Pod Insights True Crime All The Time Bobby Farrell Jr. About this episode Bobby Farrell Jr. left his home in New Richmond, Ohio, on July 6th, 2021, and never returned. The killer was a complete shock to his friends and family. He was someone Bobby trusted implicitly and had become part of the Farrell family over the years.
Join Mike and Gibby as they discuss Bobby Farrell Jr. There was no shortage of persons of interest in Bobby's murder. Ex-girlfriends, jealous boyfriends, and even his best friend were all on police radar. Authorities had to wade through everyone's story to figure out exactly what happened to Bobby. His family was shocked in the end to learn who was responsible for his death.
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Transcript 0:39 Speaker 00 Hello everyone and welcome to episode 478 of the True Crime All the Time Podcast. I'm Mike Ferguson and with me as always is my partner in true crime, Mike Gibson. Gibby, how are you?
0:49 Speaker 01 Hey, I'm doing pretty good. How about you?
0:51 Speaker 00 I'm doing great.
0:51 Speaker 01 Yeah.
0:52 Speaker 00 You know, we talked about it on Patreon, but my youngest is turning 21.
0:56 Speaker 01 She is.
0:57 Speaker 00 So we've got that going on. My daughter's getting married in a few months. We got Crime Con. I just got a lot going on.
1:04 Speaker 01 A lot going on for both of us.
1:06 Speaker 00 Some of it is making me feel old.
1:08 Speaker 01 Cause you are old.
1:09 Speaker 00 I am old, not as old as you, but actually feel probably older than you.
1:15 Speaker 01 Look older than me.
1:16 Speaker 00 I do.
1:16 Speaker 01 People say it all the time.
1:17 Speaker 00 They do say it all the time.
1:21 Speaker 00 Let's go ahead and give our Patreon shout outs. We had Meredith Foley.
1:24 Speaker 01 Hey Meredith.
1:24 Speaker 00 Kim Queenen.
1:26 Speaker 01 What's going on Queenen?
1:27 Speaker 00 Ren Art.
1:27 Speaker 01 Hey, thank you Ren.
1:29 Speaker 00 Jackie Connor jumped out of our highest level.
1:31 Speaker 01 Oh Jackie.
1:32 Speaker 00 Yvonne Douglas.
1:33 Speaker 01 Hey Douglas.
1:34 Speaker 00 Vicky.
1:35 Speaker 01 What's happening Vicky?
1:36 Speaker 00 Katie Purvis.
1:37 Speaker 01 Well, there's the Purvis.
1:38 Speaker 00 And last but not least Kathleen Cotton.
1:41 Speaker 01 Kathleen, thank you.
1:42 Speaker 00 And then if we go back into the vault. This week we selected Christine.
1:48 Speaker 01 Like the car Christine?
1:49 Speaker 00 Yeah, yeah. I don't know if she goes by that, but you know. We appreciate the new support, the continued support.
1:57 Speaker 01 We do.
1:57 Speaker 00 We have a new episode out right now on True Crime All The Time Unsolved, where we're talking about Don Henry and Kevin Ives. This is in small town Arkansas, when these two best friends were found dead on the train track.
2:12 Speaker 01 Yeah.
2:13 Speaker 00 And authorities believe it was an accident. The family doesn't think so. So we'll get into all of those details.
2:20 Speaker 01 Think it's an interesting case.
2:21 Speaker 00 It is. It really is. And then on Thursday's TCAT episode, we're talking about Angela Montgomery. And this is a fascinating case. She basically portrayed herself as someone else online to befriend a woman so that she could steal her young twins.
2:44 Speaker 01 And this, people going online, committing these crimes today.
2:50 Speaker 01 It's just going to be one of those things that's going to continue to grow, right? Because you can be whoever you want to be online.
2:55 Speaker 00 Yeah.
2:56 Speaker 01 And.
2:57 Speaker 00 And I think AI maybe even makes that scarier.
2:59 Speaker 01 I think it does. Yeah.
3:01 Speaker 00 But that's out Thursday. Make sure you check it out. It'll be on both the podcast feed and on video and up on YouTube. All right, buddy. Are you ready to get into this episode of True Crime All The Time?
3:14 Speaker 01 I am.
3:15 Speaker 00 We're talking about Bobby Farrell Jr. Bobby Farrell Jr. Left his home in New Richmond, Ohio on July 6, 2021, and never returned. And the killer turned out to be a complete shock to his friends and family. He was someone who Bobby trusted implicitly, and also someone who had become part of the Farrell family over the years.
3:41 Speaker 01 It scares me when you have something terrible happen because of somebody so close to you.
3:48 Speaker 00 Yeah. I mean, I think the closer someone is to you, the scarier it is. Not that stranger murders aren't scary. They are.
3:56 Speaker 01 It's kind of like when Michael grabbed his brother, said, I knew it was you.
4:01 Speaker 00 Oh, in The Godfather?
4:02 Speaker 01 Yeah. What was his name?
4:03 Speaker 00 Well, he didn't kill him right then. Fredo?
4:05 Speaker 01 Fredo, yeah.
4:06 Speaker 00 Yeah, he killed him later on, or had him killed later on. Robert Franklin Farrell, who went by the nickname Bobby, was born on December 19th, 1997, in Cincinnati. Bobby was the second of three children. He had a strong bond with his older brother Tyler and his younger sister Katie. Katie described Bobby as the biggest clown who could make anyone laugh. Bobby had a good sense of humor and could fill a room with positive energy, according to his family. Bobby played football and wrestled. He also loved art and sketching, a hobby he kept up after graduating high school.
4:46 Speaker 01 You're a pretty good sketcher, aren't you?
4:47 Speaker 00 No, I'm actually, I cannot draw at all.
4:50 Speaker 01 Oh, you can't?
4:51 Speaker 00 Not at all.
4:52 Speaker 01 No, no art talent?
4:53 Speaker 00 I have no artistic ability whatsoever. But you do have some things in common with Bobby. I mean, the football, the wrestling. I'm assuming there was a singlet involved.
5:05 Speaker 01 Probably.
5:05 Speaker 00 At some point. During his sophomore year, Bobby fell in love with a girl named Stacy, who he met through a mutual friend. They did everything together. And his family thought she was the one.
5:19 Speaker 01 Good old Stacy and her mom.
5:22 Speaker 00 Yeah, this is that song that you're always referencing that I actually am not all that familiar with. But, you know, I do want to talk about this, right? When your kids are dating someone.
5:35 Speaker 01 Yeah.
5:36 Speaker 00 At what point do you think this could be the one? I mean, obviously it differs. Because most people, let's face it, when, when you're in high school, you might date a bunch of different people. The relationships don't last that long. For my oldest daughter, it was completely the opposite.
5:55 Speaker 01 Yeah, that's true.
5:56 Speaker 00 She met her now fiance in like the ninth grade and they have been inseparable ever since. And they're getting married this year.
6:04 Speaker 01 They're like one of those old time stories, you know?
6:06 Speaker 00 Yeah.
6:06 Speaker 01 They met in high school, early on, and stayed together forever.
6:10 Speaker 00 So I can honestly say that we knew pretty early on that, you know, he was the one for her.
6:16 Speaker 01 Yeah. Yeah, I don't know when I, with my daughter, I didn't feel that for a few of the people she dated. But then the last guy she dated that she married, I was like, I hope he's the one.
6:32 Speaker 00 Stacy was friends with a boy named Kiantae Gardner, who started coming around to hang out at Bobby's house. Kiantae and Bobby quickly became best friends. Kiantae's mother worked a lot, so he spent much of his time with the Feral family. The boys hung out as often as they could. And Bobby's parents truly considered Kiantae part of their family. And I'm sure, you know, a lot of people listening, if you've got kids, I'm sure there were different people in their lives at points who were over all the time. They were eating dinner, they stayed all night. That's kind of normal.
7:12 Speaker 01 And I had a friend that called my mom mom.
7:14 Speaker 00 Yeah.
7:14 Speaker 01 Every time he came over, he would say, how you doing, mom? And she just ate it up, you know, she loved it.
7:20 Speaker 00 Bobby's older brother Tyler said Kiantae and Bobby were glue. Hanging out every day, every night, all day, every day. I looked at Kiantae as a little brother. That was Bobby's best friend. So I think it's really giving you a sense here of just what Bobby's family thought of Kiantae.
7:41 Speaker 01 Yeah.
7:42 Speaker 00 They looked at him as family, you know, at some point in time. During Bobby's senior year, Stacy found out she was pregnant. Bobby was only 19 at the time, and he and Stacy were scared. He didn't think he was ready to be a father yet. And I can honestly say, I was not ready to be a father at 19.
8:07 Speaker 01 Yeah.
8:07 Speaker 00 And I don't know how many people are. Now, a lot of people make it work.
8:12 Speaker 01 Sure they do.
8:13 Speaker 00 Sometimes you just have no choice, right? You have to learn how to be a father. But at 19, I was really selfish. Much more than I even am today. I know you're about ready to say something about it.
8:28 Speaker 01 Never.
8:29 Speaker 00 I was 27 by the time, you know, my wife and I had our first child.
8:34 Speaker 01 Yeah.
8:34 Speaker 00 And at that point, I was more established in my career. We had a little bit more money. I had settled down from my kind of partying ways.
8:44 Speaker 01 I was very similar, right? I had my first child when I was 30. So I just felt like I needed to get a few things done before I. Went that route.
8:56 Speaker 00 Yeah, and I, I think 35 years ago, that was not the norm.
9:00 Speaker 01 No.
9:01 Speaker 00 To wait till you were 30.
9:03 Speaker 01 It was a little, little late.
9:05 Speaker 00 Are you just gonna gloss over the fact that I said 35 years ago?
9:08 Speaker 01 I just, just hit me.
9:10 Speaker 00 Are you gonna do the math there, Mensa?
9:19 Speaker 01 Oh, feel the love, feel the love.
9:22 Speaker 00 The fact that you didn't catch it is, uh, is kind of amazing. Bobby graduated high school in 2016 and worked as a dispatcher for total quality logistics. He was excited when he found out he was having a daughter. It was around this time that he and Stacy moved in together. And then their baby was born in April 2017. Their daughter was born legally blind. Bobby and Stacy were worried about her and they had a hard time adjusting to being new parents to a baby with a disability. It was stressful having to take her to extra doctor's appointments.
10:00 Speaker 01 You know, just having that, your first baby stressful enough.
10:03 Speaker 00 Sure.
10:04 Speaker 01 But then if you add some type of disability, you know, yeah, it's gonna be stressful. And then like you just mentioned, you know, they're going to extra doctor appointments. That's tough, you know, the, to have all that scheduling that you have to work around.
10:19 Speaker 00 And they're young, right? We men- mentioned that they're fairly young. Bobby and Stacy were fighting often. They decided to end their relationship, but maintain their friendship and had a peaceful and positive co-parenting relationship. And, you know, I've said it before, my parents are divorced and they did a really good job of, you know, staying friendly. At least when they were around me.
10:45 Speaker 01 Yeah.
10:46 Speaker 00 And, and to this day, they're friendly. So I, I know it was never that contentious, but I think it does make a big difference because divorce is hard enough. But if your parents hate each other and they're always bad mouthing each other, okay, that, that might make it a little tougher.
11:03 Speaker 01 Sure, yeah. And I've had friends that used to fight in front of their kids and I would tell them, guys, when you're around the kids, don't fight. Take it outside, wait till the kids are asleep, whatever. Don't do it in front of the kids. It's not fair to them and it's not.
11:18 Speaker 00 No, it really isn't. Bobby eventually started dating again. One of those women was a girl named Angel. Bobby wanted to pursue a serious relationship with Angel, but she was jealous of the fact that Stacy visited Bobby's house often because of their daughter. And hey, when you have a co-parenting situation, you know, things like that are gonna happen.
11:45 Speaker 01 You really can't be jealous of somebody that has a ongoing relationship, like you said, because of a child they have together.
11:53 Speaker 00 Well, you can be, but it's not gonna be conducive to this new relationship that you're in.
12:01 Speaker 01 Exactly.
12:02 Speaker 00 And Bobby and Angel eventually broke up. Although Bobby was still pursuing a stable romantic relationship, his problems with Angel continued. For example, Angel got a job across the street from his parents' house, and she started exhibiting concerning behavior. She would sit in her car across the street and watch the house to see if Bobby was there. She also texted him to ask who was over. So we got a little light stalking.
12:35 Speaker 01 It's kinda stalkish.
12:37 Speaker 00 Going on. So Bobby may have had some drama in his relationships with women, but he didn't have any real enemies, which is why it was so shocking when he went missing. On July 6, 2021, Bobby went out with Kianta, something he'd done many times before. The doorbell camera captured the two friends leaving at 5:38 PM. Bobby told his mom he was going for a ride. His mother told them to be careful, and Bobby said he'd be back in a bit. According to WLWT, Bobby didn't take his wallet, cash, cards, or ID, and did not have a license or car.
13:21 Speaker 01 Well, he was just running out for a little bit, right? Maybe he felt he didn't need to have all that on him.
13:26 Speaker 00 Maybe. I think, you know, if you're driving a car, okay, much more reason, right, to have some cash, your wallet.
13:36 Speaker 01 Yeah.
13:37 Speaker 00 Because you might need gas, or you might need something like that. If you're just running out real quick with a friend, okay, maybe you decide you don't need to take anything.
13:46 Speaker 01 Yeah.
13:46 Speaker 00 Kiantay arrived alone at Bobby's older brother Tyler's house at 8:15 PM. Kiantay said he dropped Bobby off at Dee's Dairy Barn in New Richmond. Bobby met up with a woman in a black car. He wasn't sure who it was, but he thought it could have been Bobby's ex-girlfriend, Angel. Bobby's mother Jenny Farrell recalled, "Well, immediately my stomach just started turning because I didn't like Angel. I didn't trust her. They were always arguing. And in my opinion, Angel and Bobby had a very toxic relationship."
14:23 Speaker 01 So now she's gotta be nervous.
14:25 Speaker 00 Bobby's mother?
14:26 Speaker 01 Yeah.
14:26 Speaker 00 Yeah, I think so. I mean, obviously, you're gonna be nervous just from the, the fact that you don't know where your son is. Nobody seems to know where he is. But when you get this very specific piece of information that he might have last been seen with his ex-girlfriend, someone you don't like and who you know he had a toxic relationship with, then, you know, maybe the, the level of anxiety does increase.
14:57 Speaker 01 I think so.
14:58 Speaker 00 Her husband tried to reassure her that Bobby was fine. The next morning, though, there was still no sign of Bobby. And it was a big day for the family because Tyler's wife was having a planned C-section. According to Bobby's sister Katie, they were going to have a parking lot party until the baby arrived. I don't know if that's like a tailgate?
15:20 Speaker 01 I'm thinking it's kinda like a tailgate.
15:22 Speaker 00 That's what I was kinda had in my mind. But, you know, the one thing that this does for me is, and you see it quite a bit in some cases, right? There are things that are planned, big things. And this is a big deal, right? Your brother is having a baby, his wife is having a baby. And you've made plans to show up and have this parking lot party. When you don't show, to me, that becomes a big deal.
15:53 Speaker 01 Yeah, it does.
15:54 Speaker 00 Much more so than like if nothing was planned for a couple of days. Okay, maybe someone makes the argument that, well, he just took off. He needed to get away for a while. But when you miss something like this, I, I think it raises the stakes. Jenny tried calling Bobby and received no answer. She knew he would want to be there for his brother. And she also knew he would not abandon his own young daughter. Even if Bobby was planning to stay out overnight, he always told someone. He also wasn't answering any of his siblings texts. Jenny decided to text Kiantay, who said he dropped Bobby off the day before.
16:39 Speaker 00 So, you know, if I'm a member of the family, Gibbs, I'm looking at, okay, he doesn't show up for, you know, this planned C-section.
16:47 Speaker 01 Yeah.
16:48 Speaker 00 And he's not texting back any of his siblings. And I know, you know, from my own household, there's a good chance if I text one of my daughters, it might take a while for them to get back to me.
17:01 Speaker 01 Yeah.
17:02 Speaker 00 But they respond to each other's texts very quickly.
17:05 Speaker 01 Exactly. We were just talking about that the other day, me and your daughters. They were texting me, I was texting them back and I'm like, have you told your dad? Nah, we're telling him later.
17:17 Speaker 00 Oh, Uncle Gibby.
17:21 Speaker 00 Kiantay also sent the family a screenshot of a text exchange he had with Bobby. Later that night, this seemingly backed up his account. In these text messages, Kiantay asked where he was. And Bobby replied that he was still with Angel. So I mean, I think if you're the family, obviously, you know, you want to hear from Kiantae because he seems to be one of the last people to have seen Bobby or know what he was doing. But these screenshots probably had to kind of make the family feel a little bit better.
17:59 Speaker 01 Comfort.
17:59 Speaker 00 Yeah. I mean, at least when it came to him.
18:03 Speaker 01 Right.
18:04 Speaker 00 Now, it might make them worry a little bit more about Angel because they've got their reservations about her. Jenny then called Stacy, who said she hadn't seen Bobby since July 1. By the afternoon, the family decided to report Bobby missing. Detective spoke to Kiantae because he was one of the last people to see Bobby. He told the same story, that he dropped Bobby off at Dee's Dairy Barn and a girl in a black car picked him up. Police Sergeant Jason Mallett noticed that Kiantae was avoiding eye contact during his interview. And he felt like something was off. He contacted Jenny Farrell and asked if Kiantae could be
18:47 Speaker 00 involved in Bobby's disappearance. He felt like Kiantae knew more than he was telling.
18:53 Speaker 01 That eye contact thing, you know, with kids, I could always tell. If my kids didn't maintain good eye contact.
19:02 Speaker 00 Dogs do the same thing.
19:04 Speaker 01 Do they?
19:05 Speaker 00 Yeah. Have you ever seen a dog when you ask them if they chewed this thing up or whatever? They won't look at you. A lot of them will turn their heads and I'm not comparing kids to dogs, but you know what I mean?
19:18 Speaker 01 I know what you mean.
19:19 Speaker 00 This is though, one of the reasons why I do enjoy watching like police interrogation.
19:26 Speaker 01 Yeah.
19:26 Speaker 00 I like watching the body language because it oftentimes does give some things away.
19:34 Speaker 01 You can learn from that.
19:35 Speaker 00 However, at this time Jenny was still suspicious that perhaps Bobby's ex Angel was involved. And like I said, maybe some of that goes back to, you know, Kiantae providing these text messages that seemingly backed up, you know, his version of events.
19:51 Speaker 01 Yeah.
19:52 Speaker 00 Sergeant Mallett asked Jenny if Kiantae stuttered when she questioned him about Bobby.
19:58 Speaker 00 Jenny noted that Kiantay had always had a stutter, so the detective shouldn't use this against him. Jenny recalled that she left the conversation angry with Sergeant Mallett. She said in her interview for the show Killer Relationship with Faith Jenkins, because it was a small town, stuff like this didn't happen down there, you know? Case closed. It was the black kid, you know? And I understand where she's coming from. You know, you have this person in law enforcement who is questioning you about a someone who you consider part of the family.
20:36 Speaker 01 Yeah.
20:37 Speaker 00 The thought early on has to be, well, there's no way Kiantay would do anything. He's Bobby's best friend. He would never hurt him. And so, yeah, I can see why she would get angry.
20:48 Speaker 01 Like you're just targeting in on him.
20:50 Speaker 00 And maybe that that racial component was a part of her thinking. Jenny made a Facebook post asking if anyone had seen or heard from Bobby. Her post received over 200 comments. One of them was from Angel, who wrote, "You hate me now? I'm not even done yet. Wait till I make your life hell."
21:14 Speaker 01 Wow.
21:15 Speaker 00 Okay, so first of all, I don't want to denigrate this woman, but that seems like a terrible thing to post in the wake of, you know, somebody disappearing.
21:25 Speaker 01 I would say so.
21:27 Speaker 00 But it also has to make someone like Jenny kind of focus in on Angel even more than she already was. Bobby's sister Katie also saw that Angel posted a tweet that said, "You get what you deserve."
21:44 Speaker 01 Okay. I mean, that can mean a few things, but I think the family's gonna think they're directed towards Bobby.
21:54 Speaker 00 Jenny called the police to report the social media post. She was informed that Bobby's case had been assigned to the Bureau of Criminal Investigations. The BCI decided to bring Angel in for questioning. And I don't know how they couldn't, right? You have one person saying that they believed the last person Bobby was with was Angel. I'm sure there were people saying that this relationship was toxic and there was a lot of going on. And then you have these really kind of rough social media posts.
22:28 Speaker 01 It just makes sense to pull her in and have a conversation with her.
22:32 Speaker 00 Angel told investigators that Kiantay texted her the night Bobby went missing. She texted Bobby and asked why he told Kiantay he was with her. She never saw him that night. Angel also noted that her car was gray, not black. And she gave investigators permission to look at her phone.
22:53 Speaker 01 That's a pretty big step there.
22:54 Speaker 00 Yeah, I think it shows some cooperation. Does it absolutely mean that she didn't have anything to do with it? No, but you know, cooperation normally goes a long way with investigators. Angel was then asked about her tweet. She said it was not about Bobby. It was about a young woman she was arguing with because this woman thought she was trying to sleep with her husband. Right? Angel's got a lot of stuff going on.
23:22 Speaker 01 Yeah, she does.
23:22 Speaker 00 She's got a lot of irons in the fire, as somebody might say.
23:26 Speaker 01 Keeping her options open.
23:28 Speaker 00 Angel acknowledged she had feelings for Bobby, but said things didn't work out because they argued a lot. She was asked if she knew anybody that wanted to hurt Bobby. She said she knew about him having an altercation with a man named Corey Goodwin, who is allegedly part of a gang in Cincinnati. Back in April 2021, a couple of months before he went missing, Bobby briefly dated a woman named Courtney McIntosh. But her new boyfriend Corey told Bobby to back off. Cory asked Angel for Bobby's address, but she wouldn't give it to him because Cory wanted to fight him.
24:06 Speaker 01 Like, I'm not gonna let you have that address because that's just gonna be trouble.
24:10 Speaker 00 Yeah, but this also takes me back to high school, kind of late teens, right? You're dating a lot of different people. Some of those people have angry ex-boyfriends or new boyfriends or, you know, there can be some very contentious moments.
24:29 Speaker 01 Oh, absolutely. I know you had your fair share.
24:32 Speaker 00 I did. I also witnessed a lot of interactions with people who had nothing to do with me. I saw, you know, one of my friends get a pull stick broken over his back by one of our other friends.
24:46 Speaker 01 Yeah.
24:47 Speaker 00 That's just how it was back then. Now investigators looked into whether Bobby was seeing Courtney again and whether Cory found out and wanted to harm him. So, you know, they, they looked at Angel and for good reason, right? She had a lot of things going against her or things that at least put her on the radar. Now you've got this guy named Cory who people are saying was upset with Bobby, wanted to fight Bobby. Obviously they're gonna have to look at this guy.
25:17 Speaker 01 Right.
25:18 Speaker 00 Records showed that Bobby's phone stopped transmitting in Norwood where Cory Goodwin lived. And, okay, that's not gonna get you off radar. If anything, it's, it's gonna put you more firmly on there. Cory and Courtney came in for separate interviews. Courtney said she hadn't seen Bobby in two months, but they knew he was missing because of social media. Courtney admitted that Bobby hit her up and that Cory and Bobby exchanged words over text, but that was it. They had talked about fighting, but never met in person. And there was a lot of that too, even, you know, back in our day, Gibbs, we didn't have texts.
25:59 Speaker 01 Yeah.
25:59 Speaker 00 So you couldn't text somebody and say, hey, I'm gonna kick your ass. What you could do is spread the word through other people.
26:06 Speaker 01 Absolutely is what you did.
26:08 Speaker 00 And it happened that way quite often. You might tell one of their friends or tell one of your friends who then relayed it to them.
26:16 Speaker 01 There was a little bit of buildup going on.
26:18 Speaker 00 Yeah.
26:19 Speaker 01 Yeah.
26:20 Speaker 00 And most of the time it was just posturing that never led to anything.
26:23 Speaker 01 That's true. Except that one time at three o'clock.
26:27 Speaker 00 Three o'clock, huh?
26:28 Speaker 01 Yeah.
26:28 Speaker 00 When you had your bodyguard?
26:30 Speaker 01 Exactly.
26:31 Speaker 00 With the green jacket, the green coat?
26:34 Speaker 01 Had him show up.
26:35 Speaker 00 Corey said he'd heard of Bobby before he and Courtney started dating on April 20th. He was aware that they had a prior relationship. He messaged Bobby on Facebook and told him to leave Courtney alone. He denied harming Bobby in any way and let the police check his phone data. And, you know, for me, this kind of era of social media and texts is both a good thing and a bad thing for people. You know, it's good in the sense that I think it can help clear you. But I think a lot of people send stuff electronically that they shouldn't be sending.
27:18 Speaker 01 Yeah, that's true.
27:19 Speaker 00 That can really easily be proven. And you think about back when we were teenagers. Okay, somebody says that you said something, there's no record of it.
27:30 Speaker 01 That's right. It's hearsay.
27:32 Speaker 00 Now, there's a record of almost everything, it seems like. Corey said he was working during the time Bobby went missing and his alibi was verified. So, you know, I think on paper, Corey looked, you know, pretty good to police as possibly being involved in whatever happened to Bobby. But ultimately, you know, his phone data, his alibi, I think all of that pretty much cleared him.
27:58 Speaker 01 Right.
27:59 Speaker 00 Bobby's family came together to distribute missing persons posters. The family put their phone numbers on the poster and were soon inundated with alleged sightings of Bobby. They followed up on as many tips as they could. Kianta and Stacy also participated in the search efforts. But none of these tips led to Bobby's whereabouts. And it's something that we talk about with police a lot, right? When you put information out, you're gonna get like.
28:31 Speaker 00 Deluged with tips.
28:33 Speaker 01 Yeah.
28:34 Speaker 00 And in this case, the family is putting their phone number out there. I get why they're doing it. They want to hear from anybody. The problem is you're going to hear from a lot of people.
28:44 Speaker 01 That may or may not have anything to do with what happened.
28:48 Speaker 00 Well, the majority of them are not going to be correct.
28:52 Speaker 01 Yeah.
28:52 Speaker 00 The tips are going to be maybe well intentioned, but incorrect. And some are just going to be plain lies or people kind of messing with the family, which is horrible, as we've talked about before.
29:07 Speaker 01 It truly is. And we know that even goes on today, right? I mean, the case right now, Nancy Guthrie, you know, all those tips they get that they have to weed through because so many of them are just bad.
29:23 Speaker 00 Yeah. And I'm sure some of them are well intentioned.
29:28 Speaker 01 Yeah.
29:28 Speaker 00 But just incorrect. But like you said, some of them, I'm sure people are just calling in with bogus info or stuff they know is not even true.
29:38 Speaker 01 And that always bugs me, you know, why do individuals feel like they need to do that? Like, you know, this is somebody's loved one.
29:48 Speaker 00 And they're grieving.
29:49 Speaker 01 Yeah.
29:50 Speaker 00 Right? They're having a really hard time and you obviously are not helping that situation at all.
29:56 Speaker 01 Do you think this is the time to mess with somebody? I don't know.
30:00 Speaker 00 Meanwhile, detectives searched for video evidence to support Keonte's story. None of the cameras in the area surrounding Dee's Dairy Bar captured Keonte's vehicle, Bobby, or the black car in question. This meant that there was no proof of Keonte's version of events. So investigators subpoenaed Keonte's cell records on July 10th and learned that Keonte and Bobby's phones were traveling together much later than the time Keonte said he dropped Bobby off. Their phones went north toward an area near the Cincinnati Zoo. And this is an area that I know very well because it's, you know, very close to where both of my girls
30:46 Speaker 00 went to college or are going now.
30:48 Speaker 01 Yeah, yeah. But isn't it interesting now that the spotlight has shifted? And they're going to look at somebody that probably never thought they had to look at.
31:00 Speaker 00 Well, my thought is, you know, Kiantay was on the radar early on, but when you have so many members of the family coming out and saying, oh, there's no way it could be him, right? He and Bobby are so close. They're like brothers. They're best friends. Okay, then some other people start to pop up, right? Angel, Corey, that's probably going to take precedent over checking into Kiantay because the family's so adamant that they just don't think it could be him.
31:31 Speaker 01 Yeah.
31:32 Speaker 00 On July 11th, Kiantay was brought in for a second interview. At first, he told the same version of events, but when he was confronted with his phone's path of travel to Cincinnati, he changed his story. Kiantay claimed he drove Bobby to a wooded area and he got into a vehicle there. Kiantay left and he didn't know what happened after that. And how many times do we talk about it? But it's always fascinating. Okay, I've got my version of events and I'm sticking to it.
32:06 Speaker 01 Yeah.
32:07 Speaker 00 Then all of a sudden, police kind of blow things out of the water because they have proof that what I've been saying so far can't possibly be true. So I've got to come up with an alternate version.
32:22 Speaker 01 I gotta pivot now.
32:24 Speaker 00 Yeah, have to. And this version has me dropping Bobby off in a wooded area where he gets into some mysterious vehicle. Kiantay was told he had to tell the truth, but he continued lying. This time, he claimed he took Bobby to a spot where a car was waiting for him and mentioned that Bobby owed somebody money. And he was questioned for four hours.
32:50 Speaker 01 Yeah.
32:51 Speaker 00 And the whole time, he insisted he didn't know where Bobby was.
32:55 Speaker 01 So he was holding, holding on to his lies.
32:59 Speaker 00 Yeah, but he's making different ones. And you know, the police are keying in on that, right? First you said this, and then you said something different. Now you're saying something else. Either you're just a habitual liar, or you are trying to throw us off.
33:20 Speaker 01 And I mean, if you're the investigator, you gotta be doubling down on that, right? Like, we, we got him. Something's going on here. We can't let up.
33:29 Speaker 00 One of the BCI agents spoke to Bobby's family and decided to bring Stacy into the room because Kiantay always seemed at ease with her. Stacy forced Kiantay to look into her eyes. She told him she needed the truth. And after about 25 minutes, he was ready to talk. And this is kind of amazing, right? You have these trained hardened detectives who are trying to break this kid down. They can't do it.
33:56 Speaker 01 Yeah.
33:57 Speaker 00 But Stacy, who, you know, has known him for a long time, essentially just has to look him in the eyes and say, hey, we got to have the truth. And then he breaks.
34:08 Speaker 01 Yeah.
34:09 Speaker 00 He said that they shot Bobby twice in the head. So BCI agents returned to questioning Kiantay. He confirmed Bobby was dead, but shut down and offered no further details. And I thought it was interesting that he used the word they.
34:26 Speaker 01 Sure.
34:27 Speaker 00 So, I mean, obviously, he's indicating that he wasn't alone. He had somebody else with him. Finally, he said that when he picked Bobby up on July 6th, his acquaintance and marijuana dealer, a man he knew as Boog, was already in the car. He owed Boog up to $10,000.
34:47 Speaker 01 It's a lot of money, though, somebody.
34:50 Speaker 00 Yeah, I don't like to owe money to anyone, but $10,000 is a boatload of money. Boog threatened to kill Kiantay and one of his family members unless he set Bobby up to be robbed. At the end of his interview, Kiantay was arrested and charged with obstruction of justice. So, I mean, finally, he's implicating himself, right? But even this story to me sounds a little bit strange. I get it, you owe your drug dealer a bunch of money, but, you know, how much money does Bobby have? He's a young guy with a child. They're going to rob him of what?
35:31 Speaker 01 Yeah, that's true.
35:33 Speaker 00 What's he bringing with him on this trip that is going to be worth $10,000?
35:37 Speaker 01 I mean, if you remember when he left the house, he left his wallet and.
35:41 Speaker 00 He didn't take anything with him?
35:43 Speaker 01 Yeah. But now if you're the family or you're like so upset that you know now that this person you thought was like a brother to him, like a son to you, I mean, how disappointed are you? If that's even the right word?
35:59 Speaker 00 No, I, I, I think you'd be disappointed, you'd be outraged, disgusted, there'd be all kinds of emotions. You know, Bobby's family expressed their heartbreak and shock after the arrest. Bob Farrell told WLWT, every person that searched asked about him, you know? What about the dude that seen him last? Not him, that's his best friend. They would never do that to each other. And then comes out to find out that's him. I mean, what am I supposed to feel like in my life? It was like one of my sons killed my son. I think he's saying, you know, what you were just talking about. They looked at this kid like a son.
36:44 Speaker 01 Heartbreaking, I would think for, for them. Heartbreaking for me.
36:48 Speaker 00 Yeah. Two heartbreaks, right?
36:50 Speaker 01 Yeah.
36:51 Speaker 00 Number one, to find out that your son is dead, but then secondly, to find out that it was at the hands of this kid that, you know, had stayed at your house, was essentially part of your family. Bob added, really, we've got two kids gone now. That's how my wife says, you know, now that, you know, besides the fact that my Bobby's gone, she was like, you know, Keonte's gone too. I love that kid. So I think it's all kind of backing that up. The family recalled how Keonte hugged him and cried with them while searching for Bobby. He claimed he didn't know Boog's actual name and they met on PlayStation. Investigators
37:34 Speaker 00 seized the device and were eventually able to identify Boog as Christian Beasley. I don't know how many people meet their drug dealers on PlayStation. I'm assuming the percentage is not that high, but I, what I will say is that a lot of times when you're playing online. You don't always know people's real names. Most people go by a nickname or something like that. There's a ton of people I play basketball with online that I have no idea what their real name is.
38:06 Speaker 01 And they don't know they're playing with you.
38:08 Speaker 00 They don't. A BCI analyst reviewed phone records to try to pinpoint where Bobby's body might be found. Agents drove down the phone's path of travel. On July 12th, 2021, Bobby's remains were found along State Route 222 in New Richmond. Bobby's remains had decomposed and he was identified via dental records. He had one apparent gunshot wound to his skull. On July 22nd, 2021, Kiantae Gardner was indicted for aggravated murder. Murder, two counts of conspiracy to commit murder, tampering with evidence, and abuse of a corpse.
38:51 Speaker 00 Christian Beasley, AKA Boog, was also arrested and charged with murder. Police attempted to interview Beasley on July 22nd, but he asked for an attorney. Investigators soon found the murder weapon at the home of one of Beasley's friends, whom he borrowed it from. And, you know, going back to Gardner's charges, I mean, they, they hit him with everything. He got a ton of charges and rightfully so, he deserved them.
39:21 Speaker 01 Yeah, for sure.
39:23 Speaker 00 Beasley's phone records showed that on the way to commit the murder at 4:53 PM, Beasley texted the gun owner, "When you shot that trap, you had to pull the hammer back or just pull the trigger."
39:37 Speaker 01 So he's asking how to use the gun?
39:39 Speaker 00 Yeah, I mean, the grammar doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me, but... I think that's exactly what he's doing because it turned out when Beasley's friend was interviewed, he relayed that he loaned a revolver to Beasley, which was now back at his apartment. He said Beasley bragged that he killed someone. So, you know, all of that is incriminating, but going back to this question that he had, you know, when you have a revolver, it can go one of two ways. You can have a double action revolver, which means you can just pull the trigger and it will fire. Or you can have a single action revolver, which means you have to kind of cock it first, right?
40:24 Speaker 00 You gotta pull back on the hammer, kinda like you see in the, the old west movies. They had single action.
40:31 Speaker 01 Yeah, like that. But that's why he's asking because he wants to know how to use the gun when he gets to wherever he's going because he plans on using the gun.
40:40 Speaker 00 Yeah, it's a very incriminating question.
40:43 Speaker 01 Yeah.
40:44 Speaker 00 And again, it's being done over text, right? There's a clear record of it. But my thought is, you know, okay, this guy's a drug dealer. I'm assuming he was probably familiar with guns, just based on that vocation, if you want to call it that. But most people are, who are familiar with guns are more familiar with like a semi-automatic pistol than they are revolvers. Not that many people have revolvers nowadays, especially, you know, when you think about a drug dealer. I don't think most drug dealers are carrying around six-shot revolvers.
41:26 Speaker 01 Probably have a Glock or something like that.
41:28 Speaker 00 Yeah, something like that. Investigators had evidence showing Kiantay was involved in Bobby's murder. But what they didn't have, Gibbs, was a motive, right? These are best friends. An in-depth review of Keonte's phone records led to the discovery that he was in a romantic relationship with Stacy, the mother of Bobby's child.
41:49 Speaker 01 Now you got a little bit of a motive, right?
41:52 Speaker 00 Yeah, it was said that Keonte was jealous of Bobby and Stacy's co-parenting relationship and the fact that they still spent time together. Keonte complained to Stacy about how much time she spent with Bobby. So very similar to the issue that Angel had with Bobby.
42:11 Speaker 01 Exactly.
42:12 Speaker 00 That he and Stacy were still spending time together. Stacy was brought in for another interview. She acknowledged she was previously in a relationship with Keonte that Bobby and his family didn't know about, but the relationship ended months before Bobby was killed. Stacy told Keonte she was not going to stop communicating with Bobby because he was the father of her child. And again, like, like we said earlier, I think that's an unreasonable request.
42:43 Speaker 01 Yeah, I do too. I, I think to even ask that of somebody.
42:47 Speaker 00 It's just not right. Now, if they were sleeping together while you're trying to have a relationship with one of them, that would be a different story. But if they're just spending time together for the sake of the child or dropping the, the child off, right? Back and forth, I mean, or talking on the phone about the, the child's wellbeing, how can you complain about that?
43:11 Speaker 01 You really can't. And you have to realize that these conversations are going to go on for a lifetime.
43:15 Speaker 00 Sure. One theory is that Keonte wanted Bobby's life and he wanted to be with Stacy. So he killed Bobby to get him out of the way. Keonte's cell communications with Beasley showed that the murder was planned. And, you know, this is like, okay, what happened to the, hey, I owed this guy $10,000 and he said, hey, if you don't set this guy up, I'm going to kill you.
43:42 Speaker 01 Yeah.
43:43 Speaker 00 That seems to have kind of gone out of the window. The other thing though, that I'm struck by is That it doesn't seem to me that Bobby really has to be out of the way. I get it. You're not crazy about the fact that they spend some time together. But how is he in the way of you having a relationship with this woman? Other than the fact you just don't, you don't like the fact that they spend time together.
44:10 Speaker 01 Yeah, I mean, that's what it really comes down to.
44:12 Speaker 00 So to me, knowing all of that makes it that much more senseless. On July 3rd, there were eight calls between Keonte and Beasley. Surveillance footage also placed the two conspirators together before and after the incident. On July 4th, Keonte withdrew $500 from an ATM. He then drove to the in-town suites in Colrain, Cincinnati, where Beasley was living. 30 minutes later, Beasley was seen exiting the hotel and entering Keonte's vehicle. While his young son remained outside in the parking lot. He was in the vehicle for a few minutes, long enough to accept payment.
44:55 Speaker 00 So it seems to me, Gibbs, as though it's pretty clear that Keonte is paying Beasley for something. And I think you can make the connection that it is to kill his friend Bobby Farrell.
45:13 Speaker 01 For only $500.
45:15 Speaker 00 Now, yeah, I mean, again, no amount of money, but $500, is that the total? Is that a down payment? On the evening of July 5th, there were more calls between the two and messages between Keonte and Bobby, attempting to get Bobby to meet up with him. He was unsuccessful in getting Bobby to go out that night. The next day, Keonte picked Beasley up at the hotel around 4:30 PM. Beasley was lying in wait as Bobby entered the car. The three men were driving around for a while, smoking marijuana before Beasley shot Bobby twice in the head. Kianta dragged Bobby's body out of the vehicle and put him by the trees on State Route 222.
45:59 Speaker 00 He then drove with Bobby's phone and threw it out of the vehicle in a different location. They attempted to clean out the car and get rid of evidence, but blood and a piece of the bullet's projectile was found in Kianta's vehicle. And, you know, to me, again, I don't like to tell people how to commit these crimes.
46:20 Speaker 01 Yeah.
46:21 Speaker 00 But shooting someone in your car, that has got to be an extremely messy situation.
46:30 Speaker 01 And gonna make it tough to cover it up.
46:33 Speaker 00 Yeah. I'm kind of thinking about, you know, that scene in Pulp Fiction where John Travolta accidentally shoots Marvin.
46:42 Speaker 01 Oh, yeah.
46:43 Speaker 00 Yeah. And they have to clean that car and it's a real mess.
46:47 Speaker 01 But they have that professional comes out and helps them.
46:49 Speaker 00 The Wolf?
46:50 Speaker 01 The Wolf.
46:51 Speaker 00 Or as you would say, the Wolf. On October 15th, 2021, Kianta Gardner pleaded guilty to aggravated murder and conspiracy to commit murder. On December 1st, 2021, he was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. And, you know, for me, that is a just sentence.
47:13 Speaker 01 Sure it is.
47:14 Speaker 00 Judge Richard Farron called it one of the most cold-blooded murders he'd seen in his career. He told Kianta, as quoted by WCPO, "It's unfathomable to me. I don't know how a brain can operate to do this to such a trusted friend. In the 44 years I've been a participant in the criminal justice system, this is one of the most brutal, cold-blooded, planned executions I've seen." Forty-four years is a long time.
47:45 Speaker 01 That is a long time.
47:47 Speaker 00 Means you've seen a lot of cases and you're saying this is the most cold-blooded execution you've ever seen? And I think some of that has to do with the fact that, you know, they were such good friends. And the motive behind this murder, Gibbs, seems to be absolutely trivial.
48:05 Speaker 01 Yeah, because Stacy wasn't even with him at the time of the murder.
48:10 Speaker 00 Yeah, I mean, I don't know if he thought he was gonna be able to get her back without Bobby in the picture. It's hard to make sense of. It really is.
48:21 Speaker 01 But he ends up losing the girl, the family.
48:24 Speaker 00 His freedom.
48:26 Speaker 01 His freedom and his best.
48:27 Speaker 00 And his best friend. Bob Farrell said in court, if my son brings somebody home and he loves them, we love them. There's no if, ands, or buts about it. We trusted our son, so why wouldn't we trust Kianta? We never got a reason why. So we're stuck and never got to say goodbye. Bob added, he's never shown any remorse through this whole process at all. He played us like a fool. He was at our house, swinging my granddaughter on the swing, while he knew where my son was the whole time.
48:59 Speaker 01 Wow.
48:59 Speaker 00 And I think there, you really feel the betrayal, right? We talked about all the different emotions that the family members would have. To me, this sounds like, this guy betrayed us. He betrayed our trust. Bobby's sister Katie also spoke in court saying, he sat and watched as our whole world crashed around us for six days. He played with Bobby's daughter while we got fake ransom calls.
49:30 Speaker 01 I mean, one echoes in my head still is where he says, he showed no remorse during this whole process.
49:36 Speaker 00 I mean, even after he admitted.
49:37 Speaker 01 Yeah.
49:38 Speaker 00 To doing it. That's, that's crazy. She recalled going for a ride with Kianta and recording it with his permission. She was hoping he could recall details of what happened the night Bobby went missing. She said, I know we went the same route. He took my brother that night. We turned around two minutes from where he dumped his body. On July 23, 2022, Christian Beasley accepted a plea deal for aggravated murder and conspiracy to commit murder. On August 5, he was sentenced to life in prison, plus five years for a firearm specification and 11 to 16 and a half years for conspiracy. So essentially, they both got life in prison. At his sentencing,
50:23 Speaker 00 Beasley's attorney said he was socially challenged with impaired judgment and committed the offense because he, quote, wanted to help someone else out.
50:33 Speaker 01 I just wanted to help somebody for $500, you know?
50:38 Speaker 00 I want to help them by killing someone.
50:40 Speaker 01 Yeah.
50:41 Speaker 00 Now, Beasley himself said he knew what he did was wrong. He also said, what I did was evil.
50:49 Speaker 01 Sure was.
50:50 Speaker 00 But he said the devil used him that day.
50:53 Speaker 01 That devil, he's out there.
50:56 Speaker 00 Bobby's family defended Keonte when investigators first suggested he could be a suspect. They fully believed he would never hurt Bobby. Keonte spent days looking for Bobby alongside them while knowing he was the reason. Bobby never came home. Keonte had been harboring deep rooted, extreme jealousy for an unknown amount of time. Bobby's mother Jenny said that the betrayal of her son's best friend felt like somebody took my whole heart and just took it right out of my chest.
51:32 Speaker 01 That's for sure.
51:33 Speaker 00 So Gibbs, as we wrap this one up, it's one I'm really struggling with because, you know, murder is senseless, but this has got to be one of the most senseless murders I think that, that we've covered. The motive for murder here just absolutely makes no sense to me whatsoever.
51:55 Speaker 01 Right. Now you have a daughter with no father, a family without a son, and this family that put all this trust into this individual that ended up being the one that took all the good stuff away from him.
52:10 Speaker 00 Yeah. And you know, you have two individuals who essentially at a pretty young age forfeited their lives.
52:18 Speaker 01 Sure did.
52:19 Speaker 00 Over what? Beasley saying he wanted to help somebody out, maybe because he got a little bit of money and you know, for Keonte, it was because he felt as though Bobby was spending too much time with Stacy. He was jealous of Bobby. He wanted Bobby's life. He wanted to be with Stacy. That's a reason for murder?
52:44 Speaker 01 Clearly Keonte wasn't man enough to do anything.
52:46 Speaker 00 Ah, it's just shocking.
52:48 Speaker 01 Yeah.
52:48 Speaker 00 It is absolutely shocking. But that's it for our episode on Bobby Farrell Jr. We got a voicemail. You want to check that out?
52:55 Speaker 01 Let's hear it.
52:56 Speaker 02 Hi, this is Victoria calling from the great state of Wisconsin. I am a first time caller, long time listener. I've been listening probably a good five years to you guys. I absolutely love you both. But I'm just listening to your second episode on Frank Freshwaters. And when Mike said that Gibby was right, I thought I heard you choke on your words a little bit there. Just kidding. But you guys are absolutely amazing. I love the show, love all of the information you put into your episodes.
53:41 Speaker 02 Keep doing an amazing job and keep your own time ticking. Thanks, guys.
53:47 Speaker 00 Oh, that's such a nice voicemail. We appreciate it very much.
53:51 Speaker 01 Yeah, we do.
53:52 Speaker 00 I heard Wisconsin, I immediately thought, I need some cheese curds.
53:56 Speaker 01 Cheese?
53:57 Speaker 00 Curds.
53:58 Speaker 01 Just cheese in general, but you ordered some cheese curds.
54:01 Speaker 00 I love cheese, but I really like cheese curds.
54:03 Speaker 01 I've had some cheese curds over the last couple of days. They were pretty good.
54:07 Speaker 00 Did you go on a cheese curd binge or something?
54:10 Speaker 01 I happened to go to the same restaurant twice.
54:12 Speaker 00 Okay, and got cheese curds both times?
54:15 Speaker 01 Both times. As their appetizer, I'm like, you know what? Those cheese curds were good the other day. Give me another order of those.
54:21 Speaker 00 Do you want to share the restaurant? Is this something people would know?
54:24 Speaker 01 Nah, it's a little local.
54:26 Speaker 00 Local.
54:27 Speaker 01 Yeah.
54:28 Speaker 00 Local thing?
54:29 Speaker 01 Yeah.
54:30 Speaker 00 Seems strange, when I brought up cheese curds, I did not realize we were going to go that direction.
54:35 Speaker 01 I know.
54:36 Speaker 00 But we appreciate the voicemail very much.
54:37 Speaker 01 We do.
54:38 Speaker 00 All right, buddy, that is it for another episode of True Crime All the Time. So for Mike.
54:43 Speaker 01 And Gibby.
54:44 Speaker 00 Stay safe and keep your own time ticking.
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