#540 - Ghost Hunter - Everson, Washington
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Hey, everybody. Just going to take a quick break from the show to tell you about one of my favorite things in the world, Audible. Oh, audible.com or that app. Oh, I give that app a workout. Let me tell you something. Listening on Audible helps your imagination soar. You can listen to anything. There's so many genres on there. There's more to imagine when you listen. And let me tell you something that makes my imagination soar in a terrible way. I've been listening to Secrets in the Cellar. Oh, boy.

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Hello, everybody, and welcome back to Small Town Murder Express. Yay! Choo-choo! Oh, yay indeed, Jimmy. Yay indeed. My name is James Petrigallo. I'm here with my co-host. I'm Jimmy Wissman. Thank you, folks, so much for joining us today on another exciting edition of Small Town Murder Express. As we know, we stuffed 10 pounds of murder in a two-pound episode. That's heavy.

And we are coming strong today with some wild stuff. There's ghosts involved. There's all sorts of stuff. Oh, shit. It's Halloween. Why not? Let's throw that in there, too. Not real ghosts, but, you know, we'll get into all that. Before we do, though... Hey, I believe in ghosts. Before we do, though...

I would like to definitely say head over to shut up and give me murder dot com. Tickets are available. Austin, Texas, you are up next. Phoenix, you're sold out, so don't worry about it. But Austin, Texas, you're up next. Also get your tickets for Tarrytown and Boston there, too. We are going to release the last Tarrytown tickets. There's like 100 tickets left that have been on hold and we want them to be released so you can buy them. So we're going to release those, get those and get your tickets for the virtual live show. Here we go.

That's what I'm talking about. Comes out on October the 30th, but it's available to listen to, to watch, to buy, to purchase, to watch 100 times for two weeks after that date. So get in there just like a regular live show, except you're wherever the hell you want to be. And we are sitting there, same thing, the pictures, everything. We're going to be wearing crazy costumes, by the way, so you definitely want to check that out.

They are wild. I mean, we took it to another level this year, so you're going to really enjoy that. Get your tickets right now there. ShutUpAndGiveMeMurder.com. Patreon.com slash CrimeInSports is where you get all of your bonus episodes. There you go. Get those there. Anybody $5 a month or above, a mere cup of coffee, you can get hundreds of back episodes of things you've never heard before, all these bonus episodes, new ones every other week, one Crime in Sports, one Small Town Murder, and you get every damn drop of it. Yes.

This week, we're going to talk about, for Crime and Sports, we're going to talk about the Vince McMahon documentary. Not so much the wrestling parts, mainly the parts where he said insane things on camera. What is wrong with that guy? We'll talk about that, and we'll get into a little bit of the lawsuit against him as well and some of the more disgusting points of that. Those text messages.

Wow. It's crazy. And then for Small Town Murder, we're going to finish up the Ted Bundy psychological assessment from 1976. What a doctor trying to figure out, is Ted Bundy a violent man?

Spoiler alert. Yes, he's a violent man. We'll get into the rest of that. Him describing what those pictures are are hilarious. So can't wait for that. Patreon.com slash Crime and Sports. And listen to Crime and Sports if you haven't. We've had an axe murderer lately. We've had a man who peed his pants in a Pizza Hut parking lot on body cam.

All sorts of stuff. And listen to your stupid opinions as well, because, man, have we had some fun stuff on there, too. So check that out. That said, I think it's time to get into this. Here we go. Everybody, let's do this. I think it's time to shout. Come on, everybody. Let's do it. From the treetops, let's all take a deep breath. Arms to the sky. Let's all shout. Shut up and get me.

murder. Let's do this. Everybody. Hey, let's go on a trip. Shall we? Yeah. We are going to Washington this week. Washington state. Yeah. Northwest. I love it. This is Northwestern Washington, even so Northwestern, Northwestern, Northwest of the Northwest. Indeed. Uh, it's about an hour 45 to Seattle. Oh,

It's kind of northeast of Seattle, about two and a half hours to Lopez Island, Washington, which was our last Washington episode. Turning a husband into flowers was the name of that one. You can kind of imagine what happened there. It's a crazy episode. The county is Whatcom County.

What? Whatcom. Yeah. Which sounds like a bad stadium name. Yeah. Like, oh, you're going to Whatcom? Yeah, yeah. The 49ers are playing over at Whatcom. Yeah. Yeah. Sounds good. What the hell? It's a discount, discount cell carrier, Whatcom. Whatcom. Yeah. Come on in here. You go, what? What? Because it doesn't work.

Area code 360. Population here, 2,859 people in this zone. That's a small area and a bunch of little weird small towns. The median household income here is $63,958, which is slightly below the national average. But the median home cost is well above the national average. So...

It's tough going here. Median home cost $431,100, which is steep. A little bit of history here. Everson was named to honor a local pioneer. This guy, this is his name. I looked it up several places. Ever Everson is his name. Is that right? They just said, we can't think of anything. We'll just name him the first four letters of our last name.

That works. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever

Nook Sack. It's in between my sack and my butthole. Nook Sack River. Everson was incorporated in 1929. In February 2009, a citizens group and local officials proposed consolidating Everson and Nook Sack into a single city. Okay. What?

That's the great part of this, obviously. They shared several municipal services at the time, and a combined government would provide cost savings. So why not? But the Bellingham Herald compared the merger to that of the four towns that formed Bellingham in 1903. So they were like, this could work.

Names for the proposed new city include the worst possible name, Nooksack Valley, which definitely sounds like taint at that point, right? Yeah, that's what your let's name is.

She was licking me down in my Nooksack Valley. You'd be like, ooh, she's a freaky one. All right. The proposal was dropped after a unanimous vote by the Nooksack City Council not to move forward because the people didn't want it. But then they'll complain about paying taxes even though they were given an option to be less. But they're like, we don't want to be called the Nooksack Valley. I can't. I can't write that on things.

That's my address. Reviews of this town. Little bit here. Here's five stars. I've grown up all my life here and still live here today.

I've lived here all my life would be a fine way to say that. Yeah, two sentences. You could have done it in one. Consolidation. It's the perfect little big town. Little big town. There's 2,800 people. It's a little little town. That's little. Little big town is a band. But would fool a lot with saying big at all. Yeah, it's comfy and isn't too far from the bigger surrounding cities. Okay, here's a review. Another one here. This one is one star. Everson is a true small town.

Okay, that's good on this show then. There's one small grocery store, a drug store, a dentist, an eye doctor, and a physician. Okay. There's a couple of small restaurants, local restaurants, but no mainstream restaurants other than Little Caesars. That's rough. That's the best chain restaurant you've got? Little Caesars. Oh, my God. The best chain restaurant they have is the worst chain restaurant on the planet. In the country. In the country, where they're like, it's just $5. I don't know. Just take it.

It's a $5 hot and ready. They call it hot and ready. This doesn't look very good. Yeah, it's $5. What do you expect? Eat it. It's hot and ready. Nowhere in that does it say delicious. No, it doesn't say hot and tasty. It says hot and ready. Is it hot? Yes. Is it in your hands? It is. Get out. Five bucks, motherfucker. Step aside.

So this guy goes on. Everyone knows everyone. It's a five minute drive to wherever you need to be. The schools, Nooksack in parentheses, are decent. You get more house for your money than in Bellingham's. Apparently Bellingham is even more expensive than this.

That's where it's outrageous. Yep, you're 15 minutes from the Canadian border and 20 to 30 minutes from shopping in Bellingham. There's not a lot to do, but it's quiet and a simple way of life. But it rains in all caps. And then it rains some more. And then it rains some more. Get used to it. Welcome to Washington.

And this was on a different site that has people that you can agree and disagree with the reviews. 282 agree, 269 disagree. So I have no idea. Wow. It's right at the... The country is divided. Divided. We're very divided.

Are they disagreeing with the fact that it rains? I don't know. Are they saying there's more restaurants than this guy found? I don't know what you're disagreeing with. Where's the discretion here? Don't get it. Things to do. Oh, boy. The Everson Summer Festival. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. If it stops raining for a couple of days, we're going to have this. There's a three-on-three basketball tournament.

That's fun. First day also includes live music. Dakota Black will be performing. Right. Don't know who that is, but can I guess what kind of music they play? Just going to guess. Based on those two words together, yeah. The word Dakota in there really sends it strong. This Saturday, they'll have a pancake breakfast. They have the Everson Auto Parts Car Show and Shine.

Just shine your car up. A lunch barbecue. Round two of the three-on-three tournament. I don't know if that's the championship round or what here. There's a book sale. The grand marshals of the parade are the Scott Mitchell family. Okay. Scott Mitchell, is that right? The old quarterback for the Lions. The lefty, number 19 there. He's welcome. Yeah.

He's in there. Kids games. And then there is also live music. Hot Wally will be playing. Yeah. Hot Wally's in town. Hell yeah, boy. Yeah. I like the ugly one better. If you get Hot Wally and Dakota Black together, they will have some awesome kids. Let me tell you something. So that said, let's talk about some murder here. Here we go. Let's do this. We know what we're doing. Let's start out with a lady. Let's talk about Linda Rae Holman. We're going to start with here.

And we'll find out a little bit more about her childhood life because she's had she has a rough life. She's in foster homes. And, yeah, so she's got some problems. And I didn't really even need to tell you that if I tell you about her adult life. Oh, she had a lot of problems when she was a kid. Yeah, we'll talk about this. She's born in 1963.

By 1986, she has a daughter named Daisy, Daisy Holman. And then by 1988, she has another kid named Travis. We'll hear a lot from Travis here later on. Travis has a real interesting life. They both do, but Travis talks about it. The son here, Travis, like I said, born in 88. December 13, 1991, the children's father dies.

Oh, no. Apparently he had a heart condition that was ongoing. It was a young guy, too. It wasn't even 40 years old or whatever, but had a heart condition that was ongoing and the father died. So Travis, the son, said that he and his sister Daisy had a pretty complicated childhood because of his mom being kind of.

Not stable. And she's a single mom, yeah. And she's very not stable. He called her a wild child but said that she did care for him and his sister. So it wasn't like she hated them or was mean to them. She was sweet to them. She was just kind of unreliable. He said, I remember she did a lot of partying. He said, for instance, she had a muscle car and I remember us doing donuts in it. Perfect.

over. We don't know what the hell she's got, but she sounds like a cool chick. She's got a muscle car. She's doing donuts with the kids hanging out the window. That's mom? That's mom doing that. No car seats in there either. You know, they're just like, she goes, hang on, kids, and then they're going. Dumps the clutch.

So he said she was an affectionate mother all the time. It was I love you and you're special. My sister and I felt that we felt loved, but she had a difficult upbringing just like my sister and I ended up having. So she did continue the cycle whether she wanted to or not. Exactly the same cycle that she had. And we'll talk about it gets worse for these kids, which sucks. Right.

She meets a young man here in the early 90s after her kid's father dies. Linda meets a young man named Travis, another Travis. Is that right? Not her son, but a different Travis, yeah. It happens. In certain trash circles, Travis is a very popular name. It really is. It's a very popular name. I knew two kids named Travis growing up. They were both total scumbags. That's the funny part. Total scumbags. I know several.

Mullets well past the time of mullets. Things like that. I've got two friends named Travis right now that both have sons. Both their kids have mullets. Yeah, that's what it is. The one kid I knew named Travis smoked cigarettes when he was 10. He was smoking. That tells you a lot. Travis is an early smoker.

For sure. Travis knows how to pack cigarettes at night. Totally. He knows how to roll them. He's like, just get me some of the job stuff. I'll roll it myself. Grab me some top. Grab me some top. That's all I need.

He said, this is Travis Cargile, C-A-R-G-I-L-E, Cargile or Cargile, however you want to say it. Cargile. He's born in 1973, so he's 10 years younger than Linda. No shit. But they hook on up, yeah. And they are like...

quite the mess of a couple, as we'll find out here. In 1994, they've been together for a couple of years now, they come across a guy named Floyd Robert England, like Freddy Krueger, except doesn't Robert England have a U in his name? It's an England. This is England like the country. Floyd Robert England. He's 59 years old, Floyd is at this point, so well older than them. Yeah, she's 31, he's 21, Travis, so...

They hang out. They end up meeting him at a bar. And here this is from Floyd Robert England's son describes Floyd a little bit. He says, my dad came from a moonshining family in southern Missouri and he liked to drink. All right. That sounds fun. I'm on board so far.

But he was a happy drunk and quite entertaining. That's great. I love a happy drunk. I hate a mean drunk. I hate the Sarah Boone drunk. It's like, that's my name, so I'm wearing it out. I don't like that. He was a captivating storyteller and befriended folks everywhere he went.

He was living in Conway during this time in 1994, doing work for whoever needed a handyman. He was a very talented Finnish carpenter. He and his father had milled all the lumber and did all the interior work at the bar for the bar at FX McRory's in downtown Seattle years ago. He was very proud of that bar and frequented it often, as he did many other bars wherever he was living. He liked the drink.

So he says, Dad met a young couple in a bar one day after he'd been paid cash for a big job he'd done. Okay. The couple, Linda Holman and Travis Cargile, were a bit low on cash and saw all the $100 bills my dad was flashing. No.

Linda had promised her son a $100 bill for his birthday, so she started scheming on how to fulfill that promise. Wow. To try to get little Travis, who's about six years old at this point, a $100 bill here. Show him what a hundo looks like. That's it. So what really happened, only they know, but the story they told went something like this. Okay.

They met, this is Travis and Linda, met Floyd Robert England, and he bought them a few drinks. I guess they were talking and he was buying drinks for people. They decided to go bar hopping together, and along the way, Linda said she needed to stop in the woods to relieve herself. She said, please pull over and take a leak. It was her plan to, quote, roll him.

You're going to take all his money. Yeah. Shove him out of his van, take his wallet and vehicle and leave him in the woods. But things didn't exactly work out like that. Yeah. By the way, from what it says later on, it seems like he was living in this van, by the way, Floyd Robert England. Really? Yes. He lived in this van and like traveled to different places to work. That's what he was doing.

So he goes on to say, my dad's driver's license was revoked for a previous drunk driving ticket, so he let other people drive as often as possible, probably especially after drinking. Travis was driving, and when they turned up a dirt road out near concrete, they supposedly hit a deer. And the dirt road near concrete, concrete's a town. They supposedly hit a deer. Dad loved to hunt and always had guns with him. He grabbed his rifle and was going to put the deer out of his misery.

But he decided instead to let Travis do it. Travis said, oh, I'll take care of it. Don't worry about that. With dad sitting in the passenger seat, Travis took the rifle and as he stepped out of the van, turned the gun on my dad and pulled the trigger. Oh, shit. Yep. He died instantly. Just fucking up close rifle shot. Boom. Right in the chest. They drug him out of his van, took his wallet and headed up to Canada after Linda stopped to give her son a hundred dollar bill.

Holy shit. How awful would little Travis feel about that? That $100 bill is probably so special to him. Oh, my God. Has fucking blood on it. Mom had to kill for this money, literally. Shot a man in his own van? In his own van. Fucking... Scummy shit. So November 30th, 1994, this is a few days later, they are captured...

They're captured after reentering. They took off to Canada. They got up there and got across. They got across the border, but they're caught coming back across from Canada because they didn't have any money. I think they probably ran out of money. They said that Linda and Travis were arrested on first-degree murder warrants as they tried to return to the United States from Canada at the Sumas border crossing.

So they are accused, obviously, of killing him. They said that this was a 1976 Ford Econoline van that poor Floyd lived in. Jesus Christ, that is fucking horrible. But yeah, the sheriff's department just went to several different bars and said, you've seen this guy. And they all went, yeah, he was with the younger couple, these two people. And it wasn't real hard to track them down. Yeah, it's a quick trace. Yeah. So they're both going to be sentenced to prison.

But Linda is out within three years. For murder? For fuck, well, she was convicted of robbery and manslaughter, which still seems like you'd do more than three years for that. In the 90s, especially, this is the 70s. Yeah. Now, Travis pleads guilty to first degree murder. Okay. And he is sentenced to, I guess you, sir, may fuck off, 25 years in prison for

With community custody to follow. So even if he does all of his time, he's still going to have some sort of like a parole type of situation. So he will not get his first parole hearing until 2015, which is a pretty good 20 years away from now. It's a stretch.

Now, son Travis, we'll talk about him again. We'll put Travis, we'll put murderer Travis on the shelf for a minute. He'll be back later, don't worry. But we'll put him on the shelf. Oh, absolutely. We're going to hear a lot of fun from Travis. He's a dangerous man, Travis. 20-something years in prison does him no chill. It just does not put any chill on him whatsoever. Didn't do anything. Nope. Some people you can let them out and they won't hurt anybody again. He's not one of them, apparently.

Yeah. So Linda must have been out by 97 or 98 because she meets a new man. Okay. And we know they were together around then. His name is Mark McCollum, and he is born April 4th, 1961. So he's about two years older than her. Yeah. And one night, I guess it was 1998, Linda went out for a night at the bar and met Mark and brought him back to the family home in Kendall.

where her kids were, by the way, because she still has her kids with her at this point. Daisy and Travis are both there. This guy, she's like, I brought your new stepdaddy home from the bar. One night stand. One night stand, but he's not going anywhere. He's just like, he's moving in now.

Fucking someone you just met is a commitment. But to say you just met them and you're like, not only will I fuck you, please stay. Go home and get your shit and come back is a lot. These are my kids. Ballsy. Yeah. Get a U-Haul. Yeah. These are my kids. Mind if they call you dad? Okay. Let's rent a U-Haul. So they dated for a few months, Mark and Linda. And then out of nowhere, she just abandoned her two children.

She just left? She just not. She didn't drop them off at her mom's house and take off. She left them at the apartment and just moved out and left the kids there. What? It's 1998. They're like 12 and 10. And she just left them there. Holy shit. Yeah. To move to Deming, Washington. Or Deming or whatever the fuck it is. Yeah, I think so. Travis said she came home after being away for a week or so.

So he's proud. Oh, God, finally, mom's back. And so she just packed up her duffel bag and then never came out, never came back. What? She came home after a week. Hi, kids. How you doing? Packed up all her shit and left and then just never came back. Just left them there.

She left for a week to see if they'd still survive. She's like, you did it for a week. You'll be all right for the rest of your lives. Y'all are alive still, so it's all good. You're doing it. See you around, guys. She figured eventually she didn't call somebody. She has relatives and family. She didn't call any of them and say, I got problems. Please go take care of my kid. Nothing. Nothing. She just left. He said, we spent four months fending for ourselves alone. Twelve and ten. Four months. They didn't know what to do.

They didn't know what to do. What did they end up doing? She said when she left, we went months without contact with anybody. They didn't talk to anybody in their family. They just acted like she was home and went to school and came home and acted like they had a mom and everything was normal. They just thought that eventually she'd come back probably. Wow. And he said, and eventually our auntie and uncle came to collect us. Yeah. She just left them there for four months. Fucking wow.

So Travis and Daisy still continued to have a relationship with their mom after this. Is that right? And they'd see her once or twice a year. She just left them. Just fucking abandoned them. That is, look, being a parent is hard and all that, but it's hard to judge people. But that is a bad mother. That's fucking bad. I'm sorry. I never thought that you could just leave your kids and just go somewhere and not come back. That never even crossed my mind as an option.

I mean, wow. Yeah. My dad left, but I mean, I still had my mom, so it was fine. He didn't leave you alone. No, he left me with my mom. That's that's okay. This is fucking crazy. This is just, I'll just leave the kids here alone. What was going to happen? Like when rent came due or something? I mean, how'd they pay the electric bill? What are we talking about? In a few hours? Shit is 98. They've seen home alone. They know how to do it. Uh,

I just see the kids start, you know, in front of the checkbook with the bills out going, how do we do this? I don't know how we're going to do it. Calculator there. Ten-year-old sister, you're going to have to get a job. We're fucked. This isn't balancing. You know how much kicks cost? Cocoa puffs? You like those things? This is way worse than mom the baby's – don't tell mom the babysitter's dead. Like this is – at least there was a 17-year-old in charge of that situation. You get a boyfriend at Clown Dog, I'm hungry. Please, Daisy, go to Clown Dog. Would you –

So they end up being brought up by their aunt and uncle, seeing mom once or twice a year. And Travis is so understanding. He says this young Travis son, Travis says, even though my mom struggled with alcoholism and likely PTSD from her childhood and foster homes and the trauma of like that, I'd say I said she was a very affectionate, loving mother.

How do you say that? From a distance, we'll just say. From a distance. Golly, yeah. But over time here, they lose contact with mom. Okay. Once or twice a year for a while, and over time, it's just no more. So March 6th, 2007, we catch back up with Linda here. And from what I understand, she's arrested a whole lot of times for a whole lot of stuff. I'm sure, yeah.

She does math. She's fucking, you know, drinking and driving. She's stealing. So I only found a few, though. On March 6th, 2007, she had a banner day. She's arrested not only for marijuana possession, which who cares, and possession of drug paraphernalia, but also making a false settlement to a pub servant.

What is that? I think that's, I guess, not paying your bill at the bar. That's saying, here's a dollar, that's all I got. Not paying your bar tab, I guess, or whatever. Paying with a check or something that didn't clear. I don't know. And also obstructing a law enforcement officer that day as well. Okay. I'm not arrested. I paid with an apple. Seems like that was the problem. Cops caught up to him and they searched her and went, oh, you also have weed on you, is probably where it went there. So that's kind of all there is. Now, by...

2009 2010 here she's still with Mark McCollum by the way yeah the guy she abandoned her kids for and he must have hated kids boy because no shit because if you went out with a woman you know she had two kids at home and then she just moved out moved in with you wouldn't you be like hey where's your kids what did

What'd you do with them? Yeah. He's gotta be like, fuck, you can just leave them behind. Shit. I mean, he must've said you're come, come with me, but your kids can't come. I'm not a fucking welcome. I'm not dealing with these kids. And she was like, okay, that's wow. I don't have kids for a reason.

So they live in the 5,900 block of Lawrence Road, which is outside of Everson and actually down more near Nugent's Corner. Yeah. Where, watch out, get on a swivel because there is gunfire going off a lot at Nugent's Corner. Yeah. There's a lot of cat scratch fever. A lot of cat scratch fever happening here. So that's where they live, Nugent's Corner. That was so small there's not really much town stuff to it. So January 4th, 2010.

There's an article. Remember Travis, our murderer from the beginning there? Travis is now a quilter. What? He makes quilts in prison. There's a big article about him and it says prison can change a man. It turned Travis Cargile into a quilter.

Apparently, there's a guy at the prison, a recreation guy who started a quilting program about two years ago, putting the sewing machines in the hobby shop back to good use. Sure. They say Cargill serving 25 years at the Monroe Correctional Complex for first degree murder. He could watch TV, shoot hoops or walk around the prison yard during his recreation time. Instead, he goes to the hobby shop and quilts with a half dozen dozen other roommates or inmates, not roommates. Same thing.

He says it's forced roommates. That's what that is. Forced cohabitation. He said it's very constructive. I don't think anyone who comes in here leaves mad. It's kind of hard. I'd be so mad because I'd suck at quilting. I'd leave. I'd believe mad because I have early arthritis and that would destroy my fucking fucking screw everything up.

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Whoa.

He was sewing together squares of thin pink and blue cloth as he spoke to the other people. Cargill takes anger management courses as part of his rehabilitation therapy. He said quilting should be part of the treatment. He said, it gets me out of here. It's a no stress zone out of his head. He says he points to his head.

Program also can help prisoners rebuild bridges with the outside world. For every 10 or so quilts a prisoner completes, an inmate can send one to a family member. So you get to keep one. It's like a punch card. When I was a kid and I first started selling drugs, when you sell them for somebody, you get 10 bags and you sell nine and you can keep one and sell it or you just do whatever the fuck you want with it. That's basically what they're doing here. You guys understand this program, don't you? Except with quilts now. Yeah. Not meth.

So Cargill mailed one to a niece, another to a cousin. His family was shocked by the packages. What are you doing, they asked. Positive things, he said. Positive things. They said the prison maid quilts need homes, so they maintain contact with groups like Project Linus and East Bay Baby Corner. The nonprofit groups distribute blankets to those in need. That's a good one.

That's nice. Yeah, Project Linus. I like that. That's an introduction to the penis character. That drags the blanket behind him. The prisoners churn out hundreds of quilts. One of their designs used old blue denim and bright red corduroy. The tough cloth and stark colors made for an eye-popping design. That's not a soft quilt. You don't give that to a baby.

Rub that jean on your cheek and see how soft it is. Nothing softer than corduroy. Jesus, that's so weird.

Rotary wheels, the handheld blades that cut cloth and look like pizza slicers, are kept in locked cabinets behind a solid red line. That entire area is out of bounds to prisoners.

And of course... You could fucking break out with that shit. Well, yeah, they also said that they must inspect fabric donations for contraband so prisoners can't bring something sharp back to their cells. The one guy said people will leave safety pins in the cloth. That's actually something we always have to look out for. Wow. Because this guy's going to go from making a quilt to murdering someone with a safety pin. That's...

this is the people you're dealing with. Yeah. So the relationship between Linda and McCollum here, Mark McCollum starts to kind of have to hit a snag here in this time period. Uh,

McCollum's mother said that the relationship was bad and had gotten worse at the end of 2009, beginning of 2010. Apparently, Mark often stayed at his mother's house, which, by the way, was like right across the street, right by the house that they lived in, that Linda and Mark lived in. He would stay there just to be able to get some sleep because if he had to get up early for work because Linda was all over the place.

Wouldn't let him sleep. When McCollum was at his mother's house, Linda would come over and knock on the door or repeatedly call the mother's house. She's a lot. She's a lot. She's on meth is what it is, I feel like. That's meth behavior. Is she there? Is she still there? The calls became so frequent that McCollum's mother had to unplug her telephone. She couldn't stop anymore. It's too much.

Some nights, McCollum left his mother's house and stayed at a hotel because of the knocks and calls. So this poor lady drives this poor woman from her home. The mother also said that when McCollum was with her, Holman would turn the volume up on McCollum's stereo so high that McCollum would wake him up from another house. He'd have to get up.

Put his shit on, go over there and turn it down so the speakers wouldn't blow out. But she would do that to get his attention to make him come home. Wow. McCollum's younger brother also said that when McCollum was with his mother or his brother, Linda would turn the volume up again on the speakers to the point where McCollum would fear the speakers were going to blow and would be forced to return home to turn down the stereo volume. Golly, man. What's her fucking problem? She's a fucking mess, dude. She's an issue. Yeah.

Now, there's February 14th, 2010. So Valentine's Day. Very romantic. Yeah, good day. Three messages Linda leaves on McCollum's mother's answering machine here this day. First is, hey, Shirley, I need you to please call the cops here because I don't know. Mark obviously didn't approve or anything, but I want to report a stolen vehicle in the shop and all of and then you can't hear unintelligible.

So can you call the cops on me or anything? So can you call the cops on me or anything? Hello. Okay. This is the same message, by the way. Hello. Okay. Hey, sure. Hello. Okay. She sounds like one of those Tourette's people. Yeah. Hello. Okay. On Instagram. Okay.

Well, I'm going to call them on my own. I don't have a problem with that. And you know what? You're involved in that because you got your car in there and you're that. You're involved. You're protecting stolen fucking goods. So is Mark. Hello. Okay. Hello. Okay. The second message was, hello. She said, well, I'm not promising or threatening. I'm promising. Matter of fact, I'm not threatening.

That's how she starts out. I'm not promising or threatening. Well, I am promising. Hello. Okay. Let me start over. Let me reset. Hello. Okay.

Because by morning, I want Mark's shit out of here because I'm calling the cops in here and you better call them on me first because I really do want the cops here. So whoever's brave enough, bring it on, little boys. Why is she calling? What are you talking about? Just call the cops, lady. Then she says, Mark, you started this. I'll finish it. Happy fucking V-Day. Hello. Okay. Sorry. Happy V-fucking day, she says. V-fucking.

valentine's day the fucking day hello okay she is so much fun and then her third message and the final message is well surely and don't call me surely i'm glad that i don't qualify this family but since you couldn't call the cops i did and i suppose that you and mark don't have time to hide the car but thanks

Okay. You left this on an answering machine. They're not home. They are. They're standing there staring at the answering machine in terror, standing around and going, what do we do? She's a crazy. I don't know. This is crazy, right?

So apparently the car to which she's referring was a car that McCollum's brother owned and stored in a garage near McCollum and Holman's home. The brother said that he owned the car. It wasn't stolen. Nothing was stolen. It's been registered to him for years. And what the fuck is she talking about? She's just crazy, making crazy phone calls. It gets crazier.

February 16th, 2010. Two days later. Two days later. This is the Whatcom County Sheriff's Deputy. Peter Stevenson is dispatched to a 911 call to investigate a shooting at a house that they shared. This is Linda and Mark's house. When the deputy arrived at the scene, Linda and three other people are standing outside the house, none of which are Mark, by the way. They're standing out there.

The deputy spoke with Linda at the crime scene here. We'll find out what will be a crime scene. She told him that she and McCollum had been together for about 13 years and that their relationship was strained. And the cop said, why? And she said, well, he works overtime. Hello. Okay. Hello. Okay. He works overtime. Does no one understand this? Yeah.

He works, you know, paying bills and stuff. The man works his ass off. Our relationship is fucked. It's terrible. He goes to his mom's to sleep before work like he needs sleep to work overtime. She said that McCollum had had February 15th, the day before, the day after the phone calls and before this, off from work.

So they went to a casino where they gambled, ate pizza, and drank beer. That's a fine day, I guess. They went into gambling much, but pizza and beer signed me up.

They went home. Not casino pizza. No. No. They went home, had more pizza and beer. I had casino pizza a couple weeks ago. You remember that? I told you about it. Yeah. Not good. Not good at all. One piece was the weight of four pizzas. It was horrible. Five pound slice. Oh, they were so heavy and gross and greasy. Said they went home, had more pizza and beer, and decided to go to bed. Okay. Now, Linda says she woke up to use the bathroom.

and saw Mark watching a science fiction movie, quote unquote. She told the deputy here that Mark made a comment about killing ghosts. Oh. Oh, that's normal. Yeah, that's a... Okay. What movie? If you weren't watching Ghostbusters, what the fuck are we talking about? That would be about busting ghosts, not killing them. They didn't kill the ghosts. They just put them in a storage. That's true. They trapped them. They trapped them. They put them in ghost jail. And in response...

Linda has a straight. He says, yeah, this is killing ghosts. And she says, okay. So she takes a shotgun off the rack. That doesn't do it. I don't understand what she's going to do with that. Takes it off the rack. She puts the butt of the gun on the floor and put the barrel of the gun up to her chin. You know, like someone who blows their brains out and said, well, hell, I'll just kill myself too.

McCollum told her to put the gun down, you know, like a normal person. And according to her, according to Linda, when she was putting the gun back on the rack, she said, okay, placed it back on the rack. It went off. Wow.

This is a sensitive gun, man. Yeah. It went off and hit McCollum perfectly. Right in the chest. Hit mark. I mean, fucking rat rack is a great shot. She put it down. Bang. Yeah. So Linda told the deputy she saw McCollum's shirt was becoming soaked with blood and she heard gurgling sounds. That's a death rattle. That's called a death rattle. By the way, did you notice that this was yesterday this happened? What? She's talking about yesterday. Okay.

She, okay. Yeah. And now she's reporting it. She, after that, they go, okay. She said the sound stopped after a few minutes and she figured he was dead. Yeah. The breathing stopped. She covered him with a blanket and then called a friend and then drove away with the friend.

I got to go somewhere. There's a body in my living room. I'd really like to get out of here. So she told the detectives it was an accident. She was just trying to put it back on the rack, but perfect shot. Got him right in the right side of his chest at pretty close range. She said she was standing to his left side when this happened. Okay. Now, deputies searched the inside of the house. They discover a note beside the bed in which Mr. McCollum's body had been discovered. This is all in a bedroom, by the way, this happened. Boy, oh, boy.

The note, it's in her handwriting, handwritten note, and it says, I keep holding back for you and I, Mark. And then a hand-drawn frowning face. You know, very mature there. I can't keep holding back my emotions for you. That's one note. Then on the mirror in the bathroom, there's another note in her handwriting that says, one more kiss could mean everything, but one more lie could end everything.

It's a great poem. That's wonderful. She admitted writing this phrase, but she said it had nothing to do with infidelity or didn't mean she was mad. She was just writing stuff. It's an amazing song lyric. And pinning it to a bathroom. I was just writing a poison song from the 80s. I was writing part two to Every Rose Has Its Thorn, and this is what came out. It's pretty solid. It's pretty solid. Now, the friend of hers, Valentina Velishenko, is an acquaintance of both Linda and Mark,

She said about 1230 in the afternoon, February 16th, which is the day the cop was there the day after the shooting that she showed up. Linda showed up at the kidney dialysis center where she knew that Valentina's fiance was having his weekly dialysis.

So she's like, I know where my friends are. They're getting dialysis. I'll go bother them with this shit. They can't move. They're having their blood filtered. They're hooked up to something. Yeah. So Linda was upset and crying and told Valentino that she, quote, did something really bad. Okay. That's one way to put it. So Valentina asked Linda to walk into the parking lot where Linda told her that she had shot and killed Mark. And Linda also told her that the shooting occurred the previous night, but she hadn't called the cops yet.

They're like, okay. He's super dead. Nobody's given him any medical attention in 36 hours. It's been at least 24 here, so at least 20. So the obituary, by the way, for Mark, he's going to be buried in Nooksack, it looks like. Wow. That's one way to do it. Nice one there. Now, that's all going on. They are going to arrest Lerner.

Linda, even though she said it was an accident, they go, you waited till the next day. Yeah, it doesn't sound like it. It doesn't sound accidental. Let's bring you in. Now, while this is going on, she's sitting in jail awaiting a resolution to this. There's an article in the paper about Travis, not son Travis, murderer Travis. Now he likes kitties, too. Cats. Cats, kitties, yeah. So now he quilts and he likes kitties.

Soft guy. He's really turned into a 55-year-old single woman. He really is. Prison works. This is crazy. So don't say that so fast. It's like he's my kind of guy because this prison doesn't work for shit. Rehabilitated. So it says behind the barbed wire at the prison in Monroe, a unique program is saving hundreds of lives through an unusual pairing of convicts and kittens.

Yeah, unusual. Convict Kittens. The Monroe Corrections Kitten Connections Program partners prisoners with Perfect P-U-R-R. Perfect Pals Rescue Agency in Arlington, saving hundreds of kittens.

Travis Cargill, another convicted murderer, was also selected to take part in this program. He said, I'm helping an animal that would not have a home and be euthanized and giving a new chance at life, which is what we look for, a new chance at life. He's like, let this kitten be a metaphor for me. Let me the fuck out of here. I'm such a good person. Offenders must meet stringent requirements to care for kittens in their cells. They also must be psychologically stable and follow prison rules.

Travis said, I've never had an ambition in life before. I knew we could come here and get cats. Now it's his ambition. Another is that's his ambition. I had one ever to get. I can have a cat. Get cats is the funniest way to put it. Get cats. I knew I could get cats like there's cats everywhere. You can get as many cats as you want. Yeah.

He said another inmate said it's something positive when there's not a lot of positive things here in prison. This other inmate, Chris Howe, who's serving a sentence of life in prison without parole, is one of several inmates selected to raise a kitten in a cell. He said, I just try to make the best of what I've got. I killed somebody, something I'm not proud of. Wish I would never have done any of my crimes.

But now he's got cats. Come here, Mittens. Come here there. Jesus. So the tax... This, by the way, does not cost the taxpayers a penny. This is a... Yes, the Perfect Pals covers all the costs of care and after spaying or neutering the kittens, puts them up for adoption. So this isn't like, that's what they're spending my money on. It's... No. No one's spending money on shit. So even though it's free, a lot of people don't want the program to continue because...

They want the prisoners to be miserable. Yeah, they want them to be miserable. So March of 2011, Linda's got a murder trial she's got to do here. Uh-oh. Now, the state offered evidence of conflict in the relationship between them, and there's a pretrial hearing of whether that's going to be able to come into play, whether the state can present the fact that they've been having problems, all the stereo incidents and everything. They held a hearing on this and concluded that the evidence was admissible.

to prove her intent, motive, and absence of accident, and that the probative value was substantial and outweighed the prejudicial value. So, it's at this point that her son, Travis, finds her when she's awaiting a murder trial. Jesus. He was living in Sacramento, California, and was becoming increasingly worried about his mom as the years passed, and was curious to see if he could just find her name in a Google search.

So he searched her. He said, I googled the names of a few family members I haven't seen for a while. I knew my mom had priors. She was convicted of manslaughter in the 90s. That's some sentence right there, man. I knew my mom had priors. I knew my mom had priors. She's got a little manslaughter conviction and you know how it goes.

She's a bad bitch. What do you want from her? Whose mom doesn't have a manslaughter conviction in their background, you know? A few priors. He said, I typed her name into Google, and the first article that popped up was Linda Holman's arrest. I thought it was her previous conviction, but when I looked up at the date, it said February 16, 2010, and my mind imploded because it was like the week before this happened. She's doing it all the time. He said, I went to her arraignment. Really? And that was the last time I ever saw her.

He said, this time I could see her from the other end of the courtroom. I will never forget the look on her face. It was a combination of complete happiness to see me, but at the same time, it was shame. It was also, who the fuck are you? I haven't seen you since you were 13. I don't recognize you anymore. Who are you, dude? So she pleaded guilty to the second charge, not to murder. There's unlawfully possessing a firearm, which she is not allowed to have because, you know, she does a manslaughter conviction and all. She's a bad guy. Yeah.

So there's no doubt that there's guns in the house where she lives. She has to plead guilty to that. But she is saying that absolutely she did not murder this man. This is an accident. So intent is the big thing here.

And the court defines this.

Such evidence tends to show the relationship of the parties and their feelings toward one another and often bears directly upon the state of mind of the accused, with consequent bearing upon the question of malice and premeditation. So they're going to let that in the prosecution.

They argue that he shot, she shot Mark because of troubles they were having. Not for any other reason, no accident. They said the relationship had turned rocky. And also the prosecutor calls her account of where everybody was physically impossible. Okay.

He argued that she's lying and was actually standing in the doorway of the bedroom, putting her slightly to McCollum's right and that he was sitting upright when she shot him. She said the wounds are to his right side and she says she was standing on his left.

Yeah. Put the gun away. That doesn't unless the bullets want to talk about a magic bullet. Holy shit. That's a magic bullet. Yeah. Unless he's standing sideways. Yeah. Right side posted to her left. But the way he was found, that's not the way he was. It makes no sense whatsoever. The way she was lying. So they're saying you came into the bedroom, stood in the fucking doorway with a gun and shot this guy while he was watching TV.

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Here is her, by the way, she's not going to write this till later, but here is her handwritten hand. Look at this, Jimmy. I'm going to turn the fucking screen cursive. Beautiful. It gets with deteriorates over. Yeah. It deteriorates to a point where it's hard for me to read it after a while. So bear with me. Yeah. Perhaps that she has the arthritic hand too. Maybe that's possible from all that. Maybe she's quilting also. She's doing sympathy quilting. You never know.

So here is what she says. On February 15th, Mark McCollum and I, as well as a good family friend named Rod Potey, left the Nooksack Casino at approximately 7.55. We all had a wonderful evening. Mark and I said our goodbyes to Rod and headed home, arriving there at approximately 8.20.

Once home, Mark gave me a Valium to help me ease the pain in my right shoulder. Okay. I'm sure that's what it's for. I'd been having issues with this for some time. After Mark attended to me, he headed to his mother's home to speak with her. I prepared for bed, as was my custom, to get up early to get breakfast for Mark and get him off to work.

She's like, I was planning. I needed to get up and make him a good breakfast. So I went to bed early. She said, I was in bed by approximately 9 p.m. I heard Mark come in at that time. He came in and got into bed, turning on the TV. I went to sleep. Later, I woke up at about 10, 1030, seeing Mark was still awake, watching TV.

I, what is this? I rolled out of bed to go to the bathroom. Well, Christ, you've been in bed an hour. You ready to have to pee? Why didn't you pee before you went to bed? Elderly, man. Yeah, I put my jeans on. Elderly? She's like fucking, Christ, she's like 45.

Yeah, but that's what a lot of people, I don't know, maybe she's advanced age from the drugs. Also, she drank a bunch of beer. That'll do it. That'll do it. Okay. I put my jeans on thinking I'd also go outside to have a smoke. Who the fuck wakes up when they're sleeping to pee and goes, I'll go outside and smoke too? I've never done that once. Have you? No.

No, not once. I can see the bedroom from the bathroom and was wondering what Mark was watching. Once I had I'm wondering, too, once I had finished in the bathroom rather than have a smoke, I went back into the bedroom and arriving at the foot of the bed. I asked Mark what he was watching on TV.

He said he was watching a program called Supernatural. He's watching Supernatural. He's a what the fuck? He's like a 47-year-old man. He's just watching Supernatural on, okay. Is that on fucking USA Network? I think it's like the WB or the fucking CW or some shit like that, I believe. It's like one of those syndicated. It's very funny, yeah. Continuing our conversation, I walked to my side of the bed and sat down on a chair.

What is this thinking to remove my jeans to get back into bed? But Mark asked me a question regarding the program. So you stopped removing your jeans. Hold on. I got my jeans on to talk about this.

He asked me a question regarding a character on the show. I responded to the question by going to the gun rack stand, the gun rack standing on my toes, bumping one of the guns off the rack and into my hands. How high up is this thing? I proceeded to place the muzzle of the gun under my chin the same way the actor on the show was doing. Why? Why are you doing this? What?

This makes no sense. You were just sleeping. I answered Mark questions with what should I do? Kill myself? At that point, Mark turned from laying on his back to sitting up onto his left side and raising his right arm up and told me put the gun away. I did as he told me to do.

As I was swinging the gun around to put the gun up into the gun rack, the gun went off, causing a loud explosion. So loud, it stunned me. It's a fucking shotgun blast in a bedroom. I've had no idea what position the muzzle of the gun was in when it went off since I was looking up at the gun rack.

scaring me. Let's see. What is this? I something lately heard Mark say, ow, as I turned and saw Mark, I guess they would say, ow, starting to face back. It was back onto his back. At first, I thought Mark was joking and I thought maybe I'd hit the wall. What made you think you were joking? You just fired off a gunshot.

But then I saw blood on his T-shirt. I called his name and he didn't answer. I threw the gun down and jumped up onto the bed saying his name and asking, Mark, are you all right? Mark, are you all right? Mark, don't die. Don't die. Please don't die. I could see all the blood on his chest and his eyes were staring up at me like he wasn't there. Oh, boy.

I left screaming. I kept screaming his name. I checked for a pulse and didn't feel it. I saw blood coming out of his mouth. It wasn't very much, but it seemed thick.

I moved his head from side to side, calling his name and over and over. I was so scared. By the way, by now, look at this handwriting. Not the same at all. What is going on? It's it's it's that's her emotion. She's talking about the murder. She's totally deteriorated from. Yeah, she had very nice, easily legible handwriting to this fucking mess. And it's also like copied. So it's really hard to read.

Really hard to read. So he said that she goes on to say, I moved the head from side to side. OK, I was so scared he didn't respond. I couldn't think all I could all I could hear was my heart pounding in my ears. I got off the bed and ran to the bathroom, almost peeing my pants. Really? Yeah, she just peed, too. So and got sick in the bathroom.

There is throwing up into the toilet. If you occasionally didn't understand what she meant. I felt like things weren't real. I felt dizzy and could barely stand up. I felt so sick. I recall saying over and over again, Mark, I'm so sorry. I went back into the bedroom and looked at Mark, not believing what I had done. How could he be dead?

I couldn't stop crying and calling his name. It felt unreal. I didn't know what to do. Well, yeah, I guess not. I needed help, and all I could do was call Rod. Who's Rod? Huh? Rod's the guy from the casino they hung out at with earlier. That's the answer to... That's the answer. Yeah, okay. Rod will solve all here, apparently. Come over, Rod. Not the ambulance or the police. Rod is going to handle everything. He's an EMT slash detective Rod. He's coming over. Okay.

He's like my dad. Rod's an older guy, too, by the way, caring about both Mark and I. I wanted to feel safe, wanted it all to go away. I called Rod, but no one answered. So I called his sister. She took the phone out to Rod's trailer. I don't recall exactly what I said to Rod, just that I needed him and it was an emergency. He said he'd be there right away. That happened.

That hit something. That hit something now. I got off the phone and went back to look at Mark, make sure he was still dead. Still dead? Make sure I didn't turn into a ghost. And then I saw where I'd thrown the gun. All I could hear was Mark's last word telling me to put the gun away. I kept hearing those words. I went...

I went and picked up the gun and returned it to the gun rack, you know, because she's like, I'll listen to him now after I killed him. I know I spent I know I put my shoes on and my and my coat, but I didn't remember doing it. I just felt sick and kept kept crying. I what is this? I went to the window and started and fuck. This is hard to read. Yeah.

So waiting for Rod to come. That's what she says. Then I saw his headlights. I saw I saw that. Oh, that's right. I saw his dog. OK, my dog following me to Rod's car. Both my dog and I got into Rod's car.

In the car, I continued to break down. I tried to tell Rod what happened, but I wasn't making sense not to Rod anyway or not to Rod or myself. Rod didn't understand what had happened. I still don't either. Yeah, I'm lost. Yeah, he drove us back to his place.

Once we got to his place, I just kept crying, trying to get out at Rod's what had happened. Later, Rod told me he'd never seen me this way and hadn't been sure what to do to help me. He'd agreed with me to try to calm me down, but I took...

I took a something and only, I don't even know what the hell she says. I finally got it all out, what had happened. Okay, telling Rod everything. I recall little after that, except something being under a lot of pressure.

and on the bed and just crying and crying. I felt so cold and could not stop shaking. I wanted to die. I couldn't believe what I had done. It didn't seem to be real. Yes, something more that wouldn't stop. I don't know what the hell she said there. I have no idea at the time. I have no idea at the time

Um, I needed, I had no idea what the time it was. I think is what she's saying. I needed, uh, had gone by, but it was morning yet. It didn't feel like it. Okay. Um, let's see. Uh, the night rod hadn't called anyone. Okay. I recall thinking we needed to get Mark safe to take care of this. I told Rod this. I knew Mark's mother needed to be told that Mark was dead. That would help. Um,

"How was I to do all of this? What would I pay?

I needed to do this. I needed to something his best friend Mike. I need to tell his best friend Mike. I needed Rod's help, but Rod's in his 70s and realizing he was upset by all of this too. I know my frame of mind had frightened Rod and he was confused by all of this. He's just 70-year-old man who gets a call in the middle of the night.

I asked Rod to drive me to Whatcom County Hospital to see Mike, Mark's best friend who was in kidney dialysis that day. I felt he needed to see, I felt I needed to see him and I needed his help. I wanted him to know that Mark was dead. I arrived at the hospital about 1 p.m. I went to do the

I went to something to tell Mike, I guess, but was in the, what the fuck? And couldn't speak with, Oh, he couldn't speak with me. Okay. That's what it was. His wife came to speak with me. She took a look at me and could tell something was wrong. She asked me what was wrong, um, that I would be back. Uh, I wanted to talk to Mike, but that was, but he was sleeping. Mike's wife asked where Rod was. Uh,

And I told her that he was in the car. She said, let's go to the car. Arriving at the car, I told her I did a bad thing. She asked, what did you do? I tell her that I shot Mark, but it was only an accident. Is he dead? Are you certain he's dead? I told her, yes. Did you call 911?

Told her no. Rod drove me home. We weren't... We... We weren't something have to go to the bedroom. It was the first time Rod had seen Mark since leaving the casino. Okay, they took Rod into the bedroom. I guess he wanted to see if he was really dead or not. I feel... I fell apart again. Rod was upset too. Rod got the phone and called 911. The operator told Rod that we...

something have to go outside and wait for the police. That's where they were when they found him. And went to get Mark's wallet off the nightstand because he hadn't taken something me the night before. The prosecutor stated something, Rod, and I went outside. While waiting for the police, I called Mark's mother on the cell phone. I told her Mark was hurt bad and

She asked how bad. I told her he'd been shot. Super bad. That I'd shot Mark. Well, actually, pretty bad. I shot him, so...

I don't recall word for word exactly what was said. The best I can recall was the following. I told her Mark had been shot. She asked how badly I said he'd been hurt badly. She asked if he was with he is OK. I told her no. She asked if she could talk to him. She asked, I guess she asked me if he was dead. I told her yes.

So that's how that goes. She then asked who killed him. That's a fair question. I told her I did, that it was an accident. I told her I was so sorry. I broke down and couldn't talk anymore. I do, however, recall telling her the beginning of the conversation. She replied, she came to the home right away. I was wondering why.

What was being done for Mark? I told the detectives I wanted to make sure Mark was okay. He's not. He's fucking dead. You killed him. You killed him. You've said this several times. I also told them I didn't feel well. Well, that's going to happen. That's too bad. I said I needed to go to the hospital because I was sick. There's a hospital at the jail. Don't worry, honey.

Let's see. They said that detectives were coming, that I wanted – I said I wanted a lawyer, and they were confusing me and didn't want – and I didn't want to talk anymore. Instead, I was talking – I was taken to the hospital, but not for help, but to have my DNA taken and take photo – intrusive photos of my body. No, those are booking photos. Those are called booking photos, and they're looking for bruises. Yeah.

Um, so I was crying, not believing any of this was happening. I still can't believe any of this has happened, that Mark is dead, that, um, that I'll never see him again. I'd like to thank you for your valuable time to listening to this. So that's her whole thing here. And she says, I love Mark very much and still do. I've been able to, um, I haven't been able to mourn him properly. We had a good relationship, not the picture of the state that the state paints.

She also says she has mental issues, a handwritten thing talking about mental issues that she has and she hasn't. She says she wanted to talk to a psychologist or psychiatrist, but they let her talk to one. But then the psychiatrist, you know, used it against her in court. Yeah. So she's fine, too. She said she thought medical shit was all confidential. She didn't realize. Oh, hip hop.

She didn't realize that when you murder somebody and then you talk to the state's person, they can say anything. So, yeah, she's like, I thought it was confidential.

So the prosecution in their closing said, there's no accident here. The only misfortune is the fact that Mark was killed, but it was done intentionally. And there's certainly no excusable homicide in this case. The evidence is very, very clear. Evidence is clear. And it adds up to a very, very failed relationship that Mark was actually chased out of his home, had to stay with his mother, was repeatedly being bothered, and that that failed relationship resulted in the problems we are addressing today in this courtroom. And they were problems that related to the shooting with

the gun and you can see all the way through here this relationship is really the basis and it gives us the threshold for what happened. The jury deliberates for more than a day. Really? More than a full day here. Yeah, more than a full day. They come out here and they find her guilty of second degree murder. Second degree murder. That sounds right. Although maybe not. I don't trust the story but there's no way to prove otherwise.

McCallum's brother, McCallum's brother, Scott said justice was served. She's a menace to society and she doesn't deserve to walk the streets. Yeah. He said, I knew deep down what happened. I knew we were, that we were right. It's just a huge relief, a huge relief for the family. Now the son, Travis, this is how he found his mom. Now, right.

He said, I called my sister immediately when I found out my mom was convicted, but there was no answer. I then called my best friend as I just needed to speak to someone. The next day, I drove up to the police station to try to see my mom, but I wasn't allowed. I knew for a fact that she was going away for a long time. A long time, yeah. Sentencing, she tells the judge she was sorry, she cried, she begged for mercy, saying, quote, it was totally an accident. Yeah. It was like totally an accident, Your Honor. Yeah.

But the judge says, you, ma'am. Hello, what? They fuck off.

28 years in prison. Okay. 28 years. Yep. She was apparently, this was at the top end of the sentencing range. And the judge said it's because this is the second murder you've been involved with. Why does murder touch you so much? Why are you constantly involved in murders? The son said, when my sister told me the ruling was second degree murder and my mom was sentenced to 28 years, I collapsed. I told my boss I had to go for the day and it was a lot to process. Okay.

By the way, Travis then visits his mom in prison. Really? She told him what happened. Travis said, according to my mom, there was a ghost show on TV and she went over to the wall where there was a gun. She grabbed it off the wall and said, I'm going to shoot the ghost and shot Mark in the chest. That's what she told her son. I'm going to shoot the ghost. Boom.

He said sitting in jail talking through bulletproof glass on a phone wasn't weird. I saw her in her jumpsuit. It broke my heart because I know that she had done something that was so terrible they were not going to let her out. Okay. 2015, Travis. Remember Travis, Travis? Yeah. Denied for parole. Oh, is that right? 2018, he is paroled, though. Oh, no. 2021, he violates parole. Don't worry about it.

He's taken into the jail for repeatedly, reportedly, repeatedly violating the terms of his electronic home monitoring. Since a previous parole violation arrest in June, he reportedly left home on multiple occasions, including taking more than one trip to Spokane, testing positive for methamphetamines on multiple occasions and threatening to kill his estranged wife.

And now we lock him up. Wow. He's racked up parole violations, including traveling throughout the state, all this type of shit. Cargill's been living in Okanagan County. He was booked into the jail. They said he became physically abusive with his wife and made threats to, quote, chop her up into little pieces, a court document states.

He's back in prison here. Travis still talks to his mom. She has been getting chemotherapy because she had breast cancer in prison. Oh, no. He said she had a double mastectomy and she's going through chemotherapy. Apart from that, we joke around a lot. For someone who's been locked away for over a decade, she has a terrific sense of humor. Is that right? Hello, what? Oh, okay. That's what...

She's all carved up and she... Fuck. Okay. From speaking to her, I can tell that she's remorseful with what happened. She tried to appeal on the facts that she didn't get mental health that she wanted and that the previous stuff shouldn't have been let in and ineffective assistance to counsel, they told her. Keep on keeping on, sister. There you go. So there you go, everyone. That's Everson Washington. And don't try to shoot ghosts is the moral of the story. The extent of the ghost was...

A show called Supernatural. Supernatural. There's a ghost. I'm going to shoot this ghost. Anyway, there you go. If you like this, tell everyone about it. Get on whatever app you're listening on and give us five stars. It helps a lot. Follow on social media at Small Town Murder on Instagram, Small Town Pod on Facebook, and at Murder Small on Twitter. Shut up and give me murder.com. Get your tickets for live shows. Austin, Texas, you're up next, baby. Virtual live show, October the 30th. It's available for two weeks after that, just like a regular live show, but you're in the goddamn living room, and we're...

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In November 1991, media tycoon Robert Maxwell mysteriously vanished from his luxury yacht in the Canary Islands. But it wasn't just his body that would come to the surface in the days that followed. It soon emerged that Robert's business was on the brink of collapse, and behind his facade of wealth and success was a litany of bad investments, mounting debt, and multi-million dollar fraud. Hi, I'm Lindsey Graham, the host of Wondery Show Business Movers.

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