REVISITED: The Friends
Park Predators
This episode of Park Predators revisits the unsolved 2019 murders of two friends, Carnell Sledge and Catherine Kate Brown, who were shot to
Key takeaways
- The victims were close friends for over a decade but not romantically involved, challenging assumptions about their relationship.
- Law enforcement initially labeled the killings as an isolated incident, yet failed to release key details about how or why the pair was together.
Main topics
- Unsolved murders in a public park
- Investigation by Cleveland Metro Parks Police and FBI
Notable quotes
"I want to be around to see justice for my son. I do. I just miss him so much." – Darlene Sledge, Carnell's mother
Conclusion
The murders of Carnell Sledge and Catherine Kate Brown remain unsolved, with no
Transcript preview
Speaker 1 (0:00) Every case on park predators has a twist, but Chameleon takes deception to a whole new level. Hosted by journalist Josh Dean, Chameleon digs into the real stories of people who reinvent themselves through lies, cons, and double lives. If you're ready to explore the world of scam artists and little white lies that spiral into unforgettable scandals, listen to Chameleon wherever you get your podcasts. Hi, park enthusiasts. I'm your host, Delia D'Ambra. And this fall, we want to try something new on the Park Predators feed. Every Thursday this month, we'll re-release an episode that features a crime that took place in the summer. And these cases happened all across the United States. They are some of the most compelling crimes that I've covered on the show. From mysterious missing persons to unsolved homicides, I cover it all. And don't worry, on Tuesdays, you'll still get your new episode. Speaker 1 (0:56) as always. Hi, park enthusiasts. I'm your host, Delia D'Ambra, and the case I'm going to tell you about today is one that I feel in my gut is solvable if the right person would just come forward with information. It's the story of two friends who met in a popular park on a summer evening in 2019 and never made it out alive. Their deaths still puzzle their families and law enforcement, but I don't think it has to stay that way forever. Speaker 1 (1:26) The case takes place in Rocky River Reservation, which technically has acreage in several townships of Northeast Ohio. According to ClevelandMetroparks.com, the area is known for having lots of trails that meander through forests, meadows, and beneath shale cliffs. The Rocky River is the primary feature of the recreation area, and it winds for miles along Valley Parkway, a scenic road which has a bunch of spots you can pull off and find a nice plot of grass near the river to hang out. Most people walk, bike, or jog on paths by the river, but others just come to take in the park sights and sounds while sitting on a bench. In June 2019, the latter was what 40-year-old Carnell Sledge and 33-year-old Catherine Kate Brown were doing when someone brutally shot them to death and disappeared. Speaker 1 (2:15) The sheer brutality of their murders prompted federal authorities to get involved in the murder investigation in the hopes of finally unmasking a merciless killer who stole two lives from loving families, literally in the blink of an eye. This is Park Predators. Speaker 1 (3:14) Around 5.20pm on Tuesday, June 4th, 2019, a man and his girlfriend parked their car on the side of Valley Parkway inside Rocky River Reservation. The summer evening was a balmy 75 degrees and there were people walking and biking throughout this section of the park. But almost as soon as the man got out of his car, before he could even start unpacking his kayak gear, he stopped because he saw something odd straight ahead of him further off the roadway. It was a man slumped over lying next to a park bench near the water's edge. Fearful the guy on the ground might need some medical attention, the kayaker decided to go check on him. Speaker 1 (3:54) However, when he got to the man on the ground, he noticed there was blood spattered near his head and body, and the guy appeared to have been shot more than once. Right away, the Good Samaritan backed off and yelled over to his girlfriend to call 911. Not far away from the guy on the ground, further toward the water, he saw a woman's body lying face down. She was half on the banks and half in the river, and appeared to also have been shot. Within minutes of receiving the call from the kayaker, officers from the Cleveland Metro Parks Police Department arrived on scene and discovered exactly what the 911 caller had described. Two bodies laying out in the open in one of the most trafficked corridors of the park. Speaker 1 (4:39) Right away, officers could tell the first victim they'd reached had been shot at least twice in the head. He was a black man who appeared to be middle-aged and was laying in the grass near the park bench. A few feet in front of him, slightly down an embankment on the river, was a woman who looked to be in her 30s, and she'd been shot once in the back of her head and was lying face down, partially in the water. Fox 8 News reported that near the bodies, officers located several spent shell casings and collected them as evidence. Not far from both victims, authorities found two cars parked in a small lot, sort of like a pull-off, just north of what's called the Lorain Road Bridge. Which, if you look at a map or picture of this area, the bridge is a large metal structure that runs perpendicular over Valley Parkway. The vehicle's authorities found in the small lot were a Toyota and a Mazda. Speaker 1 (5:32) The source material isn't clear on how exactly authorities identified the victims. Like, I don't know if they had IDs on them or what. But shortly after finding them, Metro Parks police detectives realized the man and woman were 40-year-old Carnell Sledge, who was from the nearby town of North Olmstead, and 33-year-old Catherine Kate Brown, who was from the city of Fairview Park. Cleveland 19 reported that the Park Toyota belonged to Carnell, and the Mazda was registered to Kate. According to Peter Krause's reporting for Cleveland.com, detectives notified Carnell's parents, Carl and Darlene, in the early morning hours of Wednesday, June 5th, and Kate's parents, Tom and Kim, got word around that same time. Speaker 1 (6:15) Later, Wednesday morning, investigators released the names of the two victims to the public. And the day after that, Thursday, June 6th, the Cleveland Metro Parks Detective Bureau and the Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner's Office held a joint press conference to announce more information in the case. But officials' remarks were brief, and they didn't take any questions. The only pertinent information that came out of the announcement was that Carnell had suffered multiple gunshot wounds to his head, and Kate had been shot once in the back of her head. Both of their deaths were being considered homicides. During the presser, the chief of the Cleveland Metro Parks Police Department said that all the evidence detectives had gathered so far pointed to the murders being the result of an isolated incident, and that no one should feel unsafe in the park. Speaker 1 (7:03) But as you can imagine, that statement was little comfort to members of the community, who by that point were already gripped with fear. I mean, two people had just been gunned down in cold blood, and whoever had pulled the trigger was nowhere to be found. News like that was shocking to people who frequented Rocky River Reservation. News 5 Cleveland interviewed a bewildered visitor to the park shortly after the crime who told the news outlet, quote, Who would ever imagine it would happen in such a beautiful place like this? Who would ever imagine? No one. Certainly not me. This is such a well-visited place and such a beautiful place that I can't believe that something like this has happened here. End quote. Speaker 1 (7:45) Because law enforcement labeled the murders the result of an isolated incident, that left a lot of room for speculation and rumor. People in Northeast Ohio found themselves asking, were Cornell and Kate targeted? Were their murders related to something personal? Was there more than one person involved? Was a serial killer on the loose? No one knew the answers. And to