Mario Casciaro Innocent?
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ABC featured the story of Brian Carrick, a grocery store clerk who went missing in the small town of Johnsburg, Illinois. The story takes a bunch of twists and turns, and eventually 12 years after Brian’s disappearance, the grocery store owner’s son, Mario Casciaro, gets charged with the murder and locked up for 26 years.
I will go through the list of characters to share with you who I believe and who I don’t.
I don’t believe what Shane Lamb told the truth to prosecutors the first time about Mario’s involvement. I believe Shane truly has remorse for telling that story.
With regards to Mario Casciaro, I don’t believe him when he says he was just selling his friends some of “his stash” and that it wasn’t a criminal enterprise. I do believe Mario was probably a small operation, but it seems clear from the testimony that he and Brian were selling pot, and that it was criminal. There is no evidence that Mario was involved in the murder, but the stakes in this case for Mario are no longer high.
What does it mean when the stakes are no longer high? With Mario, he is paying the ultimate price for whatever happened. If he was involved, let’s say, there is nothing to lose now by lying. Instead, he would have everything to gain. With that, there is no pressure on him if he does lie, which would cause the clues to leak. With that, I am extremely careful to say that I cannot judge a man behind bars for lying without testimony or video of him talking about it before he was locked up. This is critical because I have seen very guilty people speak from behind bars and sound innocent, because the pressure that caused clues to leak was gone!
However, there does not seem to be any evidence leading to Mario in this murder, and the evidence we do have, as Kathleen Zellner has pointed out, leads to Rob Render. Kathleen Zellner is an amazing attorney and I have full faith in her to get to the truth.
As for Rob Render, his interview was definitely odd and I did not believe him. He seemed to say anything in hopes of getting the police to leave him alone. He was extremely nervous, too, and I wonder if that came and went during the interview process, or was constant. That would reveal more information.
What I don’t understand from the show, however, is about the blood evidence. How could there be a lot of blood from a violent attack and no one see it that night when they closed up the store? Or early the next morning? Jerry Casciaro, Mario’s father, saw some reddish water and says he thought it was Hawaiian punch. Did the Casciaro’s call the police immediately? If not, why? I’m curious about this. We never heard.
I honestly need more information on this case to fully understand what happened, but I don’t believe Shane told the truth when Mario was convicted. And I’d like to see more of Mario, if there is any depositions or whatnot of him, prior to or during trial, to get to the truth in this matter. I am curious if the Casciaro’s knew that something went down, and wanted it to go away because it might be bad for business.
I haven’t had time to watch the whole segment, yet. I have only watched this little promo, but I think Mario’s father knows a lot more than he is telling. I saw a look of, what I thought was fear on his face, that seemed to turn to pain. This look was during the conversation about Brian’s picture. I thought he came across secretive, and I don’t think he thought all that blood was from spilled punch. When I think about why he would be so on edge and secretive, I have to question whether he had a part in some of the illegal dealings going on in his store. I don’t trust him. I, also, have to question whether the situation got out of control because of the fear of Brian talking.
Karon Brian carrick was alleged to have told Robert render that render was stealing alcohol from the store and was going to turn him in render was at the store the whole night 12/20/2002 and in taped interview said he was stoned and there but did not know where he was and it was alleged that he stated he was gonna jump carrick. In the cooler there was carricks and renders blood only and he was alleged to have owed carrick 30 dollars for weed and if he did not pay he was gonna owe carrick 60 dollars then as the 20/20 segment stated Brian carrick was always willing to make a few dollars shoveling snow,raking leaves etc. He was the 11th of 14 children money was tight what puzzles me is how they downplay renders drug addiction ( as renders sister stated all his offenses were for stealing to support drug habit which also included cocaine and heroin which his O D caused his death 10 yrs later. Cocaine and heroin are a lot stronger than pot and you deal w/ shady people that store took in thousands and thousands of dollars I believe that render killed carrick not over 30,60 or a few hundred dollars it was a rage thing and what did the il state police,FBI come up with were polygraphs issued etc. What I don’t understand is the state insists carrick was killed while store was open. Mario closed it at 8pm remember they had years of time to investigate and they use Shane lamb 5 time felon to get Mario even after accusing render of murder now that lamb has recanted long short 10 yrs later I would love to see all the prosecutions files and all the evidence ! If mario’s appeal reverses his conviction and/ or vacates the guilty verdict a special prosecutor should appointed to answer all the decade of investing it took too come with lamb saying it’s Mario god bless the carrick and cascara Dan
The owner of the store seems very casual about the idea of ‘Hawaiian punch’ spilled on the floor – and that was present the next morning. it makes you wonder if he knew anything more about what happened? He was happy to point out that Rob was the one mopping up, but his son was the one that closed up the store the previous night. I guess Mario didn’t notice anything out of place the night before?
The case also makes you question the ethics of the prosecutor.
I thought about the casual attitude concerning the punch. Most small business owners would be concerned about the mess, and who spilled it and didn’t clean it up. I would think that he would be concerned about the mess being cleaned up before opening time.
It’s also interesting that the family changed the story. Way back in 2003 when the owner himself Jerry Casciaro was asked about the blood and why he didn’t call police he said he thought it was meat drippings, later he changed the story to fruit punch..sound really suspect to me. Say he thought the puddle was Hawaiian Punch, did he also think the blood on the cooler walls, door, boxes..was all punch as well? Does not seem likely to me.
The unfortunate issue about the 20/20 interview is the whole case was not disclosed. I know it sounds very cliche to blame the dead guy,and that’s what’s going on here. Rob Render,and his family fully cooperated with police without warrants. There was no blood found on Robs clothes,in the home. Rob was given a ride home that night and no blood was found in that car either. Yes,blood was found on Robs shoes,but he also cleaned up the ‘juice’ mess as ordered by his boss.
The sad truth is that a family lost a son,there is no body to bury and a million questions,thoughts and theories to ponder. I don’t think justice will ever be fulfilled in this case.
Personally,I believe the entire Casciaro family knows what happened and Mario is paying the price,wether innocent or guilty. A 17 year old doesn’t disappear leaving behind blood in a small, but busy town grocery store during one of the busiest times of the year (Christmas) and NO ONE knows a damn thing..
It is important to note that the blood was not on the shoes when he Rob Render rode home the night Brian was killed (December 20), how do we know? Because there was not a trace of blood in the car (floormats or anywhere), however Rob’s shoes had blood on the soles when collected and tested several days later. This is consistent with Render’s story that he is told to clean up the scene by the owners, which was collaborated by the owners as well. Also, the owners changed their story about the blood, first saying they thought it was meat drippings, then saying Hawaiian Punch later. I am with Viccc that family knows what happened.
I believe Mario Casciaro was the king pin. That Brian Carrick owed both Robert Render and Mario money for the drugs that was given in advance. The reason for Shane Lamb to not know if Robert was connected or not was because he did indeed leave after the confrontation with Brian Carrick and left it to the hands of Mario. Mario called Robert which was conveniently working that night shift. Since Shane was not working that night, he left and went on with his business. Mario is the son’s owner, he has keys to the store and had to close it. Since this attack happened in the cooler and the store was very small, it would be very hard for someone to dispose of the body without having close relations to management.
This story is so interesting to me. I hope the truth comes out for the sake of the victim family. I agree with a lot of the comments below !!!