# 3 Cracked Cold Cases With Truly Evil Perpetrators | 164

An episode of [Lazy Chill True Crime](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1815534472), 16 Jan 2026, 24 min.

Audio: https://traffic.megaphone.fm/APO2858892244.mp3

Today I'm discussing 4 disturbing crime mysteries, all of which remain open-ended. Don't forget to follow and turn on all notifications. Also don't forget to drop a rating as well. Ep 163 of the true crime podcast btw. 👇 Youtube links: Lazy Chill True Crime Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8dVJtzeHcJgd_Z0bHrJTHQ Lazy Chill History Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@LazyChillHistory Lazy Chill Zone Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@LazyChillZone 👇 Support My Work: 🛍️ Merch: https://lazy-chill-zone-shop.fourthwall.com ❤️ Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/lazychillzone 👇Social Media Links: https://www.instagram.com/lazychillzone/ 👇 Podcast links: ⚡History Video Podcast on Spotify⚡: https://open.spotify.com/show/7km5pLWpYWEj1mrPpEfRUr?si=0FHYnZf-Qs2FY1GyLevfig ⚡True Crime Podcast on Spotify⚡: https://open.spotify.com/show/0klIz08pAr7wR4we0Ia4sk?si=68qZxCeAQkysXzMZrHE0Iw 🍏 True Crime Podcast on Apple 🍎: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/lazy-chill-true-crime/id1815534472 true crime, cold cases, unsolved mysteries, missing persons, murder investigation, forensic evidence, serial killers, crime scene analysis, dark history, criminal psychology, real life horror, police investigations, DNA breakthroughs, forensic genealogy, crime documentaries, criminal profiling, mysterious disappearances, solved cases, justice system, law enforcement stories, cold case files, creepy mysteries, true crime storytelling, crime reconstruction, chilling cases, investigative reporting, modern forensics, victim advocacy, unidentified remains, crime scene forensics, disturbing cases, true crime analysis, hidden clues, infamous crimes, real crime stories, los angeles true crime

## Transcript

[0:00] Hey friends, it's Jimmy with a quick reminder to Ding that
[0:02] notification bell and turn on all notifications.
[0:06] Also, don't forget to drop a comment saying what you're doing
[0:08] right now, where you're watching from, or just say that you're
[0:11] doing your part. In the early hours of July 25th,
[0:17] 2012, seventeen year old Morgan Martin left her Saint Petersburg
[0:21] house to meet the father of her unborn child, expecting to
[0:25] return shortly. She even told her sister not to
[0:29] lock the door because she'd be right back.
[0:32] Morgan, four months pregnant at the time, never came back
[0:35] inside. Her sudden disappearance in the
[0:38] dead of night launched A decade long mystery and a quest for
[0:43] justice. All her personal belongings were
[0:47] left behind in the house except for her phone, a clear sign that
[0:51] something was very wrong. This was out of character for
[0:55] Morgan, who was known to call her mother multiple times a day
[0:59] and was excited about the baby she planned to name Julia.
[1:03] Authorities learned that Morgan had gone out to talk with 24
[1:07] year old Jacobi Flowers, the man she believed was the baby's
[1:11] father. That late night conversation on
[1:14] her front porch was the last time Morgan was seen alive.
[1:19] Despite immediate searches and public pleas, no trace of the 17
[1:24] year old was found in the following days.
[1:27] Her disappearance remained a mystery and the case languished
[1:31] without answers as the years passed.
[1:35] From the beginning, Flowers was a suspect.
[1:38] He was older, already had children with another woman, and
[1:41] reacted poorly to Morgan's pregnancy.
[1:44] Flowers had begged Morgan not to have the baby and warned her not
[1:48] to tell others he was the father, clearly fearing the
[1:51] trouble it would bring. At 24, he also knew he could
[1:56] face legal consequences for getting a minor pregnant.
[2:00] Morgan, however, was determined to keep her baby.
[2:04] Shockingly, one witness later told police that Flowers had
[2:08] even tried to pay a classmate to beat Morgan up two months before
[2:11] she disappeared. This was a clear sign that he
[2:15] had contemplated violence against her, likely in an
[2:18] attempt to eliminate her unborn child.
[2:22] Despite these red flags, in 2012, there wasn't enough
[2:26] evidence to make an arrest. For four long years, Morgan's
[2:32] fate remained a complete unknown, with some believing she
[2:35] may have left due to fear of flowers.
[2:39] In 2016, Saint Petersburg police re examined the evidence and
[2:44] uncovered new clues. That June, a grand jury indicted
[2:50] Flowers, who was by then in prison on unrelated charges, for
[2:54] the first degree slaying of Morgan Martin.
[2:58] Investigators had painstakingly reconstructed the timeline of
[3:01] Flowers movements on the night Morgan vanished using cell phone
[3:05] records and surveillance footage.
[3:07] These digital clues provided the breakthrough needed to revive
[3:11] the case and would become the backbone of the prosecution's
[3:14] evidence. Cell phone data and videos
[3:19] helped reveal where Flowers went after Morgan stepped outside.
[3:23] Records showed Flowers arrived at Morgan's house just after
[3:26] midnight. Around that same moment,
[3:29] Morgan's phone abruptly turned off.
[3:32] Within the next hour, Flower's phone pinged at his own
[3:35] residence. Shortly after that, it travelled
[3:38] to the fast food restaurant where he worked as a night
[3:41] manager. Even though the restaurant was
[3:44] closed at that time, he slipped inside through a back door not
[3:48] covered by cameras. There he set a small fire in a
[3:52] walk in cooler and mopped the floor, a clear and successful
[3:56] attempt to destroy evidence, according to detectives.
[4:01] Despite this unlawful entry, this raised little concern at
[4:04] the time and it wasn't reported to the cops by the owners of the
[4:08] fast food slop shop. By 3:30 AM, Flowers left and
[4:13] briefly visited the home of one of his children's mothers, then
[4:17] headed north out of the city around 4:40 that morning.
[4:21] His phone then went dark for several hours with little
[4:24] indication of what he was doing during that time.
[4:28] Later that morning, at about 8:30 AM, surveillance video
[4:32] caught Flowers car crossing back into Saint Petersburg as if he
[4:36] had just finished a grim task and was returning home.
[4:41] Importantly, Flowers initially lied to investigators, denying
[4:45] that he met Morgan that night and pretending he barely knew
[4:48] her. But confronted with the
[4:50] evidence, his story fell apart, and this sick puppy was forced
[4:55] to sing like a Canary. At least to a degree.
[4:59] Detectives had recovered text messages from the weeks prior
[5:03] showing Flowers desperately urging Morgan not to go through
[5:06] with the pregnancy at all. Those messages, combined with
[5:11] the cell phone trail painted flowers as a man willing to do
[5:15] anything to avoid the baby. He admitted that he believed he
[5:19] was the father and that he had been with Morgan on the night
[5:22] she vanished. But that's where he stopped.
[5:27] Despite that, at last, the authorities felt they had enough
[5:31] to charge him. Even without Morgan's body, it
[5:35] would take nearly six more years for the case to wind through the
[5:39] legal system. Flowers maintained his innocence
[5:42] while awaiting trial, and the proceedings moved slowly.
[5:47] Finally, in April 2022, almost a decade after Morgan disappeared,
[5:53] Jacoby Flowers agreed to a plea deal and admitted he committed
[5:57] this gruesome crime. He pleaded guilty to a reduced
[6:01] second degree charge. In return, prosecutors offered
[6:05] him a chance at a lighter sentence if he helped locate
[6:09] Morgan's remains successfully. As part of the agreement,
[6:13] Flowers claimed he had disposed of Morgan's body in rural
[6:17] Alabama and promised to guide authorities to the spot.
[6:21] Acting on Flowers information, investigators searched a remote
[6:24] area in Pike County, Alabama, where he claimed to have buried
[6:28] Morgan's body near a highway for about a week in April 2022.
[6:35] Teams combed the site with ground penetrating radar and
[6:38] heavy equipment. Unfortunately, the search came
[6:41] up empty and no trace of Morgan was found.
[6:45] Whether because of the long passage of time or false
[6:48] directions from Flowers, authorities couldn't locate her
[6:51] remains. However, as you'll see, I
[6:55] suspect it was the former since he had every incentive to give
[6:58] the true location of Morgan's body.
[7:03] Since Flowers failed to meet his end of the bargain, the promised
[7:07] sentence reduction was off the table.
[7:10] Under the plea terms, he would have faced only 25 years if
[7:13] Morgan's remains were recovered. Instead, he now faced the full
[7:17] 40 years in prison. On April 28th, 2022, Jacoby
[7:24] Flowers stood in a Pinellas County courtroom and was
[7:28] formally sentenced to 40 years in prison for his crimes against
[7:31] Morgan. The judge imposed the maximum 40
[7:35] year term in the courtroom. Flowers offered an apology and
[7:40] insisted he wasn't a monster. But Morgan's mother was unmoved.
[7:46] She shouted that he would have to see Morgan's face and the
[7:49] child he eliminated in his mind every day for his entire
[7:53] sentence. After nearly 10 years, the
[7:57] Martin family finally saw Flowers held accountable and LED
[8:01] off to prison. It wasn't the complete closure
[8:04] they wanted. Morgan's body was never found,
[8:08] but justice had at last been served.
[8:15] On a quiet summer night in 1989, 29 year old Donna Callahan
[8:20] vanished while working at a convenience store in Gulf
[8:23] Breeze, FL. She was three months pregnant
[8:26] and the mother of a toddler, filling in an extra shift to
[8:29] help a Co worker. Sometime before midnight on
[8:33] August 6th, Donna disappeared without a trace.
[8:37] Her purse and keys were left on the counter, the store's doors
[8:40] unlocked, and her car containing her personal weapon, remained in
[8:45] the parking lot. There were no signs of a
[8:48] struggle or robbery, and the baffling scene would haunt her
[8:52] family and community for years until an unlikely confession
[8:56] finally revealed the truth. Donna's last confirmed sighting
[9:02] was around 11:30 PM that night, when a customer saw her behind
[9:06] the counter. By the time her manager arrived
[9:09] shortly after midnight, Donna was gone.
[9:13] The store alarm hadn't been set at closing time, prompting the
[9:17] alarm company to call for a check.
[9:19] That's when the empty store was discovered, lights still on and
[9:23] cash register untouched. Police determined that this was
[9:26] likely an abduction. Everything of Donna's was left
[9:30] behind, including her car and even the firearm she kept for
[9:34] safety, which strongly indicated she hadn't left by choice.
[9:40] Despite extensive searches of the surrounding area in the
[9:43] following days, no useful clues turned up.
[9:48] Investigators pursued every lead they could find.
[9:51] They verified that Donna's boyfriend had been at work
[9:53] during the incident, clearing him of suspicion.
[9:57] A tip about a disgruntled customer who once threatened
[9:59] Donna was also checked, but authorities found no evidence
[10:04] tying that man to the crime. With no witnesses and no
[10:08] physical evidence, the case went cold.
[10:11] For years, investigators had virtually nothing to go on.
[10:16] Donna's loved ones never stopped looking for answers.
[10:20] Her parents even moved from New York to Florida to help search
[10:23] and keep the case in the public eye.
[10:26] By 1992, three years with no progress, they urged the Florida
[10:31] Department of Law Enforcement to step in and re examine the
[10:34] investigation. Special Agent Dennis Haley took
[10:38] charge, hoping fresh eyes might succeed where others failed.
[10:44] In spring 1993, that hope materialized in the form of a
[10:48] surprising prison informant tip. A guard at a Florida prison
[10:53] reported that an inmate claimed his cellmate, 25 year old Alex
[10:57] Wells, had confessed to killing a woman during a particularly
[11:01] intense Bible study group. Wells was serving time for a
[11:05] violent 1991 kidnapping, which made the story chillingly
[11:10] credible to investigators. Agent Haley suspected this
[11:14] jailhouse confession was about Donna's disappearance, given the
[11:17] timing and location details the inmate described.
[11:21] When approached, Wells refused to cooperate and told
[11:25] investigators that without a body, they couldn't prove a
[11:28] crime. Even without Wells help, the tip
[11:33] gave police a clear direction. They learned Wells had family
[11:37] property in Walton County, about 70 miles away that could hide A
[11:41] grave. In June 1993, investigators
[11:45] searched the rural land for any sign of Donna's remains.
[11:49] During the search, Wells's half brother, Mark Reeb, unexpectedly
[11:54] showed up and pointed out a spot where he thought Donna might be
[11:57] buried. A cadaver dog did signal human
[12:00] decomposition in that area, but after digging, no body was
[12:04] found, suggesting any remains had been moved previously.
[12:09] The circumstantial evidence was mounting, however.
[12:13] Authorities now strongly suspected that Wells and
[12:15] possibly Reeb were involved in Donna's abduction, even though
[12:20] they had yet to find definitive proof.
[12:23] Over the next couple of years, Agent Haley kept the pressure on
[12:27] while investigators built the case.
[12:30] In 1995, William Wells was formally charged with Donna
[12:34] Callahan's kidnapping and slaying.
[12:37] Though prosecutors knew a conviction without a body would
[12:40] be tough, the turning point came in mid 1996 as Wells as trial
[12:46] was about to begin. Urged by his mother to avoid a
[12:49] possible death sentence, Wells agreed to a plea deal.
[12:54] He would confess and lead authorities to Donna's body in
[12:57] exchange for a life sentence instead of execution.
[13:03] In July 1996, nearly seven years after Donna went missing,
[13:07] William Wells finally told investigators the horrific truth
[13:11] of what happened that night. He admitted that he and his half
[13:15] brother, Mark Reeb, had driven to Gulf Breeze looking for a
[13:19] store to rob and targeted the one where Donna was working.
[13:24] They abducted the pregnant clerk at gunpoint and forced her into
[13:27] their car. Reeb then strangled Donna in the
[13:31] back seat as she pleaded for her life and that of her unborn
[13:35] baby. After the evil act, the duo
[13:39] buried her body in a wooded area near their family's property,
[13:42] far from the original crime scene.
[13:47] Two days after his confession, Wells delivered on his promise.
[13:51] He led police to a remote spot on the Wells family property.
[13:56] There, hidden beneath soil and brush, the remains of Donna
[13:59] Callahan were finally unearthed. Dental records confirmed her
[14:04] identity, bringing a bittersweet end to the long running mystery.
[14:09] With this evidence in hand, Wells was sentenced to two
[14:13] consecutive life terms in prison for the slaying and related
[14:16] charges. Mark Reeb was arrested shortly
[14:20] thereafter and, facing the new evidence against him, pleaded no
[14:24] contest. In 1998, he received a life
[14:27] sentence as well, ensuring both men would spend decades behind
[14:32] bars. With the tragic cold case
[14:35] mystery solved, Donna's family at last laid her to rest and
[14:40] said their goodbyes at a 1996 funeral service.
[14:46] After his conviction, Mark Reeb made an eerie claim that turned
[14:50] the case even darker. He suddenly confessed to slaying
[14:54] a dozen other women across Florida.
[14:57] Reeb provided grim details about several unsolved cases, implying
[15:02] that he had been a serial predator attacking women long
[15:05] before and after Donna's abduction.
[15:09] Investigators like Agent Haley found aspects of these
[15:12] confessions credible. Reeb knew facts about some
[15:16] crimes that had never been released publicly.
[15:19] It raised the chilling possibility that the man who
[15:22] helped eliminate Donna Callahan might have had many more victims
[15:26] across Florida, and perhaps in other states as well.
[15:32] However, just as abruptly, Reeb recanted his stories.
[15:36] He later denied involvement in the other cases, leaving those
[15:39] cases unresolved and casting doubt on what the truth really
[15:43] was. To this day, authorities suspect
[15:47] Mark Reeb was likely responsible for multiple unsolved slayings,
[15:51] but without concrete evidence, he has not been charged in those
[15:54] cases. Both Reeb and Wells remain in
[15:58] prison serving their life sentences, ensuring they can
[16:01] never harm anyone again. Hey everyone, it's Jimmy here
[16:08] with a reminder to click that share button and send this video
[16:11] to your friends and family that are interested in true crime
[16:15] content. Also, don't forget that you can
[16:18] now check out Lazy Chill True Crime on Spotify and Apple
[16:21] Podcasts, so be sure to follow and drop a rating over there as
[16:25] well. On a quiet spring afternoon in
[16:31] 1975, a baby's cries broke the silence at a Concord, NH
[16:36] apartment complex. Alarmed by the sound, the
[16:40] building manager unlocked 22 year old Judy Lord's door and
[16:44] found a horrific scene. Judy lay lifeless and unclothed
[16:49] on her bed, a blue plastic sauna suit pulled tight over her face.
[16:54] Her 20 month old son was unharmed in his crib nearby, but
[16:58] the room told of a violent struggle.
[17:01] There was a curtain rod torn from the wall, an overturned
[17:04] lamp and an alarm clock ominously stopped at 1:47 AM.
[17:11] It was immediately clear that the young mother had been
[17:13] subjected to the worst form of assault and strangled.
[17:18] Judy Lord was a friendly, outgoing young woman who had
[17:21] only recently moved into Concord Gardens with her husband and
[17:25] baby son. She was often seen playing
[17:27] guitar on her stoop while her toddler played on the grass,
[17:31] quickly making friends in the community.
[17:34] But her home life was turbulent. Just two weeks before the tragic
[17:39] slaying, Judy's husband Gregory was arrested for beating her.
[17:44] He moved out afterward, leaving Judy and the baby in a near
[17:48] empty apartment with only a bed and crib.
[17:51] In the days that followed, Judy confided to friends and family
[17:56] that she was increasingly afraid of her next door neighbor, 24
[17:59] year old Ernie Gable. Gable lived in the adjacent
[18:03] unit, sharing a bedroom wall with Judy, and had been making
[18:07] persistent unwanted advances toward her.
[18:11] According to multiple witnesses, Judy had even asked neighbors to
[18:15] stay near whenever Gable was around, worried that he might
[18:19] try to force himself upon her. However, in a bizarre twist, she
[18:25] had actually struck up a friendship of sorts with Ernie's
[18:28] wife on May 19th, 1975. The night before Judy was found,
[18:35] she spent the evening with neighbors, including Gable's
[18:38] wife, playing volleyball behind the apartment building.
[18:42] After the game, Judy and another friend stopped by the Gables
[18:46] apartment for coffee before she headed back to her own unit
[18:49] around 11:30 PM. Still uneasy, she asked her
[18:54] friend to walk her home and do a quick check of her apartment
[18:57] before she locked the door for the night.
[18:59] About 1/2 hour later, just after midnight, a neighbor heard water
[19:04] running in Judy's bathroom as she took a shower.
[19:08] Around the same time, Gable returned to the complex.
[19:12] Sometime after 1:00 that morning, piercing screams
[19:16] shattered the midnight quiet. One neighbor heard moaning and
[19:20] banging through the wall, while another recognized Judy's voice,
[19:24] pleading for someone to leave her alone until her cries were
[19:27] suddenly muffled and went silent.
[19:30] The disturbance lasted only a few minutes and unfortunately,
[19:35] for reasons which are unclear, no one called the cops.
[19:40] By the next afternoon, Judy's lifeless body was discovered and
[19:44] an investigation was fully underway.
[19:49] Detectives quickly gathered evidence that pointed straight
[19:51] to Ernie Gable. But as you'll see, something
[19:54] very weird ended up happening. Judy's bedroom window had been
[19:58] pried open from the outside and five fingerprints on the glass
[20:02] matched Gables prints. Stains were found on 2 damp
[20:06] towels at the foot of the bed, evidence of an assault.
[20:09] After Judy's shower, several hairs collected from her body
[20:14] and bed sheets were determined to have come from an African
[20:17] American individual. Consistent with Gable, scratches
[20:23] on Judy's face even matched Gable's long fingernails,
[20:26] whereas her husband's nails were bitten too short to leave such
[20:30] marks. All signs indicated that Judy's
[20:33] next door neighbor was the attacker.
[20:36] Investigators obtained a court order to seize Gable's hair and
[20:39] blood samples for testing. By late 1975, police were
[20:44] preparing to charge Gable. Then forensic science intervened
[20:49] and failed them in the most major way possible.
[20:52] The FBI crime labs microscopic analysis of the hairs came back
[20:57] with an erroneous conclusion that none of the hairs were
[21:00] Gables. This report contradicted all the
[21:03] other evidence, but it created enough doubt to halt the case.
[21:08] With their suspect apparently ruled out, the case was shelved
[21:12] and went cold for decades. For nearly 50 years, the mystery
[21:19] of who slew Judy Lord loomed over her family and the
[21:23] conquered community. Modern forensic science provided
[21:27] an answer. In 2003, cold case investigators
[21:32] dusted off the old case file. Spurred by advances in DNA
[21:36] testing, evidence from the 1975 crime scene was resubmitted for
[21:41] DNA analysis. The results were definitive.
[21:45] The genetic material from those towels matched Gable's profile,
[21:49] but no public statement was made at this time.
[21:52] The reason for this was simple. The forensic evidence from the
[21:56] hair had apparently ruled out Gable as the perpetrator.
[22:03] Meanwhile, the hair comparison method that had derailed the
[22:06] original investigation was publicly debunked.
[22:10] In 2015, the FBI formally admitted that it's microscopic
[22:15] hair analysis had been flawed in the vast majority of cases
[22:19] reviewed, including in Judy's case.
[22:23] Ernie Gable never faced trial for the horrific slaying of Judy
[22:27] Lord, but the truth of his guilt is now clear.
[22:31] By the time investigators announced their findings in
[22:33] 2025, Gable had been dead for almost 4 decades.
[22:38] In A twist of fate, he had been stabbed to death in Los Angeles
[22:42] in 1987 at the age of 36. In the years after Judy's
[22:47] slaying, he had fled New England, adopted an alias,
[22:51] Ernest Stanberry, and racked up a string of other crimes.
[22:55] A closer look at Gable's history revealed A disturbing pattern of
[22:59] violence. He had prior arrests for
[23:02] breaking and entering, weapons possession, and armed robbery.
[23:07] Even more telling, multiple former girlfriends described
[23:10] being smothered by Gable. One ex-girlfriend recalled him
[23:14] fantasizing about suffocating victims with a plastic bag.
[23:18] This was eerily similar to the way Judy was found with a
[23:21] plastic covering over her face. There will be no trial in this
[23:27] case, of course. Nevertheless, naming Gable as
[23:30] the perpetrator has finally brought a measure of closure to
[23:33] Judy Lord's family and community, notably, Judy's son.
[23:38] The crying baby found on that terrible day said that learning
[23:42] the truth about his mother's slaying gave him some peace and
[23:46] strength to move forward.

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