Going West: True Crime - Marissa Mathy-Zvaifler // 133

Episode Date: August 11, 2021

In 2003, a 16-year-old girl attended a concert in Albuquerque with her best friends expecting to have a fantastic night with their favorite artist. But after looking for help from a foot injury during the show, she seemingly vanished out of thin air. Days later, a devastating phone call came in to police with a horrifying explanation. This is the story of Marissa Mathy-Zvaifler. EDUCATING MARISSA documentary: https://vimeo.com/242484018 BONUS EPISODES patreon.com/goingwestpodcast CASE SOURCES http://www.marissamission.org/marissa.html https://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/os-xpm-2003-07-21-0307210192-story.html https://www.newspapers.com/image/?clipping_id=33597530&fcfToken=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJmcmVlLXZpZXctaWQiOjQzNjI3NDQwNywiaWF0IjoxNjI4NTI0OTIzLCJleHAiOjE2Mjg2MTEzMjN9.fyiXC-w_Cs984eyAOWqeyP9rqDhpl7j1Vvp4tcye3yQ https://www.abqjournal.com/news/metro/159720metro04-02-04.htm http://nebula.wsimg.com/6cad56d8cdf13d1c512645aea048c935?AccessKeyId=938DFD4E67AB2C866E2E&disposition=0&alloworigin=1 https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2003/jul/21/20030721-103617-8505r/ https://nebula.wsimg.com/ac56fcae4eb72e00e2f05451adbc7e0b?AccessKeyId=34EA617B65053FA59E26&disposition=0&alloworigin=1 https://www.bizjournals.com/albuquerque/stories/2003/11/10/story8.html https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/missing87975/child-homicide-marissa-mathy-zvaifler-t2612-s30.html Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What is going on True Crime fans, I'm your host Heath and I'm your other host Daphne and you're listening to Going West. This extremely devastating and important case was shared to us by Stephanie, who actually helped make a documentary on this case with her friends back in 2003, as a project for the College of Santa Fe. It was really surreal to watch because it was done so close to when Marissa was killed, that you just feel like you were there. So, thank you so much to Stephanie for sending that over and suggesting Marissa's case. Their documentary is called Educating Marissa, and we linked it on all of our socials,

and you can also find that in the description for this episode. So, go check out those posts, or you can search it on Vimeo. And it's crazy because Stephanie suggested we reach out to Kai Porter for more details, and I didn't notice that she said that until this morning, and Kai is a pretty big part of this story since he was Marissa's good friend. So it's weird, because when we do research for these cases, I almost feel like I know the people, so seeing that Kai is now an investigative journalist and is, you know, like on Instagram with such a trip because he's in the documentary as a teenager. So that just tripped me out a little to see him

in present times and he and the rest of Marissa's friends made such an important impact in this story and I really admire all of them. So thanks everyone for tuning in today and we hope this story touches all of your hearts like it did ours. All right guys, without further ado, this is episode 133 of Going West.

So let's get into it. In 2003, a 16-year-old girl attended a concert in Albuquerque with her best friends, expecting to have a fantastic night with their favorite artist. But after looking for help from a foot injury during the show, she seemingly vanished out of thin air. But days later, a devastating tip came into police with a horrifying explanation. Marissa Matthews' wife, Marissa Matthews' wife, Marissa Matthews' wife, was born on February 28, 1987, as the only child to parents, Erica's wife, and Tony Matthew in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Although it was just the three of them, this little family loved each other so dearly, and Erica and Tony really enjoyed watching Marissa grow into an amazingly creative and compassionate

young lady. She was also very interested in fashion and from a young age, she dreamed of becoming a fashion designer one day. And it really showed because even into her teen years, she sewed and made a lot of her own clothes, even her prom dress, so very creative. But she also had an interest in becoming a dolphin trainer, so she had a lot of goals.

On top of that, she was an excellent student and even a natural born athlete, so she didn't just get good grades, but she also made time to play softball, basketball, and soccer, as well as gymnastics, dancing, and cheerleading. Marissa had a deep interest in seeing the world, and all before she was 16 years old, she visited England, Italy, Mexico, Hawaii, and many different states around the US. So she just had a wonderful life and she really deserved all that goodness because she had such an amazing personality as well.

Yeah, Marissa was so incredibly loved by everyone who knew her. She was described as having a contagious laugh, she was very outgoing, and she had this wonderful charisma, which helped make her an amazing performer. But she didn't just love being in front of the camera because during her junior year of high school, when she was 16, she and her friends got really into producing and directing short films. A lot of these films were for school, but she enjoyed participating in other things on campus as well, including the gay straight alliance club because she was a huge advocate and wanted to use her voice to help others. And she even facilitated numerous talks on AIDS prevention, as well as sex education workshops for the youth population

of Santa Fe. So as you can tell already, Marissa was just incredible. And if you want to further peek into her personality, check out the videos of her and the things that her loved ones had to say about her and the documentary that we mentioned earlier in the episode. Educating Marissa, and the link is in the description to this episode as I mentioned before. So Marissa and her friends were big fans of Atmosphere, which is a hip-hop duo from Minneapolis that became popular in the late 90s. And I'm sure most of you are familiar with them, but just in case you aren't, there's a little snippet. Members consist of Sean Daily, who goes by Slug, and Anthony Davis, who goes by Aunt, so Slug and Aunt. And Marissa had a bit of a crush on slug, like her friends and many others did.

So when they found out Atmosphere was playing at the Sunshine Theatre down in Albuquerque, which holds 1000 people, on Wednesday, July 16th, 2003, they knew they had to go. At this time, Marissa had just finished her junior year at Santa Fe High School, and was just about a month away from beginning her senior year, and then she hoped to go away to college somewhere on the coast. She was kind of hoping either California or Florida. She was working at a vintage clothing store in Santa Fe and just having a fun summer with her friends.

And Albuquerque is about an hour's drive south west from Santa Fe. So, Marissa's friends decided to make the trip down a little bit more exciting than just riding in a car and they ordered a limo. Which I feel like is always really fun when you're a teenager like anything that can involve a limo is super exciting. The kind of strange part here is that Marissa wasn't actually allowed to go to this concert, but she really wanted to go. Her mom was just very afraid of her going down to Albuquerque with just her friends as a 16 year old. So she wasn't allowed to go to concerts at this time, but as we said, she was a huge fan

of atmosphere, so she went anyway. And she and her friends had the absolute best time driving down their blasting various songs from different atmosphere albums and sticking their heads out the windows singing and waving to all the people on the street. As you can imagine, writing in a limo. As you guys can tell, if you watch the documentary, her friends seem to be really sweet. They just seem like really good kids. Leah Woods, Kai Porter, and Chelsea Stevens. Towards the end of the concert, Atmosphere started covering a song by rock band

Rage Against the Machine, and this started a massive mosh pit in the crowd, which Marissa got pulled into. And during this mosh pit, Marissa somehow cut her toe pretty badly, and her friend Kai brought her upstairs to the top level of the theater so that they could sit down and take a look at her foot. And Kai was kind of just trying to find the source of the cut but he couldn't really tell where it was and he didn't really see any blood and you know as we know glass can be

really pesky because they think she stepped on like a broken glass cup. Oh yeah. So as we know glass is super pesky. You can't find it. There's like little shards. So he didn't know where it was coming from. And this somehow led into a little argument between the two of them.

And Kai was just trying to get Marissa to come downstairs with him to join their other friends and get her help. But due to their argument, he decided to leave her alone and go downstairs, just kind of figuring that she would join him when she was ready. But as the show came to a close, all the friends started looking for Marissa and they couldn't find her anywhere. Since they didn't want to leave her, they waited outside the venue with the limo for one hour, but they never saw her leave the theater. So they had to leave, and they went straight to Chelsea Stevens house and told her mom that Marissa didn't come home with them, and that they felt something was wrong and something bad

had happened to her. So then, and around midnight, they had the impossible job of telling Marissa's mom about what had happened. And they were all just absolutely beside themselves, because they knew that Marissa's mom about what had happened. And they were all just absolutely beside themselves, because they knew that Marissa's mom didn't want her going to the concert, and now they have to come to her and say, we win, and we don't know where she is. I mean, it's bad enough that she really wasn't allowed to go to this concert,

but she did anyways, but now it's like, this whole new level, it's like she's missing now. I know and it's sad because Erika, her mom, didn't want her going because she feared for her daughter's safety, and now Erika's worst nightmare is coming true. So at first, Marissa's family, as well as her friends, wondered if she had maybe gone home with someone

she met that night. Although that seemed very out of character, they felt that it could be a possibility. But when the next day came and she still hadn't called any of her loved ones, they worried that she had been kidnapped. So her parents reported her missing. That day, Marissa's friend Chelsea Stevens, who was with her the night that she went missing, went to the local Kinko's print shop and began making missing posters for her best friend and distributing them all around the city with Kai and Leah.

The poster included a photo of Marissa who was smiling and it said, 16 years old, 5'9", 140 pounds, blonde hair, blue eyes, last scene July 16, 2003 at at the Sunshine Theater. Meanwhile, Marissa's father Tony hired a private investigator in hopes of getting a lead that way. But within the first three days, no leads came into the police department either. It's as if Marissa had just vanished out of thin air. But after three days, the police uncovered something horrific. Of course they had searched the theater, but no one thought Marissa would still be in

the theater. The consensus was kind of that she likely was abducted by someone at the concert and taken elsewhere. But one tip came in from an anonymous source, or originally anonymous source, that made police want to check inside the Sunshine Theater. When police finally swept the entire theater for clues, they discovered the body of a young blonde girl completely nude except for her tank top, which was wrapped around her neck. Strongly believing it to be the body of 16-year-old Marissa Matthews' wife, police informed Marissa's family of their findings,

but explained that they had to conduct an autopsy to verify her identity and cause of death. But two days later on Monday, July 21, 2003, police confirmed there remains to be Marissa's. Her cause of death was strangulation, and the manor was homicide. So, this anonymous tipster told police that they should look into a 22-year-old named Dominic Acres, who worked at the theater as a janitor. And as soon as police questioned him, Dominic admitted to killing Marissa.

I mean, there was no... I mean, he just full-out confessed. And we read in multiple reports that the tip came in from Dominic's own father, Frank Aikers, who after Dominic told him what he did, flagged down a police officer that he saw in the street and said that the missing girl's family needed to know that her body was still in that theater.

And he told his son to turn himself in. This is so commendable to me. I feel like we read about a lot of cases where the perps, parents back them so hard because they're like, that's my baby. Oh yeah. Which I get in a sense, but it's like your kid did something horrible.

And the fact that Frank was like, you know, Dominic told his dad, I did this. And Frank was like, we have to tell the police because her family needs to know Very commendable. Yeah, I'm definitely gonna agree with that and Dominic didn't seem to hide any Details about what he did to Marissa. There are however a couple different stories about what happened that night the first is this So as we know Marissa had a cut on her foot The first is this. So as we know, Marissa had a cut on her foot. Because of some broken glass in the venue since she was dancing barefoot and got pulled into the mosh pit. So after she and her friend Kai separated upstairs, Marissa went looking for help, where she found Dominic Acres, who claimed

to be a security guard. Likely feeling safe with him, he offered to help her with her foot and even offered to introduce her to slug from Atmosphere after the show. And with that, he took her upstairs, raped her, and then killed her. The second story, the one that Dominic stuck with in court, which we'll get to here in a bit, is that he was also at the atmosphere concert that night, but he was not working, so he was off duty. Kai later mentioned that he saw Marissa with a larger man in a black t-shirt that said staff. So it's believed that this was Dominic since he was 6 feet tall and around 380 pounds. And Kai said that the man looked to be about that weight, so apparently Marissa

asked him about meeting the band. He then took her to the third level projection room, this is according to Dominic by the way. Where they had a consensual sexual encounter, but during set encounter, Marissa tried to get away and end their intimacy abruptly. And with that, Dominic told police that he quote, flipped out and choked Marissa until she was unconscious. Soon after, she awoke and began screaming, so he choked her again until she was dead.

And Dominic told police that he felt that he had to kill her because he didn't want to go back to jail. And this guy's so full of shit, like, what a piece of shit. He- no, there's- there was nothing consensual about this situation. No way. No, she would never be into this guy. I'm sorry, she just wouldn't. He- he looks like a creep, and obviously he is a creep, so yeah, I just don't see it. Here's the thing, she was 16 years old, okay. I'm not saying 16 year olds don't have sex, obviously they do.

But I just personally feel like the first story makes more sense because she was concerned about her foot and I don't see her going up to a guy with a staff shirt to see if she can meet the band while there's glass in her foot. And police as well as Morris' family feel that the first story is true as well and not the version that, oh, she just came up to me and asked to meet the band

and then we went and had consensual sex upstairs. What? Yeah, and definitely I feel like the situation where he's kind of manipulating her is where he says, oh, hey, I can take you back here to meet the band. And it's like that's kind of manipulating her is where he says, oh hey, like I can take you back here to meet the band. And it's like that's kind of his way in. He's like, oh yeah, I'll help you with your foot, but also, hey, do you want to meet that band? Exactly. It's such a good way to get her to follow you because he was pretending to be a security guard. So he's

like, oh yeah, I'm security. Let me help you with your foot. And then yeah, you want to meet slug after because I can get you backstage because I'm security. And totally believable. I mean, if somebody came up to you in the same scenario and was wearing a Staff shirt at a concert, you'd be like, oh, they're fucking staff. Also, I feel like a lot of security guards are bigger. And since he was tall and just a little bit larger of a man, it kind of makes sense that she would think he was a security guard or at least believe that he was one. Right.

And I mean, this is probably the most clear case that we've ever covered. I don't think we've covered a case where the killer just comes out with it, especially not this early. But I do think that with him having the second story of she came up to me and the sex was consensual is his way of Making what he did okay. Yeah, like she stopped in the act. That wasn't cool. Right and a lot of killers do this Yeah, it's like you're a horrible person. You did a horrifying thing and it's not okay So you can't really dumb it down, you know, but I mean the details in this case are so horrific and they're so senseless.

And it had such an impact on so many people. And as we'll get into Dominic's past, because as we said, he didn't want to go back to jail. You guys are probably like, what do you mean, back to jail? So you'll see that this case and this murder was very avoidable because Dominic should have been in prison on the night of the atmosphere show. But this whole case made a really big difference in New Mexico as we'll discuss. Yeah, so Dominic never even should have been working at the Sunshine Theater in the first place.

Because the previous year in March of 2002, Dominic was found guilty of sexually assaulting more than once, his four-year-old relative. And we read some reports that said molest while others said rape. Yes, so if you didn't already think this guy was a huge, huge, huge, huge piece of dirt. Huge piece of dirt. Dominic pleaded guilty to the rape and child molestation charges. And these charges should have landed him in prison for 33 years. But in July of 2002, so one year before Marissa's murder, district judge Ross Sanchez of New Mexico agreed to suspend

21-year-old Dominic sentence and instead give him five years probation. How does 33 years prison turn to five years' probation? I just want an explanation. Don't understand it at all. That's like sickening to me. Yeah. How can you, Ross Sanchez of New Mexico, say, oh, you repeatedly raped a four-year-old?

Probations fine. You are sick. Yeah, I totally agree with that. And he felt that Dominic would be better if he received therapy rather than go to prison until he was in his 50s. And then shortly after this decision was made, Dominic went back to living a normal life and started working at the Sunshine Theater, and began attending counseling and registered as a sex offender, which obviously really didn't help in Marissa's case. Yeah, and his employers at the Sunshine Theater had no idea, apparently, had no idea,

that Dominic had been a sex offender because they didn't run any kind of criminal or background check when they hired people. So they were completely, apparently again, stunned here this and of course learn about what he did to Marissa. But bottom line, they should have been running these checks because if they did, this could have been avoided. And I read that finding Dominic's past criminal charges would have just taken like five minutes to uncover and it would have been a very very low fee to run that check. So they just did not do their due diligence. And so because of this, Marissa's parents

sued the Sunshine Theater for negligence in their daughter's death the following year, which was 2004. In the lawsuit it states that a bartender at the venue noticed that Marissa was slightly intoxicated, as an obvious minor, and that she was injured and vulnerable, and they, nor any other employee, did anything to prevent what happened next. In a statement made by her parents, they said, we hope that this lawsuit will not only bring justice, but that it will ensure that no child will have to fear for her life when she enjoys an evening of entertainment. And that it will guarantee that no family will ever again have to suffer what we suffered.

Marissa died in the dark projection room in the back of the theater. Her body wasn't found for three whole days. The horror of those days will never go away. The confusion in the hearts of all who loved Marissa, and even those who never met her, will not go away. We have a woken every day asking why. With the lawsuit, it was believed that the owners possibly did know about Dominic Sexifender status, but that they didn't make any movements to terminate his employment for the safety of the other employees

or the guests who attended the theater. And shortly after the murder, they actually parted ways with the theater and didn't respond to any comment requests by news or anyone else. So when news outlets would call and say, hey, can I talk to you? So and so and so, and so.

The owners. They weren't the owners anymore. Yeah, well, the guy was like, they don't work here anymore. So I don't know if they sold the theater because I couldn't really find that they sold it, but I don't, or maybe they were, they just bounced, like, I don't know.

Yeah, it kind of sounds like they just didn't want the backlash. Which I get because You're gonna get a lot of backlash, but again, you should have done your due diligence and I know this was 2003 so I really don't know if a lot of other businesses did do background checks at that time. I can't be sure but you know I you could tell that they were definitely avoiding the public. And by the way, the bartender who had seen Marissa had apparently also seen her being taken upstairs by Dominic.

And this bartender even knew that Dominic was bad news, because Dominic had told him that he quote, didn't respect girls. And yet the bartender didn't stop Dominic from told him that he quote, didn't respect girls, and yet the bartender didn't stop Dominic from taking her upstairs. And we can only imagine that the bartender didn't know what was about to transpire, I mean how could you? But still, it was the negligence of the whole theater that seemingly led to this horrible crime, and that's why the lawsuit was in place.

Yeah, and it totally makes sense, but really, at the end of the day, the person who is solely responsible for this is Dominic Acres. Well, of course, and I know that it's not like her parents were just trying to get money. Her parents were so horrified, because it seemed like there were so many things that let this happen. Like, the laws of New Mexico that allowed Dominic to go free. The fact that the theater didn't do the background checks, like there was so many things that they were like, we need to make this right as much as we can and get the people in trouble

for not doing their job correctly. Yeah, all these things were leading, you know, as a path to disaster. So back to July of 2003. After Dominic murdered Marissa, he actually kept her body in that projection room. And typically employees would use that room because that's where the ice machine was. But at this time, the machine was broken. So they were using bagged ice that was located in a different room. So no one else went into that room that night.

Then the following morning, which was Thursday at 10 a.m., so before police even began their investigation, Dominic entered the theater to begin his cleaning shift for the event that was to take place there that evening. And he used this opportunity to move Morrisissa's body to a storage area in the theater and blocked her body with a soda and candy machine. So it was fairly easy for him to do this as well because he was essentially alone in this building and as we know Dominic is a pretty big guy, probably not very hard for him to move a body. Yeah and Marissa was 140 pounds,

and yeah, I mean, most people, obviously at a venue are working at night. So he had this morning to be able to move her body. I don't know what he really thought was gonna happen. Obviously, someone was gonna find it eventually if it was behind, or if she was behind a vending machine. So I don't really know what he was thinking here, but he thought that was a better place.

I mean, maybe he was moving her body so that he could buy himself some time and then potentially move it out of the theater. We don't really know, but thank God for Frank Acres. Yes, and that was just two days later on Saturday, July 19th, 2003. So two days after he moved her body and three days after Marissa went missing

and the day her body was found was that Saturday. And that's the day that 22-year-old Dominic Acres, who was living in a halfway house at this time, was arrested for Marissa's murder. The following spring, although Dominic originally pleaded not guilty, he pleaded guilty to first degree murder and was sentenced to life in prison plus 37 years from Marissa's murder, as well as 33 years for violating his probation when he killed her. And his official charges were murder in the first degree, tampering with evidence, criminal

sexual contact with a minor in the third degree, bribery slash intimidation of a witness, and criminal sexual penetration in commission of another felony in the second degree. He was sentenced to spend the rest of his days at the New Mexico Corrections Department in Albuquerque, New Mexico and won't be eligible for parole until he's in his 80s. And presently he's about 40 or 41 years old. Knowing how avoidable this murder would have been if the New Mexico Judicial System had done what they should have done in the first place and put Dominic in prison in 2002, Marissa's friends and family got together and began pressuring local politicians to look at the laws that were currently in place and make changes so that this didn't have to happen to anyone else in New Mexico again.

And luckily, politicians were very willing to work to pass new laws after noticing these terrible flaws in their own system. Two crucial bills were put into place in New Mexico. Marissa's sunshine law, which requires sex offenders on probation, to notify their employers and Marissa's law, which reforms laws dealing with sex offenders including mandatory minimum prison and parole sentences, as well as increased treatment. And even the mayor of Albuquerque admitted publicly, I personally believe that this is a crime that did not have to occur, and occurred only because our system has failed. And it's so sad because as we know, Marissa was such an advocate, so this is absolutely

something that she would have pushed for if one of her friends was in her shoes that night. But I am really glad at least that the politicians were very willing to make these changes and that even the mayor admitted, yeah, we screwed up. And actually that coming fall, Marissa had planned to participate in a 20-hour women's self-defense class. So instead, her friends took the class without her because they knew more than ever how important it was to know self-defense skills in a critical time of need.

A Marissa scholarship fund was also created to help give young women in Santa Fe access to this course so that they too could learn the skills to help potentially save their own lives if they were ever in a scary situation. And as we mentioned earlier, Marissa loved to dance, and one thing that she and her friend Leah had recently gotten into was belly dancing. And they had participated in a summer school program that summer in 2003 called Seeds, which stands for self-esteem, empowerment, and education through dance.

And in this program, young women of Santa Fe would come together and learn to share their emotions and support one another through belly dancing and even journal writing. And seeds also offered information about sexual education, financial independence, goal setting, women's health, and just a bunch of other important tools for young women. So after Marissa's death, her friends became a lot more involved in seeds to honor Marissa's memory and be there for one another. So it really just seemed like Marissa had such an incredible core group of friends who really put her story out there and did everything that they could to advocate for her

and what happened to her. And I just love that they even helped educate young women in the area about what to do if you're raped. Yeah, in the educating Marissa documentary, they kind of pointed out how you don't learn about sexual assault in school and how it's so important for young women and young men really anybody to learn about what to do in that kind of situation. So they were really, really involved in that as well as the self-defense thing, which I think is just so, so important.

They were really doing big things. Yeah. So it kind of seemed like Morris' case just touched a lot of people's lives. And even Kai Porter, who was with Morris at that night, he actually went on to become an investigative journalist as we mentioned before, and also a reporter in Albuquerque. So that's just amazing.

Like, she really did touch so many people. Yeah, that's why I felt like this case was so important to cover. As soon as Stephanie recommended it and we started looking into it, it just... it's kind of different than any case we've ever covered. And I'm sure a lot of you're wondering what atmosphere's reaction to this was, so let's talk about that. In the fall of 2003, so just months after Marissa's murder, Atmosphere agreed to do a benefit

concert in New Mexico in honor of Marissa, and this was set up by her family and friends, and in honor of what happened to her at their show. And they had a chance to speak to Marissa's mom, which I know is really important to them, and all of the proceeds for this concert went to promote self-awareness, creativity, and empowerment in teenagers, as well as to support rape crisis centers and self-defense classes for young women. And Marissa's mom Erica stated that some of the money also went to an outreach program for families of homicide victims, so overall just went to a lot of really great causes.

Atmosphere, as well as the crowd, which was filled with classmates and purers of Marissa, got to hear from Marissa's friends and family, and some of them wrote poems on the tragedy and spoke them on stage, and some just kind of simply spoke on how amazing Marissa was. An atmosphere even released a song about Marissa in 2005 titled That Night. And some of the lyrics include, She was 16 another young angel with clipped wings. She came to the shows but I never met her. Don't even know if she was listening.

That night we lost a supporter. That night we lost a supporter. That night somebody lost a daughter. He raped and killed her at the venue. Can't comprehend what her friends must have went through. That night the sun went dark. Now watch everyone on the tour bus fall apart. That night, Lord have mercy, the music died, that night, and albacurky. And Slug has opened up about how much Marissa's death affected him,

and how he just wanted to stop the tour and go home, because he kind of had this guilt over what happened, even though he knew it wasn't directly his fault. He said that it was the transition that made him a more responsible artist, not just for the audience, but for himself. And even though he wrote that night and he and Ant decided to put it on the album because they felt it was really important, they won't perform it live. Slug stated, that song still scares the piss out of me.

Thank you so much everybody for listening to this episode of Going West. Yes, thank you guys so much for listening to this episode and next week we'll have an all new case for you guys to dive into. This story really touched me. I don't know if it's because I watched the documentary on it and I felt like I really know these people. All of our friends that were telling the story, like, Kai, Leah, and Chelsea, like, everyone,

was telling exactly what happened, and they were so emotional, and they're so young. These are just 17-year-olds who went through something so tragic and hearing her mom talk and her dad and seeing videos of the, you know, usually, Heath and I watch videos of the cases, whatever we can find, but this seemed just like a more emotional put together. I got to see videos of Marissa moving

and dancing and laughing, and it made me really just, I really felt for all these people and I still really feel for all these people. So this case was just so, so sad and really appreciate everybody listening today. Yeah, and it just goes to show you that, know the true crime community I mean this is not just for entertainment this isn't just for listening I mean there are real changes happening in the world because of cases like marissa's and it's very very important that those cases are heard and that changes are made. Absolutely and it's sad that it takes something so horrible to happen for change to be made. But I mean, as sad as it is, like if Marissa only knew the changes that her death made on the

state that she was born and raised in. Yeah, the impact. Yeah. So obviously obviously again, it's so sad that this happened to her and it was so avoidable. And I'm just glad that that Dominic is finally behind bars forever. So make sure you go check out the documentary called Educating Marissa. Yes, it's in the description of this episode, so thank you guys so much so much for listening. And like Heath said, we'll be back next week with another episode. And now we have to give things to everyone who has become a patron of ours in this past week. We gotta give shoutouts to you guys. Yeah, thank you so much everybody who has joined and who has joined in general.

Patreon is where you can get bonus episodes. We do a lot of international cases on there and we have almost 45 full length ad free bonus episodes for you guys to binge if you join now. Yeah, we got a ton of episodes for you guys. So thank you so much to Joey, thank you Annie, Dahlia, Dara, Kaitlyn, Tracy and Josephine. In a big thanks going out to Cassidy, Anisa or Anissa, Amy, Kathleen, Thank You Katie and Madeline. Thank you so much to Rita, J.M., Emma, Samantha, Ali, Annie and Carol. And a big thanks going out to Hannah, Amber, Thank You Susie, thank you Jennifer, Alison and Emily. And last but not least, thank you so much to Krista, Katie, Janita, Julien, Diedra

and Laura. Thank you guys so much for joining Patreon. We really love you guys so much. Yeah, we just appreciate you. Yes, thank you guys so much and thank you to everybody who's listening to our regular episodes. Everybody, thank you for sharing. Sharing our show really helps as well. Giving us a nice, old review really helps if you guys dig our show.

We've been getting some really nice reviews lately too. Yeah, so thank you guys so much. Heath and I really appreciate every single one of you. Alright guys, so for everybody out there in the world, Cheerio and don't be a stranger. you