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Start a 30-day free trial at WalmartPlus.com. Paramount Plus is central plan only. Separate registration required. See Walmart Plus terms and conditions. This is episode 20, Picking Up Pace. If you're just tuning in to season three for the first time, this is our finale episode. This season, we dropped all 20 episodes at once for you to binge, but it's important that you listen in order, starting at episode one.
For those of you who've made it all the way through season three, this is the culmination of a very large story that includes my investigation into five murder victims across two states. This is not a story that ties up with A Pretty Bow, but as you listen to this last episode, you'll see why telling it was so important.
When you purchase a gun from a store or a private seller, there's supposed to be a record of the transaction. U.S. law requires you fill out a federal firearms form. In the 1980s, Bob Pelley didn't have one of those forms for a .22 revolver someone gave to him and his first wife, Joy. According to Jeff and Jackie, one day their dad just suddenly had a .22 revolver.
He told the kids a vague story that a close friend gave the gun to him. Throughout most of their childhood, Jackie remembers her dad kept the gun wrapped in a green cloth under a bed in the master bedroom. Jeff and Jackie say while living in Florida, their family would go out target shooting with the .22. Bob promised to Jeff that when he turned 18, he would get the .22 as a sort of heirloom. But in April of 1988, plans changed.
Like I told you in a previous episode, in spring of '88, Jeff threatened to take his own life. So, concerned for Jeff's safety, Bob removed the .22 from the Pelley home and gave it to an anonymous person for safekeeping.
According to police reports and eyewitness testimony, at some point between fall of 1988 and spring of 1989, Bob also gave a sack of guns to Thomas Kebb. But according to multiple interview transcripts, the .22 revolver was not in that bundle of guns. It was already gone from the parsonage.
Somehow, according to both Jackie and Jeff, by January of 1989, Bob had possession of the .22 again. I know this because Jackie told detectives that in January of 1989, her dad told the kids that he had the .22, but it, quote, just wasn't in the house, end quote.
What's super interesting is that I found a report that states Bob gave the .22 to his sister in Ohio not long before he died. So if you believe all of these accounts, that means the .22 revolver disappeared from the parsonage in Indiana in spring of 1988. Then it was back in Bob's possession eight months later.
Sometime between January of 1989 and right before he was murdered, Bob gave the gun to his sister. My question is, where was the .22 from spring of 1988 until January of 1989? When Bob told his kids in January 1989 that he had the gun, but it just wasn't in the house, where was it?
The reason I think the whereabouts of the Pelley's 22 are important is because I know based on information from the Lee County Sheriff's Office that Eric Dawson was murdered with a .22 revolver in September of 1988. Now, there are a lot of .22 revolvers out there in the world, thousands, and I'm not saying the Pelley's gun is the murder weapon that killed Eric, but you see why I asked the question, right?
In light of the close proximity of all of the characters in this story, I think the Pellys 22 is worth law enforcement looking into. If there's a universe where the Pellys 22 was the gun used to murder Eric, and Bob got it back from someone after that crime, he essentially was in possession of a smoking gun. He just may not have known it, or maybe he did.
It's possible Bob could have realized in January of 1989 that the gun was a murder weapon. I think that could explain why he made sure it was out of the parsonage in case Eric's killer came looking for it. It could also explain Bob's strange behavior leading up to the family murders. Like when Jackie said he grew paranoid, cried openly, and expressed concern of what the kids should do if something happened to him.
Honestly, the Lee County Sheriff's Office has nothing to lose if they were to test the Pelley's .22 against evidence in Eric's case. I mean, after all, Eric's murder is still unsolved. And according to Tom Cantinos, detectives recovered the bullet that killed him back in 1988. So it seems to me like testing that .22 is worth a shot. Up until I started investigating this case, the Pelley's .22 was unaccounted for.
According to reports and my interviews with family members, after the gun went to Bob's sister in Ohio, it left her possession and its whereabouts just sort of got lost with time. I can now officially tell you that after investigating this case, I've located that firearm.
I'm not going to say publicly where the gun is now, just in case it is of significant importance. But what I will say is that according to etching on the side of it, it's a Harrington & Richardson .22LR929 revolver. Based on the letters at the beginning of the serial number, the gun was made in 1979.
I brought all of this information to Fran Watson, Jeff's post-conviction attorney, and she was so intrigued by the observation that she assigned her law students at McKinney Law School to research and investigate the .22 Moore. We will absolutely take steps to determine whether the Pelley family's heirloom .22, so to speak, the gun that had been the
biological mother of Jessica and Jackie, Mr. Pelley's first wife, if that has any potential to be the murder weapon of Eric Dawson. It's interesting that Dawson's killed with a .22, and clearly the police never found the murder weapon in that crime. Fran told me if the gun is somehow connected to Eric Dawson's murder, it's not something she ever considered.
I'm thankful that you're a good journalist and a good investigative journalist and that you've recognized that in the spring of 1988, a gun, a .22 revolver that had belonged to that family was given to someone. You know, maybe Mr. Pelley was concerned that he had a murder weapon and he somehow could be linked to a murder. Mr. Pelley was a liability as a witness. Maybe they came up here to get that gun.
If law enforcement in Florida were to look into the 22 in relation to Eric's case, that would mean everything to the Dawson family. Jason, Eric's son, has been waiting 33 years for answers about who killed his dad. Because of the length of time, everybody kind of just said, you know what, you're wasting your time, buddy. And that was probably the most frustrating to hear. People who could do something about it.
and didn't want to, you know, do something about it. I don't think the Lee County Sheriff has been on the up and up for any of the information that has ever been uttered in their offices to me or to anybody involved in the case. When reporters would go, they would just say, "We can't speak on an active case." And I'm no exception. The response the Lee County Sheriff's Office gave me was that no one would do an interview with me about Eric's case.
Starting from the day Eric's body was found in 1988, the Lee County Sheriff's Office has claimed a public records exemption on all of the documents related to his homicide. To this day, nothing but his initial missing persons report is in public records. But the Sheriff's Office can only claim the public record exemption if they are actually working the case.
Several months ago, I decided to figure out just how active the Sheriff's Office investigation really was. Not surprising, there was no investigation happening at all. Ten pages deep on the Lee County Sheriff's Office unsolved murders website page, there wasn't a single mention or image of Eric Dawson.
Crime Stoppers of Southwest Florida didn't even have a profile for Eric in their gallery, which by the way is home to hundreds of unsolved Southwest Florida crimes going back decades, even beyond 1988. Basically, there had been zero recent activity on Eric's case. That is unacceptable in my book. So in January of this year, I pressed all of the entities involved to do something.
I called the state attorney's office in Fort Myers every day for weeks to have someone put me in touch with their homicide investigation unit. The state attorney in Florida is essentially a district attorney who oversees multiple counties. I wanted that agency to put pressure on the Lee County Sheriff's Office to reopen Eric's case. And after all of my efforts, I finally got a response.
Investigators from the state attorney's office wanted to meet in person at their headquarters in downtown Fort Myers.
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In early January 2021, my phone buzzed. On the other end was a violent crimes investigator for the state attorney's office in Lee County, Florida. He'd received my many messages about the Eric Dawson case and invited me to the 20th Judicial Circuit office building in Fort Myers. He wanted to hear what I had to say and become familiar with my investigation into Eric's case. Prior to my call, he said he was only minorly familiar with the subject.
He emphasized that to his knowledge, no one at the Lee County Sheriff's Office was currently assigned to the case. I told him I found that interesting because the Sheriff's Office is claiming a public records exemption on investigative documents. Once again, he reiterated that no one from his office or the Sheriff's Office was currently assigned to the case. When I showed up to our meeting, I brought Tom Cantinos along with me.
Tom is the former Lee County Sheriff's Office detective who initially investigated Eric's homicide. For an hour and a half, Tom and I filled this investigator in and recommended that he tell his boss, the state attorney, who holds more power, to pressure the Sheriff's Office into really investigating the case and potential suspects. During the meeting, I also brought up the Pelley's .22 revolver being something that should and could be forensically tested
A few weeks after that meeting, the investigator told me that until the Lee County Sheriff's Office recommends Eric's case for the state attorney's office to review, his hands are tied. So I'm asking you, listeners, to write, call, or email the Lee County Sheriff's Office in Florida to reopen Eric Dawson's case and work jointly with the state attorney's office to find his killer.
Contact information for Sheriff Carmine Mercino's staff is on our website, counterclockpodcast.com. Just go under the Season 3 tab, and we'll also link it directly in the show notes. The traction that this podcast is getting has really prompted Crimestoppers of Southwest Florida to get involved in drumming up new leads in Eric's case. Their director, Trish Rout, sat down with me for an interview after reviewing what little information the sheriff's office would release to her.
We need to start talking about this case again. We need to remind people that this case is still open. People that lived here back in 1988 when this happened will absolutely remember that time frame. But since 1988, really nobody has talked about this case, and that's a problem. Trish is discouraged that the Dawson family has had to live so many years without justice.
They shouldn't have to go five years, 10 years, 20 years, 30 years or more and not know who took their loved one. It was horrendous. It was horrifying what happened to him and the manner that it happened. It was such a brutal homicide. For that family to have to live with that without any answers is awful. And no family should ever have to do that. Trish is my kindred spirit. She's an aggressive advocate for unsolved homicides.
In her years of running Crimestoppers in Southwest Florida and helping obtain leads that contribute to solving cases, Eric's case is one that gives her great concern. She says based on what she knows, it's apparent to her that whoever is responsible likely has been able to silence many people who could identify them. If the person or persons responsible were from that financial realm,
How many other people have they enforced their displeasure with in this fashion? Yes, right now we're dealing with Eric's homicide. But are we dealing with other homicides in other areas that have similar circumstances? Anybody that has the capacity to kill someone in such an articulate manner as this person or persons did, they have the capacity to do that to other individuals as well. So
I'd be curious once this case is finally solved, and I hope that it will someday, I believe that it will someday, are there other homicides that can be related to some of the peripheral things around Eric's case? You know, this is not just a case where it's a local thing. There are tentacles that go outside of Southwest Florida, and there are people that are, I believe, that are probably in the know that are not even in our community, that hopefully if they hear this podcast...
they'll know that it's time to step up and do what needs to be done. Eric Dawson is now one of the first profiles you see on the Southwest Florida Crimestoppers website. Audiochuck even has a billboard up in Lee County, just waiting for the right person to see it and come forward.
As I wrap up this third season of CounterClock, I don't have as many solid answers as I'd like to. I personally don't feel I know, one way or the other, whether Jeff Pelley is innocent or guilty. I've found proof that he had an unfair trial, but that's not enough for me to take a side. Recently, I learned that for years, Phil Hawley has been writing Jeff letters in prison. A fact Jeff's own defense attorney, Fran Watson, told me she wasn't really aware of.
I don't know if Jeff wrote Phil back, but just the fact that they were in contact, I think, could mean a lot of things. Fran has been representing Jeff since 2009. Jeff knows how Fran feels regarding the Hollys. According to Jackie, Phil's letters to Jeff trickled and then stopped altogether when Phil learned that Fran named the Holly family in her post-conviction relief filing.
"I wish both Jeff and Phil would talk with me, so I can ask them about those letters and about a lot of other things. Mostly, I want to know the depths of the Pellys' relationship with the Holly family and what Jeff really knows about his father's life before he became a pastor."
On April 16, 2021, Jeff and Fran had their first pre-trial conference with a St. Joseph County judge and current county prosecutors.
This was the first time that Fran could get on the docket after months and months of delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic. All of the parties spoke remotely on a conference call, including Jeff, who phoned in from prison. The meeting was to iron out two very important things. One, finally get an answer from St. Joseph County about where missing pieces of evidence are in the case.
Fran has specifically requested access to Tony Buehler's recorded 2003 interview tape that the state claims it has, as well as figure out where the missing keys from the Pellys' outdoor trash can are, the locket with the man and woman's photos inside of it, and the film from Bob's 35mm camera. Fran's motion requests that the state say where those items are and turn them over to the defense.
If it's a situation where the state destroyed that missing evidence, St. Joseph County has to produce proof of how and when those items were destroyed. The other important thing the conference was trying to iron out was setting a future date for a status hearing in the case. Right after the conference wrapped up, Fran called me. Hello? Hello, this is Fran Watson from Indiana. Hey, Fran. Yeah. So how did the hearing go today?
We had a status conference today with the judge that's presiding over the Pelley case, and it went well from our perspective. The state is to answer the complaint that's pending within 30 days, and the court has set a further status conference on June 25th at 1.30 to determine whether the state is able to produce the items of discovery that we have requested.
So that's pretty critical because you're going to be able to, you know, have a better idea of how you're going to approach a potential evidentiary hearing in the future, if that's granted, based on what you can learn from that discovery motion being answered or not. Like where the stuff is and all that. Exactly. That's a...
Are you receiving any additional help now in the clinic on the Pelly case particularly?
I have wonderful students each semester that invest in this case, which makes me glad for the client, proud of the students. I also now have a co-counsel, a volunteer attorney, Scott Montross, and he's in an appearance and will serve as co-counsel.
Was this a conference that, you know, your client Jeff was present at? And, like, to hear him on it, I mean, could you infer anything about how he's feeling? And, I mean, you know, a lot of times past since the PCR filing, did you get a sense if Jeff is optimistic? I do believe Mr. Kelly is pleased and satisfied to know this is moving forward and that we will get answers one way or another as to whether these items exist.
As you know, we are most interested, for example, in knowing whether the cassette and audio recording of the Tony Buehler interview is available. And if not, why not? Of the list, I would say that's the one that we are most interested in having an answer to.
After a year of working on this story, I'm left just like you, wondering. Wondering where we'd be today if police in St. Joseph County had done a better investigation in 1989.
Wondering if Bob Pelley was a man with more secrets than anyone ever knew. And wondering if the Pelley family murders were really the result of an enraged teenage boy. Or were they the work of a hired hitman who's gone unnamed and unknown for 32 years? All I know is that there's evidence that points to both of those things. In the end, there are five people dead who should have lived.
Dawn, Janelle, and Jolene were brutally slain for no reason in a heartless crime that will forever haunt their only surviving family member, Jessica. The survivor's guilt is, I wish I would have been there because maybe I could have done something, you know, to save them. I mean, obviously as an adult, I know that wouldn't have happened. But when I was a child, you know, that was in my head that if I would have been there, this wouldn't have happened. I could have done something. I could have hidden us or...
you know, something. What would you want Janelle, Jolene, and your mom to have experienced with you? My wedding, my children, just the hard times. I would have loved to just pick up the phone and be able to call them and ask them advice or vice versa. I would love to have memories to talk about with them. Do you remember us doing this? Or, you know, and I don't have any of that.
Jessica now goes by the name "Jessie," a new identity she's given herself to cope with her dark past. The events of April 1989 destroyed her life. If you want to learn more about her story, you should read her memoir, "I Am Jessica." Jackie Pelley's life was also ripped apart by the 1989 massacre. She may have never understood her father or been close with Don and the girls, but she still wishes they were all still around.
He would have been a part of everything. And I think all of them, we've missed out on birthdays and births and Christmas and backyard barbecues. There's nothing normal about what we've been through. And I think they would have been in all of it. The only family member Jackie has left is Jeff, a four-time convicted murderer who turns 50 this year and will likely spend the rest of his life in prison.
Then there's Jason Dawson, whose dad, for all his alleged scheming and swindling, was still his hero and a person Jason wishes he could share his life with. If your dad was still alive today, what would you want him to know? What do you wish he could have been a part of? I mean, everything. Doesn't every son want their father to be a part of their life and, you know, going to the games growing up and,
Seeing his son get married, his son have children, you know, just to have a good life and to be proud and to know that his son became a member of society and has been contributing and has tried to always do the right thing. May not have always worked out that way, but overall I think, you know, just that he'd be proud of where I am today and where our family is.
Thank you all for listening to Season 3 of Counter Clock. I've worked hard to deliver this detailed and confusing investigation to you as best as I can. Trust me, it's not been easy, and I know there are still probably a ton of things you want to know. So, because this story is so big, and there are so many characters involved, I wanted to give you guys the chance to write in with your questions.
I want you to email me your questions about the case to counterclock at audiochuck.com. I'll look over your messages, and in a few weeks, Ashley Flowers and I will be back with a bonus Q&A episode to try our best to answer them. Also, remember that Jeff Pelley is currently in the process of getting an evidentiary hearing.
Fran Watson is hopeful that a date for that hearing will be set sometime this year. So keep your Google alerts on for any updates on that. I'll be taking a hiatus from CounterClock for a few months, but don't worry. I'll be back with a future season.
CounterClock is an AudioChuck original podcast. The show's executive producer is Ashley Flowers. All of the research, writing, and reporting is done by me, your host, Delia D'Ambra.
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