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Speaker 1: Sword and Scale contains adult themes and violence, and is

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not intended for all audiences.

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Speaker 2: Listener discretion is advised.

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Speaker 3: He's laying here and I can't even see his head,

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and there's blood all over the place.

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Speaker 4: There's blood everywhere.

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Speaker 1: Yes, this isn't for the faint hearted, those who easily faint.

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This is episode three hundred and thirty one of Sword

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and Scale show that reveals that the worst monsters are real.

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Kennethrees was drained another long shift at the Chrysler plant

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in Detroit, another bitter February night in twenty twenty. The

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last few years had taken everything from him. First, he

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lost his wife to cancer. Now, at sixty something, he

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wore the title he never expected to have widower. Weren't

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women supposed to outlive their husbands. That's not the way

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it worked out for Kenneth. At three am, he pulled

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into the driveway of his farmhouse and Prince Michigan. The

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car ticked as it cooled. After an hour long trip home,

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he couldn't wait to lie down and just go to sleep.

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Kenneth climbed the porch steps, heavy with exhaustion, and opened

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the front door. The moment he stepped inside, he froze,

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part pounding. He yelled for his son upstairs, then grabbed

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his phone and called nine one.

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Speaker 4: Hello, do you have an emergency?

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Speaker 3: Yes, I got an emergency. I just got home from

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work and this this person's laying on my floor and

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they looked dead.

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Speaker 4: Okay, watch the address.

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Speaker 1: Kenneth stared at the mess in his living room. His son,

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Kenny McBride, had come downstairs from his bedroom. He'd only

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been staying with his father for a few weeks. Forty

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four year old Kenny was shirtless with plaid pajama pants

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and bare feet, but he provided no comfort. Kenny wasn't

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the sun, Kenneth wanted beside him in a moment of crisis.

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Speaker 4: And is it someone that you know?

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Speaker 3: No, I don't know. This is one of my son's buddies.

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I can't.

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Speaker 4: Can you tell if he's breathing?

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Speaker 3: No, I can't. Laying there, he looks dead.

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Speaker 2: Okay.

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Speaker 4: How old is he approximately?

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Speaker 3: I don't know. I can't tell. I've got the lights

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so often here in the kitchen.

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Speaker 4: Okay, are you able to lay him on his back?

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And no?

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Speaker 3: He's the goods? Did good? I mean it's bad? Okay,

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I dropped out here. I just walked in the door.

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Speaker 4: Okay, why doesn't he look like he's dead.

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Speaker 3: He's laying here and I can't even see his head,

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and there's blood all over the place.

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Speaker 4: There's blood everywhere.

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Speaker 3: Yes, I just I seen it tracking through my house.

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I need to we need to get police here or something.

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I'm I don't know what you do.

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Speaker 4: You think he's being help?

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Speaker 3: Yes?

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Speaker 1: That yes, is chilling, isn't it. The two officers from

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the Monroe County Sheriff's Department were dispatched and headed over

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to Kenneth's house. Temperance was a small, unincorporated town, the

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kind of place that had a few gas stations, some groceries,

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mom and pop shops, a doctor's office, everything you would need,

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and not much more else.

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Speaker 3: Are there we don't want to would tell if it's

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a guy, it's a girl. If it's I don't know

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where my mother in law is. She's usually laying here

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asleep on the couch. That there's blood all over.

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Speaker 4: Are you able to tell what part of the body

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of blood came from?

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Speaker 3: It looks like you're around the head.

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Speaker 4: Where's your son?

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Speaker 3: My son's standing right here. I just wove him up

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when I come in, he was upstairs.

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Speaker 4: Does he know who the person is?

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Speaker 1: No, the body was unrecognizable. Kenneth didn't know who it

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was or why this bloody person was lying in the

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middle of his living room, and Kenny, his son, stood

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there quietly, acting as dumbfounded as his father. Soon the

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police arrived. The officers on the scene were new recruits,

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young guys with not much under their belts in this

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sleepy town. They'd never encountered anything as gruesome as this before.

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Speaker 2: So they were kind of in shock when they got

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unseen there. They encountered Kenneth, who was obviously the nine

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one one collar, and they also encountered Kenny. They took

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a look into the living room, they saw a headless body,

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at which point they detained both Kenneth and Kenny.

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Speaker 1: This is Detective Sergeant Jeff Hooper from the Monroe County

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Sheriff's Office. He took the lead on the investigation. The

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officers who first arrived were not only shocked to find

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a headless body, but also the state of Kenneth's living

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room a.

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Speaker 2: Total disarray, and blood probably and everywhere in that room,

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on the couch saturated into the floor, on the ceiling

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on the railing going upstairs, and there's broken there's broken

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glass by the body, cut up pictures.

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Speaker 1: In the middle of the carpet lay a headless body.

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Next to the corpse was a broken piggybank, some shattered glass,

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and a metal baby gate that had been disassembled and

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thrown around the room in pieces. With both Kenny and

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Kenneth detained, the officers called in for help and took action.

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Speaker 2: When they were securing the scene to make sure that

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there weren't any perpetrators or other victims. On their outside

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clearing a garage, and he happened upon the head in

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the driveway.

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Speaker 1: It was dark and cold outside, but when that officer

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looked down and saw the victim's head, there was no

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mistaking exactly what he'd found.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, you could tell it was a head, I mean

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basically because the hair. The hair was super saturated with

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blood and it was actually leaning up against the truck

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tire when it was found. It also had one of

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the key things that we saw was that it had

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frost on it. It was a particularly cold night, there

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was a hard frost, and there was frost.

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Speaker 1: On the head. It was clear that the victim had

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been murdered inside the home earlier that evening, and that

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the head had not been carefully placed under that truck fire,

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but thrown with force.

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Speaker 2: So when the head was thrown out the back door,

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it was thrown twenty yards and came to rest up

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against the truck tire. And one thing that I can't

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ever forget is the head was probably thrown in the

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air about fifteen yards in that super saturated hair. It

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hit the concrete and left wavy blood impressions in the

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concrete as it bounced to where it finally came to rest.

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Speaker 1: The face was just a mess of blood, swelling and

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shattered bone, But as Detective Hooper looked closer, the truth

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became clear. The victim was a female, Her face had

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been used like a punching bag and the beating hadn't

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been enough. Whoever did this kept going right up until

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her decapitation around the body where a smashed piggybank, broken

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pieces of a metal baby gait, and cut up family

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photographs that were soaking in the victim's blood.

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Speaker 2: So at that point, having a quote unqung quote who

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done it? Or you know, possible home invasion or you know,

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we have to look at every scenario. So we reached

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out to the Michigan State Police crime Lab and had

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them come down to process the scene, which we typically

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do for larger crime scenes. That lets us the detectives

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focus in more on the interviews in a little bit

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of a smaller bit of evidence and not so much

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that forensic evidence. We as detectives started looking at Kenneth

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and Kenny, you know, wanting to talk to them, wanting

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to go through their digital evidence, their phones and whatnot,

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and that's where we started.

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Speaker 1: Three am turned to early morning. The birds were chirping,

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the sun was stretching through the clouds, and Prosecutor Leah

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Hubbard was on our way to the office.

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Speaker 5: I had actually dropped my son off at daycare that morning,

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which was located just a couple of buildings down from

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where this house was located, on the opposite side of

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the road. I saw the crime scene unit from Michigan

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State Police there, so I knew right away. We have

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very few homicides in Monroe County, not even one a year,

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do we average. So when I saw the Michigan State

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Police crime scene van there and multiple deputies as I'm

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driving to work, I know something horrific happened.

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Speaker 1: Lea knew that something earth shattering would be coming across

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her desk any minute. Back at the crime scene, Detective

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Hooper and his team started their investigation. So Kenneth was cooperative.

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His son not so much.

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Speaker 2: Oh, Kenny was very quiet, just sitting on the ground,

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you know, by the side door. When deputies came in

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as they were detaining, you know, there was a basic

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question of what's going on here, and Kenny, he said,

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I don't believe I should talk, so right off the

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git wasn't going to make a statement with the police.

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Speaker 1: Kenneth, on the other hand, was full of worry and words.

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Mostly he was concerned about his mother in law, ce

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Celia Gibson, who also lived in the house with him

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and Kenny.

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Speaker 5: My mother, I was supposed to be here.

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Speaker 3: I don't know where she is. I just come in door.

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I just pulled in from work, okay.

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Speaker 1: Cecilia Gibson, who everyone called Nicky, was seventy nine years old.

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She was Kenneth's mother in law, and she'd been staying

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with him to help him and his wife, her daughter,

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fight her battle with cancer. The arrangement had stuck passed

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her daughter's death. When police first arrived, Kenneth assumed the

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body in his living room belonged to one of his

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son's friends. But now under the cold light of morning,

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with reality pressing, he saw the truth, and so the

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detective Hooper.

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Speaker 2: So basically, in looking at pictures in the home, we

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were able to determine that that was Nicki.

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Speaker 1: The headless victim on the floor was seventy nine year

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old Nicki Gibson. Kenneth was destroyed. A group of officers

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took Kenneth and Kenny down at the station to talk

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further while the house was being processed. Kenneth was helpful

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and cooperative, while his son's silence started to take a

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new shape.

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Speaker 5: We'll can shift take care of here? Him in all

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right here?

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Speaker 3: How you gonna take care of me? How you gonna

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take care of me?

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Speaker 2: You can't talk to you?

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Speaker 3: You can't take care of me.

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Speaker 5: Well, somebody'll be in here.

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Speaker 6: To talk to you.

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Speaker 1: Kenny shifted from silence to irritation quickly. Every word the

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officer said only fueled his anger. As the minutes ticked by,

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his kurt replies twisted into something darker and much more concerning.

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Speaker 2: But he starts chanting and singing and jumping around and dancing,

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all all handcuffed in the interview room. It sounded pretty

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demonic in the noises he was making.

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Speaker 1: Kenny refused to talk sensibly. Instead, he acted out like

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someone who was in the middle of a bad acid trip,

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and according to prosecutor Leah Hubbard, he kept repeating the

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same eerie phrase.

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Speaker 5: He repeatedly screamed, its mother fucking payday.

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Speaker 1: Aside from his erratic outbursts, the marks on Kenny's body

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started pointing towards his guilt in Nikki's murder.

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Speaker 5: He had an abrasion that looked like a scratch mark

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behind one of his ears. Most significantly, on one of

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his hands. There were multiple fresh cuts on the exterior

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of his hands with the top part of his hand,

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and then when he turned his hand over there were

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different sorts of marks and red abrasions. They almost look

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like blisters. What we compared it to the most was

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if you're doing yard work with a wooden rake and

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you're using a repeated motion over and over.

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Speaker 1: A repeated motion like having to cut off a person's head.

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Speaker 5: Right on the palm of his hand, there were multiple

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abrasions that looked like, you know, excessive rubbing or some

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sort of blisters forming. He also had an abrasion of

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fresh abrasion that looked like a scratch or a fingernail

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mark on the top of his head, and then a

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large bruise on his forearm.

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Speaker 1: As Kenny McBride spun in his jail cell, hurling profanities

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and shouting it's motherfucking payday, Detective Hooper and Prosecutor Hubbard

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were left to nothing but questions. They had a crime

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scene soaked in rage, a headless grandmother, and a suspect

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grinning through the madness. They knew how it all ends.

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But the question that gripped temperance that morning, the one

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no one could let go of, was why, and that

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answer would be the hardest to find. Sixty five year

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old widower Kenneth Reese had come home from his late

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night shift to find his elderly mother in law decapitated

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in the middle of his living room. Seventy nine year

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old Nikki Gibson had been savagely murdered. Her face was

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battered beyond recognition. Around her broken body lay the shattered

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remains of a ceramic piggy bank and a metal baby

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Git covered in blood. Her head was sowed off and

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thrown twenty yards down the back driveway. Kenneth's son, Kenny McBride,

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was their number one suspect. He had been home with

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Nicky all night. Why Kenny would turn on the feeble

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seventy nine year old woman with such fury it made

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no sense. So if he did murder and decapitate her,

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that made it all the more terrifying. When police interviewed

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Kenneth the father, he explained what happened. After he found

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Nicky's decapitated corpse in his living room, he called out

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for his son, Kenny. Moments later, Kenny came downstairs. He

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was acting strange, just completely off. Kenneth had never seen

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him like this, but he knew his son had a

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history of meth abuse. Immediately, he suspected that he'd relapsed.

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He kept pressing him what happened, but Kenny stayed blank, emotionless.

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He claimed he had no idea, said he'd been upstairs

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for hours. As they waited for police, a patrol car

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sped past the house, missing the address. Kenny turned to

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his father, his voice low and eerie, and he said

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they'll be back by the time Kenny hit the jail cell,

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he was gone. Mental detachment had turned into full blown madness.

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Officers tried to talk to him, but he didn't listen,

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or couldn't listen. He just stared wide eyed and twitchy.

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Then he erupted into streams of gibberish and nonsense.

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Speaker 2: We thought that he was under the influence of some

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mine altering drug, whether that be bath salts. You know,

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because it as investigator, we've seen the basic heroin or

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math or you know this, that this had risen to

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the level that something we hadn't seen. So that's why

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we took that extra step, sending the blood out for

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the exotic things like bath salts or K two or

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any of those other designer drugs.

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Speaker 1: As Detective Hooper waited for the toxicology reports to come back,

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they got to work figuring out what had happened that day.

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Speaker 2: Kenneth had, I believe a little bit of running to

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do before work, you know, run to the gas station

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just down the road. It's probably only half a mile,

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quarter or three quarters a mile down the road. Right

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across the streets a Dollar General and then the post

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office right there. So they're all right there down the road,

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I know. They Kenneth dropped off Kenny at the dollar

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store Dollar General, where he ended up getting a one

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hundred dollars Green Dot card.

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Speaker 1: A Green Dot card is a prepaid debit card. Kenny

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purchased one and for what. Detective Hooper doesn't know, you know, he's.

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Speaker 2: There for a few minutes. Kenneth does his running, picks

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them back up, and takes them back home, and shortly thereafter,

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Kenneth ends up leaving for work.

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Speaker 1: Kenneth told the police that when he and Kenny return home,

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Nicky wasn't there. She had left with her son to

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run an errand you.

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Speaker 2: Know, and investigating a case like this, a timeline is crucial,

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and so in talking with the family members, we had

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learned that she was with her son, Billy, you know,

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dropping off a mattress at a storage place. So we

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go to the storage place, we'd get the video footage

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confirm all of that.

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Speaker 1: Nicki's son then drove the two of them back to

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Kenneth's house, where Kenny was the only one there. Nicki's

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son walked her inside because she'd been having trouble with

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the stairs lately. Kenny was in the kitchen When they

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arrived inside, Nicki noticed that a case of water she'd

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purchased that morning was missing, so she asked Kenny if

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he knew where it was. That's when Nicki's son said

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that Kenny's whole demeanor changed. He became defensive and irritated.

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It got to the point where Nicki's son suggested that

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Nicky stay the evening at his house, but she refused.

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Speaker 2: I know that when investigators talked with Billy the son,

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he was truly broken up because he wanted her to

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come with them, you know, not stay there, and so

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he was really really upset about that.

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Speaker 1: So Nicki's son left around two thirty pm that afternoon

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with a bad feeling in his stomach. But what was

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he going to do? His mother was an adult, She

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could make her own decisions, and she wanted to stay there.

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What happened in those next twelve hours was a mystery,

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and as much as Kenny had tried to cover his tracks,

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he also had left physical clues that solidified as guilt.

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Speaker 2: In investigating the bathroom, they found a bloody I believe

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it was home print that matched Kenny's and it was

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00:21:19,880 --> 00:21:21,000
in Nicky's blood.

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Speaker 5: In the bathroom where that bloody palm print was located

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was a pair of genes. They were in a crumpled pile.

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Kenneth Reas advised that they were not his genes and

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that he believed they were Kenny McBride's jeans. Those genes

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had blood kind of smeared on the front. If you

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could imagine your hands are covered in blood and you

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kind of wipe them on your size on the front

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00:21:45,400 --> 00:21:48,240
of your gens to kind of get rid of the blood.

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We found some blood present on the front of the genes.

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There was also some blood spatter located on the backside

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of the genes. DNA analysis was done on those genes

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and it was determined that the blood flocated on the

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genes belonged to ce Celia Gibson.

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Speaker 1: Then they tested the waistband of those genes for traces

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of DNA.

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Speaker 5: The inside of the waistband did determine that there was

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a mixture of DNA that included Kenny McBride's DNA.

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Speaker 1: Kenny's DNA was also found on a bloody sweater as

340
00:22:18,920 --> 00:22:21,839
well as that metal baby gate that was found broken

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next to Nicky's body. Remember, Kenny used various objects to

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00:22:25,880 --> 00:22:29,799
kill Nicky, namely a piggy bank and a metal baby gate.

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Speaker 5: The baby gate had been a fix to that wall

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for years. The baby gate was a very strong, sturdy

345
00:22:37,319 --> 00:22:42,720
metal object. It was so carefully placed on the wall

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that actually left a mark on the wall when it

347
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was pulled off the wall by Kenny McBride, So that

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would have taken some force and some time to remove

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that baby gate.

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Speaker 1: Whatever happened between Nicky and Kenny that evening had escalated

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to the point where Kenny was so out of his

352
00:23:00,440 --> 00:23:03,079
that he ripped a metal baby git off the wall

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that had been screwed on there for years. That takes

354
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a lot of force to do that. The drywall screws

355
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were pretty substantial. It's not only a test of how

356
00:23:14,599 --> 00:23:19,400
physically strong Kenny was, but the amount of psychotic adrenaline

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rushing through him.

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Speaker 5: The medical examiner testified that there were at least nineteen

359
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separate blows with multiple objects. The medical examiner testified that

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the two black eyes that she sustained were likely due

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to fists. Obviously the baby gate was used, you also

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had the piggybank being used.

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Speaker 1: He stormed through the house, zeroing in on a specific piggybank,

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one that had belonged to Nicky's late daughter, Kenneth's beloved wife,

365
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and he smashed it over Nicky's head.

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Speaker 5: So that had significant value to both Kenneth Reese and

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societ or Nicki Gibson. So we believe that was an

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00:24:03,680 --> 00:24:10,680
item potentially selected on purpose because of the significant value

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00:24:10,759 --> 00:24:12,200
it had to the family.

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Speaker 1: According to the medical examiner, this was no fight, It

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00:24:16,400 --> 00:24:21,680
was a slaughter. Nicki barely defended herself. The few defensive

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wounds she had made that heartbreakingly clear. But how could

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she defend herself. Kenny stood five to ten, nearly two

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00:24:30,359 --> 00:24:36,039
hundred pounds, hardened by years of prison workouts. Nicki was

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seventy nine, frail and defenseless the moment he attacked, the

376
00:24:41,640 --> 00:24:46,920
outcome was inevitable. Just imagine or terror, knowing there was

377
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no escape, no hope. Like a fragile bird caught in

378
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the jaws of a bobcat, she never stood a chance.

379
00:24:55,920 --> 00:24:59,559
This wasn't just premeditated, It was deeply personal, and in

380
00:24:59,599 --> 00:25:04,880
the end the beheading set at all It was Kenny's loudest,

381
00:25:05,400 --> 00:25:06,720
cruelest message.

382
00:25:07,200 --> 00:25:09,319
Speaker 5: We also proved that he went to the kitchen and

383
00:25:09,359 --> 00:25:13,559
grabbed three knives that were inside drawers. To complete some

384
00:25:13,680 --> 00:25:14,440
of the acts of a.

385
00:25:14,440 --> 00:25:19,200
Speaker 1: Saw, Kenny grabbed three knives from the kitchen, including an

386
00:25:19,200 --> 00:25:24,599
Appalachian bread saw. Any sourdough ladies out there, yeah, you

387
00:25:24,680 --> 00:25:27,240
know what this knife is, but for the rest of you,

388
00:25:27,359 --> 00:25:30,880
it's a serrated knife with a wooden bowed handle that

389
00:25:30,960 --> 00:25:33,839
makes it easy to cut slices of freshly baked bread.

390
00:25:34,440 --> 00:25:37,480
Speaker 5: It would have taken a significant amount of force in time,

391
00:25:37,599 --> 00:25:40,720
I mean, to the point where he actually broke a knife,

392
00:25:41,000 --> 00:25:44,799
broke one of the knives trying to decapitate the victim.

393
00:25:45,200 --> 00:25:49,559
He had callouses on his hand, which presumably are from

394
00:25:49,640 --> 00:25:51,119
the repeated sambers.

395
00:25:52,359 --> 00:25:57,319
Speaker 1: Kenny sat there sawing at Nicky's neck until the bread

396
00:25:57,400 --> 00:26:01,759
knife broke, then he moved on to the other weapons.

397
00:26:02,400 --> 00:26:06,599
It took hours to get through her thick flesh, the muscle,

398
00:26:06,799 --> 00:26:09,279
the tenons, and the bone.

399
00:26:09,839 --> 00:26:12,519
Speaker 5: This would have taken a lot of work to accomplish

400
00:26:12,599 --> 00:26:15,519
the completely heading and then to kind of toss it

401
00:26:15,559 --> 00:26:18,200
out the door to the point where it bounced on

402
00:26:18,359 --> 00:26:24,400
concrete and just laid there. It's unfathomable. I think it's

403
00:26:24,519 --> 00:26:27,680
very difficult for most of us to wrap our head

404
00:26:27,720 --> 00:26:31,720
around why someone would do this to another person, a

405
00:26:31,839 --> 00:26:33,720
vulnerable elderly woman.

406
00:26:35,000 --> 00:26:39,119
Speaker 1: The answer had to be drugs. Detective Hooper just needed

407
00:26:39,160 --> 00:26:44,119
to know exactly what. Then the toxicology report came back.

408
00:26:44,799 --> 00:26:48,400
Speaker 2: We did draws blood, send it off to the crime lab,

409
00:26:48,480 --> 00:26:51,480
and we sent it off to a secondary lab for

410
00:26:51,720 --> 00:26:55,519
those exotic drugs that the main lab doesn't test. And

411
00:26:55,599 --> 00:26:57,960
we came back with negative results.

412
00:26:58,720 --> 00:27:04,519
Speaker 1: No drugs, no alcohol, not an iota of any substance

413
00:27:05,519 --> 00:27:06,680
in his system.

414
00:27:06,799 --> 00:27:09,079
Speaker 5: And getting those test results in seeing that he was

415
00:27:09,200 --> 00:27:10,720
perfectly sober.

416
00:27:11,200 --> 00:27:11,720
Speaker 4: You know, it.

417
00:27:13,599 --> 00:27:14,640
Speaker 5: Kind of blows your mind.

418
00:27:15,440 --> 00:27:18,039
Speaker 2: And so that only left us to believe that it

419
00:27:18,119 --> 00:27:19,359
was strictly rage.

420
00:27:20,839 --> 00:27:26,279
Speaker 1: Rage But for what what could this sweet, loving grandmother

421
00:27:26,480 --> 00:27:29,839
have possibly done to Kenny? Surely it wasn't over the

422
00:27:29,920 --> 00:27:35,319
water bottles. Nicky was adored by her family, her community,

423
00:27:35,400 --> 00:27:39,519
and everyone who knew her. She had fifteen grandchildren and

424
00:27:39,599 --> 00:27:44,720
over twenty great grandchildren. They all loved her. She spent

425
00:27:44,720 --> 00:27:50,039
her days knitting, beating, cross stitching, and even building furniture.

426
00:27:51,039 --> 00:27:54,440
Her work was a hit at local craft shows. Even

427
00:27:54,480 --> 00:27:57,400
in her later years, she stayed busy helping out at

428
00:27:57,400 --> 00:28:02,160
a senior center, running errands and pitching in wherever she could.

429
00:28:02,759 --> 00:28:06,559
Speaker 5: Everyone described her as extremely loving. She was very close

430
00:28:06,599 --> 00:28:10,640
with her grandchildren, sounded like she showered them with gifts,

431
00:28:11,079 --> 00:28:14,400
very very close with her family at least said a

432
00:28:14,400 --> 00:28:16,400
bad word about her. Throughout the whole.

433
00:28:16,200 --> 00:28:22,200
Speaker 1: Case, people spoke of Nikki with warmth, always with love,

434
00:28:23,000 --> 00:28:26,680
never an ounce of malice. So what the hell happened?

435
00:28:27,240 --> 00:28:29,039
Speaker 2: I only can go off of the theory that we

436
00:28:29,079 --> 00:28:34,400
always had that he just snapped and beat her to

437
00:28:34,440 --> 00:28:39,759
death for some small, small reason, that he believed that

438
00:28:40,079 --> 00:28:45,079
she did him wrong, she wronged him in some way,

439
00:28:45,920 --> 00:28:46,960
that he snapped.

440
00:28:48,279 --> 00:28:51,039
Speaker 1: There were only two people in the house that night,

441
00:28:51,799 --> 00:28:54,279
One was dead and the other was in jail having

442
00:28:54,359 --> 00:28:58,359
a mental breakdown. The police had to use witnesses from

443
00:28:58,400 --> 00:29:01,839
the family and the mess of clues at the scene.

444
00:29:02,920 --> 00:29:07,680
The puzzle was incomplete, but Detective Hooper and Prosecutor Hubbard

445
00:29:08,319 --> 00:29:11,440
knew that the truth was hidden somewhere in that house.

446
00:29:12,519 --> 00:29:15,759
The answer didn't jump out at first, but when it did,

447
00:29:15,799 --> 00:29:20,839
it was obvious. Beneath Nicky's lifeless body, buried in blood,

448
00:29:21,440 --> 00:29:28,000
lay one last clue. Six photographs, innocent faces of children,

449
00:29:29,039 --> 00:29:33,039
all but one ripped to shreds. And these weren't just

450
00:29:33,160 --> 00:29:36,799
any children. They were Nicky's grandkids and they were also

451
00:29:36,880 --> 00:29:41,240
connected to Kenny. To understand why, you have to know

452
00:29:41,319 --> 00:29:46,920
the tangled story behind this family. You see, Nicky's daughter,

453
00:29:47,079 --> 00:29:51,640
Deborah Reyes, had been Kenneth's second wife, which meant that

454
00:29:51,759 --> 00:29:57,200
Nicky wasn't Kenny McBride's blood relative, but she had been

455
00:29:57,240 --> 00:29:59,920
on the periphery of his life for a long time.

456
00:30:01,039 --> 00:30:05,480
Though they were not close, she was technically his step grandmother.

457
00:30:06,240 --> 00:30:11,279
Speaker 5: Kenny McBride was a product of Kenneth Rees and another

458
00:30:11,359 --> 00:30:18,279
woman They had separated, Honey McBride primarily as best weekends.

459
00:30:18,279 --> 00:30:22,039
How lived with his mother, didn't have a super close

460
00:30:22,079 --> 00:30:23,920
relationship with his father, Kenneth.

461
00:30:25,359 --> 00:30:28,920
Speaker 1: Kenneth married a second wife, Deborah, in nineteen eighty five,

462
00:30:29,200 --> 00:30:32,599
when Kenny was about ten years old. Kenny was left

463
00:30:32,640 --> 00:30:35,799
alone to be raised by his single mother while his

464
00:30:35,839 --> 00:30:39,960
father started a new family. Kenneth and Deborah had three

465
00:30:40,039 --> 00:30:43,440
children together and remained deeply in love until the day

466
00:30:43,519 --> 00:30:48,799
Deborah died of cancer in twenty nineteen. Kenny had never

467
00:30:49,200 --> 00:30:54,279
been a true part of their family. He was the outcast,

468
00:30:54,680 --> 00:31:00,880
the black sheep, the stained reminder of Kenneth's first failed marriage.

469
00:31:01,079 --> 00:31:03,599
By the time he became an adult, he was getting

470
00:31:03,640 --> 00:31:05,039
in trouble a lot.

471
00:31:05,599 --> 00:31:09,000
Speaker 5: From nineteen ninety two on, we started seeing a history

472
00:31:09,039 --> 00:31:12,880
of criminality on the part of Kenny McBride, assault of history,

473
00:31:12,960 --> 00:31:15,960
history of felonious assault, which in Michigan means assault with

474
00:31:16,000 --> 00:31:19,480
a dangerous weapon. So he was in and out of trouble,

475
00:31:20,359 --> 00:31:21,519
you know. I remember him.

476
00:31:21,559 --> 00:31:24,599
Speaker 2: I worked in the jail for approximately six years, him

477
00:31:24,640 --> 00:31:29,200
coming in and out for various domestic issues, drug charges, this,

478
00:31:29,240 --> 00:31:32,319
that and the other, and him going to prison. So

479
00:31:32,400 --> 00:31:35,279
I think that drug use in you know, going to

480
00:31:35,319 --> 00:31:39,279
prison probably put that strain on that relationship to where

481
00:31:39,279 --> 00:31:40,119
it was separated.

482
00:31:41,119 --> 00:31:44,920
Speaker 1: Kenny had always been on the outside. A lifetime of

483
00:31:45,000 --> 00:31:49,440
bad choices and burned bridges had pushed him far from

484
00:31:49,519 --> 00:31:50,000
his father.

485
00:31:50,759 --> 00:31:56,559
Speaker 2: Kenneth was estrange from Kenny for about fifteen years and

486
00:31:56,640 --> 00:32:00,759
then all of a sudden, like six or seven months prior,

487
00:32:01,759 --> 00:32:07,720
Kenny and Kenneth trying to get that father son relationship going,

488
00:32:08,920 --> 00:32:14,759
so Kenneth allows Kenny to move in with him and

489
00:32:14,880 --> 00:32:16,680
his mother in law, Nicki Gibson.

490
00:32:17,880 --> 00:32:20,960
Speaker 1: So, at age forty four, Kenny found himself under his

491
00:32:21,000 --> 00:32:25,039
father's roof, not as a son coming home, but as

492
00:32:25,079 --> 00:32:29,359
a burden, like some wayward child, forced to tuck himself

493
00:32:29,359 --> 00:32:33,880
into a life that had gone on perfectly well without him.

494
00:32:34,480 --> 00:32:39,279
Speaker 5: After Deborah's death, Kenny McBride is the release from incarceration

495
00:32:39,400 --> 00:32:43,079
he's coming around more frequently. This all occurred during the

496
00:32:43,079 --> 00:32:46,440
COVID pandemic, and at some point in time Kenny McBride

497
00:32:46,480 --> 00:32:51,400
found himself homeless and had convinced Kenneth Reese to allow

498
00:32:51,480 --> 00:32:54,200
him to temporarily reside in the home.

499
00:32:55,359 --> 00:32:58,240
Speaker 1: Kenny and Nicky shared a deep bond forged in grief.

500
00:32:59,160 --> 00:33:02,240
He had lost his wife, she had lost her daughter.

501
00:33:03,319 --> 00:33:09,000
They leaned on one another close through sorrow. Kenny didn't

502
00:33:09,000 --> 00:33:13,039
fit into that he never had. Moving in didn't change anything.

503
00:33:13,720 --> 00:33:17,799
It only magnified how far removed he really was, how

504
00:33:17,839 --> 00:33:22,839
pathetic he must have felt watching from the outside, living

505
00:33:22,839 --> 00:33:25,400
in a house where he was little more than a

506
00:33:25,559 --> 00:33:29,680
tolerated shadow. Because he had been in and out of

507
00:33:29,720 --> 00:33:33,000
prison most of his life, that didn't just affect his

508
00:33:33,079 --> 00:33:37,599
relationship with his own father, but also his relationship as

509
00:33:37,920 --> 00:33:38,400
a father.

510
00:33:39,119 --> 00:33:42,920
Speaker 5: Kenny had two children with the same woman. She was

511
00:33:43,440 --> 00:33:46,799
a lovely lady. The kids were fantastic. They were both

512
00:33:46,799 --> 00:33:51,440
in their early twenties, very successful in college. They both

513
00:33:51,519 --> 00:33:56,519
testified during the trial he had a very strange relationship

514
00:33:56,559 --> 00:34:00,079
with both of those children. Those two children had a

515
00:34:00,079 --> 00:34:05,119
alf sibling, which was their biological mothers along with her

516
00:34:05,160 --> 00:34:07,880
current husband. He was a little bit younger.

517
00:34:08,960 --> 00:34:14,280
Speaker 1: Kenny was your quintessential deadbeat father, in and out of jail,

518
00:34:14,880 --> 00:34:19,519
on and off drugs, and living a generally selfish lifestyle

519
00:34:19,559 --> 00:34:21,599
that put his own needs above the needs of his

520
00:34:21,760 --> 00:34:27,639
innocent children. And miraculously, his children had grown into accomplished

521
00:34:27,960 --> 00:34:32,639
young adults no thanks to him, kudos to their mother.

522
00:34:32,800 --> 00:34:36,880
Speaker 5: By the way, Kenny McBride had virtually no relationship with

523
00:34:36,960 --> 00:34:43,360
his biological children. He would randomly Facebook message both of

524
00:34:43,400 --> 00:34:47,280
his children. His son indicated that he never would respond

525
00:34:47,519 --> 00:34:51,280
or even read those messages. His daughter did indicate that

526
00:34:51,400 --> 00:34:56,880
she would periodically respond. I believe it was in twenty

527
00:34:57,159 --> 00:35:05,320
nineteen that Hennis Reese's wife, Debbie, had passed away. I

528
00:35:05,400 --> 00:35:11,119
believe both the children testified that Kenny McBride came to

529
00:35:11,199 --> 00:35:14,559
the funeral. His son refused to see him and indicated

530
00:35:14,599 --> 00:35:17,880
he actually left the wake and sat in his car

531
00:35:17,920 --> 00:35:21,480
because he didn't want to have any contact with Kenny McBride.

532
00:35:21,760 --> 00:35:24,679
Speaker 1: Kenny's son made it clear with his actions that he

533
00:35:24,800 --> 00:35:28,480
wanted nothing to do with his father, but his daughter

534
00:35:28,639 --> 00:35:31,320
was slightly more receptive to giving him a chance.

535
00:35:31,960 --> 00:35:38,039
Speaker 5: Kenny McBride's daughter agreed to a meeting a reunification shortly

536
00:35:38,079 --> 00:35:42,679
before Debbie's death. She agreed to meet with Kenny McBride

537
00:35:42,719 --> 00:35:46,280
at the hospital back in twenty nineteen, and she had

538
00:35:46,320 --> 00:35:49,039
contact with him again at the wake, and they had

539
00:35:49,079 --> 00:35:55,400
been communicating periodically via Facebook. So Kenny McBride had developed

540
00:35:55,519 --> 00:35:58,599
started developing a relationship with his daughter, whereas his son

541
00:35:58,719 --> 00:36:01,360
refused to have any communication with him.

542
00:36:02,440 --> 00:36:07,400
Speaker 1: All this messy, awkward reunification was unfolding while Deborah was dying.

543
00:36:08,440 --> 00:36:12,199
A long brutal battle with cancer was coming to its

544
00:36:12,239 --> 00:36:16,400
heartbreaking end. For Kenneth and Nicky, the focus was where

545
00:36:16,400 --> 00:36:19,719
it should have been, on Deborah in her final days

546
00:36:19,760 --> 00:36:25,280
and saying goodbye, but not for Kenny. At the worst

547
00:36:25,360 --> 00:36:29,559
possible moment, he came waltzing back in asking for a

548
00:36:29,599 --> 00:36:33,679
place to stay, stirring up all drama, picking fights about

549
00:36:33,719 --> 00:36:39,079
his kids, turning Deborah's funeral into another chapter of his chaos.

550
00:36:39,679 --> 00:36:43,920
It was all just selfish and for Kenneth and Nicki

551
00:36:44,800 --> 00:36:47,840
it was a cruel distraction from the deepest grief of

552
00:36:47,880 --> 00:36:53,199
their lives. But maybe he did this with malice because

553
00:36:53,239 --> 00:36:56,719
Kenny's kids had always maintained a good relationship with Kenneth

554
00:36:57,280 --> 00:36:57,800
and Nicky.

555
00:36:58,559 --> 00:37:03,559
Speaker 2: If Kenny's children were there, she would treat them just

556
00:37:03,639 --> 00:37:06,760
like her own grandchildren. She loved all of her grandchildren.

557
00:37:07,960 --> 00:37:12,679
Speaker 1: There were multiple photographs under Nicky's body. Two of them

558
00:37:12,800 --> 00:37:15,960
were of Kenny's son, the one who refused to have

559
00:37:16,039 --> 00:37:20,360
any contact with them. Those pictures had been torn to shreds,

560
00:37:21,159 --> 00:37:23,320
as if whoever did this was trying to erase that

561
00:37:23,400 --> 00:37:28,719
person from existence. The other photograph, which was still intact,

562
00:37:28,840 --> 00:37:33,440
was of Kenny's daughter, his favorite, the one who actually

563
00:37:33,679 --> 00:37:35,719
responded to his Facebook messages.

564
00:37:36,440 --> 00:37:39,880
Speaker 5: Because of the fact that they're located partially under the body,

565
00:37:40,320 --> 00:37:44,199
near the body, they're covered in blood. The photograph of

566
00:37:44,280 --> 00:37:47,079
Kenny McBride's daughter that was spared was sitting on a

567
00:37:47,159 --> 00:37:50,480
chair and there was droplets of blood on the photograph itself,

568
00:37:51,000 --> 00:37:55,039
so we know they played a key role in whatever

569
00:37:55,159 --> 00:37:56,039
happened that day.

570
00:37:57,440 --> 00:38:04,840
Speaker 1: His kids. Kenny's a wound that would never heal. These

571
00:38:04,880 --> 00:38:10,440
torn photographs weren't random violence. They were deliberate Kenny wasn't

572
00:38:10,480 --> 00:38:13,599
just killing Nicky. He was trying to wipe out everything

573
00:38:13,679 --> 00:38:21,320
she represented, love, family, connection, things he never truly had,

574
00:38:21,639 --> 00:38:27,000
things he never truly understood. Nicky was defenseless, barely able

575
00:38:27,039 --> 00:38:30,880
to walk without help. One punch would have ended it,

576
00:38:31,719 --> 00:38:34,760
but Kenny didn't stop at that. He made her a

577
00:38:34,800 --> 00:38:40,320
target for all of her failures. He used sentimental objects

578
00:38:40,639 --> 00:38:43,880
to try and hurt her, as if tearing apart what

579
00:38:44,079 --> 00:38:48,800
she loved made the attack worse. He punched her eyes

580
00:38:48,880 --> 00:38:53,920
until they bled. He kicked her again and again. He

581
00:38:54,000 --> 00:38:57,679
unleashed years of bitterness and self loathing onto her tiny,

582
00:38:58,480 --> 00:39:03,960
helpless frame, and when that wasn't enough, he cut off

583
00:39:03,960 --> 00:39:04,639
her head.

584
00:39:05,000 --> 00:39:09,440
Speaker 2: The decapitation was an afterthought, and so I don't know

585
00:39:09,679 --> 00:39:14,760
if the decapitation was it was a statement of power

586
00:39:14,840 --> 00:39:19,239
over the body, or if it was something to make

587
00:39:19,320 --> 00:39:24,000
himself look crazier. My running theory is that, you know,

588
00:39:24,079 --> 00:39:27,599
he I think he stepped back and he thought for

589
00:39:27,639 --> 00:39:30,920
a second, Oh no, I just beat this old woman

590
00:39:30,960 --> 00:39:35,559
to death. How can I get out from underneath this?

591
00:39:36,159 --> 00:39:40,079
Because afterwards he had enough thought to take a shower,

592
00:39:41,199 --> 00:39:44,320
clean all the blood off of himself, make sure he

593
00:39:44,360 --> 00:39:47,559
didn't have a bloody clothing on, and even make himself

594
00:39:47,559 --> 00:39:51,400
a sandwich. Yeah, there was a half eaten sandwich in

595
00:39:51,440 --> 00:39:55,519
the kitchen that he had made.

596
00:39:54,280 --> 00:39:58,079
Speaker 1: But no one really knew what fueled the horror that night,

597
00:39:59,119 --> 00:40:04,239
Cold calculated evil, or the moment a broken man finally

598
00:40:04,280 --> 00:40:09,679
comes undone. Kenny wasn't giving answers, and he only unraveled

599
00:40:09,719 --> 00:40:15,239
more with every passing day behind bars. But soon he'd

600
00:40:15,239 --> 00:40:17,639
have to face it all on the stand and under

601
00:40:17,719 --> 00:40:23,239
the cold scrutiny of psychological experts. The real story was

602
00:40:23,400 --> 00:40:27,079
going to come out. What they would uncover wouldn't just

603
00:40:27,199 --> 00:41:07,679
explain what happened, It would change everything. Forty four year

604
00:41:07,719 --> 00:41:12,360
old Kenny McBride murdered his stepgrandmother, Nicki Gibson, after an

605
00:41:12,400 --> 00:41:18,079
alleged fight over his estranged children. Beneath Nicky's bludgeoned body,

606
00:41:18,159 --> 00:41:22,440
detectives found torn family photos the only clue as to

607
00:41:22,519 --> 00:41:28,079
what drove Kenny to rage, murder, and decapitation. In jail,

608
00:41:28,199 --> 00:41:33,159
Kenny came undone. Was this a desperate performance, a last

609
00:41:33,159 --> 00:41:37,960
ditch attempt of fake insanity and dodge accountability, or was

610
00:41:38,000 --> 00:41:43,599
it real? Had Kenny truly snapped? Was his mind really fractured?

611
00:41:44,079 --> 00:41:49,159
Beyond repair. Prosecutor Leah Hubbard knew that she was staring

612
00:41:49,239 --> 00:41:52,639
down the barrel of a devastating and very public trial,

613
00:41:53,599 --> 00:41:56,559
nothing like she'd ever experienced before. In this small county

614
00:41:57,239 --> 00:42:01,480
that averaged one homicide a year. The news would be

615
00:42:01,519 --> 00:42:06,360
all over this. Nikki's family wanted justice. She had to

616
00:42:06,400 --> 00:42:08,599
get Kenny the maximum.

617
00:42:09,119 --> 00:42:12,880
Speaker 5: We wanted to prove that this was a premeditated first

618
00:42:12,920 --> 00:42:17,000
degree murder. That charge carries life without the possibility of

619
00:42:17,079 --> 00:42:20,079
parole in the state of Michigan. In the state of Michigan,

620
00:42:20,239 --> 00:42:22,880
there has to be an opportunity for a second look,

621
00:42:23,280 --> 00:42:26,719
just long enough to consider and contemplate your actions.

622
00:42:27,960 --> 00:42:30,559
Speaker 1: They went for the big guns and soon decided to

623
00:42:30,800 --> 00:42:34,920
up the charge and go after Kenny McBride for open murder.

624
00:42:35,639 --> 00:42:38,920
Speaker 5: In the state of Michigan, we are permitted to charge

625
00:42:38,960 --> 00:42:45,199
someone with open murder. Open murder first degree premeditated murder.

626
00:42:45,719 --> 00:42:49,199
It includes first degree felony murder meaning a murder that

627
00:42:49,280 --> 00:42:52,519
happened during the commission of a specific felony, and it

628
00:42:52,599 --> 00:42:57,599
also includes second degree murder, so your typical rageful murder

629
00:42:57,639 --> 00:43:01,960
without evidence of premeditation. It is then up to the

630
00:43:02,039 --> 00:43:04,599
jury to decide where they want to end up.

631
00:43:05,800 --> 00:43:09,159
Speaker 1: This charge was brilliant. It was kind of like throwing

632
00:43:09,199 --> 00:43:12,880
all the murder charges at the wall and seeing what's stuck.

633
00:43:12,920 --> 00:43:16,199
For the jury, Kenny wouldn't stand a chance.

634
00:43:16,960 --> 00:43:20,239
Speaker 5: It's really nice because it gives the jury some options. Now,

635
00:43:20,239 --> 00:43:23,519
we don't always charge murders that way, but this is

636
00:43:23,559 --> 00:43:26,800
the perfect example of a murder that would fit the

637
00:43:26,840 --> 00:43:31,000
open murder category quite well. The jury could determine, based

638
00:43:31,000 --> 00:43:35,719
on our theory that there was sufficient premeditation. If the

639
00:43:35,760 --> 00:43:39,320
jury didn't find premeditation, they still could have convicted him

640
00:43:39,360 --> 00:43:44,039
of second degree murder based on this rageful heat of

641
00:43:44,079 --> 00:43:46,000
the moment crime of passion killing.

642
00:43:47,239 --> 00:43:49,880
Speaker 1: Prosecutors were also able to tack on one more charge

643
00:43:49,920 --> 00:43:53,880
of habitual offender to really nail Kenny's coffin.

644
00:43:54,519 --> 00:43:58,320
Speaker 5: So the habitual offender notice is essentially a three strikes

645
00:43:58,360 --> 00:44:02,159
year out rule for every felony that you commit. If

646
00:44:02,159 --> 00:44:05,159
they're charged as a habitual offender, it can increase both

647
00:44:05,159 --> 00:44:08,239
their minimum sentence and their maximum sentence.

648
00:44:09,440 --> 00:44:12,800
Speaker 1: Kenny had calmed down in jail, and now with a

649
00:44:12,840 --> 00:44:16,199
public defender by his side, he was starting to talk

650
00:44:16,519 --> 00:44:20,039
like a human being. He soon revealed his side of

651
00:44:20,079 --> 00:44:25,119
what happened that night. Kenny's defense was simple. He didn't

652
00:44:25,119 --> 00:44:27,119
do it, basically.

653
00:44:26,679 --> 00:44:29,119
Speaker 2: Saying that, no, somebody can't come over to the house

654
00:44:29,199 --> 00:44:32,039
and I don't know what happened.

655
00:44:33,360 --> 00:44:36,400
Speaker 1: That was his defense. Someone else came to the home,

656
00:44:37,159 --> 00:44:41,880
someone who he owed money to, and killed Nicky. But

657
00:44:42,000 --> 00:44:46,320
Kenny was lucky. He got a solid public defender, and

658
00:44:46,360 --> 00:44:49,760
he made sure to put Kenny's competency and mental state

659
00:44:49,800 --> 00:44:54,159
to the test before the trial started. After all, if

660
00:44:54,639 --> 00:44:58,119
he was deemed insane by the legal system and this

661
00:44:58,199 --> 00:45:00,400
whole trial could go completely side ways.

662
00:45:01,079 --> 00:45:05,199
Speaker 5: The defense attorney requested two types of evaluations, the first

663
00:45:05,280 --> 00:45:10,239
being a competency evaluation. A competency evaluation determines whether or

664
00:45:10,280 --> 00:45:13,400
not you are competent at the time you stand trial,

665
00:45:13,599 --> 00:45:18,519
So are you able to appropriately participate and actively participate

666
00:45:18,559 --> 00:45:21,519
in your defense? Are you able to make decisions mindful

667
00:45:21,559 --> 00:45:24,960
decisions about your case with the assistance of legal counsel.

668
00:45:25,880 --> 00:45:30,280
The second evaluation requested by mister mcdride's attorney was an

669
00:45:30,280 --> 00:45:35,559
evaluation as to criminal responsibility. In Michigan, criminal responsibility is

670
00:45:35,559 --> 00:45:40,480
an evaluation determined did you understand the consequences of your

671
00:45:40,559 --> 00:45:42,960
actions at the time that you committed the crime. Did

672
00:45:43,000 --> 00:45:45,679
you know the difference between right and wrong? So when

673
00:45:45,719 --> 00:45:49,840
you talk about not guilty by legal insanity, you're talking

674
00:45:50,000 --> 00:45:53,039
about a criminal responsibility issue.

675
00:45:54,159 --> 00:45:57,559
Speaker 1: Kenny was put through the psychological ringer, if you will,

676
00:45:58,599 --> 00:46:03,199
endless evaluations to has to sanity, his competence, and whether

677
00:46:03,239 --> 00:46:07,639
he even grasped what he'd done. Early on, Detective Hooper

678
00:46:07,760 --> 00:46:12,280
believed drugs fueled this murder, but the toxicology report shattered

679
00:46:12,320 --> 00:46:17,280
that theory. So if it wasn't drugs, was it madness?

680
00:46:18,119 --> 00:46:23,960
Speaker 5: Both the criminal responsibility and the competency evaluations came back

681
00:46:24,320 --> 00:46:27,559
within normal ranges. It was determined that he was competent

682
00:46:27,679 --> 00:46:32,280
to stand trial and that he, if he committed the crimes,

683
00:46:32,320 --> 00:46:34,599
that he was criminally responsible.

684
00:46:36,000 --> 00:46:40,360
Speaker 1: Kenny wasn't insane, He knew right from wrong. He was competent.

685
00:46:41,559 --> 00:46:45,119
All that made it worse. He wasn't crazy, He was

686
00:46:45,239 --> 00:46:49,599
just evil. He was a man with something so wrong

687
00:46:49,679 --> 00:46:53,039
inside of him that it would take much more than

688
00:46:53,039 --> 00:46:57,039
a competency evaluation to figure him out. Not only was

689
00:46:57,119 --> 00:47:00,960
Kenny deemed competent to stand trial, but he also decided

690
00:47:01,000 --> 00:47:05,280
that he would talk. He was going to testify in

691
00:47:05,360 --> 00:47:07,480
his own defense, him.

692
00:47:07,320 --> 00:47:10,079
Speaker 2: Taking the stand. You know, I don't know if he's

693
00:47:10,079 --> 00:47:16,000
got this elevated sense of self or whatnot, but it

694
00:47:16,079 --> 00:47:18,639
definitely didn't do him any favors.

695
00:47:18,920 --> 00:47:21,960
Speaker 1: In the spring of twenty twenty one, about a year

696
00:47:22,079 --> 00:47:26,320
after this brutal murder, Kenny McBride walked into the Monroe

697
00:47:26,360 --> 00:47:30,159
County courtroom, ready to face a jury of his peers.

698
00:47:30,559 --> 00:47:33,760
His gray hair was thinning, cropped short to match his

699
00:47:33,960 --> 00:47:38,440
patchy beard. Only the prison tattoos snaking up his neck

700
00:47:38,920 --> 00:47:42,480
set him apart from every other forgettable, middle aged white

701
00:47:42,480 --> 00:47:46,760
felon we've covered on this show. Although the prosecutors were

702
00:47:46,800 --> 00:47:50,679
confident that they had enough physical evidence to win, they

703
00:47:50,679 --> 00:47:54,559
struggled with that one missing piece.

704
00:47:55,440 --> 00:47:59,119
Speaker 5: We were worried about a couple things, one being the motive.

705
00:48:00,079 --> 00:48:04,599
We still to this day can't articulate exactly what caused

706
00:48:04,679 --> 00:48:12,000
Kenny McBride to act so ragefully against the innocent, vulnerable adult. So,

707
00:48:12,400 --> 00:48:15,880
you know, we had the family strife, but you know,

708
00:48:15,920 --> 00:48:18,159
the jury wants to hear that. They want to understand

709
00:48:18,239 --> 00:48:22,079
the whole story, and we weren't able to explain in

710
00:48:22,199 --> 00:48:24,239
detail exactly what happened.

711
00:48:25,599 --> 00:48:28,599
Speaker 1: They might not have known every word exchanged between Nicky

712
00:48:28,639 --> 00:48:34,000
and Kenny that night, but they knew enough. Prosecutor Hubbard's

713
00:48:34,039 --> 00:48:38,480
mission was clear. On cross examination, she planned to tear

714
00:48:38,519 --> 00:48:42,960
through the cracks in Kenny's story. So Kenny got up

715
00:48:43,000 --> 00:48:46,519
on the stand and calmly gave his side of the story.

716
00:48:47,199 --> 00:48:50,119
Speaker 5: Kenny McBride had indicated that he was home that evening,

717
00:48:50,119 --> 00:48:53,519
that he was upstairs in his bedroom, and that he

718
00:48:53,679 --> 00:48:57,280
had the sleep app on, that he was quote unquote sleeping,

719
00:48:57,840 --> 00:49:01,440
and that he didn't really hear anything. However, he had

720
00:49:01,559 --> 00:49:05,079
also speculated that there were certain people that were out

721
00:49:05,079 --> 00:49:08,159
to get him. He didn't really articulate who or why.

722
00:49:08,400 --> 00:49:11,519
In fact, I believe, if I recall correctly, I asked

723
00:49:11,559 --> 00:49:14,519
him who when he refused to answer the question. So

724
00:49:14,599 --> 00:49:17,719
he had articulated that these people were out to get him,

725
00:49:18,159 --> 00:49:22,239
and that he that they must have they must have

726
00:49:22,760 --> 00:49:25,719
hurt Nicki Gibson to get back at him, or maybe

727
00:49:25,840 --> 00:49:28,639
even they thought that Nicki Gibson was him.

728
00:49:29,320 --> 00:49:33,079
Speaker 1: But the story made no sense, and Prosecutor Hubbard and

729
00:49:33,199 --> 00:49:37,039
Detective Hooper were able to prove it. First off the

730
00:49:37,119 --> 00:49:40,840
sleep app he said he didn't hear a violent break

731
00:49:40,880 --> 00:49:47,760
in beating and the capitation due to his zen sleep app.

732
00:49:47,679 --> 00:49:50,599
Speaker 5: So this was wood floors throughout the home. We actually

733
00:49:50,679 --> 00:49:54,039
went out to the crime scene, I the co prosecutor

734
00:49:54,039 --> 00:49:56,320
who handled the case and I, so we had a

735
00:49:56,360 --> 00:49:58,679
good idea of the layout of the home, and the

736
00:49:58,719 --> 00:50:02,639
living room was located really directly underneath where his bedroom

737
00:50:02,639 --> 00:50:05,480
would have been. So with the wood floors and the

738
00:50:05,760 --> 00:50:09,039
echoing in the home, there's just absolutely no way that

739
00:50:09,079 --> 00:50:12,360
someone could have been such a close proximity away from

740
00:50:12,400 --> 00:50:17,079
this brutal, horrific murder involving a smash, piggy bank, a

741
00:50:17,119 --> 00:50:21,119
metal baby gate, you know, nineteen separate blows, and not

742
00:50:21,239 --> 00:50:22,079
hear anything.

743
00:50:23,639 --> 00:50:26,800
Speaker 1: Then there was also the fact that Kenny's bedroom door

744
00:50:27,840 --> 00:50:29,199
was unable to close.

745
00:50:30,079 --> 00:50:32,920
Speaker 5: We also noted in some of the photographs that his

746
00:50:33,199 --> 00:50:38,079
bedroom door had multiple shoelaces and other ties around it,

747
00:50:38,119 --> 00:50:41,840
so it was unable to even close. So the idea

748
00:50:41,880 --> 00:50:45,360
that he's upstairs with a door that's not able to

749
00:50:45,400 --> 00:50:48,440
even close all the way and that he completely doesn't

750
00:50:48,480 --> 00:50:54,400
hear this brutal murder just a couple feet away was ridiculous.

751
00:50:55,280 --> 00:50:58,440
Speaker 1: Kenny claimed that he was using a sleep ap to

752
00:50:58,599 --> 00:51:02,280
rest during the entire time the murder happened, but his

753
00:51:02,400 --> 00:51:06,880
phone said otherwise. In fact, there was no sleep apup

754
00:51:07,400 --> 00:51:09,480
in case you didn't figure that part out, in case

755
00:51:09,519 --> 00:51:12,920
you're maybe a little slow or something. But he was

756
00:51:13,039 --> 00:51:17,559
active on Facebook messenger all night, talking intensely with a

757
00:51:17,599 --> 00:51:20,880
particular woman, except for a short window of time where

758
00:51:20,920 --> 00:51:22,719
his messages went unread.

759
00:51:23,480 --> 00:51:27,239
Speaker 2: There was twenty seven unread and so I mean it

760
00:51:27,320 --> 00:51:31,519
was our theory that around that time between those unread

761
00:51:31,599 --> 00:51:35,559
messages there was no active interaction with his phone. So

762
00:51:36,159 --> 00:51:41,320
either a he was committing to homicide, be cleaning up

763
00:51:41,360 --> 00:51:43,719
the scene, cleaning himself up.

764
00:51:44,320 --> 00:51:47,800
Speaker 1: After that window of unread messages, he resumed his activity

765
00:51:47,840 --> 00:51:49,920
and started messaging another old friend.

766
00:51:50,880 --> 00:51:54,400
Speaker 2: He sent her a weird one later in the evening,

767
00:51:54,440 --> 00:51:58,400
I think, around midnight, like are you alive? And she

768
00:51:58,480 --> 00:52:03,960
res finds, yeah, are you and he typed something. Unfortunately

769
00:52:04,000 --> 00:52:05,960
he deleted it. We don't know what it was. She

770
00:52:06,000 --> 00:52:06,840
didn't know what it was.

771
00:52:08,159 --> 00:52:12,039
Speaker 1: Detective Hooper discovered something else that pointed to Kenny as well,

772
00:52:12,880 --> 00:52:15,320
and not some random person that broke into the house

773
00:52:15,360 --> 00:52:19,880
and did this while Kenny was sleeping. Nicky always wore

774
00:52:19,960 --> 00:52:23,559
a life alert pendant around her neck, one of those

775
00:52:23,599 --> 00:52:26,639
simple devices seniors use so that if you fall the

776
00:52:26,679 --> 00:52:30,039
authorities are alerted when her body was found.

777
00:52:30,119 --> 00:52:34,960
Speaker 2: It was gone two weeks after the homicide all of

778
00:52:35,000 --> 00:52:38,079
a sudden that alerted the alert.

779
00:52:38,079 --> 00:52:41,719
Speaker 1: Pendant was soon found at a plant nursery down the road.

780
00:52:42,519 --> 00:52:46,960
Speaker 2: What had happened was a tree trimming crew had brought

781
00:52:47,079 --> 00:52:51,119
fresh trimmings in for the nursery and dumped it on

782
00:52:51,280 --> 00:52:55,639
top of what we believe was the pendant, which caused

783
00:52:55,639 --> 00:53:00,519
it to activate. It had a very weak GPS signal

784
00:53:00,920 --> 00:53:04,000
that it gave like a sixty three meter hit, which

785
00:53:04,119 --> 00:53:08,320
wasn't really good. And so the pendant, however, when it

786
00:53:08,360 --> 00:53:13,039
has a weak GPS signal, would touch Wi fis in

787
00:53:13,119 --> 00:53:18,280
the area and would you know, to try to boost

788
00:53:18,320 --> 00:53:21,000
the signal. And so we went in the area of

789
00:53:21,039 --> 00:53:24,719
the nursery and went to people's houses and this, that

790
00:53:24,760 --> 00:53:27,760
and the other. And so the pendant had mac addresses

791
00:53:27,840 --> 00:53:30,519
that it connected to, and we went and found the

792
00:53:30,519 --> 00:53:32,800
houses where it was connected to the Wi Fi.

793
00:53:33,480 --> 00:53:36,800
Speaker 1: The pendant made a clear path from Kenneth's house to

794
00:53:36,880 --> 00:53:40,840
the nursery, bouncing off Wi Fi signals along the way.

795
00:53:41,920 --> 00:53:45,199
A random stranger wouldn't have known to take that off

796
00:53:45,199 --> 00:53:48,599
of Nikki, but Kenny knew she wore it and getting

797
00:53:48,679 --> 00:53:52,079
rid of it bottom some time. If he had left

798
00:53:52,079 --> 00:53:54,639
it honor, the police would have arrived the minute she

799
00:53:54,760 --> 00:53:59,280
fell from his first blow. Detective Hooper thinks that Kenny

800
00:53:59,360 --> 00:54:02,920
killed her, then turned it off and ditched it at

801
00:54:02,960 --> 00:54:08,400
the nursery. He never expected it to activate again, So

802
00:54:09,159 --> 00:54:12,280
Leah brought this all up. When Kenny was on the stand,

803
00:54:13,360 --> 00:54:16,800
she looked him dead in the eye and poked holes

804
00:54:16,880 --> 00:54:20,400
in his story like a sadist stuffing salt in an

805
00:54:20,440 --> 00:54:25,719
open wound. Then when that wasn't enough, she hit him

806
00:54:25,760 --> 00:54:31,400
where she knew it would really sting his inadequacy as

807
00:54:31,400 --> 00:54:31,880
a father.

808
00:54:32,599 --> 00:54:35,039
Speaker 5: I asked a lot of questions about his children, and

809
00:54:35,159 --> 00:54:37,760
he did acknowledge that he had a better relationship with

810
00:54:37,840 --> 00:54:41,599
one with the female child over the male child. And

811
00:54:41,639 --> 00:54:43,719
he got a little frustrated at that point.

812
00:54:44,880 --> 00:54:49,519
Speaker 1: Yeah, to everyone's surprise, he kept us cool. No screaming,

813
00:54:49,960 --> 00:54:55,599
no cursing, no wincing. He remained calm. Prosecutor Hubbard wanted

814
00:54:55,639 --> 00:55:00,519
Kenny to get angry. She wanted rage, She wanted you

815
00:55:00,559 --> 00:55:02,639
can't handle the truth moment, you know what I mean.

816
00:55:03,760 --> 00:55:05,800
She tried her best to poke the bear so that

817
00:55:05,880 --> 00:55:10,159
Kenny would slip up for the jury, but he was

818
00:55:10,199 --> 00:55:14,679
as steady as a rock, apparently having rehearsed for this moment.

819
00:55:15,800 --> 00:55:21,679
You see, crazy people can still be manipulative. In fact,

820
00:55:22,239 --> 00:55:26,480
they usually go hand in hand. Anytime Kenny got frustrated,

821
00:55:26,840 --> 00:55:30,960
he reeled it back quickly, like someone or some thing

822
00:55:31,599 --> 00:55:34,000
had tied an invisible string to the normal side of

823
00:55:34,039 --> 00:55:38,199
his brain and tugged on it. Maybe that thing was

824
00:55:38,760 --> 00:55:41,480
the realization that if he didn't act right right now,

825
00:55:42,360 --> 00:55:45,920
he'd go to prison forever. That's enough to scare you

826
00:55:45,960 --> 00:55:49,000
out of your alleged mental illness, isn't it.

827
00:55:49,559 --> 00:55:52,159
Speaker 5: And one of my goals was to get him frustrated

828
00:55:52,239 --> 00:55:54,960
or flustered so we could see the real Kenny McBride,

829
00:55:55,400 --> 00:55:57,039
And I have to give him credit. He did a

830
00:55:57,039 --> 00:56:00,760
great job keeping it under control the most part.

831
00:56:02,039 --> 00:56:07,400
Speaker 1: Even during closing arguments and deliberation, Kenny remained steady. In fact,

832
00:56:07,400 --> 00:56:13,199
he barely flinched when they read the verdict guilty. The

833
00:56:13,239 --> 00:56:16,360
prison life he thought he had escaped was calling him

834
00:56:16,400 --> 00:56:19,800
back for good. Kenny had tried to hold it together

835
00:56:20,760 --> 00:56:23,519
that trial. He kept his temper and check, playing the

836
00:56:23,559 --> 00:56:28,639
part of the calm, rational man, but it was obviously

837
00:56:28,719 --> 00:56:33,880
just an act. Beneath the surface. Rage boiled for that

838
00:56:34,159 --> 00:56:39,679
month before sentencing, he stewed behind bars, resentment building like

839
00:56:39,760 --> 00:56:44,559
pressure in a sealed valve. Then when it came time

840
00:56:44,599 --> 00:56:48,199
to face the judge and hear his fate, Kenny just

841
00:56:48,239 --> 00:56:52,920
couldn't hold it anymore. What entered the courtroom that day

842
00:56:53,199 --> 00:56:57,519
wasn't a misunderstood man. It was exactly who he had

843
00:56:57,599 --> 00:57:12,679
always been. Violent, bitter and consumed by hate.

844
00:57:14,039 --> 00:57:16,800
Speaker 5: I believe we saw the real Kenny McBride at sentencing

845
00:57:16,840 --> 00:57:22,320
when he came in screaming, cursing, you know, expressing just rage.

846
00:57:22,480 --> 00:57:24,559
I think that was the first time we really saw

847
00:57:24,840 --> 00:57:25,719
Kenny McBride.

848
00:57:26,880 --> 00:57:29,199
Speaker 1: The real Kenny came out when he knew he had

849
00:57:29,239 --> 00:57:33,159
nothing more to lose. He sauntered into the courtroom in

850
00:57:33,159 --> 00:57:36,480
his shackles, barking at the judge like they were about

851
00:57:36,519 --> 00:57:37,559
to start a bar fight.

852
00:57:38,239 --> 00:57:40,440
Speaker 5: I believe at one point in time he referred to

853
00:57:40,480 --> 00:57:44,360
the judge as Captain Kangaroo. I know the Joseph had

854
00:57:44,360 --> 00:57:48,119
some difficulty getting him to sit down and appear for sentencing.

855
00:57:48,239 --> 00:57:50,960
He needed to be present of the cork of sentenced him,

856
00:57:51,840 --> 00:57:54,360
so it was it was definitely challenging. It was somewhat

857
00:57:54,400 --> 00:57:59,360
shocking after seeing him so composed during the trial.

858
00:58:00,679 --> 00:58:04,039
Speaker 1: That's the most terrifying thing about someone like Kenny. He

859
00:58:04,079 --> 00:58:09,480
can fake normal, He can sit still, speak calmly and

860
00:58:09,679 --> 00:58:14,400
try to convince you he's just another lost soul. But

861
00:58:14,480 --> 00:58:18,840
beneath that thin layer of control was something much more violent,

862
00:58:19,639 --> 00:58:23,480
waiting for the moment it could break free. Kenny was

863
00:58:23,559 --> 00:58:27,239
sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

864
00:58:28,440 --> 00:58:33,320
Today Kenny McBride sits in the Lakewood Correctional Facility. He

865
00:58:33,400 --> 00:58:36,840
will be there until the day he dies. Thank god.

866
00:58:37,840 --> 00:58:41,880
He showed no real remorse, took no responsibility, and wasted

867
00:58:41,960 --> 00:58:45,679
no time flooding the courts with his laughable appeals.

868
00:58:46,360 --> 00:58:50,960
Speaker 5: He cited multiple errors, namely that the jury made a

869
00:58:51,000 --> 00:58:53,599
decision that was against the weight of the evidence, that

870
00:58:53,639 --> 00:58:57,280
the court should have granted his motion to change venue,

871
00:58:58,400 --> 00:59:00,960
and the Court of Appeals to that there was no

872
00:59:01,119 --> 00:59:05,199
merit to any of his arguments. His case has been

873
00:59:05,880 --> 00:59:08,480
the viction has been upheld, and at this point in

874
00:59:08,480 --> 00:59:11,440
time he's exhausted most of his appellate rights.

875
00:59:12,360 --> 00:59:15,639
Speaker 1: Justice may have been served, but it offered little comfort.

876
00:59:16,440 --> 00:59:20,960
Kenny's life sentence couldn't erase what he took Nicki Gibson

877
00:59:21,039 --> 00:59:24,719
was ripped from this world in a brutal and disgusting

878
00:59:24,800 --> 00:59:29,480
act that still defies understanding for those who knew her

879
00:59:29,519 --> 00:59:32,480
and worked on this case. The lack of answers cuts

880
00:59:32,519 --> 00:59:34,800
almost as deep as the loss itself.

881
00:59:35,519 --> 00:59:41,079
Speaker 2: Elderly and children and crimes against them are horrific. But

882
00:59:41,360 --> 00:59:44,599
to be a totally innocent victim that was sticking out

883
00:59:44,760 --> 00:59:51,960
for his children probably most likely and too. You know again,

884
00:59:53,239 --> 00:59:55,199
the one thing that I'll never get out of my head,

885
00:59:55,360 --> 00:59:59,360
like I told you earlier, is at fifteen yards from

886
00:59:59,400 --> 01:00:03,760
the back door, that hair landing on that concrete, with

887
01:00:03,800 --> 01:00:08,960
that hair impression in blood. You know, that's something that

888
01:00:09,000 --> 01:00:09,880
I'd never forget.

889
01:00:11,119 --> 01:00:14,519
Speaker 1: The way Nikki's head was discarded hunts both Detective Hooper

890
01:00:14,599 --> 01:00:17,159
and Prosecutor Hubbard to this day.

891
01:00:17,840 --> 01:00:21,039
Speaker 5: It was the eeriest part of the case, throwing that

892
01:00:21,280 --> 01:00:25,480
head out the door like that. It's just the The

893
01:00:25,559 --> 01:00:27,639
one part of the case is really stuck with all

894
01:00:27,679 --> 01:00:32,119
of us is why and how and where he threw

895
01:00:32,159 --> 01:00:35,079
it was right where Kenneth Reese would have drove his

896
01:00:35,800 --> 01:00:39,079
car home. In fact, it's surprising that Kenneth rees missed

897
01:00:39,079 --> 01:00:41,360
it on his way in but it was dark out,

898
01:00:42,000 --> 01:00:45,719
so it just we'll never be able to understand or

899
01:00:45,800 --> 01:00:48,679
wrap our head around why he did what he did.

900
01:00:50,039 --> 01:00:51,880
Speaker 2: I don't think he's crazy. I think I think he

901
01:00:51,960 --> 01:00:56,159
tried to manipulate the system afterwards to try to believe

902
01:00:56,199 --> 01:00:56,960
that he was crazy.

903
01:00:57,880 --> 01:01:00,480
Speaker 5: You know, I think it's human nature to try try

904
01:01:00,519 --> 01:01:03,599
to want to explain why something happened, and to distinguish

905
01:01:03,679 --> 01:01:07,000
ourselves from this person. Right, they were on drugs, their

906
01:01:07,039 --> 01:01:12,079
mind was altered. They're different than us, you know. You

907
01:01:12,119 --> 01:01:15,440
want to understand why this happened and be able to

908
01:01:15,440 --> 01:01:17,280
wrap your head around why someone would.

909
01:01:17,159 --> 01:01:17,639
Speaker 7: Act this way.

910
01:01:17,679 --> 01:01:19,960
Speaker 5: And it's so easy to just try to blame it

911
01:01:20,000 --> 01:01:23,559
on a substance because we can't understand why someone would

912
01:01:23,559 --> 01:01:26,400
do something like this to another person. If you look

913
01:01:26,440 --> 01:01:30,079
at everything, it is pretty clear that he intended this

914
01:01:30,280 --> 01:01:34,519
rageful murder. The amount of different weapons that were used,

915
01:01:34,519 --> 01:01:37,840
the amount of blows that she sustained, he could have

916
01:01:37,880 --> 01:01:42,280
only had one purpose. She had a She had significant

917
01:01:42,320 --> 01:01:45,880
bruising on her arms. You could see these deep purple

918
01:01:46,000 --> 01:01:48,760
fingerprint marks on one of her arms. I mean, her

919
01:01:48,920 --> 01:01:54,119
face was covered in bruises. The laceration to her one

920
01:01:54,159 --> 01:01:58,639
of the lacerations to her lip area almost completely severed

921
01:01:58,679 --> 01:02:02,800
her lip from her face. This was very intentional and

922
01:02:02,960 --> 01:02:07,159
extremely brutal, and very hard to understand someone having this

923
01:02:07,280 --> 01:02:08,079
amount of rage.

924
01:02:18,199 --> 01:02:23,119
Speaker 1: Kenny McBride was a lifelong criminal. In nineteen ninety one,

925
01:02:23,280 --> 01:02:28,199
under five different aliases, he'd racked up over thirty charges

926
01:02:28,239 --> 01:02:33,039
in the Monroe County court system, not including Nicki Gibson's murder.

927
01:02:34,280 --> 01:02:37,880
This was not the only place he lived. Who knows

928
01:02:37,920 --> 01:02:40,440
how many other arrests he had under his belt in

929
01:02:40,519 --> 01:02:45,679
other counties. Kenny McBride was just a stain on society.

930
01:02:46,800 --> 01:02:49,599
He didn't fall through the cracks. He lived in them,

931
01:02:50,480 --> 01:02:54,800
and that was his own choice. In his final fuck

932
01:02:54,920 --> 01:02:58,079
you to the family he felt had cast him aside,

933
01:02:58,760 --> 01:03:01,880
he did the unthinkable to a defenseless seventy nine year

934
01:03:01,880 --> 01:03:07,360
old woman. But this wasn't really about Nicky. Her murder

935
01:03:07,599 --> 01:03:11,920
was personal, but not in the way it seemed. It

936
01:03:11,960 --> 01:03:16,519
was calculated, a cruel, symbolic act, meant to strike at

937
01:03:16,519 --> 01:03:20,960
those in his family who had pushed Kenny aside, at

938
01:03:21,039 --> 01:03:26,239
least in his own mind. For Kenny, life had always

939
01:03:26,519 --> 01:03:30,119
been about resentment. He walked through it convinced he was

940
01:03:30,519 --> 01:03:35,119
owed love, loyalty and respect, yet he gave nothing in return.

941
01:03:36,280 --> 01:03:39,639
He couldn't hold a job, he couldn't stay sober, he

942
01:03:39,639 --> 01:03:42,920
couldn't show up for his own children. And as the

943
01:03:43,000 --> 01:03:47,519
world moved on, leaving him in the dust, that bitterness

944
01:03:47,719 --> 01:03:53,639
hardened into something else. He didn't seek redemption, even during

945
01:03:53,719 --> 01:03:57,440
moments of sobriety, when the path to change stood open,

946
01:03:58,599 --> 01:04:04,239
he veered away, clinging to his grudges. Kenny wasn't looking

947
01:04:04,239 --> 01:04:08,159
for healing. He was looking for someone else to blame.

948
01:04:09,360 --> 01:04:13,559
And when Nicki Gibson stepped up where he never did,

949
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she became that target. He didn't hesitate when he attacked Nicki.

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He destroyed a beautiful, loving grandmother simply because she said

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something that made him see what a loser he truly was.

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Sometimes we search for brokenness behind brutality. We want to

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believe that evil wears a human face, that monsters are made,

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not born. It makes things a lot easier that way,

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But with Kenny, there is no such comfort. His final

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act was not the cry of a lost man. It

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was the declaration of one who chose darkness, who chose bitterness,

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who chose revenge, and he wanted the world and his

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own family to choke on it.

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Speaker 6: Hi, Mike, this is Michelle.

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Speaker 7: One day I was searching for our podcast to listen

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to and came across this one.

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Speaker 4: Decided to give it a chance, and.

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Speaker 7: Your sarcastic comments totally drug me in. And I've listened

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01:06:23,639 --> 01:06:29,480
to every season, every episode, and I'm eager for more,

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01:06:29,719 --> 01:06:31,320
so keep up the work.

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Speaker 4: Thanks,