The Murder of Pravin Varughese: Police Negligence & Racial Discrimination Feed Drop

[00:00:00] Hi, this is Cristina and this is Espooky Tales. And I know it's not Friday, it's not our normal release day, but if you follow Espooky Tales on Instagram then you might already know Carmen and I were in Denver

[00:00:12] for the True Crime and Paranormal Podcast Festival over the weekend and it was an amazing time. We talk about it a bunch on Patreon and also on our episode coming out on Friday.

[00:00:22] But we also met some amazing creators who are out here doing the work, doing the work, getting episodes out on cases that need more light. Respectful when it comes to covering these cases.

[00:00:32] And one of these podcasts was The Haunted Detective, who we also had the joy of doing a panel with, but I wanted to share an episode of theirs with everyone. In this episode, hosts Kelsey and Pamela are talking about the case of Pravin Varughese

[00:00:49] and this is a case that does involve police negligence. The family of Pravin, they still have questions that were never answered. And so it's an important case to talk about and The Haunted Detective does a really good job in sharing the case.

[00:01:05] And here's the episode and again we'll be back Friday with our normal episode. Stay Espooky! True crime cases that involve police negligence make me so incredibly mad. Typically in these instances there are so many clear directions that lead to justice being served.

[00:01:26] But whether it's racism, laziness, payoffs or predetermined bias, there is always a fucked up reason why a case isn't properly solved. A lot of times these scenarios either lead to the wrong person being convicted or the obvious perp getting away with what they had done.

[00:01:41] We see in the case of Rock Turner, he brutally raped a young girl and was let off with little to no jail time because the judge didn't want a felony to ruin his swimming career? Even though the judge was later fired due to public outrage,

[00:01:54] there was nothing that society could do for his victim, Chanel Miller. Even in this case she was referred to as Emily Doe, bullied and gaslit. You might be wondering why I'm bringing this up. Well it's the perfect example of racial and gender bias in arrests, convictions and

[00:02:09] the consistent dehumanization of victims. But we're not here to talk about the bottom dweller that is Brock Turner or the shitstorm of the person that he is. I wanted to use a season special and an extra episode to talk about a case that has always

[00:02:24] and will always make me furious. One that does not get enough media or social coverage and when it does, the story isn't told accurately or portrayed correctly. So without further ado, let's get into it. Hey guys, welcome back to a brand new episode of the Haunted Detective Podcast.

[00:02:44] I'm Kelsey Childs but everyone calls me the paranormal Sherlock Holmes and with me is... Your favorite skeptic, Pamela Jay. So I did want to warn you guys that today is going to be an especially heavy episode. There's not going to be any jokes, any banter.

[00:03:00] There's really no fun to be had when talking about this case. So I just want to urge everyone while listening, just take a moment, give us your full attention because this case needs it and deserves it.

[00:03:12] And we're going to be focusing a lot of our season specials on cases just like this, where there was just an insane, insane, insane amount of negligence. And it just drives me mad. It drives me fucking crazy. So without further ado, let's open the case file.

[00:03:34] Also really quick before we get into it, I just want to say that this episode is a little bit late because Sunday was Father's Day. Our editor, the amazing and wonderful Christopher Wright is a father.

[00:03:46] So he normally works during the week and edits the episodes on the weekend. And we just wanted to give him a little more leeway to spend time with his family. So definitely go to the Instagram and send us a message to tell Chris,

[00:03:59] Happy Father's Day, even if belated. But in the spirit of Father's Day and all of the goodness and wonderfulness of this day, I wanted to dedicate this episode to our victim's dad, who is spending yet another year

[00:04:19] without justice for what happened to his son and without his son in his life on Father's Day. So just that PSA. Praveen Varghese is described by many as a kind, loving and caring young man.

[00:04:35] He always made people laugh, left a lasting impression on his family, friends and peers, and was not the type of man to hold a grudge or have enemies. Praveen had an energy and a way with people that attracted them to him.

[00:04:46] To say that he was a light in a dark room would be an understatement. He was just a beautiful soul and a very passionate person. But on February 12th, 2014, everything would change for the people in his life when he vanished

[00:05:00] from a party. But before his body was ever found, his mother had a disturbing dream about what happened to him. Praveen was a criminal justice student in Chicago at the Southern Illinois University

[00:05:12] when he vanished from a party in Morton Grove. It took authorities days to find his body, and even after that, the investigators jumped to conclusions about what happened, immediately pinning the blame on him. What?

[00:05:24] And if you guys know, there is one thing we do not do on this podcast, and that is, Pamela? Victim blame. Exactly. So let's get into the details. Praveen was with his cousin and friends when they attended a party off campus at 11pm.

[00:05:39] His cousin had to go to work, and Praveen was going to meet him there, but did not make it. He posted on Twitter at 11.06pm saying, Most of the time, I have no clue what's happening. Then at 11.17,

[00:05:51] Quote, my knuckles are bloody. Looks like I was in a fight. Hashtag back down. At 12.29, he was seen leaving the party which is when he called one of his friends. When later questioned, she said that he sounded breathless like he was in a fight.

[00:06:05] She also overheard him talking to guys who said, give me that back. And Praveen responded with, I'm trying to help you. She thought that he called the other man Greg or Mark but could not distinguish which one.

[00:06:16] The part that's important is that he begged her not to hang up. This call lasted one minute and 58 seconds. The next morning when he didn't show up or call home like he did daily, his friends reported him missing.

[00:06:28] His mom had a dream where Praveen was pushed out of a vehicle and rolled down the side of a hill. It turns out that her dream was accurate to his final moments. And Pamela and I were just talking about this in the past.

[00:06:39] So, I had to go back and check on him because I didn't want to be a burden on him. But, he was a very, very kind and understanding guy. And he was a very, very, very kind and understanding guy.

[00:06:50] He was very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very kind. to his final moments. And Pamela and I were just talking about this. There are so many cases, especially cold cases, where the mother of the victim had a dream. It's mother's intuition. It's crazy.

[00:07:08] I mean, a lot of people post about it too, about their mothers like, hey, please don't go to this party. I have a weird feeling, like, you know, X, Y, and Z. I know a girl did it and posted about it.

[00:07:18] And her mom said, please don't go to this bar. I have a really weird feeling. I had like a weird daydream about it. And she was like, mom, don't freak out. She was like, no, please. And it ended up that bar she was gonna go to

[00:07:28] ended up getting shot up that night. Oh my God. Was the girl okay? I don't know. But I do know that mother's intuition is incredibly real and it's fascinating to see when it gets brought up into cases. I think also just to pile on top of that,

[00:07:45] women's intuition in general is just an incredible thing. We always know. We do always know. The night that he went missing, a state trooper saw a black truck with its emergency lights on. When the cop went to investigate, the driver said that a quote,

[00:08:00] black male had tried to rob him but fled into the nearby woods. The driver was a man named Gage Bethune, who after seeing a photo of Praveen said that this was the man who tried to rob him. They found Praveen's body only 350 yards away

[00:08:15] from where the truck had been parked. It took a few interviews with police for Gage to complain that he had punched Praveen. Here's the thing with Gage's story though, a majority of articles have either twisted the narrative or just confused the facts

[00:08:29] and said that Gage was a student, but in reality, he had driven 40 miles to attend a house party, one that was on the same route that Praveen had to walk in order to meet his cousin at work. It was in front of this house

[00:08:41] that Gage decided to attack him. And I wanted to take a moment to comment on all of the articles that I read that claim that Gage was a local student, because in a way, whether they meant to or not, they were humanizing a murderer. So...

[00:08:59] Yeah, I noticed a lot of language that was very interesting to use. They called it like, oh, he got entangled with a tragic accident. Like, okay, odd language. You guys have to know that like these things, they affect people. They affect the loved ones of the victims

[00:09:20] or the victims themselves. Like I read an all that's interesting article about my grandmother's case and her name wasn't even mentioned once. I messaged the author, she didn't respond. And so, you know, we- That's fucking gross. We see these things. We see these articles, you guys, right?

[00:09:37] And it's like, one thing that Pamela and I really, it stood out to us while researching this case was that not one, not one of these articles mentioned anything about who Pravin was as a person. And my thing is that these victims of crime,

[00:09:57] of murder, of rape, whatever it might be, they are human beings too. And they deserve to be represented as human beings and not just victims of a crime. So yeah, that's my spiel. But surprisingly, that's not the part that gets me the most riled up.

[00:10:12] It's that the police started to paint Pravin in a horrible light, saying that he was very intoxicated and that he was selling and using drugs. All of this because Gage reported that Pravin had been in search of drugs the night he picked him up.

[00:10:25] So this is what we call racial profiling, right? You take a victim of a crime, a person that was found dead and we'll get into the autopsy a little bit later, but he was obviously murdered. Gage was obviously the last person to see him alive.

[00:10:40] And you're gonna take the white man's perspective and take that as fact. And then you're gonna take this man who's an Indian American and you're gonna paint him as though he's a criminal? All based on this Gage person? I'm sure they would have done it

[00:10:59] with or without Gage's perspective. I'm sure Gage did not help. Some articles did claim that this was happening before Gage, some claim it was happening after he gave his statement. I mean, we see a massive common theme with racial profiling and involving wrongful deaths, wrongful arrests and accusations.

[00:11:27] And it's something that we still struggle with in the criminal justice realm. It's disgusting, but there's a lot of good officers out there that are new criminal justice graduates, like Praveen was studying to be. I don't know if he wanted to be an officer,

[00:11:48] but he was in the criminal justice major. So there are good ones out there that are trying to fix this, but there's still bad ones. And it's been a prevalent issue throughout many years. And if you are a CJ major,

[00:12:05] you learn about how much damage racial profiling can do. Yeah, I mean, it's been years. It's been years and it's still anyways. We'll get into the nitty gritty of that after the case. To further their racist view on Praveen,

[00:12:21] Gage said that he was on the phone throughout their ride looking for substances. Even when his phone records showed no evidence of this, Gage said that he must've been faking it. And this is the part where I kind of wonder if he was being led to give answers.

[00:12:37] Like, you know how some police officers will ask suggestive questions? Like, well, was he looking for drugs? Like, oh, come on, you were a college kid. You want to experiment. Like it's not that big of a deal. Like maybe he was just trying to get something.

[00:12:54] Yeah, and Gage being the piece of shit person that he was, he took that and ran with it. That's at least my theory. That's how I see it going down in the interrogation room because we just see that with so many cases

[00:13:06] where the cops are bad and they say, yeah, come on. Like he must've been looking for drugs because at the end of the day, when you're in a racist town with racist police, they're gonna want to pin the blame on the person of color.

[00:13:21] Right, and the thing that really caught my attention was the conversation that was overheard by the friend that Praveen was on the phone with of give me that back. And Praveen said, I'm trying to help you. Yeah, I'm thinking that it was car keys or drugs or something.

[00:13:41] And he was like, Praveen was trying to be like, hey man, I'm just trying to help you out and you're freaking me out. And that's why he didn't want her to get off of the phone. Yeah, and you know, from what his family has said about him

[00:13:55] and after, you know, talking to the justice for Praveen Page, it's very clear that this was a man that took care of people. And this was a man that cared empathetically and deeply about people. So it makes sense. So the thing is, is that the toxicology report

[00:14:10] showed no evidence of drugs or alcohol. Along with this, his friend's testimony that he was not dealing or using, something didn't add up and it was becoming apparent to his family when the coroner ruled his death an accident due to hypothermia. Bullshit.

[00:14:27] They cited no foul play and that there were absolutely no indications of homicide. To further this fuckery of theirs, there was a bruise, a very apparent bruise on his forehead. And they said that that was there because he died laying face down

[00:14:45] because you know, that's how that works, right? Sweet God. The family requested a further inquiry, but were shut down. Something just wasn't sitting right with his parents. So they had his body transferred to the city and boy, were they right. He had suffered over 20 wounds,

[00:15:02] ones that could only be sustained if he were severely beaten. His cause of death was actually blunt force trauma to the head. That is absolutely horrific. How could the initial report have been so incredibly wrong? Why did the police start a witch hunt for Praveen?

[00:15:17] And were they trying to protect someone? Could be. Could be racially motivated or it could be connections motivated. I know your dad, I know your sister, I know someone important in your family and I don't want you to go to jail.

[00:15:33] Or we do know that allegedly not making any accusations for the perpetrator, for Gage and his family, but just something to keep in mind is that in small towns in states like Illinois, there is heavy KKK presence. There's heavy Proud Boy presence and those guys, they stick together.

[00:15:57] They will do whatever it takes to take care of their own. So again, allegedly in Minecraft, just a theory, but it's the witch hunt that they started with Praveen. Like it really, it just, it made me think that something like that was brewing under the surface.

[00:16:17] It's just a little, I mean, not a little, I mean, it's incredibly, this is fucked up. You have a young person who has their whole life ahead of them, just have their life tragically taken. They were known as a good person,

[00:16:34] always kept in touch with their family, their friends, cared about their friends and family. Had no enemies, never held a grudge. No, right. And so then you're just gonna flip the script and say, oh no, he was trying to rob me. He was a druggie. He was drunk.

[00:16:51] He was like, dude. And people are probably like, well, what if he was? He was in college. Well, also on top of that, when you were the last person to see a man alive, your opinion doesn't really hold much ground. And the fact that this police department,

[00:17:11] whoever was involved, they took Gage's opinion and his claims as fact, that never happened. That's not supposed to happen. Yeah, I will say I did enjoy the fact that they looked through Praveen's phone and were able to completely shut down Gage's story when he said like, oh no,

[00:17:36] he was totally using and selling drugs. And he was on the phone throughout the ride. No, they found no records. They didn't even need the fucking, they didn't even need the phone records. His toxicology report came back negative. After death, that shit stays in your body

[00:17:58] because they don't do like P tests post-mortem. They take hair follicles, they take blood. They do everything that they need to do to get the clearest report. There is no way that this man was ever using drugs. They would have found traces of it.

[00:18:17] You, the toxicology report, yes, would prove that he wasn't using, but you would have to check the phone to see if he wasn't selling. That's true. So they had to check the phone because of Gage. It's just, oh, I get so angry. So angry.

[00:18:36] Like if I'm this mad, how does his family feel? How do his friends feel? They have not, we'll get into it. Anyways, a lot of things stopped making sense about the initial investigation, including the claim that the bruise on his forehead

[00:18:51] was caused by the position he was found in when he was actually on his back when his body was recovered. Praveen's mother is quoted in multiple articles about how she had to push way too hard, like bend over backwards to get a special prosecutor assigned to the case

[00:19:07] and for the authorities to actually do any investigative work whatsoever. Tell me you disrespect victims and their families without telling me that you disrespect victims and their families. Tell me you're a bad fucking cop, a bad fucking police department. Like I don't care. There is something going on

[00:19:23] in that fucking police department. You can't convince me otherwise. And you guys are gonna agree once you hear how the trial went with Gage. Yeah, like you took an oath as an officer. You took an oath, you made a promise and you're not protecting anybody

[00:19:43] by disregarding Praveen and his family of their right to fight for justice. How are you protecting them? You're not, you're protecting yourself and who you think is important. And obviously these cops were prioritizing the white person in the case. It's fucking bullshit.

[00:20:04] You know, we can theorize all we want about why, about who Gage's family was, who they were connected with. But at the end of the day, it's pretty cut and dry. Pretty cut and fucking dry. You have an Indian American man and then you have a white man.

[00:20:18] And then suddenly the Indian American man who has never been in any trouble in his life is a horrible person and the white man is a saint. I'm sorry, that like, they made it so fucking obvious. Yeah. They might as well just write on their police station.

[00:20:37] I'm racist, we're racist, like so obvious. Yeah, and for those of you listening, just wait until you hear the judge. God fucking damn it. Gage was obviously lying and everyone knew it. His story was changing constantly and he even admitted to making up the robbery

[00:20:56] so he wouldn't be caught drinking and driving. But he did hold onto the fact that he kicked Praveen out of his car due to the drug problem. And when I tell you the cops clung to that, clung to that, there was really no,

[00:21:11] oh, he actually did, like Praveen's mother, her dream about him being pushed out of the car and rolled down a hill, that's accurate. That is what happened based on the state of his body and the autopsy. But you know, according to the Illinois cops,

[00:21:27] what happened was, oh, Praveen got out of the car and he walked to the woods and then died, right? 350 feet away from Gage's car. Yeah, and having 20 wounds all over his body. Defensive. Defensive. Defensive wounds. Defensive and offensive wounds, which by the way are different

[00:21:46] and they're classified differently than the wounds you get when you fall or roll down a hill. So those are separate from other things on his body. Yeah, and by the way, this isn't a guess. The autopsy paper is online. And also quick side note,

[00:22:05] please don't ever go looking for somebody's bodily autopsy reports. Yeah, don't post them. Don't look for them. I don't care how big your podcast is, how big your YouTube channel is, how big your page is. I don't care about your morbid curiosity. Fuck off. Like literally fuck off.

[00:22:25] Unless the victim's families were like, hey, we don't mind. We want people to see it and for whatever their reason might be. Unless if you get that type of permission, just put yourself in their shoes. But don't ask. Don't even ask. Let them offer.

[00:22:45] Well, no, don't even ask. That would be like let them offer. But I'm saying put yourself in their shoes and think about if it was your mother or your father or your sister or your best friend and they died in a gruesome, horrible way.

[00:22:57] And then people are just posting their autopsy photos for everyone to see. And when that is someone that you love, it's different. So don't treat other people like they are your little learning experiment and that you get to like see the gross and the dirty and the...

[00:23:20] That's not you. That's not for you to see. Yeah, and you guys are... For those of you who think that's okay, leave right now. Don't listen to our podcast. Don't follow our Instagram. That's not true crime. That's not true crime. True crime is about learning and education

[00:23:34] and spreading awareness and victim advocacy. We don't disrespect the victims. And if you think that that's cute, please don't ever fucking listen to this podcast ever again. The deeper the investigation got or lack thereof, the more questions arose for the community.

[00:23:52] It seemed like local authorities were protecting Gage to the best of their ability. They had a vested interest in him walking away from this without any charges, even though, even though it was obvious that he was the man who killed Pravin.

[00:24:07] And when I say his story was changing constantly, I mean, he could not hold on to a single fact. This man did not remember the different accounts he gave. Everything was different. Like every time he told police in an interview or interrogation what happened, it changed.

[00:24:31] It was little details or big details, but if that's not indicative of someone having committed a crime, then slap me in the face and fucking push me off a cliff because I don't know how we're ever gonna get justice in this country. Yeah, no, seriously.

[00:24:49] Gage was arrested and he was charged and he got out on $100,000 bail. It took years. June 14th, 2018, which is an unprecedented amount of time for a trial to be held, Gage was convicted of first degree murder through a lawful trial with a jury.

[00:25:07] Pravin's family thought that their ongoing nightmare of three plus years was finally over. But on the day of sentencing, the judge produced a pre-written statement that cited a vague mistake in the jury's ruling and misconduct that was never specified. It basically said that there was a linguistic mistake,

[00:25:25] but didn't clarify what that was. This is also known as a syntax error. The problem apparently was that the jury got confused due to a comma being out of place. So for some legal jargon, some law folks, it is true. A syntax error is something that can occur

[00:25:46] in a court of law. It's called a syntactical error. And this can cause vagueness and just create a lot of confusion or unjustly enlarge that law's scope. So it can lead to misinterpretation and it can cause a whole case to be thrown out. However, however,

[00:26:10] it's now I'm not an experienced attorney or judge, but this is uncommon. But you have worked in law. You've been a legal assistant. I have worked in law, yes. And I interned in multiple like prosecutor's offices and it's been- And work with criminal psychologists on serial killer cases?

[00:26:31] And you helped cold case teams? You have experience is my point. I do. I would love a lawyer who's might be listening to this or a law professor to hone in on this, but I've heard of it, but it's just not common.

[00:26:47] And when I heard of this happening in this case, I'm like, that seems a little weird. A comma. The jury deliberated for seven hours. Seven hours. And it was what? A two week long trial, right? Yeah, it was two weeks. And I just don't get it.

[00:27:06] I'm not understanding, especially when the jury found him guilty. A fucking comma. A fucking, fucking, fucking, ah! A comma! Can you imagine the fucking slap in the face that is? Oh, literally Gage Bethune's mother, Penny, said it was a blessing. His father, Don Bethune,

[00:27:33] said that he was targeted by one-sided media and he was targeted because the media, social media, it was out of control. But the special prosecutor on the case, David Robinson, said he was actually blindsided by the news because of how long the trial was

[00:27:53] and how long the jury deliberated. And also the fact that it took them what? Almost four years to have a fucking trial? Yeah. Why in the name of the fucking gods did it take them that long? But I'm a writer, right? I'm a novelist.

[00:28:10] This is what I do. I write all of these scripts. I wrote a book. I've been a writer since before I could talk properly. I have never in my life thought that a comma, a singular comma would confuse an entire jury.

[00:28:28] An entire, like you don't think during that seven hours one person said, oh, we just have to move that comma over. Oh yeah, you know, yeah, I wasn't confused. I just kind of like, the fuck? What the fuck? Well, so that, yeah, there's that.

[00:28:44] And then also if anyone out there has ever had jury duty or maybe you got to sit in on a trial or two, the process, the court proceedings are grueling. I mean, you understand everything that's being said in that courtroom other than counsel going to bench

[00:29:08] and that's just talking to the judge. Seven hours? I mean, some of these cases are so grueling. It'll take them multiple days, like multiple 12 hour days. So seven hours, you know that either they were trying to convince one person that he was guilty

[00:29:23] and the rest agreed that he was guilty or they already had that verdict, you know? They already knew. They just wanted to discuss it because seven hours is a long time. But in the grand scheme of jury decisions, it's not really that long,

[00:29:39] but that's not to invalidate the fact that seven hours is long enough to know that a comma was out of place and not get fucking confused by it. Thank you. Well, seven hours is long enough for me to determine

[00:29:50] that I think that they all were able to come together to one answer. Yeah, absolutely. And that they had all the evidence in front of them. They had everything. They heard both sides. They heard all the testimonies and they decided to make that decision.

[00:30:06] So why throw out that case, Mr. Judge Mark Clark? For anyone listening who doesn't live in America or has never experienced the American justice system, there is actually a great play, a drama called 12 Angry Men. And to fully understand what goes into the jury's decision,

[00:30:27] it is a comedy in its own right, but it's more satire. It's political satire. But that was a play that I read when I was in high school that really did help me understand this is the process that a jury goes through.

[00:30:42] I definitely recommend listening to 12 Angry Men, watching it, reading it, whatever it might be. So because of this syntax error, Gage was free to go with the judge claiming that there would be a retrial, which from my understanding still hasn't happened

[00:30:58] and all charges were dropped a year later. So yeah. I would like to say- Yeah, it's a really horrible thing. Yeah. The fuck? I do wanna clarify, Pamela and I did a deep dive looking for any other cases where a murder conviction was overthrown

[00:31:17] due to a syntax error and there haven't been any other rulings like this that are public that we don't have to go to- I haven't found any. Yeah, I haven't either. We looked for an hour. There's nothing. So if anyone has any, I would love to read them

[00:31:35] and I might do some more deep diving after. I bet you anything it's not over a singular fucking comma, that's for sure. I just don't think a judge would- Oh, a judge that retired the same year that he ruled that? Yes. Convenient, Mark Clark.

[00:31:53] Why does your name rhyme? You're annoying, sorry. It's true. No, but so a really great example of this is that not all judges are like this. I had a phenomenal judge that I got to intern with and something that he did was incredible.

[00:32:11] He was an Ohio judge and at the end of every trial, he had the jury write anonymous questions and those questions would be read outwards and could be answered for clarification on either the prosecuting or defense side. And I thought, I've never seen it before in a courtroom

[00:32:33] and I thought it was amazing because it completely squashes any type of confusion that the jury might have before they go in for deliberation. Now, not every judge does that. I hadn't seen one before until I had interned for him, but it makes you wonder

[00:32:51] because there's so many judges out there that truly have a passion for what they do and they want the best outcome and they really want what's right to happen. They want whatever they believe is the right thing to happen. And in a trial where there's a jury,

[00:33:11] I mean, why would you throw it out when it's already been decided? He was reelected in 2012 and his term expired in 2018. So he retired in 2018, but that's also when he was up for reelection. So, hmm, fascinating. Mark Clark in Minecraft, of course,

[00:33:34] because we're not making any accusations on this podcast. Everything stated happens within the world of Minecraft. Mark Clark, Judge Mark Clark, retired Judge Mark Clark with an E at the end of your name. Stupid. So the thing that's weird to me and he retired that same year

[00:34:02] and I'm wondering, because again, he was elected in 2012. He was up for reelection in 2018. I'm wondering if he thought that, because normally judges don't retire that quickly. He was elected in 1992 and served until 2018. Some judges, they serve until they're basically in the goddamn ground.

[00:34:26] So my thing is, why did he retire? I just think it's very awkward and weird that he retired immediately. Almost, it felt like almost immediately afterwards. So it's like, okay, I did this. Now I'm gonna be hated, so I'm just gonna leave.

[00:34:46] Or maybe he thought that that would turn the public's opinion in his favor for reelection and then realized, oh fuck. Oh, goddamn it, I fucked up. I can't take this back without getting disbarred now. Like, goddamn. How did he not get disbarred? How did he not get disbarred?

[00:35:02] How? Explain it to me. Ugh! He sat there for the whole trial and he was there for the two week period. He was there during the deliberations. Well, he wasn't there during the deliberations, but they were all present in the courthouse for the seven hour deliberation.

[00:35:19] You're gonna tell me that through that whole time, the judge never said a single word about what could possibly be taken as a mistake? Or a syntax? That one comma is taken as a goddamn fucking mistake. One comma. I wish that he was forced to provide

[00:35:42] what exactly he considered to be the syntax error. But I don't think he could have, you know? Cause there was obviously no syntax error. Then why are you allowed to throw out a death case? Because he's, I don't know.

[00:35:58] My question is who the fuck is Gage Bethune's family? Who is his family? They lived 40 miles, he lives 40 miles away. 40 miles away from where he killed Praveen. And I don't give a fuck if anyone is up in here being like, but they got into a fight.

[00:36:12] It was an accident. That's still first degree murder, my guy. That's not self-defense. That's fucking first degree murder. You kick someone out of a car. You don't report that someone died. You let them go missing for days. That's fucking, I don't give a fuck

[00:36:27] if you were on drugs, if you were drunk, if you accidentally killed someone and you feel bad about it, he would have told that fucking state trooper. He was trying to hide the crime and hide the body, but he got stopped in Minecraft, of course, hypothetically, allegedly,

[00:36:43] cause we don't make any legal accusations on this podcast. My assumption is that what happened is he kicked Praveen's, he realized he killed Praveen, threw him into the truck, kicked his body out of the car down the hill

[00:36:55] and had the intention of going down there to bury him. And the cops stopped him. And so he just left the body there because now he was being watched and he was being analyzed. And you can very well go bury a fucking body

[00:37:06] or hide a fucking body when there was a cop right there. This man fucking knew. It's the same as a hit and run, right? If you accidentally kill someone while driving and you drive away, that's murder. That's vehicular manslaughter. Gage knows what happened that night. Oh, he knows.

[00:37:24] And he's all up on social media, a free man with his girlfriend named Tracy and a young daughter. He's posing for pictures, like he's a happy man with his family. I could not. And oh, not to mention, not to mention before the honorable Mark Clark, before he retired,

[00:37:42] he made sure to refund the $100,000 bail that Gage's family paid. So fucked up. They're so... Then if you were gonna just fucking throw out this case for a syntax error, why sit through a two week long trial? Why sit through a seven hour deliberation?

[00:38:06] He had to keep up appearances. I don't think he- It's wild. I don't think they thought that the jury was gonna find him guilty. I think that that was a surprise. I don't think that that was in the plan.

[00:38:18] I wanna read the like entirety of the court reporting. Yeah, well also- I wanna read all of it. I wanna read all two weeks worth. Okay, so there was obviously racial bias, right? Yeah, of course. To not only get police, but a judge on your side?

[00:38:35] I literally think that it was just, I think it was racism. If I'm gonna be real, I think it was racism. I think that obviously this is hypothetical in the theory- In Minecraft. In an opinion. I think that Gage was involved in some horrible shit.

[00:38:58] I think that Praveen, based on simply the phone call, he was trying to help. I don't think that Gage was the only one who beat Praveen up. No. Based on the phone call, I think that they baited him. Yeah. I genuinely think

[00:39:17] they saw a person of color, an Indian American man, walking down and obviously as Gage reported, he thought he was black. This kid is so fucking stupid. He didn't even know what ethnicity, what race Praveen was. He thought he was black. Are you fucking stupid? Anyways, insults aside-

[00:39:36] But he's also just racist. I think that he baited him. I think they were at a party, they were drunk, they were racist and they were like, oh, you see that kid? You see that insert racial slur here kid? Oh yeah, let's go get him to stop.

[00:39:51] Let's get him to stop and we're gonna fucking beat his ass up. And I don't think based on the 20 wounds that Gage was the only one. Yeah, that's fair. But I think Gage was the one who killed him and was responsible for hiding and dumping the body.

[00:40:06] This has happened so many times, so many times in racism, racist history, where they see a black man, they see a person of color, they see an Asian man, whatever it might be, even a Jewish man, right? And they say, we're gonna kill you.

[00:40:21] But they have no intention of killing the man or they do. They kill him, they beat him up, whatever it might be. That person ends up dead, they suddenly have to hide a fucking body. I don't know. I mean, guys, we see this everywhere, especially like literally everywhere.

[00:40:37] Look at, no, look at every case that has racial bias in it. That involves a white man killing a minority. Well, I mean, I was gonna say there's a massive case in missing murdered indigenous women. Oh, just missing murdered indigenous women in general.

[00:40:53] Yes, and that's what I was going on to talk about is that there are a very, very hefty handful of those cases where they were last seen with a white man. Oh, apps of fucking Lutely. I mean, just look at,

[00:41:07] and we're gonna talk about this in another season special, but serial killer Willie Pickton targeted indigenous women who were prostitutes in Canada. One of them escaped, stabbed him in the neck with scissors, ended up at the same hospital as him and was accused of lying,

[00:41:24] even though she had handcuffs on and was disemboweled. You're telling me that a man that was stabbed in the neck with scissors was able to disembowel a woman? Please, please, if you look at any pictures of Pickton, there's no way. The world is so fucking evil, dude.

[00:41:40] Yeah, I would like to say that one thing that really pisses me off is that Gage's family has been able to scrub the internet of their presence and basically protect themselves, whereas Praveen, his autopsy photos are on the internet. His photos of his grave or whatever,

[00:42:01] like things that shouldn't be out there, and yet the internet is protecting Gage and his family. So calling out Don Bethune, Penny Bethune, and Gage Bethune, if you are really innocent, Gage, you'll take your fucking Instagram off of private. Don, you'll take the fucking,

[00:42:18] the privacy settings off of your Instagram. You'll take the privacy settings off of your LinkedIn, because if you really believe that your son didn't kill this man, why are you hiding? Why are you hiding? I mean, Don also spoke about it with a news article

[00:42:36] that social media was like basically a death sentence to his son and about how horrible that everything was. Then why does he have an Instagram account? Delete it, get off the internet, Gage. I'll bully someone, I don't care. Get off the fucking internet, Gage.

[00:42:51] Why do you have a, because obviously Gage has two separate Instagram accounts. So obviously the first one, the profile picture is him with his daughter when she was an infant. The second one is him with his daughter when she's older. So obviously something happened with that first one.

[00:43:06] Someone found you, someone threatened you, something happened. And also there was a whole, what was it? Dateline? Yeah. Dateline just did a whole series on this. Yep. I'm mad. It's awful. Angry. I am so fucking angry. I just like, God, like you guys are so adamant.

[00:43:32] Like you called it a blessing that you're, like, I don't know if my kid, if my kid, like I'm never gonna have kids, but if let's say my kid turned out to be a racist piece of shit and killed a man for racial motivations,

[00:43:47] and there was evidence that it happened, like there is in this case. I don't know. Unless I was a proud boy or a member of the KKK, I wouldn't sit there and be like, no, my son, my son, my poor, I'd be like, nah, fuck you.

[00:44:01] You go to prison. Yeah, I'd be like, I'm changing my name. You have fun with whatever the fuck you just caused. I will see you later. So it's something to be said with his parents and his family's affiliations. Just the thought.

[00:44:13] In all of this, all of this, by the way, this whole last section in Minecraft, hypothetically, allegedly, none of this is real or true, allegedly. Thank you. God! My New Yorker is coming out. Do you hear my accent? When I say this case makes me angry,

[00:44:31] I was not joking. No, it's true. And just for everybody out there listening, if you care about this case and you care about the families that, the family that was affected or any other case that we're talking about and their families,

[00:44:52] and you just actually give a fuck about humans and you have empathy and you just care about life and all that stuff, and it's fantastic. For the people who don't and you see consuming this case as entertainment, first off, get fucked.

[00:45:16] Second, something like this shouldn't have to happen to you or your family for you to care. And I would just like to say for the people who do care, it would mean a lot to Praveen's family and to his memory,

[00:45:28] there is a scholarship at SIU in his name for criminal justice. He was a major in that, as I said, and it's just something he was really passionate about. So it was a way for his family to let his memory live on. So on top of that,

[00:45:46] there's also a change.org petition and a Facebook page called Justice for Praveen. So please go and support all of those things. And share the scholarship, talk about it on your stories. If you guys are listening to this, share the Facebook page, sign the change.org petition,

[00:46:07] talk about the scholarship on your story and tag us in it so we know. But yeah, instead of asking you guys to leave a review this episode, I'm gonna ask you guys to do those things. All the links will be provided in the description.

[00:46:21] So I really hope I see more signatures on that change.org. Pamela, any final thoughts after hearing me yell into the microphone? None other than I hope that we get to see Praveen and his family receive the justice that they so desperately deserve

[00:46:39] and to remember to tell everybody to stay spooky and stay safe. We're gonna close the case file for today. And remember, I'll say it again, follow those sources. Follow the Justice for Praveen page, sign the change.org petition and contact the local representatives in Illinois

[00:47:05] where Mark Clark was a judge and talked to the representatives about wanting a new trial for Gage Bethune. Please, please, please, if you live in Illinois, if you live in Chicago, if you're a student at SIU, contact your Jackson County representatives and request for another trial.

[00:47:28] Praveen deserves justice and Gage deserves to pay for what he did. So, and I can say that openly because he was convicted. Yes. A jury found him guilty. So I can say he deserves to pay. He deserves to be in jail. Yeah.

[00:47:42] And I'm sorry for his girlfriend and his daughter and you know what? His actions are gonna affect his daughter for the rest of her life. But his decisions of what happened to Praveen affected his family for the rest of his life. Exactly. So contact the local representatives,

[00:47:59] contact the school administrators at SIU, make sure that something is done. Fight the fight with his family. And this is what we will tell you with every cold case we are gonna cover moving forward. Fight the good fight because if you listen to true crime,

[00:48:15] you can't be complacent when shit like this happens. But anyways, don't forget that our episodes come out every single Monday at midnight. This one's a little later because like we said, it's Father's Day. We didn't want Chris to have the stress of editing this

[00:48:30] when he should be celebrating with his family. So goodbye. Bye. Bye.