Left Behind: The Murder of Kiaya Campbell

On a rainy June night in 2017, 10-year-old Kiaya Campbell left her home in Thornton, Colorado with 15-year-old Aidan Zellmer — the son of her father’s girlfriend. The two were supposedly headed out on a quick errand. Hours later, an Amber Alert went out. The next day, Kiaya’s body was found in a drainage ditch. She had been beaten to death with a metal pipe. In this episode, KJ breaks down this shocking case from start to finish, and you will not believe the end result.

Timestamps
05:39 A Blended Family
09:15 Kiaya’s Sweet World
14:50 Searching the Night
26:26 Amber Alert Issued
32:50 Questions Turn Suspicious
42:04 Mom Enters the Room
57:41 Evidence Points to Aiden
01:01:50 Brutal Autopsy Findings
01:08:50 Motive and Trial

#unspeakable #podcast #crime #truecrime #KiayaCampbell

Speaker 1: Welcome to Unspeakable, a true crime podcast. Or I tell

stories of real crimes with real victims whose cases are

so shocking that many are left wondering how is this

even real? I use my experiences in law enforcement corrections,

and combined with my years as a criminal justice educator,

dig deep into complex cases of evil acts, some so

evil many feel they are unspeakable. Warning. Unspeakable as intended

for mature audiences. If you are easily offended, then I'm

not your girl. Listening discretion is advised. Hey, y'all, kJ

you're back another episode of Unspeakable. How's your day going?

What are you doing right now? Because I got a

freaking episode for y'all today. This is a case that

I followed whenever it first happened, but I don't know,

I never covered it, and so I'm gonna do that

for you today. But before I start, I've got a

couple of shout outs that I want to make sure

that I get out there to you. And we're gonna

start in cook Minnesota, where missus Janelle Driscoll is. Hey Janelle,

what is going on? And you're part of the world.

I hope that you're having a fantastic day. Thank you

so much for joining my Patreon. It means everything. I'm

waving to you like I always do when people join

and talk to me. Girl, I'm on Patreon. Message me

if you've got requests for any cases you'd like me

to cover, send them in there. We've got a chat option,

all those good things. And I'm just really thankful to

have you here. And then we're gonna go to where's

this van Cleeve Mississippi? Where Evett Humphrey is? Hey, Vett,

what's going on in Mississippi? I know what's going on

in Mississippi in that where the Nolan Wells saga is

just blowing up. I don't know exactly where Vankleeve is,

but y'all got a lot going on as far as

the state goes. Huh so. But I'm just thrilled to

have you Yvette again. Anybody that joins is and becomes

a supporter of me means the world. You're getting to

have these commercial free episodes you get to watch me podcast,

So make sure you get the app. Patreon is an

app that you can get on your phone and so

you can watch and listen anywhere. And I've got some

projects I'm working on that'll be coming and rolling out

for y'all very very very shortly. But let's start today.

In this case, we're going to go to Thornton, Colorado,

and we're going to go back a couple years. We're

going to go to twenty seventeen for this one. And

I wanted to know a little bit about Thornton, so

I looked it up and I found that it is

the easternmost city in the North Denver area, So if

you've ever flown into the Denver National Airport, it would

have been the closest city to you for reference about

where we are in this case. Now, this is a

place where and recreation centers are highly appreciated. With two

hundred and thirty acres of open space, it's a nature

and trail lover's dream come true to be located here.

And the beauty of the mountains and the gentleness of

the folks is truly it really is something to behold

because it's just not that way everywhere you go. And

something cool, I think it's cool, but I'm kind of

a nerd. But something cool I learned was that Thornton

is a relatively new city. So get this. This is

why I'm telling you. Usually, when you hear of a

place and they talk about, oh, it was settled and

then when they start saying it was settled in, don't

you expect the next words to be like eighteen hundred,

nineteen hundred. It's like they're gonna give you this this

really really old number. But when I looked at this one,

it says that it was settled in nineteen fifty four. Yeah,

so I mean my mama was born in fifty five.

So this is like a generation that we can even

like touch and see, you know, nineteen fifty four. Now,

the folks that settled there were mainly World War Two

veterans and their families who had made it home. But

as is everywhere, it's continued to grow and be a

spot that people want to live. So in that area,

families can look forward to festivals, They have other community events,

including in December, residents look forward to ice skating rinks

that are provided by the city. They have firework shows,

and so, I don't know, it kind of gives me

like thinking about a Hallmark movie vibe whenever I start

trying to imagine what this place is like. But this

story is going to take place in the middle of summer,

so there would be no ice rinks, there would be

no fireworks as far as this is concerned. Now, it

was the beginning of June, and so the kids were

going to be out of school. The days were long,

and the time was spent basically just entertaining yourself outdoors

or playing video games, maybe a pick up football game

in the neighborhood, just whatever really tickled their fancy. We

know what happens in summertime, you know, kids chill and

they try to make their own entertainment. But nothing really

was going on in Thornton, nothing worth screaming from the mountaintops,

especially in terms of national news coverage or anything like that.

The overall crime rate there, for reference, is lower than

the national average. And when I say that, I don't

mean by like a percent or something. They this area

performs better than seventy eight percent of major US cities.

It's a good place to be, it's a great place

to call home. So when Katie Zelmer met her boyfriend,

his name was Jacoby, they were happy to spend their

time together and to be around each other, so much

so that they introduced their respective kids from previous relationships

rather quickly. Once the relationship started. It was only like

eight or nine months from what I understand that they

had been dating. But the couple decided that they were

going to move in together and they were going to

cohabitate as a blended family. Now, they weren't married, and

I'm not even sure, honestly if that talk was even

on the table, but the situation worked out for them

and they felt it was the best course of action

for all of them and their kids included. So, as

I said, Katie and Jacoby had their own respective children,

but they did not have any kids together, so they

were a blended family with a mix of both boys

and girls. However, the children did not all live their

full time with them, so they would go see their

own other parent from time to time. So, for instance,

Jacoby's daughter Kaya, she would alternate between her mom, Chantelle,

and her dad's house. As you know, we're all familiar

with this as shared custody situations become much more common

in everyday life. So Kaya, let's talk about real quick.

She was ten years old and she had just graduated

from the fifth grade. That is right, y'all. Miss Thang

was on her way to junior high. Do you remember

being in fifth grade? Because I do, and I remember

thinking I was so grown. You know, they would let

us help the kindergarteners on the playground, and I thought

I was just something. So you're moving on, You're going

into junior high, and you know, Kaya is looking forward

to everything that kids this age look forward to. But

her graduation from fifth grade had made her family so proud,

not only that she had done so well in school,

but she even had given a speech at graduation, and

that is huge for a young kid to get up

and do, especially in front of others. I mean, if

you poll people, they say the number one fear that

people have is public speaking. But little Kaya, that girl

had some spunk. She had taken her time, and she

had written out her thoughts and giving listening to it,

it just gave a peek into the young lady that

was Blossom. I mean, before her family's very eyes. She

wasn't a woman by any shot of the imagination, but

she wasn't a little baby girl anymore. And with confidence

and with poise, she gave her speech to the graduates

and their families and her ending words of advice. I

want to quote her for you. She said, quote, I

want to say to all of the families, if you

have younger kids, let them know that anything is possible

and they can accomplish anything as long as they try.

Trying is the best thing anyone can do. And while

those words are obviously said in an age appropriate way,

you know it sounds like something the way a ten

year old would verbalize it. My god, that child was

brilliant beyond her years. Because it takes courage just to try,

it really does. It takes grit to do something new

that you flat out may fail at. But when you

try and when you don't whittrying, that is what makes

somebody courageous. It's not the winning that is amazing, it's

the perseverance and the process. I could not agree more

with what little Kya wrote. Excellent speech, my girl, I

am cheering you on for those words. So now it

was summer and Kya was spending some time with her

dad and at his house with Miss Katie and her kids.

So they're all there and they're just enjoying their time together. Now,

one thing about Kya was that she loved everything that

the typical ten year old little girl did, things like squishies.

My god, if you have kids, are y'all on the

squishy train right now? Are y'all being told that you

need to drive to certain stores because they have those

special squishies, And oh my god, And then you get

there and you pay fifteen frickin dollars for one squishy.

I'm not complaining. I'm just saying I may or may

not have a ten year old girl myself, but she

loved these squishies. Kya loved Pokemon cards. Her favorite colors, y'all,

teal and pink. If she could just plaster that everywhere,

that would have been the color of choice. And she

also was a goober and she loved funny kid shows

and I love the word goober. My grandpa called me

a goober, and that's good. That's a good thing to be.

But she also really loved the concept of YouTube, and

she had even started her own channel where she would

debut her new Pokemon cards with excitement, and she would

talk about her new squishies and it was just, you know,

age appropriate content where she was showing off the things

that she got. Matter of fact, listen, how cute she is.

Listen here to the excitement in her voice in one

of those very little videos.

Speaker 2: Okay, guys, what did I tell you? M Oh No,

I didn't. I told you guys.

Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I told you guys.

Speaker 2: I was ordering or getting a Squishe package on the

thirtieth and it's the thirtieth and I ordered my squish package.

It'll be here in seven to nine days. I know

that's a lot, but thirty squishies is worth it, so.

Speaker 3: I ordered them.

Speaker 2: I got a thirty piece and a random and warm

just like Okay, I will open it. Oh my gosh,

I just can't wait. I just oh, I just want

it so bad. Okay, that's all I wanted to tell you, guys,

and I hope you joined a short video. Oh see

you in my next video, bye bye.

Speaker 1: Didn't she sweet?

Speaker 3: Y'all?

Speaker 1: Wasn't that just the cutest And she's got her little

hand over her mouth when she went, oh, I'm so excited,

just pure happiness, simple joy and low key. I gotta

tell y'all, she looked like a younger version of her mama.

You could tell that she definitely took after her mom

in terms of the looks department. So I know you're

also dying to know, but that squishy delivery she was

waiting on was delayed, but when the shipment came in,

she got the one that she was wanting, so it

was worth the weight, and you deserve to know that.

Which one did she get? She got the Lovecake squishy

and my god, it literally smelled like cake. She made

a video update about it and it had the perfect

squish to hand size ratio and she was just like

over the moon, super excited if you know, you know

my friends. But on June the seventh, Kaya found herself

in a bit of a predicament. Some of her prized

Pokemon cards had gotten messed up. Not cool. While rough

housing and arguing and doing all of the things that

young kids do. Miss Katie's son Aiden had thrown one

of her packs of cards and bent them, messed them up,

and you all know this. It's like it's like a

baseball card or something like that. You don't want your

cards bent up. You don't mess up your cards. And

so Kya was aggravated because why you have to mess

up my things was kind of her thing. Here go back,

what's up your own stuff? That wasn't very nice. Why

are you throwing my cards? So after they squabbled a

little bit, and she showed him exactly what had happened

to her cards. Aidan was sorry about it, okay, all right, look,

I'm sorry.

Speaker 3: He was.

Speaker 1: He was only fifteen years old himself, y'all. So he

didn't have money to replace the cards that he had

messed up. But he was like, all right, look, I

didn't mean to mess him up whatever. He did, however,

have a plan that he came up with that could

solve both of their problems. They could go down to

the Walgreens and they could get her some more brilliant

let me replace what I have messed up. But the

thought here was kind of like, I thought, you don't

have any money, Aidan, how are you gonna buy me

more cards? And to this, he said, well, you're right,

I don't have any money, but I have hands and

I have a sweatshirt, and so I'll just steal you some.

It's not a big deal and you'll be happy and

I won't get in trouble. So let's just do that.

So when he explained his plan to her, she was like, fine,

what else, okay, And so the kids set off from

the house and they were walking to the nearby Walgreens

to affect this plan. Now, before they left, Aidan did

tell his twin brother where they were going, the location

at least, you know, we're going to Walgreens before they

set out on foot on their journey. Now, it was

about seven pm, and so they should have been back

in about forty five minutes or so, maybe an hour,

just depending on how fast they were walking. So as

they got past dusk and dark actually began to fell,

Miss Katie became very alarmed that both of them were

not back home yet, and so she spoke to Aiden's

twin brother and realized what their location was supposed to

be or where they were heading to. And so she

jumped in her car and she went out to look

for them, maybe to find them. Now, before she left

the actual house, she did walk around, She went nearby,

she looked, you know, in the locations. They might have

been in the backyard or whatever, but she didn't find them.

She even went out further into the neighborhood. Maybe they're,

you know, between two other houses or something like that,

other places they may frequent, but again no sightings of them.

They were not there. And so the stress level in

her was raised considerably and that's when she jumped in

her car and she headed towards the store. Now, they left,

like I told you, around seven pm, but it was

now well past eight o'clock. So when she arrived, she

got out, she went in the store. She's looking up

and down the aisles, moving faster and faster as she's

you know, not seeing them as she's clearing each and

every aisle. But when she went through all of them,

they weren't there. They weren't in the bathroom either, they

weren't in the parking lot, they weren't anywhere. And so

panic really began to set in as she frantically checked

other nearby stores that the kids may have gone to.

Maybe they changed their mind, maybe they went to this

other location for whatever they were going to get. But

no matter how many times she ran in and came

out of these nearby stores, she came out alone and

the realization hit that the kids were gone. They were

not in the local area. They just weren't there. And

making it worse was that neither one of the kids

had a cell phone either, so it wasn't like you

could just ring them up and see where they were

or do a like three sixty year check locations. And

you know, when I was little. I know the story

isn't about me, but I just have to interject this here.

When I was little, I used to do that thing

to my mom where I would hide in the racks

of clothing or whatever at Walmart. And one time when

she was calling for me, I just wasn't answering. I

was being a little turd and it took a minute

for her to find me. But when she got a

hold of me, the look in her eyes, I know

I was getting fussed at and I started to cry,

but the look in her eye was sheer terror. Whenever

she thought she could not find me. They even called

me over the loud speaker at the Walmart. And if

you're local, it was the one that used to be

on Oneal Lane, but not where it is now. It's

where the Highbby lobby or the old hobby lobby. Was

the look in her eyes I'll never forget because she said,

you scared me. I'm not mad at you, because you

know you hid I'm scared, and I'm scared. So it

scared me so bad. I thought someone took you and

I would never see you again. And so when I'm

thinking about this. It's just terrifying. They're gone out into

the world. It's not like they were in a store.

They're gone out into the world and she can't find

So Miss Katie returned back to the house and now

that everyone basically had been looking for them and everyone

was on board, we can't find them. They're not here.

That's when she dialed nine to one one and was

asking for help. We can't find the kids. It's dark.

This is not normal. So officers were dispatched to the

home and they arrived very very quickly and took down

the information to make the initial report, as other units

that were in the area were told, we need you

patrolling over here, looking up and down and see if

you can locate these kids. Even with police help, multiple

officers looking the kids weren't found and time continued to tick,

so police began knocking on doors. They were talking to neighbors,

and Miss Katie was still in the midst of talking

to police when her cell phone rang. It was Jacoby

on the other line. He had gone out to assist

with searching for the kids, when, as luck would have it,

thank you God, he came upon Aiden walking towards the

house and so just ultimate relief. Oh my god, thank

god you found him, he said, yeah, he told Aiden

get in the truck. Aidan jumped in the truck. He said,

where's Kaya and she said he said, she was lagging

behind me. So I'm not quite sure where she is,

but she was taking longer than I was to get

back home. So Miss Katie says, oh, thank god, keep going,

let's find Kaya. But I'll update the officers that we

at least have Aiden. This was a huge relief. Okay,

one child was found, but it was late, and we

can all agree that a young girl specifically out on

her own at night and it's now like the midnight hour.

That ain't good. That's not good for anybody. So a

few minutes later, Jacoby pulled up and dropped Aiden back

off at the house and then he goes back out

to go look for Kaya and where she may be.

So Aiden starts talking to the police and they're asking

him questions. He really didn't have much information to give

them though. He said they had gone to get Pokemon cards.

They were walking back home from the Walgreens whenever she

started to really lag behind and wasn't keeping up, and

so he wasn't gonna lolligag. You know, she's a girl,

and she couldn't keep up whatever. He was going to

make it back to the house. And obviously that's not bright.

The kids should have stayed together, but kids are kids,

and they don't always make the best decisions. Another issue

complicating things was that it had been raining pretty hard

that evening and they had tried to stop getting soaked. Okay,

so the area where they were walking back from had

trees and there was overgrowth, and so at one point

he said, we stopped together underneath this, you know, these

limbs and like this brush and stuff, because we didn't

want to get soaked in the rain. But eventually it

was kind of like they decided that they were just

going to make a run for it and come back

towards the house. So the search continued, and Aiden fully

expected her to be back home, you know, soon they

found him, so they're going to get her. But time

continued to pass, I mean hours continued to pass, and

the reality was that she was not coming home. She

wasn't No one was pulling up with her, she wasn't there.

So police decided to bring the family down to the

station to get them out of the home environment and

the stress and the chaos of that and to really

focus on questions and answers about the last few hours

and what had gone on. And the family was very open,

very willing to help, and they agreed to answer any questions.

They gave permission for the kids, any of the kids,

to be questioned anything that they could do to find

kaya no problem, we need we need help. So Aidan

obviously was the last one to physically see her, so

his account of their last moments would be very crucial

because even the small details that kids don't latch onto

needed to be discussed because it could it could open

up to something that as a kid he's not realizing

could mean a lot and every you know, Aidan was

everything you would expect from a fifteen year old boy,

a thin, squeaky voiced teen with no concept whatsoever of

how serious this issue was. It's like he didn't get

get it, you know, Like I know they weren't actual

brother and sister, but for the case of storytelling, I'll

call him brother and sister. But to him, it was

more like my little sister was dumb for getting lost,

and you know, I don't she should have just kept

up with me, and he was having to repeat everything

from the past few hours over and over. But y'all, seriously,

it was critical anything anything he saw or heard or

that that was said. Police needed all of it down

to the minutia. But there was really nothing more that

he added that would do give any big breaks in

the case. He told them she loved Pokemon. I threw

her cards. I had messed up the cards. She got

upset with me. Now he would eventually be honest and say, okay, look,

we were going to go steal the cards. Okay, that's

scary for a kid to be number one of the

police department, but then to also have to admit, all right,

I was going to steal something. He didn't really want

to come off of that at first, but his mother

was very clear to just tell the whole truth, be honest.

It doesn't matter. Okay, that is irrelevant in retrospect. We

don't care. We just need to find kaya. So just

be truthful, tell the whole truth, beyond honest. So everyone

at this point, everyone else at least, is out looking

for her on foot. Big police presence canines were even

brought in to try to track her down. Volunteers. Everyone

was searching for Kaiya and time was continuing to pass.

By this point, the sun was now back up, it

was morning again, and there was still no word from

the little girl. So detectives weren't sure necessarily if this

was an abduction. But for sure, we know that people

don't just disappear. Something happens to them. And so Aiden

even was asked, okay, draw a map for us, so

that we can at least track where you were walking

and where she was last seen. He grabbed the pencil

and he starts drawing the map for detectives, which outlined

exactly the route and the trails, if you will, that

they had taken. And so they would take that map

and they would try to go drum up some camera

footage from the location that Aidan had described them walking.

Police had even asked neighbors if they had any security

cameras that could possibly be reviewed, but again those neighbors

said they didn't. They didn't have anything that would have

picked that up. So pulling the security footage from Walgreens

would however, prove extremely useful because, just as Aidan had said,

the two were seen walking up to the store and

then they walked in. You know, there's automatic doors opening up,

and there were two customers that were checking out right

there to their right, and Aidan is dressed in his

jeans and that gray hoodie Kaya was right behind him.

The video footage was very good and so they could

tell that she was in her her Bronco shirt sporting

manning of course number eighteen. And so when they got

to where the Pokemon cards were, they ran into a

bit of an issue. So due to increaseed theft, which

if you've been out and about anytime yourself, even Walmart,

I'll bring that up again. They've started to put things

behind those plastic locking cages or whatever because of theft. Well,

the Pokemon cards were now being put behind that any

theft glass, and so he couldn't just grab them like

they would have been able to in time past. So

this made their heist just impossible. He couldn't do it.

There was no way they would have to get somebody

involved that worked there, and he wasn't going to do that.

But not to give up completely. On coming back empty handed,

Aiden and Kya went over to the candy aisle, where

he loaded his sweatshirt with candy before they left out

without paying. Of course, just about ten minutes later now

when they walk out the doors, you can still see them.

Kya looked like she threw something away in the trash

can that was right outside of the doors before. They

then went to the right and out of the frame

of the camera, and they had gone that direction specifically

because Aiden told police the two had decided to go

try another store location that was nearby to see if

they could get cards there. So at least with this footage,

police were able to solidify her last known clothing for

sure what she was wearing and her look could be

accurate and up to date. With that information, police went

ahead and they issued an Amber alert for Kaya, be

on the lookout. Her name is Kaya Campbell, five foot four,

blue eyes, one hundred and fifty pounds, ten years old,

last seen wearing a Bronco shirt and blue pants. But

as they were walking, Aiden said that Kaya got thirsty

and the house obviously was still in walking proximity, so

they changed course. Before they went to the other store,

they went back to the house for a few minutes,

where they grabbed a backpack that they filled with some

bottled water and they'd put some cups in there. Plus,

the bag could kind of be useful for whatever they

were about to go boost from the other store. Right,

I'm not saying Aiden said that, but just as an

outsider looking in booksack could be very useful. Now this

was confirmed that this happened because while they were at

the house, they had spoken to Aiden's twin. They had

even given him some of the stolen candy before they

left back out to go back to the other store,

So the timeline was better secured by this knowledge, combined

with the security footage. Now everybody was on foot and

out searching for her, while the police were continuing to

run down any potential leads. But something that they just

couldn't get past was the fact that Kaya was young. Okay,

she was only ten, but she wasn't dumb. Okay, she

wasn't too young or not able in the sense to

know her parents' phone numbers. She knew her parents' numbers,

and she was definitely that if she had gotten lost

and it got dark and overnight, that she could have

gone into a nearby store to ask for help. If

she had gotten lost or something. I mean, hell, she

could have gone and knocked on someone's door. If she

had to so the morning was now rolling by. It's,

like I said, the next day, no sighting of her

at all, And it wasn't making sense because there was

no direct evidence at least that the kids were followed

or that there was a kidnapping that may have occurred.

But on the same token, Kaya didn't have any friends

in the area. She was visiting her dad. It wasn't

where she predominantly would have been, so it wasn't like

she'd run off to a house of a friend and

was just not communicating with her family or something like that. Now,

in this area, it's important to note that, you know,

calls and communication for the entire area are still going

to be made to nine one one or to police officers,

even if it's not in this specific area that I'm

talking about. You know, there's other areas that there's still

going to be police presence and information given. And so

there were multiple homes that had told police they heard

a child scream out about eight forty five pm. This

would have been the night before. But this information was

more than a mile away from where Aiden and Kaya

had last been walking. So you're not going to discount

the information, but it is way out of the way

for a walking set of kids to have heard her,

you know, from these from these homes. So the question

was like, could this have been a scream from Kaya

being taken against her will? Or if that's the case,

she could be anywhere by now, no wonder we're not

finding her. And you know, if she had been forced

into a car or something, that raises more issues or

was it even possible Maybe the kid's gotten a fight

while they were walking. They were already upset because of

the Pokemon card she was, So did the get in

a fight? And maybe she ran away? Did she go

a mile out of her way? The screaming wasn't clear

enough to know what exactly was going on, but you

can't you can't deny that the location just wasn't correct.

So Aiden was still being questioned at this point, and

a lot was brought up about their relationship. Aidan and Kaya,

What was what was this about? They knew that the

kids had known each other probably eight or nine months,

basically when their parents had first started dating, and so

they asked him about their relationship. They said, was it

good or was it bad? Was there any strain between y'all?

And Aidan said, I mean it was normal as far

as I know it. I did get upset with her recently.

We did get in a fight because he was high, Okay,

he had been smoking some weed and she had told

basically on him or brought it up, and so he

was getting in trouble. So he called her a p

and he hurt her feelings and you know, that kind

of thing had happened, but they had been on good

terms up since then. That was just like everyday fighting,

I guess. They straight up asked him, have you ever

hit kaya before or hurt her? And he looked at

the cop kind of dumbfound He said, I've never hit

a girl, any girl before. I've never hit a girl.

And so asking him about this wasn't just out of

the blue, okay, when like they were just randomly throwing

questions at him, because there was a record of at

least one nine to one one call at the home

in the past, and it was surrounding Aiden because he

had been in trouble for some truancy issues. Truancy meaning

like he wasn't going to school and he wasn't doing

exactly what he was supposed to do, and so his

mother had called police in the past on Aiden specifically

because he was acting up and there was talk about

he had kicked over some trash cans and he was

just being a belligerent little asshole basically, and so she

had called police. It wasn't something involving adults fighting or

children being abused or anything like that. So, I mean

standard practice if if something happens at a home or

where a kid goes missing or something, they're gonna look

and see if there's a history at the house. So

that was why they had asked that question to try

to see if something had happened. But the rain in

the late hour of the previous night, that was of

concern to both the police and Aiden as they talked

through the prior knight's events. The rain could have brought

about a lot of issues, you know, as far as

seeing her or if she had slipped or something along

that line. But also the backpack was something that police

kind of brought into question two. And there was a

reason for this as well, because Aiden and Kaya had

gotten in trouble before for what they called car popping,

and basically that's they would walk around and they were

checking doors at night to see if they were locked

or not. And if it was open, they would steal

stuff out of the cars. So they did have that

backpack with them, and considering they had done it before

in the past, it wasn't out of the question. But

when they raised this question to Aiden, his attention then

turned to the fact that he was now being accused

of stealing. You know, there's a lot going on here

in this room in a short period of time, and

he was freaked out that he was being accused of

stealing while his sister so to speak, Kaya was still missing.

And he was adamant, I already told you the truth.

I told you we were going to steal Pokemon cards,

but we were not car popping. I was not stealing

from cars. I don't if I'm telling you the truth. Yes,

we were going to steal Pokemon cards, but we didn't

get any because they were locked up. And the detectives

are like, look, man, you were just the last person

to see with her, so clearly we have to ask

you all of the questions, and even if you don't

like what we're asking you, we have to to rule

you out. And so the conversation continued and they asked

him questions like, have you ever had homicidal thoughts, and

he's like, no, never. So whenever he answers this question,

he's like, are you accusing me of stealing and of

doing something to my to Kaya? Is that what's happening here?

And so the detective says, well, I mean, are you

worried about Kaya?

Speaker 3: Are you?

Speaker 1: And he said, well, quite frankly, at this moment, I'm

worried about myself. I'm worried about myself and Kaya. This

feels like I'm being attacked. I'm being accused of things

that I haven't done, and like, this is weird. You know,

this is weird the direction that this has gone so

as far as his family, and they were talking about, look,

your family's really worried. Their their nerves are just wrecked.

He says, me too, me too, you know, he said,

I'm not so nervous about Kaya not being found. I'm

more nervous about the fact that she's missing. And I

would assume she's alone out there somewhere. She's got to

be scared, like we need to be finding her, not

accusing me in this room. So they pressed him more

about the walk, and they were talking about when they

went on to the second store and so Aiden said

that they were walking fast because it was getting dark

and he did not want to get in trouble because

he had already been in trouble based on those truancy

problems that he had had in the past. So as

night had started to fall when they were walking back

to not easily be seen because they were out too late,

he said, we stayed on the darker side of the road.

So I'm assuming I don't know what the street lights

were or the moon or anything like that, but there

was obviously a more shaded or darkened side when they

were walking, and so they kind of clung to that

body would see them and they wouldn't get in trouble

if they were seen out so late. And that's whenever

it had started to get really cloudy, and now they

were worried about this, you know, upcoming storm that was

going to hit them, so they took cover under some branches,

like some overgrowth and some branches from some trees. But

it didn't start pouring right at that exact moment that

they expected it would happen. So Kaya said, look, I

just want to go back. I want to go back home.

We can probably make it back before it starts to pour.

Aiden wanted to stay there for a minute to see

if because if it just busted wide open and started pouring,

maybe they wouldn't get completely soaked. It would slack off,

and then they could get back to the house. Well,

it did start raining, but they weren't getting saved by

these branches obviously, I mean, they were getting wet, and

so they all they both just started to head off

back towards the house. After all, he was in front,

she was behind him. They're making their way through the

rain back to the house, and he said she was

just lagging behind me a little bit. And then at

one point when he looked back to see where she was,

she wasn't there. Now, Kaya was not in you know,

this big athletic child or anything like that. So the

thought that she may have been slower did make sense

that she might have been lagging behind. And so, like

I told you, Aiden carefully drew a matt for them

of where and he marked where he last saw her. Foresure,

this is the spot that we were. He told them

that he had turned back at the point that he

realized that she wasn't right behind him, he turned back

and he went on, I'm going to say the word trail.

I don't know that that's necessarily necessarily correct, like an

official trail, but the trail he took when he went

back to go look for her, he was calling out

for her. He said, I wasn't like yelling at the

top of my lungs. He didn't want to alert people

to where he was. But he's like, I'm going, you know,

kaya kaya. And then at one point he came out

and he saw l like some houses right there, and

he's like, shit, you know, where did she go? But

she never would answer him. So it's raining, it's dark,

and she's not answering him. So he said, I looked

for like thirty minutes, you know, and I kept looking

and I kept calling out for her, but she wouldn't

answer me. And so he's like, well, I decided at

that point, I mean, I got to go back to

the house. It's just getting later. And he was getting

very nervous about everything combined, so he, I mean, he

couldn't just stand there. What was I gonna do? I

can't just stand there and she won't answer me. So

he started walking back towards the house, and it was

about that time that mister Jacoby pulled up and said

get in the car, and he took him to the house.

And that's that's it. Like, there's nothing else that he

could give them now as far as being upset, he

was asked, you know, were y'all fighting in that moment?

He said, I don't think I made her mad or anything,

but you know, she did get upset about stupid things.

We argued about stupid things, but not then. We weren't fighting. Then,

she wasn't mad. She didn't say anything about she wanted

to run away. There was nothing like that going on.

She had a great relationship with their parents. They had

the typical dynamic of kids in a family. They would

joke and they would they would play. So this disappearance

did not fit. And he didn't know what else to

say or do. Y'all, he was fifteen years old. I

want to tell you too, that it had been a

long time now that he was being pressed and questioned.

A long time. I mean overnight. You know, it's the

next day and they're still questioning him. He was getting cranky,

he was tired, he was very visibly stressed. I mean, hell,

he was still in the same clothing that he had

been wearing the night before when all of this started.

So they decided to give him a break and he

laid his head down on the table in the room

to rest for a minute, to close his eyes, and

to just relax for a second. So back out at

the search that's still going on. Canines were out there,

not one, multiple k nines were out there, and oddly enough,

none of them were able to pick up her scent.

And that's weird. Multiple dogs unable to pick up a

scent that they're looking for just doesn't make sense. Maybe

one dog, you know, could be having a problem that day,

or didn't want to work, or wasn't doing whatever he

was supposed to be doing. But when multiple dogs are

not picking up a scent, that tells the handlers that

there's no scent there. It doesn't work like that. Okay,

if they give the dog a cent, one of them's

gonna pick it up if the scent was there to

be found. So looking further into the route that was

drawn of the kids and where they walked, the police

realized something. Going back into the room where Aidan was,

they told Aiden, look, man, we don't see you on

the Walgreens store video like we needn't see we're on

the video. Maybe you need to go check and the

time is offer or something. Maybe we were at the Walgreens,

but they say, no, man, not the first Walgreens that

you went to. You said that y'all went to a

second Walgreens or a second store, and they were seen

heading that way on some security footage from other locations,

but they were never seen on tape inside the actual

second store. So, as this is being discussed and what happened,

detectives that were talking to Ing made note that aiden

shoes didn't have any mud on them. They didn't seemed

dirty or messed up. And after a major storm that

he described and walking through these paths and looking for her,

it just didn't seem that his shoes would have been

that clean. And so they noticed this and they're like, hm,

that's kind of odd. But Aidan asks at that point

to end the questioning. He's like, I've answered you. I've

told you everything I know, like seven million times. And

wherever Kaye is, she must be scared shitless and it's obvious.

So she's somewhere she doesn't want to be because she

would have called. But I don't know where that is

I don't know what to tell you, and it seems

like you're wasting time and you're focusing all your energy

on me when we need to be looking for her.

And that's when police decide that they're gonna they're gonna

pull out a bomb here, Okay, And I kind of

chuckle when I say a bomb, because you're gonna know

what I mean when I say they decided that they

were going to bring Aiden's mom in and see if

maybe she could get him to think and say more.

Because it's one thing to be a fifteen year old

talking to people you don't know, but when mama comes in,

that's different. So when mom enters the room, his demeanor

completely changes. He becomes very very whiney, just whiny, whiny, whiny.

He puts his head down on the table, he's mumbling

a lot, and she looks at him and she's like, look, buddy,

you know, let's be real here. You don't always make

things easy for people. You're not always easy to get

along with. You make the wrong decisions sometimes, and so

we really need you to tell us everything, Bud. You've

got to tell us. Did y'all do anything you weren't

supposed to do. Is it possible that maybe she's scared,

and she's scared she's going to be in trouble. Maybe

she's hiding somewhere. Come on, man, like, talk to us.

There's got to be something that you're not saying. And

that's what he tells his mom. Y'all know that we

were out doing something wrong. We were stealing the Pokemon cards.

Y'all know, Oh this I told you. And the emotional

toll really starts to get to Aiden at this point,

and his mom could tell. She could tell that he

was starting to lose it. It had been a long time,

and so she asked him, do you need a hug, buddy?

Do you need a hug? He said yes, and he's fifteen,

but he still gets out of his chair. He gets

into her lap and she just hugs on him like

any loving mother would do. He's still her baby, and

you know, this is just a tragedy and it's scary.

Still nobody knows what's going on. So with nothing moving

the investigation forward, the police are like, look, you know,

we don't have anything else to go off of. We're

gonna go ahead and take his clothes and we want

to swab him for DNA and kind of see where

we can go from here. And Aiden's bomb. Of course,

she gave consent and all of that. So while they're

waiting for that to happen, he asks his mom, why

do they need my clothes? Mama, I don't have to

give up my clothes, and she tells him to look

for blood or anything like that, and he's like, okay,

but I mean I've told them everything. I've told them everything,

I've drawn their maps, I've done everything, and now they're

gonna take my clothes. You know, it's kind of immature,

but he's fifteen, and that's it. Just it is what

it is. So as they continue talking, he's like, look,

can I just talk to different officers, ones who aren't

going to come in here and accuse me and continue

to make me feel like I've done something wrong? Can

I get an officer that will actually listen to me?

You know, I'll do anything. I just don't like these guys.

Basically they keep accusing me. So they make a change

and they bring in a female officer and she said

something that kind of tickled me. She says, look, I'm

you know, I'm here to I'm gonna come do a

polygraph man. You know, let's do a lot of detector tests,

you know, if you don't want to be accused, and

I'm your girl, and those are her exact words, and

that kind of tickled me obviously, because if you're easily offended,

then I'm not your girl. But she said, I'm your girl. Okay,

I'm gonna do a polygraph test. I'm not here to you.

And if you don't want to take this test, you

don't have to. I want to be very clear about that.

And Aiden was like, I'll do the test, I'll do anything,

but I'm just tired. I want to leave. I'm over this,

you know, I don't. This is not helping me, and

I'm tired, and she says, no problem. Well, before they

get started with the polygraph test, she's got to kind

of get some baseline understanding of how he operates, and

so she asks him, all right, tell me how you're doing.

And he's honest. He says, look, I'm pissed. I'm pissed now.

I mean I keep being accused and I'm not getting

to leave. And he says that he does have he's

been in a mental health hospital before, and she goes,

you have and he said, yeah, and why were you there?

And he lists it off. You know, I have ADHD,

they say, I have an emotional disorder depression, anger, and

life's been pretty bad for me the last couple of years.

I've had to deal with too much. And he said,

you know, there's been at least four years of me

going to constant therapy and meetings and stress at our house.

I never get a break. I never get a break.

But now in recent time, he said, I'm doing I'm

just doing. I've been doing better, you know, and now

here i am getting accused of something again and I'm

doing better well. As they're talking about this and they're

getting ready to start the test. Outside of the room,

CPS reports were being reviewed. This is Child Protective Services

Social Services, because there were reports there and social services

those reports were backing up again what Aiden was saying,

including his history of anger and outbursts, and the fact

that you know that the mom had called nine one

one because of his behavior. But what was somewhat wild

to them in this specific case. This social worker specifically

who worked on this case was personally shocked that Aiden

was allowed to be alone with a ten year old

without any supervision, and so police are like, wait, you're

that You're that worried about it, and she, I say, she,

that was just I don't know if it was a

he or she, but the social worker felt like the

representation of things being better in social worker's opinion was

just not accurate and that you know, she would not

have allowed that if if she were in charge of

the family. So back in the room, while Aidan's maintaining

that he was doing better and he was controlling, you know,

his outbursts and all of that, he also said that

he uh never wanted to take the medication that he

was being prescribed, and so he had been off of

it for four or five months, and he did admit

to this woman, I have been drinking, I have been

smoking weed, and he admitted. And my mom even called

the police on me because I kicked over a trash

bag and I was being disrespectful to the family. What

I'm trying to point out here is that everything Aiden

said ed was being aligned by or confirmed by the

reports and everything. So outside of all of this, there's

a school called Skyview Elementary and that's where the command

post or incident command was set up to really coordinate

the efforts that were still going on out there. Droves

of people showed up to assist in these search efforts.

Media was out there. This was pretty big, even though

it was just the next day. And so Aiden is

asked by this new female officer once again to recount

the story of what happened the last time that he

saw Kaya, which he did, and then right before the

test was to start, he asked to use the bathroom.

She's like, sure, go do what you gotta do, man.

So he goes to the bathroom and when he gets

back in the room, he says, all right, I want

to tell the full truth because I've left something out

you did, Okay, please do because we really would like

to find her. And he admitted that he didn't actually

like lose her. While they were walking, he said I

left her on purpose, okay, And he said she had

started getting really annoying while they were walking. She was whiny.

She was kept going on and on and on and

by the fact that she didn't get her Pokemon cards

and that he was supposed to get her the cards

and blah blah blah blah blah. And so he's like,

I just wanted to get away from her because she

was getting on my nerves. She was annoying me. And

so he's like, I just broke off from her and

I went my own way because I figured that she

was smart enough to find her way back home and

I didn't think I needed to escort her the whole way.

She's like, okay, well, okay, that's different then, so she

didn't just disappear y'all separated. So Aiden really starts losing

it emotionally by this point, and so the female detective

leaves the room and he's in there for fifteen or

twenty more minutes by himself, and watching him on the tape,

you can see him just going through the throes of

what looks like an all out emotional breakdown. He go

just his head's in his hands, he's kind of rocking

at points, and he's just really falling apart. So the

female detective comes back in and she says, look, buddy,

look at me, Look at my face. We aren't gonna

do the polygraph test. Okay, We're just not gonna do it.

You're falling apart here, And so he does seem to

feel or show just a hair of relief when she

says we're gonna we're gonna back off, and we're not

gonna do the polygraph test, she says. It turns out

that there was a family that was taking a walk

and they called nine one one and they found Kaya.

Oh good, right, oh yay, finally we found her. And

that's when the detective is like, no, she's dead. They

found her body. So when this family had called into

nine one one and said we think that we found

the girl, it was for a second like, oh, great, great,

where is she? But the gentleman that called was kind

of stuttering a little bit, stammering slightly, and he's like, no,

she's face down and she's in she's in a ditch

and her her and he's like he can't quite he

doesn't know how to verbalize it, and he's like in

her panties are gone, her clothing is removed. So police

and medics rush over to where she is. But when

they get there, they do find, in fact that she

is dead. Ten year old Kaya would not be coming

back home. Not only that, but the body, her body

was more than a mile away from where Aidan had

last seen her. So when the news is broken to

him that she was found, but she's dead. Aiden's emotional

reaction to those words was that he fell apart, like collapsed,

fell apart. She's dead, she's dead. What happened? What happened?

Tell me what happened. But he doesn't get the answers

that he wants at that moment, because it is pretty

clear right then that the police now believe that he

was the one who did it. And so he's like,

you think I did something to her? You think I

hurt her. I left her. I told you, I told

you I left her. And he's like, I don't want

to talk anymore. I just I want to be myself.

I want my mom. Please give me my mom. Well,

the audio of this was recorded, and so what I'm

gonna do is I'm gonna go ahead and let you

listen to a portion of this audio for yourself.

Speaker 2: I want to not talk.

Speaker 3: I wanna I want to be by myself. I want

you guys leave me alonver a little bit.

Speaker 1: Do you want to talk to your mom?

Speaker 3: Yes, yes, I'm willing to, like say everything that I

like about But I didn't her. I don't. I don't

know why I would want her, Why would I do that?

I just I don't people but murderers.

Speaker 1: That's that's crazy to kill someone. Maybe that makes you

a terrible person.

Speaker 2: Why like killing someone that's just so bad. I don't

want my wont.

Speaker 1: Now listening to this, I can't help but feel like

either the news had already been broken to his mom

about Kaya being found before she entered, or she he

did not realize yet that what Aiden was saying was accurate,

and maybe she was just listening to him thinking he

was upset, you know, about being accused of doing something

to her. And I say this because Miss Katie was

calmer than I would have expected. But again, people react differently.

But I just wanted to interject that here to let

you know my thoughts at this point.

Speaker 2: What's going on?

Speaker 1: They SAYAM killed her?

Speaker 3: What they think I killed her? They found a body

and they said I killed her? But I just loved

her on purpose.

Speaker 2: You left her on purpose?

Speaker 3: She was being annoying. She wouldn't saying what she wanted

from the stories.

Speaker 2: You wouldn't stop being annoying.

Speaker 3: They think I killed her?

Speaker 1: Whom Mom? I think I killed her? What's gonna happen

to me? What's gonna happen? So just listening to this y'all,

it's just simply heartbreaking to hear this, considering all of

the unknowns in that moment, but also the reality that

Kaya was really dead. You know, that's difficult to listen to.

And so miss Katie is now on the floor at

this point, and Aiden just kind of crawls and falls

into her arms on the floor, and he cries out,

you know, asking how is she killed? And and he

figured that she would have contacted how to get home

by now. I left her, but I thought that she

would she would make her way back home. But I

could I couldn't help but feel in watching and listening

to everything that was going on as this took place,

that his mom didn't seem to believe him. Maybe that

now at this point was the reason for why she

was being so calm in that moment. She didn't say

I don't believe you. I want to be clear, but

I don't know, man. It just didn't seem like she

believed completely what he was saying. And then he tells her,

I don't want to talk to anyone anymore. I think

we need a lawyer or something. But his mom continues

to talk to talk to him very calmly and she's

She's saying, you know, this is terrible. Kaya's life was

just so short and this, you know, she didn't get

to live long, and this is just, you know, a tragedy.

And the nightmare that they thought that they were in

the middle of already was really just beginning for all

of the parents involved in this case. So why were

police so focused on Aiden though? Because let's be real,

nothing I have said so far has been like a

smoking gun or something, So we're the police being unfairer

and just really targeting him just because he was the

last person to be seen with her. Well, I gotta

jump in here and tell you that detectives aren't dumb, Okay.

They also don't ignore leads, no matter if they seem

to fit or not. And so the police had gone

and they had checked some Walmart surveillance video and they

did this in the area near where those screams of

a child had been heard by the multiple homeowners. And

guess what they saw Aiden and Kaya on those cameras.

Walking by the video that they just had seen confirmed

to them with certainty that the map Aiden had drawn

of where he last saw Kaya could not be correct,

and it wasn't an accident because they were more than

a mile in another direction than where Aiden said that

they were, and this meant that the crying boy with

a squeaky voice on the floor in his mom's arms

had intentionally directed police to the wrong area. Kia's body

was found near that very location, a mile away from

where he said they were, more near that walmart, in

a ditch under some brush, not anywhere close to where

Aidan had said that they were. No wonder his shoes

weren't muddy. Concrete in a rainstorm wouldn't be muddy like

the trails that he says that he was walking on.

So Aidan at this point would be taken away and

sent to the hospital where he would be given a

sexual assault exam. And I know someone right now is going, wait,

what why is he getting a sexual assault exam? Hear

me out. The police thought that he might be a

perpetrator against Kaya, and so they wanted to go do

the sexual assault exam on him, but as the perpetrator.

So what they're gonna do is they're going to ask

him to disrobe over like a clean mat and it'll

catch any hair, fiber, debris, take all of his garments,

They do also swab for DNA. Now we know about

swabbing in the cheeks and all that kind of stuff,

but on a male who is thought that they could

possibly be a suspect, They're not only going to swab

the mount, They'll swab the skin, any bite marks or

areas where there might have been force full contact, and

this includes the shaft, the glands, and the scrotum of

the penis. Okay, so they're going to try to see

if there's any of her DNA there. They do fingernail scrapings,

they're gonna get head and pubic care from this person,

and then obviously they may get urine samples or whatever,

depending on what the circumstance is. So any injuries on

Aidan would have been documented at this point in the process.

Well after the collection was done. Aiden was formally arrested

and days later charged with the murder. DNA tests came

back from Kaya's body and his DNA was recovered from

her body. And what I can tell you is based

on what I know about sexual assault testing and everything

I've just told you about where all they are swabbing,

you can likely deduce where that DNA was found as

far as Kaya's body is concerned. She was found on

the eighth of August. Her autopsy was performed on the ninth. Now,

they documented abrasions and bruises on her body. She had

a torn fingernail which was believed to be part of

a defensive wound. There were multiple abrasions. She had skull fractures,

bruises and contusions that on her skull were thought to

be or documented to be circular in in in shape.

And the doctor put that she died as a result

of blunt force trauma. And they put with such an

object such as like a hammer being sighted, that means

that this child the night before had been brutally beaten,

brutally beaten to have skull fractures, multiple strikes on her head,

I'll say, raped, and then left thrown in a ditch

face down. I mean it's it's it's a ten year

old little girl. So looking back at Aiden's bruises and

and and or his body, he did have bruises, he

had someone his arms and his legs. But I want

to tell you this. We always assume that injuries on

a perpetrator will be captain obvious. If someone's been in

a fight for their life, But I gotta tell you

they always aren't on the suspect. Okay, the bruises that

I saw on Aiden looked like an everyday work day

when my husband comes home from work, you know, small

little scratches here and there, like bruises the size of

a quarter or so on his body. But what I

can tell you in this case is that the DNA

don't lie, and Kaia's blood had also been found on

the shoelaces of Aiden's shoes after forensic testing was done.

Not only that, but when they had swabbed Aiden, they

found Kaia's DNA on him. Do the math. It's horrific

to think about, but we know what happened to that

little girl. But a month would pass and the families

were trying to understand what the hell happened here and why?

Why did this happen? What is going on? Because Aiden

gave no explanation, nor did he take responsibility for what

he was being accused of. Well, this is the point

where we're going to insert another teenager, one who was

listening as Aiden was held at the juvenile detention center

where this teenager was also being held. The two had

become somewhat friendly, and Aiden had told him some things

that this kid felt that the police may want to know.

So the team was brought in and the conversation, of course,

was recorded, and he told detectives that Aiden had told

him that he had killed his stepsister. So this part

about a question real quick in my mind, all right,

can miners act as confidential informants, which this is basically

what's happening here. The answer is going to be this

yes and no, okay, because it's not that simple. There

are restrictions and state laws that direct this. It changes

by state. The agency policies come into play here. There's

questions about possible coercion because if you're promising a young kid, hey,

you can get out of JUVI if you get information

for us kids will lae. I mean, a whole lot

of things can happen, and different states have different understandings

of if, when, and how it can be done. But

in this case, what the informant said, and by the way,

this was an unsolicited informant, so they didn't set him

up and ask him to ask questions. What he said,

in addition to this claim that it was admitted to

him would really solidify his believability because he gave examples

and details that could not be ignored in this case.

For starters, he said that he told that aident told

him he had drug Kaya off to the side of

the road near a waterway or a canal, and back

at the scene where Kaya's body had been recovered, there

were drag marks that were documented in the grass very

clearly near the body, and it aligned very much with

how it was described by this kid. He said that

Aidan admitted that he had beaten Kaya with a pipe

over and over and over in the head and that

he had done so much damage to her that he

even saw her brain. He specifically said that he did

it with what was described as a fence pole from

like a chain link fence, that's what he meant by pipe.

And then Aiden's claimed that after the attack that he

took off running, and he told this kid that he

had even stopped and taken the time to clean all

the blood off of his shoes. But he was worried

because the police had claimed that they found blood on

the laces of his shoes. But Aidan wasn't sure if

they were telling the truth or not. He would have

to wait it out. He would have to see Aiden

then tells the kid, but I blacked out. I don't

remember anything. But yet he was then able to brag

basically about everything that had happened. So he even followed

up with the fact that he had planned to run away.

That was his plan, but it got messed up because

Kaia's body was found before he could hit the road.

Maybe that's why he was pointing out of that interrogation

room so bad and said he just wanted to go home.

But the thing here is that no pipe or pole

had been recovered from the crime scene. But police also

weren't aware that that might have been a possible weapon.

Remember the all time, he said that it was probably

something like a hammer. So the police had executed a

search warrant at the home and they did find multiple hammers,

and they took all of them, but none of them

after testing, had anything that was found to have been

in relation to the crime. So Kaya's mother and grandfather

decided that they were going to just take things into

their own hands, I guess, and they went out to

look at the area where Kaya's body was found, and incredibly,

while they were down searching and looking, they uncovered a

black pipe in the grass, which they called police, and

they immediately came and took custody of that pipe that

they found. As of that point, that was pretty much

what they had for this case. So as the trial

date came closer, there was still no motive that became

really prominent. Why would a fifteen year old do this?

What could have sparked it? Well, Aiden would say that

he was stressed out and that the stress had gotten

to him. He would also say, look, I didn't like

Kaya's dad, Okay, I don't like mister Jacoby, And quite frankly,

he would say Kaya and I weren't like best friends

or anything. We didn't get along all the time. We

just more or less put up with each other like

siblings do. The only reason it seemed that she was

with him that night was because he had destroyed her

Pokemon cards, and if he replaced them then she wasn't

going to make a big deal of it, So it

wasn't like they were just pals hanging out. She spent

the time with him because she was trying to get

her Pokemon cards replaced. But one big issue that would

come up as far as court was concerned, was that

Aiden was so young to try him as an adult

or not really was like a big thing. It was

a very big concern or something that was contemplated and

laws and states, again they're going to differ on what

age a kid can be tried as a juvenile or

an adult. But in this case, the prosecutor chose to

in fact try Aiden as an adult. So his lawyer

blamed that there was no father figure in his life

and mental health and all of these other claims of

why Aiden did what he did. But the prosecutor was

pretty clear on why he was going to go after

Aiden and charge him as an adult, citing the fact

that he may have only been fifteen years old. But

he sure was able to confidently mislead and misdirect detectives

in the search after he had sexually assaulted and murdered Kaya.

He did it with no problem. He clearly was developed

enough to try and cover his tracks while remaining cool

and collected for hours, y'all, for many, many many hours,

well into the next day, before ever even breaking. I mean,

hardened criminals don't make it as long as this kid did.

The ability for him to do that is more along

psychopathic behavior, not immature behavior, and a guy who doesn't

have a daddy. He may be young, but to raise

to this level of violence and then add in a

sexual component to it a rape, I'm sorry, guys, I

myself don't find that that is just misguided youth. Had

he been tried as a juvenile, I also want to

tell you this, Had he been tried as a juvenile,

it would have been a possibility that he would have

only served two years before being considered for release. That's crazy.

So with all of the evidence stacked against him and

facing a trial as an adult, Aiden Zelmer would be

seventeen years old when on December the sixteenth of twenty

twenty one, he pled guilty to the murder of Kaya

as part of a plea deal where the sex offense

component would be dropped in exchange, and as such, he

was sentenced to forty years to life in prison. So

when it comes to young offenders and young people that

do these things, it's always a tough road. We as

a people, I would say, want to believe that it's

just immaturity or it's a lack of development that would

allow such a thing. But when does lack of a

father figure justify beating someone until their brain is exposed.

But also, when does that justify raping someone? You got

to ask yourself when do claims of mental health issues

explain explosive, unpredictable violence that results in death with the

added pleasure of sex in the process. You have to

really think about that. I've never met someone who was

a good person, just emotionally broken on the inside that

went and mixed sex with violence against another person and

then hid that as a coping mechanism. And in that

same spirit, if that's what's helping this fifteen year old

at such a young age cope, then what the hell

is he going to do to cope when he's an adult.

You have to think about that. I don't see him

outgrowing it. He fooled a lot of people. He cried

like a baby, and he wrapped himself in his mom's

arms while continuing to lie with purpose. And the entire

time his family was out there looking for Kaya, he

knew exactly where she was because he was the one

who put her there.

Speaker 4: He misled investigators, he played the devastated brother role, and

he weaponized everyone's compassion while they searched for answers that

he already had.

Speaker 1: That's not immaturity, y'all. That's calculation. Kaya paid the ultimate price.

She had already paid it. But it's funny how concern

only showed up in the moment when the consequences now

belonged to him. He had to pay some sort of price,

and when it became his turn to suffer, that's whenever

the tears began to flow and then became the excuses.

He blacked out. He couldn't remember what happened, but he

had no problem talking about what he did in detail.

When he thought that the audience didn't matter, Now that

was immaturity. Your audience always matters, and you never underestimate

what they're willing to do or share. Memory was never

the problem, his lack of conscience was. But foresight, man,

man does he probably wish he would have had a

little bit more of that because in my research I

found a Pria report with Aiden listed by name on it,

and I'm gonna post this on Patreon for you if

you're interested in seeing it. But if you don't know

what Priya is. That concerns prison rape, which young people

unfortunately may fall victim to while incarcerated, and it's terrible, guys,

Thank god, Aiden's arrest stopped him from hurting anyone else.

But I can't help but wonder what went through his

mind when he realized that prison criminals were a lot

like him. Not young, of course, uh, but mean nonetheless,

And when they may lie and deny just like he did,

I have a feeling they gonna educate oh Aiden on

how it's done behind bars, laying pipe that is,