Episode 266

1h 14m
In early September of 2016, two young men from Gillette, Wyoming went missing. About a month later, the local police were alerted to a strange, black pickup truck that was parked on the side of a road. This truck reportedly smelled like rotting flesh. When police arrived to investigate, they found the missing men, but they didn’t find all of them. They only found a few chopped-up pieces.

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Transcript

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So what do this animal

and this animal

and this animal

have in common?

They all live on an organic valley farm.

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Sword and Scale contains adult themes and violence and is not intended for all audiences.

Listener discretion is advised.

What do you remember seeing?

We understand why you're upset.

Because what you saw, we found some of that yesterday.

We've seen it too.

And it's horrible.

Oh boy, it's time for some more murder stories, you sick fuck.

This is Sword and Scale episode 266, season 11.

Here we go.

So I'm sure you've heard by now about Sword and Scale Television, and now we have something new coming up this month.

It's season two of Sword and Scale Nightmares.

If you have not had a chance to listen to Sword and Scale Nightmares yet, listen to it.

You might enjoy it.

It's true crime for bedtime.

Basically, what we do here, the stories that you all have come to know and love, you weirdos, but without the clips, without the 911 jarring call

that uh will wake you out of your slumber so you can actually put this on with a pair of earbuds and uh what do they call the earbuds whatever and uh go to bed a lot of people listen to true crime before going to sleep yeah like i said sick fucks

So when I started this podcast, I didn't realize I was actually starting a small business.

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About a hundred miles north of Casper, Wyoming, is a moderate-sized city known for being, quote,

the energy capital of the nation.

The city's actual name is much less interesting.

It's Gillette.

Gillette, Wyoming produces and distributes more coal than any other city in the United States, and is also a significant contributor of crude oil and methane gas.

gas.

As a developer of these things, Gillette is an attractive place for people looking to make a lucrative and honest living.

If you're willing and able to work a strenuous blue-collar job, there's good money to be made in Gillette.

For many years, thousands of men and women have taken advantage of the employment opportunities that Gillette offers.

And as is often the case, when a city attracts a lot of people, it also attracts a lot of crime.

crime.

To combat that crime, this city depends on the Gillette Police Department and the Campbell County Sheriff's Office.

Back in mid-October of 2016, two deputy investigators at the Campbell County Sheriff's Office were hard at work questioning a young woman named Kylie Collins.

What don't you get?

Well, you told me what you saw that someone reported that at my house or whatever.

So I feel like you guys know stuff and you're withholding stuff from me well i mean that's true

we do we do know things that we're not gonna tell you we're concerned about these guys who were missing and trying to to locate them find out exactly what happened there the reason that kylie was being questioned was because about five weeks before this interview took place two young men who were last seen in Gillette had been reported missing by their respective family members.

One of those two men was 33-year-old Philip Brewer.

Philip was a Wyoming native who lived and worked in Gillette.

He was a father of two young sons who made a hard-earned living by working on an oilfield.

Philip liked to fish and ride snowmobiles.

He was an avid outdoorsman who was considered by his family to be a kind and caring guy.

Sadly, in September of 2016, Philip seemingly dropped off the face of the earth and nobody could reach him.

Eventually, Philip was reported missing, and this led police to question his girlfriend, Shelby Warren.

When did you guys start dating?

Right around Christmas.

At the beginning of last year, yeah.

When me and Philip started dating,

we went up and stayed with Jodi in Helena, Montana in February.

Philip had lots of friends, but he was closest to his childhood friend, Jody Fortuna, who happened to be the other young man that police were searching for.

Like Philip, 38-year-old Jody loved to fish.

He was a rare rock collector, and he enjoyed the outdoors.

Jodi was a self-employed general contractor, and his work, along with the advice of his family, led him to settle down in Helena, Montana.

This move from Wyoming to Montana put about 500 miles between him and Philip.

But that didn't stop two friends from seeing each other.

They'd often make week-long trips to hang out and visit each other.

Philip and Jodi were close.

They were like brothers.

Philip considered Jodi to be his best friend, but so did someone else.

Jodi also remained close friends with his other childhood friend, Mike Montano.

I mean, I know that Mike loved Jodi.

I can't add no.

How do you know that?

Um, because they've been best friends forever.

Jodi was Mike's best friend, and Jodi was Philip's best friend.

So

I realize I probably just threw a bunch of names at you and your brain is buzzing.

So it might be a little bit difficult to follow.

So let's just recap for one moment.

Two guys go missing.

Their names are Philip Brewer and Jodi Fortuna.

Philip was dating a woman named Shelby Warren, the woman you just heard being interviewed.

And Jodi had a friend named Mike Montano.

Got it?

Probably not, but let's keep going.

About a day or so before Philip and Jodi went missing, Philip and his girlfriend Shelby were driving around Gillette when they ran into Mike Montano.

According to Shelby, Mike told them Jodi was coming to visit all of them.

When the police questioned Mike Montana, he confirmed much of what Shelby had told them.

Mike explained that Jodi was his closest friend and that Jody had come to Gillette within days of his disappearance.

Mike also explained that he wasn't a big fan of Philip and and didn't particularly like being around him.

So, Jody been around Jillette for a while then?

He was coming back and forth all the time, meaning before he went back to his mom.

Again, the friendship dynamics that Mike explained to police were consistent with what Shelby had already told him.

Jody was Mike's best friend, and Jody was Philip's best friend.

Everybody liked Jody.

Jody had lots of best friends.

But Mike and Philip, they didn't like each other at all.

No.

No.

No.

They were like frenemies.

The first time Jody brought Mike around,

him and Philip agreed that they were going to fight, but that they were going to,

you know, one of these days they were going to throw down.

And they were good with that.

Okay.

They just mutually knew that when they were around each other, they really like each other.

Yeah.

Putting things mildly, the relationship between Mike, Philip, and Jody was unusual.

There was a lot of built-in tension between Mike and Philip.

But that wasn't the only thing that made things volatile.

You see,

these three guys had a habit of sleeping with each other's girlfriends.

Jody and I, who Mike, the worst thing we've ever done to each other.

He slept with my girlfriend once.

When we were kids, and it broke my heart.

We're sorry, I've been for some while.

I went to fucking slept with his.

For lack of a better phrase, Jody, Mike, and Philip swapped women.

And none of them actually ever really checked in with each other to make sure this was okay.

Even Shelby admitted that, in addition to dating Philip, she'd also hooked up with Mike.

Did you ever date Jodi?

No.

Ever date Mike?

No.

Sure?

Yeah.

Pause there a minute.

Huh?

You paused there a minute.

Because we hooked up one time.

I don't know.

We never needed.

Okay.

Despite this weird behind-the-back woman swapping thing, whatever you want to call it, Jodi and Mike maintain their friendship.

They grew up together and considered themselves brothers.

It's that weird thing young men do.

Boys, really, as they're trying to figure out who they are.

They form these relationships where it's not

real, but they have a sort of camaraderie of sorts.

A bond that can't be broken, or so they thought.

In 2015, Mike met and began dating a young woman named Kylie Collins.

And before long, Mike introduced Kylie to Jodi.

In December of that year, Mike and Kylie took a trip to Montana and spent a few days at Jodi's house.

He tricked me into coming up there.

To Montana.

Jody did.

Yeah.

How long were you up there?

Only a week.

Okay.

But Jody was still

being fake.

Okay.

He was just getting me up there

to get back at me because he thought I fucked his girlfriend.

Jody had this plan.

He told me too, because he thought I fucked his girlfriend.

He was going to come up to me and mine.

According to Mike, when Jody invited him and Kylie to come visit, Jody fully intended to sleep with Kylie.

And he eventually did just that.

He gave me a drink and I drank it and for like fucking a whole day I was out.

When I woke up from that, I fucking...

Kylie was...

Like, I don't know.

She was super high and just fucking acting weird as fuck.

Anyway, he he fucked my girlfriend.

Okay.

And I was in love with Kylie.

And then I was like, fuck it, dude.

You figure you got me, then that's fine.

We're good.

We're done.

Mike claimed that Jodi spiked his drink.

And while Mike was passed out, Jodi and Kylie slept together.

When Mike came to, he suspected that they had sex and he was pretty pissed off about it, but he didn't say anything.

or make any accusations.

Why rock the boat, I guess.

From there, Jodi only made things worse by taunting Mike.

Jodi supposedly wore a t-shirt that read,

Relax, it's just sex.

When I woke up, he's like, I smart that shirt and you worry.

And then he said, relax, it's just sex.

Needless to say, Mike wasn't having the best time at Jodi's.

So he and Kylie packed up their belongings and headed back to Wyoming.

Kylie, I thought you would

Despite what happened in Montana, the relationship between Jodi and Mike seemed to weather the storm.

After a short period of no contact, Jodi and Mike reconnected and their bonds seemingly remained intact.

I suppose this is the first ignored red flag, or at least one of them.

If a friend sleeps with your girlfriend and you say nothing about it and just pretend like nothing happened,

yeah, I'm sure everything's going to be fine.

Just fine.

But for Mike, he just couldn't discount the friendship they'd built as children.

I mean, you make a lot of poor decisions as children, but I guess he just didn't want to come to terms with that.

Again, Mike claimed that they were like brothers.

We fought and argued like brothers and said things like brothers, but never physical and never nothing like that.

And mom even knows that.

And Jodi's mom, and Jodi's family pretty much took care of me when my family was fucked up.

In September of the following year, it was Jodi's turn to do the traveling.

And Mike invited Jody.

to Wyoming.

Mike told Jodi that in addition to visiting, Mike also had a three-day contracting job for Jodi that would pay well.

So Jody packed up his work gear and made the seven-hour drive from Helena, Montana to Gillette, Wyoming.

When Jodi arrived, he and Mike quickly linked up with Philip and Shelby.

Jody showed up, we started drinking, so all of us went out, we started drinking there, and then we went out to the bar.

So you say all of us is you?

Me, Philip, Jodi, Mike.

That night, Philip, Jodi, Mike, and Shelby went to their local casino, the Sundance Lounge, where they continued to drink and party.

We went down to the Sundance.

We just had a couple games of pool.

We had a few drinks.

We were drinking, and like,

we were having a good night to the bar and everything.

After we leave the bar, we went back to Shelby's house.

We just

started to get fucked up together for a while.

You, Shelby, Joey, and Philip.

Yeah.

We left.

Went to my house where they proceeded to drink some Bacardi 151

by having their little bro Man sting slapping to them, but don't answer.

After a few games of pool and a lot more drinks, this foursome went to Shelby's house where they continued to drink even more.

Things got pretty rowdy among the guys as the testosterone started to flare,

along with the drama.

Coming back to Shelby's and

According to Mike, the interactions between him and Jody became awkward as the topic of Mike's girlfriend came up.

Meanwhile, Shelby and Phillips started arguing about all the money they just spent at the casino.

So he picked up fight with me like he has before.

And

still been drinking and we're still fighting.

He left

and Jodi followed him and they went straight up to Mike's.

I'm guessing.

What makes you think that?

Well, because I was spying on him thereafter and

like that's what the Tahoe and Jody's car was.

Okay.

And he drove by there.

Mike, Philip, and Jody left Shelby's house and headed towards Mike's mobile home.

At least that's what Shelby assumed and tried to confirm when she drove to Mike's trailer park later that night.

Shelby claimed that she saw Jodi's car parked near Mike's mobile home.

So she knew that Philip and Jodi must be there and decided to just go home.

For detectives, that seemed kind of weird.

I mean, why go there just to turn around and go home?

The cops couldn't just take Shelby's Shelby's word for it because this was the last night that anyone saw Jodi and Philip.

In fact, both men had been missing for over a month, and in all likelihood, this was probably the last night that Jodi and Philip were alive.

Despite the efforts by police and the interviews they conducted, The question of what happened to Philip and Jodi remained unanswered for quite a while.

But in mid-October of 2016, 2016, something happened that revealed their fate.

The Gillette Police Department received a report of a strange black pickup truck that was parked on the road on the northern edge of their city.

When an officer arrived on scene to investigate, he noticed an overwhelming smell coming from the truck.

The smell was unmistakable.

It was rotting flesh.

The officer hoped that this truck belonged to a hunter, and he was only going to find a rotting deer carcass in the bed of the pickup.

But the officer wasn't so lucky.

Instead, he found Philip Brewer and Jodi Fortuna.

But he didn't find all of them.

He only found a few chopped-up pieces.

So, when I started this podcast, I didn't realize I was actually starting a small business.

Yikes.

There's nothing small about a small business.

You're working all of the time.

Thankfully, though, I have a partner with all the tools that I need to be successful.

You may have heard of them.

Their name is Shopify.

Shopify's point-of-sale system is a unified command center for your retail business.

It brings together in-store and online operations across up to a thousand locations.

Imagine being able to guarantee that shopping is always convenient.

Endless aisle, ship to customer, buy online, pick up in store.

All these things are made simpler to customers so they can shop how they want.

And staff have all the tools to close the sale every time.

And let's face it, acquiring new customers is expensive.

With Shopify POS, you can keep shoppers coming back with personalized experiences and first-party data that give marketing teams a competitive edge.

In fact, it's proven.

Based on a report from EY, businesses on Shopify POS see real results, like 22% better total cost of ownership and benefits equivalent to an 8.9% uplift in sales.

on average relative to the market set surveyed.

So if you have a retail or online business, then I'll tell you what, Shopify is a fantastic partner to have on your side.

Get all the big stuff for your small business right with Shopify.

Sign up for your $1 a month trial and start selling today at shopify.com slash sword and scale.

All one word.

Just go to shopify.com slash swordandscale and sign up.

You'll thank me later.

You will.

Shopify.com slash sword and scale.

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In early September 2016, 38-year-old Jody Fortuna and his childhood friend, 33-year-old Philip Brewer, were reported missing by their respective family members.

According to Philip's girlfriend Shelby Warren, she last saw Philip and Jodi at her home in Gillette, Wyoming.

When questioned by police, Shelby explained that she'd been drinking pretty heavily with Philip, Jodi, and their mutual friend, Mike Montano.

That night, the collective intoxication led to Philip and Shelby getting into an argument, and Philip ended up leaving Shelby's house, as did Jodi and Mike.

Shelby assumed that they all went to Mike's mobile home, and her assumption was pretty much confirmed when she decided to drive to Mike's trailer park later that night.

As she did this, she saw Jodi's car parked nearby and went home.

Or so she claimed.

When police questioned Mike about this, he confirmed that Philip and Jody had gone back to his home that night.

But from there, he couldn't recall much of what had happened.

Everyone was really drunk.

And Mike claimed that when he got home, he just passed out.

So, what happens at your house?

You guys get into a big fight?

No, no, if I don't

straight up black the fuck out.

Mike also claimed that when he woke up the next morning, Philip and Jodi were both gone, and and he didn't know where they went.

Woke up, Jody's stuff was gone, they were gone,

and then just from there it's been fucked up weird.

As for Shelby, she told police that the last time she spoke to Philip was at her house.

But this wasn't the last known contact that Philip had with someone.

In the early morning hours of the next day, Philip apparently called a friend and explained to them that he and Shelby were fighting.

The main reason for the the call was that Philip was looking for a place to stay.

My girlfriend Crystal has told me since then that Philip called her at 5.30 and asked her if she was in Casper, if he could come stay with her.

Tell him that me and her were fighting.

And that was the last she heard of him.

As far as everyone knew, this was the last time that anyone heard from Philip.

But it may not have been the last sighting of him or Jodi.

A few days later, Shelby drove to Mike's trailer park with a friend and they supposedly saw two men on or near Mike's porch.

Though neither Shelby nor his friend could be sure that these men were Philip and Jodi.

But when we drive by there we can see from the road and we seen two at a

I guess they're guys running out of Mike's house.

Like I remember one jumping off the stairs, you know what I mean, not taking jumping off.

And I want to say they didn't have shirts on either.

Okay.

And we thought it was Philip and Jodi.

Why'd you think that?

I just assumed that.

Like, I can't see that far anyway.

And Benny said, oh, there they are.

Was it going to really be?

No, Benny doesn't know for sure either.

And I'm like, well, I don't want to talk a fight with Philip, so I'm not going there.

So we just kept driving.

Up to this point, Shelby's story was mostly consistent with Mike's.

But after Philip and Jody disappeared, their respective versions of events started to conflict.

Mike told police that after he woke up from their night of drinking, Philip and Jodi were just gone, and he had no idea where they went.

But according to Shelby, Mike knew a lot more than he was telling.

I don't know how many days it had been until Mike came to talk to me again,

and I believe he came to the house, my house, to talk to me, because I wanted to know the phone on where Spillip can't get a hold of him.

I think so, yeah.

Something like that.

And he tells me that

Philip and Jodi took some guns of his to go sell them.

So he gave them some guns.

They went to go sell them, and he hasn't heard from them since.

Shelby accepted the explanation that Mike gave her, but after a few more days went by, Mike flipped a script on Shelby.

and started accusing her of knowing where Philip and Jodi were.

Mike keeps coming around,

thinking that making me he accuses me of knowing talking to him knowing where they are.

You know, I'm like, Mike, I seriously haven't talked to him.

I don't know what's going on.

He thinks that he's making me think that they burned him and are off doing something.

How do you see him?

Like, Mike,

nothing abnormal.

After Jodi and Philip went missing, like, I started getting scared.

Because Shelby and this Benny Jodie started fucking saying, saying, like,

I've done like anywhere happening and shit like that.

You know what I mean?

But like, Benny?

Yeah.

On September 17th, 2016, Philip and Jodi had been missing for just over a week.

And it was around this time that Shelby started to become very concerned.

Mainly because the 17th was her birthday.

And she knew that despite any arguments she and Philip were having, Philip would never let this day pass without at least giving her a call.

So my birthday was September 17th.

So that day came and went, and I know Philip again.

And then I kind of knew.

That's when it kind of starts to really hit me too, that

there's something else wrong.

There's something.

And then Jodi's mom gets a hold of me.

She's worried about it.

She contacts me and I don't have any information for her.

And it gets quiet again.

You know, I don't really hear from Mike for a while.

More days passed and no sign or contact with Philip or Jodi.

Their respective family members started to worry, and eventually, missing persons reports were filed for both men.

Though Jodi's mom wasn't satisfied with leaving the investigation solely in the hands of police, so she decided to drive from Montana to Gillette.

Her plan was to question both Shelby and Mike.

Jodi's mom

comes down here and because I told her to that I think Mike knows more than what he's telling us and

that she needed to you know look at Mike.

She spends a day here, goes out to Mike's.

He won't answer the door for her so I meet up with her and take her to Old Chicago and we corner Kylie.

Then all of a sudden Mike answers the phone and he says he'll meet with Jodi's mom.

In an attempt to reach Mike, Shelby and Jodi's mom found and briefly questioned Mike's girlfriend, Kylie Collins.

As they were doing this, Mike suddenly became available to meet with Jodi's mom.

Though, when Jodi's mom finally met with him, Mike convinced her that he knew nothing about her son's whereabouts and that she should be directing her questions and accusations at Shelby.

She calls me to tell me that she's leaving.

She's talked to Mike.

He doesn't know anything.

She's like, you were the last one to see them, you know.

It kind of made me feel like I was a suspect.

But I knew that Mike has that kind of effect on people, especially he was like a sender.

What do you think of it?

I think that Philip was already

drinking and on one when they got out to Mike's because we were fighting.

I think that I know Mike's always had a gun.

What kind of gun?

A handgun.

I think that Philip was probably drunken on one and they either got into an altercation that way.

If there was an altercation between Philip and Mike, I think Jodi would have tried to break it up and got caught in the middle.

By October 5th, Jodi and Philip had been missing for over a month.

And Shelby had supposedly assumed...

the worst.

She suspected that Mike had killed both of them and that he may have been plotting this double murder for some time.

As far as this three-day job goes, that Mike had Jody come down for, we find out there is no three-day job.

That's my mother.

Mike told him,

I think

Mike lured Jody down here and told him he had a job for him.

And when he got here, there was no job.

Shelby claimed to have suspicions about Mike, and in turn, Mike had plenty of suspicions about Shelby.

Bear with me here because this is where the story starts to get a little outlandish.

Yes, I said starts.

Mike believed that Shelby was a drug dealer and that Philip and Jodi were working with her.

He suspected that all three of them were involved in some sort of elaborate smuggling operation.

And whatever business they were doing together, they weren't letting Mike in on it.

And that's when I figured I learned that Jody, Shelby, and

all of them were like in bed together.

You know?

Jodie, Shelby, who else?

Hello.

Hello.

And they were all secretive about the relationship.

They were all secretive about everything, basically, within me.

And the way they were being, it was like they were leading up to something.

And I can't say that Shelby's a drug dealer because

she doesn't know how to talk about that.

But anytime I ever fucking needed something or wanted something,

she had it.

She's such a fucking dominating weird bitch.

Like, she has to know everything going on.

It's crazy.

But Aura told me that fucking...

John's a sociopath and that this is what this bitch is like.

Well, it's starting to become more realistic.

You know what I mean?

It's getting scarier and scarier.

By October 9th, 2016, Jodi and Philip had been missing for almost 40 days, but it was on this day.

that they were finally found.

At least, some pieces of them were.

The local police in Gillette received a report of a pickup truck that was parked on the northern edge of the city.

The truck reportedly smelled like rotting flesh, and when officers arrived on the scene, they confirmed that the information they received was accurate.

There was indeed a very stinky pickup truck parked on the side of the road.

When officers opened the bed of the pickup truck, they found two plastic totes.

And inside those totes?

Well, what do you think?

Yeah,

several dismembered body parts.

This was the moment that the fate of Philip Brewer and Jodi Fortuna

was revealed.

Both men were dead and had been chopped into pieces.

Tragically, this information did not stay within the walls of the Gillette Police Department for long.

The news of the gruesome discovery quickly leaked to the families of Philip and Jodi,

and they learned about their loved ones' death and the state of their bodies through social media and various news outlets.

What followed was years of hardship for the families as they struggled with the reality that their loved ones' bodies had been mutilated.

Many of you have read or heard about a double homicide in Gillette, Wyoming,

which was first reported in early October 2016.

My younger brother Philip Brewer and his childhood friend Tony Fortuna were brutally murdered.

The victims' bodies were not recovered until October 8th and 9th.

These bodies of these two men were mutilated and stored in plastic totes

and the back of a pickup truck for over four weeks, while the families of these men were frantically searching for any information on their disappearances.

Once I got through the initial shock of my brother's murder, everything started to set in.

The fact that my brother's body was mutilated so badly I never got to see him one last time took a huge toll on me and the rest of my family.

The nature of these crimes stripped our families of any of those choices and given my baby brother the proper burial we felt he deserved.

After the body parts were discovered, they were quickly transported to a medical examiner.

Once there, the cause of death was determined.

Unsurprisingly, this missing person's case became a double homicide investigation.

Obviously, they're both dead and they assume he intended to kill them.

Well, Philip was shot right here.

He was shot behind his ear,

I guess, execution style, for lack of better words.

Judy was also shot in the back of the head, and then shot in the back a couple times.

Both men had been shot to death before their bodies were dismembered.

Strangely, when the medical examiners attempted to piece together the bodies, they realized they were missing several pieces.

This, of course, begged the question:

where was the rest of them?

At the same time, the homicide investigators were also trying to piece together the story of how this all happened.

And in order to do that, they interviewed several people.

One of those people was Mike Montano's girlfriend, 22-year-old Kylie Collins.

You grew up in July, right?

Born and raised.

How long have you and Mike been together?

Almost a year.

Almost a year.

Catch you guys.

Our year is October 13th.

So you guys have lived...

When did you guys move in together?

Probably in November, but we've jumped around places we've lived at, lived with friends.

When did you meet Jodi?

Sometime last year.

I've only met Jody like a handful of times because he doesn't live here.

Do you remember the last time you saw him?

I don't.

I really don't.

It's been a while.

Did he ever like stay at your house with you guys?

He, I think he only came like once and that's since we've we've only had this trailer for this ago.

We've been going on a third month.

Like whenever Jodi would like come or hang out, I was in a rap.

you know

usually they're having a bro time you know

no time for me you know

Mike and Kylie lived together in a small trailer in Gillette.

And according to Kylie, she didn't know Jodi very well or see much of him.

Because when Jodie was around, it meant that Kylie shouldn't be.

As for Philip, Kylie claimed that she knew even less about him.

Where was that?

Um,

I don't even remember.

I think it was Mike's old place.

So I don't know that much about Philip.

I really don't.

Philip, I don't know anything about.

If you're getting the vibe that Kylie was trying to distance herself from Jodi and Philip as much as possible, you're not alone.

The detectives clearly felt the same way, and they quickly transitioned into another line of questioning about a very particular pickup truck.

Was it weird that you saw Mike's truck over there?

Kinda, but.

How come?

Because I don't know.

This is weird.

Because I haven't been able to walk through it.

Did you notice anything unusual about the truck?

No.

Do you ever see him put stuff in the pickup?

Or wonder what was in the back of that pickup?

I've never wondered.

I mean, I just, I'm not going to go and question everything he does, you know?

I think that'd be weird.

Alright.

Do you ever walk by the pickup and think, this pickup stinks?

No, I'm not, because when he parked the pickup, he parked it back.

The reason that the cops were questioning Kylie and Mike's truck was because the truck that contained Philip and Jodi's body parts belonged to Mike Montano.

Given that fact, the obvious assumption was that Mike murdered both men and dismembered their corpses.

And given the other fact that Mike and Kylie lived together, the detectives clearly believed that Kylie knew a lot more than she was telling.

I have not seen Mike

since what Thursday at two.

I have not seen him.

I mean, was there something more going on?

No,

when we just get in big fights, well, sometimes we'll get in big fights and we just kind of, you know what I mean, go our separate ways

for a few days or maybe a day or two and then we can't stand not talking to each other and we talk.

Not only had Kylie tried to distance herself from the murder victims, but she also tried to distance herself from her live-in boyfriend.

She claimed that even though they were dating and lived together, Kylie would frequently go days without seeing or hearing from Mike at all.

Despite these,

well, blatant lies, I mean, let's just call it what it is, the detectives were able to get Kylie to admit that Mike did have a mean streak and that he was a jealous man,

especially when it came to other men and Kylie you ever seen him get really pissed at somebody

besides you

yeah who

seen him you get mad at tim before but not like

horrid mad were you the other day um we punched him and choked him no i didn't hear you heard about that yeah i heard about it yeah did she say what happened or why or anything?

Because we heard that too.

Because I used his phone to call Mike.

You used Tim's phone?

So he got jealous or something?

He just, I guess he said,

whose side are you on?

Whose friend are you or something?

Up to Tim.

Naturally, the police didn't only question Kylie.

After the body parts were found and police determined who the pickup truck belonged to, Mike Montano was promptly arrested and brought in to the interrogation room.

We both know why we're here today, right?

These motherfuckers before, you know, okay.

They grow even bigger than Kagger or whatever.

If I can help, I will.

Well, let's do that today, okay?

Mike was primed and ready to start pointing fingers.

But there was one major issue:

the body parts were found in his truck.

It's kind of hard to blame someone else for a double murder when you're driving around with dismembered pieces of the victims.

As to be expected, and is too often the situation, when Mike was questioned, his first concern wasn't Phillips or Jodi's families or the heartache and trauma they were enduring at the time.

Mike's first concern was his own future.

Five years for double homicide?

What is this guy smoking?

I need some of that.

Given what the police found and where they found it, It was pretty clear that Mike had murdered Jodi and Philip.

But when Mike was questioned about this, he told quite a story, and that story implicated not one, but two people:

Philip's girlfriend, Shelby Warren, and his own girlfriend, Kylie Collins.

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In mid-October of 2016, 37-year-old Mike Montano was arrested after several several dismembered body parts were found in the bed of his pickup truck.

The body parts belonged to 38-year-old Jody Fortuna and 33-year-old Philip Brewer, both of whom had been reported missing just over a month before this gruesome discovery was made.

For police, there was little doubt that Mike had killed both men, but they still had plenty of questions.

Like, how did they die and why did Mike do do this?

Also, when medical examiners tried to put Philip and Jodi back together, they found that several body parts were missing.

So, where was Mike hiding the rest of them?

In an attempt to get answers to these questions, Mike Montano was taken to an interview room and interrogated.

I know this isn't easy.

I mean, there's a body found in your truck, and I'm thinking you want to get it off your chest.

What went down, and where where it went down, and how it went down.

Honest to God, I don't know.

I'm not those senior dude.

I honestly don't think I fucking did it.

You don't think you killed him?

No, I really, really don't.

But we'll figure that out, okay?

In listening to Mike's interrogation, it's obvious that he was a very desperate man, looking for any way to deny responsibility for the body parts that the police had found in his truck.

One way he tried to do this was to point the police toward a potential suspect.

You know who Shelly is, Shelby?

Shelly born for you.

Do I?

Crap.

Throughout Mike's interrogation, he continuously talked about Philip's girlfriend, Shelby Warren, and claimed that Shelby was an evil, manipulative sociopath who could have orchestrated the killings of Philip and Jodi.

So they started tracking me basically.

Like, can literally tracking me, Philip, or tell me about a hint about like what you could follow people that knew me would.

Philip.

Philip?

Yeah.

Experienced with them three while we were still going out.

Them three, Shelby, Jodi, and Philip?

Yeah.

Like what?

Um

the things they knew, the things that they were capable of, things that I thought were

According to Mike, he suspected that Shelby had been spying on him and tracking his movements for months.

Why she would do such a thing, Mike wasn't sure.

But he believed that Philip and Jody knew all about what Shelby was up to.

Despite his suspicions, Mike maintained his relationships with them because he didn't want to feel lonely.

Oh, what a sad guy.

I saw signs, you know, but I never fucking put it together.

Yeah, because I'm tired of being by myself, you know.

It's hard to go to life without another.

Mike claimed that his friends were about to enact some sort of unknown plot against him.

Never mind, I don't want whatever these people are smoking.

It makes you too paranoid, apparently.

Mike was obviously very paranoid.

He didn't know what the hell the plot was, but he knew there was one and he suspected that his girlfriend Kylie may have been in on it as well.

Well, they're all fucking together here.

All of them.

They're fucking with me mentally.

They're just being real secret about everything that they're doing, okay?

Kylie was being secretive then too.

Well, she was acting like she didn't know shit or no Viva.

Just being weird, different.

And I don't want to think that it was Kylie, but the only fucking way

they could have manipulated and did this the way they did is if somebody was right there next to me that I fucking trusted and loved, right?

Basically, Mike's story was that in order for him to end up where he was, namely having the body parts of two dead men in his truck, did I mention that?

Yeah.

He had been manipulated into that position because he would never have done this on his own, of course.

Okay, okay, solid argument.

Got it, got it.

Other people clearly have been pulling the strings, and the only other people capable of pulling those strings were the people closest to him.

This included his girlfriend, Kylie.

Speaking of Kylie, after Mike was arrested, Kylie was quickly put on notice that it was time to come clean about what she knew.

So, you know, Mike's in some serious trouble, right?

That's why, like, I'm it's all I see me around, but I don't get what serious trouble, and I don't get it.

Well, he's charged with first-degree murder.

What?

Yes.

That's why we're here today.

What's first degree?

I don't know the difference is between...

Maybe you killed somebody on purpose.

And there's two guys missing, right?

You know, it's Philip and Jody.

So do you know anything about that?

I don't.

Do you know anything about Philip?

I don't.

I don't.

Today's the day, if you know something, to tell us.

Okay.

Okay, because we've been talking to and we're going to talk to a lot of people.

Okay.

So if you know anything, however small you think it may be,

you need to tell us.

Okay, yeah.

Kylie maintained that she knew nothing.

If Mike had killed Philip and Jodi, she was completely unaware of it.

Mike, however, had already told these same detectives that Kylie knew everything.

According to Mike, after a night of drinking with Jodi and Philip, Mike blacked out.

The next morning, he awoke to Kylie asking him what he had done.

The reason why I woke up that morning was because Kylie came over to check on me.

I don't know where she She woke me up.

Out of the trailer.

Yep.

Okay.

What'd she say?

She just asked me what happened, and I was like, what do you mean what happened?

She went to the bathroom.

Before she woke me up, she went straight to the bathroom.

And they were in there in the bathtub.

Who's that?

Philip and Joey.

Whole bodies.

Both of them in the tub?

How are they in the tub?

Press the piled on top of each other.

Seriously, I had no problem.

No lies, no nothing.

There was no blood anywhere in my fucking trailer.

Nothing, dude.

Okay.

What happened to?

I told you, I got fucking black the fuck out.

That is all true.

Okay.

Supposedly, Kylie was the first person to discover the dead bodies piled in hers and Mike's bathtub.

When Kylie was confronted with this accusation, she didn't handle it very well.

And what did you see?

Oh, I was home.

This is the time.

This is your chance.

You understand why we have to know.

If you already know.

I said, why we need to know.

You understand.

No, I don't.

I don't get this.

I'm telling you.

No.

I don't care what you guys are doing.

I don't care.

We're asking you what you saw.

I don't.

I don't.

Because Mike's already telling people and we don't want to just take his word for it.

He's told somebody that you walked in and saw him doing something.

What are you talking about?

I want to know what you saw.

I don't know.

What's up?

Kelly, would you tell us you're going to feel much better?

I don't feel like you're going to feel better.

I know, especially if this is a trap.

I feel like.

What do you remember seeing?

No, no, no, don't, don't, don't, don't.

Please don't.

You know what?

Talking to us is a difference between seeing something and being involved in something.

Do you get what I'm saying?

The detectives spelled it out for Kylie.

She could either be a cooperating witness or an accessory to a double homicide.

What would you pick?

So do you want to tell us about it or you don't want to talk to us anymore?

I want to talk to I have a lawyer or something.

A lawyer or something?

I don't know.

I don't think I need one.

I just...

Sorry.

I feel like I'm being trapped.

And I feel like you guys aren't going to be honest with me.

And you guys are going to say whatever and twist whatever you want to make me say something, right?

Well, we're telling you what we know.

But how do I know that you know that?

Because I know that.

I'm not trying to say that.

You know that we know it because you know it happened.

You know we know it because it's true.

Because what you saw, we found some of that yesterday.

We've seen it too, and it's horrible.

I mean, we understand where you're upset by having seen that.

But it's bad.

For the most part, the detectives approached Kylie with kid gloves, but that didn't sway her.

Kylie opted to deny involvement, at least for now.

Meanwhile, Mike continued to try and cast doubt on the likelihood that he killed Jodi and Philip.

I honest to God could never hurt Jody.

Ever.

That is the only reason why I don't think I did it.

Those two guys, obviously deceased in your tub, won't eat it.

Fucking sat there half the day figuring out what we fucking think of what to do, debating on what to do, right thing to do, wrong thing to do.

And then

Kylie was getting freaked out.

You know, and she's telling me, hurry up and do something or whatever.

Might claim that he didn't know how Jodi and Philip's dead bodies ended up in his bathtub.

But after he became aware that they were there, Kylie pressured him into doing something about it.

Fucking women, am I right?

They're always just yapping away, just nagging about everything.

Just they always want a clean bathroom, no dead bodies, bad, bad, bad, mad.

Then what'd you do?

You want me to go into detail here?

I do.

I think I cut one of them in half.

With what?

A stupid little tiny fucking saw?

Handsaw or electric saw or?

A hand saw.

Alright, so you cut one in half, then what?

And totes that I had half or that would arrive here.

Okay.

Two of the toes were Jodi's, I think.

And then what did you do with the other one?

Did the same thing.

I cut the other one up, too.

Did you...

Saw their heads off?

Yeah.

And their arms?

Yep.

Okay.

And you left their legs intact?

Or did you you saw their legs off too?

No, I think I cut one in half, and it wouldn't fit or something like that.

So that's why I had to cut the arms off the other one.

And then it just went the same way.

And the head.

Yeah.

And then Kylie came later and cleaned it again and shit like that.

Okay.

Solely to appease his girlfriend.

And ladies, you know how much we do for you.

Mike.

used a small handsaw to dismember Philip and Mike's so-called best friend and brother, Jody.

According to the medical examiner, this had to be a very brutal and messy affair, not to mention outright disgusting.

Based on the state of the body parts, there was obvious aggression behind what Mike had done, especially when it came to Philip.

Did you hate Philip?

No, I didn't hate Philip enough to fucking kill him.

I mean, I didn't like him.

I didn't trust him.

And I've made that clear to everybody that I didn't really like Philip.

I didn't care for him.

I think that he fucking gets Jody into stupid bullshit and he's always getting in fucking trouble and

dragging everybody with him.

You know what I mean?

Everybody knows that about Philip.

Everybody does.

And I fucking am telling you the truth.

Well, he is just...

And the reason I ask is because

he was kind of quite different than Jodi.

Mike admitted to chopping up the bodies.

That element of the crime was clear.

But there was still a big question that needed to be answered.

The police only found some of Jodi and Philip in the back of Mike's truck, so where were the other body parts?

They should all be in the truck.

There's two bodies in those two totes?

There should be.

Okay.

All their parts are in there?

Yeah.

I don't know.

Maybe they're in there, but I don't know if two bodies can fit in those two totes.

You tell me.

My sergeant.

After some pushback and a few lies, Mike admitted that some of Jodi and Philip were inside a storage unit that he and Kylie shared.

In fact, this storage unit is where Mike had been keeping the body parts before moving some of them into his truck.

So I cut them up, put him in the totes, put him in the car, the totes, and then we're on the truck in the car.

Yeah, I put the totes in my car and then went and put them in the storage and

locked it up.

And from that, from there, we're just gonna leave them there.

and then like

we'd drive and we'd fucking check on it like every day

yeah

for nearly 40 days the body parts of Jodi Fortuna and Philip Brewer rotted in a storage unit during this time Mike and Kylie made frequent trips to check on them and make sure that they weren't discovered unsurprisingly after only a day or so things started to get pretty stinky i would smell

To cover up the smell, Mike poured baking soda on the body parts, and Kylie gave him a few bug bombs to keep the flies away.

Still, they both knew that these were only temporary solutions and that they were both going to have to dispose of the evidence somehow.

Kylie went and stole the bottom board and got messed up too.

And

they progressed from there and then they kept getting, I mean,

she said that we needed to get rid of the bodies, right?

Mike and Kylie agreed that they wanted to dump the body parts out of state.

So they packed up Mike's truck with some of the body parts and drove to South Dakota.

Why they didn't take all of the body parts remains unclear.

After arriving in South Dakota, Mike struggled to find a suitable and well-hidden place, so he gave up, turned around, and went home.

After returning from South Dakota, Mike parked his truck on the side of the road near his mobile home and just left it there.

For days.

Eventually, someone noticed the smell and alerted police.

She was with me driving around in your truck.

Yeah.

You guys both loaded on that night or whatever.

Okay.

And no, I came back and I parked my truck.

And I just kept my truck parked.

Everything Mike had done was blatantly cruel and horrific.

Yet he maintained that his actions weren't his fault.

If Mike had done anything wrong, it was because the people around him manipulated him into doing it.

Call me surprised for someone not having personal responsibility in this day and age.

Oh, well, that makes it better.

As long as you wait two days, it's fine to chop up some murder victims in your bathtub.

Anywho, again,

Mike admitted to dismembering Philip and Jodi, but he maintained that he wasn't capable of killing them.

When asked who might have done it, Mike was quick to offer up a theory.

And Shelby's fucking dosing was something before two in Sturgis, and there's proof because you can go and look at the fucking Oslo reports that I was ass the fuck out and didn't know nothing.

I had one fucking drink, and I blacked out and didn't know shit until I woke up.

Insturgis.

Yeah, I'm good.

According to Mike, Shelby Warren had a known and provable history of spiking Mike's drink with drugs and causing him to black out.

People sure do like to do that to this guy, don't they?

Mike suggested that Shelby planned and arranged the murders with the help of an unknown friend.

According to Mike, Shelby must have drugged Mike's drink, waited for him to pass out, and then murdered Philip and Jodi.

Then she cleaned up the crime scene and put the dead bodies in Mike's bathtub.

Totally makes sense.

Who do you think

may have killed him?

I think it's somebody that Shelby's friends with.

I swear to God, because Shelby hinted about the fellow never coming back and shit before.

You know what I mean?

And

how or why

would they put him in your bathtub?

To make me look guilty.

What was your thoughts of why you ended up going to cut him out instead of saying, you know, if you don't think you did this, why didn't you call for help or do something else besides cut him off?

Because I'm a felon, man, and to me,

it just looks like, you know what I mean, and there's no way, I've never gotten away with anything.

Mike's theory about how Philip and Jodi ended up dead in his bathtub was obviously ridiculous.

And cops knew that.

They're not all dumb.

But that didn't...

necessarily mean that Shelby was off the hook.

If you remember from her earlier police interview, Shelby claimed that she drove by Mike's trailer after seeing Philip for the last time.

She claimed that when she saw Jodi's car parked outside, she just left and went home, but the cops weren't entirely sure she was being honest about that.

In fact, when Shelby was questioned and before the details of the murder were released to the public, Shelby seemed to have a pretty solid theory about how everything happened.

It's possible that during her police interview, she accidentally let something slip.

What do you mean as well?

I just say as well because he shot Phil from Jody.

How do you know that?

I guess I don't know for sure.

I'm only assuming.

Okay.

How come you're assuming that?

Because they're dead and like

this is my.

I think he did it.

You're here today.

You're telling me the truth because we're talking to a lot of people.

So if you know more, or you somehow know more things they ring to,

then today's the day.

Yeah.

I'm not...

I don't know if they were into more.

Like, that's how I remember it.

Detectives didn't suspect that Shelby committed the murders, but they did wonder if she witnessed it happen.

At a minimum, they clearly believed that Shelby knew a lot more than she was telling.

But if that was the case, they could never prove it.

In fact, when it came to the details of the murders, police weren't able to prove much at all because, frankly, they didn't have much to work with.

All they had was Kylie's refusal to cooperate, Shelby's denials, and Mike's insane accusations.

So the police were never able to say with certainty when the murders happened or where.

The prominent theory among investigators is that Mike shot and killed Philip first and that he made Jody watch him commit that murder.

Then he turned the gun on Jodi.

They also believe that Kylie didn't witness this happen, but that she did discover the bodies and helped Mike clean up the mess.

Kylie knew, dude, Kay, and Kylie

led.

I mean, Kylie led the whole

mission to chop it up and get away with it.

The way she handled this was just, it gets me goosebumps just thinking about how she

had no emotion.

She had none whatsoever.

Like, fucking, it was nothing to her.

Like, she's seen it before.

You know what I mean?

And I'm not trying to.

That's why I asked Kylie County if she had no reaction.

And she had none.

What's the one that you encourage you told me what to do?

The way I think about Kylie right now, I don't fucking...

I don't think I ever knew Kylie.

I didn't want to do this.

I didn't want to to do this.

I did this because fucking I

Kylie told me I could or should and fucking that we'd be together happy forever after.

And that's what I needed to do.

And that's what I did.

I would never have done it if Kylie wouldn't have fucking said, you know, I mean, I would never have chopped him up is when I done it.

If Kylie wouldn't have said, let's be together, let's work through this away.

Yeah.

As for the dismemberment, Mike admitted to doing that, but he directed the blame at Kylie.

He claimed that he never would have chopped up the bodies had it not been for her encouragement.

And we all know that ladies love to encourage men to do things, and men are happy to do them most of the time.

Obviously, even if that were the case, it wasn't going to mitigate Mike's responsibility.

But it did mean that Kylie was culpable, and she didn't do herself any favors by continuously lying to the police.

So do you guys have a storage unit together or anything like that where you keep extra stuff?

Do you know if Mike has a storage unit anywhere?

Not that I know of.

Maybe.

I don't know.

He wouldn't tell you if he did.

I know.

You guys have been together a year.

I know.

We have to.

Yeah.

Kylie lied about just about everything, and cops could prove it.

When Kylie was called out for her lies, she did what she should have done right away.

She asked for a lawyer.

But

it was too late.

The damage was already done, as it often is.

She'd already broken the law by lying and hindering the investigation of a double homicide.

I want to give you a minute to think about it, okay?

What don't you get?

What part is confusing you?

I don't think you're confused.

You're not dumb.

I know, I'm not dumb.

You're a smart girl.

You know exactly what's going on.

And you have to stop.

So you saw what Mike was doing, right?

In that bathtub.

And you know who those people were, right?

And what you saw happening was found in that truck yesterday when we searched it, okay?

And we know you know what happened.

So you can be a witness

and/or a suspect.

Because I know

you assume you're not the mastermind it wasn't your plan to to to kill people or to chop them up and put them in plastic totes and hide them

I need to get a lawyer then

okay

fair enough

in the end Kylie did admit to her role in helping to cover up the murders and she agreed to testify against Mike if his case ever went to trial In exchange, Kylie did not face any accessory charges, but she did face charges for misleading police.

Ultimately, Kylie never had to testify because Mike didn't take his case to trial.

Montano's earlier pledged to killing 33-year-old Philip Brewer and 37-year-old Jody Fontuna, dismembering their bodies in an attempt to dispose of them.

Before he was sentenced, Monteo apologized to Fortuna's mother.

District Judge Michael Deegan sentenced Michael Montano on Wednesday to 60 years to life in prison.

Montano's former girlfriend, 24-year-old Kayleigh Collins, was also sentenced Tuesday to two years in jail for interfering with the police investigation after the men were reported missing.

After Mike and Kylie were sent off to prison, the Brewer and Fortuna families had no choice but to pick up the pieces of their lives.

and move on.

In an effort to do something good in her brother's name, Phillips' sister set out to have some of Wyoming's laws changed.

Once the memorial was over, my husband and I started researching the charges that the defendants were accused of.

Two counts of second-degree murder and two counts of post-mortem corpse mutilation for the first offending.

When we looked up these penalties for corpse mutilation, we were shocked that Wyoming only carries up to three years.

Three years.

Technically means that a person charged with this crime could ultimately receive probation.

I mean, I knew deep down that I had to do something.

I walked into the house one day and told my husband that I was going to change the Wyoming state statute on corpse mutilation.

For the sake of her brother, Phillips' sister lobbied to change the penalties for corpse mutilation in Wyoming.

And after several years of fighting for that change, she was successful.

Because of her efforts, anyone who dissects or mutilates a dead human body in Wyoming now faces a possible five-year prison sentence a much more fitting sentence I may say for such a horrendous crime I finally was able to give back

to do something extraordinary for my brother and his legacy I was humbled I feel close to my brother and I know what how he'd want me to live my life to the fullest Even though he's the first thing on my mind when I wake up and the last thing when I fall asleep, I feel comfort in knowing he's proud of what I've accomplished and how hard I've pushed myself to be the best I can be.

Throughout his police interviews, Mike Montano repeatedly referred to Jodi as his brother.

He claimed that their bond meant so much to him that they were practically siblings.

When you compare those claims to the way that Philip's sister speaks out about her brother and the things that she did to honor his life, Mike's claims about brotherhood sure do come across pretty hollow.

Mike shot and killed his so-called brother.

Then he mutilated and dismembered the body.

The clear motive was never established in this case, but more than likely Mike was driven by some very darkened, deep-seated resentment and jealousy.

I don't know, man.

All the drugs, all the times they ripped me off, all the times, this is what I would think.

I mean, the fucking

lying about Kylie, being a prostitute and shit with them, and just fucked up shit, like taking advantage of me and putting me down and fucking making me a joke to everybody and just fucking stealing from me everything.

They took everything of my...

Mike was fed up with being the joke among his friends.

He was angry about Jodi sleeping with Kylie and he hated that Jodi's friendship with Philip carried more mutual respect than his own friendship with Jodi.

So, in what was probably a drunken and drug-fueled rage, he lashed out and shot both men to death.

Then he chopped up their bodies in a lousy attempt to cover up the crime.

On top of being...

A pathetic psychopath who blames everyone else for his own actions, Mike Montano is also pretty dim-witted.

Most dim-witted people think that way.

They think things belong to them that don't.

They think the whole world revolves around them.

Something that was clearly lost on this idiot was a pretty basic and common sense understanding about family.

It's one thing to call someone a brother and claim to have some sort of family-like bond with them because you grew up together.

It's another thing entirely to actually live up to that claim.

When Philip and Jodi went missing, Jodi's mom drove 500 miles from Montana to Wyoming to find her son.

That's what family is.

She went out there to seek out whoever it was that had last spoken to Jodi and asked them a couple of questions.

After the body parts were discovered, Philip's sister worked her ass off to get the laws in Wyoming changed as a way to honor her brother's life and legacy.

Those are the kind of things that family members do for each other.

They don't just sit around and talk about it while drinking beer.

Those are the kind of things that people do when they actually give a shit, when they care.

What they don't do is allow petty resentment to drive them to commit murder.

And they certainly don't mutilate and dismember the people they love.

That goes without saying, I hope.

Maybe after 60 years in a prison cell, Mike Montano will come to better understand that.

But I wouldn't hold my breath.

So, if you've been listening for a while, why don't you head on over to our store and get something nice for summer?

Head to swordscale.com and stay safe.

Hey Mike, this is Pam Whitaker from Knoxville, Tennessee.

I recently had problems with my Plus membership.

It was a glitch on my end, not on your all.

But anyway, I contacted customer support, i.e.

Gertie,

and within 10 minutes, she had me up and running on my plus membership again.

Like you say, she is the best.

Thank you again, Gertie.

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