Episode Transcript
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0:00
Hello. I'm Keith Morrison from Dateline NBC.
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Here's a special preview of our new podcast.
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The Girl in the Blue Mustang. It
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was a pitch black night in the high desert,
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Adelaide, up the
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Grapevine Highway, north of LA. It
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was late February. The year
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was two thousand. Sheriff's
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Deputy Billy Cox stepped out of his patrol
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car and braced himself against a
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cold wind howling down from the San Gabriel
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mountains. Wind show was in
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the low thirties. Rain coming
0:32
in. Hard to believe
0:34
in just a few weeks a sea of blood red
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poppies would begin to bloom in the surrounding
0:39
Mojave Desert. Cox
0:41
was responding to a call of shots fired
0:43
at the parking lot at OpEx at five
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on Highway fourteen in Palmdale. It
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was nine forty nine PM. The
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lot had about emptied out by the time
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he arrived. Daily commuters home
0:55
safe in their beds, and
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then There he was, the
1:00
collar, security guard
1:02
by the look of it, waving at him about a hundred
1:04
yards away, Cox drove
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over there and rolled down his window. The
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guard seemed agitated, told
1:12
him somebody had been shot look
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bad. Over there, he pointed
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over in the west end of the lot. So
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then Cox crews slowly through the darkened
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lot. And there it was.
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Something very wrong around that
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bright blue Mustang, all a skew
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between the long rows of parking spaces.
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Cox, slowly eased out of his squad
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car and approached. The
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driver's side door was open. The
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window rolled down about four inches.
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A woman's left leg and barefoot were
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hanging out of the door. Weird
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angle, dead still,
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the engine was running, keys
1:52
in the ignition, headlights
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on, but
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she was dead. No doubt
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about that. Barely
2:01
more than a kid by the look of her.
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Cocks reached into the car fished out
2:07
what must have been her purse. Inside
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was a California driver's license. She
2:13
was young, alright, eighteen years
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old. Her name was Michelle
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O'Keefe. Cox followed
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procedure Call for paramedics though,
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she was long past saving. Also,
2:24
additional deputies, but
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it didn't take long to realize This
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was gonna go way above his pay grade.
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LA County homicide to active Richard
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Longshore was sound asleep
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and two counties away when he got
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the
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call. You're waking up another night,
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you're rolling out. Your thinking for the minute
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the phone rings as to what kind of
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scene is gonna be, actually look forward to
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it. That's that's the adrenaline
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rush. Is a new case. Longshore
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was a prose pro eighteen
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years at LA County homicide, so
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I'm not sure he's adrenaline urged in
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that old familiar way as you roared up
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the 405. But
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what did he know? It
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wasn't going to be adrenaline that would crack
3:11
this
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one. It takes a lot of a
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lot of confidence. Certain IV Go to
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to work these cases. There are cases you
3:17
will take home with you at night and that
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will last till the end of your life.
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This is a story about a family,
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about a mother's premonition.
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I don't know if it was her spirit that just came over
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me or something just
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felt like she was gone. It's a
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story about circumstantial evidence
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as tricky to read as a mirage
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on the high desert. It's
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about accounts that might be fact
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and might be fiction
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and seemed to shift like sand
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and a desert wind. It is
3:57
funny how people react to different situations
4:00
when it's trauma involved. You and I can
4:02
look the same
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thing. And you can see something totally
4:05
different than what I see. Why
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was an innocent young woman shot to
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death in a guarded suburban parking
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lot? What happened to Michelle
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O'Keefe in her final moments? And
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who did it? In
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the hard world where spirits do
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not roam. There would be
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no preparing for the wild gyrations
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to come. Things that were
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as true as can be and then may be
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not true at all, and
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then something else
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altogether. Thank you
4:36
for listening. Search for
4:38
the girl in the Blue Mustang to listen
4:40
to the full episode now completely free,
4:42
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4:45
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