Murder Breadcrumb Trail - Tullahoma, Tennessee

Summary

Small Town Murder – "Murder Breadcrumb Trail – Tullahoma, Tennessee"

Podcast: Small Town Murder
Hosts: James Pietragallo & Jimmie Whisman
Date: April 9, 2026
Episode Focus:
An in-depth, darkly comedic exploration of the 2012 murder of Megan Sharpton in Tullahoma, TN: a trusting young nursing student lured to her death by a cunning killer with a history of violence. The episode probes the town’s quirks, the investigative journey, and the profound impact of the crime on a generous family and community.

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Main Theme

James and Jimmie explore the murder of Megan Sharpton, dissecting small-town Tullahoma (“Tennessee’s Rising Star”)—its offbeat charms, its darker elements, and how a string of breadcrumbs, both literal and figurative, led to the chilling, tragic resolution of the case. As always, the hosts apply their trademark mix of thorough research and irreverent comedy, drawing out both the human heartbreak and absurdities along the way.

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Key Sections & Insights

Introduction to Tullahoma (06:19 - 23:48)

• Setting the Scene:

  • Tullahoma, a town in south-central Tennessee, with a population just over 20,000, is described with affection and sarcasm. There’s a rundown of local history (work camp roots), famous products (George Dickel whiskey, Jack Daniels nearby), quirky town reviews (riding lawnmowers and porch plant theft), and cost of living.
  • Quote:
    “How do you mix murder and comedy? I think it takes the edge off a little bit, honestly...” – James (05:19)

• Notable Moments:

  • Extended riffing on “porch plant theft,” lawnmower bandits, and the dubious distinction of being dubbed the town "meth capital" by an aggrieved local.
  • Colorful descriptions of the local real estate, the world’s most mundane crime sprees, and a questionable music festival lineup.

Timestamps:

• Introduction to Tullahoma’s location & culture [06:19–11:20]
• Community reviews (everything from “no crime” to “cesspool”, plus plant bandits) [11:19–15:11]
• Real estate & things to do [16:48–22:53]

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The Crime Unfolds: The Burning Barrel (23:54 – 37:04)

• Discovery:

  • July 2, 2012: Teenagers driving late at night notice a roadside fire near a bridge on Awalt Road. As they approach, they find a burn barrel with a woman's lower half on fire—naked from the waist down, pelvic area especially charred.
  • Police and fire arrive. The victim is found with blunt force trauma and only her upper-clothing, a nursing school top, remains.
  • Quote:
    “We're gonna start out hot here. And I mean that literally and figuratively...” – James (23:55) “There’s nothing louder than a rolling garbage can. Except for a riding lawnmower.” – James (13:39)

• Police Reactions:

  • Detectives are immediately suspicious of the teens, but quickly rule them out.
  • The state of the body (partly burned, naked below waist) and a lack of on-scene identification reek of “movie-like” horror for the detectives.

Timestamps:

• Discovery of the burning body [24:08–27:10]
• Early scene investigation, initial suspicions & unique clues [32:02–37:04]

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Megan Sharpton’s Life (37:04 – 54:45)

• Background:

  • Born 1987. One of 5+ siblings in a loving but large, working-class family. Megan is earnest and selfless, loving animals and taking care of everyone around her—bottle-feeding wild bunnies, helping the homeless despite warnings.
  • Quote:
    “She wanted to believe everybody had good in them all the time. That’s what Megan was all about...” – Brittany (Friend, 42:38) “She said...if anything ever happens to me, Brittany, look for clues. I’ll leave scraps of my clothing to lead you to Megan.” – Megan at age 12 (46:43)

• Her World:

  • Nursing student, double-shifting at a Japanese steakhouse, working in a nursing home, and set to graduate later that year.
  • Maintains a loving but “combustible” relationship with boyfriend Chris, but is ready to break up.
  • Notable for meticulous organization and sentimental touches—color-coded nursing textbooks, star tattoos for each sibling, and a photo of her mom in her anatomy textbook.

• Personal Tragedy:

  • On July 1, 2012, Megan cancels family dinner for a too-good-to-be-true in-home caregiver job interview—a call relayed by boyfriend Chris from a mystery man claiming to know her through classmate Naomi.

Timestamps:

• Megan’s background & “breadcrumb” philosophy [37:04–46:50]
• Her layered, compassionate life and college/career ambitions [49:07–55:03]

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The Trap and Murder (56:14 – 85:41)

• Lured to Death:

  • Megan leaves for an interview at “850 Shelfer Road” (a fake address). That night, she’s murdered—beaten, raped, shot in the face, and her lower body set ablaze.
  • No evidence at the body dump site; scene clearly staged. Mustang is later found miles away, with the written “850 Shelfer Road” note on the seat.

• Community Reaction:

  • News spreads via Facebook—Megan’s mom recognizes her daughter by tattoo and shirt description before official ID.

• Police Work:

  • First suspects, as always, are those closest—Chris (emotional interview but ironclad alibi) and roommate Robbie (secret affair, but no connection).
  • A burner phone was used to lure Megan; the call is traced to a small-time local drug dealer, Timothy Gifford, who says he bought the phone for “Donnie Jones”—his connection paid in pain meds.

Timestamps:

• Phone call/employment ruse, Megan goes missing [56:14–62:25]
• Discovery of the Mustang, crime scene details, elimination of immediate suspects [85:41–99:10]

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Unraveling the Killer (99:10 – 129:09)

• Breakthrough:

  • “Naomi from nursing school” turns out to be the killer’s own wife—Naomi Jones, who barely knew Megan. Donnie Frank Jones Jr., her husband, has 21 felony convictions, a violent and erratic history, and family property in the area.
  • Forensics show Megan was targeted at random—Jones called multiple nursing/eldercare women using the burner phone, lining up potential victims.
  • Quote:
    “On the burner phone, he’d use the same number to call several other women working in elder care and nursing. Megan wasn’t even his first choice...” – James (150:12)

• Evidence Trail:

  • GPS from multiple phones pinpoints Donnie with Megan’s path; forensic DNA is a match.
  • Remnants of Megan’s scarf (a direct “breadcrumb” reference) are found burned on the Jones family property.
  • Donnie’s attempts to cover up (buying a new truck interior, burning evidence) fail as police doggedly trace every lead.

Timestamps:

• The phone trail, Donnie’s criminal history, connection to the crime [123:22–129:09]

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Arrest, Trial, and Aftermath (129:09 – End)

• Arrest:

  • Donnie is arrested on weapons charges to hold him until DNA results are finalized.
  • Upon being confronted, he claims a secret affair with Megan, but no one buys it.

• Legal Proceedings:

  • Donnie is indicted for first-degree murder, aggravated rape, and kidnapping. Under threat of the death penalty, he pleads guilty to murder (rape/kidnapping charges dropped as part of the deal).
  • Attempts to withdraw the plea and various legal maneuvers are unsuccessful; he receives life without parole.

• Family and Community Impact:

  • Megan’s family turns donations into a nursing scholarship. A moving roadside memorial with metal stars is erected.
  • The case devastates the Sharpton family—a year after the murder, Megan’s mother Kelly dies by suicide. In court, the judge pointedly tells Donnie:
    “You, sir, may fuck off. Life without possibility of parole.” (166:46)

• Reflections:

  • The hosts highlight the investigative work as unusually competent for a rural jurisdiction and reflect on the massive psychological toll:
    “Kelly... That poor woman. Think about the poor other kids too. Now they lost their sister and their mom. And that’s another person this guy killed.” – James (170:28, 170:43)

Timestamps:

• Arrest, evidence, plea [152:27–163:41]
• Sentencing, family voices, and lasting tragedy [166:16–174:14]
• Aftermath, memorial, and reflections on justice and loss [174:14–end]

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Notable Quotes & Moments

• “There’s nothing louder than a rolling garbage can. Except for a riding lawnmower.” – James (13:39)
• “She said...if anything ever happens to me, Brittany, look for clues. I’ll leave scraps of my clothing to lead you...” – Megan (46:43)
• “He burned the scarf. He used his burner phone. He created a false alibi... But the GPS says otherwise.” – James (145:13, paraphrased)
• “On the burner phone, he’d use the same number to call several other women working in elder care and nursing. Megan wasn’t even his first choice...” – James (150:12)
• “You, sir, may fuck off. Life without possibility of parole.” – The Judge (166:48)
• “That poor woman. Think about the poor other kids too. Now they lost their sister and their mom... another person this guy killed.” – James (170:43)

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Critical Timestamps (Discussion, Breakthroughs, Emotional Highs)

• Tullahoma deep-dive: [06:19–22:53]
• Discovery of crime: [23:54–37:04]
• Megan’s background & philosophy: [37:04–46:50]
• “Breadcrumb” realization, murder details: [46:43–99:10]
• Police investigative work, GPS & DNA: [123:22–145:24]
• Killer’s arrest/confession/cover-up: [145:24–163:41]
• Family/Community response, tragic epilogue: [166:16–174:14]

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Tone & Style

Dark but compassionate, irreverent but always careful to keep their jokes away from the victim and her family. The hosts intersperse gallows humor (“I’ll leave scraps of my clothing...”) with genuine horror at the crime, their own personal anecdotes, and clear respect for the competence and tenacity of the investigators. Deep pathos marks the latter half, especially in discussing the family’s loss and Kelly’s suicide.

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Conclusion

A chilling case—both in the brutality of Megan Sharpton’s murder and in the random cruelty of her selection. The hosts deftly move from comedy to empathy, never undercutting the victim’s humanity or the family’s pain. The episode stands out for its clear-eyed appreciation of good police work—and for the haunting, literal emergence of Megan’s own "breadcrumbs" leading to justice.

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For Fans of: True crime with heart, small-town sociology, and smart, acerbic humor that never punches down.
Skip If: You prefer true crime without comedy, or are sensitive to discussions of sexual assault/murder.

Listen if you want to understand the complex mesh of fate, community, and tragedy that can change a family and a small town forever.

Transcript

[Jimmy Wissman]

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[James Pietragallo]

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[Jimmy Wissman]

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[James Pietragallo]

That's nationaldebtrelief.com this week in Tullahoma, Tennessee, a body found burning in a barrel in the middle of nowhere freaks the whole area out. But who could have done this? The teenagers who called it into the police? A random local? A serial killer on the loose. Welcome to Small Town Murder. Hello everybody and welcome back to Small Town Murder.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yay.

[James Pietragallo]

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

[Jimmy Wissman]

I'm Jimmy Wissman.

[James Pietragallo]

Thank you folks so much for joining us today on another really weird, crazy, wild edition of Small Town Murder. As usual, we got some just insane stuff for you. Every week it's I go, how are we gonna top we did last week?

[Jimmy Wissman]

How are you gonna do it, James?

[James Pietragallo]

There's always crazier stuff out there. There.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Pull another rabbit.

[James Pietragallo]

It's all out. I didn't do any of this, by the way. This is just, this is happening in the world and we're just finding it. We wish it would stop. Honestly, we really wish. Not our show, but we wish all the Murder would stop. There's plenty that's out. We could do this show for 50 years based on what's already occurred. So definitely before we start, definitely head over to shutupandgivemerder.com get your tickets for upcoming live shows. The next shows available that have tickets available for them May 2nd in Denver. There's still some seats for that and very few left for Royal Oak, Michigan on May 30 as well. Buffalo, Salt Lake City are sold out. Then in September after the summer, on September 18th in Milwaukee, September 19th, Minneapolis. Then after that, Dallas, San Jose, Sacramento, Tarrytown and Boston. So get your tickets now. Come see us at a live show that is shut up and givememurder.com get yourself Patreon. Do yourself a favor. Patreon.com CrimeInSports Just like the name of our other show that you should listen to because it's very funny. That is where you get all the bonus material. Anybody $5 a month or above. You get everything we put out everything, I'm talking everything you get as soon as you subscribe, hundreds of back bonus episodes you've never heard before all ready to go. And then you get new ones every other week. One crime in sports, one small town murder and you just get all of it. Every damn thing we put out. This week is no different. For this week, what you're gonna get for crime and sports we're gonna talk about. We're gonna have the old timey articles and ads and stuff like that again because this is like horrible tragedies and

[Jimmy Wissman]

murders and it's ridiculous what they disclosed

[James Pietragallo]

crazy ads and oh, the descriptions of these things are amazing. And then for small town and they'll

[Jimmy Wissman]

dox you in the newspaper.

[James Pietragallo]

Oh, absolutely. Everybody that talks, here's his address. Here they are. Then for small town murder we are gonna talk about the Corey Richens murder where she murdered her husband, poisoned him and then wr about grief for her children and among other wild things. This is.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Is that what we call that poisoning? Is that poisoning?

[James Pietragallo]

It's technically poisoning. Yeah, that's technically how they put it with poisoning with street drugs that she found from her maiden.

[Jimmy Wissman]

She overdosed him.

[James Pietragallo]

It's a crazy story. We'll talk about that and more. Patreon.com CrimeInSports and in addition to that, you also get all the shows we put out, crime and sports, your stupid opinions and of course small town murder all ad free with your Patreon. And then you get a shout out at the of the show too. Jimmy will mispronounce your name, even though he wants to get it right. We promise that. So that said, disclaimer time. This is a comedy show. We're certainly comedians and jokes are going to happen. And also horrible murder happens because that's the name of the show. You'd be a little weirded out if no murder happened. Small town murder. And you tune in and everybody's fine. It's just a nice story. That'd be weird.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Tiptoe through the tools.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah, that was a heartwarming tale. That's strange. But, yeah, that's all gonna happen. But at the same time, you go, well, how do you mix murder and comedy? I think it takes the edge off a little bit, honestly, and makes it a little less creepy and a little less weird. And what we do is we don't make fun of the victims or the victims families. Why, James? Because we're assholes.

[Jimmy Wissman]

But.

[James Pietragallo]

But we're not scumbags. That's how that goes. So that sounds good to you. You are gonna hear one hell of a wild story. If you think true crime and comedy should never, ever, ever mix, then I don't know, maybe we're not for you. But I say give it a shot because we might be. Either way, no complaining later. Let's just say that or you'll end up on your stupid opinions. Our other show. So that said, I think it's time everybody to sit back, clear the lungs, arms to the sky, and let's all shout, Shut up and give me murder. Let's do this, everybody.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Okay.

[James Pietragallo]

Let's go on a trip, shall we?

[Jimmy Wissman]

We do.

[James Pietragallo]

Let's do it. We're going down to Tennessee this week.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Okay.

[James Pietragallo]

So I'm drinking. I got my Sun Drop here in honor of Tennessee, because that's where we

[Jimmy Wissman]

got teeny tiny wild Cherry Pepsi. This is like a mixer. And that's kind of what that shit's made for too.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah, yeah. All the sun drop. Yeah, you could mix that with anything that would kill the flavor of it. It's great.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah, it's a booze mixer.

[James Pietragallo]

Absolutely. That's how they started Mountain Dew was started as a mixer.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah, it's a whiskey mixer.

[James Pietragallo]

That's right. And like, they'll never taste the whiskey with this shit. Jesus.

[Jimmy Wissman]

So much sugar.

[James Pietragallo]

So much sugar. We're going to Tullahoma, Tennessee.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Where exactly?

[James Pietragallo]

Heard of that joint here? Tullahoma, South Central Tennessee. Down by kind of the Alabama border there.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Way down there.

[James Pietragallo]

Way down there. Yeah. It's about an hour 20 to Nashville and about an hour 20 to Huntsville. Alabama. So right in between those two, about three hours to Selmer, Tennessee. Our last Tennessee episode. Episode 651. My ugly came out. Remember that one? My Ugly came out, like, I guess so.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Look at you with all the drinks today. I like it. Yeah, I got the drink. We're going to be so hydrated over here.

[James Pietragallo]

I had to kind of give a wash of that sun drop. Just. It was the sugar. I could, like, feel it boring into my skull. It's good, though. Had to, like, clear some sugar out. This is in Coffee and Franklin counties both. But all of this pretty much takes place in Coffee county. But the town technically lingers into Franklin. Area code spelled different than Coffee. Like the drink. No, no, no. Coffee. Coffee County.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Oh, really?

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah, there's Coffee.

[Jimmy Wissman]

It's not Green Mile. It's really Coffee.

[James Pietragallo]

Double F, double E. Coffee sounds the

[Jimmy Wissman]

same, but spelled different.

[James Pietragallo]

Spelled different. This is area code 931. They have a motto and a nickname.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Is that right?

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah. Now, their nickname is the same nickname as. We've come across at least 10 different cities with this nickname. But their motto is Tennessee's Rising Star.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Is that right?

[James Pietragallo]

Which I don't get that. This place is in the middle of nowhere, which.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah, I've never heard of it. You gotta rise a little higher.

[James Pietragallo]

That's what I mean. And then the nickname is the Queen City, which It's not even a city, number one, it's a town. And Queen City is Charlotte first. And then I've heard others, too, but Charlotte is a big city and that's Queen City, so.

[Jimmy Wissman]

And named after Queen Charlotte.

[James Pietragallo]

There you go. That's why it's the Queen City. I don't know Queen Tullahoma, but never heard of it, I assume.

[Jimmy Wissman]

She sounds hideous.

[James Pietragallo]

Sat upon the throne for many decades and the people thrived. That's all I can think now. History of this town was founded in 1852 as a work camp. So, you know, you know it's full of joy. When it was founded as a work camp. That's not good. Along the new Nashville and Chattanooga railroad, its name derived. Now, there's two different possibilities of where they got the name Tullahoma. One, it says it derived from the Choctaw phrase TLI homa, which means red Rock. Now, there's an alternate explanation here saying that the name is that Peter Detchard, who donated the land for the railroad right of way and was therefore given the right to name two stations along the line, named one Decherd after himself and the other as Tulkahoma. With a K. And it was later changed to Tullahoma. I guess that was the name of Decherd's favorite horse, which had been named for a Choctaw chief captured by Decherd's grandfather. So either way it goes.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Oh, my God.

[James Pietragallo]

Either way it goes back to. It's a Choctaw name. That's all we know.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Everything's horrifying.

[James Pietragallo]

Everything is horrible. This is all terrible. It's a worst case.

[Jimmy Wissman]

His grandfather captured. Yeah.

[James Pietragallo]

Captured an Indian jeep and named his horse after him. This is all weird. It's all weird. There was also a town called Tullahoma in Mississippi, which later changed its name to Grenada. So I don't know. We don't know.

[Jimmy Wissman]

More horror.

[James Pietragallo]

More horror. Want to hear even more horror? George Dickel Whiskey is made just north of here. This is Dickel country, everybody.

[Jimmy Wissman]

This is the Dickel hood.

[James Pietragallo]

Dickel hood. Runoff. There's runoff in the water. Watch out. And Jack Daniels is distilled 12 miles away in Lynchburg.

[Jimmy Wissman]

And, you know, we talked about Dickel in an episode, and I was unaware of how fucking popular it is.

[James Pietragallo]

Oh, it's usually popular.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Jack Daniels has such a much better

[James Pietragallo]

branding operation, marketing campaign.

[Jimmy Wissman]

And Dickel's better.

[James Pietragallo]

It is. I don't know.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah, Dickel's a better. It's a better whiskey.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah, they're all pretty shitty, honestly.

[Jimmy Wissman]

I mean, it's whiskey. It's fucking.

[James Pietragallo]

There's some good whiskeys, but those aren't among them.

[Jimmy Wissman]

It'll make you want crooked. That's the idea.

[James Pietragallo]

That's all it is. Little Richard died here in 2020. I don't know why he was here, but he died in Tullahoma. That's an odd thing to think, right?

[Jimmy Wissman]

This place is fascinating already insane.

[James Pietragallo]

Let's talk about some reviews here. We've never been to this place. What do we know about it? Here's five stars. Tullahoma is a small town with big city qualities.

[Jimmy Wissman]

They all say it.

[James Pietragallo]

They all say it. Especially then the one star says the opposite. They have no amenities, especially in restaurant choices. It's a real. Don't they. Don't they just leave it at that? No specifics. They're just like.

[Jimmy Wissman]

It feels like a big city around here, what with the culinary row on the border and all.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah, we just got ourselves an El Pollo Loco, so that's real. We got a Tacotic John's. Yeah. Ooh, a Taco John's. I have always loved the energy that the high school athletics events bring to the city. So that Right there. If high school sports is the source of your energy, that's a problem. Here's five stars. Wouldn't leave this town even if my life depended on it. Two exclamation points.

[Jimmy Wissman]

If I could.

[James Pietragallo]

Oh, man. I've lived here since the day I was born. Everybody says they're so ready to leave home and go to a big city, but I love it right here where I am. Not to country, not to city. It's amazing. It's a little bit rock and roll. Yeah, that's what it sounds like. I can't leave.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Talking himself into staying.

[James Pietragallo]

Here's three stars. We don't have much crime in our area, but every once in a while, it's something going on.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Something.

[James Pietragallo]

It's something going on. We'll talk about the crime because it's a lot in this town. And then finally, one star. And this is a wordy one, but it's pretty worth it. Here we go. The crime here is at its worst. Again, we'll talk about it. So we have one person saying, no crime. This person saying, it's a cesspool. It's just horrifying. You have so many people struggling to survive that they will literally do anything to survive. I have seen people ride lawnmowers dragging trash cans on wheels down the street, stopping to steal porch plants so they can sell them to make money.

[Jimmy Wissman]

What?

[James Pietragallo]

There's about five things to unpack there. First of all, the riding lawnmower.

[Jimmy Wissman]

That's the most conspicuous crime I've ever heard of.

[James Pietragallo]

There is nothing louder than a rolling garbage can. Number one. Nothing louder.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah. Except for a riding lawnmower.

[James Pietragallo]

Things behind you. That's real sneaky to pop up and grab a porch plant, then you're gonna sell it. I got this fern, like, who's buying porch plants off the street? Feels like, what do you do, go door to door?

[Jimmy Wissman]

Friend was like, we could go hijack a helicopter and steal potted plants. Are you out your damn mind? That would be so loud.

[James Pietragallo]

I know what we need.

[Jimmy Wissman]

I got a John Deere.

[James Pietragallo]

Wow. The police are everywhere. And by everywhere, I mean they like to pull up and congregate from their cars. So they just like to hang out. They're useless when it comes to actually needing their services. They always push you off saying there's nothing they can do. It's a civil matter. When neighbors are fighting, they're like, lest one of y' all kills each other. Ain't my problem. Y' all can work that out. That's a civil matter. Okay. A Neighbor putting their gun to my head is not really a civil matter in my eyes. See, yeah, this is personal. What this is, you know, something happened. They didn't just observe the town. This person has a personal beef. It's obvious here the judicial system is so messed up. Instead of getting offenders help, they just keep putting them in jail, giving them outrageous fines. And so the offenders have nothing to do rather than turn back to the drug game or stealing. Obviously the porch plant business is an up and comer. The drug game, the drug game or stealing. To be able to pay the crazy fines in such small times. This is a horrible place dubbed as meth capital. That's all capital letters, by the way.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Who dubbed it that?

[James Pietragallo]

I think the guy who put a gun to his head was like, say it's the meth capital. It's like, it's the meth capital. It's the meth capital. People in this town, population 20,599. So not a huge, not a small. In the middle here, 51.3% women, which is well above the average for a town of 20,000 people. A lot of women here, 40.1 is the median age. So that's a little bit older than the national average. Not much. It's 53% married. It's kind of a lot of family action. But then there's a lot of people single with children also. So it's interesting. Race in this town, 87.1% white, 3.6% black, 1.3% Asian and 4.5% Hispanic. Religion in this town, as you might imagine in rural Tennessee, 52.6. It's a little bit higher than the national average. But the number one religion with a bullet is Baptist at 23.5%. As we know, Baptists are the Catholics of the South. Obviously we have that unemployment here a little bit under the national average, but the median household income, also under the national average. Median household income here, rest of the country, it's $69,000 and change. Here it is $52,411. So not too great. That's a little bit tough. But maybe it's cheap to live here. Let's find out. Cost of living here, 100 would be average par. Here it's 82. All right, which is pretty cheap.

[Jimmy Wissman]

About the same.

[James Pietragallo]

But median home cost here, $244,300, which is.

[Jimmy Wissman]

That's pretty steep.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah, cheaper than the national average, but steep for if you're. Only if you're making 50 grand. So if we've convinced you, damn it. You have got way too many plants on your porch and you need them to be stolen. You have a garbage can on wheels,

[Jimmy Wissman]

a surplus of poinsettias.

[James Pietragallo]

You got way too many daffodils. We have for the Tullahoma, Tennessee real estate report. Okay, house number one here is a two bedroom, two bath, 1280 foot trailer.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Oh, it's a trailer.

[James Pietragallo]

It's a trailer. It's on a one acre lot. So you get, you know, it's not stuffed into a trailer park. You got some room, but the lot's weird. It's like long and thin. Your acre goes this way.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Like a trailer.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah, it's a trailer shaped lot. Exactly. It says the existing mobile home is older and will require significant renovation or removal. In other words, don't bother.

[Jimmy Wissman]

It's not livable.

[James Pietragallo]

It's not livable here. Like I said, it was quote, built in 1990. It was assembled in 1990. We'll say somewhere else. Somewhere else down the road and planted. Then drug behind a. A John Deere mower with porch plants falling off. This house is 115,000 bucks. And I mean for an acre of

[Jimmy Wissman]

land, that's not bad.

[James Pietragallo]

It's not bad. It looks like it's up there.

[Jimmy Wissman]

It's bad. That's awful.

[James Pietragallo]

It doesn't look like it's in the best area. It looks like a lot of dirt. Dirt lots and trailers around you. It doesn't look great. This just had a $10,000 price cut, by the way.

[Jimmy Wissman]

There's going to be more coming off.

[James Pietragallo]

It's coming.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Just sit tight.

[James Pietragallo]

Here's a three bedroom, two bathroom, 1750 square foot house. And it just looks like a nice little family house. 0.35 acre lot. So not big. Looks like there's nice houses next door to you. Not terrible. Built in 1947. So it's an older house. Inside is pretty nice. It's a decent house. $230,000 for that bad boy.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Okay, that's not bad.

[James Pietragallo]

That's decent for 1750 and you can have a nice little family house. And then you've done real well. You have stolen every plant that is not nailed down from.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Your wife is the queen of this

[James Pietragallo]

city from here to the Carolina border. I'll tell you when you have all that. You get a four bedroom, seven bath tea bowl for each and every b hole with three left over.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Holy.

[James Pietragallo]

12,866 square foot house.

[Jimmy Wissman]

What, what do you do with that?

[James Pietragallo]

13,000 square foot. It's enormous. It's like it's got Wings. It's crate on 28.16 acres. It's.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Tell me this is sub 800 and I'm moving there. James.

[James Pietragallo]

Oh, you are way off. It's described as a French inspired estate designed by renowned architect Ron Ferris. If you know the architect's name. That adds a million dollars to the price. That's it offers a million dollars a rare opportunity to acquire a 28 acre fully gated private estate offering architectural presence and total seclusion. Crafted for those who value autonomy, presence and long term. Ridiculous.

[Jimmy Wissman]

What in the fuck?

[James Pietragallo]

$4,100,000. No way.

[Jimmy Wissman]

I'm impressed that it's only four, to be honest.

[James Pietragallo]

It's insane. But you're in the middle of nowhere.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah. What's your nearest airport? Nashville.

[James Pietragallo]

Probably an hour 20. That's not too bad. Things to do here. Okay, Here is the 41Amusic festival which was canceled in 2025 due to weather. So they didn't even. They were just like it's all messed up. No, it's going to be raining for a while. Maybe. I'm not sure. So we have their last one that they actually did before that. And let's see here we have acts such as saved by the 90s which I think we've brought up before.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Have we?

[James Pietragallo]

I think they were in one of these festivals.

[Jimmy Wissman]

It's a Saved by the Bell reference, right?

[James Pietragallo]

I would think so, yeah. The Velcro Pygmies. Oh yeah.

[Jimmy Wissman]

That's not bad. It's a good name.

[James Pietragallo]

I guess so. Cody Canada and the Departed. Hi there. Cody Canada. Nice to meet you.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Where are you from, Cody? Oh, Arkansas.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah, Arkansas. Cody Canada. Just denim shirt, denim jacket, denim pants, denim hat. Just Cody Canada. Nice to meet you.

[Jimmy Wissman]

From Arkansas.

[James Pietragallo]

From Arkansas, that's right. From Little Rock. Well outside of Little Rock, but you know, we say Little Rock because nobody really know where I'm from. Bad Monkey. Gotta have Bad Monkey. JP Clarity who sounds like a country singer. Stagger Moon Band. Chase Clanton and the Vintage Vibes. Wait, Chase Clanton and Vintage Vibes. Now I don't know if this is another band after it or if this is part of their name. It's either Chase Clanton and the Vintage Vibes and then there's another band called Jack Wagon or it's Chase Clanton and the Vintage Vibes. Jack Wagon, which sounds much cooler.

[Jimmy Wissman]

I think I've heard of Jack Wagons. It sounds very like punk. Not something, not necessarily punk but like rockabilly. I think that's what they are.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah, maybe. Yeah. There's also Motley, Inc. Which I assume is a Motley Crew cover band. The Atomic Punks, Southern Moss, and then the Boogie Nights. But Knights of the Roundtable. Yeah.

[Jimmy Wissman]

How do you have a town of near 30,000 and this is the best you can come up with?

[James Pietragallo]

Well, the headliner. You didn't let me get to that yet. This is big. The Spasmatics will be headlining.

[Jimmy Wissman]

The what?

[James Pietragallo]

It's four guys dressed like Revenge of the Nerds. Nerds. With pocket protectors and thick glasses. And one's wearing a fanny pack. They're short.

[Jimmy Wissman]

I'll watch that.

[James Pietragallo]

I don't know what they're doing. I don't know if it's like Devo or what.

[Jimmy Wissman]

If they do the song from the second one in Fort Lauderdale, I'll watch they rap.

[James Pietragallo]

That would be great. Yeah. Yeah. You gotta get them all to rap at the end so they could beat the Deltas. That's how it works.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Two of them are dead now.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Isn't that crazy?

[James Pietragallo]

And one wishes he was dead because he's in jail for fucking child molestation. Or a legend at this point. Yeah, he wishes. He's like, if only. If only I could follow Skolnik in death.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Somebody in the prison's gonna get him.

[James Pietragallo]

Oh, man. Yeah.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Nerd.

[James Pietragallo]

It's gonna be. If he hears that coming while he's in prison. If it's true. Allegedly. Crime rate in this town, property crime is about one quarter high. That would be plant stealing. That would fall under property crime.

[Jimmy Wissman]

That'll do it.

[James Pietragallo]

And then violent crime, murder, rape, robbery, and, of course, assault. The Mount Rushmore of crime, also high.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Really? Yeah.

[James Pietragallo]

I don't know what's going on in this town, but bad things. That said, let's talk about some murder.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Here we go.

[James Pietragallo]

Let's do this. Okay, let's start out. We're gonna start out hot here. And I mean that literally and figuratively. July 12, 2012. We're gonna start. So not back in time. Too far.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah.

[James Pietragallo]

You still have a. Same phone? Same phone. Different, you know, operating system maybe, but same phone, social media, apps and scrolling and, you know, we're all. Everyone's got our heads down and we're all the same shit. So.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Post 4th of July glow.

[James Pietragallo]

Pre July 2nd.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Oh, I said July 12th. July 2nd, 2012.

[James Pietragallo]

This is about somewhere in the neighborhood of 115 to 118. Somewhere in that very small neighborhood story. Minute 1am so nighttime here now. There's a group of teenagers who say they were driving on a Walt or a Walt. A W. A l T A walt. A Walt road in rural Franklin county near the awalt bridge, which is along the shore of Tim. For Tim's Ford lake. Not Tim Ford's lake. Tim's Ford lake. And they see something. It looks like there's a brush fire going on. Oh, they see flames coming in. And that's when you're in a rural area. It is dark. It's dark.

[Jimmy Wissman]

But also in the rural areas, too, people burn shit that time of night, like trash and stuff. There's a lot of fires. But you can see those fires for miles.

[James Pietragallo]

There is no houses around here, though. That's the thing. There is no. This is a rural. Rural area. There's no houses. There's no, like. Okay, that's somebody burning something on their property. Even though it's the. Probably Tim's Ford. It's Tim over there burning his Ford.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Burning another guy. Goddamn Ford down here.

[James Pietragallo]

God damn it, Tim. Jesus Christ. So they see this, and it's not a campfire, something. It's bigger. They see it, like, tickle on the trees type of deal. When you see that, that's a big fire. So they said they pulled over to see what it was. Because when you're a teenager, if you see fire, fire's, you know, holy shit, what's going on over there? You just want to get out and drink Boone's farm next to it. No matter what's on fire, you know, oh, my God. Get the mickeys out everywhere.

[Jimmy Wissman]

We got smoke around that.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah, we gotta do this. So they pull over. This is what they claim here. They pull over, they get out of the car thinking it's a brush fire that could spread. And I don't know how they were planning on putting it out.

[Jimmy Wissman]

How big's Tim's Ford lake?

[James Pietragallo]

It's a good sized lake, but I don't know if they're gonna go over there and pull it with their hands. Yeah. And go over and put it in their shirt. Yeah. Make a papoose out of. I don't know what's going on here. So. Yeah, I don't know what they thought, but they said they pulled over and they approach and they see it's a barrel that's burning like a burn barrel. Which in the middle of nowhere is a strange thing to find.

[Jimmy Wissman]

It's weird. Yeah.

[James Pietragallo]

And there's a human being on fire in there.

[Jimmy Wissman]

In the barrel.

[James Pietragallo]

In the barrel.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah.

[James Pietragallo]

So that's. They freak out. They call 911. They all have phones. It's 2012. They describe there's a Fire by the bridge. And we think there's a person in there. And you know, hopefully it's not, but we think it is and get on down here. Hey everybody. Just gonna take a quick break from the show and tell you how to pick up a better habit with FUM.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Try FUM.com T R Y F U M.com youm know it.

[James Pietragallo]

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[Jimmy Wissman]

It's nice to use drawing on the couch, watching TV or in the car.

[James Pietragallo]

So great. Yeah. And again, it doesn't bother anybody. It's not doing anything. It's just, it tastes delicious and it's air and it helps you break your habits. So it really does work. Over a few days, you really start to notice that you start picking up the fume instead of. So it's excellent. They have all sorts of new flavors too that are great. Like I like. The peach is my favorite. But they have crisp mint, which is the strongest flavor. It's the best for heavy users. And they also have raspberry, which is tangy and on the sweeter end of the flavor spectrum here. And when you grab a journey pack, you'll also get a free gift just for using our code. Small town murder. Fume has already helped over 700,000 people take steps toward better habits. And now it's Your turn. Use our code small town murder to get a free gift with your journey Pack head to try fume.com that's t r y f u m dot com and use the code small town murder to claim your free gift today.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Now back to the show.

[James Pietragallo]

Hey, everybody. Just going to take a quick break from the show and tell you a better way to learn a new language with Rosetta Stone.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Rosetta Stone.com Absolutely.

[James Pietragallo]

And I'll tell you something. Spring is the perfect time to start. We are here. It is. And this is the time. Something about spring. It's a reset. Longer days, you got some more energy. The sun's out a little bit more. And maybe this will give you the motivation to try something new. Learning a new language is the perfect way to channel that momentum into a skill that can open up the world for you. It really can. And Rosetta Stone has been a trusted leader in language learning for over 30 years. Their immersive, intuitive method helps you naturally absorb your new language. No memorizing random vocabulary lists, that's impossible when you're trying to do that. No adult can do that. That's crazy. It doesn't work at all. They do this way better.

[Jimmy Wissman]

It doesn't make it feasible to learn the language when you're just memorizing words exactly.

[James Pietragallo]

There's no relying on translations with Rosetta Stone. Instead, you learn by connecting words, visuals, and meaning in context. The way language is meant to be learned, the way you learn it when you're a child.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Right.

[James Pietragallo]

You know, that's exactly how it really works. Well, and I have not done this yet, and I am dying to start. I am going, I need to know to do this so bad. I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna learn real Italian, not whatever, you know, slang from a gruzzy village from the 1920s my grandmother spoke or whatever. I'm going to learn, like proper.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Not Sopranos Italian. Real.

[James Pietragallo]

No, no, I'm talking not. Not just of some village in Italy. Like real. Like proper Italian. I'm gonna learn. I'm gonna get it down. And Rosetta Stone is the per. The. The people that I want to do this with. Absolutely. They have over 30 years of experience, millions of users, 25 languages to choose from, which is awesome. Including Spanish, French, German, Japanese, and more. It's really. Rosetta Stone is the go to tool for real language growth. You learn faster, you retain longer. Rosetta Stone immerses you in this language naturally, which makes it so much better. You sound more natural. They have a true accent Feature that gives real time feedback on pronunciation, like a personal coach. It's really awesome. So if you're ready to start learning a new language this spring, visit rosettastone.com smalltown murder today to explore Rosetta stone and choose the language that's right for you. Go to rosettastone.com smalltown murder now and begin your language learning journey.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Now back to the show now.

[James Pietragallo]

Right away. These kids are suspicious as shit to these cops. Number one. They're like. It just seems so. You're driving in the car, you're the

[Jimmy Wissman]

only ones out here. And there's a body on fire. And you just stumbled on it really.

[James Pietragallo]

Hello. That's what I mean. So they're right away, they're like, those kids. Stay right there. Number one, don't let them go anywhere, first of all. And then at about 1:30am the first responders arrive and it's Franklin county deputies and firefighters and they put the flames out and there's grass charred everywhere all around them. And it's on the shoulder of Awold Road on the edge of Tim's Ford Lake. And there's a young woman in there that's who is on fire. It's strange though, because the fire has only really taken on the lower half of her body, they said. And she's also naked from the waist down. She's partially burned. Her upper half is in pretty good shape in terms of burning. It's not really been burned very much.

[Jimmy Wissman]

We have learned that in this show over.

[James Pietragallo]

People don't burn well.

[Jimmy Wissman]

No, they don't burn well at all.

[James Pietragallo]

Very bad. Conductors of fire. Not good. Not good. Kindling.

[Jimmy Wissman]

You got to get it so hot.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah. Cause your body is wet. I mean, it's all moisture and things. It doesn't burn well. It just doesn't. It's not made for that. Unless you got less than a 2000 degree fire or whatever. That's a different story. Yeah.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Like in a live tree, you really gotta get it hot.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah. It's really hard to set a live tree on fire. It doesn't want to burn. It just doesn't want to. It's full of water.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah.

[James Pietragallo]

So the fire is concentrated in the pelvic region. It looks like. Not even the legs. It looks like it's concentrated in the pelvic region, which is not great. There's no identification. There's no purse. There's no phone, there's no keys. Her fingers have been damaged badly enough by fire that there's no fingerprints on here either. So they are perplexed and freaked out. And also, again, keep those kids there and don't let them go anywhere because it looks like a young woman that's in the ballpark of their age also. So they're like that we don't like at all. Now, the detective, George Dyer of the Franklin County Sheriff's Office, he's the first detective to arrive, and he said it was like something you'd see off a movie. This is not real. This can't be happening. This is crazy. That's a detective saying that. Who. They're not ones to go. They pride themselves on never being shocked by shit. You know what I mean? So when they go, holy shit, this is wild. What the fuck? This is crazy. It's crazy.

[Jimmy Wissman]

When they see movies, they go, that's not what this job is like at all.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah, that's. Oh, you always show up and some girl's crotch is on fire. Yeah, right. Yeah, that's every time. But this one. Another Detective Todd Hindman, he notices blunt force trauma to the head. Now it's dark. They're working with flashlights, so it's gotta be pretty obvious to see at this point. He said you could actually feel the broken bones in the skull. Oh, Jesus, that is horrible. That is nauseating.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Imagine feeling examining something and fingers just go inside where things don't.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah, Imagine that. It was just moving around.

[Jimmy Wissman]

There's give.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah, yeah. Like. Like an egg wrapped in a sock that you broke. You're like, oh, no, that's not good. Yeah, that's bad.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Like an Easter egg that's broken.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah, that's. That's exactly what it is. So. Man. So the first cop that got there, by the way, poured his bottle of water on the body to try to put it out, which, I mean, it helped. It was something. The medical examiner said she had never been in that area for a call. This was like, where the fuck is this? They were like, shit, Put that in the old gps because I don't know where the hell I'm going. It's out there. So it's one of.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Is that our jurisdiction?

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah. Is that even us? Can we pawn that off on anybody? Is that possible? They do notice, though. The only thing they notice is that she's wearing a shirt still. It's pretty burnt up. It'll catch and burn up. But there's some remnants of the shirt that they can see. And it's a very decal. Yeah. Very specific something which is good. It turns out it is a nursing school uniform top. It's got the logo of A nursing school on it. Yeah. So they don't know if this person goes to the nursing school or if she could have bought it at a thrift store or her sister goes there or anything. But there might be some connection to the nursing school, and that's a good place to start.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Somebody in her family may be an alumni if she's not.

[James Pietragallo]

Absolutely. And while they're trying to figure this all out here, you know, and this is the middle of the night, nobody expected this. It's. It's crazy. So let's leave that scene now.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Let's get out of there and go

[James Pietragallo]

back in time and talk about some people and how we got here. First, let's talk about Erica. Megan Sharpton. Nobody. She's always Megan, never Erica.

[Jimmy Wissman]

So she doesn't like Erica?

[James Pietragallo]

No, she doesn't like it, but she's Megan. That's it. No one calls her Erica. She's born on October 24, 1987.

[Jimmy Wissman]

That's why she goes by Megan.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah, Megan.

[Jimmy Wissman]

That's prime Megan age.

[James Pietragallo]

That's huge. Megan age right there. 87. That is big time. Yeah. My wife's sister's name, Megan, and I think she was born in 87. So there you go.

[Jimmy Wissman]

That's literally as prime Megan age.

[James Pietragallo]

Perfect. Yep.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah.

[James Pietragallo]

Now she is one of. She's from a big family. She's one of at least five kids. I've seen sources say seven, but I think it's five because I saw. I know she has siblings Carolyn, Alex, Will, Cameron and Leah. That would make 6, 3, 4, 5. Yeah, that would be 6. So I don't know. I don't know how that works.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Maybe there's seven. Maybe there's.

[James Pietragallo]

That would be her. Would be seven. So I guess it is seven, but I've seen seven.

[Jimmy Wissman]

No, she's six. I counted five.

[James Pietragallo]

She's six. So, yeah, I guess she has five. It's so weird, though. I've seen it in. I've seen five and then I count six, and then I've also seen seven, so I'm not sure, not positive. She's from Coffee county, born and raised. Now, they moved around a bit as a kid with the family here and there, but ended up back by the time junior high came, she ended up back in Tullahoma in this area. Not in the town proper, but in this area and all of that kind of thing. She's got a brother who plays for the Chattanooga Mocks. M O C S Mocs. I don't know if that's a. Like a semi pro team. In the area. Moccasins, I guess. Yeah. M O C S. She is really upbeat and really has a lot of energy and a lot of spunk to her and loves her family a lot. Really close to all of her siblings. She has star tattoos on her body that are one for each sibling.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Are they all in the same place

[James Pietragallo]

or just different areas? Random locations, Small blue ones, one behind each ear. She's got a larger one on her ankle and that's for her mom, Kelly, by the way. And we'll talk about Kelly Sharpton too. She's an interesting lady here. So she loves her family. Those are the tattoos she has just about her family. So you know that's not like a Disney character.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Fame.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah, none of that shit. And everybody said she had a habit of adopting strays in many different ways. People, huh?

[Jimmy Wissman]

She got.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah, well, not only people. She actually took in a litter of abandoned bunnies.

[Jimmy Wissman]

A litter of bunnies?

[James Pietragallo]

A litter of bunnies. And she bottle fed them.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Are these wild that the family adopt? What?

[James Pietragallo]

There was a family. There was rabbits out in the wherever and the mountain just left this abandoned the bunnies. So she took them in and bottle fed them to adulthood. Okay, that is above and beyond special person. Yeah, that's wild, man. Imagine taking wild bunnies and feeding them.

[Jimmy Wissman]

No, because I don't know how long it takes those to mature.

[James Pietragallo]

I have no idea.

[Jimmy Wissman]

And if those fuck in my house

[James Pietragallo]

now, I've got more to bottle feed more bunnies now. Bottle feeding all these bunnies.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah, it's never gonna stop.

[James Pietragallo]

You gotta kick the pregnant bunnies out. That's what it is. Listen, sweetheart, if you're not gonna be responsible, you can't stay here, okay? You whoever knocked you up, both of you, you're outta here.

[Jimmy Wissman]

You both have to go planned bunnyhood around here.

[James Pietragallo]

There's gotta be a planned bunnyhood somewhere that we can take them to. I hope get you on the pill, get you set up for next time. So yeah. Also any kind of homeless people she would find, she would try to help out too. She would hand out blankets and food even after her family begged her to stop doing this. They said you can't. She's a pretty like young girl.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Right?

[James Pietragallo]

You know what I mean? You can't just go walk. Just bring somebody with you at least don't just go walk around with a bunch of in a rough area. Because homeless people tend to. Not that even all them are particularly dangerous, but they tend to congregate in not the best areas. There's no homeless section Of Brentwood, you know what I mean? It just doesn't exist.

[Jimmy Wissman]

And that dangerous neighborhood. They're surviving very well, you know what I mean?

[James Pietragallo]

Well, sort of.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Sometimes. No, I mean, they're making it. Every day they wake up and the environment's not killing them because they're as tough as that neighbor.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah, I guess. Yeah, you'd have to be. After a while, you become leather.

[Jimmy Wissman]

You got to be. You don't want to put a rough and tumble up in Brentwood is going to cause some damage.

[James Pietragallo]

Well, he's going to stand out is what it is. Whereas. Yeah, so here, what I'm saying is

[Jimmy Wissman]

a lot of porch plants are going to disappear.

[James Pietragallo]

There's a lot of porch. A lot of porch is going to be bereft of plants pretty soon. So, yeah, this is a nice thing, though. This is exactly how you want your child to think that they would help people that are in need. You want your kids to be like that, but at the same time, you also want them to be safe. So this is the parents dilemma. You know, like her family leave your. Yeah, her family's begging her to stop. And her friend Brittany, who's like her best friend from the time she's a kid, says she wanted to believe everybody had good in them all the time. That's what Meghan was all about.

[Jimmy Wissman]

You gotta leave your mark on this world, but you gotta do it in a safe fashion.

[James Pietragallo]

Absolutely. Well, she put it this way, Brittany. She said, Megan definitely wasn't a pushover. I think she was naive to danger, but at the same time, she wasn't stupid. I think that she trusted just a little too much because she wanted to believe everyone had good in them.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Sure.

[James Pietragallo]

So, I mean, that's. Again, you've made a nice person who's trusting, which means that you were trusting, you were trustworthy as a parent. So it made them comfortable enough to trust people. So as a parent, that makes you feel good, but at the same time, you're like, man, should I have punched her a couple times when she was little just to keep her away from danger? Not that, you know, that's because I feel that with my kids the same way. Like, you know, I made them very nice, but, you know, they didn't have to. They weren't feral like, did I raise Marx? Yeah, they weren't feral like me. They didn't have to learn shit that I had to learn, you know, which

[Jimmy Wissman]

is, again, I think people are definitely kind inherently, but sometimes I think that environment forces them to be otherwise. And. And being in that environment long enough will lead. Even when you get to a nicer situation, you'll take advantage because you never know how long this is gonna last kind of thing.

[James Pietragallo]

Exactly. No, it goes either way. There's a balance there of things like that.

[Jimmy Wissman]

I think everybody has good in them, but it's based on whether or not they want to use it because of what their situation is and where they're at.

[James Pietragallo]

And some people have had such shitty lives that they haven't really had a chance to. They don't think there's a lot of good in people or. And they're trying to exploit that. But.

[Jimmy Wissman]

But then there's also people that say that Ted Bundy was inherently evil. There was never going to be a good thing with that guy. But he didn't hurt his wife, so.

[James Pietragallo]

No. Or people he knew well. And that's the thing. It's how you raise kids is. So we've. I mean, if we. If we figured that out, we'd have everything figured out in the world. If we knew the perfect balance. I remember there was an old Mr. Show sketch where they would have. It was like a. A program to have your kid turn out how you wanted them to. It was like, I want her to become a doctor and all this. So I'm withholding things from her that she would want just to keep her wanting a little bit more. And he'd take a toy away and go, no, no, not that one. No, no. And the kid would be like, what the fuck? Things like that.

[Jimmy Wissman]

I want him to be a surgeon.

[James Pietragallo]

You're going to be a Southern playwright. And he's like. The mother's like, I'm going to over mother him for the first couple of years and then ignore him. The father was like, you know what I mean? Just give him the perfect amount of this and that, and it'll turn him into just the kind of fucked up you're looking for.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Odenkirk and Cross are amazing. God damn it.

[James Pietragallo]

They're goddamn hilarious. National treasures, both of them. They're great in different ways. They're the best. But Megan, she's a nice person, and she really is. Her mother Kelly, said she was brutally honest and brutally trusting. So. Both things. And she's funny from what I understand, too. She's got a good, infectious laugh. And everybody says she's really funny. Which I'm like, well, that's pretty cool. At 12 years old, she was sitting on the couch watching True Crime shit with her friend Brittany.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Not bad.

[James Pietragallo]

Which is cool as fuck. A kid that's 12 watching True Crime right away after my own heart. I like them a lot. And she said something to her friend Brittany. First of all, she says none of this shit's ever going to happen to me. I'm too smart for this shit to be kidnapped and murdered or whatever the hell she said if anything ever happens to me. Brittany, look for clues. This is at 12. Yeah. She said look for signs. Don't stop looking because I will leave clues. I'll leave scraps of my clothing to lead you to Megan. She said that at 12 years old, she's already planning for her eventual. Every 12 year old does that. They're like, eventually I'll be abducted and murdered so I better plan for how my family and friends might solve it.

[Jimmy Wissman]

I will be tearing my shirt apart and leaving breadcrumb shirt trails.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah, I'm going to leave shirt scraps and porch plants back for you and you can find me that way. Wow. Which is very interesting though that she's seeing the shit and you know, taking it in really as a 12 year old, what all that shit means. Now as an adult here in the 2012ish area, she is working her balls off, basically. She's working hard. She works double shifts at a local steakhouse.

[Jimmy Wissman]

She's 25.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah, she's going on 25 here. She works double shifts at the steakhouse which is the Yamato Japanese Steakhouse in Tullahoma, which maybe the restaurant scene isn't that bad here because they have a Japanese steakhouse in a small town. That's pretty cool. Yeah, it looks pretty good.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Wagyu, right?

[James Pietragallo]

I would assume it does. Japanese style steakhouse located. Try the high quality. Try for the high quality sushi. Well, they have sushi there too.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Oh, it's a. I'll bet it's a teppanyaki house.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah. People say this steakhouse serves delicious hibachi steak, shrimp and sushi as well as squid steak and salad. They have 4.5 stars out of 880 Google reviews too.

[Jimmy Wissman]

That's incredible.

[James Pietragallo]

That's a pretty well reviewed place. Squid steaks. Yeah, I guess you can grill them up.

[Jimmy Wissman]

What's that?

[James Pietragallo]

I don't know. They make cauliflower steaks. So you can make a steak at anything? Apparently.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah.

[James Pietragallo]

So yeah, she's working doubles. People said she was the server who actually remembered all the regular customers orders. They'd walk in, she'd come over with their drinks and just put them down in front of her. It's that kind of thing. Lady wants coffee with two Sugars, she said. And Megan Nuda, she knows that. She knows that. That's with the regular. That's a good server. That's really good.

[Jimmy Wissman]

I mean the coffee part I would probably remember. That's the lady with the coffee. But to know how much of what shit she's putting in it is crazy.

[James Pietragallo]

That's a good server, man. That's how you make it. She also has another job as well, where she works shifts at a nursing home. Just help smaller shifts at a nursing home doing whatever needs to be done at the nursing home too, with older people at the same time, she is a nursing student as well. So the nursing home is kind of just to do something that has to do what she's up to.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Internship, the hours, whatever.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah, she's enrolled at Montlow State Community College in their nursing program. He or she is supposed to In October of 2012, his graduation for the nurses. Okay, so she's upcoming on that. She is a very organized person. As somebody when they're 12, who would say, if I'm murdered, I'm going to leave scraps for you to find. That's an organized person. And their brain works in an organized manner, I think at that point. And they said that she would organize her nursing textbooks by color, which is interesting. Her textbooks. Her textbooks by color. Saying that it helped her study. And her anatomy textbook had a photo of her mom tucked in the front cover so she could have it with her for when she had exams. She could take a look at her mom's picture before the exam. She said that would make her calm. Her roommate said that she remembered Megan eating peanut butter straight from the jar with a spoon while she color coded her textbooks. Yeah, they said that her roommates would complain about finding spoons all over the house. Like, where are all the goddamn spoons? There'd be none left in the drawer. And there'd be like peanut butter remnants on them.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Peanut butter tongue all over.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah, she's leaving a trail of peanut butter spoons. She can be found later. She also has a boyfriend, a long term boyfriend, a steady guy named Chris. Here she's been with Chris for about three years. And it's on again, off again. Seems to happen. People described it as a fire and water relationship. So hot and cold, I think is what that is supposed to mean here. They said passionate and combustible, but also not at times. And I don't know anything about her dad, by the way. I know nothing about her father really. Where he is, what his name is, nothing.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Doesn't matter. Because Mom's the apple of her eye, right?

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah. Yeah. No, mom is the one that takes care of them and all that kind of thing. Kelly is there, but I mean, I don't know anything about any kind of dad situation. I'm just interesting, you know, trying to extrapolate what her relationships might be based on not having a father. That doesn't help. So by the summer of 2012, she's already decided that. Her friends said that she has decided there isn't really going to be a future in this relationship with Chris.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Chris is done for already.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah. She's like, I'm never going to marry this guy. Just not the guy for her in the long term. And that's by your mid-20s. You start to think of shit like that. You start to go, all right, well, this is a waste of my time. Yeah, when you're 21, there is no waste of any time. Time is. It's just. Time is forever. There's no end of anything. So, 25, you start to go, all right, I'm about to graduate. I'm gonna have a career. Do I wanna be with this guy?

[Jimmy Wissman]

I'm almost 30.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah, you do start thinking that shit. Some people start thinking I'm almost 40 when they're 25. That's what they think.

[Jimmy Wissman]

I'm closer to 40 than I am born.

[James Pietragallo]

That's the way it is. Absolutely. I'm closer to 40 than kindergarten. That's not good.

[Jimmy Wissman]

But.

[James Pietragallo]

So she's doing that. She just hadn't told him about it yet. She was still kind of figuring it all out and everything. So she. This is around the time when she had. She was helping homeless people with blankets and food. This is around the bunny nursing time. She made a butterfly mobile, like, for over a crib out of construction paper. But she wanted her baby nieces and nephews to have something for Christmas. She didn't have any money because she's working two jobs and paying for school and doing all this stuff. So she just made them a nice mobile out of construction paper because she's pretty artsy, which is nice. Kids don't give a shit. What do they care?

[Jimmy Wissman]

No. I imagine you could probably go to, like, a secondhand store and get one of the motors and just kind of build whatever the fuck you want.

[James Pietragallo]

I think that's what she did. If I had to guess, I think that's what she did. She just made her own, like, things on it. Also to give it some personal touch, because she actually gave a shit about these kids. So, yeah, she's 24. She's getting her shit together. She's obviously really a compassionate person who gives a shit about people and Cares. Summer of 2012 coming up. It's the beginning of July. Real hot. This is southern middle Tennessee. Sticky hot, steamy, sticky hot, man. That's when you just hear the cicadas going at all times.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Move your arm, and it feels like there's honey in there.

[James Pietragallo]

Oh, yeah. Go sit on a leather car seat. Oh, boy.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Oh, man.

[James Pietragallo]

Peel yourself up off of that when you get to your location here. So it's really hot. And she's working. She's got the steakhouse in Tullahoma. She's working at the nursing home. October 26th is nursing school graduation. She's got a relationship that she's thinking about ending, and she's got a lot going on.

[Jimmy Wissman]

She's busy.

[James Pietragallo]

She's spinning some plates here. She's tired. But she's excited that once she graduates, she can maybe hopefully not have two jobs and get a job in the field that she's interested in and start to calm her life down a little bit here. July 1, 2012, she wakes up Megan. And she had worked a late shift the night before. She worked until 2am the night before.

[Jimmy Wissman]

God damn.

[James Pietragallo]

I don't know if that's at the nursing home or at the steakhouse, but I can't imagine the steakhouse is open till 2am I'll bet it is.

[Jimmy Wissman]

The bar's open. Yeah, yeah.

[James Pietragallo]

In Tullahoma. The Japanese steakhouse bar.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Japanese steakhouse. That shit's staying open as long as it can.

[James Pietragallo]

You know what? We're gonna go up and look at the hours right now,

[Jimmy Wissman]

see if that fucker doesn't close at all.

[James Pietragallo]

Damn it. I don't have the hours on my screenshot.

[Jimmy Wissman]

No, it doesn't show it even on.

[James Pietragallo]

No, it doesn't say open late or anything. I'm not sure. But either way, she may be.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah, she may be at the nursing home.

[James Pietragallo]

We don't know. Either that or she's dealing with drunks with teppanyaki breath. We're not sure. But Here we go. 2:00am so in the morning, she slept in that day. So it's, you know, she slept till noon or one or whatever. She showers, gets her shit together. And her sister's visiting from out of town, so they make plans. She's supposed to go over her mom Kelly's house for dinner that night with the sister who's in from out of town, have a nice dinner with the family that night. Now a Phone rings. Okay, now this. It's her phone, but she doesn't have it. Oh, so this is in another location. Now, her boyfriend Chris. So it's Chris that has the phone. So he's got the phone and it's. I guess one of the Megan's, an older phone that she had that's still active for some reason. Oh, I don't understand that. She's got. She has her phone.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah.

[James Pietragallo]

So I'm not sure exactly.

[Jimmy Wissman]

It's a preloaded phone that just hasn't run out yet.

[James Pietragallo]

I don't know. Because she's had it for a while. Because she's got like her whole phone book in there and all that kind of thing. So I don't know what the story is or she's got multiple lines on the same deal. I don't know. But Chris has this phone and it rings. So Chris answers it. Which. What. Why would you. He says he answered the phone. Which. Why would you answer the phone that's not your phone?

[Jimmy Wissman]

Because it's your girlfriend's phone.

[James Pietragallo]

Who's this? Yeah, I guess.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Are you.

[James Pietragallo]

I guess if you're being. I see. I don't. I don't have that.

[Jimmy Wissman]

I know what these.

[James Pietragallo]

I don't have that weird jealousy. So I'm like. I'd just be like, that's not my phone. I'd put it. Yeah, that's her business. I don't know.

[Jimmy Wissman]

They're not calling for me.

[James Pietragallo]

Jesus Christ. Wow. Who would be.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Who would be calling for me on her phone? Nobody. So therefore I'm never answering it.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah, I guess not. That's what I would think.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah.

[James Pietragallo]

For me, probably. I don't know. So it's a man on the phone. Yeah, Chris is. I'm sure, like. Yeah. Now Chris says that it's a man. And Chris says that the man introduced himself and says that he needs someone to care for an elderly woman. That's what he tells. That's what Chris says. Chris says that the man said he knows Megan through a woman named Naomi who she went to nursing school with. That's how I know who she is. That's why I have her phone number and I'm calling her for a job.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Okay.

[James Pietragallo]

Okay.

[Jimmy Wissman]

She doesn't run this nursing home.

[James Pietragallo]

No, not at all. So it's interesting. He says the pay is good and he might even be able to do an advanced payment that same evening. If I hire you, I might even just give you a sign on bonus right there.

[Jimmy Wissman]

He's getting a lot of information.

[James Pietragallo]

Seems like a lot of Information. Yeah.

[Jimmy Wissman]

For somebody that's not Megan.

[James Pietragallo]

I end that conversation at Megan isn't here. Yeah, that's it. That's where I end the conversation.

[Jimmy Wissman]

I've got it. Sorry.

[James Pietragallo]

All this you're telling me is irrelevant to me. You need to talk to Megan.

[Jimmy Wissman]

I'm never gonna repeat all this to her. And even if I do, you're gonna do it again, so save your breath.

[James Pietragallo]

So Megan hears about this and is excited. Chris contacts Megan and says, call this guy back. And whatever. Megan's jacked. She's like, this is exactly what I was hoping for. This is a caregiving job. It's something I actually want. It's flexible hours. According to what this guy said, it's in her actual field. And she could actually, if the pay is what this guy says, she can quit waiting tables. She can just do her job, what she wants to do for a living. So it's pretty exciting here for.

[Jimmy Wissman]

And quit working double shifts.

[James Pietragallo]

That's the other thing. Yeah. Working till 2 in the morning. So she calls her mom, Kelly, and Kelly picks up, and Megan says that I can't make it to dinner tonight. I'm sorry, but I have a job interview for this nursing position, and I gotta go do it. She said, I'll come over as soon as I'm done. Eat without me. Don't sweat it. I'll come see you guys. Okay? Kelly said that she was full of excitement. So Kelly, mom says, okay, good luck. See you later. And that's that. Now, quickly, here. Kelly, by the way, is 47 years old at this time. Her mom, she's a graphic designer at the Arnold Engineering Development Complex, which is the Air Force testing facility right there near Tullahoma. Oh, that's what you're getting a lot of there. She has five kids. Her son. Oh, that's what the mocks are. That's the University of Chattanooga. Okay, I missed that before. Her son plays at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga football. And at the time, she has a fiance, Kelly does, named Don Cornelius Jr. Stop it. I swear to God. His name is Don Cornelius. I don't know if it's the actual son of the Soul Train host or not, but I was like, hold on.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Amazing.

[James Pietragallo]

She's engaged to Don Cornelius. What the fuck? So I look deeper into it, and she's engaged to Don Cornelius Jr. Could

[Jimmy Wissman]

it be if he's 47? Possibly.

[James Pietragallo]

I know, but I feel like that would be mentioned in the story. Some member of the press, when they were talking about this story, would have said her mom's engaged to Don Cornelius kid. That's weird, right? Like that would have been something. But I didn't hear anything about that. So just some random guy named Don Cornelius that goes. Yeah, yeah, I know, I know. And these people, I don't know if he's white, but everyone else in the story is white, so Don Cornelius certainly is not white at all.

[Jimmy Wissman]

That's not a white guy.

[James Pietragallo]

That's not a white man.

[Jimmy Wissman]

That's the whole point of Soul Train.

[James Pietragallo]

I'm not sure what's going on here. Yeah, Soul Train, hosted by a white man named Don Cornelius, would have been a terrible show. I don't think it would have lasted.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Donald Cornelius.

[James Pietragallo]

Welcome to Soul Train. I'm Donald Cornelius. We're going to get our groove going tonight.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Shake your groove thing.

[James Pietragallo]

Shake your groove thing right now. Excellent. All right then. So.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Whoa.

[James Pietragallo]

July 1, 2012. Megan writes down an address. Okay. Handwriting is in a small, neat little left tilting way that she writes it. Okay. She folds the note, picks up her keys and gets into her 1995 red Ford Mustang. She's driving.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Hey.

[James Pietragallo]

Hey. Not bad.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Really.

[James Pietragallo]

Rounded. Yeah. Past the Fox style rounded. Yeah, they were okay. I don't mind those.

[Jimmy Wissman]

It was the new redesign with the round headlights.

[James Pietragallo]

It's rounded a little bit. I had a 2001. I liked that better. It was a little more boxy.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Well, the 95 had the. Is it the tail lights that were vertical or were they horizontal?

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah, they were the ones that. Yeah. Because my ex wife had one of those when I met her. Same car.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Vertical or horizontal? Because there was the. I think 97. They went hor. I think that. I think that's the vertical or the horizontal ones. That's the cool one.

[James Pietragallo]

It was the coolest one. Yeah, they're nice. They're cool cars especially.

[Jimmy Wissman]

The redesign was amazing.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah, 95. This is 2012 though, so.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Well, that's a 17 year old car.

[James Pietragallo]

17 year old car. It's almost classic at that point. So the address she wrote down is 850 Shelfer-Road. S H E L F E R. Shelfer Road. Okay. So that's where she's headed. She's trying to find. Okay. She drives off into the night. I'll see you guys later. Or into the evening, I should say. Sure, I'll see you guys later. I'll be here for dinner. And then July 2, 2012 at 1:15am is when the group of teenagers call in a burning body in a barrel. Hey, everybody. Just gonna take a quick break from the show and tell you A much more just a luxurious way to sleep

[Jimmy Wissman]

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[James Pietragallo]

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[Jimmy Wissman]

I love the waffle, the waffle throw going at the end of the Bed just to go over the feet. It's so wonderful.

[James Pietragallo]

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[Jimmy Wissman]

Now back to the show.

[James Pietragallo]

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[Jimmy Wissman]

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[James Pietragallo]

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[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah.

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[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah.

[James Pietragallo]

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[Jimmy Wissman]

Now back to the show.

[James Pietragallo]

And. Yeah, and the responders arrive and that's when they find the nursing shirt on her. Okay. And that's what connects this all back. So. Wow, that is crazy. Now, one of the sheriffs here said that the pelvic fire concentration draws an immediate conclusion. They said it led us to believe there'd been a second sexual assault. Someone had obviously tried to burn the evidence, essentially trying to destroy a specific area. So they said the first responders immediately recognized foul play. The position of the fire, the shape in the ashes, the fact that the body was already showing signs of rigor as well. Right, Meaning that she was already dead before the fire started. Meaning that she was killed somewhere else and brought here, essentially. Unless she was killed here and left everybody. Someone was hanging out here for quite a long time. Now, they said that she had to have been murdered. The scene bears no evidence of any struggle. No car nearby, no weapon. The only thing they have is star tattoos and a nursing school shirt.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Well, the good news is for us, we can put that together quick. And those are good clues for a cop.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah. To eventually find. We have that, we have tattoos, we have all that kind of thing. And they've seen there's no weapons, there's no anything. They do find tire tracks in the gravel near the site, but they're too degraded to make a cast of or anything. They're just kind of there. There was a car there. They know that, but that's about it. Other than getting a wheelbase or something, they can't really get any kind of information off of that. First thing they're going to turn to are these teenagers that found this body and they are like, what the fuck, guys? What happened? They're so completely traumatized by this that they're pretty. Either all the best actors that the four leads in their latest high school play or these kids didn't do shit. And they just have. They just drove by the wrong spot and got out their Boone's farm a little too early, and now they're screwed.

[Jimmy Wissman]

So how horrified would I would be to find a very young woman on fire in a barrel? That would be devastating.

[James Pietragallo]

Never going in the woods again.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Never the woods.

[James Pietragallo]

Never.

[Jimmy Wissman]

I'm never buying anything by the barrel. I'm never going in.

[James Pietragallo]

I'll never have a barrel of rafts.

[Jimmy Wissman]

I'm never buying monkeys.

[James Pietragallo]

I don't really like the shape of a can of soda anymore. I don't like anything.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah, I'm never buying those buckets of nuts at Sprouts or whatever.

[James Pietragallo]

No, never.

[Jimmy Wissman]

I'm leaving as soon as I see them.

[James Pietragallo]

Dude, that's. Yeah. The worst thing I ever found in the woods as a kid was there was an old man jerking off one time that we saw. That was the worst thing I ever saw.

[Jimmy Wissman]

It was pretty bad thing to find.

[James Pietragallo]

It was bad. But we just laughed at him. And then he ran away. He didn't know we came upon him by the way he was out.

[Jimmy Wissman]

He almost came upon you.

[James Pietragallo]

It was close. I was just gonna make that joke. Damn it.

[Jimmy Wissman]

God damn it.

[James Pietragallo]

That's fine. No, no, no. I'm happy someone made it. I don't care. All yours. But yeah, that's what I was gonna say. We came upon him luckily before he came upon us, but yeah, that's the.

[Jimmy Wissman]

We came upon him another 30 seconds.

[James Pietragallo]

Luckily it was right in time. But we found him in the woods one time. We were like, oh, shit. And he was like, oh, God. Started gathering his stuff and that's crazy, but.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah, but you saw his dick.

[James Pietragallo]

Oh, he was jerking off. He was standing up with his pants around his ankles, stroking his cock, which I think we were like 13 or 14. So we were like, ah, look at you, you fucking. And he ran away.

[Jimmy Wissman]

If there's a bunch of you.

[James Pietragallo]

There was like six of us. Yeah, we weren't afraid of him.

[Jimmy Wissman]

That's fine. You feel safe then.

[James Pietragallo]

We were a gang practically at that point. We went there to smoke weed, put it that way.

[Jimmy Wissman]

If you just walked out of your house into your woods and were trying to get away from your parents to go smoke weed and happened upon a man tugging in the woods, what do you do then? Quietly walk away quietly.

[James Pietragallo]

You don't know what to do, right? Yeah. Tell him to put his dick away, maybe.

[Jimmy Wissman]

No, I'm not doing that. I'm not letting.

[James Pietragallo]

These are my woods that I see.

[Jimmy Wissman]

If I'm alone.

[James Pietragallo]

These are my woods, dammit.

[Jimmy Wissman]

He's gonna make me help. I know it.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah, but if you're 14, he's not making you do shit.

[Jimmy Wissman]

If you're alone, you might.

[James Pietragallo]

This guy was in his, like, in his 60s, too. He was an old man. Like. Yeah, you. You could. Nobody was physically afraid of the guy. I mean, maybe we should have been, but we weren't. We saw.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Fuck. Yes, you should have been. His dick was out.

[James Pietragallo]

I don't know. We weren't afraid of. Of an old man with his dick out. We thought he was in a position of vulnerability, not us.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Kind of seems that way, you know,

[James Pietragallo]

that's the way we looked at it. Maybe it was the wrong way. I'm not saying I'm right at all.

[Jimmy Wissman]

I'm just saying that's the Levi's around Jankles. It's a tough job.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah. We looked at it as, oh, you're gonna be mocked until you get out of here, which is gonna take you a second. We're just gonna heckle you.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah, you're gonna be mocked till you're limp, motherfucker.

[James Pietragallo]

You're gonna have five stone little New Yorker teenagers fucking mocking you and heckling you and funny accents for the next 10 minutes till you get out of here.

[Jimmy Wissman]

We can see what you're carrying.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah, but these teenagers, this is way worse, obviously. Thankfully, never found anything like this.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Horrible.

[James Pietragallo]

They're traumatized. So they right away say, all right, these teenagers had nothing to do with. They just found this poor person. The detective, Detective Dyer, said it appeared that foul play was involved. We weren't sure that she was murdered at this spot. It appeared that somebody may have just pulled over or backed up, dumped the body, set the body on fire and left. This looks like just a quick dump spot for somebody with a barrel, huh? With a barrel. So they would have had to bring a barrel. They're gonna have to have a truck, probably, right? And they're probably gonna be someone who's pretty well versed in this area because it's definitely out there. Even the medical examiner was like, where the fuck are we? So it's out there now. The next morning, this hits the news. Hits Facebook, basically. Oh, yeah, that's what it goes out on. This is a small town, so in a small town, as we know from this show,

[Jimmy Wissman]

small town Facebook. Small town Facebook is alive and well, wow.

[James Pietragallo]

Is it crazy? It is. I mean, small town gossip. People might not be gathering at the old coffee shop anymore, but they are gathering around Facebook so they can hate us. So I know that they'll gather for this. Whenever I see, like, when we'll post an episode and I see, like, the next morning, I'll look at it and there's, like, overwhelming comments. No, there's like a thousand shares. I'm like, oh, shit. That means it's been shared in these people's Facebook groups. And there's a thousand small town people talking about, what the fuck do we know about anything going on? I'm like, oh, my God, here it comes. So, yeah, people that don't know shit about anything. They don't even care that we're talking about the murder. They're like, how dare they talk about my town? It's like, calm down, okay? Relax. Chill out.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Most of it's like that. And they didn't ask me to talk about this. No, I didn't.

[James Pietragallo]

We get that a lot.

[Jimmy Wissman]

And I'm not gonna.

[James Pietragallo]

They should ask me. I knew her in junior high. Oh, well, we'll track you right down.

[Jimmy Wissman]

I didn't have the yearbook. I'm sorry.

[James Pietragallo]

This is also Dateline, in case you weren't aware, where we have teams of reporters that go out into the field. No, it's me gathering this issue.

[Jimmy Wissman]

We're at the.

[James Pietragallo]

I'm not interviewing you. How am I interviewing you? I have to do eight shows a week, for Christ's sake. I'm not interviewing anybody. I can't do that. Jimmy's not going down. Hey, what do you think, Gary? Putting a mic in someone's face? Isn't that what we're doing?

[Jimmy Wissman]

Scooter, tell me your side.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah, what do you think? Scoots? So it hits Facebook and it's a lot. They're saying the information they're giving out is that someone posts about it. That a young woman was found on the side of the road near Tim's Ford Lake and there's star tattoos on her body and a nursing school shirt.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Oh, God damn it. That's specific here.

[James Pietragallo]

Very specific. So Kelly Sharpton happens to be awake at the time.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Mom saw it on Facebook.

[James Pietragallo]

Mom saw this on Facebook? Facebook?

[Jimmy Wissman]

No fucking way.

[James Pietragallo]

No idea. They didn't identify her yet, but star tattoos and a nursing shirt were pretty sure.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Who the fuck else?

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah, and also, she never came home. She's very reliable. And she didn't come over for afterwards like she said she was gonna. She never called. She Never texted. And she's been trying to reach Megan since midnight and got no response.

[Jimmy Wissman]

And mom is already devastated, and now

[James Pietragallo]

she's worried about her. Megan. Anyway, she hasn't heard from her, and then she sees this post. Tattoo on the back of her neck, one on her foot. She said she didn't need the official confirmation. She recognized her daughter instantly and knew exactly it was her. She said, I. That's horrible. Can you believe that shit?

[Jimmy Wissman]

I can't imagine.

[James Pietragallo]

So she called the cops to say, I think I know who your person is. She's the one who precipitated the identification. She said, I actually read a post on Facebook where they had described a girl with a star tattoo on the back of her neck and one on her foot. And I knew it was her. That is horrifying.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Can't imagine from a Facebook.

[James Pietragallo]

That's the worst. I'd rather hear gossip in a grocery store. Fuck.

[Jimmy Wissman]

I hate Facebook so much.

[James Pietragallo]

Fuck. That is brutal. Man, oh, man. That is gross.

[Jimmy Wissman]

It's become the place where your parents tell you which form of cancer they're diagnosed with. It's such a. Everybody's on it is the problem.

[James Pietragallo]

See how fat your friends from 10th grade are now? That's all.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Or else my friends are that. Copy and post some dumb shit about if you're my real friend.

[James Pietragallo]

Fuck that.

[Jimmy Wissman]

I love.

[James Pietragallo]

That's hilarious. That or some crazy fucking political shit where you're like, I have seen you. Yeah, I have seen you, like, literally shit into a laundry machine, into a washing machine and a laundromat. I don't want to hear your political views. No, don't. And that's what I'll do if I see people posting crazy shit. I will post their most embarrassing shit because they're embarrassing themselves anyway. I'll be like, is this so. Am I supposed to take opinions?

[Jimmy Wissman]

I'm sharing things about each other.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah. I'm supposed to take an opinion seriously from the guy I watched climb his ass up into a washing machine on the second tier to shit in it in the 10th grade. I'm gonna listen to you. I don't think so.

[Jimmy Wissman]

And I'd rather take somebody's opinion of anything that they thought out and wrote rather than, this is what I believe. And then if you believe, too. Copy and paste. Fuck you. I can't delete you fast enough.

[James Pietragallo]

I'm mean, goodbye. I don't have any original ideas. Right.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Copy and paste. Let's get something started. How about this? Started. Unfriend.

[James Pietragallo]

Fuck you, unfriend. Asshole. And then they hit you back again like you did it by accident.

[Jimmy Wissman]

It looks like we're not friends anymore. Oh, what have you done?

[James Pietragallo]

Wonder why.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Go back to look at your own posts, you idiot.

[James Pietragallo]

The medical examiner will later establish that her time of death was before midnight. Sometimes she had to have gone into rigor, so there has to be enough time for that on July 1st. Now, what happened to her is horrifying. Poor Megan here, she was beaten, her skull fractured in multiple places. She was also raped, and she was shot in the face. Believed to be a.22 caliber round fired from the same weapon. They think that was used to beat her.

[Jimmy Wissman]

What a horrible situation.

[James Pietragallo]

Horrific, they said. And this is a quote from one of the cops here. The autopsy painted a dark picture. Megan had been raped multiple times.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Oh, geez.

[James Pietragallo]

She'd suffered devastating blunt force trauma to the head. The bones in her skull were fractured so that the detectives could actually feel them shift when they gently moved her head at the scene. Then the gunshot, a single.22 caliber round fired through her cheek. This is some hatred in here for this.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah, that's a lot of vitriol. Like, you don't do that to somebody. That's worse than what Ted Bundy did to women.

[James Pietragallo]

Jesus Christ. I don't know. Well, I mean, it's kind of exactly what he did to women.

[Jimmy Wissman]

It's like, on par. Yeah, I mean, he just didn't shoot anybody.

[James Pietragallo]

The guy just didn't come back and rape her again. Do it again after she was, you know. Jesus. So the official cause of death was the.22 caliber round, even though her skull was crushed, too. So this poor. I can only hope she was unconscious. That's all we could hope, because otherwise this is excruciatingly horrible.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Clubbed raped and shot in the.

[James Pietragallo]

This is horrifying. Horrifying. Oh, God. Jesus. So there's no soot in her lungs, meaning she was already dead when the fire started. Remember at first they said they didn't know if she was dead when the fire started, so they said the accelerant had been concentrated on her pelvic region, which they thought was an attempt to burn away any DNA evidence, semen left behind, something like that. But the thing is, fire from the outside, fire didn't work like he thought it would. Yeah, he thought it would burn it up, the whole body. Instead, the heat helped seal and preserve the biological evidence. So rather than it even naturally coming out, it actually. The fire sealed it in. Yeah.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Cause it's crazy that that happens.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah, it was basically cauterized Cauterized. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know what I'm saying?

[Jimmy Wissman]

So, yep, I get. I'm not going further. No, I got nothing for that.

[James Pietragallo]

That's horrifying.

[Jimmy Wissman]

That is terrible.

[James Pietragallo]

Yes, terrible.

[Jimmy Wissman]

But almost. Thank God, you know? I mean, that's horrible.

[James Pietragallo]

But if you want to find who did it, yeah, it's better than not. So the. The DA later said our theory was that the purpose of the fire was to destroy the semen present in her body, but.

[Jimmy Wissman]

And it did the opposite.

[James Pietragallo]

Didn't do it. It actually kept it. Now, that afternoon of July 2nd, obviously everybody is freaked out. Everybody is devastated, and they're also scared because who the fuck did this to this girl? You know what I mean? She's a nice girl. She doesn't lead a crazy lifestyle. She's not a drug addict. She doesn't go hang out with crazy people. I mean, she might drop some blankets off to homeless people. But how does this happen? So. So they end up finding her car that afternoon.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Really?

[James Pietragallo]

The 1995 red Ford Mustang. Bedford county deputies spot it parked on Three Forks Bridge Road in Bedford county, which is about somewhere in the neighborhood of 15 to 20 miles from where her body was found.

[Jimmy Wissman]

That's a ride.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah, it's a good ride. A witness had spotted it earlier and thought someone just had run out of gas. And then when they passed it by later and still no one was there, they called the cops and just said, there's an abandoned car on the side of the road. So they hope that there's some kind of evidence in this Mustang, hopefully. Did the killer drive her in the Mustang at some point? Was the killer in the Mustang? But they search it. Not really that great. In terms of biological evidence, no blood, no signs of a struggle. But there is one very interesting thing there.

[Jimmy Wissman]

What is it?

[James Pietragallo]

A handwritten, folded note on the passenger seat, and that is in her right handwriting. 850 Shelfer Road.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Oh, shit.

[James Pietragallo]

So they're like, okay, this is important. Obviously this is. Yeah, we got an address. So they go, great, let's go find 850 Shelfer-Road and see what's going on. They try to do that. It doesn't exist.

[Jimmy Wissman]

It's not an address.

[James Pietragallo]

It's not a real address.

[Jimmy Wissman]

So now they're like, how did she go then? Uh.

[James Pietragallo]

Oh, what's going on here? Yeah, was this a fake address to lure her somewhere? Did she have an address wrong put to allure her? Where. Where is this from? Two days ago? Is this from before this? We don't know, but they have this now, the first, it's an investigation, and it's a sexual nature and seems personal almost with the way it happened, it seems extra brutal. So they're gonna start out with the people closest to Megan, and it's not gonna be her sisters, and it's not gonna be her mom. It's gonna be Chris. That's the guy they're gonna look at first. So they sit Chris down. They're like, three years, huh? Okay, where were you number one last night? And he said, night of the murder? He goes, I was at work. I work at a local department store. I worked from six to midnight. So they're like, all right, well, we'll check on that. Don't worry about that. And so they're like, we're going to talk to you. He initially says, the relationship was great. They were doing great. Then he says, well, I mean, we fight sometimes. Uh, oh, okay.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Where's the last time you fought Chris?

[James Pietragallo]

And he said, we fight sometimes. And then he says, I guess we've been growing apart. So it started of, hey, we were ready to walk down the aisle. We're doing great, too. We fight so much that we're growing apart. That happened very quickly, in the course

[Jimmy Wissman]

of less than an hour, and we're breaking up.

[James Pietragallo]

That's a lot. Then even Megan's family they talked to described the relationship as fire and water. Passionate, volatile, up and down. One of Megan's sisters pointed the police in Chris's direction and said, the relationship's been up and down and she's about to break up with him. And if she. He knew that, but he might have been pissed off enough to do something like this. So that's how this goes. They're looking at Chris hard.

[Jimmy Wissman]

That's an extreme form of lashing out.

[James Pietragallo]

It is.

[Jimmy Wissman]

How much does your family, her family, hate you? If they go, you know, Chris is good for this.

[James Pietragallo]

Either that or it might be the only guy she's close to. Okay, that might be it too. Maybe she doesn't have a ton of guy friends to point any of those in that direction. It's like, listen, this is the guy that. She's only been with him for three years.

[Jimmy Wissman]

I'd be livid if my current girlfriend's family goes, chris is good for this.

[James Pietragallo]

What?

[Jimmy Wissman]

Or Jimmy's good for this. I'd be so upset.

[James Pietragallo]

They would. If your current girlfriend was murdered, they would immediately be like, look at that asshole with a stupid beard. They would fucking. It doesn't even matter.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Every time. They'll think of every Single thing that I've ever said that they didn't like.

[James Pietragallo]

If Sarah got murdered, you don't think they'd be like, the guy who does all the murder shows that knows everything about murder and all that. He'd fucking look at him and you get the same thing. Oh, the murder guy. Yeah, we'd be fucked. Yeah. That's crazy. I should hire Sarah a fucking bodyguard to make sure nobody kills her. Because I'm getting blamed no matter what. If anything happens to her, even if it happens in Alaska when I'm in Australia, I'm getting blamed for it.

[Jimmy Wissman]

I'd be livid still, though.

[James Pietragallo]

Still best. Yeah, you guys are.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Even if I expect them to say it, I'm gonna be so mad when they go, she's dead. Jimmy did it.

[James Pietragallo]

What?

[Jimmy Wissman]

What? Fuck all of you. You're gonna really be mad when you find out it wasn't. You're gonna be so embarrassed.

[James Pietragallo]

So embarrassed. So police search Chris's apartment.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah.

[James Pietragallo]

And now Chris has a roommate named Robbie as well. Okay. When they search the apartment, they find residue of suspected illegal substances in the bathroom.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Weed or coke.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah, I think it's residue is. Yeah, I'm thinking powder. Powder now or pills whatever whatever. It's 2012. Somebody crushing up pills. Now this, Chris says, that's where it's all Robbie. I don't know nothing about that.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Oh, Robbie's the one.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah. And Robbie admitted that the items were his. He said, that is my shit, actually. And he said, chris, neither Chris nor Megan know that I do this, by the way, this has been a under. I keep this shit kind of under wraps.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah, I'm a functioning.

[James Pietragallo]

I'm a functioning drug addict is what I am. Yeah. And then Robbie says this, okay. He says, because they're asking him. So you don't know Megan real well, and they don't know that you're doing drugs and you're just the roommate and all that kind of thing. And then he said, well, there is something I have to tell you.

[Jimmy Wissman]

What's he do?

[James Pietragallo]

Robbie says, megan and I kind of had a secret relationship behind Chris's back. Oh.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Now I don't know if I

[James Pietragallo]

go, okay, now we have two suspects.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah, I don't know if I like that, Robbie.

[James Pietragallo]

That's not good.

[Jimmy Wissman]

No.

[James Pietragallo]

And they said, did Chris know about it? And he said, I don't think so. Oh, Robbie, Robbie. So they went, okay, now we have multi. Is Robbie jealous that he can't have her? Did Chris find out about it and ask her about it? And she told him. And he freaked out. Did she feel guilty and tell him about it? And he freaked out for sure.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Either way, you've got two suspects that would be 100% rageful enough to do something like this.

[James Pietragallo]

That's it. And on top of all that, where did the phone call come from?

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah, who the fuck was that?

[James Pietragallo]

Well, who got the phone call? This alleged phone call came from Chris. Chris is the one that sent her on this journey to this address, essentially. Well, sent her to the person who told her about the address.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Robby had nothing to do with that. Unless it's both of these motherfuckers.

[James Pietragallo]

That's the whole thing. So that's what's crazy at this point. So he also says, look, I got this phone call. I got the call about some job interview on her second phone that she left in my apartment. And he said, I still have the phone. You can have it here. Look at the phone. And it's got the burner, the number that called the line, and that turns out to be a burner phone. The phone that called this phone originally to precipitate this whole thing. Now what they do find out though, after. I mean, Chris, he must have been pouring sweat in this box. Think about this. And then Robbie too. The two of them, I mean, they're looking pretty. They're both looking guilty at this point. Then they go to Chris's job and they pull all the surveillance footage. He's there, and they find him working from 5pm to midnight. Surveillance cameras show that he never left the. The entire time he's there. The entire time. That is as solid an alibi as you can have for. I definitely didn't physically do this.

[Jimmy Wissman]

I mean, it's video evidence from a third party. So they have no interest in saving your ass?

[James Pietragallo]

No, unless he's a great employee. I mean, he might be the best assistant manager they've ever had.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Can't afford to lose him.

[James Pietragallo]

We just can't. We can't afford to train somebody else. It's so hard.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Who cares if he's a murdering rapist slash guy?

[James Pietragallo]

He promised us he'd keep it under wraps while on the clock anyway. Off the clock, it's his business.

[Jimmy Wissman]

The drawer's never been more accurate.

[James Pietragallo]

It's accurate to the penny. So that's what's going on. So now they're like, well, great. Now we have not Chris, but there's also Robbie. But if Chris was involved in this, then he obviously had somebody else calling, talking to her. So maybe he's got an accomplice Therefore, he wouldn't have to be there at the time. But then again, why would he not want to be there when she was killed if she was that. If he was that rageful at her. It doesn't make sense. And where he went afterwards, too. He has an alibi that he didn't drive out to the middle of nowhere and set his girlfriend on fire.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah. So he'd have to. I mean, he'd have to really have a great hitman that, like, does legit hitman things.

[James Pietragallo]

No shit. Then July 4th. Now, 4th of July.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah.

[James Pietragallo]

There's a guy out fishing out on Rock Creek, just having a nice Fourth of July, having a fishing day, enjoying his life here. When he finds something in the water. It is a bright pink purse. And she's like, that don't look like I dropped it. You know?

[Jimmy Wissman]

That ain't mine.

[James Pietragallo]

That ain't mine, is it? Shit. Inside the purse, they find Megan's wallet, her driver's license, her Social Security card.

[Jimmy Wissman]

What lake is this?

[James Pietragallo]

This is Rock Creek near Estill Springs.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Not Tom Ford. Tom's Ford.

[James Pietragallo]

No, no, no. This is a different location. Complete third location.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Wow.

[James Pietragallo]

In, like, a triangular shape.

[Jimmy Wissman]

And a body of water.

[James Pietragallo]

And another body of water. Some people say it was along the Elk river, but we don't know. Either way, this is what they found. Never found her cell phone, though. Her cell phone has never, ever been recovered.

[Jimmy Wissman]

It's probably in that water, too, right?

[James Pietragallo]

Somewhere in the bottom. Yeah, I'm sure. Yeah, that's what I'm thinking. Cell phones don't float.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Generally not.

[James Pietragallo]

They should really make floating cell phones, though. Why wouldn't they float?

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah.

[James Pietragallo]

Waterproof and floating. What are we doing? I don't know. What the fuck are we talking about? Yeah, that's it.

[Jimmy Wissman]

That's what we're doing.

[James Pietragallo]

Let's not make it laugh. Let's not make it last.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Selling a lot of rice.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah. The porch plant business must be booming. So. But the next thing they look at here is Chris mentioned a. Or Chris mentioned that the guy on the phone said, I got your number from Naomi.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Naomi?

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah. So at this point, they're believing Chris because he is where he says he was, and he doesn't seem like he did it. Robbie a little less, but they're still kind of putting Robbie on the shelf.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Right now Naomi's got to exist because otherwise, why would you say it.

[James Pietragallo]

Why would you say it as someone who's a reference that she would know to get her to trust you? Yeah, that's. I mean, so it's got to be a real person. So that's when they said, naomi from nursing school is what Chris said. That's all I remember, is the guy said, naomi from nursing school. So they're like, all right, let's try to find a Naomi from nursing school. So they go into the records, and they find a Naomi from nursing school. They find a Naomi Jones from nursing school.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Okay.

[James Pietragallo]

Okay. So they go to Naomi's house. She's not home. A neighbor gives them her phone number. They're like, it's pretty fucking important. You know that dead girl on Facebook? This is what we're talking about. So they call her. Naomi is like, what? What are you talking about? She's like, I've met Megan a few. Like, I know her, but I never hung out with her. I don't know her like that. You gave away her phone number? No. Yeah. She's like, I barely know her. If I know her. Like, I have her phone number. Because in the nursing school, you do different. You need, like, a tree. And they also give each other rides to offsite, things that they have to do for nursing stuff. So they carpool sometimes. She's like, I mean, I know her, but we're not.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Give it out.

[James Pietragallo]

No, we're not friends or we're not, like, tight. If I saw her, I go, hey, Megan. But I wouldn't be like, hey, are we going out this weekend? Or whatever. So she said, they carpooled to nursing school a few times. They certainly weren't close. And. And she never recommended Megan for any job. She said, first of all, weird. I don't know of any jobs, and I don't know her well enough to recommend her also, so who the hell would know this? So they said she had no idea why her name was used. I couldn't have any more of a clue. And they said her answers were credible. Her confusion was absolutely real. And they were like, I don't know, what the fuck? Maybe somebody pulled a name out of their ass and it just happened to be the name of a student that you know. Maybe someone just spun a wheel and said, naomi told me, and there happens to be a Naomi. Yeah, I mean, there's probably a hundred women in this course. One of them might be named Naomi. Who knows? That's like roulette name. Yeah. And they could have picked. You'd think they'd pick, like, a more common name. Also. Jennifer told me. Yeah, there's gotta be a Jennifer.

[Jimmy Wissman]

One Naomi in my life.

[James Pietragallo]

Exactly. Naomi is not a very common name, but they don't know. So for weeks, nothing happens. That's it. They got nothing with the boyfriend. They have a missing phone. They have a fake address on the seat, 850 Scheffler. They have a burned body. They have Naomi that doesn't know anything about the fucking shit.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Oh, shit. Yeah.

[James Pietragallo]

They got a boyfriend who was at work, a roommate who was screwing around with the girl. That seems to not have been a part of it. They don't know what's going on here. This is complete cluelessness here.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Where do you. Where do you chase to win here?

[James Pietragallo]

That's what I mean. All the leads went cold. They chased, everything sucks. And it all died. Yeah. You can only follow because usually what the detectives do is people, like a lot of people think they look at it from a macro standpoint and they're like, okay, what's the whole of the case? It's not like that. They take one lead that's a string, and they run that lead until it's either an arrest or dead end. And then they go to the next lead. It's not a macro thing of, like, we should investigate her professor. Like, that's not what it is. If they get.

[Jimmy Wissman]

They don't have a theory of how all this goes together. You find a string and start pulling

[James Pietragallo]

on it, lead to lead.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Hopefully it pulls another string.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah. If you ever watch the first 48, you can watch people do that. They'll get a clue and they'll go hard on somebody. Turns out they had nothing to do with any of it. It's just they had to play that string out. Then they go, they get a tip that it was another guy that they saw that was wearing a red shirt or whatever the Fuck. So late July 2012. Weeks have gone by, and the family's getting really antsy, as. I don't blame them. They must be. They're finding the investigation is active, but they're not generating shit for leads, basically. And there really is nothing to generate. So the Tennessee and Bureau of Investigation is brought in the tbi and they confirm that they have agents working on the case. Also, Franklin County Sheriff Tim Fuller and Detective Todd Hidman are the primary, kind of primary cops here. Hidman becomes like the liaison to the Sharpton family here. Okay. Kelly is calling him and texting him frequently. If she calls him, if she texts him at 2 in the morning, he'll text her back at 2 in the morning.

[Jimmy Wissman]

You fucking better.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah, he's giving her whatever update he had, whatever. And she even said, quote, I can't thank the Franklin County Sheriff Tim Fuller and investigator Todd Hinman. Enough. They've been very supportive. It's almost like they knew Megan. They don't call it the case. They call her Megan.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Oh, that's nice.

[James Pietragallo]

They're doing a good job. So by late July, the family raises a reward fund at American City bank in Tullahoma. And the whole town gets in on it. I mean, everybody donates to this. Nursing classmates, customers from the Steakhous, they sold T shirts, they ran car washes, they made bracelets and all that kind of thing. And Kelly said they've done several fundraisers. The whole town of Tullahoma has jumped on board. She said she was my daughter, she was our sister. She was an aunt, she was a cousin, she was a friend. If she was yours, you'd want to know, too. If the killer isn't out there, then they said they planned to also turn. If the killer isn't caught and the reward isn't paid, they're going to turn all this money into a nursing scholarship in her name.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Beautiful.

[James Pietragallo]

So either way, it's getting donated either to nursing students or to someone who did this. July 23, 2012. Right around this time, Nancy Grace enters the picture.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Oh, Jesus, I hope this is good.

[James Pietragallo]

More accurately, Nancy Grace's show with Rita Cosby filling in as host that night.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Do I know that woman?

[James Pietragallo]

You'd know her if you saw her face. But it's, you know, the Nancy Grace Show.

[Jimmy Wissman]

At least it's not Nancy.

[James Pietragallo]

It's not Nancy. Yeah, that would be horrifying. So missing Tennessee nursing students body found is the whole thing. Now they have Kelly on here. Mom is here. Now, Kelly spoke about her daughter, described her as a beautiful nursing student who was two months from graduation. She never came home for dinner. She learned about this via Facebook that her daughter's body was burned. It's horrifying. Yeah, I mean that on tv. A mother expressing this on TV is a lot. Man, that's horrifying. So they highlighted the details during this. Her 1995 Mustang, they get a whole kind of overview of it. It's abandoned 15, 20 miles away. There's a fake job interview, Lore handwritten, fake address note in the car. No phone found, no purse found at the time. At the scenes anyway, either of them the car or the fire scene. The fire concentrated on the pelvic area. So it framed the case as a murder mystery out of Tennessee involving a beautiful 24 year old nursing student who was beaten, shot, raped and set ablaze in an attempt to destroy evidence okay. There was a huge emphasis on the small town shock in Tullahoma and the surrounding counties. So they're really playing it as. Look at these hicks scramble. That's basically what they're doing. They're playing that shit.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Meanwhile, Hinman and Fuller seem like they're doing a pretty good job.

[James Pietragallo]

Very competent investigation going on here. Absolutely. And they brought in the TBI when they realized that this was beyond their resources and their lead dried up. Yeah. They didn't say, well, I'm gonna solve this case. Nevermind. Those people said, if you got a better idea, fucking tell me because we'll do it. They actually give a shit.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Nancy Grace's program is kind of that just like judging people while she sounds like the biggest dipshit on the planet.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah, yeah. When I was a prosecutor.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah.

[James Pietragallo]

That's all you're getting over and over. God, imagine being prosecuted by her. I'd be like, I don't. Give me the chair. Just don't make me listen to the this fucking annoying bitch for one more minute. I don't care. 30 years. Great. I know I stole a pack of Juicy Fruit. I don't give a fuck. Just put me away.

[Jimmy Wissman]

I don't even care if she's right. I just want her to shut the fuck up.

[James Pietragallo]

Shut up. That's how she gets people to confess. They're just like, okay, fine. All right, fine. You did it.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Annoying bitch.

[James Pietragallo]

Jesus Christ. Your fucking voice and your hair helmet. I can't take it anymore. Fine. Hey everybody. Jess going to take a quick break from the show and tell you a much better, easier way to shop with Thrive Market.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Thrive Market.com.

[James Pietragallo]

absolutely. Thrive Market is a membership based online grocery. It's just $5 a month. You get access to curated selection of organic and non GMO brands, 90 plus dietary filters. The app is awesome for that weekly sales free gift and the peace of mind that 1000 plus ingredients are already restricted. One annual fee. Priceless peace of mind. We love Thrive Market. I really enjoy it.

[Jimmy Wissman]

I love eggs out of my diet with them.

[James Pietragallo]

That's what I mean. For Soura, the gluten, you can filter that right out. Anything with gluten in it is gone. It's awesome. And if you find some ingredient that you don't want, you can find another something like that without that ingredient. It's really excellent. It really is fantastic. We love it. I really do. Can't tell you enough about Thrive Market. I love their sea salt tortilla chips by the way. Yeah, absolutely. Outstanding. I keep those stocked all the time I order multiple bags at once. It's a lot. I love those.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Who am I a big fan of? Sea salt chips.

[James Pietragallo]

Oh, they're so good. They're so good, those sea salt chips. They really are here. It's excellent. Plus Thrive market restricts like we said, a thousand plus ingredients. No stressing over any of the labels or googling every additive. Who has time to do that? Every product is curated organic and non GMO brands vetted before they ever hit the site. The in app barcode scanner finds healthier swaps for almost anything in your pantry right now. They're awesome. And you pay $5 a month so you don't have to google all this stuff and worry about it. And I don't have time to do that.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Too much of a hassle.

[James Pietragallo]

It's too much of a hassle. And the member pricing up to 30%. You end up with like 30% off every week anyway on sales and free gifts and price matching. Free delivery. It'll pay for itself. Really, it really does. It's excellent. No per order delivery fees, no service charges or figuring out what your tip's gonna be. None of that stuff. One annual cost and that's it. All the filters mean you're gonna get anything you want out of there. You want high protein, you want low sugar glp, one friendly gluten free keto, more whatever you want. It's awesome. The fact that you can filter out the whole site by high protein or low sugar in seconds. It's awesome. You guys want that? Ready to do your own spring reset? Join Thrive Market with our link thrivemarket.com Smalltown Murder for $20 off your first three orders, plus you'll get a free $60 gift.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Now back to the show.

[James Pietragallo]

So anyway, this. I got some transcript from this. I'm Rita Cosby. Breaking news tonight as we go live to Tim's Ford Lake, Tennessee. A beautiful nursing student makes plans to visit her mother on a Sunday afternoon, but she never makes it. Just hours later, a driver spots a grass fire near a local bridge and gets the shock of a lifetime. The body of a young female dumped on the side of the road. Up in flames.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Good lord.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah, that's. See what I mean?

[Jimmy Wissman]

It's a little more complex than that, but yeah.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah. And this is why we mix comedy in with this. Because to me, this sounds like murder porn up in flames.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Ms. Coxcomb, tell us the time you and your friends found an old man

[James Pietragallo]

masturbating in the woods. Tell me about that. I would like to hear that. Actually, Nancy Grace, when I was a young girl, there was a man masturbating in my woods.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Feels like she'd be like, no, no, sit down, I'll join you.

[James Pietragallo]

Here's a picture of a child.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Let's do it together.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah. I prosecuted him to the fullest extent of the law. Oh God. Let's do it together. So this is what I mean to me this is like this, this sensationalism of it all feels gross. And we tell jokes to kind of cut the tension a little bit.

[Jimmy Wissman]

It's the worst.

[James Pietragallo]

I feel like it's gross otherwise. They say a positive ID confirms it's nursing student 24 year old Megan Sharp. The murder mystery thickens when it's revealed Megan died from blunt force trauma to the head. And a red Ford Mustang is found abandoned 16 miles away. Who murdered 24 year old Megan Sharpton?

[Jimmy Wissman]

Cops would love to know.

[James Pietragallo]

We'd love to know. So they have one person here because they have interviews from people that were on the scene and they said, well, you know Rita, it's just over a bridge and just off the road, as you mentioned, it wasn't even that far off the road that her body was placed. Remember she was dumped there after the blunt force trauma that caused her death. And then somebody attempts to burn out in the middle of nowhere, so to speak, about 15 miles from where they found the car. I'm telling you, Rita, when they set. There must be a rule on this show that you must mention the host's name at the beginning of every paragraph just so they know, let them know

[Jimmy Wissman]

that it's not Nancy.

[James Pietragallo]

Tonight there's a fill in and if it's Nancy, you have to go, I'll tell you. Nancy. Yeah, you have to say her name too. It's just a rule here. I'm telling you, Rita, when they set her on fire, the goal was it was just far enough out that nobody would find it and all they would find were just some charred remains. The fact that this guy got there in a nick of time wasn't this guy. It was a bunch of teenagers. She could be identified quickly enough that they could actually get on this case and try to find her murderer. Yeah, so one of the investigators is talking here and they said the fire was the dry time of season and people are driving by there. So they see a fire, they immediately, so they're going to call and get the fire department en route. And they said it's a rural area. Rita Cosby says, and he says, yeah, she says, describe the area. Is it sort of an abandoned area. And the guy says it's an abandoned area? Yeah.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah. What kind of question is that?

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah, there's so many other words but abandon. Is it an abandoned area? That makes it sound like there's warehouses that are crumbling?

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah. Is there a lot of graffiti and rats around?

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah, that's what I feel like.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Paint the scene. Is it like the worst place that you could think of to be found charred and raked and clubbed?

[James Pietragallo]

Is it an industrial hell hole? Is that what we're talking about? No. So the guy said it's very isolated. Very isolated. They bring in a former officer from the Atlanta PD for some reason to talk to. This is the other thing. None of the people they bring in to talk to never make any sense. This is why we don't ask people shit. Because we'd be talking to former Atlanta PD person who's not even working on this case has nothing to do with shit.

[Jimmy Wissman]

She gets Matt Murphy there, the guy from LA that has no experience with fucking rural Tennessee.

[James Pietragallo]

Totally. It makes no sense. This guy says, well, so far it doesn't look like robbery was the motive. The thing about the purse, what was taken out of the purse or what was missing from the purse may be an interesting. May be interesting, and it may lead to something. But the most interesting thing about the purse is where it was located. If you look at this map, what you're going to have to determine is it seems that they know where she was dumped and she was likely set on fire there. But where the blunt force trauma was inflicted upon her may be near the location of the purse. So when you have items spread out like that, it can certainly help you with both the chronology and the progression of the time of the cross.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Okay. And that, that. That guy's a cop.

[James Pietragallo]

This guy's a cop. Saying obvious things. Yeah.

[Jimmy Wissman]

But also maybe the dumbest thing, because where the purse was found, that could be very well be something like at the very end of the thing, getting rid of it.

[James Pietragallo]

It could be near the person's house, then throwing it out a window into the river. It could be at night.

[Jimmy Wissman]

It could just be a place. That guy likes to go camping with his kids. You don't know shit.

[James Pietragallo]

That's. Why is he even here? He's not part of this. I don't get it. Why are you talking to this guy? Yeah, I do too. Mind your own business, Mark.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Stay off tv.

[James Pietragallo]

Mark. Yeah. Quit being fucking interviewed. This guy just loves putting makeup on. I think that's all it is. So Rita Cosby said And Mark, I do think it's interesting that you got three different locations. You got the location of the body, you got the location of the car, and then you got the purse, sort of in between. Why all these different locations, Mark? Harold, how the fuck does he know?

[Jimmy Wissman]

Hey, Rita, do you think Mark did this?

[James Pietragallo]

Mark should go, hey, Rita, you think I committed this fucking crime? Why are you asking me that? Anything else?

[Jimmy Wissman]

Why are you so mad at me? What have I ever done that would lead you to think I would do this to a woman?

[James Pietragallo]

Hey, Mark, when you rape a woman, do you set her crotch on fire? Usually. Is that how you do it? What are we talking about? Why all these different locations, Mark? Harold. That sounds like he's on the witness.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Why can't you do everything in one spot, Mark?

[James Pietragallo]

What's wrong with you, Mark, you lazy shit. So poor Mark says. Well, at this point, everybody's just speculating. Yeah, why AM I here 10 minutes ago, Mark?

[Jimmy Wissman]

He's been speculating like crazy.

[James Pietragallo]

You repeated the information of what happened in this case to me. Then I repeated it back to you, and now you're asking me why that happened. What are we talking. What are we talking about? Yeah, so he said. The sheriff's Department and the tbi, they may know more than we do. But as far as we can tell, it looks like the purse may be near the infliction of the wounds.

[Jimmy Wissman]

What information does he have to say that?

[James Pietragallo]

That's what I mean. It may be where she was struck. The purse was left behind. The vehicle looks to have gone in an opposite direction. And most likely the body was dumped somewhere in the middle, then set on fire. Most likely, as was alluded to, it may be to cover up a specific type of crime given where the burning was done. And that may look towards at least. Or at least give us some evidence there may be a sexual assault. Then he says the most obvious thing. I'm, of course, just speculating. This show is just one big circle jerk. You know that, right? Like none of us knows.

[Jimmy Wissman]

It's all just speculative horseshit to entertain people while they dust their furniture.

[James Pietragallo]

That's it. They put it on in the background while dinner's being made. That's the only reason we're here. And the car went in the other direction. And most likely when the car was recovered. That gives you an idea of where the perpetrator went, which honestly, I believe is the opposite of what happened.

[Jimmy Wissman]

I hope everything that he said is wrong.

[James Pietragallo]

I believe she was taken from the car and gone the other way. Where it Would be drop the purse, then kill her.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Right. She was probably injured near the vehicle, at least taken and done horrible things

[James Pietragallo]

to be rendered incapable of.

[Jimmy Wissman]

And then got rid of all the evidence at the end, which is like how it usually works.

[James Pietragallo]

That's how it usually works.

[Jimmy Wissman]

And I'm just speculating here, James.

[James Pietragallo]

We're just spitballing two idiot comedians. We're comedians, we're not detectives from Atlanta.

[Jimmy Wissman]

I'm speculating my ass off right now.

[James Pietragallo]

We could be on the show, too. Speculating, who cares? So then later on, Rita says, okay, anyway, let's go to Wendy Walsh, psychologist. What kind of person burns a body? Wendy? Obviously a monster, but what kind of person does this? An asshole, that's who. A murderer. Who are we talking about? Imagine you're Wendy Walsh, psychologist, and it's your job to sit and wait for this fucking call from this idiot to ask you dumb questions. That's your job.

[Jimmy Wissman]

What kind of person does. I don't know, the worst. What are you talking about?

[James Pietragallo]

What are you talking about? Look it up. That's who. Looking up people who do this. It's crazy. So Wendy Walsh. Yeah. Psychologist, says somebody who wants to hide evidence, somebody who isn't criminally insane, and they know the consequences of their crime and they're doing what they can to cover it up. And that's clearly what we're seeing here. From where he moved the body, from where he may have moved the body, from where the purse is. They're just speculating that that's where the body was. And then taking the car and putting it in another location. There was a lot of work done after the fact to show that this assailant knew that what he was doing was seriously wrong. Yeah, he's covering it up. That's all it is. And this is how rampant speculation gets spread. It went from, I think possibly because the purse is here, maybe that's what happened to her now saying. I mean, because where the body was, where the purse. Now that's a fact. All of a sudden over the course of this show.

[Jimmy Wissman]

And also, James, this person cannot claim to be mentally ill because this is not something that insane people do. She's already come to that conclusion.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah, already come to the conclusion. This is perfectly sane.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Life in prison or death. Because this is clearly calculated, covered up,

[James Pietragallo]

sane as can be.

[Jimmy Wissman]

She's now trying the case.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah, no, she's. Now, even though we have no possible idea who did this, she has given him a full evaluation and a full

[Jimmy Wissman]

workup, and she's ready to convict. She doesn't even need the jury any longer.

[James Pietragallo]

Just a sane asshole. That's who did it.

[Jimmy Wissman]

She just needs the judge to wrap the gavel and send this guy to prison.

[James Pietragallo]

Well, we need to find him also. Oh, that's the other thing. Yeah, we gotta find him. There is that once you find him, it's over. So the investigation continues. August of 2012. Franklin County Sheriff spokesman Chris Guess tells the media that they're making progress, but that results take time.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah.

[James Pietragallo]

Do you have leads? Yeah, Chris Guess, like Christopher. Yeah. Guessed that would be Guest. Yeah, but he's Guess like guess.

[Jimmy Wissman]

The spokesman guessed.

[James Pietragallo]

I'm guessing shit. My guess is he said it takes quite a while just to amass the physical evidence to get the TBI to return results. So you can start piecing that together. Subpoenas for things like phone records, search warrants that you have to execute. It's a tremendous amount to do. Basically, we're super busy. I mean, sometimes they solve murders in like six hours, but we're real busy. We got a lot of stuff going on here.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Nobody thought this was easy, Chris.

[James Pietragallo]

No.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Jesus Christ.

[James Pietragallo]

And this especially is an especially difficult case to solve. When you find a burning woman somewhere, I mean, a call from a burner phone, you got nothing.

[Jimmy Wissman]

And every string you chase is a knot.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah. There's nothing behind it. Nothing. So the investigation briefly, and this becomes very public very quickly, explores a potential connection to the Holly Bobo case.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Who is that?

[James Pietragallo]

It's a 20 year old nursing student who vanished from Decatur County, Tennessee six months earlier, same age range, and a nursing student in April 2012, as opposed to July 2012. So that is.

[Jimmy Wissman]

And we haven't solved that yet either.

[James Pietragallo]

It's about 130 miles away. That's a pretty public case too. Well, people have asked us to cover that case. We'll talk about that probably at some point. So it's interesting. So the media is speculating because as we found out from that Rita Cosby, what they do best is speculate. They love it. Not deliver facts, just speculate wildly. These shows.

[Jimmy Wissman]

That's on Headline News.

[James Pietragallo]

Yep. They're speculating about a serial killer on the loose targeting nursing students in Tennessee. That's.

[Jimmy Wissman]

They don't scare people or anything.

[James Pietragallo]

No, no, no, no. You're fine. It's just a serial killer targeting young, pretty nursing students. It's fine. Don't worry about it.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Holy.

[James Pietragallo]

It'll be all right. So the detectives compare the case closely and they reach a conclusion completely unrelated. Yeah, different mo, different geography, just a different perpetrator.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Holly wasn't torched, right?

[James Pietragallo]

I don't think so, no. And it's just a different. You can tell, kind of similar, different deal. But the fear really fucks everybody up. Nobody hears that part. They just hear there's a possible serial killer. And next thing you know, they're like, there's definitely a serial killer. Did you hear? Guy knocked on my door.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Beck and Bundy.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah. Guy knocked on my door, drooling from the fangs. Serial killer bleeding from his eyes. I could see it pouring now. Late summer, early fall, 2012. They're trying to focus on the burner phone that was used to call her.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Good call.

[James Pietragallo]

That's where you're gonna find everything from. That's the only lead they can really go on at this point.

[Jimmy Wissman]

There's a voice and a person, though.

[James Pietragallo]

Yes. They can't trace the owner directly because it's a prepaid, unregistered phone. But they can trace where it was purchased.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah.

[James Pietragallo]

Oh, yeah. So then if you've seen the wire, this is how they got the burner phones back to get on the burner phones to try to.

[Jimmy Wissman]

And that's how they got down dude from Gilbo Beach.

[James Pietragallo]

Yes, absolutely. Yeah. He had a bunch of phones. So that guy's gonna plead guilty, by the way.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Stop it.

[James Pietragallo]

Heuerman's pleading guilty. That's what I heard. I heard he's gonna plead guilty.

[Jimmy Wissman]

When did you hear that?

[James Pietragallo]

Like, two days ago. He's gonna plead.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Will he talk?

[James Pietragallo]

He's gonna. I assume they're gonna have to, because they're gonna.

[Jimmy Wissman]

It's gonna be the biggest Netflix special ever.

[James Pietragallo]

Oh, my God. They're gonna want everybody's. They're gonna wanna know all of the people he killed. Cause there's a lot.

[Jimmy Wissman]

There's like 20 that we know of, right?

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah, they're talking about that. He wants kind of a. He might want kind of an umbrella deal that covers him for what? He may come up later, basically. Yeah.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Or he just gets life without.

[James Pietragallo]

I don't see what. No, he's never getting.

[Jimmy Wissman]

What else is he getting?

[James Pietragallo]

No one is ever letting him out. Yeah. We won't kick you in the balls every morning at 6am how about that?

[Jimmy Wissman]

We won't leave your cell open in Gen Pop every day.

[James Pietragallo]

Every day. So that's what they're trying to figure out. Now. The detective Hindman, he pulls surveillance video from every store in the area that. That sells prepaid phones around the time of the murder.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Imagine the amount of footage. Oh, boy.

[James Pietragallo]

Watching a fucking convenience store's surveillance footage waiting for somebody to buy a burner phone. Imagine that. That is brutal, man. Your eyes would bleed from that. That's horrifying.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Is it? Am I. Am I wrong to think that that is something that shouldn't be sold?

[James Pietragallo]

A burner phone. If you can buy an assault weapon, you can buy a burner phone. I'm sorry, I'll go back to that. If I can buy a crazy weapon that can do what that does, anything else should be legal. Don't tell me drugs should be illegal. Nope. I should be able to fucking jam heroin in my arm.

[Jimmy Wissman]

You should be able to buy children.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah, children should be able to buy heroin. If I can buy that gun, sight unseen, whatever. So anyway, they can't trace it. They're trying to trace it. This guy watches 11 or 12 videos. Total hours. Hours of videos. Most of them are just nothing happening. Just people buying gum and coffee, picking

[Jimmy Wissman]

up a twisted tea.

[James Pietragallo]

I mean, it is boring as fuck. Then there's one that catches his eye. The guy's acting a little off. He had his personal cell phone on the counter while he was buying it. So clearly he has a phone.

[Jimmy Wissman]

He doesn't need this.

[James Pietragallo]

Doesn't need it. And then he walked outside and got into a red pickup truck. So they have a photo of this man on the surveillance footage still. So he circulates the photo around the sheriff's department. Anybody know who this guy is? Anybody ever seen this guy before? And within two minutes, one guy goes, I know this idiot. Yeah, we all know this fucking idiot. He's a local small time drug dealer. We all know him. His name's Timothy Gifford. We know exactly who this asshole is.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Like Tim's Ford, I guess.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah, he said, we've arrested him before. We all know him, basically. So that's what they do. Timothy Gifford, small time local drug dealer, known to law enforcement. He's brought in for questions.

[Jimmy Wissman]

All right.

[James Pietragallo]

They said he's real cooperative, too. Oh, eager. Eager to help. Real cooperative. Okay. He admits, yes, that's me. I'm in the footage. He said, I bought the burner phone, but I did it as a favor for a friend. Wasn't for me. Oh, I might sell you a couple of pills or some shit like that, but I'm not a murderer, I'll tell you that right now. Which. Those occupations usually don't cross over like that. Small time drug dealers are generally not. They're usually doing that to pay for their own habits.

[Jimmy Wissman]

It's a very fascinating string they just pulled though. A guy buying a burner said, it's not my phone, not for me.

[James Pietragallo]

So, yeah, they don't know whether to believe him or not, but they're like, well, then who's it for? You keep talking. And he said, it's a friend of mine. A friend of mine named Donnie Jones. That's who I bought it for. Donnie Jones. He said Donnie had surgery recently and he couldn't get out. So he asked me if I would buy it for him. And I was even driving his truck. The red pickup truck? Yeah, he said that. He said, okay, how did he pay you for this phone? And he said, he paid me with some of his post surgery prescription pain medication.

[Jimmy Wissman]

He gave me perks to sell on the street.

[James Pietragallo]

That's what I mean. That guy is a small time drug dealer supporting his own habit, you know what I mean? Not really the master criminal here. So that's who they're saying. He said, it's this guy, Donnie Jones. And they said, okay, so you gave this phone to Donny Jones. Anything else? And he said, well, a few days after the phone purchase, Donnie contacted me again and he wanted help selling his red pickup truck. Oh, he wanted to trade it for a Mustang is what he said. Okay. So now, Gifford found that strange because the truck he had, it was a pickup truck, but it's like a bigger cab, extended cab and everything. And he said, donnie has four kids. The truck is more practical. You could throw them right in the back of the truck. Can't put four kids in a damn Mustang. Not at all. So. So he said, that's weird. But he said if that's what he wanted to do, I agreed to help. Why not? He said when he had gotten into the truck to help with the sale, though, he noticed something. Gifford said he noticed the carpeting and interior panels had been recently replaced.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Of the truck.

[James Pietragallo]

Of the truck. This was after Megan was killed. Brand new interior. And he said, he asked Donnie about it. He said, well, Jesus, you replaced the interior of your truck? And he said, yeah, my wife suggested it. He said, cars with new interior sell faster. They'll get in there and go, look how clean it is, and it'll sell. Which is a good point. It's true. You see a clean thing there. Then they were like, all right, well, I mean, right now you're on the hook. You're the guy buying the goddamn phone, so you better hope this Donnie bullshit works out. So they look into Donnie Jones and they're skeptical, man. They're like, we're looking into this guy.

[Jimmy Wissman]

No phone Jones.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah, we're keeping an eye on you over here. So they look him up and they find an incredible coincidence. Do you know who Donnie Jones's wife is?

[Jimmy Wissman]

Is it Naomi Jones?

[James Pietragallo]

It's Naomi fucking Jones.

[Jimmy Wissman]

How in the fuck How? Like a donut come full circle.

[James Pietragallo]

How would.

[Jimmy Wissman]

How would that. What?

[James Pietragallo]

Yep, it's fucking Naomi Jones as his wife. The nursing school student who knew Megan? Yeah, briefly, a little bit. Now who the fuck is Donnie Jones? Now we gotta find this out.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Fuck. Donnie.

[James Pietragallo]

Donnie Frank Jones Junior. Of course a junior. He's born 1975. He has been in trouble a lot up until this point. He has 21 felony convictions.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Naomi, what kind of guys are you after?

[James Pietragallo]

Nurses. Often. Well, 21, they want 10 to the wounded duck. You know what I'm saying? That's a 21. 21, yes. This is very interesting. He's a resident. He lived on Bel Air Drive in Tullahoma in Coffee County. He is just criminal of criminals. He's just full on his whole adult life. He's a criminal. What do you do for a living? Oh, I'm a criminal. That's what he would answer. Basically.

[Jimmy Wissman]

21 felonies. I'm doing great.

[James Pietragallo]

Yep. 21 prior felony convictions. By the time Megan was murdered, his sheet includes such illustrious crimes as forgery, theft, battery, aggravated assault, aggravated burglary. He's been to state prison multiple times. He's also been a police informant for years.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Really?

[James Pietragallo]

That's what a scumbag he is. He's a criminal. But then he's also a rat. He's also a rat. He snitched on small time drug operations in exchange for leniency for his own arrests.

[Jimmy Wissman]

What a pussy.

[James Pietragallo]

What a pussy. The cops knew him? Yeah. They said that he'd make himself as useful as he needed to be so he could navigate his way out of trouble here and there.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Scumbag.

[James Pietragallo]

Which is why he's not in prison. But he's been convicted 21 times because he'd get convicted of something, but they'd give him a light sentence because he's snitching. Then they said, also, I know that he had a 1998 escape where he act. They were like, well, none of those things really say that he's gonna murder and kidnap a woman and rape her. This is a lot. This is a big step up in crime from small time bullshit, the cops said. We looked it up and we found out in 98 he tried to kidnap two young ladies in a car and take them to the inter. Now this was when he escaped from jail in 98. And I'm gonna read you.

[Jimmy Wissman]

What?

[James Pietragallo]

I'm gonna read you an article from the Daily News Journal from September 5, 1988. Here we go. Attempted kidnapping and aggravated assault. Charges were lodged against a workhouse escapee who allegedly tried to abduct women at knifepoint Thursday night. Murphysboro police said Donnie Frank Jones Jr. 23, at that time, an inmate from Winchester was serving time for misdemeanor assault convictions when he scaled a razor wire fence Thursday afternoon and escaped.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Holy.

[James Pietragallo]

Misdemeanor assault convictions. Meaning he's not gonna be in there very long. He didn't get 10 years for that, probably.

[Jimmy Wissman]

What is that, 12, 18 months tops. It's a misdemeanor assault.

[James Pietragallo]

I can't even imagine. I mean, even with a record, still you need to scale razor wire walls. That's insane.

[Jimmy Wissman]

That's convicted murderer shit.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah, I gotta get outta here. They're gonna put a fucking needle in my arm.

[Jimmy Wissman]

They're gonna give me the chair. I'm running.

[James Pietragallo]

Shit. He said he scaled a razor wire fence Thursday afternoon and escaped, said Allen Miller, workhouse superintendent. Jones was also serving time for a parole violation. Okay, that makes sense. Jones had requested a furlough because his grandfather died, Miller said. While checking his background, workhouse authorities found that he had escaped twice before from other facilities. Holy fuck. The workhouse was preparing to transfer Jones to the more secure jail, but when he found out he had escaped. Because they were like, oh, not only can you not get out for a furlough, we're actually. You actually shouldn't even be here.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah, he'd put you somewhere harder to get out of.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah. Yeah. Murfreesboro police officer Anthony Tostanosky reported Jones allegedly stole a 1988 Ford Taurus owned by Donald Conway of Murfreesboro when it was parked on Rutledge Drive. The car, which had a knife inside, was abandoned near Home Depot. Jones later approached Kelly Stites and Jennifer Sauls of Illinois at a service station on Old Fork Parkway. He got into their car and told them he needed a ride to the interstate.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Oh, my God.

[James Pietragallo]

And they said at times, at all times, Mr. Jones was displaying a knife to the victim. It's terrifying. He's holding two women at knife point and getting told they need to drive him somewhere. So Steets, one of the young ladies, repeatedly told Jones, quote, sir, I need you to get out of the car. That's super calm.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Sir, I'm gonna need you to get out of this car.

[James Pietragallo]

Sir, I need you to get out of the car. Well, he's got. I said drive me. Sir, I'm gonna ask you one more time. Get out of my car. That's pretty impressive. Fucking keeping it together. Listen.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Can't take it with me.

[James Pietragallo]

Holy shit. And he just. He kept saying, go, go with the knife. And she kept saying, I'm not doing it. Get out of the car. So eventually after a few minutes, he just jumped out of the car and ran away. Wow. He's like, if I kill them, I can't drive this car. Start stabbing. I'm going to drive the car with stabbed women hanging out of it. That's not going to work.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Dead bodies in the car so bad.

[James Pietragallo]

I'm here for a misdemeanor drug charge. I shouldn't have been escaping even. This is. This is crazy.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Misdemeanor assault. It's not even that bad.

[James Pietragallo]

Assault. That's. Yeah. So I guess he ran down Chaffin Lane Tostanasky searched the area and found an empty school bus with the door open. As he started up the stairs, Jones yelled, just shoot me. I'm back here. Just shoot me.

[Jimmy Wissman]

He got me.

[James Pietragallo]

I want to die. I'm going to kill myself. I'm good. Just shoot me. The officer drew his weapon and walked toward the rear of the bus. He repeatedly told Jones that he wanted to see his hands.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Jones.

[James Pietragallo]

While he approached, Jones cut his left wrist with a small pocket knife. That's his big suicide attempt. He took out a Swiss army knife and fucking tried to slash at himself there. So he said at that point, the cop says, at that time I took out my OC spray and told him to put the knife down. Jones refused. So the cop sprayed him with pepper spray.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Shit. I said shoot me, damn it.

[James Pietragallo]

Not with that. So when the guy, when Jones closed his eyes. Ah, with the. Yeah, with the spray. That's when the cop kicked the knife out of his hand and then got on him. Officer Amy Cassidy reported Jones curled his legs around the legs of the bus seat and wouldn't let go. They were trying to get him around. Oh my God. Think of how pathetic this is.

[Jimmy Wissman]

This is really sad.

[James Pietragallo]

This is like a five year old having a tantrum. I'm just wrapping my legs around this thing and you're not. No, you can't make me. This is ridiculous.

[Jimmy Wissman]

We can and we will. You're getting out of here.

[James Pietragallo]

And that Officer Cassidy said he received blows to his legs to force him to release his hold. They just beat his legs like the Murphy brothers. Beating up fucking Rick James on the couch.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Probably with a stick.

[James Pietragallo]

Probably with One of those collapsible. Oh, yeah. Okay. Crack, crack, crack. Three shots on the shit.

[Jimmy Wissman]

You'll let go.

[James Pietragallo]

You'll let go. So then they said they asked him about the attempted kidnapping. And he said, quote, it was me.

[Jimmy Wissman]

We know.

[James Pietragallo]

We got it. He goes, it was me. I just want to die. My grandfather's dead. And they wouldn't let me see him. I just want to die. That's what he said. So Jones told police that he had abandoned the car and where he abandoned it. Even so they had found it near Home Depot with his workhouse clothes inside and another knife. So this is who we're dealing with.

[Jimmy Wissman]

My God.

[James Pietragallo]

He was charged with.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Naomi likes that guy.

[James Pietragallo]

She's married to him, for Christ's sake. He was charged with attempted aggravated kidnapping, plus possession of a weapon, theft and escape. All this from a misdemeanor assault charge, you fucking dummy.

[Jimmy Wissman]

How long do you do for that shit?

[James Pietragallo]

Well, I'm not sure exactly, but two weeks later, there's an article in the newspaper, quote, more guards are needed at the Rutherford county workhouse. Officials have said before. And cincinnat made escaped late last summer, but tonight they're going to do something about it. The county commission's public safety committee meets at 6 tonight in suite 205 of the courthouse. Members of the workhouse board will request a budget amendment to hire two correctional officers here. More guards were requested last spring when the budget was being prepared for the fiscal year. The superintendent said, I don't understand why it wasn't put in the budget. He said that they want. Basically, they need money for two guards, which would have helped.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Imagine that all they're asking for is 2.

[James Pietragallo]

2. It was turned down, which is hilarious. And then someone escaped. They're like, how about now? Holding chicks at knifepoint. What about now? Now can we have two extra guards, you fucking dummy. They probably let him escape. Let him escape. We'll get to hire more people, you know what I mean?

[Jimmy Wissman]

He stole a man's Taurus, for Christ sake.

[James Pietragallo]

Shit. So, yeah, the workhouse board voted Sept. 3 to request the budget amendment so he could fill the two jobs that were in the budget. The starting pay for the guards is. This is 1998, is it $32,000? $20,450. Fuck you.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Not a chance.

[James Pietragallo]

Fuck you. You could work if you want. I mean, you could work in a toll booth and make more than that.

[Jimmy Wissman]

What year was that?

[James Pietragallo]

1998.

[Jimmy Wissman]

1998, I made $9,000 working at a pizza joint part time.

[James Pietragallo]

Exactly.

[Jimmy Wissman]

There's Not a fucking chance. I'm watching, guys.

[James Pietragallo]

Fell in this.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Fuck you. Fuck you for 20 grand for $10 an hour. Eat my asshole.

[James Pietragallo]

Not happening.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Not a chance.

[James Pietragallo]

A dick all the way.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Suck my hemorrhoids.

[James Pietragallo]

The annual cost for two guards is $41,000 because of health benefits and workers comp costs.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Wow.

[James Pietragallo]

So basically he got time served for that and got out. The time he was in for, the misdemeanor, whatever. They just ran it all concurrent with that and he didn't get any time for that. Really. He broke out of jail, stole a car, held two women at gunpoint, ran away, got fucking pepper sprayed, beaten with batons, had to be dragged off a bus. So that's even resisting arrest. I mean, you could pile the charges to the moon and they were like, just keep doing what you're doing.

[Jimmy Wissman]

He's probably pretty embarrassed. It was in the newspaper.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah, he's gotta be. He feels like an idiot, this guy. He really does. He said he felt like a real dipshit.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Nancy Grice is talking about this. She's speculating.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah. Now what they. They said he's had 21 prior felony convictions. He has 13 forgeries in coffee County. Aggravated assault, aggravated burglary, attempted kidnapping, assault, and two felony escape. Convictions, convictions, convictions, convictions. This is crazy. Wow, that's a lot. They said, ranging from forgery to aggravated assault. Now more crime here. Scattered public records that you can pick up on here. Found another. Some more crimes besides those. Counterfeit controlled substance, I guess. Selling a counterfeit controlled substance. Send somebody selling burner bags, basically. Probably selling bad pills or bad powders. This was a third offense for him for doing this. By the way.

[Jimmy Wissman]

He does this a lot.

[James Pietragallo]

That's a class E felony. Forgery. Over $10,000. That was one of the 13. Theft of property, burglary, drug related felonies, certain amounts of what? Anhydrous ammonia violations. What the fuck is that?

[Jimmy Wissman]

Anhydrous?

[James Pietragallo]

Is that something you use to make something else? It's gotta be an additive to something. Maybe a meth thing. I could see that sounds like something you'd put in meth.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Ammonia. Fuck yeah. Yeah.

[James Pietragallo]

Then they also found this was a little. They had to do some digging here. A 1993 rape arrest for him.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Oh, what?

[James Pietragallo]

Gee, the more you look into him, the more he's starting to really look like the guy here. They said. Yeah, it was not documented very well, but. But it seems like that Something happened in 1993. There was some sort of rape arrest. We don't know if he was Convicted for all of that. He's also a dad, though.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Stop it.

[James Pietragallo]

Of course. Naomi. Too many kids to fit in the Mustang, right?

[Jimmy Wissman]

He's got four of them.

[James Pietragallo]

He's got a wife. He's got Naomi here. She goes to the nursing program at Motlow State Community College. He has most those counts. Put it at four kids. Multiple young children. He has at least four. He drives a red pickup truck, sells drugs on the side. And basically, neighbor said if you ask him what he did for work, he gives kind of a vague non answer and then changes the subject. Rape, forgery, escape, whatever comes across. So Naomi is the connection here. She'd been. They weren't in the exact same class, but Naomi was there first. But they overlapped for a while.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Got it.

[James Pietragallo]

That's how it went. And Donnie had even driven Naomi and Megan to clinical rotations a couple times. So that's how he knew her. There. Now the burner phone. This is the same burner phone. They find out, we'll talk about. You know what? We'll save that for a second. Okay. Crime scene connection. Get to the burner phone. We do the DS stuff. The crime scene. Awold Road, or Awalt Road, is a remote stretch of blacktop along the edge of Tim's Ford Lake. The nearest building was a church over a half mile away.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Okay.

[James Pietragallo]

The nearest house was across a small bridge. So this wasn't a road where people would hang out after dark. Really? There's no street lights, there's no neighbors, no security cameras. This is, you know, this is where you'd go when you don't want people to see what you're doing. Essentially. Donnie grew up in this area.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Is that right?

[James Pietragallo]

Oh, yeah. His family owned farm property right in this area, Right in the vicinity. He knows all of these roads. He knows which roads have people watching them. He knows which roads people are on. He knows which roads are really rural and completely abandoned.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Completely populated, yeah.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah. Yep, that's what they think. They said he drove Megan here or drove her body there post murder. Deliberately. This is not a panicked dump site. This is a well thought out. This is where he planned to dump this body, period.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Why?

[James Pietragallo]

Cuz he knows. They said he lit her on Fire approximately 12:45am Based on the burn progression. When they responded, he concentrated the accelerant on her pelvic region, then drove away thinking clean.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Done.

[James Pietragallo]

Done. Yeah, but fire doesn't burn everything uniformly, especially bodies. The nursing school shirt on her torso survived. Partially. But even if it didn't, the tattoos survived and they Would have found out who she was real goddamn quick. So the detectives here, Lindemann, the one who followed the Berner phone trail, Very good detective, by the way.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Nice work.

[James Pietragallo]

That's great detective work. He had no leads, so he made leads out of something. I will make something a lead if I have to. I'll look for shit that's pretty amazing.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Just start knocking until somebody gives me a fucking weird answer.

[James Pietragallo]

That's it? Pretty much, yeah. He's the guy who identified all of these people. He's also the one who would answer Kelly Sharpton's texts when she would text about her daughter. It's horrible. They said this is the way he said. Detective George Dyer put it plain. Years later, Megan Sharpton's last few minutes of life was pure hell and panic and fear. And they said, and Donnie Jones is just a cold blooded killer. All right, let's talk about the gps, because this is interesting here. Okay? GPS investigators obtain data from four devices. Megan's phone, Donnie Jones personal phone, Timothy Gifford's phone, the guy who bought it all, and the burner phone.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Okay, but they don't have her phone, right?

[James Pietragallo]

They have the one that was called at Chris house. That's the only one they have. So they have all four of these devices. And what they do when they do this is when they're comparing ships in court. They'll put a big map up and they'll put all your movements and then it'll overlap them to see how they go. So that's what they do. What they find is really bad for Donnie. On the evening of July 1st into July 2nd, the burner phone moves in perfect parallel with Donny Jones personal phone. Meaning he has both phones, same route, same timing. Both devices track together from Tullahoma outward into rural Franklin Bedford County. The burner phone was in his vehicle. Obviously he's carrying both. The GPS data then maps to three critical locations. One where investigators believe Megan was first met or intercepted because they think that basically she went to a place where she thought this would be and this guy pulled up behind her. And she thought that he was the guy she was supposed to meet. So she got out of the car voluntarily to talk to him. And that's when he could have have disabled her. Basically. Location two, Jones's family farm property.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Ew. What?

[James Pietragallo]

That's where it went down. Not by the pink person. All that horseshit the other guy was saying. They said that this property is where the rape and murder are believed to have occurred, been occurred, or have occurred, is at his family Farm, because that's a place where he could go and have plenty of time. And he knows who's there, knows who's watching. Then location three is Awold Road, which is the disposal site. So we see his phone with the burner phone going through all this. The Jones family owns several farms in that area. And that's where they felt she was murdered, on the farm property. So they go to the farm property that the GPS led them to, because that's where he was that night. So let's find out if he left any evidence. And they find a burn barrel there.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Really?

[James Pietragallo]

Not the same one, obviously, that she had, because it's back at their house. But they look in the burn barrel and they find charred remnants of a purple scarf with star patterns printed on it.

[Jimmy Wissman]

It's hers.

[James Pietragallo]

It's hers. Yeah. So she was there. Megan's sister Carrie recognized it immediately because she'd given the scarf to Megan as a gift. So she knew Jones had burned it along with whatever else might have connected him. He stripped his truck down. Probably burned all that shit. He burned the scarf. He used his burner phone. He created a false alibi to claim that he was with his kids all night. But the gps. The GPS says otherwise. The burn barrel still has ashes. Yeah, they said that's where we feel like she was murdered, which is wild. Now, remember what she said to her friend when she was 12?

[Jimmy Wissman]

I'll leave scraps of me all over the place.

[James Pietragallo]

I'll leave scraps of clothes for you to find me.

[Jimmy Wissman]

And she did. On accident.

[James Pietragallo]

How did we find her? Scraps of clothes left behind. That's amazing. That's wild shit. That's crazy.

[Jimmy Wissman]

You know what I. Where? So where the car was left, where he abducted her, is that where he caught her?

[James Pietragallo]

Probably. That's where they think. Yeah.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Got to. Because otherwise he's got no way to move that car over.

[James Pietragallo]

Exactly how would he have moved the car? This is not a two man operation. This is a one person doing this

[Jimmy Wissman]

in the dark himself.

[James Pietragallo]

Yep. So this is fucking horrible. Obviously here. Then they find out something even crazier. No, through his phone records, they find out that on the burner phone, he'd use the same burner phone to call several other numbers, most of them belonging to women working in elder care and nursing. Megan wasn't even his first choice. He just went down the line of phone numbers that he had until he found somebody that would agree to do this.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Why does he.

[James Pietragallo]

This is insane.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Why is he. What's he. Is he married to Naomi? For this idea.

[James Pietragallo]

I don't know. I don't know what. He just got a wild hair up his ass that he's gonna do this. But this is crazy. This isn't even. There's that one chick, let me see if she'll. Nah, nah, she went. Went person to person until he found. I'm going to rape and kill somebody. Don't care who it is.

[Jimmy Wissman]

I care about one thing and that's that they are a worker.

[James Pietragallo]

That's it. Well, that's who I have access to. Her. Yeah, that's who I have access to. I don't know any. What other chicks does this idiot know? You know what I mean?

[Jimmy Wissman]

Why does he want to do this?

[James Pietragallo]

I don't know why anybody wants to do this. This is disgusting and horrifying.

[Jimmy Wissman]

But I mean, why did he get this wild hair that this.

[James Pietragallo]

I don't know.

[Jimmy Wissman]

This is fucked up.

[James Pietragallo]

The cop said he's just a cold blooded killer. I don't know what else I know that's a little too reductive for the whole situation. And psychologically we'd like a bigger picture, but in the end that's what we got. He's just a murdering asshole.

[Jimmy Wissman]

The why is so important to one side, not to the law. But this I want to know why so bad.

[James Pietragallo]

What's wrong with this fucking guy? Yeah, apparently a lot based on his past. He's like a lunatic. So what they do is they announce an arrest in the case, but what they do is they don't arrest him for murder yet.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Okay?

[James Pietragallo]

They arrest him for weapons possession because they searched his home and they found a rifle and ammunition inside. And he is a many time convicted felon. So he's prohibited from possessing them. He's arrested on felon in possession of a weapons charge.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Blackjack felonies are way worse.

[James Pietragallo]

That's bad stuff.

[Jimmy Wissman]

You're 21, sir.

[James Pietragallo]

That's no good.

[Jimmy Wissman]

One more is a bust.

[James Pietragallo]

So they said they can hold him now on a half a million dollar bond while they wait for the results of the DNA just to make sure. But they're holding onto him just so they know. Even though they know it's coming back. But this is the DNA is, pardon my pun here, the kill shot. That's it. They got that and all the maps and everything else. You're fucking toast.

[Jimmy Wissman]

And they got him sitting in jail knowing that they're out there just testing

[James Pietragallo]

DNA, Just a testing things.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Have a sit for a minute.

[James Pietragallo]

Well, while they have him in there, that's when they get his DNA. As we'll talk about late October 2012, they bring him in and the semen recovered because they have a match through there. When they confront him when he's in custody, his first response is, quote, I ain't ever. I had no contact with her. I knew of her. I ain't ever. Was the first thing he said out of that, I ain't ever. I had no contact with her. I knew of her. Then they were like, yeah, but, you know, we have all this, you know, GPS and all this. And he said, I'm with my kids all the fucking time. That's all I fucking do. I love my fucking kids. God damn it. Little fuckers.

[Jimmy Wissman]

I'm with my fucking kids all.

[James Pietragallo]

All the fucking time. That's all I fucking do.

[Jimmy Wissman]

All the fucking time.

[James Pietragallo]

That's when he invited police, go search my house. I'll provide you with my DNA sample. No problem. Swab me. I am good.

[Jimmy Wissman]

He's confident they got shit in his mind.

[James Pietragallo]

He burned it all. But the problem is he didn't. So there's the DNA hit, obviously. Now they test his DNA. It matches. Big shocker there. Gotcha.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah.

[James Pietragallo]

He's sitting in jail with the gun. So then they sit him down for another interrogation. They go, hey, dickhole, little question for you. Your DNA matches with what was inside of her. How'd that happen? Possibly. Now he's got a whole new story. He said, I didn't want to tell you all this. I didn't want to make my wife mad, but I've been having a consensual affair with Megan in secret. It's a secret affair we've been having. Real, Real hush, hush life.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah.

[James Pietragallo]

And then we. We had been together that night, and she left afterwards. And I don't know what happened to her after that. Somebody must have got her. That's it. So. Huh.

[Jimmy Wissman]

She likes guys named Anie, like Ronnie and Donnie.

[James Pietragallo]

Donnie, Donnie.

[Jimmy Wissman]

All sorts of people, Robbie. Oh, that's right.

[James Pietragallo]

Whatever. So they're like, okay, interesting.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Tell us more.

[James Pietragallo]

That's funny. So they go through all this shit and they're like, well, you've never contacted her before and she's never contacted you. None of her family knows who you are. None of her friends have ever heard of you. Don't think you were having that secret of an affair. Sorry, Chief, she may or may not

[Jimmy Wissman]

be sleeping with her boyfriend's roommate. And how many people could she possibly. How many people be having affairs with?

[James Pietragallo]

We don't. Yeah. This is crazy now. October 26, 2012, is graduation day. At the Tennessee Technology center in Tullahoma. They held the ceremony there and 18 of Megan's classmates received their degrees, including her. They put Megan on the program. They decorate her seat, they leave her a seat there. When her name is called, everybody stands up and. And her mom goes up and accepts it. And she said, I'm not the only person that should be sad. Every patient that she would have had, every person that she would have touched should also be lost like I am. So she said that she wanted this and she worked hard for this and she's happy to. She's getting her diploma even though she's obviously not going to use it now. November 5, 2012. A Franklin Grant county grand jury returns an indictment against Donnie Jones for first degree murder. Two counts of. This is crazy. Especially aggravated kidnapping. I didn't know that was a charge, but I really like that. Especially aggravated. Now there's aggravated, then there's. Hold on a minute.

[Jimmy Wissman]

This is a secret.

[James Pietragallo]

Aggravated, egregiously aggravated kidnapping. This is a lot.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Double aggravated. A higher aggravation level. What does that equate?

[James Pietragallo]

Especially aggravate. I think that means you killed them afterwards.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Probably has to be right.

[James Pietragallo]

And two counts of aggravated rape as well. So he has got. He is lined up very fucking well for certain things here. The DA says he's been charged with first degree murder and will face justice in our court system. This is rural middle Tennessee. We don't see things like this here where we don't experience that level of brutality or violence or just coldness. Well, you do because you're looking at it now.

[Jimmy Wissman]

You got it.

[James Pietragallo]

The family reaction. Carrie, that's Meghan's sister, talks about how hard this has been for Everybody. She said, July 2nd was definitely one of the worst days of my life. I received the phone call and my world was turned upside down. She said that her sister was very trusting. She said she was under the impression that there was a job opportunity so she was going to help her family and herself and to help this so called person. She was doing it to do better for everyone around her and she got taken advantage of. She said, my goal is to be Megan's voice and to let others become more aware that it's right here and that it's very real. And if I could help one other person from what my sister had to go through, then that's me speaking for her. And she says to ask her about the court hearings approaching. And she said, I hope that there's peace for Megan. I hope that there is no justice. I Hope that there is no justice and that. I know that sounds crazy. I just hope that it never happens again. She may not be here in flesh and blood, but she's here. Her soul and her spirit are still here and they always will be. So he pleads not guilty.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah. Really.

[James Pietragallo]

He shackled hands and feet, walks into the courthouse and there is Kelly, mom holding a picture of Meghan. He starts mouthing words to the gallery. We don't know if it's directly at her. Everybody's saying, I didn't do it. I didn't do it. That's what he's doing. He's mouthing words. I didn't do it. Not me.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Get him. Kelly, just now.

[James Pietragallo]

Kelly is watching now. These people are fucking decent, nice people. They're not. Yeah, they're not that tough.

[Jimmy Wissman]

You don't walk in front of me when I know they got your DNA, saying, I didn't do it. I didn't do it. I'll fucking open you.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah. No, these people are. This is a very nice family.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Good for her.

[James Pietragallo]

That's why she's so nice and wanted to be a nurse and want to help people. And, I mean, their kindness trickles down. And I'm the same way. I want to, you know, I want to gut you. But I get this because Kelly says he knows it in his heart. The universe knows who's guilty. I don't have to argue with him. The police have done their work. This is a person who is very settled and sounds like they've gone to therapy.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah. They've got his DNA.

[James Pietragallo]

They got his DNA. You don't have to fight. Don't make it on you. The detective also said that in this preliminary hearing, he brings up the 98 Escape with the kidnapping, saying this is a thing that he does. So they said 14 years before Megan, he tried the same move during one of his felony escapes. He carjacked two young women by force and ordered them into their own car and made them drive toward the interstate and picked up the attempted kidnapping charge. So the evidence against him. Wow. Jesus Christ. It's a lot. They have DNA, gps, Timothy Gifford's testimony, the burn barrel on his family's farm with scarf remnants. They have a lot.

[Jimmy Wissman]

It's pretty heavy.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah, but the way their prosecution's working here, they're really not haphazard. They are basically going at this like it's a close case.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Okay.

[James Pietragallo]

They're dotting the I's, crossing the T's. They're doing everything they need to do. They talk about also the burner phone that he used to call multiple women as well. And yeah, that is wild. The sheriff said Jones had attempted the same scheme with at least one other woman before targeting Megan. That woman had decided to bring her mother along to the, quote, interview. She didn't show up alone. When Joan saw she wasn't alone, he didn't even do the interview. He just canceled the meeting. What? He just said, never mind. Got in his car and drove away. Because she showed up with somebody. She was dead fucking meat, this girl.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Brilliant.

[James Pietragallo]

They took her to court. Dead meat.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Very smart.

[James Pietragallo]

Yep. I mean, think about that. She goes, how would you even feel like that? Holy fuck. This person had me in his sights, ready to.

[Jimmy Wissman]

So smart of her to bring her mother.

[James Pietragallo]

Bring up. Yeah. Cause it was a rural area. Yeah. Don't go out there by yourself. So, yeah, they think that the Jones family farm is where he did it. Megan's car was found 15, 20 miles away. And then the other one was the disposal site. Nothing more. Took her from there, brought her here, did what he did, brought her there, dumped her through the purse as he's

[Jimmy Wissman]

driving on his route home.

[James Pietragallo]

That's it. The death penalty is on the table, of course. Yeah. The DA says his office is still considering it. They're waiting for a mental health evaluation before they.

[Jimmy Wissman]

21 felonies. He pulls this shit, and if he's sane, we're killing it.

[James Pietragallo]

This is crazy. Yeah. So they asked the judge for. Then he asked the judge for a speedy trial.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Oh, he wants to die too.

[James Pietragallo]

I don't understand. They have all this evidence. It's not like they don't have the evidence. And you're trying to cut them off in the past. This just gives them more time to really arrange the evidence in a really palpable way.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Getting speedy is bad for you because you want to get professionals to dispute the shit that they're going to say.

[James Pietragallo]

Exactly. And it ends up. It doesn't end up being very speedy. As the pre trial motions grind on here into early 2013, then on February 4, 2013, here, death penalty on the table.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah.

[James Pietragallo]

He makes a deal.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah. He says, yeah, this is. I'm going in the fucking chair. This is bad. They're gonna kill me. The whole town's. The whole town's gonna kill me. Not just like, like, you know, on the death penalty, you know, the lethal injection table. The whole town's just gonna beat me with sticks until I die.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Every. Every person he's told in jail is going, you did what, bro? You're Gonna die.

[James Pietragallo]

Jesus. They're gonna fucking kill you.

[Jimmy Wissman]

They're gonna kill you for this.

[James Pietragallo]

They had maps about. Yeah, you're dead, dude. You're fucked.

[Jimmy Wissman]

You thought a burner, dude. No.

[James Pietragallo]

My God. So February 4, 2013, is the deal. That's what they do. He pleads guilty to first degree murder, and that takes the rape and kidnapping. Charges are dropped. Then this first degree murder has got enough stank on it here.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah, but in prison now, he's just

[James Pietragallo]

a murderer, not a raping murderer. Well, they know what he did. They can still look it up. This isn't 1975. Just google them and stay all.

[Jimmy Wissman]

But the charges still show up. Even if they were. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[James Pietragallo]

You could just look up fucking his name and you can get all sorts of shit popping up and. Christ, listen to this show. Everybody. Hey, everybody hanging around with Donnie Jones right now. Listen to this show.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah, they make these in prison. They can certainly hear them, right?

[James Pietragallo]

They can hear them. I would imagine. So do what you will. So the DA explained that it was because Jones was going to prison for the rest of his life regardless. And putting the family, the Sharpton family, through a full trial for charges that wouldn't change his sentence anyway. He was stupid. It just didn't make sense. Then he changes his mind. Not the prosecutor, Donnie. He goes, never mind.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Did he plead already?

[James Pietragallo]

I don't want any more. Yeah, he already did it formally, but he said, I want to pull it back. 21 days after pleading guilty.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Sorry.

[James Pietragallo]

He files paperwork from his prison cell claiming that his attorney, Joseph Ford, coerced him into a plea agreement. That's the one way you could actually get out of this. He claims that the prosecutors threatened to file charges against Naomi as leverage to force the plea as well. Motion is filed in Franklin County Circuit Court. The Sharpton family is like, what the fuck? It was settled in their mind. It was over, and now it's tumultuous shit again. Yeah. Kelly, the mom who said she just began to try to process her grief, tells reporters she drove out to the bridge where Megan's body was found. When she heard about the filing, she just needed to be somewhere around where Megan was. An attorney is appointed to handle the motion. A mental health evaluation has already been ordered. This drags on a little further now into 2014. In the end, a circuit judge hears Jones's new motion that ultimately formally withdraws his request to go to trial and reinstates the original judgment. Fuck. You go to jail. Guilty. You pled guilty. You're still guilty.

[Jimmy Wissman]

All right.

[James Pietragallo]

They said, now the original judgment goes back into effect. The state, of course, had no objections. I was quite satisfied with the judge's ruling on it. Okay. That's what the family said now during sentencing. The family gets to speak now. Yeah. Kelly is there holding Megan's photo as she is there every. For every court appearance, she watches Danny Jones enter his plea. And then she spoke to reporters and she said, we're letting Donnie Jones go today. He gets nothing more from us. We've never been hung up on what he gets, death or life. Just as long as he's off the streets as the healthiest, most mature.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Pretty well done. Yeah.

[James Pietragallo]

Well done. Well done, Kelly. Well done. Can't imagine what you're going through. And to have. That's incredible. She says the family plans to use the money donated in Megan's memory to establish a nursing home scholarship at the community college in the Tullahoma area. She told a reporter, my heart is open and bleeding, and it will never cold. It will never close. The judge has something different to say, though. The judge says, you, sir, may fuck off. Life without possibility of parole.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah.

[James Pietragallo]

Eaton Dick's line is that way, my friend forever's.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah.

[James Pietragallo]

Join it. Yep. There you go. In spring of 2013, by the way, Kelly Sharpton and the family dedicated a memorial at the A Walt Road site where she was found. That's kind of depressing, isn't it? You'd think you'd want to find a nice park or somewhere that's like. But they want to be connected to it, though, I guess. I don't know how you'd feel.

[Jimmy Wissman]

It's her last place. Apart from wherever they bury her or if they cremate her, it's the last place that she. The poor thing.

[James Pietragallo]

It's tough. Yeah.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah.

[James Pietragallo]

It's not even the last place she was alive.

[Jimmy Wissman]

That's just a terrible. I mean, you can't really go to the last place she was alive. In putting the memorial. I don't think that family's gonna be happy.

[James Pietragallo]

They probably won't want you hanging out in their yard. Bringing more attention now, the memorial stands more than 7ft tall. It has 24 metal stars, one for each year of her life. She lights stars like a monolith? Yeah, I guess. Like a big thing like that.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Wow.

[James Pietragallo]

They're mounted on it and spin in the breeze, the stars do.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Oh. Like pinwheels.

[James Pietragallo]

That's pretty cool. Yeah. Kelly described the meaning. She said, this is perpetual motion. This is the light in life. It lights up the night, lights up the Day. And that was Meg. That's nice.

[Jimmy Wissman]

There's lights on it, too.

[James Pietragallo]

Yep. She also placed a rock at the site with the message written on it saying Megan is her name. She was adamant that her daughter not be remembered as simply as that burned girl found on the side of the road.

[Jimmy Wissman]

That is fucked up.

[James Pietragallo]

Making her a human being, because that's all anybody in the area is going to remember is, oh, remember when that chick was found on the side of the road all burned up?

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah.

[James Pietragallo]

So that's nice that she did that. Yeah. And her. Megan's sister Carrie said, if Megan hadn't lost her life, I feel very confident that Donnie Jones would still be out trying to trick young women. Megan put him behind bars for life. She sacrificed her life to keep everybody else in our community safe. Yeah, that's a. These people are, like, aggressively healthy. Like, aggressively mentally healthy. And these people are kind and compassionate.

[Jimmy Wissman]

They're the absolute opposite of Naomi. What the fuck is her problem?

[James Pietragallo]

Don't know what her. And I don't even know what her deal is. I don't know if she knows anything about this. If he kept this all to him, I don't know how.

[Jimmy Wissman]

She doesn't know anything about it. She lives her life with blinders.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah.

[Jimmy Wissman]

She's married to a piece of shit.

[James Pietragallo]

She married a guy with 21 felonies. So you gotta.

[Jimmy Wissman]

That's a girl that'll overlook a lot.

[James Pietragallo]

She is pretty forgiving, I would say.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Oh, boy.

[James Pietragallo]

So Brittany, her friend who was told to look for my clothes there, she said, quote, she's like, if anything ever happens to me, Brittany. Look for clues. Look for signs. Don't stop looking. I'll leave scraps of my clothing to lead you. And that's exactly what she did. Megan definitely wasn't a pushover. I think she was naive to danger. Big difference for me. Megan is my hero. She's literally saved everybody else that would have ever come in contact with him.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Is Brittany another one that could have been anything. Is that what it was?

[James Pietragallo]

No, no, no. That's her best friend from the time she was a kid. Yeah. She's the one watching True Crime with her now. If this couldn't get any fucking sadder.

[Jimmy Wissman]

What are you gonna do to me today, James?

[James Pietragallo]

Any worse? This is horrible, man. Okay. November of 2013.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah.

[James Pietragallo]

This is only 13 months after poor Megan was dead. Was murdered at a hotel in Chattanooga. Kelly Sharpton mom is found dead from an apparent suicide.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Oh, Kelly. No.

[James Pietragallo]

She couldn't take it. That's horrifying, man. She Couldn't take it.

[Jimmy Wissman]

That's so fucked.

[James Pietragallo]

That's so fucked, man. That's terrible. That poor woman. And think about the poor other kids too.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah.

[James Pietragallo]

Now they lost their sister.

[Jimmy Wissman]

So many kids.

[James Pietragallo]

And their mom. And their mom.

[Jimmy Wissman]

And that's another person that this guy killed.

[James Pietragallo]

And that's exactly what they said. The detective Dyer said Jones essentially killed them both. Sure did.

[Jimmy Wissman]

What a piece of shit.

[James Pietragallo]

What a complete and total utter pile of fucking excrement this guy is.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Oh, poor Kelly. That's horrid.

[James Pietragallo]

She went to a hotel to do it.

[Jimmy Wissman]

I went to Chattanooga.

[James Pietragallo]

She probably lived with people and didn't want them to have to discover it. She went to a hotel in Chattanooga, pronounced dead at the hospital. That is fucking terrible. Awful.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Absolutely awful.

[James Pietragallo]

Her obituary said that she's survived by her parents, her children and of course her fiance, Don Cornelius Jr. Is that right? That's what it said on the Megan's obituary. It listed her parents as Kelly Sharpton and Don Cornelius Jr. Which we know. That's not her father. That's why I was wondering what happened to her father because her mother's boyfriend was listed as her other parent in

[Jimmy Wissman]

the obituary and her last name was not Sharpton. Was it

[James Pietragallo]

Kelly's?

[Jimmy Wissman]

No, no, no, no.

[James Pietragallo]

Kelly Sharpton was her name. Megan Sharpton was.

[Jimmy Wissman]

It was Megan Sharpton.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah. They all the same last name.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Okay, so they all have mom's last name name.

[James Pietragallo]

They all have either that or she kept the father's last name.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Or the dad passed away. And that would make this story so much worse. James.

[James Pietragallo]

Even worse. Let's say he ran off into the night. He's a real jackass.

[Jimmy Wissman]

It's somehow made named all the kids are maiden name.

[James Pietragallo]

That's it. And she's just being strong about it. So I don't know. But that's. That's horrifying, man. Did. And you don't even know too. Is it. Was it the not letting it out?

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah.

[James Pietragallo]

Not letting the fucking anger that you wanted to keep down. And your therapist probably told you don't let it control you.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah.

[James Pietragallo]

Do you need to get that out?

[Jimmy Wissman]

If you don't let it out, then perhaps it manifests too much. Look, we all grieve differently. So there's even in therapy. Grieving is so hard to talk out.

[James Pietragallo]

It's not a magic pill. No.

[Jimmy Wissman]

God, no.

[James Pietragallo]

No.

[Jimmy Wissman]

And when there's too much, there's too much. And when you've got to be the. The beacon of strength for so many people, sometimes it's overwhelming or it's just.

[James Pietragallo]

No matter what, that's just. It was too much for her to handle because that's their daughter getting killed is too much. Especially in the way it fucking happened. To have to deal with.

[Jimmy Wissman]

It's the worst.

[James Pietragallo]

That all the time is horrifying.

[Jimmy Wissman]

It's literally the worst way you can die.

[James Pietragallo]

That is so fucking bad. So that's. Like I said, if there couldn't have been a sadder cherry to put on top of this fucking thing, we just did it. Now in 2017, there's an episode of Murder Comes to Town on Investigation Discovery called Answering the Call. That's the title of the episode. This is now on hbo. Hbo, Max, or whatever the fuck it is, it's on there. It's not good. I'll be real honest with you. I knew it wasn't going to be good. Because from the very beginning, they put up a chiron that says some names and timelines may be altered. And it's like, why? Why am I watching this then? Why don't I just watch fucking knives out then. You know what I mean? At least that's funny. This is horseshit. What'd you do? Yeah, this is stupid.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Events, times, everything's changed.

[James Pietragallo]

Well, what the fuck? Like in the show, they had her mom looking for her, calling the cops on the phone to report her missing before she saw the Facebook post and all that. And it's like, that's not the timeline that I'm aware of here.

[Jimmy Wissman]

It's like a documentary on 911 showing Pearl Harbor. What are you doing?

[James Pietragallo]

Why are you doing this? They're like, everyone slept calmly that morning while the kamikaze bombers dove in for the kill.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Why would you do that?

[James Pietragallo]

Everyone at Bear Stearns ran from their offices, or Lehman Brothers or whatever was the one. I don't remember anymore. I was trying to think of investment companies that are now defunct. All of them.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Merrill lynch, they're all up there, right?

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah, probably. Yep. So that's what happened. Now the only thing that's half decent here is that we know that Donnie. Even in prison. Prison's gonna suck for him, obviously. I hope people are gonna want to stab him or things or do whatever to him. But in addition to that, Naomi divorces him while he's in prison. And this is fucking hilarious. Cause I have their divorce paperwork that I found. It's funny as shit. Yeah. So normally we wouldn't go over something like this, but we kind of have to, because it's just fucked, Donnie. You know what I mean? So they said the plaintiff this is an appeal from Donnie filed after a judgment against him and the divorce. They said basically that Naomi filed this divorce action against Donnie on October 20, 2017. So she didn't file until then. He was five years. Yeah, he was three years over almost four years of convicted. Sentenced to life without before she actually filed anything.

[Jimmy Wissman]

A lot of people say, I'll wait for you until they start realizing how long I'll wait for you. Really?

[James Pietragallo]

How long life without parole is? Yeah, that's a long. That's a long fucking time. So they said that Donny has been at all times during the pendency of this case incarcerated at the Riverbend Maximum Security Incident Institution in Nashville, Tennessee on November 13, 2017. Appellant answered his wife's complaint for divorce raising issues regarding the party's residence. The party's three minor children. Now it's three. It was four before. Maybe the one's an adult by now. That's possible.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Oh, three minor children. I'll bet you're right.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah. And the appellees requested child support. What? Fucking. He's in prison forever.

[Jimmy Wissman]

She wants child support.

[James Pietragallo]

What do you want? Ramen noodles from this man? What does he have?

[Jimmy Wissman]

She wants his half of everything in the house. So she wants to.

[James Pietragallo]

I mean, that's what she wants. She wants that. But she also wants child support.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah, but in lieu of that. So if they get a divorce and they separate everything, she wants child support. And since he can't pay it, she's just gonna say, then just give me everything.

[James Pietragallo]

No, she wants child support from a monthly. Now, I don't. Maybe that's what she can.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Could say that's how she would get it.

[James Pietragallo]

But that's not what she's looking for. No, she wants child support Now, I don't know if maybe he's got some kind of inheritance since his family owns a bunch of farms. If maybe he gets some kind of farm income, some sort of soy windfall he gets or some shit.

[Jimmy Wissman]

I don't know what he's doing, whatever it is.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah, this is crazy. So she wants child support. He then filed a. Or no, she filed a motion requesting that the trial court waive the mediation requirement. Go sit in maximum security prison with this guy.

[Jimmy Wissman]

I'm not coming to Nashville to sort this out.

[James Pietragallo]

No. And set the matter for a final hearing. The trial court granted this motion in 2018, and the matter was set for a final hearing. So they said.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Right, so they skipped mediation.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah, they said, you don't have to skip it. He's in there for Life. Then in 2018, he Donny files a motion requesting that he be allowed to participate in the final hearing via video communication or telephone. Can I at least be there?

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah.

[James Pietragallo]

Okay. Now, there's a law that says the court or statute, the court may hold a hearing under this part at a county jail or facility operated by the department or may conduct the hearing with video communications technology. That permits the court to see and hear the inmate. That and that hear the inmate. And that permits the inmate to see and hear the court and any other witnesses. The trial court, however, didn't deny it. They just declined to rule on the motion and instead just proceeded with the final hearing. They didn't even say no. They just said fuck him. And ignored it and went on.

[Jimmy Wissman]

He knows what we'd say, which is hilarious.

[James Pietragallo]

He's got this. Fuck him. So the trial court. That is amazing. This doesn't rule. So her complaint for divorce is granted and the final order is entered. The trial court concluded that the residence at issue was her separate property. So she gets all of that and assessed child support at $712 a month.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Oh my God.

[James Pietragallo]

Which you could work 8,000 hours a month in prison and not make $712 a month. It would be a possibility. Impossible to make that impressive.

[Jimmy Wissman]

You make 20 cents an hour, right?

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah. Like 18 cents an hour. $712 a month. I don't know what she's expecting here.

[Jimmy Wissman]

He's gonna have to sell his ass. I don't care. Get in there.

[James Pietragallo]

Fuck it. Yeah. I could do it up. So he files a timely notice of appeal.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah.

[James Pietragallo]

And anyway, they have a statute here that says litigation involving self represented litigants can be challenging and difficult. It can become even more difficult and cumbersome when the self represented litigant is incarcerated. Yeah. That's complicated for everybody.

[Jimmy Wissman]

It's not easy.

[James Pietragallo]

No. However, an incarcerated litigant's right to meaningful access to the courts require that the litigant be afforded a fair opportunity to present his or her side of the controversy. Appellate courts frequently have been confronted with cases in which the trial courts have disposed of claims either filed or asserted against self represented prisoners. Prisoners without first addressing the prisoner's pending motions. No matter whether the prisoner is the plaintiff or the defendant. Reviewing courts have consistently held that trial courts error when they proceed to adjudicate the merits of the claim without first addressing the prisoner's pending motion or motions. So the Tennessee law on the issue was well settled, they said. So the court is unpersuaded by Naomi's argument On the appeal that Donny was not entitled to a ruling on his outstanding motion. So they said, we have to at least give him a ruling on it. They said, we cannot endorse the trial court's decision to ignore a motion of substance and proceed as if it had not been filed. Clearly, precedent demands that the judgment of the trial court be vacated in light of this decision. So they said, in judgment of the Dixon County Chancery Court is hereby vacated and remanded for further proceedings consistent with this opinion. Costs of these appeals are taxed against appellee Naomi Jones, for which execution may issue if necessary. How is it on her? The judge didn't rule on something. It should be over now. That's not fair, though. The judge should pay the goddamn court costs. The court should eat the court costs. She. She can't rule on it.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Right.

[James Pietragallo]

It would be impossible for her to have made that situation come out any different.

[Jimmy Wissman]

So because they didn't rule on it and she asked that they rule on it, then when they did rule on it, they're like, well, now you made us rule on it, so now you have to eat the corkots.

[James Pietragallo]

But they didn't rule on it. That's the point. Yeah, if they just ruled on it and said no and gave a reason why he wasn't allowed to participate, it would have been fine. If they let him participate, it's fine. They just ignored it like it never happened and kept going.

[Jimmy Wissman]

But it was all on the judge anyway.

[James Pietragallo]

So that's what I mean. But that's all on the judge. That's crazy. So she can add that to money that she has to pay when she's not getting child support from this dipshit and everything else. So anyway, yeah, that's how it go. Go'd. That's how it goes. Say that's how it goes. And that's how it went. And I got goat out of it. That's not good.

[Jimmy Wissman]

That's how it goed.

[James Pietragallo]

That's how it goed. Here we are. Got all rings up, got all ringed up. So the trial court didn't do that. They conclude that the trial court aired. And so now I guess they just have to have a new trial. It's remanded. So she's got to go back to court to try to get $712 a month from this idiot that she'll never see again.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Raise your kids. Go find a better man. You'll be better.

[James Pietragallo]

That's it.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Don't let this man have any contact with those children, nor Any reason to

[James Pietragallo]

at least three minor children. He can't help the adult going and seeing them, but everyone else, keep the fuck away, man. So he is transferred to different state prisons. First reportedly at Morgan County Correctional Complex. Later he was at Turney Industrial Complex in Hickman County. And then most recently he was at Northeast Correctional Complex in Johnson County, Tennessee, near the Virginia border. Way the fuck out there. So no one's visiting him? No, he is just sitting on his fucking ass in jail, doing which he deserves. Good for him. This is crazy. This Kelly killing herself is horrible.

[Jimmy Wissman]

I hate that part.

[James Pietragallo]

That is so much so fucked. And I just can't say how badly I feel for the rest of these kids whose mother's dead and their sister's dead. And it just sucks, man. That's just terrible. And I don't know, and I'm very impressed actually on this one. A lot of times in small town murder, we. We deal with people that might get convicted, but in spite of the terrible bumbling work of cops or the DA's or fucking idiots or whatever it is, this was detectives that buckled down, didn't let it go.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Pulled strings and volatile

[James Pietragallo]

any tiny thread there, like my nails on that thing. Let's see if anything is behind it. That's pretty goddamn impressive.

[Jimmy Wissman]

And, and I mean, police work is police work, but most times it takes some really dumb luck and for a dipshit just to give a stupid fucking answer and they're like, say again. And then it leads them to a moron that bought a burner phone.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah, that's. That's incredible. This all started. It's just, it's, it's a good police work is all I'm saying. We take tons of shot at dumb cops. That's.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Oh boy.

[James Pietragallo]

We take a lot of shots at them because they're fucking it all up.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah.

[James Pietragallo]

But when somebody actually does their job well, they also deserve some credit for it because they helped a family kind of clear this all up and everything. So, you know, I mean, it is your job, but still specifically in rural

[Jimmy Wissman]

places because there's a lot of, A lot of those rural cops wanna be the hero, but sometimes it's fun to put down your gun and call in the actual heroes when you know you're outgunned here.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah, we need resources. This county can't handle it. We need the state, we need the labs, we need the, the medical examiners,

[Jimmy Wissman]

the TBI in here, they know better.

[James Pietragallo]

It's pretty impressive. So good job everybody there. And Jesus Sharpton family, that's just Awful. So anyway, if you like this show, please tell everyone about it. Get on whatever app you're on and give us five stars. It helps a ton. Like it. Do whatever you do on Netflix for it. It helps us out. Thank you for doing that. Thanks to everyone who has done that. Head over to shutupandgivememurder.com what's there, you may ask? Well, merchandise, first of all, tons. Everything from skateboards to coffee cups to bath mats that we have. Everything. Not only that, tickets to live shows. This is what you want. Next live show with Tickets available is May 2nd in Denver.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Denver, Colorado.

[James Pietragallo]

Very nice theater too. It's pretty awesome. Then we have, oh no, Buffalo. Sold out. We have Royal Oak, Michigan on May 30th. Then after the summer, May 8th, or I'm sorry, May. September 18th in Milwaukee, September 19th in Minneapolis. And then from there, Dallas, San Jose, Sacramento, Tarrytown and Boston. So come out and see us, please. That helps us a lot. And also it's good for you guys because we have a fucking ball at these live shows.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Boy, do we have fun.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah, they are a rip roaring comedy show and we think you will enjoy them. Them, it's not some lecture or some shit like that. We have pictures showing all the jokes. It's really good shit. So come out and see us and do that. Shut upandgivemerder.com you can also follow on social media, malltownmurder on Instagram, smalltownpod on Facebook. So hang out with us there. Get yourself Patreon.

[Jimmy Wissman]

What the hell?

[James Pietragallo]

Also listen to crime and sports and your stupid opinions as well because they're really good shows and we think you'd like them because they're funny. If you like this and you like us, you'll like that. So check that out. Then get patreon. Patreon.com crimeinsports it is where you get all the bonus material. Anybody $5 a month or above. You get every goddamn thing. We put out all the bonus stuff. As soon as you subscribe, you get hundreds of back bonus episodes you've never heard. It's like a whole other feed of a whole other show.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Whole other show.

[James Pietragallo]

It's great. You get one crime in sports, one small town murder, and you get them all. And I think you'll like them. They kind of go together. They all fit in together. For crime and sports this week we're gonna do old timey articles and ads, which is so much fun. Newspaper articles from 100 years or more ago sometimes and crazy descriptions of wild industrial accidents and Murders and all sorts of weird shit. Then for small town murder, my favorite case of the year, the Corey Richens murder trial. Wow.

[Jimmy Wissman]

She's a terrible person.

[James Pietragallo]

She was just convicted of murdering her husband. And she also wrote her a fucking a book for her grieving children featuring and by the way, illegally used image of her husband in the book and all this type of shit. And it's wild.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Write a how to book on how to.

[James Pietragallo]

How to kill your husband. Yeah, that would have been less fucking less offensive. Less offensive. So that's going to be crazy to talk about. I watched every moment of the trial, so I have so much information. Locked and loaded. Jimmy saw the closing arguments. Can't wait to. Can't wait to give you that. Patreon.com CrimeInSports is where you get that. You also get all of our shows that we put out. Crime and sports, small town murder. Your stupid opinions all ad free with your Patreon. And you get a shout out at the end of the show, which is right goddamn now. Jimmy, hit me with the names of the best fucking people on earth who would never ever, ever track us down with burner phones and murder us and try to set us on fire. Hit me with them right fucking now.

[Jimmy Wissman]

This executive producer Gary Howard checking in. Lebanese or Lebanese? North Carolina, Erica Brimhall. Thank you so much. Erica. Alena Zemel. Thank you.

[James Pietragallo]

Thank you.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Corporal Carl Kirschner again. Thank you. Other producers this week. Peyton Meadows, Happy Hours in Carrizo Springs. Carrizo Springs, Texas. I don't know where the fuck that is. That sounds awful.

[James Pietragallo]

Fucking idea to use that.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Janice Hill. It's probably one of those places that asked you for directions and you told me to ask them what makes them think that you're following.

[James Pietragallo]

I know my way around here.

[Jimmy Wissman]

How dare you?

[James Pietragallo]

That was you? Never. Nothing's ever amused you quite so much.

[Jimmy Wissman]

The greatest thing I'll never forget with a dismissive puff of a cigarette. How dare you think I'm from around here. Sniff my lips.

[James Pietragallo]

Couldn't help myself. Get away from me. I couldn't help it. It just came out. No thought was put into that statement.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Rachel Benson. Madison Holtsworth. Jared's kidney stone. I think I said Janice Hill, but we'll say her again. Adele with no last name. Perhaps that one. Colleen.

[James Pietragallo]

Thanks, Adele.

[Jimmy Wissman]

This one chick? This one chick? Is that what that is?

[James Pietragallo]

This one chick? Colleen.

[Jimmy Wissman]

This one chick?

[James Pietragallo]

Chick calling. I think that's what she's going for.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Olivia Maddox. Heather Barnett. Oz with no last name. Rachel Williamson. Melissa with no last name. Cher with an S. With no last name. Moxie Goodwin. Anthony George. Jennifer Walzer. Yep. Walser ny. Yeah. Nanthy Nancy. Buxon Smith. No, that's not it. Bucks. I don't know what I said the first time, but that's stupid. Christy and Drew. Corey. Rose Reed. Maggie Thompson. Kristin Gretka, Mary Hoover. Matt with no last name. Sydney. Vandermer. Merway Vandermerway. Betty Suray. Nancy Nihus. Leah Carr. 3 Karen Erba. Helena Ann. Nick N. Sweet Jane. Heather Sky. Amaretta Waffles. Jamie Holland. Perhaps Jaime. It's probably Jamie. Heather Holden. Gary Barant. Natalie Rich, Cassandra Hopkins. Michael Self. Don with no last name. S' mores box. Gross. A crow. You know, Nicole with no last name. Alan. Miexuguera. Mew. What is that? It looks like French and Spanish together.

[James Pietragallo]

Wow.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Mew like Mario and then Arrow like fucking Teixeira.

[James Pietragallo]

Okay.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Or Teixeira. How do you say that? Maybe it's Musharra.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah, there you.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Maybe Musharra.

[James Pietragallo]

Hey, probably not.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Cassie with no last name. Victoria Diznar. I love you. Victoria with a K. That looks rather Russian. Or, you know, Eastern Bloc. Joy Gilbert, Joe with no last name. T. And Flo Malone.

[James Pietragallo]

Someone waiting for a wall to fall down.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Somebody that probably needs food.

[James Pietragallo]

Maybe we'll get you food. Victoria.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Sheena Haas. Tillipa, Eric. Oh, and he has a last name, but he didn't tell it to us. Sarah Farris. Just Bobby. Kim Kelly. Jim's daughter or sister. Probably his twin sister.

[James Pietragallo]

Kim Kelly, obviously.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Nicole er. Kuehlman. Sue Richardson. Bobby or Richard? Bobby Waterman. Jennifer Patton, Jay Champion, anita Paulo. Paulo. 125. Curiosity shriver, Ashley. Probably reverse those. Roy Pasco, Charlene Palmer or Carly. It's probably Charlene. Jody Brockman, Stormy Reuter, Rooter, Rotter. Rodney Erickson. B. Peyton. Tanya Hill Mountain Mama. Hannah, Muriel. Lot of chewer. Lodo. A lot of French there. Lee Matthews.

[James Pietragallo]

A lot of valves there.

[Jimmy Wissman]

A lot of vowels. Valves. Why did I say valves?

[James Pietragallo]

A lot of valves and valves.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Tina Christensen Mackenzie. Irish. Joshua Pettigrew. Josh Chastain. Katie Blevins. Holly O'. Neill. Kevin with no last name. Genevieveen genevin76. Genevan Jackson, gold Holtz. Paul Brown, Andrew Bootsma, Barbara Beasley. Molly Escamilla, Lucci. Cmf. I'm a computer. I'm not me. Dusty K. Margie. With no last name. Sam Seeger. Oh, Bob's kid. Lori Capriotti. Tish Bell. Nicole Dingman. Bunny with no last name. Michael Bellow. Karen with no last name. Sanji. Sanj Sanjay Sang Melissa Kistner Al Miller Brittany Woolchief Matthew Richards Melvin Hancock Weekums Weekums Joanne Holly or Hale Aiden Fulham Fulham Cheryl Sams Ashley with no last name Kate lucasavich Kayla with no last name Katie Pace Isaac Meow Mao. Right. Meow Cindy Marshall angel with no last name Danny Bellinger Meg Klepp Kim with no last name Robin Middlebrook Kate Burkhart or Katie Jennifer Dewill. Jon Jon Jennifer McGinn. Jerry Jerry Meatball. That's a fun one. Jennifer Carey. Kay. Kay. Bay. Bay Kay, baby. For you and all of our patrons. You guys are the best. Thank you.

[James Pietragallo]

Thank you everybody so much. You fantastic, wonderful people. We cannot tell you how much we appreciate all that you do for us. Us. Keep coming back and seeing us week after week. Tell your friends and if you want to follow us on social media or find out anything about the shows, very easy to do that. Shut up and givememurder.com has dropdown menus that take you anywhere you want to go. That said, thank you so much for joining us and enjoying it either way. And until next week, everybody, it's been our pleasure.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Bye.

[James Pietragallo]

With VRBoCare, help is always ready before, during and after your stay. We've planned for the plot twists so support is always available because a great trip starts with peace of mind.