The Murder Police Podcast
The Murder Police Podcast
Never Forget Little Timmy | Part 1
What happens when hope turns into heartbreak, and the search for answers stretches into years? Join us as we bring you the harrowing story of Little Timmy Sterner through the intimate and heart-wrenching accounts of his father, Tim, and his father's girlfriend, Ashley Wethington. From the depths of grief to the highs of cherished memories, this episode peels back the layers of a family's pain and their relentless quest for closure. You’ll hear of Timmy's joyful childhood, his special bond with his grandfather, and his love for football, juxtaposed with the darker times when he lost his way and ended up in prison.
Feel the raw emotion as Timmy's father shares the daily agony of his son's disappearance, reflecting on the struggles of maintaining a connection during incarceration and the heartache of re-entry into society. Ashley’s poignant perspective adds another layer, capturing the collective despair and the ripple effects of Timmy's absence on their family. This episode is not just a recounting of a tragic case but a heartfelt plea to the community for information, underscoring the power of collective support in seeking justice. Tune in and be part of this urgent call for answers, as we unite in the desperate hope for resolution.
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Please come forward. Please come forward for me and my son and my family, please. That's all I ask, please. I'm so heartbroken and I don't know how far I can keep going, so please come forward for me, thank you.
Wendy Lyons:Warning 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. In this episode, part one of Never Forget Little Timmy, we sat down with Timmy's dad, also known as Timmy, and his dad's girlfriend, ashley, to discuss the missing case of Timmy Sterner. Welcome to the Murder Police Podcast With us today, timmy Sterner and Ashley Weathington here to talk with us about the case of missing Timmy Sterner. Thank you all so much for being here with us. How are you today, timmy?
Tim Sterner:Yeah, not too good right now. I'm very sorry. I'm very breakdown right now. I'm so emotional still and I'm still hurting and very much so, and I don't know. I have no clue where I'm at today and where time's taking me, and I promise you to my son I will see you again, son, and I'll see you soon, as soon as you think. I miss you so damn much, so damn much.
David Lyons:Timmy, thanks for having the courage to put that lump back in your throat, to talk about this again, because it's an ongoing problem and I know that every time we speak of it. But our goal here is to get some other people in the community to have that same emotion for who Timmy is and to come forward and whatnot. So thank you for the courage. I can't walk in your shoes. There's a part of my mind.
Tim Sterner:Nobody can unless you've been there. Nobody can. I never thought I was gonna be, never. All I was wanting to do is see my son one, you know just as soon as he got out of prison. He had a rough life, don't get me wrong. He had a rough life. He had good friends, though, and he thought he was street smart. And he was street smart. He was very smart, very smart, and it was my fault.
Tim Sterner:I raised him too fast. I raised him too fast, and you know I blame that on myself. I wanted him to be a man, because I was, I was raised too fast and I run the roads and did what I did. You know, because I was, I was crazy, I was raised too fast and I run the roads and did what I I did, you know, but he didn't. He didn't deserve this whatsoever. No man should deserve what. What happened to him?
Tim Sterner:And I still don't know what happened, and I need help. I need help and I need help, and I got to lay there every night and think about my son every night and cry myself to sleep. That's what I do, but I'm very angry now, very angry. It's like nobody's helping me here, nobody's helping little Timmymy, nobody's helping my family and I need somebody to come forward and tell the truth. Please, for my son and me, give me closure, so let me move on. But that'll never happen, will it? It Because I'll never have closure, because my heart's always going to be broken for the rest of my life. Y'all took my son away from me and, oh, that's fine, I'll see him again. I'll see him. He'll be holding his hand out to me and I believe that.
David Lyons:Well, hopefully we can put some hope in this, maybe with again letting people know who that young man is and to answer that call that you're asking for for help. And, ashley, thank you for being here too. I would imagine you're Tim's moral support.
Ashley Weathington:Oh yeah, it's been really hard watching him go through it.
David Lyons:Right Hard to be next to somebody going through that too, so thank you again for being here.
Wendy Lyons:Well, we know Timmy is obviously little Timmy's dad. Why don't you tell us, Ashley, how do you fit in the mix here who is Timmy to you?
Ashley Weathington:His fiancée wife. We've been together 14 years years, so Timmy's like a son to me, and so I always tell him that's my son and so I've been in his life since he was 14 years old and he didn't deserve this at all. I was supposed to pick him up that Wednesday to take him shopping and it didn't happen. He called me I think it was Tuesday and said that he had gotten a call that you know he had wrecked, and we just don't know. We don't have a clue. We keep getting told different things, we just don't know the truth.
Tim Sterner:They know who done it.
Ashley Weathington:Yeah.
Tim Sterner:They know who done it and I don't understand. You know, if that was me, they'd have put me underneath the prison. And these people sit out here and they know exactly who done it and who's involved, and why ain't anything being done about it?
Ashley Weathington:Yeah.
David Lyons:I think that's what we need. Is that? Because what we can understand just diving in and talking to people so far is there's so much out there that confuses it. Some of it's clearly probably made up, for whatever reason and somebody having maybe the courage to come forward and straighten this stuff out. Well, let's go to this. Let's talk about when was Timmy born and what was that like.
Tim Sterner:When Timmy was born, I lost a son at birth. I lost a son at birth. I lost a son at birth. I lost a son at birth. And right after I lost Chase, Timothy Chase. Well, I decided to have another son and it was a son, and I was so happy Best thing in the world, you know. And I worked my ass off for him and I finally got to the point where I could give him everything, Everything, Anything he wanted. Now and they took him from me. I couldn't give him what I wanted to. Back then I was working, I was working out of town making good money, but I still couldn't give him Back then. It wasn't that kind of money. Right Now it is Out there. You got to, you know, you just got to get out there and make it. And I knew he was getting out of prison and I was like now he's going to get a new car, new clothes, new, everything. I'm going to set him up and make him go to work with me.
Ashley Weathington:He was even looking for apartments for him.
Tim Sterner:Yeah, he was getting all set up before that Tuesday night.
Wendy Lyons:Gotcha. Well, I do want to move into how you all found out he was missing, but before that, why don't you tell us what kind of little boy he was? Was he just a fun, revunctious little?
Tim Sterner:boy he was, he was. He loved to run and laugh. He was great. I remember his first bicycle. I bought him. It was Christmas, yeah.
Wendy Lyons:Did you teach him how to ride it?
Tim Sterner:Yeah, right behind him.
Wendy Lyons:Hanging on.
Tim Sterner:Letting him ride down the street in the wintertime, yeah.
Wendy Lyons:So I guess you worked out of town so you would come home and kind of catch up from the week you'd been gone. Yeah, spend my time at home.
Tim Sterner:You would come home and kind of catch up from the week you'd been gone and then Spend my time and then head back out yeah, Make more money, pay the bills and head back out again. You know, being a dad yeah.
David Lyons:Being a father.
Tim Sterner:And then I really started going downtown and my dad took him underneath his wing and my dad really raised him growing up I mean quite a bit and he loved his grandpa so much he did it seemed like when my grandpa passed away, that's when he went downhill.
David Lyons:You think that had something to do with changing his attitude? Yes, just lose that loss.
Tim Sterner:Yeah, him and my dad was tight. Yeah, Grandpa was his world.
David Lyons:That'll do it. We lose somebody close to us like that that'll do it.
Tim Sterner:Grandpa was his world. After that he just started acting out you know, what I'm saying. Running around throwing people and stuff, yeah.
David Lyons:What kind of hobbies did he have? He liked football. That's what we keep hearing too. He loved football, yeah.
Wendy Lyons:Yeah, I think your brother and your mom told us that he really was proud of doing that sport and he was good at it, Mm-hmm.
Tim Sterner:He was. But then you know, football come out because he started running around with the wrong people.
David Lyons:It's like the people that I know that done this to him. You get with that wrong crowd right.
Tim Sterner:Wrong crowd, that wrong crowd.
David Lyons:Yeah, I saw that over and over again during my career too, and they were waiting for him.
Tim Sterner:You know they was waiting for him to get out of jail. Everybody just kept asking when's Jimmy asking? When's jimmy getting out? When's jimmy?
David Lyons:getting out. Yeah, he's set up. Yeah, it sounds, it sounds. You know we've said before that, uh, this is one of those cases that hurts because you have a last known location last known scene with is what we would call in a business, and moving and getting the truth out of more than one person is what this needs and that's what this does.
Wendy Lyons:The people we've talked to so far talked about how, when Timmy took you under his wing, so to speak, he'd just do anything for you. No questions asked.
Tim Sterner:No.
Wendy Lyons:He was there till the end. Yeah, He'll fight till the end for his friends.
Tim Sterner:We heard yeah, he would, and so that's you know. Yeah, so he don't mess with Daddy Don't mess with me Very protective. Oh yeah, yeah, Me and my son was best friends. Yeah, I mean, I'd stay on his butt. He knew I meant business, even when he was in prison. I'd be like you know, I know what you're doing in there. I don't you know, get in there gambling or something. Daddy, I need $50. I took care of it. I was always there for him. In there or out here, but that night I wasn't there.
David Lyons:Yeah, when he was in prison did you get to stay in contact with him pretty often, oh, he called me Every week.
Wendy Lyons:Good.
Tim Sterner:Sent letters and stuff like that, not sending money, yeah.
David Lyons:Letters. Yeah, I mean, keep him comfortable, it's a long stretch.
Tim Sterner:No, it's hard for me. I can't read.
David Lyons:Mm-hmm.
Tim Sterner:I can't read a letter Gotcha.
David Lyons:It's mm-mm. It's well at least you got the phone calls.
Tim Sterner:I mean, that's something too. No, back then I could read the letter, I knew where he was, I knew he was safe. I still, I wish he was there now yeah why'd y'all let him out? Why couldn't you got into another fight or something? Son, another year, or something.
David Lyons:I knew where he was. What a place not saving money, what a place to have to be that you uh, you'd rather have him there than out amongst those people yeah, that obviously it's bad I was nervous for him to get out well, re-entry for anybody is is a difficult thing because the world at seven, eight years.
Wendy Lyons:It was changed in all those years, you know.
David Lyons:And you go from that position of everything is to the degree it is, it's provided for you, yeah, and then you've got to spill back into the world like a kid coming out of your house for the first time. Pretty much is what it's like. I've met some reentry specialists, some people that focus on trying to get people prepared for coming back out again, and it's a tough battle, tough battle.
Tim Sterner:Nobody's going to know how I feel, but every day that I wake up it's on my mind. I wake up in the morning and look up and see his picture. I got a chain that sits there. I got a picture of his wings on it.
Ashley Weathington:I had him made.
Tim Sterner:Yeah, and I talked to him every morning, every night, every day, and it's so hard, it's too hard.
Wendy Lyons:Well, moving into that, how did you all come about finding out little Timmy was missing? I know you said you were going to take him shopping.
Tim Sterner:Timmy called, didn't you?
Ashley Weathington:Yeah, at the time you know the story that we got. We just thought, you know, he didn't want to get in trouble because he wasn't supposed to be driving and I'm like, well, if he's running, he's going to call.
Tim Sterner:He'd call me.
Ashley Weathington:He would call him, it didn't matter what it? Was. He would call and we would know, and I even. Where are you at? You know I sent a message to his Facebook when are you at, I'll come get you. And you know, and nothing never did get me back.
Wendy Lyons:Had you all talked to him when he got released.
Tim Sterner:Yeah, I did. You did have a chance to talk with him. He was at Crackle Barrel and I told him what the situation was. I said, well, I said Wednesday I actually take you to shop and this and that so be ready.
Wendy Lyons:Because you were out of town working right yeah, I was working.
Ashley Weathington:Yeah, and then I got a phone call when I was out of town. Yeah, Because after that, after I was going to take him shopping where I worked for the school system, it was coming up getting ready to be summer.
David Lyons:I knew I didn't hear from him you know, because a lot of times people look at um, especially somebody in a situation is is taken off and hitting the road no, I wouldn't hear but that, but that's rare because, they. Usually people don't disappear as much as we want to believe they can disappear, especially with a tight family, and I've everybody I've met from I met when we met at lunch is I knew right away that that's not going to be the case he knows that he he's going to reach out for help.
David Lyons:And if he was, like, more estranged from the family, you could kind of see that. Yeah, you kind of see that, you know one of the first things you look at is he's got my front doorstep hey, let me in, let me in.
Tim Sterner:Yeah 27 years old.
David Lyons:Yeah, yeah, but I mean it's you know, because again people don't disappear.
Tim Sterner:That's how close family is.
David Lyons:That's what I'm gathering.
Wendy Lyons:I don't think that that would have been a part of that at all. So you all received the call from. Tammy Tammy's mom saying I don't know where he is.
Tim Sterner:Oh, but she went and got her. You know, she went and got her, the car was there and all that. Her car was there.
Wendy Lyons:But he wasn't but he wasn't.
Tim Sterner:He was not there.
Wendy Lyons:So then I guess, when you were done with your work that week, you came back and started looking.
Tim Sterner:Well, they didn't want me down there. None of the detectives or nobody wanted me. They wanted me in Atlanta. The standard name here is Nicholsville. We've been here all our lives. It's not a great name because of me and my brother, don't get me wrong. I mean, I know these people, but I never hung out with them. I grew up with them, but they wasn't my kind of people. You know. They're just awful people, nasty people, and the bottom line is that they was afraid for me to be in the town. They know what I can do, they know what my brother can do. They know we got friends and so they didn't want me in town. So I did what I had to do and I stayed at work. I went back to work and that's where I've been since, and just the only thing that's been helping me is work, except waking up in the morning and going to bed at night.
David Lyons:You need a place to focus on something other than that, right yeah. And you know, sometimes maybe that distance is good too, because we could take something that's bad and make it more bad or worse.
Tim Sterner:Oh, I can make it yeah.
David Lyons:Well, no, you're good, you're good. I mean, the whole thing is like we talked about before we started is, if justice has to be served, we want it in one place and that's in a courtroom. That's right. We don't want it on everybody's opinion on the Internet.
David Lyons:That's why we don't share the rumors and things like that. Is that we want and can I say I feel pretty confident in what KSP's come up with so far and we won't talk about that. I feel very confident. It may take time but I believe you're going to get answers.
Tim Sterner:I hope I think it's going to come.
David Lyons:I swear to God, I hope I think it's going to come, and especially if people again listen and watch this and hear you all and hear the rest of the family and the friends and lean on those people who probably know, Because it's been long enough now to where you have the people who, if they were right there, they know, They've talked to people by now, right?
Wendy Lyons:there. They know they've talked to people by now.
Tim Sterner:Right, there are people that third-party statement and uh, they've got to get off their butt and just talk oh, every time I come into town.
Wendy Lyons:I can walk into a store and just a, a convenient store. Come back out and know what happened yesterday, Timmy.
Tim Sterner:I turned around and looked. He said you hear anything about little Timmy yet no, I said they're still working on it.
David Lyons:Yeah.
Tim Sterner:And well, you know, I didn't even know that. Yeah, Then so many people come up to me and ask me about little Timmy and stuff, and they know what happened. I'm sure they know what happened to Little Timmy. There's a lot of people out here that know what was happening to Little Timmy. Come forward. That's it, Help me please Help me, god bless, help me please.
Wendy Lyons:I think that's what we're hoping for by doing this segment on Little Timmy is that somebody, somewhere, will come forward. I know you all have the reward out there. We interviewed Randall who talked about. He has chipped in on the reward and you know, even if people you would hate to think people do it only for the reward money, you would think people would do it for the right reason, but I think our hope in doing this is that I don't know that the people that are responsible has enough conscience to even come forward.
Wendy Lyons:I don't think people like that have a conscience. But my hope and I'm sure you're all's too would be that people who know something, they would come forward and tell what they know so that justice can be served and you all can have answers.
Tim Sterner:Right.
David Lyons:We know this is a fact that if it's more than one people that know some people better get off their ass and cut their losses.
Tim Sterner:Yes, sir.
David Lyons:Because there's only so much time that you coming forward will benefit you compared to the other people and you lose. So you know the chain is only as strong as the weakest link and the weak link better get their butt in gear. Yes, sir, because there's an opportunity right now and I've never talked to the state police detective, but I know from doing it there's an opportunity right now for somebody to come clean on this and start the answers, and they'll benefit. That's just a given.
Tim Sterner:That's the way this works.
David Lyons:So somebody out there and I'm pretty sure my bet would be if somebody's directing them to listen, because we've handled cases like this before on the show they better get off their tail Because that dollar general is going to close and the deal is going to be off pretty soon.
David Lyons:And again, I just feel confident that it may take some time, but I feel really good for you all. I feel that this one has what we'd call solvability, and there's a lot of work that's been put into it. That feels good too. So in the end, I guess I'm going to start with you, Ashley, and then we'll come back to Tim. But after being in this guy's life for half of his life, what would you ask the public to do in this case?
Ashley Weathington:Just come forward. You may be scared or you don't want to go to prison yourself, but just please give me and his dad closure, because it's hard watching him every day go through the pain and hurt that he's going through, and it's rough, yeah.
David Lyons:The whole community's lost.
Ashley Weathington:Yeah.
David Lyons:I mean there's a ripple effect that we don't feel safe when something like this happens and, of course, Tim, what would you ask people to do?
Tim Sterner:Please come forward. Please come forward. Please come forward for me and my son and my family. Please. That's all I ask, please. I'm so heartbroken and I don't know how far I can keep going, so please go forward for me, thank you.
Wendy Lyons:Well, thank you all so much for coming. I know this. Like David said, I can't imagine being in your shoes. Our heart breaks for you all too. We've been really, really following this and we've gotten really, I'd say, a lot closer than we have with similar situations. We've been close to families that have lost people, but we're in the same community you all are, and we've really delved deep into a lot of your family members and talked at length, and our heart does break for you all, and I hope the same thing.
Wendy Lyons:I hope that we can find you all answers, and I think that's the least that people could do is give you an answer to what you're looking for so you can start healing, because I don't think you can ever heal, but I think, you can begin that At least you would have an answer instead of all these unknowns, because right now that's all you will have is a lot of question marks. So thank you so much for taking the time and the courage to come in and talk to us, and we hope that somebody out there will find it within their hearts to tell even the smallest piece. If it's something so small, tell something so the ball can get rolling.
David Lyons:Again, you'll be in our prayers, have been, will continue to be, and for our audience. If you're the praying type, go ahead and hit it. I'm a big believer in it. We need to pray to turn some hearts. So thank you all again.
Wendy Lyons:Thank you, hey. You know there's more to this story, so go download the next episode, like the true crime fan that you are.
David Lyons: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 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 Lock it down, judy.
