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SUMMER ROAD TRIP - Alaska & Alabama
145 Plays4 years ago
We are starting our Summer Road Trip through the United States! Tonight we are telling, obviously, stories from Alaska & Alabama. I hope you all have a fantastic start to your summer
Alabama Time Slots 1:27 - 43:06
Alaska Time Slots 43:13 - 1:32
Please let us know how you think we can improve or what you like / do not like, stories you want us to tell - ya know just whatever twistedtalestruecrime@gmail.com
Or come say hi on Instagram (@twistedtales_pod) or Facebook (TwistedTales True Crime)
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Transcript
Welcome and Series Introduction
00:00:00
Speaker
Well, hello and thank you for tuning in again to another episode of Twisted Tales. We are starting our summer series where we're going to go through all 50 states. Each episode, Lisa and I will each be telling each other a story from a different state. We're trying to keep them random and things that are maybe not as much heard of. And this week we both have ace. And even though there is an alphabetical order, we're toddlers.
Listener Engagement and Story Setup
00:00:29
Speaker
So, we are going to rock, paper, scissors to see who goes first. Are you ready? Uh, yeah. Ready? Rock, paper, scissors, shoot. Tie. Rock, paper, scissors, shoot. Tie. Rock, paper, scissors, shoot. Tie. Rock, paper, scissors, shoot. Tie. Rock, paper, scissors, shoot. Dang it. Rock, paper, scissors, shoot. Rock, paper, scissors. Rock, paper, scissors, shoot. Dang it. Rock, paper, scissors. Rock, paper, scissors. Rock, paper, scissors. Rock, paper, scissors. Rock, paper, scissors. Rock, paper, scissors. Rock, paper, scissors. Rock, paper, scissors. Rock, paper, scissors. Rock, paper, scissors. Rock, paper, scissors. Rock, paper, scissors. Rock, paper, scissors. Rock, paper, scissors. Rock, paper, scissors. Rock, paper, scissors. Rock, paper, scissors. Rock, paper, scissors. Rock, paper, scissors. Rock, paper, scissors
00:00:59
Speaker
All right. Whatever. Also, you guys, I'll have you notice that Lisa is still in fact here after how many times Faith has tried to cancel me. There may be resumes floating around out there. I'm not sure. But as for now, I am still here. And so thank you.
00:01:18
Speaker
If you do would like to send a resume, twistedtailstruecrimeatgmail.com. That was a good plug. It was a great plug. That was a good plug. We've also got a Facebook or an Instagram. Feel free to shoot over and we can set this thing up without her.
Lisa's Alabama True Crime Story
00:01:31
Speaker
So I'm going to go first. I've got Alabama and I am kind of excited. This was newer for me because I could not find a single
00:01:44
Speaker
place where this story has been told so far. Okay. There's no, I couldn't find any podcasts. I legitimately couldn't even find any news articles besides like one little blip. Um, so we had to go off court documents and I'm just going to tell you legal jargon is not my forte. I don't think legal jargon is anybody's forte, not even the people who practice it. Yeah. Well, it was, it was difficult, but I am going to tell you the story. So let's get into it. We are going again in the way back machine, not his way back.
00:02:13
Speaker
We are going to Huntsville, Alabama. Still a time machine, guys, by the way, just still time machine. Yeah. Going to Huntsville, Alabama in 1984, the year of my birth. So for a year. I know, right. Robin Renee Balsar, which I am probably butchering her last name. I apologize. It is B L A R Z S Balsar's.
00:02:39
Speaker
We're just going to go to the Robin. I like the Balsar. We're going to call her that Balsar. That's how I pronounce it. The Z is at the end. Robin Renee Balaars was a 25 year old living with her parents. Um, she had a four year old son who lived with them as well. She grew up an army brat and she was engaged to David Roberts who was active military and who's currently out for training.
00:03:05
Speaker
So there's normal life, taking care of her son, working part time, um, just average everyday 25 year old. So on May 11th, 1984, she had a rare night home alone.
00:03:20
Speaker
Her fiance was out of town at training. It didn't specify what kind just with the military. So he was gone. It's like every woman's favorite. I know her parents took the kid like she's alone. It's legitimately the best night of her life. I mean, it's things that women dream about people. Just going to the store by myself or going to the bathroom by myself is the highlight of my life. Right. So anyway, because she's young and
00:03:48
Speaker
And she's by herself. She had a friend Cindy McElroy come over for a girls night. At some point in the night, um, a mutual friend of her and her fiance, Steve came over who he'd been friends with David for forever. Um, so he came over, crashed the girls night, ended up passing out on the couch. Why the two girls just stayed up and talked and you know, what we girls do. There's probably a couple glasses of wine, just talking, reminiscing glory days.
00:04:17
Speaker
Um, Steven fell asleep on the couch. The two girls finally called it quits. They both went to respective bedrooms. They both went to sleep. The next morning they got up a lot. They all got up pretty early. Steven left the earliest he was going fishing, um, for the day with his friend at pool. They were meeting at six 30 in the morning. Cindy left as well, bidding Robin a farewell and no one knew what the rest of this day would entail.
00:04:44
Speaker
Like this was, I mean, it was Cindy said it was a perfectly average night. Nothing. There was no incidents. There was no nothing. Like nothing was out of the ordinary or suspicious. Everything was on par just like they'd done a hundred times. So fast forward to two days later are technically the next day on May 13th. David, how was two days later? Technically the next day. Cause we started on May 11th, but they'd spent the night. So they woke up on the 12th.
00:05:13
Speaker
So technically, the day after that, on the 13th, David came back from his training. You're the worst. I know. David came back from his training. You called me out constantly. Because you call Africa North America. No. Who was it? North America. Yes. South America? Yes. Makes it so much better. It does make it better because you, for once, are wrong.
00:05:39
Speaker
I was still closer than you were. That's a good point. I was like continents away, but that doesn't matter. All right. So back to we'll go through the days of the week when we're done. I'll help you on the day of May 13th. David came back from his training or service or whatever he was doing. And upon entering the house, he saw a scene out of his nightmares. Um, there was a hasty cleanup job, but throughout the whole house,
00:06:06
Speaker
Blood clumps of hair and vomit are in the kitchen, in the halls, in the living room, leading down the stairs to the garage, everywhere. So vomit.
00:06:17
Speaker
So he's frantically calling out for his fiance Robin. No one's at home. There's no answer. David runs out of the house, starts knocking, beating on neighbors' doors. Hi, have you seen Robin? Have you seen anything going on? Has there been an ambulance here? Nobody knows nothing. So he starts calling hospitals next, asking if anyone's been admitted. Has anyone, is there any Jane Doe's?
00:06:39
Speaker
No information, explains the situation, no information. So then he just starts calling friends and family members trying to find anybody that knows where his son and his fiance are. So the son was home at that point? No, no one's home. He doesn't know where anybody is. He does. Well, because I mean, you said that the son had spent the night with grandparents. They had gone out of town. The grandparents and the son went out of town. Robin and the son lived with her parents because he was in and out of the service.
00:07:05
Speaker
Right. Oh, okay. All right. And Robin was an army brat growing up. So she's used to, you know, the male figure being gone. But she lived, her and the boy lived with her parents while her fiance was, I guess, climbing the ranks in the service. The grandparents and the son went out of town. She's home alone. But he was also looking for his son, not just his fiance. He doesn't know, he doesn't know whose blood that is. Okay. So he didn't know. Nobody knows whose blood that is. All right. I'm sorry. You're fine.
00:07:31
Speaker
If you have questions, other people might have trouble following the very linear story we're telling. Wow. Wow. No, you said, and I quote, the son is out of with the grandparents. Then halfway back through the story, you're like, oh, well, they all live together. And then I'm wondering, did the kid get dropped back home already? Like, was he expecting the kid home already? I said, you should just maybe pay a little bit of it. You know,
00:07:58
Speaker
So I'm going to stop talking now, mostly because I sound like I'm going through puberty, but whatever. Guys, the pollen in East Tennessee is no joke. And Lisa is example a of what that pollen will do to you. So David has called around to friends, family. He can find no one that knows where anybody is, what's happened. So he does the next logical thing and he calls the Huntsville Police Department.
00:08:25
Speaker
Police are dispatched to the location and they obviously see a crime scene. Nobody knows what's going on, but somebody has been severely injured in this house.
Investigation and Arrest of Suspect
00:08:37
Speaker
So going through the events of the morning with David, the police are talking him through like, tell me what happened, you know, normal standard questions while taking a missing person report.
00:08:48
Speaker
And David, maybe because he's in the military, maybe he's observant, remembers that when he was driving into the house that morning, there was a car parked across the street, but when he ran back out, the car wasn't there. And he never saw the driver, but he could give enough details to say what kind of car it was, what it looked like, that type of deal. So the police put out an APB for the described vehicle and filed the missing persons case and everyone's just left to wait.
00:09:18
Speaker
Nobody knows what's going on. Early the next morning, two uniformed officers were doing a routine just drive through, and they happened to see a vehicle that matched the description on this APB. So they pulled the driver over. When walking up to the vehicle, they noticed that there is dirt caked all over this vehicle. Looks like he went mutting almost. There's severe body damage to the vehicle. There's all these kinds of dents
00:09:49
Speaker
and scratches. And when they asked the driver to step out of the car, there appears to be mud and blood covering the driver. And we don't we don't know the driver. No, OK. Super suspect, though. So right. Yeah. Anybody that steps out of a vehicle covered in blood is kind of. Yeah, I'd say he's pretty high priority. Yeah. And it wasn't like he was doused. He had splatter on him, mixed in with all this mud. So something's happened.
00:10:19
Speaker
So they apprehend him, read him his Miranda rights, bring him in for questioning. Steven denied any knowledge of what happened to Robin. Well, absolutely. That's who they apprehended is this this guy, Steven. This is the person they're asking about is his best friend's fiance. He knows her. Yeah. He just spent the night at her house. Just going to say he's the dude that spent the night. Yeah, he knows. But he has absolutely no idea what they're talking about. He didn't know she was even missing.
00:10:47
Speaker
Um, he, he tells him, I've been fishing with my buddy all day, um, drinking a few beers and then we went to Green Mountain. You know, I went hiking some because they like nature, that kind of stuff, just talking. And while he talks about his day, the police decide to search the area that he mentioned. So first they go to the lake where he went fishing and there's nothing out of the ordinary. Everything looks fine. There's no disturbances, nothing. They report in everything's clear here.
00:11:16
Speaker
The police that went to Green Mountain, however, were not prepared for what they were about to. Stephen Allen Thompson was adopted at 12 days old. He had loving parents and siblings. Everybody in the community knew them. They were well respected. They were hardworking. Stephen, however, just had a troubled past. He has said to have started acting out and doing drugs while in his early teenage years.
00:11:45
Speaker
So just real fast, just to intervene. You know, we always talk about like the point in the conversation where we have our little podcast where it's like, nature isn't nurture, right? Yes. And so like this guy right here is about to be like prime example number one, basically on the last couple of sentences that you said. He doesn't even know his grandparents. He was adopted at 12 months old. Into a loving family. Exactly. Who all have like solid jobs.
00:12:15
Speaker
Never been in trouble. Anything in this kid has been a perpetual problem since basically he hit puberty. Well, let's hear about it. So he started doing drugs and alcohol supposedly when he was in early teens.
00:12:30
Speaker
Um, he and his father, um, just, it seemed to always, he caused a lot of turmoil for his father is the way his father stated it. And his father never said my adopted son, or it was always my son, Steven. He claimed him a hundred percent.
00:12:45
Speaker
He supported him a hundred percent. But he said that even from a younger age, Steven would go from this kind and loving kid to all of a sudden belligerent and angry like with absolutely no rhyme or reason. Like nothing happened. He would just flip these switches. Well, I don't know if this is like a question where, uh, you know, you'll cause I'm sorry. Um, you might even get into this a little later, but you know,
00:13:14
Speaker
Did his parents ever think about getting him treatment for? They did. OK, it did. That's why I was kind of wondering, you know, it's kind of the obvious question, but yep, curiosity peaked. Sorry. Yeah, it's actually be very next sentence. He got so bad as a teenager and just so belligerent and as his father said, ungovernable that he was sent to a boy's detention home. So was it too late at that point? Like,
00:13:40
Speaker
We've already had these past symptoms and then they're like, oh, well we waited till he was a teen. So I would assume even if it's 13. Well, and it wasn't until he hit 13 or 14 till he started acting like this. Like he was a normal average kid. Okay. Nothing, nothing crazy until he hit 13, 14 puberty. And all of a sudden he had started having like I did as a teen.
00:14:05
Speaker
So they sent him to this boy's detention home because he just became ungovernable. And then he was enrolled in a retreat hospital, which I'm assuming is a nice fancy way of saying rehab. Yeah. Because there was some drug and alcohol mentioned several times. And he stayed at the retreat hospital for about two months.
00:14:25
Speaker
Upon release and returning home, his behavior was 100% different. Better kid. He had missed too much school at this point to graduate, but he got his GED. He joined the Navy. So everything was looking up. Unfortunately, that is not the trajectory Steven decided to stay upon.
00:14:45
Speaker
He, well, you can say, I guess he hit a rough patch, but he went absent without leave or AWOL from the Navy, which is not looked kindly upon. No, no, it's not. His parents kicked him out of their house. And so at this point, I would say kid is unsufferable or insufferable. Sorry. Where it's just like for any parent to get to that point. That's got to be something severe. Yeah. But also, I mean, in the parents,
00:15:15
Speaker
in the parents defense too. If you go AWOL from the Navy, like I don't, now my basis of knowledge on this is NCIS. Right. Let's leave that there. Um, but Mark Harmon arrest people for going AWOL. And if you assist them, you're in trouble too. So if he went AWOL from the Navy and tried to go back to his parents' houses, dad could have said, nah, big boy, you're going back. Right. You can't hide out here. This is not a clubhouse. You need to go back and face what you've done.
00:15:45
Speaker
So instead of doing that, Steven stole his sister's checkbook and started cashing checks just for cash until she closed the account. So that's where we find Steven at today. Not today, but today in the story. He's broke. He couldn't get a job if he wanted to because if he does, then the Navy can find him because he's AWOL. And nobody knows all this is going on.
00:16:10
Speaker
Besides, I'm assuming his parents. It wasn't really stated that his parents know, but I'm assuming they knew. But his friend had no idea. No, his friends. I thought his friend was active military. That's what I thought. OK, so they weren't they weren't like stationed together. No, but they're both there. They've been friends forever. They both went to the service, you know. So at this point, Stephen knew his longtime friend David is out of training.
Trial and Conviction
00:16:34
Speaker
He's out of town. He also knew that Robin was home alone since he just spent the night.
00:16:39
Speaker
So after a day out of fishing with his buddy, he decided this is an easy mark. Nobody's at this chick's house. I can break in and I can steal some crap because he has no way to make money. So this is legit, like this is what happened. This is legit what happened. I'm fixing to get into the details of Robin's last day.
00:17:02
Speaker
So he decided that she's an easy mark. She's home alone. The kid's gone, so there's no collateral damage. Parents are gone. David's out of town. So he packed supplies to go to Robba House. Now, if you, Lisa, were going to go Robba House, what would you bring with you? Gloves. Obviously. Nobody's home, right? Obviously. You know, I mean, if I knew anything about the house,
00:17:31
Speaker
And there was like security or something, maybe something like wire cutters or, um, and I don't think, you know, maybe a pickup truck so I could get a good load, right? Maybe a crowbar. Well, maybe a crowbar. Well, you know, you got to pry open a window or a door or something, right?
00:17:48
Speaker
Yeah, but you don't want it to be noisy. Not like I've thought this through or anything. I'm going to stop. Yeah. OK. Would you bring with you to just break into the house and just say no? And still there's stuff. Would you have a bag packed with socks, tape, rope and bandages? Definitely socks.
00:18:10
Speaker
That that's this is in his, quote unquote, be any back. Right. Yeah. OK. So but definitely socks. Yeah. Yeah. Like he has the beat to be special in his bag to go break into a house. Oh, hey, you know, I'm in this house right now and these socks don't feel great on this carpet. So I'm going to put on my fluffy socks. Yeah. No, no. He brought the BTK special to quote unquote. I don't understand the sock thing, but unless we're going to gag him. Oh, God.
00:18:40
Speaker
Yep. All right. Well, there you go. Keep going. So he packs up these things and drives to this house. He backs down his rental vehicle that he had and knocks on the door. Robin opens the door being home. She just saw him that morning. I'm assuming in her mind, she's probably like, oh, he probably forgot something. Come on in, Steven. And he forgot something. He's hungry. He just wants to hang out for a bit. Whatever. He's just a friend. He's just coming to hang out.
00:19:10
Speaker
Once in the house with the door shut, Steven attacked Robin. Is this his confession? This is what is in the court documents that happened. And yes, there will be part of his words in this. OK. So he attacked Robin and tied a rope around her neck so that she would, in his words, know that he was not messing around.
00:19:32
Speaker
He asked if there was any money, juries, valuables, gold, silver, anything in the house. And he stated that she just kept crying saying, you don't have to do this. You don't have to do this. And trying to pull the rope off her neck. Right. Cause this is the guy that she knew. Like, because it's her friend, she probably would have given it to him. Like if he's like, I'm hard up on cash, you probably, Hey, I can loan you some money. Yeah. But that's not the choice he, he decided. So he ended up.
00:19:57
Speaker
grabbing the rope really hard and she fell down and busted her face. No splats bleeding. Um, and he just becomes enraged. So he just starts beating her in the head and face region with his fists, he said, just pounding on her. Um, because she's no help, he then takes a sock out of his bag, shoves it in her mouth to gag her and binds the rest of her body with the ropes.
00:20:24
Speaker
He then proceeds to beat her while screaming at her and dragging her around the house by the hair, trying to find anything of value. Show me where the jewelry is. Show me where the money is. I'm going to interject for a second. None of this at all, like you had mentioned before, sounds like a B and E. Right? Realistically. This is very meditating. Any woman who's in a situation and it's a B and E and dude's asking for money, she's going to be like,
00:20:49
Speaker
Here's my engagement ring. Here's my gold, whatever that my grandmother gave me when I was 15. It's solid gold, bro. Take it. This is premeditated murder. It's murder. He was just trying to get his rocks off. Well, he leaves Robin bound and gagged and bleeding in the floor. And he just ransacks the house trying to see anything still. He came up empty until he found Robin's purse.
00:21:16
Speaker
And he stole the whole whopping $1 bill that was inside it. Man. Which becomes so important later. So he takes literally the only dollar bill she has is the $1 bill and shoves it in his pocket. He said at this point, he goes back to where he left Robert and pulls the gag from her mouth and noticed that her lips are turning purple from where she had vomited when gagged and was choking.
00:21:44
Speaker
Um, he also saw that there's evidence everywhere at this point. He's just like, well crap. And so he quickly tries to clean up. Um, but Robin is still on the ground bound. The gag has been removed and he takes a knife and cuts the clothes off of her, leaving her completely naked besides the rope that he has balanced her with.
00:22:04
Speaker
And then he was definitely there for a robbery for sure. Grabs her by the hair and drags her down the stairs to the garage into the vehicle that he had backed in forcing her inside this vehicle. Steven then drove Robin out to an isolated mountain range called the green mountains. And this is where she lived the last few minutes of her life. An unbelievable amount of pain and torture. Now following events are details of Robin's last hours on earth.
00:22:33
Speaker
However, even the coroner said that you could not definitively say the order in which she experienced these because everything that happened was so type packed into a shorter amount of time and everything that she endured was just done in rapid succession. So he couldn't say exactly when everything happened.
00:22:58
Speaker
I do want to give a trigger warning, even though we typically do not, but what I'm about to describe is beyond vile and brutal. And so if you were sensitive at all, just skip right ahead because this is not something you might want to hear, but Robin lived it. And I feel like it's important to describe what happened to her. So. Do I get a choice? Nope. Why don't I get a choice? Because you're the co-host for now. So I get a good resume.
00:23:29
Speaker
All right, so once he reached the isolated patch of Green Mountain, Stephen Force dropping out of the vehicle, still naked and bound, and it once again gagged with a sock. He said that she was bleeding all over the car and the ground. She started puking everywhere. And he said that she was just moaning and groaning and whining because she'd been beaten. Poor frigging Steve.
00:23:53
Speaker
Um, I am going to give you the detail of events that happened to her as they talked about in the court case, even though we can't prove specifically how things happen. There does seem to, I mean, if there's kind of a logical flow to it. Yeah. So once he was done, he, um, he proceeded to rape Robin unknown times while beating her throughout raping her.
00:24:19
Speaker
Once he was done with that, he bound her breasts with ropes like around each breast to make them stand out and be, you know, protruding and tied a rope more tightly around her neck. He then took a very large hunting knife and shoved it into her vagina. While that knife was still lodged inside her and the rope tied around her neck.
00:24:43
Speaker
He then tied the rope to the back of his car and proceeded to drive his car over 3,000 miles through mud rocks filled in pavement, which is where all the damage came to his car because he was dragging her body 3,000 miles over this mountain range. He shaved her head with a razor he had purchased that morning. She lived through that? We do not know at what point she died. Shaved her head with a razor to where she had no hair left.
00:25:13
Speaker
and then took a knife and started slicing into her breasts. It's theorized that maybe he was trying to make her indistinguishable by shaving her hair off and just hacking into her. And we will see during one of the appeals that even after she died, he continued to brutalize her body. So once this sequence of events, we do not know the timeframe,
00:25:41
Speaker
So like on like the psychopath national test, like he would have scored 100. Oh, yeah, he's clearly 100. This is his friend. Yeah. And he did all the other unspeakable things and then tied her naked body to his truck and drug her for 3,000 miles. That's not just down the road. Like that's a trip. That's an oil change. Like it's every 3,000 miles you get your oil change.
00:26:10
Speaker
And he drug her body that long trying to, I'm assuming make her indistinguishable, get rid of any trace evidence. I'm not sure what was in his mind. But when, when he parked, he realized, you know, her house is probably going to be a mess and I did try to clean it some, but there's going to be some evidence there. I really need to go clean it, make it look like she left. So he goes back to the house to break in.
00:26:38
Speaker
And while attempting to break in, that's when he sees David driving up the street. So he snuck away, got in the rental car that was parked across the street and drove off. David never saw him. And even if David had seen him, unless he had seen the blood, he had just thought his buddy was coming to see him back from from his event. So
00:27:05
Speaker
Initially, Steven denied even knowing what happened to Robin like we talked about earlier, but didn't take long for Steven to just start confessing.
Aftermath and Execution
00:27:14
Speaker
He gave most of the details of what happened to her and he was brought to trial and it took 16 minutes to convict him guilty on all charges. And he was sentenced to death. Is he dead now? However, he's not done brutalizing this family. So as we talked about last week,
00:27:35
Speaker
with Sunny, she said, get yourself a young lawyer because the other ones are going to age out, right? So he had multiple appeals. And I honestly, like, I get everybody's got to have a job. And, you know, there are there are aspects of all everyone's job that you don't like. But whatever piece of crap lawyer took this, these appeal case and had the gall to go in front of people and argue a few of these points.
00:28:05
Speaker
Just shame, shame, shame, shame. So here's the different appeal points they were trying to get. Number one, they say that it was not a capital crime. We talked about signing all these things. It's not a capital offense because it was separate offenses. He did murder her, but he didn't really steal anything.
00:28:28
Speaker
He took the engagement ring off her finger after she was dead. He's got a $1 bill. And that's why they dismissed it. He stole the $1 bill before he brutally murdered and raped her. It was a capital offense. So he was shut down on that. $1 is all it takes, folks. He stole $1 bet. He regrets that decision. So on another attempt, he was guilty, but it was because he was insane.
00:28:57
Speaker
So they used the testimony from his father because his father, when saying how he flipped these switches, said, I think he has multiple personality disorder. And he was insane. He's always been insane. He needs he's he's guilty, but he needs to be locked up, you know, not into prison. However, like what? OK, no, I'm not going to say it. All right. The court also denied this claim saying acting crazy does not make one insane.
00:29:24
Speaker
That was literally the point is just because you act crazy doesn't mean you're insane. He knew what he was doing. He was actually interviewed by three different psychologists through this timeframe. Two said that he 100% was completely fine. He knew what he was doing. The third did not testify, but did say that he does believe that Steven has mental issues.
00:29:46
Speaker
But he was still fit for trial. I was just going to say, but his mental issues. He was accepted in the Navy. You have to go to 22 who doesn't have mental issues. We're still in 1984. Oh, still doesn't matter. Doesn't matter. We're between them. So another attempt. And honestly, this is this is the one out of all of them. It really bothers me. He attempted to get the death penalty taken off the table and get life in prison.
00:30:17
Speaker
because I said, yes, if you sign this petition. Right. Because it was a capital offense because he raped her. But he states he didn't he did not penetrate and rape her till after she was dead. So it doesn't it doesn't matter.
00:30:35
Speaker
This was the lawyers brought this up as a reason he should be have life prison. But because he just defiled her dead body, not her living one after everything else he did to her. You need to know, I know you're waiting for me to make a comment, but like how how like what do you wake up? I got nothing. I have nothing.
00:31:00
Speaker
So due to the testimony from the coroner's office, the official cause of death for Robin is a fixation due to multiple traumas and quick succession. He could not tell when exactly she died. All right. So was when she was struck up on the car, it was still around her throat. Yes. So Lord willing, she was dead and couldn't feel that. I pray it snapped her neck quickly because I would agree. Well, I mean, she already lived through just hours of it. I know, but I know.
00:31:30
Speaker
I know. But he couldn't tell when she died. So it was argued that Steven didn't actually kill her. You couldn't prove that she wasn't still alive and breathing when he left to go clean up the house and she died later. Yep, that was an argument. It was ruled against the court stating that while it could not be determined the exact cause of death,
00:31:54
Speaker
The court ruled and stated this, which I just thought was a great little blurb by the judge because we had such a bad judge last week with, um, maximum Dan. Yep. So the acts of the defendant were heinous, cruel, and atrocious beyond rational contemplation. The pain and suffering, tear and fear of Robin, whether she died early into her or later was not due to any desire for humane treatment by the defendant. The character.
00:32:23
Speaker
nature and extent of the wounds found on the body of the victim defy verbal description and can be best be seen by referencing the photographic evidence submitted at trial. Suffice to say that they actually said that they had to take a recess because the jury there were several jury members that were so upset after seeing her body and what had been done to her that they had they had to call a recess. I don't know how any normal human being like just somebody that like you know
00:32:52
Speaker
slips, hamburgers or pavement or construction, just whatever carpenters could sit, cause it's us guys that have to sit in the jury box and listen to this. You know, the people that choose to do the jobs that they do, I'm sure, I'm sure they're not fully desensitized to what they do because I feel like maybe if you're desensitized, you might be a little bit socio yourself, but like. Yeah. Well, and I mean, in really bad cases, they even say like the cops have to go through therapy and everything else. Well, yeah.
00:33:23
Speaker
I'm sorry, I wasn't trying to like, I'm just saying like, for me, if I was called into that jury box, like, I don't know how I would sit through a trial like that. And as soon as you show me the fit, the pictures just guilty. Can I vote now guilty? Yeah, yeah. Yeah. So the judge went on to say suffice to say that positive identification of the difficult was the victim was difficult.
00:33:51
Speaker
All of this abuse was heaped upon Robin Balazar by a person who she knew and trusted. The acts of the defendant were in a manner and over a period of time that undoubtedly inflected the extreme degree of terror, pain, and suffering to the victim. No doubt Robin begged for her death at some point. No doubt she never begged for the pain and degradation.
00:34:15
Speaker
The shockingly inhumane actions of the defendant are more vile than those of the defendants in other cases referenced by the defense because they were trying to use this defense where a different court case, they couldn't prove the time of death. The guy died of a fixation. So this guy got off basically saying you couldn't prove when she died. And the judge was basically said, I'm not hearing any of that. This is completely different. So the sentence was upheld.
00:34:42
Speaker
After 14 years, almost of the date, she was murdered on May 12th, 1984. And on May 8th, 2009, Steven Allen Topson, at age 34, waved his last minute of pills stating that he wanted to spare any further pains in regards to his family or Robin, and was executed by electric chair, by electrocution in Alabama.
00:35:07
Speaker
Robin malfunction because I feel like it should have malfunctioned. Robin's mother. Why does it only happen to the innocent guy? Even in TV. Robin's mother was there to witness the final sentencing of the man who had killed her daughter, stating that she was not there out of vengeance that felt like someone who loved her daughter needed to be there to bear witness. She also stated that it's something that you it's something that you live with forever.
00:35:36
Speaker
It's there all the time, but at least now it will be over. Robin, I could find absolutely no information past this on the fiance, David Roberts. Her parents adopted her son and raised her son. And actually I did find out about her son. He lived in Virginia and he married his high school sweetheart. They had a daughter whom he named Robin.
00:36:06
Speaker
after his mother. He was said to be a fun and loving dad who never met a stranger and would give anybody the shirt off his back. Unfortunately, he passed away February 16th, 2022, just this year, after a two-year battle with cancer. And his obituary said that he fought a courageous and brave battle with cancer, believing in his heart that he would beat it. And the reality is he really did beat it, as he never let it define him.
00:36:33
Speaker
He left behind his high school sweetheart and former wife Kathy, his daughter Robin, and his best friend Duck, and no one had a single bad thing to say about this guy. Wow. So that's my story on Alabama. Wow.
00:36:50
Speaker
I can honestly say I've never heard that story before. It's literally I couldn't find it because usually I try to cheat and listen to you know how other people tell it maybe get some details I couldn't dig up. There was nothing. I could find it. I couldn't even find the original court case. I had to find his appeals that referenced and put back in his original court case notes. But this was his first criminal offense.
00:37:13
Speaker
That was one of the things they talked about in sentencing him. It's crazy. It's like it's so out of nowhere. He had this like behavioral issues and he had some drug and alcohol problems and he tried to even say like at one point when he was in jail, there was a small article in the LA Times
00:37:29
Speaker
that where he blamed what he did on drugs, but there was no drugs in his system. The guy that he went fishing with said, we shared a 12 pack of beer for an 11 hour fishing day. They fished from like six 30 in the morning up until five 30 that night.
00:37:45
Speaker
They smoked one joint in between the two of them. There was no hardcore drugs. Like he kept trying to say that he was on LSD and his buddy was like, dude, we shared a joint. Like he drove away fine. He wasn't like, he was buzzing, but he wasn't even like stumbled down drunk. The cop center reviewed him said he was completely lucid.
00:38:05
Speaker
answered all their questions, made up lies, and then finally confessed. There was no evidence of anything. He never committed a crime. He just had this abuse problem in his early teens, and this is what he did. Well, and see, that's the question that I have. How long was this guy thinking about this?
00:38:24
Speaker
before he acted on it. This was no spare of the moment choice that he made. No, and that's what I tried to really like. I spent probably an entire day trying to find more information on Cindy McElroy, what she had to say, what the fiance had to say, because you know, he and the fiance had been best friends for a long time. So did he like Robin and he was jealous?
00:38:47
Speaker
or did he think his friend just had this perfect life with in-laws that are helping and the son? What made this dude snap? Because you don't just get into the Navy. No. There's tests. Because you could not get into the Navy. You have to pass boot camp. It's rigorous. So you have to pass all this stuff. He passed it and then went AWOL.
00:39:10
Speaker
No, there's no psychic vowels that came back like red flags. Like the kid made it and then just decided, nah. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. Like what? So for me at this point, like what, what is he feeding himself that made him think this was a good idea? Cause like when you're talking about something like a situation in the heat of the moment, like domestic violence where your husband's beating the tar out of you, your kid's watching, or maybe even beating the tar out of your kid.
00:39:40
Speaker
And you pick up a knife and you shove it in his jugular. That's spare the moment. That's panic. That's, you know, dragging somebody behind a car for mutilating their corpse. Okay. That's, that to me is, is that's deeper.
00:39:58
Speaker
Yeah, you know, it's OK. So maybe at some point it was spare the moment. Right. But then it was almost kind of like, well, I'm already screwed. So might as well see what else we can do. Yeah. No, it was a brutal. Brutal situation. Kudos to anybody who studies the human mind because it baffles me like 110 percent baffles me.
00:40:25
Speaker
I don't even know. There is no understanding this guy. Like there's no explanation. He hooked something up in his head, but he ruined that little boy's life. I mean, yeah, that little boy had great grandparents. He ruined his best friend's life, ruined his best friend's life, ruined his life, his family's life that adopted him and took him in.
00:40:48
Speaker
Like just for what? For one dollar? I'm telling you, bro, like he was feeding himself something. There was something out there that he was watching, looking at, reading something that or it was some kind. Yeah, something that he fixated on. Even if it was an original thought on his own.
00:41:08
Speaker
it was still something that he kept thinking about. He never pushed it out of his head. He never thought, ew, that's gross. Like, I think it was, it was something that he harbored. And then finally just he, he felt like he had to act. And this is just my opinion. I am not a profiler, but I think the kid, I mean, while he was adopted by a loving family, he and his father had a lot of turmoil. He knew he was adopted. He didn't have a real family. And here's David.
00:41:39
Speaker
who has pretty much the same perpendicular life as he, but he's going, he's doing better. He's got the kid. He's got the fiance. He's got all this stuff. He's got the support system. His fiance's dad was in the army like his whole life. So, you know, is mentoring and helping him and has contacts. And here's Steven with nothing and no roots. And I think he was jealous and I think he led it faster.
00:42:06
Speaker
until he felt like he had, quote unquote, had to act and this was his act just to mutilate the thing that he was jealous of.
00:42:15
Speaker
Cause he didn't mutilate her. It could very well be. Or just, or literally just a crime of opportunity where he knew everybody else was out of town and he knew he had plenty of time to do what he wanted to do. Well, that's what, and that was one of the arguments. And one of his appeals was that, you know, he was just trying to, he was just going to break an injury. And they said, then why'd he bring ropes? Why'd he bring tape? He went in planning to abduct her.
00:42:41
Speaker
It was premeditated like there was there was thought behind that. And I'm just going to say it like I've been fishing quite a few times. I don't usually bring rope and duct tape with me. I mean, nobody really duct tapes a bastard side of a tree. I'm just saying. Well, I mean, if your shoes get it, I'm kidding. That's a joke. But obviously, I mean, he can say he was just going to steal stuff, but that is not so.
00:43:08
Speaker
All right, so my turn then? That's your turn. Go ahead and get your stuff ready. All right, so I guess it's my turn now. So I don't think that we can ever really compare stories enough to be like, who's the winner? Because I feel like the things that we talk about are very, there are no winners. Yeah. Well, not even just that, but like, because we always try to come up with the most unexpected thing, but there's always like a certain detail
00:43:36
Speaker
in each of our stories where you just kind of have to stop and think to yourself, like, really? And I feel like I've got I've got some of those in my story. All right. So I got Alaska for my my road trip around
Cynthia Hoffman's Disappearance in Alaska
00:43:54
Speaker
the U.S. Right. Frank, you would love to go to Alaska. I would do, man. There's some, you know, salmon fishing.
00:44:01
Speaker
Nope. I'd like to see a polar bear from a really, really, really far away distance. Maybe like a speckle. Is that where the northern lights are?
00:44:09
Speaker
Um, you can see them from Canada. You can see them from legit. The only thing I like is you can see, you could see them from like pretty much cold and there are a lot of things that can kill you. And it is, it's so cold. And then there's these beasts and then you watch the TV shows where people are like, you know, living without electricity. I'm out, dude. I need.
00:44:32
Speaker
There's there's electricity in Alaska. Those people, they choose to live that way. No, I just in my mind, that's how it all is, even though it's not. Isn't there a place in Alaska where they have like 30 days of night? OK, that's that's a vampire movie and it's 40 days of night. Don't they have like an extended 30 days of night? Yes, they do. They do. Yes, that freaks me out. No, I'm good. Yeah. Beautiful Alaska. Send me your pictures. Yeah, Faith is
00:45:01
Speaker
scared to catch. Yeah. Yeah. She's kind of a shut in, guys. Like those little hermit crabs, you know, like they're really cute and all when they actually come out. But then you don't really get a lot of time with them or anything. No. Hermit crabs change shells to get bigger. I don't like. I don't like change at all. I'm not a hermit crab. I'm not. All right. So based on this story, I am going to 100 percent agree with Faith's standpoint for once that being a shut in
00:45:31
Speaker
isn't a bad thing, but I don't necessarily want to be the shut in. You are a shut in. OK, that's true. But in a very different like, I'll go to the outdoors and do things. You're all like, yeah, there you go. So but for this, I'd like to just lock my kid away. Oh, is this the kid one? Not fully, but you got to listen. All right. I would love to be able to just lock my kid away and protect my son from just just everybody. Just everybody.
00:46:01
Speaker
So my story tonight is a young lady named Cynthia Hoffman, and she was from Anchorage, Alaska. She was known as Cece to her loved ones and her family, friends, that whole nine, right? She have a sled dog? No.
00:46:23
Speaker
No, I love that. Is that part of the movie is I've never seen Balto. I love Balto. Bella got into a huge ball to kick when she was little. We watched it 150 times. And this is why Lisa can't get through a story. That's not an hour and a half long. It's because Faith doesn't have a filter, but then she sucks me into her stupidity and I have to ask questions. So sorry. And so now I said she was 19 years old and that was when the unthinkable happened to her at 19. All right.
00:46:53
Speaker
Gosh, that sucks. So guys, there are certain things in my life that trigger me. Kids, people with disabilities. Those are things. She had a mental disability. And even though she was 19 years old, she had the mental capacity of a 12-year-old. So we'll just say she's easily manipulated. And one of the number one things that she always wanted was friends.
00:47:24
Speaker
She wanted to fit in. She wanted to be like any any other person that would long for that kind of a relationship. But the only problem was she was more naive than everybody else. Yeah. OK, so she was more like. What's the word I'm looking for? Adapted, adaptable, malleable. Yeah, for a lack of a better word, but close enough where she she could be manipulated in that way and have like this trusting persona about her.
00:47:54
Speaker
and people knew it. Like it was obvious. Yeah. All right. So she would work a lot of odd jobs. Um, but her favorite job of all time was being able to work with her dad, Tim. She absolutely loved to be able to go and do work with him. He owned his own thing and you know, they did whatever. Um, Tim, her, her dad,
00:48:20
Speaker
had a very, very strict set of rules that he needed her to follow. Any person that has a kid that's disabled, do you understand what they mean by that? Everything is regimented. Yeah, to a T. You have regimented. Thank you. And that's how you're day in, day out. Yeah, there's no variation. And that's how you live your life. I'm sorry, guys. I really am having a hard time right now. So just bear with me.
00:48:47
Speaker
And Cynthia or Cece, I'm sorry, whatever you want to we'll just go with Cece. She stuck to these rules like to the letter verbatim. She never missed a step. OK, so the day that she went missing, she was supposed to go to her sister's house and pick up money that she had earned while working with her dad that week. She texted her dad while she was on her way to get the money, but she never showed up in her sister's house.
00:49:16
Speaker
OK, so dad immediately knows something's not right. OK, because here she is. This is this is what we do. This is our routine. And she has skipped a piece in this routine, and that's weird. And I know, guys, she's 19 years old. OK, but again, when you are handling somebody with it, it could be any form of autism or, you know, mental handicap or whatever. You expect something.
00:49:44
Speaker
And it doesn't happen like it's routine. Like my aunt is handicapped. She goes to the bathroom the same time every day. And that's that's the routine. You know what I'm saying? And I know it sounds like weird maybe to some people, but like that's that's just life. That's their life. And that's what keeps them organized. And that's what helps them function as an adult. Yeah. So. Tim, the dad starts to freak out.
00:50:14
Speaker
And he's, you know, he's calling and he's like, have you heard from her? Have you heard from her? Nope. So he calls the cops. He reported that his disabled daughter was missing and he couldn't find out where they were at. And really it's not been very long since this happened. Okay. But panic ensues, right? Any, any person that has a kid with a disability, cops are on it because they know this is not normal and we need to get the kid quick. Right.
00:50:43
Speaker
So according to later on in the trials, the cop said he never mentioned that she was disabled. Any, okay, guys, I'm sorry, but from a mom point of view, if you, even, okay, you have a child that's missing.
00:50:59
Speaker
And you're going to tell them every aspect of your child. He is four feet tall. He weighs 68 pounds. He was wearing white tennis shoes, a green shirt. You're going to list everything. Well, not only that, they won't let you file a missing case report. Typically most police officers say it has to be 24 hours.
00:51:20
Speaker
So to get to the police, even take him seriously. Listen, it had he more than likely would have started with my daughters disabled and she's missing. Yes. She's only been missing for, you know, four hours, but she does have a handicap. Yes. And that's what prompts them into action. Correct. But again, according to the cops, he never said it. So they made the report. They told him, the dad, that it was going to be 24 hours before they could do any
00:51:50
Speaker
So Tim was like, all of you go bang yourself. I'm going to go look. So he hops on his motorcycle and in Alaska, everybody always has a way right to get around. And so he was going everywhere he could think of during any he was watching and know, according to. Like the people she was with. And I'll get here again in just a second. All right.
00:52:20
Speaker
So he goes out looking. He contacts the girl that that saw her last. OK. Who he knew as Angela. So he's freaking out on the phone. He's like, where is Cece? And she Angela was like.
00:52:43
Speaker
You know, we dropped her off at the park. I haven't heard or seen or heard from her or seen her after that. You know, I hope everything is OK. I told her I didn't trust that guy. What guy? Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. This this was her statement to the dad. I love her. I hope she's OK. Blah, blah, blah. I know she'll come home safe. Everything's going to be OK. What guy? That's a solid question. Solid question. She's going to her sister's house. Why? Oh, OK.
00:53:13
Speaker
You continue. OK. So one morning, Angela's mother. Angela, I put it in quotes. Sorry, guys, couldn't see it. Called the police and said that she heard a conversation between Angela and her friend that she thought the mom. Thought his name was Anthony. They had said that Anthony shot Cece in the back of the head and pushed her into a creek. Turns out Angela wasn't even her name. It was Denali and Anthony's name is Cayden.
00:53:45
Speaker
After after that, Denali made up a long story about how her CC and Caden went to smoke weed again. To her dad's point of view, to her dad's statements, not something she does. OK, but you did say she was easily easily manipulated, right? All right. She wants people to like her. She wants to have friends that doesn't take
00:54:10
Speaker
Typically, my experience with people with any kind of mental handicap, they want to they're people pleasers. Exactly. They want to do what you want to say, even if they know, you know, it's not what they're supposed to do. They want to make you happy. Exactly. So after they smoke their weed or whatever, they decided to take a drive up to Thunderbird Falls. They said they were going to tie each other up with duct tape and take pictures of each other for social media.
00:54:38
Speaker
This is what Denali told the cops. OK, this was all this was all a big game. Right. This they thought it was just didn't be this fun prank. Right. We'll take some pictures. We'll post it on social media. Oh, I'm being kidnapped. Yeah. Because, you know, that's funny. Right. And some people are mine. Yeah. Yeah. So. They started with Cece, right, of course, and
00:55:05
Speaker
They tied her ankles, her hands and taped over her mouth. Cece at this point started getting this was according to Denali. Cece started freaking out and she was like, you know, like panicking and she can't talk, she can't move, she can't do anything. And so they took the duct tape off of her mouth and they unbound her hands. At this point, Denali said that Cece said that she was going to tell
00:55:36
Speaker
everybody and the cops that she was forced up there bound against her will and sexually assaulted. You know, OK. I know we jumped right into it and we jumped right into it because. There's a lot more to this than a background story that I need people to hear. OK, and so this is going to start sucking just a little bit more with each paragraph that I go through, OK?
00:56:07
Speaker
So after the statement that CeCe made, Denali, who happened to just have her gun with her. Right. Now, during the podcast, some of the research and the things that I've listened to or read, everyone's like, well, why would she have a gun? Well, she was in Alaska. That's what I'm saying. I'm like, dude, you're in Alaska. Who doesn't have a gun? All right. But it was a handgun. This was pretty recent. OK. Yeah.
00:56:35
Speaker
I wanted to say like 2016. I'll have to go back and look. Like I said, I didn't get too crazy on the dates because there was so much information. I knew we were splitting time that I didn't want. I wanted to put down like the major things that I just want that I'm going to hammer in guns. You know, if it was like 20 years ago, this was definitely in the 20. If I lived in one shoot, I ever visited Alaska. I'm going to buy a gun, carry it around and sell it when I leave. You can't just wander around with those. It's like going to Australia. Everything there can kill you. Yeah.
00:57:04
Speaker
All the animals. Yeah. And even for the flora. If it's not the animals, it's the cold. No. All right. So again, according to Denali had her gun with her. Caden ripped the gun from her and shot Cece in the back of the head. Because Cece said she was going to report them. And apparently this boy freaked out. I'm going to wait and see where the story goes, because there's a lot of problems. You probably should think apparently you should things going on. Oh, yeah.
00:57:34
Speaker
It just gets better and better and better. So. Yep, kicked her into the water, left it, everything just kind of up in the air. Then we find out not soon after that, you know, because we're now we're researching things and we're trying to figure out, like, is this even real life? Like, is this true? Whatever. So. They found Cece's body.
Denali's Manipulation and Crime Involvement
00:57:57
Speaker
And she still had the duct tape and everything around her legs, so.
00:58:02
Speaker
We find out not soon after that, that Caden was only 16 years old and Denali's 18. Why did why did people think her name was Angela? She said her name was Angela. Even Cece knew her as Angela. Uh huh. Yeah, that's where this whole thing is just completely asinine. OK, so. After they left the scene, after they shot Cece,
00:58:30
Speaker
They I'm sorry, it's not funny, but it just goes it proves to a point how stupid people are. OK, like you're not going to get away with anything because you don't. And I'm sorry. And I'm going to say it. But they went somewhere and they burned all of CZ stuff that they had, including trying to burn the gun. Metal, the metal gun.
00:58:55
Speaker
I'm sorry, but that's stupid. Like anybody with like a like in Alaska, especially. Right. People, these people grow up around guns. How hot does it have to be to melt metal? I mean, why would you not just throw it in the bottom of the ocean? I don't know how far Anchorage is from the ocean, though. They said they could have threw it in the creek. I said it was a creek. It's a body of water, tomato, tomato.
00:59:20
Speaker
Freshwater, saltwater makes no difference. Body of water. Body of water. Outdoors, not my fourth. All right. So, yeah, they tried to burn the gun. According to Denali, she was scared of Caden. And so she just followed along. The 18 year old. The 18 year old. Yeah. You should sociopathic liar. Right. And you should see her picture. Like she's. Yeah, go ahead. Look it up. Her name is Denali. And she.
00:59:49
Speaker
She's a big girl. She's a big girl. She's pretty tall. Caden, not not really so much. But God willing man, she was terrified. So after all of the smoke starts to clear with all the B.S. stories and all the other crap. Caden confesses to shooting Sisi, but the cops. And this is where things got really hanky. OK, because Sisi was denying any involvement.
01:00:16
Speaker
I'm sorry, not CC. Denali was denying any involvement. And for whatever reason, this boy, Caden, was confessing to everything. Now, one of the podcasts that I listened to actually made a great deal of sense. OK, so Denali is 18 years old. What's she going to be tried as? An adult. An adult. Caden, 16 years old. What's he going to be tried as? A juvenile.
01:00:43
Speaker
And so my guess is Denali spent numerous hours convincing this kid Kayton that he's going to get a slap on the wrist for this. But if if she goes to court, she could be facing like, you know, years and years in prison and or the death penalty. Right. So Kayden confessed to the shooting. And despite the fact that Kayden confessed to all this stuff, they still took Denali's phone.
01:01:12
Speaker
OK, and they started going through things for evidence. Turns out that Denali had been talking to some of the other kids. Well, no, hold on. She had been talking to a man from Kansas and at some point, dude from Kansas said, you should kill and rape somebody and record it for me. And I will give you nine million dollars. Yeah, take a pause and let that sink in.
01:01:39
Speaker
Some guy, she's in Alaska. Yeah. She's talking to a guy from Kansas. And he's like, I'll give you nine million dollars if you kill and rape somebody and record it and send it to me. And who did she want them to kill and rape? He didn't specify. He just said, this is this is the video I want and I'll give you nine million dollars. So anyways, Denali convinced four other kids to try to help. OK, so.
01:02:09
Speaker
She promised each of these kids. So there was five teens. Oh, she is unattractive. I wasn't talking looks. I'm talking about the fact that she could probably handle her own. Oh, yeah. You could bench press that kid. I know. So there were five teens that took place in this, but there was only really Denali and Caden who were there when the murder occurred. But these other kids that were there.
01:02:35
Speaker
took part in, hey, we're going to take this truck. We're going to go here. Everybody was promised a portion of of the of the moolah. Where's she getting nine million dollars from? The guy on the Internet from Kansas who said, I'll pay you for this video. I thought she was offered. I'm like, oh, no. No, she was talking to a guy who offered her nine million dollars to do the deal. Sorry, I was looking up her picture. That's all right. That's all right. So
01:03:03
Speaker
Moving on, Denali sent photos and videos to her little lover in Kansas of Cece being bound with duct tape and more photos and videos of Cece face down in the creek after being shot. Did it record the actual incident? Didn't say. OK. Turns out that the the millionaire Kansas lover is actually a man named Darren who lived in Indiana.
01:03:30
Speaker
He is also in a hovel, I'm sure. Yeah, not a millionaire. Did he live in his momma's basement? Probably. Oh, all right. So I'm no I'm no longer going to find amusement in anything anymore, because this is the part that I told you. There's there's always something that that eeks me. All right. Not that. OK, the whole episode. That was stupid.
01:03:55
Speaker
All right. So then her being catfished was like the thing, right? I don't care. You still committed murder. It doesn't matter if someone said I'm going to give you some money. You still that that's called being a hit man. Yeah, it's still illegal. It doesn't matter if someone catfished you into it or not. It's still wrong. You dip went. Yeah. So good old Mr. Darren. Um.
01:04:24
Speaker
had his own little backstory. All right. So would offer him $20 million to get this stuff, but he was split the difference? No, he's a disgusting piece of garbage human being. Yeah, I'm going to start homeschooling. So Darren was a suspect in a child porn trial previous to the crime that he catfished this girl, right? He contacted one woman in California
01:04:54
Speaker
and described a fetish with infants that he had. Uh-huh. OK. Do you want to pause? Do you want to pause? I need to pause. OK. Sugar warning. There are children involved from this point out. I don't know that for sure. Can I go? Just go. You just finished telling them the story and I don't need to be here. Some delicious pasta inside. You act like you don't do the same thing. You really hate fools, I'm done.
01:05:22
Speaker
But no, I'm sorry. You don't want to hear it. I don't want to hear it either. I don't want to freaking read it. But it happens all the time. I'm going to get on my soapbox again. Go please. For the love of God. The fact that we as people.
Societal Issues and Legal Discussions
01:05:39
Speaker
Can raise money to save every endangered animal. And this monster is out there describing a fetish with infants. I have a problem with.
01:05:52
Speaker
a problem with it. I have a problem with all abuse against children, whether it's mental, emotional, physical or sexual. Do you have some? I prefer least. But guys, come on. Where's all the support to rally against kids of abuse and neglect and sexual exploitation? Yeah. And it's more about
01:06:18
Speaker
you know, animal shelters and dogs and cats and we worry about how they're being treated. But you let your government control. And we don't even care about it. Come on. There was a there was actually a comedian that made an extremely valid point. In in this kind of situation, not in this specifically, but. If you just think in your mind, wherever you're at in the United States, I don't know how other countries are, but I'm assuming it's probably going to be kind of similar.
01:06:49
Speaker
Think in your mind where the closest humane shelter is. Off the top of my head, I can name four within a 10, probably five mile radius from my house and work, four humane society places. Off the top of my head, I could not name one orphanage.
01:07:14
Speaker
It's just like a foster home. Well, why do we all down Knoxville? It's all government funded. But why do we promote the the well being of displaced animals and abused animals more than we do? I hear more about dog fights than children who are abused. And I, you know, I'm not OK with that. I'm not either.
01:07:35
Speaker
I'm off my soapbox. No, I'm not even yelling. No, you don't have to. And it's but it's it's devastating. It's disappointing because it's not even just kids. It's adults to who the people that fought for the country and come home to nothing and people who guys, there's a huge soapbox and I'll stop to hear more about people than than animals are at least the same amount figure out what you're donating to. You know what I'm saying? And make something happen. There are plenty of places that that
01:08:05
Speaker
help and rehabilitate people who need the help and they're good places. Don't just throw it to places that you don't know the backstory about global organizations, which they do do great work, but you don't know where all that got. Find a local place where you can make a difference. We've got places here at the Isaiah 117 house.
01:08:24
Speaker
And they have, it's to where no foster kids sleeps in a police station or the floor of a hospital when they're just, when they're taken from their family, they're in a home immediately. They do the Emerald Foundation around here as well. Emerald Foundations, inner city kids, just where they find out your local places that help people and contribute to them. You know, guys, I don't make a crap ton of money. All right. But when I do have some extra cash, like during tax return time and stuff,
01:08:54
Speaker
I donate to the same place every year. And it's the A21 campaign. And if you want to know something about it, Google it, because I would love for you to go do the research of what these people do for a living. And just go out to the people they help. Yes. And they do. They send out letters to the people that you help every single time. And it's not about what you're going to get back or anything. It's just simply that. And that's why you have to get there. I agree. I'm just saying, like,
01:09:22
Speaker
Like I do it solely because it's something that I feel like I'm led to do when I have the capability to do so. So the end and we'll move back onto this. So trigger warning. If you're sensitive with children issues, you may want to. Yeah, just go ahead and fast. Sorry. This part doesn't last long. So he connected with this woman in California, described a fetish that he had with infants.
01:09:47
Speaker
Ask him, ask the woman to send him pictures of her infant and the kids dirty diapers. Love for someone to come at me with that. I would find them. Game off because it gets better. I watched. I watched a podcast was actually I don't remember the name of the podcast or I would totally, you know, give them a shout out right now, but like. Somebody commented on their YouTube channel.
01:10:16
Speaker
And I'm sitting here by myself, I'm listening to this, and I'm like, this guy should be put down. Like put down. Like a rabid animal. Like a rabid animal put down. If a dog bites a kid in the United States, they put that dog down immediately. Yeah.
01:10:32
Speaker
Don't see why it's different. Agreed. All right. So in this podcast that I listen to, a lady commented her actual message was defending Darren's behavior, saying that men in wait for it. Ancient Rome. Used to do these types of things. Rome.
01:10:55
Speaker
Ancient. This is Rome. Rome. Ancient Rome. I don't give a crap who does it. I don't care who does it when. It's not excusable. Ancient Romans used to kill people for entertainment in the Colosseum. Yeah, Christians were pitted against lions and bears. It wasn't even just Christians. It was just anybody who was a slave at that time. They also chopped your hand off for stealing there. Yeah, they did. You think you want that? Yeah, they did.
01:11:22
Speaker
And if you're an outspoken woman, you probably got burned at the stake as a witch. So let's sign you up. Agreed.
01:11:30
Speaker
freaking for once agree. It's like, I know, uh, stuff like this though. And it's so hard to not get emotional. And like, I know like me and faith crack jokes about stupidity, but like, it's because it's stupid. And it's like, I am never ever in my wildest dreams going to look at anybody, man, woman,
01:11:55
Speaker
and say, I'm sorry, you like to get off on dirty infant diapers and you want to be my friend? Yeah, come over. Let's have tea. Yeah. Hey, can you help me dig this hole real quick? I was thinking about making a pond. Let's go do it. Oh, this guy's a tool. I'm really mad. Guys. All right. So even though they did it in ancient Rome, all right.
01:12:25
Speaker
They didn't have diapers in ancient Rome, Susie Q. I can't even call her Karen because it's disrespectful to Karen. That is disrespectful to Karen. I'm so mad. They got to have some kind of a moral standing in this universe. So dude went through the trial and somehow managed to just get away with it. What? Yeah. He solicited child pornography. Uh-huh.
01:12:49
Speaker
I'm out, I'm done, I'm done with you. The stories, I'm done. No, but like, okay, how many times have we talked about, and we've talked about, who's that one guy that you made me listen to all the time? He was the guy that spent a bunch of time in prison, and he ended up giving his whole spiel about prison systems and how like, oh, Sean Atwood, Sean Atwood. Yes, okay. Dude, like, so on point with some of the crap that he talks about,
01:13:17
Speaker
And he even goes against the system a lot. Yeah. But he interviews criminals from around the world like seriously, Sean Atwood. He's amazing. Yeah. As a YouTube. So good. And he hasn't been canceled yet. Amazing. Yeah. Oh, they they've taken away half his content. Well, you know, he he he got slapped on the wrist. Well, yeah, you know, whatever. I'm not going to make comments about that. But, you know, he always talked about how they're like,
01:13:44
Speaker
When, you know, all these people go to jail for like weed and like just stupid drug charges and are in there for years, like literally like rehab would fix that. So like we're over here. We're talking about like a serial rapist or a serial murderer or.
01:13:59
Speaker
A serial child abuser abuser. They get off on a technicality. Yeah. Meanwhile, they're not they're not socio. You got John Smith that had three ounces of weed on him. So they slapped him with a intent to distribute and he's in jail for 10 years. Yeah. I haven't listened to Sean Attwood in a while. I'm listening to him tomorrow. You have to do it, dude. I haven't. I haven't either. All right. So he got off with it. Meanwhile, Denali was plotting a new murder.
01:14:28
Speaker
to appease Darren. OK, so this was after Cece was shot. Does she know Darin's a loser with no money? Well, you know, she was catfished, so that's a viable excuse for anything. Well, this random guy on the Internet that doesn't even live in the same area as me convinced me this was a great idea. Well, she's also an 18 year old hanging out with a bunch of, you know, prepubescent children. So obviously. All right, so.
01:15:00
Speaker
She had to redo the murder because Darren said there was no sexual assault in the murder of CC. And he told her he would she would only get the nine mil if he got to see her being victimized and raped, right? So he basically just wanted some kind of a snuff film, I guess, I don't know. He said he would send if she didn't do it, he would send the murder of CC to the cops.
01:15:29
Speaker
So now she's being blackmailed. OK. Well, if you hadn't committed the crime in the first place there, Brainiac, you wouldn't have anything to be blackmailed against. All right. So turns out that Denali sexually assaulted a nine year old girl and a 15 year old and sent the videos to Darren. So I'm not I'm not going into deep detail about these crimes because it honestly makes me sick to my friggin stomach.
01:15:59
Speaker
And no, just no. All right. So we'll skip into the trial. Everything they said was all like complete BS. All right. According to the investigation, all of the people. And they found all the adults guilty and today are still fighting for an appeal.
01:16:20
Speaker
OK, so here's Denali saying like, oh, you know, she was a friggin victim. Victim of catfishing. Right. And I don't know. Go look for yourselves. I don't care what she says. I think she's a piece of garbage. OK. The other kids that were younger kind of got off on it because they were like literally, you know, 15, 16 years old.
01:16:44
Speaker
that she roped into helping her with this. OK, no, no, we are hanging out with. That's what I'm saying. So we've got murder, child rape. All these kinds of things that are happening, and basically they don't even deserve like the air that they breathe, but somehow they keep getting all of these appeals, right? They want death penalty off the table, right?
01:17:13
Speaker
I'm like, okay. I say we bring back petition and let the community sign up and take custody of her. I would agree. I would agree. Because everything that she has said is... Okay. Well, I have a question. Back towards the beginning of the story, you said her mother called. Yes, she did. Was it actually her mother? Yes.
01:17:42
Speaker
They actually basically like confess it to their mom and said, this is what happened. All right. I don't know if they were trying to do it for like alibi's sake and Denali thinking her mom is just going to stand by her. Right. And I wasn't going like. I'm sorry, but like, I don't care what your past is. When you're an adult, you choose your own path.
01:18:05
Speaker
I don't care about any of the other things. You chose very, very specific things. You chose to manipulate a young lady. Yes. You chose to manipulate a young lady who had disabilities, a young lady you knew had disabilities. You weren't even upfront about what your real name was. No, you lied. So obviously she became her friend just to do these things to her.
01:18:31
Speaker
Which is why, yeah, which is why the court was saying premeditated that none of none of this was an accident. Because that she because again, dad knew her. Everybody knew her as Angela. And then you have some creep on the Internet. And like, as I'm what happened to him, is he still free and clear? God, no. No, he had to face his own trial for, you know, but I'm sure again.
01:18:54
Speaker
You know, he's a guy on the Internet, like how much, you know, if I if I looked at you right now and said, Faith, you know, go kill yourself and then you killed yourself. How much a liability am I really going to have to take for that? It was your choice. But you bullied me into it.
01:19:10
Speaker
Did I? Oh, there are. That's the argument. I know. But that's the argument.
Parenting Challenges and Online Safety
01:19:15
Speaker
And none of those people are ever going to face the death penalty for that. They're never going to face life in prison for that. I'm going to get on another soapbox. Please do. Climb right up. Parenting is hard. There's a hundred million things you have to worry about. Clean clothes, clean bodies. There's a special diet, God Almighty. You got to pack every snack and lunch and dinner and you got to
01:19:40
Speaker
prep food for when you go places. There's a lot. Getting homework done, making sure they're in extracurricular activities, they're well rounded. Why do you just let your kids get on the internet unleashed?
01:19:57
Speaker
There should be no privacy. There's on on Sean Atwood. He that one guy I really loved. It's like from Ireland with the long curly hair. I don't remember his name, but she was 18. But still, she's still living with her mom.
01:20:15
Speaker
There is no privacy if you live under my roof. I'm going to know what you're doing. But kids are catfish younger. Like there's so many documenting cases that one girl went to jail for bullying that kid into killing himself. The Internet, I swear, is been like. Yeah, you're all listening to us on the Internet. Grateful for certain parts, obviously. But dang. No, but like, I mean, basically just check in once and
01:20:39
Speaker
Just watch. You know, every parent wants their freedom. Every parent needs a moment to breathe. And nobody understands that more than me. I'm a single mom. OK, and so every need has to be met 110 percent of the time. And so when my son gets on to YouTube and he's watching stupid videos and all of these ads start popping up of like naked women, he's eight. Well, it was it was what, three weeks ago, you and I were recording a podcast and the kids were inside with your mom. Yeah.
01:21:09
Speaker
And on the way home, my daughter told me, hey, we were watching and they were watching kids YouTube, which do not trust it just because it is kids YouTube does not mean people aren't sick and find ways around it. But she said we were watching a video on Caleb's phone and all of a sudden there were bloody people everywhere. And I said, what do you mean? She said they they were like they were hitting each other and there was blood all over them.
01:21:36
Speaker
And I told Caleb, we can't watch that. I didn't mean to click on that. It was my fault. So I had to call Lisa and be like, hey, I don't know what phone they were on, but just to BT dubs. Yeah. Because, hey, you got to watch out for other people, too. If you're in a kid's life as an aunt, uncle, best friend, honorary aunt, uncle, you got to watch communication, too. Absolutely. But it's, you know.
01:21:58
Speaker
I'm glad she still does it. She hasn't learned that, you know, you're not supposed to tell mom things. It's not cool yet. But you got to watch. I mean, it's now and Frankie hates like sometimes when I just need to mop the floor, I'll tell her go get on your phone. You can have, you know, 30 minutes of phone time and she'll go play on kids YouTube. But even then, like I'm constantly thinking, you know, I need to walk behind her and check what's on it because you don't know what's on these. You can't just let your kids have unaccessed Internet because that's just giving people a door into your house to get to your kids.
01:22:27
Speaker
Absolutely. Absolutely. And guys, like we're not saying this like to be like to down anybody or it's only it's I hear it. It's total like experience on my side because I listen to many podcasts and I'm a hover parent when it comes to these. Absolutely. And I never really used to because like I thought kid protected tablet like nothing bad's going to happen here. And that's not that's not true.
01:22:54
Speaker
I'm trying to find that guy's name because he's so good, like he has so much information. And so like. Again, we don't know, like I know she was 18 years old, but like she's still a child, she had a child's mind. I was going to say what the human mind isn't fully developed until they're what, 25? I don't know. Well, I did. I did find I'm just saying Ron Swanson is the other guy's name that does a lot of stuff about protecting kids on the Internet.
01:23:23
Speaker
He has a lot of dark web stuff. It is super dark, very informative, but I just made me hyper paranoid. I mean, even if you go on YouTube and watch like just, you know, I know people like watch videos and stuff all the time on like Facebook of like how easy it is to abduct a kid.
01:23:44
Speaker
Have you ever seen those? It's like they asked the parents permission first. Yeah, they go to playgrounds and say, do you think your kids are going to do? Yeah. Oh, absolutely. My kid would never go with a stranger. And he's like, you care if I test that theory? And 100 times out of 100, the kid is walking off with that guy and the mom is just like dumbfounded. Yeah. And, you know, I get a lot of flack from from people that I know because
01:24:12
Speaker
My daughter is in kindergarten. She's young, but she already knows like what happens if we're at the store and someone grabs you and she'll tell you exactly what to do to them. You scream, you bite, you kick, and in her words, you get them in the tail.
01:24:33
Speaker
And she just says, you scream, I don't know you. I don't know you. I don't know you. And you bite. And good Lord, if anyone ever tried, she'd claw their eyeballs out because she's the wild banshee.
01:24:43
Speaker
I get that she's young and maybe she shouldn't have to know. She shouldn't have to know that. But it's the reality of the world we live in. And it is my soul. And it's not even just in public. Well, because after I've talked to people, I've talked to Caleb and I had seen a video. About somebody calling them tricky people, not strangers. Because sometimes you might need a stranger's help.
01:25:12
Speaker
Like if you're being abducted, the person that's going to help you isn't somebody that you know. Right. Yeah. And but we talk about tricky people. And then I was actually I was talking to his karate instructor at one time and he gave me the best piece of advice. He said. When when you're talking to your kid about being, you know, somebody would grab you, you need to just pound it into your son's head.
01:25:42
Speaker
to ask very particular questions. I don't know you. What's my name? Oh, not ask questions, but particular statements. Yeah. Yeah. And saying and screaming them out loud to get people's attention to say, not just, hey, let me go, because like a lot of times, you know, you everybody sees kids pitching fit fits in the supermarket. Oh, yeah. The parents in the the sideward hole where they got the kid like
01:26:08
Speaker
you know, slung against their body. And so drilling it into your kid's head to have a particular phrase that they repeat over and over again is what's going to get somebody's attention to say. Something's wrong. Yeah, this is not this is not a kid pitching a fit. This is something something's wrong. And that was probably probably the best advice I think I've ever been given. And it was from my son's karate instructor. He was just, you know, I can teach him bareness, you know, bare essentials of
01:26:37
Speaker
kicking and punching, but a lot of it for a kid his age is verbal. Yeah. So we tell Bella you scream. I don't know you someone help. I don't know you someone help. Yeah. Oh, well. Anyways, I know we kind of went like off topic there. You know, I know I know that that story was for like kids that were older. But when you talk about that guy, Darren, it's like. He started like as young as they go.
01:27:04
Speaker
And if you think he wasn't out there catfishing other people at that time, like in there, there was a show that I watched on believe it was. It was Discovery Plus, maybe or Hulu, something like that. But no, it was Discovery Plus. It's called Undercover Underage. And it's this woman, Ru. Who pretends to be like a 15 year old girl and
01:27:34
Speaker
Guys, if you have the stomach for it, watch it because it's real life and it's what people do. OK. Oh, and you know, I thought like because chat rooms were a thing when I was a kid. Yeah. I didn't know that chat rooms were still active in that. Popular, right? I wouldn't I wouldn't have thought they were either, but I know that apparently they are and they there are a lot of adult men out there that are pursuing your children.
01:28:03
Speaker
and adult women out there that are pursuing your children under the guise of being a friend, their age. Exactly. It's all lies. It's all honky. But it's it's all these things that you have to think about, like just to take care of yourself, to take care of the people that are around you and. Dang, man, like, I mean, either either either case that you pick. It's it's not going to end happily because they were adults at that time.
Conclusion and Reflections
01:28:33
Speaker
And like, who really knows? And both both cases we talked about tonight, Alaska and Alabama couldn't get further across further apart. Both horrific cases, but both. It was a friend or someone they thought was a friend. This was not a jovial ending. You want me to turn it into one? No. OK. I think I could try. I'm going to go bleach my brain.
01:29:01
Speaker
Hopefully go through a few resumes of different co-hosts. Twisted tail true crime at Gmail dot com. Follow us on Facebook, too, because we're there. It's all one word, by the way. I don't know if anybody ever tries to like add a space. It's not. Maybe maybe because of the lack of followers. I blame Faith. You know, I blame the fact that I don't have a new co-host yet. I feel like if we get rid of you, get someone new will really skyrocket. That's a strong possibility. Yeah. But, you know,
01:29:31
Speaker
Well, this first part of the summer road trip was not fun or pleasant. Next week, we'll be going to Arizona and Arkansas. Hopefully we will get a little better, but I hope that you... It's murder! It's never gonna be fun. We're never gonna be like, oh hey guys, guess who died today? Like, come on. And I always feel bad about it. I hope you enjoyed the show. Yeah, we just talked about people being brutally
01:29:57
Speaker
maybe maybe we should just be like guys I really hope you had a terrible time like we did yeah I hope maybe that needs to be like our end game right like hey I had to like listen to this crap and watch it I hope you guys go and find a local place that you can donate your money to yeah a local place to help even if it's not your money you can donate your time
01:30:20
Speaker
Maybe food, maybe clothes, who knows, donate. You could go somewhere with, I don't know, some socks or some. You could also donate. Even if it's not your money. You'd like to donate a five star review to our podcast and like it, share it. We'd appreciate it. Helps us out. Helps other people find us since I didn't put a space in the name. There's nothing to do with that. I'm just saying, like, what if people are, you know, they're like, oh, Twisted Tales.
01:30:46
Speaker
And then they're like, wait, twisted space tales. No, one word. And they don't they don't find it. OK, it's like on the picture they're watching right now. Obviously, they found us because they're listening to us. Dum dum. Guys, I'm not good at the Internet. I also am not. Really? Barely a human. I don't know. Faith babysits me a lot. Yeah, but hey.
01:31:09
Speaker
on the positive side of positive. I'm still I'm still you don't have to wait wait a week to hear us bicker and complain and argue with each other because we're going to be putting out the next next few states on Tuesday. So I hope you guys have a great weekend. I also hope you guys have a really great weekend and I hope you can sleep well tonight because I won't.
01:31:32
Speaker
Well, I just really need you guys to follow us and like us. We're on Instagram. We're on Facebook. We're on. Even if you don't like Spotify and like us. Yeah. And y'all send us some feedback. We will add our emails or links, whatever we need to do at the bottom of this, wherever you get it, whether it's Apple or we're both shut ins. We need some kind of human interaction. So just, you know, I really don't say hi. I don't actually care. I just like that I get to speak into a microphone every week and somebody
01:32:03
Speaker
actually listens, so they're just listening to me. OK. Good night, guys. Good night. Bye.