Latest / Crime and Horror / This was his last open mic

Transcript

This was his last open mic · Crime and Horror

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Speaker 1: Today, I'm going to tell three stories about people who
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Speaker 1: tried really hard to be something that they were not.
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Speaker 2: Not only do they get caught, but.
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Speaker 1: They also face just extreme repercussions. But before we get
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Speaker 1: into today's stories, if you're a fan of the Strange, Dark,
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Speaker 2: Okay, let's get into today's stories. Around 1 a.m.
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Speaker 1: On December 3rd, 1999, a 67-year-old billionaire banker named Edmund
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Speaker 1: Safra sat up in bed inside of his penthouse apartment
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Speaker 1: in the country of Monaco. Edmund's wife, Lily Safra, didn't
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Speaker 1: sleep in the same bedroom as him, in part because Edmund,
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Speaker 1: he had a lot of medical issues and he needed
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Speaker 1: to get medication throughout the night. And so Lily was
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Speaker 1: sleeping down the hallway in a separate bedroom. And in fact,
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Speaker 1: right now, the reason Edmund was awake was to get
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Speaker 1: his medication. His overnight nurse had come into the bedroom
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Speaker 1: to give it to him. So Edmund had Parkinson's disease,
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Speaker 1: which is a serious nervous system disorder that causes movement problems,
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Speaker 1: amongst other things. And as a result, he required around-the-clock care.
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Speaker 1: But money was no object to Edmund. I mean, he's
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Speaker 1: a billionaire. So he had hired four doctors and eight
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Speaker 1: nurses to work exclusively for him. And actually, about a
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Speaker 1: month earlier, he convinced all of these medical providers, to
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Speaker 1: move with him and his wife from New York City
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Speaker 1: to this enormous, luxurious apartment in Monaco. There were tons
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Speaker 1: of police, the crime rate was very low, and the
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Speaker 1: building he was in in particular was known to have
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Speaker 1: extremely high security, which was very important to Edmund because,
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Speaker 1: you know, he's one of the richest people in the world,
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Speaker 1: and so he knew he was a prime target for robbers. Plus,
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Speaker 1: he was more vulnerable now than ever since his disease
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Speaker 1: had made it pretty difficult to move around without help.
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Speaker 1: And he just knew he would not be able to
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Speaker 1: defend himself if somebody broke in. And so by moving
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Speaker 1: to Monaco, Edmund really felt like he had heightened his
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Speaker 1: security tenfold. But remember, money's not an issue for Edmund.
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Speaker 1: And so once he was in Monaco, he actually continued
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Speaker 1: taking further measures to really ensure his house was as
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Speaker 1: safe as possible. He'd replaced all the doors in this
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Speaker 1: apartment with heavy reinforced steel and And the windows had
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Speaker 1: been fitted with this very expensive, thick bulletproof glass and
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Speaker 1: also steel shutters that were literally impossible to open from
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Speaker 1: the outside.
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Speaker 2: He'd also hired a.
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Speaker 1: 25-person security detail made up of highly trained intelligence officers.
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Speaker 1: I mean, even one of his night nurses, Ted Marr,
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Speaker 1: who was actually the guy coming in right now to
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Speaker 1: give him medication, was a former Green Beret, Army Special Forces.
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Speaker 1: And so with all these people and all these measures
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Speaker 1: in place, Edmund... really felt secure. He felt like, you
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Speaker 1: know what?
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Speaker 2: I'm safe.
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Speaker 1: And so now, Edmund took his nightly pills, and then
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Speaker 1: after he swallowed them, Edmund closed his eyes and drifted
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Speaker 1: off to sleep, content in knowing that, just like every night,
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Speaker 1: at least now in Monaco, he was as safe as
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Speaker 1: he could be. However, just a few hours later, Edmund
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Speaker 1: woke up again, but now to the sound of an
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Speaker 1: alarm blaring across his apartment.
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Speaker 2: And he smelled smoke.
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Speaker 1: He opened his eyes and he saw one of his
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Speaker 1: other nurses, a woman named Vivian Tarente, running over to
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Speaker 1: his bed. And Ted, the Green Beret, was standing in
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Speaker 1: the doorway behind her and he was clutching his stomach,
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Speaker 1: which was soaked in blood. And so Edmund's frantic. He's
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Speaker 1: asking what's going on. But Vivian, she's very calm and
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Speaker 1: she helps Edmund sit up. And she told him calmly
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Speaker 1: but urgently that right now they have to go into
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Speaker 1: his bathroom and and wait because there's an intruder in
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Speaker 1: the house. And when he heard this, it's like Edmund's
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Speaker 1: mind went blank with panic. I mean, this was literally
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Speaker 1: his worst fear. It's the thing he had spent so
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Speaker 1: much money and put so much energy into mitigating against.
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Speaker 2: How could this be happening?
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Speaker 1: But he really didn't have any time to freak out
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Speaker 1: or ask any questions before Vivian had hoisted him up
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Speaker 1: onto her shoulder and carried him into his nearby enormous
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Speaker 1: bathroom where where she gently put him down, and then
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Speaker 1: she shut the door and locked it with her in
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Speaker 1: there with him. And then as soon as they got settled, Edmund,
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Speaker 1: he turned to Vivian, and he's like, what is going on?
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Speaker 2: What happened? What do you mean there's an intruder?
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Speaker 1: And Vivian said she didn't really know, but from what
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Speaker 1: she had heard from the staff and from Ted is
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Speaker 1: that someone somehow broke into this apartment, and they set
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Speaker 1: a fire, and they also stabbed Ted repeatedly, and they
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Speaker 1: didn't know if they were even still on the premises.
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Speaker 1: Like the staff was in overdrive trying to find them
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Speaker 1: and getting in touch with police. And so for right now,
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Speaker 1: we just need to stay put. We're safe in the
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Speaker 1: bathroom and we just need to wait. And so Edmund,
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Speaker 1: I mean, at this point, he was much calmer being
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Speaker 1: behind a locked door and he's with Vivian and he
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Speaker 1: knows he's got dozens of staff that are on the
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Speaker 1: case here. You know, so he's worried, but he's thinking, okay,
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Speaker 1: like this is going to be handled.
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Speaker 2: Like I'm safe. My staff is on it. Everything's going
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Speaker 2: to be fine.
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Speaker 1: The next morning, A man named Daniel Surdette, who was
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Speaker 1: the general prosecutor of Monaco, stepped through the burnt ruins
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Speaker 1: of Edmund's bedroom while a forensics team scoured the apartment
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Speaker 1: for evidence. Edmund and his nurse Vivian were both dead
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Speaker 1: inside the bathroom. They had died of smoke inhalation waiting
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Speaker 1: to be saved. The other overnight nurse, Ted Marr, the
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Speaker 1: Green Beret, you know, he had been stabbed several times
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Speaker 1: in the stomach and leg and was in very serious condition.
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Speaker 1: but he was in the hospital recovering. The only person
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Speaker 1: who had somehow miraculously escaped without any injury, who had
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Speaker 1: been on the same floor as Edmund and Vivian and Ted,
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Speaker 1: was Edmund's wife, Lily. She claimed during the entire incident,
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Speaker 1: she had been hiding in the house's safe room. And
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Speaker 1: so at this point, the case was actually feeling pretty
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Speaker 1: open and shut to General Prosecutor Surdette. Lily, who was
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Speaker 1: now set to inherit $ 3 billion now that Edmund had died,
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Speaker 1: was the obvious suspect. But what Sardet couldn't figure out
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Speaker 1: was how Lily might have committed this crime. I mean,
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Speaker 1: she really couldn't have been the actual killer. I mean,
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Speaker 1: the overnight nurse, Ted Marr, is like this big former
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Speaker 1: Green Beret who's actively looking for security threats. And there
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Speaker 1: was just no way that Lily, who was just very
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Speaker 1: physically small and frail and she's 64 years old, could
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Speaker 1: have overpowered and stabbed him repeatedly. It just seems sort
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Speaker 1: of improbable. But, you know, maybe she hired someone to
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Speaker 1: come in here and kill her husband. However, if she
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Speaker 1: hired someone, they had managed to get in and out
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Speaker 1: without ever showing up on any of the security cameras
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Speaker 1: trained on the doors of the apartment. And Surdette, by
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Speaker 1: this point, had checked every room in this apartment. And
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Speaker 1: all the windows had been closed. And the outside steel
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Speaker 1: shutters were locked. And so we felt like there's something
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Speaker 1: missing here. But He didn't know what it was. Sardet
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Speaker 1: would spend the next few days interviewing all of Edmund's
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Speaker 1: household staff and family and business associates, but the information
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Speaker 1: he got only made Sardet more confused. Everyone who worked
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Speaker 1: for Edmund really seemed to love him. He was a
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Speaker 1: definitely strange person who was clearly very paranoid about his safety,
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Speaker 1: but he paid his staff exceptionally well and treated them
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Speaker 1: really well too. So, there didn't seem to be any
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Speaker 1: clear kind of revenge motive from any of them. And also, critically,
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Speaker 1: no one who worked for him benefited financially from his death.
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Speaker 1: In fact, if he died, it was quite bad for
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Speaker 1: virtually all of them. They loved their jobs. They're paid well.
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Speaker 2: They'd be out of a job.
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Speaker 1: Edmund's family all pointed the finger at his wife, Lily,
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Speaker 1: saying that in addition to the circumstantial evidence that she's
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Speaker 1: like the one who was untouched by this intruderer, She also,
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Speaker 1: in recent times, had become more and more controlling as
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Speaker 1: his illness had progressed. And I mean, she also obviously
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Speaker 1: had this big financial motive to have him killed.
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Speaker 2: She's going to.
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Speaker 1: Inherit $ 3 billion. However, Surdette, at least to this point,
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Speaker 1: had not found any evidence that connected Lily to committing
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Speaker 1: a crime here. Like, there were no money transfers or
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Speaker 1: secretive phone calls or meetings that would suggest Lily had
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Speaker 1: hired someone to murder her husband. And so far, the
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Speaker 1: forensic evidence from the crime scene itself was no help.
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Speaker 1: This was 1999, so things like DNA took a whole
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Speaker 1: lot longer to test.
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Speaker 2: But beyond that, I.
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Speaker 1: Mean, the crime scene technicians, they hadn't even found any
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Speaker 1: fingerprints yet. And so Surdette, he's thinking what he really
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Speaker 1: needs right now is an eyewitness other than Lily. He
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Speaker 1: needs to talk to Ted. And three days after the tragedy,
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Speaker 1: Surdette got his wish. Ted was in rough shape from
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Speaker 1: the stabbing, but he was now healthy enough to be interviewed.
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Speaker 1: So on December 6th, Surdette stepped into Ted's hospital room,
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Speaker 1: took a seat by his bedside, and asked him, what happened?
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Speaker 1: But Ted, he just closed his eyes, he took a
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Speaker 1: deep breath, and he said he was really sorry. It
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Speaker 1: would turn out that Surdette wasn't actually missing a critical fact.
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Speaker 1: He just wasn't understanding what the facts he had meant.
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Speaker 1: He knew that Edmund was extremely paranoid and desperate to
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Speaker 1: fortify his apartments. against anyone who might hurt him. And
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Speaker 1: he also knew that Edmund's employees all loved him. But
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Speaker 1: what Surdette didn't understand was that these two things were
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Speaker 1: ultimately what resulted in Edmund's death, along with the death
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Speaker 1: of Vivian Tarente and the wounding of Ted Marr. So
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Speaker 1: everyone who worked for Edmund knew how obsessed he was
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Speaker 1: with safety, including Ted.
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Speaker 2: And Ted loved Edmund. He really did. And he wanted
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Speaker 2: to work for him forever.
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Speaker 1: And he thought that if he could just prove that he, Ted,
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Speaker 1: could protect Edmund from his greatest fears, that Edmund would
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Speaker 1: not only keep him around, but he might promote him
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Speaker 1: and trust him even more deeply. So Ted decided to
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Speaker 1: stage a break-in. He stabbed himself And then he set
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Speaker 1: a fire in a trash can. And then he ran
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Speaker 1: and showed Vivian, the other nurse, his wounds and pointed
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Speaker 1: out the fire and said he'd been attacked and he
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Speaker 1: was going to go get help. And his plan was
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Speaker 1: he would make himself look like the hero who'd fended
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Speaker 1: off intruders to save Edmund. But what Ted had not
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Speaker 1: accounted for was that the steel doors that Edmund had
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Speaker 1: put in the apartment were so secure that literally nobody
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Speaker 1: could get through them, even the firefighters. And so the
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Speaker 1: fire that Ted set, it got worse and worse. And
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Speaker 1: by the time the firefighters actually got inside, Edmund and
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Speaker 1: Vivian had suffocated. And so Ted, he lied about what
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Speaker 1: happened that night. And ultimately, he got people killed. And
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Speaker 1: he also lied about his background. He wasn't even a
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Speaker 1: Green Beret. He just pretended to be. And so in
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Speaker 1: the end, he was found guilty of arson and sentenced
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Speaker 1: to 10 years in prison. On the afternoon of November 8th, 2002,
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Speaker 1: a 22-year-old woman named Chan Ching-Yan smiled in front of
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Speaker 1: a camera at a photo studio in Hong Kong. She
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Speaker 1: was wearing this beautiful wedding dress and a white veil,
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Speaker 1: and she was holding this glorious bouquet of flowers. In
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Speaker 1: Hong Kong, a lot of couples would get these formal
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Speaker 1: wedding portraits taken both together and solo in the weeks
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Speaker 1: or months before the actual ceremony.
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Speaker 2: And so that's what was going on here.
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Speaker 1: And today, Chan had also brought along her best friend, Fen,
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Speaker 1: to help make sure they got the very best shots.
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Speaker 1: And so now, as Chen was posing, she looked past
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Speaker 1: the camera, and she saw Fen standing by the back
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Speaker 1: wall with this huge, encouraging smile on her face, you know,
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Speaker 1: telling her, like, keep it up, you look amazing. And
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Speaker 1: so the photographer pressed the shutter button, and the camera flashed,
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Speaker 1: and at that moment, Chan just felt this amazing rush
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Speaker 1: of excitement, like she knew that she was doing the
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Speaker 1: right thing. and couldn't wait to start this new chapter
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Speaker 1: in her life. However, a month and a half later,
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Speaker 1: on the morning of December 25th, one of Chan's neighbors
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Speaker 1: was walking up to his apartment building when he noticed there.
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Speaker 2: Was a young woman lying on the sidewalk just up ahead.
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Speaker 2: When he got close enough, he saw there was this
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Speaker 2: huge pool of blood all around her. And then when
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Speaker 2: he got even closer, he saw that there was no
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Speaker 2: saving this girl, that her head was like caved in.
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Speaker 2: She was dead.
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Speaker 1: And so the neighbor, who's in complete shock, kind of
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Speaker 1: staggered to his feet. And he was about to go
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Speaker 1: call police when suddenly he heard a scream coming from
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Speaker 1: above him. And he only had a second to jump
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Speaker 1: out of the way as a man came hurtling down,
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Speaker 1: who was the one screaming, and smashed into the ground
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Speaker 1: and died.
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Speaker 2: Right next to this girl.
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Speaker 1: 20 minutes later, Detective Peng with the Hong Kong police
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Speaker 1: force looked down at the two dead bodies on the sidewalk.
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Speaker 1: Just behind him, the neighbor who had witnessed this whole
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Speaker 1: thing was trying to frantically explain what he had seen.
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Speaker 2: That he had found this woman and then the man
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Speaker 2: had just.
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Speaker 1: Sort of fallen immediately after and smashed into the ground.
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Speaker 1: It all just happened so fast, he didn't even know
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Speaker 1: what to do. Detective Pung could tell the man was
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Speaker 1: frantic and he told the guy to just calm down,
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Speaker 1: take a deep breath. And then once he had, once
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Speaker 1: he had calmed down, Pung asked him, do you have
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Speaker 1: any idea which window, which apartment building up here the
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Speaker 1: man could have fallen from. Like when you looked up,
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Speaker 1: did you see him come out of a particular apartment?
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Speaker 1: The very shaken up man, he nodded and then looked
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Speaker 1: up at the building and he pointed. And when Pung
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Speaker 1: looked at what he was pointing at, he saw there
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Speaker 1: was a window that was actually partially open up on
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Speaker 1: the eighth floor. And even from down on the sidewalk,
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Speaker 1: Pung could see there was blood smeared on the window pane.
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Speaker 1: Detective Pung summoned the building's landlord to let him into
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Speaker 1: the building. And then once he was inside... He led
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Speaker 1: a team of investigators up to the eighth floor. They
14:56
Speaker 1: stopped in the hallway outside of the door of the
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Speaker 1: apartment that had the bloody window. By this point, the
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Speaker 1: victims on the sidewalk had actually been identified. The girl
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Speaker 1: was Chan Chang-yeon, who lived in this apartment on the
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Speaker 1: eighth floor. And the man was her boyfriend, a guy
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Speaker 1: named Pan Wai-ying. Now, obviously, Detective Peng knew that both
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Speaker 1: these victims had, you know, fallen to their death, that
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Speaker 1: they died from smashing into the ground. But what the
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Speaker 1: detective wasn't sure of was, had they both jumped? Or
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Speaker 1: had maybe one of them been pushed? Or maybe both
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Speaker 1: got pushed? Like, was there a third person who pushed
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Speaker 1: them both?
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Speaker 2: He didn't know.
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Speaker 1: But Pung hoped when he went in the apartment, he
15:37
Speaker 1: might be able to get some clue into what led
15:40
Speaker 1: to the victims falling from this apartment. And so the landlord,
15:44
Speaker 1: he opened up the eighth floor apartment door.
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Speaker 2: And Detective Pung and his team, they stepped inside.
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Speaker 1: And immediately they are met with a scene of just
15:53
Speaker 1: absolute chaos. The furniture in the living room was all
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Speaker 1: overturned and pushed all over the place like there had
15:59
Speaker 1: been some big struggle here. And then Pung walked through
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Speaker 1: the room, down the hallway into the bedroom, and forced
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Speaker 1: that door open. And in there, there was bloody handprints
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Speaker 1: all over the walls and over near that open window
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Speaker 1: they saw from the street, which they presumed is where
16:15
Speaker 1: the victims fell.
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Speaker 2: Out or were pushed out. And then the bed. was
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Speaker 2: totally soaked with blood.
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Speaker 1: And so clearly there has been some sort of violent
16:25
Speaker 1: attack that took place in here before the bodies wound
16:28
Speaker 1: up on the street outside. But it wasn't clear if
16:31
Speaker 1: it was the couple attacking each other or if there
16:34
Speaker 1: was like some third person involved who by now has
16:37
Speaker 1: fled the scene. And as Detective Pung continued surveying the bedroom,
16:41
Speaker 1: just looking around, something lying on the floor near the
16:44
Speaker 1: bed caught his attention. There was a bloody hammer And
16:48
Speaker 1: so Pung, he's having like a visceral reaction to imagining
16:52
Speaker 1: that being involved in this attack. And he goes over
16:55
Speaker 1: and he kneels down to pick it up. And as
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Speaker 1: he did, he noticed something else that was lying on
17:01
Speaker 1: the ground right.
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Speaker 2: Next to it.
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Speaker 1: And when he saw it, it just immediately made him
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Speaker 1: feel sad. It was a photo album lying open to
17:08
Speaker 1: a portrait of this young bride.
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Speaker 2: It was Chan.
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Speaker 1: And she was wearing her wedding dress. Pung pulled on
17:14
Speaker 1: a pair of gloves and he picked up the album
17:17
Speaker 1: and he began flipping through it. And as he did,
17:19
Speaker 1: he just started to feel like something was weird about
17:23
Speaker 1: this album. Like the pictures just seemed off. And as
17:27
Speaker 1: he kept flipping, he realized what it was.
17:30
Speaker 2: That he was picking up on.
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Speaker 1: So the album was full of all these beautiful wedding
17:34
Speaker 1: photos of this smiling young bride. But there were no
17:39
Speaker 1: pictures of the groom. The following day, Detective Pung stepped
17:43
Speaker 1: into an interrogation room, bringing with him that photo album
17:46
Speaker 1: from the crime scene. In the room was Chan's best friend, Finn,
17:51
Speaker 1: who it would turn out was present at the time
17:53
Speaker 1: a lot of these photos were taken. And Finn was
17:56
Speaker 1: sitting at the table, and she was shaking, and she
17:59
Speaker 1: was looking down at the floor.
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Speaker 2: She was clearly very upset.
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Speaker 1: So this case had taken another very weird turn. So
18:07
Speaker 1: it was odd for a bride to take wedding photos alone,
18:10
Speaker 1: without her partner in any of the photos, like this
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Speaker 1: album seemed to represent. But when Detective Pung had talked
18:17
Speaker 1: to the families of both the victims, he'd learned something
18:21
Speaker 1: even more surprising. Chan and Pan, the victims, the boyfriend
18:26
Speaker 1: and girlfriend out on the sidewalk, they weren't engaged, and
18:30
Speaker 1: they had no plans to get married. And so this
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Speaker 1: wedding album, which had initially seemed so sad to Detective Pung,
18:37
Speaker 1: now just seemed really bizarre. And he wondered if maybe
18:41
Speaker 1: Chan had been living a double life, and was... secretly
18:45
Speaker 1: engaged to somebody else. And he figured if anybody might
18:49
Speaker 1: know the truth about this, it would be Chan's best friend, Fen.
18:54
Speaker 1: And so now Detective Pung sat down across from Fen
18:57
Speaker 1: and he opened up the photo album and he asked
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Speaker 1: Fen if she.
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Speaker 2: Knew anything about these photos.
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Speaker 1: And Fen immediately burst into tears and nodded and said yes.
19:07
Speaker 1: And so Detective Pung, he encouraged Fen to, you know,
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Speaker 1: tell me the story.
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Speaker 2: Like, what do you mean? What do you know?
19:12
Speaker 1: And Fen, she was so upset and She could barely speak,
19:15
Speaker 1: but eventually she composed herself. And she just said, there
19:20
Speaker 1: is no groom. He doesn't exist. It would turn out
19:24
Speaker 1: Chan's relationship with her boyfriend Pan was very real, but
19:28
Speaker 1: it was on the rocks. And so Chan had invented
19:32
Speaker 1: a fake second boyfriend to pressure her real boyfriend Pan
19:37
Speaker 1: into committing to her. And so she had gone out
19:39
Speaker 1: and gotten these professional photos taken of herself in a
19:43
Speaker 1: wedding gown, And then she showed the photos to Pan.
19:46
Speaker 2: She showed him that album that was found at the
19:48
Speaker 2: crime scene.
19:50
Speaker 1: And she told him that another man had proposed to her,
19:54
Speaker 1: and she had said yes. Now, Chan's hope, at least
19:57
Speaker 1: according to Fenn, was that Pan, when he heard this,
20:01
Speaker 1: would beg Chan to call off the wedding and to
20:04
Speaker 1: marry him.
20:05
Speaker 2: But instead.
20:06
Speaker 1: Pan had flown into this insane, jealous rage and attacked
20:11
Speaker 1: Chan with a hammer before pushing her out the window
20:15
Speaker 1: to her death. And then seconds later, when Pan realized
20:19
Speaker 1: what he'd just done, he'd been so overcome with guilt
20:23
Speaker 1: that he jumped out too.
20:48
Speaker 2: At 1 a.m.
20:49
Speaker 1: On July 30th, 2019, a 27-year-old man named Robert Camus
20:54
Speaker 1: sipped a glass of whiskey in a dimly lit dive
20:56
Speaker 1: bar in Los Angeles, California. By this point, he was
20:59
Speaker 1: on his fifth or sixth drink and the room was
21:01
Speaker 1: starting to spin. The bar he was at was hosting
21:03
Speaker 1: some kind of open mic night, but Robert was barely
21:06
Speaker 1: paying attention to the performances because he was completely devastated.
21:11
Speaker 1: So Robert had literally just gone through this horrible breakup
21:15
Speaker 1: with his girlfriend. So his relationship with his girlfriend had
21:17
Speaker 1: been kind of rocky for a while. But then that morning,
21:21
Speaker 1: they'd gotten into this enormous fight. And now Robert was
21:25
Speaker 1: sure that it was over. And so now, sitting depressed
21:28
Speaker 1: at the bar, drinking by himself, Robert began to think
21:32
Speaker 1: that it's like, wow, my girlfriend was like the only
21:35
Speaker 1: good thing in my life. And now that we're not together,
21:38
Speaker 1: I have nothing. I mean, he was still living with
21:40
Speaker 1: his parents, which was something he was not pleased about.
21:43
Speaker 2: But, you know, it is what it is.
21:45
Speaker 1: And he also had sort of neglected all of his
21:48
Speaker 1: other relationships with his friends to focus on this relationship
21:51
Speaker 1: with his girlfriend, which obviously now was over. And so
21:54
Speaker 1: he didn't have friends to turn to or really anybody
21:57
Speaker 1: in his life to turn to right now as he
21:59
Speaker 1: was grieving the loss of this relationship.
22:02
Speaker 2: All he felt he could do was just sit in
22:04
Speaker 2: this bar and drink alone and feel bad about himself.
22:08
Speaker 1: And so now he just took another swig of his
22:11
Speaker 1: whiskey and just decided to finally look up at the
22:15
Speaker 1: bar's small stage where the open mic night was happening.
22:17
Speaker 1: There was a group of people up there who were rapping,
22:20
Speaker 1: like into the mic, they were rapping. And as Robert
22:23
Speaker 1: watched and listened to them, he was struck by how
22:26
Speaker 1: free and unburdened they all seemed. They were just passing
22:30
Speaker 1: the mic around, apparently saying whatever came to their minds,
22:34
Speaker 1: and they hyped each other up the whole time. Like
22:36
Speaker 1: there was no judgment or anything. It was just people
22:38
Speaker 1: having fun. Now, Robert considered himself to be a pretty
22:42
Speaker 1: uncool guy from the suburbs, and he had never even
22:46
Speaker 1: thought about rapping himself.
22:48
Speaker 2: Like, that was not even on his radar.
22:51
Speaker 1: But in this moment, it seemed like, you know what?
22:54
Speaker 1: I should go give that a try. And also, he
22:57
Speaker 1: was pretty drunk, so he did not feel particularly self-conscious
23:00
Speaker 1: about trying. So he grabbed his drink and he stumbled
23:04
Speaker 1: up to the stage. Now, when Robert got to the
23:07
Speaker 1: front and the rappers saw him approaching, they were a
23:10
Speaker 1: little surprised that he was coming up here to try
23:13
Speaker 1: his hand at this. But they waved him in and
23:16
Speaker 1: he joined their circle. And Robert quickly began dancing while
23:20
Speaker 1: one of the other men finished his freestyle. And then
23:23
Speaker 1: when he was done, he just passed the mic to Robert.
23:26
Speaker 1: And so Robert, he grabs the mic and he walks.
23:28
Speaker 2: Up onto the stage. And, you know, the other rappers
23:31
Speaker 2: are like, come on, you got this, Robert. Let's go, man.
23:34
Speaker 1: And Robert, like, he was confident, you know, he's got
23:36
Speaker 1: the buzz going, he's confident, but he looked out to
23:39
Speaker 1: the sea of people in the bar, and some of
23:42
Speaker 1: them were on their phones, and a lot of them
23:44
Speaker 1: weren't really paying attention, but some were watching him, and
23:46
Speaker 1: they were kind of like waiting, like, all right, let's
23:48
Speaker 1: see what you got. And suddenly, Robert's feeling pretty nervous,
23:51
Speaker 1: like he shouldn't be up here, like what is he doing?
23:55
Speaker 1: But for whatever reason, he just took a deep breath,
23:59
Speaker 1: and he started rapping, like he'd never rapped before, and
24:02
Speaker 1: suddenly he's He's freestyling his feelings. Now, he was definitely
24:07
Speaker 1: very clunky at first, and really for most of the performance,
24:10
Speaker 1: he was very clunky. This is not something he was
24:12
Speaker 1: good at naturally. But he did kind of get into
24:15
Speaker 1: a rhythm, and the crowd seemed decently into it, and
24:19
Speaker 1: the other rappers are like, you know, cheering him on,
24:21
Speaker 1: and he sort of bobbed his head to the beat,
24:23
Speaker 1: and he just spilled all these feelings he had, all
24:26
Speaker 1: these things that were bothering him that he would have
24:28
Speaker 1: shared with friends or family or.
24:30
Speaker 2: Something, but again, he feels like he has no one.
24:32
Speaker 1: He just has this anonymous crowd and everyone's just like
24:36
Speaker 1: nodding along. And there's there's looks of like solidarity amongst
24:40
Speaker 1: people in the crowd. Like they get it. They've been
24:42
Speaker 1: through breakups themselves. They understand him. And Robert, like as
24:46
Speaker 1: it went on, he got more and more confident and
24:48
Speaker 1: he was just really going deep, like just getting everything
24:51
Speaker 1: off his chest.
24:52
Speaker 2: And then when he was done, he just handed off
24:54
Speaker 2: the mic and.
24:55
Speaker 1: He walked off stage actually feeling like a huge weight
24:59
Speaker 1: had been lifted. Very soon after Robert got off stage,
25:03
Speaker 1: the bar announced last call.
25:05
Speaker 2: So Robert, he closed his tab and he left.
25:07
Speaker 1: And it was very late by this point and he
25:09
Speaker 1: knew he was way too tired and way too drunk
25:12
Speaker 1: to be driving. So he just staggered down the block
25:15
Speaker 1: to where he'd parked his car. He opened up the door,
25:18
Speaker 1: crawled into the back seat and passed out. The next
25:21
Speaker 1: morning when Robert woke up, he heard the sound of
25:24
Speaker 1: police sirens somewhere.
25:25
Speaker 2: In the distance. He opened his eyes and he's got
25:28
Speaker 2: a horrible headache.
25:29
Speaker 1: He's totally hung over, but he sort of looked around
25:31
Speaker 1: and remembered what happened.
25:33
Speaker 2: Like, he's in his car. Oh, that's right. I was
25:35
Speaker 2: at the bar. I came down here. I passed out. Like,
25:37
Speaker 2: he remembered the night.
25:38
Speaker 1: And so as he's jogging his memory, the sound of
25:41
Speaker 1: the sirens are getting louder and louder. And then they
25:44
Speaker 1: just abruptly stopped. And somewhere in the back of Robert's mind,
25:47
Speaker 1: he figured that whatever problems the police or whoever was
25:51
Speaker 1: dealing with.
25:52
Speaker 2: Had been resolved.
25:53
Speaker 1: But then Robert heard this staticky voice on a megaphone
25:56
Speaker 1: that sounded like it was really close to him.
25:59
Speaker 2: So, you know, again, he's got this horrible headache. He's
26:01
Speaker 2: not feeling good. He turns and squints and looks out
26:04
Speaker 2: the window.
26:05
Speaker 1: And as his eyes adjusted to the light, he saw
26:07
Speaker 1: that a fleet of police officers had completely surrounded his car.
26:12
Speaker 1: And they were yelling at him through the megaphone to
26:15
Speaker 1: come out with his hands up. So it would turn
26:18
Speaker 1: out that Robert's relationship with his girlfriend had been on
26:21
Speaker 1: the rocks. Because Robert was incredibly abusive. And his girlfriend,
26:27
Speaker 1: because of the abuse... was pressing charges against him for
26:30
Speaker 1: domestic violence. And so Robert had actually been placed under
26:33
Speaker 1: house arrest with an ankle monitor until the trial. And
26:37
Speaker 1: this had made Robert so furious that yesterday morning, before
26:41
Speaker 1: he wound up at the bar that night to do
26:43
Speaker 1: his big rap, well, allegedly that morning, he cut off
26:47
Speaker 1: his ankle monitor, kidnapped.
26:49
Speaker 2: His girlfriend, and murdered her.
26:51
Speaker 1: And then that night, he goes to the bar and
26:53
Speaker 1: he proceeds to rap about what he'd done, which was, again, Murder, allegedly,
27:00
Speaker 1: in front of a bar full of people. And someone
27:03
Speaker 1: at the bar who was filming this open mic night
27:05
Speaker 1: on their phone, they were so alarmed by what Robert
27:09
Speaker 1: said during his freestyle that after he was done, they
27:13
Speaker 1: sent the video to the police. And so with that
27:16
Speaker 1: video in hand, the police went out and they arrested
27:19
Speaker 1: Robert Camus and they charged him with capital murder. As
27:24
Speaker 1: of this recording, he still has not gone to trial.
27:33
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for watching today's episode. Let me
27:36
Speaker 1: know what you thought of it in the comments below.
27:38
Speaker 1: And remember, we have a whole playlist of Places You
27:41
Speaker 1: Can't Go episodes ready for you to binge right now.
27:44
Speaker 2: So go ahead and click here and give them a watch.
27:47
Speaker 1: All right, until next time, see ya.