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1:01

Campers grab your marshmallows and gather round

1:03

the true crime campfire. Where. Your

1:05

Camp Counselors I'm Katie and I'm Whitney.

1:08

And. We're here to tell you a true

1:10

story that has way stranger than fiction or

1:13

roasting murderers and marshmallows around the true crime

1:15

campfire. Some

1:21

of the scariest people we've covered on

1:23

this show were cursed with a grandiose

1:25

sense of entitlement. The. Sense that if

1:27

they see something they want, they should be allowed

1:29

to just take it. Whether that something is a

1:32

new watch or a fellow human being. The.

1:34

Self centeredness is bad enough, but when

1:36

you couple that with rage. Especially.

1:39

The kind brought on by copious amounts

1:41

of steroids. You've got the setting for

1:43

a perfect storm. The. Problem is

1:45

the grandiose people can sometimes be. The

1:47

shiny is sparkly as most engaging ones

1:50

in the room. Their. Skilled at

1:52

were in that good guy mask. And.

1:54

sometimes by the time they rip it off you're

1:56

already in the whole too deep to find your

1:58

way back to the daily Join

2:01

us for a story of bullying, rage,

2:03

blind love, and bravery in the face

2:05

of terror. This is Fury

2:07

by Proxy, the murder of Sandy Razzo.

2:23

So campers, for this one we're in

2:25

Pinellas Park, Florida, July 5th, 2003. It

2:29

was about 11 o'clock at night when Sandy

2:31

Razzo pulled into the driveway of her townhouse

2:33

after a long day bartending at the Green

2:35

Iguana. Her music was still

2:37

playing as she steered her BMW into the

2:40

garage. I'm not sure if she

2:42

noticed the car sliding to a stop in front of her

2:44

next door neighbor's house just a few seconds later,

2:46

but I do know this. As

2:48

she was getting her stuff together to get out of her

2:50

car, Sandy saw a dark figure

2:52

running up to her driver's side window,

2:54

pistol in hand. The

2:57

figure was dressed in black from head to

2:59

toe, must have been a terrifying sight. Maybe

3:02

they made eye contact for a second. Then

3:05

the intruder bashed on Sandy's car window, trying to

3:07

shatter it with the butt of the gun. The

3:11

figure soon gave up trying to break the window

3:13

and just shot through it instead. By

3:15

now Sandy was screaming, trying frantically to

3:17

scramble away from the shooter. One

3:20

of the bullets went through her foot as she put it up

3:22

on the window to try and push herself back. The

3:25

shooter kept firing. Eight shots and

3:27

all. By the last

3:29

shot Sandy was no longer screaming. One

3:32

of the bullets had gone right through the center of her

3:34

forehead. The silence

3:36

after eight gunshots is startled. The

3:39

killer stood for a second, looking at the carnage

3:41

all over the front seat of Sandy Razzo's car,

3:44

then turned and ran, disappearing into the

3:46

warm summer night. Inside

3:50

the townhouse, Sandy's boyfriend Tony startled awake

3:52

at the sound of loud pops, one

3:54

after another. Fireworks, he

3:56

figured. It was July 5th, but

3:58

it was so loud. sounded like

4:00

it was coming from his front yard, which was weird.

4:03

Tony hopped out of bed and went downstairs. He

4:06

looked out the front window. Nope, nobody was

4:08

out there shooting off firecrackers. His

4:11

next thought was that maybe something might have fallen

4:13

or exploded in the garage like a paint

4:15

can or something. So he went out

4:17

to check. Sandy's car

4:19

was here, he noticed, and the garage doors

4:21

opened, but he didn't see any sign of

4:24

Sandy. Until he took

4:26

a few steps toward the BMW. First,

4:28

he realized he'd just put his bare foot down

4:30

on a pile of shattered glass. Then

4:33

he thought he heard a whisper, just barely

4:35

audible, coming from the front seat of Sandy's

4:37

car. Her driver's

4:39

side window was gone, and there she

4:42

was, crumpled up in a growing pool

4:44

of blood. Tony leapt

4:46

into the front seat and tried to pull Sandy

4:48

into a sitting position, but she was limp and

4:50

it didn't seem like she was breathing now. He

4:53

found her phone lying on the floorboard and called 911.

4:56

In between answering

4:58

the dispatcher's questions, Tony just kept repeating,

5:00

Sandy, honey, wake up, wake up, honey,

5:02

wake up. But Sandy didn't

5:04

wake up. She would never wake up

5:07

again. As

5:09

detectives would soon find out, at the time of

5:11

her murder, Sandy Razzo had been in the process

5:13

of taking her life back after a major

5:15

trauma. A little over a

5:18

year before, Sandy had been violently beaten and

5:20

sexually assaulted by a guy she was sort

5:22

of friends with at the time. It

5:24

was horrific. This guy had beaten

5:26

her and forced himself on her multiple times over

5:28

the course of a whole day and night. It

5:31

was torture. And before he

5:33

finally let her go, he'd threatened to hurt Sandy and

5:35

her teenage daughter if she told on him. The

5:38

guy had been to prison before he told her he

5:40

was not going to go back. It

5:44

had taken about a week for Sandy to work up

5:46

to reporting the attack, but she'd done it. Her

5:49

rapist had been arrested and charged with felony

5:51

assault. And the day

5:53

after the murder, reeling from grief

5:55

and shock, both Sandy's boyfriend, Tony

5:57

and her mom, Sandy Poole, told

5:59

detectives the same thing. Sandy

6:01

had been afraid of this happening. She'd

6:04

even told them, if anything happens to me, you'll know

6:06

it was him. The

6:08

hymn in question was a 36-year-old personal

6:11

trainer named Timothy Humphrey, but he

6:13

went by Tracy, and

6:15

his trial for the attack on Sandy Rosso was

6:17

scheduled to start in just four weeks. A

6:20

trial that wasn't going to happen now, because

6:22

the complaining witness was dead, and

6:24

a dead woman can't take the stand and testify.

6:26

A lot of

6:28

women seemed to have the same reaction to

6:31

Tracy Humphrey. The first time

6:33

they met him, he gave them a creepy,

6:35

uneasy feeling, but then after a while he

6:37

grew on them, charmed them, and

6:40

they ended up under his spell. Tracy

6:42

had a wide circle of friends, a lot of

6:44

them women. He met

6:46

some of them through his work as a trainer. By all

6:48

accounts, he was great at it. He could

6:50

motivate you without being a hard ass about it, and

6:52

God knows he had plenty of cred as a fitness

6:54

expert. Tracy told everybody

6:56

he used to play pro football. You

6:59

could believe it to look at him. He was

7:01

6'2", and built like something Michelangelo might have sculpted

7:03

in his spare time. Of

7:06

course, he was roided up out the

7:08

wazoo. Took human growth hormone too, but

7:10

hey, whatever you gotta do to be pretty, right?

7:14

When he met Sandy Rosso in 2001, Tracy was working

7:17

as a bouncer at a club where Sandy was

7:20

bartending, and like most women were,

7:22

at first, she was impressed by him, but

7:25

there were some important things she

7:27

didn't know. Tracy had a bit of

7:29

a checkered past, a criminal past,

7:32

in and out of jail and prison, multiple times

7:34

for thefts and assaults. He'd been

7:36

married years earlier, had a little girl with

7:38

his ex-wife, and when his

7:40

wife decided to leave him, Tracy didn't take

7:42

it well. So not well

7:44

that a SWAT team ended up having to

7:46

show up at his ex-wife's house one night

7:48

after a domestic dispute, and

7:51

Tracy ended up serving three years in prison

7:53

for assault, kidnapping, and grand theft auto. Damn.

7:57

Another time, he flew into a rage in the middle of

7:59

the night and attacked his mother. girlfriend when she was sleeping.

8:02

She tried to break up with him earlier in the night. He

8:04

punched her, put a pillow over her face, and held

8:06

a gun to her head. Told her

8:08

he was going to kill her. She felt

8:10

lucky to get out alive. Several

8:13

women had restraining orders out on him.

8:15

His MO was, once a woman got

8:17

a look at his true colors, aka

8:19

steroid rage plus narcissism, and tried

8:22

to kick him to the curb, he'd flip his shit

8:24

on them. You don't get to

8:26

leave me. I decide when it's over,

8:28

not you. And if

8:30

she tried to assert herself, he'd threaten her,

8:32

and or physically attack. This was

8:34

a man who did not like to hear the word no. So

8:38

he was as massive a loser as ever

8:40

loosed, but of course he kept that stuff

8:42

under wraps. Tracy had created

8:44

a whole mythology around himself. He told all

8:46

kinds of big sparkly lies about his past,

8:49

glamorous stories to stand in for the years

8:51

he spent in the clink. One

8:53

of his favorite lies was that he'd been

8:55

an underwear model in Paris. Another

8:58

was that he'd been a bodyguard

9:00

for everybody's favorite Scientologist, Tom Cruise.

9:03

He told at least one friend he'd been

9:05

Vin Diesel's stunt double. He told others he'd

9:07

won a Heisman trophy in college. And

9:09

then there was the pro football story

9:11

that he'd played for the Tampa Bay

9:13

Buccaneers. That was the Tracy

9:16

Humphrey who introduced himself to Sandy Razzo in 2001. Sandy

9:18

was a

9:20

ray of Florida sunshine. Platinum blonde

9:23

hair, great tan, in peak physical shape.

9:25

She was super into weightlifting, so picture

9:27

the quintessential Florida girl, the kind you'd

9:30

see in an ad for swimsuits or

9:32

sunscreen. She'd grown up in

9:34

Pennsylvania, worked as a flight attendant for a

9:36

while, did some modeling. She got

9:38

married and had a little girl. But the

9:41

marriage didn't work out, and when they divorced,

9:43

Sandy agreed to let her ex-husband have

9:45

custody of their daughter. She

9:47

was young and she needed to figure out where she

9:49

was going with her life. But she

9:51

adored her daughter and stayed very involved in her

9:54

life. in

10:00

Florida, bartending and modeling and hoping to break

10:02

into the movie biz. She

10:04

hit it off with Tracy Humphrey, just as friends

10:07

really, or at least that's all Sandy really wanted

10:09

to be. They were good friends for

10:11

a while. She felt like she could talk to him

10:13

like she talked to her girlfriends, it was nice. But

10:16

Tracy wanted more than friendship, and he

10:18

was persistent. Irritatingly persistent, hitting

10:20

on her all the time and calling her

10:22

a tease when she wouldn't go home with

10:25

him. That old trick. Gross.

10:27

He'd say, one of these days you're going

10:30

to have to pay up for the way you act. Ew,

10:33

dude. Eventually, one night

10:35

Tracy pressured her so hard that Sandy

10:37

just gave in. Coercive sex,

10:39

I think you call it. She didn't want to

10:41

do it, but she did it because she was

10:44

feeling incredibly uncomfortable. She was alone with him. He

10:46

wasn't backing off, and she wasn't sure what would

10:48

happen if she said no in a forceful way.

10:51

She'd seen his anger flare up before, and it

10:53

was scary. She didn't want to set him off.

10:56

It's an awful situation when many, many

10:58

of us have found ourselves in. After

11:01

that, Sandy tried to dial their relationship

11:03

way back, just be casual friends and

11:05

co-workers. But Tracy didn't like that

11:08

idea. He was always pushing, pushing,

11:10

trying to get her alone. Sandy

11:12

tried to avoid that, but she did what so many

11:14

women do with men like this. She tried to let

11:16

him down easy. If he asked

11:19

her for a ride to or from work, she'd say,

11:21

okay. They worked at the same place, remember,

11:23

so she had to work with him every day. And

11:26

then one night she went home from work a

11:28

little early when Tracy had apparently been expecting her

11:30

to give him a ride home, and he left

11:32

her an unhinged voicemail, said, I'm going to kill

11:34

you. You're probably going to need to start dating

11:36

a plastic surgeon by the time I'm finished with your

11:39

face. Yikes.

11:43

After that, Sandy avoided him for a while.

11:45

But eventually he showed up on her doorstep

11:47

and made puppy eyes at her, apologized and

11:50

apologized that he'd just been going through some

11:52

stuff and it had never happened again and

11:54

blah, blah, blah. He just wormed his

11:56

way back in. He was really good at

11:58

that. Sandy was still

12:00

a little uncomfortable around him alone, so she

12:02

tried not to be, but she tried not

12:04

to show it overtly, because she figured it

12:06

would make things worse. They

12:09

got worse anyway. On

12:11

Friday, February 22nd, 2002, Tracy talked her

12:13

into giving him a ride after work.

12:16

In the car, he started pestering her again about

12:18

wanting to have a relationship, and Sandy had

12:20

had enough. She told him straight

12:22

up, dude, I'm sorry, but I just don't see

12:25

you that way, and I think we'd better spend

12:27

less time together from here on out. They

12:29

argued. I forget exactly why they

12:31

ended up in front of Sandy's apartment building. I

12:33

think maybe Tracy left his car near there earlier

12:35

in the day, and she was going to give

12:38

him a ride to it or something, but instead

12:40

of going to his car and heading home, Tracy

12:42

pushed his way into Sandy's place and slammed the

12:44

door behind them. And

12:46

this was the beginning of Sandy's two days in hell.

12:49

I'm not going to go into a lot of detail

12:51

here, but if you're sensitive to discussion of sexual assault

12:53

or physical battery, you might want to skip the next

12:55

minute or so. She

12:57

tied Sandy up on her bed and sexually

13:00

assaulted her, violently leaving her with horrible

13:02

bruises on her face. This

13:04

went on and on, with few breaks in between

13:07

for a whole night and most of a day. And

13:10

he was in a full blown rage. He

13:12

kept saying, today is my day, and I'm finally going

13:14

to get some damn respect. Respect.

13:19

At one point, he told Sandy he'd copied

13:22

down all her personal information. Her

13:24

security number, bank details, info on her

13:26

car, which he demanded she sign over

13:28

to him, addresses and her

13:31

address book too, including the house where

13:33

her teenage daughter lived. That

13:35

part made her blood run cold. And

13:38

he told her, I'm not going back to prison. If

13:40

I have to, I'll send a couple crackheads to

13:42

kill you and your kid. Actually

13:45

he threw the n-word in there too. This guy's

13:47

a real peach. And

13:49

then inexplicably he changed tone, burst

13:52

into tears and started apologizing, begging her

13:54

to forgive him. He went

13:56

into her bathroom and pressed a razor blade against

13:58

his neck, threatening to kill himself. I'm sure Sandy

14:00

was rooting for it at that point. I wouldn't

14:02

blame her. Mm-mm. She was desperate

14:04

to get away from him. Finally,

14:07

Sandy reminded Tracy that they were both scheduled to

14:09

work that night at the bar, and it would

14:11

look weird if they both didn't show. Tracy

14:14

thought about it for a long moment. Then

14:17

he made a little nick on his throat with the razor. We'll

14:20

tell everybody we were in a car accident to

14:22

explain your bruises, he said. And

14:24

Sandy agreed. She'd have agreed

14:26

to anything at that point. And

14:28

Tracy was a good talker. Their coworkers

14:31

bought it. Finally, Sandy was

14:33

able to slip away from the man who had

14:35

tortured her for almost two days. She

14:38

was traumatized like any survivor would

14:40

be. She felt humiliated. She

14:43

looked for ways to blame herself, like a lot of

14:45

people do after an assault like this. She

14:47

cleaned her apartment from top to bottom to scrub every

14:49

trace of him out of her space. She

14:52

threw away the bedding he'd touched, and then she called

14:54

her best friend and asked if she could stay at

14:56

her house for a few days. The

14:59

friend and her husband finally got the story out of her, and

15:02

after about a week, Sandy finally decided she

15:04

couldn't move on with her life until she told on

15:06

this asshole. She'd

15:08

done some digging onto his background by now, and she

15:11

knew she wasn't the first woman to suffer violence

15:13

at Tracy Humphrey's hands. But she

15:16

hoped if she went to the police, she would be

15:18

the last. So that's

15:20

what she did. It had been too

15:22

long for a rape kit to yield any physical evidence of sexual assault,

15:26

but there was plenty of evidence of battery. Sandy's

15:29

face was still all bruised, so

15:31

Tracy Humphrey was arrested for felony

15:33

assault. Not

15:35

his first felony, as I'm sure you recall. I'm

15:38

sure Tracy figured his intimidation tactics had worked on Sandy

15:40

as they had on other women in the past, but

15:43

Sandy wasn't playing ball. She turned him in

15:45

anyway, and

15:47

our boy knew he was in some

15:49

deep shit. If

15:51

he got convicted of this, he'd end up

15:53

back in prison, possibly for a long time.

15:56

Now, nobody likes prison. Nobody

15:58

wants to go to prison. But

16:00

for whatever reason, if we had to

16:02

give out a trophy for most soul-crushingly

16:05

terrified of prison, that trophy would

16:07

go to Tracy Humphrey. Dude

16:09

was petrified of getting

16:11

locked up again. Anybody

16:14

close to him who knew his criminal past knew

16:16

this. Tracy would rather die than go back

16:18

to prison. Which

16:21

you'd think if you have that, like, fear, you'd

16:23

just stop being such a shit state. Avoid

16:26

committing crimes. There you

16:28

go, right? Yeah.

16:31

I feel like we've tapped into the secret here. I think

16:35

it all goes back with Tracy to what

16:37

derives him period is wanting to have control

16:40

over everybody and everything. And you

16:42

can't have that in prison. I think that's why he was so

16:45

terrified of it and also probably why he couldn't manage to

16:47

stay out. Very

16:50

true. Very, very good point. Now,

16:53

with Sandy Rosso murdered, investigators figured this

16:56

was a pretty solid lead. And they

16:58

went to Tracy's gym to try and

17:00

talk to him. Dude

17:02

said he wished he could help, but unfortunately

17:04

his attorney had advised him not to say

17:06

anything. So their

17:08

prime suspect had lawyered up and decided to keep

17:10

his mouth shut. Damn. But

17:13

before they left the gym, they learned something

17:15

interesting from one of Tracy's coworkers. He

17:18

had a brand new wife, a

17:21

much younger woman he'd married just a day

17:23

before Sandy's murder. Her name

17:25

was Ashley, and it just so happened she'd called

17:28

into work at the gym that day. Which

17:31

meant she was home alone and

17:34

maybe more willing to talk than her new husband

17:36

was. They zipped

17:38

over to Tracy's place as fast as they could, hoping

17:40

to get Ashley before her hubs could get to the

17:42

phone. Ashley seemed nervous,

17:44

but she invited them in. It

17:48

didn't take the detectives more than a couple questions,

17:51

where were you and Tracy on the night of July 5th, to

17:54

realize that Ashley Humphrey was scared

17:56

shitless. She actually

17:58

ran to the bathroom to throw up. up a couple

18:00

times during the conversation. In

18:04

between vomits though, she told the investigators her

18:06

story about the night of the murder. She

18:09

and Tracy had been home that night. They had a

18:12

friend over for pizza. They hadn't

18:14

gotten much more than that out of her before they heard a

18:16

key in the front door. And suddenly,

18:18

all 6'2 of Tracy Humphrey burst into

18:20

the apartment, looking like he wanted to

18:22

rip somebody's face off. And

18:25

that was pretty much the end of that. The

18:28

impression they got from this encounter was she knows what happened

18:30

and she's trying to

18:39

cover for him. But, of course, they couldn't

18:41

prove that. Yes. Like

18:43

a lot of women, Ashley Laney wasn't that into

18:45

Tracy at first, the day she and a friend

18:47

walked into his gym to sign up for some

18:49

personal training sessions. She thought he

18:51

was handsome, and she liked his washboard abs though, and

18:53

they flirted a little bit. He said,

18:56

let me train you. And Ashley was like, no way.

18:58

He was way too buff. He'd be way too

19:00

intimidating to work with. But Tracy smiled

19:02

at her. Come on, he said. I'll train you

19:05

for free. Wow. She

19:07

couldn't turn that down. Money was tight. Ashley

19:11

had, as Tracy said later in a

19:13

48 hours interview, a sweet girl-next-door vibe

19:15

around her. A pretty girl with

19:17

big blue eyes. But her childhood was

19:19

rough. Her mom drank a lot and

19:21

had been in some scrapes with the law, and her dad was

19:23

in prison. Ashley's grandma had

19:25

pretty much raised her, and she'd done really well in

19:28

school. But there was always that tension

19:30

between her and her mom, and she didn't get along

19:32

with her mom's boyfriend. Ashley's

19:35

friends say she was always kind of hungry for

19:37

love and acceptance, like a lot of kids from

19:39

troubled backgrounds are. And that

19:41

made her a sitting duck for Tracy Humphrey. Wrapping

19:44

Ashley around his grubby little finger was going

19:46

to be easy, and I suspect he knew it from

19:48

day one. She was only 19 at

19:51

this point, and Tracy was 36. But

19:53

when she asked him his age, he lied and said he was 29. He

19:57

asked her out, and she said, sure. Ashley

20:00

had been getting her feet under her, working at

20:02

a frozen yogurt place and rolling in community college,

20:05

going out with different dudes and hanging out with

20:07

friends. She was starting to find her way in

20:09

life, until she met Tracy Humphrey.

20:12

See, the thing is, finding your way in the

20:14

world at 19 is exciting, but it's scary, too.

20:17

You like the freedom, but you've also got adulthood coming

20:19

at you full force, and it's a lot to

20:21

put on a brain that's not even done developing

20:23

yet. So, although Ashley was working

20:25

hard to make a go of it on her own,

20:27

she was feeling overwhelmed. And it just

20:29

so happened that on the day she met Tracy, she

20:32

was in a mood like, Nope, screw this, I want

20:34

somebody to scoop me up and take care of me.

20:37

Or so she told reporter Paula Zahn in a 2009 interview. And

20:41

Tracy seemed like somebody who could take care of her. He

20:44

was older, he had a good job, he seemed to

20:46

have his shit together, which is hilarious knowing what we

20:48

know about this dipshit. I mean,

20:50

you can understand how Ashley would get this impression.

20:53

Tracy was a very practiced layer. Even

20:57

so, at first, Ashley wasn't really interested

20:59

in anything serious. But

21:01

Tracy kept at her, working his mojo on her,

21:03

pursuing her as if she were the only woman

21:05

in the world. After

21:07

a while, not too long a while, either,

21:09

she was smitten. Before

21:12

long, Tracy had lured Ashley into a situation

21:14

where he controlled pretty much every part of

21:16

her life. He told her

21:18

what to wear, how to do her hair and makeup,

21:20

what to eat and how much. He

21:23

put her down a lot. He even resented

21:25

her having her own car, a cute VW bug

21:27

she was proud of. He

21:29

often talked her into doing stuff she didn't want

21:31

to do, like going with him to a foam

21:34

party, which I've heard of him. I

21:36

never went to one of those because, ew, the

21:38

foam would literally have had to be made of like

21:40

penicillin and Lysol for me to go anywhere near it. But

21:43

basically, this was a party where a club filled

21:45

the dance floor with foam and people danced around

21:47

in it in very skimpy clothes and then they

21:50

had sex. In a big,

21:52

foamy pile of human bacteria. Fun.

21:55

Yeah, I'm gonna pass, right? It

21:59

didn't take long for me to do this. The Treaty To enlist Ashley

22:01

in his hatred of Sandy Razo. Of

22:03

course, he told her Sandy's allegations were

22:05

a total lie says a false accusation

22:07

by a score woman furious that he

22:09

didn't want to date or anymore. He

22:12

convinced me that this woman light on. Him actually told

22:14

Paul is on when he told her it was

22:17

over. She flipped out and just went

22:19

completely psychotic. An injured yourself. Of

22:22

course we know better, but Ashley was a

22:24

teenager in love. She bought it. At.

22:27

One point Tracy to have actually to Sandy's

22:29

new job and they sat at the barn,

22:31

glared at her as she tried to work.

22:33

Finally while Tracy stayed put and said his

22:36

dreams actually went to Sandy into Senator Gone

22:38

her face and yelled at her about the

22:40

lies and he was telling about Tracy in

22:42

the bullshit charges she'd filed on him. Sandy.

22:45

Was freaked out. And of

22:48

course, that was Tracy's goal. Get.

22:50

The new girl to do the pygmy dance at the

22:52

old girl. So nauseating.

22:56

Tracy. Worked on Ashley nonstop.

22:59

If. He got convicted of these bogus charges.

23:01

He'd go to prison and then they wouldn't

23:03

be together anymore. Not. For

23:06

years. Treaty. Had the

23:08

classic roid rage when he'd be fine

23:10

for awhile than just burst into explosive

23:12

anger for no apparent reason, but actually

23:14

didn't know he'd always been like that

23:16

to her. It's like Sandy Ross's devious

23:19

tracks were driving her boyfriend out of

23:21

his mind. The

23:23

conversations started. As. A

23:26

joke, as these things often do. Sandy.

23:29

Wasn't around. You know we wouldn't have to

23:31

worry about me going to prison. Maybe.

23:34

You could take care of her for me, sir.

23:38

Know. But.

23:40

After a while, it wasn't a joke

23:42

anymore. Tracy. Was talking

23:45

frankly about murdering Sandy, specifically about

23:47

Ashley doing it for him. It

23:50

was the perfect plan c. He.

23:53

could set up an ironclad alibi for himself

23:55

make sure people saw him at the time

23:57

as a murder sandy's friends and family did

24:00

and even know Ashley, nobody

24:02

would suspect her, a sweet teenage

24:04

girl, and Tracy could skate

24:06

on the assault charge, and then he and

24:09

Ashley could start a new life together. He

24:13

painted a beautiful picture of that new life. Tracy

24:16

was in the process of starting a

24:18

business, a training and physical therapy center,

24:20

with his friend and client, a woman

24:22

named Toby White. Toby

24:24

felt indebted to Tracy because he'd helped her lose

24:26

like 150 pounds a few

24:28

years earlier, and they'd been friends ever since. He

24:32

told Ashley she could help run the business with them.

24:34

They'd make it a huge success. They'd

24:36

have money, a beautiful house, everything

24:39

she could possibly want. But

24:41

they had to take care of this little sandy broom

24:43

first. Now

24:46

obviously Ashley wasn't into this idea. I

24:49

mean, she liked the Tracy not going to

24:51

prison part and the business part and the

24:53

money and pretty house part, but the killing

24:55

part, not so much. But

24:58

the thing was, if there's one thing

25:00

everybody agreed on about Tracy Humphrey, it

25:02

was this. You didn't say

25:04

no to him. You could

25:06

try, but he'd wear you down, either

25:08

with a sob story and puppy dog eyes,

25:10

or threats of violence, or actual violence, or

25:12

some combination of all three. And

25:16

Ashley had been falling more and more under

25:18

Tracy's control anyway. She had already

25:20

reached a point where she was deferring to

25:22

him about almost everything. And

25:24

finally, one night Tracy laid his cards on

25:26

the table. I'll kill

25:28

myself before I go back to prison, he said. If

25:31

you don't help me get rid of Sandy, I don't want

25:33

you around anymore. And

25:35

he kicked her out of the apartment. Ashley

25:40

was devastated. She loved him, despite his

25:42

hair trigger temper. When

25:44

he wasn't putting her down, he was love bombing the

25:46

ever loving shit out of her. And

25:49

he'd followed the classic abuser playbook, isolating

25:51

her from her family and friends, anybody

25:53

who might act as a support system for her or try

25:55

to get her to see reason. She

25:58

felt like Tracy was the only one who loved her.

26:00

She couldn't stand the thought of him taking that

26:02

love away or taking his own life. So

26:05

she caved. Okay, she

26:07

told him. I'll kill her for you. Hey

26:24

guys, it's Ryan. I'm not sure if you

26:26

know this about me, but I'm a bit

26:28

of a fun fanatic when I can. I

26:30

like to work, but I like fun too.

26:32

It's a thing. And now the truth is

26:34

out there. I can tell you about my

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27:06

now, Sandy had changed jobs and apartments. She'd

27:08

started dating a close friend of hers, Tony

27:11

Ponical, and they were living together in a

27:13

nice townhouse they bought jointly. Tony,

27:15

along with everybody else close to her, was

27:17

worried sick about the upcoming trial of Tracy

27:20

Humphrey. Everybody was scared

27:22

for Sandy. And they were right to be. Tracy

27:25

and Ashley were in full murder plot mode.

27:28

Tracy, of course, had it all figured out. First,

27:31

Ashley would stalk Sandy for a while, get

27:33

a sense of her daily routine. He

27:35

got her to find out everything she could about

27:38

Sandy online, using her own credit card to use

27:40

a service called Cyber Tracker to try and find

27:42

her new address. When the time

27:44

came to carry out the hit, Tracy said she'd have

27:47

to wear a disguise to make her look like a

27:49

man. A black man, specifically.

27:51

He wanted her to look like the

27:53

black crackhead he'd always threatened to send

27:55

after Sandy. I just fucking hate

27:57

this guy. to

28:00

Party City and bought herself a fake beard and

28:02

some dark makeup so she could blackface it up,

28:04

which girl for god's sake, you know, blackface is

28:06

bad enough for any reason, but this was just

28:09

off the damn planet. Ugh. She

28:11

got a pair of brown contacts for extra

28:14

realism and decked herself out in a hoodie

28:16

and sweatpants. She looked,

28:18

I'm sure, completely bizarre. And

28:20

she knew it. There was no arguing

28:22

with Tracy at this point. As

28:24

Ashley would later tell a jury, she felt

28:26

like, quote, the consequences of not doing it

28:28

would be worse than the murder itself. If

28:32

it occurred to her that Tracy was carefully making

28:34

sure she was the only one getting her hands

28:36

dirty, that he had her using her

28:38

own credit card to look stuff up, and that she

28:40

was the only one taking any real risks, she

28:42

didn't dare say anything about it. There

28:45

was one failed murder attempt before the

28:48

actual murder, with a rifle Ashley stole

28:50

from her mom's boyfriend. Tracy

28:52

took her to a shooting range to practice with it.

28:55

She'd never even fired a gun before that day.

28:58

Under Tracy's direction, Ashley had put

29:00

on her absurd disguise and driven in her VW

29:02

bug to the green iguana to wait for Sandy

29:04

to get off work. She'd

29:06

slipped the leg of an old pair of pants over

29:08

the barrel of the rifle so it wouldn't be so

29:10

obvious when she aimed it out the car window. She

29:13

was on the phone with Tracy the whole time. When

29:16

Sandy came out to her car, he yelled at Ashley,

29:18

do it, do it now! And

29:20

Ashley did. She fired the gun. But

29:23

she missed. The bullet hit

29:26

Sandy's passenger side mirror, and it didn't

29:28

seem like Sandy realized what had happened.

29:30

She startled at the noise, but it didn't look like

29:32

she realized somebody was shooting at her. Tracy,

29:35

on the other end of the phone, was

29:37

furious that Ashley had missed. Get rid of the evidence,

29:40

he screamed at her, and then get your ass home.

29:43

Tracy made Ashley go back and pick up

29:45

every little broken piece of Sandy's side mirror,

29:47

then bury them all out in the country

29:49

along with the stolen rifle. Then

29:52

he made her torch her beloved VW.

29:54

They'd report it stolen, he said. Get some insurance

29:56

money out of it. Of Course,

29:59

this was a dipshade. It move because that

30:01

stolen car report plus a report of

30:03

a torch doubt v W Bugs and

30:05

outside of town shortly before Sandy Russell's

30:07

murder would eventually raise the investigators. Eyebrows

30:10

even more. So. Attempt

30:12

number one was a dud and now

30:14

they needed another gun. Couldn't

30:16

use the same one obviously. So.

30:19

Actually went to her mom's boyfriend David

30:22

Abernathy with a story. She

30:24

was being stalked. She told him she was scared

30:26

for her life to to may be borrowed done

30:28

for a few days. David was

30:30

hesitant, but as was able to prove to him

30:32

that she'd been to a gun range recently in,

30:35

she knew about gun safety so he gave her

30:37

the gun. He'd. Come to regret

30:39

that soon when he realizes what she really use. That

30:41

sir. Tracy's. Assault

30:43

Trail was only a month away. Now he

30:46

was dialing up the pressure on Ashley. They.

30:48

Had to make a move. Knew they couldn't

30:50

wait any longer. She

30:52

almost didn't do it. Desperate actually

30:55

came up with a plan B. She

30:57

was gonna take out all the money she hadn't

30:59

or bank account, drive around for a while and

31:01

have some fun eat a big last meal, leave

31:03

the waiter a huge to maybe go look at

31:05

the ocean. And. Then she was going to

31:08

use the gun to shoot her son's. But.

31:10

She couldn't go through with it. She.

31:12

Went back home to Tracy instead. Ashley.

31:15

Had made her choice. It was time

31:17

to pay the piper. And. On July

31:20

fourth trees he announced a new detail of the

31:22

plan. They. Were going to

31:24

get married. See. If

31:26

they were married than they could be forced to

31:28

testify against each other in court. It would be

31:31

a safeguard. Oh and but super

31:33

romantic to of course. Oh

31:35

yeah, beautiful story for the grandkids some day. or.

31:38

Essays Spousal Immunity As good a reason as

31:40

any to make it official, right? They

31:44

had the wedding that day at the courthouse on

31:46

their lunch break from the gym. Know

31:48

I'm wipe in a tear away.

31:51

Do so. Beautiful. I think

31:53

these two crazy kids, they're really gonna make

31:55

it. But.

31:57

there is no time for a reception and or a

31:59

honeymoon The next night it was

32:01

time to put the murder plot into action. Ashley

32:04

put on her costume again, the

32:06

brown contacts, the baggy sweats, the

32:08

fake beard and the blackface makeup.

32:11

She sprayed her hair into a shiny helmet

32:14

with hairspray so she wouldn't shed any and

32:16

leave DNA behind. She put on

32:18

a pair of shoes a couple sizes too big. And

32:21

then she went back to the green iguana in a

32:23

rental car this time and waited for Sandy to get

32:26

off work. She

32:28

was on the phone with Tracy almost constantly

32:30

that night while she waited for Sandy

32:32

in the parking lot, while she

32:34

followed her home to the Pinellas Park townhouse. Make

32:37

sure she's dead, Tracy told her. Look

32:40

into her eyes. And

32:43

of course we know what happened next. After

32:46

she'd emptied the gun into Sandy and run back to

32:48

the car, Ashley called Tracy again to let

32:50

him know it was done. I

32:53

want pizza, she said. Double cheese,

32:55

chicken and tomatoes. No

32:57

double cheese, Tracy said. Too fattening. The

33:01

guy wouldn't even let her have the pizza she wanted after

33:03

she just carried out a hit for him. He'd

33:07

already ordered the pizza anyway, right around the time

33:10

of the murder, and he made sure the Pizza

33:12

Hut guy would remember delivering it to him. When

33:15

the guy got there, Tracy invited him into the

33:17

apartment. He paid with his credit card and then

33:19

gave the guy a big tip. 20

33:21

bucks in cash. Alibi established.

33:25

But if Tracy had the brain

33:27

power the good lord gave a flatworm, he'd

33:29

have realized this was another dumbass move. Because

33:32

when the investigators spoke to that pizza guy later,

33:35

he would remember Tracy, and he'd remember very

33:37

clearly that he was the only one home.

33:40

No Ashley and no friend either. This,

33:43

as I'm sure y'all remember, was the story

33:46

Ashley told the detectives the day they interviewed

33:48

her after Sandy's murder. That

33:50

she and Tracy spent the whole night at home

33:52

eating pizza and hanging out with a friend. That

33:56

friend was Toby White, the woman Tracy was

33:58

starting a business with. And it's

34:00

time to talk about her because Toby is

34:02

an absolute badass. Ugh, Queen. Queen!

34:06

A day or so after Sandy's murder, Tracy cornered

34:08

Toby at the gym and told her he needed

34:11

her to be his and Ashley's alibi with the

34:13

cops. His whole manner was

34:15

freaking Toby out. He was

34:17

staring lasers into her and he said, if

34:19

you don't go along with this, I don't know what I'm gonna

34:21

have to do. Toby

34:23

took this as a threat, and she

34:26

was horrified. I mean, she knew Tracy

34:28

had a temper, but he'd always been a friend to her

34:30

until this. She didn't know what else to do

34:32

but agree. Oh yeah, I

34:34

mean, M. William Phelps heard it a dozen times

34:36

from various people as he was researching his

34:38

book on the case, You Didn't Say No to

34:41

Tracy Humphrey. Ugh, I

34:43

got some stuff I'd like to say to

34:45

him, like, why don't you step off a

34:47

cliff, Vince Leisel? You busted sack of medical

34:49

waste? That's one of the things I'd like to say. But

34:52

Toby, bless her heart, said, okay,

34:54

whatever you need. And I should

34:56

point out, she didn't think at this point that, like,

34:58

they were guilty. Like, she thought this was her friend

35:00

and, like, he was just freaking out. Tracy

35:04

drilled her on what he wanted her to

35:06

say over and over again. Wrote

35:08

it out for her on a sheet of paper. And

35:11

from that point onward, Tracy and Ashley barely

35:13

let Toby out of their sight. They

35:15

practically moved into her house. If she had

35:17

to go somewhere alone, Tracy would call her

35:19

10,000 times. Where are

35:21

you? What are you doing? Who

35:24

are you with? Tracy was not doing okay upstairs. He

35:27

was spiraling. Bad. Paranoid 24-7.

35:30

At one point, he got so bad that

35:32

he started writing out notes instead of talking

35:35

because he was convinced Toby's house was bugged.

35:38

Toby initially went in and stuck to the

35:40

plan, lied to the cops about being with

35:42

Tracy and Ashley all night on July 5th,

35:44

eating pizza. But it

35:47

didn't take long for her to realize something's

35:49

bad wrong here. She knew

35:51

it in her gut that her two friends were involved

35:53

in this murder and she couldn't have that on her

35:55

conscience. So scared to death,

35:57

she went to the detectives and told them she

35:59

wanted to tell them the truth. They

36:02

convinced her to wear a wire for them and try

36:04

to get Ashley and Tracy to talk about the murder.

36:07

And that was the beginning of Toby White's

36:09

personal hell. Tracy's

36:11

paranoia was getting worse by the day

36:13

as the investigation wore on. He

36:15

was super cagey whenever they talked about the

36:18

case. He'd insist on talking outside or in

36:20

the car. He never admitted that

36:22

he or Ashley killed Sandy Raza, but the way

36:24

he was acting it was obvious. From

36:27

her conversations with the detectives, Toby knew it

36:29

couldn't have been Tracy who pulled the trigger,

36:31

so she assumed it had to be Ashley.

36:34

But Ashley seemed defiant, like she wasn't too

36:36

worried about the police having anything on her.

36:39

The detectives tried to up the pressure,

36:41

feeding Toby info about the evidence they

36:43

were gathering. One piece

36:46

was especially damning for Ashley. Her

36:48

cell phone records. This

36:50

was 2003, and your average Joe didn't

36:52

know yet about how investigators could ping

36:54

your phone's location. But

36:56

the forensic tech guys looking into Ashley's records

36:59

had her cell phone all the way from

37:01

the Green Iguana parking lot to the area

37:03

right around Sandy's townhouse right at the time

37:05

of the murder. Tracy's

37:08

demand that Ashley stay in constant contact with him

37:10

during the crime had come back to bite him

37:12

both in the ass. The cell

37:14

phone pings were probably enough to arrest her

37:16

right then, especially when you put them together

37:19

with the torched car and David Abernathy's story

37:21

about Ashley borrowing a gun for protection. But

37:24

the investigators didn't just want Ashley. They

37:27

wanted Tracy, too. They were

37:29

sure he was the driving force behind Sandy's

37:31

murder. They needed the newlyweds

37:33

to say something incriminating on tape, and

37:35

they pressured Toby to make it happen.

37:39

And it was hell on that poor woman for months

37:41

at a time. Tracy didn't trust

37:43

anybody, and he was especially squirrely about

37:45

the possibility of Toby conspiring with the

37:47

cops against him. He'd get

37:49

suspicious of her on an almost daily basis, and she'd

37:52

have to talk her way out of it again and

37:54

again, which she was really damn good at. The woman

37:56

deserves an Oscar, honestly. There's

37:58

loads more info. in the M. William

38:01

Phelps book about Toby's badassery and like the absolute

38:03

nightmare Tracy put her through during this time. And

38:05

for that alone, if nothing else, I would highly

38:07

suggest you read this book. It's called I'll Kill

38:09

For You and it's great. But I'll just go

38:12

through a few examples here of what this woman

38:14

went through. At one

38:16

point while she was wearing the wire, he

38:18

and Ashley drove her way the fuck out

38:20

to this like desolate beach to interrogate her

38:22

about whether she was working with the cops,

38:24

what they'd asked her and you know all

38:26

the stuff they talked about when she went

38:28

in for questioning. And Toby knew that they

38:30

were out of range of where the detectives

38:32

could actually pick up on the wire. So

38:34

she was on her own and the undercover

38:36

cops, they couldn't follow them out there without

38:38

blowing their cover because it was so desolate.

38:41

If Tracy had decided to search her for a wire

38:43

at this point, she'd have been six kinds of done.

38:45

Like I think he might have actually just killed her right

38:47

there. Another

38:49

time Tracy called Toby into the gym and

38:51

accused her of working with the cops again.

38:54

He knocked her to the floor, held her down, got in her

38:56

face and said, if you betray me, I

38:59

will kill you and it'll be slow and painful.

39:02

Toby was terrified as anybody would be, but

39:05

she was determined to keep helping the investigators.

39:08

Ashley and Tracy needed to be in jail and

39:10

she was their best shot at getting one of

39:12

them to confess on tape. This woman

39:14

is an absolute bad mamma-jamma.

39:17

We can't say enough about her. Braver

39:20

than I am, that's her damn sure. Me

39:22

too. There's this absolutely nail-biting

39:24

part in the M. William Phelps book where

39:26

Toby makes some notes to herself about how

39:28

she might get Ashley to confess. I found

39:30

a bunch of stuff that she would never

39:33

want Tracy or Ashley to see, thinking she'd

39:35

print it out and then delete the word

39:37

document off her computer and she'd keep the

39:39

printout hidden. But when she went

39:41

to print it, her printer jammed and she figured,

39:44

printer's busted, I'll have to get a new one to do this.

39:47

But a day or so later, Ashley was over

39:49

at Toby's house and she noticed Toby messing around

39:51

with the printer. When Toby left the room

39:53

to go to the bathroom, Ashley went over

39:56

and filled with it herself and she fixed

39:58

the jam and out popped this two page

40:00

document that Toby never wanted her to see in a

40:02

million years. Ashley,

40:05

good little soldier that she was,

40:07

ran right to Tracy with it. Toby

40:09

had no idea either of them had seen it when

40:11

she showed up to the gym for a scheduled workout

40:13

later that day. So scary.

40:16

Yeah, and somehow she was actually able to talk

40:18

her way out of this, like thank God. And

40:21

she hadn't written anything that explicitly said she was

40:23

working with the cops, but it was really suspicious.

40:25

Like if you were Tracy or Ashley and you

40:27

saw that, that's exactly what you would think. And

40:29

I about shit my pants reading that part of

40:31

the book. Even though I'd already seen her on

40:34

a show and I knew she lived through it,

40:36

I was still just like, oh God, oh God,

40:38

it's so stressful. At

40:40

this point, the detectives realized, okay, we've dicked

40:42

around long enough. This man is gonna kill

40:44

our informant if we don't arrest him. And

40:47

they had enough by now. They'd collected

40:49

all kinds of circumstantial stuff, plus some

40:51

highly incriminating statements Ashley and Tracy had

40:53

made on Toby's wire. And

40:56

the coup de gras, Ashley's cell

40:58

phone records. So finally,

41:00

it was time to put the habeas grab as

41:02

on the newlyweds. Ashley for

41:04

first degree murder and Tracy for

41:06

now for a parole violation. He

41:09

was a felon and he wasn't supposed to have guns. But

41:12

the detectives had uncovered plenty of proof that he'd

41:14

been playing with the pew pews. Records

41:17

of him and Ashley at the firing range practicing

41:20

for her big day. Ashley

41:23

was furious about being arrested

41:25

and she didn't try to hide it. It was all

41:28

crossed arms and get me my lawyer. They

41:31

didn't get anything out of her that day. As

41:34

for Tracy, and I know this is

41:36

gonna shock you, he

41:38

made friends with his cellmate early on

41:41

and tried to get the guy to find him a

41:43

hit man to kill Toby White. Oh boy. I

41:49

mean it's not funny but it just, why do they all do it?

41:52

He's exactly the type to do it and he did it. And

41:55

I knew he would. It's like our brains

41:57

are wired the exact same way. These

42:00

dipshits, brains are wired. They do the exact

42:02

same thing. They

42:04

come to the conclusion, they're like, why has no one

42:06

ever come up with this before? I'm

42:09

a genius. It's the narcissism, it's

42:11

a hell of a drug. God.

42:17

He confessed to the guy too, because

42:19

prison friends are the bestest friends. BFFs

42:24

for life, literal pen

42:26

pals, penitentiary pals, get

42:28

it? And

42:31

of course, the dude went right to the

42:33

investigators and told on him. Toby,

42:37

who was finally breathing a sigh of relief,

42:39

checked into a hospital for surgery and

42:41

had strict security enforced. The

42:44

hospital wasn't to tell anybody where she was,

42:46

but Tracy still found her. From jail, he

42:48

had somebody, who knows who, send her a

42:51

bouquet of flowers that said, I'll

42:53

always be able to find you. Yikes.

42:56

Oh jeez and crackers. While

42:59

Tracy sat in jail, plotting and scheming

43:01

and writing Ashley love bombing missus for

43:03

his friends on the outside to smuggle

43:05

into her, the detectives were working

43:07

on getting Ashley to flip on her hubs.

43:10

She wasn't fazed much when the detectives spilled

43:12

the beans about all Tracy's lies, that he

43:14

hadn't been a Tampa Bay Buccaneers football star

43:17

and that he'd never modeled undies in Paris,

43:19

never worked as Tom Cruise's bodyguard. She

43:21

didn't even seem all that surprised, like she

43:24

figured that, you know? And when

43:26

the detectives told her that Tracy had planned all

43:28

along for her to take the fall for him

43:30

and was only using her, she just kind of

43:32

shrugged. Even when they told her

43:34

about what he'd said to Toby White, after finding

43:36

out about the cell phone being evidence the investigators

43:39

had. He'd told Toby to

43:41

change her story a little, they said. Tell

43:43

the cops that while you and I were at the

43:45

apartment all night eating pizza, Ashley was in and out

43:47

and you don't know exactly where she went or where

43:50

she was at the exact time Sandy got shot. No,

43:54

that wasn't what swayed Ashley. What

43:56

finally tipped the scales was finding out after

43:59

the detectives... Hector Adorno,

44:01

Tracy's best friend and Ashley's

44:03

hairstylist, that Tracy was gay.

44:07

Well, that's what Hector said anyway, specifically what

44:09

he said about that man was gay, like just

44:11

like that. It's likely

44:13

he was bi, but anyway, he

44:15

and Hector had been in a

44:17

full-blown relationship years earlier, lived together

44:20

and everything like boyfriends. Hector

44:22

dumped him when he wouldn't be open about

44:24

his sexuality. Hector didn't want to live in

44:26

the closet, and Tracy did. And

44:29

Hector's theory was that Tracy hated women because

44:31

he was conflicted about his sexual orientation, so

44:33

he just used them for whatever he could

44:35

get and got violent with him when they

44:37

tried to stand up to him. He used

44:39

to brag about it, Hector said. Gross,

44:42

why would you want to hang out with that guy, Hector? Ew. This

44:46

was the final straw for Ashley. Well,

44:48

that and the fact that the death penalty was on the table.

44:52

She had no loyalty left for her husband.

44:54

She agreed to tell the whole story to the

44:57

investigators and then on the witness stand at

44:59

Tracy's murder trial. And she agreed to

45:01

take a plea deal, 25 years in prison

45:03

in exchange for her testimony. She'd

45:05

avoid the death penalty and have a release date someday.

45:09

Not good news for Tracy. And

45:11

boy, he knew it. Because y'all, this man

45:13

actually had the audacity to make a run

45:15

for it. He's

45:17

like everything on the bingo card, this man. He's

45:20

our entire bingo card. There's

45:23

CCTV footage of him hauling ass

45:25

out the door and away from the county

45:27

jail. Now, the book gets into the specifics

45:29

of how he pulled this off, but suffice

45:31

it to say, basically, it was

45:34

a whole like Rube Goldbergian series of fuckups

45:36

by the jail staff. Okay, it's nothing impressive

45:38

by Tracy. It was just lots of lax

45:40

security practices, a whole bunch in a row.

45:42

And our boy just saw it and took

45:45

his shot. He was

45:47

AWOL for about three hours total.

45:50

Not great compared to how it's gone for some

45:52

of the previous jail escapees that we've covered on

45:54

the show, like member Marie Hilly. That

45:56

girl stayed out for years. Our boy,

45:59

Steven J. Russell. the I love you Philip

46:01

Morris guy. He was a master escape artist, did

46:03

it multiple times, but our boy Tracy didn't

46:05

have their skills or their cool heads.

46:08

He pretty much just ran frantically around

46:10

town, probably whimpering to himself until eventually

46:12

deputies found him, in the words of

46:14

M. William Phelps, cowering under a bush.

46:20

And it was a lady out with her horse that found him. The

46:22

horse found him. He saw them and tried to run, then

46:24

he tried to fight, but the sheriff

46:29

was actually bigger and badder than Tracy was

46:31

and the fight didn't last long. Within

46:34

an hour or so he was getting booked back

46:36

into the jail with a fresh black eye to

46:38

show off in his mugshot. Join me in a

46:40

ha ha, will you? After

46:44

Tracy's brief escape from jail, Toby White was

46:46

walking to her car one afternoon to do

46:48

some pre-vacation shopping. She wanted to just get

46:50

the hell away from everything for a while,

46:52

so she'd booked a cruise and she deserved

46:54

it. But just before she reached

46:57

her car door, she felt the barrel of a

46:59

gun in her back and a man's voice said,

47:01

get in the car and drive. Toby

47:03

had really started to think she was safe, that Tracy

47:05

Humphrey wasn't going to be able to get to her.

47:09

Now she felt like this was probably it, this was how

47:11

she was going to die. Toby

47:13

didn't recognize the man who was holding her at gunpoint,

47:15

but she knew why he was there. Tracy

47:18

sent him and as she got

47:20

behind the wheel of her car and started it, the man

47:22

confirmed it. If you testify, you

47:24

will die, he said. Then

47:27

in silence, the man made her drive way out into

47:29

the country and parked the car by the side of

47:31

the road. Then holding the gun

47:33

on her the whole time, he made her get

47:35

into the trunk and then he

47:37

just left her there. After

47:39

a few minutes, Toby remembered she had her cell phone

47:41

on her and she called for help. Tracy

47:44

had managed to send a very clear message.

47:47

He had people out in the world who were willing

47:49

to commit crimes for him. She

47:51

wasn't safe and she knew she

47:53

wouldn't be, not until he was convicted of Sandy

47:55

Rosso's murder. Tracy's

47:58

trial started on Valentine's Day. 2006.

48:01

How's that for irony? Tracy

48:04

took the stand because of course he did.

48:07

Jail hadn't been kind to him so far.

48:10

He looked like he'd lost about 70 pounds

48:12

and he had the prison pallor going on,

48:15

but he was still convinced he could get up

48:17

on that witness stand and charm the jurors, convinced

48:19

them that Ashley did all this on her own.

48:22

He was wrong. The

48:24

jury didn't buy his bullshit. A

48:26

big part of that was Ashley who, to

48:28

her small credit, didn't try to

48:31

duck responsibility. She accepted her

48:33

part in the murder and she told the truth

48:35

about his and it was obvious. Tracy

48:38

was found guilty after just two

48:40

and a half hours of deliberation.

48:42

That's lightning quick. The

48:47

jury had two options for sentencing. Life

48:50

without parole or the death penalty. Florida

48:53

juries aren't usually shy about giving out

48:55

death sentences, but while they

48:57

were deliberating, the jurors kept coming back to

48:59

something Tracy had said to Ashley when they

49:01

were planning Sandy's murder, that he'd

49:04

rather die than go back to prison. So

49:06

they tossed the death penalty right out

49:08

the window. Why give the asshole

49:10

what he wants? Life without

49:13

parole, they figured, would be a much better

49:15

punishment and that's what they gave him. Oh man,

49:18

I wish I'd been there to see his face when they

49:20

read that sentence, don't you? Mr. I'll never go back to

49:22

prison. As

49:25

for Ashley, her estimated release date is in 2028.

49:27

She'll be 46 years old. She's done interviews

49:32

since and she seems remorseful, unlike Tracy,

49:34

who went on 48 hours shortly before

49:36

his trial and spun a big ball of bullshit. Oh,

49:40

I'm sure she sees him now for the

49:42

Hieronymus Boschian slime demon he is. Talk about

49:44

learning the hard way. Yep,

49:47

and meanwhile, Sandy's loved ones have had to go

49:49

on without her. Her daughter,

49:51

her mom, her boyfriend Tony,

49:54

her huge circle of friends. They've

49:56

all had to spend the last 20 years minus the light

49:58

Sandy would have brought to their lives. All

50:01

because one man, and I use the term

50:03

loosely, refused to take the

50:05

slightest crumb of responsibility for his

50:07

own disgusting behavior. I'm glad he'll never

50:10

see daylight again. Me too.

50:14

So that was a wild one right campers? You

50:16

know we'll have another one for you next week,

50:18

but for now lock your doors, light your lights,

50:20

and stay safe until we get together again around

50:22

the true crime campfire. And as always we want

50:25

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50:32

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50:36

the moon and back, and thank

50:38

you to Katie for playing hurt

50:41

because our baby has a sore

50:43

voice. My

50:45

voice is almost gone. I was yelling at

50:47

children all weekend aka coaching. I don't

50:51

want to just think I'd yell at children for

50:53

sport. Although technically, that is

50:55

true. I think I am, but yeah,

50:57

my voice, if I go above this deep

51:00

timber, I start cracking

51:02

like I'm a 12 year old boy. Well it's

51:04

really kind of sexy, so it's all good. And

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