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Nosey neighbor recorded his MURDERER. · Crime and Horror

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Speaker 1: On December thirtieth, twenty sixteen, a woman sat down at
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Speaker 1: her computer in her New Mexico home and pulled up
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Speaker 1: the video feed from her surveillance system. Everybody in her
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Speaker 1: neighborhood was terrified there was a killer on the loose,
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Speaker 1: and the police did not seem to have any idea
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Speaker 1: who it could be or what their motivation was. So
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Speaker 1: on her computer, she scrolled back two days and began
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Speaker 1: going through the footage frame by frame, looking for anything suspicious,
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Speaker 1: and for a while, really nothing stood out on this recording.
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Speaker 1: The only thing that really happened was her neighbor came
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Speaker 1: home from a trip at some point, and then some
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Speaker 1: time passed, and then the neighbor left again.
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Speaker 2: That was basically it, and so the.
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Speaker 1: Woman was starting to think that what she was doing
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Speaker 1: was kind of pointless until all of a sudden, in
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Speaker 1: the corner of the screen, a dark figure appeared. But
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Speaker 1: before we get into today's story, if you're a fan
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Speaker 1: today's story. On the evening of December eighth, twenty sixteen,
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Speaker 1: a fifty four year old man named Don Fleuitt drove
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Speaker 1: down the highway into the city of Albuquerque, New Mexico.
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Speaker 1: Beside him was his eleven year old daughter, Sienna, who
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Speaker 1: had fallen asleep in the passenger seat. They've been driving
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Speaker 1: for nearly twelve hours, all the way from Don's mother's
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Speaker 1: home in California, where they just spent Christmas, but the
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Speaker 1: holiday had not really been a happy one. Was a
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Speaker 1: few weeks earlier, Don's sister, Janie had died of breast cancer,
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Speaker 1: and Janice was really one of the only true close
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Speaker 1: family members Don had left. His dad and his other
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Speaker 1: sister were both already dead, and his younger brother Dennis
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Speaker 1: wasn't talking to him after a big argument the year before.
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Speaker 1: So as soon as Dawn had gotten the news that
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Speaker 1: Genie had unfortunately passed away. He'd immediately negotiated with his
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Speaker 1: ex wife to take their daughter, Sienna and go see
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Speaker 1: his mom. He wished they could have stayed longer, but
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Speaker 1: he had to get back to work. Don had a
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Speaker 1: job at an agency that served the developmentally disabled, and
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Speaker 1: there was a big meeting coming up that he just
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Speaker 1: couldn't miss. Just then, Don slammed on his brakes. Traffic
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Speaker 1: ahead was piling up, and the car in front of
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Speaker 1: him had slowed down to an abrupt stop. Don felt
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Speaker 1: a surge of anger rise in his chest, and he
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Speaker 1: laid on his horn. He was about to roll down
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Speaker 1: the window so he could scream at the driver in
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Speaker 1: front of him, but then he saw Sienna open her
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Speaker 1: eyes in alarm and the seat next to him, and
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Speaker 1: he stopped himself a deep breath and reminded himself that
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Speaker 1: it was just traffic and it wasn't worth getting angry about.
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Speaker 1: Don used to have kind of a temper when it
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Speaker 1: came to driving, but in recent years he'd been working
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Speaker 1: hard to control it so he could set a good
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Speaker 1: example for his daughter. So after the traffic finally led up,
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Speaker 1: and as he rounded an exit off the highway and
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Speaker 1: drove through downtown Albuquerque toward his house. Don deliberately tried
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Speaker 1: to shift his focus to something positive. It was already Wednesday,
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Speaker 1: which meant it was only a few more days until
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Speaker 1: Spaghetti Sunday, and that always made Don smile. Spaghetti Sunday
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Speaker 1: was a tradition that he and Sienna had started together
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Speaker 1: a few years ago by making big batches of food
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Speaker 1: every Sunday after church and bringing the food downtown to
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Speaker 1: feed the homeless. At first, it had just been the
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Speaker 1: two of them, but over time, more people had joined
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Speaker 1: in the effort, and pretty soon it had grown into
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Speaker 1: a real event, with whole groups of volunteers coming out
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Speaker 1: to serve food and drop off clothes and can goods.
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Speaker 1: Don felt proud that he'd created something so meaningful for
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Speaker 1: the community, and it was especially important to him that
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Speaker 1: he had done it with Sienna. Finally, Don turned down
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Speaker 1: a quiet residential street and parked in the garage of
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Speaker 1: a two story, stuck on townhouse decorated with Christmas lights.
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Speaker 1: He got out of the car with Sienna, grabbed their suitcases,
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Speaker 1: and walked to the front door and unlocked it. And
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Speaker 1: when his daughter stepped inside, she shrieked with excitement. Because
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Speaker 1: waiting for her under the Christmas tree was a brand
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Speaker 1: new bicycle wrapped in a shiny bow. She turned around
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Speaker 1: and asked her dad if she could give the bike
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Speaker 1: a spin around the block right now. Don wanted to
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Speaker 1: say yes, but it was already dark out and this
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Speaker 1: was supposed to be a quick stop at his house,
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Speaker 1: and when he looked at the clock, he saw that.
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Speaker 2: It was almost seven.
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Speaker 1: He'd already had Siena for most of December, including the
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Speaker 1: whole holiday, and he had to get her back to
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Speaker 1: her mother's house soon. Don and his ex wife, Christine White,
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Speaker 1: had a pretty civil relationship, but he knew she would
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Speaker 1: be annoyed if he asked for more time, so Don
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Speaker 1: told Sienna the bike would have to wait, but for now,
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Speaker 1: just go grab whatever she needed from her room, and
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Speaker 1: then they would leave. Sienna ran off, Don noticed something strange.
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Speaker 1: He hadn't seen his golden retriever Buddy, who usually rushed
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Speaker 1: out to greet him whenever he came home. So Don
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Speaker 1: walked through the living room and down the hall, calling
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Speaker 1: out Buddy's name, and finally found the dog cowering in
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Speaker 1: the bedroom. Don extended his hand and Buddy skittishly came
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Speaker 1: forward to sniff it, and Don was a little unnerved
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Speaker 1: by this. Buddy usually did not act scared of him,
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Speaker 1: but then again, Don didn't usually leave for weeks at
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Speaker 1: a time either, So he just told himself that, you know,
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Speaker 1: maybe this was just separation anxiety.
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Speaker 2: So he gave Buddy a pat.
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Speaker 1: On the head, filled his bowl with kibble, and then
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Speaker 1: grabbed his keys for the short drive to his ex wife,
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Speaker 1: Christine's house. Don drove to Christine's very slowly, trying to
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Speaker 1: enjoy every last bit of his time with Sienna. Don
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Speaker 1: treasured the time he had with his daughter because the
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Speaker 1: mistakes he'd made when he was younger had almost gotten
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Speaker 1: or taken away from him. These days, Don lived a
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Speaker 1: squeaky clean life and went to church every Sunday, but
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Speaker 1: it was not always that way.
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Speaker 2: He had partied a lot.
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Speaker 1: When he was younger, and when Sienna was a toddler,
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Speaker 1: he'd gotten fired from his dream job as a firefighter
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Speaker 1: for failing a drug test. And then after he'd lost
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Speaker 1: his job, his then wife Christine had to shoulder most
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Speaker 1: of the family's bills, and after a few months the
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Speaker 1: strain of the marriage was just too much. Christine filed
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Speaker 1: for divorce, which was crushing for Dawn, but even worse
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Speaker 1: was the possibility of losing Sienna. Don actually already had
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Speaker 1: two kids from a previous marriage, and after that divorce,
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Speaker 1: his first wife had gotten sole custody of those kids
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Speaker 1: and moved them all to Oklahoma, so Don had barely
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Speaker 1: seen them for most of their childhoods. He was determined
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Speaker 1: not to make that same mistake with Sienna, so he'd
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Speaker 1: gone to court to fight Christine and her new husband,
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Speaker 1: Terry White, first shared custody. The court battle had gotten
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Speaker 1: a little contentious, but it was worth it, and Don
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Speaker 1: made the most of every moment he got to spend
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Speaker 1: with Sienna. He'd braided her hair before school and make
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Speaker 1: costumes for her school plays, and on the nights when
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Speaker 1: she was at her mom's house, he always called her
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Speaker 1: before bed to say good night. Now, Don pulled into
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Speaker 1: Christine and Terry's driveway, and Christine came outside and stood
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Speaker 1: by the front door with her arms crossed. She motioned
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Speaker 1: to her watch, clearly annoyed that Don was late. Don
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Speaker 1: got out of the car and sort of apologized and
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Speaker 1: told her it had been a really long drive from
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Speaker 1: California and they'd only stopped a few times for gas
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Speaker 1: and bathroom breaks, and they'd hit some traffic, you know,
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Speaker 1: that was why they were late. Christine sighed and said
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Speaker 1: it was okay. She asked about the trip, and Don
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Speaker 1: told her it went well. They had a great Christmas
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Speaker 1: despite the you know, sadness over his sister's death, and
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Speaker 1: it had been very meaningful just to be together. Before
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Speaker 1: Sienna ran inside the house, Don pulled her in for
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Speaker 1: a big hug and kiss, and then he promised to
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Speaker 1: call her before bed as usual, and when he saw
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Speaker 1: her again that weekend, they'd have plenty of time to
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Speaker 1: test drive that new bike. When Don pulled back into
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Speaker 1: his garage ten minutes later, he noticed that the trash
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Speaker 1: can at the end of his driveway was lying overturned
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Speaker 1: on its side, so he parked his truck, walked down
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Speaker 1: to the curb and flipped it upright. Then he walked
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Speaker 1: back up the driveway, pressed a button to close the
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Speaker 1: garage door, and unlocked the door.
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Speaker 2: To his townhouse.
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Speaker 1: And while he was taking off his shoes and jacket,
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Speaker 1: he could have sworn he heard the garage door stop
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Speaker 1: closing and roll back up again, as if something had
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Speaker 1: maybe trip the censor. He stopped to listen, and now
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Speaker 1: what he heard was the sound of the door actually
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Speaker 1: closing again and actually hitting the ground with a soft thud.
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Speaker 1: He shook his head and decided he must be imagining things.
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Speaker 1: Don dragged his suitcase into the bedroom and began to unpack.
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Speaker 1: All he wanted to do was just relax and not
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Speaker 1: really think about anything. But when he carried his toiletries
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Speaker 1: into his bathroom to put them away, he saw a
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Speaker 1: small hole in the ceiling and let.
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Speaker 2: Out a frustrated sigh.
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Speaker 1: Don had been hounding his landlord about patching that hole
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Speaker 1: for months, and he'd been hoping it would have been
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Speaker 1: done by the time he got home, so he made
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Speaker 1: a mental note to give the landlord yet another call
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Speaker 1: about it in the morning. When he was finally finished unpacking,
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Speaker 1: Don put his jacket and his shoes back on, and
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Speaker 1: then headed out to the garage.
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Speaker 2: To smoke a cigarette.
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Speaker 1: The following morning, December twenty ninth, at the office where
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Speaker 1: Don worked, his coworker Valerie Torres, was settling down at
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Speaker 1: her desk when her phone rang.
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Speaker 2: Valerie picked it up.
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Speaker 1: And heard Don's daughter Sienna on the other line. Sienna
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Speaker 1: told Valerie that her dad did not call her last
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Speaker 1: night and asked if he was there now at the office.
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Speaker 1: So Valerie stood up and peered over at Don's desk,
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Speaker 1: but it was empty. This was a little unusual since
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Speaker 1: Don was a pretty punctual guy, but it was still early,
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Speaker 1: so she told Sienna not to worry. She would give
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Speaker 1: Don a call now, and she was sure he would
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Speaker 1: call Sienna right back. Valerie hung up and dialed Don's
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Speaker 1: cell phone, but he didn't answer, so she sent him
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Speaker 1: a text message and she waited, but after half an hour,
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Speaker 1: Don still hadn't replied, and now Valerie was starting to
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Speaker 1: feel concerned. It was not like Don to skip work
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Speaker 1: without calling in and then ignore calls and texts too,
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Speaker 1: and so Valerie discussed it with another co worker and
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Speaker 1: they decided to just go swing by Don's townhouse themselves
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Speaker 1: and check on him. The sky over Don's townhouse was
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Speaker 1: dark and cloudy when Valerie pulled into the driveway. She
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Speaker 1: and her co worker got out of the car and
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Speaker 1: walked up to the front door. Valerie knocked on the door,
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Speaker 1: but to her surprise, it actually just swung right open.
10:32
Speaker 1: She looked over at her co worker and the two
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Speaker 1: of them nervously stepped inside. Valerie immediately called out Don's name,
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Speaker 1: but he didn't answer, so she wandered into the living
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Speaker 1: room and peeked into the bedroom, but the house seemed empty.
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Speaker 1: Valerie's co worker meanwhile headed up the stairs to look
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Speaker 1: for Dawn on the second floor, and Valerie headed out
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Speaker 1: to the garage to see if maybe Don's truck was there.
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Speaker 1: And when Valerie opened the door to the two car
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Speaker 1: garage attached to the townhouse and flipped on the light,
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Speaker 1: she saw Dawn's truck was in its usual spot. But
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Speaker 1: something else caught her eye. On the back wall of
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Speaker 1: the garage, behind the neighbor's suv, she noticed a streak
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Speaker 1: of something dark red on the wall. At this point,
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Speaker 1: Valerie started to feel pretty nervous, but nonetheless, she began
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Speaker 1: walking towards that back wall to see what was going
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Speaker 1: on over there. And as she got closer and closer,
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Speaker 1: she was staring at the streak, you know, wondering if
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Speaker 1: her eyes were playing tricks on her, until finally she
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Speaker 1: was close enough that she could actually look down at
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Speaker 1: the space between the suv and the red streaked wall,
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Speaker 1: and when she looked down, she screamed a little before
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Speaker 1: noon on that same day, Albuquerque Police detective Matthew Kaplan
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Speaker 1: pulled up in front of a two story, stuckout townhouse
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Speaker 1: secured with yellow crime scene tape and swarming with police officers.
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Speaker 1: Two women wearing business clothes were sitting on the curb
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Speaker 1: and both of their faces were stained with tears and
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Speaker 1: smeared makeup. All detective Kaplin knew was that a man
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Speaker 1: had been found dead in a garage attached to this townhouse,
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Speaker 1: and now he Detective Kaplan, was heading up the investigation.
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Speaker 1: So he got out of his car and walked up
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Speaker 1: to the open front door, and a policeman standing in
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Speaker 1: the entryway filled him in on a few more details.
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Speaker 1: The victim had been identified as Don Flewitt, the two
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Speaker 1: women outside or his coworkers who had come here to
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Speaker 1: check on him when he hadn't shown up for work
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Speaker 1: that morning. There were no signs of forced entry, and
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Speaker 1: the women said the front door was open when they arrived.
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Speaker 1: Kaplin stepped inside the townhouse into the living room, and
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Speaker 1: right away he saw a brand new bicycle sitting under
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Speaker 1: a Christmas tree. Then he did a slow loop through
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Speaker 1: the first and second floors and noted there was a
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Speaker 1: cell phone on the couch and the wallet on the
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Speaker 1: kitchen counter. It didn't really look like anything had been
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Speaker 1: rifled through. The drawers in the house were not hanging open,
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Speaker 1: and the house generally was neat and orderly, and so
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Speaker 1: on first glance, this did not appear to Kaplin like
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Speaker 1: a robbery. Back on the first floor, Caplyn headed into
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Speaker 1: the garage, where crime scene texts were busy photographing the
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Speaker 1: scene and collecting forensic samples. Caplin knelt down next to
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Speaker 1: Don's body, which was laying face up between an suv
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Speaker 1: and the back wall. Don's throat was cut with a
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Speaker 1: gaping wound that ran from one side of his neck
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Speaker 1: to the other, and there were smaller cuts and scrapes
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Speaker 1: near his eye, his ear, and on his hand.
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Speaker 2: As if he had tried to fight back.
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Speaker 1: There were also signs of blunt force trauma, as if
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Speaker 1: he had been hit by an object like a baseball
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Speaker 1: bat or maybe just a fist, and when Kaplin looked closely,
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Speaker 1: he saw burst capillaries on Don's eyes and eyelids, which
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Speaker 1: he knew were commonly a sign of strangulation. This killing
13:43
Speaker 1: was unusually violent and gruesome, which Kaplin knew meant this
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Speaker 1: was likely personal. Caplin stood up to examine the blood
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Speaker 1: that was spattered on the walls and refrigerator above Don's body,
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Speaker 1: and the bloody handprints on the side of Don's truck.
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Speaker 1: There was no blood on the floor around dawn, however,
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Speaker 1: it sort of appeared like somebody had recently mopped and
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Speaker 1: maybe tried to clean up the blood afterwards. That's when
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Speaker 1: Kaplin noticed an empty bottle of bleach on top of
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Speaker 1: the washer nearby, so he walked over.
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Speaker 2: He opened up the washer and sure.
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Speaker 1: Enough he found piles of wet towels inside that actually
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Speaker 1: still smelled like bleach. Just then, a crime scene tech
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Speaker 1: came over carrying luminof spray, which is a chemical used
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Speaker 1: by law enforcement to detect blood, and so Caplan stepped
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Speaker 1: back so he could spray the area, and then Caplin
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Speaker 1: followed him around as he made his way through the house.
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Speaker 1: The luminol spray did pick up traces of blood on
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Speaker 1: the kitchen floor and the sink too, and Kaplin figured
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Speaker 1: the suspect had tried to clean up the crime scene
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Speaker 1: in the garage and then wash their hands or the
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Speaker 1: murder weapon in the kitchen before leaving. But it is
14:46
Speaker 1: much harder to scrub a murder scene than people realize,
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Speaker 1: and so as Caplan left the house, he was feeling
14:52
Speaker 1: fairly hopeful that the crime scene texts would eventually recover
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Speaker 1: some of the killer's DNA. Caplan stepped through the front
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Speaker 1: door or just as a car pulled up and parked
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Speaker 1: at the end of the driveway. A man got out
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Speaker 1: of the car and pushed past the crime scene tape,
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Speaker 1: and immediately Caplyn put his hands up to stop him.
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Speaker 1: This man looked totally flustered, and he introduced himself as
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Speaker 1: Benny Ruiz, the landlord, and asked what the police were
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Speaker 1: doing on his property. When Kaplan told Benny that his tenant,
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Speaker 1: Don flew It had been murdered, Benny gasped, then started
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Speaker 1: talking a mile a minute. He said Don was a
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Speaker 1: devoted father and a religious man who would open up
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Speaker 1: his home to anyone, and that nobody would want to
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Speaker 1: kill him. But then Benny paused and made a face
15:35
Speaker 1: like something was just occurring to him, and he said
15:37
Speaker 1: that actually there was one lead he could think of.
15:41
Speaker 1: He told Caplin that Don did charity work with the homeless,
15:45
Speaker 1: and he said it was possible that somebody from the
15:47
Speaker 1: street could have maybe broken into Don's house and killed him.
15:51
Speaker 1: After Caplin finished talking to Benny, he sent him on
15:54
Speaker 1: his way, and then he just stood on Don's driveway
15:56
Speaker 1: thinking about what Benny had said. Based on the extreme
15:59
Speaker 1: violence of the murder and the fact that nothing appeared
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Speaker 1: to be stolen, he doubted very much that this had
16:05
Speaker 1: just been a break in by a random homeless person.
16:07
Speaker 1: He thought it was much more likely that Don's killer
16:10
Speaker 1: was someone Don knew, and maybe even someone who had
16:13
Speaker 1: a key. Based on the fact that there was no
16:15
Speaker 1: evidence of forced entry, and since Dawn was a big
16:19
Speaker 1: and muscular guy and it was clear he had fought
16:22
Speaker 1: back with his attacker, Caplin figured he was probably looking
16:26
Speaker 1: for a strong, potentially big male suspect.
16:30
Speaker 2: The question was who would want to kill Don Flewd.
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Speaker 1: From what the landlord and the two co workers who
16:36
Speaker 1: had called nine to one one had said, Dawn seemed
16:38
Speaker 1: to be a really stand up guy. If he had
16:41
Speaker 1: any dark secrets, they were very well hidden. The next day,
16:47
Speaker 1: December thirtieth, Detective Kaplin went to the house of Don's
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Speaker 1: ex wife, Christine White and her husband Terry White.
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Speaker 2: Caplin had spoken.
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Speaker 1: To Christine the day before, just to break the news
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Speaker 1: about her ex husband's death, also to see what she
17:00
Speaker 1: might know about the murder. Christine hadn't had any ideas
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Speaker 1: about who would have wanted to hurt Don, but she'd
17:06
Speaker 1: mentioned that he used to have a problem with road rage,
17:09
Speaker 1: and he had just finished a twelve hour drive, so
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Speaker 1: you know, maybe he had gotten into it with another
17:14
Speaker 1: driver and maybe they had followed him home. But she
17:17
Speaker 1: also said their daughter had been with him, and she
17:19
Speaker 1: didn't mention anything about that. The only other thing Christine
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Speaker 1: could think of was that Don had actually told her
17:25
Speaker 1: that his dog was acting skittish when he had gotten
17:27
Speaker 1: back from that road trip. Caplin had quickly ruled out
17:30
Speaker 1: Christine as a suspect because she had an airtight alibi.
17:34
Speaker 1: Don had dropped Sienna off at Christine's around seven forty
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Speaker 1: five the night he was killed, and then she and
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Speaker 1: Sienna had spent the rest of the night together. Her
17:42
Speaker 1: road rage idea seemed as unlikely as the landlord's theory
17:46
Speaker 1: that a random homeless person had broken in, and the
17:49
Speaker 1: information about the dog was interesting but not particularly helpful
17:53
Speaker 1: in identifying a suspect. But now Caplan was back at
17:56
Speaker 1: Christine's house because he still needed to speak to her husband, Terry,
18:00
Speaker 1: who had been out of town last night for work.
18:02
Speaker 1: Since he was a truck driver and often worked long
18:04
Speaker 1: shifts at odd hours, but as the husband of Don's
18:08
Speaker 1: ex wife, he was a natural suspect. When Kaplin rang
18:11
Speaker 1: the doorbell, Terry opened the door and greeted the detective
18:15
Speaker 1: with a polite smile. Caplin entered the living room where
18:18
Speaker 1: Christine and Sienna were sitting and said hello, and then
18:21
Speaker 1: asked them to leave so we could speak to Terry
18:23
Speaker 1: in private. Terry sat down in an armchair across from Kaplan.
18:27
Speaker 1: He seemed calm and friendly as he told the detective
18:30
Speaker 1: that he and Don didn't have much contact with each other,
18:33
Speaker 1: but their relationship was not exactly bad. It was just
18:36
Speaker 1: awkward because of the custody battle Don had had with Christine.
18:40
Speaker 1: Ever since then, Terry said he'd tried to keep the
18:42
Speaker 1: peace by just sort of avoiding Dawn. He knew Sienna
18:45
Speaker 1: loved her dad like crazy, and if he accidentally sparked
18:48
Speaker 1: a conflict, Sienna would likely take Don's side. As for
18:52
Speaker 1: the night of Don's murderer, Terry told Kaplin he was
18:55
Speaker 1: at his sister's house, until about nine pm, and then
18:58
Speaker 1: he left and he stopped at Wendy's on the way
19:00
Speaker 1: to work, and then he took a nap in his
19:02
Speaker 1: truck in the parking lot before going in for a shift.
19:05
Speaker 1: After Caplin left and went back to the station, he
19:08
Speaker 1: immediately called Terry's sister and also Terry's boss, and they
19:11
Speaker 1: both confirmed Terry's whereabouts, which meant that Terry's alibi was
19:15
Speaker 1: solid and Caplin was back to square one on suspects.
19:19
Speaker 1: But while he was writing up a report on Terry's interview,
19:22
Speaker 1: his phone rang with a call from one of Don's neighbors.
19:25
Speaker 1: She told him she had been looking over the footage
19:27
Speaker 1: from her security camera for the night of Don's murder,
19:30
Speaker 1: and she found something that she thought the detective might
19:32
Speaker 1: want to see. Caplin stopped writing his report mid sentence
19:36
Speaker 1: and drove right to this neighbor's house, where she led
19:39
Speaker 1: him inside to her computer, where she pressed play. Caplin
19:43
Speaker 1: leaned in close to the screen and watched the black
19:45
Speaker 1: and white footage of the side of Don's townhouse shot
19:49
Speaker 1: from the top of the driveway next door at seven
19:51
Speaker 1: forty one pm, a few minutes after Caplin knew that
19:55
Speaker 1: Don and Sienna had left for Christine's house, a hooded
19:58
Speaker 1: figure could be seen in the corner of the frame.
20:01
Speaker 1: The figure tipped over Dawn's trash can and then walked
20:05
Speaker 1: up the driveway toward Dawn's garage and disappeared from the screen.
20:09
Speaker 1: About fifteen minutes later, the video showed Dawn driving into
20:12
Speaker 1: the garage and then walking out again to go pick
20:15
Speaker 1: up the trash can, and then walking back up the driveway. Now,
20:18
Speaker 1: the garage door itself was not in frame, but the
20:21
Speaker 1: camera did capture a faint glow of light coming from
20:24
Speaker 1: inside Dawn's garage. Kaplan could see that light dimming, which
20:28
Speaker 1: meant the garage door was closing, but then inexplicably, the
20:31
Speaker 1: door must have begun going back up again, because the
20:33
Speaker 1: light began to get bigger, and at the same time
20:36
Speaker 1: there were several brief flashes of light, and then after
20:39
Speaker 1: the flashes, the light began to dim again, which meant
20:42
Speaker 1: the garage door closed, eventually leaving the driveway in darkness.
20:50
Speaker 1: Kaplin got a copy of this video, then left the
20:53
Speaker 1: neighbor's house and walked over to Dawn's trying to piece
20:56
Speaker 1: together what actually happened on the video.
20:58
Speaker 2: He stood inside of Don's.
20:59
Speaker 1: Garage and held the garage door clicker in his hand,
21:02
Speaker 1: and he pressed the button to close the door, and
21:04
Speaker 1: as it closed, Kaplan walked closer until he was almost
21:08
Speaker 1: directly underneath the door's path. And then when that happened,
21:12
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, the door stopped because Caplan had
21:15
Speaker 1: actually tripped the sensor by going right underneath it. And
21:18
Speaker 1: as soon as he tripped the sensor, a light on
21:20
Speaker 1: the top of the garage flashed three times. As the
21:24
Speaker 1: door not only stopped, but began going.
21:26
Speaker 2: Back the other way.
21:27
Speaker 1: It was clearly how the system worked if it was tripped.
21:31
Speaker 1: And so once he saw that, Caplin thought about those
21:33
Speaker 1: strange flashes of light he saw in the video, and
21:36
Speaker 1: then also that hooded figure he had seen lurking near
21:38
Speaker 1: the garage, and all at once it was like the
21:41
Speaker 1: pieces clicked into place. The suspect must have followed Dawn
21:44
Speaker 1: into the garage, but when they went into the garage,
21:48
Speaker 1: perhaps they tripped the sensor. And so as that door
21:52
Speaker 1: was coming down, the suspects trying to sneak in, they
21:54
Speaker 1: tripped the sensor, the door stops, there's those flashes of light,
21:58
Speaker 1: the door begins to go up again, but the suspect,
22:01
Speaker 1: not wanting Don to realize what's going on, rushed over,
22:04
Speaker 1: hits the button, the door shuts.
22:06
Speaker 2: Don is none the wiser.
22:08
Speaker 1: Unfortunately, as valuable as this footage appeared to be, Kaplin
22:12
Speaker 1: was not able to make out the dark figure's face
22:15
Speaker 1: on this security video. But you know, the video had
22:18
Speaker 1: given him a few extremely valuable clues. Whoever killed Don
22:22
Speaker 1: must have known his routine. They also must have known
22:25
Speaker 1: when he would leave to take Sienna to her mother's
22:27
Speaker 1: house and when he would likely come back home. And
22:30
Speaker 1: they also must have known that Don was the type
22:33
Speaker 1: of person who when he pulled into his driveway and
22:36
Speaker 1: saw that overturned trash can, that he wouldn't just let
22:39
Speaker 1: it sit there. He would deal with it that night.
22:41
Speaker 1: He would go down there and he would turn it upright.
22:43
Speaker 1: And when Don was doing that, that would give the
22:46
Speaker 1: killer an opportunity to sneak into the garage. And all
22:50
Speaker 1: of this meant that the suspect didn't just know Don,
22:53
Speaker 1: they had to have known him very well. Detective Kaplin
22:58
Speaker 1: spent weeks speaking to everyone who knew Down from coworkers
23:01
Speaker 1: to friends to his entire family, including his first wife
23:05
Speaker 1: and the two kids he shared with her, Tiffany and Josh,
23:08
Speaker 1: who had gone to live in Oklahoma with their mom.
23:11
Speaker 2: After the divorce.
23:12
Speaker 1: When Kaplan reached the kids, who were now young adults,
23:15
Speaker 1: they said they had mostly stayed on good terms with
23:17
Speaker 1: their dad. However, they said that wasn't true of some
23:20
Speaker 1: of the other members of their family. They told Kaplin
23:24
Speaker 1: the person he should be investigating was Don's own brother, Dennis.
23:28
Speaker 1: They said that Don and Dennis had had a falling
23:30
Speaker 1: out about a year earlier, but somehow, after Don's death,
23:34
Speaker 1: Dennis had gotten the keys to Don's townhouse and he'd
23:37
Speaker 1: been out there boxing things up and basically taking control
23:41
Speaker 1: over everything ever since. Now, Dennis was apparently telling the
23:45
Speaker 1: family that he was just trying to help, but Tiffany
23:48
Speaker 1: and Josh they weren't.
23:49
Speaker 2: Sure they believed that.
23:58
Speaker 1: Towards the end of January twenty seven, so, nearly a
24:01
Speaker 1: month after Don was murdered, Caplin brought Don's brother Dennis
24:05
Speaker 1: into the Albuquerque Police station for questioning, and seated across
24:09
Speaker 1: the interrogation table.
24:10
Speaker 2: Dennis seemed a little keyed up, but Caplan couldn't tell whether.
24:14
Speaker 1: He was nervous about the interview because he was guilty
24:17
Speaker 1: or irritated about it because he was innocent. Dennis said
24:21
Speaker 1: that the feud between him and his brother had started
24:24
Speaker 1: after their father had passed away in October of twenty fifteen,
24:27
Speaker 1: a little over a year earlier. The family had reached
24:29
Speaker 1: an agreement over what to do with their dad's possessions,
24:32
Speaker 1: but Don had violated that agreement by actually keeping one
24:36
Speaker 1: of their father's cars instead of selling it. The argument
24:39
Speaker 1: had spiraled from there, and pretty soon, Dennis said that
24:43
Speaker 1: he and Don were no longer on speaking terms. Dennis
24:46
Speaker 1: said he had reached out that fall and tried to reconnect,
24:49
Speaker 1: but he said Don never returned his calls. Dennis said
24:52
Speaker 1: he had hoped that they could at some point patch
24:54
Speaker 1: things up, you know, if they just tried a little
24:56
Speaker 1: bit harder. But then Dennis said he had gotten the
24:59
Speaker 1: call that Don was dead. Caplin narrowed his eyes as
25:02
Speaker 1: Dennis finished the explanation. He didn't really buy the reconciliation story,
25:07
Speaker 1: and Dennis's only alibi was that he was home alone
25:10
Speaker 1: when his brother was killed.
25:12
Speaker 2: So Caplin decided to push.
25:14
Speaker 1: He asked Dennis why he started rooting through Don's house
25:17
Speaker 1: the minute the crime scene was cleared, and at this
25:20
Speaker 1: Dennis began to get pretty defensive. He insisted he only
25:23
Speaker 1: wanted to spare the rest of his family the pain
25:26
Speaker 1: of having to.
25:27
Speaker 2: Do that themselves.
25:28
Speaker 1: Besides, he said, his hard work settling Don's affairs had
25:32
Speaker 1: actually led him to a lead about the murder that
25:35
Speaker 1: he wanted Kaplin to look into, and that was that
25:38
Speaker 1: just a few days after the murder, he'd walked into
25:41
Speaker 1: Don's house and found the landlord, Benny Ruiz, standing inside
25:45
Speaker 1: with no good explanation for what he was doing there.
25:49
Speaker 1: Dennis said he had heard from Don's neighbors that Don
25:52
Speaker 1: and this landlord had been going back and forth over
25:55
Speaker 1: some hole that the landlord was supposed to repair but
25:57
Speaker 1: hadn't yet, and Dennis just thought that was extremely odd
26:01
Speaker 1: that Benny would just walk into a crime scene, even
26:04
Speaker 1: if he did technically own the place.
26:06
Speaker 2: Caplan sat back.
26:07
Speaker 1: In his chair, remembering Benny Ruiz coming to the house
26:10
Speaker 1: on the day Don's body was found. Benny had been
26:13
Speaker 1: very quick to suggest, without any evidence, that maybe a
26:16
Speaker 1: homeless person could have broken in and murdered Don. Maybe,
26:20
Speaker 1: Caplin thought now, Benny had just been trying to deflect
26:23
Speaker 1: suspicion away from himself. The next day, Caplin brought Benny
26:28
Speaker 1: Ruiz into the station for an interview. Like Don's brother, Dennis,
26:32
Speaker 1: Benny did not have a solid alibi for the night
26:34
Speaker 1: Dawn was killed, but he could explain why Dennis had
26:37
Speaker 1: found him inside of Don's house on that day. He
26:40
Speaker 1: said he was only there to feed the dog because
26:42
Speaker 1: nobody was looking after it during the first few days
26:45
Speaker 1: following Don's death. Benny then leaned across the table and
26:49
Speaker 1: told Kaplan that if there were one person he should
26:51
Speaker 1: be looking into, it was Dennis. Benny said that from
26:54
Speaker 1: the moment Dennis arrived, he'd been acting really weird. Benny
26:58
Speaker 1: said he owned another town house a few blocks away
27:01
Speaker 1: from Don's, and Dennis had apparently asked if he could
27:04
Speaker 1: rent it so he could move some of Dawn's stuff
27:06
Speaker 1: into it and set it up as a new home
27:08
Speaker 1: for Sienna. Benny had found this strange, and when he
27:12
Speaker 1: ran a background check on Dennis, he discovered he had
27:15
Speaker 1: a criminal record for assault and disorderly conduct, so he
27:18
Speaker 1: had told him no. Now, Caplan already knew about the
27:21
Speaker 1: criminal record because he had run Dennis's name before bringing
27:25
Speaker 1: him in for questioning, but now listening to this account
27:28
Speaker 1: from the landlord, he wondered why, after a year of estrangement,
27:33
Speaker 1: Dennis was suddenly so interested in his brother's life. But
27:36
Speaker 1: as the weeks passed, Caplan just couldn't make a case
27:39
Speaker 1: against Dennis. In fact, he couldn't make a case against anybody.
27:44
Speaker 1: Either Dennis nor Benny had alibis that could prove they
27:47
Speaker 1: weren't the killer, but there was also nothing that proved
27:50
Speaker 1: either of them were. The portrait of Dawn as a
27:53
Speaker 1: loving father and a man of faith who had reformed
27:56
Speaker 1: himself after some mistakes in his youth appeared.
27:59
Speaker 2: To be completely act curate.
28:01
Speaker 1: Don's most recent ex wife, Christine, had fought with Don,
28:04
Speaker 1: you know, over custody, but that battle seemed to have
28:07
Speaker 1: cooled off, and both she and her new husband Terry
28:10
Speaker 1: had alibis. Don also didn't appear to have any girlfriends
28:13
Speaker 1: he could have been fighting with, and so there just
28:15
Speaker 1: didn't seem to be anybody who truly wanted Don dead.
28:20
Speaker 1: In February, so about six weeks after the murder, the
28:23
Speaker 1: local newspaper ran a front page article saying the police
28:26
Speaker 1: had no suspects and no evidence, and when Kaplan read.
28:29
Speaker 2: It, he had to admit that it was more or
28:32
Speaker 2: less the truth.
28:34
Speaker 1: The breakthrough that Kaplin desperately needed wouldn't come until March
28:38
Speaker 1: of twenty seventeen, so twelve weeks into the investigation. On
28:42
Speaker 1: that day, he got a call from the forensics lab
28:44
Speaker 1: and they told him a key piece of evidence had
28:47
Speaker 1: just come in and the person.
28:49
Speaker 2: Who had made this critical piece of evidence.
28:51
Speaker 1: Possible was Don Flewett himself. Based on forensic evidence, interviews
29:00
Speaker 1: and the police investigation, here's what police belief happened to
29:03
Speaker 1: Don flew It. On the night of December twenty eighth,
29:06
Speaker 1: twenty sixteen, the killer waited in the darkness right outside
29:16
Speaker 1: of Don's house until the garage door opened at about
29:19
Speaker 1: seven forty pm. At that point, Don drove off with
29:22
Speaker 1: his daughter in the truck, and so the killer immediately
29:25
Speaker 1: darted forward and tipped over a garbage can and then
29:28
Speaker 1: retreated back to the shadows to wait. The killer had
29:32
Speaker 1: been nursing a grudge against Down for a long time.
29:35
Speaker 1: It annoyed them that everyone thought Don was so great,
29:39
Speaker 1: because the killer knew that until just a few years earlier,
29:42
Speaker 1: Don had been this drug abusing loser with two kids.
29:46
Speaker 1: He didn't even care for and another one who he
29:48
Speaker 1: deserved to lose in Siena.
29:50
Speaker 2: But for some reason, nobody else saw down for what
29:53
Speaker 2: he truly was.
29:55
Speaker 1: So the Killer had bided their time for as long
29:57
Speaker 1: as they could stand it, but finally they had had enough.
30:01
Speaker 1: Don was just a dark cloud hovering over their life constantly,
30:06
Speaker 1: and he had to go. The killer knew Don well
30:08
Speaker 1: enough to figure out his schedule. They knew he was
30:11
Speaker 1: due to drop his daughter off at her mother's that evening,
30:14
Speaker 1: and that he'd be coming home alone after that, and
30:16
Speaker 1: that before he went to bed, he would go into
30:19
Speaker 1: the garage to smoke a cigarette. The killer clutched a
30:22
Speaker 1: tire thumper in their hand, which a small wooden bat
30:25
Speaker 1: used to check tire pressure, and as they clutched it,
30:28
Speaker 1: they felt their heart race with anticipation. Finally, just before
30:32
Speaker 1: eight pm, Don came back, and while he was out
30:36
Speaker 1: fixing the trash can, the killer snuck into the garage.
30:39
Speaker 1: They hid behind a vehicle as Don walked back up
30:42
Speaker 1: the driveway and pressed a button to close the garage
30:45
Speaker 1: door and then open the door to his own townhouse.
30:48
Speaker 1: At that point, the killer snuck out from behind the
30:51
Speaker 1: vehicle to get into position and As they did this,
30:54
Speaker 1: they accidentally tripped the garage door sensor, sending the door
30:58
Speaker 1: rolling back up and sending those lights flashing, and so,
31:01
Speaker 1: thinking fast, the Killer rushed over to the panel on
31:04
Speaker 1: the wall and pressed the button again to close the
31:06
Speaker 1: garage door. Then they held their breath, listening for any
31:09
Speaker 1: movement inside the townhouse that would suggest Dawn was like,
31:12
Speaker 1: what's going on and coming out to check. But Don
31:15
Speaker 1: didn't seem to notice, and so the Killer breathed that
31:18
Speaker 1: a sigh of relief and took their position near the door.
31:21
Speaker 1: And then after a while, the door knob jiggled, and
31:24
Speaker 1: the Killer realized this was it. They raised their weapon
31:28
Speaker 1: and as soon as Dawn opened the door, they struck
31:30
Speaker 1: him so hard the tire thumper broke into pieces. Then
31:34
Speaker 1: they punched on again and again with their bare fists,
31:37
Speaker 1: finally letting out all the rage they'd been pushing down
31:40
Speaker 1: for so long. Don did everything he could to fight back.
31:44
Speaker 1: I mean, he had turned his life around, He had
31:47
Speaker 1: a daughter that he loved that he was trying to
31:49
Speaker 1: build an amazing life with. He was not just going
31:51
Speaker 1: to give up here, and so as valiantly as he could,
31:55
Speaker 1: he fought the killer but he had been gravely injured,
31:59
Speaker 1: and when he couldn't fight it anymore, he just tried
32:01
Speaker 1: to crawl under his truck and hide, but the killer
32:05
Speaker 1: pulled him out and landed one last punch to his face.
32:09
Speaker 1: Don stopped moving, and at that point the killer wrapped
32:12
Speaker 1: their hands around his throat and they squeezed.
32:15
Speaker 2: But the killer wasn't done.
32:17
Speaker 1: To make sure Don was dead, they also went into
32:20
Speaker 1: Don's apartment, grabbed a knife from the kitchen, came back
32:23
Speaker 1: into the garage, knelt down, and ruthlessly slit Don's throat.
32:29
Speaker 1: Blood ran out of the wound and poured onto the concrete.
32:32
Speaker 1: The killer found some bleach inside and tried to clean
32:35
Speaker 1: up the mass as best as they could, but they
32:37
Speaker 1: left behind one crucial piece of evidence.
32:41
Speaker 2: Don was not able to save.
32:42
Speaker 1: His own life, but by aggressively fighting back, he'd given
32:47
Speaker 1: investigators a clue that would solve his murder and also
32:51
Speaker 1: ensure that in his absence, his daughter, Sienna would grow
32:54
Speaker 1: up in a safe and secure home. Because the key
32:58
Speaker 1: piece of forensic evidence that was left behind that solved
33:02
Speaker 1: the case was DNA found under Dawn's fingernails that belonged
33:07
Speaker 1: to none other than Sienna's own stepfather, Terry White. It
33:12
Speaker 1: would turn out that Terry's story to the cops about
33:15
Speaker 1: being at his sister's until nine pm was a lie,
33:18
Speaker 1: and so, on April third, twenty seventeen, just over three
33:22
Speaker 1: months after Dawn's murder, Terry White was arrested and charged
33:25
Speaker 1: with murder. After his arrest, Terry cast flame on his wife, Christine,
33:30
Speaker 1: saying she was the one who put him up to it.
33:32
Speaker 1: They could have Siena to themselves, and so Christine was
33:35
Speaker 1: also arrested and charged with murder, but the charges against
33:39
Speaker 1: her were dropped due to a lack of evidence. Terry, however,
33:43
Speaker 1: was convicted in August of twenty eighteen of first degree murder,
33:47
Speaker 1: aggravated burglary, and tampering with evidence. He was sentenced to
33:51
Speaker 1: life in prison plus twelve years.
34:02
Speaker 2: Thank you so much for watching.
34:04
Speaker 1: Let me know what you thought of today's episode in
34:06
Speaker 1: the comments, And remember, we have a whole playlist of
34:08
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Speaker 1: so click here and give them a watch.
34:14
Speaker 2: All right, until next time, see ya,