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Show notes

This Episode is about a young mother who was found dead in a public and highly populated lake. The scene was bizarre and no one can figure out how she ended up in the water.

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Transcript

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Welcome to true crime by Indie Drop-In each week we feature an episode from the best independent creators hit subscribe for more great, true crime content. If you would like to help Indie Drop-In support indie creators, you can buy us a coffee. Just go to https://buymeacoffee.com/indiedropin or click the link in the show notes below today’s episode is from When Suicide is Murder.

(1m 31s):
Don’t forget to check out the show notes for links to subscribe and follow on social media. Enjoy the show begin. It is estimated that each year, approximately 1 million people die from suicide. That equals about one death. Every 40 seconds. There’s a myth that once someone is suicidal, he or she will be suicidal forever. Actually, people who want to kill themselves are only suicidal for a limited period of time. Mostly it’s because they want to escape a situation that they feel is just unbearable.

(2m 14s):
If you think, you know, someone who is contemplating suicide, the best thing you can do is talk to them about getting help and see what you can do. Suicide is murder is a podcast that uses adult language and discusses topics that are they sensitive and triggering as well as some graphically detailed situation.

(2m 54s):
Listener discretion. Welcome back to When Suicide is Murder. I’m Jill star. We’re going to go ahead and jump into this case, but before I do, let me just remind you that everybody is innocent until proven guilty. It was a really good day. She was, she was in high spirits. She was, she was in a great mood. I called her the morning of the 30th. I texted her at 10 54 on August 30th. So we had confirmed that she was coming over to my house.

(3m 35s):
She came in in the morning. It was like nine 30. You know, when she came in and she gave me a hug and I knew that she was going to go to green Lake that day. You know, we had talked about it. She was going to go and get a pedicure. She was just going to have a her day. You know, they found her floating in the water. So fully clothes with socks. This case takes place at GreenLake in Seattle, Washington. Some details can’t be elaborated on at this time because it is considered an ongoing investigation.

(4m 21s):
Ultimately stone was born August 14th, 1996 and passed away Friday, August 30th, 2019, just 16 days after her 23rd birthday leaving behind two sons only ages three and five weeks old. Autumn stone was described by her friends and family as someone who was always smiling. Her smile in fact was absolutely stunning. I went on her Facebook page and I can tell you that she was gorgeous. She was a gift to her parents and extraordinary soul making her way through life and spreading joy and love to everyone. Autumn was a bright young girl with a love for life, family, friends, and most of all her children.

(5m 5s):
She went out of her way to help others before herself. She had a love for music of many genres, anywhere from Patsy Cline to Bob Marley, Lincoln park and Shanaya Twain. At about 12 years old, she had helped her mom and dad through a divorce. She kept the peace between the two of them by showing them how much they were loved. No matter what the hard times brought her mom said that if it wasn’t for her, she couldn’t have overcome her battle with alcoholism. At some point, autumn had to quit high school due to the ulcers from stress, but she eventually made her way to her diploma. As her parents knew that she could and would, she was a beautiful, determined woman who could accomplish anything.

(5m 50s):
She put her mind to on September 17th, 2019, she welcomed her second into her life with her fiance, Tyler Washington, she wrote in her journal, a little prayer telling God her sons were quote my whole world. She asked that he continued to surround them with love and angels and ended it with an amen. She had known Tyler since she was a child, but they had lost touch. They found each other again in 2017 and ended up finding love in each other and getting engaged to be married. That September she was happy and in love and full of joy with this new addition to her family that they created autumn and her fiance were living at home with Autumn’s grandparents.

(6m 38s):
She was gearing up for her wedding and joining her own little family and was saving up to buy a house. Mm Evening, on October 21st, she left her newborn son with his father Tyler. And at that time the baby was sleeping. She was only gone less than 15 minutes, a quick trip down the road to Jack in the box. When she got back, She was thrown into a chain of events that would spiral out and eventually lead to her untimely death. Her five week old son was limp, barely responsive and gasping for air. Her grandparents and Tyler were tending to the baby and waiting for help to arrive. He was taken to Seattle children’s hospital and they reported that he had to be resuscitated twice.

(7m 23s):
His injuries were broken ribs and brain damage. He had severe swelling on the brain that left him with seizures. Unfortunately Autumn’s grandparents were upstairs when the incident happened and did not see it themselves. Doctors That treated the baby reported that this was not an accidental injury. And just like that Autumn’s babies were taken from her. And just nine days later, she was taken from them forever. Social services placed her three-year-old son with his father, Jacob Johnson, her infant son remained in children’s hospital during his recovery.

(8m 5s):
When autumn, her grandparents and fiance sat down with social services. They explained that there was going to be an investigation into the situation due to Tyler’s past history with child abuse. What autumn was learning was a shock to her. Tyler had never told her of his previous conviction of child abuse in 2014, her fiance whom she loved and trusted so much was sentenced to five years in prison. After failing a polygraph and pleading guilty. He told the police that he just snapped. This resulted in him, severely shaking his then one month old daughter with a previous partner.

(8m 49s):
He said he only wanted her to stop crying. He had caused permanent brain damage to that baby and was released after just serving two years of that five-year sentence. I don’t understand how the two incidents can be so similar that yet he claims that it was an accident. It’s also very telling that this piece of shit never told autumn what had happened. He was getting ready to have a baby with someone that he couldn’t even be honest with. He claimed to autumn that he didn’t actually hurt his daughter and that he never told her because he was worried about acceptance into her life and that of her families, although autumn claim to social services that she had never seen Tyler act violently, she still canceled.

(9m 40s):
Her wedding plans broke off the engagement, pending the investigation and told Tyler to move out of the house and what a smart girl, because that would be the first thing that I would do to protect my children. If there was any way that she was going to get them back, she knew that she was going to have to have him out of the house so that they could come home. The denial of child abuse and failed polygraphs regarding both children, as well as a guilty plea on the first one, hang in the air like old stale meat charges were never filed for the second case of child abuse due to insufficient evidence because nobody actually seen anything happen.

(10m 26s):
That week was really tough for her. It was full of inquiry from the police. They came, they collected evidence from her home. She spoke with lawyers and had countless phone calls with social services, discussing everything that was just vomited into her life. Despite all that she texts her dad saying, I know it will be a long process, but I have faith that eventually I will have my babies back with me. I was really concerned because I knew that the baby had been injured. There was a lot going on.

(11m 7s):
We continued to talk a little bit about that and her plans to get the baby back. She was going to battle, you know, she, she had a war. She was going to face, but there was a tone that changed in her. And she said, I can’t say anything to my family about this because they’re already upset enough and I don’t want to upset them anymore, but I’m going to get answers today. And I was like, autumn, I love you, but I need you to be really careful. I need to know that you’re going to be safe. August 30th, 2019 was a regular beautiful sunny summer day at 9:36 AM.

(11m 49s):
Autumn spoke to her friend, Kimberly Adams on the phone. Kimberly had reached out after she saw a Facebook Post from autumn asking for prayers for the family. She was devastated to hear the news. The item’s parental rights could be taken from her due to the investigation. She said that autumn was in pieces over not being able to see her baby in the hospital. And that she was also angry and motivated and was going to get her babies back home. It wasn’t a wish or a question if it was going to happen, but that it was a fact that she was stating. Kimberly says she can still hear the intent and Autumn’s voice that mother bear growl.

(12m 31s):
As she said, she would get them back. She didn’t want to tell her parents that she had a plan to get answers. She told Kimberly that she didn’t want to upset them any more than they already were. It’s not a conversation she can or will ever forget. Autumn ended the call telling Kimberly that she was going to find answers today with a significant emphasis on the word today. And Kimberly told her to be safe and call her when she was home for the day after her phone call, she went and told her mom that she was going to the Lake to clear her head and that she was going to get her nails done and give herself a mental break.

(13m 12s):
She wanted to decompress before her scheduled visit with her eldest son at 10:26 AM, autumn date and timestamped and new entry in her notebook. As she usually did. She surrounded her entry with cute little hearts. She pleaded for God to help heal her baby, and then thanked him for her children. She also wrote, thank you for all the blessings you have given me in my life. My two beautiful sons are my whole world. I love my babies with every piece of my heart and would do anything and everything I need to to make sure they have the absolute best lives possible.

(13m 54s):
Amen. She promised them and herself that she wouldn’t stop until she had them back in her arms and got answers for what happened that night, that left her son hurt, but she never got a chance to make good on her promise. The investigating officer with the Seattle police department later told the family that this journal entry was in fact, a suicide note at 10:54 AM. She texted her stepmom telling her that she had plans on Tuesday to discuss a polygraph. It isn’t clear if she was going to take one, or if she was talking about Tyler taking one at 11:31 AM, autumn parked her car at the community center at GreenLake near a popular path that is curvy and nature Ristic and ends at a shoreline called pebble beach.

(14m 48s):
There’s also a small secluded area there called duck Island. She called her mom to let her know she had gotten to the Lake and that she was okay. And she would see her later. She had been texting Jacob throughout the day. Also about her coming to visit with their son. I had double checked around one 30. I believe it was the last time that I had actually gotten response. She had set up this appointment and then all of a sudden with no warning that she wasn’t going to be there. And that’s totally not like At about 3:00 PM. Two little girls told their dad that they had seen a big turtle offshore floating there. Justin Kearns was a paddle boarder who was at the Lake with his girls that day, just enjoying the warm afternoon.

(15m 33s):
He boarded out to where his girls had seen the turtle to get a closer look. He noticed that it hadn’t moved in about 30 minutes as he drew closer, his heart pumped and his mind raced as the object turned out to be not a turtle, but was that of the body of autumn Lee stone floating face down in the Lake after checking for vital signs, he rushed back to shore to call nine one one. What is your emergency? There is body in GreenLake. It’s a female Police arrived at about 4:00 PM and waited out to Autumn’s lifeless body.

(16m 13s):
About 20 yards off the shore. She was fully clothed including her socks, but no shoes. They discovered that our vest jacket was zipped all the way up to her chin. They wanted to start CPR efforts. So they tried to unzip the vest and it was so tight that they had to force it down underneath. They discovered that there was something around her neck. They were shoe laces. They were tightly bound and nodded and twisted about four times. And they were so tight that they were about a half inch deep into her skin. Lieutenant McKesson with the Seattle fire department said that they were in fact nodded so tight and so deep that they had to end up cutting them off just to try to help her autumn was strangled.

(17m 1s):
And somehow ended up in the water. There was no water in her lungs or her stomach. Therefore she had to have ended up in the water after she had already passed. It was already 4:00 PM. And the time of her actual death is estimated to be between 12 and two 30 ish. But we know that Jacob says he received a response from her at about one 30. So that gives maybe about an hour window. Her phone was found in her pocket and had been damaged while submerged in the water. After checking the area, they did find autumn shoes. They were tossed about 20 feet apart. It was obvious that it was meant for them to be quickly discarded.

(17m 44s):
One was found at the bottom of a Bush and visible. The other one was not visible and They actually ended up having to search for it and found it inside a different Bush in the vicinity of what they believe to be the crime scene. They were not far from where she was pulled from the water they were missing. The laces, this poor helpless girl was in fact strangled with her own shoelaces. The on-scene investigators claimed they couldn’t figure out if it was murder or suicide. Here’s a small clip from the body cam. The audio is very hard to hear If you couldn’t hear it, it says, how did she end up in the water?

(18m 45s):
That’s a good question. Right? Right. And nobody saw a damn thing. Right? I don’t know. Doesn’t seem right. Doesn’t seem right. Yeah. Even a firefighter who was on scene and helped pull autumn from the Lake, said that in all his decades of work, he had never seen anything like this. He was baffled at how she could have even gotten into the water. The Seattle police department claims that there were no drag marks or signs of a struggle. And that’s why they closed the case so quickly as a suicide Completely and literally have zero homicidal marks that we look for.

(19m 32s):
Nothing that indicates homicide done by another, not nothing at the scene. And, and I know, I know that this is a hard to hear as homicide detectives, we use the victim’s body as a evidence canvas. Okay. We just have to write because the victim tells me things when they themselves can’t, the victim’s body was found nothing of any evidentiary value that we can use. And ain’t nothing that indicates violence done to her by another and nothing at the scene. So being totally honest, we’re kind of stumped.

(20m 14s):
We have nothing that indicates homicide, which is why we have to ask these questions. We’ve looked everywhere. We’re still looking and we’re going to continue to look. That’s. The only thing that I can tell you at this point is that we will continue to, to look into this, Go through, to get on our loan rates as low as 1.04% APR for 36 months on new vehicles with pet bed, you are aware that you don’t have to be a military member to save. Anyone can join. I probably should’ve looked Into that. Probably drop me off at the shore PenFed credit union. Visit penfed.org/autos or call +1 800-247-5626 advertised rates available through the PenFed car-buying service to receive any advertised product.

(20m 60s):
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(21m 48s):
Make it easy to save restrictions apply. That makes no fucking sense to me. So I go to the Lake, I take out my shoe laces, toss the shoes and a couple bushes because I don’t want to be an obvious litter bug. And then I bind and tie the laces and knots around my neck. So tight that they choke me to death. And after I die, I then neatly zip up my jacket vest because I’m cold on a warm sunny day. And then I calmly walk into the water. I had to do it this way just to be absolutely sure that my lungs would be clear so that no one thinks I accidentally drowned.

(22m 29s):
This is the spot where I have to stop and say what in the actual fuck. The Seattle police department gave a theory that maybe she was in the water when she did it. Well, we can also throw that out the window like yesterday’s trash. When you was fixate, you will always pass out. First, the reported time between the beginning of loss of oxygen and blood to the brain and losing consciousness is about seven to 14 seconds. And with ligature strangulation, the average is actually 10 to 15 seconds with a very time and struggle would be involved. Death would not occur for many more minutes due to the nature of the binding and nodding, the jacket would have had to have been zipped up after the fact it was done to conceal something.

(23m 18s):
She couldn’t have been in the water and done it to herself because she would have passed out first. Let’s talk about her hands. I don’t think they looked at a big enough area to figure out where exactly this happened. There had to have been drag marks of some kind, and there would have been an indication of struggle. There absolutely was a struggle. It was reported that in crime scene photos, Autumn’s hands were reddened and appeared to have defensive, like scuffs and wounds, including a cut on her finger. Then during the autopsy, they said that they cleaned her hands and did not note anything of the sort the truth is that that is not actually the truth pretty far from it.

(24m 6s):
The family hired a private investigator, Brent Campbell, who is highly intelligent, extremely compassionate and knows his shit. He is a retired police officer. When we spoke on the phone, I could hear the passion in his voice. He knows there is something wrong and he wants more than anything to help get justice for autumn. He took those pictures of Autumn’s hands and he blew them up 400 times to make the evidence as clear as day to those who were questioning her injuries. Her hands had clear abrasions with flaps of skin and even had chunks of skin missing from her knuckles. There was dirt under Autumn’s nails. They should have been scraped for evidence.

(24m 48s):
It was made abundantly clear by Adam’s family, that she was not one to have a bunch of buildup under her nails. She was a very clean and well-groomed girl at all times, the wounds combined with the dirt under her nails are an indicator that she was bracing something or trying to get away from someone. She was obviously desperately clawing at the dirt in ground. And that is the only explanation on how her hands and nails ended up that way. Upon the medical examiner, getting a copy of these images, they were still in denial saying that it was just dirt and that they did not note these obvious wounds.

(25m 28s):
The point Brent was trying to make was that they were dismissed. If they wanted to say that they were not defensive ones, that’s one thing, but completely dismissing them is pure ignorance. And the continued dismissal is just negligent. GreenLake was very popular. And despite the small areas where someone might find seclusion, there are still so many people in the vicinity and joining the area that someone had to have seen something according to a Reddit comment I saw and great job by the way, Robbie self-aware I hope I said your name right.

(26m 11s):
There was one and only location that someone could have possibly gotten away with something like this. And I’m going to go ahead and read his post. Robbie says that the one location where someone could get away with strangling someone is the exact spot where she was found. If someone were planning on attacking a runner or a jogger, this area would be the most likely spot in green Lake for someone to attempt it. You can sit in a nearby tennis court or on a nearby bench and watch for someone to walk into this area. It’s also surrounded by a bend. So you could probably get away with snatching someone I know from personal experience that this area was a place where people walking around the Lake walked in order to either smoke cigarettes or marijuana or use other substances.

(27m 4s):
This area is also just about 200 yards off of Aurora. Aurora is a notoriously sketchy thoroughfare, and an area where meth and crack are frequently sold. People would frequently buy in the lower half of Aurora and then head to green Lake. Since the local neighborhoods are actually very active in watching for open drug use. If someone is on foot and buying in this area, they would likely traverse within the short distance from where autumn was found. So I find Robbie’s post rather intriguing because after speaking with the private investigator, he also had mentioned privacy in this one particular area, this being pretty much the only secluded area where something sinister could have happened.

(27m 55s):
There were a couple of discussions on Reddit, but everything is so recent that I don’t think some people are paying attention to the fact that her socks were on without shoes. There were a lot of theories that she had taken her shoes off to wait in the water, maybe, but they’re forgetting that you would also have to have no socks. If you’re waiting in the water, you do need to keep that in mind because there is a possibility that her shoes did come off during a struggle. She could have been kicking at the ground and fighting for her life. It was part of my job as we got to talk to everybody that knew this person or the person that died in this instance, autumn. Okay. So we got to try to talk to anybody and everybody who might know what was, what she was doing on Friday, what she, who she might’ve talked to on Friday, where she would have been going on Friday, you know, all of that stuff.

(28m 48s):
And by doing that, it kind of gives us a bigger picture, basically like a global picture of what she might’ve been doing moments before she died. So then what we can determine is this, you know, something that we need to look at, or, or was there something going on? The ex fiance, Tyler Washington didn’t learn of Autumn’s death till a couple of days later, One of the officers, he called me after the weekend because they were saying that she passed away on a Friday and they waited to actually tell me the moment I got that call. I was silent for, I was silent for a few, a good few, a few good seconds, and just started crying my eyes out.

(29m 31s):
Just I was shaking. I couldn’t eat or sleep. It was just, it was a terrible day. They actually didn’t give me much detail. They just said that she passed away and that they found her floating in Greenland. He was questioned and released without much concern from the police department. His mother corroborated his alibi, that he was home with her all day and further stated that he would have no way to get to the Lake because he didn’t drive. I know there was something about Tyler having a suspended license and welcome to life where people drive on suspended licenses all day long. What I’m saying is that people find a way to get shit done.

(30m 12s):
He did come in willingly to the police station for an interview arriving only about 45 minutes after he was called and told about Autumn’s death. Alright, see you out of here it right over there. This room is being audio and video recorded. Okay. He also willingly gave over his phone for a data dump to be analyzed. I have I’ve had that feeling that they were going to consider maybe yes, but there was no way that I was in green Lake while I was getting settled down in Bellevue.

(30m 57s):
You do know though that we live in a world now, all of us, you, me and my partner, everybody nowadays, we live in a world that is a modern electronically surveilled world. Right? So if we start looking for surveillance cameras all over where she was found, we’re not going to find any video of you and her together. Correct? You won’t see anything. There won’t be any video anywhere. Not that you and she together at all. No. Okay. They still asked me a couple of questions. They still took my phone, searched it. And after that, they just said I was good to go Claim to not have found anything suspicious.

(31m 41s):
Although his phone location data was missing from August 10th, moving forward, they have cleared him as a person of interest. No, they still ask me a couple of questions. They still took my phone, searched it. And after that, they just said I was good to go. Just do the fact that, that we were together. And I was closer to her and that we had a child together. And then they just, I feel as though they were just coming at me because I was with her personally, I believe that some, she just got up. She was at the wrong place at the wrong time. And maybe some crazy dude came over and got her.

(32m 21s):
And his reaction and demeanor about Autumn’s death do appear to be genuine. It’s been a struggle. And each day it does it doesn’t get easier due to the fact that she was, we worked to married and we had a child together. And It just, it’s still not easy to cope with A few people in the area claim to have seen a man on a bench in the place where Autumn’s body was found around the time of the incident, whom was about five feet tall with a salt and pepper ponytail. This man was said to have rushed off.

(33m 1s):
After hearing the sirens, getting close, who they did find was a man with a backpack. And he was hanging out in a hammock near the area. He claimed to have rushed away from where Autumn’s body was pulled from the water when he heard the sirens, because he had a warrant out for his arrest. The warrant that was out for him was on this domestic violence charge. The Seattle police department questioned him and determined that he was also not a person of interest and that it was just his misfortune to have been nearby at that time. Seriously, this dude with domestic violence charges and an active warrant was just let go without his belongings being searched, or at the very least picked up on the warrant and taken back to the station to be held for questioning or a formal statement.

(33m 54s):
They were like, sorry, guy, this must suck for you. And told him he could bail. His fucking hammock was in plain view of where they pulled Autumn’s body from the water. He could have been watching for her, or just waiting for an opportunistic moment to take advantage of any unsuspecting young, pretty vulnerable girl. And if that’s not the case, he would have at least heard something. Why did he get, let go so quickly and with no, follow-up a short questioning at the scene. And he was on his Merry way. Just weeks later, the case was abruptly closed and ruled as a suicide due to insufficient evidence.

(34m 38s):
What I find odd is that they can confirm she was strangled, but not by who. So they just rule out everything else and assume she did it to herself. The SPD has tools to do the job and they just aren’t using them. I’ve heard of some pretty amazing things being done to close a case. One thing in particular they could be doing is phone data retrieval. Since Autumn’s phone would not turn on or take a charge when they let it dry. They told the family that they could not retrieve anything from it. At the time of the initial investigation, it is currently unclear if they are in the works of retrieving data or text messages in any other way.

(35m 20s):
And this is 2020, I’m sure there are other ways you don’t just plug it in and it doesn’t work and say, fuck it. She committed suicide. Let’s move on. And speaking of them claiming, there’s a lack of evidence. I want to let you hear something. This is a family’s private investigator talking to the Seattle times about her investigation. What keeps coming back to me are a lot of the private forensic people and pathologists that said anything is possible, but it’s highly unlikely that this was suicide. How does one do that? We can’t figure out how that’s done.

(36m 2s):
The Emmy and SPD said not only were there no defensive wounds, but there were no wounds at all in her hands. I have blown up pictures of Autumn’s hands that show defensive wounds, chunks of skin missing abrasions on her knuckles on her fingers on her hands. I don’t understand how they can say there are at the very least no wounds at all. How did two shoes, one in plain view from this side and one in the middle of the Bush, how did they get there? There was a physical specimen of sperm on a glass slide at the medical examiner’s office. It never got sent in for DNA analysis.

(36m 44s):
They hadn’t sent shoes, shoelaces coat. And then the glass slide that had the physical specimen on it. It’s shocking to me that there was a person at the scene of Autumn’s death who had a warrant that they could have detained him on and questioned him further, but they just allowed him to leave. There’s another person of interest that there’s a lot of questions that have to be asked that haven’t been asked. There are many things in an investigator’s role that should have been done that weren’t to find out if they were even located in the area that day stories can be verified. Videos can be looked at. It’s a very populated place. Even in the winter.

(37m 25s):
We can’t imagine that nobody saw or heard anything, especially on August 30th in the middle of summer, in the middle of the day, Did you catch the most important piece of evidence that is in there that they are not tending to? This would thoroughly piss me off. She had DNA on her. The DNA was from a vaginal swab. Remember I was telling you that Autumn’s little baby was only about five weeks old. Anyone who has had a baby knows that the doctor recommends waiting at least six weeks before becoming sexually active.

(38m 5s):
Again, autumn only had ever had two boyfriends in her entire life. She was not promiscuous or caught up in anything weird. Her body was still healing. That being said, we also know that the medical science will tell you that sperm can only survive in a vaginal cavity for up to six days. At the very most. She hadn’t seen Tyler since he was kicked out. And that was 13 days prior to the, and again, she was barely healing. We can’t confirm that she was even active right before Tyler left.

(38m 46s):
The timing is just off. So even if the DNA was found due to a consensual encounter, it’s heavily important to find out who that DNA belongs to. So we can determine when and get a clearer picture of what happened. Autumn hadn’t left home alone, or been out of sight of anyone in her family until that day. This encounter happened that day and most likely at the Lake. So when N who and why are they not testing the DNA? The case was closed so fast that the DNA slide just sits there in the MES office.

(39m 31s):
It has been over a year and the longer it sits, the more potential there is for something to get fucked up in some way, damage lost or who knows. I’m not saying that. I think that they are incapable of holding on to evidence. I’m saying that shit happens. And in such a weird situation, you would think that someone would give a shit enough to just process the fucking DNA already. The SPD claims that they never received the slide. The Emmy claims that the SPD never asked for it nor came and got it. I don’t understand. Does someone need gas money after being questioned about it?

(40m 11s):
Multiple times, the Seattle police department said that it would then be too costly to have sent to the Washington state patrol crime lab. The private investigator, Brent offered to pay for the analysis. Then they changed their tune saying that they didn’t want the chain of evidence to be broken, blah, blah, fucking blah. So swipe my fucking card and go get them done, boys. What’s the issue. He didn’t ask them to pack it in a lunch sack and send it home with him. I mean, the excuses with them are fucking endless. It makes you wonder if they’re wasting time because they already compromised the evidence. That is a possibility.

(40m 53s):
There has been no voice, legitimate reason as to why they haven’t tested it. None. The one thing that’s going to get them a step further in this case is just sitting around, waiting to be cared about. There is a lead there in that evidence. You know, one of those tools I was talking about it’s right there in their lap. I don’t think a distraught woman that just broke off an engagement home, struggling to get her children back recuperating from childbirth would just be meeting a random dude in the park. Someone she knows was with her at, or around the time of her death.

(41m 33s):
And they’re just not speaking up, probably because they have something to hide. I don’t understand why they’re not running the DNA. If the SPD has nothing to hide, then it’s just pure laziness or sloppiness due to the fact that the investigator was about to retire and he didn’t want to open homicide under his belt. So he inadequately closed it. I do have to give him credit though, for trying to get a warrant on Tyler’s phone to get more data, but the judge shut him down. I do have to wonder why the judge would deny the warrant. Anyway. It just shows you that the system is broken.

(42m 18s):
It was a fucking battle to get the Seattle police department to send in the vest and the zipper and the shoelaces for analysis. But that’s something that has since happened and they’re waiting for results. While I was poking around on that Reddit thread, someone gave their own theory indicating that she was with someone she knew, and they had a consensual encounter tucked away in that corner of the Cove. She could have been getting dressed when she was caught off guard and strangled. And it’s not too far from completely reasonable. There has to be a way to find camera footage from the area because she wasn’t there alone.

(43m 2s):
That day, The SP PD can do more and they need to do more. They need to do their due diligence on the one-year anniversary of Autumn’s death, her family, including her sons paid tribute to her by setting free stemless purple flowers, The water purple was her favorite color and Watch the flowers float away on the glass like water in memory of autumn, her oldest son now for took his flowers and threw them at the ducks like bread Crumbs. I love how in the most serious moments children can do the smallest thing That adds some lighthearted humor to the situation.

(43m 47s):
When I read that it actually made me smile. And after everything’s so terrible, this little guy has the ability to make a stranger smile. Both Boys are currently well cared for the family is doing whatever they can to stand by them and get answers about their mommy. Autumn’s family Is still seeking justice. As it’s been over A year. Now, they were counting on SPD to do a proper investigation. And later was told that the case was just closed. The case was closed due to a lack of evidence and ruled as a suicide. They hired a private investigator and finally got their case reopened.

(44m 28s):
The EMI ruled the manner of death as undetermined and the cause of death was asphyxiation due to ligature strangulation. The Seattle police department still claims it’s a suicide, but has reopened the case due to the fact that there was pressure to have the vests zipper and shoelaces sent in for DNA testing. The thing that’s really going to help them is public attention and pressure from the public. The Seattle police department needs to hear that we all have a voice for autumn stone.

(45m 8s):
She may have been rendered silent, but there are plenty of voices ready to speak for her to ask for justice to demand that her story be told and unfolded. Autumn needs your help. Her family needs your help. Her sons need your help share her story. Let’s let the Seattle police department know that this is not going to be kept silent. People want answers. People care. Autumn’s father. Jason mentioned his grandson still goes to the window from time to time and stares out, asking for his mom as a mom, myself. I could never imagine my children losing me so suddenly in so young, this case is something that really tugs at my heart strings.

(45m 55s):
My children mean everything to me and I believe a hundred percent that autumn meant it when she left that day and was promising to get those babies back home with her. If you were at the North side of GreenLake, any time between 1130 and 4:00 PM on Friday, August 30th, 2019, go through your phones, look for pictures and videos. If you have any at all, look through them. And remember that just because something doesn’t look suspicious doesn’t mean that it’s not autumn was wearing a black vest jacket and gray sweater pants, and may or may not have been wearing a beige beanie that she had had with her that day.

(46m 38s):
Her father James said that there’s no way in the world, out of the hundreds of people there that day, that no one saw anything you might have, you might have even caught a picture of it. And you just don’t realize it yet. You can submit tips to green Lake tips@seattletimes.com or call the Seattle police department’s homicide tip line at (206) 233-5000. I have to say that the Seattle times did do a kick-ass job on the article called undetermined.

(47m 23s):
And that’s where I got most of my information. I will be linking their article on Autumn’s post on my Website. If you want to read their layout and watch their videos. If you want to see photos of autumn, look at the case report or any of the video clips or articles I used in my research, suicide crime.com. Use the drop down on the right hand side and click all w S I M episodes. Everything will be listed under Autumn’s name. You can also find links to her families go fund me, which they are using to help keep Autumn’s case going and to help pay for the private investigator. Any funds that are not used towards the case are going to go into savings accounts for her two sons on my website.

(48m 10s):
You can also find my own support links on how you can help me continue to grow this podcast and to help with my aunt Lynn’s case. You can donate to a new burial. You can buy me a coffee or even visit my Patreon where you can get ad free episodes for just a dollar a month and so much more. And if there’s anything about this case, you want to discuss, you can find me on Facebook in When Suicide is Murder discussion group, to talk about your theories and anything else. Thank you so much for joining me. I’ll see you next time when I bring you a new case.

(49m 13s):
Thanks again for listening to true crime by Indy drop in. If you would like your show featured, reach out to at indiedropin on all social media or go to indiedrop-in.com. See you next time.