I was going to uh while they were still alive and gagged, I was going to uh drape them over the bathtub and cut off their head and uh then hang them there and let the blood all drain out and good drained out. And I was going to keep the body around for a couple days. I was going to set the head on my desk so it could watch me and, you know, keep the corpse in my bed, sleep with it, have sex with it for a day or two, and then I was going to start butchering them and cooking them.
So, 10-year-old Jamie Rose Balin died slowly and painfully. Her neighbor had spent months planning not just to kill her. He wanted to saw off her head with a hacksaw and place it on his kitchen table so she could watch him. He planned to sleep with her dead body for several days, rape the corpse, and then cook and eat her flesh.
When Janie begged for mercy, screaming, “I’m sorry, God, forgive me.” The monster hit her in the head with a wooden cutting board over and over again. When she tried to run, he grabbed her by the throat and strangled her with his bare hands, becoming sexually aroused by her agony. After death, he dragged her body to the bathtub, tried to saw off her head, drank her blood, and violated her lifeless body.
This nightmare lasted for hours in an apartment where no one could hear the little girl’s screams. Then he went outside and pretended to help search for the missing Jaime while her dismembered body lay in a plastic container in his closet. This case shocked Oklahoma and became one of the most disturbing crimes in the state’s history.
What makes this tragedy even more heartbreaking is how a trusting child’s innocence was destroyed by someone she considered safe. What you’re about to discover goes far beyond what I just told you. Kevin Underwood’s own words captured on video during his confession reveal a methodical predator whose months of planning and twisted preparations will shock you even more as you watch this story unfold.
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On August 7th, 1995, in the city of Edmund, Oklahoma, Curtis Lynn Balin and Jennifer Anne Fox welcomed their daughter into the world. They named her Jamie Rose, a name that would be known throughout America 11 years later, but for the most tragic reason imaginable. Curtis worked as a regular laborer, an honest man who dreamed of giving his daughter a better life.
Jennifer was a young mother who struggled with her own demons, but loved her little girl with all her heart. They were an ordinary American family with ordinary dreams and problems. Neither of them could have imagined the nightmare that lay ahead. Jaime Rose Balin was a special child. With bright copper red hair, blue eyes like two pieces of sky, and cheeks sprinkled with freckles, she was the living embodiment of childhood innocence.
The family lovingly called her Copper Top. But Jaime<unk>s beauty wasn’t just on the outside. In a world where children can sometimes be cruel to each other, Jaime stood out for her kindness. She was shy, but always ready to make friends. Her uncle would later say she was a smart and sweet girl who only saw the good in other people.
Even her classmates noted that Jaime never spoke badly about anyone. This trusting nature and ability to see good in every person would prove fatal for the little girl. But for now, she was simply a happy child just beginning to discover the world. When Jaime was about 2 years old, her parents divorced.
This family change would reshape her world completely. Her mother, Jennifer, moved to Guthrie, battling drug addiction. While Janie stayed with her father, Curtis, in the small town of Dibble. It wasn’t until 2005 that Jennifer was able to overcome her addiction and was determined to rebuild her relationship with her daughter.
Meanwhile, Jaime grew up under the care of her loving father, who became both mother and father to her. After the divorce, Curtis became both mother and father to Jaime, working hard to provide for her while filling the emotional void left by Jennifer’s absence. Despite the family difficulties, Jaime flourished. At PEL intermediate school, she was in fifth grade and met her best friend Brittany.
Their friendship was so strong that Brittany said, “I feel like she’s like a sister to me.” We ate breakfast together, played during recess. The girls were in Girl Scouts together, sharing secrets and dreams. Jaime loved singing and dancing, even creating her own cheerleading routine for the family. She enjoyed sewing, riding her bike, and dreamed of four-wheeler rides.
She especially loved spending time with her dad, watching movies, and consistently beating him at checkers. “She was just starting to become herself,” her father, Curtis, would later say. In 2005, Curtis and Jaime moved from the small town of Dibble to Purscell, another quiet Oklahoma town.
This move represented a fresh start for both of them. They rented an upstairs apartment in the Peck Park housing complex on North 8th Avenue. The apartment was modest, but Jaime was excited about the new beginning. She had a new home, a new school, and new opportunities for friendship. What nobody knew was that in this same complex right across the walkway on the first floor, a monster had been living for a year and a half.
Kevin Ray Underwood was 26 years old. He had the same red hair as Jaime, but that’s where the similarities ended. Where Jaime radiated warmth and light, Kevin carried darkness within him. He was extremely withdrawn, spending most of his time in his apartment with his pet rat named Freya, immersing himself in the virtual world of the internet.
Kevin worked at a local grocery store, and his co-workers noticed his strange behavior. At his new job, they gave him the nickname Zombie Kevin because of his disturbing comments. The most frightening of these came when Kevin pointed to an attractive female customer and asked a coworker, “I wonder what she tastes like.
” Neighbors noticed that Kevin often stood outside watching the children play, but nobody understood the true danger of these observations. In real life, Kevin was a quiet outsider, but on the internet, he transformed into someone completely different. He had a blog where troubling warning signs occasionally surfaced. In one post, he wrote, “I really need a girlfriend.
My fantasies are getting weirder and more dangerous. If people knew what I was thinking, I’d probably be locked up.” For almost 10 years, Kevin had maintained an online relationship with a woman from California. But when she refused to meet in person, Kevin was crushed. It was then that his online activity began to take on a sinister character.
Without an intimate partner in real life, Kevin dove deeper into the dark corners of the internet, eventually reaching cannibalistic materials. In his correspondence, his dark thoughts began to leak out. In January 2006, he wrote death threats, admitted that he was fascinated by cruelty and death, that he looked at images of mutilated corpses and had become addicted to perverted erotica.
Despite his shyness, Kevin made special efforts to befriend his little neighbor Jaime. She was also shy but young and trusting. Sometimes he would come out of his apartment with the rat Freya on his shoulder, a sight that fascinated the girl. Over time, Janie became comfortable enough with him to pet the rat and chat with Kevin in the walkway between buildings.
They talked often and she had been in his apartment several times, though her father had forbidden her from entering strangers apartments. In late March, Kevin was sitting in his apartment watching cartoons with his front door slightly open. Jaime noticed the open door and came in asking if she could pet the rat. After brief interaction and cartoon watching, she left.
On April 11th, Jaime’s father told her to use the pay phone in the complex to order pizza since they didn’t have a phone in their apartment. Kevin offered to let her use his phone, and she followed him into the apartment, but fearing her father would be angry, she took the cordless handset and went out to the walkway where she placed the order.
Again, nothing bad happened. It’s easy to imagine what Jaime might have thought. Dad is just being overprotective with his rules. April 12th, 2006. Jaime woke up, put on a pink shirt, and went to school. She was looking forward to seeing her mother, Jennifer, in a few days. They had plans for an Easter egg hunt over the upcoming weekend.
Her best friend, Brittany, later remembered that they talked during sixth period, and Jaime seemed pretty happy. These were the last normal moments in the little girl’s life. Her father’s workday ended after school hours, so Janie usually spent a few hours alone in the afternoon. After school, she stopped by the local library and played there briefly with a friend.
When she returned home, she realized she had forgotten her keys at school. To quickly go get them, she rode her bike to school, retrieved her keys, and rode back home. It was hot outside, so after all that biking around, she was sweaty. She went upstairs, threw on a blue t-shirt, and headed back down.
In that walkway, a predator was waiting. Kevin had spent months planning his crime. He had a hacksaw, meat tenderizer, barbecue skewers, and a large plastic container. He had a detailed plan for cannibalistic torture. And now he had an opportunity. All he had to do was smile at the shy, red-haired girl say, “Hi, Jamie.
Want to come in?” and see Freya. In that moment, an agony began that would last several hours and forever change the lives of everyone who loved the little girl with copper hair. Jaime walked into Kevin’s apartment without hesitation. She trusted him. He was her neighbor, seemed kind, and nothing bad had happened before.
She sat on the floor next to the rat cage, and Kevin turned on the cartoon Spongebob Squarepants. They watched TV and chatted a bit about the show. But inside Kevin’s head, a terrible struggle was taking place. For 15 minutes, he wrestled with whether to put his plan into action. He decided it would be better to knock her unconscious first before tying her up.
So, he grabbed a heavy wooden cutting board. The next 5 minutes became the most agonizing of his life. He raised the board and lowered it several times, fighting the last remnants of humanity within himself. Finally, he made his decision and struck Jaime in the head with all his force. But the blow didn’t work as Kevin had planned in his fantasies.
Jaime didn’t lose consciousness instantly. Instead, she jumped up and her first words were, “I’m sorry.” Kevin would later tell detectives that Jaime<unk>s words haunted him. A terrified little girl saying, “I’m sorry.” when she had done absolutely nothing wrong. Jaime tried to run, but Kevin hit her again. She screamed, “Oh, God, forgive me.
” and begged, “Let me go. I won’t tell anyone.” The little girl fought for her life with the desperation that only parents can understand. Kevin struck her with a cutting board three or four times while Jaime struggled and refused to fall. Finally, he threw the board down and grabbed her from behind, clamping his hand over her mouth and nose.
He pressed her to the floor and she ended up on her stomach under his weight. Kevin thought he had killed her when he loosened his grip, but Jaime tried to reach for something from a nearby toolbox. He had to press her to the ground again. She went limp and he held her like that for several more minutes. He turned her over onto her back to make sure she was really dead.
But after 30 seconds, she started breathing again. Kevin was forced to repeat the entire suffocation process again. After holding her down for another 5 minutes, she went limp again and lost control of her bladder. To make sure she was dead, he taped her mouth and nose with duct tape. Only then did 10-year-old Jaime Rose Balin finally leave this world that she had only seen in good colors.
This story is incredibly important for understanding how predators operate. If you’re finding this as shocking as it should be, please share this video so more people can learn to recognize these warning signs. Check out other stories on my channel. Each one contains crucial lessons for protecting children. But Jaime<unk>’s nightmare didn’t end there.
Kevin dragged her body to his bedroom to hide it from prying eyes, then went outside to retrieve her bicycle, which he rolled into his walk-in closet. Returning to the body, Kevin realized that Jaime was lying in an inconvenient position for him. In his original plan, he wanted to drain the blood from his victim while she was still alive like a slaughtered animal.
So, he dragged dead Jaime into the bathroom. In his fantasies, Kevin easily moved his victim. But in reality, the dead weight proved too heavy for him. After a long struggle, he was able to throw her over the edge of the bathtub, pulled her hair back with a hair tie, and began cutting her neck with a decorative dagger. Kevin couldn’t completely sever the spine, but he inflicted deep sawlike wounds on the neck in his attempt at decapitation.
He tried to collect the blood in a large white bowl, but the blood had already coagulated and didn’t look appetizing. Most of the blood drained into the bathtub. After this, Kevin undressed Jaime<unk>s body and performed sexual acts with the corpse, including oral contact and partial penetration. Leaving Jaime in the bathroom, Kevin went to his computer to write to his girlfriend from California at 4:08 p.m.
He didn’t tell her about what he had just done, but she noticed he seemed significantly happier than he had been in a long time. During their conversation, he also deleted adult images and crime scene photos from his computer. Shortly before 5:00 p.m., he saw Jaime’s father, Curtis, arrive home from work.
Kevin watched as Curtis walked around looking for Jaime. And when he found no trace of her near the apartment, Curtis got in his truck and drove off to search for her. Inside his apartment, Kevin wanted to move Jaime from the bathroom to his bed, but she was still bleeding too much, and the contents of her stomach were now leaking from her neck.
He worried that the smell of blood and vomit would spread beyond his apartment, so he lit incense to mask the odor. When apartment manager Tim and Curtis knocked on Kevin’s door around 6:00 p.m., Kevin made sure the bathroom door was tightly closed, got dressed, and came out to talk to them. He later confessed to the FBI that he intentionally talked to Curtis so no one would suspect he had anything to do with Jaime’s disappearance.
He stayed outside pretending to look for Jaime until 8:00 p.m. when he excused himself and said he was tired and had to get up early for work. Back in the apartment, he tried again to move Jaime, but there was still too much blood. Kevin was disappointed that reality didn’t match his fantasy. He later admitted to detectives that he felt disgusted and regretful about what he had done.
He placed her on a tarp, wrapped her in it, and covered the bundle with large black garbage bags. Then he put her in a large gray container along with her clothes and a towel to absorb the blood. He sealed the container with duct tape and shoved it into his closet. He also disassembled her bicycle and hid the parts under his bed and in a large sports bag.
The next day, Curtis’s family gathered in the walkway outside, waiting for news. Kevin approached several times to talk to Jaime<unk>s father and expressed his concern to the family. Knowing all the while that the girl’s body lay just a few feet away from them in his closet. After a day of fruitless searching, officers issued an Amber alert on Thursday evening, and the FBI joined the investigation.
By Friday, the FBI still had no leads, so they set up four roadblocks on roads leading to the apartment complex. Kevin’s father was driving Kevin home from work when agent Craig Overby stopped their truck at one of the roadblocks. Kevin’s father mentioned that they knew about the missing little girl and that Kevin was her neighbor.
Overby asked Kevin to speak with him in the patrol car. The FBI agent quickly became convinced that Kevin knew more than any other suspect. During their conversation, Kevin pointed out that the Amber Alert on the news was wrong. It described her wearing a pink shirt, but he told them he’d seen Jaime riding her bike that afternoon in a blue shirt.
This meant he must have been one of the last people to see her before she disappeared. The agent told Kevin he wasn’t under arrest, but was a very important witness and asked if he could come to the police station to give a fuller statement. Kevin agreed, and during the interview, he insisted he couldn’t have been involved in her disappearance.
After about an hour of conversation, agent Overby drove Kevin back to his apartment and asked if he and other agents could look around, hoping to appear innocent. Kevin agreed. Inside, they noticed what looked like blood in the bathtub. So, they continued searching. They found a large gray plastic container in the back of Kevin’s bedroom closet that looked suspicious because it was sealed with duct tape.
When the agent asked him what was inside, Kevin told him it was full of comic books, and he used tape to keep out moisture. The agent lifted a corner of the tape and opened the container enough to see a blue shirt similar to what Jaime was wearing when she disappeared. When the agent said he saw clothing inside, Kevin blurted out, “Go ahead, arrest me.
” The agent asked Kevin, “Where is she?” to which he replied, “She’s in there. I hid her and chopped her up.” Inside the container under her blue shirt, they found her body. After his arrest, Kevin asked to speak with agent Overby again. What he told the FBI agents over several hours became one of the most chilling confessions in American criminal history.
To um the plan you had to handcuff him with duct tape. Yeah. So, what I was going to do is I was going to uh you know, like I said, yank them in there, strain them, and if if it was a kid, I was going to just make them sit there and watch some porn, and then I was going to have sex with them.
And then, were you going to try to make it turn them on with the porn, make it voluntary? I was, you know, kind of hoping that would happen, but I, you know, figured it probably wouldn’t. So, you think that she would have to do it by force? Yeah, mo most likely. Okay. And then, you know, the uh after the sex, it would turn kind of violent.
I’d start uh kind of torturing him a little and stuff like that. Uh how would you torture them? Uh in your fantasies, what would you do? Sticking large objects in their anus, uh causing them pain that way. I had some uh long barb barbecue skewers I bought. I was going to poke through their cheeks.
I’ve got a uh in that bag of porn, there’s also a Barbie doll head I found on the ground a while back that I stuck some needles in. Kind of illustrates what was in my fantasy. Mhm. It had like some needles in its cheeks and some nails in its eyes, but I wasn’t intending on doing that because I the the torture was kind of a late addition because at first I wanted the body to be pretty much unharmed.
Uh cuz what I was going to do after that then was I was going to uh while they were still alive and gagged, I was going to uh drape them over the bathtub and cut off their head and uh then hang them there and let the blood all drain out and good and drained out. And I was going to keep the body around for a couple days.
was going to set the head on my desk so it could like watch me and you know keep the corpse in my bed, sleeping with it, having sex with it for a day or two and then I was going to start butchering them and cooking chop the head off and maybe cooked them and what what would you continue on from there? Uh well uh then it went into you know disposing of the body.
I was probably going to keep the skull. Uh but then, you know, I was going to pretty much eat everything except for some of the organs and those I figured I could, you know, put in a trash bag and probably throw away without too much uh chance of getting caught. And uh so basically all that be left was bones.
And I was going to uh try to, you know, break the bones up in little pieces so they wouldn’t be as visible and, you know, dump them in a ditch somewhere. Okay. Anyway, she came downstairs and was still, you know, she’s like, “Oh, there’s nothing when it’s this hot, nothing good, like a good, you know, ice glass of ice milk.
” And uh she, you know, kind of chatted for a minute and then asked to come inside and see my rat again. And she just sat there in the floor. for uh looking at my rat and uh about the only TV I ever watch is cartoons, Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon and Spongebob was on and so she was kind of sitting there watching that and we were talking about the show a little and she was in my apartment probably good 15 minutes and uh after she’d been in there a few minutes you know when she first came in I was like oh now’s my chance but you know then I
had the same no I can’t do it and I just kind of struggled with myself the whole time she was in there and uh it was partly because you know um you know I can’t do this I don’t want to do it but then you know yeah I want to do this and there’s a little bit of fear like hey if I do this I might get caught.
Yeah. Yeah. I mean yeah that was a large part of it too but um but anyway and then I even had uh I had all the stuff I’d had all the stuff sitting there handy uh on that uh you know entertainment center right by my door. I’d had you know like for the last month I’d had a piece of duct tape stuck there so you know I could just grab them slab the tape over their mouth.
And also the handcuffs sitting there on the shelf so you know I could yank them in, restrain them hopefully before they had the time to yell or anything. And uh oh and also it had been just two or three nights before that I’d you know suddenly thought of the uh it was mainly something I had reserved for if I did grab an adult something to subdue him.
But I tried to find something heavy I could hopefully with. And the best thing I had was a uh slightly heavy wooden cutting board in the kitchen. So I had that sitting on the entertainment center at that time too. Like after she’d been in there a few minutes, I kind of So it’ll be ready.
So you’d have had access right there at you. Yeah. Just kind of like yank him in and whack him over the head. But I hadn’t planned on doing that if it was a kid cuz if it was a kid, like I said, I wanted to keep him conscious and make him watch porn. Uh but uh I even also kind of you know also was as they were watching the porn you know depending on how old they were you know like telling them what was going on you know like well this is sex you know the guy does this and the woman does this and you know this is called an orgasm you know kind of like teaching
them but um and hopefully they’d want to try it for themselves something like that uh but anyway then uh you know so I kind of once she got in there, I kind of was like, you know, you know, was it was more the the uh you know, kind of regrets and fears and I was like, you know, I better just knock her out, you know, knock her out and, you know, then restrain her while she’s unconscious.
You know, get her clothes off and everything while she’s unconscious and I’m not even going to bother with the porn. I’m just going to, you know, knock her out, rape her. Mhm. Uh, so, uh, after she’d been there a few minutes, I kind of, you know, made my way around behind her and was just kind of standing behind her watching, you know, talking to her as we were watching the show and kind of, you know, fighting with myself.
I I’d grabbed the I, you know, reached up there once and grabbed the uh, cutting board and, you know, then I like put it down on the couch. I couldn’t do it. And so for like five minutes I just stood there, you know, going back and forth picking it up, putting it back down and saying, you know, then finally I was just, you know, look, either do it or tell her to get the hell out of the apartment and, you know, and finally I did it.
And, you know, as soon as I hit her, what did she say when you hit her? That’s something that’s, you know, haunted me ever since it happened. Uh, she started yelling, “I’m sorry.” which you know I’m just like you know what is she sorry for she didn’t do anything wrong it’s me you know I’m the one that’s should be sorry she was just you know well I you know whack she uh I said she jump she was yelling God I’m sorry and you know you know let me go I won’t tell and you know I mean after I hit her a couple times I finally just had to you
know jump up and grab her and she was I couldn’t believe how strong she was barely held her down I finally I like to never got her down to the I mean, I had to, you know, how I I didn’t want to choke her cuz like I said, I wanted the body to be pretty much perfect. Uh, so I didn’t want to leave the, you know, marks around her neck or anything.
So, I just, you know, climbed my hand over. Were you behind her or were you looking for you on Did you have her on the ground? No, I was, uh, I said, she got up and was trying to run around and I, you know, grabbed her from behind, was kind of hugging her with a mouth over her, uh, hand over her mouth and nose. And eventually, you know, after she started getting weaker and stuff and I mean, we flopped around.
I’ve got pretty bad carpet burns on my knees from it cuz I said she put up a is and just for the for me to understand. Let’s see. This is your right leg. Yeah. Well, both of them, but this one’s the worst. So, so you were wearing shorts at the time. Yeah. And you’re telling me this is from the incident with Yeah. Okay.
Cuz you were on That’s from struggling. Yeah. Struggling with her on the ground cuz then Yeah. Once I uh you know I finally got her down to the ground and we got her you know I mean we struggled it it took me probably 15 20 minutes to kill her to get her completely dead cuz then even after well anyway I you know struggled with her for a minute finally got her down to the ground on her stomach and so I was kind of sitting on her back you know with my mouth over or no she was on her back.
Yeah, but I was sitting on her clamping my mic down on her face and you were covering her mouth. Yeah. Kind of sitting on her, not really putting my full weight on her, you know, I was kind of like on my knees with a little bit of my weight on her stomach to hold her down. And uh Did you feel aroused at that point? Very. Yeah.
By the time I by the time uh I got done killing her, uh you know, my underwear was soaked. You know, when you get aroused, it’ll start, you know, kind of leaking a little pre-jaculate. Yeah. It was uh I was minor was pretty much soaked by the time she uh well even before she was completely dead. But So you tell me you were sexually gratified during this struggle? Pretty much. Yeah.
Did you have an orgasm or was it just I didn’t or orgasm but I was you know very very erect. Yeah. Yeah. And u yeah just standing there behind her debating on killing her or not. You know I was starting to get an erection. Um but anyway, yeah, then she still I mean once she was down the force, she kept me almost slipping out of my grip and she ended up she ended up Yeah.
on her stomach at one point. Yeah. She ended up on her stomach cuz I remember uh there’s a toolbox sitting there by the edge of the uh love seat. And you know, as kind of in like her last moment, she just start started kind of reaching around grabbing things and she like opened that tool box and then she pretty much went limp.
And I laid there on her for a good, you know, couple of minutes more to make sure she was dead. She’d still every now and then cuz you know, clamping through your she could still get kind of a little bit of air sometimes through her fingers if my grip slipped a little bit. So I laid there for a while and finally was pretty sure she was dead.
flopped her over and then about seconds later she took a breath. So I had to jump on her and do it again and it took probably several more you know it’s probably wasn’t as long as it seemed like but it seemed like it took her another 5 minutes to get her limp then and then finally when she was I was pretty sure she was dead again I uh jumped up and grabbed the duct tape and put it over her mouth and nose cuz I was getting tired.
My arms were getting sore from clamping down on her twice. Dropped her over the tub, you know, over the she was out of the tub with, you know, just like her head, you know, over the edge hanging into the tub. And I, you know, kind of got I put a rubber band in her hair so it be out of the way. And cuz I didn’t even want, like I said, I wanted the body perfect and clean.
and I didn’t want to get blood all in her hair, so I’d have to wash it and everything. And uh so I started sawing at her neck. I I couldn’t believe the amount of blood that came out of the girl that small. And it was already all clotted and everything. Was it going down the drain of your uh tub? I had a bowl, a big, you know, white bowl.
It’s in the kitchen in the top of the microwave. I was going to collect try to collect, you know, a lot of the blood in that probably taste of it. And uh but then when it started coming out, you know, it was, you know, pretty much hard to get to go where I wanted it. And I said it was already all dark and cotted and gross looking anyway. So So you you had trouble sewing her head on.
Yeah. Yeah, that’s what Yeah. I was trying to remember where I was. Yeah. I went, you know, got I guess to her spine and I just saw and saw and saw and could not get at last. And I was pretty much exhausted by then. And like I said, you know, as soon as I hit her, you know, I wished I hadn’t started this, but you know, as soon as I hit her the first time, I was like, “Well, now it’s too late. I can’t stop now.” Yeah.
I mean, that was the only reason I even went through with any of it. And then I said, you know, I was disgusted at first, but then once I was climbing down on top of her, holding her down, choking her, I got aroused again. Okay. U But so at this point, yeah, I was just disgusted as I got this mess.
And cuz I couldn’t even keep the blood in the tub. It was running down her and down the side of the tub into the floor. And he was like, you know, at this point I just clean up this mess and get the body out of here. I’m not even going to have sex with her. Okay. And so I was already pretty upset. You know, I can’t believe I did this.
Wish I hadn’t did it. You know, I wish I could take it back. Right. Kevin described in detail the months of planning, purchasing torture implements, his cannibalistic fantasies, and how he selected victims among the neighborhood children. He explained his plan to cut off Jaime<unk>s head and place it on a table so she could watch him sleep with the corpse for several days and then cook and eat her flesh.
This confession shocked even experienced investigators and became key evidence in court. Kevin was formally charged with firstdegree murder. The jury trial began on February 19th, 2008. Okay, Mark, did you want to talk? Come, come, come closer to Well, this is this is Jamie Rose Bowlan’s uncle, Mark Childs.
Mark, tell me what you want to say. Well, we’re just happy with the verdict. We I really didn’t think we’d have a problem getting the guilty verdict on this part of it. Now, the hard part of the trial starts and that’s what that’s the biggest worry that we have. Why? What worry do you have? Well, we want the death penalty. And that’s hard for people to decide, you know? I mean anybody.
So I’m hoping that they do it just as fast as they did this. Why do you think it will be hard in this case to give Kevin with the death? I think it’s hard in any case for people to decide people’s lives. But I think that, you know, I don’t think it’s going to be it’s probably not going to be hard for people in this case because it was so horrific.
It was things that came out that I didn’t even know in the trial. The prosecution, pardon me, the defense alluded to Kevin Underwood’s dark existence. They couldn’t talk about it now. They’re going to talk about it in the penalty phase. Do you think that will sway jurors to give him life? No, I don’t. I really don’t. I think that he knew everything that he was doing.
I think that, you know, he he I don’t think it’s a mental illness or anything like that. I think he was just an evil person and that’s all there is to it. He’s an animal. What was your immediate reaction when you heard the verdict? Well, we was happy. I mean, that’s what we wanted and that’s what we got and I’m hoping that we get the same thing in the the death penalty phase of it.
I really do. So, Mark, you sat through every aspect of this trial. Are you glad that you did or is this something that’s going to haunt you deeply? A couple of parts that I didn’t set through that I cannot set through. I have a memory of my knees and that’s that’s what I want to keep. I don’t want I just don’t want to hear those things and see those things.
When I see her, that’s what I want to remember. What’s given you the strength to to get through this week? You and your family. Us. We’re a tight family and we’re here for each other and that’s the way it’s gonna we’ve always been that way. Anybody my family has always been very tight and anybody ever needs help, we’re always there.
I mean, and that’s the way we’ll always be. So, Mark, in the first time in this process, they put the handcuffs on Kevin Underwood. That tickled me to death. I I I really would have liked to seen him shackled the whole time, but that’s up to the sheriff’s departments and stuff like that. We can’t do that. I don’t think he should have ever had handcuffs off of him just due to the fact that, you know, that’s just a personal thing with me.
It’s just we really didn’t we wanted him to I don’t know how to put that. You know what I mean? It’s just we wanted him chackled up. I didn’t like seeing him walk around like a normal person. When the verdict was read, he he didn’t blink. There was no emotion. Was on par with the the rest of the week. I think he’s happy with what he did.
And if if he ever had a chance to do it again, he would. Would you like to hear from him again? Would you like to hear from Kevin Underwood again? Would you like him to hear him say he’s sorry? No, I don’t want to hear him say it because it wouldn’t be it wouldn’t be heartfelt. It would just be rhetoric is all it would be.
So, how about that confession chilling? The confession part of it. I didn’t set through that. Me and my brother didn’t because like I said, we couldn’t. There’s no way we could set through that part of it. I mean, like I said, like I said while ago, we have a memory of my niece and that’s the one that we want to keep.
And I just I don’t want to I didn’t want I didn’t set the photo sessions of it. I couldn’t. The trial presented an autopsy report that confirmed Jaime died from asphixxiation and blunt force trauma to the head and detailed all the injuries she sustained. Doctors also found evidence of sexual assault. While this evidence would have been enough for conviction, prosecutors had something more compelling.
Nearly two hours of videotaped interview during which Kevin described everything he planned and did. The defense didn’t even try to prove his innocence. Their only argument was that he should be given life in prison due to mental illness. On February 28th, 2008, it took the jury only 23 minutes to find Kevin guilty of firstdegree murder.
On March 7th, the same jury sentenced him to death. After 18 years on death row, multiple appeals, and denial of clemency, on December 19th, 2024, on his 45th birthday, Kevin Ray Underwood was executed by lethal injection at Oklahoma State Penitentiary. In his final words, he apologized to Jaime’s family, but complained that execution on his birthday was cruel to his family.
I recognize that although I do not want to die, I recognize that I deserve to for what I did. And I would like to apologize to the victim’s family, to my own family, and to everyone in that room today who had to hear the horrible details of what I did. Jaime’s sister, who was present at the execution, said, “This doesn’t bring our Jaime back, but it allows the healing process to begin.
” Jaime Rose was buried next to her mother, who died in 2023, never recovering from the loss of her daughter. This tragedy serves as a reminder of the importance of protecting children and trusting parental instincts. Jaime Rose Ballin will be remembered as a bright angel whose story can save other children. This story shows how predators can hide among us, targeting our most vulnerable.
Check out the other cases on my channel. Each one reveals different tactics predators use and warning signs that could save a child’s life. Subscribe and hit the notification bell so you never miss these crucial stories that every parent, teacher, and community member needs to hear. I know a lot of you said you were having trouble remembering fond things about Jamie and the fond memories you used to have.
Can you go back to that now? I’ve never had any trouble remembering the fallen things. I That’s the That’s the best part. That’s what I That’s what kept us going is remembering those times and that’s the only thing that kept us together. I have one time that I really always go back to. And Curtis is sleeping on the couch and he has his shirt off and she’s on top of his back and all she has on is a diaper and they’re both facing the same way and she’s right on top of his back just sound asleep and it’s just like, you know, daddy and daughter right
there just sleeping. That’s what I remember. That’s what we really hope to get back to is just remembering the good times and put the bad times behind us. Like I guess, you know, it’ll never be over for us, but at least maybe we can get some closure. Now, all in the family, when the jury came back, I noticed one juror look directly at the family almost say, “I’m sorry.
” And I saw her catch her eyes again just before the party. What was going through your mind when you saw those looks? I’ve I’ve been seeing the looks from some of the jurors through the whole process and I I knew that those are the ones that was going to be right on our side from the beginning. What was the most frustrating part about this trial? God, the waiting. Yes.
the not being able to um get it get it going to start with and then once it got going then sitting up here waiting for the verdict and I don’t know how many hours what was it 8 n hours 8 hours and 15 minutes 8 hours that’s a long time it’s a lifetime what I mean what did you do to pass the time well we tried to make her sing that’s no easy task I’m holding it back Curtis, what are your thoughts now after this? Really just don’t know.
Still have to absorb it. What would you like to say to Jamie right now? You mentioned last week that you wanted to remember the good times and and how Jamie was when when she was here on Earth and and you and your family members had to leave the courtroom on more than several occasions. Yes. Because the testimony, the pictures just too gruesome.
It just got too much. I mean, me and especially my brother, we just I’m glad some of the family stayed in there, you know, because people needed to know, but there was also certain things that we just could not deal with. I don’t want those pictures of her broken body or anything like that in my mind.
And I just and I don’t want all the the horrifying details of everything. I know it’s bad enough. I know what the end result was. We lost her. And that’s all that I wanted. That’s all we need to know. And now we have justice. And we take no pleasure in what you know, putting somebody to death. But this is the only just punishment for a crime like this.
And you know, it’s just all we can do is just now move on and try to go on with our lives. And like I say, try to remember the good times. And that’s why I stayed at me. We stayed out of the courtroom because we wanted to remember those good times. We don’t want to have those images in our head and we’ve got enough bad images as it is.
At any point was there talk that the jury in your mind might come back the lesser punishment than in the destinence. Well, we always worried about that, but I didn’t see how. But you never know what’s going to happen. Is there anything you’d say right now to the Underwood family? We don’t hold the Underwood.
We’re family responsible for anything. They’re just as much a victim as we are. The only one that did anything wrong was Kevin. And he did that on his own accord. And you know, I don’t hold none of them responsible for nothing. Uh each man makes his own decision in this world. We’ve all had hard lives, you know, and not all of us go out and do things like that.
When the verdict was read, did you look in his direction? Did you ever meet him eye to eye? He never looked. He never looked at any of us eye to eye. We’re adult. He wouldn’t want to look at us and it just appeared. I mean, stone face. There was never someone said they saw a tear, but I never I never The only emotion I’ve seen from him the entire time is when his father cried, right? That’s it.
That was it. And I think the hardest thing for all of us to have to hear were the details of everything. I mean, that’s not something that I ever want to have to listen to again. Although, it had to be done. It was hard for everybody. Yeah. And we hope and pray that this never happened. Do I think he feels remorse? I don’t see remorse when I look at him.
So, no, I don’t think he feels remorse. I think he feels remorse for getting caught. Just like the district attorneys have said, I don’t think Kevin feels remorse for what he did. I don’t. If I saw it in there, it would have been different. I would have had a different answer for you, but I never saw it cuz You know, that’s a really difficult question.
That is a very difficult question to ask of any of us. I think I don’t think that that’s something that’s an option right now. What do you want people to know about this whole process? It’s very long and very enduring and very stressful. Um, the justice system does work. it hap it worked here and I believe that it does work if you follow it the right way.
Uh you know sometimes misjustice is carried but most for the most part I think that the justice system worked all the agencies involved the district attorney everybody did their jobs and it all came out right. Tell us about the uh the district attorney Greg Susan. Yeah our pit bulls. Yes. Yes.
We love them both to death. I guarantee it. They are very good lawyers. I would never want to get in trouble and have to go against them. Trust me, either one of them. So, I’m going to stay out of trouble. But, no, they were very good at what they did. And I think they put on a very a very solid case.
And they got right to the point, you know. I mean, the point was the loss of a little
