School of Humans.
Last week we talked about the mystery regarding whether or not Deputy Blake Castle of the Madison County Sheriff's Office ever went out to the area near Highway twenty one and Madison County twenty five thirty five. That's where on August fifth, at twelve thirty four am, a nine to one one caller reported that she heard a woman screaming that it sounded like she was being raped or tortured.
The dispatch report reads quote, a caller advised she believes that she heard a woman in the woods behind her house yelling. Stated she believes at one point the woman's screamed for help. Caller advised there is not a physical address, but it is in an area where a bunch of homeless people were camped out.
End quote.
We know that the caller waited all night for the Madison County Sheriff's Office to respond, but no one ever came. And then a few weeks later, on September ninth, Taylor's remains were found in a field near where the nine to one one call was made. The Madison County Sheriff's Office has said they are investigating Taylor Barksdale's death as a homicide, and the Madison County Sheriff's Department said only one deputy, blake Castle, was working the overnight shift from
August fourth to August fifth. Madison County Sheriff Ronnie Boyd said that blake Castle had told dispatch that he had responded to the call, when actually he didn't. Later that same day on August fifth, when blake Castle's supervisor, Sergeant Drew Scott, questioned him, he said he didn't respond to the call because, quote, he had just been out to that area thirty minutes or an hour earlier end quote.
But is that true.
We requested the AVL data from the deputies vehicle. We're going to figure out where he really was in the early morning hours of August fifth.
I'm Catherine Townsend.
Over the past five years of making my true crime podcast, Helling Gone, I've learned that there is no such which 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 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. Or you can send us a message on Instagram at Helen Gonepod. This is Helen Gone Murder Line. So there was a big development this week in this case. According to an article in the Madison County Record, the Sheriff of Madison County, Ronnie Boyd, has
filed paperwork to request blake Castle's decertification. I thought this would mean that Blake Castle could no longer serve as a law enforcement officer in Arkansas, but it turns out that's not entirely accurate. I want to back up a little bit and talk about exactly what is involved in police decertification. The decertification process starts when a police officer commits certain kinds of misconduct. The reasons why officers can
be desertified bury from state to state. Thirty one states have agencies in the state that make the decisions about which officers to decertify. Arkansas is one of them. In Arkansas, the agency is the Commission on Law Enforcement Standards and Training. They meet four times a year, and according to the Arkansas Advocate, they have at least a dozen officers who
are considered for decertification every time they meet. In the case of Blake Castle, Sheriff Ronnie Boyd apparently wrote a letter to the commission to get this process started, but once again there's a question about what date everything took place. The letter from Sheriff Boyd is dated October twenty ninth. By the way, decertification sounds like it would be a
good thing. If an officer does something that violates ethics or something else that would compromise their integrity, there is a remedy, but officers are only decertified after they are fired or quit, and even though they may be temporarily barred from working in law enforcement, in some cases they can be recertified. A big problem in Taylor Barksdale's case, in my opinion, but also in Arkansas in general, is transparency. There is a lack of transparency in everything, including the
desertification process. Again because according to the Arkansas Advocate, Arkansas is one of only fifteen states that keep the identities of officers private. Now they claim that that's to protect the identity of undercover officers. But a lot of critics say this is just not valid. First of all, undercover officers don't normally use their real names. Also, other states find ways to provide names that does not compromise officer safety.
So why are police officers decertified? Well, usually they go up for decertifications when they're involved in a situation that involves ethical violations, something that means that they no longer have the trust of the public or of their department. For example, in twenty fifteen, a detective retired from the Saline County Sheriff's office after being accused of using racist remarks while in duty, and in that case, the commission voted to let that officer keep their certification even though
he'd been fired. In another case I read about, decertification was requested when a police supervisor found out that two officers were having an appropriate relationship I believe because they were married to other people.
And then lied about it.
According to NPR, these types of administrative panels have voted to decertify officers for things like failing to respond to nine to one one calls and lying about excessive force. These things can end up going to trial because the commission that decertifies officers does ask the police department for evidence. That could be a good thing, but in practice, a lot of times it doesn't go to trial. The officers end up either not being decertified or moving around and
getting a job somewhere else. Sheriff Ronnie Boyd rightly pointed out they were seriously understaffed in Madison County. That's a problem all around Arkansas and all around the country. The Arkansas Advocates started asking questions. They started working with other news organizations to compile certification data, at least they tried to. They wanted to track what they call wandering officers, officers who were fired and then quietly go to work somewhere else.
In twenty twenty two, a video of a suspect being beaten in northwest Arkansas went viral. Now, according to the Advocate, two officers were arrested on federal charges related to that arrest. One of them has gone back to work for the police department he was working for before in Mulberry. In another example, one officer was convicted of negligent homicide. That officer went on to another town and became the police chief.
I really don't understand the need for secrecy here. I mean members of the public are able to check people's licenses for everything these days, from private investigators to doctors, all kinds of medical licenses, even things like licenses to operate in nails salon.
All these things are public record.
So why aren't the names of people who literally make life or death decisions for.
The community publicly available?
Ellen Creth reported in the Madison County Record that the Arkansas Division on Law Enforcement Standards and Training had received a letter that was dated October twenty ninth from Madison County Sheriff Ronnie Boyd. This was the letter where he explained why he wanted blake Castle to be decertified. But again, the timings have been hard to verify because the paper reported that on November fifteenth, someone from the agency emailed Ronnie Boyd. They asked him to fill out a desertification
form online and to send through evidence. Then, the paper said that Sheriff Boyd told them that he filled out the online form and sent back the evidence they were asking for. On November nineteenth, the Madison County Record talked to Sheriff Boyd. The sheriff said, quote the desertification process is new to him, and he thought the October twenty ninth letter would start the process end quote. Apparently they
asked for evidence. Sheriff Boyd sent them letters from blake Castle's disciplinary files, a call log, and blake Castle's AVL data. Sheriff Boyd wrote in his letter, quote, although I think mister Hassell learned his lesson for not responding in the first place and lying about it, I believe the public's trust will forever be eroded by this incident of failing to protect life, which is a fundamental duty as outlined
in our Code of Ethics end quote. So Sheriff Boyd wrote right there in his own letter that blake Castle lied. The newspaper asked blake Castle for comment, and blake Castle actually issued his own statement to the Madison County Record. He said he was in the area where Taylor Barksdale's remains were found. He said that at the time of the nine to one one call, he was quote work
king a very high priority investigation end quote. His statement also read quote due to my past experience of false nine one one calls at that location and vagueness of the call, it was not determined to be a high priority at that time end quote.
We took a look.
At some of the dispatch reports and it turns out there were two recent calls involving disturbances that were made from the area of Madison twenty five thirty five. One was on March twenty first, the report was about neighbor trouble. On April tenth, another disturbance was reported. So that's only two calls several months before August fifth. Two calls months before is objectively not a lot of calls, And honestly, even if there were frequent calls from that area, that's
part of the job. Obviously, some areas are going to be more high crime than others or receive more calls for police assistance than others. That's the nature of the job. But let's go back to blake Castle's other claim, because, again according to the letter that Sheriff Ronnie Boyd wrote, which we did a FOY request for regarding his termination, blake Castle claimed that he had just been out to that area thirty minutes or an hour before the nine
to one one call was made. We did FOY requests for blake Castle's disciplinary file, but our requests were denied. We did get the AVL data, and the AVL data map shows that blake Castle's vehicle was at two locations on the night of August fifth. One of them was in an area by the Huntsville Airport where I'm told that law enforcement has a place to refuel the vehicles. The other is the Madison County Sheriff's Department. AVL data
shows that that vehicle was parked there all night. So if blake Castle said that he was at the location of the nine to one one call anytime on the night of the fourth to the fifth, his AVL data shows that's not true. There's something else. A quote from
Sheriff Foyd's letter to the Commission director. It read quote when Deputy Hassele was questioned about the incident the following day, he did admit to not responding and was counseled on the importance of answering calls and not letting past incidents cloud present events end quote. Boyd also wrote, quote everything is pointing to that timeframe as most likely being the last time that the female was alive, and that she was the person who had have been yelling for help.
End quote.
We did a foyer request, and we obtained the statement related to blake Castle's termination. It was a typed letter dated August fifth, and it talked about how Drew Scott gave blake Castle verbal counseling, basically a verbal warning, because blake admitted to Drew Scott that he didn't go to
the nine one one call. But as I mentioned before, there was a handwritten part of the letter, a date had been crossed out and the date August fifth had been written in the Madison County Record requested the original letter without the correction, and when they got it back, the original date was August sixth. So the newspaper tried
to talk to Sheriff Boyd about that discrepancy. He said that blake Castle and Drew Scott had talked on August fifth, But then he said a few days later he remembered that he Sheriff Foyd, had waited until the sixth to figure out how to deal with all this. So Sheriff Boyd said he asked Drew Scott to change the date of that letter, to cross out the sixth and write in August fifth. Now, again, this seems like a small detail, but if the police are not being forthcoming, with minor details.
It naturally leads family members and others in the community to wonder what else could they be hiding or leaving out of this narrative. After this verbal counseling, blake Castle was allowed to continue at his job. On September ninth, Taylor's remains were found in the field near where the nine to one one call was made, and it was only after that, on September eleventh, two days later, when
Sheriff Boyd called blake Castle into his office. At that point, Sheriff Boyd told blake Castle that the woman whose remains they found, Taylor, was likely the victim who had been on the call that he had been dispatched to and failed to respond to.
The report reads quote.
I informed him that all signs were leading back to that night of the call that he failed to respond to and lied saying he did end quote.
The statement reads quote.
I advised Deputy Hassle just because he was out there then does not mean something was not happening at the time he had received the call. Deputy Hassle agreed he should have gone back out there and he did not.
End quote.
From that statement, it really makes it seem like blake Castle claimed that he had been at the location of the nine one one call earlier. We wanted to solve this mystery, so we went back again. We requested all of the AVL data from August fourth to August fifth and some other dates. We got back two hundred and fifty pages of data, and all of it showed that that vehicle. Blake Castle's vehicle was at the matt Wison
County Sheriff's Department all night. So unless Deputy Housel went out to that scene in another vehicle, he never responded to that call. Sheriff Boyd said that he waited until October twenty ninth to request the desertification because he wanted
to be absolutely sure about what he was doing. The desertification process was put through on November nineteenth, after The Madison County Record ran multiple articles and filed multiple freedom of information requests, and after this podcast aired two episodes on Taylor's case and also filed multiple freedom of information requests. We're still trying to find people who saw Taylor Barksdale
in the last days of her life. The Madison County Sheriff's Department has said that this is an active investigation. That they are out there questioning people and trying to find out who killed Taylor. There are a lot of pieces of evidence that they're still waiting on. Em They
say they still have not received the autopsy report. Taylor's aunt has said that Sheriff Ronnie Boyd has not reached out to the Barksdale family since September, which has been frustrating, and honestly, it's still difficult to tell in what capacity the Arkansas State Police are involved. We've been told the Madison County Sheriff's Office is the lead investigative agency and that the Arkansas State Police are assisting. I don't know
exactly what that means. I do know multiple people have told me that when they contacted the ASP, they were directed back. They were told to contact the Madison County Sheriff's Office. Sheriff Boyd says the police are actively investigating leads. I want to say, I'm sure that's true. I understand them not wanting to make certain elements of the investigation public. However, there's a big difference between leaking information that could be
harmful to the case and public transparency. I think the latter is extremely important when it comes to building trust between law enforcement and the community. Sheriff Boyd also told the Madison County Record something that I think is actually pretty wild. He said, quote, I'm not going to correct
that information. I'm just not going to comment on what's true and what's not end quote, which does not seem to be the right approach to take in my opinion, if you're trying to build trust with a murder victim's family or with the public. Sheriff Boyd told the newspaper that he had seen so much in correct reporting he
was afraid to say anything anymore. But if he wants accurate information to be disseminated in the media, surely he should be informing the media and the public what's going on, keeping them updated, because remember, there is a killer on the loose.
People are terrified.
The sheriff, in my opinion, needs to reassure the public and build trust. After speaking to Deputy Hassle on September eleventh, Sheriff Boyd offered him to choices. He could resign or be fired. Blake Castle chose to resign. I want to go back to the statement that Deputy blake Castle gave to the Madison County Record because he told the record, quote, I was physically at the location of concern twice on that night, just prior to the nine one one call.
There were no signs of anyone being there.
Residents at that location were known to be off their medication and not in their proper states of mind.
End quote.
In addition to the fact that his AVL data shows that he was never in that location, which, if correct, would suggest that he lied again, this statement by Blake Castle makes things much worse in my opinion, because he seemed to be saying he made the decision to blow off the nine to one one call because of false nine one one calls in the past. Dispatch reports do not show multiple nine one one calls from that location. He said he was working a high priority investigation that night,
presumably from his desk at the Sheriff's office. What high priority investigation was he working on. We have no idea and the police aren't saying. Also, Blake Hassel is not a doctor. He has no idea who has prescribed what medications, if any, that they're on or when they're off them. Also, I cannot imagine a more insensitive way to view vulnerable people. If someone is having mental health challenges that would make them more vulnerable, not less.
The Barksdale family.
Told the newspaper, quote, the family would like for the public to know that, no matter whether a resident was on or off their medication, there is no excuse for a nine to one one call reporting a woman screaming for help to be ignored. For Hasel to assume it was a resident off their medication is asinine. We as a family choose to remember the good times we shared
with Taylor. Just because she had struggles does not give a deputy the right to not do his job, which led to her being taken away from us too soon.
End quote.
Sheriff Ronnie Boyd on social media has written, of course Blake Castle should have responded to the nine one one call.
He wrote, quote, I.
Want to make absolutely clear that the deputy should have responded when he received a call where someone was screaming for help. That is law enforcement's number one duty and there absolutely is no excuse for that end quote. But other statements that I've read seem to be much more equivocal, and in my opinion, he's continuing to be defensive when he's asked about confirming the most basic facts about the case. We are going to start a new case next week,
but we are going to keep going. We're going to keep following Taylor's case. I keep thinking about Taylor. Taylor Barksdale was out there alone for weeks. We know that she got into a big argument with someone from the Dispatch report that shows she was outside a home in Huntsville on July twentieth. After that, she didn't go back to her ex boyfriend's residence. She was off and on with friends. Some of her clothing was found scattered in the Big Clifty area, and somehow she ended up in Kingston.
Two of the men she was seen with.
B one and B two hung around in the area near where the nine to one one call was placed. One of them lived there. We don't know if law enforcement has been back to question these men or the other man whose camper has been moved from that area. We also still have a lot of unanswered questions about Jason Lierrel's case.
Have police questioned.
The guy who's home Jason was last believed to be at in Huntsville, What happened to Jason's clothing that was found there, has it been tested? And could there be other deaths that are connected to these cases. So far, there are a lot of rumors but no hard evidence, but there do seem to be a lot of mysterious deaths in Madison County. I know that a lot of people are going home for the holidays this week, and I've been thinking a lot about people who may be
disenfranchised or vulnerable. It's sometimes easy for people to think of people who may be using drugs or who aren't in the best situations as separate from everyone else, but they're not. So many people in this world are one paycheck away from being homeless, or one traumatic event away from turning to drugs.
We are all connected.
Sheriff Boyd wrote something else in his statement on social media.
It read quote, if.
We hear, we know somebody is actually wanting help, we need to respond.
That's all there is to it. End quote.
Every single one of us has been vulnerable at one time or another in our lives. If someone is screaming in a dark field, imagine what would you want someone to do if that was your family member. I actually would have worded the Sheriff's statement differently. If someone needs help, they need to respond. In the meantime, my way of helping people in need is to keep asking questions and trying to get answers, and to keep pushing for more
transparency and for justice for Taylor and Jason's families. I'm Katherine 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 Katherine Townsend and produced by Gabby Watts. Special thanks to Amy Tubbs for her research assistance. This episode was sound design and mixed but Noah Cammer. Our theme song is by Ben Sale. Executive producers are Virginia Prescott, Brandon Barr, and l. C.
Crowley.
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Interested in seeing documents and materials from this case, you can follow the show on Instagram at Helen gonepod. 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 at six seven eight seven four four six one four five.
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