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How did an action figure get stuck in the air vents? Or what is the ideal human to goat ratio from my yoga class?
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Monday. Hi. If you are new here, hi, my name is Bailey Sarian and on Mondays I like to sit down and talk about a true crime story that's been heavy on my noggin and I do my makeup at the same time. Today's story involves children. So just a little disclaimer, I try to limit, you know, stories regarding children. So this story does have that.
Alright. Okay, so today's story takes place in Jacksonville, Florida in November of 1998. Now it takes place in a city or town called Lakewood, which honestly based off of pictures and whatnot, it looks like this cute little suburb.
Lots of trees on like green, white streets, you know, just seems like a really nice place to raise a family, which is like, I think the goals of the suburbs, right? A nice place to raise your children. So in other words, it would be like a classic American suburb. It sounds like based off of pictures I saw. Okay. So in this neighborhood, there were lots of kids.
who would like come out and they would play. And that's where eight year old Maddie Clifton lived. And she also played often. So who is Maddie? Well, Maddie, she was the youngest of two girls. Both of them lived with their parents, very outgoing. She loved to play outdoors. She also loved to play sports, but she also liked indoor stuff like ballet and playing the piano. And she loved her,
You know, there were lots of kids to play with and there was always something to do outside. And it was pretty safe because there was always some kind of parent outside watching for safety, you know? So on November 3rd, 1998, Maddie and her older sister, Jessie, Jessie's 11 years old, Maddie's eight.
So they were playing outside in their front yard, right? And their mom is inside their house. She's making dinner. They have a kitchen window so she could see outside the kitchen window to make sure that she's keeping an eye on the kids. You know, parent stuff.
and this is really what they did almost every night. sometimes the kids outside they would like ride their bikes or play with the neighbor's dog. point is like you know they just felt like they were super safe letting your kids play out in the front yard. normal behavior. dinner was ready so maddie and jesse's mom like
Her name is Sheila. She calls outside for Maddie and her sister to come in, right? And in comes Jessie. She's like, where's Maddie? And Jessie's like, oh, Maddie wasn't with me. Sheila's like, okay, you know? Sheila would say that instantly she felt like something was wrong. Like she just felt it in her gut. So she starts calling for Maddie through the house and then she goes outside and she's calling for her. She's looking around the yard, down the street, and it just seemed like
Maddie was nowhere to be found. So Sheila, she's like, I'm not wasting any time. And she starts just really going everywhere. She's outside, right? I mean, there was really no excuse for her to be anywhere, Maddie, to be anywhere but her front yard. But Sheila is just kind of, she started to panic a little bit. Plus, it's about 6.30 at night in November. So the sun...
Baby, she's already going down, if not already down. Like, it gets dark really easy, you know? Easy. Really early. But it's getting dark. Okay, you get it. Sun goes down at like four for no reason. It's so rude. Well, I mean, that's fine and dandy, but when you're looking for your kid, not ideal, right? So it's a race against, like, the sun. So, I mean, it doesn't take long. Sheila is, like, immediately on the phone with police. Maddie had just vanished.
It wasn't like Maddie to wander off from her sister in the first place. So again, Sheila just knows like something isn't right. She's understandably frantic. Her husband, Maddie's father, he's still at work. So, you know, she's like, okay, I'm just going to call the police. And she does. And this takes place in 1999. So cell phones are really like becoming or they're starting to become more common at this point.
And I'm pretty sure that Maddie's mom calls 911 using a cell phone because in the audio of her 911 call, you can hear Sheila going from like door to door in her neighborhood trying to see if any of her neighbors had seen Maddie, heard anything, shipped.
Well, like no one had. So Sheila goes over to her neighbor's house. His name was Steve Phillips. And he had like just gotten home from work. And she's asking, have you seen Maddie? And he hasn't seen anything either. But Steve had a son and wife who were at home at the time. Steve's son's name was Joshua and his wife, Melissa. And they didn't see anything. So these neighbors, they really didn't spend much time outside of town.
outside in general or like even socializing with the neighbors. So it really wasn't a surprise to Maddie's family when they said like they didn't or they hadn't seen Maddie at all. Steve, he goes up to his son Josh and he's like, "Have you seen Maddie at all?"
And Josh tells his dad that he saw Maddie outside, like walking by on the street from his bedroom window, but he didn't say hi or say anything to her. Many people in the neighborhood naturally kind of assumed that, you know, Maddie probably was abducted. And Steve, that neighbor, he was feeling the same way, really. I mean, how does a little eight-year-old just go missing?
So Steve, he grabs a flashlight and he starts helping the family look for Maddie.
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Now there was this one guy who was like really questionable in the neighborhood. He had lived in the neighborhood for like 30 years. His name was Larry and he came forward and told Sheila, Maddie's mom, he was like, "I actually saw Maddie." She's like, "What?" So this is Florida and Larry was known in the neighborhood to teach the kids how to quote unquote chip golf balls, which is I guess just like you hit the golf balls a certain way, correct?
I'm not much of a golfer myself, but I guess it's like the way you hit a golf ball is a super specific way. So Larry and the kids would like do this from time to time. And Larry told Sheila that they were chipping balls that evening. And then at some point they ran out of balls, right? So Maddie tells Larry like, "Hey, I'm gonna go home. I'm gonna go home. I'm gonna get some more balls and I'll be right back." So Maddie heads back to her house
And this was around 5 p.m. So Larry tells Maddie's mom, like, when she didn't come back, I just assumed, like, you know, it was suppertime. She had to go home. It was...
that he didn't really think anything of it. Police ended up putting Larry pretty high on their radar because when they were looking further into him specifically, they found that Larry had a bit of a criminal past of his own. And then on top of that, he was like the last person to see Maddie. So it's like, hmm, chipping balls. Okay, you know, sure, Lair. Sure, Larry, Lair Bear.
He never gets, like, taken into custody or anything like that because he ends up getting cleared. I think he had a strong alibi. Or it was that, like, everybody had rallied around him and was like, there's no way it's him because he's known as, like, you know, the one everyone just trusted and liked. So he ends up getting cleared. Okay. And police, they end up going back to Maddie's home and they start doing...
Just more searching. More searching around the area, more searching within the neighborhoods, clues, eyewitnesses, anything. The neighbors, meanwhile, all band together and like form search parties to go out like looking for her in the nearby woods. But again, nothing. Nothing at all.
So by the next day, and I mean, it's less than like 12 hours, Maddie's face was like everywhere. It was in the paper. It was on TV. It was on flyers throughout their neighborhood and on different like business windows throughout Jacksonville. Everyone was like rallying to find this girl. And her case was just like dominating the news. It was one of those cases. I mean, the longer they go without any leads, like the more baffled people are.
She wasn't on an empty street or in like a strange area when she disappeared. And like lots of people were out that night, out and about. So it just, it wasn't me. Make it make sense, anybody. But even with all of these like neighbors keeping an eye out and stuff, I mean, none of them had seen any mysterious cars and there was zero trace of Maddie in the nearby woods whatsoever.
which had been absolutely scoured by literally thousands of police and volunteers. I mean, at this point, the police estimated that there was like over 4,000 people from all over Jacksonville out searching for Maddie all at one time. As they go into the weekend without any leads, some volunteers and a bunch of like Maddie's family members
They all headed out to the stadium for the Jacksonville Jaguars, where they handed out flyers and ribbons to like spread awareness in hopes to find some kind of lead. And still nothing. No one could find anything about anything. Just nothing. They couldn't find anything. Nothing. Boof, gone. Wizard. But it's never a wizard, is it? I had a lot of caffeine. Never a wizard. If you think it's a wizard,
It's not a wizard. So then on November 10th, which it had been like a full week since Maddie's disappearance, the hunt, it still hadn't slowed down. The police had been tearing Maddie's neighborhood apart, looking for any clues and...
and questioning everyone. The neighbors who live directly across the street, I mentioned them earlier, Steve, Melissa, and Joshua Phillips, the ones that don't get out much, remember? Police had searched their home at this point three different times because of a couple reasons. One, they live directly across the street. Two, Joshua said that he had saw Maddie walking and they ended up searching their home three different times. I think they were just like,
We'll take anything. We'll search your house again. And that's what they did. Well, on the day of November 10th, Josh's mom had been going around the house, just kind of cleaning up because police, once again, had come into her home, gone through everything and really just kind of created such a mess, right? So she's like got a trash bag, you know, throwing stuff away, whatever. And she remembers that her son's room is a hot mess. She's like, I might as well tackle that.
I mean, she had been nagging Josh to clean his room because it was, as she put it, quote, in deplorable condition. I mean, he's a teenage boy. He's how old? Like 13, 14. I think he's 14 at this time. So I don't know if you are familiar with teenage boys, but P.U., y'all stink. Just kidding.
So yeah, the room was like gross, smelly, crusty socks all over. But Josh's mom, she's like, you know what? I'm just going to clean it myself because this last week Josh has really just kind of been out of it. I mean, he's been quiet. He seemed a little preoccupied, which was really making sense to her because like this poor kid, he's terrified. I mean, a girl who lived directly across the street from him, who he occasionally said hi to and played with had just vanished.
I mean, that had to be really scary for him. So with this in mind, she cleans his room. And maybe it'll help like clear his mind too, you know? So the first thing she notices when she goes into his room is that it smells pretty awful. Okay. She's like, wow, it stinks in here. Oh my God. My son stinks. And like, she also sees that there were some incense in the room. He had Febreze on his like, whatever is a, what's it called? What's it called?
You know, the bedroom furniture. There was for whatever. There was like Febreze on there. I can't, the bedroom drawers? Where those go? I'm drawing the biggest blank of my life right now. Okay, but Febreze was on top of that, okay? There were cans of like stink no more just scattered about. There are crime scene photos where they were taking pictures. Police were taking pictures of his room and you just see like there's Febreze and stuff just kind of everywhere. It's all scattered about in his room.
And nobody thought much of it because teenagers stink. I mean, even the police officers, when they came and questioned the family and like all that stuff, the three different times, they were like, bro, you stink.
take a shower you know like they were like bro you stink we could smell that shit get together so yeah it's pretty gross but uh you know and his mom's thinking it's probably he just stinks it's probably just food also josh had a pet dog and a couple of birds so dog birds teenager mixture of everything stinks one thing josh's mom did notice was that like the smell had seemed to get worse like
overnight, you know? With that being said, mom is just over here trying her best to clean up around the room when she noticed that there was like a small puddle forming at the edge of Josh's bed. And she's like, "Huh, that's new. Like I've never noticed that." At this time, Josh had a water bed. This was the 90s. Some of you may remember the water bed. And they were not comfortable. Some say they were, but like where? You know, maybe for like Shamu, but
Not the point. The point is he had a waterbed. And the other point is his mom sees a puddle. Instantly when she sees this puddle, she's thinking like, "Oh my God, the waterbed's probably leaking." And that's what that smell is because like, who knows how long that water's been in that waterbed. It's probably all moldy and nasty, you know? She's like, "Okay, we gotta figure this out. We gotta figure this out." So she gets down onto the carpet and she kind of peeks underneath.
the bed and that's where she notices like there are pieces of her son's bed frame that came apart like really easily. It came apart a little too easily like if the side panel wasn't really attached to the bed at all just kind of like flopped right over. So she pulls it away and she pokes her head underneath and she takes a little closer and all she can really see down there is like a sock. She's like what the
It's like, you know, probably one of those crusty socks. So she's all confused. Like how the hell does a sock get stuck down there? It must've just like slipped in between the mattress and the headboard as socks do. But it was just full on stuck inside of the bed frame. So she reaches in for it and it won't come out. So she's like talking. She's like, what the hell?
So she pulls harder and she said that something just comes loose. The side panel kind of pulls away and reveals that the sock is on a little foot. First of all, I would completely die because what the fuck? Second of all, I mean, total shock comes over her body, right? This is her son's bed, right? What the fuck is this? She realizes that under her son's bed is
is a body. It's actually the neighbor girl, Maddie. No words, right? What would you do? I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I would move. I would grab all my shit and I would get the fuck out of there and never come back. Not my kid. Josh's mom freaked. She picks up the phone and she first tries to call her husband, Steve, but he's at work.
So it goes straight to voicemail, but you can hear her voicemail, I think online, but you could just hear she's frantic, okay? And she leaves a voicemail like, "Steve, call me immediately, immediately." Like she is panicking for good reason. But when she can't get a hold of Steve, she ends up just running out of the house in like hysterics, okay? And she's running down the street, just looking for a police officer 'cause they were in the area.
So she finds someone. According to the officer she first found, she was so frantic that she couldn't even form words. So she finds this police officer and she's trying to tell him what's going on, but
she's not making any sense. So the police officer is like, I have no idea what you're saying. I've got things to do, ma'am. You know? So eventually he's like, okay, I'll just follow you to your house. Cause she's like, just go to my house. So he follows her to the house to see like what the hell is going on with this lady. That's when she tells the police to look under her son's
and they do. So they start taking apart the rest of Josh's water bed and they confirm that the girl's body is indeed Maddie. And it appears to them that Maddie had been bleeding for quite some time when she was finally like put under the bed. Police even said as they removed Maddie's body, her hand was found like clutching the frame, which led them to believe that she had been shoved up there still alive. I'm like,
because it's just a very unfortunate day right now, isn't it? Kids who kill kids are like the fucking creepiest. I'm getting ahead of myself. And this is like the strange slash horrible. They noticed that Maddie's pants and her underwear were missing.
So it's like, bro, what the fuck, right? Poor little Maddie had been under Josh's bed the entire time. Even after those three police searches at the family's home, which to me was like, really? Okay, they searched three times and they still didn't like, that smell didn't like...
But I guess they didn't really have a reason to search. Like legally, they can't just search his house. Okay, okay. Okay, logic. Now here's like the really sick part. This kid, Josh, he was sleeping on top of his bed, right? On top of Maddie's body for over seven full days.
That part was like, bro, are you okay? He's not, obviously. But like, how did he sleep? How do you sleep? How do you sleep? You just go to bed. You just go to bed. Knowing that right underneath you is a kid, a body. Maddie's body. You know, like, what the?
But he did that. Okay, he did that. He really sure did. He was like, "Yep, I'm doing that." And he did. So after they find Maddie, police start right away putting the tape around like the Phillips house, you know? And I mean, again, they were just right across the street from Maddie's parents' house. So they see what's going on. They see the tape going up and they have a feeling that police has probably found something. And they weren't wrong. I mean, it didn't take long for police to come over to the Clifton's house
and give them, relay the bad news, the horrible news. That's gotta be probably not the easiest job at all, right? Jeez Louise. So police, they actually rally around Jessie, the family's 11 year old daughter and Maddie's older sister.
Because she's young and, you know, it's just like it's a lot, right? So they end up taking Maddie's older sister to IHOP. And that's where they kind of tell her what happened. And they really wanted to get her out of the environment, the house, and everything that was going on. They thought it was best if they removed her from that. I thought that was nice, I guess. Either way, it's just bad news.
But Jessie said that, you know, while they were at IHOP, they're telling her that they found Maddie and she was found dead. And they're telling her this when they're at breakfast. And Jessie said the whole time she just kept staring at like a missing persons poster of Maddie that was placed on the wall. And she said that she didn't really believe
Like what the officers were telling her, you know? She kept thinking that they were going to find her alive. Yeah, this is sad. So everyone was devastated by the discovery of Maddie's body. I mean, you could also see it in the news coverage when the lead investigator gets on camera and makes the announcement that Maddie has been found dead.
Everyone just kind of collapses. It was devastating. It was heartbreaking. There was a 48 hour special up within like a week of the discovery. They interviewed both Maddie and Josh's parents, as well as Jessie, Maddie's older sister. They also interviewed Josh,
himself from jail. And you can see from the interview and just from like the press around that time, now that Maddie had been found dead, everyone was really just trying to wrap their brains around it all. Like how could this child, Josh,
kill another child. Like nobody could wrap their heads around that. And I mean, this isn't even computing with just about anyone really. The police, it didn't make sense to police why Josh would do this. It didn't make sense to Josh's family why he would do this or even his school. Everyone who was like, "Hey,
Do you have any comments about Joshua Billups? You know, they would all be like, "Oh, he was great. He was a normal kid. He was quiet. He liked to read. He spent most of his free time on his computer." Like, Josh was left home a lot, but in school, like he had friends.
He fit in just fine. It was said that he was a bit of a goofball. Josh, who was about 14 at this time, was a ninth grader with a C average and had no record of any discipline. And I felt like that just really sums up what everyone had to say about him was that he was average.
He was average. He also seemed super gentle. In fact, Maddie's mom, when asked about Josh in the media, she even told them like, yeah, he was really kind. He was a gentle person and really nice. You can even see in home videos of Josh with his pets, especially his dog, just how sweet he was with them.
Really, Josh didn't seem to have or show any antisocial tendencies and was by all accounts like a really sweet kid. So what the hell, right? He can't be that sweet. He just, um, hello, murdered someone. So what's the deal, Bailey? I know. We don't know everything, but what we do know is this. Josh, okay, when all of this came to surface, the police went to his high school and arrested him, which...
Must have been very embarrassing. The principal even told reporters that all of the students were in complete disbelief that Josh was the one responsible for Maddie's death. I never saw it coming. It's like, maybe you did though.
Maybe if you squint, you could really see it coming, you know? I feel like he would have shown something. So once police get Josh into custody, he tells them his story. And I guess even Josh's own father told him to confess and to quote, do the right thing. Which is like, oh good, you know? Good for that dad, but fuck that dad. And I'll tell you why.
Okay, so Josh, he did confess. I mean, there really was no alternative. Maddie had been found under his bed. You can't really explain that away to anybody. You know, whoopsie, don't know how that ended up there. His confession to police, it gives people an idea, a little bit of idea of how a
somewhat pleasant teenager could end up murdering another child. And this is what the people wanted. They wanted answers. Why? Isn't that why we're all here? We just want a why. Why? Why? You know, what's up with Josh? Something's gotta be up with him. Josh's home life was actually what doctors would call super fucked up. Yeah. But that's actually a quote. Doctors did say that.
I know, I was like, "Oh my God, that's so funny, ha ha." And then I was like, "Oh, that's a direct quote." Oh, okay. You know, the legal terms or whatever. Out the window with this one, fucked up. Super fucked up. Apparently the reason no one had like really saw Josh and his mom out and about in the neighborhood was because they really weren't even allowed to go outside.
Yeah. So multiple sources, I mean, even including Josh and his mom said that Josh's dad, Steven was like a major control freak. On top of that, he was a aggressive alcoholic. And on top of being an alcoholic, he also had a little bit of a drug problem.
The dad, Stephen, was apparently like super verbally and emotionally abusive to both Josh and his mother. And while he was away at work, he didn't like or want his family to leave the house. So Josh would like go to school and his wife would go to work. It's just when they came home and they had downtime, the dad didn't want them anywhere talking to anyone or doing anything. They needed to stay home.
Weird detail, some say important, but the family said that for some reason, Steven really hated little girls. He had told his wife that he did not like little girls and did not want Josh playing with little girls. Like it's, I don't know.
It's important, I guess, because I feel like it's instilling. Maybe Josh felt like he couldn't play with little girls. So like when his dad was gone and he plays with Maddie, it was like, "I'm not supposed to be doing this." You know? I'm not sure.
So that's a great little tidbit from me because I don't know what it adds. So Josh was expected to go to school, then come directly home, and just spend the rest of his time with his pets. I mean, like I said earlier, they had a dog and some birds. So like these were Josh's friends. Stay home, take care of them, and don't go anywhere else. Mm-hmm.
Hmm, that's what the dad would say. Joshua, he could have friends at school, but like once he came home from school, that was it, it was over. Like no sleepovers, no hanging out. Come on, no activities after school, give me a break. Josh's dad just didn't want them doing anything and really liked keeping the family isolated from everyone.
And this guy, Josh's dad, was like really committed to isolating his family because they had actually only just moved to this neighborhood. Josh had moved to Lakewood with his parents less than two years prior. His father had two kids from, or two sons from a previous marriage. And I guess he left them behind in like Pennsylvania and...
At some point, at one point, Josh and these two sons, they were actually very close. They were around 10 years older than Josh, but they really took care of them and they looked out for him. And his dad just like ripped the family away. And it wasn't like their move was some like long planned out move. It was pretty sudden, just out of nowhere, they're like,
Josh's half-brother talked about the move and a lot in the years after Maddie's murder, how he and his other brother had begged their dad not to move away, but his dad just didn't care. I mean, he took the whole family and went off to Jacksonville. So this guy, this dude, he obviously just doesn't give a shit, okay?
Yeah, Stephen was extremely strict. I mean, he had all these rules about what Josh was allowed to do and what he wasn't allowed to do. And Josh was understandably scared because if he broke his father's rules, he knew there would be a price to pay because Stephen, his dad, would beat the shit out of him. Like literally.
So Josh would just like stay inside by himself every single day until his parents came home from work. He didn't interact with anyone except the night Maddie disappeared. There's so much of this guy's confession that doesn't make sense. I'll tell you right now, but like there's still so many unanswered questions.
Josh told police during his confession that around 5:00 PM that night, he was in his room when he heard someone outside his house shouting his name. And he immediately knew who it was. It was his across the street neighbor, Maddie Clifton. Now I'm not sure if Josh had talked to Maddie through like his window or his front door, but according to Josh, she begged him to come outside and play with her. And he said at first he told her that he couldn't and that he had chores he had to do.
But he said that Maddie would just not leave him alone. And for some reason, the pleading of this little eight year old to play outside with him just caused him to break his father's rules. So Josh left the house and went to play with Maddie in the yard. So here's where things get a little suspicious. You know, they really do. Josh said that he and Maddie got started playing baseball in the yard.
But not in their front yard. He said that they were in the backyard where they began to like, you know, throw a ball and like hit it and all that stuff. So Josh said that Maddie was pitching to him and he had the baseball bat and was trying to swing and like hit the ball as you
Well, I guess after one of her throws, Josh swung and when he swung, he hit the baseball. He hit the ball and it went straight back into her face and like smacked her super hard in the head. Josh said that she started crying and that her face was bleeding from the hit. And this is where Josh makes some,
Bad choices. Bad choices were made, okay? But according to him, he was like, "I did this all out of massive fear of his own father, who was set to arrive home just a few minutes later after playing this game." Josh knew he had a problem, and there was no way he could fix this before his father got home.
Daddy. Josh said during his confession that his only goal, like the only thing he could focus on during that time was getting Maddie to shut up and stop crying. So Josh's main focus was to get her to stop crying, but also he could not be seen with her, especially now that she was hurt.
So he really needed her to get up and like moving as fast as possible. So Josh would say that he was having a really hard time moving her from the backyard because she was in pain and wouldn't stop crying. He was like, she wouldn't stop crying. She wouldn't stop crying. It's like, yeah, she's hurt.
my guy. So he panics and there was absolutely no way he could tell his dad or let his dad know that he was even playing with Maddie in the backyard in the first place or he would be dead meat. Josh knew that the first step was to get her out of the backyard. So Josh said that he grabbed Maddie by the shoulders and like dragged her towards his house. And because he was dragging her,
That's how her pants must have came off because they were being pulled down as he moved her. I mean, I can understand what he's saying, but at the same time... Interesting, Josh.
Josh wasn't being gentle. And now Maddie had gone from crying to screaming, which was apparently just sending Josh into like a frenzy. Again, panicking up to about a 10. He's out of his head with fear over what his father is gonna do. So it's uncomfortable. That's why I'm here laughing. I'm not laughing, but you get it. His brightest idea is to grab his baseball bat and just beat Josh.
the crap out of her. Yeah, he ends up taking his baseball bat and he bashes her over the head multiple times until she starts to quiet down. And yeah,
She does start to quiet down, probably because getting bashed in the head with a baseball bat might do that to you. I'm just surprised nobody heard this. I mean, allegedly there were like so many people outside playing and whatnot. Wouldn't somebody hear her crying? I'm not trying to, you know, I'm just saying nobody heard? Nobody heard nothing?
Well, I guess nobody heard nothing. Well, Maddie is now barely cautious and he manages to drag her into his bedroom, okay? Now, this is when he decides it would be best to stuff her under his bed to keep her out of sight and his dad will never know anything. He's like, yeah, my dad won't know anything. I hate this, right? It's just, it's unfortunate that stupid people can make such lasting impacts.
So stupid. Oh my god. So when I first like was reading about this, I was like, well, first of all, how did this work? Like how did this physically work? How did Josh manage to hide a body under his bed for seven days to the point where even three police searches missed it, right? Well, here's what we could find. Okay, so he has a waterbed, right?
And I guess his waterbed had a, like, casement frames that go all the way to the ground on the sides like a box.
And then inside the box are two X-shaped mattress supports because these waterbeds are heavy as crap. And then on top of the X-shaped supports, there was a piece of plywood and then the mattress would go on top of that. So what Josh did was he removed one of the side panels, stuffed Maddie in there, and then closed it back up again, which kept her completely hidden. Which to me, again, it's not about me, but it's just like I was...
As I was reading this, I was like, how did he even figure this out? Like, how did he even figure out that his bed had these compartments to like hide stuff? You know? Like, was he hiding other stuff in there? Did they find more stuff? I couldn't find any answer to that, but that's where he put Maddie. Well, Josh's father, Steve, came home around 6:00 PM. And according to him, he didn't notice anything. He's like, nothing was out of place. Nothing was weird about Josh. There was no trail of blood through like the living room.
Nothing was knocked over.
Nothing. So when his dad came home, he and Josh, they like sat on the couch. They talked about their days, like everything was normal. And that's fucking creepy. I guess like when they were sitting on the couch talking, after a few minutes, Maddie had regained consciousness and Josh could like hear her making some noises and it was coming from his room. So he's getting like real freaked out because he's like, oh shit, like,
"My dad's here, please stop." When he realizes that it's not stopping, he excuses himself from his father and says, "I'll be right back." And he goes to his room. Now, another decision was made, a very, very, very bad one. He says at this point, he made the decision that he just could not turn away from.
Josh knew he was going to have even bigger problems once Maddie's parents got involved. So in his mind, he was thinking, this is what he said, not me, okay? He was thinking like, I have to make this problem go away. So while his father sat on the couch in the other freaking room, Josh grabbed a pocket knife,
pulled Maddie out from underneath his bed, slit her throat, and stabbed her several times in the chest.
Yeah, he did that. He really did that. Okay, but he stabbed her like way too many times though. Like it wasn't like two or three times, like not that that's excusing anything, right? But you know when someone stabs another person like a bunch of times, I would say more than like three, four times, it becomes like a very passionate killing. And little Maddie was stabbed a lot. So once he thought that the job was done, he put her back under the mattress. Okay.
So like what was his end game here, you know? Josh said that he killed her to keep himself from getting in trouble with his dad. But then like it escalates all the way to murder. I know. I mean, he's 14. He can't drive. He's apparently not allowed out of the house for any amount of time except to go to school. He can't ditch class without his teachers and eventually his father finding out. So Josh's big plan, I guess it was just to pretend like it never happened.
And he was hoping that that would work out for him. Okay. You know? Okay. Now a lot of things don't add up. There are some questions. I know you have questions. I have questions. Everyone has questions because a couple of things, a lot of things really were not adding up in Josh's story. Like that was Josh's story. That. And, um,
It didn't make sense. So, first of all, upon further investigation, when Maddie's body was examined, there were no signs of any type of initial injury to her head, like the baseball whacking her in the head, like Josh had mentioned.
No sign of that from even happening, period. What they did find was blunt force trauma from the bat and also the stab wounds. But again, no baseball injury. Also investigators looked at all of Josh's baseballs that he had in his room and they found no trace of blood on any of them. Okay, Josh. Okay. Is that what you think?
Many have asked an even bigger question, why, if Josh was like so scared of his dad, right, why did he move the play date to the backyard? Both Josh and Maddie, both of their houses had really big front yards. And Maddie knew not to leave the area where her mother could keep an eye on her. Not trying to point the finger to Maddie, of course, but like, you know, like why didn't they play in the front yard?
How did Maddie end up in the backyard if she were begging him to play with her, right? Not only that, but apparently Josh's house also, and there's photos too, but they also had like a really big pool in the backyard, which took up a lot of the backyard space. So it just was not an ideal place to play a little baseball in the first place. Now, the biggest red flag of all to investigators was
They really got stuck on the pant situation, more specifically like her shorts and her underwear. Josh had claimed that he had dragged her in the backyard when they were heading towards the house and it caused both of her shorts and her underwear to be pulled off. And...
"Huh?" You know, like, okay, that might've happened, but let's see the evidence. And police were like, look, if her shorts really did come off while Josh was dragging her into the house, why wasn't there any dirt on her body? Nothing, right? Nothing. No dirt, no piece of grass, nothing. There was no evidence.
on her body or even in the backyard that lined up with this part of the story. It didn't make sense. They did ultimately check her body for signs of sexual abuse, but there wasn't any signs that she had been, which led them to conclude that she had not been sexually assaulted at all. But her shorts and her underwear were just another weird, unanswered detail that
they didn't find. Like, where was it? And then my question, most of all, was like, okay, where's all the blood? Like if she hurt herself and she was bleeding and stuff, wouldn't there be like a drop somewhere in the house when he was moving her to his bedroom? Oh my God. He probably,
He probably invited her in or something, huh? Duh! He probably invited her into his room and that's when he hit her with like a baseball or something. I was really dead set on her playing in his backyard, but I'm starting to think that he didn't even play in the backyard in the first place. Duh! Because then probably someone might have heard her crying outside. She was probably in his room the whole time. He probably told her like, "Hey, come here. I want to show you something." It doesn't matter because
I don't think we ever get a real answer as to the timeline of events. Josh has always stuck with this story. So maybe there is some truth in there. I don't know if we will know. Josh's trial begins on July 6th, 1999 when he's now 15 years old. This is...
a very high profile case. Everyone in the community was heavily invested in this trial and also they were very messed up over it. With that being said, they knew they couldn't hold the trial in Jacksonville as most likely the jury would not be able to hold an unbiased opinion coming into the trial. I mean, everyone...
really heavily, heavily disliked Josh, which, you know, valid, valid. I get it. We get it. So they moved his trial from his home county to a tiny rural,
rural community. It was like a smaller community of roughly like 2,000 people called Barstow, where hopefully the jury could come in and be truly unbiased. Of course, like no matter where they went, there was still going to be a lot of chit-chat about how Josh's age played into all of this.
But before the trial, the debate was whether or not Josh should be tried as a juvenile or because of the seriousness of his crime, did it qualify him as an adult? But that debate was pretty much closed when the judge who presided over Josh's case told Josh at his trial, quote, "'I do not perceive you to be a child. Your monstrous act made you an adult.'"
So whoopsie for Josh, he was gonna be tried as an adult. This made the people happy. They wanted this. So like I was saying earlier, there were things in Josh's story that were a little,
You know, things were off. And it was the prosecution's job to fill in those gaps. And they really did fill in those gaps, especially the lead prosecutor. Basically they set out to prove that Josh was literal worst, which I don't think is really hard to do when you murder a kid, right? Like,
It's not that hard to prove. Well, I might be wrong. I am just a nobody. So there was new evidence the police had that wasn't necessarily like in the media at the time. One of the things prosecutors mentioned was that Josh had books on the occult and like devil worship in his room, which prosecutors knew that this would make a big impression on the people, you know, small town Florida in the 90s.
Devil books. What does that make everyone think of? Demons. People don't like demons. Dark spirits. Satan. Awful. That's what they're getting at. They're like, "Look at the books. Look at the books." But remember how Josh's mom said he spent a lot of time on the computer? He was spending hours and hours on his computer viewing extremely violent pornography, specifically,
cheerleader brutality videos. I don't want to know, but I can use my imagination and I'm pretty sure it involves cheerleader and brutality and that's really all I need to know. So this gets presented in court and also they find out that, you know, the timeline when you log in, when you log out, this is still the 90s, late 90s, so it's like the internet has time stamps and stuff. You
You understand, thanks. But what they get at is they determine that Josh was watching those videos specifically online, both in the 30 minutes before the murder took place, but directly after the murder took place. He watched this porn again. I know, I know. I was like, what the? They make him sound like all that sweet and innocent, but like...
He was doing some shit when he was home alone, okay? I don't know, but like, I feel like that pornography, it might change a person's mindset after watching. And many, like if you were on the jury and you heard this, you'd be like,
Anyway, so that was brought up and I was like, oh my God, I can't believe. That alone is like so disturbing. So next prosecutors bring up something that was happening within Maddie's home. And this was leading up to the murder itself. I guess there were like a bunch of strange things happening within the Clifton household. And for a minute they thought like, they thought their home was haunted. For example,
they had found new holes that seemed to be hammered into their walls without any idea of like where that came from. There was this one time where there was a window that mysteriously had shattered as if like there were a break in, but inside there was nothing of value even stolen.
Which was like, okay, weird. And then one day they found Maddie's bed sheets, her bed sheets stapled to her bed. Literally they were stapled down to the mattress with a heavy duty industrial staple gun. I don't know what kind of ghost that is.
but I don't like that ghost. It was weird. In Maddie's home, they did end up finding two things that were missing. One was a cordless phone, so the phone itself was missing, and also a photo of Jessie, Maddie's older sister.
"So that damn ghost, you know?" But then when investigators like really thoroughly searched Josh's room, guess what they found? They found the missing photo of 11 year old Jesse. It was in his room. And they also found the cordless phone
was buried in Josh's backyard. So no idea what that was about. The phone? No idea. No idea. Well, once investigators started looking at phone records, they found call logs that were made from Josh and he had racked up about $500 worth of calls to 900 numbers. You're like, "What's a 900 number?" Sex hotlines. Do you remember those things?
You'd call and you'd talk to someone hot and they'd charge you like $2.99 a minute. They found a lot of that in the call logs and they were lining up with the time that Josh was home. So yeah, this Josh guy was doing a lot of things under the family's radar. You know, they thought like, they thought...
And I thought wrong. Prosecutors, they also presented to the court evidence showing that Joshua had a weird obsession with Maddie's older sister, Jessie. Not only had he stolen that photo of her to use for God knows what,
But he was a little like oddly fixated on her. And you can actually kind of see it because like I had mentioned earlier, Joshua, he had a ton of like home videos and some that he made himself. And there were several that featured the Clifton girls in them. You can see in like one of them, Josh is behind the lens and he's like, how do I word this? Like he's not being creepy. Oh yeah, he is.
He's creepy because he's doing the camera work and he's like lingering on Jessie for like a little too long. You know what I'm saying? It's just like zooming in.
just watching her, you know? Josh allegedly had also talked to both girls about sexual intercourse, making some kind of dumb jokes, like at one point on the videos. So many don't know why, like in this narrative, he victimized Maddie instead. Many think that maybe like because she was younger, she was easier to attack. Maybe it was an opportunity. Maybe it was practice. People have their theories, but...
So Josh's trial, it only lasted one day and honestly guilty or not, Josh's defense, like they really dropped the ball. Like their closing argument was basically like, you guys, he's a kid. Yep, a kid. And that's my closing. Thank you so much. Thank you so much.
It was that bad. It was real bad. The only real work the defense ever did was actually a good one. They hired a neurologist, even though I just shit on them. They did do one thing. They hired a neurologist to do a brain scan on Josh and they found something called lesions on the frontal lobe of his brain, which was kind of a big deal. This was according to this doctor. He had a
brain damage. And apparently these lesions can cause poor emotional regulation, poor judgment, impulsivity. And on top of being 14 years old, you could make a good case for Josh not being in his right mind when he killed Maddie. The judge did not allow this to be presented in court. I'm not saying like he should have or whatever. So don't
"I'm just telling you the story, you get it." And in the end, the jury convicted Josh of first degree murder. It took them only like two hours to come up with their guilty verdict, which he did it. So I would think it would be guilty for sure. So normally a first degree murder conviction like this would bring the possibility of the death penalty,
But since Josh was under the age of 16 when he was convicted, he was given life in prison without the possibility of parole. Josh was sent to Marion County Correctional in Lowell, Florida. When Josh entered the prison at 15, he was mixed in with like the general population. And Josh said that once he got there, once he got inside, he saw some of the elderly prisoners using walkers to get around.
And he said that in that moment, he realized what the rest of his life was going to be like. And I think this is when you're supposed to feel sorry for him, but fool, you killed someone, you know? Like, yep, welcome. You made it.
This is the consequences to your choices, okay? He's like, "Oh my God, I had no idea that was gonna be like the movies where it's just cool and we hang out and like play cards." While in prison, Joshua Phillips got his GED and took a few college courses. I mean, it was enough to get him started working as a paralegal. And he uses his training to help other prisoners prepare their appeals. I think that's cool. I think that's great, whatever. And I was like, "Do they, is that free for them?"
I guess it's free. I was like, oh, so you get free school? Interesting. I mean, I know they can't do anything with it, but like,
Is that how I get a degree? In prison? So Josh is said to be making the most of his prison life, but since his conviction in 1999, the United States Supreme Court, they made a ruling that children cannot qualify for life sentences unless there were outstanding circumstances. So as a part of that ruling at the Supreme Court's level, Josh's conviction had to be reviewed.
Since he'd been given a life sentence as a child, they needed to see if that conviction still stood under the new guidelines. So this kind of just shows you how the attitudes have changed pretty wildly from the time Josh was originally convicted in 1999 versus nearly 20 years later in 2017. At this resentencing hearing, although the general consensus was pretty much Josh needs to stay in jail,
he had someone speak on behalf of him being released. And guess who the surprise speaker guest was? It was the lead prosecutor from his original trial. His name was Harry. So this guy, Harry,
actually comes out and testifies on Josh's behalf. And Harry apparently had a change of heart in the last 20 years and said that had he known in 1999 what he knew in 2017 on brain development,
he never would have sought a first degree murder conviction. And I thought that was like, wow, that's pretty big of them, right? Ultimately, it didn't work. And Josh's conviction was upheld and he, to this day, remains in prison. He had another review recently, or it's coming up,
But his conviction was upheld. So he's in prison. As a part of his life sentence, Josh's case will be up for review after 25 years served in prison. So I guess we'll see if he gets out.
Sadly, Maddie's parents, they ended up breaking up, which is so sad. I mean, you hear it often, like when these big tragedies happen within a family, it just sucks. It's hard. It's really hard. And sadly, Maddie's parents, you know, they separated. Three years after she went missing, they ended up getting a divorce. Josh's mother, her name is Melissa, and woo-wee.
That poor girl. Oh, she's been through it. I mean, a lot of the families have been through it, okay? Sorry if that sounded insensitive. But Josh's mother, Melissa, she not only had to like watch her only son grow up in prison. Sucks, but that's a choice he made, right? But her husband, Josh's dad, Steven, karma came and got him real quick. He died. He died. It's not funny, but it was just like, whoop, whoop.
Whoop, because he died like shortly after Josh's trial. I guess he got into a car accident in like 2000. So literally right after his trial, he got into a car accident. There's not a lot of information about it, but I guess he wasn't wearing a seatbelt, got into a car wreck, ejected from the vehicle and just died on impact. Whoops, you know, always wearing your seatbelt, but like, fuck that guy. That's not nice, but like, you know. So, you know, this woman, she lost,
And she even said that she tried to move forward and just really all she could do is keep moving forward. Life keeps on going. She said that she was splitting her time between her house in Jacksonville and Northern Florida and that she would go to church like outside of her community or she would just attend church in general. But she said that like around 10 years after the trial and everything, she had gone to church and she got recognized for
Like a young blonde woman approached her and asked if she was Josh's mom. And instantly her like stomach dropped, you know, like fuck. Yep. But this woman came up to her, asked her, and then gave her a big hug. And it turns out it was Jessie Clifton, Maddie's older sister. Yeah. Super plot twist. And that is a kindness and love that is...
So special. I don't know how to word it. It's just very unique and powerful that...
She did that. I don't know, that sat with me. I was like, wow, you know? So then Jessie, Maddie's older sister, later on in life, she actually ended up buying their childhood home in Jacksonville. And she told the local news, like during an interview, that those early days of her life, her childhood spent with Maddie were like some of the best years of her life. And moving back into the house felt like it was coming home for her. And I thought that was special. And I just hope she's doing well.
Well, same with the whole family, everyone. Everyone was affected so deeply by this, by this stupid child, Josh. Anyways, Josh still in prison, actively making attempts to get out. Maddie's parents are, you know,
they're not into that idea and they do speak at his hearings and they speak against his release. Jesse, Maddie's older sister, said that she put it in God's hands and it's not her place to judge. And of course, Josh's mom is still hoping he will get out one day. Josh himself said, quote,
"I really don't know if I deserve it or not, but I know I want a second chance. Maybe I deserve to die in prison, but I can't look at it like that. Why would I try to improve myself? Why would I try to help anybody if I'm just going to lay down here and die?" End quote. And like, I get what he's getting at.
you have to probably stay in a more optimistic mindset in prison because what is the point, you know? But that's the end of the story. And this is where
the conversation usually starts because people have very mixed feelings here. Many believe that he shouldn't be in prison because, you know, he was a kid, he's grown, he's changed, whatever. And then there's the other side where it's like he commends
committed this horrible crime. He killed a little girl and not just like by accident, like it was, it was a passionate killing. And then he hit her under the bed. Like it just took a lot more steps to do. It wasn't like a whoops. It was a whoops, whoops, whoops, whoops, whoops. And then he kept going. You know what I'm saying? In my opinion, I don't know. I think if you murder someone and you do it in a way that's just really awful and you, and...
But I always want to believe that people can change, but then that's not fair to the victim's family because they don't get another chance.
Why should you? Like that in itself is like not fair, right? And that's where I'm always like, no, you should just stay in jail. But then deep inside of me, I'm like, but people can change if you just really try and hope. I don't know. I hope you guys have a wonderful rest of your day. You make good choices. Please make good choices. Don't make bad ones because then you have to keep making bad ones. And then when you keep making bad ones, you don't make good ones. Ouch.
Thank you. I hope you have a wonderful rest of your week and I'll be seeing you guys later. Good bye.