Speaker 1: Before we start the show, I have a few announcements.
Speaker 1: We are hosting studio sessions here at Studio both And
Speaker 1: in North Adam's mass on March sixth and seventh. You
Speaker 1: can join me, took Her, Shana and Kaz for a
Speaker 1: deep dive conversation and research round table focusing on the
Speaker 1: Keys case, doze and new files we've received from the FBI.
Speaker 1: To learn more and get your tickets, go to both
Speaker 1: and dot Fyi. Also, we are launching another Trova trip.
Speaker 1: This time we are going to Costa Rica and tickets
Speaker 1: go on sale today. After pre sale, we only have
Speaker 1: ten left, so get in there while the Geddon's good.
Speaker 1: For more information about the trip and to snag your spot,
Speaker 1: check out the link in the show notes. And finally,
Speaker 1: as I mentioned in the last episode, I appeared in
Speaker 1: the podcast series Mind of a Monster, wherein they interview
Speaker 1: me several people close to Keys and his army buddy
Speaker 1: n Nathan, who we discussed earlier this season. To hear
Speaker 1: Nathan's interview and mine, check out the series now wherever
Speaker 1: you listen to podcasts. This is a Studio both And production.
Speaker 1: For the majority of this season, we've been focused on Washington, state.
Speaker 1: As new information has come in, and more and more
Speaker 1: information and files continue to come in, It's where we
Speaker 1: think we have the best shot of identifying at least
Speaker 1: three of Keys's unknown victims, and we've made great strides
Speaker 1: over the past nine months in doing so. However, as
Speaker 1: we begin to close out the season, we wanted to
Speaker 1: let those investigations continue behind the scenes as we head
Speaker 1: back to the South on the show, where new files
Speaker 1: and information have also shed new light on Keysa's activities
Speaker 1: and open new leads. And today we're starting in familiar territory,
Speaker 1: East Texas. While we remain confident that Keeesas time in
Speaker 1: East Texas involved the abductions and murders of James Lamart
Speaker 1: Tidwell and Mark Juillian Oldberry in addition to his known
Speaker 1: crimes the robbery and Azel and Arson and Aledo, there
Speaker 1: have still been questions surrounding some of his lost time
Speaker 1: and odd stops, and for more than four years now,
Speaker 1: Jordan has been hyper focused on Keyesas time in Houston
Speaker 1: and its surrounding suburbs and exurbs. This is true crime bullshit.
Speaker 1: The serialized investigation into Israel Keys Season seven, episode thirteen,
Speaker 1: Houston in our research across the country. We've focused on
Speaker 1: many different locations Keys may have committed crimes, and one
Speaker 1: thing we've collectively come to believe is that Keys may
Speaker 1: have been much more active in the months before his
Speaker 1: arrest than we'd originally thought. He even said so much himself.
Speaker 1: In the last year and a half, I've done a
Speaker 1: lot in twenty twenty one. Before Jordan joining the team,
Speaker 1: he'd been quietly gathering information, filing records requests, and forwarding
Speaker 1: his theories onto us. In July of twenty twenty two,
Speaker 1: while he was searching human remains found in abandoned house
Speaker 1: as one does, he came across an article on click
Speaker 1: to Houston dot com that jumped out at him. Body
Speaker 1: found an abandoned house fire. It was written on March tenth,
Speaker 1: twenty twelve, just days before Keys would be arrested, and
Speaker 1: that date was of particular interest because we know that
Speaker 1: Keys had been in Houston the day before. The article stated,
Speaker 1: residents in a southeast Houston neighborhood set a home that
Speaker 1: caught fire Friday night had been boarded up for more
Speaker 1: than a decade, so when firefighters found a dead body inside,
Speaker 1: neighbors were left scratching their heads. When I got here,
Speaker 1: I was thinking about going in to see if anyone
Speaker 1: was in there, but I didn't hear any yelling. Witness
Speaker 1: c S said it was abandoned. I didn't expect anyone
Speaker 1: to be inside. Jordan wasn't able to find any more
Speaker 1: mentions in the news of this incident. His initial thought
Speaker 1: was that the remains could possibly have belonged to James
Speaker 1: Lamar Tidwell, so he started digging and obtaining new information
Speaker 1: via FOYA requests, and upon speaking with the Harris County
Speaker 1: Institute of Forensic Sciences, Jordan found out that the deceased
Speaker 1: person had indeed been identified through dental records. Nicholas Nicky
Speaker 1: O'Neill Simon was born on February first, nineteen seventy nine,
Speaker 1: in Newbern, North Carolina. At the time of his death,
Speaker 1: his parents still lived there with his brother. His father
Speaker 1: and brother have since passed away, and now his mother
Speaker 1: maintains a find a Grave page online where she wishes
Speaker 1: NICKI a happy Birthday every year. Nick had very little
Speaker 1: personal information available. Most of his address history had to
Speaker 1: be rebuilt through court records, and his life living between
Speaker 1: North Carolina and Texas is mostly unknown. He seemingly had
Speaker 1: no digital footprint apart from one email address, and despite
Speaker 1: his death happening in Texas and his remains being buried
Speaker 1: back in Newbern, North Carolina, he doesn't even have a
Speaker 1: death certificate on file. What's been made most known about
Speaker 1: Nick has been obtained through the police case file and
Speaker 1: some Houston court records. Nick had a life of struggle
Speaker 1: prior to his death. According to his mother in her
Speaker 1: police interview, Nick was a crack cocaine user but had
Speaker 1: been trying to get clean, and their speculation he may
Speaker 1: have owed a debt to his dealer. He had also
Speaker 1: somewhat recently had to move out of his place at
Speaker 1: a halfway house after a kitchen fire occurred there. That
Speaker 1: fire appeared to be accidental, according to the report, However,
Speaker 1: due to his reputation, Arson had conducted a brief investigation.
Speaker 1: Though the police state that Nick was unhoused at the
Speaker 1: time of his death, he did have a consistent address
Speaker 1: as of February twenty twelve, just a month before his death,
Speaker 1: but it's unclear if he was still living there or
Speaker 1: had become unhoused between February and March. On March ninth,
Speaker 1: twenty twelve, at nine twenty two pm, a hang up
Speaker 1: call came in to the Houston Police Department. When they
Speaker 1: arrived at the address, the call originated from nineteen o
Speaker 1: two Dismute Street, they discovered Houston Fire Department in the
Speaker 1: process of extinguishing a house fire near by at nineteen
Speaker 1: o eight Dismukee Street. As the fire department worked to
Speaker 1: extinguish the fire, they discovered Nick's body. Houston p Dy
Speaker 1: helped secure the scene and began canvassing the area and
Speaker 1: conducting witness interviews. By policy, Arson and Homicide were notified
Speaker 1: and Detective Sergeant J. J. Wilson and Detective Rick Moreno
Speaker 1: were assigned the case. The following morning, numerous witnesses reported
Speaker 1: a small explosion just prior to the fire, one witness
Speaker 1: stating that it sounded like a tire blow out. According
Speaker 1: to the police files, witness m V who lived next door,
Speaker 1: stated that between nine and ten p m. While she
Speaker 1: was in her bedroom, she heard one explosion and then
Speaker 1: heard the fire fighters arriving. She stayed in her room
Speaker 1: and didn't look outside because she thought it was a
Speaker 1: car tire that exploded. Once the fire was extinguished, Nick
Speaker 1: was found against the front door, which was also the
Speaker 1: location most damaged by the fire. The front interior wall
Speaker 1: of the home apparently had stacks of newspapers and books
Speaker 1: along the base of the wall, which burned quickly.
Speaker 2: You said the why not feeling? You know, it wasn't
Speaker 2: so much why but why not the arson? Yeah, and
Speaker 2: that's a feeling you've had before, the why not? Yeah, Well,
Speaker 2: I mean it's.
Speaker 3: It's a pretty good way to cover up a burglary too,
Speaker 3: So there's not a house then they don't usually take
Speaker 3: a very good inventory.
Speaker 2: So well, and I'm asking because you mentioned with the
Speaker 2: couriers that you were going to go back this month
Speaker 2: or next month and burned down that house.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I knew there was When I picked that house
Speaker 3: in Vermont, I knew first of all that it wasn't salvageable,
Speaker 3: and whoever was looking at the property probably wasn't going
Speaker 3: to be looking.
Speaker 2: At it.
Speaker 3: Looking at it for the house, So I knew there
Speaker 3: was a good chance even if I didn't have time
Speaker 3: or opportunity to burn it while I was there, then
Speaker 3: there was a good chance they wouldn't be found, at
Speaker 3: least not right away. How did you start the fire?
Speaker 4: I know you said there was a gas in the grade.
Speaker 5: Did you use the gas or what?
Speaker 6: Did you start it?
Speaker 2: Well?
Speaker 3: I t I took out. Once I decided to burn it,
Speaker 3: I opened up the attic access and opened up all
Speaker 3: the windows around the house on the inside, and grabbed
Speaker 3: a bunch of clothes and made a trail of clothes
Speaker 3: and bedding and stuff from every room to different parts
Speaker 3: of the house, and poured gas on the clothes all
Speaker 3: the way out to the back door, and then a
Speaker 3: just lit it from the back door.
Speaker 1: According to the arson investigator's notes, Nick's head was protruding
Speaker 1: partially through the front door when they found him, the door,
Speaker 1: which had been left ajar. The autopsy was conducted on
Speaker 1: March tenth by doctor Albert Chu. It was determined that
Speaker 1: Nick was found with extensive thermal injuries covering ninety five
Speaker 1: percent of the surface of his body. He had thermal
Speaker 1: fractures in his elbow, which occur when the bone reached
Speaker 1: a high enough temperature to crack from the heat. The
Speaker 1: burns were so extensive that the emmy couldn't tell if
Speaker 1: other injuries, such as a gunshot or stabbing, had occurred.
Speaker 1: Due to the extent of external injury. Doctor Chu was
Speaker 1: only able to assess internal injury definitively, and Nick's cause
Speaker 1: of death was ruled as smoke inhalation, but the manner
Speaker 1: was left open pending the results of the homicide investigation.
Speaker 1: The fire's cause was also ruled as undetermined pending the
Speaker 1: results of the homicide investigation. Jordan was able to speak
Speaker 1: with Arson investigator A. J. Green, who clarified that this
Speaker 1: ruling meant that he could not definitively say it was
Speaker 1: arson until homicide determined that the death was a result
Speaker 1: of a homicide. Homicide allegedly couldn't declare it as such
Speaker 1: until Arson said it was intentionally set. The fire department
Speaker 1: report states that there was no obvious point of ignition,
Speaker 1: They couldn't identify the heat source used for ignition, and
Speaker 1: said that no human factors contributed to the ignition, which
Speaker 1: very much contradicts the assertion that this was an accident
Speaker 1: as simple as Nick falling asleep with an unattended fire
Speaker 1: or cigarette in his mouth. So, if you're following, and
Speaker 1: this is unfortunately quite familiar logic, the fire department could
Speaker 1: not rule the fire arson until the homicide apartment ruled
Speaker 1: that Nick's death was homicide, but the homicide department could
Speaker 1: not rule that Nick's death was a homicide unless the
Speaker 1: fire department ruled that the fire was an arson. Additionally,
Speaker 1: it was written off as accidental, yet it was also
Speaker 1: ruled that no human factors were involved. Make of all
Speaker 1: that what you will. The fire department never declared the
Speaker 1: cause of the fire, surmising it was accidental due to
Speaker 1: being unattended, and the police never further investigated this as
Speaker 1: a homicide because it was never declared arson, rather undetermined
Speaker 1: presumed accidental. The police have to say they believe it
Speaker 1: was a homicide to initiate an arson investigation, but they
Speaker 1: closed the case based on the arson investigator's initial impression
Speaker 1: and the fact that Nick was a drug user. Nick's
Speaker 1: official cause of death was ruled as smoke inhalation. The
Speaker 1: police closed the case and said of twenty fourteen, stating
Speaker 1: it appears that the decedent was under the influence of
Speaker 1: drugs to the point that his mental faculties were impaired.
Speaker 1: The decedent started an intentional fire in the living room
Speaker 1: of the vacant home in hopes of keeping warm on
Speaker 1: a cold night, as the oxygen was depleted in the
Speaker 1: interior of the home. The decedent attempted to exit the home,
Speaker 1: but was overcome by the thick smoke as he searched
Speaker 1: for the doorknob at the front door. The body was
Speaker 1: found where it collapsed at the front door attempting an
Speaker 1: escape from the home. But all of this seems to
Speaker 1: contradict the facts that are placed in the fire department's report.
Speaker 1: Weather Underground shows that the temperature around the start of
Speaker 1: the fire was fifty degrees with very light rain, making
Speaker 1: the need for a fire debatable to me. Further, Nick's
Speaker 1: mother told the police that he would never be careless
Speaker 1: with fire. Nick was a known cocaine user and had
Speaker 1: a somewhat low level of cocaine in his system, though
Speaker 1: his body had already metabolized one sixth of it. He
Speaker 1: had a very small amount of alcohol in a system
Speaker 1: as well, being a heavy cocaine user. It's unclear what
Speaker 1: his level of impairment would have been, but cocaine, being
Speaker 1: a stimulant, would not make him overly drowsy. The case
Speaker 1: closure came a month before a scandal hit Houston PD
Speaker 1: involving premature case closures, and that scandal would ripple on
Speaker 1: for ten years and affect a quarter million incident reports
Speaker 1: in total. It's the beginning of the year, which means
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Speaker 1: per box for one year while subscription is active. Houston
Speaker 1: PD has a history of notable contrayes over the past
Speaker 1: eleven years. Nearly two years after Nick's case was closed,
Speaker 1: a Houston Police Department sergeant was fired and seven others
Speaker 1: punished after an internal investigation of the Homicide Division determined
Speaker 1: that nearly two dozen murder cases were ignored or investigative
Speaker 1: work was shoddy. A kron News article stated, the chief
Speaker 1: said the investigation, which began last October, uncovered a long
Speaker 1: list of deficiencies in one of HPD's approximately ten detective
Speaker 1: squads in the Homicide Division. The shortcomings include detectives who
Speaker 1: failed to conduct the required follow up investigation in cases
Speaker 1: assigned them after they did preliminary work at the crime scene.
Speaker 1: When the follow up was conducted, it was deficient. Of
Speaker 1: those who did additional field work, many failed to timely
Speaker 1: enter their field notes into the case files or never did.
Speaker 1: More recently, an investigation found from October twenty fourteen through
Speaker 1: twenty twenty four when a code designated SL was used
Speaker 1: to suspend two hundred sixty four thousand cases due to
Speaker 1: staffing shortages. The code was officially retired by the department
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty one, but was found to still be
Speaker 1: in use as late as February of twenty twenty four. Now,
Speaker 1: before we get way off in the weeds on Jordan's
Speaker 1: Nick Simon theory, we need to acknowledge something This could
Speaker 1: have been a legitimate accident, and Keys never mentioned it
Speaker 1: directly or insinuated involvement. He did tell the FBI he
Speaker 1: had more things to discuss about Texas, but never elaborated.
Speaker 1: He also told them he had been losing control of
Speaker 1: himself toward the end. The fact that he could be
Speaker 1: responsible for three to four murders after Samantha Konik seems
Speaker 1: like it could be a stretch, But then you recall
Speaker 1: a comment Keys made late into the investigation. What we're
Speaker 1: talking about we could be talking about ten times as
Speaker 1: many cases, which, as I mentioned earlier in the series,
Speaker 1: could mean up to forty or fifty crimes. We also
Speaker 1: have to wonder, with all these coincidences perfectly falling in
Speaker 1: line with the things we know about Keys's habits, methods,
Speaker 1: and tactics, if it really is a series of wild coincidences,
Speaker 1: and how many coincidences can realistically line up before you
Speaker 1: are no longer looking at random events, but aspects of
Speaker 1: a pattern indicative of intentional action. So with that in mind,
Speaker 1: let's look at where we know Keys was at the
Speaker 1: time the fire was being dealt with Israel. Keys arrived
Speaker 1: back in Texas to Heidi's home near Lufkin at ten
Speaker 1: pm on March eighth, twenty twelve. The next place we
Speaker 1: can definitively place him is at the Houston Community Bank
Speaker 1: now Independent Financial at fifteen fifteen Farm to Market nineteen
Speaker 1: sixty by pass road. This is where Keyes went to
Speaker 1: an at M in Humble, Texas to use Samantha Konig's
Speaker 1: debit card on March tenth at eleven twenty three p
Speaker 1: m Alaskans standard time. This converts to two twenty three
Speaker 1: a m. Central Standard time. We know that Keys had
Speaker 1: small bills from the Azel Bank robbery on his person
Speaker 1: at the time of his arrest, and March ninth is
Speaker 1: the only date that really makes sense for him to
Speaker 1: have traveled back to Houston to get those small bills,
Speaker 1: because that's the first time we see travel as far
Speaker 1: south as Houston on this trip. His use of this
Speaker 1: at M and Humble makes zero sense unless he was
Speaker 1: on his way back northbound to Luffkin from Houston. This
Speaker 1: at M is about a two and a half hour
Speaker 1: drive south from Lufkin, but a mere twenty seven miles
Speaker 1: from nineteen o eight d Smute Street, and it's also
Speaker 1: right on the main and most direct route north back
Speaker 1: to Lufkin from Houston. Key stated that he had stashed
Speaker 1: the bills from the Azel Bank robbery near the Houston Airport.
Speaker 1: The house on Dismute is five and a half miles
Speaker 1: away from the William P. Hobby International Airport in Houston,
Speaker 1: and it's just passed an off ramp from Interstate forty five.
Speaker 1: Keys would only have to take two turns to get
Speaker 1: from that house to the airport, and it would have
Speaker 1: only taken about ten minutes with traffic. Keys told the
Speaker 1: FBI in his July tenth, twenty twelve interview, that he
Speaker 1: had used arson to cover up murders, giving some pretty
Speaker 1: on the nose info on how to make it convincing.
Speaker 2: I read a story once about an elderly couple that
Speaker 2: but I think it was like an arson or something
Speaker 2: like that, where you know, like to try to cover
Speaker 2: up the body.
Speaker 6: Since that the kind of thing you're talking about, not specifically,
Speaker 6: but no, I know.
Speaker 7: What you're saying, where they were probably killed, they recovered
Speaker 7: the bodies and uh, you know in the house fire,
Speaker 7: and you know, on on inspection they're they think they're
Speaker 7: probably dead.
Speaker 2: Before the fire too.
Speaker 6: So, yeah, is that the kind of thing you're talking
Speaker 6: about No, you can.
Speaker 3: Get around the.
Speaker 2: Like, get around that house.
Speaker 3: So, oh, just the whole I no, I I know
Speaker 3: what you're saying.
Speaker 4: Like though, people try to use fires to cover up murder,
Speaker 4: but right, if you don't plant it out right, it
Speaker 4: doesn't work.
Speaker 2: Usually they can tell that they were dead or.
Speaker 3: Right, cause the body's not gonna burn up all the ways.
Speaker 3: So you have to make sure that.
Speaker 4: Whoever whoever's in the fire has to still be breathing
Speaker 4: when the fire is going.
Speaker 2: I don't know else it doesn't work so that the
Speaker 2: smoke kills them or something like that. Right, So, but
Speaker 2: you were talking about a folly that wasn't gonna be
Speaker 2: decomposed enough. That's what I'm not understanding, right.
Speaker 4: Yeah, cause I wasn't planning on it. I wasn't planning
Speaker 4: on going back and getting rid of it. I was
Speaker 4: just gonna I was just hoping that I thought it
Speaker 4: would be found that. I just was hoping it would
Speaker 4: be enough time there, uh, that they wouldn't be able
Speaker 4: to figure out that it wasn't natural causes kind of.
Speaker 2: That's so like you're talking about somebody just found in
Speaker 2: a house that wouldn't be messed for a really long
Speaker 2: time or something like that.
Speaker 6: No, that's a good idea, though kind of hard to
Speaker 6: figure out.
Speaker 1: While I am aware of the danger in confirmation bias,
Speaker 1: this entire section of the interview rings eerily similar to
Speaker 1: the theory of events surrounding Nick's death. The arson investigator
Speaker 1: notes in the police file that there was a four
Speaker 1: rent sign found in the yard, and there's no indication
Speaker 1: the property was for sale or rent at all between
Speaker 1: two thousand and six and twenty twelve. We know Keys
Speaker 1: used realty websites and magazines to scout vacant and abandoned
Speaker 1: locations for his crimes, so is it possible that he
Speaker 1: stumbled upon this property on Craigslist or some other reality magazine.
Speaker 1: As demonstrated in the Alito Fire Azel robbery, Keys liked
Speaker 1: to watch the fires. He spent about four and a
Speaker 1: half hours between lighting the Alito fire and robbing the
Speaker 1: Azel bank, but the distance between the two is only
Speaker 1: about twenty miles or thirty five minutes of driving. He
Speaker 1: said he got carried away watching the fire, something he'd
Speaker 1: state while confessing to several of his crimes. He got
Speaker 1: carried away and lost track of time. If he did
Speaker 1: in fact set fire to the house on Dsmute Street,
Speaker 1: then stayed around to watch the response. The homicide detectives
Speaker 1: didn't even arrive on scene until eleven thirty six pm,
Speaker 1: more than two hours after receiving the initial hang up call,
Speaker 1: and they didn't leave the scene until around four thirty am,
Speaker 1: so Keys would have had plenty of time to get
Speaker 1: to his safe space to watch the house burn down. Notably,
Speaker 1: half a block from the house is an outdoor recreation
Speaker 1: facility and two blocks away as a forested park. We
Speaker 1: also know that Keys brought the police scanner that he'd
Speaker 1: used during the Conig kidnapping with him to Texas. It
Speaker 1: was found in his suit case when he was arrested.
Speaker 1: He used this for situational awareness purposes while going to ATMs.
Speaker 1: We also know that he used it to see where
Speaker 1: the cops were while he was staking out common grounds.
Speaker 1: He noted that he didn't approach the coffee shop until
Speaker 1: he had heard that there was some commotion in downtown
Speaker 1: Anchorage that night. If he set the fire on Dsmuque Street,
Speaker 1: he could have used the scanner to hear when the
Speaker 1: fire and police departments were dispatched, and there were approximate
Speaker 1: ETAs to the scene and the police radio frequencies that
Speaker 1: we found scribbled on his travel itinerary, the one seized
Speaker 1: from his rental car upon his arrest, well, they substantiate.
Speaker 1: This one was for the East Harris County Fire Dispatch.
Speaker 1: Houston is in East Harris County, and another was for
Speaker 1: the South Houston Volunteer Fire Department. As far as we know,
Speaker 1: Keys had no activity in Houston other than his use
Speaker 1: of the Humble Texas ATM, So why would he need
Speaker 1: two separate Houston area Fire Department dispatch frequencies unless he
Speaker 1: played and to set fire to an abandoned house in Houston.
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Speaker 1: com slash tc bs. The timing between the fire on
Speaker 1: d Smukee Street in the Humble City atm withdrawal is
Speaker 1: nearly identical to that between the Alito fire and the
Speaker 1: Azal robbery. The fire was reported at approximately nine to
Speaker 1: eighteen pm. The fire department arrived a minute later and
Speaker 1: fought the fire until ten sixteen pm, at which point
Speaker 1: the fire was out and Nick's body was discovered. Homicide
Speaker 1: detectives arrived at the scene at eleven thirty six pm.
Speaker 1: If Keys did in fact light this fire and stayed
Speaker 1: to watch the response, as he did in Nasl, he
Speaker 1: likely would have been there from nine fifteen the ignition
Speaker 1: of the fire until around two am. And as I
Speaker 1: said previously, the Humble City atm was used at two
Speaker 1: twenty three am and as a direct highway drive north
Speaker 1: from Dusmute Street approximately twenty five minutes, and that same
Speaker 1: highway leads directly to Lufkin, where Keys was staying. He
Speaker 1: suspective Keys was involved based on the evidence and totality
Speaker 1: of the known circumstances. The sequence of events leaves a
Speaker 1: couple possibilities on how this incident transpired. First, Keys may
Speaker 1: have staked the house out back in February decided to
Speaker 1: use it either as a site to take a victim
Speaker 1: or a place to stash his items he wanted to
Speaker 1: cash on his return trip to Texas, or to just
Speaker 1: burn it down for his own enjoyment two, he could
Speaker 1: have planned on taking someone there, or may have even
Speaker 1: taken Nick there after abducting him. There's also the possibility
Speaker 1: that he may have stashed things there without realizing Nick
Speaker 1: was even in the house. If Nick and Keys did
Speaker 1: cross paths, we suspect Keys could have either laid in
Speaker 1: wait for someone to wander in, either inside the house
Speaker 1: or nearby in a vehicle. He also may have been
Speaker 1: interrupted or surprised by Nick's presence in the house while
Speaker 1: retrieving items there. I believe some type of struggle then
Speaker 1: likely occurred, culminating in the explosion reported by several witnesses,
Speaker 1: which we believe could have been a muzzled twenty two
Speaker 1: caliber gunshot. The fire department and medical examiner noted a
Speaker 1: small lump of silver colored metal melted to the victim's
Speaker 1: skin just below the left ear on his neck, and
Speaker 1: Jordan believes this could be a twenty two l R bullet.
Speaker 1: Jordan was unable to verify if the small lump of
Speaker 1: metal is in fact a twenty two round due to
Speaker 1: Houston p D refusing to provide any photographs or any
Speaker 1: of the items that were on Nick's person when he died.
Speaker 1: We also took into consideration that this item could have
Speaker 1: been a cheap earring that may have melted in the
Speaker 1: fire and dripped onto Nick's neck. However, in the only
Speaker 1: photos we've been able to obtain of Nick, it doesn't
Speaker 1: appear that either of his ears were pierced. A twenty
Speaker 1: two long rifle round can be melted over a campfire.
Speaker 1: When melted in flat out, it is silvery in color
Speaker 1: and would be about the size of a dime. Completely flat,
Speaker 1: The diameter unmelted iszer point to two inches. As stated before,
Speaker 1: numerous witnesses reported a small explosion just prior to the fire,
Speaker 1: one witness stating it sounded like a tire blowout. A
Speaker 1: twenty two is a notoriously quiet gun. In a study
Speaker 1: conducted by the Council of Accreditation in Hearing Conservation in
Speaker 1: twenty fourteen, a comparison of the decibel levels of muzzle
Speaker 1: reports of numerous firearms was documented. In the study, eleven
Speaker 1: different makes and models of twenty two caliber firearms were
Speaker 1: fired and the decibel level was measured and collected. These
Speaker 1: eleven firearms muzzle reports ranged between one thirty nine to
Speaker 1: one fifty seven decibels. To put this in more relatable terms,
Speaker 1: This decibel level is similar to a commercially available firecracker
Speaker 1: that you would use on Fourth of July and a
Speaker 1: tire blow out from outside the vehicle with an average
Speaker 1: p s I of thirty pounds per square inch is
Speaker 1: rated at around one twenty to one twenty five decibels,
Speaker 1: so giving an amount of sound dampering provided from a
Speaker 1: gunshot occurring indoors, you'd be looking at a sound much
Speaker 1: closer to the sound of a tire blowout if you
Speaker 1: heard it from outside the house. And I say this
Speaker 1: all because it's relevant. Keys was arrested with a Torus
Speaker 1: Model ninety four nine shot twenty two l R Revolver,
Speaker 1: though it wasn't reported as evidence sees in the FBI's reports.
Speaker 1: Keys did have a couple of boxes of twenty two
Speaker 1: caliber ammunition with him upon his arrest, and one full
Speaker 1: speed loader. One was a shot shell type round and
Speaker 1: the others were long rifle hollow points. What's odd is
Speaker 1: each box was only missing one round. One typically shoots
Speaker 1: more than one round during target practice, and having one
Speaker 1: round missing from a box is odd. The hollow point
Speaker 1: box is missing ten rounds from the box, with nine
Speaker 1: being inside the speed loader, which is a device that
Speaker 1: saves a shooter from having to load all the rounds
Speaker 1: in a revolver one by one. Now, again, all of
Speaker 1: these things are coincidental on their own, but when you
Speaker 1: view them in context, it starts to look more like
Speaker 1: a pattern, and the totality leans much more into the
Speaker 1: realm of circumstantial evidence than it does coincidence. And if
Speaker 1: that weren't enough, let's add one final little wrinkle to
Speaker 1: the story. We know that despite numerous tips leads in
Speaker 1: sightings of him with other men, Keys always denied to
Speaker 1: the FBI that he ever had an accomplice and that
Speaker 1: no other people were involved in the crimes he committed.
Speaker 1: But as we've also come to realize, Israel Keys is
Speaker 1: a goddamn liar. Earlier this Jordan obtained and re examined
Speaker 1: the case file from the Azel Police Department on the
Speaker 1: bank robbery we know Keys committed in February of twenty twelve,
Speaker 1: and as he was going through the file, something very
Speaker 1: strange jumped out at him, something he had never read before.
Speaker 1: Two separate eyewitnesses describe a man talking to someone in
Speaker 1: Kisa's rental car or standing around it and smoking in
Speaker 1: the time immediately prior to the robbery. This man was
Speaker 1: described as behaving like a lookout or a potential getaway driver.
Speaker 1: And this man matches Nick Simon's physical description. He was
Speaker 1: talking to someone in Kisa's driver's seat and was at
Speaker 1: a separate time observed smoking a cigar and drinking an
Speaker 1: energy drink.
Speaker 2: And so in this case on the bank robbery, while
Speaker 2: we're waiting for that article, you smoked a cigar out
Speaker 2: back or something before you went in the bank, remember that, Yeah, probably, Yeah.
Speaker 1: Here's the summary of witness one's interview. He informed me
Speaker 1: that at approximately twelve thirty two, he observed a white
Speaker 1: male wearing a blue button up shirt, blue jeans, blonde
Speaker 1: shaggy hair, drinking an energy drink and smoking a cigar
Speaker 1: on the east side of the building from a camera
Speaker 1: monitor from inside the store. And here's the summary from
Speaker 1: the second witness interview. The witness advised that he observed
Speaker 1: a white male standing next to the Kia Soul speaking
Speaker 1: with another person sitting inside the Kia in the driver's seat.
Speaker 1: Witness too described the white male as wearing blue jeans,
Speaker 1: brown boots, a cream colored cowboy hat, a dark button
Speaker 1: up shirt and a blond beard. Nick was about five
Speaker 1: foot eight with shaggy blonde hair and in the photo
Speaker 1: Jordan found online, wore a goateee. Nick was also found
Speaker 1: with a pre paid wal Mart money card on his body,
Speaker 1: which is one of the ways keys laundered moneys from
Speaker 1: robberies he committed, and we know that one was found
Speaker 1: on Keys upon his which begs the question was Nick
Speaker 1: involved somehow in the bank robbery as a getaway driver?
Speaker 1: Does this explain the arson was Keys just covering his
Speaker 1: trail and tying up loose ends. If Keyes did kill Nick,
Speaker 1: which both Jordan and retired Detective Sergeant JJ Wilson, who
Speaker 1: was the lead homicide investigator, seemed to be in agreement enough,
Speaker 1: it could have been random or over the money from
Speaker 1: the robbery. And as it's been well established, Nick was
Speaker 1: down on his luck. He was having money troubles, and
Speaker 1: there have been numerous sightings all over the country of
Speaker 1: keys hanging out in food banks and food halls. In
Speaker 1: twenty twenty two, Jordan compiled all of this information and
Speaker 1: submitted it to the cold case unit at Houston PD.
Speaker 1: This was never investigated as anything other than a drug
Speaker 1: impaired accident, Arson could not rule Arson out, and Homicide
Speaker 1: could not investigate it as a homicide unless Arson could
Speaker 1: be proven, and these policies allowed this case to fall
Speaker 1: through the cracks. Keys wasn't on law enforcement's radar until
Speaker 1: later in twenty twelve, and there's no mention of the
Speaker 1: FBI reaching out to Houston PD at all about Nick's case.
Speaker 1: They did, however, reach out to Houston PDEE about area
Speaker 1: missing persons cases, which Nick obviously was not included in.
Speaker 1: Jordan made contact with Detective Sergeant J. J. Wilson and
Speaker 1: Detective Rick Moreno. Wilson is now retired and lives in
Speaker 1: a different state, and Moreno was working with a different
Speaker 1: police department in Texas. Detective Moreno was very agreeable to help,
Speaker 1: but was then in the process of rotating from the
Speaker 1: gang unit to the vice unit when the crime occurred.
Speaker 1: Who was only in homicide for a month during the
Speaker 1: transfer and no longer has his notes from that transitional period.
Speaker 1: Detective Wilson spoke to Jordan, and upon hearing him out,
Speaker 1: offered to look for his notes as well. Houston Arson
Speaker 1: appears to have all of Wilson's notes on the case
Speaker 1: and would not allow him to get them back, nor
Speaker 1: will they release anything from their file to us without
Speaker 1: a subpoena or court order. But Wilson did note that
Speaker 1: you know more about the incident than they do. He believes,
Speaker 1: with all the information that Jordan provided to him, that
Speaker 1: Keys should be looked at for this incident, and that
Speaker 1: based on all the information he has, Keys would be
Speaker 1: the most likely suspect, and that leaves us with Houston's
Speaker 1: cold case unit, which has never followed up on or
Speaker 1: responded to Jordan's submission or any of his follow up eemales.
Speaker 1: Wilson did reiterate what we unfortunately heard in regard to
Speaker 1: the case of James Lamart Hitwell and Mark Julian Oldberry.
Speaker 1: Even if Keyes is responsible, he is dead, so we
Speaker 1: can't prosecute, or, as the Rusk County Sheriff's Office so
Speaker 1: eloquently put it, we're not in the business of chasing ghosts. This,
Speaker 1: unfortunately seems to be where Texas law enforcement is content
Speaker 1: to leave cases. There's no living suspect, there's no reason
Speaker 1: to continue to look into things. Unfortunately, that seems to
Speaker 1: extend to the victim's families. They are the most important
Speaker 1: reason to continue to look into things. Even if the
Speaker 1: suspect is dead, that is still an answer to what happened,
Speaker 1: and they still deserve an answer, regardless the circumstances of
Speaker 1: their loved one's life or the ability to prosecute.
Speaker 5: Now, I would see now sere.
Speaker 8: S tell Jaday.
Speaker 1: This episode was written, researched, and produced by Jordan Taylor,
Speaker 1: with additional writing and editing from Josh Hallmark and research
Speaker 1: assistants by Michelle Tooker. Jordan would like to thank jj Wilson,
Speaker 1: Rick Moreno, and aj Green for their grace, cooperation and assistance.
Speaker 1: He would also like to say no thank you to
Speaker 1: Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and the Houston Arson Bureau
Speaker 1: for preventing the disclosure of records on a case that
Speaker 1: was closed eleven years ago. Sources include Houston p D,
Speaker 1: Harris County Office of Forensics, KRON News, ABC News, and
Speaker 1: the Azel Police Department. This episode was made possible by
Speaker 1: the following Patreon producers, Amy Basil, Kendall, c Ash Fish,
Speaker 1: Heather Horton, Wheedon, Sherry d Kristin Hoffmandale Accident, Stephanie Taylor,
Speaker 1: Drew Vipond, and Meie Hancock. Christina Assistant Nicole and Dennis Henry,
Speaker 1: Gillian Natalilna Holiday, Rural Juror, Tuesday Woodworth, Kathleen s And,
Speaker 1: nat L Casey, Jensen, Richardson, S C, Benjamin Chopathon, Trista,
Speaker 1: Nicole Pink, Gen j Robin Carroll, h Beth Jones, Michelle
Speaker 1: Jordan M Kate Lusier, Sarah C. John Comery, Kathy Nation,
Speaker 1: Virginia Williams, Carry, Jordan t Bethany, David Begley, Ali, Lauren Faery,
Speaker 1: Chris s Tory Meyer, Sabrina Abbott, Magandagel, Melissa, Trakia, Ashley Cooplan,
Speaker 1: Michael Randall, Dwayne C, Jencola and Trixie. Thank you to
Speaker 1: Studio Both, Anne's newest Patreon supporters, Summer Brittany Kimberly c
Speaker 1: Adele m Rob d and render It. To support the
Speaker 1: investigation and get AD free episodes, go to Patreon dot
Speaker 1: com slash Studio both And. This episode included music by
Speaker 1: Kevin McLoud, Serge Taramisanov, selection, Chris Hogan, and Radical Face
Speaker 1: with featured music by Sea Bear.
Speaker 8: Billiopi, Willia five in the nine Fallen Now These Babi.
Speaker 3: Fyi Fi.
Speaker 5: Gettys, They was mad Warning Stole out basket, Where us
Speaker 5: you be, how us she be?
Speaker 3: So Illium by.
Speaker 5: Ellis, by singing the nine bill ba