7. Close Calls

Murder on Songbird Road is a production of iHeart Podcasts. Previously on Murder on Songbird Road. I am Jade's great aunt. That's Brenda, the sister of Sheila Beasley, who is Mike's mother and Jade's paternal grandmother.

My name is Bailey.

Jade's father, Michael is my first cousin.

When you first heard that it was Julie, was there part of your mind that was like, no way, or was there part of your mind where you're like that totally makes sense.

My personal opinion is that sometimes people snap.

We believe the jealousy came in, and we believe she snapped.

A family member owns a pagan store in Salem.

They believe in witchery, witchcraft.

There ain't no good witch. That pagan relative of Julie's Brenda is referencing is actually her cousin NICKI.

Me and my mom run a witchcraft shop.

We are both practicing pagan's. I don't understand how it has anything to do with the trial.

The people down there associate witchcraft with something evil, so they're trying to associate evil with Julie.

On Lauren Brad Pacheco and this is murder on Songbird Road. At the press conference announcing Jade Beasley's murder and Julia Beverly's arrest, former Williamson County State's Attorney Brandon Zenatti claimed Beverly's claim of having encountered an armed assailant clad and all black was a fabrication.

The suspect gave law enforcement an initial report that an unidentified male ran for the residence upon her arriving home. She said that she left the residence with Jade alone in the home for a short time and return home to find an unidentified male fleeing. The investigation has proven the story to be false.

In her nine one one call, Beverly is quite specific about what the intruder was wearing.

Could you tell that color sphereed he was wearing?

He was a little all black, okay? And how they exited.

When that person left?

Did they leave in a vehicle or on put But she was quite unsure where they took off running? Which way did they go?

It ran out.

Julia Beverly's nine one one call wasn't the only one of interest on the day of Jade's murder. We've been told of two other calls, one specifically mentioned by Renee in a previous episode, and this call was made at ten thirty for a.

Suspicious person and no way, yes, this is at ten thirty. He was out there belligerent talking about harming somebody, cussing and carrying on, and somebody called the cops on him and then VYG Go respond and they pretty much got the name information sent him on his way. He's wearing a black hoodie and duck pants.

For reasons we'll explain shortly. Renee High Tower and Julia Beverly supporters also believe there was another call, one made by a neighbor on Songbird Road. My efforts to trace this specific call began in January of twenty twenty four

Her story has always been like she comes into the house, she has the scrap with the dude, she goes in to go try to get the gun, So she would have had no idea which way this guy would have run. I mean, what I'm saying is to me, it's important if we can find out if in fact they had sent officers out to that area based on the other call saying a dude just ran through my backyard and all black.

Renee High Tower first heard chatter regarding the existence of such a call from multiple sources, including the private investigator she hired after the murder.

It's weird because like with my first investigator, he was telling on these things are going on the owns gun range and this is where all the marine officers were going to cheat, and.

He's just listening.

Here's that private investigator, Terry Newman.

Renee hired me as an investigator to see if I could find anything that didn't seem right, and there was plenty of stuff that wasn't right. As I was digging around, I overheard a group of law enforcement talking about it. Of course, that was a thing, you know, that was a pretty big deal, a pretty gruesome deal. So there was a lot of talk. Maybe some of it was correct, maybe some of it wasn't. Maybe somebody was talking and just wanted to be that guy that knew more than the other guy.

But I did.

Overhear one of the officers state to another couple officers that we had a nine to one one call before that call. What struck me is this description of whoever called in. They looking for a person in a dark hoodie and dark pants could be sweatpants, could just be dark pants running through suspiciously running through backyards, which kind of was the description of what Julie gave of her attacker.

Wh I immediately tell Theen's second share there's supposed to be another call.

The subpoena the ninem on one calls. It's not in the but Renee claims the call did come up again though, when she was seated with Julie's defense attorney Terestin, right before we were prepping for trial.

I was in Theen's office talking to her and she mentioned she's going through the notes really quick, and she said something about another ninmal one call and I'm like, wait, what go back? I said, what do you mean another call, because you told me you didn't have another call before, and she said, well, it was rewire to a non emergency call. But this is a call where somebody said they've seen somebody running through the yard wearing a black hoodie and dark pants and a sche mask, mind you,

Another source regarding that elusive call comes from a woman named Billy Joe. She's a longtime acquaintance of Renee, who started assisting High Tower's efforts for Beverly after her own efforts to find her missing brother, one who struggled with addiction and homelessness, made her question the motivations and integrity of local law enforcement and the police.

They weren't very cooperative right off the bat did not want nothing to do with helping find my brother because my brother was an addict. I have another sister that gets pulled over. They told her that we need to quit looking for my brother. He's a menace to society and he's in the bottom of a river. So I went to the mayor about it because they weren't very cooperative.

Just to go back and revisit the initial comment that they didn't want to look for your brother because he was an addict. Having been to Mary and myself, addiction seems to be a pretty big problem.

It is a very big problem here. Like I told you the other day, it's like a whole nother city at night here in Mary.

This is of note because of the rumors Bob and I have heard from the start that Jade's murder was actually tied to drugs, in particular meth, because of the irrational brutality involved. We'll further explore this theory later. Back to Billy Joe, what drew you initially to Julie's case?

Just dealing with the mary And Police Department over my brother missing. It questioned a lot of things and Julie's story. Knowing how small she is and talking to her, I just knew something wasn't that up and that was another res and I made sure I went and set through trial because I wanted to hear the facts.

Billy Joe attended every day of the trial, which is why she knows that two specific names that appear on the CAD reports Bob and I were viewing also appeared on the prosecution's witness list. A man named Aaron Luton, who will get into in a bit, and another man named Kenny Marks, also known as Butch. Butch was living in the house next to Beverly's when the murder occurred. Billy Joe believes he made that second call because of

So my sister seventy dates a guy named Stephen and they worked at Reynolds's rouffine. I believe it's called It's Reynolds something. It's a construction They build buildings and things. And Stephen was taking him back and forth to work, and he started talking about it. He said there was a nine to one one call that there was a guy in a mask or a person in a mask running through the back yard at that time, and he made that call. He said, I made the nine to one one call.

What's interesting is the placement of the backyard of the property on Songbird Road where Marx was living, in addition to being immediately next to Beverly's.

Coreyley Roads the one behind side right.

So if you run through the back of Kenny Marx as you end up on Corey Leek aerial views and a simple drive by show Butcher's backyard would have been a direct path to Corey Leek Road, complete with a heavily wooded area and multiple ponds on the way, which would have been convenient places to toss a weapon. Why they wouldn't have searched those little ponds for a murder weapon is beyond wing.

To get Julie.

You know what I'm saying, Like there's nose for them not checking the ponds at all.

But connecting with Butch to verify that call would quickly become another rabbit hole. I do have his cell phone number, which I got through an anonymous source. That source was able to communicate with him, but apparently he is rather reluctant to talk about this. We'll be right back with Murder on Songbird Road. Now back to Murder on Songbird Road. We'd reached out to Butch multiple times and in multiple

Hey, all right, good, I should have warned my Hey, dudes, well, I mean the vans really.

Kind of the vest gives you a more affable paternal.

I don't know if that's better.

When I was thinking about my outfit for the day, I was thinking about straight up hoodie.

You know, it's like you want people to feel comfortable, right.

Clothing choices have been an ongoing source of sarcastic camaraderie between us since our initial trip to Marion. When Bob shared this critique and you implied that I don't blend.

I mean like a sword thumb you do, like you get that East Coast look to you, woman.

I don't know what to tell you.

I still remain unsure as to how to process that. Now back to Bob outside of Butcher's house on Songbird Road. Hopefully Butch is there and hopefully Butcher's willing to speak.

Yeah, I'm cautiously optimistic, as like a kind of an overstatement. I'm pessimistic, but I feel like if we can get past the gatekeeper of a sister, that we can get them talking.

We just need to get him.

Too the door.

Yeah, so I'll wait in the car, bring this with me. If you gesture, maybe not.

Well, yeah, if I gesture, can you get out of the car, because I'll ask him if they'd be willing to, you know, have us record them.

Oh he's going to the back door. I would go to the front.

What are you doing? Bob?

Always just looking okay, yeah, I mean there don't not trespassed signs pretty much everywhere. Knocking the door doesn't seem to be an answer. It is just about noon, so people could still be heading back from church. Doors opening, all right, and it is the sister that I spoke to. Don't see if Bob's having any better luck.

I didn't have to wait long for an answer. All right, Bob is coming back, and the sister was gesticulating a lot with her right hand, and I don't know if she was giving him directions or telling him where to go. I think we're about to find out she.

Was telling me where to go.

So I went up to the door, and we parked probably about fifty seventy five yards away from the property. Walk over there or hear a chainsaw going? I see that there's a gentleman in the back, probably about fifty yards back into their property with the chainsaw. It looks like he cut a tree down, and you know, I could see he's got the ear protection on. And I

I don't want to surprise the guy.

No, and then like Texas chainsaw massacre.

Or he has a piece on him, who knows he's not going to hear me coming. He didn't see me because I kind of like waved my arms a little bit.

He was pretty focused on what he was doing.

So I went up to the house, ranging the doorbell, take a couple of stuffs back, as I always do. I don't want to be all up in somebody's grill. Thirty seconds later, an older gal. I don't know what she looked.

Like when you tad, I recognize her immediately that I spoke to.

Yeah, so she was clearly surprised by my presence. I then introduced myself. I say his butcher. He says, well, that's him in the back saw on wood. She says, what do you want? I said, well, we're back again and we're investigating what happened over here with your neighbors. Like right away, she got very upset. You can see it in her face, you could hear it in her voice as well, she was agitated immediately. Well, she said, I don't want to talk about that. It's not something

The exact response to that question was quote, I don't know who that was. But it's interesting that she said I don't know who that was, right, she doesn't know who made the call, or she doesn't know who was running through the backyard. But if you look at the trajectory and you're running through that, you're going to end up on Corey Lee Road.

Which is the perfect route for somebody trying to get out that way, which is towards Marion, towards town.

You know, that's the direction you're going to have.

You know you're going to stay off the beaten path, especially if you're in the midst of trying to escape a murder scene.

You know, would makes sense that that's the way that you go.

Now you can see the little from our vantage point, you can see the pond right in front of us, right, I'm assuming that's it, in front of the big there.

Yeah.

Why that pond was not dredged is beyond me.

Man, pull forward, I want to see I want to see our guy.

All of this begs to question why Butch, who was on the prosecution's witness list but never called, seemed so reluctant to speak to anyone about what he did or did not see the day of Jade's murder. It's also interesting to note that the reports we were reading weren't Busch's first appearance in police files. In December of twenty eleven, Kenny E. Marx was arrested in Marion and charged with manufacturing meth and meth related child endangerment in addition to

So, when I was talking to him, he said to me, what about the camper in the woods? And I said, in what woods the camper where? And he said about a year ago. Me and your sister was into it, and I didn't have nowhere to stay, So I was sleeping in my car and I ran into Kenny March.

Wow, So there is basically like an abandoned camper in the wooded area.

Yeah, so I took it upon myself. Renee actually met me out there the other day, and there is definitely something out there. If you look directly behind here to the right, you can tell there's something there in big trees.

This blows my mind because if you think about it, this is the property that's adjacent to the murder scene, with multiple bodies of water, a heavily wooded area, and now what we're hearing a makeshift encampment for transient people and the police don't check it.

That's what I can't understand why they didn't look back there, why they didn't search any of that back there.

We'll revisit that later. Back to Bob and the mention of Butch on the CAD reports from the day of the murder.

Yeah, I mean it doesn't tell us much like it begs the question why is it in here?

And why is he on the prosecution's witness list?

Right and never called right? Well, it's the same with Aaron Luten. Aaron Luton's the other call that comes in.

Aaron Luton's name came up early and continues to come up in multiple interviews and very prominently on call records from the morning of Jade Beasley's murder. A bit past ten thirty am, a call comes in about a male subject who stormed out of his house screaming about killing someone.

Here's Bob and Luton is at least reported to be out on the street acting a fool, screaming and yelling, wearing a blacktop, wanting a blacktop, threatening to kill people, saying that he wants somebody to shoot him. When we first became privy to that call, were obviously pricked our ears up.

We're like, well, what's us.

We went to theme, We went to Julie's trial attorney and said, what's the deal with Luten?

Did she dig into this?

And theene says that she vetted it out and that her understanding was that Luton had been picked up because we had heard conflicting stories. Initially we had heard that he had been left out there acting a fool, and then and then later themes as well. What I saw from my discovery was that he was ultimately dropped off at the hospital.

But now reading through the call log's timeline, Mata and I had new questions and reason to revisit Aaron Luton's exact whereabouts during exact times on December fifth, twenty twenty.

So like I'm scrolling through, it's as an advisor, as a mail on the road, screaming and yelling, right, and that comes in at ten thirty seven on twelve five, So that's the day of and you know, the timing fits in terms of when things may have gone down there, Right, It's a little early for kind of our purposes in terms of what we think things may have gone down, But I mean it begs the question if if this is the beginning of the episode with.

Aaron Luton in it, it just keeps going.

Which is, we're this interesting thing that I noticed in here, because when we get down to here, So at ten fifty six, received another call on erin that he's screaming at groups of people to come shoot him. So that's a full twenty minutes after the first call. Okay, And then at ten point fifty eight it says one male detained and then we get down here, doesn't say what they're doing with them anywhere as I'm kind of reading through, whoever took them into custody is now transporting them to

Kin a new call. So now we're at.

Eleven nineteen get this new call, So Marian Police Department at eleven nineteen forty three unit I'm thirteen Aaron Luton, Dean created, all right, and then you've got twelve thirty seven event cleared by recheck, no active units.

This is where it got a little weird to me.

So it says that at sixteen eleven comments changed to mail take into Heartland for evaluation, but change from where.

And look at that time period, right.

Huge gap in time.

Yeah, it puts us at four eleven says that he's taken to the hospital. So does that mean that this comment is changed or is that when the event happened.

And does that mean they have him in custody for hours or does that mean that I don't know. So that window if they last were with him at eleven nineteen, and then it's not clear as to whether or not they left him right, but where was he from eleven nineteen until four o'clock? And if he were in that state and left, that's the same timeline.

That would fit with the murder. Right when this episode was being edited, I was still awaiting response from Williamson County on the multiple requests I'd made for information regarding Luton. He was, however, on the radar of both Beverly's defense and the prosecution. Here's what Renee was told happened.

Cindy Gatman, the lead investigator on this, had him at the station questioning him, and she said her first question to him was do you know anything about the child that was murdered out in the country, And his response to that question was which one s what?

Yes?

And he has a rap sheet that includes burglary, robbery, assault, and domestic battery. At the time of this episode's release, Luton was incarcerated, having been sentenced to eleven years in December of twenty twenty one for attempting to disarma an officer who'd responded to a domestic violence call. I've attempted to email Aaron Luton in prison multiple times. He's only responded once with a subject line pemp that's pimp, with the attached message what up, bro?

I would killed to get into talk to this guy.

I don't know when he was at the hospital because if Cindy Gaman was at the house, and that's around because Julie was still at the house of this time. When was he at the police station?

When did you pick him up? If that were true, why would he have been brought in for questioning? And I've asked for that video. As I was finishing this episode, I received documents that state Luton was in an ambulance at eleven eight am on the day of the murder, arriving at the hospital at eleven twenty six am, ultimately being discharged at nine thirty eight pm, which rules him

Where did she get found?

Yeah?

Yeah, which who's murdered?

Where was she in?

Huh?

Was she in something?

What do you mean both?

I'm just saying, I'm just I've been in a one a year ago, twenty a year ago. Okay, just I'll.

Let you guys speak. Geitman doesn't appear to pursue that line of questioning. Still, why was Luton Mike Butch on the prosecution's witness list but never called to testify? Murder and Songbird Road will continue after the break Here again is Murder on Songbird Road? Butch and Aaron aside, we had other pressing questions. For instance, the dispatch events summary notes that three different officers Welgi, Sloane, and Ward, administered CPR to Jade Beasley at the scene, all before ems arrived.

Zanami says police and EMTs arrived Saturday, shortly after the ninety one one.

Call was made.

When they got there, they found Beasley with multiple stab wounds, and Beasley later died at the scene.

So Jade Beasley died more than two hours after the prosecution alleged Julia Beverly killed her. Then there's this the adjacent property, wood, small bodies of water, and known transient activity. Why wasn't this area searched or investigated? And why weren't any other potential suspects actually considered.

He said that she left the residence with Jade alone in the home for a short time and return home to find an unidentified male fleeing. The investigation has proven this story to be false, But did it.

These questions only added to the larger issues we'd already uncovered tunnel vision, a lack of presumption of innocence, and even allegations of witchcraft, none of which the prosecution tied to motive or concrete evidence. All of this was weighing on my mind as I prepared to make this introduction. Jason Flom Bob Mada, Bob j Nice to meet you.

Man.

Jason Flamm is a founding board member of The Innocence Project and co host and creator of the Wrongful Conviction podcast series, which is credited with helping to free nearly two dozen people. It's also inspired legislators in three different states that we know of to change laws to make

I've been a big admirer of what you do out there as a criminal defense guy for a long time.

Man.

I appreciate the fact that you could have probably done anything that you wanted with your life after your career, and then you chose to do this. Hits me right in all the fields. So I was pretty excited to meet you.

Man.

Part of it is trying to make your job and people that do the same type of work that you do, to make your job a little easier and tip to scales of justice somewhere closer instead of being ninety ten, like making at least, you know, somewhat of a fairer fight.

Jason and I met years ago while I was working on a podcast called Murder in Oregon. Because Wrongful Conviction was and still is one of my favorite podcasts. I picked up a freelance television shoot in New York City just to meet him, not knowing he was binging Murder and Oregon at the time. We've been friends since. Jason Flohm brings a pragmatic and brutally honest take to our justice system.

It's amazing how in America, the land of the free right, it's the most incarcerated nation in the history of the world. Not only do we have twenty five percent of the world's prison population, but we have thirty three percent of the world's female prison population. And I would even go so far as to say that we reserve the worst treatment. There's no lack of horror stories taking place right this very minute. In jails and prisons all over the country,

I'd started sending flown background and updates on Beverly's case even before we started digging in.

I can't even think about this case without thinking about another Julie from Illinois whose son was murdered, who got blamed for it. Right with Julie Ray I'm talking about, right, who is one of my favorite human beings and just an absolutely remarkable human being. And then there's Michelle Murphy. And you know, you have these cases where these women kid even Melissa Lucio, right, any of these ones where the woman's baby or child is taken from them in

For those not familiar with these high profile cases of mothers wrongfully convicted of murdering their own children will link to their wrongful conviction episodes in the show description.

And they don't even have a moment to grieve, right, because they're taken to the police station. Because here's the other theme. They're the ones who found the body, right, or they're the ones who are approximate to it. So, you know, lazy policing if that's maybe.

That investigating and prosecuting.

Yeah, it's just like, well, you've found the body. You're good for it, right, It's good enough, it's close enough. And so I don't know what to tell somebody. Somebody's listening. They're like, well, what if I find about it? What should I do? I don't know, go to Brazil.

Unless you want to be the guy.

It's really bad. But I mean you kind of have to call it in. I mean, what are you going to like? It's really there's no good answer there. But you know, keep track of your movements and you know, and call and get a lawyer quick, because you know, everyone thinks I shouldn't get lawyercause it makes me look like I might be guilty. But no, you need to get a lawyer because it makes you look smart.

Julie didn't lawyer up.

Not only was she the one to call it in, she was the last one to see Jade alive. So she had the double whammy where you're automatically the person you're it, you know, like they're not doing any work beyond that.

And it's exactly what happened to her.

And they played heavily into the evil stepmother dynamic on this, and race was definitely an issue. We went to Marion, and I mean it is a lily white town.

I didn't see one black person the entire time I was there, except at the hotel.

And aside, Marian is still more diverse than the all white jury that found Beverly guilty. Amidst much racially charged chatter on social media and local sites before, during, and after her trial, post like this one from a Marian resident who goes by Chucky quote a black girl killed her, so BLM, which stands for Black Lives Matter, and its idiot followers are doing anything they can to screw the investigation. Linda, who appears to be a white haired grandma from nearby Buckner, Illinois,

I mean, the whole thing is so nuts and it's like it also reminds me a little bit of the Christine Bunch case right where the prosecutor in that case, Ashley said to the jury and she was convicted of murdering her her only child, four year old, we acknowledge that we don't have a motive, but that shouldn't prevent you. I'm paraphrasing, right, but he said, we admitted we don't have a motive, but that shouldn't prevent you the jury from convicting, and sure enough they did. So this one's

Be, Jason, You have no idea? How spot on that is because the argument from the prosecution was that they couldn't test everything you know, they never presented a motive and ultimately they didn't really have any concrete physical evidence. Yeah, and Julie, very much like all of the red flag hallmarks of a wrongful conviction. There was an instant presumption of guilt. There was tunnel vision, there was trial in

When the forces of prosecution and the whole justice system police prosecution in this case, to judge all of these people when they sort of conspire may not be the right word, but let's use that for lack of a better one. To railroad somebody.

They are literally acting.

In concert in service of the person who actually committed the crime, because the single best thing that can happen to that person is that somebody else gets convicted and everybody stops looking for them. Right, It's like, hey, you hit the jackpot, buddy, you got away with it. Bingo. We have this adversarial system right where the prosecution's trying to win and the defense is trying to defend their client.

With will lay all of that out going forward, but others can and did make the case against Beverly based on additional back facts we were about to dissect while going through the trial transcripts.

The lies, to me were the biggest problem because as soon as you start lying the law.

Enforcement and they figure it out.

Immediately, you're done. In their minds, there's no reason to lie about anything other than the fact that you didn't and you're trying to cover your tracks.

On the next Murder on Songbird Road access to the initial interrogation video and DNA collection raises new concerns.

The DNA on the arm, which to me was probably the smoking gun in this case, and criticism there was a lot of red flags.

Let me say that if I was training here, I would have stopped.

Me while Julie's friends way in on the delay in calling nine one one. I can't even imagine how she even got the phone to call. Murder on Songbird Road is a production of iHeart Podcasts. Our executive producers are Taylor Chacogne and Lauren Bright Pacheco. Research writing and hosting by Lauren Bright Pacheco. Investigative reporting by Bob Matta and Lauren Bright Pacheco. Editing, sound design and original music by Evan Tyre and Taylor Chicoine. Additional music by Asher Kurtz.