NY NY - Heidi Allen, 18, New Haven, 3 April 1994

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The more I find out about this case, the more shocking it is to me. A Syracuse reporter connects a bunch of dots, mainly people, in the case. First I've heard about RM, and his having been questioned by investigators. They questioned his 3 1/2 y/o son, which is another bombshell not released to the public until now.

The Auburn prison connection I wasn't aware of, either. No wonder why some people wanted Heidi killed. Such a shame

 
Falling Down said:
The more I find out about this case, the more shocking it is to me. A Syracuse reporter connects a bunch of dots, mainly people, in the case. First I've heard about RM, and his having been questioned by investigators. They questioned his 3 1/2 y/o son, which is another bombshell not released to the public until now.

The Auburn prison connection I wasn't aware of, either. No wonder why some people wanted Heidi killed. Such a shame

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There will be justice for Heidi and Gary one day.
 

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The Assistant District attorney Donald Dodd, who prosecuted the Thibodeaus wrote on this file dated 12/13/84 the following: ''This file is NOT copied for defense attorneys''

Inside the file, There are two letters from Dr Murray S. Miron, a psychologist who has aided the FBI, U.S Marshals, Secret Service and the Royal Canadian Mounted police, among others. He was called upon to do a delicate interview of a 3 year old boy.

A witness, Brent Moore who was 3 and half, told his mother and his catholic charity counselor that he saw a police officer with black boots shoot Heidi Allen in the head, he also claimed to have witnessed the disposal of Heidi Allen's body. Miron stated he found the boys behavior consistent with post traumatic stress disorder, and that it is his professional opinion that boy's accounts of the events have sufficient credibility as to warrant further investigation. The boys father Richard is interviewed in the documentary, Police records show that the boy knew Heidi Allen before she disappeared, a statement from the boys mother read that around Christmas time before a visit with his father, Brent mentioned to his mother he saw Heidi Allen and that she gave his father some money. Brent also told her Heidi had a car that was long and red. Heidi's car is a red Pontiac station wagon, records also showed that when the boy was handed the photo of Heidi, he identified her by name.


Was this ever even followed up on? and why was this file purposely and illegally withheld from defense attorneys? Why was this file hidden from the public for 25 years?
 
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Murkywaters said:

kcpUDk5.png


The Assistant District attorney Donald Dodd, who prosecuted the Thibodeaus wrote on this file dated 12/13/84 the following: ''This file is NOT copied for defense attorneys''

Inside the file, There are two letters from Dr Murray S. Miron, a psychologist who has aided the FBI, U.S Marshals, Secret Service and the Royal Canadian Mounted police, among others. He was called upon to do a delicate interview of a 3 year old boy.

A witness, Brent Moore who was 3 and half, told his mother and his catholic charity counselor that he saw a police officer with black boots shoot Heidi Allen in the head, he also claimed to have witnessed the disposal of Heidi Allen's body. Miron stated he found the boys behavior consistent with post traumatic stress disorder, and that it is his professional opinion that boy's accounts of the events have sufficient credibility as to warrant further investigation. The boys father Richard is interviewed in the documentary, Police records show that the boy knew Heidi Allen before she disappeared, a statement from the boys mother read that around Christmas time before a visit with his father, Brent mentioned to his mother he saw Heidi Allen and that she gave his father some money. Brent also told her Heidi had a car that was long and red. Heidi's car is a red Pontiac station wagon, records also showed that when the boy was handed the photo of Heidi, he identified her by name.


Was this ever even followed up on? and why was this file purposely and illegally withheld from defense attorneys? Why was this file hidden from the public for 25 years?
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My take is the prosecutor's office was pushing hard for a conviction, and made efforts to with hold evidence in the case.

I think the father's words are telling, the guy appears to be denying any and all knowledge of knowing what happened to HA, and it strikes me as odd that he wouldn't know what his son had told the psychologist.
 
Episode 8: The Cabin In The Woods - Underdog Podcasts

OMG. The most recent episode of the podcast is even worse. It's about the cabin in the woods Heidi was allegedly buried under/near that Sheriff Reuel Todd infamously claimed ''never existed''

A little background...

Multiple people had come forward stating that Heidi was burned, dismembered and buried at a cabin in the woods at Rice Road in Mexico, NY. One individual, Megan Shaw alleges that Roger Steen confessed to her in 2010 that Heidi's body was hidden in a cabin in the woods. She says Steen even showed her a satellite image of the Cabin, which she was able to clearly see.

Sheriff Todd dismissed any notion of the existence of a cabin in the woods stating that the Oswego County Sheriff's Department conducted ground and air searches for a cabin in the woods but found none. ''There's no cabin," Todd said. "Never has been a cabin."

Well... Richard Haumann, an investigator for the Federal Public Defender's Office along with John O'Brien, a journalist decided to do a search of their own in woods, it wasn't long until they found not just one but TWO cabins in the woods matching the description of what Tonya Preist and Megan Shaw stated Steen told them. Three different cadaver dogs were brought to the scene who all alerted on the presence of human remains.

This is where things get really interesting/disgusting.

After the Oswego County Sheriff's Department refused to respond a call from O'Brien and Haumann, Lisa Peebles, Gary Thibodeau's public defender called the District Attorney Greg Oakes to report the discovery. Oakes met with Peebles at the site of where the cabin was found and then on the same afternoon sent an email to the Oswego County Sheriff's Department at 2:59 p.m stating the following.

''In participation for a motion from Gary Thibodeau to set aside his conviction, I'm trying to gather all of the information regarding last years investigation for a motion response. It is my understanding that members of the sheriff's department looked for the log cabin that was referenced by priest but did not find it. Would you please send me a copy of all records and reports relating to the ground/aerial search of the area described by Tonya Priest? I would like to show the court documents relating to the department's efforts.

That's right. Right after being made aware of a discovery of a Cabin in the woods that corroborates the statements made both Tonya Priest and Megan Shaw. His initial reaction was to prepare a motion to fight to keep Gary Thibodeau in prison.

https://ia801403.us.archive.org/23/items/heidi-ci-docs/Oakes email about CABIN.pdf Link to email here.
 
Peebles for the People – Podcast

The final episode of the ''Peebles for the People'' just dropped. I've been catching up on some of the previous episodes lately, and all i can say is WOW! Alex Peebles who is the son of Gary Thibodeau's public defender, did a phenomenal job in researching and piecing together all the twists and turns of this complex case. Even after Gary's death, I am pleased to know both Gary and Heidi have not been forgotten about.
 
Episode 12: The Other Van – Peebles for the People – Podcast

This episode is particularly interesting. It discusses the theft of an inoperative van from Gary Thibodeau's yard after his arrest. I've followed this case for years and have never heard of this fact before, but it is extremely revealing.

Roger Breckenridge, (one of the three new suspects implicated in Heidi's abduction) testified under oath that he Richard Murtaugh stole an inoperable van off Gary Thibodeau's property and sold it for scrap. Richard Murtaugh owned a scrapyard in Volney, NY where Heidi Allen's body was alleged to have been crushed in a vehicle and then hauled off to Canada by James ''Thumper'' Steen.

In this episode, Alex Peebles obtained audio from a recorded police interview with Breckenridge's ex-wife Tracy. She remembers the stolen van as well as Murtaugh or Steen making statements to the effect of ''we need to get rid of this van before anyone gets in trouble'' soon after the van was sent to Canada. She also remembers that Murtaugh told Breckenridge that the van need to go because it had ''something inside it''

Adding to the Murtaugh connection, there appeared to be some witness intimidation going on during the appeal hearing in 2015 where Jennifer Wescott denied and denied all her statements she made to Tonya Preist in that infamous recorded phone conversation. Murtaugh's sister Beth was reportedly OBSESSED with Jennifer Wescott's testimony and literally escorted her to and from the hearing along side Murtaugh's wife, shielding her face from the cameras and reporters present at the hearing. The intimidation tactics were obvious to the reporters as well as Gary Thibodeau who wondered why Jennifer was constantly looking at him while testifying. Gary soon realized Jennifer was actually looking at Murtaugh's sister and wife who were sitting right behind him. He noticed that they would move their hands and their mouth and Jennifer would look at them and the funny business would continue throughout the hearing. Other people in the court also witnessed this.

Episode 11: I Am Not A Snitch - Underdog Podcasts

In the podcast episode above, Beth Murtaugh is featured in an audio recording with Investigator Pietroski, the lead detective on Heidi's case. The conservation starts at the 25:29 min mark. She uses disgusting profanity and curses out Public Defender Lisa Peebles to which Investigator Pietroski appeared to think was amusing. She also bragged about assaulting Jennifer's daughter the previous year and how the 'biker community' is going to 'f—k her up' because of this. Detective Pietroski gave Beth a lighthearted warning not to go after witnesses.
 
I'm new to this case. What exactly was the "evidence" against Gary Thibodeau?

Unfortunately, the authorities are often more interested in a result, rather than justice.

Reinvestigations and retrials cost time and money, and officials don't like to admit they got it wrong.
 
ekardh said:
I'm new to this case. What exactly was the "evidence" against Gary Thibodeau?

Unfortunately, the authorities are often more interested in a result, rather than justice.

Reinvestigations and retrials cost time and money, and officials don't like to admit they got it wrong.
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Jailhouse informant testimony from two Massachusetts inmates that claimed Gary made admissions to them regarding the case. One of whom has since changed his story about what Gary allegedly told him. Gary was at home asleep on Easter Sunday 1994, per testimony by his girlfriend Sharon. His brother, Richard Thibodeau was Heidi's last recorded customer. Both brothers were arrested and charged with the kidnapping. The prosecution's theory was that the Thibodeau brothers worked together to commit a stranger abduction.

Information about Heidi being a drug informant for the Oswego County Sheriff's Office was never disclosed to the defense or came up in the trial. Heidi confided in a coworker shortly before her kidnapping, that the Oswego County Sheriff's Office was pressuring her to snitch on cocaine dealers, and she was afraid. More horrifyingly, Heidi's informant status was actually exposed by the Oswego County Sheriff's Office on two occasions prior to her kidnapping, once by an investigator dropping her informant card with her picture on it outside her workplace, and a second time by a Deputy blabbing about a female informant in New Haven while drunk at a bar.
 
A new book about this case will be published on July 29th. I can't wait to read it!

Black Rose Writing

Criminal defense lawyer Lisa Peebles was taken aback by a secretly recorded phone call and police interrogation video that surfaced in a 20-year-old kidnapping case. They held the stench of a cover-up. She recruited an investigative reporter to help unearth the truth and exonerate Gary Thibodeau, the man convicted in the 1994 kidnapping and murder of 18-year-old Heidi Allen.

Scrapped: Justice and a Teen Informant exposes the underbelly of a system built more for finality than justice. It’s the true story of Peebles’ pursuit of new evidence against three new suspects and her discovery that Heidi had lived a double life: convenience store cashier and undercover informant. The sheriff’s office hid the truth after her death as the real killers roamed free. Peebles became a de facto prosecutor to prove their guilt and Gary’s innocence. As Heidi’s family stood by the sheriff, her remains were likely secreted right under their noses – probably inside a scrapped van and shipped to a car shredder in Canada.
 
https://www.amazon.com/Scrapped-Justice-Informant-Lisa-Peebles/dp/1684337534

I just finished reading John O'Brien and Lisa Peeble's book. It's a fantastic read that tells the entire story of an extremely complex and heartbreaking crime that resulted in an incredible injustice to the accused and no justice for the victim.

Lisa Peeble's summation at the end of the book is succinct and damning. I fully believe her theory is the most likely explanation as to what happened to Heidi on Easter Sunday, 1994.

I'll leave you with this finalising quote from Lisa Peeble's at the end of the book.
''Greg Oakes demanded I apologize. I offer this instead. This summation has never been given because, like Heidi, justice was scrapped. But it’s written, just waiting for the right prosecutor to pick up the scent.'' - Lisa Peebles
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Murkywaters said:
https://www.amazon.com/Scrapped-Justice-Informant-Lisa-Peebles/dp/1684337534

I just finished reading John O'Brien and Lisa Peeble's book. It's a fantastic read that tells the entire story of an extremely complex and heartbreaking crime that resulted in an incredible injustice to the accused and no justice for the victim.

Lisa Peeble's summation at the end of the book is succinct and damning. I fully believe her theory is the most likely explanation as to what happened to Heidi on Easter Sunday, 1994.

I'll leave you with this finalising quote from Lisa Peeble's at the end of the book.
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For those of us who haven't read the book, what is her summation?
 
Tarik said:
For those of us who haven't read the book, what is her summation?
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Lisa Peebles pretty much reiterated the entirety of the evidence that implicates the three new suspects in Heidi’s kidnapping.

She states because Heidi’s drug informant status was recklessly blown on two seperate occasions by the sheriff’s department, a devious plan was conducted by the three new suspects (Breckenridge, Bohrer and Steen) to shut her up permanently. All three were involved in the local drug trade at the time. Bohrer had a history of violence and kidnapping.

After kidnapping Heidi, they brought her to the home of Breckenridge’s girlfriend Jennifer Wescott, on Rice Road (which Jennifer was recorded admitting to) They killed her. To dispose of her body, they took her to the cabin in the woods off State Route 69, where they tried to cremate her in the firepit. This obviously didn’t work, so they simply buried the rest of her remains under the floorboards of the cabin until they hatched a better plan. The better plan came two months later when Breckenridge and Murtaugh stole an inoperative van off Gary Thibodeau’s property while he was in jail. They placed Heidi’s remains in the van and scrapped it at Murtaugh's scrap yard where Borher was employed at the time. James Steen worked for a business that transported scrapped vehicles to Canada. Steen testified that Breckenridge once told him that one of the vans he hauled to Canada, contained Heidi's remains.

Essentially, they used the theft of Gary's inoperable van to permanently dispose of Heidi's remains. This explains why cadaver dogs alerted to the presence of human remains during the search of the cabin in 2014 but never found anything.
 
If the van was hauled to Canada, how did no one find the remains there?
 
Tarik said:
If the van was hauled to Canada, how did no one find the remains there?
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The van would have been crushed in the scrap yard in New York, and the crushed remains of the vehicle, which likely contained the remains of Heidi, would have been taken to a landfill somewhere in Canada. Nothing will ever be found. It's horribly sad.
 
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