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Murders & Mayhem
36 Plays1 year ago
Tuck in with Nylene and Nym for some grotesque and unsettling stories that fit the mood of the holiday with some dark roots and dark fruits, Thanksgiving. Nym explores many of the stories of origin of the holiday while Nylene serves a grim dish of retail murder. If you're checking this out on day one or revisiting in hypothetical future years for some turkey day nostalgia - take your chunk of meat out of the freezer. It needs DAYS. DAAAAAAAAAAAAAYS.
Enter the Nightmare for sources, show notes, and transcripts.
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Transcript
00:00:25
Speaker
Welcome
Introduction to 'Nightmare Cottage'
00:00:26
Speaker
to Nim and Nyleen's Nightmare Cottage, where we explore history, mysteries, and other tales of the macabre. I'm Nim. And I'm Nyleen. Let the nightmare begin.
00:00:41
Speaker
Disturbing and mature content to follow. Into the nightmare, if you dare.
When Do Holidays Begin?
00:00:52
Speaker
Hello! Welcome to fall time. Fall time slash thinking about winter time slash everyone's confused about and what holiday we should be experiencing.
00:01:05
Speaker
Yeah, our friend group has had quite the argument about when the winter holiday stuff starts and lives if Thanksgiving matters. That's because you guys all want it to be spooky 24-7, which I can agree with, but like I also feel...
00:01:21
Speaker
Ah, like Christmas mixed with some spooky would be nice. I don't know Early Christmas is exciting. So you know you know that I do Christmas
Spooky vs. Traditional Holidays
00:01:29
Speaker
mixed with spooky. That's what I do. Yeah. But I feel like yours is more like spooky Christmas.
00:01:34
Speaker
Okay. I want like Christmas time and spooky time. Separately. Yes. Okay. Like next to each other. Sure. not saying that I don't like your personal. No, i pride myself on my extreme as spooky Christmas. And I think our friend group for the most part is like they they separate theirs for the most part. Yeah. so Yeah. No, I think if I had it my way, I would put up my Christmas stuff November 1st. And then i would probably not take it down until well, actually one year, I think I actually successfully left it up until like July. Oh my gosh. so
00:02:09
Speaker
yeah, that was before Ace could tell me what to do because it was my own house. Like he was still around and very upset about the situation. i don't understand. He's the kind of person who really enjoys that stuff. I know. Like he really, but he's also very like structured in the like, well, this belongs here.
00:02:25
Speaker
And it only belongs in this period. Oh, I'm very much a fan of breaking all of the rules when it comes to that stuff. I'm going to make it my tradition, my customs. Sure, based off of things I've experienced in my family and with my friends and stuff in the past. But I i am a fan of shaping my traditions and customs and not being, don't want to say stuck with what came before. but yeah, I don't know.
00:02:51
Speaker
It's mine and nobody can tell me otherwise. And see, I think I grew up with like a lot of those like set traditions. So for me, I don't even want to think about tradition. I just want to do what feels right in the moment. Right.
00:03:03
Speaker
And so I think that's why I'm slowly trying to find ways to like let Christmas take over my house without him noticing like, you know. the Christmas lights that have been in the kitchen for like a whole year. Yes. I i ah noticed that small victory. I'm like, there is still evergreen above those cabinets. Oh, one day you shall see. Christmas will be here forever.
00:03:24
Speaker
Excited. i mean, obviously Thanksgiving is great and looking forward to the food and the turkey and all that stuff. I don't know. Like, For me, it feels like such a waste of time because you spend so much time cooking and then like it's gone in like two seconds. Right.
00:03:41
Speaker
Well, we're not ready for that yet. How how have you been? How how are you doing? mean, you know, I think like the holiday is kind of getting to me a little bit. I'm really excited for Christmas, but I'm also like it's this weird in between. yeah. Yeah.
00:03:55
Speaker
I know that you just went on a trip recently. I did So I think we've mentioned previously that Monkey and I both have
Adventures in New Mexico
00:04:02
Speaker
birthdays around Halloween. We also got married on Halloween. So we call it our birth-a-ween-iversary.
00:04:08
Speaker
And so that's the time of year we'll usually go on a trip of some sort. This year we went to New Mexico. We wanted to go to the original Meow Wolf. It was very cool. i'm so jealous. um I super recommend it. And I recommend that anybody who's going to go to any of the Meow Wolf locations, there's an app.
00:04:27
Speaker
And you'll be real tempted to not use the app because it will drain the crap out of your battery. Because you have to be connected to Bluetooth at all times for it to work. But here's the thing.
00:04:37
Speaker
We spent like three hours in there, but there's so much to look at, see, and digest. Yeah. It's like, you don't want to miss anything. You don't want to miss anything, but there's also a lot of other people, right? So you can't just hover over this desk with the safe combination for 30 minutes. You've got to like take your five-ish minutes and move on. And so I was like kind of disappointed that I was missing stuff.
00:04:58
Speaker
I love the art. It's amazing, but I'm kind of missing a lot of this story. And the story is amazing. And I am very confused and want to not be. Turns out... The app, not only is it like unlocking clues for you as you go to to kind of unravel the story, but it also stores the videos and the writing stuff that you have to all of the clues and stuff are in the app. Once you unlock them, they're in there. So you don't have to sit and hover over everything. You can get the story later and appreciate the art now. Yeah. I like that. Yeah. And I could like ah read re digestion, a digestion of what sure. And there's so much content. I've been reading a little bit of it every few days since I've been there. And I've been home for couple weeks now. So it's very cool. And every location has that feature. So if you're going to me, I will use the app, have a backup battery or a full battery when you go in and just, you know, be ready for that. But and you don't have to really use it aside from just having it on while you're there. I wonder if the story is the same at all the locations. It's not. Oh, that's awesome. yeah I love that. Now they're all connected because it's, it's the same universe, right? But it's, yeah, no, it's super cool. I recommend going to any of them there. This was actually the first one I went to, but I believe in the brand, man, they they've got me for life. I i will go to all of them at that some point. That's awesome. Yeah, I mean, the go to the one over here to near us, but.
00:06:14
Speaker
But yeah, no, i love that. Was there anything else cool about your trip? Yeah. So aside from Meow Wolf, the whole reason I picked this area was because, you know, a couple hours away from where we were staying, there is this really cool weird cemetery. And I'm not going to say the name of the cemetery. And I'm not going to say where it was because one of the ah locals in one of the shops that I was buying stuff at when it came up that I went to the cemetery, he asked me not to post the pictures. He asked me not to to to talk about it there. This place used to be a tourist destination. it is no longer they don't want people to go up there. So I am not going to say where it was, but it was really cool. I wonder why they don't want it to be a tourist destination, though, because i mean, you do think they'd want the extra income from tourism. The tombs are not like regular gravestones. They're either art installations or like personal items. People are like messing with them. People are things.
00:07:09
Speaker
the stuff. um But it was so beautiful and very cool. I feel very honored to have gotten to see it. i will post a picture, but I won't say where we went because I don't want to Yeah. And not that we have 11 billion listeners or anything like that is not going to you know create a rush up there. But I was asked. So therefore, I will not. Yeah, that's fair. Yeah. um But that was definitely a highlight of it for me.
00:07:33
Speaker
And then other than that, we just kind of hung out in Santa Fe and enjoyed the weather and the pretty trees and the company. the company yeah so and we spent a lot of time in our hotel which was fun and played games and chilled and got rest yeah so it was ah a much needed vacation it it was super good times and i could recommend santa fe yeah like that yeah that's awesome so beyond your trip anything else oh probably It takes so long to come down off of Halloween. Yeah. um That is when I'm at the peak of my power, you know. yeah So I'm still kind of basking in that a little
00:08:20
Speaker
In the spirit of things I did, i did a story. I looked up some stuff about Thanksgiving. o So is it traditional Thanksgiving or like what? Well, we'll get to that. Okay.
00:08:33
Speaker
I want to know, first of all, do you have any Thanksgiving traditions or favorite memories that stand out over the years? Not really. i will say most of Thanksgiving growing up was just me, my mom, my dad and my sister, because my whole family is in other states.
00:08:50
Speaker
So i don't know, like, while it was great, you know, it was just it was just like an almost like dress a little nicer for, you know, a little bit of a nicer dinner, I guess. My mom and dad aren't like big Thanksgiving cooking people like you know a lot of the the food that they cook is more of a traditional Hispanic kind of food so Thanksgiving was usually you know pre-bought food from like what's that place Boston market ah yeah right so I mean it was it was a a tradition in itself right like to order that and and kind of eat that and and stuff so As I grew older, I think it was kind of nice to, you know, be with Ace's family because Ace's family makes such a big deal of it His mom always like goes all out, makes amazing food. And so I guess, I guess in a way that's like become the new new tradition is trying to integrate the family and, you know, learning how how they do things has been nice. That's cool. Yeah. What about you? So when I was really little, we did the whole, you know, what you see on TV kind of Thanksgiving with the extended family from all over comes to my grandmother's house. And but I was young enough to be at the kids table and not really involved in what was going on. And I would go off and play with the cousins.
00:09:58
Speaker
I no longer have contact with any of my extended family. So that definitely doesn't happen anymore. and then I like I've worked I've worked in retail from the time i was 16 years old till, yeah you know, for like 20 years. I did it for a long
Retail and Thanksgiving Experiences
00:10:11
Speaker
time. So you didn't get you didn't get Thanksgiving. Right, exactly. And so with my not extended family, my like my dad and my mom and stuff, I would kind of get a little of guilt about not being able to participate in just whatever little dinners or whatever we were doing. But eventually, it just kind of came the norm. So I would get left all alone for Thanksgiving. And that really worked out for me. Because when you work retail, if say you're just working Black Friday, well, you probably have to be there at four o'clock in the morning to open that for five. Oh, that was the worst. Which means i have to leave the house by three, which means I have to be up by two. You know, it's it's just this whole thing. Or if we actually had to open on Thanksgiving, which we had to do a few years. Yeah. yeah Obviously, you can't... I couldn't even, like, drive two hours out of town to go see my grandma for that. I had to just...
00:10:52
Speaker
not do anything I would just sleep right so once we finally got out of retail that was just kind of the tradition everybody just continued to leave us alone so we now I will wake up early i do a slow cooker turkey breast that is amazing and perfect for two people it's like good for two people for dinner and like a handful of leftover rounds after that yeah and and I'll put the parade on and and look at Black Friday ads and not buy anything and just and see I've never seen the parade I should probably do that one of these years ah So here's, tension it I don't know. There's a lot of musical numbers and marching bands and floats. and And then the fact that it ends with Santa Claus, which is in my family was always the traditional beginning of Christmas, which is why Christmas always in my house begins. day is that the Macy's Day Parade? Yeah. Oh, I thought that was Christmas Parade.
00:11:40
Speaker
it it's It starts with the turkey and it ends with a with with Santa Claus. And and you honestly, I really am just watching it for that Santa Claus at the end that starts Christmas. And then then we decorate the house for Christmas. And that's another thing, actually, that we have started doing is, and I've convinced Ace because he used to make me wait until December 1st, but now I can on Thanksgiving day or Christmas.
00:12:01
Speaker
Thanksgiving Eve, it's getting a little bit, you know, closer and closer every time. i think this time he said, if you really want to, by the 15th, at least wait halfway through the month. Bye. So yeah, we're getting closer. um He's going listen to this and be like, I reject everything. So um yes, I feel like small victories. Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. So we'll do our outside, put the, we have icicle lights that we put on that turn red. so So it looks like they're bloody icicles. And then we put the skeletons out in some kind of a festive display and we'll put up our black Christmas tree with the eyeball and skull ornaments and the it's just the best and that starts everything like that starts i mean i've already started shopping anyways as for a spooky bitch i do a whole lot of festive stuff too i like how we literally just skipped thanksgiving talking about christmas already i talked about how i start the slow cooker and i put it on the parade and once that parade is over it's christmas oh my gosh i can't help it i you know i'm a tim burton kid what i supposed to do enough so tell me all about thanksgiving So were were you taught about like the pilgrims and Indians, like the Mayflower pilgrims? Yeah. Okay. So they did that in school in the nineties then. Yeah. Yeah. But I went to like a Catholic school, so I don't know. oh fair. Yeah. Okay.
00:13:20
Speaker
Also rude. what What? Don't date me. I'm sorry. I'm older than you. If I date you, I just make it look worse for you. I suppose.
00:13:33
Speaker
ah But yeah, so that was definitely something they were still teaching in the 80s. We always did the handprint turkeys, but we also made like pilgrim hats and feathered headbands out of construction paper. Oh, yeah, we did that. Yeah. Nowadays, people are more aware of like the genocide, torture and disease inflicted on the Native Americans by European colonists. And American Thanksgiving is kind of evolved into more of a eat and be with family day and not really a whole lot of focus on like the pilgrims and an Indian, you know, kind of situation. And I say that initial Pilgrims and Indians situation, while it happened, it's not exactly... As copacetic as they make it seem. Well, it's also not exactly the origins of the traditional American Thanksgiving either. so But we will get to that. Yeah. Lots of misinformation about the origins. So even Time Magazine is guilty of falsely reporting the Mystic Massacre from the Anglo-Pequot War as the incident that kicked off the traditional American Thanksgiving holiday.
00:14:25
Speaker
Despite occurring over a decade after the meeting of the Wampanoags and the Mayflower Pilgrims that is supposed to be the origin story, the massacre is widely and erroneously associated with the first Thanksgiving.
00:14:35
Speaker
So what had happened was, okay, so it's complicated. and just going to do my best here. In the early 1600s, the Pequots were the main tribe in the area that is now Connecticut. They had a trade alliance with the Dutch. But once the Mayflower showed up, trade got a little weird until the Dutch and the English agreed that the Dutch would trade with the Pequots and the English would trade with the Narragansetts and the Mohegans. Naturally, there was hostility between each of these groups.
00:15:01
Speaker
The Pequot had been in a war with the colonists for about a year when things really kind of came to a head. A traitor was found murdered by the Pequots on his ship and retaliations went back and forth between the Pequots and the Anglos until a group of 200 Pequot warriors killed six men and three women all unarmed. This enraged the colonists. So they partnered up with the Narragansetts and the Mohegans and went for the slaughter.
00:15:23
Speaker
Oh, goodness. Yeah. So the Pequot settlement was fortified, but it only had two entrances. The colonists blocked off both of those entrances and then set the settlement on fire. God. And then anyone that was climbing over the walls to escape was murdered by the other natives.
00:15:37
Speaker
Most of the warriors of the Pequots were out on a hunting excursion. So almost all of the 400 to 700 killed were women, children, ah elderly and infirm. Yeah. Yeah. Many of the Narragansetts and Mohegans also suffered casualties as well because the dumbass colonists couldn't tell them apart from the Pequots. Wow. So at this point, the colonists saw this as a great victory, and the governor of Massachusetts Bay declared it a day of Thanksgiving.
00:16:02
Speaker
But so in those days, religious people really kind of declared days of Thanksgiving after big events that they felt were influenced by their god. Like, yeah, they're paying tribute, not paying tribute, but like. Honoring, right. Yeah. And thank, thanking, you know, for that. They were more moments of fasting and reflection rather than gathering and feasting. Oh, it's simply part of the vocabulary at that time. Because of the massive and lasting impact this massacre had on Native and colonial relations, even to this day, the significance of the word Thanksgiving was misappropriated here.
00:16:30
Speaker
But the Mayflower Pilgrims and the Wampanoag thing was also not really the first Thanksgiving. yeah The real reason the American Thanksgiving is what it is today, it actually happened 200 years later. Thanksgiving was being celebrated in various states on various dates prior to the Civil War. So it was kind of already being celebrated for various reasons all over or at least in some places, but not everywhere.
00:16:54
Speaker
Sarah Josepha Hale, who actually wrote the nursery rhyme, Mary Had a Little Lamb, had been campaigning for decades to declare Thanksgiving as a national holiday. She was the editor of the Goaties Ladies books. Goaties? Goaties. Kind of like a Better Homes and Gardens of the 1800s. Okay. Yeah. But she encouraged women to make nutritious food, have clean and well-decorated homes, and was an advocate for girls' education. And I'm sorry, what year was this?
Debunking Thanksgiving Myths
00:17:18
Speaker
This was around the Civil War, so like 1860s. Okay. She had pushed her idea for declaring Thanksgiving a national holiday on a specific day to several presidents before one finally listened. Shortly after the Battle of Gettysburg, Abraham Lincoln was looking for a way to unite the country when he received the dismissive from Hale. She said, quote, The last Thursday of November has these advantages. Harvests of all kinds are gathered in.
00:17:42
Speaker
Summer travelers have returned to their homes. The diseases that during summer and early autumn often afflict some portion of our country have ceased and all are prepared to enjoy a day of Thanksgiving. It now needs national recognition and authoritative fixation only to become permanently an American custom and institution.
00:17:59
Speaker
So she pushed the narrative, actually, of the pleasant meeting between natives and the English in her magazines, and even school books picked up on that as a fact. Yeah, that's what we were taught. Yeah, so she we were taught there was like a massacre, but it was like after it was it was like basically like this was the this Thanksgiving was the peace brought for it all.
00:18:17
Speaker
Yeah. So on that note, she did think it was needed to have a wholesome foundation in order for it to actually unite the American people. And and she was right. Yeah. But the 1621 feast between the Wampanoags and the pilgrims did happen. but it was more of a political move by Chief Usumikin to protect his people from the colonists.
00:18:38
Speaker
So while this did have some short term benefits, the colonists eventually slaughtered Usumikin and his people. So that's yeah it. That's the that's the real the real Thanksgiving? i well That's the for really story?
00:18:52
Speaker
the The for really story is that we dressed up something that kind of happened and made it look wholesome when it actually was... A very, very grim situation. All of those Pequots were freaking murdered. Not in the actual Thanksgiving story here, but these are the stories that made up how Native Americans were treated and are still treated today. yeah I know a lot of Native American communities make this a day of mourning.
00:19:18
Speaker
and Rightfully so. That's sad. Much like I do if pretty much all holidays, I really aside from Halloween take away all of the historic meaning of any of it and just kind of celebrate my own way that you know, it is definitely worth paying some tribute there.
00:19:31
Speaker
Yeah, i agree. Thanks for sharing that. I knew a lot of that stuff that had happened. I didn't realize the timing of the events really, right? So I feel like a lot of that isn't yeah remembered and anymore. So thanks. Thanks for sharing that.
00:19:51
Speaker
So I'm going to go a different route. I'm also going to talk about things that happened on Thanksgiving and Black Friday. More present day.
The Ashley Harris Case
00:19:58
Speaker
Okay. And a little darker. Well, i don't know if it's darker. We'll find out.
00:20:03
Speaker
Our story begins on November 27th, 2014. Thanksgiving Day. Okay. Right? 2014. Ashley Harris was working as the assistant manager at the American Eagle in the Fort Worth Hewlett Mall. So she had been working long hours to get the store ready for Black Friday sales event. You know how that goes. And the sales event was supposed to start the next morning.
00:20:23
Speaker
So she worked from 6 p.m. Thanksgiving Day to 3 a.m. m on November 28th, which is Black Friday, just getting everything ready for the opening event. yep So one of her friends, Alexis, was dog sitting for her while she was at work and stayed with her until about 5 a.m. m Because like I said, she was at work until 3 a.m. m She got home and her friend was with her until 5 a.m.
00:20:46
Speaker
Alexis stated that Ashley locked the door behind her as she left. And around 7 a.m., m Alexis noticed that she had missed many calls from Ashley. So she tried to call her back, but wasn't able to reach her for some reason.
00:21:00
Speaker
So on November 28th, 2014, at 8 a.m., so a few hours after she had seen her friend, Fort Worth Fire Department responded to a fire at the River Ranch Apartments.
00:21:11
Speaker
Ashley Harris, age 31, was found deceased on her bedroom floor with her hands and feet bound with duct tape and covered in blood. A medical examination found blunt force trauma to her face and head. There were also signs of strangulation on her neck and throat, and her throat was cut. Not, like, fully slit, but it was cut.
00:21:28
Speaker
And she had been set on fire. Jesus. Yes. It was determined that the fire in her apartment was started in her bedroom with rubbing alcohol being used as an accelerant. Wow. Now, I'm not sure if you know this about rubbing alcohol. So, like, it is very quickly flammable. Right. But it it goes out real fast. It goes out very fast. So whoever used this was not aware. And they used it in different spots all around the apartment. So it didn't do much to, like, accelerate the fire, luckily. So, you know, they... The fire department was able to get there to put it out at least. But she was already dead at the time of all that happening. So there were no signs of forced entry. Nothing of value had been taken. Her truck was still in the apartment complex parking lot.
00:22:13
Speaker
And the door to her apartment was locked. Somebody with a key then? Yeah, someone with a key or someone that, you know, I don't know how else they would have gotten out. Investigators spoke to the friend Alexis who had been there earlier that morning. She said nothing seemed abnormal except Ashley's car and house keys were missing. So keys that she usually left sitting on her kitchen counter were now gone.
00:22:36
Speaker
Ashley's downstairs neighbor told the police that he had heard loud thumping, screaming, heavy breathing, and Ashley's front door closing at around 7.30 a.m., so about 30 minutes before the fire department got there.
00:22:48
Speaker
He then immediately called 911 a few minutes later when his carbon monoxide detector started going off and water started falling through his roof from the apartment above him. So while on the phone with 911, he noticed a black two-door infinity with its lights off leaving the parking space in front of Ashley's apartment.
00:23:07
Speaker
So the investigators were looking into this a little more and they spoke to Ashley's boss. Did he get license plate? No, but he did notice a faded toll tag on that and on the car.
00:23:18
Speaker
Ashley's boss, who they spoke to, informed investigators that Ashley had recently reported two coworkers as having some kind of involvement in a burglary that occurred at the American Eagle store she worked at.
00:23:29
Speaker
This burglary had happened a few months earlier, in August. After hours, a hooded burglar had come into the store, stolen $18,000 from the American Eagle Hewlin Mall store, following the sales tax holiday weekend.
00:23:42
Speaker
So they seemed to know where all the cameras were. They knew exactly where the safety deposit box was, used another employee's key who had not worked that day, and left the key in the lockbox. Assuming the reason for this was dependent on someone else, right? Sure. So upon reviewing the camera footage, it was noted that employee Carter Cervantes, who was the assistant manager,
00:24:02
Speaker
had left the back door unlocked and but upon closing that night of the burglary, and a lot of the staff who watched the but video believed the burglar looked a lot like another employee named David Mallory.
00:24:13
Speaker
To make matters worse, David failed to return to work for his three scheduled shifts after the burglary. but That's not suspicious. Not at all. So although the investigators didn't have enough proof to pin the burglary on them, American Eagle Management believed they had enough evidence to fire both Carter Cervantes and David Mallory.
00:24:31
Speaker
It was also noted that Carter Cervantes' vehicle matched the description of the black two-door Infiniti seen the night of Ashley's murder. Yes. Yes. So she called them out on it at some point? Ashley had called Carter and David out on possibly being involved in this murder. She called them out to the police. And then, of course, they ended up getting fired.
00:24:50
Speaker
Sure. A little bit of background on Carter Svantis and David Mallory. So Carter had managed a store in Amarillo, Texas, for several years. While working there, she hired 19-year-old David Mallory.
00:25:03
Speaker
And it wasn't too long after that they started dating. oh So when management discovered they were dating, they gave Carter the option to either quit or transfer to another store. Right. So she agreed to transfer to the Fort Worth store six hours away, while David stayed in Amarillo, where he was eventually fired because he kept missing too many shifts. And so he was fired and barred. So he wasn't supposed to be working at American Eagles anymore. Right. Right.
00:25:28
Speaker
So shortly after, Carter and David moved in together in Fort Worth, Texas, and Carter helped David falsify his employment documents to hire him on at the Hewlin Mall location.
00:25:40
Speaker
So by falsify, I mean she changed his social security number and name in the system so that she could hire him there. She did this? Yes. Like not the girl who died. oh The girlfriend. Okay. Okay. Sorry. I know there's a lot of names. Carter and David are the two people that are dating. And she and David used to work at the Amarillo location together. Got it. Got found out. She had to move to here. So she was working as an assistant manager with this other assistant manager who died. Okay. Okay.
00:26:07
Speaker
Got it? Yes. I'm caught it. Okay. Upon connecting these dots, police showed up at Carter and David's apartment near the Hewland Mall, which was just two miles away from Ashley's apartment. They didn't see Carter's black infinity was there, but they did see David's white Cadillac was there.
00:26:23
Speaker
They decided to stake out the apartment and police noticed on the morning of November 29th around 4am, the matching two door black infinity from the crime scene arrived at Carter and David's apartment. Both Carter and David got out of the car and went into the apartment.
00:26:37
Speaker
And around 8 a.m. m investigators saw them get back into the car and drive up to the Hewlin Mall. Yes. So Carter... ended up entering the mall while David drove around to another exit.
00:26:51
Speaker
Patrol officers approached David and asked him, why was he at the mall? He stated he was there waiting for his girlfriend who worked at the Aeropostale at the mall. i don't know if that's you say that name. I'm sorry. Police confirmed with an Aeropostale employee at the mall that Carter was not employed there. And so police decided to check in on that American Eagle that Ashley had worked at. And they found two employees were locked out of the store because the locks had been changed after Ashley's keys had gone missing. But no one knew that the locks had been changed.
00:27:19
Speaker
These employees were there to pick up the deposit from the Black Friday sales the night before. And as part of the routine would be exiting where David's car had been parked to take that $50,000 deposit to the bank. Yup.
00:27:31
Speaker
So, David was arrested for not having a driver's license on him and was taken in for questioning. While searching the car, police found ski masks, a loaded nine millimeter handgun, a single walkie-talkie, and a visual guide to lockpicking. Jesus. Yes, you can only imagine what they were thinking about doing at that point. This feels like a murder mystery kind of, like...
00:27:52
Speaker
In a box. Yes, exactly. Oh, but wait, there's more. So police decided to return to the carter ah to Carter and David's apartment where they found Carter.
00:28:03
Speaker
They believe she had walked home from the mall after getting out of that car and then realizing all that, right? So she agreed to go with him for questioning. Carter claimed that she spent Thanksgiving cooking dinner for her and David. They just stayed home, watched movies afterwards, just had a cozy night, right?
00:28:20
Speaker
She denied ever being at the Hewlin Mall that morning. And in the interrogation room, she was seen wiping down the bottle of water she was drinking out of to remove any traces of DNA.
00:28:30
Speaker
You know, just in case. That she was drinking yes on, that should have her DNA on it. she says Well, she probably didn't want them to try to use that to like pin her back to the the murder, right? Any DNA, like they would have to get a warrant for DNA if she didn't leave any there.
00:28:48
Speaker
Okay. So either way, investigators ended up getting a search warrant for their apartment and the other car. So in their apartment, they, of course, found a receipt for November 21st, a few days before the murder, where they purchased shovels, gloves, duct tape, rope, and a tarp.
00:29:08
Speaker
How do they think that looks? I know. Like, I mean, I'm not condoning this kind of stuff, but at least like split it up or something. like Pay cash, toss the receipt. Buy it at a store outside of town. like There's there are so many steps here. Come on, guys. Exactly. So they ended up finding a plastic tub, too, by the front door, and it had bungee cords, rope, and a lock in it.
00:29:29
Speaker
In the trash, they found a box for a taser, a charging cord, and some duct tape. Police also found three damaged deadbolts that they had used for practice. They even labeled one as lock-picking practice lock.
00:29:44
Speaker
Like, so that's how they ended up getting into her apartment that morning is they had picked the lock, um went in. And then used her keys to lock back up. Yes, exactly. And why are criminals so dumb? I don't know. Well, I mean, so that's not all though. In the other car, which turned out to be David's, they found the shovels that they had previously, that I had previously mentioned. And the black infinity had a loaded gun, ski mask, the walkie talkie lock picking guide.
00:30:09
Speaker
But they The gun that they found had Ashley's DNA on it. So they think it was like she got pistol whipped or something. And so it had her saliva on it. But the gun was found in the car. So they knew they for sure were the ones that had done it. There was also blood on the floor mats of the car as well, too. So... Couldn't really hide that. um November 29th, 2 a.m., m they also found some surveillance footage that was later identified as Carter with her face covered, knelt down next to the lock on the gate of the American Eagle, attempting to unlock the American Eagle gate with actually a stolen keys. that like Basically trying to get the Black Friday money before anyone could get in there.
00:30:50
Speaker
not realizing the locks had already been changed because they figured that would happen. So the key was later found in a second search of their apartment. So she kept the key too after realizing it wasn't working. And then text messages obtained from their phones showed them plotting to murder Ashley as part of the burglary on Black Friday. The original plan they had was to bury her at a grave site they dug up in Abilene, Texas. So they actually had already dug a hole in Abilene and everything with the shovels. And yeah, for some reason they changed their minds at the last second and decided to start the fire instead.
00:31:22
Speaker
So basically they completed the original burglary after tax free weekend in August and were planning this additional one for black Friday, but they were upset that Ashley had called them out as possible suspects to police, even though they didn't end up getting arrested.
00:31:37
Speaker
And so they decided to kill her for it. Um, they were both charged with capital murder and sentenced to life in prison without parole. Yeah, I know that was a lot. Have they never seen any crime shows? I know, right? Like, why would you keep all that evidence? Why? i There's just so many. In all fairness, like, I think the guy was David. He was 19.
00:31:58
Speaker
And the girl, Mallory, I think she was like 20-something. So they were both relatively young. Right, okay. And they had an affinity and a Cadillac? Is that right? Yeah. How do they afford those cars working in in mall retail? I know what those people make. No one said what condition they were in. Fair. ah Fair enough. And it was 2014. Yeah.
00:32:22
Speaker
But yeah. So, I mean, it was a lot. And it's it's kind of messed up because like they had already gotten away with the first one. They literally could have just walked away. Not saying like, you know, but I don't know.
00:32:35
Speaker
Yeah, it's really hard to understand what like, I mean, I wonder if there's like some other side story to it, where they just like had to have the money or else like some other bad situation, or if they really were just that stupid and trying to get a payday. Yeah, yeah. And then the fact that like, even after 2 a 1 2 3am, whatever, they ended up going up to the mall trying to open it, open, and open up, they couldn't.
00:32:58
Speaker
Right. And so they decided they were gonna like what try to like kill more people to try to get this money. Like it's insane. What limits will you go to for money or money? oh Yeah. that's that It is.
00:33:11
Speaker
Yeah.
Cultural Recommendations
00:33:12
Speaker
Would you like a palate cleanser?
00:33:20
Speaker
helarc cleanser You want to do nightmare fuel first? Sure. can do that. I just finished reading a book. How do read so many books? I have no time for this. I do audio books and i have a long commute to work. That's fair. I can't do audio books. Yeah. So to and from work I have, so I have like an hour and a half to two hours a day there. And then I have certain tasks at work that give me like sometimes a few chunks of hours to listen. So i just go through a whole lot of audio books.
00:33:50
Speaker
But so I just finished reading. It's called Never Whistle at Night, an indigenous dark fiction anthology. Oh, goodness. So i love anthologies, love short stories.
00:34:01
Speaker
Really great for the attention span or lack thereof sometimes. And this one So it's, I wouldn't say it's all horror, but it is all dark. And some really amazing stories in here. and All of them were good. Some of them were excellent. I very much recommend it. Shane Hawk is the editor and main contributor but all of the stories are from different indigenous authors oh that's nice yeah and the audio was solid really good stories in general um forward was by stephen graham jones who was the author of that first nightmare fuel i did which was the i was a teenage slasher yeah but i very very much recommend it good stuff never whistle at night never whistle at night i can't whistle so luckily i'm i'm sick
00:34:42
Speaker
So my Nightmare Fuel, um as usual, is a piece of visual media because I have no time to read. So mine is Grotesque Reader. I love that. Yes. So I think it's on Hulu. I don't know. Like, I haven't finished it yet. I'm still watching it. But I will say from what I've seen so far, it's pretty great. it kind of reminds me of another show that I had kind of been watching too, but I feel like this one is more literally it's, it's great because it's very artistically grotesque. I will say like the way that everything kind of flows. So it's like a detective following some really gruesome cases
00:35:21
Speaker
They all seem to have some root in something very dark, but like kind of religious. And there's like a crazy nun seems to know entirely too much. So like it's it's interesting. I am interested to see where it's going. I'm hoping that with this suggestion, it doesn't end badly. But like, no, I mean, it's just even like, I feel like even the art and the and the way that everything is positioned and, you know, the details left behind, it's very it's very good so far. I like i like a a really thoughtful whodunit, I actually just finished that one a few days ago and no spoiler. Yeah. Can't talk to you until you're done with it for sure.
00:35:59
Speaker
But yeah, that's, that's a good recommendation. I had a lot of fun with it this Ryan Murphy. He's the one who was the um originator of American horror stories. Oh, wow. i know that Yeah. So that's for other people. i Well, I don't really want to say it has even that same kind of a tone because it's a little bit more, it takes itself more seriously, like than the earlier seasons of American horror story, but not as serious as the later seasons of American horror story. Yeah. It's a good middle ground for Ryan Murphy stuff, I think. So that's a solid recommendation. Nice. Well, I'm glad you liked it. Yeah.
00:36:34
Speaker
So now I think I'm ready for a palate cleanser. Would you like to cleanse your palate? Yes, cleanse my palate. All right. Wow. I don't know if you remember, but a while ago you did some would you rather's to me. I do. Well, now it's my turn. Well. all right.
00:36:48
Speaker
Would you rather freeze to death or burn to death? Freeze to death. Why? I hate being hot. oh fair. And from what I understand, when you die of hypothermia, it's like falling asleep.
00:37:00
Speaker
Really? I feel like, don't you get like really hot first? Don't get me lying. I guess I don't really know. But I, that sounds familiar. All right. Next one. Would you rather have knives for fingers or licorice for fingers?
00:37:13
Speaker
Knives. Knives for fingers. Knives? Yeah. I mean, I guess either way you wouldn't be able to get much done. But at least with licorice or fingers, you can still pet your kitty. oh Well, my kitty has knives for fingers and he still snuggles with me.
00:37:28
Speaker
I guess you could make sheaths for your fingers. Yeah, that sounds legit. Yeah. Yeah. And nobody would try to eat my fingers. I mean, licorice is awful, so maybe not. But like, I don't know. i just feel like the sugar. I don't know. i can't. The texture. can't with that. Sorry. All right. Next one. Would you rather be stuck in a haunted house or a corn maze?
00:37:49
Speaker
a haunted house why because i don't believe in ghosts oh there and um i get claustrophobic so a corn maze to me is i would feel stuck like even just the thought of that fills me with anxiety you can actually die getting lost in a corn maze and in a haunted house i do believe i would allow myself to scare myself but i i feel like in the long run i would be safer plus well it depends how vengeful those haunted I suppose that's true, but i'm also like, I'm an indoor kid, you know? I i don't i want to be exposed to like outdoor weather Like I do on my own terms, but I don't want to be stuck in it.
00:38:27
Speaker
Fair. Would you rather always feel like you're being followed or always see shadows darting in your peripheral vision? You have to choose one. Ew.
00:38:39
Speaker
So here's the thing.
Spooky 'Would You Rather' Game
00:38:41
Speaker
ah As someone with anxiety, like it's not quite the feeling of being always being followed. oh there's always watch But there's always a feeling of off. Yeah. you know So I kind of already live with that. and the shadows, I would think that I was hallucinating.
00:38:56
Speaker
And I would jump and it would be too preoccupying. So I think I'd go with being followed. I would jump and be preoccupying. That's funny. Yeah. right, two more. Would you rather have a ghostly figure appear in all your photographs or hear an unknown entity singing lullabies in your house at night? The photos.
00:39:15
Speaker
The photos. I don't know. Have you ever... There was a movie about this. Like, that sounds horrible. Because then I would always feel like it's on me or behind me and around me. I would assume that if I always saw a ghostly figure in the photographs, that it was some technological error. Even if it was the same one every time?
00:39:31
Speaker
In every camera? Always? Oh, at that point, I'd probably just name him and think him as a friend. Like if it was just in the photos and not f***ing with me in any way. That's fair. i like to put a personality on everything. So that's true.
00:39:44
Speaker
i I would make it friendly unless it gave me some kind of malicious intent somewhere along the ways. I think that, yeah, I would still rather that because i feel like the lullabies at night, you just take a sleeping pill and call it a day.
00:39:56
Speaker
I don't know that to me, that sounds way more eerie. That's true. Cause now you're like defenseless. It's present currently. And not like if it's in a picture, that's like in a picture that's in the past.
00:40:06
Speaker
Even though it, I might've just taken the picture. Still in the past. That's fair. Okay. Last one. Would you rather find a hidden door in your home that leads to a labyrinth of tunnels Or, in your face, you're so excited. or discover an old dust-covered book that writes its own stories. Stories that start coming true.
00:40:30
Speaker
can I have both? No! You have to choose one. Both of those sounds like the beginning of an amazing story. um I mean, what kind of stories is the book telling? I mean, i don't know, but they start coming true and it sounds ominous. and probably not good ones. I mean, they're probably good stories, like juicy ones, but...
00:40:50
Speaker
Okay. And not like Atreyu and his horse. Exactly. It sounds like it's unlimited content, but, you know, might be like witnessing a murder or compliant in one. Meanwhile, but... Compliant? What's the word?
00:41:02
Speaker
Being complicit. Complicit! That's the word. I don't know. i i feel like the opening a door to a labyrinth of of mazes sounds like the beginning of an adventure. It does. Yeah. Yeah. I think that would be right up your alley. Yeah, I think I think I'm gonna pick that.
00:41:17
Speaker
Well, great. Well, that's it for palate cleanser.
Episode Wrap-Up
00:41:21
Speaker
did want to mention, i don't know if we've brought it up in previous ones, but I know we brought up our site or Instagram and all that. But We are putting all of our sources on our site for each episode. So if anyone has any like wants to dig deeper wants to see, you know, more information or videos or pictures and stuff, it'll be on the site.
00:41:41
Speaker
We also have when you click on the link to the episode from the website, you get the full transcript as well. So for anybody with accessibility needs, then that's another option that's through our website, NightmareCottage.com.
00:41:55
Speaker
Wow. So we're on our every other week schedule now. So we will see everybody back here again in two weeks for some more spooky goodness. Yeah, hopefully by then I think it'll be it'll be almost Christmas. It's already almost Christmas. It'll be almost, almost Christmas. Good night. Good night.
00:42:14
Speaker
Sweet dreams. Stop.
00:42:21
Speaker
If you have topic requests, book or movie recommendations, or just want to say hi, email us at nightmarecottage at gmail.com or visit our website at nightmarecottage.com. Sweet dreams.
00:42:42
Speaker
Bye-bye.