Borrowed Bones
Families build you up, tear you down, and sometimes drag you into something truly unhinged. Borrowed Bones unearths the bizarre, toxic, and fascinating stories of family dynamics gone sideways. From the macabre to the just plain strange, we’re digging deep to uncover the skeletons hiding in the closets of history, culture, and beyond.
Borrowed Bones
The Most Dysfunctional Family in America: Part 3
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The nightmarish saga of the Sexton family reaches its heartbreaking conclusion as they flee from Indiana to Florida. Packed into a cramped camper and paranoia mounting as authorities close in, tragedy strikes before their arrest.
Sources:
"House of Secrets" by Lowell Cauffiel
The Tampa Bay Times: Story of Tortured Family Emerges
America's Dysfunctional Family: The Sextons
E-Mail the show at BorrowedBonesPodcast@proton.me
Molly Bz Cookies - Promo Code: Bones
Get Good Feels Cannabis Seltzer - Promo Code: Bones
Introduction to the Sexton Saga
Speaker 1Hello everyone.
Speaker 2Hey, how's it going.
Speaker 1I'm Sarah.
Speaker 2I'm Cole.
Speaker 1And you're listening to Borrowed Bones, a podcast about fucked up, interesting and toxic families. Today we are finishing up our three-part series on the Sexton family.
Speaker 2Closing chapter of the trilogy.
Speaker 1Yes, yes, again, not my family, another Sexton family, no relation. Yes, I am very ready for this to be over.
Speaker 2Yeah, it's a saga.
Speaker 1Yes, the Sexton saga.
Speaker 2Yeah.
Speaker 1All right, so I'm just going to jump right into it. I want this to be done and out of my life, and then regain my own sexton name and my own sexton identity.
Speaker 2Tell me, recap me where we left off last week or last episode.
Speaker 1I should say so part two we left off with a large portion of the family now on the run in Indiana. They ran out in like an RV camper.
Speaker 2Oh yeah, okay they're right now preparing an RV camper. Oh yeah, Mm-hmm Okay.
Speaker 1They're right now preparing for the government to get them. They're going to the army surplus store working out like prepping.
Speaker 2And the government is after them now.
Speaker 1Yes.
Speaker 2Right, okay, they're not just fleeing because they're paranoid, like it finally is, the authorities are coming for them.
Speaker 1Mm-hmm. Okay is the authorities are coming for them okay cool detectives reedy and go are the ones that are on the case gotcha, and reedy is currently trying to track down the sextons cool also at the end of part two, lana was starting to open up a bit more. Lana is about I think she's 12 or 13.
Speaker 2At this time, she's the second youngest yeah, she.
Speaker 1I don't know where she falls in line, but I think she's the second youngest daughter.
Speaker 2Okay.
Speaker 1And she's 12 or 13 and she's still with her foster parents. Okay, she's starting to open up more. Remember, she opened the floodgates a little bit when her older brother, charles the one that was in- Indiana he went back to the Sexton family and then Lana said hey, I don't want my little sister, Kim being with him because Charles raped me.
Speaker 2And Kim is the youngest.
Speaker 1The youngest, the baby of the family Okay. And for anyone who is checking out part three and hasn't checked out part one or part two trigger warning yeah, A lot of bad things here and it only gets. It only keeps going. So, all the triggers and that's yes.
Speaker 2Yeah, I don't know why you would listen to part three of anything without parts one and two, but I don't know.
Speaker 1There's someone for everything.
Speaker 2Yeah.
Speaker 1Lana was opening up more talking about Charles. Lana was opening up more talking about Charles and she also, if you remember, was the one that Eddie Lee claimed has the same line on the palm of her hand the lifeline, or whatever. Yes, and she's a future Tron.
Speaker 2Eddie Lee is also a future Tron religious cultish behaviors with like a weird theology.
Speaker 1yes, belief system and super specific supernatural things that he invents. Yeah, more for paranoia stance. There's no real story as to what a future tron is yeah it's more just. They're out to get us, we're powerful. And the satanic panic of it all. Like what does he think? I don't know. The Satanists are after him and Lana. It's just paranoia that he's striking into his family.
Speaker 2And the question is obviously how much does he really believe it, or is he just telling them lies?
Speaker 1Right For part three. We are going to follow a little bit of Lana's thread this time, because now she is opening up more. She's worried about her siblings and all of this is taking a physical toll on her. She, she's having a hard time. I mean, she's in puberty, her hormones are already going wild and she's dealing with this things that most people never have to deal with yeah, thankfully A lot more than you'd think.
Speaker 1Yeah, lana started telling her foster parents more stories. One of them was that Eddie Lee cut Lana's twin away from her at birth and then killed the twin. Lana only knows this because an older sister told her. I don't know if it's true or not, but when telling this story, lana says to her foster parents that could have been me so whether or not the story is real, they're using it yeah to let her know she could die.
Speaker 2I came this close to killing you I just by flip of a coin, I killed your sister instead of you. Yes, probably never was a twin or I don't know, I think she did have a scar on her back oh, like a conjoined twin. Okay, like, cut it off. Okay, yeah, all right, interesting again, not sure.
Speaker 1Yeah, she also said whenever her mom would get pregnant, eddie lee would beat may's stomach and she would bleed, and then she would be told to drink the blood.
Speaker 2Oh, my God.
Speaker 1I think that's true.
Speaker 2That's yeah.
Speaker 1By July of 1993, lana has been interviewed multiple times and each one taking a larger and larger toll on her. Multiple times, and each one taking a larger and larger toll on her, she became bulimic, and she started to talk about suicide. She became more paranoid and withdrawn. Eventually, showing signs of being demonically possessed, she would speak in low, growly voice, saying he wants me. You're not getting her, she's mine.
Speaker 2And she was saying that that was eddie lee okay, so clearly she's snapping yes I mean, obviously she's not really possessed by a demon, um, but she was claiming to hear her dad's voice.
Speaker 1Lana also believed her dad was satan and that she would have to kill her foster parents because they knew too much.
Speaker 2I wonder where she got those ideas from. Yeah, it's almost like she's been indoctrinated.
Speaker 1Yeah, lana's foster parents put her in therapy. They also consulted with their pastor, but they went the medical route. They didn't believe she was possessed by anything. They are people of God and people do seek religion for comfort other than you know demonic reasons. They believe that she was dealing with PTSD or borderline personality disorder.
Speaker 2Okay.
Speaker 1I don't know what she's been diagnosed with. That's not for sure, but that was what they were thinking they were dealing with. Like you said, she's snapping Her brain is breaking.
Speaker 2Yeah, she's snapping. Her brain is breaking. Yeah, she's having a breakdown of some kind.
Speaker 1Which, of course, god. Now we are going to see what the rest of the Sextons are doing, the ones that are on the run.
Speaker 2On their road trip from hell.
Speaker 1Just to recap, it is Eddie Lee.
Speaker 2That's the dad.
Speaker 1May.
Speaker 2Wife.
Speaker 1Charles, that's the dad. May wife charles, son pixie, daughter joel is pixie's husband, okay, and then their three kids don shasta and skipper skipper, then brother willie, brother chris and sister Kim and brother Matt.
Speaker 2Okay.
Speaker 1So total that is 12.
Speaker 212 people in one Winnebago right, there's not like a fleet of them, it's just the one vehicle.
Speaker 1It's not a Winnebago brand but RV camper. Yeah, I think it's like Dodge or whatever.
Speaker 2I don't really know the brand. It's like a name brand, yes, kleenex, kind of thing but I just mean generic RV.
Speaker 1Yes, so the 12 of them were actually staying in a trailer park in Indiana, but they still were staying in one trailer.
Speaker 2Yeah.
Speaker 1They were paying rent for a little bit. They stayed in Indiana for around five months. Okay, they started to feel the squeeze, with more people being added. Like I said in the second part, they started collecting their kids. So slowly they're getting more and more of them over the course of these five months.
Speaker 2Yeah, and other people renting lots next to them are starting to notice.
Speaker 1I mean, the owner of the trailer park was noticing more and more people showing up, and he did tell them you can't do that, you have to move. Yeah, now this is June of 93. Okay, we're going to hop a little, just because that's the nature of this tale. Eddie Lee told his family that they're going to move to Florida. In Florida is Eddie's brother Dave, dave's wife Jean and their family. They have three trailers that they own in Florida.
Speaker 2Okay. Are they on the level or are they weird? They're weird, okay.
Lana's Trauma and Family Background
Speaker 1I mean, they don't really do too much, but they're not great. They're not good, there's a whole side story with Dave and Gene and I don't really want to get into it but they're not good. Okay, dave and his wife Jean live in one trailer. Dave's son and his family live in another trailer. And then Sherry Sexton and her son Chris family live in another trailer. And then Sherry Sexton and her son Chris live in the third, because remember when they were all separated in the very beginning, pixie and Sherry were told by social worker Wayne Welsh they should leave because they have small children.
Speaker 1That's right, and Eddie Lee sent Sherry to Florida to live with Dave.
Speaker 2That's right Okay.
Speaker 1So they're meeting up with Shererry and more family down in florida. They're on their way picking up children in their caravan I want to talk about sherry real quick with what happened with her while she was in florida. When she went to florida, sherry does say that she was raped by her Uncle Dave.
Speaker 2Okay, there it is.
Speaker 1And this isn't even like the side story. He has his own family issues that we're not going to get into.
Speaker 2Okay.
Speaker 1Sherry also said that one week later her cousin raped her Dave's son.
Speaker 2Okay.
Speaker 1After this, sherry took her son and moved into a battered women's shelter. She then moved out of there, lived with a couple and then she moved out of there and moved in with an interracial couple Once this happened.
Speaker 2You say that and I feel like there's a reason you noted that this was the trigger.
Speaker 1Yep.
Speaker 2Okay, unfortunately.
Speaker 1Because they're all racist. Yeah, I don't know if the kids are, but the adults in this are power wielders are dave sexton knew that his brother, eddie lee, would not like that she was living with an interracial couple. The shelter and the other couple were fine but this was the last straw. So dave calls eddie, lee tells on sherry.
Speaker 2Yeah if his brother won't like it, how about you? Just don't tell him? How about that sh?
Speaker 1Sherry's out, you can let her be out. She escaped, let her be. But nope, eddie Lee calls Sherry. I mean, she's brainwashed.
Speaker 2Yeah.
Speaker 1So convinces her to move back in with Dave, and that's her story throughout these past few months.
Speaker 2Alright.
Speaker 1Before Eddie Lee and that crew of Sextons moved from Indiana to Florida, Eddie Lee made a family video.
Speaker 2Oh God.
Speaker 1And he sent the video to President Clinton and Attorney General Janet.
Speaker 2Reno Yep Janet.
Speaker 1Reno, aren't you feeling very 90s right now?
Speaker 2Yeah.
Speaker 1The video was three hours and nine minutes long.
Speaker 2It's not a snuff film, is it?
Speaker 1No, no, no, no, it's like informative.
Speaker 2Him sitting in front demands and talking and speaking his truth. Like a video manifesto, yes, kind of.
Speaker 1Eddie Lee was clean cut and sitting at a table with wood paneling in the back, along with a family portrait. He opens the video with Citizens of the United States. I am coming to you in hopes that in some way, some official of the United States government can step in and find out why a family such as mine has been treated in such a manner. I feel that our constitutional rights have been violated. That's his opener.
Speaker 2He feels his rights are violated. Well, you can't just feel your rights are violated. You've got to say what rights are violated and give examples.
Speaker 1But whatever, His feelings are hurt.
Speaker 2Yeah.
Speaker 1For 15 minutes he blamed his daughter, michelle. Then he moves on to otis and then the stark county dhs, all of them well, right about blaming them.
Speaker 2I guess maybe he blames them all for all of his problems.
Speaker 1The video then cuts to may, sitting at the table next to Eddie Lee, and she talked about a fair number of topics, but while she was speaking she would periodically look up and to the side, as if she was trying to remember something.
Speaker 2Oh, ok, mm. Hmm, coached rehearsed.
Speaker 1It's clearly.
Speaker 2Yeah, under coercion regardless. Yeah regardless.
Speaker 1Yeah, then, one by one, each child took a seat next to eddie lee and they would respond to what he said with only a yes or a nod okay then he interviewed all of the children one at a time, and we don't have to get into what they said, but it was clearly rehearsed I feel like he's making his case yes for the prosecution. They're not good actors.
Speaker 2I'm totally normal. Consult my three-hour manifesto video with my 20 fucking kids. This is normal, we're totally fine, it's normal to send this to the president of the goddamn country.
Speaker 1He ended the video with a plea stating that they were an all-American family and he was a good American. All he wanted was to return to his normal life with his wife and children. You don't have a normal life, man.
Speaker 2Return to you. Never had it.
Speaker 1We're saying what you're doing is wrong.
Speaker 2Yeah.
Speaker 1You can't return to that. No, no, refuse, no. There were three videos sent out in august of 1993. Now it is september of 93 and dhs is finally awarded full custody of the remaining sexton kids good luck finding them right. So, if you remember, in part two they were fighting for custody of the kids that were still minors and on the run with the family. This way they could take legal action and say, hey, we have a missing child.
Speaker 2Yeah, kidnapping charges. They're pulled over anywhere in the country. Boom, they can be arrested.
Speaker 1Yes, yeah, and they immediately file missing persons reports for Kimberly, matt and Chris Cool. Those are the three left that they can save yeah, yeah, yeah. Right by now it's been 18 months since Michelle's initial report. It seems like a long time, but also a lot has happened.
Speaker 2Mm-hmm, the wheels of justice.
Speaker 1Detective Reedy spoke with Uncle Otis and Otis told him that Eddie Lee received social security checks still and they're being sent to their brother Orville.
Speaker 2Orville, you're fucking with me.
Speaker 1No, I'm not. I knew it. I kept that name from you for so long.
Speaker 2Otis and Orville. Yes, how do you expect family to grow up with Otis and Orville? Ugh, those names Sorry, I just those are the two ugliest male names in my. I've always said this, and then bam.
Speaker 1Orville was on your list.
Speaker 2Orville and Otis yeah.
Speaker 1Orville, I don't even think of that as a name.
Speaker 2Most male names that start with an O. I can't stand I'm going to get so much shit for saying this. I don't think I have any male friends with an o sounding name we don't know any orvilles yeah, so I guess we don't care, we don't know, this is sorry, that was rude okay all right, where were we now?
Speaker 1otis told detective reedy that eddie lee was still receiving social security checks and that they were being sent to brother Orville.
Speaker 2Orville yes, oh God.
Speaker 1And Orville is sending them to Eddie Lee, or actually, eddie Lee is coming up to pick them up.
Speaker 2Oh, he's coming to pick them up in person. Yes, all right.
Speaker 1Otis and Detective Reedy don't know this tidbit. They know that Orville is in communication with Eddie Lee.
Speaker 2Orville is getting the checks to him.
Speaker 1Yes.
Speaker 2I don't know the nuts and bolts of it, but he's getting the checks to Eddie.
Speaker 1Lee. So clearly they must be communicating. Reedy follows this paper trail and he does find where the Social Security checks were being cashed. They were being cashed in another city in Ohio, but still in the same county. So, nearby Reedy is noting that he's going to keep an eye on that. Reedy was tracing the movements of the Sexans. He found his way to Indiana. He knew they were there but he couldn't figure out where they went to next.
Speaker 2Okay, dead end.
Speaker 1Mm-hmm. Meanwhile, Eddie Lee is setting up a whole life in Florida. He's living off the grid and every two weeks he takes a 2000 mile round trip drive for his Social Security checks.
Speaker 2Did they discuss why they're not mailing it? Did they just not trust the mail? You could send a mail to a fake name in a PL box box and nothing that I read or saw.
Speaker 1Questions this part. So specifically I can surmise that eddie lee thinks he's smarter than the system and if there's no paper trail to florida then they can't find him yeah, yeah yeah, they're still being sent to someone, though the feds just cut it off, yeah cut off his payment. Exactly you're a wanted criminal.
Speaker 2Exactly you're paying a fugitive. This should be cut off at the top yeah, just cut off. Don't stop sending him payments, stop sending it. You're paying a fugitive to stay on the run.
Speaker 1Mm, hmm, also, during this time, eddie Lee has started to talk about insurance fraud a little bit more, mentioning life insurance policies, and pixie and willie are starting to mention getting rid of joel and how maybe a life insurance policy could help them yeah, and he is only an in-law right, it's something that's only come up a couple times at this point and it's only been mentioned in a joking tone, that's how it always starts.
Speaker 2They just float it as a joke. I was joking.
Speaker 1Mm-hmm Joel was treated horribly yeah of course he was. I mean. Clearly, the jokes about this were just the tip of the iceberg. He was always treated lesser than in the Sexton group. But now You're not a blood boy Right, yeah, now, with tensions being high, it's even worse.
Speaker 2Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1It seems like everyone took their frustrations out on him.
Speaker 2Nerves are getting frayed.
Speaker 1Yeah, he was once forced to eat a live fish. Yeah, just because he was also beaten so badly by the Sexton boys one time that Eddie Lee got mad at his own sons for it.
Speaker 2You whipped him too hard.
Speaker 1Yes, Okay, Another time the Sexton boys poured hot sauce down Joel's rectum. The violence and chaos of the Sexton family was becoming too much for Dave and Gene Sexton. Eddie Lee was gone every two weeks to get those checks, and so the kids would have parties and get mischievous while he was gone. This is when they did most of the mean and hellacious stuff to Joel. Because of this, Dave and Jean said you're done, you have to go somewhere else with this Be gone with you.
Speaker 1They left. The Florida Sexton compound is what I started calling it in my head in september and they all loaded up in their camper, including sherry and her son chris, so they've added more to their rv to the troop.
Speaker 1Now they have 14 people in this camper and by early october the sextons were parked at a state park in florida they stay in florida now and they just hop to different state parks that's so swampy, this is so fitting they were all squeezed into the rv, which was only a 24 foot rv and it was only meant to sleep eight people there's only one toilet in there they were also only allowed to be eight people per site and they only have one site oh, you mean like the lot they rent at the okay yeah I was thinking that too, like I know they might charge for a vehicle, but they also have a personnel capacity so this meant that not everyone could be outside all at once.
Speaker 2Not everyone could be outside during the day you you gotta hide and go in shifts.
Speaker 1Yep, you have to be quiet and you have little kids. Chris Dawn Shasta Skipper.
Speaker 2Stuffed in an oversized closet.
Speaker 1Only nine or eight at this point. I mean, even there's young kids there.
Speaker 2In a sweltering, hot, swampland RV.
Speaker 1It was also really rainy that October.
Speaker 2Oh God.
Speaker 1So everyone was just crammed into that little camper Community, mosquitoes. Little Skipper Lee wouldn't rest. He got really fussy and wouldn't stop crying.
Speaker 2He's still a baby at this point, right? He's a baby, okay.
Speaker 1Pixie gave Skipper some baby Tylenol, and she crushed some aspirin and rubbed it on his gums. She also gave him some adult strength NyQuil.
Speaker 2Oh, he's going to die, isn't he?
Speaker 1She gave it to him every day.
Speaker 2Oh.
Speaker 1He was teething he was teething. Yeah, yeah, Is what's happening here.
Speaker 2She's not a first time, mom.
Speaker 1Right.
Speaker 2Why does she not know the basic? I've never been a father and I know what teething is.
Speaker 1There are 14 people in this camper and they've been on the run. I can't imagine where your mind is. I'm not giving her any excuses here, but she's not thinking, she's not One night in October.
Speaker 2Three.
Speaker 1Yeah, a rainy night, pixie was getting Skipper Lee ready for bed. She gave him the standard half a cap of NyQuil before bed, which became regular for him. Then she curled up next to Skipper Lee to go to sleep and the baby woke up around 3 am, 4 am and wouldn't stop crying. Pixie gave him more NyQuil. It didn't work. After 30 minutes or so Eddie Lee yells Get that baby quiet or I will. Pixie then slaps Skipper back and forth in the face about 10 times.
Speaker 2That'll work.
Speaker 1It's a technique that she's used with her older kids to shock them out of their fits.
Speaker 2She remembers that, but not that teething as a concept yeah.
Speaker 1When this didn't help Skipper Lee, he continued to cry. Now he's screaming.
Speaker 2Yeah.
Speaker 1So Pixie places her hand over Skipper Lee's mouth to quiet him. She held her hand there until he fell silent. Once Skipperly was quiet, pixie fell asleep. When Pixie woke up she screamed for her dad. Skipperly was gray, with his eyes wide open. Charles asked Pixie what happened and she replied it just died.
Speaker 2No, she killed him.
Speaker 1Yeah. Yeah, yeah and he's not an it yeah that's her quote that's always telling, yeah and she refers to skipper a few times, as it not even post death, but like as he's alive too, she never really fully connected with him. I don't think okay charles tried performing cpr and mouth to mouth. Um, it wasn't working. Charles said that he recalls his dad was quote calm as all fuck that tracks yeah on brand, as they say charles skipper lee died on october 19th 1993, murdered by his mother, pixie on that sobering note eddie lee told the family that skipper lee died of crib death, which is another term for sudden infant death syndrome or sids yeah eddie lee tells the family this and everyone believes it.
Speaker 1Pixie, I think, believes it.
Speaker 2Makes herself believe yes.
Speaker 1Pixie and Eddie Lee decide to bury Skipper in the park in that state park.
Speaker 2Okay.
Speaker 1Pixie dresses the baby in burial clothes. His rigor mortis was already setting in. Skipper Lee wore a white shirt with blue overalls. Pixie placed a pacifier in his mouth and a rattle in his hand. They then placed skipper in a white blanket and put him in a duffel bag. And then they put the duffel bag inside two trash bags. Joel carried the bag and dug the hole for his son while crying and saying why me, why did this have to happen to my son? Poor Joel.
Speaker 1I feel so bad for him and he, at this point, he does believe that it was an accident that the baby died of SIDS.
Speaker 2He just died. Yeah, inside of Sid's, he just died.
Speaker 1Yeah yeah. After Skipper Lee was buried, pixie placed a dollar store silk rose that was inside of, like those clear glass tubes that you get from the dollar store.
Speaker 2Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1She put that on his grave or on his burial site.
Speaker 2Yeah, I know Joel had. He had some issues himself Like no one was like we can't bury a human on State Park.
Speaker 1To your point, Joel was upset that they weren't giving Skipper Lee a proper burial. This upset him. He was saying he wanted to contact the authorities.
Speaker 2Yeah, like he'd just bury a baby in the woods.
Speaker 1Yeah, he wanted to do it properly. He if nothing was wrong with him?
Speaker 2What are we hiding and?
Speaker 1that's how he was. What's going on here? Because of this? Eddie Lee tells Pixie, if this keeps, up.
Speaker 2we're going to have to take him out.
Speaker 1Yes, we have to oldie-aller him While this is going on at the state park in Florida. Detective Reedy is still working it. He is trying to track down the Sextons. He was interviewing Michelle, lana and James just again circling back.
Speaker 2He heard from them that kind of thing.
Speaker 1Yes, he reached out yeah. He was trying to get some type of a case built against Eddie Lee to take to the grand jury.
Speaker 2Grand jury yes.
Speaker 1Yeah, october 18th, the day before Skipper Lee is murdered, lana was taken to the psychiatric ward at Akron Children's Hospital. She was having her fits again, speaking demonically. She said she had a dream about her dad, that he was telling her to kill herself and her foster parents her foster parents. The next day, october 19th, brother James was also admitted into the psych ward at Akron Children's Hospital. He was having psychotic episodes and he mentioned a dream he had of his dad telling him to kill himself. Then, a few days later, michelle reported to DHS that she had a dream, the same night.
Speaker 1She mentioned the same date and she said she heard her dad and other voices telling her to kill herself and her new husband. Nothing comes of this.
Speaker 2Oh, this is just an interesting story. Oh, I thought there was going to be like there was wonky talkies in their houses. Nope, he was.
Speaker 1Nope, nope. These are true dreams, a true story.
Speaker 2Oh, he must have been sending them messages on the astral plane listen, man, I don't know how to explain that one.
Speaker 1I didn't dive deep into it, but they all had a dream and, granted, they're heightened in general at this point, but they all had it at the same night or around the same night I wonder if it was a recurring dream for them all originally, if yeah their dad had like indoctrinated them with the concept of if things get dour for the family, take yourself out.
Speaker 1Oh yeah, yeah. I'm sure there's all of that working in their minds. Because of all of this, detective Reedy was worried that Lana and James wouldn't be well enough to testify to the grand jury later that week.
Speaker 2That's a fair concern.
Speaker 1Reedy was also still waiting by the mailboxes where those checks were coming in. Reedy also took another statement from Michelle, who her last name is now Croto. I don't know if she still is today.
Speaker 2Yeah, but at this point in the narrative.
Speaker 1She retells the story of her father raping her in the parking lot to Reedy, but she added that he did attempt to penetrate her when she was 15, but she was too small at the time.
Speaker 2Okay.
Speaker 1So he tried then forcing her to give him oral and when she refused he smashed her head into the coffee table. From that story alone, detective Reedy counted multiple felonies. So Detective Reedy's already like who? Like? Yes, already here we have something. Yeah. She also told Reedy of the ritual things that they would do at the sexton house and how one time they all wore black and held hands in a circle around a dead cat. But they don't really know why they're doing this stuff they're just doing it yeah, so it's cult, like there's no strong belief system.
Speaker 2It's an approximation of it it's like he got like a reader's digest version of yeah, colts and I can make my own, but he's half. He's going through the motions that he's seen.
Speaker 1It's like half-assing his own cult.
Speaker 2He's pretending this is how they do, it right.
Speaker 1There was another time when they were all hunting, Michelle says, and Eddie Lee made them drink deer blood. Eddie Lee would also marry his own daughters.
Speaker 2All right, they weren't legally married. No, no, in their living room, okay, okay. Okay, there's photos. Yeah, yeah, I'm not posting those photos, but I saw them.
Speaker 1I saw more than I wanted to see. With this, oh yeah, okay. With this, oh yeah, okay. After they would get married in their living room.
Speaker 2He would then take them on a honeymoon in the master bedroom, a honeymoon to a different part of the house?
Speaker 1yeah, may, would also go into the bedroom with them oh yeah my stomach just rolled over a bit. That just made it worse okay, october 21st was when michelle and detective reedy were having this conversation. He then asked michelle, will you testify this afternoon?
Speaker 1and she agreed okay, testify to the grand jury, get it going detective reedy then spoke with uncle otis and otis tells him of abuse that he's been suspecting over the years, like we mentioned in part two, and also the Future Trons and the deals with Burger King and Wendy's. He's just saying yeah, let's, I'll tell you everything. Otis told Reedy of the mock up art that Michelle made at Eddie Lee's request that I posted from part two already. So if you do want to see the FutureTron drawing that Michelle did because Eddie Lee told her to, I do have it on our Instagram account. Yes, the day after Michelle testified to the grand jury, detective Reedy receives a call from Otis saying that Eddie Jr wants to talk.
Speaker 2Okay.
Death of Skipper Lee
Speaker 1Reedy heads over there and Eddie Jr wants to talk. Okay, reedy heads over there and Eddie Jr tells Reedy that his dad sexually abused him while he was growing up, raped him at the age of 13 or 14.
Speaker 2Hmm, okay.
Speaker 1He told Reedy that his dad has done this to his other brothers as well and that Eddie Jr also saw Pixie and Eddie Lee having sex.
Speaker 2So he's just raping everyone in his family, oh yeah. Like there's no, he doesn't discriminate on their sexes or anything, he's just oh, yeah, okay.
Speaker 1There's more as well. The siblings are doing things to each other as well. I didn't want to tell too many of those because I think that they're in a spot, in a situation in their life that they didn't have control over yeah, they've been shaped.
Speaker 2Yeah, they've been habituated to it.
Speaker 1I said, enough for everyone to understand how they grew up, but it's a tough one to navigate. After only talking to a few of the Sextons, Detective Reedy had half a dozen potential crimes already. Eddie Jr also agreed to testify to the grand jury and he testified on October 21st.
Speaker 2Okay.
Speaker 1Lana and James were also able to pull through. They got better and they were able to testify as well.
Speaker 2All right, so they're building a strong case then.
Speaker 1Mm-hmm. October 25th, the grand jury handed down their indictments. October 25th, the grand jury handed down their indictments Eddie Lee.
Speaker 2Sexton was facing four counts of rape and four counts of sexual imposition and child endangering.
Speaker 1All right, yes, so finally they're going for it so eight felonies total. Good.
Speaker 2All righty Yep. So cut off his social security check.
Speaker 1Yeah, well, I think now they don't want to because they have a thread.
Speaker 2Yeah.
Speaker 1Right, so nothing comes of that. They're still sending them, I think, because Detective Reedy probably wants them to now.
Speaker 2Yeah.
Speaker 1Detective Reedy phones the FBI on November 5th and they already knew of the Sextons because they received a video from them. Oh yeah, and they? Already knew of the sections because they received a video from them. Oh yeah, they're like. Hey, actually we know those guys.
Speaker 2He actually contacted our boss, like our boss's boss, you know the president.
Speaker 1Yep. So then, three days later, november 8th, the FBI is connected now with an FBI satellite person or correspondent in Ohio.
Speaker 2Oh yeah, so they have like a they're ping-ponging from the fbi headquarters to the branch office in ohio.
Speaker 1As this is going on, may sexton calls the office and she's been calling a few times now trying to set up a meeting with the officials, but she was still insisting that they were doing nothing wrong. When may May called, agent Howell answers and he speaks to her and tells her of the warrants for her arrest.
Speaker 2For the kids that she has that are now in DHS custody. Yeah, so she's wanted to. She needs to hand the kids over and she won't. Yeah.
Speaker 1She denies everything, everything with Eddie Lee, everything with herself, all of it.
Speaker 2She's also now aiding and abetting a fugitive and knowing where her want husband is and not facilitating his surrender? Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1Howell tries to convince her to turn themselves in and she says that she would need to talk to Eddie Lee and that she'll call back the next day. She never calls back.
Speaker 2Of course not.
Speaker 1Back at the state park in Florida, eddie Lee was never going to turn himself in. We know this. He was actually drugging May through her food, just kind of knocking her out. You know, not killing, not trying to kill her.
Speaker 2Get her drowsy. Get her drowsy, he would always fix her dinner plate, which was unusual it doesn't seem like a guy that would just prepare food for his woman right and she noticed that she would fall asleep soon after dinner and she would sleep well into the next morning.
Speaker 1This is why I think may started calling the officials, because I think she realized like oh shit, what's he gonna do with me?
Speaker 2I'm on the chopping block.
Speaker 1Right. Eddie Lee has now moved his family to a different state park. Now it's November in Florida. November 30th 1993, a librarian at the University of South Florida in Sarasota saw Joel Pixie, willie and Eddie Lee.
Speaker 2I wouldn't have thought they'd be spotted in a library, of all places. That's like finding an Amish person at the mechanics, isn't it? Yeah?
Speaker 1This is a very bizarre interaction. Pixie and Joel come in first and they ask the librarian about SIDS. Oh librarian about sid's. Oh, pixie asks the librarian.
Speaker 2How does a baby's head and arms look when a baby dies of crypt death? Because the librarian is?
Speaker 1going to know that right. So the librarian not too good probably yeah, she's trying to help, but she's also like this is weird. Then willie enters the library okay, and they mentioned to the librarian that they're staying at a state park off of the highway. But Pixie was very unfocused and the librarian said it sounded like she was repeating a story to herself. Ah Saying we were camping, I had a baby. Now it's dead. The old man is the father.
Speaker 2What the fuck Okay.
Speaker 1Like, yeah, this weird mantra, yeah, she's just Like repeating the father. What the fuck? Okay, like, yeah, this weird mantra, yeah, like repeating, yeah. Pixie then said she lost the second baby this fall and didn't have time to name it all right she also said they were driving looking for a clinic and got lost and that's why they ended up at the library.
Speaker 2Okay, Likely story Pixie yeah.
Speaker 1They told the librarian the baby was in the car and offered for her to go and see it.
Speaker 2I don't know. Thanks, I'm good.
Speaker 1She refused Yep.
Speaker 2Y'all see our dead baby in the car.
Speaker 1Yeah, the librarian calls the campus emergency line.
Speaker 2Yeah.
Speaker 1And it is just students that answer those calls and they thought the librarian was making it up and they hung up on her.
Speaker 2You know those Mary Pranksters librarians, always calling the local kids to say they found a dead baby. What, yeah, what plucky pranksters those librarians are, yeah.
Speaker 1Why wouldn't you at least go are? Yeah, why wouldn't you at least go see?
Speaker 2Yeah.
Speaker 1Let me just go take a look. There's no way it's a dead baby. It's probably a dead possum or something.
Speaker 2Maybe they thought it was another college student calling, pretending to be the librarian.
Speaker 1That's a really deep lie though.
Speaker 2Yeah, anyway, apparently dead babies. Just don't get people out of bed like they used to. Guess what. Eddie Lee then arrives 30, anyway, apparently dead babies.
Speaker 1Just don't get people out of bed like they used to, guess not. Eddie Lee then arrives 30 minutes later, so they all come in kind of on their own time. So this librarian is like what the hell? Shh, shh, yeah, keep your voices down. They spent three hours in this library.
Speaker 2What.
Speaker 1Yeah, Eddie Lee's just being really weird. He's asking for information about Native Americans he's still on that thread. But he's also being weird with the kids. The librarian notices she sees that Eddie Lee was angry with Willie for getting lost and she saw Eddie Lee dig his nails into Willie's collarbone. You know how, like when someone's trying to be quiet but hurt her. You grit their teeth and grip into you. He also did like a quiet slam into the bookshelf, like this is all happening, but it's like a quiet struggle.
Speaker 2Yeah.
Speaker 1Yeah, and then Eddie pulls Willie into the men's bathroom and then Eddie Lee exits the bathroom alone. Eventually, willie does come out. He's not dead.
Speaker 2Okay.
Speaker 1But it's a few minutes of a gap there and you can only assume what happened inside was a bit of a beating. The librarian then overhears Joel say that he wants to go to the airport. He wants to fly back to Ohio. He's clearly upset about something. She also eddie lee be rough with pixie and how he was upset with pixie for talking to the librarian, so she said too much.
Speaker 2Then the librarian left for her lunch break can you guys wrap it up because, uh, I clocked out they're still there.
Speaker 1So she went and sat in her car.
Speaker 2This is like a waitress is like hey, my shift's uh coming up. Uh, yeah, I'm gonna pass you over to so-and-so now can you mind cashing out with me?
Speaker 1yeah she was sitting in her car eating her lunch when she saw eddie lee in a nearby field with a shovel digging.
Speaker 2Oh, so he leaves the library also.
Speaker 1Yes, he's digging in the field. Yes, Normal. She doesn't know what he's burying. She doesn't see it can't be good. He's burying something.
Speaker 2They were talking about dead babies, right.
Speaker 1Now, I didn't know how to fit this into the storyline because this is a whole side thing, but Skipper Lee has been dead for six weeks. At this point he's already buried.
Speaker 2It's not him.
Speaker 1Eddie Lee, though, is burying someone. It turns out that Sherry did miscarry.
Speaker 2Okay, that was her reference to the second one just died.
Speaker 1Yes, a little bit ago. Yeah, I don't know why Pixie was saying that over and over again. I don't know why pixie was saying that over and over again. I don't know. But sherry miscarried, do I? Did she naturally miss? Yeah, that rhymed, I know yeah did she naturally miscarry or did it get punched out of her? I don't know. I'm assuming something traumatic, the way that pixie was describing it.
Speaker 2She said the old man was the father.
Speaker 1So yeah, yeah, pixie's world is kind of crashing.
Speaker 2I think she would have been giving birth to her own sister or brother.
Speaker 1Yeah, yeah when the librarian came back from lunch, they were all still there where'd you go? Yeah, I know we were having a thing here your helper didn't help us thought you're in the bathroom this whole time you okay eddie lee comes back inside and the librarian overhears pixie say something about putting a cross on the baby's grave. And then she heard eddie lee say the only way joel is going back to ohio is in a body locker weird way to phrase that.
Speaker 2Yeah.
Speaker 1Yeah, I read that. That was a way that you would say it like Vietnam days.
Speaker 2Oh okay, before body bag they'd say body locker.
Speaker 1I think that's how they shipped them was through body lockers. They did have body bags, but I think that's more of a military term.
Speaker 2Ah, okay.
Speaker 1Joel became more upset. He was wanting to go to the airport and at this point Eddie Lee chokes Joel and they all leave. He just rushes them all out.
Speaker 2Okay, Well, after three hours he rushes them out.
Speaker 1Yeah, finally, yeah.
Speaker 2You don't have this book after all, do you?
Speaker 1They all went back to the state park and they've been at this state park for about two months now. It is now January of 1994. Eddie Lee was like hey, we're staying here a little too long, you know, we should probably move.
Speaker 2Yeah.
Speaker 1But man, there's this real nice RV that just pulled up, it's bigger, it's newer.
Speaker 2It's the deluxe line.
Speaker 1Yeah, and the owner was by himself and he had a physical disability. He could use some help, don't you think? Yeah, this gentleman had a physical disability. He could use some help, don't you think? Yeah, this gentleman had a physical disability. He was able to do everything himself if he needed to, but it would take longer and he was fine with that. Hence traveling alone. Yeah, but he was always appreciative of help from others. It helps his day right, he gets things done faster. Naturally, Eddie Lee is intrigued.
Speaker 1He says, hey, I'll be your friend. He befriends him pretty quickly and soon he sends Pixie over in an attempt to seduce him. Now the neighbor is accepting of the help, but he's also noticing how interested they are in him so he keeps them at arm's length but also is like, no, they're helping me.
Speaker 2Yeah.
Speaker 1Yeah, why not Sure?
Speaker 2Never befriend someone who's got kids in the double digits. Just never. Rule of thumb Just stay away.
Speaker 1Right, and now the Sextons were no longer going by the Sextons. Their last name now is Wise, so Eddie Lee, wise. Same now is wise. So eddie lee wise. Pixie wise, willie wise, wise. Yeah, no wise. Yeah, the neighbor again keeping everyone at a distance. He didn't know what was going on, but what was really happening behind the scenes was they were planning to kidnap, kill, take over his identity and take his stuff.
Speaker 2Classic.
Speaker 1Now back to Detective Reedy. He spoke with Orville Sexton.
Speaker 2Good old Orville.
Speaker 1And Orville admitted that Eddie Lee did call him. So Detective Reedy looks up the phone bill and he sees Dave Sexton's phone number.
Speaker 2From Florida.
Speaker 1From Florida, but also a number that he didn't know and he was like ah, let's look into this number. Yeah, and it's the number of the state park that the Sextons were currently at.
Speaker 2In Florida still.
Speaker 1In Florida. Yes, and the FBI confirmed they were still there. Yeah, they begin prepping. They have some undercover campers go down there to get in there. Yep, they start talking to the campground owner and the campground owner is no longer allowing anyone to renew their site rentals. Okay, except for the Sexton's Gotcha. So they're slowly clearing it out. And they're letting undercover campers come in, so there's no like weirdness to the Sexton's Right. So they're working.
Speaker 2they're working knowing this is the fbi. This seems like it's gonna go. I mean, this seems, but they, they have all the chips in place yes but somehow he's gonna get away it is now mid -january of 1994.
Speaker 1Okay, the fbi were closing in. However, the Sextons were armed to the brim. They never stopped being ready.
Speaker 2Yeah, armed to the teeth, because it's America.
Speaker 1Right. The FBI didn't really know what they were going to get themselves into. They were there and ready, but they were cautious. In the end there was no big bang at all.
Speaker 2Oh.
Speaker 1The FBI followed Eddie Lee May, chris Kimberly and Pixie to the local Winn-Dixie.
Speaker 2I was going to say just wait for them to leave the campground.
Speaker 1Once they parked their car and opened their doors, the FBI swooped in and grabbed them. Yeah, that's it. Eddie Lee and May Sexton were held in the Hillsborough County Jail on fugitive warrants. Chris, matt and Kimberly were flown to Ohio and into the custody of DHS. Later that week Eddie Jr drove to pick up Sherry and her son Willie. Pixie and Pixie's two kids decided to stay in Florida with their uncle, dave.
Speaker 2Okay.
Speaker 1They were still trying to work that neighbor, nothing comes of it. They were still trying to work that neighbor, nothing comes of it, but they were still trying to work that campground neighbor.
Speaker 2Yeah, the old man with the fancy, yeah they're still holding out hope for that.
Speaker 1Sherry would agree to DNA testing of her son one week after they were found. She's like yep, test him up.
Speaker 2We know who's the dad. It's also needed for trial to be like the DNA test show. Yes, so she agrees, detective Reedy interviews Charles and asks him where is Joel and Skipper Lee? So Joel's not accounted for when they sweep him up Correct.
Speaker 1Charles said that Joel was picked up in a gray Buick a few weeks before Christmas and went to Ohio.
Speaker 2That's it. That's all he knows. Yeah, some guy picked him up and took him to Ohio.
Speaker 1When Reedy spoke with Uncle Otis, otis said that he heard that Joel was picked up by a woman in a red Nissan. So what's going on here? Yeah, with Eddie Lee arrested and behind bars, charles was now willing to talk. Charles tells Detective Reedy that Pixie killed Skipper Lee. Charles really wasn't sure at first because he believed the crib death story, but Pixie accidentally admitted it to Charles that she suffocated.
Speaker 2Oh, so she did know, mm-hmm, or she at some point accepted it yeah.
Speaker 1Okay, I don't know if she meant to kill him in that moment. Yeah, I can see that like not murder in the sense of trying to cover your mouth to shut you up and, oh shit, you're dead. Yes, I didn't know my own strength. She knows she's to blame.
Speaker 2Yeah.
Speaker 1Right, she's to blame yeah.
Speaker 2Right, yeah, mm-hmm. Charles also told Reedy that Joel was dead and that he was killed one month earlier at another campground.
Speaker 1Did he say who? Not. Yet when Detective Reedy interviewed Sherry, she gave a little more detail to the story. She said that Willie, joel and Pixie went for a walk in the woods and then, 15 minutes later, she heard joel yell eddie, and then, when sherry started to walk over there, willie shouted at her if you go into the woods, I'll fucking kill you yeah so she didn't check it out, yeah this was enough for reedy to connect with a homicide detective he was like we got to bring someone else in here.
Speaker 1All right, there's something else happening.
Speaker 2They've gone, they've stepped up their game.
The Librarian's Encounter
Speaker 1Yes, they arrive at the first campsite where Skipper Lee was buried yeah. They have a lot of police and a canine unit and after 20 minutes the dogs catch a scent. And then soon the police were picking up a silk rose and they found skipper lee. Okay, then the police went to willie and pixie in florida because they hadn't been arrested because they didn't know that joel. Anything was wrong, so they go get them in florida. And willie, if we remember his IQ, is very low. He quickly admits to strangling Joel.
Speaker 1Oh, okay, and he says he did this at the behest of Pixie and Eddie Lee. Oh, they told him to do it. Yeah, willie showed the police where he buried Joel, and Joel was only 23 when he was murdered.
Speaker 2So he was strangled.
Speaker 1Mm-hmm. He was murdered one month after his son.
Speaker 2Wow.
Speaker 1According to Willie, Willie told Joel to come into the woods with him to take care of some stolen goods they had. They would periodically steal things.
Speaker 2Yeah, scavenging kind of family.
Speaker 1Willie said that there was a struggle and willie landed on top of joel and that he strangled him for about one minute, willie said he immediately regretted it and tried to quote blow my breath back into his mouth didn't work though yeah, when eddie lee was interviewed he said skipper lee died of sids and Willie Pixie and Joel buried the baby. Eddie Lee said he learned of Joel's death only after he returned from a family picnic. He said he found Willie over Joel's body. So Eddie Lee blames Joel's death entirely on Willie.
Speaker 2On his son.
Speaker 1Yeah.
Speaker 2Yeah, entirely on, willie On his son.
Speaker 1Yeah yeah. Detective Reedy then interviews May, and she was saying that she was a victim as well. None of her children told her of any of this and she had no idea. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
Speaker 2Throw the book at her.
Speaker 1Yeah, may was sent to Ohio to face her grand jury charges. Okay, eddie Lee had to stay in Florida because he had a first-degree murder charge on him for Joel.
Speaker 2For Joel. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1Pixie was also facing murder charges for Joel and Skipper Lee. Willie was facing two charges, one for Joel and one for being an accessory in Skipper Lee's death.
Speaker 2Okay, Ooh, charged with murder in Florida, that's not good for him.
Speaker 1Dawn and Shasta, Pixie's daughters, were taken by DHS and examined for sexual assault. Their DNA was also tested.
Speaker 2See their paternity.
Speaker 1They never tested. Skipper Lee Joel's family did not want that.
Speaker 2Yeah, that makes sense. Yeah, that makes sense.
Speaker 1The Sexton children, the ones that are still speaking about things today. They do believe Skipper Lee is their dad's. I think that too, having read it, but I think that Joel wants a son.
Speaker 2Yeah.
Speaker 1Why take that from him? Yeah, joel and Skipper Lee had a double funeral and they were buried together in the same casket. Skipper Lee was cradled in Joel's arms, and they were buried in the same plot as his parents.
Speaker 2Okay, back in Ohio.
Speaker 1Yeah, he finally got his proper burial. That's nice. Yeah, willie and Eddie Lee were co-defendants in Joel's murder case, as well as Pixie. They were all being charged for murder with.
Speaker 1Joel. And this wasn't going to work because Willie was very scared of his dad and he would also be incriminating himself if he testified against Eddie Lee. So in order to kind of split everything up, they looked at Pixie. They said all right, pixie, we'll make a deal. We need you to confess to manslaughter for your son, skipper Lee, and then just throw yourself at the mercy of the court. Yeah, I don't know why that would be helpful, but Because she's charged with murder. She's charged with murder for Joel and Skipper Lee.
Speaker 2Yeah, so I'm assuming they'll dismiss the murder of joel charge if she pleads guilty to the manslaughter, which is a much lesser yes, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah okay and then. So I mean it is a good deal for her because I don't know what the state laws are in ohio or what they were in the 90s, but, like in michigan, manslaughter is a 15 this would be in florida.
Speaker 1Oh, florida, oh, because they did the murders in florida.
Speaker 2Okay so murder first degree in florida is a death penalty. Yeah, so manslaughter is a term of years I don't know if it's 10, 15 years. That varies on state. So it's a good deal for her to plead guilty to a 15 or 10 year felony and get first murder.
Speaker 1The death penalty just taken off the table okay, yeah, well, she takes that deal yeah so it must have been explained to her well and it sucks for willie yes, but now because of that, I guess willie and eddie lee can testify separately yeah, because they, because she'll presumably be giving evidence against both of them yes, okay, so they're separating everything. Yeah, okay, she was the one that split the thread that cut it all. Yeah, two separate trials against both of them. Yes, okay, so they're separating everything. Yeah, okay, she was the one that split the thread that cut it all. Yeah.
Speaker 2Two separate trials. They will.
Speaker 1Yes, pixie. After she did her plea deal in the trial, pixie said she heard her dad, willie, and Charles talking about killing Joel and said she saw Willie strangle Joel. Pixie said when Eddie Lee came home he went over and kicked Joel's body, then looked at Willie and said finish him off.
Speaker 2Oh, so he wasn't dead.
Speaker 1I don't know. This is Pixie's story, neither confirm nor deny I don't know Pixie also admitted that Shasta and Don were Eddie Lee's kids. Yeah, everything's coming out evidence from the camper that they were staying in. The kids were also talking more. Otis and his daughters and other nephews, other nieces, like other family members, just from everywhere, are finally saying, oh, I saw this back in this time and kind of like how Otis was like oh yeah, since 1979, they've been weird.
Speaker 2Well, now other family members are saying stuff I didn't do anything about it. I saw it, but I didn't do anything about it.
Speaker 1How heroic of you to come forward now that all the kids have been through hell, now that it's done.
Speaker 1Yeah, while they were looking through evidence in the camper, they found a silk robe and a nightgown with a silk blue bra. This was for Kimberly to wear, the youngest she's nine at this time. There were also two photos of Eddie Lee with Kimberly found and one photo of Eddie Lee and Lana. Lana and Kimberly were wearing wedding veils and sheer lace skirts. They were photos from when they got married to their dad. They wore like sheer lace things Right as evidence is piling up the evaluations that Don and Shasta went through.
Speaker 1Those are now back.
Speaker 2The testing, oh the dna analysis okay and the evaluations they had for sexual assault okay, it is discovered that don and shasta have both been penetrated anally.
Speaker 1Don was showing evidence of also being penetrated vaginally. Neither one of them could control their bowels. They're like toddler age-ish.
Speaker 2Oh, my God.
Speaker 1And even if you're still in a diaper, not controlling your bowels like you know what I mean, like you can tell yeah. You know this is a big sign for abuse and also having been sodomized, which did occur in this family. When asked, don said that it was Willie Charles and Grandpa Eddie. So Detective Reedy's head is spinning at this point. There's a ton of sexual assault and just nastiness everywhere.
Speaker 2Yeah, how do you charge? Everyone's a perpetrator. Yeah.
Speaker 1And this is. I've read this in the book and I'm sure other people don't care about this, but I do because it's my name. When Reedy was talking to a DHS employee about the case the employee she noted the irony of the name. And when you separate it, sex ton of sex, and she also noted the meaning of sexton as maintaining a church graveyard. Um, I hate that. Now this is in my head.
Speaker 1Now it's ruined your name for you because I've had those jokes like growing up in middle school oh sex, a ton, ton of sex, sexy town, like all of that. But I've always loved the fact that there's a creepiness to my name, though I remember being like 11 oh, you think my name's about sex. You think that our ancestors did sex stuff. That's how you get your name, isn't it? Your job? Well, mine took care of the dead. Now I don't know what to do with it. Anyway.
Speaker 2Yeah, it was just a curse.
Speaker 1So after all of this the kids were struggling to cope. It's all done now, right, they still have the trial to work for, but their home life is totally different. Sherry was hospitalized in a psych ward. She was dealing with depression and PTSD. Eventually, down the line, Sherry did give her son up to DHS. She could only see her dad when she looked at him and just she couldn't do it.
Speaker 2Yeah.
Speaker 1Which I understand. Question mark Like I've never been in that position, but I can see it.
Speaker 2Yeah.
Speaker 1Lana was still going through demonic episodes. Pixie had a complete mental breakdown at the Hillsborough County Jail. She was put on antidepressants and anxiety meds. In April of 1994, pixie was on an IV. Because she stopped eating and drinking she had a suicide attempt. One month later Pixie tried self-harming and was put into restraints. She was having auditory hallucinations of Eddie Lee. When she slept she would have nightmares and then she did have another suicide attempt. May 12th 1994, mae Sexton was on trial. Yeah, get trial. Yeah, get her. Yep. James Sexton testified in this trial, as well as Lana's foster mom and some other kids. The foster mom spoke about Lana's episodes and James told of how one time Eddie Lee had a dead baby baby sitting on the table, cut up and cooked oh, whoa right I didn't see cannibalism coming into this come on, we have everything you never really see cannibalism coming until, bam, it's just on a plate in front of you where?
Speaker 1do you get?
Speaker 2the baby isn't one of his families yes okay, they just have a family off the books somewhere I honestly, I do think that they've eaten baby.
Speaker 1I do, I don't know when, I don't know how often I am not gonna make a chili's joke yeah, don't? He said that eddie lee got the baby from his mom and that babies disappeared all the time. So I don't have it in front of me, the order of the kids and how many gaps there are in their ages.
Speaker 2But for a while she's having them once a year, once a year, once a year, and then there's like a three-year gap and then there's a two-year gap and you kind of go wait a minute. What was she doing? What's happening here? What's going on?
Speaker 1All she was apparently good for was being a broodmare. So so I do think there is some credibility to this. Yeah, I do. Yeah. Then it was time for Lana to take the stand. Lana spoke about one time when she was eight years old. She was taking a shower and the bathroom was near the master bedroom.
Speaker 2Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1When Lana was drying off, she heard her mom call for her and then, when lana entered, she told lana to sit on the bed and lana said that her mom would feel me in the wrong parts. When asked to be more specific, she said my front, private parts. She was asked to be more specific and said her bottom front, I mean. I hate that they kept asking her over and over again, but we know where she's going.
Speaker 2We all know what you're talking about.
Speaker 1Yeah. Lana then said it lasted a few minutes and then she went to bed crying that night. May had no witnesses to call to the stand for herself. The panel came back with a guilty verdict within two hours. May was sentenced to two years in prison, and I think this was the max for what she was charged for yeah. Now we're in preparation for Eddie Lee's case.
Speaker 2His murder trial.
Speaker 1Murder, and another one there's a couple things yeah, and another one. There's a couple things yeah. When Michelle was interviewed yet again, she mentioned that one of her mom's fetuses was as big as a notebook and her mom boiled it and served it to the family, right.
Speaker 2Multiple kids talk about babies. Multiple kinds are talking about eating babies?
Speaker 1Yes, when James Saxton was interviewed, he gave a bit more information about their day-to-day life. He said they weren't allowed to wear deodorant, they could only bathe once every two weeks and their dad would put satanic spells on them.
Speaker 2Be careful of prayers. They could be spells.
Speaker 1Well, Eddie Lee's covered, because he also had an occult library, a crystal ball, Ouija board and a romance shelf with hardcore porn that he would show the kids Romance shelf.
Murder of Joel and FBI Capture
Speaker 1Yeah and he would show the kids his hardcore porn. James also mentioned eating again May's miscarried babies. He then was asked what the baby tasted like, and he replied that it tasted like chicken, and that's why he still couldn't eat chicken. Ew, like. I think that the interviewers think they're lying, so they're pressing these, these baby questions. Well, what did it taste like? Well, how'd you get it? Where'd the baby come? Come from? What's this, what's that? And they have answers.
Speaker 2Yeah.
Speaker 1They have fucking answers, man, mmm, it's terrifying. James also said that Eddie Lee forced him to perform oral on him when he was six. Eddie Lee also made Charles and Matt perform oral on each other. James said he was sodomized by his brother, charles, multiple times and that Eddie Lee would give them each a dollar to suck on May's breasts.
Speaker 2The scores of depravity in this family.
Speaker 1When James was asked what his best day was at home, he said any day we didn't get beat. Now this is all evidence for the murder trial.
Speaker 2Okay, right, the prosecution is saying we need to understand where these kids came from yeah in order to understand how this murder happened yeah, it's part of the part and parcel of the whole theory. In order to show that, eddie Lee is the reason.
Speaker 1Even though he didn't put his hands on Joel, he's the direct reason for Joel's death.
Speaker 2The Charlie Manson kind of theory.
Speaker 1Yes, that's why all of this is important. So the prosecution was shooting for the death penalty. Eddie Lee's lawyer was arguing that Eddie Lee didn't plan Joel's death. It was strictly between Pixie were incestuous lovers and wanted Joel out of the way. He was also arguing that all of those other statements the kids were making they don't need to be heard in court, Only things directly dealing with Joel's murder.
Speaker 1I could see that case however, like I said earlier, the prosecution disagreed and said we need all of this to understand how that happened. We need all of it. The judge allows all the stories to stay in the trial okay he also agrees the prosecution, saying how can you understand the crime without knowing where it came from?
Speaker 2Goes to motive everything.
Speaker 1Now there's going to be two trials against Eddie, not for the same case, though Technically three, I guess because of the capital murder charge, but the two separate trials. One will be for conspiracy to kidnap and murder the neighbor at the campground. Oh, the disabled fellow to kidnap and murder the neighbor at the campground oh, the disabled fellow, because the murder charge has nothing to do with child abuse, incest. It's none of that Detective Reedy was concerned that he might get out on that. He wasn't sure what was going to happen.
Speaker 1A part of it was he wanted the kids to see that Eddie Lee's in jail.
Speaker 2Yeah, and we can get him he be hurt works. Yes yeah.
Speaker 1So he wanted the kids to make sure they were going to talk. He needed to gain their trust that the system is going to work. But also he wanted to get eddie lee on multiple angles because he knew that the murder trial could fall apart yeah so we have a conspiracy to kidnap and murder and straight up murder.
Speaker 2Catch 22, though, is if taking the conspiracy trial first is. If he is acquitted, then it's going to set the kids back further and make them less likely to testify in the murder trial, which increases his odds of being acquitted. Yes so it's a gamble.
Speaker 1It is a gamble, but they had good enough evidence to take that gamble. But, yes, it did cross his mind as well. Like oof, this is a gamble. Yeah, the conspiracy trial was set for August, and then the capital case trial would follow in September.
Speaker 2All right.
Speaker 1Willie Sexton was deemed incompetent to stand trial Not insane?
Speaker 2but he's mentally, he didn't he wasn't able to understand.
Speaker 1Yeah. They did say, though, that they believe he would get to the point of understanding, so they wanted to give him some time. Yeah, he did have bandages on his wrist from a suicide attempt. He was skittish. He would hide under desks or in the corner of the cell. This was when he was still in just regular gen pop. After they realized he wasn't able to handle all of that, he was then committed to a program at florida state mental hospital. Okay, august 31st, eddie lee's first trial for conspiracy. The first witness to come to the stand was his son, charles. Now Charles has not been doing well. He keeps changing his stories when he's interviewed, and he was currently in jail for burglary, so he took the stand in his jailhouse blues Right.
Speaker 2You gotta look for a jury.
Speaker 1Charles answered the questions about the conspiracy to kidnap and murder and to steal the identity of their camping neighbor, and this is a felony of up to 30 years, apparently in Florida. That's what I read. I don't know if it's changed, but in the 90s it was. The trial was conducted and by the end of the day he was deemed guilty and he will be sentenced to 15 years for this.
Speaker 1Okay so we got him Now Joel's murder trial. It was considered a high profile case and the jury had to make two decisions. The first one is he guilty, yes or no? And then the second one should he die for it, yes or no?
Speaker 2It's always been weird to me that in Florida, and I guess other death penalty states too, that the jury decides the sentence of death or no. It's always been weird to me that in Florida and I guess other death penalty states too that the jury decides the sentence of death or not. I think it's weird that when it comes to a sentence, it's up to the jury to decide it and not the judge. The judge is there to. It's just weird.
Speaker 1It's probably to help keep blood off people's hands. A group decided it.
Speaker 2It's probably a mental thing.
Speaker 1I didn't kill anyone.
Speaker 2We decided same principle as having one chamber empty yeah, firing squad yeah you can always say I was the one who had the empty one right all right. So yeah, jury's got to decide two questions yes, is he guilty?
Speaker 1yes or no, and should he die for it or have life in prison? Those are the options. Pixie takes the stand as a witness and she was quiet and hard to hear. She said that eddie lee came up with a plan to kill joel. Pixie's statement was all right. She was quiet and a little bit inconsistent, but she was okay. She did all right. Now, when the librarian was called to the stand, she told of her experience with them.
Speaker 2I imagine it's very meticulous.
Speaker 1She wasn't really she was emotional but it still worked. She was the tipping point for the jury. When people asked the jury after what made you decide, they said the librarian. Whatever she experienced shook her well, she was finally an outside source yeah, that experienced them. That's not a, he said. She said she's like no guys, it's wild they're fucking weird man she couldn't even answer what she saw, really but she was like I know I saw this.
Speaker 1So she goes through and she does talk about pixie referencing a baby. She talks about eddie lee possibly burying a baby. She's like I don't know what he buried, but they're talking baby, he's burying something. They're acting weird, I don't know. And then the defense is like well, what baby if skipper lee died six weeks prior? Because she sorry, mic pop moving my hands she doesn't know that Skipper Lee's dead. She doesn't know that. I mean now she knows that Skipper Lee's dead, but at the time she didn't.
Speaker 2And she doesn't Right yeah.
Speaker 1And she doesn't know that Sherry had a miscarriage and that's what was happening there. She has no idea, but she stayed by her word of I don't care when Skipper skipperly died. This is what they said to me, this is what I saw. She didn't shake, but she cried and she was emotional but her story stayed the same.
Speaker 1Like they asked me if I wanted to come to their car and see the dead baby, yeah, and she didn't know who they were at the time, and then, once stories came out, she saw the news. That's when she reached out to the police oh, okay yes, that's how they got connected. She reached out to them being like I saw these people, they're weird and they were burying something like what is this? There were five days of testimony. The kids, chris, charles, michelle and matt all spoke nice as they did. They did okay.
Speaker 2They were timid, looked down, they acted like kids that have been through shit, yeah, and don't want to be there, yeah, so again.
Speaker 1The librarian was the one who came in and really helped tip the scales in their favor.
Speaker 2Gave the outsiders perspective of it?
Speaker 1Yes, the defense for Eddie Lee only called two witnesses his daughter, sherry, and his sister-in-law Jean from Florida.
Speaker 2Okay.
Speaker 1Sherry blamed everything on Pixie. Sherry and Pixie, I think just don't get along.
Speaker 2I don't.
Speaker 1When Sherry was cross-examined, she admitted to always having a hatred for Pixie.
Speaker 2Oh, okay, so then you're, so there goes that witness.
Speaker 1When Gene Sexton took the stand, she confirmed how Eddie Lee and his sons would beat Joel Okay, so I don't know why Jean was even there. She didn't really help Eddie Lee? I don't know. Eddie Lee did not take the stand himself, which I thought was pretty surprising. The jury did, however, watch the video that he sent to the FBI.
Speaker 2The FBI and Janet Reno and President Clinton.
Speaker 1After over two hours, the jury found Eddie Lee Sexton guilty.
Speaker 2I think after all that after watching the video like that even if I didn't think he really was guilty like something's wrong. He's got to be put away. There's something wrong here. I don't want this guy walking the streets.
Speaker 1Right. And then the following day was when they needed to decide if he was going to have life in prison or death.
Speaker 2The jury deliberated for two hours and then the vote came back and he was sentenced to death. They do not fuck around in Florida with that.
Speaker 1No, they don't. Eddie Lee was not put on trial for sexual assault or incest. Uncle Otis was really pissed about this.
Speaker 2Oh was he.
Speaker 1No, he became a really good advocate. He did help the Sexton kids after all of this.
Speaker 2What was he pissed about?
Speaker 1The fact that Eddie Lee wasn't being tried for sexual assault and incest.
Speaker 2Gotcha, OK, he wanted more. Yeah, he was like no, he did these awful things.
Speaker 1We need to keep going. Yeah, so he became a big advocate. Yes, he was Like I said, he's a slow burn. He's kind of shitty. In the beginning You're like why didn't you do more? But he really turns up. He was picketing, protesting, getting people involved. Otis and Detective Reedy knew that if the murder trial ever got overturned, because, the judge allowed all of that extra stories.
Speaker 2That's grounds for an appeal.
Speaker 1Mm-hmm. So they knew there was a possibility of Eddie Lee seeing the light of day again, because the conspiracy sentence was only for 15 years.
Speaker 2He's not that old.
Speaker 1Exactly, I think he was 53 at the time of the trial.
Speaker 2Conceivably serve his full sentence.
Speaker 1Mae Sexton. However, she was going to be released in one year with zero sexual abuse charges against her. She's only serving. She has to have the death abuse charges against her.
Speaker 2She's only serving two, yeah, she doesn't have the death penalty to go after her.
Speaker 1So Otis is writing letters, writing to newspapers, legislators. He appears on Geraldo Rivera's daytime show. I know, I know.
Speaker 2Nice.
Speaker 1And he confronts Eddie Lee via a satellite interview.
Speaker 2Oh, so Eddie Lee consents to interview from death row. Yeah, why not? Yeah, what was the big thing in the day?
Speaker 1back.
Speaker 2Then right, you can see a satellite to like larry king with his weird shoulders all hunched up, and live via satellite we're bringing in.
Building the Case Against Eddie Lee
Speaker 1Yeah, this is the biggest thing back then yeah eddie lee did end up walking out of that interview oh nice, yeah, I don't know what was that yeah, finally otis's work paid off. In may sexton was to stand trial in august of 1996 for sexual abuse in ohio in ohio. She was charged with rape, complicity to rape, child endangering and gross sexual imposition.
Speaker 2Cool.
Speaker 1There were two trials for the sexual assault charges. The first trial, michelle and Chris testified and they did okay. Then Lana took the stand and spoke of the time where her mom touched her private parts like she had before with her other trial. Now this one is a bad, bad story. Um, trigger warning here. It's a big one. Lana speaks of a time when she was eight or nine years old and at this point she's like 13 ish, I think. Support young adolescents. When lana was eight or nine years old, her parents took her into the master bedroom. They closed the doors and Lana asked them what are you going to do? And they said punish you. May then took off Lana's shirt while Eddie took off her underwear. May was at the head of the bed and she laid Lana back. May holds Lana's arms up by her head and then Eddie Lee bends Lana's legs up where her ankles are by her shoulders, and then her dad proceeds to rape her as her mom holds her down. Lana screams that they're hurting her, but they wouldn't listen.
Speaker 2Very Handmaid's Tale.
Speaker 1Yes, when May took the stand on her own behalf, she denied all of the abuse and said she wasn't aware anything was happening. She played a victim. Blah, blah, blah. No one gives a shit. You didn't help your kids, you can just fuck right off. I don't care.
Speaker 2May off, I don't care, may I don't care.
Speaker 1You didn't listen to them you're not, I'm not gonna listen to you, fuck off testifying that you didn't notice anything for however long, doesn't do you any?
Speaker 2favors that yeah, yeah, either you knew about it, which makes you bad, or you didn't, which makes you almost as bad yeah, like you had to have known yeah, you're either an evil participant or just callously indifferent and ignorant, which is criminally negligent yeah, yep.
Speaker 1After three days of testimony, may was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison nice that was just the first trial. For the second one she didn't have a second one.
Speaker 1She pled guilty to 13 more counts 13 more counts, just so she could avoid the second trial. But she was still maintaining her innocence. She was eligible for parole in 2011. She was at the age of 64 and she didn't get paroled. They did not allow it. I did find that she died at the age of 70 in 2017 of natural causes, but she was still incarcerated.
Speaker 2Oh, okay.
Speaker 1She never saw freedom again.
Speaker 2Cool, so she got straight life.
Speaker 1Yep In 1997, pixie was paroled. Otis was the only one that would pick her up. Yeah, her siblings do not like her. They blame her for just as much shit as they blame Eddie Lee and everyone for, yeah, they do not like her. A couple of days after Pixie was living with Otis, she agrees to do an interview with a magazine or a talk show. Good for herself, I guess.
Speaker 2It's hard to do worse.
Speaker 1She shows off her many certificates that she received while she was in prison, and she said that she had an interest in working in hospice care. She also admitted to missing blocks of memories from her childhood. She, however, still maintained her story that she did not mean to kill Skipper Lee. I think she now was saying, yes, my hand was over his mouth, but I didn't mean to, and honestly she probably didn't. She still mentioned in that interview, though, that Sherry was a bad mother.
Speaker 2Nice Gotta, get your jabs in when you can?
Speaker 1She blamed Eddie Lee for taking away everything she ever had and said she would never call him her dad. Yeah, Good. Michelle was pregnant with twins when she testified in her mother's trial. She ended up miscarrying those twins, she believes due to the stress of testifying, but she was still married to her husband around this time. I don't know much else. A lot of these kids just fade away. I don't know much else. A lot of these kids just fade away. I don't know where they are currently they're not.
Speaker 2None of them stayed in the limelight.
Speaker 1Yeah, why would you god? You just want to be just living their lives forever willie sexton. He kept being ruled incompetent to stand trial. Until 1997 willie was found guilty of second degree murder and sentenced to 25 years in prison. Now go back one year. I did this kind of out of order in 96. James was 20 years old.
Speaker 1He was arrested and charged with murder for joel nope, oh separate unrelated he burned his 38-year-old roommate to death in a fire while the roommate was sleeping on the couch. James said he saw his father on the couch and he didn't mean to kill his roommate. Oh yeah, in 1997, eddie Lee's trial was overturned.
Speaker 2Oh, his, the, the murder, the murder, conviction, Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1All the extra details that the kids gave were deemed unnecessary and another trial happened. However, eddie Lee was found guilty again and again sentenced to death.
Speaker 2Okay, yeah.
Speaker 1Footnote yeah, I know, I just wanted to put that in there. In December of 2010,. Prison guards found Eddie Lee dead in his cell, having died of natural causes.
Speaker 2Okay, so he died before the execution could be carried out.
Speaker 1He died on death row.
Speaker 2Probably had a bunch of appeals pending still.
Speaker 1Yeah, I'm sure. In 2012, Eddie Jr was a part of a string of robberies over the course of three days. He also had a substance abuse problem and he was sentenced to 12 years do you know what state that was in?
Speaker 2is that ohio?
Speaker 1I'm guessing ohio. That's where eddie jr was living okay, oh okay, yeah, willie sexton was released in 2007. I'm assuming good behavior. Willie is in a current episode of Evil Lives here on Hulu. The episode name is Fear Thy God. Willie and Charles are both in this small documentary. It's a short one. I watched it because I was curious to see how they did it in less than an hour. Watch it, guys. It'sie and charles their their perspective.
Speaker 1Yeah, they do not get detailed like this at all because it's about their family, but I think you see the human side to them and you see where they are now and it's nice to see. Yeah, um, charles has since gotten much better. According to this documentary, he looks good. He no longer has thoughts of suicide and is married with a son and a daughter. Willie seemed to also be doing well. I didn't. I didn't see what he was doing. I don't know where he is in life, but in the documentary he looked okay.
Speaker 2Okay, cool, good for him.
Speaker 1Yeah, again, I don't know what happened to the rest of them. I hope lana found peace. I know she was going through it. They're full adults now so I hope that everyone's okay and they have found comfort, joy and love and are living good lives. Um, yeah, I, yeah that's it that that was a big one yeah, and. And we're done.
Speaker 2Three episodes, our first triptych.
Speaker 1It could have very easily been four episodes, but I did not want to do it.
Speaker 2Brother Dave has all our side quests and I'm like, oh God, another one.
Speaker 1We left that out.
Speaker 1Yeah, we don't need another one. No, no, no. That's why you can't ask any questions about them, because there's a lot of answers. But yeah, but yeah, I'll put all of my sources in the show notes. My brain is broken now and I can't think of where I got anything, but I know I have them written down and they'll be in the show notes again. We have an Instagram. Follow us at borrowed bones podcast on Instagram. Please also rate and review us on Apple and Spotify or anywhere you listen. It really helps us a lot. Thank you so much, and I don't know. I just hope you keep listening to us next week. We're going to go a little bit lighter.
Speaker 2I need a break yeah, I don't even know what the topic is next, do I know you've probably mentioned I've mentioned a few.
Speaker 1I'll see what I throw in. I'll see which one I feel like doing. I have a few that I've been researching, so we'll see it. It'll be lighter, easier, friendlier, yeah. So thanks for listening. Yeah, bye.
Speaker 2Bye.
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