Transcript

Young father murdered by millionaire party boy

From True Crime News · Episode page · Watch on YouTube

· 40 min · 6,506 words · 136 timestamped sections

This is the full, timestamped transcript of "Young father murdered by millionaire party boy", an episode of True Crime News published January 4, 2026 (40 min, about 6,506 words). It mentions 14 people, works and ideas, including Tim Bosma, Raymond Jennings, Delan Mard, Michelle O'Keefe, Dodge Ram.

What this episode is about

A young father vanishes after taking two potential buyers for a test drive of his pickup truck, leading to a chilling investigation that uncovers connections to a wealthy heir and a missing girl. In a separate case, a star cheerleader is shot dead after a concert, and a key witness becomes the prime suspect, ultimately facing a lengthy prison sentence amidst claims of innocence.

Key takeaways

  • In a twisted tale, a truck sale leads to a shocking disappearance; who knew commerce could get so sinister?
  • Even the sharpest instincts can fail; Tim Bosma's unease was overshadowed by his desperate need to sell.
  • A simple plea from a heartbroken wife emphasizes the fine line between desperation and danger in everyday life.
  • From promising youth to prime suspect: Delan Mard's fortunes shifted faster than a pilot can take off.
  • The irony? A car sale turns into a crime scene, proving that not all deals are worth the risk.

Who speaks in this episode?

What is discussed, and when

  1. – 5:00: Tim Bosma, Chris Hansen, Crime Watch Daily, Raymond Jennings
  2. – 10:00: Tim Bosma, Dodge Ram, Delan Mard, Mark Smitch
  3. – 15:00: Delan Mard, Tim Bosma, Mark Smitch, Eliminator
  4. – 20:00: Delan Mard, Tim Bosma, Laura Babcock, Mustang GT
  5. – 25:00: Raymond Jennings, Michelle O'Keefe, Mustang GT
  6. – 30:00: Raymond Jennings, Michelle O'Keefe, Mustang GT
  7. – 35:00: Raymond Jennings, Michelle O'Keefe, Crime Watch Daily
  8. – 40:00: Michelle O'Keefe

Notable quotes from "Young father murdered by millionaire party boy"

  • I'm Chris Hansen. Right now on Crime Watch Daily from here in New York, a young father puts his pickup for sale online. But when he takes two potential.
    about Chris Hansen · at
  • Tim Bosma was trying to sell this black Dodge Ram truck that had become a bit of a financial burden. He wanted to buy a cheaper truck. It had been advertised online for a few weeks. Hadn't gotten.
    about Tim Bosma · at
  • The records of profiled and see that tattoo in the police records and that's what led them to Delan Mard.
    about Delan Mard · at
  • One of those groupies was this man, Mark Smitch, a wannabe rapper.
    about Mark Smitch · at
  • This huge hulking piece of equipment used to incinerate cows, horses, huge livestock. That's what it's meant for.
    about Eliminator · at
  • The 260 horses throbbing under the hood of her Mustang GT.
    about Mustang GT · at
  • At 9:22, Michelle was changing her clothes from that video in her car for her class. They were running late and the class was going to end at 10:00. So, she told her friend, Look, I'm going to.
    about Michelle O'Keefe · at
  • Security guard Raymond Jennings was patrolling the lot that night.
    about Raymond Jennings · at

Who and what is mentioned in this episode?

People

  • Tim Bosma — Person · Victim (primary case subject) · 13 mentions · first at
    His disappearance during a truck test drive and subsequent murder anchors the first half of the episode and drives the investigation into Delan Mard and Mark Smitch.
  • Raymond Jennings — Person · Key witness turned suspect; later exonerated · 6 mentions · first at
    Initially convicted for Michelle O’Keefe’s murder based largely on circumstantial interpretation of his statements; later released and found factually innocent.
  • Delan Mard — Person · Primary suspect/defendant (Bosma case) and linked suspect (Babcock case) · 6 mentions · first at
    Portrayed as the wealthy ringleader tied to the truck theft, the incinerator (“Eliminator”), and the disappearance of Laura Babcock; central antagonist of the first story.
  • Michelle O'Keefe — Person · Victim (second case subject) · 5 mentions · first at
    Her 2000 murder in Palmdale is the centerpiece of the second half, framing the wrongful-conviction arc involving Raymond Jennings.
  • Mark Smitch — Person · Co-defendant / accomplice (Bosma case) · 3 mentions · first at
    Depicted as Mard’s sidekick and participant in theft “missions”; later cooperates by blaming Mard, but is still portrayed as complicit.
  • Chris Hansen — Person · Host / narrator · 2 mentions · first at
    Introduces and frames both cases, guiding the audience through the investigative timeline and trial outcomes.
  • Laura Babcock — Person · Missing person / alleged additional victim (linked to Mard) · 3 mentions · first at
    Her disappearance is used to broaden the narrative from a single murder to a possible pattern, tying back to the purchase/use of the “Eliminator.”
    Laura Babcock simply vanished into thin air.
  • Charlene Bosma — Person · Family member / public pleader (victim’s spouse) · 2 mentions · first at
    Her on-air pleas and recounting of Tim’s last moments humanize the case and underscore the urgency of the early investigation.
    She wanted her husband back. And she felt that if she could make this appeal, it would help bring him back. But it was also so that people could understand this was just a normal guy who'd gone on.
  • Anne Brockhurst — Person · Referenced expert / author-commentator · 2 mentions · first at
    Provides narrative and interpretive commentary on the Bosma case and is described as having written a book about the murder.
    Smitch are guilty. They're sentenced to life behind bars. But according to Anne Brockhurst, who literally wrote the book on this horrific murder, the questions don't end there.
  • Igor Tumenko — Person · Witness / prior target of suspects · 1 mention · first at
    His interaction with the burner phone and his recollection of the 'ambition' tattoo provide a key investigative lead that helps identify Delan Mard.
    Igor tells police that he remembered one man had a distinctive tattoo on his forearm, the word ambition. And it was just by coincidence he mentioned this tattoo and they were able to go through.

Products & tech

  • Dodge Ram — Product · Central object · 3 mentions · first at
    The truck Tim Bosma was selling, which became the target of the crime
    Phone, a seeming dead end, except when police checked the call history of the burner phone. The day before it called another man selling a Dodge Ram pickup, an ex-Israeli soldier named Igor.
  • Eliminator — Product · Key evidence · 4 mentions · first at
    Industrial incinerator used in the crime, central to the case's chilling conclusion
  • Mustang GT — Product · Key object · 4 mentions · first at
    Michelle O'Keefe's car, where she was murdered, central to the case

Media & podcasts

  • Crime Watch Daily — Media · Broadcast platform · 4 mentions · first at
    The show presenting the crime stories, central to the narrative
    I'm Chris Hansen. Right now on Crime Watch Daily from here in New York, a young father puts his pickup for sale online. But when he takes two potential.

Full transcript with timestamps

I'm Chris Hansen. Right now on Crime Watch Daily from here in New York, a young father puts his pickup for sale online. But when he takes two potential buyers for a test drive, he never comes home.

I plead to whomever has my husband to please let him go. The mystery deepens when detectives investigate the wealthy heir to a family fortune. A strange connection to a missing girl and a machine known as the eliminator. It's a case that comes to a chilling conclusion.

These are two of the stupidest people on earth. Then a star cheerleader dreaming of becoming an actress shot dead in her car after a concert. First on the scene, the security guard, a former Army National Guard sergeant.

There was a gunshot and I radioed in for my supervisor and told her I had shots fired.

Did you check for a pulse? Did you give her any CPR? No. I didn't think anybody would survive something like that.

Suddenly, the key witness becomes the prime suspect. Raymond Lee's a documented prolific liar.

But is he a murderer? The jury thinks so. Convicting and throwing him in prison for 40 years to life. Was he in the wrong place at the wrong time?

I sit here as an innocent man right now. Andrea Isamer with Crime Watch Daily. Jason Mater with Crime Watch Daily.

This I'm Elizabeth. I'm here with Crime Watch. Michelle from Crime Watch Daily. Anna Garcia from Crime Watch

is Crime Watch Daily. Get off my pocket. We'll find you again. We always do. Welcome to Crime Watch Daily, everyone. I'm Chris Hansen. We start today with a case that made headlines around the world. A young father disappears and one of the main suspects is a millionaire party boy who at the age of 14 started flying planes and helicopters. Chris Tim Bosma kissed his wife goodbye and then went with two guys on a test drive. They were interested in buying his pickup truck, but Tim would never come home. How could a young father simply vanish?

Tim has been stolen from us? Who could possibly want him gone? And why would he be taken?

It was just a truck. The answers will reveal the twisted world of a thrillseeking petty crook who some believe may have just graduated to serial killer. No question. Uh this story is far from over. Tim Bosma and his wife Charlene were the picture of Bliss raising a young daughter in the quiet of the countryside. But money was tight according to author Anne Brockhurst. And that led Tim to sell his beloved Dodge Ram pickup.

Tim Bosma was trying to sell this black Dodge Ram truck that had become a bit of a financial burden. He wanted to buy a cheaper truck. It had been advertised online for a few weeks. Hadn't gotten much interest at all. And then he gets a call from these guys who seem like serious prospective buyers. On a Sunday evening, the two men arrive for a test drive, but they show up late and on foot. According to investigative journalist Alex Pearson, Tim had a bad feeling right from the start. He had said right before he went out with these men, he was feeling uneasy um while putting his daughter down. He was feeling uneasy about it because they were late. It was an odd time to be coming to look for a truck. It was later in the evening. Tim asked his wife Charlene whether he should still take the men on a test drive. The answer she gave haunts her to this day.

A little after 9:00, Tim kissed Charlene goodbye and said he'd be right back. An hour later, he still wasn't home.

And she started phoning him and texting him and got no answers. When initially we heard that Tim Bosma had gone missing, it's like any adult who goes missing. The opinions of everybody that something must have happened. Tim must have had a drug deal or something nefarious was going on.

But cops have a different feeling. They subpoenaed Tim Bosma's phone record. So, it was almost immediate. When someone is reported missing, you wait 24 hours. But the police knew, I think instinctively, this was a different kind of case because it involved online ads, uh, two guys coming to look for a truck, and that he was supposed to be back and he wasn't. Meanwhile, Tim's wife, Charlene, makes a desperate plea aimed at the men who took her husband.

I ask and I beg and I plead to whomever has my husband to please let him go. Please let him come home.

She wanted her husband back. And she felt that if she could make this appeal, it would help bring him back. But it was also so that people could understand this was just a normal guy who'd gone on a test drive.

It was just a truck. It is just a truck. You don't need him. But I do. While waiting for answers at home, Charlene gets a hearttoppping phone call. It's from Tim's phone. They must have thought he was alive.

Yeah. But the call is from someone who found Tim's phone while mowing the lawn in a nearby industrial area. It's a huge lead, but cops are already on to something big. Tim's phone records show that the car shoppers called on a burner phone, a seeming dead end, except when police checked the call history of the burner phone. The day before it called another man selling a Dodge Ram pickup, an ex-Israeli soldier named Igor.

Igor Tumenko, unlike Tim Bosma, was built like a truck. He was a big, big, big guy. He's the kind of guy that when you meet him, you in, you know, in your head you're saying, I'm not messing with that guy.

Igor tells police that he remembered one man had a distinctive tattoo on his forearm, the word ambition. And it was just by by coincidence he mentioned this tattoo and they were able to go through the records of profiled and see that tattoo in the police records and that's what led them to Delan Mard. Before he was a marked man, Delan Mard was a boy wonder, the heir to an aviation fortune who made headlines at the age of 14 when he became the first teenager to fly solo in a helicopter and an airplane on the same day.

Like holding a plate on your finger trying to keep that thing straight. Sadly, Mard's father committed suicide in 2012, right after he invested over $3 million in this new airport hanger.

And Mard was never very keen on this business idea. And within a matter of days after his father died, he canled all the licenses, all the permits, all the certification required to work on aircrafts. So here's Dan Mard who's got all the money in the world thanks to Daddy. And instead of, you know, using what he had to make something for himself and continue this aviation dynasty that the Mard family had, he's out there partying like a rockstar, doing a lot of drugs and and hanging around nefarious people and stealing stuff.

Mard always surrounded himself with people who were younger than him, four or five years, and he was the leader. He paid for everything. So, he gained a certain amount of control and status by bankrolling these younger friends.

One of those groupies was this man, Mark Smitch, a wannabe rapper. It's like a freestyle session with no lesson, no question. I'm killing you in possession. Smitch was going to be a rap star. And I guess Mard saw himself as maybe the producer, the manager.

Who's who? Blues Clues, tell the cops anything, then you die on the news. This is a guy who met his dream of all dreams. A rich guy he could do drugs with, steal cars with, hang around and play video games with. But it escalated for Mark Smith.

Mard and Smitch and a group of friends went on what they call missions. And the mission was to steal things.

What was going on inside that hanger? What kind of business did he have? There was no planes. So for an airplane hanger, this thing was not doing what it was supposed to be used for, which was storing planes and servicing planes. No, this thing was a full-blown chop shop. These guys were out stealing anything they could get their hands on. They were stealing a lot of construction equipment, bringing it in, stripping it down, selling it for parts.

5 days after Tim Bosma went missing, cops track Meard to a bank where he's spotted withdrawing three grand. Minutes later, he's arrested. They find the keys to Bosma's truck in his possession. But for now, he's only charged with unlawful detention. What police really want to know is where's the truck? And the bigger question, where is Tim Bosma? Up next, another missing person's case points the finger at Mard.

Laura Babcock simply vanished into thin air. And the shocking discovery of a bizarre killing machine. Tim Bosma did what thousands of people do every day. He posted his pickup truck for sale online. But police say instead of a prospective buyer, that ad would attract two sick individuals who were looking for more than just a good deal. Anna Garcia is back with more of our allnew investigation. Charlene Bosma, whose husband Tim has been missing since he took two strangers on a test drive, just got hopeful news. Police arrest a suspect, Delan Mard, a millionaire bad boy, and he's got the keys to Tim's truck in his pocket when cops grab him.

So, where's Tim? Due to the unusual nature of this disappearance, the homicide unit will now take the lead.

Mard isn't talking. And using surveillance video, police are piecing together a very different ending to this story. This video from a neighboring business shows Bosma's truck driving past shortly after Tim left his house. Police believe that's Delan Mard behind the wheel. his sidekick, Mark Smitch, in the back and in the passenger seat, Tim Bosma. But remember how Tim's cell phone was found in a nearby industrial park? Video from that location shows two vehicles arriving at the scene. Police experts say this one with the running lights on top is Tims. The one trailing is Mard's SUV. Bosma's phone was found about 300 yd from this very spot.

And then there's video from the Mard airplane hanger. The same two vehicles drive up about 2 hours later, but this time Bosma's truck is towing a large piece of equipment. Footage from inside the hanger shows the two men arriving. Smitch on the left, Mard on the right. Moments later, a bright flame can be seen erupting from outside the hanger. It would burn all night. Marcus Smith and Dela Mard are not smart guys. I mean, these are two of the stupidest people uh on earth. They took this truck and put it in his hanger, but and they told their employees, "Don't come in." But then the employees start showing up the next day to the hanger and there's this black truck that's all over the news. After Meard is arrested, police search the hanger but can't find the truck. Again, surveillance video tells the tale. 2 days after Tim went missing, Mard's red pickup is seen here towing a large fifthwheel trailer from the hanger. You

can probably guess what's inside. Of all the places to hide the truck, where did they decide to hide this truck?

Mommy Dearest. Mommy Dearest's house had this truck. Thanks to a tip from neighbors, cops search the trailer and find Tim's truck concealed inside. It confirms their grim suspicions. Despite the fact that the two front seats have been stripped out, police find a 38 caliber shell casing in the back seat, Delan Mard's fingerprints, and blood stains from Tim Bosma. Infrared luminal examination reveals even more blood, which was hastily washed away. Plus, a 38 caliber pistol is found in a toolbox owned by Mard.

In some ways, it they seem like they were very dumb about how they covered up their tracks.

Dumb does not begin to explain Mark and Dela Malard. Or maybe it was that Dela Malard was so drunk on his own narcissism that he felt he would never be caught.

A search of Mard's property turns up the most disturbing evidence yet. Hidden in the woods, police find the Eliminator, an industrial incinerator that burns up to a scorching 1,400° F. And it's riding a top a trailer Mard had specially built to make it mobile.

This huge hulking piece of equipment used to incinerate cows, horses, huge livestock. That's what it's meant for.

Did he have any livestock? No, he didn't have any pets except for a dog named PTO.

Police believe this was the heavy equipment being towed that night to the hanger and also the source of the flame seen burning white hot for several hours. A forensic pathologist combs the inside of the eliminator, finding bone fragments, a tooth, and a blood stain on the outside matching 32year-old Tim Bosma. This woman got into the incinerator. She had the police buy her a little handheld vacuum cleaner so she could get every last bit of Tim's remains and give them to the family.

Police quickly arrest Meard's partner in crime, Mark Smitch, and charge both men with murder. But during the trial, Smitch turned snitch.

So what was their defense? He did it. Mark Smitch very quickly pointed out that he was just in it to steal a truck. Didn't know anything about killing anybody. And then all of a sudden, Dela Mard pulled out a gun and shot the guy. And he was so scared he just went along for the ride to help burn the body, cover up the crime, which is just an absolute load of BS. He was in it, he did it, he partook in it, and he got caught. According to prosecutors throughout the trial, Mard wrote letters begging his girlfriend to lie in his defense.

Like, I love you. We're going to have babies. We're going to travel the world. But by the way, can you tell you know Andrew uh and all our you tell them not to say that or can you tell them to to change the story or it didn't happen like that? Okay. Love you. in in one he suggests that Smitch and two of his friends actually went to on the test drive that Mard wasn't there at all and the letters say destroy this letter all over them after you've read it but she very helpfully put them in the bedside table so that when the police arrested her they found them. We may never know which man actually pulled the trigger, but the jury is convinced that Mard and Smitch are guilty. They're sentenced to life behind bars. But according to Anne Brockhurst, who literally wrote the book on this horrific murder, the questions don't end there.

And just when you think something stranger couldn't happen, it does. Laura Babcock, a young woman struggling with drug and mental health issues, has been missing for over four years.

Laura Babcock simply vanished into thin air. Police say her last known contact was with none other than Delan Mard. And get this, he bought the eliminator shortly before she vanished.

Do the police have any idea what happened to her? Police sources told the Hamilton spectator that they believe that Laura was incinerated.

And then there was Mard's father, who supposedly committed suicide by shooting himself shortly before his son turned the family air hanger into a chop shop party house. The illegal gun he used was traced back to this man, a notorious gun dealer and police say associate of Delan Mard. I think this case when it's all said and done and the story is all told, Don Mard, I think, will go down. One of the most prolific serial killers in Canadian history.

Both men are awaiting trial in the murder of Laura Babcock and Meard with the murder of his father. But in this madness, it's easy to lose sight of Tim Bosma's tragic and senseless death.

I mean, people came to feel like they knew or were connected to in some way this family who were a great young family.

Dela Malard could afford 50 trucks. He could have gone out and bought any truck that he wanted. I think the headline really is about Tim Bosma, not Dela Mard. Tim Bosma was everything right in life. He was what everyone aspires their child to be and he got wiped out for a truck.

Up next, a college student murdered in her beloved Mustang. The man who witnessed the shooting turns into the prime suspect.

Do you think he did it? He just knew too much. Crime Watch Daily with the mystery in California that would lead police down a road full of twists and turns coming up. We're back now with the story of an 18-year-old girl shot to death inside her car in California. On the outside, it sure looks like a robbery gone wrong. And the search for the killer would ultimately uncover a very unlikely suspect. Our Nurissa Knight has the story.

Murder in the blue Mustang. Michelle's been shot. Aspiring actress Michelle O'Keefee was gunned down as she sat in her beloved pony car. Mike O'Keefe says his daughter was a brilliant 18-year-old who had it all together.

These are a couple of her trophies from cheerleading. A star cheerleader in high school.

She has ribbons and trophies. Yeah, they'd won for different things. And a whiz at math.

She was a good student. finished all her college calculus before she even finished high school. And she finished high school a year early.

But the numbers, Mike says, that were more exhilarating to Michelle. The 260 horses throbbing under the hood of her Mustang GT.

I remember she made me a deal. She goes, "Dad, if I can get my bachelor's degree in a year, will you buy me new rims for my Mustang?" And I said, "You know what? If you can get your degree in another year, sure. We'll spring for rims for your car. Michelle juggled college courses in computer science with part-time work as a TV and film extra.

She goes, "Dad, I have to work. I could do this every day if I want to." And we both encouraged her. I go, "Well, that's great, but why don't you get your school knocked out first?"

It was a cold February in California's Analopee Valley. Michelle and a friend were on the way to LA for an unbelievable gig. On that particular day, her and her friend were set up to be extras in a hit rock video in downtown LA.

Michelle didn't want to drive the Mustang the 60 m into the city. So, she pulled into this park and ride lot off the freeway in Palmdale, parked under a light, and rode with her friend for a night with Kid Rock.

Michelle was so conscientious of her Mustang, she wanted to park it underneath the light stand there so, you know, to minimize any kind of risk of vandalism. There's Michelle and her friend in the front row as Kid Rock performed. The production went into overtime as they often do. By the time they returned, Michelle was late for class and still needed to change out of the rocker girl outfit she wore for the video.

At 9:22, Michelle was changing her clothes from that video in her car for her class. They were running late and the class was going to end at 10:00. So, she told her friend, "Look, I'm going to slip into my jeans. I'm going to head down there and tell the teacher what had happened."

Michelle's friend dropped her off and told Mike she saw her put the Mustang into reverse.

She assumed she was going to leave. And actually what Michelle had done was move from one parking space down to another to change these club clothes they were in for the part they were playing into, you know, just typical student kind of attire.

And what her friend didn't see is that Michelle's car went into reverse, hit a planter, and came to a stop. And this was no accident. Someone had just blasted four 9mm slugs into her face and chest.

I just couldn't believe what I was looking at. Security guard Raymond Jennings was patrolling the lot that night.

Right around 9:30, I heard a car alarm go off. And as I started to walk down to where that car alarm was sounding, there was a gunshot. And subsequently after that, there was multiple gunshots and I radioed in for my supervisor and told her I had shots fired. They patched it through to the sheriff's department. What Jennings, an Army National Guard sergeant, found was a crime scene as bloody as any in Iraq.

When you approached Michelle, did you check for a pulse? Did you give her any CPR?

No, I didn't check. Uh there was multiple gunshots to Michelle. I didn't think anybody would survive something like that.

When he saw her, he saw a faint pulse and he saw her hand twitching. And how could a man that's been trained in the military, a trained infantryman, not instantaneously want to jump in and do CPR. His comment to the police was, "I didn't want to disturb a crime scene." That doesn't make any sense. The only other witnesses, four people in another car smoking weed and listening to music. They reportedly heard the car alarm and what they call tapping noises. Over the next few weeks, LA Sheriff's detectives tried to piece the puzzle together with what Jennings could tell them.

I will tell you what I see. That's Jennings in what detectives call a cognitive interview. It's a scientific way to help a witness recall crucial information they may have forgotten.

I thought she was a prostitute because of the way she was dressed and then found out she was in a Kid Rock extra, you know, extra in the Kid Rock.

He said his view was blocked by another car parked next to Michelle's Mustang. But the detectives interest was peaked. They believe Jennings volunteered information only the killer would know, such as the order of the gunshots and the trajectory of the bullets.

When I first seen her, the gunshot in her chest, that to me looked like the very first shot that was fired. It was just close range. It was very close range.

And he gave chilling details of how he says Michelle died. like her her hand was twitching, just shaking like that

or just popping up and down. Okay. And then like and I I seen a you can see a slight pulse in her neck. Just a real it's real life. I thought she was still alive.

Jennings was so helpful. Investigators wondered, "How does a security guard know so much about a shooting he says he didn't see?" When you were talking to investigators afterward, did you ever at any point think to yourself, I better stop talking or they're going to start looking at me?

You know, I figured when I went home, I was like, I, you know, as I sat down and talked to my wife at the time and told her, I think they believe that I did it.

He was right. Next, the key witness becomes the prime suspect. He had incredible amount of information a minimum wage security guard doesn't normally have. You have the right to remain silent. Something Raymond Jennings probably wishes he would have listened to because after he started talking to cops about the shooting death of a teen in California, Jennings would become the prime suspect. But was he the right guy? Or was the military vet just at the wrong place at the wrong time? Here's Nerissa Knight. Michelle O'Keefe had just returned to the park and ride in Palmdale, California after a night with Kid Rock, performing as an extra in one of his music videos.

18-year-old Michelle was in her blue Mustang in a cold, lonely parking lot, changing her clothes so she could go to class. Then from out of the dark, four gunshot blasts ended her life.

Do you think Michelle would have put up a fight for her Mustang? Oh, absolutely. She put up a fight. There's no doubt about it. She had a blow which is like uh similar to a butt end of a gun on her nose. So, there was actually a battle took place. When Michelle didn't come home from school, her parents, Mike and Pat, instinctively felt something was horribly wrong.

I remember about 3:00, I I wake up and I look at Pat and she's on the ed edge of the bed weeping. And I go, "What are you doing?" She goes, "Michelle's not home. I know something's wrong." About that time, the phone rang and it was the sheriff's department. And I go, "Has there been an accident?" They go, "Well, not exactly." And I said, "Oh." and they go, "Michelle's been shot." It just piece of me died at that point.

Was it a carjacking gone bad, a robbery attempt, or an assault that turned deadly? The key witness, the unarmed security guard patrolling the parking lot that night, Raymond Jennings.

I was thinking that she got shot in the chest and was trying and was trying to get out of there. And like when she was when she put the car in reverse and was backing up, that's when the rest of the shots fired out. That's how I speculated.

Jennings sure was helpful. During his videotaped interview with the LA Sheriff's detectives, he led them straight to their suspect, himself. Do you think you being so observant and so helpful is what made them hone in on you?

I do. I think that played uh a major role in my own my own demise for the most part.

But it would take five years before the Iraq war veteran was in custody on a murder charge.

At first I was confused. Um there was shock I think would be the best word to describe it being that I've never been in that situation before.

But did they have the right man? There was no evidence connecting Jennings to Michelle's murder. No one identified him as the shooter. He owned a 38 caliber gun, but the murder weapon was a 9 mm. There was no gunshot residue or blood on his uniform, and someone else's DNA was underneath Michelle's fingernails.

Do you think that Ray Jennings is guilty? Do you think he did it? I think that if at a minimum he had to have been accomplice because he just knew too much. He had incredible amount of information that a minimum wage security guard doesn't normally have. He knew the angle of the shots. He was able to describe Michelle's death, h how she how she passed away. And these are things you're only going to know if you're there. And so everything pointed him.

Jennings told investigators he saw Michelle's car rolling backwards into a planter and then ducked for cover when he heard the gunshots. You only worked there as a security guard for a short time, but did you notice people coming to the parking lot to hang out, do drugs, other type of crimes?

I never noticed any of that myself. I mean, it's it was a very active parking lot. There are cars coming in and out of the parking lot at uh all times of day and night.

Prosecutors believe Jennings approached Michelle's car with flirtation in mind, but ended up killing her instead. Jennings has always maintained his innocence, but he soon faced a murder trial. Because of pre-trial publicity, the trial was moved to the downtown LA courthouse. The first jury deadlocked, a mistrial declared. Then a second jury deadlocked, another mistrial.

I didn't think that they would convict me. uh based upon the evidence and what the state presented uh I didn't believe that they presented a strong case to convict me.

But when the third trial was moved back to the Analopee Valley where Michelle was from, Jennings was scared.

I was extremely worried and due to the fact of the media attention that the case had drawn, uh it was very negative towards me in a sense and I didn't think I would get a fair trial up there. The verdict, guilty of secondderee murder. Raymond Jennings was sentenced to 40 years to life in prison.

How did that hit you, man? Well, it hit me like a ton of bricks. I just remember picking up the phone and uh the one person I called was Granny.

How do you tell granny you got 40 years? Well, she was crying. And I mean, she was hurt because uh as as everybody knows that knows me, uh they knew I wasn't responsible for this young lady's death.

The detectives, prosecutors, and the jury all thought otherwise. But as you're about to learn, it was all a huge mistake. Next, the unmaking of a murderer.

They were trying to make Ry look guilty. How a bored guy surfing the internet turned the case upside down. And a new court decision that would shock everyone. Raymond Jennings in prison convicted of seconddegree murder. A murder he swears up and down he didn't commit. Our Nurissa Knight is here now with more.

The prisons are filled with cons who claim they're innocent. I sit here as an innocent man

and Raymond Jennings is no different. I'm at peace in my life and I laugh and I smile because I hold no remorse because I didn't kill your sister. That is the bottom line.

A dramatic moment in the courtroom. Jennings is defiant as he's sentenced to 40 years to life for the murder of Michelle O'Keefe. I don't ask any mercy from this court because I know I don't have any coming. I will take my time and I will hold my head up as a man. My five children will know that who their father is and they will know he is not a murderer.

But that's not what the state says. Jennings resigned himself to life behind bars, posing for pictures with his fiance in front of a fake tropical background and watching TV with the other inmates. The crazy thing is most prisoners love to watch crime stories. Even Crime Watch daily, people watch that on a regular basis in prison.

It was a news story about Michelle's murder that would be the key to unlock the cell door and the man holding the key. Just some bored guy surfing the internet.

My son Clinton uh came to me. I guess what had happened is that he had been randomly surfing the internet and saw a link to a television program uh and it was about an Iraq war veteran who supposedly murdered a girl in a parking lot and he wondered to himself why would that happen? Attorney Jeffrey Erlick says his son, a foreign policy expert, was intrigued enough to investigate the Jennings case and concluded he was railroaded.

He went online and looked up the court of appeal opinion in Ray's case. And actually, what he was hoping was that it would sort of show him that Ry was guilty and then he didn't need to think about this anymore. Instead, he read the opinion and it raised a lot of questions in his mind. And he came to me the next day and said, "If I had found an Iraq war veteran who was wrongfully convicted of murder and who's innocent, would you like to try to get him out of prison?"

Erlick, a prominent civil attorney, isn't a criminal defense lawyer, but he became one overnight.

When you saw the evidence, did you think that Ray Jennings killed Michelle O'Keefe?

It was just the opposite. that that the deeper we dug into the case, the stronger our conviction was that he was clearly innocent.

Jennings was convicted despite no physical evidence connecting him to the murder. He just happened to be the parking lot security guard who discovered Michelle dying in her Mustang.

The state's entire case against Ry at its most fundamental level was he was there and there was no one else there that could have committed the crime. Therefore, he must have done it.

But Jennings wasn't the only one in the parking lot that night. Remember, there were four other people hanging out in another car nearby getting high.

The state knew that he wasn't the only one there. uh a person that has been since identified that we'll call him John Doe number one who was a convicted carjacker, a gang member who had done home invasion robberies uh and who used a 9mm pistol which is the same kind of pistol used in the killing.

And according to court papers, 4 months after Michelle's murder, John Doe number one was busted for carjacking a Mustang. When he was arrested, he was wearing an earring matching the description of the earrings Michelle was wearing the night she was murdered. And one of those was missing.

The case really had no validity. And so the state tried to make up for that by just heaping on piles of piles of irrelevant matter. And so we just sort of peeled an onion and showed piece by piece how none of it hung together and none of it made sense. The Los Angeles District Attorney's Conviction Review Unit looked at the new evidence and they agreed.

Our office uh no longer has confidence in the conviction of Mr. Jennings. What we're saying is very very clearly that if a jury was in possession of the information that we're aware of now, they would not have convicted him.

A judge ordered Jennings immediate release. After almost 11 years, he was free. You're a free man. How does it feel?

Uh, it's overwhelming. It feels great. Um, I think there's no words to actually describe that.

But he wasn't off the hook yet. There was still one final day in court. The judge uh vacated the sentence and discharged uh dismissed all the charges.

Three weeks ago, a judge ruled Jennings factually innocent, meaning he was right all along. He didn't kill Michelle.

I just breathe a sigh of relief. Uh, you know, I exhaled and I was very thankful that it finally came down.

You spent most of your adult life in prison for a murder that it's now stated you did not commit.

Well, on one hand, there's a lot of anger. Uh there's there's anger, there's bitterness, but on the other hand, I mean, I I've learned from it. I've I've grown from it. Up next, despite the court ruling, Michelle's father, Mike, still believes Jennings isn't the choir boy he professes to be. Do you feel that Ray Jennings had something to do with Michelle's death? Ray Jennings is a free man. After spending 11 years in prison for the murder of Michelle O'Keefe, Ry was just released. The California court system admitting they got the wrong guy.

Uh, it's overwhelming. It feels great. Despite the court ruling, Michelle's father, Mike, still believes Jennings knows more than he's saying.

Do you feel that Ray Jennings had something to do with Michelle's death? I'm 100% convinced Raymond Lee Jennings was right there when when when this is all going on. Raymond Lee's a documented, prolific liar.

But is he a murderer? I think he's involved in the murder. Michelle's dad, Michael O'Keefe, thinks that if you didn't do it, then you had something to do with it.

I think it's the simple fact that Mr. O'Keefe has had over the last 17 years almost now, uh, seared in his head that I was responsible for his daughter. And the facts that I know of that the public is not privy to show that I had nothing to do with his daughter's death and he'll have to come to that on his own terms.

Now Jennings is moving on from his decadel long ordeal, catching up on all those lost years.

You just got your passport, right? Yeah, I just got my passport a couple of weeks ago.

What's next for you all? Um continuing to build our relationship. um you know, merging our families. I have children, he has children. Um and marriage. Uh we've got a vacation planned to uh Mexico in um May for his birthday.

Jennings says the trip to Mexico is just a prelude for a honeymoon in Tahiti. Watch out world. Here comes Ray.

I'm coming. I I just live it every day and just grateful that I'm allowed to walk freely. But if Jennings didn't murder Michelle O'Keefee, who did? What about those other four people reportedly in the parking lot smoking weed the night of the shooting? Cops won't say who they're looking at, only that the investigation is continuing. And at the lonely parking lot on a hill, a cross marks the spot where she was murdered. A sad reminder Michelle's killer is still out there, lurking somewhere in the dark of night.

Questions about this episode

Who speaks in "Young father murdered by millionaire party boy"?

Chris Hansen (Host), Anne Brockhurst (Guest), Alex Pearson (Guest), Anna Garcia (Guest), Raymond Jennings (Guest), Mike O'Keefe (Guest).

What is "Young father murdered by millionaire party boy" about?

A young father vanishes after taking two potential buyers for a test drive of his pickup truck, leading to a chilling investigation that uncovers connections to a wealthy heir and a missing girl. In a separate case, a star cheerleader is shot dead after a concert, and a key witness becomes the prime suspect, ultimately facing a lengthy prison sentence amidst claims of innocence.

What is mentioned in this True Crime News episode?

14 people, works and ideas are mentioned, including Tim Bosma, Raymond Jennings, Delan Mard, Michelle O'Keefe, Dodge Ram, Mark Smitch. Each one on this page links to its own page with every episode that mentions it.

How long is "Young father murdered by millionaire party boy"?

The episode runs 40 min; the transcript is about 6,506 words in 136 timestamped sections.

More from True Crime News

About this transcript: the episode's spoken words as captioned on YouTube, split into timestamped sections. Reclip.Me locates every person, work and idea in the text, keeps the time it is first named, and quotes the words around it verbatim. Last updated January 24, 2026.