Latest / Crime and Horror / Her dating history created dozens of suspects - MrBallen

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Her dating history created dozens of suspects - MrBallen · Crime and Horror

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: One night in December of 2011, a man sat in
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: front of his computer, anxiously staring at the words that
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: he had just typed into a chat window. He was
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: about to hit send and share his darkest secret with
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: someone he'd only ever talked to online. And it was
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: the kind of secret that could totally destroy him. And
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: he knew sending it was probably a huge mistake. But
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: the loneliness and the guilt he was feeling was just
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: sort of unbearable. And he felt like he had to
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: tell someone. So after a long pause, he reached up
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: And he hits send. But before we get into today's story,
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: if you're a fan of the Strange, Dark, and Mysterious
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: delivered in story format, then you've come to the right
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: place because that's all we do and we upload two, three,
• 0:40
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  Speaker 1: sea fishing with you. But don't tell them that they're
• 0:48
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  Speaker 1: any of our weekly uploads. Okay, let's get into today's story.
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: On the afternoon of Wednesday, November 17th, 2010, a 54-year-old
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: woman named Diane Zaleski pulled her car into her driveway
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: in Union Township, New Jersey, which is a small suburb
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: of New York City. Diane was just about to get
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: out of her car and go inside when her cell
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  Speaker 1: phone inside of her purse began to ring. She opened
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: it up and she looked at her phone and the
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: caller ID said it was her sister-in-law, Debbie. So Diane
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: picked it up and she said hello and immediately Debbie
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: asked her for a favor. She said that she needed
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: someone to drive her to a doctor's appointment the next day,
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: and she was wondering if Diane could do that. And
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: Diane did not have to consult her calendar to know
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: that her schedule tomorrow was wide open. Just a few
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: months ago, she'd retired from her 17-year career as a
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  Speaker 1: legal secretary and then had moved to this particular neighborhood
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: to be closer to her aging parents and her brother.
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: And so her only job at the moment was helping
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: out her family, which didn't take up all her time,
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  Speaker 1: and tomorrow she was free. So Diane told Debbie, you know,
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: that she'd see her tomorrow. And then the pair hung up.
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: After that, Diane gathered up her things and got out
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: of her car. And then as she was about to
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: walk inside of her home, she stopped and just turned
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: around and looked out at her new neighborhood. And it
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: was really nice here. I mean, the block was full
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: of all these beautiful homes and well-kept lawns. I mean,
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: this was just a really nice place to live. And
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: so as she was just, you know, staring out at
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: the scene, she saw the woman who lived across the street,
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: her name was Mrs. Yearwood, dragging her garbage cans down
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: to the curb. And so Diane, you know, she waved
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: to Mrs. Yearwood and smiled and also made a mental
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: note to ask Mrs. Yearwood if her son, whose name
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: was Arnell, was free to shovel her, Diane's, walkway tomorrow
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: because that night it was supposed to snow. Later that
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: same night, sometime after 10 p.m., Diane was in bed
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: with her laptop open, scrolling through messages on her online
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  Speaker 1: dating profile. Now, dating was sort of a normal part
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: of Diane's life. She'd gone out with plenty of men
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: over the years, and she still got hit on pretty
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: aggressively at bars, and she'd even been proposed to once.
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: But despite, you know, meeting lots of men and liking
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: quite a few of them, she just had never gotten married.
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: These days, Diane met most of the men that she
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: went on dates with online, like on a dating site.
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: And on these sites, men seem to always be messaging
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: her to ask her out. And so far, you know,
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: of the men she actually wound up seeing... only a
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: few had been creeps. And so over time, Diane had
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: sort of cultivated this small roster of men that she
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: kept in touch with and, you know, would meet up
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: with for dates. And so now, Diane clicked on the
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: profile for one of the men that was on her roster.
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: It was a man named Kyle Porter, and she was
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: just about to message him this very flirty message when
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: she heard her doorbell downstairs ring. And when she heard this,
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: she was sort of surprised because she definitely was not
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: expecting anybody. But, you know, she still obviously got out
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  Speaker 1: of bed and got herself together and headed downstairs to
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: see who it was. And when she unlocked and opened
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  Speaker 1: the door, the person standing outside in the cold was
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: somebody that she immediately recognized. Now, she really had no
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: idea what they were doing here right now, but she
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: told them to, you know, come inside and then ask them,
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: you know, what's going on. And then this visitor started
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: talking and they would say something that Diane never expected.
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: The following day, around noon, Diane's 91-year-old father, Stanley Zaleski,
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: was at home watching TV when his phone rang. He
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: picked it up and he heard the voice of his daughter-in-law, Debbie.
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: And Debbie sounded really worried. And she quickly explained to
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: him that Diane had agreed to drive her to a
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: doctor's appointment that morning, but she hadn't shown up. And now,
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: you know, she was reaching out to Diane, but she
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: wasn't answering. And she also wasn't responding to texts. And Stanley,
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  Speaker 1: much like Debbie, was very surprised by this, because this
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: was not like Diane at all. So he told Debbie
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: that he would go over to Diane's place right now
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: and check on her, since after all, he lived a
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: lot closer to Diane than Debbie did. Then they hung up,
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: and Stanley yelled for his wife to come on with him.
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: Twenty minutes later, Stanley and his wife, Diane's mom, walked
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  Speaker 1: up to the front door of Diane's house. As soon
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  Speaker 1: as they got there, Stanley began pounding on the door,
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: yelling for his daughter, but there was no answer. And
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: so eventually after looking at his wife and they both
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: are like, what's going on here? He reached down and
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: he tried the door handle to see if the door
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: was unlocked and he found that it was. So he
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  Speaker 1: turned the handle and he just pushed the door open
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  Speaker 1: and immediately his eyes were drawn to the ground inside
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: the house, like right in the foyer because it was
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: all red. There was blood everywhere. A wave of nausea
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  Speaker 1: came over Stanley and he had to grab the doorframe
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  Speaker 1: to steady himself. Then after a moment, he turned to
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: his wife, who was right next to him, and he
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  Speaker 1: just said, stay right here. I'm going to go in
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  Speaker 1: and look around. And then he stepped inside. And as
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: he moved further into the foyer, which again, I mean,
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  Speaker 1: there's just like blood splattered everywhere. He began to notice
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  Speaker 1: there were piles of strange white dust that he didn't
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: recognize sort of amongst the blood. There's no sign of Diane,
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: like it's silent in the house. But as Stanley's standing there,
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: he sees that there's also what appears to be a
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  Speaker 1: pretty clear trail of like something had been dragged through
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  Speaker 1: the blood and was sort of pulled towards the back
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: of the house. And so Stanley, you know, with his
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: heart racing, he began walking, like following this trail of
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: whatever got dragged through the house. And it made its
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: way to the top of the stairs that led down
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  Speaker 1: into the basement. And then when Stanley looked down into
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: the basement, he saw something at the foot of the stairs,
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: like a heap of something that was down there. And
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: after a minute, once his eyes adjusted to the dark
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: down there, he saw it was his daughter. And at
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: that point, he sort of staggered back and he yelled
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: out for his wife to call 911. Half an hour later,
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: around one in the afternoon, Detective Robert Henderson of the
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: Union County Homicide Task Force drove his police cruiser into
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: a very nice, quiet neighborhood. His partner, Detective Mike Monacchio,
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: was sitting in the passenger seat. And at some point, Henderson,
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: he pulled up to the snow-covered curb in front of
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: a large house that was in the process of being
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: roped off with crime scene tape. Henderson immediately noticed there
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: was an elderly man and woman being interviewed by officers
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  Speaker 1: in the front yard of this house. And as soon
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: as Detective Henderson and his partner got out of their cruiser,
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  Speaker 1: one of the officers who was out and about ran
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: over to brief them on what the police knew so far.
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: He explained that the elderly man and woman were the
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: parents of the victim, Diane Zaleski. Diane lived alone, this
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  Speaker 1: was her home, and her parents had come over earlier
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: and found her foyer covered in blood, and Diane... was
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: found lying dead at the bottom of the stairs in
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  Speaker 1: the basement. Henderson asked if there were any signs of
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  Speaker 1: a break-in or a robbery, and the officer said no,
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: but he warned them that the scene inside the house
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: was really unusual. It seemed like the killer, after killing Diane,
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  Speaker 1: had sort of been all over the house, clearly taking
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: a lot of time to both clean up and also
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: contaminate the scene to make it harder for investigators. And
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: when Henderson heard this, he sort of raised an eyebrow, because...
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: In his experience, most killers tried to get away from
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: the crime scene as quickly as possible. They wouldn't just
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: linger like that. And so at this point, Henderson turned
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: to Minocchio and was like, you know, how do you
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: want to split this up here? And Minocchio said he
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: would stay and interview Diane's parents. That way Henderson could
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: go inside and inspect the rest of the crime scene.
• 8:50
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• 9:01
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• 9:27
  Speaker 1: Moments later, Henderson stepped through the front door of Diane's house,
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: and he saw the huge amount of blood in the foyer.
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: There was so much that he assumed the murder must
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: have taken place right here in the entryway. There was
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: also a lot of white dust all over the floor
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: that Henderson recognized as fire extinguisher powder. Henderson couldn't see
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: any evidence of a fire, so he guessed that what
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: must have happened here as the killer had sprayed down
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: the area with a fire extinguisher in an effort just
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: to contaminate the scene. Henderson noticed there was a trail
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: of blood that sort of left the entryway and headed
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: towards the back of the house. And so he followed
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: it through the hallway, into the kitchen, and in there
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: he saw forensic techs standing around the kitchen sink, which
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: was full of all the soapy water. And as he
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: walked in, Henderson, one of the techs pulled a woman's
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: wallet out of the sink and then set it open
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: on the counter to dry. Henderson walked over to check
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: the ID and and saw that it was Diane's wallet.
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: And so this was obviously very weird, but it got
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: even weirder when the forensics tech reached back into the
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: water and then fished out something else, a TV remote.
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: And so at this point, Henderson and the techs realized
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: that what must be going on here is the killer
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: must have been dumping these items in the soapy water
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: to try to clean off fingerprints or DNA. But after
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: seeing all this, it made Henderson really wonder, like, what
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: state would the body be in? when he found it.
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: If the killer's going to these many lengths with just
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: like ancillary evidence, what did they do to the body?
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: And so after chatting with the techs for a few
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: minutes about how strange this whole thing was, Henderson turned
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: and continued following that trail of blood on the ground.
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: And it led him to the door that went down
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: to the basement. And so he looked down into the stairs.
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: There was a forensic specialist taking photos of Diane's body,
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: which was you know, right at the foot of the stairs.
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: When Henderson went down there and actually got a look
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: at Diane's body, I mean, he had been bracing for,
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: you know, her body to be in pretty rough shape
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: considering what he had seen upstairs, but he was still
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: taken aback by just how violently Diane clearly had been attacked.
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: Her torso, her neck, and her face were covered in
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: literally more stab wounds than he could even count. And
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: then as Henderson leaned in even closer... He saw there
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: were additional bruises on Diane's face and pretty clear defensive
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: marks on her limbs that told him that there had
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: definitely been a pretty big struggle. Also, some of Diane's
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: clothes had been removed, which made Henderson wonder if Diane
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: had been sexually assaulted. And as awful as that obviously is,
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: if that was the case, the upshot was that there
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: was a good chance the killer's DNA could be recovered
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: from her body. However, at the same time Henderson is
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: thinking this, he began to notice a very harsh chemical
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: smell that was clearly coming from Diane's body. And that's
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: when he spotted a bottle of toilet cleaner that was
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: right nearby. And he realized that the killer must have
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: dragged Diane's body down here and then splashed it with
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: chemicals in yet another attempt to destroy evidence. And so
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: at this point, Henderson was getting pretty worried because the
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: killer clearly had taken a lot of steps to cover
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: their tracks. And if they had done a thorough enough
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: job and the police couldn't find any usable fingerprints or DNA,
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: they'd be relying primarily on witnesses, which are not necessarily
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: hugely reliable. So Henderson just really hoped that was not
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: going to be the case here. But if it was,
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: he just prayed that someone in the neighborhood had seen something.
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: Ten minutes later, Henderson walked down the icy sidewalk canvassing
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: the neighborhood with his partner, Detective Monacchio. And as they walked,
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: Monacchio filled Henderson in on the talk that he had
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: just had with Diane's parents. What he learned was that
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: Diane had recently moved to this neighborhood and that she
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: also dated a lot, mostly men that she met online.
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: And the fact that she dated a lot of people
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: certainly caught Henderson's attention because all the evidence that they
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: had found so far in Diane's house suggested that she
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: had been killed by somebody she knew. There were no
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: signs of forced entry and there was evidence of a long,
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: very deliberate cleanup So the killer had clearly felt comfortable
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: enough to stick around after the murder and had probably
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: known Diane was single, so they were not going to
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: be interrupted. And so Henderson sort of filed these thoughts
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: away as he and his partner arrived at the next
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: house on the block. Henderson knocked, and a moment later,
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: an elderly woman answered the door. And at that point,
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: Henderson explained about Diane's murder, and then he asked her
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: if she had seen anything suspicious around Diane's place the
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: previous day. Cars parked outside or You know, strange people
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: coming and going. Anything. Now, this woman was immediately startled
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: by the news of a murder in this neighborhood. That
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: definitely was the primary reaction she had. But, you know,
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: she quickly recovered and said that, no, she hadn't seen anything. However,
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: she did remember seeing some kids playing in the yard
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: across the street from Diane's. So maybe they had seen something.
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: Moments later, Henderson and Monacchio stood on the front porch
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: of the house that was directly across the street from Diane's.
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: And they were speaking to a woman in her 50s
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: who'd introduced herself as Mrs. Yearwood. When Henderson explained about
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: the murder across the street, Mrs. Yearwood gasped and said that,
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: you know, she hadn't known Diane particularly well. I mean,
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: she was new to the neighborhood, but she'd always been
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: so friendly to her and her family. And in fact,
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: Diane had even paid Mrs. Yearwood's son to help with
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: some small chores around her house. At this point, Henderson
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: sort of, you know, shifted the conversation and just got
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: to the point. He told her that he had heard
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: that there had been some kids playing outside this house
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: the previous day and were the kids home because he
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: really wanted to speak to them to see if they
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: had maybe heard or seen anything strange on Diane's property
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: the day before. Mrs. Yearwood immediately nodded and turned around
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: and walked into the back of the house and then
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: a moment later came back with an 11-year-old boy who
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: looked very nervous. And so Henderson, to disarm him, immediately
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: knelt down and touched him on the shoulder and just said, look,
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: we're trying to catch a bad guy. And then Henderson
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: pointed across the street and asked the boy had he
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: seen anything strange at Diane's house the day before. The
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: boy at this point looked past Henderson over at Diane's
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: house and then back at Henderson and he just shook
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: his head and said no. And at this point Henderson
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: he felt his stomach sink because with a deeply contaminated
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: crime scene and apparently no good witnesses this case was
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: already off to a horrible start. Around noon the following day,
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: December 19th, Detective Henderson sat in his office reading through
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: Diane Zaleski's autopsy report. He'd been anxiously waiting for this
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: file all morning, but unfortunately it did not contain much
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: information that he had not already guessed. Diane's time of
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: death was estimated to be between 10 p.m. and 1 a.m.,
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: so 11 to 14 hours before her parents found her body.
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: She had been strangled and beaten and also stabbed more
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: than 40 times. The damage was so severe, the medical
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: examiner couldn't actually say which injury killed her. And also
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: the knife that was used in the attack had never
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: been found. They also couldn't tell if Diane had been
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: sexually assaulted, because the chemicals that had been splashed on
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: her body had destroyed any DNA the killer might have
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: left behind. The forensics team also had not pulled any
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: usable fingerprints from the house, thanks to the killer's cleanup efforts.
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: But they did find something that was even better. There
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: were a few drops of fresh blood at the crime scene,
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: that did not match Diane's DNA, and early tests showed
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: that they came from an adult male. Now, it was
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: possible that this blood was from someone other than the killer,
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: but Henderson didn't think so. There had clearly been some
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: sort of struggle between the killer and Diane, so it
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: seemed likely that Diane had managed to wound the killer
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: and maybe draw blood, and maybe this was it. And
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: so now, the game had changed. Henderson's next task would
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: be to collect DNA samples from all the men closest
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: to Diane and compare them to this fresh blood at
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: the crime scene. Now, the digital forensics team had Diane's laptop,
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: and they were working really hard to try to access
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: her online dating profile to try to figure out who
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: she'd been chatting with, because those were definitely some people
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: they might want to compare DNA with. But while Henderson,
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: you know, thought that was great... he wasn't going to wait.
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: He felt like he needed to move on this right now,
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: and he figured if he wanted some answers about who
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: Diane was potentially dating or seeing or maybe who some
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: of her exes were, he actually knew where he could
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: go to start. Around 9.30 the next morning, Henderson was
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: sitting in a coffee shop across from Diane's best friend,
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: Joanne Govea. Joanne was clearly still processing the murder, and
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: at the moment, she really seemed more angry than anything else.
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: But she told Henderson that she would help any way
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: she could and that she did know all about the
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: men who were in Diane's life. But of all her
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: romantic partners, there was really only one who concerned her.
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: His name was Mike Prunell, and according to Joanne, he'd
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: been Diane's landlord years ago. After Diane had moved into
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: his building, he'd started showering her with gifts and bugging
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: her to go out with him, and they had ended
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: up dating for a while. But when Diane ended things,
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: Mike had been furious, and Diane had actually had to
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: move to a new place. just to get away from him. Now,
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: this obviously got Henderson's attention, and he made a mental
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: note to find Mike as soon as possible. But there
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: was another name that he wanted to ask Joanne about
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: as well. During the search of Diane's house, detectives had
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: found her wallet in the kitchen sink. You know, it
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: had been sitting in the water. And inside of the
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: wallet had been Diane's ID, some credit cards, and then
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: there was also this soggy business card for someone named
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: Mark Baker. And so Henderson asked if Joanne recognized that name.
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: And Joanne said, yeah, I do. She said Diane had
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: met Mark Baker at a bar and they had talked
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: and exchanged contact info. But Joanne didn't know if they'd
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: ever actually followed up. And so Henderson and Joanne spoke
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: for a bit longer. And then eventually they wrapped up
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: and Henderson thanked Joanne for the help. And then as
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: he was leaving, he decided that, you know, he really
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: needed to speak to both Mark and Mike. But he
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: would start with Mark because he had his business card.
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: Later that afternoon, Henderson led Mark Baker into the police
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: station's interview room. He offered Mark a seat and a
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: bottle of water, which Mark accepted before asking, like, what's
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: going on? What is this all about? Mark definitely was
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: pretty annoyed to have been asked to come down here
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: in the middle of the workday with, you know, virtually
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: no explanation. So Henderson decided to just get straight to it.
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: He explained that he was investigating a murder. Then he
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: pulled out a photo of Diane, put it on the table,
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: and slid it over to Mark. Now, as Henderson did this,
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: he was sort of studying Mark for any sort of
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: reaction when he saw Diane's picture. But Mark just sort
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: of glanced at the photo and then back up at Henderson.
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: And he said, am I supposed to know who this is?
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: And this totally caught Henderson off guard. Henderson told him
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: that the woman's name was Diane. And he knew that
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: Mark had met her at a bar not that long ago.
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: But Mark just shook his head and insisted that that
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: had not happened. He said he definitely didn't know Diane,
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: and he also would not have chatted her up anywhere,
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: because she apparently was not the kind of, quote, target
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: he usually went for. And that word, target, sort of
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: hung in the air very uneasily between them for a
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: long time. And then eventually, Henderson just sort of, you know,
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: cleared his throat and asked if Mark would be willing
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: to give a DNA sample. And Mark flat out refused.
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: But this only made Henderson even more determined to get
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: a sample. Now, he couldn't force it without a warrant,
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: but he had another idea. Mark had been drinking from
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: that water bottle that he had given him when he
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: first came in, and he just hoped if Mark left
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: it behind, Henderson could scoop it up and send it
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: off for testing. So he told Mark that he was
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: free to go. But Henderson was disappointed when Mark did
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: not throw the bottle away. Instead, he put the cap
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: back on, pocketed the bottle, and he left. Now, Henderson
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: obviously couldn't prove this, But just from the looks of it,
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: the decision to take the bottle like that, it just,
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: it felt deliberate. And it reminded him of just how
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: careful Diane's killer had been to remove forensic evidence from
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: the crime scene. So he gave Mark a few seconds
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: head start. And then eventually Henderson got up and actually
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: followed Mark out of the station, but kept his distance
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: so that he wouldn't notice he was behind him. And
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: Henderson very carefully trailed Mark all the way down the block.
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: And then at some point when Mark stopped and sort
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: of looked around for a moment, Henderson froze until he
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: realized Mark was just checking street signs. And then, you know,
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: Mark just kept on walking and Henderson kept on trailing
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: until eventually Mark pulled out that bottle and he chucked
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: it onto the ground. And then as soon as Mark
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: had walked down the road, turned the corner and disappeared,
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: Henderson ran over, put on a rubber glove, picked up
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: that bottle and went right back to the police station.
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: And then as soon as he got there, he put
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: it inside of an evidence bag and he sent it
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: off to the crime lab for testing. That evening, around
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: 6 p.m., Henderson was sitting at his desk, staring at
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: his computer screen in total frustration. He was reading the
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: results of a database search for Diane's ex-boyfriend and former landlord,
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: Mike Purnell, and he was running into a problem. Henderson
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: could not find anybody with that name. A moment later,
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: Henderson heard a knock at his door. And he called
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: for whoever it was to come on in. And then
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: when the door opened, he saw his partner, Detective Minocchio,
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: standing there with a middle-aged man. And Minocchio explained that
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: this guy was Diane's brother, Ron Zaleski. And he was
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: here to give whatever information he could about Diane's personal life.
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: And Henderson immediately perked up because he realized that, you know,
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: Ron very likely knew Diane's ex-boyfriends and any current boyfriends.
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: So as they sat down, Henderson asked him if he
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: remembered a man named Mike Purnell. And Ron immediately paused
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: and looked really surprised and then said, yeah, he knows
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: exactly who Mike is. Because at one point, Mike had
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: actually asked their father for his blessing to marry Diane.
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: According to Ron, none of the family had been in
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: love with that idea because Mike had seemed like a
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: really shady guy. In fact, he had such a long
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: rap sheet that he didn't even go by his real name.
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: Two days later, on November 22nd, Detective Henderson sat in
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: the interview room across from the man who called himself
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: Mike Purnell. His real name was Lou Hubbard. And at
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: this point, Henderson knew that amongst his rap sheet was
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: a conviction for domestic violence against his ex-wife. Apparently, he
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: had savagely beaten her. And Henderson knew that obviously in
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: this murder case, Diane had been savagely beaten. So there's,
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: you know, a similarity there. Now, Henderson had not told
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: Lou that they knew his real name. And he also
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: hadn't told Lou why he was even here. And Lou
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: hadn't asked. And at the moment, I mean, Lou was
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: just sort of leaning back in his chair, sort of
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: like making light of this whole thing, like it was
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: totally hilarious that he was being held inside of a
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: police station. At some point, Henderson asked Lou where he
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: had been on November 17th. And Lou just sort of
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: shrugged and said he couldn't remember anything about that day,
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: like it didn't stand out at all to him. At
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: this point, Henderson pulled out that photo of Diane and
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: he slid it across the table to Lou. And Lou,
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: he just glanced at it. And then slid it back
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: across the table and said he had no idea who
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: that was. And to Henderson, this was just completely unbelievable.
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: Like literally not believable. Because he knew that Lou had
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: literally proposed to Diane, this woman in the photo. So
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: there was no way he did not recognize her. He
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: had to be lying. At this point, Henderson stood up
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: from the table and he looked at Lou and said,
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: if you want to keep playing dumb, that's fine. Then
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: he stood up and he walked over to the door.
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: He opened it up. and he yelled out for his partner,
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: Detective Monocchio, to bring him the file on Lou. And
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: then a moment later, Monocchio ran down the hall, he
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: handed over the file, and then Henderson went back to
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: the table. Henderson, calm as could be, opened up the
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: file and then began telling Lou that, I know your
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: name's not Mike Purnell, it's Lou Hubbard. I know all
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: about you. I know that At one point, you were
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: going to propose or did propose to this woman, Diane,
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: the one in the photo, the one you claim not
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: to know. We know all about it. We know about
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: your criminal record, your domestic violence conviction. We know all
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: about it. At this point, Lou's entire demeanor had changed.
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: It was like he knew he'd been caught. And he
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: just nodded and said, yeah, he knows who she is.
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: And he also said that he had seen on TV
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: that she had been murdered, but he swore he didn't
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: do it. Now, Henderson really didn't believe the guy because
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: he's just caught him lying. But he told him, you know, hey,
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: if you really didn't do it, there's an easy way
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: to prove that. Give us a DNA sample, like literally
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: right now. And after a long pause, Lou agreed. Around
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: 8 a.m. the next morning, November 23rd, Detective Henderson was
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: working at his desk when his phone rang. When he
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: looked at the caller ID and he saw the extension,
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: he knew it was the crime lab. and he assumed
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: they must be calling to confirm receipt of Mark Baker
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: and Lou Hubbard's DNA samples they had sent over. But
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: when Henderson answered, the analyst on the line explained they
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: were actually calling with an update from Digital Forensics. The
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: digital team had finally accessed the browsing history on Diane's laptop,
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: and they'd found some activity from the hours after Diane
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: was killed. It looked like the killer, while hanging around
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: inside of Diane's house after the murder, had viewed some
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: pornographic websites. And then they'd also used Diane's credit cards
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: to try and order a MacBook and an iPhone. And
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: they had set the delivery address for these items for
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: Diane's house. Now, Henderson was sort of taken aback by
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: all of this. But what stood out was, well, if
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: they're ordering these items to the scene of the crime,
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: it means they planned on coming back to the scene
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: of the crime. But there was also more. Apparently, the
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: digital forensics team had finally gotten into Diane's dating profile.
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: So now they could see everyone that she had messaged
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: or gone out with in the past. And there were
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: literally dozens and dozens of names. And so when Henderson
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: heard that, I mean, he knew that now, you know,
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: there were all these new suspects, dozens of them. They
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: would have to swab and question every one of those men.
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: And so now the case had just totally exploded. Around
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: noon on December 2nd, 2010, so about two weeks after
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: Diane's murder, Detective Henderson sat in his car outside of
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: an office building in Newark, New Jersey, watching the front entrance.
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: He'd been there all morning, waiting for a worker whose
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: name was Kyle Porter. Kyle was one of the men
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: that Diane had been messaging with online before she was killed.
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: Henderson had already spoken to him over the phone, and
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: Kyle had actually confirmed that he had been to Diane's
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: house just a few weeks before the murder. But what
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: really made Henderson suspicious of Kyle... was just the fact
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: that he had refused to submit a DNA sample, even
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: after Henderson explained that doing so would help clear him
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: as a suspect. So now, as Henderson finally saw Kyle
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: step out of the building and head for the parking lot,
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: Henderson got out of his car and literally ran over
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: to intercept him. And as he did, Henderson flashed his badge,
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: and Kyle, for a second, looked like he maybe wanted
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: to run. But instead, he just sort of stammered that
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: he was going to be late for his lunch meeting,
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: sort of suggesting, like, I can't talk to you right now.
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: But Henderson had not waited around all morning just to
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: leave empty-handed here. So he told Kyle that he could
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: either give a sample right now and be on his way,
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: or they could talk again when Henderson came back with
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: a warrant for Kyle's arrest. And Kyle seemed terrified by
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: that idea. So he sighed and said, OK, I'll give
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: you a sample. Four days later, on the morning of
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: December 6th, Henderson was out jogging before his shift when
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: his cell phone rang. He saw that it was the
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: crime lab calling, so he stopped what he was doing
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: and he answered the call. A forensic analyst from the
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: lab was on the line, and he explained that he
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: was calling because they'd just finished with the first batch
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: of Henderson's blood samples. This batch included the samples for
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: Mark Baker, the man who Henderson had to secretly trail
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: just to pick up his water bottle. as well as
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: Diane's ex-boyfriend, Lou Hubbard, aka Mike Prunell, and also Kyle Porter,
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: the man she had met through online dating who, only
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: after being threatened with arrest, offered up his DNA swab.
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: And so Henderson held his breath as this analyst read
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: off the results. and not one of them matched the
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: blood sample from the crime scene. For a moment, Henderson
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: thought there really had to be a mistake here, because
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: all three of those men had been so suspicious and
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: so uncooperative. Now, he'd always known that, you know, the
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: crime scene blood that he had tested their samples against
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: maybe wasn't from the killer. But if that was true,
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: then Henderson was really in trouble, because it meant that
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: after all this, he had nothing. Now, the blood from
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: the crime scene had already been tested against the state's
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: DNA bank, and there had been no matches. And now
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: he's got no matches here with these three suspects, and
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: so Henderson knew he really had no choice but to
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: keep finding and testing more suspects. And in the next
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: few weeks and then months, he went through this process
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: over and over, interviewing and obtaining DNA samples from the
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: men in Diane's dating profile history and her email contacts,
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: basically every man who had anything to do with her.
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: He went out and interviewed and tested. In fact, over
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: the next year, the detectives conducted more than 100 interviews
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: and took over 80 DNA samples. One by one, they
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: all turned into dead ends. One morning in December of 2011,
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: Detective Henderson was at his desk on the phone following
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: up about a tip about Diane's case. So a month
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: earlier on the anniversary of Diane's death, the local news
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: had aired a big special on the case. And then
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: since then, the police station had been flooded with people
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: calling in various tips. And so now, you know, Henderson
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: and Minocchio had had their hands full following up on
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: all these tips, but so far they had gone nowhere.
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: And so Henderson thanked the person he was on the
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: phone with, even though he sort of knew that what
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: they were telling him was not going to be useful.
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: Then he hung up and let out a frustrated sigh.
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: He was starting to think that he had been totally
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: wrong at the start of this murder. That Diane's killer
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: was not someone she knew, but maybe a random intruder
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: who would be even harder to catch. Or even worse
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: would be, you know, maybe the blood they'd been testing
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: all of these suspects against for the last year, that
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: that blood maybe didn't even belong to the killer. But
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: just then, Minocchio burst into the office and he had
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: a big grin on his face. And he said he
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: had just gotten a call from this woman who had
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: a story that Henderson needed to hear. Monacchio at this
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: point just handed Henderson his cell phone, and so Henderson
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: put the phone to his ear, and sure enough, there
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: was a woman on the line. And this woman explained
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: that she had an online friend that she spoke with
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: all the time. Now, they'd never actually met in person,
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: but they were still pretty close, and they told each
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: other practically everything. And a few days ago, this online
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: friend of hers had sent a very disturbing message, where
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: they openly admitted that they had killed Diane Zaleski. And
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: when this woman told Henderson the actual name of this
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: online friend of hers, he was so confused. But then
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: it was like all at once, the world came crashing
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: down around him because he realized that over a year ago,
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: on the very first day he'd begun investigating Diane's murder,
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: he had made a huge mistake. Based on forensic evidence
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: from the crime scene and the killer's eventual confession, this
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: is what police believe happened to Diane Zaleski on the
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: night of November 17, 2010. The killer was very nervous
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: as they knocked on Diane's front door because even though
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: they had been here before, tonight was going to be different.
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: Diane eventually came to the door and she opened it
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: up and she seemed sort of surprised to see the
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: killer there. But, you know, she let them inside and
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: asked them, like, what's going on? What are you doing here?
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: And the killer, you know, they hadn't really figured out
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: how they were going to do this. And at some point,
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: they just sort of blurted out the thing they wanted
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: to tell her, which was to tell Diane that they
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: had really intense feelings about her. But as they were
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: sort of like rambling on about all these things they
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: wanted to do with her and how they really just
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: wanted her, Diane stopped them. and told them that what
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: they wanted was totally inappropriate and that now they needed
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: to leave. But the killer, after being rejected, refused to leave.
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: And then the killer began to argue. And as they did,
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: they got angrier and angrier until they reached over and
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: grabbed a pair of scissors on the table by the
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: door and they began stabbing Diane. But Diane, she immediately
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: fought back way harder than the killer had expected, thrashing
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: and kicking until the killer's grip on the scissors slipped.
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: And at that point, the killer actually felt a flash
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: of pain in their hand and they looked down to
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: see a bloody cut on their hand. But for the killer,
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: this only made them more mad. The killer began to
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: strangle her until finally she stopped moving. Once Diane was still,
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: the killer took their hands off of her and then
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: just sort of looked around at the incredibly bloody mess
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: they'd made in the front of the house. They'd watched
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: enough TV to know that their DNA and fingerprints were
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: probably all over not just Diane's body, but all over
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: the foyer right now. But they also knew that Diane,
• 35:09
  Speaker 1: she lived alone, which meant that nobody was coming home
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: anytime soon. And so they felt like they had plenty
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: of time to clean up this mess. They started by
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: dragging Diane's lifeless body down the hallway to the steps
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: and then down into the basement. And they cleaned her
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: body with chemicals. And then after that, they went back
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: upstairs and stripped off their own bloody clothes and started
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: a load of laundry. And while they waited for their
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: laundry to be done, the killer just sort of made
• 35:34
  Speaker 1: themselves at home. They took a shower. They watched TV.
• 35:37
  Speaker 1: They cooked and ate a bowl of pasta. And they
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: used Diane's laptop to look at pornography and also do
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: some online shopping with Diane's credit card. And then once
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: the killer's clothes were clean and dry, they put them
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: back on and then collected the items that they had handled,
• 35:52
  Speaker 1: like Diane's wallet and her TV remote, and dumped them
• 35:55
  Speaker 1: in the sink with a bunch of soapy water. Then
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: they went around the house blasting everything with a fire
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: extinguisher from under the sink to destroy trace evidence. And
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: also they went ahead and wiped down the laptop to
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: make sure there was no DNA or fingerprints on that
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: as well. And then finally, sometime in the early hours
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: of the morning after the murder... The killer, you know,
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: after having done all they could, they just casually walked
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: out the door into the falling snow and crossed the
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: street and went into their mother's house. Because the killer
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: was Arnell Yearwood, Diane's neighbor's son. So the huge mistake
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: that investigators made at the very beginning of this investigation
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: was when they found out that the neighbor across the street, Mrs. Yearwood,
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: that her son apparently did chores for Diane, Well, the
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: mistake they made in particular Detective Henderson was when Mrs.
• 36:46
  Speaker 1: Yearwood went into the back of the house and came
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: back with that 11-year-old boy that they spoke to that
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: said he didn't see anything strange across the street the
• 36:53
  Speaker 1: day before. They assumed that boy was Mrs. Yearwood's son
• 36:58
  Speaker 1: and he was the one who was doing chores for Diane.
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: And basically they're like looking at this kid who's totally
• 37:04
  Speaker 1: innocent thinking, OK, clearly this kid who's been across the
• 37:08
  Speaker 1: street in her house is not a person of interest.
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: He did not kill anybody. And so the son of Mrs.
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: Yearwood was just sort of forgotten about. What they didn't
• 37:16
  Speaker 1: realize is that 11-year-old boy was not Mrs. Yearwood's son.
• 37:20
  Speaker 1: It was her grandson. Her actual son was a 26-year-old man,
• 37:25
  Speaker 1: Arnell Yearwood, who was actually inside the house on that day.
• 37:30
  Speaker 1: He was hiding in her house. But they just never clarified.
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: They assumed the kid was her son and just sort
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: of wrote off any chance that her son could be involved.
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: And so Detective Henderson and Minocchio didn't put it together
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: until over a year later when they got that tip
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: from that woman who said her online friend confessed to
• 37:48
  Speaker 1: the murder, and his name was Arnell Yearwood. And so ultimately,
• 37:53
  Speaker 1: Diane let Arnell into her house on the night she
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: was killed because she knew and trusted him. He did
• 37:58
  Speaker 1: chores at her house. But he tried to initiate a
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: sexual relationship with her. She rejected him, and so he
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: killed her. Arnell Yearwood was ultimately arrested on April 7, 2012,
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: so about a year and a half after killing Diane.
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: He would confess to the murder and was sentenced to
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: 30 years in prison. Thank you so much for watching.
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: Let me know what you thought of today's episode in
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: the comments. And remember, we have a whole playlist of
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: true crime episodes ready for you to binge right now.
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: So click here and give them a watch. All right,
• 38:35
  Speaker 1: until next time, see ya.