Connie Stroud Townsend

All witnesses, purchase of interest, and suspects are considered innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Hey guys, welcome to prime time Crime. It's kylie. We are going to dive right into right now in true crime. First of all, I want to start off with the signed affid David from Rebecca Hill, who is the call Itton County court clerk who is accused of jury tampering during the leg murder trial. We are going to read all of her sworn Affidavid stuff. And this is a legal document. So the jurors who came forward and gave their sworn Affidavid testimony as to what happened, and this sworn affidavit from her, it's a legal document. It is punishable if you it is a official, official court document. So somebody here is not telling the truth. And I don't know, I don't know, I don't know what I think. I really don't know what I think about any of this. I'm just going to be reading it as it is. But they can't both be telling the truth because they're both one saying one thing, one saying another. So this is gonna be interesting. So I have reviewed mister Murdau's motion for a new trial filed on October twenty seventh of twenty twenty three, As to the allegations contained within the affidavits of Jury number six thirty, I did not tell a jury to not be fooled by evidence presented by Murdaw's attorneys. I did not instruct the jury to watch him closely. I did not instruct the jury to look at his actions. I did not instruct the jury to look at his movements. I did not say to the jury, this shouldn't take as long. When Number eight twenty six asked to speak with me, the conversations took place in the jury room hall with an airshot of Bailiff Bill Polk. The conversations did not involve the evidence, witnesses, or substance of the trial. As to the allegations within the affidavit of Holly Miller discussing alleged conversations with Juror Number seven hundred and forty one, I did not have private conversations with Juror Number eight twenty six in a bathroom. My conversations with Juror A twenty six did not involve evidence, witnesses, or substance of the trial. During the trial, I did not tell members of the jury that the media would want to interview them at the end of the trial. During the trial, I did not hand out business cards of media personnel. I did not tell jurors, y'all are going to hear things that will throw you all off. Don't let this distract or mislead you as to the allegations within the affidavit of Juror number seven eighty five. I did not chill tell jurors not to be fooled by the evidence presented by I like Murda's attorneys. I did not ask jur number seven eighty five whether Juror seven eighty five was inclined to vote guilty or not guilty. I did not tell jur number seven eighty five that sled and call Itton County Sheriff's Office personnel went to her ex husband's home. I did not tell jural number seven eighty five that I would reinstate a restraining order against her ex husband. I did not state to juring number seven eighty five that the Murdas probably got to him. I did not ask your number seven eighty five about her opinion regarding mister Murda's guilt. I did not ask dur Number seven eighty five, well, what makes you think he's guilty. I did not discuss the evidence presented at trial with Jural Number seven eighty five. I did not tell Juror seven eighty five that everything that mister Murdas said has been lies. I did not tell jur number seven eighty five to forget about the guns. They will never be seen again. I did not ask Dur seven eighty five about the views of the rest of the jury. I did not tell jer seven eighty five that if the four person would just go sit in and ask for a rais in hands, this would all be over and done with. I did not inform Juror seven eighty five that everyone needs to be on the same page. I did not fabricate, fabricate, nor did I create any Facebook posts related to Juror number seven eighty five. Juring number seven eighty five is the gal with the eggs that was dismissed like the last day because of this like Facebook post situation, which I've talked about in previous episodes. As to the allegations within the affidavit of Holly Miller discussing an alleged conversation with Jural number three twenty six, I did not tell jurors that they were prohibited from taking a smoke break during deliberations, And that is it. So basically, she's responding to each and every one of the alleged allegations by these different jurors, the different conversations that were had, all of the different things. Like I said, somebody is not telling the truth, and you can't lie in an official court document. You can get charged for that. So somebody be lying. I don't know who it is. I really don't. I don't I don't know what to think. I honestly, in my heart, don't feel like Becky Hill, who I feel like seems like she was pretty good at her job. I don't feel like she would risk the integrity of a case by doing stuff like this. But there's also no reason for these jurors to be making up this stuff either. So I don't really know what to think about any of it. I have not a freaking clue. And yes, Becky Hill did publish a book, but she was published privately, like she was her own publisher. Essentially, she didn't sign with like a publishing company, so it's not that she got a book deal. She basically just wrote a book and then self published it. So it's not like she made a ton of money from the publication in all of her books. So I don't want people to think that that was her motivation for being such a presence in this trial and for the jury and all of that. So now that we're six minutes in too right now in True Crime, we are going to move on to our next thing. So next thing I want to talk about is the Caitlin Armstrong trial. It is still going on. The defense was cross examining Colin Strickland, who is the boy in all of this drama between two girls and a boy. So I've heard from several people. First of all, I've heard just different people in this cycling community. You do not like Colin. He is allegedly arrogant and a big shot, but really doesn't have anything to be a big shot about. He's he's just kind of there, And a lot of people said that he came across very and just kind of a jerk on the stand, and honestly, like I kind of felt bad for him initially, but after hearing the testimony and the way he reacted to certain things and the way that he was answering some of the questions, I just don't really know. Like he was living with Caitlin at the time of this, so they were very much in a relationship, but he also at one point in time was dating and having a relationship with this mogal and like he might have been alluding to her that it was more something than it was, and then he ended up getting back with Caitlin, and I don't know. I feel like he might have kind of been playing both fields allegedly in my opinion, my personal opinion, he might have been playing both of them at the same time and it ended up just turning into a huge jealousy thing, and then one led to another and then Mo ended up losing her life. Also, Moe was ten years younger than Colin, So I really think the dynamic of their relationship and what was what could have been, what Mo maybe thought it was, led up to potentially some animosity from Caitlin and some jealousy from Caitlin, and unfortunately it turned into something tragic. I'm not condemning at all what Caitlyn did at all. I need to be very clear about that, but I do see the defense very much leaning into Colin stringing Mo along a little bit and maybe kind of playing both sides of things and not saying it makes murder right, but it gives you kind of an idea as to maybe some of the alleged potential manipulation that was happening within that relationship. Also, Colin had like a little in on Monday with one of the photographers and he tried to knock the photographer's camera like just I don't know, like intentionally, unintentionally. I don't really know, but I think it was probably more intentionally. And there's also another video where it showed Colin appearing to go out of his way to step on a photographer's foot. And yeah, Collin's just not given the warm fuzzies that I wanted him to. It's making me really hard to feel for him and sympathize with him, and that makes me angry because it should be about Caitlin being a horrible human and doing horrible things, which it is, but it's making it really really hard for me to like side with Colin on any of this. So let's go ahead and call that good for right now. In True Crime, we have a longer episode today, and I don't want to over do it because already almost an hour long, So we are going to go ahead and get started and dive right in with today's episode. All right, guys, jumping into a new case today, and this one has been in the making for a while. I've wanted to cover this case for a long long time. There is very limited information out there in regards to it, but it is a case that is close to home for me because it is the cold case of a woman from Arkansas by the name of Connie Townshend. And Connie is the mother of a girl named Amber that I used to work with, and I have always wanted to learn more about her mother and her mother's untimely death and alleged murder. And this one, for me, it feels personal because I obviously Amber, and I feel like I really want to do it justice. But there is not a lot out there, and it happened in the nineties, so again we're looking at a case that happened a long long time ago. Once I lay out everything that happened with this story, it's very apparent who is responsible. And I will say it's all alleged, of course, because I do not want to get sued. However, it's very apparent what happened in this scenario and this situation, and it's really sad that this case still does remain cold, even though the evidence is literally laid out right there. I do want to start off by giving credit to the source that I'm using, which is a gal by the name of ak Barnes Johnson. She wrote an article about Connie and her her death and all of the circumstances surrounding that in twenty fifteen, and that is what I'm going to be using as kind of my credit for this episode, because it gives a good bit of information on Connie, on the things that led up to her death and her ultimate death, and it's really the only thing that I have been able to find. I have tried looking everywhere for information on Connie, and there really isn't much out there. And it's sad and it's unfortunate. Because there's not much out there, nobody is going to talk about it. If it's not out there, no one's going to talk about it. So that's what I really hope that this podcast helps do, is it just gets the story out there a little bit more. We get to hear Connie's story and learn about what was going on leading up to her death, and we'll also learn about why nobody was ever charged with her death, even though the evidence is pretty much right there in front of our faces. So I did want to credit the person who wrote this nice article about Connie and all the circumstances surrounding her death, because it really did give me a lot of information, more information than I was able to find anywhere else. Usually when I'm researching cases, I put it in Google and fifteen articles come up. In this case, there isn't a lot. The only way I was able to access this article is because Amber had shared it a ways back and then reshared it, and that's when I asked her, can I cover your mom's case? So we are just going to go with it, and I'm going to tell you the story of Connie Townshend. So this takes place in January seventh of nineteen ninety five in Brockwell, Arkansas. Connie Townsend was forty three years old and she had two daughters who were named Stacy and Amber. At the time of her death, she was married to a guy named David Townsend and they were separated and headed towards divorce. So Connie was basically getting ready to file from divorce from David, but she wanted to be very strategic about when she filed because she knew that David was dangerous. He had made comments in the past about burning her up and burning her house up, and Connie had stated on numerous different occasions that she feared for her life and David had threatened her on multiple different occasions, and of course, Connie was worried that if she did file for divorce from David, that he was going to retaliate and bring harm to her. And Connie's mom said that acording to Connie, David believed that she would never divorce him, and that David had told Connie on numerous occasions that he could have any woman he wanted and that women didn't leave him and if they did, he would hunt them down and kill them. And Connie also said that, you know, she knew that David just wasn't saying this to say it. She knew that he meant what he was saying, And that's why I think a big part of her not leaving earlier was because of this, because she was afraid of what he would do because he had threatened her life. He had told her like, you're never going to leave me, and if you do, this is what's going to happen. Connie also had confided in her mom that if anything were to happen to her, that she had things divided out for her daughters and she wanted to make sure that everything was handled properly in those regards. And Connie also said that she had taken David off of the insurance policies as beneficiary. So this was a woman who was making plans because she wanted to leave him and wanted to get away from him. So in January of nineteen eighty five, Connie was busy packing all of her belongings and getting ready to move out of the trailer that she shared with her estranged husband, David, and her family was so relieved that she was finally going to leave David. It had been what sounds like a not so great kind of toxic relationship, and it's hard to leave a relationship like that, especially when you're fearful of the other person. It is really really hard to make the decision to leave. And she had daughters and it you know, it's just until you're in that position. You can't even imagine how hard it is. I have never been in that position, but I always hear so often people are like, why don't you just leave? Why don't you just leave? But it's not that easy. It is a source of manipulation and control that these abusers put on their victims, who are often people that they have shared their life with. They're married there, you know, in these long term relationships, and it's really hard for somebody who has been abused and lived under that for so long to clearly see what's happening in front of them. And also they have that sense of fear leaving. What's going to happen if I leave? And that's exactly what the situation was here. We've heard from Connie's mother that Connie had confided in her all of these horrible things that David was saying and threatening, and all of that she had the guts to walk away and leave. So the plan was for her to move out and then her and Amber were going to get an apartment to share and livet together. Connie had officially filed for divorce, but had asked the attorney not to serve David until after she had officially moved out just because she was nervous about what his reaction would be. She had also spoken about getting a restraining order against David, but it's unclear if that order was filed or not. And honestly, can we talk about little side note tangent. Can we talk about how shitty it is that a woman or a man for that matter, gets a restraining order and it literally does nothing. It is a piece of paper, it does nothing. Obviously, it's something that's important to have in place, but the law does not protect the victims in situations like this. I personally feel like it protects the people who are the bad people. And time and time again, you hear of all of these situations where women and men are abused and they are not believed, and they're basically told, well, we can't really do anything until something worse happens. So you basically have to wait until you are killed by your abuser and attacker for anything to be done. And I think that that is terrible and it's sad, and I feel like there needs to be more done in regards to that. As a society, we have got to do better. It shouldn't come down to somebody losing their life before shit is taken care of. I digress and we're going to get back to this story now. So when they separated, Connie and David had been married for almost fourteen years, and Connie said that the years were filled with abuse in every sense of the word. David drank almost every day. He drank from the time he got up until the time he went to bed. He drank at work and ended up being fired for it. And Stacy Lane, who is one of Connie's daughters, said that growing up with David was not a good time and something that she wishes that she could forget, and said that he was verbally and emotionally abusive to Connie and while she never saw him hit Connie, he would often throw things and get really aggressive, and she said once he came home and the dishes were dirty and he threw them in the garbage. He's just an actual piece of shit, is what we're getting at here. Like David is no good. He was no good, not a good person, not a good husband, not a good role model, not someone that you want to be around. Dacy said, he was just the worst. He was like the devil. He spent his time partying. He spent his time drinking, and he just wasn't a good person. Threatened Connie many times and threatened that he would burn the house down. And he's just a horrible human, an absolutely horrible human. So, despite being nervous about leaving David behind and filing for divorce, she was ready to start over and she had rented that apartment with Amber. They had everything ready to go. She was in the process of packing everything up. She had even borrowed money from her father in order to make it all work and be able to move into this new apartment. So she was ready and her family was supportive of her, and they wanted her to get away from David because obviously David was not a good person for her to be around, or for anyone to be around for that matter. That morning, Stacy had called Connie to check on how things were going and as far as packing up and all, and she had told Stacy that David had stopped by and had upset her and threatened her with bodily harm. And that particular day Stacy and Amber had to work. It was a Saturday that they both had to go into work, so they were not able to be there to help their mom, but some of the other family members were on their way to help her move out, and Stacy goes on to say that you never think that when someone threatens you that it's actually going to happen. It's kind of like, you know, the saying hindsight is twenty twenty, Like, you never expect that bad things are going to happen to you or to your family, and then when it does, it's just really really hard to unpack and accept that this is what's going on. So had told her mom, you know, the rest of the family is on the way to help you, hurry up, keep packing, and we're going to get you out of there and get you moved out as soon as possible. So earlier in the day, David and his parents had stopped by the trailer and Connie was there packing everything up, so the trailer actually belonged to David's parents. David's father, who is named Dale, stayed in an interview with the Sheriff's Apartment that David had gone down to the trailer at eight a m. And had arrived back to Dale's residence at about nine thirty and around eleven o'clock that morning, Dale and his wife then left to go down to Connie's trailer to help her with some packing and moving. So Connie allegedly told Dale and his wife that she did not want them there while she was packing, and that she seemed upset. In Dale's report, he also stated that they returned home around noon and had lunch with David, and after lunch, David and his son went fishing, So that is essentially what's going to be the alibi of where David was on that day. So shortly after being visited by both Dale and David Townsend, the trailer that Connie was in the process of moving out of caught on fire, and Stacy said, my sister and I got to work and we got the call. As soon as they called me out, I knew it. They called and said the house is on fire and they think your mom is in it. And if all the stuff I've already talked about, with all of these threats about burning down the house and setting things on fire, if that doesn't culminate to this moment, I don't know what does. And it is really freaking scary that this was able to happen. So Connie had also spoken with one of her sisters named Dolores that same day of the fire as well, and she had said that David had been there at the trailer and that they had been arguing about a microwave and a TV. And she also said that David said that he didn't want anyone else there helping Connie pack up and move the stuff out, and if anyone came there, he was going to have them arrested for trespassing because he is a horrible human. Connie had also shared with her that David had been there in the days prior and said that if she would let him move back in that she could stay. And that morning that Connie had phoned Dolores to talk to her. She could tell that Connie had been crying and was upset, and then she ended up calling her back, and again she could tell that she was upset, and she said she couldn't talk, and said that Dale and Ramona, who or David's parents, were there, and Dolores just said, please call me the minute that they leave. And Dolores waited a little while and couldn't wait any longer because I'm sure she was on edge about this whole situation, so she called back and she says that she could hear David and Ramona talking with very loud, raised voices in the background, and Connie was real upset and was saying that they didn't want her to take anything, and Dolores asked to speak with Dale or Ramona, and Ramona got on the phone and Dolores was inquiring about why they couldn't come and help if if we come over there, are you going to have us arrested for trespassing? And Ramona said no, and Dolores said, Okay, We're going to come over there, and I want you and Dale to be there when we arrive so we can get all of this sorted out. And if there's anything in question that David does not want Connie to take, and the lawyers are going to handle it and that's that. So this was a very tumultuous type of situation. David was obviously making it very very difficult, and then he was saying that he was going to press charges against anybody who came on to their property to help Connie, literally just making it so hard for this woman to leave the house. Okay, so the next part, I'm going to talk about the discovery of the fire and everything that transpired. Trigger warning it could be very upsetting to hear the details of this. It was very upsetting for me. So here's what happened. There were a few witnesses that initially first saw the fire, and it was a statement that was made by a gall named Monica Jones and said that she and a woman named Cheryl Edwards were east on Highway fifty six. They were approaching Bandmill and Cheryl stated to Monica that she saw smoke that was coming from the direction of Connie's house. So they turned the car around and went to Connie's house and saw that there was smoke coming from the rear end of the house on the west end. Monica stated that there were some other people there already at the scene, and there was a man there who had curly hair, who was about five foot eight and he was wearing a baseball cap. The two women notified neighbors and told the neighbors, you guys need to call nine on one right now. So Monica and Cheryl were trying to find out if there was someone inside, but the man that was wearing the baseball cap said no one was in there, so the two women ran around back to see if they could see any better, and then they said that someone had already tried to look inside by the front by standing on a barrel, but they were unable to see anything because there was so much smoke. So one of them ran around back to see and she said that she heard what she thought sounded like a baby crying. So she broke out a window in the rear near the carport area, and there was smoke just flowing out of the windows, but there was no flames. So Monica and Cheryl were able to kick in a door on the addition to the trailer, and there was black smoke that was just overflowing, and she could only see a few feet inside of the door. They tried to break open a metal door, but they were unable to get in, and they looked for something to try and try the door open with, and at this time the fire became so immense that it shot out the window, and they're thinking, like, why aren't we here this baby crying any longer? And they were trying everything they could to try to get inside of the house, but it was just too much for them with the smoke and all. So they kind of went into a field that was behind the house, Cheryl's lungs literally felt like they were on fire since she has been trying to get into this house breathing in the smoke. One of the girls had asked the neighbors to see if Connie might have been at one of theirs at their homes, but she wasn't and she said basically all that they could do was stand back and watch it. They tried to get in there, they tried to see if someone was inside, but they just physically could not do it. And then as they were standing there watching it, Dale Townsend arrives on scene, who is David's father. So later, while Cheryl and Monica were talking with one of the officers, they told him about the man with the curly hair and the baseball cap who had left the scene in a blue truck, and Dale was standing there and also seemed to know who this person was and spoke of his name, but Monica could not recall the name in her statement, but Dale allegedly said that the man was from Horseshoe Ben. Cheryl said that upon arriving to the trailer, they had saw a small blue pickup truck parked at the end of the driveway, and she said that it's stuck with her how clean it looked. And she described the man that they saw as a slim, white male with light colored hair, and he's the one that told them no one is in the house. And she said that upon returning from calling the fire department, that herself and Monica and Billy Browning, as well as a male friend of Billie's, who also had arrived to the scene the same time as Monica and Cheryl, and that's when they said that they heard the small child yell inside, and they together were all trying to figure out how to get in to help this person. They could hear someone yelling, help me. And one of the things that they all were kind of taken aback by was how strangely relaxed this guy was, the guy with the baseball cap in the blue truck. How strange you relaxed he was while everybody else was frantically trying to get into this trailer to help what they thought was a baby or somebody that was inside, and he was just super calm, not anxious at all about it, and then just said he was going to move his truck so that the fire department could get to the fire and he then left because they said that they did not see him again. And again they reiterate how when they were talking to Dale about it, he seems to know who this person is, refers to him by name, knows where he's from, So obviously this person might have a connection to the Townsends and was just standing there as a fire is billowing, and doesn't seem to be too concerned about the fire itself, like not enough to call nine on one. You're just standing there. And then people arrive on the scene. They're obviously frantic trying to get in the house. They say that they hear somebody and this guy's just calmly standing there, not doing anything about anything. Shortly after that, Stacy and Amber arrive at the scene and the house at this point is completely gone, just burned to the ground. And Stacy said, I don't remember a whole lot about that day. I remember getting there. It was an old trailer and it was already gone. I remember David showing up. He and his son walked up there just as happy as can be, like nothing was going on. We knew she was still inside, her car was sitting there, her purse was in her car, and since some stuff that she had already got packed, was in the car, the keys were in the ignition. Still, he and his son parked at the top of the road and walked down there like it was no big deal. I headed after him, and I just wanted to get a hold of him, and they held me back, and then the sheriff told him to leave. I cannot even imagine walking up to a situation like that and having to take it all in. Literally, Connie's keys were in her ignition, she was getting ready to leave. And if that doesn't absolutely break your heart and scream of a setup, I don't know what does. One of the first firemen to arrive to the scene made a statement that David Townsend had arrived to the scene with the boy who was about twenty five to thirty years old, who quote acted really nervous, like he had shot problems or something, which is interesting. I assume the boy is David's son, David Junior. So it was also reported by Connie's sisters that while they were at the scene of the fire, Dale Townsend had said that he only had about ten thousand dollars worth of insurance on the trailer, and she said, my husband told him we weren't interested in the trailer. We're worried that Connie may still be inside. And Dale then stated that his dad had died in a fire, and he also had said that he had three homes to burn in a fire and was just really cold acting about it like he just didn't care and was not all concerned about Connie. And he even said, well, Connie may have committed suicide, which is the biggest slap in the face to anyone that has just lost a family member. What kind of horrible human are you, Dale, Like you're right up there with your son, David. Horrible humans breed horrible humans, apparently. So they of course investigated the scene and and they found the remains of a body that was believed to be Connie, and they described it as being found in a bedroom in the center of the south side of the mobile home portion of the structure, and the victim was face down with arms folded underneath her body. While they were there investigating, David crossed over the taped police line, and the investigators were asking David, do you know where Connie is? And they said that David had said two or three times that she is in there and pointing to the area where Connie's body was later discovered, and they also said that when David realized that he was talking to somebody that was a sheriff, he got quiet and later said that he just figured that that's where she was, like obviously trying to cover his tracks from being a shady person. They also found a gas can in the yard, and the reports from the sheriff indicated that the gas can had not been in that location for very long, and they were able to tell that by because of the grass. The grass was a good indication that the can had been placed there recently. So the cause of death was given by the medical examiner and was determined to be smoke and soot inhalation, and it said that Connie was alive at the time of the incident and her toxicology report came back clean. So this literally was somebody who was trapped in a burning house and was unable to get out, and that is a really, really sad and terrifying way to lose your life. So David was named a person of interest in the case. It was ruled a homicide arson and they of course interviewed him. The Sheriff's office interviewed him just after midnight on January eighth, and in his statement, he said that he had woken up around five am and he was peddling around, and then he said he went to check on Connie at about eight thirty or nine o'clock in the morning and said I went to check on her because she was in the process of moving, and said quote Dad asked me if I was going to take some firewood over, but then said he was going to take some over later. We had been separated for the last four years but still remain friends. She was going to move and I was going to stay in the trailer until my dad could rent it. I returned back to the house around nine forty five or ten am. I asked Mom and Dad if they would go down there and talk to Connie, and they called her and made arrangements to go down there, and they left. They were down there for about thirty minutes and came back and said she wasn't very courteous to them. Mom and Dad wanted her to leave because she never paid part of the insurance or taxes on the trailer. They called Dolores and John Drown and made arrangements for them to move Connie out end quote, obviously leaving off the part where he threatened Connie because he is just not a good person. So the next part of his statement, he said that he and his son, who was also named David, went fishing at about eleven o'clock in the morning and they went to Kalika Rock to the river, and earlier, in a different statement, they had said that they had eaten lunch at his father's house, so there's conflicting statements there. He said, we came back at about three pm and met my dad at Spring Creek. He stopped and told me that the trailer was burning and they thought someone was in it, and I went up to the trailer then. And then, of course David Junior backed up his father's story and said, yes, that's exactly what happened. David also said that he and his son had stopped at Harp's grocery store in Kalika Rock to buy corn for fishing bait, and they did question a cashier there and she said she remembers selling a can of corn and a can opener to someone, and also said that they had asked for lighter fluid, but Harbs didn't have any lighter fluid. And that happened sometime after eleven am. So the pieces of the puzzle are very much fitting together, allegedly in my opinion, because I'm no fishermen, but I don't think you need lighter fluid to catch fish. David and his son then went to Chessmont Fairy to fish, and he said that they caught a few different fish that day. Initially, David and his son both had agreed to take polygraphs tests, and when David Junior was contacted to take his test, he refused and stated that his father had already taken one and had failed. So I guess his reasoning was, well, my dad already failed, why would I take one. These Davids don't think right, They really don't. They're not playing with a full deck. So there were two other witnesses that saw David with his son the same day after the fire had occurred. It was either around two or two thirty, and this particular witness said that the sun was in their store and that he had bought a couple of sodas and a pack of cigarettes. And this person had asked him if anyone was in the house at the time of the fire, and he had said no, and he just said that Connie was on her way home from somewhere so that she was not in the house, which was a blatant lie. So despite all of this stuff that was going on with David and Connie's relationship and him not wanting her to leave and not wanting to be divorced, he didn't really seem to care all that much because he had a girlfriend who was named Joanne Alis and he had been dating her for around three years. And she said that day that she was home alone the day of the fire, and she also said that Dale, who was David's father, wanted Connie and David to get back together, which its manipulation at its finest in my opinion. About a week after the fire, Joanne said that David said that his son was there the day of the incident and that they had gone fishing. She said that he had told her that they went fishing to a place on the lake, but they ended up not fishing because it was too cold. I mean it was January, so it makes sense. And then he also said he didn't feel like fishing, so they kind of just messed around. And Joanne also said that she felt that David and his parents had something to do with Connie's murder. So Joanne's smart. Joanne is one of the only smart people in this bunch of David Dale. Dale's wife the only smart one. So there was a witness that stated to authorities in a document report that David was at her home one night after Connie's death and appeared to be high or drunk or both. He said that the witness was the only person that David could count on, and he later went on to say, she burned, she burned, she burned, end quote. She said that his words were slurred and he got louder every time he said it. The woman also had said that Connie had confided in her previously and feared that David was going to kill her. The same witness would also say that David would always say that Connie would never leave him because basically he didn't want anyone else to have her, and that if she did leave him that he would kill her. So this is a witness coming forward saying that I've had these conversations with David when he is both drunk and non intoxicated, and he has expressed those feelings to me. So on April twenty sixth of nineteen ninety six, they had a conference call with prosecute's prosecuting attorney TJ. Hively in reference to Connie's death and investigation in Izard County. After reviewing and discussing the case, they determined that there was insufficient evidence to charge suspects or suspects. There was a newly elected sheriff, Donnie Joe Yancy, and he worked tirelessly on the case, and he basically had said that he was pretty sure that David had done this, but if they tried to convict him without enough evidence, he will walk and go free and then turn around and say he did it and there would be nothing that they could do about it. So there basically wasn't enough evidence. Now I'm not a prosecutor or a court person, but I feel like there's a crap ton of evidence. I mean, everyone that's listening to this podcast episode is super smart. We all no circumstantial evidence sometimes win cases. Scott Peterson perfect example, all circumstantial, but it all tracks with what ended up happening to Lacy Peterson. This is the exact same thing. It just happened way way way earlier than Scott and Lacy Peterson did so circumstantial evidence is evidence a lot of the times, and all of these witness statements and the different behaviors of the different people that were allegedly involved screams guilt to me. But like I said, I'm not a prosecutor. I get their reasoning, I guess for everything, but also I feel like they could have given it their best try and tried to get a conviction. But in two thousand and four, it did come out that this prosecuting attorney, TJ. Hively and two of his associates got charged with mail fraud, money laundering, and they were accused of using the prosecutor's office as a means to obtain monetary benefits for themselves. And some of the accusations including letting a man accused of three counts of raychild pornography and sexual abuse, abuse of a minor walk free, stiliciting a bribe from another defendant, and extorting the state and federal government. So this guy and his associates people in his office were just letting creeps and weirdos out left and right, and they eventually got caught and got charged with acting a fool. And it just really frustrates me that that whole thing happened, but also that all of those years before everything with Connie happened, and obviously they weren't doing things on the up and up to begin with, and they were worried that they weren't going to be able to get a conviction for David, so they didn't even try. And meanwhile, they're letting sexual predators and somebody who was abusing a minor walk free in exchange for bribes, like it does not track with being a certified law person. So in this whole investigation of this prosecutor and some of his colleagues, some of the files surrounding Connie's case mysteriously went missing, which screams sketchy to me, But they weren't really. There were no accusations concerning the whereabouts of these files. They just said that they were missing. And of course Connie's daughters who want answers, they want closure. Connie's daughter Stacy said, I just feel like people move on with their lives. It's not that they don't care my sister and I can't move on. I can't get on with my life even if he doesn't go to jail or get arrested. I just want to know what happened. It was broad daylight. Why didn't she get out? He did something to her so she couldn't get out. So that is a story of Connie. David passed away in twenty nineteen at the age of seventy one, and he never, ever, ever, once had to pay for what he did to Connie. Dale and Ramona Townsend, his parents also passed away. Actually Ramona outlived her son. Ramona. She passed away in twenty twenty one and she was one hundred and one years old when she passed away. Dale Townsend, David's father passed away in twenty thirteen and he passed away at ninety five years old. So all of these people, David included, went on to live long, prosperous lives. Their obituaries are all fluff and how great of people they were and how involved in church they were. But you can't hide the fact that this horrible thing happened and they are all tied to it. Something does not sit right. The only person that is still living that was around back then and knows what happened is David Lynne Townshend, who is David's son. He is the only one that knows he's the only one that can stop the madness and come forward with the truth. And it seems to me that David Lynn Townshend really has lived a very tortured life and is not thriving in any way, shape or form in his life right now, and I feel like he needs to come forward, say what happened. Stop protecting your father and your grandparents, and just admit what happened that day, so Connie's family can get closure because having this hangover their head for so many years, especially knowing what happened, the rage that they must feel on a daily basis to not let that take over your life and to be able to go on day to day and be a good person like Amber is one of the nicest, sweetest gals I've ever met, and I never would have thought that she had something like this that just lingers over her every day. So for Connie and her family, we need to get the story out there. We need to get justice for them, and we have to get justice for Connie. She seems like she was a lovely person. I know that she raised two amazing daughters and they are going to continue to fight to get justice for her. At the end of the day, and I'm going to be right alongside of them fighting to get justice for Connie as well. So please share this episode, especially if you are in Arkansas, have any connections to Arkansas, and let's get this story out there. Let's solve this case once and for all so we can officially say case closed on Connie's case. I am going to be sharing some pictures of Connie and her amazing daughters to my Instagram and Facebook pages. Thank you guys so much for listening and being along for the ride on this story that, like I said, there really wasn't a whole lot out there. Again, I want to thank ak Barnes Johnson for her amazing write up article that she did in twenty fifteen, and like I said, if it wasn't for that, I would not have really a lot of information on this case because there was not really a ton out there that I could find. So definitely want to thank her. She is the credit and resource for this whole episode, and I very much appreciate her write up because it really helped me navigate everything so I could kind of retell the story. So thank you and I appreciate you all for listening and let's get Connie's case solved. Let's put pressure on David Lynn Townsend from Arkansas to tell the truth and be a good human, probably for the first time in his life, allegedly in my opinion. I hope you guys have a great one and I will see you guys next time for a new episode. Bye.