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184: Pet Detectives Unit
56 Plays9 days ago
Move over Ace Ventura, we have a furry team of case-cracking critters on the team! At least 3 birds, including a pet duck, cats and dogs too. All solving the murder or missing persons case of their owner or someone else entirely!
It's a rowdy, wild round-up of pet hair, disgruntled employees, a Beady-Eyed Lane bird, TSA tangents, and movie mentions of course! Oh and Gordo the diva cat inserts himself in the mix, we think he was jealous of all the animal attention, maybe?
Tune in to these tails of true crime and send us pics of your pets! Can we pet your dog? they are such a good dog!
Darkcast Network Promo of the Week! Box in the Basement
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Transcript
Introduction to the Podcasts
00:00:00
Speaker
Darkcast Network, indie pods with a dark side.
00:00:25
Speaker
You are listening to Castles and Cryptids, where the castles are haunted and the cryptids are cryptic as fuck. i'm melannna And I'm Kelsey.
00:00:40
Speaker
The cryptics? The cryptic codex? think you did that once before. It's funny. It's a tough one.
00:00:50
Speaker
Definitely when they do the speech to text thing where they transcribe us on Spotify. Sometimes I read it and I'm like, oh gosh.
Humor in Transcription Errors
00:01:00
Speaker
That wasn't exactly what we said, but that's okay.
00:01:05
Speaker
Gordo, get in your box.
00:01:09
Speaker
Stay in there.
00:01:12
Speaker
hear Adam Sandler, get in your home. oh my gosh. Well, welcome, Gordo, to episode 184, where you should stay in your box.
00:01:29
Speaker
I'm sorry. It's been a hell of a time here.
00:01:36
Speaker
ah So annoying. He's been very interested in like being our um producer these last couple episodes. He just has to be like really involved. Right? Yeah.
Pets in True Crime Stories
00:01:47
Speaker
involved right yeah ah But that's... Oh, yeah. we'll We'll get to some cool pets and their basic involvement and the way they glom onto you helps sometimes solve a true crime case.
00:02:09
Speaker
Yeah, I have... think we both have a couple fun ones. Well, not fun, because it's still true crime, but... I like a fun solve, though. Yeah, it's an unexpected...
00:02:23
Speaker
how did we do this? Yeah. Yeah. So we were going do some, like, there's definitely some crimes that are solved through different means nowadays, whether it's genetic genealogy or random evidence that they find. And sometimes it's evidence that comes through the most unlikely of like witnesses, ah whether it be children or animals or that kind of thing. Yeah. It's like,
00:02:52
Speaker
What do they call the recording unsolved something?
00:03:02
Speaker
Who knows? But I have no idea which ones you have for me today. So I'm excited. um't know what else to say.
00:03:12
Speaker
we're getting this one out as soon as we can because we're like recording it than we would usually like to. So maybe I seem like I'm going through a little faster.
Life, Work, and Finding Inspiration
00:03:22
Speaker
Oh, Will. Right?
00:03:25
Speaker
Life gets away. we were just talking about how um work be crazy. So that's... Yeah. That's to summarize it for you all. Work be crazy. Life be crazy. um Yeah.
00:03:42
Speaker
Sometimes it's just, you know, like for me... Can't wait for the summer. yeah For me, it's been just car shit and... Whatever.
00:03:54
Speaker
So, yeah, I'm excited for summer, too. I'm excited for your stories. oh Wow, lot corny. What's wrong with me? shucks.
00:04:06
Speaker
Oh, shucks. Gather around, y'all. She's got a story for us. Yeah. i I got this from Listverse.
00:04:19
Speaker
Yeah, I was excited because I love Listverse.
00:04:24
Speaker
Yeah, they had an article that was titled 10 times animals help to solve crimes. And I picked a couple, well not a couple, I think three of them to share with you. Okay, interesting, because I remember one of the list verses that come up when I was ah googling stuff for this app, I was unsure if it was the same one you had, so I avoided it.
00:04:48
Speaker
But I think that one was more like 10 pieces, or like or something like unusual evidence is like a receipt from KFC. It was like different like pieces of evidence.
00:05:02
Speaker
Oh, yeah. But like, i I was like, I better avoid it. Cause it was, I know you were doing something from list
Animal DNA Solving Crimes
00:05:08
Speaker
first. That's so funny. I love, yeah I love a good listicle though.
00:05:12
Speaker
Yeah. I This one was funny. And I can't remember what episode it was that I stumbled on it um Because I had it saved in like, future episode ideas. I had this article saved. So at some point past me it was like, this will be important.
00:05:31
Speaker
Save this. I know. I don't have a like a master list like that where I hear a lot of other people do where they're like oh, I've had that on my list for a while of topics. And I was like, I have like random post-it notes, but no no major i like just master list. Post-it notes all over your house.
00:05:47
Speaker
I have a Word document that I can add to or delete as needed. Oh my God. Okay. I do have kind of topics now that I have that binder where I have some Patreon and stuff ideas. I guess I do have...
00:06:00
Speaker
Anyway, I'm trying. I just can't stand um if something's going to be like a long term, like list or anything like that. I don't like it to be physical because it just takes too long. I only like to have physical things that are like, oh, this week I'm going to do these 10 things or like...
00:06:22
Speaker
And it's very satisfying to, like, rip it off when it's done and then just, like, throw it And chuck it in the garbage. Yeah. I can't have anything written down physically that's going to be long-term because then it's just like, ugh, that's still on the list.
00:06:35
Speaker
Got to be able to delete it. pretend it was never there. That's It can be almost, like, demotivational. like Yeah, absolutely. I don't know if and don't know if that's a word, but we used to buy the demotivational calendar from ThinkGeek, so that's what it came to me. I feel like it is. Yeah.
00:06:51
Speaker
Yeah, we all have other ways to deal with like having our own little to do lists and making it not overwhelm our brains, I think. Yeah. That's funny. ah when the The ones I have for you, the first one is i have a couple that are about birds.
00:07:12
Speaker
Yay! My first one... They're not real, but okay. but is so Birds aren't real. They're a figment... ah No, they're not a figment of your imagination. They're robots, right? Oh, right. That's it.
00:07:24
Speaker
They're robots.
00:07:30
Speaker
Yeah, so this is all from List vs. ah says, eyewitness test yeah eyewitness testimony is often crucial when it comes to solving a crime. In this instance, the eyewitness in question was a 20-year-old African gray parrot named Bud.
00:07:48
Speaker
I like it. Bud. Yeah. Okay, this sounds a little familiar. I'm excited. I like Bud already. There's several weeks after the 2015 murder of a Sand Lake, Michigan resident named Martin Durham.
00:08:11
Speaker
it was after this that Bud began repeating an argument between two people. And the argument ended in what was believed to be Durham's last words.
00:08:22
Speaker
when the parrot repeated the phrase, don't fucking shoot. Which thought was... Yeah, not to laugh about that, but i mean, that my parents had birds and their friend, I think, had a parrot that would talk. and they Oh, really? When they were younger, they liked teaching it swear words.
00:08:44
Speaker
I think they told me. we were just like Apparently it doesn't take much to teach them. It's like kids, just a few times. They'll remember it forever.
00:08:57
Speaker
Say it at the worst possible times. Yes, I know, you you're not trying to teach kids those things and then they pick them up. That's funny. yeah um Yeah, so the parrot would say, don't fucking shoot, and I guess mimicking the late owner's voice at the time.
00:09:14
Speaker
And it turned out that Martin's wife, Glena Durham, ended up being the one she had shot her husband five times. And she had done this in front of Bud before turning the gun on herself.
00:09:28
Speaker
in what was described as a failed suicide attempt. Right. And, yeah, I guess she's so she survived, but she suffered a massive head wound and because of the gunshot.
00:09:45
Speaker
And she was ultimately convicted of first-degree murder and the killing of her husband after an eight-hour jury deliberation.
00:09:55
Speaker
I'm only not surprised because that did come up and I didn't know. ah Yeah. That was one you're covering, but that's crazy. It's yeah like murder, or suicide stage. And then it does it goes awry. It goes sideways. And Bud is the only witness. Like that's, oh my God.
00:10:18
Speaker
It's so dramatic. love it. Yeah, I guess Bud's eyewitness account wasn't ultimately used in court proceeding. but for many of the people involved in the case, it proved that the jury had come to the right decision, which I get. I mean, the canon was taken.
00:10:38
Speaker
whatever a parrot saying is uh proof they do need scientific evidence as well uh yes yeah it's tough it's one of those where there's a lot of evidence that is considered circumstantial but um Yeah, from what I had seen, there was ah more to it as well.
00:10:59
Speaker
More circumstantial stuff, which made you oh, okay. Yeah. Yeah, I think I have that in, like, the article thing skim after.
00:11:10
Speaker
Yeah.
00:11:14
Speaker
Durham's parents were sure that the salty-mouthed bird had overheard the couple arguing and re repeating their final words. And his mother asserted, quote, that bird picks up any anything or everything and anything, and it's got the filthiest mouth around.
00:11:33
Speaker
still believe that. i heard of the parrots at the some zoo in the UK where they were like, oh make yeah so filthy that the little kids coming in their enclosure they're like we have to do something about these birds they repeat all the swear words you're like well those birds know how to have a good time I don't know it's funny though
00:12:03
Speaker
sorry just skimming the article here which I didn't have time to do
00:12:11
Speaker
See if there's anything. Oh, that's okay. oh
00:12:18
Speaker
Oh, through the case. ah Oh, this was like, so stupid. I hate even using them as an a source. It was Fox News. was like, oh, I don't even want to give you a click and go to your website.
00:12:29
Speaker
Oh, really? Okay, what did they say? What did they say? I'll see if that came up in my... are using stuff. said through the case Fox obtained documents that showed a history of gambling between the couple and that Marty had learned that his house was in foreclosure about a month before his murder and that the wife Glenna had been Marty's long time caregiver after he was seriously hurt in an accident.
00:12:55
Speaker
yes that Yes that came up also when I looked into it like he had a car accident so she like had some he had some damage to his body the the one side of it and uh so she was caring for him but she seemed to have the gambling problem and he was more that makes sense yeah he's probably having to be less mobile and she's paying all the bills and stuff and getting more for being the caregiver than for being the disabled person or whatever and
00:13:32
Speaker
And so... Yeah. Yeah. I guess she kind of fucked that up. Which is scary. Like, you can't really have just one person do the bills and know for sure that they're not gonna fuck you over. You know, gotta be open.
00:13:46
Speaker
Right? You should at least... At least know what's going on. Yeah. yeah If only so that when the other person dies, like, we see so many seniors, sorry, but it's true, like, at my job, where they're like,
00:14:02
Speaker
you know, well, we've, you know, had our membership with you guys forever for our insurance, our vehicles, whatever. And then they're like, then their husband or wife passes away and they're like, oh they used to do everything and I don't know how to do anything. And you're like, well, that's not good.
00:14:17
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, my grandma had that. um Yeah. When ah her husband passed away, her second husband, he ah passed away and then,
00:14:31
Speaker
did the bank say? Oh, she was trying to get, like, the bank account switched to her name or utilities or something. Maybe it was utilities. It was something that, like, shouldn't have been that hard.
00:14:43
Speaker
And they kept saying, like, oh, well, we need his authorization. And she kept being like, well, he's fucking dead. Like... they'd be like, we need his signature. We need his permission, all this stuff. And she finally, like after working for months with these people, like dozens of different people being like, he is dead.
00:15:03
Speaker
No, you can't talk to him. He is dead. That's insane. She finally like asked to talk to, it was probably like the manager or something like that, like one of the highest of people that she could get in touch with.
00:15:18
Speaker
And they two were like, oh no, we'll need to talk to them. So then she finally lost it. And my grandma loved having us. She literally yelled at them, well, how about you go to fucking Home Depot and buy you and I a shovel and we'll go out to the...
00:15:31
Speaker
fucking cemetery and we'll dig up his body then and then you can see that he's dead like what play me stairway to heaven bitch because you ain't getting to him any other way well that's so triggering though and it was so stupid for a matter of time oh he's dead okay no problem you just need to provide the death certificate it was like What has she been saying for months?
00:15:53
Speaker
That he's dead! You guys aren't listening to what they're saying, you're just repeating. You're just repeating yourselves, but you're not actually listening to what they're saying, because as soon as you understand he's dead, which he's been saying to you dozens of times, you just say, oh, the way he is!
00:16:09
Speaker
home depot or wait yeah like like yeah like go there and buy us a shovel and then i'll drive you out to his plot and you can help me bury like dig him up well having worked for a company that does multiple things like that it's like okay for travel or a membership to the company like you're not gonna have to have a death certificate but to cancel them off like say the vehicle's registration or something like that maybe you have to Like, that I would understand. Insurance we did. Insurance we had to have a death certificate and all that kind of stuff. And then we needed to know that they had authorization.
00:16:44
Speaker
right right. It's more for the legal part of it. But, like, for... Yeah, for, like, being like, I don't want to have, like... It's basically like canceling a Costco membership or something. You know what I mean? It's like for some of that stuff you like shouldn't have to have it for, like, canceling ah membership.
00:17:00
Speaker
Oh my god. But, yeah... And I've been hearing that story like my entire life. So I was like, no, I'm never I may i may hate adulting at sometimes, but I will never let myself be in a position where i am that reliant on somebody. But I mean, my grandma wasn't intentionally doing it because that was the times that she was living in. That's what.
00:17:25
Speaker
No, it just happens sometimes. It's just sad when the one spouse is left behind and they don't really aren't capable of doing something because the other spouse handled everything. They handled it all.
00:17:35
Speaker
Yeah. It's in their names. The bank's account's in their name and they're trying and people aren't listening to them. It's like, really? And they never did anything with it because the other person always handled it. It's just, yeah. It's not great.
00:17:48
Speaker
Yeah. ah um Yeah, so that was my first one. My next one... ah I'll try not to turn it into a rant.
00:18:06
Speaker
My next one's about a boda duck. oh shit. Duck, duck, go! No. ah to No, I have... I guess it would be like bird, duck, bird.
00:18:18
Speaker
think by i think my last one's also a bird. I was like, yeah oh yeah, it is. This one's a bird. This one's a duck. And the last one was the bird.
00:18:30
Speaker
Okay, yeah, it was the bird. ah co Yeah, I have two birds two birds and a duck. Oh shit. Okay, i definitely don't know the duck story. I love it. I can't wait. what What the fuck is this duck?
00:18:44
Speaker
This one, yeah, if I had more time, I definitely would like to have tried to look up more for this one. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I know, they don't don't they don't live a lot in a listicle sometimes. You're like, what the hell? I'll be like, I look up a little bit and there's just like so much more information. You're like, what the hell?
00:19:06
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. ah So the Listverse article said a pet duck recently led police in North Carolina to the decomposed body of a missing 92-year-old grandmother, Nellie Sullivan.
00:19:22
Speaker
Whoa. Yeah, I was just what? A duck. Sergeant Mark Walker of the Buncombe County Sheriff's Office.
00:19:34
Speaker
I want that to be the duck's name. No. no I'm sorry. Okay. Does the duck have a name? Hold on.
00:19:45
Speaker
I'm trying to see. Mark Walker, and played by Mark Wahlberg. No. Give me that duck, yo. It was a pet duck. um It was Yeah, it was a pet duck.
00:19:58
Speaker
Okay. um Okay, so Sergeant Mark Walker of the Buncombs shane cara County Sheriff's Office explained how, quote, the duck ran underneath the trailer at 11 Beady-Eyed lane Which is... Beady-Eyed?
00:20:17
Speaker
Beady-Eyed Lane. And the article just says, you can't make these up. this These things up. It's like, yes, you can't make up the name Beady-Eyed Lane. Almost seems like you are making it up, article.
00:20:31
Speaker
I'm so suspicious.
00:20:36
Speaker
Beady-eyed. That's crazy. Beady-eyed Lane. As they were chasing after their pet duck, they ran across the container that Nellie Sullivan was located in Yeah.
00:20:49
Speaker
even before the grim discovery of the remains nelly's own granddaughter angela walms walmsley and her boyfriend margaret burns had been charged with concealing her death along with charges of animal cruelty and jun drug possession Oh, no.
Canadian Celebrities and Anecdotes
00:21:09
Speaker
and Yeah. Sergeant Walker described the initial search of nelly or sorry search for Nellie as being a wild goose chase. Not a wild duck chase.
00:21:22
Speaker
Or a pet duck chase. so Oh, no.
00:21:28
Speaker
I'm sure he regrets that choice of words now. Right? I don't know when he said that. Nothing turned up after numerous local searches, and Nellie's neighbors had insisted that she had, in fact, gone missing several years prior.
00:21:43
Speaker
So she had already been missing for years.
00:21:48
Speaker
Like, really, though? hello. Yeah. Yeah.
00:21:56
Speaker
I'm so sorry. That last one got me. Yeah. You can't scratch. For fuck's sakes, buddy. Yeah, she had been missing for several years and Wamsley and Barnes.
00:22:09
Speaker
Had been collecting Nellie's social security and her retirement benefit check, as well as refilling her briscript the her prescriptions in her absence.
00:22:20
Speaker
Oh my god, that's diabolical. You don't need those prescriptions. Like, unless they're selling them, which is even worse. Yeah. I think so. they must have been They must have been for something good.
00:22:33
Speaker
I mean, 92. She's probably getting the good stuff. Sure. Who knows? Oh, man.
00:22:45
Speaker
i And the Sergeant Walker guy, the little list list verse guy,
00:22:53
Speaker
blurb about it ended with sergeant walker saying quote if i could give that duck a medal i would because it was like i don't know who the owner of the duck was i think it was just some random person and they were like um they were running after their pet duck and their pet duck like went under the trailer and that's when they ran across um the dead body.
00:23:17
Speaker
So wasn't granddaughter of the family's pet duck. I'm pretty sure it was a random person's pet duck. An unnamed random person. i just love anyone having a pet random duck. it It does remind me of a book series I read where they have a a little old lady named ruth and she has a little ah pet duck named rosa and uh ruth swears so much that they they're never sure who's saying fuck fuck fuck if it's her or the duck
00:23:51
Speaker
damn it's great it's the one that uh has a ah police chief from quebec um a I'll think of the name of the lady here. Louise Penny. She writes those books. They're very good.
00:24:07
Speaker
very good. She the chief inspector's son-in-law, she calls... the she calls the ah chief inspectors um son-in-law she called
00:24:19
Speaker
She calls him like cocksucker or something terrible. That's like the only person. So you always know who she's talking to. it's ter Yeah, it's great. They're very believable characters. Just like Stephen King, you know.
00:24:34
Speaker
i'm sorry i'm just skimming the article they had. here yeah so who would who would have been ninety three if she's still alive ah had disappeared sometime in 2020, she had disappeared without a trace.
00:24:55
Speaker
ah
00:24:58
Speaker
And her granddaughter, Angela Wamspew... Sorry, for some reason, if I hear granddaughter, I'm not imagining somebody who's 46.
00:25:10
Speaker
but I guess she was. so I was like, oh. Shit, yeah.
00:25:19
Speaker
Yeah. i Yeah, they believed that she had been dead for some time when they found her remains. And that the suspects had already been under investigation in connection to her death since December of 2020.
00:25:36
Speaker
So, like, they were already trying to investigate them. They just didn't really have any proof because they didn't have her remains at that time. So they just figured that, like, they were somehow involved with the disappearance, maybe. Right.
00:25:53
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah.
00:25:56
Speaker
And then they also had been charged with Kincelia death. um Yeah.
00:26:06
Speaker
But yeah, just the fact that it's the trailer at 11 Beady-Eyed Lane is crazy.
00:26:14
Speaker
I still think you're shitting me with that. No, it literally says it. And that's... but Two different articles. Well, I guess the one article was the source of the list first article. Right, right, right. But that's from the sergeant of Buncombe County, sheriff.
00:26:35
Speaker
And where is this again overall? What country? ah i already forgot. This in the U.S. It was... Oh, okay. I'm looking up the state. North Carolina.
00:26:47
Speaker
Damn, I would usually put that down to... geography in like England or something where we have some weird names so but then again there's a lot of names in Canada and North America that are from the British influence but that's yeah I've never heard of any of this it's completely new to me I feel like uh yeah yeah I think at the time this article was done they hadn't been charged or hadn't been, like, sentenced to anything. it's said that the official cause of death would be released by the medical examiner's office when they have completed their independent probe,
00:27:29
Speaker
ah that they had been cashing her Social Security and retirement benefit checks in her absence and filling her prescriptions. It said that already. Right. And that their next court date would be set for May And it's not clear if they've entered pleas.
00:27:44
Speaker
I think this must have been at... May this year? No, it would have been at least May of last year. oh okay. Still really recent. Yeah, because it said she had been... Oh, this says this article was originally done May
Pet Stories and Amusing Behaviors
00:28:01
Speaker
2nd of 2022. Oh, okay.
00:28:05
Speaker
yeah I think if you looked it up specifically, there might be more now. But... That's about when I got this damn car that I'm replacing the on.
00:28:19
Speaker
That's funny. Crazy. I don't know. That was good, though. I really enjoyed it.
00:28:28
Speaker
Yeah. ah My last one is also pretty short.
00:28:36
Speaker
yeah those like have been pretty... pretty Yeah, it's so short for me. Yeah, i didn't realize we've been talking for a little while now, but then I was like, oh yeah, I guess we've only been recording for like half an hour.
00:28:49
Speaker
suppose. And I'm almost done.
00:28:55
Speaker
Yeah, so my third one is another bird. and There were so many birds on the list. Oh, the bird, but bird, bird. The bird's the word. Yeah, had that in the article.
00:29:07
Speaker
<unk>s like No! the It was like, the bird is the bird, not even the word. yeah Really? the birds are the bird or something. It was stupid. I was like, no.
00:29:21
Speaker
Uh... So this is ah about a man who lived in Texas named Kevin Butler. he he was apparently such a fan of the NBA player Larry Bird that he named this white-crested cockatoo after him.
00:29:47
Speaker
so he was... oh He's a bird named Bird. yes okay okay that's too funny yeah i may have uh had a little bit covering bird the bird as well yeah i was like oh it's just like our cat named kitty it's bird bird oh my god yeah or i had a friend that had like a what was it a rat named cat or she had she liked to give them a little kind of weird names yeah My brother always said he, when he was younger, that when he grew up, he wanted to get ah a dog and name it Cat and and get a cat and name it Dog.
00:30:25
Speaker
And I was like, oh, maybe I should ask him about that. Maybe he's forgotten now that he's married with two kids. so No, no, I want ask my friend Jill because I swear she had the rat was maybe named Cat?
00:30:38
Speaker
I don't know. but There was also an animal named ri Whiskey and it was all very cute. Aww. Oh, I have a friend, Angie, who, her, well, we worked with her. Her, her, she named her cat.
00:30:49
Speaker
Her name is Miss Mouse.
00:30:53
Speaker
Aww, that's pretty cute. ah Yeah. Miss Mouse. Sorry. I'm all over the place. I apologize.
00:31:03
Speaker
Uh, yeah. So... late Larry birdr Bird, Bird Bird. Friends described Bird as being very devoted to Butler, to Kevin Butler. And this is a more even more evident after the after two men had broke into Butler's Pleasant Grove home on Christmas Eve 2001. That's
True Crime Stories Involving Animal Evidence
00:31:29
Speaker
fucked, Christmas Eve.
00:31:31
Speaker
I know, like... Yeah. okay we're Awful. Awful thing to do um Bird. Bird the bird loyally tried to defend his home and his owner. And unfortunately, ah Kevin Butler was- ended up being bound and then brutally beaten.
00:31:52
Speaker
ah he ended up being stabbed multiple times that led to his death. Jesus. Yeah. And Bird, too-
00:32:05
Speaker
Bird 2 was mortally wounded during the altercation. and he was stabbed with a fork. Which was like, fuck you. Why are you stabbing a bird with a fork?
00:32:17
Speaker
Yeah. Except Bird was fucking him up. but It was. oh Yeah, that's rough. Afterward, the men escaped, but Bird ultimately saved the day and provided investigators with evidence that they would need to solve the crime and secure a conviction.
00:32:36
Speaker
Following the attack, DNA was able to be recovered from Bird's beak. And his claws that ended up matching to a man named Daniel Torres, a disgruntled former employee at Butler's Pool Company.
00:32:54
Speaker
Disgruntled indeed. gonna stick my bird on ya!
00:33:01
Speaker
and Torres also wiped the blood off his... head after being badly pecked by bird and then had touched the light switch which left a trace of his blood at the crime scene like the murder scene so mean his blood was there um on bird and now also on the the light switch um which put him there bird pecked him up go bird yeah
00:33:31
Speaker
Faced with the evidence, Torres confessed to killing both Kevin Butler and Bird, and he was eventually convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison. and They were also able to track down Torres' accomplice, his half-brother, Johnny Cerna.
00:33:48
Speaker
Cerna?
00:33:51
Speaker
I think I come across that too, yeah. Cerna? Seema? Something like that. Yeah.
00:33:59
Speaker
ah During the trial, the prosecutors submitted to the court that, quote, Byrd died five and valiantly. Almost said violently. Valiantly.
00:34:10
Speaker
he went to Valhalla. The Valhalla of Byrd's. Yes. I like to think so. Well, he died in battle. Defending. Yeah, fuck yeah. That's an honorable death for sure.
00:34:23
Speaker
Said there were feathers scattered throughout the house and he put up a fight. no doubt about that. Breaks my heart. right Kevin's family and co-workers have told me that you just didn't mess with Kevin while that bird was around.
00:34:38
Speaker
Wow. which Yeah. Like, what what a loyal pet. Yeah. That's crazy. Yeah, my parents used to have birds. i They had two of them. like Really?
00:34:53
Speaker
I can't remember what kind of birds they were. yeah yeah, we never had any birds.
00:35:04
Speaker
Yeah. Just trying to see if there's, like, anything else in this little article. Not really. Yeah, I don't see anything else in the article.
00:35:15
Speaker
So that's the end. ah take I take my bow. My shortest case ever, maybe. 40 minutes.
00:35:24
Speaker
Well, don't you worry. that i i Yeah, I think that will shorten mine a little bit.
00:35:31
Speaker
I was pretty sure we weren't doing exactly the same ones, but I i knew you said list first, and... And I tried to avoid those ones. And then I was like, ah, but I might, I might Google animals to help solve crimes. And so then I ended up with some with like, yeah, but, ah but more like, you know, there's dog hairs and cat hairs and stuff. So that stuff, I have not heard of yet.
00:35:58
Speaker
So.
00:36:00
Speaker
Okay, well, we good to take a quick break then? Yeah, I think so. Okay, cool, because I've got to pee.
00:36:11
Speaker
All right.
00:36:20
Speaker
There are over 200,000 unsolved homicides in the United States justice system right now. And many of those cases haven't seen the light of day in years, decades in some instances.
00:36:35
Speaker
The case files and evidence are sitting in a box on a dusty shelf in a basement, forgotten by law enforcement and the media, while the families and friends left behind wait for answers and fight for justice.
00:36:50
Speaker
Sometimes there is nobody left to remember or to speak up on behalf of the victim. I'm Arlene. And I'm Leah. And that is exactly what Box in the Basement sets out to do.
00:37:03
Speaker
To shine a light on those forgotten victims and to bring attention to unsolved murders and disappearances. We want to help families tell their stories. And we want to assist the families and friends of victims find the resources and support they need to continue their fight for justice.
00:37:19
Speaker
Join us every Thursday for new episodes of Box in the Basement wherever you find your podcasts.
00:37:38
Speaker
sit sitting with my my feet up and just chillax. Yeah.
Unique Perspectives in Podcasting
00:37:50
Speaker
yeah Yeah. Actually, it should be kind of short.
00:37:55
Speaker
um
00:37:57
Speaker
But all very gripping ones we found, too. like I don't know. their own Yeah. Especially when they're solved in weird way. It's like watching forensic files. How are they going figure it out?
00:38:13
Speaker
Right? Yeah. um One of the other ones I found was of the the death of Shirley Duguay.
00:38:25
Speaker
I'm not sure exactly how to pronounce it. It's kind of spelled Duguay. But that doesn't really sound right. i don't know. Yeah.
00:38:38
Speaker
Yeah, I guess this one kind of happened in and my neck of the woods because, you know, did grow up on the East Coast. so This one was in 1994 Prince Edward Island. So I was like, oh, I was like ah eight or six. I can math.
00:38:55
Speaker
um
00:38:59
Speaker
But like, It's weird, like, when you go through a listicle and they don't give you a lot of um information, it was like, Shirley Duguay from Canada. And I was like, well, surely we can find out more specifically where she was from than just in Canada. Like, yeah.
00:39:13
Speaker
At least it bugs me with that. It gives you a name. really hate the ones that don't even say a name. And you're like, well, good luck ever trying to find this with no date, no location, and no name.
00:39:27
Speaker
and Yeah, especially if it's a petty crime or something. yeah those ones can be really hard to keep trying to research. Oh, yeah. I know some petty crime podcasters out that that's the only types they cover. So they they find there's not a lot of like follow-up information.
00:39:45
Speaker
Unless it's in Florida, because you know how their laws are. They're like, Florida man did this, and Florida man did that.
00:39:53
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. um But yeah, this one, before I looked into it, it was just like from Canada. And I was like, well, where? Like, but yeah, cool. Turns out it was Prince Edward Island. And I was like, oh, shit, like very small. Yeah.
00:40:10
Speaker
province yeah slash kind of community almost um it's like when you stumble upon something recently that was like bjork was like yeah iceland i'm from a small place it's like 300 000 something people and i'm like that's less than half a million people in your whole country like no wonder you uh yeah have that kind of different like outlook anyway bjork's really fucking cool i just want to say the way she fights for like causes she believes in i was like wow It's a really cool article, that Geo or whatever.
00:40:46
Speaker
um anyway, so this one is, uh, fairly sad because, uh, unfortunately the mother, Shirley, that went missing on October 3rd of 1994 was a mother of five when she vanished from her home.
00:41:01
Speaker
Oh, wow. Yeah. So like they had like ah combination uh a modern family what do they call it you know it's combined like she had like a blended yeah they're blended such a good movie but yeah she was in a relationship with douglas beamish and i think he was the father of three of her kids um and so yeah they had some combined kiddos he's like peace
00:41:34
Speaker
I don't know if that picked up on the mic, but I heard him. He was like, meow! And then just like bombarded entire body. Just laid back between you and the mic like, hello.
00:41:49
Speaker
Yeah.
00:41:52
Speaker
He was doing this right before he started recording and I was like, buddy, if you purr, you're gonna come in louder than me talking. He's such a fucking diva. Yes, it's like, how dare you pay attention to something other than me with your evening?
00:42:09
Speaker
I mean, was named. at his face. Look at his face. what, named after the lead singer of a very famous Canadian band that's tragically hip?
00:42:22
Speaker
Ugh. It's like, Gord, down, downy.
00:42:31
Speaker
Oh my God. Also, nobody knows Canadian bands, I swear. I'll like listen to Handsome Pod where there's two two, of them are like American comedians and one of them's from Canada.
00:42:42
Speaker
So the one from Canada will be like, wait, you know, Chantal Kravjatsik, right? Or something. And then she'll be like, Canadian band. And I'm like, wait, wait. you don't know Chantal Kramiatsuk?
00:42:57
Speaker
I have no idea who that is.
00:43:01
Speaker
Really? Sitting over be here like, apparently I'm not Canadian enough. Well, no, no, no, no. But, gosh, now all I can think of is more that she was married to another musician. But, no, she had some hits.
00:43:21
Speaker
Now I feel bad because I can't think of them off the top of my head. Oh my god! Don't do this to me! She'll talk about something and I'll be like, who? And then I'm like, oh yeah.
00:43:36
Speaker
No, she's... Oh, no, no, That's not it. It's Chantel. It's Chantel Krabietsik. That's it. It's a different one, but still. um She's a Canadian singer, songwriter, and performer. Ha!
00:43:51
Speaker
I thought she was married to the guy named Rain, but no, that's not it. I don't think she's... That's the Our Lady Peace guy. Nope, maybe she is. She sings Leaving on a Jet Plane from Armageddon?
00:44:04
Speaker
mean, you gotta know that one. What?
00:44:10
Speaker
Leaving on a jet plane. to man be back Oh my god, I'm embarrassing myself. Okay. No idea.
00:44:20
Speaker
Sorry. Oh my god, Kelsey. That's so funny. That's a pretty famous song. But okay. um Shit, is it my turn to talk still?
00:44:32
Speaker
ah
00:44:37
Speaker
It's Gordo's turn to purr, if you guys can hear that like background music. Our ambiance. since so Our backing track is now just Gordo. No, he wasn't picking up on the mic. I was like, oh, our backing track is just going to be Gordo purring from now on.
00:44:57
Speaker
Well, I would take that over the crickets that I was getting. was like stupid Chantal Kremiassi. It's okay. It's okay. We're like a decade apart almost.
00:45:08
Speaker
my my My thought was just the ah broken broken fax machine
Everyday Humor and Family Life
00:45:15
Speaker
sound. Just... Fax machine...
00:45:20
Speaker
fax fax machine just No, not working. It's not working. Well, I had to look it up, and then once I was like, oh, leave it on a jet plane. I think that's what maybe she was one of the ones most famous for. Take your word for it.
00:45:36
Speaker
I heard the purrs. Don't tell me you haven't seen Armageddon, because I will say you made me watch Shawshank. I don't think I've seen Armageddon.
00:45:47
Speaker
Oh my god! who was in it It's one of Bruce Willis. Steve Buscemi's in it. ah ben alpha ah Ben Affleck and Liv Tyler are the... So Liv Tyler's love interest is Ben Affleck and her father is Bruce Willis and they both miners that get... Oh, we gotta to go... Someone's gotta like go mine the shit on the moon or whatever is so it doesn't um explode on us.
00:46:18
Speaker
No, that doesn't ring a bell. Oh my God. It was like, um, but during my formative years anyway.
00:46:30
Speaker
Um, I think my dad might've had one of the soundtracks. He had some weird soundtracks. Ally McBeal was one of them. Um, but we don't know about him. He watches Coronation Street. So who knows why I like these weird dramas that I do.
00:46:51
Speaker
oh I mostly watched Star Trek with my dad. Star Trek and Rangers. Oh, my dad loves Star Trek, too! He's a Star Trek guy Oh, totally.
00:47:02
Speaker
watched a lot of the like original Star Trek with my dad. I don't remember a lot of it because I was under the age of 10, but... ah i remember buying my dad's Star Trek books, yeah.
00:47:15
Speaker
You'll like this. Yeah, no. Yeah.
00:47:20
Speaker
and in Okay, so as we stand, it's 1994, October-ish. Shirley, unfortunately, goes missing. She has a mother.
00:47:34
Speaker
Excuse me. She has a mother of five, I believe. Although that's a combination. They both brought the kiddos. Yeah. Yeah.
00:47:46
Speaker
So on October 7th, 1994, a car was found abandoned on Highway 169. Nice. Near Tyne Valley in rural Prince Edward Island. With missing license plates and apparent blood spatter on the windshield and throughout the vehicle's interior.
00:48:04
Speaker
It was Shirley's car and the RCMP was told. think that should be were told. She hadn't been seen since the 3rd of October. and So they hadn't exactly reported her missing, which... Oh, strange.
00:48:20
Speaker
I don't know. that seemed a little weird. It seemed like there was some delay there. um But, of course, there was suspicions immediately on her partner, Doug, Douglas, whatever.
00:48:32
Speaker
um Especially um after learning, or maybe they had known when they looked into it, that he had a history of abuse with his ex-partners as well.
00:48:44
Speaker
Oh,
00:48:46
Speaker
Then they have reason to be suspicious. Mm-hmm. Extra reason for sure. um But for a while, they couldn't find anything. And then by... So that was in October when she went missing.
00:49:03
Speaker
And by May of the following year, then a body was found in a shallow grave in the woods of North Enmore. It was Shirley, and she'd been bound with her hands behind her back and strangled wow yeah so nearby there was a bag found complete containing a bloodstained jacket and if I had I don't know I looked into a couple sources for this but the immediate source said it was found like three days after but then every other source said it was found
00:49:36
Speaker
this many months after like october to may and so i was like yeah i think they found the jacket when they found the body ah probably if they're like in that area according to most of the sources anyway yeah um they also found on the jacket and in the bag over two dozen white cat hairs so Okay.
00:50:03
Speaker
Somebody's got an animal. I know. God. You and I both know. You can't leave the house without your pet's DNA on you. like They're like a magnet sometimes. You put on like your clothes and they're like, bye! And he's
Episode Conclusion and Future Topics
00:50:20
Speaker
like, wait, just let me come rub on you. Fenrir's not even a cat.
00:50:24
Speaker
Cats will rub up against you and scrape up against you, as I've heard someone describe. mine he's just like let me put my butt up against you and then immediately everything black i'm wearing like when i got in your car the other day i was like i just put on these pants they're covered in dog hair uh gordo likes to target my shoes uh Oh, yeah. He can tell because I really only sit in the kitchen after I've gotten dressed for work. If I don't want to get covered in cat hair, I won't sit back down on the couch or anything after I've gotten dressed for work.
00:50:58
Speaker
Yeah. so So I'll sit at the kitchen table and he will be like, oh, she's at the table that missed me and she's going to work. She's going to leave the house soon. He'll go over my shoes and just he'll just lay right on top of my shoes so that my shoes are just covered in hair all the time.
00:51:16
Speaker
It's deliberate, just the way he's looking at you now. It's funny because anybody that comes into the house, he likes sandals. He likes to put his arms through sandals. yeah And he also likes to put his money arms in sandals.
00:51:31
Speaker
in shoes so when my dad comes over he'll he'll take off like his shoes and gordo will come running over and he'll put like he'll be shoulder deep in the shoes and then he's sitting like the sphinx but he's just got his arms in shoes um That I will never get. Okay, well, I don't have a cat right now, but like the way that my dog will want to lick my feet after I get home from like work or something. yeah How is that not the most disgusting place you can be? Gordo wants to like sort um just smell my like dirty work hands before I wash them. I'm like, buddy, this is so much dirty money and everything. he's like, your hands smell weird. Let me smell them.
00:52:12
Speaker
No, no. the way fenriel like okay well first of all he he like barrels at me like i'm you know a conquistador and he's a bull and if like i almost like moved to the side today in such a way that he almost barreled into the bookshelf in the in the office area because i kind of moved that way in the hallway was like oh shit buddy sorry but like yeah it's oh shit i forgot what i was gonna say it's just stupid it's just like What?
00:52:41
Speaker
Like, oh yeah, he'll like almost like sniff my breath when I come home. Gets right up my face. I'm like, what are you sniffing for, officer? We'll just probably see what you've eaten. i think, i don't know.
00:52:54
Speaker
so weird. yeah My other cat used to do that. Bailey. after After I ate, she would she would get right up in there. She... If you held your mouth open, she would put her head in your mouth just trying to smell your breath. She would go that deep.
00:53:10
Speaker
It's just like, aw. The fucking hint that you have food or something. I'm like, dude, I'm not eating anymore. I'm like, I'm chewing gum or something. And the way, they like, but my dog was staring at me yesterday. I'm like, I'm not even eating anymore.
00:53:23
Speaker
Fuck off. yeah If I'm drinking out of a straw, Gordo tries to sniff sniff it. I'm like, what's this? I'm like, you don't even know how to use a straw. For me? Like, get out of here.
00:53:34
Speaker
Yeah. So in this case, ah there was an investigator named Roger Savoy that recalled seeing a white cat in Douglas's home. So when they found the white cat hairs, he was like, hmm.
00:53:52
Speaker
um And what made me like laugh was they tested the hairs to see if they were from the cat called Snowball, which I was like, that's the name of the cat. Of course. simpsons Yeah. Even though he's like, they're like black and here they're like white.
00:54:07
Speaker
So anyway, but this being like 19, what, 94, this was so totally new to them. They were like, we've tested human dna but we have not had to test cat blood against cat hairs that are found on a victim's like body or in a crime scene or whatever.
00:54:33
Speaker
Yeah. its kind'm like Speaking of cat hair, there's just cat hair all over. i went to take a drink and I was like, oh, there's cat hair on my face. There's cat hair on my face.
00:54:46
Speaker
Sometimes should do stick.
00:54:51
Speaker
Buddy, you're getting
00:54:59
Speaker
So I have a quote. After contacting the Laboratory of Genomic Diversity, a laboratory specializing in the study of genetic diseases rather than forensics, detectives and scientists were able to develop a method to test the feline DNA.
00:55:14
Speaker
The test included a fail-safe method of randomly testing 20 other cats from the isolated Prince Edward r Island. Yeah. Like, they didn't didn't even know how to do this yet, and they were trying to do it.
00:55:27
Speaker
In 94? Fuck no. and They're like, okay, we'll do that in order to establish the degree of, I guess, genetic diversity among the cats in the area.
00:55:39
Speaker
To rule out the possibility that the hairs found in the jacket came from a close relative of Snowball. Just like, yeah. well I'm sure that's what they did with people at the very beginning.
00:55:51
Speaker
Right, like if you don't have the DNA to test against, you can't rule it out. So they kind of had to like improvise in this case, You gotta figure out how much each person's DNA varies.
00:56:04
Speaker
Yeah, because they're not going to have a catabase of cat DNA. Yeah.
00:56:10
Speaker
Gordo, you keep knocking the mic. Oh my god. He looks like he's trying to have a photo shoot on my end. I'm like, are you trying to be so sexy, Gordo? Yeah, he's just like splayed out.
00:56:21
Speaker
can't even see your mic. He's always behind it. Yeah. The mic's here. this is the mic.
00:56:32
Speaker
ah This is the dog. so He's just laying in front of me. I can't even put my arms on the Okay.
00:56:43
Speaker
Oh, he looks very, um, like his top half is very light colored the bottom, especially after the mic, it seems like it's very dark. They dipped him in black paint.
00:56:55
Speaker
Hi. Hi, buddy. Oh, you're distracting me. Stop it.
00:57:03
Speaker
Stop cute. Oh, yeah. So they test it.
00:57:10
Speaker
Oh, yeah. they wanted to rent They wanted to rule out if all the cats on the island of PEI had a common ancestor, which would render the DNA test useless. So they really had to do some work to, like, yeah, kind of figure out this, i don't know, shit.
00:57:26
Speaker
The tests reveal that the hairs did indeed come from the cat, which was owned by Douglas Beamish. uh beamish was sub subsequently convicted for the murder of his wife the duquet case marked the world's first use of non-human dna in a criminal trial which is pretty crazy Yeah.
00:57:48
Speaker
The world's first. And it was here in Canada. That's what it said. That's awesome. know. We're a number one. We're a number one. We used a cat DNA?
00:58:00
Speaker
Yeah. Um... question um While the forensic science of testing cat and dog hairs had been firmly established and studied, it was an unknown science up until that point.
00:58:13
Speaker
Which makes sense. We've just been developing shit so fast this last hundred years that we like can barely keep up with it. Yeah. um But the next quote that definitely reminded me of ah the OJ Simpson trial and with the the glove thing and the if it doesn't fit, you must acquit. Because His attorney, or...
00:58:39
Speaker
Yeah, the defense attorney? Yeah, the defense attorney for Dodd Beamish, the accused, said, or argued that, quote, without the cat, the case falls flat.
00:58:53
Speaker
Oh my god, stop making things rhyme. It's just annoying. What? You can't possibly have this evidence, and if you do, I'll make a rhyme about it. yeah break it down drop a beat come on not gonna save you um yeah because no that didn't help his client who was convicted of second degree murder and sentenced to 18 years to life so in because that was her her bloody jacket or her bloody bag that they found the cat hairs in right
00:59:31
Speaker
Yes. it Yeah, her jacket was found with cat hairs on it um and blood, I believe. ah Yeah. So while I don't know if can burnout they found the actual the body, it was definitely by the time they found the jacket and the body and stuff, they were like, yeah, this doesn't add up.
00:59:53
Speaker
Yeah. Pardon me.
00:59:58
Speaker
I think Gordo is your new co-host for the podcast. I feel like I'm getting pushed ah off the desk.
01:00:06
Speaker
I'm listening, mommy. He's beautiful. I wish I had that video going, actually. He's being used super cute. me Hey, buddy.
01:00:23
Speaker
Are you grumpy? You want to look here? Look at the camera. Make eye contact with the camera. Say hi.
01:00:34
Speaker
my camera's dirty. ah So as far as that one goes, he's been in jail. ah Then 2024, last year, he was granted unescorted temporary passes from custody after a parole board of Canada hearing.
01:00:53
Speaker
Or too nice. Yeah...
01:00:58
Speaker
I don't know. It's tough. 2024. It's been 30 years since this happened, but it's still murder. It's true. And her sister was still quite upset that this happened and adamant that he does not deserve to come back to Prince Edward Island or get out for any amount of time.
01:01:17
Speaker
um She, you know, mentioned how he surely left behind five children who now have children of their own, who never knew their grandmother and how it's very unfair that Beamish can experience things that Shirley can't.
01:01:30
Speaker
um She said he's still breathing, he's living. His family can go and talk to him. They can touch him. They can hug him. But our family were left with her stone. that was the story of Shirley Duguay.
01:01:44
Speaker
You said he had a history of, like, abusing... abusing spouses and that kind of thing too so it wasn't like a one-off like accidental murder or crime of passion like a circumstantial yeah yeah he had like a history of violence and then he killed a spouse so yeah i don't think he should get out at all like that's not somebody that i think could be rehabilitated that's what i'll
01:02:18
Speaker
Yeah, it's tough. Right? It's definitely tough. I don't think we'd ever understand where the family's coming from in those cases. But at the same time, like, when you hear about it, you're like, no, nothing is long enough. Or, like, you know. Yeah.
01:02:33
Speaker
Or at the same time, maybe you're like, well, you know, he's done his penance. It's been this long. It depends. It depends how they are. And, like, I've heard different things about how, um... rehabilitated he was or not i can't remember now if they were like oh he's a formed christian or oh he wasn't like oh i really can't remember was just like okay oh yeah like because one of those people yeah no bad at all they're not capable of it buddy like i was like can't look into it further there's other cases gordo's literally upside down now
01:03:11
Speaker
He's acting like he's some sort of model. I gotta take scissors. He's got so many mats all here on his like front like tummy and chest area.
01:03:26
Speaker
oh no. And his little armpits. Because he won't let me brush him. Very stubborn. I gotta i gotta give him a haircut. Gotta give him the world's worst haircut.
01:03:39
Speaker
Just me grabbing all the little knots out of his hair and trying to cut them out. Yes. Sometimes with the hair, Pat's like, oh, Fenrir's, like, when his paws grow the hair between them in the wintertime, they get really long through his pads and stuff. But other than that, like, it's pretty normal. His hair grows the same.
01:04:00
Speaker
I'm always like, eh, we don't get him shorn or anything. He couldn't handle that. yeah But, like, yeah, sometimes he's like, ugh. Like, don't know. Forget, like, he was going to say, like, he'll...
01:04:14
Speaker
Whatever. Whatever. Dogs, they're weird. If we try to, like, do our dog's nails, he just, like, freaks out. I think that's what I was going to say. Just, like, flips out. Yeah, Gordo doesn't normally me.
01:04:28
Speaker
like me even touching his chest. So I'm trying to get him more used to me touching his chest so that when I do try and cut it, it'll be a little easier. And so far he's doing better. For Well, I think that's one of the things too, is Pat will like play a game kind of with our dog almost where he's like goes to touch his paws and then the dog will bring his paws away.
01:04:51
Speaker
And so, um yeah, no wonder i have a hard time cutting his nails. He keeps trying to grab his paws away. Yeah. Yeah. You dick.
01:05:01
Speaker
Um, I think this is my last.
01:05:07
Speaker
Yeah.
01:05:11
Speaker
I have also ended up on two of the the bird ones. Oh, the birds. Were they? The birds were the heroes of the day. um Gordo, you can't do that.
01:05:23
Speaker
Go, go, go.
01:05:27
Speaker
Where is his head? Right here.
01:05:32
Speaker
He just doesn't want to move. Meow. Buddy. That was weird. I thought he was making that noise because he was mad. or and Well, he was trying to like knock the drink over.
01:05:48
Speaker
Like, buddy. Gordo, you're just tired. You just need a snack and a nap. Meow.
01:05:59
Speaker
Okay, I just have ah one more technically. Mr. Gordo. You're being but annoying tonight. Excuse me.
01:06:12
Speaker
He looks like a roadkill.
01:06:17
Speaker
Are you ready? You're probably going freak out. Okay, three, two, one.
01:06:27
Speaker
isn
01:06:30
Speaker
Go! Go!
01:06:35
Speaker
Don't try and bite me. Go! He did try and bite me. He snapped at my face. He was like... oh I thought he was comfy. I don't know.
01:06:48
Speaker
No, because he kept trying to stretch out and then he was... Oh, God. There's cat hair all over my mic. Yes, he was kind of all up in your grill.
01:07:00
Speaker
i know him Much better. Oh, God. Oh. Pets.
01:07:11
Speaker
In this animal-themed ah quick true crime episode. It's gotta be all up in i open in my business.
01:07:23
Speaker
Yes, it's very fitting that we have but a catastrophe. A cat-tastrophe on our... trying to record. Anyway, I thought Gordo was just kind of laying there for a minute, but yeah, he can be kind of disruptive. Now I can hear him doing in the living room.
01:07:46
Speaker
No! Gordo. Gordo. I only have one more tale for you. um This is the sad tale of Danielle Van Dam, who was a seven-year-old who vanished in 2001. And the amount of cases that came out in 2001 that get overlooked is crazy.
01:08:08
Speaker
could do whole segment. Yeah. Yeah. I listened to one today on a podcast that was like, what? Talking about why we always have to take off shoes in the airport. And they were like, oh, because the shoe bomber. And I was like, I'm sorry, the what now?
01:08:21
Speaker
And it was like someone who tried to bomb the same year's September 11 attacks. And so like, although we all take our shoes off now, like it wasn't even successful and There's really not that much risk from our actual shoes. They're like, it's mostly an American thing. And I was like, oh, no, don't you worry.
01:08:40
Speaker
We do it in some Canadian airports, too. Now, thanks to you guys. like Because we do everything the same as the Americans.
01:08:50
Speaker
Yeah, the whole thing with the liquids, too. Wasn't it because somebody was like had a dismantled...
01:08:59
Speaker
Like, liquids or something that they were gonna do, and then they were gonna assemble it on the plane. it must have been similar. Pour the chemicals into each other or something, and then they...
01:09:12
Speaker
they Yeah, so that's why they came up with the 100 or 1 liter whatever, because it's not enough of, like... Oh, you should hear the Americans talk it. They're like, we can't have it more than 3.4 ounces. And I was like, oh, i'm sorry. Is that easier than saying 100 milliliters? Yeah. Because it seems harder to remember.
01:09:31
Speaker
But no, it's crazy. Right? Because they don't do it in a lot of places. And the only reason, apparently, we've been doing it mostly since 2001 a guy that ah guy tried to make some sort of a bomb that had to do with his shoes and it all the way it did not effectively go off.
01:09:50
Speaker
We still make people take their shoes off the airport. was like, this is craziness. Yeah. Why do we all live like that? I mean, like if I'm, you know, talking about TSA and how crazy it is, there was night classy podcast did a really good episode where one of them, her segment was on the TSA and how,
01:10:10
Speaker
you know, it's supposed to cover stuff, but like how much it actually is effective. Like, you know, how many crimes it stops kind of on the reg versus like how much time it wastes for the rest of us. And it was like fascinating. was like, whoa.
01:10:28
Speaker
I'm sure it probably stops a lot of minor things and less often is stopping like major actual sort of like plots to take down a plane or something. It's probably... right It stopped my daughter from bringing on her...
01:10:44
Speaker
freaking swiss army knife because she didn't realize that wasn't something you take her to and say just like when i hadn't gone to a concert in a while i didn't realize i wasn't allowed to bring my purse that wasn't see-through sometimes it's just like well at that point i was like i guess i could have told you that maybe a knife wasn't gonna go on but i didn't think you were gonna yeah yeah Okay, so this one is unfortunately a young daughter, so obviously i can relate.
01:11:18
Speaker
um Unfortunately, she was seven years old when she vanished in 2001 on Friday, February 2nd, 2001 from sunny San Diego County, um specifically the Saber Springs neighborhood.
01:11:32
Speaker
I think I came across this one. okay i know yeah i was like oh i came across something like i guess we did did kind of do most the animals which there were so many surprisingly i don't know um so her dad stayed home with the three kids danielle and her two brothers while the mom brenda went out with her friends to a bar and dad puts her to bed at about 10 30 p.m and goes to bed himself, I think shortly thereafter, not too long.
01:12:03
Speaker
Um, and then the next thing we know, mom comes home at about two, she kind of noticed security light was flashing and had closed the garage side door. um but doesn't really think anything of it. And she's chatting with her hubby and her friends, um, from the bar for about 30 minutes and then they go to bed.
01:12:24
Speaker
So, um, An hour later, the dad wakes up. There's a security light flashing again. and he then gets up and closes the sliding door to the backyard and goes back to bed.
01:12:37
Speaker
Um. Okay. Yeah. They did not notice until morning that Danielle was gone and they called the police about, uh, sorry, 9.39 in the morning. the morning
01:12:53
Speaker
This is why we're all helicopter parents now, because we're terrified. No. um Yeah. I'm not trying to blame them. It's just like, oh, so scary.
01:13:04
Speaker
Searches stretched out across the area. Suspicions happened to fall on a neighbor whose name was Dave Westerfield, who was seen packing up his RV and almost actively avoiding the searches when they came around.
01:13:16
Speaker
So they thought that was weird. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, it's just like being sus, I guess.
01:13:28
Speaker
The, quote, Laura Recovery Center assisted in organizing the search and a Danielle Recovery Center was set up in a real estate office in Poway to coordinate this searching.
01:13:39
Speaker
Finally, on February 27th, Two searchers found her nude, partially decomposed body near a trail in Dehesa, California, an unincorporated town east of San Diego.
01:13:54
Speaker
Some searchers had decided to search the Dehesa Road area near the trail after detectives discovered traces of Daniel's blood in David Westerfield's motorhome.
01:14:05
Speaker
Because Dehesa Road was possible route... Yes, Westerfield could have taken to get to the desert. Damn. did find some blood. have a little bit more on later. It's just not all in order.
01:14:22
Speaker
Because the condition of the body, the coroner was and unable to determine the cause of death or whether she was sexually assaulted and had to use dental records to confirm her identity. End quote.
01:14:35
Speaker
That's... Unfortunately, didn't find her very soon after. yeah But like they found tons of evidence, it seems like, in his motorhome and like on her body and stuff too. That's good. Yeah, blood in the motorhome. I think blood on his clothes.
01:14:57
Speaker
They found the hairs of a dog and those were the ones that eventually tied it specifically back to her family dog. Because they figured it was on her PJs and then transferred into like his motorhome.
01:15:11
Speaker
i but although they had found other traces some of it could have been explained away because they had just been in his house actually days before because she was selling girls girl scout cookies ah almost said girl guides because that's what they are here and it's basically the same but yeah yeah like so they had come to the door and her mom was like oh I want to see your kitchen how the remodeling is going so they had been in his house recently Yeah, that's the thing. If it's not a stranger or whatever, and it's somebody that you have had contact with or been in their house, it makes it harder to tie it yeah tie it back to an actual like crime, not just, oh, they were in your house at some point. That's why their fingerprints are here. That's why this is here.
01:16:02
Speaker
Oh, yeah. It's like especially bad if they're actually family or friends, and then you really have a hard time differentiating things.
01:16:14
Speaker
yeah so Brenda had wanted to see how the kitchen re-bottling was come along but blood was found on his clothes and in his RV and he was put under surveillance and eventually on February 22nd put under arrest pleaded not guilty and the trial commenced on June 4th of 2002 he was sentenced to death for abduction and murder on August 21st of that year yeah of that year and Yeah, some other quotes from the area. Drivers recall the crime when they drive over the Danielle Van Dam remorse Memorial sorry overpassed on Interstate 8 at 2nd Street in El Cajon.
01:16:54
Speaker
I think of Danielle Van Dam and people see the sign and know the location where her body was found, said former San Diego County District Attorney Paul. Fingst.
01:17:06
Speaker
It's like P-F-I-N-G-S-T. Fingst? No. Fingst? It's tough one. Something. finkst remembers the day the seven-year-old's body was discovered off to haze arose about five miles from the memorial overpass he said i've never in my career seen a case where someone has actually gone into a home taking a child out of bed and taking that child back to his home sexually abused and taking the child away killed the child and dumped the body said finkst
01:17:40
Speaker
Westerfield already had been arraigned in court on kidnapping and murder charges the day before Daniel's body was located by volunteer search teams. Um, and the discovery of the body meant that there would be no plea bargain in the death penalty case.
01:17:55
Speaker
And the plea deal was closed according to Fingst. And this was, I thought, interesting. He said, it was minutes before the time that I was about to make a deal with the defendant through his lawyer for the return of her body and my being notified that the body had been discovered. Fingst said. Good.
01:18:13
Speaker
I'm happy he wasn't to get any less lesser charge for the return of her remains or anything like that. ah Right? When he may not have even had given them up and then they found her.
01:18:27
Speaker
Yeah. um The 72-year-old was moved off death row in March of 2024 as part of the phasing out of segregated death row units as part of Proposition 66.
01:18:39
Speaker
So he now resides at High Desert State Prison. with these like 73 I guess cool hope somebody accidentally stabs him but right in the shower and accidentally stabs him with their shank toothbrush ah yeah yeah yeah um and like ah I had also run across the one with Bud the I think that's the one Bud the bird
01:19:11
Speaker
bird the bird oh no there was too many there was bud the bird bird the bird and some duck we don't know the name yes i guess oh bud yeah but who was the owner of martin durham he came across in mine and and i i did laugh ah there were some interesting parts to the story where they're like The birds recounting the whole... Like, they didn't have much evidence to go on before the birds started. Yeah.
01:19:41
Speaker
Recounting the argument and stuff. Like, it was weird because they had weird letters from, like, the wife that was like, oh, take care of the kids and I've been a bad person. But, like, obviously this isn't a murder-suicide.
01:19:55
Speaker
No, but you know what i mean? Weird. And then, yeah. I was like, her ex was Christine Keller. Yeah. which made me laugh because I know there was a Chris Keller on HBO's Oz, but she's the ex that took the parrot in and then was like, I know to hear them talking about like that's, I get chills to hear it.
01:20:20
Speaker
And like you said, he was a filthy bird. foul mouth and had 400 words of and vocabulary. um Oh, what I thought was weird um when I, it wasn't on the first listicle, but when I went looked into that case a little bit more, it said they they got there, they saw he had suffered five gunshot wounds and she had two and they were like, oh, they're both fucking dead, right?
01:20:48
Speaker
And then after like however many minutes or almost an hour of assessing the scene, the scene, it said that, um, they, oh it was an hour later after they got there, they were trying to get the dog out of the home, ah that they thought Glenna might seem to be breathing. And that's when they figured out that they should check her pulse.
01:21:10
Speaker
And as soon as he touched her, that her eyes flew open and her body jerked. And she said, what are you doing? I guess she was like, I think she was like, yeah, like if she tried to kill herself after she killed her husband, right? To like complete the murder-suicide. I think she fucked up. And then when she was alive again and they found her and she was like, holy fuck, I'm still here. She was like, what are you doing? And I was like.
01:21:35
Speaker
Damn, they didn't check their pulse. I don't think the one source I found. They're just processing the scene and just. Yeah, for like an hour. Isn't that fucked up oh so crazy yeah yeah it's so funny how you'll get different things and then they were like you can fuck off and give me life in prison that's her details but like i'll listen to something and then i almost won't listen to it in another podcast i'll be like oh i've heard this one and then i'm like no you should listen to it you don't know how another podcast is gonna cover it or what anecdotes they might enter in and yeah so sometimes things i find that fun but like
01:22:13
Speaker
Yeah, even just hearing you tell some of the stories I heard a little bit about, I was like, this is so cool. Yeah. Oh my god. Crazy stories, man. Yeah, there's a lot more out there. Oh yeah.
01:22:29
Speaker
Like, people coming back as ghosts to almost solve their own crimes and shit like that, if you believe it. Yeah. On mine, I think it had a couple things about like etymology and bugs and stuff again. and was was like, oh yeah.
01:22:47
Speaker
I was like, damn. Yeah. More to come back to if we want. Oh yes. Bug crimes.
01:22:58
Speaker
Yeah. You're bugging me out.
01:23:03
Speaker
Oh shit. um Well, I think we decided next week for, Oh, yeah. um and so I already forgot. I don't have it of looked notes. I was like, it's resurrection slash near death crime?
01:23:20
Speaker
Well, we decided maybe it would to do with the you know Easter was coming up. Give me your near death experiences, baby. ah Yeah. It should be fun. Yeah.
01:23:35
Speaker
And if you don't, can't get enough of us, there will be, uh, there's not only the bonus episode, whole episode of about haunted battlefields, but, uh, kind of a sequel to that. Cause I just couldn't stop talking. And the first one was almost two hours. So then we recorded the rest and, uh, yeah, we'll have that up on page. And that's why we're a little behind this week, but we'll get, uh, going on next week's episode and,
01:24:04
Speaker
Donate on Patreon, y'all. And keep it cryptic. Yeah. it Yeah. Thanks for listening. Bye. Bye.
01:24:31
Speaker
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01:24:45
Speaker
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01:24:59
Speaker
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01:25:11
Speaker
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