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0:38

She got up and went to my mom's that

0:40

morning. She was going

0:42

to get a job at the IRS. She

0:45

talked to me at lunch and said,

0:48

do you wanna just go home and grab

0:50

some clothes and meet me at your mom's almost stay on

0:52

my head here? And I I thought that was weird.

0:55

Whenever I wanna go stay at my mom's house

0:57

on a week night, it just

0:59

didn't make any sense to me. But

1:02

it was weird because it was her dad's birthday

1:04

too, you know. Just

1:07

none of that made sense to me. I

1:09

feel like that phone call means

1:12

she knew she

1:14

knew something was up.

1:48

Britney Stikes and her unborn child

1:50

were murdered on August twenty eight twenty

1:52

thirteen on Highway sixty eight

1:55

in Brown County, Ohio. If

1:57

she had

1:57

had a normal day, we'd be

1:59

more focused on that evening and

2:01

the moment Britney was killed. But

2:04

this wasn't really a normal day for Britney.

2:07

and therefore, we need to focus

2:09

on the entirety of it. Fortunately,

2:12

we have a pretty solid timeline. because

2:15

Britney stayed in touch with all their closest loved

2:17

ones at various times in the day. So

2:19

you're gonna hear from several people who

2:21

together will fill in our timeline.

2:24

Let's start with that morning. I'll

2:27

have Britney's friend, Samantha, tell this

2:29

part of the day. She and Britney

2:31

spoke early that morning, and they discussed

2:33

Britney's plans for the day.

2:37

She said that she was going

2:39

to go to Shane's mom's house to

2:41

fill out this application for

2:43

this government job. And Shane's

2:48

mom is like, She's gotta

2:50

have the nicest of nicest things, you know.

2:53

And

2:54

curious minds wanna know, like,

2:56

I wonder what her house looks like.

2:58

So anyhow, Britney and I were talking that

3:01

morning. She said she was going up there

3:03

to apply for the job filling an application. And

3:06

I was like, Can I go with you?

3:08

And she was like, yeah. You wanna

3:10

go? And I was like, yeah. How I'm gonna see what his mom's

3:12

house looks like? To

3:15

give a little more context here, Britney

3:17

was needing to fill out an online application

3:20

for a job with the IRS. Neither

3:23

the Dodson's nor Shane had reliable

3:25

Internet at their house. But Shane's

3:27

mom, Kathy, did. So

3:29

Britney decided she'd take Aubrey and

3:31

head over to Kathy's house to submit her application.

3:34

And after talking with Samantha morning, it

3:37

was decided that Samantha would join

3:39

them later on in the day, but

3:41

that plan fell through quickly.

3:44

I had called her later that

3:46

morning just a little bit later and I thought,

3:49

well, I'm not gonna go with you

3:51

because it was payday. and

3:55

I had to go pick up my paycheck and

3:57

pay my sister for babysitting.

3:58

And

3:59

I had to go pay some bills and I thought,

4:02

I don't know what time we're gonna be back. Britney

4:05

hadn't yet made it to Kathy's house,

4:07

but she'd left home with Aubrey and was

4:09

headed that way, driving down chicken

4:11

hollow, the narrow winding road

4:14

she lived on. But before

4:16

she'd even made it off chicken hollow, something

4:19

happened.

4:21

Well, she texted me and she said,

4:24

somebody in a van

4:26

ran her off the side of the road.

4:29

on Chicken Hollow. And and

4:32

I was like, what? And she was like, yeah. She

4:34

was like, Sam, like, they

4:37

ran me off of the road.

4:40

At the time, Samantha didn't really know

4:42

what to make of Britney's text. But

4:44

later in the morning, the two spoke over the

4:46

phone about it. Samantha

4:48

says there wasn't much to it though.

4:51

She just said

4:53

that it was a male in

4:55

the vehicle, and

4:57

she was just, like, hollering

4:59

out the window, like, you know, what the

5:01

hell, you know, that type of

5:03

stuff? I mean, she didn't

5:05

sound scared at all. She just

5:07

was just like, you're an idiot. Learn

5:10

how to drive type thing.

5:15

Let's do

5:15

a quick recap before we move on.

5:18

So Britney

5:19

is driving down Chicken Hollow Road,

5:21

which she lived on. Now, I'm

5:23

not sure if she was heading straight to Kathy's

5:25

house or if she had stopped she had

5:27

to make before that, but the plan

5:29

was to at some point in

5:31

the morning go to Kathy's house

5:33

and fill up that application. At

5:36

nine fifteen AM, she

5:38

texted Kathy and let her know she was

5:40

on the way. she lived roughly

5:42

forty minutes away in a neighboring county.

5:45

But before Britney makes it there and

5:47

before she even makes it off the road she

5:49

lived on, She texts Samantha

5:52

and tells her that someone ran her off the

5:54

road. Later,

5:56

it's explained that it was a male driver and

5:59

a gray van. and he and

6:01

Britney got into a verbal altercation.

6:03

This is really all we know about

6:05

it. But Samantha says when

6:07

she spoke with Britney on the phone own. She

6:09

didn't sound scared or even concerned.

6:12

She was just mad about it. And

6:14

to her point, there's no record of

6:16

either driver filing a report. So

6:19

what does Samantha make of the incident? Well,

6:22

she thinks it was just a coincidence and

6:24

in no way related to Britney murder, which

6:26

happened later that evening, on Highway

6:28

sixty eight, about a ten to fifteen minute

6:30

drive away. But I don't wanna pause

6:33

for just a second here before we get into the

6:35

rest of Britney's day because I don't want you to

6:37

hear Samantha's opinion and jump to any

6:39

conclusions on this. Keep an open

6:41

mind because we're gonna come

6:43

back to the road rage incident in a moment.

6:46

For now, let's keep going.

6:49

So once the altercation fizzles out,

6:51

Britney continues on her route before

6:54

ever making it to Kathy's house. She

6:56

has a brief conversation with her mom.

6:59

Here's Mary.

7:01

So I called Britney. I

7:03

said Britney where you're at and she goes,

7:05

I'm on my way to Kathy.

7:08

Well, I said, honey, what are you gonna do? And she

7:10

goes, well, I'm gonna go here, use the

7:12

computer, and Kathy wants me

7:14

to have dinner with her and everything

7:16

else. And then She says, we'll be

7:18

out for dad's birthday. Aubrey

7:20

and I will be. And I said, okay. I said,

7:22

we'll be careful, and she goes, well, I'm I'm here

7:24

now, mom. And I said, okay, Britney and

7:26

honey, I said, I love

7:27

you and she goes, I love you, mom. That

7:30

was the last conversation I had with my daughter.

7:34

Their

7:36

conversation ended as Britney pulled

7:39

into Kathy's house. She and

7:41

Aubrey went inside, got settled in,

7:43

And to the best of our knowledge, Britney began

7:45

filling out the application. Eventually,

7:48

lunch rolled around, and that's where

7:50

Britney's husband, Shane, comes into

7:52

the picture.

7:54

So I

7:55

talked to her at lunch and she

7:58

my routine was go to work,

7:59

get off, or drove an

8:02

hour and a half. to

8:03

home, go to

8:05

the gym, workout for two or three hours,

8:08

come home, eat dinner, say,

8:11

hi. Did everybody go to bed, do the same

8:13

thing. That was my routine, basically.

8:16

And so that's what

8:18

was going down. You know? she

8:20

talked to me at at lunch and and

8:22

said, do you want to just go home and

8:24

grab some clothes and meet me at your mom's almost stay

8:26

on my head here? And I I thought that was

8:28

weird. whenever I wanna

8:30

go stay at my mom's house on a week

8:32

night, you know, then it just didn't

8:34

make any sense to me. So

8:37

I said, no. I'll just, you know,

8:39

I'll just meet back at the house. I'm

8:41

gonna go work out and go home and

8:44

eat. You know, she's had

8:46

leftovers from there. that

8:48

she was supposed to bring home. I

8:50

talked to an old friend that I hadn't had contact

8:52

for a while on my way to the

8:54

gym, and then I got off and went to the gym,

8:56

worked out. I got home like, probably

8:59

ten till nine, and I

9:01

pulled in the driveway, and and she wasn't

9:03

there yet. So I just thought, well,

9:05

I thought she was at her dad's or

9:07

whatever. And

9:09

I ate some leftovers that

9:11

was not the leftovers that she was

9:13

gonna bring home you know, there was other

9:15

stuff in the fridge. I hate

9:17

that and then I fell asleep.

9:20

Alright. Let's

9:21

summarize. Shane started

9:23

his day like any other. He says he had

9:25

a routine and he followed it almost to

9:27

a tee this day. It

9:29

started in the morning. Shane drove one

9:31

and a half hours to work at Star

9:33

Manufacturing. He got off work

9:35

around five PM. Now,

9:37

usually, he'd drive one and a half hours

9:39

back to his home, make a quick

9:41

pit stop, and then drive to the

9:43

gym. But on this day, he

9:46

went rate from work to the gym,

9:48

making one stop at a nearby gas

9:50

station at six fifteen pm

9:53

before arriving at the gym

9:55

by seven pm. He was

9:57

there for two to three hours.

9:59

And I give that hour window

10:01

because all we know is that Shane

10:03

tells us he left there just before nine

10:05

PM. But the police

10:07

report says he left just before

10:09

ten PM. But

10:11

after the gym, he went home, ate

10:14

dinner, and went to bed.

10:16

Now let's backpedal a moment because I

10:18

left something out of that timeline intentionally.

10:21

Remember, Shane said that while he was at

10:23

work that day, taking his lunch break, he

10:25

spoke with Britney on the phone. He

10:27

says their conversation was strange.

10:30

Britney, who had plans to go to her

10:32

parents that night for Dave's birthday,

10:34

suggested to Shane that they should stay the night at

10:36

his mom's house, he declined

10:39

and assumed Britney would join him later that

10:41

night. Shane also says

10:43

he spoke with Britney one last time

10:45

over the phone that day.

10:46

I think I spoke to her right

10:49

after work and told her I was headed to the

10:51

gym, and then I got on the phone with my

10:53

buddy who coincidentally just lives right

10:55

down the road now. But

10:57

yeah. I think I spoke I think I spoke

10:59

to her after that, you know. Totally.

11:02

How you

11:03

left it? your

11:04

last things that you said each other? I

11:08

always said I love you for

11:11

every day. I told her I love you

11:13

beautiful every

11:14

day. Now,

11:17

I wanna go back and talk about that conversation

11:19

they had over lunch, the one

11:21

where Britney allegedly suggested they stay at

11:23

Kathy's house that night. Because a

11:25

Shane of all people says it's weird and out of

11:27

the ordinary, then we have

11:29

to ask, why'd she

11:31

do it? Well, this is where

11:33

that road rage incident comes back into

11:35

play. See, Britney didn't tell

11:37

Shane about what had happened early

11:39

that morning.

11:40

Why? I have

11:41

no idea and neither does

11:43

Shane. But he says that when he found

11:45

out about it days later, he was able

11:47

to make sense of that auditor question

11:49

made. Because contrary to what

11:51

Samantha thinks, Shane puts a

11:53

lot of stock in the road rage connection.

11:56

She

11:56

knew something was up. She

11:59

knew they told her

12:01

something. That is the

12:03

key to solving this

12:05

murder is to figure out

12:07

what happened on that morning altercation

12:09

and who it was. was

12:12

odds, you know, come on. Like, you

12:14

had a shitty road rage incident

12:16

and killed in all in the same

12:18

day. sounds pretty

12:21

connected to me.

12:22

Who normally drove the

12:24

heat?

12:25

She was at the time. She

12:28

was driving it at the time because

12:30

it and all she was doing was

12:32

going back and forth to her mom and dad's,

12:34

and I told her don't go don't

12:36

go above fifty in this thing because

12:39

it had the infamous death

12:41

wobble, you know. So I needed to

12:43

put a stabilizer shock on it.

12:46

And she was just putting it back and forth to

12:48

her mom and dad's, and I was driving her

12:50

van back and forth to work. Shane

12:54

wishes Britney would have told him about that morning

12:56

incident. He says if she had, he

12:58

would have taken his jeep from her and given

13:00

her back the van. That

13:03

said, we don't know if the road rage

13:05

incident was connected to Britney's murder or

13:07

a total coincidence. But

13:09

I'm sure this won't be the last time we talk

13:11

about it. So ahead and shelf that for

13:13

now. And let's keep working through the events of

13:15

August twenty eight because there's a lot more

13:17

to cover.

13:33

Let's get into the evening now. Britney

13:35

leaves Kathy's house just after seven

13:37

PM. Aubrey is right next to

13:39

Britney, riding passenger, and her

13:41

rear facing car seat. It's

13:43

raining as she drives rash through the

13:45

town of Bethel after leaving Kathy's

13:47

house. Again, she

13:49

left just after seven PM.

13:51

And at seven fifteen, She

13:54

sends her mother-in-law the following text

13:56

message.

13:56

It's

13:57

raining up in town, just a

13:59

ways from your house. Aubrey was

14:02

out five minutes ago. We

14:05

don't know if there were any texts before or

14:07

after this that could give more context to

14:09

the seemingly random text message.

14:11

But what we do know per the

14:13

text is that she was headed towards

14:15

Ripley in the direction of both

14:17

her house and her parents

14:19

house. At seven thirty two

14:22

PM. A camera at the first stop

14:24

marathon gas station captures

14:26

video of the Jeep driving through Georgetown.

14:28

This was about ten minutes away from

14:30

where the murder happen, and therefore is

14:32

helpful in establishing a time of

14:34

death. Again,

14:36

whether she was gonna make a quick pit

14:38

stop at her home on chicken hollow,

14:40

or go straight to her parents. We don't

14:43

know. The direction she was

14:45

headed on Highway sixty eight is the

14:47

same way you get to both places,

14:49

so there's no telling. But

14:51

approximately ten minutes after that camera

14:53

spotted her. She's driving

14:55

southbound on Highway sixty 8A2

14:58

lane highway. It was just before

15:00

sunbound when it

15:01

happened.

15:03

ShotSpotter five

15:05

that we know of. A bullet

15:07

that entered the left side of Britney's chest

15:09

and exited the right was the fatal

15:11

shot.

15:13

She veers to the left, crossing

15:15

over the yellow line dividing the two

15:17

lanes, or barreling down a

15:19

hill over an embankment and

15:21

through several trees. Until the

15:23

Jeep comes to a stop, some twenty

15:25

or thirty yards from the highway. Less

15:28

than thirty minutes had passed when the

15:30

Jeep was spotted.

15:32

It was Craig and Sandy

15:34

Lavelle, a couple from North Carolina

15:36

who were passing through the state and route

15:38

to New York. Maybe the

15:40

most unlikely of people. and

15:42

not just because they were from out state.

15:45

What makes it even more unlikely is the

15:47

fact that they only pass the Jeep because

15:49

of a wrong turn Craig had just made.

15:51

They were looking for a place to turn around when they saw

15:53

it. And even then, Craig didn't

15:55

just pull over. No.

15:57

He passed it. And as he

15:59

looked in his rearview mirror, and saw

16:01

the headlights shining out towards the highway.

16:03

For whatever reason, one that

16:05

he can't explain to this day,

16:07

he turned around and went back.

16:10

He pulled over to the side of Highway sixty

16:12

eight, got out of his vehicle,

16:14

and started walking down the hill.

16:16

There were

16:18

was that thought that ran

16:20

through my head quick like,

16:22

it's like, what are you doing?

16:24

If you own this property

16:26

right now, some car pulls up and gets out they

16:28

start walking toward you, what would you do?

16:30

So I start yelling as I'm

16:33

entering the woods saying, is

16:35

anybody here? Hello.

16:38

Craig doesn't get

16:40

a response. He continues

16:42

approaching the Jeep with caution.

16:44

I just

16:45

went over to the driver's side and

16:49

thought, let me just look and

16:51

see who's in the Jeep.

16:54

and maybe somebody's in there.

16:57

When I looked at the

16:59

Jeep, it's got plastic

17:02

windows on it. there was a little

17:04

hole I remember through it, and I

17:06

couldn't see good. So I put

17:08

my face up there and look through

17:10

this hole

17:12

and I saw a girl

17:14

in there and

17:16

she was just kinda slumped

17:19

laid back in the seat with her,

17:21

had tilted to the side, and

17:23

I started trying pound on

17:25

the canvas. door to

17:27

get her attention, slapping

17:30

it, and I'm not

17:32

getting any response from her. And

17:34

I realized something's

17:36

not right.

17:38

Meanwhile, back up at the side of

17:40

the highway, Sandy is growing anxious

17:42

by the second. She needs to know that

17:44

Craig is okay. I

17:47

hollered

17:47

and I said, what's going on? He goes,

17:49

don't come down. Don't come down.

17:52

And I'm like, why? What's wrong? And he

17:54

goes, it's an accident. It's an

17:56

accident. It was an accident. And he comes up

17:58

through his phone, and

17:59

Calls 911 From

18:02

seventy 911 What's the location of your

18:04

emergency? I'm

18:07

not quite sure. I'm under sixty eight.

18:10

k. I'm not from here.

18:12

I'm right now on fifty.

18:14

Outside of Ripley.

18:18

k. What's your name, sir?

18:20

As dispatch tries to nail down Craig's

18:22

location. He doesn't know what to tell

18:24

them. He

18:25

starts looking around for anything that

18:27

could help them pinpoint them.

18:29

And I spotted a

18:31

green mile marker up the road. And I

18:33

told my wife to take the car and

18:35

go up there and get

18:37

that mile marker number and come back.

18:40

From that point, I went down, back

18:42

into the woods, and I was describing

18:44

to them a nine eleven

18:46

what I was seeing as I was walking in? It

18:49

was a jeep. In

18:51

the work, looks like somebody

18:53

drove off the road. the

18:56

woods, and they passed

18:58

out at the wheel. Okay.

19:00

because it looked like a girl.

19:03

female probably twenty,

19:05

late twenty, maybe thirty?

19:07

Anymore. Second here, I'm trying

19:09

to train you you're still signal here and see if I can't

19:11

almost get a little bit better. Alright.

19:14

Is there anybody

19:14

else in the vehicle that you saw? I

19:16

saw one person. Just the

19:19

driver.

19:20

Craig walks around to

19:21

the passenger side of the Jeep to

19:23

double check. He was in a

19:26

panic. Maybe he had overlooked something.

19:29

I

19:29

grab on that passenger door, and I

19:31

open it, and there's a baby in

19:33

a car seat. Is

19:35

the baby okay? I

19:37

see it. The baby's

19:41

crying. The

19:42

baby's body, but it's anxious.

19:44

Okay.

19:57

It's correct. Can we get

19:59

you out of

19:59

here? Okay? It's

20:01

a Are you

20:02

sending the sheriff's department there?

20:04

Well, OSP is sending, but we're also

20:06

going to be sending -- we're sending a fire and

20:08

squad out that way as well. And you And

20:12

so

20:12

I sat there. It seemed like forever

20:16

forever before somebody

20:18

came. And then all of a sudden, one

20:21

guy came in his pickup truck and

20:23

went down to check things

20:25

out. Are you with the parking

20:27

parking? Yeah. You're on the other side. Babies

20:29

are right on this

20:30

side. There's a fire department number

20:33

there?

20:33

Yeah. Someone from the fire department

20:35

here.

20:35

Okay. At the give your unit

20:38

number. What's

20:39

the unit number? What's your

20:41

unit number? Forty 571

20:44

Forty five seven The first

20:48

responder was an off duty firefighter from

20:50

the town of Russellville. He

20:52

wasn't dispatched. He just happened

20:54

to be driving by. Craig walking down the hill

20:56

as they awaited additional first responders.

20:58

And then eventually, the

21:00

the rest of the world showed up. I

21:02

mean, I never saw so

21:05

many emergency vehicles

21:08

show up at once. And

21:10

it's like, finally, you know, I don't know what took

21:12

them so long, but thank God they're

21:14

finally here. While all

21:16

this was going on, Dave

21:18

and Mary unknowingly sat on

21:20

the back patio their home with Emily, just passing

21:23

time as they waited for the rest of their kids to show

21:25

up for Dave's birthday. They

21:27

were surprised that Britney wasn't there

21:29

yet, but waited patiently.

21:32

And that's when they heard

21:34

it.

21:37

Cyren's just aren't worn off like a house. And

21:41

I looked at Dave and Dave

21:44

looked at me and we went

21:46

right up there to the yard not

21:48

like I mean, like, we could see, but we couldn't see the

21:51

highway. But just to just I'm trying to get an

21:52

idea where they were where they were

21:55

going. They say they knew immediately

21:57

something bad had happened. That's what

21:59

you tend to

21:59

think when you hear sirens. But

22:02

they didn't mean it in a general

22:05

sense. They knew something had happened to one of

22:07

their homes. We come

22:08

back to the table and I got

22:10

a phone call and answered the phone. and

22:12

it was Dusty. And Dusty

22:15

says, mom, were you at? And I said, dad,

22:17

now here at the house, we're eating supper. He

22:19

goes, mom, something's going on,

22:21

something's wrong. He said,

22:23

where's Tanner? And I said to

22:25

you?

22:25

Mary gets off the phone with

22:27

her son Dusty and goes to call

22:29

her other son, Tanner.

22:31

But before she can, her

22:33

phone rings. It's Tanner.

22:36

I

22:36

said, honey, where are you at? He

22:38

says, I can't get through. I was on my way home

22:40

and I can't get through. said, honey, please

22:42

be careful. And he says, I will mama,

22:44

I'm on my way. So he started

22:46

coming home. And I looked at Dave,

22:49

and I said, it, Dave. It's the

22:51

Britney. But we all we all felt it. We all

22:53

felt it. Oh, you're not sure what's going

22:55

on. You you know what? The gut

22:57

feeling, I knew it was one of kids. I'm

22:59

thinking it's a car wreck or something of

23:01

that nature, not what I came upon.

23:15

When

23:15

they heard the sirens, Dave

23:18

almost immediately hopped in his

23:20

truck and started driving towards them.

23:22

When he arrived at scene, he approached an officer

23:24

and asked him, is it a yellow

23:26

jeep and a girl with long hair? The

23:30

officer confirmed, He was also told

23:32

that the passenger had been shot and was

23:34

being rushed to the hospital. He

23:36

knew it

23:36

was his granddaughter. While

23:38

Dave races to the hospital back at

23:40

the

23:40

Dodson's house, the phone rings,

23:43

and Mary answers. It's

23:45

Shane.

23:45

same breaks

23:47

the news. I

23:49

took

23:49

myself right over to that rock bench right

23:52

there, and I sat there and I prayed to

23:54

the Lord, and I screamed

23:56

aloud a second scream.

23:58

My word

24:00

is

24:00

still stooped at

24:03

that moment. And

24:04

the thing

24:06

of it was,

24:08

I didn't

24:08

get mad at God because God

24:10

and I had

24:12

talked a couple

24:14

nights before, I'd

24:16

actually

24:18

seen it. In

24:20

my

24:20

mind, I was

24:22

asleep, I woke up,

24:24

a vision, dream, whatever,

24:25

which I've gotten them all my life.

24:28

of me

24:29

losing my daughter.

24:31

And I got

24:32

up. I didn't

24:33

wanna wake him and I went to the bathroom and I

24:35

got my mom, my knees, and I prayed to the good Lord,

24:37

and you can't take my a daughter away from me, You

24:39

can't do it.

24:41

And a

24:42

peace come over me and

24:44

I said, Lord, if that's if it has to

24:47

be. I will raise

24:49

my granddaughter. I'll do what you were asking

24:51

said, then I don't lose my

24:53

baby. You know, I prayed, not prayed,

24:55

not prayed, but I

24:57

got up the next day and

24:59

I had

25:00

thought about telling Britney what I had

25:02

dreamt and everything and

25:06

I didn't. And I but

25:09

someone regret I have. I didn't tell

25:11

Britney because my mom had a

25:13

dream when I was young married

25:15

and had a child that I

25:17

had gotten, shot, and killed

25:19

in a vehicle on my way home.

25:23

And so I worried about that for

25:25

years. And I come

25:27

to find out, I don't think my mother dreamt of

25:29

my death. She dreamt of my

25:31

daughters.

25:32

and I should have said something to Britney and

25:34

I didn't because I didn't want her living

25:36

there like I did for the

25:38

longest time because that's

25:40

something that's That's

25:43

something

25:43

that's been passed down in my family. We

25:45

we know things before they happen.

25:47

And I

25:50

should've come through to her

25:52

and I didn't.

25:54

That's the

25:55

regret that I

25:57

have. That

26:02

same night, Britney's friend Samantha

26:05

learned what had happened. It

26:07

was around nine PM when she received a call from

26:10

Tanner.

26:12

And

26:12

he said, Sam,

26:14

she's been shot. And

26:16

I

26:17

said

26:18

who? Who's been shot?

26:20

And he said Britney.

26:22

And I said, what? What

26:24

are you talking about? And

26:27

he

26:27

was like, Sam Brittney's

26:30

dead.

26:30

And I

26:31

was like, Tanner your lion.

26:35

Don't say stuff like that. Like, what are you talking about? He said,

26:37

Sam, Britney's been

26:39

shot. She's dead. Aubrey

26:41

is fighting for her life.

26:43

She's being taken to children's. He said, you need

26:45

to get there. And I

26:47

was

26:47

like, everything Everything

26:53

just

26:56

was

26:56

like a blur. it

26:58

was like I was in a tree,

26:59

and

27:02

I left the house immediately.

27:05

And we were on our way

27:07

to Cincinnati and

27:09

the sheriff's office

27:12

called Rick Haney, detective

27:15

Haney.

27:15

called and asked me to turn around and

27:18

bring my phone to him. He

27:20

needed to see the tax.

27:22

She's talking

27:23

about the text from that morning regarding

27:25

the road rage incident. So I

27:27

showed him the text and stuff between Britney

27:29

and I, and

27:32

then I went to children's,

27:35

and we were

27:36

downstairs, and

27:38

I stayed there all night

27:41

long. I never left that

27:43

hospital. And I sat there in the waiting

27:45

room with Britney's mom

27:47

and dad.

27:47

Of course, you know

27:48

that after multiple surgeries, Aubrey

27:52

survived, but Britney didn't have

27:54

that same fortune. Her life

27:56

ended way too young. at

27:58

the age of twenty two. Her onboard

28:00

child was also killed in the

28:03

act. Samantha has always

28:05

struggled with this. and

28:07

not just for the obvious reasons. There's more to it

28:09

than that.

28:12

Whoever did

28:14

this, I

28:16

don't think

28:18

they knew that

28:20

it was Britney driving

28:22

or that there was a child in the

28:25

front seat. I told my

28:27

husband, I was supposed

28:29

to be in that

28:31

vehicle with Britney. I

28:33

would have been in the front seat.

28:36

Aubrey would have been in the back seat.

28:39

Would things have went the way that

28:41

they went? would

28:43

she still have

28:45

been shot? Would I

28:48

even be here? I mean,

28:50

there's so many questions

28:52

Those questions

28:55

stretch well beyond the fact that she was

28:57

supposed to be with Britney that day.

29:00

What she really wants to know is why

29:03

someone would have chosen to shoot and kill

29:05

Britney who by all

29:07

accounts had no enemies and no reason

29:09

whatsoever to have been attacked. I

29:11

know when

29:12

people pass away, you know, so

29:15

many people are like, oh, they were such a

29:17

great person and and the

29:19

sis and that and Britney

29:21

was

29:24

she really was

29:25

a great person.

29:27

There's so

29:28

many people that were affected by

29:32

Britney's death whoever did this

29:33

had no right to do what

29:35

they did. You had no

29:38

right. You were not god.

29:40

You do not

29:41

get to pick and choose what people live this

29:42

earth. Do the

29:45

right

29:45

thing. At least

29:47

have enough decency to

29:50

get some closure on what

29:52

happened.

30:09

Culpable

30:11

is the production of resonate recordings

30:13

and Tinder for TV. In

30:15

conjunction, with Cadence thirteen,

30:17

written and hosted by me, Dennis

30:19

Cooper, and produced by Jessica

30:22

Knoll. Executive producers or

30:24

myself, Mark Mennery, Jacob

30:27

Bozarth, Donald Albright, and Payne

30:29

Lindsay. Our senior producer

30:31

is John Streep, additional

30:33

production by

30:35

Todd Macombas. editing, mixing, mastering,

30:37

and sound design by Dayton Cole,

30:39

Pat KickLighter, Adam Townsend,

30:41

and Caleb Melcher of the

30:44

Resonate recordings team. If you have a

30:46

podcast or looking to start one,

30:48

check us out at resonate recordings

30:50

dot com. Our theme

30:52

song and original score is

30:54

by Dirkcore Robbins with additional scoring

30:56

by Dayton Cole. Our

30:58

cover art is by Drew Bardana, You

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can follow us on social media

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at culpable podcasts, show notes

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as well as bonus content can be

31:07

found on our website. cocable podcast

31:10

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31:12

episode, please take time to

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31:16

Your feedback is greatly appreciated.

31:19

And lastly, if you have any information

31:21

about the murder of Britney Stikes, we

31:23

urge you to contact the Brown County Sheriff's

31:25

Office by visiting website, brown

31:28

county ohio sheriff dot u

31:30

s, where you can anonymously submit your

31:32

information. Or you can

31:35

contact sergeant Quinn Carlson directly at 9373784435

31:42

extension 130 or

31:44

by email at quinn

31:47

carlsonbcfo dot

31:51

com. You can also submit your information anonymously through our

31:53

web site, comable podcast dot

31:56

com. Thank you

31:58

for

31:58

listening.