The Girl In Room 319 — Libby Caswell E1

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this is an iHeart original

hi everyone I'm so excited to share episode one of the new season of what happened to

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This story can be hard to hear.

There's detailed talk of suicide and violence, but we think it's important not to gloss over the reality of what happened to Libby Caswell.

Please take care while listening.

You know, he asked me, would I tell him the story about his mother dying?

That's how he said it.

I didn't know how to even handle that.

And when I talked to a psychologist, I was like, how do you even tell a child this story?

When they ask, what happened to my mother?

So far, Cindy Caswell has been able to avoid telling her grandson Xavier this story.

The story you're about to hear.

The details of what happened to Libby Caswell are not suitable for a 10-year-old like Xavier.

So instead, Cindy tries to focus on the good memories Xavier still has of his mother.

He was only four when Libby died.

He remembers episodes of Sesame Street that he watched with his mother and this certain song, you know, at the beginning that's like, I'm stronger, faster, you know, and smarter.

And he'll start crying and he wants to talk about her.

So we look at pictures and,

you know, I try to tell him it's okay to cry and grieve.

When he asks you how she died, what do you tell him?

I tell him that

I don't know any facts about his mother, and I'm still waiting.

Until then, I say,

you know, when you're older, and later on, maybe we'll all know exactly how your mom died.

And when I know, I can tell him more.

My name is Melissa Jeltson.

I'm an investigative reporter who covers violence against women.

In the first season of this show, What Happened to Sandy Beale, I dug into the story of a young woman who wanted to be a cop back in the 1970s, but ended up fatally shot.

She was found alone in her car, parked in a secluded location known as a cop hangout.

It was a story about a family's search for truth and a police culture that refused accountability.

A story where the official version just didn't make sense.

And ever since that show aired, my inbox has been flooded with tips from listeners with unresolved stories of their own.

Among the tips from strangers was an email from a source I've known for years.

Someone who has a reputation for searching for truth and police accountability.

I received a call from Cindy Caswell.

Actually, it was a voicemail left at the police department.

It's not unusual for me to receive calls from family members wanting me to look look into the death of their loved one.

Dr.

Bill Smock is the director of the Clinical Forensic Medicine Program for the Louisville Metro Police Department.

He's become somewhat of a household name ever since the trial of Derek Chauvin, where he provided expert testimony about George Floyd's death.

When the body is deprived of oxygen,

explaining in medical terms how kneeling on someone's neck for nine minutes can kill them.

He

Gradually succumbed to lower and lower levels of oxygen, and he died.

Smock is a national expert in cases where a person died from asphyxia, a lack of oxygen, and he spent his entire career in forensics, evaluating autopsies, exploring crime scenes, and analyzing case files, which is exactly why Cindy reached out to him.

Libby Caswell, like George Floyd, died of asphyxia.

In December 2017, she was found in a motel bathroom with a belt wrapped around her neck.

She was just 21 years old.

So I said, Cindy, please send me everything you have.

Autopsy photos, autopsy reports, scene photos, whatever you have, and I'll take a quick look.

It ended up being more than a quick look.

After Smock saw the material Cindy sent him, he went deep.

Then he got angry.

Libby's case stands out in my mind and keeps me awake at night.

There were multiple injuries that were not documented.

There is evidence

that was missed.

Libby's story gripped me too and sent me down a long road full of intense conversations and uncomfortable questions.

Did you not believe that he's telling the truth?

No, no.

I'm telling you, I've interviewed him and his story is very credible.

And captivated the town of Independence, Missouri.

Three years after her daughter's body was found in a motel bathroom, Sidney Caswell believes her daughter Libby was murdered.

As 41 Action News reporter Sarah Plake shows us, Libby's mom has a team of experts on her side who say that crucial questions in the case remain unanswered.

What happened to Libby Caswell isn't just a story about a young woman's death.

It's about how Libby lived and loved.

You know, I think she held on to a little bit of too much hope.

And that's a good trait to have until you're in a situation like this.

And how she was failed by local police.

I'd say if one is a really poor investigation and 10 is a perfect investigation, I'd give them a 0.5.

It's also about the systems that were supposed to help Libby and didn't.

I think the law is set up to punish families in this situation.

And how far you'd go to find justice for a loved one.

What happened to her

is unknown.

And it's something that I need to know.

Watching the water

sinking again tonight.

From iHeart Podcast, I'm Melissa Jeltson.

And this is what happened to Libby Caswell.

Chapter 1, The Girl in Room 319.

911, we'll see you dress for the emergency.

I'm at the Stadium Inn Motel.

You're where?

I'm at the Stadium Inn Motel.

What's going on there?

My fucking

covered is she hurting herself in the bathroom with fucked

It's a Monday night in Independence, Missouri, December 11th, 2017.

At 8.04 p.m., a 911 call comes in from the Sports Stadium Inn, a rundown motel just a couple of miles from where the Kansas City Chiefs play.

This call lasts about five minutes before ending abruptly.

I'm gonna play parts of it now.

What exactly happened?

Tell me again.

I don't know what happened.

Mina, my kids won't stop and I went to go in the bathroom and I see my

ground as soon as I opened the door.

Okay, what?

Is she bleeding?

No, like, I don't know.

My my my belt was around like she had put a belt around her neck and I seen a belt outside of the door.

And when I opened the door, she fell like it's gone and she's white.

Oh my god, she's not looking

how old is she?

Huh?

How old is she?

She's 21.

What was her name again again?

Elizabeth Caswell.

Elizabeth Caswell.

Libby.

The caller says he just woke up and found her with his belt around her neck.

He thinks she hanged herself.

Is she conscious at all?

No, I don't know.

She's already conscious.

Can you tell if she's breathing at all?

Her mouth is a little bit bloody, but

like not like

blue.

I don't think it's blood.

I think it's just from lack of oxygen.

Please, someone come help me.

Okay, we're getting help started that way.

We're getting help started that way, okay?

What do I do, ma'am?

What do I do?

I'm freaking scared.

Okay, okay, can you tell if she's breathing at all?

No, ma'am, I don't think so.

I was asleep, and then I had woke up and found her.

Like, I don't know how long she's been there.

Oh, my God.

I can't believe this right now.

The dispatcher asked the caller to loosen the belt around Libby's neck.

Okay, are you able to undo the belt at all?

But the caller has already left the motel room and shut the door behind him.

I can hear another person talking in the background, but can't make out what they're saying.

I think

I can hear my room.

The call drops at this point.

The dispatcher tries to call back, but can't get through.

The police are already on their way.

Her ambulance calls Sports BBMN 227.

Who calls advising?

Woke up, went to the bathroom, and found her unconscious and a belt wrapped around her neck.

Our color is hysterical.

Still trying to

decipher if the female is breathing or not, but the caller does not think she is.

Caller was apparently very panicked, ran out of the room, and has now locked himself out.

Copy.

I'm going to go ahead and respond on this.

104.

2258 and copy to room 319, 319.

Copy room 319.

Within a few minutes, three officers are on scene.

They discover that the 911 caller is gone.

Like, completely gone.

Not at the motel, nowhere to be found.

And the room he was staying in, room 319, is locked.

The officers try to get a key from someone at the front desk, but can't find anyone.

So they break down the door.

22 makes an entry, force the door.

Inside room 319, it's dark.

The lights are off, the TV is on.

And from what little the officers can see, the room is in chaos.

There are piles of clothing all over the floor, a bedside drawer has been flung wide open, there's an empty vodka bottle and what looks like a diamond ring on the ground.

In the open drawer of the bedside table, there's a photo of a man's face that seems to be printed from a database of some kind.

On top of the bed is a man's watch with a broken strap.

A woman's purse has been tipped over, its contents spilled across the carpet.

On first scan of the small motel room, it appears no one's there.

But then the officers notice the bathroom door is closed.

Once they open the door, they see a body, the body of a young woman with long brown hair wearing sweatpants and a pink sweatshirt.

She's lying on the floor on her side in the cramped space between the toilet and the bathtub.

There's a belt wrapped loosely around her neck.

One officer approaches the body and notes that it's cold.

It seems clear she's been dead for a while.

The bathroom is too small for her to lie fully extended on the ground, and so her feet are propped up on the opposite wall.

Her position, it doesn't look natural.

One of the officers notes this in his report, writing, quote, her feet appeared to have been placed against the wall, so the door would open and close.

And these facts, the position of her body, the belt around around her neck, the caller who fled, it isn't clear what happened.

So the officers call for more help.

You can go to the front, yeah, see who registered to this room, get copies of any IDs or anything they were used to.

Rent this room.

At around 8.30 p.m., a crime scene investigator arrives at the motel and begins to photograph the scene.

He's followed soon afterwards by four detectives and a sergeant.

After surveying the scene, the sergeant calls his captain, Mike Anka.

I was

actually I was off duty, but I got a call from one of my sergeants that he had been called out with his squad on a death investigation with nobody on scene to tell him what happened and a female laying in the bathroom with a belt wrapped around her neck.

Obviously, his first inclination was that it was homicide.

With something like that of that significance, I responded in.

At the time, Mike Anka was the captain of the criminal investigations unit for the Independence Police Department, or IPD.

He's since been promoted to major.

Anka gets to the sports stadium in around 10 p.m.

By then the motel is swarming with cops.

In any situation where your caller flees before the police gets there, that is a red flag for us.

Obviously, people grieve different, people deal with things different, but that's a little bit outside the norm.

People, you know, are standing outside waiting on us when we show up.

Without the 911 caller to talk to, IPD gets to work documenting the scene at the motel.

One officer puts up crime scene tape.

Another tries to hunt down security footage from the cameras in the parking lot.

Obviously, that motel has got recordings.

The person that was running the hotel and the office or whatever, they were not able to access that

film.

film.

So he was instructed to go back and get that later.

A group from the medical examiner's office is also called to the scene, an investigator and a transport team who will take the body to the morgue for an autopsy.

The investigator notes the rigidity of the woman's body and determines she has been deceased for an extended period of time.

IPD also tries to track down any witnesses and they find one, the man who is staying next door to room 319.

He tells officers that 20 minutes prior to their arrival, he heard a woman getting beat and a female voice saying, don't hurt me.

But he seems intoxicated and his timeline doesn't make much sense as the body was cold by the time police showed up.

By midnight, IPD has gone from the sports stadium in.

But their work is not done.

It's around this time that two officers are sent to Cindy Caswell's house.

I was off Mondays, so I was up later than usual.

I always just sat in that recliner right by the front window and I would watch first the news and then late night TV and I was sitting there thinking about going to bed, you know, and I got up and was just locking doors and checking everything.

And I noticed some flashlights outside.

So I walked over and kind of peeked out the window and I realized it was police officers and

they knocked on the door.

Cindy let the officers in and went to wake up her husband.

Bob came in and he was like just confused like I was.

They asked him to sit down and asked if we

were the parents of Elizabeth Caswell.

And you know, we're just kind of nodding our heads.

And

I believe his words were: We're sorry to tell you that she is deceased.

I believe I said, How?

And they said, She hung herself.

It was an apparent suicide.

I don't remember a lot after that.

My heart just started pounding really hard, and I was

just, it was hazy, and I felt like

time just kind of

just stopped.

Cindy sits on her living room couch, frozen in a nightmare state.

She's trying to wrap her head around the fact that her 21-year-old daughter, her oldest child, Elizabeth Caswell, known to everyone who loved her as Libby, is dead.

What Cindy didn't know is that mere hours before IPD delivered this news, Libby's death was being investigated as a homicide.

And yet, standing in front of Cindy as December 11th becomes December 12th, the officers have only one question for her: They asked, Was she suicidal?

I said, No, she was not.

But Cindy has a question for them.

I said, Where is Devin?

Where is he at?

I couldn't even believe it was real.

Join me, Tatiana Siegel, executive editor of film and media at Variety, for a four-part tale of youthful ambition, artistic integrity, and the dark side of fame.

Just like my parents talk about they knew where they were when John F.

Kennedy was killed.

Pretty much everyone I know knows exactly where they were when River died.

Featuring new interviews with Samantha Mathis, Dr.

Drew Pinski, Corey Feldman, and more.

Listen to Variety Confidential on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.

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One of the hardest things about my job as a journalist who covers women's violent deaths is that I never get to meet the women I spend months and years reporting on.

By the time I enter the picture, they're already gone.

Instead, I have to fill in the blanks with the stories of the people who loved them.

Like Cindy, who holds on tight to every memory of her 21 years with her daughter, Libby.

I had a rough time getting pregnant and staying pregnant.

So it was a hard time, but I carried her to term.

And I think I was two weeks overdue and being induced on a March 25th snowstorm here in Missouri.

So it was exciting, you know.

She was tiny, seven pounds and three ounces, and just the light of our lives.

Libby Caswell was born and raised in Independence, Missouri, a town of about 120,000 people right outside of Kansas City.

Cindy tells me her early years were typical for a little girl growing up in the suburbs of the Midwest.

Lots of running around outside, playing hide and seek, going to church, hanging out with her two younger siblings.

Libby and her sister Natalie were especially close.

I was born February 1999.

She was born March of 1996.

We'd play outside together all the time.

We'd be down at our creek every day, just like looking for crawdads and weird rocks and just stuff.

We were always really close.

We were almost kind of like twins, I always say, because when you look back at pictures, we were always in like similar outfits with the same hairstyles.

Natalie is now 24 older than Libby was when she died but she still talks about her with the reverence of a younger sibling.

It's clear how much she misses her big sister.

We were together all the time every single day for

you know pretty much all of our entire lives.

We used to talk about When we'd get older, we were going to buy a house together and we made like drawings of like these huge houses of this half would be her house and this half would be my house.

She was just my built-in best friend.

Libby had boundless energy as a child and so Cindy enrolled her in dance and cheerleading which Libby took to instantly.

In ninth grade her high school varsity cheerleading team was invited to perform at Disney World.

Cindy bought her a cell phone, her first, so Libby could communicate with her family while she was away.

She called me at the entrance of Disney World and she was like, Mom,

you know how at the beginning of all my Disney movies, there's the castle and the sparkles and the lights.

She said it's just like that in real life.

And she was just beside herself and I was wishing I could be there, you know, but we just got the money for her to go, you know,'cause it was quite expensive to send someone there.

Growing up, Libby's family was solidly working class.

Her dad was in construction and her mom put in part-time hours at the local grocery store.

Well, I've worked for Price Chopper Bakery on and off for a long time.

Oh my gosh, I think my 20s.

Cindy was eventually promoted to head cake decorator at the grocery store, a job she still held when I met her.

It's very rewarding to have someone come back and say, you know that cake you did for my mom or those cupcakes you did.

Oh my gosh, they were so pretty and she was so excited and I'm like, yay, that's why I do it, you know?

Even though money was tight, Cindy was eager to support Libby's extracurriculars, happily carting her to and from practices, ordering uniforms, and cheering her on from the sidelines.

Cindy remembered being that age herself and having different priorities.

At 15, she dropped out of school and ran away with her boyfriend, who later became her husband, Libby's dad.

They got divorced after Libby's death.

Being as young as I was, I thought I was totally in love, you know,

and couldn't live without him.

I was too young to know what I wanted.

I think between,

you know, 13 and 22,

you still really are just kind of searching of who you are and who you want to be.

And

I don't think it's a good time to try to settle down.

Cindy hoped that Libby would forge a different, more independent life for herself.

One where a husband and kids came later, if at all.

I knew she would have boyfriends.

You know, I'm not that insane because, for one, she was so beautiful, you know, and that attracts

people.

But I had a plan.

I was going to keep her in sports and dance and cheer, and she was going to be too busy for all that.

I kept trying to just tell her to be careful.

And teenagers

make big mistakes that are life-changing when you can't take it back or go back and redo your childhood.

And so she would always say, I know, mom, I can take care of myself and you've always told me that.

As Cindy anticipated, Libby got a lot of attention from boys.

By her freshman year of high school, she had a serious boyfriend.

I've seen a photo of the couple from this time period.

Libby is kissing her boyfriend's cheek, her dark hair spilled across his chest, while he makes eye contact with the camera.

A soft, almost bashful smile spread across his face.

They look young, fresh-faced, and blissfully in love.

So despite all those heart-to-heart conversations, Cindy found herself trying to convince Libby to slow down.

It became a struggle because

She didn't want to hear what I had to say about

things.

She said, well, you met dad at 14 and you did this.

And I'd say, yeah, but you know, I can save you some struggles if you just listen and take to heart what I say.

But she just thought she was in love with this kid and I believe that's the summer she became pregnant.

Libby gave birth to her son Xavier in 2013 when she was just 17 years old.

As it does, life changed drastically after she became a mom.

And despite how challenging it was, her special bond with Xavier was undeniable.

She loved to make him giggle, and they often goofed off together, like in this video we have of the two of them FaceTiming with her sister Natalie.

In it, Libby is holding her toddler son up to the camera.

A filter adds a space helmet on top of his head.

Come on, come on, you download it.

You're downloading, Natalie.

You're my handsome astronaut.

He loved his mom.

She was the only one he would kiss.

Like, he wouldn't give no one else kisses, but he would only give her kisses.

Libby was an attentive and observant mother, despite her age.

When Xavier was still quite young, she recognized that he wasn't hitting some of his developmental markers.

She just noticed a lot of different little things that I didn't notice.

You know, I was like, well, some kids develop later than others, but she just determined and had him evaluated.

And they said, yeah, he has autism.

She was just really on that and got him the help he needed early, like three years old.

I've spoken with a bunch of Libby's friends, and they all said the same thing.

How much she loved her son, how dedicated she was as a mother.

But they also wanted me to know how much fun she was to be around.

Libby was silly, a bit of a prankster.

She liked to dance around to music in the kitchen, make funny faces.

She prided herself on getting a laugh.

She had a mouth on her.

Not in a bad way, but like in a funny way.

Like she was a comedian.

It was freshman year of high school, and we were running laps in gym and she came running past me and she said, I just wanted to let you know you're really pretty.

And then she just kept running and I was like, wait a minute, hold on, I want to be friends.

And then we became friends like that and then we just became inseparable.

She was just a bright, happy person.

She was one of those people who, no matter what she had or didn't have, she was always willing to give to other people, always looked on the bright side, saw the best in everybody.

But to some of her friends, Libby's tendency to see the good in others wasn't always a positive.

I think she held on to a little bit of too much hope.

And that's just what Libby did, though, and she would find the best in anybody.

And that's a good trait to have until you're in a situation like this.

I couldn't even believe it was real.

Join me, Tatiana Siegel, executive editor of film and media at Variety, for a four-part tale of youthful ambition, artistic integrity, and the dark side of fame.

Just like my parents talk about they knew where they were when John F.

Kennedy was killed.

Pretty much everyone I know knows exactly where they were when River died.

Featuring new interviews with Samantha Mathis, Dr.

Drew Pinski, Corey Feldman, and more.

Listen to Variety Confidential on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.

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This is a reference to case report number 2017-89214.

Today's date is December 11th, 2017 and the time is 2232.

And tell me your last name, sir.

Fristo, F-R-I-S-T-O-E.

Okay, well the reason why you're here, I I guess apparently you witnessed some activity over there at the Sports Stadium in.

It's December 11th, 2017, around 10.30 p.m.

IPD has been on the case for about two hours.

There's still no sign of the 911 caller, but they did identify a key witness, David Fristo.

Fristo was a guest at the sports stadium inn who happened to meet Libby when she checked in.

And as he tells the detective at the police station she wasn't alone

any of these individuals no i met them last night you know they parked in front of my door what kind of people fristo says libby was with two men one of whom appeared to be her boyfriend and as far as he could tell they seemed like a normal couple

so i go outside and you know they was like man we got a kid We're just getting away, you know, some quality time.

I said, well, hey, that's funny.

And they went their way and I went my way.

And this was last night.

Yeah.

And I didn't see him no more until the night when I seen him.

Fristo saw the boyfriend again, alone, around 8 p.m.

The detective asked Fristo to describe him.

He was white,

kind of medium-built.

So white, medium-build,

height, weight.

Probably about 150,

height, probably about 5'8.

Maybe a little taller okay anything else identifying about her or him tattoos or

i didn't pay attention okay yeah

i'm trying to picture him man i i mean

you think you could pick him out of a photo lineup

possible yeah

well i've constructed a photo lineup

of a possible suspect

at this point the detective slides a piece of paper over to fristo

on it are the mugshots of six men.

They all stare straight into the camera.

Okay.

Why don't you go ahead and fit a circle around him?

Without hesitation, Fristo marks the photo in the bottom left corner.

I recognize the face in the mug shot.

It is Libby's boyfriend and the father of their child and

the man who called 911.

Sir, what is your name?

Devin Martin!

Devin Martin.

He's the guy Cindy asked about when the cops showed up at her door to tell her that Libby was dead.

I said, where is Devin?

Where is he at?

And it's a good question.

Where was Devin?

Because even though he'd called 911, he didn't stick around for the police to arrive.

And if it wasn't for David Fristo, he might not have called 911 at all.

I was standing out in front of the motel.

Okay.

Yeah, so I couldn't see what was going on around the back.

And I was just standing there, and all of a sudden, he came around the corner.

Devin was driving through the motel parking lot when Fristo spotted him.

He was crying and upset, and I was like, man, what happened?

And it took him a minute to get it out of it, and he said, my wife hung herself.

He just kind of kept going, and I'm trying to talk him down.

And I'm like, man, settle down.

Just call the police.

Let them know, man, that something happened and if you run it's gonna be bad on you

and

I finally talked him down and then he what he called the police and did you overhear that conversation yes was there any other questions asked that you overheard

was she alive was she breathing and he said he don't know and they wanted him to go in the room and he didn't want to and I'm like I don't blame you but you gotta just stay here until the police get here.

And then you say he took off?

Yeah.

And from there, that was the last time I saw him.

I couldn't even tell you which direction he went.

911, what's the address of the emergency?

Just as IPD is finishing up with Fristo, they receive another 911 call.

It's Devin.

Three hours after his initial call, he says he's ready to talk and is on his way to the station.

We'll start from beginning, okay?

Like I said, I want you to be detailed.

I want you to be honest.

This season on what happened to Libby Caswell.

I was like, promise me you're going to call me back.

And she said, I promise and click.

And that was it.

And that was the last I spoke to her.

She told me like she was done.

Now she's finally going to do what she needed to do for her.

Libby looked at me and said, Nathan, I don't think I feel safe with Devin anymore.

Son just seems off right now.

I was like,

did he just hit her?

The medical examiner ruled Libby's death undetermined.

I go, what do you mean they ruled it undetermined?

It wasn't until much later and I thought, why would they not search the car?

Those three agencies are failing to do the right thing.

Sooner or later somebody talks.

Sooner or later somebody confesses.

Troll through Mad

I think I did from the rain and the

What Happened to Libby Caswell is written, reported, and hosted by me, Melissa Jeltson, with writing and story editing by Marissa Brown and Lauren Hansen.

Episodes are edited by Jeremy Thall and Carl Cadel.

Our executive producer is Ryan Murdoch.

For iHeart Podcasts, executive producers are Jason English and Katrina Norvell with our supervising producer Carl Cadel.

Fact-checking by Maya Shukri.

Archival material courtesy of KSHB 41 News.

Our theme song is written by Erin Kaufman and performed by Aaron Kaufman and Elizabeth Wolf.

Original music by Aaron Kaufman with additional music by Jeremy Thal.

Our episodes are mixed and mastered by Carl Kadel.

To find out more about my investigation or to send a tip, please email me at what happened to Libby at gmail.com.

Thanks so much for listening.

until I,

until I fell above

what a way to find myself

in pieces,

in pieces

in the dark.

Remember, you can get episode two right now, ad-free and a whole week early with an iHeart True Crime Plus subscription, available exclusively on Apple Podcasts.

Subscribers also get early access to future episodes and exclusive bonus content, completely ad-free.

So open your Apple Podcast app, search for iHeart TrueCrime Plus, and subscribe today.

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I couldn't even believe it was real.

Join me, Tatiana Siegel, executive editor of film and media at Variety, for a four-part tale of youthful ambition, artistic integrity, and the dark side of fame.

Just like my parents talk about they knew where they were when John F.

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Featuring new interviews with Samantha Mathis, Dr.

Drew Pinski, Corey Feldman, and more.

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