Going West: True Crime - Pinyon Pines Murders // 114

Episode Date: March 31, 2021

In the late summer of 2006, numerous calls came in to the fire department regarding a house in the beautiful mountains of Pinyon Pines, California that was engulfed in flames. After the fire was put out, multiple bodies from a beloved family in the community were found inside- and the manner of death was homicide. After years of suspicion, speculation, and a need for answers, an arrest was finally made. But did police get it right? This is the story of the Pinyon Pines Murders, and the deaths of Jon Hayward and Vickie and Becky Friedli. *BONUS EPISODES* patreon.com/goingwestpodcast *CASE SOURCES* https://www.cbsnews.com/pictures/pinyon-pines-triple-murder-timeline-haunting-photos/27/ https://www.desertsun.com/story/news/crime_courts/2014/03/13/family-friends-men-in-pinyon-pines-case-wrongly-accused/6360779/ https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/21577365/rebecca-annaleigh-friedli https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/90211731/jon-m.-hayward https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/21577328/vicki-lee-friedli https://www.cbsnews.com/news/48-hours-triple-murder-in-pinyon-pines/ https://www.reddit.com/r/UnresolvedMysteries/comments/93r88m/pinyon_pines_murders_did_the_jury_get_it_right/ https://www.cbsnews.com/news/48-hours-triple-murder-in-pinyon-pines/ http://www.pinyonpinesmurders.com/wp/ https://www.desertsun.com/story/news/crime_courts/2018/08/10/pinyon-pines-murder-trial-ended-and-two-men-sentenced-today/918497002/ Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Some cars are comfy on the inside, but don't have power on the outside. And some cars have the horsepower, but none of the comfort. I used to think there weren't any cars that were the total package, but that all changed when I got my Honda SUV. It's rugged and sophisticated, and right now, Honda has deals on the entire Honda SUV lineup. CRV, HRV, Pilot, Passport, you name it. So if you're looking for a car that's the total package, the only place

you'll find it is at your local Honda dealer. Hurry before they're all gone! What is going on to crime fans? I'm your host Teef and I'm your other host, Daphne, and you're listening to Going West. I first want to start off by thanking our lovely, lovely listener, Nichele, who goes by Nikki, for suggesting today's case. I'd somehow never heard of this one before, but found it super interesting to dive into, so thank you so much Nikki. We're always getting a bunch of great suggestions by you guys so keep them coming, just message

us wherever and we'll take a look into the case and hopefully cover it here on the show. And by the way we just released a brand new bonus episode over on Patreon. It's like an hour long and it's about the murder of Aspen Socialite Nancy Fister. The murder occurred in 2014 and Nancy lived such a fascinating life, and unfortunately, that was tragically cut short. It's a wild one that you definitely don't want to miss, so head over to patreon.com slash going west podcast to gain access to that episode and 36 other ad-free bonus episodes.

And that link is in the description in case you don't know how to spell Patreon, which by the way, it's just PATREN.com. Check it out. Alright guys, without further ado, this is episode 114 of Going West, so let's get into it. කැක්න්න්න්න්න්න්න්න්න්න්න්න්න්න්න්න්න්න්න්න්න්න්න්න්න්න්න්න්න්න්න්න්න්න්න්න්න්න්න්න්න්න්න්න්න්න්න්න්න්න්න්න්න්න්න්න්න්න්න්න්න්න්න්න්න්න්න්න්න්න්න්න්න්න්න්න්න්න්න්න්න්න්න්න්න්න්න්න්න්න්න්න්න්න්න්න්න්න්න්න්න්න්න්න්න්න්න්න්න් In the late summer of 2006, numerous calls came into the fire department regarding a house in the beautiful mountains of Pinyon Pines, California, that was engulfed in flames. After the fire was put out, multiple bodies from a beloved family in the community were found inside, and the manner of death was homicide. After years of suspicion, speculation, and a need for answers and arrest was finally made.

But did police get it right? This is the story of the Pinyon Pines murders and the deaths of John Hayward and Vicki and Bivre was born on February 5, 1953 in San Diego County, California to parents Mary and Eve De Bivre, along with her two sisters. Vicki was known to be that light in everyone's life. She was truly vivacious and loving, and those qualities made it very easy for her to make friends. In 1971, she graduated from San Marcos High School in Southern California, and then met and married a sheriff's deputy named Ron Friedley. After the two got together, they left the coastal San Diego area and headed about two and a half hours inland to beautiful Palm Desert. It was there that

Vicki and Ron had their four stunning blonde daughters Tiffany, Tanya, Drew, and then Becky. Vicki absolutely loved being a mom and she was so great at it, says her daughters and husband Ron. She enjoyed spending her days gardening, sewing, and cooking, and she felt it was really important to teach all of her daughters how to do all those things from a young age, especially cooking they loved cooking together as a family. But although Ron and Vicki had a pretty good relationship, they simply grew apart over the years and after 13 years of marriage, while all the girls were teenagers, they got a divorce. A little bit about Vicki's daughter Becky, she was just as awesome as her mother.

She was incredibly smart and was even known to help her older sisters with their homework. And she was very energetic. She was a fun loving and spirited girl growing up and she was so caring towards people that she wanted to spend her life helping others, which is why she made it a goal of hers at a young age to become a nurse. She spent most of her upbringing in the gorgeous town of Pinyon Pines, which is located just around 25 minutes south of Palm Springs, and Pinyon Pines only hosts about 35 people total, so it's incredibly small. But since it's just on the outskirts of the Palm Desert area, the Freedles were still

very close to the city while also being able to enjoy the tree-filled desert of Pinyon Pines. Their home was built by Ron Freedly himself in the mountains overlooking Coachella Valley, which he says was such a great place to raise the girls because they were surrounded by nature out in the country. As the years passed, Becky's three older sisters had moved on and out of the family home, and Becky attended Palm Desert High School before briefly leaving the area to graduate from Hart High School in Santa Clarita, which is in Los Angeles County about two hours away from Palm Springs, before returning to Pinyon Pines to begin her studies at school. During the summer before starting at the College of the Desert to study nursing, she worked full-time at a Denny's restaurant in Palm Desert,

and lived with her mom, who at this point was working at a Macy's in Palm Desert, and dating a man named John Hayward. John was born in Santa Fe, New Mexico, but he grew up in Southern California and was just two years older than Vicki. He graduated from Cal State University Fullerton with a degree in geography and urban planning, and he then went on to become a contractor.

And as you might be able to tell from his degrees, John loved the outdoors, which is why he especially enjoyed raising three children with his wife in the Coachella Valley, a place where it's almost always sunny, and there's tons of great hiking trails. After he and his wife separated, he eventually met Vicki Friedley, and the two were absolutely smitten with each other and they had a bunch in common, and their kids loved them together so it was just a great situation overall. In September of 2006, things seemed to be going great for Vicki John and Becky, as well

as their families. Becky was approaching her 19th birthday and just starting her first year of college and she was really excited about it all. Vicki and John's relationship was still going great and although they weren't married, they had a strong relationship and lived together at Vicki's pinion pines home, again with Becky as well while she went to the local community college since she was still only 18. But on Sunday, September 17th, 2006, everything would change.

At around 9.30pm that evening, Vicki's neighbor noticed flames on the second story of the home and ran over with his wife to make sure everyone was okay. When they drove over there, other neighbors began to gather for the same reason as they all noticed that the home was engulfed in flames. And by the way, a lot of homes in this area were on big pieces of land, so they lived pretty remotely and the first neighbor to see the flames lived a whole mile away. So it took a few minutes for them to even drive over to the house.

It wasn't like they were a stone through a way like, they saw it off in the distance. By 9.40 pm, numerous calls were coming into the local fire station to report the fire, but the responding fire chief had a lot of difficulty finding the home, meaning he didn't arrive on the scene until just after 10pm, so at least 30-40 minutes after the fire started. And after the fire chief arrived, the Sheriff's Department pulled in with investigators in tow. The flames completely destroyed the home down to its bones, so everyone feared for the worst that Vicki, John and Becky had been hurt or killed in the fire since they were

nowhere to be found. After firefighters put out the fire and investigators examined the scene the following morning, they found the charred remains of two people inside the house in the kitchen and a third body still burning in a wheelbarrow outside. Once all the bodies were brought down for proper autopsies, it was determined that the two bodies inside belonged to 55-year-old John Hayward and 53-year-old Vicki Friedly, and the body outside was that of 18-year-old Becky Friedly. John had been killed by a shotgun blast to the chest, while Vicki was killed by a shot to the head with a handgun. Since Becky's body had been

completely burned much worse than John and Vickies, it was impossible to determine her exact cause of death, but the examiner did feel confident that she was dead when her body was set on fire. The pathologist discovered a bullet entrance wound in the right side of her head, as well as something lodged into the left side of her head, so this is believed to be the cause of death. It was also determined that the fire was indeed our sin, and it had been started by an accelerant believed to be gasoline since there were gas cans found in the house.

In the wheelbarrow where Becky's body was found, had been behind the home in an empty field next to some disturbed ground, so whoever killed her had pushed her in the wheelbarrow, down a ways, and then likely attempted to bury disturbed ground. So whoever killed her had pushed her in the wheelbarrow, down a ways, and then likely attempted to bury her body. But then set it on fire instead, and we can only assume that this was done to rid any evidence just like the home. And the killer was extremely successful as far as destroying evidence goes, because investigators weren't able to find any clues on the bodies, or on the property that could conclusively lead them to a suspect.

When the Friedly family, as well as John Hayward's family, found out about what had happened, they were dumbfounded and rightfully and absolutely devastated. Becky's older sister, Tanya, was one of the first people to find out since she was working as a sheriff's deputy, just like her dad, Ron had been, and a nearby town, and she quickly relayed the news to the rest of the family. Her other sister, Drew, had been working as an Air Force medic in Japan at this time, so she had to hear this news

from the other side of the world. No one could understand why anyone would want to hurt yet alone murder this incredibly kind and unproblematic family. And John had even told one of his daughters at one point that he lived in the safest place in the world because she always wanted him to move into the city where she lived, and I'm not sure if she was referring to Palm Springs or Los Angeles, but he said no, you know, I like being out in the country where I'm kind of out of the way and safe.

And this happening in such a small community was just baffling to everyone in the area, especially since the crime was so intentional. Yeah, I feel like a lot of times people think that they're a lot safer because they live in a rural area, when that's not always the case. Just because you don't live in a large metropolitan city does not mean that there aren't bad people out there. Yeah, there's bad people everywhere. So obviously, maybe there's less bad people, but things can still happen.

And we cover so many cases that happen in small towns, which is really sad because you have this kind of false sense of security a lot of the time, just like they did. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, and you also have to think about the fact that living in a small town, there might actually be more opportunity for crime because there's less people. Well, that was the problem here, is that they lived in the mountains, the closest house to them was like a mile away.

So nobody was around to witness what happened, which is way worse than if you have a neighbor literally like having a window, peering into your window. So this is not good. Right. And I always kind of think about this because Daphne and I have, you know, a lot of older neighbors that live around us who I feel like kind of keep keep an eye on the whole neighborhood. Oh, I have a Jane's number. She's got my number.

Exactly. So I feel like if anything happened, like we would know. Yeah, exactly. So there is it is nice. And I understand, of course, the appeal of living where they lived, it was gorgeous, they could go hiking outside their back door. Absolutely. But definitely a really scary situation here.

And the only real thought that police had in the beginning was that maybe someone had a grudge against retired deputy Ron Friedly, so they took it out on his ex-wife and youngest daughter. But even this idea didn't make sense because Ron had never gotten involved in any sketchy dealings nor had he worked any particular cases that would make someone want to get back at him. He just had a very mild career in law enforcement. Regardless, police wanted to make sure this wasn't the reason, so they brought Ron in for

questioning to ask him if he had any enemies throughout his career, and they even asked him to submit a polygraph test. It's been said by Ron that this interview was incredibly tough, because not only was he grieving the loss of, you know, his ex-wife and the mother of his children, but one of his daughters, who he was very close with and of course loved so so dearly, was dead. You know, this was his biggest nightmare come true. And then with the police trying to possibly blame him in a way, it was really tough. Although Ron was almost feeling as though he was being thought of as a suspect, he took the polygraph and passed with flying colors, so the investigation moved on.

Yeah, and I always feel so bad in these situations because it's the investigator's job to figure out who committed this crime. And although you're close with the family and you're grieving, like you're not off limits when it comes to this sort of thing, like they have to question you. And Ron understands that they're doing their due diligence.

Exactly. It's just a shitty situation because he's like, oh my god, I'm trying to grieve here, but I also know that you're trying to figure out what happened. So he was respecting that for sure, but it was just really hard for him. Yeah, and I can't even imagine how tough that would be. But to make the situation a little bit better, police also determined that Ron Friedly had been 11 hours away at his house in Northern California since at this point he had been retired for a year and moved, so this helped count him out as a potential suspect as well.

So you really have to wonder here, was the killer going after Vicki, John, or Becky, or the family as a whole, and why? People close to Becky immediately began thinking that someone in her life may have actually wanted her dead, and that maybe Vicki and John were just casualties of her murder. But obviously, an absolutely no fault of her own, because Becky, as we've mentioned before, was a very loving and all-around incredible young woman. But some of her close friends wondered if her ex-boyfriend Robert Pate was behind what happened to her and her family. I always want to stay on track and eat healthy, but that's really hard in these unpredictable times when all I want to do is get takeout. But not anymore now

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it was so good and everything was ready to be cooked. It was so satisfying and delicious, you guys have to try it. Right now they're offering 6 meals for just $36 plus free shipping. So that's dinner for 2 people for 3 nights for just 36 bucks. Get this special offer now. Go to gobble.com slash going west. That's gobble.com slash going west for six meals for just 36 dollars. Becky's father Ron didn't originally believe that Becky would be the one to be targeted since she wasn't ever anything but nice to everyone.

But then he thought about what was done to her body after she was killed. Since childhood, Becky had a deep fear of fire because of something that happened to her when she was very young. One night when Becky was so small that she could barely reach the stove, Vicki was making tacos for dinner and as she briefly turned away, Becky pulled on the pan full of hot oil and it fell, burning her little chest with third-degree burns. And of course, those burns stayed as she grew up. So this very real fear of fire was a big deal for her most of her life.

And Ron started to feel that setting her body on fire could have been a very personal thing to do to her. Yeah, almost like a slap in the face. Yeah, and done only by someone who knew Becky well enough to know about that story. It could have just been a cover-up for evidence, obviously, but the same person started to circle in everyone's heads. And again, that person was Robert PAPE.

During Becky's high school days, she began dating a fellow classmate named Robert PAPE, and the two appeared to be madly in love with each other. And it was both of their first relationships and the first time that they ever had deep feelings for anyone like that, but it didn't last. They stayed together for a little over a year before breaking up and seeing other people, but according to Becky's best friends, Robert's obsession with Becky only grew after they separated, and he would call her TENS of times some nights trying to talk to her. It got to the point where it started to frighten Becky because he was consistently harassing

her. By the time of Becky's murder, they had been broken up for a little over 9 months, but as 2006 rolled on, Robert wouldn't leave her alone. And in fact, a couple of weeks before the murders occurred, Becky went to a friend's house and explained to her that Robert had threatened to kill her because he wanted them to get back together and refused to accept that she could ever be with anyone else. But apparently, Becky wasn't taking this threat too seriously, which is why it was never reported to the police.

But her friends were definitely worried about her, and that's why he was the first person to come to their minds when she wound up murdered. As police initially interviewed everyone in Becky's life, along with everyone in Vicki and John's circles, Robert's name came up multiple times, so he was considered a potential suspect from the start. And another one of Becky's friends, whose name is Javier Garcia Jr. had information that pointed to Robert Peepe even more. Like I mentioned, Becky lived on a big piece of property and you could essentially go hiking

right out her back door. So on the night she and her mom and John were killed, Becky had told Javier that she was going on a hike on the property with Robert and a good friend of his named Christian Smith. Apparently, Robert had called her out of the blue to specifically go on this night hike and Becky agreed. And this may seem kind of odd that she made plans with him at the same time that Robert had been harassing her and shortly after threatening to kill her.

But her friends and sisters think that she did this, so she could kind of fix the issue. Because Becky wasn't the type of young woman who liked conflict at all, she just wanted to resolve any issues that came up in her life and make things better. And of course, this tip from Javier was a really big deal to police at first, because it gave more information about how Becky's night had gone prior to her murder. And it added even more suspicion to Robert since he hadn't come forward with his information himself. When police questioned both the young men at this time, they had different stories for what they were doing that evening, even though they were supposedly together.

But without saying too much, both of them pleaded the fifth and refused to answer any more questions. And since any and all evidence that could link Robert and his friend Christian to these murders had been destroyed by the fires, they had nothing, even though numerous detectives looked into this case and tried to connect the men to the actual killings themselves. And with that, no arrests were made, and the case went cold. This frustrated the Friedly and Hayward family and loved ones so much because they felt like the answer was right in front of them, and yet nothing could be done. Finally, six whole years later, Ron Friedly had his old private investigator buddy and co-worker

Luis Bolognios look into the case. And the reason that Ron had been hesitant to have Luis look into the case sooner was because he felt confident that the Sheriff's Department, the very same one that he had previously worked for his entire career, could handle it and that they were truly doing everything they could. But after all that time, he thought it would be okay to let someone else take a crack at it, because it meant six whole years, so he he's like let's get some answers. Yeah and that's completely understandable. So Luis's whole idea was to get this case into the media to put a lot of pressure on it and hopefully get people calling in with

tips again and it all started with a very intense billboard. We have a photo of it posted on all our socials for anyone who wants a visual, but for those who are driving or unable to look at their phones, here's a description. It says, Meet Becky. Then it has a photo of her that looks like a school portrait probably from her senior year, and it says, Before. Then to the right of that, it's a photo of the wheelbarrow she was in while it's still on fire and it says after.

Then next to those images it says, does this make you sick? Then do something about it. $50,000 reward and underneath that it says, unsolved triple homicide, hotline 85544 becky. Wow, that is a very intense billboard. Yeah, it's like when I first saw it, I was like, damn, and then I had read why they did that. And you know, it was for shock value. They wanted to get people caring, and they were like, this is really the only way we can

do it to show people how messed up this case is. And the fact that whoever killed her and her mom and John are still out there. Right, and it's kind of like when people say like it's really hard to look away from a car accident, it's kind of the same situation. You put something visually, like visually disturbing out there and people can't take their eyes off of it. Yeah, and I know that exactly, and this really, really disturbed the community, but it did a lot. Yeah, it was a very effective billboard because of how blunt and graphic it is. And we read that the photo of the Burning Wheelbarrow was recreated, so this isn't the actual

photo of her, but it got the point across. After the release of this billboard, there was a press conference done by PI, Louise Belanios, to get the case even more out there in the media, and this resulted in many more tips coming in from the public. One of those tips actually came from one of Becky's cousins, named Daniela, who had a potentially important detail in the case. Daniela recalled a conversation she had with Becky just the night before she was murdered after a shift at Denny's.

Robert Paye had come into the restaurant and wouldn't leave her alone. Since she was working and he wouldn't stop harassing her, her co-workers had to kick him out of the restaurant. And then after this incident, Robert asked Becky to go on that hike to talk and she agreed. However, since this tip wasn't brought to light until so many years later, investigators had a tough time finding anyone who could corroborate this story, so it's completely unconfirmed. And here's the thing about this. So, Danielle had told her mom about this incident and this phone call the very night it happened. And after the murders, her mom told police about it and they never

followed up with her or Daniela about it at all. So years later, she brought it to their attention again and by then it was too late for them to confirm it. And she's like, I have been trying to tell you guys this for years and now it could be really relevant and you didn't look at it when it would have actually and could have actually made a difference. And that's so unfortunate how some of these things just seemed to slip through the cracks during an investigation. I know, but this tip really connected some doubts for investigators and as more pressure from the public came in to police regarding arresting Robert and Christian, they finally

just did the damn thing. So in 2014, both then 25-year-old men, Robert, PAPE and Christian Smith, were charged with the three homicides, but they weren't found guilty by a grand jury due to the lack of physical evidence, and there was an undisclosed legal issue, so the charges were eventually dropped. And there were some serious mixed emotions here, because so many people believe that Robert and Christian just had to have committed these murders. It almost didn't make sense that anyone else could have done this. But of course, both of the young men's families didn't see either of them committing such a crime. Neither of them had ever been convicted of a crime in their life, and they were

both, at least at that point, married to their long-time partners with kids on the way. Christian Smith had previously been in the military, and Robert was looked at as a respectable and loving churchgoer. You know, both were described as gentle men with big hearts who worked hard in life, so their families are like, no, they didn't do this. So it's very mixed emotions on, did these guys come in it? Or are we just looking at the wrong people? And this kind of reminds me of the Bob Duke case that we just covered for a Patreon bonus episode

where the entire town sees this man as a good person, a grieving father and husband, but he ends up being a murderer. Exactly, and that's a really good point to bring up. Same thing with Christian Longo, and honestly so many other people we talk about on this show. And that's the thing of it, is people can be really deceiving, and you don't really know what someone's capable of, despite how good of a person they look to be on the outside. Exactly. And as far as Robert Pate being portrayed as a jealous monster, his mother says that that couldn't be more false. After he and Becky broke up, he started dating a woman named Sarah,

who ended up becoming his wife. Christian Smith was known as a war hero who had saved demands life in Afghanistan, after they were shot in the lung and Christian became part of the army's 75th Ranger Regiment and received two purple hearts. However, these were the lives that they lived after the homicides. At the time of the murders, Robert was 18 and Christian was just 17 and wouldn't join the army until a year later. Looking back at who they were before the murders, they didn't seem to have bad reputations and were considered to be generally good guys, who were best friends in high school. But whenever they got together,

they seemed to get into trouble, and they were known to have an extreme fascination with fire. And regarding that, this is something that Becky was very uncomfortable with. You know, as we know, she was very afraid of fire, and before she died, she had told a friend of her's name Brandon that Robert and Christian had set an inanimate object on fire in her presence, think it was like a mattress, and it upset her a lot. So much so that she refused to talk to Robert for a few days. Both of their families think this fascination with fire angle is complete BS but an old instant message conversation between Robert and his now wife Sarah

reads the more flags eight months before the murders he wrote well if you know where he lives we can professionally burn his house down and this was regarding Sarah's ex-boyfriend but for him him to say, we, plus, can professionally burn down his house? It's extremely questionable. I mean, this alone doesn't mean he committed the crime, but all these things adding up kind of does. I mean, I don't think I've ever said that I was gonna burn somebody's house down and then, you know, been looked at as a suspect in an arson. Well, exactly. It's like, it's almost too much of a coincidence not to, you know, been looked at as a suspect in an arson. Well, exactly. It's like, it's almost too much of a coincidence not to, you know, I mean, not to have happened. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, just super big red flags being raised. And I know a lot of people were pissed that this part of the conversation was kind of discussed at a context because you can't tell whether or not Robert was joking when he said it. And it could absolutely be a coincidence, but it also could be foreshadowing. And I will add that Sarah's response to this message was, that's right, you're a little pyro. And then he responded with, I've gone through a six pack of matches already today. So... Oh my gosh. It's just such a weird thing that what did you do with the six pack of matches? I don't know, man. What do you even a weird thing. What did you do with this six pack of matches?

I don't know, man. What do you even do with that? What are you doing? What are you lighting on fire, man? Yeah, so this kind of outlines it a little better, I think, and it doesn't seem too out of context to me having known a little bit more of the conversation. Also, Beckian Robert had spoken on the phone 18 times and texted 18 times as well in the three days leading up to the murders. And the last time they were in

contact was at 7.30 pm that evening. Just two hours before the neighbors spotted the fire. And this is believed to be the time that Robert Pave and Christian Smith arrived to Becky's home. Because cell towers show that they were driving in Christian Smith arrived to Becky's home because cell towers show that they were driving in Christian's car through the Coachella Valley and in the direction of Becky's home at 7pm. The sun set just before 7pm on this particular night and we know that Robert wanted to go on a night hike. So this lines up right to when the murders would have occurred. Yet Robert and Christian claim

they didn't commit them and don't know anything about who did. After their original conversation with police, they denied ever going on this hike, or going anywhere near Becky's house on the night of the murders, which we know isn't true, thanks to the phone records. And Christian and Robert's reasoning for driving around that night was that they were going to church, but when investigators looked into this, they found that the church has been closed that evening. And after bringing this up, the boys said that when they realized it was closed, they went back to Christian's dad's house to play video games and hang out for the night, but then

later went to a nearby school to shoot paintballs. They said they didn't see it anyone else that night, and investigators question the only other person who likely would have seen them that night, which was Christian's dad. And he said that he was at a town that evening, but that Christian had told him that he was home, and he believed that to be true. Now you're probably wondering if the cell phone towers back up these statements. Well not exactly. Because both Christian and Robert's cell phones went black from 7.30pm until 10pm. And just as a reminder, the fire was set around or minutes before 9.30pm.

Coincidence? No, definitely not. The whole, every time I read that a phone goes black, it just gives me the chills, especially when we're talking about a potential suspect in a case, because I'm like, oh my god, your phone happens to go black during that time. It's never a good sign.

I know that this was the desert, so cell service wasn't the best, and I know that that can play a role, but what are the chances that around the time that your phone is saying that you're in the general vicinity of Becky's house and you're supposed to go on this hike with her, and then right after the fires are started and the murders occur, your phone comes back up. Like that's a very, very specific time for your phone to go black and for you to not be involved. Well in the fact that it was both of their phones really says a lot.

Exactly, but their lawyers were like, well, you know, teenagers aren't always on their phones and maybe they just weren't near them because they were playing paintball. It's like, okay, if they weren't near them, that's fine, but why were they black? And there wasn't hard evidence that linked Christian and Robert to the weaponry that was used to murder Vicki and John, but investigators were able to find some things that could, upon their first search of both of their homes, one year after the killings. So at least two guns were used in the murders. Vicki had been shot with a 40 caliber handgun, meanwhile John had been shot

with a shotgun. Although police were never able to find any handgun that matched Vicky's wounds, they did recover some accessories in Robert Papers' home that matched a type of gun that could have been used to kill Vicky, yet that gun was nowhere to be found. To be specific, the accessories found were a holster that was made to carry a Glock 40, as well as 40 caliber ammunition. So even though this wasn't one of the guns themselves, this was still decent potential evidence, especially since the gun was missing, that's very suspicious. Because while someone's gun just be gone like like that, they were trying to get rid of evidence. But it was being argued that a lot of people have that type of ammunition, yet those people aren't being suspected of the murder.

So it can go either way. Something we didn't mention earlier is that next to the wheelbarrow where Becky was found, there were two sets of footprints. And this had indicated to police that two people were behind this crime, while Becky was in the wheelbarrow as she was pushed 200 yards behind the house. There was also a business card for a Catholic pro-life ministry found next to where the wheelbarrow was, as if maybe it had been accidentally dropped by the killer or killers, and after an analysis was done on the card years after the murders, it showed two fingerprints that matched Christian Smith's, as a one in 28 trillion match.

And it was also known that Kathleen Pave, who was Robert's mom, was a volunteer for the pro-life ministries. But Robert's DNA wasn't on the card. It was just a term in that Christian's DNA was a major contributor. But a lot of people wondered what Christian's motive for taking part in the horrifying murder of three people would be. Because Christian and Becky weren't known to ever have any beef. So the only thought was that he was just helping his friend, or that he wasn't aware of what was happening until it was too late, and instead of stopping things from going further, he helped. Around this same time as well, it was discovered that while Robert had previously been in jail

for the pending murder charge, remember when they were arrested in 2014? He had told his wife Sarah to hide some unregistered firearms, including a 40 caliber handgun. And this was all caught on tape, but not discovered until almost a couple years later. Two years after Robert and Christian were released from jail in 2016, an old coworker of Christian Smith came forward with some information. His name is Jeremy Witt, and he explained to investigators that three weeks after the murders, Christian told him that he and Robert Peepe were at the Friedleys house and that something went wrong, so they had to quote, torch the whole fucking place. It was around the same time that the evidence from the business card linking Christian Smith

was confirmed. So this all led to the re-arrest of both men, who at this point were both around the age of 27. They also had more information regarding the cell tower pings that conflicted with the statements they both previously made. Nearly two years after they were re-arrested, the trial began in April of 2018. The trial lasted just over a month and just about everything we said in this episode, and then some was discussed in this trial. And ultimately, after ten whole

days of deliberating, the jury found both 30-year-old Robert Pave and 29-year-old Christian Smith guilty of the first-degree murders of Vicki Friedley and John Hayward and Robert alone was found guilty of the second-degree murder of Becky Friedley. They now face life in prison without the possibility of parole. Since all the evidence in this case isn't clear-cut physical evidence, many people wonder if someone else was behind the murders. And a name that pops up a lot is Javier Garcia Jr., the friend of Becky's who told police that she was going on that hike with Robert and Christian.

Police wondered if maybe Javier was making things up to point suspicion away from him, because it was known that Javier had a big romantic interest in Becky that wasn't reciprocated. Not to mention, the night of the murders, Javier's cell phone paged up in the mountains in the general region of Becky's home, and as we know, cell tower pangs are not specific so I know they can be even around and up to miles off. But that doesn't mean that it wasn't right there, you know? It could be, or it was in that general vicinity and he didn't live over there near opinion pints.

Still an interesting piece of information. Absolutely. And the day of the murderers, Becky spent much of the time at Javier's house, but drove home at around 4pm in her car by herself, apparently. And apparently at some point after the murders, this car was stolen from her property. It's also known that at the time of the murders, Becky was casually dating Javier's cousin, Jacob Santiago, and they had been doing so for about a month or two.

Javier says that he never went to Becky's house that night, but that she had invited him on the hike. As the afternoon progressed, he said she called him and told him not to come because it would be awkward. Another interesting thing that people bring up is that Javier said that he didn't like Becky driving her car because she had bad brakes that were metal on metal. So even the day before her murder, he had driven her to work so she didn't have to use her own car. Now, I'm not sure why he would worry about her safety enough to drive her around and then

turn around and murder her, and ultimately, both Javier and Jacob's cell phones pinged in a location away from pinion pines at the time of the murders, and an FBI agent even testified to this. But there has definitely been some conflict regarding the fact that Javier's dad was an investigator for the Riverside County DA's office at the time the murder occurred, and his mom was a state-centered candidate as well. So a lot of people who speculate that Javier either knows more than he's leading on or committed the murder himself believe that his parents helped him cover it up as to not ruin their own reputations. However, that's just speculation and there's no real evidence

linking Javier or anyone in this family to the murders. And by the way Riverside County where his dad was working at the DA office. That is the same county where opinion pines is, the same county where the murders took place and the same county that is investigating this murder. So that's why it's kind of like kind of sketchy if you think that Javier is involved. After their first arrest, Robert, Pave and his wife Sarah divorced, but both Robert and Christian both have young children. They have attempted to appeal their convictions multiple times maintaining their innocence, and the most recent being just six months from the time that we're recording this episode, but all have been denied.

Some believe that there wasn't enough actual evidence to convict them, but the Friedly and Hayward families, along with many friends and locals, believe that the right guys are behind bars. But unfortunately, it will never bring back their loved ones. 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. It's always really frustrating when people doubt the guilt of the person or people who have been convicted of a crime, because it kind of just makes you second guess everything, and no one wants to nnessm people in prison, and I hate cases where a person is imprisoned

on non-physical evidence. I think it's generally very unfair, but I do see why Robert and Christian were convicted, and I gotta say, I feel pretty sure that with the information I read, they're guilty, but I'd love to hear what everyone else is thinking, and I do just wish we had more to work with evidence-wise, because the families deserve that. I'm gonna have to agree with you on this one. I believe that these two men were responsible for those murders. So thanks for tuning into this episode. We have a Facebook discussion group if anyone wants to go

on there and talk to us about this case and other cases in the future. Just go on to Facebook and search Going West Discussion Group. Join and we will accept you. Also, we have a Twitter at Going West Pod and Instagram at Going Westcast for more information on cases as well as photos, so feel free to comment there as well. And thank you so much to everybody who has joined our Patreon in the last week. So there's some big things going out to Sammy, Stephanie, Sarah, Sydney, Nicole, Shane, and Alexandra. And thank you so much to Lindsay, Emily, Ashley, Adrienne, Jillian, Vicki, Angel, and Stephanie. And we got a big thanks going out to Jesse, Joe,

Betty, Courtney, Sam, Catherine, Jamie, and Aaron. And last but not least, thank you so much to, I think it's pronounced simmret. Thank you so much, thank you to Taylor, thank you Paul, Grace, Savannah, LeVern, Rila, Mary Beth, Reina, and thank you to Kiki. We appreciate you guys so much. Thank you for joining our Patreon. For those who want to join, head on over to patreon.com. Slash going west podcast. We have over 37 bonus episodes on there full length ad free and cases that we wouldn't discuss on this show. So check them out.

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