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A warning about content. This show contains descriptions of violence. Listener discretion is advised. On the last episode of Ransom, Hilton Crawford told his sons and a prison guard that a man named R. L. Remington had helped with the kidnapping. Hilton said Mekay Ebert was either being held by Remington in New Orleans or he was on a bus back to Houston. But then on the night of Saturday, September 16th, four days after kidnapping Mekay, Hilton changed his story. After meeting with his wife and lawyer, Hilton drew Sheriff Guy William's a map with directions leading to McKay.

He says, Do you know where Whiskey Bay is? I said, Yes, it's on Interstate 10 in the Atchafalaya swamp. He goes, You'll find him here.

It was a remote site in central Louisiana Indiana, four and a half hours east of Conroe. The Atchafalaya swamp is a largely uninhabited area between Lafayette and Baton Rouge. It's such a remote area that Google Streetview hasn't even captured it. So my producer Ben Kebrick and I drove out there.

All right, so now we're on this super long flat bridge up on these tall pylons over the swamp.

It's so incredibly remote. Hilton said to take the Whiskey Bay exit off of the middle of the 18-mile long Atchafalaya Basin Bridge, one of the longest bridges in the world. It's an eerie place. I mean, we are out in the middle of nowhere. Miles to the east of us and miles to the west of us, all there is is water. Just swamp lands. And Whisky Bay Exit is one of the few areas where there's just a little land here.

No gas stations, no rest stop.

You can hear the road. It's just a shell road as Hilton described. The map Hilton drew said to go north until the road stopped being paved. He said the road led to an iron gate, and behind the gate was a wooden shed. We just passed a gate.

Yeah, so we just passed a gate, and he said there was a wooden shack, so it might have been there. All right, it looks like nothing out this way. Maybe let's turn back and see if there's anything by that gate. You know what? I bet that's the shed.

There's the shed right there.

Yeah. Yeah.

This looks like a shed that has been here for many, many years.

Wow.

It's The whole area is just so untouched. We got a car that pulled up behind us.

I'm like, Is this one of the people we're trying to meet?

It may be. It was the man we came here to meet. Marcus Guidry. Hey, how's it going? Ben. Back in 1995, Guidry was a deputy for St. Martin Parish in Lafayette, and it was around midnight when he was dispatched to the scene.

I got a call from the FBI. They advised me that they were investigating investigating an abduction, kidnapping, and possibly the dumping of a child's body, and gave me some very vague description of the area. I mean, I've been here all my life.

Giddory drove his unmarked black Camaro to the area he thought Hilton had described. There's no lights around this area. Are you nervous about what you might find?

Yes. We're always cautious when we come in this area.

It's one of the most remote places right off a major interstate.

I've worked several homicides here in the same area.

Giddory says that as he neared the shack, it became obvious that something was decomposing nearby. The odor was overwhelming.

I rolled my window down and smelled it.

Giddory got out of the car and shined his flashlight into the feuillage. He saw an area where the tall grass was parted like someone had walked through it. And a couple of yards in, Marcus saw red eyes glowing in the darkness, a possum's eyes reflecting back from his flashlight. And there beneath the possum was the body of 12-year-old McKay Everett, lying face down in the swamp.

I can still envision that picture today.

Wow. So sad. It's just a tragic story all the way around.

I contemplate this every time I pass here, how a parent could lose a child in a little circumstances. A poor little 12-year-old boy. Innocent as innocent could be. He just didn't deserve none of this. A kid would be 40 years old today. Right. I would have done something that may have changed this world. You don't know. No one will ever know.

Back in Conroe, law enforcement got word that they'd found a body in the swamp.

Here all of a sudden is, Okay, we're at this point, and crap, all that we've done is for not. We're not getting him back alive.

All the polygraphs and interviews, the overnight shifts and sleepless nights hadn't been enough. Paulette's visit to Connie and Carl's pleading press conference had been too late. Mckay Everett had been dead the whole time. And the moment had come for someone to break the news to Carl and Paulette. From KSL podcast, I'm Art Rascone. This is Ransom, Position of Trust. Episode 5, Hilton's Story. At 4:00 in the morning on Sunday, September 16, 1995, law enforcement called the Everts pastor over to their home. Paulette was still sleeping when they broke the news to Carl that McKay was dead. Carl felt that he should be the one to tell Paulette.

When I woke up, it was early Sunday morning, wee hours in the morning. Carl woke me up. There were FBI agents, there were family and friends, and he said, Pauley, I'm so sorry. I wasn't big enough to get McKay home. Those words still ring in my ears some days.

Pauley, I'm so sorry I wasn't big enough to get McKay home.

And immediately, I threw my head back and started making this funny sound, just a groaning sound. And I It was out of my body. I was looking down on them. Then the next thing I know, I was gone. I'm looking around going, Where am I? It was men, women, children, everywhere, just cheering and happy. I don't like crowds, but it didn't bother me. I told myself, That's odd. You don't like crowds. Then I looked to my right, and there's McKay on the shoulders of angels, and I was like, Oh, my gosh. He had on this different cloth. It was just effervescent and ethereal. It was just unbelievable. Then angels carried McKay into that amphitheater. They had wings, but faces are what I kept focusing on. The countenance on their face was strong, and I was like, McKay's in good hands. I was yelling at McKay, going, Look at me, just look at me one more time, just look at me one more time. And he never turned around. Typical teenager. But I could tell by the side of his face that he had a big smile, and I don't have to worry. And it was just the most amazing moment.

I didn't want to leave because I was so calm. And then God tells me, You can't stay. And the next thing I know, I opened my eyes, and I was back down, laying flat on my back in the bed.

Paulette had never experienced anything like it before in her life. When she came to, she found she was paralyzed.

I tried to move, and I couldn't. I tried to talk, and I couldn't.

The only parts of her body she could move were her eyes. Since the first night when she'd found out that McKay was missing. Her body had been acting strangely.

That first night, I didn't know what was happening, but my left arm started pulling up. I started dragging my right leg. My voice started slowing. Of course, I didn't know what it was. I was only 45 years old. Even after I died and came back from heaven and I couldn't walk, talk, it never dawned on me, stroke. Everybody just thought that what had happened to me was just I was stressed. Well, yes, I was. But the ramifications of that stress presented itself in the fact that I had a stroke.

Paulette would later learn she had suffered a stroke to her basal a little ganglia that left her temporarily paralyzed.

For that first day, I told myself, Today, I will move a big toe. I may not can do anything else, but I'm going to move my toe.

When Paulette describes this time period, she focuses on the physical, the stroke, and how she worked to overcome it, because the emotions she felt after McKay's death are painful to relive and impossible to describe.

It's devastating. It's There's really not a good word in the English language that describes it. It's just think of every word that's negative and leaves you feeling totally empty and roll them all into one. It's like every vital breath of everything you lived for. It's gone. For the longest, I felt like I was dead.

One moment should feel empty and numb. The next should be overwhelmed by emotion.

The intense rage and anger was unbelievable. It wasn't just anger. It was downright rage.

It was an awful situation, but she was buoyed by the out-of-body experience she had during her stroke, seeing McKay and the Angels.

I told myself, Girlfriend, you're in for the fight of your life. You've lost your child, and now you can't move or talk. I've been on the struggle of my life ever since, and I will not give up.

That same night, some five miles away, Hilton Crawford was in a very different struggle for his own life.

Before we take this statement, I need to go ahead and give you your Miranda rights. That is, you have the right to remain silent.

In a tan prison uniform, Hilton sat on a couch in an interrogation room with a video camera rolling, and he was racking his brain, trying to find words to explain what had happened. Hilton needed to tell investigators a story that would keep him off of Texas's notorious death row.

I think probably the best way for us to start is to go ahead and begin with how you began planning this particular incident, when that first started, and who you contacted to make it work.

Hilton looked down at the carpet and rubbed his hands together nervously.

When I first met this guy, start from there. Yes, sir. Go ahead. The two people are involved in this thing besides yourself.

Hilton had previously told his sons and a jail guard that the kidnapping was masterminded by a man named R. L. Remington. But at the time, Hilton told them that McKay was still alive. Hilton now admitted McKay had been murdered, but insisted that he wasn't the killer. Hilton said Remington was the one who had killed McKay. That would mean McKay's murderer, R. L. Remington, was still at in charge, and the investigation was far from over. Investigators needed the full account of how the kidnapping had taken place. They had to determine all the people who had been involved in McKay's abduction and murder. In particular, they needed to know who was the mysterious R. L. Remington. This episode of Ransom is sponsored by Betterhelp. As we look at our own lives, we have a lot of heavy things that happen in our lives, but we can control how we react to them, and therapy can teach us the skills that really let us cope in a much better, healthier way. So if you're thinking about therapy, you might want to give better help a try. It is incredible. It's entirely online, designed to be so convenient for you.

Just fill out a brief questionnaire and you will be matched up with a licensed therapist. How convenient is that? You can do it from anywhere, from your office, from your own bedroom, and switch therapists anytime with no additional charge. Better is the way to go. Take a moment. Visit betterhelp. Com/ransom today to get 10% off your first month. That's betterhelp, H-E-L-P. Com/ransom. There are two things that are absolutely true.

Grandma loves you, and she would never say no to McDonald's.

So treat yourself to a Grandma McFlurry with your order today.

It's what Grandma would want. At Participating McDonald's for a limited time.

Dare to Create this June 15th with Crinu N'Oog.

We dare you to find your spark at over a thousand free events.

Crinu N'Oog, the National Day of Free Creativity for Young People. See creativeisland. Ca. Gov. Ie for more.

Supported by RTE.

Before we get to the question of who was R. L. Remington, I want to introduce you to author Tani Shannon.

Hi. Well, I'm Tanny Shannon.

Tanny interviewed Hilton Crawford extensively for his book Seed of Villany, which tells an account of the crime from Crawford's perspective.

My next door neighbor happened to be an attorney. She came home one evening, and my wife and I were on the back deck sharing margaritas, and we waved. She came over and told us all about the case, and told us about Hilton Crawford and what a nice man he was, and how she just didn't really think he could have done this.

Danny was an author looking for a project.

She said, You know, this is a guy you need to write about. He's a very interesting character. I said, Okay, give me his name, and I'll write to him. The first thing I asked him was why he did this. And he said, Well, honestly, I don't know. He said, I just felt pressured, and one thing led to another, and desperation led me to it. So I sent me a letter back and I said, Well, if you will allow me to explore it with you, I would love to try to discover the causes or the reasons that prompted you to commit this crime.

Tanny is probably the person who spent the most time with Hilton after Hilton's arrest, and Hilton has since passed away. So Tanny is therefore key to understanding why Hilton committed this crime and Hilton's version of what happened.

He maintained that he had been duped into this and that the intent was to return McKay, whether or not the ransom was paid. He indicated that he struggled with the whole thing, but he described it to me as feeling like he was in a dream and just going through the motions automatically. I don't know if that really makes any sense or not, but that was his description. What I do know is that he was pressured to do this and that he felt an extreme need to cut his losses, to get his hands on some money so he could cover up all of these bad things that had happened.

We'll dive into what Hilton was desperate to hide in the next episode. But first, let's walk through what Hilton told investigators the night they found M his body.

Go ahead and begin with how you began planning this particular incident.

The audio can be hard to make out, so I'll make sure to restate the important parts.

I went to the lower level there of Louisiana Downs.

Hilton told investigators had met R. L. Remington a little over a year ago at the Louisiana Downs racetrack. Hilton owned a racehorse that was competing that day. Hilton said Remington wore Alligator skin boots and a bolo tie.

He described him as well-dressed, a Cajun-looking guy with a Cajun accent.

He said the first time they met, Remington asked him a couple of questions about his horse and then asked for his business card.

He said, You have a car? I said, Yeah, I do. And that was it.

After that, Hilton said he would occasionally run into Remington at the racetracks. They would exchange tips about racehorses to help one another place bets, and Remington would sometimes call Hilton at work to chat. Hilton said he didn't have Remington's number. Remington was always the one who called him. In May of 1995, four months before the kidnapping, Hilton had gotten himself into a bad financial situation. He declared bankruptcy, but in the months afterwards, he hadn't gotten spending in check or downgraded his lifestyle.

He just kept getting in deeper and deeper and deeper. He just didn't know when to say, Uncle, I'd admit that he had put himself in a very bad position.

According to Hilton, Remington called him in June, and Hilton told him about his financial difficulties. Remington said he knew how Hilton could quickly make hundreds of thousands of dollars through kidnapping. Hilton said that at first First, he dismissed the idea, but his financial situation kept getting worse, and a ransom kidnapping started sounding more appealing.

He started growing on me, growing on me, growing on me.

Hilton said a month Before he abducted McKay, Remington called him and again brought up the kidnapping. Hilton remembered Karl talking about making a lot of money through Amway, and he decided McKay was the perfect target.

As he told it, he was resentful about Carl trying to pressure him into the Mway business. But in truth, he may have simply been trying to justify his actions.

Remington told him it was best to find a woman to make the ransom call. So Hilton reached out to an ex-employee of his, Irene Flores. He kept things vague, telling her that he had a job coming up where she could make some fast money and she'd only need to make a phone call.

She said, Well, I'm ready.

Hilton said that on Sunday, September 10th, two days before McKay's kidnapping, Remington called him again, and Hilton told Remington about Carl and McKay.

I said, Well, I got this friend, and I said, I know you're pretty well off.

Hilton told Remington that Carl was having an Amway meeting in two nights and that McKay would be home alone.

He said, Well, set it up.

Hilton said he finalized the plans with Remington and called Irene the next day.

I talked to her Monday. We went over what she needed to say and so forth and so on.

The next day, on the night of the kidnapping, Hilton had an early dinner with his wife, Connie, at her sister's house. He said he initially planned to bring one of his employees to the Everts Amway meeting, but that man had bailed. Still, the plan was in motion, so he drove through the rain to pick up R. L. Remington at a strip mall.

He met Remington in a strip center that was fairly close to McKay's house.

Hilton said he found Remington waiting by himself with a duffle bag.

And they went together to McKay's home. On the way over there, he opened up that duffle bag, and he had a policeman's shirt.

When Hilton had told the story to his sons the day before, he'd said there was a third man present who put on a policeman's shirt and abducted in McKay. But in this telling, it was just Hilton and Remington. Hilton said Remington put on the policeman's shirt and put a hood with a draw string into his back pocket. Hilton pulled up into the Everett's back driveway and Remington went up to the house.

According to Crawford, Remmington went to the door. He walked up to the door, he ran his doorbell, and he stayed there 30, 40 seconds. They talked a little bit. I don't know what was said there. And got McKay to open the door and then put a bag over his head and abducted him and put him in the trunk. Was McKay struggling? Yeah, it looked like. Crawford says he backed out suddenly, and there was a neighbor across the street Bringing out garbage cans. He almost hit the person.

That neighbor, of course, was Bill Kahn, who saw Hilton's gold Chrysler back down the driveway. And he made note of the Crown dealership sticker on the back left bumper before the car sped off. Phone records show that a few minutes later, at 8:37, Hilton called Irene Flores from his cell phone, presumably to tell her that he had abducted McKay and the plan was in motion. At this point, the story Hilton originally told law enforcement and what he later told Danny diverged slightly. In the story Hilton told Danny, he looked down at the dashboard and realized he was running on fumes.

He had to stop and buy gas with McKee in the trunk of his car. What planning is that? A number of things there that just It don't make any sense, especially someone that has the law enforcement experience that he had.

In the story that Hilton told Tanny, this unplanned stop angered R. L. Remmington.

Remmington became very irate about the things that Crawford had done wrong.

We know from a gas station receipt that Hilton did stop for gas at 8:55, just after abducting McKay. Interestingly, though, he left this stop for gas out of the story he told police. In his initial telling to law enforcement, it was Irene Flores who messed up the plan. Hilton says that around 11:00 PM, as he drove crossed the border from Texas into Louisiana. He tried to call Irene Flores again to confirm she had made the ransom call, but he couldn't reach her.

I reached her mother, and Irene wasn't at home.

Hilton Hilton said he kept trying to call Irene, but Irene's mother told him she wasn't home.

I called again. I got a hold of my mother again.

Presumably, these would be the three phone calls made from Hilton's cell phone to Irene Floris' number at 11:10, 11:13, and 11:30.

We never did get a hold of Irene.

In Hilton's story to law enforcement, this was the point where R. L. Remington came enraged.

And that's when he started getting upset because he said, You all just don't know what you're doing.

From this point on, Hilton's stories to Tanny and law enforcement were relatively consistent. In both, R. L. Remington is angry as they drive east on Interstate 10 towards Lafayette, Louisiana.

Remington was telling him what a fool he was and so forth.

And they start hearing noises from inside the trunk. The of McKay struggling for his life, trying to try open the trunk of the car with the tire iron.

The noise in the trunk kept getting a little bit louder. He said, Fall offside the road.

R. L. Remington was furious and told Hilton to pull over onto the shoulder of the highway.

So I fall offside the road. He said, Open the trunk.

Hilton said Remington grabbed a flashlight from the glove box and marched back to the trunk.

I heard something like According to Hilton, Remington beat McKay with the flashlight, then got back into the car as if nothing had happened. That's the way you did he do? He said, He's all right, but he's going to be quiet for a while.

Remington told Hilton that McKay was all right, but he'd be quiet for a while. It's remarkable how cold and clinical Hilton is while describing Remington beating McKay Everett, a child he supposedly loved, a child who called him Uncle Hilti. The trunk was now silent as they continued on eye-tanned through Lafayette, Louisiana. Outside Lafayette, Hilton said Remington told him to pull over behind a burgundy Cadillac which was waiting for them on the side of the road. Remington got out and spoke to the man driving the car. This was the point in the plan where they were supposed to hand off McKay to this accomplice who would keep him in New Orleans until they got the ransom money. But when Remington returned from speaking to the other man, the plan had changed. The Cadillac started driving off, and Remington told him to follow it.

He said, Follow that car.

Hilton said he followed the Burgundy Cadillac onto the long bridge between Lafayette and Baton Rouge that crosses over the Atchafalaya swamp. They took the Whiskey Bay exit and drove north onto the Shell Road. The Cadillac pulled into a small driveway.

And he pulled into a driveway, a Shell driveway, and there was a gate there. And he told me to just pull him up past the car. He didn't say two words for...

Hilton said Remington was quiet for a while, then told him the kidnapping wasn't working at all.

No, this isn't working at all.

Remington said, You can't get a hold of your woman. You don't know what she said. This whole thing has gone bad. Then Remington told him to open the trunk. Pay attention to how matter of fact and remorseful Hilton is as he describes these events.

So I opened the trunk and I looked in there and there was a lot of blood in there.

It was bloodier than he had imagined. Mckay was unconscious conscious.

His face was covered blood. I said, I don't like what's going on here.

Hilton expressed outrage to Remington, but Remington told him the deal was done.

He said, This deal is over with. And I said, What are you talking about?

Hilton said he kept a pistol in the trunk of the car inside a gun case. Remington spotted the case and grabbed the weapon.

He said, Grab that kid.

According to Hilton, Remington and his partner lifted McKay out of the trunk.

Remington had a plate and this other guy had his arm.

They threw him down off the side of the road. Mckay wasn't moving.

He never did move.

And Remington took Hilton's gun out of its case.

He took that gun out and pulled that chamber back and of course, had a round in it, and the round came out. He walked over there. He shot twice. I couldn't tell you where he hit him.

Hilton said Remington shot McKay twice, then walked back and threw the gun into Hilton's trunk.

I said, Man, I don't know what's going on. He said, I'm saying what's going on. He said, You all screwed the deal up.

Remington told Hilton to leave and to not say a word about the crime or he'd come for Hilton's family.

He said, You best get your ass in the car and not say a word about it. Because Will get your family or something. I said, This is terrible.

Hilton said that was the point where he drove back to the Best Western in Beaumont, Texas, and checked in at 04:00 AM. But investigators had follow-up questions.

Before you go anywhere, let me back you up a little bit.

Investigators wondered why Remington had let Hilton live as he was the only witness to the murder.

Why do you suppose he let you go? You just witnessed a murder. I understand. Why did he let you go? I don't even know what I did. I thought about that, Jeff. That's the problem I got with your story. You watched the murder. You're a witness to it. Some guy who you don't even know is going to let you leave.

They pointed out it was strange that they hadn't gotten rid of the gun.

And he gives you the gun back. Why would he do that? Why would I just destroy that piece of evidence? I don't know.

Especially because by Hilton's own admission, Remington wasn't wearing gloves and his fingerprints would be all over the weapon.

He said nothing about him wearing gloves. He didn't have no gloves.

But when law enforcement recovered the weapon, they found no fingerprints on it, and they never managed to track down Remington either. R. L. Remington, if he even exists, remains at large to this day. As I've mentioned in the past, my house has been robbed, and, wow, I needed a security system. That's why I want to talk about Simply Safe. Simply Safe is advanced home security that puts you first. Simply Safe does not lock you into a long-term contract so you can cancel any time, penalty-free. You can try Simply Safe risk-free with a 60-day satisfaction guarantee or your money back. With 24/7 LiveGuard protection. Simplysafe's agents can act on an alarm within 5 seconds of receiving the alarm's signal. It deters intruders and dispatches police immediately. Because in a crisis, every moment discounts. We've partnered with Simply Safe to offer you an exclusive 20% discount on a new system with Fast Protect monitoring. All you need to do is visit simplisafe. Com/ransom to claim this discount. That's simplisafe. Com/ransom. There's no safe like Simply Safe. There are two things that are absolutely true.

Grandma loves you, and she would never say no to McDonald's.

So treat yourself to a Grandma McFlurry with your order today.

It's what Grandma would want. At participating McDonald's for a limited time.

Dare to Create this June 15th with Crinu N'Oog.

We dare you to find your spark at over a thousand free events.

Crinu N'Oog, the National Day of Free Creativity for Young People. See creativeireland. Gov. Ie for more.

Supported by RTE.

One of the big mysteries surrounding McKay's abduction is R. L. Remington. And whether he was a real accomplice or whether he was a fictitious character concocted by Hilton Crawford. Agent Cindy Rosenthal says the FBI searched for R. L. Remington, but they never found him. They tried to find an R. L. Remington.

They couldn't find anything or even a reasonable facsimile of one. And then it just died from there.

Agent Donnie Miller says Hilton maintained up until his death that he hadn't killed McKay.

He said after his death, somehow Remmington would come to light, and we would understand how he'd played into this. Someone had told him that R. L. Remington was in Europe. I don't remember where he got that information, but that was well after the fact. I relayed the information to the FBI. I don't know whether they ever addressed it or did anything about it.

To this day, Paulette isn't sure whether she believes Hilton's story about R. L. Remington.

I don't know if it was a blame shift, but I do know that I did not know Hilton to smoke. I did not know Hilton to drink beer. I knew him to drink liqueur, that alcohol. When they found McKay, there were cigarette butts and beer.

Near In the case body, crime scene investigators found two bud-like cans and an empty cigarette pack that looked like they'd been left there recently. They found a latent fingerprint on the cigarette pack belonging to someone other than Hilton. But ultimately, it was unclear whether the beer or cigarettes had any connection to the crime. That was one of the reasons my producer and I visited the crime scene.

I've seen this course can over here. Do you think this is more or less like what it would have looked like in terms of stuff lying around, or is it different today than back then? It's a lot more heavily traveled right now, but at the time, you could see a beer can here there because Honest, they like to drink. They'll throw a can out. Somebody will get off the interstate to come in and use the bathroom sometimes. Might empty out their call.

Danny Shannon, the author who interviewed Hilton extensively in prison, says that many of the investigators working on the case weren't sure what to make of Hilton's story.

Law enforcement personnel, in general, were pretty much split down the middle over whether or not he actually did this.

Tanny thinks that when initial searches for Remington turned up nothing, law enforcement gave up and decided Remington wasn't real.

And they just readily assumed that he was making it up. Their determination was that he was using it to justify his crime or using that as a story to lessen his responsibility. That was a decision that they reached rather early on or that they seemed to reach, and they seemed to be trying to prove rather than actually look at all of the evidence in the case. Now, I might be wrong there, but at least that's the impression I got.

But while Danny spent years interviewing Hilton, he didn't talk to investigators about their side of the story. All the investigators we spoke to felt a thorough search had been done and that they'd ruled out the existence of R. L. Remington.

The FBI did a deep, deep dive. We did everything we could to put meat on the bones of that story.

A lieutenant in the Sheriff's office did a composite drawing, and it went out all over the United States.

They went and searched everything with Remington. They asked all these people. No one we talked to knew of this person. There were no records that we could find that revealed an R. L. Remington. As you start digging and digging and digging, it's like, This could be, this could be, this could be this could be maybe it could be. This is crap.

It's hard to prove that R. L. Remington didn't exist. After all, law enforcement wasn't even sure that R. L. Remington was his real name. It's a constant headache in law enforcement when they start making up these random stories because you have to try to convince people that it didn't happen. It's hard to convince people that something didn't happen. It's hard to prove a negative, hard to prove that somewhere out there in the world, there wasn't a man with Alligator boots and a Cajun accent who helped kidnap and murder McKay. But what made seasoned investigators doubtful of the Remington story was the fact that Remington had seemingly left behind zero evidence. You have to follow the evidence. And all of the evidence pointed back to Hilton. There was blood spatter on the clothing he'd been wearing the night McKay was killed. Spatter that suggested it was not the mysterious R. L. Remington who bludgeoned McKay in the trunk, but rather Hilton Crawford. It was his vehicle. It was his gun.

The evidence was just overwhelming.

And at the crime scene, investigators found two more pieces of evidence. The brass casings of the bullets shot into McKay. And what company manufactured those casings? Remington. But there was another potential accomplice who Paulette thinks was overlooked, someone who Paulette feels betrayed her, who you've heard about throughout this podcast. And that's the part that bothers Paulette to this day, the reason she feels justice was never fully served. To understand Paulette's suspicions, we need to investigate another question first. Why had Hilton done this?

It just boggles my mind. I could not understand what would drive him to that. And that's why I started interviewing him to begin with.

Why had this 56-year-old man with a wife and two children risked everything on such a foolhardy scheme?

Here's a guy that had so much going for him. He had a wonderful family. He was capable of earning. He had friends that cared about him and so forth. He had an awful lot going for him for someone that would go to this extreme.

How had he sunk so low that he could heartlessly kill 12-year-old McKay Everett, the boy who called him Uncle Hilton. Next time on Ransom.

If I would have put all of this stuff together, I would have done something, and McKay would still be alive.

For more information, including pictures, find us on social at the Ransom podcast or visit our website, ransompodcast. Com. We'll have new episodes every Wednesday and bonus episodes every Friday. Follow us now wherever you get your podcasts. And if you could leave a rating and review, we would really appreciate it. Ransom is researched and written by Ben Kebrick and hosted by me, Art Rascone. Production and sound design by Ben Kebrick, Erin Mason, and Trent Sell, who also did the mixing. Special thanks to Andrea Smarten, Kelly Ann Halvorson, Ryan Meeks, Amy Donaldson, Felix Sbenel, Josh Tilton, and Dave Cawley. Main musical score composed by Allison Leighton-Brown, co-created by Austin Miller. For podcast one, executive producer Eli Dvorken. For Workhouse Media, executive producer Paul Anderson, and for KSL podcast, executive producer Sheryl Worsley. Ransom is produced by KSL Podcasts in Association with Podcast One and Workhouse Media. They say money can't buy love, but it turns out you just have to wait till the end for the check to come. We trade uncomfortable truths for comfortable lies, imaginary solutions to real problems. I'm James Sexton, host of likely sources. You may know me from my books or my many interviews such as Softwhite Underbelly, Lex Friedmann, or one of the many other places I've shared my perspective on love, life, and the law.

I know a divorce lawyer isn't the first person you think of for advice on how to keep your relationship strong, but wisdom is found in unexpected counterintuitive places. In sickness, we see the value of health. The Godfather, it can teach you more about business than an MBA. Fight Club, it's actually about religion. The most valuable practical wisdom comes from unlikely sources, and it's time we sit up and pay attention to what they can teach us. So if you're looking for compelling conversation, blunt talk about culture, religion, romance, and how to navigate life in the machine of modern society, I'll look forward to spending some time with you. I'm Jim Sexton. Unlikely Sources will be available May There are two things that are absolutely true.

Grandma loves you, and she would never say no to McDonald's.

So treat yourself to a Grandma McFlurry with your order today.

It's what grandma would want. At Participating McDonald's for a limited time.

Dare to Create this June 15th with Crinu N'Oog.

We dare you to find your spark at over a thousand free events.

Crinu N'Oog, the National Day of Free Creativity for Young People. See creativeireland. Gov. Ie for more.

Supported by RTE.

There are two things that are absolutely true.

Grandma loves you, and she would never say no to McDonald's.

So treat yourself to a Grandma McFlurry with your order today.

It's what Grandma would want. At participating McDonald's for a limited time.