If you didn't know we have criminal merchandise available on our website, you can get T-shirts, tote bags and stickers and every now and then we've limited edition merchandise available to head did. This is criminal dotcom slash shop to get criminal merch now that this is criminal dotcom slash shop. Thanks very much for your support. I've always just naturally been curious, like I've been a natural investigator my entire life. This is Jessica Maple. Back in 2011, she was finishing sixth grade and starting to make plans for her perfect summer.

And what she really wanted to do was go to a policy debate camp.

And then my mother said, hey, Jessica, I just got an email from the school and the county is going to have a junior district attorney camp.

Jessica was annoyed that her mother assumed the district attorney camp would be anything like policy debate camp. She was 12.

And I'm just like, mom, I'm not into this type of stuff. So I don't I don't want to go. And she's like, well, you're going anyway. So it's a bit upset. And so I went that first day.

For years, District Attorney Paul Howard has led camps for Atlanta's middle school students. Kemper's don't swim or canoe or make friendship bracelets. They spend their days at police stations and observing criminal trials. They have to abide by the junior D.A. creed. On the first day of camp, each camper is issued a uniform.

We had this giant oversized kind of blazer with a police badge. We were khaki pants and polos. So we are all matching. And, you know, we had the district attorney come in and then some of the attorneys that he works with and they were saying, hey, everybody, welcome to junior district attorney camp. And at the end of this camp, you guys are going to be like district attorneys.

Jessica loved everything about it. Every day after her camp, her mother would pick her up and Jessica would tell her who she met and what she learned. But one day she got in the car and her mother was upset.

And then she explained to me that someone broke into her grandmother's house and we don't know who did it. They took a lot of things. And so she was really upset because that's actually where she grew up. So she held a lot of memories there. And it just was really upsetting to her because it's just having someone invade a space that's special to you is very emotional.

When Jessica's great grandmother passed away years earlier, the family kept her house in the small town of Fitzgerald, Georgia. Exactly how she left it until someone broke in and took everything.

Her dining room set was gone. Her washer and dryer was gone. Her sofa was gone.

Somebody took all of her like crystal vases. They took her record console. The bedroom sets were gone. It was pretty empty.

It just looked like somebody came in and moved out her washer and dryer. Washer and dryer.

Yes. And the oven to Jessica says that a police officer told her mother that the art of finding the person or people who did this weren't good. He sort of insinuated the family was at fault somehow. And the police officer was just like, did you guys give anybody a key? Because it just looks like somebody had a key because there's like no forced points of entry or anything. And it just seems like that's the only thing that happened here.

After the police left, Jessica and her mother stayed behind giving everything another look.

I actually went around to the side of the house where the garage was and by the garage door windows, there were three little fingerprints. And I remember in junior day camp, I was like, oh, fingerprints. This is definitely some evidence. So we can send this off to the GBI and then we can find whoever broke into my grandmother's house.

The GBI is the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. Jessica's mother called the police and asked them to come back to have a look at the fingerprints.

And so I showed that to them and they were just like, that's not enough. We need at least like, you know, seven fingerprints. It's going to take entirely too long.

And at this point, you were thinking, I don't think that I can count on the police to solve this crime. It's up to me.

Oh, yeah. I was just like, OK, I have the tools and the knowledge on how to solve this crime. So now we're going to investigate this and figure out who did this, because I'm pretty unhappy. My mother was upset. My dad's upset. And I just want to get to the bottom of this.

Did you say to your mother at any point, don't worry, I've got this. I'm on it. Yes.

I told her, like, hey, mom, I'm going to figure this out and we're going to figure out who did this because justice needs to be served.

Jessica began her investigation. I'm Phoebe Judge. This is criminal. Her first step was to go around the house and take note of everything that was missing. She made a checklist. So I was just like, OK, I remember how all of this looks.

We even have photos. So it's time to essentially search for these items. Did you have a little notebook?

I did. Were you wearing your badge?

No, I left the badge at home. I should have had it with me. I would have looked way more official. I would have been wearing them.

But I don't think I'd ever taken the badge off. After Jessica cataloged everything that was missing. She started thinking about the next logical step.

So the town's not that big. So there are about like three pawn shops and one of these pawn shops is actually on the same street as my grandmother's house.

When you said to your mother, we're going to the pawn shop, what was her response?

She was just like, OK, I know you have these junior day skills, so I'm just going to listen to you. We're just going to follow what you say and we're just going to go.

They walked into the pawn shop and started looking around. And then, lo and behold, I see my grandmother's living room set in her dining room set.

And it's set up like kids, like a little furniture shop. And it's just there.

And I look at my mom like mom. Wow. And she takes out like her envelope full of her childhood photos. And it's like her as a kid in front of this, the same exact dining room set.

The owner of the pawn shop came over and asked if they needed help. I said, yes, sir. In fact, I do. Jessica asked the owner of the pawn shop to tell her everything he knew about this table and chairs, he said, well, two men brought this in and, you know, they just took it off their truck and they brought it in here.

And so I I asked him, I said, hey, um, do you mind giving me, like, photocopies of their I.D.?

And he was like, why do you need it? I said, well, this furniture was stolen from my grandmother's house. And he was like, oh, OK, I'll be right back.

The pawn shop owner gave Jessica a form that included scans of two young men's IDs. She and her mother drove straight to the police station.

So I got out the car and I felt pretty confident. I was just like, OK, I think I saw this. So I go inside of the police station and I find the officer well, the investigator who is on the case. And so I pass it to him and I say, hey, I did your job again.

And on this form, I have like the IDs of the guys who did it.

So now you guys can go out and arrest them and then the police officer that won't the investigator, he said, we can't quite do that. We got to we have to do our own investigation.

Jessica decided that the police could continue their investigation and she would continue hers.

She had the names and addresses of the people who pawned the furniture, and she asked her mother if they could go to one of the houses just to see if anyone was around.

And so we passed by the house. My mom was like, hey, do you see that person outside? And so I turn and it's a young man and his mother sitting outside on their porch. And I told her I was like, Hey, Mom, I think that's him. It looks just like him. Jessica didn't hesitate. She jumped out of the car and marched up to the porch.

So I walk up and I'm like, Hello, I'm Jessica. Her mother was trailing behind and they turned around and they look at me and there's like, Oh, hello, Jessica. I say, You look very familiar, sir. And the young man looks up at me. He's like white, like, yes, you look very familiar. And so then I pull out, like, the little sheet.

We're like, the idea is this you and me. Yes.

This this is me. And then the mother was just like, OK, what's going on here? And then I said, you know, that house. And then I mentioned the street where my grandmother's house was. He said, Yeah, I know that house. And I'm like, Oh, really? Well, did you happen to take some furniture to a pawn shop? He pretty much gave himself away at that point because, you know, he couldn't deny it because that's him on the pawn shop little form.

And he's just like, yeah, I did. I was like, well, did you, you know, break into this house, you know, my grandmother's house. And he's all like, Yeah, I did. And his mother was like, Oh, my gosh. What? Jessica and her mother drove back to the police station. So Jessica could tell the investigator that not only had she found one of the suspects, but she had also obtained a confession.

The owner of the pawn shop agreed to return her grandmother's items. When Jessica went back to camp that Monday, all of the campers were asked to describe one way in which junior district attorney camp had been helpful in their real lives. When Jessica told her story, no one could believe it. And then the rest of the country found out about it, too. Here she is being interviewed with District Attorney Paul Howard on national news.

So what was the response that you got when you pointed out this clue that you found? Well, when they came there, they said, wow. And that was it. So there is also the manager, what Abraham like, bring out two sheets of paper and it had I.D. on them. And I thought to myself, this is really helpful. Then he finally admitted it. You to confess right there on the street. Oh, this is I mean, it's it's amazing, but it's beyond amazing.

I mean, how old are you and 12 years old.

What did your mother say at the end of this all?

My mother said, Jessica, you are so smart. You're so bright. You are so intelligent, like you are amazing for solving this. And you pretty much did this all on your own like you're great. And I knew you going to Junior do. You can't. I knew that was such a great idea. And I looked at her. I said, you're right, Mom. You're right. What did you say to your to your mother, what did you say when you walked in the door?

I was like, Mom, the craziest thing just happened. This is Griffin Steel, he's 10 now, but when he was seven, he found something very strange.

Can you tell me about that day? Take me through that day.

OK, so my dad had to go to Lowe's and ask me if I want to come with him. So I did. And then after that, we decided to stop by our local speedway. That's a gas station. Yes, it is. And so we went in the store and my dad bought me a cherry flavored Gatorade. And I finished drinking the Gatorade pretty early, so I want to throw it away on the trash can that was outside.

And then I look in the trashcan and I find that there's like a ton of money in there, how much money did it seem like from looking at it?

I didn't have much perspective back then, but I would say that it was probably a little bit more than ten thousand dollars, maybe ten thousand dollars.

I bet that's the most money you'd ever seen in your life besides on TV.

Yes. Well, I mean, I was a little bit I was confused when he said, hey, dad, look, look at this. Trash can is full of money. And I said, what?

Griffin's dad, Shane Steel, I walked over there and I mean, you know, it's just something you never see. I was trying to figure out what to do because it was a very public place. There's cars everywhere. And now I'm standing there with this trashcan full of money and trying to figure out how to get it out of public view without looking like I'm doing something wrong. So I just decided to just have the bag was as a brand new trash can.

It didn't have anything in it except the money. So I just folded it up, tied it up and put it in the back of my truck. But the whole time it was like answering that question, like, what would you do if you found a bunch of money on the side of the road?

It was it was strange because like a lot of it was covered in red dye.

I asked dad why was covering it, and he said that there were excluded defects on it because whenever there was a bank robbery, they would put dye packs inside the mixed in with the other, mixing with the normal money so that whenever they stole it, there was like a trip by the door. So as soon as that happened, the dye packs would explode and it would cover all the money in red dye and it was still hot.

You know, the money was still hot. So it obviously just that dye pack just went off maybe 15 minutes at the most before we found it.

So, yeah, Shannon Griffin called a friend who was a police officer to ask what they should do. He told them that there had been a bank robbery just 45 minutes ago.

So they called nine one one and sat down on a bench to wait, Shane took a picture of Griffin with the money.

It's just me with like I'm like gasping and I have, like, all the money in front of me inside the trash bag. And it's like it's one of the biggest mistakes of picture I've ever put online.

Because your mouth is wide open. Yeah, it's. Very cringeworthy police in Orange County, South Carolina, arrested a man a few days later who had allegedly robbed the bank on the day Griffin found the money as well as another bank. A few days earlier, he was convicted of grand larceny, two counts of entering a bank with intent to steal and second degree burglary. Did you tell it?

Did you tell your friends? Yes, as a child, I was annoying. So I was basically going around and bragging to people, oh, look what I found, but you think do you think that you've grown out of being annoying now at almost 11?

OK. It was just a phase. Correct.

OK, well, they always seem to get themselves in crazy situations, Griffin's mother, Carol, still, she says the bank that had been robbed gave Griffin a 250 dollar reward on one of those oversized novelty checks.

A huge check as tall as he was at the time. And it's still in his bedroom now. Oh, he's carrying it around the house. These carry. He has that check that's hanging on the side of his room.

Griffin's older brother, Jackson, he's 13. So every time you walk into his room, you have to see the check.

Yes. Do you two get along generally a lot better this year?

OK, he told me he used to be annoying. Well, he wasn't the one I he wasn't annoying, it was just me being a jerk. Oh, really? Well, that's nice, brother.

Both of you are really generous to admit being annoying and you admit being a jerk. That's nice.

Yeah. What's he like?

Is he kind of a kid that is always getting into things? Kind of like a detective.

He is actually the family snoop. So any time that we misplace anything in the house, we ask Griffin where it is and he absolutely knows where it is. Like what?

Your keys, your wallet. Yes, the remote controls were always asking him, where's the remote control, my tennis rackets, I hadn't played tennis in a while and I said, Griffin, where are my tennis rackets? And he said there in the hallway closet at the very top of it. And I was like, oh, you're too what are you doing at the top of the hallway?

Cause he just he there's something about him he knows. Yes, exactly. And he's a helper. Just a helper personality to. Here's another story. Four years ago, in a small village outside of London called Caple, the National Police Service got a call that an industrial facility had been broken into by at least two men.

Rory Knebworth is a tactical flight officer with the National Police Service. I work on the police helicopter.

He says that a lot of the time he gets into his helicopter with very little information. So you knew that you were you were looking for people who had maybe broken in somewhere and they might be running. That's really all you knew.

That's right. They're very limited descriptions. Not overly familiar with the area very well. So plenty of places to hide woodland, et cetera. So that's all we knew when we were on leave. It took about 10 minutes to get to the right area, but by then there is no one anywhere in sight.

So we started looking at nearby farms and it was at that stage that we saw had neighboring premises, people, farmers, etc., indicating waving their hands, saying you want to look that way because we obviously didn't know what they wanted to say.

So you were flying over and you'd looked down and you'd see these people standing in their backyards, in their fields, waving their arms, you know, saying this way, this way.

That's exactly that. And they were flying between one and 2000 feet. So you can imagine people look fairly small on the ground, but you can make out that there were a number of people in adjacent property saying you need to search in that direction. And that's when we commenced the search.

They had seen two guys running through their yard. Obviously not supposed to be there.

That's right. Yep. Clearly what trying to acting furtively. And they had no purpose to be in such a low location that had no plans to be there. So we were confident. These were the people concerned.

The two suspects ran together through farms and yards, and then when they reached a wide open field, they split up and ran in opposite directions. There is no way to keep track of both men from the air, they knew one had run into the woods and they lost track of the other one.

It was then that when my colleague Neil Patrick, the pilot, said, what are those kids doing down there?

Rory looked out of the window and saw a group of small children. He later learned they were out hunting for Easter eggs. He says kids love helicopters. He sees kids all the time and never pays very much attention.

But you can imagine any young child seeing a colorful helicopter circling in the air. They generally wave anyway and say, look at me, look at me. I'm bouncing on the trampoline, can you see me? Kind of thing. So that's why you tend to dismiss what they're doing. So I initially sort of discounted what he was saying, as if to say not now. Do you know, I'm following the suspect? And he said, no, these kids that the kids in the field are lying in the shape of an arrow.

And then it became apparent that the kids, the group of children who are out on this Easter egg hunt were actually trying to assist, saying the other suspect has gone this way. How many how many kids were there?

There were actually 12 altogether, but I think only eight of them think they are somewhere, don't want to get muddy. But eight of them, I believe eight of them actually formed the arrow and placed them in order to help their public duty.

They were prepared to sacrifice their Sunday best clothing and light and a field filled.

The helicopter followed the arrow and they found their suspect. Rorie says both men were apprehended and charged with burglary.

After they'd wrapped everything up, they landed the helicopter and Rory got out to say hello and thank you to these children would help solve the case.

And the parents said it was the children's idea. They said we should form. And I know and I think if my young child said that to me, I probably prior to this event say, don't be silly.

Rory says the kids offered him some of their Easter candy.

Hello, Logan. Oh, yes, this is Logan. Hi, Logan, it's Phoebe. Oh, hello, baby. How are you doing? Good, thanks for doing this. Yeah, we're trying to help out. So, Logan, let's just start with you introducing yourself. So my name is Logan and. Like that, you tell me your first name and your last name. Right, I'm Logan. And yeah, how old are you?

I'm 10 years old. 10 years old.

What do you think you want to be when you grow up? When I grow up, I might think I might want to be other detective or.

A teacher, maybe, OK. Does it kind of go back and forth depending on the day? Yeah, yeah.

Last fall, Logan was playing in his Roseville, California neighborhood with his friend Kashdan. His friends Hope and McKenna were playing nearby.

So my friends said they heard a helicopter saying, oh, somebody is missing, please help.

Come find her coming down from the helicopter like it was recording, like sending that it was a big microphone on the helicopter. OK, so the helicopter said someone's missing. Please help find her. Did it say who was missing?

I think they said it was a ninety seven year old lady.

A woman who had dementia had gone missing from a residential care facility in the area. They needed to find her before it got dark and it was already after 4:00.

So we decided to start looking and trying to find her.

Logan and his three friends put together a plan and got on their bikes.

We had a certain area, actually. We knew she was in the neighborhood because we heard that she was from a care home somewhere. And we were like, she's probably on the trail. And we went down the trail and whenever we saw somebody, we asked them if they knew anything about it or if they could also start helping. So there's a police officer we found and he was telling us about her and we told him we look out. So we were looking down the trail and I said my knee while we were there.

And then we went back home. Everybody had dinner and my brother helped me get some band aid on. And if you want to talk to my mom, she's making breakfast right now, but you'll be able to talk to her. It's OK. Oh, she's coming over right now, OK? Hello. Hi, this is Phoebe. Hi. Here's Logan's mother, Alyssa Holtmann.

I didn't really know what was happening until he came inside and he at that point had been, you know, scratched up. So he fell down. And so that's when he told me that he had fallen down on this trail while they were looking for this lady. And I had heard the helicopters overhead, but I didn't realize that he and his friends had decided to go out and try to find her. So it was all kind of like unexpected news when he came running in the door telling me that, you know, he's trying to find this lady with his friends.

And so his brother that was here is a Boy Scout. So we call him the medic and he, you know, got Logan all patched up, got him cleaned up. And then he said, Mom, I'm going to go back out and we're going to find her.

And I was like, OK, sweetheart.

I packed up some snacks and we went looking again, what types of snacks did you pack up in all of our snacks?

Like, I think DLO, yogurt ghoga things. OK, and you put them in a little backpack or something?

Oh, yeah. They went out again, this time on foot.

And we were heading towards the trail to look there again, but we just found her walking around.

And what did you say when you saw her? We were all like, oh look guys, I looked like her.

And it was it was the lady Logan and his friends, Caston, Hope and MacKenna all went up to her and tried their best to make her feel comfortable. It was six thirty and just starting to get dark.

So Cash-in Hope called their dad. He came over and I didn't have my phone on this right at that second, so I wasn't able to call my mom. But we got the police and everybody come by.

Did you is this surprising for you that Logan would would help with this charge and take this on or not that surprising?

Well, I mean, he is such a great kid. I wasn't shocked that he decided to go out and try to help.

I was just really surprised that it was he and a group of, you know, ten and eleven year olds that actually found her.

Logan later told reporters, I like helping, except if it's because the woman was returned safely to her residential care center and reunited with her family.

Logan and his friends had a party in a tree house to celebrate the goldfish and watch tick talks.

The Roseville police told reporters that they'd been a little surprised to hear such a young voice on the phone when they got the call.

So. So the police thank you for helping them, huh?

Later they sent this little package or something was in the package.

So I'd like a little Kit Kat bar and then a. A gift card to a. Mostly, girls do go to the studio movie grill and thank you later.

Did did your friends get the thank you letter to. We all got the same thing and it was really nice. Did you all go to the movies together or. No. Also, we haven't gone to the movie yet. OK, you're still waiting covid. Yeah. covid OK.

Did you did you learn anything about being a detective during this whole thing? Well, that you have to kind of piece things together and you're going to have to it might take a long time because we spent like two hours trying to find her.

But you didn't give up. Now, why do you why why did you want to help find her? What were you thinking about?

Because she needed help.

Criminalist created by Lauren Spor and me Neede Wilson is our senior producer, Susanna Robertson is our assistant producer, audio mix by Michael Rafia and Rob Byers, special thanks to Matt.

Major Julie Alexander makes original illustrations for each episode of Criminal. You can see them at this is criminal dotcom. We're on Facebook and Twitter at criminal show. Criminal is recorded in the studios of North Carolina Public Radio WNYC, where a proud member of Radio Topia from PUREX, a collection of the best shows around shows like Radio Diaries.

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