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0:36

I had this dream. I heard

0:38

a knock on the door. And

0:41

I opened the door

0:43

and there stands Britney in

0:46

this black t shirt with

0:49

her blue jean cut

0:51

off shorts. and flip flops.

0:54

And I looked down and I seen my dog,

0:57

nala. And I was

0:59

just like, Pretty,

1:01

you're here. And she

1:03

said, I'm scared. I'm

1:05

scared of the stall. And I

1:07

said, why are you scared? That's

1:10

not a lie. I said, she's

1:11

a great dog. You don't have to be

1:13

scared. she looks

1:15

at me and Britney had the

1:17

prettiest blue eyes. And

1:20

she looked at me and she said, I'm

1:23

okay, Sam.

1:25

I'm okay.

1:26

And she said, I have to go now.

1:28

I was like, please

1:30

don't leave it. She said, say, I gotta

1:32

go. At

1:35

first, I thought she was

1:37

scared of my dog. But

1:40

if she was scared of my dog, why was my

1:42

dog sitting right beside her sitting

1:45

there. I don't think

1:47

that she was scared of my dog.

2:20

As

2:20

Jessica and I drive through Brown County,

2:23

Ohio IO, going over the list of people

2:25

we need to speak with, and the avenues

2:27

we need to explore. And I ask

2:29

all my early naive questions, and

2:31

she educates me. I have a moment

2:33

where I realize how unique of a position

2:35

we're in here. Because while we

2:37

are working on this together, At the

2:39

same time, we're able to come at this

2:41

from two different angles. I'm

2:43

not from here. I come into this

2:45

with no preconceived notions, no

2:47

intimate not knowledge. No, nothing

2:49

really. I'm an outsider. The

2:52

people here have been very welcoming, but

2:54

I've seen the stairs. I get it.

2:57

On the other hand, our producer, Jessica,

3:00

is a local, an insider. She

3:02

knows a lot about the case. She's been

3:04

following for years and the locals

3:06

don't tend to stare at her. They'd rather

3:09

talk to her about the case. I guess

3:11

what I'm getting at is there's perks to having

3:13

both and from our position

3:16

or more accurately positions, I

3:18

genuinely believe we can help make a difference

3:20

in this case. we're gonna take

3:22

a step back and move slowly. Start

3:25

with those who knew Britney Best and

3:27

branch out from there. We've already

3:29

spoken with a family, The Dodson And

3:32

now, we head to the town of Aberdeen

3:34

to speak with someone who was very close to

3:36

Brittany, especially in her

3:38

final years and also on

3:40

her final day.

3:44

We pull off a narrow winding road

3:46

and carefully squeeze into a small gravel drive

3:48

way next to a silver minivan with

3:51

a familiar looking decal of a winged

3:53

heart on the back window. A

3:55

short sidewalk leads up to the front porch

3:58

of the two story where we knock on

3:59

an ornately carved front door. Second

4:02

later, we hear a voice coming from around

4:05

the side of the house. It's Britney's

4:07

friend, Samantha Rutherford.

4:09

You guys think I'm the side. Oh, hey. Hi.

4:12

Wearing a pair of cropped jeans and a black

4:15

t shirt, she nervously tucks her

4:17

dark shoulder length hair behind her ears as

4:19

she welcomes us inside and guides

4:21

us to her living room. As

4:23

we take our spots on the sofa, Samantha

4:25

begins to talk with her hands, and a

4:27

tattoo on her wrist is revealed. It

4:30

matches that de calon her van. a

4:32

winged heart. And there's a banner

4:34

just below with Britney's name. She

4:37

starts telling us about her career in Long enforcement,

4:40

how she got into it pretty late in life,

4:42

and how Britney played a factor on that.

4:45

When Britney was murdered, I

4:47

couldn't wrap my mind

4:49

around it. I was just like, you know, she's

4:52

just this fun, loving,

4:55

joyful person. whose

4:57

life was taken too soon.

4:59

I didn't understand as an

5:02

outsider, like, why

5:04

weren't they figuring this out? Why why haven't you

5:06

guys solve this? You know, what what's going on?

5:09

I wanted to be able to help

5:11

people, you know, who are in

5:13

bad situations and be

5:16

a light to somebody.

5:20

Samantha was a police chief in Russellville,

5:22

Ohio for a spell. Now,

5:25

she's an officer in the neighboring town of

5:27

Sardinia. But before Samantha

5:29

found her career, she was just a

5:31

girl working at Walmart. She went to

5:33

high school with Britney, but they hardly

5:35

knew each other. That quickly

5:37

changed when the two of them started working

5:39

together.

5:41

we both applied at

5:43

Walmart. We got hired in

5:45

together and we started talking and

5:48

we started having our lunches together

5:51

and we just got super,

5:54

super close. And she

5:56

told me later on,

5:58

she was like, you know, in high school,

6:01

I thought you were a

6:03

b word. And I was like, really?

6:05

She was like, yeah. And I was like,

6:07

oh, man. That sucks. Samantha

6:10

never got hung up on the why.

6:13

High school was in the past now. She

6:15

was just happy that Britney gave her another chance.

6:18

because this time they hit it off instantly.

6:22

Her laugh was just infectious

6:25

and when

6:27

she laughed. It was

6:29

like a laugh from

6:31

her stomach, from her heart. When

6:34

she smiled, she smiled with her eyes.

6:37

her personality was

6:39

just she

6:42

was who she said she was and

6:45

She was proud of who she was.

6:48

Britney was very protective of her people

6:50

that

6:50

she loved,

6:51

and If you were in

6:53

the wrong, she would tell you you were in the wrong.

6:56

And she stood up

6:58

for people when nobody else

7:00

would.

7:03

Britney

7:03

stood up not just for others, but

7:05

for herself too. Samantha

7:07

had seen it firsthand. She

7:09

tells us a story involving Britney's boyfriend

7:11

at the time. who also worked with them.

7:15

Her boyfriend at

7:16

the time had

7:19

cheated on her or something. he

7:21

come in one day and she

7:24

wasn't there. He worked in the tire and loop part,

7:26

and she wasn't there. She was off

7:28

that day. And I said, Dusty,

7:30

I said, what happened to your eye? He

7:32

said Britney blacked it. He was

7:34

like, I swear to you, she did. So

7:37

I called Britney, and I said,

7:39

Did

7:39

you black Dusty's eye? She

7:42

said,

7:43

yes, I did. She said, and

7:45

if he's gonna talk shit,

7:47

She said, I'll be out there. She said, I'll block the other

7:49

eye.

7:49

I was like, oh my gosh.

7:53

And she said, To

7:55

no surprise, the young couple went their

7:57

separate ways. It's our understanding

8:00

that he was pretty upset about the breakup.

8:02

but Britney had made up her mind. She

8:05

was ready to move on. And

8:07

quickly, she did. His

8:10

name was Shane Stikes. He and

8:12

Britney met at the local subway where

8:14

she worked before moving to Walmart. Shane

8:17

would often drop in and eat, and he

8:19

and Britney would chat. It was

8:21

all casual. Britney was dating her

8:23

former boyfriend at the time. But

8:26

later, she took that job at Walmart,

8:28

and then the breakup happened. It

8:31

wasn't long before Shane asked

8:33

her out, and the two started dating.

8:36

Shane was just a I

8:39

don't know. Like, he

8:41

was a biker. He was

8:44

funny. That's

8:46

it.

8:48

My first impressions.

8:51

Samantha is oddly reserved

8:54

when it comes to Shane, but we

8:56

chose not to pry and instead

8:58

switch the subject. because around

9:00

the same time, shortly after Shane

9:02

entered the picture, there was another

9:04

big chain in Britney's life. Samantha

9:06

says it all started one day at work.

9:10

Britney

9:10

walked in and I

9:12

was at the podium giving somebody a break.

9:15

And it was like, she

9:17

was glowing. Britney was

9:19

this.

9:20

She was so pasting white.

9:21

I mean, I felt like she

9:24

glowed in the dark.

9:25

but she come walking in and she was

9:28

literally glowing. And I was

9:30

like, come

9:31

here for a second. I said, you're

9:34

pregnant. She was like, no, I'm

9:36

not. And I said, Britney,

9:38

I'm telling you, you're pregnant.

9:40

Is she just, you know, no, I'm not. No, I'm

9:42

not. Don't say that. And

9:44

I said, take a pregnancy test. She

9:46

was like, only if you take one with me. And I

9:48

was like, okay. So we go to

9:51

the bathroom. after

9:53

work, and we

9:55

do the pregnancy test. And

9:58

I hear Britney Oh,

9:59

no. No. Like,

10:02

crying and I'm over there laughing.

10:04

I'm like, I told you. I told you. I

10:06

told you. and

10:08

that's how we found out she was pregnant with Aubrey.

10:11

And

10:12

wouldn't you know it? Britney

10:15

wasn't natural. She made it look

10:17

so easy. Oh my

10:18

goodness. Britney

10:21

was tough as nails when

10:23

she gave birth to Aubrey

10:26

She had no medicine

10:29

at all. She was

10:31

bound and determined to have a

10:33

natural birth. And when she

10:35

had Aubrey, she

10:37

was just, like, over

10:39

the hills for her. I mean, she

10:41

just she was so kind in

10:43

nurturing to her and,

10:45

you know, watching Aubrey

10:48

get bigger with Britney, it was

10:50

awesome because Aubrey

10:53

was

10:53

Britney's best friend. She

10:55

loved that little girl to pieces,

10:58

loved her. to

11:00

do anything for her.

11:03

As we

11:04

continued our conversation about Aubrey,

11:07

eventually, Samantha explained

11:09

why she didn't have a lot to say about Shane

11:11

earlier. She says her opinion of him

11:13

changed over time. It started

11:15

around the time of Aubrey's first birth day.

11:17

By this time, Britney and Shane were

11:19

married. We

11:20

were actually at Aubrey's first

11:24

birthday party and Britney

11:27

went all out. Like,

11:29

Britney and Mary are so creative

11:31

with everything. They can

11:33

turn nothing into something. And

11:36

Britney decided that she wanted to do

11:38

it was like a carnival petting

11:42

zoo type birthday for Aubrey's first

11:44

birthday. Like, it had to be big.

11:47

And she asked me to

11:49

come down and help her, and I was, like, Absolutely.

11:51

So I came down and Britney

11:53

was painting something

11:56

on this piece of plywood. You stick

11:58

your face through. It was like an animal or something

12:00

like that. But anyhow,

12:02

I told Britney, I said,

12:04

you're pregnant.

12:06

And she was like,

12:07

shut

12:08

the hell up. I am not

12:11

pregnant. And I said,

12:13

Britney, said I told you the first time you're

12:15

pregnant. I'm telling you you're pregnant

12:17

now.

12:17

she calls me a

12:20

couple days later, and she was like,

12:22

I'm pregnant. And I'm like, oh

12:24

my gosh. I told you that's

12:25

amazing. know, I'm so excited. And

12:28

she was like, Shane's

12:30

gonna be super upset.

12:33

and I said, why

12:34

Shane gonna be upset? She

12:37

was, like, because he told me he doesn't want

12:39

any more kids. And

12:41

I said, well, I mean, there's

12:43

nothing you can do about it now. Aubrey's

12:46

birthday was in June, but Samantha

12:49

says news of baby number two was

12:51

kept secret until sometime in August

12:53

right before the annual Tobacco

12:55

Festival, which Britney was always very

12:57

involved in. This is when her

12:59

opinion of Shane worsened. Two

13:01

weeks before the Tobacco

13:03

Festival, Britney

13:05

called me and

13:06

it was late at night. And

13:08

she was

13:09

it

13:10

couldn't breathe, like, crying and

13:12

I was like, Britney, what's wrong? Like,

13:15

honey, you you've gotta stop crying. Tell me what's wrong.

13:17

Like, do you need me? Do I need to

13:19

come get you? And she

13:21

is like, Shane

13:23

Love I told him that I was

13:25

pregnant and he said that

13:28

he didn't want any more kids

13:30

and was throwing stuff

13:32

and and cussing me out

13:34

and and he took off and he left. And

13:36

she was like, I don't know what I'm gonna do.

13:39

And I'm like, it's gonna be

13:41

okay.

13:41

Like, you're gonna be okay.

13:50

I

13:54

was mad at Shane because at

13:59

this

13:59

time, Britney, you know, she was

14:02

twenty two years old. And I

14:06

think he was, like, thirty six or thirty

14:08

seven. Shane

14:11

knew when he got with Britney.

14:13

that she

14:13

wanted kids.

14:17

And he had already had two kids

14:19

of his own. you

14:21

know, Britney wanted kids and she loved kids

14:23

and she took very good care

14:25

of Aubrey, not only Aubrey,

14:28

but Gauge and Bubba, his

14:30

two kids. So

14:33

I wasn't

14:34

happy with him because he was, you know,

14:37

he was mattered her being

14:39

mean to her because

14:40

she was pregnant.

14:43

Samantha says there were times that Britney expressed

14:45

some frustration with Shane. you just

14:48

normal couple stuff. But apart from

14:50

that, she really didn't know much about the

14:52

relationship. Britney kept that

14:54

to herself. but Britney's

14:56

parents, Mary and Dave,

14:58

did have some insight into the relationship.

15:00

And they too say

15:02

that Britney started opening more. When

15:04

she learned she was pregnant with her second

15:07

child. She sent

15:09

out in the out there in my garage with me in

15:11

the office and she cried and cried.

15:13

And she said, and I said, honey, you're going to

15:15

get find out what the baby is here

15:17

within a week or two. And then you're

15:19

gonna have to tell him, And she

15:21

just said, dad, you just don't know what he's

15:23

gonna do to me when he finds out I'm pregnant.

15:25

He says, he wasn't happy

15:27

about the first one. And

15:29

I saw Honey, I'll go tell him

15:32

maybe, you know, it's not a big deal.

15:35

Britney came here And

15:37

out of the blue, she just looked over and she

15:40

says, don't let him raise

15:42

her. She says, mom,

15:44

She says, I want you guys you

15:46

to raise Aubrey the way I was

15:48

raised. Don't want I don't want Shane and his

15:50

mother raising my daughter. Why

15:53

would Britney say something like this? Was

15:55

she concerned that something might happen to

15:57

her? That she wouldn't be able to raise her

15:59

daughter? maybe she was just

16:01

speaking generally, emphasizing that

16:03

she wants her parents to have a lot of say

16:05

and how her kids are raised.

16:07

After all,

16:08

Mary says that Britney and Aubrey were at their house

16:10

every day, and they were constantly

16:12

helping take care of Aubrey. There's

16:14

no telling what she meant. And looking back,

16:17

Mary and Dave aren't really sure what to make

16:19

of it. Mary says at the

16:21

time she thought maybe Britney was

16:23

considering a divorce or something. She knew

16:25

Britney was upset because Shane would get up at

16:27

five AM, leave for work, and not

16:29

come home until she was in bed asleep.

16:31

And Britney even alluded to this

16:33

when she called Shane that day She

16:35

called him and she

16:37

had it on speakerphone.

16:38

And she told him,

16:41

she says, I

16:42

know you don't wanna spend time with me, but she

16:44

obviously spent some time with your daughter.

16:47

And and he

16:49

said, she can get her shit and

16:51

the

16:51

baby shit and get out and pay I'll pay

16:53

child support on another one. And

16:57

I

16:57

looked at her, and she looked at me, and

16:59

I said, what are you gonna do? She

17:02

says, I'm gonna go inform him he'll be getting

17:04

paid child support on two

17:06

kids. As

17:07

we know, Per Samantha's account of

17:10

this, breaking the news to Shane

17:12

did not go well. He left

17:14

the house, and Britney devastated

17:16

by what had transpired, called

17:17

her mom. She's

17:19

calling me crying, hysterical.

17:23

that hysterical. couldn't hardly breathe,

17:25

didn't know what to do. And I

17:27

said, Britney, I said, you got two

17:29

options. You either get that baby

17:31

and you come home now I

17:33

said, oh, you lay there and see what

17:35

the morning

17:35

brings. She hears mama don't wanna wake the

17:37

baby. And I said, Britney,

17:39

it doesn't matter. I'll put her back to whatever. She goes,

17:41

no.

17:41

He's left. He's gone. I think I'm just

17:44

gonna lock the door and I'm gonna

17:46

stay. And I said, okay. Well, not

17:48

I didn't know this, but she called her friend and

17:50

was on the phone with

17:53

her all night, I

17:55

guess, hysterical.

17:55

hysterical After Britney

17:58

got off the phone with Samantha, she

18:00

went to sleep, and that was the end of that

18:02

night. But Mary actually

18:04

saw Britney and Shane the next

18:06

day. They showed up at the house some time in the afternoon.

18:08

And he

18:09

walks straight through my kitchen, into

18:12

the den to the computer. and

18:14

Britney's standing there in the kitchen with

18:16

me and she's whispering and

18:19

she says, She says something's

18:22

not right. Then I said, well,

18:23

you mean something's not right? She

18:26

said,

18:26

he stayed all night at his

18:28

marks. She said, last

18:31

night, I hit the

18:32

fan. And then this morning, he comes home

18:34

from his small arms. and

18:36

it's like a switch went off. And

18:39

he's

18:39

in a good

18:40

mood,

18:43

touched your stomach,

18:44

said, what are we

18:46

gonna name the

18:47

baby? I said,

18:49

Britney, I said something's not right.

18:52

You'd be careful. Something's not

18:54

right. and

18:55

that's how we left the

18:58

day. Mary says that

18:59

while she and Britney were talking, Shane

19:02

was in the other room looking at motorcycles on the

19:04

computer. Dave approached him

19:06

and encouraged him to get his priorities straight.

19:08

They didn't have much money. The

19:10

house they were living and was too

19:12

small. And now, they had a second child

19:14

on the way. The dodson's felt

19:16

the last thing he should be doing is

19:18

shopping for motorcycles. This really

19:20

bothered them, which I understand, but you

19:23

can't really control what a person buys

19:25

anymore than you can control the

19:27

relationship. And frankly, it's

19:29

hard to get a read on Britney and Shane's relationship

19:31

at this point. After speaking

19:33

with Britney's friend, Samantha and

19:35

her parents, Dave and Mary, what

19:37

we've gathered is sort of mixed bag.

19:40

Britney was hesitant to tell Shane she

19:42

was pregnant again. And by two different

19:44

accounts, it seemed she had every right to be.

19:47

as the breaking of said news left Britney

19:49

at her home alone crying that

19:51

night. But then Shane seemed to

19:53

go from upset to excited, literally

19:56

overnight. Could you just needed some time

19:58

to process things? oh Ultimately,

20:00

I feel there's a lot more to learn

20:02

here. And as it stands, We

20:04

haven't yet heard from Shane.

20:06

So let's hear his

20:08

story.

20:11

They'll be

20:16

past her

20:17

home? heading

20:19

down

20:20

a two lane country road, we probably

20:22

would have missed Shane's house. Had

20:24

he not parked the infamous yellow

20:26

Jeep Wrangler out front. We make

20:28

a sharp turn into the driveway of his

20:31

modest one story home. just a

20:33

few counties over from where Britney and

20:35

Aubrey were shot nine years

20:37

ago, inside that very deep

20:39

park just

20:39

beside us. A

20:45

screen door smacks to a close. A Shane

20:47

casually steps out onto his porch wearing

20:50

a t shirt, cargo shorts, and a

20:52

checkered pair of vans. He's covered in

20:54

tattoos. Yet, what's

20:56

most noticeable? It's a thick red beard,

20:58

underlining his shaving head. as much as

21:00

we used to. Y'all even have a seat

21:02

wherever I don't have a lot of room,

21:04

but make you feel

21:06

comfortable, bud. I can break chairs in

21:08

here. After a quick intro, he welcomes us

21:10

into his living room, where I see a

21:12

busy wall displaying his adoration

21:14

for motorcycles. A

21:16

large Harley Davidson logo

21:18

hanging over the black leather couch

21:20

stands out amongst the other hog

21:22

signage. As does a placard,

21:24

just above a hat rack. reading,

21:26

this is us, our

21:28

life, our story,

21:31

our

21:31

home. We get

21:33

situated on the couch and Shane

21:35

folds his hands together, resting them on the

21:37

back of his head as he starts to tell

21:39

us how he and Britney met.

21:42

Our story begins at Subway,

21:46

actually in Ripley. She

21:48

worked there, and I ate there for

21:50

dinner every night because I was single dude. I only had my

21:52

kids on the weekends. So through the week, I eat

21:54

dinner in some way. And

21:56

she was in there all the time. So

21:59

we always

22:00

just had conversation. It

22:02

wasn't, like, nothing like

22:05

that. You know what I mean? It was just casual

22:07

conversation. And

22:09

she was had a boyfriend was

22:11

engaged or what out and whatnot. And

22:15

I didn't cross any lines, you

22:17

know. But one day she called

22:19

me and said that, I guess, he cheated on

22:21

her and and

22:23

she was single. And I said, well,

22:25

when can I take you out? she

22:28

kinda rammed me around a couple of

22:30

times, you know, nervous, I guess,

22:33

perhaps. And we finally

22:35

went out on day went

22:37

four way on and the Jeep, drank

22:39

some beer, and she

22:42

never left. That was it.

22:46

Britney and

22:46

Shane were coming from very different places

22:48

in life when their paths crossed.

22:50

Shane was out living on his own.

22:53

Britney was still living at home with

22:55

their parents. When they started dating,

22:57

Britney was about twenty years old,

22:59

and Shane was about fifteen years

23:01

her elder, though the age difference didn't

23:03

seem to bother them. her

23:05

personality, just super cool. You

23:08

know? Just she was like my best

23:10

friend, and then I fell in

23:12

love with her. once

23:14

we went on that date, she just kinda stayed

23:16

with me nonstop from that

23:19

point. We were together

23:20

for a little

23:21

while, and then she

23:24

informed me that she was pregnant with

23:26

with Aubrey. And I already had two

23:28

kids, you know, so I'm like, uh-huh. No.

23:32

You know? gosh. How am I support this? You

23:34

know? So I

23:36

want Aubrey to be born in

23:38

wedlock, you know, and not out of wedlock.

23:41

And so this one

23:43

day, I skipped work and

23:45

called off and woke

23:47

her up and She

23:50

said, what are you doing? Whom? I said, I

23:52

took the day off. And she said, what

23:54

do you wanna do? And I said, let's

23:56

go to your moms and

23:58

get your birth

23:59

certificate, and let's go get married.

24:03

And let's have that worked out.

24:05

We're

24:05

probably together, let's say,

24:08

a year before we got

24:10

married. It

24:11

was the best relationship I've

24:13

ever had in my life. I

24:15

wasn't arguing or nothing like that.

24:18

So it's just easy

24:20

one, and she was just easy to

24:22

be around. I just couldn't turn

24:24

away from it. was a good

24:27

balance for me.

24:29

I've always been kind of a high

24:32

strong person, you know,

24:34

she would was the chill to

24:36

my chaos. I've

24:39

been searching for it

24:41

ever since

24:42

hard to find.

24:44

Shane may have

24:48

lost Britney,

24:50

but he still has Aubrey, who happens to be just

24:53

like her mom. He's obviously thankful

24:55

for that.

24:57

That's

24:57

my prize right there. You know,

24:59

how all this is, She's

25:02

alive and well. I'm doing good

25:04

in every day. And I'm sorry, I'm gonna

25:06

cry when I say this. It's

25:10

it's just more and more, like, having her mom

25:12

back. And she acts just like her

25:15

same sense of

25:17

humor. So

25:19

I'm blessed with that.

25:25

Aubrey doesn't

25:26

remember anything about her mom or

25:28

the incident. She was too young when

25:30

it happened. All she knows

25:32

is what Shane and her

25:35

grandparents, the Dodson, have told

25:37

her. But with so much

25:39

information and disinformation throughout

25:41

years of news coverage, Shane

25:43

gets concerned about what she'll pick up on as she

25:45

gets older. What I

25:46

worry about with her is

25:48

that, you know, there there's gonna be a

25:50

day when she's sitting around

25:53

and and gets on some

25:55

Google and just

25:57

see some of the horrible

25:59

horrible crap that has been said

26:02

about her dad. And then

26:04

she's gonna be, like, asking

26:06

me questions. This

26:08

is

26:08

a legitimate fear of shanes,

26:10

not just paranoia getting the best of him.

26:12

And Brown County, his image

26:14

tarnished after Britney's death. There's no

26:16

way around that. And it's not shocking. Even

26:19

Shane acknowledges the husband is who the police

26:21

look at first. And that's exactly what

26:23

happened in this case. From the moment

26:25

he fell asleep the night of August twenty

26:28

eight, everything changed. And

26:30

I

26:30

woke up to

26:33

my whole world. upside down.

26:35

Beaten on the door, cops, opened

26:37

the door, they're, you

26:40

know, on point, looking around,

26:42

and I I didn't understand.

26:44

They were asking me

26:46

all these questions. And

26:48

I'm like, what and what? Like, do you

26:50

run this cheap? And I'm like, yeah. Where's

26:53

that? I'm like, my wife has

26:55

it? You know? him

26:57

and and then he

26:59

said, you you might wanna sit

27:01

down, you know.

27:04

You

27:05

know

27:06

I mean, you know what you might

27:08

wanna sit down and eat this. They

27:11

fell on

27:11

my jeep on the side of the road and

27:14

my wife and

27:16

child had been shot.

27:18

And I said, oh

27:20

my god. There's she alive

27:23

and told me that she's

27:25

not alive what the baby is.

27:27

It was all

27:29

happening so fast for Shane. It was,

27:31

like, a nightmare or the stuff you see

27:33

on TV as he likens it. Cops

27:36

at his door questioning him,

27:38

his wife is dead, his daughter

27:40

is in the hospital, and he says, it

27:42

only got worse from there. They

27:44

wouldn't even let me go to to

27:47

my daughter and get them flown to

27:49

Children's Hospital, and I wanna

27:51

go there. and they

27:53

take me up there and wonder

27:57

the light and

27:59

all that. shit. It

28:00

was

28:01

wrong. It

28:03

was absolutely wrong

28:07

the mobile my book. mean,

28:09

I don't understand. They gotta do

28:11

a job and whatever, but

28:13

so they take me in and

28:15

then they the first thing they did was start

28:17

swabbing me and all this and that.

28:20

And

28:22

they started asking me questions

28:24

and I just finally said,

28:27

you know, my under arrest, and they

28:29

said, now, and I said, I'm leaving.

28:31

And I went to y'all see

28:33

my daughter.

28:36

Shane stayed with

28:36

Aubrey at the hospital through her recovery,

28:39

but when it was all said and done and they were

28:41

released from the hospital, Things

28:44

went right back to where they were before he left

28:46

the station that night to tend to

28:48

angry. Shane

28:48

realized that the investigation was

28:51

very much focused on

28:53

him. I was suspect number one, they were

28:55

on me. Like, they were I mean, they were going

28:57

through my freaking dumpsters. They were freaking

28:59

had people taken pictures of

29:01

me and shit. It was it was weird. It was

29:04

really weird. Crazy. I

29:07

didn't ever have a bad reputation

29:09

there. That's why I didn't understand

29:11

why how all of a sudden, you know,

29:13

it's like, what? You know, like, I don't have

29:15

any kind of prior record. No no

29:17

crap like that. You know? You

29:19

know how it is? I'm sure

29:22

you've had people accuse you of someone in

29:24

life. You know? That

29:26

pisses you off just in

29:28

general. Correct? now magnify

29:30

that by a thousand

29:32

and they're blaming you for killing

29:34

your own family. You know what I mean?

29:37

I mean, if that don't piss you off, you know

29:39

what I'm saying? So

29:41

to deal with that, losing

29:44

my wife, losing the baby, almost

29:47

losing another baby. She lived

29:49

in children's hospital for

29:51

almost three months.

29:54

It's been a tough

29:55

situation for him to navigate, and

29:58

tough is probably an understatement. But

29:59

Shane is

30:01

fully aware. And he's not the only one

30:03

who suffered a loss here. She

30:06

took my kids in like they were at home.

30:08

They loved her to death. you know,

30:11

my son, they messed

30:13

him all up. It's a ripple. You know

30:15

what I mean? It just keeps going.

30:18

His

30:18

boys were pretty young when this

30:21

happened, ages six and thirteen. He

30:23

had to be strong for them. But in a much

30:25

different way than he did for one year old

30:27

Aubrey, who was undergoing multiple brain

30:29

surgeries in the hospital for months

30:32

asking how he got through it all?

30:35

Simple. His

30:36

faith. My wife

30:38

introduced me to

30:42

religion and, let's

30:44

say, greatest thing he

30:46

ever gave me in my life, you know, my

30:49

faith in God and

30:52

my relationship with God

30:54

I just prayed, like,

30:57

you wouldn't believe.

31:00

Pretty much four times a day, I'd

31:02

go down to the little mausoleum

31:04

thing and children's hospital and

31:06

just cry and beg.

31:09

Please, Lord. Please,

31:11

Lord don't take her. And

31:13

it worked out. So while

31:16

I'm in the hospital, you know,

31:18

I talked to our

31:20

pastor who married us, And

31:22

I told him, like, you

31:24

know, I wanna I wanna get baptized.

31:26

I wanna I wanna do this.

31:30

Right. And we did

31:32

that. He baptized me.

31:34

He gave me my first

31:36

bible. then turns

31:39

back on me.

31:43

That's a

31:43

story that doesn't need explaining.

31:45

Shane lumps the betrayal in with how the rest

31:47

of the town treated him before he eventually

31:49

left and started over. But

31:51

the point was his faith got him through those

31:53

months in the hospital. And now

31:55

Aubrey's here, and you wouldn't even know what

31:57

she's been through. You

32:00

can't even tell I mean,

32:02

you can see you can

32:04

see the bull at all still,

32:07

though but she is

32:10

straight

32:10

a's, tests

32:12

out, super high, all

32:14

her testing, and

32:17

she is her mom again.

32:20

sure. Britain is a smart girl, you know.

32:22

So

32:24

I'm I'm happy about that.

32:26

I mean, she's

32:27

a survivor, you know,

32:29

one out of three made it.

32:32

And, you know,

32:34

she lost her. mom,

32:37

I mean, and

32:40

a

32:40

sister, I'm told anyway.

32:42

I was told it was a female.

32:44

I I

32:46

don't

32:46

know. Like, how did you feel about this

32:49

one?

32:49

Oh, man. I was like, well, it was it

32:52

was less. it was

32:54

less. I mean, don't get me wrong. I

32:56

was not ring bows and

32:58

sunshine, you know, I

33:00

was What are you talking about? Are

33:03

you serious right now? Are you playing jokes? Right?

33:05

You know, it was it was

33:08

But I just thought I was like, look, it's

33:10

gonna be alright. We'll just do what we gotta

33:12

do, you know. And, obviously,

33:14

it'll it would've worked out because

33:16

look at her parents for going out loud,

33:18

you know. They're not exactly breaking in

33:21

the change, and they made it with

33:23

freaking five kids. So it's a

33:25

struggle, but somehow you'll make it

33:27

through. And since

33:28

that fatal night of August

33:31

twenty eight, twenty team thirteen,

33:33

Shane and his kids have done just that.

33:35

They've gotten through it. If

33:37

people wanna point fingers at him,

33:40

so be it. He knows the

33:42

person responsible for this is still out

33:44

there, and they need to pay for what they

33:46

did. He wants answers.

33:49

Who's the coward? It's not

33:51

me. I can tell you that

33:53

much. I'm not running for

33:55

shit When I'm

33:57

given the okay to go ahead

33:59

and

33:59

confront, what needs confronted,

34:02

I'm right there I'll deal with whatever

34:04

has to come. That's

34:06

fine. But someone's a

34:08

coward and shot an

34:10

in a a woman, a pregnant innocent

34:12

woman, and an innocent

34:14

baby. For what?

34:16

What are we even dealing with here?

34:18

Why why at this happen?

34:21

Who's pissed at who? What caused what? Where did it start? Why

34:23

is it going on? I mean, I

34:25

just wanna know

34:28

why. But

34:29

aside that my daughter,

34:31

the datsons, everybody

34:34

that she ever blessed in her

34:38

life deserves to know. Why?

34:40

Why?

34:42

That's obviously the million

34:44

dollar question here. But how

34:47

do you on the answer.

34:50

Well,

34:52

to start, we're gonna need to talk

34:54

about the day Britney

34:56

was murdered. because it wasn't

34:58

a particularly normal day.

35:00

And by that, I mean the entire

35:02

day was pretty abnormal. It

35:05

started early. There was an incident that occurred that

35:07

morning. Britney's friend Samantha told

35:09

us about this. Britney

35:12

and I

35:13

had spoke morning of her

35:16

death. She said

35:17

that she was going to go to

35:19

Shane's mom's house to fill out

35:21

this application for this

35:23

for my job. Well, she texted me

35:26

and she said, somebody

35:28

in a van ran her

35:30

off the side of the road. I

35:32

was like, what? And she was like, they ran

35:35

me off of the road. Most

35:37

people

35:37

would probably see this for what it

35:39

was, an incident of Road

35:42

rage. But Samantha has other

35:44

thoughts. She wants to

35:46

know, was that person trying to run

35:48

Britney off the road? Or were they

35:50

trying

35:50

to run that Jeep off the

35:52

road?

35:53

She never let Britney drive

35:55

that cheap, two

35:58

weeks before she

36:00

died. he

36:00

had Britney start driving that Jeep, and he took

36:03

Britney's car to

36:03

work, her

36:06

van.

36:07

Why did you put

36:10

her in that cheap? When you never let her drive it before,

36:12

never letter that before was

36:15

there

36:15

a target on your

36:17

back and you were

36:20

scared.

36:20

I don't know. I

36:22

i don't know

36:23

just I

36:25

have no questions.

36:27

This season

36:31

on Colobal,

36:32

at

36:34

least five shots in about a two and a half foot area

36:37

of car door. And this person

36:39

hit what they aimed at. I

36:41

really doubt this is

36:44

just some passing incident of a road

36:46

rage. There's only one way to keep a

36:48

secret, and that's if there's two

36:50

people in instead?

36:52

He came

36:53

to his house as soon

36:55

as that happened, said he

36:57

just killed someone.

37:00

we've looked at every possible avenue. Was

37:02

she the intended victim? Was somebody

37:04

jealous of her? Was it a

37:08

random act? I mean, the

37:09

the options will drive you great. Culpable

37:12

is the production

37:13

of resonate recordings and Tinder for

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TV. In conjunction with

37:18

Cadence thirteen, written and hosted by me, Dennis

37:20

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37:22

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37:25

myself, Mark Mennery, Jacob

37:28

Bozarth, Donald Albright, and

37:30

Payne Lindsay. Our senior

37:32

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37:34

additional production by

37:36

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37:38

mixing, mastering, and sound

37:40

design by Dayton Cole,

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If you have a podcast or looking to start

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If you enjoyed this episode, please take

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38:19

greatly appreciated. And lastly, if

38:21

you have any information about the murder

38:23

of Britney Stikes, we urge you

38:25

to contact the Brown Sheriff's Office by visiting their website,

38:28

brown county ohio sheriff dot u

38:30

s, where you can anonymously

38:32

submit your

38:34

information or you can contact sergeant Quinn Carlson

38:36

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38:43

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38:45

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38:47

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38:51

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38:58

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39:01

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39:06

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