297. The Cape Cod Murder Mystery

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See mintmobile.com. You're listening to an Ono Media podcast. Hey, everybody. Welcome back to the podcast. This is Murder With My Husband. I'm Peyton Morland. And I'm Garrett Morland. And he's the husband. And I'm the husband. It is currently Peyton's birthday. Happy birthday. By the time you're listening to this, it's not Peyton's birthday anymore. I'll be 40. Yeah, you'll be. Yeah, she'll be 40. We're recording early. We're going to visit some family for the holidays. So, yeah, that's what we got going on. Daisy also is now three years old. She had her birthday, too. Happy birthday, Daisy. I think no other birthdays. Thank you for being here. Before we jump into it, a reminder, if you want bonus content or if you want ad-free content, you can check out Apple subscriptions or Spotify subscriptions or Patreon. Patreon and Spotify are basically the same thing. Anyways, if you want ad-free content or bonus content, go and check it out. And for my 10 seconds, I don't know. Don't know what to say. Literally, no idea. I don't have anything. Someone got me for my birthday. Oh, okay. I got Peyton for her birthday. It's called a brick. Just a solid brick. It's just a brick. Just a red brick. I got her a red brick. It's really sentimental. No, it's called a brick. And this isn't sponsored, by the way. And we've never used it. But it helps you manage the time on your phone. It can lock your phone, correct? Yeah. So you can sync. You can sync apps with the brick. And then say you're like, I want 15 minutes a day, which, yes, you can already do on your iPhone. But it's the app. This brick app is what locks it. And in order for you to get back in, you have to go walk over to wherever your brick is and touch your phone to the brick. So, like, yeah, you could do it. I mean, sure. But, I mean, at some point, you got to have some self-control. Well, like, I've tried to do the, like, oh, time limit thing. And I think it's too easy. It's just too easy. It's too easy to ignore. And I know it sounds kind of wussy to be like, oh, well, I have to go and lock the brick. But I've just seen a lot of people talk about it. And they're like, no, like, genuinely, it just gives you that second to really think about, like, oh, okay, I'm actually, I don't, I'm just going to not get on. Yeah. I don't know. We'll see. Peyton's been wanting it. Maybe I'll hate it. So I got it for her. I don't know anything about it. But, yeah, that's my 10 seconds. Sorry, I don't really have anything else. We're kind of just getting ready for the holidays. So we've just been running around. We're here recording. And let's get into today's episode. Our sources for this episode are CapeCodTimes.com, CBSNews.com, ABCNews.co.com, TheSun.com, SouthCoastToday.com, Vassar.edu, Oxygen.com, People.com, and NewYorkMag.com. Now, when a murder happens in a small town, things get handled a lot differently than they do in big cities. I think we've seen this time and time again on the podcast. Oftentimes, the police departments don't know how to handle a case, as well as, say, a larger department might. And that can lead to botched investigations, forgotten clues, and trashed crime scenes. And in a town where everyone knows everyone, anyone can really be seen as a suspect. Being in a close-knit community can offer some perks to an investigation, too, though. Like more access to the people you need to question. Maybe even the ability to collect. Maybe even the ability to collect DNA from people in town, kind of like you'll see in today's case. But when the leads don't pan out, there's usually one person who is left taking the blame in such a small town. And that is the town outcast. The one person who's different from the rest of the town, maybe the town weirdo. But does that make them the culprit? Or does it make them the scapegoat? Especially when they are proclaiming their innocence until the bitter end. If anyone lives in a small town, I'm not talking, I'm talking small town. Like, everybody knows each other. There is an outcast. Leave a comment. I'm curious. I didn't grow up in a small town. Peyton did, but not small enough. Yeah. It was small, but not small enough. Anyways, leave a comment. I'm curious. Yeah. So, today we're taking a trip to a sleepy little Cape Cod, Massachusetts community called Truro. It's basically a seasonal vacation town that sees an influx of tourists by summer. But when the fall arrives, it goes back to being home to the 2,000 or so residents that live there year round. It's the kind of place where people feel safe enough to leave their front doors unlocked, where they trust their neighbors with their kids, as well as their secrets, which Truro has a lot of. One of them being the mysterious single mom from New York. She's from New York City, named Krista Worthington. Now, Krista was born on December 23rd, 1956, just outside of Boston, Massachusetts. Her dad, Christopher Toppy Worthington, people called him Toppy, was a Harvard-educated lawyer who gave Krista, his only child, a lot of opportunities. But Krista worked hard to see them through. She was a phenomenal student who graduated with honors. And went on to attend Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York. And after that, Krista moved to New York City to pursue her dreams of becoming a fashion writer. Now, Krista did find a lot of success working for publications like The New York Times, Elle Magazine, Cosmopolitan, and Vogue. She spent some time living and working in Paris and London, even. And co-wrote a few fashion books throughout the years before she kind of started to lose. interest in this passion. So, for a time, she pivoted, making antiques and collectibles her new focus before losing interest in column writing altogether. But those who knew Krista said that was just kind of her. She was always chasing the next big fantasy, whether that was in her job or relationships. Friends of Krista's said she was always dating someone handsome, smart, well-to-do. For example, her roster included the heiress Gloria Vanderbilt's son, not Anderson Cooper, but Stan Stokowski. But these relationships never lasted very long. Like her work, Krista would inevitably find herself getting bored, seeking a next adventure, the next rush. New romantic endeavors were what seemingly brought her joy. However, this did worry some of her closer friends. They said that over time. her chosen partners just sort of grew a bit stranger. Like, the more relationships she had, the weirder the man kind of became. Not like the men that she had used to go out with when she was younger. But the truth was, there was something missing from Krista's life. Something she always wanted and was told she would never be able to have. And that was a child. But the issue. wasn't just finding the right person to do this with. It was the fact that Krista was nearing 40 and had been told by her doctors that she was unable to ever have a child. It seemed to be the thing that just ate at Krista. The one unattainable goal in her life. At one point, she considered getting a donor, doing IVF. She was fine with the idea of being a single mother who raised a child on her own. But as she was weighing this decision, she realized she just wanted to slow her life down first. So she decided it was time to move out of New York City. And she chose a quiet little town in Cape Cod where her father actually owned a few different properties. And that is our small town where the case takes place. Now, in 1997, the nearly 41-year-old Krista packed her bags and traveled north. Furrow wasn't a random spot on the map for Krista. She had. Spent some summers here as a kid. So there were a lot of great memories. Of course, life year round would feel much different, especially when the summer months passed and all the tourists fled the area. But at least she was familiar with it. She knew it was a slow pace. In many ways, this was more Krista's speed now. Anyways, friends said that while she definitely occupied a glamorous little corner of the New York social scene, Kristen never really felt like she fit in with the people there. She was. It was more. free-spirited, less structured, and maybe Truro and Cape Cod would be more accepting of this. So, Krista moved into this small little home on the harbor, one that was owned by her grandmother. She was just a stone's throw away from an inlet where people went swimming and kayaking. There was a yacht and tennis club nearby. It was everything Krista was wanting. Aside from the fact that people often parked their boats right in front of Krista's home, since she was right by the parking lot for the harbor, and although this was exactly what she was wanting, this move also changed her life in a way that she never anticipated, because this is how Krista Worthington met Tony Jacket. Tony was, what the locals called, the shellfish constable, of Provincetown and Truro. But this wasn't just a nickname, that's literally what his job title was. His role was to enforce fishing laws and make sure that fishermen had the proper licenses. Well, one afternoon, as Krista was complaining to the harbor master about Tony's boat being parked in front of her house, Tony walked into the conversation and the two were formally introduced. But the contentious conversation, quickly turned flirtatious instead. The two actually took a liking to each other. And before long, Tony was going over to Krista's house to help with a repair and then coming over for tea. Eventually, one thing leads to another, and soon Tony and Krista are falling in love. That sounds like a Hallmark movie. Exactly. Krista wrote in her diary at this point, quote, if there was a sweeter person on earth between the hours of 8 and 9.15, I would not believe it. Tony became tender and we were made new spellbound. Wait, what? I love him. Between 8 and 9.15 a.m., p.m.? 8 a.m. to 9.15 p.m.? What does this mean? I think that this entry just means she is delusionally in love. Okay, got it. Hallmarked. Interesting. She's been Hallmarked. Okay. So it seemed like for the first time, Krista had found someone she could actually settle down with. There was just one huge problem. Tony had been married for 20 years. He was 26 years and he had six kids. On top of that, Truro was a tiny town where everyone knew everyone. So it was only a matter of time before someone found out about what these two were doing. Hey, yeah, that's an issue. Still. That's a problem. Tony and Krista cannot seem to call it quits, which became even more complicated when Krista went to Tony with some news a year later in 1998. She's pregnant. Krista was pregnant with Tony's child, which obviously came as a shock to Krista as well because she'd been told by her doctors she couldn't get pregnant naturally. And here she was carrying her lover's child. So Tony asked Krista what she wanted to do and told Krista he wasn't willing to leave his wife or her or the baby. Fair. Krista was fine with that. So she wanted to keep the baby. And if that meant keeping Tony's name. If that meant keeping Tony's name detached from the baby, then so be it. Sad at the same time, though, because the baby's going to grow up without a father for the most part. Yeah. Anyways, keep going. But the father lives in the same town with six other kids. Kind of sucky. Dude, small towns are just. I've always wanted to experience one. Does that make sense? Is that crazy? No, I get it. Like, I don't know. And maybe it just sounds way better than it actually is. I think. Yeah. I mean. I think maybe better is not the right word. Is it different? I don't know, man. There's something hallmark dreamy about a small town, but I think it's not all it's cracked up to be. I'm not saying like, oh, I'm going to move to a ranch. I'm going to become a cowboy. I'm not talking about like that. I'm just saying small towns. So this is what she wants. And after telling Tony she was pregnant, the two actually decide to call it quits on their forbidden romance. And Krista gave birth to a little girl named Ava in May of 1980. And around that same time, Krista actually moved to a new property just a short distance away from the harbor. And Krista was basically happy living life as a single mom, though it seems she did want to find someone that Ava could eventually look up to as a father figure since Tony wasn't exactly in her life anymore. So Krista began dating again, though, as the years passed and Krista became more ingrained, in this small town, people started to whisper about the single mother because she had never told anyone who the father of her child was. And so people start gossiping. Why did she have so many men coming and going from her life? Which one was the dad? Krista felt like she was kind of becoming the town pariah, a little bit wearing a scarlet letter, but she refused to let the people of Truro drive her out. This behavior she could totally get away with in New York City, but she was having a harder time living like this in such a small town. Okay, yeah, that makes sense. This message is sponsored by Greenlight. You know, there were many times growing up in school where I was like, when am I ever going to use this? And let me be real honest with you, a lot of those things have turned out to be true. But you know what I wish they would have taught in school? Literacy. 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That is greenlight.com slash husband. Greenlight.com slash husband. Go check it out now. This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. There are plenty of reasons we put off getting support and for a lot of people, cost is one of them. With BetterHelp, insurance options may now be available nationwide with an average copay for eligible members of just $23 per session. And while we're reconsidering old assumptions, we're going to talk about how to get a better life. So let's get started. Maybe there are a few others worth questioning too. Women inherit a lot of unwritten rules. Be ambitious, but not intimidating. Be there for everyone, but still make time for yourself. Have it all together, but don't look like you're trying too hard. And I have definitely fallen into all of these traps. But if you have been wanting to start therapy, BetterHelp works with more than 125 health plan networks and eligible members have an average copay of just $23 per session with insurance. And if you don't have insurance or don't live in the United States, you can still get 10% off your first month. And Peyton and I are big advocates for therapy. Give it a try. Life can be crazy. There's a lot going on. Like we were talking about, sometimes it feels like you need to have everything figured out. You don't. Go talk to someone. Go see what's going on. Visit BetterHelp.com slash husband to explore your payment options. That's BetterHelp.com slash husband. So it's now January 2002. The 46-year-old Krista and her two-and-a-half-year-old daughter Ava had just spent the holidays in the city seeing old friends. But after New Year's Eve, they returned back to their modest little bungalow in Truro. And on January 6th, the most recent ex-boyfriend of Krista's named Tim Arnold planned to stop by her house to return a flashlight that he had borrowed. Tim was an author himself, mostly of children's books. So he and Krista had a little bit of time to spend together. But after January 6th, the two of them had a little bit of time to spend together. But after January 6th, the two of them had a little bit in common because she did used to be a writer. The two had dated for about a year. He'd even offered to help out with Ava quite a bit during their relationship. But by that point, it seemed the two had just decided to be friends. So that afternoon, Tim drove by the house with his father in tow, thinking it was just going to be a quick drop off of this flashlight. When he pulled up to the bottom of Krista's driveway, he noticed a few of her newspapers were sitting there. So he scoops them up and then. walks up her driveway towards the house. When he gets up there, he sees Krista's car sitting in the driveway. So he knocks on the front door, but there's no answer. And this is when he noticed her side door to the kitchen was just sitting slightly open. So he went over, he lets himself into the house and starts calling Krista's name. But almost instantly, he spots Krista lying on the floor, motionless. And there's Ava, next to her mother, alive and completely uninjured, but clearly in distress. stress holy crap okay Ava turns to Tim who she knows and says mommy fell down now Tim says he didn't notice the blood at first all he could think about was just getting Ava like Ava was clearly in distress a little baby a little girl and so he kind of scoops her up and gets her outside hands her to his father is like hey please like chill with her or watch her I need to go back inside he rushed kind of crazy that she said mommy fell down right interesting then Tim rushes back inside and searches for a phone in the house but couldn't find any remember this is the early 2000s the cordless phones seem to have disappeared so Tim goes back out and rushes over to the neighbor's house and dials 9-1-1 he tells the dispatcher because of what Ava said that she must have fallen down but he was pretty certain based on how she looked when he walked in that she was dead like he wasn't calling to say hey she's hurt can you come help her he was calling to say hey Krista Worthington is dead in in her house so minutes later first responders arrived at the scene and they quickly learned this was not an accident the front door to the house had been smashed Krista was half naked covered in bruises like she had fought for her life yeah okay there was a terrible wound to the left side of her head she had been stabbed through her left lung the blade was sent so forcibly through her body that it was lodged into the floor beneath her so obviously Ava didn't see the murder then if she said mommy fell down I think that was just her assuming which is good as a little kid at least she didn't she's in trouble yeah at least she didn't see the murder that's horrible police get here this is obviously a murder and from the state of the body they suspect that Krista had been dead for 24 to 36 hours by now what which means wait if you're putting two and two together Ava had been all alone during this time at the house with her dead mother now you have to remember this is a tiny town it had been the first homicide Truro had seen in more than 30 years this kind of thing just didn't happen here so these EMTs and the police officers who responded were not accustomed to dealing with homicide cases like this yeah yeah so what does one of the EMTs do when they respond and realize there's no body to deal with and what does one of the EMTs do when they respond and realize there's no body to deal with and what does one of the EMTs do when they respond and realize there's no body to deal with and what does one of the EMTs do when they respond and realize there's no body to deal with and what does one of the EMTs do when they respond and realize there's no body to deal to resuscitate and get to the hospital they take a blanket from the couch and they just lay it over Krista's body to cover it up out of respect and it's obviously not not not I get it but you're not supposed to do that right I understand where they're coming from I'd probably do the same thing to be honest not to mention on top of this you have Tim Arnold and his father who had basically walked through the crime scene and although the police did keep a crime scene login sheet that day so basically like if you enter the crime scene you have to write it in it's incomplete not everyone who was there filled it out they're just they don't even really know what this protocol is yeah there are other EMTs and officers who were first on the scene that didn't even sign the login so already you have a pretty messy crime scene but there is some helpful evidence inside like a cell phone police find that seemingly does belong to Krista and it has one number dialed in on the screen and it's just a nine so clearly Krista was trying to call for help didn't get the chance to finish they also found Krista's keys glasses and a sock outside near her car there also appeared to be two drag marks near her vehicle and maybe one of the most heartbreaking details I've ever heard was there was a sippy cup and some Cheerios next to Krista on the floor along with like a child's play broom that appeared to be bloody this is horrible there were also just small bloody footprints all around the there was blood in the sink which had a tiny step stool like sitting in front of it so police realized that during the days that Ava was there alone with her mother who wouldn't get up Ava had been trying to clean up she had been getting herself Cheerios and her sippy cup like but still sticking around her mother which is just it's so sad it's insane also can we just talk about like how doubly evil you have to be to not only kill someone but kill someone and leave a toddler unattended not knowing when and how to kill someone and leave a toddler unattended not knowing when and how to kill someone like what happens next like that is horrible to do so around midnight that evening Krista's body was taken to the chief medical examiner's office in Boston and it was determined that Krista had died somewhere between Friday afternoon January 4th and the morning of Saturday January 5th there they took fingernail clippings and photographs they also discovered that there were blue and white fibers in her pubic area the autopsy revealed that Krista had engaged in intercourse before she died however no sources mention whether they believe this was consensual or if she had been sexually assaulted we just know that this had happened before she died and as for Ava she was taken to Cape Cod hospital and they don't find any physical injuries on her of any kind it's going to be traumatized for the rest of her life now she had a diaper rash all over her body and she was taken to the hospital and they obviously um and just an ear infection I mean I'm sure we'll get there but I also this whole thing is a mess one her mom died two her dad's hidden this whole thing is going to be a mess so obviously police are like I mean you kind of brought this up did Ava seen see what happened and her brain just said oh she fell down did she just find her mom like that and didn't actually witness the like they're just wondering if Ava knows anything so police bring her to a children's advocacy center where she was questioned by professionals about what happened and through the advocates it is determined that Ava didn't see or witness anything that happened to her mother as far as like violence when asked when was the last time she was like changed or fed Ava can't tell them she doesn't give a response however when a female state trooper spoke to Ava she told the woman quote mommy lying down tried to get mommy up mommy dirty tried to clean mommy so she just like oh she was trying to like take care of her mom yeah I can't that's so heartbreaking dude but also my I say goes to show how she was probably loved and taken care of because yeah children model and so what a good mom Krista was because that was her daughter's first response was to try to fix and take care and love and it's just heartbreaking so one of the incredibly frustrating parts of this case is a guy named Michael O'Keefe okay he's the Cape Cod DA who led the investigation on Krista's murder and a lot of the comments he made about Krista after this discovery were absolutely vile okay I've already told you the reputation she had in town not try to hide what they felt and thought about Krista so the DA tells one reporter on record that the case was going to be difficult because quote Worthington was an equal opportunity employer she'd F the husbands of her female friends the butcher or the baker so he gets on and he's like we're gonna have a hard time uh doing this because she was easy is basically what he says so already there's issues with this case when the people trying to solve it already think of the victim like this and no offense this all has to do because of a small town sorry from a small town but I mean my opinion personally I think that probably there's more gossip gossip there's more judgment personally that's what I think also who Krista runs around with might have to do with the investigation because you've got to track down everyone in her life but what well it's also not something that is like something you need to word to the public of like well we know this it's like you can be like hey she talked to a lot of people so we're gonna have to track them all down that has nothing to do with like how she should be treated yeah that's actually extremely weird yeah to even say that because you're supposed to be representing this person like oh like you're fighting for justice oh I'm so sorry you're a DA and you have to do your job and Like, okay, go get a different job. go somewhere else especially if you think anyone who is murdered like deserves to be talked to or talked about like that it's strange good point so either way the police seem to feel confident it was a local because it was the off season there wasn't many out-of-towners so one of the first people they turned to is krista's most recent ex-boyfriend the one who discovered her body tim arnold and that mainly has to do with the blanket that was thrown over krista's body because it turns out that blanket that an emt had put on the body had some of tim's semen on it and so that dna was then found on krista and after talking to people around town it seemed like tim was more into the relationship than krista was the two had lived together in her house for some time but friends of krista said she didn't see the relationship as something long-term she never spoke about marriage or a future with him however when tim was questioned he emphatically denied having anything to do with krista's death and seemed genuinely distraught over this entire thing and he says hey well i had a relationship with her it's not that shocking you found my dna yeah on the blanket now aside from his closeness to krista there wasn't much to suggest him as a suspect so please keep going and it wasn't long before they figure out their next person of interest and it actually ends up being ava's father tony so you remember tony and krista were having that secret affair for two years without his wife knowing well eventually after ava was born krista decided she needed some help from tony so she had been asking if he would help her with child support adding ava to his family's medical insurance plan things like that and when tony was like no because my wife can't find out krista hired a lawyer i'm not sure what came of that but i can tell you that eventually his wife finds out about this i don't know if he came clean or if like he was pressured to come clean and shockingly it actually went better than anyone would have anticipated tony's wife forgave him and not only that she was like you had a baby with this girl you need to like take care of it take care of this baby and they had actually been like inviting ava and krista over for dinner and family things and it was the wife who was like no you're going to like man up and handle what you did and props couldn't be me but props honestly so ava actually did know her father after all and whether or not he did begin helping them out financially i'm not sure but in police interviews tony's wife is like no i knew it was me who was wanting him to have a relationship with her like i wasn't leaving him because of what he had done so there's no motive here like there's no reason he would have needed to hurt her in fact everything was working out pretty well for them right before krista died she also said that tony was home with her during the time that they believe krista was killed and when he took a polygraph test tony passed with no issues interestingly after that there was another unexpected suspect or two added to the list krista's own 72 year old father christopher toppy worthington the lawyer and his 29 year old girlfriend elizabeth porter end up becoming suspects look a lot of ages whatever it is what it is not my business doesn't bother me 29 72 yeah this is pretty wild you you take what you want from that but okay keep going so obviously christopher her father the former harvard educated lawyer had been having different relationships since his divorce from krista's mother and the newest one was 29 year old elizabeth porter apparently there had been a lot of bad blood between elizabeth and krista because krista was like dad she's just coming after your estate she's here for the money obviously yeah and there had been several heated exchanges and krista tried to prevent elizabeth from accessing any more of her father's money and she was not able to get any more of her father's money and she was not able to get any more of her father's funds she's like he's 72 you're taking advantage of him and when police learn all this they're like this is obviously a motive and frankly the couple didn't do themselves too many favors when it came to the investigation for starters elizabeth lied about where she was during the time of the murder and christopher seemed to ask a lot of really pointed questions about his daughter's death referring to things about the crime scene that like wasn't exactly public knowledge your own your own dad yes though i will say eventually elizabeth and christopher provide an alibi that police were able to confirm don't believe it so it was more just like wow this is pretty crappy behavior but we don't think that they murdered his daughter all right guys jumping into an ad and it is the one and only skims we love skims and i'm so excited i get to talk to you about their lounge wear and pajamas if you follow me on instagram i just posted but i did get one of their sleep sets that's like a deep burgundy color so cute so rich so soft and then i also got a fleece set that's like this chocolate brown so freaking cute i love a good matching set and i love skims again the sleep set i got is the soft lounge sleep set i always get 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getting anywhere close to the people i love and i'm obviously taking this way more seriously now which i already did but now more than ever with a baby on the way like i said unlike traditional security cameras that only alert you after a break-in simply safe is built to stop it before it starts and they have so many different options if you haven't got on and checked it out just do it guys if you've been waiting for a sign to get some security this is it join the more than six million people who entrust simply safe with their home security right now save 60 off with professional monitoring when you visit simply safe.com husband that is an amazing code guys 60 off that is simply safe.com husband and when you order again just please let them know murder with my husband sent you write it in at the checkout survey um it just lets them know we sent you and it helps support the show simply safe ahead of crime and in real time so let's just say police are checking people off this list but this list keeps growing because there is one piece of evidence that might help them out and it was dna collected from krista's body it takes nearly a year to get these results back and it only complicates things further because the dna was not a match for tony ava's dad and it was not a match for tony's dad and it was not a match for tony's dad and it was not a match for tony's dad and it was not a match for tony's dad and it was not a match for tony's dad or tim krista's ex-boyfriend and with them being over a year into the investigation investigators are starting to get desperate so they come up with a pretty wild plan they say hey this is a small town we are going to ask every single man in town between the ages of 18 and 70 to come in and offer a sample of their dna so that we can rule them out in this case so the entire town comes in i mean honestly not a bad idea so around 2004 it's now two years after krista's murder they start doing this they get samples from the mailmen the garbage men the delivery boys the grocery store checkout guy regardless of whether they had any relationship with krista or not over 100 people come in and volunteer their dna to clear their name and by the end they have over 100 samples to compare to the one found on krista and meanwhile ava is sent to live with a friend of krista's who she had named as her guardian in her will and tony's allowed to visit ava one day a week and tony's allowed to visit ava one day a week and tony's allowed to visit ava one day a week and tony's allowed to visit ava one day a week and while he tried to fight for custody of ava during this time it definitely wasn't helping that he had just been ruled out as a suspect however by april of 2005 police finally realized their efforts had paid off one of the samples that had been volunteered ended up being a match why would that person volunteer that seemed okay maybe not look guilty i don't know but his name strange to me was christopher mccowan so we have krista and christopher and christopher is not her father got it yep this is a new christopher christopher mccowan i'm just gonna call him chris to keep it clear Now, Chris was 33 years old at the time, and he worked as a sanitation worker in Truro. According to Chris's dad, his childhood hadn't been easy. He often had seizures as a kid, which required medication. And perhaps as a result of his illness, Chris found himself struggling in school and ended up in special education classes. He hated it so much, he ended up dropping out of high school before his senior year. And this decision leads Chris to fall in with some bad crowds. He starts getting in trouble with the law, mostly for theft. And then after a brief stint in jail, Chris moved north from Florida to Cape Cod to be with his girlfriend. And it was around 1998 when he finally settled down in Truro, and it wasn't easy, mainly because Chris was one of the only Black men in town. But after four years in prison, Chris was able to get out of jail. After finding that job with the sanitation company, Chris began to find a community with his co-workers. One co-worker said Chris got so close with him and his family, he began calling his co-worker's mom, Mom. And the same co-worker said he never saw a violent side to Chris, ever, in the entire time he knew him. They said he was respectful, he took his job seriously, he was always up for the task, that he had a great rapport with the people along his route, he was generally well-liked and respected. And according to some of his friends, he even had a few relationships with women around town after breaking things off with his girlfriend that he had moved here for. Now, Chris was called in for questioning early on in the investigation, primarily because Krista Worthington's home was one of the houses on his stop. And during those first interviews, he said that he had been seeing Krista for the last two years, since 2000, and that he usually stopped by to pick up. When they asked if he ever went inside Krista's home around the time she died, he said no, he didn't even know she was dead until he saw it on the news. So they didn't focus on Chris much early in the investigation. And I want to point out, like Garrett said, he willingly handed over his fingerprints and DNA. That just doesn't make sense. I don't know if it's him because that just, that doesn't make sense to me. So as the years had passed, police had circled back to Chris even before the. The DNA match came through. They started looking deeper into his background. They saw his history of theft. And apparently, he had a restraining order from two former girlfriends who, one said he broke her car window and the other claimed he pushed her against a refrigerator. So police had already been zeroing in on Chris when they discovered his DNA sample was a match in April of 2005. So they waste no time getting an arrest warrant. So on April 14th, 2005. Police pick Chris up at a rooming house he's living at and they charge him with aggravated rape and the murder of Krista Worthington. And this time, when Chris speaks to police, his story changes quite a bit. Now he says, okay, I did see Krista right before she died. Interesting. In fact, he said she had asked him that day to come inside and help her dispose of her Christmas tree. He said that's when one thing led to another. The two of them ended up kissing and having sex. He said it was just once and then he leaves. But he had nothing to do with her death. So he's explaining why his DNA was found on her body. Because he went in and they had sex. Yes. Did they talk before? Was there a relationship with them before? Have people around town seen them before? They knew each other because he came to her house every week. Everyone knows each other in that town, right? Yeah. And he's like. So, yeah, I didn't tell you obviously before because that looks very suspicious for me to have had sex with her and then she dies or is murdered right after. However, this interview becomes a six-hour long interview. And they are just pushing Chris, prodding him. And he begins changing his story a few times throughout the six hours. Because later he says, actually, we were having a full-blown relationship. We were all. Often intimate on Thursday afternoons when I went by to pick up her trash. In fact, he said, I did this with a few women on my pickup route. It wasn't just her. Police are like, yeah, but we have your DNA. We have a pretty strong evidence against you. And we believe you did something to her. And he changes his story again. He's like, actually, I did go back there Friday. We had sex. I beat her. But there was actually someone with me. Someone who killed her. His 23-year-old friend. What? Where did this escalate so fast from? He says it was his 23-year-old friend, Jeremy Frazier. He said that Friday, the two were out drinking and partying together when they decided to go over to Krista's house and rob her. She ended up catching them. Chris beat her while Jeremy stabbed her to death. I think it's insane that he just starts admitting all this. So naturally, police bring Jeremy in. And he's like, yeah, I was with Chris partying earlier that night. But Chris left. And I stayed at the party before then crashing at a friend's. He's like, I don't know what Chris is talking about. And this is apparently confirmed. So police are like, we think that Jeremy had nothing to do with this. We think Chris lied and said Jeremy was there with him. And we believe Chris did it by himself. And here's what's interesting about all this. Chris does not have a lawyer present during his interrogations. He declines having the interviews recorded. We don't really know what happened during the six-hour confession. We're just going off of what police said. But when Chris later. He talked to 20-20 and was asked about why he said he went to the house with Jeremy. He said, that's what the police said that I did. I didn't say that. And I didn't do that. So did he actually say it? Or did police say it in the interview? Like as a theory. And then he said, okay. And he doesn't fight it. And then the police are like, yeah, we interrogated him. And he said, this is what happened. Again, I want to mention. He's one of the few black men in town. And he was in special education growing up. So this is a very common target. It's very plausible. I mean, there was a case from Payton's hometown. Very similar. Very similar. They actually ended up finding later it wasn't him. Because they found the actual guy who did it. Because of DNA. And he spent like 20 years wrongfully in prison. Anyways, curious to see where this goes. This is not like. We know this happens. This is not inconceivable. We're not saying it happens. This happens all the time. We're not saying. I'm just saying it does happen. It is possible this could be happening. It just happens. So was he an easy target for investigators who don't ever really handle this kind of case and are eager to close it? Is this an easy target? Could it have been hard for them to believe that a black man was actually just having consensual sex with a wealthy white woman? Or was he actually guilty? Well, it's questions like these that start eating away at the case. Once he gets a lot of attention. He's a lawyer. They seem to believe that the confession was 100% coerced and that we don't actually know anything that happened. And it happened so easily since when they arrested and interrogated Chris, he'd actually been high on painkillers and marijuana during this interrogation. They also knew the crime scene investigation had been botched from the jump, like we talked about. Not to mention, there was never any indication in the autopsy, like we never know whether she had been sexually assaulted or it looked like there had been consensual sex. So, the charges don't make sense to the lawyers, but the prosecution thinks, nah, we have a good case. So, when Chris's trial begins in November of 2006, the prosecution paints this picture. That January night, Chris showed up at Krista's house wanting to have sex with her. She denied him. So, in a rage, he sexually assaulted and then killed her. That's the motive. You have to remember, they do have a confession, coerced or not. And they do have Chris's DNA on Krista's body. So, his lawyers argue he and Krista had a consensual relationship. They had done this before. But a friend of Krista's also said he didn't think that was the case. He mentioned that when he saw Krista just a week or two before her death, she never mentioned anything about a consensual relationship with a sanitation worker. And this friend says Krista would have usually shared the type of relationship she was having with people. And that's what this case keeps hinging on. Did Krista have. Did Krista have consensual sex and a relationship with Chris? Or did he show up that night and sexually assault her? I don't know how you. Both could be true. Yeah, I don't know how you. I just don't know how you 100% say he. I don't. This is confusing. I don't know what else to say. This is extremely confusing. What are the chances that someone has sex, consensual sex with a woman, leaves, and then she's murdered? That is kind of hard to, like, not feel like that is your prime suspect. And that's the other side. That's true. I mean, what are you supposed to. But. It's always like, right? Is it. Does it walk like a duck? Yeah. The quacks like a duck? Is it a duck? Like, there's. The coincidences can only be so. Right. Strong sometimes. Sometimes. But then you have the evidence on the other side. Yeah. Being like, well, this feels like coerce. This feels like. Yeah, exactly. Target. This could be racially motivated. So, like I said, the police were desperate to close this case. They found the last person Krista had sex with. And they were like, yeah, that's our suspect. They got a forced confession out of him, maybe while he was under the influence of drugs. Now, unfortunately, they do have two pieces of solid evidence that point. in chris's direction they have dna and they have a confession but that's all they have they don't have fingerprints they don't have footprints they don't have any eyewitnesses and as far as i can tell they never even questioned ava to see if she knew who chris was but the jury had all they needed and chris mccowan was found guilty of first degree murder aggravated rape and aggravated burglary wow okay now before he was sentenced chris said this quote this case here is a very horrendous case i feel sorry for the victim's family her daughter and her i have never meant for this to ever take place but your honor all i can say is that i am an innocent man in this case that's all i can say christopher mccowan was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole and even i i wouldn't have i don't think i don't think there's not enough evidence to say he did it for sure well even tony jacket ava's father you come forward and says i'm not convinced chris is the guy he says publicly quote i feel that there was reasonable doubt all over the place in this case now shortly after this conviction several of the jurors said they felt there was racial bias during their deliberations and chris's attorney thought okay that's definitely grounds for a retrial if some of the jurors are saying other jurors were racially motivated but after taking it all the way to the state supreme judicial court they ruled against it feeling there wasn't enough evidence for a retrial even though jurors have publicly said they felt like race had something to do with everything so in 2022 ava graduated from college she has since maintained a relationship with her father tony both have tried to kind of piece their life together after this but in 2024 there was a development in this case remember that during the autopsy i mentioned blue and white fibers were found in chris's pubic area well they never could figure out how these fibers related to chris but it turns out as this case has been relooked at and uniform or something well no people have been like weary about whether he really did it it has come out that jeremy frazier was found wearing a blue uniform and he was found wearing a blue and white sweater at the party the night he went to that party with chris he was wearing a blue and white sweater the night christa died so it could have been transferred from him to chris and chris to her it could have been that chris's story was real and that him and jeremy did it together it could be that jeremy did it alone it can mean i mean there's so many avenues but people believe they have found the source but still how do you prove it was either just chris how do you prove it was either just jeremy how do you prove it was either both them together like there's not enough right which is but here's the thing police actually knew this back in 2005 okay they knew about his blue and white sweater and in may of 2024 a superior court associate approved the order to have these fibers tested against jeremy's sweater because like i said police knew about it back in 2005 and he had turned that sweater into police back in 2005 which is why the court is like yeah can you test those fibers this should have been done when the case went to trial but can you test those fibers and then the police are like actually we can't hand the sweater over because we lost it so we can't actually test those fibers now in 2024 when you should have tested them back then that's insane that's insanity man come on so eventually though this is all up and down because the sweater resurfaces in the custody of massachusetts state police so if these fibers are a match because they now have the sweater to test it could mean if they are a match that there is grounds for a retrial not grounds for exoneration yes grounds for a retrial now as of this recording there's not been any updates on the results of this trial so i'm not sure if there's any updates on the results of this testing but in the meantime chris mccowan is still in prison and to this day he still claims to be innocent and that is where this case is sitting basically waiting for this testing to be done his lawyers fighting for a retrial and the future of the case is basically unknown but that is the complicated murder of krista worthington well a couple thoughts one um my heart goes out to ava i'm sorry everything she's had to go through um i don't know her thoughts on it maybe she doesn't speak on it maybe she won't talk about it so i don't blame her i'm not going to say much about that i'll just speak to my thoughts i don't know i don't know if there was enough evidence i but also i don't know if maybe for ava and some of them this was closure i just i don't know this is so complicated i don't know if there's enough evidence there just has to be reasonable doubt without reasonable doubt if there is a shred of reasonable doubt you cannot convict someone i agree with the reasonable doubt but i also feel like there is some cases that we've covered where it's obviously someone right and you can still create reasonable doubt right the reason reasonable doubt gets hard in my mind but yes i agree here there's there's too there's too much in the air that i i don't think i would have sent him to prison i don't know listen from what i could learn on the surface of this case so not being there not interviewing family um i wish i could but unfortunately if you're releasing an episode a week it's just not possible um but from what i learned i don't think there is enough evidence to convict and i also don't think there's enough evidence to say he's not guilty like i don't think there's enough evidence to go one way or the other i cannot no no confidently say i agree he's innocent or guilty i agree with that it's just from what i know i do feel like this case has the potential to be investigated like deeply yeah to go and talk and because it just feels like there's a lot of mystery mystery clouding it um but that is what we know now if we hear any updates i will keep you guys updated but until then this is all we have on the case and that is our episode for this week we will see you next time with another one i love it i hate it goodbye you know that feeling when too many things fall through the cracks monday.com was built for that gap the ai work platform where people and agents work side by side to deliver more together create your first monday agent today at Monday.com.