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The Predator in the Apartment: The Wade Allen Case · Murder Files Unsealed

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Imagine picking up your phone late at night. You see
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: it's your best friend calling, so you answer. And instead
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: of the usual banter, your friend casually asks if you
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: want to come over and look at a dead body.
• 0:10
  Speaker 2: Oh, gosh.
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: Yeah. And then, before you can even process if it's
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: like some sick joke, he follows it up by asking
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: for your help to bury it.
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: I mean, it is the kind of phone call that
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: forces a person into this impossible split-second moral crossroads, you know? Yeah.
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: Do you protect the friend you thought you knew? Or
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: do you recognize that the person on the other end
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: of the line has just become a monster?
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: Right, exactly. And today we're doing a deep dive into
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: a true crime case from May of 2019 at Asturgis, Michigan,
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: where that exact phone call actually happened. Yeah, the victim
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: was a woman named Kelly Jean Warner. She went by KJ.
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: And the man who made that phone call was her killer,
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: Wade Allen. And we have a massive stack of sources
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: for this deep dive today. It includes detailed transcripts from
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: a true crime documentary channel, the actual police audio, the
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: 911 calls and accounts from neighbors who live just feet away,
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: along with some really harrowing survivor testimonies.
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: Yeah. And our focus here isn't just on the grim
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: timeline of events. You know, we're going to deconstruct the
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: psychology of a predator who hid behind this incredibly insidious
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: facade of a concerned caretaker.
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: We're looking at how law enforcement managed to dismantle a
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: web of lies basically in real time on a front porch.
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: And the terrifying reality of his calculated cruelty and the
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: life-saving role of bystander intervention.
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: Yeah. So we begin right in the thick of it.
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: It's May 22nd, 2019. The man who received that phone
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: call is named Stephen. And Stephen, to his absolute credit,
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: did not hesitate. He and his group of friends explicitly
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: told Wade, you know, no, we are not going to
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: help you do that. And Stephen immediately called 911. He
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: directs the police to a dilapidated house at the intersection
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: of North Maple and Hatch Streets.
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: Mm-hmm.
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: He tells the dispatcher there is a body inside, but
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: he admits he hasn't seen it firsthand.
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: Which is fascinating because it puts the police in a
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: really tricky procedural position. I mean, they are responding to
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: a tip from a third party.
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: They don't have a crime scene yet, just a terrifying rumor.
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: So when they arrive at Wade Allen's house near midnight,
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: they are technically just conducting a welfare check.
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: Their goal is simply to verify if there is a
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: living person in distress or... to rule out the presence
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: of human remains.
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: But the reality of the situation hits the officers before
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: they even reach up to knock on the door. It's midnight,
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: they approach the house, and they are struck in the
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: face by this undeniable red flag.
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: The smell.
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: Yes, the foul odor of decomposition.
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: Yeah, for seasoned officers, that scent is unmistakable. It triggers
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: an immediate shift in the dynamic. You know, they arrive
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: to do a welfare check based on an anonymous tip,
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: but the environment itself is already corroborating Stephen's story. They
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: know before the door even opens that they are standing
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: outside a tomb.
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: So Wade comes to the door. And the officers, playing
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: it incredibly cool, don't immediately mention a dead body. They
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: say they're looking for Kimberly, Kelly, or Kelly from the shelter,
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: mentioning her nickname, KJ.
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: And Wade's demeanor here is just chilling. It's completely casual.
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: He feigns total ignorance immediately. He actually refers to her
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: as KJ-466.
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: Wait, KJ-466? Yeah. That specific detail is a massive psychological tell.
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: I mean, reducing a human being, someone who you shared
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: an intimate relationship with, to a nickname followed by a number. Yeah.
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: What is that about?
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: It creates this artificial clinical distance. He is subtly dehumanizing
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: her right to the faces of the police. It's a
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: way for his own brain to categorize her as an object,
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: you know, a file or a statistic, rather than the
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: person whose remains are decomposing inside his home. Wow.
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: And while he's having this casual conversation, telling them he
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: hasn't heard from her in months and claiming she's over
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: in Kalamazoo, he is physically blocking the doorway.
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: Right. He keeps complaining that his place is a total
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: mess to prevent them from coming inside. If you picture
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: this standoff on the porch, it is like the ultimate
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: high stakes poker game. The police can literally smell the
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: bluff wafting out of the house.
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: Yeah, they know.
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: But they still have to play by the rules. The
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: Constitution still applies. They need his consent to enter or
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: they need to freeze the scene and get a search warrant.
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: And Roe v. Wade is desperately trying to play his
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: own hand, right? He is engaging in a psychological strategy
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: we see often with cornered predators, which is the compliant
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: but evasive suspect. He knows that slamming the door in
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: the faces of police officers who are already suspicious will
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: instantly escalate the situation. It guarantees they will freeze the
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: house and wait for a warrant. So he negotiates? Precisely.
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: Instead of fighting them outright, he negotiates. He calculates that
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: if he offers a minor controlled concession, he can satisfy
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: their bureaucratic checklist.
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: Give them some crumbs. Exactly. So he eventually relents and says, OK,
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: one of you can come in, just walk through. He
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: wants them to do a superficial sweep, verify that no
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: one is currently screaming for help in the corner, and
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: then leave him alone.
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: I always wonder about this specific moment in cases like this.
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: If your house smells like death and you have a
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: body hidden in your living room, why open the door
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: at all?
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: Why let an officer step over the threshold?
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: I struggle to understand this. My instinct says it's sheer panic,
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: but looking at how methodical he was, it feels like
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: pure arrogance. Like he actually thought he could outsmart a
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: trained detective inside a house that smelled like a corpse.
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: Well, it's a toxic cocktail of both arrogance and panic.
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: but heavily weighted toward arrogance. Predators like Roe v. Wade
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: often suffer from a huge superiority complex.
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: Oh, absolutely.
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: They genuinely believe their ability to manipulate people is flawless.
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: He thinks his charm, or his casual demeanor, can override
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: the officer's own sensory reality.
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: That is wild.
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: He thinks he has the evidence contained well enough to
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: withstand a quick glance. Contained? Yeah, but barely. Because this
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: brings us to the most surreal, terrifying moment of this walkthrough.
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: The officer steps inside. At first glance, it just looks
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: like a cluttered, messy apartment. But sitting right in the
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: middle of the living room is a massive industrial-sized green cooler.
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: Wow. And in a house that smells strongly of decay,
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: a sealed, oversized container is a blazing siren.
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: Oh, yeah.
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: So the officer naturally points to it and asks, what's
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: in the cooler?
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: And Wade's response is an absolute masterclass in terrifying cognitive dissonance.
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: He looks at the officer and says, oh, that's for
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: when the summer comes around. I'm going to have parties
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: and stuff.
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: Summer parties.
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: Oh, my goodness. Summer parties.
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: He is using the most mundane suburban camouflage possible to
• 6:38
  Speaker 2: cover up the macabre. He is hoping that by anchoring
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: his excuse in everyday relatable life, the officer's brain will
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: just accept it and move on. Yeah. It is an
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: attempt to normalize the abnormality of the situation.
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: But the officer isn't buying it. He asks Wade to
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: open it. And Wade outright refuses. He says, not right now.
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: I want to save that for later.
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: Save it for later. Jesus.
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: Yes, save it for later. The officer keeps pushing gently.
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: He has to check closets, the fridge, anywhere a person
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: could hide. Wade lets him check the fridge, but he
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: physically guards that green cooler. Right. And that refusal is
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: the boundary the officer was waiting for. The negotiation stops.
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: Good.
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: The officer steps out, detains Wade, puts him in handcuffs,
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: informs him they're securing the scene to get a search warrant.
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: That is exactly how this system is supposed to work.
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: The officer recognized that Wade's defensive boundary around that specific object,
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: combined with the ambient odor of decomposition, provided all the
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: probable cause necessary to freeze the scene.
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: And Wade realizes he overplayed his hand. He tries to
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: backtrack at the last second. He offers to let the
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: officer look inside the cooler just to avoid the warrant
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: and avoid being locked in the squad car.
• 7:49
  Speaker 2: Oh, he panics.
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: Yeah. So the officer takes him up on it. He
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: pops the lid of that green cooler. and immediately sees
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: the unmistakable shape of a human arm covered in black
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: mold dots.
• 8:01
  Speaker 2: A horrific confirmation of Stephen's 911 call. But for law enforcement,
• 8:06
  Speaker 2: finding the body is merely answering the what. The how
• 8:10
  Speaker 2: and the why remain entirely shrouded in Wade's deception.
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: And that deception goes into overdrive. The second Wade is
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: sitting in the interrogation room. He's been caught. The body
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: of KJ is in his apartment. He can no longer
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: deny that she is dead.
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: So he pivots. He leans entirely into this fabricated persona
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: of a concerned, overwhelmed caretaker who is just doing his
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: best in a tragic situation.
• 8:34
  Speaker 2: Having comprehensively lost the battle to conceal the physical body,
• 8:38
  Speaker 2: he now marshals all his manipulative skills to fight the
• 8:41
  Speaker 2: battle of concealing the murder itself.
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: Let's break down the story he tells detectives because it
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: is weaponized manipulation. Wade tells the police that KJ had
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: a long history of mental health challenges. that she'd experienced homelessness,
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: and crucially, he points out that she was hypoglycemic, a diabetic.
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: He claims that back in March, she was making cereal
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: in the kitchen, fainted from low blood sugar, and hit
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: the back of her head hard on the floor.
• 9:04
  Speaker 2: Okay, notice what he is doing here structurally. He knows
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: there will be a forensic autopsy. He knows the medical
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: examiner will find severe blunt force trauma through her skull.
• 9:15
  Speaker 2: So he is preemptively planting an alternative narrative. He is
• 9:19
  Speaker 2: giving the police an innocent explanation for a fatal injury
• 9:23
  Speaker 2: before they even have the medical report in their hands.
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: He is using her real life medical vulnerabilities as a
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: built in alibi. It is disgusting.
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: Yes.
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: He tells the cops that after this fall in the kitchen,
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: her motor skills began to decline rapidly. He paints this
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: gruesome picture of finding her in the bathroom covered in
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: a frozen chili dinner, moving in slow motion. completely unable
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: to lift a spoon to feed herself.
• 9:47
  Speaker 2: And he doesn't stop with just the loss of motor skills.
• 9:50
  Speaker 2: He starts describing highly specific, horrifying medical symptoms to the
• 9:54
  Speaker 2: police without any prompting.
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: Oh, absolutely. He talks about seeing yellow pus forming in
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: her eyes. He says that... over the course of two weeks,
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: that pus turned into these massive blood sacks in both
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: of her eyes. Oh, my God. He tells them she
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: was choking on regular glasses of water, so he had
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: to painstakingly give her a straw to drink from.
• 10:11
  Speaker 2: And this is where the psychological profile of the perpetrator
• 10:14
  Speaker 2: becomes truly disturbing. Wade is accurately describing the physical symptoms
• 10:20
  Speaker 2: of a person who is slowly dying from severe traumatic
• 10:23
  Speaker 2: brain injury over a protracted two week period.
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: Wow.
• 10:27
  Speaker 2: The blood pooling in the eyes, the loss of motor function,
• 10:31
  Speaker 2: the inability to swallow. He is describing the systemic shutdown
• 10:35
  Speaker 2: of her central nervous system.
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: But he frames himself as the tragic hero of the story.
• 10:39
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: He tells detectives, I tried to feed her as much
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: as I could. He's painting this picture of a loving,
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: albeit totally incompetent, bedside nurse.
• 10:47
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: And then he delivers his grand finale, his explanation for
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: her actual death. It is. He claims he left her
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: in the bathtub, turned on the hot water to keep
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: her warm and comfortable, and just went to sleep.
• 10:58
  Speaker 2: Wow.
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: When he woke up, she was dead. He implies to
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: the detectives that she might have accidentally drowned or perhaps
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: succumbed to the scalding hot water because she was too
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: neurologically compromised to reach out and turn the faucet off.
• 11:09
  Speaker 2: A narrative that collapses under the weight of basic logical
• 11:12
  Speaker 2: scrutiny within seconds. I mean, if KJ was so weak
• 11:15
  Speaker 2: and incapacitated that she couldn't lift a spoon of chili
• 11:18
  Speaker 2: to her mouth, how on earth could she have drawn
• 11:21
  Speaker 2: a bath for herself? Exactly. And conversely, if Wade drew
• 11:24
  Speaker 2: the bath and left her in it, knowing she had
• 11:26
  Speaker 2: zero motor skills, that is, at the very minimum, depraved
• 11:29
  Speaker 2: heart murder.
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: Wait, depraved heart murder. Is that a specific legal term?
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: Explain what that actually means in a courtroom context, because
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: it sounds intense.
• 11:37
  Speaker 2: Oh, it is a specific legal concept. Depraved heart murder
• 11:41
  Speaker 2: or depraved indifference means that even if you didn't specifically
• 11:44
  Speaker 2: set out with the premeditated intent to kill someone, your
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: actions demonstrated such a callous, reckless disregard for human life
• 11:52
  Speaker 2: that death was a highly likely outcome.
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: Oh, I see.
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: Leaving a paralyzed, brain-damaged woman alone in a filling bathtub
• 11:59
  Speaker 2: of scalding water perfectly fits that definition. You know it
• 12:02
  Speaker 2: will likely kill her and you just don't care. But
• 12:04
  Speaker 2: the detectives didn't even need to debate legal definitions because
• 12:08
  Speaker 2: Wade's entire timeline was completely contradicted by the reality of
• 12:12
  Speaker 2: the people living mere feet away from him.
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: Exactly. If you're listening to this and wondering why no
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: one intervened if this woman was dying in an apartment
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: for two weeks, it's crucial to understand how stealthy these
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: abusers are. But they aren't invisible.
• 12:25
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: The police canvass the area and interview a neighbor named
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: Melanie Brown. Melanie tells them a completely different story than
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: Wade's tale of a quiet, tragic decline.
• 12:34
  Speaker 2: What did she hear?
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: She says that during the six months Wade lived there,
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: she frequently heard screaming matches coming from the yard. And
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: she specifically remembers a massive, violent fight between Wade and
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: the woman just a week before KJ disappeared.
• 12:48
  Speaker 2: So immediately, Wade's timeline of a peaceful, tragic medical decline
• 12:52
  Speaker 2: starting in March is obliterated. There was active, loud, violent
• 12:56
  Speaker 2: conflict right up until the end of her life.
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: But the most damning testimony comes from another neighbor. This
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: neighbor tells police that they were chatting with Wade, and
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: Wade casually mentioned that KJ had slipped in the bathroom
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: and might have a skull fracture. Okay. And when this
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: neighbor heard that, they had the normal, empathetic human reaction.
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: They said... Oh my God, let's take her to the
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: ER right now.
• 13:17
  Speaker 2: And how did Wade respond to that lifeline?
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: He shut it down instantly. He told the neighbor, no,
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: I'm taking care of her.
• 13:23
  Speaker 2: This right here is the terrifying architecture of the isolation tactic.
• 13:28
  Speaker 2: It is one of the most critical yet easily overlooked
• 13:32
  Speaker 2: red flags in any abusive dynamic.
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: I want to dig into that because on the surface
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: to a passing neighbor, a guy saying I'm taking care
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: of her might just sound like a dedicated partner who
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: has the situation under control. Society is primed to give
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: caregivers the benefit of the doubt.
• 13:48
  Speaker 2: Exactly. We naturally defer to the partner. And Wade weaponized
• 13:52
  Speaker 2: that social deference to turn his apartment into a black site.
• 13:57
  Speaker 2: It is like a spider building a web. The spider
• 13:59
  Speaker 2: doesn't just throw a net over the prey all at once.
• 14:01
  Speaker 2: It wraps one thread at a time. First, he isolates
• 14:05
  Speaker 2: her emotionally by leveraging her pre-existing estrangement from her family. Right.
• 14:10
  Speaker 2: Then he isolates her geographically in his apartment. When the
• 14:13
  Speaker 2: neighbor offers the ER trip, that is the last thread.
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: Because if she goes to the ER.
• 14:19
  Speaker 2: Exactly. If KJ goes to the ER, medical professionals who
• 14:23
  Speaker 2: are mandatory reporters will see the blunt force trauma. They
• 14:27
  Speaker 2: will ask questions. They will separate her from Woviway to
• 14:30
  Speaker 2: interview her privately.
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: You couldn't allow that scrutiny. No.
• 14:33
  Speaker 2: So he severs that final thread under the guise of
• 14:36
  Speaker 2: being a protective caregiver. He traps her completely.
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: He controls the entire reality of the situation. He tells
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: the police later that she was too sick to move,
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: but he tells the neighbor in the moment that she
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: can't go to the hospital because he's handling it. It
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: was just sickening.
• 14:51
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: And the horrific truth of what was actually happening in
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: that apartment behind closed doors is finally revealed when Stephen,
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: the friend who made the 911 call, sits down with detectives.
• 15:01
  Speaker 2: Stephen's testimony blows Wade's accidental drowning narrative entirely out of
• 15:05
  Speaker 2: the water, replacing it with a timeline of unimaginable terror.
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: Stephen tells the police... that about a month prior to
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: his 911 call, Wade had messaged him with a confession.
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: Wade admitted that he had hit KJ. Okay. And according
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: to Stephen, this wasn't the first time. Physical abuse was
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: a regular occurrence. But this time, Wade hit her so
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: hard she fell and struck her head on the fireplace mantle.
• 15:29
  Speaker 2: Which perfectly aligns with the blunt force trauma the medical
• 15:32
  Speaker 2: examiner would find, but completely shreds Wade's story of her
• 15:36
  Speaker 2: fainting in the kitchen while making cereal.
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: It gets so much worse. Stephen tells the cops... that
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: KJ did not die immediately. She stayed alive, incapacitated on
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: the floor for a couple of days.
• 15:47
  Speaker 2: Oh my God.
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: And during that time, Wade wasn't playing the dutiful nurse
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: giving her water with a straw. Wade was taking a
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: torch lighter and burning her body, specifically her private areas.
• 15:57
  Speaker 2: Jesus.
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: He told Stephen he did it, quote, just to see
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: if she was still there.
• 16:01
  Speaker 2: He was systematically torturing a brain-damaged dying woman simply to
• 16:04
  Speaker 2: test her pain response. It is the purest distillation of sadism.
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: And when she finally died... Stephen says Wade moved her
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: body to the bathtub, got a reciprocating saw, dismembered her,
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: and put her remains in those coolers. Wow. Stephen actually
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: went to the apartment at one point during this month-long period,
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: and Wade walked out of the bathroom and asked, hey,
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: you want to see the body? Oh, my goodness. Stephen
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: declined and got out of there.
• 16:28
  Speaker 2: And the forensic evidence collected by the crime scene technicians
• 16:32
  Speaker 2: corroborates Stephen's account in devastating granular detail. Yeah.
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: The police execute the search warrant. We already talked about
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: the green cooler in the living room with her arm.
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: But as they move deeper into the apartment, they find
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: a second cooler in the bedroom containing the rest of
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: her dismembered remains.
• 16:49
  Speaker 2: Oh, wow.
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: The body was in such an advanced state of decomposition
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: and the environment was so biohazardous that even veteran tactical
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: response officers were physically sickened by the scene.
• 17:01
  Speaker 2: And amidst this unimaginable horror, they documented the logistical tools
• 17:05
  Speaker 2: of his crime.
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: Right. They find an empty box for a reciprocating saw.
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: They find heavy plastic sheeting covering the windows, protective eyewear,
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: heavy-duty gloves, industrial garbage bags, piles of ropes, zip ties,
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: and oddly, a single white ribbon.
• 17:22
  Speaker 2: We will absolutely come back to that ribbon.
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, we will. But of all the things they found,
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: here is the piece of evidence that makes the hair
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: on my arms stand up. They found the store receipt
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: for the reciprocating saw.
• 17:34
  Speaker 2: A tiny piece of paper that fundamentally changes the scope
• 17:37
  Speaker 2: of the investigation. What was the date on that receipt?
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: April 17th. Wade was arrested on May 22nd.
• 17:43
  Speaker 2: Which expands the timeline of this nightmare significantly.
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: I look at that April 17th receipt like a time
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: machine that rewrites the entire narrative.
• 17:50
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: It instantly proves this wasn't a sudden panicked reaction to
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: an accident. It wasn't a split-second bad decision. If he
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: bought that saw in mid-April... KJ's dismembered remains were sitting
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: in those coolers in his living room and bedroom for
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: over a month while he just casually went about his life.
• 18:05
  Speaker 2: We have to pause and look at the psychological architecture
• 18:08
  Speaker 2: required to do that. The compartmentalization is staggering.
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: For over a month, he lived with the overwhelming smell
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: of decay, the mold, the insect activity. He literally slept
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: in a bedroom with a cooler containing the remains of
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: a woman he intimately knew.
• 18:24
  Speaker 2: I genuinely cannot comprehend that. How does a human being
• 18:27
  Speaker 2: do that? How do you wake up? Make your morning coffee,
• 18:30
  Speaker 2: watch television, and step over a cooler containing a person
• 18:33
  Speaker 2: you murdered.
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: Because to a highly psychopathic or sadistic individual, the remains
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: are no longer a person. They undergo a psychological transformation
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: into an object.
• 18:43
  Speaker 2: Oh, wow.
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: A trophy, a problem to be solved eventually, or simply
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: a piece of the furniture. A healthy human brain is
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: repulsed by decay. An aberrant brain normalizes the grotesque to
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: a degree that is incomprehensible to us.
• 18:56
  Speaker 2: That is wild.
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: He had completely clinically detached from the reality of his actions.
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: That detachment is exactly why he could stand on his
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: porch and casually tell a police officer that the cooler
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: was for summer parties. In his mind, the horror was
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: fully compartmentalized. It is deeply disturbing. So at this point,
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: law enforcement knows the what. The physical evidence is undeniable.
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: The timeline is locked in. Wade is charged with open murder,
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: dismemberment of a corpse, and failure to report a death.
• 19:25
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: He's sitting in the St. Joseph County Jail, and the
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: police have him dead to rights. But then, Wade's own
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: ego takes the steering wheel.
• 19:34
  Speaker 2: Yes. The physical evidence told the story of the aftermath,
• 19:38
  Speaker 2: but it is Wade's astonishing arrogance while incarcerated that reveals
• 19:41
  Speaker 2: the terrifying how and why of the murder itself.
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: He starts bragging in graphic, stomach-turning detail to total strangers
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: in the county jail. First, he brags to an inmate
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: who coincidentally happens to be an acquaintance of KJ's own sister.
• 19:57
  Speaker 2: Wow.
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: Then he shares a cell with a man named Daniel Kiefer.
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: And Daniel was so profoundly traumatized by what Wade enthusiastically
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: confessed to him, that he and other inmates literally formed
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: a watch rotation.
• 20:07
  Speaker 2: Oh my God.
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: They took shifts, staying awake, because they were too terrified
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: to fall asleep with Wade breathing in the same room.
• 20:12
  Speaker 2: Which is an entirely rational survival response to the darkness
• 20:16
  Speaker 2: Wade was projecting.
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: Wade tells Daniel that the story about the fireplace mantle,
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: the blunt force trauma, wasn't the whole truth. It wasn't
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: what actually killed her. Wade admits that he physically pinned
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: KJ down on the bed. And remember that single white
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: ribbon the police found among the roasts and plastic sheeting?
• 20:34
  Speaker 2: Yes.
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: Wade told Daniel he put that delicate white ribbon around
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: her neck, and he strangled her.
• 20:41
  Speaker 2: But he didn't just strangle her in a blind fit
• 20:43
  Speaker 2: of rage. This wasn't a crime of passion where he
• 20:45
  Speaker 2: lost control. No.
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: He told Daniel that he watched the clog for five
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: full minutes while he strangled the life out of her.
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: And then, once she was gone, he performed CPR to
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: bring her back to life.
• 20:57
  Speaker 2: We have to stop and unpack the profound darkness of
• 21:00
  Speaker 2: that act. Why bring her back? It wasn't out of remorse. No.
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: Daniel testified that Wade explicitly said he brought her back
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: just to prolong the torture. He wanted to do it again.
• 21:09
  Speaker 2: Jesus.
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: Wade admitted that the next day, when she was already
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: completely brain dead, when she couldn't walk, talk, or defend herself,
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: he used a dollar general torch lighter to systematically burn
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: her tongue and her private parts.
• 21:22
  Speaker 2: It is the ultimate horrifying expression of absolute control. For
• 21:26
  Speaker 2: a sadist, the power isn't merely in ending a life.
• 21:29
  Speaker 2: Ending a life is too finite. The true high for
• 21:32
  Speaker 2: a sadist is in controlling the threshold between life and death.
• 21:36
  Speaker 2: He acts as a god in his own twisted, miniature universe,
• 21:41
  Speaker 2: dictating when she suffers, when she stops breathing, and when
• 21:44
  Speaker 2: she's forcibly ripped back into consciousness just to suffer more.
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: And he didn't just torture her when he was actively
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: standing over her. Wade told another inmate about the system
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: he designed to keep her contained when he had to
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: leave the apartment for work. Okay. He said he tied
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: her up and stuffed her into a closet. And to
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: keep her quiet, he gagged her. But he didn't just
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: use a piece of cloth. He took a metal screwdriver,
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: wrapped a washcloth tightly around it, and forced it sideways
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: into her mouth like a horse bit.
• 22:12
  Speaker 2: Oh, the mechanical cruelty of that device is staggering.
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: And he boasted about his ingenuity. He told Ian that
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: he designed it that way specifically. so he wouldn't have
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: to go through the trouble of removing the gag to
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: give her water.
• 22:23
  Speaker 2: Unbelievable.
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: He could just pour water onto the washcloth, and she
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: could desperately suck the moisture out of the fabric while
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: he was at work. He kept her hydrated just enough
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: to keep her alive, but permanently gagged so she couldn't
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: scream for help. Wow. And he laughed about it. He
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: literally smiled while describing this torture device to another human
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: being in a jail cell.
• 22:44
  Speaker 2: Which brings us to the great paradox of the criminal ego.
• 22:48
  Speaker 2: Why on earth would someone facing open murder charges brag
• 22:51
  Speaker 2: in such excruciating graphic detail to total strangers in a
• 22:56
  Speaker 2: county jail? Right. He has to know these inmates will
• 22:59
  Speaker 2: trade that information for a plea deal. He has to
• 23:01
  Speaker 2: know it will be used against him in a court
• 23:03
  Speaker 2: of law.
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: I struggle to understand this. My instincts as a killer
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: brags because they're fundamentally stupid and subconsciously want to get caught.
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: But looking at Wade's methodical planning, the tools, the plastic sheeting,
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: the isolation tactics, He clearly isn't stupid. So what is
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: the psychological payoff that outweighs a literal life sentence in prison?
• 23:23
  Speaker 2: Well, you're right to push back on the idea of stupidity.
• 23:26
  Speaker 2: It's not a lack of intelligence. It is an overwhelming
• 23:28
  Speaker 2: surplus of narcissism. We have to understand the psychology of
• 23:32
  Speaker 2: the jailhouse confession. For a narcissist and a sadistic control
• 23:36
  Speaker 2: freak like Wade, the crime itself isn't fully enjoyed unless
• 23:40
  Speaker 2: an audience knows exactly how powerful, how clever, and how
• 23:44
  Speaker 2: dominant he was.
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: So the private act of the murder wasn't enough to
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: satisfy his ego?
• 23:49
  Speaker 2: For him, no. The secret of his dominance was burning
• 23:52
  Speaker 2: a hole in his pocket. He wasn't confessing to these
• 23:55
  Speaker 2: cellmates because he felt guilty. He wasn't seeking absolution or forgiveness.
• 24:00
  Speaker 2: He was seeking applause. He wanted these other inmates to
• 24:03
  Speaker 2: look at him with fear and awe at his capacity
• 24:06
  Speaker 2: for violence. He views his actions not as horrifying crimes,
• 24:10
  Speaker 2: but as dark accomplishments. He is the star of his
• 24:12
  Speaker 2: own horror movie, and he needed someone to watch it.
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: That makes total sense, especially when you hear the motive
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: he finally provided. Wade actually gave a reason for why
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: he inflicted this medieval torture on KJ.
• 24:23
  Speaker 2: What was it?
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: He claimed she cheated on him. He told an inmate
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: she was sleeping with other guys and it broke his
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: heart and he had so much emotional pain that he
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: just couldn't let it go.
• 24:32
  Speaker 2: Notice the psychological inversion there. Even in the middle of
• 24:35
  Speaker 2: confessing to a horrific, prolonged torture murder, he still centers
• 24:40
  Speaker 2: himself as the ultimate victim. His broken heart is presented
• 24:44
  Speaker 2: as the tragic justification for the methodical dismemberment of a
• 24:47
  Speaker 2: human being.
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's so manipulative. It is a.
• 24:50
  Speaker 2: Classic abuser's tactic. They force you to accept their twisted
• 24:53
  Speaker 2: reality where their violence is just a natural reaction to
• 24:56
  Speaker 2: the pain you cause them.
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: It is sickening. But the most chilling detail from these
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: jailhouse conversations, the thing that I cannot stop thinking about,
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: is what Wade was doing in his cell while he
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: was waiting for trial. He had access to a television.
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: And he was obsessively watching the show Criminal Minds.
• 25:14
  Speaker 2: A syndicated television show entirely dedicated to profiling serial killers,
• 25:18
  Speaker 2: analyzing forensic countermeasures, and solving complex, grotesque murders. Yes.
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: And the inmates reported that Wade would sit there in
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: front of the TV, watch the FBI profile these fictional killers,
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: and openly critique his own real-life crime. Oh, my God.
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: He would watch an episode and tell his cellmates, if
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: I had watched this before, I could have done it differently.
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: He was literally taking notes on how to be a
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: more efficient murderer.
• 25:40
  Speaker 2: It demonstrates a chilling, complete absence of remorse. He views
• 25:45
  Speaker 2: his arrest and incarceration not as a moral failing, but
• 25:48
  Speaker 2: simply as a tactical error that he needs to correct
• 25:51
  Speaker 2: for next time.
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: And the terrifying reality of this case is that Wade's
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: monstrous behavior wasn't an isolated incident. The torture of KJ
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: didn't just spontaneously combust out of nowhere. It was a
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: practiced escalating pattern.
• 26:05
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: Which brings us to a woman. who managed to escape
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: his web just months before he murdered KJ.
• 26:11
  Speaker 2: The 2018 ex-girlfriend. Her story is a vital piece of
• 26:15
  Speaker 2: understanding Wade's methodology.
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: It really is. She dated Wade for just three months
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: in 2018. And she ended the relationship because her kids
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: were starting school, and she simply couldn't cater to his
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: constant exhausting demands for attention. But one day, after the breakup,
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: he shows up at her house, uninvited, and demands she
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: drive him to Kalamazoo. Feeling pressured, and wanting to avoid
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: a scene at her house, she finally agrees just to
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: get him away from her property. She puts her kids
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: in the back seat, and Wade gets in the passenger seat.
• 26:47
  Speaker 2: Which is a highly vulnerable, enclosed environment. The dynamic shifts
• 26:52
  Speaker 2: instantly when you are trapped in a moving vehicle.
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: Exactly. While they're driving, Wade realizes she's not getting back
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: together with him. She's planning to just drop him off
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: in Kalamazoo and leave him there. He starts freaking out,
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: getting verbally aggressive. Oh no. She simply puts her hand up,
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: defensively across the center console, not even touching him, and says, stop.
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: My kids are right there in the back.
• 27:12
  Speaker 2: And what does he do?
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: Wade slowly turns to her and threatens to violently break
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: her arm if she ever puts her hand in his
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: face again.
• 27:19
  Speaker 2: The sudden disproportionate escalation of extreme violence over a minor
• 27:24
  Speaker 2: perceived slight. This is the mask slipping.
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: Right. And here is where the story pivots from an
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: impending tragedy to an act of absolute brilliance. Her daughter...
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: who's sitting in the back seat, is a diabetic. The
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: daughter senses the danger in the car. She sees her
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: mother being threatened.
• 27:43
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: And this child brilliantly fakes a low blood sugar episode.
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: She starts complaining that her sugar is dropping rapidly and
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: she needs help.
• 27:52
  Speaker 2: That is incredible situational awareness and quick thinking for a
• 27:56
  Speaker 2: child in a high-stress environment.
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: I look at it as the ultimate emotional emergency break.
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: It gave the mother the undeniable, socially acceptable excuse she
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: needed to turn the car around immediately without directly challenging
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: Wade's ego. Wow. She says, I have to get her
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: taken care of. It's a medical emergency. And she drives
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: straight back to her house.
• 28:13
  Speaker 2: She used the manufactured medical emergency to override his psychological
• 28:18
  Speaker 2: control of the situation. It is brilliant.
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: And when they get back to her house, she doesn't hesitate.
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: She gets her kids out, rushes them into the house,
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: and flat out refuses to get back in the car
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: with Wade. Good for her. Wade is standing in the
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: yard trying to coax her, putting the mask back on, saying,
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: I'm not going to hurt you. Just come here. Mm-hmm.
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: But she literally grabs a bicycle and a lawn chair
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: and builds a physical barricade between them in the grass
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: so he cannot get close to her.
• 28:44
  Speaker 2: She recognized the predator staring back at her. She didn't
• 28:47
  Speaker 2: let him isolate her in the vehicle. And when the
• 28:50
  Speaker 2: social barriers failed, she created literal physical barriers.
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: Wade eventually gets frustrated, calls the local charity, Love Inc.,
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: gets a ride to Kalamazoo. But he steals her cell
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: phone on his way out as a final petty act
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: of control.
• 29:03
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: She later told the documentary crew, if I wouldn't have
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: ended things when I did, that would have been me.
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: And looking at the timeline and the tactics, she's absolutely right.
• 29:12
  Speaker 2: If we look at the escalation of his predatory behavior,
• 29:15
  Speaker 2: her assessment is spot on. Wade's actions with the ex-girlfriend,
• 29:19
  Speaker 2: the intense attempts at control, the isolation in the vehicle,
• 29:23
  Speaker 2: the sudden threats of extreme physical violence, that was his
• 29:27
  Speaker 2: working blueprint. It failed with her because she had strong
• 29:30
  Speaker 2: tethers to the outside world, her children, and she fought back.
• 29:34
  Speaker 2: But he didn't scrap the blueprint. He just took it
• 29:36
  Speaker 2: and applied it to KJ, a woman who was already
• 29:39
  Speaker 2: vulnerable struggling with homelessness, and estranged from her family support network.
• 29:44
  Speaker 2: He found a target with fewer defensive barriers.
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: And the most infuriating part of this entire saga is
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: that even after he was caught, even behind bars facing
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: life in prison, the predator inside Wade Allen did not
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: shut down. He remained a severe, active threat. Oh, yes.
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: Because while in the St. Joseph County Jail, he found
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: out that his cellmate, Daniel Kiefer, the man he bragged
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: to about the white ribbon and the five-minute strangulation, had
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: reported his confessions to the authorities.
• 30:12
  Speaker 2: And Wade's response is pure, calculated, retaliatory violence.
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: He doesn't just lash out in a brief moment of
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: anger in the cafeteria. He lies in wait for the
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: perfect opportunity inside the jail. He physically overwhelms Daniel Kiefer
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: and sexually assaults him. It is horrific. The attack was
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: so severe it was only discovered when Daniel had to
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: be treated by medical staff at the jail.
• 30:32
  Speaker 2: It is a terrifying display of dominance and punishment. Wade
• 30:35
  Speaker 2: is proving to everyone that even stripped of his freedom,
• 30:38
  Speaker 2: locked inside a concrete cage, he can still assert total
• 30:41
  Speaker 2: physical control and inflict severe trauma on anyone who dares
• 30:45
  Speaker 2: to cross him.
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: Hold on. I have to stop here. Yeah? Because this
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: makes my blood boil.
• 30:49
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: We are told as a society that once the monster
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: is in handcuffs, the threat is neutralized. Wade is in
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: a secure county jail. He is facing open murder and
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: dismemberment charges. He is actively bragging about torture. How on
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: earth does a maximum security facility allow him the freedom
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: and the proximity to lie in wait and sexually assault
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: the star witness against him?
• 31:11
  Speaker 2: It is a profound, inexcusable systemic failure, undoubtedly. Jails are
• 31:15
  Speaker 2: frequently overcrowded, understaffed, and they routinely struggle to properly classify
• 31:20
  Speaker 2: and isolate highly predatory, sadistic individuals from the general or
• 31:24
  Speaker 2: vulnerable populations until it is far too late.
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: It is just so awful for Daniel.
• 31:29
  Speaker 2: Wade, being a master manipulator, recognized those institutional blind spots
• 31:33
  Speaker 2: and exploited them just as seamlessly as he exploited KJ's
• 31:36
  Speaker 2: medical vulnerabilities. The environment changed, but the predator did not.
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: It is just incredibly frustrating. Wade was ultimately subjected to
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: a full psychiatric investigation by the state, which deemed him
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: completely competent to stand trial. He wasn't legally insane. He
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: knew exactly what he was doing every step of the way.
• 31:54
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: But true to his cowardly nature, he waited until the
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: very day before his trial was set to begin to
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: enter a no contest plea.
• 32:01
  Speaker 2: A strategic move designed to avoid a public trial, denying
• 32:05
  Speaker 2: the victim's families the closure of a full public airing
• 32:08
  Speaker 2: of the evidence against him.
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: In June of 2023, Wade Allen was finally sentenced to
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: 37 to 60 years in prison for the second degree
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: murder of Kelly Jean Warner, attempted dismemberment of a body,
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: and third-degree criminal sexual conduct for the assault on Daniel Kiefer.
• 32:25
  Speaker 2: Wow.
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: During that sentencing hearing, Daniel testified via Zoom and looked
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: at Wade on the screen and called him exactly what
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: he is, a monster.
• 32:33
  Speaker 2: If we synthesize this entire overarching narrative, Wade Allen wasn't
• 32:37
  Speaker 2: just a man who snapped at a moment of passion.
• 32:39
  Speaker 2: He was a methodical, calculating predator. He specifically preyed on
• 32:43
  Speaker 2: vulnerable women. He utilized the tactic of isolation. systematically cutting
• 32:48
  Speaker 2: them off from medical care, community support, and family, all
• 32:52
  Speaker 2: while hiding behind the socially acceptable fake persona of a
• 32:55
  Speaker 2: dedicated caretaker.
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: And his undoing was a combination of unexpected factors. It
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: was a best friend, Stephen, who drew a hard moral
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: line and refused to make the jump from bystander to accomplice.
• 33:07
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: It was the physical, logistical evidence, the reciprocating saw receipt,
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: the coolers that simply couldn't be erased or explained away.
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: And ultimately, with his own blinding narcissistic need to brag
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: that provided law enforcement the horrifying context they needed to
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: understand his crimes.
• 33:26
  Speaker 2: For listeners absorbing this heavy material, the practical application of
• 33:29
  Speaker 2: understanding a case like this is recognizing those subtle early
• 33:32
  Speaker 2: warning signs of isolation. Yeah. It's paying close attention when
• 33:36
  Speaker 2: someone in your periphery, a friend, a co-worker, a neighbor,
• 33:39
  Speaker 2: seemingly drops off the map. It's questioning the dynamic when
• 33:42
  Speaker 2: a partner insists on being someone's sole caretaker. actively pushing
• 33:46
  Speaker 2: away medical professionals, friends, or family who try to intervene.
• 33:49
  Speaker 2: We have to remember that abuse often doesn't start with
• 33:52
  Speaker 2: a physical strike. It starts with a closed door and
• 33:55
  Speaker 2: a severed connection.
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: It's about recognizing when someone is weaponizing the concept of
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: care to build a cage.
• 34:01
  Speaker 2: Exactly.
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: Which brings me back to that deeply unsettling detail of
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: Roe v. Wade sitting in his jail cell, obsessively watching
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: criminal minds and critiquing his own murders. We consume so
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: much of this content as a society. Podcasts, documentaries, television shows.
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: We look at the darkest corners of human behavior to
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: try and make sense of the muddy waters, to feel educated,
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: and ultimately, to feel safe.
• 34:25
  Speaker 2: We tell ourselves we are studying the predator to protect
• 34:27
  Speaker 2: ourselves and our loved ones.
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: But it leads you with this chilling thread to pull on.
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: Does the massive explosion of forensic and true crime media
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: in our culture act purely as entertainment and education for
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: the public? Or, by laying out exactly how crimes are solved,
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: how forensic evidence is found, and how behavioral profiles are built,
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: are we inadvertently broadcasting high-level instruction manuals to the very
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: predators we are trying to catch? Are the media platforms
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: we use to feel safe actually giving the Wade Allens
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: of the world the exact syllabus they need to do
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: it differently next time? Something to think about.