Latest / Crime and Horror / Utah man's double life got him KILLED - MrBallen

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Utah man's double life got him KILLED - MrBallen · Crime and Horror

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Speaker 1: On an afternoon in December of nineteen ninety one, a
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Speaker 1: woman in small town, Utah opened up her mailbox. Inside
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Speaker 1: was a credit card bill that was addressed to her husband,
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Speaker 1: who had disappeared a week earlier, and the woman found
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Speaker 1: this to be really strange because, as far as she knew,
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Speaker 1: her husband didn't have.
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Speaker 2: A credit card.
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Speaker 1: However, when she finally ripped open the envelope and actually
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Speaker 1: read the charges, she realized that her missing husband might.
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Speaker 2: Have been keeping an even bigger secret.
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Speaker 1: But before we get into today's story, if you're a
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Speaker 1: fan of the strange, dark and mysterious delivered in story format,
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Speaker 3: Okay, let's get into today story.
1:20
Speaker 1: Around six thirty pm on December tenth, nineteen ninety one,
1:24
Speaker 1: a twenty two year old security guard named Brian Ruff
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Speaker 1: sat inside of a guard shack at the Kennicott Copper
1:29
Speaker 1: Mine in northern Utah reading a college textbook. The shack
1:33
Speaker 1: was barely big enough for one person to sit inside of,
1:35
Speaker 1: and there were windows on all four sides looking out
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Speaker 1: into the total darkness. The sun was already down, and
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Speaker 1: this was a really isolated part of the mine, with
1:43
Speaker 1: no lights or other buildings nearby, so apart from a
1:46
Speaker 1: little bit of moonlight on the snow, it was basically
1:49
Speaker 1: pitch black outside. Brian had worked as a security guard
1:52
Speaker 1: for this mine for a little over a year, but
1:55
Speaker 1: he'd only been stationed at this particular guard shack for
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Speaker 1: a couple of weeks now, and in his opinion, it
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Speaker 1: was the worst post he could have been assigned to.
2:03
Speaker 1: His job was to guard this chain link gate on
2:06
Speaker 1: a remote service road that led into the canyons. This
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Speaker 1: was a really out of the way entrance into the mine,
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Speaker 1: which meant that not a lot of vehicles came this way,
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Speaker 1: so the job was basically just really boring, but it
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Speaker 1: was also simultaneously very dangerous. The Kennicott Copper Mine was
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Speaker 1: known as the richest hole on Earth, because of the
2:27
Speaker 1: huge amount of valuable materials buried there, including obviously copper
2:32
Speaker 1: and gold and silver, and that made it a big
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Speaker 1: target for thieves. In fact, in just the past few months,
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Speaker 1: more than one hundred and fifty thousand dollars worth of
2:41
Speaker 1: material and equipment had been stolen from the mine. So
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Speaker 1: as a result, Brian was a little bit nervous about
2:47
Speaker 1: being out here in the middle of nowhere, not only
2:50
Speaker 1: because it was pitch black outside, but also he was
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Speaker 1: unarmed and there were no security cameras, so if he
2:57
Speaker 1: did encounter thieves, he basically had to hand bullet by himself,
3:01
Speaker 1: armed with nothing more than a telephone to call for help.
3:04
Speaker 1: But on this particular night, his shift had been you know,
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Speaker 1: routine so far slow and uneventful, so Brian was now
3:11
Speaker 1: just sort of passing the time studying. He was in
3:13
Speaker 1: nursing school and his final exams were coming up in
3:15
Speaker 1: a few days, so he was just sort of pouring
3:17
Speaker 1: over his textbooks and notes.
3:19
Speaker 2: To prepare while he studied.
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Speaker 1: He took out his thermist full of soup that he
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Speaker 1: had brought for dinner, and just as he began eating
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Speaker 1: the soup, the phone on his desk crying. Now, Brian
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Speaker 1: immediately did want to answer the phone because he knew
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Speaker 1: very likely it was his wife, Jennifer. But at the
3:35
Speaker 1: same time, right now, things at home.
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Speaker 2: Were not great.
3:38
Speaker 1: Jennifer worked as a nurse's aide, and Brian had also
3:42
Speaker 1: started working nights at the mine to help support the
3:44
Speaker 1: family while.
3:45
Speaker 2: He went to nursing school during the day.
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Speaker 1: But even with both of them working, it was hard
3:50
Speaker 1: to make ends meet. And now Jennifer was pregnant again
3:53
Speaker 1: with their second child, which was going to make things
3:56
Speaker 1: even harder financially, and the pressure of juggling school, at
4:00
Speaker 1: work and parenthood had been putting a big strain on
4:03
Speaker 1: their marriage. And about a month ago, Brian had sort
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Speaker 1: of reached a breaking point and he'd actually walked out
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Speaker 1: on his family. He'd left a note for Jennifer saying
4:12
Speaker 1: he just needed time alone to think, and then he
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Speaker 1: had driven to his work. He had turned in his
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Speaker 1: security badge and told his boss he quit. Then he
4:20
Speaker 1: had left town, and he'd spent almost a week in
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Speaker 1: Las Vegas, and eventually he'd driven all the way out
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Speaker 1: to San Francisco. But while he was there, you know,
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Speaker 1: having his time alone, he'd received word that his daughter
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Speaker 1: was in the emergency room with pneumonia back home in Utah,
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Speaker 1: And for Brian, it was like that was his wake
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Speaker 1: up call. He realized he could not live with himself
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Speaker 1: if he'd truly abandoned his family. And so he drove
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Speaker 1: right back to Utah to be with Jennifer and to
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Speaker 1: be with his daughter, who would make a recovery. And
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Speaker 1: you know, Jennifer, she would take Brian back despite him
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Speaker 1: walking out on the family, at least for a short time.
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Speaker 1: But her accepting him back into the fold did not
4:57
Speaker 1: sort of make them return to normal in reality, you know,
5:01
Speaker 1: after he returned, there just was this constant sense that
5:04
Speaker 1: there was tension hanging over their relationship because of what
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Speaker 1: Brian had done, you know, abandoning them. So now in
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Speaker 1: the guard shack, Brian took a deep breath and then
5:14
Speaker 1: he picked up the ringing phone and for a few
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Speaker 1: minutes he just chatted on the phone until he suddenly
5:20
Speaker 1: saw something out the window, a flash of headlights coming
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Speaker 1: up the road towards his guard shack. And so at
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Speaker 1: this point Brian said he had to go. He hung
5:27
Speaker 1: up and went right outside to meet the approaching vehicle.
5:32
Speaker 1: About an hour and a half later. So around eight pm,
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Speaker 1: Brian's boss, Todd Fallows, pulled up to the gate next
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Speaker 1: to the guard shack. The shacks lights were on, but
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Speaker 1: he couldn't see anybody inside of it. And Todd found
5:44
Speaker 1: this pretty odd because Brian wasn't supposed to leave his
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Speaker 1: post under any circumstance. That was sort of like the
5:51
Speaker 1: main component to the job, you stay put. But making
5:54
Speaker 1: this even stranger was Brian's car was parked right next
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Speaker 1: to the shack, and this shack is so far away
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Speaker 1: from every other building that really there was no way
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Speaker 1: for Brian to go anywhere without his car, especially not
6:08
Speaker 1: you know, in the freezing cold like it was that night.
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Speaker 2: So where was Brian?
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Speaker 1: And so Todd, who was definitely feeling a bit apprehensive
6:14
Speaker 1: at this point, he parked his car, he got out,
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Speaker 1: and he walked into the shack.
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Speaker 2: And when he got in.
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Speaker 1: There, I mean it's a very small space, but Brian,
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Speaker 1: you know, was not in there. But there was a
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Speaker 1: hat and a half eaten dinner on the desk inside.
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Speaker 1: And so at this point Todd felt like, you know,
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Speaker 1: we have an issue, like I don't know where Brian is.
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Speaker 2: Something seems off.
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Speaker 1: So he picked up the phone inside the shack and
6:36
Speaker 1: he called the Salt Lake County Sheriff's Department. Less than
6:40
Speaker 1: an hour later, Detective Manny Lassig drove down a snowy
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Speaker 1: desert road toward the.
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Speaker 2: Kennacott Copper Mine.
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Speaker 1: Now everybody knew this mine was a target for thieves,
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Speaker 1: So when the Sheriff's department got a call that a
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Speaker 1: security guard had seemingly vanished into thin air in the
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Speaker 1: middle of his shift, while Detective Lastig went out right
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Speaker 1: away to investigate, because the thought was, you know, this
7:03
Speaker 1: could have been perpetrated by thieves. Maybe you know, Brian's
7:05
Speaker 1: been kidnapped or something. When Lasig pulled up to the
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Speaker 1: mine's main entrance, there was another vehicle parked right in front,
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Speaker 1: and it flashed its headlights at him, and then a
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Speaker 1: man in a security guards uniform rolled down the driver's
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Speaker 1: side window and sort of waved Lastig over. And so
7:20
Speaker 1: Lasig pulled up next to this car, and the man
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Speaker 1: in this other car told Lasig that he was Todd Fallows,
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Speaker 1: the supervisor who had called in about the missing guard.
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Speaker 1: Then after that, Todd started up his engine and told Lasig.
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Speaker 2: To follow him, and so he did.
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Speaker 1: He followed him off into the darkness, driving down this dark,
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Speaker 1: winding road that led into the canyons. The Kennicott Mine
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Speaker 1: was three square miles wide, with rocky terrain and mountains
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Speaker 1: on every side, so they were driving for a good
7:48
Speaker 1: ten minutes before finally Lasig saw this light up ahead,
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Speaker 1: which was the guard shack.
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Speaker 2: That Brian had been in.
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Speaker 1: The two men pulled up near the shack and got
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Speaker 1: out of their vehicles, and then Todd told Detective Lassig
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Speaker 1: that the shack was where the guard Brian Ruff had
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Speaker 1: last been stationed, and so Lassig he turned on his
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Speaker 1: flashlight and then aimed it at the ground right outside
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Speaker 1: of the shack, But there wasn't much to see. It
8:12
Speaker 1: had been snowing all evening, so any footprints or tire
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Speaker 1: tracks that might have helped them were now covered up.
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Speaker 1: And so Lasig stepped inside of the shack, and at
8:20
Speaker 1: first glance everything.
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Speaker 2: Looked to be in order.
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Speaker 1: There was no blood, nothing overturned, you know, no sign
8:26
Speaker 1: of a struggle. But again there was a hat, Brian's hat,
8:30
Speaker 1: and also Brian's half eaten thermos of soup, his dinner
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Speaker 1: that was still just sitting on the desk which was
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Speaker 1: pretty conspicuous, and so Lassig has kind of taking the
8:38
Speaker 1: whole scene in trying to make sense of what could
8:40
Speaker 1: have happened, coming up with maybe some theories here, looking
8:43
Speaker 1: for any clues of where to look next. And as
8:46
Speaker 1: he was doing that, the phone on the desk rang
8:49
Speaker 1: and Detective Lassig just picked it up, and he asked
8:52
Speaker 1: who was calling, and the woman on the line sounded
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Speaker 1: very surprised, and she said her name was Jennifer Ruff,
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Speaker 1: and she was trying to reach out to her husband,
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Speaker 1: Brian Rough. Lassig quickly explained that he was with the
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Speaker 1: Sheriff's Department and that her husband, Brian had at some
9:06
Speaker 1: point this night left his post and now couldn't be found,
9:10
Speaker 1: and so he was literally looking for her husband. And
9:13
Speaker 1: so he asked Jennifer when was the last time she
9:15
Speaker 1: had spoken to Brian. And Jennifer, you know, she was
9:18
Speaker 1: obviously taken aback by this news, but she said she
9:21
Speaker 1: had just spoken with her husband a couple hours ago.
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Speaker 1: She said they were talking and then suddenly Brian had
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Speaker 1: to hang up because he said he saw a car
9:28
Speaker 1: coming up the road. Lassig asked her if Brian had
9:31
Speaker 1: said anything specific about this particular car that was approaching,
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Speaker 1: or you know, who was driving the car or anything,
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Speaker 1: but Jennifer said no, he didn't say anything, just the
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Speaker 1: car was coming and he had to go. Lasig was
9:42
Speaker 1: obviously disappointed that there wasn't more information here, but he
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Speaker 1: still thanked Jennifer and told her, you know, I promise
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Speaker 1: I will be in touch with you as soon as
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Speaker 1: I possibly can. I'm going to go out there and
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Speaker 1: find your husband. Then he hung up the phone and
9:55
Speaker 1: he turned his attention back to the scene, you know,
9:58
Speaker 1: the inside of this very small shack. But just a
10:02
Speaker 1: few seconds after he had put the phone down, the
10:05
Speaker 1: phone rang again, and so Lassig picked it up again,
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Speaker 1: and once again, it was a woman saying she was
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Speaker 1: Brian's wife, Jennifer, and she was asking where Brian was.
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Speaker 1: But as Lasig is listening, he's thinking, this woman doesn't
10:19
Speaker 1: sound anything like the woman I just spoke to literally
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Speaker 1: a minute ago, who also said she was Brian's wife, Jennifer.
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Speaker 1: And also this second woman clearly doesn't have any recollection
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Speaker 1: of the earlier conversation, like these are two different people
10:34
Speaker 1: who are both claiming to be Brian's wife Jennifer. But
10:39
Speaker 1: obviously there could only be one, so one of these
10:41
Speaker 1: women had to be lying. Right On a morning in
10:51
Speaker 1: mid December of nineteen ninety one, so just a few
10:54
Speaker 1: days after Brian Rough's disappearance from his remote guard shack,
10:57
Speaker 1: and still he had not been found yet, Detective Manny
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Speaker 1: Lassig sat down with a cup of coffee in the
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Speaker 1: Rough's dining room, across from Brian's wife Jennifer. The investigation
11:08
Speaker 1: had been moving slowly so far because for the first
11:10
Speaker 1: few days everyone had been hoping that Brian would just
11:14
Speaker 1: return on his own, but as the days passed and
11:17
Speaker 1: he still hadn't been heard from, that was looking less
11:20
Speaker 1: and less likely. By this point, Detective Lassig had traced
11:23
Speaker 1: the phone numbers of both women who had called the
11:26
Speaker 1: guard shack on the night Brian disappeared, claiming to be
11:29
Speaker 1: his wife Jennifer, and he had quickly found out that
11:32
Speaker 1: one of those calls was actually from Jennifer Ruff's work
11:36
Speaker 1: phone number, which meant very likely that was the real
11:39
Speaker 1: Jennifer Ruff. But Lasig was still trying to figure out
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Speaker 1: why another woman had called and impersonated her, and also
11:47
Speaker 1: like the timing of the calls was odd, it happened
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Speaker 1: one right after the other, it was just a very
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Speaker 1: strange coincidence. So, now, as Lassig sat across from the
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Speaker 1: real Jennifer Ruff, he started out by asking her where
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Speaker 1: she had been on the night Brian disappeared. She told
12:02
Speaker 1: him she had been at the hospital all night working,
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Speaker 1: and then she gave Lasig names of some of her
12:07
Speaker 1: co workers who could verify that. At this point, Lasig
12:10
Speaker 1: completely pivoted and just asked Jennifer point blank, is there
12:15
Speaker 1: any chance your husband could have been having an affair? Like?
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Speaker 2: Were there other women in his life?
12:19
Speaker 1: Was he acting secretive or just odd lately? Anything to indicate,
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Speaker 1: you know, that he was maybe unfaithful. The reason Lassig asked, obviously,
12:27
Speaker 1: was because of the second woman who he knew had
12:30
Speaker 1: called and pretended to be Brian's wife. You know, he
12:32
Speaker 1: had no idea if the real Jennifer knew, but certainly
12:35
Speaker 1: he did.
12:36
Speaker 2: And the real Jennifer when she heard this question, she.
12:39
Speaker 1: Just sort of looked down, and then she looked up
12:41
Speaker 1: and she said, yes, I am suspicious of that. She
12:44
Speaker 1: told Lasig that she and Brian had been having some
12:47
Speaker 1: real issues in their marriage lately, and in fact, just
12:49
Speaker 1: the previous month, Brian had sort of inexplicably, you know,
12:53
Speaker 1: ran out on the family because he needed time alone,
12:56
Speaker 1: and he was gone and out of contact for that
12:58
Speaker 1: whole time until he just came back begging to be
13:01
Speaker 1: taken back. At this point last week, when he heard
13:05
Speaker 1: that part, he sat back in his chair and wondered
13:07
Speaker 1: if he was just wasting his time on this case
13:10
Speaker 1: to begin with, because if Brian had previously left and
13:14
Speaker 1: then eventually came back after being totally out of contact, well,
13:18
Speaker 1: what's to say he wasn't doing that right now? What
13:20
Speaker 1: if this was him again sort of running off to
13:23
Speaker 1: be alone, and he would just turn back up again
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Speaker 1: at some point. But Jennifer must have noticed that that's
13:28
Speaker 1: sort of where Lassig's mind was going, because she rushed
13:31
Speaker 1: to add in that, you know, the last time when
13:34
Speaker 1: he ran out for that week, he had left a
13:36
Speaker 1: note for her and even told his boss that he
13:38
Speaker 1: was quitting, like there was some warning before he left.
13:41
Speaker 1: She sort of made it dramatic, but he definitely told
13:43
Speaker 1: people before he was going to be gone. In fact,
13:46
Speaker 1: she became insistent that really it was not like Brian
13:50
Speaker 1: to not give warning, you know, like for him to
13:52
Speaker 1: just vanish midshift like that, like he's done right now,
13:56
Speaker 1: That's not something Brian would do. You know, he's got
13:58
Speaker 1: some faults, but that's not something he would do. Detective
14:01
Speaker 1: Lassig asked Jennifer where Brian had actually gone when he
14:05
Speaker 1: disappeared that first time, and Jennifer answered him by handing
14:09
Speaker 1: him a piece of mail from a nearby table. She
14:11
Speaker 1: explained that it was a credit card bill that had
14:13
Speaker 1: come in the mail that week and it was addressed
14:16
Speaker 1: to Brian, and she explained that she was pretty confused
14:19
Speaker 1: when she got this because she didn't even know Brian
14:22
Speaker 1: had a credit card, but he apparently did, and he
14:25
Speaker 1: used it while he was away to pay for hotels
14:28
Speaker 1: and meals and other expenses. And so Lassig he pulled
14:31
Speaker 1: out the bill and began to look it over, and
14:33
Speaker 1: he saw that a lot of the charges were made
14:36
Speaker 1: in Las Vegas and San Francisco, and the amounts that
14:39
Speaker 1: were being charged to restaurants and for room service seemed
14:43
Speaker 1: a bit too large for just one person. He looked
14:46
Speaker 1: up from the bill back at Jennifer, and just from
14:49
Speaker 1: the expression on her face, he knew that they had
14:52
Speaker 1: both drawn the same conclusion. Brian, when he was away
14:56
Speaker 1: for that week, likely had not been alone. Jennifer then
14:59
Speaker 1: grabbed another other piece of paper from the counter and
15:01
Speaker 1: gave that to Lassig.
15:03
Speaker 2: This was a phone bill for the family's landline.
15:05
Speaker 1: With a full list of every call that had been
15:07
Speaker 1: made and received in the past month. Jennifer said there
15:11
Speaker 1: were definitely some numbers on this list that she didn't recognize,
15:15
Speaker 1: and she thought maybe one of them could be this
15:17
Speaker 1: person that Brian had been traveling with. And as Lassig
15:21
Speaker 1: looked over this list, one of the phone numbers immediately
15:24
Speaker 1: stood out to him, because that woman who had called
15:28
Speaker 1: the guard shack on the night Brian disappeared and pretended
15:31
Speaker 1: to be Jennifer basically called right after the real Jennifer.
15:34
Speaker 1: That one that phone number that was used for the
15:38
Speaker 1: fake Jennifer was the number he was now seeing on
15:41
Speaker 1: this list. Later that same day, Lassig sat down in
15:45
Speaker 1: the living room of the house that was associated with
15:49
Speaker 1: that phone number, and sitting across from him was a
15:53
Speaker 1: young woman named Christy Bradley. Her husband, Dale Bradley, was
15:58
Speaker 1: also a security guard at the Kennicott Monk and where
16:00
Speaker 1: Brian worked. Now at the moment, Dale wasn't home, but
16:03
Speaker 1: it wasn't really clear when he would get home, and
16:06
Speaker 1: Lasig was really anxious to interview Christy alone so before
16:10
Speaker 1: her husband got back.
16:12
Speaker 2: So the instant they sat down.
16:14
Speaker 1: Lassig pretty much just cut to the chase. He told
16:16
Speaker 1: Christy that he was nearly positive she and Brian had
16:21
Speaker 1: been having an affair, and then before she could say anything,
16:24
Speaker 1: he pulled out that bill that Jennifer had given him
16:27
Speaker 1: and showed her all the evidence. Christy, when she saw this,
16:29
Speaker 1: for a second, look defiant, but then just broke down
16:33
Speaker 1: and admitted it was true.
16:35
Speaker 2: She said they'd been seeing each.
16:36
Speaker 1: Other for a while now, and in fact, the month
16:39
Speaker 1: before they had run away together for about a week.
16:42
Speaker 1: But even though they had ultimately come back and they
16:45
Speaker 1: both went back to their respective families, she said that
16:48
Speaker 1: they had still been very much in touch. Christy said
16:50
Speaker 1: that was the reason she had called the guard shack
16:53
Speaker 1: on the night Brian disappeared, just to call and just
16:56
Speaker 1: be in touch with him.
16:57
Speaker 2: That was it.
16:58
Speaker 1: But she said when the person answered and it was
17:00
Speaker 1: a voice that was unfamiliar, that.
17:02
Speaker 2: Was Detective Lassig.
17:04
Speaker 1: She said that sort of on instinct, she just began
17:06
Speaker 1: to lie and pretended to be Jennifer Brian's real wife,
17:10
Speaker 1: just so you know, their affair would not come to light,
17:12
Speaker 1: but Christy made it very clear that she had not
17:14
Speaker 1: heard from Brian since he disappeared, and she had no
17:18
Speaker 1: clue what happened to him. At this point, Lasig sat
17:20
Speaker 1: back on the couch and just looked at Christy, kind
17:23
Speaker 1: of sizing her up, and he thought, you know, she
17:25
Speaker 1: seemed pretty genuinely worried about Brian, and even though the
17:29
Speaker 1: call she had made to the guard Shack was ultimately
17:32
Speaker 1: very suspicious and pretty bizarre, her explanation for it did
17:36
Speaker 1: make sense. But at this point he was certainly not
17:39
Speaker 1: going to rule her out as a suspect quite yet. Also,
17:42
Speaker 1: Lasig knew that Christie's husband, Dale was also now clearly
17:46
Speaker 1: a primary suspect, because you know, if he had found
17:49
Speaker 1: out about this affair, he could have easily hurt Brian
17:53
Speaker 1: in retaliation. The following day, Lasig walked into an interrogation
17:57
Speaker 1: room at the Sheriff's station where Dale was already seated
18:00
Speaker 1: and waiting for him, and the moment Lassig walked in,
18:04
Speaker 1: Dale immediately asked him if there was any news about Brian.
18:08
Speaker 1: Lasig said, no, not yet, and it seemed to him
18:11
Speaker 1: like Dale's disappointment was genuine like he was worried about him.
18:14
Speaker 1: Lassig sat down and he asked Dale about how long
18:17
Speaker 1: he'd known Brian for, and Dale said they had met
18:20
Speaker 1: maybe about a year ago when Brian started working at
18:23
Speaker 1: the mine, and they'd become pretty close friends. They'd even
18:26
Speaker 1: hung out together outside of work. At this point, Lassig
18:29
Speaker 1: almost to catch Dale off guard. He pivoted sort of
18:33
Speaker 1: abruptly and just asked Dale point blank about his wife's affair,
18:37
Speaker 1: and Dale, when he heard that his wife was having
18:39
Speaker 1: an affair, seemed sort of stunned, and he said he
18:42
Speaker 1: didn't know anything about Christy.
18:44
Speaker 2: Having an affair.
18:45
Speaker 1: At this point, Lassig just explained to him what his
18:47
Speaker 1: wife had already told him, and Dale appeared genuinely upset,
18:52
Speaker 1: like the idea she was cheating on him was horrible,
18:55
Speaker 1: especially with someone he considered clearly to be a close friend.
18:58
Speaker 1: And so as Dale is sort of reacting to this
19:01
Speaker 1: really shocking news, Lasig asked him where he was on
19:05
Speaker 1: the night of December tenth when Brian disappeared. And so Dale,
19:09
Speaker 1: who again is sort of like dealing with the shocking
19:11
Speaker 1: news he's just been told. For a moment, he just
19:14
Speaker 1: was unable to answer, he ultimately composed himself and he
19:17
Speaker 1: said that actually his car had gotten stuck in the
19:20
Speaker 1: snow while he was at the University of Utah in
19:23
Speaker 1: Salt Lake City, almost an hour away from the mine,
19:26
Speaker 1: and in fact, he had even had to call a
19:27
Speaker 1: friend to come get him out of the snow, and
19:30
Speaker 1: then he gave Lasig the name of this friend so
19:32
Speaker 1: he could call and confirm it. After taking down this
19:35
Speaker 1: friend's name, Lasig told Dale that he really wanted him
19:38
Speaker 1: to take a polygraph test and also they would have
19:41
Speaker 1: to search his car, and Dale agreed to.
19:43
Speaker 2: Both, you know, with no hesitation.
19:46
Speaker 1: One morning, a few weeks later, Lasig walked across a
19:49
Speaker 1: parking lot toward an office building at the Kennicott mine.
19:53
Speaker 1: So far, Brian had still not turned up, and the
19:56
Speaker 1: search for him had been frustrating because none of the
19:59
Speaker 1: people that's a good question, so far had given him
20:01
Speaker 1: any useful information. Dale Bradley, along with his wife Christy Bradley,
20:06
Speaker 1: had both taken polygraph tests and both had passed. Lassig
20:10
Speaker 1: had also searched the red Mustang that Dale drove, but
20:13
Speaker 1: there was no evidence in it that linked Dale to
20:15
Speaker 1: Brian's disappearance. Plus, the friend who had helped Dale get
20:19
Speaker 1: his Mustang out of the snow had confirmed he had done.
20:22
Speaker 2: That, so his alibi was solid.
20:24
Speaker 1: So at this point Dale and Christy were sort of
20:27
Speaker 1: unofficially off.
20:28
Speaker 2: The suspect list.
20:29
Speaker 1: Lassig had also considered the fact that maybe Jennifer, the
20:33
Speaker 1: real Jennifer, so Brian's actual wife, maybe she was involved
20:37
Speaker 1: in her husband's disappearance, despite how you know, honestly she
20:39
Speaker 1: came across now. Her coworkers had confirmed she had been
20:43
Speaker 1: at work all evening on the night Brian disappeared, but
20:47
Speaker 1: it wasn't impossible that she could have maybe been working
20:49
Speaker 1: with an accomplice or maybe hired somebody.
20:52
Speaker 2: To kill Brian or something.
20:55
Speaker 1: But with no evidence against her, and also no body,
20:59
Speaker 1: I mean, Brian has not and found here, all Lassig
21:02
Speaker 1: really had here was just a hunch that, you know.
21:04
Speaker 2: Maybe she was involved, but who knows.
21:06
Speaker 1: However, just a few days ago, Lasig had received a
21:10
Speaker 1: new lead that sent his investigation in a new direction.
21:14
Speaker 1: That was why he was here right now at the
21:16
Speaker 1: Kennicott Mine to speak to Brian's supervisor, Todd Fallows.
21:20
Speaker 2: So Lassig went.
21:21
Speaker 1: Inside the building and made his way down the hallway
21:23
Speaker 1: to Todd's office, and when Todd saw the detective, he
21:27
Speaker 1: jumped up and he very eagerly greeted him and said
21:30
Speaker 1: he would do whatever he had to do to try
21:32
Speaker 1: to help find Brian. Lassig thanked him, but told Todd
21:35
Speaker 1: to sit back down, and then Lassig sat down as well,
21:38
Speaker 1: and then he pulled out a tape recorder and he
21:40
Speaker 1: hit record, and then he told Todd why he was there.
21:43
Speaker 1: Two of Brian's fellow security guards had just been arrested
21:46
Speaker 1: for stealing precious metal and equipment from the mine and
21:49
Speaker 1: then selling it at pawn shops. In fact, the investigation
21:53
Speaker 1: had discovered that a whole ring of Kennicott employees were involved.
21:59
Speaker 2: In these thefts.
22:00
Speaker 1: Todd sort of began to shift in his chair and
22:02
Speaker 1: said he had heard about that, but he insisted he
22:05
Speaker 1: was never involved in any of these thefts, and he
22:08
Speaker 1: said he'd already been questioned by detectives from the Property
22:11
Speaker 1: Crimes Division. Lassig said he understood that, and that was
22:14
Speaker 1: not really why he was here. He said, when he
22:17
Speaker 1: looked through the records of the investigation about these thefts,
22:21
Speaker 1: he'd found out that Brian had actually been the one
22:23
Speaker 1: who reported some of the thefts that were going on.
22:27
Speaker 2: So now Lassig wondered.
22:28
Speaker 1: If maybe on the night of Brian's disappearance, he'd stopped
22:32
Speaker 1: one of his coworker's vehicles and found stolen materials inside,
22:36
Speaker 1: and maybe they had killed him to keep him quiet.
22:38
Speaker 1: Todd sat back in his chair and looked sort of
22:40
Speaker 1: lost in thought for a moment, and then he admitted that, yeah,
22:44
Speaker 1: that could be possible. He then told Detective Lassig he
22:47
Speaker 1: could actually think of several places on the Mind's property
22:50
Speaker 1: where maybe Brian's body was hidden by these fellow employees
22:55
Speaker 1: if they did this, And then as an example, he
22:58
Speaker 1: suggested the gravel pile by the concert Trader, which crushes
23:01
Speaker 1: the minerals and grinds them up. Todd explained that if
23:04
Speaker 1: Brian had been placed there, he would have very likely
23:07
Speaker 1: gotten sucked into the grinders and pulverized. With all the
23:11
Speaker 1: other rocks, he'd basically be gone. Detective Lassig was surprised
23:15
Speaker 1: by how specific Todd was being. I mean, Todd had
23:18
Speaker 1: really come up with this theory very quickly. So sensing
23:22
Speaker 1: that Todd might be a little suspicious here, he just
23:25
Speaker 1: let Todd keep going and Todd did. He just kept
23:28
Speaker 1: spitting out all these theories about maybe what could have
23:31
Speaker 1: happened to Brian, including at one point he said, maybe
23:35
Speaker 1: Brian could have been hidden under the waist piles where
23:38
Speaker 1: weeks worth of crush boulders would have already fallen down
23:41
Speaker 1: and completely covered him up. And he said if that
23:44
Speaker 1: had happened, if Brian had been hidden in a place
23:46
Speaker 1: like that, he would already be buried under several tons
23:50
Speaker 1: of rock at this point and the police would never
23:53
Speaker 1: find him. On July nineteen ninety three, so a year
24:02
Speaker 1: and a half after Brian Roff disappeared, Detective Lassig drove
24:07
Speaker 1: through a barren desert in Utah, about fifty miles south
24:10
Speaker 1: of Kennicott Mine. There had been basically no progress on
24:13
Speaker 1: the case for over a year. The Sheriff's department had
24:16
Speaker 1: spent countless hours scouring the mine with police dogs and helicopters,
24:21
Speaker 1: looking for any sign that Brian might have been killed
24:23
Speaker 1: or buried or hidden somewhere there, but so far there
24:27
Speaker 1: was still no trace of Brian. Now, Lassig was confident
24:31
Speaker 1: that there had to have been foul play involved, but
24:34
Speaker 1: it was impossible to prove that. When he didn't have
24:36
Speaker 1: a body or evidence that tied any of his suspects
24:39
Speaker 1: to the crime. For months, Lassig's team had looked into
24:43
Speaker 1: every single security guard at the Kennicott mine, especially the
24:46
Speaker 1: ones who had been implicated in that theft ring. But
24:49
Speaker 1: they had ultimately verified that every guard on duty was
24:53
Speaker 1: at their post at the time Brian disappeared, and they'd
24:56
Speaker 1: collected alibis from everyone who was not scheduled to work
24:59
Speaker 1: that day night, and so they had not been able
25:01
Speaker 1: to actually link any guards to Brian's disappearance. And that
25:05
Speaker 1: also included Brian's supervisor, Todd Fallows, who seemed, you know,
25:09
Speaker 1: very eager to offer up these very specific theories. You know,
25:12
Speaker 1: he too was not linked to Brian's disappearance. However, Todd
25:17
Speaker 1: was ultimately linked to that theft ring. As for Christy Bradley,
25:20
Speaker 1: the woman Brian was having an affair with, and Christie's
25:23
Speaker 1: husband Dale, those two, they had alibis, they passed a
25:27
Speaker 1: lie detector test and really had been ruled out much
25:29
Speaker 1: earlier on in the investigation, and nothing new had come
25:32
Speaker 1: up over the last year to change that, so they
25:34
Speaker 1: were still ruled out. And then as for Brian's wife, Jennifer,
25:38
Speaker 1: you know, Lasso at one point thought.
25:39
Speaker 2: Maybe she was involved, maybe she had.
25:41
Speaker 1: An accomplice or something. You know, she certainly had the motive,
25:45
Speaker 1: you know, to potentially harm her husband. Their marriage was
25:48
Speaker 1: on the rocks. He had clearly been having an affair
25:50
Speaker 1: and she was on to him. But she really had
25:53
Speaker 1: been at work at the time he disappeared, and there
25:55
Speaker 1: was no link from her to any potential accomplice, and
25:59
Speaker 1: so it went nowhere.
26:00
Speaker 2: She was ruled out too.
26:01
Speaker 1: So again, after more than a year, the case basically
26:04
Speaker 1: had gone cold. However, that particular morning, the investigation had
26:09
Speaker 1: been reinvigorated because a group of campers had called in
26:13
Speaker 1: and said they had found skeletal remains out in the desert.
26:18
Speaker 2: Lassig knew this was obviously.
26:19
Speaker 1: A long shot, but he was holding out hope that
26:22
Speaker 1: maybe it was Brian. So when he arrived at the
26:25
Speaker 1: location the campers had described, Lasig got out of his
26:28
Speaker 1: car and he walked a short distance across the barren
26:31
Speaker 1: ground to where a forensics team was setting up crime
26:34
Speaker 1: scene tape in the brush.
26:35
Speaker 2: As Lasig got closer to the crime.
26:37
Speaker 1: Scene, he could see a human skeleton lying in a
26:40
Speaker 1: shallow grave. The skeleton was clothed in a dust covered,
26:44
Speaker 1: dark blue jacket, and when Lasig crouched down to get
26:47
Speaker 1: a better look, he saw that it was clearly a
26:50
Speaker 1: security guard's uniform. Lasig put on some gloves and then
26:54
Speaker 1: searched the pockets of this jacket, and his fingers immediately
26:57
Speaker 1: landed on a wallet, And when he put out and
27:00
Speaker 1: he looked inside, he found ID cards and credit cards
27:04
Speaker 1: with the name Brian Rouff. Now, at this point it
27:07
Speaker 1: seemed fairly apparent that the body had to belong to Brian,
27:11
Speaker 1: but because the body was so decomposed, they would have
27:14
Speaker 1: to examine Brian's dental records to definitively id him, which
27:17
Speaker 1: would take some time. So while the crime scene texts
27:20
Speaker 1: carefully loaded the remains into a van, Lasig stayed at
27:24
Speaker 1: the scene with the canine unit that was searching for
27:26
Speaker 1: any other evidence nearby, And sure enough, just a few
27:29
Speaker 1: feet away from where the body had been, Lasig found
27:32
Speaker 1: five shotgun shells lying in the dirt. It looked like
27:36
Speaker 1: Brian very likely had been shot five times and then
27:40
Speaker 1: buried in this shallow grave. Then, just a few yards
27:43
Speaker 1: away from the shells, a police dog began barking and
27:47
Speaker 1: an officer called Lassig over to look at what the
27:49
Speaker 1: dog had found. He walked over, and the officer held
27:52
Speaker 1: up a black workboot and there was a pretty obvious
27:55
Speaker 1: bullet hole through the leather, and so Lassig figured the
27:59
Speaker 1: boot must have been along to Brian. But other than
28:02
Speaker 1: this boot and Brian's actual body, eighteen months of heat
28:07
Speaker 1: and wind and sand and snow and rain out in
28:10
Speaker 1: this desert had basically erased any other traces of forensic evidence.
28:15
Speaker 1: So even though Lassig at this point felt very confident
28:18
Speaker 1: that he knew both where Brian was ultimately killed and
28:22
Speaker 1: how he was killed, because of this severe lack of
28:27
Speaker 1: forensic evidence, he was worried that he might not actually
28:31
Speaker 1: be any closer to figuring out who killed Brian. Twelve
28:37
Speaker 1: years later, on April thirtieth, two thousand and five, Detective
28:41
Speaker 1: Todd Park of the Salt Lake City Sheriff's Office got
28:44
Speaker 1: a call from the sheriff's department in the next county over.
28:47
Speaker 1: Since the beginning of the year, Detective Park had been
28:50
Speaker 1: working full time on solving various cold cases. The detective
28:54
Speaker 1: on the line told him that he was investigating a
28:57
Speaker 1: recent homicide and he thought it might be to one
29:00
Speaker 1: of Park's cold cases, specifically the murder of Brian Ruff.
29:05
Speaker 1: After speaking to this detective, Park hung up the phone
29:08
Speaker 1: and went right over to his filing cabinet and dug
29:10
Speaker 1: through until he found Brian's file. He sat down and
29:13
Speaker 1: began sorting through the decade old papers and he realized
29:17
Speaker 1: that there was a tiny piece of evidence the original
29:20
Speaker 1: investigators had somehow overlooked, and upon closer examination, Park realized
29:26
Speaker 1: it was actually the key to unlocking the entire case.
29:31
Speaker 1: Based on forensic evidence, this is what police believe happened
29:34
Speaker 1: to Brian Ruff. On December tenth, nineteen ninety one, around
29:42
Speaker 1: six thirty pm. The killer drove down a winding service
29:45
Speaker 1: road toward a very isolated.
29:47
Speaker 2: Part of Kennicott Mine.
29:49
Speaker 1: Up ahead, they saw a single light in the distance.
29:52
Speaker 1: It was coming from a small guard shack right next
29:55
Speaker 1: to a chain link gate. The killer pulled right up
29:57
Speaker 1: outside of the shack and parked their car and then
29:59
Speaker 1: got out, and then seconds later Brian Ruff came out
30:03
Speaker 1: of the guardshack and waved to Low and the killer
30:06
Speaker 1: sort of waved back and walked over to Brian, and
30:09
Speaker 1: then as soon as they were close enough, the killer
30:12
Speaker 1: grabbed Brian, whipped him around, tied his hands behind his back,
30:16
Speaker 1: and then forced Brian before he could do anything, into
30:19
Speaker 1: the back of the vehicle. At this point, the killer
30:21
Speaker 1: jumped into the driver's seat, did a U turn, and
30:24
Speaker 1: sped out of the mine towards the desert. And as
30:27
Speaker 1: they were driving, the killer heard Brian screaming and kicking
30:31
Speaker 1: in the back, doing everything he could to try to escape,
30:34
Speaker 1: but the killer was unfazed. They stayed calm and just
30:38
Speaker 1: kept on driving for nearly an hour, all while Brian's
30:40
Speaker 1: acting crazy and back until they eventually reached another very
30:44
Speaker 1: remote spot way out in the desert, about fifty miles away. There,
30:48
Speaker 1: they pulled off the road and they stopped their vehicle
30:51
Speaker 1: right in this open, snow covered patch of desert.
30:54
Speaker 2: They climbed out.
30:55
Speaker 1: They went to the back seat, and they opened the
30:56
Speaker 1: door up and they grabbed Brian, who was still fighting
31:00
Speaker 1: and trying to escape, but he was pretty tired at
31:02
Speaker 1: this point, and the killer dragged Brian out. And as
31:05
Speaker 1: they dragged Brian out, Brian began pleading for mercy and
31:09
Speaker 1: promised that if they just let him go, he would
31:11
Speaker 1: never tell anyone about this, But the killer just grabbed
31:14
Speaker 1: a shovel and a shotgun from their vehicle, untied Brian,
31:18
Speaker 1: and then forced him at gunpoint to dig his own grave.
31:21
Speaker 1: And then when Brian was done, the killer just raised
31:24
Speaker 1: their shotgun and.
31:26
Speaker 2: Shot Brian five times.
31:28
Speaker 1: And then after he was dead, they dropped his body
31:31
Speaker 1: into the grave. He had literally dug himself. And then
31:34
Speaker 1: the killer got back into their vehicle, a red Mustang.
31:37
Speaker 1: But when the killer tried to leave their vehicle, the
31:40
Speaker 1: mustang got stuck in the snow, and so they had
31:43
Speaker 1: to call a friend who did come out, who had
31:46
Speaker 1: no idea a murder has just been committed. Literally right
31:49
Speaker 1: over there, there's a body buried right over there.
31:52
Speaker 2: They didn't know.
31:53
Speaker 1: They helped the killer get out of the snow and
31:56
Speaker 1: off they drove. The killer was Dale Bradley, the coworker
32:00
Speaker 1: whose wife Brian was having an affair with. Dale's alibi
32:04
Speaker 1: that he had been an hour away, you know, his
32:06
Speaker 1: car was stuck in the snow on the night Brian disappeared.
32:09
Speaker 2: Well, it was true, except that wasn't an alibi.
32:12
Speaker 1: He was basically describing being at the crime scene and
32:16
Speaker 1: having another friend come and help him flee the crime scene.
32:19
Speaker 1: But the friend who absolutely said yep, he was an
32:22
Speaker 1: hour away. I helped him get his car out of
32:24
Speaker 1: the snow. The friend had no idea, this is where
32:27
Speaker 1: a murder has just taken place, and so they told
32:29
Speaker 1: the truth and Dale sort of acted like, yep, that's
32:32
Speaker 1: my alibi, and the police never checked and so they
32:35
Speaker 1: didn't realize that that wasn't an alibi. It was basically
32:38
Speaker 1: a description of where the crime scene was. Additionally, Dale
32:42
Speaker 1: took a polygraph early on in the investigation and he
32:45
Speaker 1: did pass it, so he really was dismissed as a
32:48
Speaker 1: suspect very early on. And so Dale and Christy had
32:51
Speaker 1: eventually gotten divorced, likely over the affair, and Dale had
32:55
Speaker 1: ultimately remarried. But when his second wife, Crystal, was murdered
32:59
Speaker 1: in two two thousand and five, the detective investigating that
33:03
Speaker 1: murder noticed that Dale had been sort of indirectly connected
33:08
Speaker 1: to now two people who had been murdered, Crystal and Brian,
33:12
Speaker 1: and he thought it was suspicious enough that he got
33:14
Speaker 1: in touch with Detective Park, the detective who was in
33:17
Speaker 1: charge of all these cold cases, and he told Park, hey,
33:20
Speaker 1: you ought to take a closer look at Dale in
33:23
Speaker 1: the Brian Rough cold case. Murder, and so that prompted
33:26
Speaker 1: Detective Park to not just take a closer look at Dale,
33:29
Speaker 1: but really at the whole Brian Rough case file. And
33:32
Speaker 1: when he did that, he noticed this really small piece
33:35
Speaker 1: of evidence that sort of went overlooked. And that piece
33:37
Speaker 1: of evidence was a tiny speck of red paint on
33:40
Speaker 1: the soul of that black work boot which had been
33:43
Speaker 1: found near Brian's body out in the desert. And Park
33:47
Speaker 1: was eventually able to match that paint to the same
33:51
Speaker 1: paint on the inside of the trunk of Dale's red Mustang.
33:54
Speaker 1: Dale Bradley was charged with Brian Ruff's murder on September nineteenth,
33:58
Speaker 1: two thousand and five. In two thousand and seven, he
34:01
Speaker 1: pleaded guilty to lesser charges of manslaughter and kidnapping, and
34:05
Speaker 1: was ultimately sentenced to forty years in prison. As for Crystal,
34:09
Speaker 1: Dale's second wife, who was murdered, her case remains unsolved.
34:16
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for watching. Let me know what
34:18
Speaker 1: you thought of today's episode in the comments. And remember,
34:21
Speaker 1: we have a whole playlist of true crime episodes ready
34:23
Speaker 1: for you to binge right now, so click here and
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Speaker 1: give them a watch.
34:28
Speaker 2: All right, until next time, See yam