Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Will Hargrove: The Murder of Anna Repkina
61 Plays2 months ago
A pathological liar murders his finance and ruins the lives of so many -- including his OTHER fiance. Is he the god of his own universe or will he get caught?
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to 'Hearth Home and Homicide'
00:00:02
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Hello listeners, I'm Bridget.
00:00:04
Caroline
And I'm Caroline.
00:00:06
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
And you're listening to Hearth Home and Homicide. Caroline and I narrate each story and Andy is our producer. We want justice for the victims in our story.
00:00:21
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
And we like to try to figure out what's going on here. And we have only opinions to offer about what we think is going on here. So our episodes do involve trauma and violence. Listener discretion is advised.
The Murder of Anna Ripkena
00:00:44
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
So today, Caroline, we're going to be talking about Will Hargrove, the murder of Anna Ripkena. And today's story is about the quest for love, family, and home by two women.
00:01:01
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
one in Oregon and one in Russia. They simultaneously had the misfortune of meeting and believing the promises of love made by the same killer, Will Hargrove. They were going to marry Will Hargrove and one of them didn't make it out alive. So I figure let's just talk about the bad guy immediately if not sooner.
Will Hargrove's Deceptive Life
00:01:30
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Will Hargrove ah
00:01:34
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
It's hard to tell his story because I just, you know, am so far from understanding what makes this man tick. But something is definitely wrong with Will Hargrove. But, you know, he doesn't show it to any anybody else. He doesn't show it to any of the women in his life.
00:01:53
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
and these two women that we're gonna be talking about today, he sure as hell didn't show it to him. In fact, he doesn't show anyone the wrong parts of himself because he's leading a double life. His idea of hearth and home boils down to looking for a woman who might make his life seem real or better or just take me away and could you make me human?
00:02:21
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
He was leading a double life because he cannot stop himself from lying and manipulating people to make his life easier or even just to make himself feel glorified to everyone around him. And ah that's our opinion. And I probably could come up with some other negative things to say about him, but let's keep going about his good life.
00:02:50
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
His one life where he is gregarious and fun, loving and kind. He is working as a mechanic. He had friends who thought they understood him. He looked like a bald and burly jovial woodsman of Oregon. Although unlike most lumberjacks, he was pretty short in stature. He hung out with his perfectly average best friend named Kevin Thomas, and they would go grab meals together,
00:03:20
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
at the drive-throughs and just be friends living in Corvallis, Oregon and are worried about Corvallis. If you're in Corvallis and you head west for about an hour, you're going to hit Newport, Oregon, which is one of my favorite places.
00:03:36
Caroline
Yeah. the Oregon coast all the way up and down, but certainly the middle, all some of the best places on earth.
00:03:41
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Yeah. Yeah. And you know, if you're into rock hounding at all or beach combing, there's always going to be something on that beach. Always.
00:03:50
Caroline
or storm watching. I used to love watching the storms roll in, because it's not a sunny beach like California like until you get way south.
00:03:54
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Oh, yeah.
00:03:57
Caroline
But the Oregon coast has like the whole wheelhouse of what a beach could offer you. And I love a lot of that wintery stuff, storm watchingching watching, watching.
00:04:04
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Yes. Yeah, me too. Me too.
Financial Irresponsibility and Lies
00:04:08
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
So, you know, it's hard to not want me to go do a site inspection, but um I've been to Newport Plenty of times I've been to Corvallis. So anyway, back to Will. Will Hargrove had a lot of friends, not just his best friend. He had male and female friends. Some say he was a magnetic personality. He had been a marine, a bouncer, a mechanic, and he had a ton of interesting stories to tell. And in his other life, his factually true side and not his facade,
00:04:45
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Will Ode Money? on everything. He never paid his bills on time. He had things like necessities, for example, car insurance. It was, we're going to cancel you in three days. We're going to cancel you in five days. And he having things cut you know repossessed and all kinds of stuff going on. But he he didn't let that show. He was always working those late payments to get another day before the bank takes his car or his sofa or whatever.
00:05:16
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
He was conniving. The fact that he was a Marine was a lie, he told his friends. In fact, he never served in any military service. And stolen valor is, you know, like right up there with one of the worst things you could do as a human being.
00:05:35
Caroline
It's a crime, right?
00:05:35
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
the
00:05:36
Caroline
Is it like impersonating an officer? If not, I hope so, because you should.
00:05:39
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
no No, I don't think it's, i don't I think impersonating an officer, you know, might come into play sometimes, but stolen valor is more like pretending to be a hero, meaning you went into the military to fight for the freedom of others.
00:05:40
Caroline
miss
00:05:53
Caroline
Yeah.
00:05:58
Caroline
Right. I feel like it should be illegal, though, to do that because I hear her about it a lot and it is upsetting.
00:06:01
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Oh, I do too. Yes. But lying generally is not a crime.
00:06:08
Caroline
Yeah, that's true.
00:06:09
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
um And ah he was, but he was definitely guilty of this, this ah social ah bad thing.
00:06:19
Caroline
Yeah.
00:06:19
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Yeah. That lie, many lies, military service, where, you know, where's he get his money, all that, that many other things about him in the bad part of him was just embellishment and fantasy.
00:06:36
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
In fact, he called himself a mechanic. I just a couple of minutes ago called him a mechanic, but really he was just an oil change technician.
00:06:44
Caroline
Oh, like at a Jiffy Lube or, uh, one of those, you know, sort of, um, I guess commercial where you just drive up, get it done real fast and drive away.
00:06:49
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Yes.
00:06:56
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Yeah, yeah, I don't think that's a mechanic.
00:06:59
Caroline
Yeah, I know.
00:07:00
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
that's ah that is what That is what it's called.
00:07:00
Caroline
Cause I think.
00:07:03
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
He's just an oil change technician. I don't think you have to have any extra education.
00:07:07
Caroline
Yeah. Cause no training.
00:07:10
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
To be a mechanic, you gotta go to school for a long time.
00:07:13
Caroline
Oh yeah.
00:07:14
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
So he habitually lied, played dangerous games with people up to and including murder. To him, murder is just another scheme to dispose of his many self-inflicted problems that spring from living a double life. So I'm not blaming anything other than Will Hargrove for Will Hargrove's problems. Eventually, he graduated to murder to maintain his deceptions. He was 29 years old, Caroline, when he murdered our victim today.
00:07:50
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Now, for today's story to be really understood, we have to meet two other key players.
Affair with Michelle Chavez
00:07:55
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
First, let's talk about Michelle Chavez. Michelle Chavez is a Corvallis area native married to a college professor at Oregon State University, which is located in Corvallis. His name is Raleigh Green.
00:08:11
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Together, these two had two young children, but also the marriage had given way to lack of love and they were living like roommates who really didn't like each other.
00:08:22
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
They probably just ghosted each other under the same roof all the time.
00:08:27
Caroline
Yeah.
00:08:28
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Raleigh told detectives that the spark in their marriage went out after the birth of their first child and they just weren't in love anymore, basically living as roommates.
00:08:40
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
And you know I don't think that's all that unusual because when you're a couple and you don't have children, your total focus is on each other.
00:08:47
Caroline
Yeah.
00:08:48
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
And when you have children, the total focus should be on the child. And if one or more of the people in the couple are not really into making the child their priority and their focus for living, ah that could be a problem in a marriage.
00:09:04
Caroline
Yeah.
00:09:04
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
And is again, it's pretty common. Michelle was out one night in a nightclub. after she'd had her first child, and according to her husband, ruin their marriage, where where she met Will Hargrove, who was working as a bouncer.
00:09:19
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Now that's true, he was a bouncer. ah you know I don't know that he was the type of bouncer that could beat up big ornery people or take on the Hell's Angels or whatever, but ah he was maybe just mining the front door, I don't know, but they started a love affair.
00:09:32
Caroline
or A, yeah.
00:09:39
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
And according to Michelle, this was okay because she and her husband had long since given each other permission to see other people. She was in love with Will Hargrove because he made her feel special and cared for. But she was just having this fling and she wasn't really going through with any kind of divorce. So, okay, so let's unpack that. You've got, by the time all this happened, and they had two kids.
00:10:08
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
She and her husband, Raleigh and Michelle, they're living under the same roof.
00:10:08
Caroline
Okay.
00:10:14
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
They're not pulling in the same direction. I mean, they've got kids.
00:10:17
Caroline
Right. Well, you he's already wrecked like, exposed that like, you know, he sort of admitted after the first child, our spark went out.
00:10:19
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
There's a roof.
00:10:28
Caroline
So you're talking about two zombies, somehow managing to have a second child with each other. You know,
00:10:35
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
That's a really good point, Caroline.
00:10:37
Caroline
Because you got to be a zombie if you both are in the same spot emotionally with each other, but yet you're coming together to have this child, which I'm assuming every one of our audience members recognizes how that occurs.
00:10:43
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Yeah.
00:10:49
Caroline
So you're right to note, OK, so you've gone out. You've had this love affair. You say you've got this open marriage. You have two kids, one of which we know was born after the love spark went out, potentially.
00:11:01
Caroline
But you're not seeking any real change to the structure of your life.
00:11:09
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Well, and you know, this is where I began to notice that my blood begins to simmer and eventually it boils over talking about having children and living in a loveless marriage under the same roof. And, you know, just the problem associated with, you know, children need to know that things are stable.
00:11:37
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
and they need to know that things are not going to suddenly change so quickly that they're just gonna be, you know, there it's just not a good formula for raising children to feel secure.
00:11:50
Caroline
Yeah for sure.
00:11:51
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
When Michelle told her mother that she was having a love affair with, you know, Will or anybody else, but she said, you know, I'm planning to marry Will Hargrove someday, her mother told her, you need to stop that affair and focus on your marriage.
00:12:07
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
You know, and I'm going to extend that to and you need to put your children first.
00:12:12
Caroline
Well, I wonder if that's why the mom says that. I wonder if that's why people say that because it's just it speaks to what you just said about the structure that a child needs because a child doesn't actually need the nuclear family, but they need the structure that a nuclear family was providing for them.
00:12:27
Caroline
You have clear indications of your authority figures. you You know a routine. You know the boundaries. You also know where you can experiment and push a little. You have an expectation of consequences, both positive and negative.
00:12:41
Caroline
that Literally, you could do that with any you know summer camp. Bunkhouses do that. But i just I think that isn't there when you've got this ghosty zombie-like relationship with someone where it's it's a little bit, oh, yeah.
00:12:52
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Well, yeah, I mean, you know, children are very perceptive. I'm going to i'm going to opine that even infants, infants are perceptive.
00:13:00
Caroline
Yeah. Yes. Well, because it's energy, you know, you're feeling this vibe.
00:13:03
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
The human, yeah, and it is.
00:13:06
Caroline
That's a real thing.
00:13:08
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
They know when something's not right. But anyway, um you know, her mother, I think, was right. You need to focus on your marriage or get out of it.
00:13:20
Caroline
Right. Create the next structure of your life for your kids and yourself.
00:13:25
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
And I think that this comment from her mother kind of shows me that she believed in things like the sanctity of marriage. So she is traditional and her daughter's in a way not traditional. All of that is okay with okay in my opinion. In fact, Michelle had rented a spare bedroom to Will Hargrove with whom she was having an affair. He was living in the family home with Michelle her husband, Raleigh Green, and their two children. Now, I think that's very problematic.
00:14:02
Caroline
Oh, God, yes, we just talked about those poor kids it's like we just we just need for a safe environment. I I'm tense thinking about that home.
00:14:14
Caroline
What did Raleigh know? He had to have like. Had some clue about and then how is he going to let this guy live in his house?
00:14:20
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Oh, he knew. He knew.
00:14:23
Caroline
What the heck is going on?
00:14:23
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
he i think i I pick up from him that, you know, he, he's gone.
00:14:29
Caroline
Yeah, yeah.
00:14:29
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
He might be rooming there, but just like Will.
00:14:32
Caroline
yeah
00:14:34
Caroline
Yeah.
00:14:35
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
So I see this as Michelle's house and she's got everything the way she wants it right now.
00:14:38
Caroline
o I just feel bad for the kids because that's going to mess you up and nobody's talking about it.
00:14:42
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
She's got Will in one room and Raleigh in another.
00:14:50
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Me too.
00:14:54
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
i did I do think it's interesting that Will is now in the same status as Michelle where they live as roommates with this other guy, Raleigh. However, Will and Michelle were claiming to each other a lifetime of love and devotion plus sex.
00:15:11
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
So Michelle has sort of a husband times two.
00:15:18
Caroline
Interesting.
00:15:19
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Yeah. What does this tell us about the health of this family? all living in the same house, sort of, in my opinion, when the wheels start coming off and you don't do anything to stop it, the wheels are going to eventually come off and everyone is going to be traumatized and hurt.
00:15:41
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
And I don't care if Will is hurt and traumatized. I don't care if Michelle is traumatized and hurt. I don't care if Raleigh is, but there are children involved here, young children.
00:15:51
Caroline
Yeah, yeah.
00:15:53
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
That bothers me.
00:15:55
Caroline
Yeah, no, and that's a good point, because I don't want to seem overly judgy, because I'm totally judgy, but that's just because I could never do this with my life. but And the reason I wouldn't is because of exactly what you said, the kids. like So maybe there were conversations going on. I doubt it. But perhaps Raleigh and Michelle sat their kids down to explain what this what's going on in there. really i don't I doubt it.
00:16:19
Caroline
but That'd be the only way I could reconcile this kind of a lifestyle choice for these kids, you know
00:16:27
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Yeah, I mean, um I'll be danged if I would know how to explain to young children what a ah love triangle is.
00:16:38
Caroline
Yeah, or just even an open merit, like none of that, you know, none of that is actually very healthy for a young child trying to figure out what relationships are good, what relationships are bad, how do I know that, things like that.
00:16:47
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Yeah. Right. Plus a child knows and may not even have the words to describe it. A child knows when there are secrets within their family.
00:16:59
Caroline
Yeah, secrets are bad.
00:17:02
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Yeah, but they can be corrosive, very corrosive. I'm not someone who thinks a traditional monogamous marriage is right forever for everyone. Amen. I'm not. But when young children are involved, it's different.
00:17:15
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
You don't get to put your kids in a runaway freight train so that you can be romanced. And you know, i Will was 29, Michelle was 37 at the time of the murder, and both of them are old enough to be able to discern right from wrong when it comes to children. And so now I want to focus on ah the victim in this
Anna Ripkena's Tragic Journey
00:17:44
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
case. Her name is Anna Ripkena.
00:17:46
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
and ah You know, this is a person who stands in stark contrast to the three people that we know are in this household ah with these two children, young children, just being just pretending, playing some kind of house, playing some kind of romance for it. I don't know, but Anna is a is i wonderful woman who is somewhat naive, probably, but sweet and has dreams. And she was born in Russia and um she came to America the first time when she was 27. She came to Oregon to marry her fiance, Will Hargrove. O-M-G. Instead, she was found murdered on a lonely logging road in the middle of nowhere among tall evergreens above her.
00:18:46
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
She was shot in the head. Will had scattered all the litter in his car around where she was found. And this is how much he cared for Anna Ripkena. So this is our um victim today. She's also someone that I wish I had been able to meet and know. Anna grew up in a family-centered home in Russia, several hundred miles from Moscow near the Black Sea. Her mother testified in court that she did not want her daughter to marry Will Hargrove because she didn't want her to marry a man so far away after such a short courtship. But Anna, she says, wanted to start a family and was certain Will Hargrove would love her and their children forever.
00:19:40
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Anna was well educat educated with two advanced degrees when she was working in the offices of IKEA and also looking for love on a Russian dating site. Will Hargrove and she found each other and hit it off online. Eventually, as the Christmas season of 2016 rolled around, Anna decided to book a flight to Portland to meet Will in person.
00:20:09
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
So now, Caroline, Anna was not worldly wise. She wound up flying to Portland, Maine. She laughed at her mistake.
00:20:21
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
She didn't know that there were two Portland's in the United States. I think there were probably more than two Portland's in the United States.
00:20:27
Caroline
For sure. There's ah a ton of cities, Arlington, Texas, Arlington, Washington. Yeah.
00:20:33
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Yeah.
00:20:33
Caroline
Oh, we have Springfield everywhere.
00:20:34
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Arlington, Virginia. I mean, yeah, she didn't know any of that. So, you know, she just, okay, I made a mistake. So she bought another ticket to Portland, Oregon. And she and Will laughed about this whole thing as they were both going to tell their future children about this funny mishap on the day they first met in person.
00:20:56
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Wouldn't that be wonderful, honey? Oh, it's just so wonderful. So they went on day trips to the Oregon coast every day and they spent their nights in Will's rented room in Michelle and Raleigh's house with their two kids. So their story was that yeah Anna was just a friend. That was Will's story.
00:21:23
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
He loves and is going to marry Michelle is what he kept telling her as soon as Michelle filed for divorce against Raleigh.
00:21:34
Caroline
Oh, awkward.
00:21:34
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
From Raleigh or whatever that term would be.
00:21:36
Caroline
That's so awkward to me. How is he holding these two realities in in his mind without recognizing the need to pick one? You know, like...
00:21:48
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
this is that This is the million dollar question is that this man's decision-making processes, at least when it comes to matters of the heart, are not right.
00:22:01
Caroline
yeah.
00:22:01
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
and this Yeah.
00:22:02
Caroline
when you're describing their, the Portland Maine, Portland, or like, I'm getting charmed. I got charmed all over again. Oh, Ana and Will, like, so cute.
00:22:12
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Yes.
00:22:13
Caroline
This, it just makes the whole thing despicable from the will, person you know, perspective, because why did you do that? Why are you doing this? I don't know.
00:22:22
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
because he's pretending.
00:22:22
Caroline
That's where I'm at. Yeah.
00:22:24
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
He likes to pretend. He likes to deceive.
00:22:28
Caroline
Yeah.
00:22:28
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
I think he likes to, two I think it makes him feel powerful, Caroline, I do.
00:22:33
Caroline
my
00:22:33
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
I think he's like a little God creating his own universe.
00:22:35
Caroline
Yeah.
00:22:38
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
And he is the puppet master of everybody in his universe.
00:22:42
Caroline
Well, yeah, because that's right up on the that's right up on the edge. You're bringing this. You're bringing on it into the already awkward situation of your mistress and her husband. And then you're lying to her about.
00:22:57
Caroline
She's just a friend, but we're going out every day and and she's coming home with me every night. Like, I don't know. This is crazy.
00:23:04
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Yes, I know, I agree. And in fact, this made Michelle very insecure. In the spring of 2017, Anna was coming back to America because Will had proposed to her. And, um you know, Michelle had promised Will that she would marry him and file for divorce immediately once she realized that, wait a minute, I'm about to lose this guy.
00:23:32
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
I want to go to Michelle and I just want to say, Michelle, good for you for getting rid of that dog.
00:23:37
Caroline
Yeah, let him go.
00:23:37
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
And I don't mean to insult dogs at all.
00:23:42
Caroline
Yeah, what dogs ever do to you, Nana?
00:23:45
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Nothing. I think, I think I'm spelling it that other way. D-A-W-D, dog. Yeah.
00:23:52
Caroline
There you go.
00:23:54
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
So, you know, She, I, she, Michelle felt threatened, you know, and when she found out that, you know, actually she was more, Anna was more than just friends. She said to Will, she said, Hey, look, here's, here's my wedding ring. I'm giving it to you as a promise. I want you to marry me.
00:24:21
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
I'm going to get a divorce and we're going to be wed. Okay. Okay. So he took that ring. And when Ana returned to Oregon, she had quit her job and told her family that she and Will were to be married. She didn't realize that she was walking into a deadly web of deceit and a hornet's nest of complicated relationships. She brought a wedding dress with her when she arrived.
00:24:50
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
And Will did two things. First of all, he gave her an engagement ring that had been in his family for generations. He moved Anna into his room again at Michelle and Raleigh's house. Now, Anna had friends in Corvallis from the last time they were there. She's a friendly, sweet young lady.
00:25:19
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
And she's got very good manners and people just flocked to her. And so as a consequence, she had a lot of Corvallis people on her Facebook page as friends. Okay. So when Will gave her the ring that had been in his family for generations, she took that ring, a photograph of the ring on her finger,
00:25:47
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
And she put it on Facebook and she said, I'm engaged to be married to most wonderful man. And I could, you know, and on and on and on and on and on about this wonderful man.
00:25:57
Caroline
Thank you.
00:25:57
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
And this has been in his family for many, many, many, many years and all that. Well, Michelle instantly recognized that the ring was her wedding ring that she had given Will as a promise to file for divorce, which still had not happened.
00:26:15
Caroline
That's like the textbook of dysfunctional, you know?
00:26:20
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
You can't keep a secret in a nest of secrets.
00:26:20
Caroline
That's pretty bad.
00:26:23
Caroline
Oh, Lord have mercy.
00:26:23
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
And this one was a this was was a bombshell for Michelle that you mean to tell me that this woman is engaged to be married to you and you're giving her the promise ring?
00:26:34
Caroline
I just gave you...
00:26:34
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Well, it is my wedding ring and you told her it's so it's a wedding ring being in your family. I mean, holy guacamole.
00:26:41
Caroline
totally messed up that's yeah that's messed up
00:26:41
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
So anyway, that's messed up.
00:26:45
Caroline
but
00:26:47
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Michelle immediately told Will that he and Anna had to move out of her house. Will told Michelle that Anna was a lunatic and he was trying to just get rid of her. Well, it's her me, he said Michelle. Will moved himself and Anna into an apartment.
00:27:05
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
telling Ana that he wanted more space so that they could get married and be in private and have their own space. He didn't tell her anything about it that. That ring is not actually, you know, my ring that I'm giving you.
00:27:18
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
He didn't come clean. He didn't come clean.
00:27:20
Caroline
Or like I'm sleeping with my landlord who happens to be in this weirdo. I mean, jeez Louise, this is pretty, I want to say complicated, but that would imply there's some value to it. It's just messy, you know?
00:27:31
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Well, and I'm glad that this, this couple that's going to be married with the, uh, landlords ring on the finger of the new fiance and this husband ah who appears to be a ghost to me going off to, you know, living in the books and, you know, going off to college to teach that I'm, I'm glad at least that the children have one set of, I'm going to put this in quotes, adults in quote,
00:27:47
Caroline
Yeah.
00:27:51
Caroline
yeah
00:27:59
Caroline
Yes. Yes.
00:28:01
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
in the family home.
00:28:03
Caroline
Yeah.
00:28:03
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
I'm glad of that. So he told Anna of a date that they would be married. He picked the date, he picked the officiate, and he decided about the space where they would get married, which was going to be outside in a park on the Oregon coast.
00:28:20
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
She was so happy. She got on her wedding dress the day that they were going to get married, and they drove to McDonald's at some point on the way to eat. And you can see Anna in the video at the drive-thru. She's in the passenger seat with her wedding dress on. That's so sweet. At the gate to the beach, the park was locked and the officiate was nowhere. Unfortunately, Will told Anna the officiate could not make it today due to an an emergency. They drove home
00:28:56
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
He pretended to get mad over the phone about the officiate not showing up. In reality, Will had never scheduled an officiate. Will had never contacted the park to ask for a license to wed there. Will had never gotten a marriage certificate even. The whole thing was a con, and Anna didn't know that. When Anna and Will had stopped at Walmart to purchase wedding bands,
00:29:25
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
that day of their wedding, Ana stayed in the car whilst inside Walmart. Will called Michelle and told her he just loved her so much. I'm going to marry you. I'm standing here in Walmart looking at these rings and I just have, I've decided I, we have just got to get married. Then he went back out to the car,
00:29:49
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
And Michelle, on this telephone call call, had given him a deadline to see um to send Anna packing back to Russia, or their relationship was going to be over forever.
00:30:00
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
So he was trying to apologize. Michelle was saying, well, yeah, I want to marry you too, but it's not going to happen until Anna goes back to Russia. And if it's not soon, our relationship is going to be over.
00:30:12
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
All of this at the Walmart.
00:30:12
Caroline
ah I just, I ah do not get it and I'm grateful because this makes no sense to me why you would do this. And why didn't Michelle go to honor? Look, hussy, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. You know, the way we see it on TV sometimes as though it's the two of them that should fight, but I'm just, I'm PO'd.
00:30:35
Caroline
at the vignettes he's got going on, you know? And that Ana doesn't deserve any of this. She has no reason not to take him at face value. Well, actually, there are probably some coming up, but I just, I'm upset about it for her. I'm PO'd at Michelle. Say something to Ana. Why are you going through this moron? Who's calling you while he's looking for rings for someone else? And you know, oh, PS, you already gave your ring you gave it to him, to somebody else, and had a whole story about it. like How could you have feelings?
00:31:05
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
And his betrothed is in the car with her wedding dress on.
00:31:09
Caroline
I mean, I just don't. I'm like mad that he's doing this, you know?
00:31:15
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
There are three people playing games in this story. Anna isn't one of them.
00:31:22
Caroline
Right. Right. She doesn't even know.
00:31:25
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Raleigh is playing a game.
00:31:27
Caroline
Yeah.
00:31:27
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Michelle is playing a game. Will is playing a game. And the reason that I say that is that I feel like I'm on a dark episode of ah that show where you had to pick door number one, door number two, or door number three.
00:31:47
Caroline
Yeah, right.
00:31:50
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
And ah it's just, yeah, that's a game. Hello.
00:31:55
Caroline
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yep.
00:31:56
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
That's fake. That's TV. Anyway, on Easter Sunday, 2017, Michelle was very depressed and upset. She was at her mother's house with friends and family, and she was remarkably down in the dumps. She knew that Anna was still posing a as ah Will's fiancee, who is his fiancee. And she had been told that Anna was just a lunatic, crazy.
00:32:31
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
and that Will was gonna get rid of her. And she was upset because the deadline that they had all decided on had passed. And she showed up at her mom's house and was with her family and she was just way down in the dumps and crying all the time. she told ah that we ah She told everybody really that Will had apparently chosen to ignore the deadline and she texted him and told him she was done with him, but she didn't know why he chose Anna. So she would send him these emails that said, basically, you scum, you're horrible, you're a liar, you're a cheater, you're a you're everything like that. that in the But why didn't you choose me?
00:33:22
Caroline
It's just twisted. It's a twisted way to think. and So this is all very foreign to me.
00:33:29
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
She got a call from Will, she being Michelle, got a call from Will that same Easter day to meet her at a general store in a town called Alcee, A-L-S-E-A, not far from Michelle's mother's house. And when she got there, she was told that I got rid of Anna.
00:33:58
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
So she and Will ah went off to a secret location or a secluded location and had sex in his car. And, you know, he just kept telling her, Anna's gone. Everything's gone. We're going to get married. You're going to get a divorce and we're going to get married. When Michelle returned to her mother's, everyone noticed that she was now over the moon. Everything had been repaired. Everything was well.
00:34:27
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
and got a workout for Michelle. Anna was gone.
00:34:34
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
So ah I don't know how far from reality a person can get, but I think this is what we might call the area, ah you know, we might call it outer space.
00:34:41
Caroline
Yeah.
00:34:48
Caroline
Yeah.
00:34:48
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
this is just this is our This is just outer space to me. The fact that there are so many
00:34:59
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
irreconcilable facts being spewed forth and stacked upon each other.
00:35:03
Caroline
Yes.
00:35:06
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
And then Michelle would be told that Anna's gone, she is. Oh, great. Let's go have sex.
00:35:11
Caroline
Yeah, the whole thing is just so out there to me because none of this is real.
00:35:11
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
I mean, make up sex.
00:35:18
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
There's nothing real about it.
00:35:19
Caroline
Yes.
00:35:20
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Right.
00:35:21
Caroline
We're both just like dumbfounded here.
00:35:23
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Yeah. Yes. Yes.
00:35:25
Caroline
Yes.
00:35:26
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Yeah. I mean, listen, I don't have a problem saying, you know, reality can really suck, but I'll take reality over delusional every day of the week.
00:35:33
Caroline
yeah
00:35:39
Caroline
Oh, yeah. Oh yeah, you know why? Because you can only survive reality if you're acknowledging reality.
00:35:48
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Absolutely. So let's talk about the murder of Anna Ripkena, the last person on the face of the earth that deserved violence like this. Again, we're talking about Easter 2017. Will and Anna drove an hour or so to Alcee to drive old logging roads and so forth. They were just having a nice day. Now remember, they had had a wedding date that put her in her wedding dress that, by the way, was actually from her family. And
00:36:26
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
I like her mother's wedding dress and her grandmother's wedding dress. And they had been disappointed by no officiate.
00:36:37
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
No, the park's not even open. And the only photograph taken of Anna Ripkena on her wedding day was in the McDonald's drive-through and she's in the passenger seat, you know.
00:36:49
Caroline
like the security camera footage.
00:36:53
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Yeah.
00:36:54
Caroline
Ugh, that's sad.
00:36:57
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
So this is Easter and just, you know, not long after they had had this, you know, false start on having a wedding on the Oregon coast. So maybe they were out looking for new places that they could go and and have a officiate meet them and and a few witnesses and get married. I don't know, I don't know, but somehow Will got Anna in the car, let's just drive around and you know just look around. So off they went. They got to a spot that Will actually knew quite well. It was a secret of sorts. A place where you can go if you're a local and you know where this place is and bring your garbage.
00:37:48
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
In a little turnout among the trees, they got out of his car and Will shot Anna in the back of the head when they reached the interior of this little pullout. In other words, right when they got to the treed area. After he shot her dead in the back of her head, he cleaned out his car, including garbage, from the many stops from McDonald's, KFC, places like that, that he goes for his meals.
00:38:17
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
ah He went to the general store back in Alcee to call Michelle and tell her that she was the one for him and come to the general store and I'll show you. So this is you know kind of the backstory of what happened that lured Michelle from her mother's house to go to this ah place and then have sex and promised that he would marry her and Michelle promising that she will file for divorce and they parted from the general store. Now, on the way home, Will stopped at Two Quickie Marts and stole $200 from Alana's account using her debit card. Then he went to a second location. He got $600 from her account.
Callous Actions After the Murder
00:39:08
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
And then he the the videotape at the store can see him asking the clerk for a hug because he just got dumped by his lover and fiance, Anna, and he was crying. And the clerk is crying. This is all on camera.
00:39:25
Caroline
This is so crazy. I mean, that's crazy.
00:39:30
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
He went home and authorized a payment for his insurance. After having put the cash he stole into his own account. Now remember, the cash is from Anna's accounts and he stole her debit card.
00:39:45
Caroline
For insurance.
00:39:46
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
And you know, he had been told that he would be losing his car insurance that midnight, midnight of that August.
00:39:50
Caroline
Oh.
00:39:53
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
So in other words, the Monday, the first minute of Monday, the next day, 2017.
00:39:56
Caroline
Yeah.
00:40:00
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
And ah he, ah you know, he he he got within minutes of having that happen, but he was able to transfer her money, Ana's money, dead Ana who he just gilled into his account.
00:40:16
Caroline
Yeah. Like that was his biggest next task to do for him. Like, oop, I better go.
00:40:22
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
The only honest thing he did the whole night was make a telephone call to the actual people that he meant to make the telephone call to and tell them I have the money, which was true, and give it to them.
00:40:31
Caroline
Yeah. But I mean, that screams, I have responsibility. I have skills. No. Why would you have that for car insurance?
00:40:41
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
i think it i think it shows I think it shows I'm really good at my game. Look at this universe.
00:40:46
Caroline
like Yeah, actually, that's yeah that's more because, I mean, he just merged someone. Who cares about car in insurance?
00:40:52
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Yeah.
00:40:52
Caroline
I don't know. This was so unrelatable to me.
00:40:56
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Yes. Well, that's why we call it hearth and home, which we all seek and we want and we love. And then when that other word homicide is that
00:41:07
Caroline
Just keeps creeping in.
00:41:09
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
in pursuit of love and home, there are people who will murder.
00:41:16
Caroline
Yeah.
00:41:17
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
And these are the types of people that a little bit of digging, if Michelle had done a little bit of digging, she could have maybe saved Ana's life.
00:41:27
Caroline
Mm-hmm.
00:41:31
Caroline
That's what I'm saying. If she didn't even said to Ana, hey, he's Will's telling me you're just a friend. Is that true? In the living room, do it in front of everybody.
00:41:41
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
How about she and Raleigh say, you know, this is not a healthy thing that we have going on here. We're involved in something that I think could get somebody hurt.
00:41:48
Caroline
Yes.
00:41:53
Caroline
Yeah, there you go. That right there because that's ultimately what why I think those behaviors can be destructive. People want to say we're just being judgmental and maybe we are. But it's because we know we have plenty of data around this. This is where you start to creep in like you're saying, you start to chip away at your own value system and suddenly before you know it, you're compromised in a way you never would have thought before, right?
00:42:19
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
I agree. And I also want to point out that there's actually nothing wrong with being judgmental about many things. If there is something that can harm you and your family, or so if you see that someone else is in peril, there's nothing wrong with using your judgment better wrong than not doing anything at all.
00:42:36
Caroline
Yes.
00:42:41
Caroline
yeah Yes. Didn't say nothing. You are 100% right. Better to say and be embarrassed and backtrack than to say nothing and have it result the way that it did here.
00:42:54
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
That's right. And I think that you know for me, if I had people in my life who were doing all of this stuff, I would start asking some questions about that. That doesn't make any sense because the Facebook posting had my ring.
00:43:14
Caroline
Yeah.
00:43:14
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
So you're you're using that ring to tell me that you're going to marry me as soon as I get a divorce. And yet you are you are ah proposing marriage to another woman.
00:43:27
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
And I would not accept what Will said, which is, oh, well, she's just a nut job.
00:43:32
Caroline
Yeah, no, I would not have either. I would have pushed back, you know, and said, Oh, really?
00:43:35
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Yes. Yeah.
00:43:37
Caroline
What did you know?
00:43:39
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
So I want to talk about how Will got caught within three days of his murder. He thinks he's so damn clever. He was at the height of his self-congratulatory party when he skipped losing his car insurance by 10 minutes or something. To him, that was the victory of the day.
00:44:03
Caroline
Right.
00:44:05
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
he He's no longer even thinking about the fact that he just murdered an innocent person.
00:44:09
Caroline
Right.
00:44:11
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
And that he orchestrated her death ah in a way that is just despicable. He doesn't have any of those parts, Caroline.
00:44:22
Caroline
Yeah, no, definitely not.
00:44:23
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
He's just thinking about how can I pay my own insurance because I need my car.
00:44:27
Caroline
Yeah.
00:44:29
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
But I love it that he thinks he's so smart. He's the God of his own universe. Nobody is on to him. Everybody is fooled by him. I love it that he's thinking that and he got caught within three days.
00:44:39
Caroline
like that's pretty common. Like the less time it takes them to catch you, the more like you likely you are to think highly of yourself your it's to tell stories.
00:44:45
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Yes. Direct correlation. This is the moon follows the sun.
00:44:51
Caroline
Yes.
00:44:51
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
The sun follows the moon. It's as predictable as that, really.
00:44:55
Caroline
Right.
00:44:56
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Now, there are some who don't get caught for a long time.
00:44:59
Caroline
Oh, or ever. I mean.
00:45:01
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Or ever. But Will, he got caught within three days. Here's how. The land on which Will shot and abandoned Anna was Forest Service land, federal land.
00:45:15
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
With a large allotment such as this comes a caretaker, someone who lives nearby, who walks the land, making sure there's no mischief underway with the trees. I mean, the mischief that can get on in a forested land, federal land, ah people driving stakes through trees so that when the people come and harvest those trees, they get injured or killed because People don't like forested land getting cut down, not even one tree.
00:45:49
Caroline
Yeah, we have some borderline terrorist environmental groups around the western part of the US.
00:45:50
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
They do that. Right. They do that. Or some people come and chop it down and and buck it up and take it to their home for their fireplace.
00:46:01
Caroline
Yeah, or people might, well, and people camp out there illegally.
00:46:02
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
So there's a lot that can happen on federal land.
00:46:06
Caroline
I mean, you're supposed to pay, they have to, it's a, you know, it's a stewardship of that land. So and you can't just go out there anytime you want. People got to know what you're doing.
00:46:14
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Right, so the caretaker of this particular area was starting his Easter Sunday, walking his dogs. He spotted Ana's body and immediately drove his truck to get a signal on his phone and called 911. Ana's body was recovered in very short order, avoiding predation from wild animals.
00:46:38
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
It was clear that she had been shot from behind right where she was left. There were no drag marks, you know no evidence that she had been killed elsewhere.
00:46:50
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
So she was killed on federal land.
00:46:53
Caroline
Oh wow.
00:46:55
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
There was debris near her body. This was clearly a garbage dump from cars, from locals. Police had to go through every single piece of the debris to find something relevant. They found a QFC receipt from two days prior, one order paid in cash, but one order paid by credit card. So within probably an hour or so, they had traced the credit card back to Kevin Thomas.
00:47:28
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
And you will remember that name, Kevin Thomas, as being the best friend of Will Hargrove. They had gone to QFC on Friday. And ah let me back up. When police found out that ah there was a receipt from KFC from two days ago and that one was a credit card, they were quickly able to get that credit card ah traced.
00:47:56
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
they found Kevin at his home and they were interviewing him and he told them the story of how, yeah, I mean, you know, I go around with my friend. ah We went to KFC and we parked under some trees to eat. And then, you know, what'd you do with the trash? Well, I gathered the trash and I put it behind um ah my friend's ah back seat. He was driving. Well, who is your friend? Will Hargrove.
00:48:23
Caroline
o Thank you, Kevin.
00:48:25
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
So Kevin is the one who used the credit card. Will is, yeah, Will is the one who paid in cash. So the way they traced him was honest Kevin.
00:48:38
Caroline
can Yeah.
00:48:39
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
I mean, he didn't know what was going on. So he said, I gathered the trash, put it in the back seat, like on the floorboards behind Will's driver's seat. Police asked ah Kevin, hey Kevin, do you by any chance have a gun?
00:48:53
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
And Kevin told him, yeah, I loaned my shotgun to Will, and but Will has not given it back yet.
00:48:59
Caroline
Oh snap.
00:49:01
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Why did you loan it to Will? Well, he just wanted to do some so practice shooting, you know, yeah.
00:49:07
Caroline
Uh oh.
00:49:10
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
So that was the first huge clue. I mean, refrigerator falling on Will's head to get caught really fast, yay. So, cell phone data put Will very near where Anna was found dead while Michelle's cell phone data showed Michelle was at her mother's house until later in the day when she and Will met at Alcee General Store. Their cell phones traveled at the same remote location where Michelle said they had makeup sex later in the car. So, she was
00:49:47
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
ah They were thinking that she might be the killer because when they brought in Will Hargrove to interview him, he named her as someone who did not like Anna.
00:49:52
Caroline
Yeah.
00:49:59
Caroline
Of course he did.
00:50:02
Caroline
Yeah.
00:50:03
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
And he said that she was a lunatic.
00:50:06
Caroline
She was a lunatic?
00:50:07
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Yes, that Michelle Chavez was a lunatic, yes.
00:50:08
Caroline
That Michelle was? Well, I mean, they're technically all meeting the standard, but boy, that's his go-to, huh?
00:50:14
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Yeah.
00:50:15
Caroline
Oh, they're great.
00:50:16
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
That's his go-to. So Michelle and Will's cell phone data put them returning to All-Sea General's store. Michelle returned to her mother's home. Will went to his bank and deposited enough money to cover his car insurance.
00:50:32
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Again, something that would end at midnight. So in other words, they're tracing the cars. Where are they going that night?
00:50:40
Caroline
Yeah, and when, and and that this is like his, and I'm just shocked at just the effort he's putting behind making this payment on time.
00:50:42
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
And when?
00:50:50
Caroline
oh Considering Anna, I mean.
00:50:50
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Mm hmm.
00:50:54
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
But at least police now have like a trail of him, but also maybe motive.
00:50:57
Caroline
Yeah.
00:51:01
Caroline
Yeah.
00:51:02
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Because they were able to trace him back to all those departts ah withdrawals he had made.
00:51:08
Caroline
Like immediately after, yeah.
00:51:09
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Yeah, he then called his insurer blah, blah, blah over a recorded may message. you know he He made a successful transfer. That message to the insurer was um ah at his trial.
00:51:22
Caroline
Oh, wow.
00:51:22
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
And i I watched part of that trial and on Court TV.
00:51:24
Caroline
Yeah.
00:51:27
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
And ah it was just like this happy thing. I have the money. You do? Well, that's wonderful. Am am I insured now? Absolutely. You just drive, have a good time driving your car.
00:51:38
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
And I'm so glad we were able to help you in time. I mean, it was just chitty chatty, chitty chatty, chitty chatty.
00:51:44
Caroline
Like when he hugged the, he hugged the one, uh, gas attendant, you know, at one of the quickie mart.
00:51:45
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
And I'm just thinking, yeah,
00:51:50
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Yeah, yeah.
00:51:51
Caroline
This is just gross. Bleh.
00:51:53
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Well, he's just, you know, like an empty shell of a human being.
00:51:58
Caroline
Yes.
00:51:59
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
And he's got a remote control. And if I believed in the devil, literally, I would say the room remote control is produced, you know, and managed by the devil.
00:52:10
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
I mean, you know, he's just evil, evil.
00:52:11
Caroline
Well, yeah, because like you said, this is all just big game. So he's just like just queuing up for the next big pitch or whatever.
00:52:15
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Big game. Yeah, yeah. He's writing his own short story about how powerful he is.
00:52:23
Caroline
Yeah.
00:52:24
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
I can get this clerk, this ah quickie mark clerk to believe that I am bereft um because my girlfriend, who he names, Ana just left me, my fiance just left me.
00:52:31
Caroline
Yeah.
00:52:40
Caroline
ah
00:52:41
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
I mean, he can just, he just does this to, satisfy his appetite to do this.
00:52:48
Caroline
Yeah.
00:52:48
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
He's just, he's just fueling an animal urges. Will had no money in the bank. Then he had cash. Records show that the money came from Honest this Account, two different ATM machines, right after her murder.
00:53:02
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
I mean right after.
00:53:03
Caroline
Yeah.
00:53:04
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
He's not lingering with any remorse. The next day, Will's laptop shows he spent a long time on a WhatsApp and also on Reddit.
00:53:14
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
He wrote that on these boards, he wrote that his best friend made a terrible mistake and he needs to travel back in time to 11 a.m.
00:53:27
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
yesterday so that what he did could be reversed.
00:53:32
Caroline
oh
00:53:32
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
And when um he decided to post on another site, ah he in ah In that site, he wrote that he needed to reverse something he did yesterday that caused him to lose his future wife and he needs to reverse it.
00:53:49
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Please somebody out there, give me the spell so that I can go back in time. And people did give him spells.
00:53:58
Caroline
Yeah.
00:53:58
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
He was trying spells inside and out. And you know, Caroline, the spells he received did not help him. because Anna stayed murdered.
00:54:11
Caroline
Well, yeah, you know, I'm into magical thinking, but like we said, based in reality, like I'm always going to default back to reality.
00:54:19
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Yeah, I think that's called hope. you know There's nothing wrong with having hope about something that has a logical sequence of possibility, but this person, this person,
00:54:22
Caroline
Yeah, there you go. Yeah.
00:54:28
Caroline
Oh, yeah, there you go.
00:54:33
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
believes in magic about as much as he, and you know, he believes in magic because why not? It's the only real thing in his, that's what he's got in his head.
00:54:42
Caroline
Yes.
00:54:42
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
What he has in his head is not real.
00:54:44
Caroline
None of that is real. Yeah, none of it.
00:54:47
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
It's probably real now that he's in prison. But anyway, police have the full on digital history of Michelle pressuring Will to choose between her and Anna.
Arrest and Unraveling of Lies
00:54:57
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
The deadline was the 17th. Will had texted Michelle that on that day he will have resolved the Anna prop We'll characterize Anna as a psycho and ah she actually thinks we're going to get married and she's posting it on Facebook. I'm so sorry. I don't know how she got that ring. You know, she's stealing from me too.
00:55:19
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
So those were the messages, you know back and back and forth. Putting all of this together, police brought milk hell Will Hargrove to the police offices one more time to interrogate him. And he said he hardly knew Anna. She was a psycho. She had packed her bags on Easter morning and walked out of their apartment. When Will asked to leave the interview, he was arrested for Anna's murder. They didn't let him leave. Anna was murdered on the 17th.
00:55:49
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
And Will was arrested on the 20th, 17th of April to the 20th of April. That's how far he got from his own trail of not spells to go back in time, but police investigative processes.
00:56:03
Caroline
Right.
00:56:07
Caroline
I'm grateful to that ranger because I don't think people understand how devastating that can be for a family if, I mean, yeah, if wild animals take off any part or all of your loved ones remains that, you know, you don't have any hope or as much hope after that about investigation, and about recovery, about all the things.
00:56:24
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Right.
00:56:27
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
And Caroline, the guy who ah found her body, was not a ranger. He was a custodian. And like, for example, I know that sometimes you can make an arrangement, and he was an older guy.
00:56:42
Caroline
So you can like live in a cabin for part of the season.
00:56:44
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
You can live in the cabin there, and you know you get maybe a certain stipend every month.
00:56:46
Caroline
Okay.
00:56:49
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
And you know my you may recall that when we were living in Idaho,
00:56:49
Caroline
Yeah, for food.
00:56:54
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
My father and his wife came to visit because they were doing a a volunteer thing up on the Brotman range and in Idaho.
00:57:04
Caroline
That was cool.
00:57:04
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
And yeah, that was very cool.
00:57:05
Caroline
They had a horse up there. Super cool.
00:57:06
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
So they didn't get paid, but they got two ah they got but they got a stipend for their gas. They got a stipend for meals and they were able to live in that cabin and take care of the property over the summer.
00:57:16
Caroline
Yeah.
00:57:21
Caroline
So fun. I didn't realize that's what they were doing.
00:57:25
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Yeah, yeah. Will Hargrove was found guilty of murder on November 22nd, 2019. The jury deliberate deliberated for only three hours. Now, in my imagination, the jurors cried together for what happened to Anna for the first two hours and then took their vote, which was guilty unanimously.
00:57:49
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
There was no other verdict, you know, possibility, I don't think. Will's defense was that Michelle Hargrove killed Anna, although there was no evidence of her involvement in her murder whatsoever. The aftermath of Will Hargrove's horrible actions were felt by her family and her friends for a long time.
00:58:10
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Michelle Chavez tried to commit suicide and paramedics were able to revive her from a serious drug overdose. Then she had to go into hiding. She was absolutely eviscerated online.
00:58:22
Caroline
I'm back.
00:58:23
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
just you know she couldn't She had to move. She couldn't live in and where she was born or near her parents or near her friends anymore.
00:58:25
Caroline
I'm back.
00:58:32
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
She's then hiding, you know, like nobody knows where she is. Will Hargrove, sentenced to life in prison, won his first appeal based on some hearsay evidence that should not have come in. He was awarded a new trial. Now that appeal is being challenged in the courts right now, and his retrial date is still pending. If he gets a new trial, my only wish is that he will stop pointing the finger at Michel Chavez.
00:58:59
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
He has done enough harm.
00:59:01
Caroline
I agree.
00:59:02
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
And ah you know he if he gets a new trial, he's going to be convicted again. The eye that the evidence in this case is irrefutable.
00:59:10
Caroline
And it's physical evidence. It's not circumstantial. This is all physical timeline evidence. You are date stamped, you are pinged off towers, you are receipts printed, your account.
00:59:19
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Yeah. whatever hearsay witnesses was, ah can be taken out. And I'm sure the whole thing will hold together.
00:59:28
Caroline
Yeah.
00:59:29
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
And I don't even know that he's going to get a new trial, because again, it's in appeal right now. The appeal is in appeal by the prosecutor.
00:59:34
Caroline
Yeah. Okay.
00:59:36
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
So um that's our story today, Caroline. um In pursuit of hearth and home, one family is ah kind of damaged beyond repair and that would be Michelle Chavez and her husband Raleigh and their two children. Another family has been pulled apart because Michelle Chavez cannot live near her family and friends anymore because of Will Hartgrove and because of her own actions and the way that they're being perceived and and
01:00:11
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
I want to make the point from our, you you and I have discussed this, that we are absolutely 100% in of the opinion that there's only one bad person in this story.
01:00:24
Caroline
Mmhmm. Yes.
01:00:26
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Michelle um may have made some mistakes. Raleigh may have made some mistakes. The children are ah innocent. um The own honor is innocent.
01:00:40
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
The only person who is bad in this story, evil really, is Will Hargrove. And I hope he's having a terrible time as a prisoner, but I don't think he is because I found him online.
01:00:55
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
um where he posted his picture and wants people to write to him and he reads books, every book all books that he can get and he likes to talk about the books that he's read and he just wants to have some friends.
01:01:13
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
And I'm thinking, you know, what a great place for Will Hargrove because he can make up any damn story he wants.
01:01:18
Caroline
That is a prison is the place for fictitious realities to thrive. Go to it.
01:01:26
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Yeah, I mean, you can be whoever you want to be.
01:01:28
Caroline
That's right.
01:01:29
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
And people are either going to, ah you know, want want to be your friend or not want to be your friend, although I will say this, who on earth is going to be sending Will Hardgrove any commissary money?
01:01:43
Caroline
Yeah, no kidding.
01:01:43
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
And so, you know, if he doesn't have any commissary money, then people are not going to be his friend.
01:01:43
Caroline
Well,
01:01:47
Caroline
Well, that's true. I hope people send it books on why people lie and how to stop doing it.
01:01:54
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
um I don't think that helps people like him.
01:01:58
Caroline
Yeah, probably not. They're probably not his favorite to read.
01:02:02
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
So today's episode was narrated by Bridget and Caroline and um our producer, Andy. We thank you so much for listening to our podcast. And if you liked us, please leave a five star rating. Please tell your friends about us in person and on um social networks.
01:02:25
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
ah and just in Oh yeah, one more thing. Please don't forget to live and let live. Bye bye, Caroline.
01:02:40
Caroline
but Bye-bye.