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18-Year-Old Kills Girlfriend Over Snapchat Message · Murder Files Unsealed

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Imagine a person committing just a horrific crime and looking
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: at the immediate catastrophic result of their actions, and then
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: they just simply roll over and go to sleep.
• 0:09
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Today, we aren't just looking at a tragedy. We're
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: examining the terrifying capacity of the human brain to just
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: completely deny reality in real time, even when that reality
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: is lying lifeless on the floor just a few inches away.
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: Oh, yeah. It's truly chilling to look at.
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: It really is. So we are pulling our source material
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: today from a meticulously detailed YouTube documentary. It's by the
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: channel Beyond Evil, and it's titled 18-Year-Old Kills Girlfriend Over
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: Snapchat Message. And it covers a case from Myrtle Beach,
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: South Carolina. It was a high school graduation trip that
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: ended with an 18-year-old girl named Natalie Martin dead. And
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: her boyfriend, Blake Linkus, is right in the center of
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: just this unbelievable crime scene. Yeah. Yeah.
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: And, you know, the true crime elements of this case
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: are undeniably gripping. But our mission in this deep dive
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: is to deconstruct the psychology behind it.
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: We want to look at the anatomy of an escalation.
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: We really want to understand how toxic possessiveness and heavy
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: alcohol use and this profound, stubborn sense of denial all intersect.
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: It's a deadly combination. Exactly.
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: Exactly. And more than that, we're going to dissect the
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: actual interrogation footage to explore the mechanisms of guilt, like
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: how a person's ego desperately tries to protect itself when
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: they've done the unthinkable and what happens when those psychological
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: defenses just spectacularly fail.
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: OK, let's unpack this, because to comprehend how a teenager
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: can go to sleep next to the person he just murdered,
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: we have to rewind.
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: We do.
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: Yeah. We have to look at the environment and the
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: group dynamics and all those blaring warning signs that really
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: laid the tracks for this disaster. long before anyone even
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: arrived in South Carolina. So set the scene for us.
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: What was the dynamic of this trip?
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: Well, so we were looking at the first week of June,
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: which is peak season in Myrtle Beach.
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: Right. Super crowded.
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: Very crowded. And you have a group of eight kids
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: and none of them are over the age of 20.
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: And they've just driven like nine hours from Ohio. Yeah.
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: So they pile into this rental condo on Mason Drive.
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: And obviously the legal drinking age is 21. But the
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: source material notes they had cases of beer and hard
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: alcohol on hand.
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: Of course they did, yeah.
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: Right. So it's essentially this massive unsupervised party fueled by
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: that electric invincible energy of high school graduation.
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: Yeah, the invincibility complex.
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: Exactly. And within this group you have Blake Linkus and
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: Natalie Martin. They had been an on and off couple
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: for three years and they had actually recently gone to
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: prom together.
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: And from what I understand... Blake already carried some pretty
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: heavy baggage into this vacation, right? Like the group knew
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: him as a quote unquote bad drunk.
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's right.
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: Like when he drank, his personality shifted dramatically. He became
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: argumentative and violent and highly possessive of Natalie. And that
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: wasn't a secret they discovered on the trip. That was
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: his established reputation back home.
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: It was a completely known variable. And the tension was
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: palpable almost immediately upon their arrival in Myrtle Beach. Yeah.
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: By the second night in the condo, the situation had
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: deteriorated so rapidly that Natalie actually chose to sleep in
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: her car.
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: Wait, she slept in her car?
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: She did. She left this large master bedroom that she
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: was supposed to share with Blake. And she walked out
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: into the humid South Carolina night and slept in a
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: vehicle just to get away from his volatile behavior.
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: I mean, sleeping in your car on your graduation beach trip.
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: That is a massive blaring red flag. It really is.
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: It's like a game of social Jenga. The tower is
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: wobbling and everyone in that condo sees it swaying. But
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: nobody wants to be the person to actually reach out
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: and touch the blocks. and risk being blamed for knocking
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: the whole vacation over.
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: That's a great way to put it, yeah.
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: So they just hold their breath and ignore the wobbling
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: and hope the tower stays up. Yeah. And it wasn't
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: just the kids in the condo holding their breath right.
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: There was this whole digital paper trail happening in the background.
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: Yes, what's fascinating here is the sheer volume of anxiety
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: transmitted through text messages between the kids and their parents
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: back in Ohio.
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: Oh, I bet.
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: The adults were watching this tower wobble from nine hours
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: away before the tragedy even occurred. Blake's own mother texted Natalie,
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: explicitly expressing her anxiety about the trip.
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: Well, even his own mom.
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Her message read, I love Brady to death, but
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: I'm not comfortable with him going on the trip. Him
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: and Brady without parents is a recipe for disaster.
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: A recipe for disaster. I mean, the mother is literally
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: giving the situation a name. She knows it.
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: She absolutely knows it.
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: And Natalie sees it, too. She texts a friend complaining
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: about how unfair the dynamic is, and she admits that
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: Blake is always the problem every single time.
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: She saw it clearly.
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: But she doesn't uninvite him. She tells her friend the
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: decision was already made and bags were packed and it
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: was just too hard to undo it. Even Blake's father
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: sent a text urging his son to walk away from
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: trouble and be the bigger and better man. So my
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: question is, why do we do this? Why do modern
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: parents who clearly recognize an imminent threat rely on text
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: messages instead of intervening?
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: Well, you're touching on a really fundamental shift in modern
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: parenting and digital communication. We often operate under this illusion
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: of digital control.
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: A parent sends a text message, and the message is delivered,
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: and the parent experiences a momentary neurological relief, like they
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: feel like they took action.
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: Right. I said the text, my job is done.
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: Exactly. But a text message is entirely passive. It places
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: the burden of conflict resolution onto a teenager who is
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: biologically unequipped to handle it.
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: Biologically unequipped. Tell me more about that.
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: Well, the prefrontal cortex, right. That's the part of the
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: brain responsible for long term planning and impulse control. It
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: just isn't fully developed in an 18 year old.
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: So when Natalie is weighing the friction of kicking Blake
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: out of the trip against the abstract threat of his anger,
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: the social friction feels much more immediate and dangerous to
• 5:57
  Speaker 2: her adolescent brain.
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: I see.
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: Group cohesion feels like literal survival at that age.
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: So they chose the immediate comfort of keeping the peace
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: over the long term safety of addressing his behavior.
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: Unfortunately, yes.
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: And the social Jenga tower keeps wobbling until the fifth
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: day of the trip, June 6th, when it finally falls.
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: And what strikes me about the catalyst for the actual
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: tragedy is just how incredibly mundane it is. It wasn't
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: some massive blowout fight at a bar. It was a
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: completely random sliding door moment.
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: Oh, the butterfly effect here is just chilling. The group
• 6:33
  Speaker 2: attempts to go to the House of Blues for a
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: night out to hear some music. Right. but one of
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: their friends who is underage is stopped by the bouncers
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: for carrying an open container of alcohol. So he's denied entry.
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: Blake and Natalie decide to call it a night, and
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: they accompany their friend back to the condo. Now, if
• 6:49
  Speaker 2: that friend doesn't have an open container, they likely stay
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: at the club surrounded by people, but instead, they go
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: back to an empty rental.
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: Wow, just one little decision changes everything. And the documentary
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: notes that Blake had pre-gamed, he'd been drinking heavily before
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: they even left for the club. So by the time
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: they get back to the master bedroom, He is already
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: highly intoxicated. They settle down and lie on the bed
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: and start scrolling on their phones. Typical teenager stuff. Yeah.
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: But then Blake looks over. What exactly does he see
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: that sets this off?
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: So he sees a Snapchat message pop up on Natalie's phone.
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: And it's from another guy that Natalie had briefly met
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: and interacted with earlier on the trip.
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: Oh, boy.
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: Yeah. And this seemingly insignificant digital notification becomes the trigger
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: for absolutely everything that follows.
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: Let's fast forward two days to June 8th inside the
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: Horry County Sheriff's Department interrogation room. Detectives Jones and Skeller
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: have Blake in the box. And I read the transcript
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: of how he describes what happens next. And I mean,
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: it made my blood run cold.
• 7:51
  Speaker 2: It's very difficult to read.
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: But I want to hear your clinical take on it.
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: How does he recount the actual violence to the detectives?
• 7:57
  Speaker 2: Well, his recounting is utterly devoid of any expected emotional weight.
• 8:01
  Speaker 2: He explains the geometry of the room, like he mentions
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: they were lying on the bed with their feet toward
• 8:05
  Speaker 2: the end.
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: Very clinical.
• 8:07
  Speaker 2: Extremely clinical. He says he got mad over the phone
• 8:10
  Speaker 2: and they exchanged some words. And then he describes the
• 8:13
  Speaker 2: violence with this terrifyingly casual cadence.
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: What does he say?
• 8:17
  Speaker 2: He tells the detectives that he reached over with his
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: hands and grabbed her throat and choked her. He specifically states,
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: I just choked her for a little bit, not meaning
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: to just try to kill her whatsoever.
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: Oh, my God.
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: And then he describes Natalie arching up and falling off
• 8:33
  Speaker 2: the edge of the bed to the floor.
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: I just choked her for a little bit. He describes
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: the physical act of extinguishing a human life as if
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: he accidentally knocked a glass of water off an ice
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: stand and spilled it on the rug.
• 8:45
  Speaker 2: Yes, perfectly stated.
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: Here's where it gets really interesting. He immediately tries to
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: build a firewall between himself and the murder by pointing
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: to the alcohol. He essentially tells the detectives, That the
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: alcohol escalates things worse than he would ever be if
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: he were sober. Right. He wields the drinking as a shield.
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: Why does his brain allow him to do that?
• 9:05
  Speaker 2: So we're looking at the psychology of minimization at work here,
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: which is incredibly common in cases of fatal domestic abuse.
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: The human ego is fragile. To accept that you are
• 9:15
  Speaker 2: a murderer requires a complete devastating collapse of your own self-concept.
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Nobody wants to see themselves as the villain.
• 9:22
  Speaker 2: Exactly. Exactly. So to prevent that collapse, the brain engages
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: in the severe cognitive gymnastics. Lake separates the mechanics of
• 9:30
  Speaker 2: the act from the intent and the consequence.
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: Interesting.
• 9:33
  Speaker 2: He is admitting to the physical mechanism. He acknowledges his
• 9:37
  Speaker 2: hands were around her throat, but he completely detaches himself
• 9:40
  Speaker 2: from the lethality of that action.
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: I see.
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: So by blaming the alcohol and by minimizing the duration
• 9:45
  Speaker 2: of the violence, He is telling himself a story. He's saying,
• 9:49
  Speaker 2: my hands did this and the alcohol caused it, but
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: the core of who I am didn't mean to.
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: That separation of mechanics and intent is terrifying. But I
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: have to say, what he does immediately after she falls
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: off the bed might be the most psychologically disturbing part
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: of this entire.
• 10:05
  Speaker 2: Deep dive it's almost unbelievable.
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: I'm struggling to even comprehend the aftermath he claims to
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: the detectives that after she fell to the floor he
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: heard her make a noise a noise he described as
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: sounding like she was dying And he doesn't jump up.
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: He doesn't call 911 or scream for the friends in
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: the other room.
• 10:20
  Speaker 2: No. He rolls over towards the middle of the bed
• 10:22
  Speaker 2: and he goes to sleep.
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: He goes to sleep. His girlfriend is on the floor
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: making what he identifies as dying sounds. And his response
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: is to catch some rest. Yeah. Around 11.0 PM, he
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: even sends a text to his parents saying, I messed up.
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: His dad replies at 2.30 in the morning asking him
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: to reply ASAP, but Blake just sleeps right through it.
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: How is that physically or neurologically possible? How do you
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: drift off to sleep in a room with a body?
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: Well, if we connect this to the bigger picture of
• 10:54
  Speaker 2: human psychology, we are witnessing the ultimate extreme expression of
• 10:58
  Speaker 2: cognitive dissonance.
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: Cognitive dissonance.
• 11:00
  Speaker 2: Right. Leon Festinger's theory of cognitive dissonance explains the profound
• 11:05
  Speaker 2: mental discomfort we feel when holding two conflicting beliefs. In
• 11:08
  Speaker 2: Blake's mind, belief A is I am a normal kid
• 11:11
  Speaker 2: on a graduation trip. And belief B is I just
• 11:14
  Speaker 2: strangled my girlfriend to death.
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: Right. Those cannot coexist.
• 11:17
  Speaker 2: Exactly. Those two realities cannot exist in the same brain
• 11:20
  Speaker 2: without causing a psychological rupture. So because he couldn't process
• 11:23
  Speaker 2: the permanence of what his temporary alcohol-fueled rage had caused,
• 11:28
  Speaker 2: his brain literally hit the pause button.
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: It just shut down.
• 11:31
  Speaker 2: Yes. Sleep in this horrifying context acts as a temporary
• 11:36
  Speaker 2: escape hatch from reality. If he doesn't look at the
• 11:39
  Speaker 2: floor and if he closes his eyes, the consequence doesn't
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: exist yet.
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: That is just wild to think about. But the sun
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: eventually comes up. The escape hatch closes.
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: It always does.
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: The next morning, reality breaks in. Blake wakes up and
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: looks over the edge of the bed and finds Natalie,
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: cold and blue. Rigor mortis has already set in.
• 11:57
  Speaker 2: Yes.
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: And the friends in the condo wake up and this
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: horrific discovery is made. And they're desperately, vainly attempting CPR
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: while calling 911. Total chaos.
• 12:06
  Speaker 2: Total chaos.
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: Total chaos. And during this absolute nightmare, Blake goes into
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: the shower room and grabs a kitchen steak knife. Yes.
• 12:13
  Speaker 2: He inflicts superficial wounds on himself. First responders find two
• 12:17
  Speaker 2: small punctures below his sternum, a scratch on his wrist
• 12:20
  Speaker 2: and a scratch on his throat. Right. And he is
• 12:22
  Speaker 2: found outside the condo shirtless, crying and muttering repeatedly that
• 12:25
  Speaker 2: it was all his fault.
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: Okay. I've got to stop you there and push back
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: on this because I am really struggling to buy this narrative.
• 12:30
  Speaker 2: Fair enough.
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: We have a guy who can comfortably go to sleep
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: while his girlfriend dies, wake up and send a cryptic text.
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: But the moment his friends wake up and realize he
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: can no longer hide the body, suddenly he's so overwhelmed
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: by guilt that he tries to end it all with
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: a steak knife.
• 12:46
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: That feels incredibly performative to me. Am I being too
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: cynical or is he staging a woe is me crime
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: scene to manipulate the Cox and his friends?
• 12:56
  Speaker 2: Well, it is a totally vital instinct to question that behavior.
• 13:00
  Speaker 2: And you are tapping into a major debate in criminal
• 13:03
  Speaker 2: psychology regarding performative self-harm. versus genuine suicidal ideation.
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: Okay, so what's the difference here?
• 13:10
  Speaker 2: Let's look at the pathology of what's happening. When his
• 13:13
  Speaker 2: denial finally shatters that morning, it shatters violently. The delayed
• 13:16
  Speaker 2: reaction is chaotic. Right. However, the nature of the wounds,
• 13:20
  Speaker 2: these superficial scratches and small punctures, strongly suggest this was
• 13:24
  Speaker 2: not a genuine attempt to end his life.
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: That's what I thought.
• 13:27
  Speaker 2: Right. Rather, it's a manifestation of extreme self-pity and panic.
• 13:32
  Speaker 2: He is realizing that his life, as he envisioned it,
• 13:35
  Speaker 2: is over.
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: Yeah, the gig is up.
• 13:37
  Speaker 2: The violence he inflicts on himself is minimal, almost theatrical,
• 13:41
  Speaker 2: compared to the lethal force he used on Natalie.
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: That's such a chilling contrast.
• 13:46
  Speaker 2: It really is. It is an incredibly self-centered reaction designed
• 13:49
  Speaker 2: consciously or subconsciously to cast himself as a secondary victim
• 13:54
  Speaker 2: of the tragedy rather than the sole perpetrator of it.
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: So this intense self-pity and theatricality, it follows him right
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: into the police station. It's like he gathers up the
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: shattered pieces of his denial... and hastily tapes them back
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: together around himself before the interrogation begins.
• 14:10
  Speaker 2: That's a great analogy.
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: How do Detectives Jones and Skeller handle a kid who
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: is operating in a completely different reality?
• 14:16
  Speaker 2: Well, they utilize a classic interrogation technique. They let the
• 14:20
  Speaker 2: silence do the heavy lifting.
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: Oh, the silent treatment.
• 14:22
  Speaker 2: Exactly. They place him in the room alone for a
• 14:24
  Speaker 2: significant amount of time before questioning him. This allows the
• 14:28
  Speaker 2: isolation and the sterile environment to apply psychological pressure.
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: Just let him stew in it.
• 14:33
  Speaker 2: Yes. And when they finally engage, Blake's immediate instinct is
• 14:38
  Speaker 2: to bargain with reality. He tries to convince the detectives
• 14:42
  Speaker 2: that his behavior was an anomaly.
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: What does he say?
• 14:45
  Speaker 2: He says, I never get mad, mad over that stuff.
• 14:47
  Speaker 2: He even attempts to pass the blame onto his genetics,
• 14:50
  Speaker 2: telling the detectives, I mean, it's got to get it
• 14:53
  Speaker 2: from my dad. He's got to take medicine for it.
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: The deflection is just dizzying. He blames the alcohol. Then
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: he blames his father's DNA. At one point, the source
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: material shows him left alone in the room again. And
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: she starts pleading out loud to Natalie as if she's
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: listening from the corner of the ceiling.
• 15:10
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: He's saying things like, I just want to see you
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: one more time. Please, please, please. Look, I just want
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: to see you from my girl. It sounds exactly like
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: a toddler who just broke an expensive vase crying and
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: hoping the tears will magically glue the porcelain back together.
• 15:23
  Speaker 2: That analogy is highly accurate because intellectually and emotionally, he
• 15:27
  Speaker 2: hasn't crossed the threshold into adulthood where actions yield irreversible
• 15:31
  Speaker 2: permanent consequences.
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: Right, like there is no undo button here.
• 15:34
  Speaker 2: No, no. But he believes he can negotiate his way
• 15:37
  Speaker 2: out of a murder.
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: Unbelievable.
• 15:39
  Speaker 2: But the absolute turning point of the entire interrogation, the
• 15:42
  Speaker 2: moment that strips away any illusion about his mindset, is
• 15:45
  Speaker 2: when he turns to the older detective and asks a
• 15:48
  Speaker 2: stunningly revealing question.
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: Oh, I know what you're going to say.
• 15:51
  Speaker 2: He looks at the detective and asks... Do you think
• 15:53
  Speaker 2: my life will be ruined?
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: I had to pause the documentary when I heard that.
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: Do you think my life will be ruined? He just
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: snuffed out the life of an 18-year-old girl. And his
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: primary concern is his own itinerary.
• 16:05
  Speaker 2: It's staggering. And this raises an important question regarding his
• 16:09
  Speaker 2: fundamental capacity for empathy. Right. In that interrogation room, Blake
• 16:13
  Speaker 2: is grieving. The tears are likely real. But he is
• 16:16
  Speaker 2: grieving strictly for himself.
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: Wow, yeah.
• 16:18
  Speaker 2: He is mourning his impending punishment, his loss of freedom
• 16:22
  Speaker 2: and his ruined reputation. He is not mourning the future
• 16:25
  Speaker 2: he stole from Natalie.
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: No, not at all.
• 16:27
  Speaker 2: He isn't thinking about the terror she felt in her
• 16:30
  Speaker 2: final moments. His empathy extends no further than his own skin.
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: And the detective, to his credit, refuses to coddle that delusion.
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: The detective looks at him and delivers a massive unavoidable
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: reality check. What exactly does he say to Blake?
• 16:45
  Speaker 2: The detective leans in and strips away all the minimization.
• 16:49
  Speaker 2: He says, Blake, I don't know how else to tell
• 16:51
  Speaker 2: you this, buddy, but your actions killed somebody. It is
• 16:55
  Speaker 2: a blunt force application of reality.
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: The listener really needs to sit with that moment. We
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: all use everyday psychological mechanisms to avoid facing the consequences
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: of our actions right.
• 17:06
  Speaker 2: Oh, absolutely. We all do it.
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: We rationalize missing a deadline. We blame traffic for being late.
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: We minimize our harsh words in an argument. But Watching
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: this interrogation transcript unfold is a masterclass in watching those
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: everyday mechanisms spectacularly fail under the trushing weight of an
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: undeniable horrific truth. Yes. You can rationalize away a lot
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: of things in life, but you cannot rationalize away a body.
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: The truth is absolute. Right.
• 17:31
  Speaker 2: There it is.
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: So what happens when you take that fractured psychology into
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: a courtroom? Does the legal system tolerate his minimization?
• 17:38
  Speaker 2: Well, the legal system operates on facts, not self-pity. Recognizing
• 17:42
  Speaker 2: the overwhelming evidence against him, including his own taped admissions,
• 17:46
  Speaker 2: Blake Linkus ultimately pled guilty to the murder of Natalie
• 17:48
  Speaker 2: Martin just days before his trial was set to begin.
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: Okay, so he pled guilty. Yes.
• 17:54
  Speaker 2: And he was sentenced to 45 years in prison, which
• 17:57
  Speaker 2: he is serving at the Tiger River Correctional Institution in
• 18:00
  Speaker 2: Spartanburg County.
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: 45 years. You would think that nearly half a century
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: behind bars would force a moment of profound clarity. You
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: would hope so. But the source material provides an update
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: from just before Christmas in 2025. Blake files for post-conviction relief.
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: And his argument to the local news outlets is just mind-bending.
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: It really is. He claims he is, quote, guilty of
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: the situation, but not the charges. He is still years
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: after the fact, arguing that the killing wasn't intentional or premeditated.
• 18:31
  Speaker 2: Yeah, he won't let it go.
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: So what does this all mean? How can someone legally
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: or psychologically claim to be guilty of a situation, but
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: not a murder?
• 18:38
  Speaker 2: It is the ultimate semantic game, and it proves that
• 18:41
  Speaker 2: his core refusal to accept full responsibility remains perfectly intact. Right.
• 18:46
  Speaker 2: In a legal sense, he is trying to argue the
• 18:48
  Speaker 2: nuances between premeditated murder and manslaughter, suggesting that a lack
• 18:53
  Speaker 2: of advanced planning absolves him of the harsher label.
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: But psychologically?
• 18:56
  Speaker 2: Psychologically, it tells us everything. The system dealt with the crime.
• 19:00
  Speaker 2: He is locked away in a cell. But inside his
• 19:03
  Speaker 2: own mind, Blake Linkus is still stuck in that master
• 19:06
  Speaker 2: bedroom in Myrtle Beach.
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: Wow.
• 19:08
  Speaker 2: He is still desperately trying to convince the world and
• 19:11
  Speaker 2: himself that extinguishing a human life with his bare hands
• 19:14
  Speaker 2: was just a chaotic accident. A vague situation that happened
• 19:18
  Speaker 2: to him rather than a deliberate action he took.
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: It's a heavy, infuriating reality to sit with. An unrepentant
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: perpetrator playing word games with the definition of murder. But
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: we cannot let his delusions be the final word.
• 19:31
  Speaker 2: Absolutely not.
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: We have to consciously pull our focus away from the
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: perpetrator and recenter on the reality of the victims. Natalie
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: Jane Martin was 18 years old. She worked at a daycare. Yes.
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: She was beloved by her coworkers, her friends, and her family.
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: Her life was needlessly, violently cut short over a bruised
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: ego and a Snapchat message.
• 19:49
  Speaker 2: And that is a tragic story. that must anchor this
• 19:50
  Speaker 2: entire discussion. The loss of a vibrant life over a
• 19:54
  Speaker 2: momentary toxic impulse.
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: As we wrap up this deep dive, there's a lingering thought.
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: I want everyone listening to mull over. Let's return to
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: the analogy of the social Jenga tower. We saw how
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: this tragedy was telegraphed. We saw the text messages where
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: parents and Friends and even Natalie herself literally spelled out
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: that the situation was a, quote, recipe for disaster.
• 20:15
  Speaker 2: Right. They all saw it coming.
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: When the warning signs are that bright, when everyone can
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: see the tower swaying, where exactly does the collective societal
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: responsibility to intervene end and the individual's deadly choice begin?
• 20:29
  Speaker 2: That's a profound question.
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: In our own lives, when we see a dynamic turning
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: toxic to inefficient, how do we find the courage to
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: pull the emergency brake? Touch the wobbling blocks and stop
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: the momentum of a tragedy before the disaster is served.