Florida Teenage Love … and Murder - Rachel Wade - Love and Murder Podcast: Heartbreak to Homicide

Florida Teenage Love ... and Murder - The Case of Rachel Wade

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**Episode Transcription

Welcome everyone! Welcome to a new episode of Love and Murder – the weekly true crime podcast discussing relationships gone terribly wrong. Where our motto is, you’re either someone’s last love or their first murder.

I am your host Ky and in today’s episode, we’re talking about a case of teenage love, heartbreak, cheating, and murder.

Be sure to subscribe to Love and Murder right now while you’re listening so you don’t miss a case. If you didn’t know, you can also subscribe on our Patreon so that you don’t have to hear intros or commercials. Actually, our last bonus episode over there we continued reading the journal of a cannibal. I was also supposed to do another bonus but I got sick. So next week, there will be two additional bonuses over there. Want in? patreon.com/loveandmurder. You can also just search Love and Murder Premium Feed on Spotify and get the bonuses there. The link is in the show notes.

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In the meantime though, grab your butts, grab your apple juice, and let’s get into some Love and Murder.…

In 2009, in Pinellas Park, FL, 19 year old Rachel Wade and 18 year old Sarah Ludemann were in a rivelry. No it wasn’t school riverly or anything that would actually make sense. It was a riverly over a 19 year old guy named Joshua Camacho.

Rachel, who was 115 lbs and 5’4” (52.16 kilos and 1.63 m – quick question so I’m doing this correctly. When I give these measurements, I take into consideration my international listeners. Do yall measure people’s height in meters or centimeters. Please comment and let me know so I can report it properly for yall. Thanks.) Anyway, she was a high school dropout, who left school at 16. She’d moved out of her mom’s house and gotten her own apartment, paid for by waitressing at Applebee’s. In her highschool yearbook, she was label as “the biggest flirt” and had dated alot of boys by the time she got to Josh. But for some reason, he was the one she couldn’t shake.

Sarah, who was 160 lbs and 5’9” (72.57kilos and 1.75m), was a bright, straight A student whose goal was to become a vet. Josh was her first real boyfriend and she was still a virgin by the time she’d met him. Look, don’t jump on me, I’m just conveying the facts to show the stark difference between the girls.

Josh, at this time, still lived with his parents (which isn’t really an insult as people think it is because it’s expensive out here!!), didn’t take care of his kid, and barely worked (ok NOW it’s an insult then) was Rachel’s ex-boyfriend and he was currently with Sarah (they met at a fast food joint) – actually he’d been with her for about 6 months now. In those 6 months, police had been involved 6 different times because of public confrontations with Josh. Not only that, but Sarah had gotten into an argument with Erin Slothower, Josh’s baby mama. Damn, how many women is this guy juggling?!

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Now I know you’re wondering what piece of fineness could cause this kind of commotion. Well Josh had jet black hair, skin the color of coffee with cream, and stood at 5’5” (1.7 meters).

“I personally don’t think he’s good-looking,” is a quote from Erin’s friend, Jamie Severino. “I’m pretty sure he had more girls than just the three. They all were supporting him, buying him clothes, buying his shoes, paying his cellphone bill, and they all knew about each other.” She said that he was able to convince that that each girl was the only girl he was his and that he only loved that individual. Jamie also said that she’d tried to fight Rachel once when Rachel had slept with her boyfriend, “I tried to fight her, but she wouldn’t fight me.”

At that time, Jamie was in the midst of waiting for her own trial on being an accessory to an armed robbery. Jamie’s also Josh’s brother’s baby mama. Wow! Wait a second, how small is this town?! Let’s see. Through the amazement of editing, that research only took 10 seconds.

According to the 2020 census, Pinellas Park has 53,093 people. In 2010, there were 49,079 people. So it grew a little bit. It’s about 16.80 sq miles (43.51 km2). So it’s small but not like a one store town.

OK now that my curiosity is saited, back to the story.

He’d actually started dating Sarah, remember it was right after he broke up with Rachel (but was he really broken up?) and while Erin was pregnant with his child. Wait! So that means he was with Rachel while he was getting Erin pregnant! Wow!

He’s such a good guy that one time Joshua punched Sarah in the face, but she didn’t press charges against him. Soooo this is they guy these girls think is a catch, so much so that they’re fighting over him?

Josh was actually able to juggle between the three of them using their different schedules against them and he told everyone they were just “friends with benefits” even though each girl thought differently. Erin worked two jobs and was off late at night, Sarah’s curfew was 11pm, and Rachel was independent, which Josh used to his advantage.

When Rachel learled that Josh had moved on with Sarah, she started harassing her; leaving threatening voicemails and showing up at her job.

They then started sending threatening texts to each other through phone, MySpace and Facebook. Rachel would remind Sarah that she’d been with Josh first and Sarah would retort that he was her man now.

On Tuesday April 14, 2009 during the evening hours Rachel was home minding he own business, waiting for Josh to come and visit her after he was done at the movies with Sarah. Rachel went out to walk her dog and sarah drove by and yelled “Stay away from my man!” This scared Rachel and she called the police. Just kidding, she called her ex-boyfriend (yes another one) Javier Laboy – which in a mixture of French and English his name is Javier the boy. Corney joke I know. Sorry I just had to share that. (please don’t unsubscribe)

ANNYYWAYYY

She called Javier and told him what was going on. He told her to come to his house and he’ll protect her. So she ran inside, got her purse and got a big ole steak knife and went over to Javier’s house.

Later that night, around 11pm, because Rachel was wondering why Josh wasn’t answering her calls, she went over to his house and saw that he was there playing video games with Sarah.

Damn she became a detective REAL QUICK! Women, why do we do that?! I refuse! As I tell everyone, I’m not going out to find anything out. If it’s meant for me to find out, I 100% will. And I do. Stop wasting your gas; it’s expensive.

Anyway, so Rachel texted Josh,

“Now I know why you’re not talking to me — because you got her.”

Josh said, “That’s right. I don’t like you no more. Why are you down this street? Go home.”

Rachel “No. I’ll wait for her to go home.”

Rachel later told Sarah, on speakerphone might I add, “I’m going to stab you and your Mexican boyfriend.”

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Around midnight – damn this all happened in the span of an hour? – Anyway, around midnight Josh’s sister asked Sarah to take her to McDonald’s. On the way, Sarah saw a friend of hers and for some reason she asked this friend where Rachel was. The friend said “Oh she’s at Javier’s.” and Sarah said then that’s where I’m going because this bitch done got on my nerves too much. She called Rachel on her way and told her

“I’m going to stab you! You and your Mexican boyfriend!”

Why would you call her and warn her? Not that I’m giving yall any ideas.

Anyways….

When Sarah got to Javier’s house, she saw Rachel and Javier speaking with a guy named Dustin Grimes.

Sarah came to a screeching halt – almost running Rachel over – jumped out of the car and started swinging. What she didn’t know was, Rachel had that steak knife. Rachel stabbed Sarah in the shoulder and chest. Sarah backed off, wounded, and called Josh to tell him what happened. Josh ran to Sarah’s house to tell her father what had happened and to drive him to where Sarah was. They took Sarah to Northside Hospital where she died at 2:20 am, about 2 hours after all of this went down.

Police arrived at the scene and detained everyone there. They asked Rachel and other witnesses what happened. Rachel told her side of the story and cried when police told her that Sarah had died

HOWEVER

Witnesses had a much different tale. They told police that Sarah never even left the car and it was Rachel who ran up to the car and attacked Sarah. She then threw the knife over the fence into a neighbor’s backyard and calmly said, ‘I’m done.”

Rachel was arrested and chraged with second degree murder. No wonder she was crying; she knew what Sarah dying meant for her.

She was book into Pinellas County Jail and given a $500,000 bond.

1 year and 3 months later, on July 20, 2020 Rachel’s trial started. A show called In Session on TruTV televised the jury selection and trial. I have some videos from the trial in Patreon.

Rachel pled NOT GUILTY and her defense, attorney Jay Hebert, argued self defense and sited Florida’s Stand Your Ground Law. For those who don’t know, according to orlandodefense.com, “Stand Your Ground law allows individuals to use deadly force if they reasonably believe that such force is necessary to prevent imminent death or great bodily harm to themself or another…..

…..Unlike some other states, Florida does not require individuals to retreat to a place of safety instead of using deadly force.” He said Rachel was afraid because Sarah was bigger than her AND she felt outnumbered. You know, with Sarah and Josh’s sister in the car against her and two guys. It wouldn’t have been a fair fight; Josh’s sister is scary.

He also testified that Josh should be held responsible; not that he’s LEGALLY responsible in the murder, but he’s a sweet talking, “conniving,” “manipulative” individual who is ethically culpable. He showed references where witnesses said Josh told the girls, “If you love me, you’ll fight for me.”

Rachel testified the same as her lawyer; that she had the knife because she was afriad of Sarah due to her size over Rachel. She said she was also scared of Josh because he once held a gun on her and told her that she better not leave him. (He denied this by the way). She started crying and said, “When I looked down, I saw blood. I didn’t know she had been stabbed.”

The prosecution countered with the girls’ history and the testimony of the witnesses on the scene that night, because remember this was done in front of a bunch of people.

Josh, his sister and Dustin testified for the prosecution. Javier testified for the defense.

The nail in Rachel’s coffin was when the prosecution played the voicemails she’d left for Sarah stating that she was going to kill her. “I’m guaranteeing you I’m going to fucking murder you. You’re a fucking fat bitch. I’m going to fucking kill you.”

What’s our rule LaMs? If you’re going to commit a crime, make sure you leave as much evidence as possible. Texts, emails, tell everyone one you know and everyone you don’t.

After hearing the voicemails, it took the jury 2.5 hours to rule GUILTY of 2nd degree murder. The judge said that it was his belief that Rachel fully intended to kill Sarah. On September 3, 2010, Rachel was sentenced to 27 years in prison and was sent to Lowell Correctional Institution.

Rachel still said that she wasn’t guilty and that she acted in self-defense. Of course she filed an appeal.

During an interview with ABC news in March 2011, Rachel blamed social media for what happened stating that it gives people the ability to say whatever they want without consequence. Because controlling yourself is up to Zuckerberg. MARK ZUCKERBERG WHY DIDN’T YOU STOP ME?!

In April 2011, Sarah’s father filed a civil suit against Rachel which he won on Febrary 17, 2012.

People say that Josh hasn’t been the same since this happened. He went back to Erin for a couple of months after Sarah was murdered. He’s quiet and doesn’t talk much. He doesn’t have a car and doesn’t work either – soo, nothing’s changed? “After this stuff happened, he would just be crying and crying. Since then, he is real quiet all the time. Now he doesn’t do nothing.” He denied being with either girl and never visited Rachel in jail.

So what was the point of all of this? Rachel is in jail, Sarah is dead and Josh didn’t claim any of them.

And that is the case of Rachel Wade.

What did yall think about this case? Do you think Josh should have been held responsible some how?

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