No Escape: The Murder of Brittney Lavoll - Swing Shift

John This week on Sins and Survivors, we were inspired by a message we received from Brittany, Laval's son, to reshare her story with all of you. Get ready as we put in a little overtime on swing shift and take a dive into the backstory of what went into making this week's episode.

Shaun Hello, subscribers!

John Bonjour, subscribers.

Shaun Thank you so much for being subscribers. Yes, John pointed out that I didn't. We didn't say that last week.

John You didn't.

Shaun I didn't say it last week.

John But we we we have that in our hearts always.

Shaun We're always thinking about you.

John We do appreciate you being subscribers.

Shaun And, um, if you haven't reached out to us lately giving us an update on how you feel about the the new format we kind of put in place for this season, we'd love to hear from you.

John Yes, we're thinking about doing some sort of a poll, or maybe we'll do a poll with some sort of a random prize for people who win.

Shaun Yeah, well, that would be a good idea.

John Yeah. I don't know, we'll.

Shaun Have some ideas. We have to work on that.

John We do? Um, we do want to know what you think of the new format.

Shaun Absolutely.

John Some of this stuff is scripted still.

Shaun Yes.

John Like, the intros are still scripted?

Shaun Yes.

John But then we do what I like to call story time.

Shaun Story? Yeah. There's been some story time. Yeah. Yeah, we've kind of been mixing.

John It story time with John. And Sean is the original name of the the name of the podcast?

Shaun It was.

John So, Sean, this was a Sean episode.

Shaun Well, yes.

John Sort of. When did we hear from, uh, Brittany's son?

Shaun Um, maybe just a couple weeks ago. And, um, he.

John Through Instagram?

Shaun Yeah, he just messaged me on Instagram and just said, like, hey, um, thank you for this. That, um, I didn't we didn't talk about it so much in the, in the episode, but just a reminder. It was it was his father who killed his mother. And that's a a kind of trauma that I. I don't know what it what it takes to overcome to work through that. I mean, he, he said that that they're constantly working on that. That's something that they always work on. They're always dealing with her loss. You know, it's always there. But that they keep striving. I love how he said that. They keep striving. So because his father is in prison, um, and his mother is gone, his his father, he's an adult. His father can try and speak to him and try and tell him his side of the story of what happened. And that's that's that's fine. That's something Kevin can do and, and has done, apparently. But, um, Brittany's son was like, searching for what Brittany's side of the story might have been like. So he had started doing some research, and that's how he came upon the episode. And he asked me for copies of whatever court documents we had, and I gave it all to him.

John I did not know that.

Shaun I told him, I said, what I'm giving you is going to have the statements that your, your aunt and your grandparents made in court, and it's going to have what your father told the police, because we had that some of that interrogation testimony from what he told the police. We had that. And I was like, I'm giving this to you because you are an adult, and you asked me for it, but I, I want you to lean on your family, lean on your grandma as you look at this, because it's not going to be easy. And he appreciated that. He shared, um, so much about his boxing, which I thought was really cool. He's very he has a he's very proud of his boxing. He he had his first win. Um, you know, I keep asking him when he's going to fight here in Vegas, I think we'd have have fun going to see him do that.

John Definitely. We will definitely go see him for sure.

Shaun I think, um, I think he didn't have an easy time. He had a rough time, even surrounded by all the love he was surrounded by. He still had a rough time, but he continues to work on himself. And he wants to, you know, be successful and grow into a successful, adult, successful, caring person. And I think, um, I think he's on his way so.

John And so lucky that he had his family around him like that. So many, so many don't.

Shaun Yeah.

John Yeah, we've definitely told stories where like.

Shaun Yeah.

John The kids are left and they don't really have anyone.

Shaun A person.

John Yeah, yeah. So.

Shaun But no, it and his, uh, his grandma did a lot of advocacy work about the fact that Kevin was able to get his hands on that gun when he shouldn't have been able to have a gun, which, you know, that I think that was a big factor in Brittany's story, given that she worked so hard to get away from him. Uh, so I, I told I shared that with him, too. I'm like you, you know how much how hard your grandma worked. Like, you know what she was all about? And he said, yeah. Um, sadly, he shared with us that, um, he also has an uncle that, um, was actually murdered in a domestic violence situation as well. So, like I said, this family's had a lot to face and a lot to deal with. But they keep they keep working, they keep moving forward. And I think that's great. And he said, like I said, I only talked to one of her sons. Um, they he's the middle son. So there's one older and one younger. And um, he said they're both doing really well. I think the younger ones probably still in high school. And then the older ones will, you know, in his twenties. So they, you know, they're they're out there doing the best they can.

John That's nice.

Shaun Mhm.

John That's very cool.

Shaun And then um, you know he shared that this was a tough time of year because it's, it is for, for anyone all the time. Um but that his mom loved Christmas and that was something that he knew was true about her. And I asked him, you know, how he felt about us putting back out her episode, talking about how he reached out to us and he was like, yeah, go for it. I think that would be a good idea. So here we are.

John Some people ask us when this happens, why didn't you reach out to him beforehand?

Shaun I wouldn't have felt comfortable reaching out to an eighteen year old.

John Also, sometimes it's hard to find people.

Shaun Well, there's that part too.

John Don't always necessarily want to be found and talk about.

Shaun Mhm.

John Uh it's hard.

Shaun Mhm.

John We don't really want to retraumatize people.

Shaun Mhm.

John It is. And it seems like that's going to be the thing that some people surprise us and they want to talk about their loved.

Shaun Ones.

John And they want their story out there.

Shaun Yeah.

John A lot most of them do.

Shaun Yeah I think so. I think the way we approach everything really makes it a place where people want to be a part of it, because we're not out here telling these stories.

John We are not often accused of trying to make money off of someone else's tragedy.

Shaun Yes, but.

John But occasionally.

Shaun Yes.

John We are accused of that. Um, yeah. There was one case where we heard from. Um. I won't even mention the case.

Shaun I wouldn't. Yeah.

John Um, but there was a case where, uh, it was a woman who was murdered. That doesn't really narrow it down. Um, and we heard from her brother. I think.

Shaun It was.

John Her brother who was angry about something we mentioned in the episode, which was in the court transcript. We read something that was in the court transcript. I won't mention what it was, but he did not like it. But it was.

Shaun Even though he himself had said it, he was. I think he either didn't remember or didn't like that he felt that the context was missing or something like that.

John Right. And I think he didn't like the way we, you know, framed it. So he came at us pretty, um, pretty hard, Demanding we take the episode down and, um, like, he was pretty mad. He was pretty mad. But we just responded with, um, you know, empathy like normal people do and sort of explained where we were coming from. And we said, like, we're we'll be happy to, you know, edit the episode and change whatever that's actually happened a couple of times where someone says this or that isn't true or whatever, and we go back to them and, you know, we say like, if if there's information out there that you have that we can prove conclusively, we're not just going to prove we're not just going to, yeah, you know, change the episode because you don't like the truth. Right. Something that happened, you know, per se. Um, but, you know, either they don't bother to respond when we respond to them with, you know, empathy and kindness. Um, I guess they feel seen and they don't feel like they have to, you know, demand that we take the episode down. Um, but with him, he replied to us in his tone. Changed one hundred and eighty degrees. Right?

Shaun Mhm. And, um, I, I just kind of told him the reason why we told the podcast, whatever the issue was that I really wanted to highlight by telling that story, as we as I say, we don't, we don't tell these stories just to, you know, have entertainment, murder our that's not our intent. I, we're trying to educate people about the realities of domestic violence, the policies we have, what works, what doesn't, where we're still falling short so we can save more lives. We can raise awareness. And I, I kind of told him that that I said I, you know, said that the reason why I wanted to use that quote from him is because I thought that that was a quote that a lot of people could relate to, and a lot of people could, um, could really understand how he felt. You know, I was trying to use his own words, and he seemed to appreciate that. But I think in the end, John, you just took the quote out of the episode.

John Yes. It was a particular thing I said. And I just went in.

Shaun Yeah. And you just took that one line out.

John I took that line out.

Shaun So you you all you all couldn't find it now. But that's the that's the way we try and treat our the work we do. We're doing it for families. If it's not serving them, then it's not working. We're screwing it up. So we we'll always do what we can to fix things. But we've had a situation where I think it was like somebody claimed to be a friend of the family, a hairdresser for the family, and they were saying this and that to us. And I mean, we we're not really it's we're not here to share rumors either. Right. You know, so it's.

John And if one side of the family is mad at the other side of the family, then we're not interested in getting in the middle of that at all. Um.

Shaun Try and stick to the facts and what people said.

John Yeah, we're going to stick to the facts. And, you know, all the stuff we put out there is from court documents and news sources, which are not always right. They can be wrong.

Shaun Absolutely.

John We like it. You know the best when it's court documents, but there's not always court documents. I mean, with a like this. Um, last week we had a case where, um, the person responsible, Jimmy Ramirez, took a plea, and I went through the transcript, and there was like, there was no, you know, bind over document or arrest document or anything. So there wasn't as much to go on as if there was like a full trial and all that stuff gets put into the judicial record. Yeah, we can get.

Shaun It and you can say so and so testified to this. So and so testified to that.

John Yeah. We can couch it with according to police.

Shaun Yes, exactly. According to the judge.

John Whether or not that's true. You know, at least we can tell you what you know, what the arresting officer observed.

Shaun Or, you know, said he observed under oath or whatever. So, you know.

John Right. That's what he said under oath. Anyway.

Shaun Um, if you're wondering how we we put it together, That's. That's how we do it.

John It's exciting. Right? Cool. Um, what else did you want to say about this episode? This was a I relistened to it today.

Shaun Oh, so you you share more about what your thoughts and feelings are about that one?

John Um, just it was a really tough episode. It was like a really tragic story. I hate the stories where someone does everything right, everything they can, everything you would recommend, everything. And they still some stupid thing happens. Someone like one of her coworkers was like, oh no, Brittany's at the whatever location.

Shaun Yeah.

John Like a totally innocent thing you would never think twice about. Um, you know, not that person's fault, obviously.

Shaun No, it's scary.

John Like, there's only so much you can do.

Shaun I. Looking back on that episode, that was one that we were really. We had a lot of documents to go on. I had a lot of documents to go on to put it together, which we don't always have, and I think that's why I think that episode is it. It feels like a full, complete story with a lot of detail. There's a lot that we were able to have access to, and now I feel like we even have even more. Uh, we don't always get that. And I think, um, my disappointment in the Brittany episode had more to do with having trouble reaching her family before, so he could maybe have more pictures of her, or more of a story about who she was as a person, which is always which is missing a little a little bit, you know, from her story. But, um, we.

John Did get more pictures, right?

Shaun Um, we did from her son. So you probably saw those on social media or you will see them this week. Um, but yeah, um, this story, it's a really moving one and it's a complicated one. And just I did also recommend that, um, Britney's sons think about going to advocacy con in September. Um, because I, I just think that being able to connect with other people who have had similar experiences to you is just invaluable.

John Can't hurt.

Shaun I mean, I like my heart goes out to them and I will always, you know, do what I can for any family. But it's I on some level, I can't relate to what they're really feeling.

John No.

Shaun And, um, and I know they need.

John But we know people who can relate, who have gone through very similar things.

Shaun Yes. And I know they need each other. And I know that that has really helped the families that we've talked to, being able to have that community. So we'll see. I will remind him when it gets closer and and hopefully they will take us up on that. Um, because I think that would be really good for them, especially because there are on the younger side.

John Yeah for sure. Where's it going to be? Oh, Albuquerque. Right.

Shaun Albuquerque. Yep.

John Nice. Excellent.

Shaun Yeah.

John What was that? All we wanted to cover with this one.

Shaun Yeah, I think I think with this one. That was.

John You did a good job, though.

Shaun That was it. Oh. Thank you. It was. The work was pretty minimal. And just just having a conversation with someone, not even an interview or anything.

John Relating to other people.

Shaun Oh. Thank you. That's a huge compliment.

John Other humans. You're good at that.

Shaun Better than AI, I guess.

John Better than AI.

Shaun Nice. That's good.

John Quick story about AI.

Shaun Oh, we have an AI story.

John I told you this already, but I'm gonna tell listeners I called my dad the other day. Oh. On Thanksgiving. And I guess my cousin, my cousin's son. Okay, is, uh, he's a techie nerd like me. He's young. He's like. He's like, twenty five or twenty seven or something. He's like, married with kids. And I guess he was telling my dad about AI, and my dad didn't really know what the deal was with AI in general. And it, like, really freaked him out.

Shaun Wow.

John When he. When he called me, he was like, John, he has a Boston accent. He's like, John, have you heard about this AI? And I was like, yeah, yeah, I, I do software and my company.

Shaun Have you.

John Heard about.

Shaun This AI?

John Have you? Yeah. So he was like I said, I said something like, yeah, it's coming for all our jobs because I definitely think that it's definitely coming for many of our jobs. But he was like, not just that. Have you seen Terminator?

Shaun Wait, wait, when did Terminator come out? When did that movie come out?

John Nineteen eighty five. Nineteen eighty four.

Shaun Oh.

John I was like, yeah, I saw it in junior high school.

Shaun Forty. But he was very freaked out.

John He was really concerned about it, so I don't know.

Shaun So did you have anything reassuring to say to him about?

John He should probably become a prepper, just, you know, stockpile food and water. Um, you know, learn how to fire Weapons to defend himself against the, uh, the AI robots that are definitely coming.

Shaun Okay.

John And he was like, I don't know about that.

Shaun So he goes from Terminator, but also.

John He's not that worried. He said, actually, he said, I don't think it's going to happen in our life in in our lifetime. I was like, dude, you're eighty. You and I have different lifetimes, but okay. He said, I don't think it's going to happen in our lifetime, so I'm not that worried about it. I was like, do you not have younger family members? Have you?

Shaun Your son will deal with it just fine.

John Yeah, it'll be fine.

Shaun Oh my God.

John Yeah. So anyway, watch out for AI, you guys.

Shaun Wow. All right. That's all we have for you today. All right.

John We appreciate you.

Shaun I hope you're having a wonderful holiday season, a lovely December.

John A wonderful Christmas time, as it were. Simply go out and find two avocados for ten dollars. Ask me what I mean about that sometime. Email me if you're hearing this and you're wondering what I mean about that. I have a I have a fun video for you. Email me anyway. John Atkinson survivors com. Anyway, thank you for being subscribers. We appreciate you. And we remind you what happens here happens everywhere. Thanks for listening. Visit since podcasts. Subscribe for exclusive bonus content and to listen ad free. Remember to like and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and threads ET Sins and Survivors. If you're enjoying the podcast, please leave us a review on your podcast platform of choice. You can contact us at Assassins and Survivors Comm.

Shaun If you or someone you know is affected by domestic violence or need support, please reach out to local resources or the National Domestic Violence Hotline. A list of resources is available on our website. Sins and survivors. Comm. Sins and survivors, a Las Vegas true crime podcast is researched, written, and produced by your host, Sean and John. The information shared in this podcast is accurate at the time of recording. If you have questions, concerns or corrections, please email us. Links to source material for this episode can be found on our website. Sins and survivors. Comm.

John The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are solely those of the podcast creators, hosts, and their guests. All individuals are innocent until proven guilty. This content does not constitute legal advice. Listeners are encouraged to consult with legal professionals for guidance.