0:03

Welcome to episode

0:05

313 of

0:08

FBI Retired Case File Review

0:10

with Jerry Williams. I'm

0:13

a retired agent on a mission

0:15

to show you who the FBI

0:17

is and what the FBI does

0:19

through my books, my blog, and

0:21

my podcast case reviews with former

0:23

colleagues. Today we get to speak

0:26

to retired agent Jerome Lorraine, who

0:28

served in the FBI for 30

0:30

years and

0:32

Detective Lieutenant Shane Boseman

0:34

of the Jackson County,

0:36

Mississippi Sheriff's Office. In

0:39

this episode, Jerome and

0:42

Shane review the investigation

0:44

of the murder of

0:46

Sarah Willard, a 29-year-old

0:48

escort and sex worker

0:50

from Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

0:53

Sarah disappeared in November 2019 and

0:57

the Pascagoula, Mississippi's Safe Streets

0:59

Task Force, worked with the

1:01

Jackson County Sheriff's Office to

1:03

investigate her disappearance. The

1:06

investigation led to a

1:08

54-year-old male residing in

1:10

Ocean Springs, Mississippi, who

1:12

had hired Willard to

1:14

be his BDSM sex

1:16

slave. The FBI's Cellular

1:18

Analysis Survey team, CAST,

1:20

was crucial to Jerome

1:22

and Shane's resolution of

1:24

this case. Jerome

1:26

was assigned to the

1:28

FBI's Jackson, Mississippi Division's

1:30

Pascagoula Resident Agency. He led

1:33

a Safe Streets and High

1:35

Intensity Drug Trafficking Area, HIDA,

1:37

task force, which investigated drug

1:40

trafficking organizations, street gangs, and

1:42

violent crime. Jerome was also

1:44

the team leader for FBI

1:46

hostage negotiators in Mississippi. Currently,

1:49

he works as an investigator

1:51

with the sheriff's office and

1:53

is writing his memoir. He

1:55

can be reached on his

1:58

LinkedIn profile. Lieutenant

2:00

Shane Bozeman began his law

2:05

a number of other police

2:08

departments before joining the Jackson

2:10

County Sheriff's Department in

2:13

2010. Shane was promoted to the Criminal Investigation

2:16

Division in 2014 where

2:18

he is currently assigned.

2:20

His duties include supervising

2:22

other investigators, assisting his

2:24

captain and overseeing the

2:26

day-to-day activities of the

2:28

Criminal Investigative Division as

2:31

well as investigating felony cases

2:33

against persons and property. Now

2:35

a quick note before we get to

2:38

the case review. I will be in

2:40

Philadelphia at the end of April. I'm

2:42

still trying to find a place to

2:45

host a meetup event on Sunday April

2:47

the 28th 2024.

2:50

So if you live in the Philly

2:52

area and you're interested in attending please

2:54

stay tuned. I promise to bring along

2:57

lots of free podcast swag to give

2:59

away. In your podcast

3:01

app description of this episode, you'll

3:03

find links to where you can

3:06

join my reader team to keep

3:08

up with the FBI and books,

3:10

TV and movies. Buy me a

3:12

cup of coffee and learn more

3:15

about me and my nonfiction book,

3:17

FBI Mists and Misconceptions, a manual

3:19

for armchair detectives and my two

3:21

FBI crime novels, Pay to Play

3:24

and Greedy Givers. All

3:26

are available as ebooks and

3:28

paperbacks. Wherever books are sold

3:31

and audiobooks on Audible and

3:33

Spotify. Thank you for your

3:35

support. Now here's the show. I

3:40

want to welcome my guest

3:42

retired agent Jerome Lorraine and

3:45

Lieutenant Shane Bozeman of the

3:47

Jackson County Sheriff's Department Criminal

3:50

Investigative Division. Hi

3:52

guys. Thank you Jerry. It's good to

3:54

be back. Morning Jerry.

3:56

Yeah the last time Jerome was

3:58

here. reviewed the

4:01

case we called, That

4:06

episode as of today is among

4:08

my all-time top 25 downloaded episodes.

4:10

So Shane, you got to step

4:12

it up. You know what a

4:14

great Jerome down. I know

4:17

I feel a little intimidated now. No,

4:20

Shane is gonna do great.

4:22

Alright, well you sent me some

4:25

links for articles about the case

4:27

that we are reviewing today. It's

4:29

gonna be about a woman that

4:31

was murdered and when I first

4:34

started reading and I saw that

4:36

her husband or I think you

4:38

said her ex-husband was the one

4:40

who called it in. Of course,

4:43

I was immediately suspicious which I'm

4:45

sure a lot of our listeners

4:47

who are into true crime would

4:49

immediately think that the

4:51

husband did it. So you have to let

4:54

me know as you go along if that's

4:56

what you both were thinking too. Where do

4:58

you want to start? I'll start

5:00

with how we got this investigation

5:02

started. It was four years ago

5:04

in February of 2020, I received

5:08

a phone call from our

5:10

FBI office in Miami and

5:13

they advised that a 29-year-old

5:15

woman named Sarah Willard came

5:17

up missing. She'd been missing

5:19

for approximately three months. Her

5:22

ex-husband and her mother had reported

5:24

her missing. When did they

5:26

report her missing? Three months after she

5:28

was gone or earlier? They reported

5:30

her earlier but the FBI didn't

5:33

get involved until the Coral Gables

5:35

Police Department contacted the FBI in

5:37

Miami because they thought it might

5:39

have some human trafficking angle to

5:42

it and are kidnapping. As you

5:44

know Jerry, the FBI investigates human

5:46

trafficking and in our major offices

5:48

we have whole squads that's their

5:51

sole focus. Part of the human

5:53

trafficking that the FBI looks into

5:55

is twofold. One is either sex

5:57

trafficking which can be adults armed

6:00

minors are labor trafficking which

6:02

also working

6:23

in the sex industry. That's what

6:25

initially got the FBI involved in

6:27

the case and that she had

6:30

flown out of state from

6:32

Florida and flown to New

6:34

Orleans. So the Coral Gables

6:36

PD was looking for federal

6:38

assistance to investigate the case

6:40

further. So initially what we

6:42

learned is that Sarah's phone

6:44

had last been used near

6:46

a residential home in Ocean

6:49

Springs, Mississippi. We learned that

6:51

Sarah had met a individual

6:53

from Ocean Springs, Mississippi by

6:55

the name of Philip York

6:57

who was a 53-year-old white

6:59

male unemployed. He was

7:01

married and she had met

7:04

him on a BDSM website.

7:06

They both had profiles on

7:08

this website. BDSM

7:11

stands for Bondage, Discipline,

7:13

Submission, Sadism, Masochism. It

7:16

involves people that cater

7:18

to the slave master

7:20

sexual type relationship. And

7:22

in fact, when we

7:24

looked at Philip York's

7:26

profile on this website,

7:28

it stated that he

7:30

was looking for a

7:32

female slave, that he

7:34

was into kidnapping, caging,

7:36

blindfolds, pain, drugs,

7:39

sharing, rented, and

7:41

a dungeon slave. So this is

7:43

the type of activity that he

7:45

was advertising for. And a lot

7:48

of people obviously it's role-playing. It's

7:50

not legitimate quote-unquote slave master type

7:52

what you would think of relationship.

7:55

They're just role-playing. So we

7:57

didn't know exactly what we had when we first got

7:59

this. call, we didn't know if

8:01

it was going to be a kidnapping case

8:04

or if it was going to be a

8:06

sex trafficking, human trafficking case. And we didn't

8:08

know if Sarah was alive, if she was

8:10

being held in a cage against her will

8:13

or she had just attempted

8:15

to start a new life someplace

8:17

with somebody else. But we

8:19

were certainly concerned because it had been

8:21

three months since anybody had contact with

8:23

her and her phone hadn't been used.

8:26

Okay, so when I started all of

8:28

this asking about whether the husband

8:31

was suspected, that had long

8:33

passed. That had been looked

8:35

at and resolved before you

8:37

even got the case. More

8:40

or less, the best lead we

8:42

had was the last person that

8:44

she was around. But

8:46

I will say this as far

8:48

as ex-husband, boyfriends, normally when

8:50

you're dealing with sex trafficking and

8:53

a woman's being trafficked, there is

8:55

a man involved in some capacity

8:58

either as a pimp, there's some

9:00

type of coercion, force, intimidation being

9:02

used. So we didn't rule anything

9:05

out at this point. But

9:07

her ex-husband was cooperating and he

9:09

said that the last text message

9:11

he had gotten from Sarah said

9:14

that she had met with the

9:16

client and that things weren't working

9:18

out and that she was looking

9:20

for an exit plan. That was

9:22

a text message he got from

9:24

Sarah and that was on October

9:26

29, 2019. So

9:30

at this stage, this is the information we have.

9:32

I contact Lieutenant Shane Boseman with

9:35

the Jackson County Sheriff's Department. I'm

9:37

a coordinator of a Safe Streets Task

9:40

Force, which is an FBI task force

9:42

that involves state and local officers working

9:44

in the FBI office with us on

9:47

violent crime and drug cases. I was

9:49

very familiar with Shane and we didn't

9:51

know if this case was going to

9:54

be charged in state or federal court

9:56

or what angle it might take. So

9:58

I just asked for... the Jackson

10:00

County Sheriff's Department's CID, Criminal

10:03

Investigative Division, to work with

10:05

us jointly on this investigation.

10:08

Once we realized that the last

10:10

time Sarah's phone had been used

10:12

at Phillip was near this residence

10:14

belonging to Phillip Yark, we ran

10:16

his name and NCIC and

10:19

determined that he had spent 11

10:21

years in jail for a conviction

10:23

of malicious maiming in Virginia. And

10:25

that involved a case where he

10:27

had cut somebody with a broken

10:29

beer bottle at a party. So

10:31

we knew that he was a

10:34

convicted felon. He had spent time

10:36

in jail. He was currently not

10:38

employed, but he was married. So

10:40

we decided to do what's called a

10:43

knock and talk where we go to

10:45

the house, we interview the suspect and

10:48

we just see if they will admit

10:50

having contact with our missing persons. So

10:52

that's what we did. This

10:54

was on February 6th, 2020,

10:57

the FBI Safe Streets Task Force and

10:59

Jackson County CID traveled out to his

11:02

residence on Sweetbriar Street in Ocean Springs.

11:04

And we knocked on the door. Phillip

11:06

Yark opened the door. He was a

11:08

heavyset, middle aged white male. I told

11:11

him that we were there on a

11:13

missing persons investigation. And I asked if

11:15

we could come inside and speak with

11:17

him. He invited us in and we

11:20

sat down on the sofa. Myself and

11:22

an agent by the name of Jason

11:24

default proceeded to talk to Phillip Yark.

11:26

And I showed him a picture of

11:29

Sarah Willard. And I said, this is

11:31

the lady that we are trying to

11:33

find out what happened to her. And

11:35

does he know her? Phillip said that

11:38

he did, that he had met her.

11:40

He had met her on a BDSM

11:42

website and that she was

11:44

looking to be in a slave

11:46

type sexual relationship and that she

11:49

had flown from Florida to New

11:51

Orleans. And he picked her up

11:53

at the New Orleans airport and

11:55

brought her to Mississippi. At this stage,

11:57

I asked if we could have consent

11:59

to. search his house. He said yes

12:01

because I was concerned whether or not

12:04

she might be in the house. He

12:06

said she was not in the house

12:08

and he gave us consent to search

12:10

and once he signed the form the

12:12

task force officers and Shane and Jackson

12:14

County CID started to search the residence.

12:17

Jason and I continued the interview

12:19

with Yark. Yark claimed

12:21

that Sarah had been groomed

12:24

since the age of 13

12:27

for this lifestyle and that she was

12:29

in a bad situation with her ex-husband

12:31

and she was looking for somebody to

12:33

take care of her. He had hoped

12:36

that she could move in with him

12:38

and his wife and stay

12:40

with them. He denied having any

12:42

sexual contact with her. He said

12:44

that he drove her to Mississippi

12:46

and it didn't take long for

12:48

him to realize that she was

12:50

unstable, a manic depressive and

12:53

that the relationship that he wanted with

12:55

her was not going to work out. He

12:58

said he drove her to a suburban

13:00

in hotel in D'Iberville, Mississippi and dropped

13:03

her off and basically told her this

13:05

isn't going to work. She replied don't

13:07

worry about me. I'm going to travel

13:10

to Maryland or West Virginia. I've got

13:12

a client up there. I've got a

13:14

sugar daddy with an apartment up there

13:16

who gave me a BMW and I'm

13:19

going to go up there. He

13:21

said that was the extent of it

13:23

that she decided to go someplace else

13:26

and it just didn't work out between

13:28

them. What was your feeling

13:30

about what he was saying? Sometimes

13:32

you get that spidey sense. Did

13:34

you immediately think he's lying? I

13:37

thought some of what he was saying

13:39

was the truth and some of what he

13:41

was saying was lies. We see that

13:43

happen all the time because it's easier

13:45

to tell the truth than the lie

13:47

so they'll mix in some of both

13:49

and it makes it tougher for us

13:51

to disprove things when they're throwing in some

13:54

facts that we can actually verify. He

13:56

had also learned through coral gables at

13:58

that point at the end. husband said

14:00

that it was not unusual for her to

14:02

take off on these type of trips and

14:04

things like that and be gone for a

14:06

while but it was highly unusual for her

14:09

not to keep contact with the mother and

14:11

with him by phone she had not kept

14:13

any contact up to that point. He

14:15

wanted us to believe that she had just vanished

14:17

so to speak that she wanted to vanish she

14:19

wanted to get away from the ex-husband and so

14:22

that she was okay. I let him speak we

14:25

wanted him to say as much as possible

14:27

so we continued the interview. Yark claimed that

14:29

for him it was not about the sex

14:31

it was about control for him and that

14:34

she wanted to be under somebody's control and

14:36

live in a cage so he thought it

14:38

was gonna work out but once he met

14:41

her he realized that it just wasn't gonna

14:43

be possible. I told him that the last

14:45

place her phone had been used was at

14:47

his house and he said that's

14:50

impossible because she was never here. He

14:52

said he did not hurt her he never

14:54

had any intention of hurting her

14:56

and he didn't wish her any harm

14:58

now and that's an example of how

15:00

somebody will say some truths and some

15:03

false statements. I felt strongly at this

15:05

point I think we all did that

15:07

he had done something to her and

15:10

he was trying to convince us that he

15:12

didn't hurt her but his last statement I

15:14

don't wish her any harm now. Well he

15:17

was trying to throw in a little bit

15:19

of accuracy with it I think he probably

15:21

felt sorry about what had happened. We didn't

15:23

buy his story at that point and

15:26

we told him so he said I'm

15:28

gonna spend the rest of my life

15:30

in prison over this girl. At that

15:32

point he was starting to get worried

15:34

and I told him not necessarily tell

15:36

us what happened. He said I'm the

15:38

last person that she was with. He

15:40

took a deep pause he started breathing

15:42

hard and I asked him if she

15:45

was alive and he said yes. I asked

15:47

if she was in a cage somewhere and

15:50

he said no I don't have her anywhere.

15:52

I asked him if it was possible

15:54

if he had blacked out and did something

15:56

to her and he said I can't

15:58

say no. can

16:00

explain to everyone why you ask

16:02

that question that way? A lot

16:05

of times people will try to minimize

16:07

a horrible crime and the way they

16:09

do it is by saying I just

16:11

kind of lost control or just

16:13

snapped or something blacked out. I just

16:15

I don't know next thing I remember

16:18

they kind of do that leap that

16:20

bridge try to get them over the

16:22

horrible point back to where they're normal.

16:24

So it gives them just a little

16:26

bit of out you know could you

16:28

have blacked out or was this something

16:30

sexual going on maybe there was some

16:32

asphyxiation going on or something of that

16:34

nature and you blacked out or I

16:36

was just trying to give him some

16:38

escape mechanisms so to speak where it'd

16:40

make it easier for him to say

16:42

what happened and when I asked him that

16:45

he said I can't say no I said

16:47

what did you snap with Sarah and he

16:49

said not that I recall and

16:51

he said I'm just sad right now

16:53

I wish it would have turned out

16:56

another way. Then he called himself and

16:58

said I'm sure she's still ticking along

17:00

I just wish I knew where. At

17:02

this point we've been talking with him

17:04

for several hours. He was

17:06

close to breaking but he just wouldn't get

17:08

over the edge and tell us what happened

17:10

to Sarah. We knew that there had been

17:12

foul play after talking with him and the

17:15

way he was acting and his statements that

17:17

he had made. So we took a break

17:19

Shane and I talked and he told me

17:21

what they had found during the search and

17:23

I'll let Shane kind of discuss that now.

17:26

Yeah during the search of the residence we

17:28

located three handguns. I believe it was two

17:30

shotguns that we actually found in Phillip's room

17:32

that were actually just out in Plainview. Easy

17:35

to see as soon as we walked in

17:37

the shotgun and all it was anyway and

17:39

then we located the pistols and stuff in

17:41

there. Well knowing that he was a convicted

17:43

felon and he was forbidden from possessing firearms

17:45

at that point we made the decision to

17:47

go ahead and charge him with felony possession

17:49

of a firearm to get him out of

17:51

his comfort zone a little bit to take

17:53

him to the station to give us a

17:56

little bit better opportunity and more on our playing

17:58

field I guess you would say to sit out to

18:00

talk to him a little bit further because as

18:02

Jerome stated, I mean at this point in time

18:04

pretty much everybody there knew that he wasn't

18:06

being completely honest with us and suspected that there

18:09

was some foul play that had taken place. So

18:12

that's what we did. We took him to the station. I

18:14

might add that York's wife was

18:16

home, his wife and his mother

18:18

who was residing with them in

18:20

a garage apartment and his wife was

18:23

interviewed. She said that she knew

18:25

nothing about any sex worker

18:27

or sex slave coming to live with them

18:29

and that she would have never allow that

18:31

to happen in her house. Well

18:33

Shane, let me ask you since

18:35

you were part of the search,

18:38

did you find any apparatus or

18:40

cages or any of that stuff?

18:42

Well so we did during that search.

18:45

We located the firearms. We also seized

18:47

a couple of computers and we found

18:49

a black bag which contained some BDSM

18:51

type material, handcuffs, blindfolds, things of that

18:54

nature which we also took at that

18:56

point in time as evidence. It was

18:58

almost as if though in speaking to

19:01

the wife and to the mother that

19:03

they had no idea of this I

19:05

guess you could say secondary lifestyle Philip

19:08

was keeping on the computer and the

19:10

conversations and things going on. That is

19:12

really interesting. I mean they must have

19:14

been in shock. Yes, very much

19:17

so. At

19:20

this point, York was transported

19:22

in custody to the Jackson

19:25

County Sheriff's Department and approximately

19:27

1145 that night Jason

19:29

default and I met with York,

19:32

advised him of his rights and

19:34

was basically just gonna turn up the heat a little

19:37

bit on him. Let him know that we thought he

19:39

was lying and tried to see if he would confess.

19:41

As soon as we advised him of his

19:43

rights he said I'm done answering questions. So

19:46

we didn't push him at that point. We'd

19:48

been doing this for four hours or so

19:50

and we thought, well, all right, we'll

19:52

let him get a night's sleep. We

19:54

can revisit this later. We broke for

19:57

the evening and the next day Shane

20:00

filed the felon in possession of a

20:02

firearm charge and a bail was

20:04

set. Correct. The judge

20:06

said his bail at $100,000 based on the

20:08

fact that he had the weapons, the suspicion

20:10

that there was some foul play involved and

20:12

all that, gave him $100,000 bail, which Philip

20:16

had told us that he wouldn't be able to make any

20:18

bail at that point because he knew due to

20:21

his actions and the arrest and all that, he was

20:23

pretty much knew that his wife was going to leave

20:25

him at that point. And he even later made comments

20:27

to her, just leave me where I'm at and things

20:29

like that. So at this

20:32

stage, we needed to try

20:34

to ascertain Sarah's movements from

20:36

the time she left Florida

20:38

until she ended up at

20:40

York's residence. One of

20:42

the ways that we do that is

20:44

by analyzing cell phone records. The

20:47

FBI has a team that's

20:49

referred to as the CAS

20:51

team and that stands for

20:53

Cellular Analysis Survey Team. And

20:56

these are a group of specially

20:58

trained agents that can analyze phone

21:00

records and geo locations and try

21:02

to determine where a phone was

21:04

at for any given period of

21:07

time. Agent Jason Default

21:09

was a CAS team member and

21:11

he started analyzing the phone records.

21:14

He put together an amazing report that

21:16

showed her movements from the day that

21:18

she flew out of Florida. She flew

21:21

out of Fort Lauderdale Airport in Florida

21:23

and flew to New Orleans at

21:26

around noon. She was at

21:28

the airport in New Orleans and then

21:30

it showed that she was traveling

21:32

towards Mississippi and along

21:35

the way, the phone stopped at

21:37

a Circle K gas station in

21:39

Slidell, Louisiana. And then it

21:41

continued on into Mississippi. When it got

21:43

into Mississippi, it went north of Bay

21:45

St. Louis into a rural area and

21:48

stayed gone for almost an hour and

21:50

a half or so. And

21:52

then eventually went to

21:54

Yarks residence. And

21:56

when it got to Yarks residence, the phone

21:58

was only there for four. minutes and

22:01

then afterwards it went to Mississippi.

22:06

This would have been on October 29,

22:08

2019. The next morning, October

22:13

30, 2019, the phone moved

22:15

from the motel to Yarks

22:18

residence and except for one

22:20

brief turnaround trip to Yarks

22:23

wife's place of work, the

22:26

phone stayed at Yarks residence for

22:28

the next 70 hours and

22:30

eventually on November 2, 2019

22:33

at 5.36 a.m., the phone died and

22:35

went off and it never came back

22:38

on again. This gave

22:40

us lead information to work on.

22:42

Agent Jason Default traveled to the

22:44

gas station where they had stopped

22:46

on the way and he

22:48

was able to get video and

22:51

was actually able to get pictures

22:53

of Yark getting out of a gold Subaru

22:56

at this gas station going into the gas

22:58

station. We were able to get a description

23:00

of his clothes he was wearing that day

23:02

and as he was walking from the Subaru

23:05

on the video it looked like he kind

23:07

of turned and may have said something to

23:09

somebody in the car but you couldn't see

23:11

anybody in the car from the video. At

23:14

this point it gave us a lead

23:16

that we needed to search the Subaru

23:18

closely and Shane I'll let you pick

23:21

it up from there. At that point

23:23

once he was charged with a felon

23:25

in possession, we were working that case

23:27

simultaneously with Jerome and his team. We

23:29

were looking at it as more of

23:32

a possible homicide or something like that.

23:34

Like he said, Jason Default created the

23:36

graph which basically gave me a perfect

23:38

timeline of showing that she was in

23:40

New Orleans at 1202 and then where

23:43

she traveled which we found a little

23:45

unusual because it's a straight shot from New

23:47

Orleans but they actually went north for that

23:49

hour and a half and we weren't exactly

23:52

sure why that happened. At that point in

23:54

time we later found out what happened with

23:56

that. We realized that he was in the

23:58

Subaru because when we interviewed... back at the

24:00

house, he told us that the truck was his. There

24:03

was three vehicles at the residence. Whenever we went over

24:05

there and did the knock and talk, there was a

24:07

Ford F-150, which belonged to Philip

24:09

York. There was a Mini Cooper, and then

24:11

there was the Subaru, which belonged to Philip

24:13

York's mother. Well, whenever we were

24:15

able to ascertain that he was not driving

24:18

his truck and he was driving the Subaru,

24:20

we obtained another search warrant to go back

24:22

to his residence, to search his residence again,

24:24

as well as the other vehicles. Paying very

24:26

close attention to Mom's Subaru, because we knew

24:28

that that's what he was driving whenever he

24:30

picked her up. In searching that

24:32

vehicle, whenever we got to the back of it,

24:35

it was a station wagon vehicle. So, I pulled

24:37

up the carpet and pulled up the spare tire.

24:39

Well, in the spare tire wheel, we found what

24:42

appeared to be blood. We did a preliminary test

24:44

on it, which did come back to be positive

24:46

for human blood. So, at that point in time,

24:48

we knew that foul play had taken place. There

24:51

was really no reason for there to be this amount of blood

24:53

in the spare tire wheel. We knew that

24:55

something bad had taken place with Sarah, and

24:57

we just needed to figure out what was

24:59

going on. I went and served

25:02

him those search warrants at the jail. I did

25:04

it on camera specifically because I wanted to see

25:06

his reaction, or I gave it to him. So,

25:08

whenever I went in there and called him into

25:11

the interview room and told him, you know, we

25:13

had executed more search warrants and gave him that.

25:15

And I told him, I said, well, I found

25:17

blood in the Subaru. At that point

25:19

in time, you could just tell he was

25:22

defeated. His head dropped. He was standing

25:24

up because they just walked him in there long enough

25:26

for me to tell him that and serve him with

25:28

paperwork. I think he knew at that point in time

25:30

that it was just a matter of time. He was

25:32

defeated, took a deep breath, and the only thing he

25:34

said was okay. And he turned around and walked out.

25:36

So, I knew at that point in time we were

25:38

on the right track. Yeah, and we

25:40

had blood, but we had to prove whose

25:42

blood it was. So, at

25:44

that stage, we had to try to

25:47

get buccal swabs from Sarah's mother. We

25:49

were also able to obtain a razor

25:51

that Sarah had used in two cigarette

25:54

butts. Ultimately, that was tested

25:56

by the lab and it was

25:58

positively identified as being Sarah's blood.

26:01

Correct. One of my contact,

26:03

Coral Gables and got more information on

26:05

what all they had and stuff like

26:07

that. I had him send me some

26:09

pictures of Sarah. One of the pictures

26:11

showed her tattoos and things, which became

26:13

very important later on, but after serving

26:15

him with that, I went back and

26:17

spoke to his wife and explained to

26:19

her what all was taking place and

26:21

all of this, and she was very

26:23

distraught because she had no idea of

26:25

this different personality type situation he was

26:27

dealing with. She says, I don't

26:30

understand how he ever felt that he could bring

26:32

a female in my house to be a slave.

26:34

She said, I'm not into females

26:36

and I'm not into any of that

26:38

stuff. She was just totally forward by

26:41

the entire situation. You could

26:43

just tell by talking to her that she had

26:45

no idea of what was going on. And

26:48

saying that, it sounds like

26:50

he never intended to actually

26:52

engage in these behaviors with Sarah

26:55

since we know his wife wasn't

26:57

into it, that she did not

26:59

want to have a sex slave

27:01

in her home. So it sounds

27:03

like his intentions from the very beginning

27:05

was to do harm to Sarah. It's

27:08

possible, but whenever we were interviewing the

27:10

wife, the wife told us that due

27:12

to some medications and things that Phillip

27:14

was on, that he was impotent. They

27:16

had not been able to have any

27:18

type of intimate relations in several, several

27:20

months, which we found kind of strange

27:22

because he was on a BDSM sex

27:24

site. But whenever we were able to

27:26

go back and track everything, we later

27:28

learned that whenever he picked Sarah up

27:30

from the airport, the reason that they

27:32

went the strange route, they were talking,

27:35

getting to know each other. And he

27:37

realized that she was not quite

27:39

all there. Then he actually kind of came

27:41

back to reality and realized this is not

27:43

going to work. My wife is not going

27:45

to go for this. What was I thinking?

27:47

He tried to play it like he was

27:49

just in a different state and not being

27:51

realistic as to what could actually take place.

27:54

He blamed that basically on the anime and things that

27:56

he liked to watch and that he was into. One

27:59

important fact. here is that on

28:01

his profile on this BDSM website,

28:03

he used a picture of a

28:06

male between the ages of 25

28:08

and 35, a

28:10

young good-looking male. So

28:12

he was kind of catfishing on

28:14

the website and talking a big game,

28:17

portraying himself to be a certain way

28:19

but it was all fiction and I'm

28:22

sure that created a major problem once

28:24

Sarah arrived in New Orleans and

28:26

she saw who she was in fact

28:28

really dealing with. The

28:30

next major thing that happened was February 12th

28:32

2020 is Yark's

28:35

wife goes to the jail to visit him.

28:37

Shane, I'll let you pick that up at

28:40

that point. Yeah so she told me

28:42

that she had set up a I guess you

28:44

could say conference call. In our jail you basically

28:46

do it on a computer screen basically like a

28:49

zoom type conversation. You don't actually sit in front

28:51

of a glass and talk to him. It's more

28:53

of a zoom type conversation. So she told me

28:55

that she had set that up and she was

28:57

gonna talk to him and then she was gonna

29:00

let me know what happened. Well so I had

29:02

already contacted our investigator at the jail and told

29:04

him what time this was taking place and all

29:06

that and told him these conversations are recorded, the

29:08

entire video and audio is recorded. So I told

29:11

him if he would soon if he

29:13

got in the following morning to download that

29:15

and put it in a location that we

29:17

have on our computers which is like a

29:19

shared drive. That night when she was talking

29:21

to him that investigator at the jail actually

29:23

called me at home and he said he

29:25

just admitted to killing her. I

29:27

said do what? He says well the investigator

29:29

at the jail was actually working late and

29:31

he was watching the conversation in his office

29:33

while they were actually having it. So I

29:35

said he did what? He said yeah he

29:37

just admitted to it. So he took his

29:39

cell phone and put it on speaker and

29:41

put it next to the computer so I

29:43

could hear the conversation as to what was

29:45

going on while I was at home. His

29:47

wife asked him did he do these things

29:50

because she told him she was gonna file

29:52

for divorce. She point-linked asked him did you

29:54

hurt that girl and he said yes yes

29:56

I did. At that point time we

29:58

knew that he had killed Sarah. We

30:00

just did not know where she was at. We went

30:02

with the information we had, the blood, all the evidence

30:04

that we had up to this point. Let

30:07

me ask a question and I

30:09

know the answer, but I just

30:11

want to be clear for listeners,

30:13

even though he had said that

30:15

he wasn't going to talk and

30:17

that he wanted an attorney, I'm

30:19

taking there are signs all over

30:21

the Zoom type system that lets

30:23

him know that whatever he says

30:25

is being recorded. Yes,

30:28

it actually tells you when you log on,

30:30

on our system anyway, it tells you that

30:32

these things are recorded and or monitored. So

30:35

in a jail situation, there's no expectation

30:37

of privacy for the inmates, for their

30:39

conversations that they're having and that's for

30:41

the security of the jail. The only

30:44

conversation that they can have that would

30:46

not be subject to monitoring would be

30:48

with an attorney. And during that subsequent

30:51

interview where we tried to speak to

30:53

Yark at the Sheriff's Department, he didn't

30:55

ask for an attorney, he just said

30:57

that he was done talking. So potentially

31:00

we could have gone back to him

31:02

at some point, but he didn't specifically

31:04

ask for an attorney. But in a jail

31:06

setting, there's no expectation of privacy on the

31:08

part of the inmates and it has to

31:11

be that way for security because otherwise, people

31:13

could be planning to sneak in contraband, which

31:15

they do all the time anyway, but it

31:17

helps to secure the jail if they don't

31:19

have that expectation of privacy for mail or

31:21

phone calls. One other thing that

31:23

Yark said to his wife during that

31:25

visit was that everything good in my

31:27

life I've thrown away and I'm going

31:29

to die in prison and I'm going

31:31

to commit suicide in here. He

31:34

said, I'm going to die in prison. I don't

31:36

know what I was doing. I don't know what

31:38

made me do this. And yes, then he said

31:40

that he was going to die in jail and

31:42

he was going to commit suicide. So I

31:45

immediately contacted the jail and told them

31:47

to put him on Suicide Watch, which

31:49

they did. Well, during that conversation also, Michelle,

31:51

his wife told him, I've been very

31:53

nice to her and to his mom

31:55

and tried to work with them as

31:57

much as possible because... was in serving

31:59

these search warrants, it takes time to

32:01

do that on three different vehicles in the

32:03

house and things like that. I tried

32:05

not to put them out too much.

32:08

We still had to do our due diligence, but I

32:10

was very nice to them and tried to work with

32:12

them and not making them sit outside and things like

32:14

that. You know, we'd clear the living room and then

32:16

let them sit on the couch while we did the

32:19

rest of the house and somebody sit with them and

32:21

put the vehicles and stuff as well. He told her

32:23

on that conversation, he says, well, I'll talk to him.

32:25

The next morning, based off of all the

32:27

evidence that we had at that point in

32:30

time, I coordinated with our district attorney and

32:32

told them everything that we had and I

32:34

was able to obtain a capital murder warrant

32:36

on Mr. York, despite the fact that we

32:38

had not located the body of Sarah Willard.

32:41

And you know that that's highly unusual to be able

32:43

to get a murder warrant on somebody and not actually

32:45

have the body. But we felt and

32:47

the district attorney felt that we had more than

32:49

ample evidence at that point in time. So

32:51

the next thing that happened once

32:54

the murder warrant was obtained, it

32:56

was a capital murder charge. So

32:58

that makes it a death penalty

33:00

eligible offense, is that there was

33:02

some conversation amongst the investigators in

33:04

the district attorney's office about taking

33:06

the death penalty off the table

33:09

if York would provide information that

33:11

would relate to the recovery of

33:13

Sarah's body. Right, correct. So

33:15

yeah, during that conversation, they went ahead and

33:17

we were able to obtain the arrest warrant

33:19

for capital murder. And he was denied bond

33:21

by the judge. But to try and help

33:24

get the family some closure and things like

33:26

that, they agreed to take the death penalty

33:28

off the table if he would lead us

33:30

to where Sarah was at. The

33:32

district attorney's office received a phone call from

33:35

the public defender's office who Mr. York had

33:37

reached out to them to represent him at

33:39

that point in time on the position of

33:41

a weapon by a convicted felon. And so

33:44

they were representing him on that. And

33:46

the same day that we filed this new charge

33:48

on the one for capital murder, they reached out

33:50

to the district attorney's office and notified them that

33:52

Mr. York wanted to speak with me. I

33:55

went up there on February the 13th and met

33:57

with him at about 5 p.m. I

34:00

didn't want him to change his mind and at

34:02

this point in time he pretty much knew the

34:04

gig was up. So

34:08

I went down advised him of his rights again

34:10

told him that I had been told that he

34:12

wanted to speak with me. At that point in

34:14

time he ended up telling me the entire story

34:17

that he had met Sarah on this BDSM website

34:19

and that yes they had only known each other

34:21

for 24 hours and then she flew to New

34:23

Orleans where he picked her up. When he picked

34:25

her up and they were rioting he kind of

34:27

realized that this was a bad idea and was

34:30

never going to work and he knew that if

34:32

he took her home his wife is going to

34:34

leave him because she wasn't going to stand for

34:36

this. The reason that they went north was

34:38

they started arguing and he said that Sarah offered

34:40

him sex but he declined it and he said

34:43

that he felt like the only reason she offered

34:45

him sex was so that she could be in

34:47

control. And so he said the first time he

34:49

declined it but he said he was trying to talk to

34:51

her and tell her that she just needed to go back

34:53

home and this wasn't going to work out. And

34:55

he said that they ended up stopping having

34:58

sex so really that he could get her

35:00

attention. In the midst of whenever they went

35:02

up north they stopped at a park up

35:04

there and ended up having sex. At which

35:07

point in time he handcuffed her. Whenever they

35:09

got done having sex he realized he did

35:11

not have a handcuff key. She had to

35:13

ride a couple of hours back from where

35:16

they were at back down and that was

35:18

actually when he went to his house for those

35:20

four minutes. He took her to his house, his

35:22

wife was at work and his mom was inside

35:25

so he goes to his house and gets the

35:27

key to the handcuffs. They leave at this point

35:29

in time he's telling Sarah she needs to go

35:31

back home this isn't gonna work out. Well she

35:33

starts threatening him saying that she's gonna call the

35:36

police and that she's gonna say

35:38

that he raped her because he had

35:40

already agreed to take care of her and

35:42

basically let her be his slave. So

35:45

he took her to the hotel and said just stay

35:47

here let me figure out what I'm gonna do. Whenever

35:49

he dropped her off at the hotel he goes back

35:51

home and goes to sleep. This was later on in

35:53

the evening. He goes to sleep said that he turned

35:56

his phone on silent and he said it was not

35:58

uncommon for him to sleep on the couch. because

36:00

he was up and down all hours of

36:02

the night. When he woke up the next

36:04

morning, he had several messages from Sarah stating

36:06

that she was going to call the police

36:09

and say that he had raped her and

36:11

that she had his DNA under her fingernails

36:13

and his DNA from where they had had

36:15

sexual intercourse. He said he kind of freaked

36:17

out, didn't know what to do, so he

36:19

went to the suburban lodge and picked her

36:21

up and they went riding around. They continued

36:23

to argue. He said that he pulled over

36:26

on a side road and told her very

36:28

forcefully to get out of the car. And

36:30

he told me at that point in time that Sarah

36:32

thought she was going to get beat, that he

36:34

was going to physically beat her and said that

36:36

that was kind of what she was into. He

36:39

got out of the Subaru, walked around to the

36:41

passenger side of the car as she was getting

36:43

out, said she started to walk past him and

36:45

what he did, he shot her in the back

36:47

of the head. He then picked her up, placed

36:50

her in the back of the Subaru and covered

36:52

her up with a dog blanket that her mother

36:54

kept in the car and went back to his

36:56

residence and parked the car in the driveway, went

36:58

back inside and went to sleep while his wife

37:00

and mother were still in the house asleep. This

37:03

was early morning hours. He essentially waited

37:05

on his wife to get up and go

37:07

to work. Whenever his wife got up and

37:09

went to work, he then went outside and

37:11

got Sarah's body, placed her in a black

37:14

garbage bag and ended up burying her in

37:16

his backyard. This does not

37:18

sound like he thought or had

37:20

any plan whatsoever but let me

37:22

ask you, who paid for the

37:24

airplane ticket? She did. Wow.

37:28

Yes, this was not unusual.

37:30

Her page basically correlated with

37:32

his walks on what he

37:34

wanted as to what she was also wanting.

37:36

You know, the caging, food deprivation, basically wanting

37:39

to be a slave. So they felt like

37:41

that they had met each other by faith.

37:43

Then whenever they did get together, he realized

37:45

that this was a bad idea and there

37:47

was no way it was ever going to

37:49

work and now he was afraid that he

37:51

was going to lose his wife and everything

37:54

that he worked for since he got out

37:56

of prison and even his mother was at the

37:58

house, his mother would have never gone. The horde

38:00

either allowed him to have of another human

38:02

being and freedom that way. The house. So.

38:04

When you first started talking about

38:06

this, I made the assumption that

38:08

we all know that doesn't make

38:10

some sense that the murder that

38:13

the violence to her was part

38:15

of this Bdsm scenario. but it

38:17

sounds like he was just as

38:19

scared guy who was trying to

38:21

hide this relationship from his wife.

38:23

The normal thing that happens usually

38:25

when a man kills a woman.

38:27

I hate to put it that

38:29

way by. We've heard the story

38:31

so many times where the woman

38:33

threatens to tell and. The only

38:35

solution that the guy comes up

38:37

with as i gotta get rid

38:39

of her which is quite are

38:41

fine. In this case the

38:43

only two people that know exactly

38:45

what was said in what happened

38:47

is York and Sarah. It would

38:50

not be unusual for a sex

38:52

worker to be role play and

38:54

and be tell somebody what they

38:56

wanna hear and then on this

38:58

case person was talking a big

39:00

game and them when she gets

39:02

there she's been cat fierce is

39:04

false. Advertising but for most sex

39:06

workers is not about the sex

39:08

is about the money, and it

39:10

would not be unusual at all

39:12

for somebody involved in sex work

39:15

to try to get more money

39:17

out of somebody. Art Stuart somebody

39:19

into keeping quiet about something indices

39:21

York saying that she wanted to

39:23

move in with them, but it's

39:25

entirely possible that she was doing

39:27

this just to make some quick

39:29

money. Once he saw that disguise

39:31

wife didn't even know about this,

39:33

there was no. Way he was cause

39:35

scared of her finding out if she

39:37

thought she could make more money out

39:39

of this deal and was colleagues jordan

39:41

him to get more money and then

39:44

he couldn't handle the pressure he snapped.

39:46

It doesn't justified in any way shape

39:48

or form, but you only two people

39:50

know exactly what was happening. Certainly, Yorkers

39:52

put in the best spin on it

39:55

that he can for his own personal

39:57

self interest. We have been to this

39:59

house and. And then there a couple

40:01

of times and we did not see

40:03

anything really out of the ordinary. He

40:05

also during that interview, he actually drew

40:07

me a map of his yard and

40:09

his residence and pinpointed exactly where she

40:11

was buried in the backyard. So immediately

40:14

after he did that and told me

40:16

what happened and where she was buried

40:18

and all that immediately I left and

40:20

contacted our Jackson County Coroner and the

40:22

Mississippi State Crime Lab which would ultimately

40:24

have to come and exhume the body.

40:26

What I did at that point, it

40:28

was late in the evening. They

40:30

weren't going to come. It's a couple of hour

40:32

drive from the crime lab to get down here

40:35

at that point in time because they were in

40:37

Jackson. We found out she was buried at the

40:39

residence. What I had to do is I went

40:41

back to the residence and advised his wife and

40:43

his mother that the property was now a crime

40:46

scene. However, I still didn't want to put them

40:48

out because I felt, you know, they're victims in

40:50

this as well. So I gave

40:52

them the option. I said, you can go

40:54

stay in a hotel room tonight or you

40:56

can stay here. However, you can't go outside

40:58

the house and I'm going to have deputies posted

41:00

on your house all night long. And

41:03

they said that they couldn't afford to go get

41:05

a hotel room. So they chose to stay at

41:07

the house, but we kept deputies posted on the

41:09

scene all night long to make sure that no

41:11

evidence outside the property or anything where she was

41:13

buried at. I told the

41:16

deputy where she was buried to

41:18

keep close eye on that. The

41:20

following morning, the criminal investigation division

41:22

from Jackson County, the FBI, state

41:24

medical examiner and the Jackson County

41:26

coroner's office executed another search warrant

41:28

on the property to recover the

41:30

body of Sarah Willard, which she was located

41:32

exactly where he told me she was at.

41:35

She was buried in the backyard under

41:37

a window. She was partially still in

41:39

a black bag, which there was

41:42

some states of decomposition which made her

41:44

facial features, I guess you could say

41:46

hard to identify at that point. However,

41:48

I was able to do a preliminary

41:50

identification based off of tattoos that she

41:52

had from the photos that I'd gotten

41:55

from Coral Gables. I was able to

41:57

with certain accuracy be able to say

41:59

that yes. that was her that we

42:01

exhumed based off of those. That was

42:03

later confirmed through dental records and the

42:05

DNA that we gathered from her mother.

42:07

We also learned that one of the

42:09

weapons that we had seized on the

42:11

first knock and talk we went over

42:14

there was actually the murder weapon. One

42:16

of the 380 handguns that we seized actually

42:18

turned out to be the weapon that was

42:20

used in the murder of Sarah. Could

42:23

you explain what you meant when you said

42:25

she was buried under a window? Yes. So

42:27

he drew me the map of the residence

42:29

and there was a guest bedroom in the

42:31

window to the guest bedroom. She was actually

42:34

buried right underneath that window outside in the

42:36

backyard. So when he drew me the map,

42:38

he said there's a window right here and

42:40

she's directly under that window in the backyard.

42:42

So we knew exactly where to go. You

42:45

would think that he would have buried her

42:47

a little further out in the yard. Exactly.

42:50

Or someplace other than his house.

42:52

That's what we were banking on because

42:54

when we were looking at the cell phone

42:56

records, her cell phone records, we were trying

42:58

to determine where was it that he could

43:01

have dumped the body because most people wouldn't

43:03

do it right there at his house. He

43:05

did have a large backyard. He actually bought

43:07

the lot adjacent to his house. So he

43:09

did have a very large backyard but where

43:11

she was buried, we would do it right

43:14

up next to the house. That's

43:16

really unexplainable. Yes.

43:18

It's a very unique case. That's for sure. Oh,

43:21

absolutely. I will never forget whenever we were actually

43:23

standing out there, our sheriff at the time, he

43:25

came up to me and he said, Boseman, you

43:28

better keep all of your notes on this because

43:30

they're going to make a movie out of this

43:32

case one day. That

43:35

definitely could be true. I did

43:37

read some newspaper articles and we

43:39

know sometimes reporters don't have the

43:42

inside information and they're like I've

43:44

done as you've been talking, making

43:47

some assumptions but it did

43:49

say that her ex-husband and her

43:51

mother did indicate when they were

43:53

still looking for her that she

43:55

did have some mental issues. Yes.

43:58

Her mother said that she bipolar

44:00

and she had suffered sexual abuse

44:02

as a child. She had a

44:05

pretty tough life and there was

44:07

also indication during the investigation that

44:09

she was a drug user. She

44:11

was self-medicating as a lot of

44:13

people unfortunately suffering from mental illness

44:16

will sometimes do and her mother

44:18

was concerned that maybe she wasn't

44:20

taking medication that she should be

44:22

taken. Absolutely. Irregardless

44:25

of things that they may do, she's still

44:27

a human being and still did not deserve

44:29

what she got. It's a relief

44:31

to know that she did have these loved

44:33

ones who once they knew she was missing

44:36

cared for her and contacted law enforcement in

44:38

trying to find her because it does sound

44:40

like she had a very very rough and

44:42

very very sad life and it's really horrifying

44:45

the way it ended. Yes it

44:47

is. The next thing that happened,

44:49

Yark hadn't been convicted yet and

44:51

he contacted the FBI and said

44:53

that he had some really important

44:55

information that he wanted to disclose

44:58

that would help his case. One

45:00

of our agents Jason default went out to

45:02

the jail to see what he had

45:04

to say and when Jason sat down

45:07

with him Yark said, let's make a

45:09

deal and Jason said what do you

45:11

got and Yark said, I know about

45:13

drugs being brought into the jail. Jason

45:16

thought he's gonna disclose like other murders

45:18

he's done, he knows where other bodies

45:20

are buried, something big that he was

45:23

trying to lessen his sentence with and

45:25

as soon as he said I know

45:27

about drugs being brought into the jail,

45:29

Jason looked at him and said no

45:32

deal, you killed someone, you're not gonna

45:34

get credit for having information about drugs

45:36

being brought into the jail. We know

45:38

that happens, we investigate that all the

45:40

time but we're not cutting you any

45:42

deal for that. So finally on September

45:45

19th, 2022 Yark

45:48

entered a guilty plea to first-degree murder

45:50

in possession of a weapon by a

45:53

convicted felon. He was sentenced by the

45:55

judge to life on the murder charge

45:57

plus 10 years on the weapons charge.

46:00

Our district attorney Angel Myers gave

46:02

a statement

46:05

and this is what she said,

46:07

this was a heinous crime driven

46:10

by the defendant's selfish sexual desires.

46:12

The defendant thought that no one

46:15

would come looking for the victim.

46:17

He was wrong. Sarah's life mattered

46:19

and today we got justice for

46:22

her and her family. Justice for

46:24

Sarah, beautiful. Those four years ago

46:26

today that Sarah's body was recovered

46:29

at York's residence February 14th 2020.

46:33

Whenever we talk about these type of

46:35

cases, I really concentrate

46:37

on the investigation and

46:40

hopefully giving people some

46:42

knowledge about how law

46:44

enforcement goes about investigating

46:46

but it's always important

46:48

to remember the victim

46:51

and to acknowledge that somebody lost

46:53

their life. So I thank you

46:55

both for making sure that Sarah,

46:57

the victim in this case, that

47:00

we've had a chance to get to know a little

47:02

bit about her. I hope we did

47:04

justice in the conversation to Sarah because she

47:06

had a really difficult life. It's easy for

47:08

us to say I'm so good or

47:11

this never would have happened to me

47:13

but some people you know just have

47:15

an incredible amount of trauma that they

47:18

have to deal with. Unfortunately sex trafficking,

47:20

sex work is so inherently dangerous and

47:22

we see these cases happen all the

47:24

time. It's so sad and I'm sorry

47:26

that she didn't get the help that

47:29

she needed and things could maybe turned

47:31

out differently but there's one person responsible

47:33

for what happened and that's Philip Yard.

47:35

I really, really appreciate the way that

47:37

you've reviewed this particular case. So thank

47:40

you. Can

47:43

we take a little bit of time before I

47:45

get into my standard questions to talk about

47:48

the relationship between the FBI and

47:50

the Jackson County Sheriff's Office because

47:52

that's one of the things that

47:54

I really try to do is

47:56

to make sure People

47:58

understand that. That. The cliche about

48:00

the F B I not playing well

48:03

with others and coming in and taking

48:05

over a case for the most part

48:07

because we all know that there are

48:09

individuals out there that may not represent

48:12

our agencies the way we want them

48:14

to represent. Can you tell us a

48:16

little bit more I know to you

48:19

talked about your say Streets task force

48:21

and how it handled drugs and gangs

48:23

and violent crimes so I'd love to

48:25

hear from both you and from saying

48:28

about that working relationship. Our

48:30

have say we have an excellent working

48:32

relationship with the As that had it

48:34

not been for their hill. They.

48:36

Had the case it first looking from the

48:38

sex trafficking standpoint and things of that nature

48:40

whenever we charge team would sell in a

48:42

position of a weapon or mean ultimately that

48:44

was a state source. If we didn't have

48:46

that relationship they could have just said okay,

48:48

that's a state george ya deal with it

48:50

but they didn't had it not been for

48:52

their assistance in this case I don't know

48:54

that we ever would have salt. Jason.

48:57

The Fall and to Rome were extremely

48:59

helpful in this in gathering information and

49:01

we stayed in contact. We do that

49:03

on several different cases, not just this

49:05

one, but anytime we have anything that

49:07

we feel like meets that threshold to

49:09

become a federal case, not just the

49:11

Fps safe streets for all of the

49:13

other federal agencies I know down here

49:15

on the coast. We work hand in

49:17

hand with them all the time and

49:19

we really do appreciate that. He

49:21

I'm not sure people realize how

49:23

much the F B I actually

49:26

gets involved on so many cases

49:28

kind of behind the scenes. A

49:30

mention the cast program where we

49:33

provide assistance attract cellular phone activity

49:35

or computer activity. There's probably not

49:37

any major investigation that's happening in

49:40

the United States right now involving

49:42

multiple homicide or anything that's a

49:44

kidnapping, a missing person. The F

49:47

B I was involved in the

49:49

majority of those cases politically. with

49:51

the cast team they do fantastic

49:54

work helping local law enforcement agencies

49:56

solve these horrible crimes so we

49:58

can be assistance to an agency

50:01

that may be they

50:04

don't have the resources or the relationship

50:08

between the FBI and local agents

50:12

kind of completely opposite of what you see

50:14

on TV. That's the truth

50:16

and I think I've shown that a

50:19

number of times when I've been lucky

50:21

enough to have a retired agent come

50:23

on this show with their law enforcement

50:25

partner to review a case. And

50:28

I also want to say that

50:30

I do have an episode coming

50:32

up with one of the FBI

50:34

agents who pioneered the cast technology.

50:36

I hope to get that up

50:39

and released shortly. Now we're

50:41

at the point of the interview where

50:43

I like to find out a

50:45

little bit more about you. So

50:47

Shane, in your particular case, I'd love to

50:50

ask you when and why did you decide

50:52

you wanted to get into law enforcement? I

50:54

pretty much kind of always had that drive

50:57

to want to be in law enforcement but

50:59

I really didn't know how to go about

51:01

it. So I had several other jobs once

51:03

I got out of high school, mechanic, tow

51:05

truck driver, things like that and I really

51:07

just kind of lucked up. I started back

51:09

in 1997, kind of giving my age away.

51:12

I started back then, I had a friend

51:14

of mine that worked for a small municipality

51:16

in Alabama and they were able to

51:18

do ride-alones at the time. So I

51:20

went and started doing ride-alones with him

51:22

on my off time and just fell

51:25

in love with the job. Actually, the

51:27

chief and I kind of hit it off and he

51:29

offered me a job. When he offered me a job,

51:31

they agreed to sponsor me and send me to the

51:33

police academy there in Alabama. I went

51:35

to my first police academy in 1998. I

51:39

stayed at that agency for a couple of

51:41

years, however, it was a small agency and

51:43

I was young and I wanted lots of

51:45

action. So I ended up leaving there and

51:47

going to work at the Mobile Police Department

51:49

where I went to another academy and I

51:52

have to say that I learned a great

51:54

deal from Mobile. And then after

51:56

I think about six years there, I

51:58

kind of started losing my drive. a

52:00

little bit and felt like I wanted to

52:02

do something else. But I got out of

52:04

it. Got out of law enforcement for a

52:06

couple of years. But I never lost that

52:08

feeling. And as a retired agent, y'all know

52:10

it kind of gets in your blood. It's

52:12

a calling. It's not just a job. So

52:14

I had that calling and I ended up

52:16

moving back to Mississippi where I'm from, getting

52:18

hired on with the Jackson County Sheriff's Department.

52:20

I've been here for 14 years now and

52:23

absolutely love it. Kind of took me a

52:25

strange path to get there, but I'm very

52:27

fortunate as to where I'm at now. I

52:29

work with a great agency and a great group

52:31

of people here. Fantastic. And

52:33

Jerome, I know we talked about

52:35

it when I interviewed you for

52:37

episode 262, but

52:40

why don't you repeat and let us

52:42

know again why and when you joined

52:44

the FBI. I joined

52:46

the FBI in January of

52:48

1991. Previously, I'd worked as

52:50

a accountant in the petroleum

52:52

industry and also worked in

52:54

the insurance industry. Bottom line

52:57

is, I wasn't passionate about either one

52:59

of those jobs. I always wanted to

53:01

be in law enforcement and to have

53:03

a job where you can make a

53:05

real difference in people's lives. And you

53:07

can make a difference in people's lives

53:09

no matter what kind of job you

53:11

do, as long as you're interacting well

53:13

with people. But you certainly have a

53:15

heightened, unique ability to do that in

53:17

law enforcement. So I joined the FBI

53:19

and never looked back. It was a

53:22

great career. I'm actually working on my

53:24

memoir about it now and I hope

53:26

to have that out in the next year

53:28

or two. But I'm going to talk about

53:30

a lot of the great cases we worked

53:32

on the Safe Streets Task Force. It was

53:34

just an honor to work with the FBI.

53:36

It's a great organization. It's my privilege to

53:38

work with Shane and many other detectives and

53:40

police officers in law enforcement. Well, you

53:43

know, I'm definitely going to make sure

53:45

to have you back when that book

53:47

is complete for us to review another

53:49

one of the cases that you featured

53:51

in your memoir. So don't forget me.

53:53

I won't. I'll be glad to come back. I

53:56

always like to give my guests the

53:58

last word. So Shane, why don't you come back? don't

54:00

you go first and then we'll hear from

54:02

Jerome. What would you like to say? Just

54:04

to touch a little bit on what Jerome said,

54:07

being able to do this job and make a

54:09

difference. When Philip York, the day

54:11

that Philip York played guilty, Sarah Willard's mother

54:13

was there in the courtroom. She traveled here

54:15

to be there for that and once it

54:17

was all said and done, she gave me

54:19

a hug and she told me thank you

54:21

and to me that is the most rewarding

54:24

part of this job. To help change and

54:26

represent the family, of course Sarah couldn't speak

54:28

for herself so somebody had to speak for

54:30

her and I felt like we did that.

54:32

To help change someone's lives, even when people

54:34

are going down a rolling path and things

54:36

like that, when you have somebody come up

54:38

to you in a grocery store or something

54:40

like that and say, hey Lieutenant Bozeman, do you

54:42

remember me? You arrested me, you put me in

54:44

jail but you helped me turn my life around

54:46

or something like that. I can pretty much tell

54:49

you every one of them that I've had that

54:51

happen to me and that's why you did the

54:53

job. That's why we worked the long hours and

54:55

the stressful days and things like that but that's

54:57

it. It's not to put people in jail, it's

54:59

to try to make a difference. I

55:01

thoroughly enjoy it and I hope to be doing

55:03

it for a few more years until I get

55:05

to reach retirement as well. I

55:07

just want to say that it was a

55:10

privilege and honor to work for the FBI.

55:12

I wouldn't change a thing. I worked there

55:14

30 years. As we all know, the FBI

55:16

has received a lot of criticism in the

55:19

past few years. Some of

55:21

it was just but a

55:23

lot of it is unjust

55:25

in my opinion and every

55:28

day the FBI is doing

55:30

amazing work, kidnappings, cases involving

55:32

sexual abuse of children, serial

55:34

killers, terrorism, civil rights, elderly

55:37

people that have lost their savings

55:39

from some financial fraud scam. I

55:41

literally could go on and on

55:43

and on. The FBI is

55:46

a great organization. I tell people

55:48

all the time that God forbid

55:50

if their child was ever kidnapped,

55:52

there's no other law enforcement agency

55:54

in the world they should want

55:57

working the case than the FBI.

56:00

of kidnapping cases over my career, I

56:02

saw amazing work that the FBI did

56:04

to recover people that have been kidnapped

56:06

or held hostage and bring the perpetrator

56:08

to justice. So I love the FBI.

56:10

It's a great organization. It's not perfect

56:13

but they're good people in the FBI

56:15

and if people really knew the type

56:17

of work that they do every day

56:19

which your podcast certainly does a great

56:21

job of highlighting, they would realize that

56:24

we're blessed to have the FBI in

56:26

the United States. And

56:29

that's the end of the

56:31

interview. In your podcast app

56:33

description of this episode, there's

56:35

a link to the show

56:38

notes at jerrywilliams.com where you'll

56:40

find a photo of Jerome

56:42

Lorraine and Shane Boseman, paste

56:44

related images and links to

56:46

articles about the Sarah Willard

56:48

murder investigation. There's also a

56:50

link to Jerome's other FBI

56:52

case file review episode 262

56:54

about the Miss

56:57

Alabama murder. I hope you enjoyed

56:59

the interview and that you'll share it

57:01

with your friends, family and associates. You

57:04

can show me just how much you

57:06

liked it by buying me a

57:08

coffee. There's a link in your

57:10

podcast app description of this episode

57:12

or you can visit jerrywilliams.com and

57:16

tap on the little coffee cup icon

57:18

in the bottom right hand corner of

57:20

my website. Don't forget to follow

57:22

FBI Retired Case File Review

57:24

on your favorite podcast app.

57:27

Now this podcast is all about

57:29

true crime but if you're also

57:31

interested in crime fiction, once

57:34

a month via my reader team email,

57:36

I keep you up to date on

57:38

the FBI and books, TV and movies.

57:41

When you join my reader team, you

57:43

get access to my FBI reading resource,

57:45

a colorful list of more than 70

57:48

books about the FBI written

57:50

by FBI agents who have

57:52

been guest on this podcast.

57:54

There's non-fiction, crime fiction, true

57:56

crime and Memoirs. You'll also

57:58

get my FBI. Reality check

58:00

less were either but twenty.

58:03

Cliches about. The death is

58:05

I am received news about what

58:07

I'm up to an about my

58:09

F B I and non six

58:11

and crime fiction books. I. Want

58:13

to thank you for listening to

58:15

the very end. I hope you

58:17

come back for another episode of

58:19

F B I Retired Case. I'll

58:21

review with Cherry Williams. Thank.

58:24

You.