The Fixer, the Photos, and the Death of Tom

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She called him dad for over 20 years.

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He called her his daughter right up until the day she killed him, which he found on his

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computer eight days before that and what she did with it after is one of the strangest

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and saddest true crime stories we've covered here.

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This is the case of Jade Janks and Tom Merriman.

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[Music]

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Jade Janks' parents split up when she was young and her mom, Jeanette, was dealing with mental

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health struggles and substance abuse issues that kept pulling her in and out of the picture.

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So Jade grew up with mostly just her dad, Steve.

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In some time in the 90s, when Jade was somewhere between 10 years old and 14, depending on

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what source you trust, her mom married a guy named Tom Merriman and that marriage ended

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up shaping the rest of Jade's life more than almost anything else in it.

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Merriman became a real fixture in her life, a stepfather who actually stuck around and

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showed up.

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He and Jeanette had a son together.

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Jade's half-brother Cash and when Jade turned 18, she moved in with Merriman to help raise

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the baby.

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She lived there maybe five years or so.

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She took classes at a community college and she moved out at around 23.

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Even after her mom and Merriman split for good, following a marriage that fell apart and

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got back together three separate times, Jade stayed close to him.

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He called her his daughter.

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She called him dad.

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And every source I dug up on this case agrees on that much.

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By the time the pandemic hit in 2020, Merriman was in his 60s, dealing with heart and liver

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problems.

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He was walking with the walker, still fighting a long battle with alcohol and sleep medication.

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Jade moved into the little unit right next door to him that April, partly because she

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wanted to be close during the lockdown.

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Back when everybody's whole social life had shrunk down to whoever lived closest to you

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and had a working oven, she stayed cooking him dinner most nights, day after day.

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A routine you only keep up for someone you actually love.

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Then December 23rd, 2020 happens.

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Merriman had fallen at home about a week earlier and he was in a rehab facility recovering.

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Jade was over at his house, tidying up while he was gone.

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She bumped his computer mouse.

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The screensaver wakes up and there's a photo on the screen of a woman's bare chest.

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She looks a little closer.

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She recognizes that bare chest because it's her own body.

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She's obviously shocked, but what she says she found after digging through that computer

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was a massive stash of nude photos of herself.

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Some organized into folders by body part, some dating back to when she was 16 years old.

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She testified the original pictures were taken consensually with boyfriends, her own age,

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and kept on her own devices.

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She believed Merriman had taken them from her over the years without her knowing.

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If that's true, a jury never got a clean answer on whether it was those images that would

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legally count as sexual child abuse material, meaning Merriman could have faced real criminal

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charges of his own.

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Jade said the discovery wrecked her.

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She started sleeping with a knife nearby.

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She had friends come over and stand guard while she showered.

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Once she reached out to a man named Alan Roach.

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Unfortunate last name, someone she knew as a fixer, a very discreet guy you call when you have

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a problem that outgrows your own two hands.

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Roach texted back that he could help her out.

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Eight days passed between that discovery in December 31st, the day Merriman gets discharged

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from rehab.

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He's alert, he's walking on his walker, mostly worried about his medical coverage

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lapsing at the new year.

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Jade picks him up at around 11.19 that morning.

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Eleven minutes later, she texts Roach, "I dozed the hell out of him."

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The day turns into the strange little air-in-run after that.

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A liquor store stop she'd later say was for Merriman himself, a drug store, then a hardware

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store where she buys black gloves, towels, red cord, zip ties, and spray paint, leaving

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Merriman alone in the car for almost half an hour while she shops.

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She'd say later that it was all for a painting project, a way to stall while Roach figured

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out how to help.

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Prosecutors called it a murder kit.

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Either way, there's a woman standing in a hardware store check out with an armful of

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zip ties and gloves, while her drugged stepfather waits in a hot parking lot outside, and the

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cashier is just ringing her up like any other Tuesday afternoon.

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The worst hour of somebody else's life can look completely ordinary from three feet

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away.

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By early afternoon, she's texting Roach that she can't move him alone.

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She calls her ex-boyfriend Adam Sypillac, who's at a tattoo appointment, and he can't come.

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She calls a friend who's out of town.

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Eventually, two other friends help load a barely conscious Merriman into her car, believing

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they're helping him get to the hospital.

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Around 230, she text Roach that Merriman's waking up, that she didn't want to be the one

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to do this.

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When Roach sends a man named Brian Solomon over, Jade tells him that she's already drug

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Merriman and asks Solomon to strangle him.

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Solomon says no, and he leaves.

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Her last message to Roach that afternoon is that she is now on her own.

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That night, Adam, her ex-boyfriend with the tattoo appointment, comes by, because her door

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is always unlocked, and she'd ask him to come check on her.

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She tells him pretty calmly by his account that she'd found the photos druged Merriman

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in the car and suffocated or strangled him.

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She asks for his help, staging it to look like an overdose.

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He says no, and the next morning he calls the sheriff.

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That same night, Jade goes into Merriman's house, smashes his hard drive, pours alcohol

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on it for good measure, destroying the one piece of evidence that could have backed up everything

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she was alleging about him.

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In the middle of the worst night of her life, she stops to make sure nobody could ever prove

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her side of it.

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A New Year's Day, she checks on Merriman, suspects that he's probably dead, and instead

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of calling for help, drives to a nearby hospital and takes a wheelchair, loading it through

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her car window instead of the hatch.

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For reasons no one has ever fully explained.

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She confirms, by touch, that he's cold.

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She can't get him into the chair and covers him with a blanket and a pile of boxes and trash

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in the shared driveway.

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She tells a neighbor, "Hey, don't look too closely at that pile.

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Which if I'm a nosy neighbor, that's the first thing I'm going to do."

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At one point, she even checks a law enforcement database to see if Roach has been arrested,

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still tracking angles and worst-case scenarios days into all of this.

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A January 2, a detective doing a welfare check finds Merriman underneath all that trash.

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She's pulled over driving away and fires off one last text to Roach.

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Lose my number.

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The forensics, in this case, almost ended up being beside the point.

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The autopsy pointed to Ambien intoxication as the cause of death with some ptikia, tiny

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burst blood vessels near his eye that could suggest strangulation or could just as easily

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be explained by the body settling after death.

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What actually built the case was digital.

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A blister pack of sleep medication with Jade's DNA on it and not Merrimans, a paper bag

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with her DNA outside and his inside, rope, zip ties and knotted towels in her car with both

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of their DNA on them and her own text messages laid out in order, practically writing the

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prosecution's closing argument for them, including the line "Everyone in the courtroom

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still brings up," where she describes the plan falling apart with the words "Week-In

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at Bernies."

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And if you haven't seen "Week-In at Bernies," it's where they carry around a dead body,

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trying to make it look like it's alive.

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That eight-day gap between the discovery and the killing became a huge legal problem

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for her defense.

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For a jury to consider this kind of sudden, heat of passion reaction, the law wants that

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reaction to be immediate, not something that simmered for over a week while she shopped

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for supplies and lined up help.

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A trial in December 2022, her attorney argued that this was an accidental overdose she panicked

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and covered it up.

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This is not a murder.

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Her defense did not lean hard into the abuse allegations during the trial itself because

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she was pleading not guilty.

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You don't build a motive of defense for a crime that you say never happened.

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The jury did not buy the accident theory.

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She was convicted of first degree murder.

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At sentencing in March of 2023 for the first time publicly, she said Mary-Man had abused

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her starting when she was a young teenager, describing years of which she called "psychological

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manipulation."

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She offered no apology to his family, only telling them there was more to the story

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than they'd ever understand.

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His brother told the court that he thinks about Tom every day and wonders how this happened.

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Jade was sentenced to 25 years to life.

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She appealed and in October 2024, the conviction was upheld.

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Butterfly Farms.

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The conservation nonprofit Mary-Man spent years building is still running today in Incinitas,

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doing the work he started completely separate from all of this.

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Jade Janks will be eligible for parole around 2048 when she's about 64 years old.

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The same age Tom Mary-Man was the day she killed him.

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Thanks for listening to 10 Minute Murder, binge-eatable true crime stories.

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I'm Joe.

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Hello?

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

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My barber listens now.

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Hey Joe, I mentioned your podcast during a haircut a few months ago.

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In back this week, my barber immediately started talking about one of your episodes.

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It's kind of funny knowing I accidentally created another listener while getting a trim.

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Ryan and Toledo O'Hio.

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Ryan, first of all, thank you for the email.

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And second, yeah, I think that it goes without saying.

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Your barber is a fantastic source of information.

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Shout out, Dan, my barber.

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If I need tires from my car, if I need to know the best places in town to eat, if I need

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to know what place I need to get something repaired at my house, who's going to rip you

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off and who's not.

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People tell Dan things all the time, and I'm sure it's like that for almost every barber

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out there.

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If you need information about something or something going on in the town, your barber

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probably knows.

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And now that you've told yours about the podcast, he's probably going to tell it to people,

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which I truly do appreciate, Ryan.

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Thank you for spreading the word.

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Hey, if you're a brand new listener to this podcast, welcome in.

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Put your feet up, get comfortable because there are hundreds of episodes in the back catalog

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You can also go to 10minuteMurder.com, find Listen Links.

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If you don't like where you're listening, you can find more places to listen.

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You can also get links to where you can follow the show on social media, or contact me at 10minuteMurder.com.

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You OG listeners just know that I love you with my whole heart.

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Thank you for sharing the podcast, for interacting with the content that I put on social media,

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emailing.

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And that's going to do it.

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That's your episode for today.

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Thank you again for listening to 10minuteMurder.

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See you next time.

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[Music]