The After Show: The Barefoot Witness

"Now, well, what do we do to emergency? We just walked in the door and there's blood in the foyer."

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Hello, everybody. I'm Deborah Roberts and it's so good to have you with us for our new episode of 2020, the After Show, where we take you behind the scenes and show you a little bit of a close-up look of our recording.

“Today, we're going to take a different take on a story that I think still lingers for so many of us here. It certainly does for me.”

It begins with an image that we had in our piece for 2020 that is so hard to shake. A toddler, wondering around Louisiana parking lot, clutching a pillow.

She's pointing to her mom's car when she is finally discovered and inside that car is a purse, keys, and a lot of blood.

Back the little three-year-old had blood on her feet. And the child became what we called for our episode "The Barefoot Witness" because sadly she was a witness to something that was pretty horrific. We would later discover, as we were putting our piece together, that the little girl's mom was a popular school teacher. Her name was Lintel Washington. And at that moment, she was missing. Police began a search to find her, and days later, sadly, she was found dead, dumped in a drainage ditch.

It was a hard-breaking story, one that I am still struggling to sort of piece together in my head, how it could have happened. I spent time down in Louisiana in Sugarcane Field, where all of this played out tragically. And I met actually that little girl later on. This episode isn't just about how authorities solve the murder, though. It's about how the truth can come from even the smallest of voices.

And in this case, it did from a toddler.

“Well, here to talk about this story, which I think we are all still talking about as my colleague in 2020 coordinating producers Susan.”

Well, hey Susan, good to see you.

Well, you and I have done this before on the podcast, but it's always great when we get a chance to sort of debrief in person.

And you're passionate about these stories that we cover, and this was one that grabbed your passion then from the very beginning. Oh, it really did. And particularly because of that video that you're talking about, because I'm a mom, you're a mom from the moment you see that video with this little girl running around. And she is clutching a pillow, she's barefoot, I was clutching my cheeks, you know, holding my breath just because you know that there's nobody around, she's there by herself. And something is definitely wrong.

Yeah, something something that had happened. And we knew that from the very beginning, well, a kind stranger shows up and eventually calls 911, which is how this all unfolds. But as I said, there was blood in the car, no parent there. And the little girl says something about a Mr. Robbie. And that would be pivotal, but just the idea that she was able to talk about that.

Tell me about your initial approach to this story because on this podcast, we'd like to give people a sense of how these stories came together. Yeah. And you've got a contact family members to see if they'll talk about something that was just absolutely horrific and devastating in their lives. Then we have to tread lightly because there's a child involved. Give us a sense of how you approached this story once we knew we wanted to cover it.

“Yeah, I think that one of the ways we've certainly knew we wanted to talk to the family and friends of Lintel because so many of them just sort of, you know, rally to round after we found out what happened.”

And wanted to be there for her young daughter and just wanted to be there as family and friends. So we approached them and we really asked for them to share that story with us to share what they were going through. What the daughter was going through, how she was feeling and how she was coping at this point. Because by the time we did this story, she was nine years old. Yeah, yeah.

So so many of them had just rallied around her to try and make sure she would be okay. And we wanted to make sure that we understood who Lintel was as well to get a good sense of who she was, what kind of mom she was, what kind of teacher she was. And we found that she was so beloved, everyone really was willing to talk to her. And that's important. Susan, I want to talk about that. You got a delicate matter with the child here. So how hard was it for you to get the family to cooperate in the very beginning.

We found Lintel's best friend Melissa Mason and Melissa was intentional about making sure that the story got out and making sure that she and others would be able to represent Lintel because Lintel could no longer speak for herself. And so once we started talking to Melissa about her best friend, Melissa was able to help us find a few more friends and some colleagues, even a student of Lintel that said, of course we'll talk to you because we want the world to know who she was.

So there's a massive search. This little girl has been found. She's mentioned this name, police are trying to figure what this means. There's a massive search for Lintel in the very beginning. In fact, we kind of retrace those steps for our program. We sent boats out to look at the area to give people a better sense of what this was all about. This was indeed a massive area. This is the bayou in Louisiana. There's all sorts of elements that are there. You know, the muddy waters, the alligators, it's just a large swath of land in Iberville, Paris down in Louisiana is where we were. This area was just massive.

And it, but it was also one of the places that we wanted to show you just how massive it was that we got on a boat on the waterway. A waterway they called whiskey bay to basically show us like this is, unfortunately, this is where bodies get dumped.

So this is one of the first places we looked, but we were able to sort of capture that by being on the boat and and showing all that they were able to do when they were first doing the search.

And they did talk to us about that. So I went down there and I remember looking at that in those sugar cane fields and we found the area where Lintel's body would eventually be found. And I got a chance to see this place and it was clearly off the beaten path. It is not a place that you would ever expect that somebody would have been, you know, found, but she was. And police also made a very sad discovery, which is that she was pregnant. She was five months pregnant. And that was sort of factor into the investigation.

Running a bear took me out there to show me this location and he talked about how remote it was. Let's take a listen to some of our conversation.

“It is really, it's, you see, all the cane they got, right? And it's, it's miles and miles of cane, right?”

And I was sort of here, there's no way anybody out there found this body. Would anything have led you back here just searching? Absolutely not. No, there's no reason to come back here. The only people that would come here would be the workers that get raised this cane. And you got the call and where had they found a body? Right up in this area right here, right? This is going to dead in right here. The canal runs this way. It also makes a left right here.

And she was located right up in that area like that. The worker had been checking out the fields and stumbled upon this area. Right, she was right here in this area right here. Oh, like I say, you know, that time had some water in this ditch, because it was water to me. It was a watery grave. And absolutely no disregard for it, just don't do it.

And there was no question here about she had been dumped there. Absolutely, she was a transfer of nothing we've seen showed out that this was the actual area where she would have been shot at. What was that light for this area? There have been this massive search that they finally find this body.

“You don't always get to solve these cases. What was that light for you?”

Well, it's actually a great relief for us for the family. Can I can about imagine, you know, that I keep thinking about this poor child, you know what I mean?

My mom's gone, you know, and her family, you know, gives the enclosure, you know, can't never bring it until back.

But at least they know, you know, they can give her a proper barrier. Investigators Susan would find a sandal that would match lentels sandals. So they would eventually be able to conclude that that was her body that they found. It was a really horrible scene, and he remembered the muddy conditions and trying to find it out there. And it was sort of perplexed when they talked about if somebody wanted to get rid of a body, this was a place to dump it.

And I guess if they hadn't conducted this massive search, you know, she very well. Her body could have just been buried out there for a long time and unrecognizable. Yeah, no, that's very true. I mean, because as you pointed out, this was a remote area.

“So I think what struck everyone is that clearly whoever did this did not want Lintel to be found.”

You know, I remember her friend Melissa once again saying, we were so afraid of she was out there because she'd be eaten up by the alienators. It was just like that imagery of what would happen to her out in the element. So they felt very strongly if they didn't find her soon, you wouldn't find her. Yeah, well, we're going to tell you more about how they found her.

And then ultimately, I was able to talk to that little girl who was actually growing up.

And I'm going to tell you more about that. We're going to sneak in and break. And when we come back, we talk more about the barefoot witness and what she told police and what she told me. So stay with us. Star Wars is back on the big screen with the Mandalorian and Grogo.

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Delhi boys season two, streams May 28 on Philly. We are back now with Susan Welsh 2020 coordinating producer who is helping me break down and sharing some of her thoughts about our 2020 episode called The Barefoot Witness. It is one that we have not forgotten about here around 2020. A lot of teacher Lintel Washington was found shot to death after her young daughter was seen wondering

along in a parking lot with blood on her feet. Police would eventually find her mother's body sadly in a field. The little girl, though, revealed some clues repeatedly saying as I said to Susan Mr. Robby and police, we're trying to piece that together. Who is Mr. Robby?

Let's talk about how that play. This three-year-old kid is able to give a little bit of a major clue in this investigation. Yeah, absolutely.

She put Robert Marks right in the center of this case.

The assistant principal, Robert Marks, the assistant principal of the school where Lintel warned. That's right, because there was no DNA and there was no weapon. But once they spoke with the daughter, this little girl, they realized, oh, there is someone that we should be looking at and she kept saying, Mr. Robby.

And eventually, they found in talking to family and friends, there was only one person that she would call Mr. Robby.

“And that's what led them to the assistant principal, Robert Marks.”

And it was a little tricky in the beginning because, of course, Marks is married, which we talk about in the program. He's having an affair with this teacher. It doesn't mean guilt. However, this teacher was pregnant.

Suddenly, she's killed. Police began to think about connecting some dots here to this crime. So that kind of quickly took off. He's eventually arrested. He's denied it along the way. He was later found guilty.

But I mean, this was really a huge, huge scandal in this area. This was because, again, you have the teacher of the year, but she's seen as having an affair with the assistant principal. And the other thing that we learned, again, from talking to family and friends, was in our pieces that she really didn't know the whole story.

She thought he was breaking up with his wife and he was available and would possibly be involved in her life in a big way. Right. That's correct. And so she started looking at apartments with him. She knew, and she knew that the baby she was carrying was his.

And so she was looking to start a life and build a life with him. And he was going right along with it. She told her he was getting a divorce. She really thought all of that was true. And she thought, OK, now we get to start our life together. And it just wasn't that at all.

“Susan, you and I had to look deeply, particularly, I think, as women sort of examining this case.”

And you and I have run into this a lot in the stories that we've covered, where there is a woman who is a very smart, sharp, put together woman as lintel was. And her friends touched on this, too. You know, it's a woman who you thought might have been able to sort of sniff out a guy who's not really all that he says he is. And you sort of wonder.

And we had to delicately talk about how she could have gotten involved in this situation. Her friends were also a little frustrated by that. Her friends were very much frustrated by that. Because they too saw her as, you know, this very, you know, a stut woman. Amplished.

Yeah, accomplished. And, you know, they just thought she was a great woman in general and deserved love. And she kept looking for that love, but in all the wrong places, according to her friends. They just couldn't understand how is she so unlucky and love. But here she is, you know, at the school with this assisted principle,

who she thought was very, you know, also very accomplished and thought, okay, we're, we're getting along and that's the kind of person I should be with. And so, you know, she thought that this was something that could really happen. And he did create this appearance of a guy who was really together. Well, as I said, he was arrested, he was eventually convicted,

sentenced to life in prison without parole. Jurors saw that videotape of the little girl that same tape that we had seen.

It was extremely powerful.

So, one, you have the video of her where she's roaming around by herself in the parking lot. And that's scary enough for people. But then she was interviewed by an advocacy worker, which was also taped and played for that jury. And we spoke with a couple of the jurors. And they said to us that, wow, for a three year old child to be so calm and collected,

composed, assured of what she was saying. And so clearly articulating what happened to her mom. They just couldn't look the other way. They had to look at that and go, she knows what she's talking about. She knows what happened that day.

And that's really what helped them determine that Robert Mark's was the one. Yeah, for her to be able to help resolve this case that involved her mom at such a young age.

The family let us speak with the barefoot witness this little girl.

Don't go anywhere because I want to talk about that. We're going to take a break here. But when we come back, we're going to share updates on her family. So don't go anywhere. Hey, Felise and Walter, my new comedy special.

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Welcome back to 2020 The After Show. I am here with Susan Welsh. We are talking about the reporting that we did together on the story of Lentel Washington, a mother, a teacher who was the teacher of the year and was found dead, sadly murdered by the man who she thought loved her and was the father of her unborn child.

While at the heart of the story was her little girl who helped solve this case and Susan, to be able to convince the family that we would handle it very gently, we would not use the little girl's name. She loved an impression on me, how about you? She did, she absolutely left an impression.

“I think on all of us because when we saw her and knowing everything that she had been through,”

it was just to see her sort of just being the typical child and living a normal life and not, just wanting to talk to us and wanting to talk about her mom. And I will tell you her friends wanted to talk to us, but they thought the biggest thing was talk to her daughter because if you talk to her daughter, you will see what kind of person she was. You will see what she poured into that child, how great of a mother she was,

and you will see it when you talk to that daughter. And we did. We did. Just about what a memories are of just her family and her mother. What about the family?

What stuck with you about the family and Lentels? You know, I guess in a way, her legacy through her daughter, but also through her family. Yeah. And through the family, I mean, I think that, you know, like I said, she was, she was loved by all they loved and cared about her so much. That they really just wanted, one of the reasons they talked to us is because they just wanted her to be known as the wonderful person that she was.

And the legacy that she left, not only with her students, but with her daughter as well.

“So I think the family and the friends who are like family to her really just, you know, feel very strongly that Lentels a person you would love to be friends with.”

Yeah. That you would love to know and they wanted to get that across. Yeah. And I think she really has left that legacy for people. Well, they were concerned too that she would come across as that teacher who had the affair with the assistant principal and sort of us a little bit of a sort of story that led to her death.

As opposed to this bright shining light who poured so much into her daughter. What have you heard from her and how she is doing after this tragic event in her life? The daughter is now living, you know, with a relative she's thriving in school. She's like your typical 13 year old girl who loves to make TikTok videos and dance around with her friends. So they hope that she will just stay safe and sound and kind of protect her a little bit from all that's out there about her mom until maybe she's a little older.

Yeah, understand all of it, but they also hope that she will see herself as the real hero in getting justice for her mom. Yeah, what she did.

I mean, she will always have to deal with probably this difficulty in this, you know, the sad tragic event that happened in her life, but hopefully with the family and so forth she's doing well.

And anything new to talk about Robert Marx. Well, we know that Robert Marx, he did appeal shortly after he was convicted. However, that was denied, so he is still serving life in prison. Exactly. Okay. Well, I'm glad to hear that their little girl is doing really well and the family is doing well.

“And most important, you know, they're moving forward with their life with some kind of sense of shining a bright light on this woman who had a beautiful life.”

Yes. Great story Susan, as always.

Whatever we're going to be working on together, I know it's going to be a good one if it's with you.

“All right, Susan, well, it's good to have you.”

And we will not forget, as I said, this little child who's growing up without her mom and we will stay in touch. And if there's anything new, we will make sure you all know about it. For now, I'm Deborah Roberts. Thank you so much for joining us on 2020 The Actors Show.

You can stream episodes like the Barefoot Witness and other 2020 full episodes on Disney Plus and Hulu.

Thanks for being with us. Take care, everybody. Now we're going to do our best. Now we're going to do our best. Now we're going to do our best. Now we're going to do our best.

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