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Nosey-neighbor-recorded-his-MURDERER · Crime and Horror

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Speaker 1: On December thirtieth, twenty sixteen, a woman sat down at
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Speaker 1: her computer in her New Mexico home and pulled up
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Speaker 1: the video feed from her surveillance system. Everybody in her
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Speaker 1: neighborhood was terrified there was a killer on the loose,
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Speaker 1: and the police did not seem to have any idea
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Speaker 1: who it could be or what their motivation was. So
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Speaker 1: on her computer, she scrolled back two days and began
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Speaker 1: going through the footage, framed by frame, looking for anything suspicious,
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Speaker 1: and for a while, really nothing stood out on this recording.
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Speaker 1: The only thing that really happened was her neighbor came
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Speaker 1: home from a trip at some point, and then some
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Speaker 1: time passed, and then the neighbor left again. That was
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Speaker 1: basically it, and so the woman was starting to think
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Speaker 1: that what she was doing was kind of pointless until
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Speaker 1: all of a sudden, in the corner of the screen,
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Speaker 1: a dark figure appeared. But before we get into today's story,
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Speaker 1: if you're a fan of the strange, dark and mysterious
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0:52
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Speaker 1: even four times a week.
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Speaker 1: of our uploads. Okay, let's get into today's story. On
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Speaker 1: the evening of December eighth, twenty sixteen, a fifty four
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Speaker 1: year old man named Don Flewitt drove down the highway
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Speaker 1: into the city of Albuquerque, New Mexico. Beside him was
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Speaker 1: his eleven year old daughter, Sienna, who had fallen asleep
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Speaker 1: in the passenger seat. They've been driving for nearly twelve hours,
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Speaker 1: all the way from Don's mother's home in California, where
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Speaker 1: they just spent Christmas, but the holiday had not really
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Speaker 1: been a happy one. Was a few weeks earlier, Don's sister,
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Speaker 1: Janie had died of breast cancer, and Janie was really
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Speaker 1: one of the only true close family members Don had left.
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Speaker 1: His dad and his other sister were both already dead,
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Speaker 1: and his younger brother Dennis wasn't talking to him after
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Speaker 1: a big argument the year before. So as soon as
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Speaker 1: Dawn had gotten the news that Genie had unfortunately passed away.
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Speaker 1: He'd immediately negotiated with his ex wife to take their daughter.
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Speaker 2: Sienna and go see his mom.
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Speaker 1: He wished they could have stayed longer, but he had
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Speaker 1: to get back to work.
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Speaker 2: Don had a job at an agency.
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Speaker 1: That served the developmentally disabled, and there was a big
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Speaker 1: meeting coming up that he just couldn't miss. Just then,
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Speaker 1: Don slammed on his brakes. Traffic ahead was piling up,
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Speaker 1: and the car in front of him had slowed down
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Speaker 1: to an abrupt stop. Don felt a surge of anger
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Speaker 1: rise in his chest, and he laid on his horn.
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Speaker 1: He was about to roll down the window so he
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Speaker 1: could scream at the driver in front of him, but
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Speaker 1: then he saw Sienna open her eyes in alarm and
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Speaker 1: the seat next to him, and he stopped himself a
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Speaker 1: deep breath and reminded himself that it was just traffic
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Speaker 1: and it wasn't worth getting angry about. Don used to
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Speaker 1: have kind of a temper when it came to driving,
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Speaker 1: but in recent years he'd been working hard to control
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Speaker 1: it so he could set a good example for his daughter.
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Speaker 1: So after the traffic finally let up, and as he
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Speaker 1: rounded an exit off the highway and drove through downtown
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Speaker 1: Albuquerque toward his house. Don deliberately tried to shift his
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Speaker 1: focus to something positive. It was already Wednesday, which meant
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Speaker 1: it was only a few more days until Spaghetti Sunday,
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Speaker 1: and that always made Don smile. Spaghetti Sunday was a
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Speaker 1: tradition that he and Sienna had started together a few
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Speaker 1: years ago by making big batches of food every Sunday
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Speaker 1: after church and bringing the food downtown to feed the homeless.
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Speaker 1: At first, it had just been the two of them,
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Speaker 1: but over time, more people had joined in the effort,
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Speaker 1: and pretty soon it had grown into a real event,
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Speaker 1: with whole groups of volunteers coming out to serve food
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Speaker 1: and drop off clothes and can goods. Don felt proud
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Speaker 1: that he'd created something so meaningful for the community, and
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Speaker 1: it was especially important to him that he had done
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Speaker 1: it with Sienna. Finally, Don turned down a quiet residential
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Speaker 1: street and parked in the garage of a two story
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Speaker 1: stucco townhouse decorated with Christmas lights. He got out of
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Speaker 1: the car with Sienna, grabbed their suitcases, and walked to
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Speaker 1: the front door and unlocked it. And when his daughter
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Speaker 1: stepped inside, she shrieked with excitement. Because waiting for her
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Speaker 1: under the Christmas tree was a brand new bicycle wrapped
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Speaker 1: in a shiny bow. She turned around and asked her
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Speaker 1: dad if she could give the bike a spin around
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Speaker 1: the block right now. Don wanted to say yes, but
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Speaker 1: it was already dark out and this was supposed to
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Speaker 1: be a quick stop at his house, and when he
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Speaker 1: looked at the clock, he saw that it was almost seven.
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Speaker 1: He'd already had Sienna for most of December, including the
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Speaker 1: whole holiday, and he had to get her back to
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Speaker 1: her mother's house soon. Don and his ex wife, Christine White,
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Speaker 1: had a pretty civil relationship, but he knew she would
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Speaker 1: be annoyed if he asked for more time, so Don
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Speaker 1: told Sienna the bike would have to wait, but for now,
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Speaker 1: just go grab whatever she needed from her room and
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Speaker 1: then they would leave. Sienna ran off, Don noticed something strange.
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Speaker 1: He hadn't seen his golden retriever Buddy, who usually rushed
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Speaker 1: out to greet him whenever he came home. So Don
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Speaker 1: walked through the living room and down the hall, calling
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Speaker 1: out Buddy's name, and finally found the dog cowering in
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Speaker 1: the bedroom. Don extended his hand and Buddy skittishly came
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Speaker 1: forward to sniff it, and Don was a little unnerved
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Speaker 1: by this. Buddy usually did not act scared of him,
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Speaker 1: but then again, Don didn't usually leave for weeks at
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Speaker 1: a time either, so he just told himself that, you know,
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Speaker 1: maybe this was just separation anxiety. So he gave Buddy
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Speaker 1: a pat on the head, filled his bowl with kibble,
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Speaker 1: and then grabbed his keys for the short drive to
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Speaker 1: his ex wife, Christine's house. Don drove to Christine's very slowly,
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Speaker 1: trying to enjoy every last bit of his time with Sienna.
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Speaker 1: Don treasured the time he had with his daughter because
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Speaker 1: the mistakes he'd made when he was younger had almost
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Speaker 1: gotten or taken away from him. These days, Don lived
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Speaker 1: a squeaky clean life and went to church every Sunday,
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Speaker 1: but it was not always that way. He had partied
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Speaker 1: a lot when he was younger, and when Sienna was
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Speaker 1: a toddler, he'd gotten fired from his dream job as
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Speaker 1: a firefighter for failing a drug test. And then after
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Speaker 1: he'd lost his job, his then wife Christine had to
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Speaker 1: shoulder most of the family's bills, and after a few
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Speaker 1: months the strain in the marriage was just too much.
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Speaker 1: Christine filed for divorce, which was crushing for Dawn, but
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Speaker 1: even worse was the possibility of losing Siena. Don actually
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Speaker 1: already had two kids from a previous marriage, and after
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Speaker 1: that divorce, his first wife had gotten sole custody of
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Speaker 1: those kids and moved them all to Oklahoma, so Don
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Speaker 1: had barely seen them for most of their childhoods. He
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Speaker 1: was determined not to make that same mistake with Sienna,
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Speaker 1: so he'd gone to court to fight Christine and her
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Speaker 1: new husband, Terry White, forst shared custody. The court battle
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Speaker 1: had gotten a little contentious, but it was worth it,
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Speaker 1: and Don made the most of every moment he got
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Speaker 1: to spend with Sienna. He'd braid her hair before school
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Speaker 1: and make costumes for her school plays, and on the
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Speaker 1: nights when she was at her mom's house, he always
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Speaker 1: called her before bed to say good night. Now, Don
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Speaker 1: pulled into Christine and Terry's driveway, and Christine came outside
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Speaker 1: and stood by the front door with her arms crossed.
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Speaker 1: She motioned to her watch, clearly annoyed that Don was late.
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Speaker 2: Don got out of.
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Speaker 1: The car and sort of apologized and told her it
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Speaker 1: had been a really long drive from California and they'd
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Speaker 1: only stopped a few times for gas and bathroom breaks,
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Speaker 1: and they'd hit some traffic, you know, that was why
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Speaker 1: they were late. Christine sighed and said it was okay.
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Speaker 1: She asked about the trip, and Don told her it
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Speaker 1: went well. They had a great Christmas despite the you know,
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Speaker 1: sadness over his sister's death, and it had been very
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Speaker 1: meaningful just to be together. Before Sienna ran inside the house,
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Speaker 1: Don pulled her in for a big hug and kiss,
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Speaker 1: and then he promised to call her before bed as usual,
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Speaker 1: and when he saw her again that weekend, they'd have
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Speaker 1: plenty of time to test.
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Speaker 2: Drive that new bike.
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Speaker 1: When Don pulled back into his garage ten minutes later,
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Speaker 1: he noticed that the trash can at the end of
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Speaker 1: his driveway was lying overturned on its side, so he
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Speaker 1: parked his truck, walked down to the curb and flipped
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Speaker 1: it upright. Then he walked back up the driveway, pressed
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Speaker 1: a button to close the garage door, and unlocked the
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Speaker 1: door to his townhouse. And while he was taking off
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Speaker 1: his shoes and jacket, he could have sworn he heard
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Speaker 1: the garage door stop closing and roll back up again,
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Speaker 1: as if something had maybe triped the censor. He stopped
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Speaker 1: to listen, and now what he heard was the sound
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Speaker 1: of the door actually closing again and actually hitting the
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Speaker 1: ground with a soft thud. He shook his head and
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Speaker 1: decided he must be imagining things. Don dragged his suitcase
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Speaker 1: into the bedroom and began to unpack. All he wanted
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Speaker 1: to do was just relax and not really think about anything.
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Speaker 1: But when he carried his toiletries into his bathroom to
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Speaker 1: put them away, he saw a small hole in the
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Speaker 1: ceiling and let out a frustrated sigh. Don had been
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Speaker 1: hounding his landlord about patching that hole for months, and
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Speaker 1: he'd been hoping it would have been done by the
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Speaker 1: time he got home, so he made a mental note
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Speaker 1: to give the landlord yet another call about it in
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Speaker 1: the morning. When he was finally finished unpacking, Don put
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Speaker 1: his jacket and his shoes back on, and then headed
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Speaker 1: out to the garage to smoke a cigarette. The following morning,
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Speaker 1: December twenty ninth, at the office where Don worked, his
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Speaker 1: coworker Valerie Torres, was settling down at her desk when
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Speaker 1: her phone rang. Valerie picked it up and heard Don's
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Speaker 1: daughter Sienna on the other line. Sienna told Valerie that
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Speaker 1: her dad did not call her last night and asked
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Speaker 1: if he was there now at the office. So Valerie
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Speaker 1: stood up and peered over at Don's desk, but it
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Speaker 1: was empty. This was a little unusual since Don was
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Speaker 1: a pretty punctual guy, but it was still early, so
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Speaker 1: she told Sienna not to worry. She would give Donn
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Speaker 1: a call now, and she was sure he would call
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Speaker 1: Sienna right back. Valerie hung up and dialed Don's cell phone,
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Speaker 1: but he didn't answer, so she sent him a text
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Speaker 1: message and she waited, but after half an hour, Don
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Speaker 1: still hadn't replied, and now Valerie was starting to feel concerned.
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Speaker 1: It was not like Don to skip work without calling
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Speaker 1: in and then ignore calls and texts too, and so
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Speaker 1: Valerie discussed it with another coworker and they decided to
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Speaker 1: just go swing by Don's townhouse themselves and check on him.
10:17
Speaker 1: The sky over Don's townhouse was dark and cloudy. When
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Speaker 1: Valerie pulled into the driveway. She and her co worker
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Speaker 1: got out of the car and walked up to the
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Speaker 1: front door. Valerie knocked on the door, but to her surprise,
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Speaker 1: it actually just swung right open. She looked over at
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Speaker 1: her co worker, then the two of them nervously stepped inside.
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Speaker 1: Valerie immediately called out Don's name, but he didn't answer,
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Speaker 1: so she wandered into the living room and peeked into
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Speaker 1: the bedroom, but the house seemed empty. Valerie's co worker
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Speaker 1: meanwhile headed up the stairs to look for Dawn on
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Speaker 1: the second floor, and Valerie headed out to the garage
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Speaker 1: to see if maybe Don's truck was there. And when
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Speaker 1: Valerie opened the door to the two car garage attached
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Speaker 1: to the townhouse and flipped on the light, she saw
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Speaker 1: Dawn's truck was in its usual spot. But something else
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Speaker 1: caught her eye. On the back wall of the garage,
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Speaker 1: behind the neighbor's suv, she noticed a streak of something
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Speaker 1: dark red on the wall. At this point, Valerie started
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Speaker 1: to feel pretty nervous, but nonetheless, she began walking towards
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Speaker 1: that back wall to see what was going on over there.
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Speaker 1: And as she got closer and closer, she was staring
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Speaker 1: at the streak, you know, wondering if her eyes were
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Speaker 1: playing tricks on her, until finally she was close enough
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Speaker 1: that she could actually look down at the space between
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Speaker 1: the suv and the red streaked wall, and when she
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Speaker 1: looked down, she screamed. A little before noon on that
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Speaker 1: same day, Albuquerque Police detective Matthew Kaplan pulled up in
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Speaker 1: front of a two story, stuckout townhouse secured with yellow
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Speaker 1: crime scene tape and swarming with police officers. Two women
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Speaker 1: wearing business clothes were sitting on the curb and both
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Speaker 1: their faces were stained with tears and smeared makeup. All
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Speaker 1: detective Kaplan knew was that a man had been found
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Speaker 1: dead in a garage attached to this townhouse, and now
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Speaker 1: he Detective Kaplan was heading up the investigation. So he
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Speaker 1: got out of his car and walked up to the
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Speaker 1: open front door, and a policeman standing in the entryway
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Speaker 1: filled him in on a few more details. The victim
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Speaker 1: had been identified as Don Flewett, the two women outside
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Speaker 1: or his coworkers who had come here to check on
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Speaker 1: him when he hadn't shown up for work that morning.
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Speaker 1: There were no signs of forced entry, and the women
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Speaker 1: said the front door was open when they arrived. Kaplan
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Speaker 1: stepped inside the townhouse into the living room, and right
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Speaker 1: away he saw a brand new bicycle sitting under a
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Speaker 1: Christmas tree. Then he did a slow loop through the
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Speaker 1: first and second floors and noted there was a cell
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Speaker 1: phone on the couch and a wallet on the kitchen counter.
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Speaker 1: It didn't really look like anything had been rifled through.
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Speaker 1: The drawers in the house were not hanging open, and
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Speaker 1: the house generally was neat and orderly, and so on
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Speaker 1: first glance, this did not appear to Kaplin like a robbery.
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Speaker 1: Back on the first floor, Caplyn headed into the garage,
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Speaker 1: where crime scene texts were busy photographing the scene and
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Speaker 1: collecting forensic samples. Caplin knelt down next to Don's body,
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Speaker 1: which was laying face up between an SUV and the
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Speaker 1: back wall.
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Speaker 2: Don's throat was cut with a gaping wound.
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Speaker 1: That ran from one side of his neck to the other,
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Speaker 1: and there were smaller cuts and scrapes near his eye,
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Speaker 1: his ear, and on his hand, as if he had
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Speaker 1: tried to fight back. There were also signs of blunt
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Speaker 1: force's trauma, as if he had been hit by an
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Speaker 1: object like a baseball bat or maybe just a fist,
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Speaker 1: And when Kaplin looked closely, he saw burst capillaries on
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Speaker 1: Don's eyes and eyelids, which he knew were commonly a
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Speaker 1: sign of strangulation. This killing was unusually violent and gruesome,
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Speaker 1: which Kaplin knew meant this was likely personal. Caplin stood
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Speaker 1: up to examine the blood that was spattered on the
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Speaker 1: walls and refrigerator above Don's body, and the bloody handprints
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Speaker 1: on the side.
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Speaker 2: Of Don's truck.
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Speaker 1: There was no blood on the floor around dawn, however,
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Speaker 1: it sort of appeared like somebody had recently mopped and
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Speaker 1: maybe tried to clean up the blood afterwards. That's when
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Speaker 1: Kaplan noticed an empty bottle of bleach on top of
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Speaker 1: the washer nearby, so he walked over. He opened up
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Speaker 1: the washer and sure enough he found piles of wet
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Speaker 1: towels inside that actually still smelled like bleach. Just then,
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Speaker 1: a crime scene tech came over carrying luminof spray, which
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Speaker 1: is a chemical used by law enforcement to detect blood,
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Speaker 1: and so Caplan stepped back so he could spray the area,
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Speaker 1: and then Caplin followed him around as he made his
14:31
Speaker 1: way through the house. The luminof spray did pick up
14:34
Speaker 1: traces of blood on the kitchen floor and the sink too,
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Speaker 1: and Caplin figured the suspect had tried to clean up
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Speaker 1: the crime scene in the garage and then wash their
14:42
Speaker 1: hands or the murder weapon in the kitchen before leaving.
14:45
Speaker 1: But it is much harder to scrub a murder scene
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Speaker 1: than people realize, and so as Caplan left the house,
14:52
Speaker 1: he was feeling fairly hopeful that the crime scene text
14:54
Speaker 1: would eventually recover some of the killers DNA. Caplan stepped
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Speaker 1: through the front door or just as a car pulled
15:01
Speaker 1: up and parked.
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Speaker 2: At the end of the driveway.
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Speaker 1: A man got out of the car and pushed past
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Speaker 1: the crime scene tape, and immediately Caplyn put his hands
15:08
Speaker 1: up to stop him. This man looked totally flustered, and
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Speaker 1: he introduced himself as Benny Ruiz, the landlord, and asked
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Speaker 1: what the police were doing on his property. When Kaplan
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Speaker 1: told Benny that his tenant, Don Flewett had been murdered,
15:22
Speaker 1: Benny gasped, then started talking a mile a minute. He
15:25
Speaker 1: said Don was a devoted father and a religious man
15:28
Speaker 1: who would open up his home to anyone, and that
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Speaker 1: nobody would want to kill him. But then Benny paused
15:34
Speaker 1: and made a face like something was just occurring to him,
15:37
Speaker 1: and he said that actually there was one lead he
15:40
Speaker 1: could think of. He told Caplin that Don did charity
15:43
Speaker 1: work with the homeless, and he said it was possible
15:46
Speaker 1: that somebody from the street could have maybe broken into
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Speaker 1: Don's house and killed him. After Caplin finished talking to Benny,
15:53
Speaker 1: he sent him on his way, and then he just
15:55
Speaker 1: stood on Don's driveway thinking about what Benny had said.
15:58
Speaker 1: Based on the extreme violence of the murder and the
16:01
Speaker 1: fact that nothing appeared to be stolen, he doubted very
16:04
Speaker 1: much that this had just been a break in by
16:06
Speaker 1: a random homeless person. He thought it was much more
16:09
Speaker 1: likely that Don's killer was someone Don knew, and maybe
16:12
Speaker 1: even someone who had a key. Based on the fact
16:14
Speaker 1: that there was no evidence of forced entry, and since
16:18
Speaker 1: Dawn was a big and muscular guy and it was
16:21
Speaker 1: clear he had fought back with his attacker, Caplin figured
16:25
Speaker 1: he was probably looking for a strong, potentially big male suspect.
16:30
Speaker 2: The question was who would want to kill Don Fluid.
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Speaker 1: From what the landlord and the two co workers who
16:36
Speaker 1: had called nine to one one had said, Dawn seemed
16:38
Speaker 1: to be a really stand up guy. If he had
16:41
Speaker 1: any dark secrets, they were very well hidden. The next day,
16:47
Speaker 1: December thirtieth, Detective Kaplin went to the house of Don's
16:51
Speaker 1: ex wife, Christine White and her husband Terry White.
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Speaker 2: Caplin had spoken to.
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Speaker 1: Christine the day before, just to break the news about
16:58
Speaker 1: her ex husband's death, also to see what she might
17:01
Speaker 1: know about the murder. Christine hadn't had any ideas about
17:04
Speaker 1: who would have wanted to hurt Don, but she'd mentioned
17:06
Speaker 1: that he used to have a problem with road rage,
17:09
Speaker 1: and he had just finished a twelve hour drive, so
17:12
Speaker 1: you know, maybe he had gotten into it with another
17:14
Speaker 1: driver and maybe they had followed him home. But she
17:17
Speaker 1: also said their daughter had been with him, and she
17:19
Speaker 1: didn't mention anything about that. The only other thing Christine
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Speaker 1: could think of was that Don had actually told her
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Speaker 1: that his dog was acting skittish when he had gotten
17:27
Speaker 1: back from.
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Speaker 2: That road trip.
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Speaker 1: Kaplan had quickly ruled out Christine as a suspect because
17:32
Speaker 1: she had an airtight alibi. Don had dropped Sienna off
17:35
Speaker 1: at Christine's around seven forty five the night he was killed,
17:39
Speaker 1: and then she and Sienna had spent the rest of
17:41
Speaker 1: the night together. Her road rage idea seemed as unlikely
17:45
Speaker 1: as the landlord's theory that a random homeless person had
17:47
Speaker 1: broken in, and the information about the dog was interesting
17:51
Speaker 1: but not particularly helpful in identifying a suspect. But now
17:56
Speaker 1: Caplan was back at Christine's house because he still needed
17:58
Speaker 1: to speak to her husband, Terry, who had been out
18:00
Speaker 1: of town last night for work. Since he was a
18:02
Speaker 1: truck driver and often worked long shifts at odd hours,
18:06
Speaker 1: but as the husband of Don's ex wife, he was
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Speaker 1: a natural suspect. When Kaplin rang the doorbell, Terry opened
18:13
Speaker 1: the door and greeted the detective with a polite smile.
18:16
Speaker 1: Caplin entered the living room where Christine and Sienna were
18:19
Speaker 1: sitting and said hello, and then asked them to leave
18:22
Speaker 1: so we could speak to Terry in private. Terry sat
18:25
Speaker 1: down in an armchair across from Kaplan. He seemed calm
18:28
Speaker 1: and friendly as he told the detective that he and
18:30
Speaker 1: Don didn't have much contact with each other, but their
18:33
Speaker 1: relationship was not exactly bad. It was just awkward because
18:37
Speaker 1: of the custody battle Don had had with Christine. Ever
18:40
Speaker 1: since then, Terry said he'd tried to keep the peace
18:43
Speaker 1: by just sort of avoiding Dawn. He knew Sienna loved
18:46
Speaker 1: her dad like crazy, and if he accidentally sparked a conflict,
18:50
Speaker 1: Sienna would likely take Down's side. As for the night
18:53
Speaker 1: of Dawn's murderer, Terry told Kaplin he was at his
18:55
Speaker 1: sister's house until about nine pm, and then he left
18:58
Speaker 1: and he stopped at Wendy's on the way to work,
19:01
Speaker 1: and then he took a nap in his truck in
19:02
Speaker 1: the parking lot before going in for a shift. After
19:05
Speaker 1: Caplin left and went back to the station, he immediately
19:08
Speaker 1: called Terry's sister and also Terry's boss, and they both
19:11
Speaker 1: confirmed Terry's whereabouts, which meant that Terry's alibi was solid
19:16
Speaker 1: and Caplin was back to square one on suspects. But
19:19
Speaker 1: while he was writing up a report on Terry's interview,
19:22
Speaker 1: his phone rang with a call from one of Don's neighbors.
19:25
Speaker 1: She told him she had been looking over the footage
19:27
Speaker 1: from her security camera for the night of Don's murder,
19:30
Speaker 1: and she found something that she thought the detective might
19:32
Speaker 1: want to see. Caplin stopped writing his report mid sentence
19:36
Speaker 1: and drove right to this neighbor's house, where she led
19:39
Speaker 1: him inside to her computer, where she pressed play. Caplin
19:43
Speaker 1: leaned in close to the screen and watched the black
19:45
Speaker 1: and white footage of the side of Don's townhouse shot
19:49
Speaker 1: from the top of the driveway next door at seven
19:51
Speaker 1: forty one pm, a few minutes after Caplin knew that
19:55
Speaker 1: Don and Sienna had left for Christine's house, a hooded
19:58
Speaker 1: figure could.
19:59
Speaker 2: Be seen in the corner of the frame.
20:01
Speaker 1: The figure tipped over Dawn's trash can and then walked
20:05
Speaker 1: up the driveway toward Dawn's garage and disappeared from the screen.
20:09
Speaker 1: About fifteen minutes later, the video showed Dawn driving into
20:12
Speaker 1: the garage and then walking out again to go pick
20:15
Speaker 1: up the trash can, and then walking back up the driveway. Now,
20:18
Speaker 1: the garage door itself was not in frame, but the
20:21
Speaker 1: camera did capture a faint glow of light coming from
20:24
Speaker 1: inside Dawn's garage. Kaplan could see that light dimming, which
20:28
Speaker 1: meant the garage door was closing, but then inexplicably, the
20:31
Speaker 1: door must have begun going back up again, because the
20:33
Speaker 1: light began to get bigger and at the same time
20:36
Speaker 1: there were several brief flashes of light, and then after
20:39
Speaker 1: the flashes, the light began to dim again, which meant
20:42
Speaker 1: the garage door closed, eventually leaving the driveway in darkness.
20:50
Speaker 1: Kaplin got a copy of this video, then left the
20:53
Speaker 1: neighbor's house and walked over to Dawn's trying to piece
20:56
Speaker 1: together what actually happened on the video.
20:58
Speaker 2: He stood inside of.
20:59
Speaker 1: Don's garage and held the garage door clicker in his hand,
21:02
Speaker 1: and he pressed the button to close the door, and
21:04
Speaker 1: as it closed, Kaplan walked closer until he was almost
21:08
Speaker 1: directly underneath the door's path. And then when that happened,
21:12
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, the door stopped because Caplan had
21:15
Speaker 1: actually tripped the sensor by going right underneath it. And
21:18
Speaker 1: as soon as he tripped the sensor, a light on
21:20
Speaker 1: the top of the garage flashed three times. As the
21:24
Speaker 1: door not only stopped, but began going back the other way.
21:27
Speaker 1: It was clearly how the system worked if it was tripped.
21:31
Speaker 1: And so once he saw that, Kaplin thought about those
21:33
Speaker 1: strange flashes of light he saw in the video, and
21:36
Speaker 1: then also that hooded figure he had seen lurking near
21:38
Speaker 1: the garage, and all at once it was like the
21:41
Speaker 1: pieces clicked into place. The suspect must have followed Dawn
21:44
Speaker 1: into the garage, but when they went into the garage,
21:48
Speaker 1: perhaps they tripped the sensor. And so as that door
21:52
Speaker 1: was coming down, the suspects trying to sneak in, they
21:54
Speaker 1: tripped the sensor.
21:55
Speaker 2: The door stops, there's those flashes of light.
21:58
Speaker 1: The door begins to go up again, but the suspect,
22:01
Speaker 1: not wanting Don to realize what's going on, rushed over,
22:04
Speaker 1: hits the button, the door shuts.
22:06
Speaker 2: Don is none the wiser.
22:08
Speaker 1: Unfortunately, as valuable as this footage appeared to be, Kaplin
22:12
Speaker 1: was not able to make out the dark figure's face
22:15
Speaker 1: on this security video.
22:17
Speaker 2: But you know, the video had given.
22:18
Speaker 1: Him a few extremely valuable clues. Whoever killed Don must
22:22
Speaker 1: have known his routine. They also must have known when
22:25
Speaker 1: he would leave to take Siena to her mother's house
22:27
Speaker 1: and when he would likely come back home. And they
22:30
Speaker 1: also must have known that Don was the type of
22:33
Speaker 1: person who when he pulled into his driveway and saw
22:36
Speaker 1: that overturned trash can, that he wouldn't.
22:38
Speaker 2: Just let it sit there.
22:39
Speaker 1: He would deal with it that night. He would go
22:41
Speaker 1: down there and he would turn it upright. And when
22:44
Speaker 1: Don was doing that, that would give the killer an
22:46
Speaker 1: opportunity to sneak into the garage.
22:49
Speaker 2: And all of this.
22:50
Speaker 1: Meant that the suspect didn't just know Don, they had
22:54
Speaker 1: to have known him very well. Detective Kaplin spent weeks
22:59
Speaker 1: speaking to everyone who knew Down, from coworkers to friends
23:02
Speaker 1: to his entire family, including his first wife and the
23:06
Speaker 1: two kids he shared with her, Tiffany and Josh, who
23:08
Speaker 1: had gone to live in Oklahoma with their mom after
23:11
Speaker 1: the divorce. When Kaplan reached the kids, who were now
23:14
Speaker 1: young adults, they said they had mostly stayed on good
23:17
Speaker 1: terms with their dad. However, they said that wasn't true
23:20
Speaker 1: of some of the other members of their family. They
23:23
Speaker 1: told Kaplin the person he should be investigating was Don's
23:26
Speaker 1: own brother, Dennis. They said that Don and Dennis had
23:29
Speaker 1: had a falling out about a year earlier, but somehow,
23:33
Speaker 1: after Don's death, Dennis had gotten the keys to Don's
23:36
Speaker 1: townhouse and he'd been out there boxing things up and
23:39
Speaker 1: basically taking control over everything ever since. Now, Dennis was
23:44
Speaker 1: apparently telling the family that he was just trying to help,
23:47
Speaker 1: but Tiffany and Josh they weren't.
23:49
Speaker 2: Sure they believed that.
23:58
Speaker 1: Towards the end of January twenty seven, so, nearly a
24:01
Speaker 1: month after Don was murdered, Caplin brought Don's brother Dennis
24:05
Speaker 1: into the Albuquerque Police station for questioning, and seated across
24:09
Speaker 1: the interrogation table. Dennis seemed a little keyed up, but
24:12
Speaker 1: Caplan couldn't tell whether he was nervous about the interview
24:15
Speaker 1: because he was guilty or irritated about it because.
24:19
Speaker 2: He was innocent.
24:20
Speaker 1: Dennis said that the feud between him and his brother
24:23
Speaker 1: had started after their father had passed away in October
24:26
Speaker 1: of twenty fifteen, a little over a year earlier. The
24:29
Speaker 1: family had reached an agreement over what to do with
24:31
Speaker 1: their dad's possessions, but Don had violated that agreement by
24:35
Speaker 1: actually keeping one of their father's cars instead of selling it.
24:39
Speaker 1: The argument had spiraled from there, and pretty soon Dennis
24:42
Speaker 1: said that he and Don were no longer on speaking terms.
24:46
Speaker 1: Dennis said he had reached out that fall and tried
24:48
Speaker 1: to reconnect, but he said Don never returned his calls.
24:51
Speaker 1: Dennis said he had hoped that they could at some
24:54
Speaker 1: point patch things up, you know, if they just tried
24:56
Speaker 1: a little bit harder. But then Dennis said he had
24:58
Speaker 1: gotten the call that Don was dead. Caplin narrowed his
25:01
Speaker 1: eyes as Dennis finished the explanation. He didn't really buy
25:05
Speaker 1: the reconciliation story, and Dennis's only alibi was that he
25:09
Speaker 1: was home alone when his brother was killed, So.
25:12
Speaker 2: Caplyn decided to push.
25:14
Speaker 1: He asked Dennis why he started rooting through Don's house
25:17
Speaker 1: the minute the crime scene was cleared, and at this
25:20
Speaker 1: Dennis began to get pretty defensive. He insisted he only
25:23
Speaker 1: wanted to spare the rest of his family the pain
25:26
Speaker 1: of having to do that themselves. Besides, he said his
25:29
Speaker 1: hard work settling Don's affairs had actually led him to
25:33
Speaker 1: a lead about the murder that he wanted Kaplin to
25:35
Speaker 1: look into, and that was that just a few days
25:39
Speaker 1: after the murder, he'd walked into Don's house and found
25:43
Speaker 1: the landlord, Benny Ruiz, standing inside with no good explanation
25:47
Speaker 1: for what he was doing there. Dennis said he had
25:49
Speaker 1: heard from Don's neighbors that Don and this landlord had
25:53
Speaker 1: been going back and forth over some hole that the
25:55
Speaker 1: landlord was supposed to repair but hadn't yet, and Dennis
25:59
Speaker 1: just thought that was extremely odd that Benny would just
26:02
Speaker 1: walk into a crime scene, even if he did technically
26:05
Speaker 1: own the place. Kaplan sat back in his chair, remembering
26:08
Speaker 1: Benny Ruiz coming to the house on the day Don's
26:11
Speaker 1: body was found. Benny had been very quick to suggest,
26:14
Speaker 1: without any evidence, that maybe a homeless person could have
26:17
Speaker 1: broken in and murdered Don. Maybe, Caplin thought now Benny
26:21
Speaker 1: had just been trying to deflect suspicion away from himself.
26:26
Speaker 1: The next day, Caplin brought Benny Ruiz into the station
26:29
Speaker 1: for an interview. Like Don's brother Dennis, Benny did not
26:32
Speaker 1: have a solid alibi for the night Dawn was killed,
26:35
Speaker 1: but he could explain why Dennis had found him inside
26:38
Speaker 1: of Don's house on that day. He said he was
26:41
Speaker 1: only there to feed the dog because nobody was looking
26:43
Speaker 1: after it during the first few days following Don's death.
26:47
Speaker 1: Benny then leaned across the table and told Kaplin that
26:50
Speaker 1: if there were one person he should be looking into,
26:52
Speaker 1: it was Dennis. Benny said that from the moment Dennis arrived,
26:56
Speaker 1: he'd been acting really weird. Benny said he owned another
26:59
Speaker 1: town house a few blocks away from Don's, and Dennis
27:02
Speaker 1: had apparently asked if he could rent it so he
27:05
Speaker 1: could move some of Dawn's stuff into it and set
27:07
Speaker 1: it up as a new home for Sienna. Benny had
27:10
Speaker 1: found this strange, and when he ran a background check
27:13
Speaker 1: on Dennis, he discovered he had a criminal record for
27:16
Speaker 1: assault and disorderly conduct, so he had told him no.
27:20
Speaker 2: Now.
27:20
Speaker 1: Caplan already knew about the criminal record because he had
27:23
Speaker 1: run Dennis's name before bringing him in for questioning, but
27:26
Speaker 1: now listening to this account from the landlord, he wondered why,
27:30
Speaker 1: after a year of estrangement, Dennis was suddenly so interested
27:34
Speaker 1: in his brother's life. But as the weeks passed, Caplan
27:38
Speaker 1: just couldn't make a case against Dennis. In fact, he
27:41
Speaker 1: couldn't make a case against anybody either. Dennis nor Benny
27:45
Speaker 1: had alibis that could prove they weren't the killer, but
27:49
Speaker 1: there was also nothing that proved either of them were.
27:52
Speaker 1: The portrait of Dawn as a loving father and a
27:54
Speaker 1: man of faith who had reformed himself after some mistakes
27:57
Speaker 1: in his youth appeared to.
27:59
Speaker 2: Be completely accurate.
28:01
Speaker 1: Don's most recent ex wife, Christine, had fought with Don,
28:04
Speaker 1: you know, over custody, but that battle seemed to have
28:07
Speaker 1: cooled off, and both she and her new husband Terry
28:10
Speaker 1: had alibis. Don also didn't appear to have any girlfriends
28:13
Speaker 1: he could have been fighting with, and so there just
28:15
Speaker 1: didn't seem to be anybody who truly wanted Don dead.
28:20
Speaker 1: In February, so about six weeks after the murder, the
28:23
Speaker 1: local newspaper ran a front page article saying the police
28:26
Speaker 1: had no suspects and no evidence, and when Kaplin read it,
28:30
Speaker 1: he had to admit that it was more or less
28:32
Speaker 1: the truth. The breakthrough that Kaplin desperately needed wouldn't come
28:38
Speaker 1: until March of twenty seventeen, so twelve weeks into the investigation.
28:42
Speaker 1: On that day he got a call from the forensics
28:44
Speaker 1: lab and they told him a key piece of evidence
28:47
Speaker 1: had just come in and the person who had made
28:49
Speaker 1: this critical piece of evidence possible was Don Flewett himself.
28:57
Speaker 1: Based on forensic evidence, interviews and the police investigation, here's
29:02
Speaker 1: what police belief happened to Don flew It. On the
29:04
Speaker 1: night of December twenty eighth, twenty sixteen, The killer waited
29:15
Speaker 1: in the darkness right outside of Don's house until the
29:18
Speaker 1: garage door opened at about seven forty pm. At that point,
29:21
Speaker 1: Don drove off with his daughter in the truck, and
29:24
Speaker 1: so the killer immediately darted forward and tipped over a
29:27
Speaker 1: garbage can and then retreated back to the shadows to wait.
29:31
Speaker 1: The killer had been nursing a grudge against Down for
29:34
Speaker 1: a long time. It annoyed them that everyone thought Don
29:37
Speaker 1: was so great, because the killer knew that until just
29:41
Speaker 1: a few years earlier, Don had been this drug abusing
29:44
Speaker 1: loser with two kids. He didn't even care for, and
29:47
Speaker 1: another one who he deserved to lose in Siena. But
29:50
Speaker 1: for some reason, nobody else saw down.
29:53
Speaker 2: For what he truly was.
29:55
Speaker 1: So the killer had bided their time for as long
29:57
Speaker 1: as they could stand it, but finally they had had enough.
30:01
Speaker 1: Don was just a dark cloud hovering over their life constantly,
30:06
Speaker 1: and he had to go. The killer knew Don well
30:08
Speaker 1: enough to figure out his schedule. They knew he was
30:11
Speaker 1: due to drop his daughter off at her mother's that evening,
30:14
Speaker 1: and that he'd be coming home alone after that, and
30:16
Speaker 1: that before he went to bed, he would go into
30:19
Speaker 1: the garage to smoke a cigarette. The killer clutched a
30:22
Speaker 1: tire thumper in their hand, which is a small wooden
30:25
Speaker 1: bat used to check tire pressure, and as they clutched it,
30:28
Speaker 1: they felt their heart race with anticipation. Finally, just before
30:32
Speaker 1: eight pm, Don came back, and while he was out
30:36
Speaker 1: fixing the trash can, the killer snuck into the garage.
30:39
Speaker 1: They hid behind a vehicle as Don walked back up
30:42
Speaker 1: the driveway and pressed a button to close the garage
30:45
Speaker 1: door and then open the door to his own townhouse.
30:48
Speaker 1: At that point, the killer snuck out from behind the
30:51
Speaker 1: vehicle to get into position, and as they did this,
30:54
Speaker 1: they accidentally tripped the garage door sensor, sending the door
30:58
Speaker 1: rolling back up and sending those lights flashing. And so,
31:01
Speaker 1: thinking fast, the killer rushed over to the panel on
31:04
Speaker 1: the wall and pressed the button again to close the
31:06
Speaker 1: garage door. Then they held their breath, listening for any
31:09
Speaker 1: movement inside the townhouse that would suggest Dawn was like,
31:12
Speaker 1: what's going on and coming out to check. But Don
31:15
Speaker 1: didn't seem to notice, and so the killer breathed that
31:18
Speaker 1: a sigh of relief and took their position near the door.
31:21
Speaker 1: And then after a while, the door knob jiggled, and
31:24
Speaker 1: the killer realized this was it. They raised their weapon
31:28
Speaker 1: and as soon as Dawn opened the door, they struck
31:30
Speaker 1: him so hard the tire thumper broke into pieces. Then
31:34
Speaker 1: they punched on again and again with their bare fists,
31:37
Speaker 1: finally letting out all the rage they'd been pushing down
31:40
Speaker 1: for so long. Don did everything he could to fight back.
31:44
Speaker 1: I mean, he had turned his life around, He had
31:47
Speaker 1: a daughter that he loved that he was trying to
31:49
Speaker 1: build an amazing life with. He was not just going
31:51
Speaker 1: to give up here, and so as valiantly as he
31:54
Speaker 1: could he fought the killer, but he had been gravely injured,
31:59
Speaker 1: and when he couldn't fight it anymore, he just tried
32:01
Speaker 1: to crawl under his truck and hide, but the killer
32:05
Speaker 1: pulled him out and landed one last punch to his face.
32:09
Speaker 1: Don stopped moving, and at that point the killer wrapped
32:12
Speaker 1: their hands around his throat and they squeezed, but the
32:15
Speaker 1: killer wasn't done. To make sure Don was dead, they
32:19
Speaker 1: also went into Don's apartment, grabbed a knife from the kitchen,
32:23
Speaker 1: came back into the garage, knelt down, and ruthlessly slit
32:27
Speaker 1: Don's throat. Blood ran out of the wound and poured
32:31
Speaker 1: onto the concrete. The killer found some bleach inside and
32:34
Speaker 1: tried to clean up the mass as best as they could,
32:37
Speaker 1: but they left behind one crucial piece of evidence. Don
32:41
Speaker 1: was not able to save his own life, but by
32:45
Speaker 1: aggressively fighting back, he'd given investigators a clue that would
32:49
Speaker 1: solve his murder and also ensure that in his absence,
32:53
Speaker 1: his daughter, Sienna would grow up in a safe and
32:55
Speaker 1: secure home. Because the key piece of forensic abviadence that
33:00
Speaker 1: was left behind that solved the case was DNA found
33:04
Speaker 1: under Dawn's fingernails that belonged to none other than Sienna's
33:08
Speaker 1: own stepfather, Terry White. It would turn out that Terry's
33:13
Speaker 1: story to the cops about being at his sister's until
33:16
Speaker 1: nine pm was a lie, and so, on April third,
33:20
Speaker 1: twenty seventeen, just over three months after Dawn's murder, Terry
33:23
Speaker 1: White was arrested.
33:25
Speaker 2: And charged with murder.
33:27
Speaker 1: After his arrest, Terry cast blame on his wife, Christine,
33:30
Speaker 1: saying she was the one who put him up to
33:32
Speaker 1: it so they could have Siena to themselves. And so
33:35
Speaker 1: Christine was also arrested and charged with murder, but the
33:38
Speaker 1: charges against her were dropped due to a lack of evidence. Terry, however,
33:43
Speaker 1: was convicted in August of twenty eighteen of first degree murder,
33:47
Speaker 1: aggravated burglary, and tampering with evidence. He was sentenced to
33:51
Speaker 1: life in prison plus twelve years.
34:02
Speaker 2: Thank you so much for watching.
34:04
Speaker 1: Let me know what you thought of today's episode in
34:06
Speaker 1: the comments, and remember, we have a whole playlist of
34:08
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34:14
Speaker 2: All right, until next time, see ya,