Episode 559: The Murder of Timothy Coggins

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I'm Dan Taberski. In 2011, something strange began to happen at a high school in upstate New York. A mystery illness, bizarre symptoms and spreading fast. What's the answer, and what do you do if they tell you it's all in your head?

Hey weirdos, I'm Ash and I'm Alayna, and this is morbid in the morning.

Haven't done one of those in a while.

I know I woke up this morning and I said, Oh, that just made me think of the sopranos.

I woke up this morning.

It took everything in me not to go almost.

You're like, I did it.

No, I sure didn't. Not when I did, I got myself a coffee and a bagel.

A little different, a little different.

I picked up my packed lunch.

See, it's morbid in the morning it is.

It's called being unhinged. Yeah, could be silly, could be silly for the intro.

It's true, and then it's not, and then it's not.

And it's simply not silly goose behavior. Well, actually, there is some fucking silly goose behavior in this case. But before we get to it.

Interesting, Well before we get to it, you like books, guys?

I like books, you like words. I like words. Do you like stories? I'll eat a story up.

There's a sequel to The Butcher and the Wren, called The Butcher Game.

Holy shit, I don't even know my own author.

Holy shit, it's coming out September 17th, but you can pre-order it now anywhere. Pre-order it. And if you pre-order it on Barnes Noble and you use the code BUTCHER25, you can get 25 off.

Ooh, I love 25 off, which is great. You should do that. It's like a coupon without a coupon, it's a coupon.

It's a coupon code.

Exactly so, do it, it's longer.

It's gnarlier, it's good shit goes down in this book. So I think if you liked The Butcher and the Wren, I think you're going to dig it. I think so.

Yeah, buy them both.

Let's do this, let's go on this journey together, everybody.

It's exciting.

Come with me.

Books?

Books?

I'm actually very excited for the advanced Reader copies because I happen to be an advanced reader, so and I want to smell it.

I can't wait to smell the book, I love smelling the book.

They always smell like a book every time. It's true, you guys get it.

You guys get it because you guys have been amazing and you've been fucking killing it and super supportive and super kind about it. And I love you guys and you rule.

Yay, thank you so much, thank you for supporting me.

And keep pre-ordering.

I was being you in that moment.

Thanks for supporting me, me.

I love you guys, love you. Any other good, nasty.

That's my plug, plug.

I like your plug, plug.

No, my only other biz nasty is. The total Solar eclipse was fucking mind changing.

I know you got to see it mind bending, like in the path of totality.

Yeah, I was in that path of totality and it was fucking gnarly.

The videos people took are like, I didn't go outside and see it because I am lazy. I'm just kidding. I had other things going on, I had other things going on.

I had other things going on besides the solar eclipse.

Watched it on TikTok. Very, very zillennial of me.

That was very zillennial.

But yeah, the fucking videos are insane.

And they don't even capture.

He's a space cadet.

He is a space cadet, love him. He was so excited and he was hyping this up and I was like he had never seen one either.

Because he was like, I know it's going to be amazing.

He was so excited and I was like, I hope this lives up to your hype, dude.

And did it like?

This is the whole universe that you're hyping up.

It, like, surpassed his hype.

We were both just like in awe.

It's cool that you got to experience that too, like with your little family, yeah, with the kids and everything.

Because they were amazed.

And like grandma.

Yeah, not like nanny, just to clarify, I have a grandma nanny. But yeah, it was amazing and then I saw all these people got engaged during it.

That is the one that I was telling you about yesterday.

Because the diamond ring phase in the solar eclipse is like when it's opening again and you get this burst of light out of one side, and it literally looks like a diamond ring.

That was the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. I could not believe that we were talking about it yesterday. I can't imagine how much stress was on that poor photographer and you could tell when she was setting up.

She was like, I'm so nervous, I have to get this.

Imagine having that be your fucking proposal?

And having it be the fucking diamond ring, the diamond ring phase of the solar eclipse.

You get one on your finger, and there's one in the galaxy, in the galaxy.

Like, the moon was like, Let me help you out.

And just like, Damn, you're starting that shit off, right? Yeah, I love it.

You're starting it off on a real high bar, high bar.

So it's like, you got a lot, it's only up from there.

Keep it at that level.

Crazy.

No, it was really cool if you ever get a chance to see a total solar eclipse in the path of totality. Which, like, I know, it's hard to do, because it happens like every fucking, who knows when.

Yeah, I think the next one, I'll be like 50 something.

There's like, one in 2026.

I'll go time me up.

I was like, alright, threaten me with a good time.

How far is Iceland?

It's not a bad plane ride from where we are.

The fact that I genuinely was just about to say, you could fly there.

You could fly there.

In fact, it's recommended that you fly there, you can fly anywhere.

It's recommended you fly to this island.

What a wild question, what a dumb ass thing to say.

Instead of trying to traverse the sea.

I'm like, there are English channel there, Iceland to Boston.

Trying to cross the river with your oxen? I think that instead, you should fly.

I don't even have any oxen, so that sounds like a good idea.

Flying is a real gamble at this point.

Don't you say that to me? I'm literally getting on a flight on Saturday.

But you're on an Airbus.

Am I? I need to look into that?

I hope you didn't check.

I told Drew to bitch, I know, check that shit, it's very complicated to check.

Boeing had another fuck up. No, they're, like, legitimate.

Oh yeah, there's a whole investigation. I don't even think we should talk about it, I don't even think we should talk about it.

Make sure you're on an Airbus.

I'm going to.

I'll fight you guys to be on an Airbus.

Do you think I would actually sit my ass on a boeing? I would look before I got on the plane?

I was gonna say.

I just might do it like, five minutes before baby girl. You gotta do a book, we gotta get a different flight at this very moment on an Airbus.

I'm so excited for her.

Oh, I can't wait. I love Disney like Holly Madison loves Disney at this point, like I understand the love.

And I love it for both of you.

I planned the sickest outfits. I'm going to be, Hell, I got a tennis skirt.

See you and Holly.

I love her style, especially her Disney style. I'm originally from the Aristocats, so I have one outfit that's all Marie themed.

I'm obsessed with this.

Down to the socks, Wow, fuck me up.

Wow.

Fuck me up, I love that for you. I even ordered like pink shoes to go with my pink shirt, you know what I'm for that?

You know what, just because I don't love the experience of Disney doesn't mean that I can't be like, fuck yeah for other people.

You love Disney?

Glove Disney, thank you, and someday I hope I can tolerate Disney.

You need to go to Disney on the thing that I saw it on TikTok, it was like World Golf Day at Disney.

Yeah, I think it's also just I hate amusement parks.

Well, you also don't like rides.

You don't, yeah, it's just not. I think the whole. It's tough for me to. It's going to be tough for me to enjoy it. It's not your vibe again. The only reason I enjoy it is because the kids do, yeah.

I can take them anytime you'd like, that's all that matters.

I'm just I'll suffer through anything for them.

You're like, I'll go.

That's true, you will in half.

Like, literally anything.

So I'm like, all right, let's go.

That's really sweet, yeah, I can't wait so.

Well, that's fun, let's fucking go.

I'm also going to Mario World, so.

John was very jealous about that.

You guys were going somewhere else and I was like, Oh man, like, I want to go there, and he goes, you're going to Super Mario World.

He was like, fuck off.

You're going to Super Mario world.

Yeah, I think we're just like, I know this is going to be a tough one. I don't know the details of this, but I know it's going to be a tough one.

Yeah, this is definitely a tough one, like, let me get my more serious hat on. Yeah, at the top of it, I will give you like a trigger warning. It has heavy, heavy themes of racism.

Let's go.

And I just want to say at the start, I would have been Timothy's friend, like, and you're going to feel that way too. He just seemed like I feel like he would have been all of our friend, and he just seemed like a friendly. Like, just someone you would want in your friend group. And the fact that what happened to him did just because people are disgusting, like, really pisses me off.

Yeah, absolutely.

And it's just gross. So, Timothy Wayne Coggins was born in Georgia on August 29th, 1960. He was the fourth of eight children born to Viola Coggins Dorsey, which Viola loved.

It immediately makes me think of Viola Davis. Yes, same, which is like a very good association.

100. The family didn't have a lot when it came to income or resources, but they were really a tight knit family and they were all completely supportive of one another. So where they weren't rich in like money and assets, they were rich in like love for each other.

Yeah, honestly, where it counts.

Exactly, and despite an already full house, Viola and Tim's stepfather, Robert constantly regularly entertained nieces, nephews, friends, they were. That house you could always go to if you didn't have a place to go, I love that, or just if you needed some support in a place that felt like home.

Aw.

Now, despite their limited means, Viola and Robert worked really hard to instill strong values and a good work ethic in all of their kids. But most of all, they stressed. And I'm sure you can already tell the importance of family connection. Tim and his younger sister Talisa were only two years apart, so they grew up with a really, really close bond. Talisa described Tim, saying He was funny and outgoing. Tim was a man with an irresistible smile who never met a stranger.

Like he never met a stranger, never met a stranger, like they were friends immediately. I love that.

And he was also really, really protective of his friends and family, especially very protective over his four sisters and his mother. Like, you were not going to do anything to hurt them if Tim was around. And whenever one of his sisters was going to a friend's house, he would insist on walking them there and back, just to make sure they got there and home with no trouble.

Aw.

Likewise, he was always affectionate with his mother and he went out of his way to help her. Heather Coggins, his niece, said There was nothing my grandmother could ask him to do that he wouldn't do. If she asked him to walk to Atlanta and pick up a croissant, he'd do it.

See, he's just a good man.

He's a good man. What friends and family remember most, though, was Tim's passion for music. In the early 1980s, the remnants of the disco and the funk era were still really popular on the radio. And Tim loved going out to the club on the weekend just to spend the weekend dancing. Hell yeah, like, loved, loved dancing, loved music.

I love people who love to dance.

Hell yeah.

I feel like it's just like, that's a very specific kind of person. They're always awesome.

Now, on the night of October 7th, Tim caught a ride with a friend to the People's Choice Club, where he was going to meet up with Ruth. Mickey Guy. She was a local white woman who he had started dating a few weeks earlier, according to a journalist, Wesley Lowery. Even in the 1980s, interracial dating was frowned upon in Spaulding.

Which is so wild, it's insane.

To think about that, and it's about to get even more wild. This is still his quote, where local clan chapters still held regular rallies and parades.

That feels like it should be a different planet. It does, doesn't it? It just doesn't feel...

Honestly, at this point, I'm like, Yeah, that's Earth.

No, absolutely, you know what I mean now? Unfortunately, I feel like everything has flipped on its head way too much.

Very much so.

I feel like the wheels turn backwards way too quickly.

But it should be somewhere else.

But it just feels like you look around and you're like, it doesn't belong on this planet, this belongs on a less advanced planet. A less advanced society. Should be doing this kind of shit, it's so true and thinking this kind of way.

It's just sad to think that Black people living in this area were just subject to seeing parades go by full of white people. That wanted to do the most disgusting, horrific things to them and literally don't see them as human.

And they had to just go about their lives.

And just live and share the same spaces.

And it's probably one of the very big reasons why Timothy was so adamant about walking his sister's places and walking his mother places. 100. Like putting himself in harm's way. Yeah, to make sure they're safe, because they're not safe.

Exactly, I think that's exactly what it was.

It's right out loud, that's the other thing, It's like they're saying the quiet parts out loud, they're just not even hiding it.

Exactly.

It's so gross.

And this was very much an area like this county was very much an area where it was pretty segregated. Like there were black parts of town and there were white parts of town. And I'm sure they intersected at certain points. And that must have been just so fear inducing for a Black person to have to go in a quote unquote white area.

Like, you know the 1930s or something where you're like, Still, you know where you're like, damn, even then you're like, damn. We should have advanced further than that.

But this is the 1980s, like, I know people that were alive during this time, yeah.

You were almost alive. And it's like, when I hear these kind of stories and like things like this, it's like you. And I say this a lot. But I can't imagine looking at a kid and filling them with that kind of hatred for another person.

But that's what people do.

For no fucking reason.

That's what people do.

Except for what they look like.

And it's so scary.

Like, I couldn't imagine looking at the girls and being like, let me teach you to hate somebody based solely on appearances.

Or at all? That's the scariest thing is you like, you hit the nail on the head there because you think about it. And these people in this area had been taught from probably the time before they could even speak to hate.

Just to hate.

Just to hate because of literally the color of someone's skin.

And it's just, and again, kids are so open, they're so.

Impressionable.

And they're so like, they come out sure, ready to accept whatever, ready to just make friends and be kind and be they do.

Yep.

And you teach them that shit real early, and it's like, I don't. I just can't fathom looking at an in it like a very open minded, just untainted child and just tainting them with adult hate, like, I just can't.

It's good that we can't fathom it, because I can't either, obviously.

I just so sad.

I don't know what headspace that you have to be in to, and honestly, I think you have you had to have been raised with hate.

Yeah, like, Oh, if you're teaching that, yeah, it's a cycle, it is for sure, and it's, I mean.

The bigger question is, where the fuck does it end? Yeah, absolutely. Are we done yet?

Yeah, how do you break that?

Like, it's it's bad, it's still bad.

But you do see these people who are, they come from a long line of this shit, and they're taught that from a young age. And luckily, they were able to. Which, which must be difficult if you're, if you're, like, you know, so indoctrinated to think that way.

Yeah, to break that cycle.

Some people are able to break free of. Just like the indoctrination of thinking that way. And be like, wait a second and start thinking critically about it. And be like, What the fuck am I doing? Like, you know, like, what am I? What are these thoughts that have been put in my head? Yeah, and they end up like going the totally different way.

But it's so rare.

It is, and it's. It's so sad.

Overall, it's just really sad and really scary, it's just dumb, it sucks.

I'm Dan Taberski. In 2011, something strange began to happen at the high school in Leroy, New York.

I was like at my locker and she came up to me and she was like, stuttering, super bad. I'm like, stop around. She's like, I can't.

A mystery illness, bizarre symptoms and spreading fast.

Like doubling and tripling, and it's all these girls.

With a diagnosis, the state tried to keep on the down low. Everybody thought I was holding something back. Well, you were holding something back intentionally. Yeah, well, yeah.

It's hysteria, it's all in your head, it's not physical. Oh my gosh, you're exaggerating.

Is this the largest mass hysteria since the Witches of Salem, or is it something else entirely? Something's wrong here, something's not right.

Leroy was the new dateline and everyone was trying to solve the murder.

A new limited series from Wondery and Pineapple Street Studios, Hysterical Follow Hysterical on the Wondery app, or wherever you get your podcasts. You can binge all episodes of Hysterical early and ad free right now by joining Wondery Plus.

Scammers are best known for living the high life until they're forced to trade it all in for handcuffs and an orange jumpsuit once they're finally caught. I'm Sachi Cole and I'm Sarah Hagee. And we're the host of Scamfluencers, a weekly podcast from Wondery that takes you along the twists and turns of some of the most infamous scams of all time. The impact on victims and what's left once a facade falls away? We've covered stories like a shark tank certified entrepreneur who left the show with an investment but soon faced mounting bills. An active lawsuit filed by Larry King. And no real product to push.

And they like each other, they should be able to like each other.

They should absolutely be able to like each other, it doesn't fucking affect anybody else.

No, who gives a shit, that's the thing.

You don't like it, look the other way.

Everybody mind your fucking business.

Exactly, and that's what it really comes down to.

Even in 2024, that is still true. Everyone mind your fucking business. God damn, it's true. It's just like, if it's not affecting you, who gives a shit?

And I think, honestly, I remember my mom telling me when I was little like. I've said so many things about my mom. But this is actually like a good thing that she taught me. I'm like, don't worry, it's positive. I remember like, I would come home and be like, this person is driving me fucking crazy. I wouldn't say fucking. But I'd be like, this person is driving me nuts. And she'd be like, you need to like.

Yeah, then shut up and move on.

And I apply that to like so much of my life. Like, if I'm like, getting annoyed by something, I'm like, but is that really affecting me? Like, outside of it, just like annoying me?

Or am I just choosing to let it?

Or am I choosing to be annoyed exactly?

To, like, draw myself into it.

Right, and I think more and more people need to look at situations and behaviors like that. Yeah, like, is it? Is it really affecting my life in any fucking way other than I'm annoyed by it?

Unfortunately, social media has kind of gotten out of control at this point.

Because people can say whatever the fuck they want to say.

And everybody, and I feel like it's just like it's ramped up too much now, and it's like, and it's not. And it's not just racism, it's all, you know, it's bullying, it's harassment.

And you can say something that you would never in a million years look at someone and say, and that's another thing. When you're sitting there typing out a fucking comment, ask yours, like a crazy ass comment, ask yourself, Would I say this to somebody's face?

Who was? who did I see say this? I think I'm going to have to figure out who the comedian was. It's a girl on TikTok, but she was saying that, like when somebody says a mean thing online to her. She was like, I picture them like having to stand in front of everyone they've ever respected or loved.

In front of all those people.

And then having to just look at all those people and be like, Yep, I said that.

I know exactly who you're talking about, I can't think of her name.

Erin.

Erin, You're right, Erin, hold on.

Yeah, because I want to give her credit because it was such a good. I think it begins with an H hat.

I know exactly I can literally see her face.

She's a wonderful girl, she's very, very, very funny and she has very, very good like insights onto these little things.

Erin, I'm sorry if I say your last name wrong, Hattemer.

Yes, Hattemer, I almost said, Hattemer, but I didn't want to botch it. But yeah, and I think that's such a great way to think about it. So, I mean, that goes the other way, too. If somebody's being mean to you, yeah. Because I think a lot of people have dealt with, like, you know, assholes strangers on the internet.

Yeah, it's so true.

Because, like at this point in this story, it's like, these people need to mind their business. They do, you know, let two people care, they're two consenting adults.

And obviously, like this story, it's like it's so much bigger than people just being assholes.

Absolutely.

There's not even words for what these people are.

This gets taken into the stratosphere.

Like a nightmare, nightmare territory, but anyway, most weekend nights at the People's Club. Tim could be found, I'm sure you can guess, at the center of that dance floor, where his energy and charm just shone. But that night, Tim seemed very distracted.

Oh.

The next day, no one in the Coggins house actually really thought much of the fact that Tim hadn't come home the night before, Lowery wrote. It was typical for him to disappear for a few days at a time. He knew everyone around town, so the safe assumption was that he was crashing on someone's couch.

And if you know everybody around town, it's like, Yeah, you got a ton of places to stay.

Right? But Tim was not crashing on anybody's couch the next day, two days after Tim had gone out to meet Mickey at the club. Sheriff's deputies were trying to identify a man in his early 20s whose badly beaten body had been found in a field not very far away from the People's Choice Club. Operating, apparently, without any sensitivity for the potential friends and family of this victim. The photo that deputies were circulating was of a brutalized Black man in his early 20s. His face was beaten so badly that he was essentially unrecognizable. But they were going around saying, like, Do you know who this is?

What the fuck?

Like, I don't understand.

I was just going to say, Why would you ever?

Absolutely. It was only later that she told a reporter she didn't want to admit what she knew immediately. It was Tim, but her immediate trauma response is No, that's not my brother, no way.

Yeah, I don't blame her, because that's absolutely your brain trying to protect yourself.

And that family never should have seen that photo.

No.

Like, that never should have been their last vision of their loved one.

No, of course not.

It's awful. But on the morning of October 8th, Tim's body was discovered by a father and son who were out squirrel hunting on the outer edge of an airfield in Griffin. The autopsy had yet to be performed, but from what the sheriff's department could tell. And I just want to let you know, this is a lot like, this is very graphic. Tim had dozens of knife wounds in the back, torso, wrist and neck.

Oh.

Like this is.

That's.

It's animal behavior.

That's worse than animal behavior, I don't know how animals don't do this.

I don't know how you can do anything like to hurt another person physically. I don't understand that headspace. Thankfully, I don't know how you do this. This is not just hurting a person, this is beyond....

Doing this.

Rehabilitation or anything, any kind of anything, if you're capable of this, I don't know.

That's the depth.

It's heinous.

The true depth.

Georgia Bureau of Investigation GBI agent Jared Coleman said it appeared he had been chained to the back of a truck. That truck then drug him. Feet first around in a square pattern, and there were sites of blood at each corner.

So this?

You dragged him around and around.

No i.

And this all comes down to him dating a white woman.

And we've heard stories like this before.

We absolutely have.

Which is like, this isn't a one-off by any stretch of the imagination. No, and that's something everybody should. That's just like....

It's unfathomable. It comes down to who he decided to date, who he liked and who liked him.

I was going to say, And who liked him back?

He was harassing this girl. She met up with him at the club, She was having a good time with him, They liked each other. That's not your fucking business.

Yeah, I mean, yeah.

Look inward.

Forever, forever, and don't join society ever again.

The sad part is, and I'll tell you right from the top, these people got to stay in society for a really long time. Before any justice was served in this story, awesome, before any justice whatsoever. But a few days later, and I told you from the top, this is a heavy one.

Yeah.

A few days later, the autopsy confirmed what the sheriff's officers already assumed, and, unfortunately, unveiled several other horrible details. It was very difficult to tell the order in which Tim's wounds had been inflicted, but the medical examiner believed that he had been knocked to the ground and stabbed seven times in the chest in what appeared to be a kind of star pattern, and there were two intersecting slashes on his chest and back. About 11 inches like it went 11 inches in what formed a large X, which I'm sure, you know why? In addition to the chest wounds, the tendon behind one of his knees was severed, and that was with an additional stab.

Holy shit.

Finally, his attackers dragged him further into the field and he was hit over the head with a large, heavy object that they believed could have been a wooden chair or a table leg. And then his body was dragged even further. And this is gross to the base of a tree that locals referred to as the hanging tree. And he was left there to die. What the fuck? The medical examiner determined that the cause of death had been from the stab wounds, but....

They don't know what order that all happened in.

They don't know what order. And this was not. He was tortured.

Absolutely.

These people could have stopped their actions at any point in time, and only continued and progressed to do worse and worse things to this human being.

The fact that you're telling me that these people, and obviously it's several people, that these people were walking around in society after this for a long time.

Years, years and years and years.

And interacting with other people, and probably being around children, and being around humans, and being alone with people.

Not only that, let me even up that telling people what they did, telling people about this. Are you boasting about it?

For years. Sometimes it's really base level to be a human being. Sometimes when you hear shit like this, you're like, this sucks. It sucks to be in the same kind of species as these people. It's like, damn.

Because we're the only species that will do this to each other.

That's the thing. Sometimes it's real gross to be the same species.

It's beyond words. I've had this one done for a little bit and have been getting into the headspace to actually do this case justice and present it well.

Yeah.

This is gnarly, I keep saying, there's just not words for what. This is the fact that this is true. This happened, and like you said earlier, this is not the first time it's happened.

No.

Not the last time it happened. No, absolutely not this shit, similar shit like this happens right now, right now, in the times that we live in.

Yeah.

It's tough. I think it's an important story to tell. Absolutely, it is Tim's story. People should know who he was.

I mean, there's people that still walk around and are like, racism is fake.

Sit down, let me tell you a story. Exactly now. Like I said, at the time of the murder, Griffin was a still somewhat, and I don't even know what. It's segregated, it's barely somewhat Black people living on one side and white residents living on the other.

Yeah, it's almost like they formed it into a bat.

Exactly actually exactly.

With the electrical tape.

Yep, but with no other evidence, they believe that the killer must have taken the knife. That they used to do everything they did to tim with them when they left the scene. And in the absence of the additional.

Jordan following that lead. Because obviously, you can't just ignore that.

And you don't have anything else.

That's the thing, so I understand that.

But there's hate here.

There's hate and rage.

And animalistic behavior. I just want to make sure that it doesn't get lost in a drug deal gone bad kind of thing because spoiler alert.

That's not what it is, that's not what it is.

He didn't really get more information on the supposed $600 weed deal, but he did hear another rumor that piqued his interest. Someone told Jordan that Sandra Bunn, a local white woman living in Cary's Park, had been bragging to her neighbors about Tim's murder. What the fuck? And she's not the only person that was around town. Bragging about this murder, bragging about having information, about knowing who did it, the people who did it were bragging about having done it.

Imagine bragging about being like a fucking lizard person? no, who? just like, imagine being that. No, I actually won't.

No return to the ooze where you belong, that's exactly where these people belong. This case, like, elicits so much anger, so much anger, and just like some of them, I can't.

You another black man, just go direct traffic, we're good. We gonna just say this is coincidence, or what?

Can you imagine? I can't even begin to imagine how he would have felt in that moment. Yeah, because you're helpless, exactly.

You're gonna do this with your whole chest, like you're just gonna throw me on traffic duty with your whole fucking chest. And this is my livelihood.

I can't just like, quit and get another job somewhere else. Well, that's the problem here, I have to stay here.

They know they have the power here because they know that this is somebody's livelihood. They're not just gonna throw it away. And it's like, but he's sitting here, struggling with probably so many emotions and so many different feelings. Yeah, yeah.

It's unbelievable the fact that this is a true story, and yeah, it's so similar to other stories, it's just fucked. But in his place, Freeman assigned a white officer who went out to Carey's Park and interviewed Frank Gebhardt. According to Frank, he was at his girlfriend's house all evening on the night of the murder. And she corroborated that at the time of the interview.

Interesting choice. Yeah, that's very interesting.

So not long after Oscar Jordan was taken off of the case, the Coggins family started getting anonymous threats at home and at work. Tim's stepfather, Robert, got to his job as a bus driver one morning and found that somebody had left a bloody t-shirt on the bus that he drove. Every single morning. What? A few days later, somebody threw a brick through one of their windows and it had a note tied to it that read You're next, what the fuck.

I don't even know what to say, like, this is just like and why this kind of behavior is just so funny.

There's no reason to do something like this to anyone.

No, no, for for people to be able to sit there and like to to justify this in their own mind, somehow, somehow.

And, like, lay their head on a pillow.

The mental gymnastics you have to be doing to justify this kind of like, oozy behavior is it's really unbelievable. It's beyond, yeah.

She struck him with her motor vehicle, she had been under the influence, and then she left him there. In January 2022, local woman Karen Reed was implicated in the mysterious death of her boyfriend, Boston Police Officer John O'Keefe. It was alleged that after an innocent night out for drinks with friends, Karen and John got into a lover's quarrel en route to the next location. What happens next depends on who you ask.

They can't even properly bury and memorialize their loved one, because people won't even let that lie. No, and they wouldn't have no like, I mean.

Look what they were doing to this family after after what they did to him.

They can't even think like he's not even safe and deaf. No, no, his niece, that's you, that's. It's disgusting.

Went through continuously for so many years. That's awful, his niece, Heather, said. We never put a headstone on his grave. We didn't know if they were going to desecrate the grave, We didn't know what they were capable of.

And do that to me, absolutely, that's a real fear.

The fear that these people had to have been living in like terrifying. But with Oscar Jordan no longer leading the investigation, the case quickly went cold, almost as though no one at the sheriff's office had any interest in solving the murder. It's almost like crazy. By December, just two months after Tim's murder, the department shelved the case and cited a lack of leads and a need to allocate resources elsewhere. Leaving the Coggins family without answers and completely hopeless, Heather commented Who do you turn to for help when the number one people who are supposed to help you don't?

The helpless feeling there and the absolute desperation that goes unanswered must be I can't even conceive of it.

Your whole life is here, That's the thing, your job, your house, your family. every. You can't just get up and leave. That's the thing it's not.

It's not that easy just to get the hell away from here and get to somewhere. And who? At this point, I'm like, and you don't even know where you could go, where do you go? That it's going to be better and where, and you can't.

Tim's here. Yeah, Tim's grave is there, you can't leave him.

And again, you can't. It's not that easy just to pick up and run to another state or run somewhere else. It's like, that's that, and they know that.

And unfortunately, by design, it wasn't. It was specifically not easy for the Black community to have the resources.

The power Dynamic knows that.

And eventually, the months turned into years, years turned into decades, leaving the family to face the likelihood that Tim's killer would absolutely never be brought to justice. So, due to limited resources, major crimes in rural parts of Georgia, especially murder, are actually typically handled by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, who are much better equipped to investigate the cases. Since the early 2000s, the GBI actually had a practice of cycling its cold cases for review. In the hope that new officers, fresh eyes, might pick something up that other previous investigators had missed. So in 2016, the Timothy Coggins murder case, then 33 years cold.

33 years, 33 years with nothing.

But it made its way to the desk of Jared Coleman, a young agent who had started with the GBI just two years earlier. After looking over the case file, what struck Coleman the most was not what the file actually contained, but what was noticeably absent from the file. Oscar Jordan's notes heavily indicated that he believed Frank Gebhart and Bill Moore to be the two white men seen with Tim outside of the club, and he strongly suspected that they were the two who were responsible for Tim's murder. But as far as Coleman could tell, aside from the one brief interview with Frank Gebhart, There was very little attempt to question either man or even verify their alibis on the night of the murder.

Happened well. And the good thing is, like, as we know, like, uh, girlfriends and boyfriends never lie when it comes to alibis for their uh, for their, for their partner. So yeah, never. It's really good that they.

That they just let that go checked anywhere else. Yeah, exactly.

She would never lie about that. I'm sure all these people seem like they're really like, you know, tip top people. So yeah, I definitely don't double check those, those statements. I bet she's telling the truth, I bet it's fine.

Now, while there was very little evidence collected during the initial investigation, it appeared several key pieces of evidence collected in 1983 had just gone.

Missing. Oh, I, you know, that happens, it happens all the time, it always happens in very specific cases, but it happens. Yeah, totally.

Among the evidence that had gone missing Tim's pants and sweater, which actually had contained hair samples when they found them. Oh.

I bet that wasn't, that was just coincidence. Yeah, just crazy, yeah.

The wooden table leg, oh, uh, the Jack Daniels bottle and the tire impressions that were taken at the scene.

Uh, so the evidence, so literally almost every piece of evidence that they had.

Because, remember, they barely had any evidence at the scene other than most of those things.

When this shit happens, in cases where they're just like, we lost mountains of evidence for this massive murder case. You're just like, who fucking believes that? Like, who? Who's the person? That's like, Yeah, that happens like, I also want to know.

Who destroyed that? Yeah, who are you, who went out and did whatever the fuck they did with that to make it get lost? And then went home and ate dinner with their family? Yeah?

Who laid their head on a fluffy little pillow that night after getting rid of?

That evidence? And just went on to live their fucking privileged ass life.

Well, well, probably living in the area and seeing this family.

This family.

Seeing them going through 30 plus years of torment and not knowing what happened to their loved one. Yep, but every night just fluffy pillow.

Lay your head on it, I, I'm angry right now.

Like, I just, I. So many people had to be so fucking gross in this case, and that's what was really. This isn't just like, not that, it's like ever. Just, you know, like the one murderer, you know what I mean, that like, like in a murder case, you'll have, like, the bad person who did it, you know, and usually you can count on the investigators. To be the good guys and to be like, you get the good guys and you get the good people. That come out and fix this for the family, or like, at least try to come and put something together for the family.

In 1983, there was one good guy, Oscar Jordan, who got reassigned to traffic. As far as we know, like, as far as key players in this story, I'm sure there were other, like good people on the police force. I'm not saying, I mean, I know for a fact, that there was a lot of absolutely deplorable, disgusting humans. That weren't even just investigators, like secretaries that worked at the at the police station were in on this. That's what I'm talking about, it's like it goes.

That's why this kind of thing is so, it's like, so beyond the scope of comprehension, because it's like so many people.

Have to be so shitty at one place and time all together, yep.

Like, they all have to join hands and be the shittiest, kind of like subterranean fucking filth scum together. Yeah, it's not again. Not just you can't just look at these bad guys and be like, Wow, bad guys, subterranean, shitty ooze.

To think of, there's a lot of victims in this case, Timothy Coggins, obviously, Timothy Coggins family, obviously. Then I couldn't stop thinking about Oscar Jordan while I was writing this. Having to go into this police station where he works every single day, knowing one that he was taken off the case. But you know, there was whispering going on about what they were doing with this evidence to get it lost, what they were doing to actively ignore this case.

You know, he was probably feeling all of that.

He was there the day it got shelved, and it's like, he's a Black man, and he was. He was so close to solving this. Or at least like, like trying breaking it open, breaking it open, like doing anything.

I was just going to say, saw the depths of depravity and then decided to reach there. Yeah, interesting.

Your brain can't really compute this. Because he wants to help, and he, he does help in this investigation, but he's fucking disgusting.

That's that's, it's heinous, but accordingly, there's no true good people in this, not in this at all.

Except, except Oscar, Jordan and Coleman here. But, according to Vaughn's letter, since the murder in 1983, Frank Gebhardt had admitted to him several times that he and Bill Moore had killed. Tim Coggins. After Frank learned that his girlfriend, Mickey Guy, had been cheating on him with Tim. A decision that she made, I was just going to say she made that decision as far as like, I don't know if Tim knew even that Mickey had a boyfriend.

He doesn't know, and and you can't prove that he did, like, that's the thing. It's like, that's she's the one who cheated.

That's not an acceptable way to handle that, that's the other thing it's like.

That's that doesn't even touch the fact that there's literally no justification for what.

You did none, but he confessed. Frank confessed, uh, first to Vaughn at a house party when Vaughn was just a teenager. But Vaughn claimed he confessed several times after that, always in a proud and boastful manner, according to Vaughn. Gebhardt told him they killed Tim and taken all the evidence back to his house and dumped it in an old well on the property.

Fuck, where's that old? Well, I'll let you know, Oh good.

Coleman said the case really hadn't been fully dived into since 1983. But based on his cursory review, he could tell that. The sheriff's office in 1983 had made essentially zero effort to follow up on any leads after Oscar, Jordan was taken off the case. So, now, completely determined to fill in these gaps, Coleman paid a visit to Bill Moore, who was immediately uncooperative and wildly evasive. I'm shocked. Despite having lived in the small town for his entire fucking life, this is a small, rural community where, like everyone, knows everyone. Moore claimed to know nothing about this case.

What, what a what a choice to make, what a choice to go that route.

You live in the trailer park where multiple people are walking around talking about this, you live in the trailer park where he was last seen. Even if you do have nothing to do with this, you fucking heard of it, you've definitely heard of it, you've heard of this wild, wild, insane, disgusting story.

So thank goodness, someone is aware of that, yeah.