Sword and Scale contains adult themes and violence, and is not intended for all
audiences. Listener discretion is advised. I can't imagine what went through your mind,
what you were doing. The sheer fucking terror that that little girl was
going through, absolute terror. She knew that she was going to fucking knew
it. She stared her kill her in the fucking eyes. Hello. In
case you're lost, this is Sword and Scale, a show that reveals that
the worst monsters are Wait for it, wait for it, hold on,
here comes, You're gonna hit the poster. We were about to do it.
Here we go. It's almost time. Real Well, everyone that's seen
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stick with the MSNs and the NBCs, and when they lie to you to
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too, It's up to you. You got more choices, and more choices
can't be a bad thing. Sprawled across the western edge of Florida's Panhandle,
surrounded by over fifty miles of coastline sits the well known city of Pensacola.
It's a city that's mostly known for its beautiful beaches and for attracting surfers and
camper van travelers. Well, it's true that Pensacola has no shortage of surfer
bros and hipsters. The majority of its population aren't beach bums. Most of
the people of Pensacola are just everyday Americans that do what every day Americans typically
do. They go to work. Around four pm. On May thirty first,
twenty seventeen, a thirty eight year old man named Robert Howard was planning
to do just that. Robert had just walked out of his girlfriend's Pensacola apartment
and was planning to make an hour long commute to work when he was stopped
in the apartment complex's parking lot by two women. When I deserved everything,
I came out the door. When I came up do I came downstairs.
That's when for Lukero's mom, another older lady stopped asking me if I had
seen little girl that's him. No, I just came out of apartment and
that's what she's daughters. Now. I talked within for a few minutes and
that's the last. I'm not being brute, but I got to go to
work out there. The two women asked Robert about a young girl that they
believed to be missing. One of those young women was the girl's mother,
and her name was Shantara Hurry. Later that day, Shantara contacted her local
police department and reported her daughter missing. When police first began looking into this
situation, they questioned the last person to have supposedly seen the missing girl,
which happened to be her ten year old brother, Emmanuel. She to tell
me more about that had in Naomi to look in an thank you for telling
me about that. She Naomi Jones had recently celebrated her twelfth birthday and she
lived in a small apartment with her mom and two younger brothers. According to
her brother Emmanuel, on the day that Naomi went missing, she and her
brothers had just finished walking their dog. They returned home and all three of
them went inside the apartment, But then Naomi went back outside by herself and
didn't return. What was going on before she left? What was going on?
She was At the time of Naomi's disappearance, Naomi and her two younger
brothers were home alone. Little twelve year old Naomi was looking after her two
younger brothers, which wasn't an ideal situation, but it was oftentimes the only
option. Naomi's mom was just eighteen years old when Naomi was born, and
she was single. To support her kids, she worked two jobs. Usually
hiring a nanny or finding a relative to look after the children wasn't an option,
so big sister Naomi picked up the slack and took care of things while
her mom was at work. She leading kids and work two jobs. Them
kids be at home by the seal, But you got Naomi watching two little
ows like she grown. Would you say Naomi's a responsible twelve year old or
would you she's a typical twelve year old? I said she responsible. That
girl had a sweet girl at nowhere, so you's got no problem. Also
who she can keep her grades? She can go to school. In a
lot of ways, Naomi was an exceptional twelve year old according to the adults
in her life. Naomi was caring, smart, ambitious, and especially mature
for her age. Naomi dreamed of becoming a doctor or nurse, and she
had a mind for science. One of her hobbies included using household ingredients to
make different forms of slime, yes slime, and the clip you're about to
hear, Naomi is creating a YouTube video and teaching her audience how they can
also create slime. Midway through the recording, one of her younger brothers plays
a practical joke on her by snatching away her camera and running off with it.
So dison rye was actually made with that sounds like some After Naomi was
reported missing, the Escambia County Sheriff's Office began their search effort, and they
clearly took this case very seriously, as they alerted every local media station and
held several press conferences. You know, those of you that have seen Naomi's
picture, she's the all American girl. I mean, she's a child that
you would want in your home. That's the bright face you look at across
the breakfast table every morning and give a kiss to before she goes to school.
To tell you that these cases are heartbreaking is to state it in the
minimum. For police and just about anyone who knew Naomi, there was a
detail about this case that strongly suggested foul play and that Naomi wasn't just a
runaway. On the day that Naomi went missing, she walked out of the
apartment. She left without her cell phone. Like most girls her age,
Naomi's cell phone was usually glued to her hand, but on that particular day,
she just left it behind. Tell me how come Toaomi didn't take her
phone. I think it was because she wasn't she for Okay? What makes
you think that because she takes her from Nobody could say why Naomi went back
outside on her own that day, but she clearly didn't plan to be gone
for long. If she had, Naomi almost certainly would have taken her cell
phone with her. As the search effort to find Naomi continued, detectives at
the Escambia County Sheriff's Office questioned a lot of people. Among those people was
Naomi's mom's ex boyfriend, Arthur Bruce, who was no stranger to law enforcement.
In fact, when cops picked him up, there was an active warrant
for his arrest, but it wasn't for anything too serious. Apparently, Arthur
had been previously busted with some marijuana and was subsequently placed on probation. Arthur
then violated that probation and a warrant was issued for his arrest. Nonetheless,
when Arthur was brought in for questioning, he was cooperative and agreed to speak
with detectives about Naomi. During his interview, Arthur echoed how strange it was
that Naomi had left without her cell phone. Let me tell you so,
Naomi no know where Sir naing hoomie. Don't go outside like that, nag
only like the phone. She liked aprulas. She liked to be in a
room. The phone was left in the house. That don't sound right.
It just don't fucking sound right. I don't fucking head up. Detectives in
this case had two very good reasons to question Arthur Bruce. The first,
and the most obvious, was that he was Naomi's mom's ex and he knew
Naomi pretty well. The second, and much more concerning reason was that,
despite being the ex boyfriend, Arthur was still communicating with Naomi through text messages.
While there was plenty of room for plausible deniability, some of Arthur's conversations
with Naomi could have been considered inappropriate for a grown man to have with a
twelve year old girl. Naomi birthday were free to come up. She asked
me for a pound space Jam Jordan's shoes and I went over Naomi text you
wanting shirtain shoes? Yeah, she wanted the shoes, the space jams.
And I said, since you've been good and you kept your grades up,
I said, listen to your mama, obey your mama, follow what your
mama say, and I get you some shoes. And she just wanted that
one thing. It was there some space jam Jordan's Arthur asked Naomi what her
shirt and shoe sizes this were, and according to Arthur, the only reason
he asked her that question was because she wanted those things for her birthday.
This conversation apparently led to some conflict when Naomi's mom learned about it. Did
she text you from Naomi's phone getting upset with you for you text the name
Naomi? Yeah, she told me not to text Naomi. I asked Naomi
what side she will, and Naomi went to ask the mother, and her
mother came and said, don't take Naomi no more, don't takes us no
more, don't get in contact with us no more, such as such,
and you can see on the text. I said, I respect that.
I understand that. I said, y'all have a good day, blessed day.
I don't want no problems. Alice a god. When we talked to
Chanterra, human sounded like you was you and you were reaching out to Naomi
and almost a sexual way or you know all and see you see what you
see what I'm saying? Naturally, Arthur denied the accusation that anything he said
to Naomi was meant as a sexual advance towards her. Interestingly, when asked
what he thought happened to Naomi, Arthur had his own theory, whatever going
on your feeling? What do you think happened? I'm gonna tell you something.
This shocks me, and I wish y'all really call it that. I
call her the night you called me and first name, and she said,
you want to stand by room seventy dollars? All this right here? What
he are you talking about some money right now? When your daughter missing?
We ain't talking about no money right now? I said, what's going on
in Naomi? Don't worry about it? And I couldn't even talk to her.
I just hung the phone up. Okay, you think Sean Terra would
hurt her own daughter? I think that would happen. Man and that's all
cover up. Some I'm just in my bone. Man, I just feel
like it ain't right because I think the mother knows more than she knows.
Man. I don't disagree with you, but right down there, right now,
it's Shaan Terra. It's just I mean, she's like flatlined. She
don't show no emotions. She she got Naomi something well. Arthur seemingly suspected
that Naomi's mom had something to do with Naomi's disappearance, which was a theory
that detectives had considered for a mom whose twelve year old daughter was missing.
Shintera hurry, seemed pretty composed, and her calm demeanor was on full display
during her many media appearances. If Naomi is out there, if anybody is
watching that has my baby, I just need you to brank her back home.
My number is all over social media right now. Just please bring my
baby home. Something else that struck detectives as strange was the story that they
got from Naomi's brother, Emmanuel. Initially, Emmanuel told police that when Naomi
left the apartment, he was in his bedroom lying down. He claimed that
he hadn't actually witnessed Naomi walk out the door, but he later changed his
story. So you saw her leave, okay, so that was when she
just played left to me to see her again here where I'm confused because you
told me earlier that you were asleep when she left, But now you're telling
me that you heard her tell you that she forgot something you saw her leave,
So those are two different things. Help me understand. How come you
told me something different before? What did mom say about coming here? Did
she tell you anything else? Has anybody asked you to not talk about stuff
or tell you to keep secrets or anything like that. Emmanuel was asked pointed
questions about his mom because there was a possibility that he had been coached and
instructed to lie about Naomi's disappearance. But if that was the case, then
detectives were never able to get a manual to admit it. There's the theories
of what happened to Naomi Jones began to stack up. The effort to find
her continued. By June twenty seventeen, Naomi had been missing for over three
days. We've conducted three hundred interviews, thirty search warrants. We've gone not
one mile, not two miles, but to three mile radius. We've checked
our waterways, We've checked a lot of Facebook posts. We've got about two
hundred plus tips. We've ritten down each one of those tips. We do
hope that and we pray that you guys will the media will put this information
out not just locally, but regionally and then nationally, because right at this
point, we really do not know what happened to Naomi. Hundreds of volunteers
came out to assist the search effort to find Naomi, and for nearly a
week, Naomi's family and friends anxiously awaited for answers as they prayed for Naomi's
safe return. It wasn't until the fifth day that the search came to an
abrupt end, when a simple fisherman came across something that he wouldn't soon forget.
It was on that day that the tragic fate of twelve year old Naomi
Jones was finally revealed. In June of twenty seventeen, twelve year old Naomi
Jones went missing from the Aspen Village Apartments in Pensacola, Florida, where she
lived with her mom and two younger brothers. In response to Naomi's disappearance,
the Escambia County Sheriff's office launched a massive and highly organized search effort, but
after three days of relentless searching, there was still no sign of Naomi.
Is continuing in the pressure, you know, to try to find Naomi Jones.
I wish this morning we had some you know, good news for you.
Unfortunately we do not. The search continues today. We want to thank
all those folks that are involved. You know, we got Cavilian agencies here,
the Class Kids Foundation, which has had over one hundred and fifty volunteers
from around the nation, by the way, to come and help us in
our search for Naomi. I will tell you the community in the nation that
we are triple checking at this point areas that we have been over. As
the days dragged on, Naomi's younger brothers struggled to understand the possibility that Naomi
may never be found and that she may never be coming home. Do you
have any worries about Naomi? How long has she been gone for? Three
days? How are you feeling about that? Sad? Yeah? Yeah.
As for the adults in Naomi's life, they held on to hope that Naomi
would be found and that she would be safely returned to her family, a
little girl missing, somebody around here. Know what the fuck going on might
be with a grown man, But I just, deep in my heart don't
believe Naomi gone. She ain't gone. As the search for Naomi continued,
detectives as sign of the case continued asking questions. Eventually they ended up speaking
with a young man named Jermaine Portis, who sometimes went by the nickname Man
Man. What's your What days do you usually work out there? What's your
work schedule? Nay, sometime be all that Monday to Tuesday, some time
Tuesday and Wednesday. At the time of this police interview, Jermaine Portis was
twenty three years old and he worked as a dishwasher and busboy at a nearby
motel. The detectives assigned to the Naomi Jones case were led to Germaine through
Naomi's phone records. Your Facebook page has a phone number associated with it,
Okay, that phone number has been texting Naomi, the missing girl. In
order to create a Facebook account, a person needs to provide a phone number
or an email address. In Jermaine's case, when he created his Facebook page,
he used a phone number, and that phone number had recently exchanged text
messages with Naomi. Yet, Jermaine denied that he knew Naomi at all,
and he couldn't explain how or why Naomi had the phone number that was linked
to his Facebook. In fact, Jermaine claimed that the phone number wasn't even
his and it belonged to his older sister. Yeah, because I don't know
how my social number ended up in ligor phone. I don't know. I
don't know. I don't know how that numbers. How old is Liquita?
She loved to sem to me, would there be any does she still have
that number? So when was the last time you had access for her phone?
It's been so loone. I don't know, man, the young witch
like I really don't like and if so, and if I did was to
get on her phone, it wasn't like six and the girl whoever was she?
I don't, I don't. I don't even know the girl, you
know what I'm saying. I don't even know how that number and her phone
period. Jermaine explained that when he created his Facebook page, he didn't have
a phone, so he just used his sister's number to set up the account.
While that seemed plausible, it still didn't explain why Naomi had that number
in her phone. So, after hearing Jermaine's explanation, or rather his lack
of one, the detectives began asking him about his whereabouts on the day that
Naomi went missing. This didn't go well for Jermaine. Go ahead and tell
me about your day Wednesday, the thirty first, which you did from the
time he woke up. I was broken, all broken. Okay, what's
your schedule? What time did you go in? I'm going if I have
in the morning. Okay. Naomi went missing on May thirty first at around
one thirty pm. Jermaine's typical work shift was five am to one pm,
leaving him plenty of time to make his way over to Naomi's apartment. At
the same time, Jermaine couldn't even give a straight answer as to whether he
even worked that day at all. And you're positive and you went to work
that day, If it's not, I was off. I don't know.
But either way to go, Honestly, I'm trying to get storing out of
it. But either way to go, I don't know who. I've been
wander the same thing every day and I'll just hang out with my friends and
stuff like that. Okay, with these kind of situations, we're talking to
a lot of different people and generalizing I do the same thing every day in
this situation, isn't gonna cut it. Maybe I went to work, maybe
I didn't, Maybe I saw some friends, maybe I didn't. Dumb criminals
lie about all the wrong things, don't they. And as far as alibis
go, Jermaine's was about as ambiguous as you could get. The cops don't
like that, by the way, and when they pushed him about it,
the only thing Jermaine could say was that he never met Naomi and he had
no idea who she even was. Unfortunately for him, detectives had information that
suggested otherwise. We talked to one of your neighbors and they said that they've
seen Naomi come to your house a few times. He's findings to me because
people still up pointing fingers the same things. But where is she? I
don't know. Nobody else I know, but I don't know one person.
Therefore, you shouldn't say you've seen a girl color of my house. You've
never seen a girl comet of my house. No, in the past,
they've seen it in the past. I never seen it in the pet.
I never seen the girl period, I know seeing him. Not only had
his neighbors supposedly spotted Naomi at your Man's house, but according to detectives,
another witness placed your mane at Naomi's apartment complex on the day she went missing.
She's there were some people there with her on the thirty first, and
they said that man Man was over there that morning, That's what they said.
And I wasn't. So you're sure you are worth that day, yep.
But if I wasn't, I was not wrong. I mean, if
you could explain, yeah, okay, I went over the farmor that morning,
but I didn't have anything idea with it if I was sitting room.
But I can't slaggle it because I wasn't there. I don't know. Y'all
just can't like get me messed up behind something that I really ain't got nothing
to do with, you know what I'm saying. So even if it was
to go further off y'all seeing me around somebody or whatever, I didn't do
another room. I didn't. I know what I did. Confidently, Jermaine
maintained that had nothing to do with Naomi's disappearance, and that he had never
even met her. After a few hours of questioning and a whole lot of
denial, Jermaine was sent home and he remained a potential suspect. Within hours
of Germaine leaving the police station, the case took a sudden turn. Twelve
year old Naomi Jones had finally been found. Naomi Jones was found in eight
Mile Creek Monday morning. She had been missing for five days. The Sheriff's
office is based on the preliminary autopsy, she had been killed within the first
twenty four to thirty six hours after her abduction. The area where she was
found has turned into a growing memorial. However, that spot is not where
she was killed, according to the Sheriff's office. As sheriff would not go
into detail about how she died, only that her cause of death is asphyxiation.
Five days after she was first reported missing, a local fisherman found Naomi's
small and lifeless body lying under a bridge in a creek about ten miles from
the apartment complex where she lived. Naomi was found partially submerged. She was
wearing the same tank top she had on when she went missing, but she
was nude from the waist down. Later, an autopsy revealed that Naomi died
of exphyxiation. The medical examiner concluded that she had likely been strangled to death.
For the detectives that saw and pulled Naomi's body out of the creek,
it was a day and an event that they will likely never forget. He
said that even to look like that pretty little girl skin slipping all paraphone off
her head animal was leading honor. She'll never get to grow up, do
things that she wanted to do, hang out with her friends, go to
school, find a boyfriend, get married, have kids. At just twelve
years old, Naomi's life had ended. All of her aspirations and the potential
of who she could have become was lost forever. When the news broke,
the local community rallied behind Naomi's family, and hundreds of people attended a vigil
to honor Naomi and support Naomi's mom. I would love to thank you all
for coming out today. It means the world to me to know that every
single one of you took your time out of your day to come down here.
We're nothing to me here. The search for Naomi had ended, but
now the hunt was on to find her killer. During the search and throughout
the investigation, the police questioned hundreds of people, but their best lead came
when they interviewed a young man named Robert Howard. When Naomi's mom first learned
that her daughter was missing, she rushed home from work and called Naomi's grandmother.
Together, the two of them began knocking on every door in her apartment
complex, asking the residence if they'd seen Naomi. As they were doing this,
they ran into Robert just as he was on his way to work.
My way out, I ran into I don't know who the girl's mom name
or her and another older lady and that's when she asked me, have I
seen her door? And I'm like, well, no, ma'am. I
just came out the apartment and she was like, well, it's my door
and I'm like, well no, ma'am. She's like, well, she's
missing. And I stood there and talked with them four a minute before I
left. So you hadn't seen Naomi. Do you know who Naomi is?
Yeah? I know it's saftly who she is. I see her? Well,
did you see her? Every time? We're hearing it out the department
m her and her brother being out there playing with a doll, or they're
on that back balcony, they're in between apartments playing. Had you seen her
all that day? No? No? Okay. Thirty eight year old Robert
Howard lived and worked in Bruton, Alabama, which was about an hour away
from the apartment complex where Naomi lived, but Robert would often spend days at
a time at his girlfriend's apartment, which was just a few doors away from
Naomi's apartment. Your girlfriend listening apartment? And what's her name again? Lauren?
Lauren? Youw what is it? Lauren Ewing? And you guys have
a child together or right? One year old? Okay? How old is
the Lauren? Lauren's thirty? Yes? Howland are you now? Thirty eight?
How long have you been involved with Lauren? A couple of years.
According to Robert, he and his girlfriend Lauren had dated for over two years
and they had a child together, yet they lived an hour apart. For
detectives, this seemed like an odd arrangement, but they did confirm that all
of it was true when they spoke to Lauren. How long have you been
with Robert? Not two years? Okay? In does Robert live with you?
So explain to me how that works out because he's had been brutin at
work and he also keeps the place up there too. Given that Robert frequently
stayed at Lauren's apartment and that the two of them were basically Naomi's neighbors,
the cops wanted to find out exactly what they did on the day that Naomi
went missing. As for Lauren, her day was pretty easy to track and
verify. Lauren went to work in the morning and didn't return until the early
evening. She left her apartment while Naomi was still accounted for and didn't return
until long after Naomi went missing. So Lauren seemed to be in the clear.
Okay. So when you went that morning at six, was Robert there?
Yes? Okay? And when you got home was Robert there? No?
Okay? All right, Now, that night, I guess you probably
would have come home and gone to sleep at some point. Is that fair
to say? Do you remember him coming home to your house after you had
been to sleep? Yes? Okay? What did he do? Robert told
investigators that on the day that Naomi went missing, he woke up at Lauren's
apartment, went to the gym, and then returned to the apartment. Then
he drove to Lauren's work to quickly visit her, which Lauren later confirmed.
After that, Robert returned to the apartment one more time and prepared to go
to work. You work at Free Car. Yes, what is your schedule
at work? Fortnights shift William on time, Swing three thirty and five.
Did you work that Wednesday that Naomi went missing? The initial night? Yes,
I got to work maybe like Swing five fifteen, five thirty somewhere from
there, I'm gonna say, out of the department, around four to thirty.
Robert was a night shift employee at a large train repair facility on the
night in question, and on most nights, Robert worked alongside only one other
employee. So you worked with Robert? I heard that you two are the
only two at night? Yes, okay? All right? Was three or
five to one, two o'clock in the morning or eleven o'clock and I his
fans don't sweetles, okay. According to his coworker, Robert did show up
to work on the evening that nailed me Jones went missing, and he worked
a full shift. Presumably, had Robert abducted and murdered Naomi earlier that day,
he almost certainly would have been acting differently or showing some signs that he
did something horrible, right, and I clot me in. He was there,
He was ready at five thirty when he gather there. How is he
acting like his normal self? I mean just like every day. I mean,
I ain't see no difference. The stars are now, we look in
a paperwater, you know, we laugh and telling you what we did with
the weekend. Just I mean, just like a normal version. As far
as this coworker could tell, Robert seemed like his same old self. But
as investigators began looking into the type of that Robert was, they quickly learned
that Robert was pretty good at keeping secrets. During his interview, Robert admitted
that, in addition to dating Lauren and having a child with her and pretty
much living at her apartment, Robert was also dating another woman. She was
thirty seven year old Yolanda Mitchell. What kind of relationship, PM? Where
we miss around? I'm kind of how old is she? Assume Lauren doesn't
know what I to come. I got you this a little sum on the
side. I got you. It turned out that on the day that Naomi
Jones went missing, Robert visited Yolanda on his way to work. Yolanda had
just come from a funeral and needed a shoulder to cry on, if you
know what I mean. So Robert obliged. What was your relationship with him?
Friends? Blitting red and okay, nobody really knew about our relationship,
Okay, on the phone with you this time frame to be seeing nervous,
weird and now he when I call, When I called him when I got
out of that funeral, he was very supportive, very encouraging. Like I
literally broke down crying because, like I said, I just walked out the
funeral and I literally broke down crying. And he's like, it's okay,
baby, cry, that's what you need to do. Just cry. It's
gonna be okay. All of that. That's our whole conversation. If you
can look beyond the fact that Robert was cheating on the mother of his child,
you might be inclined to think that maybe he's a decent guy. After
all, Offering emotional support to someone that just left a funeral is a kind
and decent thing to do. Unfortunately, for Robert, the investigators knew better.
They've been around the block for a while. They've seen a few things.
They knew a lot of things in fact that Robert and his friends and
girlfriends didn't know. They knew that this man wasn't decent at all. Robert
Howard was a registered sex offender and had previously spent fifteen years in prison.
What is your background in your history? When I was in hot well,
when I got out of high school and a girls missed around, she got
breagnant and her so I say, I got well, I copped out because
I didn't have no money to try to afford to Wiliams, So I had
to cop out a fifteen years How old were you at eighteen years old?
What year was a nineteen ninety eight? What was the charge? Yes,
that was an Alabama Yes. Robert claimed that the nineteen year old woman that
accused him of rape had lied to the police, and Robert was unable to
afford a good attorney, so he had no choice but to accept the plea
deal from the Alabama prosecutor. Of course, that story is kind of hard
to believe when you consider that Robert was later convicted of raping yet another woman.
Was there another charge that you had in your Yeah, it was saying
the same thing it was just another girl, could he And they was like
basically like, I didn't this the same thing to this other girl? You
got a pregnant or are you just just mess around and see say I made
her? And it's the same time that this other girl said the same thing?
So you were how was old? It was this girl same age?
To sum up, detectives were questioning a twice convey did rapist that was pretty
much living at the same apartment complex as twelve year old Naomi Jones. As
bad as all that looked, Robert's criminal history in his living arrangements didn't exactly
prove that he abducted and murdered Naomi. What could prove it, though,
or at least help convince a jury, was Robert's early morning visit to the
area where Naomi's body was found. Were you in that area or over that
way on last Wednesday the thirty first? When you drive? I have a
silver altimate. Naomi's body was found under a small bridge over eight Mile Creek
in Pensacola, about ten miles from where Naomi lived. As luck would have
bit, there are several traffic surveillance cameras in that area. What what if
I were to tell you that your car was in the area where her body
was found that night. That's impossible because it could have been Tell me what
because when I have my car, this see at work, when I live
work, it comes straight back to Johnson Avenue. I was a part of
it. Did anybody else have your car? Then no one ever has my
car. If we were just o peening, your phone records are gonna show
you in that area. That area. Detectives had irrefutable evidence that Robert drove
to eight Mile Creek about twelve hours after Naomi's disappearance. Not only that,
but they could also place him at the apartment complex at the time that Naomi
went missing. I was being honestly, what what time did you pick Naomi
up? I never picked nail me up? You're being honest with you?
You sure melon positive? Well about the time you leave your apartment is sometimes
she goes missing. But the thing about that is when I dropped lawing All,
I go straight to Bruton. So how is it that I can keep
her up? The thing about that is is that we already have your phone
records, okay, and you were at the apartments at one thirty. I
was going at one thirty. Phone records show know you were there at one
thirty. That phone number you gave me. It's phone number. We subpoena
for the records. You were at the apartments at one thirty, you were
not in Brutin. Detectives knew that Robert was lying and they could prove it.
They had him dead to rights and yes, I figured out what that
saying means. Thanks for the help in the comments. So after a few
more hours of poking and prodding at Robert, some partial truth began coming out.
Robert eventually admitted that he had done something horrible and unforgivable. Robert Howard
confessed to killing twelve year old Naomi Jones. On June fifth, twenty seventeen,
after an exhaustive search effort, the dead body of twelve year old Naomi
Jones was found under a small bridge at eight Mile Creek and Pensacola, Florida.
It was later determined that Naomi had been strangled to death and her body
was thrown off a bridge. During the murder investigation, Escambia County detectives interviewed
hundreds of people. Among those questioned was thirty eight year old Robert Howard.
Robert lived and worked in Bruton, Alabama, but he often stayed at his
girlfriend's apartment in Pensacola, which happened to be in the same apartment complex where
Naomi lived and was last seen alive. We all know that in true crime
cases there's usually not a lot of extenuating circumstances. If it looks like a
duck and it quacks like a duck, then odd non probably did it common
sense, the kind of thing that isn't around that much these days. There's
also the fact, of course, that Robert was a registered sex offender in
the late nineties. He was convicted of first degree rape twice and spent fifteen
years in prison. After learning about Robert and his history, investigators used phone
records and surveillance footage to track Robert's movements on the day that Naomi Jones went
missing. Once a sex offender, always a sex offender, investigators knew,
and more importantly, could prove that Robert was at the apartment complex when Naomi
was abducted, and that Robert had driven to the creek where her body was
found about twelve hours after her disappearance. In other words, Robert was fucked
given his background the evidence, along with the fact that Robert was the only
person they interview that lied about their whereabouts, the cops knew they had their
man. Despite all of this, one questioned, Robert refused to confess,
and he continued to lie. I think one or two things happened. You
either have a fetish or were attracted to Naomi and you got her to get
in your car and things might have gotten let's say, a little carried away.
Or either you're just a stone cold rapist, killer man. I mean
it's one of these. Either because I never got her to get in my
car. She's never been in my car, So which isn't Did did you
pick her up? And I did not pick her up. I did not
have anything to do with that child. I think she got in your car.
Tell you she didn't. Robert denied having anything to do with Naomi's disappearance
in her death, but he also denied that he was ever near eight Mile
Creek. Basically, he told cops that reality wasn't reality. Where have I
heard that before? Oh yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah, everywhere everywhere.
We have your car on video over there. You say you do,
but I'm telling you you don't. We have your car on video. We
have your phone wreckers that show your exact route from where you were at from
the apartments to Bruton back down to where she was found, and they show
exactly which rowt you went. You can't deny it. It's your phone number.
You say, you got my car on video, and you say,
this is showing all this, Let me see it, because there's no way.
Robert really thought he could call the cops bluff by asking to see the
evidence, but there was no bluff. His car was captured on camera in
the area where Naomi was found, and when Robert asked to see the footage,
detectives obliged. He was it and he saw them. Okay, and
what is that supposed to mean? That's your car? Okay? So how
are you just going to tell me that's my car? Because your phone puts
you in that exact spot that that car is at, at the exact time
that that car is on that video, detectives could definitively prove that Robert was
at the scene where Naomi's body was found. There was simply no way around
it. He couldn't deny it. I mean he could, but he was
denying a fact it's pretty obvious. When faced with this, finally, Robert
changed his story. He admitted to going to the creek, but claimed that
his visit there had nothing to do with throwing the dead body of a twelve
year old girl off a bridge. No, no, he was there for
you know, something else, maybe bird watching or hunting for butterflies, some
sort of ornithology type venture, whatever that means. Maybe some kind of caterpillar
collecting expedition, or the cataloging of leaves for a scrap booking album of some
sort. I don't know why do people go outside anymore? I don't even
know. I'm a podcaster after all, with somebody else with you? No,
no one else is with you by yourself. But I was told that
something would be there. What was supposed to be there? It was supposed
to be what exactly is this supposed to something? Something to benefit me,
like someone's benefit me. I guess, I don't hope not. How's it
going to benefit you monetarily? It didn't say it just says something to benefit
you, fortune cookie, I have no idea. Robert told investigators that he
found a letter on his windshield that directed him to eight Mile Creek. This
letter was apparently very vague and only suggested that if Robert drove to the creek
he would find something that would benefit him. It was a note for me.
It was a note on the car, and it says something to benefit
you from Naomi. No it didn't. It didn't have no name from nobody
or to nobody. It was just on the car. That is the absolute
worst, And I'm telling you the god they got true. Robert, Yes,
sir, that is the absolute silliest bullshit I've ever heard as ridiculous.
Listen to me. I thought we were getting somewhere. I know, I
know you don't believe me. I don't believe y'all are next door fucking neighbors.
He goes missing that afternoon and you're driving around where she's dumped. That
not only driving around, you fucking stop doing circles. You know why,
because you're fucking nerves. You don't know where to put her. Obviously,
Robert's story about some ambiguous note left on his car was bullshit. Cops knew
it. I mean, you know it. I know what. Everybody knows
it. Robert knows it, and the cops were pretty much done playing these
little games with them. So your put a murder. I'm a home because
you're sitting here to dine tonight and I you don't care. You just put
it like hey, just deny everything and lie because we had a proof that
you're lying. But this child has a twelve year old baby is dead.
She just turned well, she's eleven years old. Let do not touch that
child, that chow. She's never been with me, she has. You
killed her. No, I did not. You killed her, raped her
and you killed her. Yes, you did. What did you do?
Then? I didn't do anything? You right? That baby? Was she
scared? Oh? Sure? I didn't have her. Did she cry?
I didn't have her. No cry for her, mama. I have no
idea that she's begging to stop. I don't know what you're talking about.
You fucked her, did you, No, sir, you stuck your dick
in that little girl. No, sir, I can't imagine what went through
your mind what you were doing. Sheer fucking terror that that little girl was
going through, absolute terror. She knew that she was going to fucking die,
knew it. She stared her, killed her in the fucking eyes.
At this point, investigators had a solid case. There was plenty of evidence
that a jury could easily understand, and they didn't really need Robert to admit
to anything. Still, you know, a confession's always nice, it doesn't
hurt, and to hear what actually happened from the horse's mouth puts a little
closure on things. So they continued to question Robert and tried to tap into
his empathy if there was any there something a twelve year old girl I should
still be at home walking her bulldog with her two little brothers that thought the
world of her, and her mom out there busting her fucking ass worked him
to put food on the fucking title for her kids. You know the guilt
that she's got for this because she wasn't the home. She does a fucking
work. She twelve year old girl playing the mother role, taking care of
the kids so her mother could go to work. She comes back home with
her two little brothers after walking that dog. He tells her a little brother,
I'll be right by. She walks out of that door, and her
mother's worst nightmare came fucking true. She met you. Robert made it pretty
clear that he didn't give a damn about Naomi's mom or two brothers. It
was only after the detective offered to help Robert that he was willing to talk.
In other words, Robert's only concern was himself. All is not lost.
I'll help you through because we're gonna talk about it just right now.
I'm your only saving grace. What kind of shit it looks like a twelve
year old kid? Then we want to put you to fucking death because I
need something for sure, right, I mean, I don't want to spend
the rest of my life rude. After several hours of interrogation, and only
after the prospect of getting something for himself came up, Robert finally said something
that was basically a confession. He asked the investigator if there was something in
Naomi's mouth when she was found, and indeed there was. The forensic team
found candy in her mouth, and that information had not been released to the
public. It was something that only the killer could know. Did they find
the candy in her mouth? Yes? Yes? What was it? Candy?
Dog? Can? I have no idea what his notions in the can?
In asking this question, Robert revealed himself as the killer. But why
did he ask it? Of all the things he could say or ask,
why bring up the candy in Naomi's mouth. For investigators, this question represented
the twisted and evil gratification that Robert had in what he had done to Naomi
in any case. After revealing himself as the killer, Robert then went to
spin a story about how Naomi died. According to Robert, on the day
of the murder, he ran into Naomi in the parking lot of her apartment
complex, and she unexpectedly started to flirt with him. Say she likes your
shoes. Thanks the shoes. That well, where's Long's long? She said?
And I come in and that's all I know she should come me.
I'm making to the door. She's on top of the stills, and I
tell her to go back home. She stands there and she's why can't I
come in? Why can a constant? Because you can't, you don't need
to be open. She stands there and she's making gestures to Mike. Can
she come in? Can she come in? I said, no, you
can't come in. She coming on to you a little bit trying to Robert
explained that twelve year old Naomi made very aggressive sexual advances towards him, something
straight out of penthouse letters. If you can imagine that and remember that reference.
He said that this twelve year old girl insisted on going into the apartment
where Robert stayed with his girlfriend. And she's making gestures, sexual gestures,
like what ken she seen the deep? She can handle the deep? And
at this time it's when she didn't grab my deep, but she grabbed it
like my shirt about it, I'm my shirt and I she was trying.
She's keeping on, keeping on even if you ain't trying to do nothing.
And maybe she was just talking. She to see if she could see my
d I don't know. That didn't show her to me, right, because
that's what every preteen girl wants to see. A forty year old man's penis
sure. Of course, Robert's telling of these events was no more believable than
his ridiculous note on the car story, But the fact that he was lying
wasn't the worst of it. The worst part was the fact that he was
trying to blame the murder victim, a child, for what happened next.
According to Robert, when Naomi refused to accept his rejection of her, he
decided to strangle her. Because that makes total sense. Before I realized I
choked her out. I'll just choked her out around me, and I said,
I didn't bring meaning for it to happen. I didn't mean to do
it, said, I thought she was just they had just blacked out.
But I choked her very damn good, to the point where she wasn't breathing.
Robert claimed that he didn't intend to kill Naomi, and as expected,
he denied raping her. Once again, we have a case where the bad
guy is willing to admit to murder but won't admit to raping his victim.
Weird, all this stuff like no, she didn't have no bottoms and stuff
like that. I don't know nothing about that. I didn't do anything too.
Essentially, I gotta say, I mean I choked her out. Yes,
I'd admit that I did choke her out, but I didn't know.
That's why I did. I have six with her my car. I didn't
do any of it. Robert denied raping Naomi, and surprisingly, the prosecutors
in Escambia County never sought rape charges against him, so he will say definitively.
If Naomi was sexually abuse in the time frame before or after her death,
it's possible that prosecutors were unable to prove that Naomi had been raped,
but it's also possible that they didn't feel like they needed to. Perhaps they
didn't want that information to be made public if it wasn't necessary to do so.
But legally speaking, that wasn't the most pressing issue. Robert claimed that
Naomi's death was an accident. If a jury was convinced of that, Robert
could be convicted of second degree murder or even manslaughter. For prosecutors and Naomi's
mom, that would be devastating. They wanted a first degree murder conviction and
a death sentence. I just want them to give him the death penalty.
That's what he deserves, and that's the major part of it getting justice for
Naomi. The case against Robert Howard took two years to go to trial,
and in the end, Florida prosecutors were not able to obtain a death sentence.
They did, however, convince the jury to return a first degree murder
conviction, and Robert was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
In many ways, Robert Howard is an unremarkable rapist and murderer. He
was terrible at covering up his crimes, and he was one of the worst
liars we've ever come across, meaning that he sucks at it. He's really,
really, really bad at it. For detectives, this wasn't exactly a
difficult case to close. But if there's anything about Robert that does stand out,
it's his ability to trick the people around him and convince them that he
was just a normal, decent and trustworthy guy. I wouldn't suspected Robert,
never would have. Those who know Robert Howard describe him as an athlete from
Brutin, close to his family. He ran track and everything he ran football
tillback you ran tracked. But why shock in the small town. Howard is
a known sex offender who spent fifteen years in prison for a rape case in
nineteen ninety nine. One of the victim was my cousin. One woman said
she is related to his first victim, and everyone admits that they did not
believe her at the time. Now they wish they would have listened. I
didn't want to believe he did, but you know they was accusing him of
doing Robert Howard was clean cut, athletic and carried himself with modest confidence.
If you were only able to look at him and were forced to make an
assumption, you'd probably think he was a normal dude that had his life together.
Robert also spoke well and always seemed genuine with his politeness. He was
universally accepted into every social setting around him. As for the people that knew
him best, specifically the women he was dating, Learning that Robert was a
rapist and child killer was a hard pill to swallow, so hard in fact,
that his secret girlfriend Yolanda, refused to accept it even after Robert confessed.
So he confessed to doing this. Yes, I just find him hartfully,
just simply because of the way he acted towards me. He's always been
very affectionate, like he was very sweet, very sleep very charming. He
was always like that. So you know, even then, I didn't I
didn't believe it then. I don't believe it now. I just can't see
him raping anybody. That's what I'm saying, you know, with the psychopathic
sociopath mentality. I mean, sometimes people can act like nothing's wrong and going
with my my wife's and daily activities and you would never know. I said,
I've been going over it and over it in my head, and I
just don't what did I miss or how did I miss it? Or?
As for Robert's girlfriend, Lauren, who was the mother of his one year
old child at the time, the news that Robert had murdered a twelve year
old girl didn't go over well, and in that's that's your fault. You
just believed you took what he said at face value because he seems very very
indeligent and very whine and well mannered and well spoken, and you're taking at
face value. I'm sorry, I'll be sorry, I'll be sorry popping like
that. Of course you can't feel, you cannot do. Do not take
any kind of blame, blame yourself. I mean, because like I said,
sometimes we think we know somebody we really don't. And he has you
fool, said he had us. How long it take us to get here?
A week? He had a lot of people fool, not just you.
He had there very fool. Of course, no one in this story
has been more devastated by Robert's actions than Naomi's mom. To this day,
Shantara Hurry continues to wonder who her daughter would have become had her life not
been so tragically stolen. On April fifteenth, Naomi Jones would have celebrated her
fourteenth birthday. Okay, yeah, this is one of my favorites. Her
mother says, she would have been a rising eighth grader trying out for the
cheer squad and learning how to drive. It's so hard and I don't know
how I'm doing it. I just think it's the grace of God to be
honest. Instead, her family now holds onto the memories they had with her
for twelve years, the girl full of life who loved Hello Kitty and dreamed
of becoming a nurser doctor. Like when I'm preparing plates, will prepare plates
for three kids. That's like the hardest thing to you know, man,
man, Naomi and Jade, and come on, it's time to go.
I still do that all the time. It goes without saying that the story
of Naomi Jones is a sad one. It's heartbreaking. It's depressing not only
because of the young life that was lost, but also because Naomi's story reveals
a harsh truth about the world that we live in. And it's a truth
that Naomi's mom understands too well. Just because you have a neighbor, if
you live in an apartment complex, and just because you see them in passing,
it doesn't mean that you can trust them. Naomi's mom has a very
specific message about trusting neighbors and being wary of people that you frequently see in
passing. Frankly, it really sucks that this poor mother has to go around
and make people aware of stranger danger. But that is the world that we
live in. Even more depressing, the story of Naomi Jones is a grim
reminder that no matter how close we become to someone, and no matter how
well we think we know them, we may not know them at all.
Robert Howard is a complete sociopath, a pathological liar, a rapist, and
a child murderer. Yet nobody around him, not even those closest to him,
saw the danger that he posed. Despite his violent criminal past and not
one but two rape convictions, Robert was still able to mask the monster that
he is. In fact, there was a moment in time that perfectly illustrates
just how good he was at doing this. After Robert murdered Naomi, and
before he dumped her body, he drove from Florida to Alabama toward his job.
Before arriving there, he made a stop to visit his secret girlfriend,
Yolanda, who was in distress after having just left the funeral. Yolanda sat
in the passenger seat of Robert's car and shared her grief with him. Robert
consoled her. He was her shoulder to cry on as she cried. Robert
smiled, wiped away her tears, and told Yolanda that everything would be okay.
All the while Naomi's dead body was lying in the back seat of his
car, hidden under a raincoat. Robert didn't visit Yolanda to help her.
He didn't care about her feelings or have any real interest in helping her through
a difficult time. The reason Robert went to go see Yolanda that day was
because he wanted to establish a false salab He tried to use a woman's grief
to protect himself while the corpse of his twelve year old murder victim was in
the back seat. Robert Howard is a monster, and his ability to hide
that fact was almost effortless. All it took was a raincoat and a smile.
Hey, he took out the tons of new merch at stored dot swordscale
dot com. What's up now, go look at it? Stay safe any
nights, just just thing out I was just listening to your shows yesterday and
people pitching out of us, and I just think that it's so funny when
you let it out on the air floors. And I'm just always curious,
like if you've ever like recorded a three minute pitching susion at us and then
your editors are like, maybe a little bit too harsh today, Mike,
and then you have to like redo it. Maybe not either way, love
the show, love you, and uh, keep it up, keep fiching
at us. I kind of enjoy it. I laugh. Anyway. Let
me answer you a question, Danielle. It happens every week. Fucking such