Hell and Gone Murder Line: Nina Ingram Part 2

inherent in cold cases. We remind listeners that everyone has presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Nothing in the podcast is intended to state or imply that anyone who has not been convicted of a crime is guilty of any wrongdoing. Thanks for listening. I need somebody over here on somebody's been killed.

ten fourteen pm. She got out of her vehicle and walked toward her apartment on the ground floor in the Law Quad apartment complex. But sometime shortly after that, probably right after Nina unlocked her door and went inside her apartment, she was attacked.

it all the way to crawl inside. It is a possibility that this is how Nina's killer got into and out of the apartment, but either way, whether Nina's killer locked the door behind themselves or whether they opened the window, crawled in, closed.

small town where murder never happens. I've 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 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 or five. That's six seven eight seven four four six one four or five, or you can send us a message on

Instagram at Helen gonepod. This is Helen Gone Murder Line. In twenty twelve, six years after Nina Ingram's murder, a new detective was put in charge of her case. This detective's name was Scott Carlton, and within a very short period of time he had results. Rico Cohne was arrested in charge with Nina's murder. Fayetteful Police Chief Greg Tabor

said that Rico was being charged with capital murder. Initial reports in the media stated that Rico had briefly been a maintenance man at the law Couad apartments where Nina lived, and that could have explained how he had a key to her apartment and potentially how he could have gained entry. But at his arraignment in June of twenty twelve, Rico

pleaded not guilty. Rico's defense attorney had considered a mental illness claim, but Rico completely denied that he killed Nina, and admitting guilt was a requirement for him to mount that mental illness defense. Rico was examined by a psychiatrist, doctor Mark Peacock, who found Rico mentally fit to stand trial.

witness is a little bit confusing. At first, media reports stated that, according to Randy Applewhite, Rico had been hanging around with some friends at the apartment complex where Nina Ingram lived. This was over Easter weekend, about five days before Nina's murder. While he was there, Allegedly, Rico said something to Nina kind of hitting on her, and she rebuffed him, blowing him off in front of his friends, and this enraged Rico. But it wasn't actually Randy Applewhite

who reported this tip to police. It was called in by a woman named Brenda Case, who told police that she was friends with Randy and that Randy had told her the story about Rico, so then it was Brenda.

so it was effectively hearsay. When Randy was first interviewed in twenty twelve, court record stated that after she did tell her story, it never changed, but later Rico's attorney claimed in a lawsuit that Randy's story did change multiple times. We'll get more into that later. In Randy's interview, Randy told detectives about a conversation that she allegedly had with Rico. She said that the conversation took place six years earlier,

about six months after Nina Ingram's murder. Randy told police she was afraid to tell them what she knew because she was afraid of Rico. And also, she said, quote plus, I didn't know one hundred percent if it was true or not.

and could be controlling and jealous. Randy confirmed that she told police that in the past, Rico had grabbed her by the throat, choked her, put a gun in her face, and sabotaged her car. So the state started building its case against Rico Cone and it was going to be tough because not only did they really so far only

have one person who allegedly had this information. They had zero physical evidence, and it turned out that those rumors about Rico Cone being a maintenance man at the complex probably weren't true because police later said they believed Rico had lied about being a maintenance man in order to explain his DNA being there, but of course they never

found his DNA there. Since the case against Rico Cone has been sealed, which is another longer story we're going to get into later, there are no details about what actually came out in court, but police did say that there was.

bars that whole time for over three years. Finally, in twenty fifteen, the trial was getting ready to start, and then there was another shocking twist in this case, the state's key witness, Randy Applewhite, went into the hospital for what was supposed to be a routine surgery, but something went wrong and on Tuesday, March third, twenty fifteen, Randy Applewhite died. Shortly after that, on July first, prosecutors dropped the charges against Rico Cone, They said due to lack

of evidence. After spending over eleven hundred days in the Washington County Detention Center, Rico was released a free man. He went back to Tennessee, where he was from, to stay with family. Meanwhile, the prosecutor, Matt Durett, told local news stations that they had a year to pursue additional charges against Rico, but that didn't happen. After that years pasted, it seemed like the Nina Ingram murder case was in limbo.

wrongfully accused since the beginning. He said, quote, we believe an innocent man had been locked up for over three years for something he did not do, and we do not believe that this is justice for anybody.

I am innocent and had nothing to do with this, and my heart, mind, and soul goes out to the Ingram family end quote. Rico's attorneys did their own investigation. They later filed a civil lawsuit against the detectives in the case. In Rico's civil lawsuit, they referenced the fact that the police department did identify several other people of interest.

of Nina's friends was a guy named Freddie Hollingsworth. Freddie had worked with Nina at Walmart. He stopped by her apartment complex a couple of days after her murder, and a couple of the female tenants at that building told police that they thought that police should be aware of Freddie, they said. Freddie said that his name was Freddie, like Freddy Krueger.

I wish, but she wasn't the type. So the detective asked what he meant by the type. Freddie said Nina was always clear about her priorities being work in school, and also said Nina had a boyfriend. He knew that she had a relationship with Josh and that it was serious. Freddie and Nina attended the same college, even though Freddie was several years older. He was twenty nine, Nina was twenty one. Both of them majored in business. Freddie said that he thought of himself as kind of a big

brother figure to Nina. He told police that he loved her but as a friend. But about eight months before Nina's murder, he said that kind of lost touch. That's when Nina transferred to the Walmart supercenter on Sixth Street to work in loss prevention. Freddie said after that they

saw each other only intermittently. He saw her when he did his shopping at that Sixth Street store, and he also worked in the same store as Nina's brother, Nelson, so he would chat to Nelson about how his sister was doing and hear about her second hand.

work and life in general. He said they had a really great conversation, but he said that was the last time that he ever spoke to Nina. Freddie told police something off. He said, quote, I really get mad at Nina. I would get mad at her a lot because of the type of job she's doing, and I've got witnesses. I've tried to get her out of this job, this loss prevention job.

and she just blew me off. She said, oh, Freddie, don't talk like that, and nothing's going to happen. And that's what upset me so much when I found out someone had killed her, because I suspect that's probably what happened.

because she picked Nelson up. She'd dropped Nelson off at his house, and then she'd be back at her apartment by herself. And I figure, maybe this is just a theory. Maybe he timed her down and got everything figured out.

and take a look around. Then, he said, after getting out of the car, he saw some women standing there. He started talking to them, asking them if they lived there. He told them he was a friend of nina'snamed Freddie Hollingsworth. He said he wanted to see where she live. He said he told them. Quote, I just want to see what happened, you know, if there's something that I can see that people can't end quote. One of those women pointed out Nina's unit, Unit number one. Freddy said he

didn't actually go over to Nina's apartment. He said that he and the two women stared at it and then walked a few steps toward it across the grass, but then he turned around and left.

or something. And that's what I was seeking. I wanted to just live a little bit of Nina. I just wanted to feel some connection to Nina. I wanted to see where she lived.

into the case or misdirect an investigation. Freddie said that he noticed something else about Nina's unit, that it was what he called a bad apartment because it was on the ground floor on the corner, and that there was a stairwell right beside the apartment. Nina's light was above her door, But Freddie said when he was there at Nina's complex on that Sunday that he noticed that Nina's porch light was not working, but that everyone else's was.

Note later in this interview, Freddie clarified that he meant that Nina's light wasn't on.

That's why the door wasn't broken. End quote. Freddie said that he had known about the locked door before it was reported in the newspapers, because he'd heard about it from the gosspep going around Walmart. He said that he learned about Nina's death on Saturday afternoon, after management called a special meeting and told employees that Nina had been murdered.

someone out here on the loose end quote. At some points, Freddy's story did seem to shift slightly, like at one point he said he was going to leave flowers, but then later he clarified his plan had actually been to go to Nina's and then later go back to the supercenter, buy the flowers, and drop them off the next day, but he said he noticed no one else had left flowers and he didn't want to be the.

Freddie also suggested police check the trash cans in the complex and underneath the stairwell to see if someone had dropped cigarette butts while watching for Nina. There's also some big trees down there in the complex, he told them, where someone could have hid behind. Freddie voluntarily gave police cheek swabs so that they could be compared for DNA.

He offered to help out in any way that he could As they were collecting the swabs, Freddy continued to talk about his theory that someone had been following Nina for quote payback or retribution. He said that's why he recommended that police check the fast food places that she frequented. The detective asked Freddy if he ate fast food, and he said, Taco Bell is the only one that I eat at. Nina was at Taco Bell on the night she died. Taco Bell fast food was her last meal.

Detectives asked Freddy where he was on the night Nina was killed. He said that on April twenty first, he worked his shift at Walmart, got off at nine pm, but stayed there till round nine thirty. Then he said he was talking to a friend, and then he went back to his mom's house. He said that on that night, his mom was not at home. He did say that he had a roommate who stayed there, but he said the roommate did not get off work at Target until two or three am, so at the time Freddy was home alone.

he scraped his hand on a ladder. He said it was just a scratch, so he didn't say anything to anyone. Then he said on Sunday he was getting some bananas and scraped the hand again on a cart. This, he said, the cut reopened and started bleeding, so he said he went into the break room and got a band aid from someone. The detective took some pictures of Freddie's hand, and before concluding the interview, the detective said, quote, well, Freddie,

there's just some things that concern me. He asked again how Freddy knew so much about Nina's schedule. The detective also quizzed Freddie on why he went to the Taco bell on Sixth Street to eat the.

out who killed Nina. Along with Freddie, detectives also talked to several men whom Nina had dated casually in the past, but none of them had any reason to be angry with her, and all of them had alibis. A neighbor of Nina's and a census taker told police they had seen Nina with men in her apartment, but it's not clear if these men were ever identified. One of them was described as being medium billed with dark hair. Detectives got a description from the census taker of the shirt

that this guy was wearing. They found a similar shirt that she identified from a catalog. There is a photo of that shirt in the case file. The man she saw wearing a long sleeved white button up shirt with a band collar. Those are the ones that button at the top with a single button without having a fold over collar. The shirt was white with a blue stripe, but that person was never conclusively identified. Police interviewed another

woman named Chantal, who lived in Nina's apartment complex. She said she pulled into the parking lot on the night of April first, at around nine to fifteen pm. She said on that night she noticed a person she'd never seen before. She said at first she wasn't positive if it was a man or a woman, but she believed that it was a woman, someone who had her hair yelled back. The woman was sitting in the driver's seat of a darker, older model car. Chantal described it as vintage.

She said it was dark, so she wasn't sure if it was blue or navy or black. She said she saw a blond man walk out from the area, possibly near apartment number one, and the couple drove away. They also talked to another guy, Josh Donn, who said that he had been set up on a date with Nina a while back. They looked at Josh's hands too, and found that there was a cut on his thumb, which Josh said was from a rake. Josh said there were

other marks on his hands from rock climbing. He also expressed a desire to help catch Nina's killer and voluntarily gave his DNA to police. After Rico Cone's release, his attorney filed a lawsuit against several detectives involved in the case, suing them both personally and in their capacity as police officers. Also listed in the court case where the city of Fayible and employees Arkansas.

against him and violated his civil rights. We are going to examine peace by piece the case against Rico Cone because if the police are wrong and he wasn't the only suspect, there are several people of interests still out there, and to our knowledge, the police are not investigating anyone other than Rigo Cone. So who killed Nina Ingram? Did this person stalk her beforehand? Was this person a stranger or could it have been someone she knew and maybe

even let in? I'm Catherine Townsend. This is Helen Gone Murder Line. Helen Gone Murder Line is a production of School of Humans and iHeart Podcasts. It's written and narrated by me Catherine Townsend and produced by Gabby Watts.