Episode 1 - The First Episode

A triple-homicide in a small rural community leaves more questions than answers. On a tip, Charlie Incarica decides to use his expiring airline miles, embed with a shaken community, and with any luck, make True Crime podcast history.

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Transcript

Charlie Incarica: 0:01

Monday, March 9th, 2020, was a day that seemed just like any other in the history of Shady Grove. So why was this day different from all others to borrow from the Haggadah? Because at 9:26 a.m., the head of Shady Grove's most influential family, the Putnams, was found murdered in her large gated home.

Reporter 1: 0:22

Violence rocked the tight-knit community of Shady Grove today when one of its most prominent citizens and two of its less important ones were found brutally murdered in the home of Amanda Putnam. Putting heiress. Amanda Putnam Hart.

Reporter 2: 0:37

And her other partner, Michelle Quincy, were stabbed.

Reporter 1: 0:41

134 acres. Putnam Hart is the great granddaughter of renowned pudding pioneer Edward Putnam, who in the early 1900s in America the town's community stated that Dutch was a good thing.

Charlie Incarica: 1:01

In fact, foul play was very much ruled in as the cause of these deaths. But the more I read up on this case, the harder it became to make sense of it. Especially as Shady Grove's newspaper, the Shady Grove Examiner Picky Yoon, does that annoying thing where after, like the third paragraph, they make you subscribe to read the rest of it. It's strange. The murders took place only three years ago and caused a sensation at the time. But less than a week after it happened, the pandemic lockdown began, and almost every news story from then on centered on that. Running a true crime fan site, I often get letters from fans of true crime. But this one was different. It was from a man named Greg Putnam. And he asked if I would call him. I said I don't I don't usually call people, but would he agree to a video chat? Hello. Is this Hi Greg? Can you hear me?

CP: 2:00

I can hear can I can't see you.

Charlie Incarica: 2:02

Nope. You um I can see you just fine and I can hear you. But I can't see you in me.

CP: 2:06

I've never done that. I can hear you either. Okay.

Charlie Incarica: 2:08

Okay, can you hear me? But I don't know.

CP: 2:10

Yeah, I can hear you. I don't know how new this is.

Charlie Incarica: 2:12

Uh well, if you just um where's your screen?

CP: 2:17

Screen. My my what?

Charlie Incarica: 2:18

Are you at a you're at a computer, yeah? Yeah. So there's a a screen right in front of you. Yeah. Yeah.

CP: 2:24

Yeah. Yeah, yeah. And a camera. Yeah. Yep, the camera's right there. I got it.

unknown: 2:30

Okay.

Charlie Incarica: 2:30

And we can uh have a conversation. Okay. So why don't you tell me a little bit uh about why you got in touch with me? Greg went on to describe in not not great detail what he believed was a brutal murder.

CP: 2:45

Um something came up about true crack on your name. Just trying to fill the Sunday.

Charlie Incarica: 3:25

All right, well, you have a nice day.

CP: 3:27

All right, bye-bye.

Charlie Incarica: 3:30

Just when I thought I had my first lead, I realized the case hadn't even started. I I didn't even know if I had a case. This violent, tragic, and from a true crime podcast standpoint, kick-ass triple murder seemed forever doomed to fall through the cracks of history. But after being tantalized by what I'd read, and then remembering the flight voucher I received after getting Salmonella from airline pretzels, I decided fate was calling me to stick my nose into history's crack, to unravel the mystery of what the townspeople called the Murderer Killings. I'm Charles and Karika, and this is the murderer killings.

Chief Ebner: 4:34

More crucially, it seems probably the killer has access to the time.

Reporter 2: 4:39

I trusted Alex down like a dictator for hundreds of years with a heartbit.

Margaret Mandragora-Jones: 4:46

I was still in shade.

Taylor Branigan: 4:59

After the initial report hit, someone posted it on Twitter, and that's when the vulture started to descend.

Charlie Incarica: 5:05

That's Taylor Branigan. She was Shady Grove's deputy sheriff in 2020.

Taylor Branigan: 5:09

A whole flock of reporters and TV crews started just swarming into town.

Operator: 5:28

911, what's your emergency? Hi, 911. Yes, what's your emergency? I um I want to report an emergency, I guess.

Reporter 1: 5:34

Yes, medical emergency, please, ma'am.

Operator: 5:36

I think some people are dead.

Reporter 1: 5:38

Okay, why do you think that?

Operator: 5:41

I mean, there's a whole lot of blood and not on the ground and haven't moved at all, and I've been watching them for like five minutes. That seems like plastic stuff that people do. It's pretty gross, to be honest. Watch them for five minutes. Um, how many bodies? Um, three. It's the um place one catty of the lady and T girls. Okay, we're sending someone to you right now. I think someone just moved. Okay, then I need you to go and I move. No, sorry.

Reporter 1: 6:29

Can you get inside the house, ma'am? Yeah, I need you to go inside and see if anyone's breathing.

Operator: 6:35

Um, yeah, I'm good. What the f ma'am, what do you mean you're good? Ma'am, you need to go and check this. Super fucking fucked up looking in there. I'm 4 a.m.

Reporter 1: 6:46

Look, the police and EMPs are racing to you right now, and I just need to show.

Operator: 6:50

I mean, they'll still be dead whenever they show.

Charlie Incarica: 6:55

Self-described dog walker, spiritual seeker, and full-time social justice warrior, Lisa McKenzie, 24, had been walking Putnam's dogs for only a few weeks when she happened upon that grisly site. She spoke with me on the condition of what she termed non-anonymity, which basically means I agreed to promote her Etsy site, in which she sells a range of hoodies with slogans promoting peace and or her Twilight fanfiction. The link is in the show notes. How well had you gotten to know Amanda Putnam Hart in the time you worked for her?

Elisa McKenzie: 7:29

In terms of like words?

Charlie Incarica: 7:31

Uh yeah, any way you'd like to measure it.

Elisa McKenzie: 7:33

Well, we spoke for a bit at the interview.

Charlie Incarica: 7:36

What were your first impressions of her?

Elisa McKenzie: 7:38

I was impressed by her single-mindedness when she had an idea she wouldn't quit until she got the answer she needed. And that was a way she inspired me to be better too.

Charlie Incarica: 7:47

Could you give an example?

Elisa McKenzie: 7:48

In the case of the interview, she was like super focused on if I knew anyone who could get her some Molly on the regular. And even though I didn't, I knew a guy who I was pretty sure might know a guy, and it turns out he did. And since she said if I could hook her up, I could have the job, it really lit a fire under me.

Charlie Incarica: 8:04

Wow. Was there anything suspicious or troubling that you noticed in that house or from Amanda?

Elisa McKenzie: 8:09

Like what?

Charlie Incarica: 8:10

Did she seem worried or distracted?

Elisa McKenzie: 8:12

Well, sometimes, like when she didn't have any Molly on her.

Charlie Incarica: 8:16

Right. Any other times?

Elisa McKenzie: 8:17

Well, we didn't talk a super lot. She and Chip and Michelle had a lot of sex when I was there, which was also inspiring.

Charlie Incarica: 8:24

How so?

Elisa McKenzie: 8:25

Just the fact that they hadn't gotten into that normal rut that Trump's can fall into.

Charlie Incarica: 8:29

Yeah. Did she ever talk about her ex-husband?

Elisa McKenzie: 8:32

Not that I remember. Although he talked about her a lot.

Charlie Incarica: 8:35

You spoke to William Hart?

Elisa McKenzie: 8:37

Yeah, he was sitting in his car down the street from her house every day. I walked right by him when I walked the dogs. So it would have been rude if I hadn't.

Charlie Incarica: 8:44

Well, what did you do talk about?

Elisa McKenzie: 8:45

Just general stuff, like the dogs, or like why I think college is just conformist bullshit. Or like what times I thought Amanda and Chip and Michelle were most likely to be home alone to chat, you know.

Charlie Incarica: 8:56

Did you tell the police about this? It didn't really come up. But don't you think it's kind of really?

Elisa McKenzie: 9:01

I just wanted to get the hell out of their ASAP. I had a crop load of Molly in literally every pocket.

Charlie Incarica: 9:06

Did the police ask you?

Elisa McKenzie: 9:07

Okay, not to be rude, but I've got a thing in a few, and you didn't ask any of the questions we agreed to.

Charlie Incarica: 9:13

Oh, right. Sorry. Okay. So what if Bella didn't have to choose between Edward and Jacob and convince them to put aside their ancient blood rivalries to become the all-time greatest and hottest thruple? How would she be able to keep their passions from spilling over into tragedy?

Elisa McKenzie: 9:32

For the answer to that burning question and more, check out www.alisa mbellafanfic.com. Okay, awesome sauce.

Charlie Incarica: 9:45

But was it? Was it truly awesome sauce that the police failed to interview Elisa McKenzie more in depth? I had my doubts. The coroner determined the cause of death for all three was multiple stab wounds. Yet the initial press briefing after the coroner's report, held by Chief Tommy Ebner, with Deputy Sheriff Taylor Branigan on hand, didn't exactly instill confidence in the police department.

Chief Ebner: 10:10

Chief Ebner, do you have any theories at this point? I think you'll find we're professionals, and theories are, of course, a vital and uh professional part of resolving any crime, uh, professionally, whether they be professional or amateur crimes. Um, you need theories, um, or at least one theory, uh, to solve it in a professional and theoretical way. You might say that's that's my number one theory.

Speaker 1: 10:38

Hmm.

Chief Ebner: 10:39

Anywho, so yeah, um, theories gotta have them. I believe that. Unless the killer turns themselves in, which can happen. But in my judgment, we'd be foolish to rely entirely on that. Although obviously that uh that would be cool.

Taylor Branigan: 10:56

The fact that the murderer used a knife suggests this was very personal for the murderer, and that he or she was able to stab all three to death, suggests that the victims didn't suspect any malicious intent.

Chief Ebner: 11:06

Exactly. The malice of the uh malicious was they did not see it coming.

Taylor Branigan: 11:12

But then you never do, do you? So all of this suggests the killer had their trust and access to their home.

Chief Ebner: 11:18

And more crucially, it seems probable that the killer had access to a knife. So we're currently pursuing leads for people who match that description. I'm sorry, folks, that's uh that's all we got for today. Show's over. Okay? Thanks so much. All right, you take care of yourselves now.

Charlie Incarica: 11:36

Tommy Ebner, Shady Grove's chief of police, is someone whose actions and behavior have been repeatedly called into question. Ebner had been Shady Grove's chief of police for 25 years in March of 2020, after spending 15 years in the private sector as head of security for Shady Grove Pudding, now legally known as SGP Holdings, Inc., the international conglomerate that makes its headquarters in Shady Grove. Ebner was a body man for SGP's president at the time, Robert Putnam. I was able to obtain some of his performance reviews by convincing the head of their HR department that the Freedom of Information Act applies to private businesses. Ebner's reviews were less than sterling, to put it mildly. Assessments such as slow-witted, sloppy, shockingly unknowledgeable, and surprisingly easy to distract appear more than once, and that was just the S section. The only positives any review mentioned were his eagerness to please, and his Oh no, that's all it says. My bad.

Reporter 2: 12:36

Tommy was eager to please Robbie. And for Robbie, someone sucking up to him was the quality he admired most in people.

Charlie Incarica: 12:42

Guy Van Velzer worked for nearly forty years for the company.

Reporter 2: 12:46

He was loyal. The Putnam's prized that, especially when Erica started trying to put the squeeze on them.

Charlie Incarica: 12:52

He's talking about Erica Hobbes, whose name you'll be hearing a lot in later episodes. But for now, I figure mentioning her here is a pretty cool tease. I didn't even ask Guy to do it. It just happened naturally, which was pretty sweet.

Reporter 2: 13:05

But Robbie wanted him to be police chief. The Putnams have ruled this town like dictators for a hundred years. But the Hart family could be a thorn in the Putnam side. Had been for fifty years. So Tommy would make any complaints against the Putnams suddenly disappear. Just pure corruption. Mostly. Some of it was probably just incompetence. And to be fair, he was already dealing with the whole Australia thing that weekend.

Charlie Incarica: 13:32

Shady Grove had recently reached an agreement with a small farm town of Majambler Coon in Australia to become sister cities, which is, I guess, a thing. A lot of places do it, although I couldn't find out why. Anyway, it's unclear how this happened, but when they filed the necessary paperwork they needed to make it, like, official, someone misread a digit, and before anyone could stop it, Shady Grove, with a population just under 6,000, became the official sister city of Sydney, Australia, one of the more famous cities in the world, with a population over 5 million. I won't lie, that was a big gap for us. Shady Grove's mayor, Carl Lyons. Did representatives from Sydney reach out and say there'd been some sort of mistake?

Speaker 1: 14:15

Oh, constantly. But then people in town started to do like tweets and stuff, or Facebook to Hashgram, and so Sydney started to look like a bunch of dicks. Can I say dicks? It's fine. We can just bleep it out. Yeah, too. I like it. I sound gritty and relatable.

Charlie Incarica: 14:33

Uh well that maybe uh maybe. Uh so what happened next?

Speaker 1: 14:37

Well, they backed off. In fact, they sent one of their I don't know, like one of their princesses or something.

Charlie Incarica: 14:45

Uh Australia doesn't have princesses.

Speaker 1: 14:47

Well, apparently nobody told her.

Charlie Incarica: 14:50

Margaret Mandragora Jones wasn't a princess, but one of Australia's most powerful barristers, that means lawyer, according to my friend Danielle, who did a semester abroad there, and one half of Australia's political it couple with her partner, Alec St. George Gibbon. Glamorous, young, and brilliant, they were about to move from their native Sydney to Canberra as Alec began his new position in the Prime Minister's cabinet. It was all but a given that one or both would one day be Prime Minister. She agreed to an interview via Zoom. So, why was someone as well known as you chosen to represent Sydney in a small town halfway across the world?

Margaret Mandragora-Jones: 15:30

My partner at the time talked me into thinking it'd be a terrific opportunity to change a persistent image problem of mine. Which was what coming off as a vicious cunt. Of course, that meant I'd have to stop being a vicious cunt while I was in this festering fucking toothache of a town. And I like being a bit of a cunt. It's an enormous time saver when dealing with people I don't like, which turned out to be every benighted soul I had the misfortune of interacting with in Shady Grove. Is it true that Americans are really uncomfortable with the word cunt?

Charlie Incarica: 16:00

Um as a rule, yeah, pretty much.

Margaret Mandragora-Jones: 16:02

I don't understand you, cunts. Still, I had a job to do. An asinine degrading job, of course, but still, you know, one puts on a smile and one makes an effort. Because I trusted Alec's political instincts. Only later did I realize he sent me there so he could fuck his way through the southern hemisphere. Anyway, I think I did it well. I mean, at first, I swiftly ceased giving a toss.

Charlie Incarica: 16:26

I understand you met Amanda Putnam Hart at the town's welcome banquet on that Saturday night.

Margaret Mandragora-Jones: 16:32

Yeah, it's rather a funny story, actually. Because of the slight language differences between our two countries. I was expecting a banquet to be an elegant dinner with some speakers giving brief speeches about the honoree. But of course, in your country, it apparently means sitting on chairs you'd used for waterboarding, a musical performance from the local high school, which was the sort of shit telethons would reject, topped off by a chicken dinner dryer than a fucking accounting textbook.

Charlie Incarica: 16:58

But you did meet Amanda there, no?

Margaret Mandragora-Jones: 17:00

I did, actually. It was one of the few highlights. Oh, sweet Christ, absolutely nothing. She was about as charming as a race riot. However, she also had a house with three jacuzzies and a bar so amply stocked with top shelf liquors, I dare anyone to look at it and not feel arousal. However, she also, unbeknownst to me, snuck a potent drug in my drink. And the next thing I knew, my assistant was discreetly bringing me back to my hotel after I tried to make love with a combine harvester.

Charlie Incarica: 17:35

And you went back even after she drugged you?

Margaret Mandragora-Jones: 17:38

Well, I had time to kill. She also said she wanted me to meet her brother Teddy, whom I was informed was a major player, which in this town I assumed meant he was the day manager at some sort of sorted burger takeaway.

Charlie Incarica: 17:52

This is one of the moments in the investigation which is maddeningly unclear. Teddy and Margaret hit it off, according to the journal kept by Chip Bing, one of the two lovers Amanda had taken after her recent separation from William Hart, to whom she was still legally married. But Bing's reference to them is only a sentence long, with the rest of that evening's entry dedicated in equal parts to misquoting Taylor Swift lyrics and writing his name out in different styles. Bing, it turns out, was a meticulous journal keeper, a lucky break for the police. Or it would have been, if 95% of his entries weren't furious rants about how TV's The Bachelor had gone downhill, and outlining various strategies about how to get the cast of impractical jokers to show up one day at his mother's funeral.

Margaret Mandragora-Jones: 18:38

I only have the dimmest recollection of that evening because fucking Amanda spiked our drinks again. Things only started clearing up around dawn after I realized I had successfully made love to a Combine Harvester.

Charlie Incarica: 18:49

But you and Teddy continued to meet.

Margaret Mandragora-Jones: 18:57

On the other hand, she's a useless twat, so yes, Teddy and I met a few more times during the next week or so. But back then nothing happened of interest. Literally. Listening to him was like listening to anesthesia talk. Thick as a fucking glacier with a thyroid condition. Clearly, Amanda was running the show over at SGP.

Charlie Incarica: 19:16

Okay. So tell me about March 9th.

Margaret Mandragora-Jones: 19:19

Right, well, I was getting ready to depart when my assistant told me about the murder at Amanda's house, which was a shock. But also it was America. So to be frank, I was surprised this was the first time people had been murdered in town that weekend. I was all set to leave when my assistant came into my room.

Charlie Incarica: 19:35

The following is the exchange as secretly recorded by Margaret's assistant, who had been gathering material to write a book about her boss, eventually titled The Young Woman and the C-Word.

Margaret's Assistant: 19:46

Margaret? Margaret? Maggie? What did you just call me? I was trying to game.

Margaret Mandragora-Jones: 19:52

What have I told you about nicknames?

Margaret's Assistant: 19:54

They're strictly for colourful gangsters and or erogenous zones.

Margaret Mandragora-Jones: 19:57

And do I, apart from my breasts Lady Die and Dr. Oliver P. Breckenridge OBE respectively, fall under either of those categories?

Margaret's Assistant: 20:05

No, ma'am. But the police are here to see you.

Margaret Mandragora-Jones: 20:07

Dear Lord Michelle, that's a dreadful nickname for your breasts.

Margaret's Assistant: 20:10

No, I mean the actual police. They're waiting outside.

Margaret Mandragora-Jones: 20:13

Oh, Christ, this town. Don't they have anything else to do? Like voting against their own interests or grooming sheep? And to clarify, I do mean grooming in a sexual sense. Bring those fucking didgery douja pat.

Margaret's Assistant: 20:25

We ran out.

Margaret Mandragora-Jones: 20:26

Thank fuck almighty. They're disrespectful to Aboriginal peoples, and worse, cumbersome as fuck.

Margaret's Assistant: 20:31

I'm the one who carries them.

Margaret Mandragora-Jones: 20:32

And you stand next to me, don't you?

Charlie Incarica: 20:35

Margaret was about to hear news she was not prepared for. The following section is edited from two separate interviews I had with Branagin and Mandragora Jones. I've edited them together in a way that should sound conversational, and hopefully get me nominated for a True Crime Podcast Editing Award, assuming there is such a thing. And I think it's a safe bet there is.

Taylor Branigan: 20:56

Tommy told her he considered her a person of interest.

Margaret Mandragora-Jones: 21:00

Which of course I thought, well, obviously. So I thanked him for the compliment and asked if he wanted a selfie with me.

Taylor Branigan: 21:06

He panicked and said yes, but then I stepped in to explain what a person of interest means in that context, and because we considered her a potential suspect, she couldn't leave town.

Charlie Incarica: 21:15

Oh, how how did she react?

Taylor Branigan: 21:17

She tried to be stoic, but I could tell she wasn't very happy.

Margaret Mandragora-Jones: 21:20

I smashed a glass lamp and threatened to swallow the shards if they made me stay one more minute in that fettered patch of hopelessness they called home. That's when Michelle calmed me down, brought me back to my room, and told me I should have a lie down while she rang the Australian Embassy immediately. That was the last time I ever saw Michelle. Until she turned up in the news the next month as my partner's new girlfriend. You know exactly where I bloody was.

Charlie Incarica: 21:44

I know, but if you say it, I think it'd be a cool soundbite.

Margaret Mandragora-Jones: 21:47

Oh, it would. Yeah, fair play to you. I was still in shady fucking grove.

Charlie Incarica: 21:56

That's right. Because they kept her in town those extra days. By the time they let her leave, the country and the world had gone into the pandemic lockdown. Now I'm talking again with Taylor through the miracle of editing and talking.

Taylor Branigan: 22:11

I didn't think that she was a person of interest. The problem was that when Chief Ebner Googled Australia in preparation for Miss Mandragara Jones's arrival, he.

Charlie Incarica: 22:21

This is a clip from an interview Chief Ebner gave to a local TV station when he interrupted the initial interview the reporter was taping with a 15-year-old girl who created an organization for local teens to run errands for senior citizens. So when did you get the idea to create this group with your friends?

Taylor Branigan: 22:38

Um, well, my gram's been unable to drive for a few years now, and um I uh I'm gonna let y'all finish.

Chief Ebner: 22:45

Um, but I just wanted to explain my thinking. Um uh got their uh suspect interview uh I committed yesterday. Um, so okay. Uh Australia, it seems, uh, began as a penal colony, which uh I got a big chuckle out of until um uh Deputy Chair Branagan told me the word penal didn't mean what it turns out penal actually means a a jail or something. Uh and sure, that was a while ago, but uh some Australian comes waltzing into town and suddenly three people are murdered? Heck of a cowinky ding, no? Anyway, um uh back to whatever you two were join about.

unknown: 23:20

Bye.

Taylor Branigan: 23:20

It didn't make any sense. But ironically, it turns out it wasn't a bad thing to keep her around. I mean, in terms of the case, not for the people around her. She's she's an awful person.

Charlie Incarica: 23:32

Murder. A town controlled by a corrupt industrialist, foreign intrigue, thruples, and a bitter family rivalry, which I've only hinted at so far because that's how you build a narrative suspense. Anyway, a bitter family rivalry that threatened to tear the town apart. Could justice even exist in places like Shady Grove? Clearly, I needed to drill down into the shadowy history that cast a vast shadow over this community. A town whose darkest secrets lay hidden deep in the shadows. In episode two, we'll explore the history of Shady Grove in order to understand its present. Well, this this was three years ago, actually, so we'll explore Shady Grove's past to understand its recent past. That's next time on the Murder er Killings. Oh, is it still is still is still rec hello, hello, I just oh damn it.