Speaker 1: Sword and Scale contains adult themes and violence, and is
not intended for all audiences.
Speaker 2: Listener discretion is advised.
Speaker 3: This man has came in and told my foundation doll
what I helped built. I feel like it should be
an eye four I and a lot of things would
change in this world.
Speaker 1: On Friday, December eleventh, twenty fifteen, could Jvi a globe
got up and immediately started getting ready for work. She
was nervous but confident. That day was her interview for
a new position at work. She could barely hold in
her anxiety, so she called her sister Friday.
Speaker 4: Morning around seven twenty. She faced timed me. We were
discussing her hair. She just got to them that night.
It was fresh new.
Speaker 1: They talked for a bit and it helped. Then she
headed to work. At the start of the interview, she
was still a little nervous, but forced a smile. By
the end, when her boss offered her the position, she
couldn't have smiled any bigger. Her hard work had paid
off all of her coworkers through her going away party
and bought her balloons. At the end of the day,
she wrote a little message to her work friends on
the desk she wrote goodbye. After work, Kajavia was dying
to share the news, so she visited her aunt before
going home. No one saw.
Speaker 4: Her again about will Am. Her living work friends caught
me to let me know that she was missing.
Speaker 5: Now, is this rare that she would not return home
for the night.
Speaker 4: No, she always come home.
Speaker 5: Did you try calling her own book?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 5: Didn't this globe for turnacal?
Speaker 6: No?
Speaker 5: And is that unusual?
Speaker 1: Very Kajavia lived with her boyfriend John Black in his
house in Lakewood Village. When she didn't come home, he
was worried and called her sister to let her know.
It was the early morning hours of Saturday, December twelfth.
She hadn't been missing for long enough to report her.
Speaker 4: I got the call she was missing around twelve am.
I knew I had to call the police about one
o'clock in the morning, but it wasn't long enough. I
knew he Jack was going to turn you around because
it wasn't your own order. The police station was going
to turn you around because she wasn't gone long enough.
Speaker 7: In other words, they weren't going to act on it
if she was only gone for an Hour's what you mean?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 8: And you knew that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Kuldjavia's sister walked into the Detroit Police department at
noon the very next day and reported Kajavia in her
car missing. She'd been missing for less than twenty four hours,
but her family had already waited long Enough's sister insisted
that she wouldn't just leave. Someone must have done something
to her. The police filed the report and even reached
out to the news media to spread the word. The
nightly news that Saturday was filled with pictures of Kajavia
and her two thousand and three gold Chevy Impala.
Speaker 6: And if anybody has any information on missing Kajavia Globe,
please call Detroit Police. You can remain anonymous and we'll
have much more on this family and their search coming
up on Action News at five o'clock.
Speaker 1: After filling the missing person's report, her family sprang into action.
They called relatives and friends, They went out to hand
out flyers and searched the streets for themselves because they
feared that if they didn't look for, no one else would.
But they weren't the only ones looking. Early on December fourteenth,
two days after reporting Kajavia missing, someone called nine to
one one Detroit nine.
Speaker 9: The address of the emergency.
Speaker 3: I don't know.
Speaker 10: I listened to the news. They says young ladies missing.
There's been a car on my block a Keeler and Sinkle.
It's been there for like all day yesterday and I'm
the only one to live on the block. That says
gown a corner. He could have company, but it looks
kind of suspicious. I don't know if this uh is
suspicious or not, but I think the police should come
and check this vehicle out.
Speaker 9: He said, Man, is this an abandoned vehicle or have
you seen the missing person that you saw this?
Speaker 10: I seen a girl missing of something and I did
notice this car disappear from nowhere. And I don't know
if it's related or not, but I'm thinking maybe the
police can find out.
Speaker 1: The caller couldn't have been any clearer. She saw a
suspicious car resembling the one from all the news reports
about the missing woman. It had been sitting at the
end of her block for over a day. She just
wanted the police to come and check it out, but
the dispatcher acted like she didn't understand.
Speaker 10: Okay, acting on the corner Keeler and Finkle, and I
know this young lady came up missing off telegraph. I
don't know what kind of car it is, but I
I'm ma'am.
Speaker 9: Now, huh, I understand that you said there's an abandoned
vehicle at the corner of your block. My question to
you is, what does that have to do with the
missing young lady.
Speaker 10: I don't know. It just s looks suspicious to me
that their car is there and I've never seen it before.
Speaker 9: That's fine, the abandoned vehicle. We requested for that, but
I'm try to understand where does the young lady come
in at uh.
Speaker 10: I don't know. I make you said, because telor I
didn't wanna go up close to it. But they say
she has some kind of impala come goal and in
the car looks like it's like a d a Tannish okay.
Speaker 9: Pannel with oldish color. So what you're saying looks like
the car that they described on television.
Speaker 10: I'm kind of ignoro when it comes to cars, but
I know which Tannish goal and and and it disappears there,
and I know, I know I lived near the telegraph
and I'm just kind of like, you know, I don't
wanna walk around the car and bring no attention about that.
Speaker 9: Oh, I'm ma'am. Take a deep rest.
Speaker 1: I mean talk about hating your job. I get it.
A lot of people don't like their job, but you're
kind of doing something important, Lady. Maybe a career in
the DMV or the local post office would be more appropriate,
better suit it for this Black Karen than a job
where actual human beings are physically at risk. Maybe the
only people who have actual empathy should be hired for
these jobs. But who the hell am I to say?
The caller had done the math a gold car, an
empty block, and a missing woman. You don't have to
be elon musk to figure it out. I mean, maybe
these things are related, but maybe they're not. Either way,
it's the cops job to figure it out, not the
person reporting it. But somehow the dispatcher couldn't or wouldn't
connect the dots.
Speaker 9: Take a deep breath for me, because you're talking really
fast the fragments, and I'm trying to understand what you're saying.
Speaker 1: Apparently that seems to be a challenge.
Speaker 9: So what you're saying is that you heard this on
the news, you looked outside yesterday, you saw this vehicle,
and it matches the vehicle that you heard on the news.
Speaker 10: I didn't look outside. I mean, it's just like I
was outside in the morning, like I'm outside every Sunday,
and I noticed this car that has been there all day,
and I baked out the window today and it's still there.
Speaker 11: And I have no.
Speaker 9: Idea he looked out. You looked outside and you saw
the vehicle that you believe has something to do with
what you heard on the news. Is that what I
understand it is that what I'm understanding you to say.
Now it could be.
Speaker 10: Because it's in front of abandoned house and that's all
the land as homes with my block, and there's only
one resident and I know that's not his car. So
that's what I'm saying. It's like, this is there and
there's no homes here occupiably other than mine and the
guy who's down on the corner unless he has come.
Speaker 9: Now you're going a mile a minute again.
Speaker 10: Okay, I'm sorry from wasting your time.
Speaker 9: You're not wasting my time. But man, what.
Speaker 10: Happens happened at That's why people.
Speaker 11: Don't like to call.
Speaker 9: I'm trying to under sustain it, don't mask it, don't
matter no, Okay, what happens happened when Detroit.
Speaker 10: To shoot happens all the time.
Speaker 1: In Detroit, shit does happen all the time. That is true.
In twenty fifteen, Detroit citizens had been battling urban decay
for decades. It was a vicious cycle where fewer people
meant less money. Less money meant fewer businesses invested in
the neighborhood. With fewer businesses, there were fewer jobs, so
more people would move away, taking their money with them,
so on and so forth. Abandoned buildings and homes were everywhere,
especially on the West Side. There were whole streets of
empty homes with sagging porches and boarded up windows. With
over one hundred thousand abandoned structures, the city couldn't keep up,
and those that remained in these neighborhoods paid the price. Brightmore,
where the car was found was one of the hardest hit,
with something like thirty percent of all structures abandoned. Vacant
lots became illegal dumping grounds, and unoccupied homes became hubs
for criminal activity. Two years earlier, the city filed for
bankruptcy and lost nearly forty percent of the police force.
Now neighborhoods on the West Side had high poverty and
crime rates, with little police presence and slow response times.
This led to rampant crime. Of course, the good people
left in the community rarely talked to the cops because
of distrust for authorities and fear of criminal retaliation. And
even when they did, even when someone tried to help,
the system was stretched so thin that the police didn't
realize they had already gotten a nine to one one
call about Kajavia's car the day before.
Speaker 11: I just saw a news reports about the young.
Speaker 12: Shatama Chatham. Yeah in single Yeah, one block the north
of Flint Finkeel, the young lady that was missing. Okay,
says O three Golden Pellar.
Speaker 9: You said, the young lady that was missing.
Speaker 11: See, I just saw a news report. I saw the
car earlier today. I'm doing a job on that street
and as far as on the that would be the
west side of Chadow Man. You know, everything is taking
on that side, so it was odd. And then I
just saw the news report. So I rode by to
check the license plate on the car, and that's the
car AFF nine six. Okay.
Speaker 9: Now I'm not familiar with what's going on. So I
just saw it.
Speaker 12: Say no, no, no, I can Okay.
Speaker 9: They're talking about but what is this incident about?
Speaker 12: A young lady's missing they're looking for and what's does
car got to do with her?
Speaker 11: This was the car she was last seen driving.
Speaker 9: Okay, so I need to know the exact location that
was there?
Speaker 11: Okay, shadows one block north of Sinkle's right there, like
near the corner. Anyway, I'm gonna put this request there, Okay,
all right?
Speaker 1: The caller had to explain it three times? Is it me?
Or do you not need a basic ged to get
a job as a dispatcher in Detroit? Is every dispatcher
in Detroit completely fucking retarded? Seems like that's the case.
Then the dispatcher submits a request. This is a report
about finding a missing woman's car. This shouldn't be a request,
should be a priority. Should get off your ass. This
call wasn't being taken seriously at all. It's unclear why
this call didn't get any attention. Maybe it was a
shift change, Maybe it somehow just got lost in the shuffle.
Maybe they didn't have an officer to send her. Maybe
they just didn't give up. Fuck Kajavi's family didn't know
a call had already been ignored, but they didn't have to.
In their neighborhood, they learned not to count on help
that may never come. Their loved one had been gone
for too long, and they weren't gonna wait for police
to find her.
Speaker 13: We're gonna be out here every day until we find her.
And whoever got our sister, your best bet. If you
believe in God her, if you love yourself, send our
sister home. Send our sister home, because God ain't sleep,
and please believe it ain't. None of us got no
sleep either, and we ain't getting none until you come home.
Speaker 1: Kajavia Globe was last seen on the afternoon of Friday,
December eleventh. She had just gotten a promotion at work,
celebrated with balloons and goodbyes. After work, she visited her
aunt to share the news. That night, she never came home.
Her car was spotted two days later on Sunday night,
but police never responded. Monday morning, another call came in.
This time officers were dispatched, but when prepared for what
they would find, officers finally arrived at the corner of
Chatham and Finkel on the morning of Monday December fourteenth,
with no real sense of urgency. It was an hour
after the nine to one one call put it that way.
Dispatch never even mentioned the possible connection to a missing woman.
Speaker 5: The area where this vehicle was located. What kind of
area is this?
Speaker 7: A lot of It's a large field, a lot of
vacant homes. There's probably a handful of occupied homes in
that area.
Speaker 1: The gold car was parked at the end of the
block in front of a vacant house. The street was
filled with empty lots and unoccupied homes in disrepair. Only
a couple of families actually lived on the street. The
officer arrived and followed procedure running the plate number through
the system.
Speaker 7: The license plate was Adam Frank Frank nine.
Speaker 1: Six AFF nine two six Kajavia's plate number, just like
the ignored nine to one to one call set. The
first caller had already given them the plate number. They'd
had a chance to find her and missed it. While
waiting for the licensed plate search to come back, he
walked up to the car and looked inside.
Speaker 7: Looked in through the window. I answered a purse on
the front passers seat. Balloons were in the back seat.
I observed red drice mirrors that appeared to be blooded
in the center council cup.
Speaker 1: Her purse was still on the seat. The balloons from
her promotion party hovered silently in the back. It was
Kajavia's car and there was no sign of her, but
the blood in the car made the situation a much
higher priority.
Speaker 14: As we recovered the vehicle, there was evidence of foul play.
Speaker 1: It proved something had happened to her. Kajavia could be
somewhere hurt or worse. This was no longer just a
missing person's case.
Speaker 6: So many loved ones out here for Kajavia, who again
many call Nucy, including her sister here Tracy. Tracy, let
me ask you, first of all, what are police telling
you at this point?
Speaker 15: Uh?
Speaker 13: Pretty much. They're telling us that, yeah, they're searcheen for
you know, we all came out to do our search.
But they have the state police coming out, they have
other Detroit police coming out. They also have the K
nine unit coming out as well, So we don't wanna,
you know, mess up their investigations, so they want to
get theirs done first. And then they said, we're more
than welcome to you know, begin our search.
Speaker 6: So this what you guys are gonna do? You see
we waiting.
Speaker 16: This is a really rough area and somewhere we wantso
said would never come. It's a lot of wooded areas,
it's a lot of outside areas.
Speaker 3: We just want to look and.
Speaker 16: Make sure nothing no blood, no no stone unturned turned.
Speaker 1: The police started searching the immediate area. They searched in
all directions for blocks. They even searched the banks of
the Rouge River. Meanwhile, sanitation manager got an unusual report
a few miles away.
Speaker 5: Now, were you alerted to something by one of your
drive yes?
Speaker 17: Money, okay?
Speaker 5: And do you know about what time?
Speaker 18: That was maybe about nine thirty a years and what
were you alerted that there was a body in one
of the containers that he serves.
Speaker 1: You'd never gotten a report like that before. He immediately
drove over the Fielding Street between Kiptford and seven mile
uh went.
Speaker 19: And h researched the information I got, checked all the
cans to make sure there was no body.
Speaker 1: He walked up and down the street, checking every trash
can on the curb. He didn't find anything. But as
a city employee, he wasn't allowed on private property. So
if the trash can was next to the house. He
couldn't check it.
Speaker 11: You know.
Speaker 19: It kind of stuck with me, and a few hours
later one of my drivers got sick and went home,
so I got on his truck and finished what finished
his route, and we distilled on my mind. I saw
the police over on Chatham, and I happened to stop
and talked to one of the officers and tell them
about the ordeal.
Speaker 1: I just went through the sanitation manager, stumbled upon a
large police presence and relayed the report of a body
in a trash can with evidence of foul play and
Kajavio's car. Officers and detectives were sent to Fielding Street
to look around. Fielding Street looked a lot like Chatham.
The few homes on the block were run down and
most were unfit to live in. Yards were full of
rotting leaves and fallen branches. There were only a handful
of families left on the block. There was one house
in particular that stood out one eight five four one
Fielding Street was an abandoned home, long since boarded up,
but behind it was a city issued trash can.
Speaker 20: We got a direct to the backyard by Detective Shade
worked in harmsize section. We'd get back there and by
indicated earlier backyard that is heavily laden with the fallen
leaves debris.
Speaker 1: Behind the little yellow house was a one car garage
that somehow seemed in better shape than the house. Next
to the garage was a large pine tree. At the
foot of that tree, covered in branches was a trash can.
Speaker 20: We got pointed to a City of Detroit Corbeille dumpster,
which is the dumpster that you put in front the
Alphager weekly trash. In front of the dumpster, there was
a pile of branches, tree branches that did not follow
that they were placed there.
Speaker 1: He called it a dumpster, but really it was your
typical fifty five gallon trash can with a lid, a handle,
and wheels.
Speaker 20: Inside the dumpster, it was the body of a black female.
Speaker 4: She appeared to.
Speaker 20: Have on a red or orange tight sweater. Around her
neck was a Retto orange different Colorado orange rolle, and
she appeared to be news from the waist down. There
was a pair of tan boots inside the dumpster. I
couldn't doubt they were on her feet or just next
to her feet.
Speaker 1: Inside the trash can was the body of a young woman.
She was nude from the waist down. She was put
in the trash can knees first, with her legs folded
behind her. On top of her was a bag of trash.
Speaker 20: Top of the body that there was a plastic bag
which appeared to contain some.
Speaker 5: Fiber field material. On the outside of the look at
a dumpster.
Speaker 20: There was a small quantity of what appeared to be
human here.
Speaker 1: The missing person's case became a homicide investigation, and detectives
quickly drew some connections between Kajavia's history and the location
where her body was found. When her family reported her missing,
they gave the police a list of names. Some were friends,
some were family, but one was her ex and his
name was Maxwell Brack. The police interviewed him early on
and he answered all their questions. It wasn't evasive, he
never asked for a lawyer, and he seemed to be helpful.
He admitted to having sex with Kajavia just days before
she disappeared, even helped her family hand out missing flyers.
He seemed genuinely concerned about her. That is until the
police found a body across the street from his current
girlfriend's house. So they got permission from her to search
it well.
Speaker 20: There was plastic bags, clear plastic bags similar to what
was in the dumpster. In the basement. There was the
I guess a fiber material that was similar to what
it peu to be at a plastic bag.
Speaker 5: Inside the dumpster.
Speaker 20: There was some article of clothing that we collected and
collected plastic bags, the fibroom material we saw on the
base that latex gloves, some clothing in.
Speaker 1: The trash can on top of Kajavia, detectives found fibrous
material like the stuffing of a pillow. On the rim
of the trash can were what looked like human hairs.
Across the street, they found what seemed to be the
same kind of stuffing along with dog's hair. They also
found some similar trash bags and suspicious Latex gloves. And
the time since Kajavi had gone missing, Maxwell appeared helpful
and concerned, but just the day before the police found
her body, he moved out of his girlfriend's house. Other
detectives were digging into Kajavia's financial records now that it
was a homicide case. Her debit card was used at
an ATM after her last known sighting. When detectives viewed
the camera footage from the ATM, the case took a
bizarre turn.
Speaker 21: To your mask of skeleton. Basically, it's very unique hoping
that some of the public can identify or know someone
who has that mask. Oh, this is a heinous crime
and we want to get this suspect and custoder.
Speaker 1: A man driving Kajavia's car and wearing a Halloween mask
of a skull used her debit card and pinned to
withdraw five hundred dollars the night she went missing, and
the ATM photo released to the public, you can see
the mylar balloon still in the back of her car.
There's something eerie and hunting about that. The body and
the evidence found in Maxwell's girlfriend's house pointed directly to him,
but the police didn't name him a suspect just yet.
It didn't matter to Kajavia's family. They were already convinced
he did it.
Speaker 22: He was destruction from the jump, and I told my
daughter it this and that bank transaction, everything just had
his name written all over it.
Speaker 8: The death penalty, I want it.
Speaker 23: I'm gonna ask for it because if you go to prison,
you're gonna eat every day, You're gonna breathe every day.
You're gonna still live your life, and you shouldn't live anymore.
Speaker 8: It should be an eye for eye.
Speaker 1: Kajavia's family could see the light at the end of
the tunnel. Soon justice would be served, but the police
still had to prove Maxwell Brack was responsible for her death.
They processed the scene throughout the night, and the next
day they brought in Emily Shepherd, Maxwell's current girlfriend, for questioning.
It was the morning of December fifteenth, just a day
after Kajavia's body was found. She sat at a table
in a well lit room at police headquarters.
Speaker 24: Ideal fielding earlier day and or following up on an investigation.
Speaker 4: A person that was living at your house is Maxwell guy,
that's your.
Speaker 24: Big boyfriend, right, could possibly be involved in that?
Speaker 8: How long I've been dating? I'by last year in November?
Fight is usually harmony on this lage.
Speaker 24: We got a hot temper from the lad from one
to team and what would you say.
Speaker 4: A second teen?
Speaker 1: Maxwell Brack met Kajavia in high school in two thousand
and five. He wasn't very tall, only about five seven,
but he had an undeniable charm. They started dating on
and off for the next six years until Maxwell was
arrested for weapons charges and sent to prison for two years.
As soon as he got out in twenty thirteen, he
and Kajavia rekindled their relationship. Emily had been dating Maxwell
for about a year since October twenty fourteen. He lived
with her for most of twenty fifteen, staying over at
least a few nights a week, but Emily didn't know
that Maxwell was dating multiple women, five women in fact,
including Emily and Kajavia. Well, she didn't know until recently.
Speaker 4: So she texted you because she's inside your house.
Speaker 1: Yeah, what were you at.
Speaker 8: Monday?
Speaker 15: So that would have been a week from now.
Speaker 1: The Monday before her disappearance on December seventh, Kajavia sent
Emily a text. The text read, I'm in your house.
Then she sent a picture of her living room with
a caption.
Speaker 8: Second when she's a nice house, I said, I know right.
She was founded beg by sitting me to video.
Speaker 1: When Kajavia sent Emily the picture of her living room
while she was at work, she didn't let it get
to her. Her response was the exact opposite reaction that
Kajavia was looking for. So then she sent Emily a video,
a video of Kajavia and Maxwell having sex in Emily's bed.
Emily played it cool. She wasn't about to give Maxwell's
ex girlfriend the satisfaction of pissing her off.
Speaker 4: She was just like bitch dis and you know, I
guess she got mad because.
Speaker 8: I didn't give her the reaction and she.
Speaker 7: Was hoping, so she was taking me miscellaneous bull crab.
Speaker 9: That's why he eating my put.
Speaker 8: You know, had fun and that.
Speaker 4: Was that was trying to bridge a lobo.
Speaker 8: Yo guess is.
Speaker 1: As good as my But they wouldn't break up stupidly.
What kind of a woman dates a man that goes
around philandering like that? Have a little bit of self respect, ladies.
When Emily went home on her lunch break and confronted
Maxwell about the video, he said he knew he was
being recorded, but he had no idea the video had
been sent to her. He apologized and explained he was
just being petty because he and Emily hadn't had sex
in a while. He promised her that it would be
the last time and that he would never see her again.
Blah blah blah blah blah. She was still upset, but
somehow she forgave him and went back to work. I
don't get that anyway. That night she stayed out rather
than going home, probably to get even probably spread it
out a little bit.
Speaker 11: You know.
Speaker 1: She wouldn't see Maxwell again until early Saturday morning, after
Kajavia's sister started looking for her and reached out to him.
Emily was as casual as could be during her interview.
Only when the detective left the room did she whisper
to herself that this whole situation was fucked up. It
didn't look good. Her interview cast more suspicion on Maxwell,
but also on her the love hexagon aside. The police
knew the murderer had to have happened and in her home.
I mean, the body was found across the street. So
I guess there was only one question left to ask
what drovers for.
Speaker 4: Group on Monday.
Speaker 14: She had to say to Carbage out his morning to Science,
said to Carbage Alliance.
Speaker 9: Says Carbag shown last couple of weeks, I've been seen
on the side of the house.
Speaker 1: Even after all the information Emily provided, there were still
no charges against Maxwell. Kajevia went missing on December eleventh.
Her family filed a report on the twelfth. The first
nine to one one call came in late on the thirteenth.
The nine to one one call that actually got a
police response was early on the fourteenth. By the evening
of the fourteenth, the police had found her body across
from the home of one of Maxwell's girlfriends. There was
a lot of circumstantial evidence already pointing to Maxwell, but
when they talked to Emily, she provided a potential motive.
On the seventh, so four days before Kajava went missing,
she had sex with Maxwell and Emily's house and recorded it. Kajavia,
in an act of defiant jealousy, sent a clip to Emily.
Maybe Maxwell killed Kajavia because she upset his delicate balance
of multiple girlfriends and grifting off of them, something which
seems to be celebrated in black culture. At least that's
what the police were thinking. Kajevia's family and the community
could only feel let down. A week would go by
after Kajevia's body was found, and still no charges were filed,
no arrests were made. It seemed all too obvious who
killed their loved one, and they just couldn't understand what
was taking so long, So they took the streets again
this time in protest.
Speaker 15: You're not going to forget about us. You're not just
going to leave us here to find for ourselves. If
we have to, We're gonna get out here and do
it our sins.
Speaker 23: I've lost brothers in the city of Detroit, and I'm
tired of it. I'm tired of it.
Speaker 15: I have children. How could I not do something about this?
Speaker 1: They marched not just for Kajavia, but for all the
missing and murdered women across the country. The community was frustrated.
They felt the trade let down by the system. Once again.
To them, there could be no justice without an arrest.
By far, Kajavia's mother, Lashanda, was the angriest person in
the room.
Speaker 3: I feel like life is down there Joan for me
and my family. This man has came in and tored
my foundation down what I helped build. I feel like
it should be an iour a and a lot of
things will change in this world.
Speaker 1: This wasn't just Kajavia's family, this was a community. Over
one hundred Detroit citizens from the West Side and a
city councilwoman marched in chanted Kajavia had been murdered and
everyone knew Maxwell Brack was responsible. They just couldn't understand
why he hadn't been held accountable yet, why wasn't Maxwell
in jail. Well, that's where the story of the death
of Kajavia Globe takes yet another turn. The medical examiner
couldn't tell exactly how she died.
Speaker 17: Miss Glow's body was brought into our office within or
inside a garbage bin. She was placed knees first into
the bin. That was how she was placed in because
that's how her body was removed from within the bin.
Speaker 1: To conserve any forensic evidence, the police took the entire
trash can to the medical examiner. Other than the fact
she was dead, there were no other substantial injuries.
Speaker 17: There was a laceration or tearing the skin on the
left outer surface of the eye, and also there was
boozing to the labia minora.
Speaker 1: The cut on her left eye was small and superficial.
It obviously happened post mortem because it didn't bleed at all,
and her bruised labia minora most likely came from consensual sex.
She did have broken fingernails, indicating a struggle, and her
freshly stitched in weave had been ripped half off.
Speaker 17: There were no injuries to any of the organs within
the body.
Speaker 5: What about the tops of house? Did you find anything
of No, in the tops of.
Speaker 17: Houses, there was nothing that contributed to her death.
Speaker 5: Were you able to determine across death.
Speaker 1: No, Kajavia appeared totally normal inside and out. All the
medical examiner could do was say, what didn't kill her?
Speaker 11: Yes?
Speaker 17: I was able to rule out any injury to the body.
Has ruled out any natural disease processes in her body?
Speaker 5: And were you able to determine a manner of death?
Speaker 8: Yes?
Speaker 17: And what was the manners? Classified as homicide?
Speaker 1: But how can you rule a death of homicide if
you can't tell how they died?
Speaker 17: First, there was objective suspicious nature of the death. In
this case, the body was hidden from view. Second, there
was no anatomic causes of death. Third, there were no
toxicologic causes of death. Fourth, there was no reported environmental
causes that would have resulted in death, such as toxic
gases or extreme temperature changes. And then the last or
fit criteria is that there is no other reasonable cause
of death.
Speaker 1: I guess that answers that question. You can't put yourself
in a trash can after your death, but with no
gunshot or stab wounds, no blood, force trauma, drugs or toxins,
and no ligature marks. Prosecutors couldn't point to Maxwell and say, hey,
he shot her, he strangled her, et cetera. And without that,
they couldn't prove anything at all. They needed more than motive,
opportunity and suspicious behavior. Charging Maxwell with the open murder
with a case built entirely on circumstantial evidence was a
big ask. So while the police tried to strengthen their case,
the public only saw an action. The case would stall
for weeks as Kajavia's family waited for news. Details of
the autopsy reached the media.
Speaker 8: There's no doubt I know she was murdered.
Speaker 23: We getting calls about her toxicology report. We didn't even
know anything about it. It's on the news, it's on Facebook,
and we just sitting here like send us. We never
was notified by the Medical Examiner Office or homicide.
Speaker 8: No one called me.
Speaker 23: No one's ever said this is where we're at with
this case. Nothing from nothing has been nothing. I've been
on their head. I went down there and fossil complaint
on geinst the.
Speaker 1: Service Lashonda was demanding answers. She filed a complaint about
the lack of transparency and communication from the police department.
Still she waited. It took a month for the medical
examiner to release a final autopsy report manner of death homicide,
Cause of death undetermined. That didn't answer the question about
the hair, how.
Speaker 16: Did your hair come off your head if it's sung
completely down?
Speaker 1: Or the broken fingernails.
Speaker 8: It was all like she was fighting.
Speaker 25: They was all not cut chip like you fighting.
Speaker 23: You got somebody out here thinking they have got away with.
Speaker 6: Murder, is ready to help in your mind?
Speaker 8: Who's behind that mask? No, it's none, not at all.
Speaker 1: When the body of Kajavi A Globe was discovered in
a trash can across the street from Maxwell Brack's current
girlfriend's house, the case of her disappearance and murder seemed
all but solved. Maxwell had motive, opportunity and a disturbing
pattern for using women. All the circumstantial evidence pointed directly
to him, but it wasn't enough. The medical examiner couldn't
say exactly how Kajavi Ha died. She had no wounds,
no toxins or drugs in her system, just a dead
body hidden and a trash can. But investigators knew that
some methods like ciation or smothering couldn't take a life
without leaving any signs. Because there was no clear cause
of death, prosecutors hesitated and the police were forced to
press on to the family and the community. The case
stalled and weeks passed as the family waited for justice.
But then a woman spoke up, what.
Speaker 24: We were doing here, Well, I shouldn't come down. We're
going to trying to bring some clothes into the case.
Speaker 8: And that wasn't this case that this is just terrible?
Speaker 10: Is this?
Speaker 8: You know, it gets to the point that you just
need to look at the turn the TV on this articles.
Speaker 6: We are.
Speaker 26: We've been working in a lot of hours and we've
done a lot, you know, we've kind of got idea
the direction.
Speaker 24: That we're going with the going well, we just need
a little bit of help. And the fact is we're
just having been did That's why we saying that, that's
why we're trying to back out today, just to kind
of see if there's anything that we missed. And when
we talked to your husband and expressed it that there
was some information that you may have you think you
can help us.
Speaker 8: I might be want to help you guys.
Speaker 1: Tina Morale was one of the few residents living on
Fielding Street. She had seen the neighborhood and it's heyday
and watched its entire decline.
Speaker 14: And I'm mena just tell you about my neighbors that
hete my neighbors and ones I don't even know them.
Speaker 8: I know, whore ones on the right.
Speaker 11: I know.
Speaker 14: I hate going on the right. I hate goes on
the left. I deal with the ones across the street.
People are just strange to me these days. It's not
like the old days. Not like the old days. We
just had a family get together and we were sitting
there talking how we used to know every family on
the block. How many kids they head going to school
where I don't know everybody. Now doesn't happen.
Speaker 8: It's a shame. I'm scared of young people's you know.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's terrible.
Speaker 21: Yeah, young people, especially when they don't have the same
value as you do.
Speaker 4: You don't know what they're thinking.
Speaker 8: And don't think, and they don't care, and it's it's
a shame. It's a It's something I tell my son.
I said, well, I need.
Speaker 14: To look at the news because I need to know
where criminal Sorry, that's terrible and I mean, and it's
like you have to know where they are beyond the
big gid. Like I said, I have nieces and nephews
and nieces and especially in our families, mostly girl and
I'm always telling them.
Speaker 8: You have to be on your p's and q's. You
got to know what's going on in your neighborhood. You
need to know where this rapist is or what's going
on here.
Speaker 14: You have to know these things cause you guys gonna
have to look out because young girls and your victims.
Speaker 27: It's almost like if everybody had your values or you worked,
your husband work, and you're raising a family there, when
everyone around you has that same same mentality, you find
yourself it's a little easier to be social with people.
But when you don't know what people's motives are, or
you do know because you see what's going on, it
makes you just want to disconnect, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: As she watched her neighborhood deteriorate, she became more isolated.
She didn't socialize with most of her neighbors because she
disapproved of their lifestyles. She feared the younger generations because
they didn't act right and didn't seem to care about anything.
She sat on her porch in front of her picture
window and just watched her once great neighborhood become overrun
with crime and violence. That is until she saw something
that she could not keep quiet about.
Speaker 14: Oh what time was it?
Speaker 28: Something that Juli attention?
Speaker 21: It was?
Speaker 14: It was during the day, about one two o'clock in
the afternoon.
Speaker 8: And it wasn't the drew attention.
Speaker 14: Well, it was this guy taking his garbage can across
to a vacant house, it was.
Speaker 8: And he set in front of the house where some
people take.
Speaker 27: Their garbage, put it on the opposite side of the street.
Speaker 8: Right, But he kept going back and forth. And that's
what really was he dragging the garbage can over there?
Speaker 22: Was it?
Speaker 8: What was when he said he was going back for Yeah, he.
Speaker 14: Was because whatever house he was coming out of, I
didn't see what house he came out of. And he
took the garbage can and he dragged it across the
street with you know, the first time. And you know,
like I said, this is garbage can pick up there
Sunday he takes the garbage out.
Speaker 8: Because they come on to that And I sit on
my couch right there cause I got the picture window
there on and I sit and the guards.
Speaker 14: I was sick, so I'm sitting on the couch and
I'm just look out. And he came back out and
he stood there on the phone. And unally, if he
go on the phone.
Speaker 8: You just kind of notice people be on their phones
and stuff.
Speaker 6: Did you bring came back out?
Speaker 8: Did you go back to the can or yeah? I
mean he stood there next to the Yeah. Then you know,
I started doing something else and doing something in the house.
Speaker 14: A little bit later, maybe an hour or so later,
she took the garverage can in the backyard across the street.
But then the garbage can was back on the curve,
and like I said, the next day, that's when.
Speaker 8: Came here and it was like wow.
Speaker 1: Tina didn't realize what the man with the trash can
was doing until the police swarmed the next day. Still
she said nothing. Her first reaction was to mind her
own business. She didn't want to get involved. She had
seen the others testify in court only to be retaliated
against later. She held her tongue, hoping someone else would
speak up or the police would just solve the case
without her. But when the police recanvassed the neighborhood over
five weeks later, her husband convinced her otherwise, you're young.
Speaker 14: Yes, And thank my husband because he said, look, you
got four sisters.
Speaker 8: If it was your family, remember, and I said, it
is terrible. We've been talking and I was like, I
can't sleep there, and but that was awesome. Yeah, well,
I'm glad.
Speaker 24: You can't talk to us because you know this is
I just should this could be anybody I remember, and
people should step up. People should want to step up
and do everything, or something like this happens to someone
she didn't deserve what she got.
Speaker 8: Well, people are now so scared to say anything. And
he's like, look, you can't be scared. This is supposed
to be your neighborhood. How are you going to take
your neighborhood food that.
Speaker 1: You can't be scared if you want to take your
neighborhood back. Tina Morel's reluctance to come forward nearly let
Maxwell escape justice, but in the end she found the courage,
the kind that communities depend on when the system fails.
They asked her to look at this photo lineup, and
she picked out Maxwell in seconds. Her testimony transformed the case,
taking it from circumstantial evidence to direct evidence. In a
city worn down by neglect, it was the people who
stepped up, one neighbor at a time, with enormous courage
to bring the truth to light. On February sixth, twenty sixteen,
Wayne County prosecutors finally charged Maxwell with open murder. Under
the Michigan law, the jury could consider first her second
degree murder or manslaughter, depending on what the evidence showed.
They also charged him with felony murder tied to the
kill happening during the commission of another felony, specifically larceny,
since he stole Kajavia's debit card. Additional charges included use
of a financial transaction device without consent for withdrawing the
money from an ATM, and mutilation of a dead body
because of how he disposed of Kajavia in the trash can.
When the news broke that un arrest had been made,
Leshonda was, well, I'll let her tell you.
Speaker 29: So much right now. I'm just so happy, tel like
I'm gonna have a nervous breakdown. Thank you Jesus, Thank
you Detroit, thank you everybody that's helping.
Speaker 8: Thank you so much.
Speaker 29: Thank you and they got the right person.
Speaker 8: He didn't have know what to do with that body.
Speaker 29: He wanted that guy truck to pick up my baby,
and she would have been missing forever.
Speaker 25: You will pay every day, baby.
Speaker 1: Of course, she said. She always knew it was him
from the very start, when.
Speaker 23: I went in and did the missing report. From the jump,
he was the number one suspect. Baby, I knew this
straight up from the jump. When I did a missing
his name was.
Speaker 8: The first name.
Speaker 1: Lashanda was relieved she would see justice for her daughter Kajavia,
but she would still have to sit through a trial.
The case against Maxwell Brack was strong now, thanks to
months of investigation and crucial testimony from Tina Morrel. They
had all the circumstantial evidence. The body was found across
the street from his girlfriend's house, the same girlfriend that
Kajevia was battling for his affection, but the forensic lab
would provide even more evidence in the time it would
take to get to trial. Turns out the smeared red
substance on her car wasn't blood at all, but that
didn't matter because both the fiber's material and hair are
found in and on the trash can matched The fibers
and dog hair at Emily's house. But most damning of
all was the DNA found under Kajavia's fingernails. And just
in case you were still suspicious about John Black or Emily,
their DNA was not a match. Only Maxwell Brack was.
Then there was the digital evidence, like when Maxwell's cell
phone went dark right after Kajavia's body was found. The
trial of Maxwell Brack started in late August twenty sixteen.
For over a week, prosecutors laid out the evidence Kajavia's
last known movements that tangled web of relationships, the surveillance
footage at the ATM, the DNA under her fingernails, et cetera.
The defense pushed back, of course, arguing the case was
built on assumptions and circumstantial threats. They pointed to the
lack of clear cause of debt, suggested alternative explanations for
the DNA, and question the credibility of witnesses like Emily,
implying jealousy and chaos in the relationships. Maxwell even took
the stand, but he just came off as trying to
win sympathy. On August thirty first, twenty sixteen, after less
than a full day of deliberation, the jury returned their
verdict guilty of the lesser charge of second degree murder.
Speaker 18: We as the jury find him guilty of the lesser
offensive second degree murder.
Speaker 2: Okay, are members of the jury, please ride and raise
the right hand. Listen to a verdict as reported by
the board. You say up on your own that you
finally have been guilty of the lesser offensive second degree murder.
Don't say you mister poor person, and don't say you
are members of the jury.
Speaker 11: Yes.
Speaker 1: After the verdict was read, Maxwell smiled At sentencing. Lashanda
was finally able to address the court and Maxwell.
Speaker 25: He was abusive. He broke her nose. He was taking
her down. He was destroying her life. When she decided
to say good bye to Maxwell. He took her life
because she was on a road to success. She was
gonna drop that zero cause she had not found her.
He wrote, he took her bandage, and he don't care.
He ain't showed no remorse, He don't care.
Speaker 1: He killed my.
Speaker 3: Baby and she was so dumb she loved this monster.
Speaker 8: You took my baby from me.
Speaker 30: Max and I have told you a kajagon leave each
other alone, because one day one of yall can hurt
each other.
Speaker 8: He was jealous.
Speaker 30: I told Kajagon, he's jealous of you mine. You just
don't like I said, baby, he don't like you. And
look what we are today.
Speaker 31: This man has destroyed my family honor. Was gonna go
to the Navy August the third. Her mind ain't even right.
He just destroyed it.
Speaker 28: Do what I say, don't care? He don't care.
Speaker 8: That was him at the bank.
Speaker 30: I said it from day more because he had on
that man's out of care cause Lucy Fall was sitting
right in his left. A lot of stuff that the
trial was not mentioned. And I am gonna hardly kiss them, hardly.
Upset about that too. Some facts that I felt should
have been brought out. And I thank you because you
called it a couple of times. Why I was like,
I couldn't say it, but you felt it, like, let's
just dealing with this because a lot of people got
on that stand was a joke.
Speaker 5: They didn't bring nothing to the table for.
Speaker 30: This because he would have got first degree Do you
understand if it would have been ran right, he would
have got a first degree murdered because Max, No, he
did it.
Speaker 4: That's why he got them flies and didn't pass him out.
Speaker 3: I hate this man. This man has destroyed our family.
This man has took something from me that he can.
Speaker 1: Never give it back, never.
Speaker 3: And I ast you, Marciet his man life. What was
he doing out hand in society? Nothing? He was doing nothing.
Speaker 25: Nothing.
Speaker 1: Lashanda was still so angry that she wanted to go
on and on, but the judge made her stop. Even
with Maxwell convicted, she hadn't let go of the bitterness,
not just at him, but at the system that had
failed her daughter so many times. Before the courtroom doors
ever opened. She had wanted the police to act sooner,
the community to protect her better, and the whole process
to work faster. For Lashanda, no sentence could erase that
feeling that they had been left to fight alone. The
judge then addressed Maxwell.
Speaker 32: There were all kinds of demands that you were making,
demands that at times I found.
Speaker 5: Really just despicable. During this tribe. I didn't like a
lot of.
Speaker 32: The things that your defense attorney was saying.
Speaker 5: I didn't like a lot of the.
Speaker 32: Interaction between the two of you at that table. I
thought it was disrespectful. But I knew that that defense
attorney was doing exactly what you were asking him to do,
and that was put on a shelf.
Speaker 1: She went on to Sutton Smackswell to a minimum of
seventy years in prison, with a maximum of one hundred years,
and she made sure to let him know that she
tacked on the last ten years of that seventy just
for that smile, just to let him know he's a
piece of shit, for that smartness he showed. In the courtroom.
Kajavia Globe's family erupted in applause, and Lashonda raised her
arms and thanked God and justice finally served. In Detroit,
they had learned the hard way. Help doesn't always come,
and when it does, it can take a while. The
system stalls, the police miss calls, somebody doesn't get the memo,
and sometimes justice just stays locked behind closed doors. But
not this time. It wasn't the detectives who found Kajavia's car.
It wasn't the police who brought her home. It was
a sister who refused to wait, a sanitation worker who
wouldn't ignore a report, a neighbor who stopped watching from
behind the glass and spoke up. Justice didn't arrive with sirens.
It was dragged forward by a community that refused to
be ignored by people who made noise when the system
stayed quiet, by a mother who vowed her daughter's name
would never be forgotten. And in that courtroom, Shonda raised
her arms. It wasn't just her family's victory. It was
a triumph for everyone who refused to look away. It
was a triumph for justice. Before I leave you here,
I just wanted to take a moment to say thank
you to everyone that's reached out. Some of you have
sent me private messages saying, hey, Mike, you seem a
little angry lately. You okay, and you know, twelve years
of dealing with the worst of the worst on the planet,
we'll do that to you. But yeah, I'm fine. Thank
you very much. Guys really appreciate it. It's really nice
to you. It's really nice to some of you to
just reach out, and you know, know that there's a
human behind this whole apparatus, at least the human that
you do see. Thanks again to my team of very
talented producers and writers. This one was written by Evan Ziegelman,
one of our long time senior producers here at Sword Scale.
So we hope you liked it and we'll see you
next time.
Speaker 28: Stay safe.
Speaker 1: A reminder that if you do like true crime, there's
a whole lot more of it on our website sortinscale
dot com or our app available on iOS and Android devices.
Go get it and check out the latest episode named Wreckage,
about a nineteen year old farmer from Utah named Dylan Rounds.
It's gonna make you cry. I'll put it that way.
It's gonna make it cry a lot if you like
that sort of thing.