The Murder of Goldia Massey | Part 2 of 7

Unravel the mysteries surrounding the Goldie Massey murder case with us, as we share our firsthand experiences from the investigation. Through intriguing discussions with Goldie's son, Zach, we take you through the chilling series of events leading up to her disappearance. His mother's no-show at a babysitting job triggers an ominous feeling, turning a routine missing person report into a chilling murder investigation. Our conversations with the prime suspect, Paris Charles, will keep you spellbound as we scrutinize his curious country accent, storytelling knack, and the inability to provide concrete details about a certain 'truck driver Greg'.

As we step foot onto Chatsworth Court, home to our prime suspect, we're met with resistance and obscure clues that only fuel our suspicion. Charles' strange behavior, including blocking our entry and seeming evasiveness, will have your detective instincts kicking into high gear. The missing carpet from his living room, the white pickup truck, and the elusive 'truck driver Greg' are all pieces of this morbid puzzle. Listen in, as we delve into the legal implications surrounding these discoveries, shedding light on the grim realities of missing person investigations. This episode is a gripping exploration of the twists and turns that often define such complex cases.

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Transcript

Steve McCown: 0:02

I was like there's no carpet in that, in that front room of that apartment. The apartment, the carpet has been removed from the front room.

Wendy Lyons: 0:11

So you can see enough through that sliver door that you could oh there we could, I could see the entire living room.

Wendy Lyons: 0:15

It wasn't a sliver he held like an arm's length. Yeah, I could see.

Steve McCown: 0:18

I could. I mean he was standing in the doorway, but he couldn't. He couldn't obscure my view where I could see all the way in. And the carpet, the carpet was gone, it was down the concrete.

Wendy Lyons: 0:28

Morning. The podcast you're about to listen to may contain graphic descriptions of violent assaults, murder and adult language. Listener discretion is advised. Welcome to the murder police podcast the murder of Goldie Massey, part two.

Steve McCown: 1:03

And the first time that we went and interviewed him and we were walking out the driveway, I looked at Chris and I'm like that's, someone's did it and we'll get into it and you're going to know. But it was that feeling you get when you've talked to somebody and you're there and you see what you see and you talk to him and you're like he did it. Man, we just got to prove it. You know what I mean. Yeah, and another thing was just him, the suspect man this guy was. He was something. He's a talker. You know, Chris, and I interviewed him the first time. I think it was like three hours long. I mean, he, he, he reminded me of some people that I've known over my life that just can talk about anything. Right, you give him a topic, they can talk about it, and if you've done something, they've done something better.

Wendy Lyons: 1:54

He was something he would, he would he either sold and way or cars and he was and he was from.

Steve McCown: 2:01

Pike County and I tell people all the time this voice is a major radio. But I think what he found in this voice was a familiarity with this country accent, because he was from Pike County and he felt comfortable with me and when we absolutely we played that tune, Um, because, Chris, with his New York accent, you know which I don't have any longer.

David Lyons: 2:30

I would disagree, I would have interpreted or something like a sign language interpreter that I want to bleed into this People understand what put subtitles in there?

Wendy Lyons: 2:38

There's an app for that Exactly, yeah.

David Lyons: 2:42

It, it. And just for the listeners, I think what's neat about you feeling that with their intuition? I would argue that most of time when we met people, we met people and really didn't automatically put them in a box. Am I right or wrong?

Wendy Lyons: 2:53

That's correct.

David Lyons: 2:54

Most of the time we stayed. It didn't speak to you, so I'm going to go along with you that if it spoke to you, it probably would.

Steve McCown: 2:59

Yeah, and what's neat about that was it wasn't in a controlled environment, it was at his. It was at his apartment, you know, and we talked to him and just those little subtle things and we'll get into it and it'll make sense. But I mean, we walked away and I told Chris I'm like this has got to be our guy, Right.

Wendy Lyons: 3:17

I was convinced here's a yin and yang between age and someone that is new in the unit and he wasn't relatively new, but I had been bit and trial before that I focused on one suspect.

David Lyons: 3:31

Amen.

Wendy Lyons: 3:32

And I was not going to do that with this case. Steve was on the money and I wasn't going to fall for it. That's all I have to say about it. But yeah, we, we did, we we did well together on this, yeah.

David Lyons: 3:45

And also in trial. That's a typical defense thing too is that we've all, all focused on the one person 100%. Even to the point where we would have to testify about the eliminations you did to say that this is the only person. You know if there was the only person left alive. But it just that's a common defense tactic, because we just focused on my person. Oh, yeah, you know, because I had blood and cuts all over them. Yeah, that's that drew my attention, so good stuff.

Wendy Lyons: 4:10

Well, let's dive into it. So our victim was Goldie Massey. She was 50 years old. What, how did the call come out? Was it? Yeah, you had mentioned missing person at one point. We know obviously she was murdered. So what did this call came out as, and which of you received it?

Steve McCown: 4:28

Skin started the whole thing. Yeah, thanks for that.

David Lyons: 4:31

He's blaming me Can everyone hear this he's witnessed. That's what I was saying for years. Yeah, started it, hence my divorce. No, he's not no.

Wendy Lyons: 4:40

So I was. So during the time robbery, homicide we received missing persons, we did assaults, we did homicides, we did robberies and this is just a typical. Even though the cold case was being created at the time, I was still receiving other reports and assaults. So during that time we were still receiving, I was still receiving missing person cases. And it came across my desk on October 1st.

Wendy Lyons: 5:11

Patrolman took a report for the missing, for missing Goldie Massey. He got a call from her son, zach Massey. He reported her missing on October 1st but the last time he had seen her originally he said the 27th of September. We'll get into that kind of family dynamic in a little bit so it takes some time. Once a missing person's report is written and collected, the process goes through reports, then it comes up to the sergeant, comes up to lieutenant and then it gets assigned a detective. It was assigned to me and so I followed up on it and was reading the report and I saw her son had reported her missing. And what's the typical detective 101 is to call a person that reported the individual missing. So I did that and Zach was telling me the story that his mother was supposed to babysit for them, he and his girlfriend.

Wendy Lyons: 6:11

They were not married at the time. He and his girlfriend had a child in common. She was supposed to babysit for them on the 21st and next day and she didn't show. Well, he said he waited a few days. And I asked him why did you wait a few days? He said well, sometimes she just is late. And I said, no, can you get in a little deeper? For me I need to know her personality, I need to know her profile really, and when I say profile, I mean her habits, people she hangs out with, to see if she is at a high risk of any kind of violent crime. So he explained to me that she's been in a little financial trouble with some. She's an accountant. She's been in financial trouble with some farmers. They're in Bourbon County and that she had taken some money from them when she was doing their taxes and she didn't want them to report her because she was trying to work restitution off personally to them.

Wendy Lyons: 7:08

I said, okay, so she may have left for that reason, but she would have told me. But I haven't heard from her. I said well, you, I see that. You said you haven't seen her since the 27th. That was kind of confusing. She didn't show up to the 21st and he made the report on October 1st, so already my curiosity is up.

Wendy Lyons: 7:29

I said, ok, who, who is she last seen with? And he explained to me that she has a boyfriend named Paris Charles, that he came and picked her up and he had called Paris to find out where he had last had seen his mother. And Paris explained to him and I we call him Paris, so it's kind of a habit for me to say Paris, but it's Paris Charles and he explained to Zach that he picked his mother up in Synthiana on the street. She was acting kind of strange, but then they drove to I know this is a surprise to everyone around them Jim and Rose's bar on Georgetown Street. Rose and Jim's bar, rose and Jim's OK, I hang out there. I guess there's good if you know.

Steve McCown: 8:14

I don't know if you're a regular.

Wendy Lyons: 8:15

Yeah, it's dark cigarettes. Cool, yeah, that's all you got to know. So they had a few beers there. And then she decides you want to go to her old residence on Range Court Said he drove her over there and dropped her off. That's what he told Zach.

Wendy Lyons: 8:32

Was she residing there? You said old residence.

Wendy Lyons: 8:35

Well, she had just been evicted from there.

Wendy Lyons: 8:38

So what do you want to go to your old residence If you don't reside there anymore? Again?

Wendy Lyons: 8:41

you're the detective. Exactly right. That's exactly what we're wondering. That's exactly what we asked Zach. I said why would you want to go back? He explained that the landlord had put her stuff out on the curb and he didn't know if she had anything left on the curb. So that's his as Zach's only theory. So at that point that's the only thing we had had at that time.

Wendy Lyons: 9:07

Harris just drops her off and leaves her, yes, not knowing how she's going to get back to new residence or wherever.

Wendy Lyons: 9:13

Yeah, and I had that call with Zach on October 5th or sometime between October 5th and 7th. And then this is when it gets to me that maybe something's up and Steve's the next up on the homicide list. So I said, hey, steve, I'm getting kind of curious about this missing person's report. I've been there for probably 18 years at this point Well, maybe 15 years and I said, steve, why don't you go with me on this? Because to me it doesn't make sense. So Steve agreed, and on the 13th of October so that's 13 days after we get the report Steve and I go and knock on the door of Paris Charles and chats at Chatsworth Court.

Wendy Lyons: 10:00

This is my aha moment. Yes, and correct me, steve will always correct me, because my memory is a little old. I've probably you know me and a few of the and if the NBA basketball players have probably partied together at this point, no. So we go and knock on Charles' door and at first there was no answer. I remember this vividly, this part I remember. And there's no answer. We think he's probably working because it was late mid morning.

Steve McCown: 10:30

Yeah, it was afternoon.

Wendy Lyons: 10:31

Yeah, and he comes to the door on about the third knock. I mean, we knock space, knock space. So there's probably 10, 20 seconds in between each each section. I'm not knocking and he opens the door. He's in jeans, no shirt, no shoes or socks, correct, I remember that completely. And he only opens the door and he has his hand on the door knob and you have a little space in there.

Steve McCown: 10:59

I think what's most interesting is he was standing on the doorway preventing us from coming in. He did that intentionally, Sure, you know. I mean he put himself in between us being able to enter his residence, and that was for a reason, but we could still see him.

Wendy Lyons: 11:17

So I asked him if he had a few minutes to talk with us. We're here about the missing persons report that Zachary had reported about Golden Massey, and any other person would have said, sure, come on in. Well, he said, ok, what about it? And he left the door open but he wouldn't let us step in. We kind of stepped him on the second step, thinking he was going to invite us in and he didn't. So we continued on the second step and he continued on the doorway and so we asked him normal questions when you last see her, and he explained to us the same thing he had told Zachary, except for he added that when he got to range court he got to range court there was a white pickup truck in the driveway and a person that he didn't recognize or know. That was a male, white.

Steve McCown: 12:05

And I think didn't he also tell Zach that he dropped her off to truck driver Greg?

Wendy Lyons: 12:10

Yes, he thought truck truck driver Greg was there.

Steve McCown: 12:14

Okay that he had dropped off to Now and under Understand this whole time. Well, chris is basically doing all the talking, right, and I'm doing all of the looking. Sure, just kind of like a one-two in an interview, right, that that first chair is doing all the asking in an interview, but that second chair is just as important as that first and listening to what the questions are, but, most important, listening what the answers are, to be able to come back with accompanying questions to those. So we had a, we had a Job when we were there and that was Chris to ask questions, and when I knew that he was asking questions and had him distracted and I could look right because there was a reason he wasn't letting us in, yeah, and we were trying to figure that out for the listeners, just so they understand.

David Lyons: 12:57

When a police usually come and talk to somebody, especially with something non-threatening like that, like a follow-up, most people invite the police into their home For privacy. So that is odd, it's kind of it, you know. It's like they don't want their business talked about on the front porch, so a lot of times and it's just hospitality to you. So I'm with you, that sure and understanding.

Steve McCown: 13:16

We're in suits. We don't look like the police. You know we're. We're just, we're there, just following up on a few things. We weren't.

Wendy Lyons: 13:21

We weren't and there's any neighborhood neighbors are looking out the window. They're coming in driving another driveway so out of politeness, the police and I know the normal listener would say, no, they just want to get into the house. But that's not true. We just don't want them to have a reputation that all the police were called again to our neighbors, right? That's not fair to anybody that lives in the neighborhood.

Steve McCown: 13:43

But for us, when we make first contact and that person puts themselves in the doorway, there's a reason that they put themselves there. Oh right because they don't want you to come in. Right? Why don't they want you to come in? What are they hiding? Because there's something there.

Wendy Lyons: 13:57

So tell us who Greg is. You've talked about truck driver Greg. So you said he says he drops him off, he drops Goldie off.

Steve McCown: 14:05

I think what's important about the whole thing is it's sort of a picture that he's painting with a lot of different people that he had come in contact with with Goldie, and those were just details that he could put together from different parts To give to Zach right to try to validate his story to Zach to say, oh, I dropped him off, there was a white truck and it was Greg.

Wendy Lyons: 14:30

But these are just.

Steve McCown: 14:32

These are just bits, and pieces that he's learning In his association with Goldie and the people that he knows. He's where. Zach probably knows the same people and he's just trying to validate those he's holding several people into one to satisfy Zach's curiosity.

Wendy Lyons: 14:50

And now he's trying to satisfy our curiosity and we, of course, not knowing any of these people, we can't just oh, you're lying, right, that would be yeah.

Steve McCown: 15:01

I mean we're taking him for face value. At this point. We have no reason to believe that he's done anything Right.

David Lyons: 15:06

He's he's creating qualifiers and rare hearings is what he's doing.

Steve McCown: 15:09

Yeah, but he's, but he's giving good details. I mean he's actually giving Vehicle descriptions and names, and you know it's not, it's not vague, it's just. It's not. Just. I dropped her off a range court and I left. I mean he was, he was Expounding on the missing persons report that Chris had, that he had told Zach so he was going a little bit further, giving a bit more details, and so to us really it was.

Wendy Lyons: 15:34

And he, he kind of insinuated. He didn't come out and say he insinuated that yeah, zach, zach, yeah, he and Goldie's ex got problems. He didn't come out and say what problem? Zach's got problems. I offered to loan him money. He actually said that while we're at the door.

Steve McCown: 15:50

Okay, yeah, so would it be a would it be surprised if the Goldie was on the run, because she's in trouble, right, so All great reasons when we start looking into it.

Wendy Lyons: 15:59

you know what I mean. It's very helpful, yeah, very helpful.

Steve McCown: 16:02

So, as we, as we thank him, we turn around and we actually what we talked to him a little bit more, because as we're talking to him, he hasn't. He has a like a knot on his arm Right.

Wendy Lyons: 16:16

And yes, I asked him. Good to see, this is what I found on young brains it was like it was like raised.

Steve McCown: 16:21

I mean, it was obvious and he was like he wasn't wearing a shirt and it was like a pump, like a little pump knot on his fore.

Steve McCown: 16:26

We did ask him about that. And it had a like it was lacerated also. We're like what happened to your arm? And he's like, oh, I got into a, got into a little scuffle with my girlfriend girlfriend, yeah. And then he also had a little. He had a spot on his leg. He raised his pant leg up where he had. He also had like an abrasion on his leg and he said he attributed that to getting into a scuffle with his girlfriend or like Now to the listeners.

Wendy Lyons: 16:49

You're thinking, oh, this is an easy case, not so quickly. Paris, some type of style of women like Paris. So you think, girlfriend, it's not just Goldie, it's not just a certain person, so you have to look into his background, right? You can't just automatically assume, oh, he's talking about Goldie, so we can't do that right off. So that's a lot, and people think that it's very easy to determine these things. But it's a process that takes a long time. It doesn't happen overnight like on TV.

David Lyons: 17:24

Yeah listening, I don't think you're anywhere near. I mean, you've got a feeling and everything, but it's top-short of that? Yeah, do we. Before we get any further on that too, just to maybe understand a little bit too. What do we know about Goldie? What from her family? What did you glean as to what? Anything about her personal life that you just learned?

Wendy Lyons: 17:44

Right, and just to this point and I'm taking you in chronological order just to this point, it's just what Zach told us about. There we go Embezzlement, trying to work off restitution with the people she conducted, taxes and CPA for Some cold checks, things of that nature, just sort of money issues. She really didn't have a record to begin with, and then her record grew as we didn't locate her, so some of the people she owed money to started to press charges.

Steve McCown: 18:12

Well, and they started actually calling the police department because they heard that she was missing and saying, hey, she owed me money, what's going on with her, kind of thing. And Chris talked to a few of those people so we knew that there were some money issues there and that gives a person a reason to not want to be around.

David Lyons: 18:29

Oh yeah.

Steve McCown: 18:29

You know, when you're in trouble you get away. So there were a lot of things going on in this case where there are a bunch of different scenarios why she's missing. I mean, we absolutely didn't think that she was dead or someone had done anything to her. We thought there were plausible reasons that she would be gone.

David Lyons: 18:51

Which is true with most missing persons. Absolutely we had David Hester on here and he did a very fantastic job talking about missing person investigations and you know, out in the world, out there, people think that they're all suspicious and everybody's met an untimely death and you don't be honest with you, but probably we can all count on one hand of the thousands of missing persons between all of us that we've handled, how many of them were actually something met, an apharias, and it's important to remember that.

Steve McCown: 19:20

Oh and that's we used to joke about that in the unit of all the missing persons that would come across your desk. You know the joke was you better look into that one, because you never know, I mean we took so many for granted. I mean they were just missing because they're, you know, their family hadn't talked to them. But yes, there were, there were good reasons and you know 98% of them were just missing people. That didn't want to be, no, but it was that one.

David Lyons: 19:49

It was that one that would bite you in the ass. You did diligently work. Yes, it's just that at the end you would take a deep breath and go. Now I can go back to something else.

Wendy Lyons: 19:57

You don't want to be the guy on national news right, who just counts the missing?

Steve McCown: 20:02

person yeah.

Wendy Lyons: 20:02

Lesson to Metro. Police detective lost four people that were reported missing by a serial killer.

David Lyons: 20:08

Right, you don't want to mean that guy, so you do, and I think that's the bane of the existence and what the real work is that people don't understand because I think we're we educate people on it is how much you spend your wheels in mud.

Steve McCown: 20:18

Oh gosh.

Wendy Lyons: 20:19

And it's raking leaves on a windy day but you all said it best.

David Lyons: 20:22

That's part of the job. And again, if somebody goes in and gets that assignment, like if they worked as hard as you did to get there and they didn't like that, then you got to go because it is it? Is it? What I'm getting at is, though, is the reality of it is is that when you do work all of those diligently and they terminate, you know we've all. We found women that did leave three kids that they've arrived, believe they loved an husband.

David Lyons: 20:42

Yeah, and looked at you and said I just like partying at seventh and upper.

Steve McCown: 20:46

You have a right to do that. You're an adult, so yeah, back.

David Lyons: 20:50

I just wanted to clarify, that is that there's that reality of what these things are and then it's not TV in Hollywood again.

Wendy Lyons: 20:57

Well, I do want to ask you said the knot on the arm and he said girlfriend. And we're both of you all thinking girlfriend. I thought she was the girlfriend, did you? Did you say so? Did Goldie do that? No?

Wendy Lyons: 21:10

no, no, no, no we just let him talk, we just let him talk Like we said.

Steve McCown: 21:13

He's a talker Right.

Wendy Lyons: 21:14

So, we just let him talk. So when he says, oh, I got this and this on my leg, you just really go. Oh, yeah, it's interesting, we're going to we're recording this, we're documenting this.

Wendy Lyons: 21:23

as far as documentation, we're going to do this and it it. So the conversation was not in front of anyone. It was when we got back to the car. Steve already had the aha moment, but I'm trying to get the answers from Charles Paris to get where our next step is for our next lead and, when we get to the car, tell them what you told and you already told them. This is our guy, but why?

Steve McCown: 21:49

did you say that I was like skin? There's no carpet in that, in that front room of that apartment.

Wendy Lyons: 21:53

Oh, the apartment, the carpet has been removed from the front so you can see enough through that sliver.

Steve McCown: 21:59

Oh there, we could I could see the entire living room it wasn't a sliver, he held like an arm's length.

Wendy Lyons: 22:04

Yeah, I could see.

Steve McCown: 22:05

I could. I mean he was standing in the doorway, but he couldn't. He couldn't obscure my view where I could see all the way in and the car. The carpet was gone, it was down the concrete.

David Lyons: 22:13

Which for listeners that didn't take civics or take it seriously, that's a legal observation because absolutely where you're supposed to be.

Steve McCown: 22:20

I was not in his apartment. I was outside of his apartment and when you're at place you're legally entitled to be.

David Lyons: 22:25

You're, you're, you're. Filled a vision. Everything carries you. You should be a detective. That's a pretty good clue.

Steve McCown: 22:31

Exactly, how do you? I and, and looking back, obviously, hans, that's 2020, but in that moment we, it was more of a man. I can't believe that there's no carpet. I mean, we were kind of joking about it, but now I mean that was huge, you know, it was, it was huge. And just to the, the fact of investigating further, investigating further, knowing what we knew, seeing what we saw, that was it. Was it just it all added up? So where did you?

Wendy Lyons: 23:03

leave it with him. Just thank you for your time.

Steve McCown: 23:05

We'll get back to you if we need something. Yep Right, and thank you very much.

Wendy Lyons: 23:10

Hey, you know there's more to the story, so go download the next episode, like the true crime fan that you are.

David Lyons: 23:17

The murder police podcast is hosted by Wendy and David Lyons and was created to honor the lives of crime victims, so their names are never forgotten. It is produced, recorded and edited by David Lyons. The murder police podcast can be found on your favorite Apple or Android podcast platform, as well as at murderpolicepodcastcom, where you will find show notes, transcripts, information about our presenters and a link to the official murder police podcast merch store where you can purchase a huge variety of murder police podcast swag. We are also on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube, which is closed caption for those that are hearing impaired. Just search for the murder police podcast and you will find us. If you have enjoyed this podcast, please subscribe for more and give us five stars in a written review on Apple podcast or wherever you download your podcast. Make sure you set your player to automatically download new episodes so you get the new ones as soon as they drop, and please tell your friends Lock it down.

David Lyons: 24:17

Judy.