Dear Zachary

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Many true crime cases fade out of
our memory, no matter how horrific or

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disturbing they might be, But sometimes
the details of a case are preserved in

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a piece of media. Shirley Turner's
crimes and the first name of the son

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she murdered, became immortalized in the
true crime film Dear Zachary, a letter

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to a son about his father.
Throughout her whole life, Shirley became incredibly

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good at playing the victim and her
eyes, nothing was ever her fault.

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There was always someone else to blame. And when Shirley blamed somebody, she

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was violent, obsessive, and abusive. She had three children by different fathers

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and a string of failed relationships and
marriages. One of her former roommates,

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who had lived with Shirley and her
kids, was so concerned about how the

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children were treated that he reported her
to a psychiatrist and then promptly moved out.

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When social services were notified by the
psychiatrist, they discovered that Shirley would

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regularly hit her kids with belts and
then left them home alone for days at

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a time. Worst of all,
she didn't even see anything wrong with what

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she was doing, despite the evidence
of abuse. The case was dropped and

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Shirley's children remained in her custody until
she decided that she wanted to attend medical

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school and then dumped the children back
with their fathers without a second thought.

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And it wasn't just Shirley's children that
suffered under her care, it was also

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her romantic partners who received a heaping
helping of cruelty. Shirley systematically abused every

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single man she ever dated, playing
psychological mind games and obsessing over every little

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detail of how they behaved. She
didn't just want a happy relationship, she

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wanted to have complete control at all
times. When one boyfriend attempted to break

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up with Shirley, she started stalking
and harassing him before attempting suicide in his

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house, dressed in black and holding
a bunch of roses. The message behind

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the suicide attempt was clear. She
wanted to teach him a lesson so that

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he wouldn't go through with the breakup. After being rushed to the hospital,

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Shirley survived, but the relationship did
not. Like so many abusers, Shirley's

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pattern of violence and control escalated and
escalated until it reached a breaking point.

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The trigger that made Shirley finally snap
was her relationship with Andrew Bagbie, who

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was twelve years younger than her.
Shirley actually had a habit of dating much

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younger men, probably she found them
easier to control. The pair kept up

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a strained, long distance relationship until
Shirley's manipulative jealous behavior was finally too much

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to deal with. One stage,
she even robbed his apartment, taking many

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of Andrew's personal items as well as
his laptop. Three years into her relationship

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with Andrew, Shirley figured out the
perfect way to manipulate him, pretending that

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she was pregnant with his child.
What she didn't know was that she actually

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was pregnant with a baby boy,
who would later be named Zachary. Andrew

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suspected that Shirley was faking the pregnancy, and when she finally admitted it,

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Andrew broke up with her. It
was around this time, late two thousand

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and one, that Shirley bought a
gun. She started going to shooting lessons,

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seemingly passionate about handling the weapon correctly, But on the fifth of November,

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Shirley didn't show up for her shooting
lessons or her job. Instead,

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she drove to Andrew's apartment, where
she verbally harassed him until he agreed to

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meet her at a local park.
As promised, Andrew arrived at Keystone State

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Park to talk to Shirley at around
eight pm that evening. The next day,

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his body was found laying next to
his parked car. He had been

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shot five times. Identifying the murder
weapon was made easy for investigators because Shirley's

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gun had a noticeable flaw it often
ejected bullets prematurely. A sixth ejected bullet

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was found close to Andrew's body,
and law enforcement was on the hunt for

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Shirley Turner. Shirley abandoned her gun
and drove to Canada, but she was

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followed, and by mid December,
she was located and arrested. Instead of

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following the State of Iowa's request to
extradite Shirley back to the United States,

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Justice Gail Welsh decided to keep Shirley
in Canada with strict probation conditions and bail

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set at seventy five Canadian dollars.
It's likely that Shirley's pregnancy was a key

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factor in this decision, but nobody
could have predicted how damning the choice would

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become. In July of two thousand
and two, Shirley gave birth to Zachary.

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Andrew's parents, David and Kate,
were desperately worried about the well being

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of their grandchild. They couldn't believe
that the woman who had recently shot and

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killed their son in cold blood was
now being allowed to raise his child.

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The Bagbees were granted shared custody of
Zachary, but there were no legal processes

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in place to stop Shirley from harming
him. Shirley quickly began dating another man

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and continued her pattern of severe psychological
abuse, verbal harassment, and stalking.

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She never told her new boyfriend about
the fact that she had murdered her last

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boyfriend, and when he found out, he broke things off quickly. After

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the breakup, Shirley called him hundreds
of times to threaten him, but he

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never pressed charges. That breakup sent
Shirley into another tailspin. She got her

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hands on large quantities of an anti
anxiety medication, lorazepam, and overdosed on

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it. She also mixed a toxic
amount of the drug into a bottle of

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baby formula and fed it to Zachary. Shirley left her car parked on the

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street outside her most recent boyfriend's house. The front seat was covered with printed

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out pictures of Zachary and Shirley together, as well as a used tampon.

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In her erratic drug addled state,
Shirley seemed to be hoping that she could

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manipulate her ex one last time by
framing him for what was about to happen.

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Shirley carried Zachary from the fox Trap
Marina and walked to the edge of

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the fishing wharf. She used the
arms of her sweater to tie Zachary to

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her chest. By now, the
high dose of lorazepam had already sedated Zachary

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and he was limp and unconscious by
the time Shirley threw them both into the

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Atlantic Ocean. Shirley and Zachary drowned
quickly. A couple of tourists found Shirley's

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body washed up on the beach nearby, and a further search of the area

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uncovered Zachary's remains as well. So
many people had failed Zachary and the rest

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of Shirley's children, Only one person
was ever found guilty of contributing to the

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three deaths, doctor John Ducett,
Shirley's psychiatrist, doctor Ducett, was investigated

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and found guilty of misconduct, for
which he received a ten thousand dollars fine

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and mandatory psychiatric counseling. This brings
us to the film Dear Zachary, A

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Letter to a Son about his father. Possibly the most tragic thing about the

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film is that it wasn't created because
of Zachary's death. It was directed by

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Kurt Kenney, one of Andrew's close
friends, in response to his murder.

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At the time of the filming,
Zachary and Shirley were still alive. It

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was meant to be a tribute to
Andrew, away for those who loved him

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to remember him by telling the story
of his life. The film's intended audience

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were just a group of close friends, as well as Zachary himself once he

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was old enough to understand what had
happened. Instead, Dear Zachary inadvertently documented

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Shirley escalating and her eventual murder suicide. The purpose changed now, Dear Zachary

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needed to reach a wider audience to
raise awareness of abuse, the failure of

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social services, and the way that
the legal systems had failed Zachary and contributed

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to his murder, Kurt Kenney was
dealing with indescribable grief and anger. He

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became a man on a mission,
and that mission was to show Dear Zachary

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to every single member of the House
of Commons of Canada. While Kurt kept

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raising awareness, he got more and
more support. Before long, mass screenings

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of the film were being held in
front of groups of Canada's parliament, and

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in two ten, Kurt succeeded in
changing Canada's laws to deny bail to any

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criminal who posed a threat to a
child. The bill, named Zachary's Bill,

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would hopefully prevent other children from meeting
the same fate, but it was

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too late to save the boy it
was named after. If Shirley had not

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been granted bail in Canada, Zachary
Bagbie would still be alive. That is

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ten minute murder for today Grief and
binge Able True Crime. I'm Joe the

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host, and thank you so much
for listening today. And I know in

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the past on this show I've talked
about doing a whole episode where I do

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nothing but answer random questions that people
send me about various topics and subjects.

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And the reason I didn't do that
is because there's a sizeable amount of you

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listening that don't care about my favorite
football team that it is and always has

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been, the Buffalo Bills. Believe
it or not, some people don't care

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about me, and I'm okay with
that. It doesn't bother me. But

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I didn't want to bog down the
whole show flow with a whole episode about

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me. It seems self serving.
So I will periodically grab one or two

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questions that get emailed to me and
answer them here during this part of the

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show, the part that people can
skip if they want to. And this

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one that I'm gonna talk about today, this one is a question from Amy

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in Texas. Hey, Joe,
are you a millennial or a gen x?

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And I'm just barely considered a gen
x. I'm right on the on

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the edge of it. But I
fully grew up like I was just completely

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gen X. I had a three
wheeler when I was in the fourth grade,

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a three wheeler that's like a four
wheeler, but with three wheels instead

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of four. And you know why
you don't really see those anymore because they

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were super dangerous in the government banned
them. I nearly killed myself on that

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thing. But my parents bought me. One told me to wear a helmet

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and go at it have fun.
I've also gone into gas stations by myself

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with a note from my mother and
a check and bought cigarettes. It sounds

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unbelievable now, but that's that was
the norm back in like the eighties.

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I've jumped off a roof holding an
umbrella because someone said, hey, I

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bet you can float if you do. I've seen, you know, cartoons

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or Mary Poppins. I guess this
is where it came from. I did

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that multiple times. I don't know
how it didn't break my ankles, but

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it doesn't work. In case you're
wondering, you just used fall just as

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fast with that umbrella. And that's
how gen x I am. If you

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have a question or you want to
suggest an episode of ten Minute Murder,

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00:11:16.919 --> 00:11:20.679
you can do that Joe at ten
minute Murder dot com. And if this

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is your first time listening to ten
Minute Murder, please subscribe now so that

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you can catch up on all the
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new ones. Connect with me on
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feedback is very much appreciated. Go
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