A warning.
This episode contains depictions of violence and conversations about suicide that may be disturbing and triggering for some listeners. If you are struggling with suicidal thoughts, please fast forward to the end of this episode to find out where help is available.
Who was Byron's alibi?
Kelly Moffitt is his alibi, Debbie Moffatt is his alibi. Bram Nisley is his alibi. Tara McDowell is his alibi. Evlyn Case's mom is his alibi.
Byron Case's attorney, Brian Russell, is naming all of the people who he says can verify Byron's whereabouts after Anastasia supposedly got out of Justin's car at Truman Road and the I four thirty.
Five, so Don Rand is an alibi witness, the two undisclosed witnesses at the other gas station are his alibi witnesses, and there his alibi be because Anastasia was alive when she got out of that car at Truman Rode in I four thirty five, he was somewhere else the entire rest of the night and has people to place him somewhere else the entire rest of the night. If she got out of the car. Byron didn't do it.
I'm Leah Rothman, this is the real killer. Episode eight? What about Bob, Anastasia, Justin, Byron, and Kelly go out that fateful night, Anastasia ends up dead. Justin commits suicide. That leaves just Kelly and Byron. If we rule out a stranger killing, which was what Byron's did, defense attorney offered up as a possibility a trial, what makes the
most sense that Byron or someone else did it? Attorney Brian Russell says he and the team believe they have uncovered some information that could point to the someone else.
The other thing about Byron's case that really made me go I don't think Byron did it is when I was reading a report from Deputy Eperson that he wrote the day after Anastasia was found. And this is a four page handwritten report, which police don't usually take the time to do a four page handwritten report unless it's something important.
Remember, Deputy David Epperson is the first person to find Anastasia's body at Lincoln Cemetery at three forty four am on October twenty third, nineteen ninety seven. The next day, he comes into contact with Anastasia's dad, Bob Whitbule's Fugen, and he writes a report about it.
Deputy Eperson records an interaction that he had with Bob Whipple's Fugen where at a different cemetery, a cemetery called Highland Cemetery, and mister Whipples Fugen shows up there and says sees them and says, oh, I'm looking for Lincoln Cemetery. I'm the father of the victim that was found there. I just want to be close to where she was found,
which makes sense if you're a grieving father. But he keeps asking Eperson if the crime scene looked like it was tampered with, can you show me where a body was found so I can be close to it. Eperson politely tells him, well, I can't share that information with you, but you should talk to the detectives if you want that information. He says, can you tell me where Lincoln Cemetery is. I've never been to Lincoln Cemetery before you.
So Epperson gives mister Whipples Fugen directions to Lincoln Cemetery and then he uh follows him there a couple minutes later, and when Eperson finds mister Whipples Fugen and Lincoln Cemetery. He finds mister Whipples Fugen standing in the exact spot where Eperson found Anastasia's body without anyone telling him where her body was. And it was in that moment there I was just like, well, Byron didn't do this.
I'm going to read from some of the report Deputy Eperson wrote on October twenty fourth, at seven am, the day after Anastasia was found murdered. He writes that he and two other deputies were sitting at the entrance to Highland Cemetery. Yes, there's a third cemetery in the area. While sitting there, Eperson writes that Bob Whipples Fugen pulled up in a quote blue four door Chevrolet Corsica with damage to the front quarter panel on the driver's side.
He writes that Bob approached and said he was quote the father of the murder victim found in Lincoln Cemetery and he wanted to know if Highland Cemetery was Lincoln Cemetery. Bob tells Eperson he's never been to Lincoln Cemetery. Eperson tells Bob they're not the same, and he gives him directions there. Bob then requests Eperson take him to the place where the body of his daughter was found. Eperson tells him he can't do that and that he should
contact the detective unit for a possible escort. Bob then starts talking about the events prior to Anastasia's death. Bob tells Eperson that his daughter had been emotionally disturbed for the last several months and talked of suicide, but had never acted on it. He describes his daughter as quote frisky, and that she would never have been killed without a struggle, and that she would die before ever letting anyone mess with her. Bob states that her boyfriend was not violent
and he didn't believe he would kill her. Bob goes on to tell Eperson that he had last spoken with the boyfriend the night of October twenty second, around ten pm. The boyfriend had told Bob he and Anastasia had been arguing. She got out of the car at the stoplight at Truman Road and the I four thirty five and began walking.
The boyfriend left her and went home. Epson writes that mister Whitbeles Fuchen believed quote a stranger had picked her up and told her that they would go to an interesting place, a cemetery, and after getting to the cemetery, the stranger shot her. Eperson notes that mister Whitbles Fugen kept his composure through the conversation and continued making references to the crime scene, stating quote, I hope they got
all of the evidence and did not miss something. According to Epperson, Bob then says he's going to go to Lincoln Cemetery and probably just quote walk the cemetery with his hand on the wall, thinking about my daughter. About two minutes after he leaves, Eperson and the other deputies decide to go to Lincoln Cemetery to check on Bob's
well being. When they arrive, Eperson writes, quote, upon approaching the circle drive, I observed mister Whipple's Fugen to be standing with his hands on his hips, standing directly over the exact location where I had found Anastasia's body on ten twenty three, ninety seven. Mister whipples Fugen was looking at the ground for approximately five seconds before turning around
and seeing me. Eperson goes on to write quote, upon seeing me, he appeared startled and turned around, walking very quickly towards my police vehicle with his left hand talked firmly in his pocket. Mister whipples Fugen approached me and asked, quote, am I close? Eperson writes, referring to where the body was found. Eperson details quote I again advised mister whipples Fugen that he should come intact the detective unit for specific information, and he spontaneously stated, what are you guys
doing following me? I'm not the bad guy. You guys should be out looking for the bad guy exclamation point. Here's Sean O'Brien, one of Byron's attorneys, you.
Know, and this is like the day after all of the you know, activity around the crime scene. The crime scene tape is down, all that's been removed, but he's right there on the exact spot, and so, you know, that's really suspicious, and nobody.
Here's Byron's attorney, Nicole Gordon. It's clear, and that report that Eperson is suspicious Abob should have been you know, fertile ground for kil Gore, but it just wasn't. Although Eperson and one other deputy write reports about this interaction with Bob, it seems Sergeant Gary Kilgore does nothing with it, okay, let's first talk about Bob's Remember at the scene, investigators discovered paint chips and broken glass on a tree not
far from where Anastasia's body was found. Here's Sean again.
Epperson notes in his report that he saw Bob's car had damage to the front quarter panel, so he made a note of that, of course he's aware of. He also worked the crime scene.
Any broken glass on Bob's.
He didn't make a note of broken glass, about headlight glass or anything, so that we don't know, and nobody ever followed up the paint chips that were on the tree. Those have been lost we were looking for.
Here's investigator Quinn O'Brien, also on Byron's team.
He's at the scene. The deputies who picked up the paint chips in the autoglass said that the damage to the tree looked fresh because everything was on top of the grass, and you know, the paint was still on the tree.
Were there any reports that noted what the paint chips were.
We were trying to find that for some reason. I want to say that it's blue, but I don't know. I know that they excluded Justin's car as having contributed to the paint ships.
Justin's car was processed inside and out. I'm going to read from the report written about that quote. A scrape was present on the front passenger bumper. It was related that this scrape occurred before this homicide. A light coating of soil was present on the tires. This coating was too light for collection. No accumulation of soil was observed in any of the wheel wells. No obvious blood was observed on the inside or outside of this vehicle. Luminol
was sprayed on the interior of this vehicle. No significant activity with the luminol was observed indicative of the absence of blood. It's noted that Sergeant Kilgore presented photographs of tire tracks at the scene. They were compared to the tires on Justin's vehicle.
Quote.
The tires on this vehicle did not match the tracks in the photographs. When it comes to Byron's car, I don't have any documentation that says it was processed and or rolled out. Remember, there are conflicting reports of where his car was that night. It might have been in a shop, or it might have been parked at his mom's. But because Bob took photos of Byron's car. I can tell you it was white and it had a big
dent in the front bumper, no broken headlight glass. Though you can see photos of Byron's car on the Real Killer Podcast Instagram page, Bob's car was never examined. Okay, going back to Deputy Eperson's report, because Bob has more to say that day. Bob tells Eperson at eleven thirty the night of October twenty second, while he was out looking for Anastasia, he stopped at the gates of Mount Washington Cemetery. Remember that's where Anastasia was dropped off to
meet Justin. Bob tells Eperson that the gate was locked, and he pondered for a moment, hopping the fence to go into the cemetery to search for his daughter because he quote, since she was in real danger at that time. Bob says he heard a loud gunshot, possibly from a large caliber rifle, and he immediately turned in the direction of the Cimarron apartments, believing the noise came from that direction.
Eperson writes, quote mister Whipplesfugen stated at that time he clapped his hands together and yelled boom, there goes the neighborhood. Mister Whipplesfugen then stated, at that time, I knew my daughter was dead. Bob tells Eperson that he then began driving back and forth on Truman Road searching for his daughter,
but never checked cemetery. Epperson continues to write, quote, I observed mister Whipplesfugen's demeanor to change when he began talking about the gunshot and described his actions upon hearing the gunshot. He appeared to switch from grieving parent to excite it and colorful describing in detail his emotion upon hearing the gunshot. Here's Brian again about it.
He talks about hearing a gunshot and thinking I just knew my daughter was dead at that point, and the Cimarron apartments.
He mentions the Cimarron.
Correct, he doesn't mention Lincoln Cemetery, but if you put so, he was when he claims that when he heard this thing that sounded like a gun shot, he was at the south gate to Mount Washington Cemetery and he heard it coming from the direction of the Cimarin apartments. So you know, when you look at it on a map kind of you know, if he heard a gunshot from that direction. Lincoln said pemetary is fair game, and hearing that.
I put a map of the area on the Real Killer podcast on Instagram so you can see where Mount Washington Cemetery is in relation to Lincoln Cemetery and the Cimarron apartments. So Bob says, in that moment he hears the gunshot, he feels he just heard the shot that killed his daughter Anastasia. But that's at eleven thirty pm. Kelly says Byron killed Anastasia sometime before nine PM, which seems to check out because Kelly is home in time
for her curfew around nine nine thirty. Unfortunately, we don't know Anastasia's time of death. I reach out to doctor Thomas Young, the medical examiner who conducted the autopsy. First he declines to be interviewed. Then I write him again and ask if there's any way to determine even a window of time for Anastasia's death.
He writes back, quote.
Time of death to terminations only work in detective fiction. But I have a follow up question for doctor Young because in his autopsy report he said that Anastasia's corneas were clear, So I write asking him if her clear corneas can tell us anything about the time of death.
Doctor Young never responds to that question. In my very simple Google search of this, I find articles, including one from the National Institutes of Health that says within two to three hours after someone dies, the corneas start to get cloudy. If the eyes are open, the clouding happens much faster than if the eyes are closed. Based on the crime scene photos, Anastasia's left eye was open, her
right eye was closed. So if Anastasia's corneas were clear when the autopsy was performed, which was around nine thirty am, then what does that mean in terms of when she was killed. Could Bob have heard the shot that killed Anastasia at eleven thirty pm or did she die sometime before nine pm? When Bob says that he hears a gunshot, does he go toward it?
I believe he says he drove up and down Truman Road after hearing that, which means he would have driven past one of the entrances to Lincoln Cemetery, the very entrance that Kelly later says they used to go into Lincoln Cemetery. But mister Whippleschugen says of a you know everywhere I went last night. I went everywhere but Lincoln Cemetery.
Basically, Bob says he has an alibi right that he gets off work at six o'clock and goes to John Fisher's house. Bob told Sergeant Kilgore after work on the twenty second, he stopped off at his friend John Fisher's house for a meeting because he was supposed to run as a team member in a marathon in Kansas City. How closely did investigators look into Bob's alibi.
They didn't. There's no report of them interviewing John Fisher.
I reach out to who I believe is the correct John Fisher, but have yet to hear back.
Here's Quinn.
It has always bothered me and a lot of other people that Bob Whitbolsphugen places himself everywhere that night except exactly where Anastasia's body was found. It also bothered Deputy Eperson enough that Bob was found exactly in the spot where his daughter's body was lying the next day before anyone had told him that's where Anastasia's body was. He thought that was suspicious. I agree. Also when they ask Bob if he keeps guns in the house or if he has guns. He says, I don't keep guns in
the house. The next question the deputy should have asked him was, Okay, where do you keep your guns?
Because so I reach out to Bob via email and he agrees to be interviewed. You should know that he is currently in prison. I'll tell you why he's there very soon. When we speak, Bob makes it clear he doesn't want to talk so much about the investigation. He really wants to keep the conversation to talking only about Anastasia's life, death, and Byron's guilt. I record four calls with him, some of which you've heard in episodes one
and two, but the connection isn't great. So I ask if we can do a proper interview arranged by the prison, where he can be in a quiet room on a phone line with a cleaner connection. Bob says yes. Then I write again, trying to nail down a day and time. He offers up some options, but then also says he no longer sees the need to talk with me. I reach out to him a few more times, he stops responding altogether. Obviously, I have one thousand questions for Bob.
Among them, I'd like to know what he thinks about Deputy Eperson's report, and I'd like to know more about the investigation he was conducting at the same time Kilgore was conducting his. I hope we will be able to connect again sometime soon.
Here's Nicole again.
Bob inserts himself and the investigation pretty early. I cannot pretend to know what his motive was or why he did that. It could be a number of reasons. He could be trying to attaint the investigation. He could have a personality disturbance that would cause him to do something like this, or he could want the attention. Or he could be a grieving father, or he could be a
grieving father, or he could be a suspect. You know, there's a handful of reasons why someone would involve themselves so heavily and an investigation, and I really don't know why.
Here's Sean.
Yeah, I'm not going to judge a man who just lost his daughter. If something happened to either of my daughters, I would probably be involved in trying to figure out what happened. I would want answers. I don't fault them with it all, but I don't think I would be as weird as Bob in going about it and distrusting and paranoid about the detectives and their motives, you know. But he does have some legitimate beefs about the quality of this investigation.
And there is something interesting that happens in the course of the investigation between Bob and Kelly. We mentioned this briefly in episode five. Here's Nicole.
Kelly reached out to Bob up through email and let him know that she was sorry for what had happened. Her story was the same, I mean, at this point, according to her, Anastesia got out of the car. Everyone's story is a line, and she just wants to tell Bob that she's sorry for what happened.
And she asked me, I'm going to read you.
Kelly's email dated May twelfth, nineteen ninety eight. This is roughly seven months after Anastasia's murder. Kelly writes, quote, dear mister Whipples Fugen, I don't even know how to begin this. I'm Kelly Moffatt, Byron's girlfriend. I just wanted to talk to you about everything that has gone on. No one else in my life knew Anastasia and Justin or they don't want to talk about it. I have blocked everything out for some time. I pretty much severed all ties
with that part of my life. I guess I was hoping it was all a bad dream that I would wake up from. I know now that I won't wake up, and I need to talk to someone. I miss Anastasia and Justin so much. I'm not going to try and pretend that Anastasia and I were best friends. But I liked her and we had fun together before her death. I got to see what Anastasia was like on her own. We would have girl talk on the phone and whine about our boyfriends. She was always sarcastic and witty. I
think we could have been great friends. For the first time, I feel I have really mourned her loss and am now realizing that she is gone. It hurts a lot, and I feel that I'm grieving alone. Byron has a tendency to block things out. He has hardly ever spoken of his loss of Justin, Anastasia, and his father. When I bring it up, he grows quiet and upset or ignores it. He is dealing with things in a very
unhealthy manner. But I can't make him see it. I would appreciate it if we could get together and talk. It would mean a lot to me if we can swap stories and help each other through this. Sincerely, Kelly, and then they continue talking right right.
There's an exchange between she and Bob that goes on for a couple of months. At one point they talk about an arrangement to meet, and Bob says that he thinks it's best for them to meet in a quiet place that he is hard of hearing, but that he would let Kelly decide. Does anything come of we don't know, not through email, it doesn't.
We don't know if they ever met.
The team says, once again, it's the timeline that raises some questions, specifically how Bob and Kelly talking might relate to Sergeant Kilgore's letter to Bob in August of nineteen ninety eight. Remember, kil Gore wrote basically, a stop harassing me and don't come to me if you don't have something new and viable.
Letter. Here's Sean again.
Now there is a place where Sergeant Kilgore in his letter saying listen, I've had enough for you.
You know.
That's the tone of the of the letter that he sends kill Gore says, we have exhausted our leads in this case. We don't have anywhere else to go. I mean, if you have something, bring it to us. And of course it's after that that Kelly then changes her story, and you know, by her own statement in that conversation that was recorded between her and Byron, says, Anastagia's creepy dad has been calling and emailing me and bugging me about.
This, you know.
So I think it's huge that he was involved in this investigation.
So here are the dates surrounding all of these events. It seems Kelly's first email to Bob is on May twelfth, nineteen ninety eight. The few emails go through May, she writes again in early July. What happens after that?
I don't know.
By the way, Kelly may have written Bob and wanted to quote swap stories for a purely innocent reason because she was hurting and simply needed to connect with someone who was also grieving. Okay, back to the timeline, kil Gore writes that stop harassing me letter to Bob on August twenty first, nineteen ninety eight. The next day, on August twenty second, Kelly meets with Kilgore and tells him she thinks Byron is acting weird and he might know more than he's saying, but she doesn't think it's a
murder type of thing. Kelly doesn't completely change her story until two years later, on September nineteenth, two thousand and she says that comment about Anastasia's creepy dad to Byron in that June fifth, two thousand and one recorded phone call. So did Kelly and Bob ever talk or meet up? Is the reason she started to change her story connected to Bob? Or Is it because she was a traumatized teenage girl and the truth was starting to eat her alive.
Earlier this episode, we talked about the report Deputy David Epperson wrote about seeing Anastasia's dad, Bob Whitblesfugen, standing at the exact spot where her body was found in Lincoln Cemetery the day before, well on October twenty second, nineteen ninety eight, one year to the day Anastasia was killed. Bob is back at Lincoln Cemetery, here's Attorney Nicole Gordon, and Eperson.
Is there's just strange and so Epson describes his encounter with him and says that he's driving a different car. He notes that Bob's you know, so he's taking Bob in. He's suspicious of Bob the entire.
Time, and I can't recall.
Here's some of Eperson's four and a half page handwritten report from that encounter. Eperson writes that it's nine fifty five pm on October twenty second, nineteen ninety eight when he first sees Bob, who was sitting in his car near Lincoln's Cemetery with his engine and lights turned off. Eperson asks what he was doing, and Bob says just looking at the downtown skyline. A bit later, Eperson sees Bob again and he decides to follow him. He locates
Bob at the south gate of Mount Washington Cemetery. Eperson writes, quote, upon contacting mister Whipple's Fugen, he appeared nervous. Bob goes on to talk about the caravan of cars and how investigators haven't followed up on how he obtained some secondhand information about the knight Anastasia was killed. Quote four parties had been riding around with a loaded gun and that
the victim had been shot accidentally. Eperson goes on to write, I'm not sure whether he speculated at this point, but he went on to say after the accidental death, the victim's boyfriend wanted to call the police, but he was threatened by another member of the party, so he did not. The boyfriend then became afraid, so the next day he went out and bought a gun for his protection. Two
days later, he was found dead in Kansas. Eperson writes, quote, mister Whipples Fugen stated he believed the boyfriend was murdered. Bob then goes on to recount the night of October twenty second, nineteen ninety seven, including hearing the gun shot. This time, he says it was around midnight. Bob says he knew it was a large caliber, not a twenty two caliber, but not a shotgun either because he used to shoot guns with his grandfather. Bob then starts asking
Eperson questions about the case. Eperson says he is unaware of any new leads. Eperson writes quote. He then asked if the crime scene looked like it had been set up. Eperson tells Bob the crime scene was processed by the investigative unit and he would have to contact them for any information. Bob then states that the detective had labeled him as a suspect, and he stated, quote, I couldn't have did it. I didn't get off work until nine.
Eperson writes, quote. Mister whitbeles Fugen seemed upset about his daughter's death, and it should be noted it had been one year, almost to the hour since the homicide. I ask Attorney Brian Russell if Deputy Eperson's reports about Bob in and around Lincoln Cemetery were ever handed over to Byron's trial attorney.
That eperson reports were.
Yes.
I believe hort Lance had the reports before trial.
So Byron's defense attorney had Eperson's reports but never used them at trial. I reach out to David Eperson, who sounds like he's open to talking with me. He asks me to call him back the following week, and I do. I try him several times after that, but he hasn't returned any of my calls. As Byron's legal team dives deeper into their investigation of Bob, they say it's what his ex wife, Anastage's mother Betsy Owens, tells Sergeant Kilgore
back on November seventh, nineteen ninety seven. That makes them take note. Here's Nicole again.
I'm sorry.
After Bob and Betsy divorced, Betsy's neighbor approached Betsy and said, I'm glad the pub doesn't live here anymore.
Betsy tells Kilgore that her neighbor, who was the grandmother of the child Betsy used to babysit, came over one day and told her that Bob had done some inappropriate things to her grandchild. To protect the identity of this neighbor and her family, we've edited out their names to begin, Betsy says the grandmother came to her and told her that Bob had come to the door nude when this grandchild was dropped off for babysitting. Betsy continues with.
Another granddaughter had accused him some hoeffectual sometime. Never I know whether was reported or whatever. She was just happy before so getting them out of there. So I always made sure, what you know, I never let his want kid go over to his house. He took one of my kids a couple of years ago over there in the six weeks she wanted to come home, and I
worked at philspe I rate. I thought itself right if he did anything that she would be the best thing you do you know, any him ever sexually I know who never had sexually suddenly in.
My kids using on anything ever said? You know she will give you any indication that it was going on.
No, So, as far as I know, nothing hands.
Betsy goes on to talk about one of her other daughters, who I'm also not going to name. Betsy's particularly hard to hear during this next part, so I will tell you verbatim what she says, which is that one of her daughter's preschool teachers said this daughter quote acted like a child who had been sexually molested or abused. Betsy goes on to say, quote, but I don't have any proof one way or the other. Kilgore asks if Betsy
ever called the police about any of this. Betsy says, yes, but she gave up calling the police after this war time when Bob quote beat me up and threw me out in the rain. Betsy says, police told her she could leave, but she couldn't take the kids with her without a court order, so she stayed because she couldn't leave her kids behind. Kilgore then circles back to the neighbor grandmother's story asking if the grandmother ever called the police on Bob.
From then I understood shouldn't get the place because she didn't want to hurt play.
Yeah, what would be Why didn't you say that the actor did make physical compact.
With the downtown.
Possibly can slay or something. I was laying down, rusting, and I could hear him on the bedroom.
They were up on a point of video games and he was up on the top.
By the.
Like, and I could hear on that thanky to go downstairs or basebook to get something. And after a few minutes a dole this was re quite, I'm gonna get out for me got up and the little girl had gone home. And so I didn't think anything. You know, you know, I want to hear your own she left Jamie Loft when things that came back up, students or what so, I don't know what happened, but ever done anything it scared to girl of a look or she left them at home and told her her family and died.
And why away do you recall what it was that she she said? Wether he was exposing in himself to home.
Or what.
I'm not sure. I don't know alight, you'd have to die better. I'm sure they got a better the home. Sometimes over everything that's happened on a book goes though. Uh And.
Do you don't believe he was in one of you in dating?
I don't think.
I don't think she.
Yeah, I love see and trying something back when she know, you know, because she you know, suddenly ended up over a jumping that she didn't want to to go back.
Kind of relationships she had had with them, with their father.
She did not want to live back there.
If she had had felt like she had any other options, she would have chose her And the way she moved into justice that she had no place really to go. And I thought that was surprised that she moved back after that, you know, why did he didn't add the place off to go.
Betsy says things were complicated at her house with her current husband, who was a recovering drug addict. It got to the point where Anastasia didn't want to be at her house either. Betsy goes on to tell Kilgore more about how Bob had been physically abusive during their marriage. Betsy says that Bob would beat on her and that Bob's mother would tell her to keep her mouth shut or she'll get beaten even harder.
I mean because of UH getting beat up too many times that type of thing. Yeah, I wasn't going to subject to kids too big violent arguments, and and they were pretty violent, bloodsy physically abusing and dating station.
As a pit or whatever wance or why is to get her to Iron left or world or to all of them, you know, no bruthals. You know, he didn't realize I don't think the power that he had or whatever. But I tried to protect the kids as much as possible too, and eventually got them out of there.
In one of Anastasia's journal entries, dated March eighteenth, nineteen ninety seven, about seven months before she was killed, she writes this about Bob wanting her to get off the phone. Quote, my dad just started going off on me for speaking logically, and finally I couldn't take it anymore. The night before, my dad slapped me twice when I talked back to him. All I did was tell him to ask me to turn down the stereo instead of stomping in my room
and doing it. I thought about taking a razor to my wrist, but then decided I liked my wrists too much. Back to Betsy and Sergeant Kilgore.
Would you be shocked or surprised if if I had been amazing his gildn Im'd be disappointed with the kids.
That will tell me about the kids that the fall well educated in school? That rit you or shocked would be.
Based on what you've sild me to them.
I don't know, surprisingly shocking, thanking the advocate that higher degree of emotion. Part of me wonder for where was people? They have not looked at a for stage. But you know she's ben being to death.
I might have thought, you know, he might.
Have had something to do with him, because he could get really angry at it.
But you know, as far as I long, he hasn't had any.
Weapons before we were married, or acts to him interest over the entirety, just because I'd never allow Weathers in top the drama him.
I mean, I got a good temper on me and you know, but what starts coming after me?
You know our dad I didn't have any Well, we get back to me.
So Betsy says a lot during her interview with Kilgore. She says Bob used to physically abuse her, and although she doesn't believe Bob was abusing Anastasia or any of her other daughters. She does wonder where Bob was and what went on the night he was out searching for Anastasia. The only thing I'm thinking is why didn't Kilgore ask Bob about what Betsy said about him? These are some explosive allegations. Why were they not followed up on?
Here's Nicole so in that same report, in the interview, the eleven seven, ninety seven interview with Betsy, she tells Kilgore that Bob worked at a children's home in Illinois, which whoa and he was a social worker, and so looking further into that, there's a lot of issues with this children's home, and in fact with a lot of children's home funded by Catholic charities.
And it was in the paper.
According to Betsy, she met Bob while he was working as a social worker at the Covenant Children's Home in Princeton, Illinois, back in the late seventies. There were some serious issues while she and Bob were there, which had absolutely nothing to do with either of them. A counselor pled guilty to sex assault charges involved two teenage boys. There was a sixteen year old boy who raped and murdered a ten year old girl. Betsy actually testified at that trial.
Bob did not.
This may be a good time to point out that Bob didn't testify at Byron's trial either. Why didn't either the prosecution or the defense call Bob? Did prosecutors view Bob as a liability to their case? Could some of his actions have caused reasonable doubt in the minds of the jurors, or did prosecutors not want to further traumatize a grieving father. Either way, I find it very strange.
Something Brian Russell finds strange is how Bob handled or mishandled Anastasia's cries for help, considering he had worked as a youth counselor Here's Brian, I.
Found it really interesting in the context of mister Whipple's fe game, especially because when his daughter keeps talking about suicide or being depressed, and how he just seems to have such a flippant attitude about it when he should know or should have known that, you know, my daughter's in crisis and needs help, and he just buried his head, buried his.
Head in the sand.
I mean, he also took out a second life insurance policy on her, so maybe he was taking it serious.
Yes, you heard Brian correctly. According to police reports, it seems Bob had two life insurance policies on Anastasia. The first one he took out in February of nineteen ninety two for twenty thousand dollars.
Bob was the beneficiary.
That was paid out May nineteen ninety eight, so about seven months after Anastasia's death. The other policy was taken out on October twentieth, nineteen ninety seven, two days before Anastasia. That policy was for twelve thousand dollars and Bob again was the beneficiary. It should be known that Bob didn't seek this policy out. It was basically a solicitation call from J. C. Penny because he had a JC Penny credit card. I don't know if this policy was ever
paid out. Did Bob have policies on all of his kids?
I also don't know that.
Here's Anastasia's mom, Betsy, talking to Sergeant Kilgore about one of the insurance policies.
Where Robert was kind of pissy. He got an art why he just got more one.
Thousand dollar accidental death and insurance policy on her but then he found out that it wasn't going to cover because she was eighteen in that full time student.
So he's loll pissed off about that way.
At least his expenses got paid for where ye I guess he had two thousand at work on her. So we split the funeral bell.
And a half and my my stuffs paid it because.
They didn't have and.
So I don't know his his robber been pretty ubserve overall.
Yeah, he even went to the well. At first it was like we're gonna have you know, we're gonna bury her. And the next day it's like, well.
We got a crematory, you know.
I well, I said, well, well, I asked him, well, don't they need to keep the body, you know, can stay after I ever have to exu it, you know, instead of having a crewmated, and uh, all of a sudden it was he wanted to have a crewmated. Why and well, that's what she would want, That's what her friends say that she would want. You know, she and I talked about her being in a casket, and you usually don't have a casket on a cremation, so him and she didn't carry you know, she started that bar.
I don't care what you do with the just put me in the box and down stainly. I can be taken a quide aways, but he wanted to ClearMate it, and I wasn't going to hide.
I asked Nicole her take on the insurance policies. It was weird because I was suspicious of the insurance policies, but then in the reports it says it was like a mat and I don't think it matters whether it was a solicitor call or Bob sat. You don't want it to get a policy because I just think that it's hard to look at this case and not consider that fact, which was totally not considered by either side of trial. So I mentioned earlier that Bob is in prison. Now you're going to hear why.
Bob is currently residing with the Missouri Department of Corrections serving a seven year sentence for statutory a sodomy of a minor.
Anastasia's father, Bob Whitbolsfugen, is currently in a Missouri prison serving a seven year sentence for statutory sodomy. The case originates in twenty sixteen. There's a lot of back and forth in the courts than in twenty nineteen. Bob pleads guilty and is sentenced to seven years with five years of SES, which is a suspended executed sentence. This essentially
gives Bob supervised probation for five years. If he doesn't meet all of the conditions of his probation, then the court will revoke his probation and give him prison time. He also has to register as a sex offender. Here's attorney Nicole Gordon.
So, I think that was an issue at one time. You know, when he was first placed on probation, he was allowed to have access to the young children in his FAEM family with supervision, so he could be around the younger kids with their parents around.
And then something happened and they said no.
They took that away specifically, And so I went to a violation hearing and they had talked about previous violations where drinking was an issue, and I believe pornography was also an issue. But in this particular hearing, he had dumped shovels in the victim's yard.
What does a mean no dumped shovels.
I don't know. It was just a weird thing that he did that the court didn't like.
Multiple shovels.
Yes, the court said shovels.
Yeah.
Now this weird shovels thing is hearsay, right. But Nicole sent me the notes she took and emailed to Byron's other lawyers after attending Bob's probation violation hearing on the morning of September thirtieth, twenty twenty one, and it's in her notes, writes prosecutor accused Bob of quote very disturbing behaviors, saying that Bob dropped off a quote pile of shovels in the victim's yard. It seems after violating his probation
six times from twenty twenty to twenty twenty two. In November of twenty twenty two, Bob's probation is finally revoked and he's sentenced to the seven years. Here's investigator Quinn O'Brien talking about that hearing where it all went down.
Like, I don't know much about the victim. I just went to the probation revocation hearing and Bob's attorney put him on the stand. This just I mean, when we talk about getting chills, Bob was on the stand and his attorney is giving him a direct examination, and the attorney is asking Bob if he feels any remorse or if he understands that what he did to this young woman was wrong. And bob answer is that this young
woman isn't directly related to him. He tried to treat her like one of his daughters, but he understands now that because she's not his daughter, there are certain boundaries that he could not cross with her. There were certain things that he should not do with her in the home because this young woman isn't his daughter. And I'm sitting here thinking that's a confession.
Oh my god.
I had always thought, given Anastasia's desperation not to move back with back with her father, she clearly has some trauma.
She's suicidal.
I can't I just can't even speak it into existence. It's just when Bob said on the stand that he treated the young woman that he raped like he would have treated his own daughters, I was horrified. I mean, that's it's no I know what he did, I know what he prefered to you. I know what he did, and I don't think I don't think I could even say it out loud. It's it's disturbing, and I know that it happened more than once because who reported it?
She reported to her mother, and eventually her mother was the one who called it in because the young girl was able to identify a birthmark in a private area on Bob's body that she would not have seen unless Bob had his pants off in her presence. And when this young person's mother heard that, it finally clicked and she believed her daughter and reported it. And it's unspeakable.
But even during the probation revocation hearing, the prosecutor brought up like this isn't the first time that you've even been charged with something like this, And I was a little stunned. But in Missouri, if you're not convicted of a crime, if you're only charged with a crime once that once you're acquitted, or if the charges are dropped,
that record becomes sealed, Like I can't get it. So if Bob has been charged with, or been investigated for, or even arrested for molesting children before this, those records are going to be sealed in Missouri because he wasn't convicted of them.
Okay, I don't have a transcript of what was set in court at Bob's final probation revocation hearing, Quinn is telling me what she says she heard, Like Nicole Quinn sent me her notes from that hearing. I don't see anything in there about Bob saying he didn't know he couldn't treat the victim as one of his daughters. Doesn't mean it wasn't said. It's just not in Quinn's notes. What is in Quinn's notes is that Bob blames this situation on his daughter's death, and that Bob says, quote,
I am the problem. He says, even his daughters point out to him, he is the problem. One interesting detail that may mean absolutely nothing is that the attorney who represented Bob at these hearings is the same attorney who represented Kelly when she came forward. Anyway, just because Bob is in prison for doing what he pled guilty to doing, which sounds like it was pretty awful, doesn't mean he has done anything else to anyone else, and it especially
doesn't mean he did anything to Anastasia. But Byron's team says, although there are several things that make them suspicious of Bob, like Deputy Eperson's reports, the stories Betsy shared, and why he is currently incarcerated. There is also someone else who is on their radar, Patrick Rock. We talked about Patrick Rock in episode three. He is a close family friend and has referred to himself as at times as Anastasia's godfather and adoptive uncle. He started and still maintains the
Anastasia Memorial website. He also emailed several times with Byron on behalf of himself and Bob. Here's Nicole again.
Pet Rock is a family friend.
He inserted himself in the investigation, primarily with about the reward and starting the website. Managing the website, he would call and ask Kilgore, Hey, I'm going to post this information. I'm going to post this article. And I think that there was tension there, but not like it was with Bob. Can I also add something?
Yeah?
Bob asked Sergeant Kilgore whether pat had an alibi and told him that if she had made it to a pavement, she knew his number by heart and she would have called him.
We know that they spoke often.
Pat Rock said that he spoke with Anastasia the monday before she died. She had called him in the evening to confide in him about what was going on. And so Pat Rock is at someone that kill or would want to talk to and officially get on the record. But that doesn't happen.
Were phone records Were their phone records ever pulled in this case? No, that's right.
No phone records were pulled in this case at all. Not Justin's phone records, Byron's phone records, Kelly's phone records, or Bob's phone records. Not the dairy Queen's payphone records, the records for the payphone at the gas station where two people allegedly said they saw a young woman use the phone, Not the phone records from the Phillips sixty sixth station in Kansas where Justin called Anastasia's house, the same gas station where Kelly said she called Anastasia. They
also didn't pull Byron's beeper records. Sergeant Kilgore never had any of those records pulled. Okay, Back to Patrick Rock, Anastasia's mom, Betsy Owens, talks about him in that interview with Kilgore on November seventh, nineteen ninety seven. Here she is talking about some of her conversations with Anastasia in the three days leading up to her death, which included how Anastasia didn't want to talk about God.
And we believe that I attributed to this one thing. Pat Rock. I checked his name on there, who has an atheist and has been kind of an usual friend with the family.
I did not approve of him. I've been keeping.
Kids away from when Bob had it been it's like one of the kid's birthdays this weekend, and his brother calm and keep this guy away for the kids.
That's he just said.
At one of the kid's birthdays that week, Bob's brother told him to keep Patrick away from the kids, but Bob was going to let them see him over at his house. Betsy then says she told one of her brothers she thought Patrick was quote a latent pedophile. Here's Nicole, but.
She's suspicious, she says.
Betsy tells Detective Kilgore that her Bob's brother, Hugo, is also suspicious that Pat Rock had approached Bob at a party that they were all at and told Bob to keep the girls away from Pat Rock.
Although Betsy and perhaps Bob's brother are suspicious of Patrick Rock, there is absolutely no evidence to suggest that Patrick Rock is or ever was, a pedophile. Attorney Brian Russell says, but wait, there may be two more reasons why Kilgore should have paid more attention to him during the investigation.
Family had said Anastasia's family had said at the time that if she called for a ride, she would have called Pat Rock. Pat Rock changed his phone number the day after her body was found. We also know that he was involved in the Negro Leagues. In Kansas City, there's a Negro League's museum and he was kind of an amateur historian for that, and one of the things we found in our investigation is that he liked to go try to find graves of Negro League players and
Lincoln Cemetery is a historically black cemetery. Charlie Parker is buried there and four Negro League players are buried in Lincoln Cemetery. There's a working theory that he could have been familiar with the cemetery, and when we went out there one day to see if we could locate some of those headstones for those players, we spent a significant
amount of time wandering around looking at greystones. And it's hard to do in that cemetery because so because the gravestones are all flat, dirt has gathered on a lot of them, and there's even grass growing on a lot of them, so sometimes you could step on a headstone and not even realize you're on a headstone and you have to clear it off. And we were doing that for a decent amount of time before we were like, okay,
this is kind of pointless. Literally, as we were about to give up, I looked down and found one of them right there, and we measured it off and it was like about sixty feet away from where Anastasia's body was found. Maybe another coincidence of the many that are in this case.
Where is Pat Rock today?
Pat Rock lives in Ukraine, moved there six months ago with his girlfriend possibly wife, who's from Ukraine.
I write to.
Patrick Rock in Ukraine requesting an interview. He responds and declines to talk on the phone or over zoom, but says he might be willing to answer my questions via email, but because he is skeptical and cynical about my intent, he first gives me homework.
He wants me to review.
All of the evidence on the stasia dot org website that he says proves Byron is guilty. Here is some of his first email to me, we've hired an actor to read it.
Please be assured that we all firmly believe in the jury's final verdict. I established the case against case webpage to answer many of the half truths and misinformation provided by supporters. I would hope you have already viewed it before having contacted any of us.
Patrick goes on to talk about Justin Bruton's death, saying it wasn't fully investigated and there might be evidence that contradicts or clouds the ruling of a probable suicide.
Patrick says, the.
Truth is that the investigation into his death was ruined by the first officer who found his body. Body and the weapon were moved, the grass around the scene was trampled. The entire crime scene was absolutely tainted.
I read the link Patrick sent me about Justin's death. To me, there's nothing that seems to point to anything other than suicide. In fact, the coroner said the manner of death was suicide, not probable suicide, like Patrick states. Then mister Rock mentions something that Byron wrote.
A bizarre short fiction he wrote and placed on his website between the time of the murder and his arrest, in which he told his own fictionalized version of the murder placed one hundred years in the past.
Now this is true.
It seems Byron wrote letters to a fictitious mister White in sort of a Charles Dickens's voice and old fashioned font. There are also the faces of Justin Kelly in Anastasia photoshopped onto Victorian era clothed bodies. The letters are dated with various months and days, but no years. Patrick says they were written between the time of the murder and Byron's arrest. I don't know when Byron actually wrote them, anyway.
In these letters, Byron writes about a lot of things, including introducing Anastasia and Justin being enamored with Kelly, Kelly's alleged infidelity, working at a restaurant, and the deaths of Anastasia, Justin and his dad. Basically, he tells the same story he always has, just set in another time.
But in one letter he.
Writes he is quote quite adept at excuses, and that quote this shall no doubt be my undoing. Someday I email Byron about this, and he writes, in part quote what have come to be called mister White letters, which I always considered the Gray letters, actually were all written for my personal website.
It was partly a.
Way for me to put the past in its place, describing different periods of my life in three distinct shades, each of which represented a particular era. Black represented my dark history, specific with drug use. Gray represented the more recent past and explored the pain of loss. White represented the present and an overcoming of all that came before. It was all very cathartic and clearly beyond anyone's ability to comprehend outside of the light cast on it by
the guilty verdict at my trial. Back to Patrick Rock's email to me, he goes on to say, quote.
I met Byron Case while Anastasia was alive. I knew the details of their relationship with each other, going back to their high school days, and I communicated with him sporadically in an adversarial manner at his instigation following her murder. Until I attended his trial and heard the evidence myself, I did not know whether he was guilty or not. Sitting and listening for those four days convinced me of
his guilt. Patrick continues, as much as I love Denistasia, I see my duty these days as to protect society by working to count of the misinformation or kill her support or spread. I cannot bring her back. He killed her more than a quarter century ago. He killed her yesterday, he will kill her tomorrow. It is a sorrow and loss with which I live every day. I do not
receive any joy from his suffering. But I believe he would have killed again by now, perhaps more than just a second time, had he not been put safely away twenty three years ago. But having personally been slandered and cyberstock more than once by a number of his friends and family. I hope you understand my reluctance to get more involved in your project without some better idea of its intent.
After that email, I get another one from Patrick. He says he's writing because he's heard that I went to Kelly's mom's house and harassed her. Patrick says the FBC Free Byron Case group has been harassing all of them, especially Kelly, for years. In fact, Kelly also emails accusing me of harassing her mother. In one email, Kelly writes, quote, when you were a little girl, is this how you
pictured your career as a journalist? Harassing the family and friends of an eighteen year old girl who was gunned down by people she trusted.
You must be so.
Proud, I assure Patrick and Kelly in multiple emails, they are mistaken.
It wasn't me.
I have never been to Debera Moffatt's house. I've never spoken with her. That's not how I operate. I'm an independent journalist and aligned with no one. Eventually, Kelly believes me and apologizes. Still, I was quite upset by the whole thing, so I asked Byron's legal team if they went to Deborah Moffatt's house, and to my surprise, they say yes they did. They send me a statement which explains that they went there looking for Kelly, but there
was no harassment or intimidation. They said they talked to Deborah and the exchange lasted about three minutes and was conversational.
They said they left their.
Business card so it was clear who they were and why they were there. Then they said, quote, the evidence is very clear that Byron Case is innocent of the crime for which he has spent more than twenty years in prison. We will continue working on his case, and we will continue to act ethically and with integrity within the legal system to correct this injustice. Sean and Quin O'Brien. Needless to say, this whole alleged harassing of Deborah Moffatt thing gets in the way of me asking Patrick some
very important things. I eventually send him my list of questions. I hope he will respond. In the meantime, this needs to be said and heard loud and clear. Neither Bob Whitbulesfugen, nor Patrick Rock have ever been charged or convicted of anything related to Anastasia's death.
Even if Bob Whitble's Fugen is a child molester, I don't know if he's a murderer and to have murdered his daughter, and I just can't fathom that a father would do that to his daughter.
Next time on the Real Killer.
We know from what Don Wright told us that Anasasia was wearing socks, Birkenstock like styled sandals and baggy blue jeans. Those aren't the clothes she was found in.
The sixty four thousand dollars. Question is this did Anastasia go home that.
Night where Bob says I found her blue jeans in the washing machine. I found a pair of her underwear soaking in the utilities sink.
That's what she was.
Wearing at Dairy Queen and if those made at home, that means she went home, and if she went home, Byron didn't do it.
The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are solely those of the individuals participating in the podcast. If you, or someone you know is experiencing suicidal thoughts or a crisis, please no help is available. Call or text nine to eight eight, or chat online at the Suicide and Crisis Lifelines website at nine eight eight lifeline dot org. To see photos, maps and documents related to this season's story, follow The Real Killer podcast on Instagram and at TRK
podcast on TikTok. The Real Killer is a production of AYR Media and iHeartMedia, hosted by me Leah Rothman. Executive producers Leah Rothman and Elisa Rosen for AYR Media. Written by Leah Rothman, editing and sound design by Cameron Taggy, mixed and mastered by Cameron Taggi. Production coordinator Andy Levine, Audio engineer Justin Longerbeam studio engineer Graham Gibson. Voice acting by Art Garza. Legal council for AYR Media, Johnny Douglas, Executive producer for iHeartMedia.
Maya Howard