Let's Go To Court! - 43: Deadly Love & The Unbelievable Kidnapping

Episode Date: November 21, 2018

Randy Stone played a big role in his community. He owned an insurance business, was a former marine, and was an active member of New Hope Baptist church. But seemingly out of nowhere, after years of loyal church attendance, Randy cut ties with the church. A short time later, he was murdered. But who would want Randy dead, and why? Then Kristin tells us about a kidnapping that sounds fishy as hell. A man dressed in a wetsuit woke Denise Huskins and Aaron Quinn. He blindfolded them with blacked out swim goggles, forced them to drink sedatives, put headphones on them, and eventually left with Denise. When Aaron came to, there were motion detecting cameras everywhere. There was red tape on the first floor of the home. The rules were clear: if he stepped outside the lines, Dense would be hurt. When Aaron called police to report the horrific crime, they didn’t believe him. And now for a note about our process. For each episode, Kristin reads a bunch of articles, then spits them back out in her very limited vocabulary. Brandi copies and pastes from the best sources on the web. And sometimes Wikipedia. (No shade, Wikipedia. We love you.) We owe a huge debt of gratitude to the real experts who covered these cases. In this episode, Kristin pulled from: 20/20 episode, “Stranger than fiction” “‘I’m not guilty’: Matthew Muller gives jailhouse interview about bizarre kidnapping, assault on Vallejo couple,” NBC Los Angeles “Primary suspect in Gone Girl kidnapping: ‘We fancied ourselves a sort of Ocean’s Eleven,’” People.com “Harvard-educated lawyer charged in Gone Girl kidnapping that cops initially called a hoax,” People.com “Vallejo kidnapping suspect Matthew Muller faces more criminal charges,” KRON4.com “Man convicted in 2015 Vallejo kidnapping case returning to court, representing himself,” Fox40.com In this episode, Brandi pulled from: “Killer Love” by Mark Morris and Brian Burnes, The Kansas City Star “Former Marine’s Murder Exposes Wife’s Affair with Pastor” by Brooke Stangeland and Alexa Valiente  

One semester of law school. One semester of criminal justice. Two experts! I'm Kristen Pitts. I'm Brandi Egan. Let's go to court! On this episode, I'll talk about a kidnapping so strange, it's hard to believe. And I'll be talking about a murder that tore apart a God-fearing, Jesus-loving, Baptist congregation in Independence, Missouri. Oh my god, I'm so excited.

I have no idea what that's about. I bet you know the case. Oh, it's the, um, okay. Nevermind. Okay. I would be shocked if you don't know this case because it's local and it was a pretty big deal yeah when it happened yeah okay i'm with you okay are you ready i am ready let me get away my distractions how many tabs do you have open i didn't have any open just the intros tab and then my script but then i didn't have you sound like a dude who has

a bunch of porn up because i heard you yeah you clicked like five times and you're trying to tell me oh i just had like one window open um i'm gonna apologize ahead of time i have like a little bit of a thing i'm getting over here so sorry if i cough on the podcast. Okay. Randy and Teresa Stone had known each other practically their whole lives. They'd grown up together in the northeast part of Kansas City, but had lost contact when Randy joined the Marines. The two reconnected when he returned from his service in 1990. And they were married that same year. The couple was married in the church that Teresa had grown up in, New Hope Baptist Church in Independence, Missouri. Following their wedding, the Stones became very involved in the church, with Teresa working in the kitchen and singing

in the choir. Randy was an invested member of the church as well, but he truly became a devoted follower in 1999 when Pastor David Love came to New Hope Baptist Church. Do you know the case? I think, okay, here's the thing. I think I have an idea, but I don't know much at all, so this is exciting. Excellent. David Love was an articulate, attractive, charismatic man of God. And he and Randy. I know. I saw your face over there. Getting you a little heated.

Articulate man of God, huh? And he and Randy quickly became close friends with Randy serving as his financial officer at the church. Uh-oh. Randy called Pastor Love the most influential person in his life. And he really took to the demanding interpretation of Baptist Christianity that he preached. Christianity that he preached. He challenged his congregation to stay strong in their faith and not take the easy, compromising, more liberal stance that, say, their Southern Baptist friends might take. Is that not fucking hilarious? Because I know a lot of Southern Baptists, and I would not say any of them are liberal. They're not liberal folks okay correct me if i'm wrong but i think that the southern baptists um were anti-dancing until like the late 90s yeah right yeah so like this church fun yeah

this church is like super prim and proper real buttoned up real don't be like those hippie liberals in the southern in Church. That's right. Holy hell. Amazing. Amazing. Randy loved a challenge, and he had a competitive nature that transferred easily from the church to the athletic field to the office. And that served him well when he opened his own agency with Farmers Insurance. Teresa worked in the office with him, first as a customer service rep and later as a licensed agent. Together, they grew the business to one of the top agencies in the region.

Teresa often held down things at the office so Randy could be out in the public, the face of the agency, meeting with clients and fostering their relationship with Farmer's Corporate Office. It was here, at their office, just off I-70 and Nolan Road in Independence, where Teresa noticed something was wrong on March 31, 2010. That afternoon, Teresa pulled into the parking lot next to Randy's Blue Malibu, the only other car in the lot, and looked up to the building and saw that the blinds of their office were closed. That's odd, she thought.

She'd opened them that morning, and Randy usually only closed them before he was locking up for the night, usually well after dark. She entered the office, calling out Randy's name as she did. There was no answer. She looked in the storage room. No Randy. She entered the office calling out Randy's name as she did. There was no answer. She looked in the storage room. No Randy. She went to his office. No Randy.

Then she went down the hall to her office. And there on the floor next to her desk was Randy. Oh no. Blood was spattered across the furniture and walls. A trickle of blood that had run out of his ear had already began to dry. And he lay in a puddle of blood and splintered bone and brain matter. Oh, my. His eyes were black and his lips were blue. How long had he been there?

A hot minute. I don't know the answer. Man, you could be a medical examiner. Yes, it seems to me that he's been here a hot minute. And then they cut to commercial break. Teresa called his name. She begged him to wake up. And when it was clear that that wasn't happening,

she reached the phone and called her parents. She told them that Randy had been shot and that she needed them to come to the office. And then she called 911. Weird. Okay. Right? Weird. Yeah.

She told the dispatcher that she needed emergency crews as she just found her husband on the floor of her office unresponsive. But when the dispatcher asked her if she knew what was wrong with her husband, curiously, she gave them a different answer than she had given her parents. He's been shot? Okay. He's been, I don't know. There's blood everywhere. It's coming out of his ear, she told the dispatcher. The dispatcher tried to calm Teresa and told her to wait outside until emergency crews arrived. The first on the scene happened to be a member of the church. He ran inside quickly and determined that Randy was dead. Then he came outside to deliver the news to Teresa. She cried. She yelled,

no! And then she collapsed into the officer's arms. As more emergency crews and police officers arrived on the scene, so did church members. What? As Teresa's call

to her parents had set off the church phone tree. Oh, great. Right? So in just minutes, Kim Love, Pastor David's wife, was on the scene consoling Teresa. Then, within a half hour, earlier than anyone expected, Pastor Love himself was there. Instead of rushing to Teresa's side, the wife of his best friend, to console her,

Pastor Love stood calmly at a distance and intently watched as investigators went in and out of the insurance office. There were people everywhere, church members, family members, first responders, detectives. It was chaos. But somehow, among the chaos, David Love found a quiet moment to tear his eyes away from the investigation and whisper to Teresa, get rid of the track phone. And if the police ask you about Randy's gun, tell them he sold it three months ago. Whoa, whoa, whoa. What, Kristen? Just helpful advice from her pastor.

He said this in front of other people? But quietly and just to her. Yeah, I remember this story, so I'll stop. Detective Keith Rosewarren was the lead detective on the case, and he felt a connection to Randy Stone almost immediately. Like Randy, Rosewarren was a veteran having served 20 years in the army. It was an immediate kinship. He saw that Randy's life was not so different than his own. And he made a promise that he'd solve this whodunit for his military brother. A cursory glance of the office revealed something big to Detective Rosewaren.

Randy Stone knew and trusted his killer. There was no sign of a struggle at the office, not even a hint of a minor altercation. And robbery was ruled out as a motive when over $150 in cash was found just sitting on a desk in one of the offices. And Randy's wallet was still in his pocket. A random shooting in a small office on the busiest stretch of road in Independence didn't seem like a likely alternative to the detective either. No. This was a targeted attack. What a missed opportunity to say this was personal

i want to pause here just for one second because i just realized that i have not said where i pulled most of this information from this the majority of this information comes from this amazing six-part series in the kansas city star that was written eric ad Kansas City Star that was written. Eric Adler? No. Oh, I really like that. It was written by Mark Morris and Brian Burns. Okay.

Sorry to play favorites with my Kansas City Star reporters. That's okay. Is that the nerdiest thing I've ever done? It's pretty nerdy. Pretty up there. Okay. Okay. Sorry.

As Kristen said, this was personal. Dun, dun, dun. Detectives found a gun at the office, but it didn't match the spent shell casing found next to Randy's body. The gun they found was a.38 caliber Ruger, while the shell casing belonged to a larger gun, a.40 caliber Glock. While investigators were still at the office looking for clues, two detectives sat down with Teresa Stone at police headquarters to go

over what had happened that day and to see if she had any insight into who could have possibly killed her husband. And she was like, could I get away for a second and just get rid of this burner phone real quick? I'm sorry, I've got evidence to destroy. Excuse me, and just get rid of this burner phone real quick i'm sorry i've got evidence to destroy excuse me i just need to dump this somewhere real quick guys look close your eyes close your eyes count to 30 so things in this interview were odd from the beginning when detectives asked theresa if she could account for her whereabouts that day during the time that Randy was shot, she could. Down to the minute. And she had the receipts to prove it. Yeah.

She was like, well, I was at the gas station. I left there at 1014. And here's my receipt for that. And then I went to Marshall's. I was there until 1147. Here's my receipt for that. So immediately went to marshall's i was there until 11 47 here's my receipt for that and so immediately this is a red flag yeah and uh detectives are like okay no one on the planet could account for their time to this detail unless they'd already known there was a need to

create an alibi yeah then detectives asked theresesa about the gun they'd found in the office they asked her if it was the only gun that randy owned and she said yeah she was pretty sure it was the only one he had and when they pressed her about the possibility of him owning a larger gun a glock as they had been told by his friends she said she hadn't seen that gun in probably like a year or so so she figured he must have sold it and they're like yeah okay then the questioning turned to the state of their marriage yes teresa told detectives money had been tight recently because they'd made investments in the business to grow it. But the relationship was strong and their marriage was better than ever.

They were very much in love. Uh-huh. And that's when detectives... I'm sure she was in love. Ooh! Boom! Was that like a little foreshadowing, Kristen? Yeah, it's brilliant foreshadowing. I'm sure no one has put it

together. And so this is when detectives brought up a letter that they found torn up into nine pieces in the bottom of her trash can at the office. It was a love letter written to Teresa on her birthday. Who writes love letters? Right so they're like hey so we found this letter in your trash can it was like torn up into little pieces and it was at the like the very bottom as if it'd been placed there know anything about that she's like no i don't have no idea what you're talking about i don't know anything about a letter oh come on and so detectives are like okay no problem going to go talk to crime scene investigators, see if we can get a copy of that. You hold tight right here. Oh, I love it.

I love it. So she sits there in the investigation room. Watch her squirm. They've got her on video and she sits there and she goes, no, she didn't say anything out loud. Did she? Oh, great. I forgot about that.

No. No. Yes. So they have her on tape. I forgot about that. No! No! Yes! So they have her on tape doing that. Clearly she's never seen an episode of Dateline. That's what I'm saying. Do they not watch TV? Do they not read books?

I mean... Yeah. I'm sorry. You don't even have to watch Dateline. You can just watch Law & Order. Something. Anything. You know that they're recording you when you're in that room.

If you're going to commit a crime, you should study. That's right. This is the part where we tell you how to commit a crime. You need to do your research. Watch Dateline. Watch 2020. Watch 48 Hours. Watch

all the Law and Order. Watch Crime Scene or CSI. Yeah. Also,si yeah yeah also forensic files just go ahead and take a week yeah do a i mean do a little bit of homework so they leave the room they go to get a copy of this letter she says that thing and they get it on tape well they come back in and they have a photocopy of this letter that they've now pieced back together so they've got it like taped back together and they've got a photocopy of it she looks at it she glances over it quickly and then she like conjures up some story about how years ago it was given to her by a secret admirer her while she was at work and

it was left on her it was left on her car and she'd brought it into her office and she'd recently come across it again and she tore it up because she didn't want her husband to find it and think that there was something going on uh-huh right yeah okay so detectives let her leave that day with the sliver of hope that they believed her secret admirer line are you gonna read us the letter oh maybe oh my god please but in reality detectives believed that they had just uncovered proof of a long rumored affair at the new hope baptist church and perhaps had uncovered a motive for murder yep because they believed the author of that love letter

was none other than Pastor David Love. Are you shocked, Kristen? Here is a snippet of the letter. Yes. Happy birthday, Love, in all caps.

You are so very precious to my heart. I care for you more than anyone on earth. I'm not in control of things yet, but when we are fully together, your birthday will always be exciting, full of surprises, romantic, and all about loving you. You are the center of my world i praise you i adore you i'm blessed by you i need you i love you i remember nine years ago telling you i had something for you in my office oh it was me oh no i wanted to give you me that kiss you took and then you gave me one back i felt like it was my birthday gross it's so gross oh okay you know he really lost me at

the thing in the office it was me but i really it was me. But I really don't like the, you took a kiss, gave one. No. No. Yeah. Ugh. Gross. So over the next couple of weeks, detectives. How old was she?

Oh, gosh. I don't know. Okay. I think she had two adult children. Oh, okay. Never mind. They were like college age age so i would guess okay 40s mid 40s because i was gonna say he says in that letter nine years ago when we met yeah i

was picturing her much younger yeah so her her thing about like oh it's from years ago and then you add in right and it's like okay no. They were at an appropriate age. Damn it. Plenty appropriate age to be having a 10-year affair, Kristen. No, I mean that more in like the timeline wouldn't add up. Oh, I got you. So they could catch her in a lie. I got you. I got you. Although you know how much I love age gaps.

Right. Over the next couple of weeks, detectives focused their efforts on finding proof of the affair they believed was going on between David and Teresa. And rumors of this affair were all over the place throughout this church. It was like everyone was talking about it. You can't hide something for nine years. No. And police formulated a theory that David had used Randy's own Glock to kill him. But they needed to know how involved Teresa was in this plot.

In the meantime, Randy's funeral was held at New Hope with Pastor Love delivering a heartfelt eulogy to his longtime friend. Is that not fucking terrible? Yep, that's awful. I think it's disgusting. Yeah. We weep not just because of the separation of our loved one, but because of the questions that death brings. Questions like why? Why him?

Why now? Then he answered. Because I fucking killed him. Yeah. Terrible. So it was the things that Teresa had done in like the day of the murder that originally had detectives casting suspicion on her. The accounting of her time down to the minute. The fact that she told her parents Randy had been shot and then didn't say that to the dispatcher, etc.

But it was what she wasn't doing after the murder that caused that suspicion to grow. By April 20th, three weeks had passed since Randy Stone's murder. And that's enough time to get over your husband, right? Is that what she's saying? A typical person who's had their spouse murdered, what do you think in the three weeks after they're doing? They're probably calling detectives every day yeah multiple times a day offering them tips asking them if they have any leads like following up in these three weeks she hadn't called detectives at all because she wouldn't want them to solve the murder.

But what she had done was visited their insurance agent to find out how quickly she could get paid out on the life insurance policy. Ooh. Ooh. Yeah. Okay. So it's been three weeks. It's April 20th. Three weeks have gone by since the murder.

Detectives are working on the case. They're piecing together this theory about an affair. They're gathering evidence. And finally, they're like, we're going to have to bring her in. We're going to have to do more questioning. So on that day, Detective Rose Warren asked her to come into the station for more questioning. He felt that she was going to be the easier one of the two to break under questioning. Well, yeah.

I mean, if she said, oops, I forgot that. Yeah, exactly. So he has her come into the station and he gets her to sign a Miranda waiver. Oh, my God. So he can question her without any legal representation. Mm-hmm. In these weeks, he had put together like a pretty good stack of circumstantial evidence. But prosecutors were not willing to move forward until they had something tangible, some confession from either Teresa or David that an affair was for sure going on. So Rose Warren starts out the investigation that day or the interrogation that day by focusing on that torn up love letter.

He was like, teresa if what you're saying is true if this was written by someone that was infatuated with you and we need to know who that is so we can rule them out as a suspect yeah but teresa stuck to her secret admirer story she was like i don't know who it was it was a secret admirer they left it on my thing and he's like okay so you just held on to it for all those years because it was a secret admirer sure so he keeps pushing harder he quotes from the letter i praise you i adore you i'm blessed by you theresa this sounds like christian verbiage uh-huh did david love write this letter he just full-on well yeah because i mean it says we kissed yeah come on and that was it teresa stone cracked yes she admitted he wrote the letter and then she spilled all the details

about how they'd been having an affair for almost 10 years it had started out as meeting like once or twice a week for sex and then it had escalated and escalated until they were banging two or three times a day oh my god and then she still had her husband at home to take care of and she said it was exhausting what do you mean funny she was like i had to kill him i couldn't take it anymore i'm exhausted i've been taking a real pounding here brandy i'm sorry i mean that would be exhausting. Yes. She'd even had a real scare in 2005 when she became pregnant with David's baby. Randy had undergone a vasectomy years before.

Yeah. But she convinced him that it was possible, rare but possible, to conceive after a vasectomy. And Randy warmed to the idea of welcoming another child. conceive after a vasectomy and randy warmed to the idea of welcoming another child ultimately theresa had a miscarriage and she considered this an act of god that spared her from having to explain to randy that the baby wasn't his that make you just uh just disgusts me yeah yeah there's so many things yeah Yeah. Over the years, the affair had grown from just sex to full on infatuation with one another. And David and Teresa fantasized about leaving their spouses and marrying each other. They had countless emails back and forth about what their life would be, what their wedding would be like.

Like, oh, my gosh. Ridiculous stuff. Really? Yes. They were planning an outdoor wedding. Okay, why am I weirded out by that more than anything? And when she found the perfect dress, David was going to be the first one to see it. God.

I can't believe how old they were yeah i mean this sounds like two dumb kids right yeah these were grown-ass adults dumb adults yeah so over this 10 years their spouses had not been without suspicion yeah i was I was going to say, you can't go bang somebody two or three times a day without raising some eyebrows. Both Kim Love and Randy Stone had confronted their spouses over the years when the rumors had swirled about an affair. But both had brushed off the questions. Once Kim caught David sending an I love you text

to someone on his phone that wasn't her. But David told her it was some line about how it was someone he didn't even know. And to prove to her that she was the only woman in his life, he removed texting from their phone plans the next day. And then promptly went out and bought burner phones for he and his mistress. Yeah. Yeah. He's like, look, no, I swear it's nobody.

Look, this is how much i love you i'm taking texting off our phones i won't even be able to text anymore no problem i'm you're the only woman in my life no oh i'm so gross so all of this is going on in this interrogation room she's spilling all these details meanwhile in like a satellite room in the police headquarters all of these police and investigators that have been involved in this case are gathered around watching all of these details coming up because here's the deal randy stone was friends with a lot of police officers sure he had a military background it was just the type of person he connected to lots of the police officers. Sure. He had a military background. Yeah. It was just the type of person he connected to.

Lots of the police officers were members of the church. And so it was just like, it was his crowd of friends. Yeah. And so they were just like glued to this TV watching all of these details just come out. I bet those guys were pissed. Oh, yeah. Once Teresa had spilled all the details about the decade-long affair detective Rose Warren turned the line of questioning to the discrepancies and the two

phone calls she made immediately after she discovered her husband's body in the office that day so the detective is like so when you called your parents you knew that Randy had been shot but then when you called 9-1-1 that, you didn't know he'd been shot. Yeah. Explain that one to me, Teresa. Who told you he'd been shot? Huh? Who told you?

Come on. Tell me the truth. Oh, shit. And Teresa was like, what? I didn't know he was shot. I swear. I swear. I had no idea.

And the detective's like, come on, Teresa. I know that you're not being truthful. I swear. I had no idea. And the detective's like, come on, Teresa. I know that you're not being truthful. Be truthful. And with that, Teresa lowered her head and said, he sent me a text and told me. God, she was easy to crack. Super easy to crack. And the detective's like, what? Okay.

Norman and I just watched the second austin powers yeah for like this is stupid so i'll cut this but probably who knows we'll find out um we watched it on vacation because it was like the only thing on yeah um do you remember the will ferrell character who you just had to ask in the same question three times? That's who she is. That's who she is. She's totally that character. Yeah. Maybe even just two times.

Just two times, yeah. And so she lowers her head and she says, he sent me a text and told me. And the detective says, who? Who? Who sent you a text? In an almost whisper, Teresa gave the answer that the detective had been waiting for. Brother love. I hate that she called him that.

Well, yeah. But that's like a church thing. Well, yeah, let's hope. But Teresa maintained she hadn't played any part in planning the murder. Of course. she hadn't played any part in planning the murder of course so at this point like all of this stuff's come out and but she's still like not being like 100 with what the plan was and all of that and so they're like who are you what are you doing who are you trying to protect like this man murdered your husband and she's like i'm trying to protect a man of God.

He's a righteous man of God and all this stuff. Yeah. And so finally they get her to kind of like participate with them trying to get a confession out of him. So she calls David Love. Okay. On the phone. It's like after midnight. She calls him at home on the recorded line.

But immediately he's suspicious. Yeah. He's like, who she calls him at home on the recorded line but immediately he's suspicious yeah he's like who are you smarter than oh he's so smart he's like who are you with and it's clear that his wife is also in the room because then she gets on the line she's like what are you trying to do with my husband what are you trying to do and so like it goes bad they tell her to hang up the phone. She gets off the phone. And I guess on the love home, she's like, what's going on? Are you involved in this? And all David Love says to his wife, he goes, oh, no. She's not going to pin this on me.

Oh. Yes. Whoa. Yeah. So he, like, gets in the car and leaves. It's almost 1 o'clock in the morning by now and they've decided that since this isn't gonna work since this confession over the phone isn't work they're gonna bring him in they're gonna arrest him bring him in for questioning so they bring him in that night theresa's been at the police station for like eight hours of interrogation at this point

and they still have her there yeah so they bring him in but unlike Teresa he wouldn't sign any waiver and he's like nope I'm not gonna speak to you guys without a without a lawyer present I don't trust you guys I'm a pastor I don't know the law okay and so they're like fine we're gonna book you for the night expect first degree murder charges tomorrow morning uh-huh and so they do hoping that that will get him to cooperate if they you know dangle that in front of him unfortunately those charges didn't come through you're kidding me no they had to release him the next day prosecutors weren't willing to charge him until they had the analysis of his cell phones and his computers complete and that could take months what yes

so they're like nope let him go isn't that nuts i'm amazed couldn't you charge him and then just move forward with all of that you know it's like i don't want i don't want anybody to go to prison for no reason obviously but like it's pretty clear here what's going on yeah yeah so those charges didn't come through they had to release him but, those computer forensics showed up a lot of stuff. They got a lot of emails and stuff between them, some that I mentioned already. Specifically, there was one where Pastor David argued that the Bible says that even murder can be forgiven. No. He cited the story.

Thou shalt not commit murder. He cited the story in the Bible where King David orchestrated the death of Bathsheba's husband, Uriah, so that he could take her as his wife. And then King David was still blessed by God. Oh, my God. And computer forensics also uncovered what they believe to be the catalyst of the whole murder plot. they believe to be the catalyst of the whole murder plot. They uncovered emails in the summer of 2010 that Randy had sent to the new Hope Baptist Church two weeks before his murder. One read,

I'm resigning as the finance minister and as a Sunday school teacher effective immediately. I do not want to talk about it. I do not want any emails. I do not want any visits. He was completely leaving the church. He figured figured out the affair he figured out that there was like a lot of stuff being swept under the rug at the church like pastor love's son had been arrested on dui which is like super frowned upon in this very buttoned up church. And it actually. I imagine they were anti-drinking.

Oh, yeah. It totally put the pastor's position at risk if the church found out about it. And he had totally swept it under the rug, hadn't told the congregation about it at all. And so he was just like, I'm not going to be a part of this. I'm leaving this church. Teresa, you're coming with me if you want to stay married to me. Like, we will get through this, but we're going away. Teresa, you're coming with me if you want to stay married to me.

Like, we will get through this, but we're going away. And so in Teresa's mind, she's being taken away from David that she's totally infatuated with. Yeah, yeah. So they're like, that's it. This is what caused it. So they bring Teresa back in for more questioning, and she admits that she told David that that she wanted randy dead and that yep and that she gave pastor love the code to their security system their garage code and the code to their gun safe to get randy's gun to kill him okay Okay. I did not see that coming. I really thought it would have been more David Love's idea.

It totally was David Love's idea in the beginning. And she was like, no, no. If we're meant to be together, God will find a way. God will find a way. And then she was like, let's help God. Let's help God. Here are the codes to all of our stuff. Take this gun.

Go kill him. So they were totally in on it together. Wow. So they secured an indictment of first degree murder against David Love finally in November of 2010. So it'd been like eight months since the murder. Good grief. Yeah. And they were like trying to get him to take a plea deal up into the trial.

Wait, this whole time was he like preaching on Sundays? Oh, yeah. Oh, my God. Yeah. Can you imagine? No. Did you know the church had figured that out? Oh, yeah.

So I was not going to talk about this until the end, but I'll talk about it now. It's fine. So at the time that the murder happened, the congregation was approximately 250 to 300 people. But by this time, by the time that the charges came through, it dropped to 100 yeah i'm surprised it was that yeah that's the power of habit more than anything else for sure

for sure so they secure charges against him and he's like he's going he gets a public defender he's going to go forward with trial. He's maintaining his innocence this whole time. And then finally, his wife is about to be deposed. His child's about to be deposed. His Teresa's daughter is about to be deposed. And the public defender is looking at all of this. And she's like, you've got to take a deal. You've got to protect them from all of this.

And so his public defender called the prosecutor and was like, would you take, because he was facing first degree murders and would be an automatic life in prison without the possibility of parole. And so the public defender calls up the prosecutor and she's like, would you take murder too to take without the possibility of parole off the table and they said yes and so the prosecutor was like yes but he has to take that deal by monday because monday would be when all of those depositions would start yeah and so she's like i don't want to do all of those depositions if we don't have to yeah by now it's like it's

november of 2011 a whole year has passed the trial is scheduled to start in December yeah and so she's like I don't want to all put all those people through those depositions if we don't have to so yes I will I will give this deal but he has until Monday to take it yes and so she calls up Kim Love David's wife who stood by his side this whole time you're kidding me yeah and she tells her the deal and she's like we've got to get him to take the deal and she's like there's no way he's going to take the deal and so that arrogant yeah so she called she has a meeting with david love and he's like absolutely not i'm innocent are you absolutely not oh but she doesn't call the the prosecutor

back yet she She's like, there's still a couple of days. Maybe he'll think on it. Maybe he'll change his mind. The next day, Kim Love calls the public defender and she's like, pastor wants to meet with you, which I fucking hate that she's calling her husband pastor.

Well, and I hate that like, he's clearly done this and we're still using nicey nice titles. No. Yeah. Your client, your defendant wants to meet with you. Like, yeah. that like he's clearly done this and we're still using nicey nice titles no yeah your client what your defendant wants to meet with you like yeah yeah so your guilty client exactly so she goes and she meets with david love and he says take the deal and the public defender's like, what? Are you serious? And he said, yes, I'm not an innocent man. I've done it all.

And I need to ask for forgiveness. Ooh, Kim did some work on him. I don't know who did the work on him, but. I'm guessing Kim. So by this time, this whole case has become such a media spectacle because it's got nationwide news. Like it's this really, you know, really conservative church. And there's been this big affair going on where the pastor has now murdered someone. And so both sides, both the prosecution and defense are like, we need to try and keep this on the quiet.

We need to try and keep the news out of this hearing where he's going to take the deal. So they threaten the Stone family, like the Randy Stone's parents and everybody, that if they leak the details of this deal, that there's a chance if it doesn't go through exactly as how they have it planned. I can't remember the exact details of this. I didn't write it down. But if they leak this information to the press, if the press hears about it, it will compromise this whole deal. And David Love could only end up getting 10 years in prison. Oh, come on. And it works.

Nobody says a word. November 9th, 2011, the hearing is held in Independence Court. He takes the stand. David Love takes the stand. They ask, did you willfully commit this murder? And he says yes. And did you use a firearm? And he says yes. And then he's sentenced to life in prison. I do not like that at all. They are. He is handcuffed. He's taken to jail. Just as everybody's leaving the courtroom, news vans pull up.

They've just now gotten the word. Like, all of these news vans come, like, screeching up to the courthouse. Yep. They've missed it. I hate that. You do? Yes.

I kind of love that they were able to do it in secret. I think it's the former reporter. They would say, yeah, that must be. I love that they were able to do it in secret. I think it's the former reporter. I would say, yeah, that must be. I love that they were able to keep it a secret. No, because who are they protecting? I think they're protecting Randy Stone's family. By threatening them and telling them if you...

Well, not threatening. Well, I guess they really did kind of threaten them. If you tell, then he's going to get 10 years? Yeah, that's... Yeah, that's threatening. Yeah. But both the defense and the prosecution wanted to keep the media out of it. Yeah, I can understand why they might want that.

Yeah. But that's not their decision. That's not their call. Right. But it worked. Then Teresa Stone, she'd held out this whole time. She'd cooperated with everything. She'd signed away her Miranda rights.

And she thought probably any minute that she'd be getting offered up a deal, no deal came. She ended up facing charges of conspiracy to commit murder. And she didn't ask for a deal. She went to court. She pled guilty. All she asked for was leniency. She said, I'm sorry. If I could do anything to change it, I would. I ask you today to show mercy. I am totally responsible for my actions. Wow. And her children got up and asked for leniency, which she was sentenced to,

do you have a guess? What was the max for her? I don't know. So I'm going to say 10 years. She got eight years. Okay. Yeah. So she was sentenced to eight years. So she'll, I think she pled guilty at the end of 2011. So at the beginning of 2012, so she'll i think she pled guilty at the end of 2011 so at the beginning of 2012 so she'll be getting out sometime 2019 2020 welcome back theresa yeah weird yeah huh so the new hope baptist church has got a new pastor now it still is around they broke ground on a new church i don't know that if it's i mean it's probably finished by now but the end of this article just talks about how they were breaking ground on a new church and uh that it would be dedicated in randy stone's honor wow that's cool

and that since this has happened since the new pastor has taken over and they've started to rebuild the congregations back up to like 300 people wow yeah well you know i think that's key is like building a new building and dedicating it to him rather than trying to pretend it didn't happen yeah so david's david love has a possibility of parole but he will likely be like 80 years old before that even comes up yeah i think like seven 70 something he probably will knock it out but there's a chance he could be paroled 80 years old before that even comes up. Yeah. I think like 70-something. He probably will knock it out, but there's a chance he could be paroled. Wow. Well, it's all up to God, I guess. It's up to God.

That's right. Wow. Holy crap. God blesses him like he did King David. Yikes. Okay. Are you ready ready for a kidnapping you know i'm always ready for a kidnapping this is so good i'm so excited so good it's 3 a.m in vallejo california aaron quinn and denise huskins wake up to lights in their eyes and laser beams roaming their bedroom they hear men all over their house a guy comes in wearing a wetsuit he's got a gun

he knows their names was he wearing the flippers I would hope not. Can you imagine? The bloopers were a bad idea. He tries to run away. He puts some, this is, sorry, this is a bad transition. Sorry. He puts zip ties at the edge of the bed. He turns to Denise, says, you tie Aaron's hands behind his back. Okay, now tie his feet.

By the way, Denise, you're doing a great job. Are you comfortable? What? Uh-huh. Then, once Denise and Aaron are zip tied up, the man shoves them both into the closet. He blindfolds them with blacked out swim goggles what the fuck he puts headphones on them the headphones played loud soothing music oh like i'd be terrified right now but this this bomb music is just i can't even fight the relaxation then he gave them drinks. The drinks were this. Pina coladas?

I wish. They were this nasty mix of cough syrup and sedatives. Oh, okay. So Denise is sitting there. Scissor. So Denise is sitting. What? That's a real thing.

Yeah, I know. I'm just ignoring you. So rude. Purple drank. Yes. You're 32. thing yeah i know i'm just ignoring you so rude purple drank you're 32 just to remind her so denise is sitting there with the soothing music but aaron doesn't have the same stuff playing in his headphones what's in his headphones angry rock music he's listening

to a pre-recorded voice oh it says don't resist if you resist we'll hurt denise we'll use a stun gun on her we'll slice her face open this is a kidnapping we're here to take denise whoa that's when someone grabbed denise and threw her in the trunk of a car. She still had the goggles on, still had the headphones on. At this point, Aaron is still listening to his headphones. And then I can't tell if the recorded voice said this or if he later found a note, but at any rate, they wanted two payments of $8,500 in exchange for Denise. That's an odd amount. He thought so, too.

He's, like, freaking out and he's drugged up. But through that fog, he thinks to himself, that's really odd. That's, like, what I have in the bank. I can pay that without going to the cops it's a low amount okay the drink makes him pass out when he comes to he's alone in the closet and there are motion detectively god and there are motion detector i like it you just don't even acknowledge me anymore kristen you're making me cry i'm trying to make you up your game i'm like i'm gonna ignore any

reference to r kelly so when he comes to he's alone in the closet and there are motion detector cameras positioned all over the house and there's red tape on the first floor of the house. Aaron was told, you set one foot outside the lines, we kill Denise. What? You go to the police, we kill your whole family.

Oh my gosh. Aaron didn't know what to do. He waited for 10 hours. And finally, after a lot of thought and panic and worry, he broke down and called the police. He was terrified. He thought by placing this call, I could be killing Denise. I don't know. But he called and police arrived on the scene and pretty soon they did a news conference and Lieutenant Kenny Park of the Vallejo Police Department announced that they were treating this as a kidnapping for ransom. They said, hey, if you know anything about this, please come forward.

Instantly, this was all over the news. Everyone was looking for Denise. But it was kind of tough. Police had no suspects. They had no leads and kidnappings aren't very common yeah and the story was pretty fucking weird yeah police were like this is strange here come these two hotties they're both therapists. She's blonde and has excellent bone structure. He's got these piercing eyes and also has excellent bone structure. I'm just making this up.

No, but here's the other thing. So they live in a beautiful home in the low crime city of Vallejo, California. This doesn't seem right. And this seems so far fetched. This doesn't seem right. And this seems so far-fetched. I mean, a guy in a wetsuit broke into your home with a bunch of criminals and set up cameras and red tape. Super weird.

Gave you purple drink and like, we don't buy it. Police thought, okay, what's the more likely scenario here? That this story played out exactly as Aaron says it did? Or that Aaron murdered Denise and now created this elaborate stupid story? Holy shit, I hadn't even thought of that. Yeah, I mean, it's just like, it's a crazy story. Had you seriously not thought of that? No, I hadn't even considered that you know what this is what happens when you're so caught up in your r kelly references

so they're like oh boy oh my gosh they questioned aaron for like 18 hours. They told him, hey, just come clean. Come on. They asked for access to his phone. Obviously, they asked for a blood sample. They asked question after question. Meanwhile, they start talking to Denise's parents. Denise's dad said that they told him, hey, just kind of prepare yourself. We don't know that this is a real kidnapping. Just kind of prepare yourself. We don't know that this is a real kidnapping. This Aaron guy is telling us a story and the story just doesn't make a lot of sense. So police are super suspicious.

And then the San Francisco Chronicle starts getting weird emails. They claim to be from the kidnappers. They get a recording. In it, a woman who sounds a hell of a lot like Denise says, My name is Denise Huskins, and I'm kidnapped. Otherwise, I'm fine. Earlier today, there was a plane crash in the Alps, and 158 people died. So that it couldn't be pre-recorded.

Right. Huh? What? Then, 48 hours after she'd been abducted, Denise reappeared. She looked to be unharmed. She wasn't crying or bruised. She explained to everyone that she'd been taken away

and she'd been raped and then her abductor had driven her hundreds of miles away from vallejo and dropped her off in huntington beach california right by her mom's house what bull fucking shit you sound just like the police they were like what the fuck we thought erin murdered you but here you are and you look fine this is so weird oh my gosh here is a relevant piece of information the book Gone Girl had been out for a while. And Gone Girl the movie had been out for like a year. So another crazy thing. Denise looks a lot like the woman who played Amy in Gone Girl the movie. Rosamund Pike.

Thank you. Police are like, no way. We read books. We watch movies. This right here is a gone girl situation first of all you're super calm second of all the kidnappers wanted some shitty ransom and they didn't even get the shitty ransom and then they like drove you almost to your mom's house? No way. No way. We don't buy it. Police start talking to Denise. They question her and she starts to get uncomfortable because she's like, I'm the victim here. I was kidnapped. I was raped. But they weren't talking to her like she was the victim. At that moment, she did not have a lawyer, obviously.

But one of her relatives had recently passed the bar, and he told her, if you're ever a suspect in a crime, get yourself a lawyer. So she was like, well, they're talking to me like I did something wrong, so we're done. I need a lawyer. That pissed the cops oh yeah they were like well this is for sure a gone girl situation police announced that the whole thing was a hoax lieutenant kenny park told me they did yeah they had what they needed they were like okay that's a pretty big rush to judgment there. What do you think they should have done?

Maybe looked into it a little further. Hmm. Weird. But didn't you hear how like, she looked just like the gone girl lady. So they have, they have a theory. Well,

but somehow theories can really solidify pretty quick. Oh my gosh. So Lieutenant Kenny Park told the media, Mr. Quinn and Ms. Huskins have plundered valuable resources away from our community. We had over 40 police detectives from the local, state, and federal level working around the clock. That is a tremendous amount of resources that, in my opinion, was wasted. Oh my God, I hope this is a fucking real-ass kidnapping

and he has to eat his fucking hat. He said they owed the community an apology. He also said that if there was sufficient evidence, he'd request that criminal charges be brought against them. Wow. Denise and Aaron were fucking pissed, I bet. Mm-hmm. They were stunned.

There was this theory floating around at the time that they'd done it so they could be, like, reality TV stars. But Denise and Aaron were like, what? No, we're like normal people we're physical therapists we've got good jobs we would never put our friends and family through this we're we're just we're not that type that's not what we would do they were adamant that what happened to them was real and horrible but aside from family and really close friends everyone thought they were full of shit no one listened to them here's the worst part it was it was all real yes oh my gosh yes it sounds insane but it was real. Okay, so here's the truth.

The kidnappers had taken Denise to a cabin in South Lake Tahoe, about 150 miles away. And when her kidnapping made the news, they turned on the TV and made Denise watch the coverage. She watched coverage of her dad telling her to be strong. For the most part, they kept her in a blacked out room, tied up and sedated. Denise thought for sure she was going to die, but she was determined. She wasn't going to spend the last moments of her life screaming in terror because she thought that that would give them some satisfaction. And by the way, it's unclear if it was one guy or like a bunch of kidnappers. But anyway.

She thought really hard about her situation and decided it's not worth it to fight back. I'm, you know, drugged up. I'm tied up. I'm probably just going to piss them off even more. So she decided I'm just going to make them see

me as a human. I'm going to try to humanize myself to them and that seemed to work a little the captor said that she and aaron were good people they didn't deserve all this then he raped her he recorded it on camera but I guess didn't like how it looked, so he did it again and told her to make it look consensual. He told her that he was being forced to rape her by this gang that he was part of, and that if she ever thought about going to the police, they'd use the videotape against her. Oh my gosh. so it was a horrible traumatizing experience for denise and then two days after that initial abduction her captor gave her another dose of sedatives put her back in the car and said i'm gonna let you go and she was like no you're not no you're not you're gonna kill me and he said no no really killing you is not part of the plan.

But as we know, he really did let her go. And the thing I couldn't figure out was like, did he know where her mom's house was? Did she request? I mean, like, but it was far out of the way for him to drive. I mean, it was just, it was weird. It was super weird. When he dropped her off, he told her, I wish we could have met under different circumstances. And you know what?

I'm done with this. I'm not going to do this sort of thing again. And then he left. So, you know, then Denise shows up. And again, she doesn't have physical bruises because she made that decision not to fight back. You know, it was a strategic decision. And she says that when she was dropped off, she was just in shock. Like, the reason she was so calm seeming was just because.

Like, I can't fucking believe this. Yes. Yeah. Yes. So, like, she saw a man. I think he was doing, like, gardening work or something. She went up to him, calmly asked to use his cell phone. That's how she called the police i mean that's that and that was used against her initially was like oh you didn't go like running up to him and say oh my god i'm denise huskins so again everyone even if she wasn't in shock i people react to stress in different ways maybe that's just not how she reacts yeah

it's funny because on the one hand i totally understand why police would be suspicious yeah because this is a crazy story yeah but it's like you were saying you can't just decide no so everyone thinks this is a hoax. It's been written off as a hoax. Meanwhile, she knew that this predator or predators were out there. Yeah. And that they'd probably do this again. What could stop them?

Time passes. Then, once again, the staff at the San Francisco Chronicle starts getting emails. Holy cow. They claim to be from the kidnappers. Buckle up. Here we go. In the emails, a man purporting to be part of the kidnapping team said that the kidnapping was absolutely not a hoax. He even seemed to feel sorry for Denise and Aaron.

Yeah. He explained that he and the other kidnappers were basically like the guys from Ocean's Eleven. What? They were like a gentlemanly crime squad. Okay. Yeah, I missed all the rape scenes in Ocean's Eleven. So he said,

we are young adults, fairly recent college graduates. I have only ever seen it on TBS, so I imagine they'd cut that out. He said, we are young adults, fairly recent college graduates, and up until now, this was a bit like a game or movie adventure. and up until now, this was a bit like a game or movie adventure. He described the group as professional thieves, though we have not been doing it that long and don't identify ourselves as such. Okay. Which makes no fucking sense.

Yeah, you just identified yourself as such. Yeah, and you don't fit the bill at all. Yeah. Anyway. yourself as such yeah and you don't fit the bill at all yeah anyway he also said we are more than two and fewer than eight in number what is this a fucking riddle it gets better all but one of us holds at least bachelor degrees including from your alma mater i don't know who this was addressed to oh my gosh yeah if mary is older than tim but tim is older than lisa how old is mary that's what that seems like no it does they explained that the kidnapping was really just them testing out a new crime see they'd been stealing cars but that wasn't super lucrative. So the guy

wrote, the operation was meant to be a test of methods that would be used later on a higher net worth target in an environment that was familiar to us and somewhat controlled. But it went terribly wrong. We are criminals, I suppose, but we have consciences, and seeing the impact of our actions on someone deeply affected us and caused us to reconsider our lives. Okay. You have no good reason to continue allowing the community to believe they are hoaxers. The operation was not about money. We are not doing so well for ourselves that $8,500 was chump change, but it was training we were after. We needed a live-fire exercise before taking on a hard target to learn how people react and iron out all the wrinkles.

For what it's worth, what could have ended up as a prolific and dangerous criminal group has disbanded, and you have victim F to thank for it. Whoa! Wait, who are victims A, B, C, D, and E? That's, you know what, I hadn't even thought about that. But, um, we might figure that out, actually. Now I'm putting stuff together but anyway okay then they told the vallejo police that they had 24 hours to issue an apology to denise oh

okay now is that not the weirdest it yeah they're like um they're like good guy bad guys like they're like they're, bad guys. They're like bad guys who don't want to admit that they're bad guys. Yeah. Like, really, no, we're really good guys. You know, we thought about doing more awful shit, but then we felt bad. Yeah. This is crazy. Then the man sent two photos.

One was of the room where Denise was held, and the other was of a squirt gun painted black with a flashlight and laser beam attached. Well, I guess the beam wasn't. You know what I mean. Police. Vallejo police were like, OK, OK aaron and denise are behind these emails what yeah everybody calm down these two do not know when to quit what a bunch of dicks then the email stopped everyone thought that den that Denise and Aaron were full of shit. For nearly a year, police wouldn't return their IDs.

They kept their cars for a while. Denise and Aaron said they felt like fugitives. Yeah. Then, in Dublin, California... When they're victims. Yeah, of a fucking crazy horrible crime. Holy shit. Then in Dublin, California, about 40 miles away from Vallejo, a couple was asleep in their bed.

I believe they had a child, too. So they wake up in the middle of the night to an intruder shining a flashlight in their eyes. He wants to restrain them with zip ties. Excuse it? He didn't say, but. He just ditched the flippers this time. Yeah, he's like, I've learned. Okay, I've learned the flippers.

Bad idea. I'm wearing my sneaks. Sneaks. So the husband starts. They're for sneaking. So the husband starts fighting with the guy. Oh my gosh. They struggle back and forth. Eventually, the husband starts fighting with the guy. Oh my gosh. They struggle back and forth.

Eventually, the intruder flees the scene. The woman calls police. Police show up. And they discover, holy shit, that the intruder left behind his cell phone. Okay. So Dublin police take the cell phone. And this next part, I am making making up but i'm pretty sure i'm right okay okay so in oh shit i forgot to say um there's an amazing episode of 2020 on this oh

shoot that's bad it's fine amazing episode called it out now okay so in the episode they say something like listen we're like the only podcast in the world that mentions our sources so okay true true story true story true story so um yeah so sorry in the 2020 in the 2020 episode they said this thing like they traced the phone back to some town in California. And I'm thinking, well, how do you trace a phone back when it's in your possession? And I thought, well, maybe I guess you could do the pinged cell towers and stuff, but that would take a really long time, and they seem to do this quickly. So what I think happened, even though they did not say this in the episode,

what I think happened is they pulled up the not say this in the episode, what I think happened is they pulled up the old cell phone, went through the contacts, hit mom, and dialed his mom. Because his mom, they called her. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh my gosh. So she picks up the phone.

She says, yes, this phone belongs to my son. He misplaced it yesterday. And they're like, oh, oh, great. Did he? What's your son's name? She's like, oh, it's Matthew Muller. Oh, and he's living out in South Lake Tahoe right now. Oh, oh.

Do you need his address? Oh. They're like, yes, please. That would be great. You've been a world of help. So police looked into Matthew Muller, and they were stunned. He was a former Marine and a graduate of Harvard Law School. Holy shit.

Mm-hmm. He was married and working as an immigration attorney he was handsome again everyone in this story has great bone structure including the bad guy so he was handsome successful he'd been on the news a few times i mean you say that like you're jealous you have excellent cheekbones kristin i have big old chubby cheekbones not too chubby cheekbones, Kristen. I have big old chubby cheekbones. You have two big old chubby cheekbones? You know what I mean. I have big old cheeks. No, you don't.

You have great cheekbones. It's the highlighter. It's the illusion. It's visual trickery. But thank you. You're welcome. Don't suck it. But things weren't as perfect as they seemed he and his wife were divorcing

and he was actually getting disbarred so okay sorry i have to go back to your cheeks if you didn't have some amount of like cheekiness you wouldn't be able to have dimples you're acting like dimples are great, but I'm 33. Like, they stop being cute after, like, eight. They're fantastic. You just want to stick your finger in them, don't you? Ding! Do you think of, like, Mario Lopez when you see me?

I have never thought of Mario Lopez when I've seen've seen you but i will now what about my sweet jerry curl and your soul glow by the way i'm wearing a scrunchie today how do you feel they're coming back i know they're coming back but i didn't know if maybe i was like getting in a little too early no no you're fine okay i love it all right okay sorry back to your story so he was also wearing a scrunchie if you can handle it with your head as big as it is now what me with my excellent bone structure and adorable dimples are you wondering how i fit into this yeah so he and his wife were divorcing and he was getting disbarred.

Okay. So his life was falling apart. So he was like, well, I guess I'll turn to a life of crime. Yeah. But I'll be a gentleman criminal. I'm going to be on the other side of the law now. Seen that movie.

Police go to the house in Lake Tahoe. They arrest Matt Muller and they found a bunch of evidence. The car he drove, which he mentioned in one of his emails to the San Francisco Chronicle, still had the GPS history in it. Well, damn. And it showed the spot on Huntington Beach where he dropped off Denise. In the house, they found the blacked out swim goggles that denise and aaron had tried describing and there was a long blonde hair still stuck in the

duct tape oh then they found the painted gun thing which matthew had taken a picture of and sent to the paper all of a sudden the world is like whoa oh shit we owe denise and aaron a huge fucking apology a parade yes and one million dollars you're close so their attorneys organized a news conference just to be like, hey, everyone, just in case you're wondering what this Matt Mueller thing means. It means that Denise and Aaron are victims. Yeah. They're not hoaxers. They're not attention whores. They're the heroes of this story.

Yeah. And let's all show our middle fingers to the Vallejo Police Department. So they were vindicated. But Denise said it didn't feel good. Really disappointed in you. Why? That you didn't sing Dashboard Confessional right then. Vindicated.

I am selfish. I am wrong. I am right. I swear I'm right. I swear I knew it all along. And I am. Man. Man. Man.

Senior year of high school. How many times did I sing that song? So Denise said it didn't feel good. Yeah. Because she was so upset that this other family had to be victimized in order for her to be believed. She knew this was going to happen. She in order for her to be believed yes she knew this was gonna happen she knew it was gonna happen to somebody um and that they'd strike again but no one believed her amazingly the vallejo police sort of stuck to their story. They said it was a hoax, but they'd continue to investigate it. What?

Listen, it's tough to admit you're wrong. Wow. At this point, Aaron and Denise are mad. They sue him. Wait for it. They start thinking about all the ways that the police did not help them yeah and then they're like walking down the street and they turn and they look at each other and they say

let's go to court how dare you jump ahead in my script you know i had that exact thing in there so they thought about how they had interrogated Aaron. During that interrogation, they took his cell phone. And these dumb fuckers put it in airplane mode. Oh, gosh. During the kidnapping, Matt called Aaron's cell phone twice. Oh, my gosh.

And those calls could have been traced back if they'd bothered to do it holy hell apparently they eventually did trace those calls it's tough to it's tough to know what exactly they did do yeah um but the calls came from a burner phone that had been purchased at target so they looked at the grainy surveillance footage. And my understanding is they either assumed that that was Aaron buying the phone or an accomplice of Aaron's. Wow. Also,

during the kidnapping, Denise's phone received calls. Her phone pinged near the location where she was held. In South Lake Tahoe? But I guess they disregarded it. Okay. Denise and Aaron also thought,

you know, the Dublin police, when they had that intrusion in their area, they reached out to other police departments to see if they'd experienced anything similar, any similar crimes. But Vallejo police, when we went to them with our story, they didn't do that.

Then they discovered that if they had, they would have learned about break-ins that occurred in Palo Alto and Mountain View, California. Both times, a man broke into the house wearing all black, forced the woman to put on blacked out swim goggles oh my god and drink nyquil and other sedatives and get this matt muller was questioned in one of those home invasions holy hell yeah wow what the fuck right yeah so aaron and denise are getting more and more upset about this meanwhile matthew is brought into court he struck a deal with the prosecution he agreed to plead guilty and they agreed to only ask the judge for 40 years the prosecution's logic was he's a dangerous predator we need to put him away until he's too old and weak to commit another one of these crimes. Cause I think he was like, uh,

38 when he did this. So they're thinking 40 years should do the trick. Right. At his sentencing, Matt's defense attorney argued that Matt should receive just 30 years saying that, you know, Matthew is mentally ill.

He has bipolar disorder. He suffers from depression at the sentencing. Matt spoke. He said, I'm sick with shame. He said he'd accept whatever punishment he was given. Denise and Aaron also spoke. When Denise stood, she said, now we meet face to face, eye to eye.'m denise huskins the woman behind the blindfold she talked for nearly half an hour wow she said for over a year if i came home alone i would grab a knife and look behind every door in every corner i have a hammer by my bed that i reach for in the worst of my nightmares sleep is not rest for me it's a trigger I still can't make any sense of this.

Oh my gosh. Then she said, I know without doubt or hesitation that as long as he walks free, there will be more victims. The judge sentenced Matt to, what do you think? 35 years. 40 years in prison. So Matt is in federal prison, but Denise and Aaron are still processing their feelings about how the Vallejo Police Department mishandled this crime. Eventually, the Vallejo Police did send a letter of apology. In it, they mentioned the comments that they'd made about them. And the letter said, quote, Wow. What? You're not impressed?

That's quite the apology. So in this episode of 2020... We're sorry if you found our comments unnecessary and offensive. We're sorry if you're offended. Yeah. We're sorry if you don't like being called a hoaxer. Yeah. Denise in this episode of 2020 was like, it was basically sorry, not sorry.

Yeah. Completely. So they're like looking at that shitty ass apology and they're like, not great. Here's another reason they knew that the police weren't really sorry. The primary investigator on that case was Matthew Mustard. He was awarded, I know. I hated that he had that last name because I was like, Brandy's going to get totally sidetracked. Sorry.

because I was like, Brandy's going to get totally sidetracked. Sorry. So Matthew Mustard was awarded Officer of the Year the same year that he accused Denise and Aaron of making it up. So they were like, obviously, they... Seems to me that he didn't cut the mustard. Do you hear that? That's the sound of everyone clicking pause and stopping listening to this forever that's right

there's like five people who are like this podcast doesn't cut the mustard oh sick burn Sick burn Sick burn see if I care No please keep listening So Denise and Aaron were fed up They were walking down the street All of a sudden they turned to each other And they said Let's go to court

It'll court So they sued the city of Vallejo They also sued Kenny Park Let's go to court! It'll court! So they sued the city of Vallejo. They also sued Kenny Park, who was the lieutenant who, for some reason, I guess he was maybe the spokesperson because he was always in front of the cameras, and Matthew Mustard. They sued them for defamation and emotional distress. They settled for, how much do you think? My guess earlier was $1 million. $2 million. $2.5.

Wow. Yeah, I think. That's pretty good. I think so. Yeah. I kind of thought maybe more, but you know. Yeah, I think they probably could have gotten more. Yeah.

But this story isn't over. What? Nope. Denise and Aaron believe that the police haven't finished their job. Matthew Muller. Oh, because there were other people. Yeah. So they believe that Matthew Muller was part of this group of criminals.

They said that when they were in the closet, they heard other like slamming cupboards all throughout the house. Now, in one article I read, it said that when he committed the crime, Matthew had like this speaker on his chest that had pre-recorded sounds of other people. I only read that one place, so it sounds super weird. But, you know, this whole thing was super weird. Super weird, yeah. So police and prosecutors say, he acted alone um for some reason denise and aaron don't really trust the police can't imagine can't imagine why so they they still think that there are other people walking around despite all this denise and aaron have moved forward with their lives i did not write

this down but i think that at the time of the crime they'd only been dating for like seven months wow yeah now they work with survivors of sexual abuse and they've gotten engaged denise's criminal attorney is going to officiate the ceremony all of their attorneys are going to be at the wedding wow they talked about how like it seems really weird now that they're going to have a wedding filled with attorneys but like these are people who saw them through the worst time possible so they're really grateful to them aaron said many people marry their best friend but they don't get to marry their hero oh okay you're gonna get really pissed off at this next part why well in my defense i thought this whole thing was over kristin michelle bits i know you're gonna get so pissed so i, finish the 2020 episode, which is kind of like seeing what else I could find.

So Matthew Moeller is still in prison, obviously. But in a jailhouse interview like two months ago, he said he's not guilty of raping Denise Huskins or assaulting Aaron Quinn. The reason this came up was because his guilty plea was in federal court. And now California state court is bringing charges against him too. So this time he's not going down without a fight. He says he's completely not guilty. and that the reason that he took the plea deal last time was just because he felt really bad for denise and aaron and he wasn't mentally sound oh my gosh he plans to represent himself oh no and he plans to use the insanity defense wow legal experts have weighed in

and they say that's fucking stupid. Yes. Is that you? Are you that legal expert? No, I will quote an actual legal expert. So this is legal analyst Stephen Clark said, it flies in the face of his mental health defense to at the same time be representing himself.

Duh. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But here's the thing. Matthew says he will plead guilty on one condition. See, he found out that Denise and Aaron got that settlement from the city. And if they agree to donate half of the $2.5 million to a nonprofit that helps the wrongfully convicted, he'll go ahead and plead guilty. Fuck off.

Uh-huh. Fuck off. Get out of here. Yeah. Oh, my gosh. Get ready to get more annoyed. He figures they should understand how awful it is to be wrongfully accused. Since, you know, it happened to them, too. Get the fuck out of here.

Mm-hmm. Fuck that guy. Mm-hmm. So the other horrible thing is that by being his own attorney, it means that potentially he could get to cross-examine Denise and Aaron. Yeah. So, yeah. Awesome. Fuck that guy.

He also mentioned that he's been attacked and raped in prison. Fighting real hard? A comment on that, Kristen? What? I guess he preferred to be the rapist. I just, I find it interesting. That someone who has raped someone can complain about being raped? Yeah.

Yeah? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Doesn't feel so good when the shoes on the other foot. Yep. Let's see. Oh, here's another fun tidbit. This guy is the worst. So in this late September interview, he said, I huskins and quinn's wedding is coming up soon i did not control the timing of this to suggest somehow

that i've plotted to make this happen right before they got married is ridiculous okay so we've got this thing happening where he's like going to potentially cross examine them. He's going to try to plead not guilty, all this bullshit. And they're trying to get married. In late October, Matthew Muller was back in court. He made a motion for co-counsel. So Aaron Quinn's attorney had a theory on this. He figured Matt wants co-counsel so that he can basically manipulate everyone.

So he can have someone there signing off on everything he's doing, but at the same time arguing, oh, I'm insane, you know, blah, blah, blah. But the motion was denied. Matthew Muller will be back in court on December 10th. Thank you, Kristen.

It's a cliffhanger. We're going to have to do a special podcast dedicated to all these fucking cliffhangers you keep leaving us on. I never intend to do a cliffhanger. It just happens. May I give you good news? Yeah.

Denise and Aaron got married. They did? Yeah. Yay. Yeah. When? I couldn't figure out the exact date. i did a lot of creepy things to figure out that they have gotten married you went on their facebook i'm not proud of the fact

that i stalked them but um yeah it was either late september early october excellent congratulations wish them the best yes wish mat. Wish Matthew Muller the worst. That was crazy. Yeah, it was nuts. Fucking bananas. Yeah, I feel so sorry. I feel like that is such a mind fuck because you hear that story in the beginning and you're like, no way. Yeah, no way yeah no way

that's true yeah wow oh yeah so um it's the day before thanksgiving when this podcast comes out i was looking like is in fact not when this podcast goes that'll be the day before thanksgiving so i think you should tell of our listeners some of them have heard about this because norm called you out on twitter for it how for years you thought ham was turkey tell us the story kristin of why you thought ham was turkey for your whole life. Okay, so here's the deal, people. The thing you have to know about me right away, not a big sandwich person, not huge on sandwiches. But every year, you know, we'd go over to my grandma's house and she would do a ham for Thanksgiving. I thought it was delicious.

It was like the best every every year for thanksgiving she'd have this ham and you know everyone always associates thanksgiving with turkey she'd have the ham i thought that i loved it turkey i thought it was turkey. So I would have, you know, a sandwich maybe two or three times a year. Yeah. And every time I would order turkey with it and I'd eat it and I would either think, man, they do not make turkey the way my grandma does. Turkey. Because grandma's such a good cook. Or I'd think, oh, they they messed up they put ham on this i didn't want ham i like turkey wow so yada yada yada i didn't figure out what turkey was until I was like 16.

And even then, like, so I told my family, even like to this day, I still sometimes slip up and they they spot it immediately. Immediately. Yeah. So whether you're enjoying ham or turkey this Thanksgiving, just know which one you're eating. Know which one you're eating. People will make fun of you. And think of Kristen while you're enjoying it. I can tell you something else.

Okay. I got rejected by a writer's conference yesterday. What? Do they not know who you are? Excuse me. It kind of sucked. I've noticed the magic to me getting what i want is to

think that i have no shot anytime i think i have a shot because you were like i'm for sure getting in this thing and then i really thought so it was applying it was applying to a conference and i thought that's bullshit yeah i have to apply to go to a conference i'm paying for clearly this is just a formality was not they have evidently not wow yeah so that was a real kick to the ass i'm very sorry we tell you that you're my favorite writer in this room clearly you haven't read any of Peanuts Erotica. I was so confident. I was thinking about telling you,

hey, just so you know, like we might have to record one episode of the podcast early because I might be gone, you know, this time. No. We'll be here. I'll be early because I might be gone, you know, this time. No. We'll be here. I'll be here. I'll be here for sure.

Anyway. No writer's conference for you. Just keeps things, keeps me real. Keeps that head, you know, manageable. Yeah. So what's new with you? We took a week off. I know.

We took a week off and you went and had an amazing vacation in Mexico. It was pretty sweet. And I was sick. That's how that was. Mexico was pretty sweet. I'm so jealous. It snowed here while you were gone. I mean, it snowed when you got back.

Yeah, that was great to come back to. Yeah. But weirdly, you've been to the same resort that we went yeah my one I've been to Mexico one time I won a sales contest with work and got to go to Cancun and I went to the same resort that you went to and it was awesome and okay this is even crazier. What? So the day you left, I was like looking at my memories on Facebook. Yeah. Was it the same? Same exact day that I went six years earlier.

Whoa, weird. That fucking crazy? That's super weird. That's super weird. What was your room number? I have no idea. I can't even begin to tell you. That would have been even crazier. But I think it's nuts that we went on the same date to this i'm still stuck on the

same resort yeah bananas yeah yeah we're a couple of weirdos yeah well i'm glad i'm glad we're back me too i missed it i really did too yeah Maybe it's I secretly just missed you, Kristen. Oh, and you're just too embarrassed to say that you missed my bone structure and my dimples. That's right. That's right. I didn't tell you about my panic that I had. No. So I got back, and I was thinking about, like, oh, man, it feels like forever since I've seen Brandy.

It feels like forever since we did a podcast episode. I was sitting around on Monday like reading my book and then I realized, I was like what? What's coming out this week for the podcast? I can't even really remember what we reported. Then I realized the reason I couldn't really remember it was because I hadn't

edited the episode yet. And so on Monday I was like sound the alarm. So I ran upstairs and like edited the episode. Oh, shit. Yeah. And so on Monday, I was like, woo! Sound the alarm. So I ran upstairs and, like, edited the episode. Oh, my gosh. Oh, my gosh. Yeah, but...

Yeah. So it almost didn't even come out, even though we took the time to pre-record it. We took the time to pre-record everything. Damn. Anyway, it happened.

I'm glad. Yeah. I'm glad. I'm glad to have you back. So, uh, the podcast continues, then. That's right to have you back. So the podcast continues then. That's right. Made it back safe and sound.

We're closing in on 52 episodes. Episodes. Episodes. 52 episodes. 52 episodes. So many episodes. This is your podcast recording. Not that many of it.'s getting close i'm getting

excited i mean we're gonna have like a special 50 second episode i feel like what should we do i don't know let's think on it my only idea is cake we will do something special if you have suggestions for our 50 second episode which is kind of like a milestone to us because that means we've done a year of episodes in case you're wondering what the fuck 52 means. But since we put out one episode a week, that's a whole year of podcasts. So if you have suggestions for what we should do for our 52nd episode, reach out to us. We're on Facebook. We're on Instagram. We're on Twitter. Reach out to us there. Then if you're, you you know sitting around with extra time you're thinking what you should do with it head on over to itunes leave us a rating leave us a review our goal you

want to talk about our goal yeah let's talk about our goal our goal is 100 by christmas we're at 90 so help us out help us out let us reach our goal yes um nothing happens if we reach this goal it's just like a goal we set for ourselves like way back so we'd love to we'd love to meet it we're really we're goal people we're weird and we're weird about the goals yeah yeah yeah like they really mean something they mean too much to us there's no money attached to it there's nothing attached to it. To my knowledge, balloons will not fall. No. Although maybe they will. Maybe they will. We'll find out when we get to 100 ratings.

Please help us out. Brandi, could you stop crying? I'm sorry. I'm falling apart. I thought it was my allergies at first, and so I started taking allergy medicine, and then it into like a whole sinus thing and then like moved to my chest and then it just like roosted in my lungs for a little while and now my eyes won't start taking me higher

I love when you sing me the Bee Gees happens so often so yeah please head on over to iTunes leave us a rating leave Leave us a review. And then join us next week. When we'll be experts on two whole new topics. Podcast adjourned.

And now for a note about our process. I read a bunch of stuff, then regurgitate it all back up in my very limited vocabulary. And I copy and paste from the best sources on the web. And sometimes Wikipedia. So we owe a sources on the web and sometimes Wikipedia. So we owe a huge thank you to the real experts. For this episode, I got my info from the 2020 episode Stranger Than Fiction, People.com, Fox 40 and NBC Los Angeles. And I got my info from an amazing six part series in the Kansas City Star called Killer Love by Mark Morris and Brian Burns, as well as an article from ABC News. For a full list of our sources, visit lgtcpodcast.com.

Any errors are, of course, ours. But please don't take our word for it. Go read their stuff.