Murder at Barberitos /// Part 2 /// 928

Summary

True Crime Garage: Murder at Barberitos /// Part 2 /// 928

Release Date: May 13, 2026
Hosts: Nic and the Captain
Main Theme:
A hard look at the 2018 Warner Robins, Georgia murder of Parker Killian Moore at Barbaritos, police missteps in connecting multiple homicides, wrongful pursuit of a suspect, the impact on victims’ families, and the ongoing investigation.

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Episode Overview

This episode dives deep into the still-unsolved “Barberitos murder” of Parker Killian Moore, the wrongful pursuit and indictment of Daniel Bruce Franz, and the complicated sequence of violent crimes that shook Warner Robins in early 2018. Nic and the Captain dissect the failures in police methodology—particularly concerning “tunnel vision” and faulty linkage of crimes—and give voice to the families’ ongoing grief and frustration. The episode features rich storytelling, eyewitness accounts, and pointed critiques of law enforcement, all while honoring the victim, Parker Moore.

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Key Topics & Discussion Points

1. Law Enforcement’s Original Theory – Linking the Murders

• [03:39-06:42] Law enforcement addresses the press, indicating a “high probability” that one suspect is responsible for the Chevron and Barberitos homicides and robbery.
  • “There is a high probability that the same suspect from the Chevron is the same suspect for the Barberitos homicide and robbery...We have warrants for one individual for Tanglewood apartments homicide. Is there a likelihood that he’s also involved with the homicide down the road at the Chevron? Yes. Do we believe…the possibility exists that those are also related.” — Law Enforcement Official [03:39]
  • Authorities explain the use of 3D crime scene scanning and multi-agency cooperation.

2. Indictment and the Death Penalty Pursuit

• [06:42-11:27] Daniel Bruce Franz is charged with multiple offenses, including malice murder and felony murder, for the Chevron and Barberitos crimes, with prosecutors announcing their intent to seek the death penalty.
  • “The grand jury found probable cause to charge the accused Franz with two counts of malice murder… Shortly after announcing those charges, we get another announcement that the prosecutor will seek the death penalty…” — Nic [06:42]
  • The chilling detail: both victims were compliant during the robberies but executed anyway on camera.
  • “He shot the victims in the head anyway. Yeah, what a real piece of that is. That’s absolutely the coldest of cold blooded murder.” — Nic [07:41]

3. A Shocking Legal Reversal

• [11:27-13:48] In 2024, five years after indictment, all major charges against Franz relating to Chevron and Barberitos are dropped due to new exculpatory evidence.
  • “To everyone’s shock and surprise, the charges were dropped.” — Nic [11:29]
  • “According to Warner Robins Police Department, ‘it is believed that a second person committed both of those crimes’…‘Exculpatory evidence came out and it was located in someone else’s possession.’” — Nic [12:08]
  • The FBI and GBI are now involved; cases are labeled as “actively being investigated,” not “cold.”

4. Reflection on Investigative Flaws

• [13:49-18:27] The hosts sharply criticize the police for “tunnel vision.”
  • “An error doesn’t become a mistake until you refuse to correct it.” — Nic [13:49, quoting JFK/Orlando Batista]
  • Misidentification of the suspect due to differences in skin tone and witness descriptions; mishandling of initial evidence.
  • “Where is the detective or police officer going, ‘They’re not the same guy. One is light skinned, one is dark skinned. That’s all you need to know.’” — Mike [25:42]

5. Victims’ Stories & Community Impact

• [30:54-39:43] Focus on Parker Killian Moore: his background, the family’s unity in the aftermath, and his impact on the Warner Robins community.
  • The family’s frustration: law enforcement gave different parents disparate information, spurring renewed cooperation between Moore’s divorced parents.
  • Parker was described as kind, helpful, and beloved: “People who hadn’t known him long were moved by him… Parker loved music and soccer, he loved skateboarding, video games. He will most be remembered for how much he simply loved people.” — Nic [39:43]

6. Eyewitness Accounts & The Night of the Murder

• [42:53-53:40] “Witness A” recounts working with Parker and the events of that night:
  • Robbery suspect described as a dark-skinned, thin, 5’9”–5’10” male, wearing all black with only his eyes and nose visible, armed with a silver revolver.
  • The robber entered through a back door and went immediately to the office—fueling the suspicion of insider knowledge or previous employment.
  • The shooter received full compliance from the victims but executed Parker and another coworker anyway (the coworker survived).

7. Mistreatment of Witnesses & Missed Leads

• [41:17-42:44; 57:59-59:30] Nic and the Captain lambast investigators for only interviewing crucial witnesses twice over eight years.
  • “So witness A started working at Barbaritos about a year or so before the robbery and knew Parker for about six months… Three times in eight years—twice by police, once by us.” — Nic [42:53]
  • Police dismissed potentially important testimony regarding the suspect’s manner of speech.

8. Critique of Law Enforcement Tactics and Community Safety

• [53:40-61:35] The hosts urge Warner Robins Police and cooperating agencies to “interview, interview, interview” all witnesses and suspects, and reconsider anyone who might have tangential knowledge:
  • “Go back and talk to all these witnesses. Go back and talk to everybody. And guess what? Go talk to the individual that was convicted and sentenced to 25 years for murder at the apartments. Because these people talk.” — Nic [61:15]
  • Case remains active, but resolution is overdue.

9. The Human Cost & Ongoing Hope

• Parker’s family—Leah Moss and Andy Moore—remain vocal, collaborating for justice.
• Reward remains for information; community urged to come forward at 478-302-5378.

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Notable Quotes & Time Stamps

• “He shot the victims in the head anyway...the court filing stated the murder...was outrageously and wantonly vile, horrible or inhumane in that it involved depravity of mind.” — Nic [07:41]
• “To everyone’s shock and surprise, the charges were dropped.” — Nic [11:29]
• “An error doesn’t become a mistake until you refuse to correct it.” — Nic [13:49]
• “Where is the detective or police officer going, ‘They’re not the same guy. One is light skinned, one is dark skinned. That’s all you need to know.’” — Mike [25:42]
• “People from Barbaritos told Leah that when they saw Parker was working, they knew it was going to be a great night, that he just made the place all better.” — Nic [39:43]
• “He very well could have just come in that back door, saw the office was open, and ducked in there for cover briefly, or did he think it was a little later than what it was and that the money would already be in there and he could just grab it and go?” — Nic [47:00]
• “He got what he wanted. And then he shoots worker number one in the head and then shoots Parker in the head and then flees almost as like, oh, I have one or two more things to do before I leave here. Even though he got what he wanted.” — Nic [53:36]
• “This is a cold, cold blooded person. You can’t have somebody this violent…on the streets.” — Nic [55:24]
• “If you have tunnel vision and for five years or more you’re trying to make the shoe fit where the shoe doesn’t fit you, you’re not going to want to keep talking to individuals that...deter you from what your tunnel vision is.” — Mike [59:30]

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Timeline & Segment Highlights

• [03:39] Law enforcement addresses case links and manhunt.
• [06:42] Indictment, grand jury, and death penalty details.
• [11:27] Charges against Franz are dropped; new suspect possible.
• [13:49] Critique of police strategy; quotes on investigative mistakes.
• [30:54–39:43] Parker Killian Moore’s life, family’s journey, and impact.
• [42:53–53:40] Eyewitness account and reconstruction of Barberitos murder.
• [61:15] Final plea to law enforcement to reinvestigate; reward details.

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Recommendations & Further Reading

• Recommended Book:
  Whatever Happened to Eddie Crane: A Memoir and a Murder Investigation by Kate Crane
  (See truecrimegarage.com for details.)

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Tone & Style

Nic and the Captain maintain their signature blend of sharp analysis, empathetic storytelling, and irreverent but respectful humor, especially when criticizing bureaucratic blunders. The tone is at turns somber, urgent, and defiant—motivated by a desire for justice and accountability.

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Summary Verdict

This episode is a sobering blueprint of how investigative tunnel vision can derail justice and allow murderers to remain free. By centering the humanity of Parker Moore and other victims, Nic and the Captain challenge both law enforcement and listeners to demand better—honest, thorough, and ongoing efforts for closure.

Transcript

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[Matt]

Picture this. It's the end of a long week. You're unwinding in the tub, listening to your favorite true crime podcast and then chronic hives come back again in the middle of the episode. What a wet blanket looks like another spell of itchy, swollen, red or skin colored hives. If you have chronic spontaneous urticaria or csu, there may be a different treatment option. Worried about your chronic hives interrupting our next episode? Learn [e-mail] Garage. Welcome to True Crime Garage. Wherever you are, whatever you are doing, thanks for listening. I'm your host, Nick, and with me, as always, is a man who hangs out with Guitar George. He knows all the chords. Here is the captain.

[Mike]

It's good to be seen and good to see you. Thanks for listening. Thanks for telling a friend.

[Matt]

Today we are still sipping on Blueberry Field Party by the Georgia Beer Company. Blueberry Field Party is an award winning fruited blonde ale. That's right, from our friends at Untapped. Go get the Untapped Beer app. This delicious beer was third place in 24, first place in 25 and second place in 26 for the untapped Community Awards for best Fruited Beer Garage Grade four out of five bottle caps. And let's give out some thanks and praise to our good friends who deserve some awards themselves. First up, a shout out to Tommy Pavong from Richmond, California. Next we have a shout out to Amy from Lewisville, Texas. And last but certainly not least, a big tall cans in the air to Katie knapp from Deer, Wisconsin. Everybody we just mentioned went to truecrime garage.com and helped us out with this week's beer fund. And for that we thank you.

[Mike]

Yeah, pwr, you win beer run, make sure you subscribe to us on Patreon or Apple podcast subscription to get off the record. You're gonna love it. Trust me. And that's enough of the business.

[Matt]

All right everybody gather round. Grab a chair, grab a beer. Let's talk some true crime.

[Law Enforcement Official]

But it's apparent to us through the physical descriptions, the mannerisms, the clothing worn, that there is a high probability that the same suspect from the chevron is the same suspect for the Barbaritos homicide and robbery. So if you can tell, I'm kind of being careful with my words. I don't want to put something out there that's not true, something that we don't know. So I am being careful. And please understand. We have warrants for one individual for Tanglewood apartments homicide. Is there a likelihood that he's also involved with the homicide down the road at the chevron? Yes. Do we believe that the homicide from the chevron and that suspect is related to Barbaritos? Based on physical descriptions, clothing, mannerisms, weapons? We believe the possibility exists that those are also related. Okay. We have a lot of resources out right now that are looking for Danny France. His warrants are put into the system. He's in the inlets, which is a national database. Any information that we're getting is being put out to law enforcement just as quickly as we receive it. And also, we have the marshals service working with us because they have some technologies and abilities to get outside of our boundaries and help us in locating suspects. That's one of the things the marshals do with refugee task force and all, is help us to actually serve warrants on individuals that we are looking for. So we have pulled in all the resources. We've pulled in everything that we could get our hands on. We've been working multiple scenes. Takes a lot of manpower to work the scenes the way we have. All the detectives are working these particular cases. Our crime scene guys have been spread pretty thin with working multiple scenes as well. One of our instruments that we use for crime scenes is a 3D scanner. It actually scans the environment and scans the scene. Ours has been sent off to be worked on and calibrated. House county sheriff's department stepped up with theirs, sent out. One of their investigators with their scanning machine was able to do the Barbarito scene for us yesterday. So law enforcement has definitely come together in this case. To my knowledge. There's not any resources that we haven't tapped into. The public is hugely supportive right now. And one of the things that we have in Houston county is a strong public support.

[Matt]

What we are left with here, Captain, we have two other cases still outstanding for four. Franz are bad man. Are already convicted bad man. These two cases are going to go to the grand jury after they present their case. The Houston county gets a grand jury indictment to officially charge Franz or Franz with the two additional Murders, that of Patel, the Chevron gas station employee, and that of Parker Killian Moore at the Barbaritos. So the grand jury found probable cause to charge the accused Franz with two counts of malice murder, four counts of felony murder, two counts of armed robbery, account of aggravated assault, an account of criminal attempt to commit malice murder. Shortly after announcing those charges, we get another announcement that the prosecutor will seek the death penalty against the suspect Daniel Bruce Franz in the killings that shook the Warner Robbins community in 2018. This from an article. Houston Judicial Circuit District Attorney George Hartwig III signed a notice of intention to seek the death penalty against Franz on December 11, 2019. Court records said this is in large part and rightfully so, regarding a chilling detail released by the police. This detail was that the victims in both cases, the Barbaritos murder and the Chevron slayings, did not put up any resistance. They both victims were complying with the demands of the robber when they were shot. In fact, in both scenarios, the victim handed over the money, did what the robber said at gunpoint, handed over the money. And in both cases we know this from surveillance footage. And then at Barbaritos, we know it from surveillance footage and from witnesses. He shot the victims in the head anyway. Yeah, what a real piece of that is. I mean that's absolutely the coldest of cold blooded murder. So the court filing stated the murder of Jack Patel and Parker Moore committed by the accused Daniel Bruce Franz II was outrageously and wantonly vile, horrible or inhumane in that it involved depravity of mind. I think that's absolutely spot on here.

[Mike]

Absolutely.

[Matt]

This person is concealing their identity with a disguise. Face completely covered, dressed in black, gun pointed to these victims, gets the money, gets what he came in there for. Nobody fights back, nobody puts up any problems, nobody is caught on a phone calling the police and he shoots and kills anyway. So where this case sits, we have the man in, in prison for the previous murder, charged in the other two murders, now facing the death penalty. And now this is the time that we are all so aware of, the most annoying time in any of the these types of cases where it drags out and we wait for the murder trial to start. And of course, with this being a capital punishment death penalty case, there's often a longer lag time here before we get to trial. Now this is so critical to this case and not in a good way. This has hurt this case tremendously. Five years go by. Now, part of that we had that Covid year that everybody remembers mostly everything shut down. This probably delayed this to going to trial. It probably delayed a lot of the work on this case. So almost five years to the date of the indictments. This is on October 4, 2024. To everyone's shock and surprise, the charges were dropped. So we have such a good case, we're going after the death penalty. But nope, now we decided we're dropping the charges against this guy.

[Mike]

Change our mind.

[Matt]

They say, quote, based on the need for further investigation, end quote. The cases and charges were dismissed, but

[Mike]

the guy set in prison for five years.

[Matt]

No, he's going to serve. He's absolutely guilty of the murder that he's convicted of.

[Mike]

Right.

[Matt]

They're dropping the additional murder charges, the ones that they were seeking the death penalty on. So you're absolutely right. Sitting in prison for five years, by this time, he's going to have to carry out the rest of this sentence, which he got 25 years for that murder.

[Mike]

But there has to be something that. It can't just be. We just don't have a good enough case.

[Matt]

Well, here's what we end up getting. This is the public record on it. Okay? So the document meant that Franz could have faced the death penalty if convicted in the two offenses that they dropped the charges on. Now, according to the Telegraph, this is the local newspaper. In late 2024, Warner Robins Police department found evidence that showed Franz might not be the suspect after all. Which is why the case is invol involving Parker Moore and Patel's deaths were dismissed. According to Warner Robbins police department, quote, it is believed that a second person committed both of those crimes, end quote. Here's another quote, exculpatory evidence came out and it was located in someone else's possession, end quote. Now, we don't know what that evidence is. That has never been publicly stated. And the police department at the time declined to comment whether Franz was still a person of interest at all in the case. We do know that the FBI and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation are investigating forensic evidence connected to the Parker, Moore and Patel's deaths. We know that Warner Robbins police department has about a dozen cold cases as of late 2024. But the police department will not refer to Parker Moore and Jack Patel's deaths as cold cases because they say, quote, they're actively being investigated, end quote. Now that's a lot of quotes.

[Mike]

A lot of quotes.

[Matt]

You know, a quote that I love to spout off here in the garage. Said it a dozen times. I'll say a dozen more before we close the garage for good. An error doesn't become a mistake until you refuse to correct it. A famous quote by Orlando Batista and John F. Kennedy. And we need Warner Robbins police department to correct this because it appears to me that they had this investigation moving in the wrong direction very quickly in the very early stages, and, and it took a long time for them to see that they had got it wrong.

[Mike]

Yeah. So part of it is they feel like they have egg on their face. And you know, my. One of my favorite quotes is egg on the face is better than egg on the butt.

[Matt]

Also a famous quote. Yeah, I'll read the start of this article. Three fatal shootings days apart. A string of violence in the area at the time has only partially been resolved in the courts. The first of three fatal shootings happened between two friends after a dispute over marijuana on January 13, 2018. Remember, we talked about the details of that murder and we know the details of the murder that took place at the apartment because there were a lot of witnesses there. Yeah. These two individuals, Franz, our bad guy and the person he killed, they knew each other and the people there knew both of them. This appears to me to be something very different than what took place at the gas station and at the Barbaritos. Those appear to me to be stranger on stranger crimes. A guy goes in there disguised, looking to commit a robbery, looking to get away with money, and decides for whatever reason to just shoot the people anyway. Where this apartment case is something completely different. It looks like this is a couple of idiots who have a disagreement and they're so quick to pull and flash guns.

[Mike]

Yeah.

[Matt]

And somebody ends up getting killed. Okay, so we know that Daniel Bruce Franz was convicted in the July 2019 voluntary manslaughter case and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon in the killing of his friend, 28 year old Vincent Jr. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison. He fatally shot Vincent Jr. In the Tanglewood Apartments at 1005 Alberta Road. Now, to follow the timeline here and to see where things went astray, we need to go down this road. Around three hours after that incident, a man, an unidentified man, killed 25 year old Warner Robbins resident Jack Patel, a store clerk at a Chevron gas station at 806 Alberta Road, the same road we talked about this earlier. The very short distance, both in proximity and time, to the Tanglewood Apartments murder that same day. Officers, based off of surveillance footage, describe that suspect as a slim man, African American, in a dark hooded shirt and blue jeans. Now keep that description in mind because we're going to have a Better description when it gets to the Barbaritos portion of this. And we're going to zoom in. Hyper focus on the Barbaritos murder. Eight days later, on January 1, 2018, Parker Moore was killed at Barbaritos at 3123 Watson Boulevard. A masked man entered through a back door, demanded money, and fired shots, which killed Moore and injured another employee. Police said the Warner Robbins Police Department had named Franz as a suspect in the armed robbery, and people at the scene told officers he was 6 foot tall, wearing dark clothing and a face covering. Okay, but as we know, there are issues with evidence. And in the end, there was not enough evidence to seek warrants to charge Franz in the Chevron and Barbarito shootings. Even though they originally got the indictment, they learned and figured out, and I'm glad that they did. Right, right. Because as said, they're already trying to start to correct this, and that is a good thing. It's a little late. A little late in the goings, and that is going to be very hurtful and harmful to this investigation in this case to find the right guy.

[Mike]

But also it becomes a sticking point for the defense of a new suspect. Hey, the cops, they came out and said, this other guy did it. They were trying to bring charges against him. They were going to take him to court.

[Matt]

You know, we talk so much about legendary FBI agents and profilers, people like Robert Ressler, John Douglas on the show. And one thing that they were fighting against, when they would talk to local law enforcement, police chiefs, sheriffs, detectives, and they would review a batch of cases, they would say, you know, in the 70s and in the early 80s, we were seeing something that they called linkage blindness, where the investigating agency did not recognize a connection between multiple murders. Here we have the exact opposite. It looks like Warner Robbins Police Department screwed the pooch and they jumped to the conclusion that all of this was connected. Okay, so we know what the police's theory was at the time and how they were working it, because they told us when they announced the manhunt for France. Now, announcing the manhunt, good strategy. They caught the guy. It was through tips that located him, they found him. Good police procedure there. But their theory, it might have sounded good to some at the time, but not did not convince everyone. So the theory is rough. A theory law enforcement had pushed was Danny Franz committed the apartment murder, which we know he did. There's witnesses there that identify him, and then a few hours later committed the Chevron murder to get money to leave town. Right. He had to get out because of the murder. There were people there at the scene that were going to identify him by name, so he had to flee. But he would need provisions to get out of town and get to a safe location where he could hide out. He needed money. So the Chevron station was across the street from the apartments. Easy enough. Target, right close by. France commits a robbery homicide at the Chevron, per their theory. The proximity and the time make the police theory sound very nice and tidy. Now, maybe he didn't get enough money or something happens to slow Franz from running. So he waits eight days, goes to the other side of town and commits a robbery homicide at the Barbaritos. Then he flees. But we now know that he only goes about four miles. Four miles from the first two homicide locations where he is caught hiding out three days after the murder of Barbarito. So when you tell me your theory is all based around this man who committed the first murder, committing additional murder so he could rob and flee, there's instant problems with your theory. Fleeing after the first murder makes a lot of sense. I get that. A lot of people flee after committing a violent crime for which there are witnesses that can identify them. But a fleeing theory doesn't compute if the guy doesn't flee. I feel like garage. True crime. Garage is true crime. Flea market. I've said that word too many times. So he doesn't leave.

[Mike]

I have a lot of used comic books if you want to check them out. To the left.

[Matt]

So again, to me, this theory, while it sounded nice in the beginning, was truly extremely flawed from the start. And police had to have been aware of it. Where was the person in the room? I'm sure there was. Somebody in the room was saying. Saying, guys, wait, hold on. Bump the brakes. I think we might have this wrong. Maybe we shouldn't announce this to the public.

[Mike]

Yeah, it's. It. Look, it seems like something that you sit in a room and you go, hey, not. Not a ton of murders around here. And so we have this one murder at this apartment complex. Now we have this murder at this gas station. Are they linked? Maybe, but we need. We need to find some proof of that, whether they're linked or not linked. Let's. Let's find proof of that. It's not something that I would think you would run to the newspapers with or to go, hey, call the local news. We think they're connected. Do you have any proof of that? Well, similar location.

[Matt]

I worry, Captain, that the police department was feeling a lot of pressure. There's three murders in eight days, it's January. Three murders in the month of January puts this city in one month's time at half the murders they had for the entire year prior.

[Mike]

Yeah, but let's pump the brakes for a second. It's not a crazy theory.

[Matt]

True.

[Mike]

It's not something that you shouldn't explore. You just might not want to tell people about your investigation.

[Matt]

Don't. Yes. Don't tell the public right away. You can say, hey, we're looking into if they're connected, but we don't, you know, we've not found evidence. In fact, they're actually. They found evidence to suggest early on that they weren't connected.

[Mike]

Right.

[Matt]

Okay. One, the gun and two, the suspect description, both do not match the apartment murder case.

[Mike]

Right.

[Matt]

That Franz absolutely did. So it's not inconceivable that bad guy goes and gets another gun or has a second gun and then uses that one to commit the Chevron murder. But when you have surveillance footage from the Chevron and when you have surveillance footage from Barbaritos and you have witnesses who saw the man at Barbaritos, saw him pull the trigger, the cameras and those people are telling you even though his face is covered, he doesn't look like the guy you've arrested. Right. Franz, to put it simply, Franz, a younger dude, about the same build as the individual seen in Chevron and Barbaritos, he's a lighter skinned black man. The person that committed these murders is a dark skinned black man. So. So much obviously so that several of the witnesses at Barbaritos said after the fact, when they showed the picture of the man that they arrested for the apartment murders, their immediate reaction was, that's not the same guy. And they only saw this man's eyes in the bridge of his nose.

[Mike]

Right.

[Matt]

But it was enough, that little was enough to tell them it wasn't the same guy. So these contradictions undermined the story authorities were telling. The timing didn't align. It wasn't immediate and clean. Right. It was messy. Parker Moore was killed a whole week later after the other two murders. Right. So. So to tell me that the per. The person was attempting to flee. Well, he just sat on his hands for eight days, didn't go anywhere. And then when you do ultimately find him, three days after Parker is killed, he's only four miles away.

[Mike]

Yeah. And like you said, where, where is the detective or police officer going? They're not the same guy. One is light skinned, one is dark skinned. That's all you need to know.

[Matt]

Absolutely.

[Mike]

That's absolutely not the same guy. There you go. Move on. But you know, sometimes there's just a lot of what I call so it seems like there's a lot of going on here.

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[Matt]

Did I get the details right?

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[Matt]

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[Mike]

Foreign.

[Matt]

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[Mike]

Very, very excited.

[Matt]

Look, I want to zoom in and focus on one of the victims here and one of the crime scenes because this is where police can learn the most about their investigation. And the man that they're looking for, Parker Killian Moore, was the young man who was working and killed at Barbaritos and Warner Robins on January 21, 2018. He's just 23 years old.

[Mike]

Yeah.

[Matt]

Now, a little bit about Barbaritos. This is a franchise restaurant. There are about 19 locations in the great state of Georgia and about 41 scattered throughout the American Southeast. This is a burrito place, Southwestern grill experience. I want to give a shout out to Leah Moss and her husband and also Andy Moore. They are fighting for justice for their son, Parker Killian Moore, and also for the Chevron victim, Jack Patel.

[Mike]

And, and just to be clear, those two cases, the. The identity of this suspect is the same.

[Matt]

Same gun, and it appears to be the same individual. And the dress, the disguise appears to be very, very similar or exactly the same.

[Mike]

Well, what they should have done is they should have took all these detectives and showed them a navy blue color swatch and a light blue color swatch and asked them, are these the same color?

[Matt]

And if you say no, you are on bike patrol for two weeks.

[Mike]

No, we're going to put you at the. The library.

[Matt]

I mean, sorry, if you say yes, you are on bike patrol. Yeah.

[Mike]

If you say yes, guess what? You're going to be working the local true crime garage flea market sale.

[Matt]

Parker was born in 1994. When he was just three years old, the parents split up. Leo was the parent who raised Parker, but Parker would visit with his father often. They stayed out of touch. Parker's parents, for many years and didn't always see eye to eye on things. Didn't get along very well and didn't talk about anything that wasn't necessary to discuss. You know, you. You talk about as much as you need to when you are raising a child together. But what ultimately brought them back into contact together wasn't just the peace pipe being passed or the olive branch being extended. It was actually the grinding continuation of what felt like a lack of justice in their son's case. What was happening here, Captain, was information was being handled in a way that was splitting the family. The district attorney's office and the police department gave Parker's father details that Leah wasn't given and then also gave Leah details that Parker's father wasn't given. So there was a breakdown in communication and they decided, look, we, neither of us should have uneven access to what's going on in our son's murder investigation. So they decided, look, their love for Parker much, much bigger than their disagreement for each other, their disagreements that they've had over the years, and they didn't live in, even in the same city. So that's also a bit of a complication here. Now, Leah remarried, she moved to Florida, eventually moves to Georgia. Yeah, she raised Parker in the greater Atlanta area of Georgia. Later, once Parker was much older, Leah moved to Warner Robins. There's an Air force base there. And her husband, her current husband worked at the. Was a government worker at the base. So she moves to Warner Robbins in May of 2015. At that time, Parker had just turned 21 in March of 2015. He had already been in the Atlanta area for 10 plus years. His friends were there, his life was there, he had a girlfriend there. Everything he knew was there. And so of course, this young man didn't want to follow his mother to Warner Robbins. In fact, Leah said his words were he'd rather live in his car than in Warner Robbins. So she moves and Parker stayed. He was on his own. He did well for a while, but hit a couple of hard patches and needed a soft place to land. So Parker eventually does move to Warner Robbins. This is in more March of 2017, and he was killed in January of 2018. He never saw his 24th birthday. This meant Parker lived in Warner Robins for only about nine months. But in that short time, Leah said Parker Made an impact that stunned her. People who hadn't known him long were moved by him. I spoke with Leah Parker's mother, and we spoke with Andy Parker's father, right. And learned a lot about the area, Learned a lot about the. The time period. We were told that one of the questions we had, what was going on with this uptick in violence? So we were told that Warner Robbins is a military town that exists only because of the base. Basically, it exists because of the base. They say it's not a small town that naturally grew into something else. It only exists because of the base. And they tell us it's become crime riddled. About 25 minutes north is Macon, Georgia, an area with a history also crime riddled people. Locals describe Warner Robbins as becoming a mini Macon. And what has been said is that gang activity possibly traced back toward the Atlanta area, had moved south over the years. In January 2018, there were reportedly three homicides, about half of what the entire year had in 2017. We wanted to know what. What was this uptick in violence? Andy Parker's dad said he wouldn't describe it. That simply saying, based on what they had looked into, Some of the men being focused on in these three cases had histories that included violent crimes. They also said that they were following the Warner Robbins police page, naturally, and saw daily posts about arrest, drugs, guns, and all kinds of other concerning things. Now, Parker had worked at Barbaritos in Atlanta. He worked there for a couple of years, and he knew the owners, brothers Phil and Martin. The brothers own a couple of Barbaritos locations, including the Warner Robbins store. So when Parker moved down to Warner Robbins in March of 2017, he needs a job, right? And his mother, Leah, told us a sentence that feels like she's been carrying this sentence around like a daily bruise. This is something that she told us that she would never forgive herself for what she said to her son. She told Parker, why don't you just go to Barbaritos and tell them you live here now and they'll give you a job?

[Mike]

Yeah, but she has to let that go.

[Matt]

So Parker goes into the store, says, hey, my name is Parker. Tells the manager, why don't you call Phil and Martin and let him know I want a job here, right? The manager's like, who the hell do you think you are?

[Mike]

Right?

[Matt]

But he calls one of the owners anyway, telling him that, look, some joker just walked in the store acting like a badass, telling me to call and tell you that he needs a job.

[Mike]

I like it. I would have hired him the, oh.

[Matt]

The owner says, well, who is it? What's the guy's name? And when the manager tells the owner, the guy's name is Parker, the owner says immediately, oh my God, tell him, okay, yes, give him a job right now. So he had a great working relationship with the owners at the previous Barbaritos that he worked at in Atlanta. And of course they were very happy to welcome into the Warner Robbins store. Leah and Andy both said Parker loved music and soccer. He loved skateboarding, video games. He will most be remembered for how much he simply loved people and how he treated people around him. And he was always eager to help. Friends, loved ones and even just acquaintances.

[Mike]

Yeah.

[Matt]

People from Barbaritos told Leah that when they saw Parker was working, they knew it was going to be a great night, that he just made the place all better. But on the night of the robbery and the shooting, Parker wasn't supposed to be there. He wasn't going to be working that night. In fact, he wasn't going to be working at Barbaritos for much longer at all. Parker had career plans, the Air Force. He had student loans and other financial responsibilities that he needed to handle first. He was trying to work as many hours as possible to pay things down so he could just move forward. He was, he was going to the Air Force the night he was working again. He wasn't even supposed to be there. Parker's car had been out of commission. He was in the process of getting it fixed. So that evening a friend called the person fixing the car calls, says, the car's fixed, the car's ready. Parker and his stepfather go to pick up the vehicle. They picked it up early that evening. Leah believes that this was around 5ish sometime in the 5 o' clock hour. And Parker started driving his car back home in that stretch of time. A call came in from work. Someone there felt terrible, needed to leave and asked Parker if they would come in and finish the shift. Now we were told Parker is kind of known as the yes man. Always willing to help. And he liked his time at Barbarita. So people knew if they asked, he would say yes, he would help.

[Mike]

Plus he wanted to get extra money.

[Matt]

Absolutely. Parker's last Snapchat was a photo of the sun setting behind trees to which Parker wrote, got a new job. The Infinity is fixed. Tis a good day. This Snapchat was sent out at the five o' clock hour. He was killed that night. We also spoke with somebody that we're going to call Witness A. So there's good reason to Criticize the police and the prosecution or the prosecuting the prosecutor's office. In this case, there's also good reason to defend them. But it's details like this that give me great concern for the case and where the case sits today. We know the FBI is involved. We know the Georgia Bureau of Investigation is involved. That's the right move here. But this murder happened eight years ago. Witness A and is an absolutely great witness. And there are possibly six or seven very good witnesses here at the Barbaritos that night. Our friend witness A has been interviewed over the course of eight years, a total of three times. Twice by Warner Robbins police department and once by True Crime Garage. That's it. So that's another rather big mistake in my humble garage opinion here in this case.

[Mike]

Let's just be honest with people. We run a flea market. We're. No, we're not law enforcement. Well, and if you're selling used coffee

[Matt]

mugs, if you only conduct the interview twice that. Also, I would like to see the transcripts for that because I wonder how thorough of those. Those interviews were. So witness A started working at Barbaritos about a year or so before the robbery and knew Parker for about six months. Their time together at the Barbaritos, Witness A says Parker was super friendly and described as someone who just got along with everyone, saying, I mean, there was some definite characters coming in and out that worked with us. So I guess there was at least maybe one person who didn't get along with him. But you had to be crazy not to get along with him. Parker's position, he was the shift lead. The night of the murder was a Sunday. We have four people working in total that night. And that's typical. The typical number of staff, right? You have a bartender, you have the shift lead, which is Parker, who is also the line cook. You have a cashier, and you have a dishwasher. So if you could picture this restaurant and there are several restaurants throughout this country, franchise restaurants that are very similar to Barbaritos. Up, up in my neck of the woods, it's Yabo's Tacos. And you go in and it's usually a staff of four. You have a bar that is well separated from the kitchen area. You have your in house dining area, and you usually have a little patio area. So that's what you have here. Four people working that night. We were told by witness A that Sundays were usually slower, especially toward the end of the day, telling us that the morning times, you would get the church crowd and they would get very Busy, but toward the evening it was always kind of slow. We asked witness A what their opinion was on why the robber would choose to pick a slow day and because there's some suspicion here, Captain and I know you share the suspicion that possibly most of these businesses, especially the smaller sized ones, it's usually some kind of inside job and it doesn't usually, that doesn't always mean it's somebody that's currently working there, but it's usually somebody that has some kind of knowledge of that business, the way that it's run or has worked at that specific business at one time.

[Mike]

One what's tough is one, there's multiple locations so the individual could have worked at any of the locations. But also these types of, these types of jobs have high turnover rate. So could just be somebody that worked there for a week or two and said I don't want to work here anymore, but now I have some details about this so I'm going to rob them one day.

[Matt]

Our question was, well, why wouldn't. If the person had a general understanding of the business, let's pretend that for a moment. Why wouldn't this man have robbed the place on Saturday night with the opportunity to make off with a lot more cash? And witness ages simply said, well if they knew the business they would have known that we would be slow on a Sunday night and it would be less witnesses, less people in the store. Right.

[Mike]

We're also assuming that this was highly planned out and it probably wasn't.

[Matt]

Witness aces that Parker showed up that evening at 6 to 6:30 ish and back to Parker's family. One thing they expressed to us is that they seem to think that the perpetrator had moved pretty easily in and out and through the restaurant. And it's been their suspicion that maybe he had prior working knowledge of this store. Now at the time of the robbery there were anywhere from about six to eight persons in the store, depending on who you talk to. This is at the time that the robber entered. And I would say there's three very good witnesses to the events because some of the people in the store were able to flee or to hide to find a location to hide in the store. Witness A says that as soon as the robber came into the Barbaritos, he came into the back door through the back door and went into the office area immediately. And witness A says I'm not sure how he knew to just go in there. I don't know if the office door was open so that he could see that it was an office But I do know that the back door had issues with it not locking properly while we were working. You could just push the door and it would open. I told witness a about the family suspicions, and witness A confirmed saying, yeah, this was always very suspicious to us. We were always wondering why he knew to immediately go into the office. Yeah, when is he continues, that's suspicious, saying, well, okay, so let me give you the layout. You have four doors that get you to the outside. You have the main entrance, which is in the front of the house. That's where the customers will typically go in and out of. You have the back door, which is often utilized by the employees. And you also have an emergency exit, which is also near the rear of the restaurant. When we asked witness a if there was an alarm, if that would sound an alarm on the emergency exit, we were told they don't think that it would because one of the people that one of the customers fled out that door during the course of that robbery, and there was no alarm that went off. Witness a continues saying, we close at 10. So he came in around 9:30. He came in right before closing. We were starting to clean up and get ready to go. And it was about 30 minutes before closing. We asked what general operations were like, especially around closing time, and we were told we would try and clean up everything as much as we can. We have to take orders if someone comes in at the last minute. But usually, yes, we are cleaning up everything. And once we lock the doors at closing time, then Parker, who was the shift lead, would take the money out of the register, taking it back to the office to go count it. That. So he. Let's paint a little bit of a picture here as far as our suspicions about our robber. He very well could have just come in that back door, saw the office was open, and ducked in there for cover briefly. Or did he think it was a little later than what it was and that the money would already be in there and he could just grab it and go right? Witness A says that they had been in the restroom. So they were coming out of the restroom from the hallway, saying, I walked up to the register. And worker number one and Parker are standing close to where you enter into the kitchen. Worker 1 says to Parker and witness a, somebody dressed in all black just went into the office. I don't think he's supposed to be back there. So Parker starts to walk back. Worker number one tells witness a, don't go back there. But basically what you get here is all three of them are making their Way back toward the office area. Now we're talking about, this is not a big restaurant, this is not, not a large business. So it's just a matter of a few feet. Witness A says before they could get to the office door, the robber comes barging out of the office with a gun pointing at all three of them. We wanted to confirm 100%. Did this guy come in the back door? You know, did he, did he come in the. You sure he didn't come in the front door? You sure he didn't come in the emergency exit? Are you sure he wasn't hiding in one of the restrooms? Right. And we were told by witness A, absolutely. We know he came in the back door because worker number one saw him come in the back door and said that immediately to Parker and witness A. Witness A says, I immediately put my hands up to show that I'm not a threat. The robber starts telling us to get the money out. We wanted to know what was the first thing that you saw? His face, his outfit, his feet, his gun. What was the first thing that you see? Witness A says, the first thing I saw is the gun. We asked what did it look like. It was described as a long barreled silver revolver, which you can see that in the surveillance picture. And you can also see that same gun as witness A describes it in the chevron picture as well. When asked what was the first thing that he said, we were told, I don't remember his exact wording. He told us to get the money out of the register. So we have. The three of our workers are now standing near the register and we wanted to know, do all three of you have access to the register? We were told yes. So they're behind the counter, the robber is just to the left of them and he's yelling at them that they are taking too long. We wanted to know a description, a very good description of this man. What, what does he look like, what is he wearing? We already got the description of the gun. We're told he was wearing all black and the words were, and I remember he had like a black beanie on and a bandana around his face. So all I could see was his eyes. What color are his eyes? They were dark, dark brown and he's a dark skinned man. What was his build? Is he tall, short, thin, fat, medium? What we asked, we were told he was thin and he wasn't very tall. Possibly 5 foot 9 to 5 foot 10 inches tall. The part that, I mean, it's just horrific that they hand over the Money. And I'm going to be brief on this part of it because I don't want to linger on these details too much. As we know, the family and persons that worked at the Barbaritos will be working that. That were working there that night will be listening to this. But he got what he wanted. And then he shoots worker number one in the head and then shoots Parker in the head and then flees almost as like, oh, I have one or two more things to do before I leave here. Even though he got what he wanted.

[Mike]

Yeah.

[Matt]

Police have footage of this individual working his way to the Barbaritos so he can be seen. He's seen on surveillance footage making his way to that back door. What I am curious about is if they have that because witness A says he then fled out the back door the best that they can remember. Because by this time witness A has. Has ducked for cover and eventually will be one of the people calling 911 as well will be a customer. And remember, the other customers plus the bartender had fled during the. Once the commotion started.

[Mike]

Right. So on surveillance, do you see him getting into any vehicle?

[Matt]

That's what I want to know. That's the part that is not available online. We can see pictures of him going into the store. And without the description of, hey, here's some pictures of him leaving. We don't have that. And I would like to know what do they know about him leaving? And again, this outfit described just the same as the Chevron. And the description of the man, what could be seen of the man? Same description. Gun is the same. This is a cold, cold blooded person. You can't have somebody this violent. He's a homicidal maniac on the streets. I hope he's been picked up for something else. There were a slew of other armed robberies around the same time period in the Warner Robbins area. Are those connected? I can't say. It's difficult to say because in those scenarios the persons working were left unharmed. They were left alive. In our case, worker number one survives somehow. Parker, Killian Moore did not. Now the other thing too. Given the suspected age of this suspect and given the gang activity in the area at the time, my suspicions would be that this person is too dumb not to talk.

[Mike]

Yeah, but he's probably also talking to other dumb asses, right?

[Matt]

I hope he is. Right. I hope that he is.

[Mike]

But there's not many gang members that just decide to go into the police department and go, hey, true, we can

[Matt]

agree that one thing that gets you caught is stupid, stupid will get you caught every day.

[Mike]

Well, not when law enforcement doesn't even understand simple colors. So it's five years trying to pin the crime on somebody that wasn't involved in the crime.

[Matt]

A quick reminder here. If somebody needs to get in touch with law enforcement about this case, the Warner Robbins Police Department number is 478-302-5378. We have been checking in on this case and we'll continue to check in and keep tabs on this case. We're hearing good things as of late. We're hearing that there is a little smoke around this investigation. We're hoping that that's going to be followed with some fire. We know that this is a multi agency investigation at this point. We also know that there's an ongoing reward for information in Parker Killian Moore's case. Even more reason for somebody that's overheard something to come forward. But this is a case that's drug on for too long and it's a case that many are surprised it wasn't solved rather quickly. Now, again, they were going down the wrong path. They figured that out at some point. A little late, but they figured it out at some point. So I would rather you be rather late than never. Yeah, number one. And number two, my other suggestion would be when we talk to people, when True Crime Garage talks to people about this case and talks to people that are very good witnesses and they tell us they've been talked to twice in the course of eight years, you need to interview, interview, interview, interview everyone multiple times. Multiple, multiple times in very thorough, thorough interviews. I went through what was about 10 minutes of our discussion with this witness. We asked every question under the sun. One thing to our surprise, we said, hey, did this, did the robber have an accent? Did they sound like, you know, this is Georgia? I said, did he sound like me? Like a Yankee?

[Mike]

Yeah. Was he a Georgia peach?

[Matt]

Did he sound like somebody from the south? Did he sound like. Like he's putting on an accent? To which the witness said he sounded like he created, you know, a learned accent of inner city kind of thug talk. Was the vibe that this person got when this person expressed that to police, they were told, that's not important. You're probably misremembering because it was so stressful. You've been traumatized, the ptsd, you're probably not remembering correctly. Well, I'll tell you what, let's not start diagno, diagnosing things that we don't understand. And let's not dismiss something as being misremembered until we can prove that it was misremembered. When you have the man's eyes, bridge of his nose, his height, his weight, the gun, his outfit, and that's about it for the description, it might be important how the individual talks, right?

[Mike]

But if you have tunnel vision and for five years or more you're trying to make the shoe fit where the shoe doesn't fit you, you're not going to want to keep talking to individuals that basically is giving you information that's trying to deter you from what your tunnel vision is.

[Matt]

Well, the other thing that's crazy is on that tunnel vision, the guy you arrested for the first murder is a thug, an inner city thug. And don't call me racist because I use the word thug. That doesn't describe somebody's color, that describes somebody, how they act in the actions that they do in the way that they move throughout society.

[Mike]

Yeah. And he, he murdered somebody.

[Matt]

This person is. There's no difference between this guy who killed Jack Patel at Chevron and then eight days later kills Parker Moore in Barbaritos and attempts to kill the other worker by shooting him in the head as well. There's no difference between him and the i70 killer that walked into five different stores and murdered six different people in cold blood. There's no difference between that serial killer and this individual. Right. That's the evil that we're talking about here. And I hope and pray that they have somebody in their sights and not just have them in their sights, but he's locked up for something else because he couldn't stop. I don't know where to take this case but to say that we will continue to keep an eye on it. It's a multi agency case where it stands today. I think that's the right move. And Warner Robbins Police Department. Go back and talk to all these witnesses. Go back and talk to everybody. And guess what? Go talk to the individual that was convicted and sentenced to 25 years for murder at the apartments. Because these people talk. These people might move in the same circles. That guy stands to win a little bit if he knows something and can communicate that to you.

[Mike]

Year. Want to thank everybody for joining us here in the garage. Thanks for telling your mother. Thanks for telling your brother. Hey, tell your hairdresser as well, or your barber, whatever you prefer. Colonel, do we have any recommended reading for the beautiful listeners?

[Matt]

Yes, we do, Captain. We also want to thank all the people that took the time to spend with with us and talk to us about this case and their insights about this case today. We are recommending Whatever Happened to Eddie Crane A Memoir and a Murder Investigation by Kate Crane. One night when Kate Crane was 12 years old, her father called to say that he was on his way home from his trucking business. He never showed up. Kate and her family were left stunned with no explanation or resolution on the horizon. Twenty years later, now a journalist in New York City, Kate reopens the investigation with Baltimore's Cold Case Unit, tracks down the retired detectives who worked her father's case, and chases leads with old friends through her hometown's dark alleys. Maybe she can find some answers. That book is Whatever Happened to Eddie Crane? A Memoir and a Murder Investigation by Kate Crane. You don't have to write that title down now as we will have it on our recommended page on our website, truecrimegarage.com thank you so much for supporting the Garage.

[Mike]

Until next week. Be good, be kind, and don't litter. Sam.