Guest Host Megan from A Simpler Time True Crime Pod: Keith Warren

Welcome to Primetime Crime. I'm your host, Kylie. Let's talk right now in true crime, and then together we're going to work on warming up some cold cases. Let's go. Hey, guys, welcome to a Primetime crime. It's Kylie. I am just doing a short and sweet little introduction because I am taking this week off and I am bringing you an episode from my good friend Megan from a Simpler Time true crime podcast. She does older unsolved cases and we are constantly bouncing ideas off of each other talking about some of these older cases that we have both covered, and I wanted to give you guys the opportunity to listen to one of her episodes. In this episode, she's going to be telling us about the suspicious death of a man named Keith Warren, and she also had the opportunity to interview his sister as well. For the episodes you're going to get to hear that. It is a really well done episodeisode. Keith's case is one that desperately needs our attention, and it's one of those cases that is so important because the longer things go on without resolution, the more time his family is spent questioning everything that happened. So please give the episode a listen. Go give Megan a follow over on social media, follow her podcast wherever you get your podcasts. Be sure to leave her a five star rating and review. Megan is amazing. She is one of my personal favorite true crime creators and I am so honored to have her on my feed this week. So please go. Give her all of the love and I hope you guys enjoy her episode. High Primetime crime listeners. My name is Megan and I'm the host of the podcast A Simpler Time True Crime Kylie. Let me jump in her feed today while she takes a much deserved vacation, and I'm sharing a case with you that has bothered me for years. And last year I had the opportunity to sit down with the sister of Keith Warren. You may remember his case from Unsolved Mysteries back in the day, but Keith was found in a tree and his death was ruled a suicide. However, when you look at all of it, it is very suspicious. Keith's sister, Sherry, still is working on his case every single day. And not only is she working on Keith's case, she works really hard to help families with all the resources and things she has learned over the years. So in the episode she talks about calls to action not only in Keith's case, but gives resources for family. So I think you'll find that it has a lot of great information. I really appreciate you checking it out and thanks for following my show and Kylie's. July nineteen eighty six, Silver Spring, Maryland, teen year old black man named Keith Warren heads out for an evening and never returns home. Two days later, he is found hanging from a tree in a wooded area behind an apartment complex. From the moment law enforcement arrived at the scene, everything was egregiously mishandled, and Keith's case was abruptly ruled a suicide and closed. As time went on, more and more things surfaced that made Keith's loved ones suspicious of those he was hanging around with, as well as the people in uniform in Montgomery County. Everything came to a head nearly six years after Keith's death, on what would have been his twenty fifth birthday. An envelope was left on Keith's mother's doorstep, and its contents would shake up everything in the case. In it were photos of Keith on that tree and nothing matched the narrative that had been shared by law enforcement. Paired with the photos was an ominous warning about another local man tied to the case, who would die in suspicious fashion. Not long after, Keith's mother spent the rest of her life searching for answers and accountability in Keith's case, and after her death, Keith's sister, Sherry picked up the torch and has carried it ever since. Sherry graciously joined me for an interview in today's episode to discuss where things stand today and what she still hopes to be done. My name is Megan, and each week on a Simpler Time True Crime, I cover older unsolved cases and challenged the idea that a simpler time means a safer time. This week, I'm bringing to you the suspicious death of Keith Warren. Just a couple of things as we get into today's episode. First, I want to share that this episode is a listener request episode. A man I know through my full time job had followed my podcast and asked if I had heard of Keith's case. He was born in Silver Spring and had always been drawn to the case and the injustices that surrounded it. Growing up, I had watched the original Unsolved Mysteries TV show with Robert Stack and Keith's name sounded familiar to me. Turns out that's why he was featured on Unsolved Mysteries and you can actually still find the episode on YouTube. Highly recommend you check it out. It has some original interviews with Keith's mom, Mary and Keith's sister Sherry. It also was filmed on location of where Keith's body was found, and those woods no longer really exist anymore, so the Unsolved Mystery episode gives you a good visual sense of the area. Secondly, because of the crazy circumstances in this case, and because it was featured on shows like Unsolved Mysteries, and frankly because of the hard work Sherry has done to keep Keith's name out there. This case is one that has a large online discussion presence. Message boards have pages and pages of commentary and theories and accusations surrounding Keith's case. I'm going to go through as many details as I can on this case, and Cherry and I will each share opinions in this episode, and we are not trying to step in it. So let me just say from the get go, these opinions she and I hold are our own. Some names have been changed for anonymity purposes, and we share our opinions to help pave the path for truth and accountability. As with any unsolved case, any person is presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond reasonable doubt in a court of law. Lastly, for now, I'm going to be mentioning a lot of great resources and information at the end of the seme episode, but one I just wanted to say now too, is that Discovery Plus has a three part documentary series called Uprooted. It's exclusively on Keith's case, and it has interviews with so many key players in the case. So please, after you listen to this episode and you get a foundation for the case, head on over there to watch Uprooted. It's so powerful and well done, And for all the documentation and sources I discussed in this case, you'll want to head over to the Keithwarrenjustice sit dot com. Not only are their original documents uploaded on there, Sherry has spent countless hours dedicating her time to walk people through the case, and she shares a lot of the videos on social media, like TikTok and Instagram. Each time I felt like I had gone through all the material on this case, I'd encounter another video she had put together and I'd be back down the rabbit hole. So with all that in mind, I'm going to do my best today to present Keith's case to you. But for the full picture, you're definitely going to want to check out those resources when you're done listening. So let's get into it. Keith Warren was born April ninth, nineteen sixty seven. He grew up with his mother, Mary Cooey, and his sister, Sherry Warren after his parents divorced when he was ten years old. They lived near Mary's family in North Carolina before they moved to Maryland. Here's Sherry talking a little bit about Keith and his childhood there. Where we grew up at in the country. He liked to just walk around the woods and just explore. Keith's mom, Mary kept personal notes and statements on the case, which are now featured on the Keithwarren Justice site dot com. In them, Mary described Keith as extremely likable in someone who made friends quickly and easily. In the summer of eighty six, Keith had just graduated high school and was spending the summer hanging out with friends, working part time jobs, and preparing to head off to college. Sherry discussed with me how she and Keith were close and that he was definitely her protective older brother, but that their dispositions were on the opposite end of the spectrum. She joked that her propensity for walking up and striking up a conversation with just about anybody led her family to say that she was going to get kidnapped someday, but that they'd give her back. Whereas Keith, he was very introverted. He was very quiet, very he liked to think a lot, like he was very introspective, like he would really like go into himself. He's very loyal and he's very dependable, and like you know, I said, he was my protector. My mouth got me in trouble a lot. And what I'm doing for him is what he did for me early in life, which was look out for my best interests, take you know, take care of him me. He was just a I mean, he was a quiet kid, but he was all great kid and a great friend. He could talk to you. I didn't just walk up one and start talking to you, not that I'm aware of, Like you know, if we're gonna family gad and whatever. You know, he would find a quad space and watch the games and watch football, you know what I mean. Or yeah, be outside my grandfather, or you know what I mean, be outside the dogs like he was. Yeah. Keith, as you'll also notice from his pictures, was very handsome and he knew it. He would tease me and se tell me how good. He would tell me I was lucky to have a brother look so good as him. I love that, and their sibling relationship just shows through as if it was yesterday when she talks about him. On the evening of July twenty ninth, nineteen eighty six, which was a Tuesday, Keith's mother, Mary, recalled that he received a phone call and then he left their residence to go hang out with some friends. He did not return that evening, and that was very out of character for Keith not to check in. Mary was concerned and called around looking for Keith without success. When she reached out to the Montgomery County Police at the Wheaton Glenmont station, they told her that unless he had vulnerabilities such as an intellectual disability, or had a medical need. She would have to wait forty eight hours to report her son missing. Mary tried calling around to more of Keith's friends and reached one on Wednesday evening. I don't know the name of this friend, and that hasn't been released, but according to what Sherry was told, her mother said that this friend said something along lines of I know where Keith is, I'll get him. And that was that. On Thursday, July thirty first, nineteen eighty six, just before two pm, a call comes in to nine one one from a townhome in the Georgian Colonies. The Georgian Colonies were a townhome community. It still exists. It was a nice neighborhood with rowhouse style units with a clubhouse and a pool and tennis courts. Keith and his family actually lived in Georgian Colonies on one end of the neighborhood and this call was coming in from the other, a house on Tinowick Drive. It was initially reported that the female caller stated that a person had committed suicide in the basement of the address they were calling from. So when first responders showed up, which included EMT and Firefighter Dallas Lip, they were surprised that nobody was outside waiting for them. They knocked at the door and heard three people within the unit talking amongst themselves, discussing whether anybody had called, and if so, whom had called. One of the people at the unit that day was a man named chip Win, and the person who had called was his girlfriend, Claudia. The third person was at the kitchen table. They shared that the body was not in the basement, and that rather it was behind the town home in the woods. Chip Wyin would share that these three did not have a traumatized demeanor. They seemed very matter of fact. To Sherry, there doesn't seem to be a great explanation for this initial discrepancy between the nine one one call and where his body was found. Even to this day, Sherry has caught up with Claudia, who's six to her story and Dallas can't fully confirm the body in the basement part. But here is Sherry's understanding. She says she was walking the dog. The dog got away from her. Out of da she runs back to the house. She calls nine to one one and she tells about the suicide. Now, where did the conversation comes up about the basement. Dallas Lip said that he heard over the radio that there was a body in the basement of this house. So Dallas said that. But now I think Dallas is like, you know, he can't say for certain, but he said he believed that because that's why they went to the house. So when I knocked on the door, they were met by three individuals. Now, Dallas said it was Chip Whims who was on crutches, Audience, and a third person. So the three of them got to conversate, and it's saying, no, the body, he's not in the basements outside. That's when Dallas's like, Okay, well, somebody needs to take you to pack us to the body. Right, as Sherry mentions, at this time, Chip Win is on crutches, so he's unable to take paramedics to the body. Claudia reluctantly brings Dallas and the other first responders, who quickly realized that it was too late to help this person. Dallas's Lip would later describe what he saw repeatedly, never wavering. But I'm going to read a portion of his statement from assigned affidavit. He said, quote, as we approached the site, we determined from the appearance of the body that it was too late to assist the victim, as the color of the skin and the facial features indicated that the victim had been dead for some time. The paramedic went alone to investigate further, while the rest of the team stayed back in order to not disturb the site. Our training is rescue workers, taught us to be aware of potential criminal activity and to preserve the site for police investigation. Was standing approximately twenty feet from the body from where I could carefully observe the scene while awaiting for the arrival of police. My training as an EMT included training with respect to attempted hanging. It struck me that this was not the typical scene of a suicide by hanging. First, the body was hung from a small tree about four to six inches in diameter, hardly sufficient to support the weight of the body, as the tree had bent over to the point that the victim's knees were flexed to approximately a forty five degree angle. Second, there was nothing at the scene for the victim to stand on or from which he could have jumped. Finally, the rope was fastened to the tree in an unusual manner, running from the victim's neck through a fork in the tree that would have been about eight to ten feet off the ground had the tree been erect down to the base of the tree, where it wrapped around the tree a few times, and then horizon about one foot off the ground, where it was tied to a larger tree approximately twenty feet from the tree that suspended the victim. The rope appeared to me to be arranged in a way more conducive to hoisting a heavy load than for an attempted suicide. In fact, my impression at the time was that this looked like a lynching. When the police arrived, the officer in charge of fire rescue response spoke to the police officer, explaining what we had found, our actions to that point, and our unit identifications in case further follow up was required. I was surprised that we heard nothing further end quote. The responding officer from Montgomery County Police Department was a patrol officer named Luther Leverett. According to Mary Cooey's personal notes she kept on the case, bystanders described Leverett as being quote hasty and unprofessional, with Officer Leverett even commenting, quote why did this have to hap happen on my lunch break shortly after Detective Beasley arrived unseen. I'm going to be throwing a lot of names out here in this episode, and there are many people who contributed to where this case is today, or shall I say where it is not? And trust me when I say, Detective Beasley is a name you'll want to remember. In short order, Officer Leverett and Detective Beasley quickly determined and documented that Keith's death was a suicide, and that was just the beginning of this nightmare unfolding. Yes, you heard me correctly. The responding law enforcement officers were allowed to pronounce death and determine the manner of death. If you don't believe me, I'll have the medical examiner's report linked from the Keith Warren Justice site. On it, you'll see the officer Leverett was the person who pronounced Keith dead. Mary Cooey notated that via telecommunications, Officer Leverett contacted the county coroner, John Rogers and told him there was no need for him to come to the scene and that he should just mark the death down as a suicide. You'll see John Rogers' signature at the bottom of the report, So, in summary, doctor Rogers allegedly took information from officers at the scene that he didn't verify for himself, and then signed this official paperwork that would determine everything that came after, from the ruling on cause and manner of death, all the subsequent closure of any investigation, all of it. And when you look at the report, the idea that Rogers was never there makes sense because if he was, why would Leverett's name be documented as the one who pronounced death. Why wouldn't they have the medical doctor do so. The report also had interesting narrative information. It discusses that Keith had been depressed for the last year, that he had recently graduated high school, and that his sister had stated she hadn't spoken to him for a week. There's a lot to unpack here that we're going to get into more later. But his sister, Sherry, wasn't even in town at the time, and if she was talking to police, she would have had to have a parent or adult present because she was a minor. So at this point we are just within a couple hours of Keith's body being found, and as you know, we're still talking about the scripts in this case nearly forty years later, and do you see how already just a couple of hours in this is so convoluted and messed up. Keith's story is so difficult to tell because there are many things like this, And I debated, do I tell all of the chronological events and then share the discrepancies with you guys later? Do I break off and discuss them in real time? And the reality is, if I tried to summarize all the problems at the end, I don't think you guys could follow because I've spent about three months looking into this case now and I'm still second guessing myself and getting all the important details and takeaways in here. So bear with me. Definitely check out all the supporting docs on the Keith Warren Justice website, and let's keep going. There were three forms of identification found on Keith's body, so police should have known pretty quickly how to get in touch with next of kin. A local neighborhood man was lingering around the scene, which was not cordoned off, and I'm just going to call this man Larry. Larry, as I said, lived in the neighborhood, he knew Keith, but he refused to identify him, saying that he didn't want his name on the police report, so instead he found another neighborhood man who knew Keith, a young man named Rodney Kendall. Rodney Kendall came back to the woods and indeed confirmed that this was Keith. With that being established, you'd think that the next order of business would be for police to quickly get to Keith's mother, Mary to let her know, But you'd be wrong in assuming that that's what happened. Detective Beasley ordered the body to be taken to Colin's funeral Home in Silver Spring and that the body be embalmed immediately. There wasn't to be an autopsy. After the body was released to Colin's funeral home, Officer Leverett drove across the neighborhood to Keith Warren's home. Keith's sister, Sherry was out of state at the time and had been in the weeks leading up. His mother, Mary, was at work at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, so nobody was home. Officer Leverett knocked on the door of their neighbor, Barbara Nichols. Leverett allegedly showed Barbara a polaroid picture of Keith on the tree and asked her to identify him. Barbara let Officer Leverette know that Mary worked late hours and wouldn't be home for a while, and she suggested Leverett call her at work and even said he was welcome to come into her unit and use her phone, but he refused. Instead, he just continued lingering in the neighborhood. She again recommended he call, and he again refused. He then left the neighborhood and visited Keith's workplace at Glenmont Chrysler. He spoke to a young woman at the front desk named Leah and asked for Keith. Leah said she wasn't sure if Keith was working that day. Officer Leverett then explained to Leah that Keith had committed suicide, but that his mother didn't know yet. By five PM, Mary's neighbor, Barbara was beside herself, knowing that Mary still did not know about her son. She called Mary's workplace to straw and told Mary to get in touch with an Officer Leverett. When Mary called the station, she was told that Officer Leverette was on another call and that it would be two hours. It wasn't until after seven pm, the officer Leverett would arrive to well to read and break the news to Mary. So just as summary up to this point courtesy of the Keith Wren Justice Site. One the scene was not cord enough to product evidence. Two no investigation was done to confirm whether the death was suicide or homicide. Three neither an autopsy or toxicology tests were performed on the body. Four next of kin were not notified right away, Five several people were notified of Keith's death before the family, and six the body was hastily embombed without identification or authorization by the next of kin. When Mary found out, she was understandably distraught and was so upset that she needed to be sedated, Despite being under the influence of sedatives, having nobody there present as a witness with her, and being an immediate shock from learning that her son died by suicide. Officer LeVert insisted on still questioning her and asking if there were any reasons why Keith may have wanted to take his own life, which is interesting because they'd already ruled it a suicide. At this point. Mary shared that she couldn't think of any reason that Keith seemed fine, and that anything that had gone on in the day's leading up was just normal teenage stuff. The most she could think of was that they had recently gotten into a little bit of a disagreement about a car he was purchasing and the cost of insurance that went along with that car. Officer Leverett would go on to twist Mary's words and amplify the significance of the car dispute, substantiating their belief that the death was a suicide and that this recent disagreement heavily contributed. Mary asked Officer Leverett if it was possible drugs were involved, and he immediately responded, oh, no, it wasn't drugs. He then handed Mary a business card to Colin's funeral home with no context. She thought at the time that he was giving it to her as an option for Keith's funeral services. She had no idea he was already there being embalmbed without any permission from the family. After speaking with Officer Leverette, Mary got on the phone with her brother, Pete Harris in North Carolina, who jumped in the car and drove up to Montgomery County that night, arriving to Mary's house around midnight, entering the early morning hours of August first, nineteen eighty six, he drove to the police station and asked for directions to the Morgue, assuming that's where Keith would be. The department instead told him that the body was at Collin's funeral home. At this point, nobody from Keith Warren's family had eyes on his body. Pete was denied access and was told to come back at nine in the morning. When he returned, he was again denied entrance and told that he would have to come back with Mary. Mary, at this point is still heavily sedated, but nevertheless, Pete comes back for a third time with Mary as well as his wife Donna alongside him. Still, he was not allowed to see the body. He was told that Keith's body was being quote prepared, and that he was so badly decomposed they felt it necessary to destroy most of the clothing he was wearing. Mind you, revisiting the medical examiner report with narrative from Leverett, he noted that the body wasn't badly decomposed, so this is quite a discrepancy. Despite not letting them see the body, and despite Mary not even making the choice to have Keith's body sent there. The funeral home demanded that Mary write a one thousand dollars check on the spot. Mary's brother Pete, asked to see the rope and the noose, but the funeral home stated that the police had it, so since they were still being delayed in seeing the body, they went back to the police station. Their officer Levertte gave the family a brown paper bag of Keith's personal effects. It contained the rope without the noose, a duffel bag, a ripped cassette tape, a cap, a blue ski jacket, and an empty wine cooler cart in but no bottles in it. Officer Leverette then handed Keith's brown workboots separately. The family asked for the noose, but the police said they didn't know where it was. Later reports from Mary would state that police notes indicated that actually the chief of police just didn't want the family to have the news. Allegedly. Of course, here's Sherry. In nineteen ninety six, when we got keith items back, we got back to Jimmy Hendrick's hat, the blue hoodie jacket. The things you see in the under mystery thing is that those are the actual items my mom, I have him in a box in my house. We didn't get back to shirt, pants or underwear we were told. My mom was told at the time that there was so much decomposition that had to destroy me. So they took the bag, left the police station, and Keith's uncle, Pete, returned to the funeral home later in the day as instructed, and brought with him Keith's burial clothes. He was still denied seeing the body, but at this point Pete had enough and he insisted that he see Keith's body. They obliged, but rushed Pete through, only allowing him to see Keith for mere seconds. It should be noted, however, that Pete Harris did not observe the significant decomposition that was discussed. Sherry had been staying with her aunt Deborah in New Jersey, and they came back into town on the state. Deborah suggested they postpone the funeral until an autopsy was conducted so that they could get to the bottom of all of this, but Detective Beasley would have none of it. He stated it was a suicide, that the case was closed, and that because the body had already been embalmed, it was too late to do an autopsy. Sherry knew something was up from the get go and never believed that her brother Keith would have died by suicide. Hearing that police weren't investigating, she decided to do her own canvassing. As soon as I got back to Maryland, I walked out a neighborhood and I was asking questions. Somebody got to explain to me what happened. In her canvassing, she found out some interesting information from Rodney Kendall and others in the neighborhood. Rodney Kendall's name came up earlier in the episode. Rodney is a black man, and he was someone Keith knew from the neighborhood. Yes, whenever possible, I'm going to be mentioning the race of the people I'm talking about, because race is a part of this story and is relevant at bare minimum in how Keith's case was investigated and reported on by the media, but as you'll find out, it's likely also significant in many other ways as well. So Rodney was the man who was flagged down by the neighborhood person who were calling Larry. Rodney was asked to come into the woods. In I d Keith's body. Rodney shared a couple of interesting pieces of information. Number one was that about a week before Keith's death, a car full of black men pulled up to him in the neighborhood and asked if he knew Keith and if he had seen Keith. He hadn't though he didn't know him. He asked the men why they were looking for Keith, and they didn't really say, they just carried on. Rodney told producers for Unsolved Mysteries and went on to discuss this on Uprooted. He stated he found this curious because Keith primarily hung out with white friends, and Sherry said, It's always kind of been this way. Keith was a black, white boy, so all his friends are white. Like, I don't think he ever brought anybody of color to the house. I just think Keith had Like Keith listened to Jimmy Hendrix. He was into that was he was a Jimmy Hendricks fan, like you know what I mean. Like, I just think he was just a different breede. Serry always felt a bit off about Keith's friends. She couldn't put her finger on why. She just felt they didn't have her brother's best interest. In mind, and they truly weren't his friends. I personally feel like this is a sister's superpower. Siblings just know these things. I personally know that my sisters can tell you I've sniffed out bad friends and bad boyfriends in their life long before they realized it, and they could tell you the same for me. So I think Sherry is right to trust her gut on this. I don't to be honest with you, I don't only remember a lot of I just didn't like them. I just I just remember I didn't like them. Cherry told me how these his friends were at the house constantly. It was like a second home to them, and they would lounge on the couch and use the phone and the TV and eat food out of the fridge. And what's interesting is, even though Keith's friends were always at his house and always just showing up on the daily, none of them showed up in the time between Tuesday evening when he left the house and when his body was found, and they never really came around again. So I'll just flag that as interesting. So then Rodney and the others in the neighborhood passed on another name to Sherry, Mark Finley. But three people said to me, you need to talk to Mark Friendly. Mark Friendly, Mark Friendly, Mark Friendly, and even Rodney Kendall said this. They said that Mark Finley came to the neighborhood the night the keiths body was found, No, night before Keith's body was found, so Wednesday night. Just as a quick note here, Mark Finley was described to me by Sherry as a black man who could be white passing. Rodney told Sherry that the day before Keith's body had been found, Mark had been looking for Keith with urgency. They said that Mark family came to the neighborhood the night that Keith's body was found, No, not before Keith's body was found, so Wednesday night, looking for Keith like a bat out of hell. Sherry foundul of this odd because while Mark had attended the same high school as Keith and was a distant acquaintance, he was not part of Keith's social circle. Now, Keith and Mark were friends like that. And the reason why I say that is because out of all of his social circle, he never came by the house nor called for Keith. So why was he looking for Keith? Almost immediately after doing the neighborhood walk and canvassing and getting Mark's name. Sherry had an odd encounter. And Ronnie said the same thing. Ronnie said, it was as if he was in a panic. And so, okay, let's fast forward. When I go back to the house, the phone is now, word is out, Keith's dead. So the phone ringing off the hook, all these calls to come in, and I just got emotional. So my aunt, my great aunt, and I decided to go to Montgomery Mall, which was about thirty minutes from my house. Now again, be mindful. I just said, I just got back to Maryland, literally just got back to Maryland. The mall opened, We go inside the mall, we go through Montgomery Ward. It was a touch how long my go through Montgomery Ward? And we go to walk into the opening of the mall and no, sooner have you walked into opening? Here comes Mark Philly out the glue right, so he makes a blind to me. He's like, Sherry, I'm sorry about keep that. Don't know what happened. Wait wait ho who? Like? I got questions and he was like, listen to leave me alone. This won't be the last time you hear Mark's name. He will be just one piece to this puzzle, and we're just getting started. In the day's following Keith's death, Mary Cooy's mother came into town and wanted to see the location of Keith's supposed suicide. Up to this point, Mary had not gone to that side of the neighborhood and visited that location. Because they wanted to be sure they knew where they were going. They asked Rodney Kendall to take them there. So they walked back into the woods and Rodney was puzzled. He knew exactly where the tree was that Keith's body was found on. That's the kind of thing you don't forget, but it wasn't there. As they got closer, they saw a stump. Mary panicked, why was this tree cut down? And who did it? Mary got in touch with the Montgomery County Sheriff's Department on Unsolved Mysteries. She shared how rude they were to her, and they admitted that they cut the tree down for quote unquote evidence. And her question was the same one I have, the same one Sherry has, which was what you said. The case was open and shut, just a suicide, so why would you need the tree for evidence? We'll revisit the tree more later, so just file that away for now. I asked Sherry her opinion, when was the moment her mom really started to recognize that the police department and officials in Montgomery County were not on her side in this and she said that while something always felt a little off about the situation, it was this moment, the tree being cut down, that really solidified things. At this juncture, something just feels off to marry in her family and they begin to severely distrust those in charge. But despite all of this, their hands were pretty tied. Keith was buried, his death was ruled a suicide. Nobody was coming forward to say anything otherwise, and law enforcement and other officials were stonewalling the family whenever they tried to seek clarity or information. But everything would change nearly six years later on April ninth, nineteen ninety two, what should have been Keith's twenty fifth birthday, and this day would change everything they knew about the case and everything about their path forward. I want to take a quick moment to thank you for listening to today's episode. I'm an independent podcaster approaching the one year anniversary of launching this work, and I can't believe it. I have so much more I'd like to do and give back, and in order to do so, I need to continue to reach more people. That's where you come in. It's already incredible the growth I've seen this year from listeners like you talking about the episodes and sharing them. Please continue to do so. I've had a couple of recent episodes that have reached the right people, even providing leads I've been able to turn over to cold case detectives. I always strive to be victim centered and advocacy driven in this work, and there are so many stories out there that need to be reshared and given that spark or be told publicly for the first time. So like, subscribe, share, and leave a five star review, and it is always feel free to send episodes suggestions to Simpler Timecrimepod at gmail dot com. Now back to the show. On April ninth, nineteen ninety two, Mary Cooey arrived home to find a plain Manila envelope on her doorstep with her name on it. Mary walked inside and when she opened the contents of the envelope, she screamed for Sherry to come into the room to both of their horror. In the envelope were five photographs taken by the Police Department of Keith Warren on the tree. These photographs are online if you search for them. Just a trigger warning. They are graphic and they show a young man strung up on a tree. And I'm being intentional with that language. That's exactly how Sherry describes it, and that's because these pictures paint a very different picture than the suicide Keith's mother, sister, and extended family were told to accept just ahead of all the other discussion on these photos. To this day, somebody connected to the police department or had access to the police department had to be the person who leaked these photos, but it has never been revealed or figured out who did it. In fact, Sherry has said many times that the investigation into who leaked the photographs was extensively more in depth than the actual investigation into what happened to her brother. Also, before getting further into the pictures, there was a note with these pictures, and the note said something along the lines of Mark Finley and redacted will be next Mark. You'll recall with the acquaintance of Keith who was looking for him the night before his body was found, and who had a suspicious encounter with Sherry at the mall. Sherry also heard some other rumors about Mark. I was hearing rumors about how he would get drunk at parties and brag about how he helped put Keith on the tree. Right now, nobody could give me specific so tell me who exactly said it. But that's what they said. He said. Yes, apparently Mark was quite into drugs and alcohol, and he had gotten loud at parties and discussed involvement in Keith's death. So they definitely found this note to be interesting. After getting over the initial shock of receiving the photos and seeing Keith on the tree, Sherry and Mary had immediate red flags come from the photos. I'm going to read a passage from Mary Cooy's personal notes, as documented on the Keith Were Injustice website. Mary said quote after reading what appeared to be a veiled threat and getting over for the initial shock of seeing pictures for the first time six years after the fact of my own flesh and blood, a child I carried for nine months and raised for nineteen years, hanging by his neck, I noticed several other things I did not recognize any of the clothes Keith was wearing. Like any mother who often does her son's laundry, I knew his clothes. Keith was not wearing his brown boots, as I was told by Officer Leverett. He appears to be wearing white running shoes. He is almost sitting with his feet touching the ground. It does not look as though he jumped atop anything. It appears he was hoisted up after he was dead. Police officials were shocked that I had somehow received copies of their pictures. They could not explain how or why, but were now willing to meet with me with what I can only describe as an attitude of trying to ease my mind and prevent me from stirring up any trouble. Despite the new developments, the police still refused to kill an investigation into Keith's death. After making the aforementioned astounding discoveries, and after sensing that lies were being told and a cover up was an effect, I requested to see the tree the police had an evidence. I was told that it had been destroyed by a fire which broke out in the storage facility at police headquarters. So to summarize Keith was not wearing the clothes that were handed back to his family. The items handed back to his family, like the boots and the jacket and the cap, those were familiar and they had belonged to Keith. But the clothes he was wearing and the photos were not his and they're ill fitting. Keith's feet were touching the ground and it did not look like he jumped off anything. If it's not too traumatizing for you to look, I highly encourage you to review the pictures because the details those photos show are so important. These do not look like a young man who died by suicide. His feet are touching the ground because, as dallas Lip stated in the affidavit I shared earlier, the small tree he was hanging from alone could not hold his weight. That's why there is this advanced system of knots and pulleys in tying to another tree. There are also leaves on Keith's back, which could suggest he was lying on the ground first before being hoisted up into the tree by the rope. In talking with Sherry, she brought up another circumstance that is critically unaccounted for, something police have never had an explanation for. To this day question bears to answer. And here is the lunchpin. Where did Leverett get the articles that he left the house in that we recognize to give back to us because his clothes were changed, so he had to go to wherever his clothes was changed, because going back to Dallas, Dallas said there was nothing around the body, There was no clothes, there was no change of clothes. So where did Leverett get the items and the articles that we would recognize? Hmm hmm. I have no idea how you explain that one, and nobody can because it's never been explained. And let's just say, for one second, let's entertain the idea that Keith was suicidal. If you look at this Pulley method that was used in the trees and the style of the not and how his body was there, it's clearly obvious, even to me as a layperson, that someone would have had to have assisted him with that suicide. Then Keith could not have gotten himself like that on the tree by himself. Period. And if you want to see a good visual watch the Unsolved Mysteries episode. They did a really good reenactment. Honestly, the photos just show how much of a disaster this crime scene was In some of the photos, there's a man in the background. This man is the same person we've been calling Larry. He's just casually standing there with the same affect as someone just kind of sipping coffee as they go about their day, as if a man isn't tied by his neck to a tree right in front of him. It was just incredible to me. So, as Mary shared in her notes, the police were quick to suddenly want to meet with Mary and Sherry to do damage control, but they still refused to budge on anything. A short time after receiving the photos in the note, Mary's purse was stolen from her vehicle with those contents inside. In a turn of events like out of a movie, someone found the discarded purse that had been burned and destroyed, but the envelope with the pictures in it was still preserved. The note, however, was not. The person who found the envelope was alarmed and left a voicemail with DC based journalist Del Walters saying, quote, I think I found pictures of a boy being lynched within. The purse was part of a check with Mary's last name on it, and Dell was able to cross reference the contact information and be in touch with Mary in what was obviously an uncomfortable situation. He described on the docuseries Up that he danced around the topic for a few minutes before finally hearing Mary say, you found the photos, didn't you? She shared, that's my son, and when he asked what happened, she said, that's what I'm trying to figure out. And with that, Dell would leverage his journalistic voice to help Mary and Cherry to propel the case forward and get it in the spotlight for years to come. The family also hired a renowned private investigator named Joe Alertia. Once Delle started spotlighting the case, that's when Dallas Lip came forward. He had been unaware of everything that had transpired, and he became instrumental in his story and testimony on what he had witnessed firsthand that day and all the things that didn't sit right with him. So, just for a moment, before we get too much further, I want to talk about the tree being cut down for a moment. Cherry and I talked at length, and she discussed this on her social media platforms as well, and I asked her why might they have wanted to cut the tree down. I asked in twenty twenty. I've asked in twenty fourteen, sixteen, eighteen, twenty, No, when there's eighteen as I talking to me in eighteen, I asked for a copy of pictures of the tree because it's not in the police father gave me right. Because if you're collect if you're cutting tree off of evidence and you're gonna have some pictures, there is no pictures. Okay, show me a diagram. If he's collecting evidence, show me something evidentiary that it's in the file. There is none. So there's no no information whatsoever about this branch. The branch could tell you which way the ropes were going, rope birds were going. So he was the branch to destroy the fact that Keith was hoisted up. He wasn't hanging down, and so that's why he had to get to the branch because I asked. I even asked in twenty eighteen. I asked for the requisition that Beasley put in to go onto private property and cut a tree down, got to have some type of documentation, right, there is none. So with that in mind, Keith's face, family, Del Walters, Joe Alertia and everyone else kept asking the same internal question, what was going on with Keith that was causing the Montgomery County Sheriff's Department to put up this massive blue wall. Why was nobody talking and what were they covering up? About a month or two after the photos were found, Sherry Warren got home one day and found the light on their answering machine to be blinking. To her surprise, it was Mark Finley and he left a message for Mary saying that he needed to step over and talk to her soon, and he specifically said the phrase that he needed to unload. Sherry said that her mom instructed her to bring it to Detective Beasley to look into. So Sherry brought it down to the police precinct and then the tape just kind of went into the void. First they told her that it was blanked and empty, and then it just sort of disappeared. Mark never did stop over, and within a month after that, Mark was found dead in the early morning hours on a bike path. His death was ruled a tragic accident, but much of what was at the scene didn't add up to that. Just as a quick note, I actually visited this site. If you're local to the area. It's in the back of a residential neighborhood, right behind the Wheaton Library. There's a small dead end street that descends into a bike path, and it was on the bike path that Mark was found in a pool of blood. Supposedly he was heading back home at four in the morning on his bike, like everyone is, hit a curb and hit his head again, tragically dying in an accident. I take the take to Montgomery County Police Department. Mark EN's of it. It makes sense, and now there's no take. Here's Sherry discussing the first responders who arrived at the scene, according to information found from her private investigator, Joe Ilertia. They said that when they arrived. First of all, Mark's body was found behind his bike. So the way the police claimed he was riding down that hill that I was walking down at a high way of speed, he hit something, fell off the bike and hit his head. Well, if you're going downhill and you hit something, you're gonna go forward, not backwards. Ry. And then they said the paramedics said that it looked his injuries looked as if someone took a back to him or blunt object. So they said it was not to them an accident. Yeah, that's all pretty weird, and the physics don't really add up on that for me. Despite these inconsistencies, the tragic accident theory prevailed, and interestingly enough, his own family didn't even really want to dive into it. There was a lot of turmoil with Mark at the time. He was allegedly deep into drugs and flunked out of school, and it seemed like those closests just wanted to move on. Just for the record, this scene of the supposed accident was in very close proximity to the precinct that Sherry had dropped the tape off to. So Sherry drops off this tape, they claim the tape is blank, they never give it back, and then Mark ends up dead. Things that make you go hmm. Sherry recalled feeling some guilt about this. She attended the funeral of Mark with her mother and even went up to Mark's casket and said, I tried to warn you. And I told Mark that I said, whoever got Keith was coming for you. I said it. I now, I don't understand why, but it happened. I said, he was as I saw. Sherry also encountered Keith's supposed friends who attended the funeral of Mark, and they were as cagey and avoidant as ever. Mary Cooey took to advocacy after this. She wanted Keith's death reclassified as undetermined and for police to look into what actually happened to her son. In nineteen ninety four, Mary Cooey had pulled together enough money to get Keith's body exhumed for a private autopsy. It was pricey and she had a pay to have his body flown to Pennsylvania and for the whole thing start to finish, but it would pay off because it would show that her suspicions were founded and that everything about this case was just off. The doctor who did the autopsy, doctor Maholocus, discussed that he found things in the time oxicology exam that quote bothered him. His blood and liver contained extremely high levels of commercial chemicals in cleaning agents that not just anybody can walk into a store and purchase. The main one, trichloroethane, is in degreasers, dry cleaning agents, glue and paint removers. There were also other ones found that are typically found together in gasoline. Montgomery County argued that trichloroethane or TCE would be found in the embalming process, like in the fluids specifically, but the embalming report from Colin's funeral home failed to account for the other substances outside of TCE that were found in Keith, and the embalming fluids noted on the embalming report do not have TC in them, per the manufacturer. Not only that, doctor Mahoalocus said it would be highly unusual to find this inbe fluid and that he had not encountered it, And he also spoke to the high volume of this in and of itself. These levels were still so overwhelmingly present. Years later, he said he couldn't imagine what the levels were in nineteen eighty six. The TCE found in his blood was twelve to sixteen times the lethal level, and the other chemicals were ten times the lethal level. Each TCE has impairing qualities and is a cardiac irritant. From what Sherry has learned over the years and from what was doc documented in the docuseries, if something like this had been mixed into Keith's drink, he would have been dead before he ever hit the floor. So to be clear, he and no way could have inhaled or ingested these agents and then conducted in elaborate suicide by hanging himself in the woods. Even presenting this, Mary Cooey was again ignored, but that didn't stop her. If you go on the Keith Warren Justice site, you'll see page after page after page of her letter campaigns, outreach to local media, and her engagement of every branch of the political and judicial system within the state of Maryland, just simply begging them to take another look. She was mostly ignored or stonewalled what Sherry often refers to as the blue wall, this deep allegiance everyone in the law enforcement space touching Keith's case had with one another, protecting each other and whatever they had messed up on or tried covering up instead of the truth. One person who did take notice was a man named Doug Gansler. He served as the forty fifth Attorney General for the State of Maryland from two thousand and seven to twenty fifteen. Prior to that, he served as the state's attorney from Montgomery County, Maryland from ninety nine to two thousand and seven. Unbeknownst to Mary Sherry and others connect did to Keith. Doug Gansler had reopened the investigation into the case of Keith Warren in nineteen ninety nine, and he convened a grand jury to look at the evidence and determine whether or not there was enough to overrule the finding of suicide as the manner of death. Del Walters and his investigative journalism team caught up with Doug Gandler in two thousand and two and interviewed him. Del Walters asked, Doug Gandler, does it bother you that if Keith Warren did not take his own life, that there's someone out there who committed murder, and Doug Gansler said yes. Gansler then went on to say, we looked at all the material along with the sheriff Ray Night, and decided to reopen the case. We reopened the case, we used the grand jury, we examined all the leads, we talked to all the possible witnesses, and came to a conclusion of inconclusiveness. So then Dell asks, is the final bottom line in this case going to be that we just don't know what happened to Keith Warren said, there are very strong arguments having looked at everything in this case that Keith Warren died of suicide, but there are equally strong arguments to suggest that he did not die of suicide, that he was killed or died accidentally and then was put on this tree. Afterwards, Walters asked, is it your opinion that police botched this investigation? And Gansler answered, under today's guidelines and procedures, this would have been botched. Now, as I mentioned before, Sherry and Mary were not aware of this grand jury, but after it had convened, they were called into a meeting at Doug Gansler's office, and this is what took place. So we go, come on, we go to Rockville, go to Doug's office. He tells us about this grand jury. First of all, we were shocked because none of us were called. But okay, and the opinion of the grand jury came back inconclusive as to whether or not Keith put himself on a tree. So that right there should reopened my brother's case. Right. So Gasa says in this meeting that, yeah, so what we're gonna do if we're gonna keep a file open? I was so livid and heated. I got put out the room because the light literally drained from my mother's face. She was excited and on cloud nine because we got this grand jury, and of course it's going to come back and say Keith didn't do it, or at least they can't prove that he did. But no, you're gonna say did. You're gonna open up a file. Really now, I should add, in the years since, Doug has shown up further in supporting Sherry in the work she's doing on her brother's case, and she considers him a friend now. But at the time this was an extremely frustrating roadblock. They finally felt like they were getting somewhere and then nothing really, According to the docu series Uprooted. After this meeting and the grand jury being unable to determine if Keith's case was a suicide or homicide or accident, Mary Cooey and those supporting her pulled together a twenty page petition that was sent to doctor David Fowler, the chief medical Examiner. This position was specifically requesting to reclassify Keith's death as undetermined, but it was not a success. Just of note, if that name sounds familiar, Doctor David Fowler testified on behalf of Derek Chauvin in the George Floyd case discussing George Floyd's cardiac issues, and if you google doctor Fowler's name, his name has come under quite a bit of fire since in May of two thousand and nine, Sherry Warren's life would be upended. She took her mother to the hospital for a cold like symptoms and respiratory symptoms, and her mother would never make it out of the hospital. He died on May twenty sixth two thousand and nine, at the age of just sixty one years old. Sherry feels that in the end, the stress of this case took her mom to an early grave and that she ultimately died of a broken heart. In the Unsolved Mysteries episode, Mary Cooey says to producers, quote, we're still being stonewalled and we're still being fought, and that's incredible. I can't understand that. What is it that the system does not want me to know about my child's life or death? End quote. Mary vowed that she would keep digging into Keith's death until the day she died, and then she would pass the torch, and that's exactly what she did. She passed the torch to Keith's sister, Sherry, who hasn't stopped since Sherry does not like a lot of fanfare, and in talking with her, I will share with you that she's humble in the epitome of someone who engages in servant leadership. She not only continues to relentlessly pursue justice in her brother's case, she has gone out of her way to help other families, which I'll talk about more in a minute. Once Sherry has her mindset to something, she doesn't give it up. If there was something wrong, I'm gonna figure it out. And if not, I'm going to drive myself crazy and everybody else crazy. And this is my hobby bringing attention to my brother's case, but in the same respect, helping others in their case, because I've got a lot of families call me asking me, okay, well what should I do? And I give them everything that we didn't do to help them not to be where we are today. Sherry has been part of Maryland House Bill eight sixty three. You see, at the time of Keith's death, mary had a very small window of time to challenge the death certificate ruling. This bill extends that window out to six months, so that people don't have to immediately take action in the first days of their grieving. She also testified with Reverence and Marguerite Morris's efforts on Maryland House built nine six', nine also known as The Katherine Morris Death Reclassification, act which requires a law enforcement agency to reopen or reinvestigate an investigation involving the death of a victim whose cause or manner of death was. Amended Reverend morris did this on behalf of her, daughter who also had a suspicious, death AND i plan to talk about that case on another, day but in the, meantime go check Out Reverend morris's website For cathy's. Sake beyond these, Efforts sherry has put herself out there engaging with those who discuss her brother's case on the. Internet not every family member does, this and that's. UNDERSTANDABLE i don't think it should be the expectation that everyone. Does but she credits the fact of doing this and engaging and keeping people's interest up. There she says that it's made a. Difference she has started social media channels dedicated to bringing awareness in her brother's case and subsequent. Change she's continuously been in the ear Of Montgomery, county and she doesn't plan to. Stop in the early twenty, tens she caught the attention of a filmmaker who approached her about wanting to do a documentary series On keith's. Case she was elated because she shared the same goal and wanted to absolutely do, so but he couldn't find anybody who would. Bite, then After George floyd's, death suddenly he was flooded with. Requests they went on to partner With Discovery plus and the three part docuseries is an absolute must. WATCH i cannot recommend Watching uprooted. Enough But i'm not done yet breaking On Cherry warren, because AS i told her in my interview with, her she is. Impressive she has started a nonprofit in her brother's, honor The Keith Warren Justice, foundation and she's also written a book to help. Families, okay, So Keith Warren Justice foundation is a not is ay? Five and want to s? Three you're registered In maryland but the Found day is In keith's, Name but it's not About. Keith it's about helping others In keith's name so his memory and his legacy can move. On AND i want to help others navigate the judicial. Systems so the donations That i've, received which primarily BECAUSE i haven't really, solicited so it's really been coming out of my. POCKET i would my mom was not afforded the opportunity to sit for a legal person and get any, help right to get any legal, good legal. Advice SO i want to give persons the. Opportunity on my. Board what we do is we'll get, application we'll look through if we can. Help i'll pay for somebody to sit with the lawyer for two hours right of somebody who is qualified in the field that they need help, in and that person can say that now we're Dealing i'm not dealing with an open, case so let me just say that it's either closed case or a civil. Case but we can't do a criminal. Case but and in respect of if they have a, case or if they don't, right or if they have an, issue the lawyer can, say, okay WELL i find were you at START DA DA da or you, know or otherwise you know there's nothing we can, do, right you, know let it. Go, so BECAUSE i really don't want people to have to go THROUGH i want to minimize anybody having to go through my forty year, struggle and that's WHY i wrote the Book guide It steps in difficult, times pursuing truth in the aftermath of. TRAGEDY i came up with the idea BECAUSE i get a lot of calls and people asking, you what do you do? This how do you do? That in the, BOOK i go into detail about grief counseling and taking, care you, know memoralizing their loved. One BUT i also give sample levers to, use templates to use to write to. OFFICIALS i give you the questions to. ASK i give you the follow up questions to ask in case you, know you get, stopped because sometimes you get need you don't know how to talk to to to law. Enforcement and LIKE i said On, TikTok you know WHEN i need to get back into being more frequent my. Videos but law enforcement their trained. Psychologists they know how to, manipulate they know how to ask. You they play semantics with, you, Right so you have to be able to be, aware being tuned and be clear headed to see. It and sometimes you're not there and sometimes you don't know what to look. For so it's only eighty. Pages it's like it's a manual for the most. Part it's On, Amazon i'll see you the. Link it's also On Simply ebooks which is a link and Simple simple e booklet which is THROUGH canba where you can you can look at it through. There but the proceeds for the foundation go to helping. Others all have information on the foundation linked in the show notes should you want to support this great cause or if you want to purchase the. Book sherry continued to push for answers with The Maryland County Police, department but lost contact with them in twenty. Eighteen in that, year she reached out for an update Because Chief manger had stated that the case was. Reopened on the email thread were two redacted detectives And Chief. Manger detective one responds to her and Takes Chief manger off the email and basically, says, no you're. Mistaken the case has not been. Reopened myself And detective two are looking into it as time, permits but that's. It detective two replies all forgetting That sherry was on the email and says this is going to cause an shiit storm because the chief did say it was reopened and that's WHAT i was talking to you. About. Whoopsies so they cut her off after that at no fault of her. Own that's their fault for not checking who they're replying, all which is good because honestly just shows how much they are trying to cover up these little glimpses of. That but rest assured as recently as this, year someone from that office lied to The Maryland State police and said they'd been in touch With sheerry recently and kept her up to. Date literally one law enforcement entity lying to. Another if you want to see the continued Correspondence sherry has had with all parties in all of her. ADVOCACY i cannot recommend the website enough in her. Socials she does such a great. Job and IF i covered it on this, episode we'd be here for. Days that's how Much sherry puts herself out. There and she continued to for, years and she was met with a major victory In march of twenty twenty. Four at that, time The Maryland Medical Examiner's office Reclassified Keith warren's death as, undetermined reversing its previous multi decade stance declaring it a. Suicide they conducted eight, thorough year long investigation and landed on this. Outcome this was huge this was Something Mary cooey had fought for so hard in her, lifetime and Watching sherry's TikTok video where she announces it was so. Emotional it gave me goosebumps and brought tears to my. Eyes but the fight does not end. There even though The Medical Examiner's office for The state Of maryland reclassified his, death The Montgomery County Sheriff's office has not changed their, stance their, documentation or their, findings and Despite House bill nine sixty nine going into effect in the fall of twenty twenty, Four Montgomery County Police department has not further looked Into keith's. Case last, Year sherry started working with Attorney Stephen, holloman who has been instrumental in partnering with her on the path. Forward she sat on her website that In, january Mister holloman called her after speaking with The Montgomery County State's Attorney's, office and she said she could hear the disbelief in his. Voice he apologized for the fact that just in his interactions he couldn't imagine what the family must have endured for the past thirty seven. Years he was. Stunned at the end Of march of twenty twenty, five he wrote a letter to The State's attorney's office continuing advocacy for an investigation Into keith's death and the official changing of the ruling Of keith's death as suicide by The Montgomery County Police. Department you can read the full letter. Online it was. Incredible but here was his last. Paragraph he, said quote at the end of the, day Mister, feeney our request to your office was part of our effort to secure justice for the family of a black man found hanging from a tree In Montgomery county at the end of a. Rope your office's insistence on placing its collective head in the, sand on ignoring the investigative record and the findings of, professionals and on adhering to quote alternative facts that do not square with the overabundance of contrary, evidence should make all citizens deeply concerned for the administration of justice in this. County So sherry continues. On she's realistic and she knows there's no criminal case that can be pursued at this. Point she has gone on TikTok And instagram and the website and podcasting, everywhere and she has repeatedly, SAID i am not looking for. THAT i know That Detective beasley's mishandling of evidence destroyed any shot they'd ever. Have and so she's, SAID i don't want to waste the taxpayer. DOLLARS i know nothing can come of, this but there are specific things she does want. Out loud in person and on a former written apology to my. MOTHER i don't want to waste a taxpayers dollars for a situation that they messed Up Montgomery County Police. Department and, Again i'm not letting them off the, hook BUT i understand what it. Is i'm a rational. Woman i'm not, crazy though that would be that could be. Arguing But i'm not unreasonable. Either but you will BEFORE i, die acknowledge that your department fucked up this, case and you go get my. Mama it's not even about. Me it's about my mother BECAUSE i had to sit back and watch her cry every night for a child that she lost and a disrespect this county gave her and put her through all all because she's looking for justice for her. Child she just. Wanted she wanted simple answer to injestice and respect for the fact that she was trying to find something that they weren't looking. For and, honestly some part of closure For sherry is just understanding what happened and. Why so her door is still open for. That, yes they can. Listen here's my grandmother's still. Here thank, God i'm still. Here my, Family we just want to know what, happened, Right and if you can that piece of closure can bring us a little bit of piece of a little piece of, piece because that was something my mom was looking. For and you can do it, anonymously you know WHAT i. Mean you can do it, allegedly you, know and you could reach me an info at The Key Foreign justinsfoundation dot. Org you can send me in a. Listen if you tell me that it's a nonymous that's, fine you know because at the end of the, day unless you KNOW i have the murder wapp it in my, hand you can't go to. Jail who gonna get jail? Time? Right but just to, know AND i just want to understand for, me it's not even more SO i want to know how keep, that BUT i want to know Why Montgomery county is putting up such a. Wall and for those who have Watched game Of, Thrones she has a little analogy about her experience The game Of. Thrones people there was and The game Of thrones is think called the white. Wall WELL i call it the blue. Wall and they don't understand about. That what this blue wall? Keep because every TIME i bring you something you, build you put another brick to block. It so what is this blue wall? Up and? Why and how is it that somebody who works in the county today can sit back with a clear conscience and say it's okay to continue this. Lie how. To round out this, EPISODE i want to just review a few of the case discrepancies and questions as outlined on The justice For Keith warren website and ones that have been identified through the. Investigation, first investigators believe That keith parked a quarter of a mile or so away from where he was, found even though there were tons of parking spaces. Nearby he carried with him wine coolers which were never found near his, body a, rope a bag of cassette tapes in, it and inexplicitly or inexplicably rather a change of, clothes and then he decided to commit suicide on a. Tree cherry actually goes through all of this on the website's, homepage where she does a video Called Keith's Final. Walk speaking of the, clothes the Clothes keith were wearing in the police photos were not his clothes and they did not match the clothes given back to the. Family and how did law enforcement get their hands on those clothes to give them back to the. Family the police sort of backtracked on. This they said that they were just found near the, body But dalla's lips said he didn't see anything like clothes near the, body and the police report does not mention there being additional clothes at the. Scene what Do keith's friends? Know how did the car of men Or Mark finley looking for him in the days leading up to his body being? Found how did that play into what? Happened what's the connection? There what are the police trying to cover? Up Was keith possibly an informant is digging Into keith's, case going to shed light on Things Montgomery county doesn't want to be? Found what Was keith Into where a whole state is trying to cover up what happened in his? Death how did police get this information That keith was depressed leading up to his. Death it's seemingly made up because nobody who actually Knew keith felt he Was what is the connection To colin's funeral? Home why was that? Chosen there may be more to it than you. Think one of the persons that Cut keep's body off the tree From collin's funeral home was good, friends The Chip. Whims so how random Is colin's funeral? Home? Again WHAT i am telling, you the more you look into this, case there's more and more and more of. This everywhere you, turn it never. Stops, Chip you'll remember is the man whose home the nine one one call came from the dudun. Crutches and speaking of that nine one one, call who was the third person in the house that? Day for, Years sherry thought it was the other, person that other neighborhood man who we've been Calling, larry the one in the background of the. Photos but based on later information she, got she no longer believes that's the. Case but she also does not know who that third person, was and she's never been able to figure it. Out if the case was, closed how come the tree was cut down as? Evidence why do you need backup evidence in a? Suicide where did the news? Go why was it documented in police notes that the chief of police at the time didn't want the family to have the news. Back why is the medical, examiner Doctor, rogers listed as both being at the scene and not being at the scene if he was, There why is an officer pronouncing? Death and why are there so many blatant lies in official. Documentation the police report that talked About sherry being talked to when she was out of town and a miner who would have been involved with like an adult would have had been there at the. Time that's just one example of. It it's. Everywhere there's just contradictions and flat out lies in official signed. Documentation LIKE i, said this is just the tip of the, iceberg and it's a never ending rabbit hole of a. Case but at the end of the, day the this is not just a case to debate and discuss on the. Internet this is the story of a young man whose life was ended before it even had the chance to start and the aftermath it has left his grieving. Family now it's left with the legacy they're leaving in an effort to make sure it doesn't happen like this to anyone again if they can prevent, it and the Work Mary koey, did and now the work That Sherry warren is carrying on is so. Admirable i'd have to think That Keith warren is. Proud if you have any information on the death Of Keith, warren please Contact Sherry warren directly on The justice For keith's website as well as the social media platforms she has dedicated to his. Case to Support sherry's, work please continue to speak out About keith's case shared this episode alongside the other Platforms sherry has been, on like her own TikTok, channel and push for The Montgomery County Police department to finally do the right. Thing this has been another episode of a simpler time true. Crime please join in Next monday AS i dive into another older unsolved, case and as, always thank you so much for. Listening