Monday, Mar 21, 2022 • 31min
MURDERED: Marqueise Coleman
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Marqueise Coleman had his whole life ahead of him when he was shot to death in a trailer in North Carolina – all because he was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Police say this horrific crime can be solved if someone just speaks up, and his family and friends won’t rest until he gets justice.
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Talking about
Speakers
(5)
Ashley Flowers
Brit Prawat
Tanisha Coleman
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Transcript
Verified
Break
Ashley Flowers
01:12
High Crime Junkies. I'm your host, Ashley Flowers.
Share
Brit Prawat
01:15
And I'm Brit.
Share
Ashley Flowers
01:16
And the story I have for you today is about a young man who had his whole life ahead of him. But his bright future was snuffed out in an instant because he was in the wrong place at the wrong time, as if the heartbreak his family and friends have endured isn't bad enough.
Share
01:29
There is the anger, frustration and fear from knowing that whoever committed this ruthless crime is still out there probably right in their small community and police know that this case can be solved. If someone just speaks up, this is the story of Marqueise Coleman.
Share
02:18
It's 2:41 a. m. On Thursday, July 29th, 2021 in Robison County
North Carolina
. When this call comes into the 911 dispatch center.Share
02:30
The address of your emergency?
Share
02:32
Hello? We need help, we need 911, we need an ambulance.
Share
02:37
What's the address? I need a address. What's your name?
Share
02:56
Okay, listen honey, listen, you need to cooperate with me, okay? I need to know what's going on.
Share
03:03
Someone
Shot
at the house, they Shot
at the house. They Shot
my cousin, please.Share
Ashley Flowers
03:30
So, I know some of that might have been hard to make out, but the caller is saying that someone
Shot
up the house and Shot
her cousin.Share
Brit Prawat
03:37
It sounds like there was yelling in the background.
Share
Ashley Flowers
03:39
Right, in between all those redactions. It also sounds like dispatch was having some trouble figuring out where she was calling from. But as you can hear from the audio, they do manage to pull the address. It's a Trailer Park on North Alfred Road in the small town of St. Paul's. Just a couple of minutes after and one town over, Tanisha Coleman's phone rings, it's 2:45 am and she's in bed but not asleep.
Share
04:02
Actually, she had stayed up late to look over some papers, her youngest child, nineteen year old Marqueise needed for College. Marqueise, who everyone just calls Queise, is going into his Sophomore year at
Fayetteville State University
in North Carolina
. So, Tanisha goes to answer the phone but by the time she grabs at the caller hangs up but then it rings again. It's a friend of hers named Crystal, and she tells Tanisha that she just got a panicked phone call from someone who's witQueiseiz. Here's Tanisha who spoke with our reporter Nina.Share
Tanisha Coleman
04:32
Yeah, they had called her because they couldn't get in touch with me. She said, "Queise been
Shot
."Share
Ashley Flowers
04:36
Crystal tells Tanisha that Queise is over at his friend's house. A guy that we're going to call, William. Tanisha knows that Williams place in that
Trailer Park
on North Alfred Road is about ten to fifteen minutes away from her house and there's no time to lose.Share
04:50
So, she jumps out of bed and wakes up her mother Janice. But before they can even get out the door, Crystal calls again and she tells Tanisha to go to the hospital instead. The ambulance hasn't shown up at the
Trailer Park
yet and people with Queise have decided to drive him to the hospital themselves.Share
Brit Prawat
05:06
Wait, why didn't the ambulance show up?
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Ashley Flowers
05:08
Well, we got a copy of the dispatch report but it's so heavily redacted that it's hard to make sense of it almost. But as far as we can tell from the report, the ambulance did arrive. But it took like eleven minutes and thirteen seconds from the time that that 911 call was made.
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Brit Prawat
05:22
Gosh, I mean 11 minutes, that must feel like a million years to someone in that situation.
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Ashley Flowers
05:27
Exactly. And I don't know like the average EMS Response time like there what that is. But Robeson is a really large rural county. It's literally almost the size of Rhode Island. So, I'm sure that in a lot of cases it just makes more sense to do what Queise's friends are doing it just like get him there themselves.
Share
Brit Prawat
05:43
Right. I mean I grew up in a rural area. It would be faster to drive the thirty minutes to the hospital on your own that it would be to wait for the ambulance to get there and then drive you up there.
Share
Ashley Flowers
05:52
Yeah. Even if they're speeding like going both ways, it's going to take longer. Anyway Tanisha and Janice get in her car and head to the hospital. And Tanisha is stunned but she's trying to stay calm. Her friend didn't have any details about what had happened to her son or how badly he was injured. All she knew was that he had been
Shot
.Share
Tanisha Coleman
06:09
The way we go to the hospital, there's like a bridge. It would be a two way lane when me and my mama was going down the road to the hospital. I looked in my rear view mirror and I seen a car coming up real fast. They went around me that's how fast they were going to the point. I thought they would get ready to go over the bridge. That's how fast they was going.
Share
Ashley Flowers
06:28
The fast car belongs to Queise's cousin. The young woman who called 911. She had driven Queise to the hospital. And when Tanisha pulls into the hospital parking lot, she sees them stopping by the emergency room doors. So, Tanisha rushes over to them just as Queise's friends are getting him out of the car.
Share
Tanisha Coleman
06:44
They were hard and they need help, they need help. They didn't come out fast. So, somebody ran in there, they got the stretcher theyself.
Share
Ashley Flowers
06:50
A nurse comes outside and checks Queise's pulse. The look on her face tells Tanisha that the news is bad but they get him inside and his loved ones sit in the hospital waiting room and wait. As word spreads more and more people start showing up. Friends, relatives, former teammates, coaches. I mean it seems like the whole town of St. Paul's is in the waiting room or outside of the hospital just praying for a miracle.
Share
Speaker 6
07:16
Meanwhile, police have a
Shooting
to investigate. Two crime scenes as well. They have Queise's cousin's car and the mobile home park which is like right outside of the town lines. So, the Robeson County
Sheriff's office gets the case and Major Damien Mclean, Detective Brent Oxen Dine and Lieutenant Matthew Demery go to the hospital. Here is Detective Oxen Dine the lead investigator on the case.Share
Brent Oxen Dine
07:39
When we arrived on scene at the hospital, we were actually informed that he was deceased at the time. What gave me hope when we first arrived at the hospital was the parking lot of the emergency room was filled with loved ones and his friends. I mean, I just knew that you know, we're gonna hopefully get some good information.
Share
07:57
And here's Major Mclean.
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Major Damien Mclean
07:60
I've been doing this for seventeen years. I've never seen that many people at one location at one time.
Share
Ashley Flowers
08:06
Not long after the investigators arrived, Tanisha and her mom Janice are brought into a private room.
Share
Tanisha Coleman
08:13
If you can't tell me what's going out there in front of everybody, you want to call me in the room. It's not good news already knew he was gone.
Share
Ashley Flowers
08:20
A doctor breaks the same news to them that investigators just got Queise. The baby of the family has died after being
Shot
multiple times in the chest. The sheriff's office says that he was pronounced dead upon arrival.Share
08:33
Although according to the autopsy report, doctors did try resuscitating him and his time of death is listed at 3:36 a. m. Now, investigators waste no time. They know that lots of the people that they need to speak with are probably already right there in the waiting room or outside. So, they get to work.
Share
Break
Brent Oxen Dine
10:04
We begin to do interviews at the hospital.
Share
Major Damien Mclean
10:06
We start getting what they know and what they've seen.
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Ashley Flowers
10:10
They also find out a bunch of stuff about Queise. It seems like everyone knows each other in small towns, but Queise is especially popular. Before he graduated from St. Paul's high school in 2020. He had been a star running back on the football team, the
Bulldogs
and he was also on the varsity basketball team.Share
10:27
So, he was mentioned all the time in the local newspaper, Queise had even gotten a scholarship to play with the
Fayetteville College Football Team
, the Broncos, but because of Covid
, there was no season during his freshman year, so he had really been looking forward to getting on the field.Share
10:41
You know, his ultimate dream was to actually play in the
NFL
and so he really wanted to make enough money that he could take care of his mom and his grandma who had raised him, his brother and his sister on their own.Share
Speaker 6
10:50
He even joked with Tanisha about buying a huge mansion and like giving her and Janice a whole wing to themselves so they could all live together, but he could still have his privacy. The police learned that he was more than just a great athlete. Everyone they interviewed described him as caring and generous, dedicated, smart, thoughtful, always with a huge smile on his face. Like he was the type of person that others looked up to and he adored his siblings and nephew and he actually loved to make people laugh. So, the thing is he didn't have any enemies.
Share
Brent Oxen Dine
11:21
He was everybody that we actually talked to is always talked highly of him. Everybody has good things to say about him.
Share
Ashley Flowers
11:29
So, it becomes pretty clear pretty quickly that Queise was not the intended target of the
Shooting
. He was in the wrong place at the wrong time.Share
Major Damien Mclean
11:40
He was just taken away for no reason whatsoever. He hadn't did anything to anyone. He didn't bother anyone.
Share
Brit Prawat
11:46
So, then who was the intended target?
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Ashley Flowers
11:48
Well, the most obvious choice is the person who lived in the trailer that they were in. And at the time of the
Shooting
that Queise's friend, the guy that were calling William. As it turns out, just a few days before, William had gotten arrested. The robbers Sony
and reported that William and another man were accused of Shooting
at a car as it was leaving a gas station according to an incident report that we got through a public records request.Share
12:13
Police responded to the gas station for a shots fired call and they reviewed surveillance footage and saw a black man wearing a white shirt and blue jeans firing a handgun at the car and then he and three other guys that he was with got into another car and left.
Share
Speaker 6
12:28
Ultimately, police found five
9mm
casings in front of a gas pump. Now Queise and William had played football together in high school. So, they hung out a lot, which worried Tanisha. So, after the arrest, she gave her son a warning.Share
Tanisha Coleman
12:43
I said, you know, there's gonna be a retaliation, don't go to the house, but he kind of got upset with me. I guess. He thought I was just telling him not to go, but I won't tell him not to go. I was just telling him not to go at that time.
Share
Brit Prawat
12:55
So, Queise just thought she was being an overprotective mom?
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Ashley Flowers
12:59
Right. And of course the moment Tanisha is able to collect her thoughts for a second in that hospital waiting room, she realizes that the two shootings have to be linked. So, when detectives come to her home later that morning, right after she gets back from the hospital, she tells them about it.
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Brit Prawat
13:14
And had police already made that connection?
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Ashley Flowers
13:16
Well, it seems like police had already talked to William by this point. I mean, two different people told us that William went to the hospital while everything was going on and that investigators spoke with him there. But I don't know exactly like what conversation they had. I don't know if they knew about the
Shooting
. I don't know if William told them about the Shooting
or if they just knew that like it was his place that got Shot
up and that's what Queise was.Share
13:36
Now obviously we asked the detectives about that conversation, but they're not wanting to say anything. This is an open case and investigators are being pretty tight lipped at this point. In fact, they didn't mention William by name at all when Nina spoke with them and that's the reason that we're not naming him in this episode because he's never been publicly mentioned in any context related to Queise's case.
Share
13:57
Police won't even say that he was still living in the trailer at the time of the
Shooting
, even though everyone else we spoke with said he was. But police did say to us that they do believe that the two shootings, the one at the gas station and the one where was Shot
are connected.Share
Brent Oxen Dine
14:14
It was related to the investigation. Based on our investigation we think it was.
Share
Ashley Flowers
14:18
Now, Tanisha does manage to learn more that very day. Because after detectives leave
Robeson County
Sheriff Bernice Wilkins stops by.Share
Tanisha Coleman
14:27
He said that they didn't find out it was two shooters. They said it was two, because it was two different guns.
Share
Ashley Flowers
14:33
Tanisha says that the sheriff tells her that the shooters were outside the trailer and fired twenty rounds into it. She also finds out that Queise's car which was still parked over at William's house had been hit by gunfire.
Share
Tanisha Coleman
14:46
It was two cars in the driveway. Only my son car got
Shot
.Share
Ashley Flowers
14:50
But even stranger than the car is the fact that Queise's things ended up going missing from the trailer. You see a few of Queise's belongings were over at William's house because he had planned to stay at his sister's that night.
Share
15:03
So, he brought like a book bag plus his Tv and Xbox so that he could play video games. But Tanisha says that later in the day after police finished up at the trailer Queise's, friends go to get his stuff, but when they check it looks like the place had been ransacked and Queise's things are all gone.
Share
Brit Prawat
15:21
I mean maybe police took his stuff as evidence?
Share
Ashley Flowers
15:23
Well, Tanisha actually calls them to ask that as soon as his friends let her know this and they tell her that they didn't take that stuff. Now over the next couple of days, as Tanisha tries to process every parent's worst nightmare and planned for a funeral for her son.
Share
15:38
Police learn more about what happened in the trailer, investigators collect surveillance footage also from homes, schools, businesses and churches in the area of the mobile park.
Share
Major Damien Mclean
15:48
We went every direction to determine which way the suspect might have traveled. So, we went different directions, not just one location.
Share
Ashley Flowers
15:55
They also interview more people trying to nail down a clear timeline of the night from witnesses who were in the trailer. Now Nina spoke to one of the guys who actually survived the
Shooting
who asked that we don't use his real name because of safety concerns. So, we're going to call him Jason. Jason says that police came to speak with him a couple of days after the incident.Share
16:15
They wanted to know everything he remembered from that night start to finish, Jason told us that he and Queise's cousin along with two other young women went to William's house late that Wednesday night like around 11:00 p. m., William wasn't there, but Queise was along with another friend of theirs.
Share
Brit Prawat
16:31
Wait, William wasn't at his own house?
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Ashley Flowers
16:34
No. So, Tanisha says that William's mom had actually come to pick him up at some point on Wednesday after he was released from jail for that gas station
Shooting
charge. So, by the time that Jason and the women get to the trailer that night he's not there anymore.Share
Brit Prawat
16:47
I guess my question is why were they all at his house when he wasn't even there?
Share
Ashley Flowers
16:51
Well William lived there on his own and I mean I don't know like remember how it was when like the first friend gets there like place of their own, it's kind of like becomes like a group hang out for everyone.
Share
Brit Prawat
17:02
Oh yeah.
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Ashley Flowers
17:03
So, Jason says that William had like no issue of people coming over and his place kind of became that hangout place for them and was kind of like an open door policy. Anyway, Jason went to the store with Queise's cousin and then gave the other two women rides home before going back to the trailer and in those early morning hours on Thursday there were four of them inside.
Share
17:22
So, it was Queise, his cousin, their other friend and Jason. And Jason says that they were hanging out in this little room at the back of the trailer just sitting on a couch listening to music talking the usual when all of a sudden it was like the world exploded. Jason remembers just seeing bullets flying through the trailers exterior wall.
Share
17:41
Now this is a pretty small single wide trailer and if you picture basically like a rectangle, the bullets were coming through one of the longer sides and the sound he said was deafening. He told us quote, "We all just trying to get down on the ground, but the room is only but so big so we're all scattering trying to lay down on the floor at the moment. I just I was just thinking that I'm going to die here." End quote.
Share
18:05
Jason thinks that the gunfire lasted no more than fifteen seconds but it felt like forever and after the
Shooting
stopped, they were honestly scared to get up. I mean they didn't know what was going on.Share
18:17
Jason was afraid that whoever was out there was going to come into the trailer and just kill them all. But then they realized Queise had been
Shot
, he had been sitting closest to the trailer wall that was hit by bullets and after the Shooting
he was on the floor, sitting kind of upright, slumped back against the couch and wall.Share
Brit Prawat
18:34
And was he still alive at that point?
Share
Ashley Flowers
18:36
Well Jason says that his eyes were open and honestly looked like he was trying to say something but he couldn't. And the need to get him help outweigh the fear of what might still be outside.
Share
18:46
So, that's when they made that call to 911 that you heard at the beginning of this episode and they frantically reached out to other people too. And eventually, I mean, we know when the ambulance didn't arrive, they picked Queise up, put him in his cousin's car and just drove to the hospital.
Share
Speaker 1
18:60
So, you mentioned how loud it was. Did any of William's neighbors call 911? I mean I guess I don't know how big the Trailer Park is, but I kind of have to imagine that someone heard what was going on.
Share
Ashley Flowers
19:09
Yeah, I mean, so you're right. It's not a very big Trailer Park. I mean, I looked it up on
Google Earth
and it looks like there are maybe a dozen mobile homes clustered around the sort of like L-shaped makeshift stretch of road and according to the dispatch report, it looks like at least one other person in the area did call 911 and said that people were screaming and that someone got Shot
.Share
Brit Prawat
19:29
And what about anything before the
Shooting
? Like did any of the neighbors hear a car pulling up? Or any sort of commotion?Share
Ashley Flowers
19:35
Well, lieutenant Demory says police did speak with other residents there, but because there are potential safety concerns, they aren't sharing any information about those interviews yet. Although I'm glad you brought up cars because within a few days of Queise getting killed, Police tell Tanisha that they did notice two suspicious cars on the footage from the different surveillance cameras that they were able to collect.
Share
19:56
The cars were apparently traveling close together on North Alfred Road and they were like the only cars out around that time. But of course, they can't tell like what the license plate numbers are because of the angle of the cameras.
Share
20:09
Now, Jason says that he probably wouldn't have heard any cars pulling in before the
Shooting
because remember they're like playing music on the Tv was super loud. But here's the thing after the Shooting
he doesn't remember hearing music anymore.Share
20:21
He says it was totally silent, and I don't know that's because the tv was hit by gunfire or what. But the interesting thing is he didn't hear any cars after the
Shooting
like no one driving off or anything like that.Share
Brit Prawat
20:35
I mean he also could have just been in shock from what had happened, seeing his friend get
Shot
. I mean there's a lot going on right now.Share
Ashley Flowers
20:42
That's true. But of note there are actually some woods behind the Trailer Park and you know if he really didn't hear any motors, he thinks that whoever did it might have been on foot and took off that way.
Share
20:53
Now we actually asked police about the cars they mentioned to Tanisha but they wouldn't say if the two cars were involved. And another thing that really stuck out to us is they also said they can't even confirm that there were four people inside of the trailer at the time of the
Shooting
.Share
Break
Brit Prawat
22:53
That seems like a weird statements.
Share
Ashley Flowers
22:56
Yeah, I thought so too. I mean Jason says that he told police everything he remembers and when he spoke with us his story was consistent and he was able to tell us little details like even where he was sitting, where everyone else was sitting, what Queise was wearing, how heavy he felt when they picked him up. Things like that.
Share
23:15
Now we don't really know anything about the other witness interviews. But there is a little scrap of information in the Medical Examiner's investigation report. I mean literally one sentence about another witness's statement and Brit, I'm gonna have you read this for us.
Share
Brit Prawat
23:30
Sure. It says quote, "Family member states she heard shots and found deceased laying on ground, unresponsive." End quote.
Share
Ashley Flowers
23:38
Now I think it's safe to assume that the family member is his cousin because she was apparently the only female there.
Share
23:45
But I don't know if we can draw any strong conclusions from this because it's not a verbatim quote from her and it's not clear if she said that to a detective who then related to the army investigator or if she said it directly to the army investigator or if any inferences were made by anyone before got put on paper.
Share
24:02
But even that one sentence narrative sounds pretty different than what Tanisha says, she had been told by the other two people who were in there and what Jason told us like in terms of the position Queise was in remember he said that he was kind of like sitting upright, slumped back versus this statement says he's laying down after he'd been
Shot
.Share
Brit Prawat
24:21
Yeah. And to me at least the statement sounds kind of removed from the situation, like I'm having trouble, like figure out how to say it, but almost like the way you would describe something that happened in another room or that someone else told you something like that.
Share
Ashley Flowers
24:36
No, I know what you mean. And it sounds odd to me too. But again, without more context, I just don't know how much weight to actually give it. Now, the report also says that the reason for the
Shooting
is unknown. There are no suspects and they're not sure what type of gun was used.Share
24:51
But again, this is just the medical examiners investigative reports. So, I'm not sure if this stuff is also true for police or if it's just light on details because they know it's public record and they don't want too much out yet or what. And speaking of the medical examiner Queise's, autopsy is conducted on Monday, August 2nd.
Share
25:09
According to the autopsy report, he was
Shot
twice in the right side of his chest. There's an exit wound for one of the shots, but the other Shot
has no exit wound. So, the bullet pierced his right lung and heart and the fragment is recovered from his lung.Share
25:23
Now, a couple of days later on Wednesday, August 4th, the Sheriff's Department asks
Crime Stoppers
to offer a three thousand dollar reward for information leading to an arrest in the Murder
. But by the next day the reward is up to eight thousand dollar. Thanks to an anonymous donation from a local businessman.Share
25:38
And Sheriff Wilkins says, "It's just one example of their community coming together in the aftermath of a cowardly criminal act." But that community is also confused and scared. That same day the reward is increased August 5th. St. Paul's announces a new coalition called
Stop The Violence
.Share
25:57
According to Jessica Horns reporting for
The Robesonian
, the Mayor said that residents wanted to do something about the recent shootings in the area, especially Queise's and when they brought their concerns to the Police Chief, the coalition was the result. Now on Friday, August 6th, everyone gets together on the football field at St. Paul's High School to release balloons increases memory.Share
26:23
As hundreds of balloons float up into the sky. Black and red. His favorite colors, Tanisha looks at all of the people there and thinks of the impact her son managed to make in just nineteen years. But she also can't help but wonder if someone on that field knows more than they're willing to admit. I mean everyone is talking about the
Shooting
. It's hard separating fact from fiction and even harder to believe that no one in their small town knows who killed her son.Share
Tanisha Coleman
26:52
People know who did what around there. If a pin drop you here.
Share
Ashley Flowers
26:57
Queise is laid to rest the next day, Sunday, and his funeral draws a massive crowd.
Share
Tanisha Coleman
27:03
The church that I had it at held five hundred people, and we still have people standing up and outside.
Share
Ashley Flowers
27:09
As his grief stricken family tries to settle into their new normal, the rumor mill keeps churning. Tanisha constantly hears from people who want to tell her about things that they've heard. But lots of them don't want to go to police.
Share
Tanisha Coleman
27:21
I don't know if they're scared that somebody gonna do something down or they just not telling.
Share
Ashley Flowers
27:28
Now she passes their information along to detectives. But the whole thing is frustrating to everyone who wants this case solved.
Share
Major Damien Mclean
27:36
Telling somebody, a family member well, this is what happened and gonna be a help in any case. You need to sit down with us Law Enforcement Officers and tell us, this is what happened, this is I know. Hearsay is not good in a Court Law. We got a good idea who was responsible but the community is not willing to step up.
Share
Brit Prawat
27:53
Okay. So, if the trailer
Shooting
was revenge for the gas station Shooting
. Do we know why the gas station Shooting
happened in the first place?Share
Ashley Flowers
27:59
So, there was nothing about motive in the incident report that we got. But there is an interesting comment on a facebook post that police made about this incident.
Share
28:09
A woman who refers to William as her brother wrote that he was just trying to protect himself and the people that he was with and it doesn't look like William had gotten in any legal trouble before that at least not as far as we can tell. Actually, he was supposed to go off to College that fall and he had gotten a scholarship to play football. But Tanisha says that he lost that scholarship after the arrest.
Share
28:31
Now, the guy that William was arrested with a local man in his mid twenties. He is a different story. In fact, according to The Robesonian, in the gas station
Shooting
was the second time that he had gotten arrested that month and all this while he was out on bail awaiting trial for a Murder
that he was charged with a few years ago.Share
Brit Prawat
28:51
What?
Share
Ashley Flowers
28:52
Yeah. And this could be really important because if the gas station
Shooting
had more to do with him than with William then maybe the key to finding Queise's killer or killers is in that guy's history.Share
Break
Ashley Flowers
31:28
Lieutenant Demory says police are keeping an open mind and making sure to check out every potential angle.
Share
Brent Oxen Dine
31:34
If we focus on one thing will become close minded and focus on that. That will as an investigative unit during investigation.
Share
Brit Prawat
31:42
Hold up. Why was that other guy on bail when he was facing a
Murder
charge?Share
Ashley Flowers
31:47
Well, according to Braley Dodson's reporting for W. B. T. W. News 13, setting bond I guess comes down to two factors basically is the defendant going to show up to court. And are they a danger to the community? If someone has like recent pending charges or convictions, prosecutors can argue that they're a danger but it's literally like a case by case thing. Anyway Tanisha does speak with William about this whole situation.
Share
Tanisha Coleman
32:10
He came over here and we was talking and he got up and started crying and he went out the door and I went out the door behind him and he said, "We were set up". He said, "it was a setup." And I looked at him, I was like, what do you mean? It was a setup? And he said, "If you ever found out it's gonna break your heart." That's the last thing he ever said to me. I said my heart already broke. Can't nothing break my heart no worse.
Share
Brit Prawat
32:33
What does he mean by that?
Share
Ashley Flowers
32:35
Tanisha says that she's been trying to figure that out for months now. She also tells police about the conversation, but as you can imagine, all of the layers of mystery and the unanswered questions make it even more difficult for Queise's family and friends. And as the days and then weeks and then months passed by, they wait anxiously for a break in the case. Something that will lead them to an arrest.
Share
32:57
They make sure that Queise story stays in the public eye. They put justice for Queise's yard signs around town. They even create social media pages and set up a goFund me, which we have linked to on our blog post and in our show notes so they can raise money to put up billboards and increased the reward.
Share
33:13
And they also find ways to honor his life during high school football games, not just St. Paul's but their rivals to players carry a Jersey out on the field with his
Bulldogs
number on it, number 32. And there's a sad legacy behind that Jersey number actually.Share
33:26
Queise chose it because one of his closest friends, a guy named Jamal Leonard had worn it when he played for the team. But Jamal was
Shot
and killed in 2016. And according to Tanya Brown's reporting for Abc 15 News
, that Shooting
took place also on North Alfred Road.Share
Brit Prawat
33:43
That's just heartbreaking. But it seems kind of unbelievable that both these shootings happened on the same road.
Share
Ashley Flowers
33:49
Well, it's probably because
Robeson County
has the highest violent crime rate in North Carolina
based on stats from the State Bureau of Investigation.Share
33:57
I mean as a matter of fact, not even a month after Queise was killed, another guy was
Shot
to death while he was driving, again on that same road. Now police did announce two arrests in that case. And to my knowledge, they aren't connected. But of course that's no comfort to the people in the community. And there definitely seems to be some frustration among residents.Share
34:15
Some don't think that the Robeson Sheriff's office has made Queise's case a priority. And Tanisha wants them to be more active, not just with his case, but other unsolved homicides too.
Share
Tanisha Coleman
34:25
There is plenty of murders around here in
Robeson County
that has not been solved and I don't feel like there are pushing it like they should not only my son, other people, kids. You've got murderers walking around here. If they do it one time, they'll do it again.Share
Ashley Flowers
34:41
Major Mclean says that every unsolved case is a priority to them and that the Robeson sheriff's homicide clearance rate is over eighty percent, which is higher than the national rate.
Share
Major Damien Mclean
34:52
We're doing everything. We can, we need this, we need help. We need, we need help from the citizens who know information to step up and tell the truth.
Share
Ashley Flowers
35:00
Police say that they're still working leads that come in but back on July 29th, seeing all of those people at the hospital, they couldn't imagine that Queise case would still be unsolved today.
Share
Major Damien Mclean
35:13
I honestly felt like this case will be solved in a matter of days because of the love that people have for him and I just wish somebody in love would transcend into somebody telling the truth. Tell us what happened, this case is very solvable. But people have to go forward. People have to be truthful. People who was his friends needs to be be friends and tell the truth.
Share
Speaker 6
35:34
Tanisha just wants to see her son's killer or killers in prison.
Share
Tanisha Coleman
35:39
All they gotta do is come forward.
Share
Ashley Flowers
35:41
We'll put this information in the show notes. But if you have any information that could help please think of this family and contact
Crime Stoppers
at 9108658477 callers can remain anonymous. You can also call the Robeson County
Sheriff's office at 9106713170 or 91067131100.Share
36:17
To see photos, documents and sources for this episode, visit our website, crimejunkiepodcast. com.
Share
Brit Prawat
36:24
And be sure to follow us on instagram at
Crime Junkie
podcast.Share
Ashley Flowers
36:27
And we'll be back next week with a brand new episode.
Share
Speaker 6
37:05
Crime Junkie
is an Audio Chuck Production. So, what do you think chuck? Do you approve?Share
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Ashley Flowers
Brit Prawat
Tanisha Coleman
Brent Oxen Dine
Major Damien Mclean