241. The Hat Man Killer
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That's N-O-O-M dot com. You're listening to an Ono Media podcast. Hey, everyone. Welcome back to the podcast. This is Murder With My Husband. I'm Peyton Moreland. And I'm Garrett Moreland. And he's the husband. I'm the husband. Hey, everybody. Thank you for being here. Thank you for supporting us. Thank you for listening. Thank you for subscribing. Thank you for following. If you don't follow the show, please follow the show. Um,

um on apple or spotify or wherever you're listening it makes a big difference if you want bonus content we have patreon we have apple subscriptions spotify subscriptions two bonus episodes a month and ad free content and peyton and i did have to get a new road caster because wait is this your 10 seconds i don't know i guess so i was just kind of talking okay you go for it okay peyton and i did have to get a new road caster because they might not know what a road caster is oh

Well, if you go look at our stories or if you're on social media and you look at our latest Instagram post, you will see that Garrett, me, spilled a Dutch Bros coffee all over our roadcaster. Basically, it's just a very expensive soundboard that we record through. So our headphones go in, our voices go in. It captures our entire audio.

And there's other ways to do it, but this is just simple for us. It's kind of plug and play. Anyways, dropped on it. We thought it would still work. We came down to record today and everything was buzzing. Things were going crazy. But to be honest, we have extras of these because one, we're smart. We plan ahead in two. Garrett has a little bit of an issue where sometimes he'll buy multiple things at once. But guess what? It always pays off.

Always pays off. We definitely need the five extra pair of devil horns that he ordered for our Halloween costume. But I promise we're going to need those one day. Anyways.

The Rodecaster's working. Well, the new one's working. You can hear us. Everything is good. Well, I think it's important to know that we spilled on it in the middle of the episode. And we kept recording. And we kept recording and the episode worked fine. So we thought we would come down today to record another episode and it would be fine, but it wasn't. That's kind of what I got for my 10 seconds. I spilled and then the next day, I probably shouldn't admit this, I spilled again on myself in the car.

i don't know man dutch bros is just not liking me recently i like it it doesn't like me but that's okay and dutch bros commented on our video they did on instagram go check out and tell them that we need a collab we need a sponsor we need a collab i don't even care about sponsor we need to collab sticker something yeah i mean at this point they owe us a new road caster they do owe us a new road caster actually you're right dutch bros road caster

That's what I got for my 10 seconds this week. I hope everyone is doing amazing. I hope everyone has a great week. It's cold here. It's Christmas. It's Christmas. Yeah, on that note, let's hop into today's episode. Our sources for this episode are Oxygen.com, People.com, CBSNews.com, Fox13Seattle.com, TheNewsTribune.com, Cairo7.com, King5.com, and Pierce County Sheriff's Department Facebook page. All right, so sometimes I stop and think about how far technology has come in just my lifetime.

To think that many of us were part of a generation where social media, online shopping, even cell phones weren't part of our daily lives. And now it is, is pretty mind blowing. And it makes me wonder, what will we see in the rest of our lifetime that we haven't even like conceived of yet? What will our kids and grandkids be using on a day-to-day basis? Will that be an iPhone? Will it be Instagram?

I think about this a lot, but not just in the context of my own life. I think about it in the context of true crime as well. There's been so many cases we've covered where I stop and think, if there was just a security camera on that street corner at the time, maybe we would know who Jack the Ripper was. Or if OJ Simpson had, I don't know, GPS on his cell phone, would he be in jail? Point being, a lot of today's cases would run cold if it weren't for the technology we have now.

Which is why today's story proves if you're going to commit a murder in this day and age, technology is probably going to be your worst enemy. I think about this quite a bit, what technology is going to look like in the next 10, 15, 20 years. I don't know. I guess we'll find out. We'll still be doing a podcast. Stay tuned. Don't say that.

So right now we are going to travel northwest to the state of Washington. This is a place we actually don't cover too often on this show. We are going to a port city just south of Seattle known as Tacoma. Now in 2020, this is where 33-year-old Cassandra Contrell calls home. She has pretty much lived here her entire life. She's been living here for a long time.

See, Cassandra never ventured far from the nest. She's incredibly close with her family. She still lives with her mother, Marie Smith, who she helps take care of. And she has a twin brother named Rob, who she shares a really special bond with.

Growing up, Cassandra and her twin brother, Rob, were thick as thieves. They were best friends who would stay up late into the night despite their mother's insistence that they had school the next morning. They wanted to stay up and watch scary movies on the couch. And Rob was always amazed at how his sister Cassandra seemed to never be shaken by these scary movies.

Maybe it was her light, free spirit. The fact that she always saw the good and the humor and things. In fact, Cassandra turned this passion for movies into her own little hobby. She and Rob began collecting movie memorabilia with dreams of one day opening up a collectible shop, which is honestly like such a fun dream to have. Yeah. I...

Oh, I can't watch scary movies by the way. Me either. Yeah. So as Cassandra reached her teens, she also found she had an interest in being in the movies. Well, at least in acting. So she joined a local theater company and really started to grow into her own skin. She found a group of people who were quirky, outgoing, and shared a lot of the same interests as she did. So Cassandra joins theater and she gains a lot of confidence there as a teenager. Her friends,

said she became the kind of person who didn't care what others thought about her. If she was too loud, if she was too opinionated. Cassandra was unapologetically herself because she accepted herself. And she wasn't afraid to wear that on her sleeve. Quite literally, actually. Cassandra got a tattoo that summed up her life motto pretty efficiently. It was a quote from playwright George Bernard Shaw that read, "'We don't stop playing because we grow old. "'We grow old because we stop playing.'"

And the only place Cassandra's friends said she was a bit more reserved was when it came to dating.

She'd had a boyfriend or two here or there. She'd used dating apps in the past, but nothing was ever that serious. At least not that Cassandra's friends or family were aware of. So the morning of August 25th, 2020, remember she's in her thirties by now. It probably felt like any other day in Cassandra and Marie's home. Cassandra was like,

Cassandra's mom got up that morning and the two chatted before Marie headed out for work. Cassandra told her that she had a shopping day planned for that afternoon and that tomorrow she was planning to meet up with her friend Alexandra. Now, at around 825 a.m. that day, Cassandra hopped in her white Mazda and took off from the house.

And when Marie, her mother, came home later that day, Cassandra hadn't returned yet. But Marie wondered who she went off to meet because Marie noticed that Cassandra had used her master bathroom to get ready. Her makeup was still all over the counter as if Cassandra had been getting ready to meet with someone important because this wasn't really normal behavior. Now, Marie tries to call Cassandra a few times that day, but doesn't hear back.

It seems she wasn't totally panicked, though. I mean, after all, Cassandra's a 33-year-old woman with a life of her own. But the following day, August 26th, her friend Alexandra starts to get concerned as well. Alexandra had been texting Cassandra that day to say, hey, I'm running late. We still good to meet up. I will probably be late. But when she didn't hear back from her friend, she tried calling her repeatedly, only to realize that her voicemail box was full. Which...

I'll be honest, sometimes my voicemail box is cool. It happens. You're just so popular. I'm just so popular. So over the course of the afternoon, Alexandra got increasingly worried. But the following morning, things took a turn for the worst when Alexandra woke up to a frenzy of panicked texts from Cassandra's mom, Marie. She was wondering if Cassandra was with Alexandra. Had she spent the night at her place? Remember, this is two nights in a row now that she hasn't been home.

Her mom explains that she couldn't get in touch with her and that's when Alexandra picked up the phone and told Marie, "Hey, not only is she not here, she also went dark on me too. She never showed up to hang out with me as we had planned." Now, knowing this was completely out of character for her, the two decide to call police.

Now, of course, like any of us would in those first few hours, they're hoping for the best, right? Like Cassandra just lost her phone. Maybe her car broke down somewhere. She didn't have money. Someone was helping her out. Really any scenario that could explain that she's safe out there somewhere. And this is just all a big misunderstanding.

But the police are like, okay, it's been a few days now. We have a young woman who was seen on a neighbor's security camera driving away from her home on the morning of August 25th around 830 a.m. And then she's never seen returning on that footage. So interesting. And I feel like we're in a day and age where you don't have your phone with you. It's a little weird. And you don't answer for honestly like two days and your location's on and people can't see where you are.

Something's going on. I think especially for a 33 year old woman who isn't known to go spend nights places like she lives at home. She's pretty consistent. I do think this is worrisome. So police start speaking with Cassandra's family and friends. Now, when they talk to her twin brother, Rob, they learn he's especially distressed and not only because his sister is missing, but because the two of them had had an argument just before she disappeared.

I'm not sure what the fight was about, but I know it was still ongoing the morning that she left and never came back because Cassandra texted him before she left the house asking if she could come by later to clear the air. Only seemingly still tender from the fight, Rob never replied to his sister. Now I need to state, Rob is not a person of interest in this case, but it does create a problem because

Because if Rob had replied to Cassandra, it's possible he would have known what else was on her agenda that day. He might have been the last person to talk to her. It might have offered some sort of timeline to her case. But since that wasn't what happened, no one was certain where Cassandra drove off to that morning. All she told her mom was that she was planning on going shopping. So there's not a ton to work off of here. But on the following day, August 28th, police get their first major clue.

Cassandra's car is found parked downtown on East 25th Street near an event venue called the Tacoma Dome. Now, nothing seems off about her vehicle itself. There's no damage. There's no blood. The weird part is, though, this isn't a place that Cassandra would ever really go, let alone park her car and leave, according to her mother. Plus, there's no sign of Cassandra inside. I mean, her car is basically just abandoned.

There's no purse, her cell phone, or any clues to indicate where she might have gone. Police figure this is probably just another dead end. So what they focus on next is actually the lack of clues. Because this case happened in 2020. We are in the height of the pandemic. Everyone is glued to their cell phones. That's true. I didn't think about that. So they're like, Cassandra's got to be no different. Also, no one's really outside doing anything. No. Like, okay.

Everyone was kind of inside ordering DoorDash, ordering Instacart. We didn't have toilet paper, yada, yada, yada. So police actually order an emergency trace on her cell to see if they can find her last known location. And it's definitely not where you'd expect. Her phone last pinged two towers around the Puget Sound, which is an area. And when they triangulate it, they

They find it was most likely on the shores of Point Defiance Park. Okay, which is that far from them? I mean, it's a hundred mile stretch of water. Oh. So it's not looking good that this is where her phone last pinged. No, that's not good at all. So when police get there, because they're like, well, we're going to go search. Their first instinct is someone probably threw her cell phone in the sound, which is what they call this body of water.

So they have to decide, is it worth it to get a diving team down here and try to find a cell phone or are we looking for a body? First, they don't even know for sure if it's in the water. This is just where it pinged the towers last. Second, even if it is in these waters, it's going to be like finding a needle in a haystack if they're looking for a cell phone. But they decide, yeah, I mean, we have nothing to go on. We have no clues. And this woman's life is on the line and it is definitely worth it.

So thankfully, it's low tide when they go out there, which makes things a little easier on them. But still, they know what a long shot this is. And one of the detectives has this pretty smart idea. He says, let's throw stones out into the water from the dock to see how far someone could have thrown this cell phone if they threw it.

So he's like, let's just grab some stones and throw it. And then we'll search that area, which is like such old school detective work, but also smart. I mean, I guess it could work because you take the average, right? Like it's probably not a professional baseball player who can throw it. Right. Extremely far. It's probably some average guy, probably below average, probably not athletic, probably a freaking loser. You know what I'm saying? Anyways, I'm sure it didn't go that far. So good idea. What did you say?

I think I zoned out. And then all I heard you say was a freaking loser. Because whoever did this obviously killed her. Oh, you're not talking about the police throwing the rock. You're talking about the phone. Correct. Correct. I'm following. I was like, wait, why is the cop a loser now? It makes you feel better. I zone out all the time while you're talking. Because I was reading in my next, I was prepping for the next part. I'm sorry. That's okay. The listeners heard it and that's all that matters. Yes. Okay. Well,

It turns out that the cop is not a loser and he's actually super smart because they start searching the area. They get divers into the water. They start dragging nets along the bottom of the sound. And lo and behold, after only about an hour searching the water, they scoop up a phone with a glitter case and it's Cassandra's.

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Now police send Cassandra's phone out to a specialist for processing. But in the meantime, Marie, Cassandra's mom, has been doing some sleuthing of her own. She went through Cassandra's phone bills and found some mystery number that just kept popping up.

Cassandra had been calling and texting with this number for months. Most importantly, it was the last number Cassandra had corresponded with before her disappearance on the morning of August 25th. Which I mean, this is a major clue. So when police searched the number, they find it belongs to a 37-year-old man named Colin Dudley. Now it turns out Colin Dudley

Colin and Cassandra had known each other for years. They'd met back in 2006 when she was just 18 years old. It was through that local theater group I told you she participated in as a teenager. Okay.

Both were in a production of the Rocky Horror Picture Show together, and they really hit it off at first. They dated briefly, pretty casually, but then Colin broke it off after just a few short months. Now, from what I can tell, this was maybe one of the closest things that Cassandra had to a serious relationship. So,

Over the years, even into her 30s, she kept thinking about Colin. And then in 2020, when the pandemic hit, a friend said she likely got lonely and reached out to Colin to reconnect.

But Colin says differently. So police show up at his doorstep. They're like, hey, this girl Cassandra is missing and we have got a hold of her phone records and see that you guys have been texting and calling for a bit. And it's it's a lot. So how do you know her? You were the last person she talked to, at least over the phone. But the weird thing is, Colin says he hasn't seen or spoken to Cassandra in years.

Well, actually, he says there was this one time that he ran into her at the mall. But other than that, they'd had zero contact. The day she disappeared, he says he was at home doing some spring cleaning. He put some gas in his truck, took the trash to a dumpster, got his bike fixed, went to Costco. It was a pretty uneventful day. What he doesn't know is that the police have Cassandra's cell phone data putting her at

So not only have they been talking, her phone pings at his house. This is the same house they're questioning him in at this moment. On the morning she disappeared and he's saying, I've had no contact with her. We'll never understand. I mean, you'd think by now, I mean, I get it. I guess you have to lie, right? Like he, like you have to lie. Like if you're, if you actually did a crime. Yeah.

Yeah, but if you know that there's cell phone data. Like you have to lie. I know. I think it's just human nature to be like, well, I have to get out of this. Like I have to lie. Well, so look, Colin doesn't have a criminal history. He actually has a squeaky clean record. So they take that into consideration. But they know this guy is lying about seeing and talking to Cassandra. So that doesn't look great, which is probably why they even were able to get a search warrant for Colin Dudley's cell phone, which they seized from him that day.

And what they find is more evidence that Colin knew Cassandra a lot better than what he told police. So one of the first things they notice is that Colin doesn't have Cassandra's number saved as her name.

Cassandra is actually listed as Velma in his phone. So first red flag, right? Second. Velma like from Scooby Doo? Yes. Okay. An analyst after comparing Colin's records to Cassandra's notices that he's deleted some text messages from her. Once from the morning, Cassandra disappeared. So Cassandra texted him and it said, I'm a bit early. Is that okay?

And then Colin replies to Cassandra and says, yep, come on down. Okay. So he's deleted those. But her phone then spends the next few hours at Colin's house, after which Cassandra's cell phone ends up in the Puget Sound. It's funny that I guess people just aren't aware. Deleted messages. They're there. It doesn't mean they're deleted, everybody. I mean, yes, maybe you can delete them from friends seeing, a significant other seeing, yada, yada, yada. But...

It doesn't mean they're gone. Well, I also think it's important to note that there's a couple of reasons that Colin could have deleted these messages. One, because he did something to her and doesn't want proof that she was with him. And two, he actually lives with his girlfriend and has been living with her for years. Oh, so it's a woman named Rebecca Fisher. Oh no. So suddenly Velma makes a little sense because of course he's not going to save her contact as Cassandra. Um,

as does the lying about when he last saw Cassandra, but police don't think that's quite enough to pin a murder on him. Not yet, but they have an idea of what to do next. Remember how I told you the police found Cassandra's car near the Tacoma Dome? Yeah. Well, there happens to be a train that runs right along the street there next to where her vehicle was parked. And those trains and the train stations in 2020? Closed.

Have cameras. Oh, that's what I was going to say. So police get all of the footage from August 25th to see if they can spot when her car arrived and who might have parked it there. And they get lucky because on tape from 1150 a.m. that morning, they spot a man getting out of the driver's side of Cassandra's car, clearly not her, and walking away. It's pretty hard to make out the guy's identity, though, because he's wearing all black. He has black shoes, black T-shirt, black pants, a black rim hat. Sounds like you, babe. A mask.

mask. Oh, obviously it's the pandemic. Yeah. 2020 and blue surgical gloves, which yeah, people also wear those in the pandemic. So it might not be that weird in public, but also for a killer to have a mask and surgical gloves, but the footage continues. The guy crosses the street over to the train stop and actually takes a seat on a bench there for about four minutes. Almost like he's catching his breath. He looks a little exhausted. He's composing himself.

So he waits there on that bench for four minutes and then he gets up and he keeps walking. And surveillance footage captures him next in another parking garage just down the street. He walks in that garage, he gets into a truck, and he exits the parking garage sometime before 12.30 p.m. This is clearly the person of interest. Oh, 100%.

But the next thing is identifying who this person of interest is, which ends up being pretty easy for police because not only does that person have a familiar build, they're wearing that black hat. It's a fedora to be specific. And Colin Dudley, well, he had a nickname.

He liked to be called the hat man. Why nothing? I'm not going to say anything. Why are we wearing nothing? Mainly because one of his favorite movies was a clockwork orange. It's a dystopian Stanley Kubrick film about a gang that goes on this violent crime spree. But let me just say if that hat was

wasn't a dead giveaway, the plates on Colin's truck would have done the trick because this is his own truck that he's driving out and the plates match. So, I mean, it's open and shut. Yes. Officers get a clear view from the footage and once they run those plates, the truck is registered to Colin. Now, here's where it gets even worse. Colin,

Colin seemed to have Cassandra's phone on and with him this entire time. Oh my gosh. Because from that parking garage, police realize it moves to the Puget Sound, to Owen Beach, where it last pinged those towers at 1245 p.m. Why? Is it because he had a girlfriend? Like, why did he do this? Motive.

Right? I mean, you just answered my next question. Obviously police know Colin Dudley was the one to get rid of the cell phone. They had their guy, but why? What did he do to her and why? So about a month before Cassandra disappeared, she pulled her friend, Alexandra aside and told her a secret. She said that she had just taken a pregnancy test and it was positive.

So the day after Cassandra disappeared on August 26th, Alexandra was supposed to meet Cassandra, remember for their little hangout, she never showed.

Well, they were actually going to an ultrasound appointment together. That's where Alexandra was meeting Cassandra. This is something Cassandra definitely wouldn't have wanted to miss, which is why it was very alarming. Cassandra had also told her mother about the pregnancy that July. But when her mom asked her who the father was, Cassandra was like, it was a one night stand. I met him on a dating app. So she was pregnant? Yes. Yes.

Cassandra was like, I don't care though, mom. Like I'm excited to be a mother. I'm more than happy to do it on my own. I don't care that it was a one night stand. She was already thinking of baby names. She was assembling her online baby registry. There was just one problem though. She wasn't being honest about who the father was because it was actually her

Colin Dudley, her high school boyfriend who has a live-in girlfriend. Now, Alexandra knew that Cassandra told her friend everything. She's like, it was, it's Colin's baby, including the fact that she and Colin had started seeing each other back around February. Colin would sneak off from his girlfriend, Rebecca, to go meet Cassandra at a movie or dinner, but it didn't seem like he had any plans to leave Rebecca for her. In his mind and seemingly in Cassandra's, this was just casual.

That was until she found out she was pregnant with his child on July 16th, 2020. Just casually having sex. When Cassandra's OBGYN was questioned, she said Cassandra had listed Colin as the father during her initial appointment. The notes also included the pregnancy was not planned. The patient was feeling overwhelmed. The father of the baby was supportive of pregnancy, but not planning to be involved with the raising of the child. He and the mom were on good terms.

So yeah, this paperwork proves Colin knew about the baby. So motive, obviously she was pregnant. He didn't want to break up with Rebecca. Didn't want anyone to find out. So he's like, oh, I'm gonna kill her. Insane. So Cassandra actually told Colin about the pregnancy, August 12th. This would be 13 days before she disappeared.

She must have been pretty nervous about this, though, because Cassandra had hypothetical conversations with Colin before the matter. And allegedly he told her he never wanted kids. So she was kind of like putting fillers out about it. He said he never wanted kids. He even went as far to say if any girlfriend of mine got pregnant and wouldn't get an abortion, I would sue to get full custody just to spite the mother for having a child. Oh, my gosh. What?

- What? - That's a pretty monstrous thing to say. - Also, you're not gonna get full custody. What an idiot. - So you can see why Cassandra was probably dreading breaking the news to him. She wanted to do the right thing. She felt like he had a right to know. - Poor Cassandra, man. - And maybe he would change his mind if the situation became a reality. So she went to Colin and told him he didn't need to be involved. Like I'm pregnant. I don't care if you're involved. I am gonna have the baby though. She even said, you can like sign over your parental rights. Like I won't pressure you for child support.

and her surprise it went better than expected at least that's what she told alexandra when she called her after the meeting he said not to worry about it that they would talk more about it soon than two weeks later cassandra vanished oh my gosh by this point the police don't have a weapon they don't have a body

All they have is a lot of digital evidence, but in this day and age, that is enough to get a search warrant, which is exactly what happens on September 1st, 2020, about a week after Cassandra's disappearance. They show up to Colin and Rebecca's house with a SWAT team, the FBI, and a canine unit.

They search his truck and his home for any sign of her. And the dogs immediately lead them to the basement, particularly to a brown sofa. Oh man. They don't find any concrete signs of her though. What they do learn is remember how Colin said on the day of the 25th, he didn't do much really then go to Costco. Well, the police found out that at Costco, he bought 50 gallon trash bags. Yeah. Not a great thing to buy in the hours before you're pregnant.

mistress girlfriend goes missing. Yeah. But that means this wasn't a spur of the moment decision. Something that's confirmed further when police learn after that Costco run, he went to the parking garage and dropped his truck off there. This is before he met up with her. This show is sponsored by BetterHelp. It's sometimes hard to remind ourselves that we are trying our best to make sense of everything. And in this crazy world,

That isn't easy. Here's a reminder to send some thanks to the people in your life, including yourself. Not up until recently. I mean, Peyton's always been a big advocate of therapy. And honestly, you think therapy up until, I guess, a few months ago. It's super important. Something Peyton and I both...

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That's thrivecosmetics, C-A-U-S-E-M-E-T-I-C-S.com slash murder for 20% off your first order. Before he meets up with her that morning, he goes to Costco and buys 50 gallon trash bags and drops his truck off in the parking garage that he's later going to go to. It's obviously premeditated. Yes. First degree murder. I mean, everything's there. Yes.

He then biked out of the garage and made the 20 minute trip back home. So he thought this plan, he thought it out well in advance. Now, during the search of his property, police also asked Colin's current girlfriend, Rebecca, to come down to the station because here's the thing. She was supposedly home the afternoon he met up with Cassandra, which makes you wonder if A, she knows about the affair. B, she knows if Cassandra was pregnant. C, she knows about the murder.

Well, when detectives question her and ask if she thinks Colin is capable of hurting Cassandra, she doesn't answer right away. She actually sits there quietly for 13 seconds. So they say, do you think he could have killed her? 13 seconds go by. Was she just in shock, maybe? And then she says... Physics would say, yes, he's got size and strength on her. I don't think he would. No.

He would not. Dude, that what? No, police don't have... That's freaking weird. That's... No. They don't have any evidence to assume Rebecca's involved, but this answer definitely raised eyebrows. I don't even care if Rebecca hears this. That's weird. That is a weird answer. And really, they need a body before they want to arrest Colin because they know he's guilty, but is it murder? Is it kidnapping? It's hard to say until they find her, which is why their next move is pretty genius.

Now technology has been proving pretty fruitful throughout this entire investigation. It's definitely been Collins Achilles heel. So they figure let's keep down this path.

Now, newer cars like the one Colin owned all have this essentially black box inside of them now. Those dashboard computers that have Apple CarPlay, calling capabilities, GPS, you've seen them. And while you might be able to turn off your cell phone, there's no easy way to turn those bad boys off if your engine is running. So in the same way you can track a cell phone, you can actually track those little computers that's in a car.

And so they get it and they send it off to analysis and here's what they find. The day after Cassandra's disappearance, August 26th, Colin's car drove out to a wooded area eight miles from his house around six in the morning and it stopped there.

Now, it takes a few weeks to get this information back from specialists, but on September 22nd, 2020, hours after they get these details, police race down to this location where Colin's truck went the morning after she disappeared. And after only minutes of scouring the area, in a ravine, there is a body wrapped in trash bags. Oh, gosh.

A search and rescue team actually has to use what they call a high angle ropes operation to get down. Cause it's a very steep ravine and recover the body. And when they open up the bag, they found a distinctive mark that proves it was Cassandra. It was that quote, that tattoo she had. We don't stop playing because we grow old. We grow old because we stopped playing. So now

more than enough to arrest 37 year old Colin Dudley, which they do later that evening. He's charged with first degree murder of 33 year old Cassandra Cantrell. Now, when they do the autopsy, they find that she had been stabbed several times. She had sustained multiple injuries to the head and her cause of death was ultimately ruled as blunt force trauma. They believe he killed her in his basement, kept her body there overnight and then dumped her the next morning. But that brings us back to Rebecca, Colin's girlfriend.

I mean, I don't know how you can sleep in a house with a dead body and not know it's there, but it is in the basement. Police have no indication of if she knew or not. So police just assume because of lack of evidence, Rebecca has no idea that any of this happened.

So after months of back and forth postponements and COVID delays, there was finally some movement on the case on November 14th, 2022. This is two years after Colin was arrested. Prosecutors felt they had an extremely strong case in terms of the digital evidence, but they decide to work out a plea deal with Colin. He ultimately accepted. In exchange for his plea, he was given only 26 years behind bars for his murder. Now, Cassandra's family did not agree with any of this. They felt the digital evidence was extremely strong. And I have

And I have to agree with them. I think if this case went to trial, Colin Dudley would have gotten what he deserved, which is a heck of a lot more than 26 years behind bars. He'll be in his 60s when he's released. That could be 2044 on good behavior. That's a lot of life left to live, a life that Cassandra will never get to have and her unborn child won't get to have either. We can't forget.

26 years for killing a pregnant soon-to-be mother. So I don't blame Cassandra's family for being upset about this deal. Moral of the story is, I think we need to trust that digital evidence is just as, if not better, than the evidence we had 30, 20, even 10 years ago.

Sometimes it's even better than a murder weapon. And I think we need to get used to digital evidence being the new smoking guns in a courtroom, because right now it's considered circumstantial evidence. The way I see it, technology is only making these cases stronger. And I remain optimistic that more cases will get solved because of it. But you know who else was an optimist? Cassandra. In a rocky and unknown time in her life, she chose to have hope.

to see a bright and happy future for herself. And she seized it. She didn't care what anyone else was gonna think of her. And her courage is something to be remembered and admired. And that is our case for this week. I think we can all learn a thing or two from Cassandra, and I hope we can spend the day thinking about her and her family. - Yeah, I just think,

I mean, I guess a lot of these cases are pointless, but it's just pointless. She's pregnant too. She said he could sign his parental rights away. Also too, like you were the one, dude, you were the one that was cheating. Like, but what? Yeah. Like take some freaking responsibility. Yeah. Makes you mad. All right, you guys, that is our case for this week and we will see you next time with another one. I love it. And I hate it. Goodbye.

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