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Suzanne Capper - Tortured to Death · Wicked and Grim: A True Crime Podcast

• 0:07
  Speaker 1: For a teenager struggling to find their place in the world,
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: friendships and acceptance can mean everything. But in a case
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: when a small group began accusing one young teenager among
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: them of things that she hadn't done, while, it soon
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: turned into something far more dangerous. Over the course of
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: several days, she would ultimately be held prisoner inside a
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: house where the people around her subjected her to escalating
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: acts of cruelty and torture beyond anyone's darkest imagination. This
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: is the horrifying and true story of sixteen year old
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: Suzanne Capper.
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: My name's Ben, I'm Nicole, and you're listening to Wicked
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: and Grim, a true crime podcast.
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: The following podcast your audience list Ah, there you go,
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: There I go.
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: I'm struggling, struggling a little bit with the fact that
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: our house legitimately smells like chocolate chip freshly baked cookies
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: to me, but there's none of that in sight. I
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: think I'm having like food cravings from our healthy eating.
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: You're going bonkers. I think definitely. We had salmon and
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: rice for dinner, which, oh, maybe it's.
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: The co I make coconut rice, So maybe it's the
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: coconut maybe I don't know, but it's really annoying because
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: it smells freaking amazing. But I don't get to eat
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: a chocolate chip cookie.
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: All I smell is the fish being from like the
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: residual fish smell from cooking fish. And then you have
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: like an oil, like an essential oil you put on,
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: like the peppermint oil. That's all I smells those two things.
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: It's just peppermint e fish.
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: Okay, well, I'm definitely vibing a bit better over here
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: then with the smells.
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: For sure, I'm not exactly unless like Girl Guides have
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: just come out with a weird new limited edition cookie.
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: I think I'm just out to lunch on what I'm
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: smelling as far as cookies go.
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: Oh my gosh.
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: I can say one thing, though, I hope you guys
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: have a nice drink, handy, a comfort drink, whether it
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: is alcohol or hot chocolate or coffee. You need a
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: comfort drink for this story, in my opinion, because it
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: is heavy. Heads up on that right now.
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: It's okay, I mean, aren't they all to some degree?
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: Right? They are? But the nice thing is to when
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: you unpack a story like this, you can also go
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: over to our Patreon, like our patrons did who signed
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: up this week, So shout out to Leandre Thomas, Maddie Whitten, Nellie,
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: Amy will Cox, Joey and Phyllis, Carrie Strund and Rachel Randall.
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: They all signed up for Patreon so when they do
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: hear a story like this, they can also go over
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: on the Patreon see our exclusive behind the scenes get
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: the extra exclusive episodes as well.
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: So just I was gonna say they can cool over
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: there for moral.
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: Support moral support as well. Yes, that's true. There's not
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: only getting to chat with us, but also the community
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: of patrons over there who tend to decompress after cases
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: like this in the chat.
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: So yeah, it's a good group of people.
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: It is. I love it over there. But as I
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: mentioned though, I really do hope you have a drink, candy.
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: You don't have anything.
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: I have nothing, so I'm regretting my life decisions.
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: Do you need to do? You need to take a
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: second and get something?
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: Maybe? Yeah, there's some wine?
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: Actually, okay, go pour glass of wine. We're gonna hit
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: a quick pause. We'll be back in three two one
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: and we're back in. Nicole has wine. I sure, do you?
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: What are you drinking.
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: What is it? It's eight Generation, my favorite winery. It's
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: dang good.
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: Okay, but what's the wine? You just tell me what
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: the wine?
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: Remember what this one's called. It's a red and it
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: has a different name. I can't remember. It's right there
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: and I can't see.
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: You just drink by the winery and don't even know what.
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: Well I do know, Hilario, what this one is. I
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: just don't at the moment.
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: Okay, are you having a stroke? You're smelling cookies? You
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: don't know what you're drinking?
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: Yeah, check on me tomorrow.
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: I might have to. In the morning, I'll be checking
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: your pulse. So if you wake up and I'm looming over,
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: you know why. Anyways, I think we should get onto
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: the case.
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: Okay, okay, let's do it, all.
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: Right, If you guys are ready, we're ready. Let's get
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: into this. So. Suzanne Kapper was a teenager growing up
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: in Manchester, England. She was born on September one, nineteen
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: seventy six, and she spent most of her childhood in
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: a place called Mauston, which is a working class district
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: in the north of the city. Now, Suzanne's early life
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: it wasn't easy here her biological father wasn't exactly involved
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: in her upbringing. Now, while she later took a surname
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: from her stepfather, John Caper Kapper, sorry, stability in the
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: house was never guaranteed. Suzanne's mother, Elizabeth Dunbar, did her
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: best to raise her daughters, Suzanne and her older sister Michelle,
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: but the family still struggled. By the time Suzanne was
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: in her early teens, the relationship between her and her
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: mother and stepfather had deteriorate it and around nineteen ninety
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: while the couple ended up separating. A side effect of
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: that split, like many other parental separations, while it created
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: an even more instability for the girls. At times Suzanne
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: lived with her mother, at other times she stayed with
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: her stepfather. Then there were also periods where she stayed
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: with her friends or was placed in local authority care.
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: It was a common step in the UK when families
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: were struggling to provide stable housing or supervision for a teenager,
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: though it meant her life often lacked consistency. She was
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: frequently moving between homes and just trying to find a
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: place where she felt like she belonged. Despite this, though
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: those who knew Suzanne often described her as quiet, polite,
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: and eager to please. She wasn't known for causing trouble,
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: and if anything, people remembered her as someone who desperately
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: wanted to be accepted. As such, she was often easily
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: influenced by those around her, particularly older people that she
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: looked up to. At school, Suzanne attended mostyn Brook High School,
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: and in the beginning, she was just another student navigating
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: her teenage years. But as things at home became more unstable,
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: her school attendance began to slip. She started skipping classes
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: and spending more time away from school and not paying
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: so much attention to her education. It's something we hear
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: often from many teenagers. They're looking for themselves, learning about
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: the world around them, and searching for independence. Suzanne was
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: no different in that sense, and soon she began drifting
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: towards older friends outside her immediate circle. For her, those
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: friendships offered something that she had been missing, attention, acceptance
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: in a sense that someone wanted her around. It was
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: through some casual connections in her neighborhood that Suzanne first
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: became acquainted with the woman named Jeane Powell. Now Jeane
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: lived at ninety seven Langworthy Road in Boston, not far
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: from where Suzanne spent much for time growing up. In
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: the beginning, Suzanne had started babysitting Jeane's kids when she
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: was still quite young, sometimes just you know, helping around
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: the house or watching the kids while Jane was out. Now,
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: Jeane was in her mid twenties at the time, more
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: than a decade older than Suzanne, who was around fourteen
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: or fifteen years old around then. To a teenager searching
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: for stability and approval, Jeane seemed worldly and independent, and
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: Suzanne began spending more and more time at the house
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: on Langworthy Road, sometimes staying there overnight. But the environment
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: inside the house was far from normal. You see, Jane's
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: home had developed a reputation in the neighborhood. It was
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: a place where people came and went at all hours
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: of the night and day, and many of those visitors
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: were involved in criminal activity too. Drugs were frequently used
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: and sold there, particularly amphetamines aka speed, and stolen goods
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: often passed through the property as well. Neighbors later described
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: the house as chaotic. There were stolen cars and car
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: parts nearby, and loud music and constant traffic of unfamiliar
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: people coming and going inside, though Jane was raising three
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: young children, and eventually other adults and their children would
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: also move in too. For Suzanne, the house represented something
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: that she'd been craving, attention and belonging, but Jeane treated
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: her like someone useful. Suzanne helped with babysitting, cleaning, and errands,
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: and she began spending more time there than she did
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: at her own home. What initially started as occasional babysitting
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: it had gradually turned into Suzanne practically living at this
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: house and doing a lot of chores. Over time, Jane
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: became an important figure in Suzanne's life. To the vulnerable teenager,
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: Jane was almost like a mother figure, someone older who
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: welcomed her into her home. But the world Suzanne had
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: stepped into was far more dangerous than she realized now.
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: Jane was often described as the dominant personality in the house,
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: and she had a reputation for her drug dealings as well.
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: Those who later looked back on the situation described her
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: as controlling, manipulative, and even volatile, and the house itself
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: seemed to revolved solely around her. One of Jane's closest
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: associates was someone by the name of Bernadette McNeely in
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: her early twenties, who would soon become another central figure
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: in Suzanne's life. Now, Bernadette lived nearby at first, but
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: she spent much of the time at the Langworthy Rode
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: home as well, and she eventually moved in with her
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: own kids. Like Jane, Bernadette also had a reputation for
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: being aggressive and unpredictable. Another regular presence was Glenn Powell,
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: Jeane's estranged husband and father of her children. Even though
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: the couple were no longer together Glenn's well, he still
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: spent a great deal of time around the house. He
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: was nearly thirty years old and had a criminal history.
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: It's also not surprising to say that his relationship with
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: Jeanne remained quite volatile, but regardless, he still continued to
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: move in and out of the house. Among the younger
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: members of the group was also someone named Anthony Dudson,
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: a teenager who was still only seventeen years old at
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: the time. Anthony was also in a relationship with Bernadette now,
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: despite the age difference of seven years and her being
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: twenty four, while he was still a mo Yeah, I'm
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: not going to touch on that, but I'm pretty sure
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: you understand how I feel like others though, He spent
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: much of his time inside this home and quickly became
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: part of the same destructive social circle. Then there was
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: also Clifford Pook, Bernadette's younger brother. Clifford was in his
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: late teens and had briefly dated Suzanne at one point two,
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: which further connected her to this group. Now, finally there
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: was Jeffrey Lay, another associate who frequently visited the home.
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: Jeffrey was known locally for stealing cars and dealing in
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: stolen goods. He was also one of the people who
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: bought drugs from Gene frequently. Together, the group formed a
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: very volatile mix of personalities and all contained inside one
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: house on Langworthy Road, which was filled with drug use, arguments,
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: shifting alliances, and children who were often present amidst all
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: the chaos.
• 11:56
  Speaker 2: How large was this house because it sure seems like
• 11:59
  Speaker 2: it's so housing a lot of people under that roof.
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm not too sure, And the thing is too
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: like not all of them lived there right per se,
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: but all of them hung out there and were there
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: very often daily.
• 12:11
  Speaker 2: Even it almost seems like it has an open door policy.
• 12:15
  Speaker 2: But then also you know when you say the address
• 12:18
  Speaker 2: of a house that some stuff is about to go
• 12:21
  Speaker 2: down in there. That's true, yeah, because I don't like
• 12:24
  Speaker 2: you'll just just say a house or anything or something,
• 12:27
  Speaker 2: But when you say the legit address, I'm always like, Okay,
• 12:31
  Speaker 2: bad things happen here.
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: Yep. Now, over time, what had once been a place
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: where Suzanne felt welcome, it slowly became something else entirely.
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: And if I don't give a number and I say
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: a sentence like that, you also know that's going to
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: be a bad place. Now. Within this environment, Suzanne Kapper
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: began to occupy an uncomfortable position. At first, her presence
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: at the house didn't seem unusual, but over time the
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: tone of her relationship with the group it began to shift.
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: Suzanne was younger than most of the people in the home,
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: and in many ways she occupied the lowest position within
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: the social circle that formed around Gene, essentially being socially
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: lowest in sienniority or lowest in the pecking order. So
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: while the others spent their time drinking, taking drugs, and
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: moving in and out of petty criminal activity, Suzanne was
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: often expected to take care of the practical things around
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: the house. She looked after the children when people were out,
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: She helped clean the place when it became a mess,
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: and if someone needed something picked up from a nearby
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: shop or something like that, or they wanted an air
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: and run, well, guess what, Suzanne was usually the one
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: who was sent to go do it now. At first,
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: these responsibilities may have felt like a way to earn
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: her place in the group, but gradually the dynamic began
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: to shift. Instead of treating her like a friend, some
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: members of the household started to treat Suzanne as someone
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: they could easily push around. Arguments became more frequent, and
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: Suzanne increasingly found herself blamed for small problems that happened
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: in the home. If something went missing in this house,
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: which was a home full of thieves, for example, while
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: suspicion fell on her immediately, it seemed no matter what
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: it was, Even if tensions were just simply already high
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: from drug use or personal conflicts, Suzanne became the easiest
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: target for frustrations to be taken out on. Now, if
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: the insults and accusitions that were being thrown around her
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: way for these things weren't bad enough, the situations eventually
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: began to cross into physical intimidation. On some occasions, she
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: was shoved or struck during arguments, small bursts of violence
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: that hinted at how little control she had over the
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: situation when she was placed there herself. Yet, despite everything,
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: Suzanne continued returning to the house time and time again.
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: To someone on the outside looking in on the situation,
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: it might seem impossible to understand why she would willingly
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: spend time in a place where she increasingly mistreated, But
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: people who knew her later described Suzanne as someone who
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: desperately wanted to feel accepted. She craved belonging, and the
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: older people around Jeane and that home they seem to
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: offer her a version of that, so she would always return,
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: hoping to find that acceptance and sense of belonging. Jean
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: herself still held a power of influence over Suzanne, and
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: even when the relationship had clearly turned unhealthy, Suzanne continued
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: to see her as a kind of authority figure, someone
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: who's approval she still wanted.
• 15:35
  Speaker 2: This is really sad because just listening to this, they're
• 15:38
  Speaker 2: taking advantage of hers and it's basically just an abusive relationship.
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: That you nailed it. That's exactly what it is. It's
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: an abusive relationship and they take full advantage, and they
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: push the boundaries further and further. And she's a teenager
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: right like, she's a teenager about fifteen right now?
• 15:56
  Speaker 2: Oh man, Okay.
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: Now, by late nineteen ninety two, when the story will
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: starts to take place, she's sixteen years old. But the
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: hostility towards her in that house it was no longer like.
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: It wasn't subtle anymore. Like members of the house began
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: to look for reasons to actually blame her for things
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: when things were going wrong. It was like trying to
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: find something to pin on her so they could specifically
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: throw it in her face.
• 16:19
  Speaker 2: Wow.
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: Now, eventually two accusations would actually become like the spark
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: that pushed the situation into something far more dangerous. Though
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: one of those involved a pink Duffel style coat. Bernadette
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: claimed that Suzanne had stole a coat from her, which
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: was an item she said was worth around sixty pounds.
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: Whether the accusation had any truth behind it or not,
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: it's a little unclear. But within the environment in this home,
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: the claim quickly became simply accepted as fact. Now Suzanne
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: denied taking the jacket, but her protests carried very little
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: weight amongst the people who had already begun to treat
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: her as an outsider in their group. Now, the second
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: accusation was even more humiliated. At some point, several members
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: of the household discovered they had contracted pubic lice, and
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: instead of confronting the possibility that one of them had
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: introduced the infestation into the home, well, the blame was
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: then placed squarely on Suzanne. Immediately, Oh wow, Okay. Now,
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: in both of these situations, it is very commonly believed
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: that Suzanne had nothing to do with either one of them,
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: but those in the house they had someone to blame.
• 17:31
  Speaker 2: Well, honestly, with the lice thing, she would probably be
• 17:34
  Speaker 2: the least likely exactly for this. And they're just they
• 17:37
  Speaker 2: just they want someone to blame. It's almost like fun
• 17:41
  Speaker 2: or a game to them. It's sounding like it.
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: Kind of seemed like it was like a power trip
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: sort of situation, like a game, like they were enjoying it.
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: And like the accusations in this situation with these pubic lice,
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: they turned into actually another opportunity specifically to humiliate her
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: and for them to well get their rocks off over it.
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: So instead of escalating, you know, verbally or anything like that,
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: this group of degenerates forced Suzanne to strip and shave
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: off her pubic hair in front of all of them. Seriously,
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: it was a degrading act carried out while others mocked
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: her and reinforced the idea that she was somehow responsible
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: for the problem.
• 18:22
  Speaker 2: Holy, that is okay. Also, considering she's a minor, this
• 18:28
  Speaker 2: is just not okay.
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, there's a whole plethora of things that are
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: wrong with this, and that's the word for the day, plethora.
• 18:35
  Speaker 2: Okay. Makes sense.
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: Now, this was not not only her punishment, but in
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: their eyes, also a solution to eliminating a lice. But
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: like the accusation about the coat, there's no real evidence
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: behind the claims. But by this point facts no longer mattered.
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: What mattered was that the group had found someone they
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: could collectively blame no matter what the situation was, and
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: the combination of the these accusations created a shared resentment towards
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: Suzanne among several members of this group. In their minds,
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: she had become both a nuisance and a target. So
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: from that moment forward, the hostility towards her only intensified.
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: By early December nineteen ninety two, Suzanne had begun spending
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: more time away from the house on Langworthy Road. The
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: growing tension and hostility actually began to push her to
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: return to stay with her stepfather, John Capper for a
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: short time. It seemed like she had distanced herself from
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: the group enough where you know, things may improve, But
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: the people inside that house had not forgotten about her
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: or how they had begun to treat her. On December seventh,
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: nineteen ninety two, Jeanne and Bernadette went to go find Suzanne. Now,
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: when they found her and approached her, they didn't act
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: hostile or anything like that. Instead, they presented themselves as
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: if nothing was wrong. In fact, they were even friendly
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: to her. Then they he told Suzanne that someone that
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: she liked, a boy, was waiting for her back at
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: the house on Langworthy Road. Now, for Suzanne, the moments
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: must have felt like her heart was going to explode.
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: Not only was her crush looking to hang out with her,
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: but her friends her social family was giving her a
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: quasi invitation to come back. Despite the recent tensions, she
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: must have still believed there was a place for her
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: among them, and, like many teenagers hoping to maintain friendships,
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: she agreed to go meet this boy. But as I'm
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: sure you've probably already guessed, the story about the boy
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: was a lie. He wasn't there, he wasn't waiting for her,
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: and instead, when Suzanne arrived back at ninety seven Langworthy Road,
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: she walked directly into a trap. The moment she stepped
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: into the home, several members of this group were already
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: waiting for her, and what happened next unfolded quickly. They
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: pounced on Suzanne and grabbed her and overpowered her almost immediately.
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: With multiple people surrounding her, people who were older and
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: stronger than her, she had little chance to fight back
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: or escape. The accusations that had been building over the
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: previous weeks. The supposed theft, the blame for the lice,
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: they were all suddenly thrown right back in her face,
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: all at once. But this wasn't about confronting her anymore.
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: In fact, I don't even know if this was even
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: about punishment.
• 21:29
  Speaker 2: Now.
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: This was much worse. This was about humiliation, cruelty, and
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: enjoying someone else's suffering. With everyone grabbing Suzanne, she was
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: then forced down to the floor while some members of
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: the group began to cut off her hair. In this attack,
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: her head was shaved bare along with her eyebrows, leaving
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: her feeling disfigured and exposed. Not only that, but with
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: all her hair cut and shaved away, they all made
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: her clean it up herself, turning the moment into another
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: layer of humiliation entirely. But the violence didn't stop there.
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: At one point, a plastic bag was pulled over Suzanne's head,
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: making it difficult for her to breathe as she struggled
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: and panicked while the group continued daunting and attacking her,
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: continuing her nightmare, while she was also pushed and dragged
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: around the house, escalating the situation. While these are certainly
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: physical assaults, they are primarily psychological attacks. Yes, she was harmed,
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: but not exactly injured, if you know what I mean.
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: But it didn't stay that way. Beatings soon followed and
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: changed that fact. As she was pinned, pushed, dragged, and
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: held down, members of the group began to strike her
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: with whatever objects they could grab, whether it was belts,
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: pieces of wood, and large household utensils. All these things
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: were used as improvised weapons. Striking her repeatedly. She was
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: also punched kicked, all while others looked on, laughing or
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: joining in. The assault was severe and intense, so much
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: so that one of Suzanne's arms would later hang limp
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: and useless at her side.
• 23:14
  Speaker 2: Oh my goodness.
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: She was unable to raise or use it, as it
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: was likely broken during the violent attack, like very broken.
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: By the time this assault subsided, Suzanne was already seriously injured.
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: But instead of things ending there, the group letting her
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: go was not a thing in their minds, so they
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: decided instead to force her into a small closet inside
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: that home, where she was locked away and left for
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: the night. Bruised, exhausted, and terrified, she was left trapped
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: inside the small space with no way to escape. There,
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: Suzanne sat in the dark alone, terrified and crying, But
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: little did she know the ordeal had only just begun.
• 24:05
  Speaker 2: This is absolutely nuts because she wasn't doing anything they
• 24:10
  Speaker 2: should have just like she was on her way out,
• 24:12
  Speaker 2: basically like they should have just let her go.
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: Yeah, but they physically went and brought her back in
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: to do this to her. Frigg.
• 24:19
  Speaker 2: At first, I was thinking they wanted her back because
• 24:22
  Speaker 2: she was helpful. She probably, like you mentioned, watched some
• 24:25
  Speaker 2: of the kids when they were out and did a
• 24:27
  Speaker 2: bunch of cleaning. But they just invited her back.
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: To They lured her back. They lured her back for
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: their sick enjoyment.
• 24:40
  Speaker 2: Yeah, this doesn't even make any sense. These people are
• 24:42
  Speaker 2: just nuts.
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: I told you you needed a comfort drink for this one.
• 24:46
  Speaker 2: No frickin kidding.
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: Now in the morning, the people inside that house still
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: had no intention of letting Suzanne leave, and the violence
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: that had begun the night before was only getting worse. However,
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: Suzanne's screams of pain and cries for help throughout her
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: nightmarish ordeal had started to draw attention from inside the
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: crowd at home, where several young children were also living.
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: Now that presented a problem for Suzanne's captors, so to
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: keep the situation quieter and more controlled, the group decided
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: they were going to move her. So Suzanne was taken
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: away from that house on Langworthy Road and brought to
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: another property associated with the group. And that house was
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: mostly empty, which made an ideal place for what they
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: planned next, because there would be fewer people around to
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: hear her scream and no children present to witness what
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: was happening, and so with this newfound privacy, the situation
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: became even more horrifying. Suzanne was dragged upstairs and she
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: was forced into a bedroom where an old bed box
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: spring had been turned upside down. It was here that
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: her captors restrained her on the wooden, exposed old bed,
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: will call it, just tied her there using whatever they
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: could find, whether it was ropes, belts, electrical cables. They
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: pulled her arms and legs and spread them apart in
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: a star fashion, going towards each corner of this old bed,
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: leaving her completely immobilized when they were done, and to
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: keep her from screaming, they also forced dirty socks into
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: her mouth, gagging her while they secured the restraints. This
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: room would serve as the place where the group returned
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: again and again over the next several days. While Suzanne
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: remained tied inside this empty home, completely at their mercy,
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: bound by her wrists and ankles, unable to move, she
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: was left. Now one thing I'm not exactly clear on.
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: There's some discrepancies in what I found on this. She
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: was left either nude or partially nude, It's unclear, but
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: either way she was exposed in the room while members
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: of the group came and went, with beatings becoming routine.
• 27:00
  Speaker 3: Geez.
• 27:01
  Speaker 2: You know, it's always interesting when something goes on for
• 27:03
  Speaker 2: days like this, because you would just hope that these
• 27:06
  Speaker 2: sepo would have some sort of humanity, you know, one
• 27:09
  Speaker 2: night and be like, Okay, what we're doing.
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: Here is very wrong.
• 27:14
  Speaker 2: But when it escalates and just keeps getting worse and
• 27:16
  Speaker 2: worse and goes prolonged, I think it just really shows
• 27:20
  Speaker 2: how much of a terrible person you are.
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: Well, they are not even in the same building as
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: her either, so they specifically have to go back, yeah,
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: in orders to torture her.
• 27:30
  Speaker 2: Gosh, yeah, they have to go out of their way.
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: And then not only that, they get to leave and
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: disassociate from their actions too.
• 27:37
  Speaker 2: But you would think, say you're getting ready for bed,
• 27:40
  Speaker 2: you're like, you know, sleeping, or wake up in the
• 27:42
  Speaker 2: middle of the night and realize, holy shit, I'm an.
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: Asshole, Yeah, anyone with a soul. But these people clearly
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: are not like that.
• 27:50
  Speaker 2: Clearly.
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: Now, while immobilized, Susanne was constantly struck with fists, belts,
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: wooden boards, household objects, you name it, often by more
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: than one person at a time, and with no way
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: to defend herself because she was tied there, she could
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: only endure the blows as they landed again and again.
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: But the physical violence wasn't the only part of what
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: they inflicted upon her. At various points of the week,
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: Suzanne was injected with amphetamines as well, the very same
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: drug that was commonly used by several members of that group.
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: They injected this they kept her awake, and it kept
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: her agitated, preventing her from slipping into unconsciousness and prolonged
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: the suffering she was experiencing. Members of the group also
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: began burning her with cigarettes, pressing the lit ends into
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: her skin while mocking and taunting her. But this wasn't
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: just a few times. She almost became their ash tray.
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: As they snuffed out burning cigarette after burning cigarette on
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: her exposed skin. She couldn't flinch, she couldn't pull away.
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: At the same time, they introduced a very strange and
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: torturous form of psychological torment on her. Someone had placed
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: headphones over Suzanne's ears and blasted music through them at
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: the highest volume. They didn't just blast music, though. The
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: music they played was the same song on repeat, and
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: it included samples from the horror film Child's Play, particularly
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: the voice of the killer doll named Chucky, who was
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: constantly repeating the line over and over again, saying, Hi,
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: I'm Chucky, want to play WHOA?
• 29:36
  Speaker 2: Okay, this is just.
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: So cruel Yeah. For Suzanne, the days and nights all
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: began to blur together as the cruelty inflicted on her
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: only continued to escalate with no end in sight. By
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: this point, she had already endured far more than anyone
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: ever should be subjected to, but they also began introducing
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: other forms of it that seemed designed to humiliate and
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: degrade her as much as possible. She was rarely given
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: food and barely allowed any water. She was exhausted, injured,
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: and restrained in that same position for long periods. But
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: Suzanne also had no ability to care for herself, which
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: meant when nature called and she needed to use the bathroom,
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: her captors refused to untie her, and eventually she was
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: just forced to relieve herself right where she lay, leaving
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: her trapped in the filth, with the group mocking her
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: for it now. At one point during the ordeal, the
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: attackers forced Suzanne into a bath, but instead of clean
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: water to clean the wounds, they poured strong disinfectants into
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: the water, a chemical solution normally used to sanitize surfaces.
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: In fact, so with her already covered in burns, cuts, bruises,
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: the liquid caused intense pain as it soaked into the
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: injuries across her body. Then they began scrubbing her skin
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: with a stiff bristled brush, dragging the bristles across her
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: wounds while she screamed in agony. The mixture of disinfectant
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: and abrasive scrubbing caused sections of damaged skin to begin
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: peeling away, leaving raw, open wounds in its wake. After that,
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: Suzanne remained tied to the bed frame once again. By
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: this stage, the group seemed to be driven by something darker,
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: a shared willingness to push the violence further and further,
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: and soon. As the days of captivity dragged on, the
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: abuse inflicted on Suzanne Kapper continued to escalate in ways
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: that continue to seem almost unimaginable to any normal human being.
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: But now it had been days, she was weak, exhausted,
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: barely able to resist anything that was under her, even
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: if she was untied. It was during this stage of
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: the ordeal that Clifford Puk carried out one of the
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: most disturbing acts of violence against her. Yet, according to
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: later testimony in court, Clifford approached Suzanne with a pair
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: of pliers. The group had already discussed the possibility that
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: if Suzanne was ever discovered or her body was found,
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: that her teeth might be useful to identify her, so
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: removing them, they believed would make that more difficult. With
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: this in mind, Clifford forced Suzanne's mouth open and he
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: told her he was going to pull out her teeth,
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: and then he began smashing at her teeth with the
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: metal pliers, strike after strike. At first, the metal tool
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: simply cracked against them, chipping the enamel. Suzanne cried out
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: in pain, trying to recoil away, but was unable to
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: do so so as he continued hitting them again and again,
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: and eventually he managed to grip one of the chipped
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: teeth with the pliers and he began pulling. He began
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: to strain while he pulled, increasing how hard he tugged
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: with each second, until the tooth finally snapped loose with
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: a sharp crack, while her mouth filled up with blood.
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: Then he dropped that tooth, turned back towards her, and
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: repeated the process with another one. Each attempt involved forcing
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: Suzanne's head forward while he worked the pliers inside her mouth,
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: wrenching at the teeth, pulling and twisting until they came
• 33:38
  Speaker 1: free or broke apart. Witnesses later said that while this
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: was happening, Clifford was laughing. He seemed to enjoy it
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: and thought it was funny. When the ordeal was over,
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: he'd taken out two of her teeth, and he kept
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: them instead of throwing them away, as if they were
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: trophies from what he had just done to her.
• 33:59
  Speaker 2: WHOA, what a savage mofo. Yeah, this is unbelievable. It
• 34:04
  Speaker 2: just keeps getting worse and worse and worse.
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's heavy for sure.
• 34:11
  Speaker 2: Holy frick. I cannot even believe that we live in
• 34:13
  Speaker 2: a world where people could be like this.
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: I know, it boggles my mind. There were several times
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: during researching this case where I had to stop because
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: I was like, what the fuck? Yeah, I needed to
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: like recollect myself before I could read any further.
• 34:28
  Speaker 2: You almost want to explain it away, thinking like, oh man,
• 34:31
  Speaker 2: they must have been like on some super drugs or
• 34:34
  Speaker 2: something while they were doing this, because how else could
• 34:37
  Speaker 2: someone do this to another human? But they're just complete monsters.
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: I think. So I don't even on drugs, Like, I
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: understand drugs affect people in many certain ways, but I
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: just cannot fathom twisting and pulling people's teeth out.
• 34:53
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I just don't even know how, Like this is
• 34:55
  Speaker 2: a living human being. I don't understand how you could
• 34:59
  Speaker 2: go on and do this and think of new things
• 35:02
  Speaker 2: to even do and have it be going on so long.
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: I know. Now here's the thing though, too. We can
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: go on that drug argument for a moment again, say, okay, yeah,
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: maybe it was drug induced, but this was a pre
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: disgusted situation. But what if she dies and her body's found,
• 35:19
  Speaker 1: her teeth can identify her? Well, we how fingerprints teeth
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: that you know, that can identify her, and what if
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: we remove her teeth? So he literally goes there with
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: pliers to remove her teeth. He drove to another home
• 35:34
  Speaker 1: or walked to another home specifically to go do this
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: to another person.
• 35:40
  Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, and at this point, like she I can't
• 35:45
  Speaker 2: even imagine the kind of shape she's in, right, Yeah,
• 35:50
  Speaker 2: Like it's just what you don't want to because it's
• 35:52
  Speaker 2: sad as shit.
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: Yeah. And one thing about this too, with them pulling
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: out her teeth. At this stage, like it was becoming
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: clear that the group was not planning on letting her
• 36:03
  Speaker 1: go and preparing for what happens if she didn't survive.
• 36:06
  Speaker 2: Well, I mean, yeah, at this point, how could you
• 36:10
  Speaker 2: let her go? I think either way she probably may
• 36:12
  Speaker 2: not make it.
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: Now the violence had moved beyond the torture and they
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: were beginning to actually think about making her disappear. But
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: during this time that Suzanne Kapper was being held captive,
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: at least one person outside the core group was brought
• 36:28
  Speaker 1: into the house and saw her being held there a witness,
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: and his name was David Hill. He was an eighteen
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: year old who had connections to some of the people involved. Now.
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: David would later recount that he was asked to come
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: to the house and wait there while the others left
• 36:46
  Speaker 1: for a short time. At first, he claimed he did
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: not know what was happening inside the property, but that
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: changed when he was led upstairs. When David entered the room,
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: he saw Suzanne tied to the bed frame. Her arms
• 36:59
  Speaker 1: and legs were still bound stretched apart in that same
• 37:02
  Speaker 1: position she'd been forced into days earlier. She'd clearly been
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: badly beaten, her her head had been shaved, she was weak,
• 37:11
  Speaker 1: exhausted from the prolonged abuse, and the room itself even
• 37:14
  Speaker 1: showed signs of what was happening there too, and it
• 37:16
  Speaker 1: would have been immediately clear that Suzanne was being held
• 37:19
  Speaker 1: against her will. But when she saw David, she immediately
• 37:24
  Speaker 1: tried to speak with him, begging him to help her.
• 37:28
  Speaker 1: She asked him to untie the restraints to let her go,
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: pleading with him to release her from this bedframe so
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: she could escape the house with her life. For Suzanne,
• 37:36
  Speaker 1: this may have seemed like the first real chance she
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: had been given to survive. David was not one of
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: those people who had been torturing her, one of the captors,
• 37:46
  Speaker 1: and if he had chosen to help her in that moment,
• 37:48
  Speaker 1: it's possible that Suzanne could have escaped before the situation
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: escalated further. But David did nothing. Instead of freeing her,
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: he left the room, he went back downstairs, and that
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: was it.
• 38:03
  Speaker 2: Seriously, just okay, that's interesting.
• 38:07
  Speaker 1: Later, when investigators asked him about the incident, David explained
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: he'd been too frightened to intervene. He said that he
• 38:13
  Speaker 1: believed if he had tried to release Suzanne, the others
• 38:16
  Speaker 1: responsible for holding her might have turned their violence on
• 38:19
  Speaker 1: him instead. Now, whatever the reason for his decision to
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: not intervene, the opportunity had passed, and Suzanne remained tied
• 38:27
  Speaker 1: to that bed, and after David left the room, her
• 38:30
  Speaker 1: captors eventually returned to the torture and it simply continued.
• 38:35
  Speaker 2: To go on because David wasn't in the house alone.
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: I don't believe so no others were there, not as
• 38:41
  Speaker 1: far as my impression is now. Okay, Now, for many
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: people who later followed the case, David's account actually became
• 38:48
  Speaker 1: one of the most haunting elements of this story because
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: for that brief moment, Suzanne had seen someone that could
• 38:54
  Speaker 1: help her. She begged to be saved, you know, finally
• 38:57
  Speaker 1: thinking she could be let go. But that help never came.
• 39:02
  Speaker 1: She just remained trapped in the house for several more days,
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: restrained in fact, for nearly a week, and the longer
• 39:08
  Speaker 1: she remained alive, the greater the risk that someone else
• 39:11
  Speaker 1: might discover what was happening. Too. Another factor was beginning
• 39:15
  Speaker 1: to worry the group of monsters as well. Suzanne's family
• 39:19
  Speaker 1: was starting to ask questions. Her older sister Michelle had
• 39:22
  Speaker 1: begun looking for her, and the longer Suzanne remained missing,
• 39:25
  Speaker 1: the more likely it was that someone would eventually report
• 39:28
  Speaker 1: her disappearance to the police. So the possibility that Suzanne
• 39:32
  Speaker 1: might survive and tell others what had happened was becoming
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: a very serious threat, something you were alluding to earlier,
• 39:37
  Speaker 1: in fact, saying that if she gets let go, like,
• 39:40
  Speaker 1: what's she going to say and report now? Rather than
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: releasing Suzanne or attempting to distance themselves in the situation,
• 39:48
  Speaker 1: they came to a darker conclusion, one they had already
• 39:51
  Speaker 1: been discussing in passive conversations. They believed that the only
• 39:56
  Speaker 1: way to protect themselves was to make sure Suzanne would
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: never be able to speak about what had happened inside
• 40:03
  Speaker 1: that house. In other words, Suzanne had to die. When
• 40:12
  Speaker 1: the group had agreed that Suzanne needed to be killed,
• 40:15
  Speaker 1: the final stage of the crime began to take shape,
• 40:18
  Speaker 1: and their plan was dark and simple. They would take
• 40:23
  Speaker 1: Susan away from the house, drive her somewhere isolated, and
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: kill her there far enough away that her body might
• 40:29
  Speaker 1: never be connected back to them. On the morning of
• 40:33
  Speaker 1: December fourteenth, nineteen ninety two. Suzanne Kapper had been held
• 40:37
  Speaker 1: captive for nearly a week. During that time, she had
• 40:40
  Speaker 1: endured repeated beatings, burns, and other forms of torture that
• 40:43
  Speaker 1: left her physically devastated. It was on that day that
• 40:47
  Speaker 1: the group decided to carry out the plan they'd been discussing.
• 40:50
  Speaker 1: Suzanne was untied from the bed frame, forced downstairs, and
• 40:55
  Speaker 1: by this point she could barely stand on her own,
• 40:58
  Speaker 1: but she was still conscious and aware of what was
• 40:59
  Speaker 1: happen happening around her. Instead of releasing her, though as
• 41:03
  Speaker 1: she may have initially hoped, the group prepared to move
• 41:06
  Speaker 1: her away from the house. A stolen white Fiat Panda
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: was brought around, and Suzanne was forced into the trunk
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: of the vehicle, with the lid closed above her. She
• 41:17
  Speaker 1: was trapped in the dark as a car pulled away
• 41:19
  Speaker 1: from the house where she had been held for the
• 41:21
  Speaker 1: previous week. Inside the car were several of the people
• 41:26
  Speaker 1: responsible for the captivity, Bernadette, Jeanne, Glen and Anthony. They
• 41:32
  Speaker 1: were all amongst who had taken part in the drive.
• 41:35
  Speaker 1: They left Monson behind and began heading out of the city,
• 41:38
  Speaker 1: traveling several miles towards an isolated area late at night.
• 41:43
  Speaker 1: Eventually the car arrived at Worthern Low, a rural area
• 41:47
  Speaker 1: close to Romley in Stockport, where quiet roads and wooded
• 41:51
  Speaker 1: land made it unlikely that anyone would witness what they
• 41:53
  Speaker 1: were about to do. The vehicle stopped and Suzanne was
• 41:58
  Speaker 1: pulled out of the trunk. She was then dragged away
• 42:01
  Speaker 1: from the road and down to an embankment into a
• 42:04
  Speaker 1: more secluded area. Once they had Suzanne away from the
• 42:08
  Speaker 1: road and down into the secluded spot, the group began
• 42:11
  Speaker 1: carrying out the final evil portion of their plan. Suzanne
• 42:15
  Speaker 1: was stripped naked of whatever a clothing she had left
• 42:18
  Speaker 1: on and was forced onto the ground. After nearly a
• 42:22
  Speaker 1: week of captivity and torture, her body was covered in
• 42:26
  Speaker 1: injuries and she had very little strength left to do
• 42:29
  Speaker 1: anything against what was happening around her. Then one of
• 42:35
  Speaker 1: the group members produced a container filled with gasoline. The
• 42:41
  Speaker 1: liquid was poured over Suzanne's body, soaking her as she
• 42:44
  Speaker 1: lay on the ground helpless. For the people standing around her,
• 42:47
  Speaker 1: they knew they intended to burn her alive and leave
• 42:50
  Speaker 1: her there. Suzanne began to realize this, as well as
• 42:53
  Speaker 1: the familiar smell filled her nose and the liquid was
• 42:56
  Speaker 1: dripping across her skin. It took the group a few
• 42:59
  Speaker 1: attempts to light the gas ablaze, not because they felt
• 43:02
  Speaker 1: any guilt or had heavy hearts. No, it was because
• 43:04
  Speaker 1: they simply had trouble lighting it. But in that brief moment,
• 43:08
  Speaker 1: Suzanne would have felt fear beyond any sort of measure,
• 43:12
  Speaker 1: knowing this was going to be her last moments, knowing
• 43:15
  Speaker 1: that she was about to die and excruciating death after
• 43:18
  Speaker 1: being tortured for nearly a week. Then, without warning, the
• 43:24
  Speaker 1: gasoline caught fire, and instantly she was engulfed in flames.
• 43:30
  Speaker 1: No one tried to help her. They just stood back.
• 43:34
  Speaker 1: They didn't flinch, and they watched as the fire licked
• 43:37
  Speaker 1: against her bare skin, burning her alive. Reportedly, at one point,
• 43:42
  Speaker 1: one of them even began singing the infamous disco song
• 43:46
  Speaker 1: Burn Baby Burn.
• 43:48
  Speaker 2: Oh man, Okay, this is just so maddening.
• 43:52
  Speaker 1: It's fucked up.
• 43:53
  Speaker 2: This is literally how they decide to end her life
• 43:56
  Speaker 2: this way. Yes, that is. It's actually quite hard to believe.
• 44:03
  Speaker 2: I know, this doesn't seem like this could be real life.
• 44:06
  Speaker 1: I know. As she was burning, the group then turned
• 44:12
  Speaker 1: and walked back towards the car, as the flames were
• 44:15
  Speaker 1: still licking her body behind them. They left her behind
• 44:20
  Speaker 1: in the darkness of the wooded area, only lit by
• 44:22
  Speaker 1: the flames that were still on her body, leaving the
• 44:25
  Speaker 1: fire to finish what the previous week of torture had started.
• 44:30
  Speaker 1: For those people who had just driven away, that was
• 44:33
  Speaker 1: the end. The crime was over in their heads. If
• 44:35
  Speaker 1: Suzanne's remains were found, her body consumed by the flames
• 44:39
  Speaker 1: may not even be identified, let alone lead back to them.
• 44:43
  Speaker 1: They simply got away with murder, and that was that.
• 44:46
  Speaker 1: But what they didn't know was as they walked away,
• 44:49
  Speaker 1: they left something behind. They left Suzanne alive there in
• 44:57
  Speaker 1: the darkness of the woods, still only by that bit
• 45:01
  Speaker 1: of flame left on her body. She struggled to move.
• 45:04
  Speaker 1: Every inch of her body was in agony, but she
• 45:07
  Speaker 1: forced herself to crawl and roll across the ground until
• 45:10
  Speaker 1: the fire that had engulfed her began to die out.
• 45:14
  Speaker 2: Are you serious?
• 45:16
  Speaker 1: Dead? Serious? Okay?
• 45:18
  Speaker 2: I already thought that this girl's will to live was unbelievable, unfathomable.
• 45:25
  Speaker 1: Really, I know. She put the fire out by rolling around,
• 45:29
  Speaker 1: and despite her weakened state, her severed injuries like from
• 45:33
  Speaker 1: all the abuse that she suffered, she had catastrophic burns
• 45:36
  Speaker 1: across most her body now too, Yet she somehow managed
• 45:39
  Speaker 1: to put these flames out. WHOA. Later reports would state
• 45:43
  Speaker 1: that between seventy five and eighty percent of her body
• 45:47
  Speaker 1: had been burned, leaving large areas of skin destroyed and exposed.
• 45:51
  Speaker 1: Her feet had been badly burned as well, meaning every
• 45:54
  Speaker 1: movement caused extreme pain. Yet somehow, Suzanne refuged used to
• 46:00
  Speaker 1: stay where she had been left. Somehow she managed to
• 46:04
  Speaker 1: put the flames out and climb back up the embankment
• 46:08
  Speaker 1: towards the road where the car had driven off.
• 46:11
  Speaker 2: WHOA. I cannot freaking believe that.
• 46:14
  Speaker 1: Every inch that she moved would have been agonizing, but
• 46:17
  Speaker 1: she continued forward, determined to reach somewhere, anywhere someone that
• 46:24
  Speaker 1: might see her. Then, once she finally reached the road,
• 46:29
  Speaker 1: Suzanne began walking barefoot, severely burned, beaten, broken, She moved
• 46:38
  Speaker 1: slowly along the road in the early morning darkness, her
• 46:41
  Speaker 1: body covered in injuries, but she still kept moving.
• 46:46
  Speaker 2: Holy frick, my jaw is on the goddamn ground.
• 46:51
  Speaker 1: If you're unaware, If you haven't guessed yet, Suzanne is
• 46:53
  Speaker 1: one hundred and ten percent or badass of the day, because
• 46:55
  Speaker 1: that is unfucking believable.
• 46:58
  Speaker 2: That is that rich is like, I cannot believe this
• 47:03
  Speaker 2: because also she hasn't like drank or eaten for a
• 47:07
  Speaker 2: whole week too. She was in the same position pretty
• 47:09
  Speaker 2: much that whole week.
• 47:11
  Speaker 1: Yep.
• 47:11
  Speaker 2: And her injuries are just unfreaking believable. So holy shit,
• 47:16
  Speaker 2: I don't think I've ever heard anything like this.
• 47:18
  Speaker 1: It's superhuman, honestly.
• 47:20
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 47:20
  Speaker 1: Wild. Now. Eventually, Suzanne's desperate walk brought her into the
• 47:24
  Speaker 1: path of some passing motorists. It was as dawn approached
• 47:28
  Speaker 1: when a group of workers driving along the road noticed
• 47:31
  Speaker 1: a figure ahead of them. At first, they weren't sure
• 47:34
  Speaker 1: what they were seeing, but as their vehicle got closer,
• 47:36
  Speaker 1: the reality of the situation became horrifyingly clear. There standing
• 47:41
  Speaker 1: in the road was a teenage girl whose body had
• 47:44
  Speaker 1: been almost entirely burned. The men who discovered Suzanne that
• 47:49
  Speaker 1: morning were coworkers driven by a man named Barry Sutcliffe. Now,
• 47:54
  Speaker 1: Suzanne Kapper was standing in the road, severely burned, barely
• 47:58
  Speaker 1: able to remain upright. Large portion of her skin were
• 48:00
  Speaker 1: destroyed by the fire, and the damage was so extensive
• 48:03
  Speaker 1: that one witness later described her legs as looking like
• 48:07
  Speaker 1: raw meat. Well, her hands were so badly burned they
• 48:10
  Speaker 1: apparently were almost blackened. Yet despite this condition that she
• 48:15
  Speaker 1: was in, she was still conscious. She was barely able
• 48:18
  Speaker 1: to speak, but when the men reached her, she managed
• 48:21
  Speaker 1: to whisper one thing. She said, help me.
• 48:25
  Speaker 2: Oh okay, Well, freaking saints as well for stopping. I
• 48:29
  Speaker 2: just have to say, because I would like to very
• 48:32
  Speaker 2: much think that I would stop. But it says she like,
• 48:35
  Speaker 2: because I couldn't imagine that scene. Though you would think
• 48:38
  Speaker 2: that it was you were having a nightmare.
• 48:41
  Speaker 1: Or something, it is a nightmare or scene.
• 48:44
  Speaker 2: So thank goodness that they were like, okay, like, holy heck,
• 48:47
  Speaker 2: we're gonna help this girl.
• 48:49
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 48:50
  Speaker 3: Now.
• 48:50
  Speaker 1: The men quickly brought Suzanne to a nearby house belonging
• 48:52
  Speaker 1: to Michael and Margaret Coop, who lived close to the road,
• 48:55
  Speaker 1: and they brought her there for help. Once inside, the
• 48:58
  Speaker 1: couple immediately dialed nine while trying to help Suzanne in
• 49:02
  Speaker 1: any way as best they could. She was extremely dehydrated
• 49:06
  Speaker 1: and asked for water, but because of the burns on
• 49:09
  Speaker 1: her hands and her injuries, she couldn't even hold the
• 49:11
  Speaker 1: glass herself, so someone had to help her get a
• 49:14
  Speaker 1: drink even in that condition, though witnesses said they remembered
• 49:19
  Speaker 1: something that stood out in their minds. It was Despite
• 49:24
  Speaker 1: her condition, Suzanne remained remarkably polite, thanking people around her
• 49:30
  Speaker 1: for trying to help, saying please, thank.
• 49:33
  Speaker 2: You, Oh gosh, that makes me want to sob.
• 49:37
  Speaker 1: Before the ambulance arrived, Suzanne managed to explain through the
• 49:40
  Speaker 1: pain and exhaustion what had happened. She told them that
• 49:44
  Speaker 1: she had been held captive and tortured for several days,
• 49:47
  Speaker 1: and that she knew the people responsible and they were
• 49:50
  Speaker 1: individuals from a specific house on Langworthy Road in Mauston.
• 49:54
  Speaker 1: When paramedics arrived, Suzanne was quickly rushed to Withernshaw Hospital
• 49:59
  Speaker 1: in Manchester. Doctors there immediately began treating her and her
• 50:03
  Speaker 1: catastrophic burns and injuries, placing her in intensive care and
• 50:07
  Speaker 1: attempting to stabilize her condition. Soon officers arrived too, and
• 50:11
  Speaker 1: they despite the severity of her injuries, she was still
• 50:16
  Speaker 1: able to speak with them too. In those first critical
• 50:20
  Speaker 1: hours after being rescued, she gave investigators the most important
• 50:23
  Speaker 1: piece of information that they would receive. She named each
• 50:27
  Speaker 1: and every one of the people that had done this
• 50:30
  Speaker 1: to her. Even with this information, though, the most important
• 50:34
  Speaker 1: thing at hand was caring for Suzanne. Doctors at the
• 50:38
  Speaker 1: hospital immediately knew how critical her condition was, and the
• 50:41
  Speaker 1: medical staff rushed to stabilize her. They began the difficult
• 50:46
  Speaker 1: process of treating her burns, and the intensive care unit
• 50:49
  Speaker 1: now for clarity. In cases of severe burns like this,
• 50:52
  Speaker 1: the body often struggles to regulate fluids and fight infection,
• 50:56
  Speaker 1: and Suzanne's injuries were among the worst doctors could ever
• 51:00
  Speaker 1: her encounter. Nurses worked to clean the damage, tissue and
• 51:04
  Speaker 1: remove dead skin while keeping her as stable as possible,
• 51:08
  Speaker 1: and as medical staff worked diligently, they were optimistic. However,
• 51:13
  Speaker 1: the damage to her body was simply too extensive. No
• 51:19
  Speaker 1: Over the following days, Suzanne's organs began to fail under
• 51:22
  Speaker 1: the strain of the injuries that she had suffered, and
• 51:25
  Speaker 1: despite the efforts of doctors and nurses working to save
• 51:28
  Speaker 1: her life, the trauma caused by the burns and the
• 51:31
  Speaker 1: prolonged abuse had already pushed her body beyond recovery. On
• 51:37
  Speaker 1: December eighteenth, nineteen ninety two, four days after she had
• 51:41
  Speaker 1: been found walking along the road, Suzanne Kapper died in hospital.
• 51:48
  Speaker 1: She was pronounced dead at just sixteen years old.
• 51:51
  Speaker 2: Oh gosh, Okay, whoa, what a freakin' roller coaster.
• 51:59
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 52:00
  Speaker 2: I was like, for the love of God, please tell
• 52:02
  Speaker 2: me she lives. And she lived.
• 52:04
  Speaker 1: She managed to survive four more fucking days, which I
• 52:08
  Speaker 1: can't fathom that that is incredible on its own.
• 52:11
  Speaker 2: Well, yeah, she is a freakin', like you said, badass
• 52:15
  Speaker 2: of the day. But holy shit, she also deserved to live.
• 52:18
  Speaker 1: She did. She deserved none of what she had done
• 52:22
  Speaker 1: to her, not a single bit of it. She did nothing.
• 52:26
  Speaker 1: She wanted to fit in, she wanted friends, she wanted
• 52:28
  Speaker 1: to belong. She did chores, babysat, did errands, she took abuse.
• 52:33
  Speaker 2: And she was probably polite and super nice to all.
• 52:36
  Speaker 1: Of them exactly. She was literally a fucking angel and
• 52:40
  Speaker 1: they did. Yes.
• 52:41
  Speaker 2: Wow, okay, Well the only I only can there's only
• 52:45
  Speaker 2: one punishment these people freaking deserve. In my mind right now,
• 52:49
  Speaker 2: I agree with you, And I just have to say
• 52:52
  Speaker 2: one other thing too. If she did pass away out there,
• 52:56
  Speaker 2: they probably would have gotten away with this. They could have.
• 53:00
  Speaker 1: They could have.
• 53:01
  Speaker 2: Her family may have known some things, but the chances
• 53:05
  Speaker 2: are far greater, right obviously.
• 53:08
  Speaker 1: Yeah, there's higher chance of like she could have been missing.
• 53:11
  Speaker 1: They might not have ever found her body. Who knows, right,
• 53:13
  Speaker 1: if they found her body, they probably would have been
• 53:16
  Speaker 1: able to pend it on them that sort of thing.
• 53:18
  Speaker 1: Who knows, but I digress or.
• 53:21
  Speaker 2: Someone one of them, knowing how freakin creepy ass bitches
• 53:25
  Speaker 2: they are, could have gone back out there and buried
• 53:27
  Speaker 2: her or something.
• 53:27
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Now, Although Suzanne had not survived, the information she
• 53:31
  Speaker 1: provided to police in those final hours ensured that the
• 53:34
  Speaker 1: people responsible for her suffering would soon be identified. For
• 53:39
  Speaker 1: detectives with the Greater Manchester Police, the information Suzanne gave
• 53:42
  Speaker 1: them was more than enough to begin to move quickly,
• 53:45
  Speaker 1: and in the early hours of December fourteenth, just hours
• 53:48
  Speaker 1: after Suzanne had been found on the roadside, officers arrived
• 53:52
  Speaker 1: at that address that she had provided. Arned with a
• 53:56
  Speaker 1: search warrant, They entered the property and began searching the house.
• 54:00
  Speaker 1: It didn't take long for them to find disturbing evidence
• 54:02
  Speaker 1: to back up what Suzanne had told them. Investigators discovered
• 54:06
  Speaker 1: clumps of Suzanne's shaved hair, along with bloodstains and other
• 54:10
  Speaker 1: signs that a violent assault had taken place. As they
• 54:14
  Speaker 1: continued searching, more items continued to come up that were
• 54:17
  Speaker 1: connected with the attack, and all the evidence that they
• 54:20
  Speaker 1: found strongly supported the story Suzanne had told them from
• 54:23
  Speaker 1: the hospital bed, But investigation didn't stop there. Police were
• 54:29
  Speaker 1: also directed to the nearby property where Suzanne had been
• 54:31
  Speaker 1: held captive during the week of torture. She also told
• 54:34
  Speaker 1: them about that. When officers entered that house, they found
• 54:38
  Speaker 1: the room where Suzanne had been restrained and the scene
• 54:41
  Speaker 1: was horrifying.
• 54:42
  Speaker 2: They didn't even go about cleaning anything up.
• 54:45
  Speaker 1: Well, this is only hours after they had dumped her.
• 54:48
  Speaker 2: But the hair though in the other house.
• 54:51
  Speaker 1: For example.
• 54:51
  Speaker 2: Yeah, fair enough, that's freaking wild.
• 54:54
  Speaker 1: I see what you mean.
• 54:55
  Speaker 2: Yeah, nasty nasty people.
• 54:57
  Speaker 1: Yeah, they're gross. Now that bed, the turned over box
• 55:02
  Speaker 1: spring that she'd been tied to, it was still there
• 55:05
  Speaker 1: in the room, along with ropes and other material that
• 55:08
  Speaker 1: were used to secure and tie her in place. The
• 55:11
  Speaker 1: room itself showed clear signs of what had happened inside.
• 55:14
  Speaker 1: Blood and other evidence of prolonged violence were all present
• 55:17
  Speaker 1: throughout the space. For the detectives working the case, the
• 55:20
  Speaker 1: discovery confirmed the scale of the abuse Suzanne had described,
• 55:24
  Speaker 1: and shortly after the search began, police started arresting the
• 55:27
  Speaker 1: people that she named. One by one, they were all
• 55:32
  Speaker 1: arrested and taken into custody. At first, those involved attempted
• 55:37
  Speaker 1: to deny any sort of responsibility, saying that it wasn't them,
• 55:40
  Speaker 1: or was the other people or whatever making any sort
• 55:43
  Speaker 1: of excuse, But as investigators began questioning them and confronting
• 55:47
  Speaker 1: them with the evidence collected and the parts of the
• 55:49
  Speaker 1: story everything that they knew while things actually started to emerge. Eventually,
• 55:55
  Speaker 1: seventeen year old Anthony Dudson began cooperating with police. Encouraged
• 56:00
  Speaker 1: by his father to tell the truth. Anthony provided investigators
• 56:04
  Speaker 1: with a detailed account of what had happened during the
• 56:06
  Speaker 1: week Suzanne had been held captive. His statement helped confirm
• 56:10
  Speaker 1: many of the details Suzanne herself had already given officers
• 56:14
  Speaker 1: and for some of the detectives involved, the case was
• 56:17
  Speaker 1: unlike anything that ever encountered before the level of cruelty
• 56:21
  Speaker 1: he described in statements. All these things and the evidence
• 56:25
  Speaker 1: that supported it, it was deeply disturbing. Even officers with
• 56:29
  Speaker 1: years of experience later admitted they struggled to comprehend how
• 56:32
  Speaker 1: a group of people could carry out such a sustained
• 56:35
  Speaker 1: torture against an innocent teenage girl, but whether they could
• 56:40
  Speaker 1: believe it or not, it happened, and the investigation had
• 56:43
  Speaker 1: now gathered enough evidence to move forward and prove it,
• 56:47
  Speaker 1: and within the next year, the people responsible for Suzanne
• 56:50
  Speaker 1: Kapper's suffering and murder would face their time in court.
• 56:56
  Speaker 1: In nineteen ninety three, the six individuals that she had
• 56:58
  Speaker 1: named were brought to trial at Manchester Crown Court, with
• 57:02
  Speaker 1: the full details of what had happened began to emerge.
• 57:05
  Speaker 1: Over the course of the trial. Prosecutors laid out the
• 57:08
  Speaker 1: events of the previous December and grim detail. Witness testimony,
• 57:12
  Speaker 1: forensic evidence and statements taken during the investigation all combined
• 57:16
  Speaker 1: to paint a picture of a horrific, prolonged cruelty that
• 57:20
  Speaker 1: shocked even those accustomed to hearing serious criminal cases. The
• 57:25
  Speaker 1: jury heard of how Suzanne had been lured back to
• 57:27
  Speaker 1: the house under false pretense, only to be attacked almost
• 57:30
  Speaker 1: immediately after arriving. Evidence showed that she had been held
• 57:34
  Speaker 1: captive for nearly a week, during which time she was beaten, burned,
• 57:38
  Speaker 1: injected with drugs, humiliated, restrained, and the list goes on.
• 57:44
  Speaker 1: Testimony also described how members of the group repeatedly returned
• 57:47
  Speaker 1: to the room where she was being held, continuing the
• 57:50
  Speaker 1: abuse while she remained unable to defend herself. Medical experts
• 57:54
  Speaker 1: were called to the stand to explain the extent of
• 57:57
  Speaker 1: the damage to her body, while investigators described the condition
• 58:00
  Speaker 1: of the room where she had been tied up. The
• 58:03
  Speaker 1: court also heard testimony from the witness David Hill. He
• 58:06
  Speaker 1: recounted how she had pleaded with him to untie her
• 58:09
  Speaker 1: and help her escape, and how he had left without
• 58:11
  Speaker 1: intervening because he was afraid what the others might do
• 58:14
  Speaker 1: to him. Another key piece of evidence came from Anthony
• 58:17
  Speaker 1: Dudson his statement well It ultimately helped investigators reconstruct many
• 58:24
  Speaker 1: of the events that took place inside that house. As
• 58:27
  Speaker 1: the trial unfolded, the judge overseeing the case described the
• 58:30
  Speaker 1: crime as one carried out with sadistic cruelty, and when
• 58:34
  Speaker 1: the proceedings finally came to an end, the jury returned
• 58:37
  Speaker 1: with its verdicts Jane Powell, Bernadette mcnilly Glenn Powell. They
• 58:43
  Speaker 1: were all convicted of Suzannekapper's murder. Each received a life sentence,
• 58:48
  Speaker 1: with a minimum term of twenty five years before they
• 58:51
  Speaker 1: could be considered for release. Anthony Dudson, who had been
• 58:54
  Speaker 1: only seventeen at the time of the crime and had
• 58:57
  Speaker 1: helped police with recounting the full scope of what had happened.
• 59:02
  Speaker 1: He was also sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum
• 59:05
  Speaker 1: term of eighteen years. The remaining two defendants, Clifford Pook
• 59:09
  Speaker 1: and Jeffrey Lay, were convicted of lesser charges related to
• 59:13
  Speaker 1: Suzanne's captivity. Clifford received fifteen years, while Jeffrey received twelve.
• 59:21
  Speaker 1: In the years that followed the trial, the story of
• 59:23
  Speaker 1: Suzannekaeper's murder continued to haunt the public. The sheer, unimaginable
• 59:28
  Speaker 1: brutality of the crime that shocked the community when at
• 59:32
  Speaker 1: first emerged in court was beyond anyone's imagination, But as
• 59:37
  Speaker 1: time passed, questions of parole began to arise, and the
• 59:41
  Speaker 1: case returned to public attention once again. Although three of
• 59:45
  Speaker 1: the attackers had been sentenced to life imprisonment with minimum
• 59:48
  Speaker 1: terms of twenty five years, the other two men convicted
• 59:51
  Speaker 1: of lesser charges served shorter sentences. Jeffrey Lay, who had
• 59:55
  Speaker 1: been convicted of false imprisonment, was released from prison in
• 59:59
  Speaker 1: nineteen ninety eight after serving roughly only six years of
• 1:00:02
  Speaker 1: his sentence.
• 1:00:03
  Speaker 2: Oh my gosh.
• 1:00:05
  Speaker 1: Clifford Pook, who had played a direct role in Suzanne's abuse,
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 1: remained incarcerated longer, but was eventually released in two thousand
• 1:00:13
  Speaker 1: and one after serving around only nine frick.
• 1:00:16
  Speaker 2: I think anyone that was even remotely part of this,
• 1:00:19
  Speaker 2: knew about this, should just never see the light of
• 1:00:23
  Speaker 2: day again.
• 1:00:24
  Speaker 1: I know now the possibility that others involved in the
• 1:00:27
  Speaker 1: crime and how they might one day be released two
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 1: was something that Suzanne's family had feared from the very beginning.
• 1:00:33
  Speaker 1: Her mother, Elizabeth Dunbar, remained outspoken about the case for
• 1:00:37
  Speaker 1: many years. For her, the brutality of what had been
• 1:00:39
  Speaker 1: done to her daughter Suzanne meant that the people responsible
• 1:00:43
  Speaker 1: should never be allowed back into society. She felt the
• 1:00:46
  Speaker 1: same way you do, and whenever the issue of parole
• 1:00:49
  Speaker 1: was raised, she spoke publicly about her belief that those
• 1:00:52
  Speaker 1: responsible for her daughter's suffering should spend the rest of
• 1:00:55
  Speaker 1: their lives behind bars. Now, over time, the fear of
• 1:00:59
  Speaker 1: parole ultimately become reality. After serving the minimum portion of
• 1:01:05
  Speaker 1: their sentences, several of the main perpetrators were eventually granted parole.
• 1:01:10
  Speaker 1: Anthony Dudson, who had been seventeen at the time of
• 1:01:12
  Speaker 1: the crime, was released after serving his minimum term. Later,
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 1: the individuals who had received life sentences also began completing
• 1:01:19
  Speaker 1: their minimum sentences too. One of the most controversial decisions
• 1:01:22
  Speaker 1: came in twenty thirteen, when Bernadette McNeely sentence was reduced
• 1:01:26
  Speaker 1: slightly after a judge described her as a model prisoner
• 1:01:31
  Speaker 1: who had shown remorse during her time behind bars.
• 1:01:34
  Speaker 2: I don't care. Yeah, Oh, it makes me honestly sick.
• 1:01:40
  Speaker 2: Like when you were just talking about Suzanne's mom and
• 1:01:45
  Speaker 2: her having to hear what happened to her daughter. Holy shit,
• 1:01:51
  Speaker 2: I know that makes me just nauseous because that is
• 1:01:55
  Speaker 2: just something that a mom should never ever ever have
• 1:01:59
  Speaker 2: to hear about her own child going through.
• 1:02:02
  Speaker 1: And it would be they would make her sick to herself.
• 1:02:05
  Speaker 1: It makes me almost sick to my stuffy.
• 1:02:06
  Speaker 2: Yeah, she I don't even Yeah, Like her life going
• 1:02:09
  Speaker 2: forward after that is also, you know, pretty messed up.
• 1:02:14
  Speaker 1: Yeah. So, now, the decision of lightning Bernadette's sentence because
• 1:02:18
  Speaker 1: she was a model prisoner, meant that she would be
• 1:02:20
  Speaker 1: eligible for release sooner than originally expected, and two years later,
• 1:02:24
  Speaker 1: in twenty fifteen, Bernadette was released from prison. That decision
• 1:02:29
  Speaker 1: sparked renewed anger amongst many members of the public who
• 1:02:32
  Speaker 1: still remember the details of the case. For many, the
• 1:02:34
  Speaker 1: idea that someone involved with such a horrific crime and
• 1:02:39
  Speaker 1: they could just simply walk free was very difficult to accept,
• 1:02:43
  Speaker 1: and most of all, for Suzanne's family, the passage of
• 1:02:45
  Speaker 1: time had not lessened the pain of what had happened.
• 1:02:48
  Speaker 1: They had lost a daughter or a sister in circumstances
• 1:02:51
  Speaker 1: that were almost impossible to comprehend. Just like you were talking,
• 1:02:56
  Speaker 1: No prison sentenced, no matter how long, could ever undo
• 1:02:59
  Speaker 1: what had been done during that week in December of
• 1:03:01
  Speaker 1: nineteen ninety two. Now, ultimately all of the perpetrators of
• 1:03:07
  Speaker 1: the torture and murder of Suzanne Kapper have been released,
• 1:03:11
  Speaker 1: including Jeane and Glenn Jean in twenty seventeen and Glenn
• 1:03:16
  Speaker 1: in twenty twenty three. They are all free now, while Suzanne,
• 1:03:21
  Speaker 1: on the other hand, lost her life.
• 1:03:23
  Speaker 2: Oh man, they're just walking amongst uss eh yep.
• 1:03:28
  Speaker 1: For more than three decades we have sat on this story.
• 1:03:32
  Speaker 1: Time has passed since she walked down that road, Since
• 1:03:35
  Speaker 1: Suzanne endured her body being burned, and her strength was
• 1:03:40
  Speaker 1: all nearly gone. Yet she still desperately searched for help.
• 1:03:44
  Speaker 1: For many people who learned about this case, it is
• 1:03:47
  Speaker 1: the brutality of what happened during that week in December
• 1:03:50
  Speaker 1: of nineteen ninety two that is the hardest to comprehend.
• 1:03:53
  Speaker 1: The sustained torture, the humiliation, the final act of violence
• 1:03:56
  Speaker 1: that left a teenage girl she was sixteen, and she
• 1:04:01
  Speaker 1: was burned alive in the woods. They have all made
• 1:04:04
  Speaker 1: Suzann's murder one of the most disturbing crimes in modern
• 1:04:07
  Speaker 1: British history. But beyond the horror of the crime itself,
• 1:04:12
  Speaker 1: Suzanne Kapper is remembered for something else. Even after enduring
• 1:04:18
  Speaker 1: nearly a week of unimaginable abuse, she still found somehow
• 1:04:24
  Speaker 1: the strength to survive long enough to reach the road
• 1:04:27
  Speaker 1: and ask for help, And in the hours that followed,
• 1:04:30
  Speaker 1: while doctors fought to keep her alive in hospital, Suzanne
• 1:04:33
  Speaker 1: spoke out. Her throat was likely burnt from the heat
• 1:04:37
  Speaker 1: as she was being burnt alive, and her lungs were
• 1:04:39
  Speaker 1: probably filled with ash and smoke, but still she managed
• 1:04:42
  Speaker 1: to give police the information they needed to begin their investigation.
• 1:04:47
  Speaker 1: She named the people responsible. Those statements ensured that the
• 1:04:53
  Speaker 1: individuals who tortured her would not escape justice, even if
• 1:04:56
  Speaker 1: it doesn't feel like it was enough. Without Suzanne's final testimony,
• 1:05:02
  Speaker 1: investigators might have faced a far more difficult task reconstructing
• 1:05:06
  Speaker 1: what happened inside that house on Langworthy Road. In fact,
• 1:05:09
  Speaker 1: they may never have found her, and they may never
• 1:05:11
  Speaker 1: have found those responsible people who helped her in the
• 1:05:15
  Speaker 1: morning on that day when she searched for help. Also
• 1:05:20
  Speaker 1: remembered something else remarkable about Suzanne. Despite the pain she
• 1:05:25
  Speaker 1: must have been experiencing, she remained kind, polite, soft spoken,
• 1:05:32
  Speaker 1: and thanked the strangers who had stopped to help her.
• 1:05:35
  Speaker 1: And she simply asked for water while they waited for emergency.
• 1:05:39
  Speaker 2: Services, when really, at that point she should have had
• 1:05:44
  Speaker 2: about zero faith in humanity. Yeah, so that's incredible.
• 1:05:49
  Speaker 1: It was a small moment of humanity in the middle
• 1:05:52
  Speaker 1: of her own deeply tragic story. Today, Suzanne Kapper is
• 1:05:58
  Speaker 1: buried at Blackly's Sanemitarian Manchester, where her grave remains a
• 1:06:02
  Speaker 1: place for remembrance for those who still reflect on the case.
• 1:06:06
  Speaker 1: Her story continues to be discussed in documentaries, articles, and
• 1:06:10
  Speaker 1: true crime investigations, not only because of the cruelty involved,
• 1:06:14
  Speaker 1: but because it shows how vulnerable people can be become
• 1:06:17
  Speaker 1: targets in the wrong environment for reasons as simple as
• 1:06:21
  Speaker 1: wanting to belong. Suzanne was only sixteen years old when
• 1:06:26
  Speaker 1: she died. Her life was short, shaped by instability and
• 1:06:31
  Speaker 1: a search for acceptance that ultimately led her into the
• 1:06:33
  Speaker 1: company of people who exploited her vulnerability and kindness. But
• 1:06:39
  Speaker 1: the courage that she showed in her final hours walking
• 1:06:43
  Speaker 1: out of the woods, finding help, identifying those responsible, being polite,
• 1:06:51
  Speaker 1: they all ensured that her voice would be heard. And
• 1:06:55
  Speaker 1: because of that, the truth of what happened to Suzanne
• 1:06:58
  Speaker 1: Capper will never be forgotten. And that's the story of
• 1:07:06
  Speaker 1: Susan and Kapper.
• 1:07:08
  Speaker 2: Gosh, I'm just beyond devastated that she didn't make it. Yeah,
• 1:07:15
  Speaker 2: I don't know ever, Like because like I said earlier,
• 1:07:18
  Speaker 2: it was kind of a roller coaster. I was like,
• 1:07:20
  Speaker 2: holy shit, she's gonna survive. Like I didn't realize this
• 1:07:23
  Speaker 2: was a survivor story. And then it wasn't.
• 1:07:27
  Speaker 1: I could I could just sob But I went through
• 1:07:29
  Speaker 1: the exact same roller coaster ride. When I learned about
• 1:07:32
  Speaker 1: the story, I got to that moment where I'm like, wait,
• 1:07:34
  Speaker 1: she's a lot. Does she survive? Oh my god, yes,
• 1:07:37
  Speaker 1: I'm like, you fucking go, girl, don't get me wrong,
• 1:07:39
  Speaker 1: like you fuck, she still rock that, She's still a
• 1:07:41
  Speaker 1: fucking badass. For god, I wish she lived.
• 1:07:44
  Speaker 2: Yeah, like after all that, I mean putting the flame
• 1:07:49
  Speaker 2: out and going to get help, but I mean, yeah,
• 1:07:54
  Speaker 2: her body had just been through far too much.
• 1:07:57
  Speaker 1: Yeah, she was she had been through far too much.
• 1:07:59
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's honestly a freaking miracle that she lived as
• 1:08:02
  Speaker 2: long as she did. Yeah, from what you've described, what
• 1:08:05
  Speaker 2: you described happened to her.
• 1:08:07
  Speaker 1: And all those people who did that to her, they're
• 1:08:10
  Speaker 1: all free. Each one of them could be listening to
• 1:08:12
  Speaker 1: this podcast right now, in fact, and if you are listening,
• 1:08:15
  Speaker 1: I want to tell you, guys, one thing, Fuck you.
• 1:08:19
  Speaker 1: That's it.
• 1:08:20
  Speaker 2: That's like too nice, I know, but yeah, yeah, it's
• 1:08:25
  Speaker 2: pretty unbelievable that someone could that you could do something
• 1:08:29
  Speaker 2: like that to a human and then you still get
• 1:08:31
  Speaker 2: to like live your life, yeah, and in freedom, you know,
• 1:08:35
  Speaker 2: after however long, right, like I get live your life
• 1:08:39
  Speaker 2: in jail or whatever. But to be put out and
• 1:08:42
  Speaker 2: oh my gosh, I don't know.
• 1:08:43
  Speaker 1: And every one of them should have rotted. The guy
• 1:08:45
  Speaker 1: who pulled her teeth out, the requires smashed her teeth
• 1:08:48
  Speaker 1: in and pulled them out. He did less than ten years.
• 1:08:51
  Speaker 2: You can only hope that they're just, I don't know, haunted.
• 1:08:56
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I hope they're haunted every single fucking.
• 1:08:59
  Speaker 2: Night by this, that they cannot live a proper life
• 1:09:03
  Speaker 2: because they feel so terrible for what they did, and
• 1:09:06
  Speaker 2: that maybe they live their life being kind people. But
• 1:09:10
  Speaker 2: still I don't even freaking give a shit.
• 1:09:12
  Speaker 1: Honestly, I hope Suzanne is haunting each and every one
• 1:09:15
  Speaker 1: of them.
• 1:09:16
  Speaker 2: But she's not too nice. She's better than that. Wouldn't
• 1:09:20
  Speaker 2: she wouldn't. She's a freaking kind human walk.
• 1:09:22
  Speaker 1: You're right, well, I hope they're conscious haunts them then
• 1:09:25
  Speaker 1: instead there. Yeah, thank you guys for being here. This
• 1:09:28
  Speaker 1: was a heavy, heavy episode.
• 1:09:30
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you look just wrecked. I think we're probably all
• 1:09:32
  Speaker 2: just wrecked.
• 1:09:33
  Speaker 1: I think. So. It was heavy research and yeah I
• 1:09:36
  Speaker 1: was kind of heavy getting through it, But thank you
• 1:09:38
  Speaker 1: guys for getting through it with us. To Susanne, yeah,
• 1:09:42
  Speaker 1: I a little bit left my drink so for her,
• 1:09:46
  Speaker 1: And I'm not going to do an end of the
• 1:09:48
  Speaker 1: episode spiel. Just thank you for being here.
• 1:09:50
  Speaker 3: And until next time, to Susan, to Suzanne, and until
• 1:09:53
  Speaker 3: next time, stay wicked.
• 1:10:03
  Speaker 1: B