0:01

The views and opinions expressed in this podcast

0:03

are solely those of the authors and participants

0:06

and do not necessarily represent those

0:08

of iHeart Media, Tenderfoot TV, or

0:10

their employees. This series

0:13

contains discussions of violence and

0:15

sexual violence. Listener discretion

0:17

is advised. Previously,

0:21

an algorithm journalist

0:23

Thomas Hargrove developed a computer program

0:26

to try to detect serial killers. We

0:29

selected ten major cities that appeared

0:31

to have a suspicious number of algorithm

0:33

identified murders, and Gary

0:36

was one of those ten. Hargrove

0:38

reached out to police in Gary, Indiana

0:41

and told them about a suspicious cluster

0:43

of strangulations in the area, but

0:45

he didn't hear back. He did,

0:47

however, get through to the coroner's office,

0:50

which assigned one of its corners assistants

0:53

to look at the issue. She

0:55

totally bought into the idea that these could

0:57

be connected murders and was trying

0:59

to have a conversation with the Gary Police

1:01

department. So what was going

1:03

on in Gary, Indiana And

1:06

why weren't the Gary police talking to

1:08

Hargrove from

1:10

iHeart Media and Tenderfoot TV. This

1:13

is Algorithm.

1:15

I'm ben Keebrick, Gary

1:20

sits on the sand dunes of Lake Michigan,

1:23

just fifteen miles southeast of downtown

1:25

Chicago. Growing up in Chicago,

1:28

did you have any kind of sense of Gary?

1:30

There's a whole song about Gary in the

1:32

musical The Music Man. Gary,

1:35

Indiana. What a wonderful name.

1:37

That was quite a joke because Gary,

1:39

Indiana was not an attractive place

1:42

to live. The city of Gary was

1:44

founded by the U. S. Steel Corporation

1:46

in nineteen o six to house a

1:48

massive new steel mill. Every

1:51

night, this Fourth of July when the best first go into

1:53

action. And here's your action, Roman

1:56

Candles launching the flexness of the n G.

1:59

Gary shy up like a rocket to meet

2:01

the U. S. Steel Corporation's needs.

2:04

Its population grew to over a hundred

2:06

thousand people by nineteen thirty,

2:08

and it became the second largest city

2:10

in Indiana. The

2:12

steel jobs and Gary paid well and

2:15

didn't require formal education or

2:17

even much English, so it became

2:19

a destination for immigrants, especially

2:21

young men shrouded

2:24

by smoke from the steel mills. It gained

2:26

a reputation both as a city of

2:28

industry but also a city

2:30

of vice, with gambling, prostitution,

2:33

and violence. When

2:35

the Great migration began. Gary Steel

2:38

jobs attracted black workers who

2:40

were leaving the Jim Crow South for better opportunities

2:43

up north, and in nineteen sixty seven,

2:45

Gary became one of the nation's first cities

2:48

to elect a black mayor, Richard

2:50

de Hatcher. This has been one of the most

2:52

significant campaign in the history

2:54

of our city. Marxian

2:57

of years of corrupt machines us

3:00

and did a great day for the city of

3:02

Garret. Gary

3:06

was also the birthplace of Michael Jackson,

3:08

and the Jackson Five released their first single,

3:11

Big Boy, In on

3:13

Gary's own Steel Town Records

3:16

label.

3:20

But just as the U. S. Steel Corporation created

3:23

Gary seemingly overnight, the

3:25

company also left the city and alerch.

3:28

It summed up well in the film Original

3:30

Gangsters. Back in the fifties,

3:33

the community was supported by the U. S. Steel

3:35

Mill. It was damn hard work,

3:37

but people raised their family as well. Then,

3:40

just twenty years later, without warning,

3:43

US Steel shut down the

3:45

mill. First, the workers thought

3:47

it was temporary, but it wasn't. Their

3:50

savings went unemployment ran

3:52

out and that has been the inheritance of the children

3:55

of Gary. Gary's

3:58

story is similar to other Respells cities,

4:00

just more extreme because the whole

4:02

city was built around the steel mill, so

4:05

the loss of steel jobs destroyed

4:07

the local academy. And

4:09

at the same time, many white residents

4:12

fled and took their tax base with them.

4:15

The population shrunk and people

4:17

abandoned their homes, and without

4:19

jobs or money to provide social services,

4:22

crime grew. Throughout the

4:24

nineties, Gary often had the highest

4:26

homicide rate in the nation. And

4:29

that period during the nineties when Gary

4:31

was experiencing this extremely high homicide

4:34

rate, that's the same period where

4:36

Hargrove's algorithms starts detecting

4:38

unsolved strangulations in Gary, and

4:41

that's probably at least part of the reason why

4:43

when Hargrove reached out to the Gary Police

4:45

Department, they didn't respond. The

4:48

police already knew that Gary had too

4:50

many unsolved murders, but

4:52

the department was under resourced. They

4:54

were struggling to investigate recent murders,

4:56

let alone cold cases going back more

4:58

than a decade. But

5:01

when Jackie, the assistant corner, saw

5:03

Hargrove's list, it didn't matter

5:05

to her how old these cases were. It

5:08

was a tragedy that they'd gone unsolved

5:10

in the first place. Hello,

5:16

Hi, this is Ben, I'm the journalist

5:18

that reached out to you. Oh hi, how are

5:21

you? What can I do for you? I

5:23

told Jackie that I was looking into the cold

5:25

cases from Hargrove's algorithm,

5:27

and I wanted to know more about the investigation

5:30

she had done. Back in My

5:32

boss came to me with the latter

5:35

at the time. He asked me

5:37

if I you know, would we didn't look into

5:39

it or whatever? And of course I

5:41

will, you know, I mean, that's what our

5:44

job was. We were supposed to look into

5:46

stuff. So uh. I started

5:48

by pulling the charts because we didn't have no computer

5:51

system to show us that her

5:53

group's algorithm had identified a cluster

5:56

of fifteen strangulations that

5:58

had taken place between nineteen and

6:00

two thousand seven, and all

6:03

of those homicides were listed as

6:05

unsolved. I started

6:07

just making a chart, you know, females,

6:10

where they were found, how they were

6:13

killed. And she looked to see

6:15

what evidence had been collected. Importantly,

6:18

she wanted to know if rape kits had been performed.

6:21

If so, there might be DNA evidence

6:23

that could show if cases were linked to

6:25

each other, were to other cases

6:27

from across the US. As

6:30

she went through the cases, One victim

6:32

stood out to Jackie, the

6:35

two thousand six murder of S. E. Mitchell.

6:38

Mitchell was an eighty four year old woman

6:41

who had been strangled and sexually assaulted

6:43

right outside her own home. You

6:46

don't find that too often. Or somebody raped

6:48

and killed the Graham on their yards. So

6:52

and it reminded Jackie of two other

6:54

recent murders that had stood out to

6:56

her. Both were old women

6:58

who had been sexually assaulted, it and killed

7:00

near their homes. One

7:02

of these murders had taken place in Gary,

7:05

and Jackie had worked on the case personally.

7:08

Another one took place in nearby Hammond,

7:11

and she'd heard about it from a coworker. Yeah,

7:13

it was pretty upsetting that day when I had

7:15

my case and then I found out somebody else had

7:18

one, you know, a town over, and

7:20

then you're like, what in the world. Jackie

7:23

had already wondered if those two cases

7:25

were connected, and now with

7:27

the extra name on Hargrove's list, she

7:29

was even more suspicious. But

7:32

you know, I got hurt and then I got let go. So

7:35

I'm curious and no worries if

7:37

this is too personal, but what what happened?

7:41

Oh, I got hurt at work. We

7:43

were carrying bodies out of a house

7:45

and the other person had dropped

7:47

their end and I hung on and

7:50

it pulled my vertebrae and my neck and busted

7:52

it. I got a cadaver

7:55

bone put in and a plate, and

7:57

then I couldn't go back to work because

7:59

I can't physically do the work. Yeah,

8:02

what happens to people all the time. So you

8:04

know, my idea was, you know, stay positive.

8:06

You can still help people, you know,

8:08

see your grandkids more than you ever could. But

8:13

then you start to look back at this stuff and you

8:15

start to realize how people, you know, they

8:18

could use another head, you

8:20

know, is

8:22

that something you're interested in, like continuing

8:24

looking into this stuff? Oh

8:27

well, yeah, I mean I would love to

8:29

help people find some kind

8:31

of comfort or closure. Working

8:34

in true crime, you hear a lot about

8:36

the concept of closure. Victims

8:38

relatives sometimes express ambivalence

8:41

about the idea, but Jackie

8:43

is speaking from a place of personal experience.

8:46

When she was in college, her niece disappeared.

8:49

She was a Jane Doe. For a long time, we

8:51

didn't know where she was, and so,

8:55

you know, somebody found out and worked

8:57

hard enough to let us know and she went from

8:59

missing person who identify and

9:01

you know that's nice? Yeah,

9:04

did they eventually find the killer?

9:07

You know, they've never arrested no one for her. So

9:10

yeah, I twitched my college around

9:12

and and ended up getting into this. You

9:15

know, I thought I could help some other family

9:19

that would be great. Yeah, so

9:22

you know, you get a a reason

9:24

why you do things. I think, you know, and

9:27

Jackie wonders if there's more that needs

9:29

to be done with her gross list and with

9:31

the research that she did back in I

9:35

hate to see somebody else's kids get killed

9:38

when there's ways it can possibly

9:40

be stopped, you know, if you have a

9:42

pattern or something. I'm sure you know the police

9:44

know how to follow all that. So you're

9:47

saying, your boss kind of like told you to look

9:49

into this. Did you ever like go back

9:51

to him, and

9:54

do you know if that ever like was given

9:56

to the police or Oh

9:58

yeah, I worked. I saw the Gary police

10:01

going over it how much I

10:03

detectives went over it with me.

10:05

My chart mad So they

10:07

were interested in it and they were taking

10:10

it seriously. You felt, well, yeah, I mean,

10:12

if you bring something to the police, they take it serious

10:15

normally. Yeah, Well, it's just because

10:17

her. Grow wasn't sure, so I think hard

10:19

Grow sent them the letter and they

10:21

didn't want to get back to him. Maybe they were

10:23

given hard Grow over harder time. But

10:25

me being at the corner's office and now

10:28

he's working with them, you know, they

10:30

came down to my office more

10:32

than once, I could say that, and sat

10:34

down with me with the file that I had

10:36

pulled and the chart I'd made. They

10:39

did do that. The Gary detectives did come

10:41

down and and see what I had, you

10:43

know, but you know, we're

10:46

not police. I can't only do so much,

10:48

and you don't know what really happens

10:50

in their departments and stuff. Jackie

10:53

wasn't sure what the detectives did with the information

10:56

she'd given them, and she'd still been doing

10:58

research and pulling document mints when she

11:00

injured her back and lost her job. She

11:03

doesn't think any annelis at the coroner's office

11:05

picked up the project once she left.

11:13

In October, Hargrove

11:15

published his story about the algorithm

11:17

and its various findings across the nation.

11:20

The final version included only a

11:22

few lines on Gary about

11:25

the letter Hardgrove sent to police, describing

11:27

strangulations going back to the nineties

11:30

and how the letter had prompted Jackie's investigation,

11:34

and it seemed like that was that a

11:36

set of murders in Northwest Indiana unlikely

11:38

to ever be solved until

11:42

four years later on October, when

11:46

Africa Hardy was strangled, and

11:48

there's cold cases Hargrove had identified

11:51

suddenly didn't seem so cold. I

12:17

want to jump away from the algorithm for a bit

12:19

here and focus on Africa Hardy's

12:21

investigation and how

12:23

her case came to be linked to a serial

12:26

killer. For years,

12:28

very little was known about what happened to Africa

12:31

Hardy. Police never

12:33

released much about their investigation.

12:36

Do you do you know what Indiana law? Is there any

12:38

way to get a copy

12:40

of records like that? I

12:43

have no idea. UM, I don't know what

12:45

the limits are for their open records law.

12:47

UM what Hammond did

12:50

might be available to you if

12:52

you push for it. They

12:54

don't want to talk about it either, I

12:56

assume, because they don't want to embarrass

12:59

their name bring police agency.

13:02

But at the same time it might be an open

13:04

record. I don't know. You

13:06

should try and you should try to find out that would be

13:08

you'd be the first to do that. Last

13:11

April through Indiana's version of

13:13

the Freedom of Information Act. I

13:15

requested all the information related

13:17

to Africa's case and cases that

13:19

could be connected. For five

13:22

months, my request got bounced around

13:24

between the Hammond Police and their legal department.

13:27

I was told they'd have to figure out what,

13:29

if anything, they were allowed to release.

13:32

I wasn't sure if I'd ever get these documents,

13:35

so I tried to interview any and I could who

13:37

was connected to the case. I

13:39

heard stories of conspiracies

13:41

and police and competence, but

13:43

it was hard to sort through what was real and

13:46

what was just a rumor, especially

13:48

because some of the people closest to the case,

13:51

like the officers and the Hammond Police Department,

13:53

had been prohibited from speaking to me on

13:55

the record. Then in

13:57

September, I got an email with the ink.

14:00

It was a dropbox folder with forty

14:03

five gigs worth of videos, including

14:06

audio from the night Africa died.

14:09

Yeah and number one, Hey him, and it's

14:11

Geary transferring the calls. You know, the Motel

14:13

sixth and female is responsible. She thinks

14:15

she did. Okay, ma'am,

14:19

okay, what room are you in, ma'am?

14:21

One song one

14:24

was the last time you saw her earlier

14:27

today like, well, ok

14:31

I need you to tell like like three o'clock.

14:33

Okay, I need to is there any blood

14:35

or anything on her? No?

14:38

Need you know how to take your

14:41

fingers and put him on the side of her neck. I want to know if

14:43

I'm so scared to do that, I'm some scared. On

14:47

October seventem

14:50

Africa Hardy's friend Shamika, had

14:52

discovered Africa's body in the bathtub

14:55

of a motel six in him in Indiana.

14:59

The clock was now kicking. The first

15:01

forty eight hours following a murder

15:03

are the most crucial to solving it. Crime

15:06

scene investigators found signs of a

15:08

struggle. There was a shirt button

15:10

on the floor, a broken fingernail,

15:13

and a torn condom wrapper. They

15:15

found blood on a pillow case and

15:17

a knit hat under the bed, and

15:20

it appeared that someone had rifled through Africa's

15:23

belongings because her wallet and I D

15:25

were there, but her cell phone was missing.

15:28

Police check to see if any nearby

15:30

security cameras had captured footage

15:33

of the motel parking lot or the door

15:35

outside Africa's room.

15:37

They brought Shamika back to the station and

15:40

Detective Shaan Ford started interviewing

15:42

her. Just after midnight, how

15:46

Africa Day

15:56

detective Forward and Shamika sat at

15:58

a small table in a bear window

16:00

lists room. Shamika

16:03

was wearing a pink sweatshirt with the hood

16:05

up and looked nervous. Shamika

16:07

told police that Africa had been

16:10

working as an escort at the Motel

16:12

six, and that she'd sought out clients

16:14

by posting ads on backpage dot

16:16

com, an online classifieds

16:18

website that's since been shut down.

16:21

I know you've been through a hard deal tonight. Here's

16:24

where the problem was. I have to start

16:27

eliminating people as much as

16:29

I put them in. So like, obviously

16:32

you're the last one to see her alive, and

16:35

you're the one to find her. Okay, you've

16:37

been in our company all day long and nobody else

16:39

now because she had contacted some guy on here

16:42

and he killed her during a date or something

16:44

pretty possible. But as an

16:46

investigator, I have to remain very

16:48

objective and looked at the whole picture. Let's

16:51

go through today real quick. Where

16:54

did you really up today? Yeah?

16:57

Yeah, we're geting together, Yeah place?

17:01

What time? Anything? You got up late?

17:04

Canons of Himika

17:07

says she dropped off Africa at the Mitel

17:10

six round two or two thirty

17:12

pm. She says Africa

17:14

met up with one client in the early afternoon

17:17

and another man had called and said he

17:19

was interested in meeting her. The guy

17:22

was called like he really was interesting,

17:24

that he really was come. He helped

17:26

calling saying he's gonna come for shore. You

17:29

know they he really liked it up pictures that

17:31

he's not come and that you just had to get

17:33

a baby, so and so once you get it, he'll

17:35

calm. So when would you say the first

17:37

time you started calling Africa? I talked

17:39

to her two tigh coup times, just about the stuff

17:42

here and there, even before the

17:44

first guy came. Um,

17:46

I know right before she had

17:48

the second kind of talk maybe twice,

17:52

but it was real short being

17:55

the one that came in U five

17:57

thirteen. Ok she

18:00

actually called me and told me she was like he's

18:02

here, and that was at five thirteen.

18:04

Is that what you're saying that time? Okay? Did

18:07

you ever hear from her again? It's

18:12

hard to hear, but Schimika said that

18:15

after Africa called at five thirteen

18:17

to say the second client had arrived, Shimika

18:20

didn't hear from her again after

18:23

five thirteen. How many times? Do you think

18:25

you call her? Ah? It's

18:28

a Shimika

18:31

was worried about Africa, so she called

18:33

up her friend ed Wardo, and they headed to

18:35

the motel. I don't even

18:37

know she's listening one. I don't want to grow,

18:40

so we kind of listen, you know, to the door and

18:43

for the kid. We

18:45

didn't see anyone. It

18:47

was just think to be like I got away from the wall

18:50

a little bit and then I

18:52

see her shoe on the floor and

18:56

um. We talked on the light which is on the

18:58

outside of the Bed of Tomorrow, my

19:02

album. I just flying back and

19:04

he's like called plies, called the ambulist,

19:07

called belief and

19:10

the end they asked me what she um

19:12

when she breathed her? Did she held a post? Come

19:15

too scared to touch a post? At Ronald

19:18

he touched it and he's like it's nothing him

19:24

had a round twelve thirty am.

19:26

Another officer enters the interrogation

19:28

room.

19:31

How it's detective for its boss,

19:33

Captain Zeke Kinajosa.

19:37

Kinajosa sits down and shake Shamika's

19:40

hand. Had you guys ever dealt what this is

19:42

gonna before? Did you see

19:44

him at all? You talked?

19:46

Woman all on the phone. Okay,

19:48

what number did he call her from? What

19:50

number? I made sure I remember

19:52

his number? Three? One two?

19:56

What made you remember that number? Because

19:59

I always come phone type of prosesssions

20:02

with each other. Tell each other the normals, tell each other.

20:04

Makes the license place in case somebody happen in

20:06

case? Okay, what else

20:08

did she say to you? She said, he sounded

20:10

like an older guy. What do you consider

20:12

over what would she consider over that?

20:17

That's important in the nineteen I'm an old

20:19

man, you know. So did

20:22

she show you the number? She

20:24

showed me a text? You take the whole

20:27

taste and how wars and how much he likes her tittures

20:29

and stuff like that. Okay, Kinajosa,

20:33

thanks, Shamika shuts down a note

20:35

and then leaves the room. Obviously,

20:38

like we over this. There's people working

20:40

on other stuff, so we just got to get through, you

20:43

know, some of the stuff here. Now, does

20:45

she have anybody that you know that would want to

20:47

hurt her or anything like that? She

20:50

was a good girl. She was a really good cool

20:52

I mean, I know it's probably hard tool to leave because

20:54

of the situation that happened, but just

20:57

feels a good heart and personal give you

21:00

a last Now, I don't

21:02

know how far this is gonna progress or

21:04

how fast. I mean, if we're gonna make an arrest tonight.

21:06

I don't make an arrest tonight. Obviously, in

21:08

an investigation, we have to look at all angles,

21:10

at everything. The phone you have on

21:12

you right now, with the phone around that, do

21:16

you mind if I look in here on this phone. It's

21:19

not it doesn't not link with

21:22

this. It's not not helping. But well,

21:25

I kind of need to to look. But

21:27

it's up to you. I'm not gonna force

21:29

you to or anything like that. Okay,

21:35

Um, do you have any other

21:37

phones on you or anything like that? All

21:41

right, As we said here, they had nothing

21:43

to do it led to the death of your

21:46

friend. No, absolutely no. Why

21:48

wouldn't able to try to hanging anybody?

21:50

So no, I'm not saying that you killed her, But I'm

21:52

saying sometimes people here, here's

21:54

what I'm worried about this want this business

21:56

here? All right, Holy Bible.

21:58

I was not that you make it harm anybody

22:01

I love and I love kids,

22:04

I love just taking know what I'm saying, This business

22:06

here is very bro and

22:09

sometimes what we find is people

22:11

almost become like a prisoner, a

22:13

slave, that this kind of work, and there

22:15

are people behind the scenes, pulling strangers

22:18

and making money. And

22:20

I just want to make sure that something

22:22

didn't happen here today where your good friend got

22:25

killed. And there's a reason that maybe

22:28

you're scared. I can't tell me what append

22:32

something like that. I

22:34

will tell you didn't thinking everything that I know, I

22:38

would never not tell. I want you to find

22:40

this person. So I was I'm

22:42

not scared of anybody. I don't know abody

22:44

get me under hostage or

22:47

controlled. So I'm not a

22:49

decommanded person. I'm want that saying I

22:51

don't about but I'm very strong man, so and

22:53

I would not let anybody scare

22:55

me or do anything this devilish. And

22:58

you have no idea other than the

23:00

numbers you provided us who could have done

23:02

this. Will that number

23:04

be in that phone at all? No?

23:09

What makes you uncomfortable about me having the phone

23:12

because there might be like naked pictures

23:14

or something like that, or piss outfits,

23:16

ang and stuff like that. That's okay,

23:20

Hey, we could look through here together so

23:22

that I'm not looking through your stuff,

23:24

you know, But where I can you know,

23:26

I actually see the call out. Captain

23:30

Kinejosa opens the door and

23:32

leans his head into the room just

23:35

for one second. Detective Ford

23:37

leaves the room for three minutes, then

23:39

he returns with Hinejosa. It's

23:42

now almost one thirty in the morning. All

23:45

right, real quick, you

23:47

said you called nyme one one? Right? Did

23:49

you one? Uh?

23:56

How many balls you find you right now?

24:00

M this

24:02

is easy question. How many faults do we have on

24:05

you right now? I am our? Okay

24:08

him out? Why didn't tell us that I

24:12

don't want you to know? It's

24:32

now one thirty am on the

24:34

night of Africa's murder. Her friend

24:36

Shimika has just revealed to police

24:38

that she's had a second phone on her this

24:41

whole time, and it's the one with

24:43

the number that they posted to backpage dot

24:45

com. Why didn't tell us that,

24:49

I don't want you to know? First out?

24:51

Looking now, we

24:53

are not worried about that. No,

24:56

no, no, I promise

24:58

you We're not interested about prostitution.

25:01

Were interested about solving this hot side.

25:04

The whole encounter shows how difficult

25:06

it is for sex workers to report crimes

25:08

to police, which then in turn complicates

25:11

trying to solve these crimes. Luckily,

25:14

in this case Detective Forward and Captain

25:16

Kinahosa managed to convince Shamika

25:19

that they aren't interested in prosecuting

25:21

her for facilitating sex work, and

25:24

Shamika starts to give them a more accurate

25:26

story of what really happened. She

25:30

was walking. Also, everything is that now,

25:32

Okay, everything's in there, including the number

25:34

that the guy called. That's why you get

25:36

the number because you actually had the

25:38

phone. The way the system

25:40

worked, Shamika talked to and

25:43

booked Africa's clients. Then

25:45

she'd call Africa or text the information

25:47

to Africa's personal phone. Shamika

25:50

says that when the five thirteen appointment should

25:53

have been finished, Shamika tried to get

25:55

in touch with Africa right away.

25:57

I'm about al was

26:00

called her phone, I was called his phone,

26:03

and then I started reading to call the police.

26:05

So I really was just trying to tell her this

26:07

so she could call me and be like, no, everything's okay,

26:09

you don't have to call the police. But then

26:12

she started texting stuff like you're scaring him.

26:15

You gotta text message from her

26:17

fault saying you're scaring

26:19

him. So I'm like,

26:22

I don't want to do that. I don't want to mess up

26:24

business. I don't want to get him or whatever,

26:27

okay with After that, she

26:29

started taking stuff that I know she didn't

26:31

text, like, she texts something to say, I

26:33

have a client's gonna be a long

26:36

date. I'll see in two hours, and

26:38

I'm like, m oh

26:41

right. These texts

26:43

that were coming from Africa were a big

26:45

red flag because Shamika

26:47

was the one who talked to and booked Africa's

26:49

clients. But before Shamika

26:52

could get anything resolved, she says, her

26:54

phone ran out of batteries. When

26:56

she got the phone charged and turned back

26:58

on, she saw that she'd received

27:00

more strange messages. But

27:03

these weren't messages from Africa's phone,

27:06

but from the five thirteen client, some

27:08

about at all that and I'll be back

27:11

if I cannot come back and the years

27:13

still there and LV. Shamika

27:17

wasn't sure what to make of the messages. She

27:20

was terrified for Africa, but she

27:23

was also worried that if she went to the police,

27:25

she could get them both arrested for prostitution.

27:29

So she decided to check on Africa

27:31

herself, and that's when

27:34

she went to the motel with Eduardo. Detective

27:38

Ford starts going through Shamika's text

27:40

messages, and he gets to one that

27:42

she hadn't yet mentioned. Why

27:44

don't here I want to ask you about Here's a text

27:47

from Shamika's phone to Africa's

27:49

make sure you hide your money good

27:52

because the other client is waiting outside

27:55

or is referring to she was speaking

27:57

correct, well one of them though.

28:00

He tells the other clan is waiting outside. Some

28:02

other guys had text or whatever saying

28:04

that he wanted her too, but he was he

28:07

was coming at the same time, and the other guy

28:09

like double bump head. Okay,

28:12

so where is his text? That we guy that was

28:14

outside? Okay?

28:18

This is him saying you messed out. He's

28:20

leaving. Man, So

28:23

he's there, he

28:26

was there. You know

28:28

who this is? No? Oh

28:30

my, I'm never to pay

28:32

a pension for him. He said he's not kind

28:35

of jumping out, but he

28:37

never made his and it don't

28:39

looks like That's

28:41

why I don't think he did. He

28:44

watched the guy leave. It chills your

28:46

friend. Oh

28:50

my god. Detective Forward

28:52

picks up the phone and starts walking out

28:54

the door. Do

28:56

you guys try to we

28:59

we're sent on a couple of different things, and

29:02

you know that's one of them. It

29:04

was now two thirty AM,

29:06

around nine hours after Africa

29:08

had been killed. Police

29:10

continued working through the night, chasing

29:12

down leads using the text

29:15

messages from Shamika's second cell

29:17

phone. Police requested search

29:19

warrants for the five thirteen Clients

29:21

phone records. Meanwhile,

29:23

other detectives poured through surveillance

29:26

footage from the motel and businesses

29:28

nearby. One camera

29:30

captured footage of a man in a puffy

29:32

jacket entering Africa's room shortly

29:35

after PM

29:37

at five. He leaves the

29:39

room and runs out to a blue jeep.

29:42

Another security camera captured the

29:44

jeep's license plate and Bureau

29:46

of Motor Vehicle records showed it

29:48

was registered to a woman named Regina

29:51

Beard, who lived in Gary, Indiana.

29:54

Police found that the five thirteen clients

29:57

cell phone was also registered to

29:59

Regina b Heard at the same address,

30:01

twenty minutes away from the Hammond Police

30:03

station in the neighborhood on the

30:06

south side of Gary. At five

30:08

PM, just twenty four hours after

30:11

Africa had been killed, detectives

30:13

raced out to the address. It

30:15

was a small, one story brick house

30:18

directly across from a church and

30:20

parked in front of the house was the

30:22

blue jeep they were looking for. Next

30:30

time on Algorithm, I'm

30:32

not gonna lie. It was scary because we would

30:34

only be maybe floor of us

30:37

in the house, and we don't know who's

30:39

in the house, so who's in the area, and there's

30:41

they like police officers,

30:43

a want of driving out.

30:45

What are you trying to get out of it?

30:48

Good thing? You could be crazy, You're could

30:50

be sitting here and talking man already

30:53

five a Most Lakes

30:55

Room one five shot,

30:59

Conscious of your

31:01

fem bars and chowder. This

31:10

episode was written and produced by me ben

31:12

Key Brick. Algorithm is executive

31:14

produced by Alex Williams, Donald Albright,

31:17

and Matt Frederick. Production assistance

31:19

in mixing by Eric Quintana. The

31:22

music is by Makeup and Vanity Set and

31:24

Blue Dot Sessions. Thanks to Christina

31:27

Dana, Miranda Hawkins, Jamie

31:29

Albright, rema El Kaili, Trevor

31:32

Young, and Josh Thane for their help

31:34

and notes, and

31:37

thanks for listening. I've put a ton

31:39

of work into this show over the last year and

31:41

I really appreciate all of the feedback I got

31:44

after episodes one and two, So

31:46

if you haven't yet, please reach out subscribe

31:49

and leave a review.