Speaker 1: Hello, is this thing on? Okay? Good? I am sorry
Speaker 1: to interrupt your listening pleasure, but my name is Tiffany
Speaker 1: and I'm here to tell you about my podcast, True
Speaker 1: Crime Connections. It's an advocacy podcast that talks real survivors
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Speaker 2: Darkcast Network indie shows that don't hold back. I'm Kai
Speaker 2: from Love and Murder, Heartbreak to Homicide where true love
Speaker 2: turns deadly and you're listening to Rainbow Crimes with hopefully
Speaker 2: some Unicorn justice.
Speaker 3: Hey, theyre my warriors. It's me CJ. I hope everyone
Speaker 3: is doing well, both mentally and physically. I'm a little
Speaker 3: bit under the weather. I've been so tired and wheezy lately,
Speaker 3: and it might just be that damn mold and my
Speaker 3: room is coming back, because the tiredness and the wheezy
Speaker 3: are symptoms of it. I know I don't have a cold.
Speaker 3: I just got my flu shot about a week ago,
Speaker 3: so it's not that. And also, for the past two months,
Speaker 3: my neck has been killing me. I don't know how
Speaker 3: I tweaked it, but somehow I did. I'm not sure
Speaker 3: how to make it right again, although my daughter, she
Speaker 3: just gave me a neck massage and it feels a
Speaker 3: little bit better. It feels more mobile. I asked the
Speaker 3: friend's wife about going to a chiropractor for it, and
Speaker 3: she said, while she loves her chiropractor, she would never
Speaker 3: let a mess with her neck, so that option is
Speaker 3: a big no for me. I've always been a little
Speaker 3: afraid of chiropractors. Anyway. I complained to my doctor, but
Speaker 3: when I complained about my shoulder aching a year and
Speaker 3: a half ago, he told me to try acupuncture, and
Speaker 3: that's not really something I'd like to explore. So that
Speaker 3: leaves me with a massuse. And that's where my daughter
Speaker 3: came in. She not a certified massuse, but she does
Speaker 3: have a massage table she got for her birthday. So
Speaker 3: I'll see how this goes and how long it'll last.
Speaker 3: And if it lasts a while, maybe I will start
Speaker 3: going to see a massuse. I've been icing it and
Speaker 3: that helps for a little while also. And that's about
Speaker 3: all I have going on in life right now. I know,
Speaker 3: pretty boring stuff. DM me and tell me what's going
Speaker 3: on with you in your life so I can live
Speaker 3: vicariously the case. This episode is an absolute wild ride.
Speaker 3: The more I looked into it, the more crazy it got.
Speaker 3: Went from being a missing person's case to a murder
Speaker 3: case and then a suicide case with a lot of
Speaker 3: sexual acts and jealousy in plotting in between. So let's
Speaker 3: go ahead and get started. Twenty one year old Ryan
Speaker 3: Zimmerman was originally from Biloxi, Mississippi. He moved with his
Speaker 3: family from Mississippi to Corbin, Kentucky during his early adult years.
Speaker 3: So Ryan had been living in Kentucky with his parents,
Speaker 3: his sister, and two brothers for just a little while.
Speaker 3: During this time, Ryan, who love video games and computers,
Speaker 3: was starting to come out as a trans woman. Brian
Speaker 3: was at the very early stages of transitioning. Anne was
Speaker 3: still looking into hormone therapy, voice training, and shopping for
Speaker 3: more feminine clothing when our story really gets going in
Speaker 3: twenty fifteen. As I mentioned, the transitioning was extremely new
Speaker 3: to Ryan. But now that I've explained that part, I
Speaker 3: will continue on with the story and I will use
Speaker 3: the she her pronouns when referring to Ryan from here
Speaker 3: on out, although nearly all written media I have found
Speaker 3: on this case does refer to Ryan as he and him.
Speaker 3: Ryan had also selected the name of Emma to use,
Speaker 3: but just for confusion's sake, I will still be calling
Speaker 3: Ryan Ryan, as we have a lot of names already
Speaker 3: involved in this case. On August sixth, twenty fifteen, Ryan
Speaker 3: would move to Columbus, Ohio, after placing an ad on Craigslist,
Speaker 3: stating she was specifically looking for a relationship where she
Speaker 3: could be a submissive female. Ryan was hoping to find
Speaker 3: somewhere new to live to really begin trying to live
Speaker 3: out her life as a woman. But I would like
Speaker 3: to add her family seemed to be accepting of her
Speaker 3: no matter how she wanted to live her life out.
Speaker 3: Ryan's dad was answered by a husband and wife named
Speaker 3: Cory and Sarah Buzzard. Now, Corey and Sarah were both
Speaker 3: twenty five years old and they had another adult living
Speaker 3: with them in their apartment. This adult was around twenty
Speaker 3: seven years old and she was a transgender woman named
Speaker 3: Nira Jenna Whittaker. Nira had just moved in the month
Speaker 3: prior in July. Along with Nira, the couple were hoping
Speaker 3: to bring Ryan in and live in a loving Polyamoros sporsome.
Speaker 3: As well. There were some rumors that Corey himself may
Speaker 3: have been looking into the possibility of also transitioning to
Speaker 3: a woman. He used the name Laurel Emerson when he
Speaker 3: reached out to Ryan, but it's never been really substantiated
Speaker 3: if Corey was still looking into it or not, so
Speaker 3: that'll be the last time I mentioned that about Corey Cory. However,
Speaker 3: when Ryan moved in, had planned to keep Ryan to
Speaker 3: himself because Sarah seemed very into Nyra and loved Nira
Speaker 3: very much. Pry must have figured if his wife Sarah
Speaker 3: could have a playtoy, he should have one too. The
Speaker 3: relationships over the next few weeks went pretty much without
Speaker 3: a hitch, but after a month and a half, Prey
Speaker 3: got tired of Ryan and he no longer wanted to
Speaker 3: be with her. By September twenty fifth, twenty fifteen, Corey
Speaker 3: had broken up with Ryan and had asked Ryan to
Speaker 3: move out of their apartment. He told Ryan he was
Speaker 3: leaving for the weekend and he expected Ryan to be
Speaker 3: by the time he got back home. Very close to
Speaker 3: September twenty fifth, would have been the last time Ryan
Speaker 3: had talked to her parents and family. On September twenty seventh,
Speaker 3: Ryan's car was impounded, but her parents didn't receive notification
Speaker 3: of this until November of twenty fifteen. On November seventeen,
Speaker 3: Ryan's folks went to their local police department and filed
Speaker 3: a missing persons report on Ryan because they had not
Speaker 3: talked with her since the end of September, in spite
Speaker 3: of constant phone calls to Ryan's phone the following year.
Speaker 3: On January third of twenty sixteen, a woman walking her
Speaker 3: dog found a human bone at the mouth of Coldwater
Speaker 3: Creek in Mercer County, Ohio. After a three day search
Speaker 3: of the area, authorities also uncovered the skeletal remains of
Speaker 3: a human torso. The medical examiner was unable to identify
Speaker 3: the victim of that time. They were, however, able to
Speaker 3: determine that the torso had been cut using a sad
Speaker 3: Due to the clear saw marks of the spinal column
Speaker 3: and at the joints. It wasn't until June of twenty
Speaker 3: twenty when a criminal intelligence analyst was searching through the
Speaker 3: Columbus Missing Persons database. They discovered that DNA for missing
Speaker 3: Ryan Zimmermann had never been collected from Ryan's family, So
Speaker 3: they went to Kentucky and they collected the DNA from
Speaker 3: the family. Once that was ran through a DNA database,
Speaker 3: the comparison of Ryan's parents matched to the torso remains
Speaker 3: that were found in Mercer County, Ohio, back in twenty sixteen.
Speaker 3: But where was the rest of her and who murdered
Speaker 3: and dismembered Ryan? It would seem. After Corey left the
Speaker 3: apartment on September twenty fifth to spend the weekend at
Speaker 3: a hotel with someone else he was meeting there, Ryan
Speaker 3: pleaded with Sarah and Nira to letter stay. Sarah already
Speaker 3: didn't much like Ryan and told her to leave, as
Speaker 3: she was ruling only there for Corey's benefit. Corey was
Speaker 3: done with her. Sarah also told Ryan that she was
Speaker 3: the reason for the problems that she was experiencing in
Speaker 3: her relationship with Corey. Ryan, however, feeling very dejected didn't
Speaker 3: immediately pack up and go. She may have been hoping
Speaker 3: to change Sarah's mind. Later that night of September twenty fifth,
Speaker 3: twenty fifteen, Sarah and Nira began to discuss a way
Speaker 3: to rid all of them of Ryan. Sarah didn't hold back.
Speaker 3: She strangled Ryan to death, and with Nira's help, the
Speaker 3: two women moved Ryan's body into the bathtub and they
Speaker 3: took a sow to Ryan's deceased body. They first severed
Speaker 3: the limbs than Ryan's head in various other parts until
Speaker 3: the pieces were of manageable size to dispose of. Various
Speaker 3: parts were loaded into Sarah's car and then distributed by
Speaker 3: the two women around Mercer County, Ohio. Most of Ryan's
Speaker 3: limbs were tossed into different dumpsters and never recovered. Ryan's
Speaker 3: head was stored in a bag in the back of
Speaker 3: the Buzzard's apartment freezer behind bags of food. When Corey
Speaker 3: came back home to the apartment, he was actually pretty
Speaker 3: relieved Ryan had left. He was never any the wiser
Speaker 3: that Ryan had been murdered by his wife and her lover, Nira.
Speaker 3: A couple of months later, in November of twenty fifteen,
Speaker 3: Corey moved out and he filed for divorce from Sarah.
Speaker 3: You don't want to be with Sarah anymore either. On
Speaker 3: January fourteenth, twenty sixteen, their divorce was finalized. In two
Speaker 3: weeks after that, Sarah and Nira married. Sarah and Nira
Speaker 3: would move from Columbus, Ohio, to Marion, Indiana, to go
Speaker 3: and live with Sarah's mother. After Ryan's torso was identified
Speaker 3: in twenty twenty, investigators really got kracking on the homicide
Speaker 3: of Ryan Zimmermann, but being that it was five years
Speaker 3: after Ryan's murder, they feared that a lot of the
Speaker 3: evidence had been lost. Detectives in the case were very
Speaker 3: dedicated to solving the murder, though, and they were able
Speaker 3: to gain access to the apartment Ryan had last lived
Speaker 3: in along with the Buzzards and Nira. The investigators were
Speaker 3: able to see a lot of residue blood light up,
Speaker 3: especially in the bathroom. When tested, the blood belong to Ryan.
Speaker 3: The detectives were even able to track down the car
Speaker 3: that Sarah had driven in twenty fifteen, but she had
Speaker 3: sold it to somebody else. The new owner of the
Speaker 3: vehicle fully cooperated with the police. Inside the car was
Speaker 3: evidence of human blood, which after testing, was determined to
Speaker 3: belong to Ryan. Investigators then Hunger down and they found
Speaker 3: some digital footprints that would become instrumental in finding Ryan's
Speaker 3: killer or killers. They found Ryan's original Craigslist post and
Speaker 3: the responses that were received. They also learned of a
Speaker 3: Google hangout post. This was somewhere online where messages between
Speaker 3: Corey and Sarah to Ryan and from Ryan to the
Speaker 3: couple locked down that Ryan had indeed went to live
Speaker 3: in the Buzzard's apartment. Wrapping their evidence up in a
Speaker 3: nice little bow, and the digital footprint finally led detectives
Speaker 3: to Marion, Indiana and to where Sarah and Niro were living.
Speaker 3: On August twenty fifth, twenty twenty one, authorities arrived in Marion,
Speaker 3: Indiana to arrest Sarah Buzzard in Nira Whittaker for the murder, assault, kidnapping,
Speaker 3: tampering with evidence, and concealment of a corpse. As the
Speaker 3: police arrived at the home and took Sarah into custody,
Speaker 3: Nyra reached into her purse, pulled out a handgun, and
Speaker 3: shot herself in the head, immediately dying at the scene.
Speaker 3: Three months later, Sarah took a plea deal to avoid
Speaker 3: a death sentence, but she did confess to killing Ryan.
Speaker 3: At her trial, she was found guilty and sentenced to
Speaker 3: thirty years of incarceration to life, with the possibility of
Speaker 3: parole after thirty years. If she does get released, she
Speaker 3: will be in her sixties. Corey was never involved in
Speaker 3: Ryan's murder and so charges were never brought a gay
Speaker 3: against him. It seems Corey was only guilty of being
Speaker 3: fickle in his relationships this poor kid, Ryan, just twenty
Speaker 3: one years old, trying to figure out life and what
Speaker 3: worked best for her. After only a month and a
Speaker 3: half of living with these people, people she thought were
Speaker 3: her friends and chosen family members, she was rejected, heartbroken,
Speaker 3: and murdered, and Ryan's poor family not sure whatever happened
Speaker 3: to their beloved Ryan for years. Another wasted life of
Speaker 3: a young person because of people who were selfish and cruel.
Speaker 3: Sarah and Nira could have helped Ryan pack and then
Speaker 3: escorted Ryan out to her car and said sea they
Speaker 3: didn't have to murder her, dismember her, and throw her
Speaker 3: body parts out like trash while keeping her severed head
Speaker 3: in the freezer as a momento. Ryan didn't in Corey
Speaker 3: and Sarah's marriage. Corey didn't want to be with Sarah
Speaker 3: anymore as it was, and Sarah she was in love
Speaker 3: with Nira after all. They didn't even wait for the
Speaker 3: ink to quoll in the divorce finalization papers before they married.
Speaker 3: Had the two women not killed, Ryan, they most likely
Speaker 3: would still be living their lives together and Nira would
Speaker 3: probably still be around. Such tragic and senseless loss of lives.
Speaker 3: Rest and power, Ryan, our true crime Quickie. This episode
Speaker 3: was sent to me by my friend, a longtime listener
Speaker 3: and Rainbow Warrior of Phoenix in Australia. Just before, I
Speaker 3: warn you this is a super recent case only a
Speaker 3: few months old and it has no court trial resolution yet.
Speaker 3: In Goldburn, Australia, which is between Canberra and Sydney, but
Speaker 3: closer to Canberra, forty eight year old Shane D Cook
Speaker 3: was a non binary person involved with a forty year
Speaker 3: old woman named Anne Marie Streak. Anne Marie also went
Speaker 3: by Annie Ringuette. And if I can say this just
Speaker 3: quickly with my honesty here, when I saw a picture
Speaker 3: of Shane, who was sometimes referred to as Sharn, I
Speaker 3: thought they were a masculine presenting lesbian. So my bad
Speaker 3: for assuming. By May of twenty twenty five, Shane and
Speaker 3: Anne Marie had broken off their relationship and Anne Marie
Speaker 3: was now involved with Shane's male neighbor, forty four year
Speaker 3: old Stephen Henry Evans. Some have called this a love triangle,
Speaker 3: which I don't believe it was, because Shane and Anne
Speaker 3: Marie they were no longer seeing each other, but it
Speaker 3: did seem that Anne Marie had some kind of feelings
Speaker 3: still for Shane. And you'll see what I mean when
Speaker 3: we get there. Come December thirtieth, twenty twenty five. It
Speaker 3: was the last time anybody had heard from Shane. On
Speaker 3: January third of twenty twenty six, after Shane failed to
Speaker 3: meet an associate for an appointment. That associate had contacted
Speaker 3: the police in Goulburn to conduct a wellness check on Shane.
Speaker 3: To the horror of the police, when they arrived at
Speaker 3: Shane's house, they were overwhelmed by the smell of decomposition.
Speaker 3: They found Shane there deceased. The medical examiner believed that
Speaker 3: their body had been laying there for five days before
Speaker 3: it was discovered Shane had been stabbed multiple times incidentally
Speaker 3: between December thirty first New Year's Eve. In January third,
Speaker 3: Anne Marie and Stephen, her boyfriend, had driven away in
Speaker 3: a Toyota Camry with a small white boat attached to
Speaker 3: the back. The couple had left for a holiday and
Speaker 3: a camping trip at a lake near Yass. Australia. Law
Speaker 3: enforcement spent a month in investigating Shane's murder, gathering up
Speaker 3: evidence in eliminating potential suspects. However, there were two suspects
Speaker 3: they couldn't eliminate, and on February fifth, twenty twenty six,
Speaker 3: police used a battering ram and raided Stephen's home with
Speaker 3: a search warrant in hand. They immediately arrested both Stephen
Speaker 3: and Anne Marie. They handcuffed them and they charged them
Speaker 3: both with Shane's murder. Both Anne Marie and Stephen are
Speaker 3: scheduled for a preliminary hearing in April, and they both
Speaker 3: had a bail hearing on February sixth, in which they
Speaker 3: both refused bail. Now each are being held in separate
Speaker 3: facilities pending their trial. No motives have come to light
Speaker 3: yet as to why these two dumb dums couldn't just
Speaker 3: live their lives and leave Shane alone. By the way,
Speaker 3: Stephen is no angel. He had several arrests in his life,
Speaker 3: including an assault charge. Shane has been described by friends
Speaker 3: as having a great sense of humor, for being fun loving,
Speaker 3: and for having a great adoration of dogs. Rest in power, Shane,
Speaker 3: and thanks again Phoenix for sharing this case with us. Ah.
Speaker 3: Let's see what's on the good news horizon for us
Speaker 3: this episode. The Supreme Court in the Philippines just passed
Speaker 3: the law making it legal for same sex couples to
Speaker 3: own property together. This is a great step that legislators
Speaker 3: made for the LGBTQ visibility in that country. Another big
Speaker 3: step for the country of Hong Kong. A judge there
Speaker 3: ruled in favor of a lesbian couple and granted them
Speaker 3: parental recognition for their son. I know that might not
Speaker 3: sound like a big deal to some of us who
Speaker 3: already have that privilege, but for countries that don't really
Speaker 3: have protective laws for their lgb that's really big. Okay.
Speaker 3: Let's see the state of California is taking legal action
Speaker 3: against the hospital that terminated gender affirming care for youth.
Speaker 3: Good hit him in their wallets and make it count
Speaker 3: I say. Thailand is on track to be the first
Speaker 3: Southeast Asian nation to legalize same sex marriage after its
Speaker 3: Senate overwhelmingly approved a marriage equity bill. Whoo. Bisexual figure
Speaker 3: skater Amberglen won a gold medal in the Winter Olympics.
Speaker 3: Since she's been using her platform is a way to
Speaker 3: advocate for the LGBTQ community, and with those good news stories,
Speaker 3: I leave you with a joke. There was this man
Speaker 3: who walked into a bar and he says to the
Speaker 3: bartender ten shots of whiskey. The bartender sees something's up
Speaker 3: with the guy and he says, what's the matter. The
Speaker 3: man says, I just found out my brother's gay and
Speaker 3: marrying my best friend. The next day, the same man
Speaker 3: comes in and orders twelve shots of whiskey. The bartender
Speaker 3: asks what's wrong this time? The man says, I just
Speaker 3: found out my son is gay. The next day, the
Speaker 3: same man comes into the bar and orders fifteen shots
Speaker 3: of whiskey, and the bartender asks him, doesn't anyone in
Speaker 3: your family like women. The man looks up at the
Speaker 3: bartender and says, apparently my wife does. I love you. Guys,
Speaker 3: you matter so much. Remember it's not a crime to
Speaker 3: be gay or to live your truth. Unless sure a
Speaker 3: murderer