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

Transcript

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

0:00
Speaker 1: In today's episode, I'm going to tell you two stories.
0:02
Speaker 1: In the first story, it's ultimately about this person who
0:05
Speaker 1: is so set on making a change in their lives
0:09
Speaker 1: that they take drastic measures to affect that change with
0:14
Speaker 1: some very unfortunate consequences. The second story is about this
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Speaker 1: town in California where there was this perceived threat and
0:22
Speaker 1: it was sort of normalized and people were not that
0:24
Speaker 1: worried about it until it totally spiraled out of control.
0:29
Speaker 1: But before we get into today's stories, if you're a
0:32
Speaker 1: fan of the Strange, Dark, and Mysterious delivered in story format,
0:35
Speaker 1: then you've come to the right place because that's all
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Speaker 1: we do and we upload two, three, even four times
0:40
Speaker 1: every week. So if that's of interest to you, please
0:43
Speaker 1: sneak into the Like Button's house and write on their
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Speaker 1: bathroom mirror, I'm watching you in red lipstick. Also, please
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Speaker 1: subscribe to our channel and turn on all notifications so
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Speaker 1: you don't miss any of our weekly uploads. Okay, let's
0:56
Speaker 1: get into today's stories. Early in the morning on February 5th, 1990,
1:20
Speaker 1: 57-year-old Laverne Pavlenok stood in the kitchen of her Wilsonville,
1:24
Speaker 1: Oregon apartment making some coffee. Mornings were the best part
1:27
Speaker 1: of Laverne's day because she had the whole apartment to herself. Now,
1:31
Speaker 1: she lived with her boyfriend, John Sosnovsky, but he worked
1:34
Speaker 1: at a nearby mill and had to be out early
1:36
Speaker 1: in order to catch the bus there. And each time
1:38
Speaker 1: he left, Laverne felt like a huge weight lifted off
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Speaker 1: of her. Because when John wasn't home, Laverne could go
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Speaker 1: about her day and pretend. she was safe. But that's
1:49
Speaker 1: all it was. It was pretend. John, in reality, was
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Speaker 1: an incredibly violent man. I mean, he was seriously physically abusive,
1:58
Speaker 1: especially when he was drunk, which was basically all the time.
2:01
Speaker 1: So Laverne had actually been married, but her husband had
2:04
Speaker 1: died of cancer, and she had ultimately met John following
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Speaker 1: her husband's death. And so when they met, Laverne was
2:11
Speaker 1: very vulnerable and lonely, and she really hadn't realized the
2:15
Speaker 1: kind of person John was until until it was too late.
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Speaker 1: It had been 10 years now, and Laverne still had
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Speaker 1: not built up the courage to leave him. I mean,
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Speaker 1: the reality was that she was just scared of how
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Speaker 1: he would react, and so she sort of felt trapped. Now,
2:29
Speaker 1: she sat down at her kitchen table with her coffee,
2:32
Speaker 1: and she opened up the local paper. And as soon
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Speaker 1: as she did, the first thing she saw was a
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Speaker 1: big black and white photo of a smiling young woman
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Speaker 1: who likely was in her 20s. The photo was connected
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Speaker 1: to an article about a recent murder that happened 30
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Speaker 1: miles away, just northeast of Portland. The victim had been
2:47
Speaker 1: identified as a woman named Tanya Bennett, and Tanya Bennett
2:51
Speaker 1: was the girl in the photo. The article said she
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Speaker 1: had been beaten and then also strangled with a rope,
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Speaker 1: and then she had been left on the side of
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Speaker 1: the highway. And when Laverne read about the area she
3:02
Speaker 1: actually had been, you know, dumped, she realized it actually
3:05
Speaker 1: was only about a mile and a half down from
3:07
Speaker 1: this famous scenic overlook that Laverne had actually been to before.
3:11
Speaker 1: Like she was familiar with this area. And so Laverne,
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Speaker 1: she's reading the article and she's looking at this picture
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Speaker 1: back and forth. And it was like something was sort
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Speaker 1: of forming in her mind. She just had like this
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Speaker 1: weird sense that she knew something about this case. And
3:27
Speaker 1: then as she stared at this photo for a little
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Speaker 1: bit longer, it's like it all came together. And she
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Speaker 1: realized almost certainly that she knew John very likely killed
3:38
Speaker 1: this woman. And so even though she loved her peaceful,
3:40
Speaker 1: quiet mornings with her coffee... Laverne immediately stood up, she
3:44
Speaker 1: grabbed the phone, and she called the police. After she
3:47
Speaker 1: hung up with police, Laverne was very shaken up. I mean,
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Speaker 1: her heart was still racing. I mean, this was a
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Speaker 1: very risky thing she was doing because she had no
3:55
Speaker 1: way of knowing if what she had just given authorities
3:59
Speaker 1: was enough to arrest John. If it wasn't, it was
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Speaker 1: entirely possible that John would discover this betrayal of her
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Speaker 1: calling the police about him, implicating him in a murder,
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Speaker 1: and and he would probably just continue his abuse, if
4:14
Speaker 1: not amp up his abuse of Laverne. And so the
4:17
Speaker 1: way she saw it is either what she just did
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Speaker 1: was going to end the chapter with John, and he
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Speaker 1: was going to go to jail for murder, or Laverne
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Speaker 1: might wind up being the next dead girl on the
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Speaker 1: side of the highway. A little over a week later,
4:31
Speaker 1: on the morning of February 16th, Detective John Ingram sat
4:35
Speaker 1: with his partner in a very clean living room in Wilsonville, Oregon.
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Speaker 1: Ingram was the lead investigator on Tonya Bennett's murder case,
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Speaker 1: and he was there to speak to Laverne, who was
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Speaker 1: sitting on the opposite couch. And Laverne seemed really nervous
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Speaker 1: and kept fidgeting constantly and offering Ingram and his partner refreshments.
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Speaker 1: It was just very clear that there was a lot
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Speaker 1: on this woman's mind. So Ingram knew that Laverne had
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Speaker 1: a week earlier called in a tip about the victim's killer.
5:01
Speaker 1: she thought it was her own boyfriend, John Sosnovsky. And
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Speaker 1: right now, Ingram was very eager to hear what she
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Speaker 1: had to say about her boyfriend, to basically elaborate and
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Speaker 1: sort of give the full story of why she believed
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Speaker 1: what she believed, in part because Ingram's case so far
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Speaker 1: had absolutely no other leads, like this was it. The
5:20
Speaker 1: victim's body had been found on a grassy slope so
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Speaker 1: close to the edge of the highway that you could
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Speaker 1: see her from the road. But Ingram and his partner
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Speaker 1: had not been able to find any witnesses. A few
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Speaker 1: people had claimed to have seen Tanya along with some
5:34
Speaker 1: man at a bar earlier in the night before she
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Speaker 1: went missing, but no one had been able to effectively
5:39
Speaker 1: describe that man. It was just some guy she was with.
5:42
Speaker 1: And so Ingram and his partner had basically talked to
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Speaker 1: just about anyone they could think of that might have
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Speaker 1: known Tanya. They'd canvassed her neighborhood, they'd interviewed her family, co-workers, friends,
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Speaker 1: and they still had not been able to find anybody
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Speaker 1: who fit as a suspect. They also hadn't found any
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Speaker 1: good physical evidence at the scene, like fingerprints or helpful forensics.
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Speaker 1: So now, Ingram was hoping that Laverne was going to
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Speaker 1: be the key to his whole case. And so, eventually,
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Speaker 1: Ingram looked at Laverne and said, whenever you're ready, tell
6:13
Speaker 1: me what you know. Tell me the story of why
6:14
Speaker 1: you believe John killed Tanya. Now, at first, Laverne just
6:18
Speaker 1: continued to squirm in her seat, and she was, you know,
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Speaker 1: obviously very nervous, but eventually, after Ingram told her to just,
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Speaker 1: you know, take a breath, calm down, it's okay, we
6:27
Speaker 1: just want to hear your story, eventually, with a shaking voice...
6:31
Speaker 1: She told them that on the night of the murder,
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Speaker 1: John had come home around maybe 1 or 2 in
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Speaker 1: the morning and immediately got in the shower. Now, this
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Speaker 1: was unusual. I mean, this is not something that he
6:41
Speaker 1: typically did. He didn't shower at 2 in the morning.
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Speaker 1: But Laverne really hadn't thought much of it until the
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Speaker 1: next day when they went to a local bar and
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Speaker 1: she'd literally overheard John bragging to somebody about murdering Tanya,
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Speaker 1: describing how he had picked her up at a truck stop,
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Speaker 1: killed her, then took her to the highway by Columbia
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Speaker 1: River Gorge to dump her body by the scenic overlook.
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Speaker 1: As Laverne spoke, Ingram and his partner were shocked. Basically,
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Speaker 1: Laverne had overheard effectively a confession, and the details of
7:12
Speaker 1: that confession did seem to line up with what they
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Speaker 1: had heard so far. Tanya had been seen out late
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Speaker 1: at night with some man, although nobody could really describe
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Speaker 1: the man, and also where her body was found. It
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Speaker 1: was near the scenic overlook, something that was you know,
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Speaker 1: publicly known. But still, I mean, that's what Laverne heard
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Speaker 1: John say. It lined up. But he kept a poker
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Speaker 1: face and just told Laverne to please keep going, keep elaborating.
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Speaker 1: And so Laverne, she continued speaking and she went on
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Speaker 1: to say that the reason she didn't come forward right
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Speaker 1: away was because she was scared of John. He was
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Speaker 1: a violent alcoholic who abused her, which is also part
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Speaker 1: of the reason why this seemed real to her. I mean,
7:50
Speaker 1: she was totally not shocked at the idea that maybe
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Speaker 1: John killed someone. but she was basically fearful that he
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Speaker 1: might kill her too. And so she had kept it
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Speaker 1: to herself until she had seen the article in the
8:01
Speaker 1: paper and also saw the picture of the girl and
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Speaker 1: she just looked so young and innocent and she just
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Speaker 1: couldn't help but feel like she owed it to that
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Speaker 1: girl to come forward. Now, at this point, Ingram's mind
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Speaker 1: was whirling. I mean, if this was all true, it
8:14
Speaker 1: was huge for this case. I mean, potentially, this just
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Speaker 1: solved the whole murder. I mean, this is what happened potentially.
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Speaker 1: But he also knew, you know, right now it was
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Speaker 1: just One woman's story, you know, he needed actual proof.
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Speaker 1: He couldn't just take Laverne's word for it. So he
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Speaker 1: asked Laverne if he and his partner could just go
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Speaker 1: ahead and search the apartment. And as soon as Laverne nodded,
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Speaker 1: the detectives jumped to their feet and got to work.
8:37
Speaker 1: Laverne led the detectives down the hallway to the master bedroom.
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Speaker 1: And then from there, she backed off and just, you know,
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Speaker 1: let the men get to work. And the detectives, they
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Speaker 1: immediately split up and spread out to cover more ground.
8:49
Speaker 1: Ingram had actually brought along a list of stuff that
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Speaker 1: they were theoretically looking for. And one of the things
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Speaker 1: on his list was a swatch of denim from the
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Speaker 1: front buttons of Tanya's jeans. It had been missing when
9:01
Speaker 1: they found her, like it had been intentionally cut out,
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Speaker 1: which was obviously pretty unusual. And it made him think
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Speaker 1: that Tanya's killer had taken a trophy or something. But
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Speaker 1: after a few minutes of searching around the bedroom, Ingram
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Speaker 1: did not see this denim patch. In fact, he actually
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Speaker 1: didn't see anything at first glance that connected John to Tanya.
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Speaker 1: Until he went over to look through this cardboard box
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Speaker 1: of papers... and began sifting through them. And when he
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Speaker 1: pulled out a torn piece of scrap paper and read
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Speaker 1: what was on it, he froze. On this piece of
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Speaker 1: scrap paper was a handwritten message that just said, quote, T. Bennett,
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Speaker 1: good peace. Ingram immediately called his partner over who walked
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Speaker 1: over and looked at the note and both of them
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Speaker 1: are like, okay, obviously we need to bring John in
9:46
Speaker 1: right away for a chat. But after leaving the bedroom
9:49
Speaker 1: and walking towards the door to leave, who comes in
9:52
Speaker 1: the front door? none other than John Sosnovsky. Hey guys!
10:07
Speaker 1: live storytelling tour this year. You can find me in
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11:11
Speaker 1: you at the show. About an hour later, Ingram sat
11:16
Speaker 1: at an interrogation table in the sheriff's office, staring across it, John,
11:20
Speaker 1: and John had a very confused look on his face,
11:22
Speaker 1: but otherwise seemed relatively calm. Back at the apartment, when
11:26
Speaker 1: John had walked in the door and sort of saw
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Speaker 1: the detectives and didn't know what was going on, Ingram
11:31
Speaker 1: had told him who he was and why he was there,
11:34
Speaker 1: and John had really just seemed surprised, but had quickly
11:37
Speaker 1: agreed to go with them to the station if they
11:38
Speaker 1: wanted to speak to him. But Ingram knew from experience that,
11:42
Speaker 1: you know, just because John was acting very cooperative did
11:45
Speaker 1: not mean he was innocent. Now, Ingram slid a picture
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Speaker 1: of Tanya across the table and and asked John if
11:50
Speaker 1: he knew who she was or had anything to do
11:52
Speaker 1: with her murder. And John didn't deny it or act
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Speaker 1: horrified or offended to be asked. He just said he
12:00
Speaker 1: didn't really remember. And when Ingram showed him the note
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Speaker 1: they found in his bedroom that said T. Bennett, good
12:06
Speaker 1: peace on it, John just sort of squinted at it
12:09
Speaker 1: and said he really wasn't sure if he wrote that
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Speaker 1: or not. So these were all very straightforward questions. And
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Speaker 1: it was highly suspicious to Ingram that John apparently just
12:19
Speaker 1: couldn't answer them, at least not cleanly. And really, the
12:21
Speaker 1: rest of his interview went the same way, with John
12:24
Speaker 1: giving mostly just vague non-answers to everything Ingram asked, no
12:29
Speaker 1: matter how binary the question was supposed to be. And
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Speaker 1: Ingram was just sort of struck by how nonchalant John
12:35
Speaker 1: seemed whenever he responded, even though, I mean, he was
12:38
Speaker 1: being questioned about his connection to a murder. This was
12:41
Speaker 1: not a time to be nonchalant. This was a time
12:43
Speaker 1: to be forthcoming. However, despite Ingram's very high suspicion of John... Realistically,
12:49
Speaker 1: the only evidence he had on John, at least at
12:52
Speaker 1: this point, was all circumstantial and so was not nearly
12:55
Speaker 1: enough to actually arrest John. What they needed in order
12:58
Speaker 1: to do that was some form of hard evidence that
13:02
Speaker 1: directly connected him to Tanya's murder. So ultimately, at the
13:06
Speaker 1: end of this interview, despite how weird the whole thing
13:09
Speaker 1: had been, Ingram just sighed and told John that for now,
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Speaker 1: he could go. Four days later, Ingram had just got
13:17
Speaker 1: into his office for the morning when his desk phone rang.
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Speaker 1: He picked up and was surprised to hear Laverne's voice
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Speaker 1: on the other end. But before he could ask her
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Speaker 1: what this was about, Laverne told him she had found
13:28
Speaker 1: something in her car that morning and felt like he
13:30
Speaker 1: needed to see it. And when she told him what
13:32
Speaker 1: this thing was, Ingram said he would be right over.
13:36
Speaker 1: Then he immediately hung up and ran to find his partner.
13:39
Speaker 1: As he drove to Laverne's, he found his heart was racing.
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Speaker 1: I mean, over the last few days, they hadn't found
13:44
Speaker 1: any additional evidence to prove John was their killer. In fact,
13:48
Speaker 1: if anything, they had actually lost some evidence since that
13:51
Speaker 1: note they found inside of John's things in his house
13:54
Speaker 1: ended up being a dead end because their analysts couldn't
13:58
Speaker 1: actually match the handwriting to John. So they didn't know
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Speaker 1: for sure if it was him. But now, based on
14:03
Speaker 1: what Laverne had just told him on the phone about
14:06
Speaker 1: what she found in her car, he was pretty much
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Speaker 1: positive that this was the break he needed. Within the hour,
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Speaker 1: Ingram and his partner were standing in Laverne's garage with
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Speaker 1: Laverne staring into the open trunk of her car. Laverne
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Speaker 1: had told Ingram that she kept her car and really
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Speaker 1: her whole life very, very clean, like her apartment's clean,
14:26
Speaker 1: everything's clean all the time. And when she went into
14:30
Speaker 1: her car that day, she noticed there was a little
14:33
Speaker 1: swatch of denim sitting in the trunk. And she knew
14:36
Speaker 1: that she had not put it there. And considering she
14:39
Speaker 1: was sort of on high alert about John and about
14:41
Speaker 1: his connection to this murder. It just seemed like something
14:45
Speaker 1: worth flagging to police. And for Ingram and his partner,
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Speaker 1: as they're staring into the trunk at this little swatch
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Speaker 1: of denim that looks very much like the swatch of
14:53
Speaker 1: denim they were secretly looking for, they had not publicly
14:56
Speaker 1: revealed that the killer had taken a little swatch of
14:59
Speaker 1: denim from Tanya's jeans. That was private. They're looking at
15:02
Speaker 1: this thinking, oh my goodness, like this is the break
15:05
Speaker 1: we needed. Clearly, that's the denim from Tanya's jeans. And
15:10
Speaker 1: so Laverne was right to call this in. This is
15:12
Speaker 1: potentially huge. Now, obviously, Ingram knew that they would still
15:16
Speaker 1: have to get this denim tested to make sure it
15:18
Speaker 1: really was Tanya's. I mean, it's entirely possible that it
15:21
Speaker 1: was actually Laverne's or John's or was unrelated, but circumstantially,
15:26
Speaker 1: this felt like hitting the jackpot. And so Ingram watched
15:28
Speaker 1: as his partner picked up the swatch, put it into
15:31
Speaker 1: an evidence bag, and then they left and said they
15:33
Speaker 1: would have it tested and they would be in touch.
15:36
Speaker 1: The following morning, Ingram was at his desk reviewing all
15:39
Speaker 1: the evidence that they had so far. And by this point,
15:42
Speaker 1: they had a lot of evidence. The previous night after
15:45
Speaker 1: finding the denim, they had brought John in for a
15:48
Speaker 1: polygraph test and he had completely failed it. The test
15:52
Speaker 1: administrator had even noted that in his opinion, John definitely
15:56
Speaker 1: knew what had happened to Tanya. So now realistically, Ingram
15:59
Speaker 1: was just sort of waiting on confirmation that that fabric
16:02
Speaker 1: was a match. And then at that point, they could
16:04
Speaker 1: go and arrest John. And when Ingram's phone rang, he
16:07
Speaker 1: picked it up immediately. And it was the lab. So
16:11
Speaker 1: Ingram sat up straight, ready for some good news. But
16:14
Speaker 1: the tech on the other line sounded sort of glum.
16:17
Speaker 1: And he told Ingram that the denim from Laverne's car
16:19
Speaker 1: did not match the jeans that Tanya was wearing. So
16:22
Speaker 1: it was not hers. And at this, Ingram was just
16:25
Speaker 1: completely stunned. I mean, the idea that they had just
16:28
Speaker 1: found the same unique cut of denim in a car
16:31
Speaker 1: in their main suspect's house... could not be a coincidence.
16:34
Speaker 1: I mean, it was not typical for people to have
16:37
Speaker 1: little swatches of denim lying around. Like, this is not
16:40
Speaker 1: something that you just happen to have. It felt sort
16:42
Speaker 1: of specific. And so there just had to be more
16:45
Speaker 1: to this than met the eye. And even though Ingram
16:47
Speaker 1: tried to work out some kind of reasonable explanation for
16:50
Speaker 1: why that swatch was there, the only thing that actually
16:54
Speaker 1: made sense was that the fake denim was planted there.
16:58
Speaker 1: And so feeling a mix of, again, shock, but also
17:01
Speaker 1: just frustration here. I mean, he thought he was so
17:03
Speaker 1: close to solving this thing. And now he was sort
17:06
Speaker 1: of back to square one. Ingram realized that the next
17:09
Speaker 1: stop had to be Laverne's. He needed to go speak
17:12
Speaker 1: to her again. Later that morning, Ingram and his partner
17:15
Speaker 1: were once again back in Laverne's living room with a
17:18
Speaker 1: very nervous looking Laverne sitting across from them. This time,
17:22
Speaker 1: Ingram was going to be a little tougher on her.
17:24
Speaker 1: because he now knew that, you know, whatever she had
17:26
Speaker 1: told him before, very likely was not the full story.
17:30
Speaker 1: And as soon as Ingram asked Laverne point blank, if
17:33
Speaker 1: she had planted that evidence, that denim inside of her car,
17:37
Speaker 1: Laverne just kind of looked back at him and her
17:40
Speaker 1: face began to sort of quiver. And then she just
17:42
Speaker 1: started sobbing. And she told him she was so, so sorry.
17:46
Speaker 1: She explained that she had cut up some jeans and
17:50
Speaker 1: put that front button part in her car and pretended
17:53
Speaker 1: to have found it so that they'd be able to
17:55
Speaker 1: arrest John. She said she had just gotten so worried
17:57
Speaker 1: when they let him go after interviewing him because she
18:00
Speaker 1: knew John killed Tanya. He had to have, she heard
18:03
Speaker 1: him talk about it. Like he did it and he's dangerous.
18:05
Speaker 1: Then she just wanted to make sure the police held
18:08
Speaker 1: him accountable. Now, when Ingram heard this, he could hear
18:12
Speaker 1: like the earnestness in her voice. Like clearly this woman
18:15
Speaker 1: is scared of John and thinks he did this. She
18:18
Speaker 1: believes he did this. And so he wanted to believe
18:21
Speaker 1: her angle here as inappropriate as planting evidence was. But, critically,
18:26
Speaker 1: he knew Laverne still was definitely not telling him everything.
18:30
Speaker 1: Because there was simply no way she could have known
18:34
Speaker 1: to plant that unique cut of the jeans unless she
18:38
Speaker 1: had intimate knowledge of the crime. Or some other inside information.
18:43
Speaker 1: But there was just something missing here. Why would she
18:45
Speaker 1: randomly choose that front cut of denim as just the
18:49
Speaker 1: The evidence. Oh, here's some evidence to make John look guilty.
18:52
Speaker 1: Why would she choose that? That's way too on the nose.
18:55
Speaker 1: And when he pointed this out to Laverne, it was
18:58
Speaker 1: like Laverne's energy completely shifted, you know, from sobbing and
19:03
Speaker 1: sadness and remorse to just pure like hesitation. Like she
19:07
Speaker 1: didn't really know how to react, but there wasn't any
19:09
Speaker 1: more sadness. It was like, uh-oh, something's off here. And
19:12
Speaker 1: then Laverne kind of took a deep breath and she
19:16
Speaker 1: looked at Ingram and she said, I was lying. You're right.
19:20
Speaker 1: My story about planting the evidence, that was a lie.
19:24
Speaker 1: But she went on to say that the reason she
19:26
Speaker 1: had lied was because she had ultimately been too afraid
19:30
Speaker 1: that if the police knew the whole story, that she
19:32
Speaker 1: would get in trouble too. Then Laverne explained what really
19:36
Speaker 1: happened to Tanya. On the night that Tanya was murdered,
19:40
Speaker 1: Laverne said John called her that night and he was
19:43
Speaker 1: sort of frantic. And he said to her that he
19:45
Speaker 1: was in trouble and that she needed to meet him
19:47
Speaker 1: at the bar that he was at. Enter. bring along
19:50
Speaker 1: a shower curtain. And so Laverne said, because she was
19:53
Speaker 1: very scared of John and, you know, was just fearful
19:56
Speaker 1: of asking any questions, she had just done what he
19:58
Speaker 1: said and she got the shower curtain and she had
20:01
Speaker 1: driven out there and she found John in a parking
20:04
Speaker 1: lot standing over a body. It was Tanya. and she
20:08
Speaker 1: was just lying there on the ground, motionless. Laverne said
20:11
Speaker 1: she was horrified and didn't know what to do, so
20:13
Speaker 1: she just helped. She literally helped John put Tanya's body
20:18
Speaker 1: into her car, Laverne's car, wrapped her up in that
20:21
Speaker 1: curtain she'd brought along, and then together they dumped her
20:24
Speaker 1: body at a spot along the highway. But as Laverne
20:27
Speaker 1: continued to talk, her story suddenly got much darker, because
20:32
Speaker 1: she actually eventually confessed that, actually, Tanya had not been
20:36
Speaker 1: dead when she had first arrived, but instead she was
20:39
Speaker 1: still clinging to life. And at John's request, Laverne had
20:45
Speaker 1: tied rope around Tanya's neck and held it tight while
20:49
Speaker 1: John sexually assaulted her. Laverne said after he was done,
20:52
Speaker 1: Tanya was no longer breathing. Ingram could barely conceal his
20:55
Speaker 1: shock when she explained this. I mean, here was this gentle,
20:58
Speaker 1: soft-spoken lady who was now telling him that she had
21:02
Speaker 1: actively participated in in the sexual assault and murder of
21:05
Speaker 1: this young woman, it was hard to wrap his head
21:08
Speaker 1: around it. And at the moment, all Ingram could think was,
21:11
Speaker 1: this can't be real. But what Laverne was saying just fit.
21:17
Speaker 1: It explained John's cagey answers to his questions, his failed polygraph,
21:22
Speaker 1: and how Laverne knew the right part of the genes
21:25
Speaker 1: to cut out and fake his evidence. Because she and
21:28
Speaker 1: John had been the ones who actually made the cut,
21:31
Speaker 1: on Tanya's jeans. They knew. But despite getting this earth-shattering
21:35
Speaker 1: confession here, Ingram wanted to be completely sure that this
21:39
Speaker 1: version of the story Laverne was telling him was actually
21:43
Speaker 1: the truth. And he knew exactly how to prove it.
21:47
Speaker 1: The following day, Ingram was behind the wheel of his
21:50
Speaker 1: cruiser next to his partner, and Laverne sat in the back,
21:53
Speaker 1: sort of absentmindedly staring out the window. They were driving
21:56
Speaker 1: down the highway northeast of Portland, and Ingram had instructed
22:00
Speaker 1: Laverne let him know when they reached the spot where
22:03
Speaker 1: they dumped Tanya's body. Now, the newspapers had published the
22:07
Speaker 1: general location of where the body had been found, but
22:10
Speaker 1: certainly not specifics. So, Ingram knew that if Laverne could
22:14
Speaker 1: point out the exact spot, well, that meant she was
22:18
Speaker 1: telling the truth. As they began to get closer and
22:21
Speaker 1: closer to the spot, Ingram knew was the spot. He
22:24
Speaker 1: sort of felt his heart rate pick up, but he
22:26
Speaker 1: didn't drive any faster or slower. He didn't signal that
22:29
Speaker 1: it was coming up. He just kept on driving steady,
22:32
Speaker 1: going straight, sort of expecting Laverne to call it out
22:35
Speaker 1: any moment. But the cruiser drove right past the actual
22:39
Speaker 1: spot where the body had been found, and Laverne didn't
22:42
Speaker 1: say anything. For a few minutes, they just kept on
22:45
Speaker 1: driving down the road in total silence, and, you know,
22:48
Speaker 1: Ingram's feeling really disappointed here. And as they're driving along,
22:52
Speaker 1: suddenly Laverne says, hey, wait a minute, turn around. So
22:56
Speaker 1: Ingram did, and soon they were headed back the way
22:58
Speaker 1: they'd come. And this time, when they passed the actual
23:01
Speaker 1: crime scene, so the actual spot where Tanya had been found,
23:05
Speaker 1: Laverne called it out and said that's where she was. Stop.
23:09
Speaker 1: As Ingram parked the car, he looked back at Laverne,
23:12
Speaker 1: who was staring intently out the window, right at the
23:15
Speaker 1: exact spot on that slope right off the highway where
23:18
Speaker 1: the body had been found. Then, once they were parked,
23:20
Speaker 1: all three of them got out of the car, and
23:22
Speaker 1: Laverne went over to the edge of the road and
23:25
Speaker 1: pointed like right to the exact spot where Tanya had
23:28
Speaker 1: been found on the slope. And even though Ingram tried
23:30
Speaker 1: to keep his expression neutral here, internally, he was sort
23:34
Speaker 1: of amazed. I mean, clearly, Laverne was telling the truth.
23:37
Speaker 1: It would have been impossible for her to have chosen
23:39
Speaker 1: that specific spot without having prior knowledge of where Tanya
23:43
Speaker 1: had been, meaning she was telling the truth. She must
23:46
Speaker 1: have been involved in killing Tanya. As they all climbed
23:49
Speaker 1: back into the car, Ingram knew they now had more
23:52
Speaker 1: than enough to formally arrest John and and also Laverne.
23:56
Speaker 1: She'd done the right thing by coming forward, but of
23:59
Speaker 1: course now, there were going to be consequences. On February 21st,
24:03
Speaker 1: so 16 days after Laverne called with her first tip,
24:07
Speaker 1: John Sovznovsky was arrested. And five days after that, Laverne
24:12
Speaker 1: was arrested as well, and both of them were charged
24:15
Speaker 1: with murder. About 11 months later, Laverne's trial started, and
24:19
Speaker 1: at that point, Laverne actually tried to change her story again.
24:23
Speaker 1: She tried to recant her confession and said, no, I
24:26
Speaker 1: didn't actually do this. But the jury didn't buy her
24:29
Speaker 1: change of heart and convicted her of murder. And she
24:32
Speaker 1: was sentenced to life in prison. As for John, two
24:35
Speaker 1: months after Laverne's sentencing, he was given the same sentence,
24:39
Speaker 1: life in prison. And that should have been the end
24:41
Speaker 1: of the case, at least from the legal perspective. But
24:44
Speaker 1: for the next three years following sentencing, Ingram just couldn't
24:49
Speaker 1: stop thinking about Laverne and John and Tanya Bennett. Despite
24:53
Speaker 1: what Laverne had done, he felt a lot of empathy
24:55
Speaker 1: for her. She'd obviously been under John's control and had
24:59
Speaker 1: seemed genuinely terrified of him. But more than that, Ingram
25:03
Speaker 1: had this horrible, nagging feeling that they'd gotten something wrong here. Then,
25:08
Speaker 1: one March afternoon in 1994, Ingram was in his office
25:12
Speaker 1: at the sheriff's department going over some paperwork when his
25:15
Speaker 1: desk phone rang. When he picked it up, it was
25:17
Speaker 1: the prosecutor who'd worked Tanya's case. And the prosecutor said
25:21
Speaker 1: they'd just gotten a very strange letter about Tanya's murder.
25:25
Speaker 1: And as soon as the prosecutor described the letter's contents,
25:30
Speaker 1: Ingram felt sick to his stomach. Ingram had been right
25:33
Speaker 1: to worry that he and his partner and really the
25:36
Speaker 1: whole legal system had potentially just gotten something wrong with
25:40
Speaker 1: this case. It just felt like there was something left unsaid.
25:44
Speaker 1: There was some loophole, there was some loose end something,
25:47
Speaker 1: but he didn't know what it was. It would turn
25:49
Speaker 1: out the thing that was wrong was Laverne. Because their
25:54
Speaker 1: star witness, Laverne, was not just this sweet older lady
25:58
Speaker 1: afraid of her abusive boyfriend who had come forward and
26:01
Speaker 1: told the truth despite the consequences. That wasn't really the story.
26:06
Speaker 1: In fact, basically everything she told Ingram and his partner
26:10
Speaker 1: was a lie. What was true. And what ultimately drove
26:14
Speaker 1: Laverne to do what she did was she really wanted
26:19
Speaker 1: to break up with John, but she didn't know how
26:21
Speaker 1: to do it. And so what she ultimately did to
26:25
Speaker 1: attempt to rid herself of John was to frame him
26:28
Speaker 1: for murder. And at first she did an incredible job.
26:32
Speaker 1: You know, she read everything she could, you know, little
26:34
Speaker 1: details about the murder in the news and She also
26:37
Speaker 1: snuck a peek at Ingram's list of evidence during that
26:39
Speaker 1: early interview that was done at her apartment, and so
26:41
Speaker 1: that's how she knew about, you know, that swatch of
26:44
Speaker 1: denim they were looking for. And she also just happened
26:47
Speaker 1: to take a few really lucky guesses. Like, when she
26:49
Speaker 1: pointed out the spot on the side of the highway
26:51
Speaker 1: where the body was found, she just guessed. But it
26:54
Speaker 1: happened to be right. However, the problem was, despite, you know,
26:58
Speaker 1: basically nailing the framing of John and getting him wrapped
27:02
Speaker 1: up with a murder conviction, she also sort of inadvertently
27:06
Speaker 1: implicated herself. You know, when she came out and said, well,
27:09
Speaker 1: I participated in the murder, her thinking was, they'll take
27:13
Speaker 1: pity on me, and they'll blame John, he'll go to jail,
27:17
Speaker 1: and I'll be okay. But no, she also got convicted
27:21
Speaker 1: of murder and went to jail as well. And Laverne
27:24
Speaker 1: and John were literally in prison, basically writing out their
27:28
Speaker 1: life sentences, when the actual killer, the real Tanya Bennett killer,
27:34
Speaker 1: sent a letter to authorities saying, confessing to his crime.
27:37
Speaker 1: That was why that prosecutor called Ingram. It was to
27:39
Speaker 1: tell him, like, I think there's been a mistake. They
27:42
Speaker 1: clearly didn't do it. After the real killer was arrested
27:44
Speaker 1: in 1995, Laverne and John were both released from prison.
27:49
Speaker 1: In total, they both served four years in jail, all
27:53
Speaker 1: because of Laverne's lies. One morning in early November of 2023,
28:11
Speaker 1: a 71-year-old woman named Patrice Miller stood in front of
28:15
Speaker 1: her fridge in her little home in the rural town
28:17
Speaker 1: of Downeyville, California, and she saw she was running low
28:21
Speaker 1: on food, which meant it was time to place an
28:24
Speaker 1: order with the market in town, which delivered her groceries
28:26
Speaker 1: for her. Getting her food delivered was essential for Patrice
28:29
Speaker 1: and where she was at in her life right now.
28:32
Speaker 1: She lived alone and had a whole house to take
28:34
Speaker 1: care of, which was definitely getting harder the older she got.
28:37
Speaker 1: She'd also had some health problems lately, so it was
28:40
Speaker 1: getting more difficult just to move around. You know, she
28:42
Speaker 1: even had a walking stick just to prop herself up.
28:45
Speaker 1: As Patrice stood in front of her fridge wondering what
28:47
Speaker 1: she was going to add to her grocery list, she
28:50
Speaker 1: heard one of her two cats meowing outside. And this
28:52
Speaker 1: reminded her that, amongst some other chores, she needed to
28:56
Speaker 1: feed her cats. So she decided to make her list later,
28:59
Speaker 1: and she just closed the fridge door, put some cat
29:02
Speaker 1: food in a bowl, and then grabbed her walking stick
29:04
Speaker 1: and headed outside. Patrice carried the cat food out onto
29:07
Speaker 1: the porch. She had some other things to do outside,
29:10
Speaker 1: but she couldn't hold a lot of things at once
29:12
Speaker 1: because of her walking stick. So once she had put
29:14
Speaker 1: the bowl down, she then headed back inside to get
29:16
Speaker 1: her compost and then took that back outside to her garden.
29:20
Speaker 1: And she tried to do all these outdoor chores really
29:23
Speaker 1: quickly because she didn't like being outside these days. She
29:27
Speaker 1: had lived in Downeyville for a long time. But over
29:29
Speaker 1: the past few years, it had gotten really dangerous there. Now,
29:33
Speaker 1: she hadn't realized how bad it was at first because
29:35
Speaker 1: she mostly kept to herself. But eventually, she learned that
29:39
Speaker 1: her neighbors... were starting to get intruders on their property.
29:43
Speaker 1: There had also been a clear uptick in vandalism in
29:45
Speaker 1: people's yards and to their homes. And in fact, over
29:48
Speaker 1: the past few months, Patrice herself had begun to experience
29:51
Speaker 1: this directly. In fact, she had dealt with so many
29:55
Speaker 1: attempted break-ins at her own house that that she had
29:58
Speaker 1: become convinced that she had a stalker. She'd even put
30:01
Speaker 1: bars on her windows as a security measure. So that's
30:05
Speaker 1: why Patrice did not like being outside. She felt exposed,
30:08
Speaker 1: like her stalker or whoever it was that was doing
30:11
Speaker 1: this was going to be watching her and would come
30:14
Speaker 1: over here and attack. And so as fast as she could,
30:16
Speaker 1: she dumped the compost in her garden, turned around, hustled inside,
30:20
Speaker 1: and shut the door behind her. And as soon as
30:22
Speaker 1: she had done that and was safely inside her house,
30:25
Speaker 1: she felt hugely relieved. A few days later, on November 8th,
30:29
Speaker 1: at the market in town where Patrice typically got her groceries,
30:33
Speaker 1: a 55-year-old cashier named Cassie Koch rang up a customer
30:36
Speaker 1: at the register. But as she bagged their purchases, her
30:40
Speaker 1: mind was elsewhere. She was thinking about Patrice. Cassie was
30:44
Speaker 1: typically the person that delivered Patrice's grocery order, but over
30:48
Speaker 1: the years, they had become closer than just a customer-provider relationship.
30:52
Speaker 1: You know, they were friends. In fact, these days, the
30:54
Speaker 1: two of them would speak on the phone fairly often.
30:57
Speaker 1: Just a chat. But now, Cassie realized she hadn't heard
31:00
Speaker 1: from Patrice in days, which was very odd, both because
31:04
Speaker 1: of their friendship, but also because she knew it had
31:06
Speaker 1: been a while since Patrice made her grocery order. And
31:09
Speaker 1: so Cassie had begun asking around at the store and
31:12
Speaker 1: had found out that nobody else had heard from Patrice either. Now,
31:15
Speaker 1: Cassie knew it was possible that Patrice was just busy,
31:19
Speaker 1: and for pretty much anybody else, you know, one missed
31:21
Speaker 1: order or even a couple missed orders wouldn't be enough
31:24
Speaker 1: to make Cassie worry. But in this case... Cassie was
31:27
Speaker 1: extra concerned because she knew about Patrice's stalker. And she
31:31
Speaker 1: knew that Patrice had even called the authorities about it,
31:34
Speaker 1: but there really hadn't been much help. Remember, this is
31:37
Speaker 1: a tiny rural town in California that had experienced a
31:40
Speaker 1: lot of exactly what Patrice was experiencing. Break-ins, harassment, and
31:44
Speaker 1: other kinds of vandalism or damage. However, neither Patrice nor
31:48
Speaker 1: anybody else had reported any actual violence. So authorities were
31:52
Speaker 1: basically overwhelmed with a flood of what they considered sort
31:56
Speaker 1: of relatively minor complaints. And Patrice's situation really didn't seem
32:00
Speaker 1: much worse than anybody else's in town, and also officials
32:04
Speaker 1: just didn't have the manpower to deal with it. And
32:06
Speaker 1: so ultimately, all authorities did was just advise Patrice on
32:10
Speaker 1: ways she could handle it herself, which was why she'd
32:13
Speaker 1: installed those bars on her windows. All this is to say,
32:16
Speaker 1: Cassie knew that Patrice was genuinely terrified of her stalker,
32:20
Speaker 1: who Patrice referred to as Big Bastard. and she was
32:24
Speaker 1: worried about what the stalker might do next. So after
32:27
Speaker 1: Cassie was done with her shift that day, she tried
32:29
Speaker 1: to get in touch with Patrice one more time. But
32:31
Speaker 1: when she couldn't reach her yet again, Cassie called the
32:34
Speaker 1: police and asked them to go do a wellness check.
32:37
Speaker 1: That evening, a deputy from the Sierra County Sheriff's Department
32:41
Speaker 1: drove up to Patrice's house and parked in front, and
32:44
Speaker 1: immediately he could tell something was wrong. The front door
32:47
Speaker 1: of her house was clearly smashed in, And there was
32:50
Speaker 1: a garden hose that was laying across her porch steps
32:53
Speaker 1: and was spraying water everywhere like the water had just
32:56
Speaker 1: been left on. And so the deputy got out of
32:58
Speaker 1: his cruiser and he walked over to the house and
33:00
Speaker 1: he found the turnoff for the water on the side
33:02
Speaker 1: of the house. And then he walked up the front
33:05
Speaker 1: steps of the porch. And as he did this, he
33:07
Speaker 1: was constantly looking around and listening, trying to figure out
33:10
Speaker 1: what was going on here. I mean, he didn't know
33:12
Speaker 1: if there was an active threat inside the house. He
33:15
Speaker 1: had no idea what he was walking into. And so
33:17
Speaker 1: he's on the porch and before going in through the
33:20
Speaker 1: front door, which was obviously smashed open, he looked in
33:24
Speaker 1: a window to see if he could see into the
33:26
Speaker 1: house to gauge what was going on here. And when
33:29
Speaker 1: he looked inside the house, the first thing he saw
33:31
Speaker 1: was blood all over the floor. And at that point,
33:34
Speaker 1: he unholstered his gun. And so now with his gun raised,
33:38
Speaker 1: the deputy stepped into the house. He slowly walked through
33:41
Speaker 1: the living room, listening for any signs of sudden movement
33:45
Speaker 1: or intimidation. indication there was someone still in the house,
33:48
Speaker 1: but he didn't hear anything. And so there didn't appear
33:51
Speaker 1: to be an intruder present right now, but there was
33:54
Speaker 1: also no sign of Patrice. All he saw was that
33:57
Speaker 1: blood towards the front of the house. That was it.
33:59
Speaker 1: And so the deputy, he left the living room and
34:01
Speaker 1: walked towards the kitchen. And as soon as he stepped
34:04
Speaker 1: across the threshold into the kitchen, he breathed in and
34:08
Speaker 1: just kind of held his breath because what he saw
34:10
Speaker 1: was just chaos. All the cabinets were opened. And all
34:15
Speaker 1: over the floor were remnants of all the food that
34:17
Speaker 1: likely was in the cabinets, like pieces of food and
34:20
Speaker 1: ripped up packaging and broken jars. A window at the
34:23
Speaker 1: far end of the room was also smashed. And the
34:26
Speaker 1: security bars that Patrice had put on the window were
34:29
Speaker 1: bent and hanging by their hinges. There was actually so
34:33
Speaker 1: much just debris and just chaos in the kitchen that
34:38
Speaker 1: at first the deputy didn't register what was actually laying
34:42
Speaker 1: in the center. of the kitchen on the floor. But
34:44
Speaker 1: then when his brain sort of processed it, he realized
34:48
Speaker 1: what he was looking at was Patrice, at least what
34:52
Speaker 1: was left of her. But she no longer looked human
34:56
Speaker 1: because her body had literally been torn apart. The deputy
35:00
Speaker 1: quickly left the house and called in his terrible discovery
35:03
Speaker 1: to the sheriff. And within an hour, Patrice's property was
35:07
Speaker 1: swarming with police and crime scene techs and a forensic
35:10
Speaker 1: expert who specialized in this type of scene, and detectives
35:13
Speaker 1: fanned out all across the area and began speaking to
35:16
Speaker 1: Patrice's neighbors. And because pretty much everyone in the neighborhood
35:20
Speaker 1: had been experiencing the same type of break-ins and property
35:23
Speaker 1: damage that Patrice had been, it actually didn't take long
35:27
Speaker 1: for police to develop a profile of Patrice's killer. Their
35:30
Speaker 1: conclusion was that very likely, the killer was the same
35:34
Speaker 1: individual who was harassing everybody else. But what officials couldn't
35:38
Speaker 1: understand is, Why had everybody else experienced effectively minor vandalism,
35:44
Speaker 1: but Patrice went from minor vandalism to really excessive violence?
35:49
Speaker 1: And this required developing a profile of Patrice. And so
35:53
Speaker 1: as police searched for her killer, they were also working
35:56
Speaker 1: on reconstructing Patrice's movements on the final day of her life.
36:00
Speaker 1: And at first, in their efforts, really they were just stumped.
36:03
Speaker 1: I mean, all she had done on that day, as
36:05
Speaker 1: far as they could tell, were some basic chores. But...
36:09
Speaker 1: as they dug into what those chores consisted of, they
36:13
Speaker 1: found two things that actually explained everything. It would turn
36:17
Speaker 1: out that every day for the past couple of years,
36:20
Speaker 1: Patrice had been making two terrible mistakes. She fed her
36:25
Speaker 1: cats out on the porch and she emptied her compost
36:29
Speaker 1: into the garden. And these two actions ultimately were what
36:34
Speaker 1: sort of attracted her stalker, Big Bastard, to her home.
36:38
Speaker 1: Because Big Bastard was a black bear. He loved to
36:41
Speaker 1: eat cat food and kitchen compost scraps. And eventually, he
36:45
Speaker 1: decided that Patrice was food too. So on that day
36:48
Speaker 1: in early November of 2023, when Patrice fed her cats
36:52
Speaker 1: and emptied her compost for the last time, Big Bastard
36:55
Speaker 1: waited until Patrice was in bed and then broke into
36:59
Speaker 1: her house and savagely killed her. By the time the
37:02
Speaker 1: deputy arrived at Patrice's home, Big Bastard had been eating
37:06
Speaker 1: Patrice's body for days. And so what he saw was
37:09
Speaker 1: And the kitchen was what was left of her. Black
37:12
Speaker 1: bears are not typically dangerous to people. In fact, Patrice
37:16
Speaker 1: was the first known black bear fatality in California history.
37:20
Speaker 1: But it was exactly that sort of lack of perceived danger,
37:25
Speaker 1: which is why officials didn't help Patrice or any of
37:27
Speaker 1: our other neighbors get rid of these black bears when
37:30
Speaker 1: they were coming into their neighborhood and causing all this
37:33
Speaker 1: property damage and all this alarm. They basically said, eh,
37:37
Speaker 1: what's the worst they could do? Thank you so much
37:45
Speaker 1: for watching today's episode. Let me know what you thought
37:47
Speaker 1: of it in the comments below. And remember, we have
37:50
Speaker 1: a whole playlist of Places You Can't Go episodes ready
37:54
Speaker 1: for you to binge right now. So go ahead and
37:56
Speaker 1: click here and give them a watch. All right, until
37:59
Speaker 1: next time, see ya.