Original subtitles

Do you know who Jaleayah Davis is?

I had heard of Jaleayah Davis.

I didn't actually know her, though.

Do you know how Jaleayah died?

I know what everyone has said happened.

There was a suspicious car accident

on 77 toward Marietta, I think.

I know there's a lot of naysayers

who don't agree it was just an accident.

I believe she was hit by her own vehicle

by somebody else and murdered.

Do you think the investigation was thorough?

I'm sure that someone knows something

that they don't wanna say

just to protect themselves.

Mile Marker 181 is a true crime podcast

and may contain discussion

of graphic or disturbing details.

I'm your host, Emily.

It's like this local lore, this obsession.

It goes through highs and lows, but it always comes back around.

And there's always somebody that wants to talk about it.

My covenant is, like, with the truth.

Like, I mean, think about it.

If it were you,

wouldn't you want your family to know the truth?

And I'll admit part of it's for my own nosiness.

You know, I was never out to make money off of it.

I would just want to know everything.

- Why? - I have to.

That's my character flaw.

I'm gonna... Okay, wait, Wi-Fi's up.

Let's see if it's gonna work.

Hi, Denise. I was in, like, a month ago

and had given a FOIA request to Chief Martin.

I cannot hear you.

You're cutting out really bad.

Oh, I'm sorry.

Call failed.

I'll be so annoyed if this...

If I literally can't make any of these calls.

So, tell us where we are.

The middle of fucking nowhere.

Hey, come on, come inside...

so the coyotes don't get you.

Harvey Nestor,

go, go.

This is my wall.

These are everybody's timelines.

So, you've got Katy, Freddie, Kristin.

This is stuff that, like, I know is, like,

on deck to be covered.

And then once I'm done with it,

I just, like, move it over here.

Um, I cut down the sound foam and made it this thing,

and then I set my mic up on its tripod

and set the mic right here.

And I just kind of talk into the box

and it's like my own tiny little sound studio.

People think it's real glamorous

or that I'm in, like, a studio or something.

I'm, like, no.

Before I had that, I recorded in the closet.

When you get down to, like,

the order of events for each individual,

I mean, you can see how... What a cluster fuck this is.

And that's a pretty organized way to put it.

It's detail heavy, and I get people...

Like, a lot of people don't like the show for that reason,

but, like, I can't change the case.

If you wanna, like, do a deep dive

and actually do the investigative part of it,

you've gotta go and you've gotta like talk to people yourself.

Do you have any bug spray?

Thank you for calling...

Uh-uh.

- I'm about to hop on this. - Okay.

- Hello? - Hi, is this Camille Waldron?

- It is. - Hi, this is Emily Nestor.

I do theMile Marker 181 podcast.

Um, about the Jaleayah Davis case.

But since you worked and you were lead on that case,

you know I'd love to...

If you're not willing to record, I understand that,

but I'd at least love to have a conversation with you.

I think I'm gonna pass.

I'll stand on the merits of my report.

It's closed for now,

unless something totally enlightening

would come forward to say, oh, you know.

Was this handled correctly? Absolutely not.

It's time that somebody, like, do it justice

and have the balls to say, "This is what I think happened."

I read the case files, and I was like, "murder cover-up.

What the hell?"

That needs to be fucking handled.

So, why not me?

Welcome toMile Marker 181.

I'm your host, Emily.

I'll tell you a little bit about myself later,

but for now, let's just dive right in.

This story starts in 2011,

on the evening of Friday, November the 18th.

I could tell you a lot of things about Jaleayah Davis.

I could tell you that just like me,

she just had her 20th birthday,

but unfortunately I have to tell you,

she never lived to see 21.

The people that I've had that are experts,

that have looked at this, said,

"You know, by all means, it's bizarre."

It's a bizarre scene. Everybody agrees on that fact.

Hey, you know it's not your average traffic accident.

It very much looked like she was acting as a pedestrian

out of her own vehicle, based on injuries that she had,

based on her clothing being placed over a guardrail.

Normally your clothing is either on you or on the roadway.

It doesn't hang over a guardrail.

This is what we're calling

the original point of impact right here.

Bam, right there.

We're essentially

at what at least investigators consider

to be the point of impact for Jaleayah's vehicle.

What they're saying happened is her vehicle hit here,

she was ejected,

her head hit the guardrail post

and then her car reentered the roadway.

Her body was thrown nearly into the median

and then her car continued four-tenths of a mile

further down the road.

So, it perfectly came to rest against the 181.8.

In between, you've got blood spatter,

you've got brain matter,

you've got skin, you've got teeth.

Her clothes were in a really suspicious order.

It was bra first, then a T-shirt over top,

and then her peacoat over top of that.

So, what you're seeing

with the whole scene is just totally bizarre.

The people involved that were with Jaleayah that night

were Freddie Scott, Katy Nelson,

and Kristin Bechtold.

She left her house.

She went over to Kristin's,

they drank,

they went to the Nip n' Cue,

till approximately three o'clock,

and then that's when everybody's stories

start to get slightly different.

Jaleayah had been dancing with the boyfriend of Katy.

They had had an argument, admittedly with her.

There was a lot going on.

There was some tension.

So, it becomes a situation of,

you know, was there foul play?

So, what's the theory?

They pulled over, and then she got run over.

The common rumor? That they had pulled over,

maybe gotten in a fight

or maybe kicked Jaleayah out of the car.

Kristin got in the driver's seat.

Jaleayah was acting as a pedestrian

and then Kristin came along and plowed her down.

That's the rumor.

90% points to murder,

from the blood patterns, from the clothes,

from acceleration marks in the roadway,

to the way her body was in relation to her car,

three-tenths of a mile down.

Everything about that scene

was totally just like something doesn't add up.

And then you get into everybody's individual story.

Kristin, before this, didn't have a good reputation.

Kristin, after this, has a much worse reputation.

I've had someone go so far as to say

that she's not kind to animals,

which if you know anything about, you know,

the psychology of murderers,

then that's a pretty damning thing

to have somebody say about your past.

I also had somebody actually say

that she's a bedwetter too, which is also really damning.

Who outed her as a bed wetter?

I can't tell you that.

You know I can't tell you that.

That's somebody that came to me privately that told me that.

And I do have them on the phone,

but they want to be left anonymous.

Kristin Bechtold would not talk to investigators

until she had a lawyer.

Even in high school she was very polarizing.

She was very popular,

but it seemed like everybody hated her.

I remember that, and I've never spoken to her.

Party animal within the community.

Dad's a doctor, privileged,

at least for Appalachia.

Spoiled!

Who accuses Kristin of murder?

Mostly Jaleayah's family accuses her of murder.

Kim Davis.

You're listening to Mile Marker 181.

This episode will be the first time

you get to hear Jaleayah's mother, Kim Davis, speak.

I want to be perfectly clear,

Kim is the only reason I'm able to do this podcast.

She obtained over 700 pages of documents

through the Freedom of Information Act.

I got in contact with Kim

about my interest in her daughter's case.

A week later, I had those same case documents

and photos in my hands.

Anyways, enough from me.

Here's Kim speaking about the day she lost her oldest child.

Right there.

The day that it happened,

my dad had gone to the scene.

Said, "It's not an accident. This was murder."

And my dad would never lie to me about that.

That's the post that killed Jaleayah.

You're not driving your car,

but somehow, on the right hand side of the road,

your head's hitting a post.

No, it was on the Justice for Jaleayah site,

all over the community.

She was definitely murdered. I'll tell anybody that.

She was definitely murdered.

They killed her in one of the worst ways.

When you see the pictures of her laying there,

you'll say the same thing too.

Yeah, and I told Kim, I said,

you cannot trust that sheriff down there.

You can't trust no cop.

Do you carry your gun right now?

Oh, yeah.

Right there, yeah.

Right there.

- I carry that. - Why?

Because on account of the cops.

You know doggone well

all the clothes wouldn't come off

and folded up on the guardrail post.

No.

One cop, they'll lie for another.

Why do you think it was covered up?

Uh, because.

Freddie Scott,

his dad was a former police officer in Parkersburg.

Katy Nelson, her dad was a former police officer

in Parkersburg.

That's why I feel it's covered up.

Plus, he's got a lot of money.

Uh... Kristin Bechtold's dad, he was rich.

So, I feel that, you know,

there might have been some money changed there.

That's my feeling.

I hope you get some closure on this.

Oh, I do too.

I hope before I die. I'm 76 years old.

I hope I do.

We're gonna follow Emily's investigation

- and I hope... - Yeah, she's really good.

She's really good. I'm surprised Nancy Grace

didn't jump onto this.

- I know. - Yeah.

Before we begin this episode,

I wanna remind you that in the mid-Ohio Valley,

nothing stays secret for very long.

If you have information you think might be valuable,

please contact Kim

through the Justice for Jaleayah Facebook page

or myself through theMile Marker 181page.

I wonder sometimes why Kim Davis did trust me.

Somebody else had approached her

about doing a podcast about this

and she turned them down.

I just felt like I knew... When I started,

I knew what I was capable of,

and I know that I'm capable of telling the truth

and I knew that being local

was going to be very advantageous.

Ohh!

There was an accident on I77.

So I just read outta curiosity, and you get out of the blog

and you see all these, these comments, right?

It was a kind of a curiosity thing. Okay, what's going on?

There was a podcast by a girl named Emily.

You know, getting that look from different places

and people wanting to help out was absolutely amazing.

Basically, people want justice in the area.

I love Sherlock Holmes.

I like just different crime shows, different documentaries.

Putting two to two together,

looking at the smallest little detail and evidence

and cracking a case.

Emily's show, Mile Marker 181,

that's my first podcast

that I've ever followed for any reason.

It's just crazy what they're trying to say had happened.

That car's not gonna go another quarter of a mile up the road

without a driver in it.

I can't wrap my head around it.

The only way you're gonna get your head ripped off

on the guardrail post, is to be run down by a vehicle.

After looking at the body,

yeah, I was pretty much sure that it was a homicide.

I don't think it was no accident.

One of the girls supposedly beat her up

and killed her on the interstate, or one of the guys.

First I wondered maybe if somebody hadn't

drug her out of the car and was beating her on something.

The sheriff's department said that she went out of her car

and she hit the guardrail, and she went over to the car.

You know, I just don't think a body can bounce like that.

That's...

That's too wild of a story for me.

The family has a different opinion

of what the police said,

and they've been trying to keep it alive.

She was an African American girl.

There's a lot of stigma,

a lot of racism in the area and everything.

I just believe, you know, with a Caucasian girl,

it would've been more investigated.

People here don't have to be conspiracy theorists

to believe that there's a lot of corruption.

In Kim Davis's case,

well, we have to give a lot of leeway

for mourning mothers, don't we?

I mean we, we just do.

Hi there, it's me.

Welcome back toMile Marker 181.

I think it's time I tell you a little about myself.

I don't plan on doing this often.

It's important I try not to insert

my own personal opinions into this story

or tell you too much about myself besides what's relevant.

As for why I got into true crime,

here's the story.

When I was 13,

I was totally obsessed with Silence of the Lambs.

I grew up with true crime.

But back then, we didn't call it true crime.

It wasForensic Files and Date line and John Walsh.

I wanted to be Clarice Starling.

Closer, please.

Clarice Starling was from West Virginia.

She had a slight Appalachian accent.

She was a great role model.

You know, she was one of the only honest characters

and it was a strong female character.

I'm still in training at the academy.

I was watching The Keepers.

I was watching Making a Murderer.

Michelle McNamara's book, I'll Be Gone In The Dark

came out, I devoured it, and I thought

this is the kind of deep dive that I wanna do.

I mean, up until this year, I worked at a doggy daycare,

overlapped with waiting tables at Buffalo Wild Wings.

Before Buffalo Wild Wings, I had bartended at a strip club

'cause I thought that would be a good idea.

Turns out I didn't enjoy it as much as I thought I would.

But I do have good stories, which is the point, right?

Now, I'm a full-time podcaster,

which is still weird to say.

Hi, crime junkies.

Today's episode is a gruesome one.

I had gotten into podcasts

and the more I got into it, the more it became an obsession.

Welcome toMy Favorite Murder.

Welcome to the Murder Squad.

Nancy Grace here.

Wine and Crime contains graphic

and explicit content that may not be suitable

for some listeners.

I've got two tattoos from the show Dexter.

I've got like a blood slide,

and I've got the hand from the Ice Truck Killer.

We both have Richard Ramirez quotes.

In full disclosure, not 'cause we love Richard Ramirez, no.

And I'm adding into that leg

like, a mom-style traditional tattoo

with a dagger through it.

But instead of "Mom" on the banner, it says "True Crime."

Now, who's your favorite murderer?

It's Israel Keyes.

Favorite?

My favorite murderer is Israel Keyes.

I already talked to you about this.

I'm her best friend.

We wrestle back and forth about it all the time,

and she'll come back to me with new information

and be like, hey, listen to this.

Like this is why I think this happened or didn't happen now.

And let's hash it out.

I love it.

She doesn't have any training whatsoever.

I don't know that that's a good thing to...

Well no, no, but seriously, she doesn't do...

She doesn't have any audio visual training.

She doesn't have any recording, like anything like that.

She didn't go to school for journalism.

She doesn't have any background in forensics or crime

or anything.

Or being in the public eye at all.

And she just decided, hey, this is an opportunity

where I can try to teach myself something.

And then she did it, and then also to help somebody,

and then out of her own curiosity,

she just made it happen.

Yeah, yeah.

Kind of like your life.

Mm. I'm living it, man.

I didn't say you weren't.

I mean, I realized through the process of this all

that I have a voice and people will listen.

And if you use that voice for the right things,

you can change a lot of things.

Harvey.

Harvey, you should run for sheriff.

I'd vote for him.

Do you wanna be sheriff?

I am not joking when I say he's like my true crime buddy.

Oh, he is so good.

He's so pure.

You're never gonna do anything wrong.

You're too good.

Except poop in the house.

You know, just from Kim

posting about it on the Justice for Jaleayah Page,

I got a lot of, like, traction that way,

'cause anybody who follows that case

is obviously gonna listen

to anything that comes out about it.

Okay, so, theMarietta Times,

I had like two episodes out when they reached out to me

and they were like, "Oh, we wanna run a story on it."

And I was like, cool, when can I expect it to be out?

You know, we'd set up a call, she interviewed me

for 30 minutes on the phone.

She's like, "Oh, it'll be front page tomorrow."

I was like, okay, must be a slow news week.

It's pressure.

It's just like this,

like, the more attention you get for it,

the more like accountable you have to be

for what you're putting out.

Like, if nobody's paying attention,

it doesn't matter if it sucks.

Is my bra straps showing?

No, no, you're okay.

Been working on that the whole time.

Look at that! Look at that hillbilly!

When anything has happened major in West Virginia

and you see it on the national news,

they do not portray us in a good light,

because not everybody in West Virginia has no teeth

or can't make a full sentence.

People do wear shoes here.

Gimme a wave.

- Okay. - Or this wave.

Emily kind of had the calling, I guess,

but because she didn't go to college,

she just assumed, you know, "I can't be a profiler,"

which is what she kind of wanted to do.

"So, I'll just go do this."

But actually, you can solve some crime without a degree,

with enough know-how and enough gumption.

I wasn't familiar with what a podcast was.

I was happy for her,

but it didn't mean a whole lot to me.

I'm like, okay, have fun, do what you wanna do.

Do what makes you happy.

So, I really didn't understand what that meant.

But it really snowballed, you know,

from a snowflake to a great big hill of snow.

So, it just has taken off in several different directions.

It's not just one avenue, it's multiple avenues.

Hi there. CrimeCon is coming up quickly

andMile Marker 181 will be there on Podcast Row.

If you are not familiar with CrimeCon,

it's basically the Super Bowl of true crime.

CrimeCon is like Comic-Con.

You've got everybody involved with Golden State Killer.

You've got Nancy Grace, you've got Date line.

Like it's, it's some wild shit.

Ladies and gentlemen,

please welcome Paul Holes,

host of The DNA of Murder.

Are you guys having fun here at CrimeCon?

Anytime I walk into a scene,

and I see something that is contradictory,

that's where I have to step back

and go, okay, I need to look at that more closely.

Well, let me tell ya,

anytime is the right time to do the right thing.

And if you fail, you'll remember it the rest of your life.

Okay, so here I am.

This is Billy Jensen's podcast.

So, they've got me in good real estate.

I'm fine with it.

It's exciting, like, it feels good,

but I'm like my own worst enemy, you know what I mean?

I am.

I self-sabotage.

What do you want to accomplish here at CrimeCon?

Well, honestly, I wanna see my listeners shoot up.

It's about me exploring more opportunities.

To all the podcasters that are out there.

You're here to have fun, you're here to learn.

But also just be mindful,

these are real cases involving real people,

so be respectful with your questioning.

Part of getting a case out has to also be entertaining,

'cause I've heard podcasts that aren't entertaining

and they're very fact-driven, and guess what?

People don't talk about the case actively.

If you're gonna use it to try and bring exposure,

I think a little bit of entertainment factor helps you.

You have a single blow to the back of the head.

Do you see her shoes?

I feel like the true crime community

is a really good place.

Like, when you're in the right corner of it.

Now, was there a heavy amount of blood in her ear here?

Because there are people that are just opportunists,

that just wanna make a buck off of it.

They don't care about the people behind the stories.

No!

No, no, no!

But more good than bad.

I think that's hard to find in other genres of entertainment.

These are podcasters. They can't be trusted.

I wouldn't call me to get me outta jail.

I'm not sure if you're aware,

but I don't make money doing this podcast.

I consciously chose not to run paid ads.

Something about the idea of making money off of this

felt weird.

Thank you so much. Did you get stickers?

- I did. - Okay, cool, great.

Hi, I love your podcast.

- Thank you! - We're both from Ohio.

So, take some stickers. Nice to meet you.

I love the shirt.

How are ya? It's gonna be not what you expect.

- Okay. - Yeah.

When a window breaks,

you're supposed to leave fiber, and hair, and skin behind,

and there was none of that.

Emily Nestor decided on a whim to buy a ticket

to CrimeCon in Nashville, Tennessee.

She had no idea she'd be attending the following year

as talent on Podcast Row.

Holy shit!

- What isMile Marker 181? - I got a description over here.

Come here.

Suspicious set of circumstances.

It's just kind of a lot of unanswered questions

and it's from my hometown, so...

- Where is that? - Parkersburg, West Virginia.

I would love you to come on our podcast

and talk about your show.

- Sure. - And why you care about it.

Hold on.

Do you have a business card?

- I do, yeah. - Thank you.

There you go.

- We'll be in touch. - Thank you.

What? What?

At CrimeCon, I'd met everybody that I was meant to meet

- to make this happen. - Take a seat.

Hey there, I'm Stephanie Gomulka.

I'm joined with the mind behindMile Marker 181,

podcaster Emily Nestor.

Thank you so much for joining us.

Thank you for having me.

The case was ultimately ruled accidental,

but a lot of people think that there was foul play.

The last person that was with Jaleayah

was the granddaughter of our former sheriff

and the sheriff's department is the investigating agency

in Jaleayah Davis's death.

Got it.

Everybody was acting on emotion or what was best for them.

I don't think anybody in the whole thing, genuinely,

fully had Jaleayah's

story and her life in mind.

- Do you? - Do I have her life in mind?

I hope. I try really hard.

This week, I'm angry.

I'm angry because no matter how many small dots

I feel like I connect, or Kim has long ago connected,

no one is listening.

I'm not talking about you, you're listening,

but is the law listening?

My name is Emily,

I'm your host, and this week I'm angry.

There's a study that shows

that waitresses that wear red lipstick make higher tips.

And that's kind of the philosophy I've just adapted.

Testing.

Just gonna put this right here.

This is my little setup here that I travel with,

my one little...

That's nice and neat.

Yeah. $400 piece of equipment there, though.

- Uh-huh. - All right.

So, what stood out to you the most

about this case in particular?

Well, the fact that the driver was ejected out of the car,

and then it was a sad scenario

where she was hit by passing semi-trucks.

Do you think it's a possibility

that things at the scene were moved,

in particular the clothing perhaps even by law enforcement?

I don't think it's fair for me to answer that question.

But I guess what I'm trying to wrap my brain around is...

In your opinion, you do agree with the conclusion

that it was an accident?

- Yes, I do. - Okay.

And if this is gonna continue in this direction,

I'm not gonna have any further conversation.

- Okay, that's fine. - Because you're asking me

to second guess investigation of...

- No, I get it. - What they've done at the time.

And I do not feel that that's fair to be doing that.

Nor do I wanna sit here and debate.

Um.

I think that's pretty much it as far as that goes.

'Cause there were some more heavy-hitter questions there,

but we'll skip those.

Well, thank you. 'Cause I know some of that stuff...

That's the questions I have to ask, though,

- you know what I mean? - I understand.

I have to play devil's advocate.

But I totally respect you not wanting to answer them.

What? That... Oh, I'm not even...

Hey, I have to dig and see what I can get.

You know what I mean?

- Can you blame me? - Emily.

Oh, I'm sorry.

- So, we done? - I believe so, yeah.

I think so, yeah.

I don't know what she's doing.

It sucks because I feel like

I'm just working for the truth, and the truth is really ugly.

And I understand you don't wanna throw people under the bus,

but that's kind of bullshit.

Because if those people fucked up that investigation,

and that's the reason why

there's never any justice brought

for this one fucking person,

that is such bullshit, and that's such a bad excuse.

Like, that's such a bad excuse.

You've gotta be able to have some balls and say,

"These people could have possibly messed this up."

These people could have possibly,

and I didn't even ask him the worst question of all.

I said, do you think it's possible that Kristin Bechtold

wiggled her way out of an involuntary manslaughter charge,

because her grandpa used to be sheriff.

That was more like... I hate being misunderstood,

like, it's one of my least favorite things.

I feel like I'm chronically misunderstood.

And it just sucks,

like, when somebody takes offense to something

that you actually had good intentions with.

This is my job. Like, that's my job.

But people don't take it serious because I'm working for myself.

Like, I'm not working for a paper,

I'm not working for a news source.

And it's funny 'cause I don't belong with the journalist

and I don't belong with law enforcement,

and I feel like I'm floating somewhere in between.

People don't like assertive women.

There is a monologue from Silence of the Lambs

- that I can almost recite. - Hit me, come on.

I can't read it. I'm gonna be emotional over it.

I hate being vulnerable,

- and I hate being... - I know.

I'm fine with being on camera

'cause I can ignore it, but being vulnerable

in front of one person is hard.

It's not even the camera.

It's like the three people in the room. Okay.

- They don't exist. - Oh, yeah, that's true.

- Just read it to me. - Okay.

"You know what you look like to me with your good bag

and your cheap shoes?"

Like, that's such a good, like...

- Yeah. - Yeah.

Like a good, backhanded compliment.

Uh... "You look like a rube",

a well-scrubbed hustling rube with a little taste.

Good nutrition is giving you some length of bone,

but you're not more than one generation

from poor white trash.

Are you, Agent Starling?

And that accent you're trying

so desperately to shed, pure West Virginia.

And oh, how quickly the boys found you.

All those tedious, sticky fumblings

in the backseats of cars,

while you could only dream of getting out,

"getting anywhere, getting all the way to the FBI."

That's fucking epic.

- You know what I mean? That... - Yeah.

That's way too close to home.

Yeah, but what did it make you think?

Fucking, like be brave

and fucking tell the truth

even when it sucks balls.

Yeah.

It's so amazing that she's been doing this

for such a short period of time.

It's fascinating how podcasting has become like this

I'm not trying to imply anyone can do it,

but if you're really good,

it doesn't take much of an investment, and you can launch.

And Emily's a really good example of that.

If you don't know what the rules are,

I mean, pfft, it's wide open.

You can do whatever you want.

Journalists are bound by rules.

If you work for a newspaper,

you really can't just spend time with the police officer

and kind of find out how things are.

That would be totally against the rules.

Hello, everyone, and welcome

to our latest episode of The Trail Went Cold.

I'm here with the host of Mile Marker 181.

And this accident makes no sense whatsoever.

I do these cases all the time on my podcast,

where they're cold cases,

and you can't come up with a logical solution

which makes 100% complete sense.

And I think this one qualifies

because even if she legitimately

died in an accident,

you at least wanna know the truth.

If they're saying that it's an accident,

we're missing some piece.

- I think. - Yeah, exactly.

Yeah, there's a missing piece there.

Well, you never know with podcasts.

They sometimes get these cases reopened and solved, so...

- Yeah. - Could happen.

- Knock on wood. - Yeah.

Yeah.

So, my mom and I are gonna drive Kristin's alibi drive.

I guess technically it's really more Freddie's.

So, the route that Freddie Scott said that they took

from dropping Jaleayah off to the McDonald's drive-through.

Freddie and Katy Nelson both say

that they go to McDonald's and they each name a route.

Kristin, you know, she says they go to McDonald's

but she's like, "Oh, I don't remember how we got there."

Like she doesn't even remember what car they're in.

I don't buy either of those stories on Kristin's part.

I just don't buy it.

So, we're gonna start this timer at 3:27 a.m.

It's a Friday night.

It's the same day of the week,

and it's the same time of day.

So, who are you waving at?

- Those people over there. - Oh.

You're also on camera.

This is going in a documentary.

Freddie is kind of the wild card in this thing.

Like you can't really figure out

how he fits into the whole scenario,

but he could know more than he's telling.

Absolutely. So, can we trust him at all

is even my kind of question.

Kristin, Freddie. There was pictures of them

caught on the video cameras at the McDonald's

before they went all the way to the highway.

They were kind of, you know,

you can't touch me, that kind of thing.

Kristin's rich, she has a lot of money

and Freddie, you know, his father was in law enforcement

and everything like that.

So, basically,

they were acting like they were untouchable.

Freddie's story is that he, Kristin and Katy

took 7th Street to McDonald's.

At 3:32, Freddie leaves the McDonald's drive-through

with two passengers.

So, I mean, his route actually makes the most sense

out of anybody's, which makes sense to me

because we know Freddie Scott went to McDonald's.

His face is on the video.

So, we are pulling back into the McDonald's drive-through

and ending our experiment. And it is 3:34,

and it took us approximately seven minutes, 10 seconds

to conduct this experiment.

But look, it's still not accurate to what they're saying.

Either that time stamp is wrong, which is possible,

or something's, like, wildly off here,

because you know, we pulled in, like I said, 3:33, 3:34.

They were already leaving the drive through by 3:32.

Something in our data, like, in this case is wrong.

- Right. - Whether it's cell tower data,

the time stamp of the McDonald's video footage,

or someone is telling a massive lie.

I just don't see them getting to the 181 in time for murder.

The weirdest part of the accident scene

were Jaleayah's clothes, which were found off her body

and neatly folded up onto the guardrail.

So, I'm trying to see it from the other perspective,

like theoretically, if there was foul play

and someone else was responsible for her death,

why would they take her clothing and neatly fold it up

and place it on the guardrail?

Is there any logical reason for that?

I don't think that there is.

Okay.

One important detail that I do wanna discuss

is glass at the scene.

The witness said that when he was walking around the scene,

he never saw any broken glass

that should have come from her passenger side window

if she was ejected from it.

Just as I crested over the hill,

I seen another trucker along the guardrail,

the vehicle down in front of it.

All I could tell was

a pair of blue jeans laying in the road.

My truck just thump, thump, thump across the top of it.

And I immediately just pulled off the road.

Okay.

So, Jaleayah's passenger side window,

investigators say it was busted out.

The Davis family thinks

that maybe something else occurred there

because of the way that the glass was thrown

all the way up under her driver's side,

under the gas and brake.

So, I'm gonna bust this,

and then I'm gonna test the visibility of the glass

in an environment where it's totally dark.

Ooh, it's tough.

I might not be able to get it.

Well that was satisfying.

Like, that felt really good.

You see the way that all this is breaking up,

it's almost like crystals.

So, tell me how you go out a window

and not have glass in your scalp, your hair, nothing.

I am walking from a far distance

to kind of see at what point

this pile of glass becomes recognizable as a pile of glass.

You know, is it significant that the first witness said,

"Oh, I saw no glass at that scene."?

But he would have never been close enough

to identify the glass as glass.

So, him saying, "Oh, I didn't see glass",

and that's mysterious," that's not meaningful.

Like what the hell?

What are you doing now?

I'm just getting some stuff for my social media,

and for, like, science's sake.

I've seen this happen

with some people who have reached out to podcasters

and tried to make the relative's death

look like foul play.

But then the evidence shows it was an accident.

Oh, wow. Oh, that's interesting.

So, I guess the final question is

are there any extra steps

that can be taken to help solve this case,

any other outside agencies

who might be willing to look at it

if the local law enforcement doesn't?

The best way to quote "solve it"

or put the issue to rest is to just hire experts at this point.

- Yeah, I think so. - Yeah, yeah.

This is only my second time looking at microfilm,

and I'm madly in love with it,

like, I've already looked up how much it is

to own a microfilm machine.

Um, I'd rather buy that than a TV right now.

Like this is way more entertaining to me

than anything on television,

except maybe Mind hunter.

Found something that pertains

to the Davis family from December of 1986.

It was an article about Jaleayah's grandfather

and his brother.

"Two brothers again allege police harassment."

They named Jaleayah's grandpa, Roger, and his brother.

- I carry that. - There's a pathology

behind that family history

with radical claims

of disagreement with law enforcement.

It's like somebody reached out

and was like, take this information and run with it.

But it's just so wild.

So, Jaleayah's grandfather,

the one that said, "This is a murder,

and they're covering it up,"

has had a running history of claims

and issues with law enforcement.

But I'm not finding that this is murder.

I'm finding that this is an accident.

It's like in this story, you can't trust anybody

to give you the full truth

'cause everybody's trying to cover their own ass

in some manner.

I'm gonna record, so I have this audio

for the later episode.

I am here with Paul Holes.

He is a DNA expert who solved the Golden State Killer case.

We met at CrimeCon.

What was your first impression on this case

when I sent you those files?

My initial assessment when I took a look at this case

is this vehicle did not strike a pedestrian

that was standing in front of it.

There is no damage to the front end of this car, to the hood,

um, to indicate that this car struck anything head on.

Jaleayah is in this vehicle when it strikes the guardrail.

She had a significant amount of alcohol in her system.

Yes.

The damage is along the right side of the car.

So, if somebody's inside this vehicle without a seat belt,

they will be flung both forward

and to the right at the same time

out of the passenger window.

So, as her head and upper body is hitting the guardrail,

she's going to be flung up

onto the trunk of the car into the middle of the street.

And then the car, because of the flat tires

on the passenger side,

is going to end up drifting to the right

back over onto the right side of the road again

when it will eventually come to rest.

And then, unfortunately, in this case,

after she rolls off the trunk

and is in the middle of the road,

that's when she gets hit by another vehicle.

People who follow this case in general,

we all have issues with the clothing.

That's, like, the number one thing.

When you start talking about the clothing,

where now her body is being pulled along a guardrail

and her clothing is going to catch on different things.

It is not surprising at all

to see a jacket coming off the body.

Yeah. So, if she's being ejected out of that window

and the glass is cracking,

I mean, realistically, is it possible

she doesn't have any glass particles

in her hair, in her skin?

That tempered glass on the passenger side

could easily have been fractured

as a result of the impact of the vehicle.

It's already in the process of dicing up and falling.

So, by the time her body impacts the windshield,

while the tempered glass in the front passenger window

- is already... - Already gone.

Gone. She's going through an empty window.

So, in my opinion, I don't think the absence of glass

in Jaleayah's, you know, hair, or on her clothing or anything

is significant at all.

It's just when you do have

circumstances that are suspicious,

it's fodder to start going down

different type rabbit holes

that really don't have anything to do with the facts.

Report the facts.

And not circumstantial.

- Yes. - Yeah.

Yes.

Cut the cards, Emily.

What's your first question?

Am I on the right path regarding my career?

Cut.

Hmm, there's not very much information here.

The universe is not able to connect,

even though I know there are angels

that are trying to connect with you,

but they say you don't listen.

Don't worry about your success.

That's not the issue.

You are not listening to your angels.

The career you choose is supposed to benefit others,

but your talkativeness is gonna bring you harm.

Use it to your advantage.

Remember this, Emily. Your words have power.

They're like a vehicle.

They can go forward, backward, or run amuck.

Watch what you recycle.

So, it's turned into kind of a monster

that I didn't know that it was gonna become.

Yeah.

It's been an interesting learning experience

as far as, kind of, I haven't been trained in this formally

by any means, and podcasting is so relatively new as far

- as a medium for journalism. - Yeah.

It is. I think traditionally trained journalists

sometimes get a little annoyed when people like me and you,

are kind of having some success in this digital journalism.

But true crime fans I imagine are loving it.

I was binging all weekend.

What are your plans?

Where is this going?

What's the end game here?

Um, so as far as this project goes,

you know, I wanna see it through. I want answers.

I wanna know what the truth is.

You know, if it was murder,

someone should be held accountable.

- Right. - Looking at that scene,

even just as a normal civilian,

you look at that and you're like,

how in the world did this happen

um, the way that they're claiming?

Yeah. It's very confusing.

And I'm wondering if Freddie and the crew there

went to McDonald's to establish an alibi

or whether or not they just happened to be there

and those people in that car did not kill Jaleayah.

Right, yeah. I mean there's a lot of gray area here.

Okay.

It is compelling, though.

It is compelling.

Yeah, it really is.

It's pretty shady.

Oh, yeah.

Is it hard trying to talk about it as a murder

when you think it was an accident?

I just realized you were doing that during it,

and I was, oh, you were like,

had to click into a mode that is, like, dangerous territory.

Like where I need to cover my own ass,

as far as a storyteller.

Yeah, it's a skill I'm learning.

I just have to ignore everything that I've learned along the way,

and act like I'm investigating it actively.

I mean, I still am, like, I'm not close-minded.

Like, somebody can prove to me that it was a murder.

Like I'm open to that.

But it's hard to prove a murder when it wasn't one.

Is that what you're trying to do?

Is it really all about finding the truth on this

or is there some kind of

I mean, I'm guilty on this myself for being here.

Is there some kind of personal gain

that's involved with that

and what is the ethics of that when...

Your ethics or my ethics?

Well, you're telling a story about what I'm trying to do,

and what I'm trying to tell a story about within that story

is something that I've been in deep for over a year now.

I just hope we're doing it for the right reason.

Welcome back toMile Marker 181.

I'm your host, Emily.

Thanks for joining me for season two.

Let's face it, you're probably here

because you're really into true crime.

If you're like me and you collect serial killer T-shirts,

check out Dead Co. Apparel

and their true crime-influenced clothing.

Use the promo code M-I-L-E during checkout.

Let's get back to the alibis.

The first time I read this statement, my jaw dropped.

This episode, let's talk about lies.

Listen up, you can start an Audible membership

and save 66% on your first three months.

If you enjoy other true crime podcasts,

you'll have to check out True Crime Idol Candles

dedicated to the heroes of true crime

and one of everyone's favorite detective, Paul Holes.

Spoiler alert, this doesn't end where you hope it will.

I don't want to lead a massive witch hunt.

I'm just stating the facts as they are.

I can't help that they appear to be suspicious

to the average person.

That's right. The Chris that Jaleayah

had been flirting and texting with

is the same Chris that dated Katy Nelson.

I'm not sure what the term I'm looking for is,

but the best that comes to mind immediately is love triangle.

The podcast hit 20 on iTunes, like on all of iTunes,

not just like the genre.

Vultureand thenBuzzfeed featured it on a list.

I'm almost to two million overall downloads now.

That's pretty fucking crazy.

Marker.

I'm excited about things

that are happening behind the scenes.

- Action, Emily. - Yes, there is a documentary

that is currently in production.

And one day, you'll get to see the outcome.

Okay, I'm sorry, just do it one more time.

My Instagram's kind of blowing up right now.

If you wanted to grab a Mile Marker 181

or Justice for Jaleayah shirt or hoodie,

you'll be able to order those until the 31st of this month.

I've worked with Warby Parker,

so like I get a free pair of glasses.

I just need to go get my eyes checked.

An Away suitcase,

which I really wanted one of those for a long time.

So, I was so pumped when they sponsored the show.

When I started the show,

I told Kim that it would be possible

that advertisers would jump on later,

and that I wasn't really opposed to it.

But then the more I got into it,

the more sleazy that it felt to make money off of

essentially somebody's death.

And then it came to the point

where the podcast was just becoming too much to do,

like in my spare time.

It got serious pretty quickly.

So, when the network reached out

and wanted to do advertisements, I said, yes.

What Kim's saying is, I'm only out for profit

and all of this just insane stuff.

She thinks she's being exploited now.

If you're gonna go with that and roll with that

and accuse me of exploiting somebody,

then every single piece of journalism is exploitation.

Like, somebody is the feature of the story.

I've known that I'm a polarizing character,

and I'm not everybody's cup of tea,

but I just kind of have to lean into that and own it.

Like that's what Nancy Grace does.

She's doing all right.

I wanna go and investigate it.

- What are you doing? - Filming.

What are you doing? Are you drunk too?

♪ You keep lying When you ought to be truthing ♪

♪ You keep losing When you ought to not bet ♪

♪ You keep saming ♪

♪ When you ought To be changing, yeah ♪

♪ Now what's right is right And you ain't been right yet ♪

♪ These boots Are made for walking ♪

♪ And that's just What they'll do ♪

♪ One of these days ♪

♪ These boots Are gonna walk all over you ♪

♪ Are you ready, boots? ♪

♪ Start walking ♪

All right, how about a round of applause for Emily.

Kicking ass on the microphone this evening.

All right. And a little more, and you're good.

- How's that? - Yeah.

All right.

I really am... I still can't believe Kim,

like she's genuinely pissed over something

that I can't like rationalize being pissed about.

Isn't the goal to get more coverage

for your daughter's case?

I don't think she has faith in me at this point

for whatever reason.

I don't know if she thinks that

I'm going to Hollywood with this.

I wonder if maybe

she has her own doubts,

and she's not even aware of her own doubts about the case.

Do you see what I'm saying?

Does she maybe in the back of her mind

in a place that she can't even consciously go to,

does she not wanna know if it was an accident?

Welcome back toMile Marker 181.

I'd like to remind you that I'll be speaking

at the Parkersburg Public Library.

I'll discuss Jaleayah's case and citizen sleuthing

and supply you with some Mile Marker 181stickers.

Thanks everybody for coming. My name's Emily Nestor,

which you may already know.

I am your host ofMile Marker 181

about the Jaleayah Davis case.

I've used this quote a lot lately.

You can hire me, but the one I'm working for is the victim.

And that's kind of my philosophy on the truth as well.

Um, there are gonna be things that I cover

that people aren't gonna like by the time that this is done.

You've got a massive, massive rumor mill

and then you can't even begin to dig around

and figure out where something got started.

I'm just following the breadcrumb trail.

Somebody's got a question. Yeah.

Is there a theory out there,

as Kim thought or you thought that maybe Jaleayah and Kristin

get in her car, they're going to drive,

and then maybe Freddie Scott and Katy follow her.

Kristin and Jaleayah get in a fight

and it's... That's how they're able to, so quickly,

leave the interstate and get to McDonald's.

They freak out and they're like, okay, we gotta go somewhere.

Do you get into theories behind that

or is it just kind of like, we don't have anything so...

So, you'll hear it in the next episode.

That's all I'm gonna say.

Uh, but as far as the McDonald's footage,

Now that I have those pictures from Jaleayah's phone

to reference of what everybody was wearing,

I'm gonna go back through and look at every angle

and see if I can place the clothing.

Because I wanna say somebody had stripes on,

and that's gonna be something that picks up pretty easily in footage.

The timing of it was really, I mean...

- Damning. - Right.

And obviously, it is situational and...

Sure. It comes down to being situational.

So when you lift up a rock and you look deep enough down,

you're gonna find things in everybody's past

that look really bad.

Some... Other people, yeah.

I worked with her grandmother.

And at one time, Freddie Scott came to work.

And seeing Freddie Scott strut his stuff

in front of her grandmother.

I mean, there was speculation at one time

- that they had her head out the window. - Right.

And was bumping her head on the guardrail.

That they had held her head out the window and drove.

And to hear her say, "That's my baby. That's my baby.

How could somebody do that to my baby?"

You know, it's just...

It goes back to the caring part.

Yeah, right.

As your supporters, is there anything

that we can do as a community

that could help you or help this case?

That's a loaded question.

Keep listening.

There's stuff that, you know,

I haven't covered in the podcast yet.

There's a lot that hasn't been covered.

You do tend to piss people off when you're pursuing the truth

because not everybody likes it.

Everybody thinks they want the truth,

but rarely do they actually like it.

- You wanna ask any questions? - I don't.

I'm just here to be entertained.

Okay.

Well thanks everybody for coming.

I do have stickers here if anybody wants them.

Thank you guys.

Have a good one.

- I'm a big fan. - Oh.

You totally got me into every single true crime podcast

- I can get into. - Good, yes, yes!

Yay.

This is like my mini CrimeCon.

Also, I want to tell you that I admire you

- so much. - Oh God.

I really do.

And I think that if there is any justice,

- this is the justice she's going to get. - Right.

I mean, the fact that now everybody knows,

that is the justice that she's gonna get.

She would not have had any

- had it not been for you. - Thanks. Thank you.

Since I started the podcast, I did up my anxiety medication.

It's, like, aged me like a president.

I mean, my hair's thinning.

People have started to demand answers out of me

that aren't answers that I'm obligated to give them.

Or, like, people will demand facts.

You know, when I close my computer

after I put a new episode out, I'm relieved

for about 12 hours,

and then I go back to being stressed about it.

It's definitely high stress,

and it's a high pressure to perform,

but also do it with respect towards Jaleayah,

with respect towards her family.

That's a really hard line to walk.

Because when you start these kind of projects,

or cases, you're so like,

you hit the pavement so hard at the beginning

that you're not even processing about the victim.

You are, but it's like a case.

Um, you can't think about it too hard.

But I think the longer that you're in it,

the more you see the humanity in the person

and the harder it becomes to not care

and to detach completely.

So, I've gotta consider that.

♪ Look around you ♪

♪ Look down the bar from you ♪

♪ At the faces that you see ♪

Welcome back toMile Marker 181.

♪ Are you sure ♪

♪ This is where You want to be? ♪

I think it's really important that we talk about Jaleayah

as a human being and not just as a victim.

♪ These are your friends ♪

♪ But are they real friends? ♪

♪ Do they love you As much as me? ♪

Tragedies like this do seem to become the focus.

♪ Are you sure ♪

♪ This is where You want to be? ♪

She was a sister, a daughter, a granddaughter, a friend.

♪ You seem in such a hurry ♪

Sometimes I find myself thinking of her as a peer.

♪ To leave this kind of life ♪

♪ And you've caused So many pain and misery ♪

I have to remind myself she's not just a character that somebody made up.

♪ But look around you ♪

♪ Take a good look ♪

♪ At all the local Used-to-be's ♪

♪ And are you sure that This is where you want to be? ♪

I think a lot of what people misunderstand

about what I was trying to do is

they think that I was in this to exploit Kim.

I really, I really had these high hopes,

like these Nancy Drew hopes of coming in

and being the person to fix this.

Did you talk to Freddie Scott?

No, I did not talk to Freddie Scott.

Did you talk to Katy Nelson?

I've reached out to Katy Nelson,

but I have not talked to Katy Nelson.

Did you talk to Kristin Bechtold?

Um, I reached out to Kristin Bechtold,

but I had not talked to her, not directly.

When we first connected

and started bonding earlier this year,

I thought you were primed to really do something significant

and I was excited for you. I mean I saw you at CrimeCon

and you look really good on camera

and then just slowly I just saw you sabotaging it

with poor choices.

I think there's just a lot of information

that you haven't shared.

There's not a lot from this year that I feel great about.

And it's not my typical behavior either.

It just sucks that it... You know what I mean?

Like along with the self-promotion of the podcast

and everything, you have to also push yourself

like a product in a way, you know.

Especially when you believe it's a murder

and you're trying to push for that justice

and you want that crowd behind you.

You want that support.

The louder your voice is, you know,

if there was an injustice here, if she was murdered,

that... that's much more powerful to go into that fight

with people behind you.

Well, I think that's the usefulness of true crime media.

- Yeah, for sure! - It's a tool, um,

to put the spotlight on cases that are being neglected.

- Yeah. - I think the central narrative of...

And that's what I thought this was.

The central narrative of the private citizen

either working with or against law enforcement,

- the establishment. - Sure.

That's the compelling narrative that...

- Yeah. - Even though it's like,

it's kind of maybe been done to death,

- it's still relevant and fresh. - Yeah.

Well, you still have theMile Marker 181platform.

- Yeah, no, and it will. - And you really should use that

- to address all of this. - Oh, that's the plan.

- That's been the plan. - Yeah.

So, what do you make of all that?

I mean, you can give me a fucking diagnosis of the situation

because I'm in it and I can't fucking see it anymore,

when you're in it.

I mean, like, I don't... I literally, after that,

I don't even know if I'm a good person anymore.

That's how that made me feel.

- Hey, how are you? - Good, how are you?

- I'm Chris. - Hi, Chris.

So, I'm a filmmaker.

I listen to that Mile Marker 181podcast.

- Uh-huh. - So, your name

has been associated with it the whole time,

- and it's like, I don't know. - Yeah.

I've heard a couple of the podcasts

and I feel like she tries to kind of like make me look bad

and that's why I stopped listening,

'cause I'm like... It just makes me upset.

We have nothing to do with it.

And yet she keeps persisting.

Like, "it was Kristin. It was Katy and Freddie." And yeah, it's sad.

My name is Frederick Scott.

I'm from Parkersburg, West Virginia.

I've never spoken on camera about it ever,

not once, to nobody.

I am the real Katy Nelson,

the one that's in the articles or whatever.

"Is that you?" Yeah, that's me.

- Did you murder Jaleayah? - I didn't murder Jaleayah.

Nobody murdered Jaleayah.

Especially not Kristin Bechtold.

Kristin Bechtold did not murder Jaleayah Davis.

Freddie Scott did not murder Jaleayah Davis.

Nobody murdered Jaleayah.

Whenever I heard that Emily made a podcast...

Um... I was like, I'm not listening to that.

I don't wanna listen to that

'cause it's all shit. You know, I was like,

Oh, my God, these idiots are all sharing this idiot's podcast.

Who is this girl and what is she doing?

Shut up. You know.

Like, why?

I just met Jaleayah that night.

So, we were in the bar and then Jaleayah approached me

and said she was ready to leave.

So, I texted Kristin,

I said, your friend's ready to go.

So, we leave there, we get in an argument.

She's trying to get her keys. 'Cause I'm like, dude, you're not fucking driving.

You're wasted. And she's crying

and saying I'm a fucking bitch or whatever.

So, anyways, it gets to the point

where she's trying to fight me,

and I'm like, dude, just take your fucking keys.

- And then what? - Jaleayah got out.

I just drove off.

What's the last image you remember seeing her?

Her just walking towards her car.

I heard that I hit her with my car,

that I sold my car the next day.

I heard that I picked Kristin up after it happened.

What did you hear about Kristin?

Uh, just that she, like, threw her out of her car.

Even though she didn't.

They're like, "There's no way that you can be driving

and go through your passenger's side window."

Of course, there's a way that that can happen

if you just think about it for a second,

instead of thinking that everyone else is murderers.

Like, don't you think that maybe the experts know what they're talking about

and maybe you don't?

Sally in your fucking double-wide.

They try and say that we were like trying to kill her.

We were jealous of her, all this crazy stuff.

The day after this happened,

her mom started saying that we did it.

And I'm like, what the fuck?

Like, I literally came home and did nothing.

It's crazy. I mean, I've had death threats

coming from a family that has money.

She wants to blame everything on me.

It just sucks. Like, this whole thing fucking sucks.

And I just like, I literally just want it to go away.

To be honest with you, this is ruining my life.

At first, I liked the Justice for Jaleayah page.

But then I'm like, wait a second, eh,

what are you guys talking about, justice for, like

I mean, you're trying to... mm-hmm.

So, I think I unliked it.

You know, I was, like, hmm. Like...

Why do you think people believe in conspiracy theories?

They love drama. They love having something to talk...

Like they feel like they're a part of something.

I know 100% for a fact that Kim Davis knows that we didn't do anything wrong.

How?

Because one, like, science backs us up.

You know what I mean? Timing backs us up.

Like nothing we could have done would've led to that.

Nothing at all.

And the thing is she knows she's making up all these lies.

So, it's like, I don't know what her real objective is with this, like, at all.

Do you think it comes from grief?

I mean, losing a kid, you know, would make you a little crazy,

but what she's doing now is over-the-top crazy.

Like trying to damage people's whole lives, careers.

Like, it doesn't make any sense to me at all.

Like, not even a little bit.

I met Jaleayah's grandfather shortly after it happened,

talked to him, told him what really happened.

He didn't believe me, called me liar and stuff.

Then he said, if I do think you're lying to me,

I'm coming back with my .44 or something like that.

And I'm just like, okay, good talk.

Jaleayah's grandpa came to my house,

and I just started freaking the fuck out. I was shaking.

I was like, um, no, mm-mm.

I said, get the cops here. Like, who knows?

'Cause people had been saying crazy stuff like,

"I'm gonna kill you," and "I know what you did."

Nah, nah, nah, nah. You know?

And then, literally, the cops come

and they're like, "Well, he has a gun."

And I'm like, "Well, that's scary."

You know.

Because you didn't come to the girl's house

that you think was involved in your granddaughter's death

with a gun

just to shoot the shit, you know.

Maybe we should all let her rest.

Shit!

All right, let's do this.

I don't want to be out here.

All right. Set.

- Hi, how are you? - Good.

- How are you? - All right.

This is Emily.

- Is this Emily? - This is Emily.

Huh?

- Yeah. - Right.

You okay?

No, I'm not okay!

No one's out, everything's okay.

For me to want to sit there

with fucking Roger and look him in the eye,

like I believe what he's fucking saying.

I wanted to vomit.

I'm not ready to confront them with my truth about it yet.

So, it was really, really hard to be around him just now.

- Yes. - And I'm trying

to put out content about something

that I no longer believe.

This is fucking giving me problems.

I'm done. I'm just done.

- I understand. - I don't care. I'm done.

As consumers of true crime, we listen, watch,

or read about the most horrific things

that humanity endures.

We are all removed from the direct impact

and then we turn off the lights and we go to bed every night.

And I understand for many of you, this is passive listening.

This is even entertainment.

In the past few months, I've spent hours staring at a blank screen

trying to type out words before they left my brain.

Writing and creating a podcast

that revolves around a traumatic and mysterious death

comes with its own challenges,

and the biggest one I found is just finding the right words.

I started this podcast based on a personal need

to find the answers about what really happened

to Jaleayah Davis.

I genuinely feel like telling the truth

is sometimes the absolute hardest thing you will do.

The raw audio I'm going to share with you now

was recorded a few days ago on my phone.

I feel like there's no way to prepare

for telling people the worst thing that they ever hear,

but as I'm learning in true crime,

sometimes things aren't what they appear.

What happened to Jaleayah was a horrible,

horrible, tragic accident, but it was not murder.

A lot of people have issues with law enforcement

and people, when they look at Jaleayah,

I think that they see their loved ones

that have maybe not had justice.

And so people use Jaleayah like a projector screen.

And so I can understand why there is this community

that supports Kim because she lost someone

that she loved more than anything in life.

But there's a difference between supporting someone

and allowing for false information to be put out

and people's names to be run through the mud.

And I'm talking about the Davis family and myself as well.

Hopefully, somebody out there

who has been hurt by what happened to Jaleayah

can hear this and find some peace in it.

It had to be done, right?

Somebody had to say it.

A listener note. This story contains violent content and language.

Hello, friends, and welcome back to the show.

Hello and welcome to Crime Lore, the podcast.

Welcome toFact and Suspicion.

This is Obsessed with Murder.

And we're here to bring these dead stories

back to life.

Today we are discussing a case

that is not typical for us.

You know, this one's a beauty.

I go back and forth trying to decide

if this is a mysterious death

or a full-blown conspiracy.

I went down a dark rabbit hole

after I got a random email from a stranger.

He definitely had something going on.

It's a suspicious death.

Some people just want answers.

How then do we unravel fact from fiction?

I can't believe more people aren't talking about this.

It's all really sad, but what a story.

In my personal opinion,

- it was definitely... - Murder.

- Murder. - Murder!

This case confirms for us,

you never really know.

There really is room

for interpretation of the facts.