278. Caught in the Digital Fence - The Murder of Egypt Covington

In this case, Payton and Garrett dive into the case of Egypt Covington, a beloved singer and bartender with dreams bigger than her small Michigan town. But in June 2017, those dreams were shattered when she was found bound and murdered inside her own home. Links: Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/murderwithmyhusband NEW MERCH LINK: https://mwmhshop.com Discount Codes: https://mailchi.mp/c6f48670aeac/oh-no-media-discount-codes Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/themwmh Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/murderwithmyhusband/ Watch on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@murderwithmyhusband Listen on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/into-the-dark/id1662304327 Listen on spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/36SDVKB2MEWpFGVs9kRgQ7?si=f5224c9fd99542a7 Case Sources: NBCNews.com - https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/cell-phone-data-helped-solve-egypt-covingtons-murder-experts-say-tool-rcna144651 Oxygen.com - https://www.oxygen.com/dateline-secrets-uncovered/crime-news/shandon-groom-tim-moore-shane-evans-kill-egypt-covington DetroitNews.com - https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/wayne-county/2023/10/05/two-men-sentenced-in-2017-slaying-of-egypt-covington/70993271007/ People.com - https://people.com/egypt-covington-2-men-sentenced-killing-8348858 Forbes.com - https://www.forbes.com/sites/larsdaniel/2024/10/08/google-to-stop-sharing-location-data-with-law-enforcement/ APNews.com - https://apnews.com/article/ohio-men-sentenced-killing-michigan-woman-535d53b2f78d0dbcfc732d1faa170eec GLGMichigan.com - https://www.glgmichigan.com/media/who-killed-egypt-covington TrueCrimeNews.com - https://truecrimenews.com/2018/04/06/who-killed-egypt-covington-family-divided-on-suspicions-of-guilt/ SoapCentral.com - https://www.soapcentral.com/shows/what-happened-egypt-covington-details-michigan-singer-s-murder-dateline-explored DavidCBrownFH.com - https://www.davidcbrownfh.com/obituaries/Egypt-Elizabeth-Covington?obId=30504503 HappyScribe.com - https://www.happyscribe.com/public/dateline-nbc/a-girl-named-egy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Speaker 00

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• 0:27Speaker 01

  Great meeting. Who took notes? Anyone?

• 0:31Speaker 02

  With Monday Note Taker, the meeting ends and the plan already exists. Action items, owners, deadlines. Go to monday.com, the AI workspace platform.

• 0:42Payton Moreland?

  You're listening to an Ono Media Podcast. Hey, everybody. Welcome back to the podcast. This is Murder with My Husband. I'm Payton Moreland.

• 0:49Garrett Moreland?

  And I'm Garrett Moreland.

• 0:50Payton Moreland?

  And he's the husband.

• 0:51Garrett Moreland?

  And I'm the husband. Another Monday, another true crime case. Thank you for being here. Thank you for listening. Thank you for watching.

• 0:59Payton Moreland?

  You could leave us a review or comment or subscribe or, you know, even get bonus content. It's a great way to support the show. We appreciate you guys so much. Genuinely, we appreciate you so, so much. Think, Garrett, you ready for your 10 seconds?

• 1:16Garrett Moreland?

  Got a haircut today. I know that's nothing crazy, but my hair's been growing faster and faster ever since I got my hair transplant. I didn't, I didn't know what to do. I was gonna let it keep growing out, but it's the summer, so I kind of just kept it pretty short, kind of like a buzz cut, eight guard buzz cut. Yeah, just keeping it short. Probably will grow it out over winter. I was thinking about how I don't understand how there's people out there who can eat whatever they want and they're not running to the bathroom, you know? Like, I know if I'm eating fast food or something that is a little greasy, I will be in the bathroom. Like, I just will. And I don't understand how there's people out

• 2:00Garrett Moreland?

  there who can eat anything they want, whenever they want, and it's just another day to them. Kudos, because I wish that was me, but it's not me. Good old IBS. What can you do?

• 2:12Payton Moreland?

  Do you think I have IBS? Does everyone have IBS or no?

• 2:16Garrett Moreland?

  No.

• 2:17Payton Moreland?

  Because, like... Oh, is it just that everyone's allergic to lactose or like something like that?

• 2:23Garrett Moreland?

  What do you mean?

• 2:24Payton Moreland?

  I don't know, like, do you think our food nowadays just makes everyone's tummy upset? Or do you think there's people out there who genuinely only get an upset tummy like once every?

• 2:34Garrett Moreland?

  That's what I mean. That and that's kind of why I said it because there's genuinely people who've never experienced having the chills, being trapped in a car, driving home, and you know, when you get home, you're gonna explode.

• 2:46Payton Moreland?

  But are they eating like us?

• 2:48Garrett Moreland?

  Yeah. That's why I said what I said, because there's literally people out there who can eat Taco Bell for three days straight and they're like, eh, I'm fine. Normal poop schedule.

• 3:00Payton Moreland?

  Put it in the comments, you guys. I don't know if I believe that exists.

• 3:04Garrett Moreland?

  That's what I'm saying, but if I eat Chick-fil-A or I eat Taco Bell, it's game over for me.

• 3:08Payton Moreland?

  Oh, yeah.

• 3:09Garrett Moreland?

  Like, if I'm not near a bathroom within fifteen to twenty minutes, I just, give me a bucket. I'm gonna die.

• 3:15Payton Moreland?

  Yeah. Like, I feel like sometimes, but then I think maybe people just don't eat like me, but I'm like, if you have never had the chills, speeding home in a car, like passing cramps. I don't, is that just like in us?

• 3:30Garrett Moreland?

  No, no, there's people who, I mean, there, no, there's lots of people who have experienced it, but I know there's people who haven't experienced it, because even I have friends where I'll be like, oh, my stomach's cramping. I need to get home. They're like, ah, you'll be, no, I won't be fine. No, no, you have no idea what's about to happen. I will not be fine. And it's because they've never experienced it. So to them, it's like, oh, you have a little tummy cr-

• 3:54Payton Moreland?

  Yeah.

• 3:55Garrett Moreland?

  I will kill you right now. You have no idea what's about, what's happening in my stomach right now.

• 4:00Payton Moreland?

  If you don't know that, if you don't know this next feeling, I need you to tell me. I need you to, you to tell me in the comments if you just eat healthy, so you don't experience it or whatever. But if you have never had the feeling of- Butthole burning?

• 4:16Garrett Moreland?

  I think-

• 4:16Payton Moreland?

  Is that like so gross? Are we just like outing ourselves right now?

• 4:19Garrett Moreland?

  I think that-

• 4:20Payton Moreland?

  Like we eat so bad.

• 4:21Garrett Moreland?

  But the thing is, even when I do eat healthy, it doesn't change it for me.

• 4:24Payton Moreland?

  It's so true. Garrett really does it.

• 4:26Garrett Moreland?

  That's how, I mean, I do have IBS. I've, whatever, I'm not gonna get into it. But it doesn't matter how I eat. Anyways, enough of that. Sorry if you had to sit through that and you didn't want to. Sucks for you. Let's get into this week's case.

• 4:44Payton Moreland?

  Our sources for this episode are NBCNews.com, Oxygen, DetroitNews.com, People.com, Forbes.com, APNews.com, GLGMichigan.com, TrueCrimeNews.com, SoapCentral.com, DavidCBrownFH.com, and HappyScribe.com. Okay, if I asked you, what is one thing you never leave home without? What would you say?

• 5:04Garrett Moreland?

  Probably my wallet and my phone.

• 5:05Payton Moreland?

  Cell phone, right?

• 5:06Garrett Moreland?

  Yeah.

• 5:07Payton Moreland?

  It's pretty remarkable, if you think about it, that 20 to 25 years ago, people didn't, like, not everyone had a cellphone, but now there probably is not a single person that I know who doesn't have a cellphone, especially because we rely on them for so much nowadays. Even our wallets have become sort of irrelevant now that we can keep our IDs on our phone and have Apple Pay. But what we often don't consider is that our cellphones are also capable of a lot of little secret tasks that we don't even know they're actively doing, like targeting us with ads, keeping a log of our user and search history, and knowing exactly where we are at any given time,

• 5:50Payton Moreland?

  which honestly is not ideal for a modern day criminal looking to get away with a crime, because it turns out the days of cellphone tower pings might be behind us. Now there is a much easier way to track exactly who is exactly where at any given time, and because of that, we're solving cases that might have otherwise gone cold, which is especially useful when the perpetrators are someone the police never even suspected in the first place. And I wanted to start it that way because Garrett always asks me how there are still people getting away with crimes in today's day and age with cameras and cellphone. And it's getting harder. It really is.

• 6:32Payton Moreland?

  So for today's case, we are headed to a little town outside of Detroit, Michigan called Belleville, where in 2017, a 27-year-old woman named Jaclyn Egypt Covington, who goes by Egypt. Okay. She is living and working as a bartender again in 2017 in a little town in Michigan. Now Egypt is actually a Belleville native and she's lived in this idyllic little lake town her whole life. And because of that, Egypt has a really strong community around her of people who know her and love her. For starters, she actually comes from this big blended family of full step and half siblings that she's close to. Her brother, Dwayne, even got her

• 7:17Payton Moreland?

  a job that she had been working at for some time, bartending with him at a local pub that everyone in town knew and went to, which honestly only made Egypt more popular with the locals. Egypt turned a lot of those customers into regulars who would drop in on the nights that she worked just to honestly hang out with her. They said that she was kind of a ray of light in their life, just the breath of fresh air they needed after a long day. But working at the bar wasn't the real dream Egypt had for herself. It was just a way for her to make some cash as she pursued her goals of eventually becoming a professional singer. People actually claimed that she stole the stage at a 2014 competition

• 8:02Payton Moreland?

  in Michigan called Country Idol, which she won. And she also had plans to audition for The Voice on NBC and was working with a local producer to make her own album. And because a lot of people said Egypt had that star quality, the thing that really makes someone stand out in a crowd, that she had this presence that was undeniable. And honestly, she was kind of unforgettable. And that's what drew Egypt's on-again, off-again boyfriend, Curtis Meadows, to her, which is why by 2017, he has decided he is really going to commit to

• 8:41Payton Moreland?

  Egypt. Now, Egypt had actually first met Curtis back around 2008, when she was 20 years old and he was 28 years old. But Curtis said it was love at first sight. They dated for almost two years. The first time they broke up, they got back together for a year and a half. They broke up. Curtis said it was difficult because at that point in his life, he had a daughter, he had a nine to five job and Egypt mostly worked nights at the bar. So their schedules were opposite, but the two always gravitated back to each other and come 2017 were back on. And this time they both felt like it was forever. Egypt had gotten her own little duplex on

• 9:22Payton Moreland?

  the outskirts of town, which she was really proud of. Plus Curtis's lease was coming to an end soon. So by 2017, they were planning to take the next steps in the relationship and he was going to move in with her. On top of that, Egypt had just started a new job working as a beer sales rep, something that would help her make even more money and prepare for her future with Curtis. But in June of 2017, all of these plans came to a screeching halt. Now, on the afternoon of June 22, Egypt and her friend Lindsay texted back and forth about their plans for that night. Lindsay said she was too tired to go

• 10:05Payton Moreland?

  over to Egypt's house and asked if she wanted to come hang at hers instead. But Egypt said she was too busy trying to clean and get the place ready for Curtis's big move into her house with her. A few hours later, around 10pm, Curtis texted Egypt that he was planning to go to bed back at his place. He said he loved her and she responded with 99. Now, the following morning, Curtis reached for his phone and like he did every morning, texted Egypt hello. Now, usually Egypt was very quick to respond back with her own good morning text, but that day, nothing came through. But as the day continued with no

• 10:44Payton Moreland?

  word from Egypt, even after calling and checking in on our social media, Curtis started to wonder if something was wrong. And by the time his workday was over, he was a complete nervous wreck. He figured he needed to drive to Egypt's duplex immediately to check on her. Now, as soon as he turns onto her street and sees her car still sitting in her driveway, his heart sinks because now he knows that Egypt must be home, but she's not responding to him. And even worse, Curtis parks, walks up to her front door and sees that it's cracked open. So he takes a few steps in calling Egypt's name and her little dog Ruby comes running

• 11:26Payton Moreland?

  out barking. Now Curtis says usually Ruby is super upbeat. She just wants to lick you when she sees you, but that day Ruby seemed a little distressed. She gave him a look before running back into the kitchen. So he follows the little dog Ruby and that's when Curtis saw something that will be burned into his memory forever. His girlfriend Egypt was lying in the fetal position on her kitchen floor. Her hands were tied behind her back. There was blood covering the side of her head and she was not breathing. So Curtis runs out to his truck, grabs his cellphone and dials 911 and within a matter of minutes, the local

• 12:10Payton Moreland?

  police have responded to investigate. Now, once they get there, they confirm that Egypt is dead. She had suffered a gunshot wound to her head, but there are two things that stand out about the crime scene to police. First, it doesn't look like the house was broken into. There was no forced entry anywhere. And second, it's June and the thing that's bounding her hands behind her back because they were tied is Christmas tree lights. They also realize Egypt's

• 12:45Garrett Moreland?

  Christmas tree lights?

• 12:46Payton Moreland?

  Yeah, they also realize Egypt's neighbors who shared the duplex with her aren't home that weekend. They're at a music festival. So there's no one who could have heard this or witnessed it except for the dog Ruby. But it also indicates to police that maybe whoever did this knew that the neighbors were gonna be gone for the weekend. Maybe they knew their schedule and Egypt's schedule, which to them says they don't feel like this was a stranger. Maybe Egypt told someone her neighbors would be out of town. So one of the first people they obviously look into is the man who made the 911 call that day, the one who found Egypt dead, her boyfriend.

• 13:25Garrett Moreland?

  You know what's interesting? I feel like it's something I try not to do anymore is tell people when I'm going out of town. That's weird, but you know, just like a little privacy.

• 13:36Payton Moreland?

  I don't talk. I don't, I don't think I talk to enough people to let them know when I'm going out.

• 13:40Garrett Moreland?

  I just try not to tell people. I know it might be a little paranoid, but yeah, they'll be coming over to my house.

• 13:47Payton Moreland?

  So um, they are looking into Curtis and it doesn't help that people who knew Egypt and Curtis did tell police, I mean, yeah, they've had a complicated past. Egypt's friend Brooke mentions that the relationship could be a bit volatile at times, that there were some fights even in the middle of the night that led to Egypt knocking on Brooke's front door, looking for somewhere to stay at 2:00 in the morning.

• 14:11Garrett Moreland?

  Okay.

• 14:11Payton Moreland?

  Though they all say they don't believe anything ever got physical between her and Curtis, not that they were aware of.

• 14:17Garrett Moreland?

  That's what's hard is, sorry to interrupt again, that's what's hard is,

• 14:21Garrett Moreland?

  you don't know. And most, I feel like most domestic violence people around don't even know that it's happening.

• 14:29Payton Moreland?

  They don't disclose.

• 14:30Garrett Moreland?

  Yeah.

• 14:31Payton Moreland?

  So when police bring Curtis in for questioning, they find that he is completely cooperative with them. He answers all of their questions, even agrees to take a polygraph test, which he passes. So police kind of rule him out quickly as a person of interest in this case. But that doesn't stop them from thinking this still has to be someone they believe knew Egypt. After all, Egypt worked at a bar in town. She had a lot of people who knew her, who might have even had some sort of close relationship with her because they would come in and talk to her every day when they would drink and she would obviously tell them about her life as well.

• 15:10Payton Moreland?

  So that's when they start to wonder, is there a regular at the bar who was just a little too obsessed with her? And that's when the police catch wind of a different kind of person that was in Egypt's life, and that was her boss. So turns out Egypt's married supervisor kind of was a bit smitten with her, according to people in her life. It started by taking a real interest in her singing career and then after she won Country Idol in 2014, he offered to take her to Nashville for another audition there. And apparently Egypt took him up on the offer. Egypt told her friend Leslie, though, that once they got there, the two of them got into a big argument.

• 15:52Payton Moreland?

  And while she didn't say what it was about, Leslie thinks it had to do with him wanting to take things further in their relationship after driving her, getting her secluded in Nashville. And Egypt not really wanting a part of it. And Egypt's brother, Dwayne, knew this man too, obviously. And he said the guy could get very heated very quickly, that he was volatile, not someone you would want to piss off. But when police look into this boss, he cooperates fully with them, says his wife knew all about the trip to Nashville. There was never any kind of relationship with Egypt, which is why the boss theory also turns into a dead end.

• 16:29Speaker 05

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• 16:56Payton Moreland?

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• 17:41Payton Moreland?

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• 18:25Payton Moreland?

  And that's when police stumble upon another person of interest. Egypt's ex-boyfriend, a guy named Kenny Machalek. Now Kenny and Egypt dated during one of the periods where she and Curtis had broken up and were not together. And word on the street was Kenny wasn't too happy that she inevitably got back together with Curtis, basically choosing Curtis over him. Apparently, he was really heartbroken when he learned that Curtis was going to be moving in with Egypt. Turns out Egypt's family still kept in touch with Kenny, would kind of give him updates on her life because his family had been friends with her family even before they had started dating. Kenny was 10 years older than Egypt.

• 19:10Payton Moreland?

  He was a handsome mechanic who dated quite a few women, but it seems like he saw Egypt as the one who got away. And while Egypt saw him as more of a placeholder, the kind of guy who would never actually settle down and give her what she wanted, she still tried to like maintain a friendship with him when she eventually got back together with Curtis. They kept in touch. She still hung out with all of his sisters. But Curtis said recently that Kenny, her ex-boyfriend, had been overstepping some of the boundaries. He always seemed to appear at places Egypt and Curtis were at. Sure, Belleville was a small town, but it was getting to a point where Egypt needed to say something to Kenny.

• 19:49Payton Moreland?

  And she chose the town's annual strawberry festival that June as a place to do this. So Curtis told police that that day Egypt pulled Kenny aside to talk to him while they were at the festival. And while Curtis stayed out of the conversation, he could see the two of them yelling at each other during this conversation and it ended with Egypt storming off. And while I don't know exactly what was said, I do know that five days later, Egypt was dead. Now Egypt's sister Beth said she heard quite a bit about what went on behind closed doors with Egypt and Kenny, and it didn't look very good for him. She said that when Egypt wouldn't answer him, he would start calling and texting all of her friends to see where she was.

• 20:34Garrett Moreland?

  It's a case after case.

• 20:35Payton Moreland?

  I know.

• 20:37Garrett Moreland?

  So many dudes just can't.

• 20:39Payton Moreland?

  Chill.

• 20:40Garrett Moreland?

  It's a bunch of losers, man. Like honestly, a bunch of losers. Like, there's not really another way to explain it.

• 20:46Payton Moreland?

  And then, as a way of like, being controlling and manipulative, he apparently slept with some of her friends while they were dating.

• 20:52Garrett Moreland?

  Oh, sick.

• 20:53Payton Moreland?

  Just to get at her.

• 20:54Garrett Moreland?

  Nice.

• 20:54Payton Moreland?

  There was a time when he got so mad at her that he supposedly punched a wall right next to her head. And apparently, once at a wedding that they attended together, he shoved Egypt up against a wall after a fight.

• 21:06Garrett Moreland?

  Oh, my gosh.

• 21:06Payton Moreland?

  People witnessed this. Now, the problem is Egypt never filed any reports about this alleged abuse, so there was nothing for the police to reference in that regard. But it seems the aggressive behavior didn't actually end when they broke up. According to Curtis, a month before Egypt's death, Kenny showed up at his house after Egypt had spent the night there. And Curtis saw him from the window as Kenny got out of his truck, peered in all of the windows of Egypt's car, like he was looking for something, and then got back in his truck and drove away. So Curtis sees the ex-boyfriend through a window, sees him pull up to Curtis's house,

• 21:47Payton Moreland?

  get out, go to Egypt's car, look through all her windows, and then get back in his truck and drive away, having no idea that, like, Curtis saw him do this. And Curtis started to wonder if maybe he had put some kind of tracker on Egypt's car, because as I mentioned, Kenny was also kind of casually showing up places that they were at. And after hearing all of this, police were wondering the same. It appeared Kenny was stalking his ex-girlfriend, and then just five days after an explosive public argument, Egypt was found dead in her home.

• 22:22Garrett Moreland?

  What a surprise.

• 22:24Payton Moreland?

  Which is why nine months into this investigation, and I know that, like, kind of skipped ahead rather abruptly, but it took this long for police to rule out and then find their next suspect. But nine months in, Kenny is named the first official person of interest in Egypt's case. And to make matters worse, when Kenny comes in for a polygraph test, he does not pass, and he doesn't have a solid alibi either.

• 22:50Garrett Moreland?

  I know it and maybe this exists, but I feel like it doesn't because of all of our, I guess, privacy rights and different laws and regulations that are out there. It seems like, right? She dies. It seems like any phone that has been in that area in the last 36 hours.

• 23:09Payton Moreland?

  Should be pinged?

• 23:10Garrett Moreland?

  Should be pinged, instantly uploaded to a database. The cops get it like next day. And I get we have to go through all these regulations and warrants, but I mean, come on. Like it needs to be a little bit easier than this. It's no one's privacy is being invaded if someone was murdered. I'd be like ping me up, baby. Like I have nothing to hide and I know a lot of people disagree with that. And I think you have something to hide.

• 23:34Payton Moreland?

  See, that's what I was gonna say is would people switch from Verizon to Sprint? If Verizon was like, oh yeah, we willingly hand over.

• 23:43Garrett Moreland?

  I'd be like, give me two Verizon phones. I'm all about it, you know, I just like, cause any phones in the area of that person that just died. I mean, even if it's within a 50 foot radius, you ping them. Yeah, it might be a lot of phones to go through. You get through those in a couple of days and you know exactly what's going on. You have better suspects. I don't know. I I don't know. I'm just my thought. Anyways, we can keep going.

• 24:10Payton Moreland?

  I mean, I'm on team your side. Like I.

• 24:13Garrett Moreland?

  I know it's possible. I work a lot with different just APIs and I just, I know it's possible. It's just, I know it's the regulations and laws that are stopping it.

• 24:22Payton Moreland?

  Oh yeah. Like cell phone companies, police will go and be like, we're really needing this person's records. And they'll say, get a warrant.

• 24:29Garrett Moreland?

  Yeah. They like, they have the data and I get, I do think you should get a warrant. That's fine. I'm okay with that.

• 24:35Garrett Moreland?

  I just think.

• 24:35Payton Moreland?

  Yeah. But you have to have probable cause to get a warrant. So you can't just be like, hey, give me all the cell phone data. You have to say, I need this person's specific data because of we are suspicious and have probable cause because of X, Y, and Z.

• 24:48Garrett Moreland?

  Sorry, everybody. All of our data is now public. Good luck. Don't kill anybody and you're fine.

• 24:55Payton Moreland?

  Okay, so he claims, um, ex-boyfriend Kenny claims that he was out bar hopping with friends the night before, but then he went home alone and just watched a few shows on his iPhone before falling asleep.

• 25:08Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 25:08Payton Moreland?

  Kenny denies he has anything to do with Egypt's death. He says she was like family to him, that although they did have their differences, he would never have killed her. And there was actually one person who wholeheartedly believed Kenny, and that was Egypt's mother, Tina. While she knew some of the details of their volatile relationship, she felt in her gut that Kenny wouldn't have done this. She said when she confronted Kenny about her daughter's death and asked if he did it, he cried like a baby, said absolutely not, I loved your daughter, and that was enough for Tina. Although I will say, if you even have to confront someone and say, did you kill my daughter, maybe there was already some, uh, things urging you to go there. Your head even went there in the first place.

• 25:51Payton Moreland?

  Um, but she believed that the police were feeling pressure to name someone in this case and Kenny just looked the worst. So Tina suspected that Egypt's killing might have just been random, that she was in the wrong place at the wrong time, even though the wrong place was her own house. Because it turns out Egypt had been feeling unsafe, living alone in that duplex for some time now. Apparently Egypt had been aware that her neighbors were growing and selling marijuana, and there had been some sketchy traffic coming and going from the place lately. Still, pretty much every lead they pursued in the investigation came to a dead end. With not much to go on, other than assorted past, Kenny was never arrested or officially named a suspect in Egypt's murder.

• 26:34Payton Moreland?

  Now, the Christmas lights they found Egypt bound in were sent to DNA analysis, but that led nowhere, and honestly, her case stalled out. For the next three years, her file sat at the local police department collecting cobwebs. And meanwhile, Egypt's family wondered, who was still out there, responsible for killing their daughter in cold blood? But at the same time, life moved forward for the Covington family. Egypt's closest brother, Dwayne, started dating someone new, and it was a woman named Lindsey Brink. When they first got together, D. Wayne didn't mention that the family had just gone through such

• 27:16Payton Moreland?

  a traumatic loss. As he put it, he didn't want to overwhelm his new love interest with the fact that like his sister had just been murdered. But a few weeks into dating, the conversation came up when Lindsay asked D. Wayne who the woman was on his iPhone background. And that's when D. Wayne explained, okay, that's my sister. She was just murdered. And everything kind of started to change for Lindsay. Lindsay wasn't a detective. She was a kindergarten teacher, but she was so intrigued by D. Wayne's story with his family and so frustrated to hear about how the investigation was being stalled that she wanted to do something to help. She was

• 27:58Payton Moreland?

  just a little true crime person at heart. So together, she and D. Wayne started pressuring local police to do more in his sister's case, to look closer at the neighbors who were out of town during the time of Egypt's death. But the local police became defensive with this pressure, saying they'd already done all they could, except Lindsay, this brand new girlfriend. She did not think this was true. So she started an online petition. She organizes a public protest. I think it's safe to say that Lindsay definitely had some interest in true crime because by this time, she knew exactly what to do to get a case rolling. She was like, yep, we're gonna start a petition. We're gonna cause an uproar. She began copying the state police on all of the

• 28:43Payton Moreland?

  correspondence she was having with the local department. So she's like, hey, state, this is what's going on in this little town. And she obviously knows that the state police had a lot more resources, that they were more equipped to handle such a complicated and mysterious case like Egypt's. And it took some time, but finally, her efforts began to pay off. In 2020, three years after the murder, the state police took over the case and began their own investigation into Egypt's death. Now, one of the first things they do is reexamine the evidence against Kenny. And what they find is while the local police put all of their eggs in Kenny's basket, the state police were pretty confident he wasn't involved.

• 29:28Payton Moreland?

  His alibi about watching TV on his phone that night checked out thanks to data confirmation.

• 29:35Garrett Moreland?

  Okay.

• 29:35Payton Moreland?

  The GPS on his truck also showed that it remained home the entire night of the murder, which is when they wiped the slate clean and were like, hey, we're just gonna go in a completely different direction. And they used a trick called geofencing.

• 29:52Garrett Moreland?

  Okay.

• 29:52Payton Moreland?

  Which Garrett is about to be very happy.

• 29:55Garrett Moreland?

  Yes.

• 29:55Payton Moreland?

  And intrigued about. So historically, the way to track someone's cellphone data location is by what phone towers it pings when it's being used.

• 30:05Garrett Moreland?

  Which there are newer methods now.

• 30:07Payton Moreland?

  And there's honestly a lot of faults in that technique. Um, the biggest being it gives you a really wide radius for where that person could have been at the time. But geofencing, which is more current, is a lot more accurate. Basically, if someone has their location history turned on, which most people do because of their apps.

• 30:27Garrett Moreland?

  Don't turn it off, keep it on.

• 30:28Payton Moreland?

  There's a way to create an invisible, well, there's a lot of apps that won't let you, unless you like, won't let you use it.

• 30:34Garrett Moreland?

  I mean, most of us even use like, find my.

• 30:36Payton Moreland?

  Yep, devices and friends.

• 30:38Garrett Moreland?

  My friends, my iPhone, all that, yeah.

• 30:40Payton Moreland?

  So there's a way to create an invisible fence around an area that shows what phones came inside those boundaries at any given time, which is exactly what Garrett was talking about. Essentially, it gives a much more accurate reading on when and where a cellphone is. And apparently, they don't even need to be looking for any specific phone in particular. Like Garrett said, it will show all cellphones that come and went from the area during that time. I'm honestly really impressed that you knew that this was a thing.

• 31:11Garrett Moreland?

  Oh yeah, I know a hundred percent.

• 31:13Payton Moreland?

  Most people would be like, well, look at the person's cell phone. And you were like, no, just look at all the cell phones in the area.

• 31:18Garrett Moreland?

  Look at all the pings in the area. And I'm surprised it's not used more. I'm sure, I'm sure it's going to be used more. I just know there is different rules around it, which is probably why.

• 31:28Payton Moreland?

  The state police obviously are going to have more pull to do this.

• 31:31Garrett Moreland?

  Correct, yeah.

• 31:32Payton Moreland?

  They're like, we're going to try to look at all the cell phones that were in the area during this time. And they retroactively created a geo fence for Egypt's home on the night of the murder. And with the help of Google and their massive internal database called Sensor Vault, they get a hit. So they are using their resources and going about it in a way.

• 31:52Garrett Moreland?

  Good for them. Yeah, I like this. This is great.

• 31:54Payton Moreland?

  So they do this, they have an internal database to do this. And there was one phone that wasn't Egypt's in that boundary on the night in question. So it's not like they really had a big pool.

• 32:06Garrett Moreland?

  Oh baby, let's go.

• 32:07Payton Moreland?

  It's a small town and she kind of lives on the outskirts of it. And it came from a number in Toledo, Ohio. And when they run this number, they find that it belongs to a man named Shandon Room. And you're probably like, why can't every case just do this? And like Garrett said earlier, it's just, you gotta jump through a lot of holes and to do this. And not every state is willing to.

• 32:34Garrett Moreland?

  But every case starting now should be doing this.

• 32:38Payton Moreland?

  I mean, here's the thing though, this is what's risky. If you use this to find the person and then they have a good lawyer, who depending on the state can go to trial and be like, you violated his privacy. You ruin the case.

• 32:50Garrett Moreland?

  I think that, I know I've said a lot about this. I just think that when you buy a phone, it should be like, hey, look, if you want the opportunity to communicate with others and have all the benefits that a phone does, this is part of the agreement, you know?

• 33:05Payton Moreland?

  All right, guys, we are jumping into an ad and it is for Wayfair. For all things hosting, Wayfair delivers high-quality, customer-trusted products for your home so you can host and celebrate without the stress, which is so, so important with the holidays coming up. Wayfair helps you create a home that stands up to real life with quality products, great value, and trusted reviews. Products are high-vetted by product specialists using a 10-point quality inspection, and you can shop thousands of products across every style and budget, whether you're simply replacing an appliance or transforming your home from top to bottom for the holiday season. And honestly, it's not just, you know, the little cute corduroy couch I just bought,

• 33:50Payton Moreland?

  but it's also they have verified Christmas trees, they have holiday sales going on, fireside faves, space-saving party picks, like, anything that you're looking for, you're gonna find over on Wayfair. And when refreshing your home this holiday season, Wayfair delivers exactly what you need. Head to wayfair.com to shop all things homes. That's Wayfair, W-A-Y-F-A-I-R dot com.

• 34:18Speaker 06

  Wayfair, every style, every home.

• 34:21Payton Moreland?

  All right, guys, we are jumping into an ad and it is one of my favorites, Quince. If you've listened to the show at all, you know how much I love Quince. Quince is not just a clothing store, okay, guys? They have quality everything at this point. I actually just ordered some skincare from Quince because here's the one thing about Quince. I love that they have kind of just excluded the middlemen and so they pass those savings on to you. So you're getting really good, quality, luxury pieces at a more affordable price. Again, like I just said, they have so much on there. I have shoes, I have bags, I have luggage, I have scarves.

• 35:04Payton Moreland?

  I just ordered skincare, I ordered some baby onesies and baby products from them. Honestly, they have everything. It's one of my favorite places to online shop. So if you like to browse like I do, go to Quince right now. Look around, check it out. I am promising you amazing quality. Give the gift of quality this holiday season. Download the Quince app for app-exclusive offers or go to quince.com, get free shipping on your order, and 365-day returns. Now available in Canada and the UK too. And then guys, when Quince asks after checkout, where you heard about them, please just let them know it was murder with my husband that sent you. Please don't skip that survey. Let them know it's the best way to support the show.

• 35:46Payton Moreland?

  Now I do want to mention that the local police had attempted to do this geo fencing thing, but they were focused on connecting Kenny to it. And so they weren't actually looking at the entire analysis as a whole, but the state police are. And when they finally get that new person of interest, Shandon groom, they learn there's actually a lot more evidence pointing in Shandon's direction than in Kenny's. For example, there's some surveillance video that was taken from a gas station right near Egypt's duplex on the night of her murder. And it shows a blue truck with an Ohio license plate passing by that night. And when police zoom in on the plate numbers and run them through the system,

• 36:28Payton Moreland?

  it's a match for Shandon's car. So not only is his phone there, his truck is also seen on surveillance footage. Here's the thing, he honestly seems to have zero personal connection to Egypt Covington. They appear to be strangers, but they know this is a lead that they need to obviously keep pursuing. So they revisit those Christmas lights that Egypt was bound with, and they resend them out for DNA analysis, especially since technology has improved a little bit in the last three years. I mean, you have to admit from 2017 to 2020.

• 37:00Garrett Moreland?

  Oh, big change.

• 37:00Payton Moreland?

  Crime DNA took a major leap. And this time they get a hit, but it's for someone else. It's for someone else. So they they rerun the DNA and it doesn't match Shandon. But they do get the hit. It's a man with a criminal record named Tim Moore, who also happens to be from Ohio. So it's a different man, but he is somehow connected back to Ohio where Shandon is from. Now Ohio's a huge place, but they realize that Tim Moore happened to have Shandon groom's phone number saved in his contacts. So once the state police get the ball rolling, things start to unravel pretty fast because

• 37:42Payton Moreland?

  they quickly start to find the thread that connects these two men. And this thread's name is Shane Evans. So we're adding a third man into this. So using Tim Moore's cellphone data, they find that Shandon and Tim were at Shane Evans' home in the hours before Egypt's murder. In fact, Tim and Shane are half brothers and Shane lives just down the street from Egypt. So this now puts them in connection to Egypt.

• 38:14Garrett Moreland?

  Also, they would have known that the neighbors weren't gonna be there. Were out of town. Yep.

• 38:20Payton Moreland?

  Plus Shane worked for the landscaping company that cut her grass. He'd actually been at her house earlier the day of the murder mowing her lawn.

• 38:29Garrett Moreland?

  Oh my gosh.

• 38:30Payton Moreland?

  Which is how Shane knew the neighbors at the duplex were out of town. And he was well aware that they were running a medical marijuana business out of their home. So once police brought Shane Evans in for questioning, he actually confessed pretty quickly to exactly what and how things went down on the night Egypt Covington was killed. Shane says he told his half brother Tim and their friend Shandon about his neighbors who had gone out of town. And the two of them came up with an idea to rob the home and steal all of the marijuana inside so they could sell it for a profit. They asked Shane if he would drive ahead of them, point out which property it was. And then the two of them would stop, go in and steal the marijuana.

• 39:14Payton Moreland?

  So Shane does what he's told. He drives ahead of them, points at the duplex, but they think he's pointing at Egypt's house.

• 39:22Garrett Moreland?

  You're telling me this was an accident, I'm not an accident, but it's... No way.

• 39:29Payton Moreland?

  Not the vacant side of the duplex.

• 39:31Garrett Moreland?

  But why did they kill her?

• 39:33Payton Moreland?

  So Shane keeps driving because he's connected to this place. And the two who aren't really connected,

• 39:40Garrett Moreland?

  I'm so sick.

• 39:41Payton Moreland?

  Get out of the car and they go to the left side of the duplex, not the right. And it seems like Egypt might have had her front door unlocked at the time because they walk right in. And when they rock in, they don't find an empty house with marijuana. They find Egypt standing in her kitchen. So out of panic, Tim points the gun at her, still thinking this is the right house. They're like, this still has to be the right house, right? Someone just has to be staying here. So one holds her at gunpoint and the other one goes searching the place and they don't find any marijuana. So he comes back and the two of them have kind of both searched the place. And when they look back at Egypt, they realize she's using her phone.

• 40:24Payton Moreland?

  So now they're afraid she's exposing them. They tie her up with Christmas lights, though I'm not sure where they get them from. They take her phone, they have her lay down on the floor, they place a pillow over her head and then Tim fires a gunshot through her head.

• 40:38Garrett Moreland?

  The actual break.

• 40:40Payton Moreland?

  One shot that takes her life. Now Shane said he obviously didn't know about the murder at the time, that this wasn't the plan he had been told. The only indication things went sideways was when Tim sent him a text later that night that said, wrong door. Shane says it wasn't until days later, when he heard about Egypt's story on the news that he realized the two of them must have murdered someone that night.

• 41:02Garrett Moreland?

  What is wrong with people?

• 41:04Payton Moreland?

  But you have to wonder, it would have been so easy for these guys to just turn around and leave and not kill her. So why would you go to such extremes when you were just attempting a robbery in the first place? The only reason police could fathom was that Tim Moore was actually out on parole. And in his last crime, it was a female witness who had identified him and sent him to prison. So maybe as a way of trying to avoid the same situation, he just killed this witness. Frankly, if we didn't have the technology we do today, he might've gotten away with it. Maybe one of the most frustrating parts of all of this was that the state police solved this case. And all three men were arrested just three months after looking into the case.

• 41:48Payton Moreland?

  And local police had sat on all of this evidence and let it run cold for three years. Cause like I said, they were able to geofence, but they were so focused on Kenny, they didn't look at the other cell phones. In the end, both Shandon Groom and Tim Moore were charged with first degree murder, felony murder, and first degree home invasion. Shane Evans was charged with felony murder and first degree home invasion. All three ended up making deals with the prosecutor's office pleading guilty to second degree murder. So 34-year-old Shane Evans got 15 to 25 years in prison. 37-year-old Tim Moore got 20 to 55 years in prison. And 30-year-old Shandon Groom got 17 to 26 years in prison.

• 42:33Payton Moreland?

  But you have to wonder, would all three of these men still be out there walking free if it had not been for their cellphone data? It's definitely something that saved the case, but it also has raised issues about privacy concerns that Google has actually since made changes on, changes that aren't good for law enforcement. Around October of 2024, there were talks of Google migrating user data from the sensor vault databases back to the users' devices, which would make it no longer possible for Google to search and offer up users' location data to law enforcement regardless of a warrant.

• 43:10Garrett Moreland?

  I don't, it's fine if you guys disagree with me. I just think you're a murderer. I just, that's not true, but I just, I...

• 43:19Payton Moreland?

  Well, here's the thing.

• 43:20Garrett Moreland?

  I don't like that.

• 43:20Payton Moreland?

  Google's like, hey, we're taking the, we're taking the technology away to even run this. So even if you come to us with a warrant, we're not going to be able to give it to you. We're giving this, the rights back to the people. So I'm not sure if all of this has gone into effect yet.

• 43:36Garrett Moreland?

  Well, I'm pretty sure that Apple still has a way to do this.

• 43:39Payton Moreland?

  It definitely begs some questions about how much information law enforcement should have access to, especially when it comes to solving crimes. But in the case of Egypt Covington, we can see how information like this can be beneficial. Technology is going to keep advancing. We are not... Going to all of a sudden backtrack from here and it will keep helping us solve crimes, privacy arguments or not. What we can't forget is the victims at the center of these cases, the families who want answers surrounding their loved one's death. Imagine how frustrating it would be to have your daughter murdered and then have police come to you and be like, well, Google just doesn't want to give us the information. How do you feel in that situation?

• 44:24Garrett Moreland?

  It's hard because I promise if the, an executive at Google, one of their kids was murdered.

• 44:29Payton Moreland?

  They would use it.

• 44:29Garrett Moreland?

  They would a hundred percent want it to be used. So.

• 44:33Payton Moreland?

  I mean, technology can solve crimes at a faster pace than we've ever been able to before. How would they have ever even connected these men without this technology? The question is, how do we do this in an ethical and meaningful way when it comes to freedom and privacy for people? But I think like the frustrating part of this entire case is the reason they even had to use technology was because these men had no connection to her.

• 44:58Garrett Moreland?

  Yeah.

• 44:58Payton Moreland?

  She was literally a completely random person who surprisingly her mom ended up correct was in the wrong place at the wrong time, even though the wrong place was her own house.

• 45:10Garrett Moreland?

  It's so sad.

• 45:11Payton Moreland?

  It's so freaking frustrating to me when we cover a case where someone's life is brutally taken for absolutely no reason. Like I know that there's never a good reason to commit murder, but Egypt literally was in the wrong house.

• 45:29Garrett Moreland?

  Yeah.

• 45:29Payton Moreland?

  And it's devastating. That is the case of Egypt Covington and how they used technology to solve her murder, but we're kind of up in the air about if this type of technology is going to be used in the future. So we will keep you updated on that. But yeah, that is our episode for this week and we will see you next time with another one. I love it.

• 45:50Garrett Moreland?

  And I hate it.

• 45:50Payton Moreland?

  Goodbye.

• 46:00Speaker 07

  You know that feeling when too many things fall through the cracks? Monday.com was built for that gap. The AI work platform where people and agents work side by side to deliver more together. Create your first Monday agent today at monday.com.