The Girlfriend in the Cooler: The Wade Allen Case

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On May 19th, police and Sturgis, Michigan got an anonymous call about a body being in an

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apartment on North Maple Street.

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When they knocked on Wade Allen's door that night, he told them his girlfriend was an

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hour away in Kalamazoo.

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But when officers spotted two closed cooler sitting in his living room and asked to look inside

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those coolers, they discovered something that would haunt them forever.

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[Music]

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When someone with a stable routine vanishes, the alarm bell rings within hours.

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But Kelly Jean Warner, 43 years old in spring 2019, lived what investigators call a transient

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life.

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She moved frequently, had periods without regular contact.

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She was diabetic with other health issues.

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This was her reality, and it became her killer's greatest weapon.

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When Kelly disappeared, there was no frantic employer calling emergency contact numbers,

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no landlord wondering about rent.

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Her absence folded quietly into the background in Sturgis, Michigan.

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What Kelly had was a sister who refused to accept that silence.

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Lisa knew something was wrong.

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She kept pushing, kept asking questions.

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That relentless pursuit is why we're talking about this case at all.

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Wade Allen was 35 years old when police came knocking in May 2019.

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He lived at 2.29 North Maple Street in Sturgis, small town near the Indiana border.

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His apartment was apparently always a mess, which becomes relevant when you realize that

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mess was "perfect camouflage" for concealing a murder.

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A forensic psychologist who analyzed the case labeled Allen a classic sexual psychopath.

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The paths get stimulated by harming or manipulating people.

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They have no remorse.

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They have no empathy.

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The psychologist theorized that Allen may have a small amygdala, the brain region that

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processes emotions and fear.

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People with underactive amygdala's display fearlessness.

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They don't process punishment cues normally.

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They require extreme stimulation to feel anything.

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She pointed to the strangulation and dismemberment as indicators of this need for extreme

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stimulation.

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According to this theory, cutting up Kelly's body after killing her wasn't simply about

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disposal.

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It was potentially a source of gratification.

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Whether you buy biological determinism or see it as an excuse for a monster is up to

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you.

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But what we know factually is that Wade Allen had a documented history of abuse toward Kelly

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and other partners stretching back years.

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According to what Allen later told Selmaids, Kelly said something that set him off.

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He claimed he "backhanded" and then strangled her.

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Strangulation is one of the most intimate forms of homicide because you maintain sustained

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physical contact for minutes while the person dies.

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After Kelly died, Allen kept her body in the bathtub for what he described as "a little

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while."

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Then he dismembered her using a hacksaw.

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He stored her remains in two different coolers in his living room.

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Not fancy freezers hidden in a basement.

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Coolers sitting in his living room, the same cooler someone might take camping.

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For weeks, Wade Allen lived this normal life with these coolers right there.

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Neighbors saw him.

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Life continued around him while Kelly Jean Warner decomposed inside plastic containers

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10 feet from his couch.

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In May 22, 2019, someone identifying himself as Stephen called dispatch.

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Stephen said Wade Allen had killed his girlfriend Kelly Jean Warner or KJ.

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dismembered her body and stuffed her remains in a cooler in his apartment.

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He provided specific details about the location and Allen's appearance.

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Officers arrived at his house a little after 11 pm.

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When they knocked, Allen stepped outside and closed the door.

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When police asked about your girlfriend's whereabouts and you choose to close the door behind

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you, you are concealing something.

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That's the way they took it.

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The officers asked if Kelly was inside.

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Allen said no, claiming she was in Kalamazoo about an hour away.

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When officers asked for permission to enter, he declined.

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He said that his apartment was too messy.

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The officers told Allen to put some shoes on because they were detaining him outside while

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securing a search warrant.

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At that point, Allen changed tactics and agreed to let one officer take a quick look.

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One officer entered with Wade Allen.

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He saw the coolers, closed, sitting in the living room.

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He asked him what was inside.

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Allen said he was getting ready for summer.

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The officer asked for permission to open one.

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When he did, he later said on body camera footage that he'd never be able to unsee it.

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Kelly Jean Warner's dismembered remains.

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I don't know.

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I heard from that person in a few months.

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We'll just need to talk to her.

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Oh wow.

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See if we come and look, make sure she's not here.

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I can tell you she's not.

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I mean, you know, what's in the cooler?

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Well, that's where one of the summer comes around.

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I don't have parties and stuff.

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I don't know.

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Can you open that for me and then we'll get out of here?

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Well, not right now I can't.

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I mean, I want to save that for later.

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Okay.

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But I showed you she hasn't been here in forever.

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Okay.

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Well, you don't want to just open that cooler and we'll get out of here.

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I just want to make sure anywhere that she could be hiding.

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She's not going to be hiding.

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Well, I just need to know that.

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Okay.

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I mean, I can help you out there, but I've shown you everything.

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Okay.

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Now, remember, we'll open this because it's something that we're never going to be able to

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unthink.

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Okay.

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I just have her arms and breasts.

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She's been going for a while.

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You know, she's a leg, she's a knee catch, and it's above the knee.

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The bugs have me doing.

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You know, definitely a treatment.

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Here should be Caucasian.

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I want to close this back up.

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Allen's defense attorney argued that the initial apartment entry was unconstitutional.

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If the judge had agreed, all physical evidence could have been thrown out under the fruit

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of the Poisonous Tree Doctrine.

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A murderer could have walked free on a technicality, but the trial court ruled that while the initial

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entry might have been problematic, the subsequent warrant affidavit was strong enough to establish

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probable cause independently.

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Allen's confession to Selmae's later became insurance that the case wouldn't collapse.

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After his arrest in May 2019, Wade Allen sat in St. Joseph County jail for 1,470 days

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before sentencing.

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During that time, Allen told Selmae it's about strangling Kelly.

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Kelly provided details about keeping her body in the bathtub before dismembering her.

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One or more Selmae's reported this to authorities.

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That testimony became crucial to the prosecution's case.

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Then something inexcusable happened.

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The jail re-housed Allen together with one of the informants who had snitched on him.

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Officials later cited securities lapses in lack of space and small-ruled jails.

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That explanation is both true and completely unacceptable.

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The absolute baseline rule in jail management is keeping violent suspects away from people

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testifying against them.

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When Allen discovered the betrayal in October 2020, he retaliated by sexually assaulting the

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inmate.

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At sentencing, that victim appeared via video from a state prison where he was serving his

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own sentence.

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He told the judge that the assault was not consensual and that Allen was a monster.

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The judge added 38 months to 5 years to Allen's sentence for specifically that assault, making

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it consecutive to the murder sentence.

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On January 30, 2023, the day before his scheduled trial, Wade Allen pleaded no contest to second

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degree homicide, attempted dismemberment and mutilation, and attempted third degree criminal

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sexual conduct.

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A no contest plea has the same legal effect as a guilty plea, but allows defendants to

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avoid verbally admitting details in court.

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At his sentencing on June 1, 2023, Allen gave a rambling six-minute statement.

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He cried.

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He claimed he never wanted KJ to die.

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That he should have taken better care of her.

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He asked her family for forgiveness while saying he had to forgive himself, whether they

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forgave him or not.

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He never actually admitted to killing her.

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The judge sentenced Allen to 39 to 60 years for murder.

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Two to five for that attempted dismemberment and 38 months to five years for the sexual

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assault, with that last sentence running consecutive.

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He was ordered to pay restitution for Kelly's burial expenses and to register as a sex offender

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for life.

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The assistant to Attorney General Carl Dallan, a Ministu Society, she was prepared to present

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evidence of his long established cycle of abuse toward Kelly and other partners dating

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back years.

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Lisa, Kelly's sister, was in the courtroom.

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The years of pushing for answers, she finally saw some measure of justice.

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This case leaves you with some uncomfortable questions.

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If Kelly Jean Warner had lived a different life as she had stable routines, which she

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had been found sooner, does someone's instability make them less visible when they vanish?

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There's also the question of Wade Allen's brain.

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If he truly has a small amygdala, that requires extreme stimulation, does that make him less

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culpable?

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Or is neuroscience just giving us more of a detailed map as to what evil looks like?

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And there's the catastrophic failure of the St. Joseph County jail.

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An inmate did the morally right thing by reporting Allen's confession.

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The system repaid him by locking him in a cell with the murderer he betrayed.

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Wade Allen is currently incarcerated in the Michigan Department of Corrections.

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His earliest possible release would be around 2060 when he'd be about 76 years old.

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Given his consecutive sentences, he will almost certainly die in prison.

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Kelly Jean Warner's remains were finally laid to rest, her sister continues to keep her

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memory alive.

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Sometimes we talk about cases being solved, but solved doesn't mean healed.

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Kelly's family will carry this loss forever.

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The informant who was assaulted will carry that trauma forever.

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And somewhere in Michigan, there are police officers who still can't forget what they saw

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when they opened those coolers on a spring night in 2019.

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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 not a question.

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Joe, I like that you don't over-explain.

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You assume the audience is paying attention and that keeps me paying attention.

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That's all.

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Grants and Helena Montana.

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Grants, it's weird that you picked up on that because that is exactly what I do.

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I do it on purpose.

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I don't over-explain things because we don't have enough time, it's just 10 minutes.

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If you're like me when I listen to long form podcasts, especially true crime, I tend

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to zone out every now and then, and I don't go back and try to listen to what I missed when

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I was thinking about groceries or what day the trash man comes.

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I don't know, random things that you think about.

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I just think of whatever pickup from wherever I am, but you can't do that with my podcast

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because it's only 10 minutes.

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And if I say something and you miss it, you probably missed a big chunk of what the story

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is actually about.

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So thank you for the email, Grant.

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And if you're a new listener to this podcast, make sure you hit subscribe wherever you're

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listening right now.

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Go to 10minuteMurder.com.

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There you're going to find all kinds of things.

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to the podcast, like the actual listening app.

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You don't like it.

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So you ask my suggestion and where to listen.

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I can tell you right off the bat, Spotify and Apple podcasts.

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And if you don't have an Apple phone, then Spotify and something else, I don't know.

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But you can, I've got a bunch of them on my website, it's what I'm getting to.

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10minuteMurder.com.

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You can go there and you can sample some of them if you like the layout of how they look

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and all that stuff.

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That's cool.

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And that is 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.