r/Casefile

I’m a Japanese speaker, and although this episode was an absolute cracker in terms of writing and storyline, I kept getting pulled out of it because of how egregiously bad the host’s pronunciation of proper names was. He butchered all of the Japanese place names as well as the Yokota family’s names and the names of most of the other victims (and, randomly, the country of Myanmar) which to me felt disrespectful to the people affected. Even if you mess up the pronunciation of a place, at least learn how to say victims’ names correctly.

It is also really not difficult to look up correct pronunciations in 2026 even if you don’t have a speaker of the relevant language on hand. You can set Google Translate to English -> target language, type the relevant place or person’s name, and click the audio button and it’ll read it out with the correct pronunciation.

Wow. I’ve been listening to casefile since the very beginning and this is my new favourite episode.
Your kid has been missing for two decades presumed dead and then you find out you have a grandkid in North Korea. Mind fkn blown..

SUSTAINED FINDINGS AGAINST DEPUTY JAMES AND SGT GONZALEZ ARE: Negligence; Failure to use Body Camera: General Proficiency of the law; Failure to supervise; And Disciplinary Rules (for conduct or actions of such seriousness, it warrants being disciplined)

We all heard about the Firefighter who allegedly threw tampons on her ex-boyfriends yard because she was jealous of a new girlfriend right? Well, HOLD ON for THIS ride, ladies and gentlemen! THAT was not the reality!

The "ex" and his "new girlfriend"

Gabrielle’s “Ex” and his “new girlfriend” failed to provide any evidence of any alleged harassment or stalking when asked for it by the state's attorney. Both the “ex” boyfriend and his new girlfriend also refused to be deposed under oath for the Internal Affairs Investigation.

The State's Attorney

Gabrielle Franze was administratively expunged from all charges of stalking by FDLE (up to the FBI level), because, according to the State's Attorney, Gabrielle did not commit the crime of Stalking; had no contact with her ex for two years; never contacted his new girlfriend; and had no domestic relationship with his new girlfriend. The State's Attorney concluded it was a non-criminal littering event, eligible for a littering ticket.

The Detective at the Scene

According to depositions, the new girlfriend called a deputy “friend” to complain after being told by the investigating detective on the scene that the littering event was not stalking. Detective Barnard stated that he explained to the girlfriend that because Gabrielle had no “domestic” relationship with her, no prior contact, and no other events had ocurred; it was littering and not the stalking charge she wanted.

The detective also advised the new girlfriend that it didn’t meet “criminal mischief” charges either, because no permanent damage was caused. He advised her to call if another event happens, and he closed the case.

Deputy Royce James

Royce James, a deputy from another district, happens to have an office beside the "new girlfriends" firehouse. Deputy James engaged in discussion with "the new girlfriend," but did so without turning on his body camera. He did, however, reopen the littering case to categorize it as "stalking" and arrested Gabrielle.

James charged Gabrielle with domestic violence stalking against the new girlfriend, a woman she had never met and had no domestic relationship with in a stunning act of incompetence.

The Depositions

Prior to Deputy James making the arrest, multiple deputies, a sergeant, and a lieutenant all gave statements of attempts to intervene by advising Deputy James that the event did not meet the stalking statute requirement, because it was a single event with no pattern of conduct. Deputy James proceeded anyway.

Deputy Royce James demonstrated in deposition how he “Reverse-Engineered” facts and took littering off the table (for reasons unknown), because he “felt” it was stalking. He doubled down further by declaring in his testimony that the judge, the detective, the state's attorney, and internal affairs investigators were all wrong, and he is right.

Is littering morally wrong? Yes, no one should litter. No one should toilet-paper a house after a Friday night ball game, either, but more importantly, an officer of the law cannot arrest a citizen based on emotion over written law.

When pressed, Deputy Royce James continued stating he didn’t “feel” it was right until internal affairs investigators reminded him that it is not his job to enforce feelings; it is his job to enforce established, written law, and if he didn’t like that, then use his right to vote for candidates to change it.

Finally, the depositions and body cam prove that Deputy James misled his supervisor intentionally, or unintentionally, to gain approval to arrest Gabrielle, and omitted facts that disproved the stalking charge and narrative on his arrest affidavit. The same arrest affidavit that was used by international media as the sole source to perpetuate the narrative wrongly characterizing Gabrielle as an unhinged, crazy, jealous ex-girlfriend stalker. That narrative is proven false, but still delivered a life sentence online for Gabrielle.

Deputy James told his supervisor that Gabrielle “confessed to everything,” while the body camera footage shows she repeatedly denied any part of planning the event or throwing anything. In fact, Deputy James admitted in deposition to receiving a confession from another person and said he didn’t think “it was relevant.” He did not inform his supervisor of the confession either.

Gabrielle stated she did “drive to an address given to her, but didn’t know belonged to her ex,” and somewhere along the drive, “she began to suspect”, but didn’t confirm it until after the fact. Driving a vehicle when someone else littered isn't a crime.

And it gets worse.

In the arrest affidavit, Deputy James frames Gabrielle as a “liar” and knowingly misled the public by omitting the confession of another person who took responsibility for littering before the arrest.

As if that isn’t enough to make you scratch your head raw…

He broke each step that the person who stated they littered and "purchased, prepared, and threw" the litter and assigned each step as a separate event of harassment by Gabrielle. It is irrational to use a single event on a single night as multiple actions to meet the legal “course of conduct” and “repeated” events requirements for domestic violence stalking charges. The arrest affidavit was invalidated the moment it was ruled to lack sufficient probable cause.

His arrest rationale failed the legal test and definitely fails the public sniff test.

So, what have we learned?

For Gabrielle—littering is wrong, and if someone else litters, RUN!!. Kidding, but listen, it wasn't a crime and clearly the whole "jealousy" angle was pointed at the wrong person.

For Deputy James—Learn the law. No citizen who litters one time and causes no permanent damage deserves to be arrested for stalking- a charge that DOES cause permanent damage. Unless of course, reputational damage was the goal?

In this case, we’re all left to still wonder about what Deputy James' motive was? Was it ego? Was it for Live PD content? Was it big emotions? A Favor? Arrogance? Or just a mistake? We may never know.

Shout out to the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office Internal Affairs Investigators who did a great job of uncovering the truth in this case. They acted with integrity and did solid investigative work!

What do you think Gabrielle should do with the findings?

or is there a break or something?

I think Keli was being sold for sex from a very young age by her Mum.

Why:

- Her mum mentions 'the many social groups' that her and Keli's father were involved with when Keli was young. And how her daughter knew how important these were.
- Her mum seems highly narcissistic and they often expoit their children, especially mothers of their daughters, even more so when the daughter is highly attractive.
- Her Mum is an excellent guilt-tripper, I think she would have made it seem like they needed her to do it, or maybe that she had to do it because of somethign she'd done, or to pay for the water polo.
- I think her Mum reclaimed power by exploiting situations, I would imagine she sold her daughter to people like ex police officers, the swimming coaches, and various other people from the parents various groups she's involved with. And in doing so gaining power within these circles.
- I think the flat where she said the father lived was actually set up for sex, the guy who said he remembered seeing her said she was there enough for him to think she lived there, but Keli tells people that it was only a few times that she'd slept with the father. Keli never noticed this guy in the car park because she was trying to be stealth at that address.
- I think the father of Tegan was probably a pedophile or decided to buy the child so there would be no trace.
- Ex police officers, maybe even politicians were involved so they made it so Keli was framed and any supporting evidence lost.

This kind of thing happens. I think it happened to Keli, I think it explains everything.

Never heard of this case, and I kind of wish I never did hear about this case… My jaw was to the floor practically the whole 2nd half of listening to this casefile; absolutely horrific and one of the most twisted acts of evil I’ve ever heard someone carry out.

RIP to the Tunstall family. That young mom, Jimella, worked hard and did everything in her power to provide a good life for her young children, just for it to be ripped away from someone that was supposedly her “friend.” Just pure evil is Tiffany Hall.

Had to share my thoughts on here as a dad because every blue moon, Casefile releases that one case about children that just disturbs me to my core. How someone carries out these acts on children are beyond me.

I know Casefile covered both of these cases very well as always (I didn’t realise so close together. In real time they felt so far apart!). I was wondering if there are any podcast people would recommend that talks about both Steven & Cary & perhaps more of the impact Steven going missing for so long had on Cary & how he ended up?