Hell and Gone Murder Line: Jarrod Green Part 2

thirty years. She told me the pain that she and her parents had gone through when they discovered that Jared had developed a drug habit, and as he began to descend further and further into methamphetamine addiction, he started hanging out more and more with Brandon Wheeler and Robert Webb, two guys he knew from high school. According to police,

Brandon and Robert were involved in drug dealing. They'd given Jared a large quantity of meth Somehow, he ended up owing Brandon and Robert a lot of money, somewhere between seventy five hundred and eight thousand dollars. On September thirtieth, Jared left home and met a friend at the Sarcey Country Club. This friend told police that Jared got a gun back from him and that he was scared that night that he planned to meet with Brandon Wheeler and

smooth things over regarding this debt. After that night, Jared Green disappeared. His abandoned car was found a few days later at a Walmart supercenter. The keys were underneath the front seat, the windows were rolled down. Jared Green's family has never seen him since that day. It's been almost thirty years, and Jared Green's family wants answers and justice.

I'm Catherine Townsend. Over the past five years of making my true crime podcast, Telling Gone, I've learned that there is no such thing as a small town where murder never happens. I have received hundreds of messages from people all around the country asking for help with an unsolved murder that's affected them, their families, and their communities. If you have a case you'd like me and team to look into, you can reach out to us at our Helen Gone Murder line at six seven eight seven four

four six one four five. That's six seven eight seven four four, six one four or five. Just a few weeks after Jared Green went missing, police find out the people he allegedly owed money to, Brandon Wheeler and Robert Webb, have left town and that their rental house is caught on fire. Fortunately the fire did not burn down the entire house, but police later said that it looked like someone poured accelerant in the garage. Clearly this seemed like arson,

but no charges were ever filed. Now police were trying to track down Brandon Wheeler and Robert Webb, they talked to another neighbor, a woman named Shelby Watson, who lived next door to the house Brandon and Robert had been renting. Shelby said she was in her late teens at the time. She lived with her parents, and she started hanging out at the guy's residence in August. Not surprisingly, because these guys always had money and drugs, it seemed to have

become kind of a neighborhood party house. While she was hanging out there, Shelby said she met a guy who called himself Felix, and again, figuring out who these people really are, who Felix really was, is part of the mystery. Shelby said she and Felix kind of hit it off, they became friends, but then, she said, in late September, Felix disappeared. He had told her he lived in Tennessee, so Shelby thought maybe he was moving back there. She

said that she got worried. She told police that Felix owed Brandon something like ten thousand dollars, but unlike Jared Green, Felix reappeared. When she asked him about the money, he said, basically, don't worry about it, I've already paid it back. Shortly after that, though, she said, Felix disappeared for good and

she never saw him after that. So what we have are a lot of people dropping in and out of that house, a lot of people who potentially owe Brandon and Robert a lot of money, and who seemed to mysteriously disappear. But police did reveal in the investigative file that they have figured out Felix's real name, Barren Stafford. Honestly, as an investigator, I know, as other listeners of this podcast know, that I've had my problems with law enforcement

in the past. But the frustrating part is that the bad police officers out there really make the job of the good police officers, the ones who diligently are working for justice, so much harder. And there was an investigator in this case named Tim Webb. Looking back at his work, at least the written notes it seems like he was trying to track these people down. Tim Webb wanted to find Baron Stafford, the guy who had been known as Felix. He said that he tried all the phone numbers that

he had for Baron Stafford but got no response. Then he said he talked to Baron's brother, who told them Baron was out of town and that Baron was not coming back to Sercy. So now you have Brandon and Robert who had both vanished without a trace, without police ever talking to them, and now Baron Stafford was gone too.

And the reason that he wanted to find him was because Tim Webb looked through the phone records for Brandon and Robert's landline and he saw a lot of calls between their rental house in North Little Rock and Baron Stafford's house. In fact, the last call from Baron Stafford's residence to Robert and Brandon's house was on October fourth, nineteen ninety four, at ten thirty am. The calls continued between Brandon and Robert to a residence in Nashville, Tennessee.

From reading through these notes, it seems like Tim Webb developed a theory that Baron Stafford had gone to Nashville and that he was staying with family there. This could have been crucial because Tennessee was also somewhere where Jared had gone in the past and mentioned to his family that he could be going. In December, Tim Webb got

in touch with Metro Nashville Police. He asked for help figuring out the location of his telephone number that Brandon and Robert had been calling, and he did his due diligence. He also called the phone company. Both the phone company and Nashville Police confirmed that there was a phone number on Berwick Trail in Nashville, Tennessee. They found the woman that this phone belonged to. They identified or as a

woman named Sherry Dotson. And this is just another heartbreak in my opinion, because Tim Webb asked for permission to go to Nashville. He wanted to do surveillance on that house. He wanted to see if Baron Stafford was at that residence in Nashville. But his bosses told him basically to forget it and to request that the Nashville Police Department sent someone over, and the Nashville police seemed to kind of blow Tim Webb off. I'm not blaming them. They

were really busy. I know that there's investigative red tape people have to go through and administrative procedure, but it seems crazy that for the sake of a five hour drive they could not just let this officer, who clearly cared about the case, ride over to Nashville and check out this residence. This also, by the way, seems like one of these cases where if someone like me or another licensed private investigator was allowed to help police, perhaps

they could fill in some of those gaps. Unfortunately, Tim Webbs seemed to hit a dead end. In the investigative notes, police stated they did figure out that Robert Webb and Brandon Wheeler were dealing large quantities of methamphetamine in Sirce and White Counties. They said that an Arkansas State Police investigator had actually tried to make a deal with Brandon and Robert to try to make them confidential informants, but

it hadn't worked out. From Tim Webb's notes, it seems like he was very frustrated that he could not go to Nashville, that he got stonewalled, and that nothing happened. In nineteen ninety five, Tim Webb tried again there's a handwritten note in the case file saying, quote, on eight three ninety five, I met with Chief Thomas in reference to the information. I had to express my views on follow up investigations, which might require some time and the

need for some assistance. Chief Thomas advised me I needed to get with him on the thirty first for further instructions.

identified himself as Jared Green's father. Shannon said this was an impersonator that never happened. On October tenth, nineteen ninety four, Jared Green's girlfriend Es told police that someone called her workplace. They didn't identify themselves, but they told her this mystery caller that Jared was okay. So I'm wondering who was that person who was calling the police saying that they were Jared's father, who called Jared's girlfriend's workplace and said

that they were Jared's friend. Was it the same person? I want to understand more about that person and why they were trying to mislead the investigation. And obviously I'm also wondering the screaming red flag. What was the story with Robert Webb and Brandon Wheeler. Why didn't the police ever talk them after they left town. It turned out the police did want to talk to Robert Webb, but they couldn't because sometime in the summer of nineteen ninety five,

Robert Webb disappeared. Robert Webb went missing sometime in the summer of nineteen ninety five. Again, the timeline here is a little confusing. His mother later told police the last time she heard from her son was on July fourth, nineteen ninety five, and that no trace of him has been seen since. His family said he would never drop out of contact for that long. Robert's mother officially reported

Robert missing around ten months after Jared disappeared. According to Shannon, people who know Jared had their own suspicions about what might have happened to Robert Webb. In later court papers, Robert Webb is described as Brandon Wheeler's roommate and best friend. There's an excerpt from the investigator's reports that reads, an investigator reported, during this time, the aforementioned individual, meaning Robert Webb, was bragging he was a part of the disappearance of

Jared Green just before his own disappearance end quote. So clearly police talk to people people who said they suspect the same person or people who killed Jared Green might be responsible for Robert Webb's death. Maybe they saw eliminating him as collateral damage, just another brutal and violent way

to tie up loose sins. In nineteen ninety five, Sir C Police, from reading through the case file, seemed to be developing a theory, a theory that Brandon had something to do with Jared's disappearance, but they had no real evidence. Then there was another very strange twist in the case. Shortly after that, investigators interviewed a man named Charles Langley. Charles Langley was in prison doing time on an unrelated matter.

When police talked to him. Charles told police that Brandon came to his house to try to sell some crystal meth, and while he and a friend of his were there, they quote asked me if I wanted to get rid of someone for them, because he owed them seventy five hundred dollars. The guy they wanted me to get rid of was Green. Sometime later in December, they came to

my house again and said Jason Green. And he did say Jason, though later Charles said he meant Jared was no longer a problem, that he had been taken out of the picture. They told me they had grabbed him at the Walmart store and took care of him end quote. At first this would seem to be a potentially groundbreaking moment in the case, but as with so many things in this case, it was not all it was cracked up to be, because later, when another investigator interviewed Charles

in two thousand, Charles recanted his entire statement. He straight up said he had been lying to get a reduced sentence, and he said that when he gave this information to investigators, he was just repeating these third hand rumors. He said he didn't know Brandon and Robert. He said that his statement had been quote an attempt to shorten my stay or possibly even keep me from going to prison, but

most of which was a lie end quote. This is why it's so important for investigators to ask more detailed questions. Charles had no information that he couldn't have heard through local rumors. In fact, as we mentioned before, this information appears to be pretty unbelievable because I think it's very unlikely that the Walmart parking lot was the primary crime scene where Jared was attacked. I think it's far more

likely that car was driven there. But that's the kind of thing that if you're just hearing stuff based on local rumor, you know a car was found in the Walmart lot, you could just repeat to investigators as a plausible story. On December thirty first, two thousand, Baron Stafford, who police still had not talked to, spoke to his cousin who was also his pastor. The pastor would later tell police Baron said he knew vital information about two

different murders. He meant Robert Webb and Jared Green, and shortly after that, on New Year's Eve two thousand, Baron Stafford reportedly took his own life. After that, Jared Green's case went cold for years, but then in two thousand and six, there was another shocking twist because that was the year that an officer in Portland, Oregon, pulled a car over for a routine traffic stop. There were two

men in the car. According to an incident report, the officer noticed crack cocaine in the car, and then during the stop, he saw one of these men throw something outside the window a few feet away. It was something black and metal. The officer saw that it was a handgun. After police arrested the two men, they tracked down the gun serial number, and that gun and that serial number were traced back to Circe, Arkansas, and to Jared Green.

So how did the gun show up in Oregon after all those years, Shannon says she has never gotten an answer to that question. In December of two thousand and eight, according to the Daily Citizen, detectives searched the grounds of an old well on a property on Pine Canyon Road off Highway thirty six near Circe after they got a tip that Jared's body might be in a well in this old house. But no trace of Jared was found there, just another heartbreak for his family. In twenty sixteen, police

did another search. They went to a rural property acting on information of a confidential informant. They were looking near a deer stand in some woods and at that spot cadaverdogs alerted. Later, the pond was drained, no human remains were found. Police consulted the prosecuting attorney named Rebecca Reed McCoy. After she reviewed the evidence and saw that the dog had alerted, she signed an arrest affidavit for Brandon Wheeler. So just a few months later, in twenty seventeen, Shannon

Green said her family got mind blowing news. They found out Brandon Wheeler had been arrested and authorities were planning to charge him with Jared's murder and abuse of a corpse. In twenty seventeen, Shannon Green and her family learned that Brandon Wheeler, the man they had long suspected of being involved in her brother Jared's disappearance, had been arrested and charged. Brandon was arrested in Ohio and eventually extradited to Arkansas.

He was questioned by police and released on bail. Then, in November of twenty seventeen, in another complete reversal, the prosecutor decided to not move forward with the charges against Brandon Wheeler. Now at the time, she said this was because quote, additional evidence is expected to be recovered and DNA testing would not be completed within the timeframe set by the court end quote. What she actually meant was that she was facing a situation of having to prosecute

Brandon Wheeler on a no body homicide. Just reading between the lines, although this is just a guess on my part, it seems as though the prosecutor decided to roll the dice, thought that evidence would be found when the cadaver dogs alerted and after they drained that pond, but draining the pond failed to secure any additional evidence. In the end, the charges against Brandon Wheeler were dismissed with prejudiced, which means if additional evidence ever surfaces, they can be refiled.

If the prosecutor had gone forward with the charges then lost. Of course, Brandon Wheeler could not be retried based on the double jeopardy rule, so he was suing individual officers and also the entire police department. He sued the officers in their individual and in their official capacities. You can look up the lawsuit online and We're going to provide a link to the judgment in our source list at

the end of the episode. In a nutshell, Brandon Wheeler and his attorneys argued that Brandon Wheeler should never have been arrested and detained on that evidence. They said the officers who wrote up the arrest affidavit indicated in that affidavit that the cadaver doogs had alerted, but they left out the part about no evidence of a body or

any remains being found. Brandon's lawyers also said that the Circe police officers mentioned this confession they had gotten from Charles Langley that they knew that later he'd recandidate, but they didn't mention that in their affidavit either. And there were other problems that Brandon Wheeler's legal team claimed that they found in the affidavit. They claimed it was completely misleading.

When I talked to Shannon, she discussed the toll that this lawsuit had on the investigation because she says, for the two years that Brandon's lawsuit dragged out, the investigation stopped. Now Brandon Wheeler, by the way, claims he has no involvement in Jared's death. This arrest was completely unjustified. He says he's suffered lost wages and severe mental anguish as

a result of being stuck in Arkansas. He said he was subject to unreasonable seizure, that officers violated his fourth and fourteenth Amendments, and that they subjected him to cruel and unusual punishment and excessive bail. He also, by the way, alleges intentional infliction of emotional distress, and this lawsuit is still playing out. In twenty twenty, the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas sided with Brandon Wheeler.

The court found that once you took what his attorneys called misleading statements out of that arrest affidavit, that those officers did not have probable cause to arrest Brandon Wheeler, and the Court of Appeals affirmed that decision in twenty twenty one. I have so many questions about this lawsuit, the way everything played out. I still find myself wondering why did they arrest Brandon Wheeler in that moment. Apparently they thought they did have enough to move forward with

a no body homicide. Unfortunately, they miscalculated. And there's more bad news for Shannon's family because the judge ruled that Brandon's interview with the police could not be admitted as evidence. So Shannon and her family only saw five minutes of that video interview in the pre trial hearing. So now we're wondering what else did Brandon Wheeler say in that interview. We may never know. Brandon Wheeler has left the state of Arkansas, and I'm sure he's hired a legal team.

I wonder have police lost their only chance at getting Brandon Wheeler or is it possible to get more evidence later. It seems like over the years, Jared's case has had investigators who cared about it. Shannon told me that Jared's case actually became this notorious unsolved case in Sirce, and that when new recruits would join the police force, a detective would sort of present Jared's case as a challenge that the rookies could try to solve.

They could never go actually do any investigation outside of like our local area.

since nineteen ninety five. We know that Baron Stafford, who went by the name Felix, reportedly took his own life in two thousand. Shannon says that she is not given up. She says that in twenty twenty three, she hoped to have additional private dog teams who would volunteer to investigate. She also said she hoped that now that the lawsuit has mostly played out, that some of the investigators who were so devoted to Jared's case would get some additional resources.

She said so far that it hasn't happened.

of investigators. And so I thought when that happened and he had these additional resources, that they were going to make, you know, really be able to dedicate time to Jared's case. But that has not been the case. And I don't know why. I haven't really been able to talk to them. I don't know if this because there is a new police chief and so maybe he's restricting their you know,

my access to them. Like it's not that people aren't letting me talk to them, it's just like I really hoped that with this, with this edition, of these three or four other people, that do get some progress.

Shannon said she needs people to come forward. She is begging anyone who knew her brother Jared or had any kind of interaction with him, no matter how small, to please come forward because you never know which piece of information will be key to cracking this case.

he didn't know who he was either. And it's no coin to me that these guys both you know, disappeared. Now there is speculation that you know, Webb is not really he didn't die, that he you know, just changed his identity and moved on. But we have no proof of that. We just know that he hasn't been seen, So I think someone needs to break their silence, right, Someone needs to have courage and come forward.

It's a mystery. We don't even know for sure if the person or people who saw Jared at Walmart that night really I saw him that night, or we're remembering another night. So much time has passed, Shannon said she

used to use the slogan justice for Jared. She said, even though she does dream of getting justice for her brother and of the person or people who killed him being held responsible, the main thing she wants to know is where Jared's remains are so that she and her family can find some measure of peace.

bring him home. And what I don't this is the part that you know, there's a lot of this that it's sickening, but I don't under and why if someone had to kill him, why they didn't just leave him where he could be found, because then we would at least know, and then I wouldn't still be, you know, forcing myself on the world to try to tell Jared's

story to try to find his remains. Because if people are afraid or they were involved and they don't want this to keep cropping up, and all they have to do is come forward, yeah and say here's the information I have, I will share it. Nobody's going to jail for the only charge that could possibly be applied would be a murder charge. And if you didn't kill him, then there's nothing, no reason why they shouldn't come forward to say what they know.

Gabby Watts. Music is by Ben Solee and this episode was scored and mixed by Miranda Hawkins. Executive producers are Virginia Prescott, Brandon Barr, and Els Crowley. If you have a case you'd like me and my team to look into, you can reach out to us at our Helen Gone Murder Line at six seven eight seven four four six one four five. That's six seven eight seven four four six one four or five.