Oats was trying to relax when the noon meal was shoved through the opening in the cell door. As he went over to take it, the server, who was another inmate himself, said to Oats, “Just wanted to let you know Oats, your buddy has been arrested and I heard that he has spilled the beans on the whole affair you’re involved with.”
“What do you mean? Which friend?” said Oats.
“I think his name is Ireland, and the word is that the old bastard has confessed to several killings by you and him. That’s all I got now, but I will keep my ears to the ground and let you know if I hear anything else.’
Thanks to the jailhouse rumor mill, Oats had received the word of Jeff’s confession before Caley or Jane Winfrey. Eventually, Caley received a call directly from Sheriff Wilson. He told here about Jeff’s confession and directed her to get over to the jail and talk with him. Jeff had agreed to show authorities where Cyndi and Daryl’s bodies could be found. He also told her that she had all the resources necessary to proceed with the search for the bodies. He told her not to talk with the media. Recognizing an opportunity to enhance his own career, he said that any news release or liaison with the news media would come from his office.
Caley wasted no time. After meeting with Jeff at the jail, he readily agreed to show her where he remembered the bodies being thrown in the swamp. Caley and J.D. gathered two dive teams and two large airboats owned and operated by the County sheriff’s auxiliary. Within 10 minutes from leaving the launch area, they arrived at the small cove. Jeff was in handcuffs sitting beside Caley in the first boat. Seated in the four-person boat seat were a diver and another deputy sheriff to keep track of the prisoner. With his hands held together by the cuffs, Jeff pointed to the cove. As the boat swerved into the cove he pointed toward the right side, and the operator cut the engine. Slowly gliding forward to the edge of the water, Jeff pointed to the spot where he remembered throwing Cyndi overboard.
It didn’t take the divers more than 30 minutes to begin locating bones of Cyndi. Then Jeff showed the team where he and Oats had dumped Daryl, explaining to Caley that they made a fast retreat when they heard kids coming down the river on a Ski-Doo’s. Bone pieces were also concentrated at the second place Jeff identified. The team spent the next two days searching the cove. They recovered about 80 percent of the remains of the two people. The rest had been eaten or scattered throughout the swamp by alligators or other water creatures.
Caley took over two hundred pictures of the entire area and the body fragments. The county medical examiner was also on scene and inventoried ever bone or fragment that was located. Eventually, the remains were assembled in the medical examiner's laboratory, where he and other forensic specialists were able to conclusively identify the remains as Cyndi and Daryl.