Gary & Stephanie Gillette

All witnesses, purchase of interest, and suspects are considered innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Warning. This episode contains graphic crime scene detail and may be sensitive for some listeners. Welcome to Primetime Crime. I'm your host, Kylie. Let's talk right now in true crime, and then together we are going to work on warming up some cold cases. Let's go. Hey, guys, welcome to another episode of Primetime Crime. It's Kylie. We are going to go ahead and dive into right now and true crime. Starting with nothing other than the verdict of the case against Lorii Valo Dabel for the murder of her husband, Charles, the conspiracy to commit murder of her husband, Charles Valo. Charles was our first victim in the Luri and Chad of it all. And I can now say that Lourie Valo has been found guilty and we have got justice for Charles. We have one more trial to go, and that is a trial of Brandon Boudreau, who survived the attempted assassination, and that is going to be taking place at the end of May. And then Laurie chose to wait for her sentencing until after that trial. Laurie is also going to be representing herself during that trial, so we're going to have more NonStop Lourie Valu entertainment. So following the guilty verdict, she declined a sentencing aggravation phase and stipulated three different things. She stipulated that the offense was dangerous, included an accomplice, and caused emotional or financial harm to the victim or the victim's immediate family. So in this Laurie is basically agreeing that those three things took place, which is so wild considering she's spent the last six years of her life denying all of it. But it will essentially just kind of help streamline the sentencing and that whole process. So interesting little thing to say the least, But we are so grateful that there was justice for Charles. There was a part of me and I always get such verdict anxiety because I've sat through Casey Anthony and OJ Simpson. Those are two that really stick out in my mind where I was obviously super shocked by the verdict, Like you think it's a slam dunk, but for me, there's no such thing as a sure thing because the jury is looking at it in very black and white ways, and they didn't know all of this stuff about the kids dying and Tammy dying and everything else that's surrounded Lori Valo except for what they were being presented with. And a lot of the times it doesn't go our way, even though we know she's guilty. In our opinion, she's guilty, they might think differently. But I am very grateful that this jury did get it right and we have finally got justice for Charles. It is a long, long, long time coming. Okay, switching gears to our next little trial update. We have to talk about the Karen Reed trial officially started on Tuesday with openings, and we are well in to our first few days of trial and things have been very interesting, to say the least, pretty lies and alibis. Gigi is doing live feed coverage over on her YouTube every day and then she's doing a recap every night, and I've been intermittently able to watch the testimony, and it's been wild and crazy. The defense is not going to let some of these witnesses go without trying to prove a point that they're not credible, and that is what his job is. Defense's job is to poke holes in the prosecution and the states theory that Karen Reid is responsible for murdering John O'Keeffe. That is literally what their job is. And it's been interesting kind of watching it all go down. If you guys watched the first trial, you know that things were a little wild and crazy in that trial as well, and this one is going to give the first one a round for its money. So far, we've heard from a few witnesses. We've heard from a friend of John O'Keeffe's that was present that night, we heard from John O'Keeffe's mother, and we heard from one of the EMTs that was first on the scene. I'm recording this on Wednesday, so I'm sure there will be more witnesses down the pipeline in the next few days. And it's really interesting the direction the state's going with the case. They're kind of sticking with their same theory that they stuck with in the first trial, but it sounds like the defense is going to be bringing in new evidence. So I am honestly just waiting day to day, listening to the testimony, listening to the evidence, and kind of going from there. But it is going to be a very interesting trial. Well, it's going to probably go on for a while because the case is quite large, and I know the defense has a lot of people that they're going to call and they're trying to bring in some new evidence. It sounds like so it's going to be one of those cases that day to day you never know what's going to happen. But I will continue to keep you guys updated. If anything pressing happens or wild and crazy happens, I will let you know. Okay, last thing I want to talk about is there was a presser today and it had to do with finally naming the identity of two Jane Does that were found in the Gilgo Beach area. Now, one of them was found in June of nineteen ninety seven, and this woman was found in Nassau County, New York, and they have finally identified her through DNA evidence. She was given the nickname of Peaches because this woman had a peach tattoo on her and authrom the Woodlands, Texas, who I talk about all the time, was able to get her DNA in twenty twenty and they created a profile and she has officially been identified as a Alabama native and Army veteran named Tanya Jackson. So her torso was found in a container in the woods next to McDonald Pond. Her head, both arms, and both legs were severed but were not found with the torso. And also from what I've heard, her skull is still missing. So investigators work extensively to try to identify her. They released a picture of her and the tattoo, hoping that somebody would come forward knowing who this woman was, and they entered her information into NamUs, which is the National Missing and an Identified Person System. Finally, in twenty sixteen, the DNA testing that was conducted were able to link some of the extremities that were found to this same woman who was nicknamed as Peaches. And finally, in twenty twenty, forensic evidence was submitted to AUTHRAM to see if any advances in DNA technology could help identify her, and they were finally able to create a profile using genetic genealogy, and we have finally given her her name back. The investigation into what happened to her, who could have committed this crime against her is still under investigation. Of course, due to where she was left, there is a lot of theorizing that she could be another rex Huerman victim, but that has not officially been said yet. They haven't been able to link him as of this time. It is still an ongoing investigation, but of course there are people who will speculate now. They also identified another Jane Doe, which was her daughter. So in April of twenty eleven, the remains of a toddler were found near Ocean Parkway on Long Island in Sulfelk County, New York, and it was determined that this child was the daughter of the woman who was later known as Peaches. So they ended up entering this toddler's information into NamUs and evidence was submitted to ATHRAM to see if they could figure out who Peaches and this baby Dough were. They sent DNA to the lab and they were able to officially identify her as two year old Tatiana Dykes. Just a little baby. This is a toddler, So so sad. Now I do not know The investigation into all of this is ongoing, so I don't know how the child ended up there. And she was found a lot later than her mother's first part of her mother's remains because her mother's remains were scattered, so it was the torso and then the appendages were found later on, and that is also when the baby was found, So that is such an interesting plot twist in all of this. Again, the investigation is ongoing, and I guess as more information is released, I will be sure to bring it to you guys. But I do want to let you guys know, if you have an iPhone or a Google phone or an Android, Samsung whatever they're calling them these days, download the Authroom app on your phone. It's spelled like it said otrim and when you go to their app, it is very straightforward. But they will release all of their solve cases and you can look at the cases they've solved in the past seven days using advancements in DNA technology. They have solved one, two, three, four or five, six, seven cases in the last seven days, which is insane. And then you can look in the last thirty days, how many they've solved the last ninety days. And then you can look at all time, which it is so amazing to see all of the people that they have given their names back to or identified or solved their murders. They are doing amazing, amazing work and they are only one of many many labs in the United States that are doing this kind of work. So download the app because nothing excites me more than when I get a notification on my phone that another person has been identified. And I'm telling you, they are going through the backlogs of all of these Jane and John Doe's and they are making leeway and progress like never before, and they are doing amazing things. As I know, there are many other labs that are doing the same thing, but authoram is one that is semi localist to me, So it's kind of the one that I tend to follow the most. And one of the first Crime con presentations I went to was about AUTHRM and then solving the Carla Walker case and all that it took to solve her case after all of those years. So if you're intrigued by cold case investigation and DNA technology and all the advances that are happening and people being given their identities back after years and decades of being Jane and John does follow offram, download the app. It is ten out of ten amazing. I love being able to look at that. So today when I got the notification that they had identified Peaches and baby Dough, I knew that they were doing this press conference today, and I love that Authrum had a role in helping that whole thing. Authraam has been very involved in all the Gilgo Beach stuff, so I am into it for sure. I will keep you guys updated if anything more comes out about them furthering the investigation and figuring out who could have committed these horrific crimes against a mother and her two year old baby. Awful, awful, but I'm so glad after all of this time, they finally have their identities back because that is step number one in getting justice for them. So we are going to go ahead and get into today's episode. Okay, guys, today we are jumping in to a brand new unsolved case. I am going to be telling you about the unsolved December nineteen eighty five homicide of a couple named Gary and Stephanie Gillette, who were living in Corpus Christi, Texas. Gary was thirty three years old and just a few days shy of his birthday when his life was cut short. Stephanie, his beloved wife, was only twenty two. Gary and Stephanie had been married for about three years, and Stephanie was Gary's second marriage, and he and his first wife had three daughters, Shay who was fourteen, Christie who was eleven, and Candice who was nine. They all got along really well and all of the girls were very accepting of Stephanie and she was loving towards them. They all had a good relationship and Stephanie loved them like her own. They lived at a house they were renting in Corpus Christi, Texas, located at four eight two six Sweetbriar Circle. It was a cute little neighborhood, quaint little cul de sac that they lived on. Gary was a successful businessman and had also opened up a mud logging consulting business around the time that he and Stephanie were married, so the business was doing really well. He was three years into being a business owner and they were an overall very happy couple. They were well liked in the community and they didn't have any known enemies. They were outgoing social and they enjoyed going out on the town. When Gary wasn't busy with his work. Gary loved to playpool and was also kind of known around town to be a jokester. Gary's work was very important to him and he was very dedicated to his job the face of his company, and he would often drop things at the drop of a hat to tend to his business happenings. It wasn't uncommon for him to break plans or even at times be difficult to get a hold of. But when it came to his kids and his daughters, this was not the case. He was very devoted to his kids. From everything I've seen, he seemed like he was a really great dad, and Stephanie seemed like she was a really great stepmother to the girls and treated them like her own. Now, I think this is a very important fact later in our story, because everybody that knew Gary socially knew how his schedule was, and sometimes he was hard to pin down, and he would go off to tend to business happenings from time to time, and he wasn't always readily available to his social circle and his friends. So keep that in the back of your mind because we are going to circle back to that soon. So we are on Friday, December thirteenth of nineteen eighty five, and Gary was supposed to have his girls as it was his turn to have them for the weekend, and they had kind of made some tentative plans to decorate the Christmas tree. However, he and Stephanie had called to let them know that there was a Christmas party that had popped up that could have a ton of potential clients for Gary, and he very much needed to make an appearance. There was also going to be a second party that night that he needed to go to, and it really wasn't unusual, like I said, for Gary to have these different business commitments. But he said that he would pick the girls up either later that night if it wasn't too late, or he would pick them up the next morning. Now, Shay, who was the oldest, said she was okay with the plans kind of changing because she had some friends that were getting together and she wanted to go along with them. She was fourteen, She was a teenager. Nothing out of the ordinary for her to wrap spend time with her friends. Now. Little did the girls know that this would be the last time that they would speak with their father and their stepmother, Stephanie. Gary and Stephanie did attend the Christmas party at the tramp Steamer Bar that was located in the Hilton Inn. They were having a great time and then at one point in time, Gary left to go make an appearance at another party that was going on at the Cantina Santa Fe. And Stephanie had stayed behind at the Tramp Steamer, and he had a friend look out for her to be sure that she was safe and that she would get to her car okay at the end of the night. So Gary and Stephanie had driven separately because he knew he would be hopping from party to party, because he was the face of his company and the social guy that needed to make an appearance everywhere. So he drove his car and left the company car with Stephanie. The two bars were a short distance from one another, maybe about ten to twelve minutes away, and they were only both about twenty minutes from the Gellette home. Now, none of this really matters in the grand scheme of things, but I love going down into a rabbit hole on Google Maps and digging into where things are so I can kind of get a visual of the area that we're talking about, the area that they lived in and all of that. And I found the old Hilton in Hotel where the Tramp Steamer restaurant was, and I found the old canteena Santa Fe building, and of course I was able to see the house the Gillettes were renting at the time of the unfortunate murders, which we are now going to get into. The following day, on December fourteenth of nineteen eighty five, Gary's daughters had attempted to call the Gellette home, but they repeatedly got a busy signal. They tried again later and they got the same thing, and of course they very much rationalized that the phone had likely been knocked off the hook, thinking that maybe their cat had knocked it off their receiver, and they ended up just going on a out their day, but Gary still hadn't shown up to get them. So later on in the day, their oldest daughter, Shay, had gone out with some friends and had decided that she was going to stop by her dad and stepmom's house. When she arrived, she noticed everything in the house was locked up, everything minus the garage, which was wide open, and all the lights in the house were also on. But she looked into the windows of the house, she didn't see anything that really seemed out of place. Now, circling back later, we are going to talk about some interviews that Shay has done with some other podcasters and other news sources out there, and whatever was inside of that house, she very likely did see, but her mind blocked it out, and that was a way of protecting her, I think from the horrific nature of what had happened to Gary and Stephanie, and I think it's so interesting how the mind really has a way of protecting us when we are in really traumatic and uncomfortable, incomprehensible type of situation. So we're going to talk about that a little later on. But she knew that her dad would never keep the lights on because he wasn't wasteful. He typically would make sure that the lights were off when they weren't home or they weren't in a room, And she even contemplated breaking in, but she knew that she would probably get in trouble for trying to break in the house, even though she had good reasons, so she decided against it and her and her friends left. Now, we do have to remember that Shay was only fourteen years old, and you never think that in the back of your mind that something horrific has happened to your dad and your stepmom. But for whatever reason, Shay just had this nagging gut feeling that something was wrong, although it wasn't until the next day that the truth would be discovered about what actually had gone on inside of the Gellette home. So the next day, on December fifteenth, a friend of Gary and Stephanie's named James Garland Harris, he went by Gary. I'm going to call him Gary Harris, so we don't confuse him with Gary Gillette. He had gone by their house and he had allegedly also said that he had tried to call them a number of times but was getting a constant busy signal. The house was locked up. There was only one car outside, which was not typical as there was usually two. That would be Gary's regular car and then Gary's company car. He managed to enter the home and upon going inside, he found Gary and Stephanie Gillette dead in their bedroom. He made an attempt to call the police, but their phone wouldn't work, and it was later discovered that the phone line of the Gellette home had been cut. He left the house to police via a nearby phone. Now I did see some different reports on this. I saw that he left to call police, and then I also saw that he came to the house with police, which we're going to talk about. Surely that Gary Harris was a member of law enforcement, so I think either one could be true. I am not really sure what the exact story is because I have seen both in different places, So I am just putting that out there that either one could be true. So law enforcement eventually did arrive and they confirmed that Gary and Stephanie were in fact deceased. They had been viciously attacked while in their bed, and at some point the killer had moved their bodies from the bed to the floor, and it's really unclear as to why they were moved. The medical examiner revealed that they had likely been killed on December fourteenth, in the early morning hours. Gary's cause of death was revealed to be a blow to the back of his head from a house. Stephanie had also been attacked with a hatchet and had several wounds on her head and face, and she had also been stabbed numerous times, But the stab wounds that were on Stephanie were made post mortem, meaning that they had occurred after she had already died, which really makes you wonder if this was a crime of passion, if it was somebody that the Gillettes knew somebody that the Gillettes trusted, and not a random crime of opportunity type of attack. Investigator said that Stephanie wasn't even recognizable because her injuries were so severe, So even though both were attacked, Stephanie definitely got the brunt of whatever the heck the motive was behind this double homicide. Investigators theorized that the couple had in fact let the killer into their home. Everything seemed to be in its place. There was no forced entry, noted, the home was clean and tight, and there were a couple of things missing. Two of Gary's rings were missing and Stephanie's purse. However, nothing else from inside of the house was gone, and believe it or not, they found the murder weapon, a hatchet, under a mattress in one of the other bedrooms of the house. It actually was Shay's bedroom that they found the hatchet underneath the mattress of the knife was found in the kitchen and it had been cleaned. So whoever this heinous monster is not only entered the Gelette home without a weapon, but then they left the weapons behind, So none of this really makes sense. Both of those things were from the Gellette home. Now, if you remember earlier when I said that Stephanie and Gary were going to be decorating the Christmas tree with the kids, the Christmas tree that the Gellettes had was standing in the living room, and investigators theorized that the hatchet was super close by and that Gary had likely used it to trim the trunk or the branches in preparation for decorating the tree with the kids. So again, it's very much looking like this was not a planned attack and it basically was carried out with items that were just easily accessible to the killer or killers when they went inside of the gille At home. Now, there was something else that was missing from the scene, and that was Gary's car, which was pretty distinctive in its looks. It had a maroon paint job and a white top and it was a nineteen seventy nine. I think it's Electrica. If I'm saying that wrong, I am apologizing. I'm not a car person. So the car was missing, and it was, like I said, pretty distinctive looking. So as the crime scene is being investigated, after Gary Harris called law enforcement, they came to investigate. Shay was still just had this nagging suspicion that something was going on and so worried. So her mom drove her to the Gillette home and as they approached the cul de Sac, they saw nothing but emergency vehicles and law enforcement officers. They saw crime scene tape around Gary and Stephanie's house, and she now knew that the bad feeling she was having was valid, and she got out and raced towards the house. Now, of course, they wouldn't let her in since it was an act of crime scene, but she just knew that something horrific had happened. So in the midst of everything going on, she noticed a man that she didn't know, and she had never seen this man before, and he was speaking with her mother. Eventually, she was able to ask her mom who the man was that she was talking with, and her mother shared that it was a man named Gary Harris, who happened to be the man that discovered the bodies that day. And this is also the man who claimed that he was one of Garytte's best friends. Now, Shaye did not know this man at all, and considering she spent a reasonable amount of time with her dad at her dad's house, I would assume that she would know one of his best friends. So two days later, on December seventeenth, Gary's car was found in Corpus Christy, a few blocks away from the Gillette home. Now, this was actually the same day that Stephanie and Gary were laid to rest, and Gary Harris, bff of Gary Gillette, served as a pallbearer for his friend Gary. Police ended up processing the car. They were very much trying to look for any possible evidence that could link someone to the crime and tie back to Stephanie and Gary's murder, and they found something pretty interesting inside of the car, which was a fingerprint, and it matched somebody that was pretty close to the case. It matched none other than Gary Harris. So we need to dive into Gary a little bit more and find out exactly who this guy is. So Gary Harris was a constable for Nuasis County and he worked as a patrolman. He didn't have any criminal record and everyone that knew him spoke pretty highly of him. He had been friends with Gary Gillette for years and not only did he place himself out the scene of the crime by finding the bodies, but he also claimed to be the last person to see Gary and Stephanie alive the night that they were likely killed. So either this guy, in my opinion, has the worst luck or there is way more to the story than we are hearing. And it is reported that Gary and Gary were friends and they very much hung out together kind of on the bar scene, and that is often where they would chat and catch up and all of that. So that could very much be the reason that Shay wasn't familiar with who this person was. He obviously wasn't somebody that was frequently over the Gellett home. And maybe they just knew each other socially and they were good friends outside and they really didn't spend a lot of time at each other's homes and around each other's families. That is just me speculating that maybe that is the reason that he wasn't known to the kids of the Gellette family. Also, an important little tidbit of the story is the place that Gary Gillette's car was found parked was in a neighborhood near the home of a woman that Gary Harris had a romantic interest in. And we're going to talk about all of that in a little bit, but we're going to go through the statement that Gary Harris gave to police initially after Gary and Stephanie were found, and this was very much jumpstart of the investigation. The bodies are found. He was brought down to be questioned and this is what he said. My name is James Scarland Harris. I am thirty two years old, and it lists his address, he lists telephone number. He says that he is self employed as a private investigator. He gives his business phone number and then goes on to say, on twelve thirteen, nineteen eighty five, at approximately five pm, I went to a party at Burkett and Burkett Law office, which is located at Third and Park. At the party, I see a girl named Michelle who was one hundred and ten pounds, blonde hair, green eyes, twenty two years old, and she worked for an attorney named Robert Birkenhoffer. He says, Michelle and I left the party sometime after nine pm and they go to Mingles nightclub, and he said when he was at two Cross Streets, his digital pager went off and he called the answering service and they told me that Gary Gilette had called and wanted me to call him. He said, I then called Gary at home and he asked me to come over for a drink. I told him that I had a date with me and he told me to bring her also. Michelle and I then drove to Gary's house, which is located at four eight two six Sweetbriar. We then got there, Gary let us in, Michelle went into the living room and played with the cat. Gary had me follow him to the garage where he was replacing hinges on the kitchen door. I asked him why he had taken the hinges off, and he said that he had to take them off to get into the house. I told him that it was easier to pick the lock with the knife rather than removing the hinges, and he asked me to show him, and I did. I took my pocket knife out and opened the door in approximately two seconds. We then went back in the house and continued talking. I asked him where Stephanie was and he said that she was still at the party. He said that she was having such a good time that she didn't want to come home. He told me that Michelle and I were welcome to spend the night, so we did. We went to the back bedroom and closed the door. Both Michelle and I had drank quite a lot, but I was not drunk. Michelle and I stayed in the room for approximately fifteen minutes, and when I came out, Gary was standing next to the bar in the living room. I told him that Michelle had passed out on me, and I went back into the room and went to sleep for I don't know how long I was asleep, but then I heard the doorbell ringing and I heard Gary say, okay, okay, I'm coming. I heard what sounded like him walking down the hall and opening the door. Somebody said, Gary, you locked me out. It was Stephanie saying it, and then I heard Stephanie say, you hurt my eye. I can't see. They walked back to the room and I guess he's saying here that Gary had told her that there was company in the house. And then I heard her say twice, don't you ever hit me again? And they closed the door. Michelle woke up and I told her to get dressed so that we could leave. We got dressed and left out the front door. I don't recall if I locked it or not. Stephanie's car, a blue Oldsmobile, was parked behind my car and Gary's convertible Buick was parked in front of my car in the garage. I had to pull up and then back out. By the time I drove to my apartment, Michelle said that she had left her coat at Gary's house. We then drove back to Gary's house and I went straight to the kitchen door in the garage and picked the lock with my knife. The garage door was still up. I went into the living room and got a long bone colored coat off the sofa. I took the coat to the car, and that is where the statement that I could find cuts off. I know there's more to it, and I would love to get my hands on it, but I cannot find it anywhere. But there is a lot to unpack there. And something else that I think is super interesting is that Gary Jillette had called his Answer and Serve to check his messages at twelve thirty am. Now other Gary, Gary Harris had also come on the line after him, as he used the same answering services for his messages, and when he got on the line, he was going on and on and on about a woman who he was interested in dating. And this gal allegedly worked for the answering service and he was just going on and on about her, and he had said that he was going to spend the night at the Gellette home. So this very much lays a timeline for when Gary and Stephanie were murdered, because by three p forty five am, Gary Harris is back at home and made another call to the Answering Service and again he's going on and on about the woman who he wants to date, who works for the Answering Service. Now, if you remember earlier when I talked about Gary Jellette's car being found, that car was found in front of the house of the woman who Gary Harris had been ranting about to the Answering Service all night. Now her brother had awoken and looked out the window around two thirty am and saw the car parked there. So again this gives us a timeline of when Gary and Stephanie were killed. And at this point things are not looking great for Gary Harris. He not only is the last person to have seen Gary and Stephanie alive, but he discovered their bodies and him going on and on ranting about this woman, and then Gary Jillette's car ended up being parked in front of the home that she lived in with her parents and her family. Wow. I always say I'm not a huge believer in coincidences, and I typically think that things line up for a reason, and I am going to stick with that on this story. Either Gary Harris is super super unlucky or there is more to the story that we are not getting. But again, that is just my personal opinion. I also think that Gary Harris was way too close to this investigation because not only was he close to the case, but he also had the law enforcement connections, so he knew the ins and outs of the process to investigate a case. He knew a little bit more than the average joe, and he also knew some of the people involved in the investigation. I'm sure he had friends that worked in the investigation world, so there's just a lot going on here. He also wasn't acting the most normal and conspicuous following the murders. There were a couple of different incidents and interactions with people, one of which he told somebody that Stephanie had lived for hours after the attack and basically said that the medical examiner had shared that with a member of either Gary and Stephanie's family. I am not sure which one, and Gary felt that he needed to share this information with a family friend. Now, the medical examiner said that this was not true and that Gary and Stephanie died pretty quickly after their attack began, and nobody ever told anybody this. So where did Gary Harris come up with this information and why did he feel like it was okay to share this information with the family friend. He also said this to Gary Jillette's ex wife, that basically he heard that the killer had heard Stephanie making gurgling sounds and then had to circle back to quote unquote finish her off. And he said that he was told this by somebody that was investigating the case, which was a whole other issue if that is true, which I am leaning towards it's not true, But that's just, again my opinion, you can't share details of an ongoing investigation like this. But I don't think that Gary Harris was told this by anybody investigating the case. Absolutely not. But I do want to kind of circle back to earlier when I talked about how Gary Jellette often would cancel plans and he would sometimes be a hard man to get a hold of. He would take off at the last minute for different work things. So why would Gary Harris be so concerned and upset that he couldn't get a hold of Gary Jellette literally not even a few hours after he had last seen him. And he also was concerned enough that he decided that he was going to go to his house and break in, essentially in order to make sure that Gary and Stephanie were okay. None of this really lines up with the narrative that Gary Jellette often would be not home, hard to get a hold of doing work things. But I do just kind of want to point that out because I think we very much laid the foundation earlier about how there would be times when he would leave and he would go off for work stuff and you weren't able to get a hold of him. It wasn't out of the ordinary for him, and you would think that somebody, Gary Harris, who was a best friend of Gary Gillette, would have known thiss. So six months passed by, and the community was obviously shaken by the fact that nobody had been under arrest for Gary and Stephanie's murder. The person that did this was obviously brazen and did not have any value for human life. Gary and Stephanie's family very much wondered if they would ever make an arrest in this case. And then on May thirtieth of nineteen eighty six, a warrant was issued for the arrest of none other than Gary Harris. Now, in the days following, a grand jury went ahead and indicted Gary Harris on two counts of murder, and he went ahead and hired an attorney. It was actually the same attorney that would later defend Yolanda who who was charged and convicted of murdering Selena, the Queen of all things in Corpus Christy and everywhere else in the world because Selena is literally the Queen. But despite that, Gary was given a high bail amount and his attorney helped get it reduced quickly, and Gary very quickly made bail. His attorney also asked some of his colleagues and co workers to come forward with letters saying that Gary was a good person, had a good character, and would never have done anything like this to one of his friends, and his coworkers did come through with letters. His supervisor also wrote him a letter. He was, however, suspended without pay during the ongoing investigation. Now, the case was very circumstantial. Obviously, everything that's going on, Gary Harris isn't doing himself any favors. He's almost saying too much and embellishing a lot and saying a lot of different things to different people. Now, Gary Jillette's daughters would learn years later that the date that Gary had that night was also hypnotized as part of the investigation to see if she could remember anything that had happened that night, that maybe she was blocking out, and she said she remembers going to bed in Shay's room with Gary Harris shortly after Stephanie returned home that night. She said a few hours later, Gary woke her up and said something bad is going on and we have to leave. She said that in the frenzy of trying to get out of there, she did forget her coat. And if you remember earlier when I said that the hatchet was found under the mattress of Shay, that is the bed that Gary Harris and his date had gone to sleep on, there was also some like alluding to maybe his date had been sexually assaulted, because she said that she does not remember having intercourse, but that she was very sore in her vaginal area and she doesn't really know what happened. But again that is all a very very alleged. Now, Gary Harris also had some ties to the drug world, and he was a cocaine user. Now this could be an outlier, but it's an important part of the story and worth mentioning. Nonetheless, because it was the nineteen eighties, drugs were prevalent, cocaine was prevalent. But again, that doesn't always mean that somebody is involved in a heinous crime. But I don't necessarily believe in coincidences like we've talked about. But despite all of this, in October of nineteen eighty seven, the case against Gary Harris was dropped due to lack of evidence. They didn't have any proof that Gary was involved and they had no direct evidence. Gary Harris has always maintained his innocence and he ended up not getting rehired after the investigation, and his work history from what I've seen, has been pretty spotty. Ever since the murders of Gary and Stephanie Gillette, they have never named any other suspects or any other persons of interest. Gary's three daughters remain very dedicated to getting justice for Gary and Stephanie. They have spoken out about how they grew up very much in fear. They never really had a sense of peace because the person or persons that did this to their dad and Stephanie aren't off the streets, and they feel like they could easily target them, especially because they are so outspoken and dedicating to solving this case and getting answers for their dad and for Stephanie. They said that they are not going to stop. Their kids won't stop, their grandkids won't stop, their great grandkids, won't stop until this case is solved. They also have run into Gary Harris a few times over the years, and his demeanor is not what you would expect from somebody who has been wrongfully accused of something, especially to the daughters of the victim. He doesn't offer condolences. He doesn't say I was your dad's best friend, I never could have been involved in this. He basically made a comment about saying how he can't say anything or he could be next, which makes no sense because why would he be next on the list? That doesn't make any sense. There is a zero evidence that the person that did this is also going to come for Gary Harris. There are so many rumors and theories surrounding this case. There was even a point in time that they questioned Fay and her mother about their potential involvement in Gary and Stephanie's deaths, which I know that you have to start close to the family and rule those people out first, but to even think that this family that although Gary and his ex wife were divorced, they all got along really well. They had three children together, they were co parenting pretty well from everything I've seen. I get having to question and work on eliminating the suspects, but to even think potentially that a fourteen year old girl could come and help her mother with a brutal double homicide is just off the charts for me. I just can't even imagine that. And I feel so bad that Shae was even ever put into that position because she was a teenager. She's fourteen. And circling back to when Shaye did go to the house that day and she looked in the window, she said that there is absolutely no way that she wouldn't have seen Gary and Stephanie lying there in their bedroom because she looked in the window, but there was something in her brain that blocked her from seeing what was in there. And I do fully believe that when our bodies are put into traumatic situations, especially something like that, we do have kind of that fight or flight response. And I don't think that she saw what was going on, what was in front of her. I think she one hundred percent blocked it out, but subconsciously she knew that there was something wrong, because that's why she had that nagging, ongoing feeling that something bad had happened. But all I can say is thank god that her mind did block it out and that she wasn't the one to go inside of the house and discover that they had been brutally murdered, because I do think that that would have kind of shifted the case a little bit more. But I don't really know. I think Gary Harris is, like I said, either the most unluckiest human I've ever met, or there is way more to the story that we are not being told. I think the fact that he talks about picking the lock is very interesting because there wasn't really forced entry into the home, but was the lock picked? And did he bring that up because he picked the lock and he didn't want it to look suspicious, And he basically said that he had shown Gary Jillette how to pick the lock. I don't know. I have so so many questions about this one. I am really interested to see what you guys think about it and see if you kind of are of the same mindset that I am. That there is way more to this story. And the window and the timeframe of in which the murders could have occurred, given that Gary Harris places himself there at such and such time and then leaves and then places himself at home, it's all very very interesting. But Gary's daughters are determined to solve this case and they're not going to stop. And I think that that is brave and admirable and that they are doing everything they can to press this case forward. So investigators have very much vowed to solve this case. They are hopeful that with advances in DNA technology that that is going to help them solve the case. And Gary's daughters say that they know someone out there knows something and they want that person to come forward. They very much want resolution in this case. Now, for my research, I watched a YouTube video that I will link below, and they talk a little bit more in detail with Gary's daughters about the crime. They also talk about the investigation and how they're not going to give up on things, but someone knows something and it's just going to take investigators getting enough evidence to bring this person in and be able to build a case against them, and I do believe that that day is coming. If you do have any information about the unsolved hoimehides of Stephanie and Gary Gillette that could lead to an arrest, please contact the Corpus Christy Police Department at three six' one eight eight six twenty six. HUNDRED i am going to link all of my sources below in the show, notes as well as that YouTube video THAT i, watched and there is a link that contains the statement Of Gary harris WHICH i read to you, earlier and also the initial detective that went into the, home and a couple of other statements from a couple of other people that are involved in the. Case very interesting, information, Nonetheless but, yeah this one has me scratching my, head but not in a like who done? It kind of, way but in a why is this case still unsolved after all of these? YEARS i don't. Know there's a lot of information. Here, AGAIN i want to reiterate That Gary, harris despite that initial first charge was let. Go no new charges have ever been brought against, him and investigators have never talked about any other persons of interest or possible suspects or any other new leads in this. Case so it very much does remain an open investigation into who Killed gary And, stephanie and you can form your own opinions about what you think happened, here but we do have to remember that all people that are, witnesses persons of, interest potential former suspects are considered innocent untill proven guilty in the court of. Law so that is today's episode AND i will see you guys next week for a brand new unsolved. CASE i hope you have a fantastic, weekend AND i hope twenty twenty five is the year that we find out what exactly happened To gary And Stephanie. Gillette you guys have a good one AND i will see you next. Week. Bye came, Back, hi