Speaker 1: Sword and Scale contains adult themes and violence, and is
not intended for all audiences.
Speaker 2: Listener discretion is advice.
Speaker 3: She couldn't even defend herself. Look how big he was.
Speaker 1: All right, don't get used to this. This isn't gonna
be the new norm. We aren't gonna do two episodes
a week, every week forever. I mean, do you want
to kill me? This is season twelve, episode two to ninety,
Sword and Scale, show that reveals it the worst monsters. No,
I missed it, damn it all right, let me try
to get it. This is season twelve, episode two ninety
of Sword and Scale, a show that reveals it the
worst monsters are real. It was a cold January in Cleveland, Ohio.
Then again, is in every January cold in Cleveland, Ohio.
A thick layer of snow covered the ground and the
sky was gray. Inside the modest downstairs apartment of a
turn of the century house, thirty five year old Denisha
Cooper was pacing through her living room. Her hands were
shaking as she called nine to one one Cleveland.
Speaker 4: I want one to patch the malave.
Speaker 5: I mean, please, fire ambulance, please, what's going on over there?
In a hundred pointin attorney, So reporter miss.
Speaker 4: A child howl is the child even went to the
child's name. Okay, hey, she ever done this before?
Speaker 5: No?
Speaker 6: I put her on the RCaH this morning. God see
NICKI a bus ticket and she knows hep right down
the streets.
Speaker 4: From the police station and.
Speaker 6: I gave her.
Speaker 4: I put her and she ki on the TM hits
the school and the school I had apparentage conference and
I say she never checked hit to school.
Speaker 1: Donisha's fourteen year old daughter, Aliana had not returned home
from school. Aleianna took the RTA bus every day. RTA
stands for Regional Transit Authority and it's basically a city bus.
Even though Denisia was weary of sending her daughter to
school this way, it had never been a problem before.
Speaker 4: What time did you put her on the RTA? It
was about people say when the bus turns out? That bus?
She said a sixth grade this morning? What school? Uh?
Did she go to? Acres?
Speaker 1: Every weekday morning Aleana would get on the bus at
six forty five am and ride halfway to school to
ninety third Street and Kinsman. Then she would transfer onto
another bus which would take her all the way to school,
and she.
Speaker 4: Never made a school this morning at all.
Speaker 6: No, and they usually get out a phone call is
a child that they come to school, but I didn't
get a phone call.
Speaker 1: Denisha never heard anything from Alliana's school about her not
showing up. Normally, they would send her a text message
through the school's messaging service, but Denisha received no notifications
or telephone calls, so she assumed her child was safe
in her classroom with her teacher and peers. But then
Aleanna never returned home. Denisha called the school to check
to see if her daughter was still there. She had
a parent teacher conference scheduled for five PM that evening.
Maybe Aleiana had decided to stick around for some reason.
Speaker 4: Oh that's a lot she didn't just now, okay, all right,
she's trying to get her own car over to you.
Speaker 7: Now.
Speaker 4: What was she seen? What was she worrying when he
last seen her? Call her a funiform brown colt like
swater black pants. Yes, okay, has she ever does this?
Speaker 6: No?
Speaker 5: She never ran away before this said, you know, not
the one just before. Oh, okay, she's trying to get
his own car over to you.
Speaker 4: Now, if anything.
Speaker 5: Happened her for you year back if it's a call back,
because we're gonna have an officer to make a report
for you.
Speaker 4: Okay, okay, thank you.
Speaker 1: Denisha was sick of worry. This was not like Aleianna.
Her daughter was a good kid. She was sweet, shy,
and young.
Speaker 2: For her age.
Speaker 1: She still liked Disney movies and dolls. She was innocent
and inexperienced. The panic of where Aleana could be did
set in. Here's one of the administrators at the eat Prep.
Speaker 8: Like I mentioned, I opened the door physicool every day
for my students and greeted everyone finding I was in
and out of classrooms every day, coaching teachers and stuff.
Speaker 9: I had a lot of interactions with students in the
lunch room Alliana.
Speaker 7: Because I was the first when a contact that egret,
she felt comfortable coming to me often.
Speaker 1: This administrator had a special relationship with a Leana.
Speaker 3: She was never.
Speaker 7: Absent and she was the type of student that loved
coming to school.
Speaker 2: So I.
Speaker 7: Don't have the data in front of me, but I
just haven't.
Speaker 1: I know she was in school all the time, so
when she heard she was missing, she sprung into action
and I put my coat on and.
Speaker 7: My director of critualm and instruction went on to the
library to see if she was there. My first instinct
was maybe she just didn't come to school because she
was at the library. I don't know, I just that
was my instinct.
Speaker 1: She checked the library, but no a Leana. However, there
were other places and other libraries that she might be at.
Speaker 9: You got in my car and we drove to the
library at our earth bus stop on Kidsmen to see
if she was there.
Speaker 3: So that was happening.
Speaker 2: I was on the boat with Missus Cooper.
Speaker 7: While also calling the police to follow up. At that point,
the police were at Ethro, so I went back to
school to talk with the almost.
Speaker 1: Back at the school, the staff talked with the police.
As concern grew. Everyone who knew Aleana could tell something
was very wrong.
Speaker 7: The police officer was there.
Speaker 9: He wanted to take my statement and learn more about Aliana.
At the time, the officer had felt like maybe she
was just a typical.
Speaker 1: Kid and run away.
Speaker 7: And I had told the officer that that was in
my gut. I knew Aliana that was not something should do.
Speaker 2: And so.
Speaker 7: He told me that he would go back on to.
Speaker 9: The community and myself and three of my staff members
continued to call parents and.
Speaker 7: Call students to find out if anyone had any understanding
of where she was. I go home.
Speaker 9: I called us to Scooper to let you know, you
stay on the phone.
Speaker 3: That had high night she called.
Speaker 7: I remember missus were calling me around midnight that night,
just keeping in touch.
Speaker 1: Nobody slept that night, not Denisha Cooper, not any of
the school staff, not any of her friends or extended family.
Everyone was busy making a plan for how to find her,
and the next day they got to work.
Speaker 9: The next morning, we set up a system where my
school and a few of our other schools brought teachers
and staff over and we'd canvass the area with flyers
and we divided the city up, so myself and my
director of Crikham Instruction we went as far as Tower City.
We had folks up and down nine third, up and
down all the neighborhood.
Speaker 7: We were there looking That evening.
Speaker 9: I went to a community event with the peacekeepers and
Alianna's family.
Speaker 3: There was a.
Speaker 7: News media there.
Speaker 9: We wanted to do a call to the community to
find out if anyone had any information about her.
Speaker 7: Pray that night and that was at the.
Speaker 1: End of that night, the community rallied together in search
of Aliana, and the faculty at E Prep took charge. Meanwhile,
the police were starting their investigation, retracing their steps. Every
weekday morning, Aleana would catch the number fourteen bus and
ride it to ninety third and Kinsman. Then she'd transferred
to another bus which took her down ninety third to
her school. This was not the best area between Kinsman
and E Prep. Ninety third Street was home to a
few churches, auto shops, vacant lots, and some houses. The
officers searched every location for Aliana and took note of
where they could collect surveillance footage along her bus route,
but they started with the video footage from the bus
she got on the day she went missing.
Speaker 3: That point, I did review the video.
Speaker 2: It was a couple of things that we saw on
the video.
Speaker 10: Was talking to any younger age kid approxily her age phiscol,
aage kid that you know. Peat that interest because she
she was having for a conversation with him.
Speaker 2: And then there was also another adult nail that was.
Speaker 10: Seen on that video who was seen exiting the boss
fan Aleana bid and exit the bus.
Speaker 2: That beat our interest as well.
Speaker 1: The man in the video footage did more than just
talk to Aliana on the bus.
Speaker 3: He had gotten off the bus, falling Aliena's saint path.
Speaker 11: Alianda was going to where she was crossing East many
third Street to the other side. Then that mail in
that video appeared to reach out and say something.
Speaker 2: Never in the crosslot that kind of peat our interurse.
Speaker 10: It's an older adult mail and had no conversation with
her whatsoever on the bus reached out and that's the
period that's something to her in that crossland.
Speaker 1: The man in the RTA bus footage sat facing the
front with his white hoodie pulled up. As Aliana exits
the bus, he looks up, grabs his two bags, and
gets off the bus behind her. He yells something as
they both cross the busy intersection, but Aleana keeps walking
until she gets to the other side of the street.
That's when the footage ends. The bus continues its route.
Speaker 2: So what do you do next?
Speaker 11: At that point I started to check bake it last
in the area of ninety third and kidsmen also on
the path of kidsmen.
Speaker 1: To union the score, so they kept searching. Soon the
FBI got involved. Denisea handed over her daughter's phone, just
in case there was something on it which she'd found
in her bedroom dresser. Anything on there could help. Still
no Aliana. The whole neighborhood was on high alert in
search of this beloved teenager. It felt like she had
just vanished into thin air. Then police found a body.
Speaker 12: Police have more questions than answers after they discovered the
body of a female inside an abandoned home late last.
Speaker 3: Night, and while investigators wait for a positive ID, there
is concern tonight that it could be that of a
missing fourteen year old Cleveland girl.
Speaker 1: On Sunday, January twenty ninth, twenty seventeen, only three days
after she'd been reported missing, officers searched an abandoned house
just off ninety third Street. Inside the cold and crumbling home,
the police used their flashlights to follow bloody footprints and
smears towards a room. Inside, they found a training bra,
some clothes, a ripped condom wrapper, and the body of
a young black female. She was naked except for a
pair of soft on the built in window bench. Next
to her was an assortment of torture tools, a drill
of Phillips head screwdriver, a nut driver, and a box Cutter.
Speaker 12: There has not been any positive identification of a victim
found in that house on Sunday night, and until there
is positive scientific evidence, we're not going to announce who
that person is. We have a very strong idea based
on evidence and things like that, of who that person is,
and we've talked to that family. We're in constant contact
with that family, but until the medical examinter makes that
positive identification, we don't have an announcement for that.
Speaker 1: The body looked like Aliana, but there had been several
missing women reported in the area, so they had to
be sure. After securing her dental records, it was confirmed.
Speaker 2: I went home.
Speaker 9: I went home, and then a few hours later I
got a call my boss to let me know what
had happened.
Speaker 7: I had to call all her teachers, I had to
call her ones, tell everybody what about my school. She's
my student, it's our community. I just felt like everyone
had been putting so much time and effort into finding
Heart that we needed everyone needed to know what had happened.
Speaker 1: As far as anyone could tell, a Leanna had been
mercilessly tortured and killed in this terrifying house with its
cracked door frames, scurrying rats and peeling wallpaper. Now the
police had to follow the breadcrumbs of video footage to
find the person who killed her. Fourteen year old Aliana
de Frieze had mysteriously disappeared one January afternoon on her
bus ride to school. The entire community had banded together
to find her, but it was the police who eventually
discovered the dead body of Aliana in an abandoned home
just off her bus route on ninety third Street. This
area of Cleveland, Ohio was littered with abandoned and crumbling homes.
Over the past few years, five women had gone missing
near ninety third Street, their bodies mutilated and dumped like trash.
All the murders had remained unsolved. Like we said before,
this was not a safe area. Crime had started to
fester there among the abandoned homes, and the women who
were killed before Aliana were adults caught up in that
dark world. But after what happened to Aliana, an innocent
school kid, officials started to perk up. Some members of
the city council feared the worst.
Speaker 13: This is not a coincidence to me that now this
is the fifth young lady. Then in less than a
mile whose body has been dumped on ninety third and
either in a vacant line or a vacant house.
Speaker 1: This city councilman was convinced a serial killer could be
targeting the East Side neighborhood, but the cops didn't agree.
Speaker 13: Every time I bring it up, they tell me that
I don't know what the hell I'm talking about, that
these aren't connected. Well, like I said, I just want
them to prove me wrong.
Speaker 1: Meanwhile, Aleana's family grieved publicly, and the entire community decided
enough was enough. This was a teenager who had been
taken from her family, and residents who rode the bus
every day with Aliana and kids like her decided to
take turns guarding the last place she had been seen
her bus stop.
Speaker 14: All we're doing is watch, just making sure that didn't
get from one bus to another. I'll be out here
every day to the end of the school year until
they find some other way to get those babies to
school safe.
Speaker 1: As much as it was about preventing future tragedies, this
was also a way to honor Aliana.
Speaker 14: Community is out here and we didn't forget about you
or sorry, did this happen on our watch and we
don't want this to happen again.
Speaker 1: Police continued pulling surveillance footage from around her first bus transfer,
where the man in the white hoodie had followed Alliana
across the street.
Speaker 15: At that point, after seeing that video there and til
the video over the Arch of Us ends, after the
bus keeps me along Thamesman Passas ninety third, I resigned
to Shelley ass Station, which is right on that corner
we're in that passes.
Speaker 3: I went inside there.
Speaker 10: The check to see what kind of video was available
there on the two only had interior video, so I
did watch a little bit of the video.
Speaker 3: There was nothing at the video that indicated me, and
we out of the content.
Speaker 1: The detectives continued pulling video from businesses and churches all
up and down Aleanna's bus route. They kept thinking they
would see the man in the white hoodie again, But
then something strange happened. Another man appeared in the surveillance
footage from her second bus stop, and it was not
the man in the white hoodie. Outside the True Gospel
Mission Baptist Church on East ninety third and Fuller, only
a few blocks away from where she was murdered. Camera
footage showed a black mail pacing back and forth across
the parking lot at around seven am. Then Alana gets
off her bus and crosses the street towards the church.
The black mail then goes up to Aliana and starts
talking to her. She takes a cautious step back. Even
from the grainy video, you can sense the fear in
her body language. Then she scurries away. A few seconds later,
the video catches him following her up the street. It's chilling. Meanwhile,
the community continued to make sure Alana was not forgotten
like the other murdered women before her. Standing the church
video was released to the public and tips soon came
flooding in, but they would prove unnecessary because the killer
had left his DNA all over the crime scene. In
that cold, disgusting house, Alianna had not only been viciously murdered,
tortured with tools, but also raped. The killer's DNA was
like a white flag all over the abandoned house. When
the police sent what they had out for forensic testing,
they found the culprit was already in the system. His
name was Christopher Whittaker. He wasn't hard to find either.
Forty four year old Christopher was an ex con who'd
been living and working in the ninety third Street area.
He had a nineteen year old daughter to himself. But
he was a negligent father, you know, being in and
out of jail and all. Can't be a good father
if you're locked up, you know. Anyway, Christopher had listed
his aunt's house as his last known address, but he
was staying with a girlfriend while he worked when he could.
And when I say he worked, I mean he did
random construction like tasks on homes for a buddy. I'll
explain in a second. Anyway, he couldn't do much else
given the lengthy criminal history.
Speaker 3: Do you know him? Have you ever seen a news
or anything recently in the past week or so?
Speaker 16: You know what's going on in that area? Yeah, so
then you know why I'm asking all these questions.
Speaker 2: Yea, I know.
Speaker 3: I Are you o familiar with the girl that went missing?
Speaker 2: I do not know anything.
Speaker 3: You know where when you were over there working or anything?
Did you ever see her?
Speaker 2: Never? I wasn't even out there. Early in the morning
first we had heard about it. I was in the
car with uh raised brother t. We were going to
move a.
Speaker 17: Friend of his and we saw a lady passing out
flyers and we stopped and he grabbed two flyers and
we was reading the flyers. First when you heard about it.
Speaker 3: What day was that?
Speaker 16: Do you know?
Speaker 3: Mm?
Speaker 17: It was like, uh that Yeah, I did go back
over there that Friday because I went the have to move.
Speaker 16: Okay, so Friday you were fuller, yeah, and I went
back on Yeah, and people were passing out the flyers.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 17: It was I don't know if she was white or
part recon or something. And she was staying right there.
In ninety third kids were passing out flyers, some.
Speaker 16: Females passing on flyers. So nothing about her looks familiar.
Speaker 3: You don't know her.
Speaker 16: You have no information as to her whereabouts or what
happened to her from you, What what's the next thing
that you heard about what was going on over there?
Speaker 2: Ian? What I heard on the news? What did you
hear on the news they discovered the body?
Speaker 4: Uh?
Speaker 2: They wasn't releasing much information. I mean, I don't know,
just basically what I heard on the news.
Speaker 1: Christopher said that the only thing he knew about Aliana
was the same thing anyone else did, but the police
knew that he was involved. His DNA was literally everywhere.
Instead of bashing him with the cold hard evidence right away,
they wanted to see him squirm a bit. It's fun
and cops need to have fun too sometimes.
Speaker 3: Were you were in that house?
Speaker 17: I mean, I'm not gonna lie. Yeah, we went in
the house, me tea and what's this? Uh the other
guy's name, what they call him?
Speaker 2: What is his nickname? They call him boogie? What boogie Boogie?
Speaker 17: Yeah, I mean we went We took the hot water
heater in the furnace out and took compete couple pieces
of uh, some wiring, some you know, little metal stuff
connected to the pharnace.
Speaker 3: Took that out and so you're talking about the piping
and wiring, Yeah, took it, take scrap. How long was that?
Speaker 2: It's like Bond two'sday when we use there.
Speaker 1: Oh and by construction work, I also mean that Christopher
and his friends would go into abandoned houses and dismantle
whatever parts they could use, like hot water heaters, sinks, pipes,
or scrap metal. They were scrounging, you know, like rats
like furmit.
Speaker 3: Where did you guy spark the vehicle to load all
this stuff up?
Speaker 17: We just put it on like a car a shopping
cart and took it up the street, and the next
morning you put it in a van.
Speaker 2: And took it to the home started.
Speaker 3: Do you know how much you got for it?
Speaker 2: S not m's like it was like thirty seven dollars
split between three people.
Speaker 1: Thirty seven dollars, just three grown men stealing metal from
abandoned houses and lugging it out in a also stolen
shopping cart, then trading it in at a scrap yard
for a measly thirty seven dollars to split three ways,
instead of just, oh, I don't know, flipping a burger
or maybe even delivering a burger these days for way more.
But nah, nah, just keep doing what you're doing. Why
would anyone resort to such a low level cash grab?
Speaker 3: Oh?
Speaker 1: Right, right right? His criminal record keeps coming back to that,
doesn't it. Let's just keep all of this in mind
while we listened to Christopher spin his little web.
Speaker 16: Well, if I was to tell you that we found
your DNA inside the house and the upstairs, would that
surprise you?
Speaker 2: Probably through your kitchen?
Speaker 16: Maybe, so I can tell you that we didn't find
your DNA in the kitchen. That's not the room that
we found your DNA in. That's the reason I'm asking
you if you went into any other part.
Speaker 3: Of the house, you know your DNA is on file.
Speaker 16: I mean.
Speaker 3: The case, Yeah, for the kitchen isn't where we found
it because there was nothing in the kitchen.
Speaker 16: The kitchen was empty. The dying room was where we
found your DNA. Do you want to think about whether
or not you were in that room at all? But
then i'd explain your DNA and actually your print and
then walked.
Speaker 2: Around the house.
Speaker 17: But we just didn't want I mean, it's like we
didn't focus in there like we in here trying to
see what it's in here.
Speaker 2: We just looked around.
Speaker 17: I mean, I'm not saying debasement in the dining room
was the only thing we looked at. I mean we
looked around out, but I didn't go around the house
like just trying to see what's all in here we
can take.
Speaker 3: Did you find anything in any of the other rooms
that you guys took or touched or no.
Speaker 17: I did go upstairs because we went to see if
they had a cast iron tub up there, because cast
iron tubs?
Speaker 3: Are you talking about? Second floor?
Speaker 2: Yeah, we went up to the vadroom and looked came
back down.
Speaker 1: Christopher said that they walked around, poking their heads in
each dilapidated room, trying to salvage anything of value that
someone else hadn't already ripped from the homes carcass. But
it was jittery as he spoke, a little nervous. What's wrong, Chris, I'm.
Speaker 2: Trying to get it right when I'm sitting here.
Speaker 17: I'm nervous because I'm actually in the house that this
girl's body was found here.
Speaker 3: So I'm like, that's understand I want to get right. Yeah,
and I understand that.
Speaker 16: Getting back to her now, now that we've got the
house down, Pat, you've never met her, you've never seen
it before. You didn't recognize her when you saw the flyer. Okay,
she's not a friend of yours or somebody that you
talked to on the street when you were working on
the street.
Speaker 2: I would have no reason to street til fourteen.
Speaker 3: Well, sure, she's a fourteen year old girl. I can
understand that.
Speaker 16: So then then my next question would be, can you
explain how your DNA, your seamen would have ended up
inside her?
Speaker 2: About that?
Speaker 3: You don't know anything about that.
Speaker 2: I'm I wasn't even over there own that day.
Speaker 16: Okay, you weren't over there, then I've got to wonder
how your seamen.
Speaker 3: Could have ended up inside of her.
Speaker 16: So now we have your DNA inside the house, we
have your fingerprints inside the house, and now now we
have your DNA inside of her.
Speaker 1: Christopher sat there across from the detective with his broad
shoulders slumped forward. He looked like a gigantic toddler being
punished in his naughty chair. The flyer of Aliana was
on the table in front of him, her smiling, innocent
face looking in his direction, but instead he just stared
at his hands.
Speaker 3: There's going to be more things that are going to
come up once they're finished testing it. So I'm asking
you this.
Speaker 5: Now.
Speaker 16: You can get in front of this straighten us out,
tell your side of the story, or you can just
let us assume whatever we want to.
Speaker 3: It's up to you, right, you want to explain to
us what happened?
Speaker 2: I must explain you for really, well, sure you do.
Speaker 3: How did you meet her? How did you get to
talking to her? Did you see her before that day? Never? Well, then,
how did you get talking to her? Tell us what happened?
Speaker 1: Christopher refused to look up. The detective pushed the picture
of Aleana closer to him and tapped her pen on it.
Speaker 16: So why don't you just tell us how you came
upon Aliana that's her name, How you came upon her,
how you got your talking to her, How did that
come about?
Speaker 2: What happened? Crazy?
Speaker 5: What is that?
Speaker 3: It's crazy? What did you run name?
Speaker 17: I'm a crack and I get high and I do
stupid shit for people for moment.
Speaker 1: Okay, the scrap metal scrounging makes a little more sense, now,
doesn't it.
Speaker 17: Everybody you hang with that you smoke with or get
hide with, you don't know everybody you deal with. Sure,
you don't know everybody's situation or how everybody got in
that situation. So I mean for me to sit in
and try to put the names or faces to everything
that went on that night or that morning, I I
it's probably impossible cause I was high.
Speaker 3: So you're telling me there was more than just you?
Speaker 4: There?
Speaker 3: Is that what you're saying?
Speaker 13: Chris?
Speaker 2: By the time I realized how old this girl was,
I left. Okay, I left and it was.
Speaker 17: Other smokers around. Yeah, I mean, like late at night,
you tryna find out. You don't know who to ask. So,
I mean, smokers come together to get high whatever what not.
Speaker 2: You don't even know.
Speaker 17: It's like I might not know you if you were
getting high and I'm l like, you know where it
gets something at?
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, when you gonna look out for me? You
have whatever? I mean, how this little girl got involved
after it? That?
Speaker 16: You know?
Speaker 2: And if I could go back to this day and
prevent what happened from happening, I would.
Speaker 17: Had I been in the house for the remainder of
that day, I probably would have never let anything happen.
Speaker 1: As a taxpayer, aren't you sick of this shit? Just
asking you do pay your taxes?
Speaker 16: Right?
Speaker 1: Christopher tried to say that this all happened because of
his addiction to crack. He was out looking for drugs
when he met some guys who took him back to
the house. It was someone else, not him. Oleanna was
already there naked. He was being very vague about the
whole thing.
Speaker 3: How did you get into the house? Start with that?
Speaker 2: That part? I can't say I was invited in it.
I can't. I don't know the name of somebody I
was smoking with.
Speaker 1: Male Despite the video evidence of Christopher stalking Aliana near
the church on ninety third Street. He tried to tell
the police that two strangers invited him into the abandoned
house and Aleanna was already inside. He just happened to
be cruising around town looking for drugs on yep, you
guessed it. A stolen bicycle.
Speaker 3: And what bike were you riding?
Speaker 2: I was riding a blue and green Mountainvirony.
Speaker 3: Whose bike is it?
Speaker 2: I was a bike land around in the backyard down
on Edy fourth.
Speaker 1: Chris went on for a long time, spinning a story
about two random men who he described in great detail.
They were the ones who had done this, not him.
He just happened to be there, and yes, sure he
had sex with her. I mean, why not. You know
she was there, and she also wanted to get high,
and you know she's naked and stuff. So whatever. Imagine
being so stupid that you think other people are this stupid.
The whole thing was completely unbelievable to anyone who knew Aleana. Actually,
it was completely unbelievable to anyone with a brain. But
Alianna was a good kid. The detectives knew this, yet
they sat and listened as Chris went on and on.
Speaker 17: As far as hurting her, No, I had none to
do with that. I'm gonna give you honest to God's true.
They told me that she was somebody that was getting
high or whatever. And now when I see hear the
news and they say she was slow, I understand why
she was going along with what they were saying.
Speaker 2: She was probably scared or whatever. I had no idea.
I'm high.
Speaker 17: I'm just you get hide and thinking it's cool. I mean,
you just women. I dared that sell everybody for those What.
Speaker 3: Room of the house did you have sex with her in.
Speaker 2: On the carpet on the little bundlework here? Which room?
I think it was the little room closer to the door.
Speaker 3: Did you recall what she was wearing?
Speaker 2: No, she was naked when I got there.
Speaker 16: Well, you were there on Wednesday night. She wasn't picked
up until Thursday morning.
Speaker 2: Wednesday.
Speaker 3: Uh huh.
Speaker 17: We was just smoking. We're just getting high. I went
and got some more dope, came back, and then she was.
Speaker 2: Already here naked. I don't know how they got her naked,
how they got her in there? Okay, she was already naked.
And so I'm taking this to a party.
Speaker 1: Can you imagine what a piece of shit you have
to be to show up at an abandoned house, see
a naked teenage girl and think this is a party.
I mean, that's some straight up diddy shit. I mean,
you're basically a shuldn't cut her at that point. This
man is so beyond scum of the earth that this
is the story he's willing to admit, this is what
he thinks is acceptable to tell detectives.
Speaker 3: And she was already inside the house, naked in what room.
Speaker 17: In the living room, she was just sitting there quiet,
and she had like a black hat on black hat
the only thing she had, almost like a black hat.
I don't know if it was one of theirs or
if it was hers that she had wore. It was
basically like he was like, man, just look out for me,
and she gonna look out for you whatever whatever, like
lay down and open your LIGs.
Speaker 2: Going there, give my tous hun.
Speaker 3: Oh, so they offered her up to you. I'm just
wondering if you had any conversation with their I never
talked to her. Was she crying emotional? Not at all? No,
that's surprising.
Speaker 17: I mean, I mean she it's I mean, it's surprising
to me now that I look at this and I
see what I saw on the news, and I saw
the flyers.
Speaker 3: And I'm like, well, so it's just the three of
you inside this house, and basically it's like.
Speaker 17: What I really didn't even fit insider. So it was
basically me just sitting here and I jacked myself off.
Speaker 3: Basically use a kindom or anything.
Speaker 2: No, I gave the kund them to somebody.
Speaker 3: You gave the kind of to somebody. Well, there's only
two other guys there.
Speaker 2: To one of them.
Speaker 17: I mean, I had opened it up and I was
about to use it, but I just jacked myself off,
and then I rubbed up against.
Speaker 2: Her as I was coming.
Speaker 3: And so your DNA and the kind of rapper that
was in the living room would explain you touched it,
you opened it, and then you hand.
Speaker 2: As you open the other guy because it's about time
for me to go to work.
Speaker 1: So this is how forty four year old Christopher had
been living his life. He stole scrap metal for cracked cocaine,
He worked random drywall jobs, and his only mode of
training inspretation was with friends or on stolen bikes. Quite frankly,
his life wasn't worth living, and it hadn't been for
some time, a long, long, long time. Chris grew up
the youngest of seven kids. His father was not around.
When Christopher was eight years old, his mother died of
kidney failure. Fearing the state would try to separate the
kids into foster care, Christopher's eldest sister moved the family
to Cleveland to be closer to their aunt. Christopher grew
up and, like his older brothers, turned to drugs and
petty crime. So you're telling me the Nancy Reagan say
no to drugs thing didn't work?
Speaker 2: Weird.
Speaker 1: Christopher was arrested throughout the late nineties and early two
thousands for burglary, felonious assault, and other drug related crimes.
Years went by. He stayed in the drug world and
had a daughter of his own, but by the time
his little girl turned six, Chris would be behind bars.
When he was thirty two years old, Christopher attacked a
female friend when she came over to use his bathroom.
He sprang open the door, stabbed her in the neck
with a pair of scissors, and then strangled her.
Speaker 3: Then he grabbed me around my neck and was choking
me and I passed.
Speaker 1: Out, then he raped her repeatedly. When she woke up,
she was naked and bleeding out. She barely survived. Chris
was charged with third degree felonious sexual assault and attempted murder,
but he pleaded down the murder charge. He only got
four years in prison. Four I mean, what kind of
judges are we putting on the bench four years for
a violent rape and attempted murder? Makes you wonder what
the fuck is going on in Ohio. Christopher has been
a registered sex offender since his release in two thousand
and nine. On post release control. He offended again, but
managed to slip through the cracks of the legal system.
Speaker 18: For some reason, the sexual assault case was closed, his
sentencing was over, and so that could not be used
as a reason to put him back into prison. The
process did what it's supposed to do. It doesn't make
us completely safe. It never can.
Speaker 1: Even Christopher's former victim knew he killed Aliana, and a parson.
Speaker 19: Could go out and say our drugs and get more tanned,
and they gave him and I looked what he don't
came back and did when they found her body, it.
Speaker 3: Was like something came over me. And said Christy did.
Speaker 1: Her death was so violent and sick. Her throat had
been slashed with a box cutter, her face had been
stabbed with a screwdriver. Then he had wedged her eyeball
out of its socket. Then he left the tools on
display on the windowsill before discarding her body like trash
in the corner of the room. Now Here Chris was
his DNA all over the place, his criminal history chock
full of violence and rape, and he was still trying
to convince the detectives that he did nothing wrong to
hurt Aleana. Sure, Chris, Sure, There's only one problem with.
Speaker 3: Your story, Chris. The footprints is the house. There's only
one set three yours.
Speaker 2: There's only one set.
Speaker 3: There's only one set.
Speaker 2: Thirty people went in here scrapping, and then the two
people was in the house with you.
Speaker 3: I'm not lying to you. I can show you the pictures.
There's only one set of footprints in there.
Speaker 1: Oh, did you believe Chris? You should probably rethink some things,
A lot of stuff. There were more problems with this
story than just the footprints.
Speaker 2: Though.
Speaker 16: I believe that you were high on drugs. I believe
that you were out of your mind. I can believe
that point. But I don't believe that two unknown strangers
that you've never met before in your life bring you
to this house that you've already been to a couple
of times. Just decide to go to the same house
that you've already been to.
Speaker 3: You and then you leave, and.
Speaker 16: Surprisingly, in a matter of ten minutes, they find her,
bring her into the house, get her naked, and then
you return.
Speaker 3: It doesn't match up, Chris. So you're like halfway there.
You're halfway to accepting responsibility, but you're still trying to
You're still trying to blame other people.
Speaker 2: No, I'm not trying to blame other people. I'm trying
to tell you exactly what happened.
Speaker 18: Now.
Speaker 16: You're trying to lessen your responsibility for what happened.
Speaker 2: Christopher's people in the house?
Speaker 3: You now, y'all, that's that throwing two of the people
in that house?
Speaker 2: What's two of the guys? It was as huge? Who
wasn't it?
Speaker 3: I swear my mom, I'm not going don't do that.
Please don't do that.
Speaker 16: The prince that you left behind were bloody, Prince, they
could only have gotten bloody if she was bloody.
Speaker 3: Do you understand what I'm saying.
Speaker 16: You couldn't have just jacked off on her and then
left and she was fine if you had bloody Prince
left in the dining room.
Speaker 1: Chris had been caught literally red handed and red footed.
It was almost as though he had no foresight at
all when he killed Aliana. I guess crack does that
to you. It was almost as though the slap on
the wrist he had received for raping a woman and
stabbing her in the neck enabled him the power to
do this again, except get it right this time. This
wasn't about drugs. This was about the fact that his
urges of torture and rape were bubbling up to the
surface yet again, and he was powerless to stop them.
Forty four year old convicted sex offender, rapist, drug dealer,
and user Christopher Whittaker had been taken into custody for
the heinous murder of fourteen year old Aliana de Freeze.
Despite the overwhelming DNA evidence at the scene and on
her body, Christopher continued to try to blame the crime
on other men and of course, his disgusting drug habit.
Maybe his mind was so warped from decades of crack
use that he thought there were two other men with him,
or maybe he was just a seedy, worthless rapist and
murderer lying his ass off to try and get away
with it. Yet again, which.
Speaker 3: Bus step were you standing right there at the corner
of Fuller by the church?
Speaker 2: Okay, because we was trying to do bad word, We
was going to get the dope from.
Speaker 3: And everybody, that's what I was trying to get at.
Speaker 2: You to the church.
Speaker 17: Everybody that's that we was calling either wasn't even answering
her phone or didn't have nothing.
Speaker 3: So so the video from the church is gonna show
a solace.
Speaker 17: The video from the church is gonna show I'm standing there.
My due would walk by to show him walking down
talking with Aleana, she probably walking a few steps behind him,
and I'm still standing there.
Speaker 1: But the surveillance video from the church showed Christopher pacing
back and forth, confronting a timid Oleanna and then stalking
her as she walked away. Christopher then changed his story
and said two guys didn't actually go into the house
with him, They just helped walk her to the house.
He'd gone through about four different versions of the events
at this point.
Speaker 3: When once you got inside to get hi.
Speaker 2: What happened?
Speaker 3: Did you get high?
Speaker 2: Actually? I stood like in the little storm thing and
got high just so the wind wouldn't blow my.
Speaker 3: Lighter in turn storm door? Is that what you're talking about?
Speaker 2: The basement? Okay? Where she at? She's like standing right
there by the door back door. What do you mean it?
Speaker 3: What happened then?
Speaker 17: And I came through the house and said there she
was like she just looked at me crazy, like what
does that make you feel?
Speaker 13: Like?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 17: So I said it made me horn you. I said, uh,
I actually we could get naked and do something. And
she was like it's cold, and but she took her
back back in her jacket off anyway, and I'm thinking
it's okay.
Speaker 1: Sometimes his delusions are so unbelievable that it does seem
like the drugs removed him from reality. Christopher said it
was all consensual, but then Aleanna flipped on him.
Speaker 17: I don't know exactly what happened to demoment, like she
attacked me or whatever, like if she suddenly realized.
Speaker 2: That was wrong and I need to get away from here.
But I was high and it scared me.
Speaker 17: I turned around and it's like I pnstured but then
it's like after that, it's like a blur. It's like
I almost blacked out or something. I don't mkay, where
where'd you punch her?
Speaker 2: So really he can't say.
Speaker 17: I don't know if it's in her left side or
the right side or birthplace side.
Speaker 3: But interface alright, was it with a closed fist or
an open hand?
Speaker 2: It might've been a clothes face. But after that, I
just blacked out.
Speaker 20: And not just like but when you said you punched her,
what did she like fall back or something like that?
I remember, like like I said, when I turned around.
Speaker 2: And went into that rage, it's like I blacked out.
Speaker 3: And did you have those tools with you when you
went to the house? Was that something you were carrying around?
Speaker 16: Yeah?
Speaker 3: Who's back back?
Speaker 13: Is that?
Speaker 2: Actually? Those tools?
Speaker 16: Was there's?
Speaker 2: They were there at the house and I remember seeing
'em there? What did you see 'em at the house
sitting on the legs by the window. Did you use
any of those tools?
Speaker 17: I don't remember what I picked up. I'm telling you
that I just to got you. I don't remember what
I did. I just remember when I came through that
it had happened, and it was disgusting, right.
Speaker 16: Now, Chris, there's just one more question that we have
for you, as far as that's concerned, because I can
see this is uncomfortable for you.
Speaker 3: I appreciate you telling us what happened, but there's one
thing that's not as good.
Speaker 16: After you dragged Aliana into that bedroom, there's evidence that
you then did something to her before you left.
Speaker 3: Do you recall that I'm.
Speaker 2: Being honest with you.
Speaker 17: I don't remember your name, but I'm being absolutely honest
with you, Okay, I mean I was.
Speaker 16: There's indications, based on the condition of the room, that
you then cut her one more time at least do
you recall that?
Speaker 1: Of course, he would not recall Christopher was selectively forgetting
everything about the gruesome butchery he committed with those drywall tools.
But Alianna's corpse told a different story. Her body told
the detectives what a vile monster her killer really was
before throwing him in jail. The detectives asked him about
five other missing women from ninety third Street. He admitted
he knew one of them and said they used to
get high together. She was quote good people.
Speaker 17: I just regretting HI and if I was in my
right state of mind and their child will still be.
Speaker 2: Here's like, I mean a lot of things.
Speaker 17: He blamed on drugs, but like I told him, I
was cleaned for three years and then it's like when
I started getting high again. I don't know what happened.
It just turned on the monster inside. I mean, I guess,
I don't know, and I just hated myself so much.
Speaker 1: With Christopher behind bars, Aleiana's family felt a little relief,
but this tragedy was far from over. Here's Aleiana's father.
Speaker 21: Please watch your children. There's a lot of Christopher Whittickers
out of here. There's a lot of Christopher Wittickers out
of there, and watch it as I speak.
Speaker 1: Aleiana's mother was determined to stand strong when the court
proceeding started.
Speaker 19: I'm going to go to every pre trial, every trial,
everything so he sees my face. But I want him
to suffer, like you know, he made my daughter suffer.
But I also don't feel like he deserves to live
or take my daughter away from me.
Speaker 1: Christopher was given ten charges, including aggravated murder, rape, kidnapping,
abuse of a corpse, and tampering with evidence. He admitted
that he was involved, but his defense argued that it
was crack cocaine that actually caused the crime, not Christopher.
Isn't it funny how you can just escape responsibility like that,
just point at another thing and go, now, that did it?
Speaker 13: Not me?
Speaker 1: So everyone who loved Aleana, including her family, her friends,
and teachers, had to endure a very public trial. They
had to sit there and watch CCTV foot of Alana
on a bus smiling her last smile as she exited
onto ninety third Street. They had to watch Christopher stalk
her outside the church. They had to look at pictures
of the crime scene and the unthinkable ways she had
been tortured. They had to hear the medical examiner explain
how it was most likely that she was in fact
alive when Christopher stabbed her face with a screwdriver and
plucked her eye out of its socket. They had to
hear how after he murdered Aliana, Christopher went to a
local church and helped to past her unload food pantry
items with a calm smile on his face. The jury
found him guilty on all charges. They recommended the death penalty.
The judge agreed. Christopher Whittaker was sent to death row,
finally where he belongs. Before he was locked away, Christopher
told the judge he wanted to say something to ali
On his family.
Speaker 17: I never wanted this to happen, and ever since that day,
I've been in field with great ignomers Through the year,
I made a lot of phone calls, and in those
calls I said things, a.
Speaker 2: Lot of things.
Speaker 17: In order to protect my family's feelings, I've admitted to
my guilt to the detectives and to my lawyers. I
asked my lawyers and not to contest or challenge anything
in this case because I really wanted to the priest
family to have clothes in I will not try to
hide behind drugs or alcohol. I will not pretend or
allow because it wouldn't be fair to the family. I
apologize to the family and the community for my actions.
There is now excuse for what I've done. I can't
imagure the pain the family feels, but I know the
pain I'm failed when I hate.
Speaker 2: To look at what I did.
Speaker 1: Outside, the media buzzed and ali On his family stood strong.
Speaker 2: What do you think of the death penalty recommended?
Speaker 21: I went in life without the possibility of parole, but
I respect whatever the jury and the judge has come
up with. I prefer him to sit there forever. You
can sit on death row forever, but you're isolated. I
want this man experience hell on earth before he's experience
as a hell and after life.
Speaker 1: Aleana Dafries's family did not stop fighting even after the trial.
Her father and stepmom made it their mission to see
that the house she was killed in be torn down.
This cluster of forgotten homes attracted seed activity, drug use,
and crime. Five women had been killed there already, and
Aleiana was the last girl the city was willing to lose.
Standing outside in the rain, Aliana's father spoke to a crowd.
Speaker 22: To our understanding, this building, this house needed to remain
standing for legal purposes. But now that we have a
conviction of the man that took our baby away, this
house can be torn down.
Speaker 2: We want to bring light to the other women.
Speaker 22: They were found within a mile of this house, and
we want to send our condolences to their families. We
have to get these eye sores in these safe havens
for crime, because that's what they are. You have individuals
that seek out these places, and beforehand they come by
and they replay in their mind what they plan to
do later. So we have to bring awareness to the
dangers that lurk in these abandoned structures.
Speaker 1: The house was destroyed on December twenty eighteen. Oleanna's family
felt that her death was preventable, like, I think they're right.
I think it was. The school she attended had an
alert system in place where a text message could go
out to a parent whose child didn't show up to school.
But on the day Aliana was murdered, Denisha received no
text message, no phone call, nothing. Remember, the only reason
she found out her daughter was absent was when she
called the school office. Aleiana's family sued the school and
the city. After a lot of back and forth, the
case was finally settled in the Freeze family was given
a one million dollar settlement, not much if you ask
me for a life taken. Aliana's family took it a
step further and advocated for a new law to be
put in place that required schools to make contact with
parents if their child is absent from the school within
the first two hours of the school day starting. This
bill was brought to the House of Representatives in early
twenty nineteen, and it was promptly signed and passed. It's called,
of course, the Aliana alert law. This year, Alana da
Freeze would have been twenty one years old. She had
so much ahead of her. The way she was taken
from this earth is the kind of tragedy that makes
your heart hurt, makes you worry about the future. Hell,
it makes you worry about the present. To die alone
in that freezing house, in the dark and snow, with
a sexually depraved monster plucking her apart as she lay
there dying, it's just too awful to think about. You
can't let it sit in your head too long without
doing some damage. She was an innocent, beautiful child who
was beloved by so many. Her family did everything they
could to make sure her death served a higher purpose
for the community at large. But, like Aliana's father said,
monsters like Christopher Whittaker are out there. We hear about
them every day. They slipped through the cracks of the
legal system and often blame drugs for their actions. But
I think we all know better. We've talked about so
many of these monsters, these former human beings. They're all
cut from the same cloth. Narcissism, sociopathy, psychopathy, the inability
to empathize with the pain of others, and the uncontrollable
need to satisfy one's own carnal gratification above all else.
Christopher blamed drugs for what he did to Aleana and
his other previous victim, but it had little to do
with drugs. Christopher had depraved urges inside of him, and
he spent most of his adult life repressing them. He
pushed them deep, deep down inside the deviant killer and
Christopher came out when he was thirty two when he
stabbed and raped a woman in his bathroom. Who knows
what set him off. Then he was able to keep
his urges at bay for another twelve years until the
day that he murdered Aleana. Like an aerosol can near
a fire, he finally exploded. This time. He couldn't stop it,
just one stab to the neck. He had to keep going.
After he raped Aliana, he treated her like she was
a dead animal in a science lab. I think Christopher
willingly gave up his self control that cold January morning.
He wanted to do this. He got sexual gratification from
not only the rape, but also the torture the murder.
It made him come to be frank about it. He
is one of the most wicked and vile men that exist,
but certainly not the only one. There is no forgiveness
for this type of crime. There is no forgiveness for
what Christopher has done. Here, no sentence suitable to fit
his crime. Only Christopher knows what's waiting for him when
he finally crosses over to the other side for all eternity.
If you believe in that sort of thing. I hope
he does, and I hope that his final days on
earth are filled with fear as to what's coming. I
hope he's a man of faith, and I hope he
believes in eternal damnation and hell fire, because I think
that if he's right about that, there may be a
very warm future waiting for him, a future much warmer,
nay hotter than the freezing cold house Aleanna died in.
I'm sure this will come across as bitching, but it's
just me explaining to you why there's so many episodes
all of a sudden. I don't want you to get
used to it and think it's gonna be the normal schedule.
You see, we make our money by selling advertising or
premium subs, and if there are fewer of you coming
in the door, then there are leaving. Then we can't
really do that anymore. Canley and Apple loves to hide us,
even though we've been a top premium channel ever since
they launched their premium channel's service. So we're gonna just
put out a shitload of episodes and try to capture
more eyeballs that way for the time being, to see
if we can turn around this trend and get some
more people coming in the front door. I'm only telling
you this because you're gonna complain eventually, and I'd rather
just deal with it now.
Speaker 2: Stay safe, remember n