SOLVED! 2011 Cold Case Murder of Teen: Justice For Blake Chappell

Body Bags with Joseph Scott Morgan

CrimeOnline and iHeartPodcasts

True Crime

4.8 • 1.8K Ratings

🗓️ 24 September 2025

⏱️ 51 minutes

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Summary

Joseph Scott Morgan challenges his class at Jacksonville State University to try and solve a cold case. Two years in a row, two different classes and students chose the unsolved murder of Blake Chappell. Blake Chappell tells his mother he is having the best night of his life with his girlfriend at the East Coweta High School Homecoming Dance. By 6am the next morning, he is missing. Two months later, Blake's body is found in a creek, shot in the head. Joseph Scott Morgan and Dave Mack look at the story and how after 14 years, police have arrested Scotty Elliott Smith and have charged him with the 2011 murder of Blake Chappell!

Transcribe Highlights

00:02.06 Introduction, benchmarks in a child's life

02:04.24 Background on Blake Chappell

05:07.36 Looking at a "Cold Case"

09:15.68 JSU Students choose to work Chappell case

14:16.64 Blake walks back to girlfriend's house

19:25.73 5:00am Blake walking, texting

24:14.77 Blake ended up in jail previously

28:42.00 Police playing things close to the vest

33:27.98 Blake was found in his underwear, shot in head

39:07.60 Police arrest Scotty Elliott Smith for murder

45:32.74 Smith had a long criminal record

50:31.54 Conclusion

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Transcript

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0:00.0	This is an IHeart podcast.
0:05.5	Bodybacks with Joseph Scott Moore.
0:10.5	Being a parent, in my estimation, at least, is all about benchmarks.
0:16.8	It's about benchmarks in your child's life.
0:21.5	And, you know, you think back to, you know, you first saw them crawl.
0:28.4	Or even before that, when they first rolled over, you know, when you walk into the bedroom and into their little bedroom and you see that they've kind of rolled over in the crib for the first time.
0:38.3	Those dates when they begin to where they call crews where they're holding onto furniture and they're kind of walking around.
0:46.3	And those first awkward steps where they're stumbling, first utterances.
0:52.3	The first time they ever look at you and say, Daddy, I love you.
0:59.0	Swip parenthood to a certain degree is all about, particularly when you're young, and you
1:03.0	have that in your mind at all times. Since 2011, there has been an unsolved murder of a very young kid.
1:17.7	I say very young.
1:18.6	He was 17.
1:20.9	But to have a child that turns up dead and there are no answers low these many years.
1:29.8	That benchmark somebody.
1:32.4	But today I'm proud to say that there's another benchmark because after all of this time,
1:40.2	Blake Chappelle's murderer has been arrested.
1:48.2	I'm Joseph Scott Morgan, and this is Bodybacks.
1:55.8	Dave, we have done a previous episode on Blake's case some time ago.
2:03.8	And this case kind of inhabited my brain for a protracted period of time.
2:14.8	First off, I looked at this boy who grew up in a single parent household with a mother who had some physical issues.
2:26.3	And I saw a kid who was very loving.
	...

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