MURDERED: Roger "Fred" Farmer
42:29 Share

High crime junkie, i'm your host, actually followers and i'm brit. And the story I have for you today, IT actually takes place in our own backyard of indian Apollo. And it's about a case that felt really clear cut right from the get go. But he took some time to get right, and even after justice was served, there are still some questions about the whole truth of the story. This is the story of Roger fried farmer.

It's only a couple of days in a january twenty twenty when detective Larry crashin oy is contacted by an old friend. They're not close this guys, one of those facebook friends that you don't really talk to I R L, but you can just like keep tabs on 这个。 But pervious guy's message, he is reaching out now because he knows that detective crainte is a homicide detective with I ampt in the apple metropolitan police department.

And he wants to pick his brain because this friend explains that he has gone a few strange text messages from one of his friends. And may I named Roger farmer, who everyone calls fred. Now, the content of the messages wasn't all that concerning, but he was actually the way they were written that is, throwing up some red flats. Fred is known for pretty much exclusively using talk to text, so all of his messages are usually just like one run on sentence.

No time.

Yes, the text that he has gotten recently there puntuated proper grammar, eo gies right, does not use A O gies. And to make things more concerning, no one's actually seen red since around mid november, which is out of the ordinary. Now, allegedly he's on a hunting trip, but no one he's talked to seems to know where he's hunting.

Yes, my spite senses are tingling.

C, T, S, are two. I mean, this guy has been in the game long enough to know that these aren't good signs. So he decides he's gona do this friend of saw lid and he's going to look and do IT.

And when he does, he learns that fred has already been reported missing and a detective is already on the case. Great, maybe this facebook friend just didn't know that, but as the helpful guy he is, the detective decides not just to drop out there, he wants to actually help look into dismissing person's case, but there rules. He's not trying to step on any toes.

So he goes to his supervisors, brief s them on a little bit information. He's guy and everyone is pretty much like, okay, yeah, you're right, isn't good. So he gets permission to speak with and possibly assist the missing person's detective assigned to fred's case.

And within days he makes contact with that detective. And SHE is of the opinion that fred's disappearance probably isn't a disappearance. IT is likely a homicide.

So he agrees to let detect rationally help her out. So he takes in and learns what's already been done to try and find fred. He was reported missing on december twenty seventh, two thousand nineteen, by his daughter Christina.

Now the day he last saw her dad varies a little bit based on who you talk to you because Christina herself told us that he was november six. But detector kasson, I told us that he later of believing IT may have actually been noted. 7， and even if you look up this case, you're going to find a court document that says november twenty second.

So with a little all over in the map, based on everyone we spoke to, everything we've seen, I think the twenty second is an act. I really do think we're looking at november six or seven. okay? Anyway, Christina a says that the last time anyone saw her, that he was at his house on the west side of inDianapolis and he was getting ready to go on a hunting trip.

Now thanksgiving was on the twenty eight that year, so they'd expect him to be back around that time or at least call, except he didn't. Now, Christina, her sister, trish, ua and other members of their family had gotten some tax. But just like the ones that friends, friend had gotten, they weren't convinced the messages were actually coming from fred.

And some of the messages were just about his hunting trip. Others were talking about how IT had rained. Some say that his truck got stuck in the mud. And he, like.

get IT out equally, asking for help in these texts.

No, I don't think so. I think he was just like letting them know and they didn't think that there could be confusion about that or anything because supposedly he was on this trip with other people. Plus he's like fifty eight. He can take care of themselves.

That is right .

and he's been taxing after he told them that. And so they figured like, oh, everything's fine, you ve got out no big deal but you can only say you're fine so many times before people start to worry. And once they were worried is when they started going back and really reading those messages and like scrutinising them.

So by the time Christmas came and he was still mia and only sending those strange text, his family at that point is like, oh, no, like, this is not our dad. But before cacena made the missing person's report, SHE went to her dad's house just to be extra sure, or maybe to even get confirmation of what he was already believing. And while she's there, SHE noticed a bank statement.

And when he opens at her hard sinks, because he saw that her dad's account was in the negative and fried wasn't a richman by any means like, but he was smart with his money. This stood would never have spent so much that his account was drained or overdrawn. So that's when he goes. And SHE files the report on december twenty seven. And then on the twenty eight, the missing person's detective was assigned to the case.

Now that detective got access to fred's financial record and confirmed not only where his accounts over, but there were also transactions made mid to late november and throughout december that weren't at or for places that would Normally go like bars and restaurants all around the west side of or the surrounding suburbs where here any of friends usual like out of town hunting spot where he's supposed to be. And there's one transaction in particular, let's stood out. The detective IT was a purchase made at a laws for two hundred twenty five dollars and seventy three cents on november eighteen.

Now thanks b to the hardware. Gohei z loses apparently the only place on earth that keeps security footage for a while. So the detectives were abled to actually pull footage of the person using the card for that transaction.

And no surprise here, not read. IT was a Younger guy. So they go, they show this image to friend's daughter, and SHE recognizes the person instantly. IT is her thirty five year old brother, jeremy and Christina told us in that moment he knew that her brother had something to do with her dad's disappear.

fall out of her chair, shocked. Or like, what's a deal with her brother? I guess like, I am imagining my little brother, baby David. Like.

I know. no. So I mean, I don't know in that moment like what what he was thinking. I don't think anyone suspects their brothers is capable of doing something to their own dad.

But Jimmy had been kind of the troubled sibling like he didn't have much of a criminal history like a few minor things, nothing violent, but he did struggle with substance use disorder. And I know he didn't get along with his other sister, trish. Uh, Christina's relationship with him had been okay.

I mean, he told us that he have been lived with her and her daughter for a time. But to go back to their dad, like his relationship with his dad, was pretty rocky to the least. And jeremy actually was living with their dad at the time, like all this is happy he was going missing, right? And the whole family knew that the two of them living together was much a disaster waiting to happen. From what I gather, the two, and they just didn't get along. They're like fighting all the time.

And has jermy been around during this time that friends been missing?

He has, and he's been telling everyone that their age is probably fine, like they don't need worry about them.

Probably not mentioning that he's been using god's credit card.

Definitely left that part out so they're able to get a store for friend's house again where there me is still living and by this point is when detective crazy oy is aware of this case but not efficient on board yet, but he does go along to to see if he sees anything out of the ordinary. Again, he's really looking through.

And there is one thing that really stands out in one of the rooms, the carpet and pad that usually under the carpet are both gone. IT doesn't look like it's been taken up by a professional l either. IT looks like a rush job.

I going to hackathon. And for him, this is a huge red flag, signaling that something, he doesn't know what, but something probably happened in this room now in january thirteen, the case is officially transferred to the homicide department. And detective crash oy takes the lean by the fifteen th. He makes contact with Christina and trisha and IT. Turns out a lot has happened in the last few weeks, mostly over text message.

still from fred, supposedly would not. So actually.

the text message that Christina shares are from her brother jeremy. So by january IT sounds like the messages from friends phone have stopped, at least based on the detector craft ini told us.

But he tells detect rationally that jeremy texted her, saying that their dads, former romney, like the guy who was there before jeremy moved in, this guy apparently had been threatening jeremy, saying that he was gonna put a bullet in his head and sending him a photo of a gun and ammunition. And SHE also tells him about fred's dog, who he describes as fred's best friend, like, do not have to tell the crime junkies. SHE says he never went anywhere without that dog. But apparently for this hunting trip, he left the dog behind.

And where's the dog now?

The dog at home with jeremy, which already is weird, but they are like OK listen, even if he did leave behind, for the first time ever, his beloved dog, this is all the more reason not to be gone for two months without saying anything to anyone, like I would come back. And then finally, Christina also tells him that he had actually talked to jeremy a few times about where exactly their dad had gone hunting. But SHE said that her brother's story kept changing. The first story SHE got is that their dad had gone to paragua, inDiana.

I've never heard of her.

I was good. I like, I ve lived here my whole life. I have never heard of this place, but doesn't even matter because that is like, actually know, you know, might have somewhere else. But he wasn't sure where was. So that was a little fishy to her.

And then he was also able to get her hands on some of friend's financial records that he had kind of been collecting over the last few weeks, and he wanted to show the detectives so he can see how unusual the charges to the account actually are. And sure enough, there is this really noticeable change in the types of charges being made because before early november, fred did not. Charge much to his credit cards at all.

But after early november, the charges start becoming for those bars, restaurants, places that fred would never go to. And like he did drink. But I mean, he had a few retired military bodies drink the vf. W he's not a bar .

hopper. A yeah and boys.

So detective cramoisy enough now to be very suspicious ous. He suspects that fred is no longer alive, and he suspects that his own son is to blame for that. But he knows he's gna need more proof, so he decides to pull the phone records for both jeremy and fred. And when he gets the results, they tell a very damming story. So IT turns out ever since fred went missing, his phone .

has not left the west of nobody's unting .

on the west side of an inapa st. And even if you want to say he had left his phone behind you, I mean, OK, but then his phones shouldn't .

have been texting the world.

True, he was for sure. Now we know he wasn't on the trip. But what really catches the detective attention is that the whole time fred was supposed to be on this trip, the trip I now, no, didn't happen. Fred and jeremies phones were ping in the same locations on the same eighth, around the .

same time together. One might say exactly, so it's time to go chat with jeremy.

but not quite yet. I know, I know. So the go get a mentality works well in long order, like when you're trying to make a case in forty minutes, but like that's not that's not real life.

So and i've heard lot detectives say this. They want to get their ducks in a row. I am the first thing I wanted do is be like let's confront them.

You want to only ask questions.

answers. I know actually they to know when he's in, even if like does you mean it's a little bit of a game? It's a cat and mouse.

So he decides to go learn everything he can about fred jermy, the whole family. He learns that friends been married, divorce several times, including to jeremy treasures and Christine as mom. And when that spit happened, the girls went to live with their mom.

Jeremy lived with fred, which seem to mark the beginning of their troubled relations. Detective crinoid also test with friends former roommate, the one that jeremy told his sister had been like threatening him. Now, pretty quickly, the detective becomes confident that this room is not suspicious.

In fact, the romae flips the whole story around. He goes on to tell them what he'd experienced first hand regarding fred and jeremy's relationship, which was that jeremy moved in with fred about five to six months before, and the whole time they didn't have a good relationship. And he believes that jerrem killed his father, not because of the circumstances evidence that's been piling up against jeremy, but because, according to him, jeremy confess as much right now, jeremy hadn't confessed to him.

This is like second, third hand information. But he says that he had spoken to one of friends, former step suns, and he said that jeremy had been bragging about shooting his dad twice in the head and then placing his body in the freezer. So now it's time to bring in jeremy.

yeah. So this is not gonna be in a dramatic fashion. O detective, crazy doesn't want to tip his hand. Instead, he just reaches out to him and ask him if he'd be willing to come down to the homeside office for a little chat, not as a suspect, just as the sun of a missing person. So jerrem agrees they meet on january twenty first.

And going into this interview, detective cas noise priorities are, you know, figuring out where jeremy last saw his dad. And then just to get a little bit of background on their relationship, but even trying to have this conversation, germ my keeps changing the subject. He really only seems to want to talk about the problems he's got with his dad's former rome.

You got IT. But he was interesting is he also repeats this rumor that his dad was shot and put in a freezer. But I you see, he's not saying he did IT. He's not conversing. He's saying this former roomy did IT.

Okay, so what with this freezer that everyone talking like, I would think that he would know if there is a body in your own freezer, right?

Yeah, I mean, there he's basically talking about the ezer at their house. He's he's like they've there. I mean, I don't think you got a guy assume that .

they this rumor, wouldn't you check .

your freezer? Like yeah I and I jeremy like IT is like a wild story and I don't know what jeremy is like oh, he was in the freezer and then the roman moved him or whatever. It's clearly banana as but I think the whole point is like, okay, you're like .

saying rumor that he's you to have confirmed .

do himself, right? So when he actually does get around to talking about his dad, jermy says that the last time he saw him was november eight between two thirty and three pm, he said fred was getting ready to go on this hunting trip. He had all of his stuff packed up.

He had, like this, maron doubled, bag, a crossbow, at least one long gun in a case, in one handgun. He also provides some interesting information we haven't gotten before. He says that he knows who his dad went hunting with, these two guys named brian and dave.

And throughout this whole interview, this conversation, jeremy is playing every bit the confused sun, claiming that this is all he knows. He's not really acting worry, which strikes detect the crap as, and i'm sure he knows just as well as everyone, you know, people act different ways, especially when a eleven goes missing or is murdered, whatever. But there is something about jeremy's behavior that feels really off to him well.

And you have to assume he's going to kind of knowing that jerrem's likely lying to him with every single breath that has a color.

everything, i'm sure. But he still doesn't confront him. He's not ready to do that. That mostly because he doesn't have an airtime case yet. So he's trying not to spoke german.

Instead, he thank him for his time and he let them go, which ends up being kind of a good choice because IT doesn't seem like jerri realizes that he is basically suspect number one right now. In fact, after the interview, he even offers up text messages that he allegedly got from his dad on december nine. The ones where fried is supposedly saying that he got a truck stuck in the mud like that was that whole thing and there been lots of rain or whatever. But the wear part is those text also say he's going to be leaving.

which we know he doesn't. We we've done to all of a .

couple times where is IT? That's the thing。 So jeremy has been driving the truck that fred, and by the way, fred doesn't have a license. So so like he .

shouldn't .

be driving around.

getting stuck in and IT can't be because jeremy has.

So this jumping had a little bit of brand new expensive truck for a landscaping business that he and jeremy, we're gonna start together. So this truck gets left behind and he didn't have a license because of a drunk driving incident.

So the truck that got stuck was out like brian or dave truck.

Here we go. IT can be because they .

never left. They were never gone.

boyo. Note, they never existed. what? These are real people.

Detective crash oi told a reporter that he ends up spending like a month talking to just about every single person he can track down in friend's life. And i'll get to that in a second. But no one he talks to knows this.

brian or dave. Well, I was also going to say brian and dave are going to be the most impossible names to track down, like, oh yeah, in inDiana. Really like, yes.

And of course they don't. I mean, this is just lie after lie after lie. And just in case there was any doubt, detective crash I ross references the text germy showed him with the records he has, and he sees that friends phone never left the west side when those tags were sent.

okay. Are we still waiting to arrest for me? Like I feel like right now could be a really .

good there's no physical evidence that jeremy is the one who killed this dead, but there's no evidence there's that's saying there's no evidence there is a murder. I mean, that seems clear that fried isn't around anymore. But where he is or what happened to him is this huge mystery.

So detect the crazy doesn't want to get tunnel vision. So throughout the rest of january, february, he keeps just kind of plowing ahead. Like I said, he's speaking to as many of friends, friends and family members as he can.

He also filing more record request, even conducting another of the house. So for is understanding, let's talk about what he learns from friends and family first. And then i'm going to go over the search of the house, said he dead.

So first up with the former stepson Bobby, this is supposedly the one who told the former roommate that jeremy confessed to him. And Bobby confirms that is what he heard. He explains that he and his girlfriend were out of a bar with jeremy around november eighteen talking about fred. And Jimmy said he shot his dad in the head twice and put him in the freezer.

Bobby, where were you back in november?

Yes, detected. Passy says that he thinks he just didn't know what to do with this. And for me, he didn't really, I guess, this this steps and didn't know if he could even believe jerrem.

I mean, like something that I think you've seen here is something that we've learned about jeremy over the years is that, you know, he rarely, if ever, tells the truth. He is very manipulative. He's attention seeking.

He embarks shes everything detector. Crostini described IT to us, saying that IT could be raining outside. And jeremy, my could convince you IT was seventy five and Sunny, or at least I think he could convince himself, right? So I I think Bobby was thinking, I mean, it's just because .

he wants to they gotta fight and he's like, like.

like show yeah that .

probably .

does feel so wild. Like a it's hard to believe someone you know does that. And then if they did that, why would you be telling me at about.

mean, that seems so ridiculous.

And this is like, I don't even know where to add this. And I maybe here is a good point to do IT. Because IT to go into like this, like stories that he's been like telling the time to crash away, learn at some point jerrem makes the claim that he was abused as a child. Apparently he didn't get in to the details with us, but apparently the stuff jeremy said was pretty awful. But this is like a whose I I don't know what to believe I I to jermy I can talk to fred, his sir, that well, they I think that what they said was that they don't believe the abuse was ever as bad as jeremy claims.

But that or possibly did exist yes.

So detective, crass noise said that fred had an unhealthy relationship with alcohol, that he may have been corton rough with jeremy, which to me implies that there was some kind of physical abuse, but the extent of that abuse seems very unclear. And when taken in contest with everything else, it's his sister's believe, it's the policies, believe that jeremy is likely a pathological liar. So I mean, they don't believe that all of the claims is making our trial.

which makes so, so complicated.

I know I don't want to know. How do I put this into context when I don't even have all of germy story like I have? Someone telling me he's telling an awful story, but I don't know what he is. Friends not here to defend himself or tell any story on his side. I didn't want to just like not bring IT up.

but but I don't know where IT fits in .

the context of maybe there is there's probably a lot more context or maybe there isn't entirely is just a liar like this is the message, ss, of real life investigations. And this is exactly the spot the detective service note was in. What he does feel like he knows for certain is that before he went missing, fred was trying to repair his relationship with jeremy, even trying to start that business together.

So are they thinking that the abuse could been part of army motive? Like killing his dad was some sort of retribution for the .

selected abuse maybe, but actually detect the crash. I has a different theory. Detective crash ini learns from a friend of friends that jeremy had stolen money from his dad in the past, and if he tried to do IT again, fred planned to file charges against him.

Detect cry confirms this. In the months before fred vantage, jermy had stolen his dad's credit cards, and not only that, he'd also opened some accounts in his dad's name, put charges on them, and then they never paid the bills. And then there was his other friend who tells this story like they had gotten a bad feeling about the business that father's are trying to start together. Because this friend, back when fried, asked her to help him with the finances, she's like, yes, happy to help you out under one condition that I am the only one with access to the business accounts. And he explained that he would be easier of just one person was in charge of the finances of cooks kitchen. I kind of wonder if I was because he knew that there had been issued SHE need to keep him out, right? Like he knew german have been stealing SHE didn't want that to happen again and IT turns out this is like the wild part so she's telling him this like just me she's on speaker when he says that and jersey was in the room with friend and upon hearing this he says, quote that bitch, we don't need her, sir yeah what he wasn't too happy with that and he was like, okay, actually changed my mind, no longer willing to help you on your own.

And this was when .

this is like september of twenty nineteen. So september twenty nineteen there's this whole .

comfortable .

but hey, and collaborating the theory or records, afraid calling the bank on november fifth and six to report a fragile account and to report fragile ant activity on his account. And they find out he also made a nine one one call on november six to report that jeremy had stolen his credit card.

He was making good on his threat.

He was so detect car, my contacts, the bank, he finds out that jeremy had called the bank on december seven, pretending to be his dad, trying to transfer two hundred to the car. He didn't get IT. The account was frozen.

So it's not looking good. I mean, it's like it's like almost proving everything everyone's thinking, but that is all still circumstantial, right? They don't have a body. They don't have a murder weapon, like zero physical evidence what so ever OK me .

a lot of background. But then get to the search.

Can we get to the search? Now we can get the search. So that happens early february. And detective craw is hoping Better, give them something to work with. So when he walks in, he notices that the carpet is still gone.

He actually learns that this room, that the carpet is missing and used to be jeremy's bedroom, at least based on a few personal items that are in there. Though now IT seems like germany is stay in a different one. Some reason won be a that room, but in that room he finds a receive the receipt, actually from lows, the one that the first detective saw that LED the surveilLance footage.

Now why was that? So in the .

house or so knows are SHE just saw .

the charge before. He is also.

I think so, not the actual see. But now they have the actual physical thing.

which I hasn't itemized list of everything .

that was by exactly now, unfortunately doesn't say right there, I think is just like item numbers to the harder. Yes, we had to like look this up later. But what the ends are finding out is what was purchased was a ninety six galin two wheel trash yon heavy duty cleaning, wipe bleach, plastic drop, close you can .

later can exactly .

latex loves flashlight, air fashioner, detergent pods, and I think detect Price noise, said at best, or interview with him. He said, quote, any crime junkies listening to this should see that receipt and know exactly what that means.

I know a murder cat.

but let me tell you the other things he finds in the house, because they're important to. In the bathroom, he finds a pair of friends dentures. And at first he like, okay, maybe fred had two pairs, you know, one being here.

Is that significant? okay? No, he finds out friend only had one pair .

and he's not going anywhere without them.

no. And then the icing on the cake is walking into the great detective, crostini finds almost everything jeremy said that fred had taken hunting with him. That one doubled bag, the camping gear IT is all there, everything, except for the crossbow that he mentioned.

But detective crash ony does have a good idea where to start looking for that pon shops. Indian, the law states that if you, upon something, you have to present your ID for tracking purposes. And sure enough, guess who? Pond across bow, jeremy. yeah.

And thankful .

fully IT had not been sold. So IT gets collected by the police department because they have to make sure IT actually is friends and he's in luck because one of the friends that he had spoken to says that he done some work on that specific cross board friends. I guess we'd had this bad shoulder due to prior injuries.

So this friend had installed a crank so that he could draw back easier. And he says that if you take off the crank and look inside, detective craft oy should see this shiny circular metal piece. All cranes would have something like IT in there.

But this friend says that he made that piece himself. Any customer? yes. And if IT came from the manufacturer, IT, I would have a door black color, but the one he made was bright silver.

So detective craft, ma goes, he takes off the crank, and they are sitting inside. Is the shiny circular metal peace? So I know .

this is important, but is this .

the murder weapon? No, so they don't .

think he used IT to .

kill his dad. Just it's just more that germ my like. I mean, you know, if all there ever going to have is a circumstantial case, they need as much as exactly.

I think what they're thinking as far as the murder weapon goes is, I mean, you go back to this confession or even the rumors that we're are going around. I think that they think fred was shot and fred had several guns. There are a few that detective kristina can't locate.

So he's pretty sure fred was shot and then jeremy either sold the gun he use or traded IT or something. So with a lot more now under his belt, now is the time that he brings jeremy an for a proper not interview, but interrogation and he decides to be a bit risky and just kind of lay everything he has on the table. Nothing they have so far is going to get the a solid conviction, at least not here in mary, an county, apparently.

So if jeremy doesn't confess, he's walking out of there, a free man. But detective craft ony decides to take the gamble anyway, and he starts laying everything out, but one by one uses a ying out of germany's mouth. The cell phone records showing both his and his dad's phone in the same place at the same time after he went missing.

So while he has no idea how that happened, his death doesn't have his phone. The spending of his dad d's money. Well, that is just a misunderstanding.

His dad gave him permission to use the car. The laws. Well, that one stops him in his tracks according to detect the crazy. The next word out of germany's mouth are, I need .

nattering. Yeah, I do.

Jeremy walks out of the interview and basically refuses to CoOperate.

And out is not enough .

to told you. You have, like, I don't know how works. Other place in marin county, you have to have IT locked.

And is this? This is the case, everyone, right? Like you have one shot and one shot only at a prosecution. But don't worry because just because it's not now doesn't mean it's never.

Over the summer of twenty twenty detective crasky execute several search warns in areas where fred was known to hunt, even brings out code ver dogs just in case there's still no sign of thread anywhere. By the end of twenty twenty, he's feeling like this might be all he ever has. And in a move I fully appreciate he is willing to at least give me a go.

And luckily, so is the prosecutor that he reaches out to by early twenty twenty one. They start putting together everything they need to charge jeremy with murder. And that's right about the time the detective crash y gets an unexpected call. Now, crime keys, I know you don't always love hearing sound bites and these episodes. That's what the decades war I know, but this one is just too good.

So we start that process of a, preparing the filing of charges and things. And I GTA call one night from germany. My, I was at A B W.

Three restaurant. I was off that night. I got called from Jerry. My this is before charges or file is actually just days before, really and he calls me and says, I just wanted to see if there's an update on my dad.

I said, jersey, are you serious? Because, yeah, he was I just want to see what the update is and I said, you killed your dad. You want to come down and tell me about IT I said, that's what the ad data and he goes, I can't believe we still think that and then hangs .

IT just a few days later, on february tenth, jeremy is arrested for the murder of his dad. He's held without bond, all will, proclaiming his innocence and saying that he has no idea where his dad is, but does what we know exactly where red is now, because on may thirteen, detective crash y gets this call.

I was off that day. I am preparing to go to my daughters, the cross game, and and I get a call from my routine ET. He's like, hey, what he doing as I done? Going where to go across as a what's happened you want to .

go get for IT. Earlier that day, the owner of a storage facility in Brownsburg, indian a called nine one one, after noticing a fall smell coming, one of the units and IT was a unit they'd actually repossessed because the owner had missed the last few payments. So after smelling something, the owner of this place called the police to come and see what IT was. But before they got there, he decided to google the name of the person who had .

been renting the unit.

remy farmer. Remy farmer and SHE saw that jermy farmer had recently been arrested for murder.

right? Did this unit not pop up on any of the record?

no. Craft ony told us that Jimmy had first rented the unit on one of his credit cards, one that they didn't know he had, but then he'd made most of payments in cash so there really had been no trace of IT yeah inside they find a ninety six alin trh um wrapped in tarps and plastic drop cloth. All the items they recognize from that lose receipt.

And if there was any doubt, detective, I pulled out a copy of the loser sea that he found in germany's old room. And there is a Price tag still attached to the trash. kan.

And when he compares the u. PC codes, they match. And slowly they begin on rapping this thing, peace by peace. Underneath they find that the lid secure with zip tize. Those are painstaking kenly cut off and tagged one by one.

And then they finally open the trash cans, and there is amount of trash on top that they particular remove, and down at the very bottom is spread. Despite having been deceased for over a year, by the way, detective crazy oy told us that fred was in amazing condition. He had been kept in a cool, dark place free of moisture. So there was actually like pretty little decode. It's not anywhere near as bad as if Jimmy had left him out side, for instance.

And IT took a year to start smelling.

So this is what so wild air freshers had been kind of masking the smell for a long time. Jimmy had been getting those that release like A A puff every like fifteen minutes or cell. And based on receipts down in the unit, IT looks like he had repeatedly gone back and replace those over .

and over again. But now he's been arrested and he couldn't. He couldn't pay for the unit and he couldn't really. The air .

breakfast are exactly.

And is the urge weapon in the unit?

No, that is the one thing that is not handed to them on a silver platter. No, that is autopsies. Reds cause of death is determined to be a single gunshot wound to the head straight through his left eye.

There aren't any defensive wounds or other wounds for that matter. And testing on the trash can reveals jermyn fingerprint and DNA, just like straight up all over at course. So jeremy went to trial in April of twenty and twenty three, claiming that he shot his dad and self defense, you know, very new story.

This time his story goes that his dad had come home drunk. He was armed with a gun. There's some kind of confrontation and some subsequent struggle in his bedroom, the one with the carpet out of IT, and he claims that the gun accidentally went off while they were grappling with their hands over their head, which like isn't possible because the trajectory of the bullet was just like straight on.

So as you can imagine, like the jury could read through IT and eventually he's found guilty and sentence to fifty seven years. And despite this being justice, it's not a win. There's no hand shaking or weight lifted off anyone shoulder because not only have Christina and trisha lost their dad now, they've also lost their brother.

Your mom has lost a son, and like he, he's alive, but their relationship is never going to be the same with him. Mean, facius ina told us that he tried to keep up with him once he went to prison, but they don't even talk anymore. After the trial, jerrem appealed his conviction on the grounds of self defense. He also disputes some of the evidence sticking to his story about the shop being an accident, but his appeal is quickly denied.

So what does detective crostini really think happened?

Well, based on everything he knows, he told us that he believes jeremy knew the jig was up, like fred was going to report him to the police for stealing. I mean, know, he called nine, one kind of did. And he's likely gone into jeremy's room the evening of the six to confront him, probably to kick him out of the house like everything was coming down on jeremy.

So he was going to know, get reported the police, he's going to get kicked out, have no place to live. He's probably going to lose this brand new truck that he just got and he wasn't gone to let that happen, detect to crashing things that there was probably a physical altercation, and the grappling the germy describe didn't happen in the way that he said he did. But somehow germ M, I got a gun, possibly one of friends, but he's not sure.

And then he shot of just fed to face but that is just a theory. Jeremy won't tell anyone the truth about what happened, which is kind of leaving Christina and treasure with a lot of questions. But those questions aren't just for jeremy though, because they don't think that he was acting alone.

So if not in the murder itself, they think he at least had help in the cover up. And a small part of them also believes that another family member may have been involved, too. So this is for several reasons.

So for one, this person that they have in mind spent a lot of time with jeremy. After fddi murder, they would go out drinking with him using french credit cards, debit cards. This person also tried to take possession of friend's belongings during the trial, which, like, really pissed off his daughters, understandably.

So they just think this other fail member knew about IT, but didn't tell anyone.

Well, like I said, they think maybe they were involved in like the cover up of at all. I mean, like when you think about a fred was a grown man and could jerrem have gotten him into the trash can himself and then transported him to a storage facility alone, maybe, but I think it's also very possible. He had held, and friend's daughters believe that this other person may have provided that help.

And when we talked to detect of crap about this, he agrees that this person is a sketch character, but he says none of the physical evidence implies that there was another person there. All of the prince on the track can r jem is the carpet and gun have never been recovered either. So we don't know, you know, if there's evidence there. So everyone's kind just left wondering if they'll ever get the full, true story of how fred farmer died and who all was involved.

But even if they never get those answers, Christina and trisha want everyone to remember their dad the way they do as a man who grew watermelons and sun flowers with his granddaughter, someone who camped in his front yard with his grand and kids, who would offer his garage as a dry, warm place for kids in the neighborhood to wait for the school bus. And yeah, he had his flaws. They're not denying or racing that, but this was not the end he deserved. You can find all the source material for this episode on our website, crime junky hot cast dot com.

and you can follow us on instagram at crime turkey podcast will be .

back next week with a brand new episode.

Crime junky is an audio check production. So what do you think, chuck, do you prove?