We Would Be Dead

To or From (The Disappearance of Asha Degree)

On Sunday February 13th 2000, 9 year old Asha Degree went to church, went home, spent the day with her family and went to bed on time. The next morning her mother opened her door at 6:30 am, expecting to see her sleepy 4th grader burrowed under her covers, instead she opened the door to find an empty bed, no sign anywhere in the house of Asha, and no one ever saw or heard from her again.
What tiny pieces  of the story the police could uncover made little to no sense. It appeared, astonishingly, that Asha actually had run away. This is a highly unusual case, at just 9 years old we have to assume that Asha wasn't just trying to make her own way in the world, if she ran there had to be something or someone she was running to... or from. 
If you have any information about Asha Degree, please call the tip line at (704) 672-6100 or the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children at 1-800-THE-LOST, that's 1-800-843-5678. 
 
 
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https://www.actus-reus.com/asha-degree-timeline
https://www.fbi.gov/video-repository/inside-the-fbi-searching-for-asha-degree-021422.mp4/view
https://findingashadegree.wordpress.com/a-ashas-story-a-summary-of-circumstances/b-ashas-disappearance-the-timeline/
https://findingashadegree.wordpress.com/a-ashas-story-a-summary-of-circumstances/b-ashas-disappearance-the-timeline/
http://www.webbsleuths.com/cgi-bin/dcf/dcboard.cgi?az=printer_format&forum=MC&om=249&omm=8
 
 
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Strange Love (Penelope Jackson & Marlene Warren)

Fiends! We Would Be Dead has turned 3! In honor of our first episode "Gross Love" (and Valentines Day of course), we would like to offer you a strange and unusual story swap about love affairs gone wrong. Leslie brings us the story of Penelope Jackson, a lovely British Nana who simply had enough (Do NOT insult a woman's favorite side dish, it never ends well.) and Holly tells us the story of Florida's own killer clown. One might think Florida has seen many a killer clown, but no, just one. Here's to three years of fake short stories, true long stories, history, horror, humor, important lessons, fun facts and lots and lots of Validation.  TOAST!
 
 
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999 Call between Penny Jackson and Dispatcher 
BBC-Penny and David Jackson case
Daily Mail (Penny Jackson)
Penny Jackson's Confession note
Penny Jackson and her husbands
https://www.foxnews.com/us/inside-florida-killer-clown-murder-carnations-balloons-fatal-gunshot-focus-decades-old-case
https://abcnews.go.com/US/killer-clown-suspects-husband-insists-shes-falsely-accused/story?id=50536783
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5642465/Son-mother-shot-dead-killer-clown-1990-gives-emotional-interview.html
https://www.palmbeachpost.com/story/news/crime/2022/10/11/true-crime-clown-killer-wellington-florida-accused-marlene-warren-murder/8035633001/
https://www.local10.com/topic/Marlene_Warren/
https://www.jacksonville.com/story/news/2017/09/27/after-27-years-arrest-made-shooting-florida-clown/15774591007/
 
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Exhumed (Alonzo Brooks Part 2)

On April 3, 2004, 23 year old Alonzo Brooks left his home in Gardner Kansas with three friends to attend a party. He said goodbye to his mother, Maria,  and hopped into a friends car. This was the last time Alonzo’s mother would ever see him alive. 
The next day when Alonzo hadn't returned home, Maria knew something was wrong, she contacted his friends and tried to retrace his steps to see where he could be. Instead of finding her son however, Maria discovered a tangled web of disjointed. It seems that Alonzo was left alone at a party an hour away with no car and no way to get home. After a month long police investigation turns up nothing, Alonzo's family organized their own search. Scarcely an hour into their search, in an area that had been cleared many times, Alonzo's family discovered his body. How does a person disappear without a trace, only to reappear a month later as if by magic, dead? We don't know, but one thing is for sure, there is more to this case than meets the eye. 
 
 
Click to learn more
https://kansaspublicradio.org/local-news/2021-03-02/racist-history-still-haunts-hays-and-other-kansas-towns
https://www.hppr.org/hppr-news/2021-03-02/what-the-history-of-noose-road-tells-us-about-kansas-race-and-the-lynchings-of-black-men
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1993/11/20/431093.html?pageNumber=26
https://www.cnn.com/2021/04/06/us/alonzo-brooks-case-ruled-homicide-unsolved-mysteries-trnd/index.html
https://www.nbcnews.com/dateline/new-autopsy-report-reveals-2004-death-alonzo-brooks-was-homicide-n1263108
https://www.abhmuseum.org/sundown-towns-the-past-and-present-of-racial-segregation/
https://www.britannica.com/place/sundown-town
https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/marion-indiana-lynching-1930/
https://www.abhmuseum.org/an-iconic-lynching-in-the-north/
Cold Case Kansas Blog
Unsolved Mysteries
 
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Stranded (Alonzo Brooks Part 1)

On April 3, 2004, 23 year old Alonzo Brooks left his home in Gardner Kansas with three friends to attend a party. He said goodbye to his mother, Maria,  and hopped into a friends car. This was the last time Alonzo’s mother would ever see him alive. 
The next day when Alonzo hadn't returned home, Maria knew something was wrong, she contacted his friends and tried to retrace his steps to see where he could be. Instead of finding her son however, Maria discovered a tangled web of disjointed. It seems that Alonzo was left alone at a party an hour away with no car and no way to get home. After a month long police investigation turns up nothing, Alonzo's family organized their own search. Scarcely an hour into their search, in an area that had been cleared many times, Alonzo's family discovered his body. How does a person disappear without a trace, only to reappear a month later as if by magic, dead? We don't know, but one thing is for sure, there is more to this case than meets the eye. 
 
 
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Cold Case Kansas Blog
Unsolved Mysteries
 
 
 
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Epitaph (Who Put Bella in the Wych Elm?)

On April 18th 1943 in Worcestershire England, (yes like the sauce no one can pronounce) 4 young boys looking for birds eggs crept into Hagley Wood. Hagley wood was a mysterious place. Located on the grounds of the partially abandoned Hagley Hall, Hagley woods were dotted with neglected temples and statues, overgrown landscaping and ancient stately trees. But one tree stood out among the rest. A tree almost entirely comprised of sharp, leafless twigs jutting out at severe angles, a gnarled, menacing, leafless wych elm. Most people would steer clear of such a thing, but the boys knew this kind of tree was the perfect place to hide nests. When they looked inside it's large and hollow trunk however, they didn't find birds, they didn't find eggs, they found a body, and unearthed a mystery that hangs over the village of Hagley to this very day. Who put Bella in the Wych Elm? This story may be familiar to some, but our dive is DEEP. 
 
 
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From the Worcestershire county council
Josef Jakobs Blog
British Newspaper Archive, create a free account to see all original articles
Explore Hagley Hall
 
 
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Discord (The Mishandled Murder of Bianca Devins)

Discord: D I S C O R D. A lack of agreement or harmony. A combination of sounds that strikes the ear harshly. Discord.
6:45 AM, on July 14th 2019. The eastern united states is beginning to wake up and scroll through their social media. The day was warm and sunny and a group of young adults in Utica New York was about to unwillingly witness a step by step account of a terrible murder. 
After a series of cryptic posts on Instagram from the user @yesjuliet and similar posts on Discord from the user @aperatia, both accounts (same user) posted a picture of a beautiful young girl lying dead in his car. The user was a man named Brandon Andrew Clark, and friends and internet acquaintances immediately recognized the girl as Bianca Michelle Devins. 
This week's case takes us on a journey through every parents worst nightmare. We've said it before and we'll say it again, the internet is a scary place.
 
 
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48 hours episode
Rolling Stone "17 year old girl was murdered. How did photos of her death go viral?"
* no more links this week. We don't want to inadvertently lead you to traumatic photos that do not belong online.
 
 
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Hopelessly Devoted (The murder of Dr. Joseph Sonnier)

It's a Leslie-sode!!! Happy New Years and welcome back after our little holiday break. We have a case filled with twists and turns. So settle in, because it's going to be a wild ride.
Dr. Joseph Sonnier was a well respected pathologist from Lubbock, Texas who was found shot and stabbed in his home on July 11th, 2012. Investigators quickly theorized this had not been a robbery gone wrong, but a personal attack. But who would want the doctor dead and why? With a list of family and friends to talk to, investigators were left with more questions than answers. Someone had to know something, and luckily someone did...
 
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Inside Texas Doctor’s Plot to Kill Rival Doctor in Love Triangle
Day Twelve: Thomas Dixon Murder Trial, Sonnier autopsy results revealed
Where Is Ex-Plastic Surgeon Dr. Thomas Michael Dixon Now?
Dateline NBC: Lone Star Obssession
The Murder Project 
 
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Scary Ghost Stories Vol. 3 (Victorian Christmas Tales)

Gather 'round the fire fiends and let's bring back a time honored tradition...again! Christmastime ghost stories. Another episode perfect for a chilly and festive evening. Merry Christmas, fiends!
Buy the book here
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Haunted (A Christmas Carol)

 
There is no phrase one can utter that draws a more visceral christmas response, than Bah, Humbug. And so it is with great joy and depth of feeling that this holiday season we bring you an exploration into this the most famous and meaningful of ghost stories. It may be decked with Holly and frosted with snow, but at it’s heart a Christmas carol is a most glorious ghost story, and we hope all the things you learn today will haunt your house pleasantly forever more.
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Washington Post Tiny Tim article
 
 
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Tornado (Tommy Lynn Sells, Part 2)

What do a ceramic duck, watermelon plates, an episode of 20/20 and a bunk bed have in common? It may seem like nothing, but they're are all integral turning points in one of the twistiest cases we have ever covered. Oh, and this one is extra shocking because it involves a serial killer Holly had never heard of...which doesn't happen too often. 
In the second part of our deep dive into serial killer Tommy Lynn Sells we tell the incredible survival story of Krystal Surles, the most bad ass little girl to ever walk the planet. Krystal not only survived having her throat slit, but in the end she single handedly brought down a tornado of hate and violence, cheers Krystal, cheers forever! Then we tie it all together in one big horrifying bow. 
Click to learn more
CBS interview with Krystal, Marques and officer Johnny Allen
https://dianefanning.com/
Tourists aid victim slashed in violent Fourth Street Live knife attack
Clint Malarchuk Neck Injury Full Video
Buy the book here: The Cross Country Killer: Life of Serial Killer Tommy Lynn Sells
 
 
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