Evidence in this Episode
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Episode Transcript
Note: This transcript was generated using AI and may contain inaccuracies or discrepancies when compared to the actual audio. Please refer to the audio for the most accurate representation.
This podcast discusses difficult topics and may not be suitable for all audiences
Narrator: The claims, views, and opinions expressed are those of the speaker and do not represent those of But Why Media or its partners. All subjects are innocent until proven guilty. This is a podcast about difficult topics, and it may not be suitable for all audiences. Listener discretion is advised.
Sherry (Donna’s sister): I’m telling you, the house had a lot to do with it, too. She didn’t want to leave that house?
Tony (Donna’s cousin): Once he bought the house, he became obsessive and controlling.
Sherry (Donna’s sister): He had the ultimate control. It was either leave or do what I tell you to do.
Daniel Whittington (Former Washington Parish coroner’s office chief investigator): I hand carried chief investigator for Washington Parish a copy of the autopsy that said homicide. In his exact words, if that makes that family happy.
Robert (Scott’s co-worker and friend): If they said it was a homicide, then that’s different, man. Go get it. You know what I mean? Damn right.
Tabitha Meeks: I’m feeling heavy there’s a pounding in.
Tabitha Meeks: There’s a pounding in my chest? The shadow’s hiding but I see the silhouettes? Fear lives in the quiet whispers in the sigh.
Tucker Simmons: I’m Tucker Simmons. This is freeze frame, an investigation into the unsolved murder of Donna Arceneaux.
Demi (Former investigator): The 911 call came in a couple minutes before midnight, and due to where Donna’s house was located, it was right outside of the town sitting limits. so Franklin and PD also responded when the deputies arrived. It was Donna’s boyfriend that lived next door and Donna’s spiritual counselor. He said that he had been trying to reach her and no one was able to get a hold of her. The counselor said that she was out of town in Florida, and she was on her way back, flying into New Orleans, and he waited for her plane to land and drive Franklinton. And that is when they went inside the house and found Anna. You can’t judge someone by what she would do if it was me. I mean, I hadn’t heard. I’m going to that person’s house and looking. Well, he explained it that because of numerous complaints on both of them being physical with the other, that was his reasons for not going in. You know, I found it very suspicious that he wanted to wait for someone to arrive from out of state before he goes check on her. Why not call, a mutual friend or someone that knows her? Once inside the residence, Donna’s boyfriend went straight to the bedroom and found Donna, the counselor who had remained in the kitchen. She heard the hollering and screaming, hollering Donna’s name, walked into the bedroom and find the boyfriend, you know, holding a Donna who was on the floor and has to use the boyfriend’s phone to dial 911 because the counselor’s, cell phone was either dead or didn’t have a signal. There’s some details I’m a little fuzzy on. I may have some things here in my home office or on a laptop or something that might relate with this case. I just need a little bit more time.
Tucker Simmons: The circumstances surrounding the discovery of Donna’s body are certainly unusual. No suspects have ever been publicly named by law enforcement. And depending on who you ask, locals are convinced of several different suspects who had relationships with Donna. Demi hesitated to answer a lot of my follow up questions without first finding her files on the case, which I can completely understand. It was way too early to get caught up on just one theory, though. This boyfriend was already on my radar, as any romantic partner would be. But this spiritual advisor was a real mystery. Donna’s boyfriend is one thing, and we’ll get there. But what I want to know is, what was the conversation that convinced the spiritual advisor to land in New Orleans and drive 2 hours north in the middle of the night to check on Donna, someone she had apparently only known for a couple of months? As I was making calls to find Donna’s counselor, another uncomfortable realization was setting in. It seemed like Donna’s reputation might be central to the story. There was no way around it. Almost every conversation was ending with broad stroke generalities about Donna’s beauty and reputation. I started to think, can anyone just say what they’re actually thinking? What am I missing here, and why is this relevant to her case? Going into this, I knew Donna lived a life not concerned with what people thought of her or the decision she made, but it got to the point where I knew I had to address this head on. The only person I felt comfortable talking to about it was her sister Sherrye.
Sherry (Donna’s sister): She was kind of a tomboy when she was young, but she always loved to dress up and always loved to do her makeup, and always just heels and dresses. And we’re going to the beach. I’m covered. Like, I have a bathing suit on, but I’m covered. I use a covering. Not Donna. Cause she was spectacular in a freaking bathing suit. Okay, and we’re going down the elevator to go to the beach. This baby’s got heels on. She’s got full face makeup, hairs down to her waist, and she’s just struck across that sand in those heels. She looks like a freaking Runway model. People were taking pictures of her. She was perfect, and I was like, I hate you so much. Like, take the heel. I will tote the heels if you’ll just take them off. She’s like, no, girl gotta keep the heels on. And she do crazy stuff like, I don’t know how she had the nerve. Like, we would be out and she’d meet this guy and she’d just be. He’d be standing there and she’d pinch his nipple. I’m like, wanting to crawl under the bar and hide, okay? And she’s just like, listen up. Wouldn’t be okay. And she’d even say, he liked. You liked it, didn’t you? And he’s like, oh, yeah, I liked it just fine. But yet she could go get in a deer stand freaking 20 degrees and sit there and shoot a deer and drag that sucker out and skin it by herself. Like, I’m telling you, this girl could survive. She was just a survivor. There’s no doubt. she even told me one day, she’s like, yeah, you’re going to starve to death. If the apocalypse ever comes, it’s like, no, I won’t, because I’ll just come stay with you. She was just spontaneous and fun and she was just like that.
Tucker Simmons: That’s exactly how I remember Donna. Fearless, funny, carefree. If Donna was there, you were having a good time. Over the past two years, Sherry and I have spent hours sharing stories about her sister, discussing details of the case, sifting through rumors about Donna’s lifestyle, and most eye opening for me, how their upbringing contributed to Donna’s way of life.
Sherry (Donna’s sister): I was in foster care until I moved back with mine and Donna’s mother, Thelma, when I was eleven. And that’s when I met Donna for the first time. She was about five years old, and she was the prettiest little girl you have ever seen. When I tell you, prettiest complexion, the prettiest hair. Just a perfect little child. She really, really was. And it’s like, I don’t know, it was instant. It was an instant bond between she and I. I was a foster child, so, you know, I was taken care of. you know, I was fed, I was clothed, I was, okay, go take a bath. You know, you do certain things, they would just go to sleep in the same clothes, get up and go play all day and come back home and go to sleep. No bath, no changing clothes. And when I got there, I was like, okay, no, no, no. This is what we gotta do. We’ve got to change clothes, we gotta wash clothes, we gotta brush our teeth, we gotta take a bath. They didn’t understand that. Donna, she’s five years old, making grilled cheese by herself on the stove. So she would teach me, hey, come on, let’s go make pancakes. And she teached me how to make pancakes, and I’m eleven. She could just take care of herself. I know that a lot of people don’t think that it still happens in America, but, you know, a lot of kids go to school and they would complain about the food and that would be our only meal sometimes, because then a lot of times, too, we didn’t have electricity. So if you don’t have electricity, you don’t have any way to store anything. You were lucky if you had water and flour to make pancakes, you know, and don’t think you ate it with syrup. The syrup was not something you could afford. You know, sometimes we’d have water in a well and this, that’s when we took the showers outside, but there would be no water to the house. I felt fortunate.
Sherry says her sister was abused when she was five years old
I was like, yeah, we got water, but it was cold. We didn’t have hot water. We bent a curtain rod and nailed it to the back of the house and then threw a tarp over it so we’d have privacy. And this is three kids trying to rig up something. And then each one of us would take turns. We’d have one at the water hose, turning the water hose on and off. The water hose would be over the thing. She’d be in there. She’d, all right, turn the water on. We turn the water on and she’d get all wetland and it turned the water off and she’d sudge, up and I’d help her with her hair. I mean, that was just our life. It was chaos all the time.
Tucker Simmons: And where were parents at that time?
Sherry (Donna’s sister): Preoccupied with other things. I mean, she didn’t drink or smoke or do drugs or anything like that. She was the best mother that she could be because she was neglected and abused and she just did exactly what she was taught, you know, I didn’t know that then, but looking back as an adult and as having an adult relationship with Thelma, we’ve talked about things from her past and it’s unbelievable. Things, you know, just things that I’m just. I, won’t even ever repeat that she went through. So she did the best that she could do for what she was given.
Tucker Simmons: Sherry, Donna, TJ, Kirk and Paul, their brother, who was tragically killed in a car accident in his early twenties, share the same mother, Thelma. She’s petite, soft spoken, a woman of few words. Thelma’s grief over losing two children is unmistakable in her demeanor. Regret, frustration and anger have clearly taken a toll. It’s difficult for her to discuss Donna’s case without becoming overwhelmed with emotion. Understandably. And although Sherry has led the charge seeking justice for her sister, Thelma has been by my side behind the scenes on multiple occasions to assist with this investigation. During my interview with Sherry about their childhood, I realized just how much I didn’t know about Donna. But once I did, the decisions she made throughout her life became much more understandable.
Sherry (Donna’s sister): I think it was probably before she was eleven that she was sexually abused. Before I got there. Even once I got there and realized what was going on then I would put her next to the wall so I could try to protect her. But he just started abusing me. It was a lot worse for her because she was so little. And he went farther with her than he was able to with me. He would give us money the next day for snack and he wouldn’t get the boys money. So you see all that plays in. I met her when she was five. So it was before that. She’s being shown that if you give them what they want, you can get in m return. Even as an adult, she still carried that with her. And I knew why she did the things she did. I just happen to know a different way, you know? Because if I would have been raised in that, I think I would have been the same way. I think when you are abused, it kind of speeds up the maturity process. When she was eleven, she looked 16. Not just pretty, but beautiful. She had sex appeal. She knew how to be sexy. I think that she didn’t know any other way.
Tucker Simmons: I’ve lost count the number of times I’ve been reminded. Donna was known to be promiscuous. How she loved to openly flaunt her beauty. How she only liked to hang out with guys, how many men she was romantic with one detective with knowledge of the case who spoke freely before realizing who I was. Joked about Donna’s death, saying, there’s no telling what happened. She probably pissed off the wrong wife. Those kind of comments from random locals who hear rumors and run with them are one thing, but from a law enforcement officer with authority over the case that’s concerning.
Sherry (Donna’s sister): She had a lot of friends, mostly guy friends that knew that Donna had a great heart. There was a lot of her guy friends who really cared for her that would give her money just because they cared for her and didn’t want her lights to be turned off. I think she tried to stay clear of most married men, but that wasn’t always the case. So she may have had a few enemies when it came to the women in the town,
Tucker Simmons: but it couldn’t have been that bad, because she had a thriving salon full of women.
Sherry (Donna’s sister): She did. A lot of people liked her. When her business was thriving. She was single, and she kept her business private. That’s one of the things that, she kept private from me, because I would grape it. And so she didn’t want to hear it from me. I was more fearful for her, to be honest. You know, I’d be like, Donna, somebody is going to get angry about you sleeping with so and so. There were some of the guys that she was seeing that obviously, she didn’t do that with. But then there were some that would not have had a chance to even get close to her if they didn’t have money. Because it wasn’t like, hey, I want $5,000, or whatever, and I’ll give you this. It was never like that. It was, okay, I need help with my light bill, or I need help with my house note. And then she would be friendly. I’m not trying to make excuses for her. I’m just saying that there were a lot of men who were willing to help her. You know, it’s not like she was trying to get rich. She was trying to survive. She may have made mistakes and did things that most of us don’t agree with, but I feel like she did them, Cause she didn’t know any other way. I know when people don’t understand that, but that’s because they didn’t understand who she was and where she came from. It wasn’t like she was just this greedy, you know, money grubbing. She was also generous. And the things that she did, she did for the people that she loved. Her kids being without played a big role. She didn’t want that to ever happen. She didn’t want them to ever be in this position that we were in. She was a mother and a sister and a daughter. I love her very much still. And the thought of people thinking badly of her.
Tucker Simmons: She lived a colorful life that’s very well known. But the eagerness, especially among those with ties to the case, to constantly talk about Donna’s reputation as if that makes her case less of a priority in some way, is not something I ever expected. And if I’m being honest, it was starting to feel like a coordinated talking point. Always perfectly timed in response to questions about how one of the most high profile investigations in the Parish was allowed to fester with so many inconsistencies.
Donna struggled to find lasting happiness in any of her relationships
As Sherry put it, what people thought of her was the last thing on her mind. As long as her kids were okay. She was okay. But Donna struggled to find lasting happiness in any of her relationships.
Sherry (Donna’s sister): She dated Jeff when she was young, and they had a son, her first son, Scott. I think she was 15 when she got pregnant with Scott, and she dropped out of school. She went to beauty school right after she got her ged. She got her license, and then that’s when she bought her house. She was. She was very young when she bought that house. Then she dated another guy, Larry, who is Brennan’s father. And then she got married to Bubba. That was her first husband. That was, I think, the happiest time that I’d ever seen her. The happiest, I think, because Bubba just doted on her, and she was where she finally wanted to be in life socially. You know, they went to Mardi Gras parties, and she got to dress up, and he showed her off. I think that’s when she felt the most loved and the most, secure. But Donna had to sabotage herself. I don’t think she felt like she deserved it. She didn’t deserve his love. After her and Bubba got divorced, she dated a couple people, and then she got married to Clay, who is Ellie’s dad. And then, they broke up. They divorced. And then she started dating Scott. And that’s when things started changing. She sat right there in that chair at my bar and said, he doesn’t like me to be gone. And I said, well, I don’t understand. You’re at my house. And I’d never known for Donna to be controlled, so I think that was part of the problem they had. But I’m telling you, the house had a lot to do with it, too. She didn’t want to leave that house, and she was willing to do anything to try to keep that house. But he had her. It was already in his name. He had the ultimate control. It was either leave or do what I tell you to do.
Tucker Simmons: Donna and Scott dated for a couple of years. Most of her friends thought they were a strange match, but didn’t think much of it. Beyond that, things got more serious, and Scott purchased the property next door and lived in what looks like a barn or rustic cabin of some kind. It sits about 100 yards behind Donna’s, separated only by a thinly wooded area. As Donna’s cousin Tony put it, this was the first sign of trouble.
Tony (Donna’s cousin): At first, she was kind of like, oh, he’s taking my hunting spot. Because, you know, she loved to hunt. And she had a, m deer stand back there. I mean, she was kind of put off at first, but then it was like when her and him was together, it was okay. Cause Donna fell truly, madly, deeply in love with Scott. For a while there.
Tucker Simmons: When Scott moved next door, Donna was openly telling friends that she felt trapped. She was in a financial bind, and Scott was helping with bills. Donna told friends it was either try to work it out with Scott or lose her home to foreclosure. And for her, that was life or death.
Tony (Donna’s cousin): Donna was having health issues with her kidneys and everything, and she wasn’t being able to work as much. So Scott offered to buy the house from her and her to start paying him a little bit here and there to get the house back, to pay him back for that part. That’s when things kind of went bad for Donna.
Tucker Simmons: Records from the property assessor’s office confirm that on August 7, 2017, Donna sold her home to Scott. This transaction took place just two and a half months before Donna’s death.
Tony (Donna’s cousin): Once he bought the house, he became obsessive and controlling. She couldn’t go or do without him knowing. He literally had a tracker on her truck at one time. If he didn’t like what she did, he would tell her that, okay, then she’s going to have to get out. And that wasn’t what they agreed upon, to my knowledge.
Tucker Simmons: I was able to obtain the purchase agreement, and the language couldn’t be more clear. The cash sale of $108,786.35 granted Scott 100% ownership. There were no provisions indicating Donna would retain any claims to the property. It’s m impossible to know what verbal agreement they may have had. But one thing was clear. Donna knew it was only a matter of time before she had to leave her home. She was making strange Facebook posts. She wasn’t herself, and everyone could see it, but suicidal. Her cousin Tony isn’t convinced.
Tony (Donna’s cousin): That morning, I seen the corners and everything there. So I pulled up to Scott’s house in the back, not Donna’s, because I couldn’t get in there because of all the police. His friend kind of opened the door, and he said that Scott had found Donna and Donna had killed herself. He said that Scott was sleeping, that he couldn’t come to the door, but I could have seen Scott in the background walk from one room to another in his house. It just did not feel right.
Tucker Simmons: Given the circumstances, I could see how this strange behavior might be explained as pretty normal, actually. More concerning to me is that the person who found Donna is at his home without an escort, 100 yards from Donna’s home. While law enforcement and the coroner’s office are still processing the scene. Was he questioned? Was his home searched? Who was this friend at the door? Had he also been questioned? A friend of mine from childhood reconnected when rumors about my investigation began circulating around town. Among several helpful tips that I would need to corroborate, it turns out this source knew Scott’s friend, who opened the door that morning and told me where to find him. Hey, man.
Robert (Scott’s co-worker and friend): Hey, man.
Tucker Simmons: My name is Tucker. I’m looking for Robert. Yes, so I’m Tucker. I’m a documentary filmmaker. This is Robert Scott’s co worker at the local hospital and who many refer to as his best friend. He was seen with Scott at the Washington Parish sheriff’s office the morning Donna was found to. He owns a small windshield repair shop in Franklinton. And so I stopped by. He was visibly surprised when I told him I was working on a story about Donna Arceneaux murder.
Robert says he doesn’t know anything about Donna’s death
As you’ll hear in the background, traffic was pretty heavy the day I found him.
Robert (Scott’s co-worker and friend): A friend of mine that I worked with, a co worker, just asked me to come pick up. Pick him up. I wasn’t anywhere around.
Tucker Simmons: You don’t really know anything about what?
Robert (Scott’s co-worker and friend): I don’t know anything. I just know, like everybody else. Well, they ruin a suicide. That was in the paper that Louisiana state police investigated.
Tucker Simmons: The autopsy and death certificate, actually, dudes, a visual manner of death homicide.
Robert (Scott’s co-worker and friend): Well, I think we understand, and I’m not wrong because, you know, you invest investigated in. But I think that’s coroner’s office that said that. And our coroner’s office is about like, it’s run by volunteers.
Tucker Simmons: I want to acknowledge that the Washington Parish coroner’s office is grossly underfunded. I’ll address that in more detail in a few minutes.
Robert (Scott’s co-worker and friend): I wish. The only thing was, I just wished he would listen to me. As far as I told him not to go over there and check on her. He was worried about her and not to go check on her. Be sure to, you know, with the police, go with it. But he was really worried about it. That’s all I know. Yeah, I know nothing. Can I tell you something, bro? She had so many relationships going on with people, and people are a lot of piss. She’s a beautiful girl, good looking girl, built like a brick house. And I know what kind of person he is. And he ain’t no murderer, man. this dude is no murderer, okay? I just know Scott and what type of person he is. And, you know, anything he done on the side with her or anything else. He done? I don’t know. You know, I have no idea.
Tucker Simmons: What do you mean, though?
Robert (Scott’s co-worker and friend): Sheriff said you know some things, man. I don’t know, man. That’s just.
Daniel Whittington (Former Washington Parish coroner’s office chief investigator): I don’t know.
Robert (Scott’s co-worker and friend): You’d have to find out from them because, like, say, I’d be. I’d be a horrible person. But all I know is, man, she had to have some mental problems. But, This is what I was worried about. But if they. If they said it was a homicide, then that’s different, man. Go get it. You know what I mean? Damn right.
Tucker Simmons: Robert repeatedly stated that he didn’t know anything, but the longer we talked, the more detail he shared about Scott and Donna’s relationship and the case. I’m not suggesting he was purposefully hiding anything, but I definitely wanted to keep in touch. A customer pulled in before we could finish our conversation, so he gave me his number and told me to call anytime.
Claim that Washington Parish coroner’s office is run by volunteers is widely shared
Now lets take a step back to the claims of the case being ruled a suicide and the suggestion the coroner’s office isn’t reliable because it’s run by volunteers. If you recall from episode one, I explained in detail that the case was never ruled a suicide. That was a statement given to the local paper by the Washington Parish Sheriff’s office, which has never been explained. The claim that the Washington Parish coroner’s office is run by volunteers is something I’ve heard repeatedly, mostly by those who believe Donna committed suicide. Yes, it is true that until recently, the coroner himself was the only paid member of the team. His official office is within his private medical practice, and there’s no facility to perform autopsies. But as I’ve learned, much of that is irrelevant to Donna’s case. At the time of Donna’s death, Washington Parish transported remains to neighboring St. Tammany, the second wealthiest Parish in Louisiana, with state of the art pathology capabilities. Suggestions that the Washington Parish coroner’s office mishandled the case in some way is a widely shared rumor, but documents we’ve obtained suggest it suspected homicide immediately, which was the same finding of St. Tammany. Parish’s chief pathologist, Daniel Whittington was Washington Parish coroner’s office chief investigator at the time, and he made clear in his report, dated October 24, 2017, 01:46 a.m. 2 hours after Donna was found, suspected manner of death homicide. The following quote is taken from the report with slight grammatical adjustments to enhance clarity.
Speaker A: When I arrived on the scene, I was told we had to call the state crime lab because the scene did not look right. The place where the body was and where the gun was found. Didn’t look right. She was shot on the bed and was found on the floor with very little blood on or around her. Had blood spots in the doorway and some in the bedroom. Not consistent with anything. It looks like someone tried to clean up. Found a towel in the bathroom with blood on it and bloodied rags in the laundry room.
Tucker Simmons: Volunteer or not, those are very specific details that suggest there was a consensus on scene that questioned Donna’s manner of death. Daniel was difficult to get a hold of. But finally, his wife replied to me on Facebook and we schedule a meeting.
Daniel Whittington (Former Washington Parish coroner’s office chief investigator): Chief investigator for Washington Parish. He didn’t want his investigators to call the state police in him. He had never walked into the scene, never seen it. And he was making said, I, don’t care what it looks like. It was a suicide.
Tucker Simmons: And who was this person?
Daniel Whittington (Former Washington Parish coroner’s office chief investigator): That was the chief investigator at the time. He was over all investigators for Washington Parish.
Tucker Simmons: Do you remember his name?
Daniel Whittington (Former Washington Parish coroner’s office chief investigator): Oh, yeah.
Tucker Simmons: Tommy Anderson.
Daniel Whittington (Former Washington Parish coroner’s office chief investigator): I didn’t say it. You did. I hand carried him a copy of the air autopsy that said homicide. He looked at it with two or three of his other investigators in his office. He pulled the bottom desk door open, threw it in there. Close the doors, in his exact words, if that makes that family happy. Nobody else heard anything. And just about every one of his investigators worked, a case. When they got close to anything, he pulled them off. Put another investigator on.
Tucker Simmons: That’s one hell of a claim to make. And given how many conspiracy theories have surrounded this case, I would have been tempted to disregard it. But Daniel’s account is nearly identical to two other sources close to the investigation.
Daniel Whittington (Former Washington Parish coroner’s office chief investigator): I was there when the state police cut the bed open. And you got the projectile out because it went all the way through. It was in the mattress.
Tucker Simmons: Do you remember if the bullet that was found in the mattress, just to confirm, was there DNA on the mattress fibers? Was it confirmed that that bullet is the one that traveled through her?
Daniel Whittington (Former Washington Parish coroner’s office chief investigator): It was the only shot that went through her. And two shots would. We never found out what happened are two cases.
Tucker Simmons: The audio of this interview got muffled towards the end, but here’s what Daniel’s explaining. One of the other mysteries of this case is the unexplained second shell casing found on scene. One was on the floor near the dresser on the left side of the bed. The other was jammed in the nine millimeter handgun lying on the left side of the bed, not far from the other shell casing. The only projectile recovered was the one from the mattress, which Daniel and other sources confirm is the one that traveled through Donna. So where’s the second bullet? Investigators searched far and wide, and it never turned up. It makes me wonder if Donna’s killer was also shot.
Daniel Whittington (Former Washington Parish coroner’s office chief investigator): It looked like she was getting ready to cook because she had food laying in the sink to thaw. Now, I don’t know how far you got or read the OR tattoo report, but I worked personally with the, pathologist. He said for the way the tactile went through the body, her knees had to be above her head. The only way I could have took that path. Unless the state police come out and seen something out of the ordinary, I knew what it was going to be ruined way before I got to report. Because the thought they told me, we all. Me, Raymond, I think one or the other investigators, we all met at St. Tammany and sat down and had a meeting with doctor, that’s what the Tyler was saying. I can’t rule until I get the state police report.
Tucker Simmons: So what was the reason for having that meeting?
Daniel Whittington (Former Washington Parish coroner’s office chief investigator): The main reason, I think the toddler let us, know in the sheriff’s department where he was standing in that he couldn’t make a termination. He got the state police report, what everybody knew. Unofficially, I guess. I guess you’d say how he was going to rule unless he found something from state police
Tucker Simmons: Doctor Michael DeFatta was the longtime chief pathologist at the St. Tammany Parish coroner’s office. I made multiple attempts to reach doctor Defauda, only to find out he had accepted a new position in New Orleans, Jefferson Parish. I left a message with his office and headed back to my brother’s, where I was staying. It had been a long day of interviews, and I was exhausted, so we took a ride to his favorite spot at the river to decompress. It’s way back in the woods. There’s no sign of civilization, much less cell reception. It was an hour or so, and on the way home, my phone lit up with what sounded like a dozen notifications. The most surprising one was this voicemail from Demi.
Demi (Former investigator): Tucker. Please answer my call, immediately. I’m going through some laptops I have from my personal use and work, and I found something very interesting. So call me asap.
Tucker Simmons: Something’s changed in the air tonight. If you’re thinking you already know what happened, I can tell you from experience. Think again. Because in episode three, I was able to obtain Donna’s medical records, which reveal a completely different theory. All those details, plus a late night visit to Demi’s house are coming up. I’ll see you then. Head over to freezeframepodcast.com for behind the scenes details on the investigation and then follow us on socials at Freeze Framepod for exclusive content.
Freeze Frame is a but why media production it’s written and produced by me
Freeze Frame is a but why media production it’s written and produced by me, Tucker Simmons. Editing and post-production by Evan Desonnier and original theme music by Tabitha Meeks.
Evidence in this Episode
For autopsy evidence heard in this episode, see the evidence posted in episode 1 here.