Karen Bodine

Warning. This episode contains graphic crime scene detail and may be sensitive for some listeners. All witnesses, purses of interest, and suspects are considered innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. 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. Let's jump right in. We are going to talk about the Kansas City Three, the three men who are found in the backyard slash back porch of scientists Jordan Willis after a football game gathering party situation. So they officially do have the toxicology reports back, and a family member of one of the victims said that cocaine, fetanyl, and THHC showed up in the preliminary results. Level ten amount of fetanyl in your system is enough to kill you. These guys had thirty level thirty for fentanyl in their system. So it's really going to be interesting to see what more comes out in regards to this. They obviously had a lot of stuff in their system. Now here's what I find interesting Clayton mcgheiney, one of the guys that ended up passing away. I went to his Facebook page and in November of last year, in November twenty twenty three, he had posted that he was thirty days tobacco free, which that's a big deal. So I think it's interesting that somebody that was really trying. It sounded like he was trying to clean up his life. He had quit tobacco, which is hard. It's not easy to get off of that stuff. It is addictive, So it's interesting that that would happen and then he would go to this house where Jordan lived and willingly partake in all of these super super super hard drugs. It doesn't line up for me that this was something that he willingly did my opinion, and these are also men that are in there, like mid to late thirties. They all have families and careers and you know, regular lives. It just for me doesn't line up that they went to this house and they were experimenting with all of these random drugs that Jordan gave them allegedly, And if Jordan took the same things they took, why did they die and Jordan did it so that really doesn't make sense. There's no way that you can take all that fentanyl and not pass away. So the math still ain't math and for me on Jordan Willis, but we are going to stay on top of this one and I will bring you updates as they come out. Second order of business is Rachel Smith, who is one of the Chad Daybill prosecutors. She is leaving the case. Unfortunately. She has done a lot of work to try to get justice for Tylee, JJ and Tammy and she has stepped away. She has not elaborated as to why she stepped away, but she said it has been a true honor to help pursue justice for Tyleie Ryan JJ Valo, and Tammy Dabil over the last three years. I am proud to have been part of the State of Idaho's efforts that led to the conviction of Lori Valodabel. To have the opportunity to utilize my experience as a homicide prosecutor to help bring comfort to the victims' families is something I'll cherish for a lifetime. End quote. Before she officially leaves, she is going to be assisting with witness coordination, exhibit preparation, and other duties before the trial is set to begin on April first. That's when they're going to select the jury is April first. Now there has been a motion to delay the trial. Of course, Chad is going to try to delay this as much as he can, but as of right now, we are still set to start on April one. There is also a pre trial conference that is scheduled for Chad d Bill for February twenty second, and I will be sure to keep you guys updated on that one. But I hope and pray that we are on track for April first being the start of his trial and hopefully the start of getting full justice for JJ Tyley and Tammy on that side of things, because we still have more justice to come for Charles and Brandon Boudreau. But it's a long road. We're we're on the right track. In Brian Coburger News, he has filed a request to change the venue of his trial and has and said that he requests a jury pool from outside of Laytalk County to be picked. A fair and impartial jury cannot be found in Leaytal County owing to the extensive inflammatory pre trial publicity allegations made about mister Coberg to the public by the media that will be inadmissible at trial. The small size of the community, the silicious nature of the alleged crimes, and the severity of the charges mister Coburger faces. Enlarging the jury pool will not do anything to overcome that pervasive pre judicial publicity because Laytalk County does not have a large enough population to center to avoid the bias in the community. Further, the size of the community and the interconnectedness of its citizenary is problematic and will prevent a fair and impartial pool of potential jurors. Basically, what that is saying is that the county of Leaytalk County is too small. Everyone knows the case, it is very prevalent, everyone has an opinion on it, and it will be really hard to find an impartial jury to give Brian Coberger a fair trial. That is what they are saying. It's going to be interesting to see what comes out of this because it is a very, very notorious case. So I will be sure to keep you guys updated. Again, We're dealing with somebody, Brian Coberger, who was obviously a very smart student and is going to stop at nothing to pull out all of the stops to get his way in every way, shape and form. It is going to be like an Elec Murdag junior type of situation. I feel like in the courthouse when it comes to that, because I feel like he is going to do every single thing under the sun in order to try to delay the start of the trial, to try to move the trial, to try to do this with a trial, try to manipulate and get his way, and it is going to be really interesting to see what all happens with it. In Rodney Read News. I covered Rodney's story on a Innocent on Death Row episode last year, and there is a new filing in this case, which I, for one, I'm glad about because I do believe Rodney is innocent of killing Stacy Stites. The filing is pretty long. It can be found on Rodney Read Innocent on Texas dr at Instagram on Instagram, I should say, and you guys can read through it. But what we have to hope and pray is that Judge Robert L. Pittman of the United States just Report for the Western District of Texas will rule in Rodney's favor for this and that will help us continue to fight for justice in Rodney's case, because if you guys remember when I covered it, Rodney was sentenced to death row for the murder of Stacey Stites, and there was some back and forth about her ex fiance or her fiance at the time I should say Jimmy Fanel or Fennel, however we're saying his name, and that there was a huge cover up because he had a lot of connections in that county in Bastrop. So I hope that with this filing, it is just a step in the right direction towards the right thing happening in Rodney's situation and in Rodney's case. So I will be sure to keep you guys updated on that, and I'm sure there is a lot more we could talk about, but I do want to keep this right now in True Crime on the shorter side so we can get into today's story. So with all of that, we are going to go ahead and get into today's episode. All right, guys, we are jumping in today to a new case. We are going to talk about the unsolved murder of a woman named Karen Boudine. And as always, I'm going to start talking a little bit about Karen and who she was and the circumstances that led up to her unfortunate and untimely passing. Karen Lee Boudine was born on March eleventh of nineteen sixty nine in Olympia, Washington, to Dave and Sharon Bodeine. She was a devoted mother of three children who were named Carly Taylor in Tanner. Her friends remember her as a bright, beautiful, fun loving person who always had a smile. She was kind of the fun mom who was known to have hot pink streaks in her hair and would always sneak little notes into her kids lunches and backpacks as a way to let them know that she was always thinking of them. She did struggle with substance abuse, but overall was a great mother, friend, and daughter. At the time of her death, Karen's children, the oldest was a senior in high school, her middle child was a first year high school student, and her youngest was in their last year of elementary school. So Karen's children were young when she was murdered, and as Karen's murder has gone on to be unsolved still to this day, they have become a key role in keeping Karen's story out there and trying to solve and figure out what happened to their mother. Her kids describe her as being a very present and involved mother. She was always there at all of their extracurriculars. At one point in time, Karen and her three children had moved in with Karen's mother, Sharon, and they were all living there at the house. But eventually Karen did move out, and even though she wasn't directly living with her children, she was still very very active in her children's lives and she loved her kids more than anything. From everything I've seen, she was a super involved mom. She was always there for her kids, always there for all of their activities, and she was a very very present mother despite the fact that she was not living in the house with them. So we are going to skip ahead to the weekend of January nineteenth of two thousand and seven. Karen was in a relationship at this time with her boyfriend, and that weekend, leading up to everything leading up to her murder, she had been kicked out of the apartment that she was living in with her boyfriend because there was an alleged domestic violent situation. And whatever the situation was, it resulted in Karen being served in order of protection, so she had to find a different place to stay. On January twenty first, a call came into a non emergency number and there was a call that there was a woman walking alongside of the road. And I don't know if they thought that she looked like she was like out of place or what really triggered them enough to call, But nonetheless, a Lacy police officer goes out and they see Karen and talk to her, and she refuses any type of aid at this point in time, and she told this police officer that she was going home to Rochester, and the officer just kind of let her go and let her go on her way, didn't intervene, didn't insist on taking her anywhere, just kind of said, Okay, you're headed here. I'm gonna let you just be. You're not bothering anybody, and let her go. So from here. The next day, January twenty second, of two thousand and seven, it is reported and alleged that Karen has been staying at a friend's house over this weekend, and there are details that multiple different people had visited this house over the weekend, and there were some people that had stayed over and there were many people in the home that were involved in some drug use, and different witnesses at this home report seeing Karen there and alive at the house around three o'clock in the morning on January twenty second, so somewhere in the early morning hours, Karen's body is dumped at a gravel site in the early morning hours of Monday morning, and police describe that the attack on Karen was very brutal and they did speculate that it potentially could have been perpetrated by somebody that Karen personally knew, because they said it seemed like a very personal type of attack. So how they came to find Karen's body is there was a car that was passing by about eight forty five in the morning past this gravel area, and they called nine one one. They thought originally that the body was a mannequin, but quickly realized that it was not, and that's when they called the authorities. So the authorities come out, and they do believe that she was dumped sometime there after dark the night before, and thought that she hadn't passed away too much before they had found her. So she was discovered without clothing she was posed in a prone position, so she was on her belly and she had a ligature still around her neck and trigger warning like, this is not good stuff to be talking about. I should have put a trigger warning on that at the beginning. But her head was propped up on a loose discarded car seat kind of like she was resting her head like you wouldn't on like a pillow, and that is how she was found. There was no belongings of hers found at the scene, no identification, no purse, no bag, nothing like that found with her. Police of course start questioning people, questioning people that were in the area that day, and there were multiple witnesses who said at seven point fifty in the morning they saw a vehicle that was described as a brown early nineteen eighties dat sun truck potentially with a lighter color camper shell in the area, So that of course has now become the vehicle of interest. This could have been the person that potentially dumped Karen at this area, and obviously somebody that would be involved in potentially the murder of Karen, So this becomes kind of the focal point of the case. They are trying to track down this particular vehicle, so interesting little bit of information. That morning that Karen was found. Dave and Sharon, who are Karen's parents, had been en route to a doctor's appointment that morning that Karen's body was found, and Sharon said that normally Dave would have taken the freeway, but Sharon said she hates the freeway and said that I'll go with you to this appointment if you go the old way. So on their way to the appointment, they did see helicopter circling and they saw flashing lights up ahead, and they saw that lawn enforcement was slowly letting traffic through. So Dave, who was a former firefighter and fire commissioner, looked at the scene, saw all that the emergency vehicles were there and said it wasn't good. As they passed by, not knowing anything that was going on and just going straight and going to the appointment. So as the authorities were able to identify Karen, they did go and let Dave and Sharon know that Karen was found and had been murdered, and that's when they realized that they had passed the scene of the crime and the scene where their daughter had been found brutally murdered. And they didn't have any idea that that was even what was going on when they passed by, so eerie. I can't even imagine that happening, passing by something like that, not realizing it's your family member, and then later finding out that you were there. When all of that was going down, they had yet to identify Karen, so they literally authorities had no idea who this person was that they were finding. They were trying to put all the pieces together, and then to realize that Dave and Charon had been there. I can't even imagine how eerie that was for them to find out that news. So initially, the news reports that came out in regards to Karen had some inaccurate information in them. They referred to her as transient, which is not true. Karen had been evicted from her apartment by law enforcement because that order of protection was filed against her on the Friday prior to the Monday that her body was found, So she wasn't transient, she wasn't homeless. She literally was kicked out of her place and had nowhere to go. But even though she didn't have a place to go, she had a lot of supportive friends and family so she was staying with this friend up until right before her murder. One of the detectives working the case did confirm that Karen had been hanging out with people who were involved in drug activity and that most all of those people have been arrested for some type of drug activity since Karen's murder, and he said it's not clear exactly which person killed her, but there are several people that she surrounded herself with who had the potential and it's really sad to hear that she was kind of portrayed as this person who didn't have a home, was surrounding herself with people who participated in drug activity. Because every one of her family members, her kids, her parents speak very, very highly of her. Her mom said that she was the delight of her parents life until the last day. Her kids say that she was so much more than the way that she was taken from this world and the family. Karen's kids in particular, really wish that people would not focus so much on the negative aspect of her mother's life. And we talk about it all the time. There are so many people out there who unfortunately get involved with some not so great people. These people are no less important and less worthy of justice because of the things that they were doing at the time of their death. It really frustrates me when I feel like a case kind of gets pushed to the back burner because, oh, they were involved in drugs, or they were involved in gang activity, or they were hanging out with the wrong crowd. Everybody has their shit, and sometimes people, good people get involved in bad situations, but that doesn't mean that they deserve to be brutally murdered, left on the side of the road and then have the public scrutinize what they were doing at the time of their death. Just because you might take a wrong path in life and are around people that might not be the best people for you, doesn't mean that you deserve to have your life taken and that you don't deserve justice and for your family to know what happened to you and who is responsible. Everybody, regardless of the circumstances surrounding their death, deserves justice, their family deserves answers, and nobody deserves to be brutally murdered and thrown on the side of the road like a piece of garbage. It is not okay. And the fact that a lot of the times I feel like so much bad is focused on what was going on in the victim's life at the time and less about the creepy weirdo who committed this crime. I'm more concerned that the person that did this to Karen is still out there than I'm concerned with Karen hanging out with people who did drugs. I really feel like we need to reframe the way we look at some of these cases and really look at the victim, not their circumstances. Of course, I'm going to talk about her circumstances because I feel like it's relevant to her case, but she is so so much more than what she was doing at the time of her death. She was a daughter, she was a friend, she was a devoted mother, and regardless of anything else, she did not deserve what happened to her. And the person that did this needs to be found and off the streets asap. Sorry a little tangent. I just had to go off on because I hear it a lot where they're like, oh, well, this person was involved in this. When they died, and this person was involved in this, I don't care, and we really need to reframe it to be about supporting victims and not victim shaming. Victim blaming. I digress. Okay, so her case pretty much, there's not a whole lot going on with it. Initially, they didn't really have any leads or anything nobody to really go off of to even come close to making an arrest. But in twenty fourteen, the case kind of re emerged into the public eye. There was sources that came forward with new information, and they were hoping that this was going to be enough new information to potentially lead to an arrest, but it did not, unfortunately, so things kind of went back to being cold again, unfortunately. So they were able to get some DNA profiles from the ligature that were around Karen's neck. They were able to send these off for testing. Still to this day, none of that has been shared. Of course, law enforcement is hoping that advancements in DNA technology will eventually result in some answers, but other than that, there really wasn't a lot of evidence. One of the detectives said, when you have a case that has as little evidence as this one does and has gone on as long as it has, more than one person was probably involved, which I think is interesting because they were able to take multiple DNA profiles from the ligature that was around Karen's neck. So it'll really be interesting with all of the new advances in DNA technology to see what ends up coming back from this, because I do feel like every year that ticks on, every year, every day that goes by, every month that goes by, DNA advances are getting better and better and better, and it's just one day closer to finding the person or persons who did this to Karen. Okay, here's where I get to talk about crime Con. So in twenty nineteen, Karen's children participated in a event at crime Con which was aimed at sharing details of Karen's case with the public in hopes of finding additional information. And this event at crime Con was called crowd Solve, and it was really cool because it allowed other like obviously other people at crime Con true crime enthusiasts, to look through cold case files under the supervision of experts, and Karen's case was able to end up as the focus for two of the three day crime Con event. The case file itself is huge, It's over a thousand pages, and they did say that at the Crowdsolve event, one of the detectives says that it brought up some interesting things and it allowed for different conversations with different experts that had different kind of experiences and worked in different fields. And that's what I think is so cool about crime con because you do have so many different types of people that come together all for the greater good. Because even though we had this fascination with true crime, it's also like a learning experience and an opportunity to network. And that's exactly what happened at this event because they talk too many different people. They talked to an investigative psychologist, a forensic specialist, a medical investigator, and some of these different experts had suggested different techniques to try or things to go back and look at again, and everybody was very open and helpful, and a lot of them, the lead investigator is still in touch with to this day and they have a very open dialogue. And that's also what's so important is you get a set of fresh eyes on a case that has never seen this case before, and they might have different ideas, different theories, different things that potentially could have happened. And again, awareness the whole reason why it is so important to have these discussions and bring up these super cold cases, spreading awareness, spreading the word, and getting this out there so somebody somewhere knows something. Maybe somebody that hears a story, sees a story, sees a picture, something's going to jog in their memory and they're going to have that missing puzzle piece that's going to connect and help solve this crime. Taylor and Carly, two of Karen's children, spoke highly of the Crowdsolve experience and thought that there was a lot of new opportunities that came from it. And Karen's mom, Sharon, said that it felt like meaningful progress was happening and said that she felt like they were going to solve it. So Taylor, who is Karen's daughter, maintains a Facebook page which is titled Justice for Karen Bodine My Mother's Unsolved Homicide Investigation and it is an active page. I am going to link it so you guys can join it and you can see all of the photos of Karen with her kids. She was a very, very, very involved mother and you can see that it radiates in the photos with her kids. You can tell that she was always there for them and did everything she could for her kids. So this is a quote from Taylor. She said some people often misuse and don't really understand the difference between justice and clothes. But Taylor said, even if the case doesn't get solved, what would give her the most closure would be for people to stop focusing so much on the negative with Karen and focus on all of the good, which is what I talked about earlier. And she said she did have drug and alcohol problems, but that was on and off throughout her life, and for the most part it was more off than on. But people focus on the on, which is so true. So regardless of what Karen had done in her past, who she surrounded herself with, it stands that she was brutally murdered by a horrific, horrific human. Her murder has gone unsolved since two thousand and seven. There are everyday new DNA advances in the technology, and I do feel like we are getting closer and closer to solving this crime. Whoever did this is still out there and they need to be off of the streets before they strike again, because they've already gotten away with it once and I think they're going to keep on keeping on, because that's what deranged psychopaths do until they are caught and gotten off of the streets. So let's focus on who Karen was. A good daughter, a fantastic mother to her three kids. They speak very, very highly of her. They have pretty much devoted a lot of their time and attention to trying to solve their mother's murder and keep her name in the media, keep her story out there. I think that's what's important here, and I really want to aid in helping them further their investigation and further their case and help get justice for Karen and her family and bring this person who did this to her person or persons, get them off of the street, and lock them up for the rest of their lives. So I'm going to share photos of Karen with her children, other photos that I have found just through my research, and as always, share this episode. Let's get the word out. Let's remember Karen for who she was, a good mother, a daughter, a friend, and somebody who deserves to have their murder solved, because she is no less important than anyone else that I've ever talked about on my podcast. And I'm going to continue preaching and doing everything I can to help with some of these stories that do not get a lot of attention because I feel like they need to be pushed out to the masses so somebody somewhere can come forward and we can together figure out what happened in this case and all of the other ones I cover. So please share this episode. I'm gonna share, like I said, photos of Karen on my Instagram and Facebook pages. I'm going to share the Facebook page that Karen's family has started for her so you can keep up with everything there. If there are any updates on this case, I will for sure share them. And I hope you guys have a fantastic week ahead and let's get justice for Karen Bodin. It is about time you guys have a good one bye.