Murder Soup - Cadiz, Kentucky

Summary

Podcast Summary: Small Town Murder - "Murder Soup - Cadiz, Kentucky"

Release Date: July 4, 2025
Hosts: James Petregallo and Jimmy Whisman

---

Introduction

In the episode titled "Murder Soup - Cadiz, Kentucky," hosts James Petregallo and Jimmy Whisman delve deep into a harrowing murder case that shook the quiet town of Cadiz, Kentucky. Combining meticulous research with their signature comedic flair, the duo unpacks the tragic events, explores the intricate family dynamics, and examines the ensuing investigation that captivated the community.

---

Background: The Champion Family

The Foundation of Cadiz's Tragedy revolves around the Champion family:

• Lindsay Champion (Born 1952): A dedicated employee at the Farm Credit Services, Lindsay was a respected member of the community, earning accolades like the "Friend of Agriculture Award" in 2013. Upon retirement, he devoted his time to farming and church activities.

• Joy Allen Champion (Born 1954): Lindsay’s wife, Joy, was a beloved elementary school teacher who served the community for over three decades. She was also actively involved in the KD's Church of Christ alongside Lindsay.

• Ryan Champion: The adopted son of Lindsay and Joy, Ryan struggled with feelings of inadequacy and jealousy, particularly towards his sister, Emily. His turbulent relationship with success and identity set the stage for the ensuing tragedy.

• Emily Catherine Champion: An accomplished equine veterinarian, Emily embodied the family's pride. Her dedication and success contrasted sharply with Ryan's struggles, fostering underlying tensions within the household.

Notable Quote:

James Petregallo [05:09]: "Median home cost here, though. This is real low. $106,000."

---

The Catalyst: Family Dynamics and Ryan's Struggles

Ryan Champion's sense of failure compared to Emily's achievements created a simmering environment of resentment:

• Adoption and Identity: Being adopted, Ryan grappled with his identity, exacerbating his feelings of being an outsider within his own family.

• Sibling Rivalry: While Emily thrived academically and professionally, Ryan drifted through various jobs without finding his footing, leading to deep-seated jealousy.

• Emotional Turmoil: Ryan's enrollment in the army at 25 was a late attempt to find purpose, but his service did little to alleviate his internal conflicts.

Notable Quote:

James Petregallo [19:48]: "He feels, he feels like his whole family does well and then he's garbage, basically, is what he feels like."

---

The Murder: A Night of Horror

On October 24, 2014, a seemingly ordinary family weekend turned into a nightmare:

• Sunday Dinner Plans: The Champions planned a quiet Sunday dinner with Joy preparing soup in a slow cooker, symbolizing the family's warmth and unity.

• Unexpected Intrusion: Lisa Champion, Lindsay's sister, received a distressing 911 call from her nephew Ryan, finding him bound with duct tape and holding a gun [27:52].

• Crime Scene Chaos: Upon arrival, law enforcement discovered a gruesome scene:

  • Lindsay Champion: Found with a gunshot wound to the back of his head.
  • Joy Champion: Multiple gunshot wounds to the head, found in the basement.
  • Emily Champion: Shot near the dining room table.
  • Vito Reservato: A 22-year-old acquaintance of Ryan, brought into the house, also killed.

• Suspicious Elements: The pervasive smell of soup lingered throughout the crime scene, an eerie contrast to the brutality [30:03].

Notable Quote:

James Petregallo [29:14]: "He said about Emily, the way her body was found was particularly disturbing. I'll never ever forget that."

---

Investigation: Unraveling the Truth

Sheriff Ray Burnham described the Cadiz crime scene as "probably the worst" he'd encountered in two decades [29:10]. The investigation revealed shocking details:

• Ryan's Account: Ryan claimed that Vito, a new acquaintance, forcibly entered their home, leading to a violent confrontation where he felt compelled to defend his family.

• Discrepancies in Ryan's Story: Police found inconsistencies between Ryan's testimony and physical evidence:

  • Gunshot Patterns: The number of gunshots and the manner of reloading suggested a different sequence of events than Ryan described.
  • Vito's Motive: Vito was allegedly desperate for money and had been approached by Ryan years prior to hire him for murder.

• Involvement of Ann Plotkin: Surveillance footage and phone records linked Ann Plotkin, Ryan's longtime girlfriend, as a facilitator between Ryan and Vito, implicating her in the conspiracy [53:03].

Notable Quote:

James Petregallo [51:05]: "The physical evidence at the scene doesn't really match up with all this. It doesn't match up with what he said."

---

Resolution: Charges and Sentencing

The culmination of the investigation led to the arrest and conviction of Ryan Champion:

• Arrest and Charges: On Halloween night, Ryan was charged with four counts of capital murder and one count of kidnapping [55:16].

• Legal Proceedings: Despite initial pleas of innocence and a tumultuous relationship with his attorney, Ryan eventually pleaded guilty to all charges by early 2017, mirroring cases like Bryan Kohberger's [61:44].

• Sentencing: Ryan was sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole, ensuring he would never reintegrate into society [64:47].

• Ann Plotkin's Fate: Ann was arrested for complicity in the murders and served four years before passing away shortly after her parole was denied [67:04].

Notable Quote:

James Petregallo [66:09]: "And he gets no air, he gets no oxygen. No one ever. Doesn't get to put on a show. Doesn't get to do anything. It's perfect."

---

Community and Aftermath

The Cadiz community grappled with the immense loss and betrayal:

• Memorials and Tributes: Emily's peers established a scholarship in her memory, honoring her dedication to veterinary medicine [67:56].

• Family's Reflections: Joyce's sister and other family members expressed profound grief, anger, and a quest for closure, highlighting the emotional scars left by the tragedy [61:06].

Notable Quote:

James Petregallo [64:08]: "You care about only yourself. You have no heart, no compassion, no soul. You are an empty shell."

---

Conclusion

"Murder Soup - Cadiz, Kentucky" serves as a chilling exploration of how deep-seated personal struggles and familial tensions can culminate in unimaginable tragedy. Through comprehensive analysis and poignant storytelling, James Petregallo and Jimmy Whisman shed light on the complexities of the case, offering listeners both insight and reflection on the darker aspects of human nature.

---

Notable Quotes with Timestamps:

• James Petregallo [29:14]: "He said about Emily, the way her body was found was particularly disturbing. I'll never ever forget that."

• James Petregallo [51:05]: "The physical evidence at the scene doesn't really match up with all this. It doesn't match up with what he said."

• James Petregallo [66:09]: "And he gets no air, he gets no oxygen. No one ever. Doesn't get to put on a show. Doesn't get to do anything. It's perfect."

---

Final Thoughts

This episode not only recounts the tragic events in Cadiz but also invites listeners to ponder the profound impacts of family dynamics, mental health, and societal pressures. James and Jimmy's balanced approach ensures a respectful yet engaging narrative, making "Murder Soup - Cadiz, Kentucky" a compelling listen for true crime enthusiasts.

Transcript

[James Petregallo]

Hello everybody and welcome back to Small Town Murder Express.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yay and choo choo.

[James Petregallo]

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

[Jimmy Whisman]

I'm Jimmy Whisman.

[James Petregallo]

Thank you folks so much for joining us today. All aboard the Murder Train pulling away from the station. We have some wild stuff for you today. I'm telling you, as usual, Express is always insane. Well, the regular episodes are insane. They're all crazy. This is a nutty one. It's down in Kentucky too where lots of nutty stuff happens. We'll get to that in a second. Head over to shutupandgivememurder.com get your tickets for live shows in the fall. We are going to be there's a couple left in Grand Rapids that we just released. Then we have in October, there's some left for Seattle the night after Portland which is sold out. And then we have some left for D.C. and Philly in December. So there's not a lot left. Get your tickets right now and come see us. We are excited for that. Shut up and give me murder.com and grab some merch and wear it to the show too while you're there.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Please do.

[James Petregallo]

Please do that also. Big announcement here for Patreon. This is exciting. Patreon.com CrimeInSports Just like the name of our other show that we love. You all in, not out in sports. Yes, Patreon is P a T r e o n.com crimeinsports you get all your bonus material. Not only that, we got an extra one for you this week. But anybody $5 a month or above, you're going to get all the poll hundreds of back catalog of bonus episodes immediately upon subscription. New ones every other week including this week. One crime and sports, one small town murder and you get it all. This week for crime and sports we're going to talk about Jeff Om who was a football player who had just a wild ending to his life and career and everything else. It's crazy. Then for small town murder we're gonna talk about people who marry prisoners, people who marry serial killers, people who are looking for prisoner companions. All of that stuff because we talk about love after lockup we do prisoner Dating Game. Get into the psychology and it's fascinating. And on top of all of that, from now on included in your $5 a month Patreon subscription and you can give more if you'd like, if you think it's appropriate. But and included in that is ad free episodes of all three shows that we put out. Small Town, Murder, Crime and Sports. And your stupid opinions will all be ad free on patreon. So for $5 a month you get everything. Ad free and bonus material. What more can we give you for five bucks? I mean, honestly, that's.

[Jimmy Whisman]

I don't know, man.

[James Petregallo]

You can't get a big Mac for $5. You know what I'm saying? So this is a lot? I think so. There you go. They are, I don't know, 599 or something like that. Patreon.com CrimeInSports is where that all is. Please do that. And you get a shout out at the end of the regular show, too. As if the rest of it wasn't enough. But we'll get that. Also, Jimmy will mess your name up. So that said, I think it's time.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Oh, you bet.

[James Petregallo]

Let's do this. I think it's time to sit back. What do you say here, let's clear the lungs. Arms to the sky. Let's all shout. Shut up and give me murder. Let's do this, everybody. Let's go on a trip.

[Jimmy Whisman]

All right.

[James Petregallo]

All right. Let's do this. We are heading down to Kentucky. We are going to KD's. Kentucky. KD's.

[Jimmy Whisman]

KD's.

[James Petregallo]

Okay, I'll give you one guess on how to spell KD's. Kentucky.

[Jimmy Whisman]

K, A, Y.

[James Petregallo]

No, no, wrong right away. One more guess. C, A, E. Nope. Wrong. Okay, nope. C, A, D, I, z. K. Ds. If I gave you how many tries?

[Jimmy Whisman]

That's not even English.

[James Petregallo]

That's what I mean. How many tries? It's from a Spanish word. So there you go. Which is what you think of when you think of Kentucky. Spanish words.

[Jimmy Whisman]

So it's in the best Spanish food in the country.

[James Petregallo]

Southwestern Kentucky. Yeah, yeah, this is in southwestern Kentucky. Down in there. It's about an hour and a half to Nashville. Almost three hours to Louisville. Here. It's in Trig county. Trig with two GS. Double G. Trig. Area code 270. Only 2583 people here. So not a big town at all. Small, big, like properties. A lot of farms that sort of. They're big into hogs down here. Pigs.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Oh, oh.

[James Petregallo]

This is where the ham comes from. Here. I'll tell you. Median household income here, $37,805. Well below the national average. It's usually about 69. Median home cost here, though. This is real low. $106,000.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Wow.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah, median. That's extremely low. The town motto here A little town with a big heart. Oh, yeah, of course. Little bit of history here. Apparently There is a 1884 book called History of Trigg County. That does not explain the origin of the Spanish name of the town, which is not helpful.

[Jimmy Whisman]

That's from the 1800s. They don't explain it. No.

[James Petregallo]

If you're. It just happened. And they still didn't explain it. If you are writing that book. Chapter one is, why the hell is this town called KD's? That's chapter one. I don't want anything else about it. Exactly. So it's real weird. In 1820, the Trigg county decided to use this land. It wasn't even a town yet. As a site of the county seat. And so they Then they plotted out. They plotted out the town in blocks and named it KD's. They think. Here's the legend. A place called Kentucky Place Names, which is a book called Kentucky Place Names, repeats a local tradition that a Spaniard in the surveying party of the town suggested his hometown of KD's. Spain, I guess. And they said, sure. Good enough.

[Jimmy Whisman]

He loved it. Yeah.

[James Petregallo]

And no one could come up with anything better. No one could come up with a better option than that.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Nobody's getting.

[James Petregallo]

They do say it was definitely not named for the city in Ohio because apparently there's a city in Ohio. Spelling. Yes. But this name does not take the Spanish. The Spanish pronunciation, which I think the Ohio town uses the Spanish enunciation. So it became a trading and shipping center. Lots of ham, ham, ham, ham. Pumping the ham out all over the place. Review reviews of this town. Here we go. Five stars. While I'm not a big fan of small towns. Okay. Hell you here for? This one has been. Yeah, this one has been very charming to me. The people that live in this area are very kind and welcoming. So they've turned somebody who didn't even want to like it here into liking it here. They dock Hollywood at a guy. They Doc Hollywooded him. He didn't want to leave. They tried to pay. You know, they're paying him in pigs.

[Jimmy Whisman]

They got a straight to. It's great.

[James Petregallo]

That's it. That's what you gotta do.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah.

[James Petregallo]

Five stars. I love my small town and have lived here my entire life. It is a small rural community where everyone knows everyone. I think we kind of got that just from the. Just from everything else. Two stars. Gosh. Gosh. Is how we start this out.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Gosh.

[James Petregallo]

Gosh. We have a lot of vacant property and houses that have been on the market for some time that's all. It's a whole review.

[Jimmy Whisman]

You got nobody to. You got nobody to buy it.

[James Petregallo]

Ain't nobody buying one star. Finally, everyone states it's a small town. No, it is not. There's 2,000 people here. I'd hate to see you in an actual big. Yeah, let's put you in a big city. Your head would explode if you think. This is not a small town. There's so much traffic and speeding. Last place I lived was a major city. And the traffic here is worse. No one controls them, so people do what they want. If you say anything they tell you to. Don't have to finish that. Or they gun their trucks by you. That's adult, right? So it sounds like it's like a town full of angry 9 year olds who have trucks. That's the way this person's describing. Park has tree roots in the middle of nowhere.

[Jimmy Whisman]

How much traffic could there.

[James Petregallo]

That's what I mean. How much traffic could there possibly be? Park has tree limbs and dog crap everywhere. Well, when the dogs are crapping everywhere, that's a problem. If you're looking for peace and quiet, then don't come here. 2500 people. I think you're out of your mind. Okay, things to do here very quickly. The Trigg County Ham Festival, everybody.

[Jimmy Whisman]

A festival around Ham.

[James Petregallo]

A festival of ham. Yes. We have a horse show. The Miss Trigg County Pageant. This is the county seat. There's only 2,500 people, so there's probably like 6,000 women in the whole entire county. So you can invite them all. They have that. Then there's the Mrs. Trigg county pageant. That's for all you married ladies out there. Then there's Master and Miss Ham Festival Pageant. So you know, whoever is the king and Queen. Mr. Ham Master. The Ham Master.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Not Mister.

[James Petregallo]

No, Master and Miss Ham Festival pageant. That's a thing that happens. There's a quilt show. A special photo display of Miss Triggy Piggy. I don't know who that is, but Miss Triggy Piggy. We got a warship performance by Jason and McKenna Fisher. We got reunited. Some band. A hamtastic raffle drawing. That's good. The Tim Lynch Band will be there. Yeah. Hamtastic. Sorry to roll over you there, but Hamtastic.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Place is unbelievable.

[James Petregallo]

This is wild. The Tim Lynch Band will be there.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah.

[James Petregallo]

Kaylee Green. Then they'll be baking Kentucky's largest ham biscuit.

[Jimmy Whisman]

What the fuck is the biscuit?

[James Petregallo]

I don't know. Witness a biscuit so large that a forklift has to place it in the largest oven you've ever seen. Then they all eat the biscuit. That's part of it. I don't know if you have to jerk off on it first or not, if it's like that sort of thing. But then they all eat the biscuit.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Okie cookie. Is it like an actual biscuit that has ham stuffed in it, or is it.

[James Petregallo]

I think so.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Where's the biscuit? On a pig.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah, this is the biscuit section. I think it's a giant biscuit. Ham. And then there's a ham and biscuit eating contest, too.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Okay, cut off.

[James Petregallo]

It says. It says, root for your local. Your favorite local celebrity contestant. Who the hell are celebrities in this town? The guy on the morning radio that does the farm report. Yeah. Pedal tractor poles. Tricky, tricky. A mullet contest, of course, and then a beard contest as well. And following it all up with a hog calling contest, of course, as well. And then. And then a Charlie Daniels legacy band will close it all out.

[Jimmy Whisman]

What?

[James Petregallo]

Yeah, Take it easy. This is a.

[Jimmy Whisman]

He's not a good man.

[James Petregallo]

It's a wild time legacy. We're all going to tribute. Don't worry about it. While we eat ham and biscuits. That said, let's talk about some murder, shall we? Murder that does not take place.

[Jimmy Whisman]

This hillbilly shit is awesome.

[James Petregallo]

Death that does not take place from clogged ham arteries. That's what we're going to talk about now. It's a little better. All right, let's go to 2014. So not too, too long ago. Everything's exactly the same. IPhone, Instagram, it's all the same. Okay, The Champion family. Just like Champion. That's what we're going to talk about. Okay, let's talk first about Boyd. Lindsay Champion. That's a great name. Boyd Champion. Sounds like a race car driver who wins all the time. Boyd Champion. Yeah, he goes by Lindsay, though, which is why, I don't know. Boyd. Lindsay goes by Boyd Champion. Sounds awesome. That dude sounds badass. Lindsay Champion. I didn't know if it was a man or a woman for a minute. I was like, what was this?

[Jimmy Whisman]

And how old is he?

[James Petregallo]

He's born in 1952.

[Jimmy Whisman]

So you know back then. Yeah, all about hot rods and shit. Boyd's makes all kinds of cool shit for hot rods.

[James Petregallo]

He's very much into motorcycles that we'll talk about, but he's also like a pastor and all that kind of thing. He's not like a biker guy. He's like, you know, Lindsay. So the family moved to a farm in West Kentucky in the late 50s when he was a young boy. He graduated in 1970 from Trigg County High School and then graduated in 74 from Western Kentucky University with a degree in mathematics and business finance, which is what both of our degrees are in, obviously.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Clearly, I'm impressed.

[James Petregallo]

He meets his wife, a future wife, when she is still in high school in 1972. So he's two years older than her. No big deal. Her name is Joy Allen, and she's born in Trigg county, born and raised. Born in 1954. Her dad's name is Happy. That's how cool she is.

[Jimmy Whisman]

That's nice.

[James Petregallo]

Happy. Happy, that's right. So she graduated in 72 from Trigg County High School and then graduated from Murray State University in 1976 with a degree in elementary education. So these two, even though they get married, they still both finish college and do all of that. So they're both educated, kind of upstanding people. That's the way you'd put it. These are people that you'd see and go, oh, boy. They don't. Yeah, they don't. They don't. They don't do a lot of kinky shit in the bedroom, I bet, is what you'd say. I bet they're pretty. They're pretty vanilla, you know, but in a. Yeah, just dependable. You know what I mean? Very dependable. So she becomes a school teacher, an elementary school teacher, Joy does. And everyone says she loved her students. Wonderful teacher. She teaches for the next 30 years and just loves it.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Sure.

[James Petregallo]

Lindsay is going to work his way up to the director of a farmer's credit union. So what he does, he's obviously doing. You know, it's a bank of farmers. So, like, he's given loans so people can buy more land and enhance their farms and all that kind of shit. That's kind of his job here. He was awarded the Friend of Agriculture Award at the Trigg County Agricultural appreciation dinner in 2013. So they appreciate him. Boy, he's giving out all the loans here now. They try to have a family.

[Jimmy Whisman]

He's winning.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. They try to have a family. And apparently Joy suffers a series of miscarriages. And they also apparently have a son eventually, but he apparently named Austin, who apparently dies in infancy, like, very soon after being born. I don't know if he was born with problems or what the deal is, but they don't like to talk about it. They keep it under wraps, that kind of thing. So they can't have a child, even though they try and try and try. So in 1978, here in, like, December of 78, they decide to adopt a child. They're two people. All they want is a family, and they can't have one. So go out and adopt a child, which is great. Good for them. I mean, that's, you know, that's a. An essentially unwanted child that you're taking. A loving home.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah.

[James Petregallo]

Good for you. So Ryan is the son they adopt now. Ryan. And they name him. They give him the middle name of Lindsay after.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah.

[James Petregallo]

So he's born in 9-78. So he wasn't even four months old when they adopted him. So he's really young kid. And then. So they expect that Ryan's going to be their only kid and they have a farm and all this stuff. And then In April, on April 19th of 1983, joy ends up giving birth to a girl at age 40.

[Jimmy Whisman]

What?

[James Petregallo]

Yeah. Joy is 40 years old, and she's never had any success carrying before this. But now, all of a sudden, it works.

[Jimmy Whisman]

She's got one.

[James Petregallo]

So they give birth to a young girl named Emily. Emily Catherine, they name her. Now, Emily. Emily is the family's pride. And Joy now, the family does not treat the children any different by the way they treat Ryan just like he's one of theirs. It's not like, okay, get out of here, adoptee, go on. We're loving our real child right now. You gotta back up. None of that shit. Which is nice, you know, that's good. But she is really a smart kid, a focused kid, an obedient kid. Totally different. Ryan's a little more. I don't know. He's a little more. When they're young, you'd go, okay, that's how young girls are and that's how young boys are. He's rambunctious and doesn't want to do shit. And she's a little more buckled down. That's kind of how they are for a while. I had a boy and a girl, and that's how they both kind of were. I'm sure it's not everybody, but that's how it is. Pretty common.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah.

[James Petregallo]

Her aunt said that Emily knew from an early age what she wanted to do, and she set her sail and she accomplished what she wanted to do. She graduated from Trigg county high school in 2001, graduated in 2008 from Auburn University with a doctorate degree in veterinary medicine.

[Jimmy Whisman]

She's a doc. She's a vet.

[James Petregallo]

She's a vet. She decided how many little girls, especially in, like, the. You know, in the 80s, said, I want to be a vet and ride horses. That's. Every little girl said that, I want to be a veterinarian, I want to ride horses, I want to be a horse veterinarian. She became a horse veterinarian. Literally. She fulfilled like every 10 year old girl's dream here. So she does that. Yeah, she specializes in equine medicine. She worked at the Barone Veterinary Clinic in Sunset, Louisiana. Her base was at Delta Downs racetrack in Vinton, where she would care for thoroughbred and quarter horses. So that's how good of a vet she is, too. She's being trusted with racehorses, which are, you know, expensive investments. It's not just, you know, my little girl's pony. This is some shit I bought for half a million dollars. Fix it. You know what I mean? So she's very much into animal stuff. Ryan, on the other hand, very jealous of Emily. Very jealous.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Really.

[James Petregallo]

And now I don't know if that. Because he always knows he's adopted. They don't do like the thing where they don't tell him for a while. They tell him from the beginning, very positive. But then we don't know if that's part of it, if he thinks like, oh, you love Emily more because she's.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Really yours, or what if he's feeling slighted? He might say that or feel that way, but jealous.

[James Petregallo]

He's very jealous of Emily.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Gotta be jealous. Yeah.

[James Petregallo]

And a lot of it is Emily accomplishes things and people are proud of her. And Ryan doesn't accomplish things. And no one's really proud of him for not accomplishing anything. So that's the problem, that's the issue.

[Jimmy Whisman]

She's so good.

[James Petregallo]

He does. And everyone said he doesn't apply himself the way she does. It's just not how it works.

[Jimmy Whisman]

So she's good at shit.

[James Petregallo]

She's good at shit. Everyone said he's just as smart as Emily. No one ever said, oh, well, he's the dumb one. Yeah, they said he's just as smart. He just doesn't apply himself, which, I mean, could be described. A lot of us can be described like that. Yeah.

[Jimmy Whisman]

So it's okay, Ryan.

[James Petregallo]

Ryan is just. Well, maybe not. We'll see. He drifts, Ryan, he tries to figure out life. Not like on the street with his thumb out or anything. He's not the hitcher, but you know what I mean. He joins the army when he's like 25, which is real late for joining the army. Yeah, Ryan, that's a real late time for joining the Arm makes no sense. Although that would have been right after 9 11. So a lot of people did join up after 9 11, so that I. That might be a reason why. And he serves almost eight years before being discharged. So he does his time. He does eight years is two stints, isn't it? I mean, it's usually four years.

[Jimmy Whisman]

It's. I mean you, you can reenlist or extend your cut, whatever, but yeah, yeah, it's basically two, eight years. You can sign up for eight though, I think.

[James Petregallo]

Oh, okay. Well, there he is. He's in for eight. He moved, ends up in his early 30s. He moves back to western Kentucky to this area. So he's bouncing around, has no real career. He does odd jobs. He does mainly construction work wherever he can get it, because he knows how to do that, which is you can get work. If you know construction, you can always get work. And that's kind of what he does. He struggles. He can't really figure out what's going on. Everybody else, I mean, his sister's a goddamn doctor, for Christ's sake, being trusted with million dollar racehorses. And this guy is. You'd probably be entrusted with hot mopping a hot tar in a roof or something, you know what I mean? So it's maybe a little different.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Nail gun up there, whatever.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah, yeah. Maybe if he works for a few weeks and we can trust him with the hot mop, then we can give him a nail gun. So it's kind of tough. He drifts from job to job. Family and friends describe him as very generous, even to strangers. He's not a real like an angry guy or anything like that. He's just not real focused and not real good at anything in particular.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Not driven. Yeah. He doesn't have any fucking skills that he likes.

[James Petregallo]

No, no. And he feels, he feels like his whole family does well and then he's garbage, basically, is what he feels like. And maybe being adopted too, doesn't help. So there's just a lot of sibling rivalry. But he also is very protective of Emily and always says how much he loves Emily and how much that's his sister and he's going to protect her and all that kind of thing. So. As of 2014, Joy has now retired from teaching. She's been teaching. She taught for over 30 years and then retired. She also served as an elder and a lay speaker and Sunday school teacher at the KD's Church of Christ, where both she and Lindsay were members. And Lindsey was also a pastor there. So, yeah, Lindsay Worked for 38 years at the Farm Credit Services in Hopkinsville. And after retirement, he liked just hanging out on their small farm, tending to the animals. Everybody said, hard working, reliable guy. The guy, if he says it's getting done, he's going to do it, period. That's it. He's an elder at the church. Everyone describes him as having a dry sense of humorous, which I don't, I don't. That. I don't know what that means in terms of a real kind of a. Yeah, he has a fun side. Like he likes to ride Harleys and shit. You know what I mean? So, like he has a fun side, he has an adventurous side. So he's not all buttoned up. But now, Emily had recently accepted a new position that she is set to begin in November 2014. This is about October 2014. She finds that out, which is another step forward in her career. She's very excited. Her colleague, when she left her current job, Dr. Joshua Hill, wrote, honored to have worked with you. Your passion for your work and patience was evident. So there you go. Her interests are in equine reproduction, sports medicine and preventative care. And Emily has a Weimer rhino named Skyler that's always there with her as well. Obviously she's a vet. She's going to like dogs. And she, in 2014, toward the end of it here, she just ran a marathon locally as well. So Emily's an achiever. Wow. She did more that weekend than I've done in 20 years. Like she really is achieving this lady. That's amazing. That weekend sounds exhausting. I would need like a three year window mapped out for that to get all that done.

[Jimmy Whisman]

I need a couple weeks to recover from that one.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah. And running the marathon would be like every three weeks. I'd run a portion of it. I'm not running it like all at once. That's crazy. Fucking no.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Doing them in a row.

[James Petregallo]

No. 26 miles. Yeah. Not in a row. That's crazy. No, I spread them out.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah.

[James Petregallo]

So in October of 2014 is when she does her, her marathon and she comes home to KD's to visit her family for the weekend before she starts her new job. So she's hanging out and you know, she's got to change locations, but she's happy and excited about this job this weekend on October, it's October 24th is the Saturday of 2014. That's the Saturday of the weekend here. This day here, she's visiting and the family plans to have a nice quiet Sunday dinner together. Joy has been making soup all day on October 24th. She's got all day cooking on the soup in a slow cooker. Yep. It's a Sunday. They're going to church. They got soup on the slow cooker. They get home, and they're gonna have soup later on. Ryan is also at home, so it's a family weekend, which is nice for the parents because with two adult kids in their 30s, they probably don't get everyone at home very often for a whole weekend. Probably feels nice to have everybody home, and then it gets not so nice. Okay.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Oh.

[James Petregallo]

Oh, no. October 24, 2014. This is a 911 call from Lisa Champion, who is Lindsay's sister and who lives across the street from them. These are big properties, by the way. Yeah. Houses set way, way back from the road. So it's not like, you know, across the street, you can throw a baseball from one house to the next. It's not like that at all. So now Lisa Champion calls 91 1. And here's part of the transcript of 91 1. What's your emergency? Lisa says, my nephew Ryan, meaning Ryan Champion, who we've talked about, just came to my door, and his wrists have been tied with duct tape. And I haven't been able to find out what's wrong. Yeah, that's. That's a problem. He doesn't appear to be injured, but I don't know what's happening. So 911 says, do we need an ambulance? And Lisa says to Ryan on the phone, where would I be sending it to? What's going on? He just showed up and said, Call 911. Call 911 with his wrist tape. She was like, okay, picked up the phone, call 911. She doesn't even know why. She doesn't even know what's going on. So Ryan says, right across the road. And the dispatcher says, okay, that's how it goes. Now, Lisa says she was in her recliner in her home around 11am that morning when she heard gunshots.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Oh, gunshots?

[James Petregallo]

Yeah. So she said it's not unusual to hear gunshots in the distance because it's very rural and people are out shooting all the time. But these sounded particularly close, closer than they usually sound. So then within minutes, she said that's when she heard someone yelling her name at the front door, and it was Ryan. So she came to the door. She sees Ryan with duct tape wrapped around his wrists, and he looks horrified. And he's holding a gun, not, like, pointing it at her, but he's got a gun in his hand.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Down his side?

[James Petregallo]

Yeah, yeah. He's got it with his hands taped. So he said he needs, you know, I need help and get an ambulance for my parents and sister. He says. So Lisa told the dispatcher she's gonna go check on her brother and sister in law and niece. And then she hung up the phone. So, yeah, that's what happened. Ryan told her about that. Lisa said, I'm going to go check on them. And he told his aunt that while she was leaving. He said, I know the guy that did this. I know the guy that did this.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Really?

[James Petregallo]

Ryan's telling his aunt Lisa. So police arrive and let's find out what happened in the house here. This is Sheriff Ray Burnham. Says it was probably the worst crime scene I've seen in almost 20 years of doing this.

[Jimmy Whisman]

This is his crime scene.

[James Petregallo]

This is not good.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Sticks with him.

[James Petregallo]

Yep. He said about Emily, the way her body was found was particularly disturbing. I'll never ever forget that. So when they arrived, they're just met with a scene of just carnage and blood. And it's just a. It's a horror show in here. And they said all they. There's four dead bodies in this house right now. You might go, 1, 2, 3. Right, Lindsay, Lindsay, Joy, Emily. Who's the fourth? We'll find out about that. But throughout all of this, they're in here. There's, you know, you can smell blood and you can. Yeah, it's. It's not good. Throughout the whole thing, you don't smell anything but soup because the soup is still cooking on the slow cooker.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Must be French onion.

[James Petregallo]

It's gotta be. Well, it could be. Could be a potato soup. It could be anything really.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Would potato be that strong? It just has to have some garlic seasoning in there.

[James Petregallo]

Huh. If you're cooking a soup all day, that's all you're gonna smell in a house.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah, yeah. So there's a stew will do it.

[James Petregallo]

They're sitting there processing a crime. They can't like take the soup off at this point. They gotta keep everything. I mean, Even if a TV's on, you gotta leave it on. It's the crime scene. Don't fuck with anything. So they are processing a crime scene and doing all this with the aroma of slowly boiling soup kind of malingering or all over the place here. Well, not really malingering. Lingering. Not malingering, but.

[Jimmy Whisman]

So, yeah, just soup. Faking it all over the place.

[James Petregallo]

All over the place. So Lindsay, the dad was found near the back of the house and he has a Gunshot wound to the back of the head. Now, Joy mom is down in the basement, which is interesting, and she's also been shot in the head multiple times. She's been shot. Emily was dead on the main floor near the dining room table. Also shot. And then they find the fourth body. They're like, who the fuck is this guy?

[Jimmy Whisman]

Who.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah, his name is Vito reservato.

[Jimmy Whisman]

What's this? What's this itai doing around here?

[James Petregallo]

Yeah, what the. Vito, we don't belong here. What are you doing? This is not.

[Jimmy Whisman]

He heard there was some pasta faji. What do you want?

[James Petregallo]

Hey, I thought I smelled some pasta fajiu cooking in the fucking. You slow cooking it all day. I come over, bring some bread, a dip, you know, you got to sop it up, you know what I mean?

[Jimmy Whisman]

Potato soup. Malingering. Trying to be chili over here.

[James Petregallo]

You know, it's. It's pretend that it's chili, this fucking soup over here. So Vito here a little bit about. He's only 22, by the way.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Oh, he's a young man, so.

[James Petregallo]

Which is odd. You know what I mean?

[Jimmy Whisman]

He's a graduate going by Vito.

[James Petregallo]

Vito. What's his name? What do you want him to go by? Fuck are you talking about?

[Jimmy Whisman]

Never met a Vito under 48.

[James Petregallo]

It's because you live in Arizona and don't know any Italian people.

[Jimmy Whisman]

But me, I don't know any Italian people. The only Italian people I know are.

[James Petregallo]

In a lot of us named Vito.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Father and Sopranos.

[James Petregallo]

I know fucking 8 year olds named Vito, so this is nothing. The best is an eight year old named Sal. You're like, sal.

[Jimmy Whisman]

It's an eight year old, Davido.

[James Petregallo]

I know him. An eight year old named sal is even better, though. Sal is a guy that can like, get you a good deal on something that fell off a truck. Not an 8 year old. Vito and Sal.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah, I know people named Vito. Is ordering other friends to put gum in somebody's armpit.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah, go. Go put sugar in that teacher's gas tank, would you? Told me to take my gum out of my mouth this morning. So Vito graduated from Hopkinsville high school in 2010, and he has a one year old boy as well, named Adrian.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Oh, no.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah, he's unemployed, struggling financially. And it said that he met Ryan through some kind of construction work here.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah.

[James Petregallo]

So he is found dead in the kitchen as well, lying on his back with a gunshot wound to his face. Shot right in the face. His vehicle, though, is not at the house.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Really?

[James Petregallo]

They find his vehicle 200 yards down the road, which. That's two football fields, that's enough distance to parking away from the house on purpose. No one would park 200 yards away to walk to a property. So as they're processing the scene, they keep commenting on the soup. You just. All you can smell is soup, they said, which is probably more pleasant than most murder scenes smell likely. Yeah, Most murder scenes are gross.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Right. It feels down home around here.

[James Petregallo]

But they said it was eerie and just macabre to have this weird and you could hear it, like, bubbling. And just to have this soup permeating the house was very, very strange. They said that's what stuck with everybody is they could always recall that crime scene by the smell of the soup. They're like, you could just. It's just stuck in your head. So it's real crazy. Now, dad, Boyd, Lindsay died from a gunshot wound to his back while Joy was shot in the head. They were Both shot with a.45 caliber firearm. Everybody was shot with a.45.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Oh, my.

[James Petregallo]

It's a big one. Yeah. Veto 2. Shot right in the face with a.45 at close range.

[Jimmy Whisman]

And that means that. Yeah, his face has a bullet hole in it, but is the back of his head gone?

[James Petregallo]

Yeah, gone. That's why it's a messy crime scene, because there is.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Right.

[James Petregallo]

You know, skull everywhere.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah. At close range is not good.

[James Petregallo]

No. So Ryan is the only one left surviving. Duct tape, gun in his hand. So what the fuck happened here? You know what I mean? This is a mystery. So he says basically, he's a survivor of a home invasion. That's what he said. He said, you know, this guy came in, this guy Vito. I barely know him. He burst in the door. He's obsessed with Emily. He's obsessed with her. And I tried to tell him to leave Emily alone, but he wouldn't leave her alone. So he said that he had gone to his parents house that weekend specifically to teach Emily how to load and shoot a gun so she could defend herself from Vito.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Okay.

[James Petregallo]

Because he'd been making unwanted advances and kind of stalking her, he says. So he said that he was sitting at the dining room table with his sister, and Vito burst through the front door uninvited. Just came right in. They don't lock their doors. It's rural Kentucky. They just got off of church on a Sunday afternoon. So Ryan said that Vito bound Ryan's wrists with Dollar store duct tape, which is kind of insulting.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah.

[James Petregallo]

By the duct brand. If you're going to fucking tie me up. Come on.

[Jimmy Whisman]

It is Very. It's interesting that that's the. That's a.

[James Petregallo]

You're going to trust that.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah. That we're talking about. It's fascinating. We know that.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah. He said he saw it was Dollar Store duct, by the way. Are you gonna trust Dollar Store duct tape with your home invasion? I'm not.

[Jimmy Whisman]

No.

[James Petregallo]

No. That's not good.

[Jimmy Whisman]

I want something the professionals use.

[James Petregallo]

So he said he burst in Dollar Store duct taped Ryan's wrists up and then started coming on to Emily, but not like saying, I'm gonna put it in you, but flirting with her, like, now that he's tied up. How you doing, baby? You know what I mean? Thinking she was gonna be like, yeah, let stinking town and get out of here.

[Jimmy Whisman]

I really like the way you do your hair today.

[James Petregallo]

Oh, man. So then Vito heard the parents come home from church.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Okay.

[James Petregallo]

So they just came home from church, and that's when things got crazy. Ryan said. He said that at that point, he bound Emily as well and held them both at gunpoint. So he's got them both duct taped and gunpointed here. And he said when Lindsay and Joy returned from church, Vito went outside. And that's when Ryan heard gunshots. He said they were outside and he heard gunshots. So he got them before they even came in the house and then brought him in the house. Then he said Vito came back inside in a violent craze, obviously, and shot Emily as well.

[Jimmy Whisman]

What?

[James Petregallo]

And killed her. Then Ryan said Vito had to reload his weapon. So Ryan says the pause in Vito reloading his weapon. Ryan managed to jump up and tackle him and overpower him and pull hands, duct wrists duct taped together in the front. Managed to overpower him, get the gun away from him, and shoot him in the face. Wow, that's quite the fucking tale.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Ryan's a hero.

[James Petregallo]

That's quite the goddamn time. And that's insane. That's incredible because, you know, he's reloading. He's coming for you, obviously, next. Not going to be like, all right, take it easy. I'm going to go rob a gas station. He's going to clean it up.

[Jimmy Whisman]

What a fascinating order of order of murders, though, that they chose to. He shot her when he was in. Yeah. I mean, he was just flirting with her a sec ago.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah. And it makes no sense, too, because she's probably out of him. And Ryan, she's probably the less threatening of the two than a construction worker who was in the army for eight. He's probably, you know, in a fight. He's like, 6 foot 1, 175 pounds. He's probably a more of a formidable fighter, so I would think you'd want to shoot him first, but sure.

[Jimmy Whisman]

But if you also, if you show up to. To. And she's like, what you want out of here?

[James Petregallo]

She's the target.

[Jimmy Whisman]

You think that's the target, the person to kill.

[James Petregallo]

That's a wonder if that's the target of his rage because of, you know.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah.

[James Petregallo]

So it's strange. And Ryan tells reporters right after and police that Vito was a new person to all of us. He said he became dangerously obsessed with Emily after Ryan had brought him to the family home just a couple days earlier. And shortly after that, he tells the news, quote, close quote. He got close enough to me that I could turn the tables, and that was it. He uses the phrase turn the tables in everything he talks about. To the cops, to the press. I was able to turn the tables. I was able to turn the tables. So he said, and that was it. Every minute the entire thing was going on. That's all I was waiting for. I was waiting for an opportunity. He said, turn the table.

[Jimmy Whisman]

See?

[James Petregallo]

Had to turn the table. So in the following days, he's doing all sorts of interviews. He's posting tons of shit on Facebook too. He posts on Facebook really weird posts that, like the next day that, like updates about, you know, how he is physically and mentioning that, you know, he needs money for bills and gas and he could use a job right now. Really needs a job, but Venmo or something. Yeah, it's like 24 hours after his, you know, whole family's been murdered and he's like, anybody got a job for me? Like, it's.

[Jimmy Whisman]

It's a little weird this as a. As a. Huh. As like monster.com?

[James Petregallo]

Yeah. To bump his post up to the top of LinkedIn or some shit. I don't know. So the. I don't know how LinkedIn works because I don't ever have an office job. I don't know. We only know that because we did commercials for them. So, yeah, so that's a little bit odd. They also said he seemed very eager to give interviews as well. He appeared on multiple media outlets and all sorts of interviews. Here's an Excerpt from a 15 minute long interview where he's just not. This is like two days later. He's cool as shit while he does this, by the way. So maybe the army made him stoic. I'm not sure. So they said, I guess the first question in all this, I Mean, it's been a horrific 24 hours. This is the next day. How are you personally holding up? You seem remarkably composed. Ryan said, well, I'm just. I've got one of those mentalities to just soldier through something, really. That's what's been carrying me through this, is that things need to be done. Especially, you know, some people aren't doing so well. And to be honest, I don't really know yet how to feel about any of it. I was kind of at a crossroads of being glad to be out of there. But at the same time. At the same time, it was just. It was just horrible. And it never really set in, you know, never really set in until I'd say. I'd say it took a really good hour to sink in, which an hour is not a very long time.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Your whole family's dead.

[James Petregallo]

And he's like, man, it was a long hour there where I had a little lost for about an hour there. But one episode of the Sopranos, I was back on board. It was fine. I was in. Right. That seems very silly. So the question says the police have been releasing quite a few details. You know, your sister was there, you were there, and your parents were not there at first. They came home without giving away anything that would impede the investigation. I mean, set the scene. You and her were there. And he said, well, I think that delves into. I think that nudges into one of the things that I've been instructed not yet to talk about. And then the question. Next question. They named this person today. We have the picture, we have the name. I understand he was doing some work for the family. What was he doing? That's veto. Ryan says, well, I'm not sure I'm cleared to release that yet. But he was. He was a new person to all of us. His relationship to us was only a couple of days old, but I don't think I can go into any more detail than that. So they said, okay, I know that the part that people are going to be very curious about is the part you really can't talk about your interaction with him. I mean, at some point, were you worried you were not going to survive as well, just like your parents and sister? I would fucking think so. He said, very much so. Very much so. The whole experience was confusing. Without going into any details, I can say that from the start of when everything bad happened, my nerves were shot almost straight from the beginning in a split second. But I was constantly, constantly trying to zone in on if I could do something, I Was always looking for an opportunity, but it was so confusing. I. I'd love to tell you more about the scenario, but it was a very confusing scene. And it was my impression through a lot of it that he was. That he was just. Something wasn't right, that he was. He acted erratically the entire time. And I could never. I could never pick a moment where I could stop anything. There are moments that play back in my head where in hindsight I might could have done something. Mike could. That's. He's definitely from Kentucky. I might could have done some, but it was always a risk. It was always a huge risk. It wasn't a simple solution. I read in one news report that my hands were bound. So I guess I can say that. I mean, it's a tricky situation. There's not a lot that anybody could do. So the next question, without giving any details away, I read the same thing. I know you were bound. I know other family members were as well. What's going through your mind when you're sitting there knowing that this person, person that you don't know so well, is in your home carrying out an attack? And you have to figure out, when do I make my move to try to help others or survive? Ryan said it was always about helping others. It's always. I've always been. If it had just been me and him in the room, I wouldn't have been half as worried. My concern the whole time was that Emily is here, too. If I goof something up, it's not just me, it's her. And for the time being, he wasn't actively threatening her life. Every second he was being very strange about it. I don't think I can go into any more detail than that, but he was being very strange about it. But he was not acting in a way that constituted immediate physical harm. I don't know. Being duct taped at the hands and having a.45 held to you is I would take that as a threat of physical harm?

[Jimmy Whisman]

No, I would say so, yeah.

[James Petregallo]

You know, that's just me. I might be a little bit of a worrywart, but, you know, that seems like a lot here. So, yeah, he said that anyway, that immediate physical harm. And I just didn't want to agitate the situation. He was keeping a real good eye on me. And my concern was just for the whole. Just for her. The whole time they said, going through it, did you think, at some point it's going to be over, we're going to get out of this? And he said, yes, I really did Because. Because he was acting so erratically. Because it just seemed like he did have a single thought process, but he kept veering off to different things and different things. And I kept thinking, this guy's just off his rocker or something's. You know, he's got a screw loose. And then when Mom. And when mom and dad pulled in, I think I'm. I know that they were at church and they came home, but then, you know, just don't. Well, there. There was a point. There was a point where he had left me and Emily because Mom and dad had drove up, he saw the truck, and he said an expletive many times in a row and just ran out. And I thought that's it. You know, I thought that was it. He thought that he was gonna run away because the parents came home.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Right.

[James Petregallo]

He said, but I do think. I do go into too much detail if I go further, but at that one point in time, yes, I thought we were in the clear. He'd been acting erratically the whole time. And then mom and dad came in, and I think he's going to see them, you know, that they can call the cops, and he's going to book it for the hills. He's gone. And obviously that's not what happened. That's not what happened. Okay. So they said, when you're witnessing what he's capable of doing and what he did, at some point, do you decide you're going to have to make your move to survive? And he said, when that happened, it was so quick. It wasn't much of a decision. It wasn't much of a decision at all. It happened so fast. I'm sure the details will be allowed to come out soon enough, but for now, it's. Everything was erratic and confusing. I wish I could give you some insight. And they said, well, it sounds like you were trying to protect your family and that what you did, what you had to do to stop the threat. That's what it sounds like. And he said, well, at the last point, I was able. After he made his last move, I was able to engage him. He made two mistakes. He got too close to me, and his gun had needed reloading, and his head was down, slapping home another thing. And I was able to. I mean, I can't go much further. Okay. I'm sorry. So they say, okay, I understand it happened fast, but you hit the point where you knew you had to do something. And he said, I can't tell you how it felt at that point because that was once the mechanics started that was it. Everything happened after that in microseconds that spread out forever. And they said, I know you went to the hospital to talk about your injuries. And he said, well, luckily, I did not sustain serious injuries at all. What I was taken to the hospital for was some form of shock. I can't remember exactly what they said, but it was shock. I was very unnaturally dehydrated. My throat, kind of like it is now when I talk about it, just goes dry. I don't have spit. I couldn't cry. Tears. At one point, somebody had a water bottle in my hand. And my hand, like it is now, was shaking. But at one point, I couldn't even really lift the water bottle up with one hand. I had to two hand the water bottle. Everything. My nerves were shot. I was shaking. But all that was. That was about a good hour or so after everything happened and things were starting to settle down and people were arriving. Once I sat down, my nerves were shot. And that's when I guess the shot caught on the shot. I guess they gave him a shot to calm him down. Some sort of sedative. They sent me in an ambulance and they kept me there. They took me to the hospital. Yeah, with IVs and gave me a nausea medicine. That's about as bad as it got for me physically. And then they talk about his parents, and he said, almost everyone that knows me knows me as Lindsay's son or mom's son. That's how they know me. They were all very well known. And he talks about how good a people his parents were. And they talk a little bit about how them wanting to help people is why this happened. He said that this guy, he was awkward at best when he talked to people, meaning Vito. Awkward at best. And he didn't make a very good impression of himself. He kind of came off as kind of had a vibe that would make old people uneasy a little bit. He's not, you know, he's just kind of had that way, and that factors into it. He came over and he had come over a previous night, and he had said something about he ran out of gas. And I can't go into any more details than that, but I only said that to say this. He came over to their house. Mom was scared of seeing someone that late at night. Dad came to talk to him, and the guy had told my dad that he ran out of gas down the road. My dad went and got 5 gallons of gas and took it to his truck. He said they would help anybody. He said they didn't lock their doors. Their friends and family loved them. They'd help anybody. Yeah, so he's saying that and. Yeah, he said he's. You know, people have been calling him and it's been nonstop floods of phone calls and Facebook messages, and he said he had to turn his phone off. He's just trying to. You know, it's only been a day. He's trying to get his shit together, so. He keeps using the term turn the tables, though, over and over and over again. Wow. By the way, here is a reaction from one of Joy's students here for 11 years. Joy and I are. I'm sorry, not our student or co worker. Another teacher. For 11 years, Joy and I worked across the hall from each other. She was very. A very inspiring woman. I can tell you that. I really looked up to her, as many of us did. And when I first got started teaching, she took me under her wing. She was like a second mother to me. And there's. I only say that because that represents pretty much what everyone said about her. There's a really 50 different quotes that are exactly like that. So the cops are trying to figure out the order of events and what happened here. How do you piece this together?

[Jimmy Whisman]

Well, I mean, you got a witness. That's helpful.

[James Petregallo]

Well, they said, though his story seems real weird. They're like the physical. It's real strange. And they said the physical evidence at the scene doesn't really match up with all this. It doesn't match up with what he said. So they started doing really close. Paying attention to every little scrutinizing detail or scrutinizing every detail. One of the investigators said Ryan's contention was that he had to fight Vito for the handgun. And he was so unbelievable that he said when Vito ran past him to shoot Emily, Vito looked at Ryan and said, excuse me, and then went and shot his sister, which is a real weird thing to do, and then came.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Back and was gonna kill him, but he. More ammo.

[James Petregallo]

Excuse me. I'll be back to kill you in a moment. One moment, please. Jesus, don't be rude. I have a place to be here. I gotta kill this girl. So based on the number of live rounds and the number of gunshot wounds found at the scene, they determined that Vito would have had to reload his weapon, well, earlier than Ryan claimed. Oh, he couldn't have shot everybody and then reloaded like Ryan said, because Ryan said everyone else is dead. And then he ran out of bullets for Ryan, so he went to reload.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Too many. Too many rounds. Have been.

[James Petregallo]

Exactly. Yeah, exactly. So, like he would have had to reload earlier than that. Now also, they talked to Vito's roommates. One of those roommates said that he'd recently lost his job and was desperate for money. And he also, his roommate Ariel Lower, said that he recently lost his job. And she said, quote, he told us that somebody had told him that he would pay a certain amount of money, like an extreme amount of money to kill somebody. Oh, I told Vito he was crazy if he did it right. So then the investigators also found out that Ryan seems to know Vito a lot more than him coming to the house one day.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Really?

[James Petregallo]

Yes. They find, as a matter of fact, extensive phone records showing communication between Ryan, vito and a third party.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Who's that?

[James Petregallo]

A 41 year old woman named Ann Plotkin. P L O T K I N. She's from Hopkinsville. She's described as Ryan's longtime girlfriend and friend. Sometimes girlfriend, sometimes friend. So all three individuals had been talking for weeks leading up to the murder. Apparently murderers. Ryan had briefly hired Vito for a tiling job, though that didn't last long. But he told the cops that he. Then after the cops said, don't you. We found out you know him more. He said, well, yeah, I fired Vito after he made unwanted romantic advances toward Emily. That's the whole point. It's all about Emily and him. Then they found surveillance footage from a local restaurant showing all three meeting together the day before the murders.

[Jimmy Whisman]

What?

[James Petregallo]

Vito, Ann and Ryan.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Uh huh.

[James Petregallo]

That is very interesting. Now Ann, they find out Ann Plotkin is far more than she says that she is. Phone records and all this evidence shows that she's the go between facilitating communication between Ryan and Vito. Okay, so anyway, they have a memorial for Vito. His roommates have a memorial for him. Yeah, big old memorial. And they say he was a funny guy who loved a good prank and had a fondness for random late night trips to Walmart. Oh, who doesn't? I mean, I used to do that back in the day. I go there and look through the $5 DVD bin at like fucking, you know, 20 years ago.

[Jimmy Whisman]

No. When there's nobody grabbing shit around.

[James Petregallo]

No. But yeah, there's no like kids with their little booger hands reaching in there, grabbing for fucking whatever. Yeah. Hopefully the boogers are either cleaned off. There's no fresh ones anyway. They're hardened by now.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Right. They're either cleaned off or they're at the bottom.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah. So October 31, 2014, two days before the funeral. By the way, Halloween night, they arrest Ryan?

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah. Really?

[James Petregallo]

Charge. Charge him with four counts of capital murder and one count of kidnapping.

[Jimmy Whisman]

What's the.

[James Petregallo]

This is crazy. Okay, the kidnapping charge, by the way, is related to Emily being bound with duct tape during the attack. So. Ryan, this is insane. This fucking idiot hired Veto to kill his family. But Ben didn't want to pay Veto, so he killed Veto.

[Jimmy Whisman]

What?

[James Petregallo]

Yes, that's what happened.

[Jimmy Whisman]

He darn night jokered him.

[James Petregallo]

I don't know what that means because I hate Batman. Bullshit. I'm an adult man, not a fucking child. So. I hate plot at the beginning of Dark Knight. Don't care about Dark Knight. It's awful. I hate Heath Ledger. It all sucks. Those chase scenes don't line up. Editing wise or not. Lanier, I don't want to hear fuck Christopher Nolan. Fuck it all.

[Jimmy Whisman]

But so at the very beginning of it, he. He hires a bunch of people, be clowns. They just oh each other after they finish jobs.

[James Petregallo]

That makes sense. But he hired this guy to kill the family, then was like, all right, then kill you too. Which, yeah, is the dumbest thing, because the weirdest part of this whole thing is some dead stranger in the house. That's the whole thing that makes.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Right. It ruins the whole thing, man.

[James Petregallo]

That's the. Yeah. Why would you have to be there? That's why he had to be there to shoot. If he just was not selfish and wanted to pay the guy, he could have not been home, had Vito kill everyone, then paid him, and that would be that. But instead, is it a little bit.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Of a scumbag that he hired an Italian?

[James Petregallo]

Well, I mean, you know, we have skills that sometimes they need to be used.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Technically, that's what he did.

[James Petregallo]

So. Yeah. Talk about a mess. This is like a Coen brothers movie. This is ridiculous. Like, this is silly. Turned on the hitman and did it himself, which is crazy. So they said it wasn't. This is. The prosecutor said it wasn't a murder for hire. Or if it was a murder for hire, he would have gotten paid. But it didn't end up that way. He got murdered. So Vito, not an innocent guy at all. He. Vito did kill the first few. He killed the first three. Yeah. And then Ryan Gilbert kill everybody. Yeah. Because that was the plan is you tie us all up, you kill those three, and then make an escape, and I'll make some shit up. And instead, Ryan was like, I'll just shoot you and I'll look.

[Jimmy Whisman]

That's the chicken shit way to kill your family.

[James Petregallo]

Fuck.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah.

[James Petregallo]

It's the most chicken shit Way to kill your family.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah.

[James Petregallo]

He's not even. You can't even trust him to pay his bills, for Christ's sake. You know what I mean? Like, he's just scum, this guy. They said that the family plot, this had been in the making for years. They found out Ryan's been trying to figure out a way to kill his family. They said, quote, for five to six years before these murders happen, Ryan Champion approached another friend and offered him money to kill his family.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Ryan Champion is the worst person on the planet. I think we found him.

[James Petregallo]

He sucks. He reminds me of. Do you remember that girl in Arkansas who killed her dad for no reason and then pretended. He reminds me of her a lot. Yeah. I just loved him. By the way, Ann Plotkin doesn't know the police know her involvement at this point. So she's talking to the media saying it's ridiculous they would arrest Ryan. How dare they? Yeah. She said anyone who knows Ryan and any of his close friends knows he's not capable of doing this. Then said it was complete and total BS what they're saying about him. She went on 48 Hours Crime Insider, pointed the finger at Vito and called him a violent, mentally ill ex boyfriend of her daughter. That's his problem. So on February 11, 2015, she's arrested, too.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah.

[James Petregallo]

Which must have been real sweet to slap the cuffs on her, too. Complicity to commit capital murder and resisting arrest, too, for fun. So they found, basically, they just needed time to put together all of the surveillance footage and all of the messaging and all of that stuff to connect her. They have a big memorial for the family. Obviously, they're very well loved. They had different setups for their thing. Like, he had a little Harley set up with his riding boots on there. Emily had all her horseback riding ribbons and all that kind of shit. 4H livestock competitions. And Joy had her horse saddle that she loved. So that's what they did. Now the prosecutors are going, we're going for the death penalty on Ryan. He's a real asshole. Yeah, he sucks.

[Jimmy Whisman]

He's one of the worst people ever.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah. They said heinous nature of the crimes, multiple victims and just the calculated shittiness of it.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Such a scumbag.

[James Petregallo]

You should really add in, like, failure to pay for services or something. Whatever. Like if you ran out of a motel, whatever that charge is, or a taxi, you should get that, I think.

[Jimmy Whisman]

On this theft of services.

[James Petregallo]

Theft of services, Absolutely. That should also be included.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Absolutely.

[James Petregallo]

So Ryan pleads not guilty. He claims his innocence. He tells a reporter I know what happened. I know who was where and who did what. Their evidence is not as strong as they led everyone to believe. This is a good time to celebrate. This is the first chink in their armor. Okay. To celebrate. He then said, I really look forward to a time when I can get out of here. Because he's being held on $5 million bail. He's not going anywhere. But I'm really looking forward to either way. Leaving all of this behind me and trying to dig back up a normal life and grieve for my family in a way that I've not yet been able to allow. Not yet been allowed to do. By the way, his lawyer quits.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Really?

[James Petregallo]

His lawyer says he's an asshole. He cited a strained relationship with him. In other words, he's a dick.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Can't do it. Sucks.

[James Petregallo]

He sucks. So the judge is like, what are we doing here? We can't have. You have no lawyer. So what are we doing? And so I guess we're gonna. So they assigned him a court appointed lawyer. And Ryan goes, well, I guess we just wasted two months, huh? Yeah, he's such a snot. So then this goes on for a while because to change lawyers, he had to waive the speedy trial and all that. So now it stretches on for a couple of years. And about more than two years after the murders in early 2017, Ryan Champion finally agrees to plead guilty to all charges against him.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Really?

[James Petregallo]

Yep. Now all of a sudden, it's an exact Kohberger. Like an exact Bryan Kohberger.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Wow.

[James Petregallo]

He pleads guilty to four counts of murder. Bryan Kohberger pled guilty to four counts of murder, one count of kidnapping as well. And this is no appeals, life without parole. I mean, it's the exact CO Burger deal exact that he just got. And is also gonna plead guilty to three counts of complicity to murder. And she is going to be sentenced to. You, ma' am may. Fuck off. 22 years. Ann. No, Ann Plotkin. 22 years in prison for Ann.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Oh, shit.

[James Petregallo]

She got a lot for making phone calls and shit. Now January 2017 is Ryan sentencing. Judy, who is Joy's sister, said, you murdered my family. Joy, my beloved sister and best friend, the only one in the world who understood me. I find some peace in knowing that she closed her beautiful eyes on evil. And when she opened them, she saw Jesus. She said that part of a person that makes them human is missing from you. She said, you care about only yourself. You have no heart, no compassion, no soul. You are an empty shell. She then asked if he felt like a big man after he spent time with the family during an early Thanksgiving that they had for Emily. He said that she said, you put on a real good show acting like you cared about everybody. She said that if he hadn't spent so much time hating them and being jealous of his sister's success, maybe he could have been something himself one of these days. And then said, what a waste. What a waste. Yeah. So she beat him up. Jesus. She beat him up good. I mean, really kicked his ass. And Lisa, who is Lindsay's sister, who's the one who. He came to her door. She just talks about being depressed and missing everybody. And Lisa said, what would you call someone that murdered your family? I just feel like that the devil just crawled up in his body and just took control of him. Devil done ass fucked him. Devil busted a load on in there, and there's a little devil seed just crawling out throughout his body like in a cartoon. You know how it goes. But that's. He's just evil. Pure evil.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Sure.

[James Petregallo]

Wow. Lauren, who is Lindsay's brother, offered words of forgiveness. Actually, he did the. He went the full Christian route there. So Ryan chooses not to speak before a sentencing.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Real.

[James Petregallo]

What a. Scott. He's a pussy in a Scottish bag, right?

[Jimmy Whisman]

What a chicken shit. What a pussy.

[James Petregallo]

But he had his attorney address the court on his behalf, wishing the family well and expressing hope. She expressed hope that Ryan might eventually develop compassion and empathy behind bars. The judge said he'll have plenty of time to do that. You, sir, may fuck off. Life in prison without the possibility of parole.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah. Think about it and find that empathy forever.

[James Petregallo]

Yep. And everybody involved says best case scenario, because if you convict him, first of all, he never has to say he did it. Right? He'll say never. He'll always deny it. And it goes right to the end. And then, so what? You convict him and he gets the death penalty? Okay, so now for the next 30 years, all these people have to keep coming to court for appeals over and over and over again. Clemency board hearings, and it's going to cost the state $20 million. $20 million. Or we just put him away and never think about him again. And he's done. He gets no. He gets no air, he gets no oxygen. He gets no. No one ever. Doesn't get to put on a show. Doesn't get to do anything. It's perfect. So the prosecutor said it was an awful case. There's nothing good that can be said about this case or the facts of it. So she Said that the remaining family members sought closure and certainty with the plea agreement. She said there would have been no agreement if the plea was anything less than life without parole. Well, yeah, if there's any chance of him getting out, then you go take the shot. You know what I mean? Even if the jury says no death penalty, they'll give him life without. So fine. They said the commonwealth would not have agreed to anything that could have resulted in Ryan Champion ever being free again. Which is exactly what they said about Coburger, too. They said life without with no appeals and no nothing. How do you turn that down?

[Jimmy Whisman]

It's never getting a chance, right?

[James Petregallo]

No, they said, we all know there's no penalty that can ever be great enough for Ryan Champion, for what he did, for the pain and loss he caused. But for today's purposes, for the purpose of this case, knowing that he will be punished and incarcerated until the day he dies is justice. Now, Ryan remains incarcerated at the Eastern Kentucky Correctional Complex in West Liberty in Morgan County. He's serving a life sentence without parole and he's housed in minimum and medium security facilities. Oh, apparently he's good in jail. He was in the army, so he can do structured institutional.

[Jimmy Whisman]

And they'll do it. Yeah, yeah.

[James Petregallo]

And I'll do it now. Ann in prison after serving four years of her 22 year illness. She requested early medical release after being diagnosed with a terminal illness in prison.

[Jimmy Whisman]

We never sentence. She got out okay. Because of.

[James Petregallo]

Well, no, no. She requested her early release for a terminal illness. She was given and they allowed it. She went to the parole board on February 7, 2019 and they turned her down. And then she died the next day. Wow, that is. Man, that is some serendipitous shit there now. Emily's classmates from Auburn University veterinary program established a scholarship in her memory, ensuring her passion for animal care would continue to inspire future veterinarians. This has been done on a few different, like, you know, documentary type things. They did investigation, discovery, did quote Devil in Suburbia. No son of mine. Devil in suburbia. So there you go. There is Kate.

[Jimmy Whisman]

He was adopted.

[James Petregallo]

You guys get to me. Thank fuck he didn't come out of my vagina. My uterus would never produce that. I'll tell you right now, this adopted.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Piece of shit did terrible things. Advertisement for adoption, that's for sure.

[James Petregallo]

No, he is a bad advertisement for adoption. Let's keep this one away from the. You know, if there's an adoption agency with newspapers laying out or something, they're going to put those under a magazine. No, so there you go, Everybody. There is KD's Kentucky. Hope you enjoyed it. If you did, get on whatever app you're on, give us five stars because holy shit. Does it help a lot to drive us up the charts? Follow us on social media, malltownmurder on Instagram, smalltownpod on Facebook. You certainly wanna go to shutupandgivemerder.com get your tickets for live shows. There might be a few left in Grand Rapids that we just released. There's some left in October in Seattle. Portland sold out the night before and then back to back nights of Philly and D.C. in December. Have a few tickets left. So get your tickets right now and come see us at a live show. We're very excited for that. Shut up and givememurder.com Big announcement on Patreon, everybody. Patreon.com CrimeInSports now, not only do you get all of these bonus episodes for $5 a month and a shout out at the end of the regular show, but you get ad free content as well. You wanted it, you got it. Small town murder, your stupid opinions, crime and sports are all ad free included in your $5 a month Patreon. You get all the bonus episodes. You get ad free. No, we're not. We're crazy. That's who we are. We're not out of our minds. We're crazy. We're giving it away, everybody. So get in there and do that. This week, the episodes for crime and sports, Jeff Alm, a football player who had a spectacular ending to his life and career. And then small town murder, people who marry prisoners, people who've married serial killers, people who continue to seek out prisoners. What the fuck are they thinking? We'll talk all about that and more. That is patreon.com crimeinsports get in there right now and get your ad free and all your bonus episodes and you get a shout out at the end of the regular show. You want to follow us on social media? It is very easy to do that. Head over to shutupandgivemerder.com, dropdown menus take you anywhere you want to go. So keep doing that. Keep coming back, everybody, and seeing us. And until next week, it's been our pleasure.

[Jimmy Whisman]

KD's nuts.

[James Petregallo]

Bye.