Latest / Crime and Horror / Neighborhood gossip led them to the KILLER - MrBallen

Transcript

Neighborhood gossip led them to the KILLER - MrBallen · Crime and Horror

0:00
Speaker 1: On the morning of December 10th, 1995, a seasoned homicide
0:04
Speaker 1: detective walked into a house on a quiet street in
0:07
Speaker 1: the suburbs of Tucson, Arizona. Another officer led him down
0:10
Speaker 1: the hallway to a bedroom, and when the detective looked inside,
0:14
Speaker 1: he froze. Now, he'd seen a lot of crime scenes before,
0:17
Speaker 1: but this one had to be one of the worst.
0:19
Speaker 1: I mean, there was blood everywhere. All over the walls,
0:22
Speaker 1: all over the floors, the mattress. I mean, it was
0:24
Speaker 1: just a complete nightmare. But as much as it appeared
0:27
Speaker 1: like clearly he's looking at the scene.
0:29
Speaker 2: Of a murder... There was a problem.
0:31
Speaker 3: There was no body.
0:33
Speaker 1: But before we get into that story, if you're a
0:35
Speaker 1: fan of the Strange, Dark, and Mysterious delivered in story format,
0:39
Speaker 1: then you've come to the right place because that's all
0:41
Speaker 1: we do and we upload.
0:42
Speaker 3: Two, three, even four times a week.
0:44
Speaker 1: So if that's of interest to you, please hide mouse
0:47
Speaker 1: traps in all of the like button shoes. Also, please
0:50
Speaker 1: subscribe to our channel and turn on all notifications so
0:53
Speaker 1: you don't miss any of our weekly uploads. Okay, let's
0:55
Speaker 1: get into today's story. On the morning of December 8, 1995,
1:19
Speaker 1: a 41-year-old mother named Bonnie Sanborn set a box of
1:22
Speaker 1: cereal down on the dining room table inside of her
1:25
Speaker 1: home in Tucson, Arizona. She then called for her three
1:27
Speaker 1: kids to come eat breakfast, and just a few seconds later,
1:30
Speaker 1: her youngest son, 10-year-old Brandon, came bombing into the room
1:34
Speaker 1: and sat down at the table. Bonnie then poured herself
1:37
Speaker 1: a cup of coffee and carried it down the hallway
1:39
Speaker 1: to her 13-year-old daughter Candace's room. Candace was busy putting
1:43
Speaker 1: on makeup and When Bonnie reminded her that it was
1:45
Speaker 1: almost time to leave for school, she just rolled her
1:48
Speaker 1: eyes and said, you know, she'd be out in a minute.
1:50
Speaker 1: Then Bonnie continued going down the hallway and knocked on
1:53
Speaker 1: the door of her 15-year-old son Bradley's room. And when
1:56
Speaker 1: he didn't open the door, she shouted through the door
1:58
Speaker 1: that if he didn't get out of bed soon, she
2:00
Speaker 1: would come in there and literally drag him out. But
2:02
Speaker 1: there was still no response after she did this, so
2:05
Speaker 1: Bonnie put her ear to the door and listened for movement.
2:08
Speaker 1: She was hoping to hear sheets rustling or dresser drawers opening,
2:11
Speaker 1: but she didn't hear those sounds.
2:13
Speaker 3: Instead, she heard a different sound.
2:15
Speaker 1: It was like this weird clanking sound, like metal pounding
2:19
Speaker 1: against metal. And so because this noise was so unusual,
2:22
Speaker 1: she just opened up the door, and she found her son, Bradley,
2:26
Speaker 1: along with his friend, 18-year-old Jason Horbachevsky, squatting in the
2:30
Speaker 1: middle of the room, trying to pry open this big
2:33
Speaker 1: metal box with a crowbar and a hammer. Bonnie stepped
2:36
Speaker 1: fully inside the room to get a better look, and
2:39
Speaker 1: she saw there was a phone receiver dangling off the
2:41
Speaker 1: side of this metal box. It was clearly a payphone
2:45
Speaker 1: that Bradley and Jason had clearly stolen from somewhere.
2:48
Speaker 2: Out on the street.
2:49
Speaker 1: And now they were trying to steal the quarters out
2:51
Speaker 1: from inside of it. Bonnie was so shocked that all
2:54
Speaker 1: she could think to do was just say, what.
2:56
Speaker 2: Are you doing?
2:57
Speaker 1: And Bradley, he looked at his mom and just seemed
2:59
Speaker 1: totally unphased that she was in there. And he just said, what?
3:02
Speaker 1: We're just trying to get the change out of this payphone.
3:06
Speaker 1: And then before she could react to that, Jason, so
3:09
Speaker 1: her son's friend, He looked over his shoulder at her
3:11
Speaker 1: also very nonchalantly and just began laughing in a way
3:15
Speaker 1: that made Bonnie wonder if he was high on something.
3:18
Speaker 1: At this point, Bonnie just stepped back into the hallway
3:20
Speaker 1: and just tried to think through what she should even
3:23
Speaker 1: do here. I mean, this is so obvious that they're
3:26
Speaker 1: committing a.
3:26
Speaker 2: Crime in her house right now. Like, what in the world?
3:29
Speaker 1: But at the same time, you know, she'd been having
3:31
Speaker 1: problems with her son Bradley for a long time now.
3:34
Speaker 1: You know, this was definitely not the first time she
3:36
Speaker 1: had caught her son... You know, doing something bad. Her
3:40
Speaker 1: son had been known to throw parties in their house
3:42
Speaker 1: that he definitely was not supposed to. He would pick
3:45
Speaker 1: fights with basically everybody in the house, all the family members.
3:49
Speaker 1: And on top of that, she also knew that periodically
3:52
Speaker 1: he would hang out with known gang members. Now, for
3:55
Speaker 1: a while, Bonnie had tried to be understanding and supportive
3:59
Speaker 1: because she remembered how hard it was to be a
4:01
Speaker 1: teenager herself. But her son's trouble really just kept escalating.
4:06
Speaker 1: And this, this payphone thing.
4:08
Speaker 3: was like a breaking point. She knew she could not
4:11
Speaker 3: let something like this slide.
4:12
Speaker 1: I mean, it was literally criminal, and so obviously so.
4:15
Speaker 1: And if she didn't step in now, it was clear
4:18
Speaker 1: her son would just continue to push the limits further
4:20
Speaker 1: and further until he got hurt, or got somebody else hurt,
4:24
Speaker 1: or wound up in jail or something. This was the
4:26
Speaker 1: moment she had to put her foot down. And so,
4:29
Speaker 1: without saying another word to her son or Jason, who
4:32
Speaker 1: were now back to Banging on this metal box, she
4:35
Speaker 1: just turned and walked back into the kitchen where her
4:37
Speaker 1: other kids, Brandon and Candace, were now eating their breakfast
4:41
Speaker 1: and looking annoyed by all the chaos being caused by
4:43
Speaker 1: their older brother. And she walked right past them, picked
4:46
Speaker 1: up the phone, and she called 911. And when the
4:49
Speaker 1: dispatcher picked up her call, Bonnie said she wanted to
4:52
Speaker 1: report a theft. And she gave the dispatcher her own address.
4:56
Speaker 1: And then after she hung up, she told Candace and
4:58
Speaker 1: Brandon to go get their backpacks and go outside so
5:01
Speaker 1: they didn't miss the bus. A few minutes later, Bonnie
5:09
Speaker 1: heard a knock on the front door and she opened
5:11
Speaker 1: it up to find two sheriff's deputies standing on the doorstep.
5:15
Speaker 1: She actually recognized the deputies and she knew they also
5:18
Speaker 1: recognized her because this was not the first time they'd
5:21
Speaker 1: been called to the Sanborn house. They'd been there several
5:24
Speaker 1: times actually recently to deal with domestic issues largely caused
5:28
Speaker 1: by her son. But Bonnie knew, you know, Bradley, even
5:31
Speaker 1: though he was the obvious main problem, at least in
5:34
Speaker 1: terms of her current issues... She was already seeing that
5:37
Speaker 1: her 13-year-old child, Candace, had begun acting out a lot lately.
5:42
Speaker 1: And she was also worried what would happen when her 10-year-old, Brandon,
5:45
Speaker 1: became a teenager himself. Like, would he begin following the
5:48
Speaker 1: footsteps of his brother and maybe his older sister as well?
5:50
Speaker 1: She didn't know, but she just couldn't understand why her
5:53
Speaker 1: kids just were misbehaving so much.
5:56
Speaker 3: Like, what did she do wrong?
5:57
Speaker 1: And so Bonnie showed the deputies to Bradley's room, where
6:00
Speaker 1: he and Jason were still actively trying to pry open
6:03
Speaker 1: this payphone. And when Bradley looked up and saw the police,
6:06
Speaker 1: he looked furious. He screamed at his mother that he
6:10
Speaker 1: couldn't believe she'd called the cops on him. But Bonnie,
6:13
Speaker 1: you know, she did her best to push down the
6:15
Speaker 1: natural bit of guilt she was feeling, you know, because
6:18
Speaker 1: she didn't want to have to call the cops on
6:19
Speaker 1: her son. The deputies ultimately handcuffed both Bradley and Jason
6:24
Speaker 1: and they walked them outside and Bonnie trailed right behind them.
6:27
Speaker 1: And then as the police were putting the kids in
6:28
Speaker 1: the back of the squad car, Bonnie pulled one of
6:31
Speaker 1: the deputies aside and asked if he could make sure
6:34
Speaker 1: Bradley spent at least one night in the juvenile detention center.
6:38
Speaker 2: She knew this was a very tough love sort of approach.
6:40
Speaker 1: I mean, basically demanding your kid stays effectively in jail overnight.
6:45
Speaker 1: But she was also hoping that in addition to being
6:47
Speaker 1: maybe scared straight here, he would also get counseling in
6:51
Speaker 1: the juvenile detention center and maybe begin to see the
6:54
Speaker 1: value of staying out of trouble. The deputy nodded and
6:57
Speaker 1: said he'd see what he could do.
6:59
Speaker 2: As the squad car drove away.
7:00
Speaker 1: Bonnie saw movement in a window of the house across
7:03
Speaker 1: the street. She squinted and saw that one of her
7:06
Speaker 1: neighbors was peering out the curtains to get a look
7:08
Speaker 1: at all the commotion. And then further down the street,
7:11
Speaker 1: a couple out for a morning jog had slowed down
7:14
Speaker 1: and was just staring at the squad car as they
7:16
Speaker 1: passed by. And now for Bonnie, I mean, she wasn't
7:18
Speaker 1: that surprised. I mean, she'd be looking out the window
7:21
Speaker 1: too if police showed up on her street. But at
7:23
Speaker 1: the same time, it still made her very embarrassed.
7:26
Speaker 3: I mean, she knew people in this.
7:28
Speaker 2: Neighborhood were already very aware.
7:30
Speaker 1: Of her family's problems. And it just, it was a
7:32
Speaker 1: lot to bear. And frankly, making it even worse was
7:35
Speaker 1: the fact that generally speaking, Bonnie's neighbors were nice to
7:39
Speaker 1: her in person when they were face to face with her.
7:41
Speaker 1: People even like went out of their way to help her,
7:43
Speaker 1: you know, but she knew behind her back, people in
7:47
Speaker 1: this neighborhood.
7:48
Speaker 2: Gossiped constantly about her family.
7:51
Speaker 1: Now, for Bonnie, this was obviously humiliating and also very frustrating,
7:55
Speaker 1: because how could she possibly stop gossip?
7:57
Speaker 2: I mean, she couldn't.
7:58
Speaker 1: But more than just disliking the fact that there were
8:01
Speaker 1: all these people talking about her, she also just felt
8:03
Speaker 1: very isolated right now. She was married, but her husband
8:07
Speaker 1: Robert had gotten a job in Maryland, and he only
8:09
Speaker 1: came home every other weekend. Bonnie had actually tried to
8:13
Speaker 1: sell the house in Tucson and move the whole family
8:15
Speaker 1: to Maryland, but she'd eventually decided it just wasn't really
8:18
Speaker 1: worth the trouble. Plus, Robert had already talked to a
8:21
Speaker 1: supervisor about potentially transferring back to Tucson, and he was
8:25
Speaker 1: supposed to be coming back for good just next week.
8:28
Speaker 1: And so at this point, Bonnie was just trying to
8:29
Speaker 1: survive here. You know, she still felt very isolated, but
8:32
Speaker 1: she knew, you know, Robert, he'd be back soon and
8:35
Speaker 1: she wouldn't be alone anymore. And she would get to
8:37
Speaker 1: deal with the kids, with the nosy neighbors, with the police,
8:40
Speaker 1: with her partner. It just felt like that would be
8:43
Speaker 1: a whole lot better. About 16 hours later, around 11.45 p.m.
8:52
Speaker 1: that night, Bonnie brushed her teeth and put on her PJs.
8:56
Speaker 1: The house was quiet for once, except for the TV
8:58
Speaker 1: humming in the living room. She'd gotten a call from
9:01
Speaker 1: the juvenile detention center that afternoon, and Bradley was being
9:04
Speaker 1: held there on theft charges, which Bonnie thought was for
9:07
Speaker 1: the best. But his friend Jason was 18 years old,
9:11
Speaker 1: so he was not held. Instead, he was just given
9:13
Speaker 1: a ticket and released the same day. And Bonnie knew
9:16
Speaker 1: that as soon as Bradley was out again.
9:18
Speaker 2: He and Jason would.
9:20
Speaker 1: Reconnect right away and just fall right back into their
9:22
Speaker 1: same old antics. Before she went to bed, Bonnie went
9:25
Speaker 1: to the living room where her other two kids, Candace
9:28
Speaker 1: and Brandon, were on the couch watching TV.
9:30
Speaker 3: And she told them it was time.
9:31
Speaker 2: For bed, time to turn off the TV and go
9:33
Speaker 2: to your rooms.
9:34
Speaker 1: But they just ignored her and just continued to watch TV.
9:37
Speaker 1: It was a Friday night and the two kids didn't
9:39
Speaker 1: have anywhere to be in the morning. And Bonnie had
9:42
Speaker 1: just done enough fighting for the day. So she just decided,
9:44
Speaker 1: you know what?
9:45
Speaker 3: Let them stay up.
9:45
Speaker 1: They can go to bed when they want to. And
9:47
Speaker 1: so she told the kids to, you know, don't stay
9:49
Speaker 1: up too late and go to bed soon. Then she left,
9:51
Speaker 1: you know, leaving them on the couch. She went to
9:53
Speaker 1: her own bedroom and she turned out her lights. A
9:56
Speaker 1: few hours later, Bonnie woke up and looked over at
9:59
Speaker 1: the clock. and saw it was near 3 a.m. And
10:02
Speaker 1: she also could still hear the TV on out in
10:04
Speaker 1: the living room. And so Bonnie cracked open her door
10:07
Speaker 1: and yelled down the hallway to the kids to turn
10:09
Speaker 1: off the TV and go to bed. And then as
10:12
Speaker 1: Bonnie got back in her bed, she heard the sound
10:14
Speaker 1: of the TV turning off and she heard footsteps walking
10:16
Speaker 1: down the hallway.
10:18
Speaker 2: And then the house was quiet.
10:19
Speaker 1: And she drifted back to sleep. But sometime before dawn,
10:23
Speaker 1: when it was still dark out, she woke up again.
10:26
Speaker 1: And when she rolled over in her bed, she opened
10:28
Speaker 1: her eyes, and she saw there was a large figure
10:32
Speaker 1: standing over her bed. Later that same morning, around 10.45 a.m.,
10:38
Speaker 1: 10-year-old Brandon woke up to an eerily silent house. Normally,
10:43
Speaker 1: his mother would have already been awake, making breakfast or
10:45
Speaker 1: getting started on chores. But when he went out in
10:48
Speaker 1: the hallway, he didn't hear her. He went into the
10:50
Speaker 1: kitchen and he checked to see if she was there,
10:52
Speaker 1: but she wasn't. And there were no dirty pans or
10:54
Speaker 1: plates in the sink and no coffee in the pot.
10:57
Speaker 1: It looked like his mom hadn't even woke up yet,
10:59
Speaker 1: which was weird for a Saturday morning. So he went
11:02
Speaker 1: to ask his older sister, Candace, if she knew where
11:04
Speaker 1: their mom was. But Candace said she hadn't seen her.
11:07
Speaker 1: So Brandon and Candace both went down the.
11:09
Speaker 3: Hallway to their mother's bedroom.
11:11
Speaker 1: They knocked on the door and when she didn't answer,
11:14
Speaker 1: Brandon pushed the door open and looked inside.
11:18
Speaker 2: And what he saw made him gasp in horror. The
11:21
Speaker 2: bedroom was covered in blood, but the bedroom was also empty.
11:26
Speaker 3: His mom wasn't in there.
11:32
Speaker 2: Let me tell you about my newfound favorite treat.
11:35
Speaker 1: The other day, I had some family and friends over,
11:37
Speaker 1: and I couldn't wait to introduce them to my mochi.
11:41
Speaker 1: We all shared the mango, the strawberry, and cookies and cream,
11:45
Speaker 1: and unsurprisingly, everybody loved it. We even made a quick
11:49
Speaker 1: run to the supermarket afterwards to get more. Because sometimes
11:52
Speaker 1: the most simple pleasures in life bring the most joy.
11:55
Speaker 1: Like the joyfully chill sensation of biting into refreshing, creamy,
12:00
Speaker 1: chewy My Mochi ice cream.
12:03
Speaker 2: My Mochi ice cream is like this sweet ice cream dumpling.
12:07
Speaker 1: Creamy, premium ice cream wrapped in very satisfying, sweet, chewy
12:12
Speaker 1: dough that is both refreshing and indulgent. It comes in
12:15
Speaker 1: delicious flavors like strawberry, cookies and cream, and mango. My
12:20
Speaker 1: Mochi is only around 70 calories per piece, and it's
12:23
Speaker 1: easy to share because each box comes with six individual mochis.
12:27
Speaker 1: If you haven't tried My Mochi, you really don't want
12:29
Speaker 1: to miss out on this joyfully chill experience. Look for
12:32
Speaker 1: the purple box of My Mochi ice cream in the
12:35
Speaker 1: freezer aisle of your local grocery store. Later that same morning,
12:43
Speaker 1: Detective Brad Faust pulled up outside of a house in
12:45
Speaker 1: the suburbs of Tucson. He was there to investigate a
12:48
Speaker 1: mother's apparent kidnapping from her own home. Faust was actually
12:52
Speaker 1: feeling a bit frustrated to be called out to yet
12:54
Speaker 1: another case like this when he was already juggling so
12:57
Speaker 1: many others. 1995 had proven to be the deadliest year
13:02
Speaker 1: in Tucson's history. There had already been nearly a hundred
13:05
Speaker 1: murders just that year, and the Pima County Sheriff's Office
13:08
Speaker 1: was swamped. But as far as anyone knew at this point,
13:11
Speaker 1: this was not a murder.
13:13
Speaker 2: It was a kidnapping.
13:14
Speaker 1: You know, all Faust had been told was that Bonnie
13:16
Speaker 1: Sanborn was missing and her kids had called 911 after
13:19
Speaker 1: seeing that and also seeing all the blood in her bedroom.
13:22
Speaker 1: So Faust was holding out hope here that this was
13:25
Speaker 1: actually nothing that serious and that they would find Bonnie
13:28
Speaker 1: relatively quickly and she'd be okay. He got out of
13:31
Speaker 1: his car and he saw that officers had already taped
13:33
Speaker 1: off the house. There was a young boy and girl
13:36
Speaker 1: sitting out on the front curb looking terrified and visibly distraught.
13:40
Speaker 1: And Faust also noticed that there was blood on both
13:42
Speaker 1: of their shirts. And so he figured that they must
13:45
Speaker 1: be Bonnie's kids, the ones who had made the 911 call.
13:48
Speaker 1: And he made a mental note that he would need
13:49
Speaker 1: to talk to them later. Then he walked through the
13:51
Speaker 1: front yard and went into the house. And right away,
13:54
Speaker 1: a crime scene photographer greeted him and then led him
13:57
Speaker 1: down the hallway. As he walked, Faust caught a glimpse
14:00
Speaker 1: of a family photo on the wall, which showed Bonnie
14:02
Speaker 1: and her husband and their three kids together. all smiling
14:05
Speaker 1: and looking like the perfect all-American family. Before opening the
14:08
Speaker 1: door to Bonnie's bedroom, the photographer paused and warned the
14:11
Speaker 1: detective that there really was a lot of blood in here.
14:14
Speaker 1: Faust nodded, and then the photographer opened the door, and
14:18
Speaker 1: Faust immediately saw what he was talking about. I mean,
14:20
Speaker 1: there was blood spattered all over the walls, the floor,
14:23
Speaker 1: the windows, and the mattress. He felt his heart sink
14:26
Speaker 1: as he realized that with this much blood loss, they
14:29
Speaker 1: probably would not be finding their victim alive here. But
14:32
Speaker 1: he knew it was going to be very hard to
14:34
Speaker 1: figure out what had happened here or who was responsible
14:37
Speaker 1: until they found her, dead or alive. And so Faust
14:40
Speaker 1: stepped into the room closer to the bed where a
14:43
Speaker 1: forensic technician was swabbing for fingerprints. The mattress was completely
14:47
Speaker 1: soaked in blood, and on one of the pillows, he
14:50
Speaker 1: could clearly see a bloody handprint. He figured it either
14:53
Speaker 1: belonged to Bonnie or her kidnapper. But they'd have to
14:56
Speaker 1: wait for test results to be sure. Faust stepped back
14:59
Speaker 1: and he noticed that the sheets had been partially pulled
15:01
Speaker 1: off the bed and were sort of balled up on
15:03
Speaker 1: the middle of the mattress.
15:05
Speaker 2: And to him, it seemed like.
15:07
Speaker 1: You know, given how much blood is in here and
15:08
Speaker 1: the fact that obviously Bonnie is not here, that clearly
15:11
Speaker 1: some sort of long and violent struggle took place in
15:15
Speaker 1: this room. And it seemed to him like the struggle
15:17
Speaker 1: must have originated on the bed. And maybe even the
15:20
Speaker 1: bulk of the struggle was happening on the bed.
15:23
Speaker 2: I mean, it's soaked in blood and the sheets are
15:24
Speaker 2: all messed up.
15:26
Speaker 1: And he's thinking, you know, very likely then Bonnie was
15:28
Speaker 1: in bed when the attack began. Faust also noticed there
15:32
Speaker 1: was a folding knife with a red handle on the mattress.
15:35
Speaker 1: And there was also a purse.
15:36
Speaker 3: That had been poured out.
15:37
Speaker 1: There were multiple credit cards and a checkbook that were
15:40
Speaker 1: just sitting on the bed. And the fact that these
15:42
Speaker 1: items were not stolen made Faust think that robbery probably
15:47
Speaker 1: was not part of the motive for whatever happened to Bonnie.
15:50
Speaker 1: But then something on the floor by the bed caught
15:53
Speaker 1: Faust's eye. After double-checking that the room had already been photographed,
15:57
Speaker 1: Faust put on a pair of gloves and then crouched.
15:59
Speaker 3: Down and he picked it up.
16:01
Speaker 2: And what it was, was a small brown button.
16:04
Speaker 1: He carried it over to the closet and dug through
16:06
Speaker 1: Bonnie's clothes that were in there, and the button didn't
16:08
Speaker 1: seem to match anything that she owned. And so based
16:11
Speaker 1: on where it was found in the room, Faust thought,
16:14
Speaker 1: you know, this button must have come off of somebody's
16:17
Speaker 1: clothes in the middle of this attack. It obviously could
16:20
Speaker 1: belong to Bonnie. It could have come off of what
16:22
Speaker 1: she was wearing and maybe is still wearing. Or this
16:25
Speaker 1: button could have come off of the attacker's clothes. And
16:29
Speaker 1: so Faust gave the button to a forensics officer and
16:31
Speaker 1: told him to bag it up.
16:32
Speaker 3: Then he kept looking around.
16:34
Speaker 1: And in the midst of all the blood that had
16:36
Speaker 1: been sprayed all over the room, he noticed there was
16:38
Speaker 1: a clear trail of red droplets that snaked across the carpet.
16:42
Speaker 1: The trail led to a sliding glass door that led
16:45
Speaker 1: into the backyard. And when he tried to open it,
16:47
Speaker 1: he realized it was already unlocked. The forensics officer told
16:51
Speaker 1: him that nobody had touched that door all morning, so
16:53
Speaker 1: it must have been unlocked before anybody arrived. Faust slid
16:57
Speaker 1: the door open and stepped out into the backyard, and
17:00
Speaker 1: he followed the trail of blood across the grass all
17:03
Speaker 1: the way to a door that led into the garage.
17:05
Speaker 1: He noticed there were no drag marks in the grass,
17:08
Speaker 1: so Bonnie's attacker must have been carrying her, which sort
17:11
Speaker 1: of naturally suggested that whoever did this likely was bigger
17:15
Speaker 1: and stronger than Bonnie.
17:17
Speaker 2: But also, judging from the photos he'd seen on the walls.
17:19
Speaker 1: Bonnie was very petite, so really that didn't narrow it
17:22
Speaker 1: down very much. A lot of people could potentially lift
17:25
Speaker 1: Bonnie and carry her.
17:27
Speaker 3: Faust reached the door that led.
17:28
Speaker 1: Into the garage, and he turned the knob, and it
17:30
Speaker 1: was unlocked. He opened it up, and when he looked inside,
17:33
Speaker 1: there wasn't a car in there. But the trail of
17:36
Speaker 1: blood clearly went into the garage at least a few
17:39
Speaker 1: feet before it disappeared, so it seemed like the suspect
17:43
Speaker 1: had literally carried Bonnie in here, loaded her into the
17:46
Speaker 1: car that likely was in here and now was not,
17:49
Speaker 1: and they drove it away, carrying.
17:50
Speaker 3: Bonnie with them.
17:51
Speaker 1: And so Faust knew his best shot at finding Bonnie
17:55
Speaker 1: was to, one, identify the car that would normally be
17:58
Speaker 1: in this garage, and then, once you have the identity
18:01
Speaker 1: of the car, to go find it. Once Faust had
18:08
Speaker 1: done his initial sweep of the house, he went outside
18:12
Speaker 1: and he crouched down next to Bonnie's two younger kids,
18:14
Speaker 1: Candace and Brandon. And both kids were still very shaken
18:17
Speaker 1: up and totally confused. And so Faust very gently asked
18:21
Speaker 1: them about the last time they had seen their mother.
18:24
Speaker 1: And Candace said it was around maybe 1145 the night
18:27
Speaker 1: before when their mom had gone to bed. But she
18:30
Speaker 1: also added that maybe around 3 a.m., she and her
18:33
Speaker 1: brother Brandon were still up watching TV in the living
18:35
Speaker 1: room and their mom had shouted from her bedroom for
18:39
Speaker 1: them to turn.
18:39
Speaker 3: Off the TV and go to bed.
18:41
Speaker 1: She said that when their mom did that, they did
18:43
Speaker 1: get up, they turned off the TV, and they went
18:45
Speaker 1: to their own bedrooms and went to sleep. And both
18:48
Speaker 1: kids said they didn't hear or see anything until they
18:51
Speaker 1: woke up later that morning and found what they found
18:53
Speaker 1: in their mother's bedroom. And so this gave Faust something
18:56
Speaker 1: to work with because it meant if what the kids
18:58
Speaker 1: were saying was true... that Bonnie must have disappeared sometime
19:02
Speaker 1: after 3 a.m., because that's when she yelled to her
19:04
Speaker 1: kids at 3. Plus, if the suspect came in through
19:08
Speaker 1: that backsliding door that went right into Bonnie's room, and
19:11
Speaker 1: they were able to do so without.
19:12
Speaker 2: Waking up the kids... And then after the attack, being.
19:16
Speaker 1: Able to find very likely Bonnie's car keys, because that's
19:19
Speaker 1: the assumption, they found her keys and then loaded Bonnie
19:22
Speaker 1: into the car and drove off again without waking anybody
19:26
Speaker 1: in the house. It's suggested that whoever did this, they
19:30
Speaker 1: likely were relatively familiar with the layout of the house
19:33
Speaker 1: and had probably been there before.
19:35
Speaker 3: So maybe this is somebody that they all knew.
19:37
Speaker 1: Faust pointed to the blood that was on Candace and
19:39
Speaker 1: Brandon's shirts and he asked them where it came from.
19:42
Speaker 1: And Candace would admit that before she called 911, she
19:46
Speaker 1: and her brother had desperately gone looking for their mom
19:49
Speaker 1: in the room.
19:50
Speaker 2: In this horrible bloody bedroom.
19:52
Speaker 1: But they couldn't find her and in their efforts to
19:54
Speaker 1: find her, they had gotten blood on themselves. Now, of course,
19:57
Speaker 1: Faust understood that these kids had been through this horribly
20:00
Speaker 1: traumatic thing and they were just looking for their mom.
20:03
Speaker 1: But he also now knew that very likely their crime
20:06
Speaker 1: scene was contaminated now because the kids went in there
20:09
Speaker 1: and touched a bunch of stuff.
20:10
Speaker 2: But, of course, he did not tell.
20:11
Speaker 1: The kids that he was in any way annoyed with
20:13
Speaker 1: them or that they had done anything wrong. Instead, he
20:16
Speaker 1: just told the kids to go inside and change their
20:19
Speaker 1: clothes and then give the clothes that had blood on
20:21
Speaker 1: them to the forensics techs because they needed to collect
20:24
Speaker 1: them as evidence. And he also told the kids to
20:27
Speaker 1: not go anywhere near their mother's bedroom. Candace nodded and
20:30
Speaker 1: stood up and grabbed her little brother by the hand.
20:33
Speaker 1: And as they walked back towards the house, a sheriff's
20:36
Speaker 1: deputy came up to Faust and told the detective that
20:39
Speaker 1: he should also make sure to talk to Bonnie's oldest child.
20:42
Speaker 3: She had a 15-year-old son whose name was Bradley.
20:46
Speaker 1: That evening, Detective Faust paced down the hallway of the
20:49
Speaker 1: Pima County Juvenile Court Center, holding a file folder in
20:52
Speaker 1: his hand. When he opened the door to a small office,
20:56
Speaker 1: a teenage boy was already there waiting. and Faust recognized
20:59
Speaker 1: him from the mugshot in the folder he had as
21:01
Speaker 1: Bradley Sanborn, Bonnie's oldest child. Faust walked in, and as
21:05
Speaker 1: gently as he could, he told Bradley that his mother
21:08
Speaker 1: was missing. And based on the blood and the knife
21:11
Speaker 1: they'd found in her bedroom, she'd likely been viciously attacked, kidnapped,
21:15
Speaker 1: and she could even be dead. So Faust knew that
21:18
Speaker 1: Bradley could not have attacked his mother, because... He'd been
21:21
Speaker 1: here in the juvenile detention center the whole time the
21:24
Speaker 1: attack took place. But Faust had done some digging on
21:27
Speaker 1: Bradley's friends. He slapped the file folder he was carrying
21:30
Speaker 1: down onto the desk in front of Bradley and began
21:32
Speaker 1: flipping through it, showing Bradley the information he'd found about,
21:36
Speaker 1: in particular, his friend Jason Horbachevsky. Jason was a known
21:40
Speaker 1: gang member, and according to several informants, he was known
21:44
Speaker 1: for carrying a knife around. And sometimes, apparently, he would
21:47
Speaker 1: pull that knife out and stab himself in the side
21:51
Speaker 1: of the head. And so Faust wondered out loud if
21:54
Speaker 1: the knife they'd found in Bonnie's bedroom was Bradley's friend Jason's.
21:58
Speaker 1: And maybe the attack on her was retribution for his
22:02
Speaker 1: mother calling the cops on Jason and Bradley that morning.
22:06
Speaker 1: But when Faust looked at Bradley for his reaction, he
22:09
Speaker 1: saw there were all these tears rolling down his cheeks,
22:12
Speaker 1: and Bradley choked out that he really didn't know anything.
22:15
Speaker 2: And as much as he argued with.
22:16
Speaker 3: His mom, he would never hurt her.
22:18
Speaker 1: To Faust, Bradley's reaction actually seemed really genuine, and so
22:22
Speaker 1: he immediately figured that if the gang Jason was a
22:25
Speaker 1: part of, you know, was responsible for whatever happened to Bonnie,
22:29
Speaker 1: Bradley appeared out of the loop.
22:31
Speaker 2: And so to get a better read on this situation.
22:33
Speaker 1: Faust felt like, you know, trying to ask Bradley questions
22:37
Speaker 1: was not going to go very far. Instead, he would
22:39
Speaker 1: just go to Jason and talk to him. Later that
22:43
Speaker 1: same night, Faust sat in the station with a cup
22:45
Speaker 1: of coffee, combing through records on Bradley and also on
22:48
Speaker 1: Jason and Jason's gang. After speaking to Bradley earlier, Faust
22:53
Speaker 1: had immediately tried to locate and interview Jason, which proved
22:56
Speaker 1: to be much more difficult than he'd anticipated. He knew
22:59
Speaker 1: Jason was not in police custody since he'd been released
23:02
Speaker 1: pretty much immediately after the payphone debacle. But Jason also
23:06
Speaker 1: was not at any addresses that he'd been associated with
23:09
Speaker 1: in the past, so it was hard to tell where
23:11
Speaker 1: he even was.
23:12
Speaker 3: So a few hours ago.
23:14
Speaker 1: Faust had sent out officers to speak to as many
23:16
Speaker 1: members of Jason's gang as possible to see if they
23:19
Speaker 1: knew where he was, and also to see if they
23:21
Speaker 1: knew anything about Bonnie. Now, so far, they had not
23:25
Speaker 1: located Jason, and nobody had brought anything up about Bonnie.
23:28
Speaker 1: But just then, Faust's office door opened, and a deputy
23:31
Speaker 1: told him there was someone he really ought to speak
23:33
Speaker 1: to that was out in the lobby. And so Faust
23:36
Speaker 1: got up, he went in the lobby, and who was
23:38
Speaker 1: waiting for him but none other than Jason? When Faust
23:41
Speaker 1: walked out there, Jason stood up from his chair, acting
23:45
Speaker 1: cocky and confident, and told Faust that he'd heard the
23:48
Speaker 1: sheriff's department was looking for him. And he was there
23:50
Speaker 1: to prove he had nothing to hide. And Faust, he
23:53
Speaker 1: didn't even bother asking where Jason had been. Instead, he
23:57
Speaker 1: just led him into an interrogation room, and when he
23:59
Speaker 1: sat down across from his newest suspect, he noticed the
24:03
Speaker 1: buttons on Jason's shirt. They were small and brown, just
24:07
Speaker 1: like the button that was found on Bonnie's bedroom floor.
24:10
Speaker 3: And also.
24:11
Speaker 1: a few of the buttons on his shirt appeared to
24:13
Speaker 1: be missing. Now, Faust controlled his excitement and didn't show
24:16
Speaker 1: it and decided pretty much right away that he was
24:19
Speaker 1: not going to ask about the button, at least not
24:21
Speaker 1: at first.
24:22
Speaker 3: He didn't want to overplay his hand.
24:24
Speaker 1: Instead, he started the interview by asking Jason some standard
24:27
Speaker 1: questions about his relationship with Bradley and also, by extension,
24:31
Speaker 1: his relationship with Bonnie, Bradley's mom, and also where Jason
24:36
Speaker 1: was at the time of the attack. And Jason would
24:38
Speaker 1: admit that he was mad about Bonnie calling the police
24:41
Speaker 1: on him and Bradley. But he didn't have some big
24:44
Speaker 1: plan to get revenge. He insisted that he didn't know
24:47
Speaker 1: where Bonnie was or what had happened to her, and
24:49
Speaker 1: he'd been at home asleep on the night she was attacked.
24:52
Speaker 1: And at the end of the interview, he agreed to
24:54
Speaker 1: give Faust a DNA sample, and he even turned over
24:57
Speaker 1: his shirt with the missing brown buttons for forensic analysis.
25:01
Speaker 1: And so after that, Faust released Jason and decided it
25:04
Speaker 1: was time to call it a day. You know those
25:11
Speaker 1: moments right before you start something new, when you're staring
25:14
Speaker 1: at the idea, running through every worst-case scenario, and wondering
25:18
Speaker 1: if you're making a huge mistake?
25:20
Speaker 2: That feeling of doubt and uncertainty can be paralyzing.
25:23
Speaker 1: But looking back, making that leap, despite the fear I had,
25:27
Speaker 1: was one of the best decisions I ever made when
25:29
Speaker 1: I started this Mr.
25:30
Speaker 2: Ballin adventure.
25:31
Speaker 1: Because sometimes the scariest step forward is the one that
25:35
Speaker 1: changes everything. Starting something new isn't just hard. It really
25:39
Speaker 1: is terrifying. especially when you're starting a business. But that's
25:42
Speaker 1: why it helps to have such a great partner like
25:45
Speaker 1: Shopify by your side. Shopify is the commerce platform behind
25:49
Speaker 1: millions of businesses all around the world, from household names
25:52
Speaker 1: like Death Wish Coffee and Magic Spoon to brands just
25:56
Speaker 1: getting started.
25:57
Speaker 2: It's time to turn.
25:57
Speaker 1: Those what-ifs into sales with Shopify today. Sign up for
26:01
Speaker 1: your $ 1 per month trial today at shopify.com slash mrballin.
26:06
Speaker 1: Go to shopify.com slash mrballin. Again, that's shopify.com slash mrballin.
26:16
Speaker 1: The next morning, Sunday, December 10th, so a day after
26:19
Speaker 1: Bonnie went missing, Faust sat in his office and sorted
26:22
Speaker 1: through all the information his team had collected the day before.
26:25
Speaker 1: While Faust had interviewed Bradley and Jason, other members of
26:28
Speaker 1: his team had spoken to Bonnie's friends, family, and neighbors.
26:32
Speaker 3: But so far, it looked like nobody knew anything that
26:34
Speaker 3: was helpful.
26:35
Speaker 1: A few neighbors had mentioned that the Sanborns had family problems,
26:38
Speaker 1: but Apart from that, they all said Bonnie seemed nice,
26:42
Speaker 1: and they had no idea who would want to hurt her.
26:44
Speaker 1: Faust continued reading, looking for some kind of clue in
26:46
Speaker 1: all the interviews, when his office phone rang.
26:49
Speaker 2: He picked it up, and the.
26:51
Speaker 1: Man on the line sounded terrified, and he said he
26:53
Speaker 1: had a tip in the Bonnie Sanborn case. The man
26:56
Speaker 1: explained that earlier that morning, he'd seen a news report
26:59
Speaker 1: about Bonnie's disappearance and how the detectives were looking for
27:02
Speaker 1: her car, which the police had learned was a light
27:05
Speaker 1: blue Chrysler.
27:06
Speaker 2: And he said that just the day before... he and
27:08
Speaker 2: his wife had.
27:09
Speaker 1: Actually passed a car just like that on their morning run.
27:12
Speaker 1: It was abandoned on the side of the road in
27:14
Speaker 1: the desert, just outside of town. He said at the time,
27:17
Speaker 1: he and his wife had not gotten too close to
27:19
Speaker 1: the car, and they really hadn't thought much of it
27:22
Speaker 1: until they had seen this news report. And so after
27:25
Speaker 1: seeing the report just a few minutes ago, he and
27:28
Speaker 1: his wife had gone back to the desert to see
27:29
Speaker 1: if the car was still there. And he said not
27:32
Speaker 1: only was the car still there, but when they walked
27:35
Speaker 1: up close, they could see in the back seat what
27:38
Speaker 1: appeared to be a woman's body. Faust immediately wrote down
27:41
Speaker 1: the car's location. And when he looked at a map,
27:44
Speaker 1: he realized it was only about a half mile away
27:46
Speaker 1: from Bonnie's house.
27:47
Speaker 2: He thanked the man, hung up.
27:49
Speaker 1: The phone, and then he got in his car and
27:51
Speaker 1: he raced out toward the desert. And when he got
27:53
Speaker 1: past the edge of town into the open desert, he
27:55
Speaker 1: saw right up ahead, a light blue Chrysler parked in
27:58
Speaker 1: the sand.
27:59
Speaker 2: He stopped his car on the shoulder near the car.
28:01
Speaker 1: He got out and he approached the Chrysler and he
28:04
Speaker 1: peered through the window and And almost immediately, he did
28:07
Speaker 1: see a woman's body. It was Bonnie's body, and she
28:10
Speaker 1: was slumped over in the backseat, just as the man
28:12
Speaker 1: had said. Bonnie's arms were bound behind her back, and
28:16
Speaker 1: there was a sock stuffed in her mouth, and the
28:18
Speaker 1: lower half of her body was naked. And for Faust,
28:21
Speaker 1: you know, in seeing this, he wasn't surprised. But at
28:24
Speaker 1: the same time, he had held out hope that maybe.
28:26
Speaker 3: Bonnie was alive.
28:27
Speaker 1: You know, just seeing her dead in such a horrible
28:30
Speaker 1: way in the back of this car was just, it
28:32
Speaker 1: was heartbreaking. And so Faust went back to his car,
28:35
Speaker 1: he radioed the station, and he waited until a forensics
28:38
Speaker 1: team arrived. And then at that point, he went back
28:41
Speaker 1: over to the Chrysler and he began to examine the body.
28:44
Speaker 1: Faust put on gloves and he leaned into the car
28:47
Speaker 1: and he lifted up Bonnie's head. And he found there
28:49
Speaker 1: were wounds all over her skull, as if she'd been
28:52
Speaker 1: repeatedly struck in the head with something very sharp. And
28:55
Speaker 1: her partial nudity made it seem likely that she was
28:57
Speaker 1: also sexually assaulted. There were also clear defensive wounds on
29:01
Speaker 1: her hands and forearms. which suggested she had fought back
29:04
Speaker 1: hard against her killer. One of the forensics officers pulled
29:07
Speaker 1: out a black light and began running it across the
29:09
Speaker 1: backseat of the car to check for potential DNA evidence.
29:13
Speaker 1: And Faust watched as the forensics officer ran the light
29:16
Speaker 1: over Bonnie's leg and.
29:17
Speaker 3: It lit up a spot.
29:19
Speaker 1: And the officer told Faust that almost definitely that spot
29:22
Speaker 1: was the killer's semen. And so he swabbed the area
29:25
Speaker 1: and put the swab into an evidence bag. and told
29:28
Speaker 1: Faust that in a matter of maybe a few weeks,
29:30
Speaker 1: they should get the DNA profile back from the lab,
29:32
Speaker 1: and maybe they'd know who.
29:33
Speaker 2: Their killer was.
29:41
Speaker 1: In the meantime, the fingerprints found in Bonnie's bedroom were
29:44
Speaker 1: analyzed and they'd come back with a match that really
29:47
Speaker 1: surprised Detective Faust. All the fingerprints and that bloody handprint
29:51
Speaker 1: on the pillow? belonged to Bonnie's 13-year-old daughter, Candace. And
29:55
Speaker 1: even though Faust really did not want to consider that
29:58
Speaker 1: a 13-year-old girl had in some way helped with a
30:01
Speaker 1: plot to kill her own mother, he now had to
30:03
Speaker 1: consider it, not only because of the handprint and fingerprints,
30:07
Speaker 1: but also because there was a long record of family
30:10
Speaker 1: problems inside of the Sanborn house. Now, obviously, Candace could
30:14
Speaker 1: not have committed this crime on her own, but she
30:17
Speaker 1: certainly could have helped whoever did. So, Faust confronted Candace.
30:21
Speaker 1: And when he did, she just broke down sobbing. She
30:24
Speaker 1: said she had just been really scared and confused and
30:26
Speaker 1: was just looking in the bedroom for her mom and
30:29
Speaker 1: just didn't realize what she was doing by getting her
30:32
Speaker 1: prints everywhere. And looking at this scared teenager, Faust knew
30:36
Speaker 1: that Candace really didn't make sense as a.
30:38
Speaker 3: Potential suspect here.
30:39
Speaker 1: But he still felt like Bonnie's killer had to be
30:41
Speaker 1: somebody who knew Bonnie personally that had been in her
30:45
Speaker 1: house before. And there was one person who still had
30:48
Speaker 1: not been ruled out. Bonnie's husband, Robert. Later that day,
30:53
Speaker 1: Faust was sitting at his desk with the phone pressed
30:55
Speaker 1: to his ear. He was on hold and had been
30:57
Speaker 1: for some time, and as he tried to tune out
31:00
Speaker 1: the awful music that was playing on the line, he
31:03
Speaker 1: looked down at the handwritten list of airline names and flight.
31:07
Speaker 3: Numbers that were on his desk.
31:08
Speaker 1: Bonnie's husband, Robert, had been working in Maryland for the
31:11
Speaker 1: past couple of months, and he had not been scheduled
31:13
Speaker 1: to come back home to Tucson on the weekend his
31:15
Speaker 1: wife was killed. But just because he claimed that, that
31:18
Speaker 1: he had been in Maryland that whole weekend... didn't mean
31:21
Speaker 1: he actually was. There were multiple flights from Maryland back
31:25
Speaker 1: to Tucson that in theory he could have secretly taken
31:28
Speaker 1: to come home, kill his wife, and then go back
31:31
Speaker 1: to work in time for his next shift. So Faust
31:33
Speaker 1: had compiled a list of every single flight Robert could
31:36
Speaker 1: have theoretically taken, and one by one he was calling
31:39
Speaker 1: the airlines to check the passenger manifests. And so far
31:43
Speaker 1: there hadn't been a Robert Sanborn on any of the
31:45
Speaker 1: flights he had checked, and now he'd made it to
31:47
Speaker 1: the very last flight on that list. And just then,
31:50
Speaker 1: the on-hold music suddenly cut out, and the woman on
31:53
Speaker 1: the line told Faust that she had triple-checked, and there
31:56
Speaker 1: was no Robert Sanborn on that flight either, the one
31:59
Speaker 1: from Maryland to Tucson.
32:00
Speaker 2: And he thanked her, hung up, and sighed.
32:03
Speaker 1: Now, keep in mind, this took place before the events
32:06
Speaker 1: that happened on 9-11. Since 9-11, air travel has been
32:11
Speaker 1: much more rigidly controlled, especially in the United States. I mean,
32:14
Speaker 1: security is so, so much higher. But pre-911, that really
32:18
Speaker 1: wasn't the case. I mean, people didn't even necessarily have
32:21
Speaker 1: to show their ID to get on a domestic flight.
32:24
Speaker 1: And so Faust knew right now, even though he's being
32:27
Speaker 1: told that Robert's name didn't show up on the manifest
32:30
Speaker 1: of any of these flights, it didn't really rule him
32:33
Speaker 1: out because he could have theoretically been traveling under a
32:36
Speaker 1: fake name. But there was a next step that would
32:39
Speaker 1: show if Robert had something to do with this, and
32:41
Speaker 1: that would be to ask Robert for a DNA sample.
32:44
Speaker 1: and hope that when the evidence came back from the lab,
32:47
Speaker 1: it would be conclusive enough to give a clear answer.
33:00
Speaker 1: One morning in early January of 1996, so about a
33:04
Speaker 1: month after Bonnie was murdered, Faust answered his office phone
33:08
Speaker 1: and he heard a tech from the crime lab on
33:09
Speaker 1: the other end. In the past few weeks, there had
33:12
Speaker 1: been five more murders in the Tucson area that Faust
33:16
Speaker 1: and his team were now dealing with. So when the
33:18
Speaker 1: lab tech said he had results in the Bonnie Sanborn case,
33:21
Speaker 1: it actually took Faust a few seconds to remember which
33:24
Speaker 1: murder that was for. But once he remembered, he quickly
33:27
Speaker 1: sat down at his desk and he grabbed a pen
33:29
Speaker 1: to take notes. And he held his breath as the
33:31
Speaker 1: lab tech told him that they had tested the sample
33:34
Speaker 1: found on Bonnie's leg, and it was not a match
33:37
Speaker 1: for her husband Robert or nor was it a match
33:40
Speaker 1: for her son's friend, Jason Horbachevsky. Those brown buttons on
33:44
Speaker 1: Jason's shirt also didn't come back as matching the button
33:47
Speaker 1: that was found in Bonnie's bedroom, so it really was
33:49
Speaker 1: just a coincidence that they looked alike to the naked eye.
33:52
Speaker 1: Faust was disappointed, but he knew this was going to
33:55
Speaker 1: be a possibility, and he had a backup plan. He
33:58
Speaker 1: asked the lab tech to run the DNA sample against
34:01
Speaker 1: the DNA of every sex offender on the state registry
34:04
Speaker 1: to see if there was a match there.
34:05
Speaker 2: But as the crime lab.
34:07
Speaker 1: Slowly began doing that, they kept calling Faust to update
34:10
Speaker 1: him that they had not found a match yet. And eventually,
34:14
Speaker 1: the search for a DNA match ultimately just stalled, and
34:17
Speaker 1: Faust was pulled onto other cases. And so by that summer,
34:21
Speaker 1: it was looking like Bonnie's murder case might go cold. Then,
34:25
Speaker 1: after nine months without any progress, an anonymous tip came in.
34:30
Speaker 1: That summer, in September of 1996, Detective Faust sat inside
34:35
Speaker 1: of an interrogation room at the Sheriff's Department across from
34:38
Speaker 1: a 40-year-old drug dealer named Lyle Winstead. The anonymous tipster
34:42
Speaker 1: had said that Lyle had sold drugs to several people
34:46
Speaker 1: in Bonnie's neighborhood, and he'd said some things about the
34:48
Speaker 1: case that the tipster thought were very concerning. And when
34:51
Speaker 1: Faust had dug through Lyle's records, he'd found that Lyle
34:55
Speaker 1: had a history of violent crimes involving knives. Sitting inside
34:59
Speaker 1: the interrogation room, Lyle seemed obviously nervous and very jumpy.
35:04
Speaker 1: And when Faust started asking him questions about Bonnie's murder,
35:07
Speaker 1: Lyle made excuses for the killer, saying that maybe the
35:11
Speaker 1: killer wasn't such a bad guy.
35:12
Speaker 2: Maybe he was just, quote, on a bad trip.
35:15
Speaker 1: Now, Faust thought this was incredibly suspicious to be talking
35:18
Speaker 1: that way. So he asked Lyle for a DNA sample.
35:21
Speaker 1: And he got one, and he sent it off to
35:23
Speaker 1: the crime lab. And Faust had to wait several weeks.
35:26
Speaker 2: For the results.
35:27
Speaker 1: When they finally came in, Lyle Winstead was not a match.
35:32
Speaker 1: And at that point, Faust was feeling really frustrated. I mean,
35:36
Speaker 1: they'd already put in so much work with really nothing
35:38
Speaker 1: to show for it, and he didn't want the momentum
35:41
Speaker 1: on the case to die again. So before he put
35:43
Speaker 1: Bonnie's file back on the shelf, he decided to go
35:46
Speaker 1: back to square one and make sure there wasn't anything
35:49
Speaker 1: he just plain missed. The next month, between all the
35:53
Speaker 1: other cases he was working on, Faust found time to
35:56
Speaker 1: go literally door to door through Bonnie's neighborhood and re-interview
36:00
Speaker 1: everybody his team had already spoken to almost a year ago.
36:03
Speaker 1: Faust knew how gossip spread in quiet communities like this one,
36:07
Speaker 1: and even though nobody had been able to offer any
36:09
Speaker 1: leads the first time around, he wondered if maybe anything
36:12
Speaker 1: unusual might have surfaced since then. So he knocked on
36:16
Speaker 1: one door after another, and eventually, at a house down
36:20
Speaker 1: the street, a woman told him, that she didn't know
36:23
Speaker 1: anything personally, but there was a rumor circulating around the
36:26
Speaker 1: neighborhood that he might want to look into.
36:29
Speaker 3: So Faust did.
36:30
Speaker 1: And after so many frustrating dead ends to this point,
36:34
Speaker 1: it was ultimately this rumor that did allow him to
36:38
Speaker 1: solve the case. Based on that rumor, and also DNA
36:46
Speaker 1: and other evidence that was later uncovered, this is what
36:49
Speaker 1: police believe happened to Bonnie Sanborn on December 9th 1995.
37:00
Speaker 2: Around 2.30 in.
37:01
Speaker 1: The morning, Bonnie's killer watched her house from a hiding
37:04
Speaker 1: spot where nobody could see them. The killer knew the
37:07
Speaker 1: Sanborns had been trying to move to Maryland, but the
37:10
Speaker 1: killer felt like before they did go to Maryland, if
37:13
Speaker 1: they did that, there was something the killer had to do.
37:17
Speaker 1: Around 3 a.m., as the killer was watching the house,
37:19
Speaker 1: they saw the light in Bonnie's living room finally go dark.
37:23
Speaker 1: And then the killer saw some movement behind the curtains
37:25
Speaker 1: in one of the bedroom windows. And then that lamp
37:27
Speaker 1: went out, leaving the entire house completely dark. The killer
37:31
Speaker 1: had intentionally waited for this moment. They wanted to make
37:34
Speaker 1: sure that not just Bonnie, but her children were asleep
37:38
Speaker 1: by the time they went inside. And so now that
37:41
Speaker 1: the lights were off and that it seemed like the
37:43
Speaker 1: coast was clear, the killer grabbed their flex ties... and
37:47
Speaker 1: also their chipping hammer, and then began making their way
37:50
Speaker 1: towards the home. A chipping hammer is a very particular
37:53
Speaker 1: type of hammer that has a sort of typical one
37:56
Speaker 1: side that you would use to strike something, but the
37:58
Speaker 1: back of that hammer is sharp, almost like a pickaxe.
38:02
Speaker 1: And so with this barbaric tool they were about to
38:05
Speaker 1: use in hand, they slowly crept their way across Bonnie's
38:08
Speaker 1: backyard right up to the sliding glass door at the
38:11
Speaker 1: back of the house, and they found it was unlocked,
38:14
Speaker 1: just like they thought it would be. After all, they'd
38:16
Speaker 1: been to this house before. They sort of understood this
38:18
Speaker 1: one typically stayed unlocked. And they also knew what was
38:21
Speaker 1: on the other side of this door. It was Bonnie's bedroom.
38:24
Speaker 1: After sliding open the door, the killer stepped in and
38:28
Speaker 1: they found Bonnie asleep under the covers in her bed.
38:31
Speaker 1: And so thinking here was their chance, the killer began
38:34
Speaker 1: moving towards the bed. But as they stepped closer, a
38:37
Speaker 1: floorboard creaked.
38:39
Speaker 2: Bonnie stirred awake and she rolled.
38:42
Speaker 1: Over and looked in the direction of the creaking sound
38:45
Speaker 1: and made eye contact with the killer and the killer
38:48
Speaker 1: knew they.
38:49
Speaker 2: Had to strike.
38:50
Speaker 1: Bonnie tried to fight back, but it was no use.
38:52
Speaker 1: The killer completely overpowered her. Once Bonnie stopped struggling, but
38:58
Speaker 1: before she stopped breathing. the killer used those flex ties
39:02
Speaker 1: to bind her hands behind her back. Then, as she
39:05
Speaker 1: was laying there, unable to defend herself, they searched around
39:08
Speaker 1: for her purse, and when they found it, they dumped
39:10
Speaker 1: it out on the bed, and after they had emptied it,
39:12
Speaker 1: they found.
39:12
Speaker 2: Her car keys.
39:13
Speaker 1: And so they grabbed the keys, and then the killer
39:15
Speaker 1: picked up Bonnie, still very much alive, and they carried
39:19
Speaker 1: her out that sliding door into the backyard, and then
39:22
Speaker 1: out into the garage. There, they used her car keys
39:25
Speaker 1: to unlock Bonnie's car, the blue Chrysler, and they put
39:28
Speaker 1: Bonnie in the back seat. Then, they hopped in the
39:30
Speaker 1: driver's seat and they drove the car out into the
39:33
Speaker 1: desert where they parked on the side of the road.
39:35
Speaker 1: When the killer was done with Bonnie, they simply got
39:38
Speaker 1: out of the car and left it where it was
39:40
Speaker 1: and walked back into town. And as the sun began
39:43
Speaker 1: to rise, the killer wandered right back down Bonnie's street
39:47
Speaker 1: in the direction of the Sanborn house. It would turn
39:50
Speaker 1: out Detective Faust had been so focused on finding the
39:54
Speaker 1: killer amongst Bonnie's immediate family and friends that he really
39:58
Speaker 1: hadn't even considered somebody else who was literally physically closest
40:03
Speaker 1: to the Sanborns, her across-the-street neighbor.
40:07
Speaker 2: 22-year-old Freddie Roival.
40:10
Speaker 1: Now, Freddie was not actually, you know, emotionally close with
40:13
Speaker 1: the Sanborns, but he and his dad had in the
40:16
Speaker 1: past gone out of their way to help Bonnie.
40:18
Speaker 3: You know, by doing some repair work at her house.
40:21
Speaker 1: But what Faust had learned when he had gone back
40:24
Speaker 1: and re-interviewed all the people on the street to see
40:26
Speaker 1: if he had missed something, one of the other neighbors
40:29
Speaker 1: who was not remotely involved in what happened to Bonnie
40:32
Speaker 1: told Faust that there was actually a rumor that Freddie
40:36
Speaker 1: had found Bonnie attractive. And there was also another rumor
40:39
Speaker 1: floating around that Faust learned that previously a woman had
40:43
Speaker 1: been assaulted by a younger man in this neighborhood and
40:46
Speaker 1: that maybe it was Freddie. Now, it's unknown if Freddie
40:50
Speaker 1: actually was the subject of that second rumor, but it
40:54
Speaker 1: was enough for Faust and the police to go collect
40:57
Speaker 1: DNA samples from every young man on the block.
41:00
Speaker 2: And wouldn't you know it, Freddie's DNA.
41:02
Speaker 3: Came back as a match.
41:04
Speaker 1: Freddie Royville was arrested in January of 1997, a little
41:08
Speaker 1: over a year after Bonnie's murder. He was convicted of
41:10
Speaker 1: first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison.
41:22
Speaker 2: Thank you so much for watching. Let me know what
41:24
Speaker 2: you thought of today's episode in the comments.
41:27
Speaker 1: And remember, we have a whole playlist of true crime
41:29
Speaker 1: episodes ready for you to binge right now.
41:32
Speaker 2: So click here and give them a watch. All right,
41:35
Speaker 2: until next time, see ya.