Latest / Crime and Horror / Utah man's double life got him KILLED - MrBallen
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: On an afternoon in December of 1991, a woman in
- 0:03Speaker 1: small-town Utah opened up her mailbox. Inside was a credit
- 0:07Speaker 1: card bill that was addressed to her husband, who had
- 0:10Speaker 1: disappeared a week earlier. And the woman found this to
- 0:13Speaker 1: be really strange, because as far as she knew, her
- 0:17Speaker 1: husband didn't have a credit card. However, when she finally
- 0:21Speaker 1: ripped open the envelope and actually read the charges... she
- 0:24Speaker 1: realized that her missing husband might have been keeping an
- 0:28Speaker 1: even bigger secret. But before we get into today's story,
- 0:31Speaker 1: if you're a fan of the Strange, Dark, and Mysterious
- 0:33Speaker 1: delivered in story format, then you've come to the right place,
- 0:36Speaker 1: because that's all we do, and we upload two, three,
- 0:39Speaker 1: even four times every week. So, if that's of interest
- 0:42Speaker 1: to you, the next time you see the Like Buttons
- 0:44Speaker 1: car at the grocery store, make sure you park your
- 0:47Speaker 1: car close enough to theirs so they are not able
- 0:50Speaker 1: to open up their driver's side door. Also, please subscribe
- 0:53Speaker 1: to our channel and turn on all notifications so you
- 0:55Speaker 1: don't miss any of our weekly uploads. Okay, let's get
- 0:59Speaker 1: into today's story. Around 6.30 p.m. on December 10, 1991,
- 1:24Speaker 1: a 22-year-old security guard named Brian Ruff sat inside of
- 1:27Speaker 1: a guard shack at the Kennecock Copper Mine in northern Utah,
- 1:30Speaker 1: reading a college textbook. The shack was barely big enough
- 1:33Speaker 1: for one person to sit inside of, and there were
- 1:36Speaker 1: windows on all four sides looking out into the total darkness.
- 1:39Speaker 1: The sun was already down, and this was a really
- 1:41Speaker 1: isolated part of the mine with no lights or other
- 1:44Speaker 1: buildings nearby, so apart from a little bit of moonlight
- 1:47Speaker 1: on the snow... It was basically pitch black outside. Brian
- 1:51Speaker 1: had worked as a security guard for this mine for
- 1:53Speaker 1: a little over a year, but he'd only been stationed
- 1:56Speaker 1: at this particular guard shack for a couple of weeks now.
- 1:59Speaker 1: And in his opinion, it was the worst post he
- 2:02Speaker 1: could have been assigned to. His job was to guard
- 2:05Speaker 1: this chain link gate on a remote service road that
- 2:08Speaker 1: led into the canyons. This was a really out of
- 2:11Speaker 1: the way entrance into the mine, which meant that not
- 2:14Speaker 1: a lot of vehicles came this way. So the job
- 2:16Speaker 1: was basically just really boring. But it was also simultaneously
- 2:21Speaker 1: very dangerous. The Kennecock Copper Mine was known as the
- 2:25Speaker 1: richest hole on earth because of the huge amount of
- 2:28Speaker 1: valuable materials buried there, including obviously copper and gold and silver.
- 2:33Speaker 1: And that made it a big target for thieves. In fact,
- 2:36Speaker 1: in just the past few months, more than $ 150, 000 worth
- 2:41Speaker 1: of material and equipment had been stolen from the mine.
- 2:44Speaker 1: So as a result, Brian was a little bit nervous
- 2:47Speaker 1: about being out here in the not only because it was,
- 2:50Speaker 1: you know, pitch black outside, but also he was unarmed
- 2:54Speaker 1: and there were no security cameras. So if he did
- 2:57Speaker 1: encounter thieves, he basically had to handle it by himself,
- 3:01Speaker 1: armed with nothing more than a telephone to call for help.
- 3:04Speaker 1: But on this particular night, his shift had been, you know,
- 3:07Speaker 1: routine so far, slow and uneventful. So Brian was now
- 3:11Speaker 1: just sort of passing the time studying. He was in
- 3:13Speaker 1: nursing school and his final exams were coming up in
- 3:15Speaker 1: a few days. So he was just sort of pouring
- 3:17Speaker 1: over his textbooks and notes to prepare. While he studied,
- 3:20Speaker 1: he took out his thermos full of soup that he
- 3:22Speaker 1: had brought for dinner. And just as he began eating
- 3:25Speaker 1: the soup, the phone on his desk rang. Now, Brian
- 3:28Speaker 1: immediately did want to answer the phone because he knew
- 3:31Speaker 1: very likely it was his wife, Jennifer. But at the
- 3:35Speaker 1: same time, right now, things at home were not great.
- 3:38Speaker 1: Jennifer worked as a nurse's aide, and Brian had also
- 3:42Speaker 1: started working nights at the mine to help support the
- 3:44Speaker 1: family while he went to nursing school during the day.
- 3:47Speaker 1: But even with both of them working... it was hard
- 3:50Speaker 1: to make ends meet. And now Jennifer was pregnant again
- 3:53Speaker 1: with their second child, which was going to make things
- 3:56Speaker 1: even harder financially. And the pressure of juggling school and
- 4:00Speaker 1: work and parenthood had been putting a big strain on
- 4:03Speaker 1: their marriage. And about a month ago, Brian had sort
- 4:06Speaker 1: of reached a breaking point, and he'd actually walked out
- 4:10Speaker 1: on his family. He'd left a note for Jennifer saying
- 4:12Speaker 1: he just needed time alone to think. And then he
- 4:14Speaker 1: had driven to his work, he had turned in his
- 4:17Speaker 1: security badge and told his boss he'd quit. Then he
- 4:20Speaker 1: had left town and he'd spent almost a week in
- 4:22Speaker 1: Las Vegas. And eventually he'd driven all the way out
- 4:25Speaker 1: to San Francisco. But while he was there, you know,
- 4:28Speaker 1: having his time alone, he'd received word that his daughter
- 4:31Speaker 1: was in the emergency room with pneumonia back home in Utah.
- 4:34Speaker 1: And for Brian, it was like that was his wake-up call.
- 4:37Speaker 1: He realized he could not live with himself if he
- 4:39Speaker 1: truly abandoned his family. And so he drove right back
- 4:42Speaker 1: to Utah to be with Jennifer and to be with
- 4:44Speaker 1: his daughter who would make a recovery soon. And, you know, Jennifer,
- 4:48Speaker 1: she would take Brian back despite, you know, him walking
- 4:50Speaker 1: out on the family, at least for a short time.
- 4:54Speaker 1: But her accepting him back into the fold did not
- 4:57Speaker 1: sort of make them return to normal. In reality, you know,
- 5:01Speaker 1: after he returned, there just was this constant sense that
- 5:04Speaker 1: there was tension hanging over their relationship because of what
- 5:08Speaker 1: Brian had done, you know, abandoning them. So now in
- 5:11Speaker 1: the guard shack, Brian took a deep breath and then
- 5:14Speaker 1: he picked up the ringing phone and And for a
- 5:16Speaker 1: few minutes, he just chatted on the phone until he
- 5:19Speaker 1: suddenly saw something out the window, a flash of headlights
- 5:23Speaker 1: coming up the road towards his guard shack. And so
- 5:25Speaker 1: at this point, Brian said he had to go. He
- 5:27Speaker 1: hung up and went right outside to meet the approaching vehicle.
- 5:32Speaker 1: About an hour and a half later, so around 8 p.m.,
- 5:36Speaker 1: Brian's boss, Todd Fallows, pulled up to the gate next
- 5:39Speaker 1: to the guard shack. The shack's lights were on, but
- 5:42Speaker 1: he couldn't see anybody inside of it. And Todd found
- 5:44Speaker 1: this pretty odd. because Brian wasn't supposed to leave his
- 5:48Speaker 1: post under any circumstance. That was sort of like the
- 5:51Speaker 1: main component to the job. You stay put. But making
- 5:54Speaker 1: this even stranger was Brian's car was parked right next
- 5:58Speaker 1: to the shack. And this shack is so far away
- 6:01Speaker 1: from every other building that really there was no way
- 6:04Speaker 1: for Brian to go anywhere without his car, especially not,
- 6:08Speaker 1: you know, in the freezing cold like it was that night.
- 6:10Speaker 1: So where was Brian? And so Todd, who was definitely
- 6:13Speaker 1: feeling a bit apprehensive at this point, He parked his car,
- 6:16Speaker 1: he got out, and he walked into the shack. And
- 6:19Speaker 1: when he got in there, I mean, it's a very
- 6:20Speaker 1: small space, but Brian, you know, was not in there.
- 6:23Speaker 1: But there was a hat and a half-eaten dinner on
- 6:26Speaker 1: the desk inside. And so at this point, Todd felt like,
- 6:29Speaker 1: you know, we have an issue. Like, I don't know
- 6:31Speaker 1: where Brian is. Something seems off. So he picked up
- 6:34Speaker 1: the phone inside the shack and he called the Salt
- 6:37Speaker 1: Lake County Sheriff's Department. Less than an hour later, Detective
- 6:41Speaker 1: Manny Lassig drove down a snowy desert road toward the
- 6:45Speaker 1: Kennecock Copper Mine. Now, everybody knew this mine was a
- 6:49Speaker 1: target for thieves. So when the sheriff's department got a
- 6:52Speaker 1: call that a security guard had seemingly vanished into thin
- 6:56Speaker 1: air in the middle of his shift, well, Detective Lassig
- 6:59Speaker 1: went out right away to investigate because the thought was,
- 7:02Speaker 1: you know, this could have been perpetrated by thieves. Maybe,
- 7:05Speaker 1: you know, Brian's been kidnapped or something. When Lassig pulled
- 7:08Speaker 1: up to the mine's main entrance, there was another vehicle
- 7:11Speaker 1: parked right in front, and it flashed its headlights at him.
- 7:14Speaker 1: And then a man in a security guard's uniform rolled
- 7:16Speaker 1: down the driver's side window and sort of waved Lassig over.
- 7:19Speaker 1: And so Lassig pulled up next to this car, and
- 7:22Speaker 1: the man in this other car told Lassig that he
- 7:25Speaker 1: was Todd Fallows, the supervisor who had called in about
- 7:28Speaker 1: the missing guard. Then, after that, Todd started up his
- 7:31Speaker 1: engine and told Lassig to follow him. And so he did.
- 7:35Speaker 1: He followed him off into the darkness, driving down this
- 7:38Speaker 1: dark winding road that led into the canyons. The Kennecott
- 7:41Speaker 1: mine was three square miles wide with rocky terrain and
- 7:45Speaker 1: mountains on every side. So they were driving for a
- 7:48Speaker 1: good 10 minutes before finally Lassig saw this light up ahead,
- 7:52Speaker 1: which was the guard shack that Brian had been in.
- 7:55Speaker 1: The two men pulled up near the shack and got
- 7:57Speaker 1: out of their vehicles. And then Todd told Detective Lassig
- 8:01Speaker 1: that the shack was where the guard, Brian Ruff, had
- 8:03Speaker 1: last been stationed. And so Lassig, he turned on his
- 8:06Speaker 1: flashlight and then aimed it at the ground right outside
- 8:09Speaker 1: of the shack. But there wasn't much to see. It
- 8:12Speaker 1: had been snowing all evening, so any footprints or tire
- 8:15Speaker 1: tracks that might have helped them were now covered up.
- 8:17Speaker 1: And so Lassig stepped inside of the shack. And at
- 8:20Speaker 1: first glance, everything looked to be in order. There was
- 8:23Speaker 1: no blood, nothing overturned, you know, no sign of a struggle.
- 8:27Speaker 1: But again, there was a hat, Brian's hat, and also
- 8:31Speaker 1: Brian's half-eaten thermos of soup, his dinner. It was still
- 8:34Speaker 1: just sitting on the desk, which was pretty conspicuous. And
- 8:37Speaker 1: so Lassig is kind of taking the whole scene in,
- 8:39Speaker 1: trying to make sense of what could have happened, coming
- 8:41Speaker 1: up with maybe some theories here, looking for any clues
- 8:44Speaker 1: of where to look next. And as he was doing that,
- 8:47Speaker 1: the phone on the desk rang. And Detective Lassig just
- 8:51Speaker 1: picked it up. And he asked who was calling. And
- 8:54Speaker 1: the woman on the line sounded very surprised. And she
- 8:56Speaker 1: said her name was Jennifer Ruff. And she was trying
- 8:59Speaker 1: to reach out to her husband, Brian Ruff. Lassig quickly
- 9:02Speaker 1: explained that he was with the sheriff's department and that
- 9:05Speaker 1: her husband Brian had at some point this night left
- 9:08Speaker 1: his post and now couldn't be found. And so he
- 9:10Speaker 1: was literally looking for her husband. And so he asked
- 9:13Speaker 1: Jennifer when was the last time she had spoken to Brian.
- 9:17Speaker 1: And Jennifer, you know, she was obviously taken aback by
- 9:20Speaker 1: this news, but she said she had just spoken with
- 9:22Speaker 1: her husband a couple hours ago. She said they were
- 9:24Speaker 1: talking and then suddenly Brian had to hang up because
- 9:27Speaker 1: he said he saw a car coming up the road.
- 9:29Speaker 1: Lassig asked her if Brian had said anything specific about
- 9:32Speaker 1: this particular car that was approaching or, you know, who
- 9:35Speaker 1: was driving the car or anything. But Jennifer said no,
- 9:39Speaker 1: he didn't say anything, just the car was coming and
- 9:41Speaker 1: he had to go. Lassig was obviously disappointed that there
- 9:44Speaker 1: wasn't more information here, but he still thanked Jennifer and
- 9:48Speaker 1: told her, you know, I promise I will be in
- 9:50Speaker 1: touch with you as soon as I possibly can. I'm
- 9:52Speaker 1: going to go out there and find your husband. Then
- 9:54Speaker 1: he hung up the phone and he turned his attention
- 9:57Speaker 1: back to the scene, you know, the inside of this
- 9:59Speaker 1: Very small. shack. But just a few seconds after he
- 10:03Speaker 1: had put the phone down, the phone rang again. And
- 10:06Speaker 1: so Lassig picked it up again. And once again, it
- 10:10Speaker 1: was a woman saying she was Brian's wife, Jennifer. And
- 10:14Speaker 1: she was asking where Brian was. But as Lassig is listening,
- 10:17Speaker 1: he's thinking this woman doesn't sound anything like the woman
- 10:20Speaker 1: I just spoke to literally a minute ago, who also
- 10:24Speaker 1: said she was Brian's wife, Jennifer. And also this second
- 10:26Speaker 1: woman clearly doesn't have any recollection of the earlier conversation.
- 10:31Speaker 1: Like these are two different people who are both claiming
- 10:35Speaker 1: to be Brian's wife, Jennifer. But obviously there could only
- 10:40Speaker 1: be one. So one of these women had to be lying, right?
- 10:50Speaker 1: On a morning in mid-December of 1991, so just a
- 10:54Speaker 1: few days after Brian Ruff's disappearance from his remote guard
- 10:57Speaker 1: shack and still he had not been found yet, Detective
- 11:00Speaker 1: Manny Lassig sat down with a cup of coffee in
- 11:03Speaker 1: the Ruff's dining room across from Brian's wife, Jennifer. The
- 11:07Speaker 1: investigation had been moving slowly so far because for the
- 11:10Speaker 1: first few days, everyone had been hoping that Brian would
- 11:13Speaker 1: just return on his own. But as the days passed
- 11:17Speaker 1: and he still hadn't been heard from, that was looking
- 11:19Speaker 1: less and less likely. By this point, Detective Lassig had
- 11:23Speaker 1: traced the phone numbers of both women who had called
- 11:26Speaker 1: the guard shack on the night Brian disappeared, claiming to
- 11:29Speaker 1: be his wife Jennifer. And he had quickly found out
- 11:31Speaker 1: that one of those calls was actually from Jennifer Ruff's
- 11:36Speaker 1: work phone number, which meant very likely that was the
- 11:38Speaker 1: real Jennifer Ruff. But Lassig was still trying to figure
- 11:42Speaker 1: out why another woman had called and impersonated her And also, like,
- 11:47Speaker 1: the timing of the calls was odd. It happened one
- 11:50Speaker 1: right after the other. It was just a very strange coincidence.
- 11:53Speaker 1: So now, as Lassig sat across from the real Jennifer Ruff,
- 11:57Speaker 1: he started out by asking her where she had been
- 12:00Speaker 1: on the night Brian disappeared. She told him she'd been
- 12:03Speaker 1: at the hospital all night working, and then she gave
- 12:05Speaker 1: Lassig names of some of her co-workers who could verify that.
- 12:09Speaker 1: At this point, Lassig completely pivoted and just asked Jennifer point-blank,
- 12:14Speaker 1: is there any chance your husband could have been having
- 12:17Speaker 1: an affair? Like, were there other women in his life?
- 12:19Speaker 1: Was he acting secretive or just odd lately? Anything to indicate,
- 12:23Speaker 1: you know, that he was maybe unfaithful? The reason Lassig asked, obviously,
- 12:27Speaker 1: was because of the second woman who he knew had
- 12:30Speaker 1: called and pretended to be Brian's wife. You know, he
- 12:32Speaker 1: had no idea if the real Jennifer knew, but certainly
- 12:35Speaker 1: he did. And the real Jennifer, when she heard this question,
- 12:38Speaker 1: she just sort of looked down and Then she looked
- 12:41Speaker 1: up and she said, yes, I am suspicious of that.
- 12:44Speaker 1: She told Lassig that she and Brian had been having
- 12:46Speaker 1: some real issues in their marriage lately. And in fact,
- 12:49Speaker 1: just the previous month, Brian had sort of inexplicably, you know,
- 12:53Speaker 1: ran out on the family because he needed time alone.
- 12:56Speaker 1: And he was gone and out of contact for that
- 12:58Speaker 1: whole time until he just came back begging to be
- 13:01Speaker 1: taken back. At this point, Lassig, when he heard that part,
- 13:06Speaker 1: he sat back in his chair and wondered if he
- 13:08Speaker 1: was just wasting his time on this case to begin with.
- 13:11Speaker 1: Because if Brian had previously left and then eventually came
- 13:15Speaker 1: back after being totally out of contact, well, what's to
- 13:18Speaker 1: say he wasn't doing that right now? What if this
- 13:21Speaker 1: was him again, sort of running off to be alone
- 13:24Speaker 1: and he would just turn back up again at some point?
- 13:26Speaker 1: But Jennifer must have noticed that that's sort of where
- 13:28Speaker 1: Lassig's mind was going because she rushed to add in that,
- 13:32Speaker 1: you know, the last time when he ran out for
- 13:34Speaker 1: that week, he had left a note for her and
- 13:37Speaker 1: even told his boss that he was quitting. Like, There
- 13:39Speaker 1: was some warning before he left. She sort of made
- 13:42Speaker 1: it dramatic, but he definitely told people before he was
- 13:44Speaker 1: going to be gone. In fact, she became insistent that
- 13:47Speaker 1: really it was not like Brian to not give warning.
- 13:51Speaker 1: You know, like for him to just vanish mid-shift like that,
- 13:54Speaker 1: like he's done right now, that's not something Brian would do.
- 13:58Speaker 1: You know, he's got some faults, but that's not something
- 14:00Speaker 1: he would do. Detective Lassig asked Jennifer where Brian had
- 14:04Speaker 1: actually gone when he disappeared that first time. And Jennifer
- 14:08Speaker 1: answered him by handing him a piece of mail from
- 14:10Speaker 1: a nearby table. She explained that it was a credit
- 14:13Speaker 1: card bill that had come in the mail that week,
- 14:15Speaker 1: and it was addressed to Brian. And she explained that
- 14:17Speaker 1: she was pretty confused when she got this, because she
- 14:21Speaker 1: didn't even know Brian had a credit card. But he
- 14:24Speaker 1: apparently did, and he used it while he was away
- 14:27Speaker 1: to pay for hotels and meals and other expenses. And
- 14:30Speaker 1: so Lassig, he pulled out the bill and began to
- 14:32Speaker 1: look it over. and he saw that a lot of
- 14:35Speaker 1: the charges were made in Las Vegas and San Francisco,
- 14:38Speaker 1: and the amounts that were being charged to restaurants and
- 14:41Speaker 1: for room service seemed a bit too large for just
- 14:45Speaker 1: one person. He looked up from the bill back at Jennifer,
- 14:48Speaker 1: and just from the expression on her face, he knew
- 14:51Speaker 1: that they had both drawn the same conclusion. Brian, when
- 14:55Speaker 1: he was away for that week, likely had not been alone.
- 14:58Speaker 1: Jennifer then grabbed another piece of paper from the counter
- 15:01Speaker 1: and gave that to Lasek, This was a phone bill
- 15:04Speaker 1: for the family's landline, with a full list of every
- 15:07Speaker 1: call that had been made and received in the past month.
- 15:10Speaker 1: Jennifer said there were definitely some numbers on this list
- 15:13Speaker 1: that she didn't recognize, and she thought maybe one of
- 15:16Speaker 1: them could be this person that Brian had been traveling with.
- 15:20Speaker 1: And as Lasek looked over this list, one of the
- 15:23Speaker 1: phone numbers immediately stood out to him. Because that woman
- 15:27Speaker 1: who had called the guard shack on the night Brian
- 15:30Speaker 1: disappeared and pretended to be Jennifer, basically called right after
- 15:33Speaker 1: the real Jennifer, that one, that phone number that was
- 15:37Speaker 1: used for the fake Jennifer was the number he was
- 15:40Speaker 1: now seeing on this list. Later that same day, Lassig
- 15:45Speaker 1: sat down in the living room of the house that
- 15:47Speaker 1: was associated with that phone number. And sitting across from
- 15:52Speaker 1: him was a young woman named Christy Bradley. Her husband,
- 15:56Speaker 1: Dale Bradley, was also a security guard at the Kennecott
- 15:59Speaker 1: mine where Brian worked. Now, at the moment, Dale wasn't home,
- 16:03Speaker 1: but it wasn't really clear when he would get home,
- 16:06Speaker 1: and Lassig was really anxious to interview Christy alone, so
- 16:10Speaker 1: before her husband got back. So the instant they sat down,
- 16:14Speaker 1: Lassig pretty much just cut to the chase. He told
- 16:16Speaker 1: Christy that he was nearly positive she and Brian had
- 16:21Speaker 1: been having an affair. And then before she could say anything,
- 16:24Speaker 1: he pulled out that bill that Jennifer had given him
- 16:27Speaker 1: and showed her all the evidence. Christy, when she saw this,
- 16:29Speaker 1: for a second looked defiant. but then just broke down
- 16:33Speaker 1: and admitted it was true. She said they'd been seeing
- 16:36Speaker 1: each other for a while now, and in fact, the
- 16:38Speaker 1: month before, they had run away together for about a week.
- 16:42Speaker 1: But even though they had ultimately come back and they
- 16:45Speaker 1: both went back to their respective families, she said that
- 16:48Speaker 1: they had still been very much in touch. Christy said
- 16:50Speaker 1: that was the reason she had called the guard shack
- 16:53Speaker 1: on the night Brian disappeared, just to call and just
- 16:56Speaker 1: be in touch with him. That was it. But she
- 16:58Speaker 1: said when the person answered, and it was a voice
- 17:01Speaker 1: that was unfamiliar, it was Detective Lassig, she said that
- 17:04Speaker 1: sort of on instinct, she just began to lie and
- 17:07Speaker 1: pretended to be Jennifer, Brian's real wife, just so, you know,
- 17:10Speaker 1: their affair would not come to light. But Christy made
- 17:13Speaker 1: it very clear that she had not heard from Brian
- 17:15Speaker 1: since he disappeared, and she had no clue what happened
- 17:19Speaker 1: to him. At this point, Lassig sat back on the
- 17:21Speaker 1: couch and just looked at Christy, kind of sizing her up.
- 17:25Speaker 1: And he thought, you know, she seemed pretty genuinely worried
- 17:27Speaker 1: about Brian. And even though the call she had made
- 17:30Speaker 1: to the guard shack was ultimately very suspicious and pretty bizarre,
- 17:34Speaker 1: her explanation for it did make sense. But at this point,
- 17:38Speaker 1: he was certainly not going to rule her out as
- 17:40Speaker 1: a suspect quite yet. Also, Lassig knew that Christie's husband, Dale,
- 17:45Speaker 1: was also now clearly a primary suspect. Because, you know,
- 17:49Speaker 1: if he had found out about this affair, he could
- 17:51Speaker 1: have easily hurt Brian in retaliation. The following day, Lassig
- 17:56Speaker 1: walked into an interrogation room at the sheriff's station where
- 17:59Speaker 1: Dale was already seated and waiting for him. And the
- 18:02Speaker 1: moment Lassig walked in, Dale immediately asked him if there
- 18:06Speaker 1: was any news about Brian. Lassig said, no, not yet.
- 18:10Speaker 1: And it seemed to him like Dale's disappointment was genuine,
- 18:13Speaker 1: like he was worried about him. Lassig sat down and
- 18:16Speaker 1: he asked Dale about how long he'd known Brian for.
- 18:19Speaker 1: And Dale said they had met maybe about a year
- 18:21Speaker 1: ago when Brian started working at the mine. And they'd
- 18:24Speaker 1: become pretty close friends. They'd even hung out together outside
- 18:27Speaker 1: of work. At this point, Lassig, almost to catch Dale
- 18:31Speaker 1: off guard, he pivoted sort of abruptly and just asked
- 18:34Speaker 1: Dale point blank about his wife's affair. And Dale, when
- 18:38Speaker 1: he heard that his wife was having an affair, seemed
- 18:40Speaker 1: sort of stunned. And he said he didn't know anything
- 18:43Speaker 1: about Christy having an affair. At this point, Lassig just
- 18:46Speaker 1: explained to him what his wife had already told him.
- 18:49Speaker 1: And Dale appeared genuinely upset. Like the idea she was
- 18:53Speaker 1: cheating on him was horrible, especially with someone he considered
- 18:57Speaker 1: clearly to be a close friend. And so as Dale
- 18:59Speaker 1: is sort of reacting to this really shocking news, Lassig
- 19:04Speaker 1: asked him where he was on the night of December
- 19:06Speaker 1: 10th when Brian disappeared. And so Dale, who again is
- 19:09Speaker 1: sort of like dealing with the shocking news he's just
- 19:12Speaker 1: been told, for a moment he just was unable to answer.
- 19:15Speaker 1: He ultimately composed himself and he said that actually his
- 19:19Speaker 1: car had gotten stuck in the snow and while he
- 19:21Speaker 1: was at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City,
- 19:24Speaker 1: almost an hour away from the mine. And in fact,
- 19:26Speaker 1: he had even had to call a friend to come
- 19:28Speaker 1: get him out of the snow. And then he gave
- 19:30Speaker 1: Lassig the name of this friend so he could call
- 19:33Speaker 1: and confirm it. After taking down this friend's name, Lassig
- 19:36Speaker 1: told Dale that he really wanted him to take a
- 19:39Speaker 1: polygraph test, and also they would have to search his car.
- 19:42Speaker 1: And Dale agreed to both, you know, with no hesitation.
- 19:46Speaker 1: One morning, a few weeks later, Lassig walked across a
- 19:49Speaker 1: parking lot toward an office building at the Kennecott mine.
- 19:53Speaker 1: So far, Brian had still not turned up, and the
- 19:56Speaker 1: search for him had been frustrating, because none of the
- 19:59Speaker 1: people Lassig had questioned so far had given him any
- 20:02Speaker 1: useful information. Dale Bradley, along with his wife, Christy Bradley,
- 20:06Speaker 1: had both taken polygraph tests, and both had passed. Lasek
- 20:10Speaker 1: had also searched the red Mustang that Dale drove, but
- 20:13Speaker 1: there was no evidence in it that linked Dale to
- 20:15Speaker 1: Brian's disappearance. Plus, the friend who had helped Dale get
- 20:19Speaker 1: his Mustang out of the snow had confirmed he had
- 20:22Speaker 1: done that, so his alibi was solid. So at this point,
- 20:25Speaker 1: Dale and Christy were sort of unofficially off the suspect list.
- 20:29Speaker 1: Lasek had also considered the fact that maybe Jennifer, the
- 20:33Speaker 1: real Jennifer, so Brian's actual wife, Maybe she was involved
- 20:37Speaker 1: in her husband's disappearance, despite how, you know, honestly she
- 20:39Speaker 1: came across. Now, her co-workers had confirmed she had been
- 20:43Speaker 1: at work all evening on the night Brian disappeared, but
- 20:47Speaker 1: it wasn't impossible that she could have maybe been working
- 20:49Speaker 1: with an accomplice or maybe hired somebody to kill Brian
- 20:54Speaker 1: or something. But with no evidence against her and also
- 20:58Speaker 1: no body, I mean, Brian has not been found here.
- 21:01Speaker 1: All Lassig really had here was just a hunch that,
- 21:04Speaker 1: you know, maybe she was involved, but who knows. However,
- 21:07Speaker 1: just a few days ago, Lassig had received a new
- 21:10Speaker 1: lead that sent his investigation in a new direction. That
- 21:14Speaker 1: was why he was here right now at the Kennecott
- 21:17Speaker 1: mine to speak to Brian's supervisor, Todd Fallows. So Lassig
- 21:21Speaker 1: went inside the building and made his way down the
- 21:23Speaker 1: hallway to Todd's office. And when Todd saw the detective,
- 21:27Speaker 1: he jumped up and he very eagerly greeted him and
- 21:29Speaker 1: said he would do whatever he had to do to
- 21:31Speaker 1: try to help find Brian. Lassig thanked him, but told
- 21:34Speaker 1: Todd to sit back down. And then Lassig sat down
- 21:37Speaker 1: as well, and then he pulled out a tape recorder
- 21:39Speaker 1: and he hit record. And then he told Todd why
- 21:42Speaker 1: he was there. Two of Brian's fellow security guards had
- 21:45Speaker 1: just been arrested for stealing precious metal and equipment from
- 21:48Speaker 1: the mine and then selling it at pawn shops. In fact,
- 21:52Speaker 1: the investigation had discovered that a whole ring of Kennecott
- 21:56Speaker 1: employees had were involved in these thefts. Todd sort of
- 22:00Speaker 1: began to shift in his chair and said he had
- 22:03Speaker 1: heard about that, but he insisted he was never involved
- 22:06Speaker 1: in any of these thefts. And he said he'd already
- 22:09Speaker 1: been questioned by detectives from the property crimes division. Lassig
- 22:13Speaker 1: said he understood that, and that was not really why
- 22:15Speaker 1: he was here. He said when he looked through the
- 22:17Speaker 1: records of the investigation about these thefts, he found out
- 22:21Speaker 1: that Brian had actually been the one who reported some
- 22:25Speaker 1: of the thefts that were going on. So now Lassig
- 22:28Speaker 1: wondered if maybe on the night of Brian's disappearance, he'd
- 22:32Speaker 1: stopped one of his co-workers' vehicles and found stolen materials inside.
- 22:36Speaker 1: And maybe they had killed him to keep him quiet.
- 22:38Speaker 1: Todd sat back in his chair and looked sort of
- 22:40Speaker 1: lost in thought for a moment. And then he admitted that, yeah,
- 22:44Speaker 1: that could be possible. He then told Detective Lassig he
- 22:47Speaker 1: could actually think of several places on the mine's property
- 22:50Speaker 1: where maybe Brian's body was hidden by these, you know,
- 22:54Speaker 1: fellow employees if they did this. And then as an example,
- 22:57Speaker 1: he suggested the gravel pile by the concentrator, which crushes
- 23:01Speaker 1: the minerals and grinds them up. Todd explained that if
- 23:04Speaker 1: Brian had been placed there, he would have very likely
- 23:07Speaker 1: gotten sucked into the grinders and pulverized with all the
- 23:11Speaker 1: other rocks. He'd basically be gone. Detective Lassig was surprised
- 23:15Speaker 1: by how specific Todd was being. I mean, Todd had
- 23:18Speaker 1: really come up with this theory very quickly. So, sensing
- 23:22Speaker 1: that Todd might be a little suspicious here, he just
- 23:25Speaker 1: let Todd keep going. And Todd did. He just kept
- 23:28Speaker 1: spitting out all these theories about maybe what could have
- 23:31Speaker 1: happened to Brian. Including, at one point, he said maybe
- 23:35Speaker 1: Brian could have been hidden under the waste piles, where
- 23:38Speaker 1: weeks worth of crushed boulders would have already fallen down
- 23:41Speaker 1: and completely covered him up. And he said if that
- 23:44Speaker 1: had happened, if Brian had been hidden in a place
- 23:46Speaker 1: like that, he would already be buried under several tons
- 23:50Speaker 1: of rock at this point, and the police would never
- 23:53Speaker 1: find him. On July 10, 1993, so a year and
- 24:02Speaker 1: a half after Brian Ruff disappeared, Detective Lassig drove through
- 24:07Speaker 1: a barren desert in Utah, about 50 miles south of
- 24:10Speaker 1: Kennecott Mine. There had been basically no progress on the
- 24:13Speaker 1: case for over a year. The Sheriff's Department had spent
- 24:16Speaker 1: countless hours scouring the mine with police dogs and helicopters,
- 24:21Speaker 1: looking for any sign that Brian might have been killed
- 24:23Speaker 1: or buried or hidden somewhere there. But so far, there
- 24:27Speaker 1: was still no trace of Brian. Now, Lassig was confident
- 24:31Speaker 1: that there had to have been foul play involved, but
- 24:34Speaker 1: it was impossible to prove that when he didn't have
- 24:36Speaker 1: a body or evidence that tied any of his suspects
- 24:39Speaker 1: to the crime. For months, Lassig's team had looked into
- 24:43Speaker 1: every single security guard at the Kennecott mine, especially the
- 24:47Speaker 1: ones who had been implicated in that theft ring, but
- 24:49Speaker 1: they had ultimately verified that every guard on duty was
- 24:53Speaker 1: at their post at the time Brian disappeared. And they'd
- 24:56Speaker 1: collected alibis from everyone who was not scheduled to work
- 24:59Speaker 1: that night. And so they had not been able to
- 25:02Speaker 1: actually link any guards to Brian's disappearance. And that also
- 25:05Speaker 1: included Brian's supervisor, Todd Fallows, who seemed, you know, very
- 25:09Speaker 1: eager to offer up these very specific theories. You know,
- 25:12Speaker 1: he too was not linked to Brian's disappearance. However, Todd
- 25:17Speaker 1: was ultimately linked to that theft ring. As for Christy Bradley,
- 25:20Speaker 1: the woman Brian was having an affair with, and Christy's husband, Dale...
- 25:25Speaker 1: Those two, they had alibis, they passed a lie detector
- 25:27Speaker 1: test and really had been ruled out much earlier on
- 25:30Speaker 1: in the investigation. And nothing new had come up over
- 25:33Speaker 1: the last year to change that. So they were still
- 25:35Speaker 1: ruled out. And then as for Brian's wife, Jennifer, you know,
- 25:38Speaker 1: Lassick at one point thought maybe she was involved. Maybe
- 25:41Speaker 1: she had an accomplice or something. You know, she certainly
- 25:44Speaker 1: had the motive, you know, to potentially harm her husband.
- 25:47Speaker 1: Their marriage was on the rocks. He had clearly been
- 25:49Speaker 1: having an affair and she was on to him. But
- 25:52Speaker 1: she really had been at work at the time he disappeared,
- 25:55Speaker 1: and there was no link from her to any potential accomplice,
- 25:59Speaker 1: and so it went nowhere. She was ruled out too.
- 26:01Speaker 1: So again, after more than a year, the case basically
- 26:04Speaker 1: had gone cold. However, that particular morning, the investigation had
- 26:09Speaker 1: been reinvigorated because a group of campers had called in
- 26:13Speaker 1: and said they had found skeletal remains out in the desert.
- 26:18Speaker 1: Lassig knew this was obviously a long shot, but he
- 26:20Speaker 1: was holding out hope that Maybe it was Brian. So
- 26:24Speaker 1: when he arrived at the location the campers had described,
- 26:27Speaker 1: Lassig got out of his car and he walked a
- 26:29Speaker 1: short distance across the barren ground to where a forensics
- 26:33Speaker 1: team was setting up crime scene tape in the brush.
- 26:35Speaker 1: As Lassig got closer to the crime scene, he could
- 26:38Speaker 1: see a human skeleton lying in a shallow grave. The
- 26:42Speaker 1: skeleton was clothed in a dust-covered dark blue jacket. And
- 26:46Speaker 1: when Lassig crouched down to get a better look... he
- 26:49Speaker 1: saw that it was clearly a security guard's uniform. Lassig
- 26:52Speaker 1: put on some gloves and then searched the pockets of
- 26:55Speaker 1: this jacket, and his fingers immediately landed on a wallet.
- 26:59Speaker 1: And when he pulled it out and he looked inside,
- 27:01Speaker 1: he found ID cards and credit cards with the name
- 27:05Speaker 1: Brian Ruff. Now, at this point, it seemed fairly apparent
- 27:08Speaker 1: that the body had to belong to Brian, but because
- 27:11Speaker 1: the body was so decomposed, they would have to examine
- 27:14Speaker 1: Brian's dental records to definitively ID him, which would take
- 27:17Speaker 1: some time. So while the crime scene techs carefully loaded
- 27:21Speaker 1: the remains into a van, Lassig stayed at the scene
- 27:24Speaker 1: with the canine unit that was searching for any other
- 27:26Speaker 1: evidence nearby. And sure enough, just a few feet away
- 27:30Speaker 1: from where the body had been, Lassig found five shotgun
- 27:33Speaker 1: shells lying in the dirt. It looked like Brian, very likely,
- 27:37Speaker 1: had been shot five times and then buried in this
- 27:41Speaker 1: shallow grave. Then, just a few yards away from the shells,
- 27:44Speaker 1: a police dog began barking. And an officer called Lassig
- 27:48Speaker 1: over to look at what the dog had found. He
- 27:50Speaker 1: walked over and the officer held up a black work boot.
- 27:54Speaker 1: And there was a pretty obvious bullet hole through the leather.
- 27:57Speaker 1: And so Lassig figured the boot must have belonged to Brian.
- 28:01Speaker 1: But other than this boot and Brian's actual body, 18
- 28:06Speaker 1: months of heat and, you know, wind and sand and
- 28:09Speaker 1: snow and rain out in this desert. had basically erased
- 28:13Speaker 1: any other traces of forensic evidence. So, even though Lassig
- 28:17Speaker 1: at this point felt very confident that he knew both
- 28:20Speaker 1: where Brian was ultimately killed and how he was killed,
- 28:24Speaker 1: because of this severe lack of forensic evidence, he was
- 28:29Speaker 1: worried that he might not actually be any closer to
- 28:32Speaker 1: figuring out who killed Brian. Twelve years later, on April 30th, 2005...
- 28:41Speaker 1: Detective Todd Park of the Salt Lake City Sheriff's Office
- 28:44Speaker 1: got a call from the Sheriff's Department in the next
- 28:47Speaker 1: county over. Since the beginning of the year, Detective Park
- 28:50Speaker 1: had been working full-time on solving various cold cases. The
- 28:54Speaker 1: detective on the line told him that he was investigating
- 28:57Speaker 1: a recent homicide and he thought it might be connected
- 29:00Speaker 1: to one of Park's cold cases, specifically the murder of
- 29:04Speaker 1: Brian Ruff. After speaking to this detective, Park hung up
- 29:07Speaker 1: the phone and and went right over to his filing
- 29:09Speaker 1: cabinet and dug through until he found Brian's file. He
- 29:12Speaker 1: sat down and began sorting through the decade-old papers, and
- 29:16Speaker 1: he realized that there was a tiny piece of evidence
- 29:19Speaker 1: the original investigators had somehow overlooked. And upon closer examination,
- 29:25Speaker 1: Park realized it was actually the key to unlocking the
- 29:29Speaker 1: entire case. Based on forensic evidence, this is what police
- 29:33Speaker 1: believe happened to Brian Ruff on December 10, 1991. Around 6.30 p.m.,
- 29:43Speaker 1: the killer drove down a winding service road toward a
- 29:46Speaker 1: very isolated part of Kennecott Mine. Up ahead, they saw
- 29:50Speaker 1: a single light in the distance. It was coming from
- 29:53Speaker 1: a small guard shack right next to a chain link gate.
- 29:56Speaker 1: The killer pulled right up outside of the shack and
- 29:58Speaker 1: parked their car and then got out. And then seconds later,
- 30:02Speaker 1: Brian Ruff came out of the guard shack and waved hello.
- 30:06Speaker 1: And the killer sort of waved back and walked over
- 30:08Speaker 1: to Brian. And then as soon as they were close enough,
- 30:11Speaker 1: the killer grabbed Brian, whipped him around, tied his hands
- 30:15Speaker 1: behind his back, and then forced Brian, before he could
- 30:17Speaker 1: do anything, into the back of the vehicle. At this point,
- 30:20Speaker 1: the killer jumped into the driver's seat, did a U-turn
- 30:24Speaker 1: and sped out of the mine towards the desert. And
- 30:27Speaker 1: as they were driving, the killer heard Brian screaming and
- 30:31Speaker 1: kicking in the back, doing everything he could to try
- 30:33Speaker 1: to escape. But the killer was unfazed. They stayed calm
- 30:37Speaker 1: and just kept on driving for nearly an hour, all
- 30:40Speaker 1: while Brian's acting crazy in back, until they eventually reached
- 30:44Speaker 1: another very remote spot way out in the desert about
- 30:47Speaker 1: 50 miles away. There, they pulled off the road, and
- 30:50Speaker 1: they stopped their vehicle right in this open, snow-covered patch
- 30:52Speaker 1: of desert. They climbed out, they went to the backseat,
- 30:56Speaker 1: and they opened the door up, and they grabbed Brian,
- 30:58Speaker 1: who was still fighting and trying to escape, but he
- 31:01Speaker 1: was pretty tired at this point, and the killer dragged
- 31:04Speaker 1: Brian out. And as they dragged Brian out, Brian began
- 31:07Speaker 1: pleading for mercy and promised that if they just let
- 31:10Speaker 1: him go, he would never tell anyone about this. But
- 31:13Speaker 1: the killer just grabbed a shovel and a shotgun from
- 31:15Speaker 1: their vehicle and untied Brian, and then forced him at
- 31:19Speaker 1: gunpoint to dig his own grave. And then when Brian
- 31:22Speaker 1: was done, the killer just raised their shotgun and shot
- 31:26Speaker 1: Brian five times. And then after he was dead, they
- 31:30Speaker 1: dropped his body into the grave he had literally dug himself,
- 31:34Speaker 1: and then the killer got back into their vehicle, a
- 31:36Speaker 1: red Mustang. But when the killer tried to leave, their vehicle,
- 31:40Speaker 1: the Mustang, got stuck in the snow. And so they
- 31:43Speaker 1: had to call a friend to who did come out,
- 31:46Speaker 1: who had no idea a murder has just been committed,
- 31:48Speaker 1: literally right over there. There's a body buried, you know,
- 31:51Speaker 1: right over there. They didn't know. They helped the killer
- 31:54Speaker 1: get out of the snow, and off they drove. The
- 31:57Speaker 1: killer was Dale Bradley, the co-worker whose wife Brian was
- 32:01Speaker 1: having an affair with. Dale's alibi that he had been
- 32:04Speaker 1: an hour away, you know, his car was stuck in
- 32:07Speaker 1: the snow on the night Brian disappeared, well, it was true.
- 32:11Speaker 1: Except that wasn't an alibi. He was basically describing... being
- 32:14Speaker 1: at the crime scene and having another friend come and
- 32:17Speaker 1: help him flee the crime scene. But the friend who
- 32:21Speaker 1: absolutely said, yep, he was an hour away. I helped
- 32:23Speaker 1: him get his car out of the snow. The friend
- 32:25Speaker 1: had no idea. This is where a murder has just
- 32:28Speaker 1: taken place. And so they told the truth and Dale
- 32:31Speaker 1: sort of acted like, yep, that's my alibi. And the
- 32:34Speaker 1: police never checked. And so they didn't realize that that
- 32:36Speaker 1: wasn't an alibi. It was basically a description of where
- 32:39Speaker 1: the crime scene was. Additionally, Dale took a polygraph early
- 32:43Speaker 1: on in the investigation, and he did pass it. So
- 32:46Speaker 1: he really was dismissed as a suspect very early on.
- 32:49Speaker 1: And so Dale and Christy had eventually gotten divorced, likely
- 32:53Speaker 1: over the affair, and Dale had ultimately remarried. But when
- 32:57Speaker 1: his second wife, Crystal, was murdered in 2005, the detective
- 33:02Speaker 1: investigating that murder said, noticed that Dale had been sort
- 33:06Speaker 1: of indirectly connected to now two people who had been murdered,
- 33:10Speaker 1: Crystal and Brian. And he thought it was suspicious enough
- 33:14Speaker 1: that he got in touch with Detective Park, the detective
- 33:17Speaker 1: who was in charge of all these cold cases. And
- 33:19Speaker 1: he told Park, hey, you ought to take a closer
- 33:21Speaker 1: look at Dale in the Brian Ruff cold case murder.
- 33:25Speaker 1: And so that prompted Detective Park to to not just
- 33:28Speaker 1: take a closer look at Dale, but really at the
- 33:30Speaker 1: whole Brian Ruff case file. And when he did that,
- 33:33Speaker 1: he noticed this really small piece of evidence that sort
- 33:36Speaker 1: of went overlooked. And that piece of evidence was a
- 33:38Speaker 1: tiny speck of red paint on the sole of that
- 33:41Speaker 1: black work boot, which had been found near Brian's body
- 33:45Speaker 1: out in the desert. And Park was eventually able to
- 33:48Speaker 1: match that paint to the same paint on the inside
- 33:52Speaker 1: of the trunk of Dale's red Mustang. Dale Bradley was
- 33:55Speaker 1: charged with Brian Ruff's murder on September 19, 2005. In 2007,
- 34:01Speaker 1: he pleaded guilty to lesser charges of manslaughter and kidnapping
- 34:05Speaker 1: and was ultimately sentenced to 40 years in prison. As
- 34:08Speaker 1: for Crystal, Dale's second wife who was murdered, her case
- 34:11Speaker 1: remains unsolved. Thank you so much for watching. Let me
- 34:18Speaker 1: know what you thought of today's episode in the comments.
- 34:20Speaker 1: And remember, we have a whole playlist of true crime
- 34:23Speaker 1: episodes ready for you to binge right now. So click
- 34:25Speaker 1: here and give them a watch. All right, until next time,
- 34:29Speaker 1: see ya.