Latest / Crime and Horror / Florida family terrorized by a masked intruder - MrBallen
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: On an early morning in December of nineteen ninety one,
- 0:03Speaker 1: a woman living in Largo, Florida, woke up to the
- 0:05Speaker 1: sound of pounding on her front door, and as she
- 0:08Speaker 1: climbed out of her bed, she realized it was not
- 0:10Speaker 1: just pounding on her door. She was hearing also whoever
- 0:13Speaker 1: was out there was screaming, screaming for help. When the
- 0:16Speaker 1: woman realized there was some sort of crisis here, she
- 0:19Speaker 1: kind of rushed and ran to the front door. She
- 0:21Speaker 1: opened it up, and standing out on the front porch
- 0:24Speaker 1: was her neighbor and she was practically covered head to
- 0:27Speaker 1: toe in blood. Her head was covered in gashes, her
- 0:31Speaker 1: throat clearly had been slit. But before this woman could
- 0:35Speaker 1: say what was even going on, she just fell to
- 0:38Speaker 1: the ground and passed out. But before we get into
- 0:41Speaker 1: today's story, if you're a fan of the strange, dark,
- 0:44Speaker 1: and mysterious delivered in story format, then you come to
- 0:47Speaker 1: the right place, because that's all we do, and we
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- 0:53Speaker 1: that's of interest to you, the next time the like
- 0:55Speaker 1: button is taking a well deserved nap, make sure you
- 0:59Speaker 1: immediately go over and wake them up with a leaf flower. Also,
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- 1:05Speaker 1: so you don't miss any of our weekly uploads. Okay,
- 1:08Speaker 1: let's get into today's story. On the evening of December fourteenth,
- 1:32Speaker 1: nineteen ninety one, a thirty one year old man named
- 1:34Speaker 1: Keith youngk grabbed his car keys from a hook by
- 1:37Speaker 1: the front door of his home in Largo, Florida. Behind him,
- 1:40Speaker 1: his wife, Anita, slipped on her favorite pair of heels.
- 1:43Speaker 1: The newlywed couple was about to head out on a
- 1:45Speaker 1: much needed date night.
- 1:46Speaker 2: They were both actually on.
- 1:48Speaker 1: Their second marriages, and they had six children between them
- 1:51Speaker 1: from their previous relationships, so naturally it was pretty hard
- 1:54Speaker 1: to find time for just themselves. But that particular night,
- 1:58Speaker 1: Keith's two kids were staying with their mother, who had
- 2:01Speaker 1: shared custody, and Anita's eight year old daughter was at
- 2:03Speaker 1: a sleepover, and her twelve year old son, Jason, had
- 2:06Speaker 1: agreed to stay home and watch his two younger siblings
- 2:09Speaker 1: so that the adults could go out for dinner.
- 2:11Speaker 2: Before they left, Keith.
- 2:12Speaker 1: Gave Jason a final rundown of his expectations, don't make
- 2:16Speaker 1: too much of a mess, make sure nobody gets hurt,
- 2:18Speaker 1: and if there was an emergency. He'd written down the
- 2:21Speaker 1: restaurant's phone number on a notepad in the kitchen, but
- 2:24Speaker 1: Keith reminded Jason that if there were like a real emergency,
- 2:27Speaker 1: like a true crisis, he should call nine to one
- 2:29Speaker 1: one right away. And when he heard this, Jason, the
- 2:32Speaker 1: twelve year old, just kind of rolled his eyes and said, yeah,
- 2:35Speaker 1: I got it. It's under control now. Keith knew he
- 2:38Speaker 1: was actually being a little bit uptight here, but there'd
- 2:40Speaker 1: been an attempted break in at their house earlier that year,
- 2:43Speaker 1: and he'd been on edge about leaving the kids home
- 2:46Speaker 1: alone ever since. The intruder had actually cut their phone
- 2:49Speaker 1: lines and then also taken off a window screen, and
- 2:52Speaker 1: they'd also tried to break down a door as well,
- 2:54Speaker 1: but they'd actually left without taking anything, and there hadn't
- 2:57Speaker 1: been any more issues in the months since.
- 3:00Speaker 2: But critically, the.
- 3:01Speaker 1: Suspect was never caught, so it felt kind of unresolved
- 3:04Speaker 1: and scary for the family. Keith and Anita both hugged
- 3:07Speaker 1: Jason goodbye as they walked out the door, and then
- 3:09Speaker 1: once the door closed behind them, Heath turned around and
- 3:12Speaker 1: checked the handle to double check.
- 3:13Speaker 2: That he'd locked it, just to be safe.
- 3:19Speaker 1: Less than a half hour later, Keith and Anita sat
- 3:22Speaker 1: down across from each other at the restaurant and unfolded
- 3:24Speaker 1: their napkins onto their laps. They were excited to have
- 3:27Speaker 1: a few hours of peace and quiet where they could
- 3:29Speaker 1: just focus on each other, something that didn't happen very often.
- 3:32Speaker 1: The couple had gotten married earlier that year after meeting
- 3:35Speaker 1: at a support group for single parents, and they were
- 3:38Speaker 1: very grateful to have each other because their previous marriages
- 3:41Speaker 1: were really not that great.
- 3:43Speaker 2: Anita's ex husband, Luther Bass, had.
- 3:45Speaker 1: A violent temper, and even though he now lived all
- 3:48Speaker 1: the way across the country in Idaho, he still found
- 3:51Speaker 1: a way to always complicate Anita's life.
- 3:53Speaker 2: That summer, Luther.
- 3:54Speaker 1: Had driven all the way to Keith and Anita's house
- 3:57Speaker 1: to take his kids on a vacation, which Anita had
- 4:00Speaker 1: initially agreed to, but when he showed up, he was
- 4:03Speaker 1: unexpectedly driving a camper with his new girlfriend and her kids,
- 4:07Speaker 1: And at that point Anita had gotten a really bad
- 4:10Speaker 1: feeling about the whole situation, and she actually started to
- 4:13Speaker 1: worry that Luther would take her kids and then refuse
- 4:16Speaker 1: to give them back.
- 4:17Speaker 2: And so they had this big.
- 4:18Speaker 1: Argument and It got so bad that actually Anita had
- 4:21Speaker 1: threatened to call the police before Luther finally backed off
- 4:24Speaker 1: and left. Meanwhile, Keith had been having equally heated arguments
- 4:29Speaker 1: with his ex spouse Linda about whether their kids would
- 4:32Speaker 1: spend the upcoming holidays with him or with Linda and
- 4:34Speaker 1: her new husband, Steve. Things had gotten so nasty that
- 4:38Speaker 1: Linda had actually recently begun harassing Anita over the phone,
- 4:42Speaker 1: and was also gearing up to go to court and
- 4:44Speaker 1: try to get the custody agreement changed if Keith wouldn't
- 4:47Speaker 1: agree to do things her way. But their bad relationships
- 4:50Speaker 1: with their exes only made Keith more happy that he'd
- 4:53Speaker 1: found Anita.
- 4:54Speaker 2: He was glad that he could.
- 4:55Speaker 1: Take care of her and her kids the way he
- 4:57Speaker 1: felt like they deserved, so despite all the tensions hanging
- 5:00Speaker 1: over them, he tried to keep the mood light and
- 5:02Speaker 1: they enjoyed a very nice dinner, and then when the
- 5:05Speaker 1: check came, Keith glanced at his watch and realized it
- 5:07Speaker 1: was getting pretty late. He knew Anita's son, Jason, was
- 5:10Speaker 1: a responsible kid and that he could definitely handle getting
- 5:13Speaker 1: his younger siblings into bed, but Keith was still a
- 5:16Speaker 1: bit worried about leaving the kids alone for too long,
- 5:18Speaker 1: so he paid the check right away, and then he
- 5:21Speaker 1: and Anita left the restaurant and drove home. A little
- 5:28Speaker 1: while later, Keith and Anita pulled up outside of their brown,
- 5:31Speaker 1: single story home. When they got inside, Keith was relieved
- 5:34Speaker 1: to see that all the kids were calmly watching TV
- 5:37Speaker 1: in the living room, and the family cat was curled
- 5:39Speaker 1: up on the couch right next to them. Keith told
- 5:41Speaker 1: them that it was time to get ready for bed,
- 5:43Speaker 1: and as twelve year old Jason got up, Keith pulled
- 5:46Speaker 1: him in for a big hug and told him he
- 5:48Speaker 1: was proud of him for his hard work babysitting. Anita
- 5:50Speaker 1: helped the younger kids brush their teeth, and then afterwards
- 5:53Speaker 1: Keith turned off the lights and he went down the
- 5:55Speaker 1: hall and said good night to all three kids, who
- 5:57Speaker 1: slept in bunk beds in the same room. Then after
- 5:59Speaker 1: that he continued down the hallway to the main bedroom
- 6:02Speaker 1: and climbed into bed with Anita. He kissed his wife
- 6:05Speaker 1: good night and then turned off the light. Several hours later,
- 6:13Speaker 1: around three am. Early the next morning, Anita's twelve year
- 6:16Speaker 1: old son, Jason, awoke to a very loud noise, and
- 6:18Speaker 1: when he heard it, he sat up in bed, and
- 6:21Speaker 1: then he could hear something thumping around in the room
- 6:23Speaker 1: next to him. But before he could figure out what
- 6:25Speaker 1: was going on, someone screamed. With his vision still blurry
- 6:28Speaker 1: from sleep, Jason slid off the top bunk and walked
- 6:31Speaker 1: over to the door and cracked it open, and in
- 6:34Speaker 1: the dark hallway, he could quickly make out the shadowy
- 6:37Speaker 1: shapes of what appeared to be two men moving around,
- 6:40Speaker 1: sort of struggling with each other fighting. As his eyes
- 6:43Speaker 1: adjusted to the darkness, he realized that one of these
- 6:46Speaker 1: men was his stepdad, Keith, but he couldn't make out
- 6:50Speaker 1: anything about the other man except that he was really
- 6:52Speaker 1: big and wearing what appeared to be a black ski mask.
- 6:56Speaker 1: Jason immediately felt paralyzed by fear because he knew, you know,
- 6:59Speaker 1: this was obviously another intruder, just like the one who'd
- 7:02Speaker 1: tried to break into their house that summer. For a second,
- 7:05Speaker 1: he was hopeful that maybe his stepdad would fend the
- 7:07Speaker 1: man off, but then Jason noticed that there was blood
- 7:10Speaker 1: sprayed all over the walls, and then he saw the
- 7:13Speaker 1: glint of a knife in the intruder's hand. At the
- 7:16Speaker 1: same moment, Jason saw his mother, Anita, run out of
- 7:19Speaker 1: the master bedroom, also covered in blood, and she was
- 7:21Speaker 1: holding a baseball bat and she swung it at the
- 7:24Speaker 1: intruder and she hit him in the back of the head,
- 7:27Speaker 1: but it barely slowed him down. And that's when Jason
- 7:29Speaker 1: heard his stepdad yell out for Anita to get the gun,
- 7:33Speaker 1: and Anita she ran into another room, and Jason just
- 7:36Speaker 1: stood there looking out the crack, just paralyzed with shock,
- 7:39Speaker 1: watching as this intruder literally picked Keith up and threw
- 7:43Speaker 1: him back into the master bedroom. And the next thing
- 7:46Speaker 1: Jason knew, he saw his mother standing in the hallway
- 7:48Speaker 1: holding a gun and the intruder was running away out
- 7:52Speaker 1: the front door. Suddenly, Jason kind of snapped out of
- 7:55Speaker 1: the shocked trans he had found himself in and remembered
- 7:58Speaker 1: what Keith had told him to do in case of
- 8:00Speaker 1: a real emergency, call nine one one. So he ran
- 8:04Speaker 1: to the phone in the kitchen. He picked it up
- 8:05Speaker 1: and he dialed, but when he put the receiver to
- 8:08Speaker 1: his ear, all he heard was silence.
- 8:10Speaker 2: There was no dial tone.
- 8:12Speaker 1: Jason looked over and he saw his mother kind of
- 8:14Speaker 1: hobbling over towards him. She was standing in the doorway
- 8:16Speaker 1: and there was blood visibly dripping down her neck. Jason's
- 8:20Speaker 1: voice cracked when he told his mother that the phone
- 8:23Speaker 1: line was dead. Anita told her son to go back
- 8:25Speaker 1: with his stepdad and just wait, that she was going
- 8:28Speaker 1: to go find help. And so Jason began to walk
- 8:31Speaker 1: towards the bedroom where he knew his stepdad was and
- 8:33Speaker 1: as he did, he watched his mom run out the
- 8:36Speaker 1: front door into the night. And then Jason he went
- 8:39Speaker 1: down the hallway and went into the bedroom where he
- 8:41Speaker 1: saw his stepdad sprawled out on the bed and he
- 8:44Speaker 1: was still alive, but he was clearly struggling to breathe.
- 8:47Speaker 1: And Jason, you know, this twelve year old kid, not
- 8:50Speaker 1: having any idea how to handle this, just walked over
- 8:52Speaker 1: to the bed, kneeled down, and he took Keith's hand
- 8:55Speaker 1: and just held it while he waited for his mom.
- 8:57Speaker 1: And as he held Keith's hand, he could hear the
- 9:00Speaker 1: sound of his stepfather take his last few raspy breaths
- 9:03Speaker 1: before he went completely limp. Do you want to treat
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- 10:04Speaker 1: the freezer isle of your local grocery store. Several hours later,
- 10:14Speaker 1: before dawn on the morning of December fifteenth, nineteen ninety one,
- 10:18Speaker 1: Detective Mike Short from the Largo Police Department pulled up
- 10:21Speaker 1: to the curb outside of a brown single story house
- 10:24Speaker 1: surrounded by crime scene tape. He'd got a call from
- 10:26Speaker 1: a supervisor who really didn't know much, just that an
- 10:29Speaker 1: intruder had broken in into this house and attacked a husband.
- 10:33Speaker 2: And wife while they slept.
- 10:35Speaker 1: But now a Short cut out of his car and
- 10:37Speaker 1: looked around at the quiet block of modest, well kept houses.
- 10:41Speaker 1: He found that kind of odd. This really wasn't a
- 10:43Speaker 1: neighborhood where they saw violent home invasions. As Short walked
- 10:47Speaker 1: up to the house, a uniformed officer caught up with
- 10:49Speaker 1: him and gave him a few more details about what
- 10:52Speaker 1: they knew so far. He said that the wife, Anita Youngk,
- 10:55Speaker 1: had run to a neighbor's house screaming for help before
- 10:58Speaker 1: passing out from blood loss in the front yard, and
- 11:01Speaker 1: the husband, Keith Younk, was deceased in the bedroom. The
- 11:05Speaker 1: officer also said that the couple's twelve year old son
- 11:08Speaker 1: had woken up at some point and witnessed the attack,
- 11:11Speaker 1: and for now he was over at the neighbor's house
- 11:14Speaker 1: until they could track down another guardian. The officer said
- 11:17Speaker 1: that Anita had been taken to a hospital, but it
- 11:20Speaker 1: would be a miracle if she survived her injuries.
- 11:23Speaker 2: Were some of the worst they'd ever seen.
- 11:25Speaker 1: As Short went up the walkway that led to the
- 11:27Speaker 1: front door, he saw that blood had dripped all over
- 11:30Speaker 1: the cement.
- 11:31Speaker 2: The front door was open.
- 11:32Speaker 1: And right inside he saw a baseball bat lying on
- 11:35Speaker 1: the floor with blood on the handle. Short stepped inside
- 11:38Speaker 1: and he saw more blood, blood that was spattered and
- 11:41Speaker 1: smeared basically all over the living room, on the walls,
- 11:44Speaker 1: the doors, the furniture, as if the suspect and the
- 11:47Speaker 1: victims had been fighting all throughout the house. In fact,
- 11:51Speaker 1: it was so chaotic and messy that Short thought maybe
- 11:54Speaker 1: the suspect was not expecting to fight off two grown adults,
- 11:58Speaker 1: otherwise they might have come up with a plan of attack.
- 12:01Speaker 1: So Short's first assumption was that this likely was a
- 12:04Speaker 1: robbery that had gone terribly wrong. As he continued down
- 12:07Speaker 1: the hallway, a cat ran past him. It was unharmed,
- 12:10Speaker 1: and it went to hide under the couch. The hallway
- 12:12Speaker 1: was somewhat unbelievably even bloodier than the living room, with
- 12:16Speaker 1: red smears all over the walls and floors, so Short
- 12:19Speaker 1: figured most of the attack must have occurred here. Short
- 12:23Speaker 1: reached the main bedroom and looked inside, and he saw
- 12:26Speaker 1: Keith's body lying on the bed, covered head to toe
- 12:28Speaker 1: in blood. Keith's shirt was shredded, and Short could see
- 12:32Speaker 1: there were multiple stab wounds to his chest and also
- 12:35Speaker 1: a very deep gash down his side. Short decided not
- 12:38Speaker 1: to actually go into the bedroom until crime scene texts
- 12:41Speaker 1: had gone through it for forensic evidence, so instead he
- 12:45Speaker 1: just walked down the rest of the hallway and pushed
- 12:47Speaker 1: open the door to another bedroom, where he was surprised
- 12:50Speaker 1: to see two small children soundly asleep in their bunk beds. Somehow,
- 12:54Speaker 1: these kids had slept through the entire attack. Short went
- 12:58Speaker 1: back outside and immediately flagged down a uniformed officer and
- 13:01Speaker 1: he told him to go in there and wake up
- 13:03Speaker 1: those kids and bring them somewhere safe. Then, once the
- 13:06Speaker 1: officer went inside, Short pulled out his flashlight and began
- 13:09Speaker 1: searching the yard for evidence. Based on Keith's wounds, at
- 13:12Speaker 1: least what he saw, Short thought he was probably attacked
- 13:15Speaker 1: with a knife or maybe even an axe or a machete.
- 13:18Speaker 1: But apart from that bloody baseball bat that was found
- 13:21Speaker 1: in the doorway, there was no sign of a weapon
- 13:23Speaker 1: anywhere inside or outside of the house. But as Short
- 13:27Speaker 1: went around the side of the house, he found something
- 13:29Speaker 1: else that was interesting.
- 13:31Speaker 2: The home's phone lines had.
- 13:32Speaker 1: Clearly been cut. The killer must have planned ahead to
- 13:35Speaker 1: make sure nobody in this house could call out for help,
- 13:39Speaker 1: and this was interesting because nothing else about the scene
- 13:42Speaker 1: suggested that this crime was carefully planned. In fact, in
- 13:45Speaker 1: some ways you could say it looked like it was
- 13:47Speaker 1: very unplanned. But now Short had to consider that maybe
- 13:51Speaker 1: this was not just a random robbery gone wrong. Maybe,
- 13:55Speaker 1: you know, especially given the cut phone lines, this was
- 13:57Speaker 1: like a premeditated attack, a pre medaie murder. And if
- 14:01Speaker 1: that was the case, he had to figure out who
- 14:03Speaker 1: the intended target was, Keith or Anita or both. A
- 14:08Speaker 1: little while later, Detective Short walked up the street to
- 14:11Speaker 1: the neighbor's house to speak with his best eyewitness, Anita's
- 14:14Speaker 1: twelve year old son, Jason. After Short knocked on the door,
- 14:18Speaker 1: the neighbors let him inside and showed him into their
- 14:20Speaker 1: living room, where he saw Jason was wrapped in a
- 14:23Speaker 1: blanket and still wearing his pajamas. Short sat down across
- 14:26Speaker 1: from him and told him that he knew it must
- 14:29Speaker 1: be extremely difficult to talk about this, but he really
- 14:32Speaker 1: needed to know exactly what he had seen and what
- 14:35Speaker 1: he had heard during this attack. Tears began to roll
- 14:38Speaker 1: down Jason's face as he began to describe watching his
- 14:42Speaker 1: mother and stepfather fight off this intruder. Jason said he
- 14:45Speaker 1: couldn't really describe what this person looked like because they
- 14:48Speaker 1: were wearing a ski mask, but he was pretty sure
- 14:51Speaker 1: it was a man. He also said there had been
- 14:53Speaker 1: a little bit of skin exposed on the killer's neck,
- 14:55Speaker 1: and from the looks of it, it appeared like their
- 14:57Speaker 1: skin was maybe fairly dark, so Short wrote down that
- 15:00Speaker 1: the suspect likely had dark skin, but because it was
- 15:03Speaker 1: dark and Jason clearly had not gotten a very good
- 15:06Speaker 1: look at the killer, he knew the boy could be
- 15:08Speaker 1: wrong too, so he was just putting it down as
- 15:11Speaker 1: a maybe. Short asked Jason if the intruder had said
- 15:14Speaker 1: anything during the attack, and Jason.
- 15:16Speaker 2: Just shook his head and said no.
- 15:18Speaker 1: He said the intruder didn't say a single word the
- 15:20Speaker 1: entire time, and Short made note of that too, because
- 15:23Speaker 1: it made him wonder if maybe the killer was someone
- 15:26Speaker 1: close to the family and they knew that if they spoke,
- 15:29Speaker 1: someone might recognize their voice, like Jason. Later that same morning,
- 15:37Speaker 1: once the sun had come up. Short went back to
- 15:40Speaker 1: Keith and Anita's house and searched the outside of the
- 15:42Speaker 1: property again in case he missed anything.
- 15:44Speaker 2: When it was.
- 15:45Speaker 1: Dark, and while he was searching the front yard, another
- 15:48Speaker 1: police cruiser pulled up to the curb. An officer got
- 15:51Speaker 1: out and walked over to Short. She asked if he
- 15:53Speaker 1: was the lead investigator on this case, and when he
- 15:56Speaker 1: said he was, the officer told him that she'd been
- 15:59Speaker 1: waiting at the hospital all morning and Anita had finally
- 16:02Speaker 1: woken up enough to say a few words.
- 16:05Speaker 2: She said.
- 16:05Speaker 1: Anita was only awake for just a few minutes before
- 16:08Speaker 1: she had to be rushed back into surgery, but it
- 16:10Speaker 1: was long enough to answer a couple of questions. Anita
- 16:13Speaker 1: had described waking up to see a man standing over
- 16:16Speaker 1: her with an axe in one hand and a knife
- 16:19Speaker 1: in the other. She said it was a man that
- 16:21Speaker 1: she had never seen before. She didn't recognize anything about him,
- 16:25Speaker 1: the officer said, right before Anita was taken off to surgery.
- 16:28Speaker 2: There was one more thing. She mentioned.
- 16:30Speaker 1: There had been an attempted break in at their house
- 16:33Speaker 1: earlier that year, and the intruder during that break in
- 16:37Speaker 1: had also cut their phone lines short. Instinctively turned and
- 16:40Speaker 1: literally looked at the side of the house where those
- 16:43Speaker 1: lines had been cut, and he thought to himself, this
- 16:45Speaker 1: is too strange of a coincidence to be ignored. Later
- 16:49Speaker 1: that day, back at the station, Short read through reports
- 16:52Speaker 1: on the interviews as team had done with Keith and
- 16:54Speaker 1: Anita's kids and their neighbors. A team of five detectives
- 16:57Speaker 1: had been assigned to this case, and they'd made quick
- 16:59Speaker 1: price progress on collecting background information on the victims. Everybody
- 17:03Speaker 1: in the neighborhood had described the victims as being a
- 17:06Speaker 1: very normal, happy couple.
- 17:07Speaker 2: Keith was an air.
- 17:08Speaker 1: Conditioning technician who'd been working at the same company for
- 17:11Speaker 1: a very long time, and Anita was mostly a stay
- 17:14Speaker 1: at home mom who did some accounting work on the side. However,
- 17:17Speaker 1: what also came out in these interviews was that both
- 17:20Speaker 1: Keith and Anita had ex spouses who could potentially want
- 17:24Speaker 1: to hurt them. Anita's ex husband, Luther, lived thousands of
- 17:28Speaker 1: miles away in Boise, Idaho, but Short knew that despite
- 17:31Speaker 1: the distance, it was not impossible that he might have
- 17:34Speaker 1: traveled to Florida to commit this crime. So Short called
- 17:37Speaker 1: the Boise police and told them about this attack and
- 17:40Speaker 1: asked them to track down Luther and question him.
- 17:43Speaker 2: As for Keith's ex wife.
- 17:44Speaker 1: Linda, Short had learned that she actually lived right there
- 17:47Speaker 1: in town, and Keith's two kids were still at her
- 17:50Speaker 1: house unaware that their father was dead, and since Linda
- 17:54Speaker 1: and her new husband, Steve were potential suspects, Short wanted
- 17:58Speaker 1: to be the one to break the news to them
- 18:00Speaker 1: see how they all reacted. So he looked up Linda's
- 18:02Speaker 1: address in the database and then grabbed his keys and
- 18:05Speaker 1: headed out. Less than an hour later, Short parked his
- 18:11Speaker 1: car in Linda's driveway and walked up to the front door.
- 18:14Speaker 1: He knocked and a woman opened the door, and Short
- 18:16Speaker 1: asked her if she was Linda, and she said yes,
- 18:19Speaker 1: and then he flashed his badge and said he'd like
- 18:21Speaker 1: to come in and Linda. She seemed a bit confused,
- 18:23Speaker 1: but she opened the door and let him inside. Short
- 18:26Speaker 1: walked into what seemed like a perfectly normal Sunday morning routine.
- 18:30Speaker 1: Inside of the house, the air smelled like eggs and bacon,
- 18:33Speaker 1: and the two kids were in the living room watching
- 18:35Speaker 1: cartoons with a man who Short figured must be Linda's
- 18:38Speaker 1: new husband, Steve, and so Short he asked Steve to
- 18:41Speaker 1: leave the kids and come into the kitchen with he
- 18:43Speaker 1: and Linda because he wanted to speak to both of them.
- 18:45Speaker 1: And then, once all three of them had sat down
- 18:47Speaker 1: at the kitchen table, Short broke the news that Keith
- 18:51Speaker 1: had been murdered, and then Short watched as Linda literally
- 18:54Speaker 1: collapsed into Steve's arms. Short gave them a minute, but
- 18:58Speaker 1: then he cut right to the chase. He asked where
- 19:00Speaker 1: Linda and Steve had been at about three am that morning.
- 19:03Speaker 1: Linda seemed shocked to realize that clearly the detective was
- 19:06Speaker 1: considering both her and her husband as suspects, but she
- 19:10Speaker 1: choked out that they'd both been at home with the
- 19:12Speaker 1: kids sleeping, and Steve just not at an agreement. He said,
- 19:16Speaker 1: they'd all been home together all night.
- 19:18Speaker 2: That was it.
- 19:19Speaker 1: Nothing about their demeanor or their reactions was suspicious to Short,
- 19:23Speaker 1: But when he pressed Linda about what her relationship with
- 19:26Speaker 1: her ex husband was like, she admitted that it was
- 19:28Speaker 1: contentious and that actually, just a couple of days earlier,
- 19:32Speaker 1: she'd spoken to a lawyer about potentially changing their custody agreement.
- 19:35Speaker 1: Short found the timing of this a little convenient, and
- 19:38Speaker 1: he wondered, you know, maybe Linda or Steve had decided
- 19:42Speaker 1: they would just settle the custody battle by simply taking
- 19:45Speaker 1: Keith out of the picture for good. And he also
- 19:47Speaker 1: found it convenient that Linda and Keith's two kids weren't
- 19:51Speaker 1: at Keith's house when the attack happened. It was only
- 19:53Speaker 1: Anita's kids who were there at the time. But Short
- 19:56Speaker 1: thanked the couple for their time and told them he
- 19:58Speaker 1: would be in touch if he had had any more questions,
- 20:01Speaker 1: and then he left their house. And as he got
- 20:03Speaker 1: into his car and drove back to the station, he
- 20:05Speaker 1: kept going over the conversation he had just had.
- 20:07Speaker 2: In his mind.
- 20:08Speaker 1: Linda and Steve's alibis were pretty weak. They seemed to
- 20:12Speaker 1: be the only two people who could vouch for their
- 20:14Speaker 1: whereabouts for the night of the murder, and so what
- 20:16Speaker 1: that meant was Short had every reason to keep both
- 20:19Speaker 1: of them at the very top of his suspect list.
- 20:32Speaker 1: Late that night, Short was sitting at his desk in
- 20:35Speaker 1: his office when his phone rang. He picked it up
- 20:37Speaker 1: and it was the police in Boise, Idaho. They'd managed
- 20:40Speaker 1: to track down Anita's ex husband, Luther. Short immediately sat
- 20:44Speaker 1: up straight and grabbed a pencil, to take notes.
- 20:46Speaker 2: The officer on.
- 20:47Speaker 1: The line told him that when they'd got into Luther's house,
- 20:50Speaker 1: he wasn't there, but his fiancee, Connie was, and she
- 20:54Speaker 1: told them that he'd been out on a weekend hunting trip.
- 20:57Speaker 1: So the officers had gone out and searched for Luther
- 20:59Speaker 1: in the area where he said he'd been hunting, but
- 21:02Speaker 1: they didn't find him until that evening, when Luther actually
- 21:05Speaker 1: arrived back at his house. The officer said, at that
- 21:08Speaker 1: point they took him in for questioning, and he had
- 21:10Speaker 1: told them the same thing that Connie had, that he'd
- 21:13Speaker 1: been out elk hunting about an hour away from Boise
- 21:15Speaker 1: all weekend. Luther had been able to describe basically every
- 21:19Speaker 1: step of his hunting trip in great detail, but since
- 21:22Speaker 1: he had been hunting alone, there was nobody to corroborate
- 21:25Speaker 1: his alibi. Now short knew that the drive from Boise
- 21:29Speaker 1: to Largo, Florida, where the attack took place, took at
- 21:31Speaker 1: least three or four days, so the fact that Luther
- 21:34Speaker 1: was in Boise less than twenty four hours after the
- 21:37Speaker 1: murders meant that he could not have driven there, But
- 21:40Speaker 1: there was still a possibility that if he was involved
- 21:43Speaker 1: maybe he could have flown now. Short new it would
- 21:46Speaker 1: be difficult, but not impossible, for Luther to catch a
- 21:49Speaker 1: plane to Florida and back during the time that he
- 21:52Speaker 1: was supposedly out hunting, so he told the Boise officer
- 21:56Speaker 1: to look into whether Luther had recently purchased an airline ticket,
- 22:00Speaker 1: and to also take saliva, blood and hair samples from Luther.
- 22:03Speaker 2: After Short hung up the.
- 22:04Speaker 1: Phone, he just sat back in his chair and thought
- 22:07Speaker 1: for a second. It was less than twenty four hours
- 22:09Speaker 1: into this investigation and Short already had three suspects in
- 22:13Speaker 1: his crosshairs. Keith's ex wife Linda and Linda's new husband Steve,
- 22:18Speaker 1: and also Anita's ex husband Luther, and then also to
- 22:21Speaker 1: some degree, Luther's fiance Connie, could have been involved, but
- 22:25Speaker 1: based on logistics in the fact that she was at
- 22:27Speaker 1: the house, that seemed unlikely. But there was one big problem.
- 22:31Speaker 1: Based on Anita and Jason's eyewitness testimony, the suspect they
- 22:35Speaker 1: were looking for was a dark skinned man who Anita
- 22:38Speaker 1: had never met before, and that description would not apply
- 22:41Speaker 1: to any of their suspects. Short knew that the suspect
- 22:44Speaker 1: description might not be reliable. After all, it had been
- 22:48Speaker 1: dark in the house, so Jason could have been wrong
- 22:50Speaker 1: about the killer's skin color, and Anita was barely conscious
- 22:54Speaker 1: during her interview, so her recollections might not be accurate
- 22:57Speaker 1: at all. But if it was accurate, it could mean
- 23:00Speaker 1: any number of things for Short's investigation. It could mean
- 23:03Speaker 1: it was a random robbery after all, you know, just
- 23:06Speaker 1: some random person who went in the house and did
- 23:08Speaker 1: this horrible thing. It could also mean that, you know,
- 23:10Speaker 1: one of his current suspects had maybe hired somebody to
- 23:13Speaker 1: commit the crime. Or could mean that all shorts theories
- 23:16Speaker 1: about the case were just completely wrong and he had
- 23:18Speaker 1: no idea what happened.
- 23:19Speaker 2: Short rubbed his eyes.
- 23:20Speaker 1: And looked at the clock and realized it was almost midnight,
- 23:23Speaker 1: so he decided it was time to go home and
- 23:25Speaker 1: get some sleep.
- 23:26Speaker 2: Maybe he hoped by morning a.
- 23:28Speaker 1: New piece of evidence might turn up that would help
- 23:31Speaker 1: point him in the right direction.
- 23:34Speaker 2: Around seven am the.
- 23:35Speaker 1: Next morning, so about twenty eight hours after Keith's murder,
- 23:38Speaker 1: Short pulled into the parking lot of Pinecrest's golf course,
- 23:41Speaker 1: which was less than a mile away from Keith and
- 23:43Speaker 1: Anita's house, and at this very moment, Short was feeling
- 23:47Speaker 1: really optimistic about the case because the groundskeeper at this
- 23:50Speaker 1: golf course had called the police that morning and said
- 23:53Speaker 1: they'd found a ski mask and a glove lying in
- 23:56Speaker 1: the grass. So now Short got out of his car
- 23:59Speaker 1: and he went into the club house, and the groundskeeper
- 24:01Speaker 1: was there waiting for him, and he said he had
- 24:03Speaker 1: left the ski mask and the glove right outside, right
- 24:06Speaker 1: where he.
- 24:07Speaker 2: Had found them.
- 24:07Speaker 1: So Short followed the groundskeeper out onto the course, and
- 24:11Speaker 1: as they walked, Short made note of all the ponds
- 24:13Speaker 1: scattered around, and also the lake at the park right
- 24:17Speaker 1: across the street. He wondered if maybe the killer might
- 24:20Speaker 1: have tossed their weapon or weapons into the water. A
- 24:23Speaker 1: minute later, the groundskeeper stopped walking and pointed down at
- 24:26Speaker 1: the ground at a black ski mask and a dark
- 24:28Speaker 1: colored cotton glove lying in the grass, exactly as promised,
- 24:31Speaker 1: And so Short put on a pair of LaTeX's globs,
- 24:34Speaker 1: and he knelt down and he carefully lifted up the mask,
- 24:37Speaker 1: and as he did he felt that clearly it was
- 24:40Speaker 1: crusted with something reddish brown, very likely dried blood. As
- 24:45Speaker 1: soon as Short got back to the station, he sent
- 24:47Speaker 1: the mask and the glove off to the crime lab
- 24:49Speaker 1: for testing. Hoping that they might find a trace of
- 24:51Speaker 1: the killer's DNA. Then Short spoke to a supervisor about
- 24:55Speaker 1: sending a team of divers out to search the water
- 24:57Speaker 1: at the golf course and also that park in case
- 25:00Speaker 1: the murder weapons had been disposed of in any of
- 25:02Speaker 1: those water bodies. It seemed like a long shot that
- 25:04Speaker 1: they would actually find something, but it was the best
- 25:07Speaker 1: lead they had so far, and finding the weapon or
- 25:10Speaker 1: weapons could really help them narrow down their suspect list.
- 25:13Speaker 1: And by the time Short got back to his desk,
- 25:15Speaker 1: he saw that his answering machine was blinking. There was
- 25:18Speaker 1: a new message, so he hit play and the message
- 25:22Speaker 1: was from a man who said he had information on
- 25:24Speaker 1: the Keith youngk case. So Short called him back right away,
- 25:28Speaker 1: and when the man answered, he said he was a
- 25:30Speaker 1: college student who lived a block away from Keith and
- 25:32Speaker 1: Anita Young's house, and he said on the night of
- 25:35Speaker 1: the murder, he and his friends had been hanging out
- 25:37Speaker 1: in his driveway and they'd seen a man jogging east
- 25:40Speaker 1: down Coronet Avenue. And Short immediately turned and looked at
- 25:44Speaker 1: the map on the wall, and he got really excited
- 25:46Speaker 1: because he saw Coronett Avenue was actually the exact path
- 25:50Speaker 1: the killer would have had to take to get from
- 25:52Speaker 1: Keith and Anita's house to that golf course. Short asked
- 25:55Speaker 1: the young man to describe this jogger, and the college
- 25:59Speaker 1: student said that it appeared to be a white man
- 26:01Speaker 1: with short, dark hair. Short asked him if he was
- 26:03Speaker 1: pretty sure about that, and the student said yeah. In fact,
- 26:06Speaker 1: the jogger had passed under a street light at one point,
- 26:09Speaker 1: so they all.
- 26:10Speaker 2: Got a pretty good look.
- 26:11Speaker 1: This was a huge development since twelve year old Jason,
- 26:15Speaker 1: you know, one of the eyewitnesses, had said the killer
- 26:18Speaker 1: had dark skin. It was very possible now that maybe
- 26:21Speaker 1: Jason was wrong, But it was also possible that there
- 26:24Speaker 1: were now two men involved in the attack, maybe one
- 26:27Speaker 1: had dark skin and one had light skin. The following week,
- 26:35Speaker 1: Short opened up a folder that had just been sent
- 26:37Speaker 1: over from the police in Northport, Florida, a town eighty
- 26:40Speaker 1: five miles away. On December nineteenth, so just four days
- 26:44Speaker 1: after Keith Ynk was murdered, a man and three kids
- 26:47Speaker 1: in Northport, Florida were shot to death in the middle
- 26:49Speaker 1: of the night inside of their home. These suspects in
- 26:52Speaker 1: that attack were two men wearing ski masks, and they
- 26:55Speaker 1: had cut the house's phone lines, so the similarities between
- 26:59Speaker 1: these two killings were easy to see, But as far
- 27:02Speaker 1: as Short could tell, the victims in the second attack
- 27:05Speaker 1: didn't have any connections to the Younks. Plus, the victims
- 27:08Speaker 1: in the second attack had been shot instead of stabbed,
- 27:11Speaker 1: And so as Short really did try to look for
- 27:13Speaker 1: all the similarities he could between the two crime scenes,
- 27:17Speaker 1: he just couldn't get over how sort of blatantly personal
- 27:20Speaker 1: the very violent and bloody attack felt at the Young's house.
- 27:24Speaker 1: So even though there was this other, you know, on
- 27:27Speaker 1: the surface similar killing in Florida, and even though Jason
- 27:30Speaker 1: and Anita both swore they did not recognize the intruder,
- 27:34Speaker 1: Short was not ready to rule out that Keith Young
- 27:37Speaker 1: had been killed by someone who knew him. His strongest
- 27:39Speaker 1: suspect was still Anita's ex husband, Luther, who claimed to
- 27:43Speaker 1: have been out hunting alone at the.
- 27:44Speaker 2: Time of the attack.
- 27:46Speaker 1: As for Anita, her condition had actually finally stabilized, and
- 27:49Speaker 1: when Short had gone to speak to her at the hospital,
- 27:52Speaker 1: she had said that Luther was really the only person
- 27:55Speaker 1: she could think of who might want to hurt her
- 27:57Speaker 1: because they'd been arguing a lot about custody and also
- 28:00Speaker 1: child support, But the Boise police had checked with every
- 28:03Speaker 1: airline in the country and none of them had a
- 28:06Speaker 1: record of Luther flying into Florida that weekend, so Short
- 28:09Speaker 1: couldn't even prove that Luther was in the state at
- 28:12Speaker 1: the time of the attack. And then also Anita had
- 28:15Speaker 1: mentioned that she'd been having problems with Keith's ex wife, Linda.
- 28:19Speaker 1: She said that Linda had been harassing her all summer long,
- 28:23Speaker 1: calling her so many times that she couldn't even use
- 28:26Speaker 1: her own phone. Short definitely still had his eye on Linda,
- 28:30Speaker 1: but he still hadn't found anything directly linking Linda or
- 28:33Speaker 1: her new husband, Steve to the crime. But Short was
- 28:37Speaker 1: still very hopeful that this case would get solved because
- 28:40Speaker 1: a preliminary report from the forensics lab had just come
- 28:43Speaker 1: in that said a Caucasian hare had been discovered inside
- 28:47Speaker 1: the black ski mass that was found on the golf course,
- 28:49Speaker 1: which could point to any one of Short's main suspects,
- 28:53Speaker 1: and Short knew it was only a matter of time
- 28:55Speaker 1: before the forensics lab finished its full analysis of that
- 28:58Speaker 1: hair sample, and then they would know for sure if
- 29:01Speaker 1: it was an exact match. One day in early January
- 29:05Speaker 1: of nineteen ninety two. So a few weeks after Keith's murder,
- 29:08Speaker 1: Detective Short got into the office and checked his answering
- 29:11Speaker 1: machine and he found that he'd gotten a message from
- 29:14Speaker 1: the forensics lab telling him to call back right away,
- 29:17Speaker 1: And so right away he picked up the phone and
- 29:19Speaker 1: dialed the number, and he could feel as heart pounding
- 29:21Speaker 1: as the line rang. This could finally be the break
- 29:23Speaker 1: in the case he'd been waiting for. And when the
- 29:25Speaker 1: technician picked up, he told Short that, you know, they
- 29:28Speaker 1: had analyzed that hair in the mask, and they'd analyzed
- 29:31Speaker 1: the DNA, but it was not a match for Short's
- 29:35Speaker 1: top suspect, Anita's ex husband, Luther.
- 29:38Speaker 2: Not a match.
- 29:39Speaker 1: Short thanked the technician and hung up, feeling very disappointed. Now,
- 29:43Speaker 1: this still didn't fully rule Luther out, especially because Short
- 29:46Speaker 1: still thought there might have been maybe two suspects involved,
- 29:49Speaker 1: but he decided that at this point it was time
- 29:52Speaker 1: for investigators to really focus on other possibilities. Several weeks later,
- 30:06Speaker 1: so in early nineteen ninety two, roughly a couple of
- 30:08Speaker 1: months after Keith Young's murderer, Detective Short knocked on the
- 30:11Speaker 1: front door of Linda's house. Linda is Keith's ex wife,
- 30:15Speaker 1: and when Linda opened the door and saw the detective
- 30:17Speaker 1: once again standing outside her house, she quickly let him inside.
- 30:21Speaker 1: The house was quiet, and Linda told Short that she
- 30:23Speaker 1: was the only one home.
- 30:24Speaker 2: They sat down in the living room and then they ran.
- 30:27Speaker 1: Through all the subjects that Short had grilled her on
- 30:29Speaker 1: the first time, around her alibi, her custody disputes, her
- 30:33Speaker 1: tense relationship with Keith, and none of her answers changed,
- 30:36Speaker 1: and she really didn't say anything that could be viewed
- 30:38Speaker 1: as incriminating. But as their conversation began to wrap up,
- 30:42Speaker 1: Linda looked anxious, like there was something more she wanted
- 30:45Speaker 1: to say.
- 30:46Speaker 2: Short asked her what was.
- 30:47Speaker 1: Going on, and she said that there was something she
- 30:50Speaker 1: hadn't mentioned when they had spoken the first time. It
- 30:52Speaker 1: was about her new husband, Steve. She said that a
- 30:55Speaker 1: while back, after she and Steve had gotten married, that
- 30:58Speaker 1: briefly she had re kindled her relationship with Keith. Steve
- 31:02Speaker 1: had found out that she was cheating on him, and
- 31:04Speaker 1: he was naturally very upset.
- 31:07Speaker 2: Linda said that a.
- 31:07Speaker 1: Few months ago, Steve had even made a few jokes
- 31:10Speaker 1: about hurting Keith. At the time, she didn't think he
- 31:13Speaker 1: was serious, but after Keith was killed, she started worrying
- 31:17Speaker 1: that Steve might have somehow been involved. She said that
- 31:20Speaker 1: she had even gone so far as to check Steve's
- 31:23Speaker 1: knife collection to make sure none of them were missing.
- 31:26Speaker 1: Short was careful not to let his shock come across
- 31:28Speaker 1: his face, but.
- 31:30Speaker 2: Inside his mind was absolutely spinning.
- 31:32Speaker 1: He'd always thought it was possible that Linda and Steve
- 31:35Speaker 1: were both in on the murder, but now it sounded
- 31:37Speaker 1: like maybe Steve might have acted alone. He also wondered, though,
- 31:41Speaker 1: if Linda was ratting out her husband to draw suspicion
- 31:44Speaker 1: away from herself. So to help get to the bottom
- 31:47Speaker 1: of it, he asked Linda to come with him back
- 31:49Speaker 1: to the station for a polygraph test. He also planned
- 31:52Speaker 1: to order another polygraph for Steve, who was suddenly at
- 31:55Speaker 1: the very top.
- 31:56Speaker 2: Of his suspect list.
- 31:58Speaker 1: But almost two months later, in March of nineteen ninety two,
- 32:02Speaker 1: Short was back in his office, staring down at a
- 32:04Speaker 1: pile of documents he'd already read over a million times,
- 32:07Speaker 1: and the evidence still didn't point him toward anybody in particular.
- 32:11Speaker 2: Linda and Steve had both taken.
- 32:13Speaker 1: Their polygraph tests, but the results did not indicate they
- 32:16Speaker 1: were guilty, and there was still no hard evidence that
- 32:19Speaker 1: tied either of them to the crime.
- 32:20Speaker 2: Also, after searching.
- 32:21Speaker 1: All the ponds in that lake in the area, police
- 32:24Speaker 1: still had not found a murder weapon, and they'd still
- 32:27Speaker 1: not been able to match that strand of hair from
- 32:29Speaker 1: the presumed killer's sche mask to any of the suspects
- 32:33Speaker 1: on their radar. Short still had really three main suspects
- 32:37Speaker 1: who could have been responsible for the murder. There was
- 32:39Speaker 1: Keith's ex wife Linda, who had been fighting with him
- 32:41Speaker 1: about custody. Her alibi was weak and only supported by
- 32:45Speaker 1: her new husband, Steve, who she had been suspicious of
- 32:49Speaker 1: when Short interviewed her for a second time, and so
- 32:51Speaker 1: Steve was also one of his primary suspects because he
- 32:55Speaker 1: had this terrible history with Keith and had even openly
- 32:58Speaker 1: joked about, you know, her Keith. And then there was
- 33:01Speaker 1: luther Anita's hot headed ex husband who lived on the
- 33:04Speaker 1: other side of the country. Now, it would have been
- 33:06Speaker 1: possible for him to fly from Idaho to Florida and
- 33:09Speaker 1: commit this crime, but there was no proof that he did.
- 33:12Speaker 1: And of course there was still the possibility that this
- 33:15Speaker 1: was just a random attack or a robbery gone wrong,
- 33:18Speaker 1: and investigators still couldn't even be sure if they were
- 33:21Speaker 1: looking for one or two or more suspects.
- 33:23Speaker 2: They had no idea, so Short.
- 33:25Speaker 1: Had plenty of theories, but still no evidence to back
- 33:28Speaker 1: any of them up. The investigation had gone so cold
- 33:32Speaker 1: that the task force assigned to the case had been
- 33:34Speaker 1: reduced from five detectives to just two. Short was starting
- 33:37Speaker 1: to fear that Keith's murder might never be solved.
- 33:40Speaker 2: But just then Short's phone rang, and when he picked up.
- 33:43Speaker 1: The receiver, a voice said that they knew something about
- 33:47Speaker 1: that previous break in attempt at Keith and Anita's house
- 33:50Speaker 1: a few months before Keith's murder, And as Detective Short
- 33:53Speaker 1: listened to what this caller had to say, he suddenly
- 33:55Speaker 1: knew exactly who had broken into that house and killed
- 33:58Speaker 1: Keith and tried to kill Anita. Based on all the
- 34:09Speaker 1: collected evidence, as well as the killer's eventual partial confession,
- 34:13Speaker 1: this is what investigators believe happened to Keith and Anita
- 34:16Speaker 1: Younk on the morning of December fifteenth, nineteen ninety one,
- 34:25Speaker 1: at three am. The killer saw that all the windows
- 34:28Speaker 1: in Keith and Anita's house were dark, so they carefully
- 34:31Speaker 1: snuck around the side of the home and cut the
- 34:33Speaker 1: phone lines, just like they'd done a few months before.
- 34:36Speaker 1: The first time, they'd second guessed themselves and didn't go
- 34:39Speaker 1: through with what they had planned, but this time was
- 34:42Speaker 1: going to be different. The killer broke into the house
- 34:45Speaker 1: very easily, feeling very calm and in control. They had
- 34:48Speaker 1: an axe in their right hand and a knife in
- 34:50Speaker 1: their left. As they made their way through the living room,
- 34:53Speaker 1: they heard growling and hissing, and they looked down to
- 34:56Speaker 1: see the family's cats standing in their path. They thought
- 34:59Speaker 1: about strangling the case to shut it up, but decided
- 35:02Speaker 1: not to. They wanted to do this with as little
- 35:04Speaker 1: collateral damage as possible, so they bent down and tried
- 35:07Speaker 1: to soothe the cat, and when it worked and the
- 35:09Speaker 1: cat became quiet, the killer stepped past the cat and
- 35:13Speaker 1: began walking down the hall. They made it to the
- 35:15Speaker 1: master bedroom, they opened up the door and stepped inside.
- 35:18Speaker 1: Anita and Keith were fast asleep in their beds, and
- 35:22Speaker 1: so the killer quietly walked over to the side of
- 35:24Speaker 1: the bed that Anita was on, and they stood there
- 35:26Speaker 1: looking down at her, you know, getting ready to do
- 35:29Speaker 1: what they felt like they had to do. But as
- 35:32Speaker 1: the killer was looking down at Anita. Anita stirred awake,
- 35:36Speaker 1: and for a brief second, she looked up and locked
- 35:39Speaker 1: eyes with the killer, and so they struggled and shoved
- 35:42Speaker 1: each other, and their fight kind of spilled out of
- 35:44Speaker 1: the bedroom into the main portion of the house. I mean,
- 35:47Speaker 1: this was not how the killer had hoped this would go.
- 35:49Speaker 1: They'd wanted to get this done quickly and leave without
- 35:52Speaker 1: anybody waking up, but they'd clearly underestimated Keith. He didn't
- 35:56Speaker 1: stop fighting. And then as the killer and Keith can
- 36:00Speaker 1: cotinued sort of fumbling around and making their way back
- 36:02Speaker 1: down the hallway, the killer suddenly felt something hard smash
- 36:06Speaker 1: into the back of their skull, and they turned to
- 36:09Speaker 1: see Anita standing there behind them, with blood running down
- 36:12Speaker 1: her face and a baseball.
- 36:13Speaker 2: Bat in her hands.
- 36:14Speaker 1: The killer heard Keith shout out for Anita to go
- 36:17Speaker 1: get the gun, and he saw Anita run toward a
- 36:20Speaker 1: nearby closet. The killer also noticed a young boy looking
- 36:24Speaker 1: out from a doorway nearby, and so the killer made
- 36:26Speaker 1: a split second decision. They just grabbed Keith and chucked
- 36:30Speaker 1: him into the master bedroom, and then the killer sprinted
- 36:33Speaker 1: back down the hallway and out the front door, and
- 36:36Speaker 1: then when they got to the sidewalk, they removed their
- 36:38Speaker 1: ski mask and kind of casually jogged down the street,
- 36:41Speaker 1: hoping that to anybody looking outside, they would think the
- 36:45Speaker 1: killer was just an unassuming health nut out for a
- 36:47Speaker 1: very early morning run. When they got to a nearby
- 36:50Speaker 1: golf course, they stopped on the grass to change their clothes,
- 36:53Speaker 1: and then after that they stole the bike and rode away.
- 36:58Speaker 1: Things had not gone the way the killer had hoped,
- 37:01Speaker 1: but as they reflected on what they had just done,
- 37:04Speaker 1: they thought to themselves that in reality, this actually could
- 37:06Speaker 1: have gone worse. I mean, they didn't kill the cat,
- 37:10Speaker 1: and critically no kids had been hurt either, And in
- 37:12Speaker 1: some ways, that's what this was all about. To avoid
- 37:15Speaker 1: hurting the kids, because the killer was Anita's ex husband,
- 37:19Speaker 1: Luther Bass. He'd wanted to get Anita out of the
- 37:23Speaker 1: way so he could have custody of their four kids
- 37:25Speaker 1: and treat them the way he believed they needed to
- 37:27Speaker 1: be treated.
- 37:28Speaker 2: And he'd wanted to get Anita.
- 37:30Speaker 1: Out of the way so that he could have custody
- 37:32Speaker 1: of his four kids. He felt like she was screwing
- 37:35Speaker 1: up their lives, that he was the kid's solution.
- 37:37Speaker 2: They needed him and so he had to do this.
- 37:40Speaker 1: But Luther's own fiance, Connie, had ultimately told the Boise
- 37:44Speaker 1: police that Luther was the one who had cut Keith
- 37:47Speaker 1: and Anita's phone lines a few months back before the murder,
- 37:50Speaker 1: and she said she knew Luther had actually flown to
- 37:53Speaker 1: Florida on the weekend of the murder, using an alias
- 37:56Speaker 1: and fake social security number that he had gotten from
- 37:59Speaker 1: his coworker. And once the Boise police finished speaking with Connie,
- 38:03Speaker 1: they immediately called Detective Short in Florida to tell him
- 38:06Speaker 1: what they'd just learned. It turned out there was no
- 38:09Speaker 1: second suspect. It was just Luther. So twelve year old
- 38:12Speaker 1: Jason had just been wrong about the killer's appearance, and
- 38:15Speaker 1: Anita had been wrong about not knowing who they were.
- 38:18Speaker 1: As for that hair that had been found inside the
- 38:20Speaker 1: black ski mask that Luther had been wearing, it's unclear
- 38:23Speaker 1: how that was there. It wasn't Luther's hair, but it's
- 38:26Speaker 1: possible that maybe somebody else said put the mask on
- 38:28Speaker 1: at some point and that's how it got there. Luther
- 38:31Speaker 1: Bass was arrested in Boise, Idaho, on March sixth, nineteen
- 38:34Speaker 1: ninety two. And he confessed to the crime on the
- 38:36Speaker 1: same day. A year later, he was convicted of first
- 38:39Speaker 1: degree murder, attempted first to cree murder, and burglary with
- 38:42Speaker 1: an assault. He was sentenced to life plus thirty years
- 38:45Speaker 1: in prison. As for Anita, she would recover from her injuries.
- 38:58Speaker 1: Thank you so much for watching. Know what you thought
- 39:00Speaker 1: of today's episode in the comments. And remember, we have
- 39:03Speaker 1: a whole playlist of true crime episodes ready for you
- 39:05Speaker 1: to binge right now, so click here and give them
- 39:08Speaker 1: a watch.
- 39:09Speaker 2: All right, until next time, see ya.