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Guilty Google Search Murder - Winchester, Indiana

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This week, in Winchester, Indiana, a man is found brutally attacked, with several bags on his head, and some strange clues scattered around the house & his prize show car stolen. Detectives don't have much to go on, until an enormous clue drops into their lap, leading to a friend of the dead man, who has a scary history of fires & kidnapping. But he won't be easy to find, because he goes on the run, seemingly disappearing into thin air. This leads to even more crimes, and a very scary man on the loose!!

 

Along the way, we find out that Indiana apparently loves Hawaiian music, that you should never steal a very distictive car, and that arsonists, who kipnap, may just end up escalating to murder!!

 

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Guilty Google Search Murder - Winchester, Indiana

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Small Town Murder — Guilty Google Search Murder - Winchester, Indiana. Machine-transcribed; use the interactive transcript above to jump the player to any line.

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Hello everybody and welcome back to Small Town Murder Express. Yay and Chuchu! Yeah indeed Jimmy. Yeah indeed. My name is James Petrigallo. I'm here with my co-host. I'm Jimmy Westman. Thank you folks so much for joining us today. Thank you so much. We are super excited to be here all aboard the murder train pulling away from the station. I apologize for sounding like this. The Midwest hasn't sickened me and there's nothing I can do about it. I was walking around in the rain for days and something got in there and it's bad. It's crazy. We're going to work it out though. That's all right. I'm hopped up on Sudafet. I'm going to go and you need to head over to shut up and give me murder.com. Absolutely. Get your tickets for live shows. We just finished up in Milwaukee and Minneapolis and man let me tell you awesome. Thank you Milwaukee. Thank you Minneapolis. Minneapolis that might have been one of the hottest for longest crowds I've ever seen ever. Two hours from start to finish they never stopped laughing. They were just amazing Milwaukee too.

Two plus. Yeah that was crazy. Yeah you guys they made it so long. They made it longer because yeah they wouldn't stop laughing. So hey that's fine with us. So it was a good time. Man did we have a blast. So thank you for doing that. Next up October 3rd Dallas get your tickets right now. We are doing a special episode of four Dallas that will be from the Dallas suburbs. So get in there. It's local. And then next up the 16th and 17th of October and San Jose and Sacramento those will be different shows. So if you go to both you'll see two different shows and then Terry Town is almost sold out on November 13th and then Medford by Boston there November 14th tickets available. Shut up and give me murder.com is where you get all of those. Now Patreon you want that. Patreon.com slash crime in sports which is the name of the other show that we do that you should check out. You don't have to like sports trust us. So I do that anybody five dollars a month or above you get everything we put out everything. As soon as you subscribe you're going to get like about 400 back bonus episodes you've never heard before.

Immediately then you get new ones every other week one crime in sports one small town murder. This week which you're going to get for crime in sports it's a murder story is nothing to do with sports. So it's the person's family who was murdered happened to be an athlete. That's why that's how it's crime in sports. So there you go. And then small town murder we're going to do the trick or treat murder. It's an old timing murder from like the 50s but it is a crazy twisted weird story of a Halloween night murder. That basically was you they used Halloween to disguise the whole thing. It's pretty wild. So we'll check all of that out and more patreon.com slash crime in sports is where you get all of that. And you get everything we put out your stupid opinions crime in sports both small town murders all add free. But that page on as well can't beat that and you get a shout out at the end of the regular show. So I mean it's all we can give you that's all we have. I'm looking I got a box behind nothing else in there. It's all empty. That's what we got there. So yeah do that patreon and then I'd say let's time everybody.

What do you say here? Let's all clear the lungs. We need to do that. I need to do them a lot here. Oh arms to the sky. This is clear as they're getting today. Arms to the sky and let's all shout. Shut up and give me murder. Let's do this everybody. Let's go on a trip. Let's do it. Well we're going to Indiana this week. Here we go. Winchester Indiana like the rifle there. It's and the I guess it's within the township of White River but it's its own town also. I hate when they do that. That's very confusing. A lot of states do that. It happens like in the East Coast states a lot the North. So much. This is actually it's a hamlet in a township inside of a it's like enough or any with that ship. This is an Eastern Indiana about an hour and a half to Indianapolis about an hour 15 to date. No high out and about two hours and 10 minutes to Columbus Indiana our last Indiana episode episode 693 poison

putting problems. Fuck which I went a little crazy with the eliteration and I don't regret it. That's fine. Poison putting problems. This is in Randolph County area code 765 population here 5,016. So decent sized town inside of another town. Median household income is almost about 20,000 below the rest of the country in terms of average. It's 51,985 but that's not bad when you look at the median home cost you go. Oh okay that fits. Median home cost here $118,000 which is from another century. That was prices. Amazing to get a middle of the road home for one to one. 18, it's got it's got nicknames that are wild. Oh. The first one I really don't get the world's fastest half mile. There's no race track here. Yeah. But it's Indian I get it Indiana's into the racing but not it's not here. There's no racetrack or that I can find anyway.

The other nicknames are even stupider. One is dub C and then in parentheses WC Winchester. No. Nope. That's not what I think of for that. Nope. And then the water closet we've established. And then the yes exactly. Or in water closet Indiana. Then the other one is even grosser. Sugar cream pie capital. They have the words wow cream pie capital in their fucking town motto. Sugary one sugar or the cream pie in your sugar. What have you been eating sir? Gross. Is that your sugar? I'll call you. Oh, I'll call you. How about that? A little bit of history of this town. Man, it was laid out in 1818 as the county seat was the county seat of Randolph County. Five early settlers donated land for the purpose of the town. And they're pretty sure it was named for Winchester, Virginia because I think one of the people is from there. So that's what they do.

It became not actually notable in the mid 1800s because Randolph County was a major spot for the underground railroad. Wow. Yes. Now Indiana is famous for being one of the clan heaviest cities in our states in the country. They had a huge, I mean they controlled all their politics and police forces. Oh, in the 20s and early 1900s. But here they were. It was big in the underground railroad, big in the abolition movement before the Civil War. So that's pretty cool. Then they had oil and natural gas and other resources they found in about the late 1800s and Winchester transformed from a farming community into an industrial town after that. Yeah. Factories and you know, black's not so bad. Is it Indiana? That's right. The oil comes from the ground. It's Texas T right there. So they all of this enabled the glass making industry to thrive here. There's a lot of glass making here. That was the big deal here. It was the glass making and they had the fuel from the natural gas and oil to be able to burn

those furnaces because you got to get a pretty high temperature to burn melt glass. Tornados, they've had a couple of those. In 2024, which very recently, a quarter mile wide EF3 tornado hit Westchester. Oh, that sounds big. Hit Winchester? Or Winchester, what did I call it? Westchester. Why I lived near Westchester, I apologize. Severe damage was dealt to the Goodwill store. So we're fine still. That dumpster outside spread people's garbage clothes. They don't want it everywhere. Severe damage to somebody else's trash. That's it. The lodge at Summers Point and a strip mall. It's a strip mall wiped out so the subways gone. The Freedom Life Church and the Taco Bell were flattened. They flattened the Taco Bell. That's tough. Where are we going to get diarrhea now? This is bad. The goodness is it didn't break anything that was intolerable.

No, it didn't break one shell. They were already cracked on the bottom. 38 were injured and three were critically injured and one of the three died weeks later. Oh. And then June 2024, three months later, the remainder of the strip mall was demolished. And it's subsequently they rebuilt the, I think they rebuilt something in Wendys and then Taco Bell underwent repairs and reopened. So there you go. It's back. Reviews in this town. Here's five stars. I think Winchester is an excellent place to raise a family in a perfect place to settle down and put roots. Yeah. It's a very cozy small town that feels like home. This place will always be my home. I grew up here. I have no interest in the outside world whatsoever. I don't have any gas. No. Wow. Winchester will always have a special place in my heart. Here's three stars. And this is the perfect review for three stars. It's your average town in the middle of a cornfield. Easy to miss.

Everyone knows just about everyone there. Not sure if that's a really nice thing or terrifying. Middle of the road. This is a three star review. People take notes. This is how it works. Great place to take an F3 to the chest. Well, at least the Taco Bell takes one to the chest. What's nice about this little town I think most can agree on is that you know it like the back of your hand. And it has a little diner that's known for miles around. Not well, that's not really fine. It's not much, but it's home. It's not much, but it's ours. That's something. Three stars. Winchester has a cute little hometown feel to it. I grew up in Winchester. That's probably why it feels like a hometown near because it's yours. It's yours. It's your hometown. It's your hometown. But recently it has fallen victim to a lot of major drug use. And I would definitely like to see that change as I have lost loved ones to this horrible disease. And then finally two stars. It's not a good place to raise a family. It traps. I guess it all.

Traps you in the town. Yeah, I suppose. You're stuck in that. Yeah. Cyclical Winchester lifestyle. Yeah. And to do two things, one makes sense and the other one makes none. So that'll be nothing, no sense. First is the Westchester. See I was going to say it again. Winchester, the Main Street Festival. Normal Festival, it says it's an attempt to embrace a Marty Graf theme and to infuse Hoosier life with Southern Flair. Oh yeah, I forgot their Hoosiers. Yeah, that's a thing. What does that mean? I know God damn idea. Where an eye on you on your chest. It's it. You even when people abuse kids, you love them. You have long as they wear a red sweater and say whatever you want to these fucking kids. Whatever you want. So they're, they have normal things. Parades, shit like that. Family night with fireworks, carnival blow out. Normal shit. Then is the one that doesn't make sense. The Hawaiian Steel Guitar Festival. It Eastern Indiana.

Yeah. No idea why they chose this to, I don't know. The manufacturing plant must be somewhere nearby because they're nice guitars. I've got one right there. No, they're very nice, but it says it's, I don't know why they would have a Hawaiian guitar festival in Eastern Indiana. It's a strange place. It's a brand. I know I get it, but they're doing Hawaiian music. That's the, you know what I mean? Oh, they're doing Hawaiian music too. Winchester Indiana's Hawaiian Steel Guitar Festival brings together musicians from across generations and cultures. I can't stop laughing. Yeah. I'm not hearing anything about Hawaii yet. I'm welcoming Native Hawaiian artists alongside performers from across the Continental United. I think I wrote this down. What is that? You think I didn't fucking know what it was? Performers include the Williams Twins, 96 year old twin sisters who've been singing and playing guitar together at the festival for nearly 50 years. 96. Wow. They can play guitar at 96. That's amazing. I can barely turn. Runch is my, I have so much arthritis and I've never played guitar a day in my life.

Maybe that's the key. Maybe it keeps you alive. Maybe so. I got to learn this. You're not playing that fucking thing. It's sitting there, but you're not doing anything with it. I tried so hard. Like, wait, already. Alan Akata, a member of the Hawaiian music hall of fame and one of the foremost masters of the Hawaiian Steel Guitar, 22 year old My Lee Lyman, one of the brightest rising stars in Hawaiian music. It's a Hawaiian festival, not just the guitar. Wow. It's a whole festival, which is crazy. Anyway, that said, let's talk about some murder. That is shocking. I don't know why. I was like, just let me tell you. I feel bad now, but I'm like, I don't have time. I'm bringing you all of this will be explained. That's so funny. Yeah, so it's just the music. That's interesting. I could totally see where you're coming from. You're like, but I have one of the guitars. It's a guitar. I have one. Yeah. It's right there. All right. Murder in this town. Let's go back 2018. Not very far. No, really. Eight years, not bad.

Those ladies were still in their 90s. They're fucking, yeah, they're still well almost. Almost the other end of the year. They're pushing. So let's talk about a guy here, David L. Brumley, L-E-Y, by the way. He's born February 13th, 1957 here. So getting up there, an age here, 61 years old. He's the son of Robert and Dolores Brumley. He has a brother named Tim. He graduated from Winchester High School in 1976. He is Mr. Winchester. Still lives there, lives on West South Street and Winchester. Been there all the time. He works for Omega Enterprises, whatever the hell that is, but that's what he works for. Now in the neighborhood, he knows everybody's from this town, it's a small town. If you grew up here in your 61, you pretty much know everybody. It's a long time. Yeah. You have to know everybody. He knows all sorts of people, all sorts of friends that are like, describe his childhood friends all the time. So they still knows them.

Seems like a lot of people are born here and they die here. You know what I mean? They're happy about it. So I'm good for them. I guess. Or at least content. Yeah, there you go. At least content. He has a friend of his across the street from him, actually. Go right near right across the street. A buddy of his, he's known for his whole life. So that's kind of fun. Yeah. And his buddy kind of helps him out with stuff a little bit. As we'll talk about, he's got a car that he's real into that his buddy helps him out with. This is Monty Joseph Cook. Okay, Monty Cook. He's born September 59. So they went to high school together. You know, they know each other. grew up there. They remained friends as adults always. Okay. Now we'll talk about it, but Monty wasn't around for about 15 years. Where'd he go? Let's see. He was local pretty much, but not available. Put it that way. Oh, he wasn't available to hang out at the time. You could see him, but he couldn't really make plans to see you.

Sometimes a time. Yeah, at very certain times on very certain days, you could see him. But that's a couple hours. Very specific hours. Yeah. So yeah, they grow up and Monty would help David Brumley with projects around the home sometimes. You know, and not even like for money, like, you know, they just help each other out. He like doing stuff and he like turn in a wrench or fix something and do and shit. He also hung out with Brumley in the garage. Brumley's got a little house with a detached garage where he's constantly working on and polishing and making better his prized show car, which is a 2006 Mustang. Oh. Now there's some debate over whether it's 2004 or 2006, but I'm 99% sure it's 2006. And it's the same body style from like, oh, one, no, eight. So it really doesn't matter. And it's not really a classic, but it's his, no, it's possession and that's okay. Well, yeah, he's got it jacked up to.

He's got, it's a GT. It's like maroon with dark, with the black stripes on the hood and the, and it's got the big black scoop on the hood and all that shit. Like he's got it all. Okay. Yeah, I think they stopped making the cobra by then. I believe so. Yeah. It also has the chrome pins in the front of the hood. It's like making it look real race like what you would do with, what you would do in Grand Theft Auto if you had tons and tons of money and you get a car and go to the shop there and hook it up. Like that's pretty much what he did do it. The Mustang's a fine car, whatever. Yeah. It's a nice dashboard. Yeah. They're fine. So yeah, he, a lot of people hate them. It's despised. Yeah, it's just the only car that Ford ever built that's really fast except for the Shelby ship. That was, that's a whole, and the GT of course. That's a whole different issue. That's a Mustang though. No, the Ford GT. The, the hell was that? The 500 GT. The 500 GT like the, that's a totally different thing but that's like a fucking $400,000 car. So or whatever. So if you want that, it's on a Mustang platform in it.

I don't know about the engine but the, it's a down low, yeah, lower. It's not, then look at anything like a Mustang. Oh, were you talking about the, I know you're talking. That's the, that's the Shelby Cobra, right? No, there are newer ones. The, the, is it the 500 GT is a call, the hell's it called? I knew a guy who had one. They're insanely expensive. Yeah, they're really like crazy expensive Ford's like it's wild. Yeah, I thought that was the, I thought that that's the, the Mustang built. It doesn't. It doesn't matter. It has really relevant to the story. It's much like the Hawaiian guitars. Really relevant to the story. So, um, now, moddy by the way, as a job, I'm going to say, I'm going to say, I'm going to say, I'm going to say, I'm going to say. Okay, so, um, now, moddy by the way, as a job, he delivers campers and RVs, that's his job. Yeah. A lot of RV stuff is made around here as we'll talk about. So the Mustang is this guy's prized fucking possession. Okay, and he takes it to car shows and I mean, he's, this is, David Brumbly's prized possession here. Um, yup, he's got license plate RSP 657 and here we go.

So a little background on Monty, his buddy across the street, they hung out a lot in their younger days. They're real close. But in the late 2000, in the late Aughts and 2010s, they weren't hanging out because Monty was a little busy and let's find out why. In July of 2003, I believe fifth at 2.23 AM, state and federal agents began an investigation of a fire that caused seven and a half million dollars in damages to a factory. Oh, a factory. It's a 35,000 square foot factory burned down. Huge. And everything inside everything in it gone. So they said, quote, by seven hours into the call, we had a lot of resources here to use, saying, you know, that this was the first, the fire chief said, this was the first time since he's been in fire that the federal department of alcohol tobacco and firearms and explosives

were to be involved in an investigation. He goes, those guys showed up. We were like, what, what are you guys doing here? ATF. ATF is there. The president of the company that it's all the warehouse factory had one company. It's called mastercraft. They make, they make, they make shit for boats in RVs. They make furniture for boats in RVs. That's where it comes from here. They said the cliff rentals, who's the president of that company, said he's confident the business will return someday to full production when they obviously have a place to put it. He said our main focus is to take care of the customers and our employees. So they make a polstered furniture and mattresses for the RV industry. And I guess boats too, for when I understand that boats are insane that they build. I bet. So they say it was destroyed by fire. Now this was originally a smaller building and I found in the newspapers where they added on every couple of years, they built another part and built another section. They've grown and grown and grown for like 30, 40 years in this area. Now it's ashes.

Yeah, it's a pretty nice story of a local business growing like that. So employees had not worked in the buildings the last three days because they had a three day weekend for the 4th of July holiday. They went off for a three day weekend, turned out to be a lot longer weekend than that, obviously. Now, what ended up happening there, there's 300 people working at the plant and they don't have a job at the moment here. They ended up suspecting old Monte Cook of doing this. Why would they suspect that? He's got reasons. Cook gives statements to the Indian police investigator at an agent of the ATF and he gave a statement against his own interests, but not a confession. We're all about to push him over the edge here. Yeah, I was there. What about it? Well, saying he knew who did it or he might have been there at the time, but he didn't light the fire. Why would he say that? I may know the guy who did it because I may have been watching him do it, but one me.

Yeah. What a dumb fucking thing this idea. You imagine it. Indian. Indian. So the investigators focus on Cook after learning that he had left threatening messages on the mastercraft telephone answering machine over the course of several weeks. He's been threatening the RV upholstery factory with the hell you doing. It makes more sense when you understand that his wife or estranged wife at this point. Kelly was an employee at the plant the time that the calls remain. That's why. Okay. So he doesn't like her. We'll find out. Definitely not. He's a little jealous and possessive, I would say. Monte. He has like a daughter too and all this stuff like come down, bro. Mastercraft reported the incidents to police and had addressed the concern by adding extra security and the extra security didn't matter much. The one of the prosecutors here said it had escalated in volatility. We believe one of his motives over committing the crime is that he was angry over a relationship.

He thought his wife was having a mastercraft. He thought his wife was fucking one of the other employees. So he said, I will burn this motherfucker to the ground to the ground. Rock solid evidence. No, that's under suspicion. He burnt it down. That's the crazy part. He went in there looking for evidence of it. That's what he was looking for. Oh my God. That's what's crazy. Seven and a half million dollars in damages. Now they arrest him. The plants in ships, ships, ship, Shawana, ship Shawana, I guess it's called. Or ships, Shawana, either one. He remains in a $250,000 bond here. That's higher than normal because of the extent of it. Also the fact that he didn't get his wife so they're worried he might go after his wife now too. They said that he broke into the factory. It's about 40 miles east of South Bend to find information on his estranged wife. He's originally not booked on arson charges, but booked on charges of a failure to appear

in court the week before for an invasion of privacy case involving Guess who is wife. That's why. And also there was two arrest warrants already out for him when he did that for invasion of privacy and violating a protective order against who is wife. Yeah. So aren't you grabbing some turtle wax and head on over to your buddy's house and yeah, this is what you do. Have a beer, bitch about your wife and then go home and fucking jerk off and go to bed. That's what you do. Shine the car about it. That's what you do, but that this guy, he, uh, it's crazy. So he ends up admitting it. He has to admit it, uh, eventually here. He broke into the, to the craft or to master craft. He rummaged through drawers and offices and then he admitted that he lit a match to some fabric and left the building. So he's like, I mean, I didn't, I didn't make sure it burned down. I threw it and said, let the face land where they may go with God.

Oh, God. That's right. The equivalent of putting a child on a raft and pushing them down the river like, I don't know, he could be fine or he could be eating my wolves. I'm not sure either one could happen. We'll see. Technically either, either outcomes possible. He might be raised by the king or eaten my wolves. We're not sure. So that's a wild thing to do. It's fucking crazy. He said that he thought his wife was sleeping with another employee master craft and then he found photos of the two of them in one of the desk drawers. That's what pissed him off and we found it in the desk. So then after that, he said he was looking for pay stubs for some reason. He wanted to know more about this guy, probably is addressing things like that. Yeah, but that's also usually where, uh, the company discloses sexual relationships. Absolutely. That's right there. It's under it's under the fight guy, I believe, right? He will be lying under that. I think they use for that. Uh, uh, Cox taken and then it shows. Yeah, Cox taken. Yeah.

So, uh, he said that he set the fire to get back at them. Those two boys, so burn the whole building down. I will hire them. They hired the fucker to the ground. They hired and facilitated her being able to take this. Their CFs, Cockfacilitators, and he's not taking it. Hey, everybody, just going to take a quick break from the show to tell you the best place to get gifts for your friends and family. Zazzle. Zazzle.com. That's right. Zazzle because here's the thing, you have to give gifts. You got birthdays, you got family members, Christmas time comes up, whatever your gift giving occasions are. What are you going to get in my gift card? What does that say? That says, I don't really care anything about you or I didn't think about you. Not at all, but I stopped at the store on the way here and got you this. That's it. It's, it doesn't say anything. You need to do something personal. Let them know that you, you see them like I know what you like. I know what you're into. You know, something from Zazzle.

That's, you're not going to do that. You want to give them something very personal. I gave somebody a dog, a, a, a, a mug with their dog on it, their dog space. Yeah. Unbelievable. Favorite gift they've ever gotten. It was amazing. And it was so easy to deal with Zazzle. You know, there's that feeling. You're three days out from someone's birthday. You don't know what to get. And he end up with something generic. Zazzle fixes all of that. Zazzle is a custom marketplace where you can take basically any product, a mug, a tote bag, a card, a phone case and make it mean something. You're not buying a gift. You're making one. It's so much more personal. Browse millions of designs or start from scratch and build something completely of your own. Either way, you're the designer. Everything's made on demand. There's no out of stock. You pick it. You customize it. And they're going to get a great gift. Over 30 million customers have trusted Zazzle with their most important gifts. Yours is next. We did ours and it's great. Telling you, they loved it. It was a mug with a dog on it. So simple. Yeah. And like I invented the wheel, it was amazing.

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Run your business smarter with square. Get started today. Now back to the show. So after the fire, he went to a friend's house in Millersburg so he could watch the fire on television. It's a huge blaze and he was like, well, there's constant local coverage of this. Let's watch this. So he's in jail. March of 2004, because that was July 2003. And then he gets worse somehow if you could want, if you, I don't know how you can go to jail and make it worse, but he did. Yeah. Here's the headline from the newspaper kidnapping added to list of cooks charges. Who did he take? Well, that who he took it's who he wanted to take. He's already charged with arson finally now. Now he's accused of plotting to kidnap two women in an attempt to get bond money. Two. He's going to kidnap people to get ransom money so he can use it to spring himself on bond. Think about that. Do you ever heard of that one before?

That's crazy. That's you have too much time. Robin yourself to pay nobody. Pay nobody. Yeah. Robin Peter to fucking shit on Paul's chest. It makes no sense. Robin Peter to do Paul's time. It's so weird. You're not getting out. So he's got to appear in front of a judge on two charges of conspiracy to commit kidnapping. That's not great. He's accused of writing to someone he met in jail. Somebody came into the jail while he was in there waiting. This person was in there for like 30 days for a minor, they called it in the newspaper quote, a minor felony. You know, a small, a tiny fellow. Yeah, apparently. So this guy was getting out in 30 days. So Maddie was like, hey, do me a favor. He's writing to this guy asking him to kidnap the two women, get the ransom and then bail him out with it because that's a foolproof plan. That'll work. You already can't vote. So good. Do this for me. How about this part? Yeah.

This guy, by the way, the minor felon, he gets these letters asking them to commit a major felony. He's like, I have a level of felon that I'm comfortable with and it's not this high up. It's a much lower level felon than this. He took the letters to his probation officer and told on the, on Monty. Wow. He's like, we're not that good, our friends. The fuck are we doing here? So rather than that close, so rather than just busting him for that right there, the, the probation officer gave it to a sheriff's detective, Jeff Campos. This Campos had said, no, go ahead and respond to him. Tell him no problem. Let's set up a meeting and we're going to set up a meeting. So they set up a meeting with undercover officers at the jail. This guy said, come back to the jail and bring your kidnap or friend with you and we'll just meet at Visiting Day and we'll set this up.

Okay. This is all really brilliant. One officer posed as a bail bondsman and the other officer posed as the man's cousin. That's how they did. I'm going to commit a felony so I brought my cousin with me and my bail bondsman. So Monty Cook proposed kidnapping the women. One is the wife of a mastercraft employee and the other one is the wife of an old friend. Just kidnapping random people for ransoms ranging from 70,000 to hundreds of thousands of dollars, depending on his mood. What he was talking about at the time. They said, quote, we were notified by a private individual who'd been receiving some fairly disturbing correspondence from Mr. Cook. This person brought the letters in. We followed up with an undercover officer coming to the jail and meeting to discuss with Mr. Cook the plans he detailed in the letters. So the officer posed as his cousin and said that, yeah, you know, we'll talk about it. They said that Cook willingly talked to the undercover officer who got the evidence on

her recording. So believable. Idiot. Cook wanted the would be kidnappers to abduct these women from their homes, pull them from their beds and then hold them for money, which is crazy. One of them, they lived in two different cities, two of these women. They went out like they were in the same house. They said, grab that one and then this one. The two women were acquainted with Cook and the prosecutor here said, I think he believed the individuals may have sums of money enough enough to accomplish his plan. Cook told the undercover instructions on getting the ransom money and told him not to hurt the victims. This is just for money. Get me out of here. I'm not looking at anybody. He said, we believe he was trying to acquire enough money to post bond to be released and probably flee the area. You would assume what an unbelievable plot. What a dumb fucking plot. Yeah. That's again a guy with way too much time on his hand sitting in jail going, hmm. And way too few brain cells evidently because that's not going to work.

Way too few IQ points and too much time. Too much time. Too little smarts and you're going to end up with some dumb shit. So he scheduled to stand trial on the arson and burglary charges, which could result in prison sentences up to 20 years and eight years respectively. And now these new charges can carry up to 50 more years in prison if convicted. So what he's just going to ask you, this is this is why so much. Which is what he's doing is like, yeah, you can get this guy is dangerous. He should not be on the street. He should be doing 78 years. Yes. This is what he comes up with as a solution to his problem that he got himself in to do a huge problem that cost $7.5 million. Because he wanted to stalk his wife more. That's crazy. Right. He knew she wasn't in there. He wasn't even there. It's fucking incredible. So yeah, he wanted evidence. He thought this was the perfect time to break into the plant because no one's there. Yeah. He's working in the factory. So the prosecutor said he's incredibly foolish trying to plan a conspiracy from a jail

cell. He, you're not a mob boss. This is not going to work. You don't have people that are working for you. He said, you know, we're going to nice criminals. No, he said, obviously we knew he was dangerous because of the arson. But now he's suggested doing something even more serious. And then he also said, I know he really thought he was going to get away with it. He really thought this would work. Monty's a moron. I think it's safe to say he's a fucking moron. So in court, he's got, I mean, he's on recording talking to two cops, giving them specific and really detailed kidnapping instructions. Take two women and spring them from the joint. So he's got to plead guilty. I mean, otherwise he's going to jail forever. He's never getting out. So he pleads guilty to a class B felony of arson, a class C felony of burglary, then in the separate case, pleaded guilty to two counts of class B felony conspiracy to commit criminal confinement, which I guess is a little underkin. It's kidnapping without the stank on it there.

Yeah. So during sentencing here, the prosecutor said, I want a 39 year sentence. Don't care if you bloody said that the destruction of property, destruction of lives and the destruction of an industry in our town. This is like a terrorist act, basically, they're saying, right? You put 350 people at a work in a small town. Like that's crazy. Yeah. He's about to make this place a tourist destination for bikers only. Yeah. Absolutely. Now think about this. This is 2004. He shows photos in court, the prosecutors, big blown up side by side photos of the burned out factory and buildings that have been destroyed and are in Baghdad during the Iraq war. Of course. They look exactly the same to me. Yeah. That's crazy. Surprisingly, they break out the World Trade Center picks. No, a pile of rubble. You see a difference? He's a terrorist. Someone's paying for 9-11 and I propose it's Maddie Cook. That's what I'm saying right now. I had to say.

Yeah. The towers at least left across. I don't see it across here. God doesn't love us. We're all fucked. We're all fucked. Sorry. So the factory owner, Clifton Reynolds, this fucking part owner of MasterCraft, he said he had extensive loss of property and equipment lost to his employees, lost to his suppliers, vendors, everybody. If you have an order waiting, it's not going to be ready for a while. But that way, he noted also that his personal loss. He said the building was his father's dream and he took over for his father and he's built it up and he said he was proud of his employee base and wanted to settle in ships, ships, Hwana or ship, Shwana, whatever it is. The factory had to move to South Poplar Street in Lagrange and to find another place to be because they'd have to rebuild a 30,000, 5,000 square foot factory. So the prosecution says let's do 39 years without any suspended and order him to repay damages as restitution, seven and a half million dollars in damages.

That's good enough. Yeah. For a guy who delivers RVs. That'll work. He said to set the record straight 39 years and jail is warranted considering all he has done. His defense attorney said, come on. I mean, the guy could be Sherry Burnett building down, put a whole industry out of business. But it was in a fit of passion. So let it all fall to him. Yeah. He loves real hard. He just loves hard and the conspiracy charges that he said that's how they were construed. It could be construed as entrapment if you really think about it. So that shouldn't even be on here. You know, he pled guilty to it, but let's be realistic. If we really went to court, we could say that was probably entrapment. Who knows if that would even stand and his mental state was compromised. And he also challenged the amount of damages stressed by the prosecution saying that I was less than that. It wasn't seven and a half million. That's a overblown estimate. And then also says that he should give him concurrent sentences, not consecutive sentences

before the kidnapping plots and the arson. They should just all go together rather than laying them out like that. Monty passed a talk. He has to say something during sentencing. Show your passion, Monty. He has to sit there. He said that, quote, if I could change everything I would, I'm extremely sorry, apologize to my family, especially my daughter for putting them through this. Unbelievable. They say, you sir, may fuck off four years at the Indiana Department of Corrections for the burglary. That's just the burglary. Twenty years for arson. Those are concurrent. So twenty years. And in the conspiracy to commit criminal confinement, he was ordered to serve an extra fifteen years twice. So thirty years altogether for those. So basically they gave him, when it all adds up, they, but it was thirty years, but then they broke it. He said, I'll do it concurrent because he was saying, like, I could lay them out, but I'm going to do it this way. So basically it's thirty five years is what he got.

Twenty years. And then fifteen years basically. So that's what he's got. Thirty five years. The prosecutor said, I think Judge Brown was very fair considering the destruction. And that's that. Now the 2018 here is when he gets out of jail. So he's in for fifteen years. He does half the time, basically. That's what he's got. He gets out. And then that's when he's hanging out around here, helping David Brumley fix up his Mustang and, you know, hanging out doing housework and delivering RV parts because what else is he going to do? He just got out of prison for being one of the worst people in the area. Like everyone in the area, he's the guy. Everyone's got to be mad at it. Yeah. I went to high school at this one guy who burned down that whole factory. I went to high school with that guy. Remember him? Like that's what they're all talking about. Jerk. Almost ruined it. October 31st, 2018, David Brumley gets a bank loan. His furnace broke. Yeah. And that's one of those things that you need a new furnace.

You need an, it's October in Indiana. Right. It's in November, tomorrow. You better get cash. Taking out a loan out. That's brutal, man. It's brutal. But that's, that's how so many people live. How many years? Oh, God. Was that, I remember sitting in terror of something like that breaking, like I can't fix it. He gets this $5,000 loan to fix his furnace from the bank. Then the next day he doesn't show up for work. Strange. He's a pretty dependable guy. The next day he doesn't show up for work. On November 2nd. This furnace has taken a long time to install. Wild. So that's a Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. He doesn't come to work. So that's odd. Then Saturday, November 3rd, 2018 is when they decide where is he? Somebody calls to get a welfare check on him. They don't even know if he's home. So check it out. So it's a Saturday at about 1 p.m. and officers go to his residence. I will give his exact address, but it's West South Street for a welfare check.

When they enter the home, first of all, they see that the Mustang is not in the garage. Oh. So they're like, okay, maybe he took the Mustang somewhere. Not like him at all to do this, but three day ride in a Mustang. That's expensive. Three day Stang Rides going for. Then they open the door to his house because they have to do a welfare check to make sure that someone asked for it. And in the entry room of from Lee's home, they find scraps of black electrical tape and clear packaging tape. Little pieces ripped off. The scraps in it everywhere. But that's funny. They also find a cardboard box right up there by the front door, containing a white disposable dust mask, multiple used zip ties to belt loops from a pair of blue jeans. Just the loops. One of which had a zip tie fasten to it tightly. These are all very strange things that they're finding. Then they go into the bedroom. But it's all the things that somebody with a Mustang has. You got to have a lot of zip ties.

You got to have zip ties. Yeah, I got to have those. Put it back together. I don't know why you would zip tie a belt loop. That doesn't make sense. No, let's your seat belt, bro. It's a lot of weird shit. So they go into his bedroom and they find David in there. He's seen better days. Let's put it that way. He's been here for three days and it's not good. Oh, shit. His body is kind of wedged between the bed and the wall, like in a bad motel room, you know. Yeah. And his head is covered by, this they can't even see his face. I don't even know if it's him at first. His head is covered by a pillow case and a black plastic garbage bag. Oh, no. It's horrifying. The pillow case was secured over his head by black electrical tape, which was wrapped around his neck. This is a nightmare. Fucking night worse. Then the garbage bag was secured over the pillow case. He made sure that David couldn't chew through it or something. That was secured over the pillow case by clear packaging tape, which was wrapped around this face. Oh, no. So imagine finding this.

This would be a disturbing fucking thing to find this poor guy. You don't expect that whoever did that gives a fuck whether this person lives or dies. Well, no, they're trying to kill him, obviously. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. You can't breathe through that. No, no. He also had electrical tape wrapped around tightly around his right wrist and he was wearing a pair of blue jeans with two missing belt loops. Yeah. Hey, look at that. We sell the clothes. Yep. And an autopsy reveals that he died from his fixia due to ligature neck compression and suffocation. So they didn't just suffocate him. Put that out of the struggle about. They just ran you on too. God damn it. This is the best line in the whole story that I read. I don't even know why a reporter would put this. His death was ruled a homicide. No shit. Really? You think? Well, I guess if you saw what happened to like the Kung Fu guy, you'd probably think something. He couldn't have done that to himself. Oh, that made him come. Shit. OK, never mind.

I guess he did. Yeah. I hate when they fucking just say he died of strangulation. Well, and we're not investigating. Just say that. The man's mom reads this. Yeah. Accidental death will work just fine. Yeah. It's all good. I don't need to know all the details. I really don't. I mean, I want to, but I don't need to. Is what I'm saying. It is funny. I agree. Exactly. It is good for jokes for 30 years. But besides that, his poor mother. Yeah. Mother's got to be hurt. So his friends and family now, people that know him reacting, no David Brumley here, Brumley's childhood friend Sandra said of his death that it's on everyone's mind. She said, I think it's suspicious, but the cops are keeping hush hush about it. We don't know what they know. That's when it first came out. They didn't tell everybody, hey, he was found in all this weird shit on his head and everything like that. They just said he was found dead in his house. And we think it's homicide. She said it was her brother who noticed Brumley was missing several days of work in a row. And he's a one who notified the police.

He said, she said, my brother called his brother and he sent some of his friends down there to check on him. They called the police. Then everything got roped off and no one was allowed in. They said, then everything stopped as far as what we know. Now publicly, they said it was that they wasn't publicly there. They're really not saying anything about his death or any of the details, although they're saying as he was found and they have ruled it a homicide. Yeah. That's it. She has her own theory of what went on because why not? They like find a weird people named Kelly's theory. Let's see what Sandra's her name, Sandra Kelly. She said, I know they're calling it a death investigation, but I believe he got murdered, but I don't know that for sure. You got it. She also said. If they say death and investigation, they think that too. They're pretty sure. That's why they're looking. They're pretty fucking sure of it. Yeah. If they found them at the hometown buffet or at the Golden Corral Holden's chest on the

ground, they go, that's probably heart attack. We probably could clear this one up pretty quick. We don't very little investigation. No. So this woman said here that this death has left the whole town terrified, but she thinks if they find the missing car, that'll lead to the answers. That's the guy. She is real good. She is a detective there. Somebody, Sandra, swear this bitch in. She knows everything. Yeah. Now, November of 2018, this month right now, he's wanted, Monty Cook has wanted for several things, by the way. There's two arrest warrants issued for him in November by judges in Randolph County. But November 5th, he was charged with theft, a level six felony carrying a standard one year jail term. Four days later, he was charged with two counts of arson, more arson. He likes to burn shit this guy. Absolutely. Yep. The more serious of the arson charges is a level four felony with a standard six year sentence. In that case, he's accused of all the way back on July 25th, few months ago, setting

fire to a house. He was in the middle of buying on a contract. So he, I can't imagine why the guy wouldn't give him the price he wanted or something trying to negotiate. And he, that's all of a way to back out of an agreement. Either I get it for my price or I burn it to the ground. Either I get my wife or I burn it to the ground. That's his answer. He was sentenced to 35, only did 15. So he's technically on the hook for those other 20 bucks. Exactly. Right? Yes. He's in the end of it. They can't find him now. That's the thing. He's charged with this and warrants are out, but they don't have them in possession. They don't know where the hell he is. So that's pretty crazy. That was in the 600 block of South High Street, by the way, the house he burned down. He was charged with auto theft on November 2nd, resulting in a third or active arrest warrant for him. He's described as five foot nine, 200 pounds, brown hair, green eyes wearing glasses, and quote, recently seen limping on his right side. Okay.

December 8th, the police finally released for a whole month. They say nothing publicly about David Brumley's death, nothing. Then on December 8th, they were, I finally identify the person of interest they've been talking about for the last month. We have a person of interest, but no suspects. They say this person of interest is Monte Cook. And he's got a shitload of felony warrants out for both theft and arson. So if you see him don't approach him, but definitely give a little ringy ding to the old police force there. Now what evidence do they have on him? Do they have any evidence that he did this or they just think he's a bad guy? Yeah. Right away, you'd go, well, he didn't burn the house down. That's a sign that it might not be him. There's a dead person. That's not his thing, usually. Not so far. Then they find fingerprints on these scraps of tape that are identified as Monte Cook's. But then again, I mean, that's bad that that's a tape around him. He's there all the time working. Maybe he held the roll of tape, but then they found partial DNA profiles on the dust mask

that was determined to be consistent with both David Brumley's DNA and a very strong match for Monte Cook's DNA. That's not good. But again, he's there all the time. Maybe they were sanding something out and they, you know, he put a mask on a mask. Being ever exactly the who knows if they had got how many masks they had who knows. So as part of this though, police obtained the internet browsing history associated with two Google email addresses that Monte Cook has known to use. And that's where we get the fun stuff. Here we go. One week. It is awesome. Here's some searches he made in the two weeks before David Brumley's death. Okay. Here's, give you a few jobs outside the US. That's fine. I mean, you're not allowed to leave even the state, I'm sure. Whatever. Maybe you're just curious. Probably have to ask to leave your house. Probably. How to disappear off the grid. Okay. Getting worse. But maybe he's just interested in conservation. Maybe that's all it is. Maybe he just doesn't want to, you know, put any more shit in the world.

Who knows? Living off grid doesn't necessarily mean leaving town. No, no, that could just mean I'm going to live in that field and not be hooked up to County. You know, water for water. Exactly. Who knows? Maybe he's just trying to be self-sufficient. It gets a little weirder though. How to get fake social security cards. I don't know. I don't know a law abiding answer to that one. I don't know that there's a Google search that's going to give you that answer. Probably not. I mean, maybe the dark web or something. Is there any poison which cannot be detected? Oh my god. Judging by how David was killed, I'm going to say that the answer is no to that one probably. I don't think he could get anyway. That's what he came up. Yeah. You're right. That his second thought is, well, I can burn it obviously because that's this guy. Whether you can get DNA from a burned body quote unquote. So he said, if I kill them, burn the house down, can they get DNA? Then how fast does it take a body to burn? Well, that depends on how it shows.

We've done a lot of shows. Takes a long time because they're not going to get it that hot. No, you need to have a goddamn incinerator. Yeah. Like at the funeral home. Thousands of degrees. Thousands of degrees. Yeah, bodies do not burn up easy. Can you dissolve a body in acid? I happen to know that. For a fact, the answer is yes. Yes. Because I know a guy, thanks for guys, who's a long time too, who's brother. It was like kind of a specialty in that. They had buckets and they would dissolve body parts. He's going to get a real strong acid. Well, you got to be patient. That's the only thing I have in bucketism is shit. Then he looked up 2004 Mustang, but it's a 2006 Mustang. He's just confused. He's just up trunk size in 2004 Mustang. What? CC up maybe. I'll kidnap him and take him somewhere. Maybe I'll do this. Then cabins in the Tennessee mountains. Okay. Okay. What is that? That's before the murder. Yeah. This show, Small Town Murder, is sponsored by BetterHelp. BetterHelp.com.

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That's pretty straightforward. Winchester, Indiana, murder investigation. How can I buy a legit social security number at a fake passport? He's still hasn't gotten that one yet. He's still going that one he's working on. He's got to get out of here. This is my favorite search of all time. I don't know what he expected to lean from this. What result could possibly you could you get from this? Quote, how do run from the law with no money? He basically said how to buy a house with no money down. But he said like, how can I get a there is no way to run from the law with no money. That's the answer to that. Hide in the holes in the woods. I don't know what to tell you. I do appreciate and enjoy the spiral that he's on. It is very fun. It's hilarious. Because he's getting to, you know, it's like you can see the holes in the wheels. You can literally see the gears spinning. It's hilarious. And that last part is like, oh, I have no money.

How do I run, how do I buy this and I don't even have any money? Never mind. How do I run without money? That's not there. You end up getting to the very first Google search you should have plugged. Yeah. Well, then he's looking for inspiration, obviously, with quote, fugitives on the run the longest. He's like, what did they do? Maybe I can match that up. Then he looks up Monty Cook, Indiana, to see if there's any like articles about anybody looking for him. And then he said, what's the longest people have stayed hid that were wanted for murder? So never mind fugitives, specific fugitives of murder. Maybe we'll got, he's got to hone it. Then he visited websites with news articles with these headlines. Police looking for Mustang taken from Dead Man's home in Winchester. Police looking for vehicle missing from deceased person's residents and man wanted in connection with death investigation in Winchester. Wow. So he's reading online all about the investigation as much as he can.

And by the way, two days before the murder, Cook's girlfriend, yes, this guy has a girlfriend. Stop it. This dude, it is 50s, who's just gotten out of prison for fucking arson for all this time. No money. You know the fact you whipped a bipa bipa bipa bipa bipa. Keep it going. It's a numerous. Why he should be beaten off every day. I do not want to hear anybody say they can't find somebody. Lower your standards and find someone because they're out there. That's it. That's their out there. This is on the road out there. So she reported that he was missing and possibly on the run at that time because of an ongoing arson related investigation. Yeah. So if that's not enough, that's pretty good proof. And the DNA is decent proof. But if you got a really good lawyer in there, it's possible. Probably, yeah. Then they also have bank footage from November 1st, 2018. That's the day after Brumley got the bank loan and was last seen alive.

Security cameras and a Winchester bank recorded Cook depositing Brumley's loan check into his own checking account. He stole money. The man didn't even have. He stole, he just had her like wrote it over to him and deposit it in his fucking shit. Or he got a cashier check or whatever it was. Is there a scum here, crime? This is complete. This dude is a complete piece of shit scumbag, isn't he? The worst person. He sucks so bad. So cameras at other Winchester locations also recorded Cook driving Brumley's Mustang using Brumley's debit card to make purchases and withdraw cash within three days. He had spent them withdrawn over $2,500 of Brumley's money as well. This is shocking. This is fucking amazing. So he went in, deposited the check into Brumley's checking account because otherwise he couldn't get it and then just used his card to use all the money that he wanted to. Unbelievable. So the police are looking for Monty. They can't find him.

Through December, they're looking for him. They can't find him. The car is found finally. The car is found 2006 Ford Mustang GT found in Marion, Arkansas. Oh, it went the other way. About 12 miles northwest of Memphis. So that's where that was found. Then Monty's car, a couple days later, was found, his pickup truck was found abandoned in Winchester. So he now he's got, those are the two vehicles he had access to. Where are they? He is gone. They're looking for him for about five months. They can't find this fucking guy. He has no money. He's got no connections. It's a Tennessee, right? Absolutely the complete opposite. What? He is in the fucking desert. That's where he is. He's in here. Why? He's in Arizona is where he is. Of course he is. He said, where will I fit in? Oh, that's the scumniest fucking town in America. How about there? Just down the river from Laughlin. They'll look at me and go, well, at least he's not picking meth sores. What a good guy.

I'll get any job I want in Kingman. Wow. Well, April 19, 2019 in Kingman, he is arrested. At that point. Unbelievable. He's charged in Indiana with a count of murder, two counts of a level six, level six, level six felony, a level six felony theft. And one count of a class A misdemeanor theft. Apparently, he's also held in Arizona awaiting the extradition on local charges in Arizona, taking an identity of another possession of marijuana and credit card theft. That's how they caught him. That's how they got him. Well, what he did, you know how he got to Arizona, he hitchhiked a ride from Arkansas to Nevada with Alexander Gross, who's a guy that cook met online. Another guy traveling. It was like, hey, people looking for people to ride with them places so they don't get bored. So that helped them. So they drove them up, staying down their park, didn't jump in his car, jumped in his car. And Nevada cooked robbed Gross at knife point and forced him to drive him to Arizona,

then forced Gross to rent him a hotel room before letting him go. Oh my. That's how they caught him. This guy went to the cops and said, yeah, no, that guy, I know he said, I know what room he's in. You can just go get him. I had to rent the room. It's under my name. Trust me. Go ask for me. So this guy is a jerk off would be the best, a dangerous jerk off. I think would be the best way to put it, right? I can't believe how dangerous he is. Think about that. Everything is above him. Nothing is beneath him. Yeah. Above, above, above, underneath. You're, you're, you're right. He'll do anything. Nothing's above him or below him. It doesn't matter. He's, he's a fucking mess. Those searches of just the, what about this thought? How about that? What do we, no, that's a bad idea. Okay. The viral of desperation is, is very evident and he is willing to do absolutely anything to any survive and not be caught. Imagine if you're this guy's girlfriend, you're like, you're like, you're, you're,

both dodged. Holy shit. I would have been dead. Oh, yeah. No shit. So this is this guy, all the things he done, that the increasing desperation, I'll kill the guy. This is all for what? Right? No, he got Monty's Mustang and spent $2,500 on his money. That's all he got out of that. James, the money that, he did not even have, it was not his money, he borrowed that. He had to pay that ship back with interest. Right. And he's just pissing it away on things. That is the scumniest thing I've ever heard of. That's, that's terrible. And I mean, just to kill him over that is like, to kill somebody for, for borrowed money. Yeah. I think if it was like, you know, we see all the time, oh, they had a $800,000 insurance policy in 1995. Well, that's a reason to kill somebody, I guess, that desperate for money. But this is just, I'd like to go on a little spending spree for the next couple of days. So I'll kill my friend for it. That's wild.

So a couple of couches I've had in my eye on. That's what this is. This is, this is such a tiny amount of money that a man didn't even have, that he was so, this was to keep him from dying this winter. That's what the money was. So you got a couch with cup holders in it. What? They have the old baby Billy there. Yeah. I got you a couch with cup holders in it. Do it right. I love that. So that's what he's charged with all this shit. I can't believe that's how he got to fucking Arizona. That is, who knew that that was a website? I mean, I guess I was a website for everything. There's a website for every, no, if there's websites for that people, you know, to stare at people's feet. There's got to be ones for, I need a person. I can. Someone to hang out with while I drive. Like that seems, that seems like more reasonable than I just want to stare at some weird, whatever the fuck's like. Seemake.com seems like it's been established long before. Feetmate.com. Yes. Or like, you know, I like goiters.org or whatever the fuck, you know, some weird jerking

off to people's groats or something. I have no idea. So they go to trial. He does not plead. He says, you don't have evidence I did this. What? He's saying the stuff you found, the tape, the physical evidence you found, that could have just been for me being over there. You don't know it's not even though it's on tape that's wrapped around the guy's head, both kinds of tape. But still, I'll give you the benefit of the doubt on the tape. That's fine. Then the fucking, the internet searches. Yeah. I mean, maybe he's just curious. Maybe he's a curious little guy. That's all it is. Maybe he's just aware of more things than the cops give him credit for being aware of. Maybe he sees things and he goes, I wonder and looks it up. He's just, he's a knowledge seeker. That's all it is. Well, what about the surveillance of them? That's the problem. Caching a check when the guy was dead. That's the problem. How did you get? How'd you get his furnace money in your hand and then spend it, not on his furnace, you

know what I'm saying? That's kind of where it all falls apart. Even if you wanted to be the most pro defendant, you'd still be like, well, that's kind of hard to explain there. Money that he doesn't have, there's no way he can give it to you. And they also say circumstantial evidence is fine. You know, a lot of times you hear defense attorneys say this case is totally circumstantial. And then the prosecution will go up and go, yeah, it is. It's a shitload of circumstantial evidence, which those circumstances don't happen like that generally. So those circumstances are crazy to be coincidences. Yeah. If they found like, you know, some of Brumley's blood on this guy's shirt, that would be physical evidence. That would be worth a giant pile of circumstantial evidence. They have to make a huge pile of it to equal one piece of physical evidence. But if you have enough of it, it's fine. He'd have to be in the room while Brumley's being strangled and him to like throw him the check and say, spend this for me. spend the money to be. Yeah.

And here's my debit card too. Yeah. Just take my wallet. You're going to need this. You're going to need someone better live it up because I could never, since I can't, I want you to do it for me. Live for me, debit, live. Yeah. Yeah. Tock holidays. Yeah. Exactly. Get room service. Why? Thank you for being my friend. Yep. So come on, live it up, man. Live it up. Why, that's all he wanted. Take that pale lady and get room service. That's right. You take that fucking pump as asked lady and get room service. So verdict comes in. They find him while he's accused of murder, auto theft and two counts of theft for the different, you know, money things. He's found guilty of auto theft, guilty of two counts of theft and guilty of murder as well. So that's everything.

He does not testify at all or make any statement during the sentencing. Is that right? Doesn't seem wise, probably, but he doesn't say shit. Judge says something though. They say you say may fuck off 62 years from murder. Yeah. Four years, two years for theft and they're consecutive. So 64 years is what you got there. Okay. It's awfully lenient in it. It's 64 years and I believe he has to do all of it. Oh, and he's in his 50s. And he's like, yeah, so it's not good. Or he has to do like 90% of it or some 95%. It's a lot. Yeah, wait a year. His release date. It's, he's in, he's going to be there for the remainder. Let's just put it that way. The prosecutor said the browsing history of this cold blooded killer painted a clear picture of someone planning to commit murder to dispose of a human body and to evade the authorities, authorities by going off the grid. Yeah.

Combined with other evidence, this kind of internet activity is very legitimate piece of the puzzle. I'm proud of our team of our team for helping ensure justice in this case and holding a violent criminal accountable under the law. The arson and all the other shit that he had when they were looking for. They just dismissed all of that. They're like, he's wipe it all. It doesn't matter. It doesn't. He's in for 64 years. Fuck that house. So 2023, he appeals on the under the guys. He what? He appeals got to appeal direct appeal. I guess. Insufficient evidence is what he claims. Yeah. Wow. That's ballsy. Um, he said the sentence was inappropriate in late of, in light of the nature of the offenses and his character. Oh, the nature of these fences are brutal murder. And his character is a piece of shit who had burnt a factory down because he's mad at his wife. He's a scumbag. Yeah. Terrible guys. A sentient piece of shit is less dangerous. Yeah. Absolutely. You can at least trust it probably. You can smell it.

Come on. You know, it's covered. They said when reviewing the sufficiency of the evidence to support a criminal conviction, we neither reway evidence nor judge witness credibility. This is just we only consider the evidence supporting the judgment that he reasonable inferences that can be drawn from such evidence. We will affirm if there is a substantial evidence of probative value. So they said the state was required to prove that he knowingly or intentionally killed Brumley. Cook acknowledges that Brumley was murdered but claims the state failed to prove it was him that did it. Oh, yeah. I can't. He was murdered. Sure. I'll buy that. But, yeah. What me, you know, it's only one other person's fingerprints on this man. What me? But we have you on camera. We went full shaggy. I'm the shaggy murder. That's why I'm unbelievable. It's crazy. Um, he said there's no direct evidence that he was ever at Brumley's home when the murder occurred. He said, therefore, there's reasonable inference that he simply stole the car, debit

card and loan check after finding Brumley dead. That's his, that's his excuse. I went in there to see him. He was dead. So I just stole all his shit and ran away. He just, that's not great either. We're talking about character. Do you, right? Do you think that's a thing that he presented to his lawyer and his lawyer was like, there's not a fucking chance I'm doing that? He's like, well, it's either that or murder or so we're going with, you're just an opportunistic thief. That's what we're going with. How about that? So the law said here that murder conviction may be sustained on circumstantial evidence alone. The evidence need not negate every reasonable hypothesis of innocence. Just has to be, they just need to be short to you. That's it. That's what's all it is. So they said the evidence supports a reasonable inference that he's the person that killed him and cooks claimed the contrary is merely an invitation to re-way the evidence, which is not what we do here. So that's it. Was the sentence appropriate? They said, seem like it.

They said, we give substantial deference to the trial court's sentencing decision. The trial court's judgment should prevail unless it's overcome by compelling evidence, portraying an positive light, the nature of the offense and the defendant's character. Well, swing it a miss, swing it a miss. Piece of shit did something terrible. Feels like it was light, to be honest. Exactly. Could have got worse. Could have got life without or at least life. The trial court said that he had a lack of remorse, but they said no, the lack of remorse was merely an outward manifestation of his innocence. How could he be remorseful for something he didn't do? Well, I didn't do it. Duh. I'd suggest. I'm a feats of shit. Yeah. Yeah. The judge wrote, neither the nature of cooks offenses nor his character convinces us that his 64-year sentence is inappropriate. She said he carried out a premeditated, unprovoked and cruel murder of his longtime acquaintance before stealing his car and money and fleeing across the country. His beloved car. He said, what's more, these offenses are just another chapter in Cook's alarming history

of criminal conduct. He said, I don't know what he did before the fire back in 2003 because he was under a full grown adult by then. I bet he had a shitload of charges. I looked them up. I couldn't find any, but I mean, that's pre-2000, a lot of shit. Small towns, not computerized. So they said, neither the nature of this nor his character convinces us that's an inappropriate sentence. We think it's just right. You can fuck off. And they said his internet browsing history really showed that what he was doing. Yeah. He burned down mastercraft on your first criminal attempt. Fuck no. No. So he's incarcerated at the Indiana State Prison, the president of Michigan City. He has a projected release date of October 2066 when he will be a hundred and seven years old. That's his first parole hearing. I think I'm saying. I think we're going on that guy. Yeah. I would say, Bucco 7. If he does make it to a hundred and seven, I say let him out and just watch him. Watch him try. I don't say let him out.

I say push his eggs. Get him out. No, you have to leave now. Get the fuck out. But everyone I know is dead. That's all right. Get the fuck out. But I'd have nowhere to go. Get the fuck out. Green mile. Sorry. I know what to tell you. Light a fire for warmth. What the fuck do you want for us? I mean, good luck. Look, in the past, we've had like women and children killed. Obviously, that's a terrible, terrible individual. Yeah. This guy went and killed a man who was old took a check. He didn't even, money didn't even have. Yeah, no. And then went and blew half of it in a second. And then what? He was going to do way worse. Oh, man. It's dangerous. It's a dangerous guy. The house, the murder house still stands, by the way. It's occupied and it's, the zest of it is $114,000 on it. So. It's hot for cheap. Two bedroom, one bath, 1600 square foot. Oh, there it is. Detach your honor. Probably was not killing it. The poor man was, he just had his prized Mustang. That's it. That's what he spent his money on. It's all he had. So there you go, everybody.

That is Winchester, Indiana. Yeah. And just a twisted tail of a huge gaping ass, all of a guy. What a monster. Just a bad fucking guy. And for some reason, Hawaiian music in Indiana, whatever it is. And we don't know if we can have him figure it out. There you go, everybody. Hope you enjoyed that. If you did, get on whatever app you're on and give us five stars. Tell you that right now. Netflix, two thumbs up. If you're watching on Netflix and you want to listen to the show, it's on. And anywhere you can listen to podcast and there are, this is our 738th episode. So good luck. Catch up. And we've heard from people in the live show. That was great. People discovered us from Netflix. So thank you. There's people that have never listened to the show that came to the live show because they've seen us on Netflix. And I was like, that's incredible. That's my point. If that's you, baby boy, do we have some for you? You fucking rule. So thank you. Thank you. Get on the beat. Get on. Find where the rest of these are. That's what I'm talking about. Stop and give me murder.com is where you find those. That's right. Next up is Dallas, October 3rd.

Get your tickets one show that weekend. And that's going to be a special one because that will, it's going to be a brand new live show. And it will be a live show that is from the suburbs of Dallas. So get in there and do that. And then the next time we're on the road, that's October 16th, 17th, San Jose Sacramento. They will be different shows. You can go to both shows and see two different shows. It will be in Terry Town. Those are almost sold out. Few tickets left there on the 13th of November 14th in Boston or in Medford outside of Boston at the Chimaliay. Those tickets are available as well. Get them right now. Shut up and give me murder.com. Patreon.com slash crime in sports, all the bonus material. Anybody five dollars a month or above, you get it all. Everything. First of all, you'll subscribe. You'll get almost 400 back bonus episodes immediately. Then new ones every other week when crime in sports, one small town murder. You get them all, baby. Everything. This week, crime in sports, it's just a murder story. So it's no sports. The only sports angle to it is it's the guy's family who was killed happens to be a minor

league baseball player. Great. Otherwise, it's just a horrible murder story with a crazy murderer who gets caught in a fucking insane way. So that's fun. That's for small town murder. We're going to do an old timey, the trick or treat murder. It's called, and it's not the one where the guy killed his kid or the neighborhood kid. It's not that. Don't waste a reason ever for me to look at my fucking swizzle sticks. Yeah. This is a weird diabolical crazy plot that just happened to be centered around the distraction of Halloween. It's crazy stuff. We'll talk about that because Halloween's coming up. Patreon.com slash crime in sports. You get a shout out at the end of the regular show and you get everything we put out. All of our shows add free with your Patreon. Thank you so much. Patreon.com slash crime in sports. Do that. Keep coming back and seeing us. Put it up and give me murder.com is there if you want to find any information about us or crime in sports or your stupid opinions or any other damn thing you want. Tickets to live shows. That's where it's all at, everybody. So get in there and do that. And until next week, everybody, it's been our pleasure.

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