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College Grad Murdered While Visiting Dropout Friend · Murder Files Unsealed

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: I want you to imagine like a perfectly normal scenario
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: for a second.
• 0:03
  Speaker 2: OK.
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Picture a 21 year old college grad named Aaron Davis.
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: It is a crisp, beautiful fall day in November 11th,
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: 2022 to be exact. Right. And Aaron is setting out
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: on a road trip. He's driving from his home in Cumming, Georgia,
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: down to Alabama to visit his girlfriend.
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: It's the kind of drive you make when you're young
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: and in love. I mean, it's completely unremarkable in the
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: grand scheme of things.
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: Exactly. It's totally normal. But along the way, he decides
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: to make a quick pit stop in Rome, Georgia. He
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: just wants to catch up with an old high school buddy.
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: And that is the exact kind of mundane, everyday event
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: that happens, you know, thousands of times a day across
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: the country.
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: Just a guy dropping in to see a friend. You
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: grab a drink. You catch up on life, you crash
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: on the guest bed, and you hit the road the
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: next morning. Right.
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: It's a completely universal experience. Until it is, Anit. Yeah.
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: Because this casual stopover ends in an absolute nightmare. So
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: today we are opening up a massive stack of source
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: material for this deep dive.
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: We really are. We've got police body cam transcripts, intense
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: interrogation records.
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: Oh, and those devastating courtroom victim impact statements.
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: Yeah, those are heavy. And a mountain of deeply chilling
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: digital forensics.
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: Right. So our mission today goes far beyond just recounting
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: a true crime story. We're going to dissect the anatomy
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: of a brutal betrayal.
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: But more than that, we're going to use this tragedy
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: to explore a central, pretty terrifying thesis, honestly.
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: Yeah, which is?
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: How the human brain attempts to actively manufacture a false
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: reality just to escape consequence. We're looking at the razor
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: thin and honestly often blurred line between calculated, cold-blooded premeditation
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: and and claims of severe mental illness.
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: And for anyone listening who thinks, well, I don't follow
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: true crime, why should I care?
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: I mean, this is about so much more than a
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: courtroom drama. This is a profound look at how well
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: we actually know the people we trust with our lives.
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: It really is. It's an exploration of the psychological footprint
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: of guilt.
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: Yeah. And perhaps most importantly for all of us living
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: with smartphones in our pockets, it is a masterclass in
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: how modern digital forensics can entirely dismantle a meticulously constructed lie.
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: Absolutely. Yeah. To understand how a mind builds a lie,
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: we really have to start with the very first crack
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: in the facade.
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: Right. Okay, let's unpack this. Let's go to the morning
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: of November 12th.
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: It begins with a discovery that immediately feels wrong.
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: A police officer is doing a routine patrol near an
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: area called Heritage Park in Rome, Georgia, and he spots
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: a car.
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: But it's not just like, parked on the side of
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: the road with a flat tire or something.
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: No, not at all. It is literally hanging over the
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: edge of a steep embankment. Its front end is submerged
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: in the murky, low waters of a creek down below.
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: Wow. It's just a bizarre visual. A car teetering over
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: the edge, totally abandoned.
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: So the responding officers, you know, they run the plates
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: and they track down their registered owner, a man named
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: Randy Davis. Randy is Aaron's father. And when the police
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: contact him, Randy is already frantic. He tells them that
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: his 21-year-old son Aaron was the one driving that car.
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: Because Aaron was on his way to Alabama, right?
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: Exactly. But he had planned this overnight stop in Rome
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: to see his high school friend, a guy named Brandon Risner.
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: And Randy hasn't heard from Aaron since the day before.
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: So now the police have an abandoned car in a creek.
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: And a missing 21-year-old.
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: It's important to understand the background of these two young men,
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: I think, to see why this stopover made sense to
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: Aaron's family.
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: Yeah, they were pretty close, right?
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: They were. They were very close. They had actually attended
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: the same college initially. But Brandon and his path took
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: a different turn. He dropped out after his first semester.
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: And the search material indicates this was largely due to
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: ongoing struggles with his mental health, right?
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: Yes. So while Aaron was graduating and planning a future
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: with his girlfriend, Brandon was back living at home with
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: his parents, Jeremy and Rachel. Okay.
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: So for the police, the investigation has an obvious starting point.
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: If Aaron was supposed to stay at Brandon's house... and
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: Aaron is now missing, you go knock on Brandon's door.
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: Makes perfect sense. Right.
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: And this brings us to the first encounter between law
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: enforcement and the suspect. And the dynamics of this brief
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: conversation on a front porch are incredibly revealing if you
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: know what to look for.
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: They really are. The officers pull up to the Risner home.
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: Brandon answers the door. His parents are out of town,
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: so he's home alone.
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: And his demeanor is striking. He is completely, perfectly calm.
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: Wow. Like, totally unbothered.
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: Completely. If you read the body cam transcript, it's a
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: remarkably casual exchange. The officer walks up and says, hey,
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: what's going on? And Brandon just leans against the frame
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: and replies, going good.
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: Just going good.
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Wow.
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: So the officer explains that they found Aaron's car and
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: asks when Brandon last saw him. And Brandon immediately launches
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: into this incredibly detailed narrative.
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: Great. The timeline.
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: Yeah. He says they started drinking around noon the day before.
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: He says they went out to some bars in the evening.
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: And then he, Brandon, bought some red wine to bring
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: back to the house. Like, he's actively building a timeline
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: for the police.
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: He is. And he's carefully planting seeds to explain Aaron's
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: theoretical state of mind, you know?
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: Brandon tells the police that Aaron doesn't drink very often,
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: implying that the alcohol hit him unusually hard.
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: Okay, setting up the excuse.
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: Exactly. Brandon claims Aaron went upstairs to the guest bathroom,
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: and he specifically uses the word upchucking.
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: Up-checking. That's quite the word choice.
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: Yeah. He describes Aaron vomiting and adds this highly specific detail.
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: He says Aaron was standing up in his own vomit.
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: Brandon claims he went back downstairs, leaving his friend alone,
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: because Aaron supposedly told him he didn't need any help.
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: Which brings us to his explanation for the actual disappearance.
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: Brandon says he went to sleep, woke up somewhere between
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: 1 and 2 in the morning, and noticed Aaron's car
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: was just gone. And... On the surface, you know, it's
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: a very tidy, plausible story. It explains why Aaron might
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: be disoriented enough to crash his car into a creek.
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: And it explains why he left without saying goodbye.
• 6:11
  Speaker 2: But then Brandon makes a massive unforced error.
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: Oh, yeah. He introduces a detail that completely shifts the
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: psychological weight of the conversation. Completely unprompted. Literally nobody asked
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: him about this. The police are just asking about Aaron.
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: But Brandon brings up an injury to his own hand.
• 6:28
  Speaker 2: Unprompted alibis.
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: Yeah. I have the transcript right here. He says, I
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: went downstairs, dropped a bottle, cut my pinky, and I
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: went to the urgent care this morning, bandaged it up,
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: took a shower, went to bed.
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: And that unprompted detail is a siren going off for
• 6:43
  Speaker 2: anyone trained in behavioral analysis.
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: I was thinking about this earlier. People often compare this
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: kind of lying to like a magician's misdirection.
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: Right. Look over here, not over there.
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: Exactly. You look at the flashy left hand so you
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: don't see the right hand palming the coin. But I
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: don't think that's quite right.
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: What do you mean?
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: Well, a magician is in total control. This feels more
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: like a proactive immune response in the body.
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: Oh, that's interesting.
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Like Brandon Ostrom recognizes that his lie is a
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: foreign pathogen to the police. He knows there is a
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: massive infection hidden upstairs, which is a bloody crime scene.
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: Right, right.
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: So his brain frantically sends out an antibody, this alibi
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: about a cut pinky. to preemptively neutralize the threat before
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: the police even realize there's an infection to look for.
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: What's fascinating here is that that is an excellent analogy
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: because it captures the biological urgency of a lie. Yeah.
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: In the psychology of deception, we study something called cognitive load.
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 7:40
  Speaker 2: Telling the truth is cognitively easy. I mean, you just
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: access a memory and report it.
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: You just say what happened. Right.
• 7:46
  Speaker 2: But lying requires immense neurological resources. You have to invent
• 7:50
  Speaker 2: a scenario. You have to monitor the listener's reaction, suppress
• 7:54
  Speaker 2: the truth, and anticipate future contradictions all at once. Wow.
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that is a lot for a brain to juggle.
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: Exactly. Brandon is experiencing what we call the illusion of transparency.
• 8:05
  Speaker 2: He feels like the police can see right through him,
• 8:07
  Speaker 2: so he is overcompensating.
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: I see.
• 8:09
  Speaker 2: A truthful person just answers the question, like, I last
• 8:12
  Speaker 2: saw him at midnight. But Brandon feels the crushing weight
• 8:15
  Speaker 2: of the blood upstairs. He is terrified they will find
• 8:18
  Speaker 2: a drop of it somewhere.
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: So he sacrifices a small truth.
• 8:22
  Speaker 2: Yes, I am bleeding to protect the massive lie. To
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: an experienced investigator, answering questions that haven't been asked is
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: a flashing neon sign of extreme anxiety masked as helpfulness.
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: But, you know, in that specific moment, standing on the
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: porch in the daylight, the police don't have the context yet.
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: It's just a welfare check. Right.
• 8:42
  Speaker 2: They don't know what's upstairs.
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: So they ask a totally standard question. They say, Do
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: you have any problem with us checking inside the house
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: just to make sure he isn't passed out somewhere?
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: And Brandon doesn't miss a beat.
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: Yeah, he says, no problem at all.
• 8:53
  Speaker 2: He invites them in. And this is often driven by
• 8:56
  Speaker 2: a twisted kind of hubris. He likely thinks he has
• 8:59
  Speaker 2: sanitized the scene well enough to pass a cursory glance.
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: Or maybe he's just panicked.
• 9:03
  Speaker 2: That's the other option. His cognitive load is so high
• 9:06
  Speaker 2: that he realizes refusing a simple search would instantly escalate
• 9:11
  Speaker 2: the situation and make him the prime suspect right there
• 9:14
  Speaker 2: on the porch.
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: Okay, so the officers step inside and start walking through
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: the rooms. As they look around, one of the officers asks,
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: is there anywhere in the house that you don't regularly
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: go to?
• 9:24
  Speaker 2: Which is a smart question.
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: Really smart. And Brandon directs him to the upstairs. He
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: calls it a creepy attic bedroom, noting it even has
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: a keypad lock on the door.
• 9:33
  Speaker 2: But here's the critical slip.
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 9:36
  Speaker 2: He admits that this creepy attic he rarely enters is
• 9:39
  Speaker 2: exactly where Aaron slept the night before. This is the
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: room where Aaron was supposedly throwing up red wine.
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: Okay, so the officers head up the narrow staircase.
• 9:47
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: And the second they breach the threshold of that attic bedroom,
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: the entire reality Brandon constructed on the front porch just disintegrates.
• 9:55
  Speaker 2: Completely falls apart.
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: The officers are met with a scene that makes the
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: hair on their arms stand up.
• 9:59
  Speaker 2: Mm-hmm.
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: The body cam footage shows a room in absolute chaos. First,
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: the bed is completely stripped down to the mattress. There
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: are harsh cleaning supplies scattered all over the room, and
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: a vacuum cleaner is just sitting out in the open.
• 10:13
  Speaker 2: It doesn't look like a room where a guy got
• 10:14
  Speaker 2: sick and left. It looks like a room where someone
• 10:16
  Speaker 2: was desperately trying to erase something.
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and it doesn't take long to see what they
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: were trying to erase. The officers immediately spot blood. And
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: not just a drop or two from a cut pinky finger.
• 10:28
  Speaker 2: No, we are talking about a significant, troubling volume of blood.
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: The officers are narrating their findings in real time for
• 10:36
  Speaker 2: the body cam. They point out thick blood pooling next
• 10:40
  Speaker 2: to the bed. It's splattered on a wooden armoire. It's
• 10:44
  Speaker 2: soaked into the side of the mattress.
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: Wow.
• 10:46
  Speaker 2: And crucially, one officer kneels down and makes a terrifying observation.
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: The blood is still wet.
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: Oh, wow. I mean, think about the physics and biology
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: of that for a second.
• 10:56
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: If we believe Brandon's story, Aaron was throwing up red
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: wine at midnight, maybe 1 a.m., and then drove off.
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: The police are searching this room in the middle of
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: the following day. For blood to still be wet, the
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: volume had to be massive, or the event happened much
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: more recently than Brandon claimed.
• 11:14
  Speaker 2: The physical evidence instantly destroys the narrative. One of the
• 11:18
  Speaker 2: officers astutely points out the physiological impossibility of Brandon's story.
• 11:23
  Speaker 2: How so? Well, if Aaron had alcohol poisoning so severe
• 11:27
  Speaker 2: that he was vomiting literal pools of blood, his body
• 11:30
  Speaker 2: would be in systemic shock.
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: He wouldn't be able to just walk out.
• 11:33
  Speaker 2: Exactly. He wouldn't possess the motor function to just get up,
• 11:36
  Speaker 2: walk down a flight of stairs, start his car, and
• 11:39
  Speaker 2: navigate a dark road at 3 in the morning. A
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: body losing that much blood shuts down. It doesn't go
• 11:45
  Speaker 2: for a drive.
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: Plus, the officers find white powder poured all over the floor,
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: attempting to soak up the mess. This is an active cover-up. Right.
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: So the officers realize they are no longer conducting a
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: missing person check. They are standing in the middle of
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: a violent crime scene.
• 12:00
  Speaker 2: They need to secure it.
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: Yeah, they know they need to back out immediately to
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: preserve the forensic integrity of the room and call in
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: the heavy hitters, you know, the detectives and crime scene technicians.
• 12:10
  Speaker 2: But as they carefully step back toward the hallway, one
• 12:12
  Speaker 2: officer makes an offhand comment to his partner. He notices
• 12:16
  Speaker 2: the missing sheets from the bed and says, the sheets
• 12:19
  Speaker 2: are in here, in the dryer.
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: And that single sentence acts as a tripwire.
• 12:24
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: Brandon is downstairs. He hears the officer mention the dryer,
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: and his response is absolute primal panic.
• 12:32
  Speaker 2: The human brain's threat detection system, the amygdala, takes completely over.
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: He just reacts.
• 12:38
  Speaker 2: Yeah. When the cognitive load of a lie finally collapses
• 12:42
  Speaker 2: and the brain realizes that talking its way out is
• 12:44
  Speaker 2: no longer a viable survival strategy, it defaults to our
• 12:47
  Speaker 2: most ancient programming, which is fight or flight.
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: And Brandon chooses flight.
• 12:51
  Speaker 2: He does.
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: He bolts. The body cam captures the sudden chaos. You
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: hear the dispatcher's radio crackle like westbound on Cottonwood, last
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: seen area, dark colored shirt. One of the officers is
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: breathing heavily, relaying what just happened. He says, I went upstairs,
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: found all the blood. We came back downstairs and he
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: took off like a bat out of hell.
• 13:09
  Speaker 2: The facade is dead. Yeah. Brandon knows that they know. Yeah.
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: And just like that, the Rome Police Department is thrust
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: into a massive high stakes manhunt. They have a bloody
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: crime scene, a missing victim and a fleeing suspect who
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: could be armed and dangerous.
• 13:26
  Speaker 2: They set up perimeters. They start canvassing the neighborhood. They've
• 13:29
  Speaker 2: got dogs out looking for this lanky 21 year old
• 13:31
  Speaker 2: in a dark shirt.
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 13:33
  Speaker 2: And this is the point in the timeline where Brandon's
• 13:36
  Speaker 2: family gets pulled into the vortex. And the situation becomes
• 13:40
  Speaker 2: incredibly morally complex.
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: Yeah, this part is wild. A neighbor realizes what's happening
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: and manages to get Brandon's father, Jeremy Risner, on the phone.
• 13:49
  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: Jeremy and his wife, Rachel, are on their way back
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: into town.
• 13:52
  Speaker 2: So a police lieutenant takes the phone and speaks to Jeremy.
• 13:56
  Speaker 2: Jeremy is defensive. He insists he has no idea where
• 13:58
  Speaker 2: Brandon is.
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 13:59
  Speaker 2: He claims that earlier that morning, before they left, they
• 14:02
  Speaker 2: had actually told Brandon to get in his car and
• 14:05
  Speaker 2: drive around looking for Aaron. Jeremy says he's about an
• 14:08
  Speaker 2: hour away, but is driving back as fast as he can.
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: And hours pass, the sun goes down, the woods around
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: Rome get dark, and they still haven't found Brandon. Eventually,
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: Jeremy Risner arrives back at the house. Okay. He approaches
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: the police line, and he is adamant. He says he
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: doesn't know where his son is hiding. But then, a
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: little while later, Jeremy walks back up to the officers.
• 14:32
  Speaker 2: And he is holding something in his hand.
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: Yeah. It's Brandon's cell phone.
• 14:37
  Speaker 2: This creates an incredibly tense standoff between a father and
• 14:40
  Speaker 2: law enforcement. Jeremy starts interrogating the police.
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: He's asking them questions.
• 14:44
  Speaker 2: Yeah. He's asking for specific details about the crime scene.
• 14:48
  Speaker 2: He asks, is there evidence of a fight? Was there
• 14:51
  Speaker 2: broken glass?
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: Oh.
• 14:53
  Speaker 2: The police, understandably, aren't going to share forensic details with
• 14:57
  Speaker 2: the suspect's father. They just ask him to hand over
• 14:59
  Speaker 2: the phone. It's a critical piece of evidence that could
• 15:01
  Speaker 2: have Brandon's location data on it.
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: But Jeremy refuses. He looks at the cops and asks,
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: do you have a warrant that would include the phone?
• 15:09
  Speaker 2: And when the police admit they were still rushing to
• 15:11
  Speaker 2: get the paperwork signed by a judge, Jeremy pockets the
• 15:14
  Speaker 2: phone and walks away.
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: The officers are stunned. And Jeremy's explanation for how he
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: even got the phone in the first place is, I mean,
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: highly suspect.
• 15:22
  Speaker 2: It's unbelievable.
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: It's wild. Jeremy and Rachel claim that while they were
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: driving around the area of St. Mary's looking for Brandon,
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: they just happened to look down in the grass and
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: found his phone.
• 15:31
  Speaker 2: Yeah, right.
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: I mean, wait, let's pause and actually think about the
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: logistics of that. It is pitch black outside. They are
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: in a grassy, wooded area who just finds a black
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: rectangle in a dark field during a manhunt.
• 15:46
  Speaker 2: Exactly.
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: Even if you are pinging the phone with a location app,
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: GPS is rarely precise enough to lead you to the
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: exact square inch of grass in the dark.
• 15:56
  Speaker 2: The police on the scene don't buy it for a second.
• 15:58
  Speaker 2: The body cam captures them debriefing with each other. One
• 16:02
  Speaker 2: officer notes that the phone screen was perfectly intact.
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 16:05
  Speaker 2: If Brandon had been sprinting through the woods like a
• 16:07
  Speaker 2: bat out of hell and the phone flew out of
• 16:09
  Speaker 2: his cocket, it likely would have been scuffed or shattered.
• 16:12
  Speaker 2: So the conclusion the officers immediately draw is that Jeremy
• 16:16
  Speaker 2: and Rachel found Brandon, met up with him, took his
• 16:19
  Speaker 2: phone so the police couldn't track his movements, and are
• 16:21
  Speaker 2: now stonewalling the investigation to buy him time.
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: I mean, one officer literally says it on tape. He says,
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: dad ain't giving up his son. Yeah.
• 16:32
  Speaker 2: But I want to push back on this a bit, though,
• 16:34
  Speaker 2: because it's easy to villainize the parents here. As a parent,
• 16:37
  Speaker 2: I understand the primal, almost cellular instinct to protect your
• 16:41
  Speaker 2: kid at all costs.
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: Absolutely.
• 16:43
  Speaker 2: But legally, isn't taking that phone and hiding it actively
• 16:47
  Speaker 2: tampering with evidence in a homicide investigation? How does the law,
• 16:51
  Speaker 2: and I guess psychology, distinguish between a parent paralyzed by
• 16:55
  Speaker 2: shock and an active accomplice?
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: That is the crux of the dilemma. Legally, yes, withholding
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: evidence of a felony is a crime. But psychologically, you
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: have to look at what is happening to Jeremy and
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: Rachel's brains in that moment. They are experiencing catastrophic cognitive dissonance.
• 17:09
  Speaker 2: Like they just can't process it? Right. Exactly. The human
• 17:13
  Speaker 2: brain is an incredibly powerful narrative machine. For 21 years,
• 17:18
  Speaker 2: their narrative has been, this is our son, he's a
• 17:21
  Speaker 2: good boy, he has some mental health struggles, but we
• 17:23
  Speaker 2: love him and protect him.
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 17:25
  Speaker 2: Suddenly, the police are telling them, Your son slaughtered his
• 17:28
  Speaker 2: best friend in your attic.
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: The brain just rejects it. It's a firewall.
• 17:32
  Speaker 2: Exactly. The psychological firewall slams shut. They are incapable of
• 17:36
  Speaker 2: processing the reality of the blood in the attic. So
• 17:39
  Speaker 2: their minds desperately grasp for a narrative where Brandon is
• 17:43
  Speaker 2: still the victim.
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: Wow. So they're trying to find any other explanation.
• 17:46
  Speaker 2: Yes. Maybe there was a home invasion. Maybe Aaron attacked him.
• 17:51
  Speaker 2: In their minds, they aren't obstructing a murder investigation. They
• 17:54
  Speaker 2: are protecting their vulnerable child from a massive misunderstanding.
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: So the phone thing is about control. Yes.
• 18:00
  Speaker 2: Demanding a warrant for the phone is a way to
• 18:02
  Speaker 2: exert a tiny bit of control in a universe that
• 18:05
  Speaker 2: has just collapsed around them. They are prioritizing the immediate
• 18:09
  Speaker 2: physical safety of their child over the abstract legal concepts
• 18:12
  Speaker 2: of evidence preservation.
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: It is a fascinating, tragic human reaction, but it absolutely
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: cripples the investigation in the short term.
• 18:21
  Speaker 2: It does.
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: The police are stuck. The physical evidence in that creepy
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: attic bedroom has shattered Brandon's alibi. They know a horrific
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: act of violence occurred. But as midnight approaches, they're missing
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: the two most vital pieces of the puzzle. Where is
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: Brandon and where is Aaron?
• 18:37
  Speaker 2: Right. And the standoff continues for hours. The police secure warrants.
• 18:42
  Speaker 2: They process the house. But the suspects and the victim
• 18:45
  Speaker 2: are ghosts.
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: Until finally the tension breaks. Brandon Risner walks into the
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: Rome police station.
• 18:51
  Speaker 2: And he isn't dragged in by officers.
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: No, he walks in alongside his father, Jeremy, and his stepmother, Rachel.
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: They have brought him in to surrender.
• 18:59
  Speaker 2: But surrendering your physical body is very different from surrendering
• 19:02
  Speaker 2: the truth. Yeah. The detectives immediately separate Brandon from his parents.
• 19:07
  Speaker 2: They bring him into a sterile interrogation room, turn on
• 19:09
  Speaker 2: the cameras, and read him as Miranda writes. They are
• 19:13
  Speaker 2: hoping for a confession, or at least a location for Aaron.
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: But Brandon doesn't say a word. He immediately invokes his
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: right to remain silent and demands an attorney. He shuts
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: down completely.
• 19:24
  Speaker 2: Which is a critical legal maneuver. Yeah. The police can
• 19:27
  Speaker 2: no longer question him about the crime.
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 19:29
  Speaker 2: But they aren't going to let him leave. Even without
• 19:31
  Speaker 2: a body, they have enough to hold him. They immediately
• 19:34
  Speaker 2: charge him with obstruction for fleeing the scene earlier that day,
• 19:38
  Speaker 2: effectively locking him up while they build the murder case.
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: OK, so while Brandon is sitting in a holding cell,
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: his parents are still in the lobby. And they begin
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: talking to the police, sharing their perspective on what might
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: have happened. Right. And the picture they paint of Brandon
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: is incredibly specific and clearly designed to lay the groundwork
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: for a mental health defense.
• 19:59
  Speaker 2: Jeremy explains that Brandon's mental state had been deteriorating for years.
• 20:04
  Speaker 2: He tells detectives that they actually had to pull Brandon
• 20:06
  Speaker 2: out of college and bring him back home because he
• 20:08
  Speaker 2: was suffering from debilitating severe anxiety attacks. Jeremy claims that
• 20:12
  Speaker 2: Brandon was experiencing intrusive thoughts and visions. He says the
• 20:16
  Speaker 2: whole reason Brandon was living in that house was so
• 20:19
  Speaker 2: they could monitor his medications and keep him safe from
• 20:21
  Speaker 2: his own mind.
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: So they're building a profile.
• 20:24
  Speaker 2: Yes. He also adds that Brandon was diagnosed with Tourette's
• 20:28
  Speaker 2: syndrome as a child, alongside crippling obsessive-compulsive disorder.
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: They're desperately trying to frame this entire tragedy, not as
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: a calculated crime, but as a tragic medical emergency, a
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: complete psychotic break from reality.
• 20:44
  Speaker 2: Exactly.
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: But amidst all of this defense building, Jeremy does something
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: that changes everything. He breaks.
• 20:50
  Speaker 2: He does.
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: He tells the investigators that he might be able to
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: show them the general area where they should look for Aaron.
• 20:56
  Speaker 2: Now, we don't know exactly how Jeremy got this information,
• 20:59
  Speaker 2: whether Brandon whispered it to him before they walked into
• 21:02
  Speaker 2: the station or Or if Jeremy figured it out based
• 21:04
  Speaker 2: on where they found the phone.
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 21:06
  Speaker 2: But Jeremy points the police toward an old rural cemetery
• 21:10
  Speaker 2: located up a hill near a road he refers to
• 21:12
  Speaker 2: as Trendle or Trendle.
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: And armed with that kip, the search teams head into
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: the dark woods. The details of what they find are
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: just heartbreaking.
• 21:21
  Speaker 2: Very.
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: Deep in the woods near that old cemetery off a
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: road called Treatland Drive. Investigators discover a massive fallen tree.
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: And underneath the massive root bowl of that overturned tree,
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: they find a freshly dug, shallow grave.
• 21:37
  Speaker 2: And that is where they find Aaron Davis. The tragic
• 21:40
  Speaker 2: confirmation of what all that wet blood in the attic
• 21:43
  Speaker 2: had already told them. Aaron didn't leave in the middle
• 21:45
  Speaker 2: of the night. He never made it out of that
• 21:46
  Speaker 2: house alive.
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: Once the body is recovered, the legal reality shifts instantly.
• 21:51
  Speaker 2: Oh, yeah.
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: The police walk back to Brandon's holding cell. They inform
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: him that his best friend's body has been found. And
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: observers note that Brandon shows absolutely zero emotional reaction. Staring blankly,
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: he is officially charged with malice murder, felony murder, aggravated assault, obstruction,
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: and hindering the investigation of a murder.
• 22:10
  Speaker 2: And so Brandon is booked into the county jail and
• 22:12
  Speaker 2: the slow grinding machinery of the justice system takes over.
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: Right. We are going to fast forward through a year
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: and a half of legal maneuvering, psychiatric evaluations, and grand
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: jury indictments. We jump to June of 2024. Okay. Brandon
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: Risner is back in a courtroom for a plea hearing.
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: He is no longer the lanky kid who ran from
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: the cops. He is a man facing a staggering 12-count indictment.
• 22:37
  Speaker 2: Bullcouts. Yeah.
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: The charges include malice murder, aggravated battery, concealing a death,
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: and two charges that just make your stomach drop. Abandonment
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: of a dead body and removal of body parts from
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: the scene of a death.
• 22:51
  Speaker 2: When a defendant decides to plead guilty, as Brandon ultimately
• 22:54
  Speaker 2: did to avoid a trial... The prosecution is required to
• 22:56
  Speaker 2: read the facts of the case into the public record. Right.
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: Put it on record.
• 23:00
  Speaker 2: This is to establish the factual legal basis for the
• 23:03
  Speaker 2: judge to accept the plea. And the details that the
• 23:05
  Speaker 2: prosecutor read in that courtroom that day, I mean, they
• 23:08
  Speaker 2: are almost beyond comprehension in their sheer intimate brutality.
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: The prosecutor describes the attack in the attic. Brandon didn't
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: use a gun. He attacked Aaron, his best friend, with
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: a blade-like object. He stabbed him repeatedly, targeting his head,
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: his neck, his torso, and his extremities.
• 23:25
  Speaker 2: Awful.
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: The prosecutor noted the attack was so sustained and vicious
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: that it caused severe disfigurement.
• 23:32
  Speaker 2: But the violence didn't stop when Aaron's heart stopped beating.
• 23:35
  Speaker 2: The prosecution had to explain the removal of body parts charge. Right.
• 23:39
  Speaker 2: They detailed how, in a horrific, desperate attempt to cover
• 23:44
  Speaker 2: up the crime and perhaps make the body easier to transport,
• 23:47
  Speaker 2: Brandon attempted to dismember Aaron in the guest bathroom. During
• 23:50
  Speaker 2: this gruesome process, Brandon actually removed a portion of Aaron's
• 23:54
  Speaker 2: small intestines.
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: And horrifyingly, the authorities were never able to recover those remains.
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: It is stomach churning.
• 24:01
  Speaker 2: Completely.
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: When you hear violence like that, you know, intimate, disfiguring,
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: dismembering violence against a friend, you have to ask why.
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: What on earth could drive a human being to do this?
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: And this is where we have to look at Brandon's
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: own words, which were gathered by doctors during his mandatory
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: psychiatric evaluations.
• 24:18
  Speaker 2: This raises an important question. During these evaluations, Brandon attempted
• 24:22
  Speaker 2: to provide a motive that aligned with the mental illness
• 24:25
  Speaker 2: narrative his parents had seeded on night one.
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: Okay, the psychotic break idea.
• 24:29
  Speaker 2: Right. He claimed that prior to Aaron arriving, he consumed
• 24:33
  Speaker 2: marijuana edibles. And he claimed that these edibles triggered a
• 24:38
  Speaker 2: massive psychotic prophecy.
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: A prophecy.
• 24:41
  Speaker 2: According to Brandon, God spoke to him and presented a
• 24:44
  Speaker 2: twisted ultimatum. He either had to murder his best friend,
• 24:48
  Speaker 2: or he had to have sex with his own stepmother.
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: Wow. And the rationale he gave the doctors for his
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: choice is what truly chills the blood. He told the
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: psychiatric evaluators that he weighed the options and chose to
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: murder Aaron because he calculated that there would be less
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: self-pleasure involved in the killing.
• 25:03
  Speaker 2: I want us to really pause and analyze that.
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 25:06
  Speaker 2: We are tasked with reconciling the chaotic, grotesque brutality of
• 25:10
  Speaker 2: a dismemberment with this bizarre, supposedly psychotic prophecy.
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 25:15
  Speaker 2: The defense wants us to believe this was a man
• 25:17
  Speaker 2: entirely divorced from reality. But look at the language he
• 25:20
  Speaker 2: uses to describe the act itself.
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: The quotes from his evaluation don't sound like a man
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: lost in a confusing hallucination at all. They sound like
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: a villain in a movie.
• 25:29
  Speaker 2: Exactly.
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: He told the doctors, Wow. He even admitted a moment
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: of cowardice, saying he hid behind a pillow for a
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: second before the attack to make sure Aaron didn't see
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: him coming.
• 25:49
  Speaker 2: That is the precise language of a predator. That is
• 25:52
  Speaker 2: organized thinking. He is describing a hunt.
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 25:56
  Speaker 2: Someone in the throes of a genuine, disorganized, psychotic break,
• 26:00
  Speaker 2: you know, where they're hallucinating commands from God, does not
• 26:03
  Speaker 2: usually possess the tactical awareness to hide behind a pillow
• 26:07
  Speaker 2: to secure a stealth advantage. He was hyper aware of
• 26:10
  Speaker 2: his environment, of his victims' vulnerabilities, and of his own actions.
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: But the quote that really got to me was when
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: he talked about how he felt during the murder. He
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: said he started feeling emotion for the first time as
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: he was killing Aaron. But it wasn't guilt. It wasn't horror.
• 26:24
  Speaker 2: Was it?
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: He said, and I quote, the only emotion that I
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: felt was surprise that I could have done it or
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: that I could have changed my reality so drastically by
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: doing one move.
• 26:34
  Speaker 2: Changed my reality so drastically by doing one move. That
• 26:37
  Speaker 2: statement is the absolute apex of malignant narcissism. It strips
• 26:41
  Speaker 2: away every ounce of Aaron's humanity. In that moment, Aaron
• 26:46
  Speaker 2: Davis was not a living, breathing person with a family
• 26:49
  Speaker 2: and a future. To Brandon, Aaron was just an object,
• 26:53
  Speaker 2: a prop, a piece of furniture to be smashed so
• 26:56
  Speaker 2: that Brandon could feel a rush of adrenaline and exert
• 26:58
  Speaker 2: ultimate control over his universe. It is the terrifying reduction
• 27:02
  Speaker 2: of a human life to a mere instrument for a
• 27:05
  Speaker 2: killer's self-actualization.
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: I have to call absolute BS on this entire edible defense.
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: I mean, let's be real. Millions of people consume edibles
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: every single day. They might get paranoid. They might eat
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: too many chips. They might think the TV is talking
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: to them. But they don't receive a highly structured prophecy
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: from God presenting a binary choice between incest and murder
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: and then proceed to meticulously execute and cover up a homicide.
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: Doesn't this feel like a desperately convenient excuse?
• 27:31
  Speaker 2: It really does.
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: It feels like he had dark, deeply premeditated urges. And
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: he adds using a weed gummy as a scapegoat.
• 27:40
  Speaker 2: Well, you are hitting on a major forensic debate regarding
• 27:44
  Speaker 2: substance-induced psychosis. Okay. Can massive amounts of THC trigger a
• 27:49
  Speaker 2: psychotic episode? Yeah. Yes, particularly in individuals with underlying vulnerabilities
• 27:54
  Speaker 2: like the anxiety or OCD, as parents describe. Yeah, sure. However,
• 27:58
  Speaker 2: the presentation of true substance-induced psychosis... is almost always chaotic, disorganized,
• 28:04
  Speaker 2: and confused. The person is terrified of their hallucinations.
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: Right, they aren't methodical.
• 28:08
  Speaker 2: Exactly. What Brandon is describing, a calm, calculated decision to
• 28:12
  Speaker 2: stalk his prey based on a logical weighing of self-pleasure,
• 28:16
  Speaker 2: is highly organized. It is goal-directed behavior.
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: And the prosecution fundamentally rejected the edible defense.
• 28:21
  Speaker 2: Yes.
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: Because if Brandon was going to rely on a claim
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: of sudden drug-induced insanity... The prosecution had a weapon waiting
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: to entirely obliterate that narrative.
• 28:30
  Speaker 2: And that weapon wasn't a conflicting psychiatric diagnosis. It was cold.
• 28:34
  Speaker 2: Hard code. We are moving from the physical crime scene
• 28:37
  Speaker 2: in the attic to the digital crime scene inside Brandon's phone.
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 28:41
  Speaker 2: Because the technology we use every day doesn't just track
• 28:43
  Speaker 2: what we buy online or who we text. It meticulously
• 28:47
  Speaker 2: records what we are thinking about before we do something terrible.
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: The digital forensics in this case are staggering.
• 28:53
  Speaker 2: Well, they are.
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: When law enforcement seized Brandon's devices, they used extraction tools,
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: likely software like Celebrate, to pull every kilobyte of data.
• 29:03
  Speaker 2: And I need to explain how devastating this is for
• 29:05
  Speaker 2: a suspect. When you search for something on your phone
• 29:08
  Speaker 2: and then delete it, it isn't gone.
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: People think it is, but it's not.
• 29:12
  Speaker 2: Exactly. The phone's operating system simply marks that space as
• 29:15
  Speaker 2: available to be overwritten. But until new data physically writes
• 29:19
  Speaker 2: over it, The original search query is still sitting there
• 29:22
  Speaker 2: in a school-like database, perfectly preserved. Forensic analysts can pull
• 29:27
  Speaker 2: this data, complete with exact timestamps, cross-referenced with GPS locations.
• 29:32
  Speaker 2: What they built was a minute-by-minute granular timeline of Brandon's
• 29:36
  Speaker 2: psychological state, and it proved premeditation beyond a shadow of
• 29:39
  Speaker 2: a doubt. doubt.
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: Okay, let's walk through this digital timeline, because it completely
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: destroys the idea of a sudden break from reality. Let's
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: look at the days leading up to the murder, before
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: Aaron even arrived in Rome. Aaron called Brandon to say
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: he was passing through. How did Brandon interpret this? The
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: prosecution stated that Brandon viewed this phone call as destiny.
• 30:02
  Speaker 2: Destiny. Yeah.
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: Why? Because he knew his parents were leaving town. He
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: knew he was going to have the house to himself.
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: He knew Aaron would be isolated.
• 30:11
  Speaker 2: And look at his search history in those quiet days
• 30:13
  Speaker 2: before Aaron arrived. He isn't searching for things related to
• 30:17
  Speaker 2: a manic episode. He specifically searches for the plot of
• 30:21
  Speaker 2: the novel and movie One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: For listeners who might not know, what is the core
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: premise of that story?
• 30:27
  Speaker 2: Well, the central plot involves a criminal, played by Jack
• 30:30
  Speaker 2: Nicholson in the movie, who actively feigns severe mental illness
• 30:34
  Speaker 2: in order to be transferred from a harsh labor prison
• 30:37
  Speaker 2: to a relatively comfortable psychiatric hospital. He is malingering. He
• 30:41
  Speaker 2: is faking insanity to manipulate the justice system. And right
• 30:45
  Speaker 2: next to that search, Brandon Googles 10 tips for dealing
• 30:49
  Speaker 2: with guilt.
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: I mean, my God, he is literally researching how to
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: fake insanity and how to handle the the emotional hangover
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: of a crime he hasn't even committed yet.
• 30:58
  Speaker 2: Exactly.
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: That is the purest definition of premeditation. He isn't having
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: a break from reality. He is tethered entirely to reality.
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: And he is meticulously scripting his legal defense strategy in advance.
• 31:10
  Speaker 2: Precisely. In forensic psychology, researching how to fake a mental
• 31:14
  Speaker 2: illness is called meta-awareness of malingering.
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: Meta-awareness of malingering.
• 31:18
  Speaker 2: Right. A person who is genuinely descending into an uncontrollable
• 31:21
  Speaker 2: psychotic break does not research the diagnostic criteria for psychosis
• 31:25
  Speaker 2: so they can convincingly act it out later.
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: Wow, yeah.
• 31:28
  Speaker 2: That search history alone proves he possessed the cognitive capacity
• 31:31
  Speaker 2: to understand cause and effect, and that he was deeply
• 31:34
  Speaker 2: concerned with mitigating the legal consequences of his planned actions.
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: And then we get to the day of the murder itself. Friday,
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: November 11th. The horrible act is done. Aaron is dead.
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: And Brandon's search history transforms from a planning stage into
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: a frantic, horrific how-to manual for covering up a homicide.
• 31:53
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: He makes over 20 separate searches looking for very specific
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: sheets and blankets.
• 31:59
  Speaker 2: He is trying to find exact replicas of the bloody
• 32:02
  Speaker 2: sheets that were on the guest bed. His goal is
• 32:04
  Speaker 2: to replace them, remake the bed, and have the room
• 32:07
  Speaker 2: look entirely undisturbed, as if Aaron had never been there.
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: But the searches escalate quickly. He realizes he has a
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: massive biological mess on his hands. He searches for professional
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: stain remover... He searches, does Walmart have duct tape? And
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: then he actually Googles schizophrenia symptoms.
• 32:24
  Speaker 2: Again, reinforcing the malingering. He is studying the symptoms of
• 32:27
  Speaker 2: the illness he plans to claim caused the murder, ensuring
• 32:30
  Speaker 2: his behavior matches the textbook definition.
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: The searches get even darker. He looks up hydrochloric acid.
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: He searches for best secluded locations. He Googles how to
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: drain washing machine, presumably because he tried to wash the
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: bloody sheets and clogged it.
• 32:44
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that makes sense.
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: And the most chilling search of all. Chattanooga blood spill cleanup.
• 32:49
  Speaker 2: He is realizing the sheer physical difficulty of erasing a murder.
• 32:54
  Speaker 2: And he didn't just passively search these things. The digital
• 32:57
  Speaker 2: footprint tracks his physical movements.
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: Right, the GPS.
• 33:00
  Speaker 2: The GPS and transaction data show he went to a
• 33:03
  Speaker 2: local Walmart around 6 p.m. that evening to buy the
• 33:06
  Speaker 2: duct tape.
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: Duct tape that the prosecution noted was ultimately used to
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: bind Aaron's body before he was buried.
• 33:12
  Speaker 2: Yeah. After the sun went down on Friday... His location
• 33:15
  Speaker 2: data shows him driving in erratic patterns all around Rome.
• 33:19
  Speaker 2: He was stopping at random dumpsters behind businesses, scattering pieces
• 33:23
  Speaker 2: of evidence, cleaning supplies, perhaps the missing knife or Aaron's belongings,
• 33:27
  Speaker 2: to thoroughly disjoint the investigation.
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: And then Saturday morning rolls around, the day the police
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: will eventually show up. Brandon begins actively conscratching the alibi
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: we heard him tell on the body cam. He texts
• 33:38
  Speaker 1: his stepmother, Rachel, but he didn't just fire off a text.
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: The forensics team found an exact note he had typed
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: into his phone as notes app earlier, a reminder to himself.
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: The note said, text Rachel that Aaron threw up horribly.
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: I think there was some blood in it. I woke
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: up and he was gone.
• 33:54
  Speaker 2: He is workshopping his lie. He is practicing the narrative
• 33:57
  Speaker 2: he plans to deploy.
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: But out of all the digital evidence presented in court,
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: there is one item that stands out as the most
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: deeply disturbing.
• 34:06
  Speaker 2: Okay, what is it?
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: It wasn't a Google search. It was a physical to-do
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: list that he wrote for himself when he returned to
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: the house after burying Aaron.
• 34:13
  Speaker 2: Here's where it gets really interesting, because I am going
• 34:15
  Speaker 2: to read this list exactly as the prosecution presented it
• 34:18
  Speaker 2: in court.
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 34:19
  Speaker 2: Because I think it perfectly captures the absolute banality of evil.
• 34:23
  Speaker 2: It is a numbered list. Number one, schedule last three songs.
• 34:27
  Speaker 2: This is referring to his YouTube channel where he posted
• 34:29
  Speaker 2: his own music. Okay. Number two, vacuum. Number three, laundry.
• 34:33
  Speaker 2: Number four, Shower in my shower. Number five, take a bath.
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: That list requires profound psychological analysis. We are looking at
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: extreme psychological compartmentalization. Schedule YouTube songs is item number one,
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: right above cleaning up a violent dismemberment.
• 34:52
  Speaker 2: It's so casual. But item number four, shower in my shower,
• 34:56
  Speaker 2: is the most revealing piece of evidence in the entire case.
• 34:59
  Speaker 1: Why is that one so important?
• 35:01
  Speaker 2: Because it shows intense situational awareness. The prosecution explained to
• 35:06
  Speaker 2: the judge that Aaron was dismembered in the guest bathroom shower.
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: Oh.
• 35:10
  Speaker 2: Brandon wrote, Oh, God. A person in a psychotic, hallucinatory
• 35:14
  Speaker 2: fugue state does not possess the organized foresight to designate
• 35:17
  Speaker 2: specific plumbing fixtures for specific forensic tasks.
• 35:34
  Speaker 1: Wow. It is exactly like a grocery list mixed with
• 35:37
  Speaker 1: a script for a slasher film. The overwhelming preoccupation with cleaning, vacuuming, laundry, showering,
• 35:43
  Speaker 1: taking a bath. It is a physical manifestation of trying
• 35:46
  Speaker 1: to wash away guilt, to scrub the reality of what
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: he did out of existence. Right. And speaking of that
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: YouTube channel he wanted to schedule songs for, the prosecution
• 35:55
  Speaker 1: also pulled lyrics from a song Brandon had written around
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: this time. The lyrics read, he screamed till he choked
• 36:01
  Speaker 1: on his own tongue and blood. His scream became a
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: garble as he swallowed his tongue.
• 36:06
  Speaker 2: Wow. The defense might try to argue that this is
• 36:08
  Speaker 2: just dark, edgy, creative writing. But the prosecutor argued, very convincingly,
• 36:14
  Speaker 2: that these lyrics were Brandon actively describing the physical reality
• 36:18
  Speaker 2: of Aaron's death.
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: Like trophy.
• 36:19
  Speaker 2: Exactly. It acts as a grotesque souvenir. Yeah. Serial killers
• 36:23
  Speaker 2: often take physical trophies, jewelry, clothing. Brandon took a digital
• 36:27
  Speaker 2: artistic trophy. He immortalized the murder in a song. hiding
• 36:31
  Speaker 2: his confession in plain sight under the guise of art.
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: Having laid out this absolute mountain of cold, hard facts,
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: the meticulous premeditation, the intimate brutality of the crime, the
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: highly organized digital cover-up, it is crucial that we don't
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: let this turn into just a clinical forensic exercise.
• 36:48
  Speaker 2: Right. We can't forget the victims.
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: We cannot lose sight of the human cost. We have
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: to transition back into that courtroom and hear the devastating
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: victim impact statements. Because Brandon Reznor didn't just destroy one life,
• 36:59
  Speaker 1: he effectively destroyed two entirely different families.
• 37:02
  Speaker 2: The sentencing phase of a trial is often the most agonizing.
• 37:06
  Speaker 2: It is where the sterile legal arguments end and the
• 37:09
  Speaker 2: raw bleeding human consequences are put on display.
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 37:14
  Speaker 2: Erin Davis's girlfriend was one of the first to speak
• 37:16
  Speaker 2: to the judge. She stood up and told the court
• 37:19
  Speaker 2: that Erin was the love of her life. She said
• 37:23
  Speaker 2: they had shared a hundred love stories and that she
• 37:26
  Speaker 2: had fully intended to be married to him for time
• 37:28
  Speaker 2: and eternity.
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: She talked about the future they had mapped out, how
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: they wanted a big wedding where both of their families
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: could come together and celebrate. They wanted everyone they loved
• 37:36
  Speaker 1: standing around them for their first dance. And then she
• 37:38
  Speaker 1: delivered a detail that just gets you. She looked at
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: the judge and said that Brandon, the man sitting in
• 37:43
  Speaker 1: chains across the room, the man who slaughtered Aaron, surely
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: would have been one of Aaron's groomsmen at that wedding.
• 37:49
  Speaker 2: That detail highlights the ultimate horror of this crime. The
• 37:53
  Speaker 2: profound betrayal of intimate trust. This wasn't a random mugging
• 37:57
  Speaker 2: gone wrong in a dark alley. This was a trusted
• 37:59
  Speaker 2: member of their inner circle. A man who ate dinner
• 38:02
  Speaker 2: at their tables, who knew their families, who was woven
• 38:06
  Speaker 2: into the fabric of their lives.
• 38:08
  Speaker 1: Then Aaron's mother stood up to deliver her statement. And
• 38:11
  Speaker 1: it is hard to even read the transcript of her words.
• 38:15
  Speaker 1: She told the court that she has cried every single
• 38:18
  Speaker 1: day for a year and a half.
• 38:20
  Speaker 2: Wow.
• 38:20
  Speaker 1: She is plagued by vivid, violent nightmares of Aaron being
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: stabbed to death in that attic. She said that when
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: Brandon drove that blade into Aaron, he didn't just kill
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: her son. He stabbed the entire family in the heart.
• 38:33
  Speaker 1: He ripped their hearts out.
• 38:35
  Speaker 2: But the most profound part of her statement wasn't about
• 38:37
  Speaker 2: the night of the murder. It was about the mundane
• 38:39
  Speaker 2: torture of her everyday life now. She explained that she
• 38:42
  Speaker 2: works at an assisted living center. Naturally, the elderly residents
• 38:46
  Speaker 2: she cares for are friendly. They want to make small talk.
• 38:49
  Speaker 2: They frequently ask her, how many children do you have?
• 38:51
  Speaker 1: And she confessed to the court that instead of answering five,
• 38:54
  Speaker 1: which is the truth, she usually answers four. Because if
• 38:57
  Speaker 1: she says she has five children, the residents will smile
• 38:59
  Speaker 1: and ask about them. Right.
• 39:01
  Speaker 2: They'll ask what they do for a living, where they live.
• 39:04
  Speaker 2: And she simply cannot bear to burden these sweet elderly
• 39:07
  Speaker 2: strangers with the horrific reality that her fifth child was
• 39:11
  Speaker 2: butchered by his best friend.
• 39:13
  Speaker 1: If we connect this to the bigger picture, that is
• 39:16
  Speaker 1: a textbook heart-breathing example of what psychologists refer to as
• 39:20
  Speaker 1: ambiguous loss intertwined with disenfranchised grief.
• 39:24
  Speaker 2: What does that mean exactly?
• 39:25
  Speaker 1: Dr. Pauline Boss coined the term ambiguous loss to describe
• 39:28
  Speaker 1: grief without closure. But it applies here because Aaron is
• 39:31
  Speaker 1: physically gone, but psychologically, his mother is forced to constantly
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: manage his existence in the eyes of others. Her grief
• 39:39
  Speaker 1: is disenfranchised because society doesn't know how to handle the
• 39:41
  Speaker 1: ugliness of murder. To survive a Tuesday afternoon at work
• 39:45
  Speaker 1: without triggering a panic attack in herself or horror in
• 39:48
  Speaker 1: her elderly patients is She is forced to literally erase
• 39:51
  Speaker 1: her own son's existence in casual conversation.
• 39:54
  Speaker 2: That is so awful.
• 39:55
  Speaker 1: The trauma forces her into a constant exhausting state of self-censorship.
• 39:59
  Speaker 1: The murder didn't just end Aaron's life. It actively demands
• 40:02
  Speaker 1: that his mother deny his life just to function in
• 40:05
  Speaker 1: polite society. And that trauma bleeds into the siblings, too.
• 40:09
  Speaker 1: Aaron's brother, Micah, told the judge that he feels physical,
• 40:13
  Speaker 1: visceral pain just hearing the word murder used casually in
• 40:17
  Speaker 1: video games or movies. A completely common word has been
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: permanently weaponized against his brain. Now, on the other side
• 40:24
  Speaker 1: of the courtroom aisle, Brandon's parents also step forward to
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: address the judge. And they are carrying a very different,
• 40:31
  Speaker 1: deeply complicated kind of pain.
• 40:33
  Speaker 2: Yes, they are. Jeremy and Rachel Risner approach the bench
• 40:37
  Speaker 2: to plead for mercy for their son. They maintain their
• 40:41
  Speaker 2: narrative to the bitter end.
• 40:43
  Speaker 1: They still held on to it.
• 40:44
  Speaker 2: They did. They told the judge that Brandon is fundamentally...
• 40:47
  Speaker 2: a kind, gentle person who had never shown a single
• 40:50
  Speaker 2: sign of violence in his entire life. They firmly blamed
• 40:53
  Speaker 2: the horrific events of that night on a severe sequence
• 40:55
  Speaker 2: of mental health breaks, reiterating his history of Tourette's, severe OCD,
• 41:00
  Speaker 2: panic attacks, and the intrusive visions.
• 41:02
  Speaker 1: Brandon's mother, Rachel, and I want to clarify a quick
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: note on the source material here. The transcript actually says
• 41:07
  Speaker 1: Brownman's mom, but based on context, this is clearly a
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: transcription error referring to Brandon's mom.
• 41:12
  Speaker 2: Right, right.
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: Rachel said something that really struck me. Through tears, she said,
• 41:17
  Speaker 1: The only way that I can reconcile this horrific act
• 41:20
  Speaker 1: with my son is by acknowledging that Brandon suffers from
• 41:24
  Speaker 1: severe mental breaks.
• 41:25
  Speaker 2: If we pull back and look at the psychology of
• 41:27
  Speaker 2: a perpetrator's family, you're witnessing a mother desperately trying to
• 41:31
  Speaker 2: resolve an impossible cognitive dissonance.
• 41:34
  Speaker 1: Yeah, how does she square the two?
• 41:36
  Speaker 2: She is fully aware of the boy she raised. She
• 41:39
  Speaker 2: rocked him to sleep. She fed him. She loved him
• 41:41
  Speaker 2: for two decades. And now the legal system has presented
• 41:45
  Speaker 2: her with undeniable, horrific proof that this exact same boy
• 41:49
  Speaker 2: committed a demonic atrocity.
• 41:51
  Speaker 1: Her brain just cannot hold both of those truths at
• 41:54
  Speaker 1: the same time.
• 41:55
  Speaker 2: It cannot. To accept that Brandon murdered Aaron out of cold,
• 41:58
  Speaker 2: calculated malice would require her to destroy her own understanding
• 42:01
  Speaker 2: of reality.
• 42:02
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 42:02
  Speaker 2: It would mean she raised a monster without knowing it.
• 42:05
  Speaker 2: So her psyche necessitates the mental break narrative. The idea
• 42:10
  Speaker 2: of sudden uncontrollable insanity is not just a legal defense
• 42:13
  Speaker 2: for her. It is a psychological life raft. She has
• 42:16
  Speaker 2: to cling to it in order to survive the reality
• 42:19
  Speaker 2: of what her son has become. We have to remember
• 42:21
  Speaker 2: that families of perpetrators lose a child too. But their
• 42:25
  Speaker 2: grief is incredibly isolating because society demands that they mourn
• 42:30
  Speaker 2: a monster. And they are rarely allowed any public sympathy.
• 42:34
  Speaker 1: So the judge has absorbed all of this. He has
• 42:37
  Speaker 1: heard the horrific bloody facts of the crime scene. He
• 42:40
  Speaker 1: has seen the damning digital evidence of the search history
• 42:43
  Speaker 1: and the to-do list. He has listened to the agonizing
• 42:47
  Speaker 1: righteous pleas from Aaron's devastated family demanding maximum justice, and
• 42:51
  Speaker 1: he has heard the desperate, broken pleas from Brandon's parents
• 42:54
  Speaker 1: begging for mercy.
• 42:56
  Speaker 2: And the entire courtroom is waiting.
• 42:57
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and the gavel has to fall.
• 42:59
  Speaker 2: The prosecution made their ultimate position very clear. They asked
• 43:03
  Speaker 2: the judge to sentence Brandon to life in prison without
• 43:05
  Speaker 2: the possibility of parole. Okay. They argued that the sheer
• 43:09
  Speaker 2: calculation involved in the cover-up proved that rehabilitation was not
• 43:13
  Speaker 2: possible for a mind capable of this level of organized cruelty.
• 43:17
  Speaker 1: So the judge takes a short recess to weigh the arguments.
• 43:20
  Speaker 1: The courtroom is dead silent. When he returns to the bench,
• 43:24
  Speaker 1: he delivers the final verdict. Brandon Reisner is sentenced to
• 43:28
  Speaker 1: life in prison without the possibility of parole. He will
• 43:31
  Speaker 1: die in a cell.
• 43:32
  Speaker 2: And importantly, the judge explicitly outlines his legal reasoning on
• 43:37
  Speaker 2: the public record, ensuring the sentence will hold up to appeal.
• 43:40
  Speaker 1: What does he base it on?
• 43:42
  Speaker 2: He states that the maximum sentence is based upon three
• 43:45
  Speaker 2: core pillars. The clear evidence of premeditation, the uniquely horrific
• 43:50
  Speaker 2: and disfiguring manner of death, and the extensive, highly calculated
• 43:54
  Speaker 2: efforts to cover up all of the acts afterward.
• 43:57
  Speaker 1: Let's break down the legal weight of that reasoning. The
• 44:00
  Speaker 1: judge is essentially saying that it doesn't matter what mental
• 44:03
  Speaker 1: health struggles Brandon may have documented in his past.
• 44:05
  Speaker 2: Exactly.
• 44:06
  Speaker 1: The digital forensics, the code on his phone, proved that
• 44:09
  Speaker 1: his brain was fully in control when he planned it,
• 44:11
  Speaker 1: executed it, and tried to hide it.
• 44:13
  Speaker 2: Exactly. We have to look at the legal threshold for insanity,
• 44:17
  Speaker 2: which in many jurisdictions is based on variations of the
• 44:19
  Speaker 2: Annaten Rule. To be found legally insane, you must be
• 44:23
  Speaker 2: so completely divorced from reality that you are literally unable
• 44:27
  Speaker 2: to distinguish right from wrong at the time of the act.
• 44:29
  Speaker 1: Okay, so knowing right from wrong is key.
• 44:31
  Speaker 2: Yes. Even if we can see that Brandon struggled with
• 44:34
  Speaker 2: genuine OCD or severe anxiety, as his parents claimed, the
• 44:38
  Speaker 2: presence of a methodical cleanup plan, the Google searches for
• 44:42
  Speaker 2: how to fake schizophrenia, the Walmart trip for duct tape,
• 44:45
  Speaker 2: and the literal step-by-step to-do list, all of that legally
• 44:49
  Speaker 2: obliterates the definition of an uncontrollable psychotic break.
• 44:54
  Speaker 1: Because he tried to hide it.
• 44:55
  Speaker 2: Right. You don't try to hide something if you don't
• 44:57
  Speaker 2: know it's wrong. Brandon's massive, exhausting cover-up effort proved beyond
• 45:04
  Speaker 2: any legal doubt that he knew exactly how wrong and
• 45:06
  Speaker 2: how illegal his actions were.
• 45:08
  Speaker 1: The judge's final words to the courtroom before adjourning were
• 45:10
  Speaker 1: incredibly somber. He looked out at the two divided families.
• 45:14
  Speaker 1: He acknowledged that both of these young men, Aaron and Brandon,
• 45:17
  Speaker 1: were deeply loved throughout their lives. And he recognized that
• 45:21
  Speaker 1: the Reznor family was also in tremendous, undeniable pain over
• 45:25
  Speaker 1: losing the son they thought they knew. But the judge
• 45:28
  Speaker 1: drew a very hard, very necessary distinction.
• 45:31
  Speaker 2: Which was?
• 45:32
  Speaker 1: He noted that the pain of Aaron's family far exceeds
• 45:35
  Speaker 1: that of the Reznor's, calling the brutal, intimate murder of
• 45:38
  Speaker 1: their young son entirely unfathomable.
• 45:41
  Speaker 2: It is a stark, necessary reminder of the hierarchy of
• 45:45
  Speaker 2: tragedy in a courtroom. The perpetrator's family suffers immense secondary trauma, yes.
• 45:50
  Speaker 2: But the victim's family was forced into this nightmare violently
• 45:54
  Speaker 2: against their will and By the choices of the man
• 45:56
  Speaker 2: sitting at the defense table.
• 45:57
  Speaker 1: And as we wrap up this deep dive, I want you,
• 46:00
  Speaker 1: the listener, to think about something the next time you
• 46:02
  Speaker 1: pick up your phone. Yeah. Think about the invisible digital
• 46:05
  Speaker 1: breadcrumbs you leave behind every single day. The random thoughts
• 46:09
  Speaker 1: you search for, the texts you draft and delete, the
• 46:11
  Speaker 1: notes you write to yourself.
• 46:12
  Speaker 2: I'll fall there.
• 46:13
  Speaker 1: In this case, those invisible breadcrumbs were the exact things
• 46:17
  Speaker 1: that secured justice for Aaron. We are so conditioned to
• 46:20
  Speaker 1: think of technology as just a tool that tracks our
• 46:23
  Speaker 1: consumer habits to sell us shoes. But in a forensic setting,
• 46:28
  Speaker 1: it is a mirror.
• 46:29
  Speaker 2: It really is.
• 46:30
  Speaker 1: It records our absolute true intent. It exposes the hidden
• 46:33
  Speaker 1: architecture of our minds, even when we try to hide
• 46:36
  Speaker 1: behind a carefully constructed facade of insanity.
• 46:39
  Speaker 2: It is the ultimate, entirely unbiased witness. Brandon Risner was
• 46:44
  Speaker 2: arrogant enough to think he could outsmart the justice system
• 46:47
  Speaker 2: by researching how to beat it.
• 46:48
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 46:48
  Speaker 2: But the supreme irony is that his very research, his
• 46:51
  Speaker 2: attempt to script a fake madness, became the ironclad proof
• 46:55
  Speaker 2: of his total sanity and his undeniable guilt.
• 46:57
  Speaker 1: We are left looking at a tragedy that defies easy comprehension.
• 47:01
  Speaker 1: A young man, Aaron Davis, full of promise, deeply in
• 47:04
  Speaker 1: love with his entire life stretching out ahead of him,
• 47:06
  Speaker 1: was snuffed out.
• 47:07
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 47:07
  Speaker 1: And he was killed by a trusted friend who hid
• 47:09
  Speaker 1: behind a mask of normalcy on his front porch and
• 47:11
  Speaker 1: later tried to cower behind a mask of madness in
• 47:14
  Speaker 1: a courtroom room.
• 47:15
  Speaker 2: And while justice, in the strictest legal sense, has been
• 47:18
  Speaker 2: served by putting Brandon away forever, it is a hollow,
• 47:21
  Speaker 2: echoing victory. Because a life sentence doesn't undo a murder.
• 47:26
  Speaker 2: Nothing can bring Aaron back to the people who loved him.
• 47:29
  Speaker 1: I want to end by honoring Aaron's memory, recalling a
• 47:32
  Speaker 1: quote from the eulogy delivered by his heartbroken mother. Okay.
• 47:35
  Speaker 1: She stood before her community and said, Aaron, you are
• 47:38
  Speaker 1: so loved, you are so missed, and will always be missed.
• 47:40
  Speaker 1: We treasure the time we had to enjoy his presence
• 47:43
  Speaker 1: on this earth.
• 47:44
  Speaker 2: That's beautiful.
• 47:45
  Speaker 1: But before we sign off, I want to leave you
• 47:46
  Speaker 1: with one final, deeply chilling philosophical thread to mull over.
• 47:51
  Speaker 1: It goes back to the digital forensics, specifically those song
• 47:55
  Speaker 1: lyrics Brandon wrote just before the murder.
• 47:57
  Speaker 2: Yes. The lyrics where he wrote, it doesn't matter what
• 47:59
  Speaker 2: you do. Go kill someone. Go love someone. You can't
• 48:02
  Speaker 2: plan the future. God decided it for you.
• 48:04
  Speaker 1: He literally typed the words, it's fine to think that
• 48:07
  Speaker 1: I'm just a little toy. I want you to think
• 48:10
  Speaker 1: about the incredible contagious danger of that kind of determinism.
• 48:14
  Speaker 2: What do you mean by that?
• 48:15
  Speaker 1: When a human being adopts the philosophy that their actions
• 48:18
  Speaker 1: are pre-written, that they are just a little toy being
• 48:20
  Speaker 1: pushed around by destiny or God or fate, they completely
• 48:24
  Speaker 1: strip away their own moral agency.
• 48:26
  Speaker 2: They abdicate responsibility.
• 48:28
  Speaker 1: Exactly. What happens to a human soul when it convinces
• 48:31
  Speaker 1: itself that it is no longer responsible for its own actions?
• 48:34
  Speaker 1: Because if you believe the universe decided it all for you,
• 48:37
  Speaker 1: then suddenly... The nightmare of butchering your best friend in
• 48:41
  Speaker 1: an attic doesn't seem like a choice at all. It
• 48:43
  Speaker 1: just becomes the next mundane item on your to-do list.
• 48:46
  Speaker 2: Wow.
• 48:47
  Speaker 1: Remember how we started this deep dive? A perfectly normal
• 48:50
  Speaker 1: road trip, a casual stopover to see a buddy. It
• 48:53
  Speaker 1: is absolutely terrifying to realize how quickly the mundane can
• 48:56
  Speaker 1: descend into a nightmare when the person opening the door
• 48:59
  Speaker 1: has quietly decided that morality is just an illusion.