On Patrol (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)

0:00One night in March of 1997, a man sat inside of his car outside of the Higginson, Arkansas, police station, staring down at this muddy black plastic case. So a few days earlier, a local police officer had been murdered here. And so far, no one could figure out who did it. The police were asking all around town for information, but it was one dead end after another. But now, this man, who had recently come into possession of this case, he knew that what was inside of this thing would solve the murder. But before we get into today's story, if you're a fan of the Strange, Dark, and Mysterious delivered in story format, then you've come to the right place because that's all we do.

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2:47Early in the morning on March 14, 1997, a 39-year-old man named Danny Longstreet woke up to his alarm clock in the town of Higginson, Arkansas. Danny reached over and turned the alarm off before it woke his wife Mary up, who was sleeping right next to him. And then, as quietly as he could, he got out of bed and walked over to his closet, and he got dressed in his uniform, which was a police uniform. So Danny was one of just two full-time police officers in Higginson, which was tiny. It had a population of just barely over 300. He joined the force less than a year ago after spending 20 years in the army.

3:20And so far, he loved it. Danny really cared about his community and felt good about, you know, keeping people safe. Now, there wasn't a lot of crime in Higginson, so his shifts were usually pretty slow, especially this early in the morning. And then when anything did happen, it almost always was pretty minor and tended to involve the same few people every time. And so after getting dressed, Danny left his room and he headed towards the kitchen, being careful to be quiet as he made his way through the house so he didn't wake up his three daughters. Once he got there, he ate a quick breakfast, and then when the clock hit 3.20 a.m., he cleaned his dishes, grabbed his jacket, and he headed out the door to start the day.

3:58A little over an hour later, around 4.30 a.m., Danny drove his patrol car down Highway 11, which was the main road that ran through town. It was still dark, and just like always, his shift so far had been very quiet. He'd driven around a bit and run registration checks on a few cars. The only vaguely exciting thing was that one of the plates he'd checked wasn't actually registered to the car it was on. But the car was gone by the time he had the information, so he'd just written down the plate number to look into it later. Now, up ahead, he could see that some lights were on in this roadside cafe, and he knew it was his friend Hazel Riley, who always worked the morning shift at this cafe.

4:36And so when Danny passed by, he slowed down and he flashed his lights as a greeting. And through the window, he could see Hazel look up and wave hello. After that, Danny drove a few blocks further down the road, and he stopped at the corner of Highway 11 and Baker Street. There was a local school bus stop there, and lately there had been reports of people passing the bus illegally. So Danny wanted to wait there and see if that happened. And so Danny pulled off the road, and he parked in a vacant lot right by the intersection, and then he cut the engine. And he was still sitting there almost an hour later when around 5.20 a.m.

5:10out of the corner of his eye, he noticed something move outside the passenger window. He turned and he saw a figure standing in the darkness right next to his car. And they suddenly raised a handgun. Seconds later, that cafe worker, Hazel Riley, was startled by the sound of three loud popping noises coming from somewhere off in the distance. She wasn't sure if it was a car backfiring or if they were gunshots. So she went outside to see what was going on. And when she squinted down the dark road, she could just barely make out Danny's patrol car, sitting at an intersection a few blocks away. And Hazel was relieved because now she could go tell Danny what she heard in case that was gunfire.

5:53You know, she would want Danny to go investigate. However, when Hazel left her cafe and actually reached Danny's car and saw what was inside, she just started screaming.

6:07A couple hours later, around 7.30 a.m., Sergeant J.R. Howard of the Arkansas State Police pulled into the lot at the corner of Highway 11 and Baker Street. The Higginson Police Department only had two full-time officers, and one of them, Officer Danny Longstreet, had just been found shot to death in his patrol car. So the county sheriff's department and state police had naturally joined the case, and now Sergeant Howard had been named as the lead investigator. Howard had been surprised when he got the call. He lived in the next town over, and he knew that this town, Higginson, did not have a lot of crime.

6:41So the idea that a police officer would be shot to death, I mean, that was huge news. And Howard knew that because of that, he was going to be under a lot of pressure to solve this case and quick. Now, as Howard got out of his car, the sun was just starting to come up, so it was still pretty dark. By this point, most of the lot was roped off with police tape, and a forensics team was already moving around Danny's patrol car, taking photos. Over by the tape perimeter, Howard saw there was a single uniformed officer trying their best to hold back a crowd of locals that had gathered there to see what was going on.

7:14Howard walked over to that officer and pulled him aside to get an update, and the officer told him that there were a few witnesses who had heard three gunshots, or what they thought were gunshots, at 5.20 that morning, but no one had seen who had fired them. A local woman had eventually found Danny in his parked patrol car, and by the time paramedics had arrived, he was already dead. Howard thanked the officer, who went back to crowd control, and Howard himself walked over to the patrol car, and he shined his flashlight through the passenger side window, which was totally shattered, presumably from the gunshots.

7:46Inside the car, Danny was slumped over in the driver's seat, and his chest was completely soaked in blood. There was glass all over the passenger seat, which made it seem like the window had exploded inwards, which meant that very likely Danny had been shot from someone standing outside the car. And to Howard, I mean, this was pretty disappointing, because if the killer had been standing outside and fired the gun, well, it was unlikely they'd left fingerprints or DNA anywhere on the vehicle. But this also gave Howard a theory that this murder almost certainly had something to do with the fact that Danny was a police officer, since obviously he was ambushed while he was just sitting here in his patrol car.

8:25Now, the violent crime rate in Higginson was basically zero, so it was unlikely that Danny, as a cop here, had ever interacted with a serious criminal. But this was a very insular community where about half of all households own firearms, So personal disputes could potentially get out of hand really quickly. Danny could have arrested someone or even just given them a ticket, and they might have come back for revenge. As Howard continued looking around the inside of the car with his flashlight, the beam eventually hit something shiny and metallic on the floor of the passenger side. So he opened up the door, and he took a closer look, and he saw it was a shell casing.

9:06Howard asked a nearby technician to photograph and collect the casing, And then he went around to the driver's side door, and he opened it up to get a better look at Danny. And what he could see was that Danny had been shot in the chest and also the arm. And when he examined Danny's arm wound, he noticed something written on Danny's palm. And so Howard opened up Danny's hand, and he shined the light on it to get a better look. And he saw there were a whole bunch of numbers and letters written on Danny's skin. And as he looked at it, Howard realized it was a license plate number.

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13:05Around 10.30 a.m. on March 14, 1997, so about five hours after police officer Danny Longstreet was killed, Sergeant J.R. Howard parked his cruiser in front of a house not far away from the crime scene. One of Howard's officers had run a check on the license plate number that was written on Danny's hand, and it was registered to this address, which was the home of a man named Dale Miller. So, while the other investigators were canvassing the neighborhood and speaking to Danny's family and co-workers, Howard was here to speak to Dale. Howard didn't know yet if Dale and Danny even knew each other, but the fact that Dale's license plate was on a murdered man's hand immediately made Dale their primary suspect.

13:46Now, as Howard got out and began to approach the house, he could see there weren't any cars in Dale's driveway. However, his garage was closed, so he couldn't be sure if maybe the car he was looking for was in the garage or not. But he went up and he knocked on the front door, and a few seconds later, a man answered, looking very confused to see a state police officer on his front steps. Howard asked the man if he was Dale Miller, and when the man said yes, Howard explained that Officer Danny Longstreet had been murdered that morning, and they'd found a license plate number written on his hand that was registered to Dale.

14:21And Dale, when he heard this, just looked completely shocked. Howard proceeded to read the plate number out loud, just sort of to confirm that this was in fact Dale's plate. And after Dale heard it, he said that, yes, that was the plate number for his old truck. But he said he didn't even drive that truck anymore. It was broken down and had been sitting at his sister's house for months. But then Dale's eyes narrowed as if something had just occurred to him. And he said now that he thought about it, he had caught his sister's friend, this guy Justin Swain, removing the plates from his old truck a few weeks ago.

14:55Dale said he'd confronted Justin about it. But Justin had said he just needed to borrow the plates so he could do an errand. Because apparently his tags were expired and he'd already gotten so many tickets he couldn't afford another. Dale said he had told Justin not to take the plates, but Justin did anyway. And as far as Dale knew, Justin very likely still had them. Now, Howard knew it was possible that this was all a big lie and that Dale was just trying to point the finger at somebody else here. But Howard wasn't sure yet, so he followed up by asking Dale where he was at 5.20 that morning when Danny was shot.

15:29And Dale immediately said he was home asleep and that his wife, who wasn't home at the moment, she could confirm it. Howard thanked him and made a note to follow up with Dale's wife at some point. But more than anything at this point, what Howard wanted to do was follow up on Dale's story about Justin Swain and the borrowed license plates. Just before dawn the next morning, Sergeant Howard pulled up outside of Justin Swain's house, and two other police cars parked right behind him. So Howard, the day before, after speaking with Dale and learning about Justin, well, he'd spent the entire afternoon looking into Justin.

16:05And he'd found out that Justin had a long history with Danny Longstreet. Danny had cited him several times for having an expired registration and for using fake tags. And during one of those stops a couple of months ago, Danny had actually arrested Justin on an outstanding warrant and took Justin to the county jail for the night. Howard had talked to the Higginson police chief, who had immediately recognized Justin Swain's name, and thought it was definitely possible that Justin could have had a vendetta against Danny. So Justin seemed like a really solid suspect, which for Howard was a relief because he was also their only suspect.

16:41Dale's wife had confirmed his alibi, and Howard couldn't find any motive or personal connection between him and Danny, so he was ruled out. Howard had also looked into Danny's wife very briefly, since generally speaking, spouses are usually one of the first suspects in a murder case. But she had an alibi that Howard had confirmed, so she too had been ruled out. And beyond that, Howard had not been able to find anyone else who had any problems with Danny. He seemed to be very well-liked in his community, and aside from his encounters with Justin, his police logs hadn't revealed anything significant.

17:16Howard was still waiting for forensics to come back on that shell casing that he had found in Danny's car, but there were a ton of gun owners in Arkansas, and there was no firearm registry, so Howard doubted that the results from the forensics team would give him much to work with. So, with Justin Swain as their best and only lead, Howard was at his property with a group of officers to not just speak to Justin, but also search his property for evidence. Now, as Howard got out of his car and walked up the driveway, he saw a truck parked outside the house. And the license plates didn't match the ones that had supposedly been stolen from Dale.

17:54But that didn't really tell him much. Dale could have been lying about Justin taking the plates, or Justin could have already switched them back out for different ones. But just then, a man came out of the house and immediately told the officers to get off his property. But Howard completely ignored this and just asked the man if he was Justin Swain. And the man, who clearly was agitated but didn't really know what he was going to do here, he just nodded and stared at Howard. And then Howard explained that, well, we're here because we're investigating Danny Longstreet's murder. And at that, Justin seemed to get really upset.

18:28And he said he had heard about the murder, and he knew the police were going to come here and try to pin it on him. Now, Howard could see. Clearly, Justin is very mad. He's mad people are here. He's mad he's getting blamed. And so Howard didn't want the situation to escalate. You know, Justin got too worked up. He might not want to talk here. So Howard told Justin that he was not here to pin anything on him. All he wanted was just a conversation. And eventually, with a little bit more coaxing, Justin agreed to go sit in Howard's car away from the other officers so they could just have a true one-on-one conversation.

19:03And once they were in the car, Howard started by asking Justin about his history with Danny. And Justin, he immediately got red in the face as he explained that Danny was constantly targeting him and pulling him over. And so Howard just listened for a second as Justin ranted. And then eventually, when he was done, Howard told Justin about the license plate number they had found and what Dale had said about it, that basically Justin had stolen, borrowed these plates, and that at this point they believed Justin had these plates. And at this, Justin went from being defensive and angry to suddenly seeming really nervous.

19:41He admitted he had taken Dale's license plates. That was true. But he said he had put them back on that old truck at Dale's sister's house three days ago, which was two days before Danny was killed. He swore he had not even seen Danny all week, and he had no idea why that plate number would be written on Danny's hand. But Howard just didn't believe Justin. It was pretty clear that Justin really did not like Danny, and the more they spoke, the guiltier Justin seemed. So he asked Justin if there was anyone else he could talk to that could confirm any of Justin's story. A few minutes later, Howard was inside of Justin's house, sitting at his kitchen table with Justin's girlfriend, Amanda.

20:24Justin was waiting outside while Sergeant Howard spoke to his girlfriend, who Justin said would verify his story. And his girlfriend, Amanda, she seemed really calm, but she also was watching Howard really carefully. Howard asked Amanda if she could account for Justin's whereabouts at 5.20 a.m. on March 14th. And after a few seconds of hesitation, Amanda said no. She said that the night before the murder, she and Justin had gotten into a big fight. She said they had gone to bed around midnight, and when Amanda woke up around 5 the next morning, Justin was gone. And he hadn't come home until 7.30 a.m.

21:03Howard tried to keep his expression neutral when he heard this, but, I mean, inside, he's thinking, this does not look good for Justin. Not only did he have a motive to kill Danny, I mean, clearly he did not like the guy, and they were like feuding almost. It was also now clear he had more than enough time to actually commit the crime. Two days later, on the morning of March 17th, Sergeant Howard stood with some other officers at the same intersection where Danny had been killed while looking down the empty street. The police had set up a checkpoint here and were stopping every driver that came through to just ask them if they knew anything that might be helpful to the investigation.

21:40But so far, that morning had been really slow, just like the last two whole days of this investigation. Howard had been hoping to find more proof that Justin was involved in Danny's murder. But it turned out he did have an alibi after all. One of his friends had confirmed that he'd been at her house from around 4 to 7 a.m. on the morning Danny was killed. And the stolen license plates, or borrowed license plates, had been put back on the old truck at Dale's sister's house, just as Justin had said. So it was a total mystery why Danny had written that plate number on his hand on the morning he was killed.

22:18I mean, the whole thing was so weird, and Justin seemed like he was going to be the guy, but Justin's alibi now meant that Howard really had to move on and cast a wider net for suspects, hence why they were out here asking random people if they had information. But that said, Howard knew that in a small town like this one, often the best source of information was the rumor mill. If Danny had any potential enemies or if anyone saw anything the night he was killed, someone in this town would know about it. And so that's what they were gambling on with this checkpoint. I mean, it was a long shot, and they so far hadn't gotten any helpful information from it yet.

22:56But with no other good leads and very little evidence, Howard was sort of desperate. And so here he was, out here hoping for the best. Just then, another car was coming down the road, and as one of the other officers flagged them down to speak to them, Howard was holding on to hope that maybe this car would be different. Maybe these people would know something. The car came to a stop in front of the officers, and the man in the driver's seat rolled down the window. Howard watched the other officer explain to this man that they were simply looking for information in Danny Longstreet's murder. And Howard, he looked at the driver as this officer was explaining this, and he could see the driver seemed really nervous.