He's throwing a knife at a wall above the baby's head and that sometimes, you know, seeing how close he could get to the baby.

I'm Yardley.

And I'm Zibby, and we're fascinated by true crime.

So we invited our friends, detectives Dan and Dave, to sit down with us and share their most interesting cases.

I'm Dan and I'm Dave. We're identical twins and we're detectives in small town USA.

Dave investigates sex crimes and child abuse. Dan investigates violent crimes and together we've worked on hundreds of cases including assaults, robberies, murders, burglaries, sex abuse, and child abuse.

Names, locations, and certain details of these cases have been altered to protect the privacy of the victims and their families.

The true story you're about to hear describes a horrific case of physical and sexual child abuse, torture, and ultimately murder.

Though we begin at the point when law enforcement was alerted to this case, it's important to remember that most of the crimes committed against the three-year-old victim had been going on for much longer than the six months we cover here.

It should also be noted that this particular case became the impetus for changing the

way this small town police department handled child welfare checks going forward.

Needless to say, this is not an episode for young listeners.

Jay was a 20-year-old male with the history of drug and alcohol abuse as a teenager.

He exhibited violence at home as a teen and often ran away.

He was such a problem, child, that while he was growing up,

he was sent to live with various friends and family members throughout the country,

including California, Texas, and South Carolina.

But due to his violent, threatening behavior towards his female guardians,

as well as their children,

he was always sent back to his parents' home after only a few weeks.

Jay's history of crime and violence as an early teenager included vandalism, theft,

electrocuting animals, and sexually abusing multiple children.

...