Latest / True Crime California / TCC #31: The Murder of Elyse Pahler

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TCC #31: The Murder of Elyse Pahler · True Crime California

0:03
Speaker 1: Darkast Network. Come to the dark side of indie podcasts.
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Speaker 1: at some point with someone coming into the restaurant. And
1:13
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Speaker 2: negatively impacted Armani's investigation.
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1:39
Speaker 2: Hey everyone, welcome to True Crime California. I'm your host, Cindy,
1:45
Speaker 2: and I'm glad you're here. Hey, hey everybody, it's Cindy,
1:56
Speaker 2: your host, and I'm back. Two weeks in a row,
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Speaker 2: you guys. Look at this. This is a fucking record
2:01
Speaker 2: for me. I have been real shitty about recording, and
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Speaker 2: I apologize. But I'm back two weeks in a row,
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Speaker 2: and I've got another terrible tale of true crime in
2:09
Speaker 2: California for you all to enjoy. I can't promise that
2:13
Speaker 2: I'm going to keep this up. I am already researching
2:15
Speaker 2: other stories, so hopefully we'll have some consistency coming in.
2:19
Speaker 2: But let's not hold our breaths, okay? Our collective breath
2:21
Speaker 2: should not be held at this point. If I can
2:23
Speaker 2: just keep it very real about who I am and
2:25
Speaker 2: who you're dealing with. In all seriousness, though, thank you
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Speaker 2: everybody for sending me so many emails, asking when I'm
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Speaker 2: what probably keeps most podcasters going when we're doing indie
2:48
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2:51
Speaker 2: It's really... We do it for the love of the
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Speaker 2: game and we do it for the love of all
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Speaker 2: the people in the community. So thank you to everybody.
2:58
Speaker 2: Also huge shout out to Dark Cast Network for not
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Speaker 2: kicking me off despite me being super inconsistent. What I've
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Speaker 2: come to learn about myself, because I know you guys
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Speaker 2: care deeply about me and my weird intricacies, is that
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Speaker 2: if I am in a group chat and there's more
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Speaker 2: than like five messages in a day and I can't
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Speaker 2: keep up, I will literally do anything to avoid opening
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Speaker 2: that group chat. basically for the rest of my life.
3:23
Speaker 2: And that's kind of what happens in a few situations
3:30
Speaker 2: in my life. But one of them is some of
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Speaker 2: my network stuff. So I'm trying to get better about avoiding,
3:36
Speaker 2: about not avoiding those types of things so I can
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Speaker 2: be a better podcaster and podcast partner. But anyway, that's
3:42
Speaker 2: my public apology to everybody who puts me in a
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Speaker 2: group chat and then wonders if I've died because I
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Speaker 2: haven't answered. I'm alive. I'm just scared. Anyway, this week
3:50
Speaker 2: I've got a really good case. It's something of a
3:53
Speaker 2: well-known case, maybe not in the case itself, but in
3:57
Speaker 2: the lore that came from the case. And what I
3:59
Speaker 2: mean by that is that this is one of two
4:01
Speaker 2: stories that inspired the movie Jennifer's Body. And I believe
4:05
Speaker 2: that this story more influenced it a lot more. I
4:10
Speaker 2: don't even really know what the other true crime case
4:12
Speaker 2: is that kind of inspired the story. But this one,
4:15
Speaker 2: if you've seen the movie Jennifer's body, you'll know, um,
4:18
Speaker 2: what I'm talking about. If you haven't seen it, go
4:21
Speaker 2: watch it. It's an incredible movie. It has a great cast. Um,
4:25
Speaker 2: Amanda Seyfried or Seyfried, or I don't know how to
4:27
Speaker 2: say her last name, but I think she's an awesome actress.
4:30
Speaker 2: She's also a really good singer and a really good musician.
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Speaker 2: And I think just like an underrated, uh, entertainer in general.
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Speaker 2: So watch this movie, give her some love. Also Megan Fox,
4:39
Speaker 2: obviously the it girl of the time when this movie
4:42
Speaker 2: came out. Um, Anyway, it's a great movie. If you've
4:46
Speaker 2: seen it, when I'm telling this tale, you're going to
4:49
Speaker 2: have some moments where you go, oh my God, that's
4:51
Speaker 2: where that came from. Oh my God, you know. And
4:53
Speaker 2: if you haven't seen it, after you hear this, go
4:55
Speaker 2: watch it and you'll see the connections. Anyway, the case
4:59
Speaker 2: that I'm talking about is the murder of Elise Poller.
5:04
Speaker 2: And let's just get into it. So real quick, as
5:07
Speaker 2: a note, this case happened in 1995 in San Luis
5:10
Speaker 2: Obispo County, which if y'all remember, that's where Kristen Smart
5:13
Speaker 2: went missing. So despite this county being considered pretty sleepy,
5:17
Speaker 2: there's actually a lot of notable true crime that went
5:19
Speaker 2: down here. So I wanted to call that out. But
5:23
Speaker 2: before we get too much into it, let's start at
5:26
Speaker 2: the beginning, shall we? Elise Poller was born April 24th,
5:29
Speaker 2: 1980 in Templeton, California, which is in the northern part
5:33
Speaker 2: of San Luis Obispo County. She was born to David
5:36
Speaker 2: and Lisanne Poller. She was the oldest of four kids, had,
5:40
Speaker 2: I believe, one sister and two brothers. I know she
5:42
Speaker 2: had at least one sister and one brother, but I
5:44
Speaker 2: don't know about that elusive third sibling. At some point,
5:49
Speaker 2: the family moved to Arroyo Grande, which is another small
5:53
Speaker 2: town in San Luis Obispo County. It's a lot more
5:56
Speaker 2: central to the county and much closer to San Luis
5:58
Speaker 2: Obispo itself, where Templeton was way up in no man's land.
6:01
Speaker 2: So like very rural. And then they moved to like
6:04
Speaker 2: a city. Although Arroyo Grande is a very small town
6:07
Speaker 2: to be sure, but it's definitely much more like living
6:11
Speaker 2: in a town as opposed to living on a farm, maybe. Anyway,
6:15
Speaker 2: speaking of, the family lived in a nice ranch-style home.
6:19
Speaker 2: They were a really good family. There was nothing, you know,
6:22
Speaker 2: particular that happens in this story. I want to call
6:25
Speaker 2: it out. Like her family, her parents are overprotective. They
6:29
Speaker 2: did some dumb things, but there wasn't anything where you're like,
6:31
Speaker 2: her family life was terrible. You know, like it was
6:33
Speaker 2: a pretty normal... childhood. And growing up, she had a
6:38
Speaker 2: really good friend group of about five girls. They were
6:41
Speaker 2: all very close. They each had different personalities ranging from
6:45
Speaker 2: just like straight up troublemakers to more like meek rule followers.
6:48
Speaker 2: But everybody sort of had their role in the group.
6:51
Speaker 2: And Elise, for her part, was somewhere, you know, very
6:54
Speaker 2: much in the middle. She was a really good kid,
6:56
Speaker 2: but she did have a rebellious streak, which again, normal.
7:00
Speaker 2: That's normal shit even for like good kids, right? She
7:03
Speaker 2: was really close with one of the girls in particular,
7:05
Speaker 2: a girl named Lynn, who was definitely on the more
7:09
Speaker 2: rebellious side. So Elise was definitely down to party, to experiment,
7:13
Speaker 2: to push the boundaries. But none of the girls were
7:16
Speaker 2: headed down what you would consider like a dark path
7:18
Speaker 2: by any means. Now, as the girls got older, I
7:21
Speaker 2: will call out that Elise was murdered when she was
7:24
Speaker 2: only 15. But as they got older in the last
7:26
Speaker 2: couple of years before the murder occurred, they began experimenting
7:29
Speaker 2: more with drinking and with smoking weed here and there. So,
7:34
Speaker 2: you know, again, good girls. Elise was actually quite religious.
7:38
Speaker 2: She went to church. She was really close to her parents.
7:41
Speaker 2: She wasn't entirely innocent. And I think that's normal. I
7:44
Speaker 2: think it's okay. And, you know, again, this was a
7:46
Speaker 2: small town, so there wasn't like a ton of shit
7:48
Speaker 2: to do. So kids got to keep themselves occupied somehow, right?
7:53
Speaker 2: As her friends later said when interviewed, quote, everyone was
7:56
Speaker 2: doing it. And again, it being like drinking, smoking weed,
8:00
Speaker 2: ditching class, like just the typical teenage shit. So while
8:04
Speaker 2: Elise was getting into this stuff, once again, she wasn't
8:06
Speaker 2: like considered a stoner by any means. She was still
8:09
Speaker 2: getting good grades. She was still on good terms with
8:11
Speaker 2: her parents. She was still an athlete. She just really
8:14
Speaker 2: wanted to see what was out there in the world,
8:15
Speaker 2: which I think makes sense. Now, I'll talk a little
8:19
Speaker 2: bit more about this later, but I'm just going to
8:20
Speaker 2: call out to kind of, you know, show how her
8:24
Speaker 2: parents were that at one point they caught her buying
8:26
Speaker 2: weed and And they immediately put her in a program
8:30
Speaker 2: to combat what they saw as a possible addiction. So
8:34
Speaker 2: they seriously put her in a narcotics program over this.
8:38
Speaker 2: To me, as the mother of an 11 year old
8:41
Speaker 2: already thinking about this type of shit, I think this
8:43
Speaker 2: is an overreaction. And, you know, just remembering when I
8:46
Speaker 2: was this age and having kids, sorry, friends whose parents
8:50
Speaker 2: did similar things, I can understand how that kind of
8:53
Speaker 2: did and does like making kids not want to be
8:57
Speaker 2: honest with their parents because they don't want to have
8:59
Speaker 2: to go to programs for addicts because they smoked a joint, right?
9:03
Speaker 2: So I think this really points to the family being
9:04
Speaker 2: very like quote nice, like sheltered, innocent type of nice.
9:09
Speaker 2: And also you have to remember she's the oldest. So
9:11
Speaker 2: it's not like they had like experience with this with
9:14
Speaker 2: any of the other kids. So she ended up kind
9:16
Speaker 2: of being the guinea pig when it came to rebellious behavior.
9:22
Speaker 2: The summer of 1995 was when things really took a
9:24
Speaker 2: turn for Elise. Not even a turn, but when they
9:27
Speaker 2: sort of started ramping up as she was rebelling more
9:29
Speaker 2: and more. Though again, I want to stress, she really
9:33
Speaker 2: was still mostly on good terms with her family. She
9:35
Speaker 2: was just kind of, like I said, getting better at
9:38
Speaker 2: hiding things from her parents because she was, you know,
9:40
Speaker 2: still smoking and drinking and didn't want to fucking deal
9:42
Speaker 2: with her parents freaking out. For their part, her parents
9:47
Speaker 2: were worried about her, but I think they were just
9:49
Speaker 2: hoping that she was the person she presented to them
9:52
Speaker 2: and that she wasn't hiding from them. So I think
9:54
Speaker 2: it was sort of one of those things where her
9:56
Speaker 2: parents wanted to believe, and so they did, you know?
9:58
Speaker 2: And that was that was working for them for now. Anyway,
10:02
Speaker 2: on the evening of July 21st, 1995, which was a Friday,
10:07
Speaker 2: then 15 year old Elise and her family were having
10:09
Speaker 2: a mellow night at home, watching TV together before going
10:13
Speaker 2: to bed. Elise received a phone call that lasted about
10:17
Speaker 2: five minutes and followed by another that lasted no more
10:20
Speaker 2: than two minutes. She didn't say a lot during the call,
10:23
Speaker 2: and according to her mother, mostly just said uh-huh and okay.
10:27
Speaker 2: And very quickly after the second call, Elise said she
10:31
Speaker 2: was tired and was going to bed, which to me
10:34
Speaker 2: would obviously mean she was about to sneak out. But again,
10:37
Speaker 2: her parents were very naive, clearly. She said goodnight. She
10:41
Speaker 2: told her parents she loved them. The next morning, her
10:45
Speaker 2: mother woke up in a panic. Because I gotta tell you,
10:48
Speaker 2: moms know. Like, we just do. It's so weird, but
10:51
Speaker 2: we do, and I hope to never have the feeling
10:53
Speaker 2: that she had, because if I do, I will know
10:55
Speaker 2: exactly what it means. Anyway, Lisanne woke up in a
10:59
Speaker 2: panic and asked her younger daughter, who was 13, to
11:02
Speaker 2: go check on Elise. Her daughter came back saying Elise
11:05
Speaker 2: wasn't in either of her bunk beds, and in that moment,
11:08
Speaker 2: out loud, Lisanne said, quote, she's gone. Her parents immediately
11:14
Speaker 2: called the police, and you'll never guess what they said.
11:17
Speaker 2: They told them to call back after 24 hours had
11:19
Speaker 2: passed because back then you had to wait. So they waited.
11:23
Speaker 2: And when Elise still didn't come home, they again called
11:27
Speaker 2: the police. Now, obviously, they were also calling all of
11:29
Speaker 2: her friends, anyone they could find. They were looking for
11:33
Speaker 2: her around town. But according to police, you know, they
11:36
Speaker 2: took this call seriously and also began looking for Elise.
11:39
Speaker 2: But according to her parents, like to this day, they
11:43
Speaker 2: say that the police were extremely dismissive and told them
11:45
Speaker 2: Elise had likely just run away for a few days.
11:49
Speaker 2: In all fairness to the police, which you know I
11:51
Speaker 2: don't like to say, this could have been because, you know,
11:56
Speaker 2: the police kind of knew that Elise was getting in
11:59
Speaker 2: trouble with her parents. And because, you know, she'd been
12:02
Speaker 2: dabbling in drinking and drugs, they saw this as kind
12:04
Speaker 2: of another part of her minor rebellion. And in fact,
12:08
Speaker 2: it was known that she had snuck out before a
12:10
Speaker 2: few times, but the difference was that she always came
12:13
Speaker 2: home the same night. So while the police were like, oh,
12:17
Speaker 2: maybe she's just escalating her behavior, her parents knew that
12:20
Speaker 2: this time was different, and they continued to push for
12:23
Speaker 2: more to be done to find her. Now, unfortunately, Elise
12:27
Speaker 2: had seemed to have vanished into thin air. Days turned
12:33
Speaker 2: to weeks, which turned to months. And by the time
12:36
Speaker 2: school came back around, the family was near giving up
12:40
Speaker 2: hope of ever finding their daughter. Now, this was in
12:43
Speaker 2: spite of there being consistent reports of people seeing Elise
12:46
Speaker 2: in the area, either in downtown SLO, which is San
12:49
Speaker 2: Luis Obispo, or elsewhere around California, with reports coming in
12:53
Speaker 2: as far south as L.A. Now, Elise was a blonde
12:58
Speaker 2: white girl of very standard proportions, so it's not really
13:01
Speaker 2: surprising that so many people would think that they saw her.
13:04
Speaker 2: I mean, blonde white girls were practically crafted in California.
13:09
Speaker 2: But each time a bunk lead would come in, it
13:11
Speaker 2: would give the family new hope because of course they
13:13
Speaker 2: wanted to remain hopeful. And then their, you know, hope
13:17
Speaker 2: would be dashed over and over and over as sadly,
13:21
Speaker 2: none of these leads ever went anywhere. Now there are
13:27
Speaker 2: some things to know about Elise prior to her disappearance. First,
13:30
Speaker 2: Elise and her group of friends had had something of
13:32
Speaker 2: a falling out fairly recently. It was mostly between Elise
13:37
Speaker 2: and Lynn, who, as I mentioned, had been the closest
13:39
Speaker 2: of all the friends. But for whatever reason, another friend, Carmen,
13:43
Speaker 2: had begun to come between them. And at one point,
13:46
Speaker 2: this is crazy, Lynn wrote Elise a letter saying she
13:49
Speaker 2: no longer wanted to be her best friend and that
13:52
Speaker 2: Carmen was her new best friend. Now, as formerly being
13:56
Speaker 2: a 15-year-old girl or 14-year-old girl, I can totally see
13:59
Speaker 2: this happening. And there were probably some stickers and smiley
14:02
Speaker 2: faces and weird things involved that didn't even... vibe with
14:06
Speaker 2: the tone of the letter but I just I just
14:08
Speaker 2: know how we used to roll. Now Elise was a
14:10
Speaker 2: pretty not like confrontational person but she wasn't gonna let
14:14
Speaker 2: someone walk all over her or be mean to her
14:16
Speaker 2: so pretty quickly she was like fuck y'all and just
14:19
Speaker 2: found some new friends. These friends were two girls named
14:22
Speaker 2: Shannon and Angel and they were her closest friends at
14:26
Speaker 2: the time of her disappearance. Shannon and Angel were much
14:29
Speaker 2: more of the 90s, I'll say, because remember this is 1995,
14:33
Speaker 2: right in the height of everything that our kids are
14:34
Speaker 2: wearing now. They were into skate culture, they wore baggy pants,
14:39
Speaker 2: they rode skateboards, and they hung out with kids who
14:41
Speaker 2: were considered like alternative, right? So they were a big
14:45
Speaker 2: departure for Elise from her previous friend group, who for
14:48
Speaker 2: better or worse were very much more like run-of-the-mill kids.
14:52
Speaker 2: Through these friends, Elise started getting to know even more
14:56
Speaker 2: friends and more kids from the periphery of the social groups.
15:00
Speaker 2: Kids who were into metal music, smoked a lot of weed.
15:03
Speaker 2: Definitely not the goody two-shoes she normally hung out with.
15:08
Speaker 2: And back to the time she got into trouble with
15:09
Speaker 2: her parents, I guess she got caught with another kid
15:12
Speaker 2: under a local bridge known for being a meeting spot
15:15
Speaker 2: for stoners. It seems she was trying to buy some weed,
15:18
Speaker 2: even though she was supposed to be at school. Now
15:21
Speaker 2: this is so weird. Her parents found out and they
15:23
Speaker 2: told the principal and she was suspended for five days.
15:27
Speaker 2: She also ended up being called a narc by other
15:29
Speaker 2: kids after this as the other kid involved also got
15:32
Speaker 2: in trouble. Which like to me, like why would your
15:34
Speaker 2: parents do that? Like why get her in trouble at
15:36
Speaker 2: school if she's not in trouble at school? If you
15:39
Speaker 2: caught her skipping school, buying drugs, just take her ass home. Why?
15:45
Speaker 2: It's such a weird choice. Don't do that. If you
15:48
Speaker 2: become a parent, don't do that. That's not a cool
15:50
Speaker 2: thing to do. Like these parents honestly sound very familiar
15:54
Speaker 2: to me as many of my friends had similar parents
15:56
Speaker 2: and it never ended well. Like all of my friends
15:59
Speaker 2: have strained relationships with their parents when their parents behave
16:02
Speaker 2: like this. So just keep that in mind, guys. And
16:04
Speaker 2: I'm not blaming her parents, but like in this instance,
16:08
Speaker 2: I am. And I'll just admit it. I don't agree
16:10
Speaker 2: with what they did there. Anyway, again, like I wouldn't
16:13
Speaker 2: say Elise was like a bad kid, but if there
16:14
Speaker 2: was ever a time it seemed she was going down
16:16
Speaker 2: a path, it was around this time. And around this time,
16:19
Speaker 2: she also became friends with these boys, Joey and Jacob,
16:22
Speaker 2: who went to the same high school. Joey Fiorella was
16:26
Speaker 2: apparently borderline obsessed with Elise, like really, really liked her,
16:30
Speaker 2: but like in a creepy way. Joey was a pretty
16:33
Speaker 2: weird kid in general, apparently, with multiple people saying he
16:36
Speaker 2: gave them the creeps. And Elise's mom even once recalled
16:39
Speaker 2: him coming to their house and staring at Elise and
16:41
Speaker 2: her friends while they jumped on their trampoline. So just
16:45
Speaker 2: kind of a weird dude. Pictures of him from that
16:48
Speaker 2: time make him look like he was pretty gothy, like
16:50
Speaker 2: he wore a lot of black, just typical like alternate
16:52
Speaker 2: kid with issues, I guess you could say. And he
16:55
Speaker 2: had a friend, Jacob DeLashmut, who was actually a pretty
16:58
Speaker 2: good looking kid and was considered like, you know, kind
17:01
Speaker 2: of like a cute kid, like girls had crushes on him.
17:05
Speaker 2: And he was also seen as the leader of these
17:07
Speaker 2: two with Joey being seen more like as his sidekick. Now,
17:11
Speaker 2: Jacob was also two years older than Joey and Elise,
17:14
Speaker 2: which could have been part of like the dynamic. And
17:17
Speaker 2: he and Joey actually were in a heavy metal band,
17:20
Speaker 2: if anybody's thinking about Jennifer's body, with another kid from
17:25
Speaker 2: the school named Royce Casey. And Royce was the same
17:28
Speaker 2: age as Jacob. So Royce and Jacob are both like
17:30
Speaker 2: 17 and Joey and Elise are both 15 or maybe
17:34
Speaker 2: 14 at this point. So their band, this metal band,
17:37
Speaker 2: was called Hatred because they're fucking cool. And they basically
17:42
Speaker 2: were like a shitty knockoff of Slayer. Like honestly, like
17:44
Speaker 2: just not good. Like I'm not into this kind of music,
17:46
Speaker 2: but like Slayer is a pretty legit band. This band
17:50
Speaker 2: was not legit. So these kids were mostly social outcasts.
17:53
Speaker 2: But again, like Jacob was pretty cute. So they had
17:55
Speaker 2: some social credit and they ended up befriending Elise. Now
17:59
Speaker 2: for Elise, this was probably open. She was open to
18:02
Speaker 2: being their friend for a couple of reasons. First, you know,
18:05
Speaker 2: she was a nice person. She made friends easily. She
18:06
Speaker 2: was super outgoing. And she also knew these kids for
18:10
Speaker 2: years from riding the bus to and from school and
18:12
Speaker 2: also from going to school together. She also met Jacob
18:16
Speaker 2: in her substance abuse classes because let's be real, you
18:21
Speaker 2: can always meet your kind in places like that. If
18:23
Speaker 2: you send somebody to rehab and they're not ready to go,
18:26
Speaker 2: the only thing they're going to find is a new connection.
18:28
Speaker 2: So just keep that in mind too. Now, beyond that though,
18:31
Speaker 2: these kids were sort of thought of as like the
18:33
Speaker 2: bad kids. And that could have maybe appealed to Elise
18:35
Speaker 2: at the time because she was exploring, you know, pushing
18:38
Speaker 2: her boundaries. She wanted to explore being bad, you know,
18:42
Speaker 2: which again, 15 year old girl, Believe me, I was there.
18:46
Speaker 2: I completely understand. Anyway, now that we've sort of talked
18:50
Speaker 2: about these new friends, let's go back to the timeline here.
18:53
Speaker 2: So Elise, this is crazy. She was missing for eight
18:57
Speaker 2: months with zero leads, zero information, nothing at all. But meanwhile,
19:04
Speaker 2: kind of behind the scenes, things were changing between some
19:07
Speaker 2: of her friends. Now, although he was in that metal band,
19:10
Speaker 2: Royce Casey had recently found God. And through this new finding,
19:15
Speaker 2: he also found confession. And one day in March of 1996,
19:21
Speaker 2: Royce decided he had had enough. He had been plagued
19:25
Speaker 2: by a terrible secret for over eight months, and he
19:27
Speaker 2: finally wanted to get it off his chest. He had
19:31
Speaker 2: become increasingly guilty over the passing months, and finally he
19:35
Speaker 2: saw a missing poster with Elise's face on it, and
19:38
Speaker 2: that is what broke him. He went to church, found
19:41
Speaker 2: a clergyman, and confessed to him that he and two friends,
19:45
Speaker 2: Joey Fiorella and Jacob DeLashmut, had murdered Elise Paller in...
19:50
Speaker 2: July of 1995. Now, the clergyman, whether Royce knew he
19:55
Speaker 2: was going to or not, seems obvious, immediately called police,
20:00
Speaker 2: and very quickly, Royce, Jacob, and Joey were arrested for murder.
20:05
Speaker 2: The three were taken into custody and charged with seven counts,
20:08
Speaker 2: including murder, conspiracy to commit murder, conspiracy to commit rape,
20:13
Speaker 2: and kidnapping. And all three boys were borderline happy to confess. Now,
20:21
Speaker 2: Royce was happy to get it off his chest, but
20:23
Speaker 2: the other two seemed to think of it as a
20:24
Speaker 2: way of making themselves seem very cool and very tough,
20:28
Speaker 2: which is honestly super fucking pathetic. And you might be
20:31
Speaker 2: wondering what the hell happened that led to all of
20:33
Speaker 2: those charges and this happening in the first place. And
20:38
Speaker 2: I can tell you it's at least as bad as
20:40
Speaker 2: you imagine. Um, probably fucking worse, unfortunately. Now, beyond being
20:46
Speaker 2: in a shitty metal band, uh, these three idiots were
20:53
Speaker 2: also self-proclaimed Satanists who worshiped Satan and wanted to be evil,
20:57
Speaker 2: you know, or whatever. Now, prior to Elise's disappearance, sorry,
21:01
Speaker 2: I knocked my shitty microphone. The boys had been talking
21:04
Speaker 2: for months about sacrificing her to Satan in hopes he
21:07
Speaker 2: would make their band famous. Another Jennifer's Body tie-in. And yes, really,
21:12
Speaker 2: this is actually what they believed. Joey said they needed
21:17
Speaker 2: to sacrifice a blonde virgin, and of course suggested Elise,
21:21
Speaker 2: with whom he was totally obsessed. He talked about killing
21:25
Speaker 2: her constantly for months, and apparently Jacob and Royce didn't mind.
21:29
Speaker 2: as they finally agreed to do it. And in fact,
21:31
Speaker 2: they had apparently made a pact to not just kill Elise,
21:34
Speaker 2: but a total of 666 blonde virgins as a tribute
21:38
Speaker 2: to Satan, which is fucking ridiculous, would have never happened,
21:42
Speaker 2: and just goes to show how absolutely immature they were
21:45
Speaker 2: while doing these types of crimes. It's fucking such a
21:49
Speaker 2: weird dichotomy to have people whose brains are clearly undeveloped
21:55
Speaker 2: doing crimes things that are so permanent and adult as
21:58
Speaker 2: fucking murder. Unfortunately, as ridiculous as I find their plot,
22:03
Speaker 2: they didn't think it was ridiculous, and they intended to
22:06
Speaker 2: carry this out over the summer of 1995, which also,
22:08
Speaker 2: are you fucking kidding me? Or at least beginning then
22:11
Speaker 2: and starting with poor Elise. So, on the night of
22:15
Speaker 2: July 21st, 1995, the three boys went to a local
22:18
Speaker 2: payphone and called Elise. They invited her out to a
22:22
Speaker 2: eucalyptus grove in the nearby town of Nipomo, saying they
22:26
Speaker 2: would all hang out and smoke some weed. Elise was
22:29
Speaker 2: interested and told her parents she was going to bed,
22:31
Speaker 2: then snuck out of her bedroom window and met the
22:33
Speaker 2: boys in her driveway before they drove her away from
22:36
Speaker 2: her home and her family forever. Once at the grove,
22:41
Speaker 2: the boys attacked Elise, with Jacob using his belt to
22:44
Speaker 2: strangle her while Joey and Royce took turns stabbing her
22:47
Speaker 2: with a hunting knife. They started by grabbing her hair,
22:52
Speaker 2: then pushing her to the ground and wrapping the belt
22:54
Speaker 2: around her neck while she was still on the ground.
22:57
Speaker 2: They then passed the knife around, stabbing Elise over and over.
23:02
Speaker 2: In the end, she had over a dozen stab wounds
23:04
Speaker 2: all over her body and mostly in her neck. Even so,
23:10
Speaker 2: none of these stab wounds were fatal, nor was the strangulation. Instead,
23:16
Speaker 2: the boys let Elise slowly bleed to death on the
23:20
Speaker 2: ground in front of them, while she cried for her
23:23
Speaker 2: mother and prayed to God while they attacked her. At
23:28
Speaker 2: one point, she was crying and screaming for her mother
23:31
Speaker 2: so much, which fucking kills me. Like when people scream
23:35
Speaker 2: for mommy, it's just, it's the fucking worst. Like to
23:40
Speaker 2: just picture that moment, absolutely fucking horrific. Like I can't.
23:45
Speaker 2: And these motherfuckers heard her doing this So Royce Casey
23:50
Speaker 2: became angry with her and stomped on her face and
23:53
Speaker 2: neck to make her shut up. These were her final moments. Like,
23:58
Speaker 2: it's unbelievable. Now, finally, after Elise was dead, the boys
24:02
Speaker 2: buried her in a shallow grave and went home. On
24:06
Speaker 2: the way home, they bragged to each other about the murders,
24:09
Speaker 2: saying Satan would be pleased, but told no one else
24:13
Speaker 2: for fear of being caught, of course. Now, it's not
24:17
Speaker 2: for sure... But I have read that they came back
24:24
Speaker 2: and visited the body a few times, if you catch
24:27
Speaker 2: my drift. Now, over the months, it sounds as though
24:30
Speaker 2: things between the boys began to go south, with Royce
24:34
Speaker 2: later saying that he feared Joey and Jacob, saying he
24:37
Speaker 2: thought they might try to kill him. Was that because
24:41
Speaker 2: he indicated he felt remorse and they didn't want to
24:44
Speaker 2: get caught? Possibly. I don't know. Was he also a virgin,
24:48
Speaker 2: so could have gone to Satan? Probably, but again, I
24:50
Speaker 2: don't know. Whatever it was, 17-year-old Royce was so overcome
24:55
Speaker 2: with guilt and fear that he finally confessed to police
24:57
Speaker 2: and even took them to Elisa's body. When asked why
25:01
Speaker 2: they committed the crime, Royce told police, quote, it was
25:04
Speaker 2: to receive power from the devil to help them play
25:06
Speaker 2: guitar better. And the two other boys concurred. Now, once again,
25:11
Speaker 2: it's believed that Her body was desecrated after her death.
25:17
Speaker 2: It has not been confirmed, really. I mean, some podcasts
25:22
Speaker 2: will say that it was confirmed, but all I could
25:25
Speaker 2: find was that it's rumored that they returned to her
25:28
Speaker 2: grave to assault her over the months after her death.
25:32
Speaker 2: And Joey Fiorella's mother supposedly said he confessed to her
25:36
Speaker 2: that Jacob and Casey both returned to the body several times. Now,
25:40
Speaker 2: friends also said that Jacob boasted about this as well
25:43
Speaker 2: when he did finally start telling people about it. But
25:46
Speaker 2: I don't think anybody necessarily believed that he even did
25:49
Speaker 2: anything because nobody went to the police. Also, what the
25:53
Speaker 2: fuck are you bragging about here, you fucking loser psycho? Like,
25:56
Speaker 2: what is wrong with you? Now, once they were arrested,
25:59
Speaker 2: the boys also confessed to buying the hunting knife they
26:02
Speaker 2: used to stab Elise specifically to kill her. And they
26:06
Speaker 2: intended to kill others with this knife as well. though
26:09
Speaker 2: they of course never got to that point. And when
26:12
Speaker 2: asked why they chose Elise, Joey said it was because
26:14
Speaker 2: they needed to kill a virgin, as it was the
26:16
Speaker 2: most against God they could be. They needed a blonde-haired,
26:21
Speaker 2: blue-eyed virgin. Now prior to this, there are rumors that
26:25
Speaker 2: the boys did weird shit like crucifying frogs and then
26:28
Speaker 2: cooking and eating them, but I don't really know. I
26:31
Speaker 2: think a lot of what they said they did was
26:32
Speaker 2: for shock value, but again, they did violently murder a
26:35
Speaker 2: 15-year-old girl, so like, who really knows? Now, they also
26:40
Speaker 2: claimed that many of their ideas came from reading Alistair Crowley,
26:45
Speaker 2: which of course gave way to a resurgence of satanic panic,
26:49
Speaker 2: which was a very silly phenomenon that took place in
26:51
Speaker 2: the late 70s and early 80s that in the end
26:54
Speaker 2: was completely unjustified, as there were very few actual murders
26:57
Speaker 2: in the name of Satan at that time, or really
27:00
Speaker 2: any other time in history for that matter. I think
27:03
Speaker 2: I've talked about satanic panic in the past, and most
27:05
Speaker 2: people know who know about true crime kind of know
27:08
Speaker 2: about it, but basically it was parents freaking out that
27:10
Speaker 2: their kids were all going to fall under the spell
27:12
Speaker 2: of Satan and start killing themselves and each other. Now, anyway,
27:16
Speaker 2: according to the boys, they had plotted Elisa's murder for months.
27:21
Speaker 2: Jacob was actually the one to suggest her for the sacrifice,
27:23
Speaker 2: and at that point, Joey became even more obsessed with her,
27:26
Speaker 2: this time with actually killing her and not just with
27:29
Speaker 2: her as a person. Now, the boys gained her trust
27:33
Speaker 2: by offering to get her high after school And they
27:36
Speaker 2: would all hang out together. This actually went on for months.
27:39
Speaker 2: And all the while, anytime Elise wasn't around, they were
27:42
Speaker 2: plotting her fucking murder. Which is, like, how can you
27:45
Speaker 2: befriend someone to this degree and then just murder them?
27:49
Speaker 2: And just the whole time just be thinking, I'm only
27:53
Speaker 2: doing this so I can kill you. Like, that is
27:55
Speaker 2: some fucking psycho shit. Now, also, what's crazy is that
27:59
Speaker 2: at some point before this, the boys had actually already
28:02
Speaker 2: tried to kill her. Getting to the point where they
28:04
Speaker 2: had her in an embankment And one of the boys
28:06
Speaker 2: was pointing a knife at her while the others yelled,
28:09
Speaker 2: do it over and over and over. Now, I think
28:12
Speaker 2: this actually included another boy named Travis. And he didn't
28:16
Speaker 2: have the nerve to do it. I guess, I don't know.
28:19
Speaker 2: He wasn't in the band, but I guess he was
28:20
Speaker 2: like a friend of theirs. I didn't write too much
28:22
Speaker 2: about him because he wasn't a part of the murder.
28:24
Speaker 2: But apparently he knew about the plot like before it
28:26
Speaker 2: happened and was even a part of it to obviously
28:29
Speaker 2: some degree. But in any case, this loser lost his
28:32
Speaker 2: nerve and the boys quickly convinced Elise it was all
28:35
Speaker 2: a joke. which unfortunately she believed. So yeah, this is
28:40
Speaker 2: super fucked up that they would pretend to be her
28:42
Speaker 2: friend and then murder her in some bunk ass ritualistic
28:46
Speaker 2: satanic murder so that they got better at playing their instruments.
28:50
Speaker 2: And guess what? They didn't get any fucking better and
28:52
Speaker 2: their band didn't get famous and they remained just fucking losers. Now, luckily,
28:57
Speaker 2: like I said, they were all arrested and the three
28:59
Speaker 2: boys were sentenced to 25 and 26 years to life
29:01
Speaker 2: in prison. And they were sent to separate prisons around
29:06
Speaker 2: California so that they could not interact with each other. Now,
29:10
Speaker 2: starting in, I think, 2018, the parole board tried to
29:13
Speaker 2: grant parole to Royce Casey. But each time they did,
29:17
Speaker 2: Gavin Newsom, the governor at the time, would overturn the ruling,
29:21
Speaker 2: keeping Casey in prison another year or two before they
29:24
Speaker 2: had another parole meeting. Finally, though, in 2025, Royce Casey was,
29:29
Speaker 2: in fact, paroled, as was Jacob DeLashmut. Which, to me,
29:34
Speaker 2: is fucking crazy. Like, Royce Casey found God, came forward,
29:38
Speaker 2: admitted to what he did. Like, good for you. whatever.
29:41
Speaker 2: So I understand that like maybe he's remorseful. Maybe he's not,
29:46
Speaker 2: you know, and again, they're kids. I don't believe that
29:48
Speaker 2: anybody under the age of 18 should be locked up
29:50
Speaker 2: for their entire lives. But it's just really interesting the
29:53
Speaker 2: way the justice system works where like some people get
29:55
Speaker 2: paroled like as soon as they can. And other people
29:58
Speaker 2: stay in prison forever for like crimes that I wouldn't
30:01
Speaker 2: even say are as bad. But that's just me going
30:03
Speaker 2: off on a tangent. Anyway, Joey Fiorella is still in
30:07
Speaker 2: prison as of May this year, which makes sense to me.
30:10
Speaker 2: I saw a photo of him from 2018 and he looks,
30:13
Speaker 2: you know, not all there. So I have a feeling
30:15
Speaker 2: that he is legitimately like still a danger to society
30:19
Speaker 2: where Royce and Jacob, you know, were both found to
30:21
Speaker 2: be not only remorseful, but no longer a threat and
30:24
Speaker 2: were released. And I really hope that's true. Um, I
30:28
Speaker 2: do believe in second chances, so I hope they don't
30:32
Speaker 2: fuck it up. Now I'm another part of the story.
30:35
Speaker 2: So the last thing I want to talk about is, um,
30:37
Speaker 2: it involves the metal band Slayer, who I mentioned earlier, uh,
30:41
Speaker 2: who were super popular in the nineties and were obviously,
30:43
Speaker 2: you know, the favorite band of these fucking loser ass dudes.
30:47
Speaker 2: Now Slayer is pretty gnarly and their lyrics are wild. Um,
30:51
Speaker 2: this is not the song. I'm going to do some,
30:53
Speaker 2: some lyrics from a song. This is actually not the
30:55
Speaker 2: song that was chosen by the parents. Um, but I'm
30:58
Speaker 2: just going to read it because it gives you a
31:00
Speaker 2: little bit of an idea of like what they were
31:01
Speaker 2: writing about. Okay. Waiting the hour destined to die here
31:06
Speaker 2: on the table of hell, a figure in white, unknown
31:08
Speaker 2: by man approaching the altar of death, high priest awaiting
31:12
Speaker 2: dagger in hand, spilling the pure virgin blood, Satan slaughter,
31:18
Speaker 2: ceremonial death, answer his every command. Death will come easy.
31:23
Speaker 2: Just close your eyes. Dream of the friends you will see.
31:26
Speaker 2: heavenly failure, losing again, move on to a new form
31:30
Speaker 2: of life. So while these lyrics, you know, seem to
31:34
Speaker 2: most people to be for entertainment only, Elisa's parents found them,
31:38
Speaker 2: and actually another song in particular, to be dangerous and
31:41
Speaker 2: believe that Slayer was culpable in the death of their daughter.
31:45
Speaker 2: They went as far as attempting to sue the band,
31:47
Speaker 2: which had been done in the past with no success.
31:49
Speaker 2: Not this band, but like other bands. So to try
31:53
Speaker 2: and actually make this stick, they took a different approach.
31:56
Speaker 2: They said that the band was selling obscene and harmful
31:59
Speaker 2: products to minors because they were trying to kind of
32:01
Speaker 2: circumvent the First Amendment issue, right? They also said that
32:06
Speaker 2: the lyrics of many of their songs were basically an
32:08
Speaker 2: instruction manual for violence. So another way of going around
32:12
Speaker 2: the First Amendment is saying that the lyrics were inciting violence,
32:16
Speaker 2: but unfortunately that doesn't work because they're not giving a
32:18
Speaker 2: directive in a specific situation. As you might expect, kind of,
32:23
Speaker 2: you know, For obvious reasons, this made the news. It
32:26
Speaker 2: was a big deal at the time, but also, as
32:28
Speaker 2: you might expect, in the end, the case was basically
32:31
Speaker 2: dismissed because the band's lyrics were soundly covered by freedom
32:35
Speaker 2: of speech, as was their merch sales. Unfortunately, as a
32:39
Speaker 2: part of this murder and just everything that happened after,
32:42
Speaker 2: the family really kind of fell apart. They ended up
32:45
Speaker 2: on government assistance after David Pauler, Elise's father, was unable
32:49
Speaker 2: to work as he was so consumed by his daughter's murder.
32:53
Speaker 2: They ended up losing their house, you know, which really
32:55
Speaker 2: fucking sucks. And it kind of keeps going from there.
32:58
Speaker 2: In 2014, David got himself into some legal trouble after
33:02
Speaker 2: a road rage incident in which he followed another car
33:05
Speaker 2: who had cut him off into a parking lot, allegedly
33:09
Speaker 2: slammed his knee into the other driver's car door and
33:12
Speaker 2: allegedly pulled the man out by his shirt. He ended
33:16
Speaker 2: up getting arrested and reached a plea deal wherein he
33:18
Speaker 2: had to go to anger management classes. During this time,
33:21
Speaker 2: he essentially blamed it on the death of his daughter, which, like,
33:24
Speaker 2: I'm sure that's very hard, but 19 years later, you
33:28
Speaker 2: gotta get it together. You know, like, you've gotta figure out,
33:33
Speaker 2: you know, what to do and how to move on.
33:35
Speaker 2: I mean, who am I to really say that, but, like,
33:36
Speaker 2: you know. Anyway, it's pretty crazy two of these men
33:40
Speaker 2: are now free, though neither can ever go back to
33:42
Speaker 2: Arroyo Grande.
33:43
Speaker 1: Okay.
33:43
Speaker 2: You know, I really can't imagine what that's like for
33:45
Speaker 2: her family, especially after they went to literally every parole
33:48
Speaker 2: hearing for these men in the past 10 years trying
33:50
Speaker 2: to keep them behind bars. Just a really shitty situation
33:54
Speaker 2: start to finish. And anyway, that is the murder of
33:59
Speaker 2: 15-year-old Elise Pauler. A very sweet girl with a very
34:03
Speaker 2: bright future who just befriended the wrong fucking losers and
34:08
Speaker 2: paid the ultimate price. And again... This inspired Jennifer's body,
34:13
Speaker 2: which I think is fairly obvious to anyone who's seen it.
34:16
Speaker 2: Obviously also made, you know, the news because of the lawsuit.
34:18
Speaker 2: So it's a big, big, you know, true crime case.
34:23
Speaker 2: But really, it's just a sad story about a young
34:25
Speaker 2: girl whose life was cut very short by some dumbass
34:29
Speaker 2: fucking idiot losers. So there you go. Anyway, this was
34:34
Speaker 2: a bit of a shorter story. Sorry, guys. Hopefully it
34:38
Speaker 2: was still interesting. Yeah, I already have another one coming
34:43
Speaker 2: that's a little bit more twisty and turny, we'll say.
34:48
Speaker 2: Maybe not even twisty and turny, but just an interesting
34:50
Speaker 2: look into forensics. I'll have that one out as soon
34:54
Speaker 2: as I can. Until then, thanks everybody for listening. Please like, rate, review,
34:59
Speaker 2: share with your friends, share with your family, tell everybody
35:01
Speaker 2: you've ever met. And keep the emails coming. I promise
35:05
Speaker 2: I'll get back to you when I can. Feel free
35:07
Speaker 2: to comment on Spotify. They have the ability to do that.
35:10
Speaker 2: I read them all. I respond when needed or when
35:13
Speaker 2: I feel like I should to give love back. And
35:16
Speaker 2: until the next time you hear my voice, stay safe.