247: The Murder of Maddie Clifton & a Triple Kidnapping

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Brandi starts us off with a gut-wrenching story. On the evening of November 3, 1998, all eight-year-old Maddie Clifton wanted to do was go outside and play. Her mother gave her permission to go outside for a few minutes, so Maddie went next door to the home of 14-year-old Josh Phillips to ask if he’d like to play baseball. He did. Later, when Maddie didn’t come home, her parents panicked. Police and volunteers searched for Maddie for days before she was finally discovered by Josh’s mother.

Then Kristin tells us about an elaborate triple kidnapping. Michelle Renee was at home with her seven-year-old daughter, Breea, when, seemingly out of nowhere, three men burst through the home’s locked back door. The men wore ski masks. They brandished guns. They’d even brought spears. They told Michelle that they knew she worked for a local Bank of America. They said that if she wanted to survive, she’d have to go into work the next morning and clear out the vault.

And now for a note about our process. For each episode, Kristin reads a bunch of articles, then spits them back out in her very limited vocabulary. Brandi copies and pastes from the best sources on the web. And sometimes Wikipedia. (No shade, Wikipedia. We love you.) We owe a huge debt of gratitude to the real experts who covered these cases.

In this episode, Kristin pulled from:
48 Hours episode, “The Kidnapping of Michelle and Breea Renee”
“A mother was forced to rob a bank to save her daughter’s life after they were kidnapped and threatened with dynamite,” by Gayane Keshishyan Mendez for cbsnews.com
“California mother who was kidnapped and forced to rob a bank falsely painted as a criminal in court: “100% felt like I was on trial”” by Tracy Smith for cbsnews.com
“Hostage no more: Michelle Renee tells true story of kidnapping of daughter and self,” by Ruth Marvin Webster for The San Diego Union-Tribune
“Suspected bank robber nabbed,” North County Times
“Man convicted of kidnapping, robbery,” North County Times
“People v. Butler,” casetext.com
“Attorney: Bank chief plotted own kidnapping,” North County Times
“Superior Court trial starts in bank robbery, kidnapping,” by Scott Marshall for the North County Times

In this episode, Brandi pulled from:
“Maddie Clifton” chillingcrimes.com
“Why Did Josh Kill Maddie Clifton?” By Malinda Fusco, Medium
“19 years later, the narrative behind Maddie Clifton's demise gets even worse” by Eileen Kelley, The Florida Times Union
“Life sentence upheld for Joshua Phillips, teen killer of Maddie Clifton” by Andrew Pantazi, The Florida Times Union
“Wednesday marks 23 years since murder of Maddie Clifton” by Colette DuChanois, News 4 Jax
“Josh Phillips” wikipedia.org

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