Imagine finding an Apple AirTag hidden in your car - a sinister shadow trailing your every move. A tale that chills the bones, yet that's precisely what happened in a disturbing case of stalking that culminated in a heartbreaking tragedy. This episode dissects the horrifyingly real implications of such technology being misused and emphasizes the critical importance of recognizing and addressing stalking behavior.
Imagine finding an Apple AirTag hidden in your car - a sinister shadow trailing your every move. A tale that chills the bones, yet that's precisely what happened in a disturbing case of stalking that culminated in a heartbreaking tragedy. This episode dissects the horrifyingly real implications of such technology being misused and emphasizes the critical importance of recognizing and addressing stalking behavior.
Good morning and welcome to what we Lose in the Shadows. A.
Speaker 2:
Father Daughter True Crime Podcast.
Speaker 1:
My name is Jameson Keyes, I'm Caroline. Good morning Caroline. How are you?
Speaker 2:
I'm doing well. How are you?
Speaker 1:
Very good. We are now past the Thanksgiving holiday and Caroline and I were together. We made Thanksgiving dinner together and it was all fresh, all fresh, all made from scratch.
Speaker 2:
It was good.
Speaker 1:
Well, I mean, I didn't make the turkey from scratch, but everything else.
Speaker 2:
Exactly Everything except for the turkey and the pie crust, and so mostly from scratch.
Speaker 1:
Mostly.
Speaker 2:
I wanted to mention if you like our show, please subscribe on our platform. You're listening on.
Speaker 1:
And give us a five-star review yeah, we deserve it. For effort alone.
Speaker 2:
Yes. If you don't like, then definitely don't rate. Thank you, sadly. I wanted to mention that a student at the Rochester Institute of Technology is currently missing. His name is Matthew Grant. He has been missing since November 20th of this year of 2023. He was last seen driving a gray Jeep Cherokee. We will have more information on our Instagram story about this and we'll be posting updates there, also on Instagram as well. The trigger warnings today are stalking, domestic violence and murder.
Speaker 2:
Stalking has been a tactic used by abusers, manipulators and traffickers for as long as people have been horrible to each other. Stalking laws have only recently been implemented into our justice system. Even with these laws, proving that you're being stalked is extremely difficult. By the time stalking is obvious, it's often too late. Unfortunately, that is the case for the people that we'll be discussing today. Stalking has adapted with our technology. Some people use social media to stalk people, and I'm not talking about the casual checking up on people that often gets labeled as stalking someone on Instagram. I'm talking about consistently on that person's page, trying to figure out where they are going in real time, getting blocked, making new accounts to continue making the person feel uncomfortable. That's actual stalking.
Speaker 1:
That's creepy as shit.
Speaker 2:
And it happens. It's really scary. So the first case we'll be discussing takes place in Indianapolis, indiana. A woman named Galen Morris was stalking her boyfriend. She used an Apple AirTag, placed this inside of his car and followed him to a local restaurant, a bar called Tillies. There she found him cheating on her with another woman. Morris was enraged and picked up an empty bottle to hit the woman with Her boyfriend, andre Smith, stopped her from hitting the other woman with the bottle. The bartender, concerned by the entire scene, kicked all three of them out. Thankfully, the woman waited inside for a food order that she had placed One outside. Morris pulled her car onto the sidewalk and hit not only Smith, her boyfriend, but also a worker who worked in the area. Oh wow, I'm not sure if the person worked at Tillies or just in the area, the strip mall, but she hit both of them. She backed up over him after and then pulled forward, running him over for a third time.
Speaker 1:
Oh my God, that's a fair amount of rage there.
Speaker 2:
It's horrible. Yeah, it's really sad. Unfortunately, Smith was pronounced dead. When the fire department arrived, he was found stuck under the car still. Oh my God. Mm-hmm Morris was charged with murder, but somehow only was convicted of manslaughter.
Speaker 1:
Wow.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, I find this super offensive. Honestly, being a survivor of domestic violence, someone murdering someone on purpose should never be considered manslaughter Right. I do understand that sometimes, if a murder charge won't stick, the prosecution wants something to stick, so the murderer won't walk free, and I'm guessing that's what happened here.
Speaker 1:
Right.
Speaker 2:
Morris was sentenced to. She was sentenced last year, so this was 2022 when she was sentenced and she was sentenced to 18 years in prison, so that's good.
Speaker 1:
It should have been more obviously. Right, absolutely Should have been more. But I didn't realize that air tags actually had that kind of range on them.
Speaker 2:
Oh yeah, you could find anything on it, yeah.
Speaker 1:
See, I have some sort of a small tag on one of my laptops. I think Is it a tile. It's a tile right, which I didn't. I don't think it's, I don't think it has range like that.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, you can track it over miles and it's interesting. So this has been happening a lot in the past few years since Apple has started selling these air tags, and so they're, because they're very inexpensive they're $30.
Speaker 1:
Okay.
Speaker 2:
So anyone can buy one pretty much and you can put it anywhere and they're about the size of like a. Half dollar or something, Golf ball, yeah something like that yeah. And but flattened and so you can slip them anywhere and like no one will know. And so it's been like you know it's been a lot of like relationship stocking, x stocking and stranger stocking Like it's. They're simple to hide, you can slip it anywhere. You know what I mean. It's very scary.
Speaker 1:
That is scary.
Speaker 2:
Now Apple has released this new feature where, like, if there's an unregistered air tag around you, like in, like, oh, but it only works for iPhones. So if you have an iPhone, it will tell you. If there's an unregistered Apple air tag around you, will it identify and you can start looking.
Speaker 1:
So if it is registered, will it tell you who? No, oh.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, so if you like continuously have something popping up, you know like you're like being tracked but you don't know who's doing it, oh wow, but you have to find it. You know, so like you're like looking everywhere, so it's scary, it's really scary. I've also heard of this in the kind of in the opposite way. So like I know I saw a TikTok about a woman who put an Apple air tag in her daughter's bun, so she went to school on a field trip and she knew where her daughter was. Wow, yeah, I know I was like dang, like that's intense, but I am not against it. You know, like I would want to know where my child is at all times, because the daughter was like five.
Speaker 1:
Right right.
Speaker 2:
So it's like it's scary and she had like a wristlet, but like people take that off, you know.
Speaker 1:
Right.
Speaker 2:
If there are like really like taking your child, but it's in her hair.
Speaker 1:
That's bizarre. How would I don't even know how would you not feel that number one? What?
Speaker 2:
do you mean the daughter knew about it?
Speaker 1:
Oh, the daughter knew about it.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, the daughter knew about it. Oh, okay, she was tracking her child. Right Just in case she got like taken.
Speaker 1:
Or lost or whatever.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, on the field trip.
Speaker 1:
That's actually kind of cool, right?
Speaker 2:
I know it's crazy, so it's interesting like this technology can be used, like in such a negative way For good or for bad yeah but also in a positive way. It's really interesting and they do make like little wristbands for like children to be able to wear them.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, but like you said, if someone has an intent and they see a watch or wristband or something like that. That's but in your hair, if they get lost, it's helpful.
Speaker 2:
Correct, like if they walk off and get lost, then it is helpful, but if not. The second case I wanted to talk to is about Heidi Moon. She was a 31 year old mother living in Akron, ohio. Heidi had a boyfriend named Nick Mima. The two had been together for a while and then ultimately broke up in November of 2021. Heidi's sister believes that Mima was emotionally abusive during their relationship. After their breakup, mima would return to Moon's house and threaten to kill himself. Moon would feel guilty because Mima was manipulating her into feeling that way and she would let him stay there for a while. He would leave, he would go sleep in a storage unit and then come crawling back. It's a very bad situation, very bad situation. If you're in that situation, please don't take them into your house. Do not continue the cycle. Just do not even answer the door. Call the police. In a storage unit. He would sleep in a storage unit. That's what was reported and I thought that was interesting, but it just kind of proves like he was mentally in trouble.
Speaker 1:
Maybe needed counseling.
Speaker 2:
That or like didn't have any like other support systems, so like he was just like clutching on to their relationship, which is problematic, right, it's very codependent.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, desperation is always dangerous.
Speaker 2:
It is always dangerous, right? So Heidi's friend, dave Langsey, showed News 5, cleveland text from Moon that had been forwarded to him from her, where Mima was quoted saying to Moon you're lucky I don't put a bullet in your bitch ass.
Speaker 1:
Yikes.
Speaker 2:
That's what he said to his ex. Wow, I know, it's really, really strange. She was obviously like not doing well deranged. Her friend and her sister encouraged Moon to report this to the police, but she did not, saying that she was worried it would make it worse. And she's not wrong for thinking that. I've had police tell me that if the person abusing you seems to be backing down or moving on when I had a stalker that it's better not to get them involved because you don't want to like reignite their obsession yeah.
Speaker 2:
So, however, in this case, I think that he was just too laser focused on her to back down or move on.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, but if you remember, there was a case of a young lady that went to school. She was in nursing school. She started dating this other man that was also in nursing school and he was jealous and slashed her tires. She didn't press any charges against him because she didn't want to get him in trouble. This would have been a felony and it would have kicked him out of the nursing school. Unfortunately, he also later ended up killing her. So sometimes reporting, regardless of how bad it may be for the person or whatever, is perhaps the safer path to choose sometimes.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, I know it's so tough to figure out that Hard to choose.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, we know which is yeah.
Speaker 2:
Exactly. I mean, it's nearly impossible, right? Because when I had a random stranger stalking me and I went to court and I had the court grant a peace order, that granted me a peace order, and then it was up again in six months I was debating on if I needed to get it renewed or not and the authorities asked me like oh, was he still, like you know, contact to you? And I was like no, and they were like then I don't recommend it because like it, could you know, just ignite his. It could ignite unwanted attention on you again. You know, because if he hasn't been reaching out, like pulling you both back to court is maybe not the best option, but it's just, it's such a it's a horrible situation to be in, obviously, and I think, I think it's just it's tough to know. Obviously it's no one's fault besides the abuser.
Speaker 1:
Well, I think it's important really to understand that in any kind of a relationship, right, whether the jilted party is the man or the woman in the relationship, it really is important that you take a step back and look at it and say, okay, that's fine, no, no is no, I can. There are a lot of other people in the world, right, it's not just this one person. It's important to remember that so you don't lock on to someone and do something crazy like this.
Speaker 2:
I feel like this is found a lot when people are obsessed with their partner, really codependent on their partner right. And they don't have a good support system Otherwise, like then they they feel like if they lose this person, they're losing everything good, Right and that's never the case.
Speaker 1:
It's never happened again.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, it's it's not the case. Moon did meet with a private detective. She sat down with David Oliver on January 31st of 2022. She explained that she kept getting alerts on her phone about an unregistered Apple air tie in her immediate surroundings. They did look and David Oliver, the PI, found it in the pocket behind one of the seats. He recommended she go to the police. She said she wanted some time to think it over and she left and that would be the last time he ever saw her. Oh no, that's four hours later she was shot to death by Mima.
Speaker 1:
Did she take the air tag out at that point? And we're still in the car.
Speaker 2:
I think she took it out. Yeah, moon had explained that to her friend, david Lanksey, that she was scared and needed to go let the dog out at her house. Lanksey didn't want her to go alone, so he and another friend of theirs followed her to her home. She went inside that take the dog out and when she came outside Mima was right behind her holding a gun to her.
Speaker 2:
Oh, God yeah, lanksey started yelling at me, ma, hoping he would turn around and give moon the chance to go to run away. But Mima never turned around. He shot once missing moon. Lanksey heard moon scream, oh my god. And then Mima fired again at moon and Lanksey saw his friend fall to the ground. And then saw Mima turn the gun on himself and Lanksey performed CPR on his friend, but she later died in the hospital and so did Mima.
Speaker 1:
Wow.
Speaker 2:
It's horrible, horrible situation.
Speaker 1:
It is, but he missed her once, even though it was point black.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, I know I don't know how that happened. Oliver and Lanksey are going to create a nonprofit called the Heidi moon foundation. Their mission will be providing resources to people in troubling relationships, which is definitely Something needed like a niche that people really, really need right now for sure. I know we have really the national domestic violence hotline is 800 799 7233.
Speaker 1:
Mental health, as we've discussed before, is such an incredibly important thing. If you didn't have all these people that felt so desperate, felt so, this is the only person that will ever care about me. This is the only person. This is my, this is my lifeline, right? I think there's a lot that we have to do to discuss. There are other people there always will be other people that there is just one person for anyone, ever, and I think the sooner that men, women, whomever that are in these, you know, compulsive territorial relationships, they need, they need to get help and need to understand that there is life beyond this person. There is life beyond this relationship.
Speaker 2:
Right, and I also think that there's a level of Entitlement that comes along with these strange toxic relationships. I think that some people just feel like if they're not with me, then I don't want to see them with anyone.
Speaker 1:
That's crazy.
Speaker 2:
It is. It's insane and it's. It's unhealthy and Obviously, if you love someone or if you care about someone in a romantic way, you don't want them to be with anyone. Most people don't want them to be with anyone, but understanding the idea that everyone deserves to be happy and that should be like the top priority for sure it's. It's really strange and sad that people would rather take their loved ones life instead of letting them be with someone else.
Speaker 1:
Right doesn't make sense, right, doesn't make sense and it gets back down to a feeling of Self-worth. Right yeah, if you feel worthy, then you understand that there will be other people, there will be other opportunities.
Speaker 2:
It all comes back to mental health, like you mentioned. I think that, not only in this country, but definitely in this country, we really need to do a better job at taking care of our own mental health and also being mindful of the people around us. Like if someone is struggling, you know, letting people know who maybe are taking. Like if you're in high school, like letting your teachers know, letting your parents know, you know, oh, like this person at school maybe isn't Super safe. Or if you're in college, same thing. If you're at work, like taking the appropriate steps to report to your supervisors, you know, like. I Just think we brush things off to the side sometimes when, when they're actually like red flags, like really bad red flags for sure and I think we just need to be better about Taking care of our mental health.
Speaker 2:
Follow the show on whatever streaming site you're listening on.
Speaker 1:
Better remember.
Speaker 2:
All of the source material will be available in the show notes and follow us on Instagram at what we lose in the shadows and let us know if you want to hear a specific case or if you just want to give us some feedback. Okay, join us in the shadows next Tuesday. Bye.
