Renee McBreen (2 of Spades, Florida)

When Renee was 22 years old, her main goal was to provide a good life for her son Caleb.

But in September 1992, Renee was attacked in her Jacksonville, Florida home after hosting

Caleb's third birthday party.

While Renee's killer spared Caleb's life, their actions took away the person who loved

him most and shattered his sense of safety and belonging for years to come.

Today, a cold case detective is renewing the push for answers in Renee's murder, hoping

to finally repair some of the damage that was done over 30 years ago.

I'm Ashley Flowers, and this is The Deck.

It was only about 8 a.m. in Colorado Springs the morning of September 21st, 1992.

But Bill McBreen didn't think it'd be too early to call his wife and son back home in

Jacksonville, Florida.

It'd be pushing 10 there, and with it being a Monday, Bill figured they would be up and

at them.

Plus, morning calls were a regular thing for them since Bill was stationed in Colorado

for the Navy.

Even though he and Renee were separated, it was important to Bill to stay in regular contact

with Caleb.

So Bill dialed Renee's house number, and to his surprise, Caleb answered.

And he immediately said something strange.

I can't wake mommy.

Caleb, who had just turned three the day before, didn't understand why his mom was asleep

on the living room floor.

It was weird, but again, kinda early, and Bill couldn't think too hard about it because

he had to get to class, so he said he would call back after.

Two and a half hours later, between 12 and 12.30 p.m. in Jacksonville, Bill called back.

Caleb, who is 33 now, recalls this.

I still can't wake up mom.

At this point, apparently I was a little more aware of what was going on, and I'd said that

she was dead.

And he called, you know, immediately, he's calling her mom and saying, hey, you gotta

get over there.

Caleb's saying he can't wake her up.

for a welfare check.

Sergeant Ray Reeves of the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office told our reporting team that an officer

was dispatched to Renee's house right away.

that Caleb was there, could not see Renee.

The officer tried to get Caleb to come to the door and unlock it.

The front door was locked and he could not.

The back door was also locked, and Caleb could not open the door.

The police officer saw that there was a window that was slightly ajar.

He did note that there was debris, dust, and stuff on the window.

So it had not been opened, or no one had come in or out of that window, I should say.

So the officer went in through that window, found Caleb to be okay, and then that's when

they discovered Renee deceased.

She had a bloody gash on her head and there was blood on the floor nearby.

So police knew right away that whatever had happened had been violent.

She was wearing a t-shirt and underwear and had a blanket partially covering her.

The patrol officer, a guy named J.A. Bradley, scooped up Caleb and took him to his patrol

car where they waited for medical personnel and the homicide unit to arrive.

Detectives got to the residential neighborhood of Murray Hill not long after, just before 1.

When detectives first went inside, the bloody scene in the living room was a stark contrast

to the rest of the house.

There's birthday presents.

There's wrapping paper.

There's still signs up that say happy birthday.

party had just happened.

Detectives started to look around for more clues and took in the rest of the scene.

The front door was deadbolted and even though the back door had been locked when Officer

Bradley got there, detectives noticed that it was one of those turn lock doorknobs that

you could push in from the inside and then the door would lock when you closed it on

your way out.

There does not appear to be anything missing.

These drawers weren't gone through.

There wasn't things strewn about.

There wasn't things kicked over.

It wasn't as if something was being searched for.

There wasn't missing money or anything like that.

Maybe that husband she was separated from.

But it didn't take long for police to confirm Bill's alibi.

We're going to make sure that that's happening, you know, pulling Navy records and making

sure we have documentation that you're there, all of those things.

We trust people, but we verify.

Bill was in Colorado.

But the second he found out about Renee's murder, he made arrangements to get to Florida

to be with his son.

With no clear motive yet, detectives were desperate for clues.

And fortunately, the tiny house made relevant items easy to spot, like a crumpled up piece

of paper next to Renee's body with a bloody palm print on it.

The paper was sort of smushed into a piece of cloth, so both were bagged as evidence.

According to old reporting by the Florida Times Union newspaper, they also noticed that

a leg of a table nearby was broken.

Police dusted all around for fingerprints, but there was no weapon for them to process

because there wasn't an obvious murder weapon anywhere to be found.

Police wrapped crime scene tape around the outside of the house, and some officers started

to canvas the neighborhood while others prepared to notify and interview Renee's family members.

Just then, a man showed up at the house asking what was going on.

He told officers that he was Renee's boyfriend and he hadn't been able to get a hold of her.

That man, who we'll call Aaron, said that he worked with Renee at a place called the

Bikini Club.

So they pulled him aside and told him what had happened, and they began asking him questions.

Everyone liked her.

She was very popular.

Never had any arguments with anyone other than some customers trying to be handsy, and

they didn't allow that at the club.

He said he'd known about the party that Renee was throwing for her son, but he hadn't been

there because he'd been working.

So he couldn't provide anything helpful, like who was there?

Did anything happen?

I mean, at this point, they didn't know much about when Renee died, so anything would have

helped.

Like, they wondered if Renee had been murdered at her own toddler's birthday party, or if

her attacker had come over after everyone had left.

But Aaron couldn't help with any of that, and since he was cooperative and didn't seem

to be hiding anything, and also wasn't providing anything super useful, they decided to let

him go and just talk to him more later.

You see, they had someone more pressing to talk to.

The one person who was for sure there, in the home when Renee was killed.

Little Caleb.

Not by patrol officers, but by the child protection team.

He was interviewed, DCF.

They're forensic investigators, where they know, they specifically ask children questions

under the age of 12.

They're not leading questions, so it isn't that a patrolman's like, hey, who did this?

That kind of a thing.

So these are separate.

He was taken there.

And he was unable to recall.

The only thing he did remember seeing was, he just said, a big man.

He said there was a big man fighting with mommy.

Even today, his recollection is just based off of what he's been told over the years.

What makes you do that to a woman?

Did you black out, and then when you came to, it was too late?

Did you, I just, I don't know.

And he's tried to remember back, obviously, with the trauma of seeing something like that.

Even when I met with him, tried, if there's anything else you can remember, not trying

to re-traumatize him, but just to ask him to walk back through that again, and he doesn't.

He doesn't even remember saying that.

seen a big brown van at Renee's house the day before, and they hadn't recognized it.

Maybe olive complexion, maybe Hispanic, maybe just tanned, Florida.

It could just be that as well.

But there was a white male that was driving that.

Unknown if that was related or not, but there was a van in the area.

been weird for lots of cars to have been parked there.

Maybe ones that weren't normally there.

But they noted it anyway, and they'd follow up on it later.

Over the next day, neighbors told police and newspaper reporters that Renee had just moved

into that house a few months prior, so they didn't know her super well.

They had just seen her and Caleb together in the neighborhood.

A few other neighbors told the Florida Times-Union back in 92 that they thought they had heard

maybe a man and a woman arguing in the home or just outside of the home Sunday morning.

But Detective Reeves wasn't sure if those accounts were ever verified.

As police were notifying Renee's mom and other immediate family members of her death,

they were also gathering names of people who had been at the party.

All of the people tracked down that first day said it had been a nice, wholesome celebration

with cake and presents, and there hadn't been a fight or tension or anything.

They were able to piece together that there had been maybe 20-some people at the party,

which had started Sunday afternoon.

Attendees were Renee's relatives, friends, co-workers, and even some of their young kids, too.

Police began tracking them all down and talking with them one by one, and they got everyone's fingerprints.

But gathering if and when everyone actually left or if anyone else came by, that was a little harder.

eight or nine that night, so we don't know.

But that time frame, specifically.

by the time the last partygoers left Renee's house.

That meant that she was either killed late Sunday night or early Monday morning.

There are some unverified reports online that said after the birthday party, Renee, Caleb,

and a few family members went to a nearby Dunkin' Donuts at around like 9.30 p.m.,

and that Renee and Caleb went home alone from the coffee shop.

But Detective Reeves said that he hadn't ever read about the late-night donut run,

so who knows if that's really true or where that story originated.

If this is real and anyone out there has info about this and maybe you're just assuming police know, don't.

Otherwise, it's just getting chalked up to rumor.

Renee's autopsy was done the next day and it revealed that she had died of blunt force trauma to the head.

It wasn't clear if she had been sexually assaulted, but a kit was done.

Detective Reeves said evidence was preserved from the kit,

so that would lead one to assume that they found semen maybe or some sort of biological evidence,

but he wouldn't confirm what.

No drugs or alcohol in her system, which wasn't surprising to investigators

because they didn't find any substances inside her house either.

But other results from the exam were surprising

because the autopsy revealed that Renee had been pregnant.

On September 23rd of 92, the Florida Times Union ran a story with the headline,

Slain Woman Was Pregnant, asserting that she was two months along.

It also featured a photo of Caleb with his dad, Bill McBreen,

who had just gotten to Jacksonville from Colorado.

That same story featured an interview with Renee's sister, Shannon,

who told the newspaper that she had been at Caleb's birthday party

and the last time she saw her sister was when she left her house at around 6.30 Sunday evening.

Shannon also said that Renee had been,

involved in a recent feud with a male acquaintance about her unborn child

and feared that the man wanted to prevent her from having the baby,

end quote.

There was a lot of speculation like that

relayed to police and reporters in the days after Renee's death.

Renee's husband, Bill, said that he had been away in Colorado for at least six months

and he didn't even know about the pregnancy.

But it didn't seem like Bill was shocked by the news because, again,

they were separated and he admitted that they were both openly seeing other people.

They were trying to reestablish their relationship and work on that.

He was very honest with them about that.

Hey, look, yeah, we'd seen other people and we were having a hard time,

but we knew that this time apart was going to be good

and we were going to work on the relationship.

Well, who's the father?

Police would love to know.

and also the FBI and also private labs to have the baby tested

to see if they could determine who was the father.

That is not a possibility.

Back then, things were stored in formaldehyde and so that destroyed everything.

but that doesn't mean no one was coming forward.

I mean, remember Aaron, the man who showed up at Renee's house claiming to be her boyfriend?

Police now had some more questions for him.

And when they went and talked to him right away, he's like,

yeah, the baby's mine.

But there were other parts of the rumor that he disputed.

and that he did not want her to have an abortion and that she was going to have the baby.

He wouldn't want to do anything to hurt her.

Plus, he offered up an alibi.

He reiterated that he had been at the bikini club working all night on Sunday.

So detectives made their way to the club to interview other employees there.

And all of them backed up Aaron's story.

He was there all Sunday night into Monday,

up until the moment he went to Renee's and found police there.

But police had more questions for their co-workers.

Did she have any fights with anybody who came in?

Did somebody owe her money?

Did she owe somebody?

All of those natural questions that you begin asking.

and she got along with her co-workers and customers,

even the ones who tried to play grab ass, which was strictly off limits.

She didn't argue or fight with anyone other than some people who got handsy.

Wasn't in any disagreements with anyone.

Loved her son immensely and was trying to take care of him and a better life.

For him, he was her world.

there was no indication that Renee was doing anything more than dancing at the club.

Detectives say they have zero reason to believe that she ever engaged in sex work

or took customers home or anything like that.

And Renee's co-workers couldn't recall her being threatened by anyone or stalked or anything.

there was then also another whole network of people to begin questioning and talking to

and finding out where they were and then getting there.

And people were cooperative on getting their fingerprints so that they could compare.

and Renee's co-workers from the club,

they had 37 different fingerprints to compare to the prints that they found at her house.

But Reeves said that none of those were a match,

which is wild if you think about it.

Because I'm sure the people who were at Caleb's birthday party

touched a bunch of stuff around the house.

But Detective Reeves didn't want to go into detail about

where exactly they lifted the prints from and how they went about comparing all of them.

He just said that none of them were a match to the party guests

or Renee's co-workers who had been interviewed and fingerprinted.

Anyways, as if they weren't dealing with enough possible witnesses,

through all of those interviews,

police learned that Renee had a roommate, a friend named Diana.

How are they just learning about someone who lived in her house?

It seems weird, right?

But the answer is actually pretty mundane.

She had apparently been out of state with a friend when Renee was murdered.

And when they tracked her down,

she didn't have anything super helpful for them to go on.

So with nearly 40 potential witnesses involved in Renee's investigation,

it was a lot of mud for detectives to wade through.

Because there was just so much speculation in the weeks and months after her murder.

And so you had people pointing their fingers at all kinds of people that it could have been.

Certainly was this.

Most all of those were deemed it wasn't accurate.

That wasn't the case.

And he helped fill detectives in on what Renee's life had been like.

Bill was much older than Renee,

but he said that they'd been in love when they got married two years before.

And they were very happy in the beginning.

Caleb has some old photos from that time.

And here's what he gathered.

but she didn't want to be a military wife who got stuck living in Colorado Springs

while he's on boat or living in San Diego alone.

So that was a big part of their marriage was,

she wanted to be at home in Jacksonville with her mom and her sister.

And he expected her to kind of go.

They were married.

Go with me.

So that was always a tough thing for them.

Caleb went to live with his dad in Colorado.

But soon after,

Bill asked the Navy to send him back to Florida.

Caleb needs his family.

I need a sports system.

I can't raise him by myself.

So he moves back to Jacksonville and essentially becomes obsessed.

He is trying to figure out what happened.

And he's going to nightclubs.

He's going to work all day at the Navy,

coming home, seeing me, feeding me dinner,

giving me to Denise, my godmom,

keep him, I'm going to go out and ask questions.

He ends up going to a club one night and he's asking people,

did you know Renee?

Do you know what happened to Renee?

And he walks out of the club and he gets jumped.

And that was the end of it.

He kind of realized at that point,

if I keep doing this, I'm going to get hurt.

I've got a son to raise.

to stop looking into Renee's murder.

So he did for their safety.

Over the next several months,

investigators kept doing interviews with Renee's friends and family members and colleagues.

And they even tried following up on that brown van lead,

but it didn't turn up anything.

The investigation needed a break now more than ever.

And by God, they got one.

It was around this time that all of the blood tests came back.

Now, disappointingly,

they showed that all of the blood in the house belonged to Renee.

But remember that bloody palm print found on a crumpled piece of paper

and cloth near her body?

Well, that was also Renee's blood,

but it was not Renee's palm print.

The police officer didn't touch it.

That palm print belongs to Renee's killer.

Detective Reeves said he thinks that the killer used the paper and cloth

to wrap around the murder weapon

in order to not leave fingerprints behind.

Now, Detective Reeves wouldn't tell us

what investigators believed the murder weapon was.

He just said that they never found it.

So the killer likely took it with them,

accidentally leaving behind their palm print.

Now, this is great evidence,

but useless until police get a match,

either in a database or by direct comparison,

which to this day, they still never have.

For years after this,

not a whole lot happened in Renee's case.

the detective who got the case originally retired

six months after she passed away.

I think the handoff,

I think police often will tell you

if you inherit a case,

you don't have all that knowledge,

you know, to keep chasing it.

I think after that was handed off,

it was kind of, you know,

it's been six months.

We're not going to figure it out.

It is what it is.

left most of her family broken.

Caleb lived with his dad for several years after,

but there was this huge void in their life.

on top of what happened to Renee,

and it kind of stuck with him.

I think the damage that can be done

from something like that

isn't something you see externally.

And in his age,

we're always told don't talk about things.

And I think that kind of hindered

being able to process it

and being able to move on.

he was running away and getting into trouble.

He said he was in and out of

Child Protective Services custody.

And when he turned 12,

his family put him in a military school.

But about a year in,

the school got shut down

and parents were told to come get their kids.

But no one showed up to get Caleb.

So he ran away.

for putting herself in a spot

that put me in foster care

and some other bad spots.

I wish like hell someone would have told

14-year-old me it wasn't her fault.

I genuinely,

and I'm ashamed to admit it,

but I had so much disdain

because of the way I grew up.

And I felt like it was her fault,

victim blaming, I guess.

But as a kid, I kept telling myself,

if you didn't make bad decisions,

I want to be in a military school.

I want to be in a youth crisis center.

I want to be in a foster care home.

It wasn't until the last 10 years

I finally found some peace

and found it's not her fault.

he was in foster care

and eventually ended up in Texas

by way of a foster family.

The state of Florida hadn't kept tabs on him.

And Caleb's first foster mom

kicked him out after a few years.

So by the time he was 15,

he found himself working on a ranch in Texas.

And the family there embraced him,

nurtured him,

and eventually adopted him.

when I was 17.

And I kept telling them,

like, you don't have to do that.

Like, you know, I'm about to age out anyways.

And they're like, no, you're a kid.

just change Caleb's last name

from McBreen to Flanagan.

His adoptive mother encouraged him

to open up about his life

and the process was therapeutic and eye-opening.

But it didn't happen overnight.

Because of the dysfunction in his childhood

and adults trying to protect him,

Caleb grew up not knowing a ton about his mom

or the truth behind what really happened to her.

And not lie, like, with intention of malice.

But one of them told me

my mom was accidentally murdered.

One of them told me

that basically she was roughed up a little bit.

She accidentally hit her head too hard.

So growing up, I had like nine different stories

that I kind of, like,

tried to piece together a little bit.

I just don't understand.

I feel like more people know what happened to her.

I feel like it's a public thing

in a circle of people

that they've just held to themselves for years.

that Caleb was finding himself in Texas

and starting to ask questions

about what really happened to his mom,

police were getting their first big break in 13 years.

In 2005, a call came in

to the Jacksonville Sheriff's office.

On the other end of the line was a woman

who said that she had just divorced a man

who killed Renee McBreen.

and that it was an accident.

She didn't give an indication as to how.

You know, they questioned her about,

was she stabbed?

Was she shot?

Was she strangled?

All those.

And she said, he didn't say.

And I didn't ask.

He just happened to say this

almost like he was very remorseful or regretful

that this happened.

And she said, I didn't push it.

I didn't ask him anything.

And he only said it the one time.

had never before been on police's radar

for Renee's murder.

But in 2005, they tracked him down pretty fast

because he was in jail for something unrelated.