Episode 366

0:00Speaker 1:Sword and Scale contains adult themes and violence, and is not intended for all audiences.

0:06Speaker 2:Listener discretion is advised.

0:14Speaker 3:I had to look at what he did.

0:16Speaker 4:I had to look at it with my own eyes, after putting everything I had in the finding her, And I promise you that everybody involved is going down. So I'm letting you know everybody who's involved in know something and didn't tell us is going to pay.

0:35Speaker 1:Hello and welcome to season thirteen, episode three hundred and sixty six of Sword and Scale, the show that reveals that the worst monsters are real. In late April of twenty twenty four, something wasn't right in Denmark, the Denmark in South Carolina, that is. That's when residents of this small town turned on their nightly news and learned about a troubling situation. A young mother of three had gone missing.

1:39Speaker 5:Sonight, rising emotions in Bamberg County as investigators search for this missing mother of three.

1:45Speaker 6:Something's not right because she wasn't the mother that just drops her kids off with anybody.

1:50Speaker 5:This is twenty five year old Megan Bodiford. Investigators says she sent some concerning text messages to a friend last Thursday and she has not been seen since.

1:59Speaker 1:Twenty five years old. Megan Bottiford was reported missing on April twenty sixth, twenty twenty four, by one of her closest friends, Grace Rindell. According to Grace, the last time she heard from Megan was through text messages. Megan had asked if she and her youngest baby could spend the night at Grace's house, which was something that wasn't out of the ordinary. Grace told her yes, and that she would leave the front door unlocked before going to bed so Megan could let herself in, just like she had done many times before.

2:32Speaker 3:You had to follow up call with her.

2:35Speaker 7:Nine abral fin fist that I called her I had take sleeping medication to he'll sleep the night, so I'd already taken it, so I told her I couldn't try just to get the baby come to me. So I got up and I unlocked my door, turned on the porch site and figured that she let her so thin as she's done some many times before.

2:52Speaker 3:So okay, but she ever did.

2:55Speaker 1:The next morning, when Grace woke up, she realized that Megan and her baby hadn't shown up. At first, she assumed Megan had simply changed her mind, But after repeated attempts to reach her when unanswered, that assumption started to feel a lot less certain, so Grace drove to Megan's house to check on her.

3:16Speaker 7:Also the night that did call her missing, I went to her house.

3:20Speaker 3:Question on that how'd you get in? Did you kick the door as signe you did?

3:23Speaker 8:Yes, that's we're just trying to We're just trying to piece Everyone said you kicked the door.

3:28Speaker 3:It was out of big deal.

3:30Speaker 1:When Grace arrived at Meghan's home, there was no sign of Megan or her baby. At that point, she knew something was very wrong, so she went to the police and reported her missing. It didn't take long for this story of a missing mom to reach the local media.

3:46Speaker 9:This home used to be full of life, but now it stands empty.

3:50Speaker 6:April the eleventh, I heard from her, and I told her I loved her, and she told me she loved me too, forever and always, and then.

3:57Speaker 9:Those were the last words. Megan bought Afford said to her cousin.

4:01Speaker 6:She's very strong and resilient and beautiful. She's a wonderful mother and we need her home.

4:09Speaker 9:The pain is hard to put into words for her family. But all they want is for Meghan to come home. It's my baby cousin.

4:16Speaker 6:She got to come home to these babies.

4:19Speaker 9:I need her home.

4:20Speaker 7:I don't need her lost.

4:23Speaker 1:As Meghan's family held on to hope that she would return, local authorities brought in the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division, better known as SLED to assist with the investigation. Part of that assistants involved arresting someone close to Meghan, her twenty eight year old boyfriend, jareded Davis.

4:43Speaker 9:A missing person's report says, due to prior call history, concern for the safety of a baby in the home, and her boyfriend having an active arrest warrant, deputies wanted to request SLED to assist in executing a search warrant and then arresting him on an outstanding.

4:59Speaker 1:War Jarrett was the father of Megan's youngest child, and when officers arrived at his home to arrest him on an unrelated warrant, they found the baby unharmed, but there was still no sign of Megan. As her boyfriend, Jarrett was an obvious person of interest. It's always the boyfriend, but it wasn't just their relationship that drew attention. According to Megan's friend Grace, several of Jared's own friends said he wasn't acting like himself on the day Megan disappeared.

5:33Speaker 1:Something about him seemed off.

5:36Speaker 7:When Early and Danielle did show up at my house, they kept telling me that they were being Jared. They hung out Jared all day and he was being various sspcius if I'm not letting them go to Megan's house.

5:47Speaker 10:To look for her.

5:49Speaker 1:Naturally, after Jarrett was taken into custody, investigators sat down with him to talk about Megan and find out what he knew about her disappearance.

5:58Speaker 3:Your first time is Jared, right, Jarrett j R?

6:02Speaker 2:E T T all right.

6:04Speaker 11:So the other day you were I got I spoke to you briefly, you already in the back of the police car, and we talked just a little bit and.

6:15Speaker 3:Really just kind of following up.

6:16Speaker 12:I know, I told you that we would, you know, keep you updated on what was going on, and that's what I'm.

6:24Speaker 3:What I'm here to do.

6:26Speaker 12:Since you are in custody, I have to read you your Miranda rights just because we're gonna call to you.

6:34Speaker 1:Not long after this interview began, Jared became emotional. He broke down, frustrated that he was sitting in jail while his girlfriend was still missing. He wanted to know why he had been denied bail.

6:48Speaker 11:Really, you know, now we're gonna now we've got to figure out how it happened.

6:52Speaker 3:What happened? So I'm gonna trying to pick your brain a little bit more. I'll ask you what, well, why have you did that?

7:00Speaker 2:What was my mind?

7:01Speaker 3:And then well, I had no idea on that this was your previous charges or not charges?

7:09Speaker 11:I don't know, So I wonder, yeah, I don't even know what you're.

7:17Speaker 3:Can you tell I see, we don't even know what are you in jail? CVV? When did that occur? Over a month ago? Over a month after the Sheriff's office or the city, And that's what the charges.

7:36Speaker 1:Jared had been arrested because of a prior incident of criminal domestic violence involving Megan, which was something that didn't exactly work in his favor now that she was missing.

7:48Speaker 3:So I want to go back into detail the last time you saw Nagan? So what day was the last day you saw her? On? Thursday?

8:03Speaker 12:That Thursday, Thursday night, Thursday night, okay, Thursday night. Probably not what times Thursday night you remember last seeing them?

8:11Speaker 13:I don't remember, Tom, give me well, I was changing the baby, all right, it was it daylight was dark, and I was like, for fucking night, best with him?

8:20Speaker 3:I don't know, so after midnight.

8:24Speaker 12:So we're talking after midnight Thursday night going into Friday morning. Okay, tell me about the conversation. Tell me about what was going on between y'all two that day Thursday.

8:36Speaker 1:Jer I claimed that the last time he saw Megan was the day she went missing. He said the two of them had spent the day together taking their baby to a baseball game. I'm not sure what kind of baby enjoys a baseball game, but uh whatever, let's continue explain that everything seemed normal, enjoyable even but after they returned home things changed. The two had sex and then an argument started being her.

9:07Speaker 3:Station later at night, y'all you were her sex.

9:10Speaker 12:Yeah, so things were okay at this point.

9:15Speaker 2:Until the legatory to day.

9:16Speaker 3:I didn't she want me a nothing there? Yeah?

9:18Speaker 2:I didn't, and you didn't, and that's when she started getting up set.

9:23Speaker 1:According to jareded, Megan became upset after they had sex. He claimed that he tried to calm her down.

9:30Speaker 3:So she's mad, was cool out because she won't get pregnant, wants to know the baby. She want a boy or girl, wanted boy boy, any kind of At that point, she's mad. She thrown anything in the house.

9:47Speaker 13:She like the usually if they could run a baby or like did the hold the baby, do his little baby shoot?

9:52Speaker 14:He won't.

9:53Speaker 3:You won't escalate that if you're holding the baby.

9:55Speaker 13:Or she if I'm if I'm messing with the baby around the baby. What happened so well, whenever she was when she left, I.

10:03Speaker 3:Was changing maybe everything and getting near the baby.

10:07Speaker 11:So you got the baby close by everything everything's usually baby ain't close by.

10:12Speaker 2:She might throw.

10:17Speaker 3:Anything like that.

10:19Speaker 1:Jared admitted that past arguments between him and Megan had become physical, but he insisted that it didn't happen the night she went missing. Instead, he claimed that after the argument, Megan simply left the house and he never saw her again.

10:34Speaker 3:You her, that's matter before. Did any of that happen Thursday night? So there was nothing physical Thursday. It was just one of the ones that didn't heat.

10:45Speaker 13:Really, it was just she was the one really upset.

10:49Speaker 11:All right, How long after all this do you think it was when she before she left?

10:53Speaker 3:How long do you think she stuck around the house?

10:55Speaker 15:And because as she was as the bigger was going back before she was was.

11:05Speaker 3:Where she left?

11:06Speaker 2:Okay?

11:07Speaker 3:And what did she tell you when she was leading?

11:10Speaker 2:She said, she's leading the baby with me, since she always has a baby.

11:12Speaker 16:Uh huh?

11:13Speaker 13:Which she where she left? Like, I'm pretty sure I told other one this. I thought she was coming right back.

11:20Speaker 3:Where you had she had been leaving. Where would you have thought she would have went?

11:25Speaker 13:I thought she was just went he graces for a little bit, or came back, or he just left and came back, or I got so she didn't come back that night. That's why next morning when she ain't come to her baby more than contact her mama, as if she told her at all.

11:41Speaker 1:Much of what Jared told the investigators appeared to check out. They confirmed that he and Megan had gone to a baseball game earlier that day, and that he had called Megan's mother the following morning asking about her. But something about his story just didn't sit right. By this point, investigators already learned that Megan was a devoted mother. If she had stormed out in anger, it seemed very unlikely that she would leave her baby behind. Still, while keeping Jarrett firmly on their radar, investigators started to consider another possibility.

12:21Speaker 1:There was someone else who had been among the last to hear from Megan, her friend Grace.

12:29Speaker 3:When did you report her?

12:30Speaker 7:Listen, I'm not believing it was somewhere between six and seven pm?

12:36Speaker 3:What I don't people if I asked you a lot? But why why did you wait?

12:40Speaker 7:So one?

12:40Speaker 3:That was tough question. Like I said, not judging you, No one's judging you.

12:44Speaker 6:You know when I.

12:46Speaker 7:Heard her on the phone, you know, we had a thing that excuse ever in danger to send me the address so I could send hope. Yeah, that's why I immediately called it when I saw that. And she's only non don't call just tinly.

13:00Speaker 1:Grace claimed that when she woke up and realized Megan had never arrived, she went looking for eventually forcing her way into Megan's home to check on her. Yet, despite this urgency, it took nearly twenty four hours for Grace to go to the police and report her missing. If she was that concern, then why wait? There was also another detail Investigators couldn't ignore Grace and Megan's boyfriend, Jared had a romantic history.

13:31Speaker 3:Did you have a relationship with Jared Davis?

13:36Speaker 7:We That's actually how I met Megan was me and and jaredt had a brief, you know, kind of a one night stand, and when I saw him posting Megan, she investaged me, and you know, we talked about it and we decided to be best friends instead of fighting over somebody I didn't want to go.

13:58Speaker 3:That's how our friendship started. Hit Singer close ever since, I hope I have ever touched.

14:05Speaker 1:Grace claimed that there was no animosity between her and Megan over Jarrett, and based on how investigators handled that response, it seemed like they believed her. By this point, detectives had spoken with the last two people known to have contact with Megan before she disappeared, and they were no closer to understanding where she had gone or what had happened to her. Meanwhile, Megan's family, which included her three daughters, waited anxiously for answers and hope for Megan's safe return.

14:38Speaker 9:Now, Meghan was a young mom. Her family tells me she has three young daughters that are waiting for their mom to come home. Her youngest daughter is only about four months old, and again, like I said, all her family wants is for her to come home so she can be a mom to those young daughters.

14:54Speaker 1:On April thirtieth, five days after Megan was reported missing, investigators finally got a break in the case.

15:01Speaker 9:All afternoon, the Bamberg County Sheriff's office has been in the woods right here, right off of the Barnwell excuse me, Highway. Now, we aren't sure what they were looking for exactly, but we did just get confirmed that they found a burned vehicle with human remains inside. We aren't sure who's those remains belonged to, but just a couple of miles down the road you can find Megan Vodaford's family holding on to hope that it was not her.

15:27Speaker 1:Just a few miles from Jared's home, investigators made a horrific discovery on a desolate back road. They found a burned out vehicle with charred human remains inside.

15:39Speaker 3:Still not one hundred some puzzles that is her. It's just possibility, like I said, vehicle found.

15:45Speaker 12:Not even sure what kind of vehicle it was because it was burned, burn bad, and then there.

15:51Speaker 3:Was evidence of a body being in there. So we haven't gotten the results back whether it was maybe or not.

15:57Speaker 1:But given the condition of both the car and the body, investigators couldn't immediately confirm whether it belonged to Megan. An autopsy in DNA results were needed, but all signs pointed in the same direction. This was likely Megan bought Afford, after all, who else could it be? There was, however, one thing investigators were able to determine early on with some degree of certainty. The victim in the burned out car hadn't been killed inside the vehicle. They had been shot first and then placed there.

16:35Speaker 3:That was placed in a driver's seat, was not putting. It was from driving. It was placed there.

16:41Speaker 17:This body was placed there and then burned, place there and burned. She was dead before it was burned. She had already been killed. She was shot by a shot.

16:55Speaker 2:In the soul.

16:57Speaker 3:Somebody drove her out there, left her in the vehicle, set an on fire, and it burned, burned her body up and burned the vehicle up.

17:08Speaker 1:Following the discovery of the burned car and the human remains, the investigation into Megan Bodifford only became more complicated as investigators dug deeper. The list of suspects continued to grow, and for a time, a chilling question loomed over the case. What if Megan hadn't been killed by one person, but instead by a group of people she trusted. In late April of twenty twenty four, in Denmark, South Carolina, twenty five year old mother of three, Megan Botiford vanished, and the days that followed, investigators worked to piece together her last known movements, focusing on two people who had been in contact with her just before she disappeared. Her boyfriend Jared Davis and her close friend Grace Rindel. Both were questioned.

18:35Speaker 1:Both denied involvement, and neither could explain where Megan had gone. Then, five days later, investigators discovered a burned out vehicle on a remote road with a burned corpse inside. But at that point one question remained, was this Megan?

18:58Speaker 5:Our top stories now a family on edge waiting for autopsy results after the discovery of a burn vehicle with human remains inside, All of.

19:05Speaker 9:This happening with one question on a lot of minds, Where is twenty five year old Meghan Bontiford. Nearly a week has passed since Meghan Bontiford's family laid eyes on her. They don't want to believe she's gone. All they want is for this young mom to come home. But for right now, it's the agonizing waiting game they are being forced to play.

19:25Speaker 18:It's hard.

19:26Speaker 3:It's really ar missed for so much.

19:30Speaker 9:I agree, I can't describe it.

19:32Speaker 5:I uh won't be outside the other day and just.

19:38Speaker 16:Oh, I just said, Lord, I don't understand that this is hard.

19:43Speaker 1:Well, Megan's family waited anxiously for the results of the autopsy. Megan's boyfriend, Jareded also waited as he sat in the jail cell on an unrelated warrant.

19:54Speaker 19:Have you heard anything, niw just as lit news? What's been on the news? Body found? You say that was Megan?

20:04Speaker 3:What's your tholves? If I will confirm you a vehicle was.

20:10Speaker 12:Found that was burned with more than likely it doesn't appear there there was a body in it.

20:19Speaker 3:I know stuff that I wanted.

20:21Speaker 12:I wanted, Like I told you that day, if anything came up, I would be.

20:25Speaker 3:I would come and tell you what.

20:28Speaker 1:Investigators confirmed the news reports of a burned body Jarrett appeared genuinely shaken. His concern for Megan seemed real. About three days after the car and the body were discovered, the autopsy results came back and it was the outcome no one I'd been hoping for.

20:48Speaker 9:April thirtieth, deputies from the Bamberg County Sheriff's Office discovered a burned vehicle here with possible human remains inside. Three days later, we now know those remains belonged to Meghan Afford, a young mom of three young daughters.

21:05Speaker 1:Tragically, this was no longer a missing person case. It was now a homicide, and not just any homicide. Someone had shot a mother of three in the head, then loaded her body into a car and set it on fire, burning Megan beyond recognition.

21:25Speaker 3:You know, we have arsenal experts that are out there that doing us for eighteen years.

21:29Speaker 20:He said that was the worst body that he has ever seen in his life.

21:34Speaker 3:He whoknew us for eighteen years.

21:36Speaker 20:That body was burned so bad that in eighteen years, that is the worst body he has ever seen.

21:44Speaker 3:Who would do that to Megan? Who would do that? It was personal? Whoever did it, it was personal. It wasn't something random it was personal.

21:54Speaker 1:Investigators were left with the obvious question, who would have done this to Megan why. At first, there were only two possible suspects to consider, her boyfriend Jarrett and her close friend Grace, but that list didn't remain small for long.

22:13Speaker 7:Danielle since she was actually talking about what happened to Megan before her body was overdiscovered, and he.

22:21Speaker 3:Kind of wrote me the wrong way. How she was talking on it was sudday and her body she was served.

22:27Speaker 7:She said that I bet Jerry shot her and set her and fired her car her both.

22:33Speaker 1:As the investigation expanded, detectives became aware of a recent acquaintance of Megan's, a young woman named Danielle Simmons. Her name came up more than once, and according to several people, Danielle had been talking about Megan's body being burned days before the car and the remains were discovered.

22:53Speaker 21:I just give him the thriller ride and I don't know, I don't know her like that, but she was talking about Magan happened, and she said, she knows your name, Danielle Simmons, And he was running her mouth before everything that came out on Facebook and all that where there's.

23:08Speaker 5:No way you just go and shouldn't known what she knows.

23:12Speaker 21:Maybe they need to look into her or look at her phone or something, because she might know more than what she's saying or.

23:20Speaker 9:Has something to do with it.

23:22Speaker 1:Once Danielle's name surfaced, investigators moved quickly. They tracked her down and brought her in for questioning.

23:30Speaker 2:All Right, daniel what we're doing.

23:32Speaker 3:We're investigating the case with Megan, and we've beat the bushes and talked a lot of folks.

23:41Speaker 2:Your name's come up as having some information.

23:43Speaker 14:Don't want to use stuff back in the corner or anything, but anything you've got is definitely important.

23:50Speaker 3:Okay. If you happened to be there earlier or later or whatever, it's all important.

23:57Speaker 14:So what I don't want you to do is to sit here and tell us story and did not be real, because then you will find yourself and I'll pick Okay.

24:07Speaker 1:After advising Danielle that it was in her best interest to be honest, investigators got straight to the point, asking where she had been on the day that Megan went missing.

24:18Speaker 3:Let's start with Thursday, with twenty fifth.

24:22Speaker 22:We've seen I've seen her at two o'clock that afternoon.

24:25Speaker 7:Like me and Irrow had went over there to work.

24:28Speaker 3:On his throat. And when you say.

24:31Speaker 22:Yeah, that's the last time I seen her. She was leaving from Jared's. Jared came out with falcon and was like, I mean we about to ride somewhere, and I was like, okay. They love And Megan comes out and sits on the porch while I was talking to her whatever, and she was telling me it.

24:52Speaker 3:You know, she was tired, she was leaving.

24:55Speaker 22:She was doing tired of putting his hands on her and stuff. And I was like, yeah, Jerad, he's knocked out. She said yeah, because he knocked me out night before or whatever.

25:06Speaker 3:She says.

25:07Speaker 22:She was going home and not tell Jerry where she was at, and I was like okay, and she got in her car.

25:13Speaker 1:Danielle admitted that she had seen Megan at Jareded's house on the day she went missing. She claimed that Megan confided in her, saying she was tired of being abused by Jared, and when Jarrett left the house with a friend, Danielle said, Megan took the opportunity to leave. According to Danielle, Megan simply got into her car and drove off and she never saw her again.

25:37Speaker 3:Jared Falcon came back.

25:39Speaker 22:He was like, where's Megan And he was like, I said, oh no, She said she was leaving and he's seen them clothes herself and got mad. He grabbed a bag from she got in a car with Foutin and left.

25:54Speaker 1:Danielle said that when Jarrett returned and realized Megan was gone, he and his friend Falcon. Yeah yeah, his name's Falcon. Let's continue. The two of them went out looking for her. She claimed she didn't go with them, but later that night she returned to Jared's house. Megan still wasn't there, but Jared was, Did you any time.

26:18Speaker 2:Go back over to Jared's house that night?

26:22Speaker 3:It was we did, but we just stopped by.

26:25Speaker 2:Who was the jarlger?

26:26Speaker 3:Nobody?

26:28Speaker 2:Nobody there?

26:30Speaker 3:Yeah, okay? On the car he was burning.

26:38Speaker 1:According to Danielle, when she returned to Jared's house, she found him outside burning items in a fire pit. And somehow this didn't trigger any alarms. What adult? Two investigators that just didn't sit right? Shouldn't sit right with anyone, because despite seeing something like that, Danielle still she had no idea what happened to Megan.

27:03Speaker 3:We already know a lot of stuff, so hear me out. You know, if you know something or if you've been told them something, you hear it's her or something, and you notasure your.

27:12Speaker 14:Opportunity to be straight Thos, I haven't heard anything.

27:17Speaker 2:Do you have any idea where where she went?

27:22Speaker 3:That was your relationship with Meghan?

27:25Speaker 22:I just metter, like you know, I didn't know where.

27:30Speaker 3:What do you think happened to Megan? I really don't want really was partly you? Okay? Last year?

27:42Speaker 2:It really wouldn't surprise her Jared would do so, and I don't know if you'd be able to.

27:49Speaker 1:Danielle seemed reluctant to implicate jareded but when pressed, she admitted it wouldn't surprise her if he was responsible for Megan's death. In fact, she said that was the only explanation that made sense.

28:04Speaker 2:James last one was seen her. How do you know that?

28:09Speaker 22:Because I mean she left his house with the baby for him to have gotten I mean the baby was with him when he's seen him, so she had He hadn't have been the last person to see her.

28:20Speaker 3:Because it is where to get babe? Where did he get baby from?

28:24Speaker 1:Despite Danielle's insistence that she didn't know what happened to Megan, Investigators clearly weren't convinced as they continued to press her.

28:33Speaker 3:Did anyone threaten.

28:34Speaker 2:You at all?

28:35Speaker 3:Want to say anything? No, no one threatened. You're caring about Oh, I didn't see her. Everybody hiking his I didn't see her after she left, she.

28:50Speaker 1:I wish I didn't know If Danielle had any involvement in or knowledge of Megan's murder. She didn't admit it, and by the end of the interview, investigators were no close to finding answers. If anything, the case was becoming more complicated. Rumors started to spread, and with those rumors came more names, each one adding to a growing list of potential suspects, which is why web sleuths people on the Internet that try to solve crimes in between runs to Walmart should stay the fuck out of a case and mind their own goddamn business. They often make crimes harder to solve, not easier.

29:36Speaker 3:The problem is we have to verify everything that people tell us.

29:40Speaker 18:Right, so you know, we're still a lot of the problem is the rumor mill around town is crazy, and everyone thinks that everyone was evolved in it.

29:51Speaker 1:Stuff, and eventually the rumors surrounding Megan's murder made their way into the local jail, where was being helped. Before long, another inmate, someone who actually knew Megan, asked to speak with investigators.

30:08Speaker 8:All right, what's your first and last name, Sir, Cory, I got a request from you saying that you have some information on Magane's disappearance.

30:17Speaker 23:Well, well, the sorrys I know Meghan from the streets and stuff.

30:20Speaker 3:I know who she hangs out with.

30:22Speaker 24:My actually seen her several days before I got locked up, which was in February.

30:27Speaker 3:Who do you think is our suspect?

30:30Speaker 23:Well, I mean, I don't like point fingers without without reasonable.

30:33Speaker 24:Suspect, But I mean I knew that, I know who she she she used to hang out with.

30:38Speaker 3:I know who she was real close to. That would be area Home. Why do you think she would do something?

30:45Speaker 23:Well, I know I know in the past, she's had problems with her before. Like I said, if anything were to happen to Megan, I would think that Arianna would definitely know about it.

31:00Speaker 3:Do you think she should do something to her? She's crazy, She's she's she's pretty crazy and mate.

31:08Speaker 1:Corey pointed the finger at another friend of Megan's, a woman named Arianna, but when investigators followed up on that lead, it went nowhere. Still during the interview, Corey said something that did catch their attention. When asked what he'd heard inside the jail, he told them something that echoed what Danielle Simmons had already said.

31:34Speaker 3:What are you been hearing here? Anything?

31:35Speaker 22:Well?

31:37Speaker 24:Dashly talking to somebody earlier who knows Megan too, hangs out with Meghan or used to anyways, And she said that she heard problems between.

31:48Speaker 3:The two the boyfriend of the baby daddy, Jared, Jared or Jeriot, between Jered and him. They they are you all the time.

32:00Speaker 1:It was no secret that Jarrett had been abusive towards Megan. An interview after interview seemed to end the same way, with the person being questioned suggesting that more than likely Jarrett was responsible for this murder.

32:15Speaker 3:What do you think I.

32:17Speaker 8:Think jed in my head?

32:18Speaker 2:I got too many of them. I think he might have put his hand on the wall the time, and he might I.

32:24Speaker 3:Think he heard it heard he might have what I'm saying, I don't know.

32:31Speaker 1:I don't know what I was saying, I don't know another name, investigators kept hearing was an unusual one, you know, the one Falcon Falcon Joiner, to be precise. Falcon was a young man who was close to Jared. They'd been friends, and he'd been with him on the night that Megan disappeared.

32:57Speaker 8:Just kind of get me a rundown of what what you want to talking about here today?

33:01Speaker 25:The audio of Falcon telling what went on this weekend with him and Jared and Meghan.

33:09Speaker 3:So give me a gyss. Does he ever admit to anything?

33:12Speaker 25:He admits picking, chicking, Jared up Jared Caughton, okay, and he came over and he was like, man, I'm gonna kill this ditch and all this, threw an axe in the back of Jared. Jared threw an axe in the back of So.

33:25Speaker 3:He picked up jareded at Jared's trailer down the river.

33:29Speaker 25:Okay, all right, and he threw an axe in the back of the truck. And he told Falcon, I give you forty dollars. You're going to aching anyway, Just run me the her house, drop me.

33:38Speaker 3:Off at her house. And Falcon was like, bo, I don't know about that.

33:41Speaker 25:You're like come on, I give you forty so o'clock and ended up.

33:43Speaker 1:Taking Eventually, investigators started hearing that Falcon may have helped Jarrett carry out the murder, or at the very least, gave Jarrett a ride to the place where Megan was killed. Supposedly, Falcon was paid forty for that ride.

34:02Speaker 25:After that, he said he finally pulled up.

34:03Speaker 26:Again at Jared's house, said Jared was acting all weird Saturday Friday might say, Jared was acting all weird and shit, was acting crazy questions.

34:14Speaker 25:And it was like you think she he was trying to put like she overdosed or some shit.

34:19Speaker 3:I think she overdosed on something involved something.

34:21Speaker 25:Like that, because she left me with the kids, said she was going out, Like how would that automatically be the first thing you're trying to.

34:28Speaker 3:Throw out there unless you come up with the stores. Okay. Then Falcon's like, He're.

34:34Speaker 25:Like, well, I honestly think Jared killed it, he said, because after that he was like, voter, the police gonna think I killed her, And Falcon was like, I don't even understand why he would even say that. But then Falcon, I feel like Falcon's involved in it. He's just trying to separate himself and make it seem like he did.

34:51Speaker 3:Everything that he did.

34:53Speaker 1:Like every other name that surfaced in this investigation, the detectives eventually tracked Falcon down question to him. Sorry, I had to, I couldn't help myself. Here's the real interview.

35:11Speaker 27:Everybody calls me Falcon.

35:12Speaker 3:My Falcon is my middle name. Falcon.

35:15Speaker 4:All right, Falcon, we know everything that went on the other day.

35:20Speaker 3:Everything.

35:21Speaker 4:I know everything because people with consciences are talking, and your names in the middle of all and it's not matching up. Some of what you're what you told us is true, some of it isn't, and I can very I can prove it. You have you know more than you told me the other day.

35:39Speaker 1:Investigators immediately took a hard line with Falcon, which made their theory pretty clear. They believe Jarrett had committed the murder and that Falcon had either helped him or at the very least knew some details about what had happened.

35:54Speaker 27:Every bit of what I told you the other night is the truth as far as my time goes.

36:00Speaker 4:No, I know your timeline, you know exactly what happened, we know exactly.

36:06Speaker 27:What No, I know what I've heard happen. I mean, I've been told throughout.

36:10Speaker 3:No, I know that he told I never talked.

36:13Speaker 27:I swear I'm telling you.

36:15Speaker 1:Despite the investigator's certainty, Falcon maintained that Jarrett never confided in him about killing Megan.

36:23Speaker 27:At ten I believe it was ten fifty five. He started blowing me up, calling me, calling me, calling me. I never once answered that phone for him, not that night at all.

36:33Speaker 3:Okay.

36:34Speaker 27:I assume what he was trying to do was he wanted an alibi or he wanted somebody to be there to verify the Hey, I'm sitting here with the baby. You know, I don't know where Meghan is.

36:47Speaker 1:Falcon claimed to be on the same page as the investigators. He had his suspicions about what Jarrett may have done, but he didn't know for sure what happened.

36:58Speaker 27:I don't talk to him none that at all. All Right, Friday comes in. That's when he called me, and the first that's the first time I answered the phone. And I knew immediately that something you know, the way he was talking, I could hear it, hear in his voice. I said something right, you watch something something right? Something something is I don't know what he's doing. Something's that.

37:17Speaker 1:Falcon also claimed that Jared had suddenly asked him to hide his firearms, one of which may have been the murder weapon, but Falcon refused, and.

37:29Speaker 27:He goes, he's just sitting there and he goes, yeah, I should probably do something. He's guns shut just like that. And I said, I mean, aren't you a feling? Be honest, I swear to God on my kids, that's what I said. I said, aren't you a feeling? He goes, well, I mean I don't know. Technically, I don't know. And I said, I mean he looked at me like, hey, you'll take him. He never asked me, right, you know, he just kind of looked at me like, I should probably get Ready's guns in it. And I'm sitting there with the.

37:59Speaker 3:Only all right.

38:01Speaker 1:Similar to the other suspects investigators spoke with, Falcon's story seemed credible. He may have been just another person caught up in a rumor mill and someone who actually knew nothing about the murder.

38:15Speaker 3:What have you heard?

38:17Speaker 27:This is what I heard. The latest I heard today was when I talked to his sister. She called me this morning and said, did you hear how how she died. How you know how she died? And I said, well, I mean you, I mean, I've heard a lot of things. She said, well, I talked with Megan's mom today and she said, so, it's a pretty reliable source that he beat her to death, well, beat her unconscious, and that he, while she was unconscious, took her and loaded her up and wherever hell he went and did his thing, burned the car. And I was like, well, unconscious, you mean like she was alive in there, and she was like yeah, And I said, god damn.

39:04Speaker 1:Even though Falcons seemed genuinely ignorant about the facts of the case, investigators made it clear that if he had any involvement with the murder or knowledge of it, they would find out.

39:17Speaker 4:I had to look at what he did to her. I had to look at it with my own eyes, after putting everything I had into finding her. And I promise you that everybody involved is going down. So I'm letting you know. Everybody who's involved in know something and didn't tell us, it's going to pay.

39:36Speaker 27:I've been trying to help all I can. But me and Meghan were friends, man, I mean, I'm gonna tell you, Oh, I'll show you my messages with her. You want to see him? How about how she was trying to you know, he was beating her ass.

39:46Speaker 12:We know, we know all.

39:48Speaker 27:I told her, I'll show it to you. I said, Man, he's not a good person. Megan, you get your kids to get.

39:53Speaker 3:Out of here.

39:53Speaker 27:Well, I would have been to motherfucker tried to burn my house down like he did yours. And I'm like, well, you know me and you still need together. I can show it to you. I ain't got none to high man as hit because I mean, I haven't done anything. I swear to God on everything.

40:09Speaker 2:Bro.

40:09Speaker 27:If y'all want to go look at my house and my my shed, anything around there, y'all welcome and go do it. I go widget, But it don't matter. Y'all want my phone, y'all want to you wanna take pictures, y'all, whatever y'all want to do, I'm willing to help you. I don't got nothing to hide, bro.

40:25Speaker 1:Ultimately, yet wasn't an interview with a potential suspect that led investigators in the right direction. It was Megan herself and her final words to a friend.

40:39Speaker 9:Megan was reported missing by a friend on Friday. Her friend repeated what was in the police report.

40:44Speaker 6:So her friends have been sending me messages in where Megan is basically scared for her life. She said that her the child, her child's father had a gun and if nobody contacted in the next thirty minutes to send the police because he killed her. I have those messages screenshotted. Megan was basically began for help again.

41:15Speaker 9:This missing person's report says she sent text messages on April twenty fifth to a friend saying if they didn't hear from her in thirty minutes, to call law enforcement, and that her boyfriend was going to kill her.

41:27Speaker 1:In a text message to her friend Grace, Megan wrote the following, Jarrett's about to kill me. If you don't hear from me in thirty minutes, call the law. After receiving this text message, Grace asked Megan if she should call the police immediately. Megan told her no and instead asked if she and her baby could spend the night at Grace's house.

41:54Speaker 7:And I asked if everything was okay, and she was crying and she said he was beating her. She wanted me to call it. Go ahead and call the police. She said no that she decidedly even get the baby and come to my house. And so I had take sleeping medication to he'll sleep the night. So I'd already taken it, so I told her I couldn't try to skip a baby come to me. So I got up and I unlocked my door and turned onto the porch site and figured that she let her so thin as she's done something types before, so okay.

42:20Speaker 3:But she never did.

42:21Speaker 1:Sadly, Megan and her baby never showed up at Grace's home that night, and the obvious assumption was that she never got the chance to actually go there. Jarrett probably stopped her, and when she resisted, he shot her, placing her body in her car, driving her to a desolate road, and setting it on fire. It was a theory that made sense, but investigators would still need proof, and as it turns out, they were about to get it, because nearly everything that happened that night was caught on camera.

43:31Speaker 1:In late April of twenty twenty four, Megan Bodiford vanished. Days later, Her body was found inside a burned car on a remote road. The investigators questioned that was closest to her, and as the case unfolded, more names began to surface, each one adding to a growing list of potential suspects. But even as the list grew, all roads continued to lead back to one person, boyfriend Jarrett Davis.

44:02Speaker 28:Megan Bonttiford was last heard from on Thursday, April of twenty fifth, when she texted a friend that she feared that Davis was going to kill her. Days later, human remains were discovered in a burnt car not far from where the couple stayed.

44:15Speaker 29:The Bamberg County Sheriff's Office executed a search warrant at the couple's residence on Saturday and took Davis into custody on an active domestic violence arrest. Warren Bonttiford was nowhere to be found, but her four month old baby was there unharmed.

44:31Speaker 1:After his arrest, Jarrett was questioned and he denied any involvement in Megan's disappearance. He claimed the two had gotten into an argument and that Megan simply left, leaving their baby behind. As ridiculous as that sounds.

44:47Speaker 3:On Thursday night, when you got home.

44:51Speaker 12:From baseball and the stores and stuff to Meg had sex, she got mad.

44:58Speaker 13:She left you pack anything or her Carl state payful. Oh really, yeah, of course she had clothes and all that he had always in her car, so she could leave on the car at.

45:10Speaker 3:Any point in time.

45:12Speaker 1:After Jarrett laid out his version of events, investigators quickly began poking holes in his story, starting with the text Megan had sent Grace warning that Jarrett was going to kill her.

45:25Speaker 12:We ended up getting some text messages that Megan sent some of her friends.

45:32Speaker 3:What in the world do you think that's about? She was very with everything. I don't know.

45:40Speaker 12:So at any point you have a gun to her head, tell her gun?

45:45Speaker 2:Oh no, but no, no, I ain't got a gun. No, I don't have a gun.

45:51Speaker 1:Jarrett tried to explain away Megan's text message as her being over dramatic. He insisted he didn't have a gun and couldn't have shot her even if he wanted to. What a strange thing to say, But Jared had a big problem. Investigators had already gone through his phone and on it was a fitness app when that tracked his movements on the night of the murder. What a dumb ass.

46:22Speaker 20:I'm good at tracking people on their phones and looking at health data, and that tells a lot about what someone does.

46:28Speaker 3:And we got your health data for you that night, so.

46:34Speaker 11:Around ten VMAs got you're doing a lot of.

46:41Speaker 3:Walking from ten to to I mean for a good solid hour back.

46:47Speaker 30:I mean a lot of walking where we're looking at over over a mile and a half of the distance covered, Like not just you're.

46:58Speaker 3:Not just making circles in the yard, but a lot of walking, like you walk down the road and things like that. Where where would you have been going at that point?

47:06Speaker 2:Walking where from the shed to the house?

47:11Speaker 3:Yeah, well that ain't yet.

47:12Speaker 20:Here's the thing I went I went through your health data for the whole day and analyzed it, and I can see, you know, the short distance stuff like that. These are massive movements significantly. This is not like you just walking to and from the shed, or even walking.

47:28Speaker 3:To and from your parents partly. This is like massive amounts of walking.

47:32Speaker 1:Based on the data in Jared's phone, investigators had pieced together a clear picture of what happened. They believe Jarrett had driven Megan to a burn site, set the car on fire, and then walked back to his house.

47:48Speaker 3:What do I want to know?

47:49Speaker 11:I mean, I feel like there's more to it that you're just not telling us, and I just want to know something else happened between you and me.

48:00Speaker 3:She knew anything to you. This is our.

48:04Speaker 2:I told other people lives. I mean, I'll tell you how everything is to heaven that night.

48:08Speaker 3:I got it.

48:08Speaker 11:And I feel like you've told me a good bit to be like, we're leaving out a little bit of key details because during some of this, this is all this walking was from ten pm ish to.

48:22Speaker 3:A little after eleven. I don't think Megan's at the house at that time. I think Megan's aren't gone.

48:28Speaker 11:It looks like you.

48:30Speaker 3:Were walking back from uh turn rail Road and back to your house. You know where Turnar rail Road is?

48:39Speaker 13:Yes, where they feeling I mean trying to say, I went to putting Megan there and I didn't.

48:44Speaker 19:I'm putting you there because I believe we have some We have some coordinates that that puts you at turn rail Road.

48:53Speaker 1:GPS phone data placed Jarrett at the burn site on the night Megan went missing, and yet he denied ever being there or ever hurting her.

49:03Speaker 8:So we have your GPS data showing you there. We also have pinpoint data that.

49:10Speaker 3:Shows you were there. And then conveniently, when those dots are plotted.

49:15Speaker 8:I have your activity going the same distance from Turmoway Road.

49:19Speaker 3:Back to your house like on flip.

49:22Speaker 8:So, I mean, we're not stupid, and we know what happened, but this is your time to just tell.

49:29Speaker 3:Us what happened, Explain why, what happened to make this happen. Listening something happened that night. She might have just pissed you off, driving you out like that. Here's a thing. We know what happened.

49:44Speaker 2:We know what happened because I didn't do anything too.

49:47Speaker 1:Despite irrefutable evidence placing him at the scene, Jared insisted he had not hurt Megan. Obviously, investigators weren't buying it.

49:58Speaker 3:Data doesn't lie. And that's that's kind of where I'm at.

50:02Speaker 8:So I think we're at the point where you know, we know something happened. Now you just you want your story to sick, but it's just not sticking. And that's what happened. This is what I mean, here's the thing that we all we all know something happened. We just need to move on from that and figure out what happened and why.

50:19Speaker 3:So we can understand what happened. And she's going to figure this out.

50:23Speaker 15:Nothing happened between me, between me and her another that was she left, was she left and I was changing baby. She was well alive, she was kicking, breathing, mad, she was still alive.

50:35Speaker 3:She injured, hurt. I mean, I'm a rocket scientist.

50:39Speaker 8:But everything that I have here from you, from your phone, from your activity, everything from what people are saying, is all adding up that conveniently, where her car is found burnt is matching up with your location on the map specifically, And then y'all's phones are together.

51:01Speaker 3:How is all of this just conveniently adding up? But then you're something didn't happen, you know, you know what I'm saying, dude, Well we'll be together the whole time.

51:11Speaker 1:Throughout this interview, Jarrett continued to deny any involvement as investigators kept pressing him for the truth. They eventually reminded him that one day he would have to explain his obviously made up story to the child he shared with Megan.

51:28Speaker 3:So you're gonna tell your baby one day that you walked.

51:30Speaker 27:From Turnway Road where this didn't, where this was happened.

51:33Speaker 3:Back to your house convenient I don't know why you're holding onto the story.

51:39Speaker 2:Holding there's nothing I'm hold.

51:40Speaker 3:Known to things there. There's no question, there's no question I didn't.

51:45Speaker 2:I didn't do anything to make it that night at all.

51:48Speaker 3:Did something happened to her before No, she left, she was fine. Did something accidentally happened. No, there's nothing that happened there, something happened.

51:58Speaker 2:Nothing happened between me and Meghan. Nothing happened.

52:01Speaker 3:It's happened between her and somebody else that you know about. No. Okay, Jared, there's you're not there's more to it, and you're just not.

52:09Speaker 7:It is not.

52:11Speaker 1:As this interview came to an end, investigators laid out pretty much every bit of evidence that proved Jarrett's killed, but he never confessed.

52:22Speaker 3:The last anyone heard from Meghan was nine fifty And then we have your story and what what what was that mess that was said at nine fifty and what it said? I know what it said. Do you know what that said? Yeah? I had a gun and I.

52:38Speaker 2:Was gonna kill her.

52:40Speaker 3:If you don't hear from all Law ninety. Jarret's about to kill me.

52:44Speaker 8:If you don't hear from me in thirty minutes, call a law six forty two against Branch Road.

52:48Speaker 3:And then at ten o'clock. We have you in that area where vehicles now.

52:55Speaker 2:Jared, what happened?

52:56Speaker 15:Nothing happened I saw, honest, gonna shoot. Nothing happened between me and Meghan.

53:01Speaker 3:Jay.

53:02Speaker 20:We've talked to everyone. Your story does not match anyone else's. You're including some very key points pretty much the time when Megan was killed.

53:13Speaker 19:How.

53:15Speaker 3:You're leaving that port out.

53:17Speaker 2:I didn't kill her, That's what y'all don't understand. I didn't. I didn't kill her.

53:21Speaker 3:What happened? How did she die? I don't know. Why would she tell someone.

53:26Speaker 2:You're about to kill her and then she died that night?

53:29Speaker 3:I don't know.

53:31Speaker 12:Everything points to you. So the only thing we can do is get an understanding on why.

53:39Speaker 3:I didn't do it. Though that's a thing. I don't want to be me so bad, and I don't. I just want I want it to be whoever did it. That's the thing. The problem is a solved pointing towards you.

53:51Speaker 1:Investigators wrapped up the interview and sent Jarrett back to his cell, but less than twenty four hours later, after Stuart in there and realizing how obvious it all was, he asked to speak with them again. When this follow up interview started, Jared seems ready to confess, so you can get out.

54:13Speaker 2:Of the house, kind of tell me what happens.

54:18Speaker 3:I'm just still arguing.

54:20Speaker 13:And when we left that night to go up to a guess station, she was still love okay.

54:24Speaker 3:When I turned around, we went into the house.

54:26Speaker 2:We were still lived out there by the corse, and I had a thirty.

54:29Speaker 14:Eight okay, And whenever we was arguing, I was go to shoot myself.

54:36Speaker 2:And then we was.

54:37Speaker 3:Argued, she grabbed it.

54:37Speaker 2:When she grabbed it, she foded to her, so what about me, and just let it.

54:41Speaker 3:It went off? Okay. When it went off, it was just as I understand. Well, I told you know the NFL, I sawth happen. Yeah, I thought it.

54:51Speaker 15:It wasn't like I tried to kill her or not living when she grabbed it, afforded her just it.

54:55Speaker 3:Just went off, okay.

54:57Speaker 2:And then there was so much books she had had Poles.

55:00Speaker 1:Jarrett changed his story. He now claimed that during an argument, he pulled out a gun while Megan was sitting in her car. According to him, Megan grabbed it, turned it on herself, and while it was still in his hand with his finger on the trigger. It went off.

55:23Speaker 3:You're standing in the side or car.

55:25Speaker 12:Yeah, and you got a gun.

55:28Speaker 3:How do you have a gun?

55:30Speaker 2:I said, told up his hands. Okay, you told me you and we we were talking and just kneeling back.

55:36Speaker 3:For seats to grab it and poor hers?

55:39Speaker 2:What about nothing? Seriously? What about me?

55:41Speaker 3:And then it just went off.

55:44Speaker 2:And went Well, has she threatened to shoot yourself or anything? Harm yourself?

55:50Speaker 27:Yeah?

55:51Speaker 2:So I was just trying to get to leave.

55:53Speaker 1:Essentially, Jarrett's story was this, his girlfriend shot herself with the gun he was holding. He claimed that after this happened, he initially intended to take Megan to a hospital, but somehow he didn't. He didn't He decided it was a lost cause because she was already dead. So instead, you know, why not burn the car down with her body inside? Yeah, that makes sense, Jared, Yeah, fuck, where what did you do?

56:24Speaker 14:I grabbed her and I started yelling, and there was someone's blood and check the poles, and she had poles. Went to go take her to the hospital. But she's a right, she's already going all right? Did you take her out of the driver's seat? Her ring the bush? How'd you take her to the hospital?

56:45Speaker 3:I just scowed it over. You just kind of slid her, slid inside her. Yeah, okay, where was the baby at the end? Did you lead the baby home? Panicky? Or did you know the divisions? Are you going to see from let's going earlier?

56:57Speaker 2:I got she's she hadn't even taken the baby out of the sea.

56:59Speaker 14:In the car.

57:00Speaker 1:Good Horrifically, Jarrett claimed that when Megan shot herself in the driver's seat, their baby was in the backseat of the car. Surprisingly, investigators didn't push back on this story. Perhaps they didn't need to. Between what Jarrett told them and their evidence, they had more than enough to charge him with murder. Let a jury sort it all out.

57:29Speaker 9:Arrest warrants from Sled' say Davis shot and murdered Meghan on April twenty fifth in the Gents Branch Road area. Afterwards, he set her car on fire with her inside.

57:39Speaker 29:I obtained a copy of that search warrant Thursday. It says the Sheriff's office seized an iPhone, multiple security cameras, a laptop, and a baby monitor, all the hopes that those items and video evidence could provide some clue as to what happened to Bontiford.

57:55Speaker 1:As part of Jarrett's arrest and accompanying search warrant, deputies see several things from his property, including footage from his deer cams. If you're not familiar, a deer cam is basically just a surveillance camera meant for observing wildlife, but in this case, it captured something else entirely. It recorded much of what happened on the day Megan was killed. And then yet another interview, investigators confronted Jarrett with what the footage revealed.

58:25Speaker 10:Been working on this onside, and I appreciate you manning and telling us what you did. Tell us, we just got a couple inconsistencies we need to clear up.

58:39Speaker 31:When you told us don't match. You want to just get it off your chests and tell us what really happened. I can show you the video.

58:48Speaker 2:What I mean.

58:49Speaker 31:I would you chasing her down, dragging her lifeless body back to the car, phoneling, trying to get it in the car.

58:56Speaker 3:You can shoot it in the car, like you said.

58:59Speaker 1:The footage showed a violent confrontation between Jarrett and Megan. Then, at around ten PM, Jarrett chased her off camera with a gun in his hand. Minutes later, he reappeared, dragging Megan's lifeless body across the yard, struggling to lift it into her vehicle. Then covered in blood, he drove away with her body. A short time later, Jarrett returned and started burning clothes and washing blood from the ground.

59:34Speaker 3:One time, what really happened? Well, the gun did ice in to go off? I didn't. That wasn't that was nice that anes was nxecent. He chased her down with the gun.

59:49Speaker 31:I mean she knew you had that gun because she come out to the door, saw the gun and took off, running.

59:55Speaker 3:Ahead of keys.

59:56Speaker 2:She's wanted to neighbor's house.

59:58Speaker 1:Once again, Jarrett t to spend this story as an accident, But come on, who's gonna buy that? People that are dumb? I think you're dumb too, Jarrett is living proof.

1:00:13Speaker 2:Well warn back. She was yelling and I was was warming back, and then I turned to her and I just.

1:00:22Speaker 13:I wouldn't put my hands up and just went to I really wanted to grab a face to love to Joelle, and you went off.

1:00:32Speaker 3:How long have it figured it?

1:00:33Speaker 2:Back?

1:00:37Speaker 3:Well? To me, A instantly make no sounds and it's just such an overside comment.

1:00:45Speaker 1:Of course, if Jarrett's story were true, and that's a big if, he would still have to explain why he went to such lengths to hide the evidence.

1:00:55Speaker 31:Why don't you call us, let's hear it honestly if it's an accident, I mean, I mean at all, honestly those scared change your close on the how many times? None of the black c masks and black clothes? What was I that for to get back to the house and people not recognize you? And you still want to say that you just listen close and didn't use an accelerment because mind you said Urson.

1:01:25Speaker 3:This completed their report and the findings of the vehicle in the ground and everything else. So what did juice to set the fire?

1:01:34Speaker 7:Oh?

1:01:35Speaker 1:Well, between the phone data, the camera footage, the autopsy, and the Arson report, Jared's story had fallen apart. But one important question remained. Was anyone else involved? And did jareded have help covering it up?

1:01:54Speaker 14:Now after you get back, and does Ierlin and then Daniel come over there?

1:02:00Speaker 2:Yeah? Really all that's true? Until that's true, do you tail anybody?

1:02:05Speaker 1:I Eventually, investigators determined that the rumors of others being involved in Megan's death were just that rumors. There's a lot of them on the internet. People have nothing better to do these days. It seems they never.

1:02:23Speaker 7:Found out if there was anybody else.

1:02:24Speaker 3:Involved, So you know that the message is still open. All I can say is that you know, with everything that we have ran down, we have albis and everyone. I don't believe anyone else outstanding.

1:02:38Speaker 18:I think everyone involved is in custody, has been charged unless we find some evidence that proves, you know, someone else is involved. But there is nothing that is indicating and like you know, people have thrown out Falcon.

1:02:50Speaker 3:Joiner, all these other people.

1:02:52Speaker 19:You know.

1:02:53Speaker 20:I have ran down everyone's whereabouts, everything like that, and no one is showing to be involved as of right now.

1:03:00Speaker 3:I did not have any evidence of anyone else came involved.

1:03:04Speaker 1:Ultimately, investigators concluded that Jarrett had acted alone, and he ended up facing the consequences of his actions alone as well.

1:03:14Speaker 9:First six, a Bamberg County man is charged with the murder of his girlfriend, a twenty five or mother of three, who was reported missing last week after sending an ominous text to a friend.

1:03:24Speaker 28:Jared Davis is facing multiple charges, including murder and desecration of human remains.

1:03:29Speaker 29:Megan Bodiford, a Bamberg County mother of three, vanishes after texting a friend that she worried her boyfriend may kill her. Eight days after sending that text, The boyfriend, Jared Davis, is now being charged with her murder. A restaurant's alleged that Davis shot and killed Bondiford last Thursday night, and then set her car on fire while she was inside. Human remains were found in a burnt car days later along a dirt road beneath some utility polls. That discovery less than two miles from Bondiford's last known location on Against Branch Road.

1:04:04Speaker 1:Jarrett did not take the case to trial. He pleaded guilty to murder, possession of a firearm during a violent crime, arson, and desecration of human remains. He was sentenced to forty three years in prison and could potentially be released in his early seventies. That is unless some retroactive law passed by some bleeding heart in the future changes that. Anyway, it's a sentence that just doesn't feel like enough, especially when you consider that Megan's three daughters will grow up without their mother. For Megan's family, this was a measure of justice, but certainly not an adequate one. It just wasn't enough because in their eyes, what happened to Megan should never happen at all. They believe Jarrett was responsible, but they also believe this could have been prevented if the system had done its job.

1:05:03Speaker 16:We're tired of it. We're tired of beery and our kids and our friends kids, and it's time for the law to do their job. If the laws better do their job, because this community is fayed up.

1:05:18Speaker 1:The murder of Megan Botifford is especially frustrating because her abusive and idiot loser boyfriend shouldn't have been a free man in the first place. At the time of the murder. There was an active warrant out for his arrest, and it's not like he was hiding. He was sitting there at home, drinking beers and watching Netflix. I assume the very place where Megan would later be killed. Would it have taken much effort to send a police officer down there to pick them up, or were they having assail at Dunkin Donuts that day?

1:05:56Speaker 29:Another warrant accuses Davis of illegally possessing a shotgun based on his prior criminal history as a convicted felon, and he would have been blocked the way that he.

1:06:07Speaker 3:Was supposed to be the first time. Maybe he wouldn't ahead even got in a chance.

1:06:13Speaker 2:To get this far with her.

1:06:15Speaker 1:Plus the many warning signs were there. Megan had reached out for help more than once she reported the abuse. She made it known that she was afraid even contacting Jarrett's probation officer in an effort to get someone to step in, A probation officer who should have lost their fucking job, I might add, but the system is the system, and nothing changed, of course, other than you getting an hour of so called entertainment today. It's frustrating. I wish I never had to make this episode. I wish I never had content to make this entire podcast. That would be a happy day.

1:07:02Speaker 29:In my book, Stephanie Nickens, Bodiford's cousin, says she feels like law enforcement failed in its duty to protect Bodiford.

1:07:09Speaker 21:It could it definitely could have my cousin.

1:07:15Speaker 3:Maybe she caused his She called all these multiple times is different occasions where she reached.

1:07:26Speaker 27:Out her head.

1:07:27Speaker 32:Nick And says that she hopes Boterford will be remembered for how she lived and not her tragic death. Her cousin says that she had a beautiful soul and was a wonderful mother.

1:07:47Speaker 1:This murder wasn't a mystery, not really. It was the end of something that had been building for a long time. All of the warning signs were there, stamped and certified by the local authorities, I might add, reports were made. The fear was real, and still nothing stopped it. Can we stop telling men to do better and start voting better to put assholes like this in a cage and throw away the key. That would be good. That would be real good. Prison overcrowding my ass will build more.

1:08:33Speaker 1:We have the technology. Jarret Davis pulled the trigger, he dragged the body, he set it on fire. All of this is true. But he didn't get there in a vacuum. He was given time, he was given opportunity and space to escalate, and by the time anyone stepped in, it was already too late. Megan tried to get help. She told people she was in danger. She said he was going to kill her, and in the end.

1:09:09Speaker 2:She was right.

1:09:19Speaker 1:That does it for this episode of Swordan's scale. If you are a victim of domestic violence.

1:09:25Speaker 3:Do not wait.

1:09:27Speaker 1:Call one eight hundred seven ninety nine seven two three three. That's one eight hundred seven ninety nine seven two three three. Or you can text the word begin to eight eight seven eight eight again text the word begin to eight eight seven eight eight. Please stay safe. Well, that does it for yet another one another episode of Sword and Scale. Yeah, we're always here. You can always count on us to come back and deliver more true crime entertainment for you. Now, can we count on you also to help us do that?

1:10:41Speaker 1:Head on over to Swordinscale dot com and throw a few bucks our way, won't you quit being a communist? Shit costs money in this world, finite resources. It's just the way it is

1:11:00Speaker 3:To