Ep 120- Woman In The Trunk: The Unsolved Murder Of Betty Thomas

A car doesn’t just “sit there” for two days without someone noticing, especially not a white Jaguar in a busy Austin hotel parking lot. When police finally open the trunk, they find 45-year-old Betty Thomas bound with duct tape, blindfolded, gagged, wrapped in bedding from her own home, and killed with an execution-style shot to the back of the head. That single discovery turns a quiet April week in 1988 into one of the most unsettling unsolved murders tied to Lakeway, Texas. 

We trace Betty’s last known timeline, from an ordinary night alone at home to the evidence investigators find inside the house: signs of a struggle, blood evidence, and a scene that doesn’t look like a burglary gone wrong. We also talk about the uncomfortable realities of homicide investigations, including why a spouse is often looked at early as standard procedure, and how internet speculation grows louder when law enforcement can’t name a suspect. Then there’s the eerie family echo: years earlier, another Thomas family member is shot and never gets justice either. Coincidence, connection, or something no one has pieced together yet? 

The story shifts when forensics catches up. Preserved evidence allows investigators to develop a partial male DNA profile, but it still doesn’t hit in CODIS. That’s where modern tools like forensic genealogy can change the game, using DNA matches to build family trees, narrow leads, and confirm identities the old way. If you’re fascinated by cold cases, forensic DNA, and the question of why someone would move a victim to a hotel lot, you’ll have plenty to think about here. 

Subscribe, share the episode with a true crime friend, and leave a review so more people can find the show. If you have tips, updates, or a “Sweet Tea After Dark” story, email us at hold my sweet tea podcast at gmail.com or message us on social media.

Special Note: This case remains unsolved. If you have information related to the murder of Elizabeth "Betty" Thomas, please contact the appropriate law enforcement agency. Even decades later, new information can help bring answers to a victim's family.

Sources & Further Reading:

Courthouse News Service – Historical coverage and court records research
courthousenews.com

Texas Department of Public Safety – Cold Case Program
dps.texas.gov

Travis County historical records and public archives
countyclerk.traviscountytx.gov

Austin History Center Collections
library.austintexas.gov

Newspapers.com archival newspaper database
newspapers.com

NewspaperArchive historical newspaper database
newspaperarchive.com

Transcript

A Jaguar With A Secret

SPEAKER_00 0:00

It was April of 1988. A white jaguar sat alone in a hotel parking lot for nearly two days before anyone thought to look inside. Inside the trunk of that car was forty-five-year-old Betty Thomas. This is Hold My Sweet Tea. And I'm Pearl. And it's an absolutely gorgeous, dreary morning out. Nice and rainy. I love it. It's my favorite kind of weather.

SPEAKER_01 1:08

It's supposed to be this way all the way till next Sunday.

SPEAKER_00 1:12

I know, and I'm so excited. I'm like, good lord, that's a lot of water. It is a lot of water, but it we live in a bog, a swamp, if you will. Yeah. So we do.

Sentencing Update And A New Mystery

SPEAKER_01 1:28

So I just wanted to throw in the sentencing of Nathan Chasing Horse.

SPEAKER_00 1:34

Oh, yeah, your um case a few episodes back.

SPEAKER_01 1:38

Yeah. He was sentenced lots of outlets just say to life, but it's actually 37 years to life.

SPEAKER_00 1:47

Oh.

SPEAKER_01 1:48

So he has to serve a minimum of 37 years before he can even be eligible for parole. And of course, if he were to be paroled, uh well, I think they still make him register as a sex offender despite him not being out, but he will have to do that. Um, but just a reminder that there are still warrants pending, charges pending in Canada.

SPEAKER_00 2:13

Right. So that haven't even gone through yet.

SPEAKER_01 2:16

Right. So but wait, there's more.

SPEAKER_00 2:19

Right. But even if he does serve the 37 years and get out, he'll be really, really old.

SPEAKER_01 2:27

Yeah. So yeah, maybe they need to do the castration stuff in the right.

SPEAKER_00 2:35

Right. And just go ahead and nip that.

SPEAKER_01 2:37

And why wouldn't they do that in that state already?

SPEAKER_00 2:41

For real.

SPEAKER_01 2:43

Anyway.

SPEAKER_00 2:44

I agree with you. But yeah, that's a good little update then.

SPEAKER_01 2:50

Yep. Just wanted to throw that out there. Since I almost forgot.

SPEAKER_00 2:55

Right.

Lakeway Texas And The Case Setup

SPEAKER_00 2:58

Yeah, so we are going to do um this is a case that has been like a mystery to everybody in Austin, Texas.

SPEAKER_01 3:10

Woohoo, Texas.

SPEAKER_00 3:11

Right. We're in Texas. Everything's bigger and better, I guess. I don't know. You Texas people let us know.

SPEAKER_01 3:23

Yeah, we have no idea. Like I avoid Texas, like the plague because I hate it. Well, it takes like 10 years to drive through there. Yeah, it does. Every time I have to drive through there, I'm just like, this is horrible. Am I out of Texas yet? Right. No figures.

SPEAKER_00 3:45

Nope. Not at all. Like they should just become their own country at this point.

SPEAKER_01 3:52

They basically are the size of one.

SPEAKER_00 3:54

And then, you know, my whole obsession with looking at land, every time I scroll through like land.com or something, I'm like, Texas, Texas, Texas. I don't want to live in Texas.

SPEAKER_01 4:04

Nope. Me, I don't want to.

SPEAKER_00 4:10

But this is something that, like I said, has kind of been a huge mystery because of, you know, just all the parts of it. It's just a weird one, but they are on the cusp of maybe using the DNA evidence to um find who did this. So this is the murder of Betty Thomas, or a lot of people know the case as the woman in the trunk.

SPEAKER_01 4:48

But like a luggage trunk? Not a luggage trunk.

SPEAKER_00 4:52

In a trunk of a car.

SPEAKER_01 4:54

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 4:55

And to be specific, a white jaguar.

SPEAKER_01 5:00

Wow. Okay. So luxury trunk.

SPEAKER_00 5:04

Right. That's even more of a luxury trunk. Right. It's not a Louis Vuitton, but it's, you know, it's right up there. Okay. So let's talk about this case. Because this one takes place in one of those places that feels like it should be safe. You know what I mean? Like quiet streets, big houses tucked into trees, the kind of town where people leave their garage open and don't think twice.

SPEAKER_01 5:32

Because not much ever happens.

SPEAKER_00 5:34

Right. And we're in Lake Way, Texas, back in 1988.

SPEAKER_01 5:41

Ooh, that's a long time ago.

SPEAKER_00 5:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:43

I was eight years old.

SPEAKER_00 5:46

I'm I was years old. I was living my best life. And this it was in this little upscale pocket outside of Austin where nothing really happens until it does. And I always feel like cases that start in places like this kind of hit different because there's this like built-in assumption of safety that gets completely shattered. I don't know how many times I've watched a documentary or listened to something, and they're like, things like that just never happen around here.

SPEAKER_01 6:26

Yeah. Well, guess what?

SPEAKER_00 6:28

It happened.

SPEAKER_01 6:29

Y'all should learn from this situation. How many times you hear that? That maybe even though those things don't seem to ever happen around here, you be safe because just in case one time it does happen, it happens to you, you're prepared.

SPEAKER_00 6:47

Yep. Lock your doors, lock your windows.

SPEAKER_01 6:50

Hide your husbands.

SPEAKER_00 6:51

Hide your husbands under the floorboards. I got one of those and I don't want one. So the life before everything just kind of went wrong.

Betty And Bo Behind Closed Doors

SPEAKER_00 7:07

So we've got Elizabeth Betty, which she went by Betty, Thomas. She's 45. She lives in a nice home in Lake Way with her husband, William, who goes by Bo Thomas. So Betty and Bo. From the outside, she looks like she's got it all together. The kind of woman who probably had her routines, her favorite little stores, maybe lunch with friends, the whole picture. Like you know that type. We live in that land over here. Yes. Yeah. And I kind of want to pause here for a second because every time I read a case like this, I always think what was her normal day right before like everything changed. Because I don't think she was like a victim in the abstract yet. She was just Betty. Maybe she was doing laundry, maybe she was watching TV or thinking about what she was going to make for dinner that night. And I don't know why, but these small details, like I think, always make it hit harder. Because think about your day-to-day going on, and then all of a sudden a tragedy or something bad happens. It's just you're just having a normal day.

SPEAKER_01 8:33

Or you were.

SPEAKER_00 8:34

Or you were, right? And she had her whole life happening in real time, and then suddenly it just stops. So neighbors knew the Thomas name, not in a scary way, but more like they're doing like well for themselves kind of way. But here's the thing about stories like this: I think there's always the version of people that people see, and then there's the version happening behind closed doors. Like always. You never know people. And I'm I'm such a, and and you are too, such an observant person. Where, you know, where we work, I I like to family observe, but I think it's just it's just built into me to like do that.

SPEAKER_01 9:31

Yeah, we people watch regardless.

SPEAKER_00 9:34

Yeah, we people watch, and I'm I'm like, look, I've got a a Virgo rising. I am judgy as fuck. So that's just me. But I will sit there and I will watch families interact and how they are with each other, whether, you know, what I deem normal, or it's just this odd, odd like dynamic between them. And I've seen so many people like that, and I'm like, how is it in your household? How do y'all function? Like, what goes on on the daily? Because y'all are weird as shit. Like for real. But you know, like I said, behind behind closed doors, you don't know what happens. And in this particular family's history, there was already a shadow. Because years before Betty's death, Bo's father, William Lamar Thomas, had also been murdered. What? Yeah, shot. Case never solved. So already we got this weird echo in the family history. One tragedy that never got answers. And then years later, another one's about to happen.

SPEAKER_01 11:06

Which they didn't know then also has no answers at this moment.

SPEAKER_00 11:10

Right. And I want to be careful here because I'm not saying that automatically means anything, but I am saying like two violent deaths in the same family line is something investigators absolutely notice. And I'm sure like most people are already thinking what I was thinking when I first read this like, okay, is this a coincidence or a pattern? And there's really no confirmed answer. Just that uneasy feeling investigators probably had sitting in those files. So let's talk about like the night that

The Night Betty Disappears

SPEAKER_00 11:50

she disappears. Um, it's April 11th, 1988. Bo Thomas and his daughter leave town for East Texas, and Betty stays home. Maybe it's just a regular thing, something that they did often, or it was just one of those situations. Like, I know when I was married, like my spouse went to do something. I'm like, I'm staying home. I'm not going. Right. You know, people do that. And this is where things start to feel really kind of unsettling because the house on Coldwater Lane is just sitting there. Normal night, normal neighborhood. Nothing feels like it's about to change everything in their family. But my question is like, why is it always a night when someone's alone? It always feels that way. Like they were alone in the house and this happened. It's like so many cases, there's this exact moment where someone is isolated and the story just quietly like tilts.

SPEAKER_01 13:01

So are you trying to make me afraid to stay home alone? Because I like being home alone.

SPEAKER_00 13:05

Oh, I love being home alone. I'm like, look, I have attacked cats, they're going to protect their mama. But sometime, sometime during that night, something happens inside that home. And whatever it was, it wasn't just random chaos. It was a little more controlled chaos. Because later, when investigators look at the scene, they notice things like signs of a struggle, blood evidence inside the home, things disturbed, but not everything taken. So it doesn't feel like a burglary that went wrong. It feels like someone came there for a reason for her specifically.

SPEAKER_01 14:02

That's creepy.

SPEAKER_00 14:03

Yeah. And and you get that in a lot of cases, I think, because it you'll be that's that's something that investigators look at. Was there forced entry? Was there like a disturbance, chaos, things being knocked over? Uh there's a wallet with money sitting right there and it was not touched. Okay, big red flag. Somebody's not gonna break into your home just to say hi. They're they're coming there with an intention. So two days later, we're gonna jump ahead.

Found In A Hilton Parking Lot

SPEAKER_00 14:44

Someone notices that a white jaguar sitting in the parking lot of a Hilton hotel in Austin, there was no movement, no urgency, just parked like it belonged there. Nobody's seen anybody going in or out. It hasn't moved spaces. So they called the police. They're like, you know, this car's been sitting here a couple of days, hasn't moved. We don't have anybody registered here with that vehicle. So the police come out and they start an investigation. They opened the trunk of the car, and there was Betty Thomas. She had been bound with duct tape, her wrist, her ankles. She was blindfolded, gagged, wrapped in bedding from her own home, and she's still wearing like a pink robe. So she was probably getting ready for bed at in that evening. She had been shot in the back of the head, execution style. Holy crap. Yeah. So at that moment, I think this stops being like a missing person's case, of course, but becomes something completely different. Something more like calculated for sure. Because whoever did this didn't like panic. It wasn't like, oh shit, nobody was supposed to be home when I broke into this house. Like they it was very, I think, thought out and planned. And they didn't like when they kidnapped her, it wasn't like a rush job. So they did they bring the duct tape? Did they find it in the house? So I, you know, my suspicions would be like they had it on them, probably because they knew what they were going there for. So after they finished all of this and then they shot her execution style, they drove her into public view like it was nothing in the back of this car. So it naturally investigators start looking at all of these things together. And I there's a lot of stuff online, and sometimes I think people twist this around. In a homicide case, the spouse is always looked at early, of course. This is standard procedure, not an accusation. Standard procedure, not an accusation. So Bo Thomas being part of the early investigation, that's normal. But here's where like things like that mattered more. There were no charges, no arrest, no confirmed suspect ever made public. And this kind of creates this whole like weird, I want to say like vacuum, where people try to fill in the blanks themselves. So this is where all these rumors have like spread throughout the internet.

SPEAKER_01 18:20

That's what I was about to say. That causes like so much more mess than it does in the internet.

SPEAKER_00 18:25

It really does, because they have nothing. And I think cases like this, when there is no like suspect and there is no, you know, the husband's cleared because of course he's in another town somewhere. He removed himself from the situation. So that gives him an alibi over here. And they have no clues. They have nothing. Nobody's seen anybody pull up in the jaguar and park it there. Nobody heard a ruckus in their house. Nothing. So this is where there's like a lot of internet speculation and things that have come up about this since this has happened in 1988, since they didn't have anybody to pin it on. And then imagine like this happening in a place like Lake Way at this time. People are stunned because it isn't the kind of crime you'd expect there. I'm like, what kind of crime would you expect there? Right. Right. Cheating husbands, little But is that a crime? Yeah, like extramarital affairs that turn into like murder or something. I things like that. Um not in that neighborhood, not in that life, of course. Um, so doors start locking, people start looking at their neighbors differently, and suddenly that feeling of we're safe here kind of like disappears.

Rumors Alibis And A Cold Case

SPEAKER_00 20:03

So now we're gonna go into like the investigation and the question of who. So investigators come in, obviously. And like most cases like this, they don't start with strangers, they start close, family relationships, um, people connected to Betty's daily life. That includes her husband, Bo Thomas, who, like I said, was already looked at early on because almost every homicide investigation, of course, starts there. They, you know, spoke with her daughter. But no arrests were ever made. Even no matter who they talked to, they never found an official suspect. No charges. So the case just kind of stays exactly where it started in a space of uncertainty. And then you go back to the stran the family's like strange history because of Bo's father being shot, also. So now you got this eerie pattern sitting in the background of everything. And people can't help to ask, is this a coincidence or a connection? But again, nothing concrete ever surfaces publicly, just questions.

DNA Evidence And Modern Forensics

SPEAKER_00 21:43

And then as time goes along and DNA progresses, so we're gonna, you know, this is where the story kind of shifts into something a little bit better, because while the case goes cold, the evidence never disappears. She gets preserved, stored, saved.

SPEAKER_01 22:05

Which yay for that because so many times they can't find it. Yeah, and all of that.

SPEAKER_00 22:11

And all these older cases. And sometimes they don't even, you know, they're like, oh, we did a blood test, but we we tossed that. Nothing matched. And that turns out to matter more than anyone could have known in 1988. Because as DNA technology evolves, as forensic science gets more precise, investigators are able to pull a partial male DNA profile from the evidence. Like that alone is huge, but it still doesn't solve the case. There's nothing in CODIS that matches it. So there was no already criminal that had been DNA tested that popped up. So now the case enters this modern phase of like true crime where the evidence is ready, but the technology is still kind of chasing the truth. Somebody close to her. Right. Anyone. And you know, people always talk about like cold cases. This this doesn't necessarily mean that cold cases are forgotten. They're just paused. And I always think it's good when you have somebody that's looked at a cold case or a case, and they have put in all this time and work and they've gotten nowhere, but then you have somebody with a a fresh perspective and a fresh set of eyes come in. And a lot of these cases do get solved because they see something that that other investigator missed. Or because of technology in modern times, there's something that they can use. The evidence from Betty Thomas's case has survived longer than most expectations, long enough to be re-examined with tools that didn't exist when she was alive. And that creates this weird split in time. 1988 detectives collecting evidence by hand, modern investigators analyzing it with technology they couldn't even imagine back then. And in between them is the truth still sitting there somewhere. So like where does this leave us on this case? A woman from a quiet Texas town, a home that wasn't as safe as it looked, a violent controlled crime that didn't feel random, a family history with another unresolved death, and decades later, science that might finally be close enough to answer what people have been asking since 1988. Who did this? And why Betty?

Why Leave Her At A Hotel

SPEAKER_00 25:52

And why put her in the back of her car and park her in a random hotel parking lot?

SPEAKER_01 26:02

Yeah, I don't that's the part that's kind of weird to me is like, are you moving her so her family wouldn't find her at home since she was by herself? Right. Like in which case would then lead me to believe again someone close enough to give a crap about that. Yeah. Like not wanting her daughter to see her that way, maybe? I don't know. It's a possibility. But just speculation.

SPEAKER_00 26:26

So then you go back to the husband, like, okay, he wanted to spare his child from seeing something like this, but it's just an odd place to put her. Like, were you trying to create some sort of like story? Like, oh, maybe she was at this hotel and she was like cheating or something like that, and something happened.

SPEAKER_01 26:52

Maybe make it look like she was having an affair.

SPEAKER_00 26:54

Right. Right.

SPEAKER_01 26:56

That went wrong.

SPEAKER_00 26:57

But there was blood evidence and things in the house. So that takes that away because we know that she was kidnapped and like murdered there. But I I I don't know. This this case is weird and I don't see how two people in the same family that were both shot just goes under the radar.

SPEAKER_01 27:34

Right.

SPEAKER_00 27:35

How how was this covered up?

SPEAKER_01 27:37

It's a little bit too coincidental. It it really is.

SPEAKER_00 27:42

And I I just want to know. So if anybody's in Texas and they know a little bit more about this case, um, because even according to the investigators that are working on this um story, that they still are hopeful that DNA analysis could lead them to the person. And for Betty's sake, I really hope they found him because she seemed like a really cool gal. She was one of those people who had many friends and was just a socialite. She seemed like a really cool person, so not that saying that uncool people don't deserve it, but at minimum one enemy. Right. So what what brought that on with Betty? That's that's the question, and who did it?

SPEAKER_01 28:44

Who did it?

SPEAKER_00 28:45

Because even if you can find out who did it or who was hired to do it, or you know, whatever the case may be, right? You still wanna know the why.

SPEAKER_01 28:58

Yeah, I do I feel like stuff like that hiring or paying someone to kill off your spouse back in the back in the nighttime was probably a little more popular.

SPEAKER_00 29:10

Yeah, and a little less um traceable.

SPEAKER_01 29:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 29:15

Because even though the internet was a little bit around then, it wasn't uh nowhere near the level it is now.

Payphones Then Electronic Leashes Now

SPEAKER_00 29:29

It was not really available for public use. So that was yeah, that was more of a interweb between police stations or government officials or things like that. It wasn't really in your home. Yeah, not until not until the 90s, and then it started to become a little more available and things like that. So it was basically like I'm gonna call you on a payphone or from my house phone because it really then it wasn't traceable.

SPEAKER_01 30:03

Do you imagine the songs back in the day for that?

SPEAKER_00 30:06

Right. No, no internet stuff, right?

SPEAKER_01 30:13

Call you on your house phone. Right.

SPEAKER_00 30:18

Be it the be at the Mega Lomart, I'm gonna call you on the payphone. Yeah. If you hear that payphone ring, answer it. Five o'clock. Right. Do you remember the last time you used a payphone?

SPEAKER_01 30:38

Oh my goodness, it's been a really long time. Yeah. The last time I used a payphone, it cost 35 cents.

SPEAKER_00 30:43

Yeah, same. And I had to like um what did I have? Yeah, it was to page somebody. Yeah, that's funny. To call back because I was having like car issues and I couldn't get a hold of them, so I like sent a page, a beeper page.

SPEAKER_01 31:03

Please add 10 cents for an additional three minutes. Yeah. I'm like, And you're like, hurry up, hurry up, hurry up. I don't have it, it all changed. Right. And that was where the collect call stuff would happen and where people would try to cheat the system in that whole Yeah, because you got like a tiny little like two-second snippet to say your name or whatever. Yeah, and then you had like where that commercial for Spob, we had a baby, it's a boy.

SPEAKER_00 31:34

Yeah. Yep.

SPEAKER_01 31:36

You would try to get it out real quick, like just like say it so they don't have to accept the charges. Right.

SPEAKER_00 31:43

Are you going to your, you know, to like a concert somewhere and your mom's like, I need to know that you're okay. You'd be like, I made it to the concert. Maybe it's a concert, I'm okay. Yeah, I'm okay. But even then we really didn't do stuff like that. It was like, I'm going to a concert, see ya when I see ya.

SPEAKER_01 32:02

Yeah. Type thing. Right. They just sit around and hope you come back. Right. It's so weird. Yeah, it is.

SPEAKER_00 32:10

Now because you think about now everybody's so connected and electronic leashes. Yep. And they can track you wherever you go.

SPEAKER_01 32:20

It is what it is. I guess I mean a lot of people feel like it's great for for kids. Which also makes it crazier to think that the same kinds of crimes, the same kinds of issues with people going missing still occur despite these electronic leashes.

SPEAKER_00 32:42

Yep. So absolutely.

unknown 32:46

You know.

SPEAKER_00 32:47

It's real hard. Pretty soon, um, everybody's kid's gonna have an ankle monitor, so they can't get it off, or it'll like go off when if uh somebody tries to cut it off of their kid. That's not a bad idea.

SPEAKER_01 33:01

Well, I mean, they do it in the hospital. Right. Your baby gets an ankle monitor now. They're on hospital arrest. Yeah. They're actually on hospital room arrest.

SPEAKER_00 33:12

Yeah. So they leave the room, then well, and I'm sure there's been so many cases of disgruntled dad or other parents or whatever coming in, and grandparents. They're like, Oh, I'm just gonna walk out here with the and run and like take the baby or something. Yeah. People kidnapping. Because they used to bring the baby to a nursery and it was amongst other babies, and that's where like switched babies got switched. Yeah, you always heard the thing, and people were so paranoid their child was gonna be switched. Like when I had mine, I was like, Let me get a snapshot of his face. All right, no, know exactly what he looks like. All right.

SPEAKER_01 33:48

Well, that's what cracked me up whenever uh I had Aiden in Mississippi because they still did that. Like they still initially would take him to the nursery for checkups and all that stuff. And and then they would bring back the babies in like this big group. Yeah and so You're like, Who's babies who?

SPEAKER_00 34:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 34:06

So some some guy like gets behind Aiden's thing and he's like, Where are you going with him? That's my baby. And I was like, uh, no, it's not. That's actually mine. And if it's your baby, you're in trouble.

SPEAKER_00 34:24

Right. That that one's mine.

SPEAKER_01 34:27

You don't want that one to be yours, sir.

SPEAKER_00 34:31

Well, you know, when I had Dylan, I know we're into baby talk here, um, where but people missing, you know. But when I had Dylan, he immediately had to go to the NICU, which is where he stayed for almost three weeks. So I'm like, let me look at this child so I know what he looks like.

SPEAKER_01 34:48

Brianna was in the S I C special care.

SPEAKER_00 34:52

So crazy times, but this is one of those crazy unsolved

Genetic Genealogy And Late Arrests

SPEAKER_00 35:00

cases. But hopefully, you know, we can have an update on Betty Thomas soon, and they'll figure out really good who did this to her and why.

SPEAKER_01 35:09

They are solving a lot of really old cases lately. They are technology, yes, and all the genealogy stuff helps. Like it's it's crazy. Yep.

SPEAKER_00 35:20

Because if you if you do any of the stuff like genealogy 23andMe or uh the genome thing, you can put your information into the main system, and that's how what is the Golden State killer was caught. Yeah, it's like because given permission to use it to use your DNA and see if somebody related to you did something quick right. Right. Because they have found people where they're like, oh, well, this matches these two men that live halfway across the country.

SPEAKER_01 36:00

Or even like some dead relatives.

SPEAKER_00 36:02

Right. And those two men were living across the country when this happened, but oh wait, they have a brother, and that brother happened to travel over here, just some random dude. I like I've watched stories like that, and then all of a sudden it turns out it was the brother.

SPEAKER_01 36:18

It was.

SPEAKER_00 36:19

Yeah. So they would find them.

SPEAKER_01 36:21

So I'm like, don't count yourself safe these days.

SPEAKER_00 36:28

You may think you got it all figured out, but you don't. So don't commit crimes, and then you won't have to go to prison for whatever's left or kidnapping or sexual assault or whatever you're doing because they're gonna catch you.

SPEAKER_01 36:43

70 years old sitting on your rocking chair, giggling to yourself because you got away with murder.

SPEAKER_00 36:49

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 36:50

And knock, knock, knock.

SPEAKER_00 36:52

Yep. They're like, yeah, because that's happened too.

SPEAKER_01 36:55

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 36:56

Absolutely. And they're like, guess what, buddy? We got all the evidence.

SPEAKER_01 37:00

Congratulations, you won your stupid prize finally.

SPEAKER_00 37:03

Yep. You get to go uh set in prison for the remainder of what's left of your life.

SPEAKER_01 37:08

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 37:10

Yep, yep.

Another Case Update On James Wood

SPEAKER_01 37:11

Oh, speaking of, I did forget that I have another slight update. Oh. Um, I did see an article released by WBRZ on James Wood that someone in his family decided to disclose that he was shot in the back of the head.

SPEAKER_00 37:33

Hmm. So execution style.

SPEAKER_01 37:37

So again, like I know my speculation was something happened, he was running away from someone.

SPEAKER_00 37:44

Yeah, that's what I'm saying. Either that or he was running away and they shot him and boom, he went down.

SPEAKER_01 37:48

Yeah, because it was weird where he was. So I didn't feel like he was dumped there.

SPEAKER_00 37:51

I felt like he was shot and fell there, yeah. Yeah. So interesting.

SPEAKER_01 37:58

That that happened. And I was like, see, this is why we don't release these things. Right. Because or tell the family these things. This is this is exactly why they keep it from you. Right. Because they're trying to build a the police did not release that he they released he was shot, but they didn't say where or family released that part. Right. So, you know, but this is exactly the reason they don't tell you.

SPEAKER_00 38:22

Right. You keep your mouth shut and because they're building a case and they're trying to pinpoint the suspect and get evidence against them.

SPEAKER_01 38:31

Yeah, I'm sure they felt like maybe it would help somehow. Um, or maybe they're just feeling like I know they feel like the police have not done their job appropriately in this situation. It may be true. I don't know. That's not that's not for me to know at this point. I mean, we'll know when it's over, whether or not they did, or I mean, if it goes cold and stays cold, you kind of you know, just hopefully that's not what happens. Right. But I have to wonder if they just thought maybe if we we say this, somebody will come forward and say something. But I don't know if it's gonna help. So I guess we'll see. Yeah. But I just saw that like two days ago, and I was like, no. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 39:25

But here we are.

Theme Music Listener Tips And Farewell

SPEAKER_00 39:28

We are, and you know what brings me joy in life every time I listen to one of our episodes?

SPEAKER_01 39:36

Our theme music by Patty Salzella.

SPEAKER_00 39:40

It's the bright spot of our week.

SPEAKER_01 39:42

Yeah. We hope it's the bright spot of yours.

SPEAKER_00 39:46

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 39:48

And if you have anything you would like to tell us about. Yep. Updates on something that you've listened to on our pod that maybe we haven't updated on lately and may have missed a Google alert or something on, please reach out and tell us or submit your sweet tea after dark.

SPEAKER_00 40:11

Yes, we need some sweet tea after dark stuff because you know the last one was really good. Come on, listen.

SPEAKER_01 40:16

The one before that was like awesome.

SPEAKER_00 40:18

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 40:20

You can send that all to hold my sweet tea podcast at gmail.com. Or you can reach out on social media.

SPEAKER_00 40:28

Yep, yep. And as always, hold my sweet tea is a drunken bee production. And you guys remember to stay safe out there. And just because we're dipping doesn't mean you can't keep dipping.