Ep 66 | Sean Reynolds Transcript

Ep 66 | Sean Reynolds Part 1

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Welcome to this week's episode of Voices of a Killer. Today, we sit down with Sean Reynolds, a man who killed a stranger in a 2008 burglary gone wrong. Unlike most killers we've interviewed on this podcast, Sean's case stands out in that it took investigators 10 years to track down their man. All while Sean believed he'd gotten clean away with murder.

Now, eight years into his sentence, Sean takes fresh accountability for a crime that had long gone cold. We chart his turbulent upbringing in a cr*ck-ridden home that ultimately destroyed the course of his young life. And we relive, through Sean's eyes, the one disastrous night that scared a young group of friends into silence.

And left the wrong man dead. So sit back and listen to one man's story of wreck and ruin on this episode of Voices of a Killer.

So, Sean, did you grow up in Kansas? Cause you're locked up in Missouri right now, but you actually, your murder happened in Kansas. Are you from Kansas? Yeah, I'm from Kansas. So tell me about your childhood growing up. Did you have it rough or was it kind of a good family or what? Well, just cause you have it rough don't mean you don't have a good family.

Sure. But we kind of grew up poor and then all my people had drug problems. Well, my dad, he got clean. he was laid off for most of my childhood, but then I got to, when I was like 10, he got his job back and he quit doing drugs and getting high. But mom, she kind of couldn't. What kind of drugs do they do?

Coc**ne. They smoke cr*ck. So you grew up, I mean that's, and you explained that doesn't mean you didn't have, you know, good parents. Obviously your parents probably loved you just like anybody did. Yeah. But cr*ck coc**ne, we all know that's a very strong drug. And a lot of times you probably see powerful.

Yeah. You probably see them put that as a priority many times. Was that difficult to watch them, like stressed out over running out of it and stuff like that? Well, once I got older and could really understand what was taking place, my drug problem kicked in. Which one was that? I started smoking cr*ck when I was 12.

Did you get it from them and try it? Yeah. We all know that cr*ck is just an extremely, I mean, just extremely powerful drug. What was that like at 12 years old, taking that thing and hitting it for the first time? Well, you don't realize that there's a barrier in between you and your family until you step over it.

What do you mean? You know what I mean? So for my whole childhood, my parents would be locked in a bedroom. So then once, once I started getting high, keep in mind, dad already quit getting high. So all he did was work. My dad was a workaholic, but me and mom, we started ripping and rolling. We run around, get high, all that.

How's, how does your dad, cr*ck is so powerful, how did he just, you know, quit like that? And you guys are still doing it, he's smelling it and seeing it and knowing it, and how does that happen? Dad was more into drinking, and one night, I guess I was probably nine years old right before. What happened is,

mom and dad got into it. Dad beat up mom and mom was like, f*ck you. We're not doing that again. I'm out of here. And he didn't want to lose his family, so he got sober. He won her back by saying, "that's the last time I smoke, that'll never happen again," basically. Yep. Yep. He quit drinking, quit smoking, all that.

Went to work. She kept going. Did they ever have run ins with the Laws whenever you were younger? Yeah, my mom actually, she got locked up for robbery. Man, how old was I? Yeah, she ended up being the getaway driver in a liquor store robbery. Wow, so I picture Kansas is really like low key, and did you grow up in the city?

Yeah, I did. You grew up on the Kansas City side of Kansas? Yep. And that's basically, I mean, we all know. It's the ghetto. Yeah, well, I mean, what we also all know that's they're both one in the same Kansas City, Missouri, Kansas City, Kansas is kind of basically the same and it's got a pretty high crime rate and there is a lot of cr*ck coc**ne and how old are you?

How old am I? I'm 34. So 34, then you definitely grew up a time whenever cr*ck coc**ne was like really surging onto the scene. I used to skip school, and that was what we did, we'd go smoke cr*ck. Yeah, I mean it's such a young age, I mean, because I know that cr*ck is truly powerful, that's just such a young age.

In a drug ridden household led by two irresponsible parents, the odds were stacked against Sean Reynolds from birth. Cr*ck coc**ne was a mainstay of Sean's young life, and he saw firsthand how the drug brought his parents to ruin, nearly wrecking their marriage and turning his mom into a felon. While at first, the drug abuse took place behind closed doors as a badly kept family secret, Sean quickly adopted his parents' habit.

In fact, his mom was key in enabling her son's burgeoning addiction to the drug that had overtaken their home. Smoking cr*ck at a young age can impair a young person's development. Evidence links chronic cr*ck use to lifelong brain damage, causing paranoia, insomnia, and delusions. So when Sean picked up the pipe at 12 years old, it compromised his future, setting him down a grim and precarious path that was likely to end in tragedy.

After the break, we hear how cr*ck robbed Sean of his teenage years.

Your path is almost, it's just destined. What child goes up watching their parents smoke cr*ck and then getting ahold of it because they just see their parents doing it. You're, I mean, you're destined to, to have a turbulent Life. There's just no, almost no way around it. Of course there are people that get around that, but obviously, you're the victim of circumstances.

Did you end up graduating high school? No, I got a GED. Yeah. What did you, do whenever you quit school? What did you go do? Did you start working? No. I've already done five years in the Kansas juvenile before I caught my adult case. What did you go to juvie for? Everything. The last time when I was 17, the most major one was I got a kidnapping.

At what age did you ever go to prison? To prison? Yeah. Well, I did the five years in the juvenile. Those were all maximum security facilities. Yeah. And then when I was 20, I caught my first adult case. I got out the day before my 20th birthday. Seven months later, I caught my Missouri case. For the, okay, for the robbery?

For robbery. Yup. They gave me 14 years for that and I've done every day of it in May. In a position with that date, when did the murder occur before or after the, I'm a little confused on where that happened. Okay, so the murder happened before I got locked up as an adult, and it actually happened before the last time I got locked up as a juvenile.

Well, how does, I want to go back a little bit to the smoking cr*ck at such a young age. How does it coming down at such a young age, because you know that's one of the hardest come downs coming off of cr*ck coc**ne, like how do you deal with that kind of stuff at such a young age? Just trying not to come down.

Try to keep smoking it. Yeah. My real dad, he's been, so my dad isn't my real dad, he's my stepdad, but he's raised me since I was a baby. Yeah. My real dad died when I was 12 in a methane explosion. Wow. But I never had no, no dealings with him. He didn't want nothing to do with me. Well, when he died, he had worked for the railroad his whole life.

And I started getting $1800 a month. Oh, from his some kind of Social Security benefits. Yeah, some kind of benefits that went down to you. Yeah. Did you smoke that all the way? Smoked every penny of it. How long did that last where you got that kind of check? They gave it to me until I was 18. So, I did five years in the juvenile.

The whole time I'm locked up, my mom kept getting the check. So She was cashing it? Yep. My mom died when I was 17 of a coc**ne overdose. She was shooting it, smoking it, or snorting it? Smoking cr*ck. How did she die? What was the cause? Coc**ne toxicity. Wow. Did she go, did she smoke a lot or she just kind of, you know, was it just a regular?

No, she smoked a lot. She smoked a lot. Yeah. She had real bad pain problems because she shattered her heel. So she used the coc**ne for pain management because the oxys made her sick. Sean made it into adulthood by the seat of his pants. Growing up in a home that exposed him to drugs regularly, Sean was a thick skinned, desensitized teenager who emulated his parents example.

Before long, He had started engaging in unsavory activity, accumulating a criminal record that stretched from kidnapping to robbery. Throughout this chapter of his life, Sean was periodically in and out of juvenile detention, racking up five years of time across institutions. Shortly after his 20th birthday, barely a legal adult, Sean was slapped with his most serious sentence.

14 years for robbery. Locked up with no real prospects and scrambling for any chance to get high, Sean had hit rock bottom. What's more, the cr*ck use has finally claimed his mom's life, which left Sean with a dwindling support network. Little did authorities know, however, that Sean Reynolds was more than a troublemaking teenager, and his past was far darker than they realized.

As Sean killed time in a cell waiting for his release date, he was holding on to a tightly kept secret. He had escaped punishment for murder. Next time on Voices of a Killer, Sean confesses to the crime he nearly got away with.

If you want to find out what happens next, right now, you can sign up at patreon.com/voicesofakiller. There you can find bonus content, early access, ad free listening, and access to our chat community. So go to patreon.com/voicesofakiller to sign up now. Your support is what keeps us passionate about bringing these stories to you.

That's a wrap on this episode of Voices of a Killer. A big shout out to Sonic Futures who handled the production, audio editing, music licensing, and promotion of this podcast. If you want to hear more episodes like this one, make sure to visit our website at voicesofakiller.com. There you can find previous episodes, transcripts, and additional information about the podcast.

Lastly, if you enjoyed this episode, please consider leaving us a review on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts, your feedback helps us improve and reach new listeners. Thank you for your support and we can't wait to share more stories with you in the future. Thank you for tuning in.

I'm your host, Toby, and we'll see you next time on Voices of a Killer.

Ep 66 | Sean Reynolds Part 2

Welcome back to the next installment of Sean Reynolds' story. Last time, we heard about the tumultuous upbringing that led to Sean's incarceration at 20 years old. Now, we wind back to 2008, when an 18 year old Sean made a life altering decision on this episode of Voices of a Killer.

What year and how old were you when this murder occurred? I'm pretty sure it happened in 2008. Okay, and how old would you have been? 18. 18 years old. So, take me back to your life around, around your 18, you know, like several weeks before this happened. Was this the time that you were still smoking and burning and going?

Yeah. So, in September, the year before that, is when my mom died. Yeah. And I was just lost. Yeah. So I was mad at the world and all I did was get high and drunk, and I really didn't care if I lived or died. Yeah. So you pretty much on a downward spiral, just not really caring about much because your mother Yeah.

This victim in your case, did you know him prior to that day this happened? Never met him before in my life. Did you have a crew that you hung around with? People that you smoked with? Yeah, they were actually with me. There was two carloads of people. What made you guys want to go and handle this guy?

So, a couple of weeks before this happened, we had some homegirls that got beat up at a party. They went to a party and these guys jumped them. They like beat them with hammers and broomsticks. Why? Well, because they were our homegirls. I know, but why did they beat them? Because they were our homegirls.

They were guys that we had problems with. Oh, okay, so were you in a gang? No, but yeah. We were just a bunch of weird juggalo kids. Sure. So, whenever you found out about this, did y'all start planning about going and fighting them, or what? No, what happened was is, they'd been on the phone talking sh*t, and we're all drunk, and Doozle, why don't you come over here and get beat up too?

You know, cause they already beat up our homegirls. So, one of our partners, I thought he was our partner, he said, "f*ck, I know where Sean's house is at." That's the other guy's name, his name's Sean too. Well, my co defendant, he said he knows where it's at. Turns out these two are friends.

So instead of taking us to Sean's house, he took us to the neighbor's house. And here, this is where Sean lives. So y'all actually got the wrong house? Yeah, absolutely. A hasty plan developed one evening in 2008 that brought Sean Reynolds to the door of an unknown stranger. Back in those days, an 18 year old Sean hung around a motley group of troublemakers. Recently, Sean and his crew had struck up a vendetta with a group of guys who had reportedly assaulted their friends. That particular evening, as blood boiled and teenage egos inflated, Sean and his friends resolved to finally get even.

Armed with a knife, Sean and two carloads of friends hit the road to teach their intended victims a painful lesson, but as rage overrode clear thinking, nobody stopped to check whether the address they'd been given was correct. The house they now barged into belong to an innocent man, sound asleep and totally unsuspecting.

Whenever y'all pulled up at this wrong house, everybody in the vehicle thinks it's the right house? Yep. I jumped out. I ran up the front porch, kicked in the front door. I ran up the stairs, and about the time I got upstairs, a naked man come barreling out of his bedroom and attacked me. A naked man come out of his bedroom and attacked you?

Yeah. Did you have any weapons with you? I had a knife in my pocket. You had a knife in your pocket? Yep. So you had a knife and this guy comes running at you. When he, when you say running at you, does he like come in to attack you? I mean, I come up these stairs and this guy's about eight foot tall. Okay.

He's about eight foot tall. And all I remember is d*ck. All you remember is so, okay. I know you're kind of being hyperbolic. You know, the eight foot tall is not. He was completely naked. And that's when I look back, that's what I remember. Bam. Was he, what's the facial expression? Is he like coming at you like pissed off, scared?

Is he actually running at you naked? Yeah, he was running at me. Where are you at? Are you all the way up the stairs? Yep. Do you have the knife in your hand? It's in your pocket? It's in my pocket. What do you do? What's your first thought? Run or pull the knife out? No, because it's dark. So like, I don't even realize who this person is.

I just figured it was somebody's family member. So I thought it was a person. Yeah, let me stop you here. Where's your crew at? They're right behind me. They're up the stairs kind of behind you? Yep. Do they see this naked guy too? Yeah. So what happens after this, does he come all the way over to you? Yeah, me and him lock up and start fighting.

Wow. Is he big where he's handling you? How big are you? I've actually always been about 190, 200 pounds and I'm 6'1. Okay, so you're not a small guy. And this dude's probably about eight foot tall. Okay, so Like I said, eight foot tall. He's at least six and a half foot tall. His dad, at my sentencing, Yeah. His dad was like, you know, I kinda know what happened, and it was either you or him, so I hate that I lost my son, but I understand.

Because he's huge. Yeah, 6'8 is usually about to where it starts to get really extraordinarily tall, so he's probably like a 6'5, 6'6 guy, I would guess. I mean, obviously he can be a lot taller, but So whenever y'all lock up, is he punching or is he just trying to grab you, and what are you doing? Oh no, he's punching me, he's choking on me and everything.

And I realized immediately, I am in over my head. And that's when I grabbed that knife. You grabbed the knife and did you stick him with it? Yeah, I did. Where's the first place you poked him? It was in his ribcage. I didn't actually get, hit anything vital. You just kind of, did you just kind of barely poke it to make him try to stop, or did you drive?

No, I, drove it as hard as I could. It's just, I was 18 years old, you know, I didn't know about using those knives. Sure, did he stop immediately, or did you just, did he have too much adrenaline? He never stopped. Wow. One of my co defendants, one of my co defendants pulled me off of him, and then... did you keep... the other one shot him.

Or before, before he pulled you off of him, did you stab him more times? I stabbed him at least three times. All in the ribs, up, like an up jab in the ribs. Yep. So they pull you off of and one comes up and just finishes off by shooting him? Yeah. Whenever he shot the guy, was he laying on the ground already?

I'm gonna be honest with you, I don't know. I don't ever remember seeing him laying on the ground, first off. Yeah. He didn't die until after we left. Sure. Did he just shoot once and y'all ran? Nah, I think he shot him twice. So after the second shot, did y'all just take off and y'all stick around and watch him?

Yep. We all left. Did y'all steal anything on the way out? No, I didn't. At this point in time did y'all think y'all just took care of the same guy that beat up the women? No, nope, there was a whole conversation about it and it became apparent that we went the wrong house. So you literally shot somebody that was not the right person?

Sleeping in his bed, Wow. Completely innocent. Wow. And that's, one reason why I don't, really play around with my case. You know, a lot of these guys that they're, real proud of what they did. On one side. I'm not ashamed of it, because if it wasn't the wrong person, I was actually going to handle someone that

needed to be hurt. That was a big mistake though. I mean, either way, you know, you know, I think that, I don't know, you know, I understand emotions and wanting to protect somebody that you care about. But look, what happened, you know what I mean? That's just crazy. Exactly. You know what I mean? Exactly.

The plan to enact revenge had ended in disaster. Lying on the floor of a strange home was an unknown man, bloodied and shot, an innocent victim who had gotten caught in the crosshairs of a teenage fight, and was the target of Sean's misdirected rage. Unbeknownst to Sean, this unknown man was in fact Jeff Rogers.

Jeff Rogers grew up in Leavenworth, Kansas, a city on the Missouri River just four miles south of Fort Leavenworth Army Base. Jeff was 25 years old and had recently bought his own home in a residential neighborhood in Kansas City, Kansas, just a year and a half before this fatal night. He spent much of his time working on his house and taking time to get away from the city to go fishing.

On April 8, 2008, hours before the incident, Jeff had his best friend over for a cookout. It was a Tuesday evening And with both Jeff and his friend having work the next day, they weren't hanging out late. Jeff lived in a raised ranch style home and at around midnight. When Sean and his friends stormed into Jeff's house through the front door, they had to go up several steps to get to the main floor, where Jeff's bedroom was located, and the attack happened.

There's a surreality to Sean's recollection of that night, his mind barely registering the site before Jeff wrestled him to the ground. Physically overpowered by the towering six foot four Jeff, Sean maintains that he acted solely out of self defense as he desperately stabbed Jeff in an attempt to flee.

Two shots later, after Sean's friend intervened, Jeff loosened his grip on Sean enough for him to squeeze out. Without sticking around to see what came next, Sean and his friends sped away to a quiet location where their racing thoughts could catch up with what they'd just seen happen. After the break, we replay those heated discussions.

So you guys leave, as soon as y'all leave, y'all are talking about how that's the wrong person? Yeah. It was we went to this place out in Bonner Springs, and there was two whole carloads of people. We went out to Bonner Springs, and it was, "hey, what the f*ck was that?" What do you mean? Well, first off, we didn't even know about the gun.

Oh, so y'all were like to the person that shot, like, "where the hell that come from?" Yeah. And "I thought you, knew where we were going. Who was this naked man that I just fought?" And at the time we don't know that he's dead yet. Right. Y'all just, well, sh*t. I mean, two shots and a couple of stab wounds.

You should probably expect that, you know, it was a .22 and he was eight foot tall. Yeah. It didn't take, I mean, it just that right. I don't know, man. That's. So, y'all are sittin there, y'all probably talkin about it, freakin out with each other, like, what the sh*t just happened? Oh, and, in the altercation, I stabbed myself.

Oh, really? Bad? Yeah. No, when they grabbed me, I fell back, and the knife went through my ear. Through the collage of my ear. Wow. I thought at the time that he shot my ear off. Right. Because the gun went off right next to my head. You know, to stop right here, it's amazing that also, because the listener doesn't know, but you're sentenced,

you said you got like a hundred and something months over this? Yeah. How much time for this? Eight and a half years, but keep in mind, I had already been in prison for 10 years. Whenever they, pin the murder to you, you'd already been locked up? Yeah. The detectives first came to talk to me. I'd been in prison for eight and a half years.

Okay. So after this murder happened, let's back up a little bit. Y'all Discuss everything. Y'all finally part ways or do y'all discuss how you should never talk about this? That's exactly how it went. "Hey, that f*cking gun needs to go in the river. Take these shoes with it. Nobody ever say nothing again." Did you burn all your clothes?

Yeah. Did y'all ever talk about it after that night again? Get together and be like, "look, you know..." never talked about it ever again. Did y'all hear about it on the news? Yep. So that night y'all didn't know he died. Later on, you saw that he ended up dying. Y'all never got back together and said, "Hey, this guy died."

Or did you know about whenever y'all planned, whenever y'all said what you need to not ever talk about it again, was it known that he passed yet? No, we, didn't know. It was just, so it was, we're going to get right. So at the time that y'all are discussing, never talk about it again. Y'all don't even know he's passed.

So you just, you discovered when a day or two later? Probably like 8:30 in the morning. Cause I'm up all night watching the news. Cause I'm scared. I bet. And finally, you did see that somebody was killed. You probably sh*t your pants, didn't you? Well. And then every day for the next 10 years. In spite of his serious injuries, Jeff was able to call 911.

When first responders arrived, they found him in the hallway. He was able to give them a basic description of the men. They were white and he did not recognize any of them. Jeff died from his wounds shortly after. After the brutal murder, as tempers cooled and reality set in, Sean and his friends convened to discuss their predicament.

If they were truly going to get away with this crime. Everything depended on a strict vow of silence. The murder weapon was sunk into a lake, incriminating clothing was burned, and Sean's group pledged to take the events of that night to their graves. They kept that promise for the next ten years.

It's a well known fact that most murders are solved within the first 48 hours. Those that aren't are more likely to sit gathering dust indefinitely. As years passed, Sean waited with bated breath for the day investigators would connect the dots and knock at his door with a warrant for his arrest. But with no new evidence coming to light and the media's attention swept away to other things.

The case of Jeff Rogers' murder went cold. As the distance grew between Shawn and the murder, his chances of being captured were cut slim. Instead, Shawn focused on burying the memory of that terrible night just as he had sunk the murder weapon to the bottom of the river. In the next episode of Voices of a Killer, Jeff Rogers family continues to fight for justice and the dark past comes back to bite Sean Reynolds.

If you wanna find out what happens next, right now, you can sign up at patreon.com/voicesofakiller. There you can find bonus content, early access, ad free listening, and access to our chat community. So go to patreon.com/voicesofakiller to sign up now your support is what keeps us passionate about bringing these stories to you.

Lastly, if you enjoyed this episode, please consider leaving us a review on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Your feedback helps us improve and reach new listeners. Thank you for your support and we can't wait to share more stories with you in the future. Thank you for tuning in. I'm your host Toby and we'll see you next time on Voices of a Killer.

Ep 66 | Sean Reynolds Part 3

Welcome back to the final part of Sean Reynolds' story on Voices of a Killer. Last time, a house break-in went horribly wrong, ending in the murder of an innocent man, Jeff Rogers. As years passed and the investigation stalled, it started to look like Sean would get away with the crime unscathed. Next, we'll hear how the past was dredged up again on this episode of Voices of a Killer.

So, even in prison, you get locked up for this other sh*t, and you've probably been sitting there going, they could just come pull me out of here any minute going, "hey, we figured it out." And they did. And they did. They pulled you out. And they did. Whenever they called your name, they said they want to go see you at the control center probably or whatever, a detective wanted to talk to you, did you know?

Well Did they call you to the bubble? Yeah, they called me up to visitation, but the year before that, I got caught with a m*th pipe in prison, so I'm like, "f*ck, here it comes." The charge? Yeah, I'm thinking I'm about to get a They don't usually book the charges, though, in the courts in that county, they just do all the stuff right there internally, and you know that, right?

Normally they do that, right? Well, they give time and prison. Well, sure. But usually they handle everything by saying, well, we're just going to make it to where your parole is extended or your release date, instead of actually taking more, I mean, I'm asking you. No, they give you more time and they extend your sentence.

Gotcha. So you thought maybe you were just going to get another charge for the pipe? Yeah. And they were like, what do you know about the death of Jeff Rogers? And I said, man, I don't know nothing about that. And they came and talked to me two more times. And on the third time, I finally, I came back to the house and I called my dad.

I said, "Hey pops, look, man, I'm gonna need you to come up and see me on Friday." He said, "well, I'll see if I can't get the day off in a couple of weeks." I said, "no, you got to take this Friday off. We got to have a conversation." And he said, "all right, I'll be there." And he came up, him and my sister. And I told him, I said, "I f*cked up big and if you ever want to see me home again, we gotta get a lawyer."

What did he say? Did he say "what the hell happened?" Well, I told him everything. He went and got me a lawyer. What did you, you said your sister was with him? Yeah. Was your sister emotional over that? My sister's real emotional over me anyways, but yeah, she was devastated. I figured so. My daughter loves her brother, so.

So you got a, you got support it sounds, and you were able to call somebody to come over and you basically told them what happened and you decided you were going to admit to the killing? Yeah, I was never going to lie to my dad about it. Had they charged you yet? No. So you confessed before they charged you?

To my dad, not to the police. Okay, so did the police finally charge you? Yeah. I was in a minimum security prison when they put the charges on me and they came and locked me up. They put me in the hole. They left me in the hole for four months. And then I finally went on out count and went to county jail.

What prison were you at? I was, the minimum security prison, I was at St. Joe. So you're I was so mad about it too. Oh good. I was just mad for sitting in the hole for something that I did 12 years ago that has nothing to do with prison. Well, they couldn't have you. The problem was they couldn't have a guy that in there for murder that hadn't been charged yet in a level one that can probably jump two fences and take off, you know?

Yeah. That's why. Yeah. They wanted you in the one without the first fence is one and then the other one's electrocution fence and then there's another fence. Yeah, and addictions and more stuff. That's exactly why they did that because it's okay now he's actually for murder. We have him a level one where he can run easier.

I mean, not that it's easy, but it's definitely easier than a level five. I would assume so. Sean's prolonged stints in prison add a tragic note to his case. Although he initially managed to escape capture after Jeff's murder, Sean wound up in prison anyway for a separate conviction. There's an inevitability about Sean's story, a sense that Sean was locked into such a destructive trajectory that all roads led to prison.

However, the real tragedy lay with Jeff Rogers family. They had lost a son, an uncle, a friend, and above all, an amazing human being whose potential was snuffed out all because of pointless actions by Sean and his friends. Here's a snippet from an episode of the podcast Impact Statement, covering the then unsolved case of Jeff Rogers murder.

This is Jeff's mother, Nancy, describing the last time she saw him. I remember the last time I saw him, he would come up to the house and he'd hang out with me in the kitchen and he'd go out on the deck, when his stepdad was barbecuing and playing guitar, he'd go back and he'd say, he goes, "those are some beautiful girls."

He says, "we gotta get, married to smile a little bit." And he'd go back there and he'd play guitar, and we've got a video we can show you that, He'd put his ball cap on backwards and he'd sing a song about his little Mary and she'd be over there just a giggling and that's what he intended to do. He was getting her to smile.

Growing up, Jeff's extended family was close and he enjoyed time with cousins, aunts, and uncles. To say that he was well liked would be an understatement. The homicide of Jeff Rogers was major news in the larger Kansas City metro area of two million people. As this report from local stations KMBC 9 shows.

They kicked in the door and killed her son, but now nearly three months later, they're still on the loose. KMBC 9's Martin Augustine live with a family's plea for help tonight. Martin. Lara, detectives here at the Kansas City, Kansas police headquarters have for the last three months been in a desperate hunt for any scrap of information regarding the murder of Jeff Rogers, and so are, for that matter, his mother and uncle.

Being crazy. Climbing on the rocks. Nancy Euler's talking about this photo she's holding of her son, Jeff Rogers, dangling on a rock in Colorado. A picture that speaks volumes about him. Oh yes, Spider Man. Whether it was that comic book character or rejoicing in the great outdoors, his favorite place to be, Jeff Rogers threw himself headlong into things he loved.

Whether it was his guitar and music. Or his family, he doted on his little nephew or anything in Mother Nature. An uncle took him to Bull SHOs Lake. Once in the moment he arrived. He never wanted to leave. I said, Jeff, you got a job to go to. You gotta go back. We'll be back again. And sure enough, from then on, that's all it took.

You know, he, every time, if I would go down there without him, he'd get mad. Jeff's latest outdoor project was working on his home, but here in the early morning, last April 9th, someone kicked in the door. And left Jeff Rogers dead. Police think the killers came as a group. Working on the theory that there may be four or five people involved in the crime, police say, probably means that many more people know about it.

And the hope for detectives is that the conscience of one of those people will get to them. And that can't happen soon enough for Jeff Rogers' family. Big hole. I miss him. And I just want these people to do the right thing. He was a good, positive son. If you know anything about Jeff Rogers' murder, detectives hope you'll call in here at Kansas City, Kansas Police Headquarters or the TIPS Hotline. Later this month

there'll be a celebration of Jeff Rogers life at one of his favorite places, we mentioned it in our story, Bull Shoals Lake. He was only 25 years old when he died. Reporting live, Martin Augustine, KNBC 9 News, Larry. Thanks, Martin. On August 16th, an event to raise reward money in the case will be held in Leavenworth.

For details on that and a memorial for Have fun. Go to our website, KMBC. com, click on news link. With every major news outlet responding, John, Jeff's uncle, who you heard there in the news report. Became the spokesperson for the family, a task he took very seriously. It was the work of him and his mother Nancy that ensured that Jeff's case stayed in the news cycle every couple of years.

John researched and applied for the state governor's reward and $5000 was pledged as a reward for information leading to an arrest. But he didn't stop there. He organized fundraisers and got the reward up to $9000. Not only this. But through the assistance of the Kansas City Metro Area Crime Stoppers.

Was where John's family made a breakthrough. Crime Stoppers is a worldwide organization with over winning 200 programs globally and over 400 in the United States, their key operating structure, it's to take anonymous tips and to pay cash rewards to those who come forward with information leading to an arrest.

10 years on, Sean believed that the murder was firmly in his past and he focused instead on serving out his current sentence. But the past resurfaced when two visiting investigators interrogated Sean and brought up the name he hoped he'd never hear again, Jeff Rogers. This was all due to information that was brought to the authorities through Crimestoppers.

Ten years of relentless fighting through tragedy, suffering, and never giving in, it was the efforts of Jeff's family that led to Sean and his co defendant confessing to Jeff Rogers murder, putting a 10 year old cold case to bed and bringing closure to Jeff's family. Following this, Sean's prison term was renewed.

After talking to others with life imprisonment for murder, I'm struck by the leniency of this sentence. As Sean lucked out with a lighter sentence. His release date is within his reach. After the break, we find out more about Sean's sentence and his hopes for being released.

So you go to trial for everything and you plead guilty or not guilty? No, I did not take the trial. I knew that with my history, if I took the trial, I was going to spend the rest of my life in prison. Yeah, well, it's so a lot of people don't realize that whenever they're outweighing everything, they're like, well, I want to plead not guilty.

They do that. And then they throw the book at you and you don't ever get out of prison. You spend the rest of your life in there. But you actually knew that you've been in the system and you knew to, I just need to take this and see if I can't get a good, you know, 10 or 15 year sentence. And you actually got an eight year sentence, which wow, that's crazy.

You know, you're lucky over that, right? Absolutely, I'm 100 percent lucky. So, did you ever have any of the victim's family mad at you and reach out to you? I wish that they would have reached out to me because I would like to have a conversation with them. If they were listening to this, what would you say?

I just, what a f*cking sh*t show my life has been and I am so sorry. I didn't, when I got sentenced, they asked me if I wanted to say something, but I didn't want to take away from the memory of my victim by trying to justify or downplay what actually happened. You know, I mean, it's already bad enough that I'm getting some play on my sentence.

Yeah, no, I'm blown away by your sentence, actually. I actually got the most. Well, so the only one that I've seen that is comparatively that they didn't get a lot of time is my episode one, which is Kevin Myers. He got 12 years. Broke into his neighbor's house just to rob him, but the neighbor pulled the gun and he ended up shooting and killing him.

He got 12 years, which, you know, most people really do. They get 25 to, you know, life or sometimes life without on sh*t like that, you know. If my life wouldn't have been in jeopardy and thank God we were drunk and didn't plan this. A lot went into consideration. So let me ask, when you get out, are you right back on smoking cr*ck and doing what you want?

Absolutely not. No. I'm going straight to work. Well, you know what's going to be at work, right? What's going to be at work? All the drugs that you like. Well, they got all the drugs I like in person and I don't use them here. Oh, you don't? Okay, well that's good. No, I don't. I smoke pot if I can. Sometimes I'll smoke some K2.

I don't do hardcore narcotics. I ain't gonna lie, I'm gonna tell you right now, I think K2 is the worst sh*t ever. I think that stuff is just so f*cking strong. It's so wacky. I, think it's horrible, man. I ain't gonna lie. Pot, I'm all, good with that one, but K2? Holy sh*t, dude. Yeah. Man, I just see too much sh*t.

I've seen it all myself. Yeah. I just, I'm thankful that I don't have a fentanyl addiction because I'm watching that and definitely glad I'm not hooked on meth. Well, so you get out when you go for paroled? I'm thinking, because when I get to Kansas, they're going to tell me. So, just doing the mathematics, I think it's like the beginning of '27.

And they ran your time concurrent with the robbery stuff in Missouri, so while you're doing the Missouri time, you're actually also doing the time for the murder, right? Yep. But once the time runs out for Missouri, you'll be shipped to Kansas to finish out that actual sentence, right? And then what year would you get out? I'm thinking 2027. Wow. My Missouri time runs out in, like, two and a half months. Yeah. Sean, you get to Kansas, you finish your time. What is your first plan? Like I said, I'm just, I'm ready to go to work. I don't have any, I don't have any employable skills except for I'm strong and I know how to clean. And actually I do know how to cook, but I don't want to go cook.

Maybe go down to a temp service or something, but maybe somebody will hear this and go, "Oh, Man, that's the person we want." You just want to get out there and work hard? That's all. Well, I'll tell you what, the world needs hard workers, that's for sure. Not everybody works hard, so I hope that you can get out and do that.

It's been so disgusting having to lay around and beg my family for money. Yeah. Well, Sean, I hope that, you do the right thing when you get out. I think that you were super lucky with your sentence, and I hope you take advantage of that. I absolutely am. Thank you. Yep. Take it easy, bye. Bye.

But this is not where this story ends. When a family faces a traumatic loss, people often don't know what to say or do. When the funeral is over and the immediate crisis is over, people tend to fade. Sometimes, it's harder to share the memories with each other, so people turn inside themselves. And sometimes, honestly, it's just uncomfortable.

But that's not what happened with Jeff's family, or with his friends. Not only did they get together to celebrate Jeff's life, but they continued to fight for justice. And while the sentence that Sean received may have been lighter than expected, the fact that they never gave up on their pursuit of justice is what really stands out.

I want to leave the final word to Nancy, Jeff's mom, to talk about just how important the role of Crimestoppers played in bringing Sean and his co defendants to justice, and despite how desperate the situation may seem, to never give up hope. My son, my oldest, Jeff Rogers, was murdered here in Kansas City, Kansas on April the 9th, 2008.

Home invasion. Someone came into where he lived? They kicked his door in a little after midnight. He fought with them. They shot him, stabbed him, and took off running. He was alone in the house? He was alone in the house. Corey was 22

and he was walking home from a quick trip off of 39th and Independence. His friend came up behind him, put a knife to the back of his neck. Corey jerked his head this way and it caused a gouge into the side of his neck. He jumped up, causing two cuts along the top of his legs, and started turning around and the knife went in here and came out here.

Corey Lakevich and Jeff Rogers never met. They died violently, five years apart. But today, years after their deaths, their mothers still tell their stories, and the role the TIPS hotline played in finding their killers. Nancy Uhler waited more than a decade for an arrest to be made in her son's murder.

I got the phone call, we think we know something, something was called in to the Crime Stoppers. we think we know, and it was about a week later, and they made their arrest. And I am grateful for the person that called him. She told me that she thinks about the break in her son's case every time she sees a new homicide reported.

Even if you think you know something, call, call it in, get your code. And like I said, it might not be anything, but maybe it puts part of the puzzle together. On the next episode of Voices of a Killer: you did 19 years on a murder, got released, and then yeah, committed two more murders, then went back to prison. Fell in love with the first person that I ever loved in my life was a girl that I'm met after I was 16 and got a car and got out and running around Uhhuh,

She, accidentally got killed. Oh, and I stopped believing in God at that point. Sitting at, her gravestone at night, looking at her picture on the gravestone and thinking about life. And there was nobody I wanted to kill anymore in my life than I wanted to kill God. 'cause he just killed one of the most innocent people on Earth.

What would you want people to think about you? Well, I'm not the same person I used to be. Now if somebody gives me a problem in here, they can still get killed. Don't get me wrong. I wanna thank Sean for sharing his story with us today, his ability to be open and honest is what makes this podcast so special.

I also want to thank the family of Jeff Rogers. If you are interested in learning more about Jeff and his memory, please visit the links in our show notes below. That's a wrap on this episode of voices of a killer, a big shout out to Sonic Futures who handled the production, audio editing, music licensing, and promotion of this podcast.

If you want to hear more episodes like this one, make sure to visit our website at voicesofakiller.com. There you can find previous episodes, transcripts, and additional information about the podcast. Lastly, if you enjoyed this episode, please consider leaving us a review on Spotify, apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Your feedback helps us improve and reach new listeners. Thank you for your support and we can't wait to share more stories with you in the future. Thank you for tuning in. I'm your host, Toby, and we'll see you next time on Voices of a Killer.