Gather round, friend enjoin me by the fire.

I have a secret to share.

When I was a child, I lived with my grandma.

She allowed me to watch unsolved mysteries.

Fast forward to two thousand eight, my freshman year of college, a series of armed robberies on campus escalated into a serial rapist's reign of terror.

That's when I created my first crime podcast.

In January twenty fourteen, I picked up the podcast again from my college roommate who fell for an underage girl online, to the chilling story of a murdered nun in nineteen sixty nine Baltimore.

And in the Throwaway series, I share my own journey of overcoming homelessness and how that experience led me to unmask a serial killer and identify three of his Jane Doe victims.

This is foul play crime series where the stories are real and the truth is waiting to be discovered.

It's me Eric Carter Lan Dean, and I hope you're doing well.

This episode is going to be a little bit different from most of my episodes, and it's going to be pretty personal.

I started this show four years ago because I wanted to make a difference in my community.

I wanted to help people who were fighting for justice, like my mom and I, and initially I didn't want to talk about Jacob's case.

It was really scary for me.

I didn't want to put my brother's story, my story, my mom's story out there for the Internet to consume.

But I realized that this could actually be an opportunity for me to change things in my brother's case, and I thought that maybe we might have a chance at getting justice for Jacob.

If you're listening and you're wondering what are you talking about, Eric, you need to go back and listen to the first part of season two where my mom and I tell Jacob's story.

I also re released it recently, edited a little bit better for sound quality.

Didn't quite fix everything, But the point is it's been a really long journey and we have been through so much together because of you.

The district Attorney in Sukoro County turned the case over to the Attorney General about three years ago.

Because of you, listener, because of you true advocates, that happened.

Many of you were around when we did the campaign, calling and emailing and writing to the Attorney General and to the district attorney.

That led to a three year investigation with the Attorney General's Office, and I've kept a lot of this to myself.

It's not been an easy three years.

Halfway through those three years, there was a new Attorney General elected, so the case sat there for a while, not being touched.

But I held on to hope and I checked in occasionally.

But I was trying my best to not bother the Attorney General's office or the prosecutors that were looking into the case, because I didn't want to annoy them, and I was really hoping that this was it.

Prior to this happening, my mom and I had been told no.

Thirty four years.

We've been told no in a bunch of different ways from different prosecutors.

It's been hard.

It's been hard.

It's hard to know that the person responsible for killing your baby brother, for hurting you and your mom and probably countless others, has been free to hurt whoever he wants.

For the last thirty seven years, a lot was writing on the Attorney general's investigation.

So in December, the Attorney General's Office reached out to me and asked if my mom and I were available to meet with them.

Because of the holidays and my travel schedule with my day job as soon as we were able to get to the Attorney General's office was on January eleventh, and my mom and I were very excited.

We were very positive going into that meeting, feeling like maybe this was the right time and maybe we would finally see justice for Jacob and make sure that nobody else can be hurt by this man the way that he hurt us.

I kept saying that I was being cautiously optimistic about it.

I didn't want to get my hopes up because I knew how devastating it would be if I got my hopes up and we didn't get the intended action that we wanted on the case.

So unfortunately, the prosecutors and the investigator that was in charge of the case felt that they did not have sufficient evidence to bring charges at this time.

There's a few things that you need to know first and foremost.

I've confirmed this Jacob's case was covered up by the Skoro Police SoCoRo, New Mexico.

While we know that there was a confession to my brother's murder, we never knew what the confession said.

There was no recording, there were no notes.

I actually spoke with the officer that took the confession, and he in fact said that he did record it, he did capture it in note and it was signed.

The problem is, and this makes it sound like a movie or made up, but I promise you that it's not.

In nineteen, I think ninety two maybe ninety one, the District Attorney's office in Sacoro County burned down and a lot of evidence that was being held there, documents, things like that were destroyed in the fire.

Now, I don't have any proof of any nefarious arson that happened.

But what's interesting is the suspect who I believe is responsible for murdering my baby brother, Jacob when he was nine months old, had the keys to every county building in the County of Sacorol.

He was a custodian for the county, cleaned all of the county offices.

I'm not saying that he did it.

I'm just saying that there was ample opportunity for that to happen.

It's really hard for me to accept that because of the corruption in the police department at the time in Socorro County.

Because of that, Jacob has not had justice for thirty seven years.

And the fact that The state of New Mexico has not only failed Jacob, but has failed every child who has been killed at the hands of the people who should have been caring for them, of the people who should have had their best interest in heart.

I used to say this all the time, and it still stands true.

New Mexico has always failed child abuse victims.

The state of New Mexico, the government of New Mexico, the child Protective Services in New Mexico, has always failed protecting children.

The legal system has failed not just Jacob, countless children.

I'm not giving up on justice for Jacob.

I don't want you to think that's what's happening here.

In fact, I feel like I'm even more emboldened to continue.

So I'm not going to stop.

I'm going to keep telling Jacob's story.

I'm going to shout it from the rooftops.

I'm going to go on national and even global media if I have to.

I'm going to do whatever it takes so that everybody who hears my voice knows the dirty secret of what's going on here in the state of New Mexico.

What's persisted for decades, and all we get is lip service from our representatives in the State Senate.

All we get is lip service from state and county and city officials.

We get gnashing of teeth, we get people who cry on television, but nothing changes.

You can't deal with crime until you deal with child abuse, until you deal with domestic violence, until you deal with mental health issues, until you deal with poverty and drug addiction and alcohol addiction.

This isn't the last that you've heard of me on Jacob.

We are not giving up on justice for Jacob just because one Attorney General's office thinks that the case is not able to be prosecuted.

So we're readjusting the plan.

And I felt like it was really important to give you this update.

I haven't been able to update you on Jacob's case in a very long time.

I want to say thank you.

Thank you for standing with me and my mom as we navigate through this very challenging and difficult situation.

You have been a source of hope when others ignored us.

You listen when others were ready to give up.

When I was ready to give up, you helped me.

When I call you true advocates, I don't use that lightly.

I can't thank you enough for what you've done for my brother and me and my mom, the petition sharing asking creators to cover Jacob's case.

All of that has been so appreciated, and I'm never going to forget that.

Know that I'm not going to stop.

I may be changing the way I'm doing things, I may be changing my approach.

I'm not stopping.

And even if Jacob's killer never goes to jail for Jacob's death, I hope that what we've done has scared him enough to where he won't hurt others.

But I'm also going to look into laws that need to be changed and start lobbying for those things.

I'm going to continue shining a light on New Mexico's dirty secret.

Justice for Jacob is just for all kids in New Mexico, And so even if that looks like me and my mom making sure that no kid and no family has to go through what we went through, then that's what we'll do, or at least we'll get close.

I don't have a call to action for you right now, I'm sure that I will in your future as I start to work with my mom to plan out our next steps, I guess the one thing I could ask is if you just continue sharing Jacob's story and telling people about Jacob, because the more people are aware of what's going on here, the less likely it is that we can be ignored.

We've got to make it politically unpopular for the Attorney General's Office to ignore us, and so I ask that you just hang in there with me.

I will promise you as soon as I can give you another update on what's going on, I will.

And this episode, like I said, is a little bit different.

It's a little bit shorter than what we're used to, but I needed to come on here and let you know what's going on.

I also want you to know that the podcast isn't going anywhere.

We are going every other week, but we will be really working and gearing up to help families that are fighting for justice.

I've got a few families that I'm working with here in the near future, and I'm super excited to help advocate for more cases and bring light where their darkness.

Thanks for listening, and stay safe New Mexico.

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