This podcast is intended for informational and educational purposes only. The content presented is based on publicly available information, including records obtained through Freedom of Information Act requests, media reports, and interviews. Any opinions expressed by the hosts or guests are their own and are not statements of fact. We make every effort to accurately present the information available at the time of recording. However, we do not claim that all information is complete, verified or free from error. Any individuals discussed in this podcast are presumed innocent unless proven guilty in a court of law. References to allegations, investigations, or theories should not be interpreted as definitive conclusions. This podcast does not intend to defame, harm, or misrepresent any individual or entity if any information presented is inaccurate. We welcome corrections and will make updates where appropriate. Our show is a place where every story matters and every voice deserves to be heard. To support this podcast, you can subscribe at. A true crime podcast for early access to new episodes and join our Facebook community. Tragedy, a true crime podcast for updates, discussions and ways to support the families. We feature. Welcome to Tragedy, a true crime podcast. I'm Elisa and I'm Michael. And before we get started today, we have a couple of updates that we wanted to share. Yes, we'd like to welcome our new subscribers. We want to give them a shout out. So welcome and thank you Lisa V, Ashley M, Mike F, Katie P, and Ed K. Yes, thank you very much for subscribing. We're really we're really happy you join our community and we're looking forward to, you know, to providing some good content for you. Yes. And you can find the button to subscribe on our web page. Tragedy. A true crime podcast. And with your subscription, you get early access to our episodes and we will be doing quarterly zooms with our subscribers where we do some Q&A and just give some case updates. Excellent. Next. We're really excited to be putting together a newsletter, and so if you'd like to be on our newsletter subscription, you're going to send your email to tragedy, a true crime podcast, at gmail.com. Finally, we had some really good news. Crime con we will be at Crime Con this year and that's going to be in May. Around Memorial Day weekend of 2026, in Las Vegas. I'm a big fan of Las Vegas in small doses, so I'm super excited to go. And the conference itself will be at Caesars Palace. And you can find more information about that on Crime Con. If you just Google Crime Con, it'll take you right there and you can get your tickets there. So if you're going to be even in Las Vegas around Memorial Day or attending Crime Con, let us know. We'd love to meet you. One thing I'm really excited about with Crime Con is we get to see Julia Kelly face to face, which we've never done. She's been a really good supporter of our show. She was our 50th episode, and she's really, you know, someone who really helped us get started. Yes. We're going to meet several of our partners and people that we've met along the way. Some we've already met, but we'll be seeing them again. So it's going to be really exciting. And we're very much looking forward to crime cons. So let us know if you're going to be there. Today, we're going to walk through what law enforcement documented in the case of LaTonya Thomas. This is not speculation. This is not rumor. This is what was recorded, what was said, what was observed, and what investigators pieced together in the days following her hospitalization and death. Because understanding the timeline matters. The report begins in the early morning hours of March 24th, 2016, at approximately 3 a.m., a call comes in to the Wakulla County Sheriff's Office, and a woman named Crystal reports something that at the time had not yet been investigated. She tells deputies that her friend LaTonya Thomas is in the hospital critically ill after suffering a stroke. But what she shares next changes everything. Crystal reports that about a week earlier, on March 17th, she witnessed LaTonya being choked. She identifies the person responsible as Ben At this point, deputies begin confirming what they can. They contact medical staff at Capital Region Medical Center, and nurses confirm that LaTonya is in the ICU suffering from a massive stroke. They describe a blood clot in her Specifically involving the carotid artery, and warn that her condition is critical and could become fatal. As investigators begin gathering statements. A timeline starts to take shape. LaTonya had recently moved in with Ben just weeks before all of this, around early March. Then on March 17th, something happened. According to witness statements, LaTonya and Ben argue at some point that night. LaTonya calls her friend Crystal, asking for help, asking for a way out. Crystal goes to find her. She eventually locates LaTonya nearby on a bike trail, and brings her back to the home so she can gather her belongings, but once they return, the situation escalates. Crystal tells investigators that she witnessed something inside the home. She says that Ben placed his hands around Tonya's neck and pushed her onto a bed, and the bedroom door was then shut and whatever happened next happened behind that closed door. She later tells investigators she didn't know what to do. A few days pass and LaTonya sees Crystal again, but something is different. Her voice is hoarse, strained, and when asked what happened. LaTonya doesn't explain. She tells her, quote, ask him and then the subject is dropped on March 23rd. LaTonya mother, Thomasin Butler, becomes concerned when she can't reach her daughter. Calls go unanswered. Hours pass. Eventually, she and a family member go to check on her. What they find is LaTonya lying on the floor, unresponsive. She is alive but barely. An ambulance is called and she is transported to the hospital. At the hospital, doctors begin trying to understand what's happening. LaTonya is unable to speak. She has suffered a massive stroke. Imaging reveals a blockage in the left carotid artery, a major artery supplying blood to the This blockage is caused by a thrombus, a blood clot, and the damage is severe. She is placed in intensive care. Her prognosis is described as poor. As this unfolds, investigators began interviewing those involved. Ben denies any physical violence. He acknowledges there was an argument but says nothing became physical. Another witness supports part of his account, saying they saw arguments but not violence. But Crystal's account remains consistent. She maintains that she saw him put his hands around Tonya's neck. Then something else happens. After being interviewed, Ben allegedly contacts Crystal and threatens her, telling her she should have stayed out of his business. Law enforcement is notified and deputies respond. Meanwhile, LaTonya remains in the ICU. Doctors monitor her condition, but the damage continues and on March 26th, just days after she was found unresponsive, LaTonya Thomas dies. An autopsy is ordered, and what it reveals becomes central to this case. The medical examiner determines that LaTonya died from complications of a stroke caused by a blood clot in the carotid artery. But the key question is, how did that clot form? The findings showed disruption in the arteries of the neck, and, according to the medical examiner, that disruption is consistent with neck compression, specifically pressure applied to the neck, including strangulation. There are no visible injuries, no bruising, no obvious marks. But the report makes it clear that that does not rule out strangulation. Another critical detail is that the stroke did not happen immediately. Medical experts explain that the injury to the artery can occur first and the clot can form over time. Meaning what may have happened on March 17th may not have shown its full impact until days later. Despite these findings, despite the statements, despite the medical conclusions, the case is eventually sent to the State's Attorney's Office and in June of 2017, prosecution is declined and the case is closed. So what we're left with is a timeline a reported assault, a delayed medical emergency, a death, and a determination that pressure to the neck caused the chain of events that led to her death. But no charges, no trial, no resolution. And that's where we begin. Thank you very much for that summary. Um, one thing that's, you know, one interesting detail about this case is how we found out about it. You want to walk through how that happened? I made a post and we'll call it citizens, which is a local Facebook group in the county where we live. And it was about Jody Kilgore. I try to stay very active in the groups and post a lot. Make sure that people know that we're still here to support the family and maybe shake something loose at some point. And on that particular post, someone named Jeremy commented and he said this quote, why is no one ever concerned with the black young lady that was killed in the trailer park in SOP Sharpie, end quote. And that really stood out to me immediately. Within a couple of minutes, there was a response to that question from someone named Vicky Jenkins, and she said, I second that it's a cold case that needs to be reopened. She was my cousin and nothing is being said about it. Yeah, that's interesting too, because I've, you know, this entire time, you know, even since the Jody Kilgore murder first really kind of occurred, I've always been under the understanding that it wasn't it was the only unsolved case in Wakulla County. And we've talked about that a number of times on the show, and we've never been corrected. And even when we've talked to law enforcement, they've even acknowledged that fact. So to find out that there was another unsolved homicide in Waukesha County was not only, you know, disappointing to find out, but also kind of indicative of the marginalization of cases like this. And so, um, not anymore. We're going to we're that's why we're here today. That's why we're going to be talking to the family, and that's why we're going to, you know, we're going to make sure that this one's, you know, this one's heard. Yes. And so Vicky was very responsive to me. As soon as I saw her name on Facebook, I reached out to her through Facebook Messenger. Um, and we began speaking, and she told me several things about what happened to LaTonya. And so this the answer to the question is Facebook. Facebook generated this case for us, and this person named Jeremy spoke up about LaTanya. And that's how we got to where we are today. All right. So my next question is timeline. So one of the things I wasn't super clear on was how much time was estimated between when Crystal's account of when she saw, you know, I guess Ben's hands on on Ohtani's neck versus when she was pronounced dead in the hospital. That's one of the more interesting pieces of this case is this timeline. So there are three key dates in this timeline. The first is March 17th, and this is when Crystal reports seeing the physical altercation between Ben and LaTanya. The next key date is March 24th, and this is the date that the family finds LaTanya unresponsive and she is transported to the hospital. And then the final date is March 26th. And this is the date that LaTanya dies. The next area that I'm really curious about is what is the what is the diagnosis in the medical examiner's report? Like what is what if she died and what was the likely cause? Did they really? Do they really get into that? Yeah. So in this information that we receive from the sheriff's office, there is a lot of medical information that I don't understand, not being in the medical field. But what I can tell is that when she was admitted into the emergency room, they immediately did a CT head of the brain and put her in the ICU. Like that happened relatively quickly. They diagnosed that there had been a stroke and that there was what they're referring to as a mild mass. And then what ended up happening was she never did regain consciousness. And she was in the ICU for a couple of days and then passed away. And according to the death certificate that we were able to obtain from the family, um, her death was ruled a homicide, and it was the stroke that had killed her. And you're telling me that the stroke happened before she got to the hospital? This is not something that happened during her time there. Yes. The timeline of events seems to be that there was some sort of physical altercation. Um, Krystal then did see LaTonya a couple of days after that, but indicated that her voice was hoarse and that she sounded different. And then shortly after that, we believe the stroke happened. LaTonya was then obviously unresponsive. Her family was reaching out to her, and that's when they went to her house and took her to the hospital. All right. Talk to me about this, um, threat. I think that you mentioned before that happened between Ben and Crystal. Crystal notified the Wakulla County Sheriff's Office on March 24th that Ben had contacted her and said, quote, you better not be there when I get there. I'm going to kick your Bleep, you white peop. And this was very concerning to Crystal. Obviously she's already seen this interaction between LaTonya and Ben. And now she's getting these threats from Ben. She reports them and she went on further to say he just kept saying I should have stayed out of his business. So Crystal automatically makes the 911 call, lets them know that this has happened. And she did get a she made contact with someone from the from law enforcement and I believe they followed up on that with her. They went straight to where Ben lived and he said he denied making the phone call or any threats, and he was then advised to have no further contact with Crystal. What do we know so far about how she was found, the condition of which when she was located, when they actually started getting her medical help. What do we know about So there comes this time frame where her mom realizes that she's not responding to texts and cell phones. So they go over there, some family members, and what they find is LaTonya underneath a sofa, or what is described as a love seat. And she is cold. She is unresponsive. She is wearing a t shirt but nothing else. And so they begin to shake her. This is how they figure out that her body is cold, and this is when the 911 call is made. And at some point between when the call is made and when they arrive, she does open her eyes. But that is the extent of what we have in the documentation. What we hear a lot more about that from her mom. You mentioned the t shirt. Nothing else. Is there any indication of sexual assault? I don't remember you talking about that. No, not that is indicated here in this report. Now we know that the case was closed originally. Can you talk us through how that occurred? You know, all we all. We know that it was closed by the State Attorney's office. Do you know more? Yes. There's quite a bit of information in the FOIA that we received, and it's sort of a timeline again. So I'm going to walk us through that a little bit. We know that LaTonya died on March 26th. It took quite a while to get the formal report from the medical examiner. And I can tell that by looking at this report. So in June 1st, there's this long thread of conversation between March and June 1st where Thomasin is trying to figure out what's going on. Like, it feels very clear to them who has committed this crime. And they they want to get justice for LaTonya. And they're going back and forth between the Wakulla County Sheriff's Office and the medical examiner trying to get this report. So finally, on June 8th, we have no medical report. And then on June 15th, we still don't have a medical report. And on June 21st, we still don't have a medical report. So we can see that there's this documentation of the Wakulla County Sheriff's Office making consistent communication with Thomasin, because, gosh, we're waiting for the medical report. Around early July. So on July 16th, the. Wakulla County Sheriff's Office has this medical report. Um, and they do. There's a notice in conversation between the medical examiner so that they have clarity on what this medical report and autopsy says. We happen to know, as I mentioned before, that homicide was the final. Determination. Let's go with that of death. Yes, that was on the death certificate. So here's what the final pathological diagnosis is. Diagnosis is a history of neck compression by strangulation. And then we know that they did the CT scan and the blood clots and all those kinds of things. And so what happens with this is a probable cause was written for aggravated battery. And it was taken to the state's Attorney's office. Unfortunately, as we know um, this the charges the state's Attorney's office declined to press charges. So the specific timeline is July 13th of the same year, 2016, the case was dropped off at the State's Attorney's office for the review. And in this information, it does say that a letter was sent to Thomasin La, Tonya's mom, outlining that the state declined to press charges. We are trying to get Ahold of that letter. Um, it's been several years, right? It's over. It's right at ten years now. So, um, you know, she is not able to locate it, which is fine. So we're going to see if we can get that, um, letter that was sent to her from the state's Attorney's office. And this happened on June 9th. So the state's attorney declined prosecution in this case on June 9th. This report says 2017. I believe that's an error. I believe it's 2016. Understood. So one thing that's kind of interesting that I want to make sure that we share is just by starting to investigate this case and collect the details, we were able to talk to the family and friends. And we we recommended they put some pressure on the Wakulla County Sheriff's Office to reopen this case. And it's my understanding that steps are being taken for that to be done. They've been told that this case is going to be reopened. They've been told that they are going to get a an investigator assigned to it. Now, I don't believe that's happened yet. Have you heard anything more? I have not heard anything more since then. One of the things that has come out of the conversations that we've had with the family is a desire to reopen this case. So you are saying precisely what has what happened? They did reach out to the sheriff's office. A patrol officer came. He met with the family. Um, he left his card and said that they would reopen the case, that they would speak with the detectives about reopening the case, and that a detective would be assigned to this case. And at the time of this conversation, it has been close to six weeks since that conversation happened. And we are we have no knowledge of a detective being assigned to this case. All right. So we'll call the county sheriff's office. We we have a situation here that we're going to be reaching out to you on because based on this FOIA, based on, you know, all the facts that we've been able to collect so far, we're having a really hard time understanding why this case was closed. Um, especially considering the medical examiner himself or herself. I don't know who the medical examiner was off the top of my head indicated that this was homicide and there's been no prosecution. So, um, I'm kind of curious. Balls in your court? Yeah. One final note that I do want to say is this is a 29 page document. And there are several inconsistencies, inconsistencies in dates like in the beginning it says 2016. And in the next paragraph it says 2017. The names of people are not always consistent throughout, but I do want to make very clear that on November 7th, 2016, the case was dropped off with the Assistant State's Attorney, and in June of 2017, the State's Attorney's Office declined prosecution in this case, and that letter was mailed to the family prior to closing the investigation. All right, as far as next steps now. Um, what's what's next? What's next for us? Yes, because of Vicki's diligence and persistence on communicating with family members and just being so good with me and us, we were able to conduct some interviews related to this case. So you will be hearing from Vicky and that is Tonya's cousin. You'll be hearing from Crystal. Um, that is Tanya's friend and the person who comes up quite a bit in this, uh, legal documentation documentation that we were able to get. And then we also spoke with Thomasin La, Tanya's mom. You've been listening to tragedy, a true crime podcast. Our purpose is to honor victims by sharing their stories through the voices of friends, family and those whose lives were forever changed. If today's episode resonated with you, we encourage you to subscribe, leave a review, and share the podcast so these important stories continue to be heard. Together, we can preserve their memories and ensure their voices are never forgotten. If you have ideas for cases we should cover or questions about what you heard, you can connect with us through our Facebook group, tragedy a True Crime Podcast on Ex at Tragedy podcast by email at tragedy a True crime podcast at gmail.com, or by visiting our website. A true crime podcast. Thank you for listening and we hope you'll join us next time.