Time of Death | 9

When did making plans get this complicated? It's time to streamline with WhatsApp, the secure messaging app that brings the whole group together. Use polls to settle dinner plans. Send event invites and pin messages so no one forgets mom's 60th. And never miss a meme or milestone. All protected with end-to-end encryption. It's time for WhatsApp. Message privately with everyone. Learn more at whatsapp.com. In 2007, a man was murdered in a quiet Memphis suburb.

The case was closed fast, maybe too fast. I've spent the past year retracing the investigation, following the evidence and the lives that were forever changed. What I found wasn't just a case. It was a story too important. I'm Stephanie Tinsley, and this is Everything They Missed, a new true crime investigation. Episodes drop weekly. Listen wherever you get your podcasts. Just a reminder for you this Thursday.

we will be releasing another bonus Q&A episode. So please call in to 470-300-4915 with any questions you have. And remember to tune in on Thursday.

The following program contains distressing content and graphic details regarding suicide. This may be triggering for survivors of suicide loss and those with lived experience. Please proceed with caution If you're in crisis or having thoughts of suicide, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255 or text TALK to 741-741. For more resources, please visit the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention's website at afsp.org slash find support.

I opened the door, and I noticed he wasn't on the couch. I was like, all right, maybe they fix things. Because like I said, they argued, but they'd be fine in an hour. I said, maybe they fix things. He's laying in bed with them. So I walked in there. She's passed out on the bed. He's not in there. I was like, maybe he's in his brother's. His brother's room is upstairs. I believe that's his brother's room. The one that go upstairs, that bedroom? Yeah.

I was like, maybe he's up there laying on that bed. So I walked up there, I didn't see him. Well, I noticed the bathroom light was on. So I kind of knocked on the door, I said, you all right? You straight? Because like, you know, I was yelling at something, you know, I was like, Christian.

Kristen, where you at? Where you at? Well, you know, she hadn't even moved. Whitley Steele laid out on the bed. I said, Kristen, Kristen, can you answer me? You know, because that's why I was walking through the house.

But, you know, I knocked on the bathroom door. I said, you all right? He didn't say nothing to me. I knocked him in just a little bit hard. I was like, you okay? He didn't say nothing to me. I was like, that's weird, you know? Maybe he's taking a shower or something, you know? Maybe he's just doing something he can't hear.

So I walked downstairs. I went to Whitley. I was like, Whitley, he didn't say nothing to me. He's not answering me. I was like, we need to check on him. Well, this is what blows my mind. Whitley was like, I guess, dead asleep. i'm assuming because like i kind of shook her a little bit she didn't move i said whitley i shook her and that's when i said we need to check on me she didn't say that she said you know mumbled and she kind of rolled over and like went back to sleep

That's when I walked back up there, and I knocked on the door a little bit harder at the time. I said, Christian, you okay in there? I didn't say nothing to him. I said, man, something ain't right. So I knocked a little bit harder. I said, Christian, are you all right in there?

He didn't say nothing back to me. I was like, man, I got to check on him. When I opened the door, I looked like my head was down and I could see his boots. And I looked up, he was hunched over the bathtub. And I knew he wasn't alive. You may have already pieced this together, but the clip you just heard is from an interview with Dylan Swearingen. It occurred just weeks after Christian's death. The interview was conducted by investigators hired by the Andriacchios, who I've mentioned before.

the same ones who interviewed Matt and Jett Miller, as well as the Best Buy employees. While this audio was obtained back in 2014, the Andreakios never received a copy of it. It was just shared with us recently. when it was discovered that the interview had been lost in the initial transfer of files from the investigators to the family. And while I'll point out that that's a tragic mistake, the important thing is, we have it. And we're gonna play it. But before that...

it's important that we lay some groundwork. Because if you're following along, trying to form an opinion of what you think happened on February 26th, we're at a fairly critical juncture. If you remember where our last episode left off,

I challenge you to really consider what Dr. Arden had to say about the time of death. Because while his ultimate belief that the manner of death was homicide and the scene was staged as a suicide is critical, We cannot gloss over his other point of emphasis, which is that the death occurred hours before the 911 call was placed at 4.45 p.m. I want to read a section directly from his report to clarify.

The photographs from the scene and from the morgue strongly suggest that Mr. Andreacchio was in well-developed rigor mortis at the scene. The time to develop strong rigor mortis varies. but typically requires at least several hours and is consistent with a significantly longer interval on the order of 4 to 12 hours.

The morgue photographs indicate that he was transported in the body bag in essentially the same position he was found, namely bent at the waist and at the knees, face down. The photos also demonstrate that he had fixed liver mortis on the back of his right leg, especially on the calf, which is totally inconsistent with his positioning at the scene, in which his right calf was facing up, so blood should have drained away from that area by gravity.

The time for fixation of liver mortis is highly variable but is on the order of hours. He had to have been positioned with his right calf facing down for some period of time for liver mortis to appear and then fix on that surface. In addition to indicating that his death occurred much earlier, this shows that his body had been moved. In conclusion, his time of death was much earlier than the 911 call. Calling into question, the account given by the people who made that call.

That change in time of death becomes vital when you recognize that up until this point, everything we know about that day has been viewed through the lens that Christian died around 3.45 p.m., the time listed on the death certificate. While Arden could not give an exact time to the hour, he is confident that it would have occurred well before 345. And we were able to narrow down that time frame a little more when a tip came through from a woman with some information related to this.

I lived in the Willow Ridge apartments for a few years, and I was living there as a stay-at-home mom on February 26, 2014. And I... I had a routine with my son. I didn't have a car or anything, so I was almost always there. And I would always put him down for a nap time, anywhere from 11 to like 1 or 2. And I had... I had put him down for a nap and he had fallen asleep and he was sleeping under a window in the back bedroom when I was sitting in my living room and I clearly heard a loud gunshot.

Which, honestly, living in Meridian, I would hear gunshots somewhat frequently. But this one really startled me because I could tell it was very close by. I actually thought that maybe it was in the parking lot. of the apartment complex. So I rushed into the back bedroom and I took him away from the window just in case kind of that mom panic when something big happens. And I took him into the bathroom.

in the bottom story, which would be the one room without windows. And I just stayed there for a little bit until I didn't hear anything for a while. And then about an hour to two hours later, which was around 3 when we always would go and check the mail. And the mailboxes weren't at the office, but they were closer to the office, and I would often stop by the office. For the apartments, just to say hi.

to the staff since we kind of, you know, knew each other. So I checked our mail and then I went to the office and I said, hey, did you guys hear that? Gunshot really startled me. And one of the ladies working there, so that she had heard it too.

Their office was actually further away than my apartment's would have been, so I guess they didn't hear quite as clearly as I did. But she acknowledged that she heard it, and so I assumed that they had called the police, but I guess they didn't, and I didn't realize that until... The next day, when one of the maintenance crews saw me checking the mail again, and he stopped me and said, hey, you remember that gunshot? I heard, I guess, a few apartments down from you, there was a suicide.

And that was the last I heard about anything relating to this for like a couple years. So... Where exactly was your apartment? Like how close was it to Christian's? And it would have been just a few, they're kind of townhouses, but there's no apartments on top. And so I would have been just a few apartments down on the same side of the street in a different building. Okay. So would you feel comfortable?

giving an exact time that you heard the shot? Or like, what would be your best guess? So my son would have been fallen asleep. So I mean, I honestly, I can't say 100%. But my best guess would it would have been

1230-ish, noon-ish. No one ever contacted me at all. I was there all day. No one ever contacted me. Rather than give an exact time, I'd like to suggest a window for the time of death. Arden says hours before the 911 call was placed at 445. And while the woman who heard the shot...

said that 1230 noon-ish would be her best guess for when she heard it. She could say with certainty that at the bare minimum, an hour had passed, likely two hours, when she went to check the mail around 3 p.m. To err on the safe side, Working with Arden's conclusion along with this woman's tip, I'd suggest that the window for Christian's time of death would be between 12 p.m. and 2 p.m., which is about two to four hours before the original time of death.

That time disparity can make a world of difference when paired with the accounts given by Whitley and Dillon. But the tricky part is discerning just how much of a difference it makes. Because while we know of several events that supposedly took place that day, for the most part...

we don't have times to back them. A couple of things we do, like Dylan's trip to the bank around 12.30 and Chick-fil-A around 1. But the same cannot be said for the majority of the events that were mentioned, like the movies they watched in the apartment.

the naps they took, Christian and Whitley's trip to the park, and Dylan's second trip out to Best Buy. It's possible these things didn't even happen, but if we take their word for it and assume that these things did happen, we have no way of knowing when. because they were never asked to give times for anything, which is astounding. What I'm saying here is, an earlier time of death cannot explain what exactly happened that day. But it certainly brings their alibis into question.

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through his interview that we acquired from investigators. Here it is. But I just want you to tell me, you know, as much as you remember, what you saw, what you heard, any activity. Because obviously there was nothing going on to lead you to believe that Christian was going to go shoot himself. Nothing.

The only thing that he'd done out the ordinary is when he pointed the gun to his head. But to be honest with you, I thought that was a scare tactic to her. Because he wanted to be in control of the relationship. And that's the only thing I can get out of him.

Pointing the gun. That's the whole reason I took the gun in front of him, because I've never seen him do it. You know, like, see somebody do something like that, you know what I'm saying, like him. Like, he was always, like, the happy-go-lucky dude. Like, he always...

When we would go to the beach and stuff, he was always the one making everyone laugh and stuff. I never saw that side of him when he'd done it, when he pointed the gun to his head. And it's mostly because of her. She got his mind screwed up. I told him a bunch of times to leave her alone. He wouldn't listen to him. I wasn't the only one that told him yet. He said, do you love me? And she didn't say anything to him. He said it one more time a little bit louder. She didn't say nothing back to him.

And he said, like real loud, he said, do you love me? And you hear him clotting, like the hammer back or whatever. And he stuck it to his head. And I was like, no, I ain't never seen nothing like that. You know, I've never seen him act like so hostile.

And that's kind of what threw me off. And then she jumped up and said yes. And then she like tried to grab at it. But you know, he kind of like moved his arm back so she couldn't touch it. But she was so damn messed up on drugs. Like I don't see how she comprehended anything. Like it doesn't make sense to me. Because whenever he'd be out on the boat, he always made this remark. He said, well, I've only been out here two weeks. She's about to start screwing up.

It doesn't matter what she did, he always caught her and stuff. But it was nothing for them to argue and yell and scream and fight and fuss and then be fine an hour later. I was kind of like... the babysitter he always would ask me to check on her see what she's doing and like one night she was texting the guy this is a long time ago she was texting the guy and the guy told christian

He kind of gave my heads up. I don't know if it was by accident, but I just remember Christian was like, hey man, he called me at 3 o'clock in the morning. He said, will you ride past our house and see if anyone's there? I got out of bed and the drug passed with nobody there.

You know, I went around the lake one more time. I was like, you know, nobody's there. So when I come back around towards your house again, I was like, I'm going to look one more time, you know. I drove by, I wasn't nobody there. Well, I don't know how he found this out.

I couldn't find out that the boy that was supposed to be over there had drove his truck down the dirt road that she lived on, parked it, and walked to the house. She had a bunch of problems. She was really conniving. She didn't care about healing. A bunch of statements she said, like, made it obvious. She would say, like, my boyfriend makes $6,000 a month. What am I worried about? Like, all she was worried about was $1. I mean, I don't care what anybody says. Oh, she loaded. No, she didn't.

No, we know that's all she cared about. She did not. No doubt about that. When you guys got back to the house, I really stress any little details because there's so much information out there as we go through this thing. that might help us figure out what all happened. We know she was stealing his money. She was having a Western Union out of his account. He didn't know about it until there at the very end.

She was taking bill money that him and his brother were leaving for her to pay the rent, and she wasn't too much behind on rent. When you guys got back from Santa Rosa, Of course, you drove up there, you're afraid of home, you stopped, got some gas, like you said, put some fuel in the vehicle, got some drinks. Did he say anything? I mean, was he... He brought up the money thing about, you know, I want you to have all the money. I was like, what are you talking about?

He says it. You can tell when he's joking and when he's being serious, but he always joked about stuff. So I was like, you know, he's messing around. I was like, man, you're crazy. And then we just changed the subject. When he was talking about houses in the Philippines, he was always joking. He was like, man, we're going to go there, buy us a house, have us a beautiful Philippine woman. What are you going to do in the Philippines? You can buy a house, it's cheap. I know.

That's what we started talking about after he said the money. He was just a dead subject. He never brought it back up until... After they started arguing and stuff, like, in my statement, you can see that I left the first time to go get food, and he wanted me to get this phone fixed that he had broke, you know, see if they could fix it. Now he broke that when y'all got back.

When they were arguing, it was a little while at the end of the argument, but they had the door closed. I was just minding my business. I didn't want to get in there and talk to me or anything. The first thing she said, When she saw me walk in behind him, she said, what the F is he doing here? But the thing is, what throws me off is certain parts she was so alert, but then certain parts she was just so...

It just didn't make sense to me. When they were arguing, I was yelling so I could hear what he was saying. And she wouldn't say anything because she knew she was caught. Everything that he was talking about, she knew.

They were arguing back and forth, back and forth. And then, like, they had the door closed, and you just hear a thump. And then he just opened the door a few minutes later, and he just had the phone in the hand, smiling. Because he knew, like, I work on them. Like, I work on cell phones. He was like... you know fix this you know anyway they're still arguing or whatever after that

And I was like, you know, I'm going to give y'all some a long time. You know, I don't want to be in that way while y'all are arguing. I said, do you want me to go get some food or something? He was like, yeah. And he gave me his card. And, like, we was talking about it. And then that's when he brought the money up again. He was like, I want you to take my money out.

And I was like, for what? That's the only thing that I didn't understand. Why did he want me to have this money? But I knew in the back of my mind, they weren't going to let me touch that money because I wasn't him. You can't just go in and say, oh, this is my friend. I want his money. You can't do it. So I knew it wasn't going to do it.

You know, I was just like, whatever. I was like, you know. Well, he gives me his card and, you know, he handed me the phone. Before that, there was a whole money talk thing. And he was like, you know, go to the bank first. and then go to AT&T and then get the food, so the food won't be called. So I leave, and I get to the bank, and I told him, you know, I was like, hey, my buddy wants me to take his money out for him. He sent me text messages of his information. I was like...

Well, when I texted him when I got there, I said, you know, I'm here. If you really want to do this, it's up to you. And he's like, yeah. And he sent me all this information. And I called him back. And I was like, dude, you know, I knew they weren't going to let me. I was like, man, they're not going to take your money out. They told me I couldn't.

He was like, well, you know, whatever, whatever. Like, he wasn't stressing it. He was just like, you know, I'll do it later or something. Well, I go to AT&T, and, like, there's this long line. And, like, since I work on them, I know what to look for. And, like...

I started thinking about it, and I plugged it up to one of the little chargers up there, and it was stuck in the bootload, like where the Apple comes on, and then it cut back off, and I knew what was wrong. It was the battery, so I left there. And when I went to Chick-fil-A, I actually had a buddy that saw me. I stopped in the park and talked to him for a second before I got the food. I got the food, I go back to them.

And it's calm when I get there. There's no arguing. She's passed out on the couch. He's sitting on the couch beside her. I bring all the food in, and we start separating the food and all that. She was just sitting there acting like, you know.

I don't want to eat. I don't want to eat. So she took her food and her drink, and there's a counter behind the couch. She just put her stuff up there, and he kind of looked at her. He's like, eat your food. And she said something that wasn't like... nothing crazy she said something he was like stop being a bitch and eat your food and basically like we ate and you know they didn't say anything I started to lay down well somehow they had managed to get into the bedroom

And I don't know if maybe they were talking or arguing, but I started to doze off. And when I started to doze off, I noticed that Christian was walking out the bedroom door, and she was right behind him. I kind of opened my eyes and said, where are y'all going? He said, we're going to take a little ride.

Now, I fell asleep. I don't know how long I slept. Like, I don't know how long they had been back. But when I woke up, he was at the foot of my, like, the couch where I was sleeping. He was at my feet. And he was acting normal. You know, just smoking a cigarette.

kind of stand at the TV because we had a movie girl. But it was like, you know when the movie's over, just sit there and keep playing the whole front thing? It's like he was just watching that, smoking a cigarette. Well, she was passed out in the bed. You know, we talked for like...

A brief minute. It wasn't that long. I can't tell you exactly how long. It's like, how long have I been asleep? I was like, blah, blah, blah. I was like, well, I'm going to go to Best Buy and look at some subs. I was like, you need anything while I'm out? No, man, I'm all right. Well, you know, he's acting normal.

I go to Best Buy. I'm sitting there, and I go back to the speakers, and there's a guy named . I used to work at Best Buy, so I know all the people up there. I was talking to about speakers. And he was kind of telling me what I needed, what amp I needed, and all that stuff. I started to leave, and I saw another dude named . And is like the security man. He watches all the cameras and stuff like that. I talked to him for a minute.

And then that's when I headed back. But when I got back, I opened the door, and I noticed he wasn't on the couch. I was like, all right, maybe they fix things. Because like I said, they argued, but they'd be fine in an hour. I said, maybe they fix things. And he's laying in the bed with him.

So I walked in there. She's passed out on the bed. He's not in there. And I was like, maybe he's in his brother's, you know, his brother's room is upstairs. I believe that's his brother's room, the one that go upstairs, that bedroom.

I was like, maybe he's up there laying on that bed. So I walked up there. I didn't see him. Well, I noticed the bathroom light was on. So I kind of knocked on the door. I said, you all right? You straight? Because, like, you know, I was yelling his name. I was like, Christian, Christian, where you at? Where you at? Well, you know, she hadn't even moved. Whitley Steele laid out on the bed. I said, Christian, Christian, you know, that's why I was walking through the house.

But, you know, I knocked on the bathroom door. I said, you all right? I didn't say nothing to him. I knocked again, just a little bit hard. I was like, you okay? I didn't say nothing to him. I was like, that's weird, you know? Maybe he's taking a shower or something, you know? Maybe he's just doing something he can't hear.

So I walked downstairs. I went to Whitley. I was like, Whitley, you didn't say nothing to me. He's not answering me. I was like, we need to check on him. Well, this is what blows my mind. Whitley was like, I guess, dead asleep. I'm assuming because I kind of shook her a little bit. She didn't move. I said it weakly. I shook her, and that's when I said, we need to check on her. She didn't say nothing. She just mumbled, and she kind of rolled over and went back to sleep.

That's when I walked back up there and knocked on the door a little bit harder at the time. I said, Christian, are you okay in there? He didn't say nothing to him. I said, man, something ain't right. So I knocked a little bit harder. I said, Christian, are you all right in there? He didn't say nothing back to me. I was like, man, I got to check on him. When I opened the door, I looked like my head was down and I could see his boots. And I looked up, he was hunched over the bathtub.

I knew he wasn't alive, just the way he was just saying there. What blew my mind, I had no images of this, like the first two weeks, every single night when I go to sleep. I see his arms behind his back. He didn't add up to me. You're doing good. You are. I want to know what happened to my buddy.

You know, I want to know, like, it's like emotionally traumatizing knowing that I won't get in my truck one day and drive past the beach and see him down there. You know, it's just, it's crazy because, like... That was one of my buddies. I lost a friend in 2011, and he sent me into this downward spiral. I was like, why'd he have to go? Why'd he have to go?

And that one hit me hard, but Christian hit me even harder because of how close he was. That was like my running boat. I didn't do anything while he was out on the boat, and when he got back from the boat, all we did was just go to the beach.

you know just small stuff like get on the boat but i mean like after doing that for so long you know just you get like small memories from it and like it just tears you up you know knowing you'll never be able to talk to your buddy again you know just like family I mean, it really was. We're going to find out what happened. And I can tell you this right now. Don't let you shot yourself on purpose. I will give her this. She did play a hell of a role if that is what happened.

with the whole sleeping deal and the crying and stuff, but I knew when she sat down to smoke that cigarette, I knew those wasn't real tears.

Regardless of what you believe happened on February 26th, there is no doubt that Dr. Arden's conclusion on the time of death lends a different way of looking at this. And I believe the science did make some sort of impact in this case. based on what followed shortly after the release of Knox and Arden's reports. In January 2017, a judge issued arrest warrants for Whitley and Dillon for murder. Detective Jay Arrington, with MPD, helped get the warrant signed.

Of course, Ray and Todd were relieved, because it seemed that finally some resolution would come from all this. But after several days, and several calls to police, nothing was happening. No arrests were made. Eventually... it was explained to Ray that they were not going to serve the warrants, that a decision had been made to instead let the case go to a grand jury, which meant Bilbo, the DA, would present the case. But before it ever made it to a jury,

Bilbo recused himself from the case. On February 22, 2017, Bilbo sent his recusal letter to the Attorney General's office, which meant that he would no longer be required to enforce any legal action in the case. The responsibility of presenting the case to a jury would fall into the hands of the Attorney General's office. And shortly after this, in October of 2017, the case was presented to a jury, and the case was no-billed.

meaning the charges were not sufficiently supported by the evidence presented to warrant prosecution This episode is brought to you by Rakuten. If you're shopping while working, eating, or even listening to this podcast, then you know and love the thrill of a deal. But are you getting the deal and cash back? Rakuten shoppers do.

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through the rumblings of some other people who caught wind of the news. Here's Ray and her brother Chris's take on the matter. Really, Bilbo does not control the police department. How it's supposed to work is the police department is supposed to do their job, make arrests. The DA does not control who they arrest and who they don't arrest.

Typically, all of that is done and the DA is never involved. And then they take that information. Once the arrest is made, then the investigation is given to the DA to determine if it's going to go to the grand jury or be prosecuted or whatever.

to several people who have been on grand jury here and that's kind of how they say you can definitely tell what he wants to be indicted and what he wants to be note billed and nine times out of ten that's how they go they don't question it they just vote to go that way because he's telling them

we don't have enough to ever win this case and from what i've been told quite frankly that's legal i mean unless you just prove that which would be almost impossible to do because grand jurors won't talk to you But, I mean, that's just how the system is. This whole secret system of a grand jury, where in Mississippi or in Lauderdale County, there's no court reporter.

There's totally no record of what goes on in that grand jury. We told them we would pay for a court reporter for just Christian's part. They said couldn't do it. It was a secret what goes on. You know, we asked if we could just do a tape recorder and tape it. Nope, it's secret. You can't know. We asked, could we speak to the grand jury? Nope, can't do that. That's not allowed. Actually, it can be allowed.

They have vast leeway. It says in the law that, you know, they can call witnesses, they can do anything they want. They could have let us talk to the ranger if they wanted to, but no, we're going to do that. How often do you know that warrants are going to be issued for the arrest of two people? And a DA says, no, let's indict them first. Well, how are you going to indict them if you never question them? And they did.

Put the case up for indictment to the grand jury. He recused himself. Said he was too close to Christian. That was his public statement. What people need to realize is... It took him three years and a lot of pressure for him to recuse himself. He tried to explain it away like it was the right thing to do. Well, if it was the right thing to do, and he was that close to Christian, he should have recused himself three years earlier.

That was a political move and that was all it was to it. Once the indictment is made, it is up to the DA whether or not they offer a plea deal or not. When you have... lawyers tell you that are friends of mine, to tell you that they're representing criminals, a defense attorney, tells me that He's sitting there with his client, and the DA comes in and makes a plea deal, makes an offer. Hey, you plead guilty, we'll give you 15 years. And his client tells him no.

The DA walks out of the room and he turns around and says, are you crazy? You should get 25 years and they're willing to give you 15. And the criminal looks at him and says, Everybody knows that's Bilbo's first offer. He'll come back with this. When the criminals know that, you've got problems. The day that Bilbo retired, I don't know if it'll get any better in that DA's office, but Meridian may not realize it, but it was a good day for Meridian as far as crimes being punished.

He's got a great record. It's my understanding. He's got a great conviction record. But when you're making deals like that, I can understand why. Very rarely is there just a full-blown trial in Meridian. If it is, the public doesn't know about it. It's not in the papers. It's not on the news and things. Every once in a while, there'll be a full-blown trial. Some people say that's a waste of taxpayers' money. I think you're taking justice out of.

The public's hands, the way our system was designed, you're taking that out of their hands and putting it in the hands of one person, the DA. That's way too much power. In October of 2018, after 31 years of service, Bilbo Mitchell retired as district attorney, and his assistant DA, Cassie Coleman, was appointed by Governor Phil Bryant, per Bilbo's recommendation.

But before we break away from Bilbo, I'd like to go back and hit on something I mentioned earlier, the letter he wrote, recusing himself from Christian's case. I'm going to read it in its entirety. This letter is written by Bilbo Mitchell. Addressed to Attorney General Jim Hood. Dear Jim, I am in need of your help again. There is a case here in Meridian that needs to be presented to a grand jury.

and I feel that our office has a conflict of interest that has been created by the deceased's family. Christian Andreacchio died of a gunshot wound to the head a few years ago. The death was originally investigated by the Meridian Police Department. who ruled that the death was the result of a suicide. The case was then investigated by Trent Weeks and the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation, who also ruled that the case was a suicide. Danny Welch from your office.

was also involved in the investigation and should be knowledgeable of the facts of the case. Christian's family never accepted the suicide findings and feel that Christian was murdered. They have gone as far as hiring private investigators, doctors, and other experts from around the country in an effort to prove that this wasn't a suicide. There are a number of reasons that our office should not handle the presentation of this case to a grand jury.

The family has expressed the opinion that the Meridian Police Department and I are trying to cover up or protect someone who they think killed Christian. Number two, I coached Christian in soccer when he was a young man. and became acquainted with the family during that time. Christian's mother was my son's nurse practitioner at Psychology Associates. Hayes made the comment to her that he knew Christian didn't kill himself.

Hayes meant that as a consoling comment, but she used that comment to say that my son knows something and I'm covering it up to protect someone. who we have to work with on occasion. And number five, I'm attaching a letter that Christian's mother wrote to the Meridian Police Department, questioning my integrity in dealing with this case. General.

I have worked on this case as hard as any I've ever had. My relationship with Christian made me want to be sure that every rock was upturned. I have read the file over and over. I have talked to MPD and MBI investigators. I have talked to the pathologist and first responders, and have even driven all the way to Jacksonville, Florida to talk to private investigators that have been hired by the family. All of my efforts still show that this was a suicide.

It's frustrating that the family doesn't trust me, but that is a fact that isn't going to change. My request is that you ask Danny Welch or some other investigator to review our file and that you appoint Stanley or some other attorney. to present the case to a grand jury here in Meridian. Thank you for your consideration of my request. Yours truly, Bilbo Mitchell.

Bilbo listed many reasons as to why he felt his office should not handle the presentation of Christian's case, that he used to coach Christian in soccer, that Christian's grandfather is a circuit court judge, and he also mentions the family's belief that he and MPD were actively trying to cover up or protect someone. He also attached a letter Ray wrote, questioning his integrity dealing with the case. But one reason he listed that stood out to me was the one he gave which referenced his son.

His reason was, quote, Hayes made the comment to her that he knew Christian didn't kill himself. Hayes meant that as a consoling comment. But she used that comment to say that my son knows something and I'm covering it up to protect someone. While Ray cannot share what all Hayes said to her about the case due to patient confidentiality.

I think I have an idea as to what it may have been about. Because Ray wasn't the only person that Hayes Mitchell shared information with regarding the death of Christian Andriacchio. It was the day of crew change. We were on the motor vessel, Kelly Lee. That was the boat we worked on. And we were standing in the deck locker. It was evening time, right when I was waking up from my evening shift. And he happened to be working that night.

He started talking about the incident with Christian. This is all what Hayes told me. Copable is a production of Black Mountain Media and Tenderfoot TV in conjunction with Cadence 13. Executive producers are Dennis Cooper, Jacob Bozarth, Donald Albright, Payne Lindsey, and me, Mark Minnery. Additional production by Whitney Bozarth, Courtney Cooper, Meredith Stedman, and Mason Lindsay. Audio editing, mixing, mastering.

and sound design by Resonate Recordings. If you have a podcast or are considering starting a podcast of your own, I urge you to check them out at resonaterecordings.com. Theme music and score by Dirt Poor Robbins. Cover art by Drew Bardana. I want to extend a special thanks to Mike Hines, Sheila Wysocki, and Lance Black. You can follow us on social media at Copable Podcast. Show notes.

as well as bonus content can be found on our website, copablepodcast.com. If you enjoyed this episode, please take time to subscribe, rate, and review. Your feedback is greatly appreciated. And lastly, if you have any information related to the death of Christian Andreacchio, please email us at tips at blackmountainmedia.net or call us at 470. Thank you for listening and tune in for new episodes every Monday.

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