The Blade of Grass: Fire, Blood, and a Small-Town Secret | Signal 51 Chronicles – Case 3 Pt 2

This is the Signal 51 Chronicles, the Fire Next Door. Welcome to the Signal 51 Chronicles. This is episode nine, eight, eight of the reboot.

Eight of the reboot. I'm John Henry. Next to me is my compadre and retired sergeant of the 4th Police Department, Jake White.

Hello. We come to you from an undisclosed location in Fort Worth, Texas. We are a proud member of the Sunset Lounge DFW platform, which offers viewers and listeners both.

You can do either watch or listen, but it offers viewers and listeners an array of shows featuring topical content every day of the week, every week of the month. Think of whatever time element you want to and it applies. On the other side of the table is our producer, Ashley.

Hello, friends. Where will we be without Ashley? Lost?

Sitting at home. Sitting at home. Watching useless NFL playoff football games.

You would not be here right now. No. That's correct.

We would not be here right now at all. And actually, we were just, we're, Ashley's got high sports opinions. Yes, she does.

We were just talking about the transfer portal college football. She's not a fan. I just like what it's going to do to college football.

What it's doing. Yeah, it makes it up. Yeah, what it's doing.

You're going to have your top 20 or so. And then everybody else is triple A. But what it does to high school is what stinks about it.

Like these high school kids are the ones losing opportunity, which is not what this is supposed to be about. It's not a degree, yeah. I mean, yeah, some degree has true.

I mean, so they're not to get too much into this. I know we've got cases to go into. So 600 volleyball players ended up in the transfer portal.

600 volleyball players. I didn't know there were 600 volleyball players. So 600 volleyball players ended up in the transfer portal.

The TCU coach says, okay, well, then why those are indoor volleyball players, indoor volleyball players. So now I have 600 players to choose from to talk to that could potentially be on my team that already have a year of experience or multiple years of experience. And if I give them the right amount, they'll be here.

So now you have all these high school kids who are fantastic or good enough to play in college that aren't getting looked at or recruited because no school anymore knows who's going to be going where. Also now in the transfer portal for college football, wasn't it 4,000 kids? 3600.

Yeah, something like that. I mean, 4,000 football players. Yeah.

That's a lot of football players. Well, you know, in the untold story about that, that no one talks about is that, I don't know, if you're in a half of those who get in there, we'll be we'll be picked up. So a lot of these guys are their college careers are over.

Where if they stayed, they, you know, might not play. They might not be happy with their situation, but at least they're out there, you know, going to school presumably doing something better themselves. They want to be a coach one day and it might be more difficult.

I don't know. It's a mess. I mean, how many kids are actually graduating nowadays?

Like that's another big thing. How many guys are actually graduating? I don't know.

That should be something that you're proud of in your program is making sure your kids graduate and those were the days. Those were the days. It's all about how much cheddar are you putting on that in my bank account?

That is it. All right, what do you say we go to the blotter? Let's go to the blotter.

Dateline is Southfoot worth. Famous Southfoot worth. Were you ever, were you ever, I did, I worked over there.

Free sinked over there. Yeah, sure was. Slow, busy during that time.

Very busy. Very busy. Any busier, any slower than any other place you work around town?

When you worked around town. That has to be in the top two. Well, it's in Southfoot worth where we find a troubled and very likely dumb.

Are there any other kind? Teenager who is in trouble. As of this recording, which is a week or so after the fact, a 17-year-old is in custody after investigators say he set fire to at least five vehicles across three Southwest Ford neighborhoods over the holiday season.

Please say the arsonists began early Christmas Eve and continued through New Year's Day with vehicles targeted on street corners in their homes. Surveillance video of one incident shows the suspect breaking into a car about 145 AM on Christmas Eve before setting it on fire and taking off. For nearly 10 days, police and fire investigators, campus neighborhoods, interviewed residents and reviewed home surveillance footage.

By stitching together multiple camera angles and investigators, we're able to track the suspect from one fire scene back to his residents according to Fort Worth Fire Department Battalion Chief David Jones. You know, there are cameras everywhere, everywhere. You're not getting away with something like no, you're not, you're definitely not.

So in January, police arrested 17-year-old Evan Banda, who, authorities say, lived near the impacted homes. Investigators said the fires caused significant financial and emotional damage to the families impacted. Now, of course, Jake, as you will know, it's important to note that Mr.

Banda is presumed innocent of these charges or any others, though it's also important to note that as of this writing, this broadcast, no other cars have erupted in flames. In the middle of the night, since Mr. Banda's identification and captured by police, it's anyway, best wishes to that young man and his family and, of course, all those who are impacted.

Hopefully, those insurance premiums were paid on time. Hopefully, everything's taken care of. Jake, have you ever had something like that?

Yeah, have you ever seen something like this? No, not nothing like that. We really didn't get involved in the fire game too much.

You have some dumb kid stories, though. Oh, yeah, a lot of dumb kid stories, but definitely no. What's your best one?

Man, I'm going to put it on the spot here. Or A. I told you all about the Brooklyn 9-9 episode where the chief of police's kid was the one vandalizing all the cars.

It's hilarious. Yes. And then they have another one where they have to deal with the fire marshal.

Yeah. Like, what, did you all like dealing with the fire marshal? I know.

We never, I didn't. I know, but few fire things. Very few.

Yeah. Well, you ran across kids with dope and you or that or that, you know, just your typical Tom Foulery has teenagers do, you know, out vandalizing. There, I say I could relate to them well.

Because you were a dumb teenager one time. Yes. Indeed.

You didn't have the world all figured out. Well, you did is what your problem was. You probably did have it.

I'll figure it out like. Yeah. Yeah.

Most teenagers do. Oh, yeah. All right.

So let's carry on with this mystery. We're discussing in Wise County. Before we begin, you know, there should be some listener discretion proclamations.

This case that we're discussing contains descriptions, descriptions of violence and homicide. So if you're sensitive to that type of thing or you don't want your kids around while you're listening to this, please be advised, yes. The National Weather Service has issued a listener discretion and, okay, warning, okay.

All right. So in our last episode, the Wise County Sheriff's Office discovers a deceased young woman, 32-year-old Lauren Whitener. She's an army veteran who had deployments in both Afghanistan and Iraq.

And she's also a surgical nurse in the Wise County system hospital. She was a single mother with an eight-year-old son. Now, she also had two close neighbors whom she's close with.

A Mr. Rodney Eric Maxwell who goes by Eric and a miss Ashley Hill. A common law couple.

As it's described, yes, and they were very close these three. Some say some neighbors say extremely close. Extremely.

Make extremely close. Like three some sexual stuff close. What they're saying.

We also learned in episode seven, our previous episode, that that relationship is called a thrupal. Thrupal. Thrup, yeah.

It might have even included a quadruple or something that very well could have. I don't know. We don't know that.

We don't know any of that stuff. Anyway, neighbors say that these three were actually were very, very close. And on July 4th, perhaps one of those neighbors, but a neighbor reported that an argument between Maxwell and Hill.

Became volatile. So much so that Maxwell, according to this neighbor, grabbed Hill his common law wife by the jaw. And Lauren stepped in between them to break it up.

So anyway, afterwards they all go their separate ways. And later on July 5th, Sheriff's Deputies in Wise County find whitener deceased on a burn mattress. The victim of 18 stab wounds.

Many of those to her neck and jaw. We also learned that Wise County investigators seem to be on the line of a suspect, or suspects, or suspects. Yes.

So when investigators search 620 North Maine, they don't just collect a few items. They collect a bunch of stuff. Knives, liders, cigarette butts, clothing, smoke detectors, batteries, Jake, take it away.

All right. So quick recap. So 420 on July 5th.

So the 9-1-1 call. Body's found. They continue canvassing the area over the next four or five days.

They find the black latex gloves. They do the consent to search. They interview Eric Maxwell several times.

He provides his DNA sample, fingerprints, etc. And is stating his innocence. It is.

And they also did the same for some other neighbors too. And they do the same for others. Selecting DNA stuff.

Yep. They seem to be turning their attention to Maxwell. Remember on July 11th, they run the search warrant at his apartment.

And they describe finding blood on a bottle of charcoal, lighter fluid, and the pantry. They submit three swabs to have analyzed part of the love seat, the fabric from the love seat and the half towel. They make note of a red gasoline can on his front porch.

There's a tracker installed on an unknown vehicle, but it seems to be Maxwell's vehicle. On July 12th, if we remember, that's where the restoration crew. It's a company, civilian company, cleans out the crime scene.

Yeah. That there's news crews there showing this. So one would think that at that point, the crime scene's been released.

What more can you do? Well, it doesn't stop there. So like I mentioned, although the crime scene was cleaned up, investigators again returned to 620 North Main Street on July 16th.

In this search, investigators located, quote, are they, quote, located trace blood evidence on the floor, just inside the back door, which is easterly facing. This is after it's been cleaned up. After it's cleaned up, as well as on the brick patio, just outside of the back door.

So we're now 11 days after the crime. We're now dealing with a crime scene that has, in essence, been released. We've got a civilian crew that's gone in there.

It is unlikely the civilian crew is concerned about contaminating any sort of evidence. They're doing their job. And they're probably thinking, well, they must have this case solved because we're already here cleaning it up.

Yeah. So, inside on this July 16th search, investigators discovered blood evidence in the hallway and the front door. But investigators, quote, believe that to have been left by the mattress the victim had been lying on.

And then furthermore, the body of Lauren was removed through the front door when she was taken to the medical exam. So were there on the 16th, they find some blood evidence inside and outside of the house. I like to know how the restoration crew didn't how they left that behind.

What? The blood evidence. It's very possible.

There is a thing with contamination. So the next day we go on to July 17th. Investigators meet with a guy the owner of the duplexes.

So we know that he owns 620, 640, 660, and 680 North Main Street. So these are two duplex buildings. We'll have the picture of of whiteners and then we'll have another picture of the two and it shows the proximity or the space in between.

So the duplex owner gives investigators a consent to search for the locations. And during this consent to search, investigators locate trace blood evidence in the grass which is behind or on the east side of the duplexes. Backyards, the backyards.

Yeah. The path of the blood evidence leads between the backdoor of 620 North Main Street and the gated fence in the backyard of 660 North Main Street. The blood evidence was located outside of the fence yard of 660 North Main in the common areas of the property.

So like I said in the photograph, it's going to be this area. Almost like an alleyway type thing. It's like an alleyway or just the separation between the houses.

Yeah. We haven't got a lot of details in regards to certain aspects of this case. But I don't know the consent to search confuses me a little bit, right?

Because they say, hey, property owner, 620 North Main is now vacant for all intense purposes, right? But 640 North Main Street is not vacant. We know that the people that called 911 lived there and we know factually that 660 North Main Street is not vacant because the police had just executed a search weren't there.

Some five days. That's the hill. The maximum hill property.

Yeah. So I have a little bit of confusion on how what the strategy was behind that. That would be like if you rent a house, okay?

And the police suspect you of doing something. Instead of going to you, the tenant that has a sign lease, they go to a landlord and say, hey, why don't we take a look at this? You own the place, right?

How does that, how does that make you feel? Right, you, you can't do that. That's plain and simple, right?

I mean, you live in the house. Whether it's the backyard. There's got to be, there's got to be lease protections to something like that, right?

Well, it's not even lease protections. They're all performing. Yeah, I think it's called the fourth amendment.

Well, yeah, right? You apply that. You can't do that.

But they did. That's my opinion, not as an attorney, but that's why we're here. Never have done that, okay?

So this consent to search on the 17th. The findings led investigators to yet again execute another search warrant a Maxwell's house on July 18th. Do we know, do we know if, if Maxwell or Hill, either one were, were they resisting another search, I wonder, or maybe that's why they did it?

All accounts know, right? They voluntarily, and we're going to get into, I mean, they invited them in the first time. They, well, I don't, well, I don't know that they did a consent to search at his house, but they've, they've, they've voluntarily gone to the sheriff's office several times.

He voluntarily provided his fingerprints. He voluntarily provided his DNA. He voluntarily took the polygraph.

The polygraph exam. He seems to be cooperating. Now, they claim he failed, but we don't know that.

Yeah, and does that mean anything? No, it doesn't mean anything, right? Sometimes people do think when they're confronted by the police, I can just talk my way out of this mess.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And it doesn't always work that way. Maybe it does sometimes, right?

So they do that consent to search on July 17th. And in a, oh, I'm sorry, go ahead. Well, they get that, based on that, they have enough probable cause now to search Maxwell and Hill's house again.

And it is here where this, what was described, where I first learned about it from Barry Green, the defense attorney, was the single blade of grass theory. Yeah, okay. So investigator sprayed, and this is a quote, investigator sprayed blue star outside of the victim's backyard to the edge of the defendant's backyard fence.

And to read, to read, blue star is like, luminal. It's, yeah, it's a brand name for luminal. That highlights blood, dried blood stains.

Correct. Okay, correct, yeah. So they sprayed this all over the yard back, and they get a, well, we'll get into it.

The blue star reacted to the possibility of blood on the grass outside of the victim's backyard fence and to the edge of the defendant's backyard fence. Again, remember, this is a quote from one of the court documents, with each distinct reaction to the blue star, investigators conducted a presumptive test for blood. Each sample tested resulted in the presence of human blood.

The distance between the victim's backyard gate to the defendant's backyard gate is approximately 50 feet. Investigator sprayed blue star inside the defendant's backyard, which had a positive reaction to the possibility of human blood. A presumptive test was conducted on the grass, and the grass had a positive test for human blood.

Investigator sprayed the back door knob of the victim's residence with blue star, which had a positive reaction to the possibility of human blood. One of the samples investigator submitted was a single blade of grass collected at approximately the halfway point between whiteeners and Maxwell's backyard gate. So that's that empty space, right?

It's the empty space between the houses. As you can see, this is not a dirt backyard, this is not, I mean, there is a hybrid mixture of grass and weeds, but there is what's described as a trail from Lauren's back door, which is here, the red back door. All the way over to the backyard gate of Maxwell and Hills.

So there is a trail of blood, and at the halfway point is a single blade of grass that they collect and they submit. Now, one blade of grass. One blade of grass.

Even though we have a trail. Correct. Okay.

Yes. So that's going to have some relevance. Who makes that?

Do we even know if there's a lead investigator? Who makes that decision that we're just going to submit one blade of grass? No idea.

And here's the other thing. Were more blades of grass submitted? Well, we don't know.

I mean, there's a discovery packet, and I don't want to get jumped too far ahead, but there's a discovery packet that in theory would have indicated everything. I mean, I have read nothing that says anything to the contrary, outside of one blade of grass was collected. Now, so on July 24th, 2019, the lab results came back from the items that were collected from Maxwell's home on July 11th search.

Now, going back, that is the one where they three of them were swabs, one of which was from a charcoal lighter fluid bottle. So you had the three swabs, you had the cloth from the love seat and the half towel. So those items come back.

So the presumptive positive results at the scene could not be confirmed by a lab analysis. The lab stated, quote, there was insufficient sample quantity for further serological analysis. However, the sample quantity may be sufficient for future DNA analysis, and that's the end of the quote.

This statement was in regards to the two four of the five items submitted. So the three swabs and the fabric from the love seat, that's what those are referring to. The fifth item, the half towel tested negative for human blood.

So in essence, the four samples, four of the five samples weren't sufficient enough to test. They could have tested for DNA. We'll go into that later.

But in short, there's no confirmation of human blood. The presumptive test says yes, it's human blood. But again, the presumptive test is just that.

On that last item. Yeah, well, no, on all of the items. All of these items tested presumptive positive for human blood.

But again, that is something at the crime scene, there's no lab component for that to confirm that, right? So, here's where things get even a little bit crazy, so a further issue from this analysis. We've talked about the bottle of charcoal lighter fluid that tested positive for blood.

Remember that? Yeah. Okay.

So the fifth item, right? Well, that was one of the items. One of the items.

One of five. That was one of the swabs. Okay, the actual charcoal lighter fluid bottle was never even tested.

The blood reference on the bottle of charcoal lighter fluid was from a drop of what was believed to be blood on the floor in the pantry where the lighter fluid bottle was located. So when we get into the arrest warrants, we're going to show more relevancy into that statement. But in short, there was no blood on a bottle of charcoal lighter fluid in Eric Maxwell's house.

There was a drop of what they believed to be blood on the pantry where the charcoal lighter fluid bottle was found. But that sample, again, was too insufficient. So it tested presumptive positive for blood, but the lab showed that it was it could not confirm it because the sample size was too small.

Gotcha. Okay. So at this point, investigators are still looking still investigating.

So sometime in between July 24th and July 31st, investigators now possibly turn their attention to a person. I only know as Gary. That's the only name I can see.

Gary was interviewed. He also submitted to a polygraph exam on or about July 31st. At some point in their interviews with this guy, Gary, investigators learned that Lauren at some point had, quote, picked up a vagrant and later he would peak in her window.

He thinks she being Lauren called the police on the man because she found him in her living room and he would not leave, end quote. So on or about August 1st, 2019, it's believed that the home of Gary was searched. Here, investigators collected seven swabs, presumably of biological evidence.

The home was described as being recently abandoned and on August 5th of 2019, investigators traveled some four-hour south to Austin, Texas. There, they seize what's described as a person of interest. That's the only reference I have.

It's a person of interest. They seize the truck of a person of interest and search that truck. In that search, investigators collected nine blood and or DNA sample swabs and a white t-shirt with blood and soot on it.

Hmm, all right. This Gary guy is not done though. So on August 7th, investigators have Gary make as what's described as a cold call.

The context of the cold call is unknown but what a cold call is is it's a tactic. It's a ruse used by law enforcement to elicit a statement, right? We would do it like in the narcotics.

Yeah. We would want to know, okay, is the dope in the house? Well, we would have the informant call say, hey, I'm coming by.

They got up, pick it up. Is it there? Yeah.

And then instead of the informant going, it'd be a SWAT team going, right? So that's an example of a cold call. And that's what they're having Gary.

This Gary did. I got this Gary guy doing this now. I don't even know anything about Gary.

Almost six weeks after the murder, investigators again want to talk to Eric Maxwell and Ashley Hill. And again, they agree. They both came in for a voluntary interview.

And again, this is in August. At the conclusion of those interviews, investigators asked to speak with Maxwell in a few weeks. They said it for September, September 6, 2019.

I wanted to do this one at the Texas Department of Public Safety Office Indicator. So they get that interview scheduled, but they interviewed him one more time in between on August 19th. I don't know the context or what was learned in that interview.

But what I want to do is go back. So we talked about the single blade of grass, right? This is an ongoing investigation.

There's a lot of twists and turns in this. You know, we've got evidence being analyzed. We've got other suspects being talked to.

We've got search warrants. But we have the single blade of grass. On August 30th of 2019, pure gold forensics.

Almost two months. Almost two months. So pure gold forensics is an offsite lab contracted by the Wise County Sheriff's Office.

They're offsite. I believe they're in California. It's safe to say that Wise County pays them for this service.

I know that I believe Barry Green had tried to find a invoice that would match up with this. I don't know that he found one that directly correlated. There were some invoices between Wise County and pure pure gold forensics.

Pure gold on August 30th provides this report to the investigators. The single blade of grass did in fact contain the DNA of Lauren. But it also contained the DNA of at least one other person.

However, the DNA sample of the second person was too small or insufficient to create a profile. That's not all. You remember the smoke detectors?

Yep. So the results from the three smoke detectors and the batteries also came back. Lauren, she was listed as the major contributor of DNA on the smoke detectors and batteries.

So it's safe to say that she had moved them, opened them, you know, when the batteries start going low and they start beeping at some point, she was the primary person who had touched those smoke detectors and those batteries. On five of the six items, the DNA samples or the DNA sample was too small to compare if there was any other person, okay? So there was other DNA, other profile style things on the on the smoke detectors and the battery, but again, that sample size was too small.

They just know Lauren. They know there's something else present, but not enough. However, the sixth item, this is what they call battery number two.

On the sixth item, it did contain a sufficient amount to create a DNA profile. On this item though, battery two, smoke detector battery two, Maxwell Hill and the unknown person of interest, according to pure gold forensics, quote, were absolutely excluded in quote as contributors. The DNA profile found on battery two was consistent with a known female contributor.

These seem to be, these batteries were important, these smoke detectors were important, right? On September 4th of 2019, investigators obtained a response for Eric Maxwell. All right, you okay?

One, charging him with capital murder, the other two were arson warrants. The arson who would have been the victims in this were the neighbors who called 9-1-1. So two arson warrants, one capital murder warrant.

They don't tell anyone. If you remember, they interviewed Maxwell and Hill back in August, and they said, hey, can you come in here on September 6th so we can talk with you? He's been cooperative as far as we know every other time.

So he agrees. He shows up to the DPS Decatur office, goes in, again, claiming his innocence. I believe it was in this interview.

He says, hey, the DNA is going to show I didn't have anything to do with this. So he goes there on what would have been a voluntary or a consensual interview. He is not in custody.

He is free to leave whenever he wants to. He could get up and walk out at any point during this investigation. There's a reason why the investigators are going to do this.

I mean, reading a Miranda warning to somebody can create a barrier to an interrogation. I mean, there are certain delivery styles and things like that, but it's still nonetheless a barrier. So they bring them in under the ruse because you don't have to say a word, because they don't have to, and you tell them.

And they want you to, yeah, feel free. Yes. So they bring him, speak from your heart.

Speak from your heart. They ask him, hey, come in on September 6th and let's talk about this. And he does.

And he again says, I didn't do this. I have nothing to do with this. So he gets up and walks out.

And when he gets up and walks out, he gets in his car. He pulls out of that DPS office and they pull him over. Felony traffic stop.

Got the guns pointed out. A motor in a mile of the car. And Eric Maxwell, Eric Maxwell, is placed under arrest for Capitol murder, Lauren Whitener, and two counts of arson.

I think we need to end it here. Because the case continues even further. There's more to the story.

There's more things that come up. So in episode 9 of the Signal 51 Chronicles, we're going to conclude this story. We're going to let the viewers, listeners know what happened, how this thing turns out.

All right. Thank you, Jake, more good stuff. And please do tune in for episode 9.

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All right. See you next time. Yeah, next week.

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