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Hey weirdos, I'm Ash. And I'm Elena. And this is a mini morbid.
It's so tiny small. Little tiny small morbid.
Mini, mini, mini, mini, mini morbid. Mini morbid, mini morbid, mini morbid.
Tiny small like me, apparently, next to Gary Goldman.
Yeah, I guess I'm just fucking huge. No, everybody was saying we both were like... I know, I'm totally kidding.
Trust me, we're both not like non-existent human beings.
Gary Goldman's just six foot six. He is a large man.
And also the nicest man. He's so nice, guys.
He complimented my coat and I shot myself.
It's so nice when people you really like, like comedians and all that stuff, when you meet them, they genuinely are what you want them to be in your life. brain john couldn't come to that with us and gary goldman made him a fucking video and it was his idea yeah he was like oh he's not here like let's make him a video And we did and it was awesome.
Maybe I'll post it because it was awesome.
Do it. But that's not what this mini-morbid is about.
No, it's not. But you know what? Go listen to Gary Gelman because he's really funny.
We love Gary Gelman. If you like comedy, Gary Gelman's it.
Um, so yeah, so that was fun last night and this is a mini morbid and it's Elena's mini morbid, which means it's not mini great, which means we should jump right in.
Okay, ready, set, go. So, in my mini-morbid, I'm going to cover the Keddie Cabin murders.
Sounds familiar, but I'm not sure if I know it or not.
It's real intense. I thought you were just going to say it's real.
And I was like, well, this is a true crime podcast.
So that's fitting. It happened. No, it's real intense.
One might say like a circus fire. that took me a whole ass minute sure did i loved it That's one of my favorite jokes.
I like that one. So, I love dad jokes. So...
November 1980, 36-year-old Glenna Sue Sharpe moved herself and her five children from Connecticut to a tiny little area called Keddie, California.
She had divorced her husband James and was looking to have a fresh start. all right and you go i mean connecticut to california that's a fresh ass start yeah that's a whole kind of different that's a whole start So her children were 15 year old John, 14 year old Sheila, 12 year old Tina, 10 year old Rick and five year old Greg. old Greg just think of old Greg whenever I hear Greg they are just now i can't stop thinking about craig i'm a scale i'm gonna need a minute Alright, so let me get my shit together because old Greg is so funny.
My downstairs mix-up. So they all moved into a very small cabin in kind of like a dilapidated resort.
Oh, fun. Which was close to Sue's brother Don's place. okay this was so wow what the fuck can you leave that in because i'm so scared that was a glitch in the matrix They had a nerve.
You know what? Quick side note. Speaking of glitches in The Matrix...
Everybody keeps telling me that they think I mean Kazam with Shaq when I said Shazam with Sinbad happened.
But no, I know Kazam with Shaq. happened yeah but also shazam with simbad happened that's the one that nobody can find Which is scary.
But trust me, everybody was saying like, no, this is the one.
Yes, I agree that did happen. But Sinbad was in Shazam.
Just putting that out there. So. The little family settled into their new cabin in cabin 28.
Okay. And what I did before I broke a second ago was saying it was supposed to be a temporary home.
Okay. The kids made friends in nearby cabins.
Things seemed pretty chill. Everything was happy.
About five months after moving on April 11, 1981, things changed drastically.
Okay. So that evening on April 11th, Sheila was at a friend's home nearby sleeping over for the evening.
Sue, the mother, was at home with her two youngest children, Rick and Greg.
They had a friend over, 12-year-old Justin Smart.
At around 10 p.m., Tina came home. She's the 12-year-old. been at cabin 27 with friends hanging out John had been out with a friend Dana Wingate that evening and And the two of them also returned home late.
Okay. So no one knows for sure what exactly happened next.
I know this case. But if we skip to the next morning a horrific picture emerges.
So Sheila came home early in the morning on April 12th.
When she opened the front door, she immediately saw the bodies of her mother Sue and her brother john and his friend dana on the floor in the living room oh that's horrific the scene was brutal I believe it.
Blood was everywhere. And the three bodies had been brutalized and were all bound.
So Sheila immediately runs into the back room because she knows her little brothers are in there.
Right. and saw that Rick, Greg, and their friend Justin Smart had been unharmed and were fast asleep.
That's so strange. Justin lived in cabin 26.
He lived there with his mother and stepfather, Marilyn and Martin Smart, and his brother.
So she ran back to her friend's cabin, got her friend's father, James Seabolt Sr., And he came back with her and upon seeing the scene he got the three surviving children out of the house through a window.
Thank God. So they wouldn't see the nightmare in the fucking living room.
Right. He then informed the owners of the Keddie Resort and the co-owner Jan Alban called the sheriff's department at 8.05 a.m.
Now, Deputy Hank Clement was the first to arrive on the scene.
He said it was a fucking bloodbath. He was shocked that Sheila had actually seen that.
He was like, I don't know how she's going to get past that. that's not okay he said it was I mean it was everywhere he said there was blood on the walls the ceiling it was everywhere that's so horrific So all victims had been bound with electrical tape and wires.
John and Dana were bound separately, but also bound together to each other.
Mm hmm. John was right in front of the door on his back, so he was the first thing you saw when you walked in the door. his hands were bound with electrical tape and he was covered in blood from a giant wound on his throat which had been slit jesus next to him was dana dana was face down and his head which had been absolutely mutilated by a blunt object was partially on a pillow okay although his skull was crushed he had been manually strangled to death jesus christ yeah sue was gagged with a blue bandana in her own underwear medical tape had been looped around her head to keep them in her mouth She had a clear mark of the butt of a Daisy Powerline 880 rifle on the side of her head.
Mm-hmm. Her throat had also been slit and she was found nude from the waist down.
Oh. Her killer had partially covered her with a blanket, but it didn't seem to be in a way that somebody cared.
You know how sometimes they'll do that? Her hands and ankles were also bound together with medical tape and wires.
Okay. And I believe it was so that like her knees were like up against her chest, almost like a fetal position.
Mm-hmm. uh blood was on the floor it was on the sofa um it seemed like they said the way that the blood was it seemed like they had been moved Okay.
And like placed in these positions. Blood was also found on some bedding in the bedroom.
The bedroom that was Sheila's and he, Sheila also shared it with Tina and her mother. so there was blood in there as well right so it was on again on the ceiling in the living room where the bodies were and it was also on the bottoms of shoes feet and the soles of john and dana's shoes which indicates that they were moving around right when they were in stepping in their own blood at one point right So besides the various injuries described, all the victims had been violently stabbed repeatedly. investigators also deduced that the head traumas inflicted had been from hammers.
Yeah. They found a bloody steak knife on the floor that was literally bent.
Oh my god. Yeah. um in the kitchen they found a butcher knife covered in blood and a bloody claw hammer oh a claw hammer like what the word claw hammer in and of itself is so triggering right It stresses me out.
Yeah, it's not okay. Later, they found another bloody knife in a trash can behind the Keddie General store.
Yikes. Now, there were no signs of forced entry.
All the lights were shut off. The phone was placed off the hook and the shades were all drawn.
That's spooky. There was one fingerprint lifted from a handrail on the back stairs of the cabin, but it was unidentified.
Okay. Other than that, they were like they had to wear gloves.
Nothing. Now that the scene was taken over, Sheila's like, wait a second.
Where's Tina? Like we're missing Tina. Uh oh.
So now they realize 12 year old Tina is nowhere to be found.
So this is when the FBI came in. Right. And she was supposed to have been playing at Cabin 26.
Well, she was playing at Cabin 26, but she had come home.
Okay. Yeah. So what's weird is that none of the other three boys woke up during the murders.
Yeah, you would think that that would have been a loud murder. yeah like this was not just like bing bang boom you're all dead meanwhile another couple Okay.
Okay. can you imagine stop ignoring things everybody well can you imagine finding out later that's what that was and you fucking went back to sleep can you imagine that's so horrifying So later, Justin came forward, Justin, the 12-year-old that was in the room with Rick and Greg.
Sure. He said he did see something. Oh. So under hypnosis, Justin claimed that he had seen Sue with two men, one with a mustache and long hair. and one that was clean-shaven with short hair.
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One of them had a hammer in his hand and he said, John and Dana came in the house, began arguing with the men.
The argument got violent. Tina suddenly came into the room.
They said she was holding a blanket. And one of the men took her out the back door before coming back in to kill Sue.
And then the other one killed John and Dana.
He didn't know where that man put Tina. and like did he say if they saw him they said no they said like no one saw him like nothing they were like they didn't see us so that's why we were spared Yeah, I guess.
That's scary as fuck. Now, investigators made composite sketches of what he was saying.
DNA was collected and from the scene and stored but nothing could be done about it at that point like it's in the 80s uh the sheriff doug thomas worked the case and instead of calling in homicide He called in the organized crime unit from Sacramento Department of Justice.
It's kind of random. Which is weird. And at that point, apparently that department was like known to be corrupt.
Oh, goody. Yeah. So Tina was missing and there was absolutely no sign of her.
In April of 1984. This doesn't sound very organized.
No. Three years after this. A man found part of a skull in Butte County, which was 29 miles away from Keddie.
Next to the skull, there was a child's blanket, a blue nylon jacket, a pair of jeans, and an empty surgical tape dispenser.
When they looked further, they found a jawbone and a bunch of bone fragments.
I just said fragrance. Fragments. Fragments.
I didn't even hear fragrance. I thought I said fragrance.
I don't think you did. I felt like I did, but I don't know.
Maybe not. Maybe I'm just, I'm judging myself.
They were Tina's remains, but they couldn't tell yet.
Okay. So the Buttes County Sheriff's Department got a random anonymous call. because they had put out this information that they had found this, they got an anonymous call saying, quote, I was wondering if they thought of the murder up in Keddie. up in plumas county a couple years ago where a 12 year old girl was never found Oh.
Now the tip was recorded, but nothing was ever fucking done about it. perfect it was just sealed up and put in evidence great that's what we like to do it was actually in a sealed envelope So this person calls and is like, yeah, pretty sure that person, that child has to do with...
That Keddie murder. Yeah. Which it seems like it's the person who did it.
Yeah. And it's like, yo, that's her. So there didn't appear to be any motive and there was not a lot of evidence to go on at this point.
There seemed to be multiple killers based on the plethora of weapons involved.
Right. and what that kid had said yeah and so many people in the house it's like that's a lot to subdue yeah The town of Agde in France is famous for sun, sand, sea and sex.
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After a while, Justin Smart's stepfather, Martin Smart, was starting to be fingered as a suspect.
Why? So he had a man living in their home who was an ex-convict named John Bodeb.
I feel like that's a bad idea. We're just going to call him Bo.
Both men had ties to organized crime and drug trafficking. oh no boy now why would these guys immediately be thought of as suspects well it was believed that martin and sue were having an affair oh fuck Besides this, it's said that Sue was basically convincing Marilyn to leave Martin.
Okay. Marilyn, who's Justin's mother, Martin's wife, left her husband Martin the day of the murders.
Oh, yeah. So why would he kill Sue then?
Because he believes that Sue convinced Marilyn to leave him. i'd be like well but you want to be with me but he doesn't oh they're just having an affair got it yeah i love how logically you're like what love prevails so now martin is pissed because he had an affair and that affair ended up convincing his wife to leave him right Right, right, right.
I'm up to speed. So when this all happened, he got his convict friend, Bo, and with their ties to the mob, they got the job done.
That's the theory. At one point, Martin also told investigators that a hammer of his went missing, which is pretty convenient to explain why your shit would be one of the murder weapons. right and when they found that when they showed had the hammers it matched with the hammer he had missing and he's like oh shit he's like i left that somewhere someone stole my hammer killed someone Now, on top of this, Marilyn gave the Plumas County Sheriff's Department a handwritten letter sent to her.
This is Marilyn, Justin's mom, Martin's ex-wife. it was sent to her and signed by martin it read quote Now that I've bought it with four people's lives.
You tell me we are through. Great. What else do you want?
Oh. No one did anything with this letter.
Martin, sweetie, you're sick. No one did anything with the letter.
They were just like, oh yeah, whatever. what mm-hmm this is this was a corrupt ass police like was he paying them or something well you'll see so in 2004 the cabin was finally torn down between then and now or between then and 2004, this case was like cold.
There was just no information about it. Meanwhile, in 2008, Marilyn admitted in a documentary about this that she 100% thought her husband and his friend Beau was responsible.
Shh. shit so this lady's being like yeah they did it so what did sheriff doug thomas say to all this overwhelming evidence that martin did it i'm busy that day well he was like no he took Like a polygraph test.
Oh, yeah. We all know that those are allowed.
He was like, he passed it. It's fine. Yeah, totally.
So that's it. For sure. Now, Thomas, so Sheriff Doug Thomas was asked about his relationship with Martin back in the day because they're like, did you know him?
And according to a report in Plumas News about the case, he said he and Martin were, quote, Oh.
And he said that he had even allowed, quote, Marty to come with him on a patrol a lot.
Marty even asked him for marriage advice.
Uh-huh. They were close as fuck. Yeah, they were BFFs.
So it wasn't until 2013 that new investigators took on this case. don't know if i would like well i do know i definitely wouldn't cover up a murder for my best friend yeah that this dude was like fully willing to do it In 2013, new investigators took on the case and found that they found the recording of that anonymous tip about Tina.
Mm hmm. These investigators were Plumas Sheriff Greg Hagwood and Special Investigator Mike Gamberg.
In 2016, three years after they were put on the case, Gamberg found a hammer in a dried up pond in the area and they believe it's one of the murder weapons.
That same year, Gamberg also met with an anonymous counselor at the Reno Veterans Administration.
This counselor told him that in May 1981, he had taken on Martin Smart as a patient.
Mm hmm. and that martin smart actually confessed to that he murdered sue the mother and the 12 year old girl tina what He said, quote, I killed the woman and her daughter but I didn't have anything to do with the boys.
What a peach. Like, I think that might be like, what?
What a peach. He's like, well, I killed the mother and the daughter.
I didn't kill the boys, though. Jesus Christ.
Don't pin that nefarious business on me.
So when the DOJ was conformed of this bombshell in 1981, they just said, oh, that's just hearsay.
Yep. Yep. This is fucked up. So much corruption. with the aid of at least that felon Beau he lived with.
Mm-hmm. It seems they did this because of the affair probably and needed her out of the situation.
And the other two boys were with him, too. so it also yeah that's why justin wasn't killed i didn't even think that's his son Or at least that's done.
It also makes sense why Justin was a little wishy-washy about what he heard or saw.
He was probably threatened. Oh, shit. Because he kind of was like, yeah, I saw this.
I saw that. I don't know. I got to go. Why didn't they kill you?
Oh, I don't know. I don't think because it was my dad. you're not my dad gamberg who was on the case who was one of the new investigators put on the case in 2013 thinks there was a deep cover-up in the sheriff's department because of like mob shit and all that Where does the mob come into play?
Well, because those two, because remember I said earlier they had little connections to organized crime.
Sure, sure, sure. Sorry. So as of now, Martin and Bo are dead.
Oh, fuck. But they were able to get new DNA evidence and it seems to place other living people there.
They haven't announced who they are yet, but this case is ongoing.
Shoot. Yeah. So what's crazy is that Gamberg and Hagwood were teens during the murders and were friends with John and Dana, the two teen boys who were murdered.
What? yeah in fact gamberg said to cbs sacramento that dana was at his house the day before the murders stop yeah and now he's working on the case One other crazy note linking them to the crime is from a crazy awesome three-part investigative look into this case.
So good. Like, I'm going to put the links to this in our show notes.
It's by Victoria Metcalf in Plumas News.
What? This is a small divish type bar. So everyone interviewed was baffled someone would wear that in there.
The author and many other sources I saw think they did this to draw attention to their presence at the bar to establish an alibi for themselves.
What an alibi. Because two dudes walking into a dive bar with three-piece suits on and sunglasses... everyone's gonna see you right and they're all gonna be like oh yeah i saw that fucker he's wearing a three-piece suit i saw him at the bar right So he thinks that was them being really like thinking ahead, you know, cunning and doing this to establish their alibis.
I want to know like what the next question would be if they were like, so why were you wearing a three piece suit?
Just like I felt fancy tonight. Deal with it.
I wear my sunglasses at night. Well, what they did that night was after a couple of hours, they left the bar because they got mad that the music was switched from country to rock music.
Ew. I would be mad at the switch of that.
But like switching from rock to country.
I was like, wait, no you wouldn't. But then later, Martin called the bar from his cabin to piss and moan about it some more.
Are you shitting me? And then they went back later that night for another drink and left a bit before 2 a.m.
Now they think he called from his cabin to further establish, I'm at home, I'm in my cabin.
I was home. In this same article, she mentions that the counselor who Martin allegedly confessed to also said that Martin indicated the motive being that Sue was the reason Marilyn wanted to divorce him.
He also said he killed Tina just because she saw it.
He was like, I couldn't leave her. She saw what happened. oh my god so that's the other thing it's like tina watched her mother be murdered right um in the same article the theory is that the perpetrators were already in the cabin when john and dana arrived and that they were dispatched in front of john's mother sue so that she had to watch Oh, and that like basically they were just like a problem, like an obstacle.
They also said, you know, she had to watch what happened to Tina as well.
Likely. Oh, my God. They think she was tortured for a long time.
They said her death was not like a quick, like, slice the throat death. they said they think they were in that cabin for a long time that's horrific um And as of now, well, this is a short one.
I just looked at the time. I know. I was shocked that we were done.
It's because there's not, it's a totally cold case.
Well, it's not cold. I shouldn't say that.
It was a cold case for a long time and now it's reopened and they're starting to get more evidence in this.
So it's like an ongoing investigation right now.
So any updates on this case? I'm definitely going to. give you guys updates as it comes because it's fascinating because i i mean it's bow and martin and martin obviously yeah clearly but it's like other people are involved here and i need to know I must know.
I need to know. Because also there was Sheila, the one of the... The one that came home and discovered everything.
The one that came home and found it. She said that like they basically let like Martin and Bo, they like let them skip town once they were named suspects.
They were never told they couldn't leave.
That's weird. Like they were allowed to do whatever they wanted.
And Sheila was like, to me, the whole thing is a cover up.
She believes that too. She's like, it's very obvious.
It's a cover up. Yeah, sounds like it. And that's what I think it is.
I agree with that. But so far, the murders in Cabin 28, the Keddie Cabin murders, are... unsolved at this point it's spooky as fuck i've definitely heard that case before but at first i was like i don't know this and then i was like the more you're telling it i know it's such a good one because it's a good mini morbid because it's like there's a good amount of information but not a ton of it right right right so it's like it's perfect for a mini yeah So that is that.
Is the Keddie Cabin Murders. And hopefully we'll learn more about it because I want to see those two detectives solve the case.
I do too because they were friends. Because they were like friends with John and Dana.
That'd be. beautiful and their like mission is to do this for them yeah of course it is that's your fucking friend yeah I want them to succeed.
Well, we'll alert you on Instagram if there's any updates.
We will. If you don't know our Instagram, it is.
At Morbid Podcast. You can hit us up on Twitter because you'll probably see it there too.
At Amorbid Podcast. And also on Facebook.
Morbid colon a true crime podcast group. yes um and then send us an email so we can talk to you about it morbidpodcast at gmail dot com.
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I don't have it in me. No? No, this one's graphic and...
Okay, not so rare that you fucking show up to a dive bar in sunglasses and then call later and complain about the music, because who really needs to fucking complain about the music at a fucking dive bar later?
Like, don't be doing that. If you're going to change it from rock and roll to country, like really, you're going to fucking call them and complain about that.
And then you're going to like torture a lady because she was your mistress and she's not actually your wife.
And Elaine is bumping to the grind right now. i knew you had it in you i always did bye Thank you.
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