Latest / PNW Haunts & Homicides / Humboldt’s Darkest Crime: Marci Kitchen’s Deadly Hit-and-Run

Transcript

Humboldt’s Darkest Crime: Marci Kitchen’s Deadly Hit-and-Run · PNW Haunts & Homicides

• 0:00
  As it happens, hit and run seemed to be a more common occurrence in the area along highway 101,
• 0:10
  then you might think. Another was reported in early November 2024. Just weeks later,
• 0:16
  that very same month, the New York Times released a story featuring kind of a gut-wrenching headline.
• 0:25
  Alcohol deaths have more than doubled in two decades. Study flines.
• 0:29
  Hi Cassie. Hi Caitlyn. Hi creepy people. Hello! Oh hello! I forgot. Yeah. This is PNW Haunts and Homicides
• 0:51
  Homicides where we chat about true crime, the paranormal, and all things spooky in the Pacific
• 0:58
  Northwest. Or the PNW if you nasty. We also do a tarot reading for a little bit of deeper insight
• 1:08
  into our topic. So we do them at the end. So stick around if you're into that. We do do that. Yep.
• 1:17
  Which you nasty. So you're gonna you gonna you gonna do do do do do do that. Exactly. That's what we do
• 1:27
  here. Do do do. Oh my goodness. Okay. Well as fun as that was, I don't know that I have any more
• 1:38
  do-do puns. I'll be impressed if you can come up with some. So I mean just float in that idea but
• 1:48
  floating. Nice. I mean I'm pretty sure I'm gonna be totally unimpressed with aspects of what
• 1:59
  you're about to tell me. So I'm gonna go ahead and just say that is straight do-do right now. Oh
• 2:05
  okay. Yeah. I mean I think selfishly I think I want to believe that you will be very impressed with
• 2:15
  what I'm about to tell you. Only because you're just so impressed by my writing and storytelling.
• 2:24
  Oh for sure. Less so with everything that happens basically after now. Right. Yeah.
• 2:34
  That's what I'm getting at. Okay. We've established that you're very entertaining to me and I love
• 2:39
  the storytelling that you bring to the table. You're welcome and I'm sorry. All right. Should I say
• 2:47
  that you bring to the desk? Because we record out of desk. We do record. Yeah. Okay. Well I feel like
• 2:56
  we've we've sort of bandied about all we can here. This is um it's a lot of yikes. Yeah and I'm
• 3:04
  sick so I'm not gonna uh hopefully not talk too much. I think you're going to find that very challenging
• 3:14
  this. Oh okay. I could be wrong. Well I got my flip off mug so we're we're good to go. Yeah I don't
• 3:23
  think you could have realized how appropriate that might be today. Oh god I was picking it up. Yep.
• 3:31
  All right. When two pedestrians were killed in a late night hit and run on a rural road,
• 3:37
  the small community of Fortuna in Humboldt County, California was deeply saddened. Initially
• 3:44
  little was known about the fatal collision that had taken place on the evening of July 12, 2016.
• 3:51
  But it wouldn't be long before details began to emerge about the case. As news of the reportedly fatal
• 3:59
  crash began to circulate so too did speculation online. A blog site read headed Black Belt by Kim
• 4:09
  Kim quickly captured multiple threads of debate as well as comments from those expressing their
• 4:16
  sympathy to the victims and their families. The following morning July 13, the California Highway
• 4:24
  Patrol gave a press release stating at approximately 9.16 pm an unknown driver was driving a light gray
• 4:34
  colored newer model Jeep type vehicle southbound on Eel River Drive south of Ken Mar Road at an
• 4:43
  unknown speed. What the Jeep type vehicle? Do they mean like a like a a Wrangler like the standard
• 4:50
  square Jeep you think of or I think they just weren't positive at this point that it actually was a
• 4:56
  Jeep. Because you think if it was like an SUV type of Jeep, they would have said they were driving
• 5:01
  an SUV. So I just think in like, okay, so it's like a square. Yeah, I think at this point they
• 5:08
  believed it to be a Jeep, but they just could not confirm that yet because they had not located the
• 5:14
  vehicle. I'm just like there's so many types of jeeps which one is it I need to know. Yes,
• 5:20
  and that is important later, but it goes on to say two young female teenagers were skateboarding
• 5:28
  northbound in the southbound lane of Eel River Drive south of Ken Mar Road. For unknown reasons,
• 5:36
  the Jeep struck the teenagers. The Jeep fled the scene and was last seen heading eastbound on Drake Hill
• 5:45
  Road. One teenager was pronounced deceased at the scene and the other was transported by ambulance
• 5:54
  to Redwood Memorial Hospital for major injuries before being flown to the Oakland Children's Hospital.
• 6:02
  Wow. On July 13, 2016 at 0630 hours, I don't know if that's how you say that, 0630 hours,
• 6:15
  the second girl succumbed to her injuries and passed away at Oakland's Children's Hospital.
• 6:22
  That's so sad. Yeah. The initial press released by CHP, the California Highway Patrol,
• 6:32
  did not disclose the identity of either of the victims, though they would both soon be making
• 6:38
  the rounds around social media. So people figured out pretty quickly who they were. Right.
• 6:45
  Locals would learn that Faith Lorraine Tsarnas and Kiya Kitchen aged 14, both residents of the
• 6:55
  Fortuna area were dead. Fortuna, a city with approximately 12,000 residents, had sadly
• 7:05
  just lost two of their own in the prime of their lives very unexpectedly.
• 7:09
  How many residents did you say? 12,000. Oh, so it's not like small town, but not huge. I mean,
• 7:19
  that's pretty small. Is it? So Fortuna is kind of like on the coast or near enough to it. It's like
• 7:28
  definitely more western side of the state. And it's south of Klamath, which is kind of like where
• 7:37
  it's like part of that like area of southern Oregon where you're like really almost in California
• 7:46
  practically. So it's all of that tends to be kind of the smaller towns. They're rural. There's a lot of
• 7:54
  like summertime tourism and things like that. But yeah, they're very small. Not that it makes
• 8:02
  it any like less impactful if they were to be from a bigger city. I was just I do think and the reason
• 8:09
  why I specifically mentioned that is because it's like in a town of 12,000 when two people, you know,
• 8:18
  especially two teenagers, when they pass away unexpectedly, you know, it's like very tragically. Yes,
• 8:27
  yeah, it's always going to be awful to hear that like two teenage girls have just suddenly died.
• 8:33
  But in a community like that, there's, you know, so many more people that, oh, shit, I knew this person.
• 8:41
  And in a time in like with social media where everyone, whether they actually know the person
• 8:47
  or not, people kind of know more people because they're all seeing them online. Yeah, yeah. And I will say
• 8:54
  specifically on, there's multiple blog websites that I went to, but the Kim Camp one, the red-headed
• 9:03
  black belt. I mean, I was blown away. There were like on some of the posts, specifically about this
• 9:11
  case, there were like dozens of comments. There were like multiple different conversation threads that
• 9:17
  started in the comments because it's all of these people in that kind of local community that like,
• 9:25
  they use this as like a first responder, like news source. There are people that like listen to
• 9:31
  the scanners. Yeah, like I feel like the scanner pages on like Facebook. Yeah. Faith had reportedly
• 9:39
  passed away at the scene while Kiya clung to life, but ultimately was pronounced dead at the hospital.
• 9:45
  A very short time later. Kim's blog shared nearly minute to minute updates from various sources
• 9:54
  within the local community. We already mentioned this, but including a scanner. That's part of how
• 10:00
  near minutes after the collision took place, a loose description of the event itself that
• 10:06
  it took in place began unfolding there online and people were immediately commenting.
• 10:11
  The red-headed black belt entry entitled Hit and Run: Child Injured in Fortuna,
• 10:20
  reported one detail that wasn't specifically mentioned in the CHP press release the next morning
• 10:27
  that I read you first. Stating it was believed that the Jeep reported near to or fleeing the scene.
• 10:36
  And being sought in connection with the collision had one broken headlight. I don't know if that's
• 10:42
  just because they weren't positive about that detail yet or maybe it didn't, you know, who knows.
• 10:50
  And of course, there were also some other details that were incorrect, which just speaks to like,
• 10:58
  this is like the very earliest kind of reports or things that people are hearing about what's happened.
• 11:06
  Like the model of the vehicle, though the make being shared Jeep was correct, it would come to light
• 11:15
  that a Wrangler rather than a Cherokee was the vehicle that law enforcement was seeking. So, right,
• 11:23
  like I was saying, right, so there's a lot of stuff from like the very first blog post about this case
• 11:30
  that went up I think within 15 minutes of the crash on Kim's blog site that it was like line
• 11:40
  for line, facts of the case, pretty wild to see how much of that actually did hold as consistent
• 11:50
  the age given in relation to at least one of the victims was also incorrect. But it's possible
• 11:56
  that someone speaking on the scanner had simply offered their best guess when relaying information.
• 12:03
  So my understanding was that it may have even actually been one of the paramedics that said,
• 12:10
  we've got like a 16 year old here. We know these girls turned out to be 14 years old. Teenage,
• 12:18
  you know, victim, you're maybe just giving it your best guess. Yeah, you know, I'm gonna know unless
• 12:25
  I have like their ID on them, but like who has ID on them that young really? Right. And even if they did
• 12:33
  at that point where it's like these are like very extreme life saving measures that have to happen
• 12:39
  very quickly. Right, they're not looking for that specifically right in that moment. Yeah, maybe not
• 12:45
  in that moment at least. Yeah. So anyways, I just I have to say I was like, wow, this is
• 12:52
  it just kind of reinforced for me that it was in a lot of ways even though it's like, you know,
• 12:58
  they're connected through the internet and stuff. It's it felt like, wow, this is kind of a
• 13:03
  tight-knit community seemingly. The following day, the community would continue to speculate
• 13:10
  about the details of the events that had unfurled the previous evening. Meanwhile, the news never stops
• 13:17
  and a report had begun circulating that law enforcement had located the suspect vehicle.
• 13:25
  News teams and cameras were scoping out a property on Becker Lane, which intersects
• 13:31
  eal drive and is roughly a mile away from where the fatal collision had occurred just hours prior.
• 13:38
  When a warrant was served by law enforcement, the vehicle in the backyard of the Becker Lane
• 13:44
  property was said to have damage matching the circumstances of the crash site. It's not totally
• 13:52
  clear to me what that means, but I think a little bit later on we're going to talk about
• 13:58
  some of the other statements and things that are being shared by others that are
• 14:07
  privy to aspects of that evening that you can kind of draw some conclusions at least.
• 14:14
  The vehicle would be taken into evidence and one shocking detail would also come to light.
• 14:21
  The residents and the vehicle in question found there belonged to someone very close to the victims.
• 14:28
  One in particular. This individual was none other than Marci Kitchen.
• 14:36
  Kiya Kitchen's own mother. Oh, that's not good.
• 14:41
  No, initially despite the troubling evidence that seemed to be quickly mounting the day after
• 14:47
  the collision, no arrests were made. But then something kind of bizarre happened.
• 14:55
  Attorney Benjamin Oaken, who along with his colleague Patrick Grigio, I'm going to say,
• 15:05
  represented Marci Kitchen at the time. They sent an open letter to the California Highway Patrol
• 15:12
  stating that their clients were on standby and ready to submit themselves to be arrested.
• 15:18
  Which is weird for more than one reason, but I'm like, did I miss something? No. So you may have
• 15:28
  noticed that number one, I said clients as in plural. Right. Marci Kitchen had retained council and
• 15:35
  the aforementioned attorneys were corresponding with law enforcement on behalf of herself
• 15:42
  and her boyfriend, Josh Perlston. While the letter almost made the pair seem amenable with the
• 15:51
  possibility of arrest, it stands to reason that none of them was pleased when Marcy Kitchen
• 15:57
  actually was arrested roughly two months after the investigation by CHP started.
• 16:05
  Wow. Yes. That's a long time. Not really. A lot of investigations take months, years.
• 16:16
  I guess I just think of like if someone's saying, okay, I'm here arrest me like then two months later,
• 16:22
  then they do it that that's why I feel like it was a long time. Right. Yeah. In that regard, I agree.
• 16:30
  I agree. But she wasn't going to be held in custody in connection with the fatal collision
• 16:38
  earlier that summer for very long. She was able to post her $750,000 bail in order to remain free
• 16:47
  as she awaited her fate in the forthcoming trial. Though not every court proceeding would be quite
• 16:53
  so straightforward and seemingly friendly. On day two of her preliminary hearing, her son,
• 17:00
  18 years old at the time testified in court. His testimony certainly did her no favors. Uh-oh.
• 17:08
  I mean, this poor kid had lost his sister, which no doubt was a devastating blow that, I mean,
• 17:16
  that's just the emotional impact that that's going to have on his life from that day forward.
• 17:22
  I mean, immeasurable. And I have to imagine hearing his testimony that day had a pretty similar
• 17:30
  impact on the people that were present in the courtroom. Because in case it got lost in the shovel
• 17:37
  or maybe I wasn't totally clear, Marci is being accused of being responsible for the hit and run
• 17:48
  that killed her daughter and best friend. Yeah. At first I was like, I don't know if
• 17:55
  if did she do that? Like did she actually do this? I was kind of like waiting for you to, yeah.
• 18:03
  According to her son, Marci had returned home in her recently wrecked jeep that night.
• 18:08
  Her passenger referred to as Trent stated that they had hit two girls. He also had a lot of other
• 18:17
  really shitty stupid things to say. And if anybody else has to be hit by an unidentified vehicle
• 18:24
  that abandons them on the side of the road, leaving little doubt that while the hit may have been
• 18:30
  accidental, running from the scene of the crash was far from unintentional. Right. Yeah. His mother
• 18:39
  was evasive about what had happened to her vehicle. Unlike her passenger, she claimed she thought
• 18:46
  they'd hit a deer. How was one person saying two girls and one's just like it was a deer?
• 18:55
  Like two girls is very specific. Yeah. Yeah. She told her son to get rid of a large bag that had been
• 19:03
  stowed in the back of her jeep. Now it's getting weird. Yep. Yep. It contained untrimmed marijuana,
• 19:12
  reportedly seven pounds worth. Wow. That's a lot because I just got an ounce and I was like,
• 19:21
  whoa, I did not realize how much an ounce was. Yeah. Pounds. I, I was like, did I accidentally start
• 19:32
  reading an article about British currency? Like, what? It's an unfathomable amount of weed.
• 19:44
  And then ask your kid to take it. Yeah. Go ahead and get rid of this. What's he supposed to do with it?
• 19:51
  Well, I'll tell you, he tossed it over a fence as she had instructed him to get rid of it in so
• 19:56
  many words. To be clear, I am very definitely fully shocked, but I'm not clutching my pearls
• 20:04
  about the devil's lettuce. I think, I think we all know each other. We're friends here. You get it.
• 20:10
  Right. To be fair, I do think that's a mind-boggling amount of weed to be in possession of.
• 20:16
  I mean, unless you're literally the delivery person for dispensaries. That's the only reason I can
• 20:25
  bat them having that much marijuana in your possession. It wasn't legal then. Was it either?
• 20:32
  Or was it just, it's like, just become legal. Okay. Yeah. So, California legalized medical in
• 20:41
  '96 and recreational in 2016. Oh, okay. When in 2016? So, that's interesting. Like, were they growing
• 20:50
  at somewhere? Well, they had to have. And this region is very well known for people growing,
• 20:57
  you know, growing. Right. So, they approved it in November 2016. So, it wouldn't have been legal.
• 21:05
  Not recreational. Yeah. Led to recreational cannabis sales in California by January 2018. Yeah.
• 21:12
  So, it still wasn't quite there yet. Yeah. So, it might have been, I mean, arguably, I guess, like,
• 21:19
  if you are a permitted grower selling medicinal, right? Medical marijuana. That would have been legal.
• 21:27
  But there's definitely people still, like, dealing. Yep. I didn't put anything about, like, specifically,
• 21:34
  the dates of legalization in California or Oregon into my notes. But I do think that provides
• 21:41
  context. Like, how illegal was this? So, pretty illegal. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Still pretty illegal.
• 21:47
  I mean, it is, it is California. But yeah, I mean, if you've just killed somebody behind the wheel,
• 21:54
  probably they're going to come at you for, you know, oh, but if she just hit a deer, why is it a big deal?
• 22:01
  Right. So, I'm just blown away by the bathling circumstances that this kid bound himself in.
• 22:08
  And I realize he's not technically a kid. But I feel like more accurately, the situation that his
• 22:16
  mother put him in. I try not to pass judgment on other people and particularly parents,
• 22:22
  because that should be tough. You don't have to be a parent to be able to see that
• 22:30
  this is not how that relationship should work. No. We can, I think we can judge on this one.
• 22:38
  Yeah. Her son may not have legally been a child at the time, but surely this woman has to realize
• 22:47
  this situation has put her child at a measurable risk, mentally, emotionally, potentially legally.
• 22:55
  Right. And this next part gets so much worse.
• 23:00
  I don't doubt that his life was marred by uncomfortable or even unsafe scenarios previously.
• 23:07
  But I have to imagine nothing quite stacks up like what he was about to describe.
• 23:13
  Marcy Sun, Kaiya's brother, face to me,
• 23:23
  analyzing the situation, the first in a series of agonizing situations and accompanying choices
• 23:31
  in short succession that would no doubt. I mean, there's no way this doesn't leave an impression
• 23:36
  on you, not just for the rest of that summer, but probably for the rest of your life. He said,
• 23:42
  his mother handed him her keys, instructing him to drive into a basketball hoop as hard as he could.
• 23:49
  In hopes of making it look like she had run into that rather than the far more terrible truth,
• 23:55
  which again, if you hit a deer accidentally on a dark road late at night,
• 24:02
  why would you go to those lengths? Because it was not a deer. It was not a not deer. It was too human
• 24:11
  girls. I feel so fucking bad for this kid. I really hope he went no contact with his mom after this.
• 24:19
  That's got to cause damage to you too if you're hitting a freaking basketball pole. Is that what you
• 24:25
  said, a basketball pole? Well, yeah, a basketball. Yeah. I don't know. Yeah. At your own personal risk,
• 24:33
  just do this thing to cover up something that I'm telling you is no big deal, but for some reason,
• 24:40
  I need you to do this. That makes a lot of sense. That's still going to hurt you even if you think
• 24:44
  that's a minor. Cause I've been like bumped into like rear ended just like from stopped. And it's
• 24:50
  that hurt. I mean, it can. He told deputy district attorney Stacey Eads that he refused. Hand in the
• 24:59
  keys back to her as he stated that was a stupid idea. Yeah. I just looping your own son in on the cover
• 25:09
  up for any crime would be awful enough, but knowing what we do about the victims in this case that
• 25:16
  the family was apparently not yet fully aware of that just makes her proposal and especially bitter
• 25:26
  pill to swallow. Like at this point, I don't think he even knows that one of the victims is his
• 25:32
  sister, right, but that information, I mean, it just makes it so much worse. It's an awful thing to ask
• 25:41
  your child to do in the first place, but when asked whether his mother had been intoxicated, he stated,
• 25:48
  yes, I've been around her long enough to be able to say when she's had enough beers that she's drunk.
• 25:56
  At the time, according to his testimony, the fact that Marcy was intoxicated was readily observable
• 26:03
  as he could easily smell alcohol on her. Marcy had apparently admitted her crime to others
• 26:10
  beyond her passenger that night and her son. Obviously, we've already mentioned this, but at times,
• 26:17
  her claim was that she believed that she had struck a deer only to pull over and see nothing
• 26:24
  before continuing on her drive home. So we know that's bullshit. Right. Because when she was telling
• 26:30
  immediately after and then yeah. Well, and if she had pulled over because she thought she
• 26:36
  hit a deer, she wouldn't have seen nothing. Oh, God. The true horror of the situation that was
• 26:43
  unfolding would not dawn on anyone until Marcy's boyfriend, Josh Pearlston arrived to the property.
• 26:51
  And at that time, he asked where Kaya and Faith were. A sudden sickening realization came over the young man
• 27:00
  as he recalled having seen the pair, his sister and her best friend leaving the house around
• 27:07
  sundown on their long boards. He and his friend took off in the friend's truck heading toward the nearby
• 27:13
  accident. This happened about a mile away from their home. As they pulled up to the scene of the crash,
• 27:20
  he was overcome with fear and dread. And he said, Faith had been rolled over on her back. He recalled
• 27:28
  she was lying in the middle of the road dead. He noticed people hovering around another figure
• 27:34
  nearby and his worst fear came sharply into focus. I moved and I saw my sister's face.
• 27:42
  That was only the beginning of what proved to be a very long night. He was informed at the scene
• 27:50
  that his sister was being transported to nearby Redwood Memorial Hospital. From there, his friend drove
• 27:57
  him back home to retrieve his cell phone and charger, along with his wallet and Epipen. Upon their
• 28:04
  return, he noted that the Jeep was no longer in front of their family home. It had since been moved
• 28:11
  behind the gate to their side yard. He's already a more responsible young adult than anybody else
• 28:19
  involved in this situation. Clearly. He was at the hospital for what felt like agonizing hours
• 28:26
  before his mother arrived. She told him not to tell anyone what happened that night and that she did
• 28:34
  it. As much as the evening had been a complete and utter blur, I feel like I don't think he needed
• 28:42
  her to confess to be able to put that together. Yeah, that was pretty obvious, I think.
• 28:47
  Kaya would be transferred to the Oakland Children's Hospital. Her family following,
• 28:52
  fearing the worst, but somehow still remaining hopeful. Her brother rode in the car with his dad and
• 29:00
  his dad's friend. They all went together. It sounds like it was a very quiet ride there. Unfortunately,
• 29:11
  Kaya did pass away the following morning. Of course, her entire family was devastated.
• 29:17
  One member in particular who provided more shocking context in the aftermath. Her brother said,
• 29:25
  "We were crying. There was just so much shock. I was just sitting there trying to process that my
• 29:32
  sister was dead on the table." And somewhere in the silence, my mom spoke up and said, "I did this.
• 29:40
  I killed her. I killed both of them." Kaya's father was immediately furious, which feels
• 29:48
  "Dee, understandable?" Yeah. Reportedly, one of the first and only instances where Marcy Kitchen
• 29:56
  became emotional at this stage, at least in the court proceedings, was when her son described
• 30:02
  a wait fell off my shoulders. Because I had to keep it secret from my dad on the drive down.
• 30:10
  Oh, shit. Yeah, I didn't even think about that. I'm like, yeah, of course, if you're going to see
• 30:16
  your sisters in this terrible position medically, and of course you're going to have a silent
• 30:24
  car ride, but then to have that on top of it, holy shit. So just to sum it up, give us a little run
• 30:32
  down here. This woman had the audacity to try to rope her son in as a co-conspirator. And repeatedly
• 30:38
  asked him to conceal what he knew of the crime. Worse yet, she also had the unmitigated gall to file
• 30:47
  claims against the city of Fortuna and multiple other government agencies seeking monetary damages
• 30:53
  for her daughter's death. Wait, what? The person who struck and killed and ran away from the scene
• 31:04
  sued for her daughter's death that she literally was the cause of. Make it make sense. Not only did you
• 31:13
  hit her, but she maybe could have survived if you had called someone right away. Like you just left
• 31:19
  her there. This is all your fault, all of it. And it does sound like the emergency response was like
• 31:26
  incredibly quick. That's good at least. Yeah, but I think we are probably going to learn that the
• 31:35
  fact that she left the scene and didn't report it may not have had. It's impossible to say.
• 31:42
  Right. It's impossible to say. But there are other way. Yeah, there are some details that I feel
• 31:48
  like make it pretty clear that probably nobody was walking away from this. But her claim alleged
• 31:58
  that the accident was caused by the dangerous conditions on eel river drive. This ended up not
• 32:05
  being particularly important to the case despite how infuriating it is. But there was also testimony
• 32:11
  provided by law enforcement officers at her preliminary hearing. California Highway Patrol
• 32:17
  officer William Chase Adams. His statements indicated that he believed that Marcy kitchen was driving
• 32:25
  at a high rate of speed, though he admitted that he could not accurately estimate her exact speed
• 32:31
  at the time of the collision. He stated that both of the teenage victims had THC present in their
• 32:38
  systems. His interpretation provided on the stand was that due to that and the fact that they had
• 32:46
  been in the middle of the road rather than the shoulder facing oncoming traffic, they bore
• 32:52
  some responsibility for the tragic collision stating they both violated the vehicle code,
• 32:58
  which was a contributing factor in the collision. During his cross examination, he said it was unclear
• 33:09
  whether a driver under the influence would have had time to react to suddenly encountering
• 33:15
  pedestrians on that particular section of the road. However, he added that other drivers later
• 33:22
  approaching the scene had been able to avoid faith's body prior to her transport to the hospital.
• 33:30
  So it's almost like it doesn't matter because you were driving impaired and killed people.
• 33:40
  No matter what you do, if you're intoxicated in a vehicle and you do anything, that's your
• 33:46
  fucking fault. He did also add there was an excellent line of sight at the location.
• 33:55
  Okay. Yeah. So even if I mean, even if there wasn't, that's not to say like, obviously if you're
• 34:04
  going you're in the road, you're going the wrong way. If someone were to hit you because they couldn't
• 34:09
  see you and they were not intoxicated and everything was totally fine. That would be a tragic accident.
• 34:16
  Terrible accident. I wouldn't say it was like the victim's fault. No. No. And I think
• 34:24
  I struggle because legally, when you're dealing with an insurance claim for a car crash, there is
• 34:38
  language that wants to attribute fault in a way that's kind of uncomfortable. Like legally or in terms
• 34:49
  of liability. But I think it's their valid points about contributing factors. But I don't think
• 35:01
  that anybody himself included is saying this is anything, but the perpetrators fault. It's just
• 35:08
  stuff. You know, you're on the stand and you are under oath and you have to be able to speak to
• 35:14
  other aspects of the case. But I'm sure that feels very icky. This is like one of my biggest fears too.
• 35:22
  Because I've like, I've almost hit people who are just in the bike lane going the wrong way and then
• 35:27
  you know, pull up and you're looking one way because all the cars should be coming from the one and then
• 35:33
  all of a sudden there's a biker. So like, it's like one of my biggest fears in a car. It's like hitting
• 35:38
  someone because I can't see them. It's so scary to me. I mean, and they're, you know, like you said,
• 35:46
  if this had happened where, you know, the pedestrian is maybe not behaving in the way that they are
• 35:51
  supposed to and as a result, the driver couldn't see them, but they were not impaired and they were
• 35:57
  doing what they should have been doing. Sadly, ultimately, that person who was behind the wheel is
• 36:04
  going to be, I mean, impacted by that in such a devastating way. It may be not in the sense of being
• 36:12
  legally charged with a crime because that's that's a totally different scenario. But like the emotional
• 36:19
  impact of realizing, yeah, if they like, if you killed someone behind the wheel and even if you weren't,
• 36:26
  you know, at fault, you're fucked for life still. Oh my God. I mean, it would be devastating. Yeah.
• 36:32
  I was just listening to another podcast that was talking about like, oh, like helmet laws. Like,
• 36:38
  yeah, you could argue like, okay, I don't have to wear a helmet because it's only going to affect me.
• 36:44
  But then if someone hits you and you die because you weren't wearing a helmet, like that fucks them
• 36:49
  up for life. Yeah. So yeah, it's just one of those things where it's like, God, please be safe if
• 36:56
  you're on the road on a pedestrian, a biker, a skateboarder. Yeah. Don't drive drunk. You fuckers.
• 37:07
  Seriously, I mean, as someone who has 0.00, 0 children and an equal desire to have any, like I just,
• 37:22
  I can't do we ever find out if she knew right away that it was her kid or if she found out when
• 37:31
  the kid was like, not home. And she's like, oh shit. I, I'm not sure that we can ever know that for sure.
• 37:38
  Okay. I was like, not because I was wondering if that was going to come out. So I haven't asked that
• 37:44
  question. Yeah. Yeah. You're like, I'm trying not to ask the question that I feel like maybe you're
• 37:47
  going like, yeah. Um, I honestly, I just don't know that like, there's any way to know that for sure.
• 37:56
  Um, I would like to think that if she had known that, maybe that would have changed some of her
• 38:03
  behavior, but I just, I mean, I don't even know the way she treated her son. So I just, I just don't
• 38:11
  even know that we can say that. I don't know that we can say that, oh, no, there's no way she didn't
• 38:17
  know because of course she would have reacted in this situation differently because I,
• 38:22
  I don't think there's any guarantee that that's true. But okay. For tuna, police sergeant Jason
• 38:30
  Kadel also testified. He said he noticed a moderate odor of alcohol coming from Marcy Kitchen when
• 38:38
  interacting with her. And this represented perhaps a slight mismatch of opinion between the two
• 38:47
  officers as Chase had reportedly said the alcohol odor was overwhelming and that she was obviously
• 38:57
  very intoxicated. Further stating that she was still intoxicated a couple of hours later at the
• 39:04
  hospital. So much so in fact that the flight crew taking kaya to the hospital in Oakland refused
• 39:13
  to allow her on the plane due to what they believed to be her significantly intoxicated state.
• 39:19
  Wow. Yeah. That's a real drug. Yeah. And honestly, it all just keeps getting worse and I feel like
• 39:31
  a broken record saying this, but this next part is just really rough.
• 39:40
  Additional testimony also reportedly revealed that kaya and faith were hit with such force.
• 39:47
  The imprints of their buttocks were left on the jeeps front bumper. Wow. And that faith
• 39:57
  had imprints from letters and numbers on the license plate on the back of her legs.
• 40:06
  Geez. Which feels like something out of like a like it feels like sci-fi. That doesn't
• 40:13
  that doesn't seem like that could be real. Yeah. I just need to tell myself that that's like
• 40:21
  some sensationalized aspect of the story, but that's hard. Yeah. All of this testimony presented
• 40:32
  at the preliminary hearing, the not so good, the bad, and the truly ugly was intended to allow the
• 40:39
  judge to determine whether there was enough evidence to proceed with the trial.
• 40:44
  As you might have guessed, the judge ultimately decided that the trial would be allowed to proceed.
• 40:52
  Didn't she confess to it? She can now she's saying that she didn't do it. She confessed to
• 41:00
  like private individuals at times. Right. She's okay. It's one of those piecemeal things. You know how
• 41:08
  the letter didn't she write a letter? That was her defense that that was her attorney that said
• 41:14
  basically what was happening was the attorney was responding to a perception allegedly that's
• 41:24
  you know whether from law enforcement or from the public at large that Marcy and or her boyfriend
• 41:32
  were trying to hide from law enforcement. So they were saying like no, they are they're cooperating
• 41:42
  and in fact if you want to arrest them, they are willing to turn themselves in. Okay. I see. Uh-huh.
• 41:51
  I think I was misinterpreting that is like I'm guilty. Go ahead and pick me up. Right.
• 41:56
  Okay. Well, and you could you could read it that way. That's that's not the letter of the of the law
• 42:03
  as it were, but um but okay. So they do still need evidence. Yeah. A thousand percent. Yeah. Yeah.
• 42:11
  Sounds like they have it. They've got a lot of eyewitness testimony from, um, you know both law
• 42:18
  enforcement and you know private citizens that interacted with her and that saw you know aspects of
• 42:25
  that evening. Wouldn't the numbers on the license plate match up? Yeah. You would think, um,
• 42:32
  I don't know how legible that would have been. I honestly, I I read that in some reporting about
• 42:44
  about the court case and testimony that was given. I read that and I thought there's no way that's
• 42:51
  real. And I was like I'm going to talk about this, but like I just cannot my brain refuses to process
• 42:59
  that that's possible. Because that seems like that would be a really good piece of evidence. Like
• 43:04
  gruesome terrible thing, but if it matched the numbers on the license plate, like there you go. Yeah.
• 43:12
  That seems like a movie like like you're saying. Yeah. Assuming that we believe the testimony
• 43:18
  that was provided regarding like the impressions on the bumper and on the victims body. Uh, I can't
• 43:28
  imagine that that the characters that were impressed on, you know her her legs. I can't imagine that
• 43:38
  they would have been clear enough for that to have been like evidence of this is the specific plate
• 43:44
  that hit her. Again, I I I cannot make my brain believe that that is real. As the case moved ahead,
• 43:53
  there were requests to change venue. Marcy eventually lost her original legal team reportedly due
• 44:01
  to financial struggles and her travel was at times restricted. Was that financial struggle because
• 44:08
  she had to pay $7,500,000, whatever the fuck it was to for bail. Um, no, because 750,000. Yeah. Um, it's,
• 44:19
  yes, 750,000. And when you are out on 750,000 dollars bail, um, that doesn't mean that you have to have
• 44:30
  $750,000. Um, usually it's like you have to provide some sort of like a guarantee. So it could be cash
• 44:40
  or it could be say putting up your home. And you typically only have to match like something that's
• 44:48
  like it's like 10% of the actual stated amount. And that's weird to me. And it's different in every
• 44:57
  jurisdiction. And I don't know enough about how bond works in California, but suffice to say
• 45:04
  she remained free until ultimately she actually voluntarily surrendered her bond prior to sentencing.
• 45:14
  Huh. Do you have to pay it even if you get like found guilty and sentenced? Do you still have to pay
• 45:22
  that? No, it's not, I mean, it's not something that you ever pay. It's like a deposit. In theory,
• 45:29
  you should get it back. I don't know how this one is. I'm very confused on how bonds work, but it's
• 45:35
  weird that she would get like, why would she give that up? And not just if she knows she's guilty or
• 45:41
  whatever. Well, it makes the question because I do think that at the point that she surrendered it,
• 45:48
  I think the writing was on the wall. And I think that sometimes what people want to do is start to,
• 45:56
  they want to start the clock. They want to start the time served. That makes sense. Okay,
• 46:05
  because I'm like, why wouldn't you just be as free as long as you can because you know you're going to
• 46:09
  go to jail soon, but that makes sense. And I think that probably at and I can't state whether or not
• 46:17
  she actually received this legal advice specifically or not, but I would think at a certain point,
• 46:23
  it's possible that her counsel may have advised her like, this is going to look like kind of a positive
• 46:32
  for you where it's like, I'm ready to accept responsibility and I want to start
• 46:38
  basically, you know, serving my time and kind of beginning to make amends with my community.
• 46:48
  Right. I don't know if that's why she did it or advice that she received, but I have, that makes
• 46:55
  sense to me. Marcy Kitchen, Pleiit Guilty and was sentenced to eight years on September 18th,
• 47:04
  2018. Those following the case, the local community and the people, Faith and Kyle left behind,
• 47:13
  were dissatisfied with the overall outcome, nor would they be pleased as Mercy Kitchen's early
• 47:20
  release on parole approached. I knew you were going to say that. Yeah. Well, I mean, first of all,
• 47:27
  she killed two people and she's going to get eight years. Yeah. On purpose, like, I mean, obviously,
• 47:35
  wasn't like premeditated or whatever the fuck, but like, you ran. Yeah. Faith's mother, Stephanie
• 47:43
  Baldwin said, a woman from the state parole office called and gave us the exact date, which was the
• 47:51
  11th. She is going to fortuna. We were told that they always go back to their last permanent
• 47:59
  residence. We're not able to get justice for Faith and Kyle. That's not justice. I mean, she's
• 48:09
  essentially going back to the same community where the victims and then, of course, also herself
• 48:16
  at that point, all lived. And she's going back early. She killed two people. And that may not have
• 48:28
  been her intention when she set out at the beginning of the day, but Jesus Christ, you killed your own
• 48:36
  child. They're just like, I have no words. You know, so I stumbled across a YouTube video
• 48:51
  of a Washington state trooper who was interviewed by King five Seattle. When asked by the anchor,
• 49:00
  how many serious or deadly crashes have we had so far this year that have involved DUI? He replied
• 49:10
  that at that point in 2024, there were 202 fatality collisions on the state's roads that led to over
• 49:18
  500 individuals being seriously injured. As it happens, hit and run seemed to be a more
• 49:27
  common occurrence in the area along Highway 101 than you might think. Another was reported in early
• 49:35
  November 2024. Just weeks later, that very same month, the New York Times released a story featuring
• 49:44
  kind of a gut-wrenching headline. Alcohol deaths have more than doubled in two decades. Study finds.
• 49:53
  Doubled? More than doubled. Mm-hmm. I'll be honest that in the end, I kind of have to agree with
• 50:01
  Stephanie Faith's mother. It doesn't feel like justice, and it certainly doesn't feel like things have
• 50:09
  gotten better. No. So it's crazy. It's like it's like drilled into you. We have those horrifying,
• 50:20
  like in high school, we have those horrifying drunk driving scenario things. They force you to watch
• 50:26
  basically of your friends dying in the field. And the moms coming and pretending to cry and fake
• 50:34
  feeling like that should scary. It's drilled into your ass. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I know everyone doesn't
• 50:43
  necessarily go through that, especially like further back in time, but like how does it keep getting
• 50:49
  worse? I just... Yeah. Well, and thinking about this too, I feel like it really speaks volumes because
• 50:58
  particularly in terms of like vehicular related deaths, cars have only become safer.
• 51:06
  So if more people are dying, I just... I don't get it. And I know it's really easy for people to be,
• 51:18
  you know, not have their wits about them. And I'm certainly not making excuses for anyone who
• 51:24
  does something horrific like this, but that's why you don't operate machinery. Yeah. I call them death.
• 51:33
  Like they're you're driving like a death machine around. That's how I think of it every time I get in a car.
• 51:37
  Like this is a death machine. I could die. I could kill something. Like that's really extreme and like
• 51:42
  anxiety thoughts, but like it's true. Right. I mean, these are these are things that I feel like it's
• 51:48
  valid to consider and to be cognizant of as you get behind the wheel or you, you know, get into the
• 51:57
  passenger seat. So before we move on and, you know, do some tarot as one does, and we attempt to
• 52:12
  lighten things up. I just want to say that of course, I'm going to go ahead and share some of the
• 52:19
  resources in the show notes that I found just for anyone that is curious. My plan at this point,
• 52:27
  as we're recording this, is to provide some statistical information related to the topic.
• 52:34
  Some some resources that are designed to be, you know, specifically, you know, for help.
• 52:40
  If you or yourself, you know, someone that you know needs resources. And then I think I have
• 52:51
  some information about organizations that are working to improve upon what appears to be a pretty
• 53:00
  sad set of circumstances that impacts just so many people.
• 53:06
  Drop the card. Mother pearl. Free of sword. Did food.
• 53:21
  Free of sword. Jumped out at me. Okay. I'm taking that one out. I'm going to send it to the side in case.
• 53:28
  All right. So we're going to do some tarot. I'll send you my energy. It might not be a lot,
• 53:35
  but I'll give you all I got. It's no. It's higher than I thought it was going to be. That's good.
• 53:43
  So I fan them out in like kind of a rainbow shape. Okay. So I feel like this time I want,
• 53:52
  I want you to like give me a little bit of a sense of like where in the arc do you feel? I'm feeling like
• 54:01
  my right side like right like right below the arc on the right side. Okay. This is really hard for me
• 54:10
  because technically as I'm looking at you, that's like the left. I know, but yeah, that's my right hand.
• 54:16
  Yeah. Okay. Let's see. Like how far like towards the bottom? Like not in the middle of the bottom
• 54:24
  in the arc. Okay. Closer to the top of the arc. Oh, closer to the top of here. Yeah, but like
• 54:30
  down a little bit. Okay. I think that's like this one. Interesting. Okay. So I had a card that as I was
• 54:38
  shuffling it hopped out and it was the three of swords and this is the queen of swords. Can you see
• 54:45
  this? Oh, yeah. In reverse. Yeah. So you got like a mama bird and a little a little bird.
• 54:53
  Kind of what it looks like in the little bird is not a life on the card. Oh,
• 54:59
  card. It's not that's like really crazy imagery right there. I feel like the card, the card that
• 55:06
  popped out at you, I was like, well, holy shit. Of course. Oh boy. Okay. So I'm going to start by reading
• 55:13
  the queen of swords, I guess. And our keywords are intelligence, independence, authority,
• 55:23
  objectivity, and communication. And we have this in the reverse. When the queen appears reversed,
• 55:33
  you may feel trapped, limited, unable to speak your own truth.
• 55:38
  She can indicate disappointments at work or home, broken promises, hopes that didn't manifest.
• 55:47
  Like the promise to keep your child safe. I mean, Jesus. Burthed her. Yeah.
• 55:53
  I mean, either one of those kids, all of it. All of the kids. Yeah. All of the things, all of the kids.
• 56:01
  Yeah. You may feel you haven't been given a chance to show your stuff or you've been handed a puny
• 56:08
  piece of the pie. Perhaps you can't move beyond the loss or your emotions are interfering with your
• 56:16
  judgment. Yeah. Cause like, why do people get shit faced all the time? You know, obviously it was not
• 56:23
  a rare occurrence or her son wouldn't automatically know when she was wasted. Yeah. Yeah.
• 56:30
  It sounded like that was something very recognizable for him.
• 56:33
  In a reading about money, this card can mean you've let your emotions rather than your intellect
• 56:41
  guide a financial matter. Like that reminds me of like her defense team and happened to switch
• 56:50
  partway through because of the financial struggles. But it may also suggest you've gotten bad advice
• 56:57
  or not investigated a situation adequately and consequently incurred losses. Wow.
• 57:04
  This queen warns read the fine print. To me, it just screams like someone making bad decisions.
• 57:12
  And not thinking about what they're doing, which is clearly what was happening. If the reading is about
• 57:19
  your job, you may not be using your intellect and creativity fully. Or you feel your abilities aren't
• 57:26
  appreciated. A boss may be too critical. Co-workers may be envious or undependable causing you to question
• 57:34
  yourself. The reversed queen may represent the glass ceiling women still face. In a reading about
• 57:43
  love, this card suggests bitterness caused by disappointments or losses as a result you may swear
• 57:50
  off relationships and isolate yourself. Sometimes the queen reversed shows an overly critical nature
• 57:58
  in flexibility or coolness toward a partner. Should I read the three of swords? Yeah. The jump
• 58:06
  back. For sure. Jesus. Okay. I mean, we know like in broad strokes what this card obviously is
• 58:14
  going to stand for, but right. Sadness loss. Keywords are suffering, heartache, regret, grieving, sorrow,
• 58:26
  loss. I mean, this is what the card looks like. So yeah, it's not great typically. Oh, just like the
• 58:37
  imagery of the bird to it's like such a bright colored, beautiful bird and it's just like laying
• 58:44
  there. The upright three signifies separation, severing a connection to something or someone you
• 58:52
  love. You feel isolated and cut off from something you've found meaningful. A way of life, your home
• 59:00
  and family, a philosophy, pursuit or job. Something in your life has died. Usually because it has lost
• 59:10
  its meaning or run its course and you need to let it go. Yeah, it's great. I mean, usually we're like,
• 59:15
  it's not literal, but in this case, it's pretty literal. I just think like the most powerful part of
• 59:26
  this for me, it like in all of it with the tarot is that literally like you said, it's the main card
• 59:34
  that we've drawn. This looks like the more mature or mama bird. And this is the one that popped out.
• 59:44
  And it's like obviously these are not the same species of bird, but it's like this one is like
• 59:51
  representative of youth. And yeah, show the big one because it looks like it's like flying forward
• 59:58
  to like it does. Yeah. And they're both swords. Yeah. Just speaks to like severing a tie, definitely.
• 1:00:07
  Wow. Creepy. It is creepy. This is like one of my least favorite cases that I've had to research
• 1:00:17
  recently. I'm sorry. I mean, I felt like it was an important story. And I mean, it feels unbelievable
• 1:00:27
  that somebody could find themselves in this set of circumstances, like the fact that you could
• 1:00:34
  in a drunk driving accident kill your own child. Yeah. That's like the probably the worst thought
• 1:00:40
  a parent can ever have. It's like killing their own kid. Yeah. And I know there are some people who do
• 1:00:46
  it on purpose who are terrible, terrible people. Yeah. But I mean, my next thought was just literally,
• 1:00:53
  if you're driving drunk roughly a mile away from your own home, it stands to reason like you have
• 1:01:00
  already decided that you don't care about what happens to people that are interacting with you
• 1:01:07
  in a close proximity like that. It didn't have to be your own kid. That kind of been one of your
• 1:01:12
  neighbors kids. And it was too. Yes. Yeah. Well, exactly. It's like this is how you have decided to
• 1:01:20
  behave as an adult woman and the choices that you have made. And I don't it sucks. It really,
• 1:01:28
  you know, I've realized it really sucks that other people can affect your life so drastically.
• 1:01:34
  Like choices that don't have anything to do with you can like ruin your life. Yeah.
• 1:01:42
  Choices other people make for you. It's crazy. Yeah. Oh, I might have to go and look for like a
• 1:01:49
  corporate crime or something after something that feels a little, you know, a little bit lighter.
• 1:01:54
  Can we get some fun crime up in the switch? I know. Yeah. Maybe I'll see if I can find something
• 1:01:59
  funny. We need some more DB tuber. I was gonna say I do. You know, I find what I do it I can.
• 1:02:10
  You do splash them in. Yeah. But it is. No, it is. Splash. Hey, we're bringing it back to the
• 1:02:16
  beginning with the do-do's and the float. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. No, it is really important to just
• 1:02:23
  remind people like even though these don't drink and drive things or drill into your head, like
• 1:02:30
  sometimes you just need to be reminded of the consequences. Yeah. Oh, man. Oh, should we get out of here?
• 1:02:38
  Probably. I was gonna say the only like natural thing to say after that is, you know,
• 1:02:44
  and if you don't want to have the consequences of not, you know, hearing another episode, you know,
• 1:02:52
  like subscribe to us on. I thought you were gonna say like, if you don't want us to have anything to
• 1:03:00
  talk about ever again. We don't want to run out of episode topics, but I know, but you do.
• 1:03:08
  I mean, where it's just it's not feasible. They're just unfortunately, they're just even in the past.
• 1:03:15
  They're just so many different crimes that that's just it'll never happen. So, that would be great.
• 1:03:21
  I'm not worried. Yeah. I mean, I'd be thrilled, but it's not gonna happen. That's all and true crime
• 1:03:30
  together. World peace. I just watched my community the other day and world. Yeah, I feel like I feel like
• 1:03:42
  it shows. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I have a creepy ass day. We'll see you next Tuesday.
• 1:03:53
  Unless you drink and drive and then get the fuck out of here. We want you. Don't listen to us.
• 1:03:59
  Not a fan. Yeah. I mean, I wouldn't say that we're like on a scale of like one, two,
• 1:04:05
  like Joe Rogan wealthy. I wouldn't say that we're anywhere near even more than like a two or a three,
• 1:04:12
  but like we're we're wealthy enough to say. Yeah. We don't want it. No, we don't. I don't care. I
• 1:04:21
  could be making pennies or nothing negative. I don't want you around. (pnwhauntsandhomicides.com)