The Sims Family

Warning. This episode contains graphic crime scene detail and may be sensitive for some listeners. All witnesses, pursas of interest, and suspects are considered innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Hey, guys, welcome to another episode of Primetime Crime. It's Kylie. We have a few things to discuss right now in true crime. First thing is, we are going to talk about the most recent that happened today. Lori Vaalo had her arrayment in Arizona for the attempted murder on Brandon Boudreau and her murder of her husband, Charles Valo. She was extradited to Arizona from Idaho and today was her arrayment where she pled not guilty, which is such a waste of time, but I digress. So from here, she has already been assigned a public defender, and we are going to be proceeding with a trial because she pled not guilty, even though we know she's guilty allegedly. She has not officially been convicted yet, but we are going to be going through all of the parts of a trial now because she decided to plead not guilty. So that is that. I will keep you guys updated the ever evolving case that never ends. It's literally going to go on forever. So I do feel like twenty twenty four is going to be a real big Valo day Bill year. Chad's trial starts in April, this trial is going to be going on as well, so I think twenty twenty four is probably officially going to be the year where we close the chapter book on the Valo day Bell saga and hopefully all of the victims get the justice that they so very much deserve because it has been a long journey here. She did state her name during the arrangement today as Lori Valo day Bell, which makes me want to throw up. And she has hearing set for January eighteenth, February twenty first, March twenty eighth, and then the trial is going to be April fourth, at nine am, three days after Chad's trial. I don't know what I'm going to do with myself. I'm going to have Chad's trial going on April one. Lourie's trial started April fourth. April's going to be an overwhelming month, I feel like for keeping up with all of the true crime stuff, Like, I don't know what's going to happen in regards to that, I'm going to do my best to try to keep up to date, keep you guys up to date on everything. I don't know, it's going to be an overwhelming time. I just have a feeling there's gonna be so much crossover there. It's going to be crazy. It really will be. An update on another story that was out of Idaho. I talked about it on the last episode of Right Now in True Crime where the baby baby Zeke Best, was found killed. His father allegedly took his life and the wife of the life of his wife who was also pregnant. So that's a whole thing. So this guy, his name is Jeremy Allen Best from Idaho, something went down with him, like he I believe was having like some kind of mental health crisis. Before the baby was kidnapped. He was seen on there's like video footage of him walking naked through a like a little grocery store mini mart type of situation, and he's obviously naked, like he's not in good form. The police come and they decide that they're going to take him to the hospital for a mental health evaluation because they think that he's having like a mental health crisis. Obviously, you don't just walk around naggin in a grocery store for the hell of it. So they bring him there, and somewhere along the lines, they end up discharging him, I guess, realizing for whatever reason that he isn't having a mental health crisis, which he obviously was in my opinion, So he gets released, and then he ends up killing his wife an unborn child, and abducting the baby named Zeke, and then they end up finding him like in the woods naked again. He's naggd and the baby has also been killed, Like this guy was not doing well mentally, and his mugshot is it's really sad. Like you see like a picture of the family and they look like a really like lovely family, like mom, dad, baby, and then you see his mugshot and it just looks like somebody that lost their ever loving mind, like did a horrible thing. I'm not excusing his behavior, but I feel like a lot of the times mental health is just kind of like shoved to the side and it's not taken seriously. People aren't kept in a facility like that and held even though they are a danger to themselves and others, and that's a big I think that's a big problem. So I will keep you guys updated on that. He did appear in court on the murder charges. He has officially been charged with two counts of first degree murder and he allegedly shot his wife in the back and or the right area of her breast on the right side, causing her death, which is so sad. She's twenty eight weeks pregnant. So it just doesn't make sense to me. It'll never make sense to me. But for whatever reason, he was let out of that hospital when he probably should have been held there. So I will definitely keep you guys updated on that. Moving on to Gabby Petito and Brian Laundry. So, if you don't know, Gabby was killed last year by her piece of crap boyfriend fiance who was named Brian Laundry from Florida, and they were on a like camping RV adventure. They had Gabby had taken this van and converted it to something that they could travel in and live out of, and they were basically doing like a big trip and going to all these national parks and hiking, and she was documenting it all on YouTube and it just became a thing when she went missing because she had put herself out there so much, and then she was missing, so they found her body and identified it as her, and obviously Brian was responsible, and then he ended up later being found deceased as well. But there's ongoing lawsuits between Gabby's family and Brian's family because Brian's parents allegedly had a hand in helping him with a whole cover up, which I have said from the beginning that those two eight playing with a full deck of cards, there's something wrong with them. They are not being normal for they're not being a normal set of parents. They just don't they're not acting right. There's something off about them. They're hiding something. So allegedly, two weeks before Gabby was reported missing, Brian allegedly enlisted the services of a defense team in Yowming, which was funded by his parents. So the article I read from crime Online said, according to the latest amended complaint filed in the Potito family's lawsuit against Laundry's parents on Thursday, Jose Potito and Nicole Schmidt assert that Chris and Roberto Laundry, along with their attorney, Steve Bertolino, were aware of Gabby Patito's death and the location of her remains. Fox Knews Digital reports that despite this knowledge, the Laundryes never told the Potito family about it. The actions were carried out in an attempt to shield their son, causing significant emotional distress to the victim's loved ones. Court documents were submitted following the deposition of the Laundries and Bertolino. Bertolino I said that wrong by pat Riley. The Potito family attorney. Riley contended that on August twenty ninth of twenty twenty one, Brian Laundry made a frantic phone call to his parents and said that Gabby was gone and he needed a lawyer. On September second, twenty twenty one, the Laundries allegedly contacted Bertolino when who then entered into a fee agreement with Fleeaner Peterson LLC, a defense law firm in Laramie, Wyoming. Gabby's remains were found six hours away from Laramie. While speaking to Fox News Digital on Friday, Bertolina acknowledged that he received twenty five thousand dollars retainer from the Laundries, which she used to play Fleeaner Peterson. He clarified that he has not received any payment from the laundries for his legal involvement. According to the filing, Bertolino also reached out to various other firms within the state, including a public defender in Titon County, where Gabby's remains were discovered. This is shady, like, it's all just so so shady. There was no way that his family wasn't at least in the know as to what was going on. Their son was obviously an abuser. And it's so frustrating to me looking back seeing that bodycam footage from when they were pulled over, because there had been some type of altercation that had been witnessed by an individual who had called the cops, and just seeing Gabby's body language and the way that she was like trying to take the blame for getting a set and being an emotional person when anyone could see watching that video that she was an abused woman and was taking the fall for her abuser, because that's how you're programmed when you are abused. Abusers are manipulative pieces of crap, and that is exactly what Brian did, even to the point where the officers didn't even take it seriously and recognize that this is a batter woman. She's in a really bad situation, and they let her go back with him, Like that is the craziest thing in the world to me. There's even photos from that day where you can see Gabby has a black eye, like she didn't give the black eye to herself because she was having an emotional moment. He is a piece of crap, Like, that's all we can say. And with all of these lawsuits that are going on between the families, like Chris and Roberta knew a heck of a lot more than they have disclosed, and for whatever reason, they have decided to protect their son who is a murderer and not a good person allegedly. And I just don't understand any of it. None of it makes any sense to me. But I will definitely keep you guys updated on that. It's a lot. This case is again a case that I feel like never ends. Last thing I want to talk about real quick, or one of two last things I want to talk about. They are going to be doing an ethics investigation into the call it and County Clerk of Court, who is Becky Hill, who is accused of jury tampering during the elec Murda trial. It's a whole thing. There's an appeal in process. If you've been following along, you probably are privy to it. But they're going to be doing an ethics investigation. I don't really know what that means, but they're gonna make sure that things went down in an ethical manner. I assume that's what's happening. Last thing, I want to talk about the gal who is named Donald Adelson, who was arrested, possibly in connection with her son in law's death. She is now claiming that they are not treating her well in jail, and she is being denied her blood pressure meds, and she's being denied a shower and all of these things. So she's asking to be released and put on house arrest until her impending charges and trial and all the things happen. But I don't really feel like that's going to happen. They do need to make sure that they're treating their prisoners fairly. Like as much as we don't like her or the actions her getting involved with hiring potentially hiring someone getting involved with all of it to kill her son in law, we don't like it. We don't support it, but in order to make sure that justice is serve, they have to make sure that they're providing the right type of vironment for her. And like I said, as much as we don't like it, it's just like with Richard Allen if he did what he is accused of doing, Like I don't care what happens to him, but in order for us to be able to get a fair verdict and a fair trial, they need to make sure that they're doing things properly. And that's the same thing with Donald Adelson. So I will definitely keep you guys updated on that story. That is a long rabbit hole of story. Pretty lies and Alibis is doing a series where she's deep diving into all of the key players in that because there is a lot of people involved, but she goes over all of that. So if you're interested in learning more background information in depth detail, I do suggest you check out her podcast. She is my favorite podcaster and she does amazing deep dives and goes into all the background of all of these stories. So definitely check her out. And we are going to go ahead and lead into today's episode. All right, guys, today we are going to be diving into a new case today. This case is out of nineteen sixty six Tallahassee, Florida, and we are going to be talking about the murders of Robert Sims, his wife, Helen Sims, and their daughter Joy. So this story is a crazy one. It was very reminiscent of a couple of the other cases I have covered where there's not really a sign of force entry. It looks like they knew their attackers. It looks like the attackers kind of had a plan but maybe kind of didn't and used items around the house to harm the family. It's a really, really, really interesting one. So we're going to kind of dive a little bit into the background of Robert and Helen and talk about them and talk about their family, and talk about the night that they were murdered. So it is October twenty second of nineteen sixty six, Tallahassee, Florida. It is a Saturday night, and pretty much the entire town was attending a football game that was Florida State versus Mississippi State. So it was a big thing. Everybody in town was there. Tallahassee was a smaller, more quaint area than it is. Of course, now back in nineteen sixty six, so the entire town was at this football game. The Simms family comprised of Robert Simms. He had earned his PhD. And he was an information technology expert with the Department of Education, and he was forty two at the time of his death. His wife, Helen was thirty four. She taught Sunday school at the family's church in town and also was a secretary for that church as well. And they had a twelve year old daughter named Joy. They had a fifteen year old daughter named Judith, and and they had a seventeen year old daughter named Norma Jeanette, and she went by Jenny, and she was seventeen. Now, this particular night, pretty much everyone was at the game. Judith and Jenny were babysitting for a family in town that wanted to go to the game. So they were babysitting for this family and Robert, Helen, and Joy decided to stay back because they wanted to be able to get up on Sunday morning and go to church, and they knew that the game would probably run pretty late, so they ended up staying back home. So while everybody in town was at this game, somewhere during that night this horrific, horrific crime occurred. So the Sims home was located at six point forty one Muriel Court in Tallahassee, Florida, and it is on a cul de sac type situation. So that night everything was as new normal as possible. Jenny and Norma had gone to babysit, and then a little after eleven, Jenny returns home and she goes inside of the house. She doesn't see anybody, but she hears what the TV is on, and she's trying to figure out where her parents are, where her sister Joy is, and she just ends up making her way to the through the house try to find them and stumbles upon has to be one of the most horrific things that a poor seventeen year old can stumble upon, and that is her mother, her father, and her sister all in the master bedroom and they all have been horrifically and viciously attacked. So Robert Simms was found lying on top of the bed and he had been blindfolded, bound and had been shot once in the head on the carpet. That's where Helen was and she was bound, blind folded and shot twice in the head and once in her leg, and then diagonal to where Helen was, Jenny found her youngest sister, Joy, who was in her nightgown. She had been shot in the head once and stabbed six times in the abdomen. So you're bringing two different murder weapons to a scene and you're stabbing a twelve year old girl. What kind of sick, murderous monster does something like this. It reminded me so much of the brick of Family and their murders. It was so reminiscent to me when I saw this that it was very similar in the way that they were murdered, bound shot, stabbed, blindfolded. It's all just so crazy to think about. And I did see somewhere that they were abound with items from the family home, meaning that whoever did this might have planned ahead a little bit, but didn't plan ahead enough to bring items to bound buying the family up with. And they found like pantyhose and stuff like that around the home. So that to me screams like amateur hour in my opinion, not something that's super well planned and thought out. Potentially somebody that's doing it for a thrill kill versus actually like having a actual motive for doing it, just my opinion. So Joy was pronounced dead on the scene, but Helen and Robert were both still alive, believe it or not. So this is interesting. This was back in nineteen sixty six, so this was before nine to one one was what nine to one one is now. So back in the day, they used to house ambulances and those kind of services at funeral homes. Oddly enough, so Jenny calls the funeral home for these life saving services so nine to one one can come out, and the owner of the Bevist funeral home, who was named Russell, and his sixteen year old son, Rocky, they were the first ones to arrive at the scene, so again different time. This would never be kosher today. But upon arriving, Russell asked his son to go grab something to get these devices off of them that they were bound by, because he was going to try to save their lives. So obviously you're tampering with a crime scene. That's not something you would do. But back then things were so so so different. There is no blame to be put on these two people. So that happens. Robert unfortunately passes away. Joy has been pronounced dead, Helen is rushed to the hospital and she fights for her life for nine days before she eventually passes away from her injuries, which is so sad and unfortunate. She wasn't able to ever give anyone an account of actually what happened to her and her family, hence why this case is unsolved to this day. So pretty much immediately investigators are on the scene. The first one to arrive was a man named Larry Campbell. He was twenty four years old at the time and he had become the lead detective and he was working on the case. So immediately they pretty much ruled out that robbery was a motive because there was jewelry and money that was left out in the open, and there was no sign of any type of forced entry. So they speculated that the Simmons family either knew this person and let them in, or it was somebody that they maybe were familiar with and decided if they had come over that they were going to let them in have coffee, whatever the case may be. There was actually coffee that was on the counter when everyone, all the authorities arrived at the crime scene, like they had just literally been in the middle of their nightly routine and somebody interrupted them. There was a lot of people in and out of this crime scene. I think even at one point I heard that some investigators brewed a fresh pot of coffee for themselves. So there's a lot of hands in and out of this crime scene that shouldn't have been there. But again, it was a different time, different place. Crime scene handling was a lot different. If something like this happened today, which I don't want to say it doesn't because it still does happen from time to time where crime scenes aren't locked down the way they should be. But this is something that can make or break a case, and in this case, I feel like it definitely did not work in their favor because all these years later, it's still unsolved. So immediately they start talking to neighbors and trying to get a handle on what potentially could have happened. There was a neighbor that said about ten forty five in the evening, she heard a woman's scream but didn't really think anything of it, but that potentially be something that might be able to add to the timeline of when the Sims were actually attacked. This was again in October and it was pretty much the week before Halloween. There was even people that wanted to cancel the trick or treating because this crazed killer was on the loose. Everyone was terrified that they were going to strike again. If it could happens to the Sims family, it could happen to anyone. They ended up not canceling Halloween that year, and they still went on as normal, but everybody was extra cautious. They were telling everyone be safe, make sure you lock your doors, because back in those days you left your door open. It was a safe town. Stuff like this didn't happen, and you really didn't have to have all the safety things in place like you do today. So everyone was kind of on guard. There was like a neighborhood watch, and it just pretty much turned the town upside down. So initially there were a few suspects. They were able to get some fingerprints from the scene. They knew what type of weapon was used to kill the family, at least the gun. They knew what type of gun it was, so they went and tried to figure out some people that might have had issues with the Sims. So the first suspect was a guy named C. A. Roberts, which stood for Cecil Alan Roberts, and he was the pastor at the first Baptist church where the family went and where Helen had worked, So there were rumors and speculation ca was a family man, but hiding behind the family man was a guy who liked to cheat on his wife with a lot of people, and a lot of these women. Once he was named as a suspect, came forward and said, I was having an affair with the s guy. I don't want to be tied to any kind of murder investigation because they thought that if he was a suspect that they were going to be drug into it. So people did speculate that maybe him and Helen were having an affair, but that has never been proven and there was nothing that was ever brought to light that proved that that that would be a motive. But given the fact that Helen did work at the church, there might have been something that went down where she knew about some of his indiscretions and she felt like she knew too much, and just days before the murders, she had resigned from her position at the church, So there's definitely a possibility that she knew too much and for that reason. She decided to remove herself and he was upset about that and thought that she was going to say something, so he did the unthinkable. But he did have an alibi. He was at the football game, as was pretty much everyone else that night, and he served as the team chaplain, so he is on video during each half, each quarter of the game. He did disappear for a little while at halftime and then return, but they said that there wasn't enough time for him to commit the murders. And he was present during every quarter and seen by somebody, so he was cleared as a suspect, but definitely somebody who I could see them trying to look into to try to make sure that he wasn't involved. But at the end of the day, c A. Roberts. He's a cheater, but he ain't a killer. Moving right along, there is a guy named Robert Howells. He had confessed to his wife on the way to their honeymoon that he had killed the Sims family. What a crappy way to start your marriage, brother, What a crappy way. So he told his wife, his brand new wife, Peggy, this and she is beside herself, doesn't know what to think. Doesn't know what to do. Knew that her husband, her now husband, did have a temper, especially when he drank, and she thought with every fiber of her soul that he was telling the truth. And what he had said is that he had an altercation with Helen at a store and then he had followed her home to see where she lived, and then later returned to settle the score and kill her and her family. Peggy turned over Robert's gun to authorities and it was a thirty two, not a thirty eight, which is what was used to commit the murder of the Simms family. They later did fingerprinting on him and he also passed a polygraph test and he was ruled out as a suspect. In nineteen seventy eight, a guy named Tommy Fulgem was arrested for ordering and dismembering his girlfriend. And he was somebody that very much fantasized about grizzly stuff like this and doing deranged things to people. So they went back and in time in nineteen sixty six, he was seventeen years old, he was a high school student and he lived two blocks away from the Simms family, so they thought he potentially could have been somebody who would have done something like this, but he did end up being cleared by fingerprints and he had an alibi as well. Our next two suspects are in my opinion, the prime suspects and allegedly very alleged because they are still out there. This is all very alleged. This is going to be crazy. I'm just warning you. This is a this is crazy. So there was a gal named Mary Charles the Joy and she was troubled. She went by the name Charlie. She was a trouble child. She was adopted, did and had been in and out of foster care, abusive situations. I'm sure not good. She was very much an outcast and she really had a lot of interest in death, and she liked to go to funeral homes and had even been banned from going to these different funeral homes, and there was oftentimes she would break in and try to take like funeral paraphernalia from these funeral homes. And she lived two blocks away from the Simms family home. Now she was dating a guy named Vernon Fox Junior. They had grown up together, been in elementary together, and then as they got older they developed into a romantic relationship. They're both in high school and they started dating. So he Vernon had been in the service and had discharged home in September of nineteen sixty six. His house was located right behind the Sims family home, and there was a neighbor that had come forward and said that he had seen Vernon standing in the bushes and creeping on Joy Sims, which is creepy because Joy was twelve. So that neighbor said that they saw that, but they weren't sure if it had ever been reported or if anyone else really knew about it. It was kind of a peeping tom situation. But there wasn't really any record if that had been reported, so they had an alibi. Their alibi was that they were at a drive in movie and they had watched two movies and then they left, and Charlie had dropped Vernon off at his house, and they did have their ticket stubs to confirm that they were at the movies, but they did leave the movies earlier than they had stated. Even though that's the case that they left earlier than originally said, and they changed their story a bit, there was nothing that really could tie them to the murders, so we're going to flash forward to nineteen eighty seven. Charlie calls the police and said that I'm officially ready to talk about everything regarding the Simms family. So, her and Vernon had gotten married, but they had recently divorced and there was alimony involved and it was a whole thing. So she had said in her statements that she felt like maybe she was at the house that night. She talked about the floor plan, the color of the carpets, but then said it might have just been a dream. Maybe I wasn't really there. She was just making really really odd statements about potentially being there, Vernon potentially being there, but just really odd in general. And she also asked, like what would happen if we confess to it now? Would we go to jail? Like would Vernon go to jail? Just like really odd statements, Like not something you would say if you were totally innocent of something, in my opinion. Allegedly, so Vernon ended up coming forward in twenty sixteen because there is a documentary that was being made about the case, which I still need to watch. I am gonna try to find it and link it in the show notes. Because everyone says it's really good. So Vernon comes forward and said that he was not involved in any way, shape or form, and he denied being a peeping tom and a creeper, and he said that basically Charlie was mad at him because they had obviously separated and had their differences, and she pretty much just wanted him dead and if she couldn't have him dead, then him being in prison would be the next best thing, and that's why she was saying all of the things that she was saying. I don't know if I entirely believe that. I feel like these are two probably most credible suspects in my opinion, just because nothing else is really adding up in regards to who potentially could have done this. It's a really interesting story. Like I said earlier, I feel like you have two murder weapons, two different murder weapons. It could potentially have been more than one person. You have a crime scene where people are blindfolded and bound, which kind of is creepy and eerie. I don't know. You have a murder of a child, which is unfathomable to me. Murdering anyone is unfathomable to me, but a child and stabbing a child, I just can't even imagine doing such horrific, horrific things and then going on with your life and escaping into the night and no one sees anything or no one hears anything. So again, this is the type of case where the person who did this is either very up there in age or has already passed on. And you would think that over the years they would have said something to somebody about this, They would have slipped up, they would have felt like they needed to get it off their chest and confess to something like this. I really think that's the only way that this case is going to be solved. It has been reopened many a times. Different people have come on and try to find out more about it and try to get it solved, but ultimately it always comes up at a dead end, and this family still does not have justice. From what I have heard, both of the remaining since children went on to live normal but private lives, and I imagine that that day is probably still with them every single day. They think about their parents and their sister being brutally murdered and by chance they weren't there, And it's just so eerie that something like this could happen in small, little tallahassee back in the day. So I'm going to post all of the things on my Instagram and Facebook pages. Have have pictures of Joy, Helen and Robert, pictures of the home, pictures of the exterior of the home. We have pictures of some of the potential suspects. And I'm gonna also try to find the link to that documentary that was done about the murder. There is a lot of videos on YouTube about this triple homicide. They're all really interesting. I went down the rabbit hole and watch like every single one of them. So there's a lot out there on this case, but there's also not a lot out there on this case, hence why it's not solved. So as always share this episode, like subscribe, rate the podcast. All the ratings and likes really help push the podcast out to other people that are enjoying the true crime realm of things, So please do that. I've seen it pop up randomly for some people and is good because that means it's growing and it's getting eyes on it. And like I always say, if one person here's a case and it's that person that is going to help solve the case, then that is worth it. So thank you guys as always for listening and hanging in with me. I can't believe that we're about to close out the year of twenty twenty three, and I had no idea that this podcast was even going to be a thing in twenty twenty three, but here we are. I appreciate each and every one of you listening and supporting and being my people, because you guys are my people and I love you for it. So thank you, thank thank you. I will see you guys on whatever day it is next week for a new episode. Bye.