Julissa Thaler: The Mother Who Bought a Shotgun After Losing Custody Battle

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Six-year-old Eli Hart was a kindergartener who loved playing on the monkey bars and going

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fishing with his dad.

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He was born with medical challenges that required surgeries and hearing aids.

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But teachers and families said he was always smiling, always making friends.

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In May 2022, during a traffic stop in Orano, Minnesota, police found Eli's body in the trunk

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of his mother's car.

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She'd shot him nine times with a shotgun.

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And had been exactly ten days since Dakota County gave her full custody of Eli.

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[Music]

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There's a moment in a lot of true crime cases where you realize that tragedy didn't

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have to happen.

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Someone saw the warning signs.

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Someone raised the alarm.

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Someone tried to intervene.

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And then you find out that all those someone's were ignored and the child ended up dead.

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The case of Eli Hart is one of those stories where every single person who tried to save

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him was told to sit down and be quiet.

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And ten days later, that little boy was gone.

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Eli was six years old in May 2022.

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He was in kindergarten at Shirley Hills Primary School in Mount Minnesota.

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By all accounts, he was this bright, energetic kid who loved being around other people.

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His dad, Tori Hart, said Eli was always happy, always outgoing, full of energy.

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He loved the monkey bars at the park, loved playing with toy cars, loved going fishing.

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Eli had medical challenges from birth.

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He was born with a genetic disorder called Townsbrox syndrome that affected his feet and

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his hearing.

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He had multiple surgeries when he was a baby and wore hearing aids.

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But none of that slowed him down.

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Teachers said he was popular with the other kids.

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He made friends very easily.

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But Eli's home life was a different story.

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His mother, Jalissa Thaler, had been struggling with severe mental illness and addiction since

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she was a teenager.

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During the ages of 13 and 18, she was in and out of mental health institutions.

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She was treated repeatedly for drug and alcohol abuse.

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During her senior year of high school, she ran away and lived on the streets for 45 days.

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As an adult, her life was chaotic.

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She had arrests for stealing pharmaceuticals from a health clinic.

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She was kicked out of court-ordered parenting classes.

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Between 2020 and 2021, police were called to her home 21 times in a 10-month period.

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In October 2020, Dakota County Social Services found Eli wandering around naked in a house

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described as being in terrible condition.

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That's when they removed him and placed him with the foster mother named Nikita Kronberg.

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Nikita loved that little boy.

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But she also saw something that terrified her.

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She told social workers.

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She told the court appointed guardian.

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She told anyone who would listen that she believed Jalissa would kill Eli if she ever got

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him back.

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She said Jalissa would rather see Eli dead than let his father have custody.

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She said this multiple times.

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She was explicit about it.

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Tory Hart was fighting desperately to protect his son.

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Jalissa had thrown all kinds of accusations at Tory trying to keep him away from Eli.

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She accused him of domestic abuse.

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She claimed he planted a nail bomb in her car.

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None of it was true.

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Police never substantiated any of it.

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It created enough chaos that it delayed Tory's efforts to get custody.

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In March 2022, he was sending frantic emails to social workers saying Eli was being neglected,

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sleep deprived, wearing dirty clothes for days, missing medical appointments.

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Even the social workers' own reports showed serious problems.

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During supervised visits, Eli would hide behind furniture to avoid his mother.

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He'd have bathroom accidents after seeing her.

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Despite signs of a child experiencing trauma, despite all of this, despite the 21 police

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calls, despite the warnings, despite Eli's own behavior screaming that something was wrong,

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Dakota County Social Services recommended closing the protective case and giving Jalissa

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full custody.

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On May 10, 2022, a judge did exactly that.

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10 days later, Eli was dead.

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At March 11, 2022, Tory Hart filed a petition seeking full custody of Eli.

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Six days later, on March 17, Jalissa bought a 12-gauge shotgun.

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This wasn't impulsive.

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She took a friend to the gun range the next two days to learn how to shoot it.

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Neighbors saw her carrying the shotgun wrapped in a grey blanket between her apartment and

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her car.

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Her Google search history tells you everything.

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She searched how much blood can a six-year-old lose.

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She searched how much does life insurance pay for a dead child.

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She looked up how to get away with crimes.

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Days before she killed Eli, she went into a gun shop and asked the clerk for ammunition

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that would "blow the biggest hole" in something.

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On the 9th of May 19, 2022, Eli was at Jalissa's apartment in Spring Park.

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Her boyfriend, Robert Piccareanian, was there.

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He later testified that Eli was playing with kittens and getting rowdy.

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Jalissa got angry.

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When Eli wouldn't go to bed, she started hitting him.

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Piccareanian eventually went to sleep, but before he did, he saw Jalissa take the shotgun

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to her car, come back inside, grab Eli, and leave with him late at night.

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Cellphone tracking showed exactly where she went.

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She drove to a secluded parking lot at Lake Minnetonka Regional Park.

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Eli was strapped into his booster seat in the back of her silver Chevrolet Impala.

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Jalissa fired six rounds from the shotgun into her son at close range.

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Then she reloaded and fired three more shots into his body and head.

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The force of the blasts blew out the back window.

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After killing Eli, Jalissa drove around with his body in her trunk.

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At some point, one of her tires shredded completely and she was driving on a bare metal rim.

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She stomped at multiple gas stations and threw evidence into dumpsters.

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She dumped Eli's backpack with his kindergarten worksheets inside.

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She dumped his blood-soaked booster seat.

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Around 7-10 in the morning, on May 20, police pulled her over after getting reports about

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a damaged vehicle.

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The officer said she looked disheveled and nervous, avoiding eye contact.

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He noticed what looked like blood on her hands and face in a spray pattern.

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When he asked her about it, she gave a bizarre excuse.

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First she said it was menstrual blood.

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Then she said she'd been carrying deer meat from a butcher.

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Inside the car, there was blood spattered on the ceiling and back door.

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There was a bullet hole in the back seat.

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But officers didn't search the trunk right away.

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Jalissa complained about being cold and refused to sit in the squad car.

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So they gave her a ride home and let her go.

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It wasn't until after they dropped her off that they searched the vehicle.

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Police went back to arrest Jalissa but she had already left on foot.

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Inside the car, the washing machine running with the blood stained closed she'd been wearing

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during the traffic stop.

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When they caught her shortly after, she still had blood and what appeared to be biological

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matter in her hair.

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DNA testing would later confirm it was Eli's tissue.

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The trial started in early 2023.

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The prosecution had an overwhelming case.

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They had the gun purchased six days before Tory filed for custody.

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They had the Google searches.

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They had cell phone data placing her at the murder scene.

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They had DNA evidence.

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They had the ammunition purchase.

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They had Picarenian's testimony about the violent night before.

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The defense barely mounted a case.

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Their argument was that the state couldn't prove the gun was in her hands at the exact moment

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of the shooting.

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They suggested maybe she was an accomplice but there was zero evidence anyone else was involved.

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The jury deliberated for less than two hours before finding Jalissa Thaler guilty of first

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degree premeditated murder and second degree intentional murder.

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At her sinencing hearing in February 2023, she did not show remorse.

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She maintained her innocence and used profanity to insult the court and Eli's family.

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The judge sentenced her to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

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"I'm a scholar, you were right to speak this morning, if you'd like, you don't have any

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obligation to speak, but if you'd like to choose to speak now it's time to do it."

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"Yes, I would like to say something."

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"Go ahead."

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"I'm innocent, fuck you all, you're garbage."

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"That's what we're on."

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"Thank you Miss Thaler.

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I don't know that that's appropriate here."

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"Sorry, I told you what's in her hands."

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"What I was saying."

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"What I would say is, you know, the worst thing that seems to happen to parents is to lose

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their child."

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"It's worse though when you don't lose your child to something like cancer or an accident.

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It's when someone takes that child from the world.

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What I can't imagine, nobody can imagine, is when the person that takes a child from

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the world is the one that brought that child in.

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That is what the jury concluded you did in a respect to the jury's judgment and respect

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to the minister.

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So, this decision about what the appropriate consequence is.

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Nothing that I do would bring justice to this situation.

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Nothing I do would relieve any of the pain that you can't expect doing that, but what

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is, according to my other just unfair sense of what you did is when Mr. Ali said in

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that, it is life in prison without the possibility of parole.

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So, I will consider guilty of the first to be murdering an issue that sentence, I will not

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impose any sentence.

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"I'm sorry, Mary, you're all right.

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I'm sorry."

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"The bottom line is that you are being sentenced to life in prison without the possibility

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of parole and the start.

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I'm not composing any kind of fine of fees.

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I'm going to look at you.

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I'm going to submit a DNA sample as a National Keep Constitutional."

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Tory Hart filed a federal lawsuit against Dakota County and the social workers who handled

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Eli's case.

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In December 2024, the county settled for $2.25 million.

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They didn't admit wrongdoing, but it was a public acknowledgement that something went

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catastrophically wrong.

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Tory and his wife Josephine started the Eli Hart Foundation to help other parents fighting

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for custody who can't afford legal representation.

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Here's what this case really comes down to.

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Eli was a little boy who survived surgeries and medical challenges and was still happy.

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He was resilient and social and very loved.

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And then the people whose job it was to protect him ignored 21 police calls.

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Ignored a foster mother who explicitly said she believed this would happen.

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Ignored a father who begged them to intervene and gave that child back to someone who had

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already shown everyone exactly what she was capable of.

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Thanks for listening to 10 Minute Murder, Bingeable True Crime Stories.

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I'm Joe, I'm the host and here's an email subject Ted Bundy.

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Hi Joe, and greetings from Devon England.

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Love your podcasts.

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For the past year or so I've been traveling through your back catalog and I've reached

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back to July 2021 where I came across your three-part podcast of Ted Bundy.

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I guess I slash you slash us slash we get to the point where you become somewhat immune

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to the depraved behaviors of murders and the like.

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But the Bundy tapes certainly gave me the creeps especially when they contained so much

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of his actual voice.

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Mercifully in British society we don't usually get to that level of violence apart from notable

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exceptions of course.

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Up the good work I'll reach out at the end of your archive at some point.

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Cheers David.

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David, thank you for the email.

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I didn't know the internet reached that far.

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JK, I really do appreciate the email and yeah the Ted Bundy stuff.

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Back when I covered that, like you said 2021, man it's been some years.

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It didn't seem like it was that long ago but those were some sleepless nights where I was

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researching that because Ted Bundy seems so average and normal and smart and ladies

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found him attractive and all these things and he was just a sicko in every way possible.

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And you'll find once you run through the archive of stories here on 10 Minute Murder, I repeat

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some every now and then if I want to update the information or talk about a different angle

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in different cases I'll repeat them.

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And Ted Bundy is one that I think I could cover once a year till further notice.

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There's so much to talk about when it comes to Ted Bundy.

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Alright, if you are a new listener to this podcast, make sure you hit subscribe right now.

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You can also go to 10minuteMurder.com, get more information about the podcasts and me

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a message, sign up for the weekly newsletter.

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OG listeners, I love you, keep sharing the show with your friends and your family, rating

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it five stars wherever that's possible.

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And that's gonna do it.

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That's your episode for today.

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Thank you again for listening to 10 Minute Murder.

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See you next time.

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[Music]