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Florida-family-terrorized-by-a-masked-intruder · Crime and Horror

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Speaker 1: On an early morning in December of nineteen ninety one,
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Speaker 1: a woman living in Largo, Florida, woke up to the
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Speaker 1: sound of pounding on her front door, and as she
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Speaker 1: climbed out of her bed, she realized it was not
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Speaker 1: just pounding on her door. She was hearing also whoever
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Speaker 1: was out there was screaming, screaming for help. When the
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Speaker 1: woman realized there was some sort of crisis here, she
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Speaker 1: kind of rushed and ran to the front door. She
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Speaker 1: opened it up, and standing out on the front porch
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Speaker 1: was her neighbor and she was practically covered head to
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Speaker 1: toe in blood. Her head was covered in gashes, her
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Speaker 1: throat clearly had been slit. But before this woman could
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Speaker 1: say what was even going on, she just fell to
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Speaker 1: the ground and passed out. But before we get into
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Speaker 1: today's story, if you're a fan of the strange, dark,
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Speaker 1: and mysterious delivered in story format, then you come to
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Speaker 1: the right place, because that's all we do, and we
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Speaker 1: upload two, three, even.
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Speaker 2: Four times every week.
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Speaker 1: So if that's of interest to you, the next time
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Speaker 1: weekly uploads. Okay, let's get into today's story. On the
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Speaker 1: evening of December fourteenth, nineteen ninety one, a thirty one
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Speaker 1: year old man named Keith youngk grabbed his car keys
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Speaker 1: from a hook by the front door of his home
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Speaker 1: in Largo, Florida. Behind him, his wife, Anita, slipped on
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Speaker 1: her favorite pair of heels. The newlywed couple was about
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Speaker 1: to head out on a much needed date night.
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Speaker 2: They were both actually.
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Speaker 1: On their second marriages, and they had six children between
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Speaker 1: them from their previous relationships, so naturally it was pretty
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Speaker 1: hard to find time for just themselves. But that particular night,
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Speaker 1: Keith's two kids were staying with their mother, who had
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Speaker 1: shared custody, and Anita's eight year old daughter was at
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Speaker 1: a sleepover, and her twelve year old son, Jason, had
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Speaker 1: agreed to stay home and watch his two younger siblings
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Speaker 1: so that the adults could go out for dinner.
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Speaker 2: Before they left, Keith.
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Speaker 1: Gave Jason a final rundown of his expectations, don't make
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Speaker 1: too much of a mess, make sure nobody gets hurt,
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Speaker 1: and if there was an emergency. He'd written down the
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Speaker 1: restaurant's phone number on a notepad in the kitchen, but
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Speaker 1: Keith reminded Jason that if there were like a real emergency,
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Speaker 1: like a true crisis, he should call nine to one
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Speaker 1: one right away. And when he heard this, Jason, the
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Speaker 1: twelve year old, just kind of rolled his eyes and said, yeah,
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Speaker 1: I got it. It's under control now. Keith knew he
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Speaker 1: was actually being a little bit uptight here, but there'd
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Speaker 1: been an attempted break in at their house earlier that year,
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Speaker 1: and he'd been on edge about leaving the kids home
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Speaker 1: alone ever since. The intruder had actually cut their phone
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Speaker 1: lines and then also taken off a window screen, and
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Speaker 1: they'd also tried to break down a door as well,
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Speaker 1: but they'd actually left without taking anything, and there hadn't
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Speaker 1: been any more issues in the months since. But critically,
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Speaker 1: the suspect was never caught, so it felt kind of
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Speaker 1: unresolved and scary for the family. Keith and Anita both
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Speaker 1: hugged Jason goodbye as they walked out the door, and
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Speaker 1: then once the door closed behind them, Keith turned around
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Speaker 1: and checked the handle to double check that he'd locked it,
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Speaker 1: just to be safe. Less than a half hour later,
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Speaker 1: Keith and Anita sat down across from each other at
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Speaker 1: the restaurant and unfolded their napkins onto their laps. They
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Speaker 1: were excited to have a few hours of peace and
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Speaker 1: quiet where they could just focus on each other, something
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Speaker 1: that didn't happen very often. The couple had gotten married
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Speaker 1: earlier that year after meeting at a support group for
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Speaker 1: single parents, and they were very grateful to have each
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Speaker 1: other because their previous marriages were really not that great.
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Speaker 2: Anita's ex husband, Luther Bass, had.
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Speaker 1: A violent temper, and even though he now lived all
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Speaker 1: the way across the country in Idaho, he still found
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Speaker 1: a way to always complicate Anita's life. That summer, Luther
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Speaker 1: had driven all the way to Keith and Anita's house
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Speaker 1: to take his kids on a vacation, which Anita had
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Speaker 1: initially agreed to, but when he showed up, he was
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Speaker 1: unexpectedly driving a camper with his new girlfriend and her kids,
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Speaker 1: And at that point Anita had gotten a really bad
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Speaker 1: feeling about the whole situation, and she actually started to
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Speaker 1: worry that Luther would take her kids and then refuse
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Speaker 1: to give them back. And so they had this big
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Speaker 1: argument and It got so bad that actually Anita had
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Speaker 1: threatened to call the police before Luther finally backed off
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Speaker 1: and left. Meanwhile, Keith had been having equally heated arguments
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Speaker 1: with his ex spouse Linda about whether their kids would
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Speaker 1: spend the upcoming holidays with him or with Linda and
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Speaker 1: her new husband, Steve. Things had gotten so nasty that
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Speaker 1: Linda had actually recently begun harassing Anita over the phone,
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Speaker 1: and was also gearing up to go to court and
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Speaker 1: try to get the custody agreement changed if Keith wouldn't
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Speaker 1: agree to do things her way. But their bad relationships
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Speaker 1: with their exes only made Keith more happy that Ed
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Speaker 1: found Anita. He was glad that he could take care
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Speaker 1: of her and her kids the way he felt like
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Speaker 1: they deserved, so despite all the tensions hanging over them,
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Speaker 1: he tried to keep the moodlight and they enjoyed a
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Speaker 1: very nice dinner, and then when the check came, Keith
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Speaker 1: glanced at his watch and realized it was getting pretty late.
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Speaker 1: He knew Anita's son, Jason, was a responsible kid and
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Speaker 1: that he could definitely handle getting his younger siblings into bed,
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Speaker 1: but Keith was still a bit worried about leaving the
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Speaker 1: kids alone for too long, so he paid the check
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Speaker 1: right away, and then he and Anita left the restaurant
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Speaker 1: and drove home. A little while later, Keith and Anita
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Speaker 1: pulled up outside of their brown, single story home. When
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Speaker 1: they got inside, Keith was relieved to see that all
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Speaker 1: the kids were calmly watching TV in the living room,
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Speaker 1: and the family cat was curled up on the couch
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Speaker 1: right next to them. Keith told them that it was
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Speaker 1: time to get ready for bed, and as twelve year
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Speaker 1: old Jason got up, Keith pulled him in for a
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Speaker 1: big hug and told him he was proud of him
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Speaker 1: for his hard work babysitting. Anita helped the younger kids
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Speaker 1: brush their teeth, and then afterwards Keith turned off the
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Speaker 1: lights and he went down the hall and said good
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Speaker 1: night to all three kids, who slept in bunk beds
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Speaker 1: in the same room. Then after that he continued down
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Speaker 1: the hallway to the main bedroom and climbed into bed
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Speaker 1: with Anita. He kissed his wife good night and then
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Speaker 1: turned off the light. Several hours later, around three am.
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Speaker 1: Early the next morning, Anita's twelve year old son, Jason,
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Speaker 1: awoke to a very loud noise, and when he heard it,
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Speaker 1: he sat up in bed, and then he could hear
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Speaker 1: something thumping around in the room next to him. But
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Speaker 1: before he could figure out what was going on, someone screamed.
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Speaker 1: With his vision still blurry from sleep, Jason slid off
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Speaker 1: the top bunk and walked over to the door and
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Speaker 1: cracked it open, and in the dark hallway, he could
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Speaker 1: quickly make out these shadowy shapes of what appeared to
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Speaker 1: be two men moving around, sort of struggling with each
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Speaker 1: other fighting. As his eyes adjusted to the darkness, he
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Speaker 1: realized that one of these men was his stepdad, Keith,
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Speaker 1: but he couldn't make out anything about the other man
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Speaker 1: except that he was really big and wearing what appeared
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Speaker 1: to be a black ski mask. Jason immediately felt paralyzed
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Speaker 1: by fear because he knew, you know, this was obviously
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Speaker 1: another intruder, just like the one who'd tried to break
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Speaker 1: into their house that summer. For a second, he was
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Speaker 1: hopeful that maybe his stepdad would fend the man off,
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Speaker 1: but then Jason noticed that there was blood sprayed all
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Speaker 1: over the walls, and then he saw the glint of
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Speaker 1: a knife in the intruder's hand. At the same moment,
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Speaker 1: Jason saw his mother, Anita, run out of the master bedroom,
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Speaker 1: also covered in blood, and she was holding a baseball
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Speaker 1: bat and she swung it at the intruder and she
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Speaker 1: hit him in the back of the head, but it
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Speaker 1: barely slowed him down. And that's when Jason heard his
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Speaker 1: stepdad yell out for Anita to get the gun, and
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Speaker 1: Anita she ran into another room, and Jason just stood
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Speaker 1: there looking out the crack, just paralyzed with shock, watching
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Speaker 1: as this intruder literally picked Keith up and threw him
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Speaker 1: back into the master bedroom. And the next thing Jason knew,
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Speaker 1: he saw his mother standing in the hallway holding a
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Speaker 1: gun and the intruder was running away out the front door. Suddenly,
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Speaker 1: Jason kind of snapped out of the shocked trans he
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Speaker 1: had found himself in and remembered what Keith had told
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Speaker 1: him to do in case of a real emergency, call.
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Speaker 2: Nine one one. So he ran to the phone in
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Speaker 2: the kitchen.
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Speaker 1: He picked it up and he dialed, but when he
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Speaker 1: put the receiver to his ear, all he heard was silence.
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Speaker 2: There was no dial tone.
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Speaker 1: Jason looked over and he saw his mother kind of
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Speaker 1: hobbling over towards him. She was standing in the doorway
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Speaker 1: and there was blood visibly dripping down her neck. Jason's
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Speaker 1: voice cracked when he told his mother that the phone
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Speaker 1: line was dead. Anita told her son to go back
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Speaker 1: with his stepdad and just wait, that she was going
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Speaker 1: to go find help. And so Jason began to walk
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Speaker 1: towards the bedroom where he knew his stepdad was and
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Speaker 1: as he did, he watched his mom run out the
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Speaker 1: front door into the night. And then Jason he went
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Speaker 1: down the hallway and went into the bedroom where he
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Speaker 1: saw his stepdad sprawled out on the bed and he
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Speaker 1: was still alive, but he was.
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Speaker 2: Clearly struggling to breathe.
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Speaker 1: And Jason, you know, this twelve year old kid, not
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Speaker 1: having any idea how to handle this, just walked over
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Speaker 1: to the bed, kneeled down, and he took Keith's hand
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Speaker 1: and just held it while he waited for his mom.
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Speaker 1: And as he held Keith's hand, he could hear the
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Speaker 1: sound of his stepfather take his last few raspy breaths
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Speaker 1: before dawn, on the morning of December fifteenth, nineteen ninety one,
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Speaker 1: Detective Mike Short from the Largo Police Department pulled up
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Speaker 1: to the curb outside of a brown, single story house
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Speaker 1: surrounded by crime scene tape. He'd gotten a call from
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Speaker 1: a supervisor who really didn't know much, just that an
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Speaker 1: intruder had broken in into this house and attacked a
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Speaker 1: husband and wife while they slept. But now a Short
10:36
Speaker 1: cut out of his car and looked around at the
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Speaker 1: quiet block of modest, well kept houses. He found that
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Speaker 1: kind of odd. This really wasn't a neighborhood where they
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Speaker 1: saw violent home invasions. As Short walked up to the house,
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Speaker 1: a uniformed officer caught up with him and gave him
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Speaker 1: a few more details about what they knew so far.
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Speaker 1: He said that the wife, Anita Youngk, had run to
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Speaker 1: a neighbor's house screaming for help before passing out from
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Speaker 1: blood loss in the front yard, and the husband, Keith Younk,
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Speaker 1: was deceased in the bedroom. The officer also said that
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Speaker 1: the couple's twelve year old son had woken up at
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Speaker 1: some point and witnessed the attack, and for now he
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Speaker 1: was over at the neighbor's house until they could track
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Speaker 1: down another guardian. The officer said that Anita had been
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Speaker 1: taken to a hospital, but it would be a miracle
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Speaker 1: if she survived. Her injuries were some of the worst
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Speaker 1: they'd ever seen. As Short went up the walkway that
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Speaker 1: led to the front door, he saw that blood had
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Speaker 1: dripped all over the cement.
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Speaker 2: The front door was open, and.
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Speaker 1: Right inside he saw a baseball bat lying on the
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Speaker 1: floor with blood on the handle. Short stepped inside and
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Speaker 1: he saw more blood, blood that was spattered and smeared
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Speaker 1: basically all over the living room, on the walls, the doors,
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Speaker 1: the furniture, as if the suspect and the victims had
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Speaker 1: been fighting all throughout the house. In fact, it was
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Speaker 1: so chaotic and messy that Short thought maybe the suspect
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Speaker 1: was not expecting to fight off two grown adults, otherwise
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Speaker 1: they might have come up with a plan of attack.
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Speaker 1: So Short's first assumption was that this likely was a
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Speaker 1: robbery that had gone terribly wrong. As he continued down
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Speaker 1: the hallway, a cat ran past him. It was unharmed,
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Speaker 1: and it went to hide under the couch. The hallway
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Speaker 1: was somewhat unbelievably even bloodier than the living room, with
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Speaker 1: red smears all over the walls and floors, so Short
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Speaker 1: figured most of the attack must have occurred here. Short
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Speaker 1: reached the main bedroom and looked inside, and he saw
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Speaker 1: Keith's body lying on the bed covered head to toe
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Speaker 1: in blood. Keith's shirt was shredded, and Short could see
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Speaker 1: there were multiple stab wounds to his chest and also
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Speaker 1: a very deep gash down his side. Short decided not
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Speaker 1: to actually go into the bedroom until crime scene texts
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Speaker 1: had gone through it for forensic evidence, so instead he
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Speaker 1: just walked down the rest of the hallway and pushed
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Speaker 1: open the door to another bedroom, where he was surprised
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Speaker 1: to see two small children soundly asleep in their bunk beds. Somehow,
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Speaker 1: these kids had slept through the entire attack. Short went
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Speaker 1: back outside and immediately flagged down a uniformed officer and
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Speaker 1: he told him to go in there and wake up
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Speaker 1: those kids and bring them somewhere safe. Then, once the
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Speaker 1: officer went inside, Short pulled out his flashlight and began
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Speaker 1: searching the yard for evidence.
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Speaker 2: Based on Keith's wounds, at least.
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Speaker 1: What he saw, Short thought he was probably attacked with
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Speaker 1: a knife or maybe even an axe or a machete.
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Speaker 1: But apart from that bloody baseball bat that was found
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Speaker 1: in the doorway, there was no sign of a weapon
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Speaker 1: anywhere inside or outside of the house. But as Short
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Speaker 1: went around the side of the house, he found something
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Speaker 1: else that was interesting.
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Speaker 2: The home's phone lines had.
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Speaker 1: Clearly been cut. The killer must have planned ahead to
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Speaker 1: make sure nobody in this house could call out for help.
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Speaker 1: And this was interesting because nothing else about the scene
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Speaker 1: suggested that this crime was carefully planned. In fact, in
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Speaker 1: some ways, you could say it looked like it was
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Speaker 1: very unplanned. But now Short had to consider that maybe
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Speaker 1: this was not just a random robbery gone wrong. Maybe,
13:55
Speaker 1: you know, especially given the cut phone lines, this was
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Speaker 1: like a premeditated attack, a pre medaie murder. And if
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Speaker 1: that was the case, he had to figure out who
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Speaker 1: the intended target was, Keith or Anita or both. A
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Speaker 1: little while later, Detective Short walked up the street to
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Speaker 1: the neighbor's house to speak with his best eyewitness, Anita's
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Speaker 1: twelve year old son, Jason. After Short knocked on the door,
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Speaker 1: the neighbors let him inside and showed him into their
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Speaker 1: living room, where he saw Jason was wrapped in a
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Speaker 1: blanket and still wearing his pajamas. Short sat down across
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Speaker 1: from him and told him that he knew it must
14:29
Speaker 1: be extremely difficult to talk about this, but he really
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Speaker 1: needed to know exactly what he had seen and what
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Speaker 1: he had heard.
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Speaker 2: During this attack.
14:37
Speaker 1: Tears began to roll down Jason's face as he began
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Speaker 1: to describe watching his mother and stepfather fight off this intruder.
14:45
Speaker 1: Jason said he couldn't really describe what this person looked
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Speaker 1: like because they were wearing a ski mask, but he
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Speaker 1: was pretty sure it was a man. He also said
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Speaker 1: there had been a little bit of skin exposed on
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Speaker 1: the killer's neck, and from the looks of it, it
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Speaker 1: appeared like their skin was maybe fairly dark, so Short
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Speaker 1: wrote down that the suspect likely had dark skin, but
15:03
Speaker 1: because it was dark and Jason clearly had not gotten
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Speaker 1: a very good look at the killer, he knew the
15:08
Speaker 1: boy could be wrong too, so he was just putting
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Speaker 1: it down as a maybe. Short asked Jason if the
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Speaker 1: intruder had said anything during the attack, and Jason just
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Speaker 1: shook his head and said no. He said the intruder
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Speaker 1: didn't say a single word the entire time, and Short
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Speaker 1: made note of that too, because it made him wonder
15:24
Speaker 1: if maybe the killer was someone close to the family
15:27
Speaker 1: and they knew that if they spoke, someone might recognize
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Speaker 1: their voice, like Jason. Later that same morning, once the
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Speaker 1: sun had come up, Short went back to Keith and
15:40
Speaker 1: Anita's house and searched the outside of the property again
15:43
Speaker 1: in case he missed anything. When it was dark, and
15:46
Speaker 1: while he was searching the front yard, another police cruiser
15:49
Speaker 1: pulled up to the curb. An officer got out and
15:51
Speaker 1: walked over to Short. She asked if he was the
15:53
Speaker 1: lead investigator on this case, and when he said he was,
15:57
Speaker 1: the officer told him that she'd been waiting at the
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Speaker 1: hospital all morning and Anita had finally woken up enough.
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Speaker 2: To say a few words. She said.
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Speaker 1: Anita was only awake for just a few minutes before
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Speaker 1: she had to be rushed back into surgery, but it
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Speaker 1: was long enough to answer a couple of questions. Anita
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Speaker 1: had described waking up to see a man standing over
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Speaker 1: her with an axe in one hand and a knife
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Speaker 1: in the other. She said it was a man that
16:21
Speaker 1: she had never seen before. She didn't recognize anything about him.
16:25
Speaker 1: The officer said, right before Anita was taken off to surgery,
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Speaker 1: there was one more thing.
16:29
Speaker 2: She mentioned.
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Speaker 1: There had been an attempted break in at their house
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Speaker 1: earlier that year, and the intruder during that break in
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Speaker 1: had also cut their phone lines. Short instinctively turned and
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Speaker 1: literally looked at the side of the house where those
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Speaker 1: lines had been cut, and he thought to himself, this
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Speaker 1: is too strange of a coincidence to be ignored. Later
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Speaker 1: that day, back at the station, Short read through reports
16:52
Speaker 1: on the interviews as team had done with Keith and
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Speaker 1: Anita's kids and their neighbors. A team of five detectives
16:57
Speaker 1: had been assigned to this case, and they'd made quick
16:59
Speaker 1: pro progress on collecting background information on the victims. Everybody
17:03
Speaker 1: in the neighborhood had described the victims as being a
17:06
Speaker 1: very normal.
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Speaker 2: Happy couple.
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Speaker 1: Keith was an air conditioning technician who'd been working at
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Speaker 1: the same company for a very long time, and Anita
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Speaker 1: was mostly a stay at home mom who did some
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Speaker 1: accounting work on the side. However, what also came out
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Speaker 1: in these interviews was that both Keith and Anita had
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Speaker 1: ex spouses who could potentially want to hurt them. Anita's
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Speaker 1: ex husband, Luther, lived thousands of miles away in Boise, Idaho,
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Speaker 1: but Short knew that despite the distance, it was not
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Speaker 1: impossible that he might have traveled to Florida to commit
17:36
Speaker 1: this crime. So Short called the Boise police and told
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Speaker 1: them about this attack and asked them to track down
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Speaker 1: Luther and question him. As for Keith's ex wife, Linda,
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Speaker 1: Short had learned that she actually lived right there in town,
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Speaker 1: and Keith's two kids were still at her house unaware
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Speaker 1: that their father was dead, and since Linda and her
17:54
Speaker 1: new husband, Steve were potential suspects, Short wanted to be
17:58
Speaker 1: the one to break the news to them to see
18:00
Speaker 1: how they all reacted. So he looked up Linda's address
18:03
Speaker 1: in the database and then grabbed his keys and headed out.
18:09
Speaker 1: Less than an hour later, Short parked his car in
18:11
Speaker 1: Linda's driveway and walked up to the front door. He
18:14
Speaker 1: knocked and a woman opened the door, and Short asked
18:16
Speaker 1: her if she was Linda, and she said yes, and
18:19
Speaker 1: then he flashed his badge and said he'd like to
18:21
Speaker 1: come in and Linda. She seemed a bit confused, but
18:24
Speaker 1: she opened the.
18:24
Speaker 2: Door and let him inside.
18:26
Speaker 1: Short walked into what seemed like a perfectly normal Sunday
18:29
Speaker 1: morning routine. Inside of the house, the air smelt like
18:32
Speaker 1: eggs and bacon, and the two kids were in the
18:34
Speaker 1: living room watching cartoons with a man who Short figured
18:37
Speaker 1: must be Linda's new husband, Steve, and so Short he
18:40
Speaker 1: asked Steve to leave the kids and come into the
18:43
Speaker 1: kitchen with he and Linda because he wanted to speak
18:45
Speaker 1: to both of them. And then, once all three of
18:46
Speaker 1: them had sat down at the kitchen table, Short broke
18:49
Speaker 1: the news that Keith had been murdered, and then Short
18:52
Speaker 1: watched as Linda literally collapsed into Steve's arms. Short gave
18:57
Speaker 1: them a minute, but then he cut right to the chase.
18:59
Speaker 1: He asked where Linda and Steve had been at about
19:02
Speaker 1: three am that morning. Linda seemed shocked to realize that
19:05
Speaker 1: clearly the detective was considering both her and her husband
19:09
Speaker 1: as suspects, but she choked out that they'd both been
19:12
Speaker 1: at home with the kids sleeping, and Steve just not
19:15
Speaker 1: at an agreement. He said, they'd all been home together
19:17
Speaker 1: all night, that was it. Nothing about their demeanor or
19:20
Speaker 1: their reactions was suspicious to Short, But when he pressed
19:24
Speaker 1: Linda about what her relationship with her ex husband was like,
19:27
Speaker 1: she admitted that it was contentious and that actually, just
19:30
Speaker 1: a couple of days earlier, she'd spoken to a lawyer
19:33
Speaker 1: about potentially changing their custody agreement. Short found the timing
19:36
Speaker 1: of this a little convenient, and he wondered, you know,
19:40
Speaker 1: maybe Linda or Steve had decided they would just settle
19:43
Speaker 1: the custody battle by simply taking Keith out of the
19:46
Speaker 1: picture for good. And he also found it convenient that
19:48
Speaker 1: Linda and Keith's two kids weren't at Keith's house when
19:52
Speaker 1: the attack happened. It was only Anita's kids who were
19:55
Speaker 1: there at the time. But Short thanked the couple for
19:57
Speaker 1: their time and told them he would be in touch
19:59
Speaker 1: if he had had any more questions, and then he
20:01
Speaker 1: left their house. And as he got into his car
20:04
Speaker 1: and drove back to the station, he kept going over
20:06
Speaker 1: the conversation he had just had.
20:07
Speaker 2: In his mind.
20:08
Speaker 1: Linda and Steve's alibis were pretty weak. They seemed to
20:12
Speaker 1: be the only two people who could vouch for their
20:14
Speaker 1: whereabouts for the night of the murder, and so what
20:16
Speaker 1: that meant was Short had every reason to keep both
20:19
Speaker 1: of them at the very top of his suspect list.
20:32
Speaker 1: Late that night, Short was sitting at his desk in
20:35
Speaker 1: his office when his phone rang. He picked it up
20:37
Speaker 1: and it was the police in Boise, Idaho. They had
20:40
Speaker 1: managed to track down Anita's ex husband, Luther. Short immediately
20:43
Speaker 1: sat up straight and grabbed a pencil to take notes.
20:46
Speaker 1: The officer on the line told him that when they'd
20:48
Speaker 1: got into Luther's house, he wasn't there, but his fiancee,
20:52
Speaker 1: Connie was, and she told them that he'd been out
20:55
Speaker 1: on a weekend hunting trip. So the officers had gone
20:58
Speaker 1: out and searched for Luther in the area where he
21:00
Speaker 1: said he'd been hunting, but they didn't find him until
21:03
Speaker 1: that evening. When Luther actually arrived back at his house.
21:07
Speaker 1: The officer said, you know, at that point they took
21:09
Speaker 1: him in for questioning, and he had told them the
21:11
Speaker 1: same thing that Connie had, that he'd been out elk
21:13
Speaker 1: hunting about an hour away from Boise all weekend. Luther
21:16
Speaker 1: had been able to describe basically every step of his
21:19
Speaker 1: hunting trip in great detail, but since he had been
21:22
Speaker 1: hunting alone, there was nobody to corroborate his alibi. Now
21:26
Speaker 1: short knew that the drive from Boise to Largo, Florida,
21:30
Speaker 1: where the attack took place, took at least three or
21:32
Speaker 1: four days, So the fact that Luther was in Boise
21:35
Speaker 1: less than twenty four hours after the murders meant that
21:38
Speaker 1: he could not have driven there, but there was still
21:40
Speaker 1: a possibility that.
21:42
Speaker 2: If he was involved, maybe he could have flown. Now.
21:45
Speaker 1: Short new it would be difficult, but not impossible, for
21:48
Speaker 1: Luther to catch a plane to Florida and back during
21:51
Speaker 1: the time that he was supposedly out hunting, so he
21:54
Speaker 1: told the Boise officer to look into whether Luther had
21:57
Speaker 1: recently purchased an airline ticket, and to also take saliva,
22:01
Speaker 1: blood and hair samples from Luther. After Short hung up
22:04
Speaker 1: the phone, he just sat back in his chair and
22:07
Speaker 1: thought for a second. It was less than twenty four
22:09
Speaker 1: hours into this investigation and Short already had three suspects
22:13
Speaker 1: in his crosshairs. Keith's ex wife Linda and Linda's new
22:17
Speaker 1: husband Steve, and also Anita's ex husband Luther, and then
22:21
Speaker 1: also to some degree, Luther's fiance Connie could have been involved,
22:25
Speaker 1: but based on logistics in the fact that she was
22:27
Speaker 1: at the house, it seemed unlikely. But there was one
22:30
Speaker 1: big problem. Based on Anita and Jason's eyewitness testimony, the
22:34
Speaker 1: suspect they were looking for was a dark skinned man
22:37
Speaker 1: whom Anita had never met before, and that description would
22:40
Speaker 1: not apply to any of their suspects. Short knew that
22:44
Speaker 1: the suspect description might not be reliable. After all, it
22:47
Speaker 1: had been dark in the house, so Jason could have
22:50
Speaker 1: been wrong about the killer's skin color, and Anita was
22:53
Speaker 1: barely conscious during her interview, so her recollections might not
22:57
Speaker 1: be accurate at all. But if it was accurate, it
23:00
Speaker 1: could mean any number of things for Short's investigation. It
23:03
Speaker 1: could mean it was a random robbery after all, you know,
23:06
Speaker 1: just some random person who went in the house and
23:07
Speaker 1: did this horrible thing. It could also mean that, you know,
23:10
Speaker 1: one of his current suspects had maybe hired somebody to
23:13
Speaker 1: commit the crime. Or could mean that all shorts theories
23:16
Speaker 1: about the case were just completely wrong and he had
23:18
Speaker 1: no idea what happened. Short rubbed his eyes and looked
23:21
Speaker 1: at the clock and realized it was almost midnight, so
23:23
Speaker 1: he decided it was time to go home and get
23:25
Speaker 1: some sleep. Maybe, he hoped by morning a new piece
23:29
Speaker 1: of evidence might turn up that would help point him
23:31
Speaker 1: in the right direction. Around seven am the next morning,
23:35
Speaker 1: so about twenty eight hours after Keith's murder, Short pulled
23:39
Speaker 1: into the parking lot of Pinecrest's golf course, which was
23:42
Speaker 1: less than a mile away from Keith and Anita's house,
23:45
Speaker 1: and at this very moment, Short was feeling really optimistic
23:48
Speaker 1: about the case because a groundskeeper at this golf course
23:51
Speaker 1: had called the police that morning and said they'd found
23:54
Speaker 1: a ski mask and a glove lying in the grass.
23:57
Speaker 1: So now Short got out of his car and he
23:59
Speaker 1: went into the clubs, and the groundskeeper was there waiting
24:02
Speaker 1: for him, and he said he had left the ski
24:04
Speaker 1: mask and the glove right outside, right where he had
24:07
Speaker 1: found them. So Short followed the groundskeeper out onto the course,
24:10
Speaker 1: and as they walked, Short made note of all the
24:13
Speaker 1: ponds scattered around, and also the lake at the park
24:16
Speaker 1: right across the street. He wondered if maybe the killer
24:19
Speaker 1: might have tossed their weapon or weapons into the water.
24:22
Speaker 1: A minute later, the groundskeeper stopped walking and pointed down
24:26
Speaker 1: at the ground at a black ski mask and a
24:28
Speaker 1: dark colored cotton glove lying in the grass, exactly as promised,
24:31
Speaker 1: And so Short put on a pair of latex gloves,
24:34
Speaker 1: and he knelt down and he carefully lifted up the mask,
24:37
Speaker 1: and as he did, he felt that clearly it was
24:40
Speaker 1: crusted with something reddish brown, very likely dried blood. As
24:45
Speaker 1: soon as Short got back to the station, he sent
24:47
Speaker 1: the mask and the glove off to the crime lab
24:49
Speaker 1: for testing, hoping that they might find a trace of
24:51
Speaker 1: the killer's DNA. Then Short spoke to a supervisor about
24:55
Speaker 1: sending a team of divers out to search the water
24:57
Speaker 1: at the golf course and also that park in case
25:00
Speaker 1: the murder weapons had been disposed of in any of
25:02
Speaker 1: those water bodies. It seemed like a long shot that
25:04
Speaker 1: they would actually find something, but it was the best
25:07
Speaker 1: lead they had so far, and finding the weapon or
25:10
Speaker 1: weapons could really help them narrow down their suspect list.
25:13
Speaker 1: And by the time Short got back to his desk,
25:15
Speaker 1: he saw that his answering machine was blinking. There was
25:18
Speaker 1: a new message, so he hit play and the message
25:22
Speaker 1: was from a man who said he had information on
25:24
Speaker 1: the Keith Younk case. So Short called him back right away,
25:28
Speaker 1: and when the man answered, he said he was a
25:30
Speaker 1: college student who lived a block away from Keith and
25:32
Speaker 1: Anita Young's house, and he said on the night of
25:35
Speaker 1: the murder, he and his friends had been hanging out
25:37
Speaker 1: in his driveway and they'd seen a man jogging east
25:40
Speaker 1: down Coronet Avenue. And Short immediately turned and looked at
25:44
Speaker 1: the map on the wall, and he got really excited
25:46
Speaker 1: because he saw a Coronett Avenue was actually the exact
25:49
Speaker 1: path the killer would have had to take to get
25:52
Speaker 1: from Keith and Anita's house.
25:53
Speaker 2: To that golf course.
25:55
Speaker 1: Short asked the young man to describe this jogger, and
25:58
Speaker 1: the college student said that it appeared to be a
26:01
Speaker 1: white man with short, dark hair. Short asked him if
26:03
Speaker 1: he was pretty sure about that, and the student said yeah.
26:06
Speaker 1: In fact, the jogger had passed under a street light
26:08
Speaker 1: at one point, so they all got a.
26:10
Speaker 2: Pretty good look.
26:11
Speaker 1: This was a huge development since twelve year old Jason,
26:15
Speaker 1: you know, one of the eyewitnesses, had said the killer
26:18
Speaker 1: had dark skin. It was very possible now that maybe
26:21
Speaker 1: Jason was wrong, But it was also possible that there
26:24
Speaker 1: were now two men involved in the attack, maybe one
26:27
Speaker 1: had dark skin and one.
26:28
Speaker 2: Had light skin.
26:34
Speaker 1: The following week, Short opened up a folder that had
26:36
Speaker 1: just been sent over from the police in Northport, Florida,
26:39
Speaker 1: a town eighty five miles away. On December nineteenth, so
26:43
Speaker 1: just four days after Keith Yunk was murdered, a man
26:46
Speaker 1: and three kids in Northport, Florida were shot to death
26:49
Speaker 1: in the middle of the night inside of their home.
26:51
Speaker 1: These suspects in that attack were two men wearing ski masks,
26:55
Speaker 1: and they had cut the house's phone lines. So the
26:58
Speaker 1: similarities between these two killings were easy to see, but
27:01
Speaker 1: as far as Short could tell, the victims in the
27:04
Speaker 1: second attack didn't have any connections to the Younks. Plus,
27:07
Speaker 1: the victims in the second attack had been shot instead
27:10
Speaker 1: of stabbed, And so as Short really did try to
27:13
Speaker 1: look for all the similarities he could between the two
27:15
Speaker 1: crime scenes, he just couldn't get over how sort of
27:19
Speaker 1: blatantly personal the very violent and bloody attack felt at
27:23
Speaker 1: the Young's house. So even though there was this other,
27:26
Speaker 1: you know, on the surface similar killing in Florida, and
27:29
Speaker 1: even though Jason and Anita both swore they did not
27:32
Speaker 1: recognize the intruder, Short was not ready to rule out
27:36
Speaker 1: that Keith Young had been killed by someone who knew him.
27:39
Speaker 1: His strongest suspect was still Anita's ex husband, Luther, who
27:42
Speaker 1: claimed to have been out hunting alone at the time
27:44
Speaker 1: of the attack. As for Anita, her condition had actually
27:48
Speaker 1: finally stabilized, and when Short had gone to speak to
27:51
Speaker 1: her at the hospital, she had said that Luther was
27:54
Speaker 1: really the only person she could think of who might
27:56
Speaker 1: want to hurt her because they'd been arguing a lot
27:59
Speaker 1: about custody and also child support, but the Boise police
28:02
Speaker 1: had checked with every airline in the country and none
28:05
Speaker 1: of them had a record of Luther flying into Florida
28:08
Speaker 1: that weekend, so Short couldn't even prove that Luther was
28:11
Speaker 1: in the state at the time of the attack. And
28:13
Speaker 1: then also, Anita had mentioned that she'd been having problems
28:17
Speaker 1: with Keith's ex wife, Linda. She said that Linda had
28:21
Speaker 1: been harassing her all summer long, calling her so many
28:24
Speaker 1: times that she couldn't even use her own phone. Short
28:27
Speaker 1: definitely still had his eye on Linda, but he still
28:30
Speaker 1: hadn't found anything directly linking Linda or her new husband,
28:34
Speaker 1: Steve to the crime. But Short was still very hopeful
28:38
Speaker 1: that this case would get solved because a preliminary report
28:41
Speaker 1: from the forensics lab had just come in that said
28:44
Speaker 1: a Caucasian hare had been discovered inside the black sche
28:47
Speaker 1: mast that was found on the golf course, which could
28:50
Speaker 1: point to any one of Short's main suspects, and Short
28:53
Speaker 1: knew it was only a matter of time before the
28:55
Speaker 1: forensics lab finished its full analysis of that hair sample,
28:59
Speaker 1: and then they would know for sure if it was
29:01
Speaker 1: an exact match. One day in early January of nineteen
29:05
Speaker 1: ninety two, so a few weeks after Keith's murder, Detective
29:09
Speaker 1: Short got into the office and checked his answering machine
29:12
Speaker 1: and he found that he'd gotten a message from the
29:14
Speaker 1: forensics lab telling him to call back right away, And
29:17
Speaker 1: so right away he picked up the phone and dialed
29:19
Speaker 1: the number, and he could feel as heart pounding as
29:21
Speaker 1: the line rang. This could finally be the break in
29:23
Speaker 1: the case he'd been waiting for. And when the technician
29:26
Speaker 1: picked up, he told Short that, you know, they had
29:29
Speaker 1: analyzed that hair in the mask, and they had analyzed
29:31
Speaker 1: the DNA, but it was not a match for Short's
29:35
Speaker 1: top suspect, Anita's ex husband, Luther.
29:38
Speaker 2: Not a match.
29:39
Speaker 1: Short thanked the technician and hung up, feeling very disappointed. Now,
29:43
Speaker 1: this still didn't fully rule Luther out, especially because Short
29:46
Speaker 1: still thought there might have been maybe two suspects involved,
29:49
Speaker 1: but he decided that at this point it was time
29:52
Speaker 1: for investigators to really focus on other possibilities. Several weeks later,
30:06
Speaker 1: so in early nineteen ninety two, roughly a couple of
30:08
Speaker 1: months after Keith Young's murderer, Detective Short knocked on the
30:11
Speaker 1: front door of Linda's house.
30:13
Speaker 2: Linda is Keith's ex wife, and.
30:15
Speaker 1: When Linda opened the door and saw the detective once
30:18
Speaker 1: again standing outside her house. She quickly led him inside.
30:21
Speaker 1: The house was quiet, and Linda told Short that she
30:23
Speaker 1: was the only one home. They sat down in the
30:25
Speaker 1: living room and then they ran through all the subjects
30:28
Speaker 1: that Short had grilled her on the first time, around
30:31
Speaker 1: her alibi, her custody, disputes, her tense relationship with Keith,
30:34
Speaker 1: and none of her answers changed, and she really didn't
30:37
Speaker 1: say anything that could be viewed as incriminating. But as
30:40
Speaker 1: their conversation began to wrap up, Linda looked anxious, like
30:44
Speaker 1: there was something more she wanted to say. Short asked
30:46
Speaker 1: her what was going on, and she said that there
30:49
Speaker 1: was something she hadn't mentioned when they had spoken the
30:51
Speaker 1: first time.
30:52
Speaker 2: It was about her new husband, Steve.
30:54
Speaker 1: She said that a while back, after she and Steve
30:57
Speaker 1: had gotten married, that briefly she had kindled her relationship
31:01
Speaker 1: with Keith. Steve had found out that she was cheating
31:04
Speaker 1: on him, and he was naturally very upset. Linda said
31:07
Speaker 1: that a few months ago, Steve had even made a
31:10
Speaker 1: few jokes about hurting Keith. At the time, she didn't
31:13
Speaker 1: think he was serious, but after Keith was killed, She
31:16
Speaker 1: started worrying that Steve might have somehow been involved. She
31:20
Speaker 1: said that she had even gone so far as to
31:22
Speaker 1: check Steve's knife collection to make sure none of them
31:25
Speaker 1: were missing. Short was careful not to let his shock
31:28
Speaker 1: come across his face, but inside his mind was absolutely spinning.
31:32
Speaker 1: He'd always thought it was possible that Linda and Steve
31:35
Speaker 1: were both in on the murder, but now it sounded
31:37
Speaker 1: like maybe Steve might have acted alone. He also wondered, though,
31:41
Speaker 1: if Linda was ratting out her husband to draw suspicion
31:44
Speaker 1: away from herself. So to help get to the bottom
31:47
Speaker 1: of it, he asked Linda to come with him back
31:49
Speaker 1: to the station for a polygraph test. He also planned
31:52
Speaker 1: to order another polygraph for Steve, who was suddenly at
31:55
Speaker 1: the very top.
31:56
Speaker 2: Of his suspect list.
31:58
Speaker 1: But almost two months later, in March of nineteen ninety two,
32:02
Speaker 1: Short was back in his office, staring down at a
32:04
Speaker 1: pile of documents he'd already read over a million times,
32:07
Speaker 1: and the evidence still didn't point him toward anybody in particular.
32:11
Speaker 1: Linda and Steve had both taken their polygraph tests, but
32:14
Speaker 1: the results did not indicate they were guilty, and there
32:17
Speaker 1: was still no hard evidence that tied either of them
32:19
Speaker 1: to the crime. Also, after searching all the ponds in
32:22
Speaker 1: that lake in the area, police still had not found
32:25
Speaker 1: a murder weapon, and they'd still not been able to
32:28
Speaker 1: match that strand of hair from the presumed killer's sche
32:31
Speaker 1: mask to any of the suspects on their radar. Short
32:34
Speaker 1: still had really three main suspects who could have been
32:37
Speaker 1: responsible for the murder. There was Keith's ex wife, Linda,
32:40
Speaker 1: who had been fighting with him about custody. Her alibi
32:43
Speaker 1: was weak and only supported by her new husband, Steve,
32:47
Speaker 1: who she had been suspicious of when Short interviewed her
32:50
Speaker 1: for a second time, and so Steve was also one
32:53
Speaker 1: of his primary suspects because he had this terrible history
32:56
Speaker 1: with Keith and had even openly joked about, you know,
32:59
Speaker 1: her Keith. And then there was Luther Anita's hot headed
33:03
Speaker 1: ex husband who lived on the other side of the country. Now,
33:06
Speaker 1: it would have been possible for him to fly from
33:08
Speaker 1: Idaho to Florida and commit this crime, but there was
33:11
Speaker 1: no proof that he did. And of course there was
33:13
Speaker 1: still the possibility that this was just a random attack
33:16
Speaker 1: or a robbery gone wrong, and investigators still couldn't even
33:20
Speaker 1: be sure if they were looking for one or two
33:22
Speaker 1: or more suspects.
33:23
Speaker 2: They had no idea, so Short.
33:25
Speaker 1: Had plenty of theories, but still no evidence to back
33:28
Speaker 1: any of them up. The investigation had gone so cold
33:32
Speaker 1: that the task force assigned to the case had been
33:34
Speaker 1: reduced from five detectives to just two. Short was starting
33:37
Speaker 1: to fear that Keith's murder might never be solved. But
33:40
Speaker 1: just then Short's phone rang, and when he picked up
33:43
Speaker 1: the receiver, a voice said that they knew something about
33:47
Speaker 1: that previous break in attempt at Keith and Anita's house
33:50
Speaker 1: a few months before Keith's murder, and as Detective Short
33:53
Speaker 1: listened to what this caller had to say, he suddenly
33:55
Speaker 1: knew exactly who had broken into that house and killed
33:58
Speaker 1: Keith and tried to kill Anita. Based on all the
34:09
Speaker 1: collected evidence, as well as the killer's eventual partial confession,
34:13
Speaker 1: this is what investigators believe happened to Keith and Anita
34:16
Speaker 1: Younk on the morning of December fifteenth, nineteen ninety one,
34:25
Speaker 1: at three am, the killer saw that all the windows
34:28
Speaker 1: in Keith and Anita's house were dark, so they carefully
34:31
Speaker 1: snuck around the side of the home and cut the
34:33
Speaker 1: phone lines, just like they'd done a few months before.
34:36
Speaker 1: The first time, they'd second guessed themselves and didn't go
34:39
Speaker 1: through with what they had planned, but this time was
34:42
Speaker 1: going to be different. The killer broke into the house
34:45
Speaker 1: very easily, feeling very calm and in control. They had
34:48
Speaker 1: an axe in their right hand and a knife in
34:50
Speaker 1: their left. As they made their way through the living room,
34:53
Speaker 1: they heard growling and hissing, and they looked down to
34:56
Speaker 1: see the family's cats standing in their path. They thought
34:59
Speaker 1: about strangling the case to shut it up, but decided
35:02
Speaker 1: not to. They wanted to do this with as little
35:04
Speaker 1: collateral damage as possible, so they bent down and tried
35:07
Speaker 1: to soothe the cat, and when it worked and the
35:10
Speaker 1: cat became quiet, the killer stepped past the cat and
35:13
Speaker 1: began walking down the hall. They made it to the
35:15
Speaker 1: master bedroom, they opened up the door and stepped inside.
35:19
Speaker 1: Anita and Keith were fast asleep in their beds, and
35:22
Speaker 1: so the killer quietly walked over to the side of
35:24
Speaker 1: the bed that Anita was on, and they stood there
35:26
Speaker 1: looking down at her, you know, getting ready to do
35:29
Speaker 1: what they felt like they had to do. But as
35:32
Speaker 1: the killer was looking down at Anita, Anita stirred awake,
35:36
Speaker 1: and for a brief second, she looked up and locked
35:39
Speaker 1: eyes with the killer, and so they struggled and shoved
35:42
Speaker 1: each other, and their fight kind of spilled out of
35:44
Speaker 1: the bedroom into the main portion of the house. I mean,
35:47
Speaker 1: this was not how the killer had hoped this would go.
35:49
Speaker 1: They'd wanted to get this done quickly and leave without
35:52
Speaker 1: anybody waking up, but they'd clearly underestimated Keith. He didn't
35:56
Speaker 1: stop fighting. And then as the killer and Keith can
36:00
Speaker 1: continued sort of fumbling around and making their way back
36:03
Speaker 1: down the hallway, the killer suddenly felt something hard smash
36:06
Speaker 1: into the back of their skull, and they turned to
36:09
Speaker 1: see Anita standing there behind them, with blood running down
36:12
Speaker 1: her face and a baseball.
36:13
Speaker 2: Bat in her hands.
36:14
Speaker 1: The killer heard Keith shout out for Anita to go
36:17
Speaker 1: get the gun, and he saw Anita run toward a
36:20
Speaker 1: nearby closet. The killer also noticed a young boy looking
36:24
Speaker 1: out from a doorway nearby, and so the killer made
36:26
Speaker 1: a split second decision. They just grabbed Keith and chucked
36:30
Speaker 1: him into the master bedroom, and then the killer sprinted
36:33
Speaker 1: back down the hallway and out the front door. And
36:36
Speaker 1: then when they got to the sidewalk, they removed their
36:38
Speaker 1: ski mask and kind of casually jogged down the street,
36:42
Speaker 1: hoping that to anybody looking outside, they would think the
36:45
Speaker 1: killer was just an unassuming health nut out for a
36:47
Speaker 1: very early morning run. When they got to a nearby
36:50
Speaker 1: golf course, they stopped on the grass to change their clothes,
36:53
Speaker 1: and then after that they stole.
36:54
Speaker 2: A bike and rode away.
36:58
Speaker 1: Things had not gone the way the killer had hoped,
37:01
Speaker 1: but as they reflected on what they had just done,
37:04
Speaker 1: they thought to themselves that in reality, this actually could
37:06
Speaker 1: have gone worse. I mean, they didn't kill the cat,
37:10
Speaker 1: and critically no kids had been hurt either, and in
37:12
Speaker 1: some ways, that's what this was all about. To avoid
37:15
Speaker 1: hurting the kids. Because the killer was Anita's ex husband,
37:19
Speaker 1: Luther Bass. He'd wanted to get Anita out of the
37:23
Speaker 1: way so he could have custody of their four kids
37:25
Speaker 1: and treat them the way he believed they needed to
37:27
Speaker 1: be treated.
37:28
Speaker 2: And he'd wanted to get.
37:29
Speaker 1: Anita out of the way so that he could have
37:32
Speaker 1: custody of his four kids. He felt like she was
37:34
Speaker 1: screwing up their lives, that he was the kid's solution.
37:37
Speaker 1: They needed him, and so he had to do this,
37:40
Speaker 1: but Luther's own fiance, Connie, had ultimately told the Boise
37:44
Speaker 1: police that Luther was the one who had cut Keith
37:47
Speaker 1: and Anita's phone lines a few months back before the murder,
37:50
Speaker 1: and she said she knew Luther had actually flown to
37:53
Speaker 1: Florida on the weekend of the murder, using an alias
37:56
Speaker 1: and fake social security number that he had gotten from
37:59
Speaker 1: his coworker. And once the Boise police finished speaking with Connie,
38:03
Speaker 1: they immediately called Detective Short in Florida to tell him
38:06
Speaker 1: what they'd just learned. It turned out there was no
38:09
Speaker 1: second suspect. It was just Luther, so twelve year old
38:12
Speaker 1: Jason had just been wrong about the killer's appearance, and
38:15
Speaker 1: Anita had been wrong about not knowing who they were.
38:18
Speaker 1: As for that hair that had been found inside the
38:20
Speaker 1: black ski mask that Luther had been wearing, it's unclear
38:23
Speaker 1: how that was there. It wasn't Luther's hair, but it's
38:26
Speaker 1: possible that maybe somebody else said put the mask on
38:28
Speaker 1: at some point and that's how it got there. Luther
38:31
Speaker 1: Bass was arrested in Boise, Idaho, on March sixth, nineteen
38:34
Speaker 1: ninety two, and he confessed to the crime on the
38:36
Speaker 1: same day. A year later, he was convicted of first
38:39
Speaker 1: degree murder, attempted first to degree murder, and burglary with
38:42
Speaker 1: an assault. He was sentenced to life plus thirty years
38:45
Speaker 1: in prison. As for Anita, she would recover from her injuries.
38:58
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for watching. Know what you thought
39:00
Speaker 1: of today's episode in the comments. And remember, we have
39:03
Speaker 1: a whole playlist of true crime episodes ready for you
39:05
Speaker 1: to binge right now, so click here and give them
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Speaker 1: a watch.
39:09
Speaker 2: All right, until next time, see ya.