0:01

Murder on Songbird Road is a production of

0:03

iHeart Podcasts. Previously

0:08

on Murder on Songbird Road.

0:10

I thought she was guilty at first, as I

0:12

reading what the news that.

0:13

In Marion, Illinois, an eleven year

0:15

old girl brutally stabbed death

0:18

her father's longtime living girlfriend,

0:20

maintaining innocence, but charged

0:23

with her murder.

0:24

A few hours ago, I charged Julia

0:27

Beverley, aged twenty nine, of

0:29

eleven three or four Songbird

0:31

Road, Marion, with three counts

0:33

a first degree murder the

0:36

murder of Jade Murray Beasley, an

0:38

eleven year old girl.

0:40

Most people that kill have

0:43

a reason, a motive. There's

0:45

always a motive something,

0:48

and it doesn't exist here.

0:50

It's scary because the

0:52

person who did it is still out

0:54

there and nobody

0:56

seems.

0:56

To carened

1:00

Pacheco and this is murder on

1:02

Songbird Road.

1:25

According to Jade Marie Beasley's obituary,

1:27

the sixth grader was remembered as funny,

1:30

smart and sassy, fond

1:32

of playing outside and swimming. She

1:35

enjoyed art, drawing, painting,

1:37

and video games. The photo that

1:39

accompanies the remembrance is the same

1:41

one used by the Williamson County States

1:43

Attorney when he announced her murder, showing

1:46

a beaming young Jade bespeckled

1:48

in pink frames, her face framed

1:50

with a golden bob accented with

1:52

pink highlights. She's sporting a pink

1:54

beaded necklace and garments and a matching

1:57

hue. Jade's

1:59

obituary goes on to state that she

2:01

loved her friends, adored her pets,

2:03

and cherished her siblings nut

2:06

before listing surviving family.

2:09

Missing from that list is the woman who

2:11

considered herself Jade's stepmother, Julia

2:14

Beverly, although Julia's son Jaden,

2:17

is listed as Jade's brother, but

2:19

from the day of Jade's murder, Jaden's

2:21

life would be forever altered.

2:26

He wants in living with his mom

2:28

and his two younger sisters.

2:31

He lived with me in Carverdale,

2:33

which is twenty miles away from Marriam.

2:37

Pretty much, you know, we get to see his siblings

2:40

not being in the same house. It was obviously

2:42

bad sad for him that it was in an

2:44

entirely different situation.

2:46

That's Stuart, the biological father of

2:48

Jaden, Julia Beverly's eldest son.

2:51

The weekend Jade Beasley was murdered. Jaden

2:53

was staying with him.

2:54

Now, I was gonna have him for a weekend, and then he was going to

2:56

go back Sunday afternoon

2:59

evening, I got a call.

3:00

From like DCFS.

3:01

DCFS, for those not familiar,

3:04

is the Department of Children and Family

3:06

Services in Illinois like.

3:08

Kings Custody right then, so pretty

3:10

much, you know, he's just visiting for the weekend.

3:12

Then he was with me.

3:16

As Will further explain, DCFS

3:18

would basically prohibit Julia Beverley

3:20

from physically interacting with her children pending

3:23

the investigation, so Renee

3:25

high Tower would be the one who broke the news to

3:27

her grandson Jaden in person.

3:30

The night of the murder.

3:31

I told his dad that I was coming over that I wanted to tell

3:33

him, and he said okay. And I got there

3:36

and I told him that something happened

3:38

at his house. I said, a

3:40

man broke in and

3:43

his mom is okay. And

3:45

I said, budd he hurt your mom and he hurt Jade.

3:48

And I said, but Jade, he heard her

3:50

too bad. So he's looking

3:52

at me and I said, he's looking

3:54

a little confused, and I said, Jade

3:56

is no longer with us. You can see him

3:58

kind of trying to swallow those

4:01

tears, you know, And that's why I told

4:03

him, I said, it's okay, it's priging, you know. So

4:06

that's when he just let it out

4:08

and hug me, and he was just

4:11

crying his arms for a little bit, and

4:14

I told him that his mom was going to call him and he could talk

4:17

to her, and they talked for a

4:19

little bit. I'm

4:21

not one hundred percent on what

4:23

Julie was saying to him, but I could hear a little

4:25

bit of it. How much she loves him, and he's

4:27

going to stay with Stuart for a while until

4:30

things get figured out,

4:33

and he said okay, and she

4:35

calmed him down a little bit.

4:37

We will dive much more deeply into

4:39

this later, but Julia Doveley wasn't

4:41

the only one cut off from her two youngest

4:44

daughters and the son she was unknowingly

4:46

carrying at the time of the murder. Her

4:49

eldest child, Jaden, would lose not

4:51

only his stepsister Jade and

4:53

his mother, but eventually all

4:55

access to his younger siblings. So

4:58

would Renee high Tower, their maternal grind

5:00

who had been petitioning for visitation

5:03

when we first connected back to Stuart.

5:05

The Department of Children and Family Services

5:07

and Jaden.

5:09

DCFS wanted to talk to him, and I'm like,

5:11

well, yeah, tell him truth, don't lie.

5:14

But there wasn't anything, you know.

5:16

TCFS talked him for like half hour and they were like, yeah,

5:18

okay.

5:18

Well we'd left to interview.

5:20

But there's no signs

5:22

or anything of abuse or neglect

5:25

or anything like those lines.

5:27

Which wasn't keeping with all the years

5:29

Stuart had co parented Jaden with Julia

5:32

Beverly.

5:32

They never had a bad thing to

5:34

say about his mom.

5:35

He was always you know, she was always nice

5:38

and loving and caring. There was

5:40

no abuse. We never said anything,

5:43

no mark nothing. I

5:45

mean even later on then when he had

5:47

his younger sisters and other stuff,

5:49

he never you know, he never had anything bad

5:52

to say about her.

5:53

Suddenly the sole parent in terms of

5:55

Jaden's day to day, Stuart had

5:57

to manage the passage of time with

5:59

his young son's relentless optimism

6:02

that his mother's incarceration was temporary.

6:05

It took two years for the Troy where I mean

6:08

it, it was a drug out so long, and as

6:11

sometimes he was telling people that, oh well, once my

6:13

mom gets out, I'm going back. Even before

6:15

the trial, he was telling friends or his cousin

6:17

like, well, I'm going to go back soon my mom gets out, we're

6:20

back here. There're like, well, I know that's what

6:22

you want. But even if

6:24

she gets out, nothing will be the same.

6:27

Jaden's father has tried to help

6:29

him navigate his new reality an uncertain

6:31

future.

6:32

We even talked about stuff like with the news,

6:34

like there's people that are, you know,

6:37

innocent, locked up and then you

6:40

know years later then they're like, oh yeah, whoops,

6:42

you got the thrown person. Even if

6:44

your mom gets out, it's not going to be the same. It's

6:46

still it's going to be different, you

6:48

know everything. Kind of like try to

6:50

tell him like your grandma might be too optimistic.

6:53

You kind of need to be in the middle.

6:54

Because I don't think she did it, but you know what,

6:56

if she's been in

6:58

for so long, it's like there's a possibility she doesn't.

7:01

In his reality, things you're going to go back to normals

7:03

like that will never go back to normal.

7:05

If there was a magic wand waved

7:08

tomorrow and Julie was

7:12

out, you wouldn't have any reservation

7:14

whatsoever about Jaden

7:17

being with her.

7:18

No not right.

7:19

I mean, like I've told him,

7:21

it's like I don't think

7:23

she did it.

7:24

They've never found a weapon.

7:26

Or it's like if you step somebody that

7:28

many times you would have blood splatter with you

7:30

know, like where's the change clothes, where's

7:32

this, where's that?

7:33

Yeah? Never made sense, Still

7:35

doesn't make sense.

7:37

The accusation that Julia Beverly

7:39

brutally stabbed her stepdaughter is

7:41

particularly nonsensical to Beverly's

7:43

cousin Nicki, who witnessed not only

7:46

Beverly grow up but eventually interact

7:48

as both the mother and stepmother.

7:51

She loved all her children, even

7:53

the ones that she didn't give her to. That is

7:55

one thing that she is extremely good

7:57

at.

7:58

Nicki says she knows Julie extremely

8:01

well, even for cousins.

8:03

She's my maid of honor. He's my best

8:05

friend. Julia has been my

8:07

best friend since since she

8:09

was born.

8:09

I am a little bit older, but we

8:12

grew up together and did everything

8:14

together. We ama staying cheerleading

8:17

from little league, you know,

8:19

all the way through high school.

8:21

We went to the same high school with each

8:23

other pretty much like every weekend at least.

8:26

We were also close.

8:26

There was between me and my siblings,

8:29

and her and her siblings, who were seven of us, run

8:31

around my grandma's house all the time, so we.

8:33

All grew up together.

8:34

We were all extremely close, particularly

8:37

Nicki and Julia.

8:38

We can look at each other and not say a thing and

8:40

know exactly what the other one.

8:42

Is saying, which is why Nicki

8:44

was the first to know. When Julia found

8:46

out she was expecting her first child, Jaden,

8:49

while still in high school.

8:50

She was really young.

8:51

I think she was about to be eighteen, and she

8:55

hid it from us for a bit because she

8:57

was scared, and then obviously you couldn't

8:59

hide it. She did it on

9:01

her own for a few years,

9:03

and still his dad kind of came back

9:05

into the picture and have more of a presence.

9:08

I don't want to say she struggle with it, but it's

9:10

just like any new transition. I know that I did

9:13

whenever I had my first child.

9:15

It's hard.

9:16

It's difficult to do it at such a young

9:18

age. I can't even really imagine.

9:20

She pretty much had to drop

9:22

everything to become a mom. She was

9:24

a great mom and changed her because you're seventeen and you

9:27

just got to drop all the things that you think are the most important.

9:29

Things in your life, like your daily high school

9:31

life that you think is going to be your entire life,

9:33

or going and hanging out with friends on the

9:35

weekend. Just fully committed

9:38

to being a mom, and she was there

9:40

doing it on her own with family,

9:43

but on her own, which had to be extremely

9:45

hard, but she loved them compleatly.

9:49

Home video show Jaden as a toddler

9:51

playing rock band with a young Julia Beverley

9:54

jamming on a small plastic guitar as

9:56

Jaden sings lead. Their

10:04

energy is loving and relaxed and natural,

10:07

as is the clip of Beverly and Jaden

10:10

still a toddler, enjoying the first flakes

10:12

of a snowfall.

10:16

So snowball.

10:24

When Nicki and her parents moved from

10:26

Marion to Massachusetts, Beverly

10:29

eventually followed, living with Nicki

10:31

for a period of time.

10:33

Jaden was two when she moved

10:35

out here.

10:36

I had to be like twenty or twenty one, because

10:38

I had met my husband at the time.

10:40

She had Jayden out here, Jesus me, Julie and Jane

10:42

living together.

10:44

And so she went back after a few

10:46

years.

10:47

Yes, yeah, I would see. I say it was probably

10:49

about a year or so. It was it was just

10:51

a little hard.

10:52

Like we were We were here to help her

10:54

obviously, you know, but it was hard for

10:56

her, I think, just being so far away

10:58

from her own mom.

11:00

It was soon after Beverly returned to Marion

11:02

that she met and started dating Mike Beasley.

11:05

She was extremely excited when she met him

11:08

because he had a

11:10

daughter who was the same age as

11:12

Jaden. So she was excited

11:14

because she being a single mom, she

11:16

thought that it was going to be extremely hard to find

11:19

somebody to be with. So when

11:21

she met Mike and found out that he also

11:23

had a daughter who was the same age, it

11:25

was almost kind of like amazing because

11:28

their kids good play together, you know, and they both

11:30

kind of have the same situation going

11:32

on.

11:32

So she was extremely happy when

11:34

she met him.

11:36

Never Lily voice otherwise with me. Theyble

11:39

together for eight years.

11:41

She actually came to visit

11:44

you more than once with Jade.

11:47

Yes.

11:47

Yeah, so she came with Mike

11:50

and Jade and Jaden,

11:53

and they came a couple times.

11:54

They stayed with my mom one time, and

11:57

then they came out again for our

11:59

wedding.

12:00

Just tell me a little bit about your

12:03

observations as to how

12:06

Julie welcomed Jade

12:09

into her life and

12:11

their relationship dynamic.

12:14

She was obviously extremely,

12:16

very wealthy.

12:17

When you come in as the girlfriend,

12:20

you know, she never overstepped

12:22

any sort of boundaries with her, but she

12:24

was very much their always there to

12:27

talk to you, to be supportive of.

12:30

July treated her like her own, buy

12:32

things for her as if it was her own child. Never

12:35

had any sort of complainants about her.

12:37

They came pretty close.

12:39

To the point.

12:40

I think she would prefer to stay at Mike

12:42

and Julie's house over her mother's

12:44

house. Just from when I was told. She had

12:46

her own space, had her own

12:48

room. She was included in all

12:51

family functions, all things the

12:53

holidays, pictures.

12:54

And things like that.

12:55

So I mean she was very much a part of the family,

12:58

even though they weren't head completing that

13:00

they were family.

13:02

Photos that Renee high Tower has shared appear

13:05

to back up this assertion, as

13:07

does Julia Beverly's still existing social

13:09

media Her Facebook cover photo,

13:12

now updated by Renee, boasts

13:14

a banner with hashtag I Stand

13:16

with Julie. Underneath is a clausee

13:19

of seven photos, four depicting Jadon

13:21

and Jade over the years. One shows

13:23

a very pregnant Beverly as she smiles,

13:26

her arms warmly wrapped around the backs

13:28

of each step sibling as they bind

13:30

down to kiss her large expectant belly.

13:33

Julia and Jade are both wearing similar

13:35

shades of bright purple, which pops

13:38

against the green of the grassy background. Another

13:40

photo shows Jade and Jaden in front

13:43

of a colorfully lit Christmas tree. They

13:45

appear to be around age six, with

13:47

their arms affectionately draped around

13:49

each other's shoulders. Jaden,

13:51

the shorter of the two, is lifting his head

13:53

up towards the camera, wearing a wide grin.

13:56

Jade is kicking one leg up to the side

13:58

in a cheeky pose. They're adorable,

14:01

as are all the siblings shown together,

14:04

especially in photos that depict the two

14:06

youngest girls being proudly and tenderly

14:08

held by their big brother and sister. Jaden

14:11

and the younger girls all shared Julia's

14:13

broad smile. A deeper

14:15

dive into Julia Beverly's Facebook history

14:18

reflects the ongoing yearly tradition of

14:20

posting Jaden's back to school photos

14:22

alongside Jades. Also

14:25

reflected in past years is

14:27

the blended family's apparent love for somewhat

14:29

themed Halloween costumes, all

14:31

while juggling a job that, like

14:34

motherhood, required patients.

14:36

As a customer service representative for Hyatt,

14:39

Beverly was used to diffusing disgruntled

14:41

people's frustrations in a calm,

14:44

respectful, and efficient manner.

14:46

She was actually incredibly patient, probably

14:48

more patient than me. Motherhood

14:50

was everything to her.

14:51

I mean, she did work from home, so she still had

14:53

a job as far as like bringing in money

14:55

into the household, I'm pretty sure she was also the

14:58

primary breadwinner, but

15:00

she worked from home as a way

15:03

to still be extremely present and

15:05

available to her children. Every

15:08

waiting moment was dedicated for her children.

15:11

It is of note again that Mike and Julie

15:13

were together for nearly eight years and had

15:15

already purchased wedding bands. They

15:18

had planned for both of their daughters and

15:20

were trying for a third, hoping for a son.

15:23

Mike shared custody of Jade with her biological

15:25

mother, Jessica. Before the murder,

15:28

there had never been any reports of

15:30

Beverly being violent or abusive to

15:32

any of her children, including Jade. If

15:35

there had been, it's doubtful that her

15:37

father would have continued, not only

15:39

to live with Beverly, but to plan on having

15:42

more children with her. Murder

15:45

on Songbird Road will return after

15:48

the break. Now

15:51

back to Murder on Songbird Road. Everything

15:57

would change when Jade was murdered. Here's

16:00

Renee's recollection of picking up Beverly

16:03

at the police station the night of the murder and

16:06

the days leading up to her rest. Tell

16:08

me what that car ride back

16:11

from the station with Julie was like.

16:13

Well, she was telling me the story and I

16:15

was just in disbelief and

16:18

I was like, oh my god, You've got to tell Mike. They're

16:20

under the impression this was suicide. And

16:22

she's looking at me confused, like what

16:25

I was telling her? What was being said to me?

16:27

And I was wont through the story and she's just shaking

16:29

her head and she's crying, and she's

16:33

telling me how this man came in the house and

16:35

she said nobody should ever have to

16:37

see that. She said, no parent

16:39

should ever have to see that. It

16:42

was quick ride, ten minute ride. We got

16:44

in the house and she sat down

16:47

and my mom was hugging her, and my

16:49

mom was crying and made her cry some more.

16:51

And then her brother came and

16:54

he just grabbed her and hugged her, and then she

16:56

lost it again, crying more. And

16:58

then my mom's just sitting there rubbing her back,

17:01

and she just kept saying, I should have just took

17:03

her with me. I should have just took her with me. And

17:06

my mom's telling her, you can't blame yourself,

17:08

Julie, you can't. I can't put this on you. She

17:12

still had the jail

17:15

uniform on the little jumpsuit they

17:17

gave her because they took her clothing.

17:19

When Beverly agreed to be questioned at the Williamson

17:21

County Sheriff's Department without a lawyer present,

17:24

she also willingly consented to

17:26

the collection of DNA from both

17:28

her person and her articles of clothing.

17:31

We'll dive much more deeply into

17:34

issues with how that DNA was collected

17:36

later.

17:37

Back to Renee, I got some of

17:39

my clothes, gave her some little sweatpants,

17:42

stretch pants and leggings

17:44

and a hoodie to wear, and

17:47

she went in the shower and she

17:49

was in there for a little while. I want to check on her, and I

17:51

can hear her crying in there, and

17:55

she told me after she was in their crying

17:57

because she had blood

18:00

on the bottom of her feet, and when

18:02

she got in the shower, the kind

18:04

of brought it back.

18:07

This is actually an important detail. Jade

18:09

was murdered on an unseasonably warm

18:12

day, and Beverly had been wearing flip flops.

18:15

At some point she'd flipped them off and

18:17

likely walked through blood at the crime scene.

18:20

Back to Renee, she got out of the shower,

18:22

I said, you have to tell Mike.

18:24

We ended up driving back

18:26

to Marion to go to Mike's parents

18:28

house. Called him on the way and said

18:30

we were on and way over and he said, well, DCFS

18:33

just called him. They're about to be here too, so you might

18:35

want to wait a minute. And I said, well, we're

18:37

right down the street. So and we ended

18:39

up pulling up almost right at the same time as DCFS,

18:42

and we sat in the car. It

18:45

was me, Michael, and Julie.

18:47

Quick clarification. Michael

18:49

is Julie's older brother and an aviation

18:51

mechanic with the US Navy, not

18:53

to be confused with her boyfriend and then

18:56

fiance, Mike.

18:57

We sat in the car. Cindy Maguire was

19:00

her name from DCFS.

19:02

She came over to the passenger side

19:04

of my vehicle to talk to Julie, and

19:07

that's when she informed Julie that

19:10

she cannot see her children, and

19:13

she lost it again and she's like no,

19:15

She's screaming no, because at this point,

19:18

all she wants to do is hug her family, her

19:20

children. After some tragedy

19:23

and horrific tragedy like this, she

19:26

wants to hug her children, hug

19:29

Mike and grieve.

19:32

What did they tell her.

19:34

They said that its protocol

19:37

is how they termed it, that she

19:39

has to have no contact

19:41

with her children. She can have a

19:44

video visit once a day

19:46

for fifteen minutes and

19:48

that's it. That's the contact

19:51

she gets with her children until

19:54

this is resolved. So she had a

19:56

sign of paper to where

19:58

Mike gets temporary customer of

20:00

the children so they don't become

20:03

wards of the state, and she

20:06

agreed to let them stay with Mike. She

20:08

asked if she could talk to Mike, and they

20:10

said, well, we're going to talk to him first

20:13

and then we'll see if he wants to come out and talk to you.

20:16

So they were in there for a good twenty thirty minutes.

20:19

Mike came out and as soon as Julie

20:21

seen him, she jumped out of my car. And ran

20:23

to him and hugged him, and

20:27

he hugged her back, and

20:29

they were both you could see they were both crying. And

20:32

then I can see Julie talking to him and

20:36

then he and

20:38

this is what me and Michael found really strange,

20:41

is the way he was consoling Julie.

20:44

His immediate response was to hug her, and he did.

20:47

And then after a while he steps away while

20:49

she's talking and he lights a cigarette. And

20:53

then he's smoking his cigarette and he's

20:55

still close to Julie and

20:57

then he puts one

21:00

arm around her shoulder, almost

21:04

like resting his arm,

21:06

almost like he had to do it

21:09

to put up a front. It didn't look

21:12

like a comforting hug that she needed.

21:15

It just looked like he was just

21:17

going through the motions.

21:19

And I'm watching this, and I

21:22

said to Michael, and he's like, well, maybe

21:24

it's because he smoked a cigarette. He doesn't want to because

21:26

Julie don't smoke, you know. And I was like no, no,

21:29

I said, look at his options and

21:32

he was looking away from her, smoking

21:34

his cigarette, and just

21:36

it was weird. And

21:40

Julie said she was just going through like

21:43

a brief summary of what happened.

21:45

It was just an odd behavior,

21:48

consoling her for like ten minutes.

21:51

In Renee's opinion, Mike was already

21:53

doubting Beverly's innocence the night of the murder.

21:56

Subsequent events would reinforce her opinion

21:59

and had even more painful layers

22:01

to this tragedy.

22:03

They talked, and she got back in the car, and she

22:06

was just upset. And for the next

22:08

three or four days she got to

22:10

talk to Mike once a day for

22:12

fifteen minutes. On the very first phone call she

22:15

got to FaceTime with the girls.

22:17

Being denied physical contact with her children,

22:20

compounded by the stress and trauma

22:22

of the murder, was overwhelming

22:24

for Beverly. According to Renee, Mike

22:26

and the girls were staying with his mother, Sheila

22:29

Jaden remained with his father. Beverly

22:31

stayed with her mother and grandmother.

22:34

She didn't eat anything for two and a half days.

22:36

I finally forced her to eat a

22:38

sandwich, and she probably

22:41

not even half a sandwich. I

22:43

made her some juice to drink some

22:46

she had something in her I said, Julie, you got

22:48

it. You can't not eat. She

22:50

wasn't eating, she wasn't sleeping, she wasn't drinking.

22:53

Would you categorize her as in

22:55

shock.

22:57

Yes, in shock,

23:01

in horrific

23:03

grief. I mean, yeah,

23:09

yes. In the four days

23:11

she was with me, the food she ate probably

23:14

equated to the three fourths of

23:16

a sandwich and a half a cup of

23:19

liquid in four days. That's what she

23:21

consumed.

23:23

Beverly's already limited access to

23:25

her daughters would entirely disappear.

23:27

Five days after the murder, when Julia

23:29

Beverly was arrested. Renee

23:31

had been trying to help her daughter remember any

23:33

details from the day Jade was killed, hoping

23:36

they would vindicate her with the timeline.

23:38

Well, I remember it like it was yesterday. Once

23:41

she left that police station. She was with me for

23:43

four days before her arrest. In

23:46

that four days, she

23:48

wasn't remembering a lot, and I didn't

23:50

want to force her because I know what

23:53

she had been through. But she would give me little

23:56

bits and pieces that she could put together. It

23:59

wasn't a clear pay sure, So

24:01

I told her that fourth day, I

24:03

said, I want you to sit down

24:06

and write everything out that she did. Maybe that

24:08

will trigger some more

24:10

memories for you, and start with the time

24:13

you woke up. And she started

24:15

writing it a few minutes

24:17

later. She said, I went to Hucks. I had

24:19

to get gas. This was like late

24:21

morning, and that's when I made that phone

24:23

call to Gustantine to say

24:25

that she remembered she stopped at Hucks.

24:28

We'll get to the importance of Beverly's recollection

24:30

that while she started out for Walmart,

24:33

she never got there. Beverly suddenly

24:35

recalled in the days that followed Jade Beasley's

24:37

murder that she actually stopped

24:40

at Hucks, the closest gas station to her

24:42

house, because her gaslight came on.

24:45

Thinking it would prove her daughter's innocence. Renee

24:47

high Tower wanted to share the information

24:49

with the police.

24:51

I said, Julie, you got to tell them. You're

24:53

on camera, because as of right now, they're trying to say

24:55

you never left the house. And

24:57

she's like, I can't. I already I

25:00

already invoked an attorney, so I

25:02

can't speak to them without her. I

25:04

said, do you want me to tell them? And

25:07

she's like, well, I don't know if you can, but

25:09

I guess. So I

25:12

picked up the phone and I called and

25:15

asked for Carl Gustantine personally. He

25:18

answered, and I told him that

25:21

Julie remembered she stopped at Hucks for gas

25:24

and realized she forgot her cards at

25:26

home and then she had to go back

25:28

to the house. He said,

25:30

well, I'll have to hear that from her, and

25:33

I said, well, she's already invoked an attorney, so

25:35

you have your information. And

25:37

he said okay and hung up the phone.

25:40

That call didn't have the effect high

25:42

Tower had hoped.

25:44

Within an hour and a half, they

25:46

were knocking at our back door.

25:51

We'll be right back with murder on Songbird

25:53

Road. Now

25:58

back to Murder Songbird Road.

26:03

Cindy Geittman, Carl Gystantine and

26:07

another officer stepped into my

26:11

home, my mother's home, through the back door.

26:13

They said they were there for Julie and

26:16

they had a warrant for her arrest. A

26:19

few moments prior to this, we've seen

26:21

comments on Facebook showing

26:23

her warrant on the

26:26

judicial page, and Julie

26:29

began to panic at that

26:31

point, and then a

26:34

few minutes later there was that knock at the door. They

26:36

came in and Julie

26:38

immediately started crying. She

26:41

had her promise ring from Mike

26:43

that she immediately took off and handed to me.

26:47

My mother was there. My mother

26:49

seen that they were putting cuffs on Julie

26:52

and she started

26:54

crying and she said, you

26:56

guys are killing her. I'm

27:02

sorry, I just named it because

27:09

I've you can feel

27:11

my mother's pain at that point witnessing

27:13

this, and Cindy

27:16

Geatman tells my mother, well, that's what she

27:18

gets for killing somebody. I

27:22

just can't believe she said that to my mother and

27:24

I I just looked at her like,

27:28

why would you even say that? Why would

27:30

you say that?

27:32

I have reached out to both Cindy Geatman and

27:34

Carl Gustantine. Both have since

27:37

retired, as have multiple officers

27:39

and officials involved with the investigation

27:41

into Jade Beasley's murder and the case

27:44

against Julia Beverly. Geitman

27:46

and I spoke on the phone, and she made

27:48

it exceedingly clear that she did

27:50

not intend to comment on what would be

27:52

her first and last time leading

27:55

a murder investigation back

27:57

to Renee.

27:58

But I found out later when Cindy

28:00

Geatman walked Julie outside to

28:04

frisk her and check her. Julia

28:06

had her hair in a ponytail with

28:08

a scrunchy not a

28:11

ponytail holder, not a super

28:13

tight one, very loose made

28:15

of cloth, scrungey

28:19

and she grabbed it out of Julie's

28:22

hair, and Julie said she

28:24

grabbed her hair so hard that it yanked her head

28:26

back, pulled some of her hair

28:28

out, And later I

28:31

found that scrunchy sitting on top of my car

28:33

with Julie's hair all over it, and

28:36

then put her in the car and took

28:38

her down to the station.

28:41

Well, Carl Gustantine did not respond

28:43

to my multiple attempts to question him about

28:45

receiving the tip Rene High Tower, so she gave

28:47

him. The police appear to have acted

28:50

upon it.

28:51

After she was arrested. I was

28:54

furious, so I said, I guarantee

28:56

they're out there searching right now. So I went

28:59

past the guest and

29:01

there they were searching the trash cans somewhere

29:04

in the dumpster.

29:05

And once they pulled

29:07

the video from the

29:10

gas station, what did they

29:13

claim they'd found.

29:15

They said that they got Julian

29:17

camera stopping at the gas station

29:19

to throw away items, and

29:21

they see her on camera with this bag

29:24

that could fit in the palm of her hand, about the

29:26

size of a diaver, because that's what she had

29:28

in the bag, a diver. She said, maybe

29:30

there was two in there, but it was divers but

29:33

she could clearly see on the camera it

29:35

could fit in the palm of her hand and threw it away

29:37

and then she went back to the house to get her

29:39

cards.

29:40

The prosecution would contend that

29:42

the small bag Beverly discarded

29:45

contained the murder weapon, blood saturated

29:48

clothing, and any material she

29:50

used to clean up any trace of blood

29:52

on her person. None of these

29:54

items have ever been located, not

29:56

at that Hawk's gas station, nor the

29:58

dump police came for evidence. High

30:01

Tower continues to take issue with how

30:04

the incentive to search Hucks was portrayed

30:06

in court.

30:07

There was an officer in trial who

30:09

testified that he

30:12

went to Hucks and the

30:14

defense attorney she asked, well, what made

30:16

you go there, and he said,

30:18

oh, I just got a feeling, just got a

30:20

feeling.

30:21

So they set it up to make it look like Julie

30:24

lied, when it was something that she remembered

30:27

and you gave as a tip, and

30:29

then they didn't even attribute

30:31

it to Julie or to you.

30:33

Correct So Gustantine

30:36

was also on the prosecution's witness

30:38

list, and if he would have testified then I could

30:40

have, but they kept him off too.

30:42

He didn't testify again.

30:44

And so they never disclosed

30:46

where that tip came from.

30:49

Never I've even said

30:51

this to people on my social

30:53

media platform and I get called a

30:55

liar and no, they found out

30:57

that she lied, and I'm like, okay,

31:00

well, I've got a text message to my sister to

31:02

prove it, time stamped and all.

31:05

You probably would have phone records showing

31:07

that you called.

31:08

Sure Do and every call is

31:10

recorded that comes into that police station.

31:13

High Tower has indeed showed me text

31:15

messages and phone records that back up

31:17

her version of that outreach. Again,

31:20

to date, Carl Gustantine has not responded

31:22

to my multiple attempts to reach him. But

31:24

while Renee's call didn't prevent

31:27

her daughter's arrest, it didn't provoke

31:29

it.

31:30

The arrest warrant was issued the day before,

31:33

actually it was signed and

31:35

issued the day before, and they chose to arrest

31:38

her on this day because her first

31:40

appearance it would line up

31:42

on the same day as Jay's funeral, And

31:45

that was a calculated decision, I believe, to

31:48

boost and bolster the emotional

31:50

outrage of the public because

31:53

here you have her having

31:55

her first appearance at

31:58

the exact same time that the funeral is going

32:00

on, and they are a parking a lot away from each

32:02

other.

32:03

Criminal defense attorney Bob Mada and I connected

32:05

with Renee on a call. Hello,

32:09

Hey, how are you?

32:10

I I'm good.

32:11

I'm gonna patch and Bob stand by.

32:15

Hello, Okay, I'm merging us with Renee.

32:17

Hold on one second, all right, you

32:19

guys, Bob, Renee, Renee, Bob,

32:21

so Bob, we have some really interesting

32:24

updates for you. In

32:26

the press conference held five days after

32:28

the murder, the then Williamson County State's

32:30

attorney states that Julia Beverly's

32:33

claim she was met by a knife wielding

32:35

massed assailant were proven false,

32:38

but Renee high Tower and Julia's supporters

32:40

have never stopped looking for him. Renee

32:43

even hired a private investigator to find

32:45

him.

32:46

My private investigator said

32:48

that he overheard

32:52

a dispatcher because they come out to his shooting

32:54

range. He overheard dispatcher saying, I

32:57

thought we were on our.

32:58

Way to the other nine on one call.

33:00

Julie's nine one one call was placed

33:02

at twelve twenty four, so there's

33:04

supposed to be another call. They

33:06

subpoena the number one calls. It's not

33:08

in there. However, there

33:11

is a incident

33:14

out in the same area that Julie

33:16

is at and this call

33:19

was made at ten thirty for a

33:22

suspicious person and

33:24

no way, yes, this

33:27

is at ten thirty. He was out

33:29

there deligerent

33:31

talking about harming somebody, just

33:34

cussing and carrying on, and

33:37

somebody called the cops on him and then they go

33:39

respond and they pretty much did

33:43

whatever talk guys the name information

33:46

sent him on his way. He's

33:50

wearing a black hoodie and duck

33:52

pants.

33:55

This would spur the first of many rabbit holes.

33:57

Bob and I would go down looking for the knife

33:59

wielding man, and Julia Beverly claimed

34:01

she encountered. But this tip

34:03

led to a specific man, a man

34:06

now incarcerated for attempting to disarm

34:08

an officer and arrested multiple

34:10

times previously, a man who,

34:12

unlike Julia Beverly, has a history

34:15

of crimes, mental illness, and

34:17

a fondness for hunting.

34:20

Never in a million trillion years which never

34:22

suspected Julie of this ever,

34:26

not one person. As a matter

34:28

of fact, they thought it was suicide before they even thought

34:30

about Julie until the police said it was Julie.

34:33

I mean, that guy sounds like somebody

34:35

that we really need to look at.

34:37

Yes, man, that is

34:39

crazy.

34:42

If Julia Beverly didn't kill Jade Beasley,

34:44

someone else did and there was one

34:46

likely place to start searching. We're

34:49

heading to Marian.

34:51

Yes we are, Yes we are.

34:53

I'm here for it. I'm ready.

34:58

On the next murder on Songbird we

35:00

travel to Mary in Illinois to sit

35:03

face to face with Julia Beverly.

35:05

She says she wasn't even thinking, and then she's walking.

35:07

Through and then she sees the blood in the

35:10

living room.

35:10

She says, oh my god, Jay and encounter

35:13

a community divided. The woman

35:15

behind the desk at Starbucks she said

35:17

it's sad, but she also

35:20

had her doubts as to whether

35:22

or not Julie did it before

35:24

heading to the site of the murder.

35:26

Should we go walk it?

35:28

I think so.

35:29

I think we should. I think we should.

35:33

All right, let's go, Let's see what's up.

35:37

Murder on Songbird Road is a production of

35:39

iHeart Podcasts. Our

35:41

executive producers are Taylor Chaqoine

35:44

and Lauren Bright Pacheco. Research

35:46

writing and hosting by Lauren Bright Pacheco.

35:49

Investigative reporting by Bob Matta and

35:51

Lauren Bright Pacheco, editing, sound

35:53

design and original music by Evan

35:55

Tyer and Taylor Chaqoine. Additional

35:58

music by Ashra Kurtz. Archival

36:00

elements courtesy of WSIL

36:03

News three. Please like, subscribe,

36:05

and leave us a review. Wherever you're listening,

36:08

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36:10

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36:12

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36:14

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