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Hey weirdos, I'm Ash. And I'm Elena. And this is my mini-morbid.
It's Ash-centric, guys. Willy, willy, willy.
Mini, mini, mini, mini, mini morbid. Mini morbid, mini morbid, mini morbid.
So this is kind of an interesting mini-morbid because it is very time sensitive.
We decided to jump on this case today because...
Time is of the essence in it, really. Today we're going to be talking about the Rodney Reed case.
So we actually originally had a different topic for this mini Morbid today, but we switched gears at the last second. to cover this Rodney Reed case pretty generally, but try to give you all the facts and all the information.
Because this is really important, guys. So it's going to be a little shorter than it normally would be.
But that's because we kind of just put it together as quickly as possible to get it out there to you guys.
So yeah, I feel like a real live reporter.
It was like Ash on the scene with News Morbid.
So let's crack into this. I meant to say let's dive into this.
We're about to dive in. Oh my God, you did it.
I did it. I've never been more proud of anybody in my life.
I felt it and I had to go with it. I am alive and I just blew through the speakers sorry There you go.
I love it. Okay, so everybody, this is a real bummer of a case, just so everybody knows.
Sure is. Here's a warning for you. It's a bummer, but let's get it.
And just so everybody's aware, this does contain a lot of discussion of rape and sexual assault.
Yes. So trigger warning. Yes, thank you.
I couldn't think of the word trigger warning.
I'm here for you. Okay. So on April 23rd, 1996, 19-year-old Stacey Stites never showed up for her shift at the grocery store where she worked in Bastrop, Texas.
That's never a good start to a story. Never is.
Stacy. Oh, my God. Stacy usually took her boyfriend's truck to work.
But around 530 a.m., the truck was found in the Bastrop High School parking lot.
At this point, Stacy hadn't been reported missing and the truck had not been reported stolen.
So the officer who discovered it didn't really think much of it and just went about his business.
But he did call it in to report it just in case.
Back at the grocery store, Stacey at this point was running about three hours late.
And the woman who she was supposed to be working with, her coworker, was getting really worried and decided to call her mom. who was Carol Stites.
So Carol receives this call and she's like, what the fuck?
Like, I heard Stacey leave for work this morning.
I know she left for work this morning. That's a nightmare as a parent.
I can't imagine that. I literally can't even imagine that.
Someone from the work calling and being like, yeah, your daughter didn't show up to work today. that's a nightmare because you know those stories that start with your daughter didn't show up to work it's always like she always was on time to work and like she oh and i heard her leave and exactly it's like it's never like oh yeah she does this like it's always like no she's literally never done this right So Carol calls Jimmy Fennell, Stacy's fiance, who was a Giddings police officer.
Um, he actually lived up, they lived upstairs from Stacy's mom.
So Stacy's mom lived downstairs and Jimmy and Stacy lived upstairs.
Okay. After being reported missing, unfortunately, Stacy's body was found around 3 p.m. the same day.
On the side of a rural road in a pretty like wooded area.
I was going to make the rural juror joke, but this is kind of a very solemn case.
So I did it, but I didn't do it. okay i just can never say the word rural rural i have i have to stop and think about it it's hard it is So, unfortunately, again, Stacy had been raped, sodomized. and strangled to death oh my god um she was actually strangled with her own belt that she had been wearing wow That to me is someone who knows you.
Yep. Like that kind of brutality. 100%. um there was dna from an unknown male found in her body and strangely enough her fingernails had been It seemed as though they had just been cut.
Oh, that's weird. Yeah. Not at all suspicious.
And they weren't like... It wasn't like how like a typical girl would like cut their fingernails and file them.
Like they were like... Jagged? Yeah. Like...
It seemed as though she didn't do this herself.
Yeah, like somebody did it in a hurry, perhaps.
In a hurry and somebody else did it to maybe eliminate some evidence.
Exactly. Without any care except just to get the fingernails off.
Which is a weird thought to have unless you work in a criminal background.
Weird. Anyways. Real weird. Jimmy Fennell became the prime suspect because obviously he was the last person to see her alive and he was the fiance.
So that's just how it goes. Yeah. Um, he just, I mean, this doesn't necessarily mean anything because lie detector tests we know are.
About as useful as a hot dog in a trench coat.
Exactly. I was waiting for that. So, but just know that Jimmy did fail two lie detector tests.
Oh, Jimmy. But the DNA found on Stacy's body did not belong to him.
So he was ruled out as a suspect pretty quickly.
And the case goes cold for about a year.
They have no idea who did this. Oh, damn.
So then Rodney Reed, who was a suspect in a few other sexual assault cases, which he was never found guilty of.
He was just a suspect in them. Yeah. To be clear, became the main focus in the case.
Rodney denied having any involvement in the murder.
He denied even knowing Stacey at first. It's a bad move.
Yep, especially because his DNA matched what was found on Stacy's body.
Well, come on, Rodney. So he definitely knew her at least.
For sure. When the investigators kind of obviously confronted him about the DNA, obviously he changed his story. and told them that he and Stacy had been having an affair and that they had had sex about two days before her murder.
And you can understand why he would initially be like, I don't even know her because there was a lot more to this.
There was a lot to this case. I mean, it just has to be said, it's 1996 in Texas in a small town. where a lot of people may have been racist yeah it's just reality it's just what was going on This is of the fiance of a police officer.
That's probably why he was like, I don't know her.
Yeah, because he was like, what's going to happen here?
Right. I admit that I'm having an affair because, again, Stacey was a Caucasian woman.
Yes. And Rodney Reed is an African-American male.
Right. Just to in case that everybody doesn't know.
Yeah. So. They were like, yeah, your DNA was found on her.
And he was like, yep, well, we've been having an affair.
We had sex two days ago. He said that they had been keeping their affairs secret because, like I said, or like Elena said, he was a black man.
Is that okay to say? Can I say black? And Stacey was a white woman and they were afraid to go public with their relationship because they didn't know what people were going to do, say or think.
Because the town, especially the town that they lived in, was considered pretty racist at the time.
That's so sad. I can't imagine. And I know this was like a while ago, but it wasn't that long ago.
And it's like... It just bums me out 23 years ago Yeah, it bums me out that people think this way Yeah, it's horrible.
Rodney Reed apparently had multiple witnesses to confirm his alibi for that night. and attest to the fact that he was, in fact, in a relationship with Stacey.
But pretty much none of them were called to testify. weird at the trial weird what i will say is a lot of them did have criminal convictions so that could have been why they were not called to testify can be an issue But just know that they didn't.
During the trial, women who had accused Rodney of sexual assault were called to testify.
And remember, he hadn't been found guilty in any of these cases.
Yeah. But they were used to they were used to testify against him.
That doesn't seem right. No. So on May 29th, 1998, Reed was found guilty by an all-white jury and sentenced to the death penalty.
Oh, a jury of his peers, you say. Yeah, exactly.
An all-white jury. Is that legal? Like, could that alone... be something to get him exonerated not exonerated but i'm not sure actually because that's not a jury of your peers I'm going to look it up real quick.
So we just took a quick break to look this up for you.
And according to law.com Peer means an equal.
This has been interpreted by courts to mean that the available jurors include a broad spectrum of the population, particularly of race, national origin. origin and gender so this doesn't seem right it's supposed to be a broad spectrum not a bunch of white dudes Yeah, it's like Lizzie Borden all over again.
Exactly. Not a jury of your peers. Not at all.
So yeah, he was found guilty. But a lot of people, including even members of Stacey's family, think Rodney Reed is innocent and was wrongly convicted.
That should tell you something right there.
Yeah. If the victim's family members are like, I don't think that man did it.
Yeah. That says something. Yeah. That definitely says something.
The people that don't believe Rodney did it do believe Jimmy Fennell, Stacey's fiance, is the one who killed her.
I'm not shocked at all. But other people, including the lead investigator on the case, who is Lynn Rocky Wardlow...
Don't agree. Lynn says that Jimmy wouldn't have had enough time to kill his fiancee drop the body, park the truck at the high school, then walk home 30 miles to be home and answer a 645 call about where Stacey was.
But do we have like medical examiner stuff to back that up?
Nope, because that was super fucking botched.
Again, shocked. Most of this investigation was hella botched.
Yeah, it's weird that it involves, you know, inside stuff.
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Wardlow never searched the couple's home and also never asked what the couple had been up to in the days leading up to the murder.
And, just a reminder, Jimmy failed those two polygraph tests, in which questions like, Did you strangle your girlfriend? were asked.
And, where his whereabouts were that morning.
They asked him about that. And he failed two polygraph tests with questions asked like that.
I must say that's a bit fishy. It gets fishier.
Gets more troutish in here. Yes. It's very stanky.
Very stanky. Rodney Reed's cousin, Chris Aldridge, actually said he was with Rodney the... night that stacy like that he was allegedly murdering stacy like at that time he was with his cousin So he was like, I'm pretty sure I would know if he was murdering someone.
Yes. He says they hung out at a lot near his house until about 5 a.m. and then they walked to work together.
The same cousin says Jimmy knew that Stacey had been having an affair with Rodney and had even pulled Rodney into his cruiser one time to tell him that he was going to pay for what he was doing.
I mean, come on. Come on. The story was also confirmed by another witness, so it's not just the cousin that says this.
Like, this happened. There's way too much here in Rodney's favor.
Yeah. Like this doesn't happen to a guilty person.
Yeah. At the time of the murder, the medical examiner said that the semen left on Stacey's body couldn't have been from two days prior.
But a few years after the trial, he changed his mind and came out and said... since he only found very few sperm that they could have actually been from an earlier time.
And he also said that the injuries Stacy sustained were more consistent with penetration by a rod like instrument, such as a police baton.
That's horrific. That just literally ruined my psyche, thinking about that.
Because if this... Think about it. If this is her fiancé... he did the the amount yeah the amount of just nightmare this is is off the charts Especially, like, when you introduce, like, a police baton as the instrument.
It's like, I can't even put myself in that.
Well, and... Ugh. I... I mean... Jimmy Fennell personally I think he did it but same either way if you don't think he did it you still should think that he's a really shitty human being so I'll continue now Exactly.
Also, a weird thing is that, like I said, a lot of this investigation is botched.
So... They took pictures at the crime scene.
And then when they got her back to the morgue, all these injuries that weren't photographed at the scene... like the medical examiner saw all these like burns and like stuff like that, that had, that hadn't been photographed at the scene.
And it's like, what the fuck? What are you doing?
Why are you even there if you're not doing your job?
And they literally started like examining her on the side of the road. like started undressing her and like checking into things what as she was placed on a gurney on the side of the road No, that's not okay.
Which probably destroyed crucial evidence.
100%. And is just like... crude sloppy yeah yeah and like exactly it's crude that's exactly it So another interesting thing that was left out of the trial is that DNA was found on a few beer cans that were close by to Stacey's body.
That DNA belonged to Jimmy's best friend, neighbor, and fellow cop, David Hall. what the fuck?
Yeah. Jimmy was known to be controlling, violent, And he had had a few run-ins during his time as a police officer that had to be taken care of.
Let's talk about a few of those. Let's do that.
He stalked a woman named Wendy Wallace so badly that she filed a complaint against him.
He assaulted a man named Mario Murillo and Along with two other police officers, Jimmy held a gun to Murillo's head while the other two police officers shot. like basically beat the shit out of him oh that sounds like a nice guy After Stacey's murder, Jimmy started dating this woman named Pam Duncan, like pretty quickly after Stacey's murder.
But when she ended things with Jimmy... because she claimed that he was possessive and jealous.
After she broke up with him, he stalked her to the point where she also filed a complaint And an officer came to her house assuring her that Jimmy would be leaving her alone.
My God, this guy's a fucking monster. But when she went to go get a copy of the police report, it didn't exist.
Are you kidding me right now? Yeah. And he was like literally like driving to her house, like calling her on the phone, shining his fucking police flashlight in her windows.
That's horrifying. Yeah. He was like fucking torturing this woman.
He was a monster. And then apparently the other police people on the force were like, you can't be doing that.
But they fucking got rid of the police report 100%.
So they just covered it up, but they were like, dude, you got to stop, but we're not going to do anything about this.
Yeah. So Jim's getting away with all this fucking bullshit, like torturing people.
Of course. These are just reports that came out.
Who knows all the shit he did that didn't come out? i'm sure there's much more yeah so in the year 2000 it came out that jimmy had previously talked about murdering stacy if she ever cheated on him And he even said that he would do it with a belt so that no fingerprints would be left behind.
Guys, come on. He literally said exactly how she was murdered before he fucking murdered her.
He laid out the plan that actually was put into motion.
I mean, come on. And also... if you're talking first of all if you're talking about murdering your significant other in any like realistic scenario at all you're fucked up and two if you're a police officer and you're doing that Come on.
So finally, Jimmy's luck runs out. In 2007, he was actually convicted of raping a woman and kidnapping her.
She was named Connie Lear and he was supposed to be bringing her to the police station.
That's disgusting. And he fucking raped her.
That's disgusting. Yeah. He told her that he would kill her if she ever told anybody, but she went forward anyways because she's a bad bitch.
Good for you, girlfriend. And at Jimmy's trial, multiple women came forward with similar stories of what Jimmy had done to them.
And they were just too scared to report it before.
That's awful. Horrible. Jimmy was convicted... of the rape and kidnapping and sentenced to prison.
He was sentenced to 10 years. So this happened in 2007.
He stayed in prison until 2017. But he's out now.
That doesn't seem like enough. No, 10 years for fucking rape and kidnap.
Are you fucking kidding me? Like, come on, dude.
Like, this guy's obviously dangerous. 100%.
While Jimmy was incarcerated, it seems like a lot of people were more comfortable letting out details.
That they might have been not so comfortable letting out while he was just roaming free fucking torturing people.
His former best friend did a CNN interview where he said that Jimmy hadn't been home with Stacey the night before she was murdered, like he had originally said.
Because that was asked at some point, like, where were you?
Blah, blah, blah. Yeah. And he was like, oh like we were at home I had a little league game and then we watched TV together and it was like a fine night so he's lying Yeah, but he had actually been out drinking with his friends, including David Hall, beer can man.
I was just going to say the beer can guy.
Into the early morning hours. So there's a lot of gray area when it comes to this case, I guess.
And it seems as though a lot of the investigation was botched, like I said.
And the evidence that was left out at the trial was really damning to Jimmy.
Yeah. All the evidence that they left out points the finger at Jimmy.
That does not shock me at all. No. And remember, the home that Jimmy shared with Stacey was never searched.
Jimmy's truck was returned to him before the investigators could carry out a full forensic investigation.
That's crazy. Crazy to me. Yeah. That's insane.
And the only fingerprints that were found in that truck were belonged to Jimmy and belonged to Stacey.
But the story that the investigators... Or that the prosecutors were trying to paint was that...
Stacey was driving to work and then Rodney flagged her down somehow and overtook the car and then blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
Yeah, that doesn't make sense. His fingerprints weren't found in the car.
So and even better, Jimmy sold the fucking truck a few days after they returned it to him.
We've heard that story before. Sure have.
So now that all of this is coming to light, people who have long questioned Jimmy's role in this, and I felt all along that Rodney Reed was innocent and framed. are rushing to get to the Texas governor, Greg Abbott, about ordering a new investigation that could possibly shed new light on new DNA.
DNA evidence to prove Rodney's innocent.
If you want to look more into the case, this was like a brief overview pretty much because we wanted to get it out in time.
There are tons and tons of articles. There's a Daily Mail article on this.
I'll have Alayna put in the show notes all the articles that I used.
Yeah, I'll put all the sources that you can find to see all the, especially the new evidence that has come forward.
And there's actually a really good documentary that you can watch as well.
It's about like an hour long. It's called The State vs. Reed.
So really guys just look into this case.
This is kind of obviously like a brief overview but this is super time sensitive like we said before we just wanted to get it out. because Rodney is supposed to be executed on November 20th.
That is not far away guys. No. So after sifting through all the evidence and all the articles, if you feel like he's innocent, which I feel like he's innocent, I also feel like he's innocent. you can call the Texas governor at 512-463-2000
Or you can sign the petition at freerodneyreid.com.
That's freerodneyreid.com. And you can stop the execution of Rodney Reed, which is scheduled for November 20th.
This is honestly going to be such a travesty if this happens.
This is going to be the murder of an innocent man as far as I'm concerned.
A hundred percent. We can't let it happen, guys.
So do what you need to do. Call who you need to call, but make the right decision.
Exactly. I mean, take a look at all the evidence that we've put forth, all the stuff that you can find online. about this the documentaries make your own decision but i think you're going to come to the same decision that we did because i mean the evidence just we're not saying who did it Because I mean, evidence points to somebody, but we're not saying who did it.
We're saying who didn't do it. And Rodney Reed didn't do it.
No, I don't think he did it. I just don't think it's possible.
No, I don't either. There's too many coincidences.
There's too many things that take him out of this world. suspect pool definitely so we'll post on the Instagram some of the links that you can just click right on our Instagram to go and check some stuff out And you can follow us on Instagram if you haven't already.
At Morbid Podcast. You can hit us up on Twitter at Amorbid Podcast.
You can send us a Gmail about Rodney Reed's innocence.
Morbidpodcast at gmail.com. You can check out the website that Elena designed.
Morbidpodcast.com. You can join the Facebook group and talk about how Rodney Reed is innocent.
Morbid colon a true crime podcast. We hope you keep listening.
And we hope you keep it weird. I'm not going to do one for this.
Not so weird that you don't think Rodney Reed is innocent.
Perfect. Bye, guys. Bye. Thank you. If you like Morbid, you can listen early and ad free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts.
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The town of Agde in France is famous for sun, sand, sea and sex.
But lately, life on the coast has taken a strange turn.
The town's mayor, a respected pillar of the community, has been arrested for corruption.
His wife claims he's been bewitched by a beautiful clairvoyant.
Then there's the mysterious phone calls that local people have been getting.
I am the Archangel Michael. The whole town has been thrown into chaos.
As the mayor is unable to carry out his duties, I would like to address you all.
Legal proceedings have been initiated. Join me, Anna Richardson, and journalist Leo Schick for The Mystic and the Mayor as we investigate a story of power, corruption, and magic.
Binge all episodes of The Mystic and the Mare exclusively and ad-free right now on Wondery+.
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