Reading Podcast

A group of five students at Bayview High School in Milwaukee end up in detention due to their phones being found in their bags. They claim the phones were planted, but their teacher doesn't believe them. Later, one of the students, Simon, dies after drinking water containing peanut oil, which he was allergic to. The police suspect foul play and the other four students become the main suspects. They uncover motives for each of them wanting Simon out of the picture. Nate is arrested, but eventually, it is discovered that Simon orchestrated his own death with the help of another student, Jake. Nate is released and the others can finally move on. This is actually a book by Karen McManus. Welcome to A.T. Crime, the show where we cover the true crime, forensic files, and the glimpses into the psyche of criminals. I'm Teresita, the host of A.T. Crime. And I'm Aldren DeZondrick, co-host. The topic for today's podcast is something a little bit different than the usual cold murder case. That's right. Today's story is primarily about a group of five teenagers that go to Bayview High School located in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The teenagers in question include Simon Killeher, Barney Rojas, Allie Prentiss, Cooper Clay, and Naeem McCauley. The case was fairly normal with the teens all filing into Mr. Avery, their side of teacher's classroom for detention. Wow. So, like, five people go into detention at the same time for the same teacher? What did they all do? Were they in some kind of group prank? You would think so, but no. They all just had their phones with them, and unfortunately, Mr. Avery has a very strict no-phone policy. Funny that you mention prank, though, because all of the students claimed that those phones were planted on them, and that it was probably the doing of one of the five students in the room. Mr. Avery didn't believe this, though, despite Bronwyn, the four-part-LGPA student with a very good school reputation, showing him her actual phone. Mr. Avery, that wasn't my phone you found. I don't know how it got into my bag. This is mine, is what she told him. To the students' dismay and efforts to explain to their teacher that the phones he confiscated were in fact not theirs, they still had to spend the remaining time in detention. What exactly are these students' relationships with each other? I mean, they must be friends if they were pranked together. That's what's a little weird. These kids have no correlation with each other. At least, between all five of them, that is. Cooper knows Addie because his friend, Jake, is dating her. So, I guess you could call them friends? Well, something like that. Bronwyn and Nate have known each other since elementary school, but never really had a reason to talk to each other except for now. As for Simon, well, he's what you could call an interesting character. Wait, wait. What do you mean? Is he famous around school or something? Oh, he's definitely famous at school, all right. A more fitting word would be infamous. Why so? Well, Simon ran a school gossip app called About That, which everyone at Bayview pretty much uses. It's pretty much a site where scandals, rumors, and personal info are posted for everyone at school to see. Oh god, I hate to somehow end up on that app. Yep, pretty much everyone at Bayview feels the same way, and the other four, and potentially with Simon, are no exception. To top it off, Simon's personality isn't exactly the most likable. Not to mention that the group as a whole is also pretty disemotional. Now, this is where things get crazy. When Mr. Avery leaves the living room to check on a car accident that happens right outside a school parking lot, Simon collapses from drinking a cup of water he got from the sink in class. He's later pronounced dead at the hospital. My god, that escalated fast. Did he choke on something that was in the water? No, but get this, according to the police report, the water contained peanut oil, and Simon has a really bad peanut allergy. Wait, wait, wait, wait, so like, that's so weird. Why would the water contain peanut oil? It's almost like it was done on purpose. That's the thing, the police believe that someone had to have planted the oil in Simon's cup, and that they started investigating with Nate, Brockman, Addie, and Cooper, who we will be referring to as the Baby Four, being the main suspects. Yeah, and the police report here says they were unable to find the EpiPen, and as they were looking, Mr. Avery walked back into the classroom, being informed as to what was happening. Cooper is then advised by Mr. Avery to rush to the nurse's office to look for the box of EpiPens, which he finds only for the box to be empty. Well, that is true. If you look under the personal statement to the police report, they all have a motive as to why they would want Simon out of the picture. Wait, what, really? Yeah, it's true. Simon had figured out that Addie was cheating on her boyfriend Jake, Cooper was secretly gay and cheating on his girlfriend Keely with a guy named Chris, Bonwin had a grudge towards Simon after he exposed her sister, Maeve. Oh, and it says here in the police report that Nate's motive was that Simon found out that he was selling drugs again, and a guy that had almost died because of it. And the police investigation on the Baby Four continues. The four of them agree to undergo an investigation of their own to uncover the truth of Simon's death. Even Ash and Addie's sister, and Maeve Bonwin's sister, decide to get involved. Well, it gets intense really fast. But things eventually start to lift up as they find more information on Simon's past and learn more through Janae, Simon's only friend. Wait, it also says here under the police report that Nate was an arrested suspect? Yeah, it's true. Unfortunately, as things were slowly starting to get uncovered, Nate is arrested for Simon's murder. Incriminating evidence was found in Nate's locker which included the missing EpiPen, Simon's own EpiPen that he carried, and his water bottle. A quote directly from the reporter on this case states, Oh god, because if there were, I'm pretty sure the killer would be undeniably Nate. Oh, most definitely. As Nate's in jail, Bonwin, Addie, and Cooper desperately try to clear his name, they eventually find out that the car crash at the very beginning was done by Simon and was meant as a distraction. This leads them to the conclusion that Simon's death was orchestrated by none other than himself. But he couldn't have done it himself, so they tried to look for a suspect that would help Simon do this, which led them back to Janae who confesses that she knew about this and that Wafer, Jake, was the one who helped him. Jake is eventually arrested and Nate is thankfully free from prison. With things cleared, the baby fork is finally gone with their lives and rest easy. And that's the end of this book, ladies and gentlemen. Yep, this is actually not a real case, but actually a book by Karen McManus. Be sure to check it out, we highly recommend to read it. And that's all the time we have for today's episode. Be sure to stay tuned for our next episode which should be airing sometime next week. This is AT Crime. I appreciate you all for staying to listen and we'll catch you at AT the next one.