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8-year cold case solved: Killers tracked down using phone technology · Murder Files Unsealed

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Welcome back to another deep dive. We are so glad
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  you're joining us today because we have a really intense
• 0:06
  one for you.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, this one is. It's truly something else, it really is.
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  Speaker 1: So I want you to picture this. It's April twenty eighteen.
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  You're in southwest Florida, specifically Estro down in Lee County, right.
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  It's after dark. You're pulling into a very quiet, mundane
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  suburban shopping center parking lot off Corkscrew Road.
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  Speaker 2: Just a completely normal, everyday setting.
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  Speaker 1: Exactly, and a married couple arrives. They're just there to
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  do a routine cash transaction, but instead they walk into
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  a sudden, just absolutely deadly ambush.
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  Speaker 2: And it was an ambush executed with terrifying precision.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, it really was. Today we are pulling from a
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  fascinating set of source material called the Digital Trap Solving
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  the Lorenzo Veteran Murders.
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  Speaker 2: It's a great source document, incredibly detailed.
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  Speaker 1: The mission of this deep dive is to unpack how
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  an eight year cold case, a brutal double execution that
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  completely baffled detectives, was solved and it wasn't solved by
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  fingerprints or you know, DNA. At the same no, not
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  at all. It was cracked by a tiny, almost invisible
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  digital mistake involving a burner phone.
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  Speaker 2: What's fascinating here is how a seemingly flawless, tactically executed
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  crime was unraveled by the very technology the killers thought
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  would protect them, Right, I mean, this isn't just your
• 1:23
  standard true crime story. It's essentially a masterclass in the
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  evolution of modern digital forensics.
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  Speaker 1: Oh absolutely.
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  Speaker 2: It connects a local Florida tragedy to like international mercenary networks,
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  and it really highlights the double edged sword of the
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  everyday technology we all carry around in our pockets.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's wild how far this goes. But before we
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  can understand the digital trap that caught these killers, we
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  first need to understand the physical trap that claim the victims.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, we have to start with the victims themselves.
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  Speaker 1: So the victims were Sarah and Lorenzo, who went by Danny.
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  He was fifty three, and his wife, Dina Kay Lorenzo,
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  who was fifty.
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  Speaker 2: They were military veterans, right, Yeah, both of them.
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  Speaker 1: They lived in Brooksville, which is up in Hernando County,
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  and from the sources, they just lived this very quiet
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  community focused post military life.
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  Speaker 2: Very grounded people, very supportive of veteran causes exactly.
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  Speaker 1: So on April ninth, twenty eighteen, they made a plan
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  to buy some firearms, and they found an online ad
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  on arms.
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  Speaker 2: List, which, for context, was a massive pre pandemic online
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  marketplace for guns.
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  Speaker 1: Right, and the Lorenzo's brought three thousand dollars in cash
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  to this shopping center in estro to make the purchase.
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  Speaker 2: Okay, let's untack this setup because this is something so
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  many people listening can relate to.
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  Speaker 1: Oh for sure.
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  Speaker 2: I mean it's like going to a Craigslist meetup, right,
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  you do your due diligence, you pick a public place,
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  but you're still walking into the unknown.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, except this is a market that operates entirely in
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  cash and deadly weapons.
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  Speaker 2: Exactly. The stakes are so much higher.
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  Speaker 1: So they parked their car and they think they're waiting
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  for a seller, but they are ambushed.
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  Speaker 2: It was execution style.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, multiple close range head and body shots. The sources say.
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  The scene was found early the next morning, April tenth,
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  and Lee County Sheriff Carmen and Marseno described it as
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  bone chilling.
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  Speaker 2: Which really tells you how severe it was.
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  Speaker 1: Right, and there were shellcasings everywhere. The cash was gone,
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  but there were zero signs of a struggle.
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  Speaker 2: And that lack of a struggle is a crucial detail.
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  Speaker 1: Well yeah, and that's what I want to push back
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  on a little bit. With a crime scene this violent
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  and this messy, I mean, shellcasing scattered all over the pavement,
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  how does it immediately go cold in the modern era?
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  Speaker 2: That's the thing. It went cold precisely because of the
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  tactical nature of the ambush. What do you mean, well,
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  the perpetrators left no personal biological footprint. It was a
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  clean hit forensically speaking.
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  Speaker 1: Wow.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, these were people who clearly understood how to minimize
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  physical evidence that they didn't get into a wrestling match.
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  They kept their distance, fired, took the objective the cash,
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  and broke contact instantly, So.
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  Speaker 1: No touch DNA on the car door, is no left
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  behind exactly.
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  Speaker 2: They likely wore gloves while loading the magazines, so there
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  wouldn't even be latent prints on the shell casings. That
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  is terrifying, it is, and it points to the vulnerability
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  of platforms like arms List at the time. It facilitated
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  untraceable private sales with very minimal paperwork, right, which.
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  Speaker 1: Just creates the perfect hunting ground for predators.
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  Speaker 2: Absolutely, the platform relied on mutual trust, but if one
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  party has bad intentions, it's a fatal funnel.
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  Speaker 1: So the case sits totally cold for nearly two years.
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  Detective Sara Rodriguez of the LCSO Homicide Unit is running
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  down leads, but the physical evidence led nowhere.
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  Speaker 2: They were just staring at a brick wall.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, So to break through, they had to stop looking
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  at the pavement and start looking at the cell towers.
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  Speaker 2: And this is where the investigation completely shifts gears.
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  Speaker 1: Here's where it gets really interesting. The investigators finally get
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  a breakthrough by subpoenaing phone records from the fake Arms list.
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  Speaker 2: Ad because the killers had to communicate with the Lorenzo's
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  to set up the meeting, right, and.
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  Speaker 1: They use a burner phone, which makes sense if you're
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  trying to hide your identity.
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  Speaker 2: It's the classic criminal move. Buy a cheap prepaid phone
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  with cash, use it, ditch it.
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  Speaker 1: But they made a fatal error, and I mean a
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  literal fatal error for their.
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  Speaker 2: Freedom, a massive, almost unbelievable mistake.
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  Speaker 1: They removed their personal SIM card from their actual everyday
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  phone and temporarily inserted it into the burner phone to
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  text Danny Lorenzo.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, it just completely undoes the entire point of a
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  burner phone.
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  Speaker 1: I just I have to challenge their logic here. If
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  they were smart enough to buy a burner phone to
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  hide who they were, why on earth would they put
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  their own personal SIM card into it.
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  Speaker 2: It defies logic.
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  Speaker 1: Isn't that like wearing a full disguise to rob a bank,
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  but then handing the bank teller your real driver's license.
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  Speaker 2: That is exactly what it's like. It's a perfect analogy,
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  and it really speaks to the psychology of the rookie mistake.
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  In the digital age, how so, well sophisticated tactical planning
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  often falls apart at the digital level because criminals, even
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  highly trained ones, misunderstand how telecommunications networks operate.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, break that down for us.
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  Speaker 2: They assumed the physical device, the sheet plastic phone itself,
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  was the shield. They completely ignored the network handshake.
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  Speaker 1: And the network handshake.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, so every single phone manufactured globally has a fifteen
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  digit number called an IMEI. It's the International Mobile Equipment Identity,
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  So it's.
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  Speaker 1: Like a serial number hard coded into the phone.
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  Speaker 2: Exactly the hardware's fingerprint. Now, your SIM card has its
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  own identifier tied to your name and your billing account.
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  When you put a SIM card into a phone and
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  turn it on, the carrier immediately logs that specific SIM
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  card pairing with that specific IMEI. It's an automatic network handshake.
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  Speaker 1: Oh wow. So the moment that personal SIM touched the
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  Burner phone's.
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  Speaker 2: Hardware, the carrier's database permanently logged that linkage. The network
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  basically said, hey, this anonymous Burner phone is currently being
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  operated by this specific person's account.
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  Speaker 1: That is just wild. And that digital fingerprint linked straight
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  back to a man named Alex Jared's wifle Hoffer.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, that single log entry gave them.
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  Speaker 1: A name, but a name isn't enough to prove he
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  was an estro, right right.
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  Speaker 2: You have to place the device at the scene of
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  the crime, and that's where Detective Rodriguez his team used CSLI,
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  or historical cell site location information.
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  Speaker 1: Which was a huge deal for the Lee County Sheriff's
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  Office at the time. The sources say this is the
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  very first time they had deployed this specific location tracking
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  tech in a homicide.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, it was a pioneering moment for local policing. CSLI
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  technology is fascinating. Basically, our phones are constantly scanning for
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  a signal, sending out pings to local cell tower.
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  Speaker 1: Even when you're not making a call.
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  Speaker 2: Even when it's just sitting in your pocket. The carrier
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  logs which specific wedge of the cell tower you connect
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  to and how many microseconds it takes for the signal
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  to travel.
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  Speaker 1: Which means they can basically triangulate where.
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  Speaker 2: You are exactly. It creates a retro active map of
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  your life. They pulled the CSLI data for his Wifelheffer's
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  personal devices.
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  Speaker 1: And it tracked the killer's movements in real time on
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  the night of the murder. It traced a clear path
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  from the Miami International Airport area, driving all the way up.
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  Speaker 2: To Estro, right to that exact shopping center on Corkscrew Road.
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  Speaker 1: It's incredible what was once like FBI level tech is
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  now cracking local cold cases.
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  Speaker 2: It completely changed the game for how local detectives viewed
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  digital evidence.
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  Speaker 1: So we now know how they were tracked from Miami
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  to Estro. But the IAMEI didn't just reveal a location.
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  Speaker 2: No, it revealed an identity that blew the whole case
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  wide open.
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  Speaker 1: Yet it opened a door to an international conspiracy that
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  no local detective could have ever anticipated.
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  Speaker 2: Because wifle Offer wasn't just some local criminal.
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  Speaker 1: Far from it. The sources identify the two killers as
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  Alex Jared Zweichelhoffer, who was in his mid twenties from Wisconsin,
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  and he was a wall from the.
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  Speaker 2: US Army absent without leave right.
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  Speaker 1: And his accomplice was Craig Austin Lang around twenty nine
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  years old. And Lang had been honorably discharged from the
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  US Army in twenty fourteen.
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  Speaker 2: So you have two formally trained, disgraced military veterans.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, and this is where the motive just gets absolutely crazy.
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  That three thousand dollars they stole from the Lorenzos.
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  Speaker 2: It wasn't for drugs, it wasn't to pay off debt.
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  Speaker 1: No, it was seed money. They needed those funds to
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  travel to Venezuela.
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  Speaker 2: To join a far right paramilitary group exactly.
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  Speaker 1: They were planning to fight against Nicholas Maduro's government.
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  Speaker 2: And we should pause here to be very clear. We
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  are strictly objectively reporting what the source materials state about
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  the Venezuelan government and these militia groups.
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  Speaker 1: Yes, absolutely, we are just relaying the facts of the
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  investigation without endorsing or condemning any political ideologies mentioned in the.
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  Speaker 2: Sources, right, maintaining strict neutrality. But according to the files,
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  these two had a long history of this.
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  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, they had previously fought in Ukraine with a
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  nationalist militia called the Right Sector.
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  Speaker 2: Which is how they initially met and bonded.
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  Speaker 1: And they'd even tried to join an armed conflict in
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  South Sudan, but they ended up getting deported from Kenya.
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  Speaker 2: They were just bouncing from one global hot zone to another.
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  Speaker 1: It's terrifying. Yeah, the digital evidence showed they were searching
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  things online like how to smuggle myself to South America.
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  Speaker 2: And watching tactical ambush videos to prep for the robbery.
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  Speaker 1: I just how do we get from two former US
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  Army soldiers to international mercenaries and then to executing a
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  couple in a Florida parking lot for just a three
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  thousand dollars.
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  Speaker 2: If we connect this to the bigger picture, it's actually
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  a known phenomenon. It's the radicalization pipeline for ideological drifters.
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  Flain that well, these men received highly specialized lethal training
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  from the military. They were taught how to operate in combat.
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  But when they were discharged a wall and dishonorable, they
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  lost their structure.
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  Speaker 1: I lost our sense of purpose.
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  Speaker 2: Precisely, they lose the chain of command that legitimized their skills.
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  So they seek out adrenaline or extreme causes abroad just
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  to feel relevant again.
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  Speaker 1: So they view themselves as soldiers of fortune.
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  Speaker 2: Right, and to them, the Lorenzos weren't people. There were
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  just a soft target holding resources they needed for their
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  next deployment.
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  Speaker 1: That is just chilling, And it completely changed the scope
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  of the federal charges.
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  Speaker 2: Oh massively, because they weren't just charged with murder and robbery.
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  Speaker 1: Right, the DOJ hit them with a violation of the Neutrality.
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  Speaker 2: Act, which is incredibly rare.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, I'd actually never even heard of it being used
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  like this. Can you explain to the listener how significant
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  that is?
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  Speaker 2: It's historically significant. The Neutrality Act essentially makes it a
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  federal crime for US citizens to plot or prepare armed
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  action against a foreign government that is at peace with
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  the United States.
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  Speaker 1: So because the US wasn't officially at war with.
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  Speaker 2: Venezuela, exactly, you can't just raise your own private army
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  and launch an expedition from US soil. It's a huge
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  national security violation.
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  Speaker 1: But the revelation of their identities didn't mean an immediate arrest.
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  Speaker 2: No, not at all. Because of their mercenary lifestyle, catching
• 12:00
  was a nightmare.
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  Speaker 1: Bringing them to justice required a global manhunt and just
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  this grueling legal battle.
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  Speaker 2: Because right after the murders, Lang fled the country.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, he went right back to Ukraine to continue fighting.
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  Speaker 2: He used a warzone as a hiding place.
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  Speaker 1: Which initiated this insane extradition battle. It actually reached the
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  European Court of Human Rights.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, because European human rights laws are very strict regarding extradition,
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  especially when the death penalty might be involved.
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  Speaker 1: It took years of diplomatic fighting before Lang was finally
• 12:31
  returned to the US in twenty twenty four.
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  Speaker 2: While all that was happening, zuefel Hoffer was caught and
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  went to trial.
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  Speaker 1: Right souefel Hoffer was convicted in twenty twenty four. He
• 12:40
  got two consecutive like sentences without the possibility.
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  Speaker 2: Of parole, and then Lang faced his trial shortly after
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  he was brought back.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah. Lang was convicted in September twenty twenty five on
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  multiple charges robbery, firearm discharge and that Neutrality Act violation.
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  Speaker 2: And the sentencing was just recently right December twenty twenty five, exactly.
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  Speaker 1: Judge Sherry Pulster Chapel gave Lang consecutive life terms as well,
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  plus ordered him to pay ten thousand dollars in restitution.
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  Speaker 2: And the statements from the DOJ were pretty powerful.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, Deputy Attorney General Nicole Argentiari really highlighted Lang's callous
• 13:15
  disregard for human life.
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  Speaker 2: It's a very fitting description.
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  Speaker 1: Even Lieutenant Rodriguez reflected on it. She said this was
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  not a run of the mill homicide. It required massive
• 13:25
  FBI cooperation.
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  Speaker 2: And she mentioned how it completely changed review on digital artifacts.
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  Speaker 1: So what does this all mean.
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  Speaker 2: It's a profound shift in how we view evidence.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, and I just reflect on the timeline. Eight years
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  to the listener, twenty eighteen feels like a lifetime ago.
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  Think about how much your life has changed since then.
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  Speaker 2: It's a massive span of time.
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  Speaker 1: But for the victims' families, that was eight years of
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  agonizing silence.
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  Speaker 2: Just waiting for answers that felt like they might never come.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, and this raises an important question about our relationship
• 13:53
  with technology.
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  Speaker 2: It really does. The source Material calls it a double
• 13:56
  edged sword, and that's the perfect analogy.
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: Because it helped the killers and then it doomed them.
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  Speaker 2: Exactly. The same Internet that allowed a fatal trap to
• 14:04
  be set on arms List, giving them anonymity and reach,
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  also provided the digital breadcrumbs that brought them down.
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  Speaker 1: The Imei, the Google searches, the cell pings.
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  Speaker 2: It all ensured accountability in the end, and it sends
• 14:17
  a very loud message to the cold case community, which
• 14:20
  is no matter how much time passes, digital data rarely degrades.
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  Unlike physical evidence that washes away or decays. The data
• 14:29
  is just sitting there on a server. Justice is merely
• 14:32
  waiting for the right subpoena.
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  Speaker 1: That's a really powerful way to look at it. So
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  to bring this grand international story back down to the
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  human element.
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  Speaker 2: As we wrap up, it always comes back to the victims.
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: Right. We journeyed from a quiet suburban parking lot in
• 14:45
  Florida to the battlefields of Ukraine and then back to
• 14:48
  a federal courtroom.
• 14:49
  Speaker 2: It's an unbelievable trajectory.
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: But at the center of it are the Lorenzos, ordinary
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  people whose final act was just a simple errand yeah,
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  tragic deaths led to a technological victory that took two
• 15:04
  incredibly dangerous mercenaries off the board forever.
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  Speaker 2: Which brings up a final thought. I really want the
• 15:09
  listener to mollow over choices. We've talked extensively about how
• 15:12
  the killer's digital footprint and betrayed them, but consider this.
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  Your own digital footprint is a permanent, invisible tether.
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: It's always there, always.
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  Speaker 2: As technology advances, is it actually becoming impossible to ever
• 15:26
  truly disappear or start over?
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  Speaker 1: That's a heavy thought.
• 15:29
  Speaker 2: If a single sim card swap can undo an international
• 15:32
  mercenary plot, what invisible stories are your everyday digital habits
• 15:36
  telling about you right now?
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: Something for all of us to think about the next
• 15:40
  time we pick up our phones. Thank you so much
• 15:42
  for joining us for this deep dive. We will catch
• 15:44
  you on the next one.