Speaker 1: For true fans of true crime, the Generation Why podcast
Speaker 1: is essential listening. Hosts Aaron and Justin started this podcast
Speaker 1: in twenty twelve to dissect some of the craziest and
Speaker 1: most notable murders, crimes, and conspiracy theories together, and ten
Speaker 1: years later, they're still added unraveling a new case each week.
Speaker 1: Aaron and Justin take on infamous cases like the Evil
Speaker 1: Genius Bank robbery, the Zodiac Killer, and the Tailinol murders,
Speaker 1: and they also cover lesser known cases like the case
Speaker 1: of Kimberly Rico aka the Valentine Murder, where Kim takes
Speaker 1: her husband on a romantic weekend that includes a murder
Speaker 1: mystery play that she, of course uses as a cover
Speaker 1: to murder him for insurance money. Actually, we're about to
Speaker 1: play you a clip of the Generation Why podcast. While
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Speaker 2: Wondering Well. Tonight, we're talking about a mysterious death that
Speaker 2: happened April fourteenth, twenty twenty two, in Lynchburg, Virginia, and
Speaker 2: the mysterious death was of a young man named Johnny Cashman.
Speaker 2: I say young man because he's younger than me. He
Speaker 2: was thirty eight.
Speaker 3: This was in Lynchburg, Virginia. I've never been there, but
Speaker 3: looking at photos and talking to people, it looks Virginia
Speaker 3: looks beautiful and that town is you know, it's population
Speaker 3: of around eighty thousand, so I think it's a quaint
Speaker 3: town where you can still have a small town feel
Speaker 3: and know people around you. People help each other out.
Speaker 3: But by any town there is crime and other elements
Speaker 3: that happen.
Speaker 2: So really this case starts off justin because Johnny's mother, Kim,
Speaker 2: she hadn't heard from him since that day, so she
Speaker 2: spoke to him on April fourteenth, which is in twenty
Speaker 2: twenty two, but then she hadn't heard from him for
Speaker 2: a few days, and that worried her because she was
Speaker 2: used to getting a text from him or a call
Speaker 2: every day, if not more than one. Now, with his
Speaker 2: having depression, that's always a fear right that maybe he's
Speaker 2: not wanting to talk to anyone, or we could imagine
Speaker 2: something worse happening.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and his parents and sister, they all live in Maine,
Speaker 3: which is hundreds of miles away, so they can't just
Speaker 3: jump in their car and go visit him. It's a
Speaker 3: long distance, so they their only communication is via phone
Speaker 3: or text. When they don't hear from him, it's a
Speaker 3: little bothersome.
Speaker 2: It's five days later on April nineteenth, when Kim called
Speaker 2: the Lynchburg Police Department and she said, you know, I
Speaker 2: talked to my son five days ago, but I haven't
Speaker 2: heard from him. Since that is out of the ordinary.
Speaker 2: Is there any way you could check on him? And,
Speaker 2: as we all know, that means if the police agree
Speaker 2: to it, that means they'll conduct a welfare check. And
Speaker 2: at five forty five am, officers go to his apartment
Speaker 2: and they knock, but no one answers the door.
Speaker 3: Now, Aaron, at five forty five or any time before
Speaker 3: six am, I don't know if anyone's answering the door.
Speaker 3: I think a lot of us are going to be asleep,
Speaker 3: so that makes sense.
Speaker 2: Right, Yeah, But credit to them. They do conduct this
Speaker 2: welfare check, and then they come back several more times,
Speaker 2: knocking and trying to get contact made with Johnny Cashman.
Speaker 2: Now at eight am, they get a key to the apartment.
Speaker 2: There is some concern here that because he's not answering,
Speaker 2: that maybe something has happened where he can't answer. Right,
Speaker 2: we don't know if he's unconscious, or if he's not
Speaker 2: willing to answer the door, or if there has been
Speaker 2: a suicide attempt, and we hope not. But they gain
Speaker 2: access to his apartment, what do they find inside?
Speaker 3: Well, according to the police, they find Johnny lying on
Speaker 3: his back on the floor. He's obviously dead. They see blood,
Speaker 3: puddles of blood, but they determine that there isn't any
Speaker 3: foul play.
Speaker 2: The officers do speak with Johnny's family and they say
Speaker 2: it looked like this was an apparent medical condition that
Speaker 2: preceded his death. In other words, they don't think anyone
Speaker 2: attacked him or murdered him.
Speaker 3: His families obviously concerned. His father is asking was there
Speaker 3: any signs of violence? Was it a suicide or anything
Speaker 3: like that?
Speaker 2: And this is John Cashman, Yeah.
Speaker 3: And law enforcements saying no, it looks very natural. And
Speaker 3: they go on to ask if they think he suffered,
Speaker 3: and the police will say no, it looks like this
Speaker 3: was pretty instantaneous, which I don't know how they would
Speaker 3: know that, but they're saying that he probably didn't suffer
Speaker 3: and this was all natural. So Johnny's body is obviously
Speaker 3: removed from the home and the family's asking about an autopsy,
Speaker 3: if an autopsy's going to be done, and what do
Speaker 3: the police and law enforcements say.
Speaker 2: To that, Well, their response is no, the case is closed,
Speaker 2: meaning they don't think one is necessary.
Speaker 3: And that is a thing erin I had to go
Speaker 3: look that up because I just assumed that autopsies were
Speaker 3: always done, but it's not generally necessary, as the Internet says,
Speaker 3: if the cause of death is known, meaning if somebody's
Speaker 3: old and has a heart attack, or somebody you know
Speaker 3: obviously has cancer or something to that effect, they say, well,
Speaker 3: there's no need for an autopsy. We can just take
Speaker 3: the body and go ahead and cremate or whatever you
Speaker 3: want to do. And the family takes law enforcements word
Speaker 3: that there is no need for an autopsy. This was
Speaker 3: very straightforward and it was obviously a medical issue or
Speaker 3: medical emergency type of deal.
Speaker 2: So they make arrangements with a funeral home which is
Speaker 2: located in Lynchburg, to have Johnny Cashman Junior cremated so
Speaker 2: that they can bring his remains back to Maine his ashes.
Speaker 3: They're having to do this all from Afar because they
Speaker 3: live in Maine, so they're just making phone calls and
Speaker 3: arranging this to be done. At no point has anyone
Speaker 3: stepped foot into Johnny Cashman Junior's apartment.
Speaker 2: Not until April twenty ninth. That's when Johnny's ex girlfriend
Speaker 2: and her mother go to the apartment to get a
Speaker 2: few things. Now we don't know her name. She has
Speaker 2: requested to remain anonymous, but she has spoken to the
Speaker 2: media and this is what she said. Well, we open
Speaker 2: the door and the first thing you see is an
Speaker 2: abundant amount of blood in the bathroom, which is not
Speaker 2: at all what they were expecting to see, of course,
Speaker 2: right they say that the whole floor is just covered
Speaker 2: in blood. There's blood on the counters, the sinks, the walls,
Speaker 2: and the toilet, and there's even in other parts of
Speaker 2: the apartment. There's blood on doorframes, floors, walls, windowsill and
Speaker 2: even on a chair. And there are streaks of blood,
Speaker 2: including some that looked like they were left by fingers.
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