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The Pretty Family Slayings · Gone Cold - Texas True Crime

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Gone Call podcasts may contain violent or graphics subject matter.
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Listener discretion is advised by all accounts. Robert and Karen
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: Pretty had normal lives. Born August seventh, nineteen forty three,
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: in Harris County, Texas. Robert was a machinist at Tricolor Incorporated,
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: a sheet metal and sighting company. His father in law
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: was his foreman. Karen was born in Saint Louis, Missouri,
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: on June sixteenth, nineteen forty nine. After marrying Robert in
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: November of nineteen sixty nine, Karen became a housewife. Seven
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: months later. On June twenty seventh, nineteen seventy, they welcomed
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: their first son into their lives, Scott Warren Pretty. Three
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: years after that, on February third, nineteen seventy three, their
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: second son, Mark David Pretty, was born. Robert passed down
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: his red hair to both of his kids. They were
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: described as pretty little red haired children. Around nineteen seventy six,
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: the family made their home in North Houston, in the
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: city's suburb of al Dean. Their neighborhood a quiet, relatively
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: new subdivision. The house was modest, a ranch style three
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: bedroom red brick home. Karen shared a close bond with
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: Mark and Scott. The two weren't allowed to cross the street.
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: Karen was protective. She was involved with activities and academics
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: at Evelyn S. Thompson Elementary School as a room mother
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: and a volunteer in the motor skills lab. The life
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: of the Pretty family was seemingly typical. They were a
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: working class family who both thrived and struggled, just like
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: anyone else. But in nineteen seventy eight, the unthinkable happened, and,
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: perhaps because of the normal lives they led. The brutal
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: murders of Karen, Scott and Mark Pretty remain unsolved to
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: this day. At six pm on Wednesday May tenth, nineteen
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: seventy eight, Robert Pretty returned home from work. When he
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: walked in, it seemed quiet, too quiet. He began making
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: his way around the house. On the kitchen table sat
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: half a glass of milk and partially eaten cold toast. Immediately,
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: Robert's heart began pounding with fear was terribly wrong. He
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: heard the sound of dripping water, which he followed. In
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: the home's front bedroom. Robert entered to find his two sons,
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: seven year old Scott and five year old Mark lying
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: in the bathtub, face down. The water was still running.
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: Both were barefoot, still in their pajamas. He pulled them
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: from the water. It was immediately obvious they were gone.
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: Robert raced to the master bedroom looking for his wife.
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  Speaker 1: There in the master bath, he found Karen, also lying
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  Speaker 1: in the tub, face down. Water still ran through the spout.
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: Robert quickly called the police. When an ambulance arrived, an
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: inconsolable Robert stood in the front yard motioning for it
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: to stop. He was upset, very upset. A police officer
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: later commented, he just told us therein so police arrived
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  Speaker 1: to find a grueling and complex crime scene. Karen was
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: still in her flowery housecoat. She was gagged and bound
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: by the ankles and wrists using telephone cord. A telephone
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: cord was also tightly wound around her neck. The Harris
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: County Medical Examiner later determined Karen's cause of death to
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: be asphyxia due to drowning and ligature strangulation. Five year
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: old Mark was neither bound nor gagged. A large bruise
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: was found over the left side of his rib cage.
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: His death would later be determined as the result of
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: drowning and manual strangulation. Scott, Karen and Robert's oldest, had
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: been gagged with a sock, a twisted metal coat hanger
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  Speaker 1: bound his wrists, and a pair of nylon pantyhose bound
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: his ankles. Because of the condition of his body, police
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: believes Scott fought his attackers bravely and fiercely. In fact,
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: he appeared to have been the only one to put
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  Speaker 1: up such a fight because his cause of death was
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: later listed as asphyxia due to drowning, gagging, and manual strangulation.
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  Speaker 1: Because Mark was so young and small, it's likely he
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: was incapable of putting up much a fight at all,
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  Speaker 1: and Karen, it could be theorized, didn't fight back in
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  Speaker 1: hopes her children would be spared. For responding detectives, the
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: crime scene offered both clarity and confusion, but primarily the latter.
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: The partially consumed food on the kitchen table led them
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: to theorize that someone had interrupted breakfast, and judging by
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: the fact that there was no evidence of forced entry,
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: police theorized that the killer or killers had either entered
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: through an unlocked door and surprised Karen and the kids,
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: or had been led in. Oddly, Christmas decorations that had
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: been stored in the family's attic were strewn across the
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: Pretty's backyard. It was a detail the cops didn't know
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  Speaker 1: what to make heads or tails of. There was also
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: something missing. Karen's new nineteen seventy eight blue Mercury Marquis
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  Speaker 1: wasn't in the driveway. As authorities processed the scene, the
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: phone rang. A paramedic picked it up, Fire department ambulance,
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: they said, the caller hung up. Another call came in
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: same thing. The third time the phone rang. The caller
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: asked for Robert Pretty. Do you know Robert. The man
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: who answered asked, yes, I'm his mother. The caller was
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: Verona Jones, Karen's mom. Robert was there, the man told Verona,
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  Speaker 1: but he couldn't come to the phone. You'd better get
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  Speaker 1: over here right away, they told her. Verona had tried
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: to phone Karen several times that day around noon and
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: then again at about two thirty pm, but there was
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: never any answer. She didn't think it was anything too
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: out of the ordinary, as Karen bowled on Wednesday mornings
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: and sometimes did some shopping in the afternoon. But Verona
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: began worrying after she spoke with a friend who bowled
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: with her daughter, who told her Karen hadn't shown up
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: at the bowling alley that morning. The friend had also
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: tried to phone Karen all day, also with no luck.
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  Speaker 1: The murders were devastating to family and friends. The Pretties
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: were a quiet family, one who minded their own business business,
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  Speaker 1: which was neither nefarious nor abnormal. The kids, particularly Mark,
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  Speaker 1: looked like they were straight out of a television commercial, handsome,
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  Speaker 1: well mannered, and just like any of the other boys
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  Speaker 1: in their school. One second grade classmate of Scott's called
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  Speaker 1: him a real good student who never got in trouble.
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  Speaker 1: Everyone knew Robert as a great and attentive father, as
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  Speaker 1: upright a person as you could ever meet. Karen was
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  Speaker 1: perpetually mother of the year, material and as friendly and
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  Speaker 1: pleasant as they come. The Pretties were the all American
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: family stereotype. One neighbor said. The boys' school principle described
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  Speaker 1: the family in much the same way, calling them wonderful, ideal,
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  Speaker 1: and exemplary. Not a single person knew of anyone who
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: might want to harm the Pretty family from the get go.
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: The Pretty case was marred by lack of evidence and motive.
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: Robert told the police he left the house at six
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  Speaker 1: forty five am to go to work and returned at
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  Speaker 1: six pm, presumably alibi. Witnesses backed this up, and though
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: it is not known for certain, its likely detectives looked
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: him over for injuries. The killer likely sustained, a theory
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  Speaker 1: especially relevant considering the condition of Scott's body. The times
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: of deaths could not be determined precisely, but a neighbor
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: reported to police that Karen's seventy eight Mercury was parked
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: in the driveway at noon, suggesting the assailant or assailants
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  Speaker 1: hadn't left before then, Further suggesting the murders took place
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: between six forty five am and twelve pm. Another unfamiliar
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: car was parked alongside Karen's. Not only were there no
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: signs of forced entry, but there were also no signs
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  Speaker 1: of a struggle, no blood evidence. Police theorized the killer
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: or killers came in abruptly and with little to no warning.
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  Speaker 1: Multiple fingerprints were found inside the pretty home, all of
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: which were being examined and checked. As the case progressed,
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: confusion mounted. Several witnesses reported that they saw two men
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  Speaker 1: in an unrecognized white car in front of the Pretty
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  Speaker 1: family's North Houston home as early as seven thirty am
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: and as late as twelve thirty PM. As far as
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: Karen's car was concerned, a bee on the lookout was issued.
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: At some point early on, an unidentified man told police
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  Speaker 1: that a car with that description and the same license
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  Speaker 1: plate number had attempted to run him down in the
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: parking lot of the Screaming Eagle Lounge at Old Spanish
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  Speaker 1: Trail and Griggs Road, about twenty miles from the Pretty
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  Speaker 1: family home on the south side of downtown. According to detectives,
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  Speaker 1: the lead was later proven false. It never happened, at
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: least not with Karen's car. At five point forty five,
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: the evening of the murders, a resident at an apartment
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  Speaker 1: complex located at one ninety eight Goodson, about a block
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  Speaker 1: west of the crime scene found a car parked in
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  Speaker 1: her assigned spot. After contacting the complex's manager, the car
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  Speaker 1: was towed to a service yard a couple miles away.
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  Speaker 1: The car was Karen Pretty's nineteen seventy eight Mercury Marquis.
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  Speaker 1: No one had seen the vehicle being abandoned, nor had
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: any of the pretty's neighbors seen it leave the house.
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: When they finally discovered where it was, police scoured the
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  Speaker 1: vehicle for prints and evidence. No usable fingerprints were found
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: inside or outside of the car, and if any evidence
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  Speaker 1: was found, it was kept quiet. Detectives were having about
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  Speaker 1: as much luck figuring out a motive. Though the home's
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: attic had been rifled through and Christmas decorations scattered throughout
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  Speaker 1: the backyard, nothing else in the house appeared to have
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  Speaker 1: been taken or even touched, with the exception of a
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  Speaker 1: couple places. One drawer of a dresser in the master
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  Speaker 1: bedroom had been ransacked, as had Karen's purse on the
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  Speaker 1: kitchen table, but Karen still wore her jewelry. The only
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: things taken from the home, in fact, were Karen's car
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  Speaker 1: and car keys, which probably explained her purse being rifled through.
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  Speaker 1: Since they had been abandoned shortly after the abhorrent crime
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  Speaker 1: was committed, it's unlikely they were ever intended to be stolen.
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: Early on, robbery, burglary, and drugs were ruled out as motives.
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: Police entertained the thought that sexual assault was the motive,
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: but after autopsies and further testing, it was determined neither
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  Speaker 1: Karen Mark nor Scott had been sexually as. Because of
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: the lack of clues and a motive, the Pretty Family
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: murders were cold almost as soon as the bodies were discovered.
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  Speaker 1: Six detectives worked the case for the first several weeks,
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  Speaker 1: putting in thousands of man hours and interviewing more than
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: one hundred people, But after an exhaustive effort to find answers,
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: they remained baffled. They did agree on a theory, the
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  Speaker 1: only one that seemed to make any sense. The detectives
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: believed the case involved a murder for hire scenario, one
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: in which the predees were not the intended victims. The
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: killers were at the wrong house, the Houston Police theorized.
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: After an intensive investigation, it was more or less proven
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  Speaker 1: the family had no enemies and were not involved in
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: any criminal activity. However, it was reported that there was
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  Speaker 1: an informant in the neighborhood who had caused the arrest
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: of a known drug dealer. Perhaps police thought the killers
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: were not familiar with the area and found a house
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: that looked similar and had a similar vehicle outside. It's
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: reported the informant had a family situation and car that
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: closely resembled the Pretty family and their home. More than
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: five months after the murders, in October nineteen seventy eight,
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  Speaker 1: a seven thousand dollars reward was offered for information leading
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: to the arrest and conviction of any suspect. Ten days
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: after that announcement, the reward offered by friends of Robert
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: Pretty and his late family increased to ten thousand dollars.
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: Detective Johnny Bonds told a reporter for the Houston Chronicle
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: that the department had almost nothing to go on, virtually
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: no clues, he said, but hoped that the reward will
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: be the thing that brings a witness to the table.
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: According to Detective Bonds, only one truly promp mussing call
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: came in during the entirety of the initial investigation, when
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: a man called the Houston Police Department saying he had
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: information about the case. He was afraid for his life,
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: he told police, and subsequently arranged to meet with detectives
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: to tell them what he knew. After waiting an hour
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: at the meet up place with no sign of the man, however,
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: the police left. The man never called back. Because of
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: the initial conversation, Detective Bonds believed that the man indeed
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: had information about the case, but the law man wouldn't
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: elaborate any further than that. After almost a year had passed,
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: in March of nineteen seventy nine, some information came into
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: the department, but what it was isn't known publicly. Nothing
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: anyway developed from the new information. Then came the Wanstrath
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: family murders. Judging by all outward appearances, John and Diana
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: Wanstrath were a normal and happy couple. They were coming
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  Speaker 1: up on ten years of marriage and had a fourteen
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: month old son named Kevin. On the afternoon of July sixth,
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: nineteen seventy nine, the family's housekeeper arrived at the Wanstrats
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: Southwest Houston home to perform her normal duties, but there
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: was no answer. When she returned later that day, there
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: was still no answer. Something was off. She peered into
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: the living room window and saw thirty five year old
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: John Wanstrath slumped and still in a chair. Not far
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: from John, by the fireplace laid thirty six year old Diana.
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: The housekeeper rushed to call police. When homicide detectives arrived
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: at the scene, they discovered both Diana and John had
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: been shot execution style, her once in the left temple
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: and him twice in the back of the head. One
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: of the responding detectives, Sergeant Johnny Bonds, believed at first
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: John had committed a murder suicide. After all, there were
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: no signs of forced entry or a struggle, and the
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: way the bodies were positioned made it look like John
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: had shot Diana, immediately sat down in the chair, and
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: then killed himself. But John's wounds didn't make much sense
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: as self inflicted and anyway. After searching for a gun
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: near the bodies and everywhere else in the house for
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: that matter, detectives came up empty handed. There was no
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: murder weapon at the crime scene. John and Diana's bodies
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: weren't where the carnage ended. Upstairs, Kevin, barely more than
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: a year old, lay in his crib among his favorite toys.
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: He too, had been shot in the head. Detectives scoured
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: these for clues but found few. A motive was even
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: more elusive. The Wanstrath family went to church, spent evenings
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: on their patio. They were seen at dinner parties of
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: friends and neighbors, never showing any signs that anything at
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: all was going wrong in their lives and seemingly nothing
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: to keep secret. John was a hell of a neighbor
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: who'd fix your car if you needed him to. Diana
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: was as friendly and warm as they come, and simply
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: adored children. Even the idea of them having enemies seemed absurd,
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: and evidence certainly didn't point to any. Perhaps, detective Bonds
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: theorized the Wanstraths were killed for money, but at first
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: there was nothing there to support the theory. The cops
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: didn't have a thing. Bonds couldn't help, but think of
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: the murders of Karen Pretty and her sons Mark and Scott.
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: Even though the method of the murders differed significantly, the
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: cases were similar, and at least a couple ways, both
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: seemed senseless, no readily apparent motive, and few workable clues.
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: As in the case of the Pretty family murders. The
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: reward in the Wanstrath case was ten thousand dollars, but
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: as the weeks turned a months, no one came forward
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: with any viable leads, and there was another wrench thrown
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: in based on a slipshod psychological profile completed by a
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: psychologist slash Catholic priest Harris County Medical Examiner doctor Joseph
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: Yahemchik ruled that Diana Wanstrath had killed her baby, then
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: her husband, than herself. Though he'd since been transferred to
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: internal affairs, Sergeant Johnny Bonds was hell bent on proving
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: that conclusion wrong. The Wanstrath family case is perhaps imperative
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: to understanding how and why the Pretty Family murders were
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: never solved. That all begins and essentially ends with the
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: work of one of the most renowned Texas pathologists of
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: all time, Harris County Medical Examiner, doctor Joseph Jahemchic. Though
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: he was transferred from homicide to internal affairs, Sergeant Johnny
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: Bonds kept a copy of the Wanstrath family murders file.
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: He wasn't buying the murder suicide determination because most obviously,
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: there was no murder weapon found at the scene. The
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: murder suicide conclusion was based upon a psychological profile completed
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: by doctor Thomas Whelou. One thing that made doctor Whelou
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: so sure Diane and Wanstrath would have killed her family
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: was the observation that she was having trouble adjusting to
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: having a child. Her perfectionism made that all the worse.
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: According to Weelu. There was evidence Diana was on a
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: downward spiral in the eight months prior to her death,
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: he said, and she had told her brother in a
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: recent telephone conversation about her decision to donate her body
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: to science, and there were no signs of forced entry,
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: no foreign fingerprints found in the house. Plus ballistics had
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: determined the weapon used in the supposed murder suicide was
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: a twenty two caliber single action revolver, a type of
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: weapon rarely used in the commission of, say a robbery,
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: since you have to pull the hammer back each time
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: before you fire. However, and interestingly, without the revolver in hand,
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: even modern day ballistics practices can determine with accuracy whether
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: a revolver was single action or double action. That and
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: the lack of the murder weapon itself were telltale signs
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: of murder to Sergeant Bonds and likely any other detective
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: who's worth their weight. Then, as he continued looking for
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: commonalities between the Wanstrath case and the Pretty Family Slangs,
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: Bonds discovered something shocking. A few years before, in October
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: of nineteen seventy five, Diana Wanstrath's sixty year old grandmother
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: Gertrude was found dead in her home. Harris County Medical
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: examiner doctor Joseph Yahemchik, ruled the death of suicide, but
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: there was one glaring detail that made Gertrude's husband and
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: Diana doubt that a pair of pantyhose were wrapped around
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: the woman's neck. After this discovery, Houston Post reporter Rick
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: Nelson called Sergeant Bond with a tip. The newsman had
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: received a call saying that thirty four year old Markham
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: duff Smith, Diana's brother, had killed his mother for money
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: and was likely responsible for the murders of the Wanstrath
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: family as well. Bonds leaned in heavily on this theory.
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: Upon giving relatives of Diana and John Wanstrath polygraph examinations,
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: only one family member failed, Markham duff Smith. Duff Smith,
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: who was adopted by the family when he was just
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: two weeks old, was described as a loaner who lived
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: one day at a time. He argued with Gertrude about
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: money often. He was always asking her for some and
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: she was less than obliging nearly every time. Upon Gertrude's
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: determined suicide, duff Smith and his sister Diana Wanstrath were
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: given ninety thousand dollars each. There's little doubt duff Smith
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: blew all his on his favorite pastimes, fast cars and women.
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: Eight months before his sister, brother in law, and nephew
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: were slain, he had sold John Wanstrath a two hundred
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: and fifty thousand dollars life insurance policy. Sergeant Johnny Bonds
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: learned John's aunt was also recently deceased, and the family
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: was to receive a part of that estate. In November
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: of nineteen seventy nine, duff Smith was given his share
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: of his sister's estate four hundred and thirty five thousand dollars,
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: an amount equal to about two million dollars in twenty
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: twenty five money. He blew a sizeable portion of that
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: right away, some on a Mercedes Benz and some on
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: a lavish, though sparsely attended Christmas party in his new home,
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: which he had just put a down payment on. With
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: the estate money. He lost another huge chunk of the
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: money playing the stockm market. Two. In the spring of
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: nineteen eighty, duff Smith's friend, twenty seven year old real
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: estate agent Walter Waldhauser Junior, moved into his house after
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: both men kicked their wives to the curb. It was
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: a grave mistake. Both women opened up to Houston Police
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: Sergeant Johnny Bonds and allowed him and his partner to
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: go through Waldhauser's papers. In them, the law men discovered
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: that the man knew a two time ex convict who
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: was the prime suspect in another murder, Alan Wayne Yeneska.
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: Bonds was getting closer, he could feel it. At Yeneska's
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: girlfriend's house, police found something promising a twenty two caliber
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: cult frontier, potentially their murder weapon. Yeneska was arrested and
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: after a few days, confessed to the murders of Diana
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: John and fourteen month old Kevin Wanstrap. With the t
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: Biggerman down, the other conspirators fell. Like Domino's Walter, Waldhauser
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: had enlisted the help of his friend Yeneska. Former Houston
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: bail bondsman Paul McDonald had acted as a middleman, and
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: the money to pay for the murders twenty thousand dollars,
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: was supplied by none other than Gertrude's adopted son and
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: Diana Wanstrath's brother, Mark duff Smith. Although a strong case
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: against these men was built Harris County Medical Examiner, doctor
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: Joseph Yahimchik, refused to change the murder suicide ruling to homicide. Still,
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: a grand jury indicted them. Finally, two months after that indictment,
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: doctor Yahimchik changed it. Paul McDonald, the former bail bondsman
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: slash murder middleman, was sentenced to sixteen years in prison.
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: Walter Waldhauser was given thirty years. Man Alan Wayne Yanesco
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: was given the death penalty. He was put to death
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: in two thousand and three. Markham Duff Smith, unlike all
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: the others, never confessed to his role as the mastermind
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: and moneyman. Not only was he convicted of the murders
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: of Diana, John and Kevin Wanstrath, he was also convicted
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: of the murder of he and Diana's mother, Gertrude. He
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: received the death penalty as well, which was carried out
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: in nineteen ninety three. There's no doubt that the murders
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: of the Pretty family were wholly unconnected to the murders
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: of the wan Straths, but because of the many mistakes
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: made in their case, particularly the determinations of the Harris
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: County Medical Examiner, its entirely possible errors were also made
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: in the case of the predies. It is difficult not
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: to wonder what was missed or misconstrued, difficult not to
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: wonder if that's why the case remains unsolved to this day.
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: In the decades that followed, little news or even anniversary
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: stories about the Pretty family murders saw print or a
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: television screen. Later, in nineteen ninety seven, a childhood friend
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: of Scott Pretty tried to bring renewed attention to the case.
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: Though she tried to get the TV show Unsolved Mysteries
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: to do a segment on the case, one never aired.
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: After thousands of man hours investigating, the cops came up
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: with little more than a few working theories. Evidence in
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: the case was checked for DNA testing viability in nineteen
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: ninety seven, but it's unclear if the suspect profile was found.
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: Robert Pretty married again in nineteen eighty five, but divorced
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: in nineteen ninety six. After his death in twenty fifteen,
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: Robert's ashes were scattered over Karen, Scott and More's graves
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: at Memorial Oaks Cemetery in Houston, a testing perhaps to
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: the man's lifelong grief. If you have any information about
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: the murders of Karen Scott and Mark Pretty, please contact
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: the Homicide Unit at the Houston Police Department at seven
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: one three three zero eight three six zero zero. If
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: you'd like to join gon Cold's mission to shine a
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: light on unsolved homicides and missing persons cases, get the
• 29:36
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• 29:39
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• 29:45
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• 29:47
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• 29:51
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• 29:55
  Speaker 1: appreciate you. Thanks for listening, y'all.