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Cops Find Horrific Crime Scene While Investigating Another Murder · Murder Files Unsealed

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Imagine you're like the metronome of your community.
• 0:04
  Speaker 2: Right, a steady beat.
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Exactly. You play the trumpet in a local band. You
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: play taps for grieving veterans at funerals. And you are
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: just universally beloved by, I mean, almost everyone who knows you.
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: You're a fixture in the town.
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: Yeah, a total fixture. So you leave your house on
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: a snowy Tuesday.
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: Actually, sorry.
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: A snowy Saturday night. You think you're just going on
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: a normal date.
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: Just a totally average weekend plan. Right.
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: But you walk straight into the crosshairs of this toxic,
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: lethal domestic violence triangle that you didn't even know existed.
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: Which is just terrifying.
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: It really is. Welcome to today's deep dive. We are
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: unpacking a gripping true crime transcript that starts with this
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: staggering juxtaposition. I mean, an innocent musician swallowed whole by
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: someone else's nightmare.
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: And it spirals. It spirals into this complex web of
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: digital breadcrumbs, psychological manipulation, and the brutal reality of coercive control.
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: Okay, let's unpack this. Because we are looking at a
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: story that essentially forces you to ask this massive question like,
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: How much of our lives and ultimately our deaths are
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: recorded by the silent digital witnesses we literally just carry
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: around in our pocket?
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: Oh, absolutely. And if we connect this to the bigger picture,
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: the most compelling element we're going to explore isn't just
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: the mechanics of the tragedy itself.
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: Right. It's not just the how.
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: Exactly. It's how microscopic, seemingly mundane details, you know, like
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: a misplaced car floor mat or a cell phone desperately
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: trying to connect to a tower... or even the physics
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: of a single drop of blood.
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: The science of it.
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: Yeah, the science. How those tiny things can completely dismantle
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: a master manipulator's narrative. It is a literal masterclass in
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: how modern forensic science collides with primal human panic.
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: That is such a good way to put it. Primal panic.
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: I want to pull the listener right into the setting
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: first because, well, the environment plays such a huge role here.
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: The weather is practically a character in this case.
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: It really is. So the date is February 8th, 2020.
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: We are in Greeley, Colorado. And the local weather forecasts
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: are warning everyone that if they are stepping outside, they
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: need heavy winter gear.
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: This is bad. It's awful.
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: It is a blinding, snowy, bitterly cold February night. And
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: we're introduced to a man named Stanley Scott Sessions.
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: And to truly understand the gravity of how this investigation
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: kicked off, we really have to look at the concept
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: of victimology.
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: Which is what exactly? Like assessing the victim's life?
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: Basically, yes. Yeah. When law enforcement gets a missing person report,
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: the very first thing they do is assess the victim's
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: lifestyle to establish a baseline of risk.
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: Oh, I see. Like, are they involved in dangerous stuff?
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: Precisely. They ask, are they involved in the drug trade?
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: Do they have a transient living situation? Are they engaged
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: in high risk financial behavior?
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: Yeah, right.
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: And Scott Sessions was the absolute antithesis of a high-risk victim.
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: Oh, completely. His life was practically an open book. He
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: wasn't just a resident of Greeley. I mean, he was
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: woven into the absolute fabric of the town.
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: He was the pillar.
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: Yeah, a total pillar. His passion was the trumpet, and
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: he played in a backing band for a local Elvis impersonator.
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: Which is such a great detail.
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: I just love that detail so much. It paints this
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: vivid image of fellowship and joy and community.
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: It really does.
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: His bandmates talked about his boyish humor and how he
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: would just get completely lost in the music and let
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: the rhythm drive him. But he had this deeply serious,
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: honorable side as well.
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: Playing taps, right?
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: Yes. When he played taps for veteran services, people said
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: you could just feel his love for his community pouring
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: right out of the brass.
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: Which is exactly why his disappearance shattered that baseline of
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: risk we just talked about.
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: Because it was so out of character.
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: Completely out of character. In the first 48 hours of
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: a missing person's case, the absence of known enemies or
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: erratic behavior doesn't mean the police relax.
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: Wait, it doesn't? I would think they think he just,
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: I don't know, took a weekend off.
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: Not at all. It actually escalates the urgency exponentially. When
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: an individual whose entire life is predicated on reliability suddenly vanishes,
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: investigators immediately know they aren't dealing with a runaway.
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: Okay, that makes sense because, like I said earlier... He
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: was the metronome of his community. He provided this reliable,
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: steady beat.
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: He was always there.
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: Always there, always on time, whether it was for an
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: Elvis gig or honoring a fallen soldier. And when a
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: metronome just abruptly stops swinging, it doesn't signal that the
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: mechanism decided to take a casual vacation.
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: It signals a catastrophic failure.
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: That is a phenomenal way to visualize it. And that
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: catastrophic failure became undeniable on that snowy Saturday night.
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: Because of the gig.
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: Exactly. Exactly. The band is setting up for their show,
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: the venue is filling up, showtime is creeping closer, and
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: Scott just isn't there.
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: Which is unthinkable for him.
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: Unthinkable. Obviously the show has to go on. But by halftime,
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: the panic has entirely set in backstage.
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: I can't even imagine that feeling. You're trying to perform
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: while wondering where your friend is?
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: It's a nightmare. His bandmates are texting him, calling him,
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: and they are getting nothing but dead silence. One of
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: his friends literally said the only thing they could have
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: kept Scott from performing was if he was deathly ill
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: or if he was dead.
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: Wow. They knew right then.
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: They knew. And this completely rewires the initial police response.
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: How so?
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: Well, the working theory among his friends was that he
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: had to be the victim of some random violent act.
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: You know, a mugging gone wrong, perhaps.
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: It is a natural fear to have.
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: Sure. But statistically, random stranger-on-stranger abductions are incredibly rare. especially
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: in a place like Greeley.
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: Oh, really?
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: Yes. The police know that if a low-risk victim disappears,
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: the threat usually comes from a hidden vector in their
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: own life.
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: But the reality in this case was so much darker
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: than a random mugging. Because we transitioned from a missing
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: trumpet player and missed texts at an Elvis gig to
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: a discovery that completely changes the geography of this case.
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: A huge shift in geography.
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: Right. How do we end up roughly 50 miles away
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: in the freezing mountains?
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: Well... It requires us to look at an environment that
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: is the complete opposite of a warm, crowded concert venue. Okay.
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: Paint the picture for us.
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: So the snow was falling heavily the following morning in
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: an area called Pingree Park. This is an isolated, rugged,
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: freezing mountain pass.
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: Not a place you want to be in a storm.
• 6:23
  Speaker 2: Not at all. A snowplow driver is out clearing the
• 6:26
  Speaker 2: roads near the Monument Gulch exit.
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: And what he sees is just, I mean, it defies
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: all logic.
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: It really does.
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: He is driving a plow through a blizzard and he
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: spots a tree on fire. A literal burning tree in
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: the middle of a snowstorm.
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: He pulls over to extinguish it, assuming maybe it was
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: a reckless camper or something. And that is when he
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: finds the body lying right next to the flames.
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: Oh, God.
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: It is Scott Sessions.
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: And the condition of the body is just incredibly disturbing.
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: He was heavily burned, but it's the way he was
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: packaged that really stands out to me.
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: The packaging is a massive clue.
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: Yeah. He was wrapped tightly in a blue blanket, then
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: encased in plastic. And the entire thing was heavily secured
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: with duct tape.
• 7:05
  Speaker 2: Which raises an important question about the cognitive state of
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: the killer.
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: What do you mean?
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: Well, if we analyze this crime scene, we are looking
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: at two entirely contradictory psychological profiles competing with each other
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: in real time.
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: Oh, I see. Because of the fire versus the tape?
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: Exactly. On one hand, you have the packaging. Wrapping a
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: human body in a blanket, sealing it in plastic, and
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: taping it up That is organized behavior.
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: Right. It takes time.
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: It takes time. It shows a calculated, methodical effort to
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: contain forensic evidence likely to transport the victim without leaving
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: blood or fluids in a vehicle.
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: So it requires specific materials and like a really chilling
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: emotional detachment.
• 7:48
  Speaker 2: It's someone trying to maintain absolute control over the situation.
• 7:51
  Speaker 2: But then you contrast that organized packaging with the chaotic
• 7:54
  Speaker 2: decision to set a tree on fire in the snow.
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: See, here is where I really struggle with the logic,
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: and I have to push back on this killer's thought process,
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: because it makes absolutely zero sense to me.
• 8:05
  Speaker 2: It's baffling.
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: Why would you go through all that incredibly methodical trouble,
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: drive 50 miles through a treacherous blinding snowstorm to a
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: remote mountain pass just to light a fire?
• 8:18
  Speaker 2: It seems counterproductive.
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: It is counterproductive. You are literally building a beacon. You
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: are creating a glowing... smoking signposts pointing right to the
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: body you just spent hours trying to hide. Like, why
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: would anyone do that?
• 8:32
  Speaker 2: To understand that, you have to look at the cognitive
• 8:34
  Speaker 2: load of committing a homicide.
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: And the cognitive load?
• 8:37
  Speaker 2: Yeah. We watch movies where criminals are these cool, calculating masterminds.
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: Right, like Hannibal Lecter or something.
• 8:44
  Speaker 2: Exactly. But the reality is that murder is physically and
• 8:46
  Speaker 2: psychologically exhausting.
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: I hadn't thought about that.
• 8:49
  Speaker 2: By the time this killer has committed the act, wrestled
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: a body into plastic and duct tape, and driven for
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: hours through a high-stress blizzard, their adrenaline is completely depleted.
• 8:59
  Speaker 2: Exhaustion and panic take over. Oh. So the fire was
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: likely a desperate, ill-conceived attempt to destroy forensic evidence.
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: Like they're driving back, their heart is pounding, and they
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: suddenly realize, wait, did I take my gloves off? Is
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: my DNA on that duct tape?
• 9:14
  Speaker 2: Precisely. Panic completely overrides logic. In their exhausted state, they think,
• 9:19
  Speaker 2: Fire cleanses everything. I'll just burn it.
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: But they don't think about the snow.
• 9:23
  Speaker 2: Right. They fail to account for the physics of their environment.
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: A hasty fire in a snowstorm is never going to
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: burn hot enough or long enough to incinerate a human body.
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: Especially not one wrapped up like that.
• 9:35
  Speaker 2: Exactly. Especially one wrapped in layers of flame retardant or
• 9:38
  Speaker 2: melting plastics that literally suffocate the flames.
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: Wow.
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: So instead of destroying evidence, the fire acts exactly as
• 9:45
  Speaker 2: you described. It becomes a massive visual flare to the
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: only other person out on those treacherous roads, the snowplow driver.
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: It is the perfect intersection of calculated malice and panicked,
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: chaotic execution.
• 9:57
  Speaker 2: It really is.
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: So law enforcement now has a body, but they are
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: staring at a complete blank slate regarding motive. Because Scott
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: had no known enemies. His father's dying wife was in
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: the hospital at the time, and she just kept asking,
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: That is just heartbreaking. It's devastating. So to figure out
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: how this universally beloved musician ended up burning in Pingree Park,
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: investigators have to work backward.
• 10:26
  Speaker 2: They have to retrace everything.
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: Right. They have to trace his final steps, which brings
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: us to the digital ghosts we all leave behind every
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: single time we touch our phones.
• 10:34
  Speaker 2: Because you can burn a physical crime scene, but it
• 10:37
  Speaker 2: is nearly impossible for an amateur to burn a digital footprint.
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: Thank goodness for that. So investigators go to Scott's home
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: and they actually manage to access his Facebook messenger.
• 10:47
  Speaker 2: A huge breakthrough.
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: This is the moment the case cracks wide open. They
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: look at his activity for the Saturday he vanished, and
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: they find he was making plans with a woman named
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: Heather Frank.
• 10:56
  Speaker 2: And what is highly significant here is that this relationship
• 10:59
  Speaker 2: was entirely compartmentalized.
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: Meaning kept totally secret.
• 11:03
  Speaker 2: Yes. Nobody in Scott's life knew he was seeing Heather.
• 11:07
  Speaker 2: Not his close friends, not his family, not the bandmates
• 11:10
  Speaker 2: who spent hours with him every week.
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: Which is so interesting. Let's talk about Heather Frank for
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: a second. She was a waitress at a local spot
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: called Doug's Day Diner.
• 11:19
  Speaker 2: A hardworking mom.
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: Yeah, a mother of three boys, widely known as a
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: loving parent. And she shared a passion with Scott. She
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: was a huge fan of jazz music.
• 11:28
  Speaker 2: Which is likely how they connected.
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: Probably, yeah. But there was also a tragic undertone to
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: her life. She had a documented struggle with alcohol abuse.
• 11:37
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: So Scott was making plans to go to her apartment
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: that Saturday, and this single Facebook message... Basically gives the
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: police a geographic anchor.
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: It gives them a starting point. And that starting point
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: leads to the discovery of the secondary crime scene.
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: The King Soopers.
• 11:54
  Speaker 2: Yes. They locate Scott's vehicle parked in a King Soopers
• 11:58
  Speaker 2: grocery store parking lot, which sits directly across the street
• 12:02
  Speaker 2: from Heather Frank's apartment complex.
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: And the state of this car is just intensely weird.
• 12:07
  Speaker 2: It really is bizarre.
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: When police find it, it isn't just parked and locked.
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: There are glaring physical anomalies. Like the floor mat from
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: the driver's side is sitting outside entirely underneath the vehicle.
• 12:17
  Speaker 2: Which makes no sense.
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: None. And the car doors are unlocked and the keys
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: are just sitting right there in the ignition.
• 12:24
  Speaker 2: From a forensic perspective, we call those interruptive indicators.
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: Interruptive indicators. Okay, explain that.
• 12:30
  Speaker 2: Well, a person driving themselves to a date doesn't intentionally
• 12:33
  Speaker 2: take their floor mat out, shove it under the chassis,
• 12:36
  Speaker 2: leave the keys in the ignition, and just walk away.
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: Obviously not. Right.
• 12:40
  Speaker 2: Those details scream that the normal flow of activity was
• 12:44
  Speaker 2: violently interrupted. It suggests a physical struggle inside the car
• 12:49
  Speaker 2: or a panicked suspect hastily trying to alter the vehicle,
• 12:53
  Speaker 2: perhaps looking for something or trying to clean it without
• 12:55
  Speaker 2: having the composure to actually put it back together.
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: So the police immediately pull the surveillance video from the
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: King Soopers parking lot.
• 13:02
  Speaker 2: The digital witness.
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: Right. They watch the footage for the day after Scott
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: was murdered and they see the car being parked. But
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: the person stepping out of the driver's seat isn't Scott Sessions.
• 13:13
  Speaker 2: This is where it gets chilling.
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: The video is grainy, yeah, but they can clearly identify
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: a subject wearing heavy winter clothing. And this mystery man
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: does something incredibly specific. He pays intense, paranoid attention to
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: the vehicle.
• 13:26
  Speaker 2: He's hyper-fixated on it.
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: Exactly. He walks circles around it, staring into the windows,
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: pacing back and forth before finally walking away.
• 13:34
  Speaker 2: What's fascinating here is that we are watching a suspect
• 13:38
  Speaker 2: Mentally retracing his steps in real time.
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: Oh, like checking his work.
• 13:42
  Speaker 2: Exactly. Walking circles around the car indicates a hyper-awareness of
• 13:47
  Speaker 2: trace evidence. He is visually sweeping the vehicle, agonizing over
• 13:52
  Speaker 2: questions like, did I drop my wallet? Is there blood
• 13:54
  Speaker 2: on the steering wheel? Did anyone see me?
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: That paranoid loop.
• 13:57
  Speaker 2: Right. And the profound irony is that his obsessive attempt
• 14:01
  Speaker 2: to ensure he didn't leave evidence is the exact abnormal
• 14:04
  Speaker 2: behavior that draws the attention of the surveillance analysts.
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: Oh, wow. You're right.
• 14:08
  Speaker 2: If he had just parked and walked away normally, he
• 14:10
  Speaker 2: might not have stood out on the tape at all.
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: That is wow. It's like finding puzzle pieces from two
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: completely different boxes. You have this digital footprint, the Facebook
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: messages pointing like a laser beam to Heather Frank's apartment.
• 14:22
  Speaker 2: Yes.
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: But then you have this physical footprint, the paranoid mystery
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: man in the winter coat pointing to a total stranger.
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: The police know the man in the video isn't Scott
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: and they obviously know it isn't Heather.
• 14:34
  Speaker 2: And if we connect this to the evolution of modern investigations,
• 14:39
  Speaker 2: it is thrilling to see Locard's exchange principle in action.
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: Okay, remind me what that is.
• 14:44
  Speaker 2: It's the foundational forensic rule that every contact leaves a trace.
• 14:49
  Speaker 2: But here, we're seeing it operating in both the physical
• 14:51
  Speaker 2: and digital realms.
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: That makes total sense.
• 14:53
  Speaker 2: The digital evidence dictates the when and the where. But
• 14:57
  Speaker 2: the physical evidence, the dropped floor mat, the keys, the
• 14:59
  Speaker 2: pacing suspect, tells you that whoever intercepted Scott was highly disorganized, panicked,
• 15:05
  Speaker 2: and most importantly, not the person he actually intended to meet.
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: So the burning question for the detectives becomes, who is
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: the mystery man in the heavy coat? And how does
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: a secret, totally innocent date at Heather Frank's apartment devolve
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: into a lethal ambush?
• 15:21
  Speaker 2: To answer that, investigators have to put a magnifying glass
• 15:24
  Speaker 2: on Heather's apartment.
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: Literally watch her every move.
• 15:27
  Speaker 2: Exactly. They execute a common but highly effective surveillance technique.
• 15:31
  Speaker 2: They mount a pole camera on a streetlight in the cul-de-sac,
• 15:35
  Speaker 2: pointing directly at her front door and driveway.
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: So they are watching every single person who comes and goes. 2047.
• 15:41
  Speaker 2: And through that constant surveillance, a new vehicle enters the frame.
• 15:46
  Speaker 2: They run the plates and identify the owner as a
• 15:48
  Speaker 2: man named Kevin Dean Eastman.
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: And that name changes everything.
• 15:52
  Speaker 2: Completely. The moment they run his background, the entire complexion
• 15:54
  Speaker 2: of the investigation shifts from a mystery to a high
• 15:57
  Speaker 2: alert crisis.
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: Why? Who is this guy?
• 16:00
  Speaker 2: Eastman is an oil field worker, a roughneck. And while
• 16:03
  Speaker 2: some acquaintances described him as cordial, there was a deeply
• 16:06
  Speaker 2: sinister caveat. When alcohol was introduced, Kevin became a completely different,
• 16:11
  Speaker 2: highly volatile entity.
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: And volatile is a massive understatement here.
• 16:14
  Speaker 2: Oh, absolutely.
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: He was in an on-again, off-again relationship with Heather Frank.
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: And it was the textbook definition of toxic. I mean,
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: there was a heavily documented history of severe domestic violence.
• 16:26
  Speaker 2: It wasn't a secret to law enforcement.
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: No. In fact, at the very moment they identify him
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: on the poll camera, there is an active arrest warrant
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: out of the Denver Police Department for Kevin Eastman, specifically
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: for violently assaulting Heather.
• 16:39
  Speaker 2: And this is the pivot point for the detectives. Armed
• 16:43
  Speaker 2: with this identity, the police execute search warrants for cell
• 16:46
  Speaker 2: phone tower data. For the exact night Scott disappeared.
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: Okay, let's unpack the cell phone data because I think
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: people hear cell pimmings on TV and assume it just
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: means a dot on a map, but it's much more
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: complex than that, right?
• 16:58
  Speaker 2: Oh, it's vastly more complex. A cell phone is essentially
• 17:01
  Speaker 2: a sophisticated two-way radio. Even when you aren't making a call,
• 17:06
  Speaker 2: your phone is constantly screaming out, I'm here, who can
• 17:09
  Speaker 2: hear me, to the nearest cell towers just to maintain
• 17:11
  Speaker 2: a connection.
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: Even if it's just sitting in my pocket.
• 17:14
  Speaker 2: Even in your pocket. Towers are divided into sectors. Usually
• 17:18
  Speaker 2: three 120-degree slices. When investigators pull the historical data, they
• 17:23
  Speaker 2: aren't just looking at a single dot. They're looking at
• 17:26
  Speaker 2: which specific sector of which specific tower the phone was
• 17:30
  Speaker 2: communicating with.
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: Oh, I see.
• 17:32
  Speaker 2: And they analyze the signal strength to determine proximity.
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: So when they pull the data for that Saturday night,
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: what exactly do they see?
• 17:39
  Speaker 2: They see a digital collision.
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: A collision?
• 17:41
  Speaker 2: Yes. The data shows three distinct cell phones. pinging off
• 17:46
  Speaker 2: the exact same tower sectors that cover Heather's apartment. Yeah.
• 17:49
  Speaker 2: And they're pinging there for a very long continuous period
• 17:53
  Speaker 2: on the night Scott arrived.
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: Let me guess the phones.
• 17:56
  Speaker 2: It's Scott's phone, Heather's phone, and Kevin Eastman's phone.
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: So the data literally proves they were all occupying the
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: exact same physical space at the time of the murder.
• 18:05
  Speaker 2: Yes. When three phones share the exact same tower handoffs
• 18:08
  Speaker 2: and sector data for an extended duration, it is statistically
• 18:12
  Speaker 2: nearly impossible for it to be a coincidence.
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 18:14
  Speaker 2: The working theory crystallizes immediately. Scott was lured to or
• 18:19
  Speaker 2: ambushed at that apartment by Kevin, potentially with Heather's coerced involvement.
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: And this brings up what I found to be the
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: absolute most baffling part of this entire story.
• 18:29
  Speaker 2: I know exactly what you're going to say.
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: Because we know, based on the timeline and the cell data,
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: that a man was brutally slaughtered inside Heather's home. Right.
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: But in the days following the murder, Heather does not
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: call 911. She doesn't call Scott's family. She doesn't run
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: to the police station.
• 18:46
  Speaker 2: She doesn't flee? No.
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: According to the poll camera and witness accounts, she wakes up,
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: she goes to her waitressing job at the diner, she
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: goes grocery shopping, and she goes to get her nails done.
• 18:55
  Speaker 2: Right. It sounds unbelievable.
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: I just have to challenge this behavior. I hear you
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: on trauma and survival instincts, but getting a manicure while
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: a body was just carried out of your living room?
• 19:06
  Speaker 2: That's a hard pill to swallow.
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: I think a lot of people sitting on a jury
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: would say, that crosses the line from a paralyzed victim
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: to an active accomplice. How do you distinguish between pure
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: psychological paralysis and actual participation in the cover-up?
• 19:22
  Speaker 2: It is an incredibly difficult concept for anyone who hasn't
• 19:25
  Speaker 2: experienced profound abuse to comprehend. And defense attorneys prey on
• 19:30
  Speaker 2: exactly the logic you just laid out.
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: Because it looks so bad on paper.
• 19:34
  Speaker 2: It looks terrible. But to understand Heather's behavior, we have
• 19:37
  Speaker 2: to look deeply into the neuroscience of trauma, and coercive control.
• 19:43
  Speaker 2: You mentioned the active arrest warrant for Kevin earlier. We
• 19:45
  Speaker 2: learn later just how severe that abuse was. He had
• 19:48
  Speaker 2: previously given her a black and blue face, broken her wrist,
• 19:51
  Speaker 2: and most terrifyingly, he had slashed her throat.
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: He had already tried to kill her. That is insane.
• 19:55
  Speaker 2: Exactly. When a human being is subjected to that extreme
• 19:58
  Speaker 2: level of violence, their brain fundamentally changes. The amygdala, the
• 20:03
  Speaker 2: fear center of the brain, essentially hijacks the prefrontal cortex,
• 20:06
  Speaker 2: which controls logic and planning.
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: So she's not thinking rationally at all.
• 20:10
  Speaker 2: No, they enter a permanent state of threat assessment. If
• 20:14
  Speaker 2: Kevin murdered Scott in her home, he undoubtedly turned that
• 20:17
  Speaker 2: immediate lethal threat toward Heather. Furthermore, investigators believed Kevin may
• 20:22
  Speaker 2: have been threatening to harm her three children if she
• 20:25
  Speaker 2: stepped out of line.
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: Oh, God, her kids. So her behavior isn't callousness. It's
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: a hostage situation.
• 20:31
  Speaker 2: It is the ultimate hostage situation. When an abuser holds
• 20:36
  Speaker 2: the ultimate power of life and death, having literally just
• 20:39
  Speaker 2: proved they are capable of murder. The victim's biological response
• 20:43
  Speaker 2: is often a trauma response called fawn or appeasement.
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: Fawn, like fight, flight, or fawn.
• 20:49
  Speaker 2: Exactly. Going to work, grocery shopping, getting her nails done.
• 20:53
  Speaker 2: These are acts of aggressive normalcy.
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: Aggressive normalcy, wow.
• 20:56
  Speaker 2: She is performing the script of a normal life because
• 20:59
  Speaker 2: she knows that any deviation, any sign of panic, any
• 21:01
  Speaker 2: attempt to contact authorities could trigger Kevin to execute her
• 21:05
  Speaker 2: or her children.
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: He's watching her.
• 21:07
  Speaker 2: He is. And her boss at the diner actually noted
• 21:09
  Speaker 2: that while she showed up to work, she was highly
• 21:11
  Speaker 2: distraught and not put together like she normally would be.
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: So the cracks were showing.
• 21:15
  Speaker 2: Yes. That observation reveals the immense psychological fracture she was experiencing.
• 21:22
  Speaker 2: She was dying inside while frantically trying to maintain a
• 21:25
  Speaker 2: facade to keep her children alive.
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: When you break down the neuroscience of the fawn response
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: like that, it completely reframes the narrative. It's just utterly tragic.
• 21:34
  Speaker 2: It changes everything.
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: So while she is living in this torturous state of appeasement,
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: the police are watching everything unfold on their pole camera.
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: They see both Heather and Eastman coming and going.
• 21:46
  Speaker 2: They're building their case. Right.
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: The investigators secure arrest warrants for first degree murder for
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: both of them, planning to execute a simultaneous takedown. They
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: are terrified for Heather's safety because they know how volatile
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: Kevin is.
• 21:59
  Speaker 2: And that tension, that agonizing waiting game. finally breaks early
• 22:04
  Speaker 2: in the morning on February 16th.
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: It's about 5.30 in the morning. The surveillance camera captures
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: Heather walking out of the apartment and the description is haunting.
• 22:13
  Speaker 2: It's very grim.
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: She is carrying a heavy coat and she appears physically
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: unsteady on her feet, almost stumbling. Kevin is walking directly
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: behind her, like shadowing her. She voluntarily gets into the
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: passenger seat of his vehicle and they drive away.
• 22:27
  Speaker 2: And they would never return to that apartment.
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: Which triggers a massive immediate escalation from law enforcement, right?
• 22:33
  Speaker 2: Yes, because earlier in a covert operation, they had managed
• 22:37
  Speaker 2: to place a physical GPS tracking device on the undercarriage
• 22:42
  Speaker 2: of Eastman's car.
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: Here is where the investigation transforms from a slow burn
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: fuse into a massive powder keg. You go from this
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: patient passive surveillance, watching them go to the diner, watching
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: them buy groceries, to an active, frantic, mobile pursuit.
• 22:59
  Speaker 2: Becomes a hunt.
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: Exactly. They check the GPS tracker and it shows the
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: vehicle leaving the Greeley city limits and heading to a
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: rural property. It's a farm belonging to a known associate
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: of Eastman's named Troy Bonnell.
• 23:10
  Speaker 2: So the police dispatch a sheriff's deputy out to this
• 23:13
  Speaker 2: farm immediately.
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: And what happens when he gets there?
• 23:16
  Speaker 2: The deputy arrives and sets up a tactical surveillance position
• 23:19
  Speaker 2: from a distance, using high-powered binoculars to observe the property
• 23:23
  Speaker 2: without alerting them. Smart. And what he sees through those
• 23:27
  Speaker 2: lenses is incredibly alarming. He positively identifies Kevin Eastman, but
• 23:32
  Speaker 2: Eastman isn't just hanging out. He is actively tending to
• 23:36
  Speaker 2: a large burn pit on the property.
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: A burn pit?
• 23:39
  Speaker 2: Yes. And we already know from the first crime scene
• 23:42
  Speaker 2: at Pingree Park that fire is the primary tool Eastman
• 23:46
  Speaker 2: uses to attempt to destroy evidence.
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: Oh man, that is a terrifying sight for that deputy.
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: So the deputy watches Eastman eventually leave the farm alone
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: and follows him to a local gas station.
• 23:56
  Speaker 2: This is where the dread really sets in for the
• 23:59
  Speaker 2: law enforcement teams.
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: The deputy can see Eastman out of the car, filling
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: up multiple gas cans at the pump, but Heather Frank
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: is nowhere to be seen. The passenger seat is empty.
• 24:08
  Speaker 2: She's gone.
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: The deputy makes a split-second decision. He cannot wait for backup.
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: He makes contact, draws his weapon, and arrests Kevin Eastman
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: right there at the gas pumps.
• 24:18
  Speaker 2: And the search incident to arrest the pat-down, they do,
• 24:21
  Speaker 2: immediately after cuffing him, yields items that are incredibly significant forensically.
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: What did they find?
• 24:27
  Speaker 2: On his person, they find a large, fixed-blade knife. And
• 24:30
  Speaker 2: deep in his pockets, they find two spent. 22 caliber
• 24:34
  Speaker 2: shell casings.
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: Wait, he is literally carrying the physical narrative of his
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: crimes in his pockets?
• 24:40
  Speaker 2: He is.
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: Why would anyone do that? Why keep the shell casings?
• 24:44
  Speaker 2: It speaks to the psychological profile of the offender. Suspects
• 24:47
  Speaker 2: often hold on to physical items, linking them to the
• 24:50
  Speaker 2: crime for a few reasons.
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: Like souvenirs.
• 24:52
  Speaker 2: Exactly. Sometimes it's a subconscious need for a trophy, a
• 24:56
  Speaker 2: way to maintain control and relive the power of the act.
• 24:59
  Speaker 2: Other times it's simply a matter of poor planning.
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: He just didn't have a trash can.
• 25:03
  Speaker 2: Right. They haven't had a safe opportunity to dispose of
• 25:06
  Speaker 2: them where they know they won't be found. But to
• 25:08
  Speaker 2: law enforcement, those empty brass casings scream one thing. A
• 25:12
  Speaker 2: firearm has been discharged recently, and the woman who was
• 25:15
  Speaker 2: just with him is now missing.
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: Which raises such a dark, heartbreaking speculation. When Heather got
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: into that car at 5.30 in the morning, carrying her coat,
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: looking unsteady, did she know she was driving to her
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: own execution?
• 25:29
  Speaker 2: The horrible thought.
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: Or did she believe Kevin's lies? Did she think they
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: were just going on the run together to escape the police?
• 25:35
  Speaker 2: Based on the psychology appeasement we just explored, it is
• 25:39
  Speaker 2: highly probable she believed she was placating him by going
• 25:42
  Speaker 2: along with a fabricated escape plan.
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: He probably fed her some story.
• 25:47
  Speaker 2: Abusers like Eastman are master manipulators. He likely convinced her
• 25:51
  Speaker 2: that the walls were closing in, and if they just
• 25:53
  Speaker 2: went to his friend Troy's farm, they could regroup and
• 25:56
  Speaker 2: figure out their next move.
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: So she thought she was surviving.
• 25:59
  Speaker 2: Yes. The profound tragedy of this case is that Heather
• 26:03
  Speaker 2: survived the initial, horrifying trauma of Scott's murder, only to
• 26:07
  Speaker 2: be led into a fatal trap the moment she outlived
• 26:09
  Speaker 2: her usefulness to her abuser.
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: With Kevin finally in handcuffs, the entire environment of the
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: story shifts. We move from the freezing rural farm and
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: the gas station into the claustrophobic, fluorescent-lit high-stakes arena of
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: the police interrogation room.
• 26:24
  Speaker 2: This is where it gets really intense.
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: And this is where a truly psychological duel begins between
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: Kevin and the detectives.
• 26:31
  Speaker 2: The interrogation of Kevin Eastman is a textbook demonstration of
• 26:35
  Speaker 2: information control.
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: Information control, meaning they don't show their hand.
• 26:40
  Speaker 2: Exactly. In interrogations, knowledge is power, and the detectives hold
• 26:44
  Speaker 2: all the cards, but they pretend their hand is totally empty.
• 26:49
  Speaker 2: When they first bring him in, Kevin plays it incredibly cool.
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: He's not freaking out at all.
• 26:54
  Speaker 2: Not at all. The detectives use a soft approach. They
• 26:57
  Speaker 2: apologize for the handcuffs. They build rapport. They casually ask
• 27:02
  Speaker 2: how his Valentine's Day was, since it was just a
• 27:04
  Speaker 2: couple of days prior.
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: And Kevin immediately starts laying down his foundation of lies.
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: He tells them he didn't do anything fun for Valentine's
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: Day because he and Heather had a massive disagreement on
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: the 13th.
• 27:14
  Speaker 2: Notice what he does here.
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: Yeah, he claims he asked Heather to marry him, and
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: she brutally rejected him, telling him there was no way
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: she could ever marry him. He looks at the detectives
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: and says this made him feel deflated, like a worthless POS.
• 27:27
  Speaker 2: Which is such a calculated move. He is offering them
• 27:30
  Speaker 2: a motive for his emotional distress, but he is painting himself.
• 27:34
  Speaker 2: as the sad, pathetic, rejected lover, rather than a violent,
• 27:38
  Speaker 2: controlling aggressor.
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: Playing the victim.
• 27:41
  Speaker 2: Exactly. He is being cooperative, trying to read the room
• 27:44
  Speaker 2: and see exactly what they know. But the detectives start
• 27:48
  Speaker 2: slowly drip-feeding him evidence.
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: Just a little at a time.
• 27:51
  Speaker 2: Yes. They casually bring up social media. They mention they
• 27:55
  Speaker 2: are looking into a musician who had contact with Heather,
• 27:57
  Speaker 2: a guy who recently went missing.
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: And Kevin plays completely dumb. A musician who.
• 28:02
  Speaker 2: He completely denies it.
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: The detectives call it a game of cat and mouse,
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: and it is fascinating to watch. They know everything. They
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: have the GPS, the cell pings, the surveillance tape. But
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: they are deliberately withholding the trump cards to see what
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: lies he will permanently lock himself into.
• 28:18
  Speaker 2: It's a trap.
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: It totally is. Eventually, they start tightening it. They tell him, Kevin,
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: we have your vehicle on camera driving up Highway 14
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: in a blinding snowstorm. You took Scott up there.
• 28:29
  Speaker 2: And watch his pivot. When confronted with the undeniable vehicle footage,
• 28:34
  Speaker 2: His defense mechanism shifts to total denial of the victim's identity.
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: What does he say?
• 28:39
  Speaker 2: He says, I haven't ever even seen this dude you
• 28:40
  Speaker 2: guys call Scott.
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: Wow.
• 28:44
  Speaker 2: But the detectives just keep pressing. They drop the cell
• 28:47
  Speaker 2: phone triangulation data on him. They tell him they know
• 28:50
  Speaker 2: for a fact that on Saturday night, he, Heather, and
• 28:53
  Speaker 2: Scott were all inside Heather's apartment at the exact same time.
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: I love how the lead detective frames it to provoke
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: a reaction. He leans in and says, So you're at
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: this house with the guy she has slept with. That
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: would be very awkward. You're with the person you just
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: proposed to and Scott is sitting right there.
• 29:09
  Speaker 2: Pushing his buttons. Yes.
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: Kevin realizes he is completely cornered and his story rapidly
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: shifts again. He goes from, I don't know anyone named
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: Scott to, I don't even remember being inside the apartment.
• 29:19
  Speaker 2: This rapid shifting is classic behavior when a manipulative suspect
• 29:23
  Speaker 2: realizes the police have a timeline that annihilates their alibi.
• 29:28
  Speaker 2: So he has to try a new hypothetical narrative.
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: And this new narrative is wild.
• 29:33
  Speaker 2: It's disgusting, honestly. He infers that Heather Frank was actually
• 29:37
  Speaker 2: the mastermind who killed Scott.
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: Which is insane.
• 29:40
  Speaker 2: He spins this incredibly offensive, elaborate tale that Scott showed
• 29:44
  Speaker 2: up for the date, Heather rejected his advances, Scott sexually
• 29:48
  Speaker 2: assaulted her, and Heather killed him in self-defense.
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: And then Kevin positions himself as the knight in shining armor.
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: He tells the detectives that because he has such a
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: devoted partner, he merely helped her clean up the bloody mess.
• 30:00
  Speaker 2: The arrogance is astounding.
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: It really is. Let me ask you this. Is this rapid,
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: on-the-fly shifting of stories a sign of a suspect who
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: is just completely panicking and grasping at straws? Or is
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: this the calculated improvisation of a highly experienced abuser who
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: thinks he can outsmart the cops?
• 30:18
  Speaker 2: It is a toxic hybrid of both, which is exactly
• 30:21
  Speaker 2: what makes him so dangerous. It is panic because the
• 30:23
  Speaker 2: walls are closing in, But the method of the lie
• 30:26
  Speaker 2: is deeply calculated.
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: What do you mean by the method?
• 30:28
  Speaker 2: In psychology, abusers are incredibly adept at a tactic called DARVO.
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: DARVO, I've heard of that. What does it stand for?
• 30:35
  Speaker 2: It stands for Deny, Attack, and Reverse Victim and Offender.
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: Okay, give me an example.
• 30:40
  Speaker 2: Think about a domestic argument over something simple, like doing
• 30:43
  Speaker 2: the dishes. The abuser denies they left the mess, attacks
• 30:46
  Speaker 2: the partner for being nagging, and suddenly the abuser is
• 30:50
  Speaker 2: the victim of harassment.
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: Right, they flip the script completely.
• 30:53
  Speaker 2: Exactly. Exactly. Kevin is scaling Darvey up to a double homicide.
• 30:58
  Speaker 2: He is denying his own involvement, attacking the true victim, Scott,
• 31:01
  Speaker 2: by falsely accusing him of rape, and reversing the roles
• 31:05
  Speaker 2: by making Heather the violent killer and himself the victimized,
• 31:08
  Speaker 2: devoted partner who is just trying to help the woman
• 31:11
  Speaker 2: he loves.
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: It's sickening.
• 31:12
  Speaker 2: It is. But detectives let a suspect lock themselves into
• 31:16
  Speaker 2: these elaborate Darvey lies because once the physical forensic evidence
• 31:20
  Speaker 2: comes back, The lie itself becomes ironclad evidence of guilt.
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: Because it proves they're lying to cover it up.
• 31:26
  Speaker 2: Right. It shows consciousness of guilt.
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: And the forensic evidence was about to tear his Darvo
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: narrative completely apart. While Kevin is spinning these wild tales
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: in the interrogation room, crime scene techs are simultaneously uncovering
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: the brutal, undeniable truth at two entirely different locations.
• 31:42
  Speaker 2: During the interrogation, Kevin makes a massive tactical error driven
• 31:46
  Speaker 2: by his own ego.
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: Oh, the challenge. Yes.
• 31:49
  Speaker 2: He gets arrogant.
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 31:50
  Speaker 2: He leans back and tells the detectives that if their
• 31:53
  Speaker 2: crime scene people are actually worth anything, they will find
• 31:56
  Speaker 2: the blood. He issues a direct challenge.
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: He practically brags about his cleanup job. If your techs
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: are any good, they'll find it. Well, they found it.
• 32:04
  Speaker 2: They certainly did.
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: Back at Heather's apartment, the forensics team pulls back the
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: carpeting and a thick black rubber mat. What they uncover
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: is horrifying.
• 32:14
  Speaker 2: The volume of blood was immense.
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: There is a massive pool of blood. So much blood.
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: that it had soaked completely through the carpet fibers, through
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: the foam padding, and permanently stained the surface wood of
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: the floorboards underneath.
• 32:28
  Speaker 2: This is where the science of blood spatter analysis and
• 32:31
  Speaker 2: fluid dynamics completely dismantles Kevin's lie about Heather acting in self-defense.
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: How does the blood prove he's lying?
• 32:38
  Speaker 2: Well, blood evidence tells a very clear mechanical story of
• 32:41
  Speaker 2: the physics of a murder. The spatter pattern, the void areas,
• 32:45
  Speaker 2: and the sheer volume indicate that Scott was ambushed the
• 32:48
  Speaker 2: millisecond he walked through the door.
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: The sources detail the fatal injury, and it's awful. It
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: was one single clean cut extremely deep into his neck
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: going from left to right. It spanned all the way
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: around to the back right beside the spine.
• 33:02
  Speaker 2: It is a textbook ambush from behind.
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: Exactly.
• 33:05
  Speaker 2: Let's look at the physics of it. If Heather were
• 33:07
  Speaker 2: defending herself against an assault, as Kevin claimed, there would
• 33:11
  Speaker 2: be undeniable signs of a frontal struggle.
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: Like scratches and bruising. Yes.
• 33:16
  Speaker 2: You would see defensive wounds on Scott's hands and forearms.
• 33:20
  Speaker 2: You would see scattered, chaotic, high-velocity blood spatter on the
• 33:23
  Speaker 2: walls and furniture indicating movement and fighting.
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: But they didn't find any of that.
• 33:28
  Speaker 2: None of it. A single, massive, deep cut from left
• 33:31
  Speaker 2: to right across the throat from behind produces a very
• 33:34
  Speaker 2: specific arterial gush and void pattern. It requires someone waiting
• 33:38
  Speaker 2: in absolute stillness, in ambush. with a substantial weapon and
• 33:42
  Speaker 2: significant physical power to execute that strike in one continuous motion.
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: Which Heather didn't have.
• 33:48
  Speaker 2: As the detectives noted, the mechanics of the wound proved
• 33:51
  Speaker 2: Heather did not have the physical strength or height advantage
• 33:54
  Speaker 2: to commit that specific type of murder. It was Kevin,
• 33:58
  Speaker 2: waiting right behind the door.
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: Like the apartment was a stage where a horrific play
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: took place. Kevin tried to strike the set, right? Put
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: down a rubber mat. He moved the body. He tried
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: to mop up.
• 34:08
  Speaker 2: He tried to erase it.
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: But the blood that soaked deep into the floorboards acted
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: as a permanent, unerasable script of exactly what happened. It
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: told the detectives everything.
• 34:18
  Speaker 2: It's a flawless analogy.
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: They realized that the Facebook messages sent to Scott, luring
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: him to the apartment for the date, were likely sent
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: by Kevin, using Heather's phone to set the fatal trap.
• 34:28
  Speaker 2: The blood script. That is a powerful way to visualize it.
• 34:32
  Speaker 2: The physical evidence refuses to lie. And while that script
• 34:36
  Speaker 2: was being read by techs at the apartment... An equally
• 34:39
  Speaker 2: grim discovery was being made at Troy Bunnell's farm.
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: Yeah, the farm. The deputies had been searching the rural
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: farm all day, digging through piles of junk and debris.
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: And just as the sun was going down, they found
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: the second body.
• 34:51
  Speaker 2: Where's Heather?
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: It was Heather. She was hidden underneath a pile of
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: items that were scheduled to be burned in that very
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: pit the deputy saw Kevin tending to that morning.
• 34:59
  Speaker 2: It's horrific.
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: She was wrapped in plastic and secured heavily with bailing wire.
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: And the cause of death. Two gunshot wounds to the chest.
• 35:08
  Speaker 2: Connect this back to the arrest at the gas station.
• 35:11
  Speaker 2: Remember the two spent. 22 caliber shell casings found in
• 35:15
  Speaker 2: Kevin's pocket.
• 35:16
  Speaker 1: Oh my god, yes.
• 35:17
  Speaker 2: The physical narrative connects perfectly to the victim. Furthermore, the
• 35:21
  Speaker 2: plastic and wire packaging mirrors the way he packaged Scott's
• 35:24
  Speaker 2: body with the blanket, plastic, and duct tape.
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: Like a serial killer's signature.
• 35:28
  Speaker 2: It shows a distinct behavioral signature in how he processes
• 35:32
  Speaker 2: and disposes of his victims.
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: When the detectives get the news about Heather while they're
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: still in the interrogation room, they decide it's time to
• 35:37
  Speaker 1: drop the hammer on Kevin.
• 35:39
  Speaker 2: They're done playing.
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: They stop playing games, look him dead in the eye
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: and say, Heather's dead, Scott's dead. Kevin tries to act shocked.
• 35:46
  Speaker 1: He tells them they are playing games and he actually
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: starts hyperventilating.
• 35:50
  Speaker 2: A real physical reaction.
• 35:52
  Speaker 1: The detectives have to tell him to put his head
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: up and breathe. It's this incredible moment where his entire
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: facade of control completely shatters.
• 36:01
  Speaker 2: Because the reality of his situation has finally breached his
• 36:04
  Speaker 2: narcissistic defenses. Narcissists believe they can talk their way out
• 36:08
  Speaker 2: of anything.
• 36:09
  Speaker 1: And he's finally at the wall.
• 36:10
  Speaker 2: In that moment, he realizes the police have found both bodies.
• 36:14
  Speaker 2: They have both crime scenes. They have the cell timeline.
• 36:17
  Speaker 2: And his elaborate Darville lies have provided absolutely zero protection.
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: So what does he do?
• 36:23
  Speaker 2: He finally asks for a lawyer. Ending the interview. Larimer
• 36:26
  Speaker 2: County investigators arrest him on suspicion of first-degree murder. and
• 36:30
  Speaker 2: tampering with the deceased human body.
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: It's the culmination of an incredible, fast-paced investigation. As one
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: person noted, this wasn't a random act of crime. Scott
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: was taken from this world in a calculated act of jealousy, vengeance,
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: and hatred.
• 36:43
  Speaker 2: It was entirely premeditated.
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: But getting an arrest is only half the battle. The
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: case moves to the courtroom, and despite the overwhelming forensic
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: narrative we just spent all this time discussing, the trial
• 36:53
  Speaker 1: introduces a massive curveball for the prosecution.
• 36:57
  Speaker 2: Trials are rarely as clean as the investigations that precede them.
• 37:02
  Speaker 2: When Kevin Dean Eastman stands trial for the double homicide
• 37:05
  Speaker 2: of Heather Frank and Scott Sessions, the prosecution realizes they
• 37:09
  Speaker 2: are facing a highly circumstantial case.
• 37:12
  Speaker 1: OK, we need to pause and unpack this circumstantial label
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: because it drives me crazy.
• 37:17
  Speaker 2: No, it's a frustrating legal term.
• 37:19
  Speaker 1: We just talked about all this evidence. We have the
• 37:21
  Speaker 1: blood script, the cell pings, the. Surveillance video of the car,
• 37:25
  Speaker 1: the shell casings in his pocket, the GPS tracker. How
• 37:28
  Speaker 1: on earth is that considered a circumstantial case?
• 37:30
  Speaker 2: It comes down to the strict legal definition of evidence.
• 37:33
  Speaker 2: Direct evidence would be a witness who saw Kevin pull
• 37:35
  Speaker 2: the trigger or an audio recording of a confession or
• 37:38
  Speaker 2: surveillance video of the actual murder occurring inside the apartment.
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: Okay, so a smoking gun.
• 37:43
  Speaker 2: Right. Everything else, literally everything we've discussed requires the jury
• 37:47
  Speaker 2: to make a logical inference. Think of it this way.
• 37:50
  Speaker 2: Direct evidence is someone testifying I saw it raining. Circumstantial
• 37:54
  Speaker 2: evidence is someone testifying, I saw a man walk inside
• 37:57
  Speaker 2: with a wet umbrella, which requires the jury to infer
• 38:00
  Speaker 2: that it was raining.
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: That wet umbrella analogy makes so much sense.
• 38:04
  Speaker 2: The prosecution had strong circumstantial ties. Scott's blood was found
• 38:09
  Speaker 2: on some of Kevin's clothing, and Kevin's DNA was found
• 38:12
  Speaker 2: on the bailing wire used to wrap Heather. But defense
• 38:16
  Speaker 2: attorneys are experts at explaining away the wet umbrella.
• 38:20
  Speaker 1: How do they explain away his blood and DNA?
• 38:22
  Speaker 2: They can argue alternative reasons for how that DNA and
• 38:25
  Speaker 2: blood got there, especially since Kevin already admitted in the
• 38:28
  Speaker 2: interrogation to being at the scene and helping clean up.
• 38:30
  Speaker 1: Oh, that's why he admitted to helping.
• 38:31
  Speaker 2: Exactly. Furthermore, investigators never definitively linked the knife he had
• 38:37
  Speaker 2: or the shell casings to the murders. They didn't have
• 38:39
  Speaker 2: the murder weapons, and they didn't even know exactly where
• 38:42
  Speaker 2: on the farm Heather was shot.
• 38:44
  Speaker 1: That opens the door wide open for the defense, and
• 38:47
  Speaker 1: their strategy is incredible. Incredibly audacious.
• 38:49
  Speaker 2: It takes some nerve.
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: They lean heavily into the Darvo lies Kevin told in
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: the interrogation room. They blame Heather for killing Scott, saying
• 38:57
  Speaker 1: she took matters into her own hands to make Scott
• 39:00
  Speaker 1: pay for the alleged assault.
• 39:01
  Speaker 2: But Heather is dead.
• 39:02
  Speaker 1: Exactly. Since Heather is dead, the defense needs someone to
• 39:06
  Speaker 1: blame for her murder. So they introduce a convenient, evasive,
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: alternate suspect. The friend who owned the farm, Troy Bonell.
• 39:14
  Speaker 2: Raising an alternate suspect is a classic defense strategy known
• 39:18
  Speaker 2: in legal circles as the SODDI defense. Some other dude
• 39:23
  Speaker 2: did it.
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: SODDI. I've never heard that. That's clever.
• 39:26
  Speaker 2: It is entirely designed to introduce reasonable doubt. And Troy
• 39:30
  Speaker 2: Bonell was an incredibly easy target for the defense to paint.
• 39:34
  Speaker 2: He was involved in some shady activities and had a
• 39:37
  Speaker 2: significant prior criminal history.
• 39:39
  Speaker 1: Which doesn't look great to a jury.
• 39:41
  Speaker 2: No. And most damning for him, his DNA was found
• 39:44
  Speaker 2: on a cigarette pack right next to Heather's body on
• 39:47
  Speaker 2: his property.
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: And his time on the witness stand was an absolute
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: disaster for the prosecution.
• 39:51
  Speaker 2: A total nightmare.
• 39:52
  Speaker 1: The judge actually has to advise the jury that Bonell
• 39:54
  Speaker 1: currently has a pending criminal case. The defense lawyer cross-examines him,
• 39:58
  Speaker 1: and he is incredibly evasive.
• 40:00
  Speaker 2: He was a hostile witness.
• 40:01
  Speaker 1: Very. When detectives originally asked him about the bodies, he claimed,
• 40:05
  Speaker 1: I don't even know these people, referring to Eastman and Frank,
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: which was proven to be a lie. He is impeached
• 40:11
  Speaker 1: by prior inconsistent statements right in front of the jury.
• 40:14
  Speaker 1: He just keeps answering, I don't recall, or no.
• 40:17
  Speaker 2: Which just feeds the defense's narrative.
• 40:19
  Speaker 1: So I have to ask you, how does a jury
• 40:21
  Speaker 1: weigh a solid but circumstantial case against a defendant when
• 40:25
  Speaker 1: the defense props up a shady, highly evasive alternate suspect
• 40:30
  Speaker 1: right in front of them on the witness stand? Doesn't
• 40:32
  Speaker 1: that create instant textbook reasonable doubt?
• 40:35
  Speaker 2: It is a massive risk for the prosecution. Yeah. This
• 40:38
  Speaker 2: is the CSI effect in action. Juries today often expect perfect,
• 40:43
  Speaker 2: undeniable scientific proof, like a murder weapon with fingerprints.
• 40:46
  Speaker 1: Which they didn't have. Right.
• 40:48
  Speaker 2: To overcome the alternate suspect theory, the prosecution cannot rely
• 40:51
  Speaker 2: entirely on forensics. They have to provide the jury with
• 40:53
  Speaker 2: the emotional why. They have to explain the underlying logic
• 40:57
  Speaker 2: of the crimes.
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: Okay, so how do they do that?
• 40:58
  Speaker 2: In their opening statements, they set the framework. Power, control, coercion,
• 41:03
  Speaker 2: and revenge. They make the case fundamentally about domestic violence.
• 41:07
  Speaker 2: They argue logically that Troy Brunel had absolutely zero motive
• 41:12
  Speaker 2: to kill Heather Frank.
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: Why would he?
• 41:14
  Speaker 2: Exactly. But Kevin Eastman had every motive in the world.
• 41:18
  Speaker 2: Heather was the sole witness to his murder of Scott Sessions.
• 41:22
  Speaker 2: She was the only one who could turn him in.
• 41:24
  Speaker 2: She went from being his possession to being his biggest liability.
• 41:28
  Speaker 1: And to cement that narrative of power and control, the
• 41:31
  Speaker 1: prosecution brings in a devastating witness, Heather's own son, Alex.
• 41:36
  Speaker 2: That had to be so hard for him.
• 41:37
  Speaker 1: He testifies about the history of extreme violence his mother suffered.
• 41:41
  Speaker 1: He tells the jury in his own words about seeing
• 41:43
  Speaker 1: his mother with a slashed throat, a beaten black and
• 41:46
  Speaker 1: blue face, and a broken wrist. He confirms the relationship
• 41:49
  Speaker 1: was incredibly toxic.
• 41:50
  Speaker 2: It removes any doubt about Kevin's capacity for violence.
• 41:53
  Speaker 1: Plus, another friend testifies that Kevin had previously threatened to
• 41:56
  Speaker 1: stab him in the face and neck just for texting Heather,
• 41:59
  Speaker 1: warning him, no one will find your body.
• 42:02
  Speaker 2: That testimony is the linchpin of the entire trial. It
• 42:06
  Speaker 2: contextualizes Heather's bizarre behavior after Scott's murder.
• 42:09
  Speaker 1: Going to get her nails done.
• 42:11
  Speaker 2: Yes. The jury needed to understand why she went to
• 42:14
  Speaker 2: get her nails done instead of calling the police. By
• 42:17
  Speaker 2: establishing Kevin's history of extreme possessive violence, the prosecution proves
• 42:22
  Speaker 2: that Heather was a hostage in her own life, doing
• 42:25
  Speaker 2: what she had to do to survive until Kevin decided
• 42:28
  Speaker 2: she had to die.
• 42:29
  Speaker 1: The appeasement.
• 42:30
  Speaker 2: Exactly. The defense's argument that Heather was a mastermind killer
• 42:34
  Speaker 2: is and Troy Bonell was her panicked accomplice, completely falls
• 42:37
  Speaker 2: apart when placed against the overwhelming evidence of Kevin's psychological
• 42:41
  Speaker 2: profile and violent history.
• 42:43
  Speaker 1: The jury has to wade through all of the defense's
• 42:46
  Speaker 1: smoke and mirrors, weighing the circumstantial evidence against the alternate suspect.
• 42:50
  Speaker 1: But ultimately, the truth cuts through the noise. We reach
• 42:54
  Speaker 1: the verdict, and the aftermath in the courtroom is just
• 42:56
  Speaker 1: deeply emotional.
• 42:58
  Speaker 2: The jury returns their verdict, guilty on all counts, including
• 43:01
  Speaker 2: first-degree murder for both victims.
• 43:03
  Speaker 1: And Kevin's reaction? Absolutely nothing.
• 43:05
  Speaker 2: Which is chilling.
• 43:06
  Speaker 1: Observers pointed out that throughout the trial, he showed almost
• 43:09
  Speaker 1: no emotion, maybe smiling at his defense team occasionally when
• 43:12
  Speaker 1: they scored a point. But when the judge reads guilty
• 43:15
  Speaker 1: after guilty after guilty for seven different counts, he just
• 43:18
  Speaker 1: sits there and stares. Complete chilling vacancy.
• 43:22
  Speaker 2: Which aligns perfectly with the profile of a coercively controlling
• 43:26
  Speaker 2: abuser experiencing a narcissistic collapse.
• 43:29
  Speaker 1: A collapse.
• 43:30
  Speaker 2: Yes. Once all their power is stripped away and they
• 43:33
  Speaker 2: realize they can no longer manipulate the narrative, the jury
• 43:36
  Speaker 2: or the people in the room, they often retreat into
• 43:38
  Speaker 2: a flat, emotionless state. It is the ultimate final expression
• 43:43
  Speaker 2: of their total lack of empathy.
• 43:45
  Speaker 1: The sentencing phase is where the emotional weight of this
• 43:48
  Speaker 1: entire tragedy finally crests. Because Colorado does not have the
• 43:51
  Speaker 1: death penalty, the judge's only decision is whether Kevin will
• 43:54
  Speaker 1: receive life with the possibility of parole or natural life,
• 43:57
  Speaker 1: meaning he will die behind bars.
• 43:59
  Speaker 2: And the jury stayed for this, right? Yes.
• 44:01
  Speaker 1: The jury actually returns voluntarily to watch the sentencing, which
• 44:05
  Speaker 1: is incredibly unusual since they had no further legal role
• 44:08
  Speaker 1: to play.
• 44:09
  Speaker 2: It speaks to how deeply this case impacted everyone who
• 44:12
  Speaker 2: touched it. And the victim impact statements offer a profound
• 44:15
  Speaker 2: look at the contrast in how people process unimaginable trauma.
• 44:19
  Speaker 1: The contrast is exactly what struck me. First, you have
• 44:22
  Speaker 1: Stan Sessions, Scott's father. When the guilty verdict was read,
• 44:26
  Speaker 1: he just did a subtle fist pump, bowed his head,
• 44:29
  Speaker 1: and prayed.
• 44:29
  Speaker 2: Very stoic.
• 44:31
  Speaker 1: At the sentencing, he sets the record straight about his son,
• 44:34
  Speaker 1: defending him fiercely against the vile assault allegations the defense concocted.
• 44:39
  Speaker 1: But then he offers this incredible, unexpected grace.
• 44:43
  Speaker 2: What did he say?
• 44:43
  Speaker 1: He tells Kevin that as a Christian man, he has
• 44:45
  Speaker 1: found a way to forgive him. He says, I don't
• 44:47
  Speaker 1: want to carry his burden on my shoulders. I will
• 44:50
  Speaker 1: not let him or anyone else determine my happiness for
• 44:52
  Speaker 1: the rest of my life.
• 44:53
  Speaker 2: So, Mr.
• 44:54
  Speaker 1: Eastman, I have no quarrel with you.
• 44:56
  Speaker 2: It is a breathtaking act of emotional fortitude.
• 44:58
  Speaker 1: Right. And it's so important to understand that it isn't
• 45:01
  Speaker 1: a pardon for the crime. It's an emancipation for the
• 45:04
  Speaker 1: victim's father. I frame that kind of forgiveness not as
• 45:07
  Speaker 1: a gift to the killer, but as the victim's family
• 45:10
  Speaker 1: taking back the emotional control that the abuser violently tried
• 45:13
  Speaker 1: to steal from them.
• 45:14
  Speaker 2: That is a very astute psychological analysis. By forgiving him,
• 45:19
  Speaker 2: Stan Sessions completely neutralizes Kevin's power over his life. He
• 45:23
  Speaker 2: refuses to let Kevin occupy space in his mind. But.
• 45:27
  Speaker 2: Equally valid and equally powerful is the statement from Heather's son, Alex.
• 45:32
  Speaker 1: Yes, Alex takes a completely different path, but it is
• 45:35
  Speaker 1: just as impactful. He talks about how his mom was
• 45:37
  Speaker 1: his best friend, and he looks directly at Kevin and
• 45:40
  Speaker 1: says clearly, Kevin, I have not forgiven you yet. I
• 45:44
  Speaker 1: no longer have hate for you, just disappointment.
• 45:46
  Speaker 2: Alex's statement represents a different stage of processing trauma. It
• 45:50
  Speaker 2: is a raw, honest acknowledgement of the ongoing pain while
• 45:53
  Speaker 2: still refusing to let the killer consume him with hatred.
• 45:56
  Speaker 2: Both men, in their own vastly different ways, are standing
• 45:59
  Speaker 2: up to the ultimate abuser and saying, you don't own
• 46:02
  Speaker 2: my emotional state anymore.
• 46:03
  Speaker 1: The judge sentences Kevin Dean Eastman to spend the rest
• 46:06
  Speaker 1: of his natural life in prison, citing his vicious acts
• 46:09
  Speaker 1: of violence, extreme jealousy and need for control. And then
• 46:12
  Speaker 1: the courtroom does something so poetic. To wrap up the case,
• 46:16
  Speaker 1: they play a short video of Scott Sessions playing his trumpet.
• 46:19
  Speaker 2: There wasn't a dry eye in the courtroom. It is
• 46:21
  Speaker 2: the perfect closing chord. Kevin Eastman tried to silence Scott,
• 46:25
  Speaker 2: tried to erase him by burning his body and hiding
• 46:28
  Speaker 2: him in the freezing mountains.
• 46:29
  Speaker 1: But he failed.
• 46:30
  Speaker 2: He failed completely. In the end, the very room where
• 46:33
  Speaker 2: Kevin's fate was permanently sealed was filled with the music
• 46:37
  Speaker 2: Scott created. It was a beautiful, resonant piece of poetic justice.
• 46:43
  Speaker 1: So what does this all mean for you listening right now?
• 46:46
  Speaker 1: This story proves, in the most devastating way possible, that
• 46:49
  Speaker 1: domestic violence does not just stay contained behind closed doors.
• 46:53
  Speaker 2: It's an expanding radius.
• 46:54
  Speaker 1: It is a volatile, outward expanding force. It is a
• 46:57
  Speaker 1: poison that can tragically pull in completely innocent bystanders like
• 47:01
  Speaker 1: Scott Sessions, who just thought he was going on a
• 47:03
  Speaker 1: nice date.
• 47:04
  Speaker 2: And if we connect this to the bigger picture, it
• 47:06
  Speaker 2: forces us to look at the mechanisms of justice itself.
• 47:09
  Speaker 2: I want to leave you with a thought to mull
• 47:11
  Speaker 2: over today. Consider the immense role of technology in this
• 47:15
  Speaker 2: specific case.
• 47:16
  Speaker 1: The digital ghosts.
• 47:18
  Speaker 2: Precisely. If this exact crime had occurred 30 years ago,
• 47:22
  Speaker 2: without the cell phone pings proving all three of them
• 47:24
  Speaker 2: were at the apartment, without the Facebook Messenger timestamps proving
• 47:28
  Speaker 2: Scott was meeting Heather, without the high-definition cameras in the
• 47:31
  Speaker 2: King Soopers parking lot capturing the mystery man, and without
• 47:35
  Speaker 2: the GPS tracker on the car.
• 47:36
  Speaker 1: There would be almost nothing.
• 47:37
  Speaker 2: Exactly. Exactly. Would a highly circumstantial case built solely on
• 47:41
  Speaker 2: blood spatter and an alternate suspect's DNA have been enough
• 47:45
  Speaker 2: to convict Kevin Eastman? Or would the defense's alternate theories
• 47:49
  Speaker 2: have introduced too much reasonable doubt? How much does our
• 47:52
  Speaker 2: modern sense of justice completely and utterly rely on the
• 47:56
  Speaker 2: silent digital witnesses we carry in our pockets every single day?
• 48:00
  Speaker 1: It's a chilling thought. We started this deep dive talking
• 48:03
  Speaker 1: about the murkiness of criminal investigations, the bizarre juxtapositions of
• 48:07
  Speaker 1: a musician caught in a killer's web. But maybe our
• 48:10
  Speaker 1: phones and our digital footprints are the ultimate levelers, providing
• 48:13
  Speaker 1: just enough precision to see the truth we'd otherwise miss.
• 48:17
  Speaker 1: Thank you for joining us on this deep dive. Keep
• 48:19
  Speaker 1: questioning the narratives around you and always keep seeking the
• 48:22
  Speaker 1: deeper story. We'll see you next time.