Transcript
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: Hello listeners, welcome. I'm Bridget.
Caroline: And I'm Caroline.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: You are listening to Hearth Home and Homicide, ah family production about family murders. Caroline and I research and narrate each story. Andy is our producer.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: Caroline and I try to figure out what is going on with the family at the center of the case. we know that the ripple effect of family murder never ends.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: We see how a killer in the family is responsible for immeasurable destruction and trauma. So listener discretion is advised.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: Today, our family murder takes place in Orlando, Florida, in very upscale, what I would call ritzy, but I mean, I think it's It's not ritzy because they're not putting anything on. these are This is a really expensive place to live in Delaney Park.
Caroline: o
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: It's, you know, money, will buy, tranquility, peace, security, all of the above.
Caroline: Oh yeah, I think anyone who's ridden through a wealthy neighborhood knows what you're talking about. this There's some ethereal thing to it.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: Yeah.
Caroline: It's big, it's pretty, it's clean.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: It's manicured.
Caroline: Manicure, yeah. Yeah.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: It's curated like a museum almost. Everybody is fit and everybody has a gardener. So, you know, really, Caroline, what can go wrong?
Caroline: you
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: One of the reasons this story needs to be told is the lesson that I think we can all take from it. There were red flags galore, but they were all missed by our victim, Shanti.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: Cooper Tronis. And I have heard that last name pronounced Trons, Trones. But in court, they said Tronis, so I'm going say Tronis.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: A beautiful woman named Shanti had divorced her husband after years of struggling to have a child. But before they got divorced, they did become pregnant with their only child, Jackson Cooper.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: Jackson's parents were over the moon happy, you know, five years of trying. Shanti built her every day around Jackson.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: Even though they were divorced, Shanti and her ex, Jim Cooper, were devoted to making Jackson's life a joy, full of love, full of support. Jackson was only eight years old when his mother, Shanti Cooper, was brutally murdered by her then second husband, David Tranus.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: So i love our victim today.
Caroline: Yeah.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: um What a woman.
Caroline: yeah
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: And Jackson, I saw in court, and his impact statement was just so... beautiful, and so sad that he lost his mother to this horrible man.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: David Tronis lived in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He was known as an intelligent businessman, and he was divorced he was divorced about the same time that Shanti was divorced way down in Florida. Now, they didn't know each other.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: And they were both very lonely after being in a marriage. Now I'm not in a marriage. And so, you know, it's a segue. They were looking for eligible people to date, possibly rebuild a family life.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: Millions are doing it right this minute as we talk, Caroline. it's ah It's a thing.
Caroline: Yeah. It's a thing.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: lot of time it works out great.
Caroline: Oh, yeah.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: We're learning that it can be very fulfilling and positive and it can be deadly. It can be a shakedown territory for lonely people.
Caroline: That's true. Yeah.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: It is a transaction and an interaction that most definitely needs to be cautiously and critically evaluated.
Caroline: Yeah.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: But, you know, that's so easy for me to say.
Caroline: Yeah.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: The pro...
Caroline: Well, and I just, I just just was going to say, it's not like online dating presents some novel problem. It just changes an existing problem. You were always, i mean, look at Ted Bundy going near UW.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: Mm-hmm.
Caroline: You were always going to meet a serial killer at some point in your life and maybe know it, maybe not know it. You know, it but it's just like online actually creates more opportunity for that same exploitation, I feel like. So it's not just that it's online dating. It's just it's more of the same and it exacerbates all those existing problems.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: I agree. I think a lot of killers could pass a background check pretty good. I mean, yeah, I mean, the the this journey that Andy and you and I have been on to investigate family murders has taught me one thing, and that is that
Caroline: Right? Thank you. Turns out all our time don't catch a psycho.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: People can live with murder in their heart for a long time before they do anything about it, if they ever do
Caroline: There you go. Yep. I agree.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: One of my favorite writers is Carson McCullers. She was from the South, and so when I was young, I read everything that she ever wrote. And she wrote a wonderful book in 1940 called The Heart is a Lonely Hunter.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: Now, I wasn't around when she wrote that, but I was around when it was ah required reading in high school. And listeners, if you get a chance to read the so-called Southern Gothic novel, advise that you do. It's Carson McCuller, Heart is a Lonely Hunter.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: I advise it for the beautiful language and the eccentric characters. Why am I talking about Carson McCuller? Because she laid it out. more perfectly than any other writer in history, in my opinion, and in the opinion of a lot of other people too, that, you know, I am advising careful, ah you know, investigate, be cautious when you're out online looking for your next family and you want to fall in love again and you want that feeling and you want it to work out this time.
Caroline: Yeah.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: and all of that. And for me to think that people approach, who can I go out with and maybe it'll work out and we'll have a happily ever after.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: Do I think that people are critically thinking when they meet Mr. or Mrs. Wright?
Caroline: Oh, no. No, no, no, no. No chances are good. Especially like you said, if they've reached this point of a longing, right? I don't want to call it desperation.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: Yes.
Caroline: That's how you maybe start behaving. But it's a longing and there's nothing wrong with longing for a thing. It's just, like you said, diminishes your your executive capacity a little bit.
Caroline: Yeah.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: It does. It most certainly does. The heart is coming from a ah the heart where your love is and your longings are, is coming from the emotional part of your brain. And when that part of your brain is working, the executive function is alpha on vacation.
Caroline: Totally. Yes.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: So I don't want to judge. I can't judge because I too would fall into the same trap.
Caroline: yeah
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: ah So here is Minneapolis David, recently divorced from his wife Carol. Here is Orlando, Florida Shanti, recently divorced from her husband Jim Cooper.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: They connected and they hit it off online. So now they were messaging each other back and forth on the app that they were using.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: And once the online thing went from text messages from their private phones to emails onto their computers and their phones, well, I guess the phone also picks up the emails, I mean, you can see the progression where they're drifting away from Match.com, which is the pro that was the platform that they were using.
Caroline: Yeah.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: And you're you're drifting away from that and you're not cloaking yourself in their platform anymore. You have let this person through your front door, even if you haven't met them yet.
Caroline: Right. That's right. but You're right. You went from the safety of the confines of the messaging available and the connecting technology available through the app or through the platform.
Caroline: And now you've opened it up to your home, which we all know, Lord have mercy, you can't be given out your home email address anymore. It's worse than the telephone numbers used to be.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: Well, at one point, Shanti, and to me, this breaks my heart knowing how it turned out. She wrote to him, ah you know, when they were on email together. Dave, I will have to say, I think this was a delicious detour, amazing, magnificent, life-changing detour.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: I have had a pep in my step since we started this little email affair.
Caroline: Oh, well, there you go. But that's the heart speaking. That's the effervescence of the longing being met. We've all been there.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: Yes, and, you know, she may have been wondering, is this going to put him off? And we will never meet. And so, in a way, that was a critical, smart thing to do.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: She hasn't met him yet. He doesn't know where she lives.
Caroline: That's true.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: Well, he notly I don't think she had given him her home address yet.
Caroline: Right.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: So, anyway, Dave Tronis and i want to back up a little bit. I said at the intro that, you know, there were a lot of red flags here.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: This is one of them, that she's putting it out there. But maybe she had a strategy, as I say. So I'm not really faulting her for doing that. I'm just saying, you know, she let it all out. She became vulnerable at that moment, and she had no way of knowing how that was going to turn out.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: And so I'm on her side. I mean, you know, she is doing maybe the right thing. by taking it to the next level, you know, because she doesn't want to live in email land.
Caroline: Yeah.
Caroline: Well, yeah, right? Nothing wrong with that. I think there's nothing wrong with people. Like, I don't know. I know that there's this chatter about don't call for this many days. You need to do this. Don't don't make it lengthy.
Caroline: How about we just like fall on the sword of this is who I am.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: geez.
Caroline: Sometimes I'm like this, you know, I don't know.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: Not only that, but, you know, I just feel like that is so misogynistic-rooted.
Caroline: ah Yeah, like weird.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: That, you know, that that the boy has to be the one to call you and you can't be too anxious.
Caroline: Right.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: And that stuff is so passe.
Caroline: Yeah. um
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: It just is not even valid anymore.
Caroline: Yeah. I mean, I just prefer the vulnerable and the authentic, which means you don't always have to be vulnerable, but just be authentic.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: Authentic. Yes. Right.
Caroline: Like, like oh I'm nervous. You know, it goes a long way. I don't know.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: The minute that he, though, David Tronis, knew that she was into him.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: He moved from Minneapolis down to Orlando.
Caroline: oh wow okay that's a big that's a big old red flag what's that about
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: Caroline,
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: that would be about me moving to another state. I mean, I would just be so terrified if somebody love-bombed me that way.
Caroline: it totally it's too much too much
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: Too much, too much, but she, you know, So Dave Tronis and Shanti Cooper met on Match.com in March 2013.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: And then when, you know, she told him, I'm having a good time with you, he relocated to Orlando and he moved in with her and Jackson.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: He moved in.
Caroline: oh Oh,
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: And he told her, look, You two live here. I'm going to be the third person. So I will agree to pay one third of the rent.
Caroline: oh
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: Even though Caroline, he had told Shanti that he was a millionaire after the death of his family, of his father recently.
Caroline: come on.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: Now, he was a successful businessman in Minneapolis, but he quit all that.
Caroline: Whoa.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: And he went down to Orlando, but he first told her he was a multimillionaire. And so she let him in her home with her son.
Caroline: Well, and frankly, his math is off. I don't know of many eight-year-olds who go out and earn rent to pay their share of the rent. I mean, is that how we broke it down?
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: i mean, that should have been, ah that is so autobiographical on David's part.
Caroline: i just, that's,
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: I'm a cheapskate. I'm a millionaire. I'm a cheapskate. And also I see your son as equivalent to you
Caroline: yeah.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: And um yeah, no, I mean, you know, bad
Caroline: Right. Yeah.
Caroline: i I don't like that at all. Like if I were her, I would have said, no, no, I'm not moving in because I have a minor. And because I have a minor, you won't be sharing a living space with me until that minor is 18 and moved out.
Caroline: I mean, and and if they don't, i I recognize I don't have the longing in my heart right now. And so it's easy for me to say this, right? But like, go get your millionaire apartment down the road and we'll hang out all the time. It's, you know, 10 years, not that long.
Caroline: and Just wait it out. I don't know. It seems to me like that's too fast and I would, what caused her to do that? i mean, she's got this eight-year-old. Why you let him move in? Especially if he's talking about that.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: You know, one of the things about Shanti that I have picked up is that she was very people-oriented, and she was an extrovert.
Caroline: Yeah. Okay.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: Now, her first husband, Jim, was an introverted type of person based on interviews I've seen with him.
Caroline: Yeah.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: He didn't come out and tell me, but I mean, you know, it was obvious to me that their temperaments were very different, sort of polar opposite.
Caroline: Yeah.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: And that eventually became too much for Shanti and possibly Jim, I don't know, to handle. But Shanti was very successful. she When she got divorced, she just decided that she was going to start her own business as a financial consultant,
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: And she had a software that she was using that was proprietary to her. And, you know, she started making really good money and being independent and so forth and so on.
Caroline: Oh, wow.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: She may have done a background check on David Tronis before he she let him move in. But, you know, he didn't he didn't have he had a good track record.
Caroline: Yeah.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: ah You know, on the surface.
Caroline: Yeah. I mean, I...
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: She, I mean, you know, but I don't understand why she did not say, i'm not going to let any man live with me until I know that person for a very long time because I am living with my son.
Caroline: Right.
Caroline: Right.
Caroline: Right.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: But she did.
Caroline: Yeah.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: So she was very trusting, obviously. Very, very trusting.
Caroline: Yeah.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: One good move she did make. She would not marry David until four years later in 2017.
Caroline: Okay.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: So she was kind of putting him up while he was trying to get his footing in Orlando.
Caroline: Yeah.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: So maybe it was just kind of a love, but also friendship, support. i don't know, but it's just I would never do it.
Caroline: Well, I can just, I can imagine, and excuse me, I can imagine him love-boggling her too, because that's four years. That's a really long time. You're a mother, you're a business owner, you're busy, right?
Caroline: So you're not actually, your censors for exploitation aren't necessarily up in this arena, right? I mean, i could see her easily...
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: Yeah,
Caroline: i mean, we've all missed many a red flag in our lives. Let's be honest. This one seems like one we could all fall in. but but but But like you said, on paper, you're looking at it like, girl, you're not marrying him. Like, why'd you let him move in? Like, Why, why, blah blah bo why,
Caroline: Well, we know why.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: yeah I don't know.
Caroline: Because we want love.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: i don't know what. Ah, yeah.
Caroline: We want it to work. We want it to be different than it is.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: Yes.
Caroline: Yeah.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: Yes. Well, some things did change during that time period when she was not married to him. First and foremost, though, I want to point out that Shanti Cooper was a very hardworking, dedicated mom who cared deeply, very deeply for her only son.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: Her son was world. world And, you know, she shared custody with her ex-husband, Jim Cooper. So it wasn't like he was there all the time. Nevertheless, it meant that he was everything to her.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: Shanti's son, Jackson, was eight-year-old when all this started. She shared custody with the father, as I said, Jim ki jim Cooper, whom Shanti had divorced in 2013.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: In that time period, she had launched a lucrative financial software business and worked out of her home office. So she didn't need to worry about taking care of herself or her son.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: And, you know, she was not immune to what romance does to your brain. So did she hire a detective or a background company before marrying Dave? I found no evidence of that.
Caroline: Hmm.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: I know. Shanti's son Jackson was then a years old, as I said, and um investigators later found a document on her computer that was that, you know, salvo to David Tronis about, you know, i think this is a delicious G tour, amazing, magnificent, life-changing. I have had pep in my step since, you know, we started this little email affair.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: So within months of meeting Shanti online, ah Here we have you know Dave coming to Orlando, and he's wandering around all day in Orlando. you know He's a multimillionaire, so he can do that.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: And he's just sort of living with Shanti in the short term, maybe. And ah he fell in love with Delaney Park. I mean, Delaney Park is woo-woo paradise in Orlando.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: And he fell in love with this house at 218 East Copeland Drive. This was a house that came complete with its own gargoyles on every corner of the house.
Caroline: oo
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: Yeah, yeah. You know, gargoyles, when I look at them, I'm thinking, you know, that's a cool statue, but, you know, it's kind of creeping me out.
Caroline: Oh, 100% creepy. It's for castles, let's be real.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: it
Caroline: but
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: There's something about gargoyles that makes them seem alive.
Caroline: I know.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: Like they're going to jump down.
Caroline: Well, they were, oddly, it is meant to ward off the evil spirits. I just, I mean, it's ironic across all cultures throughout time that the ugliest, scariest thing in the world is the thing we want next to us so that we can ward off the real
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: Yeah, they're creepy. I mean, a lot of times when you see things on a roof, it's a windmill. You know, maybe a...
Caroline: Little chicken.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: Or not a windmill. What am I thinking? a but ah Up on a Coppola. That wind weather vane, weather vane, the weather vane.
Caroline: Yeah, the so leather vein that's yeah i was thinking windmill yeah yeah
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: Those are my favorites. Chimneys, you know, kind of make me happy. um Little chipmunk on a shelf somewhere. But gargoyles to me just mean, you know, aye i'm going to hurt you.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: That's what they look like to me.
Caroline: yeah
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: And they're looking, somehow their eyes are made to look right through you.
Caroline: yeah
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: But anyway, not that I look at gargoyles every day. But um it's just, it's kind of giving me the shivers. So um he loves this house.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: And in April 2015, David Tranus bought the house in Orlando's Delaney Park neighborhood for $607,500, which was at the time a really, really, really good deal for house.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: It needed some work, but it was really, really, really, really gorgeous. I mean, it had over 4,000 square feet, so mansion. And it had a pool, oh my God, and a guest house.
Caroline: Yeah.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: ah Now, I will say this. um If you fly your drone over any part of Florida, every house has a pool.
Caroline: yeah
Caroline: I was just going to say, are there any houses under 3,000 square feet? I've never heard of it.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: I mean, you know, on the beach side of things there.
Caroline: Yeah. Yeah.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: But I'm just going to call out this big red flag that he has bought this house, and it has a um guest house, and he's the one who fell in love with Laney Park, and he paid cash for it.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: But what he didn't tell Shanti was that he put the house in a trust for himself and his mother.
Caroline: That's cold. That's cold as ice.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: Yeah, that tells me he probably got the house, the money to buy that house from his mother. Or some of it.
Caroline: Right.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: Some of it.
Caroline: Yeah.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: Maybe he had that money in the bank. I don't know because he was successful in Minneapolis. I couldn't find anything about, well what did he do?
Caroline: Yeah. Well, perhaps ask his mom.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: I mean, you know, he just went from business to business. He was like an entrepreneur and he, you know, he would start an enterprise and then leave it and start it and leave it. Anyway.
Caroline: Yeah.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: ah Anyway. At trial after the murder, the realtor that helped him with that house testified that, you know, David Thomas acted like a child who had never been told like
Caroline: Yeah, that, and I mean, it's, yeah, and you can kind of get it through the pages.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: I've met people like that.
Caroline: i mean, you can kind of get it through just this sense of, like, odd decisions, and I don't know. Yeah, it's weird. It strikes me.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: i I think Shanti was so ah independent and successful that she probably had the luxury of not worrying about what he's up to because that doesn't have anything to do with her.
Caroline: Yeah.
Caroline: Yeah.
Caroline: That's, yes.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: This is just romance, and over here is me, and the number one thing on my agenda is my son, Jackson.
Caroline: Yep.
Caroline: Yes. You're 100% right. Because she's not going to want him doing that to her. So she's not going to do it to him, right? Like, I'm not going to be his mother pacing his every move.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: Right.
Caroline: And sure, if he says he's interested in this, okay, why not? And, you know, yeah. Yeah, this is why you can see people easily get, like, slip into these really...
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: Easily, easily.
Caroline: Yeah.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: She works with people every day who have investments that are dynamic.
Caroline: Yeah.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: So she's got to be meeting everyone's needs about buy, buy, buy, sell, sell, sell, all of the above.
Caroline: Right.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: Why didn't she do a financial background on David?
Caroline: I know.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: Because then she would have known that he's not a millionaire.
Caroline: Well, not only that, but like, why don't we normalize that? Like, why don't we normalize... Oh, got your background check. Like, why don't we normalize? Like, I vetted that you're not a psycho because, you know, we should all be doing that. That's not an odd thing to do.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: No.
Caroline: I don't know.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: Or there might have been a rescue element for her.
Caroline: oh yes. Yeah, you're right.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: I mean, some people who are highly successful in their lives are rescuers. One of them is talking into this microphone today.
Caroline: You're right.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: I mean,
Caroline: this Right?
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: a
Caroline: you You're like, I can help you with that. so I see what's going on over there.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: I loved, I never thought I would ever encounter a problem that I could not fix. And, ah you know, so I kind of get thinking the best of someone and sort of maybe developing a an idea that I can really be the one that's going to um make somebody else's life wonderful.
Caroline: Yeah.
Caroline: Yeah.
Caroline: Right.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: And I don't know, I think that might have been her personality because otherwise, how are you going to be truly happy and positive all the time working with people who are screaming, sell, sell, sell, buy, buy, buy?
Caroline: Right.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: Why did you advise me about that? You know, I mean, she just was somebody who didn't think that anybody would ever hurt anybody.
Caroline: Right.
Caroline: right
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: So in 2015, Dave and Shanti, I'm calling him Dave because um that's what people started calling him. I think I'm going to go back and change that to David and Shanti moved into their new home and attempted to remodel it with Shanti footing the bill.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: You know, so he had her convinced that, look, I laid out $600,000 thousand dollars and um and you know I need help.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: I need you to commit to this house at least as much as I have. So she worked out of the guest house area. She didn't even live in this house anymore.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: She lived in the guest house area. She worked at her financial advising company, Daybreak to Sundown every day, and she gave him money to be the contractor on the remodel of the house.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: Okay, another red flag. But, you know, she's just trusting.
Caroline: Yeah, but contractors notoriously steal money anyway, so that's just like bad news to hear.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: Yeah. David did have did not have an income. David says he worked on the house. He worked on the renovations.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: He took care of the property and he cleaned the pool. And I want to know why wasn't Shanti asking more about his millions? Why wasn't she doing a background check now?
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: It's not too late. You haven't married him. Why did he need
Caroline: Yeah, right. Well, she could have made up excuses too. She's in the financial world. Oh, well, they need this before they're willing to give me a loan or, oh, I'm going to, you know what I mean? She could have finagled her way into really digging into his financials.
Caroline: If she had a diabolical mind like mine.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: Yeah, yeah, well, um you mean trusting, never trusting the diabolical mind.
Caroline: yeah
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: Yeah, yeah.
Caroline: Yes. Well, I just like, I just assume like bad thoughts will come in my head, but I want to be able to, you know, confirm them out. And so that's really all that is in my mind is like, oh, okay, well, I'm going to need this information from him.
Caroline: I don't want to make him mad like I think he's, like I'm calling him a liar. But I happen to know that this is going to cost this much money. I'm going to lie to him tell him I'm going to get a loan. And in order to do that, I need this information from him. And that's how I know.
Caroline: Boom. Bob's your uncle. It's not me.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: Yes. And, you know, maybe she was just still giddy. Like, you know, this is so fun.
Caroline: Yeah.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: this is so fun.
Caroline: right yeah
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: i mean, maybe she liked the way that that he expected her to be an equal partner.
Caroline: Yeah, right.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: Maybe. i don't I don't know. Love does, you know, weird things to people. Men and women fall prey to it every second of every day.
Caroline: Yeah, both.
Caroline: So true.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: So, you know, 2015, you know, she's still not married to him. he doesn't have an income. Why did he need to be the renovator when he has millions of dollars? I don't know.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: She's thinking, well, you know, isn't he self-sufficient? I love that because I am too. In spite of not seeing any of his money, she's shucking out her own money.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: Shanti married Dave in 2017. Married him.
Caroline: Dang. I wonder what kind of a ceremony it was.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: Yeah.
Caroline: Fast and expedited, large and lavish. and I'm curious.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: I think it was small.
Caroline: Okay. Yeah.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: Small, non-fanfare.
Caroline: Yeah.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: You know, it wasn't like that Amazon guy who went to Venice and made all the Venetians pissed
Caroline: think they're getting divorced now so that worked out I yes whatever now I'm happy I don't roll in those circles but yeah I'm pretty sure though we'll probably have another one next year
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: They are?
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: yeah
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: Oh, my God. So these contractors, subcontractors to David, Trana's, came and went. Demolition went on and on.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: And the renovation was, you know, turning out to be quite the expensive failure. In 2018, the main part of the house was unlivable. Like you couldn't get a you couldn't get a permit from the city to move back into your house.
Caroline: Oh no.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: It was, in you know, uninhabitable. Shanti was reduced to working and sleeping above the garage in a small apartment. That was their guest quarters.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: There was a bathroom there. She and Jax and her son had to share bunk bed, Caroline. This person, this woman, this this dynamite, this cool, this loving, this super mom, all of all of the things that she was is laying her head down at night.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: I'm thinking bottom bunk, but I don't know.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: David Tronis, her husband, was sleeping downstairs in the garage with the dogs. So there was a garage under the guest quarters.
Caroline: Wow.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: Now, maybe not all the time. I mean, maybe when Jackson was with his father, there was some romance in the bunk bed or and or down in the garage with the millionaire that you just married.
Caroline: Yeah, crazy.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: So things became desperate. I mean, you know, even Shanti ran out of patience. And she just said, I'm not putting any more money into this house.
Caroline: Yeah.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: And dis despite they were desperate now. or he He became as desperate as she was to get this situation resolved. So David turned to, and she probably just told him flat out, this is on you.
Caroline: Yeah, right. like i'm
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: This is on you.
Caroline: Like, I'm giving this much money. If it's gone, it's gone. Like, it's on you now.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: Well, she had no reason to believe that it would be gone because she thought she was on the on the ownership paperwork.
Caroline: Right.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: But did she check that? No.
Caroline: That's the worst mistake, I think, is that you didn't.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: she didn't She didn't know that his mother
Caroline: Yeah.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: was co-owner
Caroline: But, I mean. She knows she's got – she knew enough, i think. This is where you would have to assume that the executive function was clouded because she knew enough from her own world experience that if I own something, I sign for it.
Caroline: So if I'm an owner on the home, I would have signed papers. So either he presented a fake scenario where that was accomplished, right, or and she believed it,
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: Yeah.
Caroline: Or she just was in this flutter zone of just forgetting her mind about, well, whatever, I want this to work. yeah So I'm sure he figured out a way I didn't have to sign for it.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: Yeah. I mean, I figure that maybe she, which is just my, you know, speculation. She is working daylight to sundown.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: She's using her critical mind She's listening to people deeply.
Caroline: Yeah.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: She's exhausted.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: And she is just wanting ah love affair.
Caroline: Yeah.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: She just wants romance.
Caroline: Yeah.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: That's all she wants. She loves this man. He's clever. He's quick. He's interesting. He's funny. He loves me. We have good sex. That's all I want out of him.
Caroline: Right.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: Now, she didn't probably think about that like in her diary, dear diary, here's how I'm coping. You know, no, but I do think that it's possible that that's what was going on.
Caroline: Right.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: So David, now knowing that he's got to do something to get this house whipped into shape, David turned to Keith Ori, a local house renovator who also appeared on a reality TV show called Zombie House Flipping.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: Now on zombie house flipping, they take the worst of the worst remodels ever or houses ever. And they on camera work with the family who owns that house.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: So they have to be on camera and they work with them to bring it up to snuff.
Caroline: yeah
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: And they would invest, you know, some money in the remodel, bring in some high end, stuff, bring in some good contractors, that kind of thing.
Caroline: Remind.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: So, you know, David is wanting to be a client on Zombie House Flipping. David just called me on the phone, says Keith Ori, recounting these things in court.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: He asked if I would come and take ah look at the project, and he said that they had done some work. And he was a local contractor, so, you know, he took all of this.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: yeah He knew the house. i mean, you know, was great house.
Caroline: Yeah.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: But he hadn't been in until then. And he said, but, quote, some work did not quite describe what I found.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: They had fully, he said they, because he too thought that Chanti was in it as deep as David was.
Caroline: yeah
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: They had fully disassembled this house to a degree that I have never seen before. And this is the zombie house flipper.
Caroline: I was gonna say, that's such an embarrassing cut. I mean, I'm just like, I'm mortified in my mind if that ever happens to me in life, it will be the lowest point I ever reached. I mean, oh my God.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: I mean, it's having an MRI on your brain and you hear somebody saying, this is the emptiest brain I've ever seen.
Caroline: I know, this is like, oh God, that's embarrassing.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: Oh, God.
Caroline: ah So embarrassing, I'm so embarrassed.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: An engineer was brought in by Keith to, you know, help figure this out. and And the engineer discovered that the only thing holding the whole house up was two inches of stucco.
Caroline: That's scary. Because I, you know, just, I recognize how little i know about keeping a structure upright. But Lord have mercy, I know you gotta have a lot of braces.
Caroline: The footings and all that.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: my my My word for is I know there are beings up there.
Caroline: Yeah.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: But, you know, are they okay?
Caroline: I know there's some, some, yeah.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: I mean, I just need to know.
Caroline: Right? I mean, like, I know there's math involved. But like, can I have a calculator?
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: Right.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: So he, he he the key story, He said, I wasn't a at all prepared for what I saw when I got there. He was the head of the Fix the House and Film It on Zombie House Flipping.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: And he just was gobsmacked, you know, chin on the floor.
Caroline: So embarrassing.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: Now, ah he did meet with both Shanti and David and explain to them that they're going to have to be part of the show and all this, da-da-da. And Chanti was, you know, lukewarm about it, um that she would open and putting her house on the house flipping show. She doesn't even know yet. It's not even her house.
Caroline: right
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: But she she realized at the last minute that the house would be discussed as like near death and unsafe. And she realized that she did not want that type of publicity related to her and her business of the financial advising department.
Caroline: Yeah.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: So she pulled out of the deal. She refused.
Caroline: She's smart. but She's a smart big picture thinker.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: This is the first thing that, see now how it worked, is that now she's thinking about her business.
Caroline: Yeah.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: So her critical mind is starting to kick in.
Caroline: Yes, that is a big picture thought right there. long term impacts. How does this affect? Yeah, a lot of people don't do that. They just are like, why wasn't it? They keep playing it now. I'll never escape it. Yeah, that's how the internet works.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: And how did she, and and that poor woman, and I think about how she, if she's like me, she's thinking now, I need to rewind this picture.
Caroline: Right.
Caroline: Right.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: I need to go back along my path. How did I get on this road, and how did I get this far on this road?
Caroline: Yes.
Caroline: Yes, totally. That's a sick feeling. I think, you know, it's safe to say everyone's kind of been there and in some degree or another, and that is a pit in your stomach.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: Oh, God.
Caroline: Yeah.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: It's very difficult. And, you know, I'm 70 and ah I have things that I've been trying to deal with my whole life and get better and better and better at.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: And I do, but, you know, there are days when I'm just like 10 years old and I just do all these bad things or irresponsible things or stupid mistakes or whatever.
Caroline: Right.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: I say something that is just not appropriate.
Caroline: Yeah.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: And I'm thinking to myself, how did I get on this road?
Caroline: Right.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: I thought I was on the road to recovery.
Caroline: Right.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: I don't think that ever ends.
Caroline: Right.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: A human being is just such a complex creature.
Caroline: Yeah.
Caroline: Yeah.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: That the brain is doing things that is in, you know, my brain is in the driver's seat and I try to drive my brain, but it doesn't always work.
Caroline: Well, that's, it's in constant re-reformation, re-adapting. You know, your brain is adapting to you, really.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: The day that she pulled out of zombie house flippers, and they're they're not going to do that show without her.
Caroline: Yeah.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: Shanti had come to her senses. She counted it up, and she had spent $250,000 on this house for the renovation. She was sleeping in a bunk bed.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: She had discovered right after that that she had no financial interest in the home. Now, that tells me that she started digging, and that David Traunas' mother was the one on the deed.
Caroline: Yeah.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: Can you imagine? The metaphorical house has fallen on her head.
Caroline: Well, that part, I mean, is she enraged? Is she sick to her stomach? Yeah. All of the above, probably. I mean, that part would really piss me off.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: She is married to this man now. She's married to him.
Caroline: Yeah. Yeah, but that this part would piss me off. the that It's bad enough. Like, I'm not even on it. But your mother. And I think it's like what you said was that that's an indicator that that's probably how that house was purchased.
Caroline: And that's why she's in, do you know, it's probably one of prerequisites for her giving up her money to make that happen.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: Yeah. Right.
Caroline: But I would be pissed. I would be pissed in all the scenarios. Like, what? Not only am I not on it, but your mother.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: Devastated.
Caroline: Yeah.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: Plus she's at a quarter million dollars.
Caroline: Yeah, that too. And sleeping on a bunk bed. vey.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: Late in the afternoon on April 24th, 2018, twenty eighteen So, you know, they they had only been married a year. David Tranis called 911 to report that he had found his wife, Shanti Cooper, floating in the bathtub or in the shower or something like that.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: She was, he just was, when I urge listeners to listen to his 911 call, it's like a screeching maniac little baby, you know, hyena trying to conduct himself on a 911 call to sound like a grieving husband. He winds up sounding like a or raving banshee, but he is hysterical.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: It is just so fake. So fake.
Caroline: Oh, wow.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: He had no idea what an actual human would sound like on this kind of call.
Caroline: Right.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: Plus, you know, when you are not crying tears and you are fake crying,
Caroline: Yeah.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: Your voice, when you're when you're when you're crying real tears, your voice ah elevates or it it goes up multiple decibels.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: Like, you know, you're your throat is constricting.
Caroline: Yeah.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: So you're, you know, okay.
Caroline: Yeah.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: When you're faking that, yeah yeah it's like nails on a chalkboard.
Caroline: Yeah, because you're throwing your own voice up and you're,
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: It's just, oh, it's c creepy. Yeah.
Caroline: yeah
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: and And what was so interesting about this 911 call is he's creepy, creepy, creepy. And then what is your address? Oh, 923. ah co You know, he would get he would go he would go back down.
Caroline: Oh, ew. Ew.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: So.
Caroline: Yeah.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: This man is just a big mess of bad stuff.
Caroline: Yeah.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: When first responders arrived, Shanti Cooper was dead. You know, she was dead.
Caroline: Yeah.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: deeply dead.
Caroline: Yeah.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: She was 39 years old, Carolyn.
Caroline: Yeah.
Caroline: Was she drowned? Is that like, did they find her in the tub?
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: No. No. No, as a matter of fact, Dave was asked to go to the station, and David david was asked to go to the station, and David voluntarily remained there for hours, and he just kept getting confronted and confronted and confronted, but he just kept telling his lies.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: Uh... He was confronted about things like there was no water.
Caroline: oh
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: She wasn't well. She was like damp, like maybe he'd wiped a up a wet paper towel over her body or something.
Caroline: Stop. What? Okay. well That's weird.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: Yeah. So this is a man who thinks so highly of himself that anything that comes out of his mouth must be the truth, according to the idiots that are listening to him.
Caroline: I mean, what the hell?
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: That's he thought he was the smartest man in the room.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: And he just they just told him, you youre what you're telling us does not add up.
Caroline: Yeah.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: That does not add up. well And he would just sit there and u and no tears the whole time. He was there for hours. No tears. But that that was going on.
Caroline: Right.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: they ah the The medical examiner found that Shanti had been severely beaten and strangled to death.
Caroline: Oh my God.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: And, um you know, all of the things that he was telling the investigators who were questioning him, he never asked for an attorney.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: um You know, they kept telling him, that didn't make any sense.
Caroline: Yeah.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: That doesn't make any sense either. What you just said there contradicts what you said 10 minutes ago.
Caroline: Right.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: You know, I mean, he he just kept going.
Caroline: Most people would be like, i need my attorney after the first time that happens.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: Yeah. Yeah. Well, first of all, you do not go to the police office, to the police station with the police when your loved one is dead.
Caroline: Yeah.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: I would not go.
Caroline: Yeah.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: They can't make me go.
Caroline: You would go to the coroners or medical examiners or whatever? Is that what you're saying? Or you would just not go?
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: If they want me to go dead, I would just not be ah yeah obliging law enforcement.
Caroline: Yeah. Yeah. You're like not where my mind is right now.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: No, right.
Caroline: But thats that's that's when you don't murder people though.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: Right.
Caroline: So when you do, you do like David and you're like, sure, I'll come with.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: i All I have to do is the same charm that I had, being vulnerable, being in love with her, that I did with her.
Caroline: Right.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: I tricked her for four years.
Caroline: Yeah, but these cops aren't looking for love.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: Right. No, they're not looking for love. So, David Tronis was charged with murder. The investigation uncovered not just crime scene evidence, but Detectives got a call from a worker from Club Orlando.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: Club Orlando is well-known gay same-sex men's club in Orlando, bathhouse, gay bathhouse.
Caroline: So many jokes coming to mind of current affairs that I will not say to deter from this story.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: No, don't. That's right.
Caroline: Yeah.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: they they got you know They got a call from a worker at Club Orlando and they told the police, the investigators, that they knew David Tronis because he was a patron at the club and it was a membership club, ah Club Orlando being a same-sex bathhouse.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: David Tronis had made several memberships to the club over every six months. He renewed his membership. So in other words, most people, Caroline, when they go to this bath club, they join for six months.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: They meet the love of their life and they don't rejoin.
Caroline: Right.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: They're in a committed relationship now.
Caroline: OK.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: But not David Tronis. David Tronis went for six months. Then he got a new membership, six months. Then he got a new membership, six more months. Then he got a new and on and on.
Caroline: Interesting.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: So he was just there for the sex.
Caroline: Yeah.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: Detectives headed to the club to investigate and found a longtime club employee who, in a police recorded interview, says that ah he witnessed Dave having sex at the club.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: Like, for example, one time i was just walking through and I saw David and he was giving oral sex to this guy. And I just thought, well, aren't you special? You know, we do have private areas where you can do that.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: Everybody who knew, so he wasn't just there, you know, because he was doing a documentary.
Caroline: Right.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: He was there, he was there for, oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Caroline: He's fully embracing this lifestyle when he's there. Right. Well, know
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: Everybody who knew Shanti said she would absolutely not have tolerated that, male or female.
Caroline: right
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: She would not have tolerated that, endorsed it, it
Caroline: ah well I could see. her I mean, it's irresponsible behavior. Like you said, this is something you do when you're single and fling and blah. It's not a long-term lifestyle.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: No, no. Unless you marry somebody who's of like mind and you get into that committed relationship that allows this kind of thing to happen.
Caroline: Yeah.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: Shanti was not one of those people.
Caroline: Yeah. No. Right.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: She was not going to let something like that happen.
Caroline: Right.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: Well, ah what would somebody do um I got this from guy by the name of Ryan Vescio. I'm probably screwing up that name, but it was ah one of the investigators on the case. he's They're looking for a motive, and he's thinking, well, what would somebody do when they were about to lose the most important thing in their life?
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: Because in April of 2018, the most important thing in David's life was that house, not Shanti.
Caroline: Yeah, right.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: No. And that that's what they think the motive was.
Caroline: The house, yeah.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: David told Cindy and others that he believed Shanti... ah Pardon me. Now, I have to go back. You know, David... Tronis had been married before.
Caroline: Yeah.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: And he had been divorced. And that's how he got on Match.com. And that's where he met Shanti. Um... His ex-wife's name was Cindy.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: ah David was telling Cindy that his wife had been murdered and that she thought, or he thought, that she had been murdered by a burglar. And in the trial, defense was claiming that $5,000 in cash was missing from the house.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: And also missing was Shanti's diamond engagement ring valued at $15,000. fifteen thousand dollars ah So one nail in the coffin of David, the killer of his wife Shanti, was Shanti Cooper's engagement ring being found in David Tronis' possessions when he was arrested.
Caroline: o
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: Now, guess where he was when he was arrested? He was arrested at his mother's house.
Caroline: Oh, geez.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: Now, so this was in Minnesota. They had to go up to Minnesota
Caroline: Stop.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: and ah And arrest him.
Caroline: Oh, my gosh.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: And his argument, you know, his entire defense was about a burglar must have done this. A burglar must have done this.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: ah But when they went up to arrest him, they found the mother totally willing to let officers, you know, look through her house, and they found the ring ah in her room.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: Among her possessions.
Caroline: Oh, she had no clue. I mean, obviously David's doing with everybody in his life, but oh my gosh.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: No, she had no clue.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: So the police got up on the stand and said, we searched the room in his mother's house where he was living, and lo and behold, we found the rings in his suitcase in his bedroom. So it wasn't in her room, it was in his room.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: So after the arrest of David Tranus, investigators received a tip that took them way by surprise. Way, way, way, way, way by so surprise. It led them to, back to Minnesota, back in time to a much younger David Tronis when he was married to Carol.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: Former close friends of Carol Tronis told detectives that they believed Dave was poisoning her the whole time they were married. As soon as Carol got married to David, she started suffering a bunch of unknown health issues.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: That made prosecutor um Ryan Vescio, now earlier I called him him an investigator, but he was actually the prosecutor, sorry. That made him wonder if Shanti could have been poisoned.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: Because in Shanti's case, she had an appendicitis and had to have an appendectomy during the time that she was with David. Shanti had had that emergency appendectomy eight weeks before her death.
Caroline: Oh, wow. Wow.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: um These were similar symptoms to poisoning. So was it appendix attack or was it poisoning?
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: They have similar symptoms. And David told detectives that Shanti had digestive problems right up until the day she died. I bet he was quite proud of that if he poisoned her.
Caroline: Oh, my gosh.
Caroline: well that's i've if if this Well, and if this is like the second or third potential victim of this, i mean, it doesn't sound like he's had any success with killing anyone. But I think if you're comfortable doing it, then yeah, ah this is now your new life coping strategy that you employ all the time, right?
Caroline: He was probably actually doing this with a lot of people in his life, including his mother.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: Maybe. I mean, it was never proven. It was brought up as a, you know, possibility.
Caroline: Yeah. Yeah.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: Certainly, Carol doesn't think that he ever poisoned her.
Caroline: Huh.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: It seemed to investigators that Carol seemed to be protecting her former husband and whether it had anything to do with Dave's finances or whatever. um But while they were there at her house, they saw thousands of pages of bank record records. She showed it to them, belonging to David Trotnis in her home.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: One thing that what they noticed was that David and Carol still had a joint bank account together. Caroline, there was a quarter million dollars in that account.
Caroline: Dang.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: And Carol said, well, I must have forgotten to take my name off that account when we got divorced.
Caroline: What?
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: chair You know, who are these people? Oh, my God.
Caroline: and That's what I'm like. I just, you know, Florida's not on my vacation list and this the kind of stuff that keeps it off.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: Well, this yeah, but Carol is up in Minnesota. I mean, you know, to me, this gives me a vague, foggy idea of the type of woman Carol was.
Caroline: Oh, what? What?
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: And i wonder why they got divorced.
Caroline: Yeah.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: And did they really still have joint accounts that they both realized they were still on?
Caroline: Yeah. Right. Or was he just using her as like a pawn when he needed her in future schemes? And yeah, really great questions, mom.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: Yeah. Yeah.
Caroline: Cause this is weird. What was the catalyst for their divorce? Who initiated that? How did did they both get copacetic to it?
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: Yeah.
Caroline: Cause is Carol still in his day to day? Like, is he calling her?
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: yeah I mean, you know, but listen, the investigators will tell you that Carol, they believe Carol was involved somehow in David's finances and had some level of of control over what he did.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: And the surprises in this case just kept coming. Soon after Shanti's death, detectives had placed a surveillance camera pointed toward the outside of Dave's house. Now, the prosecutor says that that, um you know, the detectives just wanted to know who's coming in and out of that house.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: And that camera ended up turning over a pretty valuable piece of evidence. That camera captured um images of a private investigator, hired detectives, believed that when one of those lawyers realized that the police were on cam, or that the private investigators were on camera, that Lawyer Robert Mandel, who was a defense attorney for ah David Tronis, he immediately called the lead investigator and confessed that the defense team had inquired the bloody sheets from the garage apartment where Shanti was found dead, but he never turned them over to the prosecution.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: And they also he also said that they took a green cord
Caroline: What?
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: that they will now be giving to the prosecution.
Caroline: I'm shook. That's shocking. That is a shocking thing to admit to only because you can see yourself getting caught. Is that what I'm reading that?
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: Yes, so in other words, the defense attorneys for David Dronas found bloody sheets and secreted them, found a cord, a green cord, secreted them,
Caroline: ah
Caroline: I just feel like that's immediate disbarment. I don't care how bad bad you feel.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: I wonder what happened to those people.
Caroline: Right.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: I don't know. With prosecution now in possession of that green court, tests were conducted to see if indeed it was a murder weapon used to strangle Shanti.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: ah Because the coroner was saying, you know, it very well could be.
Caroline: right
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: And eventually it was determined that the court did not have any DNA on it. And then it's, you know,
Caroline: I mean, maybe. We'll never know. They didn't properly do it, did they?
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: No. No, and the sheets were brought the sheets were brought forward.
Caroline: Whalation.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: The bloody sheets were brought forward as evidence.
Caroline: Yeah.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: So now all of his defenses are gone. I mean, you know, they have evidence at the scene now, and they have um the green cord can still be used, although they'll have to caveat it with, you know, we never found any DNA on it.
Caroline: Yeah. He's...
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: But it was found in the room, in her little hidey hole that she was in while all this was going on.
Caroline: Right.
Caroline: Right.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: And the they demolition of the house, in other words. And um the the his defense attorneys were so sleazy that they were hiding evidence. Well, now that's shot.
Caroline: Yeah, that's that.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: And also the engagement ring has been found. And that that shoots down the burglary angle.
Caroline: Yeah.
Caroline: Yeah.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: So David Tronis is just sitting there naked. He's got nothing.
Caroline: Well, yeah.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: Nothing.
Caroline: And not only that, but David created the scenario in which, well, these things were stolen. Therefore, it was a burglar. Well, one of the two things you said was stolen is in your pocket. So you the burglar like I mean, it just you set it up like that, sir.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: Yeah, right.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: There was a snitch from jail where David was being held prior to trial who came into the trial and said that David admitted to him that he had found that his wife had found out about his sexual liaisons with men at the bathhouse.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: David Tronis said to this man that he snapped. He just snapped. But who can believe what he says? This convicted felon did not help anything along.
Caroline: Yeah. All
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: I mean, jury, the jury, said jurors said they didn't believe him or maybe did, but it was just dismissed as evidence by the jury during deliberations.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: So it didn't help, but didn't matter.
Caroline: yeah
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: The jury determined unanimously that David Tronis murdered his wife. He received a life sentence without parole. and he will die in prison.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: And listeners, go out and watch him get his sentence because he no longer, you know, looks like the vivacious, you know, homewrecker that he actually is. Housewrecker, I mean. he He just looked like this pitiful, slouched over, somewhat long hair tied up in a bun kind of guy. um He did not say a word.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: He just, you know, took it, and now he's in prison for life, and he's already figured out how to scam all those people.
Caroline: Yes.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: So he received that, you know, life sentence without parole, hallelujah. Now, me, Caroline, I don't know about you, but i don't think David Tronis is a killer. Like, you know, we've done episodes where people have killed before,
Caroline: yeah
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: We've got an episodes why of violence, but, you know, I'll still marry you and then surprise, surprise, you killed me. i mean, we've done all of that.
Caroline: Right.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: I don't think that David Tronis is a killer looking for a victim like some of our family killers. I am starting to think that David Tronis didn't want to lose that house.
Caroline: so Something was...
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: He wanted to own that house. ah
Caroline: Yeah. Yeah, I agree.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: He had something going on mentally about that house, maybe. Just me speculating.
Caroline: Yeah.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: He was addicted to all that destruction, maybe.
Caroline: Yeah, maybe.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: ah The lies about the money. um he was maybe possessed that he is in his element in this money trap house.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: That is nothing but a lie.
Caroline: Right.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: He's probably one of these people that can't figure out how to cut his losses. I mean, he still had a quarter million dollars in the bank.
Caroline: that This is the part where i'm so I just have... there There's got to be a movie that can be made about this because I need to know about... Because I think you're right. Not a killer, not a guy who even maybe even have killed again. But it's just like there's something about this guy that was definitely willing to...
Caroline: to damage everyone around him in order to maintain some elements of what he considered to be a, you know, his life, right? Like this house, these women, maybe these wives, right?
Caroline: ah The sense that he's the millionaire and, you know, i because it's weird.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: but
Caroline: He has his mother, like his mother has him on these trusts. I mean, that's gotta mean something. He's gotta have access to a lifestyle if he wanted one. And then this other wife who's like, oh, gee, I'm on that bank account with $250,000.
Caroline: I didn't know. Yeah, right. Oh, my gosh.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: I mean, the whole thing just speaks of some kind of psychological ah
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: hang-up. He's got...
Caroline: Yeah.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: He's got the lying hang-up.
Caroline: Yeah.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: He's got the, I want to live in this house and this is going to be my new identity. And then I destroy it part.
Caroline: yeah
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: And all of the lies and things that he's hiding from Shanti, he doesn't even seem to have a relationship with Jackson, really.
Caroline: Yeah. Right.
Caroline: right
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: um And by the way, Jackson Cooper... um started his impact statement during the sentencing with, my mother was the best person I ever knew.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: and she and his father was standing next to him. And he was, he, Jackson, and his father just started to cry when those words came out. She was the best person I ever knew.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: He got out. She worked very hard. He had to stop for long periods of time. she she never put her work before her family. um You know, he was just inconsolable and was far hard for him to speak.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: But finally, toward the end, he said, i am um finally able to say that my mother's killer is going to prison forever and that is where he belongs.
Caroline: Yeah, well there you go. That's right.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: So that is the story of Shanti Cooper Tronis and David Tronis who murdered her, murdered the life that she had with Jackson and the love that she provided to all of those around her.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: So listeners, All I can say is it's just so disgusting what happened to her. And I just got no words.
Caroline: Well, I'm happy he's in jail. That's for sure.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: Me too. And we'll just let it go now and say our research is solely based on public documents, including legal documents, articles and books about our subject.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: Episodes are aired every other week. Please tell your friends to join us. Give us a review and a subscribe because that helps new listeners find us. Thank you for joining us. We really appreciate our listeners very much.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: And one other thing. Don't forget to live and let live. So bye-bye, Caroline.
Caroline: Bye-bye.
Andy, Bridget and Caroline: This was a sad one. So sad.
