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Missing California Woman Found Dead Behind 'Secret Wall' · Murder Files Unsealed

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Welcome back to the deep dive. We are jumping straight
• 0:03
  into a story today that is profoundly disturbing. It's one
• 0:08
  where the details of the crime itself are just as
• 0:11
  essential to understanding the outcome as the police work. Absolutely,
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  imagine searching for a missing person and the search doesn't
• 0:20
  lead you to a street or a park. Instead, it ends,
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  really chillingly with discovering a body hidden behind a wall,
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  a makeshift wall concealed inside a suburban attic.
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  Speaker 2: It's a horrific image in this case, the tragic case
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  of twenty eight year old Renea Lewis found in Valeo, California,
• 0:37
  back in October twenty twenty five. It's really more than
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  just a crime story, isn't it. It is when you
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  peel back the layers based on the sources you provided,
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  there's this crucial narrative. It's about systemic failures, yes, but
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  also investigative breakthroughs and critically the role of specific tools
• 0:53
  designed to counter these historical inequalities.
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  Speaker 1: You mean the EBONY alert.
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  Speaker 2: Specifically the activation of the EBNY alert.
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's exactly our mission today. We're doing a comprehensive
• 1:02
  deep dive into this tragedy. Will cover Renia's life, the
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  agonizing process of the police investigation, the almost unbelievable details
• 1:11
  of how she was concealed, and why that system, the
• 1:14
  EBNY alert, which was relatively new then became so defining
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  here why it was the mechanism that really pushed things forward.
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  Speaker 2: And we have to set the scene geographically first, I
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  think Valeo. It's in California's North Bay. Well, it's a
• 1:27
  place of contrasts. Okay, you know, it has some historical
• 1:29
  architecture and nice waterfront, but the data shows it faces
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  huge challenges. In twenty twenty four, the year before this happened,
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  the city reported over twelve hundred violent crimes.
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  Speaker 1: Wow.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, So that background, that context of higher crime rates,
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  maybe some socioeconomic instability. Is it sort of a necessary
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  layer for understanding the vulnerability Rennie might have faced when
• 1:52
  she traveled there.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, let's humpack this whole sequence then, starting with Renee herself,
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  because the victim's life that's always the first most important piece,
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  isn't it. So? Renee Lewis she was young, twenty eight,
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  deep roots in the East Bay, born and raised there,
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  living in Berkeley, and everyone who knew her described her
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  as just vibrant, a fighter with an infectious spirit, is
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  how the sources put it.
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  Speaker 2: Mm hmm. Sounds like she had a real energy about
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  her totally.
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  Speaker 1: She wasn't just you know, going through the motions. She
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  was actively pursuing a life around art, around community advocacy, engaged, and.
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  Speaker 2: Her mother, Terry Lewis, described her defining characteristic as this
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  unyielding optimism. Yeah, she was the kind of person who'd
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  routinely extend a hand to people who needed it, help
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  out acquaintance's friends. She seemed to have this genuine belief
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  in people's goodness, which.
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  Speaker 1: Is so admirable.
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  Speaker 2: It is. Yeah, but it also seems unfortunately like that
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  very trait might have been exploited here tragically.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's what the source material implies. Renea was lasting alive.
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  On Friday, September twenty sixth, twenty twenty five, she traveled
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  to Valo, that's about thirty miles northeast of Berkeley, just
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  across the Carcino Street, and she was going to meet
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  someone she knew, an acquaintance. It seems like she was
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  maybe trying to help them or engage with them in
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  some way. The exact nature of the meeting isn't totally
• 3:08
  clear from the sources, but.
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  Speaker 2: That act of connecting whatever it was that set the
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  stage for her disappearance and where she went is so crucial.
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  We're talking about this really nondescript house on fourteenth Street
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  near Star Avenue.
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  Speaker 1: Non descript, but wasn't it also kind of notorious?
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  Speaker 2: Well? Yeah, visually it was a glaring anomaly. Neighbors apparently
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  called it an abandoned junkyard or like a classic hoarder
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  style house, just cluttered with years of junk, debris, old tires,
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  scrap metal. It masked whatever the interior condition was.
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  Speaker 1: And the person living there.
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  Speaker 2: Douglas Rwinshaw, forty one years old, a Valeo native, seemed
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  pretty reclusive, had a spotty work history, mostly manual labor jobs. Okay,
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  but what immediately raised red flags later and even maybe
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  a bit before, was this detail. He was known to
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  us customized the inside of the house, specifically transforming the
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  attic into what the source is called a labyrinth of
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  concealed areas.
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  Speaker 1: Wow, okay, so not just clutter, but actual hidden spaces.
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  Speaker 2: Exactly the condition of the home, the disrepair, the hoarding,
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  these custom hiding spots it created the perfect environment really
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  for a secret crime.
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  Speaker 1: If you want to hide something.
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  Speaker 2: Chaos and isolation are your friends. Yeah, but initially the
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  police didn't know about that secret architecture. They just knew
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  Rainia was missing, right.
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  Speaker 1: The family raised the alarm pretty quickly. By Sunday, September
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  twenty eighth. Rainio was apparently super reliable, not checking in
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  that was completely out of character for her. Her cousin,
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  LaToya Lewis. She filed the missing person report with a VOLEOPD.
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  She insisted Rainio wouldn't just disappear like that.
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  Speaker 2: That certainty from the family must have really pushed the
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  urgency there.
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  Speaker 1: It sounds like it did. So the police did an
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  initial welfare check at the fourteenth Street house. It was
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  the last known location pinged from her phone.
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  Speaker 2: Okay, standard procedure.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, but this first search, critically, it was swift, but
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  also cautious. They were operating under the rules of a
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  welfare check that limits how invasively you can search without
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  a warrant. Mostly relies on consent or what's in plain sight.
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  Speaker 2: So they checked the usual spots, rooms, closets, maybe easily
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  accessed storage exactly.
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  Speaker 1: And here's where the first big frustration comes in and
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  why that alert system became so necessary later.
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  Speaker 2: It didn't work.
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  Speaker 1: The first search was a failure, the sources say, yielded nothing,
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  no signs of a struggle, no discarded items, just as
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  the officers described it. The eerie silence of an empty space.
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  Speaker 2: And the clutter probably helped Shaw immensely. Then made a
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  quick general search almost impossible to do effectively, you'd think.
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  So that failure just highlights the challenge, you know, searching
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  a hoarder's place, especially when you don't yet have specific
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  suspicion of foul play. That initial sweep being limited in scope,
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  it just couldn't expose the kind of concealment that was
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  actually there.
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  Speaker 1: Seemed like a dead end.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, which forced law enforcement to pivot to escalate things
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  pretty dramatically.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, And that pivot brings us to I think the
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  most crucial systemic part of this whole deep dive. By Monday,
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  September twenty ninth, detectives started recognizing a grim pattern, something
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  often seen in missing persons cases, especially given Renea's profile
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  a black woman in her late twenties.
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  Speaker 2: Right, there was this recognition that Renea's case, even though
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  her family was right on it urgently reporting her missing.
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  It was potentially subject to being overlooked or at least
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  not getting the resources it needed.
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  Speaker 1: Which led to the decision.
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  Speaker 2: To activate California's Ebony Alert system. This is an absolutely
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  pivotal moment in the investigation. We really need to understand
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  the policy behind it.
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  Speaker 1: Let's get into that system then. The Ebony Alert it
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  was enacted in California just the year before January twenty
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  twenty four. It's basically modeled on the Amber Alert, right.
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  Speaker 2: Essentially, yeah, but it's specifically designed to address this huge,
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  well documented disparity and visibility for missing black individual people
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  who often fall victim to what's sometimes called the missing
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  white woman syndrome.
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  Speaker 1: Can you explain that syndrome a bit more?
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  Speaker 2: Sure? It basically describes this media and public bias where
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  cases involving missing white women often get intense, rapid coverage,
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  huge resource deployment, while equally or sometimes even more urgent,
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  cases involving women of color they just languish. They don't
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  get the same attention.
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  Speaker 1: And there's data to back that up.
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  Speaker 2: Oh, absolutely, the data supporting the need for this kind
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  of systemic fix is pretty sobering. Black women and girls
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  are reported missing at rates four times higher than their
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  white counterparts.
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  Speaker 1: Four times wow.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, but the media coverage they receive is consistently demonstrably
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  less muted.
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  Speaker 1: So the Ebony alert is meant to fix that imbalance.
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  Speaker 2: It's designed as a systemic corrective exactly. It forces visibility.
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  It immediately pushes out information, descriptions, photos, last known locations
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  across all sorts of channels, not just a local bulletin.
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  Speaker 1: Board like electronic billboards.
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  Speaker 2: Stronic billboard specific outreach to diverse media outlets, mandated notifications
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  to law enforcement agencies statewide. It really casts a wide net.
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  Speaker 1: And for Ernius family this must have felt huge.
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  Speaker 2: They perceived it immediately as a lifeline. That's the word
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  they used. This alert mechanism. It pulls the case out
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  of potential local obscurity and make sure it gets the
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  heightened resources at warrants.
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  Speaker 1: And it worked. It brought in more resources.
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  Speaker 2: Crucially, Yes, the alert drew in specialized resources, including the FBI.
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  They deployed their task force, the ones experienced in complex
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  high risk missing persons cases.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, so federal involvement.
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  Speaker 2: Federal involvement and the immediate influx of resources and public attention.
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  It translated directly into actionable intelligence. Tips started flooding into VALAYOPD.
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  Speaker 1: So the visibility helped.
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  Speaker 2: Increased visibility puts pressure on the community, maybe even on
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  the suspect himself. But the really crucial piece of evidence
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  wasn't actually a tip, No, what was it. It was
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  a physical discovery made by someone who knew Renea really well,
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  her boyfriend.
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  Speaker 1: Her boyfriend found something. He wasn't involved.
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  Speaker 2: No, he was quickly cleared as a suspect, but he
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  was out there relentlessly searching on his own, and he
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  ended up at an abandoned school building right behind the
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  fourteenth Street property. And there on the rooftop of that
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  building he found Rennie's cell phone, just discarded.
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  Speaker 1: Wow, the phone that changes everything.
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  Speaker 2: That discovery was the moment the police investigation definitively shifted
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  from a welfare check a missing person case to what
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  was almost certainly a murder probe.
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  Speaker 1: It was the puzzle piece falling into place, as the
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  sources said exactly.
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  Speaker 2: The initial search came up empty, but the phone it
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  provided two undeniable facts. One Renee was at that house recently,
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  and two someone had intentionally tried to get rid of
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  the evidence quickly, maybe crudely, by just tossing it over
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  the fence into a heart to reach spot.
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  Speaker 1: And this also backed up the digital evidence right the
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  phone pings.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, absolutely, it validates that earlier work. Detectives had already
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  been tracking her phone signal using cell tower pins. They
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  knew the general vicinity was fourteenth Street, but finding the
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  physical phone right there on that rooftop, that's solidified it.
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  It gave them the ironclad probable cause they needed to
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  go back and get an exhaustive high intensity search warrant
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  for Shaw's property.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, so Tuesday, September thirtieth, they have the search warrant
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  backed up by the phone evidence. They returned to Fourteenth Street.
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  This time, the approach must have been completely different.
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  Speaker 2: Fundamentally different. Yeah. Yeah. This wasn't a quick scan. This
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  was methodical, painstaking, like an excavation.
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  Speaker 1: An excavation through all that clutter exactly.
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  Speaker 2: The search focused specifically on those known access points to
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  the attic and storage areas, the very spaces Shaw was
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  known to have customized. Officers had to physically sift through
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  piles of old newspapers, rusted tools, just years of discarded
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  stuff made the space almost impenetrable.
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  Speaker 1: Like a forensic search in a maze.
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  Speaker 2: That's a good way to put it, a hoarder's maze.
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  The breakthrough came in the attic access area. Detectives were
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  being systematic, applying pressure to walls that looked stable, looking
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  for tiny discrepancies, noticing dust.
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  Speaker 1: Patterns, trying to find something that wasn't right.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, and they found it an anomaly, a section of
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  what looked like a solid wall panel. It gave slightly
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  under pressure.
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  Speaker 1: It moved just slightly, yeah, but.
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  Speaker 2: Enough to indicate it was movable or maybe hollow behind.
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  Speaker 1: It the hidden entryway.
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  Speaker 2: That small shift exposed the concealed entraway Shaw had built.
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  The team breached it immediately. You have to imagine the scene,
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  flashlight beams cutting through dust insulation into this claustrophobic hidden
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  void within.
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  Speaker 1: The house structure, and that's where they found her.
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  Speaker 2: It was there, amidst the insulation and the shadows of
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  this secret compartment they located the remains of Rennea Lewis
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  oh God a grim discovery. It confirmed the tragedy obviously,
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  but also the extraordinary calculated effort that went into hiding.
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  Speaker 1: Her and the condition. The sources mentioned dismemberment.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, the forces describe it with necessary detail to convey
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  the brutality. Her body had been dismembered and then stuffed
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  into that void, a grotesque testament to the violence. As
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  one source put it, it was designed to make finding
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  her almost impossible by any normal search.
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  Speaker 1: It wasn't just about disposal then.
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  Speaker 2: No, this active dismemberment and hiding. It's about control, it's
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  about dehumanization. It's a calculated effort to buy significant time
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  to throw investigators off.
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  Speaker 1: And the autopsy confirmed how she died.
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  Speaker 2: Preliminary results came back pretty quickly. Renie was killed very
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  shortly after she arrived at the house, likely strangulation or
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  maybe a bludgeoning blow. And crucially, crucially, the post mortem
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  showed clear defensive wounds. She fought back, her mother, Terry Lewis.
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  She later echoed that painful detail to reporters. She said,
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  with absolute certainty, I know she fought.
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  Speaker 1: Heartbreaking.
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  Speaker 2: The speed of the investigation just ramped up exponentially after
• 12:59
  the discovery. Douglas Serwin Shaw was apprehended almost immediately nearby.
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  His demeanor, the sources are very specific. They described him
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  as eerily calm, just a lack of visible panic or
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  remorse that often characterizes offenders in these highly calculated crimes.
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  Speaker 1: Did he resist or confess?
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  Speaker 2: What's particularly showing here is the lack of resistance. He
• 13:20
  waved his miranda rights and then he provided what the
• 13:22
  source is called a chilling confession.
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  Speaker 1: He admitted it.
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  Speaker 2: He admitted luring Radia to the property under false pretenses.
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  The specific motivation, whether it was a rejected advance and
• 13:32
  attempted robbery something else, that remained a bit ambiguous right
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  after the arrest.
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  Speaker 1: But he admitted killing her and hiding the body.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, regardless of the initial motive, his actions after the
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  crime were highly calculating, focused entirely on concealment. He admitted
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  dismembering the body specifically to fit it into that hidden space.
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  Speaker 1: He built, and the forensic search backed this up completely.
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  Speaker 2: The subsequent search of the property corroborated his confession. They
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  found key evidence like bloodstained clothing, specialized cleaning supplies, things
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  used in an attempt to sanitize the crime scene, areas
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  outside of that hidden wall space.
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  Speaker 1: So it really was an investigative triumph in a way,
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  going from a missing person vanished to finding her and
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  getting a confession, all within days of activating that alert.
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  Speaker 2: Absolutely, the ebony alert seems to have been the catalyst
• 14:20
  that broke the case open and led to this resolution. However, tragic.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, so let's step back a bit and look at
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  the systemic elements here, both what allowed this to happen
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  and the tools that ultimately solved it. Shaw's profile, it
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  sounds like he just blended into the background mostly pretty.
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  Speaker 2: Much, forty one years old, only minor past arrests, petty theft,
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  public intoxication, that kind of thing, nothing that would typically
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  flag him as a potentially violent defender. He was described
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  mostly as a loner, someone who scavenged for junk to
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  get by.
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  Speaker 1: And the environment he created the house, we need to
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  revisit that.
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  Speaker 2: Definitely, the home was like this fortress of disrepair. The
• 14:57
  sources stress this repeatedly admitted hearing strange noises sometimes, but
• 15:02
  because the place was so chaotic and Shaw was known
• 15:04
  to be eccentric, they just avoided getting involved. They want
• 15:08
  to interfere, right, and that isolation. It's a classic red flag.
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  It creates a vacuum where criminal activity, especially hidden crimes
• 15:14
  like this, can just flourish completely unchecked.
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  Speaker 1: Which leads us to the architecture itself. The analysis you
• 15:20
  mentioned from doctor Elenavasquez, the forensic psychologist.
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  Speaker 2: Yes a UC Berkeley. She looks specifically at the psychology
• 15:26
  of this kind of concealment, hiding the victim within the
• 15:29
  actual structure of the home.
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  Speaker 1: What does she say about.
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  Speaker 2: That, Doctor Vasque has noted it's a specific psychological response.
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  It's highly defensive. It blends panic with well cunning. The home,
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  which should be a safe place, is twisted into a
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  fortress to contain the secret.
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  Speaker 1: So it's not just about getting rid of the body.
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  Speaker 2: No, it's an act of ultimate control over the evidence.
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  The perpetrators trying to essentially erase the victim twice by
• 15:55
  hiding her in the wall. He wasn't just delaying detection.
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  He was trying to dehumanize her, use her to just
• 16:00
  a hidden object within his own private, controlled world.
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  Speaker 1: That's deeply disturbing.
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  Speaker 2: It is in this pattern. Sadly, it's not unique. Doctor
• 16:09
  Vasquez drew connections to other chilling cases. There was a
• 16:12
  twenty nineteen murder in Lomita, California, where a woman was
• 16:15
  hidden in a closet wall.
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  Speaker 1: I remember hearing about that.
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  Speaker 2: And even infamous cases involving suitcase bodies. These patterns show
• 16:22
  a specific criminal mindset that exploits the familiar, the domestic
• 16:25
  environment to cover up extreme violence. Hiding a victim like this,
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  she concluded, it violates the body, yes, but also the
• 16:32
  public trust all at once.
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: Okay, let's circle back then to the societal context and
• 16:37
  the impact of the Ebony alert. Rainia's family was absolutely
• 16:40
  adamant about how crucial it was.
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  Speaker 2: They were her cousin LaToya Lewis. She put it perfectly,
• 16:47
  This alert saved us from silence. It amplified her story
• 16:51
  when it mattered most.
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  Speaker 1: It feels like this case became powerful validation for the
• 16:55
  activists who fought for that system, fighting against that historical bias,
• 16:59
  the missing white woman syndrome.
• 17:01
  Speaker 2: Absolutely. The sources highlight that statistic. Again, Black individuals accounted
• 17:05
  for over forty percent of missing persons reports in twenty
• 17:08
  twenty four. Without a targeted intervention like the Ebony alert,
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  these cases often just go cold much faster. They don't
• 17:14
  get the public awareness, they don't get the dedicated resources.
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  Speaker 1: And the California Highway Patrol the CHP. They manage the
• 17:20
  alert system right.
• 17:21
  Speaker 2: They're a spokesperson Karen Royce described the alert as a lifeline.
• 17:26
  She stressed that it demands we break down the barriers
• 17:28
  that have historically silenced these specific stories. Rainy's case essentially
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  provided the first really high profile, undeniable proof of the
• 17:37
  system's effectiveness, proof.
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: That it could achieve more equitable resource distribution and media attention. Exactly,
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  and shifting to the investigation itself, it really seems like
• 17:46
  a blueprint for modern policing success, doesn't it.
• 17:49
  Speaker 2: In many ways, Yes, you saw this seamless blend of
• 17:53
  like cutting edge tech and interagency collaboration, digital forensics, the
• 17:59
  cell tower pyings, finding the phone that confirmed her location.
• 18:03
  That was crucial for getting the FBI involved.
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: Right the federal resources and the forensic.
• 18:07
  Speaker 2: Work that followed really shows the need for specialized training.
• 18:12
  One of the detectives, Maria Gonzalez, reflected on that initial
• 18:15
  failed search. She noted that the later success was a
• 18:18
  direct result of persistence and technology turning the tide, meaning
• 18:23
  specialized training in how to identify and search these unconventional
• 18:27
  altered spaces like that hidden attic entry. You have to
• 18:30
  know what to look.
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: For in the forensic tools they used, also.
• 18:33
  Speaker 2: Critical for gathering the definitive evidence for prosecution. They used
• 18:36
  luminol extensively, which revealed trace blood patterns Shaw had tried
• 18:40
  to clean up that proved the crime happened outside the wall,
• 18:44
  not just within it. And they used three D mapping
• 18:47
  technology to reconstruct the crime scene, which is vital when
• 18:50
  you have a complex altered scene like that, especially for
• 18:53
  presenting the physical evidence of the dismemberment and concealment clearly
• 18:58
  to a jury.
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: And because of all that, the hannous nature the dismemberment
• 19:01
  the concealment, Shaw is facing serious charges, first.
• 19:05
  Speaker 2: Degree murder charges, and prosecutors are reportedly considering the death
• 19:09
  penalty citing those aggravated factors, the planning involved, and the
• 19:14
  extreme indignity inflicted on Rihenia. Hashtag tag outro.
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: So we've taken this deep dive into the really tragic
• 19:21
  story of Rennie Lewis. What are the key takeaways we
• 19:24
  want to leave you with today?
• 19:26
  Speaker 2: Well, I think there are two major ones. First, just
• 19:28
  the immense dedication, the relentless methodical pursuit that's required for
• 19:32
  justice in these high stakes missing persons cases. It takes so.
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: Much work, absolutely, And second.
• 19:37
  Speaker 2: Second that the critical role of targeted systemic solutions like
• 19:41
  the Ebony alert, how vital they are and ensuring equitable visibility,
• 19:45
  especially when history shows us that visibility hasn't always been equal.
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: And the response to this strategy, it's already starting to
• 19:51
  create change.
• 19:51
  Speaker 2: Right it is beyond the immediate grief. The vigils A
• 19:56
  Scholarship Fund has been set up in Reddy's name. It
• 19:58
  supports young Black women pursuing creative fields, which is a
• 20:02
  beautiful tribute to her life and her passion for art.
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: That's wonderful and locally in Valeo.
• 20:07
  Speaker 2: Valeo officials are actively planning these safe homes workshops.
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: Safe Homes workshops, what are those?
• 20:13
  Speaker 2: They're specifically designed to educate residents on how to spot
• 20:17
  those hoarderlike red flags, you know, the signs of severe
• 20:21
  neglect recording that can sometimes unintentionally but sometimes intentionally shield
• 20:26
  hidden criminal activity from view, much like the environment.
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: Shaw created trying to prevent something like this from happening
• 20:31
  again by making people more aware exactly.
• 20:34
  Speaker 2: Rennie Lewis's death was surrounded by secrecy and sorrow, but
• 20:38
  her mother, Terry Lewis, has been so powerful in ensuring
• 20:41
  her story isn't contained by that wall.
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: Yeah, her plea was simple but strong. Don't let her
• 20:46
  story end in that wall. She's really driving this demand
• 20:50
  that the tragedy leads to greater purpose, and that brings
• 20:53
  us to our final provocative thought for you, the listener.
• 20:56
  The Ebony Alert system was clearly a success in California.
• 20:59
  In this case, it was a state solution to what
• 21:02
  feels like a national problem. Right, So, what specific challenges,
• 21:06
  maybe federal jurisdiction issues, resource allocation, even privacy concerns. What
• 21:10
  needs to be overcome to make the Ebony alert a
• 21:13
  truly nationwide standard?
• 21:15
  Speaker 2: How do we take this localized triumph born from such
• 21:18
  tragedy and transform it into national policy policy that ensures
• 21:23
  every missing person, truly, regardless of their background, gets the immediate,
• 21:26
  dedicated visibility that we know saves lives.
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: We have to look closer, listen harder.
• 21:31
  Speaker 2: And ensure that silence is never an option for the vulnerable.
• 21:34
  Thank you for joining us on this deep dive.