What She Buried | 6. Ghosts of Tricie's Past

"Sorry, I think there's been a mistake. I bought it from Carvana."

“"Yeah, great price. I even have seven days to love it or return it."”

"So there's no... No, no buyers remorse. More like buyers rejoice." "I guess I'll let myself out. Congratulations. I mean it." "Bier's rejoice. Buy your car today on Carvana. Limitations and exclusions may have like. See her Saturday return policy at Carvana.com." Listen to every episode of what she buried,

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"Okay." "Campside Media." When Quinnetta told me about the killing of Michael Giles, I felt like we were getting closer to what had happened, to what she did, and who she was.

But I kept circling back to the same question. "Why?" "I didn't accept the prosecution's theory that Quinnetta was an evil mastermind, some diabolical manipulator. The chief planned Michael Giles murder well in advance." I thought she and Michael Giles probably did have an altercation the night of his murder,

and she had, for many years, repeated the same thing. During that altercation, he sexually assaulted her with his gun. After that, though, she laid out for me such a strange series of events. She said she calmed Michael Giles down. She gave him a bowl of vanilla ice cream and some benadroll. She suathed him, offered him a massage, took his gun, put it to his skull, and then shot him,

went blank. It kept asking her versions of the same question. "What was going through your head then?" "I'm scared." "I was scared and I was angry, and I remember my lawyers, and they were angry." "Do you think that your reaction to him in that moment was not just your action to him?"

"In that moment, but to..." Looking back on it now, thinking about things that had been edged was on some no more. "I'm tired." "No. You're not going to do this. No." "I think it was more than me in him in that room that they'd go through these past."

“"That's what I call them." "The things that have happened to me in the past were in that room with us."”

I wanted to find those ghosts, so soon after our meeting, I went looking for them. I wasn't sure what I would uncover, but I thought that if I went backward and went out of his life, I might have some chance at understanding the here and now. From Sony Music Entertainment and Campside Media, this is what she buried. I'm Justin Vanderland. Episode 6, "Ghosts of Treesy's Past."

One of my main interests, when I report on women in prison, is how common abuse histories are. Some studies have found that up to 94% of women in prison were sexually or physically abused before they ended up behind bars. My own work has focused on women who are in prison because

they reacted to abuse or assault. From the first time Queneta contacted me, she was talking about this.

What I read in academic reports and found in my research for my book on reasonable women, she saw it all around her. Everyone she met in prison had their own story of abuse, even if some of them couldn't or wouldn't see it. When Queneta's neighbors in solitary once casually mentioned that her grandfather had sex with her starting when she was 13. Queneta tried to break it to the neighbor.

You were raped. Now, the neighbor said, "He was making sure I didn't have a bad first experience. I knew it was wrong. I still did it every time." For Queneta, it was easy to talk about what had happened to other people. But early on, she wrote to me. The stigma and shame of allowing myself to continually accept abusive behavior is stronger than

"to tell my most shameful experiences." I wonder how many more are like me.

“Over time Queneta opened up about the shameful experiences, events that had, in part,”

defined her life, set it on its course. And she almost always circled back to a handful of men.

Her ghosts. Yes, please. That's Antonio Harris, or Tony. Queneta's first husband. Queneta got his number and called him later that night. And started taking her. They were just having fun. Nothing serious. Then, Tony decided to join the Air Force.

“So I married her. Just like that. It was the same story I had heard from Queneta and her mom,”

Robertha, that the marriage was hasty. Maybe not fully thought through. Exactly the words Queneta had used to describe herself back then. They had to stand in the dorms. They'd get housed in the lullets and all this other stuff. So a marriage got Queneta out of Detroit and Tony out of the barracks. But beyond that, it didn't offer either of them anything too positive. They were stationed in California,

where the marriage started to go bad. And then they moved to a basin in England, where it got worse. I was in a special ops squad at the time. I wasn't special ops myself, but I went on the aircraft for special ops. So we were gone. I would say a hundred, I wouldn't be close to 120 days a year. Queneta had their son by then. She was alone, just 21, and a foreign country with her baby and a husband who has gone for a third of the year.

That was why a tight knit group of black Air Force members started checking on her. So this is kind of how Queneta made Michael Giants. Michael Giants did not have a family or anything.

But he always was really five of the Queneta. Queneta never really knew how to characterize

“the start of the relationship with Michael Giants. Was his only interest in seducing her?”

Or had he been a nice guy? Someone who really cared for her and helped her? Had they been friends? Or all of the above? No matter what, Michael Giants was in arguably there for Queneta, which she needed as her marriage deteriorated. The end was messy. Queneta and Tony, it's fair to say, did not have great conflict management skulls. I have encounters with Queneta, the one that made me say Queneta the borser,

was when she cut up all my clothes and set them on fire in my house. I'm laying in the bed. And she comes upstairs and says your clothes are on fire. And ladies next to him, I'm thinking my mind, she's not that crazy. The next thing I know is the smoke alarm went off. So I went downstairs and she ran off my clothes, they're all fire. And so I went to work the next day because I didn't have a uniform. I had to go in my regular clothes. Look at my head down and bear it's pretty much

good. After that, Tony and Queneta ended up having at least two major altercations. She told me that in one instance, Tony's relatives came to visit and jumped on her, thought her.

Tony remembered the fight involving his family, but he said it was verbal, never physical.

Queneta has called Tony abusive. He's denied ever hurting her, but he said that she did have a bruised

call it quits. Tony asked the Air Force to pay for Queneta to go home immediately, back to Detroit.

“The Air Force refused and said they'd need to wait. So Tony requested that Queneta at least”

moved into temporary on-base housing. With Queneta in the new housing, Michael Giles became more forward. He approached Tony. He was like, you mind if I talked to her? You know, like, talk to her, like, go with her or whatever. And I told him, I don't get what they're doing. What you do with her does? I don't need you to keep her out of my life. And that was basically the story, the last time I talked to him about it too. So Tony thought he was more or less done

with Queneta, except Queneta never did go gently. Now she was stressed, separated, stuck in temporary

housing and far from home. So Queneta did what it seems became her habit whenever she was in a tough spot. According to Tony, she came up with a scam. I guess she met up with Giles at the club and stuff like that. And she took a bunch of Giles' chips. And she cast them all. And so all his guys all payday is looking for their chips. Of course, these were just suspicions. As usual, no proof. So the commander, again, brings me this office. Well, what do you think we should do about

this? Because this is your dependent. And my only thing I could say to him was, you turned out a lot early, returning to the pit. And he approved it. Queneta got her ticket home. After that,

Tony didn't want to know about her. Then again, seemed like he never had. And they were really

disgusted to her channel. They're really telling it true. Or she never really opened up with that. Let's put it back. They were married for six years and they had a son. But Tony's take on Queneta remained pretty vague. But like, I mean, you were married to her. So what was she like as a person, I guess? Like, at that time, at least. Did you have an impression of her? Like, did you love her? I always said, yes, I mean, if you leave with somebody that long you do.

The marriage to Tony had offered Queneta a chance to lead a conventional middle-class life. And it didn't pan out. So it was back to her old neighborhood where she found a new man who had soon become a new ghost. She was going with this guy. His name was Al in apparently didn't have

“job, but he had, but I'm pretty sure he was drunk at the time. And so I'm pretty sure that's how she got her”

man. Queen Carvania stood halo by the morning sun and army hung on her every word. My champions, I have sold my chariot on Carvana to as a lovely SUV and inexplicably queenly offer. They're even coming to the castle to collect it! Tonight, we face! And offer you can feast on, sell your car today on Carvana. Pick up fees, may I buy? Some evil thing happened here. Three people die in a quiet suburb in Mississauga, Canada. It's not a coincidence.

One after the other, in the same house. Is this bad luck or something more sinister? They're worth an investigative mess I've ever encountered.

“Long simmering, what took you so fucking long to get here?”

From Sony Music Entertainment, this is what happened to the Harrison's. I'm Amy Dempsey Raven. What happened to the Harrison's is available now on the bench. Search for it wherever you get your podcasts to start listening today. Subscribers to the bench can listen to all episodes, all at once, add free.

This is L, when I does second husband.

These days, L's on the right side of the law.

fixing them up and renting them out. For fun, he placed chess. When we met, he had a board out on the table, the pieces scattered mid-game. It all tracked. Koneta had told me that L was a secret intellectual. He'd hide his books to keep up his street

reputation and then read political philosophy and bet next to her. She'd always liked that about him,

but he was a reader. Meanwhile, L had liked everything about Koneta. He still did. How's she doing? I mean, as well as a person can and solitary for? Yes, she's strong. L is eager to talk about his memories with Koneta. We had such a good life. We had everything. Beautiful houses. Uh, luxury cars. She had a good job. I had a good job.

Once they moved in together, he wanted to provide for her as he felt she deserved.

They had a daughter. For their first Christmas as a family, L went out and got a tree.

There's a big tree, so you just stay at the light. She's probably there for months. I'll stand on the light. Yeah. So we had a good life. A good life. As we talked, L kept repeating the phrase.

“Yeah, we had a good life. That's what I was trying to always tell people we had a good life.”

Me and Tracy really had to make. We was the envy of all our friends. 'Cause she had everything. One could want that time. She had a specific work shoes. There was some shoes with springs. And she kept her hair. Awesome. And I just love it. I just love it, not. But even L can admit, the good life wasn't a perfect life.

Koneta may have had a Christmas tree, expensive shoes, an awesome hair. But her second husband,

like her first husband, was gone a lot. Half the nights, he didn't come home. And the nights when he was absent, they could be preferable to those when he was present.

“I mean, went to, I think she was cheating on me. So she got all dressed up.”

So I'm looking at her. Oh, I'm feeling the fucky now. Now, you can get after me, but you're not leaving. Right now, I'm feeling the fucky right now. I'm your husband. How did she react to that? She's so many. What the fuck was she going to tell me the truth? She submitted to this. When Koneta thinks of Al, she remembers him as a smart and devoted partner. She still considers him a friend. But she also remembers him as an abuser.

Quite a brutal one. She once wrote me, "Hell, I survived Al. I could survive anything." And Al didn't entirely deny when it is claims of abuse. I was went on some drugs to get to the church. You know, she wanted me to take her to work or something. And I didn't take her to work. And she just pissed off about that. She pushed me and I slapped her or something. That's the call to police. I was in my name was garage when they were looking for me.

“They didn't ever find me that day. But yeah, that's what it happened. I didn't want to take it or work.”

And she was mad as something that said someone pushed me. And I might have slapped her or pushed her. The police report for this incident is detailed. It says, "Alon Harris struck complainant Koneta Harris in the forehead, then grabbed a loaded 38 caliber and pointed it at her. Al then allegedly told Koneta, "Don't come any closer and left the house with their daughter." When the police arrived, they observed a large lump above Koneta's left eye.

She said she couldn't hear from her left ear. The responding officers noted that Koneta was visibly frightened and shaking. When the officers asked if she was okay, Koneta shook her head side to side. She said, "Not okay." It felt like Al was growing agitated. He looked away from me and stared down at the chess board, slamming the pieces into their squares.

Look at that. That's the guy I appreciate. I tried getting him back on track. But just that one time? Just that one time? I mean, what? I was an amateur. Yeah, one time. In any case, the so-called good-life, it came with violence. I had guns all over the fucking house. Yes. And I had guns in the kitchen and everywhere. Once as you shouted me, she shouted in the ground. Did she?

Hey, listen. Here's a lot going on home, baby. I don't want to say nothing negative to make her look bad. But this year, you know, it was some hat. I don't know who was arguing or something. And I came up with that. There was a shot in the ground. I don't know what that was about. I don't know. Just the one time? Yeah, even though they weren't violent to each other, it was having a big life. We was inside it.

So it's just the one shot and then one shot. But it was my gun. I had guns all in the fucking house. And then you just did the one, the one hitting. Yeah.

“That was kind of the deal. Queneta and Alhat. You have to navigate the violence, but you get the money.”

Queneta's marriage to Al marked the first time in her adult life that she was financially comfortable.

During this time, as best as I can tell, she wasn't committing any thefts or frauds. But then, in 2003, Al was arrested and charged with intent to distribute cocaine and gun possession. He was acquitted on the drug charge, but took a plea on the gun charge in that 46 months. Queneta remembered when Al on his way to prison, handed her his wallet and his jewelry. She was almost relieved. She wrote, "I felt giddy, then guilty, but he left me with money." He demanded Queneta

added that their daughter attended a private school. Even without locked up, she intimated. She and her kids wanted for nothing. But Al didn't remember it that way. He said he actually had no plans in place for his family if he were caught.

“You know, I didn't know if that guy would be a trouble. Really?”

No. It feels like a high-risk profession. I'm a shitty stuff, just to you. I was good at that shit. But once Al was locked up, he realized he couldn't do much for his wife and daughter. When I was in federal prison, I had problems out here, and they took him out into a white mess, you know, and he looked at like that. I said, "Well, I understand that she might have to

pay some bills." And Queneta couldn't cover those bills with what Al had left behind. "Bunch of jewelry and stuff like that. I don't know. I had money there. It was probably money here, but it probably wasn't fairly flat. It wasn't substantial amount,

'cause I never thought I would be in trouble for this shit. I told you, I was locked up.

So, you can only make a call. Whatever was there that I was there. I bought her a Rolex. I had a Rolex. Yeah, matching necklaces. I know she probably pondered. It was just everything. It was just going down. Everything was going down. I wasn't there. I can't get nobody to do anything, you know. When you go on through that, you really, on your own. And away. So she couldn't. I know she had never been to her. She couldn't. I can't believe Labor Day is almost here. I'm not ready to let

summer go just yet. We've got the picnic menu planned, friends are coming over, and my one stop

before everyone arrives is always total wine and more. I grab a couple bottles of wine,

“some tropical can cocktails, plus a few hardsellters like mango, lime, and pineapple. That's why”

I keep coming back to total wine. The selection is incredible, and with the lowest prices, it's easy to prep for the long weekend. This Labor Day shop total wine and more. Spirits are not sold in Virginia and North Carolina. Drink responsibly. Be 21. I'll left a permanent mark on Queneta. Alump, she says, above her eyebrow, his name, tattooed across her chest. And he left a mark emotionally, too.

dependent on him. His sudden departure left her in dire straits. Al was her ghost a few times over.

“But then, there were the main ghosts, as I'd come to think of them. They were from long ago.”

I couldn't talk to them. Some of them, Queneta didn't know their names. Others, she wasn't telling. In her fifth letter to me, Queneta told me that when she was very young, she'd been molested by a family member, fondling. She said, "She told her grandma,

who simply responded, stay away from that person." Queneta never told anyone else.

It was an early lesson. Push it all down. She'd honed that technique. There was another incident Queneta told me about that had done far more to shift the trajectory of her life. When she was 12 years old, she was kidnapped and gang raped. Queneta hadn't talked about this incident very much in her life, but I also wasn't the first person

“she told it to. She told some female friends who remembered. She mentioned the rape in a social”

history taken while she was in police custody after her arrest. She told one of her attorneys before the trial. In Detroit, Queneta's cousin Princess Powell remembered that 12-year-old Queneta had gone missing and something had happened to her, but Queneta wasn't quite sure what. Another person close with Queneta's family recalled that Queneta had disappeared and she'd been found with bruises all over. The person said, "Queneta had been raped by three grown men."

Rebirtha, Queneta's mom, had also told me about what happened. It started with a bike ride. "I have bought a swim by cycle." "You fool." And it followed it into my pay three and so that was for that bike band." Queneta went out on the $300 swim bike with a girlfriend. Rebirtha remembered her pretty bright daughter dressed cute that day with a little charm that's at Tricee, her nickname dangling from her belt. But Queneta didn't return.

Rebirtha waited for hours. No Queneta. Rebirtha started to panic. She called for help. "My uncles and cousins and them went around the area where they said that they think she was there." Rebirtha's family knew the area that people in it. The men walked each block asking questions, investigating. It took at least a full day Rebirtha thought maybe longer. "There's a lot of tracking in the streets to find them. What happened to her?"

"They got where when they did release, so we basically were around a corner." Queneta had been held in a vacant home about a quarter mile away from Rebirtha's house. "She was physically a salt and sexually a salt."

Queneta has never told me how she felt when this happened.

The actual emotion that go along with this experience, they seemed to be tucked far away. But she told me that she remembered how her mom felt. Rebirtha was devastated and cried a lot. Queneta figured if she were to elaborate on what happened, it would only hurt Rebirtha more. "Yeah, the, you know, I often tell her, you know, you love the love you and the love that got, it's given us with you. It's going over the panel with that stuff that they did."

"You know, no, claim the victory that you're on. You're okay, and we'll get through it." "And time passed, and we just didn't talk about it anymore." "Do you wish you had, or do you think it was good not to?" "Well, if she wanted to, we could have." "And yeah, problem with it. But I don't think she wanted to." As far as I could tell, it wasn't a matter of wanting to talk about it or not.

It was just that Queneta got the message.

First, when she was a little kid, and then again, when she was 12,

that she should keep quiet and move on. One night, after the rape, she overheard her grandpa and uncle talking. They were wondering if Queneta was going to start acting crazy. "You couldn't sleep, you were awake, and you heard them saying that?"

“"I think I heard them talking. I don't remember where I was. I just remember here in the talk,”

and I don't remember if I was at my mother's house or my grandmother's house. But I heard them talking.

everything is fine. And that I start writing. And I remember my mother would catch me writing stories or writing this. What is wrong with you? What were you writing?" I was just writing imaginary stories. I wrote stories out of imaginary stories about people. I don't think it was gory or anything, but it was too much, my mother used to say, "Are you spending too much time in fantasy land in your hate?"

“You remember about the stories that you were writing? Like, do you remember?”

I just remember the birthday they were. I remember they were about a boy I had, of a boy I made up. Back then, Queneta and another girl walked to school together every day.

That other girl was her first real audience. When I told him to her,

I cast it as, "This is real." I think it was just antics that these people were doing and, you know, this and the other, and that was it. I remember it being, you know, "Peace happy, happiness." And I don't know if that was just me trying to reach her something. So Queneta's initial foray and story telling allowed her to connect with a friend. She could leave behind her own experiences and her own neighborhood. A place where she had thought she

was safe, but had been mistaken, and she could land in a new, happy place. She also started to see if you could tell a good story in just the right way, people would want to believe you. And then of course, making a story gave her authority an agency. She had lost control. Now, she could take it back. She could even use her talents as a storyteller to write wrongs. She kept at it. And I got in trouble because I saw the teachers,

one of the teachers, my mother went up there for parent teacher conference, and my mother said,

“"Why is this woman telling me that all you talk about is going to Hawaii with her data?”

I don't remember what makes me shit with my father." Queneta's dad, who was rarely around, he wasn't taking her on any tropical vacations, but Queneta could pretend, and at school, where nobody knew any better, she could present her fantasies as real. In the early days, when truth wasn't welcome, stories moved into its place, and stories became lies, which started to grow.

I wanted to talk to Queneta more about how this all might fit together, her trauma and where it had led. I wanted to hear more from her about the ghosts of Tracey's past. I wanted to talk in person,

again. My producer, Eric, and I had always planned to make a second visit to Queneta in Texas.

“It had been easy the first time around, so we didn't anticipate any issues when we made the request.”

Hi. Hey. I'm taping. We have gone to response back from TDCJ. Eric, TDCJ representatives spoke with the victim's family after the last media request was submitted. The family has processed a disinterview. Queneta Harris is now unable to be interviewed by media because of this. You can communicate with her through USPS and JPEG. That's the email. We were beyond confused. We talked to Michael Giles' family. His sister Quen and his cousin

Karnita had participated in the podcast. And they insisted that they hadn't said anything to TDCJ. They didn't know of any other family members who even could have. I'd actually had interactions with TDCJ in the past years earlier, where they used my communications with Queneta to pin fake charges on her. When I protested, they threatened to revoke my ability to ever talk to her. Meanwhile, she faced the possibility of more time and

solitary for the fake charges. So on some level, I was always waiting for them to do something

like that again. But even if we couldn't see Queneta, TDCJ had said I could still write to her. In Queneta was still able to call me. So at least we could keep talking and we did for hours. But then, on a Saturday and March, I got an email. It had been two weeks since I'd interviewed Queneta

quote, no podcast, no articles, no story, no nothing. I am with the drawing cooperation and can no longer communicate in any way with you or through any third party, including family and friends. I am requesting any interviews and notes pertaining to podcast be destroyed. TDCJ has notified me I am in violation, if persist. Queneta Harris. For five years, I'd been in contact with Queneta.

First letters, then emails, then calls, then the prison visit, and through it all, Queneta never

held back. She'd already told me nothing scared her as long as she could keep writing and talking. Her attitude had always been, bring it on, TDCJ. But this new email, the tone was totally different than anything I'd ever read before. You almost like feeling, don't you feel like she's got the

“gun to her head and she's like your dress. Yes, you know. I think hostage hostage video is the”

vibe of that email. So what was TDCJ holding over Queneta? What could be so powerful that she would

cut me off? Queneta had never backed down from TDCJ and now she was submitting to their demands

that she withdraw from the podcast. And she was asking me, a journalist to destroy all of my materials, years worth of stuff, dozens of on-the-record interviews given with full consent. And that can't be undone and it can't be undone by the force of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice or anybody else. Right. Now I don't know one thing which is the Texas Department of Corrections has not actually made this, has not said this to you. Right. Which is also intriguing

“like they said I could continue with J.P. and U.S.D.S. Yes. That's the only reason. That was the last”

we heard of them. So now we're hearing from them like through fur. It's all very strange. I mean, it's strange. It's very strange. Do we think there is zero like obviously our interview was shut down by TDCJ? Obviously they were back and said, you can't, you can't, you can't do an interview or you can only write to her. We think there is no chance that something happened like Quynetta realized she had been talking about her crime for three hours. In other words,

maybe Quynetta got spooked. Maybe after telling me so much, she sat alone in her cell and started to spiral. This podcast wasn't going to turn out like she'd hoped. Maybe she got into deep,

“exposed herself in a way that felt vulnerable and out of control. And instead of just talking”

to me about it, instead of actually facing the issue, she'd revered it to her usual problem-solving technique, create a topsy-turvy scheme that throws everything into chaos. She masterminds all that including ADCJ's part in it. Taking a step back, I realized that just because I couldn't talk to Quynetta directly, that didn't mean my reporting was done. There was still other avenues

to explore other voices to hear. And ultimately, they would bring me as close as I would ever get

to truly understanding who Quynetta was and why she'd done the thing she had. That's next time on the final episode of what she buried. Don't want to wait for the next episode, you don't have to. Unlock all episodes of what she buried early and ad-free right now by subscribing to the binge and it doesn't stop at what she buried. Subscribers get a binge drop of a brand new series on the first of every month. That's all episodes, all at once, all ad-free. Search for the binge on apple

podcasts and hit subscribe. Not an apple? Head to getthebinge.com to subscribe directly. What she buried is a production of Sony Music Entertainment and Campside Media. This show was reported and hosted by me, Justin Vanderland. Eric Benson is the executive producer. Ashley and Craig Baum is the managing producer. Production assistants from Lane Rose, Josie Duffy Rice,

Share. The series was mixed and sound designed by Garrett Tidiman, a support from UNLi Trimulin.

“Fact check-in by Matthew Giles. A special thanks for our operations team. Ashley Warren,”

Sabina Mara, and Destiny Dinkle. From Sony Music Entertainment, the executive producers are

Catherine St. Louis and Jonathan Hirsch. Campside Media's executive producers are Josh Dean,

“Vanessa Grigoriades, and Matthew Share. If you enjoyed what she buried, please rate and”

review the show wherever you get your podcasts.