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and scale contains adult themes and

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violence and is not intended for

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all audiences Listener

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discretion is advised This

1:06

would have had them in a pretty bloody scene

1:08

the body had like Close

1:11

to 40 some stab wounds and

1:13

so somebody to see all that would

1:16

be probably a lot to take in. Oh Boy,

1:20

we got a doozy for you today Think

1:24

you're gonna like it's gonna feel like

1:26

the old days this is Episode

1:29

273 of sword and scale a show that reveals

1:31

that the worst monsters are real I

1:50

Hate to be that guy, but we do have mouths

1:52

to feed around here. We're not

1:54

state-sponsored like that duck communist NPR

1:58

So check out our store store or

2:00

at sordanscale.com. About

2:54

30 miles south of downtown Chicago

2:56

is the birthplace of Michael Jackson,

2:59

Gary, Indiana. Nicknamed

3:02

the Magic City for its

3:04

technological advancements in the 1960s,

3:07

Gary is mostly known

3:09

for being the most

3:11

significant contributor of steel manufacturing

3:13

in the United States. The

3:16

city's main steel mill, named Gary

3:19

Works, is the largest steel

3:21

manufacturing plant in the country. At

3:23

its peak, the city had more than

3:25

200,000 people living there. Since

3:30

the 1960s, though, Gary has

3:32

seen a steep population

3:34

decline. What was

3:37

once a bustling city brimming with

3:39

innovation has largely become a

3:41

place of abandonment and rural

3:43

decay, much like a lot of

3:45

cities throughout the US, especially

3:48

in the last four years. It

3:51

has since been dubbed the most miserable

3:53

city in America, but

3:55

plenty of people still

3:57

live in Gary, Indiana. Many

4:00

people call it home. The

4:02

population currently sits at about 70,000. Back

4:06

in the late spring of 2014, the year

4:10

that Sornscale started, I might add, there

4:12

was a young woman living in Gary

4:15

who was excited to share some big

4:17

news with her family. This

4:20

young lady told her mother, father, and

4:22

two older sisters that she

4:24

was pregnant with twins. Well,

4:27

I was a sister, I'm the oldest, we're eight in the

4:29

middle of a German debate. So

4:31

that's the fifth one that I

4:34

have back here. That Germany didn't have

4:36

any. So she found

4:38

out that she was pregnant. They think,

4:40

you know, she tells her family that

4:43

she's the new pattern twin.

4:45

In 2014, 36-year-old Geraldine Jones

4:48

worked as a census surveyor

4:50

in Gary, Indiana. She

4:53

had grown up in a tight knit

4:55

Christian family and seemed thrilled to

4:57

tell her two older sisters, April and Tomiko,

5:00

that she was pregnant with

5:02

twins. Sadly,

5:04

that exciting announcement was followed

5:06

up with some tragic news. A

5:09

few months later, Geraldine told her sisters that one of

5:11

her babies had died. After

5:14

Geraldine broke the news about the loss

5:16

of one of her babies, she

5:19

seemed to fall into a deep depression. Then

5:22

came the day that Geraldine was supposed to

5:25

give birth to her surviving baby. That

5:27

morning I heard from her, and then

5:30

that Monday I didn't hear from her no

5:32

more. So I called my

5:34

sister, and I'm thinking like, well,

5:36

you know, I called April. April was

5:38

like, well, she was leaving

5:40

work trying to get to the hospital. But the

5:42

thing is, she didn't tell us what hospital

5:45

she was ever at. So by

5:47

the time I left work, you

5:49

know, my dad is here, his wife is

5:51

here, our sisters, and so we are

5:53

trying to run around trying to figure out what hospital we

5:56

might find her at. We called up to

5:58

North Lake, we called, we went out to the North Lake. South

6:00

Bay, so we were already in that

6:02

area. Then we went over to Holbrooks

6:04

Hospital and they had no whereabouts

6:07

at all. Geraldine's family and friends

6:09

frantically tried to find out what

6:11

hospital Geraldine had gone to. But

6:15

they never could. Geraldine

6:17

was missing. Did

6:19

he ever tell you who the baby daddy was? Yeah,

6:22

we knew who he thought it was. Who was that? Randy

6:24

Geary. Randy Geary? Mm-hmm. For

6:27

much of her life, Geraldine was unlucky

6:30

in love. But in March

6:32

of 2014, her luck seemed

6:34

to change when she

6:36

met a young man named Randy Garrett. My

6:39

first time meeting Randy was

6:41

last year. My sister April

6:44

wasn't getting married. And

6:46

that was my first time meeting him

6:49

when he came to the wedding with my

6:52

sister. But that was my first time.

6:54

As far as Tomiko and April could tell, Randy

6:57

seemed like a good, respectable

6:59

guy. And Geraldine

7:01

was clearly all in on her relationship

7:04

with him. Unfortunately,

7:06

after only a few months of

7:08

dating, Randy broke things

7:10

off with Geraldine. Started

7:13

out, you told me you met her

7:15

back around March,

7:19

end of March last year. Okay.

7:22

We were dating, but I started

7:24

finding out more

7:26

things about, you just gotta be in

7:28

the science about something. It just kinda

7:30

turned me off. Things like that

7:33

just kept adding up

7:35

and not jiveting. So kinda

7:37

cut it off. Okay. Randy

7:39

ended the relationship, but he couldn't

7:42

completely walk away from Geraldine. A

7:45

few weeks after the breakup with her,

7:47

Randy was told that Geraldine was pregnant

7:50

with twins and that he

7:53

was the father. She

8:01

called me at the end of

8:03

that year and told me

8:05

she was pregnant. So that's

8:07

about three months after you met her. After

8:10

learning that he was going to be a dad, Randy,

8:14

naturally, committed himself to the

8:16

role. Even though

8:18

he had no plans of continuing a

8:20

romantic relationship with Geraldine, he decided

8:23

that he was going to be a responsible

8:26

dad. And good for

8:28

him, we need a lot more of that. A

8:31

few months after she told everyone about

8:34

the pregnancy, her sister and friends threw

8:36

a baby shower for Geraldine, and

8:39

Randy attended. This

8:56

extravagant baby shower was fun. It

8:59

was a happy time for everyone involved.

9:02

Unfortunately, the good times

9:04

didn't last. A

9:06

few months later, Geraldine told her

9:09

sisters and Randy that one of

9:11

her babies had died. Geraldine

9:13

slipped into a deep depression, and

9:16

when the day came for Geraldine to give

9:18

birth to the surviving baby, nobody

9:21

could find her. 36-year-old Geraldine

9:24

Jones was missing, and her two sisters,

9:26

Tamiko and April, were very

9:45

concerned. Meanwhile, about

9:47

200 miles south of Geraldine's home, there

9:50

was another woman who was having problems

9:52

of her own. In

10:00

2015, 23-year-old Samantha

10:30

Fleming was living in an apartment

10:32

with her boyfriend in Anderson, Indiana.

10:35

In March of that year, Samantha gave

10:37

birth to a baby girl that she

10:40

named Serenity. About

10:42

a month later, April 6, 2015,

10:46

Samantha's boyfriend went to the

10:48

Anderson Police Department and reported

10:50

that Samantha and Serenity

10:53

were missing. It's my understanding that

10:56

you reported to the police that

10:58

your girlfriend was missing, your

11:00

current girlfriend was missing. Yes. Okay.

11:03

And her name is Samantha? Samantha

11:05

Fleming, yes. Describe

11:08

to me how old she is?

11:11

She's 23. What, did you hear her birth?

11:15

July 18, 1993, I believe. Samantha

11:21

and her boyfriend, Rainey Stanley,

11:24

had only dated for less than a

11:26

year, and Rainey wasn't

11:28

the father of Samantha's newborn baby

11:30

girl. The couple met

11:32

online just a few weeks after Samantha learned

11:34

that she was pregnant. They

11:37

quickly became close, though, and moved into

11:39

an apartment together. After

11:41

the birth of Serenity, Rainey planned

11:43

to formally adopt the child.

11:47

How old were you and Samantha to live

11:49

it together? Probably

11:52

about 8 months after. How

11:54

old were you? I

11:58

never probably broke that out. Well,

12:00

we talked for about a month

12:02

prior. So what do

12:04

you mean you talked? We talked on an

12:07

online chat app. Okay,

12:09

so how do you met her? Yeah, that's how I met

12:11

her. Okay, and did you ever have a job? No, we did not.

12:15

Did she just have a job? Yes, she did. Okay.

12:19

And when did she have a job? The

12:21

24th of March. And

12:23

what's this job's

12:25

name? Serenity.

12:27

Serenity's lying. Samantha

12:30

and her baby girl were reported

12:32

missing. Unfortunately, since Samantha

12:35

was an adult, and presumably with

12:37

her child, an Amber Alert

12:39

could not be sent out. Just

12:42

didn't fit. Samantha's mom

12:44

began handing out flyers asking everyone

12:46

and anyone to help

12:48

her find Samantha. On

12:51

those flyers, she wrote the following. According

12:54

to her boyfriend, Samantha and Serenity disappeared

12:56

from their home in Anderson, Indiana on

12:58

Monday 6th around 12.50pm. Samantha

13:02

left with only a few diapers, one

13:04

sleeper, and some formula. Nobody

13:07

has had any contact with Samantha. Her

13:10

wallet was found near Fifth Street in Gary,

13:12

Indiana. We suspect foul

13:14

play. Eventually, the local

13:16

media picked up on this story and began

13:19

reporting about the disappearance of Samantha

13:23

and her baby. Tonight on the Night

13:25

Feed, Anderson's police are searching for a missing

13:27

mother and her infant. Samantha and

13:29

Serenity Fleming were last seen Monday

13:31

morning. 23-year-old Samantha Fleming and her

13:33

newborn Serenity were reported missing by

13:36

her boyfriend earlier this month. Two

13:38

Indiana women, Geraldine Jones and

13:40

Samantha Fleming, went missing.

13:44

They lived nearly 200 miles apart

13:46

and seemed to have no connection to each other

13:49

at all. The only

13:51

similarity they shared was that Geraldine

13:53

was expecting a baby and Samantha

13:56

just had a baby. Weird.

14:00

Indiana investigators, this was

14:02

a baffling case that only became

14:04

more bizarre and troubling as the

14:06

events unfolded. As

14:08

the police worked to make sense of things, so

14:11

too did Geraldine's sisters.

14:14

Ultimately, their paths converged.

14:18

On the same day, and at

14:20

about the same time, Geraldine's

14:22

sisters and police investigators came

14:25

upon a horrific scene. There,

14:30

they came upon the aftermath of

14:33

a brutal and senseless

14:37

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warranty. details. In

16:09

April of 2015, 23-year-old

16:11

Samantha Fleming and

16:14

her three-week-old daughter, Serenity, were

16:16

reported missing by Samantha's

16:18

boyfriend, Rainie Stanley. Samantha

16:21

and Rainie lived together in an

16:23

apartment in Anderson, Indiana. According

16:27

to Rainie, on the last day that

16:29

Samantha went missing, a

16:31

mysterious woman came to his apartment claiming

16:33

to be a case manager

16:35

for Child Protective Services, which is

16:38

also known as CPS. If

16:41

you've paid attention to any episode in

16:43

the last 10 years. So what

16:45

if she disappeared? Monday, about 12.50.

16:48

So this past Monday? Yeah.

16:50

What would she do? How does she leave? Alright.

16:54

A case worker. She came to my house. I

16:56

opened the door. She identified herself as a case

16:59

manager. She was here to do a surprise visit.

17:02

She looks, she's dressed in business light. And

17:07

she let herself in. I didn't even give her

17:09

consent to walk into my house. She

17:11

takes it upon herself to sit down at my table. What

17:13

was her name? Didn't get her name. Good.

17:16

She just said she was a case manager with DCS. Good. I told

17:18

her Samantha was sleeping. She told me I needed to wake her up.

17:20

No. I ended up going to wake up Samantha. Samantha

17:23

had a corgait. She been there for? No.

17:26

Never seen her before in my life.

17:28

Rainey explained to investigators

17:31

that Serenity wasn't

17:33

Samantha's only child. Samantha

17:41

also had a son named Steven. Before

17:45

meeting and ultimately living with Rainey, Samantha

17:48

had dated a different man. Allegedly,

17:51

that relationship was abusive.

18:00

house and wouldn't let him go. Possibly

18:02

he beat her, I guess, and

18:06

done it a couple of times and the cops had

18:08

been called out. That time

18:10

he was charged criminal confinement for

18:12

holding her hostage with letter bleed.

18:15

After several domestic incidents, a court

18:17

ruled that Samantha and her ex

18:20

were unfit parents. So

18:23

Samantha's son was placed into

18:25

foster care. That

18:28

ruling left Samantha completely devastated. She

18:31

knew that she was and could continue

18:33

to be a good mother. In

18:36

her mind. So she

18:38

broke up with her boyfriend, moved

18:41

out of their apartment, and began doing

18:43

everything she could to regain custody of

18:46

her son. She has a workshop.

18:50

It falls to her. Yes.

18:52

Because she has to meet certain standards before she

18:54

can get herself back. She has to meet with

18:57

a therapist, has to meet with a case manager.

19:00

Given Samantha's child custody situation,

19:03

it wasn't unusual for case managers

19:05

from Child Protective Services to just

19:07

randomly show up at Samantha's

19:10

home. So Rainey

19:12

claimed that he didn't find it

19:14

strange or suspicious that this woman

19:16

showed up at his door asking

19:18

to see Samantha. Supposedly

19:21

this woman told Samantha that there was

19:23

a scheduling mix up and that Samantha

19:26

was due in court later that day.

19:29

She explained that a hearing was going to be

19:31

held about her son. In

19:33

fact, a judge could rule that Samantha's son

19:35

should be released from foster care and

19:38

could go home with Samantha on

19:40

that very day. Big

19:42

news. She starts getting everything ready. I help

19:44

her clean out a bottle. So she has a couple of bottles to

19:47

take with her. She

19:51

was getting ready to go with her because this lady

19:53

told her she has a court at three o'clock in

19:55

Gary, Indiana. She gets

19:57

brought... She

20:00

was taking your girlfriend. I didn't think to

20:02

ask that. DCS comes around all the time.

20:04

It's kind of normal. They're

20:06

allowed to take her places. I don't think much of

20:09

it until I got outside. What's funny

20:11

is this lady came into holding a folder of

20:13

paperwork. So she was

20:15

acting like she had these papers

20:17

for a reason. It's something to

20:19

do with some math. So she was trying to look professional. She

20:21

did a decent job of it. She

20:24

knew more than what she thinks someone else would

20:26

know. Okay. Let's just

20:28

talk a little bit. Do you think she's been able

20:30

to do it? She sounds legit. She knows a lot

20:32

about the case. I mean, my

20:34

understanding is that they won't release that information

20:36

to this anybody. Do you know about

20:38

Steven? According to Rainey,

20:40

this CPS worker knew a lot

20:43

about Samantha and her

20:45

case. She seemed

20:47

completely legitimate and suggested that Samantha

20:49

should bring her baby daughter to

20:51

the court hearing. And then she

20:54

said something about, did she have to take the child with you?

20:57

Yes, she told her she had to take the child. They'd look good

21:00

for the judge. Rainey explained

21:02

that Samantha was excited about the prospect of

21:04

getting her son back. So he

21:06

helped to pack a baby bag. A

21:09

few moments later, Samantha,

21:11

Serenity, and this

21:14

mysterious CPS worker, whoever she was,

21:17

walked out the door. Rainey

21:19

followed them outside. And it

21:22

was only after he saw the case worker's

21:24

car that he started

21:26

to think something about this situation just

21:29

didn't feel right. The car

21:31

was a white Ford sedan, which

21:33

wasn't unusual for a case worker to

21:36

drive, but Rainey noticed

21:38

that the tag on her

21:40

license plate was expired. Now

21:43

that's odd. Rainey claimed that

21:46

he didn't say anything about the tag, but he

21:48

took a mental note of it and later wrote

21:50

down the license plate number. We've

21:53

read the police. We've had information, but we've already

21:55

mentioned the personal counts and everything. And this is

21:57

the plate number you gave us for it in

21:59

the end. And in 2000,

22:01

the police said it was expired. Right?

22:05

It was expired. And

22:07

that car's been there. It's white people.

22:11

They said they didn't even renew the

22:13

plate. The plate's still on the top? Well,

22:15

they still had the plate. They just

22:17

didn't renew it. They liked it because his wife's a nurse,

22:19

so they kept the plate. And the

22:21

lady talked about the parts. And so I wonder

22:23

if I could get the plate number off. You could

22:26

have. When the police followed up

22:28

on that license plate number, the

22:30

one that Rainey gave them, it

22:33

led them to a middle-aged couple who

22:35

clearly had no involvement with Samantha Fleming

22:37

at all. Essentially, Rainey sent

22:39

the cops on a wild goose chase, which

22:43

called his story into question. Still,

22:47

the police knew that Rainey was

22:49

telling the truth about the CPS

22:51

worker because Samantha and Rainey's neighbor

22:53

also saw the woman. In

22:56

fact, this neighbor led her into

22:58

the apartment building. She said she

23:00

was from CPS and I showed her upstairs. She

23:03

had a paperwork, like, you know, a

23:05

folder, a briefcase, stuff like that. She

23:08

was dressed professionally. She

23:10

looked, you know, like somebody who worked for CPS

23:13

or something. The police also determined

23:15

that whoever this woman was, she

23:18

did not work for Child Protective

23:20

Services. The CPS

23:22

office in Anderson confirmed that there

23:25

was no court hearings or home

23:27

visitation scheduled for Samantha Fleming. One

23:30

theory that investigators entertained was that

23:33

this whole thing might have been orchestrated by

23:35

Samantha. Maybe she arranged

23:37

to have this fake government worker show

23:39

up at the apartment so she

23:42

and her baby could leave and

23:45

escape another abusive relationship. But

23:49

Rainey didn't come off as the abusive type and

23:52

he seemed to genuinely care about

23:54

Samantha. The

24:00

only thing that's off was the suicidal thing.

24:05

And like she said, she just needed to vent. I

24:07

had called 911 about it, and

24:10

then I canceled the call. Samantha

24:13

Fleming went missing on April 6, 2015, and

24:15

by April 16, there was still no sign

24:21

of her and no news about

24:23

who the fake CPS worker was.

24:26

Meanwhile, back in Gary, Indiana,

24:29

the family of Geraldine Jones was

24:32

finally able to find and make

24:34

contact with Geraldine. Both

24:37

of her sisters had frantically tried to

24:39

find Geraldine on the day she

24:42

was supposed to give birth, but they

24:44

could never find out which hospital she

24:46

went to. After that

24:48

point, two weeks later, at

24:50

this point, she wasn't talking

24:52

to her anymore. She

24:54

had gotten, I guess, pissed

24:56

off, which I don't understand, you

24:59

know, I think it was weird that we would have learned

25:01

about somebody at the base. When

25:03

Geraldine first announced that she was pregnant, she

25:06

told her family that she was going to be

25:08

having twins. Later, she

25:10

told her family that one of her babies had

25:12

died, somehow, in her womb.

25:15

The other one's fine, but this one's dead. How

25:17

does that work? And that nobody

25:20

seemed to care that she lost

25:22

one of her children. Oh, is me. Oh,

25:25

my God. You'll never believe how hard it is to be

25:27

a mother, especially if they're current. She wasn't talking to us.

25:30

So all of a sudden, you know, she sent out a

25:32

bad text message to me. It was

25:34

a group text that involved my sister,

25:36

my dad, my me, and she said

25:38

she didn't mean it. But

25:40

I called and told her, I said, well, you know,

25:43

I think it's not that message I said, but, you

25:45

know, everybody was acting out of being concerned. I

25:47

told her, I said, you know, that's not

25:49

a message you send to people that's concerned about

25:51

you. You know, people only act out of

25:53

being concerned, especially if it's a family member you're

25:56

having a baby. Right. Geraldine made amends with

25:58

her two older sisters. sisters. Both

26:01

of them were eager to meet their

26:03

new niece. They wanted

26:05

to see Geraldine's new baby girl.

26:20

So do you know about when the first time you saw

26:22

the baby was? That Monday. Tamiko

26:25

visited Geraldine's home and met with the baby.

26:28

A few days later Geraldine's older sister,

26:31

April, did the same. She

26:55

came by, you saw the baby, you played with the

26:57

baby, whatever. So after that, we talked

27:00

every day after that. Geraldine

27:02

reconnected with her family. Her

27:04

sisters, April and Tamiko were thrilled to meet

27:07

their new niece. In

27:09

a perfect world, this would have

27:11

been a happy occasion, but this

27:13

certainly wasn't a perfect world. April

27:16

and Tamiko noticed that Geraldine wasn't

27:18

acting like herself. She

27:21

was distant and strange.

27:24

Something was clearly bothering her. There

27:27

was also another and much

27:30

bigger problem. The

27:32

baby that Geraldine introduced to her family

27:35

didn't belong to her. In

27:37

case you haven't figured it out, that

27:40

baby belonged to Samantha

27:42

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battery warranty details. In

29:10

the late spring of 2015,

29:13

36-year-old Geraldine Jones told

29:15

her family that she had given birth to

29:17

a new baby girl. Geraldine

29:20

named the baby Bella and

29:22

introduced Bella to her older sisters,

29:24

April and Tomiko. After

29:27

they met the baby, Geraldine did

29:29

something strange. She left

29:32

Bella with her sister April and

29:34

flew to Texas. Geraldine

30:02

told her family that she was severely

30:04

depressed and she wanted to

30:06

be with her mom who was living in Texas.

30:09

So she left her home of Gary,

30:11

Indiana without her baby

30:14

and flew to her mom's house.

30:18

Once there, Geraldine tried

30:20

to kill herself by taking

30:22

an overdose of sleeping pills. Thankfully,

30:25

her mom was home at the time. She

30:28

found Geraldine was able to call for help

30:31

before the worst happened. After

30:54

this failed suicide attempt, Geraldine

30:56

was committed to a mental hospital in

30:58

Texas. Her mom assumed

31:01

that the loss of one of her babies

31:03

and perhaps the postpartum depression that

31:05

came with the living baby had

31:07

caused Geraldine to do

31:09

what she did. Meanwhile, back

31:12

in Indiana, Geraldine's two sisters

31:14

were starting to realize that this whole

31:16

situation was a

31:18

little weird. Right? When

31:21

she left, did you guys feel like something was...

31:24

I mean, not that, but did you guys... Was

31:26

you guys still thinking, man, something just wrong here?

31:29

Like this ain't all... I didn't think nothing was

31:31

wrong, but I was kind of upset because

31:33

I was thinking that, you

31:35

know, my thing was she had just had

31:37

a baby and then she didn't check off to Texas. And

31:39

I said, well, who leaves a new baby? That

31:42

wasn't me. My main thing was I was upset

31:44

that she left the baby. Right. I

31:46

just thought maybe, you know, like people, if some women

31:48

go to the postpartum, I thought maybe that was it.

31:51

Geraldine's oldest sister, Tomiko, was

31:54

mostly able to chalk things up

31:56

to postpartum depression. Mr.

32:00

April wasn't satisfied with that.

32:03

Nah, nah, nah, nah, nah.

32:06

In an effort to hopefully make sense

32:08

of things, April decided

32:10

to go to Geraldine's house in Indiana. And

32:14

so then you went to Geraldine's house? Yes.

32:18

Okay. What were you going there for

32:20

exactly? Just

32:23

an answer to the chapter that was going on. Okay.

32:26

And then Tomiko showed up. She

32:30

kind of said this and she wasn't saying nothing about

32:32

it, but she said, April's the one that will dig

32:34

for information. I'm the one that just kind of stay

32:36

in mind. Yeah, but that's true. This

32:39

was after you guys had received a call

32:41

at Geraldine trying to commit suicide. That

32:44

was a big deal over there. And all that? That's

32:46

a tough thing because I felt like something must

32:48

have happened. And something

32:50

had to happen where she felt like no point of

32:52

return. So I need to figure out what I'm getting

32:55

myself into when I go to take it. I don't

32:57

know what's going on. Right. April

32:59

arrived at Geraldine's house and she

33:02

brought along the new baby. A

33:04

short while later, Tomiko showed up there as well.

33:08

As soon as they walked in the house, they knew

33:10

something was wrong. They

33:12

found empty bleach bottles scattered on the

33:14

floor. And there was

33:17

an unexplainable eeriness about the place.

33:20

Everything just felt off. But

33:23

she was just saying it was just

33:25

things that was there that just didn't

33:27

really... April was up here. And

33:30

so when I sat down to

33:32

this on the table, you know, on the couch I

33:34

was looking. So she, you know, she shows me the

33:36

bucket. And yeah, it

33:38

was bleach and ammonia and stuff in there.

33:41

And prior to the kitchen and anything, I don't,

33:43

you know, I just wanted to wash a bottle.

33:46

And I sat that bottle on the counter. But,

33:49

and I didn't know it

33:52

did smell right. Had

33:54

I known that it might have been something in there, but I

33:56

can't really get my eyesight. For April and Tomiko, perhaps

33:59

the... The most unsettling thing about

34:01

Geraldine's house was a smell.

34:05

A rank scent of rotting

34:07

flesh mixed with pungent

34:10

chemicals and bleach filled

34:12

the house. And then

34:14

when I came in there and I was sitting there,

34:17

I mean, you know, like, you know, the garbage used to be

34:19

taken out. And it

34:21

didn't really smell like garbage.

34:23

It smelled like something else.

34:25

I said, it's a pestle and something's dead there.

34:28

And she said, maybe she's an athlete. It

34:30

smells like she's been like some idiot. Like

34:34

an animal or something? Yeah. Other

34:36

than the weird smell, was

34:38

there anything on the house that you reserved?

34:42

Well, my sister's, and once you pointed

34:44

out, when I looked at her at the table, it was

34:46

about a bleach. Or a bleach. Like,

34:48

two times, a big tub and all the

34:50

other stuff in there. It was kind of the first

34:52

reaction, and you walked in. I

34:54

don't know what it is. Why

34:56

did you think that? What made you think that? It's

34:58

just about just little things. Like what?

35:01

I mean, just tell us. Whatever you

35:03

notice. Like, your sister noticed something. It's

35:05

just a smell, first of all, it's a smell right to

35:08

me. I don't know

35:10

what it's not a smell, but it's not a human.

35:13

April and Tomiko spent some time looking around

35:15

the house, but they never

35:17

could locate the source of the awful smell.

35:20

A short while later, April

35:22

left while Tomiko remained at

35:24

Geraldine's house with the baby.

35:27

Where did she say she was going? April

35:30

went to go wire my nephews and money

35:32

because he was coming. He was in Chicago,

35:34

but he was just coming home. As

35:39

Tomiko waited in Geraldine's house, she

35:42

looked out a window and noticed that

35:44

a black car was slowly and repeatedly

35:47

driving by the home. It

35:49

seemed like the driver was lost in

35:51

trying to find Geraldine's address.

35:55

She was in over the baby? Yes, I was in the baby. And

35:58

the first time I was there, I was like, Then I

36:00

saw the black car guy's head, and

36:03

I just thought maybe it was just somebody else, you know? But

36:05

then when I saw him come back again, and

36:08

he had the police officers, then I

36:10

saw him walking, I said, and they

36:12

kind of looked like maybe they come here. It

36:14

turned out that the black car belonged

36:17

to the lead investigator, who

36:19

was trying to find Samantha Fleming.

36:22

Through sheer coincidence, his

36:25

path had converged with

36:27

Tomiko, and they

36:29

both arrived at Geraldine's house on

36:31

the same day. At the time, this

36:35

lady is basically a missing person until

36:37

we can, you know, prove otherwise. And

36:40

we don't automatically assume something bad, so we're starting

36:42

on the bottom, and we

36:45

had this block number. Well, that block number

36:47

come back to Geraldine, and I just unblocked

36:49

it the night before. So I

36:51

called her phone and just said, hey, I told her

36:53

who I was and what police department I was with.

36:56

She never answered. I left it on the voicemail. I

36:58

was just gonna ask her, you know, I know you're

37:00

the one that came, that called, and you're the one that came to

37:03

Anderson to get her, you know, where is

37:05

she at? Were you just trying to help her get away

37:07

from this guy? Did you know her from

37:09

Gary, and this was kind of like a setup? I

37:12

was thinking maybe she just tried to lure him away from this

37:14

guy, and Samantha knew about it.

37:16

Samantha's still on the run somewhere. A

37:18

few days before Samantha went missing, Samantha's

37:21

mom received a phone call from a

37:23

block number. When she answered,

37:26

Samantha's mom spoke to a woman

37:28

claiming to be a child protective

37:30

services case manager, and

37:32

this woman was fishing for information about

37:35

Samantha. When the

37:37

police unblocked the phone number, it

37:40

led them to Geraldine Jones. She

37:45

was the fake CPS worker. What's

37:48

so strange, like I said, I was sitting on the couch

37:50

with the baby, and I'm

37:53

talking to her like she's gonna talk back. I

37:55

said, I must be looking to somebody. Right. you

38:00

were looking for a current address. Yeah.

38:03

So had you been there before? No,

38:05

just that day. I actually come to Gary

38:07

that day to try

38:10

to find Geraldine. When

38:13

the investigator arrived at Geraldine's house,

38:15

he met with Tomiko in the

38:18

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39:21

let them into the home. I

39:23

can smell the smell. You

39:25

know. You know what I stopped it

39:27

was and this is my eye because I had

39:29

never smelled a body before. Right. So

39:32

I'm thinking like, okay, maybe it's a dead mouth

39:34

or something here. Right. I mean, I smelled

39:36

dead mice, but that smell itself

39:38

would have been, that

39:40

was a lot. And it was kind of like,

39:44

it was kind of like I couldn't really tell 100%. It

39:48

was because there were some chemicals. And

39:51

then one hand it threw me off. And see my April,

39:53

April was like, well, me she said, do you smell that?

39:56

I said, and that's what I thought I said was, it can maybe

39:58

it's a dead mouth or something here. Once

40:02

inside the house, the investigator performed a

40:04

search, and he was able to

40:06

find what Tomiko and April couldn't.

40:10

In the back bedroom closet, there

40:12

was a dead body, wrapped

40:15

in plastic and

40:17

duct tape. The body

40:19

had been folded in half, stuffed

40:22

into a plastic tote, and was

40:25

soaking in a shallow pool of

40:28

bleach. Unsurprisingly,

40:31

the body was later identified

40:34

as 23-year-old, mother of two,

40:37

Samantha Fleming, and

40:39

her death was determined to have been

40:41

caused by multiple

40:43

stab wounds. This

40:46

would have been a pretty bloody scene. The

40:49

body had like close

40:52

to 40-some stab wounds. Right.

40:55

And so, somebody to see all

40:57

that would be probably a lot to take

40:59

in, you know, just

41:01

never dealing with that before. So you

41:03

know, that's a lot of stab wounds. At

41:06

this point, the truth of

41:09

the situation started to become apparent

41:11

to everyone. The

41:14

baby that Tomiko and April had been

41:16

caring for didn't belong

41:19

to Geraldine. The

41:22

baby was Samantha Fleming's missing daughter,

41:25

Serenity. While

41:27

disguised as a CPS worker, Geraldine

41:30

lured Samantha and her

41:32

baby away from her apartment.

41:35

Then, Geraldine stabbed Samantha

41:38

to death and claimed

41:40

the baby as her

41:42

own. The investigators

41:44

who were working on this case

41:46

had a basic understanding of

41:49

what had happened, but there are

41:51

still so many questions. Questions

41:54

that only Geraldine can answer. Like

41:57

why or how did Geraldine shoot?

42:00

to Samantha as her victim. How did

42:02

that happen? What

42:04

was the connection between these two women? And

42:07

obviously, why did Geraldine do

42:09

all this? After Samantha's

42:11

body was discovered, Geraldine

42:14

was promptly found in Texas and

42:16

arrested. A few days later,

42:18

she was transported back to Indiana

42:21

where investigators attempted to question her.

42:23

All this says right here is that

42:25

you understand what your rights are. But what

42:27

is that part saying that I'm waiting for rights, it's not

42:30

saying you're waiting for rights, it just says you've

42:32

read the statement and you understand what they are. And

42:35

it says that we haven't made any threats, coercion

42:37

or anything. All this says is that you just

42:39

understand what they are. Okay.

42:42

Okay, I don't think I'm saying anything. Okay, that's

42:44

fine. Here's what we come down

42:46

here for, okay? We come down here to talk to

42:49

you, to try to get your

42:51

side. There's two sides to every story, okay?

42:54

There's a lot of unanswered questions. I

42:56

don't want to answer any questions but I'm gonna turn it. Okay, you don't

42:58

want to answer anything right now at all? Okay.

43:01

Unfortunately, Geraldine refused

43:04

to talk to investigators and

43:06

give her side of the story. Smart

43:09

for her, bad for society.

43:12

So, in order to make

43:14

sense of this homicide, the investigators

43:17

spoke extensively with Geraldine's neighbors,

43:19

friends and her two older

43:21

sisters. I mean, I know

43:23

you guys for the most part believed that she was

43:26

pregnant. I did,

43:28

but all the part. Okay. All the

43:30

security. but she wasn't like 100%, you

43:32

know? Never really

43:34

thought about it. Just took her word for it, but. I

43:37

was fighting the family. I would say that

43:39

I would be the most with the road to

43:41

the glass stall. Right. If something really happens

43:43

and I find out everything, like I've been finding out since she,

43:46

you know, been in jail. Uh-huh. I never had

43:48

a doubt that she was not pregnant, ever. Eventually,

43:51

investigators learned that Geraldine was

43:54

never pregnant. It was

43:56

all a lie. She was a liar. And

43:59

you should never. trust liars.

44:02

The lengths she went to keep that lie going

44:04

were baffling. For

44:06

nine months, Geraldine repeatedly

44:09

posted updates on her social

44:11

media about her

44:13

fake pregnancy, which included sharing sonogram

44:16

photos and updates

44:18

about her frequent doctor visits. She

44:20

was basically mommy blogging without

44:23

being a mommy. Geraldine

44:25

purposely gained weight and accepted maternity

44:27

gifts from her friends and family.

44:30

She even let them throw her

44:33

a fucking lavish baby shower. What

44:36

a cunt. April and Tamiko

44:38

fully believe that Geraldine was

44:41

pregnant but

44:57

there was someone who had some doubts. Geraldine

45:00

told her ex-boyfriend, Randy Garrett, that

45:03

he was the father. He

45:27

might have the appointment. She's like, okay, meet

45:29

me out there. Then when I meet out

45:31

there, she might be already out

45:33

there. She's coming out. Oh, he had to reschedule.

45:36

He had to deliver a baby or suck it

45:38

up. It would always be something. Does she even

45:40

look pregnant right now? I mean, she

45:44

looked pregnant in the stomach. In the

45:46

stomach? It seemed like her face was

45:48

getting more fuller. Did

45:51

you ever touch her stomach at all? No, I

45:53

never really touched her stomach. I never touched her

45:55

stomach. It

45:57

looked like she was pregnant. You really did.

46:00

Geraldine lied and successfully convinced

46:03

everyone around her that she was pregnant.

46:06

That much, the investigators knew. But

46:09

the big unanswered question was, why?

46:13

Why do you do these things? What's

46:17

the fucking point? How

46:19

dumb are you that you don't realize you're

46:21

gonna get caught eventually? Why

46:24

had Geraldine done any of this?

46:27

You know, there's gotta be some underlying

46:29

things going on. And basically

46:32

everybody I talk to, and it's

46:34

mainly her family and friends,

46:37

all say the same thing. It's

46:40

to me she's carried this lie on so

46:42

far with so many people

46:44

that it left her no alternative but to

46:46

finish it and do something. In

46:49

June of 2014, Geraldine told

46:51

her family and ex-boyfriend that

46:54

she was pregnant. Nine months later,

46:56

in April of 2015. 18

47:26

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48:00

needed to produce a baby if she

48:02

was going to keep this lie going. Because

48:04

that's the thing about lies. You got to

48:07

keep lying to protect the lie. But

48:10

liars are usually pretty short-sighted type

48:12

people and don't really

48:14

plan ahead much. They

48:17

just plan for you to believe they're bullshit. That's

48:21

it. That's the extent of their

48:23

plans. So Geraldine began hunting when

48:25

she found a woman on Facebook who

48:27

had just given birth to a biracial

48:29

baby. This one checked

48:32

the box. There

48:34

weren't a whole lot of requirements. Put

48:36

it that way. That woman was motive

48:39

and opportunity. Motive and opportunity. That

48:42

woman, by the way, was 23-year-old Samantha

48:44

Fleming, but you already knew that. You

48:47

know, trying to figure out the connection. I don't think

48:50

she knew the victim, and I don't think her and

48:52

the victim have met. I

48:54

think Geraldine's smart enough.

48:56

She was able to find out

48:58

about this person either online, Facebook,

49:00

whatever, and had a lot of

49:03

time to kind of... And

49:06

I'm just thinking myself the whole time. I keep thinking

49:09

somehow I think Geraldine ran

49:11

across her herself because she spent... She

49:14

put a lot of time and

49:16

effort into this pregnancy thing. I

49:19

think she's pretty smart. I think

49:21

she's very IT smart. She's

49:23

able to get in there and

49:25

Facebook and all this stuff and somehow found this

49:27

girl, but she had to know a little bit

49:29

about her DCS history, and

49:31

that's where I don't know... That's

49:35

right. Samantha Fleming was very active on

49:37

Facebook, and investigators would eventually

49:39

come to find that pretty much

49:42

everything Samantha was dealing with in

49:44

regards to regaining custody of her

49:46

son was spelled out on

49:48

social media. Again, more

49:50

mommy blogging. Only blogging

49:52

can kill folks. There

49:55

are Facebook posts and

49:57

subsequent conversations in

49:59

the comments sections. went

50:01

into great detail about her

50:03

situation and the struggles she

50:05

was having. Woe is me, gotta tell

50:07

everyone about it. So listen

50:10

up, ladies. If there

50:13

was ever a cautionary tale to

50:15

warn people not to

50:17

share their personal problems online, this

50:20

is it. Pay attention.

50:23

Geraldine used

50:26

this information that Samantha posted,

50:29

that Samantha had shared online to

50:32

pose as a CPS worker

50:35

who was overseeing Samantha's case

50:39

and take advantage of her. You

50:41

see how the internet works? Are you starting

50:43

to figure it out? She

50:46

called the victim's mother two

50:48

days before this incident happened,

50:50

anonymous. And then

50:52

the mother gave her, because she was claiming

50:55

to be a DCS worker and knew enough

50:57

information to make it sound good, the mother

50:59

actually gave her the girl's number. So

51:01

she was seeking her out. And

51:04

then she called the victim and

51:06

only said, I'm your new

51:08

case worker. I'm actually the supervisor.

51:11

The other girl's not, wasn't going to be on

51:13

vacation. So I'm taking over. When

51:16

Geraldine showed up at Samantha's apartment,

51:19

the details that she knew about

51:21

Samantha's case made Geraldine's disguise that

51:24

much more convincing. Her

51:26

act was so persuasive. In fact,

51:28

that she was able to

51:31

lure Samantha and her baby from

51:33

her home into her car.

51:36

Think about that. Geraldine

51:38

told Samantha that she needed to appear

51:41

at a courthouse in Gary, Indiana later

51:43

that day, because a judge was

51:45

going to rule if Samantha could get her

51:47

son back. Once Samantha

51:50

was in the car, Geraldine

51:52

drove three hours from Anderson

51:54

to Gary, Indiana. Investigators

51:57

believe that after they arrived in

51:59

Gary. me. Geraldine was able

52:01

to lure Samantha into her home. She

52:04

may have claimed that she needed to make a

52:06

quick stop before going to the courthouse. Who

52:09

knows what kind of lie she sold. Apparently she

52:11

was very good at it. Many

52:13

criminals are. When

52:16

Samantha stepped inside Geraldine's home,

52:19

she had no clue as to the horror that

52:21

awaited her. Geraldine

52:23

attacked Samantha, stabbing

52:26

her over 40 times and

52:29

killing her. Then she wrapped

52:31

the body in plastic, folded

52:33

Samantha into a plastic tub

52:36

and filled that tub with

52:39

bleach. After

52:41

the murder, Geraldine

52:43

claimed Samantha's baby as

52:46

her own. This

52:48

story is insane.

52:52

If you saw these events play out in a movie,

52:54

you'd probably laugh your ass off for it

52:56

being too unrealistic. It's

52:59

like something you'd see on the

53:01

Lifetime Network. In

53:03

between reruns of Christmas

53:05

in July. Maybe not Lifetime these

53:07

days, maybe more like Oxygen, you

53:09

know? The formerly

53:12

gay network that now

53:14

just plays true crime all day. Huh.

53:17

My nanny is a serial killer

53:19

or a lethal soccer mom.

53:21

Those kinds of titles. Yeah,

53:24

that sounds kind of like this story. The

53:27

major difference is that Geraldine's

53:29

story is actually

53:31

true. These are facts. I'm not making them

53:34

up. And it's more

53:36

outlandish than anything that could come out

53:38

of a Hollywood producer's unoriginal brain. Given

53:41

how horrifically absurd this whole situation

53:44

was, it begged the

53:46

question. What

53:48

in the world could possibly

53:50

drive someone to act

53:52

this way? she

54:00

kept this baby thing going. So then

54:02

she has to find a baby because

54:05

the boy, the Randy guys, he

54:07

said, we started dating. He

54:09

goes, I really liked her, but

54:11

then it just seemed like every time I turned around, she

54:13

was lying about something. And it

54:15

was like one lie after another. Well, you know

54:18

what? That's her though. So she had a kind

54:20

of lie, man. Yeah, it's a

54:22

habit. So I don't know if that's a part

54:24

of, you know, one

54:26

of the issues she may have, you know,

54:28

whatever, but yet. The prominent

54:30

theory about Geraldine's motives is that she

54:33

was desperate to hold on to her

54:35

ex-boyfriend. So she

54:38

lied about being pregnant to keep him in

54:41

her life. Geraldine wouldn't be

54:43

the first woman to do that. But

54:47

when you add the fact that she

54:49

was also a pathological liar, it

54:52

made for a very bad situation. Geraldine's

54:55

lies painted her into a corner and

54:58

for her kidnapping and murder seemed

55:01

like a better option than just coming

55:03

clean and admitting the truth.

55:06

She had to keep the lies going to protect

55:09

the other lies. Also,

55:11

according to her sisters, Geraldine

55:13

was uncompromisingly desperate for

55:16

attention. A lot

55:18

of that going around. And

55:20

something else that may have

55:22

motivated her actions was jealousy. So

55:25

when April got married and all of

55:27

a sudden I just remember coming down

55:30

and Geraldine saying she was pregnant and my

55:32

first line was, okay, she

55:34

got pregnant on purpose because April

55:37

was getting all the attention with

55:39

her getting married. So as

55:41

far as when she told me she was pregnant,

55:43

I did believe her that she was pregnant. I

55:45

don't know about April's part of it, about being,

55:47

you know, her getting married and the attention, that's

55:50

probably some of it. But I

55:52

think she sees this Randy guy and Miss Randy says

55:54

the same thing to me, go

55:56

April and you say, she couldn't tell

55:58

the truth for nothing. think she started feeling like

56:00

she was starting to lose Randy and

56:03

so she had to come up with it because he says

56:05

next thing you know now she's pregnant. I

56:09

wonder if she maybe

56:13

you know was so used to not

56:15

telling the truth but getting away with a lot of

56:17

it that Randy wasn't putting up

56:19

with it and so it

56:22

tested her and pushed her to

56:24

the point where she's like I'm gonna show him I'm gonna really come

56:27

up with a baby. It's like everything she

56:29

did was a lie. Despite Geraldine's

56:31

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57:53

This truly is a tragic story. Please

57:55

believe that Serenity, the newborn girl involved

57:57

in this case, was less than a

57:59

month old. when this all happened. Now

58:01

that little girl left to grow up

58:03

without her birth mother, 23 year old

58:05

Samantha Fleming, after officers found her body

58:08

full of stab wounds and stuffed inside

58:10

of a closet in Jones's Gary home.

58:12

That being said, just yesterday morning, Jones

58:14

was extradited back here to Indiana from

58:16

Fort Worth, Texas. I'm told she's currently

58:18

being held at Madison County Jail. Investigators

58:20

believe the motive behind the murder and

58:22

kidnapping was all part of an elaborate

58:24

plot for Jones to raise serenity as

58:26

her own daughter. And when I say

58:28

elaborate, I mean it. According to police,

58:31

Jones posed as a child services worker,

58:33

faked her own pregnancy and even threw

58:35

herself a baby shower. Now she sits

58:37

in a cell awaiting her day in

58:39

court. In 2015, Geraldine

58:42

Jones was charged with kidnapping and

58:45

murder. As she

58:47

awaited her court proceedings, Geraldine made

58:49

many jailhouse phone calls to

58:51

her sister, April. You're

58:55

not sorry. Yes, I am. You started getting

58:57

called, you're sorry. You got called. No, I'm

58:59

not. I'm sorry. Well, okay, then

59:01

I guess you just did with it. Then I guess

59:04

you should deal with you being sorry. I don't have

59:06

anything to say. I have a thing to say. I

59:08

have no compassion. My mind is all f'ed up. My

59:10

mind is so messed up from this stuff. I don't

59:12

have any and I'm a compassionate person. But this here,

59:15

I don't, I don't, I don't, I

59:17

don't have any work. Everybody talking about

59:19

you. Everybody talking about your face on fucking

59:21

everywhere. And this is would not stop. You

59:24

just wouldn't stop. But you know what? That's

59:26

something you have to deal with. That's something you have to deal

59:28

with. I with I can't, I can't do anything. I can't do

59:31

anything. I can't fix it. I can't cover it up. I can't

59:33

do anything. But

59:35

I won't do it. I don't want to know

59:37

that I don't want nobody no money. And I'm

59:39

not gonna stress myself out with your ass all

59:41

this mess. I do it all the damn time.

59:43

I'm always stressed and frustrated myself about this stuff.

59:45

I know I'm doing it for somebody that don't

59:47

even appreciate nothing and just lie and manipulate and

59:49

treat me just like you can mean it. Everybody,

59:51

everybody, everybody. And you expect us to be the

59:53

same people that you fucking lied to. And that's

59:55

just for help. Fake ass.

59:57

Oh, trying to cure yourself. You're up there.

1:00:00

As you just heard, much

1:00:02

of Geraldine's conversations with her

1:00:04

sister involved April expressing her

1:00:27

very justified frustrations

1:00:29

with Geraldine. This

1:00:32

went on for some time. Please

1:00:34

don't startle this fake fucking corner. I don't fucking feel

1:00:36

like hearing this shit. And I don't fucking feel

1:00:38

like hearing a whole bunch of shit. I don't fucking feel like hearing a

1:00:40

whole bunch of lies. I don't feel like hearing none of that. Cause

1:00:43

it's all you have done the whole entire

1:00:45

time is fucking lying. The whole entire time,

1:00:48

that's all you've done. Manipulate lies and everybody

1:00:50

all fucked up. You just let everybody out

1:00:52

here to deal with this fucking bullshit. Everything

1:00:55

that you fucking said out of your mouth is a

1:00:57

lie. Everything. The shit you done is so fucked up

1:00:59

Geraldine. It is fucked up and it is so fucked

1:01:01

up. You expect me to be out here trying to

1:01:03

get you money to get a fucking lawyer to help

1:01:05

you get out. Cause you fucked up. I'm

1:01:07

sick of your shit, Geraldine. I am so

1:01:10

sick of your shit. I'm

1:01:12

sick of the way you fucking treat me. I'm so

1:01:14

tired of the way you fucking treat me with the shit

1:01:16

that you do to people. You have no

1:01:18

fucking regards, no nothing about nobody but your

1:01:20

fucking self. The shit is

1:01:22

so fucked up. Even when you say you fucking

1:01:24

sorry, you fucking lie. You sorry you fucking got

1:01:27

caught. You not sorry, you fucking sorry you fucking

1:01:29

got caught. You have fucked the whole family. The

1:01:31

family, your friends, your church, your loved ones, and

1:01:33

the people that care about us. They care about

1:01:35

your motherfucking ass because they care about us. You

1:01:38

fucked them too. And you want somebody

1:01:40

to give you a simple, you want somebody to run around begging

1:01:42

because they have some fucking debt by a fucking damn $25,000 fucking

1:01:44

lawyer to get your

1:01:46

ass out and you just keep fucking people. And you stay a

1:01:48

fucking lie. You stay a fucking lie. I hope

1:01:50

you kill one soul the fucking truth.

1:01:53

Cause you ain't told nobody. Cause the shit is fucked

1:01:55

up. Every fucking day, can't nobody, each can't nobody fucking

1:01:57

sleep. And then the story just keeps on fucking lying.

1:02:00

I'm rambling. Who does this kind of

1:02:02

shit to people? Who the fuck does this

1:02:04

kind of shit to people, Geraldine? You're fucking

1:02:06

a damn year. A fucking year,

1:02:08

Geraldine, you fucking lie. A whole damn year you

1:02:10

fucking lie about this shit. And I feel sorry

1:02:12

for your ass when you get very fucking beginning.

1:02:14

I'm very fucking beginning. I feel sorry for your

1:02:16

ass. If this isn't obvious,

1:02:18

April was fed up with her sister. And

1:02:21

she eventually told Geraldine that she was on

1:02:23

her own. April, I have...

1:02:26

I know I messed up. I did a lot

1:02:28

of shit. But

1:02:31

you know from the bottom of my heart that I love you. You

1:02:33

know what, Geraldine? I don't. I can't tell you that I

1:02:35

know that. April, you know that. I honestly can't tell you

1:02:37

that I know that. It is so messed up. My head

1:02:39

has been spinning and going in all kinds of ways. But

1:02:42

you know what? You got a fucking boy up showing it.

1:02:44

The love that you have, I don't need it, Geraldine. The

1:02:46

love that you have, you are evil and conniving, and you

1:02:48

do anything. It's like you're happy when shit is all fucked

1:02:50

up for other people, and they're lying and all kinds of

1:02:53

shit is crazy. That's the love that you have. I don't

1:02:55

know what that can. I'll do better life without it. How

1:02:57

can you do that? I would do better life without that.

1:03:00

How can I do that? That's not true. I don't

1:03:02

think about that. That's not true at all. That's

1:03:04

not true at all. I've never acted like that, Geraldine. You

1:03:07

have to act like that. Yes, you have. You

1:03:10

have acted like that. I

1:03:12

messed up. When I sit back and reflect on stuff, when

1:03:14

you love somebody, you don't treat them the way that you

1:03:16

treat people. That I know is true. You don't do that

1:03:19

to me. In the end, though, April

1:03:21

somehow found a way to forgive her

1:03:24

sister and agreed to

1:03:26

help her through her upcoming murder trial.

1:03:29

I guess blood is thicker than water.

1:03:33

And I love you, Geraldine. And you know, no matter

1:03:35

what, you steal my stuff, I don't care what those

1:03:37

are. I still love you. Like I said, I'm going

1:03:39

to do whatever I have to do, no matter what.

1:03:42

You just have to be strong and know

1:03:44

that God is doing something. Unfortunately

1:03:47

for Geraldine, there

1:03:49

wasn't much that April or God

1:03:51

himself could do for her.

1:03:54

Geraldine killed a 23-year-old

1:03:57

mother of two kids

1:03:59

and... The police

1:04:01

found the body in her house

1:04:03

in a closet. The

1:04:06

police also unraveled all of her

1:04:08

lies and could easily

1:04:10

prove beyond a reasonable doubt

1:04:13

that Geraldine committed this murder.

1:04:16

A potential death sentence loomed over

1:04:18

Geraldine, and the best

1:04:20

she could hope for was a deal

1:04:23

from prosecutors, which she eventually got. In

1:04:26

May of 2018, Geraldine pled guilty

1:04:28

to voluntary manslaughter and

1:04:31

criminal confinement. She

1:04:33

was sentenced to 30 years in

1:04:36

prison. Throughout the

1:04:38

court proceedings, Geraldine made

1:04:40

no statements, and

1:04:43

after the plea, her attorney gave

1:04:45

a brief statement to the press saying, quote,

1:04:48

The state made the offer, and

1:04:50

Geraldine was satisfied with it. She's

1:04:53

ready to put this behind her. She's

1:04:55

at peace, end quote. Geraldine

1:04:58

was at peace. Well, isn't that nice? Isn't that

1:05:00

nice for her? Do

1:05:03

you know how long it took for me to get here? Hello.

1:05:05

Four days. I mean,

1:05:07

it was with so many different states. And

1:05:12

then they took us to a holding place in

1:05:15

Kentucky, and they were so mean to you, right?

1:05:17

They would make you sleep on the floor. They

1:05:21

didn't give you one small bottle of soap. I

1:05:24

mean, it's ridiculous. Even now, I'm in

1:05:26

lockdown. So it's wise. And

1:05:28

I asked, she said, because of my classification,

1:05:30

because I guess what I did, but

1:05:33

my monkey was telling me that because

1:05:35

of what I did, I mean, because of the charges, that

1:05:38

you want to be by yourself. But I'm

1:05:40

thinking like that from fear. I don't see no TV. I

1:05:42

only get out for an hour. And

1:05:45

I was instantly in isolation. Like

1:05:47

I'm in one cell by myself. During

1:05:49

her calls from jail, Geraldine

1:05:52

spent a lot of time complaining

1:05:54

about the lousy conditions of the

1:05:56

facilities she was transferred to and

1:05:59

the poor treatment she received. It wasn't, you know, yelpable.

1:06:03

She probably wanted to speak with the manager or something.

1:06:06

Never once in any of those calls

1:06:08

does Geraldine mention Samantha Fleming.

1:06:11

Never once does she talk about Samantha's two

1:06:13

kids who are now forced to grow up

1:06:16

without a mother. Because of

1:06:18

her. She doesn't talk about

1:06:21

Samantha's mom or her boyfriend, both

1:06:23

of whom were emotionally crushed by the murder

1:06:26

that Geraldine committed. After

1:06:30

everything she did, after

1:06:32

destroying countless lives for no reason

1:06:35

at all, Geraldine's world

1:06:38

still only revolved around

1:06:41

one person. Geraldine.

1:06:44

You can call this woman a lot of things. She's

1:06:47

a narcissist. She's a pathological liar. She's a

1:06:49

killer. But if

1:06:51

you want to encompass everything,

1:06:54

you only need one word. Geraldine

1:06:57

Jones is a

1:07:00

monster. All

1:07:15

right, that's going to do it for another one. Thanks again

1:07:17

for joining us. If you enjoy the show and want to

1:07:19

support us, there's an easy way to do it at

1:07:22

swordandscale.com. And

1:07:25

while you're there, check out the latest episode of Sword

1:07:27

Scale Television. If you liked your crime, it's a

1:07:29

pretty good docuseries. Thanks

1:07:52

for watching.

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