You're listening to the Mind Over Murder podcast. My name is Bill Thomas.
I'm a writer, consulting, producer, and now podcaster. I am now
trying to use my experience as the brother of a murder victim to help other
victims of violent crime. I'm working on a book on the unsolved Colonial Parkway
murders, and I'm the co administrator of the Colonial Parkway Murders Facebook group together
with Kristin Dilly. My name is Kristin Dilly. I'm a writer, a
researcher, a teacher, and a victim's advocate, as well as the social
media manager and co administrator for the Colonial Parkway Murders Facebook page with my partner
in crime, Bill Thomas. Welcome to Mind Ever Murder. I'm Kristin Dilly
and I'm Bill Thomas. You sound awfully chipper for a Monday. I try
my hartist for you. Whether you're actually feeling chipper or not, you're doing
your damnedest impression of a chip or sounding person. That is right. Yes,
I've been working with my students performing the crucible all day long in class.
I may as well just go for broke with this voice and take all
the vocal performances I did, and just carry it over into right now,
very Lauren becall Crucible. That's heavy stuff. Oh. I love the Crucible,
and usually the kids seem to enjoy it too, because we're hitting on
big morality issues and then it always blows their mind right at the end when
I tell them, but actually it's also about the House on American Activities Committee
and the hunt for communists, and then that kind of blows their little minds
a little bit, and you hold off on that until the end. Yes,
I hold off on that until the end. And then we do a
comparison between all the events in the Crucible and the actual events of the House
in American Activities Committee and the Joe McCarthy hearings and all that. And as
you recall, my favorite question and I always want to ask on our podcast
is are you now or have you ever been a member of the Communist Party?
And a lot of these kids, unfortunately, have to explain communism to
them, I know, And the thing is that that gets thrown around a
lot these days as an insult. Most people seem to be confusing communism and
socialism. They always seem to enjoy it once I'm able to bring in the
parallel thing and talk to them about Arthur Miller and how he was brought up
in front of Hugh act And then I throw in that he was married to
Marilyn Monroe, and that becomes the whole thing because I have to explain who
Marilyn Monroe was. And I just started feeling old. And come on,
they don't know who Marilyn Monroe is. Not a lot of them. If
you show the picture, did they say, oh yeah, I kind of
really Now for reference, I was just talking to my film class and none
of them knew who John Wayne was. Wow, I am, I'm now
it makes me feel old too. They didn't know who John Wayne was.
Now I'm really having to start from scratch with a lot of my film classes
and explain. Okay, I feel like I need to do flash cards.
This is Kerry Grant, this is Jimmy Stewart, this is John Wayne.
It's okay. I like doing that. I like educating about amazing film stars
and directors and good movies and all of that. And I like doing the
same literature, which is why I'm still doing this job after sixteen years.
I had a colleague, a coworker who worked in our Los Angeles office at
ASCAP and I worked in the New York office, and she used to insist
that I reminded her of Spencer Tracy, which she meant as a compliment,
which I thought was awfully nice. But I'm sure if I mentioned Spencer Tracy
to your students they'd be like, who what? Yeah, and just when
I hope that they would understand the reference with Katherine Heppern. They don't know
who Catherine Heppern is either, but they're going to learn we're doing Bringing Up
Baby next week. Great, So who would they know instead? Not a
lot, unfortunately, So that is the point of the evolution of cinema class.
I am educating them. So now they do all know who Buster Keaton
is, Charlie Chaplin, the Marx Brothers. Like I'm educating them, yeah,
Lily, but Charley, those are actually important people, Yes they are.
And comedy is a great way to introduce other themes, yep, and
that is why we start there and terms of their edumacation, I'm very impressed.
I would love to take your film class. Honestly, I wonder if
maybe that's something I should be trying to figure out how to put up online
and monetize or something like that. Absolutely. I am a major film buff
and one of the most enjoyable series of classes I took were film classes as
an undercrowd. We did one whole semester on the noir. We just did
that. Yeah, there's so much about classic film that I enjoy. I
like new movies too. My biggest complaint is that I feel like the current
studio and network system has destroyed motion picture as an art form. Yes,
I agree, there's a lot of television, but there aren't really very many
great movies these days. Yes, I agree. Sound off in the comments
if you guys want miss Tilly to turn her evolution of cinema class into something
we can monetize and put up here as part of the podcast, sound off,
let me know. We could probably talk about movies. You're not gonna
be able to show them, but yeah, unfortunately we can figure out some
fun. Well, if you want to do that without me, feel free,
but I would do that with you as well. That would be fun.
I cannot do a podcast all on my own because you have all the
equipment. Oh okay, do you have the red caster? There is no
way for me to record on my own. I've locked you into this partnership.
Yes, that's it. There is no way I can ever venture off
on my own because I do not own the equipment. I have told many
people. In addition to enjoying doing this true crime podcast with you, it
also means we divvy up all the work so that it's only half as much
work. There's a significant amount of effort that goes into creating a podcast,
and it's great to have somebody to divvy up the tasks with. On a
more serious note, shall we, I was going to say, I think
it's about time for the intro to be over and get into the actual meat.
That was a longer intro than most, but fun. Uh it was.
We so forgive us. We don't meander that much these days. No,
not normally, but it is. At the time of this recording,
it is November the thirteenth, and we are one month out from a event
that we were both very flattered and moved to be a part of, and
that was the Keith Call Memorial that took place on a October the fourteenth,
So one month ago. That does mean it's been one whole entire month since
we were last together in person, mister Thomas, Yeah, it doesn't seem
like it's long ago. This month is flown by. I feel every month
flies by now. I was talking to someone today who said that she feels
that once Halloween hits, they just feel like it's one major holiday after another.
Yep, We've got Halloween and then Thanksgiving and Christmas and New Year's And
I know different people celebrate whether Tonica or Kwanza or d Wali or other festival
of light, fest of us for the rest of us, or they're pagan
rituals, which all seem to be around December twenty first, These holidays seem
to come hot and heavy as we head into the last part of the year.
They do, they do, And so yeah, it does not feel
like it has been four weeks since we last such other but us, as
I said before, honored and flattered to be part of this really lovely memorial
service that was put together for Keith Call by his family and by the folks
at the Cumberland Historic Cemetery Association. Can you explain a little bit about the
Cumberland Historic Cemetery Organization. The Cumberland Historic Cemetery Organization is based in Maryland,
and it's run by a wonderful guy named Ed Taylor Junior. He's the president.
He is from Maryland, obviously from Cumberland, and they have been doing
a hundred of monuments and dedications primarily to historic figures. But you don't necessarily
have to be a president or a general or whatever to be honored by the
cemetery organization. They've made it their work to add stone where stones and markers
would not have been placed. So as they learned about historic figures, and
these can be everything from slaves to generals, a lot of soldiers on both
the Union and Confederate side. They try to highlight people who have been not
properly acknowledged in terms of their contributions. So they do a lot of things
with historic cemeteries throughout Maryland. Mister Taylor was aware of the Colonial Parkway murderers
and he took the kind of unusual step a few months ago. This probably
would have been last spring, would be my guess, because I heard about
this from Joyce Call, Canada. Keith's sister. Ed Taylor had reached out
to her and said that he was interested in finding out if the Call family
was willing to allow the cemetery organization to place a marker in his honor,
and this led to a really interesting conversation with you and I participate paid in,
which is when a person goes missing, like Keith Call and Cassandra Haley
have in the Colonial Parkway murders, there's usually never an event that marks that
missing status. You are always hoping, I think that the person will make
their way back home somehow, that they've been lost or kidnapped. I mean,
we've heard stories over the years. For the most part, missing people
either return relatively quickly or they're gone for a long period of time, But
in both examples, you're not marking their departure. Do you recall some of
our conversations from the spring I do. I remember Joyce calling and saying,
what are some of the things that we might like to do to mark this
occasion, and that we all spend some time together talking about what are the
things that we can do. Do we want to have pictures up of Keith?
Of course, absolutely, you want to have pictures up. We also
talked about do we want to have a like a memorial book that people can
write it to mark the occasion? And who all was there, and we'd
thought about that, and we went back and forth on it a little bit,
and ultimately that part of it didn't happen. But we were talking about,
like, how do we want to commemorate this, Who do we want
to speak? I did not expect to speak. I was a little taken
aback when Ed was like, we'd like you to speak, and I'm like,
you don't, because, as we all know, I am not a
fan of public speaking. But we definitely spend a lot of time trying to
figure out what do we want this to look like, both the ceremony,
the before and the afterward. How do we all want to come together afterward
and talk, and who do we want to have commemorate this along with all
of us. I was really pleased overall with the array of people who showed
up to speak and to commit memorate Keith and his life and his memory.
It ended up being a much more emotional event than I was anticipating it being,
to be perfectly frank, I was not expecting to come away from it
feeling like as emotionally wrung out as I was at the end of the day.
I don't know if that's the same for you. It was. I
know. One of the things we talked about when this idea first came up
was, first of all, Joyce wanted to consult with her brothers to see
if this was even something that they wanted to do. Ed had made the
offer, which is a very kind and generous offer. They were going to
cover the cost of creating this beautiful stone, which would be almost like a
grave mark, with the hope that this would be placed in the Call family's
cemetery plot at the cemetery in Hayes, Virginia. So in the early going,
Joyce needed to consult with her brothers. So she talked to her brother's
Chris, Doug Stephen and her aunt Lou Call. Yeah, yeah, who's
absolutely wonderful. Mister and missus Call, Richard Call and Barbara Call, Keith's
parents and the parents to the five kids. They're both gone now and they're
actually both buried in this cemetery Rose Well in Hayes, Virginia. Part of
the early discussion was amongst the Call family, and you and I were in
an advisory passage. This is certainly something they have to decide. Are we
going to accept mister Taylor's kind offer? And so they discussed it amongst themselves.
Most of the family lives in Virginia, Chris lives town in Florida,
so they talked about it, and then they circled back with us and they
said, we think we want to move forward. And then that then led
to the discussion you're talking about, which is what does this look like?
And as we were talking about at the top of this conversation, when someone
goes missing, there isn't an opportunity to have a memorial service or a funeral
because of this hope that they'll come back. When it gets to be thirty
five years later and Keith and Sandy haven't come back, you begin to get
to a place and this is a hard place to be, which is more
of an acceptance that it is not likely that Keith and Sandy are going to
walk back through the door. They're lost to us forever. So you begin
to think of this as a little bit more like a memorial service. And
even then I had to probe a little bit because again this is up to
the call family and keeping in mind that Keith and Sandy were on a first
date, but it's not like this would be a joint ceremony or anything like
that. Mister Taylor actually has extended an offer to the Haley family as well
if they would like to do something in the future, which is again very
kind. I asked, is there a religious component to this thing? Like
what does a moment memorial service, which is what we began talking about,
this sort of dedication of the stone, What does that look like and what
does that feel like? Now? In the end, this ended up feeling
quite a bit like a funeral or a memorial service. To me, it
did. We were at a gravesite, literally standing on mister and missus Call's
graves when we spoke on this incredibly rainy oh Man day, the sky's kind
of just opened up on us. It was an interesting, but emotionally very
moving experience, I think because the unanswered questions still remain here it is now
thirty five years later. One of the things that kind of needed to be
balanced out, and this is something that Joyce and Chris and Doug and I
and you had all talked about, is how much do we want to bring
up the other cases in this particular seriesly? In other words, do we
treat Keith and Sandra's disappearance as this is an event that we recognize happen and
we would like to talk just about Keith and Sandra, or do we fold
in the others as well? When You and I sat down to write our
remarks, we did this separately. I know you and I wanted to figure
out, like, are we on the same page in terms of message?
And part of that message was how much guff do we want to give the
FBI? And the answer ended up being not too terribly much. Again,
not my call, I know, not either of our calls, but we
had to defer to the Tall family. But we also needed to figure out
how do we approach the rest of this Do we also bring in Kathy and
Becky, David and Robin and Anna, Maria and Daniel, or do we
keep them separate. We ended up having additional speakers other than us, who
did bring in all aspects of the case, and so it did feel in
a lot of ways that not only were we memorializing Keith, we were also
in a way memorializing all of the other people who were lost to this series
of cases as well. One of the things that came out of the discussions,
particularly with Joyce and Joyce is the oldest sister Joyce is the spokesperson for
the Call Family. And one of the things that came out of our conversations
with Joyce, who's absolutely wonderful, is she said, we think we want
to do this in the fall, and then she got more specific as the
plans began to come together, she said, I would like to do this
close to the date that Kathy and Becky went missing. And this was very
deliberate on her part. And then she started to tell me and I think
us you participated in some face to face discussions in Virginia that I wasn't there
for Keith's passing, which obviously this memorial service, this dedication of the stone
marks. Joyce didn't want to let the opportunity go by, and she said
this directly, I don't want to let the opportunity to go by to fail
to acknowledge all of the victims in the Colonial Parkway murders. And they actually
included Brian Pettinger and Lori and Powell. So Joyce said, I want you
to talk about all of the victims. And so I said something in my
remarks about the Call family has asked me to help put Keith's disappearance and this
loss in context with what was going on back then. So we have a
celebration of Keith's life and an acknowledgment of the loss. But at the same
time, Joyce is saying, we're not letting the opportunity go by to not
continue to put pressure on the FBI and the Virginia State Police to put resources
into these cases. And she said, I'm sorry, I'm just we're not
just going to celebrate Keith and do nothing. Further, we'd be missing a
phenomenal opportunity to keep putting pressure on law enforcement. Hence some of our remarks.
I actually noticed there was a theme there. Yes, the families talked
about Keith. You and I can't really talk about Keith because we didn't meet
No no Keith. The guests, if you will, that is, people
whose last name isn't call We mostly spoke about the larger picture, yeah,
because we don't have the privilege of having known Keith in this life. We
talked about the larger loss of all of the victims in the Colonial Parkway murders
and how Keith and Sanders's disappearance fits into that overall puzzle. One of the
discussions, I went out to Joyce's house one afternoon after school for a sit
down discussion with her and one of her brothers. We sat down and we
tried to figure out, Okay, if we want to put this in context
of all of the different cases, and we do, and we want this
to be a call for renewed resources and energy and attention and all of those
things that we want. Who do we want to invite to this? And
we sat down and we created an invitation list. This is all the people
that we want to come. And we had every intention in the world of
putting together a master list of everybody in law enforcement, state and federal government
that we could think of that we could invite to this event. And we
did. We came up with a massive list. I went home and found
mail in addresses for every single person on that list, and then Ed Taylor
made sure that an invitation about this event was sent to every single person on
that list. And that list went from the governor, lieutenant governor, the
attorney general, like everybody that you can think of in state, local,
federal government, you name it, anybody who would have heard of the case.
We sent one to the current sheriff, to the former sheriff, We
sent a ton of invitations out, not just to government officials and law enforcement,
but also to the media. We made sure there was no stone unturned
because we wanted this to be an opportunity for there to be media coverage of
this case and to make sure that people are still aware this has not been
solved. There is still much work that needs to be done, and we
still need the focus to be on what can we do to solve these cases.
The unfortunate part I think at the event of being up under the tent
was I couldn't see the rest of the crowd, so I don't know how
many people did or did not make it. I certainly figure we would have
heard if the governor was there. I'm pretty sure he didn't make it.
But I was curious how many people from our master list of we would like
to show up. I'm wondering if any of them actually did show because I
have no way of knowing. There were representatives there from various political offices.
Mostly, I think in a situation like that you're looking to create awareness,
their physical presence wasn't as critical as letting them know that this case goes on,
that they're having a memorial service for Keith call on October fourteenth. There
were staff there and there was media there. It wasn't as large a crowd
as I had hoped for, but the weather was the worst I've ever seen.
Oh, it was so bad cold and driving rain was terrible. It
was horrible, just absolutely dreadful, even under the big blue tent, which
was spread out to give the family a place to sit out of the rain.
I'm putting air quotes around that, because that tent was leaking like a
sip. There was just so much coming. Oh my god, it was
awful. And there were probably fifty or seventy five people there, all with
umbrellas surrounding the blue tent, but we couldn't all fit underneath it, and
they were just trying to stay warm and dry. You're listening to Mind Over
Murder. Will be right back after this word from our sponsors. We're back
here at Mindover Murder. People told me outside the tent. I did leave
at one point and walk around while the ceremony was still going on, because
I was looking for someone. Being outside the tent with all of the umbrellas,
it made it hard to hear. Yeah, we were using a PA
system with that many people crowded into this confined space, and then all the
umbrellas, which were doing their best to bend off the rain, they were
also causing the sound to be somewhat muffled, so it was less than ideal
in terms of conditions. But we'd made a decision, Joyce again with her
call to decide are we still going to do this thing Graveside or not?
And she decided yes, we were going to do that. The weather did
not cooperate. No, oh, it really didn't. It really didn't,
Which is also part of the reason why we were doing this episode today is
we want to make sure that everyone who was not able to be there,
or who wanted to be but for various reasons could not be you're in a
different state, you're in a different country, or whatever else. We wanted
to give you the opportunity to hear our remarks, which we are going to
share with you shortly. I definitely left that service and then the get together
at Abington Church afterward feeling like a wet, rung out sponge. And it
wasn't just because it had been raining, it was it was pretty emotional,
and I had that anticipated it being that emotional because as you'd said before.
I didn't know Keith. By the time Keith and Sandra disappeared, it was
eighty eight, I was seven years old. I had no way of knowing
Keith. My dad knew the Call family, So there is that connection there.
I have no way of being emotionally connected other than through this case.
But I still found it very, very moving and rather sad. I tried
to hold it together best I could. It was very moving, an emotionally
strenuous day. I found it to be the same, and I encountered more
of an emotional response in myself than I had anticipated as well. I think
we're all so invested in seeing the Colonial Parkray murders solved, and the Call
family has been so steadfast and has worked so hard to see this mystery through.
And we're talking about over thirty five years. They've done amazing work advocacy
and creating a nonprofit organization to help their family and other families of missing and
murdered people in Virginia be properly acknowledged. They've testified before the State House,
and they have worked incredibly hard in the media and behind the scenes to try
to keep this case moving forward. I looked to them as this amazing beacon
of hope. And it was just incredibly difficult to look at this line of
people sitting there, dressed up in the front row as the rain just came
pouring down and the community came out to show its support, and it was
very sad. It's just incredibly difficult to look out at the call family and
all of their family and friends gathered around to acknowledge Heath's passing in this way.
On some level, you could argue it's over do, but I don't
know when the right time is to shift your thinking from my brother is missing
to my brother's never coming back. That's a very difficult transition to live through.
But I found it really difficult as well. I actually thought you held
it together better than I did. It was hard. Part of the difficulty
for me was also knowing how much you were struggling that day too, because
you don't normally. It's a little bit of inside baseball here for our listeners.
Bill is one of the most cool, composed, keep it together people
I think I've ever met. There have been times when I have seen interviewers
try to get a rise out of him or get an emotional reaction out of
him in ways that I don't appreciate, because that's clearly what they're going for.
Yeah, don't do that, that's not cool. Yeah, but a
lot of them do it. And actually I've done so many of these I
can hear it coming. They do it for the local news, they do
it for the national programs. It's unfortunate. I don't know why they feel
they want to see the family break down. It's beyond me. I think
what they're getting at is they're trying to convey the pain of the laws.
I don't think it's necessary, and I resist it, but it's difficult.
I've choked up any number of times because I have certain hotspots, certain hot
button, Yeah, certain hot buttons that mostly center around my family and my
parents. We're both gone now. Their reaction to losing my sister, and
I can imagine the Call family, and I never met mister and missus Call
probably went through something very similar. And certainly we've gotten to know members of
the Call family, the siblings and there aren't lou quite well over the years,
and I think their experience was similar. I was also really gratified and
moved to see and I didn't notice it when we were at the graveside service,
but I certainly saw a number of people as we proceeded over to the
church to do a little reception. I was really moved at the number of
family members of other victims who came to express their love and support, and
that, more than anything else, I think was what choked me up at
times too. I know that I did not expect to see some of the
people there that I saw. I'm thrilled that they were there. I was
so glad to see them, but I didn't expect it, and there were
times when it was like, oh, man, this is wow, because
it speaks to the bond that all of these families have together. You have
been asked to join the club that nobody wanted to in this club, in
particular, these eight families here, all of these people showed up for it.
That was very moving and touching. Keith call Memorial Remarks, October fourteenth,
twenty twenty three. Good afternoon. My name is Bill Thomas. Some
of you may know me as the older brother of Kathy Thomas. Together with
a girlfriend, Rebecca Dowski, were the first two victims in this still unsolved
Clube Parkway murders. Others may know me from the Mind over Murder true crime
podcast, which I co host with Kristin Dilly. I want to thank all
of you for being here today, a day to celebrate Keith Call, his
life and his memory. I was not lucky enough to meet Keith during his
short time here. That club, the Friends of Keith Call, is a
very exclusive one that is no longer accepting members. I am sad to say,
yet I feel that I know Keith through the love of his family and
friends, the people that knew him well and admired him the most. It
might sound odd, but I actually find Keith to be an inspiring figure in
my own life. Whether it is his love of family, a fun of
computers, or even the rock band You Too. There is much to be
admired about Keith's impact in his all too short life, and always there is
something about Keith that just makes me smile. In speaking with you today,
the Call family asked me to place Keith's loss in context, which leads me
to the Colonial Parkway murders. Keith and his friend Sandy disappeared in April nineteen
eighty eight, and their loss is considered to be part of the Colonial Parkway
murders. Now, this is a club that not one of us wanted to
be asked to join. It can be a very hard place to be the
worst part about losing Keith and Sandy is the waiting. I can tell you
that it's hard to lose one's daughter, son, sister, or brother and
wait thirty five years or answers. Just ask the call and Haley family.
It's hard for the family of Robin Edwards and David Nobling to wait thirty six
years for answers. It's hard for the family of Anna Maria Phelps and Daniel
Lower to wait thirty four years for answers. And finally, it's hard for
the families of Kathy Thomas and Rebecca Dowski to wait for answers for thirty seven
years. Last week. For many of us, words like closure and justice
seem almost alien At this point. For my family, it seems all we
are seeking is answers. To that end, I renew our call to FBI,
Norfolk and the Virginia State Police and all other law enforcement agencies involved in
this case to redouble your efforts to solve it. We need your time,
attention, and resources. Only through your continued hard work and dedication, will
we be able to have the answers we've been seeking for so long. Experts
tell us that the Colonial Parkway murders is a solvable case. Let's make the
loss of Keith, Sandy, Robin, David, Anna, Daniel, Kathy
and Becky and the families who continue to wait a priority. But thanks to
Ed Taylor of the Cumberland Historic Cemetery Organization and the members of the Call family
for organizing this memorial tribute to Keith, and to all of you for showing
that you care about Keith and all the victims of the Colonial Parkway murders.
I was there listening to you say that. I feel like I was hearing
those remarks again for the first time. Honestly, I don't know if it's
because I was an a state of fear because I had to get up and
speak after you, or what. I don't know what it was that I
was listening to that and going did he say that? The first step I'm
around that, I realize, of course you must have. I know you
did. But that was really lovely remarks. Thank you tell us what you
told us all right here in mine, good afternoon. My name is Kristin
Dilly. I'm the co host of the Mind Over Murder podcast along with my
partner Bill Thomas. I'm also a victim's advocate who's been involved with the Colonial
Parkway murders cases since twenty sixteen. I'm honored to be able to speak to
you today. Each week, as Bill and I do our research and reporting
for the podcast, we find ourselves running into the term closure. It's a
term that is kindly meant, often used after an arrest or once the case
has been adjudicated, as in what a relief Now these families have closure.
Neither of us like that word. Both of us shy away from it in
our reporting. That's because closure is anomer for the families of those who have
been murdered or gone missing. When someone is deprived of the opportunity to say
goodbye, to make amends, or to express their love a final time due
to a sudden and traumatic loss, Closure is an impossibility. For the Call
and the Haley families, and for all of those who loved Keith and Sandy.
Closure or anything close to it will never happen while these two young people
remain missing, and while their killer goes uncought. As long as there is
a hole in the world where a loved one should have been. There can
be no closure. There can, however, be answers. There can be
justice. Even after three decades, these things are possible. Forensic science and
technology have advanced to a point that hardly seem possible thirty seven years ago.
Now, minuscule amounts of DNA can be tested and killers caught. As a
result, cases older than this are being solved on a nearly daily basis.
As law enforcement invests time, attention, and resources into their oldest, coldest
cases, it is increasingly obvious that cases like the Colonial Parkway murders are solvable.
This gives me hope that soon it will be our turn. Maybe today
will be the day when answers are found. Maybe today will be the day
when the road to justice extends before us. Until there are answers, and
until there is justice, memory and friendship and fellowship remain. I hope today
is a day in which the memories of a life with Keith in it are
a comfort and a solace to those who loved him. And I hope that
this beautiful stone is a reminder of a life well lived, although it was
a life cut all too short. Answers will come for Keith, Sandy and
all the victims in this case, justice will come. I look forward to
the day we can sell write them together. Thank you very nicely done.
I was about to say this is the first time I've ever spoken out of
memorial service, and then I just realized that I'm wrong. Actually, I
had to speak at a friend's memorial service in college. I have not enjoyed
either task, just because it's so tough to have to do, it's so
painful. But I felt like when all was said and done, even though
it was a very emotionally upsetting day, I think that it went really well.
And I think that we accomplished something, if only in making sure that
there is a service that Keith's family can remember in a way in which we
were able to say goodbye to him. And I think one of the things
that the placement of the stone in the family's burial plot there at the Roosewelt
Cemetery, it gives them a place to go. This is something that several
of the Call family siblings mentioned was we never had a place to go to
mark Keith's passing, or pray for him or think about him. Now obviously
You can do those things anywhere. You could kneel in your own backyard,
or go for a walk on the beach, or go to one of Keith's
favorite places. But I think for a lot of people it's very helpful to
have a place that you can go to mark the passage of time, the
fact that you're still thinking about your loved ones. Much in the same way
you might go to mister and Missus Call's graves and place flowers on Mother's Day
and Father's Day and at other times of the year. I think the wonderful
offer from the Cumberland Historic Cemetery Organization allowed the Call family to have a place
now that they can think of as Keith's. As we talked about before,
we're hoping that at some point Keith and Sandy's remains will be located, however
small they might be, that those remains would be placed, in Keith's example,
at that cemetery plot for the Hayleys, at a place they might designate.
If we accomplished nothing else, I think that was time well spent on
a rainy Saturday in October. Actually, I think if there was any cosmic
indicator, that was time well spent. Do you want to tell our listeners
what happened when you turned on your radio to go over to the church.
I think some people who listened to the podcast know that I worked in the
music business for a lot of years. I knew that Keith was a big
music fan. And there's this wonderful video which we've seen of Keith a few
months before he died, waiting in line to see a then very popular rock
band called You Two, which is one of my favorites. I just thought
it was so wonderful. I climbed into the car at the end of this
ceremony and I turned on my satellite radio to drive over to the church,
and what was playing a wonderful You Uti And I thought, there's a nice
little sign from Keith that everything's fine and that his favorite band is playing wherever
he is. No, I agree. I thought that one was great.
And then later on, after I was leaving the church service to drive back
across the water, the exact same thing happened to me. Turn on the
car radio for a song where the streets have no Name, You Too,
And I thought, wow, Keith would love that. If there is any
sort of cosmic synchronicity out there, it was happening on that day. We
did have listeners who showed up for this memorial, and really that means a
lot to us. It means a lot to the Call family, it means
a lot to us, and we can't thank you enough for those of you
that took up the time to come out. There was a listener there who
shot video of the whole entire thing and put it up on YouTube. It
is very meaningful that this has impacted the community the way that it has.
So for those of our listeners who did show up on that day and it
just took the time to say hello, thank you all so much. It
is amazing that you're willing to show up for that, especially on a day
like that it was so rainy. We do have a link to the YouTube
video of those remarks and we will put that in our show notes, and
of course we will also link their photos from that day as well. Thank
you all so much for listening and for taking the time to listen to us
recount our remarks from that particular day. That's going to do it for this
episode of mind Ever Murder. Thank you so much for listening. We'll see
you next time. Mind Over Murder is a production of Absolute Zero and Another
Dog Productions. Our executive producers are Bill Thomas and Kristin Dilley. Our logo
art is by Pamela and Wah. Our theme music is by Kevin McLoud.
Mind Over Murder is distributed in partnership with Coral Space Media. You can follow
us on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. You can also follow our page
on the Colonial Parkway Murders on Facebook, and finally, you can follow Bill
Thomas on Twitter at Bill Thomas. Five six. Thank you for listening to
mind Over Murder.