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Cali-beachfront-restaurant-held-the-key-to-her-murder · Crime and Horror

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Speaker 1: On June twentieth, two thousand and four, a restaurant manager
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Speaker 1: stood at the host stand of a seafood spot in
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Speaker 1: Orange County, California. It was the dinner rush and he
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Speaker 1: was on takeout duty, so when a fairly frantic customer
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Speaker 1: came in asking about there to go order, the manager
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Speaker 1: quickly hurried off to grab it. He found the order
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Speaker 1: and he carried it back, and as he rang this
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Speaker 1: customer up, he could tell this customer was in a
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Speaker 1: huge hurry. They kept looking over their shoulder and tapping
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Speaker 1: their fingers on the counter, and after everything was done,
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Speaker 1: the customer basically took the food and literally ran out.
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Speaker 1: Now the manager definitely thought this customer was acting really strange.
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Speaker 1: He had never seen anybody sprint out of the restaurant before.
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Speaker 1: But quickly he got distracted with another order and kind
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Speaker 1: of forgot about the whole thing. That is until a
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Speaker 1: few days later when police showed up asking the manager
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Speaker 1: to tell them everything they could remember about that strange customer.
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Speaker 1: But before we get into today's story, if you're a
0:55
Speaker 1: fan of the strange, dark and mysterious delivered in story format,
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Speaker 1: any of our weekly uploads. Okay, let's get into today's story.
1:43
Speaker 1: On Monday, June twenty first, two thousand and four, seventy
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Speaker 1: two year old Jane Thompson drove her car down a
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Speaker 1: road through the city of Laguna Noguel, California. She was
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Speaker 1: on her way home from a weekend trip to Los Angeles,
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Speaker 1: which was about fifty miles north of Laguna Nogel, And
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Speaker 1: because La was so chaotic and full of activity and
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Speaker 1: constant stimulation, Jane actually really appreciated this commute back home,
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Speaker 1: you know, this fifty mile drive. It was a time
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Speaker 1: to be by herself and sort of decompress from being
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Speaker 1: in the city. So Jane used to live in Los Angeles,
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Speaker 1: where she had worked for decades in the film industry,
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Speaker 1: but she had retired and moved to Laguna Neguel seven
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Speaker 1: years earlier and This move had been like a total
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Speaker 1: lifestyle change for Jane because her career in LA had
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Speaker 1: been fast paced and exciting. You know, she'd been an
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Speaker 1: assistant to some really important people in Hollywood, and then
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Speaker 1: also she was an award winning producer and then a
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Speaker 1: decorator for various Hollywood celebrities. I mean, it was sort
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Speaker 1: of very glamorous what she was doing. So even though
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Speaker 1: Jane was generally a pretty quiet person who appreciated her
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Speaker 1: alone time like driving in the car right now, it
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Speaker 1: still had actually been really hard to completely transition to
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Speaker 1: the slow pace of life outside the glitz and glamour
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Speaker 1: of Hollywood, especially because her girlfriend, marian Reese still lived
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Speaker 1: in LA. Jane had known marian for decades at this point.
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Speaker 1: They'd started out as coworkers because Mariann owned a production
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Speaker 1: company and Jane had produced a lot of projects for her.
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Speaker 1: Then at some point years ago, their relationship turned from
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Speaker 1: a working friendship into a full blown romance, and they'd
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Speaker 1: been involved ever since. And even though now they lived
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Speaker 1: over an hour's drive apart, they still spent a lot
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Speaker 1: of time together. Jane was actually going back to LA
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Speaker 1: again on Friday because they had tickets to the opera,
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Speaker 1: and then also Marian was going to be joining Jane
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Speaker 1: on a cruise to Europe the following week. But for
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Speaker 1: right now, Jane just kind of looked out her window
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Speaker 1: as she drove by a cluster of houses, and she
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Speaker 1: noticed outside one of those houses she saw her friend
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Speaker 1: Mary Larkin gardening in her front yard. Jane had known
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Speaker 1: Mary for years, and she was really Jane's closest friend
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Speaker 1: in town. They'd spent countless nights talking and drinking wine together,
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Speaker 1: sometimes with Mary's other next door neighbor, Karen, who had
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Speaker 1: also become a close friend. So naturally, Jane slowed down
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Speaker 1: in her car, and she rolled down her window and
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Speaker 1: she called out to Mary to say hello and to
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Speaker 1: remind her that they were due for a wine night
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Speaker 1: sometime soon, you know, before she left for her cruise.
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Speaker 1: And Mary, after hearing this, you know, nodded enthusiastically and
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Speaker 1: said she would for sure give Jane a call after that.
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Speaker 1: The two women said their goodbyes, and then Jane kept
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Speaker 1: on driving, and a few minutes later, Jane saw her
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Speaker 1: condo complex's entrance up ahead, and so she threw on
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Speaker 1: her blinker and turned in, and pretty soon she was
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Speaker 1: surrounded by mostly identical units with orange child roofs that
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Speaker 1: were all packed really close together. But Jane loved her neighborhood.
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Speaker 1: It was on this quiet hillside and less than four
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Speaker 1: miles from the ocean, and she just felt completely comfortable there.
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Speaker 1: It was the kind of place where people left their
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Speaker 1: doors unlocked and everybody seemed so warm and welcoming. And
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Speaker 1: this meant a lot to Jane because she didn't have
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Speaker 1: any kids or living relatives. She was kind of on
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Speaker 1: her own, so it was nice to feel like her
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Speaker 1: neighbors were all looking out for her. As Jane pulled
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Speaker 1: her car into the garage and got out, she looked
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Speaker 1: across the street and saw her teenage neighbor, Sam Nelson,
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Speaker 1: playing basketball in his driveway. Jane tried to get his
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Speaker 1: attention and waved to him just to say hi, But
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Speaker 1: when he looked over and saw her doing that, he
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Speaker 1: kind of put his head down and quickly rushed inside
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Speaker 1: his home. And Jane, you know, she understood why. Clearly
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Speaker 1: he was embarrassed. So Sam was kind of a troubled kid.
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Speaker 1: He had actually broken into Jane's house just this past
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Speaker 1: Friday while she was out, and he took some of
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Speaker 1: her jewelry, but he wasn't as clever as he thought
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Speaker 1: he was, and Jane had quickly figured out it was him,
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Speaker 1: So before leaving for her recent La trip, she'd confronted
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Speaker 1: him about it and told him to never do it again,
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Speaker 1: and he was obviously mortified. But she had also told
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Speaker 1: Sam that, you know, she was not going to call
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Speaker 1: the police here. After all, Sam was fifteen years old
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Speaker 1: and he had just made a really dumb mistake. And
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Speaker 1: in Jane's mind, you know, Sam was a part of
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Speaker 1: her beloved community, and so even though he had done
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Speaker 1: something bad to her, she still wanted to look out
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Speaker 1: for him. Plus, really he hadn't taken anything that was
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Speaker 1: particularly valuable or anything she really cared about, so she
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Speaker 1: felt like she was just giving him a second chance
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Speaker 1: and this was no big deal. Now. Sam was obviously
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Speaker 1: very appreciative at the time after realizing he was not
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Speaker 1: going to get in any real trouble here, but it
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Speaker 1: was also clear now that he really didn't want anything
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Speaker 1: to do with Jane. I mean, he was just embarrassed
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Speaker 1: at the sight of her waving to him. But you know,
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Speaker 1: for Jane, she figured maybe that was just as well.
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Speaker 1: And so after seeing Sam disappear into his house, Jane
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Speaker 1: just shrugged, turned around and headed inside her own house.
6:25
Speaker 1: Jane spent the next few days doing things around town,
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Speaker 1: volunteering at the library and taking walks with her weekly
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Speaker 1: walking group, and before she knew it, it was almost
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Speaker 1: time to head back to La on Thursday evening June
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Speaker 1: twenty fourth, So the night before she was set to
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Speaker 1: go to La, Jane stood in her kitchen making some
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Speaker 1: pasta and thinking about what outfit she was going to
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Speaker 1: wear for the opera in La the next night. And
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Speaker 1: then after she cooked and ate her dinner, she laid
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Speaker 1: on the couch to watch some TV. Now she had
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Speaker 1: planned only watch a little bit and then get some
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Speaker 1: packing done, but pretty quickly she felt her eyelids get heavy,
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Speaker 1: and soon she was fast asleep. Three days later, on
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Speaker 1: Sunday afternoon, Jane's friend and neighbor, Mary Larkin, the woman
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Speaker 1: she had seen when she was driving home from La,
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Speaker 1: drove up to Jane's house with their other friend, Karen Jamara,
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Speaker 1: and they jumped right out of the car. Mary had
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Speaker 1: an undeniable knot in her stomach, which had only been
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Speaker 1: getting tighter by the minute ever since Jane's girlfriend Mary
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Speaker 1: and Reese had called earlier to say that Jane had
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Speaker 1: never showed up in la for their trip to the opera,
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Speaker 1: and now she was not answering her phone. And when
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Speaker 1: she heard this, Mary immediately became very worried, because, you know,
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Speaker 1: Jane just didn't flake on people without calling, and so
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Speaker 1: given Jane's age, it seemed entirely possible that maybe she
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Speaker 1: had an accident or medical emergency at home and needed help,
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Speaker 1: and that's why nobody could get in touch with her.
7:50
Speaker 1: So after she herself tried calling Jane a few times
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Speaker 1: but with no luck, Mary had gone over to her
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Speaker 1: neighbor Karen's house and asked her if she would come
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Speaker 1: with her to go to Jane's just to make sure
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Speaker 1: Jane was okay. And on their drive over, Mary had
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Speaker 1: convinced herself, despite that feeling in her gut, that you know,
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Speaker 1: everything would be okay. But now as she went up
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Speaker 1: Jane's driveway, she could see there were a few newspapers
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Speaker 1: piled up at the end of it, which made her
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Speaker 1: even more anxious that something was wrong here, and so
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Speaker 1: Mary hurried right up the driveway, went to the front
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Speaker 1: door and began knocking, but as she and Karen stood there.
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Speaker 1: You know, they couldn't hear anything inside the house. Nobody
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Speaker 1: was coming to the door, and so finally they left
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Speaker 1: the porch and went around to the back of Jane's
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Speaker 1: house to try her back door. And when the two
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Speaker 1: women got into Jane's backyard, Mary froze because she could
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Speaker 1: see the sliding glass door that led into Jane's living
8:40
Speaker 1: room was clearly wide open, and so Mary and Karen,
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Speaker 1: from right there in the yard just began yelling through
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Speaker 1: the open door for Jane, but there was no answer. Eventually,
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Speaker 1: Karen began to walk towards the open door like she
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Speaker 1: was going to go inside, but Mary instinctively grabbed her
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Speaker 1: and just said, don't you know. She was shaking and
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Speaker 1: could barely think straight. But Mary felt like they just
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Speaker 1: should not go in there, that it was not safe,
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Speaker 1: and so instead the two women ultimately backed away and
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Speaker 1: went to go call the police. A few minutes later,
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Speaker 1: Mary and Karen stood out on the street in front
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Speaker 1: of Jane's house watching as a police cruiser pulled up.
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Speaker 1: The women immediately went over to the two deputies that
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Speaker 1: got out, and they tried to explain the situation. You
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Speaker 1: know that their friend was not responding to phone calls,
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Speaker 1: and that their back door was wide open, which just
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Speaker 1: seemed really strange, and nobody knows what's going on, And
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Speaker 1: so the officers asked Mary and Karen to take them
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Speaker 1: to the back of the house where this open door was,
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Speaker 1: and so they walked around the sideyard they went back there,
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Speaker 1: and when they got there, Mary watched as one of
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Speaker 1: the officers just walked up to the open door and
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Speaker 1: stuck his head inside and began to look around. And
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Speaker 1: as soon as he did that, Mary could see his
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Speaker 1: body began to tense up like he had seen something inside.
9:52
Speaker 1: Mary blurted out, like, hey, what's going on, what's wrong?
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Speaker 1: But the officer looking in the home, he didn't respond. Instead,
10:00
Speaker 1: he turned to his partner and told him to secure
10:02
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10:06
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Speaker 1: an hour later, at around six pm on June twenty seventh,
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Speaker 1: two thousand and four, detective Daniel Salsado stopped his cruiser
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Speaker 1: in front of a condo in Laguna Neguel, California. Dispatch
11:31
Speaker 1: hadn't told him much, just that an older woman had
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Speaker 1: been found dead in her condo. When Salsado got out
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Speaker 1: of his car, he could see that there was police
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Speaker 1: tape all over the condo's front door and the driveway,
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Speaker 1: and just inside the perimeter there was an officer speaking
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Speaker 1: to two women who were crying and seemed very visibly upset.
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Speaker 1: Dozens of other officers and crime scene technicians were also
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Speaker 1: scattered around the area collecting evidence, and one deputy saw
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Speaker 1: Salsado and hurried over to give him an update. So
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Speaker 1: the deceased women had been identified as the owner of
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Speaker 1: the condo, seventy two year old Jane Thompson, and at
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Speaker 1: first glance it very much appeared like she had been attacked.
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Speaker 1: She had been murdered her two friends. The two women
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Speaker 1: who were very upset talking to police had called the
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Speaker 1: police for a wellness check, and the officers who responded
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Speaker 1: had found Jane lying in the living room. They'd been
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Speaker 1: able to get through her sliding back door because the
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Speaker 1: door was already open. Salsato glanced back over at the
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Speaker 1: two women in the driveway who were still talking to
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Speaker 1: the police, and Salsato told the deputy to make sure
12:32
Speaker 1: they stuck around, because after he took a look inside.
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Speaker 1: He wanted to speak to them as well. As the
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Speaker 1: deputy hurried off to do what he was told. Salsato
12:39
Speaker 1: walked around to the back of the house, and when
12:41
Speaker 1: he got there, he saw that not only was the
12:44
Speaker 1: sliding door open, but there really weren't any signs of
12:47
Speaker 1: forced entry around it, which could mean that it had
12:49
Speaker 1: been left unlocked, or that maybe Jane knew her attacker
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Speaker 1: and let them in. And so Salsato stepped inside the
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Speaker 1: condo and right away he saw there were all these
12:59
Speaker 1: technicians all over the place working hard to gather evidence
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Speaker 1: and process the scene. And also what he saw was
13:05
Speaker 1: blood spatter all over the walls and all over the furniture.
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Speaker 1: And then when he looked down at the floor, he
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Speaker 1: saw Jane's body. She was lying face down between her
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Speaker 1: couch and coffee table, with a large pool of blood
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Speaker 1: around her head. Salsato crouched down next to her to
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Speaker 1: get a better look, and he saw her wounds were
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Speaker 1: just brutal. Her head had been so badly pulverized that
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Speaker 1: Salsato could not only see her skull the actual bone,
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Speaker 1: but he could actually see the breaks in her skull.
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Speaker 1: Her skull was shattered now Salsato would have to wait
13:35
Speaker 1: for the autopsy to be sure, but to Salsato, it
13:38
Speaker 1: was very clear that somebody must have beaten this woman
13:42
Speaker 1: with some kind of heavy object, over and over and
13:45
Speaker 1: over again. A couple of minutes later, Salsato stood back up.
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Speaker 1: Based on the extent of Jane's wounds, it seemed pretty
13:52
Speaker 1: obvious to him that this was a frenzied, rage filled
13:56
Speaker 1: attack and that it likely had happened really quickly, or maybe,
14:00
Speaker 1: you know, the attack happened in such a way that
14:01
Speaker 1: Jane was completely caught off guard, because aside from the
14:05
Speaker 1: awful trauma to Jane's head, Jane didn't appear to have
14:08
Speaker 1: really any other wounds, so it didn't seem like she
14:11
Speaker 1: tried to fight back or defend herself, and aside from
14:15
Speaker 1: the blood spatter, the room around her didn't show any
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Speaker 1: signs of a struggle. It's like she just got destroyed
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Speaker 1: right here, and blood went everywhere. Salsato left Jane's body
14:24
Speaker 1: and searched the rest of her condo. He went in
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Speaker 1: her bedroom, searched her closets, went in the office, went
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Speaker 1: in her kitchen, but there were no signs of anybody
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Speaker 1: ransacking the condo. There was no obvious theft that had
14:36
Speaker 1: taken place, at least at first glance. You know, there
14:38
Speaker 1: were expensive electronics that were still out and not claimed,
14:41
Speaker 1: So to Salsato, at least right now, he was pretty
14:45
Speaker 1: sure this was not a robbery gone wrong. As he
14:48
Speaker 1: wrapped up his initial walkthrough of the condo, an officer
14:51
Speaker 1: called Salsado back into the kitchen, and when Salsato went over,
14:55
Speaker 1: he saw the officer was standing by the landline's answering machine.
14:59
Speaker 1: The officer told Salsado there were a bunch of new
15:01
Speaker 1: messages on there, and they started the morning of Friday,
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Speaker 1: June twenty fifth. Now Salsato was very excited to hear
15:08
Speaker 1: that because that gave them something of a timeline to
15:11
Speaker 1: work off of, because if Jane had stopped answering her
15:15
Speaker 1: phone by Friday morning, then that means she could have
15:18
Speaker 1: died maybe overnight on that Thursday, the twenty fourth, or
15:21
Speaker 1: maybe even in the morning before that first message came
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Speaker 1: through on the twenty fifth, at least that would be
15:26
Speaker 1: the latest she could have died based on the message.
15:29
Speaker 1: So Salsato told the officer to be sure to log
15:32
Speaker 1: the tape into evidence. Then Salsato went back to the
15:35
Speaker 1: living room where Jane's body was and all the texts were,
15:38
Speaker 1: and he just stood there with his arms crossed, thinking about,
15:40
Speaker 1: you know, what's he going to do next? Considering the
15:43
Speaker 1: attack had all the signs of being highly emotional, Salsato
15:47
Speaker 1: felt confident that Jane's killer was someone who knew her
15:50
Speaker 1: and was deeply angry with her. So the first people
15:53
Speaker 1: he wanted to speak to were those that Jane was
15:55
Speaker 1: closest to, like family, friends or maybe even romantic partners.
15:59
Speaker 1: Jane appeared to live alone, so he hoped other people
16:01
Speaker 1: in the neighborhood, or maybe those two women who called
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Speaker 1: the police, could tell him more about Jane's personal life,
16:07
Speaker 1: her relationships and give him a place to start. So
16:10
Speaker 1: Salsato grabbed a few officers and they headed outside to
16:13
Speaker 1: begin asking some questions. When he got outside, Salsato could
16:21
Speaker 1: see there was now an audience of people, you know,
16:24
Speaker 1: a crowd of you know who, Salsato assumed were residents
16:27
Speaker 1: of this complex that were gathered at the edge of
16:30
Speaker 1: the police perimeter, and Salsato understood why brutal homicides like
16:34
Speaker 1: this one rarely happened in this area, if ever, there
16:38
Speaker 1: was probably going to be a lot of panic and
16:40
Speaker 1: rumors in this community because of it, and based on
16:43
Speaker 1: the literal layout of this complex, the fact that all
16:46
Speaker 1: these condos are basically on top of each other, he
16:49
Speaker 1: knew that, you know, those rumors would likely spread really quickly.
16:53
Speaker 1: But also, you know, the fact these condos were tightly
16:55
Speaker 1: packed together gave Salsato an advantage. You know, very likely,
16:59
Speaker 1: because people are living on top of each other, somebody
17:02
Speaker 1: might have heard or seen something that could help break
17:04
Speaker 1: this case wide open. Just then, another police cruiser pulled
17:07
Speaker 1: up in front of the house and a detective named
17:10
Speaker 1: Brian Sutton stepped out of the car, and when Salsato
17:13
Speaker 1: saw who it was, he immediately felt relieved. Salsato worked
17:17
Speaker 1: extremely well with Detective Sutton, and interviews were sort of
17:21
Speaker 1: like their specialty. As a duo, they had an instinct
17:24
Speaker 1: for asking the right questions that got people talking. So
17:27
Speaker 1: Salsato hurried over to Sutton and quickly told him everything
17:30
Speaker 1: he'd learned so far, and once Sutton was up to speed,
17:33
Speaker 1: they went right over to the two women who had
17:35
Speaker 1: called nine to one one. Salsato was eager to interview
17:38
Speaker 1: them as witnesses, but He also was not ruling out
17:41
Speaker 1: the idea that they could also be suspects. He was
17:44
Speaker 1: sure this had to be a personal crime, and they
17:47
Speaker 1: clearly had some kind of relationship with Jane since they'd
17:49
Speaker 1: come over to check on her. When Salsato reached the women,
17:52
Speaker 1: he could tell they had calmed down quite a bit
17:54
Speaker 1: from when he had first seen them when he first arrived,
17:57
Speaker 1: and the women, you know, they were composed enough to
17:59
Speaker 1: tell him their names, Mary and Karen. They then explained
18:03
Speaker 1: that they were good friends with Jane and they'd come
18:05
Speaker 1: over to check on her because recently, Mary had gotten
18:09
Speaker 1: a call from Jane's girlfriend, Marian Reese, who lived in
18:12
Speaker 1: La and Marian had been worried because Jane had not
18:16
Speaker 1: shown up in La for plans they had, and so
18:18
Speaker 1: she was trying to find out where she was was
18:20
Speaker 1: she okay, and so Mary and Karen had gone to
18:23
Speaker 1: see if she was okay. This made Salsado immediately perk up,
18:26
Speaker 1: and he asked Mary for Marian's information. As he jotted
18:29
Speaker 1: down Marian's phone number, Sutton asked the two women where
18:33
Speaker 1: they were on the night of the twenty fourth or
18:35
Speaker 1: early morning of the twenty fifth, So that was two
18:38
Speaker 1: nights ago and then also yesterday morning, and both of
18:41
Speaker 1: them said they had alibis. Now the detectives would have
18:44
Speaker 1: to confirm their alibis, because anybody can make up an alibi,
18:47
Speaker 1: But for right now, Salsada was comfortable ruling Mary and
18:51
Speaker 1: Karen out as suspects. They both seemed genuinely stunned by
18:54
Speaker 1: Jane's murder, and while it did seem like they were
18:57
Speaker 1: good friends with Jane, he wasn't sure they had the
19:00
Speaker 1: kind of intense closeness that might have led to such
19:02
Speaker 1: a vicious attack. So he told the two women they
19:05
Speaker 1: could go home, and then Salsato nodded to Sutton, and
19:08
Speaker 1: the two of them left the women and headed towards
19:11
Speaker 1: the crowd of neighbors to ask some more questions. The
19:19
Speaker 1: next morning, Monday, June twenty eighth, and Salsado was behind
19:22
Speaker 1: the wheel of his cruiser with Sutton in the passenger seat.
19:25
Speaker 1: They were almost at the end of their long drive
19:27
Speaker 1: up to Los Angeles to interview Jane's girlfriend, Marian Reese.
19:31
Speaker 1: Salsato was eager to get her statement because right now
19:34
Speaker 1: they didn't have that many other leads. The forensics team
19:37
Speaker 1: hadn't found any DNA or fingerprints at the scene to
19:40
Speaker 1: test against future suspects, and the canvas of Jane's condo
19:44
Speaker 1: complex the night before really hadn't yielded much either. They'd
19:48
Speaker 1: learned that no one had seen Jane since Thursday, which
19:51
Speaker 1: backed up the timeline they'd already gotten from the answering machine,
19:54
Speaker 1: but none of the neighbors heard or saw anything strange
19:58
Speaker 1: on that Thursday night, and according to her neighbors, Jane
20:01
Speaker 1: did not have any obvious tension with anybody in the community.
20:05
Speaker 1: She generally kept herself but was really well liked by
20:09
Speaker 1: everyone who met her. But Salsato, you know, again, from
20:12
Speaker 1: what he had just seen at the crime scene, felt
20:15
Speaker 1: sure that someone out there had to have had a
20:18
Speaker 1: problem with Jane. He'd seen the autopsy that morning, and
20:22
Speaker 1: it confirmed that Jane, unsurprisingly had died from the wounds
20:25
Speaker 1: to her head, but it also told him something else.
20:28
Speaker 1: She'd been hit more than a dozen times. It was
20:31
Speaker 1: complete overkill, and to Salsato it meant the killer had
20:35
Speaker 1: to have been driven by some kind of intense emotion
20:38
Speaker 1: like rage or maybe greed, which was why they were
20:41
Speaker 1: now making this drive out to La to speak with Marian,
20:44
Speaker 1: who Salsato felt, you know, based on her relationship to Jane,
20:48
Speaker 1: she was the strongest suspect they had, because romance can
20:51
Speaker 1: make you do crazy things. Also, Salsato had done some
20:54
Speaker 1: digging into Jane's finances the night before, and he found
20:57
Speaker 1: out she had a life insurance policy worth on thousand
21:00
Speaker 1: dollars and Marian Reese was the sole beneficiary, which meant
21:05
Speaker 1: Marian definitely had something to gain financially, at least from
21:09
Speaker 1: Jane's death. So as they pulled up to Marian's house,
21:12
Speaker 1: Salsada was thinking, you know, maybe maybe we found our killer.
21:16
Speaker 1: A few minutes later, the detective sat on a couch
21:18
Speaker 1: in Marian Reese's living room. The home was on the
21:21
Speaker 1: small side, even by LA standards, but it was very
21:24
Speaker 1: tastefully decorated. Marian sat down across from them in an armchair,
21:28
Speaker 1: and when they looked at her, they could see her
21:30
Speaker 1: eyes were very red and puffy, like she'd been crying.
21:33
Speaker 1: She also had a glass of water in her hand
21:35
Speaker 1: that she kept lifting up like she was gonna take
21:37
Speaker 1: a sip, but then she would just place it back
21:39
Speaker 1: down again without taking a sip. It was like she
21:41
Speaker 1: didn't know what she was doing. Marian had clearly already
21:44
Speaker 1: heard about Jane's death, and to Salsado, she really was
21:48
Speaker 1: showing every sign of genuinely being in shock. So he
21:51
Speaker 1: wanted to be very careful with his line of questions
21:53
Speaker 1: and make sure, you know, he didn't overwhelm her. If
21:56
Speaker 1: she just shut down, he might not get the information
21:59
Speaker 1: that he really needed. So after a minute, Salsato began
22:03
Speaker 1: by just asking Marian how she knew Jane and Marian.
22:07
Speaker 1: She took a deep breath and then with a very
22:08
Speaker 1: shaky voice, she explained that they had known each other
22:12
Speaker 1: for almost fifty years. They used to work together. Jane
22:15
Speaker 1: had done a lot of producing for Marian's production company.
22:18
Speaker 1: As Marian went on to describe more about how they
22:20
Speaker 1: met each other and how it kind of transitioned from
22:23
Speaker 1: working together to know romance, Salsato could sense that Marian
22:27
Speaker 1: was kind of calming down, and she was calming down
22:30
Speaker 1: to the point where he felt like now he could
22:32
Speaker 1: introduce the tough stuff, So he turned and he nodded
22:35
Speaker 1: to Sutton, and at that point, Sutton asked Marian if
22:39
Speaker 1: she knew that Jane had named her Marian as the
22:42
Speaker 1: sole beneficiary on her life insurance policy, and Marian immediately
22:46
Speaker 1: gasped and she said she had no idea Jane had
22:49
Speaker 1: done that, but she also said it did sort of
22:52
Speaker 1: make sense. She said that Jane really didn't have any family,
22:55
Speaker 1: and in some ways Marian was her family, or at
22:58
Speaker 1: least was her closest realfe relationship. Now, Salsato felt like
23:02
Speaker 1: Marian's reaction to this was very earnest, but he couldn't
23:05
Speaker 1: be sure, so he pressed her some more, and he
23:07
Speaker 1: asked her where she was last Thursday night, when presumably
23:11
Speaker 1: Jane was killed. But Marian just said she was with
23:14
Speaker 1: friends all night in la and she gave Salsato all
23:17
Speaker 1: the phone numbers of these friends so he and his
23:19
Speaker 1: partner could confirm it. They talked for a while longer
23:22
Speaker 1: as Marian went over the details of how Jane missed
23:25
Speaker 1: their opera date on Friday and then stopped returning her calls,
23:29
Speaker 1: and it all lined up with what Jane's friend Mary
23:32
Speaker 1: had told them, so eventually Salsato and Sutton stood up
23:35
Speaker 1: to leave. Over an hour later, Detective Salsado and Sutton
23:49
Speaker 1: were back in Laguna Miguel, California, and they parked their
23:51
Speaker 1: cruiser in front of Jane's condo. On their drive back
23:55
Speaker 1: from Marion's house in La, the detectives had called some
23:58
Speaker 1: of Marian's friends to confirm her alibi, and they all
24:01
Speaker 1: confirmed that on the night Jane was killed, they were
24:04
Speaker 1: with her and she was in La And so now
24:06
Speaker 1: Salcedo had to admit that Marian was looking less and
24:09
Speaker 1: less like a suspect. So now the detectives were back
24:13
Speaker 1: at Jane's condo to look into another working theory about
24:16
Speaker 1: what might have happened here. Maybe Jane's murder was a
24:20
Speaker 1: hate crime. So remember this was back in two thousand
24:23
Speaker 1: and four when being a homosexual was just not as
24:26
Speaker 1: widely accepted as it is today. And so their theory was,
24:31
Speaker 1: you know, maybe one of Jane's neighbors had seen Marian
24:35
Speaker 1: Jane's girlfriend visiting, or maybe heard about their relationship and
24:39
Speaker 1: they didn't like it, and so they lashed out. And
24:41
Speaker 1: then also strengthening the idea that, you know, one of
24:44
Speaker 1: the neighbors could have done this was the fact that
24:46
Speaker 1: it was sort of common knowledge in this neighborhood that
24:49
Speaker 1: most people left their doors unlocked, and so it sort
24:52
Speaker 1: of strengthened the idea that maybe a neighbor did this,
24:54
Speaker 1: you know, maybe because of their hate towards Jane and
24:57
Speaker 1: her way of life. However, Sutton and Salsado knew that
25:01
Speaker 1: actually investigating this theory was going to be extremely challenging.
25:05
Speaker 1: There were one hundred and forty four houses in the complex,
25:08
Speaker 1: and so conducting a thorough investigation of every resident of
25:12
Speaker 1: all those houses was just going to take a lot
25:15
Speaker 1: of time. But they didn't have any other options. So
25:18
Speaker 1: the detectives got to work, and they went to the
25:20
Speaker 1: first house next to Jane's and knocked. A few hours later,
25:26
Speaker 1: Salsato and Sutton returned to the Orange County Sheriff's department.
25:30
Speaker 1: They had spent most of the afternoon talking to people
25:32
Speaker 1: who lived in Jane's condo complex, and while they hadn't
25:35
Speaker 1: talked to everyone, they already had to admit that their
25:37
Speaker 1: hate crime theory was looking sort of like a wash.
25:40
Speaker 1: Most people didn't even know Jane was in a relationship
25:43
Speaker 1: at all, since her girlfriend, Marianne lived in a different city,
25:46
Speaker 1: so they didn't see her. And also, there was just
25:48
Speaker 1: nothing anybody in the neighborhood said that made the detectives
25:52
Speaker 1: think that Jane was being targeted really for any reason,
25:55
Speaker 1: but a few people had mentioned that recently there had
25:59
Speaker 1: been some burglaries in the complex, which was completely unheard
26:02
Speaker 1: of in a place like Laguna and Neguel. Still, there
26:05
Speaker 1: was a huge difference between somebody breaking in and stealing
26:08
Speaker 1: some stuff and breaking in and bludgeoning someone to death.
26:12
Speaker 1: But it was a lead, and that's what Salsada was
26:15
Speaker 1: thinking about as he and Sutton walked towards their desks.
26:18
Speaker 1: But before they got there, Salsato had this epiphany and
26:22
Speaker 1: he just stopped in his tracks and he turned to
26:24
Speaker 1: Sutton and said, turn around. We have to go back
26:26
Speaker 1: to the evidence room. I think everything we need to
26:29
Speaker 1: solve this case might be in the building with them
26:32
Speaker 1: right now. The following day, Salsato and Sutton pulled up
26:40
Speaker 1: in front of a restaurant called The Beach House. The
26:42
Speaker 1: previous afternoon, Salsato had suggested that he and Sutton go
26:46
Speaker 1: back to the evidence room and listen to Jane's Answering
26:49
Speaker 1: Machine tapes. Now, to be clear, they had already listened
26:52
Speaker 1: to the tapes before, but none of the messages had
26:55
Speaker 1: seemed particularly important. But now, based on what they'd learned
26:59
Speaker 1: over the course of their investigation, they realized that those
27:02
Speaker 1: messages actually told them a lot, and so Salsato and
27:06
Speaker 1: Sutton had spent hours re listening to the tapes and
27:10
Speaker 1: gathering even more evidence to confirm what was on it.
27:13
Speaker 1: And even though they were pretty sure all this evidence
27:15
Speaker 1: they were getting told them who killed Jane, they still
27:19
Speaker 1: needed one more piece to fall into place. Now they
27:22
Speaker 1: had a book of photos with them, and they knew
27:24
Speaker 1: for a fact that one of these photographs was of
27:27
Speaker 1: their killer, and they just needed somebody in this restaurant
27:31
Speaker 1: to verify it. So as soon as they got inside,
27:33
Speaker 1: they found the manager and explained why they were there,
27:36
Speaker 1: and then they asked him, Hey, would you mind looking
27:38
Speaker 1: at these photos to see if you recognize anyone. The
27:41
Speaker 1: manager looked a bit alarmed, but he ultimately agreed and
27:44
Speaker 1: said he would, So they went into the back room.
27:46
Speaker 1: They opened up their book of photos and the manager
27:49
Speaker 1: looked and pretty much immediately he pointed to one picture.
27:53
Speaker 1: And when Salsato saw the person the manager was pointing to,
27:57
Speaker 1: he knew they'd cracked the case based on forensic evidence
28:04
Speaker 1: and also a confession. Here is what investigators believe happened
28:07
Speaker 1: to Jane Thompson in the early morning hours of June
28:10
Speaker 1: twenty fifth, two thousand and four, The killer, clad in
28:21
Speaker 1: dark clothes and gloves and also holding a hammer, stood
28:24
Speaker 1: in the darkness right outside of Jane's backsliding glass doors. Now,
28:28
Speaker 1: the killer had already been to Jane's house a few
28:30
Speaker 1: times that night, but each time they had come earlier,
28:33
Speaker 1: they had ultimately chickened out and left because when they
28:36
Speaker 1: would get there, they would look in the back door
28:38
Speaker 1: and they would see Jane asleep on the couch in
28:40
Speaker 1: front of the TV. But that was a problem. They
28:43
Speaker 1: needed Jane to leave the room and go to her
28:45
Speaker 1: bedroom to go sleep in there, but she wasn't doing that.
28:48
Speaker 1: But this time, as they stood outside the glass doors,
28:52
Speaker 1: they knew they had to go in there or they
28:54
Speaker 1: would never get what they wanted from Jane, even if
28:57
Speaker 1: she was right there on the couch. So the killer
29:00
Speaker 1: took a deep breath and then reached forward and tried
29:02
Speaker 1: to open the back door, and it slid right open,
29:05
Speaker 1: just as they expected. It was unlocked. Once it was open,
29:09
Speaker 1: the killer very carefully, very quietly stepped inside and made
29:13
Speaker 1: their way over to the couch where Jane was. They
29:15
Speaker 1: wanted to check to make sure Jane was still asleep,
29:18
Speaker 1: but as the killer is hovering over Jane looking down
29:21
Speaker 1: at her, she's on her back on the couch. The
29:24
Speaker 1: killer practically fainted when Jane opened her eyes and looked
29:28
Speaker 1: right at them, And the killer was so surprised and
29:31
Speaker 1: so scared that they instinctively lifted up their hammer and
29:35
Speaker 1: brought it down on Jane's head. And when the killer
29:39
Speaker 1: finally stopped and kind of calmed down for a second,
29:42
Speaker 1: they just stared at Jane's destroyed body in total shock.
29:46
Speaker 1: Then they backed away and realized the hammer, the murder weapon,
29:49
Speaker 1: was dripping blood everywhere, so they grabbed the head of
29:53
Speaker 1: the hammer with their gloved hand to kind of stop
29:55
Speaker 1: it from dripping, and then ran right back out the
29:58
Speaker 1: sliding door. The killer hurried acros cross the street outside,
30:01
Speaker 1: tossing the hammer into the trash as they went. And
30:04
Speaker 1: when they finally got to their home, they stripped off
30:07
Speaker 1: their clothes, bawled them up, and then tried to decide
30:10
Speaker 1: where to hide them. And as they thought about that,
30:13
Speaker 1: they looked out their bedroom window at the house across
30:15
Speaker 1: the street where they'd just killed the one person who
30:18
Speaker 1: had given them a second chance. It would turn out,
30:22
Speaker 1: Jane was murdered by a child her fifteen year old neighbor,
30:26
Speaker 1: Sam Nelson. Sam had actually broken into Jane's house more
30:30
Speaker 1: than once. He'd broken in repeatedly and stolen a lot
30:33
Speaker 1: of things from her, including her credit cards. That was
30:36
Speaker 1: what the phone messages had been about. Jane's credit card
30:39
Speaker 1: company had called her back after she had reported a
30:42
Speaker 1: series of fraudulent charges, and one of those charges was
30:45
Speaker 1: at that restaurant that the investigators visited with the photo lineup,
30:49
Speaker 1: and the manager when he looked at the photos, recognized
30:52
Speaker 1: Sam because Sam had been in there recently. The reason
30:55
Speaker 1: Sam was stealing from Jane and also from other people
30:58
Speaker 1: in the neighborhood was ultimately just because he was trying
31:01
Speaker 1: to keep up with his appearance. He used these stolen
31:04
Speaker 1: credit cards and money to buy food and items that would,
31:08
Speaker 1: in his mind, impress his wealthy classmates. On the night
31:11
Speaker 1: of Jane's murder, Sam did not go in there with
31:14
Speaker 1: the intention of killing her. He went in there with
31:16
Speaker 1: the intention of robbing her, but for whatever reason, when
31:20
Speaker 1: she opened her eyes and saw him, he sort of
31:22
Speaker 1: panicked hit her once with a hammer. The blood went
31:25
Speaker 1: in his mouth, his mind went blank, and then suddenly
31:28
Speaker 1: he's beating her to death. Sam was arrested and eventually
31:32
Speaker 1: sentenced to twenty five years to life in prison for
31:34
Speaker 1: Jane's murder and also for multiple counts of burglary. His
31:37
Speaker 1: earliest eligible release date is in twenty twenty seven. Thank
31:49
Speaker 1: you so much for watching. Let me know what you
31:51
Speaker 1: thought of today's episode in the comments. And remember, we
31:54
Speaker 1: have a whole playlist of true crime episodes ready for
31:57
Speaker 1: you to binge right now, so click here give them
32:00
Speaker 1: a watch. All right, until next time, see ya,