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Subscribe now on your favorite podcast platform, and let's unravel these captivating stories together. Hello, everyone, and welcome to episode 354 of The True Crime All the Time Unsolved podcast. I'm Mike Ferguson. And with me, as always, is my partner in true crime, Mike Gibson. Give me How are you? Hey, I'm doing good about you. I'm doing great. I've had a really good week. It was my youngest birthday this week, so we went down, had dinner with her and my oldest. I was also talking on T Cat about, you know, going to a local school this week for a leadership program, being a presenter. And it was all about True Crime and True Crime podcast. It was very interesting. It sounded like it was. Yes, I enjoyed it very much. Let's go ahead and give our patron shout outs. We had Andy Diamond, Andy Ferrer, Brennan. What's going on? Ferrer depressed the guy. Hey, depressed Stevie ups. What's going on? UPS or ups like that? UPS because, you know, I'm I know. That's why I thought it could be that. But I'm not sure that Tiana lily-White Hey, Latina Brenda Pavey, a Brenda Jody, are what's going on. Are Dory like the fish jumped out to our highest level? Well, thank you, Dory. Wiley, Smith. Hey, Wylie. Deb Maddock. Thanks, Deb.. Ashley Barnett. There's Barnett, Charlotte Upton, Hey, Charlotte, Mamie Im or as I call em, just em. Yeah. And last but not least, Ryan White Cotton jumped out our highest love. Hey, thanks, Ryan. Appreciate that. And then if we go back into the vote this week, we selected Rhonda Fritz. That's who I thought it was going to be. Is that who you thought? Yeah. So you hit it right on that? Right on the head, right? Yeah, thanks. So we appreciate the new patron support and the continued support. We also had a patron merch winner for February, and that was Cheryl and Reed. Yeah, that's who I thought, too. Oh my gosh, you're on fire? Yeah, Gibbs, we have an episode out right now on true crime all the time where we're talking about the murder of 14 year old Reena Virk. Rena was a victim of severe bullying, so we're headed to Canada in November 1997. She was badly beaten by a group of teens who disliked her. Two members of the group, Kelly Allard and Warren Glowacki, followed Rina after the attack and murdered her. It's a it's a very brutal episode. It is because what happened to Rina was especially nasty. But it's an episode about teens and bullying and kind of following or following in line with others and not making your own decisions in the right choices. So it's definitely an episode worth listening to. I just don't understand why things have to go that far. No, no. It was tough for us. All right, buddy, are you ready to get into this episode of True Crime all the time unsolved? I am. We're talking about the murder of Nanette Quintal on July 14, 2017. First responders found the body of Nanette Krenzel inside her home after it was destroyed by a fire. Investigators soon discovered that Nanette was shot in the head before the fire started cover up. Yeah, that's what comes to mind immediately, right? There was a murder. Then there was a fire. But the fire was set most likely to cover up the murder. Yeah, then that. Crenshaw was born on July 26, 1967, in New Orleans, Louisiana. She worked as a preschool teacher and was able to retire in her 40s. She loved children and animals and said that her pets were like her children. Think a lot of people will say that that's are their babies, too? Absolutely. I think my wife is saying it now that the kids are gone to college in the little Maltesers, that's that's her baby cuddling up with her. Probably right now. Very nice to be able to retire in your 40s. I was thinking the same thing. It's not happening much today, and I think it's going to get worse as time goes by. It just seems like we're having to work longer and longer. Part of that might be because we're living longer and longer. I that's that's part of it. Then that was married to Stephen Quintal, the District 12 fire chief in St. Tammany Parish. Nanette and Steve lived in a small rural town called the Co-op, which is about 50 miles north of New Orleans. Steve told People that he was dazzled by Nanette when they first met in 1994. He was married at the time and had a young son, but he and the got married the following year and moved into the home he built in La Kong.. You know, some people, they just get dazzled, Gibbs. It happens. You see someone and you're blown away. Now, I don't know how this all played out. He was married at the time. Obviously he got a divorce. I don't know if it was specifically because he was dazzled or or what it may have been. You were dazzled by your wife. Oh, absolutely. The first time I saw her, I knew that I was dazzled. But rather than being bedazzled know at one point I thought I was bedazzled, OK? Steven Nanette lived on a wooded, 100 acre property. There's a dream that is man to have just a bunch of land. No one around you. You can do whatever you want. Steve installed nine security cameras near the gate and on the outside of the house to help Nanette feel safer. The couple also owned 30 guns and and that knew how to use them. The couple liked to practice target shooting on the property, and that's something you can do if you've got 100 acres. Yeah, you can shoot guns out there, you can ride four wheelers. You could do a lot of different things, but you could also see why maybe someone wouldn't feel all that safe. It's not like living in a neighborhood where you're surrounded by people, you're surrounded by houses, you're not surrounded by anything but woods kind of like that movie cabin in the woods. Yeah, yeah. You never know. Could be a little scary. Yeah. Steve was at the fire station and then that was home alone on July 14, 2017. Detectives found grainy surveillance footage from outside a local fast food restaurant that they believe shows the Nets vehicle going through the drive thru at breakfast time. This was supported by her cell phone data and a credit card purchase. All right, so she scooted out, got some breakfast. Nothing wrong with that. No, but it's also 2017, right? So police have a lot of information at their fingertips. Cell phone data. We've got surveillance footage. Obviously, we have credit card information. Detectives also said that there's surveillance footage from another property on the road where Nanette lived, showing her car heading back to the house at nine 11 a.m. Her phone records show an outgoing call to Kmart about a prescription refill at 2:50 a.m. here. K-Mart very often anymore. No, I thought they had all gone out of business, and maybe they all have by now. I don't know. I know all the ones around here have. Yeah. A detective told the family that in the early afternoon, the net called a local number. He sat down with the person she call. The woman said it must have been a mistake because she didn't know Nanette or Ste. But I think you know what all of this is allowing detectives to do is to put together a pretty good timeline of the Nat's whereabouts and what she did, who she called things like that this early afternoon calls a little strange. Yeah, I think so. But people must dial all the time. Or maybe it wasn't a mistrial, and we just don't know why that number was dialed. A neighbor called 9-1-1 around 2:30 p.m. and reported smoke coming from the net and Steve's home. First responders found Nanette. Her dog and two cats dead inside the home. Then that was found on her back on the primary bathroom floor. Her dog was beside her. Heartbreaking. But we know how dogs are. They just stay with their owner all the way. So loyal. And I know this is hard for a lot of people because in our shows, we talk about death a lot. Most of the time we're talking about the death of people. Yeah, which is always sad. It's always tragic. But when animals are involved as well, it becomes that much more tragic and it can be tough to handle. Steve told People that his cousin called him to tell him what happened. He arrived 30 minutes later and saw that his wife was dead and his home was completely destroyed. 30 minutes. That completely changes your life. Yeah, from the time that you get the phone call to the time you get home in your life will never be the same. And the fact the fire was involved him being a firefighter. I think that adds another layer there, right? I mean, I'm sure he's wishing he could have somehow been there because he could have done something probably more so than than most of us who who know very little about firefighting, then that's on top. He took place the. Following morning, and that was when investigators learned that she didn't die in the fire, then that had been shot in the head. Fire investigators soon learned the fire was arson and the arsonist made efforts to destroy video evidence. The cameras outside the house fed into a digital video recorder in the living room, which was doused with an accelerant. The video footage was stored on the recorder, not online, and investigators couldn't recover any data from the DVR. Even the FBI was unable to get any video from it. Kind of strange that they couldn't recover anything. Well, fires pretty rough on electronics. That's true. Yeah, it actually doesn't surprise me all that much, although they have a lot of great technology. But you know, if if a fire completely burns down the house, it's probably going to do some pretty good damage to the DVR as well. Now it's really great to have a lot of cameras and all that. Obviously, if you could store that online, that would have been a better solution for sure. Because you can't just get rid of that the same way that you can get rid of a a physical recorder where everything is capped. Yeah, once it's on the cloud, it's on the cloud. Whatever the cloud is, yeah, we still don't know. But it's there. It's there, somewhere above us. I think Steve told the police that the cameras at the front gate were controlled by a wireless device connected to the internet, but they frequently stopped working. The wireless device stopped working the day before the fire and needed a reset. Steve attended a council meeting that night and was tired so he didn't reset the device on his way back to the house. This means that the gate cameras didn't record any video on the day of the fire. Another second location in the house was also doused with an accelerant. It was the window of the primary bedroom, and it was said that one of the cats found near the window had accelerant on its body. A fire damaged gun of the same caliber as the murder weapon was found near the spot where the Nets body was found during the July 15th search. Fire investigators left behind the destroyed DVR and the two cat carcasses on July 17. Steve hired a private fire investigator who found the cats and shotgun in the wreckage. The scene was secured on July 19 after firearms testing revealed the two guns seized during the initial search didn't match the bullet found in the Nets head. Then that's 40 caliber Springfield handgun was recovered during the search. Detectives later told the family that this gun could not be ruled out as the murder weapon. So there's a lot going on here, and it was a little confusing. We've got a number of searches. I'm kind of surprised that initially the cats were left behind, the DVR was left behind. Obviously at some point, maybe in the rear securing and that search the DVR was taken because we know it was tested right. They found out that they couldn't get anything off of it, but that was at least four days later. Yeah, and I'm surprised they found that shotgun in the wreckage, too. Then all of that wasn't found right away. Yeah, I thought that was very strange. Now what's not strange is that Steve was one of the first suspects that shouldn't come as a shock to anyone. He's the husband, right? He's going to be looked at. He's also a firefighter. So if anybody knows how to start a fire, how to use accelerants, it would be him. Sure, according to people, the Nets father Dan Watson reported that she wanted out of the marriage after she learned Steve had an affair. Nanette told a friend she knew about the affair on her birthday in 2015, and Steve has admitted to cheating on Nanette with a colleague, but he claimed he and Annette had worked through it. People do that all the time. They do, and sometimes they can't, and it ruins a relationship, you know, beyond repair. Steve was also on duty at the firehouse when the fire started. Potential alibi? Yeah, and potentially a very good alibi, at least for actually starting the fire. All right. We talk about that all the time. What does an alibi do? Well, it could mean that there's no possible way you could have been at the murder scene. Does it mean that you didn't plan it? You didn't hire somebody? No, obviously it doesn't mean that in August 2018, a sheriff's detective told in the Nets family is. Quoted by WWL TV, his cell phone was planted by the FBI. He goes to the fire station. He's around the fire station. Several people at the fire station accounted for him throughout the day, went and met some people at outback and was plodded back to the fire station before he got the call that his house was on fire. Steve also passed the polygraph, though things are looking good for Steve. Yeah, I mean, I think they are looking pretty good for Steve. We don't know what questions were asked. I would think that one of the questions asked on a polygraph would be, you know, not just did you start to fire, did you murder your wife, but did you have anything to do with it? Did you hire someone? You know, something along those lines, although never publicly named as a person of interest? Another individual often referenced in connection with this case is Steve's brother, Brian. Family and friends, said Brian. Blame the net and Steve for not helping him evade arrest when he got into an accident while under the influence. He asked them for help getting his mother's vehicle out of the ditch. OK? I could see why. Maybe you'd be upset about that, but to shoot someone in the head and then burn the whole house down? Well, she got some major anger issues, right? Doesn't make sense. Brian has at least 15 convictions for different crimes, including battery on a police officer. Nanette started discussing her concerns about Brian with her family in 2011. That year, Nanette told her father, Dan Watson, that Brian threatened to burn the house down. Now that sounds a little incriminating, and she believed that Brian would be a danger to them once he was released from prison, she wrote per WW LTV. When he says, I will start your house on fire and kill you when you come out, that is a serious threat to me. I agree. Very serious. I think that's a serious threat to anyone. Any time that you say you're going to kill someone, that is something that should be taken very seriously. Yeah. No wonder she was scared being out there. Nanette wrote in another email. He put cameras showing all areas of the house and on a monitor, up 24-7. It records as well have pepper spray on both doors and, of course, the gun. So, you know, you said no wonder she was afraid. I think maybe this does kind of dovetail into why Steve had so many cameras. I think he was worried about his brother. I think Nanette was worried about his brother. Now it does sound like they were fairly prepared. Yeah, I mean, I think one way to help calm your nerves is to have a bunch of cameras up so you can be aware what's going on your surroundings. And then, of course, they felt they had a defense system inside their house if they were armed. I mean, 30 guns is a lot. It is a lot. Dan told WWL TV that Nanette said to him, So long as I have my guns and the cameras and I'm at home, I'm safe. About two months before she died, Nanette texted her sister, Kim Watson. He threatened to set the house on fire, raped me and kill us. Real winner of a brother in law there. Yeah, wow. So we said right, Brian was one of the main reasons why they had so many security cameras, so many guns. Nanette and Steve also had a geofence that signaled Brian's probation officer if he came within 1000 feet of the home. So this is getting pretty serious the level of their concern? Yeah. To install one of those, because that's very specific just to him. Yeah, you're nervous and for good reason. I think they had good reason to be nervous. Steve later recorded the conversation with Brian's probation officer, in which the officer admitted the GPS tracking function on Brian's ankle bracelet was never turned on, according to WWL TV. You know, for the system the work, you have to turn it on. Yeah, it's like most things. Yeah, I have found over my 50 years that most things don't work when they're not turned on. Yeah, it's a strange phenomena, and we're going to put this on your ankle, but don't let anybody know I'm really not going to turn it on. Or maybe they made him think that they're turning him on, but never turn it on. Who knows? Like some, I made a clicking noise, like they were pressing the button, but they didn't actually press the button. It's on now. True crime all the time unsolved is brought to you by progressive insurance. Hey, take out listeners. 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Meaning anyway, she thought he should do more with his brother's threats. Well, according to Kim, the net said if he doesn't start protecting me from Brian and his family, I'm kicking him out. So I would say, yeah, she wanted him to do something about Brian. I don't know what he was going to do. I don't know what he was supposed to do. Dan Watson noted that the Friday before the fire. Nanette said she was going to have a long talk with Steve to see if they could make amends and come to a resolution about their marriage. So, yeah, I think Steve is on the radar a little bit. I'm sure the polygraph and the fact that they could put him at the fire station probably eased a little bit of concerns on the part of police about him. You definitely have to be concerned about Brian as a possible suspect. Once all of this is learned, right? You know, the emails, the the threats, the I'm going to burn your house down and kill you and all that. You're going to have to look into it. Yeah. And they did. But it really didn't pan out because surveillance footage showed that Brian was at his mother's house on the day of the murder. The police also looked into Steve's son, Justin, because then that claimed on Facebook that he owned multiple guns, but he was out of state at the time of the murder. Now, to me, owning multiple guns shouldn't really put John on the suspect list, but he is part of the family. So you are going to look at, you know, members of the family and things like that. But so far it seems like the three people that that maybe they they looked at, nothing really stood out. They couldn't put them there at the time of the fire, the time of the murder. The coroner announced that Nanette was shot in the head before the fire started on the day of her memorial service, which took place a week after she was killed in minutes nets immediate family. They didn't get this news from the authorities. Instead, another family member read a news article and called them. I think it's a little rough to learn something like that about your loved one. That way, I agree with you. I think it'd be really difficult. Dan Watson told WWL TV that he was angry because he met the coroner several days earlier to submit a DNA swab for the official identification, and no one told him about it then, despite the fact that the coroner had known about the gunshot wounds since July 15 and I get it, I understand why he would be angry now. Is there a reason why they would want to hold that information back? We talk about that all the time, but then they let it out to the media. So obviously, at a certain point, that wasn't the concern, why they didn't tell the family beforehand. I don't know. Just out of courtesy, they should have. You would think if they're going to tell the media. According to WWL TV, on the night of the memorial service, Stephen form the family that the sheriff's office was leaning towards a suicide theory, and I guess I could see why. Maybe they might start to lean that way. If you've looked into a number of people and you can't so far put anyone at the scene, would you then start to think that way? And I could see why. Maybe you would, because we do know there was a gunshot wound. What I don't understand is why someone would take their life and then also feel as though they need to set the house on fire. Right. I also don't believe that most people who would choose to do that would harm their animals. Yeah, I don't think so, either. So some of that other stuff doesn't seem to line up with a suicide theory to me. At least, then that sister Kim, who is a prosecutor in Iowa, reached out to a homicide investigator she knew and forensic pathologist Thomas Bennett. They traveled to Louisiana in September 2017 to conduct a third autopsy. Steve had already agreed to an additional exam before this. Dr. Bennett was not allowed to perform physical tests on the remains. But he and the homicide investigator viewed the nets, remains reviewed x rays and previous tests, as well as crime scene photos. Dr. Bennett agree that the Nets death was a homicide because there was no soot in her airways, no blistering on the parts of her body, exposed to the fire and a lack of blood around the body. So she didn't have any soot in her lungs because she's already dead. Yeah, she wasn't breathing by the time the the fire started, I think, is what they're saying. On September 13, the coroner officially announced that the next death was a homicide. St. Tammany Parish Sheriff Randy Smith scheduled a press conference for the following day. In a news release, the sheriff wrote At this time, the sheriff's office investigation does not necessarily support the coroner's conclusion in this case. OK, so that is pretty interesting. The coroner is saying homicide. The sheriff is coming out and saying, Well, we don't really think that's correct. But at the press conference, he said, we have worked this case and we will continue to work this case tirelessly and aggressively as a homicide. And we have since day one, but yet they don't agree with the findings. Yeah, I thought that was a little strange, but they're going to work it that way, even though they don't agree. So if they don't agree, what does that mean? They're still leaning towards maybe a suicide? I'm guessing what else could it be? I don't know what else it could be. During the press conference, Sheriff Smith formally cleared Steven Krenzel as a person of interest, saying At this time, our initial primary person of interest in this investigation, the victim's husband has been cleared. Steven Krenzel has been cooperative with this investigation from the beginning, and that's a big deal because you don't have to do that if you're not 100 percent sure you don't have to come out and formally clear somebody. But in doing so, you're making a really big statement. You are like, we've investigated this guy up and down, and we can unequivocally say he didn't do it because, you know, for a fact, if later on he's taken to trial, that's going to come up for sure that the sheriff came out and cleared him. Steve returned to work in November 2017, but the Fire District Board voted to launch a civil service investigation into allegations that he misused fire district property and had an affair with a subordinate. According to People, the internal review found that Steve had improper relations with two female employees and allegedly stole AC units from ambulances. OK. Doesn't mean he shot his wife, but not something. You want to hear someone being the fire chief? No. These are things that are going to get you in trouble, for sure. And I'm assuming they had some type of regulation against having relations with a subordinate in most places. Do I mean, this is. You know, separate from him cheating on his wife. That's bad, but most places, I don't think care about that. They're not going to fire you for cheating on your wife now. But if you're doing the cheating with someone who works for you, they will or could. And to be accused of allegedly stealing AC units from the is why? Why do that? I don't even know what those are and what you would use them for or do with them. I mean, I understand what an AC unit is, but I'm sure there's probably a a market for them. But why tarnish your reputation? I'm sure the guy was making pretty, pretty good money, I would think. W W LTV reported that Steve said she was not his subordinate and that the relationship occurred in 2015. Steve eventually retired in September 2018 after he was demoted and disciplined. So they didn't fire him. They allowed him to retire, but I'm sure he didn't get as much in retirement as he probably would have. I don't know what a rough year and a half, right? You got to go through losing your wife, losing your pets, losing your homes in your home, not knowing who did it. And then on top of that being accused of it and trying to clear yourself. And then after all that, you know, basically being forced out of your job and your reputation was kind of tarnished. Yeah. You know, along those lines. But some of that he did to himself. It sounds like to me, right? You know, when it comes to the work staff, if that is true, then wow, you did that. And most likely, the work stuff maybe wouldn't even have come to the surface if it wasn't for the fact that his wife was murdered. Yeah, because he did admit to cheating, right? And maybe that got back. And that's what was the catalyst for for some of that stuff. In November 2018, Steve told People he believes the killer was waiting for Nanette when she came home from picking up breakfast. He said she was most likely gone for about 30 minutes and came straight home from the restaurant. She most likely would not have turned on their alarm system while she was at home during the day. I can see that, you know you're running out going to get some breakfast. Why reactivate the alarm? You know, I'll just I'll turn it off. I'm up. This get some stuff done or come back. No big deal. Thirty minutes. And and I don't think that most people who are home during the day probably turn their alarm systems on. I think most people it used when they're away from home and some people probably turn it on, maybe at night when they're sleeping. Yeah, I mean, I'm not too worried about it. I don't turn my back on a figure. If they get across the moat, maybe they deserved to come online and the alligators in the pit with the sticks in it, cover it up by leaves. You got a lot of stuff going on. I do good thing. I gave you that map on how to get to the front door. Yeah, the postal guys, which one you're on your fifth one now, Steve told People. I have suspected every single person in my life or people we knew on a peripheral of our life. And I have to trust that the police by investigating them and eliminating them, that they know their job. So it's down to the individual that did. It is probably going to be somebody that I'm not thinking of. I have a feeling it's got to be somebody that we know either directly or indirectly. And I have thought about this in a number of cases where, you know, let's say there's an unsolved murder of a spouse. Well, you have a spouse left. And if they're not involved, wouldn't you almost drive yourself up a wall? Yeah, just thinking constantly. Who could have done this? Is it. Is that a friend? Is it somebody that I see all the time? Are you looking at people differently, wondering if they're a killer? And I'm thinking, you probably are. Then that's family questioned if the police authenticated the surveillance video of Brian at his mother's home on the day of the murder. They were told that a meeting in August 2018, the time displayed on the DVR corresponds with the current time WWL. TV noted that Steve installed the cameras in his mother's home. I don't know if I feel real solid about that, though. Not that Stevens told them, but basing everything on the time and what it says later on. Yeah, because those can be manipulated, I assume. In October 2019, then that sister Lisa Watson discovered emails from one of her father's accounts, which further supported the belief that she was deeply afraid of Steve's brother, Brian. In May 2017, Annette wrote, Brian is capable of anything in someone that has nothing to lose is full of. He uses drugs and makes threats. Is a loose cannon. Sounds like it. And all of those statements are true when you have nothing to lose. You can be a very dangerous person, a loose cannon. By 2018, the authorities had still not released the cause or origin of the fire. All they would say was that it was set intentionally. I'm surprised they haven't released more information at that time. Yeah. You know, a lot of time has passed. The only thing I can think of is that maybe they're holding some stuff back in case they do, you know, find a suspect and they want to have something to corroborate. When interviewing someone, that's the only thing I can really think of. The St. Tammany Parish Sheriff's Office has received criticism for how they handled the case. In 2019, the Sheriff's Office made a High-Profile arrest related to Nat's case, but the individual who was arrested was not a suspect in the murder. Gerry Rogers, an investigator with the Office of the inspector general for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, was arrested on September 16th, 2019 for criminal defamation. He was arrested for criticizing the St. Tammany Parish Sheriff's Office and allegedly leaking information about the case. I don't know how you get in trouble for criticizing the case, but I understand how you would get in trouble if you leaked information that the public wasn't aware of that somehow was germane to the case. Yeah, yeah. I don't think you should be arrested for criticizing the sheriff's office legally. But in a news release, the sheriff's office said Rogers used a fake name to create an email account to send messages to Nat's family. The letter claimed that the case had been weaponized against Sheriff Smith's reelection campaign and that Gerry Rogers was uncooperative and threatened to end his life when he was arrested. Part of the news release said As reported by WWL TV, the emails contained false information regarding the ongoing investigation, as well as derogatory statements regarding the lead investigators and others closely involved in the investigation. Rogers is a former employee of the Sheriff's Office. He worked there from 1998 to 2009 and left of his own accord. So maybe he had an ax to grind. Maybe he didn't like some of the people there, but again, just criticizing on its own right that I don't understand how you can get in trouble for really if you don't work there anymore. But when you get into creating fake email accounts, emailing the family directly, OK, now you're getting into an area where maybe you know you could get in trouble for doing some stuff like that. Little Jermaine Jackson, you just like to say that word. Sheriff Randy Smith said Rogers comments led the family to lose trust and confidence in the investigation. And I can see how that could happen, but I still don't understand how that part alone is criminal. Now, Dan Watson told WWL TV after the arrest, Randy Smith caused us to lose confidence in this investigation, and I think that's across the board for every family member. So he's he's kind of disagreeing with the sheriff, right? He's saying now wasn't these emails from Gerry Rogers? It was. You write in your investigation that caused us to lose trust. You're going back to these emails from Rogers, one quote from one email read, All detectives are pissed that Dumbo sheriff brought in person with zero homicide experience to take over case. Some of Rodgers emails questioned the qualifications of lead detective Daniel Buckner. Rodgers called him a stone cold rookie. OK, I get that the sheriff's office is not going to be happy. No, but those comments alone can't lead you to get arrested, right? There's got to be some other part of it. Something to do with the leaking of information, not just criticize. There's no way. Yeah, because I don't think those are interfering with the investigation. I think it's just criticizing parts of the investigation. You know, that's the sound of another sale on your online Shopify store. But did you know Shopify Power is selling in person, too? That's right. Shopify is the sound of selling everywhere online in store on social media. And beyond track every sale across your business in one place and know exactly what's in stock, connect with customers in line and online do retail right with Shopify. Sign up for a $1 per month trial period at Shopify.com/ true crime. A sheriff's office spokesman said Buckner has led four homicide investigations and assisted with dozens more per WWL TV. Sheriff Smith said it is our duty to diligently investigate any claim or possible lead that may further any open or active investigation in this particular instance. Our investigators were able to uncover the malicious, surreptitious and criminal actions of an individual whose intent was motivated by his efforts to defame, create distrust and otherwise prey on the emotions of a victim's family. Pretty strong words, very strong words. Some good words to surreptitious. I use that at least three or four times a day, I'm sure. Yeah. Rogers was arrested after Sheriff Smith fired Sgt. Stephon Montgomery, one of the lead detectives, on the case for breach of confidentiality. Montgomery was fired on August 20th, 2019. Sources close to the case told WWL TV that Montgomery was talking to Rodgers, and Rodgers emailed the net sister Kim Watson, with concerns about the investigation. Well, they found the leak then. Yeah, they found the leak. I'm still finding it hard to find the criminal action around what Jerry Rogers did. He got some information from somebody else and he sent it to the family. I don't get it, either. The St. Tammany Parish Sheriff's Office said it opened the investigation into the league because a family member contacted them with concerns about the email. Montgomery issued a statement to WWL, TV and the Times-Picayune in September 2019. He said he was assigned to a high profile homicide investigation in December 2018 and was tasked with obtaining digital records and other evidence that was overlooked. He wrote that they were told to think outside the box and leave no stone unturned. You got to be careful with that. Think outside of the box saying it can get you in trouble sometimes. Well, because you don't know how somebody else is going to take it. The team reached out to other law enforcement agencies and tech firms for guidance. Montgomery wrote I recently learned that a federal agent I had apparently conferred with created a fake email address and was sending bits and pieces of case sensitive information wrapped in conspiracy theories to the victim's families, as well as political camps. Due to this leak, my employment was terminated because the emails allegedly defamed the agency and the investigation. So now things become a little more clear. If this guy was conferring with Gerry Rogers any professional capacity, then it does change things it does. Brian Traynor, an attorney who represents Rogers, wrote a letter to the sheriff's office because of the internal investigation into former Sergeant Montgomery, as reported by WWL TV. Traynor wrote that after a conversation, his client was left with the impression that someone obtained his private email accounts via a subpoena or search warrant. Rogers reviewed all the emails that were forwarded to Nannette sister, and he can say with certainty that none of the information contained in the emails came from any active member of the St. Tammany Parish Sheriff's Office. Rogers was merely a conduit of information to the family and regrets his choice of words and portrayals of certain members of the agency. Traynor said he was not aware of Rogers using a false identity and noted that any communication between Rogers and Montgomery was communication between law enforcement professionals with the goal of trying to solve a crime. WWL TV also reported that the Sheriff's Office issued an arrest for Ninette sister Wendy Watson about six months after Nannette died. Wendy went to the property to look at a memorial. She thought Steve erected at the site. Steve called the sheriff's office on her for trespassing. Wendy said I was told from inside sources that he was doing it to shut me up and to get me to stop talking about him and to retaliate against me for things I have said to the media and things I have said on social media. No, that's too bad. You know that you have this tension or issues between family members. You know, it's her sister, it's his wife. But because of this murder, you know, they aren't going to be able to get along. Well, it also seems like there's a lot of retaliation going on, whether it's, you know, the sheriff's office. The family sheriff Randy Smith denied this allegation on November 8th, 2019. A judge. Ruled there was no probable cause to arrest Gerry Rogers, and he was released from Bond, not surprised. No, I'm not surprised, either. I mean, I think the sheriff's office was upset and I get why they were upset, but it didn't seem legally to me, at least as a layperson, that this guy should have been arrested for what he had done. I don't really agree that he should have done what he did. But was it illegal? I thought that was a pretty gray area there. His attorney, Brian Traynor, said the state attorney general still had the right to accept the charges. The case was turned over to the attorney general after the 22nd Judicial District Attorney recused his office because Roger's wife works there in 2020. Gerry Rogers filed a lawsuit against Sheriff Randy Smith and two deputies. His lawsuit stated that he was strip searched, jailed and forced to post $3500 in bail. Hey, hold on a minute. Wait. You can sue if you've been strip searched because I've been strip searched quite a few times too many times, you might have a lot of lawsuits sometimes by. I don't even think. The law enforcement enforcement depositions reveal that the DA's office warned Smith and detectives it would be unconstitutional to arrest Rodgers for criminal defamation. But Smith ordered the arrest anyway. So now comes out that, you know, he was told by the D.A., Don't do this. It's not going to fly. So to me, that really does kind of lead into the area of retaliation. They were mad. They wanted to shut this guy up or they wanted to, you know, do something to him for the things that he had done in January 2020 to the public learned that in October 2019, the FBI asked for a full investigation into a possible criminal conspiracy at the sheriff's office. There is a lot going on at the St. Tammany Parish Sheriff's Office. Sounds like it's a busy place. But here's my question. We've talked about all of these things going on. Could it really be that not all of this stuff didn't take away from the investigation because I would find that hard to believe? Yeah, I think it had to take away from the investigation, the infighting, the retaliation. You're spending time on these other things and it's kind of taking away. It has to take away. I would think from really trying to get to the bottom of what happened to Nanette Krenzel, right, where your focus should be. According to WWL TV, the sheriff's office provided a letter from the FBI dated February 11, 2020, that said DOJ supervisors determined the captioned matter did not warrant further investigation. On May 17, 2020, to a federal judge ruled that deputies illegally arrested Gerry Rogers in August 2023. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled in support of Rogers lawsuit, and his lawsuit was settled on January 9th, 2020 for under confidential terms. So I'm sure he did pretty well thinking he did. The court backed him up all the way, so they kept ruling that, you know, the sheriff's office was in the wrong. In July 2020, to WDSU reported that the sheriff's office is no longer the lead investigator, and the St. Tammany DA's office took over the case a year and a half earlier. Now why is that? Because somebody high up lost faith in their ability? Yeah, I mean, there was the FBI talking about a possible criminal conspiracy at the sheriff's office. They arrested this guy, Rogers, for sending some emails. I mean, what's going on over there? I think when you hear the FBI, the DOJ, the case at the Supreme Court, I think you have to stop and say, Hey, we need to pull this case out of there. Take control of it because I don't know what they're doing. Rogers high profile arrest Although it was related to the Nets case, it didn't further the investigation into finding the real killer. If anything, like I said, I think it hurt. Yeah, the investigation, it shifted where the focus should have been. Yeah, it shifted the focus. It caused resources probably to be diverted. Then that's case remains unsolved over six years later. And I think it's a it's a tough case to solve. Any time you have a crime scene that is basically destroyed by fire, you're going to lose a lot of evidence. That's. True. I mean, I hate to say it, but fire is a good way to destroy evidence. Yeah. And I think that's what the individual is probably trying to do. Yeah, I'm I'm thinking they were hoping that the body was destroyed, too. Now I wondered about that because, you know, we discussed this in cases before. It does take a very, very hot fire. Yeah. To completely burn a body. But you could be right. That could have been part of the hope of the killer because they had to have known. If it doesn't, it's going to be real easy to determine that Nina was shot in the head. Yeah. Now, if the if the body burns, even if it doesn't burn completely, but if it burns to the to the point where the skulls not intact, maybe then you don't even know or can't prove that she was killed. Maybe they just wanted to cover up the evidence. But I do think it will be a difficult one to solve. Not impossible, but difficult for investigators and prosecutors to charge anyone with her murder. They weren't even leaning towards the fact that it was murder. The sheriff's office, the coroner was, they were saying homicide, but the sheriff's office kept saying that they were investigating it as a homicide, but they didn't agree that it was which they weren't convinced. No, which I thought was a very strange statement to make. You know, we look at Steve. We talked about him. They were very adamant in ruling him out. Now does that come into question the more you learn about what was going on at the sheriff's office? And I mean, I hate to put too much on them, but obviously they there was some stuff going on there. They got the case taken away from them and they were admonished. So does them ruling him out as a suspect look differently after learning all of the things that that happened later on? I don't know if it does. Maybe it does. Maybe it doesn't. I think, you know, Brian, there's no doubt that Nanette was scared of him. I think Steve was worried, too. Yeah. I mean, you don't set up that elaborate of a system with the geofence specifically for one person unless you're very worried about that one person. Absolutely. You have to be worried. Nine cameras. I think we said that's a lot of cameras, 30 guns. I mean, you don't need 30 guns for one person, but maybe they just like to collect guns. Some people do. But you know, all you have to do is go back and kind of look at some of those emails that Nanette sent to her dad sent her her family. And if Brian really said some of those things, which I don't know why she would lie about that stuff, but I'm going to set your house on fire. I'm going to rape you and I'm going to kill you. You know, it's threatening and scary, too, to receive an email like that. And then you have to take a look at his alibi. It sounded to me that it was largely based on kind of a timestamp of a surveillance video recording system. Was that time correct? Was it not correct? Were they able to to validate that? I don't know, because it wasn't in the the research, right? They've never come out and said, like they did with Steve, hey, we ruled him out. He couldn't have done it. I mean, I'm thinking, you know, I did something wrong this upcoming Monday, and I don't change the time on my DVR set up camera system. It's going to have an incorrect time, right, because it's going to show it's going to be an off an hour. It's going to match up what's on the film and what's on the device. That's incorrect. If I don't manually change it because of daylight savings. Well, so that's one example. The other example would be to manually change it prior to doing something. Yeah, and then change it back to being correct afterwards. Good to to throw it off and basically say now, I don't know how you would do that. I'm not a tech wizard, and maybe they'd be able to tell that you did it. But at the time that they believe the murder and the fire started that time on the video, you were there at your mom's house? Yeah, but maybe it wasn't really that time. I don't know. Maybe I'm getting ahead of myself, and that's why we would have to see the equipment. And I don't know who behind it. I really don't. Yeah, no idea how all that works. And I think outside of that, then you're looking at possibly. A stranger, maybe, yeah, that saw on the net that morning at the restaurant or, you know, had seen her before had staked out had learned their patterns. It could happen. But are you ever going to catch that person? I think it'd be very highly unlikely. Yeah, I agree. But that's it. For our episode on the murder of Nanette Krenzel, we got some voicemails. You want to check those out. If it's germane to this episode, it is very germane. OK? And Tito and Tito? Hi, my name is Penny calling from the Kansas City, Missouri, area. I was just calling because I just got done listening to your story about Robert Copeland. And I, of course, was looking hella because I always want to see what these people look like. And I inadvertently Typekit the name Richard Hoagland, and it pulled out a story about a band from Indiana who had abandoned his family think 25 years ago and then was found. I didn't get to read the whole story, but I believe he was arrested at jail. So I just thought it was interesting because it happened so long ago. And it makes me wonder if Robert Hoagland didn't know that story and potentially tried to do the same thing based on the same last name. I don't know. Anyway, it was just the thought. You guys are great. I'm not on any team. Love you both. Keep your own time ticking. All right. Great voicemail. You know, who knows, but this is what we experience all the time, Gibbs. We talk about it sometimes where we're researching something, and you see a case that is in the same area or kind of a branch off of the case you're actually working on. That's just as bad or very similar or even worse, happens all the time, all the time. Interesting, though. Yeah, could be. We don't know. Hey, boys, it's Sydney again up in Idaho and I'm catching up on unsolved. I have listened to any new episodes because I've been catching up on unsolved and I got to the episode about Debbie Wolfe and boy, do I have opinions on that because what I heard that day, the police said that they mistook projected for a barrel. The first thing I did was I reached out to my dad, who is a professional diversity. He is a certified diver. He got off the West Coast for 15 years as a diver down in the water, picking up here just to see if he can. I said, Why does it happen to him? I. No, absolutely not. It is murky as hell, but I promise you, there is no way you can mistake a 55 gallon barrel for a jacka*s. Oh man, I may be so angry this morning, though. So angry. Anyway, I just thought you would like that input, so you got that anger built. So anyway, I love the show. I'll be catching up momentarily. Anyway, have a good day. Bye. Thanks for the voicemail. We always love to get information from people who have that type of specific knowledge, and I think that was a case that angers a lot of people like the things that they said. They just don't make sense. And when things don't make sense, people get angry. And I get that and frustrated and frustrated. Yeah, everybody, that is it for another episode of true crime all the time unsolved. So for Mike and Gabby, stay safe and keep your own time ticking. Pluto TV is TV the way it should be free with over 300 channels, thousands of movies and TV shows costing zeros of dollars. So if you want to watch shows like Ghost, The Walking Dead, CSI, Star Trek or the price is right, well, the price is right. It's free hit movies like Braveheart, Sonic the Hedgehog, Anchorman The Legend of Ron Burgundy, or Mean Girls won't cost you a thing because everything is free. All you have to do is download the app, which, by the way, is also free. Pluto TV. Stream now. Pay Never. You know that's the sound of another sale on your online Shopify store, but did you know Shopify Power is selling in person, too? That's right. Shopify is the sound of selling everywhere online, in-store store on social media and beyond. Track every sale across your business in one place and know exactly what's in stock. Connect with customers in line and online. Do retail right with Shopify. Sign up for a $1 per month trial period at Shopify.com/ true crime.
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