Latest / Crime and Horror / One of these people is hiding something... - MrBallen

Transcript

One of these people is hiding something... - MrBallen · Crime and Horror

0:00
Speaker 1: In today's episode, I'm going to tell you two stories.
0:02
Speaker 1: In the first story, it's ultimately about this person who
0:05
Speaker 1: is so set on making a change in their lives
0:09
Speaker 1: that they take drastic measures to affect that change, with
0:14
Speaker 1: some very unfortunate consequences. The second story is about this
0:18
Speaker 1: town in California where there was this perceived threat and
0:22
Speaker 1: it was sort of normalized and people were not that
0:24
Speaker 1: worried about it until it totally spiraled out of control.
0:29
Speaker 1: But before we get into today's stories, if you're a
0:32
Speaker 1: fan of the strange, dark, and mysterious delivered in story format,
0:35
Speaker 1: then you've come to the right place, because that's all
0:37
Speaker 1: we do, and we upload two, three, even four times
0:40
Speaker 1: every week. So if that's of interest to you, please
0:43
Speaker 1: sneak into the like button's house and write on their
0:46
Speaker 1: bathroom mirror I'm watching you in red lipstick. Also, please
0:50
Speaker 1: subscribe to our channel and turn on all notifications so
0:53
Speaker 1: you don't miss any of our weekly uploads. Okay, let's
0:56
Speaker 1: get into today's stories. Early in the morning. On February fifth,
1:19
Speaker 1: nineteen ninety fifty seven year old Laverne pavlinok stood in
1:23
Speaker 1: the kitchen of her Wilsonville, Oregon apartment. Making some coffee.
1:26
Speaker 1: Mornings were the best part of LaVerne's day because she
1:29
Speaker 1: had the whole apartment to herself. Now she lived with
1:31
Speaker 1: her boyfriend John Sasnovsky, but he worked at a nearby
1:35
Speaker 1: mill and had to be out early in order to
1:37
Speaker 1: catch the bus there, and each time he left, Laverne
1:40
Speaker 1: felt like a huge weight lifted off of her because
1:43
Speaker 1: when John wasn't home, Laverne could go about her day
1:46
Speaker 1: and pretend she was safe. But that's all it was.
1:49
Speaker 1: It was pretend. John in reality was an incredibly violent man.
1:55
Speaker 1: I mean, he was seriously physically abusive, especially when he
1:59
Speaker 1: was drunk, which was basically all the time. So Laverne
2:02
Speaker 1: had actually been married, but her husband had died of cancer,
2:05
Speaker 1: and she had ultimately met John following her husband's death,
2:09
Speaker 1: and so when they met, Laverne was very vulnerable and lonely,
2:13
Speaker 1: and she really hadn't realized the kind of person John
2:16
Speaker 1: was until it was too late. It had been ten
2:19
Speaker 1: years now, and Laverne still had not built up the
2:22
Speaker 1: courage to leave him. I mean, the reality was is
2:24
Speaker 1: she was just scared of how he would react, and
2:26
Speaker 1: so she sort of felt trapped. Now she sat down
2:29
Speaker 1: at her kitchen table with her coffee and she opened
2:32
Speaker 1: up the local paper, and as soon as she did,
2:34
Speaker 1: the first thing she saw was a big black and
2:36
Speaker 1: white photo of a smiling young woman who likely was
2:39
Speaker 1: in her twenties. The photo was connected to an article
2:42
Speaker 1: about a recent murder that happened thirty miles away, just
2:45
Speaker 1: northeast of Portland. The victim had been identified as a
2:48
Speaker 1: woman named Tanya Bennett, and Tanya Bennett was the girl
2:52
Speaker 1: in the photo. The article said she had been beaten
2:54
Speaker 1: and then also strangled with a robe, and then she
2:57
Speaker 1: had been left on the side of the highway. When
3:00
Speaker 1: Laverne read about the area she actually had been dumped,
3:04
Speaker 1: she realized it actually was only about a mile and
3:07
Speaker 1: a half down from this famous scenic overlook that Laverne
3:09
Speaker 1: had actually been to before, like she was familiar with
3:12
Speaker 1: this area. And so Laverne she's she's reading the article
3:16
Speaker 1: and she's looking at this picture back and forth, and
3:18
Speaker 1: it was like something was sort of forming in her mind.
3:21
Speaker 1: She just had like this weird sense that she she
3:24
Speaker 1: knew something about this case. And then as she stared
3:28
Speaker 1: at this photo for a little bit longer, it's like
3:30
Speaker 1: it all came together, and she realized almost certainly that
3:34
Speaker 1: she knew John very likely killed this woman. And so,
3:39
Speaker 1: even though she loved her peaceful, quiet mornings with her coffee,
3:42
Speaker 1: Laverne immediately stood up. She grabbed the phone, and she
3:45
Speaker 1: called the police. After she hung up with police, Laverne
3:49
Speaker 1: was very shaken up. I mean, her heart was still racing.
3:51
Speaker 1: I mean, this was this was a very risky thing
3:53
Speaker 1: she was doing, because she had no way of knowing
3:56
Speaker 1: if what she had just given authorities was enough to
4:00
Speaker 1: arrest John. If it wasn't, it was entirely possible that
4:04
Speaker 1: John would discover this betrayal of her calling the police
4:08
Speaker 1: about him implicating him in a murder, and he would
4:12
Speaker 1: probably just continue his abuse, if not amp up his
4:15
Speaker 1: abuse of Laverne. And so the way she saw it
4:17
Speaker 1: is either what she just did was going to end
4:20
Speaker 1: the chapter with John and he was going to go
4:22
Speaker 1: to jail for murder, or Laverne might wind up being
4:26
Speaker 1: the next dead girl on the side of the highway.
4:30
Speaker 1: A little over a week later, on the morning of
4:32
Speaker 1: February sixteenth, Detective John Ingram sat with his partner in
4:35
Speaker 1: a very clean living room in Wilsonville, Oregon. Ingram was
4:39
Speaker 1: the lead investigator on Tanya Bennett's murder case, and he
4:42
Speaker 1: was there to speak to Laverne, who was sitting on
4:44
Speaker 1: the opposite couch, and Laverne seemed really nervous and kept
4:49
Speaker 1: fidgeting constantly and offering Ingram and his partner refreshments. It
4:53
Speaker 1: was just very clear that there was a lot on
4:55
Speaker 1: this woman's mind. So Ingram knew that Laverne had a
4:58
Speaker 1: week earlier called in a tip about the victim's killer.
5:01
Speaker 1: She thought it was her own boyfriend, John Sasnovsky, And
5:04
Speaker 1: right now Ingram was very eager to hear what she
5:07
Speaker 1: had to say about her boyfriend, to basically elaborate and
5:10
Speaker 1: sort of give the full story of why she believed
5:13
Speaker 1: what she believed, in part because Ingram's case so far
5:17
Speaker 1: had absolutely no other leads like this was it. The
5:20
Speaker 1: victim's body had been found on a grassy slope so
5:23
Speaker 1: close to the edge of the highway that you could
5:25
Speaker 1: see her from the road, but Ingram and his partner
5:28
Speaker 1: had not been able to find any witnesses. A few
5:31
Speaker 1: people had claimed to have seen Tanya along with some
5:34
Speaker 1: man at a bar earlier in the night before she
5:36
Speaker 1: went missing, but no one had been able to effectively
5:39
Speaker 1: describe that man. It was just some guy she was with.
5:42
Speaker 1: And so Ingram and his partner had basically talked to
5:45
Speaker 1: just about anyone they could think of that might have
5:47
Speaker 1: known Tanya. They'd canvassed her neighborhood, that interviewed her family,
5:50
Speaker 1: co worker's friends, and they still had not been able
5:53
Speaker 1: to find anybody who fit as a suspect. They also
5:57
Speaker 1: hadn't found any good physical evidence at the scene, fingerprints,
6:00
Speaker 1: or helpful forensics. So now Ingram was hoping that Laverne
6:05
Speaker 1: was going to be the key to his whole case.
6:07
Speaker 1: And so eventually Ingram looked at Laverne and said, whenever
6:11
Speaker 1: you're ready, tell me what you know. Tell me the
6:14
Speaker 1: story of why you believe John killed Tanya. Now, at first,
6:17
Speaker 1: Laverne just continued to squirm in her seat, and she was,
6:20
Speaker 1: you know, obviously very nervous. But eventually, after Ingram told
6:24
Speaker 1: her to just you know, take a breath, calm down,
6:26
Speaker 1: it's okay, We just want to hear your story. Eventually,
6:28
Speaker 1: with a shaking voice, she told them that on the
6:32
Speaker 1: night of the murder, John had come home around maybe
6:35
Speaker 1: one or two in the morning, and immediately got in
6:37
Speaker 1: the shower. Now this was unusual, I mean, this is
6:40
Speaker 1: not something that he typically did. He didn't shower at
6:42
Speaker 1: two in the morning. But Laverne really hadn't thought much
6:45
Speaker 1: of it until the next day when they went to
6:48
Speaker 1: a local bar and she'd literally overheard John bragging to
6:52
Speaker 1: somebody about murdering Tanya, describing how he had picked her
6:56
Speaker 1: up at a truck stop, killed her, then took her
6:59
Speaker 1: to the highway Columbia River Gorge to dump her body
7:02
Speaker 1: by this scenic overlook. As Laverne spoke, I mean, Ingram
7:05
Speaker 1: and his partner were shocked. I mean, basically, Laverne had overheard,
7:09
Speaker 1: effectively a confession, and the details of that confession did
7:13
Speaker 1: seem to line up with what they had heard so far.
7:15
Speaker 1: Tanya had been seen out late at night with some man,
7:19
Speaker 1: although nobody could really describe the man. And also where
7:22
Speaker 1: her body was found, you know, it was near the
7:24
Speaker 1: scenic overlook, something that was you know, publicly known. But still,
7:28
Speaker 1: I mean, that's what Laverne heard John say. It lined up,
7:31
Speaker 1: But he kept a poker face and just told Laverne
7:33
Speaker 1: to please keep going, keep elaborating, And so Laverne she
7:37
Speaker 1: continued speaking, and she went on to say that the
7:40
Speaker 1: reason she didn't come forward right away was because she
7:43
Speaker 1: was scared of John. He was a violent alcoholic who
7:46
Speaker 1: abused her, which is also part of the reason why
7:49
Speaker 1: this seemed real to her. I mean, she was totally
7:51
Speaker 1: not shocked at the idea that maybe John killed someone,
7:55
Speaker 1: but she was basically fearful that he might kill her too,
7:58
Speaker 1: and so she had kept it to herself. And she
8:00
Speaker 1: had seen the article in the paper and also saw
8:02
Speaker 1: the picture of the girl, and she just looked so
8:04
Speaker 1: young and innocent, and she just couldn't help but feel
8:07
Speaker 1: like she owed it to that girl to come forward. Now,
8:10
Speaker 1: at this point, Ingram's mind was whirling. I mean, if
8:13
Speaker 1: this was all true, it was huge for this case.
8:16
Speaker 1: I mean, potentially this just solved the whole murder. I mean,
8:19
Speaker 1: this is what happened potentially. But he also knew, you know,
8:23
Speaker 1: right now it was just one woman's story, you know.
8:26
Speaker 1: He needed actual proof. He couldn't just take LaVerne's word
8:29
Speaker 1: for it, So he asked Laverne if he and his
8:31
Speaker 1: partner could just go ahead and search the apartment, and
8:34
Speaker 1: as soon as Leverne nodded, the detectives jumped to their
8:36
Speaker 1: feet and got to work. Laverne led the detectives down
8:39
Speaker 1: the hallway to the master bedroom and then from there
8:41
Speaker 1: she backed off and just you know, let the men
8:43
Speaker 1: get to work and the detectives they immediately split up
8:47
Speaker 1: and spread out to cover more ground. Ingram had actually
8:50
Speaker 1: brought along a list of stuff that they were theoretically
8:53
Speaker 1: looking for, and one of the things on his list
8:56
Speaker 1: was a swatch of denim from the front buttons of
8:59
Speaker 1: Tanya's jeans. It had been missing when they found her,
9:01
Speaker 1: like it had been intentionally cut out, which was obviously
9:05
Speaker 1: pretty unusual, and it made him think that Tanya's killer
9:08
Speaker 1: had taken a trophy or something. But after a few
9:11
Speaker 1: minutes of searching around the bedroom, Ingram did not see
9:13
Speaker 1: this Denham patch. In fact, he actually didn't see anything
9:16
Speaker 1: at first glance that connected John to Tanya until he
9:21
Speaker 1: went over to look through this cardboard box of papers
9:24
Speaker 1: and began sifting through them, and when he pulled out
9:26
Speaker 1: a torn piece of scrap paper and read what was
9:29
Speaker 1: on it, he froze. On this piece of scrap paper
9:33
Speaker 1: was a handwritten message that just said quote T Bennett
9:37
Speaker 1: good piece. Ingram immediately called his partner over, who walked
9:41
Speaker 1: over and looked at the note, and both of them
9:42
Speaker 1: are like, Okay, obviously we need to bring John in
9:46
Speaker 1: right away for a chat. But after leaving the bedroom
9:49
Speaker 1: and walking towards the door to leave, who comes in
9:52
Speaker 1: the front door none other than John Sasnovsky. Hey, guys,
10:00
Speaker 1: I have some pretty big news. I know many of
10:03
Speaker 1: you are excited to hear. I am going to be
10:05
Speaker 1: doing another live storytelling tour this year. You can find
10:09
Speaker 1: me in a bunch of cities, including new ones on
10:11
Speaker 1: the West Coast and across the United States where I
10:14
Speaker 1: have never played before. Plus, I'm really excited to share
10:18
Speaker 1: that I will also be performing in an international city,
10:21
Speaker 1: since so many of you have been asking me to visit.
10:24
Speaker 1: We put together an absolutely amazing show with a whole
10:27
Speaker 1: bunch of awesome stories, including stories you will not hear
10:31
Speaker 1: anywhere else, new content you can only get if you
10:35
Speaker 1: come to this show and guess what. Tickets for this
10:37
Speaker 1: tour are available right now at tour dot ballinstudios dot com.
10:42
Speaker 1: In terms of the types of tickets you can buy,
10:44
Speaker 1: they range from general admission to VIP. Again, that's tour
10:48
Speaker 1: dot ballinstudios dot com. I'm also going to be giving
10:51
Speaker 1: away a trip to meet me at one of my
10:53
Speaker 1: live shows, and so if you want to enter for
10:55
Speaker 1: your chance to win that, all you have to do
10:58
Speaker 1: is donate to win at fands com slash mister Ballin Again.
11:02
Speaker 1: That's FA n D E M dot com slash mister Ballin.
11:08
Speaker 1: Get your tickets and enter the sweepstakes today. I can't
11:11
Speaker 1: wait to see you at the show. About an hour later,
11:15
Speaker 1: Ingram sat at an interrogation table in the Sheriff's office,
11:18
Speaker 1: staring across it at John, and John had a very
11:21
Speaker 1: confused look on his face, but otherwise seemed relatively calm.
11:25
Speaker 1: Back at the apartment, when John had walked in the
11:27
Speaker 1: door and sort of saw the detectives and didn't know
11:29
Speaker 1: what was going on, Ingram had told him who he
11:32
Speaker 1: was and why he was there, and John had really
11:35
Speaker 1: just seemed surprised, but had quickly agreed to go with
11:38
Speaker 1: them to the station if they wanted to speak to him.
11:39
Speaker 1: But Ingram knew from experience that, you know, just because
11:42
Speaker 1: John was acting very cooperative did not mean he was innocent. Now,
11:47
Speaker 1: Ingram slid a picture of Tanya across the table and
11:50
Speaker 1: asked John if he knew who she was or had
11:52
Speaker 1: anything to do with her murder, and John didn't deny
11:55
Speaker 1: it or act horrified or offended to be asked. He
11:59
Speaker 1: just said he didn't really remember. And when Ingram showed
12:02
Speaker 1: him the note they found in his bedroom that said T.
12:05
Speaker 1: Bennett good Peace on it, John just sort of squinted
12:09
Speaker 1: at it and said he really wasn't sure if he
12:11
Speaker 1: wrote that or not. So these were all very straightforward
12:14
Speaker 1: questions and it was highly suspicious to Ingram that John
12:18
Speaker 1: apparently just couldn't answer them, at least not cleanly. And
12:21
Speaker 1: really the rest of his interview went the same way,
12:23
Speaker 1: with John giving mostly just vague non answers to everything
12:28
Speaker 1: Ingram asked, no matter how binary the question was supposed
12:31
Speaker 1: to be, and Ingram was just sort of struck by
12:33
Speaker 1: how nonchalant John seemed whenever he responded, even though, I mean,
12:37
Speaker 1: he was being questioned about his connection to a murder.
12:41
Speaker 1: This was not a time to be nonchalant. This was
12:43
Speaker 1: a time to be forthcoming. However, despite Ingram's very high
12:47
Speaker 1: suspicion of John, realistically, the only evidence he had on John,
12:51
Speaker 1: at least at this point was all circumstantial and so
12:54
Speaker 1: was not nearly enough to actually arrest John. What they
12:57
Speaker 1: needed in order to do that was some form of
13:01
Speaker 1: hard evidence that directly connected him to Tanya's murder. So ultimately,
13:06
Speaker 1: at the end of this interview, despite how weird the
13:09
Speaker 1: whole thing had been, Ingram decided and told John that
13:12
Speaker 1: for now he could go. Four days later, Ingram had
13:16
Speaker 1: just got into his office for the morning when his
13:18
Speaker 1: desk phone rang. He picked up and was surprised to
13:21
Speaker 1: hear LaVerne's voice on the other end. But before he
13:24
Speaker 1: could ask her what this was about, Laverne told him
13:27
Speaker 1: she had found something in her car that morning and
13:30
Speaker 1: felt like he needed to see it. And when she
13:32
Speaker 1: told him what this thing was, Ingram said he would
13:35
Speaker 1: be right over. Then. He immediately hung up and ran
13:38
Speaker 1: to find his partner. As he drove to LaVerne's he
13:40
Speaker 1: found his heart was racing. I mean, over the last
13:42
Speaker 1: few days, they hadn't found any additional evidence to prove
13:46
Speaker 1: John was their killer. In fact, if anything, they had
13:49
Speaker 1: actually lost some evidence since that note they found inside
13:53
Speaker 1: of John's things in his house ended up being a
13:55
Speaker 1: dead end because their analysts couldn't actually match the handwriting
14:00
Speaker 1: to John, so they didn't know for sure if it
14:02
Speaker 1: was him, but now, based on what Laverne had just
14:04
Speaker 1: told him on the phone about what she found in
14:07
Speaker 1: her car, he was pretty much positive that this was
14:11
Speaker 1: the break he needed. Within the hour, Ingram and his
14:14
Speaker 1: partner were standing in LaVerne's garage with Laverne staring into
14:17
Speaker 1: the open trunk of her car. Laverne had told Ingram
14:21
Speaker 1: that she kept her car, and really her whole life
14:24
Speaker 1: very very clean, like her apartments clean, everything's clean all
14:27
Speaker 1: the time. And when she went into her car that day,
14:31
Speaker 1: she noticed there was a little swatch of Denham sitting
14:35
Speaker 1: in the trunk, and she knew that she had not
14:37
Speaker 1: put it there, And considering she was sort of on
14:39
Speaker 1: high alert about John and about his connection to this murder,
14:43
Speaker 1: it just seemed like something worth flagging to police and
14:46
Speaker 1: for Ingram and his partner as they're staring into the
14:48
Speaker 1: trunk at this little swatch of Denham that looks very
14:52
Speaker 1: much like the swatch of Denham they were secretly looking for.
14:55
Speaker 1: They had not publicly revealed that the killer had taken
14:58
Speaker 1: a little swatch of Denham from time his jeans. That
15:01
Speaker 1: was private. They're looking at this thinking, oh, my goodness, like,
15:04
Speaker 1: this is the break we needed. Clearly that's the denim
15:08
Speaker 1: from Tanya's genes, and so Laverne was right to call
15:11
Speaker 1: this in. This is potentially huge. Now, obviously Ingram knew
15:15
Speaker 1: that they would still have to get this denim tested
15:17
Speaker 1: to make sure it really was Tanya's. I mean, it's
15:20
Speaker 1: entirely possible that it was actually LaVerne's or John's or
15:23
Speaker 1: was unrelated. But circumstantially this felt like hitting the jackpot,
15:27
Speaker 1: and so Ingram watched as his partner picked up the
15:30
Speaker 1: swatch put it into an evidence bag, and then they
15:32
Speaker 1: left and said they would have it tested and they
15:34
Speaker 1: would be in touch. The following morning, Ingram was at
15:38
Speaker 1: his desk reviewing all the evidence that they had so far,
15:41
Speaker 1: and by this point they had a lot of evidence.
15:44
Speaker 1: The previous night, after finding the denim, they had brought
15:47
Speaker 1: John in for a polygraph test and he had completely
15:51
Speaker 1: failed it. The test administrator had even noted that in
15:54
Speaker 1: his opinion, John definitely knew what had happened to Tanya.
15:57
Speaker 1: So now realistically Ingram was just sort of on confirmation
16:01
Speaker 1: that that fabric was a match. And then at that
16:04
Speaker 1: point they could go and arrest John. And when Ingram's
16:06
Speaker 1: phone rang, he picked it up immediately and it was
16:09
Speaker 1: the lab. So Ingram sat up straight writy for some
16:12
Speaker 1: good news, but the tech on the other line sounded
16:15
Speaker 1: sort of glum, and he told Ingram that the denim
16:18
Speaker 1: from LaVerne's car did not match the jeans that Tanya
16:21
Speaker 1: was wearing, so it was not hers. And at this
16:24
Speaker 1: Ingram was just completely stunned. I mean, the idea that
16:27
Speaker 1: they had just found the same unique cut of denim
16:31
Speaker 1: in a car in their main suspects house could not
16:34
Speaker 1: be a coincidence. I mean, it was not typical for
16:36
Speaker 1: people to have little swatches of Denham lying around like
16:39
Speaker 1: this is not something that you just happened to have.
16:42
Speaker 1: It felt sort of specific, and so there just had
16:44
Speaker 1: to be more to this than met the eye. And
16:46
Speaker 1: even though Ingram tried to work out some kind of
16:49
Speaker 1: reasonable explanation for why that swatch was there, the only
16:53
Speaker 1: thing that actually made sense was that the fake denim
16:57
Speaker 1: was planted there. And so feeling a mix of again
17:00
Speaker 1: shock but also just frustration here, I mean, he thought
17:03
Speaker 1: he was so close to solving this thing and now
17:06
Speaker 1: he was sort of back to square one, Ingram realized
17:09
Speaker 1: that the next stop had to be LaVerne's. He needed
17:11
Speaker 1: to go speak to her again. Later that morning, Ingram
17:14
Speaker 1: and his partner were once again back in LaVerne's living room,
17:18
Speaker 1: with a very nervous looking Laverne sitting across from them.
17:21
Speaker 1: This time, Ingram was going to be a little tougher
17:23
Speaker 1: on her because he now knew that, you know, whatever
17:26
Speaker 1: she had told him before very likely was was not
17:29
Speaker 1: the full story. And as soon as Ingram asked Laverne
17:32
Speaker 1: point blank if she had planted that evidence that denim
17:36
Speaker 1: inside of her car, Laverne just kind of looked back
17:39
Speaker 1: at him, and her face began to sort of quiver,
17:41
Speaker 1: and then she just started sobbing, and she told them
17:44
Speaker 1: she was so so sorry. She explained that she had
17:48
Speaker 1: caught up some jeans and put that front button part
17:51
Speaker 1: in her car and pretended to have found it so
17:54
Speaker 1: that they'd be able to arrest John. She said she
17:56
Speaker 1: had just gotten so worried when they let him go
17:58
Speaker 1: after interviewing him, because she knew John killed Tanya. He
18:02
Speaker 1: had to have. She heard him talk about it like
18:04
Speaker 1: he did it, and he's dangerous. Then she just wanted
18:07
Speaker 1: to make sure the police held him accountable. Now, when
18:10
Speaker 1: Ingram heard this, he could hear like the earnestness in
18:13
Speaker 1: her voice, like, clearly, this woman is scared of John
18:17
Speaker 1: and thinks he did this. She believes he did this,
18:20
Speaker 1: and so he wanted to believe her angle here as
18:22
Speaker 1: inappropriate as planting evidence was, But critically he knew Laverne
18:27
Speaker 1: still was definitely not telling him everything, because there was
18:31
Speaker 1: simply no way she could have known to plant that
18:35
Speaker 1: unique cut of the genes unless she had intimate knowledge
18:40
Speaker 1: of the crime or some other inside information. But there
18:43
Speaker 1: was just something missing here. Why would she randomly choose
18:47
Speaker 1: that front cut of denim as just the evidence. Oh,
18:50
Speaker 1: here's some evidence. It's gonna make John look guilty. Why
18:52
Speaker 1: would she choose that? That's way too on the notes?
18:55
Speaker 1: And when he pointed this out to Laverne, it was
18:58
Speaker 1: like LaVerne's energy comple completely shifted, you know, from from
19:02
Speaker 1: sobbing and sadness and remorse to just pure like hesitation,
19:07
Speaker 1: like she didn't really know how to react, but there
19:09
Speaker 1: wasn't any more sadness. It was like, uh, oh, something's
19:12
Speaker 1: off here. And then Laverne kind of took a deep breath,
19:15
Speaker 1: and she looked at Ingram and she said, I was lying.
19:19
Speaker 1: You're right, my story about planting the evidence, that was
19:23
Speaker 1: a lie. But she went on to say that the
19:25
Speaker 1: reason she had lied was because she had ultimately been
19:29
Speaker 1: too afraid that if the police knew the whole story,
19:32
Speaker 1: that she would get in trouble too. Then Laverne explained
19:35
Speaker 1: what really happened to Tanya on the night that Tanya
19:39
Speaker 1: was murdered. Laverne said, John called her that night and
19:43
Speaker 1: he was sort of frantic, and he said to her
19:45
Speaker 1: that he was in trouble and that she needed to
19:47
Speaker 1: meet him at the bar that he was at and
19:49
Speaker 1: to bring along a shower curtain. And so Laverne said,
19:53
Speaker 1: because she was very scared of John, and you know,
19:55
Speaker 1: it was just fearful of asking any questions, she had
19:58
Speaker 1: just done what he said, and she got the shower
20:00
Speaker 1: and she'd driven out there and she found John in
20:03
Speaker 1: a parking lot standing over a body. It was Tanya,
20:07
Speaker 1: and she was just lying there on the ground, motionless.
20:10
Speaker 1: Laverne said she was horrified and didn't know what to do,
20:13
Speaker 1: so she just helped. She literally helped John put Tanya's
20:17
Speaker 1: body into her car. LaVerne's car wrapped her up in
20:21
Speaker 1: that curtain she'd brought along, and then together they dumped
20:24
Speaker 1: her body at a spot along the highway. But as
20:27
Speaker 1: Laverne continued to talk, her story suddenly got much darker
20:31
Speaker 1: because she actually eventually confessed that actually Tanya had not
20:36
Speaker 1: been dead when she had first arrived, but instead she
20:39
Speaker 1: was still clinging to life, and at John's request, Laverne
20:44
Speaker 1: had tied rope around Tanya's neck and held it tight
20:48
Speaker 1: while John sexually assaulted her. Leverne said, after he was done,
20:52
Speaker 1: Tanya was no longer breathing. Ingram could barely conceal his
20:55
Speaker 1: shock when she explained this, I mean, here was this gentle,
20:58
Speaker 1: soft spoken lady who was now telling him that she
21:01
Speaker 1: had actively participated in the sexual assault and murder of
21:05
Speaker 1: this young woman. It was hard to wrap his head
21:08
Speaker 1: around it, and at the moment all Ingram could think
21:11
Speaker 1: was this can't be real. But what Laverne was saying
21:15
Speaker 1: just fit. It explained John's cagy answers to his questions,
21:20
Speaker 1: his failed polygraph, and how Laverne knew the right part
21:24
Speaker 1: of the jeans to cut out and fake his evidence
21:27
Speaker 1: because she and John had been the ones who actually
21:30
Speaker 1: made the cut on Tanya's jeans, they knew. But despite
21:34
Speaker 1: getting this earth shattering confession here, Ingram wanted to be
21:38
Speaker 1: completely sure that this version of the story Laverne was
21:41
Speaker 1: telling him was actually the truth, and he knew exactly
21:45
Speaker 1: how to prove it. The following day, Ingram was behind
21:49
Speaker 1: the wheel of his cruiser next to his partner, and
21:52
Speaker 1: Laverne sat in the back sort of absent mindedly staring
21:55
Speaker 1: out the window. They were driving down the highway northeast
21:58
Speaker 1: of Portland, and Ingram had been strung did Laverne to
22:01
Speaker 1: let him know when they reached the spot where they
22:04
Speaker 1: dumped Tanya's body. Now, the newspapers had published the general
22:08
Speaker 1: location of where the body had been found, but certainly
22:11
Speaker 1: not specifics, so Ingram knew that if Laverne could point
22:14
Speaker 1: out the exact spot, well, that meant she was telling
22:18
Speaker 1: the truth. As they began to get closer and closer
22:21
Speaker 1: to the spot Ingram knew was the spot, he sort
22:24
Speaker 1: of felt his heart rate pick up, but he didn't
22:27
Speaker 1: drive any faster or slower. He didn't signal that it
22:29
Speaker 1: was coming up. He just kept on driving, steady, going straight,
22:33
Speaker 1: sort of expecting Laverne to call it out any moment.
22:36
Speaker 1: But the cruiser drove right past the actual spot where
22:39
Speaker 1: the body had been found, and Laverne didn't say anything
22:43
Speaker 1: for a few minutes. They just kept on driving down
22:46
Speaker 1: the road in total silence. And you Ingram's feeling really
22:49
Speaker 1: disappointed here. And as they're driving along, suddenly Laverne says, hey,
22:53
Speaker 1: wait a minute, turn around, so Ingram did, and soon
22:57
Speaker 1: they were headed back the way they'd come. And this
22:59
Speaker 1: time when they passed the actual crime scene, so the
23:02
Speaker 1: actual spot where Tanya had been found, Laverne called it
23:06
Speaker 1: out and said that's where she was stop. As Ingram
23:10
Speaker 1: parked the car, he looked back at Laverne, who was
23:12
Speaker 1: staring intently out the window right at the exact spot
23:16
Speaker 1: on that slope, right off the highway where the body
23:18
Speaker 1: had been found. Then once they were parked, all three
23:20
Speaker 1: of them got out of the car and Laverne went
23:23
Speaker 1: over to the edge of the road and pointed like
23:26
Speaker 1: right to the exact spot where Tanya had been found
23:28
Speaker 1: on the slope. And even though Ingram tried to keep
23:31
Speaker 1: his expression neutral here, internally he was sort of amazed.
23:34
Speaker 1: I mean, clearly Laverne was telling the truth, it would
23:37
Speaker 1: have been impossible for her to have chosen that specific
23:40
Speaker 1: spot without having prior knowledge of where Tanya had been,
23:44
Speaker 1: Meaning she was telling the truth, she must have been
23:46
Speaker 1: involved in killing Tanya. As they all climbed back into
23:50
Speaker 1: the car, Ingram knew they now had more than enough
23:53
Speaker 1: to formally arrest John and also Laverne. She'd done the
23:57
Speaker 1: right thing by coming forward, but of course now there
24:00
Speaker 1: were going to be consequences. On February twenty first, so
24:03
Speaker 1: sixteen days after Laverne called with her first tip, John
24:08
Speaker 1: Sovsnovsky was arrested, and five days after that Laverne was
24:13
Speaker 1: arrested as well, and both of them were charged with murder.
24:16
Speaker 1: About eleven months later, LaVerne's trial started, and at that
24:19
Speaker 1: point Laverne actually tried to change her story again. She
24:23
Speaker 1: tried to recant her confession and said, no, I didn't
24:26
Speaker 1: actually do this, but the jury didn't buy her change
24:29
Speaker 1: of heart and convicted her of murder and she was
24:32
Speaker 1: sentenced to life in prison. As for John, two months
24:35
Speaker 1: after laverne sentencing, he was given the same sentence, life
24:39
Speaker 1: in prison. And that should have been the end of
24:41
Speaker 1: the case, at least from the legal perspective. But for
24:45
Speaker 1: the next three years following sentencing, Ingram just couldn't stop
24:49
Speaker 1: thinking about Laverne and John and Tanya Bennett. Despite what
24:53
Speaker 1: Laverne had done, he felt a lot of empathy for her.
24:56
Speaker 1: She'd obviously been under John's control and it seemed genuinely
25:00
Speaker 1: terrified of him. But more than that, Ingram had this horrible,
25:04
Speaker 1: nagging feeling that they'd gotten something wrong here. Then one
25:08
Speaker 1: March afternoon in nineteen ninety four, Ingram was in his
25:12
Speaker 1: office at the Sheriff's Department going over some paperwork when
25:15
Speaker 1: his desk phone rang. When he picked it up, it
25:17
Speaker 1: was the prosecutor who'd worked Tanya's case, and the prosecutor
25:21
Speaker 1: said they'd just gotten a very strange letter about Tanya's murder.
25:25
Speaker 1: And as soon as the prosecutor described the letter's contents,
25:30
Speaker 1: Ingram felt sick to his stomach. Ingram had been right
25:33
Speaker 1: to worry that he and his partner and really the
25:36
Speaker 1: whole legal system had potentially just gotten something wrong with
25:40
Speaker 1: this case. You know, it just felt like there was
25:43
Speaker 1: something left unsaid, There was some loophole, there was some
25:46
Speaker 1: loose sense something, but he didn't know what it was.
25:48
Speaker 1: It would turn out, the thing that was wrong was Laverne.
25:53
Speaker 1: Because their star witness, Laverne was not just this sweet
25:58
Speaker 1: older lady afraid of her abusive boy friend who had
26:01
Speaker 1: come forward and told the truth despite the consequences, that
26:04
Speaker 1: wasn't really the story. In fact, basically everything she told
26:09
Speaker 1: Ingram and his partner was a lie. What was true
26:13
Speaker 1: and what ultimately drove Laverne to do what she did
26:17
Speaker 1: was she really wanted to break up with John, but
26:21
Speaker 1: she didn't know how to do it, and so what
26:23
Speaker 1: she ultimately did to attempt to rid herself of John
26:28
Speaker 1: was to frame him for murder. And at first she
26:30
Speaker 1: did an incredible job. You know, she read everything she could,
26:34
Speaker 1: you know, little details about the murder and the news.
26:36
Speaker 1: She also snuck a peek at Ingram's list of evidence
26:39
Speaker 1: during that early interview that was done at her apartment,
26:41
Speaker 1: and so that's how she knew about, you know, that
26:44
Speaker 1: swatch of denim they were looking for. And she also
26:46
Speaker 1: just happened to take a few really lucky guesses, like
26:49
Speaker 1: when she pointed out the spot on the side of
26:51
Speaker 1: the highway where the body was found, she just guessed,
26:54
Speaker 1: but it happened to be right. However, The problem was,
26:57
Speaker 1: despite you know, basically nailing the frame of John and
27:01
Speaker 1: getting him wrapped up with a murder conviction, she also
27:05
Speaker 1: sort of inadvertently implicated herself, you know, when she came
27:08
Speaker 1: out and said, while I participated in the murder, her
27:11
Speaker 1: thinking was, they'll take pity on me and they'll blame John.
27:15
Speaker 1: He'll go to jail and I'll be okay. But now
27:19
Speaker 1: she also got convicted of murder and went to jail
27:22
Speaker 1: as well. And Laverne and John were literally in prison
27:26
Speaker 1: basically riding out their life sentences when the actual killer,
27:31
Speaker 1: the real Tanya Bennett killer, sent a letter to authorities
27:35
Speaker 1: confessing to his crime. That was why that prosecutor called Ingram.
27:39
Speaker 1: It was to tell him, like, I think there's been
27:41
Speaker 1: a mistake. They clearly didn't do it. After the real
27:43
Speaker 1: killer was arrested in nineteen ninety five, Laverne and John
27:47
Speaker 1: were both released from prison. In total, they both served
27:51
Speaker 1: four years in jail, all because of LaVerne's lives. One
28:09
Speaker 1: morning in early November of twenty twenty three, a seventy
28:12
Speaker 1: one year old woman named Patrice Miller stood in front
28:15
Speaker 1: of her fridge in her little home in the rural
28:17
Speaker 1: town of Downeyville, California, and she saw she was running
28:21
Speaker 1: low on food, which meant it was time to place
28:23
Speaker 1: an order with the market in town, which delivered her
28:26
Speaker 1: groceries for her. Getting her food delivered was essential for
28:28
Speaker 1: Patrice and where she was at in her life right now.
28:32
Speaker 1: She lived alone and had a whole house to take
28:34
Speaker 1: care of, which was definitely getting harder the older she got.
28:37
Speaker 1: She'd also had some health problems lately, so it was
28:40
Speaker 1: getting more difficult just to move around, you know. She
28:42
Speaker 1: even had a walking stick just to prop herself up.
28:45
Speaker 1: As Patrice stood in front of her fridge wondering what
28:47
Speaker 1: she was going to add to her grocery list, she
28:50
Speaker 1: heard one of her two cats meowing outside, and this
28:52
Speaker 1: reminded her that, amongst some other chores, she needed to
28:56
Speaker 1: feed her cats. So she decided to make her list later,
28:59
Speaker 1: and she just closed the fridge door, put some cat
29:02
Speaker 1: food in a bowl, and then grabbed her walking stick
29:04
Speaker 1: and headed outside. Patrese carried the cat food out onto
29:07
Speaker 1: the porch. She had some other things to do outside,
29:10
Speaker 1: but she couldn't hold a lot of things at once
29:12
Speaker 1: because of her walking stick, so once she had put
29:14
Speaker 1: the bowl down, She then headed back inside to get
29:16
Speaker 1: her compost and then took that back outside to her garden.
29:20
Speaker 1: And she tried to do all these outdoor chores really
29:23
Speaker 1: quickly because she didn't like being outside these days. She
29:27
Speaker 1: had lived in Downeyville for a long time, but over
29:29
Speaker 1: the past few years it had gotten really dangerous there. Now.
29:33
Speaker 1: She hadn't realized how bad it was at first because
29:35
Speaker 1: she mostly kept herself, but eventually she learned that her
29:39
Speaker 1: neighbors were starting to get intruders on their property. There
29:43
Speaker 1: had also been a clear uptick in vandalism in people's
29:46
Speaker 1: yards and to their homes, and in fact, over the
29:48
Speaker 1: past few months, Patrice herself had begun to experience this directly.
29:53
Speaker 1: In fact, she had dealt with so many attempted break
29:56
Speaker 1: ins at her own house that she had become convinced
29:58
Speaker 1: that she had a stock her. She'd even put bars
30:02
Speaker 1: on her windows as a security measure. So that's why
30:05
Speaker 1: Patrice did not like being outside. She felt exposed, like
30:09
Speaker 1: her stalker or whoever it was that was doing this,
30:12
Speaker 1: was going to be watching her and would come over
30:14
Speaker 1: here and attack. And so as fast as she could,
30:16
Speaker 1: she dumped the compost in her garden turned around, hustled inside,
30:20
Speaker 1: and shut the door behind her, And as soon as
30:22
Speaker 1: she had done that and was safely inside her house,
30:25
Speaker 1: she felt hugely relieved. A few days later, on November eighth,
30:29
Speaker 1: at the market in town where Patrice typically got her groceries,
30:32
Speaker 1: a fifty five year old cashier named Cassie Coke rang
30:36
Speaker 1: up a customer at the register, but as she bagged
30:39
Speaker 1: their purchases, her mind was elsewhere. She was thinking about Patrice.
30:43
Speaker 1: Cassie was typically the person that delivered Patrice's grocery order,
30:47
Speaker 1: but over the years they had become closer than just
30:50
Speaker 1: a customer provider relationship. You know, they were friends. In fact,
30:53
Speaker 1: these days, the two of them would speak on the
30:55
Speaker 1: phone fairly, often just a chat. But now Cassie realized
31:00
Speaker 1: she hadn't heard from Patrice in days, which was very odd,
31:03
Speaker 1: both because of their friendship, but also because she knew
31:06
Speaker 1: it had been a while since Patrise made her grocery order,
31:09
Speaker 1: and so Cassie had begun asking around at the store
31:12
Speaker 1: and had found out that nobody else had heard from
31:14
Speaker 1: Patrise either. Now Cassie knew it was possible that Patrice
31:17
Speaker 1: was just busy and for pretty much anybody else, you know,
31:21
Speaker 1: one misorder or even a couple misorders wouldn't be enough
31:24
Speaker 1: to make Cassie worry. But in this case, Cassie was
31:27
Speaker 1: extra concern because she knew about Patrice's stalker, and she
31:31
Speaker 1: knew that Patrice had even called the authorities about it,
31:34
Speaker 1: but they really hadn't been much help. Remember this is
31:37
Speaker 1: a tiny rural town in California that had experienced a
31:40
Speaker 1: lot of exactly what Patrise was experiencing break ins, harassment,
31:44
Speaker 1: and other kinds of vandalism or damage. However, neither Patrise
31:48
Speaker 1: nor anybody else had reported any actual violence, so authorities
31:52
Speaker 1: were basically overwhelmed with a flood of what they considered
31:56
Speaker 1: sort of relatively minor complaints. And Patrese's situation really he
32:00
Speaker 1: didn't seem much worse than anybody else's in town. And
32:03
Speaker 1: also officials just didn't have the manpower to deal with it,
32:06
Speaker 1: and so ultimately all authorities did was just advise Patrise
32:10
Speaker 1: on ways she could handle it herself, which was why
32:13
Speaker 1: she'd installed those bars on her windows. All this is
32:15
Speaker 1: to say Cassie knew that Patrice was genuinely terrified of
32:19
Speaker 1: her stalker, who Patrice referred to as big bastard, and
32:24
Speaker 1: she was worried about what the stalker might do next.
32:26
Speaker 1: So after Cassie was done with her shift that day,
32:29
Speaker 1: she tried to get in touch with Patrice one more time,
32:31
Speaker 1: but when she couldn't reach her yet again, Cassie called
32:34
Speaker 1: the police and asked them to go to a wellness check.
32:37
Speaker 1: That evening, a deputy from the Sierra County Sheriff's Department
32:41
Speaker 1: drove up to Patrice's house and parked in front, and
32:44
Speaker 1: immediately he could tell something was wrong. The front door
32:47
Speaker 1: of her house was clearly smashed in, and there was
32:50
Speaker 1: a garden hose that was laying across her port steps
32:53
Speaker 1: and was spraying water everywhere, like the water had just
32:56
Speaker 1: been left on. And so the deputy got out of
32:58
Speaker 1: his cruiser and he walked over to the house. He
33:00
Speaker 1: found the turnoff for the water on the side of
33:02
Speaker 1: the house, and then he walked up the front steps
33:05
Speaker 1: of the porch. And as he did this, he was
33:07
Speaker 1: constantly looking around and listening, trying to figure out what
33:11
Speaker 1: was going on here. I mean, he didn't know if
33:12
Speaker 1: there was an active threat inside the house. He had
33:15
Speaker 1: no idea what he was walking into, and so he's
33:18
Speaker 1: on the porch, and before going in through the front door,
33:21
Speaker 1: which was obviously, you know, smashed open, he looked in
33:24
Speaker 1: a window to see if he could see into the
33:26
Speaker 1: house to gauge what was going on here. And when
33:29
Speaker 1: he looked inside the house, the first thing he saw
33:31
Speaker 1: was blood all over the floor, and at that point
33:34
Speaker 1: he unholstered his gun, and so now with his gun raised,
33:38
Speaker 1: the deputy stepped into the house and he slowly walked
33:41
Speaker 1: through the living room, listening for any signs of sudden
33:44
Speaker 1: movement or an indication there was someone still in the house.
33:48
Speaker 1: But he didn't hear anything, and so there didn't appear
33:51
Speaker 1: to be an intruder present right now. But there was
33:54
Speaker 1: also no sign of Patrice. All he saw was that
33:57
Speaker 1: blood towards the front of the house. That was it. Deputy.
34:00
Speaker 1: He left the living room and walked towards the kitchen,
34:03
Speaker 1: and as soon as he stepped across the threshold into
34:06
Speaker 1: the kitchen, he breathed in and just kind of held
34:09
Speaker 1: his breath because what he saw was just chaos. All
34:12
Speaker 1: the cabinets were open, and all over the floor were
34:15
Speaker 1: remnants of all the food that likely was in the cabinets,
34:19
Speaker 1: like pieces of food and ripped up packaging and broken jars.
34:23
Speaker 1: A window at the far end of the room was
34:24
Speaker 1: also smashed, and the security bars that Patrice had put
34:28
Speaker 1: on the window were bent and hanging by their hinges.
34:32
Speaker 1: There was actually so much just to breathe and just
34:35
Speaker 1: chaos in the kitchen that at first the deputy didn't
34:39
Speaker 1: register what was actually laying in the center of the
34:43
Speaker 1: kitchen on the floor, But then when his brain sort
34:45
Speaker 1: of processed it, he realized what he was looking at
34:49
Speaker 1: was Patrice, at least what was left of her, but
34:54
Speaker 1: she no longer looked human because her body had literally
34:58
Speaker 1: been torn apart. The deputy quickly left the house and
35:01
Speaker 1: called in his terrible discovery to the sheriff, and within
35:05
Speaker 1: an hour, Pateresa's property was swarming with police and crime
35:08
Speaker 1: scene texts and a forensic expert who specialized in this
35:12
Speaker 1: type of scene and detectives fanned out all across the
35:15
Speaker 1: area and began speaking to Patrese's neighbors, and because pretty
35:18
Speaker 1: much everyone in the neighborhood had been experiencing the same
35:22
Speaker 1: type of break ins and property damage that Patrice had been,
35:25
Speaker 1: it actually didn't take long for police to develop a
35:28
Speaker 1: profile of Patresea's killer. Their conclusion was that very likely
35:32
Speaker 1: the killer was the same individual who was harassing everybody else.
35:36
Speaker 1: But what officials couldn't understand is why had everybody else
35:41
Speaker 1: experienced effectively minor vandalism, but Patrese went from minor vandalism
35:46
Speaker 1: to really excessive violence. And this required developing a profile
35:52
Speaker 1: of Patrese. And so as police searched for her killer,
35:55
Speaker 1: they were also working on reconstructing Patrese's movements on the
35:59
Speaker 1: final day of life life and at first in their efforts,
36:02
Speaker 1: really they were just stumped. I mean, all she had
36:03
Speaker 1: done on that day, as far as they could tell,
36:06
Speaker 1: were some basic chores. But as they dug into what
36:11
Speaker 1: those chores consisted of, they found two things that actually
36:15
Speaker 1: explained everything. It would turn out that every day for
36:19
Speaker 1: the past couple of years, Patrice had been making two
36:22
Speaker 1: terrible mistakes. She fed her cats out on the porch,
36:27
Speaker 1: and she emptied her compost into the garden. And these
36:31
Speaker 1: two actions ultimately were what sort of attracted her stalker,
36:35
Speaker 1: Big Bastard, to her home. Because Big Bastard was a
36:40
Speaker 1: black bear, he loved to eat cat food and kitchen
36:42
Speaker 1: compost scraps, and eventually he decided that Patrise was food too,
36:47
Speaker 1: So on that day in early November of twenty twenty three,
36:50
Speaker 1: when Patrese fed her cats and emptied her compost for
36:53
Speaker 1: the last time, Big Bastard waited until Patrise was in
36:57
Speaker 1: bed and then broke into her house, then savagely killed her.
37:01
Speaker 1: By the time the deputy arrived at Patrice's home, big
37:05
Speaker 1: Bastard had been eating Patrise's body for days, and so
37:08
Speaker 1: what he saw in the kitchen was what was left
37:11
Speaker 1: of her. Black bears are not typically dangerous to people.
37:15
Speaker 1: In fact, Patrise was the first known black bear fatality
37:18
Speaker 1: in California history. But it was exactly that sort of
37:23
Speaker 1: lack of perceived danger, which is why officials didn't help
37:26
Speaker 1: Patrice or any of our other neighbors get rid of
37:29
Speaker 1: these black bears when they were coming into their neighborhood
37:32
Speaker 1: and causing all this property damage and all this alarm.
37:35
Speaker 1: They basically said, eh, what's the worst they could do.
37:44
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for watching today's episode. Let me
37:47
Speaker 1: know what you thought of it in the comments below,
37:49
Speaker 1: And remember we have a whole playlist of places you
37:52
Speaker 1: can't go episodes ready for you to binge right now,
37:55
Speaker 1: so go ahead and click here and give them a watch,
37:58
Speaker 1: all right until next time zero