Episode 366

30:19Danielle seemed reluctant to implicate Jared, 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. Jerry's the last one that's seen her. How do you know that? Because, I mean, she left his house with the baby. Okay. For him to have gotten, I mean, the baby was with him when we seen him. And so he had to have been the last person to see her because of where to get baby from. Despite Danielle's insistence that she didn't know what happened to Megan, investigators clearly weren't convinced as they continued to press her.

31:04Did anyone threaten you at all not to say anything? No. No one threatened you? You're not scared about getting? No, I didn't see her. Everybody making this, I don't know, didn't see her. After she left, I wish I didn't have. 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.

32:02They often make crimes harder to solve, not easier. The problem is we have to verify everything that people tell us. Right. So we're still a lot of the problem is the rumor mill around town is crazy. Everyone thinks that everyone was involved and did stuff. Eventually, the rumors surrounding Megan's murder made their way into the local jail where Jarrett was being held. Before long, another inmate, someone who actually knew Megan, asked to speak with investigators. All right. What's your first and last name, sir? Corey Cardin. I got a request from you saying that you have some information on Megan's disappearance.

32:47Well, for starters, I know Megan from the streets and stuff. I know who she hangs out with. I actually seen her several days before I got locked up, which was in February. Who do you think is our suspect? Well, I mean, I don't like pointing fingers without reasonable suspect, but I mean, I know who she used to hang out with. I know who she was real close to. Who would that be? That would be Ariana. Why do you think she would do something? Well, I know in the past she's had problems with her before. Like I said, if anything were to happen to Megan, and I would think that Ariana would definitely know about it.

33:30You think she would actually do something to her? She's crazy. She's pretty crazy. Inmate Corey pointed the finger at another friend of Megan's, a woman named Ariana. 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. What have you been hearing here? Well, I had actually talked to somebody earlier who knows Megan too, hangs out with Megan, or used to anyways. And she said that she heard problems between the two, the boyfriend of the baby daddy, Jarek.

34:22Is it Jarek or Jarek? It's Jarek. Yeah, between Jarrett and them, they argue all the time. It was no secret that Jarrett had been abusive towards Megan. And 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. What do you think happened, Shaggy? I think Jarrett, in my head, I got to it in. I think he might have put his hand on it too hard at that time. and he might have, I think he hurt him and just hurt too bad and couldn't do nothing about it. And he might have, you know what I'm saying?

35:01I don't know. I don't know. He don't know. Another name investigators kept hearing was an unusual one. You know the one. Falcon. Falcon Joyner, to be precise. Falcon was a young man who was close to Jared. They'd been friends and he'd been with them on the night that Megan disappeared.

35:51this bitch and all this threw an axe in the back of Jared. Jared threw an axe in the back of... So he picked up Jared at Jared's trailer down the road? Okay. All right, and he threw an axe in the back of the truck. And he told Falcon, I'll give you$40. You're going to Aiken anyway. Just run me to her house. Drop me off at her house. And Falcon's like, oh, I don't know about that. He's like, come on, I'll give you$40. So Falcon ended up taking it. Eventually, investigators started hearing that Falcon may have helped Jared carry out the murder. or at the very least gave Jarrett a ride to the place where Megan was killed.

36:27Supposedly, Falcon was paid$40 for that ride. After that, he said he finally pulled up again at Jarrett's house. He said Jarrett was acting all weird. On Saturday? Friday, Monday. He said Jarrett was acting all weird and shit, was asking crazy questions, and was like, you think she, he was trying to put like she overdosed or some shit. You think she overdosed on something, boy, or something like that because she left me with the kids, said she was going out? Like, why would that automatically be the first thing you're trying to throw out there unless you're trying to come up with a story? Okay.

37:03Then Falcon's like, he's like, boy, I honestly think Jerry killed her. He said, because after that, he was like, boy, the police don't think I killed her. And Falcon's like, I don't even understand why he would even say that. Yeah. But then Falcon, I feel like Falcon's involved in it. He's just trying to separate himself, make it seem like he did everything that he did. Like every other name that surfaced in this investigation, the detectives eventually tracked Falcon down and questioned him.

37:36Sorry, I had to. I couldn't help myself. Here's the real interview. Everybody calls me Falcon. Falcon's my middle name. All right, Falcon. Yes, sir. We know everything that went on the other night. Everything. I know everything because people with consciences are talking. And your name's in the middle of all this. And I know. And it's not matching up. Some of what you told us is true. Some of it isn't. And I can prove it. You have, you know more than you told me the other day. Investigators immediately took a hard line with Falcon, which made their theory pretty clear. They believed Jarrett had committed the murder and that Falcon had either helped him or at the very least knew some details about what had happened.

38:24Every bit of what I told you the other night is the truth as far as my timeline goes. No, I know your timeline. You know exactly what happened. We know exactly what happened. No, I know what I've heard happen. I mean, I've been told throughout. No, I know that he told you. Oh, I never talked. I swear, Alan, I'm telling you. Despite the investigator's certainty, Falcon maintained that Jarrett never confided in him about killing Megan. At 10, I believe it was 1055, he started blowing me up, calling me, calling me, calling me. I never once answered that phone for him, not that night at all. Okay.

39:03Okay. I assume what he was trying to do was he wanted an alibi or he wanted somebody to be there to verify, Hey, I'm sitting here with the baby. You know, don't know where Megan is. 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. I don't talk to him none that night at all. All right, Friday comes in. That's when he called me, and that's the first time I answered the phone. And I knew immediately that, you know, the way he was talking, and I could hear it in his voice. I said, something ain't right.

39:43You watch something, something ain't right. Something, something's going to, I don't know what he's done, but something's happened. Falcon also claimed that Jarrett had suddenly asked him to hide his firearms, one of which may have been the murder weapon, but Falcon refused. And he goes, he's just sitting there and he goes, yeah, I should probably do something with these guns, should I? Just like that. And I said, I mean, aren't you a felon? Be honest. I swear to God, on my kids, that's what I said. I said, aren't you a felon? 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?

40:23He never asked me. Or, you know, he just kind of looked at me like, I should probably get rid of these guns, ain't it? And I'm sitting there with the only vehicle, right? 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. What have you heard? 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 she died? And I said, well, 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.

41:14Well, beat her unconscious. And that he, while she was unconscious, took her and loaded her up, and wherever the 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. Even though Falcon 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. 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.

41:59So I'm letting you know. everybody who's involved and knows something and didn't tell us is going to pay. I've been trying to help all I can, but me and Megan were friends, man. I mean, I'm going to tell you that. I'll show you my messages with her. Do you want to see them? About how she was trying to, you know, and he was beating her ass. We know. Oh, we know all that. I told her. I'll show it to you. I said, man, he's not a good person, Megan. You need to get your kids to get out of here. Well, I would, but the motherfucker tried to burn my house down like he did yours. And I'm like, well, you know, I mean, you still need to, I can show it to you.

42:33I ain't got nothing to hide, man. That's it. Because, I mean, I haven't done anything, I swear to God, on everything, bro. If y 'all want to go look at my house or my shed, anything around there, y 'all welcome to go do it. I'll go with you, but it don't matter. Y 'all want my phone. Y 'all want to take pictures. Whatever y 'all want to do, I'm willing to help you. I don't got nothing to hide, bro. Ultimately, it 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. Megan was reported missing by a friend on Friday.

43:12Her friend repeated what was in the police report. So her friends have been sending me messages in where Megan is basically scared for her life. She said that her child's father had a gun, and if nobody contacted in the next 30 minutes to send the police because he killed her. I have those messages screenshotted. Megan was basically begging for help again. This missing persons report says she sent text messages on April 25th to a friend saying if they didn't hear from her in 30 minutes to call law enforcement and that her boyfriend was going to kill her. In a text message to her friend Grace, Megan wrote the following.

44:04Jarrett's about to kill me. If you don't hear from me in 30 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. And I asked if everything was okay, and she was crying, and she said that he was beating her. And I asked her if she wanted me to go ahead and call the police. She said no, that she would try to leave and get the baby and come to my house. And so I had to take sleeping medication to help me sleep at night, so I'd already taken it.

44:40So I told her I couldn't try just to get the baby to come to me. So I got up and I unlocked my door, turned on the porch light, and figured that she'd let herself in, as she's done so many times before. Okay, but she never did? She never showed up. 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.

45:20And as it turns out, they were about to get it. Because nearly everything that happened that night was caught on camera.

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47:32In late April of 2024, Megan Botaford vanished. Days later, her body was found inside a burned car on a remote road. Investigators questioned those 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, her boyfriend. Jarrett Davis. Megan Botaford was last heard from on Thursday, April the 25th, 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.

48:16The 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 warrant. Botaford was nowhere to be found, but her four month old baby was there unharmed. 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. So Thursday night when you got home from baseball and the stores and stuff, Drew and Megan had sex. She got mad. She left.

49:00Did she pack anything? Her car was state-packed full of stuff. Oh, really? Yeah, her car was state-packed full of stuff. So she had clothes and all that in her car? Yeah, she did always in her car. So she could leave in the car at any point in time? Yeah. 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. We ended up getting some text messages that Megan sent some of her friends. What in the world do you think that's about? I don't know. She was very dramatic.

49:36You can ask me if she was very dramatic. With everything, I don't know. So, at any point, did you have a gun to her head? No. Tell her you didn't have a gun. Oh. No. But no. No. You ain't even got a gun. No, I don't have a gun. Jarrett tried to explain away Megan's text message as her being overdramatic. 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 Jarrett had a big problem. Investigators had already gone through his phone and on it was a fitness app, one that tracked his movements on the night of the murder. What a dumbass.

50:23I'm good at tracking people on their phones and looking at health data, and that tells a lot about what someone does. And we got your health data for you that night. So around 10 p.m.-ish, give or take, Scott, you're doing a lot of walking from 10 to, I mean, for a good solid hour. I mean, a lot of walking where we're looking at over a mile and a half of distance covered. Like, not just making circles in the yard, but a lot of walking. Like, you walk down the road and things like that. Where would you have been going at that point? Walking where? Nowhere. Walking back from the shed to the house.

51:12Yeah. Here's the thing. I went through your health data for the whole day and analyzed it, and I can see the short distance, stuff like that. These are massive movements. This is not like you just walking to and from the shed or even walking to and from your parents, probably. This is like massive amounts of walking. Based on the data in Jarrett'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. Jarrett, what I want to know, I mean, I feel like there's more to it that you're just not telling us.

51:55And I just want to know, did something else happen between you and Megan? Did she do anything to you? No. This is our office. Those are like that I told other people. I mean, I'm telling you how everything is that happened that night. I got it, and I feel like you've told me a good bit. I just feel like we're leaving out just a little bit of key details because during some of this, all this walking was from 10 p.m.-ish to a little after 11. I don't think Megan's at the house at that time. I think Megan's already gone. It looks like you were walking back from Turnway Road and back to your house.

52:39You know where Turnray Road is? Yeah, that's where they found me. I mean, y 'all trying to say I went and put Megan there, and I didn't. I'm putting you there, because I believe we have some coordinates that put you at Turnray Road. 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. So we have your GPS data showing you there. We also have pinpoint data that shows you were there. And then conveniently, when those dots are plotted, I have your activity going the same distance from Turnway Road back to your house.

53:22Like on foot. So, I mean, we're not stupid. We know what happened, but this is your time to just tell us what happened. Explain why. What happened to make this happen? Listen to me. something happened that night she might have just pissed you off driving you nuts there's nothing like that here's the thing we know what happened we know what happened because i didn't do anything to her despite irrefutable evidence placing him at the scene jared insisted he had not hurt megan obviously investigators weren't buying it data doesn't lie and that's that's kind of where i'm So I think we're at the point where, you know, we know something happened.

54:07And you just, you want your story to stick, but it's just not sticking. That's what happened. I mean, we all know something happened. We just need to move on from that and figure out what happened and why so we can understand what happened. And we're going to figure this out. Nothing happened. Between me and her, nothing happened. When she left, when I was changing baby, she was well alive. she was still kicking, breathing mad, she was still alive she injured? I mean I'm no rocket scientist 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.

55:02How is all of this just conveniently adding up, but then something didn't happen? You know what I'm saying? Well, we were together all the time. We were together. 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. So you're going to tell your baby one day that you walked from Turnway Road where this was at, back to your house conveniently. I didn't walk from Turnway Road. I don't know why you're holding on to the story.

55:40There's nothing I'm holding on to. There's no question. There's no question. I didn't do anything to Megan that night at all. Did something happen to her before? No, when she left, she was fine. Did something accidentally happen? No, that's what I'm telling you. There's nothing that happened. Jarrett, something happened. Nothing happened. Between me and Megan, nothing happened. Something happened between her and somebody else that you know about. No. Okay, Jarrett, you're not, there's more to it and you're just not telling me. No, there's not. As this interview came to an end, investigators laid out pretty much every bit of evidence that proved Jarrett's guilt.

56:20But he never confessed. The last anyone heard from Megan was 950 And then we have your story And what was that message that was said at 950? I know what it said So you know what that said? Yeah What does it say? That I had a gun and I was going to kill her If you don't hear from her, call the law Yep, so 948, Jarrett's about to kill me If you don't hear from me in 30 minutes, call the law 642 Gemp Branch Road And then at 10 o 'clock we have you in that area where her vehicle's found. Jared, what happened? Nothing happened. That's the honest guy's truth. Nothing happened between me and Megan. Jared, we've talked to everyone.

57:03Your story does not match anyone else's. You're excluding some very key points. What are you excluding? Pretty much the time where Megan was killed. You're leaving that part out. I didn't kill her. That's what y 'all don't understand. I didn't kill her. What happened? How did she die? I don't know. Why would she tell someone you're about to kill her? And then she died that night. I don't know. Everything points to you. So, the only thing we can do is get an understanding on why. I didn't do it, though. That's the thing. Y 'all want to be me so bad. I don't. I just want it to be whoever did it.

57:48That's the thing. The problem is the solved point. towards you. Investigators wrapped up the interview and sent Jarrett back to his cell. But less than 24 hours later, after stewing in there and realizing how obvious it all was, he asked to speak with them again. When this follow-up interview started, Jarrett seemed ready to confess. So you can get back in the house, come tell me what happens. just still arguing. And when we left that night to go up to the gas station, she was still alive. Okay. When I turned around, we went back to the house. We were still out there by the cars. And I had a.38.

58:31Okay. And whenever we was arguing, I was going to shoot myself. And then we was arguing. She grabbed it. When she grabbed it, she pulled it to herself. What about me? And it went off. Okay. And when it went off, it just all happened so fast. I understand. Well, I told you the other day, I felt like something happened. It wasn't like I tried to kill her or nothing. When she grabbed it and pulled it to her, it just went off. Okay. And then there was so much blood, she didn't have pulse. Jarrett changed his story. He now claimed that during an argument, he pulled out a gun while Megan was sitting in her car.

59:11According 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.

59:40Nothing's going to say, what about me? And then it just went off. Gotcha. It just went limp. Had you threatened to shoot yourself or anything or harm yourself? Yeah. So I was just trying to get her to leave. 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, Jarrett. Ya fuck. What did you do?

1:00:24I grabbed her and I started yelling and there was so much blood. And I checked her pulse and she didn't have pulse. I went to go take her to the hospital. But she was already gone. All right. Did you take her out of the driver's seat or out of the post? How'd you take her to the hospital? I just scoot over. You just kind of slid her? Slead inside her? Yeah. Okay. Where was the baby at then? Did you leave the baby home panicky or did you? No, the baby was already in the seat from what's going on earlier. I got you. So she hadn't even taken the baby out of the seat in the car. Okay. 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 arrest warrants from sleds say Davis shot and murdered Megan on April 25th in the Gents Branch Road area.

1:01:36Afterwards, he set her car on fire with her inside. 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 in the hopes that those items and video evidence could provide some clue as to what happened to Botiford. As part of Jarrett's arrest and accompanying search warrant, deputies sees 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.

1:02:14It recorded much of what happened on the day Megan was killed. And in yet another interview, investigators confronted Jarrett with what the footage revealed. I've been working on this non-stop, and I appreciate you manning up and telling us what you did tell us. We've just got a couple inconsistencies we need to clear up. What you told us don't match. You want to just get it off your chest and tell us what really happened. And I can show you the video. What do you mean? I would. and you chasing her down, dragging her lifeless body back to the car and fumbling and trying to get it in the car. You can shoot her in the car like you said.

1:03:00The footage showed a violent confrontation between Jarrett and Megan. Then at around 10 p.m., 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. Do you want to tell me what really happened? Well, the gun did an accident to get off. That wasn't an accident. That honestly wasn't an accident. You chased her down with a gun. I mean, she knew you had that gun because she came out that door, saw that gun, and took off running.

1:03:55She got off running because I had her keys. She was going to the neighbor's house. Once again, Jarrett tried to spin this story as an accident. But, come on. Who's going to buy that? People that are dumb think you're dumb, too. Jarrett is living proof. We were walking back. She was yelling, and I was walking back, and then I turned to her, and I just went and put my hands up. I just went to really grab her face so she'd chill out, and it got one off. How long did it take her back? To me, it looked like instantly. Ain't no sounds, no nothing? And then she's... So she never saw it coming. 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.

1:04:55Why didn't you call us? I'm scared, honestly. I mean, if it's an accident, I mean... Well, I mean, not at all, honestly, but I was scared. Changed your clothes on how many times? done the black ski mask and black clothes. What was all that for? To get back to the house and people not recognize you? Yeah. And you still want to say that you just lit some clothes and didn't use an accelerant? Because, mind you, sled arson has completed their report on the findings of the vehicle and the ground and everything else. So what did you use to set the fire? Oil. Oil. Between the phone data, the camera footage, the autopsy, in the arson report, Jarrett's story had fallen apart.

1:05:45But one important question remained. Was anyone else involved? And did Jarrett have help covering it up? Now, after you get back, does Earl and Daniel come over there? Yeah. All that's true, too. All that's true. Do you tell anybody? I don't know so. Eventually, investigators determine 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 found out if there was anybody else involved. So, you know, the investigation is still open. But all I can say is that, you know, with everything that we have ran down, we have done alibis in everyone, I don't believe anyone else is outstanding, I think.

1:06:40Everyone involved is in custody and charged. Unless we find some evidence that proves that someone else is involved, but there is nothing that is indicating. And like, you know, people have thrown out Falcon Joyner, all these other people. You know, I have ran down everyone's whereabouts, everything like that, and no one is showing to be involved. As of right now, I do not have any evidence of anyone else being involved. Ultimately, investigators concluded that Jarrett had acted alone. And he ended up facing the consequences of his actions alone as well. First at six, a Bamberg County man is charged with the murder of his girlfriend, a 25-year-old mother of three who was reported missing last week after sending an ominous text to a friend.

1:07:25Jarrett Davis is facing multiple charges, including murder and desecration of human remains. 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, Jarrett Davis, is now being charged with her murder. Arrest warrants allege that Davis shot and killed Bodiford 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 poles. That discovery less than two miles from Bodiford's last known location on Gens Branch Road.

1:08:04Jarrett 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 43 years in prison and could potentially be released in his early 70s. 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.

1:08:49Because in their eyes, what happened to Megan should never happen at all. They believed Jarrett was responsible, but they also believed this could have been prevented if the system had done its job. We're tired of it. We're tired of burying our kids and our friends' kids. And it's time for the law to do their job. The law better do their job because this community is fed up. The murder of Megan Botaford 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.

1:09:34and 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 him up? Or were they having a sale at Dunkin' Donuts that day? Another warrant accuses Davis of illegally possessing a shotgun based on his prior criminal history as a convicted felon. If he would have been locked up the way that he was supposed to be the first time, maybe he wouldn't have even gotten a chance to get this far with her. Plus, the many warning signs were there.

1:10:19Megan 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 in my book. Stephanie Nickens, Botiford's cousin, says she feels like law enforcement failed in its duty to protect Botiford.

1:11:10It could have been prevented. It could have. It definitely could have. My cousin, she called his probation officer. She called police multiple times. It's just different occasions where she reached out for help. Nickin says that she hopes Botterford 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.

1:11:48This 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. We'll build more. We have the technology. Jarrett Davis pulled the trigger. He dragged the body. He set it on fire. All of this is true.

1:12:43But 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, she was right.

1:13:19That does it for this episode of Sword and Scale. If you are a victim of domestic violence, do not wait. Call 1-800-799-7233. That's 1-800-799-7233. Or you can text the word BEGIN to 88788. Again, text the word BEGIN to 88788. Please, stay safe.

1:14:22Well, that does it for yet another one. Another episode of Sword and Scale. Yep, 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? Head on over to swordandscale.com and throw a few bucks our way, won't you? Quit being a communist.

1:14:53Shit costs money in this world. Finite resources. It's just the way it is.

1:15:14I'm out.

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