The Cheat Sheet: Veterinarians and Vehicles

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[00:01:38] Content warning, this episode contains discussion of murder and violence as well as sexual crimes against children, including child sexual abuse materials. So today on the cheat sheet, we are going to be going to Michigan, California, New Jersey, and Texas. So we're going all around. We'll be talking about some different cases, as we often do in the cheat sheet.

[00:02:07] That's the whole premise of this segment. All right, let's do it. My name is Anya Kane. I'm a journalist. And I'm Kevin Greenlee. I'm an attorney. And this is The Murder Sheet. We're a true crime podcast focused on original reporting, interviews, and deep dives into murder cases. We're The Murder Sheet. And this is The Cheat Sheet. Vehicles? Veterinarians.

[00:03:15] Well, correct me if I'm wrong, Anya, but I believe the Kane train will be making its first stop in Michigan. The what now? The Kane train. So first, I'm a weird, weird plane person who's zipping around the globe, but now I'm just in a train. So I've kind of been demoted. Yes. Interesting. Well, there's nothing overseas this week. No, there's nothing overseas.

[00:03:42] So we're going on high speed rail from Michigan to California to New Jersey to Texas. Seems a little bit crisscrossing this great country of ours. I didn't plan this itinerary. No, no, no. Well, I didn't either. So you pick your cases. I pick mine, then we slap them all together. That's how it works, folks. Seeing behind the curtain. You probably didn't want to. All right. Are we ready? Yeah. So this is from a listener recommendation.

[00:04:10] And I want to thank this listener for letting us know about the situation. It's incredibly disturbing out of Michigan, our northern neighbor. And two media sources that you can check out about this are Fox 2 Detroit, as well as the Times Herald. But a lot of what I looked at was also from the criminal complaint filed with the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan. And that was accessed through PACER.

[00:04:41] So what happened involved a man named Timothy Patrick Heigl. I don't know if I'm saying his name right. You know, he's really one problem. I'm going to go off on a bit of a soapbox here. One problem with the decline of newspapers is that when you look at certain places, even small towns as late as the 90s, the local newspaper was reporting on everything. And you could really do a lot of research and kind of like figure out local people and local officials.

[00:05:11] And even people who weren't like public figures would come up in some way and you could kind of research them. This guy really doesn't come up on newspapers dot com. All I could find about Heigl was that he was as a kid himself in 2006 in the Detroit Free Press. He was with the teen actors of Ridgedale playing a part in the musical Grease.

[00:05:33] But other than that, but you really you know, what's really kind of public, I guess, kind of speaking to this current moment is his social media account, specifically Facebook. I did look a lot of that and, you know, he comes across just as kind of a young guy, but goofy, very into sort of choirs and choruses and music and umpiring baseball. So, you know, no overt red flags that I saw.

[00:06:00] But but then again, that's that's not uncommon at all. And that's also filtered through my own set of biases. So he was a he became a student teacher and then later a teacher in St. Clair County, Michigan, specifically the East China School District. East China being a township in that county. And that's a, you know, the West China School District.

[00:06:37] That's, again, that's his self-reported statements. So he's kind of getting around a lot of kids that way. On his social media, he posted pictures of his seniors and talked about big concerts they had coming up and, you know, very engaged. He talked about his first day teaching. He talked about his last day teaching.

[00:06:58] In one strange post, he actually just posted the words, whoa, talking about how a University of Michigan opera professor and his husband had been charged with sexual assault in Texas. So unfortunately, you know, we're not talking about this guy because he just turned out to be some normal dude.

[00:07:16] We're talking about him because he was recently hit with the following charges. Enticement of a minor and sexual exploitation of a minor, receipt of child pornography and possession of child pornography. And these crimes were alleged to have happened between March 23rd, 2023 and September 30th, 2024 in Oakland County, Michigan.

[00:07:44] So this is obviously pretty upsetting when you see a teacher be accused of such things. Obviously, Mr. Heigl, this is all alleged, this is he's not had his day in court yet. So I think that's important to note.

[00:07:58] Another note is that a lot of, you know, within law enforcement, child pornography gets used a lot. I know in that space, a preferred term is child sexual abuse materials because pornography has a bit of a connotation of somehow being consensual, which adult pornography should be at least. But when you're talking about underage children, that's obviously not the case.

[00:08:25] So a federal Bureau of Investigation special agent put together this criminal complaint and it outlines it's, you know, like I think a lot, I think you had one of these recently too. Like a lot of these federal ones, they can be a little sparse on the details. Yes. You know, it's, they're not, they're not overdoing it there. They redact the names or rather they kind of abbreviate, you know, they talk about minor victim too. So they're not naming these victims understandably because they're minor.

[00:08:54] But what the behavior that's alleged here is that he was soliciting minors to film and take photos of themselves in sexual situations using Snapchat. And I'm talking about 16 year old, a 16 year old and a 14 year old. And then he would also send them pictures of his penis and images of himself masturbating.

[00:09:21] So, um, this is, I mean, again, this is, this is pretty, this is pretty incredibly serious and horrible. Snapchat is often favored by predators because they, you know, the mechanism of if you don't screenshot an image, then it, uh, you know, it disappears.

[00:09:38] But, um, you know, when law enforcement investigated the Snapchat accounts after sort of interviewing some of these victims who came forward, you, uh, they found quickly that his account was linked to his, you know, to his own email address that was like, you know, Tim Heigl at whatever.

[00:09:57] And, um, you know, I'm not going to get into the descriptions of the various images that were found, but they're, uh, they're, they're pretty horrifying that somebody would be having underage girls, um, doing this. But, um, you know, this is, again, they found another third victim and, and she said, quote, or this is from the complaint, quote, she communicated with Heigl while she was in seventh or eighth grade.

[00:10:25] And she sent Heigl nude images when he, he, that he asked for via Snapchat in exchange for money. So the things that he was offering these kids in exchange for these sexual images were things like vapes, alcohol, and straight up money. He was straight up paying some of them for it. Um, yeah. So the sort of clean cut choir loving image he put out on social media is, you know, obviously severely challenged by what's come out here.

[00:10:53] And, uh, the FBI is involved, obviously the Michigan state police were involved in this investigation. It was taken seriously. This is a crime. It's a crime to do this to, to children. Um, yeah. So let me keep an eye on that one, I imagine. Yeah. I know right now there's a lot of chatter about how the East China school district, the school board, the officials within the school, how they handled this.

[00:11:21] Allegations about not listening to people, to students who were saying that this man was making them feel uncomfortable. But at this point, we haven't done any reporting on that. So, I mean, I don't know if there's, I don't know. I mean, we're not going to say, oh, these people did this or did that. When it came out that there was an arrest, it sounds like the superintendent sent around an alert to parents.

[00:11:45] But obviously, I imagine for parents in the area, the fact that this guy worked there from December of 2017 to June of 2019 is pretty, pretty horrifying on the East China side of, of this. But I know on his Facebook, he talked about, um, you know, kind of at some point leaving to, to a new school at one point.

[00:12:11] So again, it's like, I think he talked about going to the Cranbrook schools. I don't know. I think this is, it's important to have conversations with your kids. We know, like everyone says that, right? But letting them know if someone is doing something, an adult is doing something creepy to them, it's not their fault. They didn't do anything wrong. And even if they made a mistake and sent something because they were manipulated or what have you, they're not going to get in trouble. They're not to blame.

[00:12:41] But you need to look at stopping this person. So, you know, stopping whatever person's doing that so he doesn't harm other people. Exactly. Well said. We are often asked about our favorite true crime podcasts. The Silver Linings Handbook with Jason Blair is one of our absolute favorites. Jason has become a personal friend of ours and his show is a bright light in the true crime space. Our listeners probably even recognize his name because he's been on our program a number of times. We've been on his as well.

[00:13:09] We think our listeners would also love Jason's Silver Linings Handbook podcast. He always has meaningful and important conversations with people whose lives have been affected by crime. Just recently, he had Kimberly Loring on to talk about the disappearance of her sister, Ashley Loring Heavy Runner, a 20-year-old Native woman. Ashley vanished in Montana. With Jason, Kimberly was able to raise awareness of her sister's case. Jason also spoke with Jim Schmidt, whose daughter, Gabby Petito, was murdered.

[00:13:37] In the middle of the talk, when Jason brought up a friend suffering abuse, Jim leapt into action to give advice. Or Susan Snow, whose detective father was murdered to prevent him from testifying in a robbery trial. These are gripping conversations that get to the heart of the human beings at the center of these stories. It's got plenty of episodes for true crime listeners, but Jason also delves into conversations about mental health, underrepresented communities, leadership, and more.

[00:14:05] You never know quite what you're going to get, other than the fact you're in good hands with an empathetic interviewer and fascinating guests. Subscribe to the Silver Linings Handbook wherever you listen to podcasts. Life moves fast. Sometimes you're minding your own business trying to do a podcast and battle misinformation and true crime. And the next thing you know, you've got to sell some t-shirts. We all need an uncomplicated way to relax, recharge, or stay focused. That's where VIA comes in.

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[00:15:00] We have absolutely been relying on the Flow State gummies to write this book and record this podcast at the same time. Like, when we sit down and get to work, we both make sure to have one. Right now, we are coming into the final stretch of some pretty important work, so it's been helpful to feel extra locked in and focused. Get started with their quick product finder quiz. They will send you personalized recommendations on what to try. Again, if you're 21 and older, head to viahemp.com and use the code MSHEAT to receive 15% off.

[00:15:30] Free shipping on orders over $100. And if you're new to VIA, a free gift of your choice. That's viahemp.com and use code MSHEAT at checkout. After you purchase, they ask you where you heard about them. Please support our show and tell them we sent you. Enhance your every day with VIA. All right, so shall we – again, thanks to the listener for that, and I'm sure we'll keep an eye on it going forward. But let's go on to the next case.

[00:15:55] Yes, the next stop, next whistle stop is in California. My source for this was KTLA and also the San Bernardino Sun. And this is a return trip for us because this is a case we covered earlier on an earlier edition of the cheat sheet. And this is a case involving a judge by the name of Jeffrey Ferguson, who as you may or may not recall.

[00:16:23] I'll just boil it down to the very, very basics. This judge, after a night of drinking and arguing, he fired a gun at his wife. He fired a gun in the vicinity of his wife. Let me phrase my words very carefully there. And she was fatally wounded.

[00:16:48] After that, he made some incriminating statements about what had happened. And there is no question that he was holding the gun. There was no question the gun went off and killed his wife. The questions revolve around, you know, was he intending to do this? He says it was an accident. And even in his incriminating statements, to be fair to him, he never explicitly said that he shot her on purpose.

[00:17:20] And hang on to your hats because something happened in this trial that I've never seen happen before. I've heard that it's technically possible, obviously, but I've never seen it happen before. But before I get to that, so the jury was sent to deliberate. And one of the charges they were considering was second-degree murder.

[00:17:44] And in California, a person can be found guilty of second-degree murder if they were doing something, you know, inherently dangerous or risky that ends up causing the death of another, even if they didn't intend to. And so the argument the prosecutor was making is he's drunk, he's handling a loaded weapon in the vicinity of his wife. That's pretty dangerous. You think? I think so, indeed. And the penalty for that is very, very severe.

[00:18:13] The jury also has the option of finding him guilty of involuntary manslaughter, which, again, presupposes that he did do this act. But if you go for that charge, you're regarding it as more of carelessness, a lower degree of culpability, if that makes sense. And the jury is having a tough time with this.

[00:18:39] And they're really hung up on this second-degree murder charge in particular. And they don't even have the option to consider the involuntary manslaughter charge unless and until they find him not guilty of the second-degree murder charge. And so they've been deliberating for days. And they were at a bit of an impasse. And here's where the odd thing happens.

[00:19:09] And I'm going to ask you if you've ever heard of this. They had the jury come back into the courtroom. And the attorneys for the defense and attorneys for the state each got to make another 10 minutes of arguments in front of this jury who had already been deliberating for days. That's so weird. I've never heard of that. So basically an encore for the lawyers. Yeah, I guess so.

[00:19:37] It's another chance for them to try to make their case because now they know here's what the issue is. They're hung up on this second-degree murder charge. Give them the razzmatazz, boys. Try to win them for your side. That's wild. So the prosecutor, Seton Hunt, he's quoted from his argument. He said, quote, handling a loaded firearm with a bullet in the chamber is inherently dangerous to human life.

[00:20:04] It is about the most dangerous thing you can think of doing while intoxicated. The defense attorney, Cameron Talley, said, well, he was pointing the gun away from his wife at the time. He had his finger off the trigger before he fumbled and accidentally fired it. But Talley said, quote, you can say that maybe it was careless to take out the gun or it was a mistake of judgment. But it has to be more than ordinarily carelessness, more than a mistaken judgment to convict him of second-degree murder.

[00:20:34] What do you make of all this? I think it was more than a mistaken judgment. I mean, he was pointing finger guns that are angrily in the restaurant right beforehand and they were fighting. Yeah. I mean, is the fact that he was extremely angry with her. I mean, like if it was just two drunk people messing around and like, you know, one of them, there was no animosity. I feel like I could buy the defense's argument a bit more where you're saying, well, that was truly an accident and no one intended for anyone to get killed.

[00:21:02] But if I'm like angry with you saying, you know, gun fingers, da, da, da. And then somehow you end up shot. I don't know. And it's worth noting, too, that the judge had a lot of experience handling firearms. If for some reason you gave me a loaded firearm. Then everyone's dead in like two seconds. Because I don't know what I'm doing. So I don't even have the capability to say, OK, this is a reasonable and safe thing to do. This is not.

[00:21:30] But the judge was a person who had that experience. But I just can't get past this oddity of the attorneys getting to make additional closing arguments. Talley, who is the defense attorney in the case, you said he was a prosecutor for 22 years and he's been a defense attorney for a decade. And never in all that time has he had an opportunity to go back and do a second closing while the jury is deliberating.

[00:21:56] Wouldn't you have a heart attack if you get called in by the judge and told to like perform again? Like, I mean, you think you're done. You think you're just waiting for the verdict and waiting, you know, for the deliberations to end one way or another. And it's like, you know, you have to be on again. I think it would be a relief because I was like, oh, great. They're hung up on this one point. I know what the point is. I'm going to get another chance to convince of them. I don't know.

[00:22:26] Set up for success here. But, you know, I guess I'm a little surprised that they're deliberating so long. I think he's obviously guilty. But I mean, I guess it's. I don't know. Well, it's difficult under any circumstances for a jury in a case as serious as this to come to the decision that the person in front of them is going to face a severe penalty. Now, obviously, it's not up to the jury. Yeah, who cares? That's not their problem.

[00:22:53] It's not up to the jury to impose a sentence. But still, it can be difficult as a juror to say, well, if I convict this person, he's going to get a sentence, which means because of his age, he's likely to die in prison. Well, that's the job. Of the judge. Of the judge. But it's also it's the job of the jurors to not consider that, you know, like, I don't know.

[00:23:17] That's what I mean, they they they mean, in wad years that we've seen, I've they've always kind of gone over that pretty clearly. They have. I'm just saying to let's be realistic. Let's be real world. Sometimes for jurors, that's easier said than done. Yeah, I guess so. But I guess in a situation like this, I mean, he killed a woman. He killed his wife. So I I think that's. I mean, I don't know.

[00:23:44] That's an awful lot of sympathy for somebody who did something pretty horrible and then was, you know, blathering around about it. If he's convicted, he could get 15 years to life. And then also there would be some enhancements because of the involvement of the gun that could increase that sentence to 40 years to life. And again, this is a man in his mid 70s. I mean, yeah, he'd die in prison, obviously. With the other charge, that's the lesser charge.

[00:24:12] Is that something where he would possibly be released earlier? Yeah, it's a much less serious charge, a much less serious penalty. What would the penalty? I mean, you know, just. I don't know off the top of my head, but just but just lesser. Yeah, I don't know. What do you think? Do you think he's guilty of the more extreme charge or the lesser charge? Obviously, no one's disputing. No one's saying some sniper killed her. And this was all framed. I mean, I commend the defense on going for what I think is a pretty reasonable strategy that seems to be working here. Yeah.

[00:24:41] Keep in mind. Whatever. I'll tell you my opinion, but my opinion is based on press coverage. And we know from our own personal experience that sometimes press coverage is great and gives you a complete, accurate and full picture of what happened in court. And sometimes press coverage is not so great and doesn't give you that kind of picture. And I don't really have any way of evaluating whether or not I'm getting a full picture or not unless I'm in the courtroom and I'm not in the courtroom.

[00:25:10] I mean, that should be a caveat when we talk about anything on the show where we're not actually in court. But yeah. With all of that said, based on what we talked about regarding this case when we covered it last, I think last week. And I think he is guilty of second degree murder. Yeah. What do you think? I think he's guilty of second degree murder. And that's not even based on the trial coverage. That's just based on the information that was released so far.

[00:25:38] But again, I commend the defense team because that seems like a smart strategy to say, don't go for this, go for that. And you're not getting into the realm of, you know, elite snipers. We're trying to frame the judge because they're out for revenge. Set up the shot and then they made it look like him and they got him drunk.

[00:25:59] Like, I mean, because we're in the realm of like we're in the era where it feels like every other case that gets any sort of publicity turns into nonsense town. But in this case, it's I think it seems like they're doing a good job if they've got the jury. I'd be curious about the breakdown. Are there some people are saying second degree murder? You know, what is the number wise? What is it? I just looked it up.

[00:26:25] The legal penalties for involuntary manslaughter in the state of California is two, three or four years. Wow. So, I mean, this is a huge difference in terms of what the outcome for this man would be. Yes. Wow. Not really much of a middle ground there. Yeah. Well, yeah. It'll be interesting to see what ends up happening. It sort of sounds like they're going to deadlock.

[00:26:52] Unless he's second round really like pushes them one way or another towards the prosecution of the defense. I don't know how the second round will affect them. I'll be honest. We are recording this as I speak. It is 940 p.m. on Wednesday and they are scheduled to return for a seventh day of deliberations on Thursday. I think people will be hearing this on Friday. Maybe there'll be a verdict by then or maybe it'll be a hung jury by then. And if that's the case, we apologize.

[00:27:20] We're not getting you the information more instantaneously. But it's still an interesting discussion about sort of a quirk of of a trial procedure, I guess, that's kind of a bit unusual. Wouldn't you feel so good? Like if somebody if they get to a verdict either way and say innocent on second degree murder, but, you know, but we'll go for the minor charge or guilty of second degree murder. Wouldn't you feel so good about yourself if you were the one who like did that second round?

[00:27:50] Because you'd be like, it all came down to that. Oh, yeah. Yeah. That was all me. The prosecutor, the defense attorney in their second round of closings. Yeah. Because you'd be like, well, I mean, they were all split and then boom, everyone changed their mind. So, yeah, that would be a big ego thing, I would imagine. So how would you feel if you got some word that the audience wasn't sure what they thought about like the most recent episode and you got like another 10 minutes to come and make your case for why the most recent episode was good?

[00:28:18] That just sounds really sad. I'm like a waste of my time and everyone's time. So how does this happen? We get like a mean comment of someone being like, you guys stink. And then I say, now hold on, friend. And I record a specific response to that just for that person's personal consumption. And then they write back and say, you know, I have tears in my eyes. That was beautiful. Thank you so much. Maybe I should start doing that.

[00:28:47] I was going to go on Reddit and start saying, what can I do for you, sir? How can I make this right? If I ever do that, guys, you know, I'm having a nervous breakdown. Just go into customer service mode. How can we help you? Yes. How can we help you like us? We're going to have more time soon because next week we'll be done with the book. That's a bold statement. Well, I mean, it's a true statement. I mean, hopefully.

[00:29:16] I've learned to be very pessimistic about everything. We'll be done with the final draft, but I digress. Yes. I think it's time we're in California. We're going to get back aboard. I wish we were, but we're going on the train now. Now we get back on the cane train. Stop calling it that. That just sounds weird. That sounds weird. Okay. And the cane train is taken as all of the way across country. Very poorly planned route. And we end up all of the way from California to New Jersey.

[00:29:44] You always give the audience weird images of me, like stealing cereal or having a little plane or having a little train. It's just weird. I feel like everyone is. I feel like I need to start responding to people individually for little episodes like we talked about, just with like clarifying that I don't. That just I feel like that makes me sound vaguely ridiculous. You think they're like picturing you in like an engineer's outfit? Yeah. I'm like in an engineer's outfit. Well, I've been to having way too much fun, even though we're talking about murder.

[00:30:14] I think that sounds adorable. But tell us about the taste. What's going on in New Jersey? Oh, nothing good. So my sources for this are 6ABC and The Courier Post. And again, thank you to the listener who suggested this one. It's certainly interesting. You know, it's cases that are in other states that really do make me appreciate Indiana's My Case system, which is far from perfect.

[00:30:40] And obviously, I'm incredibly biased because I'm married to an attorney and can easily, you know, access it through him. But like New Jersey's case lookup portal is out of 2007. I'm not kidding. That's when it was copyrighted. It still says that on there. It is the most it is wild. And it has like no information. And I was not able to find any like probable cause affidavits, which I prefer to have because it usually gives you a better sense of what the heck's going on.

[00:31:10] So anyways, just to let you know, sometimes researching in other states is hard and they don't really have a lot of stuff for you. But I believe the reporting on this has been substantive, although a lot of questions remain. This is a situation that started on or at least came to some kind of culmination on December 10th, 2024. And that is when 45 year old Michael Anthony, who was a veterinarian in New Jersey.

[00:31:39] And he, you know, he lived in a place called Haddon Township or rather he worked in a place called Haddon Heights, I should say. And this he was outside. It was like, I think, around right before 6 a.m. And he was attacked with a knife.

[00:32:04] So I believe there may be some footage, maybe some screams heard. But police officers responding find his body around 7, 10 a.m. And what has come out is that a man has been arrested and his name is Christian Custodio Aquino. He's 27. He's listed as being from Portland, Oregon. So kind of cross-country situation here.

[00:32:32] And he's in the reports in the probable cause statement, which I can't find, but is cited in the press. He's listed as an acquaintance of the victim here. So no one knows the motive. No one knows why this attack happened, why Anthony was killed. But there is some indications that this was not a stranger attack.

[00:32:55] You know, Anthony, he went to University of Pennsylvania's veterinary school and ran, was a veterinary at Haddon Vet and again, Haddon Heights. And Custodio Aquino lived in Haddon Township. After the murder, like an hour later, his car appears in Pennsylvania. So he's kind of getting out of there. And he was arrested in Fresno, California. So he got all the way across the country.

[00:33:24] So, yeah, I'll be very curious. But the thing that really grabbed my attention about this case, Kevin, and just tell me if you see where I'm going with this, the clue that seems to have essentially tied Custodio Aquino, who again is innocent until proven guilty. This is all early days. But what police believe ties into the scene of the crime is a pair of eyeglasses. Does that sound familiar at all?

[00:33:52] Yes, makes me think, of course, of the Leopold and Loeb case. And what happened in that situation? In that situation, there were two young men who very arrogantly believed that they were capable of committing the perfect crime, the perfect murder. And so they wanted to do it for, I guess, for the thrill of it or just to prove they can or some combination thereof. Complicated story.

[00:34:22] So they meticulously plan out this crime where they would kidnap a little boy, Bobby Franks, if I recall correctly. Yes. And then kill him. And when they kill him and they take him to this murder site outside where he is killed, when the boy's body is discovered, there is a pair of eyeglasses discovered nearby.

[00:34:47] And it is assumed and correctly assumed that the eyeglasses belong to the killer. And as it happened, that particular pair of eyeglasses was a very rare and unusual, expensive style of eyeglasses. And I don't recall the details, but I believe it was something like perhaps only two or three of them had been sold in the entire area.

[00:35:13] And so the clue of the eyeglasses was more than enough to lead police to the two killers. Yes. In this case, police found the eyeglasses and looked into, I guess, the prescription and the lenses that sent them to Washington state. And they were able to go to a retailer who was able to pull up Custodio Aquino. So very similar in that situation.

[00:35:43] Eyeglasses are not something you want to lose in the commission of a murder, obviously. No. Because that can be really traced back to somebody. But anyways, that was that. I always am always fascinated when there's parallels with famous historical crimes, because I think we often are biased and I'm fall into this trap all the time. Don't get me wrong. I don't mean this critically of anyone because I do this all the time. But we kind of think, whoa, this is wild. This never happened before. And it's like, nah, everything. Everything's happened.

[00:36:13] Everything's always been terrible. And everything's just nuts. And people are always doing wild stuff. And just. You're so jaded. Welcome on board the cane train of depression. The cane brain is a troubled place. Yes. But, you know, no, I mean, in reality, in true crime, I mean, I think that's fair to say.

[00:36:39] People have this perception of the past as this kind of pristine and lovely time where everyone was just happy. And no, things have always been pretty, pretty wild. Anyways, let's go to Texas. Let's go to Texas. Which I know is having some, I think, weather issues and people losing power. So sorry to all our Texas listeners. We hope you're OK. Yes, we do indeed.

[00:37:02] And this, my source for this was CBS News and also the police department put out a press release. And I don't even know how to link it. It was very hard to find the actual press release, which is a shame because it was very well written and kind of charming. But the only place I found it was a picture of it appeared on the Plano police department's Facebook page. How did they not? How do you hide a press release?

[00:37:32] It took me some hunting. And this is like the closest we ever get to a feel good story on the cheat sheet because yes, it involves a crime and even, you know, the threat of murder. But no one died. If no one died and no one was sexually assaulted or traumatized, then that is a feel good story on the cheat sheet. So, yeah, no, I think that's fair to say.

[00:37:59] And this was referred to in that press release. This is why I said it was charming. The Plano police department referred to this as the Grinch crime spree series. What? Oh, my gosh. What are they doing? Are they like they're like old timey newspaper editors from the 30s who suddenly like wrote this thing? What do we call it? Let's put it in big, big print on the front page. I love that. That's so old school. It's wild.

[00:38:28] God bless them. Well, I mean, you described this story a little bit before and it sounds like they did a good job. So I guess they get to have their fun. So there was this crime. The story takes place in Plano, Texas. And it involved it.

[00:38:49] It began back in December of 2023 when there were a series of vehicle robberies, car robberies in the area. And through the use of home security cameras and the like, police got a pretty good image of the suspect and they deduce that these crimes are happening around Christmas. You know, there's a bunch of them all of a sudden.

[00:39:17] You know, there's a good chance it's somebody from out of town who's here visiting family. And they were able to figure out the identity of the suspect who appeared in these videos. And they learned that he liked to frequent a particular restaurant. So one detective, a, who is only identified frustratingly enough as detective C McIntyre. This guy did a great job.

[00:39:46] I wish we knew his first name. C McIntyre, you know, is hanging out at that restaurant on January 24th of 2024. And he spots a person come in who is the suspect. He spots this, this person named Michael McLeod. And detective McIntyre strikes up a conversation with Mr. McLeod.

[00:40:11] And in the course of that conversation, Mr. McLeod, remarkably enough, confides to his new acquaintance that he wants to buy a silencer for his gun so he can, quote, take care of his ex-girlfriend and her new boy and new boyfriend. He wants to murder them. And so McIntyre, thinking quickly, says, I know somebody who can help you with that.

[00:40:39] And then McIntyre promptly hooks up McLeod with an undercover agent from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms. Wow. The investigation proceeds and they're able to get a lot of evidence against McLeod. And McLeod just recently pled guilty.

[00:40:58] So this detective McIntyre, through his intelligence and I guess his charm, he was able to unravel a murder for hire plot in progress. And he basically saved some lives. He prevented a capital murder from taking place in Texas. Those are the best murders, the ones that don't happen. Indeed. Well, kudos to Detective C McIntyre.

[00:41:26] I feel like I found his name, but I'm not going to say it because maybe they didn't put it out there for a reason. Who knows? But I don't know. But I'll tell you afterwards. But I... So you're teasing the listeners. Well, no, I just... I mean, I also could be wrong and then that would be super embarrassing. So I'm just cautious. But I think that's really great. And also, it's nice to see that they kind of dug into some property crimes.

[00:41:51] I know in some instances, I'm sure some listeners have had the experience where they feel like police have dropped the ball sometimes on property crimes. It can be frustrating. In this case, by pulling that thread, they were able to actually prevent a murder or two murders, I guess. It reminds me of the case in Honolulu where there was vandalism done to a mailbox and an investigation tied that into a massive conspiracy involving a top prosecutor and the chief of police. Those are the kind of...

[00:42:19] Those are the ones that sound like a movie because you're like, oh, this minor weird thing happened. Let's look at it. Whoa, there's some crazy stuff going on. And yeah, but that's... We did a whole episode about that Honolulu case and it's still hard to believe it happened. Yeah, I still am like, whoa, that was wild. What was going on there? Or remember the influencer lady that we did where a couple, she was like, I'm going to fly you guys out. And they were like, yeah. And she was like, I want you to kill somebody for me.

[00:42:47] And they were like, no. It's also amazing to me that this McLeod fellow is confiding all of this rather serious stuff to somebody he just met. Most criminals are dumb. And most people who want to kill somebody else are dumb. And we all need to let go collectively of the Hannibal Lecter style genius killer thing. Because even people, as we talked about Leopold and Loeb, they messed up their lives.

[00:43:18] And, you know, you can't account for what you're going to drop in a crime. Like the smart thing to do is just not kill anybody and be a normal, nice person. But, you know. It's like you're either you're either maybe like they were book smart, but they were stupid because they did something horrible. So I don't know. That's not too surprising to me. And maybe I don't know. Maybe this guy's a really good, like kind of undercover guy. I don't know. We're ending on a controversial note. Oh, no. What are you doing?

[00:43:46] Tearing into perpetrators in a 100-year-old homicide. Oh, no. All the Leopold and Loeb fans are going to come after me. I mean, honestly, I think if they're— If the crime happened today, if the Leopold and Loeb crime happened today, there would be people out there saying that they are innocent and sending them money for their commissary and coming up with all sorts of conspiracies. And it would be absurd.

[00:44:15] People would be talking about how hot they were and that they would be making memes. Sometimes it would be a whole thing. It would make me want to throw up. And also, I'm going to say this. You're going to get mad at me. I don't care. Clarence Darrow would be doing some weird stuff and like probably some weird—like I think he'd be controversial. He'd be like, I could see him doing some weird stuff with like social media. I'm just going to say that.

[00:44:39] Oh, I'm outraged that you'd besmirch the reputation of the great Clarence Darrow. I think—should we have like an episode where we debate the merits of Mr. Darrow? Sure. Great man. Well, I mean, I think he was good at his job. You're so cynical. Well, I don't know. I mean, I've looked at the Massey case and, you know, he's on the wrong side a lot. Not always, but I think that doesn't really get talked about.

[00:45:08] But yeah, no, this is—we went in some interesting directions, but I'm so glad you found a case that was just kind of a little bit of a happy ending here. And so now the Kane train is reaching its final destination back in the middle of Indiana. We've had a long journey together. You make it sound like you're annoyed at me because I like planned the train wrong. It was a pretty insipid route. Oh, my—what is insipid? What does that even mean?

[00:45:37] Oh, my goodness. All right. Well, you know, you could buy some shirts from us. The link is in the show notes. They're shirts. And we all— So it sounds like you're so exhausted from your trip. I don't have time for this. And also— Because remember, Ani is up there in the engine room. I'm in the—I'm doing everything. I'm the conductor. I'm—you're just sitting back. I'm in the dining car chatting with friends. What is this, like the Orient Express all of a sudden? Jeez. Wouldn't that be nice? But no.

[00:46:08] And then we have a book coming out, but you know that. And, you know, if you want to pre-order it, that helps us out. And you should do that. And if you already did it, I'm sorry. I just have to keep saying it because it's the nature of the beast. Anyways, we hope all of you— Was there anything you wanted to say? You look like you're about to say something. You're the engineer of this journey. I don't want to be the engineer.

[00:46:35] I want to—like, why am I having to do all the engineering? Oh, man. Hmm. Well, I don't know what to say. Now you say something. Push the button. Thanks so much for listening to The Murder Sheet. If you have a tip concerning one of the cases we cover, please email us at murdersheet at gmail dot com.

[00:47:03] If you have actionable information about an unsolved crime, please report it to the appropriate authorities. If you're interested in joining our Patreon, that's available at www.patreon.com slash murdersheet. If you want to tip us a bit of money for records requests, you can do so at www.buymeacoffee.com slash murdersheet.

[00:47:32] We very much appreciate any support. Special thanks to Kevin Tyler Greenlee, who composed the music for The Murder Sheet, and who you can find on the web at kevintg.com. If you're looking to talk with other listeners about a case we've covered, you can join the Murder Sheet discussion group on Facebook. We mostly focus our time on research and reporting, so we're not on social media much.

[00:47:59] We do try to check our email account, but we ask for patience, as we often receive a lot of messages. Thanks again for listening. Before we go, we just wanted to say another few words about Vaya. This is really a wonderful product. I think it's really helped both of us get a lot better rest. Vaya is pretty much, I guess you'd say, the only lifestyle hemp brand out there. So what does that mean? It means that they're all about crafting different products to elicit different moods.

[00:48:28] Kevin and I really like their non-THC CBD products. Specifically, Zen really helps me fall asleep. Some Zen can really just kind of help me get more into that state where I can relax and fall asleep pretty easily. And they've been such a wonderful support to us. They're a longtime sponsor. We really love working with them, and they really make this show possible. I'm going to say this. You may not realize this, but when you support our sponsors, you're supporting us, and it kind of makes it possible for us to do this show.

[00:48:56] So if you or one of your loved ones is interested in trying some of this stuff, you're going to get a great deal. It's very high quality, high value. Anya, if I want to get this discount you speak of, what do I do? Okay, if you're 21 and older, head to Viahemp.com and use the code MSHEET to receive 15% off. And if you're new to Viah, get a free gift of your choice. That's V-I-I-A, hemp.com, and use code MSHEET at checkout. Spell the code. M-S-H-E-E-T.

[00:49:26] And after you purchase, they're going to ask you, hey, where did you hear about us? Say the murder sheet because then it lets them know that our ads are effective, and it really helps us out. So Anya, before we let people go, I wanted to talk again about the Silver Linings Handbook. And more specifically, I want to talk about Jason Blair because certainly there have been times when something happens and we don't know what to do.

[00:49:52] We're just out here rubbing two sticks together and we need to turn to somebody for advice. I'm sure everybody's had that experience. We need to turn to somebody for advice. And one of the people we turn to most often is Jason Blair. And he's always been there for us. He's always willing to give you time. He's always willing to give you great advice. And so now what's wonderful is that everybody within the Sound of My Voice

[00:50:18] has access to his insights and his compassion and his advice because you can find all of that on his podcast. Yeah, this podcast is a bit like being able to sort of sit down and sort of hear some interesting insights. I always feel inspired by it. He's had on some really incredible guests recently, and they've had just such like heartbreaking, real conversations with people like Jim Schmidt, who his daughter Gabby Petito was murdered.

[00:50:47] Jim just came across just as such a real and empathetic and wonderful human being. He was even given one of Jason's friends kind of told him recently about some abuse she had suffered. Jim was giving advice. I mean, it was really incredible. I'm thinking of Kimberly Loring. Her sister went missing in Montana. It's another case involving a Native woman. So raising awareness about that, talking to the woman who lost her father, who was a Los Angeles Police Department detective.

[00:51:14] He was murdered so he couldn't testify at a robbery trial. Just like awful stuff, but ultimately really focusing on the compassion and allowing people the space to tell their stories. I think Jason shines as an interviewer because he has that natural empathy and curiosity too. Whenever I'm thinking of a question like, oh, I hope they get into this, like he's asking it two seconds later. So it's a really enjoyable listening experience. And I feel like whenever we listen to it, you and I end up discussing some deep stuff like religion

[00:51:43] or what kind of positivity we want to share with the world. So I think if you're looking for that and you're looking to have those kind of thought-provoking conversations in your life, this is the show for you. 100%. So I would just say that if you're interested, subscribe to The Silver Linings Handbook wherever you listen to podcasts.