Trouble Brewing

If you used Babel, you would. Babel's conversation-based techniques teach you useful words and phrases to get you speaking quickly about the things you actually talk about in the real world.

With lessons handcrafted by over 200 language experts and voiced by real native speakers, Babel is like having a private tutor in your pocket. Start speaking with Babel today.

Get up to 55% off your Babel subscription right now at babel.com/slash Spotify. Spelled B-A-B-B-E-L dot com/slash Spotify.
Rules and restrictions may apply.

This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Fiscally responsible, financial geniuses, monetary magicians.

These are things people say about drivers who switch their car insurance to Progressive and save hundreds. Visit progressive.com to see if you could save.

Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates. Potential savings will vary, not available in all states or situations.

Up next, the secret life of a call girl.

Often a very dangerous profession. They found a female face down, didn't appear to have any signs of life.

She would be a natural target because she would usually have significant amounts of cash on her person. The evidence points to one man.
Looks like Rambo, acts like Rambo, and dresses like Rambo.

It may be Rambo. Until one tiny clue turns the case around.

It was after midnight on a chilly March evening when Virginia Russell was driving home from a party with her boyfriend, Rodney Hartman.

The couple had been dating for three years and were talking about getting married. But on this night, tragedy struck.

She was thrown from the car. The car flipped like eight times, and they were both ejected from the car.
When an ambulance arrived, they pronounced Rodney Hartman dead at the scene.

Virginia was rushed to the hospital. For 48 hours, Virginia hovered between life and death, but she survived.

Toxicology tests showed Virginia had a blood alcohol level of 0.16, almost twice the legal limit. They had charged her with the felony DUI.

Virginia was convicted and sentenced to six years in prison for vehicular homicide.

It was hard enough that she had lost somebody in her life and then to be doing time for it

and be taken away from her family again. I mean, it was a very difficult time for Virginia.

When Virginia was released from prison, she told her family she found work cleaning houses.

One evening, while spending time with her family, Virginia got a message on her pager at 8.54 p.m.

Yeah, I can do that.

We asked her where she was going, and she tells us that she has to go clean a house for an individual.

We said our goodbyes and hugged her and told her we loved her.

And she told us as well.

And that was the last time.

Early the next morning, a man walking his dog found a woman's body near an athletic field in Rosewood, South Carolina. The victim had been shot three times, execution style, in the head.

Two shell casings were found nearby.

Fingerprints identified the victim as Virginia Russell. Pretty shocking, absolutely.
She hadn't been out two months when this incident happened.

She was missing her right shoe. There was no dirt or debris on her foot, but her stockings were ripped, and she had scrapes on her knees.

The missing shell casing indicated Virginia may have been shot once in another location and then

dragged to where she was shot two more times.

There's obviously more to this homicide

than just this one particular location where the body was found. Police found two empty beer bottles 20 feet from Virginia's body.
No one was sure if they were connected to the murder.

They also found a single hair on Virginia's body. As we do at all crime scenes, we collected everything that we could possibly collect.

There was no sign of sexual assault, but two purses were found near the body. They weren't but $2 in change in the purses, so investigators believe that part of the motive may have been robbery.

A background check stunned Virginia's family. Her real profession wasn't cleaning houses.
She was a call girl. It was a total shock.

But then again, I guess Virginia had to do what she needed to do because it was very difficult for her to find work because of her background.

As the family coped with the tragedy, investigators were forced to deal with a problem of their own.

Virginia's profession meant a large list of potential suspects.

Investigators found Virginia Russell's car in an abandoned parking lot two miles from the location of her body. There was a single shell casing inside.

Obviously, she was initially shot in the vehicle. You could see the blood splatter that went throughout the car consistent with her having been shot in the head.

On the passenger floorboard, spattered with blood, was a potential clue. We found a six-pack of Mickelo beer that the cardinal was still there, but had one bottle,

full bottle still left in the cardinal. This was the same brand of beer as the two beer bottles found near Virginia's body.

Blood inside the door confirmed Virginia had been dragged from the car.

Her missing shoe was on the driver's side floorboard.

In a search for Virginia's killer, investigators wanted to know who had paged her on the night of her death.

The call was traced to this apartment, rented by 27-year-old Justin Bullard, who owned an aquarium cleaning business.

Justin Bullard denied any involvement in the murder and said he never met Virginia.

He had no criminal history. Mr.
Bullard's alibi was his at home alone. And the problem with that was

him being home alone and no one else to corroborate

him being there at the time. With a search warrant, investigators found a wealth of evidence inside his apartment.
We find in his apartment a.380 caliber pistol.

The pistol registered to Justin Bullard was apparently the same caliber as the gun used in Virginia's murder. And investigators found something else.

There are several pages ripped out of the phone book and each of those pages relate to escort services and phone numbers for escort services.

On a pair of Bullard's boots, analysts noticed some slight discoloration. The boots were examined under a microscope.
They were stained with what appeared to be high impact blood spatter.

High impact spatter might be invisible. If the surface that it's deposited on is absorbent or dark in color, it's very likely that it would be very difficult to simply visualize it.

DNA tests on the bloody boots tied them to Virginia's murder. The swabs were subjected to PCR testing, and the results came back consistent with the victim.

Whoever was wearing those boots was probably in contact with the victim at the time she was murdered.

Next, investigators tested Bullard's handgun.

The firearm that was submitted to me was a Russian-manufactured Makarov semi-automatic pistol, chambered to fire.380 autocaliber ammunition.

Shell casings from the crime scene and casings from a test firing of the gun were examined with a comparison microscope.

Viewed side by side, the shell casings left no doubt the murder weapon was Justin Bullard's gun. The boots were Mr.
Bullard's. The gun was Mr.
Bullard's. The last phone call from the victim was to Mr.

Bullard's apartment.

But despite the overwhelming evidence, Bullard not only denied he was the killer, he came up with the incredible tale that someone must have stolen all his things, committed the crime, then returned them.

Adobe Acrobat Studio, so brand new. Show me all the things PDFs can do.
Do your work with ease and speed.

PDF spaces is all you need do hours of research in an instant with key insights from an ai assistant pick a template with a click now your prezo looks super slick close that deal yeah you won do that doing that did that done now you can do that do that with acrobat now you can do that do that with the all new acrobat it's time to do your best work with the all new adobe acrobat studio make every holiday party shine with whole foods market hosting stock up on their wallet happy 365 brand with appetizers like walnut honey shrimp and bread at calamari.

Plus, save now on crowd-pleasing bone-in spiral-cut ham with no antibiotics ever. For dessert, check out limited-time treats like their holiday rum cake.
Yum.

Shop Whole Foods Market with so many ways to save on festive spreads all month long. Terms apply.

The prime suspect in Virginia Russell's murder was Justin Bullard.

Inside Bullard's apartment, investigators found all the evidence they needed for a conviction. Virginia's blood was found on Bullard's boots.
His handgun was the murder weapon.

Names and phone numbers of escort services were near his telephone.

And Virginia Russell was paged from Bullard's phone just hours before her murder. Looks like Rambo, acts like Rambo, and dresses like Rambo.
It may be Rambo.

Bullard claimed a roommate might have committed this crime with items taken from his apartment.

Bullard said he had allowed a friend to live with him temporarily because the electricity in his friend's apartment had been turned off due to lack of payment.

As preposterous as this seemed, it took on more significance when prosecutor Knox McMahon learned of a similar crime that happened three days before Virginia's death.

A call girl went to an apartment to meet her client.

She said there were no lights on in the apartment, only candles. Did you come for a day?

The client wouldn't identify himself, but asked her to undress.

Then, without warning, he pulled a knife and demanded money.

He then tells her to run and don't look back. She's only partially clothed.

The apartment was leased to a known drug addict, Roy Beck.

But was he the perpetrator?

The victim was shown a photo lineup. She positively identified Roy Beck.
The physical description she gave fit Roy Beck.

It did not fit Mr. Bullard.

Coincidentally, Roy Beck was the friend Justin Bullard said was living with him at the time of Virginia Russell's murder.

That meant two suspects were staying in the apartment that was the source of all the evidence in Virginia Russell's murder.

There was no root on the hair found on Virginia's body, so scientists couldn't perform genetic DNA testing.

All analysts could say was that visually it looked more similar to Beck's hair than Bullard's.

But inside Roy Beck's apartment, the one with no electricity that the call girl visited, police found a potential clue.

We found three bottles of Michelob beer. So now you have two Michelob light beer at the body scene, one unopened and a carton in Virginia Russell's car, and three at Beck's unpowered apartment.

Scientists swabbed the beer bottles from the murder scene, looking for a possible connection. Unfortunately, they didn't find enough saliva or skin cells to generate a DNA profile.

Testing for saliva at that time on the mouth of a beer bottle wasn't as commonly done as it is today.

The bottles were then subjected to superglue fuming. These fumes will adhere to finger oils and often produce quality prints.

Glass is a very smooth surface and the residue that builds up on the ridges in the fingers and in the palms of the hands easily will transfer from the surface of the hand onto a glass surface and that glass surface will hold it.

After 15 minutes in the fuming chamber, one partial palm print emerged on one of the bottles found near Virginia's body. This partial print didn't match Virginia Russell, Justin Bullard, or Roy Beck.

Looking for ways to keep the kids entertained while traveling? Netflix Games lets them jump into fun, creative adventures at no extra cost. Everything's unlocked with your Netflix membership.

From Paw Patrol Academy and Lego Duplo World to Barbie Color Creations and World of Peppa Pig, there's something for every little explorer. And you don't need Wi-Fi.
Kids can play anytime, anywhere.

Visit netflixfamily.com slash traveltips for all your kids' holiday entertainment.

This holiday, give the gift that says, let's cancel plans and just lounge. Me Undies has dropped their new holiday collection, and it's made for maximum cozy.

We're talking soft as snow, ultra-modal fabric festive prints and loungewear so comfy your couch might get jealous onesies hoodies joggers even delightfully quirky holiday designs you're welcome knock out all your holiday gifting needs with deals up to 60 off at meundies.com slash spotify enter promo code spotify that's meundies.com slash spotify code spotify

The forensic evidence from Virginia Russell's murder pointed to Justin Bullard. The gun, the bloody shoes, the telephone calls to the escort service from his apartment.

But Bullard had no criminal record and no apparent motive. Some of the circumstantial evidence pointed to his friend, Roy Beck.

The beer bottles in his apartment were the same brand as those found next to Virginia Russell's body. And a background check revealed Beck was addicted to crack cocaine.

He was a drug addict, and obviously to feed that dragon, you got to have a lot of cash.

Prosecutor Knox McMahon thought the beer bottles at Beck's apartment and those found at the crime scene were too much of a coincidence. So he decided to take a second look.

If you look at those beer bottles, there is a born-on date and there is a code under the born-on date.

The date was October 22nd, 1996,

followed by the letters WF.

W is the geographic location, in this case, Williamsburg, Virginia. Within Williamsburg, Virginia, there are multiple lines within the plant, and F designates which line the bottling took place on.

But the key piece of information was the final part of the label, the number 58.

At the time, the Williamsburg Brewery produced 600 cases of beer every 15 minutes, and each of these 15-minute periods was given a number.

58 meant the 58th 15-minute period of a 24-hour day, which was 2.15 to 2.30.

But how many bottles were filled in one 15-minute period? With over a million beers bottled at that brewery every day, only 1% were bottled in any 15-minute period.

So only 14,000 bottles would have the same code.

So what would be the chances that Roy Beck would have three bottles of beer in his apartment with the same code as the bottle found inside Virginia Russell's car and the two next to Virginia's body?

The probability of that happening is incredibly small. You would have to have all the people involved at the same location at the same time buying the same beer.

The odds of the beer bottles coming from different six-packs were more than one in 32 million.

These six beers came from the same six-pack.

Roy Beck was arrested and charged with Virginia Russell's murder.

Prosecutors say Beck, desperate for money, called the escort service to arrange for an out call, which means the girl would go to the customer's home.

The first time he called the escort service, he asked that the girl meet him in his own apartment.

When she arrived, Beck robbed her of a couple of hundred dollars at knife point,

then let her go.

Without power, Beck moved in temporarily with Justin Bullard, and and when he needed more money for drugs, called the escort service again, this time from Bullard's phone, and set up the meeting with Virginia Russell.

Sure.

He took Bullard's boots and gun and the beer from his own apartment. When Virginia arrived, Beck got into her car.

And they went to a deserted location. Each drank a beer and threw the empty bottles out the window.

Prosecutors think Beck was acquainted with Virginia from a previous meeting and decided to kill her so she wouldn't identify him.

Blood spattered on the remaining beer bottle and on the boots Beck had stolen from Bullard.

Beck dragged Virginia's body onto the road, then shot her two more times.

He stole all the money from her purses, then drove Virginia's car two miles away, where he abandoned it.

Beck later returned Bullard's blood-spattered boots and gun to Bullard's apartment without him knowing it, setting him up for the crime.

But Beck didn't know that the three bottles of beer left in his apartment would tie him to the bottles at the murder site and

to one in Virginia's car. It was very significant in this investigation.

It was the one thing that could really put

Beck

at all three crime scenes. At his trial, Roy Beck insisted Justin Bullard was the killer.
But the science showed otherwise.

Roy Beck was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison. Investigators describe this as one of their most unusual cases.

Two suspects, each connected to the crime by the same evidence, until something as seemingly insignificant as the label on a beer bottle showed who was lying and who was telling the truth.

That's what sank him. Just

those bottles of beer.

I guess he didn't have that in his plan.

The beer bottles themselves ended up being one of the more telling aspects of the case, and it's very unusual to be able to help solve a crime by the use of beer bottles and the date they were made.

It's very unusual. That's just the type of circumstantial evidence that

you just don't get every day, that you just don't see every day, that people can look at it and see it, touch it, and relate to it.