Latest / Crime and Horror / Cali beachfront restaurant held the key to her murder - MrBallen

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Cali beachfront restaurant held the key to her murder - MrBallen · Crime and Horror

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: On June twentieth, two thousand and four, a restaurant manager
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: stood at the host stand of a seafood spot in
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Orange County, California. It was the dinner rush and he
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: was on takeout duty, so when a fairly frantic customer
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: came in asking about there to go order, the manager
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: quickly hurried off to grab it.
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: He found the order and he carried it.
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: Back, and as he rang this customer up, he could
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: tell this customer was in a huge hurry. They kept
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: looking over their shoulder and tapping their fingers on the counter,
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: and after everything was done, the customer basically took the food.
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: And literally ran out.
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: Now the manager definitely thought this customer was acting really strange.
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: He had never seen.
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: Anybody sprint out of the restaurant before. But quickly he
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: got distracted with another order and kind of forgot about
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: the whole thing. That is until a few days later
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: when police showed up asking the manager to tell them
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: everything they could remember about that strange customer. But before
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: we get into today's story, if you're a fan of
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: the strange, dark and mysterious delivered in story format, then
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: you come to the right place place, because that's all
• 1:01
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  Speaker 1: next time the like button has a blinding headache, offer
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• 1:20
  Speaker 1: Okay, let's get into today's story. On Monday, June twenty first,
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: two thousand and four, seventy two year old Jane Thompson
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: drove her car down a road through the city of
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: Laguna Nogel, California.
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: She was on her way home from.
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: A weekend trip through Los Angeles, which was about fifty
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: miles north of Laguna Nogel.
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: And because La was.
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: So chaotic and full of activity and constant stimulation, Jane
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: actually really appreciated this commute back home, you know, this
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: fifty mile drive. It was a time to be by
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: herself and sort of decompress from being in the city.
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: So Jane used to live in Los Angeles, where she
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: had worked for decades in the film industry, but she
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: had retired and moved to Laguna Neguel seven years earlier,
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: and this move had been like a total lifestyle change
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: for Jane because her career in LA had been fast
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: paced and exciting. You know, she'd been an assistant to
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: some really important people in Hollywood, and then also she
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: was an award winning producer and then a decorator for
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: various Hollywood celebrities. I mean, it was sort of very
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: glamorous what she was doing. So even though Jane was
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: generally a pretty quiet person who appreciated her alone time
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: like driving in the car right now, it still had
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: actually been really hard to completely transition to the slow
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: pace of life outside the glitz and glamour of Hollywood,
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: especially because her girlfriend, Marian Reese still lived in LA
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: Jane had known Marian for decades at this point. They'd
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: started out as coworkers because Marian owned a production company
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: and Jane had produced a lot of projects for her. Then,
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: at some point years ago, their relationship turned from a
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: working friendship into a full blown romance, and they'd been
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: involved ever since. And even though now they lived over
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: an hour's drive apart, they still spent a lot of
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: time together. Jane was actually going back to LA again
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: on Friday because they had tickets to the opera and
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: then also Marian was going to be joining Jane on
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: a cruise to Europe the following week. But for right now,
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: Jane just kind of looked out her window as she
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: drove by a cluster of houses, and she noticed outside
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: one of those houses she saw her friend Mary Larkin
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: gardening in her front yard. Jane had known Mary for years,
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: and she was really Jane's closest friend in town. They'd
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: spent countless nights talking and drinking wine together, sometimes with
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: Mary's other next door neighbor, Karen, who had also become
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: a close friend. So naturally, Jane slowed down in her
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: car and she rolled down her window and she called
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: out to Mary to say hello and to remind her
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: that they were due for a wine night sometime soon,
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: you know, before she left for her cruise. And Mary,
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: after hearing this, you know, nodded enthusiastically and said she
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: would for sure give Jane a call after that. The
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: two women said their goodbyes, and then Jane kept on driving,
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: and a few minutes later, Jane saw her condo complex's
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: entrance up ahead, and so she threw on her blinker
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: and turned in, and pretty soon she was surrounded by
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: mostly identical units with orange tiled roofs that were all
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: packed really close together.
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: But Jane loved her neighborhood.
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: It was on this quiet hillside and less than four
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: miles from the ocean, and she just felt completely comfortable there.
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: It was the kind of place where people left their
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: doors unlocked, and everybody seemed so warm and welcoming. And
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: this meant a lot to Jane because she didn't have
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: any kids or living relatives. She was kind of on
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: her own, so it was nice to feel like her
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: neighbors were all looking out for her. As Jane pulled
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: her car into the garage and got out, she looked
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: across the street and saw her teenage neighbor, Sam Nelson,
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: playing basketball in his driveway. Jane tried get his attention
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: and waved to him just to say hi, But when
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: he looked over and saw her doing that, he kind
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: of put his head down and quickly rushed inside his home.
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: And Jane, you know, she understood why. Clearly he was embarrassed.
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: So Sam was kind of a troubled kid. He had
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: actually broken into Jane's house just this past Friday while
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: she was out, and he took some of her jewelry,
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: but he wasn't as clever as he thought he was,
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: and Jane had quickly figured out it was him, So
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: before leaving for her recent La trip, she had confronted
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: him about it and told him to never do it.
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: Again, and he was obviously mortified.
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: But she had also told Sam that, you know, she
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: was not going to call the police here. After all,
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: Sam was fifteen years old and he had just made
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: a really dumb mistake. And in Jane's mind, you know,
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: Sam was a part of her beloved community, and so
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: even though he had done something bad to her, she
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: still wanted to look out for him. Plus, really he
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: hadn't taken anything that was particularly valuable or anything she
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: really cared about, so she felt like she was.
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: Just giving him a second chance and this was no
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: big deal. Now.
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: Sam was obviously very appreciative at the time after realizing
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: he was not going to get in any real trouble here,
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: but it was also clear now that he really didn't
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: want anything to do with Jane. I mean, he was
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: just embarrassed at the sight of her waving to him.
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: But you know, for Jane, she figured maybe that was
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: just as well. And so after seeing Sam disappear into
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: his house. Jane just shrugged, turned around and headed inside
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: her own house. Jane spent the next few days doing
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: things around town, volunteering at the library and taking walks
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: with her weekly walking group, and before she knew it,
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: it was almost time to head back to La on
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: Thursday evening June twenty fourth, So the night before she
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: was set to go to La, Jane stood in her
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: kitchen making some pasta and thinking about what outfit she
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: was going to wear for the opera in La the
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: next night. And then after she cooked and ate her dinner,
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: she laid on the couch to watch some TV. Now
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: she had planned only watch a little bit and then
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: get some packing done, but pretty quickly she felt her
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: eyelids get heavy, and soon she was fast at sleep.
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: Three days later, on Sunday afternoon, Jane's friend and neighbor,
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: Mary Larkin, the woman she had seen when she was
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: driving home from La, drove up to Jane's house with
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: their other friend, Karen Hamara, and they jumped right out
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: of the car.
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: Mary had an.
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: Undeniable knot in her stomach, which had only been getting
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: tighter by the minute ever since Jane's girlfriend, Mary and
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: Reese had called earlier to say that Jane had never
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: showed up in la for their trip to the opera
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: and now she was not answering her phone. And when
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: she heard this, Mary immediately became very worried, because, you know,
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: Jane just didn't flake on people without calling, and so
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: given Jane's age, it seemed entirely possible that maybe she
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: had an accident or medical emergency at home and needed help.
• 7:48
  Speaker 2: And that's why nobody could get in touch with her.
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: So after she herself tried calling Jane a few times
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: but with no luck, Mary had gone over to her
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: neighbor Karen's house and asked her if she would come
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: with her to go to Jane's just to make sure
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: Jane was okay. And on their drive over, Mary had
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: convinced herself, despite that feeling in her gut, that you know,
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: everything would be okay. But now as she went up
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: Jane's driveway, she could see there were a few newspapers
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: piled up at the end of it, which made her
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: even more anxious that something was wrong here, and so
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: Mary hurried right up the driveway, went to the front
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: door and began knocking. But as she and Karen stood there.
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: You know, they couldn't hear anything inside the house. Nobody
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: was coming to the door, and so finally they left
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: the porch and went around to the back of Jane's
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: house to try her back door. And when the two
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: women got into Jane's backyard, Mary froze because she could
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: see the sliding glass door that led into Jane's living
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: room was clearly wide open, and so Mary and Karen,
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: from right there in the yard just began yelling through
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: the open door for Jane, but there was no answer. Eventually,
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: Karen began to walk towards the open door like she
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: was going to go inside, but Mary instinctively grabbed her
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: and just said, don't you know. She was shaking and
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: could barely think straight. But Mary felt like they just
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: should not go in there, that it was not safe,
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: and so instead the two women ultimately backed away and
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: went to go call the police. A few minutes later,
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: Mary and Karen stood out on the street in front
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: of Jane's house watching as a police cruiser pulled up.
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: The women immediately went over to the two deputies that
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: got out, and they tried to explain the situation, you know,
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: that their friend was not responding to phone.
• 9:24
  Speaker 2: Calls, and that their back door was wide.
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: Open, which just seemed really strange, and nobody knows what's
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: going on. And so the officers asked Mary and Karen
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: to take them to the back of the house where
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: this open door was, and so they walked around the
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: sideyard they went back there, and when they got there,
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: Mary watched as one of the officers just walked up
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: to the open door and stuck his head inside and
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: began to look around. And as soon as he did that,
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: Mary could see his body began to tense up like
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: he had seen something inside. Mary blurted out, like, hey,
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: what's going on, what's wrong? But the officer looking in
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: the home, he didn't respond. Instead, he turned to his
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: partner and told him to secure the scene and call
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: for backup. There was someone inside and he could already
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: tell they were deceased.
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  Speaker 1: Just about an hour later, at around six pm on
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: June twenty seventh, two thousand and four, detective Daniel Salsado
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: stopped his cruiser in front of a condo in Laguna Neguel, California.
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: Dispatch hadn't told him much, just that an older woman
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: had been found dead in her condo. When Salsado got
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: out of his car, he could see that there was
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: police tape all over the condo's front door and the driveway,
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: and just inside the perimeter there was an officer speaking
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: to two women who were crying and seemed.
• 11:47
  Speaker 2: Very visibly upset.
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: Dozens of other officers and crime scene technicians were also
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: scattered around the area collecting evidence, and one deputy saw
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: Salsado and hurried over.
• 11:58
  Speaker 2: To give him an update.
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: So the deceased women had been identified as the owner
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: of the condo, seventy two year old Jane Thompson, and
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: at first glance it very much appeared like she had
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: been attacked. She had been murdered her two friends. The
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: two women who were very upset talking to police had
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: called the police for a wellness check, and the officers
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: who responded had found Jane lying in the living room.
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: They'd been able to get through her sliding back door
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: because the door was already open. Salsato glanced back over
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: at the two women in the driveway who were still
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: talking to the police, and Salsato told the deputy to
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: make sure they stuck around, because after he took a
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: look inside he wanted to speak to them as well,
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: as the deputy hurried off to do what he was told.
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: Salsato walked around to the back of the house, and
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: when he got there, he saw that not only was
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: the sliding door open, but there really weren't any signs
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: of forced entry around it, which could mean that it
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: had been left unlocked, or that maybe Jane knew her
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: attacker and let them in. And so Salsato stepped inside
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: the condo and right away he saw there were all
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: these technicians all all over the place working hard to
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: gather evidence and process the scene.
• 13:03
  Speaker 2: And also what he saw was blood spatter all over
• 13:06
  Speaker 2: the walls and all over the furniture.
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: And then when he looked down at the floor, he
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: saw Jane's body. She was lying face down between her
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: couch and coffee table, with a large pool of blood
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: around her head. Salsato crouched down next to her to
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: get a better look, and he saw her wounds were
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: just brutal. Her head had been so badly pulverized that
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: Salsato could not only see her skull the actual bone,
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: but he could actually see the breaks in her skull.
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: Her skull was shattered now Salsato would have to wait
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: for the autopsy to be sure, but to Salsato, it
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: was very clear that somebody must have beaten this woman
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: with some kind of heavy object, over and over and
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: over again.
• 13:46
  Speaker 2: A couple of minutes.
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: Later, Salsato stood back up. Based on the extent of
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: Jane's wounds, it seemed pretty obvious to him that this
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: was a frenzied, rage filled attack and that it likely
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: had happened really quickly, or maybe, you know, the attack
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: happened in such a way that Jane was completely caught
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: off guard, because aside from the awful trauma to Jane's head,
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: Jane didn't appear to have really any other wounds, so
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: it didn't seem like she tried to fight back or
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: defend herself, and aside from the blood spatter, the room
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: around her didn't show any signs.
• 14:18
  Speaker 2: Of a struggle.
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: It's like she just got destroyed right here, and blood
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: went everywhere. Salsato left Jane's body and searched the rest
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: of her condo. He went in her bedroom, searched her closets,
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: went in the office, went in her kitchen, but there
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: were no signs of anybody ransacking the condo. There was
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: no obvious theft that had taken place, at least at
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: first glance. You know, there were expensive electronics that were
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: still out and not claimed, So to Salsato, at least
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: right now, he was pretty sure this was not a
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: robbery gone wrong. As he wrapped up his initial walkthrough
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: of the condo, an officer called Salsado back into the kitchen,
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: and when Salsato went over, he saw the officer was
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: standing by the landline's answering machine. The officer told Salsado
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: there were a bunch of new messages on there, and
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: they started the morning of Friday, June twenty fifth. Now
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: Salsato was very excited to hear that because that gave
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: them something of a timeline to work off of, because
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: if Jane had stopped answering her phone by Friday morning,
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: then that means she could have died maybe overnight on
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: that Thursday, the twenty fourth, or maybe even in the
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: morning before that first message came through on the twenty fifth,
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: at least that would be the latest she could have
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: died based on the message. So Salsato told the officer
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: to be sure to log the tape into evidence. Then
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: Salsato went back to the living room where Jane's body
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: was and all the texts were, and he just stood
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: there with his arms crossed, thinking about, you know, what's
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: he going to do next? Considering the attack had all
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: the signs of being highly emotional, Salsato felt confident that
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: Jane's killer was someone who knew her and was deeply
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: angry with her. So the first people he wanted to
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: speak to were those that Jane was closest to, like family,
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: friends or maybe even romantic partners. Jane appeared to live,
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: so he hoped other people in the neighborhood, or maybe
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: those two women who called the police, could tell him
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: more about Jane's personal life, her relationships and give him
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: a place to start. So Salsato grabbed a few officers
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: and they headed outside to begin asking some questions. When
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: he got outside, Salsato could see there was now an
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: audience of people, you know, a crowd of you know who,
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: Salsato assumed were residents of this complex that were gathered
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: at the edge of the police perimeter, And Salsato understood
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: why brutal homicides like this one rarely happened in this area,
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: If ever, there was probably going to be a lot
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: of panic and rumors in this community because of it,
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: and based on the literal layout of this complex, the
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: fact that all these condos are basically on top of
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: each other, he knew that, you know, those rumors would
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: likely spread really quickly. But also, you know, the fact
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: these condos were tightly packed together gave Salsato an advantage.
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: You know, very likely, because people are living on top
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: of each other, somebody might have heard or seen something
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: that could help break this case wide open. Just then,
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: another police cruiser pulled up in front of the house
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: and a detective named Brian Sutton stepped out of the car,
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: and when Salsato saw who it was, he immediately felt relieved.
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: Salsato worked extremely well with Detective Sutton, and interviews were
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: sort of like their specialty. As a duo, they had
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: an instinct for asking the right questions that got people talking.
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: So Salsato hurried over to Sutton and quickly told him
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: everything he'd learned so far, and once Sutton was up
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: to speed, they went right over to the two women
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: who had called nine to one one. Salsato was eager
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: to interview them as witnesses, but he also was not
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: ruling out the idea that they could also be suspects.
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: He was sure this had to be a personal crime,
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: and they clearly had some kind of relationship with Jane
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: since they'd come over to check on her. When Salsato
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: reached the women, he could tell they had calmed down
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: quite a bit from when he had first seen them
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: when he first arrived, and the.
• 17:57
  Speaker 2: Women, you know, they were composed enough.
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: To tell him their names, Mary and Karen. They then
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: explained that they were good friends with Jane and they'd
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: come over to check on her because recently, Mary had
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: gotten a call from Jane's girlfriend, Marian Reese, who lived
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: in LA and Marian had been worried because Jane had
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: not shown up in La for plans they had, and
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: so she was trying to find out where she was
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: was she okay, and so Mary and Karen had gone
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: to see if she was okay. This made Salsado immediately
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: perk up, and he asked Mary for Marian's information. As
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: he jotted down Marian's phone number, Sutton asked the two
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: women where they were on the night of the twenty
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: fourth or early morning of the twenty fifth, So that
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: was two nights ago and then also yesterday morning, and
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: both of them said they had alibis. Now the detectives
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: would have to confirm their alibis, because anybody can make
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: up an alibi, But for right now, Salsada was comfortable
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: ruling Mary and Karen out as suspects. They both seemed
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: genuinely stunned by Jane's murder, and while it did seem
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: like they were good friends with Jane, he wasn't sure
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: they had the kind of intense closeness that might have.
• 19:02
  Speaker 2: Led to such a vicious attack.
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: So he told the two women they could go home,
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: and then Salsato nodded to Sutton, and the two of
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: them left the women and headed towards the crowd of
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: neighbors to ask some more questions. The next morning, Monday,
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: June twenty eighth, and Salsado was behind the wheel of
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: his cruiser with Sutton in the passenger seat. They were
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: almost at the end of their long drive up to
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: Los Angeles to interview Jane's girlfriend, Marian Reese.
• 19:31
  Speaker 2: Salsato was eager to get her.
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: Statement because right now they didn't have that many other leads.
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: The forensics team hadn't found any DNA or fingerprints at
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: the scene to test against future suspects, and the canvas
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: of Jane's condo complex the night before really hadn't yielded
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: much either. They'd learned that no one had seen Jane
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: since Thursday, which backed up the timeline they'd already gotten
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: from the answering machine, but none of the neighbors heard
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: or saw anything strange on that Thursday night, and according
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: to her neighbors, Jane did not have any obvious tension
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: with anybody in the community. She generally kept herself but
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: was really well liked by everyone who met her. But Salsato,
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: you know, again, from what he had just seen at
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: the crime scene, felt sure that someone out there.
• 20:17
  Speaker 2: Had to have had a problem with Jane.
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: He'd seen the autopsy that morning, and it confirmed that Jane,
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: unsurprisingly had died from the wounds to her head, but
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: it also told him something else. She'd been hit more
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: than a dozen times. It was complete overkill, and to
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: Salsato it meant the killer had to have been driven
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: by some kind of intense emotion like rage or maybe greed,
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: which was why they were now making this drive out
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: to La to speak with Marian, who Salsato felt, you know,
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: based on her relationship to Jane, she was the strongest
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: suspect they had, because romance can make you do crazy things. Also,
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: Salsato had done some digging into Jane's finances the night before,
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: and he found out she had a life insurance policy
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: worth one thousand dollars and Marian Reese was the sole beneficiary,
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: which meant Marian definitely had something to gain financially, at
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: least from Jane's death. So as they pulled up to
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: Marian's house, Salsata was thinking, you know, maybe maybe we
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: found our killer. A few minutes later, the detective sat
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: on a couch in Marian Reese's living room. The home
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: was on the small side, even by LA standards, but
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: it was very tastefully decorated. Marian sat down across from
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: them in an armchair, and when they looked at her,
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: they could see her eyes were very red and puffy,
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: like she'd been crying.
• 21:33
  Speaker 2: She also had a glass of water in her.
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: Hand that she kept lifting up like she was gonna
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: take a sip, but then she would just place it
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: back down again without taking a sip.
• 21:41
  Speaker 2: It was like she didn't know what she was doing.
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: Marian had clearly already heard about Jane's death, and to Salsado,
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: she really was showing every sign of genuinely being in shock.
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: So he wanted to be very careful with his line
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: of questions and make sure, you know, he didn't overwhelm her.
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: If she just shut down, he might not get the
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: information that he really needed. So after a minute, Salsato
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: began by just asking Marian how she knew Jane and Marian.
• 22:07
  Speaker 2: She took a deep breath.
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: And then with a very shaky voice, she explained that
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: they had known each other for almost fifty years.
• 22:13
  Speaker 2: They used to work together.
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: Jane had done a lot of producing for Marian's production company.
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: As Marian went on to describe more about how they
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: met each other and how it kind of transitioned from
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: working together to know romance, Salsato could sense that Marian
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: was kind of calming down, and she was calming down
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: to the point where he felt like now he could
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: introduce the tough stuff, So he turned and he nodded
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: to Sutton, and at that point, Sutton asked Marian if
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: she knew that Jane had named her Marian as the
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: sole beneficiary on her life insurance policy, and Marian immediately
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: gasped and she said she had no idea Jane had
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: done that, but she also said it did sort of
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: make sense. She said that Jane really didn't have any family,
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: and in some ways Marian was her family, or at
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: least was her closest real life relationship. Now, Salsato felt
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: like Marian's reaction to this was very earnest, but he
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: couldn't be sure, so he pressed her some more, and
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: he asked her where she was last Thursday night, when
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: presumably Jane was killed. But Marian just said she was
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: with friends all night in la and she gave Salsato
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: all the phone numbers of these friends so he and
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: his partner could confirm it.
• 23:21
  Speaker 2: They talked for a.
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: While longer as Marian went over the details of how
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: Jane missed their opera date on Friday and then stopped
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: returning her calls, and it all lined up with what
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: Jane's friend Mary had told them, so eventually Salsato and
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: Sutton stood up to leave. Over an hour later, Detective
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: Salsado and Sutton were back in Laguna Miguel, California, and
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: they parked their cruiser in front of Jane's condo. On
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: their drive back from Marion's house in La, the detectives
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: had called some of Marion's friends to confirm from her alibi,
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: and they all confirmed that on the night Jane was killed,
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: they were with her and she was in La And
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: so now Salcedo had to admit that Marian was looking
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: less and less like a suspect. So now the detectives
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: were back at Jane's condo to look into another working
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: theory about what might have happened here.
• 24:18
  Speaker 2: Maybe Jane's murder was a hate crime.
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: So remember this was back in two thousand and four
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: when being a homosexual was just not as widely accepted
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: as it is today. And so their theory was, you know,
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: maybe one of Jane's neighbors had seen Marian Jane's girlfriend visiting,
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: or maybe heard about their relationship, and they didn't like it,
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: and so they lashed out. And then also strengthening the
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: idea that, you know, one of the neighbors could have
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: done this was the fact that it was sort of
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: common knowledge in this neighborhood that most people left their
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: doors unlocked, and so it sort of strengthened the idea
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: that maybe a neighbor did this, you know, maybe because
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: of their hate towards Jane.
• 24:57
  Speaker 2: And her way of life.
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: However, Sutton and Salsado knew that actually investigating this theory
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: was going to be extremely challenging. There were one hundred
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: and forty four houses in the complex, and so conducting
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: a thorough investigation of every resident of all those houses
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: was just going to.
• 25:14
  Speaker 2: Take a lot of time.
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: But they didn't have any other options, So the detectives
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: got to work, and they went to the first house
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: next to Jane's and knocked. A few hours later, Salsato
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: and Sutton returned to the Orange County Sheriff's department. They
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: had spent most of the afternoon talking to people who
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: lived in Jane's condo complex, and while they hadn't talked
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: to everyone, they already had to admit that their hate
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: crime theory was looking sort of like a wash. Most
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: people didn't even know Jane was in a relationship at all,
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: since her girlfriend, Marian lived in a different city, so
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: they didn't see her. And also, there was just nothing
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: anybody in the neighborhood said that made the detectives think
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: that Jane was being targeted really for any reason. But
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: a few people had mentioned that recently there had been
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: some burglaries the complex, which was completely unheard of in
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: a place like Laguna Neguel. Still, there was a huge
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: difference between somebody breaking in and stealing some stuff and
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: breaking in and.
• 26:11
  Speaker 2: Bludgeoning someone to death.
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: But it was a lead, and that's what Salsada was
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: thinking about as he and Sutton walked.
• 26:17
  Speaker 2: Towards their desks.
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: But before they got there, Salsato had this epiphany and
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: he just stopped in his tracks, and he turned to
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: Sutton and said, turn around.
• 26:25
  Speaker 2: We have to go back to the evidence room.
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: I think everything we need to solve this case might
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: be in the building with them right now. The following day,
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: Salsato and Sutton pulled up in front of a restaurant
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: called The Beach House. The previous afternoon, Salsato had suggested
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: that he and Sudden go back to the evidence room
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: and listen to Jane's Answering Machine tapes. Now, to be clear,
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: they had already listened to the tapes before, but none
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: of the messages had seemed particularly important. But now, based
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: on what they'd learned over the course of their investigation,
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: they realized that those messages actually told them a lot,
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: and so Salsato and Sutton had spent hours re listening
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: to the tapes and gathering even more evidence to confirm
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: what was on it. And even though they were pretty
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: sure all this evidence they were getting told them who
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: killed Jane, they still needed one more piece to fall
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: into place. Now they had a book of photos with them,
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: and they knew for a fact that one of these
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: photographs was of their killer, and they just needed somebody
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: in this restaurant to verify it. So as soon as
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: they got inside, they found the manager and explained why
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: they were there, and then they asked him, Hey, would
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: you mind looking at these photos to see if you
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: recognize anyone. The manager looked a bit alarmed, but he
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: ultimately agreed and said he would, So they went into
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: the back room. They opened up their book of photos
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: and the manager looked and pretty much immediately he pointed
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: to one picture, And when Salsato saw the person the
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: manager was pointing to, he knew they'd cracked the case.
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: Based on forensic evidence and also a confession. Here is
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: what investigators believe happened to Jane Thompson in the early
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: morning hours of June twenty fifth, two thousand and four.
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: The killer, clad in dark clothes and gloves and also
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: holding a hammer, stood in the darkness right outside of
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: Jane's backsliding glass doors. Now, the killer had already been
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: to Jane's house a few times that night, but each
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: time they had come earlier, they had ultimately chickened out
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: and left because when they would get there, they would
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: look in the back door and they would see Jane
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: asleep on the couch in front of the TV. But
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: that was a problem. They needed Jane to leave the
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: room and go to her bedroom to go sleep in there,
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: but she wasn't doing that. But this time, as they
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: stood outside the glass doors, they knew they had to
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: go in there or they would never get what they
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: wanted from Jane, even if she was right there on
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: the couch. So the killer took a deep breath and
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: then reached forward and tried to open the back door,
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: and it slid right open, just as they expected.
• 29:06
  Speaker 2: It was unlocked. Once it was open, the.
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: Killer very carefully, very quietly stepped inside and made their
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: way over to the couch where Jane was.
• 29:15
  Speaker 2: They wanted to check to.
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: Make sure Jane was still asleep, but as the killer
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: is hovering over Jane, looking down at her she's on
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: her back on the couch. The killer practically fainted when
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: Jane opened her eyes and looked right at them, and
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: the killer was so surprised and so scared that they
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: instinctively lifted up their hammer and brought it down on
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: Jane's head. And when the killer finally stopped and kind
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: of calmed down for a second, they just stared at
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: Jane's destroyed body in total shock. Then they backed away
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: and realized the hammer, the murder weapon, was dripping blood everywhere,
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: so they grabbed the head of the hammer with their
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: gloved hand to kind of stop it from dripping, and
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: then ran right back out the sliding door. The killer
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: hurried across cross the street outside, tossing the hammer into
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: the trash as they went. And when they finally got
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: to their home, they stripped off their clothes, bawled them up,
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: and then tried to decide where to hide them. And
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: as they thought about that, they looked out their bedroom
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: window at the house across the street where they'd just
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: killed the one person who had given them a second chance.
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: It would turn out Jane was murdered by a child,
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: her fifteen year old neighbor Sam Nelson. Sam had actually
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: broken into Jane's house more than once. He'd broken in
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: repeatedly and stolen a lot of things from her, including
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: her credit cards. That was what the phone messages had
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: been about. Jane's credit card company had called her back
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: after she had reported a series of fraudulent charges, and
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: one of those charges was at that restaurant that the
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: investigators visited with the photo lineup, and the manager when
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: he looked at the photos, recognized Sam because Sam had
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: been in there recently. The reason Sam was stealing from
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: Jane and also from other people in the neighborhood was
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: ultimately just because he was trying to keep up with
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: his appearance. He used these stolen credit cards and money
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: to buy food and items that would, in his mind,
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: impress his wealthy classmates. On the night of Jane's murder,
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: Sam did not go in there with the intention of
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: killing her. He went in there with the intention of
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: robbing her. But for whatever reason, when she opened her
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: eyes and saw him, he sort of panicked, hit her
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: once with a hammer, The blood went in his mouth,
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: his mind went blank, and then suddenly he's beating her
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: to death. Sam was arrested and eventually sentenced to twenty
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: five years to life in prison for Jane's murder and
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: also for multiple counts of burglary. His earliest eligible release
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: date is in twenty twenty seven. Thank you so much
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: for watching. Let me know what you thought of today's
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: episode in the comments. And remember, we have a whole
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: playlist of true crime episodes ready for you to binge
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: right now, so click here give them a watch.
• 32:01
  Speaker 2: All right, until next time, see ya,