Missing in Hush Town LIVE Q&A with Jules + Casey (Updates, Theories, Questions, and Frustrations)

[00:00:00] Hey everyone and welcome to the Missing in Hush Town LIVE Q&A. I'm your host, Jen Rivera, investigative journalist and producer. I am going to be joined here shortly by Jules and Casey. So let's dive right in. Let me add the ladies to the stream. But before we start the Q&A, I just want to say that since we are live on multiple platforms, we will be dedicating a certain amount of time at the end of the live stream.

[00:00:31] For live questions. So if you do have any questions, make sure you're putting them in the chat wherever you're streaming. All right, let's get started.

[00:00:41] Hi, I'm Jules Thorpe. I'm your host, Jules, and I am so happy that you guys are here because we have some unfinished business with this case. And I think it's super important that you guys are here.

[00:00:58] Many of you know I host Missing in Hush Town and I produced it along with Casey. And our job's not done. So I'm here to get all our justice and then maybe we can change some laws together. So thank you for being here.

[00:01:14] And don't be afraid to ask anything. If we can't answer it, we'll say we can't answer that. But feel free to put it out there.

[00:01:22] It's my turn.

[00:01:23] Yeah.

[00:01:24] You're up.

[00:01:25] Hey, I am Casey Robinson. You can call me Casey Wicks. I go by that too.

[00:01:32] Jennifer and Adrienne are my family. Jennifer's my older sister and Adrienne is my niece.

[00:01:37] And a lot of you know who I am. If you're on our Facebook page, hello. And obviously, I'm fighting like hell for justice. So here we are. Ask all your questions. I'm not afraid of the questions.

[00:01:52] I will tell you if I can't answer them and I will dance around some of them. So just bear with me as my wheels are turning because it takes me a second to get there and how I'm going to say an answer without saying an answer.

[00:02:09] Awesome. All right. Well, I don't think we need to waste any more time. What do you think, ladies? You ready to get right into the Q&A?

[00:02:17] Yeah, let's get in the ring.

[00:02:19] All right. So since we left off when the podcast was released in August, there's been a lot of reactions. We've gotten a lot of support, which is amazing. But I'm going to start with you, Jules. What situations of success have you been for Missing and Hush Town?

[00:02:38] Gosh, I actually wrote down one stat. That's actually really cool. We are in 61 different territories. So that's worldwide. We're international. And we also the first because of the Wix Warriors.

[00:02:55] You guys, I need to turn off my comments because I'm just going to keep putting my eyes over there.

[00:03:01] The Wix Warriors put us on the national Apple United States true crime podcast charts.

[00:03:09] So we continue to rank nationally. I think our top was 44 on Apple podcasts. And that's out of all the true crime that's out there. So thank you guys. The more and more we continue to perform, the more Wix Warriors we have.

[00:03:27] The harder it's going to be to ignore the Wix Warriors Army. So it's been pretty successful as far as numbers go. We'll only really measure the success of this if we achieve our goal of justice. So we can't stop. We gotta keep going.

[00:03:47] Absolutely. Well, Casey, I'm going to jump to you. So how has the podcast release affected your family's mission for justice?

[00:03:56] I'll say that it wasn't technically the release that affected our mission for justice. It was Jules. Sorry, Jules. Don't mean to put you on the spot.

[00:04:09] But I'm going to. And I'll just say a lot of, you know, I picked up our Facebook page a couple of years ago. Mom had been running it for years and years and years.

[00:04:19] I see a lot of those memories pop up and it's cool to see those memories. And I'm real proud of mom for what she started.

[00:04:27] And I kind of picked it up having been in the social media world and, you know, having that knowledge, working in direct sales and doing all kinds of live videos.

[00:04:37] I was just kind of used to it. And I was like, I'm going to put this to Jennifer and Adriana's case, see what I could do.

[00:04:43] And so I did. And then my cousin introduced me to Jules and I was kind of like in a slumpy moment where I didn't really want to like, I don't know, get up every day and work on the case anymore.

[00:04:57] And then Jules and I met and it was like, we're going to do this.

[00:05:02] I knew right away we met at the White House Public Library in White House, Tennessee, just a little bit.

[00:05:09] What is it? I'm directionally challenged east of Springfield. Is it east? It's east, I think.

[00:05:15] But anyways, that's where we met and we were best friends for life from that moment forward.

[00:05:20] And I'll say just kind of how my family felt prior to us working on the podcast and how my family felt while we were working on the podcast and working in social media, working with Jules and yourself, Jen.

[00:05:38] I mean, it just really amped some things up for us. It got us fired up.

[00:05:42] And I mean, I told her on multiple occasions, like, you're making me want to keep going.

[00:05:48] And she's right. Like the Wix Warriors is what now you have all been named.

[00:05:54] You know, that's what keeps us going. And I think that doing the podcast really, really gained us more support.

[00:06:02] And so those days whenever we're feeling like I don't want to do this anymore, which are more days than we would like to admit.

[00:06:10] But, you know, and that's kind of sad to say, but we have those days whenever it's like I can't do this again today, you know, but getting on here and seeing all of these people's comments and your little hearts flying up and talking to Jules every day and the messages.

[00:06:26] We call each other barnacles because she's like, you're stuck with me for life.

[00:06:33] And I'm fine with that because we really needed someone like that in our corner.

[00:06:37] And so that's what the podcast has done for us. And then since the podcast has released, obviously, getting into those 61 countries, getting our case known across the world is very, very important.

[00:06:50] And just keeping that awareness alive for our case is very, very important, especially in a case as old as ours.

[00:06:57] It was important to to stay in the media.

[00:07:00] So I think that's what we did whenever we produced this and when it released.

[00:07:04] And, yeah, I think it just kind of changed the way our family.

[00:07:10] I don't know, just like our stamina and our strength and like what we had to keep going, you know?

[00:07:16] Yeah.

[00:07:17] Well, thank you. Thank you for that.

[00:07:20] As far as now what we're going to do, we're going to jump around audience, everyone who's watching.

[00:07:26] So I'm going to be asking Casey questions.

[00:07:27] I'm going to be asking Jules questions, so we're going to go back and forth.

[00:07:30] But my next question is for Jules, just in terms of the Wix case.

[00:07:35] Okay.

[00:07:35] Will there be additional seasons?

[00:07:40] Yes.

[00:07:42] Casey and I have been working behind the scenes.

[00:07:48] Actually, we were working on the next season.

[00:07:51] We call it the book, the next book of Missing in Hush Town about the Wix girls while we were doing the first one.

[00:07:58] Because there's a lot of things and excursions we went on that we cannot publicly share yet.

[00:08:07] But we were rolling.

[00:08:09] We were recording the whole time.

[00:08:12] Yes.

[00:08:13] I've signed up for life.

[00:08:14] So however many seasons that we need to do, we can play the social media game and whatever trends we need to do to keep this.

[00:08:23] We'll play whatever game we can to make sure that the girls stay front and forward.

[00:08:27] And the next season is not going to be the Wix case because we can't move forward with the Wix case as far as a whole nother season reveal everything we know just yet.

[00:08:42] Legally.

[00:08:43] That's what I'll say on that.

[00:08:45] But I promise it's there.

[00:08:47] It'll be there for you.

[00:08:48] But the next season of Missing in Hush Town is actually another girl who has been missing from Tennessee.

[00:08:57] Actually, March 4th is the national Missing Children's Day or national Tennessee's Missing Children's Day.

[00:09:03] And it's because Bethany Markowski went missing on March 4th.

[00:09:07] And she's actually our next missing in Hush Town.

[00:09:11] And we're working with her mother and her family who's absolutely amazing.

[00:09:15] And I found out about Bethany Markowski through the Wix family.

[00:09:19] So I truly felt that it was meant to be.

[00:09:22] You know, we're not at a shortage of cases to take.

[00:09:25] So we had to really think and pray which one we wanted to take.

[00:09:30] And this Bethany Markowski story is going to get you.

[00:09:34] It's going to just infiltrate your heart and make you part of Bethany's brigade.

[00:09:38] So that's the next season.

[00:09:40] And it's already in production.

[00:09:42] Yes, it absolutely is.

[00:09:46] Okay.

[00:09:47] Casey, my next question is for you.

[00:09:49] So in terms of your involvement in the production of the podcast, how involved were you with Jules?

[00:09:57] I mean, I know this answer, but I'm going to ask you anyway so everyone else will know.

[00:10:05] When she asked me if I wanted to co-produce, I was like, whoa, whoa, whoa.

[00:10:07] I don't know how to do a podcast.

[00:10:10] And I had already listened to some of her episodes on True Crime and Headlines.

[00:10:14] So I was like, this sounds good to me.

[00:10:16] Like, let's do it for Jennifer and Adriana, you know, like every episode about us.

[00:10:20] That would be great.

[00:10:21] But I was like, I don't know how to do a podcast.

[00:10:23] She was like, that's okay.

[00:10:25] Like, I'm going to do all of that.

[00:10:27] You know, I just basically whenever we say co-producer, like I'm obviously all of the information into the case.

[00:10:36] She's doing her own research and everything to trying to stay unbiased, trying to stay unbiased, which is very hard to do in some cases, especially ours.

[00:10:46] But I was more of like the information and the connections and the networking part for her, connecting her to people.

[00:10:57] You know, I recorded conversations and things like that.

[00:11:01] I mean, she produced and put all of it together.

[00:11:04] Yourself did a lot of it, Jen, too.

[00:11:07] But as far as how much I actually produced the podcast, I mean, no, I didn't do that.

[00:11:12] I still don't know how to do it.

[00:11:14] Y'all are magicians to me.

[00:11:16] I think Missing and Hushdown turned out wonderful.

[00:11:19] I know some people don't like episode eight.

[00:11:22] That's going to haunt me forever.

[00:11:24] I'm working on it.

[00:11:25] We'll address that one.

[00:11:26] I know, I know, I know.

[00:11:27] But I think it turned out wonderful.

[00:11:30] I think you and everyone that's watching can expect some of the interviews to be done on phone call because we can't be in all places, especially with children.

[00:11:39] And that's what episode eight was.

[00:11:41] And we were actually that day at an event for Jennifer and Adriana.

[00:11:45] So she had to like step outside out back to go and do that on my phone's recording device.

[00:11:51] So she didn't have any of her like stuff to do it.

[00:11:54] And I mean, anywhere, anytime Jules was there to record, to take an interview, she did on multiple occasions.

[00:12:00] I think it turned out wonderful.

[00:12:02] But yeah, I like the title co-producer.

[00:12:05] And I just like having Jules gave me a lot of authority, if you will, which I think is really important.

[00:12:15] And I know she'll do for Bethany's family, too.

[00:12:17] And what I mean by that is, and it's very important in our cases, there's so many other episodes that we've put out for Jennifer and Adriana and articles and interviews that we've done where we didn't know at the time what we know now.

[00:12:31] And so as I was going through listening to it, kind of approving what, you know, the script was and what we talked about, what information we would share, she gave all that to me firsthand.

[00:12:42] So everything that's out there is out there because I said, yeah, this sounds good.

[00:12:47] You know, and that doesn't mean she didn't try to persuade me to say the people need to hear this.

[00:12:55] You know, we need this for Jennifer and Adriana and for justice.

[00:12:58] And I appreciated that about our relationship.

[00:13:01] And I think that's, I mean, we worked really well together.

[00:13:04] But yeah, co-producer.

[00:13:10] Well, I think you're an awesome co-producer.

[00:13:12] And Jules, I just have to shout you out as well because being a podcaster, being a producer is not easy.

[00:13:18] There's so much that we do behind the scenes that no one gets to see.

[00:13:22] And just a side note about episode eight, I just have to give my two cents because I know that, like you said, Jules, there's, and Casey, there are going to be times when you can't be in person with someone and you do have to take that call on the phone and you're recording it.

[00:13:39] And sometimes it's not the best quality.

[00:13:41] But we do our best to make it the best quality.

[00:13:44] So I give you total props, Jules, for taking that feedback well, number one.

[00:13:50] And two, for doing something about it as well.

[00:13:53] So, you know, trying to get that updated so everyone can understand what's being said.

[00:13:57] But just had to put that out there.

[00:13:59] It's important to put that out there in the beginning.

[00:14:02] So, yeah.

[00:14:03] And when people say, I can't understand episode eight, what were you thinking?

[00:14:06] And I'm like, oh, no, I don't know.

[00:14:07] I don't know what I was thinking.

[00:14:09] Well, it's split.

[00:14:10] Some people don't understand it.

[00:14:12] Some people don't.

[00:14:13] And in retrospect, if I could go and do it again, I would have made sure it was the best quality.

[00:14:20] But sometimes you only have one shot for an interview.

[00:14:23] And to us, it sounded fine.

[00:14:25] But I want to listen and take that feedback.

[00:14:28] So I actually have a podcaster who's reading the transcript for us.

[00:14:35] And that's going to be spliced in.

[00:14:37] And so it can be accessible for everybody.

[00:14:40] Exactly.

[00:14:41] And you do.

[00:14:42] You learn from it and you grow.

[00:14:44] Just saw that.

[00:14:45] Shout out Rachel and Heather.

[00:14:47] Thank you.

[00:14:48] All right.

[00:14:49] So moving on, Jules, this is – I'm going to put you on the spot a little bit.

[00:14:55] So there was a podcast episode and podcast, I guess we can say, that was promoted and publicized.

[00:15:02] Oh.

[00:15:03] But it was retracted.

[00:15:06] Yes, it was.

[00:15:07] Is it going to be released?

[00:15:09] And maybe give our audience a little bit more in-depth look into what happened there and what's going on with that.

[00:15:17] I think that's just the perfect example of putting the victim's family first.

[00:15:24] To be honest, our company – Jen and I have FireEyes Media together.

[00:15:31] And I have Anley Audio House, which produced the first season.

[00:15:35] And I sat down and I thought very specifically, what kind of ethics do I want to have?

[00:15:42] And it's victims first.

[00:15:45] And we did – Casey and I did this episode together.

[00:15:49] She read the script.

[00:15:50] She recorded for it.

[00:15:51] But I always tell them, if you change your mind right before we hit publish, it's – we change our mind.

[00:16:00] And if it doesn't feel right for Casey or if there's something there, knowing Casey long enough and as well as I do now,

[00:16:07] that if it – her gut is telling her not to, she trusts her gut and I trust her, trusting her gut.

[00:16:13] But – so we will release it one day when we feel apps – like the whole team feels like it's the best release.

[00:16:22] But it's in the queue.

[00:16:23] It's a great episode.

[00:16:26] It'll blow your mind.

[00:16:29] But it's there for when we want it and when we get the green light and the okay from the boss.

[00:16:35] And, yeah, I'm sorry that I didn't – we did not mean to tease you.

[00:16:39] Casey did not mean to.

[00:16:41] I did not.

[00:16:41] We did not mean to tease you.

[00:16:43] But sometimes you just have to listen to that little voice.

[00:16:46] Well, and I'll be honest, too.

[00:16:48] Like, I get real fired up some days.

[00:16:51] I mean, there's days, like, I want to just get on social media and just blast it for the whole world to hear, you know.

[00:16:57] And so to Jules' point, it's like – I was like, yeah, let's do it.

[00:17:01] Like, let's go, you know.

[00:17:03] And then I slept on it.

[00:17:05] And then it's not just me and our family, right?

[00:17:08] We've got mom.

[00:17:09] We've got Heather.

[00:17:10] We've got Billy.

[00:17:11] We've got Megan.

[00:17:12] We've got Jennifer's dad, Michael.

[00:17:14] Like, we – I mean, I run things past people.

[00:17:17] And if they're like, you know, the last thing that we want to do is jeopardize getting justice.

[00:17:25] Now, if there comes a point in time, like Jules said, it's already recorded and ready to go.

[00:17:31] If there comes a point in time where we're like, you know, this isn't happening.

[00:17:36] And, you know, we might get to that point.

[00:17:39] And I'll be honest.

[00:17:40] I think in that episode, Jules, which we need to go back and re-listen to it.

[00:17:45] We had some, like, some big things in the works that were kind of put on pause.

[00:17:50] Yeah.

[00:17:50] And as far as more awareness, like national awareness.

[00:17:55] And so I think that's what we were waiting on.

[00:17:58] But I think the information in that episode was – it was more so – it's really already out there in bits and pieces.

[00:18:08] And if you can read between the lines.

[00:18:10] But it's just us saying it outright, which is kind of what everyone needs to hear, I think.

[00:18:16] Well, you may have caught it already if you saw the promo for it when we labeled the episode.

[00:18:21] But, yeah.

[00:18:23] We're all learning on the spot.

[00:18:24] There's no manual for when your sister and your niece are victims.

[00:18:28] And this is our first go-around, too.

[00:18:32] So.

[00:18:33] Yeah.

[00:18:35] All right.

[00:18:35] So my next question is for both of you ladies.

[00:18:38] Since the release of the podcast, have you felt unsafe in Hushtown?

[00:18:46] Go ahead, Casey.

[00:18:49] I've spent my entire life feeling unsafe.

[00:18:52] So since the release of the podcast, I will say while in production of the podcast, there was a lot of that.

[00:19:00] I mean, there were days Jules and I are standing, you know, right out in front of their house.

[00:19:07] I don't.

[00:19:09] I don't.

[00:19:11] I don't know them personally.

[00:19:12] And when I say them, the Bentons.

[00:19:13] I don't know them personally.

[00:19:15] And I don't know that anything like that would ever happen.

[00:19:19] Potentially the most dangerous of them all is in jail.

[00:19:25] But while in production, yes, there were times whenever.

[00:19:30] But then my adrenaline gets in the middle of that.

[00:19:33] And then I just think about Jennifer and Adriana.

[00:19:38] But, yeah, I would say there's definitely a worry there.

[00:19:42] But it's always lived there in the back of my mind since they disappeared.

[00:19:45] Because, I mean, someone did it to them.

[00:19:47] I don't put it past anybody.

[00:19:49] Yeah.

[00:19:51] Yeah, I've not felt unsafe yet.

[00:19:55] And I don't know why.

[00:19:58] But the reason I ended up choosing to take on this case, even though the girls went missing just a few miles away, the crow flies from where I'm sitting now, is truthfully, I sat on it for a bit and went over back and forth.

[00:20:14] And if I was going to feel safe, I was going to go in 100%.

[00:20:18] And I still feel safe.

[00:20:19] And I'll never jeopardize my family for anything, ever.

[00:20:22] My kids, my husband, my parents, never.

[00:20:25] So if it feels right, sometimes I just think you have to be a little braver.

[00:20:30] You can be brave and scared and doing stuff.

[00:20:33] But I haven't felt afraid for my safety yet.

[00:20:37] That might change in a few months.

[00:20:41] And we'll talk about that in a little bit.

[00:20:44] But Casey fires me up, too.

[00:20:46] I mean, she'll go in a burning house.

[00:20:47] I'm right behind you.

[00:20:50] It's not a great idea, but I'm with you.

[00:20:55] Well, that leads me to the next question, then.

[00:20:58] Have a lot of people come up to you in public to talk about the case?

[00:21:04] Yes.

[00:21:05] On my end, yeah.

[00:21:06] Yeah.

[00:21:08] I've had people at the Nashville Zoo come up to me.

[00:21:12] And I'll typically have a bunch of my, we need to order more, but I have these Wix Warrior bands on.

[00:21:16] And I'll give them, take it off my wrist and give them to them.

[00:21:20] This might be my last one.

[00:21:24] Out and about.

[00:21:24] Well, and we do a lot of public speaking in Hush Town.

[00:21:29] Together, Casey and I, we're a team.

[00:21:32] And we'll go together.

[00:21:33] So we're starting to get recognized more and more.

[00:21:37] I know Casey got recognized recently out to dinner.

[00:21:41] Yeah.

[00:21:42] So I welcome it.

[00:21:44] Talk to us.

[00:21:45] What do you think?

[00:21:46] Give us your theories.

[00:21:48] Yeah.

[00:21:49] I'm on that same boat.

[00:21:52] I take any opportunity to talk about Jennifer and Adriana and the case.

[00:21:56] And I mean, someone asked in the questions a second ago, and I think mine's probably behind, but they just said, do you feel like you have the support from the community?

[00:22:06] Yeah.

[00:22:07] I feel like we do.

[00:22:08] And that comes along with what we're doing here tonight, like in all of the people in the comments and anytime you like and share our posts or I mean, anything you show up to an event like that gives us the family, the feeling of support.

[00:22:25] And she's right.

[00:22:26] I mean, I was in Springfield recently just for a friend thing and someone reached out to me at dinner.

[00:22:33] And I mean, that means a lot to me.

[00:22:35] That was my goal starting out a couple of years ago was I want everyone.

[00:22:40] It's so surprising to me that there's people that live in Robertson County and Nashville, quite frankly, and surrounding areas that don't know about Jennifer and Adriana.

[00:22:50] It blows my mind.

[00:22:52] You know, especially, I mean, there's not a lot of pages.

[00:22:55] Our page, I don't know.

[00:22:56] I haven't checked it recently, but it's got plenty of followers for Facebook anyways.

[00:22:59] I know there's other platforms, but like I just expect like everyone to know who Jennifer and Adriana are.

[00:23:05] There's some younger people that are just moved here.

[00:23:08] And then we put up billboards, things like that, the yard signs, and then people couldn't miss it, you know.

[00:23:15] And the billboards have have since come down, which we may do some more of.

[00:23:19] And we may change out the yard signs for like a different design or something like that.

[00:23:23] And I asked the other day for everyone to put those back up because I noticed a lot of them were down.

[00:23:28] I know the stands are flimsy.

[00:23:29] So if you need another one, let me know.

[00:23:31] So, but I think all of that is very, very important for awareness.

[00:23:37] And, and yeah, we get, we get recognized all the time.

[00:23:40] They just aren't you the, yeah, yeah, I'm her.

[00:23:44] And so it's not for people to recognize me though.

[00:23:48] It's for case awareness.

[00:23:50] Yeah.

[00:23:50] You know, that, that's what it's all about.

[00:23:53] And I know some other missing persons, families pages that I follow, they get blasted sometime on social media for acting like they're doing it for their own attention and their own five minutes of fame.

[00:24:09] You know, and it's just not the case.

[00:24:12] Like, unfortunately, this is what we have to do.

[00:24:14] And I don't want to, like, I literally don't want to ever get on Facebook again because social media has its challenges, but I have to.

[00:24:24] And if I don't, then all of you wouldn't have even known about Jennifer and Adrienne.

[00:24:30] I mean, there's the ones have been supporting us for 20 years and 10 years and such, but there's a lot of followers and support and awareness that we've gained since we started production for the podcast.

[00:24:40] So, but yes, that was a long way to say, yes, people reach out to us in public when we're out at the grocery.

[00:24:48] The power of social media.

[00:24:50] And I just, you'll see me go through spurts.

[00:24:53] You know, I have two kids and working from home and homeschool and all these crazy ideas, all these million of projects that we're always, Jen and I are always doing.

[00:25:02] So when we get a chunk of time, it's create, create, create, push it out.

[00:25:05] And the power of something like a social media reel, like we had 2.6 or whatever million views on one reel of a quick, I said, hey, Kathy, take this, put this candle down.

[00:25:21] I'm going to do slow motion.

[00:25:23] She had already put it down, pick it back up, put it back down at the vigil that we had for Jennifer and Adrienne a few weeks ago.

[00:25:30] And it's because of that and a video that I took a Billy at the same vigil, that podcast again charted on Apple podcasts.

[00:25:39] We saw a massive spike where we went from like 500 daily downloads to over 5,000.

[00:25:44] And that is the power of sharing on social media and doing that.

[00:25:49] So whenever we post it, that's, we have to play this game to get the girls out there because that's what everyone's consuming.

[00:25:57] Everyone's head is down on their phone.

[00:25:58] We got to, we got to talk to them through it.

[00:26:02] Yeah.

[00:26:04] Absolutely.

[00:26:06] All right.

[00:26:07] Let's y'all got some good questions and I'm sorry.

[00:26:10] There's a lot of people asking good questions.

[00:26:12] I promise you, if you have to jump off and get back on, because we're going to cover a lot of, a lot of y'all's questions.

[00:26:18] Sorry, Jen.

[00:26:19] No, you're good.

[00:26:20] Yeah.

[00:26:20] So we do have a lot of preset questions just based on things that have been asked, but we will, we'll dedicate time.

[00:26:26] Later on in the, in the stream to address a lot of these questions.

[00:26:30] So don't worry.

[00:26:32] But I do want to pivot and ask some pressing questions about season one.

[00:26:37] So I think the best way to do this, we'll chunk these into categories just to kind of address, you know, each one best.

[00:26:43] So we'll start with, I mean, Casey, I'll have quite a few questions for you, but we'll start with Joey.

[00:26:51] So Casey, are you still in communication with Joey Benton?

[00:26:55] And if so, what does that look like right now?

[00:26:59] Yeah.

[00:27:00] The short answer is yes.

[00:27:04] I go some time without talking to him and we just communicate via text.

[00:27:12] But I try to stay in contact with him.

[00:27:15] I get this sense that I get the sense that he's trying to help me.

[00:27:22] And I don't know how to explain that.

[00:27:25] And it's not that we fully trust each other.

[00:27:30] I think that's probably mutual.

[00:27:34] But I do stay in contact with him.

[00:27:36] I ask him questions.

[00:27:37] He responds to those questions.

[00:27:39] Like I asked him recently, like, are there any wells on y'all's property?

[00:27:44] Like just for setting up future searches.

[00:27:46] I asked him that this week and he responded.

[00:27:50] I know that he's been in contact with our private investigator.

[00:27:58] And that was a first.

[00:28:00] And I just try to really just keep the lines of communication open with him,

[00:28:07] especially since he's really the only one trying to help.

[00:28:11] We can get in more to that too.

[00:28:15] So has Joey listened to the podcast, Casey?

[00:28:18] Do you know?

[00:28:20] I don't know.

[00:28:21] I haven't asked him again.

[00:28:22] Shortly after it released, I asked him, did you listen to the podcast?

[00:28:26] And he was like, no.

[00:28:27] How do I listen?

[00:28:28] I'll send him the link.

[00:28:31] Well, I mean, he may not get on social media.

[00:28:34] I don't know what, you know, some people have profiles they haven't looked at in years, right?

[00:28:39] Like I saw one today of like a couple that used to be married and they're not married.

[00:28:43] I haven't been for years, but like it's still a picture of them in the profiles.

[00:28:47] I don't know if he gets on social media.

[00:28:48] So I'm like, okay, you really don't know how.

[00:28:51] Here's the link.

[00:28:53] And so I don't know if he listened to it.

[00:28:56] I would expect after I sent him the link that he did, he didn't say anything about it.

[00:29:02] I mean, I did get some communication after that from some people that know him, just trying to like fill us in on some things that we may have had questions about that maybe know him a little bit better than we do.

[00:29:15] Since we weren't able to get an interview from him for the podcast, which is what we really wanted.

[00:29:23] Because if you're telling the whole story, you got to tell every side to the story.

[00:29:27] Not that our case is a story in any kind of way or a movie or whatever.

[00:29:32] But I mean, he deserves to be heard, you know, innocent until proven guilty, that sort of thing.

[00:29:39] So we gave him the opportunity to do that.

[00:29:42] Yeah.

[00:29:42] In a court of law.

[00:29:45] And so, yeah, I don't know if he listened to it or not.

[00:29:48] I hope he has.

[00:29:49] And I don't know.

[00:29:51] I really hope that everything that I do on social media is not for nothing.

[00:29:55] I hope that he sees it all.

[00:29:58] Yeah, I reached out to him quite a few times.

[00:30:02] Not since the podcast came out, but I never heard back.

[00:30:06] And I don't ever want to overextend.

[00:30:10] You know, I have to still respect all sides.

[00:30:13] But if he still wants to come on and talk with me, absolutely, I would love to talk with him.

[00:30:17] And I'll give him the same space and the respectful space and opportunity to share his version of his events.

[00:30:31] One person asked real quick before, because I think it's going to get, sorry, and I won't look at them anymore.

[00:30:35] But it's going to get lost in things.

[00:30:37] Somebody asked, how does going viral, like millions of views on social media, help us chart?

[00:30:44] And that's because that's a million more people that have seen or heard about the case.

[00:30:50] And that's how, and then go and listen to the podcast.

[00:30:53] So that's just, it's just marketing.

[00:30:57] Well, and I will tack on to that.

[00:30:59] Like, have you ever went down like a rabbit hole before?

[00:31:01] Like you see like an ad on Facebook and you click it and now you're on their website.

[00:31:06] And now you're scrolling around in their website.

[00:31:08] And you're like, how did I even get here?

[00:31:09] And you just spent like a whole hour there.

[00:31:11] Well, that's what social media does.

[00:31:13] So the more that you guys like and share and comment and go back and forth in conversations on our posts,

[00:31:20] that all drives the success of our awareness goal for Jennifer and Adriana's case.

[00:31:25] Because then it takes our posts and if people are scrolling and it gives you like accounts that you might like

[00:31:31] or accounts similar to the ones that you look at, that's what it's doing.

[00:31:34] It's putting it up in front of people because you're looking at it.

[00:31:39] And so, yeah.

[00:31:44] Okay.

[00:31:44] Okay.

[00:31:44] So I have a big question and this is probably one of the most asked questions, I think.

[00:31:50] But Casey, did Joey tell you how the girls died?

[00:31:55] He did.

[00:31:58] He told me what he wanted me to believe was how they died.

[00:32:09] Now, you have to understand.

[00:32:14] As far as the public is concerned, he told all of you that Jennifer and Adriana got into this white car at the gas station and disappeared.

[00:32:24] And then came back to his house the next day on Friday and disappeared again.

[00:32:28] Okay.

[00:32:29] And so I've got that in my head.

[00:32:32] Then I talked to him in April of this year.

[00:32:34] It's our first time speaking over the phone ever.

[00:32:39] And he tells me all of that's true.

[00:32:41] And so and then I go April, May, June, July.

[00:32:45] I talked to him in July.

[00:32:46] And then he tells me what we know from him today, which is their deceased.

[00:32:51] And their last day was March 25th, 2004.

[00:32:53] And so which one do I believe?

[00:32:57] It's like being lied to so many times that you don't know what to believe.

[00:33:01] And so here we are like talking for the first time ever.

[00:33:06] And I have this feeling he's trying to help me, but I'm not sure.

[00:33:10] And we don't really trust each other.

[00:33:11] And so do I believe that he's telling this because it really happened?

[00:33:17] Do I believe that he's telling this because he wants something from this story that he's telling?

[00:33:25] Does he want something to happen because of what he's telling me?

[00:33:28] Does he have an ulterior motive or did it really happen?

[00:33:33] And and I just can't believe him because he's the boy who cried wolf so many freaking times.

[00:33:39] Right.

[00:33:39] And so I don't know if what he told has any truth to it whatsoever.

[00:33:47] So the short answer is yes.

[00:33:50] He told me how they died.

[00:33:51] And I'm not going to share that literally with anyone.

[00:33:57] And the reason is, is because my goal is Jennifer and Adriana.

[00:34:04] My goal is not to help anybody else except them.

[00:34:09] And I feel like if I put that out there, that it could potentially help him or one of his other family members.

[00:34:18] And I'm not going to do that.

[00:34:20] And so he did tell me how they died.

[00:34:25] And I might share it one day.

[00:34:29] If we get to the point where we're changing laws and if we ever get to the point of prosecution, that's why we hold back information, by the way.

[00:34:38] Anytime I hold back information from anyone who wants to know it, it's not because I want to like tease you with the information.

[00:34:46] It's only because if I share that, I have no idea because I've never done this before.

[00:34:54] What me sharing that information, what the effect will be on prosecuting in the future.

[00:34:59] And so this year, especially with everything that happened earlier this year, I know we're going to get into that later.

[00:35:04] What happened in March with his dad, that was kind of like the domino, the first domino that led to a lot of things this year.

[00:35:14] And we thought and still, I guess, hold out a little hope that prosecution is still on the table and for someone that's responsible for their deaths.

[00:35:26] And so I can't do anything to mess that up.

[00:35:29] And the answer is yes.

[00:35:30] He told me how they died.

[00:35:32] Now, Casey, did he happen to say that he saw the girls after they had already died at his home on March 25th, 2004?

[00:35:57] Will you repeat that?

[00:35:58] I'm sorry.

[00:35:59] Sure.

[00:36:00] So did Joey say that he saw the girls after they were already dead at his home on March 25th, 2004?

[00:36:16] I think I saw someone ask this question.

[00:36:18] And so I guess like the second part to this question was, or did he say that someone else told him that they had died?

[00:36:26] And I know it had been asked a few times.

[00:36:31] The best way that I can answer this is he felt sure that they were dead whenever he got home that day, according to what he told us.

[00:36:44] I'm not going to say that he saw them or didn't see them.

[00:36:47] And I'm not going to say that anyone told him or didn't tell him.

[00:36:52] But I can tell you that he felt pretty confident in telling us that.

[00:36:59] Now, did he say why he didn't call the police then at that time?

[00:37:03] That's a golden question.

[00:37:04] That is literally everyone's first sentence out of their mouth whenever we tell them this.

[00:37:12] Right.

[00:37:12] So when we've been talking to the DA and law enforcement and this team and within our family and just kind of feeling everyone in,

[00:37:19] they're like, well, if that happened, like, why didn't he call the police?

[00:37:22] And we're like, like, I don't know.

[00:37:28] You know, I think he did say, let me answer the question.

[00:37:34] He did say the reason why he didn't call the police.

[00:37:42] But I'm going to dance around this.

[00:37:45] But if we're not believing what he's saying fully, then we can't believe what he's saying fully about why he didn't call the police.

[00:37:59] So we're like, you know, how do I say?

[00:38:05] Bear with me.

[00:38:06] You're doing a great job.

[00:38:07] I'm getting there.

[00:38:08] You're doing good.

[00:38:11] He said how he, hold on a second.

[00:38:18] He did say, he did say the reason he didn't call the police.

[00:38:25] Now, is it believable?

[00:38:29] Maybe.

[00:38:30] Just based on their family dynamic.

[00:38:32] I'll leave it there.

[00:38:36] And did he happen to say why after sticking to his story?

[00:38:42] For all that time.

[00:38:44] Why now, 20 years later, is he suddenly changing his story?

[00:38:49] No, my mom straight up asked him that question, too.

[00:38:54] You know, just sitting right across from him.

[00:38:56] She asked him that exact question.

[00:38:59] No, he just said he felt like we should know.

[00:39:05] Because also because of things that they were going through at the time.

[00:39:09] I mean, their family.

[00:39:09] I guess things that they were uncovering themselves that they didn't know before.

[00:39:18] And I mean about all the stuff that happened with his dad in March.

[00:39:22] You know, the things that they found.

[00:39:24] And, you know, I think that he was trying to make us believe that they were finding out things for the first time.

[00:39:39] And that they felt like that they could now share it with us.

[00:39:45] Based on what they were finding out about family members.

[00:39:53] So, Casey, what do you believe?

[00:40:03] I've got a lot of theories.

[00:40:05] Obviously, I've went back and forth over the last couple of years.

[00:40:13] Especially before we met with him in July this year.

[00:40:17] I mean, I was all over the place with my theories.

[00:40:19] I would call up my mom every day, every other day.

[00:40:22] You know, I got it.

[00:40:24] But this is what happened.

[00:40:26] And here's why.

[00:40:27] You know, and I would get down to the nitty gritty when we were talking about the white car.

[00:40:31] And did it exist?

[00:40:32] Did he drop them off at the gas station?

[00:40:34] Was Adriana there?

[00:40:35] Did something happen to Adriana before they left?

[00:40:38] Did Jennifer ever leave the house?

[00:40:39] You know, so when we're talking about the car.

[00:40:41] I was like, they only got one car, mom.

[00:40:44] You know, so and then I was like narrowing down.

[00:40:46] Like, where was Cindy that day?

[00:40:48] Where was Joe that day?

[00:40:49] Where was Joey that day?

[00:40:50] And the times of the phone calls.

[00:40:52] And you can probably see that over the last couple of years as my posts have went on.

[00:40:56] And I'm trying to explain things.

[00:41:01] To get right down to it, though, I've always felt that Jennifer and Adriana both were not here anymore.

[00:41:10] From the very beginning.

[00:41:13] As a family member of a missing person, when someone is technically missing and there's no proof that they are or are not still alive.

[00:41:24] You hold out that small little bit of hope that that they might still be out there.

[00:41:30] Maybe they were human trafficked because there's a lot of that going on.

[00:41:35] You know, sex trafficking, illegal adoptions.

[00:41:41] There's been some of that in our research, while researching our case.

[00:41:46] And with people in connection with the Bentons.

[00:41:52] I mean, with all of those things, you just kind of keep that hope.

[00:41:55] And especially there's not just me here.

[00:41:58] There's other people in my family.

[00:41:59] My mom.

[00:42:01] It's very, very difficult.

[00:42:02] I can only imagine as a sister and an aunt.

[00:42:07] But for my child, I would probably never give up that hope.

[00:42:14] That they're still out there.

[00:42:16] And then a lot of people kept the hope for Adriana because she's two.

[00:42:20] I've even seen it in the comments so far while we've been live.

[00:42:24] Like, how can they do that to a two-year-old?

[00:42:27] And my response is always, it happens every single day.

[00:42:30] Turn on the noose.

[00:42:33] And so that's why I've always felt that it's probably the both of them.

[00:42:39] And this year, we kind of got confirmation, if you will, by speaking to Joey that they were deceased.

[00:42:49] Now, you always have to keep in the back of your mind, this guy's lied, right?

[00:42:54] So keep that in the back of your mind.

[00:42:56] There's a little piece of me that doesn't 100% believe what he's saying.

[00:43:01] And you can't just take bits and pieces of what he's saying and make them true.

[00:43:07] And so, but the point of it is, is that he's saying that they died that day.

[00:43:11] He's the last person that saw him.

[00:43:14] He's the last witness to their being alive, according to him and his family and the story that they made up.

[00:43:23] And so that's all I have to go off of.

[00:43:26] And so what I believe happened is, is that Joey came home from work that day.

[00:43:36] And I think that they got into a heated argument.

[00:43:39] I think that my sister was trying to leave.

[00:43:41] And I think she was trying to get him to come with her, just based on the conversation with my aunt that she had that day at one o'clock.

[00:43:52] And for the longest time, I felt like she was just trying to get her and Adriana out of there.

[00:43:58] She was, she just realized the situation she was in and I don't need to be with this guy anymore.

[00:44:02] But recently my aunt, I can't remember how it came about, but she talked to someone.

[00:44:11] And I think I asked my cousin, I was like, did she say that Jennifer said she wanted Joey to leave with her that day?

[00:44:18] And she said, yes.

[00:44:19] And so that's what leads me to believe that I think that they had a conversation and that he wouldn't let her leave.

[00:44:27] And so I think there's a possibility that something happened between Jennifer and Joey in that moment when she was trying to leave,

[00:44:35] because I think that's very common in abusive relationships, people that are under the influence,

[00:44:41] which he was quite a bit back then, according to pretty much everyone that knew him.

[00:44:48] And. And.

[00:44:50] I also think that there's a possibility that they left from their talking to go back to his parents house.

[00:44:59] And she was trying to gather some things and would probably mouthing off or something and things heated up there with all three of them home.

[00:45:05] And now what happened to Adriana is something I don't like to think about.

[00:45:18] But based on.

[00:45:21] What he told us in July earlier this year, if there's any truth.

[00:45:26] To.

[00:45:28] What he told.

[00:45:30] I don't put it past.

[00:45:33] Them to be able to do something to Adriana, too.

[00:45:39] So I think that both of them died that day.

[00:45:42] I think he's telling the truth.

[00:45:43] I think that there's parts of it that aren't true.

[00:45:45] I think he's omitting parts of it.

[00:45:48] I don't know if he'll tell me everything one day.

[00:45:50] I hope that he does.

[00:45:52] But I think that there are parts that he's leaving out to benefit himself or someone else.

[00:45:59] Oh, sorry.

[00:46:03] So.

[00:46:06] We're live.

[00:46:07] Well, thanks for turning your camera off.

[00:46:09] We appreciate that.

[00:46:10] Forgot to be.

[00:46:15] So, Casey.

[00:46:17] Why?

[00:46:18] And this is I know this is a question that's asked all the time.

[00:46:20] But why hasn't Joey been arrested then for obstruction of justice for lying about the girls for the last 20 years?

[00:46:30] Yeah.

[00:46:33] First, I'll touch on that is like the biggest question that we've gotten since I put that information out for everyone to know.

[00:46:42] And not really that.

[00:46:45] They want to know why he's not being arrested for saying they died that day.

[00:46:48] Right.

[00:46:49] And so this is kind of a twofold question or two part question.

[00:46:53] The answer to the reason why he hasn't been arrested for saying they died that day is because we got a 20 year old case here.

[00:47:00] There's not a lot of evidence, as you all know.

[00:47:04] And most of you, if you haven't go listen to Missing in Hushtown, please.

[00:47:08] All the episodes start at the beginning.

[00:47:10] You're welcome to ask me to.

[00:47:12] But there's pretty much no evidence in our case.

[00:47:15] There was a lot of police work done in the beginning that wasn't done properly or not entirely and not thoroughly.

[00:47:23] That caused a lot of missed opportunity.

[00:47:26] And, you know, I think that that lack of evidence and those lack of statements and those just lack of looking into like everyone's whereabouts and where was everyone and trying to actually.

[00:47:42] Look at it.

[00:47:44] Missing persons cases are so backwards, like if someone's missing and it's very unusual for them to be missing, it should be worked the opposite way of how law enforcement does it.

[00:47:54] And that's just the truth.

[00:47:55] They shouldn't be.

[00:47:56] You got to wait 24 hours.

[00:47:58] It should always be like, oh, crap, something happened to this person.

[00:48:01] It could be very bad.

[00:48:02] It should always be that way.

[00:48:04] And especially if the people that you're living with have any sort of criminal record, any sort.

[00:48:11] And if you go back and look, they got it.

[00:48:13] And so it made no sense why there was no suspicion that maybe something bad happened to them.

[00:48:19] But anyways, there's no evidence, physical evidence.

[00:48:23] OK, there's the lying and the back and forth in his statements about the white car.

[00:48:27] That's because he didn't get a story straight yet.

[00:48:30] He didn't understand the story fully.

[00:48:33] And then once you tell it to yourself so many times, you can get it down and lie about it for 20 years.

[00:48:38] And that's what he did.

[00:48:40] And so there's a lack of evidence.

[00:48:42] And then also we haven't found Jennifer and Adriana yet.

[00:48:45] And so, I mean, there are nobody cases, nobody murders where people are convicted of murder.

[00:48:53] The March case based out of Nashville, Tennessee, Perry and Janet March.

[00:48:57] I mean, that's one of the biggest ones.

[00:48:59] And it does happen.

[00:49:00] So it's not to say that we can't prosecute without Jennifer and Adriana's remains.

[00:49:05] You know, but there's no weapon there.

[00:49:09] There's no anything because it wasn't looked for in the beginning.

[00:49:14] And that's just the truth of it.

[00:49:15] And then the second part of that question that you just asked or the only question you asked and I added to it is like, why isn't he being arrested for obstruction of justice?

[00:49:24] Well, that was like one of the things that we took to our district attorney's most recent meeting.

[00:49:29] Like, is there anything that you can do?

[00:49:32] Like, like, and my answer is always statutes of limitation.

[00:49:35] I know that gets people real fired up.

[00:49:37] But I mean, the truth of it is, is that what he has told, everything that he's told and by way of telling admitted to is out of statute of limitations in Tennessee, which I know all the states are different.

[00:49:56] But in Tennessee, we're, we're looking at first degree murder.

[00:50:01] And so disposing of remains, tampering with evidence, falsifying a police report, lying to a police officer.

[00:50:09] I mean, any of them, I can go down the list.

[00:50:11] It's all done.

[00:50:13] And so, I mean, there's a lot that needs to change as far as that.

[00:50:17] I know Jules mentioned it in the beginning as far as law changes and we don't have to go into that.

[00:50:20] But that's the reason why he's not being arrested.

[00:50:23] And I know that the district attorney is looking into it because we mentioned it to him and there was some things that kind of got his wheels turning.

[00:50:31] And, and I hope that they do something about it because, I mean, if they don't, I mean, that just kind of sets precedent that like anyone can lie about something.

[00:50:41] As long as they make sure, go Google it real quick and make sure how long you've got to lie about it and just hold it in for that long.

[00:50:50] And then there's nothing anyone can do about it.

[00:50:53] And they can't set a precedent like that.

[00:50:54] So I really hope they do something about it.

[00:50:57] It's also important to know too.

[00:50:59] I mean, we, you've touched on this many times that I know a lot of our work's warriors have as well that we get one shot.

[00:51:06] A lot of times you get one shot.

[00:51:07] And so we don't know what they're doing behind the scenes with local law enforcement and Tennessee Bureau of Investigation.

[00:51:14] They'll tell us what they want to tell us.

[00:51:16] They tell me nothing, but they'll tell the family any, they don't have to tell them anything.

[00:51:23] So any morsel of information.

[00:51:25] And I know it's probably a risk they feel on their end to tell Casey if it goes then to the podcaster.

[00:51:36] I understand there's, there's not, there's probably not a lot of trust there between this new medium of investigative podcasting and law enforcement.

[00:51:46] But I truly do feel that we could work together.

[00:51:49] And if they only knew how much information we have that we have not shared because we're on their team, I really think that might help shift the narrative on that.

[00:52:00] But so I'm going to transition over and ask some questions about Joe Benton and the court case.

[00:52:11] So Casey, will you discuss the charges and the outcome of the most recent court case for Joey's father, Joe Benton?

[00:52:20] Yeah.

[00:52:21] Yeah.

[00:52:24] I have a, yes, I will.

[00:52:29] Sometimes I don't like talking about Joe.

[00:52:35] And I will because, and my mom said it recently, like they made their entire lives our business 20 years ago when Jennifer and Adriana disappeared from their home.

[00:52:44] So I believe that wholeheartedly.

[00:52:46] Um, but I'll, I, and Jules knows this about me.

[00:52:51] Like I like to walk like that.

[00:52:52] I'm only Jennifer and Adriana over here.

[00:52:54] Okay.

[00:52:55] So in March this year, uh, a lot of, you know, their house was raided in March, um, 20 years to the day, almost to the time that we reported them missing.

[00:53:05] Uh, there was like this big raid at their house.

[00:53:08] Didn't know at the time.

[00:53:09] Um, but it had nothing to do with Jennifer and Adriana.

[00:53:13] Uh, I say nothing to do with Jennifer and Adriana.

[00:53:16] Uh, everything there has to do with Jennifer and Adriana.

[00:53:18] Okay.

[00:53:18] But, um, as far as law enforcement's concerned and his charges, it had nothing to do with Jennifer and Adriana.

[00:53:25] Okay.

[00:53:26] Um, so after that raid, there were 42, uh, weapons charges, illegal weapons charges and, um, uh, explosive bomb making, whatever materials or whatever.

[00:53:41] And then, uh, there were a couple other charges that were already in place, domestic assault, um, and aggravated assault.

[00:53:51] Domestic assault was against his wife.

[00:53:53] Aggravated assault was against a, uh, law enforcement individual.

[00:53:58] And, uh, then of course the one that everyone was just kind of shocked about or rather not shocked was a 20 year old, uh, photograph of a minor where he got

[00:54:11] a charge for, uh, sexual exploitation of a minor.

[00:54:15] So he, we went to a couple of court dates, Jules and I did and the family, um, and we'll save that episode for another day because there's a lot to unpack there.

[00:54:28] Um, it's interesting learning about all of this.

[00:54:31] If you know nothing about what going to court is like and when they actually call them up there and if they actually do it in front of you.

[00:54:39] Um, so that's all a lot.

[00:54:42] We'll do that another time.

[00:54:43] But, um, we went to a lot of his, uh, court hearings where he was assigned an attorney and then, um, he was assigned a public attorney or public defender or whatever for not being able to afford one, I guess, of his own.

[00:54:57] Um, and then the most recent court date was October 9th.

[00:55:03] Um, I say I have a bad memory, but some things I can remember and it's weird, but pretty sure it was October 9th.

[00:55:10] And, um, I wasn't there for that, but all of his charges were dismissed.

[00:55:19] Uh, Joe was a convicted felon, um, for he was part of and, um, took part in, uh, kidnapping a couple years back.

[00:55:32] Um, that involved another family member and of his, we'll go into that in a little bit, but anyways, during that became a felon.

[00:55:43] Um, and so he wasn't allowed to have any of these weapons at his home.

[00:55:48] And so whenever they found all of these weapons, they are illegal.

[00:55:52] Um, some of them aren't registered.

[00:55:54] Um, and so that's how he got all of those charges.

[00:55:57] And so just the fact that they were dismissed, uh, doesn't really make a lot of sense to us anyways.

[00:56:05] Again, we're not in that world.

[00:56:07] We don't know.

[00:56:08] I mean, there have been plenty of people comment and plenty of people that we have, uh, do who have been like, if that were me, I would have got so much time.

[00:56:18] So there's not really a lot of people that understand it.

[00:56:20] It seemed unfair.

[00:56:22] It seemed unjust.

[00:56:23] It seemed kind of shady to be quite honest.

[00:56:26] Um, for 42 charges to get dropped, um, the bomb making materials or explosive weapons or whatever he ended up getting.

[00:56:36] Um, uh, intent for, uh, he ended up getting sentenced for that one charge only.

[00:56:45] Um, but it kind of got like degraded or downgraded or whatever to intent for making bombs, uh, which is real confusing because Jules and I were there.

[00:56:55] The ATF people came over and pushed us back.

[00:56:58] I don't know if they were concerned about the materials that weren't touching each other.

[00:57:02] And there wasn't an actual bomb actually exploding and hurting people.

[00:57:05] Maybe it's protocol.

[00:57:06] I'm not sure.

[00:57:07] Again, we're not in that world, but, uh, that is the one charge that stuck.

[00:57:11] Um, and so he got a year and we'll talk about that.

[00:57:16] And then the sexual exploitation of a minor also dismissed.

[00:57:19] Um, that one's a little bit mind blowing too.

[00:57:23] Um, and could potentially, in my opinion, relate to our case, uh, just as far as like potential motive and things that we suspect as a family, as far as why Jennifer and Adriana are gone today.

[00:57:36] Um, things that could have potentially been happening to Adriana because he clearly, uh, by way of photo proof, uh, has a pattern of that.

[00:57:48] Um, so it was strange for that to get dismissed, but it was.

[00:57:52] And so the year that he got, uh, for the intent for bomb making, whatever materials, um, he will have served that full one year sentence because he was already serving jail time since February or like early March of this year.

[00:58:11] He will get out on March 6th, uh, of 2025.

[00:58:16] So, um, yeah, that's it in a nutshell.

[00:58:21] Uh, we're just kind of blown away by that.

[00:58:25] Um, when we ask about Joe and his charges, we're told a lot of times that it has nothing to do with Jennifer and Adriana's case.

[00:58:34] Um, which is kind of a little bit of a slap in the face, honestly.

[00:58:37] Um, not that we don't understand like what they mean technically.

[00:58:45] Uh, but when you're talking about a 20 year old unsolved homicide and the charges that were brought against him, potentially being the reason why Jennifer and Adriana are not here today.

[00:58:58] Also, it just doesn't make sense.

[00:59:00] Um, so I hope that that helps clear it up for some people that were wondering.

[00:59:07] Yeah.

[00:59:07] So Casey, I have one, one more question and then Jules, I'm going to jump to you.

[00:59:12] Cause I'd like to hear your kind of your experience being at the court case.

[00:59:16] I think that's important just from your perspective, but Casey, as far as you know, are Joe and Cindy Benton still married?

[00:59:26] As far as I know.

[00:59:27] Yeah.

[00:59:28] Uh, I don't know how to go look up, um, if people are still married or not.

[00:59:32] I mean, I mean, she, she's pretty active on social media and I saw recently, I mean, someone shared with me that she had changed like a relationship status, but that doesn't mean anything legally.

[00:59:44] I know that, uh, she, at least from what we're told, um, it doesn't sound like that will be working out for them, for them to stay together.

[00:59:57] But I mean, who knows?

[00:59:59] Like we're dealing with people that are unpredictable.

[01:00:04] Now, Jules, just from your perspective, attending the court hearing, can you kind of walk us through that and maybe some of your frustrations or what you experienced, you know, from, from this perspective, from like somebody who's working on the podcast, who's a producer, who's, but also an advocate.

[01:00:24] What was that like for you?

[01:00:25] Yeah, absolutely.

[01:00:27] Um, so everybody was out of town, but me.

[01:00:32] Um, it was fall break.

[01:00:35] Um, and we had, we had already done our vacation.

[01:00:39] So I was there for the, um, the court, the court hearing where his charges, excuse me, were dropped.

[01:00:45] But, um, I, you know, I wanted to represent the family and I wanted to be there and do right by them.

[01:00:52] So, uh, a few of our friends as well, um, a married couple went with me cause I asked them to, cause we didn't know who would be there.

[01:00:59] And I, nobody wanted me to go alone.

[01:01:01] And so I wanted to respect that fear.

[01:01:03] So, um, they met me there, but we went to the courthouse, the Robertson County courthouse, and we couldn't get in, uh, because duh, they're redoing the leaking roof.

[01:01:15] And so then I had to call Sessions Court and ask, where's this taking place?

[01:01:20] So, um, we ended up being about 10 minutes after nine.

[01:01:26] Um, and it was scheduled for nine o'clock AM.

[01:01:29] And I walk in and it's just in a different venue.

[01:01:32] So every, there's tons of people in the hallway and I go up to the bailiff, uh, and all the officers checking your stuff to put you through to the courtroom courtroom.

[01:01:44] And, um, he asked me if I had, if I was being seen.

[01:01:50] And I said, no, sir.

[01:01:51] And he said, well, is it your family?

[01:01:54] I said, no, sir.

[01:01:54] He goes, well, then you have to wait here until the person's called.

[01:01:57] And I said, oh, hold on.

[01:02:00] We've done this before.

[01:02:02] And how will I know if this person is called up?

[01:02:05] How will I know when Joe's called up?

[01:02:07] Who's going to tell me?

[01:02:09] And, um, I guess we could come get you.

[01:02:12] I said, no, no, no.

[01:02:13] I was told this in the past and we missed it.

[01:02:16] I'm not playing this.

[01:02:17] We're not doing this anymore.

[01:02:18] I was, I was respectful, but I was adamant.

[01:02:22] Um, I said, I am representing the family and they can't be here today.

[01:02:26] And it's really important that I can be here and not miss this.

[01:02:30] And he said, who are you here to see?

[01:02:32] And I said, Joseph Frank Benton.

[01:02:35] And he said, why didn't you say so?

[01:02:38] He said, go on through there.

[01:02:40] And I don't know if he was a Wix warrior.

[01:02:42] I don't know what, but it was a good moment I felt.

[01:02:45] And so we went on through and we sat down and I watched a different murder sentence scene.

[01:02:52] And it was so heavy.

[01:02:53] The other family was in there and I felt so intrusive and is devastating.

[01:02:57] And then they say, okay, court's dismissed.

[01:03:01] And I'm go get Joe.

[01:03:04] Where's Joe?

[01:03:05] Come to find out they saw him before 9am.

[01:03:08] And I don't know if it's because they changed the venue, but they saw him very first before

[01:03:14] the schedule 9am.

[01:03:15] It's not supposed to start until 9am online.

[01:03:18] It said 9am on all the forms that said 9am.

[01:03:20] So I'm fired up.

[01:03:22] Are you kidding me?

[01:03:23] We came here for this family that it's so important.

[01:03:27] I don't let them down.

[01:03:28] And I've missed them because you decided to start 30 minutes early.

[01:03:33] Are you kidding me?

[01:03:35] So anyway, that's that.

[01:03:41] I wonder now.

[01:03:42] We are starting earlier.

[01:03:44] And we did have Jules was there and the couple that went with her, but we had a friend of my

[01:03:50] mom's go to just in case Jules couldn't make it.

[01:03:53] And she was there right at 9am.

[01:03:57] But as Jules said, they had already started his hearing.

[01:04:04] And so she called like the last five minutes of it.

[01:04:08] And that was that.

[01:04:09] So she saw parts of it, which is the information that we have and all the information that I

[01:04:17] shared a little bit ago.

[01:04:18] But she was there and saw part of it.

[01:04:20] But Jules is right.

[01:04:21] It started before there.

[01:04:23] We don't know the reasoning for it.

[01:04:24] But that wasn't the first occurrence of something like that happening.

[01:04:27] That was like the third or fourth for every hearing that we had been to.

[01:04:32] Well, next time I'll meet them at the door when they unlock it, because I'm not missing

[01:04:36] it, because that's ridiculous.

[01:04:38] Yeah.

[01:04:40] You have a right to see this.

[01:04:42] It's, yeah, powered up.

[01:04:50] So let's move.

[01:04:51] Let's move on.

[01:04:52] I want to talk a little bit about a little bit more about Cindy Benton.

[01:04:55] So Jules.

[01:04:57] Yes, ma'am.

[01:04:58] Has Cindy reached out to you?

[01:05:00] No, ma'am.

[01:05:02] Not at all.

[01:05:03] She's not at all.

[01:05:06] I've not reached out to her either.

[01:05:08] If she would like to talk with me, I would love to sit down and talk with her.

[01:05:13] And again, give her the same deal everyone else got.

[01:05:16] You have every right to dismiss any questions.

[01:05:19] You have, I will send you the questions ahead of time, Bentons.

[01:05:23] You can approve any of them.

[01:05:25] I just want to get in front of you and talk to you.

[01:05:29] Talk to us.

[01:05:30] Everyone's talking about you, around you, for you.

[01:05:33] I've got all of your criminal records.

[01:05:34] I'm freaking fired up right now.

[01:05:36] I'm pissed off all over again.

[01:05:38] You cannot hide in a small town like this.

[01:05:41] Justice is coming.

[01:05:42] And so if you're just going to sit there like a hermit and hide, girl, your husband's getting out of jail and he's a shit.

[01:05:51] What are you going to do?

[01:05:53] What are you going to do?

[01:05:55] I'm worried about everybody.

[01:05:59] This is why I shouldn't go live.

[01:06:01] But here's the deal.

[01:06:02] Here's the deal.

[01:06:04] Cindy, I would love for you to come and talk to me.

[01:06:07] Cynthia K.

[01:06:08] Benton, this is your invitation to come and talk to me.

[01:06:11] I'll meet you in a public space.

[01:06:15] And let's address everything and anything you want to say.

[01:06:19] You can have all the recordings that I do.

[01:06:22] You can record the interview yourself.

[01:06:24] I had people also record their own interviews so that they could feel like I wasn't pulling a fast one on them.

[01:06:31] Let's go.

[01:06:34] So, Jules, kind of going along with that question, do you know if Cindy still lives in Hush Town?

[01:06:41] Yes.

[01:06:43] Yes.

[01:06:44] She still lives here.

[01:06:47] And Casey, what about you?

[01:06:48] Has Cindy reached out to you since the podcast aired or have you tried to reach out to her?

[01:06:53] Yeah, no, she has not reached out to me.

[01:06:56] I know that she's blocked quite a few people on social media.

[01:07:05] Okay, let me touch on that.

[01:07:07] We don't want that.

[01:07:09] I mean, do what you want to do, but I don't want to be responsible for none of that.

[01:07:15] No vigilantes, please.

[01:07:17] We're not trying to say you.

[01:07:18] No vigilantes.

[01:07:19] Please leave her be.

[01:07:21] None of that.

[01:07:22] And I know sometimes we get fired up and trust me, there are days whenever I just want to go there.

[01:07:29] But we can't do that.

[01:07:31] And so keep that in mind, especially whenever you're a supporter of Jennifer and Adriana.

[01:07:37] Keep them top of mind, please.

[01:07:40] No, she has not reached out to me.

[01:07:42] I don't expect her to.

[01:07:44] I have asked her via text if she would speak to me and no response.

[01:07:54] And I have also asked Joey if he would ask his mom if she would speak to me.

[01:07:59] And he doesn't respond to them, to those texts.

[01:08:03] So I don't know what the deal is there.

[01:08:07] I mean, there's all kinds of possibilities there that maybe she has nothing to do with it.

[01:08:13] Doesn't know anything.

[01:08:14] Has been in the dark all these years and just lives in la-la land.

[01:08:19] But then there's also the fact of the matter that Jennifer's dad hurt a woman in the house that day on the day that Jennifer and Adriana died.

[01:08:27] So I think that you should speak up.

[01:08:30] I think that you shouldn't let the men in your life talk for you, and especially your child.

[01:08:40] And yeah, I agree with Jules.

[01:08:42] Reach out to us anytime.

[01:08:44] We're actually pretty nice, reasonable people.

[01:08:48] And all we want is Jennifer and Adriana.

[01:08:51] And so I hope that she does reach out to us.

[01:08:56] Now, Casey...

[01:08:57] Oh, sorry, Jules.

[01:08:58] I don't...

[01:08:58] Did you want to say something before?

[01:09:00] Yeah, I just want to piggyback off real quick.

[01:09:02] Casey and I get very fired up.

[01:09:04] If you heard the conversations between us, we're very fired up.

[01:09:09] And rightfully so, this is her life.

[01:09:11] And I love her.

[01:09:12] And they've accepted me as their own, as their family.

[01:09:14] And so I'm very invested in justice and growing to love Jennifer and Adriana through all these people that I absolutely love.

[01:09:24] But we want zero people to message her.

[01:09:28] We want zero people to message her.

[01:09:32] What we want you to do is give out justice for Jennifer and Adriana and keep the dialogue justice for Jennifer and Adriana.

[01:09:41] And if you continue to shift it, Cindy this, Joe this, all the time in anything we do, then it's just going to be synonymous.

[01:09:48] That takes...

[01:09:49] I think that takes away a little bit of what we're trying to do.

[01:09:53] So we just...

[01:09:54] Yeah.

[01:09:54] That was my biggest fear in doing this podcast was inciting vigilantes and having anybody get hurt.

[01:10:01] And I don't want anybody hurt.

[01:10:02] I don't want the Bentons hurt.

[01:10:05] That might be hard to hear, but we don't want them to get hurt.

[01:10:08] I don't want anyone to ruin their life over...

[01:10:11] Any more lives ruined.

[01:10:14] So...

[01:10:14] I agree.

[01:10:15] That's not the goal.

[01:10:17] Yeah.

[01:10:17] You know?

[01:10:18] I mean, we have to look at what is the goal.

[01:10:20] The goal is always staying focused on the girls.

[01:10:24] The goal is finding the girls and getting justice.

[01:10:26] So that's not going to do anything.

[01:10:29] Being vigilantes, you know?

[01:10:32] That's not going to do anything.

[01:10:33] If anything, it's just going to hurt more than it's going to help.

[01:10:37] And what do we say, Jules?

[01:10:40] What do we say with the podcast?

[01:10:41] Helping or hurting the case.

[01:10:43] Exactly.

[01:10:46] So I know you already touched on this a little bit, Casey, but what do you believe Cindy's involvement is with the girls' disappearance?

[01:10:55] Like you personally?

[01:11:02] I think that she can't live and die on the hill, that she knows nothing about it.

[01:11:09] I think that that's completely impossible.

[01:11:12] So that's what I believe.

[01:11:13] I think that she was there.

[01:11:16] I think that she knows what happened.

[01:11:19] I think she knows where they're at.

[01:11:22] Whether it was her or not, I don't know.

[01:11:30] I don't know the answer to that.

[01:11:32] But I know that she knows.

[01:11:35] And I suspect that's the reason for her silence.

[01:11:42] But, yeah.

[01:11:43] I mean, as far as involvement in the actual death, I can't place blame on any of the three.

[01:11:53] Just due to uncertainty and all of the lies.

[01:12:02] So, interesting question.

[01:12:05] Casey, is it true when Cindy Benton was young that she shot her father?

[01:12:16] We talked about this the other day.

[01:12:22] There's either one or two possibilities.

[01:12:25] Apparently, again, I don't like to go too much into what's not related to Jennifer and Adriana.

[01:12:31] Okay.

[01:12:32] It does come into play as far as that person being capable or able to emotionally and mentally get there in their brain to do something to our girls.

[01:12:44] Okay.

[01:12:45] So it does play into it.

[01:12:46] So I'll answer it.

[01:12:51] I don't know.

[01:12:51] I feel like we need to look into that a little bit more.

[01:12:54] I thought that that was the truth.

[01:12:57] But we were talking about it recently.

[01:12:59] And I think it was mom told me that potentially it was her mom who shot her father.

[01:13:06] And there was obviously some things going on in her house and her childhood growing up that weren't great, unfortunately, that she had to deal with.

[01:13:15] But I don't know all of the details of that.

[01:13:18] There's some truth.

[01:13:20] Her father was shot by someone, either her or her mom, in their home.

[01:13:27] Yeah.

[01:13:30] Okay.

[01:13:31] So let's pivot a little bit.

[01:13:32] Let's talk legal.

[01:13:35] Let's talk about the legal process.

[01:13:37] Casey, can you discuss the recent DA meetings and kind of give us a rundown on how you felt and maybe any information that you're allowed to give us without hurting the case?

[01:13:52] Yeah.

[01:13:54] Jules touched on it earlier, that law enforcement, like they don't have to share anything with us.

[01:13:59] The DA doesn't have to.

[01:14:00] The DA doesn't have to technically, I guess, take meetings with us.

[01:14:15] Yeah.

[01:14:16] The district attorneys and the TBI and Robertson County and our family.

[01:14:22] I mean, we're all good team.

[01:14:29] I mean, we're all good team.

[01:14:52] We're all good team.

[01:14:53] And so there's two counties.

[01:14:54] And so there's kind of like our general DA and then there's a DA for Robertson County.

[01:14:58] And so we meet with the both of them.

[01:14:59] And so we meet with the district attorney, our initial meeting with district attorney Nash, Robert Nash, went very well.

[01:15:08] He told us, you know, I hear you.

[01:15:13] And we I think we can all agree.

[01:15:16] We all want the same thing.

[01:15:17] We want Jennifer and Adriana.

[01:15:19] And of course, like the family sitting here, there's days where we would push justice aside just to know where Jennifer and Adriana are.

[01:15:26] Like if there's nothing we can do about what we're being told about how they died and we just find Jennifer and Adriana, but no one ever figures out how like we're cool with that.

[01:15:35] Right.

[01:15:35] But the other people on the other side of the table are like, but we want justice and we do, too.

[01:15:41] But Jennifer and Adriana kind of trump justice and the DA sat down that day and he was like, he was like, I'm with y'all, you know, like I want to find Jennifer and Adriana.

[01:15:50] But right below that, he's like, we want to prosecute.

[01:15:54] Right.

[01:15:55] And we want to hold that person accountable.

[01:15:56] So that's how our first meeting went.

[01:15:58] Our first meeting was also interrupted by Joey.

[01:16:06] And so we didn't get to spend as much time that day.

[01:16:09] And then we had two more meetings after that where we just kind of asked follow up questions about statutes of limitation, understanding like what we had to work with.

[01:16:22] All this new information that was coming in from Joey himself and Amy, if you've kept up with some of my posts and things that we shared in the podcast that they came forward and told us like we were bringing that, you know, to law enforcement and to the DA.

[01:16:37] And just kind of sharing with them, like, here's what they're telling us.

[01:16:40] Like, you can't do anything with us.

[01:16:42] Like, we're just as confused as all these people commenting.

[01:16:44] Like, why can't they do anything about it?

[01:16:45] You know, just we don't live in this world.

[01:16:47] We don't know.

[01:16:48] So that was how like a couple of our meetings went.

[01:16:50] And then the most recent one that we had, just like a couple of weeks ago, we sat down to talk about prosecuting without a body.

[01:17:04] Because that's our goal.

[01:17:05] Like, if we can't, if they're not going to give us Jennifer and Adriana, then, I mean, we want justice for them then.

[01:17:15] I mean, you lied about it.

[01:17:16] You told us that they died that day.

[01:17:19] You tried to tell us where they were located.

[01:17:21] And I know we have questions about that too.

[01:17:25] But we still don't have Jennifer and Adriana.

[01:17:27] So we're not going to forget about the other piece of this puzzle.

[01:17:31] Like, we want justice.

[01:17:32] So that's what we sat down with them recently to do.

[01:17:35] As far as what they can share with us, there's not really, I'm trying to think.

[01:17:48] As far as like what they've told us that we could share, those conversations, they get pretty, I don't want to say heated.

[01:18:03] But there's a lot of emotion sitting around that table.

[01:18:06] And so there's a lot of us telling them, like, it's not enough.

[01:18:14] Like, we need you to do more.

[01:18:16] Why can't you?

[01:18:17] We don't understand.

[01:18:19] And then there's a lot of they're explaining to us, you know, here's the reason why.

[01:18:23] Here's what we need.

[01:18:25] Here's what we have.

[01:18:27] And so I know that leaving that last meeting, that there's some things that they're working on, some statements that they're gathering, you know, to help us stay on track with hopefully prosecuting with or without Jennifer and Adriana's remains.

[01:18:48] And I'll just kind of put it that way.

[01:18:53] Now, Jules, has anyone from law enforcement in Robertson County or the TBI contacted you?

[01:19:00] No.

[01:19:03] No.

[01:19:03] And I don't expect them to kind of going back to it's a weird, I can understand why they wouldn't want to talk to a podcaster.

[01:19:15] Absolutely.

[01:19:15] They don't know me from Adam.

[01:19:16] They don't know our ethics and what we stand on and our whole goal here.

[01:19:21] Sure.

[01:19:22] So as far as many law enforcement view, from what I've heard, podcasters, investigative podcasters were seen as the media.

[01:19:31] And there's a little bit of level of distrust of, you know, they'll share this information.

[01:19:35] They'll share this lead first.

[01:19:38] We won't.

[01:19:39] Jen, you and I with FireEyes Media won't.

[01:19:41] Casey and I and Lee Audio House won't.

[01:19:44] So I understand.

[01:19:45] I understand.

[01:19:46] I did meet them, though, and tell them that I was doing this podcast.

[01:19:52] And one of them said he listens to my other podcast.

[01:19:56] So I was like, oh, tune in.

[01:19:59] Thank you.

[01:20:01] But I don't know.

[01:20:02] I can expect that they're not very pleased with this.

[01:20:09] But there is a misconception that we don't think they're doing anything.

[01:20:12] And that's not true.

[01:20:14] I have respect for a lot of the individuals working on the case right now, a lot of respect for them.

[01:20:19] And it's that respect that we won't share a lot of what we know.

[01:20:27] I saw Robert's question.

[01:20:29] He was talking about the court date still.

[01:20:31] As far as I know, there's no plea deal that Joe is cut, by the way.

[01:20:37] What was the question?

[01:20:39] With the DA.

[01:20:40] He said the reason that Joe was seen before 9 a.m. on his court date because there was a plea deal with his lawyer and DA.

[01:20:48] Well, maybe he means for the sentencing for that one year, like they lessened his charges or whatever.

[01:20:53] So they already talked about that beforehand.

[01:20:55] So they were like, oh, they see them first.

[01:20:59] OK.

[01:21:00] You must know more about the court system, Robert.

[01:21:03] Slide into the DMs.

[01:21:07] But yeah, to piggyback off what Jewel said, I mentioned it before our current team.

[01:21:14] They're really good.

[01:21:16] So we sit across from the table in these meetings and things get heated.

[01:21:19] There's a lot of emotions involved.

[01:21:21] There's a lot of mom pushing her chair back, deep sighs.

[01:21:25] There's a lot of, you know, just a lot of back and forth.

[01:21:29] And those meetings are very, I don't know, draining.

[01:21:37] So whenever I leave those, like a good three days afterwards, I'm just dead to the world.

[01:21:43] I just can't do anything.

[01:21:45] Yeah, I've learned not to call you right after because she means decompress and I have to respect that, even though I'm like.

[01:21:53] Yeah.

[01:21:53] Yeah.

[01:21:54] Especially whenever, like if we hear things sometimes that we don't want to hear and like it's so frustrating, you know, like common sense says that that's the last place that they were.

[01:22:03] He said that he died, that they died.

[01:22:06] Go get them then.

[01:22:07] You know, like that's common sense.

[01:22:08] That's just not how the law works.

[01:22:10] And so, again, like it's just something that we've never been through.

[01:22:13] Hopefully none of you ever go through.

[01:22:16] You know, but.

[01:22:18] I don't know, like those we have a good team and we do have respect for them and they are working on things.

[01:22:24] A lot of what's been done in the last couple of years is due to those people that are currently working on the case.

[01:22:32] And we're still working on justice for the girls.

[01:22:40] But I did leave the last meeting without their wishes, telling them that I will continue speaking with Joey.

[01:22:54] Because my goal is Jennifer and Adriana.

[01:22:57] And the hard thing is, is that you're sitting across from people who talk to, I don't want to label Joey, but talk to these kinds of people every day or people who truly are guilty of crime.

[01:23:12] And so they know what it looks like whenever someone acts a certain way or talk a certain way.

[01:23:18] And we're not used to that.

[01:23:19] And so they have a concern about us and, you know, us being taken advantage of and going through these emotions over again.

[01:23:29] And we just try to reassure them like we're not, you know, there's nothing that he could say, literally nothing that he could say that could disturb like my peace.

[01:23:40] Like it's been 20 years.

[01:23:42] Like we've got one goal, it's Jennifer and Adriana.

[01:23:44] And so we try to reassure them that.

[01:23:46] So I left that meeting and I was like, I'm going to keep on because regardless if y'all can get justice or not, I will never stop trying to get Jennifer and Adriana.

[01:23:54] I mean, there's a chance we get Jennifer and Adriana and y'all still don't get justice.

[01:23:58] So that looks like I'm going to, I'm going to keep talking.

[01:24:01] And so that's kind of where we left it with plans probably to meet after the holidays, probably unless anything happens.

[01:24:11] So Casey has the shared of Robertson County Sheriff Mike Van Dyke.

[01:24:16] Has he called, emailed, texted anything within the past year?

[01:24:21] Have you heard of him?

[01:24:23] Was he president of any of the DA meetings by chance?

[01:24:27] No.

[01:24:28] Sheriff Van Dyke, he was like, I saw the other day when the case was reclassified in 2013 to homicide.

[01:24:36] He was deputy sheriff at the time.

[01:24:39] He stood right next to us.

[01:24:40] So he's been, in our case, aware of it.

[01:24:44] It's one of their biggest cold cases that they have.

[01:24:48] You know, he's been part of it for all this time.

[01:24:51] And so it's been kind of odd not to get that response from someone who has that stature and that, you know, the ability that he has as that level of law enforcement official in Robertson County where Jennifer and Adriana disappeared from.

[01:25:09] Like, I kind of expect it.

[01:25:12] But also, like, we can reach out to him, too.

[01:25:16] I will say that whenever I picked up the case in 2021, I met with our, we're going two detectives back here.

[01:25:23] But whenever I met with Detective Jones, who was our detective at the time, he did pop in briefly to say, you know, hi, shake a hand, meet.

[01:25:35] Just because we had never, like, met with me kind of representing the family.

[01:25:41] But that was really our only interaction.

[01:25:43] But nothing in the past year, no.

[01:25:50] Now, let's talk about the search of the property really quickly.

[01:25:54] Do you know exactly how extensive those searches were of the property, the Benton property?

[01:26:05] I think, too, like, because we covered all that in the podcast, but specifically since the information that Joey's provided with to law enforcement about the girls not being alive on their property.

[01:26:25] Have they searched there since?

[01:26:27] I guess.

[01:26:28] That would be my one, the question that we need to know outside of just listening to the podcast.

[01:26:37] I'm going to add in more to that.

[01:26:40] But I will come, I will circle back there.

[01:26:44] In the podcast, we shared the emails that Amy and Joey and the communication that we had with them and the locations that were given that are in Robertson County for Jennifer and Adriana's remains.

[01:26:55] Do I know how extensively those have been searched?

[01:26:58] I feel like I do.

[01:26:59] There's a lot law enforcement doesn't share with us.

[01:27:01] Or I feel like they feel like the more that we know, the more things can get out and become public.

[01:27:09] And that in turn hurts their case or like the integrity of their case.

[01:27:13] Right.

[01:27:13] Which I can understand.

[01:27:15] I know that they have been out to that property, I think, in our last DA meeting that they said like, I can't remember for sure.

[01:27:23] So if you are watching, don't be mad at me, but like nine or 11 times or something like that.

[01:27:28] So they had went out there a ton.

[01:27:30] The first couple of times that they went out there, in my opinion, it was short periods of time.

[01:27:36] I mean, we were there for the first two, I felt like, to my knowledge.

[01:27:42] And I mean, it was just like hour, like a couple hours.

[01:27:45] You know, it's not like these like days long foot searches whenever, I don't know, whenever you watch true crime on TV and they say that's where they are.

[01:27:54] And they like set up lights in the middle of the night and they just don't stop until they find them.

[01:27:58] It wasn't like that.

[01:27:59] I understand they have to be strategic.

[01:28:00] It's been 20 years.

[01:28:02] You know, all cases are different.

[01:28:05] Okay.

[01:28:05] So I'm like layering in some like devil's advocate type stuff.

[01:28:09] But so do I know how much that property has been searched?

[01:28:12] Yeah.

[01:28:13] I know they took cadaver dogs out there.

[01:28:16] I know that there was lots of digging.

[01:28:26] I know that GPR equipment was used.

[01:28:29] I know some people have asked that.

[01:28:33] This is not the Benton property.

[01:28:35] This is not the Benton property.

[01:28:37] No, this is the location that that was given to us earlier this year for them to go and search.

[01:28:44] So these are about 20 within a calendar year.

[01:28:48] This is what has been.

[01:28:49] Yeah, that that's.

[01:28:51] Yeah.

[01:28:51] And then our family has had some searches this year to close and nearby to that property.

[01:28:59] We live in a small town or in a small area.

[01:29:01] So there's lots of talk and lots of rumor.

[01:29:06] I mean, we did not do like an extensive search.

[01:29:09] I mean, it was like four of us going out there with like a shovel, you know, and so also a very emotional draining day.

[01:29:19] You know, we didn't do any like extensive digging or tear up anything.

[01:29:24] And then the Benton property and how extensively it was searched, especially after this information has come out.

[01:29:32] I can't get on board with it.

[01:29:33] Quite honestly, I don't understand.

[01:29:37] I've even given our law enforcement team and our district attorneys team this exact statement.

[01:29:44] You know, if my husband were to die at my home, you know, but I told you that it was somewhere else to go look somewhere else.

[01:29:55] Like, would y'all seriously not look here?

[01:29:57] Like, it doesn't make sense.

[01:29:59] And I can't make it make sense.

[01:30:01] It doesn't make sense to me.

[01:30:02] And so to what extent has the Benton property been searched since Joey has come forth with this information and admission, whatever you want to call it, to what he's admitting to?

[01:30:15] The answer is none.

[01:30:18] Now, have they been there?

[01:30:20] Yeah, they've been there since he's come forward with this information, not at his father's raid or his charges.

[01:30:27] But since then, in relation to our case, yes, they've been there.

[01:30:31] Do I think it's enough?

[01:30:33] The answer is no.

[01:30:34] Do they know that I think it's not enough?

[01:30:36] Yeah.

[01:30:38] And I hope that they do something about that because it doesn't make sense.

[01:30:43] There's literally no one here in the comments.

[01:30:45] My mom, I saw you comment a second ago.

[01:30:48] Jules, Jen, literally anyone who can sit in front of me, like, make it make sense.

[01:30:52] It doesn't make sense.

[01:30:54] You can't say that you know someone died.

[01:30:58] You know what happened to them.

[01:30:59] You know where they're at.

[01:31:01] But we don't come search there for any type of evidence.

[01:31:03] It makes no sense.

[01:31:09] So we're almost done with the questions.

[01:31:11] And then I want, like, the preset questions.

[01:31:14] I have one more for you, Casey.

[01:31:16] And it's regarding Amy Benton.

[01:31:18] So I know she wasn't talked about much in the season on the podcast.

[01:31:23] But she's become a pretty prominent name since the release.

[01:31:27] And I know that her arrest records have kind of come to light.

[01:31:32] So, Casey, can you touch on what you know about Amy Benton and her recent activities, we'll say?

[01:31:44] Like I said before a few different times, I like to keep everything centered around Jennifer and Adriana.

[01:31:50] I'm not sure how much Amy has had involvement.

[01:31:53] However, she inserted herself and made herself involved this year in our case whenever she communicated with me and my mom.

[01:32:02] And so, yes, I will talk about this.

[01:32:05] She has two warrants out for her arrest currently.

[01:32:09] And those are violation, warrants, violation of probation.

[01:32:15] But as far as her involvement with Jennifer and Adriana, I mean, she wasn't living there at the time that Jennifer and Adriana disappeared or were murdered.

[01:32:26] Did she have access to the house?

[01:32:28] Maybe.

[01:32:30] You know, does she know what happened?

[01:32:32] I'm not sure.

[01:32:33] I'm not sure that.

[01:32:37] I don't know.

[01:32:38] I don't know.

[01:32:38] I try to put myself in the three Joe, Cindy and Joey's position, which is very difficult to do.

[01:32:45] But I try and do that and think like, who all would I tell, you know, if something like this went down?

[01:32:51] And I feel like we would obviously try to keep it as small as possible.

[01:32:54] So I'm not sure that Amy knows she could.

[01:32:58] But she does have a couple warrants out for her arrest unrelated to Jennifer and Adriana.

[01:33:05] But I mean, she comes with her own set of personal problems and charges and things that you can look into.

[01:33:13] Some of them were related to the kidnapping I mentioned earlier with Joe Benton a couple years back related to a family member.

[01:33:23] But again, I mean, that's their own personal stuff.

[01:33:31] So, Jules.

[01:33:33] Yes, ma'am.

[01:33:34] What's next for the podcast?

[01:33:37] We're going to hopefully keep the story in front of as many eyes and ears as we can.

[01:33:45] So we're not going anywhere.

[01:33:47] Where we're doing Hush Town Unzipped, where we're going to bring in a bunch of professionals, psychologists, psychiatrists, forensic experts, and dissect this case and try to see it from as many different angles as we can.

[01:34:06] And learn from people who know more, you know, lawyers, prosecutors who know more than we do in this area.

[01:34:12] So I think one thing that a lot of people tend to do is stop learning.

[01:34:19] So we don't know everything.

[01:34:22] We don't even know a little piece of everything we could know yet.

[01:34:27] So we're going to go reach out to people who do know.

[01:34:30] And hopefully we can try to piece it all together and keep it out there.

[01:34:35] And that will still be on wherever you get your podcast, Missing in Hush Town.

[01:34:39] That'll still populate on that for you there.

[01:34:45] Perfect.

[01:34:46] And we're not going anywhere.

[01:34:47] I mean, this is I live here.

[01:34:49] So they're my family now.

[01:34:51] They're some of the bravest, most amazing people I've ever been honored to know.

[01:34:57] So I'm a lifer.

[01:34:58] I'm in it.

[01:35:01] And we are continuing to show up and speak to whoever will have us.

[01:35:06] We'll hold a sign wherever we can hold a sign.

[01:35:09] So if you're local and you see us, come say hi.

[01:35:12] Come talk to us.

[01:35:14] We like to know that we're not alone when we're out there.

[01:35:17] And the community is growing stronger.

[01:35:20] And they're seeing how asinine it is that this case is still insolved.

[01:35:26] Yes.

[01:35:28] So before we, I'm going to give about, we have a little bit more time here.

[01:35:33] So I want to open the floor for at least 10, 15 minutes and cover some of the questions that have been in the chats.

[01:35:39] I know we covered a few of them.

[01:35:41] But I want to give an opportunity to, you know, Casey and Jules for you to answer some of these questions.

[01:35:47] But before we do that, because then we'll wrap up this, the live stream.

[01:35:52] Jules, really quickly.

[01:35:54] Obviously, there's, you've touched a little bit about what's going on with future seasons of Missing in Hushtown.

[01:36:01] We talked about that.

[01:36:02] But you have a lot of projects, a lot of things happening as well, because not only are you helping with the Wix case, but you're an advocate and you have a lot of other projects happening.

[01:36:13] And I just want to take just a couple of seconds here to talk about some of the other projects that you're working on.

[01:36:20] And I think it's really important so people know what else you're doing.

[01:36:24] Obviously, I'm a part of a lot of those projects.

[01:36:26] I already know what that is.

[01:36:27] But I want to, you know, leave it open for everyone else who's tuning in tonight so they know where else to find you and how else we're working on, you know, advocacy efforts.

[01:36:39] Because I think it's so important.

[01:36:40] We're not, especially you, Jules, we're not typical true crime podcasters.

[01:36:44] We're different because we're, obviously the heart of what we do is advocacy.

[01:36:50] It's the families.

[01:36:51] It's giving the victims a voice.

[01:36:53] So, Jules, I'm going to give you the floor for a minute.

[01:36:57] Tell me and tell everyone that's tuning in what else you have going on real quick.

[01:37:01] And then, Casey, I'm going to give you an opportunity to kind of wrap it up in what you're working on and what else, you know, how else people can find you for those that are tuning in on different platforms.

[01:37:12] So, Jen Rivera is my co-founder, business partner with FireEyes Media.

[01:37:22] And together, we are on the board for the victim advocacy nonprofit called Shores of Strength.

[01:37:28] And she is the founder and the president, and I'm the vice president.

[01:37:32] And it's victim-centered and victim-focused.

[01:37:35] So, we aim to fundraise to give back to families and give them resources.

[01:37:41] Families that find themselves in this position, you know, it's the unknown, unchartable, and trauma and tragedy.

[01:37:47] What do you do?

[01:37:47] Where do you go?

[01:37:49] We'd like to step up and help you and give you resources and create any kind of media that we can do for you and help you market and get it out there.

[01:37:59] And that leads us to our first production, nonprofit, like fundraising production.

[01:38:07] It's a podcaster's give back.

[01:38:09] And the idea was that I would get a bunch of my friends, Women in True Crime Podcasting, and we would all tell a story, a case about someone's loved one who should be here this holiday season.

[01:38:19] And so, this podcast comes out.

[01:38:21] We tell multiple cases.

[01:38:22] There are multiple podcasters.

[01:38:24] A lot of them are joining us right now who donated their time and their skills and their efforts to this project.

[01:38:31] November 29th, it's called the Homicide Tree.

[01:38:36] And so, in Robertson County, in the library, Stokes Brown Public Library, there is a homicide tree that the district attorney's office does.

[01:38:46] I think it's called for Wings of Hope of Victim Advocacy.

[01:38:49] That gave me the idea because on this tree are ornaments of all these victims of homicide.

[01:38:54] And it's in the library.

[01:38:56] And you pass by it.

[01:38:57] It's right in front of the kids section.

[01:38:59] So, these are all people that should be home for the holidays.

[01:39:01] So, that comes out November 29th.

[01:39:03] Everywhere you get your podcasts.

[01:39:04] And it's a fundraiser.

[01:39:05] We're raising money for Shores of Strength.

[01:39:07] 100% of any penny earned and donated through ad revenue, through donations, goes right back to victims and their families and their efforts.

[01:39:21] And we have Missing in Hushtown Season 2.

[01:39:23] We're working on the podcast.

[01:39:24] And we're also doing a documentary film for that one as well.

[01:39:28] And that kind of wraps it up.

[01:39:30] It's always moving.

[01:39:32] We're never not working on some type of advocacy in case work.

[01:39:40] And we're community building to try to push ethics and true crime.

[01:39:45] And I'm learning, too.

[01:39:46] I've learned the hard way.

[01:39:47] But, yeah, hopefully you guys will tune into the Homicide Tree.

[01:39:51] And if you feel led to donate, we have those links on all of our pages as well.

[01:39:59] I'm on Instagram at yourhostjules.

[01:40:01] True Common Headlines is me on Facebook and then on YouTube at yourhostjules.

[01:40:08] Awesome.

[01:40:09] Thanks for that, Jules.

[01:40:10] And, Casey, I'm going to give you the floor for a second.

[01:40:13] Can you just let everyone know where they can find you?

[01:40:17] If they're not, like, if they're tuning in just on YouTube and they're not following you on Facebook,

[01:40:22] where's the best places that they can connect with you and continue to follow the case?

[01:40:29] Yeah.

[01:40:29] So, mostly I'm on Facebook.

[01:40:34] We have a good following on there, good traction as far as social media.

[01:40:38] But it's connected to my Instagram.

[01:40:40] So, our Facebook page is Justice for Jennifer and Adriana Wicks.

[01:40:44] You can message me on there.

[01:40:46] I check it multiple times a day and respond almost immediately.

[01:40:50] And our Instagram is Jennifer and Adriana Wicks.

[01:40:54] So, no justice for just Jennifer and Adriana Wicks.

[01:40:57] I have a TikTok, but I'm not good at it.

[01:41:00] I just have the story up there.

[01:41:02] And then Jules and I do a lot of, like, collaborating and whatnot.

[01:41:05] So, anytime she does something, like, I'll share it online and vice versa.

[01:41:10] But Facebook is probably, like, the best thing.

[01:41:12] I probably need to do a lot more.

[01:41:14] Just had our focus a little bit in other places this year, you know.

[01:41:20] So, I will continue to push social media and set up some different things.

[01:41:29] But, yeah.

[01:41:30] Facebook is probably the biggest one.

[01:41:33] Awesome.

[01:41:33] So, let's give the last couple of minutes, then.

[01:41:37] Let's start answering some of the questions that are in the comments.

[01:41:41] I know we have a ton.

[01:41:45] I don't know if there was any that stood out to you, ladies, that either Jules or Casey, that we didn't answer yet.

[01:41:51] I'm going through some of them right now.

[01:41:54] Yeah, I've been going through them, too.

[01:41:56] I'm going to look and see.

[01:41:57] A lot of them we answered.

[01:42:02] Yeah, we'll only be covering some of the questions that haven't already been answered.

[01:42:07] And if you haven't got a chance to watch the entire live, it will be available to re-watch on YouTube and on Facebook.

[01:42:15] We want all your theories, all your ideas.

[01:42:19] Have you thought of this?

[01:42:21] Have you contacted this?

[01:42:22] I see some of you are.

[01:42:23] Have you contacted this?

[01:42:24] I'll tell you what.

[01:42:25] If you know somebody who has a great reach and can advocate, send them our way, please.

[01:42:32] We need bigger dogs as far as I'm constantly reaching out to producers who are so well-known and know what they're doing far more than I do.

[01:42:44] We need as many resources as we can get.

[01:42:50] So, you never know who you know or what you could offer us.

[01:42:54] If you have any ideas, if you have any connections, please reach out to us.

[01:43:01] Heather Harshaw asked, we answered one part of her question.

[01:43:04] She just said, whenever y'all got those locations of where their remains could be, were y'all able to follow through with a search of those?

[01:43:10] And I answered that part.

[01:43:11] But her second part of her question said, and do you believe that their remains are on the Benton property?

[01:43:22] The answer to that question is yes.

[01:43:28] Yes.

[01:43:31] That's a short answer.

[01:43:33] I think that, I mean, there's obviously a possibility that they could be literally anywhere else.

[01:43:41] But I think that their protection of that property for so long and the behaviors that we've seen just in my gut just tells me, yeah, they're there.

[01:43:55] My mom believes the same thing.

[01:44:05] Someone asked, can it be handled by outside law enforcement?

[01:44:09] No, where the crime occurred is where the crime is handled.

[01:44:15] So, it's going to be handled by Robertson County and the TBI.

[01:44:19] FBI can get involved if they're invited.

[01:44:22] But FBI has like their own set of criteria.

[01:44:25] So, a lot of times it has to cross state lines or have a federal crime attached to it.

[01:44:33] Now, we're talking about Joe and his charges earlier this year.

[01:44:37] We're getting dang close to that, but it's relation to our case.

[01:44:40] It's kind of where that got iffy.

[01:44:42] And then I've also talked to the FBI about how close Joey's story anyway, exit 112, is not very far from Tennessee, Kentucky state line.

[01:44:51] He was also working in Kentucky at the time that the girls disappeared that day and went back there the next day.

[01:44:59] So, I have definitely talked to them about that.

[01:45:01] And they were supposed to like look into it and contact our TBI agent.

[01:45:05] And I never heard anything back.

[01:45:08] Why is Cindy never questioned?

[01:45:10] And can they do it now with Joey telling they are deceased?

[01:45:15] Cindy has been questioned.

[01:45:17] And what I mean by questioned is talked to at her own free will.

[01:45:23] So, this is also, as far as I know, now previously, like in the past when the girls first went missing, I'm sure she came in to give statements.

[01:45:32] Maybe, I don't know.

[01:45:33] Again, law enforcement doesn't tell us much of anything.

[01:45:37] But in the comfort of her own home, right there with Joey sitting right next to her.

[01:45:44] And again, I feel like if she was questioned, depending on the part that she played in it, if we're saying that she took a part in it, she could potentially only know what she knows.

[01:45:58] And so, there's a possibility that she's telling a story that she's told herself for 20 years and believes it.

[01:46:07] So, they have talked to her recently this year.

[01:46:15] We're getting into motive.

[01:46:20] Havana Morgan Plummer said, do you think she put two and two together about what had happened to Adriana and Cindy knew and took it upon herself?

[01:46:28] Well, possibly.

[01:46:30] There's a lot of people who think that.

[01:46:34] There was a lot of animosity shared between Jennifer and Cindy that week with the living conditions and with the baby and the crying and Joey pretending like Adriana's dad and her not liking that.

[01:46:47] You know, do I think that alone makes her capable?

[01:46:52] I don't know.

[01:46:52] But I do think that people get into things too far sometimes.

[01:46:57] I think it's a possibility.

[01:47:04] Tammy Taylor, she's like a really good big supporter for Jennifer and Adriana's page.

[01:47:11] With her being a nurse, she probably was able to get some type of drugs or something to knock them off.

[01:47:15] I've heard this before.

[01:47:17] Apparently, there's like some kind of logs or something that people have to log anytime that they do take medicines out for whatever reason.

[01:47:25] But there's something, I can't remember what they're exactly called, but they're like displaced meds or drugs or whatever like that discarded.

[01:47:33] And so someone brought that to my attention.

[01:47:36] But I think those records are probably far gone by now.

[01:47:39] If her actual employment records are far gone, those probably are too.

[01:47:51] Am I currently working to change the limitation laws on missing persons cases?

[01:47:57] Yes.

[01:48:00] If any other families that are watching this that have missing loved ones, I'll just put this out there.

[01:48:06] My family doesn't want your family to be going through what we're going through now.

[01:48:10] It's pretty awful.

[01:48:11] The fact that someone can hold on to a lie for so long and conceal a crime and get away with it.

[01:48:16] So, yes, we are trying to do that.

[01:48:18] We've reached out to Representative Kumar.

[01:48:22] And I know some new people were just elected in and I have not reached out to them, but he was reelected.

[01:48:29] As far as like the local level, Jules and I and Billy spent some time in Cross Plains with some of their people that were running to get elected and made some networking or made some relationships there.

[01:48:45] And as far as Springfield, we did the same thing there, tried to reach out to some of them.

[01:48:51] And we will continue to do that.

[01:48:52] That'll be something that we push because it needs to be done.

[01:48:57] It's just going to keep happening to others.

[01:49:02] Zach Patterson, he always has really good questions.

[01:49:05] Yeah, I was noticing that.

[01:49:08] He and his sister gave dig locations or places bodies were supposed to be at.

[01:49:13] How has that not had anything to do with the charges?

[01:49:16] I mean, I guess just the fact that they were unsuccessful in finding Jennifer and Adriana.

[01:49:22] So to us, to the world and to law enforcement, it just looks like he lied.

[01:49:28] To me, it looks like a diversion.

[01:49:32] We're potentially like leading away from their property or where possibly we were getting close to.

[01:49:46] Robert Dozier, also a good supporter.

[01:49:49] Do you happen to know if there was a forensics team involved in this case and was their home ever searched then?

[01:49:54] Their home had a walkthrough done of it.

[01:49:57] This was the small brick home that Jennifer and Adriana disappeared from.

[01:50:03] Was it forensically tested or like luminal like you see in movies or anything?

[01:50:08] I don't believe so, no.

[01:50:11] The log cabin that they built right next door, I know that law enforcement, according to them,

[01:50:16] I have not seen any supplemental reports or anything like that because we don't have access.

[01:50:20] There were like some columns underneath the Benton's home, concrete columns that had been checked.

[01:50:25] The perimeter foundation underneath the walls of the house that was six feet deep that you heard about in our podcast.

[01:50:31] Not checked.

[01:50:32] Can't check it without getting a warrant, which we also can't get.

[01:50:35] But I do know, Robert, that there was some kind of like forensic type stuff done potentially with the barn, the party barn.

[01:50:46] But at the time that that was done, it was well after the party barn had been moved from their property over to another family member's property around the corner on a different road and completely stripped down to the studs.

[01:51:03] And so everything had been ripped out of it.

[01:51:04] So what good that did, I'm not sure.

[01:51:08] I think it was unsuccessful, though.

[01:51:15] Well, what happened is cadaver dogs accidentally got lost on their property.

[01:51:20] It's interesting because...

[01:51:23] I didn't get that at first.

[01:51:25] I was like, don't be so sick.

[01:51:27] I've thought what would happen if Julie got lost.

[01:51:31] Lord, no.

[01:51:32] Cadaver dogs.

[01:51:33] So cadaver dogs.

[01:51:34] It's interesting because Robertson County doesn't have their own cadaver dogs.

[01:51:39] To my knowledge, they still don't.

[01:51:41] Is that correct?

[01:51:42] So they have to bring them from the other agencies.

[01:51:46] I believe in Davidson County.

[01:51:48] We have a connection with cadaver dogs volunteer group, a nonprofit that has offered.

[01:52:00] But then you also have to understand, too, that they could be dismissed by law enforcement because they're not trained in the same ways, according to law enforcement.

[01:52:10] And the Netflix documentary about Jennifer and Adriana Wicks, I would love to.

[01:52:22] So we're doing a documentary on Bethany Markowski, the making of the podcast.

[01:52:29] And that will hopefully go to film festivals and then be picked up for distribution.

[01:52:37] That will be after the audio podcast is out.

[01:52:40] What we're doing is we're recording everything behind the scenes as we're doing it.

[01:52:43] And I hope by that time we'll be able to move forward and get the Wicks story out because that'll help us create changes in the laws.

[01:52:54] We can answer a couple more questions we have about.

[01:52:57] Well, we could do maybe two more questions, Casey and Jules, if you want to just grab two more and then we can wrap it up.

[01:53:06] Solvethecase.org, April, will you send me a message on Instagram or Facebook about that again so that I can look into that, too?

[01:53:15] Like we want to source everybody to help us with this.

[01:53:20] Thank you.

[01:53:20] I feel like people always ask this question.

[01:53:23] Zach Patterson asked it, but we get it quite a lot.

[01:53:27] What connection did the Bentons have with the Robertson County Sheriff's Department?

[01:53:33] I think that it's really easy, especially with the podcast, the way things were handled in our case, the firing of our first officer on the case, the reporting officer with the search being called off that we had set up for their grandparents' property.

[01:53:49] With all of these things, it's hard not to go that direction.

[01:53:53] We're not conspiracy theorists here.

[01:53:56] We are.

[01:53:57] I'm a realist.

[01:53:59] My first fault is always meh.

[01:54:05] But it's very difficult to ignore it, especially with even like still to this day, like the court things that were in the court hearings, you know, not being able to see, you know, what's happening in there with him being appointed his this particular attorney.

[01:54:23] He was appointed, you know, like there's a lot of things.

[01:54:25] Can you go into that?

[01:54:26] Do you feel comfortable going into that real quick?

[01:54:28] Yeah, I don't mind.

[01:54:30] His attorney that he was appointed is a one of if you're not from our area.

[01:54:36] His attorney is a prominent attorneys, you know, very well known here, does pretty well, apparently has a good reputation for defending his clients.

[01:54:46] Well, and he it feels awful to say this.

[01:54:51] It's so hard to ignore it.

[01:54:53] But his attorney was a previous partner with the judge who heard Joe's case.

[01:55:05] It's so difficult for me to say that.

[01:55:07] Make it make sense.

[01:55:10] But again, keep in mind, we live in a very small town, which Springfield isn't as small as Cross Plains.

[01:55:16] OK, Cross Plains.

[01:55:17] I don't remember the population.

[01:55:19] You looked up Jules, but like back then it was like nothing.

[01:55:22] Springfield's got a lot more people in it, especially now.

[01:55:26] And so there's a lot of conflict of interest doing business.

[01:55:30] OK, there's there's not a lot of people in those positions.

[01:55:32] So you can understand it, but you also can't understand it.

[01:55:37] Yeah, especially on your biggest cold case.

[01:55:42] How do you think Joe will react to the podcast when he gets out in March?

[01:55:48] I'm going to be really honest.

[01:55:49] I don't know how their Joseph Frank Benton is up here.

[01:55:57] I don't know.

[01:55:57] I don't know the state of he's he's older.

[01:56:00] He doesn't look good.

[01:56:01] Every time I see him, he looks worse health wise.

[01:56:05] I I don't know how he's going to react.

[01:56:07] My my hope and my prayer for his family that includes all of the Bentons immediate and extended is that he doesn't react in a violent way.

[01:56:19] I don't want anybody else to get hurt or become the next.

[01:56:23] Victim allegedly.

[01:56:25] So I don't know.

[01:56:29] Podcasts are so more new age.

[01:56:31] They're still kind of new.

[01:56:32] So who knows?

[01:56:33] But it's getting harder to ignore, which was our goal.

[01:56:36] But I will say that we do have cameras up on our property now.

[01:56:41] And I do.

[01:56:42] We lock our doors just in case because you don't know what you don't know.

[01:56:47] I don't know.

[01:56:51] I'm trying to look through all of these.

[01:56:53] I think I'm almost to the end.

[01:56:55] Yeah.

[01:56:56] It said you have to think how close the Bentons lived to the sheriff.

[01:56:59] That was an office at the time.

[01:57:00] So the Bentons actually Joseph Frank Benton grew up with Bollinger, the sheriff at the time as well.

[01:57:06] So they actually knew each other from childhood.

[01:57:08] They were all in the same community and they all knew each other.

[01:57:12] Bollinger has since passed away.

[01:57:20] Amber Nicole asked, has Amy been questioned?

[01:57:27] Yes.

[01:57:29] She has been.

[01:57:30] To what extent?

[01:57:31] I don't know.

[01:57:33] I think just being there, they kind of all like live together and are all like one big team per se.

[01:57:43] So I don't know if she was like questioned alone or what, but I think she has talked with law enforcement.

[01:57:56] Any other questions, ladies, that you want to are popping out to you?

[01:58:00] I know there's so many questions, so we're trying to scroll through all of them.

[01:58:04] I'll go back through and answer some to that if I do miss them.

[01:58:11] If there's any good questions, I'll go back.

[01:58:13] I wish we could like pin the questions.

[01:58:17] I get overwhelmed quite often when I see all this support for the girls.

[01:58:23] Thank you, everybody, for being here, for listening.

[01:58:26] I know we sign off our podcast all the time.

[01:58:28] You're wanted, you're loved, and you deserve to be here because you do.

[01:58:31] And the fact that you're here, you're choosing to give your time to these girls and this family.

[01:58:37] It's not lost on us.

[01:58:38] So we feel that we're growing and we're getting louder, and that's because of you guys.

[01:58:44] So thank you.

[01:58:45] Thank you.

[01:58:46] Thank you for joining us.

[01:58:48] Thank you.

[01:58:49] Yes.

[01:58:50] Thank you all so much for being here.

[01:58:52] I'm going to wrap it up for today's live stream.

[01:58:55] Thank you, Casey.

[01:58:55] Thank you, Jules.

[01:58:56] And make sure you follow along.

[01:58:59] Follow along for Casey's journey as well as Jules.

[01:59:01] And we'll see you next time.

[01:59:05] Thank you, John.

[01:59:05] Take care.

[01:59:06] You're welcome.

[01:59:07] Bye, everyone.