Brittany Merritt/ The Murder of Her Father

Today, we have special guest Brittany Merritt on to tell the story about her father's murder. What should have been a special time of year for this family quickly turned to one of loss and hurt. The confusion around what happened added to the pain, but Brittany wanted answers and began digging into the information herself. 

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Darkcast Network. Welcome to the dark side of podcasting. Welcome to Murder and Mimosas, a true crime podcast brought to you by a mother and daughter duo.

Speaker 2: 0:13

Bringing you murder stories with Mimosas in hand.

Speaker 1: 0:18

Just a quick disclaimer before we get started. Our show is Murder and Mimosas. It's a true crime podcast. This means that we do discuss crimes, including, but not limited to, disappearances, murder and sexual assault. All our episodes are told with the respect of the victims and the victims' families in mind. We strive to ensure that we provide factual information, with some information, if more verifiable than others. With that, grab your Mimosas and let's dive in Murder and Mimosas. Hey, murder readers, welcome back to Murder and Mimosas. Today's episode is a little bit different as we have a special guest, brittany, who has agreed to come on and talk to us about the murder of her father.

Speaker 3: 1:10

My name is Brittany Merritt. I am Robert Merritt's oldest daughter, and this is just going to be a story about the true crime event that happened in my family that deeply, deeply hurt us to the core.

Speaker 2: 1:29

So I know I found you on TikTok because I was looking for a different case and you came up. So do you want to tell people how they could find you on TikTok if they want to hear about your other true crime stories?

Speaker 3: 1:40

I know like posting like dad's story. It was so like chopped up, so I guess this is going to be a good opportunity to just condense it. At B, the letter B, M-E-R-R-90, the number.

Speaker 2: 1:56

Okay, but I love your stories. By the way, I've listened to several. What happened?

Speaker 3: 2:02

how you found out about things. Okay, so you did send me a little bit of the questions that you wanted to ask. So, to start out, I had gotten up with my daughter, my youngest, at around like 11 o'clock that night. I don't know why, but in my neighborhood they always shoot fireworks off on New Year's Eve. Well, they had woken her up and then my phone starts ringing and it's a classmate of mine Now. He was my dad's friend and he ran in my dad's friend group. So it just kind of was weird because I don't know why he would be calling me instead of like. But I answered the phone, you know, I kind of was like this is weird. He basically just cut and dry, told me Billy shot your dad and he did it make it. So it was just quick, just like that Cut and dry, just Billy shot your dad, it make it, which I had to ask a couple questions.

Speaker 3: 3:08

After that. I don't even think I remember the answers to any of the questions that I asked him. I can't even remember what I asked him. So after that phone call I'm like, okay, I don't have a normal trauma response, my normal like. It's normal to me but it's not normal to other people when I experienced trauma. It's like a list. It's like a mental list of things that have to be done before I can process what my own feelings are. So I immediately went into that.

Speaker 3: 3:42

I ran into our bedroom husbands like a really hard sleeper. I woke him up and I was like, okay, you have to talk to this person. And he was actually up rare to go talking to Jimmy on the phone and I have asked if I can say his name and he said yes, he was talking to Jimmy on the phone. I'm throwing on. I remember exactly what I had on. I threw on my shorts. It's December, guys Like this is Christmas Eve when all this happens. I'm throwing on shorts. I had a purple robe, no bra t-shirt, and we were on the road. The fog was super thick that night. I just knew that I had to get there. I don't know what I thought was going to happen once I got there, but it was a whole hour drive so I just felt like I just needed to be there. But that's how I found out.

Speaker 1: 4:40

And I know that you've heard the story, but just for me, I know you said this was December, Christmas Eve. What year was this?

Speaker 3: 4:51

It was 2016. The incident happened at 1145 pm and then, when they pronounce him dead, it was 1230 on Christmas day, okay, and you got the call?

Speaker 1: 5:04

at what time?

Speaker 3: 5:07

It was around 1150.

Speaker 4: 5:09

Okay.

Speaker 1: 5:10

Just right before.

Speaker 3: 5:12

Yeah, and I think you had asked if he called 911. He did not. He did not call 911. Not at all. No, I was surprised too. So in order to understand, I guess why he called who he called Jimmy. The friend was living with his grandma. They were the tenants to Billy, so their house was in the front, Billy's house was a little bit down the driveway and that he called his landlord. He didn't call 911.

Speaker 2: 5:48

That's crazy, so did anybody ever call 911? The landlord I don't.

Speaker 3: 5:57

I know 911 was called, but I don't know who made the phone call. I don't.

Speaker 2: 6:03

So I know that we didn't mention that. You are also in Arkansas, like us, so they know more about what the weather is like. Whenever you're staying, you're rushing around getting your clothes and everything. So where did you go after you got dressed and headed an hour away? Where did you go to?

Speaker 3: 6:21

I live in the hospital to police, or Okay, so I live in hermitage. I drove straight to Jimmy's house in Camden, which is an hour away, so that's in. That is where the crime scene was, so that's. I stopped at his house, he directed me down there and I pulled up in the yard and it was dark. It it was really dark. There were no yard lights, there was not a lot of lights. There were tons of police cars, but just everything was not to use.

Speaker 3: 6:57

I feel like this word is just badly used in all crime documentaries but it was dead silent there. And when I pulled up I saw an officer sitting on the porch and he was filling out paperwork. So I kind of didn't know what I was going to say. But when I approached him the atmosphere was just kind of like he was annoyed of me even being there.

Speaker 3: 7:30

I introduced myself, I said I'm Bobby Merritt's oldest child. You know, I really just need to hear you tell me that this is serious, this is for real, this is the truth. You know, I need to hear you say it. And you know, I don't know if my mind was running 90 to nothing or he just actually stood there for a little bit, but I repeated myself and he finally did say you know, your dad was shot and killed. And then that was pretty much it, other than me asking for my dad's truck so that I could take it with me to the police station. And then he said I'm going to give you just a couple of streets over, and then they have me sign paperwork for the truck and then I left and I went to my dad's house.

Speaker 2: 8:26

So did he give you any information other than he had been shot or or did?

Speaker 3: 8:31

he even tell you he had been shot. Um, I think he pretty much assumed I knew what happened. I did ask him two questions. I asked where Billy was and he said that they were going to be shot. And I asked what my dad was and they had already taken him to the coroner's office. So he wasn't even there when I got there, which I didn't necessarily figure that he would be because, like I, said it's our drive, yeah right.

Speaker 2: 9:01

So how did you find out what happened?

Speaker 3: 9:05

or whoever told you Well. So you know, jimmy had, after I, called all of my family and told them. Well, I called my sister and I told her because she lived another 45 minutes away from Camden. So I got her on the phone and she was the first person I called and I told her. And then I had to go and tell his mom and I didn't want that to be over the phone. I felt like she needed a face to face. So we woke her up, we all got in the vehicle and she called my aunt who lives in Denver. That would be my dad's sister. And then we headed to my uncle's house, which is my dad's brother, and we told them.

Speaker 3: 9:55

And then after that, we set up the initial meeting with the police. I had to ask for it. Um, they didn't offer it. I sat there during the meeting and I was like I can't go into details, it's an investigation. We can't go into details, it's an investigation. So I kind of asked I think we all were thinking the same thing like what was his justification for this? And what they told us was Arkansas being a standard ground wall. You know, this protects a whole lot, a whole lot of things, and I believe that was the reason why this investigation didn't really get into the story. I mean, he said he woke up and he thought someone was breaking in his house. That is what they told us initially and that's pretty much all we knew, other than you know the Crown Lab has his body and it's going to take a while to get it back.

Speaker 2: 10:58

Tell us like that, or set the same for us, what happened that night with your dad and Billy, what transpired that night or what did you do?

Speaker 3: 11:10

Oh, the only reason I know this is because I had to thoroughly investigate, and I can get on this later as to why. But I called a lot of his friends. I called just about everybody that I knew and asked did you talk to my dad that night? Do you know where he was at this time? What was he doing? You know, after I compiled all of those phone calls together, I already knew that he was at Billy's house because I asked him to. But what I didn't know is his oven was not working and so that's why he was at Billy's. I do know that they were hanging out cooking the ham and they had been drinking, and before I get into that, I would like to say that I do have the whole like the whole autopsy results and he was not drunk. So I just want to set the record straight for you. As far as Billy's blood alcohol level, I couldn't tell you that. The reason why I can't tell you that is because the police never drug tested him, never did an alcohol test Nothing.

Speaker 1: 12:18

Oh, that's crazy, yeah.

Speaker 3: 12:22

So I just know that some of his friends had talked to him that night and he seemed to be in good spirits and and everything. I don't think we'll ever know a motive as to what he was going to say. I've gone back and forth several times over the years as to if what he told police was correct or was it not, and I always have to circle back to what I found in the reports and I didn't get the reports from the prosecute attorney. I had to get those reports from the prosecution and all this research on my own to figure out what happened, how it happened and all that good stuff. Okay, so, after reading the report, so when they arrested him he was charged with second degree. Um, they did one initial interview and they're interviewing him and he says that when they come to the scene, cpr was being administered there not by an ambulance, not by 911. It was being administered by someone that was at Jimmy's house. So they walked into that scene. Um, they just shot my dad three times and as he's saying this, he's hugging my dad and crying. Yeah, when I read that I was just like, okay, the weapon he used was a 22 magnum bolt action rifle. The story of this rifle is that my dad had just given up Yep and my dad had only two wounds and I can I can get into like the actual facts of those wounds in a second. Sure, they were two divots in the floor where bullets had ricocheted off the floor. So those are two additional weapons. They were spent rounds all within six feet of each other.

Speaker 3: 15:05

There was no bedding on Billy's bed. He had and this is why I say that I don't believe his story he had laid out on his bed additional weapons. He had the time to do this. There's a lot of things that he had done. One of the things that he had done was on the bed, was a 270 rifle. It was loaded and then a report of two firearms was on the bed. Well, they name one to 270 rifle, but they don't name the other and instead they say that there was an unloaded gun, so that was in. So we never know. We don't, I don't know what, what else or what other firearms was on the bed was super crucial as to why I think what he said was crap.

Speaker 3: 16:11

They said that he waived his rights. He said that they were cooking their Christmas ham. He said that he saw someone walking through his house turning off lights, and the person lays down on the floor.

Speaker 1: 16:31

That sounds like every burglar I know.

Speaker 3: 16:34

Yeah, that's exactly what I said. You know someone's breaking into your house.

Speaker 2: 16:39

So was this in the living room in the bedroom? Yeah, you said your dad was in the bedroom.

Speaker 3: 16:45

Yeah, it was another room and I don't know exactly the floor plan of it, but from my room there was Billy's room, a connecting room, and the room that my dad was in. Ok, so the bedding wasn't on Billy's bed because earlier in the night he had set it aside for my dad to spend the night. He thought someone was breaking into his house, turning off his lights and then lay down on the floor, meaning bodily harm to him.

Speaker 1: 17:20

Yeah, but it sounds dangerous. Anybody laying on my floor Super dangerous yeah super freaking dangerous.

Speaker 3: 17:29

So reading all of this and going back over it, it just makes me laugh because it shows a real lack of wanting to do your job as a law enforcement. Yeah, because I, untrained, just with nothing but common sense, can feel like there are discrepancies between his story and the facts that they wrote and their report and what he told them, then there's something wrong here.

Speaker 1: 18:03

It's not adding up.

Speaker 3: 18:04

No, not adding up at all. He said that he turned on his bedroom light. So you have to remember his bedroom, a connecting room, the dark room that my dad's in OK, so he turned on his light, he got the 22 bolt action rifle and he started firing at the subject on the floor. So they asked him what his intention was and he said it was to make sure that the bolt that the person on the floor did not get up. So he's using a 22 bolt action and for those that don't know anything about guns I knew very little until it was explained to me you have to blow out the gun, push the bolt, then you fire, then you stop the bolt out, then you load it again and then you fire. You have to continually eject that bullet. That's intention four times.

Speaker 2: 19:14

Right, so did he tell the police that your dad was spinning the knot that night.

Speaker 3: 19:19

He says that he was adamant that my dad left that night. However, when I pull up to the yard, my dad's truck is backed up and the tailgate down and there's a nice chest on it for easy access to the ice chest. Yeah, I mean it'd been there a while for me. I called the investigator directly after you know I'd found out about it and I said I've talked to several of his friends. The only time he left was before Billy went to sleep and he ran to get cigarettes at the tobacco store and went right back and didn't leave. What time was that? I don't know. I don't remember. I had a notebook of notes and over the years it just got lost, but I mean the truck backed up. He also said that he couldn't clearly identify the person. That's important and he admitted to setting the bed aside for my dad. In his second interview, which was the very next day, he admitted to it Again. He said his intention was for the person to not get up. He was still adamant that my dad left and returned without his knowledge.

Speaker 4: 20:47

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Speaker 3: 21:01

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Speaker 4: 21:08

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Speaker 2: 21:11

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Speaker 3: 21:27

Your doors are unlocked and all your lights run because your dad is turning all the lights off for him.

Speaker 1: 21:32

Right, right, every lot in the house is on and we don't need the doors on. That doesn't sound like you're going to bed. Yeah, you set the bedding aside. You left the lights on. You left the door unlocked.

Speaker 3: 21:45

I mean all of those you knew he was going to be there. So they asked again if he could identify. He said he could identify. So they asked again if he could identify. He said he could tell it was a person laying on a side or back, but couldn't identify him. Okay, I think back and I, you know, I read the, I read all of this and it just brings up more anger. Right and necessarily at the situation, but at the lack of investigation, trying to piece how this even makes sense. Right, because it doesn't.

Speaker 2: 22:32

Yeah, none of us are trained, and this makes no sense.

Speaker 3: 22:35

Yeah, it hasn't made sense to anyone that I've told the story to that had read the reports. None of it makes sense. But they took him out of his word because he was boo-hooing during the interview and he was so upset and he was crying. I'd be upset too if I was charged with second degree murder.

Speaker 1: 22:53

Mm-hmm, Me too. I'd be pretty. Yeah, I'd be crying. I cried. Someone pulls me over to give me a ticket.

Speaker 3: 22:59

I'd be crying if they sent second degree murder, Exactly, Exactly, and I just I've looked at the autopsy report. I've looked at you know. They state that there were four that were fired. There were two divots in the floor. Those two divots were in close proximity to my dad's head. The other two hit him and I've thought many times about the sequence in which these happened. My dad's shoes were kicked off, he was covered up with a blanket. He was asleep.

Speaker 3: 23:36

Billy had to allow himself enough time for my dad to lay down on that floor, Go to sleep, because he's over here throwing out weapons, loading guns, picking which one he wants, and all of this is happening and my dad's asleep. But they had spent the night together before and if you talk to any of my family members and any of his friends, if my dad's asleep he's snoring. He didn't snore like anybody else. You could pick his snore out of a thousand people. It was very distinct. But going back to these bullets they talk about, there were four shots. I've went over it, over it time again and, going by the autopsy and what the police have told me and the report that they made, the first shot had to have killed him. If you're shooting and there are divots in the floor and it's in close proximity to your head. You're going to wake up.

Speaker 2: 24:44

And you're going to move.

Speaker 3: 24:45

Yes, right, so you know. Those weren't the first two shots. Another shot hit him in the right shoulder. Something hit you in the right shoulder, going that speed You're going to wake up. You got taller. You should have known it was him, but that was the shot.

Speaker 2: 25:04

Yeah.

Speaker 3: 25:05

The first shot got him and it was in his back and I can tell you the exact path that it traveled. It went through the right side of his back through his soft tissue. It went through the back muscles, the edge of the 10th rib, through his liver, his diaphragm, his right lower lung, his pericardial sac, right pulmonary vein, left atrium pulmonary artery. The bullet jacket was found resting in the soft tissue between the pulmonary artery and the aorta, and the core went through the aorta anterior pericardial sac. It was found in a blood clot so he bled out absolutely immediately.

Speaker 1: 25:54

Right yeah.

Speaker 3: 25:56

I thought about why I needed to know that, and it's not that I needed to know that my dad didn't suffer. I know a lot of families say that he's gone. If he suffered, that may sound harsh, but I'm more logical I want to know which one it was.

Speaker 1: 26:14

Right.

Speaker 3: 26:14

I wasn't there that night, so I needed to know what happened and I just tracked the facts back to all top support. Yeah, that's how I figured it out.

Speaker 1: 26:24

So what happened with Billy With charge? Did it go any further or did they let him go because of the stand your ground rule? What happened?

Speaker 3: 26:35

there. So they charged him a second degree. He could not make bail. They set a $50,000 bail and he couldn't make bail, which I knew. He couldn't make bail because my dad had been in his bills. That's the type of man my dad was. He was paying his bills. He would help him if he couldn't make it to work. Because, as I come to find out, billy has a blood disease. They were very hush-hush about it. They just told me that and it was cut and dry. As far as talking to the prosecuting attorney, he didn't go into spills or anything like that, but I know he had a blood disease so he had to do treatments and take off work and my dad would always cover for him because my dad was his boss. Well, billy got laid off. After Billy got laid off he started helping with his bills and whatnot. So Billy's in jail. He can't make bail.

Speaker 3: 27:42

We're going through these hearings. At the initial hearing that they found they have sufficient evidence to hold him. He stays in the jail until we make the plea deal. He never leaves. He did try to get the bond amended and lowered. So I met with a prosecuting attorney one time. I felt great about it.

Speaker 3: 28:07

I shared my issues with his story. He understood, he listened, I thought everything was going to be good. Then the second one is when he starts to ask would you be okay with dropping it down to manslaughter? Here's the problem with that. I know none of my family would have been okay with that. But my stipulation was I would only only be okay with dropping it down to manslaughter if they were to take it to trial and try him for manslaughter with the enhanced firearm charge. I don't know if you guys know this, but I had to research it. If you're charged in a crime with the enhanced firearm charge, it is a day-to-day serving charge, it's not a percentage, whereas that manslaughter charge would have been a percentage of whatever the felony would be. Whatever class of the felony would only serve that percentage of time. So that was my stipulation.

Speaker 3: 29:24

As far as dropping it down from second to manslaughter, I already knew they were looking at a plea deal. I told him I was against it. He knew I was against it and they made the deal anyways. He got sentenced to 72 months. He had three suspended. He sentenced to seven years in prison, which he only served a percentage of that seven years because manslaughter. They did what they wanted to do. It didn't matter what I had to say. It didn't matter what anybody had to say in our family. They did whatever they could do to just get a win on their record and move on to the next one.

Speaker 1: 30:06

Now we have an awful injustice for the Yeltsin your entire family With that plea deal. Billy had to do any type of the allocution and talk about that. He got full confession to the court. He did it, why he did it or anything like that. They didn't make him do that.

Speaker 3: 30:26

I think that I got put in there is that he had to go through AA meetings. I want to say anger management. I just wanted to throw anything and everything I could in there, since I wasn't going to get my way anyways.

Speaker 1: 30:40

No, I don't blame you. I would do the same thing if I knew that they were going to make a plea regardless. I don't want to and everything extra that I can get him to do, because clearly he needs something if he's going to go back out in society. At least I can say I pushed for these things, you let him back out, but I asked for the things to at least try to get help Right.

Speaker 2: 31:03

I know you said there was no motive to the neighbors or anything. Hear them arguing earlier that not anything, because I'm still trying to wrap my head around. What would why? I don't even understand this.

Speaker 3: 31:24

Thank you, and I think that that was also part of the police's the police department and the prosecuting attorneys hang up is that there wasn't a motive.

Speaker 1: 31:45

Yeah.

Speaker 3: 31:46

And I tried to wreck my brain as to what that would be. All I know is he was paying my dad's bills. I mean, my dad was paying his bills, and my dad ended up getting laid off as well, so he could no longer pay his bills. That's the only thing I know. That's it.

Speaker 1: 32:10

And so you don't know if they're talking to any of the friends that really had any type of mental illness that wasn't treated, or just drug problems or anything like that that could have been a factor.

Speaker 3: 32:21

I don't know about drug problems. I don't know about substance problems Like I don't know but I do know that he had a temper problem. This wasn't the only person he'd done anything violent to. It wasn't reported to the police, but he hit someone in the head with a baseball bat. I told the police, or I told the prosecuting attorney, this as well. It hadn't been long before that, you know, before he shot my dad, that that had happened. That was investigated.

Speaker 1: 32:56

That's crazy. So we got a violent history Sounds like anger management was definitely something you should push for because he clearly needed that. But I hate that guys kind of don't have the closure motive and you probably won't have that and then the list gotta be really hard. But I really commend you on you doing the research, since you weren't getting anywhere with it, and putting things together so that you could have an idea of what happened that night, to figure out what went on and how things happened.

Speaker 3: 33:32

Right and I think, the only. I think you had a question. Have I ever talked to Billy since? And yet? But it was after he got out. When he got out, I had to call a sprawl officer to see if there was a no contact order for my family. There was not. He could have walked up on us at any point in time and there's nothing we could have done about it. So I filed for a no contact order. I went to the court, the judge would only give me a few months, and then that was it. Billy told the judge that he would not recognize me in a public place. But when I walked into that courtroom and I looked at him, I had to walk right past him, past him. His eyes bugged out. He knew who I was.

Speaker 1: 34:25

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 34:26

He knew exactly who I was. But with that, you never like talk to him or wrote him or talked to him asking him if he would say anything to you.

Speaker 3: 34:36

Okay, so I thought about writing Billy or going to see Billy while he was in prison, but I always just didn't follow through with it. I don't know what was holding me back. I think maybe I was scared to see how my mental health would be afterwards.

Speaker 4: 35:00

Right.

Speaker 3: 35:01

I did speak to him officially on his little plea deal and then in court for the no contact order, and then that was it. What's crazy, though? The story does get a little bit crazier. So I'm a very protective mom even before this and very much so after. So if there's any moms that are listening to this, don't feel bad for being protective and not letting your children place it Because a thought for the no contact order or a reason.

Speaker 3: 35:44

That reason wasn't myself, that reason was my children, my, what he looks like. She didn't want it to be a surprise because they allowed him to move 15 minutes away from me. He was originally paroled, I think, to Washdaw County and then, or no, he was originally paroled to hope Arkansas and now he's living in Bradley County, 15 minutes away from me. And that's crazy, it is, it's wild. So that's just the tip of the iceberg.

Speaker 4: 36:19

So like.

Speaker 3: 36:20

I said moms, if you second guess wanting to protect your children, don't second guess it. I pushed for that. No contact order. He gave it to me for three months. At that point I was angry and I was mad that no one would hear me. Throughout this whole process no one wanted to hear me. No one cared. If it was their family, I'm sure they feel differently.

Speaker 1: 36:46

Right.

Speaker 3: 36:48

So I just gave up on it. Then my daughter started a boy in her school and he's here at our house one day, and then he goes home and he calls me on the phone and he said I feel like I'm the one that needed for you to hear this from. And I said okay, what is it? What do you got? He said my grandmother is dating Billy.

Speaker 1: 37:27

Oh, wow.

Speaker 3: 37:29

I can't make this up.

Speaker 1: 37:30

I was a plot twist. I did not see coming.

Speaker 3: 37:33

He could have at any point walked through that door. That's it. I'll let this be a lesson to any third who fails over protective of their children. Do not ever be swayed by any opinion of anyone. If you feel like your children need to be protected, there's probably a reason why.

Speaker 2: 37:53

Yeah, absolutely yeah. Well, I can't say. I know I was very much with my dad's killer. I did go see him in prison. I wrote him letters and he never gave me any closure before he died either. So if that makes you feel any better, he never told me really what happened or anything. He just kept saying it was an accident. It sounds like what Billy would have said.

Speaker 3: 38:19

So if that makes you feel any better about not doing it, I think I've just come to terms that I won't get the truth.

Speaker 1: 38:31

Right.

Speaker 3: 38:32

Yeah, if that even wants to acknowledge the truth. Maybe he has, maybe he hasn't, I don't know. I don't know what's going, you know, I don't know what has been on his mind, but it just seems to me that it's always a story with him, like I thought someone was breaking into my house, or I wouldn't recognize her in a grocery store. Right in like calculated lies. So I don't think that he would never even admit to himself that he intentionally did it.

Speaker 1: 39:12

Right, and see you do hear a lot of the others when you convince yourself of the law. First that sounds what he's like, what he's done.

Speaker 3: 39:20

Yeah Right, I think with the no contact order. After that I was just over it. It didn't bother me. You know anymore about not knowing. It just is what it is. I've had to deal with it. It's probably toughest thing I've ever had to do in my life.

Speaker 1: 39:41

Right.

Speaker 3: 39:42

But it I did address him when he was sentenced. I did. I looked straight at him. We weren't supposed to, but I did. I turned around and looked at him, you know, because the podium was up from where he was sitting. I looked at him and I said you know, our family did not get justice today, but I believe in God and when you have to answer to him, there will be justice.

Speaker 1: 40:11

Absolutely.

Speaker 3: 40:13

So those were my, those were my words, that I spoke to him. Now, when we got out of the no contact hearing, my mom urged me to wait until he walked out or until, you know, till he was gone.

Speaker 2: 40:27

Yeah.

Speaker 3: 40:28

But I I wasn't here anymore. I didn't care, I was pissed off. I was pissed off, right, he got first. He got into his truck and I deliberately walked right by his truck, looking at him the entire time, because I was over it. I'd had enough.

Speaker 2: 40:49

Thank you for sharing your story. I'm I'm sorry that you still haven't gotten the closure. I know how it feels not having closure or just in your case, you don't have any justice really either. Right.

Speaker 3: 41:04

Um, I do. I kind of want to wrap it up Absolutely. That would be a horrible disservice to my father if I did not tell you who he was.

Speaker 1: 41:14

Yes, we would love to hear him all about him.

Speaker 3: 41:17

Yeah, he was really amazing and I'm and I might kind of get choked up, I I call myself up that I wouldn't do it, but uh, he was the type of person that would not know you and give you a shirt off his back. Um, he had more friends than I will probably ever have in my entire life. He was funny. And he wasn't just funny, ha ha, he was the funny that gives you the belly laughs the deep, like hurt. He was full of life and enjoyed every minute of it. Anything and everything he could do, he would do. He was a cook. Him and my first born were best friends and that's what they enjoyed to do was cook together. You know, earlier in our lives and she had a Barbie Jeep and every day when he got home from work, there she was and our Barbie Jeep driving over to his house.

Speaker 2: 42:18

That's so cute he had a gassy pep. Aww.

Speaker 3: 42:20

He was a great brother, he was a protector, he was fierce. You didn't want to make him mad, but he was a lover. That's a lot of things A lot of people overlook. He had the biggest heart I think I've ever seen out of any person on this earth and he used it. If you didn't have food, he fed you. He would go fishing and take the neighbors fish. Anytime he had leftovers he would go take it to the neighbors across the street. He just was a lover and I am so proud to be his daughter. And what's even crazier is we have actual proof of him being the person that he is. He died without life insurance and I am young at this point I'm older than my sister, but I'm still young and he died without life insurance. I had no idea what I was going to do. How was I going to pay for this? Well, somebody started to go fund me. Donations were donated there, then donations were donated at the funeral home. I believe by the time all of the donations came in, I only had to pay $900.

Speaker 3: 43:41

And even after that I get a message on Facebook and this is absolutely insane to me, but I get this message just from a person I don't know. When we get a message on Facebook from a person we don't know, we don't answer it. This is spam. But it wasn't spam. He played a game, a mobile game, with people from other countries, and they so much that they donated to his funeral cause. People knew him from other continents and he showed his love so much through his personality that they felt the need to do that for our family.

Speaker 1: 44:29

Wow, that's amazing.

Speaker 3: 44:31

My dad was big and the world is really missing out right now.

Speaker 2: 44:36

He sounds like a really great example to live by and have that in your life, to have an example of.

Speaker 3: 44:45

Right, he was. He was a hot mess and a half.

Speaker 1: 44:51

But now you've got the guardian angel who's loving you but still protecting you, and that's always something to get, and that's nice.

Speaker 2: 45:00

And I think that we do hate that he was taken too soon and and the way he was taken, and then the way in that your kids don't have Come there for them, because I know that's hard to.

Speaker 3: 45:15

Yeah, it is for this little one, which she's not so little anymore, but she was when it happened. She doesn't too much remember him, so that kind of way, because that's a disservice to her. Right and she's a big boss, but she's a strong kid. She's lost a lot. She's only 14. We'll should be 14 in two weeks, but she's lost a lot. She's my hero.

Speaker 1: 45:40

Well, tell her, we said happy early birthday. They actually have the same birthday?

Speaker 3: 45:45

Oh yes, I'll tell them.

Speaker 1: 45:50

Yes, tell them both. We said happy early birthday. Thank you so much for talking to us. I know this isn't easy. It brings up a lot of emotions, but we appreciate you taking the time and telling us your story and your dad's story.

Speaker 3: 46:05

Right, I wouldn't have it any other way. I thank you guys for reaching out.

Speaker 2: 46:09

Absolutely. It reminded me a lot of my dad's in a lot of ways, and it was just crazy to me.

Speaker 1: 46:17

Yeah.

Speaker 3: 46:19

It's nice to have people to relate to, not in this sense it kind of sucks.

Speaker 1: 46:25

But it's nice to know you're not alone.

Speaker 2: 46:26

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 46:29

Definitely, definitely.

Speaker 2: 46:40

We always recommend more bubbly and less OJ Cheers.

Speaker 1: 46:46

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