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00:00:01
David Tronnes
56 Plays2 months ago
A pretend millionaire destroys his mansion by remodelling it into inhabitable status. His wife is his next target.
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Transcript
Introduction to 'Hearth Home and Homicide'
00:00:01
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Hello listeners, welcome. I'm Bridget.
00:00:05
Caroline
And I'm Caroline.
00:00:07
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.
00:00:19
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.
00:00:30
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
We see how a killer in the family is responsible for immeasurable destruction and trauma. So listener discretion is advised.
00:00:42
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
Who was Shanti Cooper?
00:00:57
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
is a really expensive place to live in Delaney Park.
00:01:02
Caroline
o
00:01:03
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
It's, you know, money, will buy, tranquility, peace, security, all of the above.
00:01:10
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.
00:01:14
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Yeah.
00:01:16
Caroline
It's big, it's pretty, it's clean.
00:01:18
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
It's manicured.
00:01:20
Caroline
Manicure, yeah. Yeah.
00:01:22
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?
00:01:33
Caroline
you
00:01:34
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.
00:01:48
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.
00:02:02
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
A beautiful woman named Shanti had divorced her husband after years of struggling to have a child. But before
How did Shanti meet David Tronis?
00:02:11
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
they got divorced, they did become pregnant with their only child, Jackson Cooper.
00:02:18
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.
00:02:30
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.
00:02:53
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
So i love our victim today.
00:02:53
Caroline
Yeah.
00:02:57
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
um What a woman.
00:03:00
Caroline
yeah
00:03:00
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.
00:03:19
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.
00:03:35
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
And they were both very lonely after being in a marriage. Now I'm not in a
What are the dangers of online dating?
00:03:40
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
marriage. And so, you know, it's a segue. They were looking for eligible people to date, possibly rebuild a family life.
00:03:50
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Millions are doing it right this minute as we talk, Caroline. it's ah It's a thing.
00:03:55
Caroline
Yeah. It's a thing.
00:03:57
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
lot of time it works out great.
00:03:59
Caroline
Oh, yeah.
00:04:01
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.
00:04:12
Caroline
That's true. Yeah.
00:04:13
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
It is a transaction and an interaction that most definitely needs to be cautiously and critically evaluated.
00:04:24
Caroline
Yeah.
00:04:25
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
But, you know, that's so easy for me to say.
00:04:30
Caroline
Yeah.
00:04:31
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
The pro...
00:04:32
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.
00:04:43
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Mm-hmm.
00:04:47
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.
00:05:07
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
I
David's Move to Orlando and Financial Deceit
00:05:08
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
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
00:05:14
Caroline
Right? Thank you. Turns out all our time don't catch a psycho.
00:05:30
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
00:05:39
Caroline
There you go. Yep. I agree.
00:05:42
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.
00:05:58
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.
00:06:15
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.
00:06:48
Caroline
Yeah.
00:06:55
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.
00:07:07
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Do I think that people are critically thinking when they meet Mr. or Mrs. Wright?
00:07:13
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.
00:07:23
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Yes.
00:07:24
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.
00:07:36
Caroline
Yeah.
00:07:36
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.
00:07:54
Caroline
Totally. Yes.
00:07:55
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
So I don't want to judge. I can't judge because I too would fall into the same trap.
00:08:03
Caroline
yeah
00:08:04
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.
00:08:16
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.
00:08:29
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.
00:08:57
Caroline
Yeah.
00:08:58
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.
00:09:09
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.
00:09:21
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.
00:09:34
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.
00:09:56
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
I have had a pep in my step since we started this little email affair.
00:10:03
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.
00:10:11
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.
00:10:24
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
She hasn't met him yet. He doesn't know where she lives.
00:10:27
Caroline
That's true.
00:10:28
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Well, he notly
Marriage and Financial Deception
00:10:29
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
I don't think she had given him her home address yet.
00:10:33
Caroline
Right.
00:10:33
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.
00:10:44
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.
00:11:02
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.
00:11:08
Caroline
Yeah.
00:11:13
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.
00:11:25
Caroline
How about we just like fall on the sword of this is who I am.
00:11:25
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
geez.
00:11:28
Caroline
Sometimes I'm like this, you know, I don't know.
00:11:31
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Not only that, but, you know, I just feel like that is so misogynistic-rooted.
00:11:37
Caroline
ah Yeah, like weird.
00:11:37
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.
00:11:42
Caroline
Right.
00:11:43
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
And that stuff is so passe.
00:11:44
Caroline
Yeah. um
00:11:45
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
It just is not even valid anymore.
00:11:48
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.
00:11:53
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Authentic. Yes. Right.
00:11:56
Caroline
Like, like oh I'm nervous. You know, it goes a long way. I don't know.
00:12:01
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
The minute that he, though, David Tronis, knew that she was into him.
00:12:10
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
He moved from Minneapolis down to Orlando.
00:12:15
Caroline
oh wow okay that's a big that's a big old red flag what's that about
00:12:16
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Caroline,
00:12:21
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.
00:12:26
Caroline
it totally it's too much too much
00:12:30
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.
00:12:42
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.
00:12:56
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
He moved in.
00:12:56
Caroline
oh Oh,
00:12:58
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.
00:13:09
Caroline
oh
00:13:09
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.
00:13:10
Caroline
come on.
00:13:16
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Now, he was a successful businessman in Minneapolis, but he quit all that.
00:13:20
Caroline
Whoa.
00:13:21
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.
00:13:32
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?
00:13:43
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
i mean, that should have been, ah that is so autobiographical on David's part.
00:13:50
Caroline
i just, that's,
00:13:51
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
00:13:54
Caroline
yeah.
00:13:57
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
And um yeah, no, I mean, you know, bad
00:13:57
Caroline
Right. Yeah.
00:14:01
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.
00:14:14
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.
00:14:29
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.
00:14:40
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.
00:14:49
Caroline
Yeah. Okay.
00:14:50
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Now, her first husband, Jim, was an introverted type of person based on interviews I've seen with him.
00:14:56
Caroline
Yeah.
00:14:56
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.
00:15:02
Caroline
Yeah.
00:15:04
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,
00:15:21
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.
00:15:27
Caroline
Oh, wow.
00:15:32
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.
00:15:43
Caroline
Yeah.
00:15:43
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
ah You know, on the surface.
00:15:46
Caroline
Yeah. I mean, I...
00:15:47
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.
00:15:57
Caroline
Right.
00:16:00
Caroline
Right.
00:16:04
Caroline
Right.
00:16:05
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
But she did.
00:16:07
Caroline
Yeah.
00:16:07
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
So she was very trusting, obviously. Very, very trusting.
00:16:12
Caroline
Yeah.
00:16:12
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
One good move she did make. She would not marry David until four years later in 2017.
00:16:20
Caroline
Okay.
00:16:20
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
So she was kind of putting him up while he was trying to get his footing in Orlando.
00:16:27
Caroline
Yeah.
00:16:28
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.
00:16:36
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?
00:16:51
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...
00:17:00
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Yeah,
00:17:02
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,
00:17:18
Caroline
Well, we know why.
00:17:18
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
yeah I don't know.
00:17:19
Caroline
Because we want love.
00:17:19
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
i don't know what. Ah, yeah.
00:17:20
Caroline
We want it to work. We want it to be different than it is.
00:17:22
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Yes.
00:17:23
Caroline
Yeah.
00:17:24
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.
00:17:42
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.
00:17:59
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.
00:18:11
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.
00:18:22
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.
00:18:38
Caroline
Hmm.
00:18:38
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.
00:19:06
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.
00:19:21
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.
00:19:37
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.
00:19:49
Caroline
oo
00:19:50
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.
00:19:59
Caroline
Oh, 100% creepy. It's for castles, let's be real.
00:20:01
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
it
00:20:02
Caroline
but
00:20:02
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
There's something about gargoyles that makes them seem alive.
00:20:07
Caroline
I know.
00:20:07
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Like they're going to jump down.
00:20:09
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
00:20:24
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...
00:20:32
Caroline
Little chicken.
00:20:32
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.
00:20:38
Caroline
Yeah, the so leather vein that's yeah i was thinking windmill yeah yeah
00:20:42
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.
00:20:56
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
That's what they look like to me.
00:20:57
Caroline
yeah
00:20:58
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
And they're looking, somehow their eyes are made to look right through you.
00:20:58
Caroline
yeah
00:21:03
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.
00:21:17
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.
00:21:35
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.
00:21:43
Caroline
Yeah.
00:21:48
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
ah Now, I will say this. um If you fly your drone over any part of Florida,
00:21:59
Caroline
yeah
When did Shanti start doubting David?
00:22:00
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
every house has a pool.
00:22:02
Caroline
I was just going to say, are there any houses under 3,000 square feet? I've never heard of it.
00:22:09
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
I mean, you know, on the beach side of things there.
00:22:11
Caroline
Yeah. Yeah.
00:22:12
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.
00:22:26
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.
00:22:34
Caroline
That's cold. That's cold as ice.
00:22:37
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.
00:22:42
Caroline
Right.
00:22:43
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Some of it.
00:22:44
Caroline
Yeah.
00:22:45
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?
00:22:52
Caroline
Yeah. Well, perhaps ask his mom.
00:22:54
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.
00:23:03
Caroline
Yeah.
00:23:04
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
00:23:17
Caroline
Yeah, that, and I mean, it's, yeah, and you can kind of get it through the pages.
00:23:20
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
I've met people like that.
00:23:24
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.
00:23:34
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.
00:23:43
Caroline
Yeah.
00:23:46
Caroline
Yeah.
00:23:54
Caroline
That's, yes.
00:23:54
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.
00:23:56
Caroline
Yep.
00:24:00
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.
00:24:09
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Right.
00:24:11
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...
00:24:23
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Easily, easily.
00:24:24
Caroline
Yeah.
00:24:25
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
She works with people every day who have investments that are dynamic.
00:24:30
Caroline
Yeah.
00:24:30
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.
00:24:36
Caroline
Right.
00:24:38
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Why didn't she do a financial background on David?
00:24:41
Caroline
I know.
00:24:44
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Because then she would have known that he's not a millionaire.
00:24:48
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.
00:25:03
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
No.
00:25:04
Caroline
I don't know.
00:25:05
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Or there might have been a rescue element for her.
00:25:09
Caroline
oh yes. Yeah, you're right.
00:25:12
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.
00:25:19
Caroline
You're right.
00:25:22
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
I mean,
00:25:23
Caroline
this Right?
00:25:24
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
a
00:25:25
Caroline
you You're like, I can help you with that. so I see what's going on over there.
00:25:29
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.
00:25:34
Caroline
Yeah.
00:25:39
Caroline
Yeah.
00:25:57
Caroline
Right.
00:25:58
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?
00:26:15
Caroline
Right.
00:26:16
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.
00:26:18
Caroline
Right.
00:26:25
Caroline
right
00:26:26
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.
00:26:47
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.
00:26:58
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.
00:27:11
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.
00:27:29
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Okay, another red flag. But, you know, she's just trusting.
00:27:34
Caroline
Yeah, but contractors notoriously steal money anyway, so that's just like bad news to hear.
00:27:40
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.
00:27:51
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?
00:28:04
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
It's not too late. You haven't married him. Why did he need
00:28:08
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.
00:28:22
Caroline
If she had a diabolical mind like mine.
00:28:25
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Yeah, yeah, well, um you mean trusting, never trusting the diabolical mind.
00:28:30
Caroline
yeah
00:28:31
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Yeah, yeah.
00:28:32
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.
00:28:47
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.
00:29:00
Caroline
Boom. Bob's your uncle. It's not me.
00:29:02
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Yes. And, you know, maybe she was just still giddy. Like, you know, this is so fun.
00:29:07
Caroline
Yeah.
00:29:09
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
this is so fun.
00:29:09
Caroline
right yeah
00:29:11
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
i mean, maybe she liked the way that that he expected her to be an equal partner.
00:29:19
Caroline
Yeah, right.
00:29:19
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.
00:29:26
Caroline
Yeah, both.
00:29:32
Caroline
So true.
00:29:32
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.
00:29:48
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.
00:30:02
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Shanti married Dave in 2017. Married him.
00:30:08
Caroline
Dang. I wonder what kind of a ceremony it was.
00:30:09
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Yeah.
00:30:11
Caroline
Fast and expedited, large and lavish. and I'm curious.
00:30:17
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
I think it was small.
00:30:19
Caroline
Okay. Yeah.
00:30:19
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Small, non-fanfare.
00:30:24
Caroline
Yeah.
00:30:24
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
You know, it wasn't like that Amazon guy who went to Venice and made all the Venetians pissed
00:30:31
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
00:30:33
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
They are?
00:30:41
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
yeah
00:30:45
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Oh, my God. So these contractors, subcontractors to David, Trana's, came and went. Demolition went on and on.
00:30:57
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.
00:31:11
Caroline
Oh no.
00:31:15
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.
00:31:28
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.
00:31:52
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
I'm thinking bottom bunk, but I don't know.
00:31:57
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.
00:32:09
Caroline
Wow.
00:32:09
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.
00:32:26
Caroline
Yeah, crazy.
00:32:28
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.
00:32:38
Caroline
Yeah.
00:32:39
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
911 Call and Suspicion
00:32:50
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
turned to, and she probably just told him flat out, this is on you.
00:32:54
Caroline
Yeah, right. like i'm
00:32:55
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
This is on you.
00:32:56
Caroline
Like, I'm giving this much money. If it's gone, it's gone. Like, it's on you now.
00:33:01
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.
00:33:09
Caroline
Right.
00:33:09
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
But did she check that? No.
00:33:12
Caroline
That's the worst mistake, I think, is that you didn't.
00:33:13
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
she didn't She didn't know that his mother
00:33:14
Caroline
Yeah.
00:33:17
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
was co-owner
00:33:18
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.
00:33:34
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,
00:33:42
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Yeah.
00:33:43
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.
00:33:54
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.
00:34:08
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
She's using her critical mind She's listening to people deeply.
00:34:12
Caroline
Yeah.
00:34:16
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
She's exhausted.
00:34:19
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
And she is just wanting ah love affair.
00:34:20
Caroline
Yeah.
00:34:25
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
She just wants romance.
00:34:25
Caroline
Yeah.
00:34:28
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.
00:34:38
Caroline
Right.
00:34:39
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.
00:34:46
Caroline
Right.
00:34:53
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.
00:35:10
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.
00:35:24
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
So they have to be on camera and they work with them to bring it up to snuff.
00:35:27
Caroline
yeah
00:35:32
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.
00:35:43
Caroline
Remind.
00:35:45
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.
00:36:01
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.
00:36:12
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
yeah He knew the house. i mean, you know, was great house.
00:36:14
Caroline
Yeah.
00:36:15
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.
00:36:29
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
They had fully, he said they, because he too thought that Chanti was in it as deep as David was.
00:36:36
Caroline
yeah
00:36:37
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.
00:36:47
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.
00:36:57
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.
00:37:06
Caroline
I know, this is like, oh God, that's embarrassing.
00:37:09
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Oh, God.
00:37:12
Caroline
ah So embarrassing, I'm so embarrassed.
00:37:15
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.
00:37:29
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.
00:37:41
Caroline
The footings and all that.
00:37:42
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
my my My word for is I know there are beings up there.
00:37:46
Caroline
Yeah.
00:37:48
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
But, you know, are they okay?
00:37:48
Caroline
I know there's some, some, yeah.
00:37:51
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
I mean, I just need to know.
00:37:53
Caroline
Right? I mean, like, I know there's math involved. But like, can I have a calculator?
00:37:59
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Right.
00:38:02
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.
00:38:17
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
And he just was gobsmacked, you know, chin on the floor.
00:38:21
Caroline
So
What inconsistencies were found in David's story?
00:38:22
Caroline
embarrassing.
00:38:22
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.
00:38:42
Caroline
right
00:38:42
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.
00:39:00
Caroline
Yeah.
00:39:01
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
So she pulled out of the deal. She refused.
00:39:03
Caroline
She's smart. but She's a smart big picture thinker.
00:39:05
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
This is the first thing that, see now how it worked, is that now she's thinking about her business.
00:39:06
Caroline
Yeah.
00:39:11
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
So her critical mind is starting to kick in.
00:39:14
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.
00:39:28
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.
00:39:28
Caroline
Right.
00:39:38
Caroline
Right.
00:39:38
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?
00:39:44
Caroline
Yes.
00:39:47
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.
00:39:51
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Oh, God.
00:39:57
Caroline
Yeah.
00:39:59
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.
00:40:12
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.
00:40:22
Caroline
Right.
00:40:23
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
I say something that is just not appropriate.
00:40:26
Caroline
Yeah.
00:40:28
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
And I'm thinking to myself, how did I get on this road?
00:40:28
Caroline
Right.
00:40:31
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
I thought I was on the road to recovery.
00:40:32
Caroline
Right.
00:40:34
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
I don't think that ever ends.
00:40:35
Caroline
Right.
00:40:36
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
A human being is just such a complex creature.
00:40:37
Caroline
Yeah.
00:40:42
Caroline
Yeah.
00:40:42
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.
00:40:51
Caroline
Well, that's, it's in constant re-reformation, re-adapting. You know, your brain is adapting to you, really.
00:40:59
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.
00:41:09
Caroline
Yeah.
00:41:09
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.
00:41:25
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.
00:41:35
Caroline
Yeah.
00:41:42
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Can you imagine? The metaphorical house has fallen on her head.
00:41:48
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.
00:41:56
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
She is married to this man now. She's married to him.
00:41:59
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.
00:42:12
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.
00:42:12
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Yeah. Right.
00:42:18
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.
00:42:23
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Devastated.
00:42:24
Caroline
Yeah.
00:42:28
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Plus she's at a quarter million dollars.
00:42:32
Caroline
Yeah, that too. And sleeping on a bunk bed. vey.
00:42:37
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.
00:42:57
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.
00:43:23
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
It is just so fake. So fake.
00:43:26
Caroline
Oh, wow.
00:43:27
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
He had no idea what an actual human would sound like on this kind of call.
00:43:31
Caroline
Right.
00:43:33
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Plus, you know, when you are not crying tears and you are fake crying,
00:43:40
Caroline
Yeah.
00:43:41
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.
00:43:52
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Like, you know, you're your throat is constricting.
00:43:52
Caroline
Yeah.
00:43:55
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
So you're, you know, okay.
00:43:55
Caroline
Yeah.
00:43:56
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
When you're faking that, yeah yeah it's like nails on a chalkboard.
00:44:01
Caroline
Yeah, because you're throwing your own voice up and you're,
00:44:03
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
It's just, oh, it's c creepy. Yeah.
00:44:07
Caroline
yeah
00:44:07
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.
00:44:17
Caroline
Oh, ew. Ew.
00:44:20
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
So.
00:44:21
Caroline
Yeah.
00:44:22
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
This man is just a big mess of bad stuff.
00:44:27
Caroline
Yeah.
00:44:28
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
When first responders arrived, Shanti Cooper was dead. You know, she was dead.
00:44:33
Caroline
Yeah.
00:44:33
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
deeply dead.
00:44:34
Caroline
Yeah.
00:44:35
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
She was 39 years old, Carolyn.
00:44:36
Caroline
Yeah.
00:44:38
Caroline
Was she drowned? Is that like, did they find her in the tub?
00:44:41
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.
00:45:03
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Uh... He was confronted about things like there was no water.
00:45:07
Caroline
oh
00:45:07
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.
00:45:15
Caroline
Stop. What? Okay. well That's weird.
00:45:19
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.
00:45:28
Caroline
I mean, what the hell?
00:45:28
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
That's he thought he was the smartest man in the room.
00:45:33
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
And he just they just told him, you youre what you're telling us does not add up.
00:45:41
Caroline
Yeah.
00:45:41
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.
00:45:53
Caroline
Right.
00:45:55
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
they ah the The medical examiner found that Shanti had been severely beaten and strangled to death.
00:46:02
Caroline
Oh my God.
00:46:03
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.
00:46:17
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
um You know, they kept telling him, that didn't make any sense.
00:46:21
Caroline
Yeah.
00:46:21
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
That doesn't make any sense either. What you just said there contradicts what you said 10 minutes ago.
00:46:24
Caroline
Right.
00:46:25
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
You know, I mean, he he just kept going.
00:46:28
Caroline
Most people would be like, i need my attorney after the first time that happens.
00:46:31
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.
00:46:43
Caroline
Yeah.
00:46:43
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
I would not go.
00:46:43
Caroline
Yeah.
00:46:44
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
They can't make me go.
00:46:46
Caroline
You would go to the coroners or medical examiners or whatever? Is that what you're saying? Or you would just not go?
00:46:51
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
If they want me to go dead, I would just not be ah yeah obliging law enforcement.
00:46:54
Caroline
Yeah. Yeah. You're like not where my mind is right now.
00:47:00
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
No, right.
00:47:00
Caroline
But thats that's that's when you don't murder people though.
00:47:00
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Right.
00:47:03
Caroline
So when you do, you do like David and you're like, sure, I'll come with.
00:47:09
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.
00:47:17
Caroline
Right.
00:47:18
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
I tricked her for four years.
00:47:20
Caroline
Yeah, but these cops aren't looking for love.
00:47:24
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.
00:47:42
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Club Orlando is well-known gay same-sex men's club in Orlando, bathhouse, gay bathhouse.
00:47:56
Caroline
So many jokes coming to mind of current affairs that I will not say to deter from this story.
00:48:01
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
No, don't. That's right.
00:48:03
Caroline
Yeah.
00:48:04
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.
00:48:24
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.
00:48:36
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
They meet the love of their life and they don't rejoin.
00:48:40
Caroline
Right.
00:48:40
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
They're in a committed relationship now.
00:48:43
Caroline
OK.
00:48:44
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.
00:48:53
Caroline
Interesting.
00:48:54
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
So he was just there for the sex.
00:48:57
Caroline
Yeah.
00:48:57
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.
00:49:11
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.
00:49:27
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Everybody who knew, so he wasn't just there, you know, because he was doing a documentary.
00:49:32
Caroline
Right.
00:49:32
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
He was there, he was there for, oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:49:33
Caroline
He's fully embracing this lifestyle when he's there. Right. Well, know
00:49:38
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Everybody who knew Shanti said she would absolutely not have tolerated that, male or female.
00:49:47
Caroline
right
00:49:47
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
She would not have tolerated that, endorsed it, it
00:49:47
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.
00:50:00
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.
00:50:05
Caroline
Yeah.
00:50:10
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Shanti was not one of those people.
00:50:11
Caroline
Yeah. No. Right.
00:50:13
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
She was not going to let something like that happen.
00:50:15
Caroline
Right.
00:50:17
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?
00:50:40
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Because in April of 2018, the most important thing in David's life was that house, not Shanti.
00:50:46
Caroline
Yeah, right.
00:50:48
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
No. And that that's what they think the motive was.
00:50:54
Caroline
The house, yeah.
00:50:54
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
David told Cindy and others that he believed Shanti... ah Pardon me. Now,
Trial and Conviction
00:51:01
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
I have to go back. You know, David... Tronis had been married before.
00:51:09
Caroline
Yeah.
00:51:09
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.
00:51:21
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.
00:51:39
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.
00:52:04
Caroline
o
00:52:04
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Now, guess where he was when he was arrested? He was arrested at his mother's house.
00:52:09
Caroline
Oh, geez.
00:52:09
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Now, so this was in Minnesota. They had to go up to Minnesota
00:52:14
Caroline
Stop.
00:52:15
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
and ah And arrest him.
00:52:15
Caroline
Oh, my gosh.
00:52:19
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.
00:52:31
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.
00:52:45
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Among her possessions.
00:52:45
Caroline
Oh, she had no clue. I mean, obviously David's doing with everybody in his life, but oh my gosh.
00:52:50
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
No, she had no clue.
00:52:55
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.
00:53:09
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.
00:53:30
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.
00:53:47
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.
00:54:01
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.
00:54:16
Caroline
Oh, wow. Wow.
00:54:18
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
um These were similar symptoms to poisoning. So was it appendix attack or was it poisoning?
00:54:31
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.
00:54:39
Caroline
Oh, my gosh.
00:54:42
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?
00:55:01
Caroline
He was probably actually doing this with a lot of people in his life, including his mother.
00:55:05
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Maybe. I mean, it was never proven. It was brought up as a, you know, possibility.
00:55:11
Caroline
Yeah. Yeah.
00:55:11
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Certainly, Carol doesn't think that he ever poisoned her.
00:55:15
Caroline
Huh.
00:55:15
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.
00:55:37
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.
00:55:48
Caroline
Dang.
00:55:49
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
And Carol said, well, I must have forgotten to take my name off that account when we got divorced.
00:55:56
Caroline
What?
00:55:57
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
chair You know, who are these people? Oh, my God.
00:55:59
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.
00:56:05
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.
00:56:09
Caroline
Oh, what? What?
00:56:20
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
And i wonder why they got divorced.
00:56:25
Caroline
Yeah.
00:56:25
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
And did they really still have joint accounts that they both realized they were still on?
00:56:32
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.
00:56:38
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Yeah. Yeah.
00:56:40
Caroline
Cause this is weird. What was the catalyst for their divorce? Who initiated that? How did did they both get copacetic to it?
00:56:46
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Yeah.
00:56:47
Caroline
Cause is Carol still in his day to day? Like, is he calling her?
00:56:51
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.
00:57:05
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.
00:57:23
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.
00:58:07
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
And they also he also said that they took a green cord
00:58:07
Caroline
What?
00:58:12
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
that they will now be giving to the prosecution.
00:58:17
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?
00:58:25
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,
00:58:34
Caroline
ah
00:58:39
Caroline
I just feel like that's immediate disbarment. I don't care how bad bad you feel.
00:58:42
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
I wonder what happened to those people.
00:58:42
Caroline
Right.
00:58:44
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.
00:58:56
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
ah Because the coroner was saying, you know, it very well could be.
00:59:00
Caroline
right
00:59:00
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,
00:59:05
Caroline
I mean, maybe. We'll never know. They didn't properly do it, did they?
00:59:08
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
No. No, and the sheets were brought the sheets were brought forward.
00:59:10
Caroline
Whalation.
00:59:13
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
The bloody sheets were brought forward as evidence.
00:59:15
Caroline
Yeah.
00:59:16
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.
00:59:19
Caroline
Yeah. He's...
00:59:31
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.
00:59:31
Caroline
Right.
00:59:38
Caroline
Right.
00:59:39
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.
00:59:55
Caroline
Yeah, that's that.
00:59:55
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
And also the engagement ring has been found. And that that shoots down the burglary angle.
00:59:58
Caroline
Yeah.
01:00:02
Caroline
Yeah.
01:00:02
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
So David Tronis is just sitting there naked. He's got nothing.
01:00:06
Caroline
Well, yeah.
01:00:07
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Nothing.
01:00:07
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.
01:00:18
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Yeah, right.
01:00:22
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.
01:00:39
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.
01:00:46
Caroline
Yeah. All
01:00:48
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.
01:00:58
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
So it didn't help, but didn't matter.
01:01:01
Caroline
yeah
01:01:02
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.
01:01:14
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.
01:01:39
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.
01:01:44
Caroline
Yes.
01:01:47
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,
01:02:07
Caroline
yeah
01:02:07
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.
01:02:16
Caroline
Right.
01:02:18
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.
01:02:29
Caroline
so Something was...
01:02:30
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
He wanted to own that house. ah
01:02:32
Caroline
Yeah. Yeah, I agree.
01:02:35
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
He had something going on mentally about that house, maybe. Just me speculating.
01:02:44
Caroline
Yeah.
01:02:45
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
He was addicted to all that destruction, maybe.
01:02:49
Caroline
Yeah, maybe.
01:02:50
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.
01:03:05
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
That is nothing but a lie.
01:03:07
Caroline
Right.
01:03:08
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.
01:03:17
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...
01:03:36
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?
01:03:49
Caroline
ah The sense that he's the millionaire and, you know, i because it's weird.
01:03:51
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
but
01:03:55
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.
01:04:08
Caroline
I didn't know. Yeah, right. Oh, my gosh.
01:04:11
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
I mean, the whole thing just speaks of some kind of psychological ah
01:04:19
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
hang-up. He's got...
01:04:20
Caroline
Yeah.
01:04:21
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
He's got the lying hang-up.
01:04:23
Caroline
Yeah.
01:04:24
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.
01:04:31
Caroline
yeah
01:04:33
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.
01:04:39
Caroline
Yeah. Right.
01:04:45
Caroline
right
01:04:46
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.
01:05:00
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.
01:05:14
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.
01:05:31
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.
01:05:47
Caroline
Yeah, well there you go. That's right.
Conclusion and Reflection
01:05:51
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.
01:06:18
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.
01:06:33
Caroline
Well, I'm happy he's in jail. That's for sure.
01:06:36
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.
01:06:49
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.
01:07:04
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
And one other thing. Don't forget to live and let live. So bye-bye, Caroline.
01:07:11
Caroline
Bye-bye.
01:07:14
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
This was a sad one. So sad.