Emma Jones and Sarah Ludemann

Ever wondered how petty conflicts can snowball into catastrophic incidents? Walk with us through the quiet village of Pennygroes near Caernarfon, Wales where a beloved mother, Emma Jones, makes a simple request to turn down the party music and ends up in a fatal face-off. Shift to sunny Florida where a teenage love triangle unravels deadly passions and fatal rivalries, painting a chilling picture of how a simple schoolyard crush can turn violent.

In our heartfelt discussion, we also introduce you to the chilling characters involved, from the young woman, Alwen Jones, who took Emma's life to the two rival teens, Rachel Wade and Sarah Ludemann, who were head over heels for the same boy. These disturbing narratives are a stark reminder of how quickly disputes can spiral into deadly violence.

“Emma Jones murder: Alwen Jones, 23, remanded over Penygroes murder.” bbc.co.uk. 12 Dec 2011.
“Penygroes trial: Alwen Jones denies murdering Emma Jones” bbc.co.uk. 1 Oct 2012.
“Fatal stab accused Alwen Jones 'frightened' trial hears.” bbc.co.uk. 8 Oct 2012.
“Alwen Jones found guilty of murdering Emma Jones from Penygroes.” bbc.co.uk. 10 Oct 2012.
“Emma Jones murder: Life sentence for Alwen Jones.” bbc.co.uk. 11 Oct 2012.
CNN Wire Staff, Lena Jakobsson, and Beth Karas. “Florida woman involved in love triangle guilty of murder.” cnn.com. 23 July 2010.
DeGregory, Lane. “One teen boy, two teen girls, and homicide.” tampabay.com. 16 Jul 2010.
DeGregory, Lane. “Rachel Wade sentenced to 27 years in prison for stabbing rival in teen love triangle.” tampabay.com. 3 Sep 2010.
Thaji, Jamal. “Teen stabbed to death in feud over boyfriend.” Tampa Bay Times. April 16, 2009.
Waddell, Lynn. “Florida and the Love Triangle Murder.” The Daily Beast. August 8, 2010.

For images related to the cases, check out the Instagram.

Transcript

Julia Goodwin: 0:00

Hello everyone, this is Julia, and murder is bad. We'll actually be covering two cases today. The first comes out of the village Pennygroes, a little south of Caernarfon, Gwynedd in Wales. As you can tell, I've had to look up all these names on howtopronounce. com, so bear with me, be a little graceful. Thank you.

Julia Goodwin: 0:39

31 year old Emma Jones was in her flat in the Trem y Wyddfa housing estates with her young son. It was after 2am on the morning of December 10th 2011. And they could hear loud music coming from another building in the complex. Emma had already asked them to turn down the music several times and she went over and partygoers overheard her saying that they were keeping half the neighborhood awake. So Emma Jones loved riding horses. She was a devoted mother to her son, who was reported to have severe learning disabilities. She had worked at Trigonos Education Center in Nantlle for 7 years as a catering and domestic assistant. Her boss, Richard Grover, said she was a wonderful person and a committed mother. She was warm and welcoming to all our visitors and made them feel at home. She also had a tremendous capacity to make people laugh. By that description and with the simple fact that this is a true crime podcast, you could probably guess that something terrible is going to happen to Emma. Back to the scene.

Julia Goodwin: 1:52

One of the attendees of the party was 21 year old Grace Jones. Not related to Emma or the supermodel. She was having a disagreement with someone at the party and was asked to leave. Grace called her boyfriend, who was with her sister, 24 year old Alwen Jones, earlier in the evening. All three were going to attend a party at the Victoria Pub, but Alwen was the one who was barred from that party. When Grace called, she mentioned that Emma was there, with Emma's boyfriend telling her to get out of there. Alwen grabbed a kitchen knife and put it down her bra before making the 10 minute walk to a. Alwen claimed she grabbed it because she was afraid of Emma, who she thought had a violent reputation. When she arrived, she shouted up come outside if you think you are hard enough. Emma Bach Emma Bach was a nickname she had meaning little Emma.

Julia Goodwin: 3:00

Alwen would later say that her blood was boiling and that she was mad. She would claim that Emma had stabbed one of her family members. A couple weeks prior, though, records couldn't really confirm that, owyn stated that Emma had thrown a pint glass from a first floor window and that the glass had just missed her before shattering on the ground. Owyn also said that Emma spat on her During trial. Qc Ian Murphy said Emma Jones was standing there not offering any threat to you. She said ha ha ha. Owyn didn't respond so he went on. You said I'll give you ha ha ha. Stabbed her in the chest. She did not respond. The judge Justice John Griffith Williams, asked Alwyn, do you agree with that? She then replied yes.

Julia Goodwin: 3:59

Around 2.30 Emma and Alwyn walked in front of each other. Alwyn said I flipped and went for her with the knife. Alwyn Jones inflicted a single deep stab wound in the chest of Emma Jones. Emma's boyfriend put her in his car and met an ambulance crew at a supermarket car park nearby to rush her to Gwynedd Hospital in Bangor. Emma was pronounced dead shortly after arriving.

Julia Goodwin: 4:29

Emma's funeral was two weeks later. People filled the wall of Tree y Wyddfa with flowers and notes of Emma. A Facebook page was flooded with thousands of grieving messages and the funeral had a massive turnout. Emma's father, barry Jones, said he couldn't accept such a bubbly, loving character gone out of his life to violence. Alwyn Jones threw the knife in a nearby front garden and went to her father's home where she hid in a shed. Alwyn was persuaded to return by a police officer who called her cell phone and urged her to think of her two children. She was questioned by police, arrested and remanded into custody. She was able to defend herself during trial and pleaded not guilty to murder. Alwyn Jones's QC, elwyn Evans, said she would wish through me to make it absolutely, abundantly plain to the family of the person she killed, to her family and to the community of Pinagros, that she deeply and acutely regrets her actions and is profoundly remorseful. Alwyn Jones was found guilty and was given a full life term, with a minimum of 18 years to be served. Justice Griffith- Williams said you are a troubled young woman. It is clear to me that anyone who would have crossed you that night would have been in danger. You took the life of a young woman and deprived her son of a mother he loved.

Julia Goodwin: 6:07

Now a few details of this tragic and senseless but pretty straightforward murder reminded me of a fairly well-known case in true crime circles, the love triangle murder out of Pinellas Park, florida. I'm not going to do a deep dive because this case has been covered extensively and continually. If you're interested, the true crime podcast Morbid have you heard of it, does it an excellent job covering the case in the episode the Tragic Murder of Sarah Ludemann. It was posted on December 5th 2020,. If you need to find it, there are also episodes featuring this case on Deadly Women Snapped and Crime Watch Daily. Sometimes I can watch those things. Sometimes they're like really flippant and like pedantic. But anyways, this case takes place between 2008 and 2009. This is the time of Flo Rida, alicia Keys and Katy Perry getting hit on Billboard charts. Popular shows were Breaking Bad, the Wire, the Shield, nitty Gritty or, if you were me, shows like Psych and the L Word and Parks and Rec. New movies were Forgetting Sarah Marshall, pineapple Express and Kung Fu Panda. This is also around the time that Phil Spektor was finally found guilty for the murder of Lana Clarkson.

Julia Goodwin: 7:44

The story starts with a feud between two teenage girls fighting over the same boy, 19-year-old Rachel Wade and 18-year-old Sarah Luderman. They grew up in the same neighborhood, only a few blocks away from each other, but did not interact until they became rivals. Rachel Wade's mother was Janet Wade. She was an assistant teacher at an elementary school and her dad drove trucks for a food distributor. Rachel was said to be a happy child and she loved reading and playing princess and sketching Disney characters. Her mom said she was always making friends and commanding attention. All the girls wanted to be like her. All the boys liked her. Rachel ended up dropping out of school her sophomore year and she got her GED and just started working right away. She was a server at Applebee's and she earned enough to rent her own apartment. Sarah Luderman lived in the same house her whole life. Her parents had moved from New York to Florida to live somewhere warm and safe after waiting 16 years to have what would be their only child.

Julia Goodwin: 8:57

Sarah's mom, gay, was a surgical nurse and her dad, charlie, drove a taxi. Sarah would be beside her dad in his cab, blaring the radio, singing country songs together. He would take her to Keith Urban Concerts. He would take her to her karate classes and lightning games, which I'm sure is a sports thing. Her friend, danielle Ironman, said Sarah loved to sing and dance. She was always making up these crazy moves pretending she was Britney Spears. He is still relatable.

Julia Goodwin: 9:27

Sarah started high school at Tarpon Springs, which is like a special school, like a magnet school, to attend its program and veterinary medicine and she would have to get up like extra early because it was a long bus ride to this type of school. Rachel was in elementary school when a new boy joined her class. He had six brothers and a sister and was from New York and the Dominican Republic. The summer after Sarah's sophomore year she and her friends spent a lot of time going to the movies and eating at Chick-fil-A. One afternoon a boy who cooked chicken came out of the back on his break. He waved to Sarah and winked. He said his name was Josh Camacho Soon. He would be a senior at Pinellas Park High and that was the same boy Rachel had met in elementary school. Two months later Sarah told her parents she wasn't sure she still wanted to be a veterinarian and that she wanted to transfer to Pinellas Park High School.

Julia Goodwin: 10:34

Josh and Sarah flirted through that summer but when fall happened and she was at Pinellas Park High, he would hardly acknowledge her at school. But if they were ever alone they'd be like all over each other. Everyone said Josh was Sarah's first kiss, her first boyfriend, her first everything, which is very relatable to me because she's having her first everything when she's like 17. I didn't have my first anything until I was like out of high school, okay, and they kept calling her a late bloomer and big-boned and that's just so insulting, but anyways, the first sign that made Sarah's friends start to worry is that she started wearing pants. So doesn't seem like a big deal, but Sarah always wore shorts, even in the winter. A friend said that Josh didn't want other guys looking at her legs, and he also started telling her who she could be talking to and who she could spend time with.

Julia Goodwin: 11:37

In the first six months she was with Josh, police interviewed her six times. The couple would scream at each other. Sarah yelled at the mother of Josh's child in the parking lot of the movies and one time Sarah said Josh had punched her in the face. He admitted it and her parents wanted her to press charges, but Sarah refused. During this time, josh was also seeing Rachel Wade and the girl who would be the mother of his child, who, besides having a couple like screaming matches, is not really a part of this, but that's just like another person he's seeing.

Julia Goodwin: 12:20

Josh had started sleeping over at Rachel's apartment, which seemed to make her more attached to him, and a few months after Rachel and Josh started dating she saw a photo on MySpace of Josh with another girl she looked at, who was tagged in the picture, and it was Sarah Luterman. Rachel wrote about Josh in her MySpace blog. Do you remember MySpace blogs? I mean seriously blast from the past. She wrote about him on June 17th 2008, saying when we first met I was madly in love, but since then things have changed. You called me names, you slept around. I deserve so much better. Then, almost instantly, a comment appeared under this post. It was from Sarah and it implied that Josh had quote found better. Rachel then somehow got a hold of Sarah's phone number and she left her a voicemail which Sarah played for her friends. It basically said you're effing with me when you eff with Josh, seriously, I'm letting you now know you're either going to get effed up or something of yours is. Stop being a B-I-T-C-H, bid-cuh. 10 points to Gryffindor, if you tell me what that quote is from.

Julia Goodwin: 13:47

So Rachel's aggressiveness did not seem to faze Sarah. She and her friends started eating at the Applebee's that Rachel worked at. They would sit in her section, they would harass her, they would bump into her and like, make her drop the tray, and they would follow her out to her car and shoot silly string at her. Rachel continued to leave more messages for Sarah calling her fat and pathetic. Josh and Rachel kept hooking up and now he had moved in with her while still seeing Sarah. Sarah told police. Rachel called her 20 times in two hours just to threaten her. Rachel said Sarah sent her nasty emails. There had been no physical altercations so of course, the cops just let it go. And then a voicemail from Rachel to Sarah on August 26, 2008 said I'm guaranteeing you, I'm going to effing murder you. Sarah's dad would pick her up from school and constantly see her crying. When he would try to comfort her, she would shut him down, shut him out. And because she was self-conscious about her weight, she had lost 30 pounds over the six months of this relationship.

Julia Goodwin: 15:07

Now, on this particular day, april 14, 2009, sarah immediately logged onto MySpace when she got home. When she checked Rachel's page, it read mood love in my boo, smiley face. She texted Josh whatever, josh, you get so mad at me for everything, but you don't give a shit when she puts something up or says something. You always believe her. Then she texted again it's like no matter what I do, she's always that much better. And another text All we fight about is her or something that has to do with her and it sucks. I hate fighting with you. I love you so much, but this shit hurts. Then, hours after that, she texts again. You say you love me, but you don't even have the decency to text me back At 8.02 PM, an hour and a half after that one. Josh responded with bring the movies. That's all he said. But do you know what Sarah did? She barred her mom's minivan and to drive the two blocks to Josh's sister's house where he was chilling. But before she left she updated her MySpace status too. I love you, baby. No spaces.

Julia Goodwin: 16:26

During this time, rachel was at her apartment in Largo, about 10 miles away. She was waiting for Josh to show up. She had no idea that Josh and Sarah had plans. While Rachel was walking her dog, she heard a car honk and saw Sarah in her mom's minivan. Sarah yelled Stay away from my man. Rachel said she was scared. So she called an old boyfriend, javier LaBoy, and told him she didn't want to be alone and asked if she could come over.

Julia Goodwin: 17:00

Now this is where I start to see some similarities to the Emma Jones and Alwen Jones case. Because Rachel was scared, she pulled out a steak knife from her kitchen drawer and put it in her purse At 11pm, which was Sarah's curfew. Her and Josh were playing on the Wii when headlights came through the front window. Josh recognized the car as Rachel's red Saturn. Rachel texted Now I know why you're not talking to me, because you got her.

Julia Goodwin: 17:35

At that point. Josh had taken five shots of vodka and smoked like seven blunts, but he managed to text back. That's right. I don't like you no more. Why are you down this street? Go home. Rachel responded no, I'll wait for her to go home.

Julia Goodwin: 17:51

At the same time, sarah received a text from her dad that said when. She said Soon Because she was like out past curfew. So he's like when you gonna be back, she's like I'll be back soon. After she watched Rachel drive away, sarah told Josh goodbye. His sister and her friend asked for a ride to McDonald's and she totally obliged. On the way, sarah passed a friend at a stop sign who said Guess who, I just saw Rachel. She told her that she was at Javier's house down the street. Sarah drove towards Javier's and her phone rang. She put it on speaker and it was Rachel yelling I'm going to kill you, you and your Mexican boyfriend, ouch.

Julia Goodwin: 18:41

When Sarah saw Rachel outside a house leaning against a car and talking to two boys, she put on the brakes and got out of the car. The other girls got out as well. Sarah and Rachel raced toward each other. Sarah reportedly started swinging her fists to hit Rachel. Rachel raised a hand and thrusted it twice in quick succession and all of a sudden the fight was over. She had jabbed the steak knife into Sarah's shoulder and then her heart. Sarah clutched her chest and told the girls to get back in the car. She fumbled for her phone to call someone. Who did she call the police? Her father, her mother? No, she called Josh and Sarah gasped it hurts.

Julia Goodwin: 19:41

Rachel had calmly walked back to Javier's, tossing the knife onto the roof, just like Alwyn tossed it into a neighbor's garden. Josh then called Rachel and asked where she was. When she told him, josh ran the two blocks to Sarah's house and told her dad that she had been in a fight. They drove to Javier's where they saw the minivan still parked in the middle of the road. Sarah was on the sidewalk surrounded by paramedics. Josh's sister had called 911. Charlie Luterman rushed toward his daughter but was pulled back by police officers. He said I knew she was dead. I knew there was nothing anyone could do. He drove Josh to the hospital, but Josh refused to see Sarah. Sarah Ludemann bled out within an hour of being attacked. Josh left before her parents ever got to see her body.

Julia Goodwin: 20:40

Police had found Rachel sitting on a bench at Javier's smoking a cigarette and nursing a busted lip. She said that Josh's sister had jumped her, scratched her back and beaten her with a sandal. When police took Rachel into questioning, it seemed that she didn't know how severe Sarah's injuries were. A detective told her Sarah is dead. You killed her. Rachel started to sob and couldn't stop.

Julia Goodwin: 21:13

Rachel was held in the Pinellas County Jail for 15 months before her trial. She had no interest in a plea deal. She wanted to say her story in court. During that time, josh Camacho never tried to contact Rachel. He wasn't allowed at Sarah's funeral and the rumor was that his parents had sent him to live in New York. In a sworn deposition, josh said that he had been sleeping around with several girls and that Sarah and Rachel were two of those girls. He said they were not his girlfriends, just friends with benefits. The defense attorney said Now you indicated that you thought that Sarah loved you. Did you love her back? Josh said I think I did.

Julia Goodwin: 22:05

During her trial, rachel Wade's attorney, Jay A. Hebert, said that Josh's sweet talking was manipulative and conniving. He said that Josh wasn't legally responsible for the murder but was ethically culpable. Rachel testified that she had the knife because she was afraid of Sarah, who was bigger than her. She also said she was afraid of Josh who had threatened her with a gun when she tried to leave him, though Josh denied that allegation. He also denied something that several people said they heard, which was if you love me, I'll fight for me. Yeah, what a disgusting teenage boy. Prosecutor Lisset G. Hanewicz said why get rid of the weapon if you are acting in self-defense? She wanted to get rid of the evidence. She showed no remorse. She knew she stabbed her.

Julia Goodwin: 23:08

Rachel's trial was aired on tru TV and garnered her quite a few supporters who believed Sarah instigated the whole thing and that Rachel was just acting in self-defense. Also, her lawyers tried to use the like standard ground law in Florida, but that obviously didn't go, because Rachel Wade was found guilty of second degree murder and sentenced to 27 years at the Florida Women's Reception Prison, with a release date set for June 1, 2032. She'll be 42. During sentencing, charlie Luderman said I'll never get to hold my daughter again, never get to see her get married, never hear her laugh at my dumb jokes. The only way I can hear her voice is when I call her cell and she says hey, this is Sarah, leave me a message and I'll call you back.

Julia Goodwin: 24:08

Those are the tragic murders of Emma Jones and Sarah Luderman. I think the biggest things that tie these two cases together in my mind are the quick and deliberate strikes it took to end their lives and the petty fights that preceded their deaths. Please, everyone, just take care of each other and remember murder is bad. Thank you for listening. If you're interested in images related to this case, you can go over to the Instagram at Murder Is Bad podcast. Leave a comment and a message. If you're feeling generous, do a little five star rating, a nice little review. I would appreciate that so much. Most importantly, though, keep listening, keep sharing, and I will talk to you soon. Thank you, bye.