system. He also told the jury that he didn't mean to kill Randy. But he said, I was pissed off at Randy for dying. Oh, oh, interesting.

Jimmy Whisman (159:13)

All right, he's mad at her.

James Petregallo (159:15)

So cross examination, they said, so you manipulated the system is what you're saying? He said, well, I mean, I choose to call it working. The system manipulation, you know, is in the eye of the beholder.

Jimmy Whisman (159:27)

No, that's beauty.

James Petregallo (159:29)

But he's not that dumb, though. If you think about him saying that, you know what I mean, you can't be that dumb to say that. I know dumb people, and they wouldn't say that. He said, I don't know. I just work the system. I do whatever's best for me. If you want to call it manipulation, then that's fine, I guess.

Jimmy Whisman (159:45)

Okay, well, this isn't a good story, man.

James Petregallo (159:49)

It's a terrible story. I tried to cover up smaller crimes with much bigger ones is a bad story. So they do a jury field trip.

Jimmy Whisman (159:58)

Yeah.

James Petregallo (159:59)

Here they. Where they go to the murder house. They go to mama's house. Okay. Which is. This is. The defense wanted to do this, by the way, to allow the panel to inspect the small brick home where the mother was still present. She's there.

Jimmy Whisman (160:14)

Oh, my God.

James Petregallo (160:15)

Is that. She was there during the tour. Wow. So at 10:20am on a Thursday, sheriff's vans pulled up with the jurors and did it up. So, yep, they spent about 30 minutes touring the upstairs and basement. And he was taken to both locations, too, because he has to. Gets to watch. He gets to see anything that goes on. The defense also presented evidence to contradict his earlier claim that he killed two women in Florida. So he said. The detective testifies that he relayed that information to authorities in Florida who came to Gastonia to speak with Danny. Bobby. Danny, Robbie. Sorry. The Florida detective said, however, no bodies were ever found at that location and no unsolved murders matched the crimes that he described. And they were unable to verify many of the details of the statement. So they also bring in their own medical experts here. One is a forensic toxicologist. He testifies that he reviewed the toxicology reports of Heather Catterton and the concentrations of cocaine and cocaine metabolites in her blood might have been, but were not necessarily the cause of her death. Oh, so like, he could be telling the truth is what they're saying. Another defense expert said that that the reviewed the autopsy, and he said that no significant bruises or wounds. He said that she did not have any trauma that would be consistent with that being the cause of death. And his said the most probable cause of death that he says is cocaine toxicity, overdosed on coke. That's his conclusion. Now, in the closing arguments here, they try to offer obviously completely opposite points of view. The prosecution emphasizes the substance of the confessions, the fact that forensic evidence did not rule out his claim that he had suffocated her with a plastic shopping bag and that his history of manipulating others. You know, two women had been killed. What are we talking about, and this is the best. The prosecutor said, quote, confessing to two capital murders to get a deal on robbery charges. That doesn't make any sense.

Jimmy Whisman (162:24)

That's amazing.

James Petregallo (162:26)

Yeah. He said he wasn't coerced. He volunteered the information. We literally didn't even ask him about it. He just told us so. He said that obviously. He said it's consistent with what the evidence shows. His first conviction. He said the autopsy shows no scientific cause of death. But he said that's not unusual. We don't have to prove that. We know how she died. He suffocated her. We know that. Cuz he told us. And he said that the defense brought in high paid experts to put a spin on the evidence and put up a smokescreen. The prosecutor says this. He has manipulated his attorneys. Don't let him manipulate you. Don't let him work the system again. You heard video confessions of how he killed Heather Catterton and Randy Saldana. And then the defense started, they started up putting up these smoke screens, started to try to confuse you. At no point, no point in the last 18 months since this has been a pending trial has he ever recanted killing Heather or Randy. Never. Not until two years later, when he could look at everything and when he can study the evidence and we can get legal advice from his attorneys, does he come up with this elaborate tale as to what took place. He said two years later, after he gives all these confessions to the police and says exactly how he killed Heather and Randy Saldana, that now, along with his two attorneys, they come together to try to create some kind of story. He said. Now, the defense objected to this and the trial judge offered no corrective instruction and told the jury that. That he would sustain the objection as to argument and odd comment, but there's no, like, strike it, none of that. So he then continued, the prosecutor, think back to December 5th of 2009, when he knew nothing, when he had no legal advice, consistently volunteered, told the police everything, and it was consistent with the evidence showed for hours. You watch this man confess to killing Heather and Randy Saldana. And now after 18 months to two years, the defense begins. They try to put up a smoke screen to confuse you. We've got two women dead and he killed them. I asked that you find him guilty of first degree murder for killing Heather. Thank you. Verdict here. Five or seven men, five women on the jury. They come in less than two hours of deliberation.

Jimmy Whisman (164:40)

It's fast.

James Petregallo (164:41)

That's either great or terrible for you. One or the other. They Find him guilty of first degree murder. He said he did it. Sentencing comes around. Randy's sister said, you're a monster. That's what she said to him from her thing. For the victim impact statement, he presents mitigating evidence as well, saying that according to this, his disorders are better controlled when he's incarcerated. A psychiatrist says, you don't need to kill him. If you put him in prison, he'll be great. That's what he's saying. He said prison's actually a pretty good management system for people with personality disorders. That's not true at all.

Jimmy Whisman (165:20)

That's the worst medication on the planet in there.

James Petregallo (165:22)

It's terrible for you. Yeah. It's not good at all for people with personality disorders. It's people with drug problems sometimes clean up in prison because it's harder to get. I mean, you can get it, but it's a pain in the ass. And you got to owe some guy who's going to your face later. So, you know, so they said outside of constant care, he engages in destructive behavior. They also bring in his family. They bring in Danny Robbie III, making his first appearance. There he is. He's 25 now. He's a restaurant manager. Danny Robbie in this case. And he said, I love him, and I know he loves me. Nothing in this world could change how I feel about my father. He recalled his father writing from prison, urging him to straighten out his life. He said, he begged me to learn from his mistakes. He tried to be a good dad. He taught me how to ride a dirt bike. He was always good. That's his one example of him being a good dad. He taught me how to ride a dirt bike. Probably so you could go in and steal things and get away faster. Wow.

Jimmy Whisman (166:31)

Sweet, sweet smell of two stroke.

James Petregallo (166:33)

Oh, two stroke. We got it earlier. Was it two stroke aroma? Two stroke smoke. That's what it was. So they also bring in his sister, and she says that her brother told her a few years ago that he'd been molested as a child by a relative, sexually abused by a cousin when he was five years old, and that dad whipped him with a belt. She said that her father, whom she portrayed as a strict disciplinarian, thought that he was doing the right thing by whipping on her brother. But she told jurors that she thought the father was wrong. She said, I don't think getting a C in school warrants being beaten.

Jimmy Whisman (167:09)

No.

James Petregallo (167:10)

And that also, I don't think.

Jimmy Whisman (167:13)

I don't think smoking crack means you get to murder that person.

James Petregallo (167:16)

Getting crack From a black guy means you can kill them either. So what are we talking? We're even on that one. Jury here deliberates for 10 hours. During sentencing, the jurors ask for evidence such as psychological exam of Hembury and five folders of records. But they were denied a request for the definitions of three personality disorders. So they're really getting into this into the weeds here with him. So they found several mitigating factors. They believe that Hembury suffered from abuse from his father when he was young, had a family history of mental illness and engaged in self destructive behavior. They found two aggravating circumstances and 14 mitigating circumstances, which is a lot. So in the end, they decide, you, sir, may fuck off. Death penalty.

Jimmy Whisman (168:03)

Uh oh.

James Petregallo (168:04)

Those two aggravators were bigger than 14 mitigators.

Jimmy Whisman (168:08)

But he taught a boy how to ride a dirt bike. James, that's.

James Petregallo (168:13)

Come on. There's so many kids out there that don't know how to ride a dirt bike. You're gonna put me away? This is fucking ridiculous. After being sentenced to death, he said this. And I'll see if you recognize what he's trying to do here, okay? Quote Prison can be a living hell for me. Prison, I hate every inch of you.

Jimmy Whisman (168:33)

What?

James Petregallo (168:34)

This is a Johnny Cash song he's trying to sing.

Jimmy Whisman (168:36)

That's San Quentin, right?

James Petregallo (168:37)

San Quentin, you've been living hell to me. San Quentin, I hate every inch of you Is the lyrics in separate verses. But yeah, he said so he fucked up Johnny Cash. That's good.

Jimmy Whisman (168:51)

I'm just say Ring of Fire, man.

James Petregallo (168:54)

Yeah, try that one. He also said he hoped that this could bring some closure to the Catterton family as well. Heather's Cash song.

Jimmy Whisman (169:02)

I hope that that settles everything.

James Petregallo (169:04)

Heather's family's got a fucking Johnny Cash song for him. Yeah, we'd like to set him on fire in a ring also.

Jimmy Whisman (169:12)

I hope that needle stings.

James Petregallo (169:13)

Yeah. So Nick dad said justice got served today for this young lady. That's what this was all about. And Stella, Heather's mom, said it doesn't bring Heather back, but it took him down with her. Okay, so he's sent to death row, Right? And In January of 2012, he writes a letter to the Gaston Gazette, a North Carolina newspaper about death Row.

Jimmy Whisman (169:40)

Really?

James Petregallo (169:41)

To taunt everybody.

Jimmy Whisman (169:42)

Oh, really?

James Petregallo (169:44)

Quote My name is Danny Hembury. I was tried in gaston county by 12 of its fine citizens. I was found guilty of first degree capital murder and was sentenced to death. On November 18, 2011, the North Carolina Department of Corrections was ordered to carry out My murder. I always wonder, or I wonder if the public is aware that the cost of my first trial was half a million dollars. Are they aware that the state has in place a system that automatically delays my lawful murder for years so that pieces of the money pie can continue to be passed around?

Jimmy Whisman (170:14)

Okay.

James Petregallo (170:15)

Also we can hopefully figure out if we fucked up and don't kill innocent people. That helps.

Jimmy Whisman (170:20)

We also understand that there are holes in this system.

James Petregallo (170:23)

That's. Yeah. He said, is the public aware that the chances of my lawful murder taking place in the next 20 years, if ever, are very slim? Is the public aware that I am a gentleman of leisure, watching color television in the air conditioning, reading, taking naps at will, eating three well balanced hot meals a day. I'm housed in a building that connects to the new $155 million hospital with round the clock free medical care. There's a lot of good citizens who blogged on various websites stating their opinions about me and the punishment I deserve. I laugh at you self righteous clowns and I spit in the face of your so called justice system. Kill me if you can, suckers. Ha ha ha. Sincerely, Danny Hempri.

Jimmy Whisman (171:06)

They published that.

James Petregallo (171:08)

They published it in complete, in whole. That's where I got it from. Ha ha ha. With an exclamation after each ha.

Jimmy Whisman (171:16)

Okay.

James Petregallo (171:16)

Three separate ha's.

Jimmy Whisman (171:19)

God will pull you down.

James Petregallo (171:21)

Shit.

Jimmy Whisman (171:23)

If he didn't throw in another Johnny Cash lyric, he could have it.

James Petregallo (171:25)

Fuck it, right? Do it. Rip this off, man. So the Gaston County District Attorney, Locke Bell. His name is Locke. The district attorney who locks you up, his name is Locke. Is it CK Cke. Locke Bell said that he received two distraught phone calls after the letter from Nick from Heather's father. He said, I got a call from the father of the 17 year old that he murdered in tears. He said that this is tearing the family to shreds. This is ripping the wound open. The father said he murdered our daughter, got the death penalty and now he's just sitting in jail laughing at us. Who see this. I don't care. That's what I mean. That's. That. That's one of those where you gotta go listen, that doesn't affect me that my. This. Yeah.

Jimmy Whisman (172:08)

What I would be most upset as this guy knows the address to the newspaper and sent a letter that sucks.

James Petregallo (172:14)

And they printed it.

Jimmy Whisman (172:16)

Yeah.

James Petregallo (172:16)

He said there's a part of me that wants. This is the prosecutor. There's a part of me that wants everybody to read the letter because it tells a lot of truth about death. Row. He says that it's more likely that he'll die of natural causes than the death penalty. He said his punishment does not fit his crime at all. All of a sudden we're acting like prison's great. That's not.

Jimmy Whisman (172:35)

No, because he's got air conditioning and a tv. I don't know, man.

James Petregallo (172:39)

Yeah. And he. Even the prosecutor said he's sitting down there looking at the law and laughing. He's been sentenced to death. He shouldn't be watching color tv. Okay, we'll get him a black and white and then it's fine.

Jimmy Whisman (172:50)

He said, watch Andy Griffith.

James Petregallo (172:52)

Make him watch Andy Griffith and that'll just give him ideas of where to put bodies. Never mind. Fuck it. So they said his letters should be sent to legislators who support the Racial Justice Act. That's what the prosecutor said. That'll show you. Yeah. He said that the law, the 2009 law, says a judge must reduce a death sentence to life in prison without parole if he determines race was a significant factor in the sentencing. How is that a bad law? At what point should race matter in your sentencing? Honestly? Because that fucking. That's pro or con. You can't give somebody less because you feel bad for them because they're whatever. And you can't give somebody more because you don't like them. People either. One.

Jimmy Whisman (173:31)

I don't think he was a victim of that.

James Petregallo (173:34)

That's the other thing. He's a white guy. He's white as fuck.

Jimmy Whisman (173:37)

Didn't play into this man.

James Petregallo (173:39)

No. An anti death penalty guy named Steven Deer, the executive director of the rally based group People of Faith against the Death Penalty church, people that don't like, you know, that actually read the Bible once or twice. He said, why would anyone be interested in the moral version of an unrepentant murderer or moral vision of an unrepentant murderer. It's no surprise that someone who would murder others in cold blood would also say the things he said. He's getting the attention he wanted fomenting the response and anger he seeks. He wants to bring us all down to his level. That's what the death penalty does to us. It brutalizes society. So, I mean, it's just a lot. So. His family says, don't listen to him. He's crazy.

Jimmy Whisman (174:21)

Yeah, he's out of his mind.

James Petregallo (174:23)

And they also said he's fabricating the living conditions. He doesn't have color TV or air conditioning and blah, blah, blah. They said it's just being full of shit. His sister released a letter sent to her from her brother earlier in the month, that contradicts everything this letter says. Quote, I try to put on a nonchalant attitude for you guys, but it's overwhelming and depressing to look at these walls and electric doors and bright lights 247 and digest the fact that I'm never going to leave here until they murder me or I just die. Either way, I'm never leaving here alive. Right. Said I'm bored to death. No pun intended.

Jimmy Whisman (174:58)

There's no TV and it's real hot.

James Petregallo (175:00)

Yeah. It's different. It's not what he said. He's just fucking. He's. He's a fucking piece of shit. That's the thing. He's a piece of shit. Yeah. His sister said, I'm so very sorry for any hurt or anger that was caused by my brother's letter to the Gazette. He's a very depressed man and is in hopelessness and he lashed out. No person in their right mind thinks that living on death row is a life of leisure, is what his son said. He said there's no good explanation for why he wrote it, except that he's mentally ill. He also says he talks about the four walls closing in, that the lights are always on and he can't sleep, and that death row is a horrible place for anybody to be. He's severely depressed. He's told us he's depressed. He feels like it's over for him.

Jimmy Whisman (175:39)

Feels like a suicide attempt to get them to kill him because he wants out.

James Petregallo (175:43)

Yeah. And then his sister said, by the way, he's also innocent.

Jimmy Whisman (175:46)

Oh, ma'am.

James Petregallo (175:48)

She said, in every one of those confessions on all those tapes, he was coming off a three day crack binge. He hadn't slept. He was drunk and highly intoxicated. He could barely hold his head up. He's not a killer. He did not kill those girls. Wow. Then crack makes you glean murder details of murders you didn't participate in. That's amazing.

Jimmy Whisman (176:08)

Crack makes you clairvoyant.

James Petregallo (176:10)

Yeah. By the way, According to a 2008 study at the time, keeping an inmate on Death row costs $90,000 more per year than regular confinement per prisoner. Not $90,000. $90,000 more per year. Yeah, because they're housed in single rooms and they're staffed with like triple staff and everything else they said getting from North Carolina, if they stopped the death penalty, it would cut $63 million from the state budget every year that day. Yeah, In North Carolina, that's 2008 money, too. So now, who knows? But I'm just saying that's just both sides of the whole thing, so. March 2012. He wants to die.

Jimmy Whisman (176:51)

Of course he does.

James Petregallo (176:52)

He said he told his attorney to stop his. He wants his mandated automatic appeals to stop. He said, I'm already dead. My whole entire life's been a train wreck. Can't blame it on anybody but myself.

Jimmy Whisman (177:03)

True. Yeah.

James Petregallo (177:04)

He said, I'd like to get death out of the way because I gotta do it anyway. He said, death row in this prison's the last place anybody on earth would want to be. To be honest with you, I don't care one way or another about the death penalty as far as it pertains to me. I feel trapped. There's no anxiety. I have basically expected what's going on.

Jimmy Whisman (177:21)

Okay, good. Well, we have this paperwork to do.

James Petregallo (177:24)

We have that March 2012, he's got. Right after that, he's got to do the Saldana fucking trial.

Jimmy Whisman (177:31)

Oh, shit.

James Petregallo (177:33)

Yeah. So they give all the information we just gave you, obviously, and all of that, and through this. Because a superior court judge declares a mistrial here. Prosecute. Because they declared the mistrial after Danny Robbie testified that a letter sent to attorneys that he had a sexual relationship that. He testified that a letter sent to the attorney said he had a sexual relationship with a prosecutor, also that the sister was. Her name Shelly. I think Saldana's sister yelled obscenities at him while the jury was present. So that's why they declared a mistrial on that. So he just decides to plead guilty for Saltana. So he does. Yeah, they said the prosecutor. Yeah, well, the prosecutor said now that he's been on death row for a year and a half, he appears to be more defeated. No more cussing, no more acting out in court, no more bravado. I think he realized that that only hurt his family.

Jimmy Whisman (178:36)

Yeah.

James Petregallo (178:37)

He also, in a hearing, said he has. He has health issues, liver problems, and he says he has cancer. So who knows? You, sir, may fuck off. 26 years in prison for killing Randy. The Deborah Ratchford murder is dismissed as part of the plea agreement.

Jimmy Whisman (178:57)

Okay, so we're gonna just not deal with it.

James Petregallo (178:59)

Not deal with it? No, just that poor. She gets nothing, that family. Yeah, the prosecutor said I dismissed it because I wasn't gonna prosecute it anyway. Danny Hembry did not do that one. We investigated it, and he didn't do it. The person we think did it, I have been told, is dead, and I'm gonna be checking into it to see if that fact is deceived. He Took them to the site, pointed everything out.

Jimmy Whisman (179:23)

He did it for sure, right?

James Petregallo (179:24)

He fucking did it. Yeah. I think they're just trying to get people not upset about that. 2015, he appeals the convictions for Heather here. This is the death penalty 1. One is that he says the sister was allowed to give way too much glowing testimony about her sister in court. There's that. Also several errors. They admitted the evidence of the Saldana murder. Also, they said they violated 404 and Rule 403. And the North Carolina Supreme Court, in a 4 to 2 decision, vacates the conviction and death sentence.

Jimmy Whisman (180:01)

What?

James Petregallo (180:03)

Yep. They said that they allowed admission of excessive amount of the Saldana murder evidence by allowing Shelley, the sister, to testify about the good character and by allowing the prosecution to argue without basis to the jury that the defense counsel had suborned perjury.

Jimmy Whisman (180:18)

Oh, my God.

James Petregallo (180:19)

Yeah. So an attorney for Danny Robbie said that he's pleased with the decision, and she expects him to be moved from death row to another prison, and he'll have a contact visit with one of his grandchildren soon. She said, I think the opinion makes it very clear that the prosecution was stretching to get a conviction on Heather Catterton's murder. We're just bullshit. They didn't need any of that stuff. We're just. The confession video is enough. Period. Done. Convicted. We're just very pleased that the justices understood that introducing all the evidence about Saldana was not appropriate. 2017, he wants a new lawyer.

Jimmy Whisman (180:53)

Really?

James Petregallo (180:54)

Yeah. He's like, this guy's terrible. Yeah, that's it. Um, yeah, at one point, this is. The judge said to him, you've made accusations against everyone. It wouldn't surprise me one bit if you made accusations against me and Danny Robbie said, oh, I will.

Jimmy Whisman (181:09)

I got you. Coming. Give me a minute.

James Petregallo (181:12)

That is fucking crazy. Um, so they're talking about a new trial for him, and then he just ends up pleading guilty to second degree murder for that. Okay, so he pleads guilty. The prosecutor called it an early Christmas present, that he just pled guilty and got it over with. He said, the drugs that I provided to her and the amount of drugs I provided to her contributed to his death. That's what he told. So he's like, I'll admit, sort of, but not really what I did. He said, under the statute, as I understand it, that makes me guilty of second degree murder. I'm ready to just go ahead and take the plea, put it to bed, and just deal with it. So he sentenced to you, sir. They fuck off again. 50 more years behind bars. Okay, so, yeah, the prosecutors about. Yep. Nick Catterton's dead, by the way. So he didn't get to see this at all. He just knew that he got the overturned, but then didn't get to see this. 2022, he does a prison interview here. He says that. Wow, he's. They talk about how he seems to be in good shape. He says that he's still. No, they talked to him. They say he's still a character. They said, you want to go ahead and die now? He said, I'd like to get it out of the way because I got to do it anyway. He said, I would describe myself as a person that's very remorseful for the wasted life that I've lived. Yeah. He said, I just wanted to make it look like there was a monster running around, a serial killer that was not me. He said he was trying to confuse the investigation investigators, and they said that he has a pacemaker and liver problems and he's gonna be in prison for the rest of his life. And he said, I've earned it. I've earned it. Yes, sir. This is what I chose for myself and this is what I've gotta pay for. There is just not enough sorry in the world to apologize my way out of here. I'm hoping maybe some kid will see this and say, I don't wanna wind up like him. I don't wanna wind up behind bars for the rest of my life. He says he's ready to die and meet God and he believes he'll be reincarnated and get another life and another chance to resolve the suffering. Now, Shelly, Randy's sister, said, tell us what happened with Deborah Ratchford. Give that family peace. They deserve that. And she says she's not buying his shit. She said women that are in his presence become dead. That's not just by accident. The book, by the way, that some of this came out of is called the Killing Kind by William L, William M. Or M. William Phelps. Sorry. And you can get it everywhere. It's ebook. There's an audio version of it and everything like that. So it's fucking crazy. That is in there forever. There you go. That is Gastonia, North Carolina, quickly on the end here. If you like the show, please, please tell everybody about it. Get on whatever app you're listening on. Give us five stars. It helps a ton. Shut up and give me murder.com. get your tickets for live shows April 19th virtual live show. It's available for two weeks. After that to buy watch a thousand Times just like a regular live show, but in your living room. Costumes, weed, smoke, it's all going to be there gonna be awesome stuff. Also, follow us at Smalltown murder on Instagram. Small town pot on Facebook. Patreon.com CrimeAndSports is where you get all the bonus material. Anybody $5 a month or above, you get everything. Hundreds of bonus episodes you've never heard before. New ones every other week. One crime and sports, one small town murder. This week is no different. Crime and sports this week. Fraternity hazing. Those guys must have done sports at some point. Lacrosse assholes or some shit. Small town murder. Bonus episode. Karen Reed, woman in Boston accused of killing her cop boyfriend. We've all heard all about it. There's a retrial coming up. We're going to go over the the evidence that is patreon.com crime in sports and you get a shout out right now. Jimmy, hit me with the names of the people who would never, ever, ever do any of this that happened this week to us. Hit me with them right now.

Jimmy Whisman (184:53)

This week's executive producers are Chrissy Such and the Such fam. Celebrating Mama Such. It's her.

James Petregallo (184:58)

Well, thank you. Such is.

Jimmy Whisman (185:00)

I don't know.

James Petregallo (185:01)

We are such grateful she donated.

Jimmy Whisman (185:03)

Yeah, we're the. Were such grateful fellas. They. She. Chrissy got a patreon and she went to paypal, so thank you.

James Petregallo (185:11)

Oh, wow. You are a wonderful person. Thank you.

Jimmy Whisman (185:14)

And happy birthday, mama. Gary. Gary Howard is a history nerd. I found out. Gary Marcellus Wallace and Boobs McGee. Happy birthday. Thomas Smith. He's celebrating over there in England with his fella. Yeah.

James Petregallo (185:29)

Have a jolly good time.

Jimmy Whisman (185:31)

Yeah. Janice. Janice Hill. Melanie Keating. I found out that they don't call it jolly old England over there, evidently. No, they don't. We say it. They don't.

James Petregallo (185:40)

We're mocking them. That's the point. That's what we're doing.

Jimmy Whisman (185:43)

Mellie Keating. Cody Leversy is having a baby. We have. This kid's life has evolved tremendously.

James Petregallo (185:50)

We followed him the whole time. I love it. What a great thing. He's watching a nice woman and they get married and they're happy now they're having a kid. This is. Congratulations. That's really nice to hear.

Jimmy Whisman (186:01)

Caroline Moore. Victor. Victor. What is this? Victoria Dizar with a K. Disdar.

James Petregallo (186:08)

Whoa.

Jimmy Whisman (186:09)

Loves us. Love you.

James Petregallo (186:10)

I don't know where that K goes.

Jimmy Whisman (186:11)

I don't know where the. I don't know why. Victoria with a K. Oh, Victoria.

James Petregallo (186:14)

I thought this is darn like where the. Is there a K in there. How does that work? Disdar with a K. I was like, huh?

Jimmy Whisman (186:21)

Anthony Annette and Mike Osborne in Yankton. James down in Yankton.

James Petregallo (186:25)

Oh, down in Yankton, where all the. The smallpox vaccines are that we're sending out Dan Daugherty to go grab on a horseback.

Jimmy Whisman (186:31)

They're very healthy up there. Other producers this week, Liz Vasquez, Peyton Meadows. Happy birthday. Andrew Womers, 26th birthday.

James Petregallo (186:38)

Happy birthday.

Jimmy Whisman (186:39)

We've had him around since the.

James Petregallo (186:41)

Oh, shit.

Jimmy Whisman (186:42)

He was a teenager.

James Petregallo (186:43)

We're raising these people.

Jimmy Whisman (186:44)

Isn't that bizarre? Jessica Melissa. Amanda Rowe, Haley with no last name. Karen Williams. Renata Brown. Kate Ryback. Catherine Paz Durka. Lisa with an E. Sherry with no last name. Nancy Campbell, Sarah Rupp. Jesse Aguilar, Paul with no last name. Shelby Coulter. J.D. keener. John Stoll, Chrissy Such. See, there she is. Aaron rowland. Amanda Fletcher, T8. I don't know if that's a gate.

James Petregallo (187:10)

At the airport or It's Ti's brother. Yeah, TI's brother. T8.

Jimmy Whisman (187:20)

All right, that cousin likely. Zach with no last name. Cora Hudson. Sarah Mafe. Jamie Ewart. Megan Faulkner. Pookie Z Man. Justin with no last name. Jay Engel. Uh, Drew Patterson. Roman Paul Torn Ivory Zvork. Ski Zavorski. M and l. The letters ML. Uh, Kim Michael Vanilla. Vanilla Varilla. Vanilla Gorilla 73. Remember that guy?

James Petregallo (187:49)

Yes, I do. I certainly do. Yeah, he's dead. Yeah. Yeah.

Jimmy Whisman (187:56)

Isn't that crazy?

James Petregallo (187:57)

Yeah, that's crazy. Comedian.

Jimmy Whisman (187:59)

We know, dad. You don't need to know him. He's dead.

James Petregallo (188:03)

He's fucking dead. And he never made anything of himself, so never mind.

Jimmy Whisman (188:05)

That was Vanilla Godzilla, wasn't he?

James Petregallo (188:08)

Oh, I don't remember. Either way.

Jimmy Whisman (188:12)

Somebody called Jesse James because he's gross.

James Petregallo (188:16)

Thank you.

Jimmy Whisman (188:17)

Vile. All right, we got him mixed up, but we got to the bottom of it. Vanilla Godzilla is dead. And Moses Shio. One, two, three. Amy Hotchkiss. Got that Hotchkiss money from the rear.

James Petregallo (188:30)

From the diseases that happened. That Hotchkiss disease. I know that's Hotchkiss, that big disease. Money.

Jimmy Whisman (188:40)

Sherry with no last name. Alfredo Sandoval. Luke Riddle, Cody Freisner. Katherine Rowland. Gary with no last name. Jessica Farago. Caroline. Oh, it's Catalina Nunez Pacheco. That's what that. Hey, that's very Espanoli. Josh Campbell. Stephen Ogg Francis writes a bit. I hope she does. Alicia Crockett, Anthony Supa Supper. Maybe Kel with no last name. Samantha Jacquette Jechetta. Andrew R. Vaselina. Vaseline Vasilina that's somebody's first name. Vasilina Yovcheva. Is that a thing? In Russia they thought it was beautiful and started naming people.

James Petregallo (189:20)

Maybe. And either that or her dad, her mom was very permissive with the anal, but they had some slippage and they called it Vaselina.

Jimmy Whisman (189:28)

Incredibly dry. Vaseline.

James Petregallo (189:33)

Jesus.

Jimmy Whisman (189:35)

Morgan Dunlap, Jeannie Kimbrell, Carrie.

James Petregallo (189:42)

Thank you for your money. Thank you.

Jimmy Whisman (189:43)

It is a nice name, but also, so is diarrhea. You know what I mean? We don't name people that shit. Vaseline, maybe. She's the fucking heir to the whole fortune. She laughs at us. She's got shitloads of money with her.

James Petregallo (189:58)

Well, lubricated holes.

Jimmy Whisman (190:01)

Chris Poople.

James Petregallo (190:02)

Popple.

Jimmy Whisman (190:07)

Is the brand. Jaina. Hyena. That is that Hyena Kent with the J. Probably. Nikki Taylor. Brandon Johnson. Ashley Pernek. Perez. Elena Prescott Prescott. Cassandra Griffin. Mackenzie.

James Petregallo (190:25)

Shipman.

Jimmy Whisman (190:26)

Shipman. L. Merch. Hannah Cattrell. Roman Coxy. Coaxy.

James Petregallo (190:31)

Maybe.

Jimmy Whisman (190:32)

Whitney Kurtz. Joshua Reimers. Lisa S. Kel with no last name. Amy Via Real. Kelly Hickman. Sherry Ronaldson. Emma Albert. Kelly Cook. Courtney Height. I'm gonna have to make the font bigger. I'm. This is crazy. Am I this? All right. K. Kel, Kristen. K. Kelsey To Back. Daniela. Danielle K. Brandy. Brandy. Dallas James Grenach. Greeny itch. Green out, green crotch. What is this? Channing Spann. Katie Blevins. Dwana. Lyria, Laria. S. This show brought to you by the letter S. Natalie Kloss, the drummer. Oh, it's Nate. See, Nate turns into Natalie. I'm so sorry. Joey would know. Last name. Telly McKay. Anthea. Callan. Kalan. Okay, it's Callan, Samsonite. Swanson. That's fantastic. April Allen. Danielle Chastain. That's from Dumb and Dumber. That's what? Samsonite. Samsonite. I was way off. Caleb with no last name. Jake Seaman. Is that right? Danielle Chastain. I'm gonna move along. Courtney Parker. Nicole Duterra. Libby B. Jeremy Cavender. Cavender. Jason Barnett. Campaign. Rachel Cardi. Marcia Thomas. Justin with no last name. Leslie with no last name. Orlando would know last name. Audi, but it's probably Audi with no last name. Jane Louise. Victoria Albin. Camille Etheridge. Really? Sarah's sister.

James Petregallo (192:06)

Melissa's sister.

Jimmy Whisman (192:07)

Gajarel. Gadget Thomas. James. Simon Hargood. Lee Ann. Amanda Jones. Amanda Nicholas. Big B. Amanda Hanky. Sierra Humphrey. Aaron Peak. Hair. P. Car. Steven with no last name. Sophia Cronkite. Obviously. Carol. Coral. Coral Abrams. Oh, like the fucking bad guy. Ria with no last name Nunya Dam. All right, fine. Leah, Samantha, Ben B. Robert Hoff and all of our patrons. You guys are the best. Thank you.

James Petregallo (192:42)

Thank you everybody so much. Yeah. Goddamn wonderful bastards. We appreciate everything you do for us and thank you for being here. Thank you for hanging out with us week after week. Thanks for Patreon. Thanks for everything. You want to follow us on social media drop down menu? Shut up and give me murder.gov that said, until next week everybody, it's been our pleasure. 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 survey@wondery.com survey are you captivated by the dark and mysterious world of true crime? Wondery plus offers you the ultimate true crime experience with early access to new episodes, exclusive content, and a seamless ad free listening journey. With Wonry plus, you'll get access to hundreds of podcasts, including more than 50 true crime series like Dr. Death, the shocking true story of a trusted surgeon who brought unimaginable pain and suffering to his patients. This was not an operation that was performed. This was attempted murder. And there's Morbid, the hit podcast that's a lighthearted nightmare. With Wondery, you get access to exclusive bonus content too, allowing you to dive deeper into the cases you love. Like in Suspect, where an ordinary Halloween party turned into a terrifying murder mystery that left its mark on the community. This case is one of those roller coaster rides where it's like, no, he did it for sure. No, he for sure he did it. Each story is crafted to keep you enthralled, revealing the complexities and motivations behind every crime. Subscribe to Wondery on the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts or Spotify today. Unlock the door to a world of true crime like never before. With Wondery, the best true crime stories are always at your fingertips.