Murder With My Husband - 241. The Hat Man Killer

Episode Date: November 4, 2024

In this episode, Payton and Garrett delve into the case of Kassandra Cantrell. As police investigate her disappearance, they uncover a trove of digital evidence, all pointing to a mysterious figure known as "The Hat Man." https://www.twitch.tv/themwmh Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/murderwithmyhusband/ Discount Codes: https://mailchi.mp/c6f48670aeac/oh-no-media-discount-codes Watch on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@murderwithmyhusband Listen on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/into-the-dark/id1662304327 Listen on spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/36SDVKB2MEWpFGVs9kRgQ7?si=f5224c9fd99542a7 Case Sources:  Oxygen.com - https://www.oxygen.com/crime-news/colin-patrick-dudley-pleads-guilty-to-killing-kassandra-cantrell People.com - https://people.com/crime/kassandra-cantrell-murderer-sentenced-after-plea-deal/ CBSNews.com - https://www.cbsnews.com/news/kassanndra-cantrell-murder-colin-patrick-dudley-digital-evidence-mysterious-killer-hat-man/ Fox13Seattle.com - https://www.fox13seattle.com/news/kassandra-cantrell-murder-colin-dudley-sentenced-to-26-years-for-murder-of-pregnant-ex-girlfriend-pierce-county-washington TheNewsTribune.com - https://www.thenewstribune.com/news/local/crime/article268780602.html Kiro7.com - https://www.kiro7.com/news/local/body-missing-pregnant-woman-found-over-cliff-university-place/5FQJDWJPWNH25DQ36YNZ7Q7SL4/ King5.com - https://www.king5.com/article/news/crime/ex-boyfriend-charged-with-murder-in-death-of-missing-pregnant-parkland-woman/281-d35aad85-d549-42a3-b3c9-8f29930baa35 Pierce County Sheriff's Department Facebook Page - https://www.facebook.com/piercecounty.sheriff/posts/1864143010392454 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

After decades of shaky hands caused by debilitating tremors, Sunnybrook was the only hospital in Canada who could provide Andy with something special. Three neurosurgeons, two scientists, one movement disorders coordinator, 58 answered questions, two focused ultrasound procedures, one specially developed helmet, thousands of high-intensity focused ultrasound waves, zero incisions, and that very same day, two steady hands. From innovation to action, Sunnybrook is special. Learn more at Sunnybrook.ca

Metrolinx and Crosslinx are reminding everyone to be careful as Eglinton Crosstown LRT train testing is in progress. Please be alert as trains can pass at any time on the tracks. Remember to follow all traffic signals. Be careful along our tracks and only make left turns where it's safe to do so. Be alert, be aware, and stay safe. You're listening to an Ono Media Podcast. Hey everyone, welcome back to the podcast. This is Murder With My Husband.

I'm Payton Morland. And I'm Garrett Morland. And he's the husband. This is Murder With My Husband. I'm Peyton Morland. And I'm Garrett Morland. And he's the husband. I'm the husband. Hey everybody. Thank you for being here. Thank you for supporting us. Thank you for listening.

Thank you for subscribing. Thank you for following. If you don't follow the show, please follow the show on Apple or Spotify or wherever you're listening. It makes a big difference. If you want bonus content, we have Patreon, we have Apple subscriptions, Spotify subscriptions, two bonus episodes a month and ad free content and Peyton and I did have to get a new road caster because... Wait, is this your 10 seconds?

I don't know, I guess so. I was just kind of talking. Okay, you go for it. Okay. Peyton and I did have to get a new road caster because... They might not know what a road caster is. Oh. Well, if you go look at our stories or if you're on social media and you look at our latest instagram post you will see that Garrett me spilled a Dutch Bros coffee all over our road caster. Basically it's just a very expensive sound board that we record through so our headphones

go in our voices go in. It captures our entire audio. And there's other ways to do it, but this is just simple for us, kind of plug and play. Anyways, dropped on it. We thought it would still work. We came down to record today and everything was buzzing. Things were going crazy. But to be honest, we have extras of these

because one, we're smart and we plan ahead in two. Garrett has a little bit of an issue where sometimes he'll buy multiple things at once, but guess what? It always pays off, always pays off. We definitely need the five extra pair of devil horns that he ordered for our Halloween costume, but I promise we're going to need those one day. Anyways, the road caster is working well, the, the new ones working you can hear us. Everything is good Well, I think it's important to know that we we spilled on it in the middle of the episode We kept and we kept recording in the episode worked fine

So we we thought we would come down today to record another episode and it would be fine But it was it wasn't that's kind of what I got for my 10 seconds. I Spilled and in the next day, I probably shouldn't admit this. I spilled again on myself in the car. I Don't know man. Dutch Bros is just not liking me recently. I like it. It doesn't like me That's okay and Dutch Bros confident on our video They did on Instagram go check out and tell them that we need a clap. We need a sponsor We need a clap. I don't even care about sponsor. We need a collab. A sticker. Something. Yeah. At this point they owe us a new road caster. They do owe us a new

road caster actually right? Dutch Bros road caster. That's what I got for my 10 seconds this week. I hope everyone is doing amazing. I hope everyone has a great week. It's cold here. It's Christmas. Christmas. Yeah. On that note, let's hop into today's episode. Our sources for this episode are oxygen.com, people.com, cbsnews.com, fox13seattle.com, thenewstribune.com, Cairo7.com, king5.com and Pierce County Sheriff's Department Facebook page. All right. So sometimes I stop and think about how far technology has come in just my lifetime.

To think that many of us were part of a generation where social media, online shopping, even cell phones weren't part of our daily lives, and now it is, is pretty mind blowing. And it makes me wonder, what will we see in the rest of our lifetime that we haven't even like conceived of yet? What will our kids and grandkids be using on a day-to-day basis? Will that be an iPhone? Will it be Instagram? I think about this a lot, but not just in the context of my own life. I think about it in the context of true crime as well. There's been so many cases we've covered where I stop and think if there was just a security camera on that street corner at the time Maybe we would know who Jack the Ripper was or if OJ Simpson had I don't know GPS on his cell phone

Would he be in jail point being a lot of today's cases would run cold if it weren't for the technology We have now which is why today's story proves if you're going to commit a murder in this day and age, technology is probably going to be your worst enemy. I think about this quite a bit. What technology is going to look like in the next 10, 15, 20 years. I don't know. I guess we'll find out.

We'll still be doing a podcast. Stay tuned. Don't say that. So right now we are going to travel Northwest to the state of Washington. This is a place we actually don't cover too often on this show. We are going to a port city just south of Seattle, known as Tacoma. Now in 2020, this is where 33 year old Cassandra Contrell calls home. She has pretty much lived here her entire life. See, Cassandra never ventured far from the nest. She's incredibly close with her family. She still lives with her mother, Marie Smith, who she helps take care of. And she has a twin brother named Rob, who she shares a really special bond with.

Growing up, Cassandra and her twin brother, Rob, were thick as thieves. They were best friends who would stay up late into the night, despite their mother's insistence that they had school the next morning. They wanted to stay up and watch scary movies on the couch. And Rob was always amazed at how his sister, Cassandra, seemed to never be shaken by these scary

movies. Maybe it was her light free spirit, the fact that she always saw the good and the humor and things. In fact, Cassandra turned this passion for movies into her own little hobby. She and Rob began collecting movie memorabilia with dreams of one day opening up a collectible shop, which is honestly like such a fun dream to have. Yeah. I, oh, I can't watch scary movies by the way.

Me either. Yeah. So as Cassandra reached her teens, she also found she had an interest in being in the movies, well, at least in acting. So she joined a local theater company and really started to grow into her own skin. She found a group of people who were quirky, outgoing, and shared a lot of the same interests

as she did. So Cassandra joins theater and she gains a lot of confidence there as a teenager. Her friends said she became the kind of person who didn't care what others thought about her. If she was too loud, if she was too opinionated. Cassandra was unapologetically herself because she accepted herself. And she wasn't afraid to wear that on her sleeve, quite literally actually.

Cassandra got a tattoo that summed up her life motto pretty efficiently. It was a quote from playwright George Bernard Shaw that read, we don't stop playing because we grow old. We grow old because we stop playing. And the only place Cassandra's friends said she was a bit more reserved was when it came to dating.

She'd had a boyfriend or two here or there. She'd used dating apps in the past, but nothing was ever that serious. At least not that Cassandra's friends or family were aware of. So the morning of August 25th, 2020, remember she's in her thirties by now, it probably felt like any other day in Cassandra and Marie's home. Cassandra's mom got up that morning and the two chatted before Marie headed

out for work. Cassandra told her that she had a shopping day planned for that afternoon and that tomorrow she was planning to meet up with her friend, Alexandra. Now at around 8.25 a.m. that day, Cassandra hopped in her white Mazda and took off from the house. And when Marie, her mother, came home later that day, Cassandra hadn't returned yet. But Marie wondered who she went off to meet

because Marie noticed that Cassandra had used her master bathroom to get ready. Her makeup was still all over the counter as if Cassandra had been getting ready to meet with someone important because this wasn't really normal behavior. Now Marie tries to call Cassandra a few times that day but doesn't hear back.

It seems she wasn't totally panicked though. I mean, after all, Cassandra is a 33 year old woman with a life of her own. But the following day, August 26th, her friend Alexandra starts to get concerned as well. Alexandra had been texting Cassandra that day to say, hey, I'm running late, we still good to meet up. I will probably be late.

But when she didn't hear back from her friend, she tried calling her repeatedly only to realize that her voicemail box was full. Which I'll be honest, sometimes my voicemail box is full. It happens. Is it still popular? I'm just so popular. So over the course of the afternoon,

Alexandra got increasingly worried. But the following morning, things took a turn for the worst when Alexandra woke up to a frenzy of panicked texts from Cassandra's mom, Marie. She was wondering if Cassandra was with Alexandra had she spent the night at her place. Remember, this is two nights in a row now that she hasn't been home.

Her mom explains that she couldn't get in touch with her, and that's when Alexandra picked up the phone and told Marie, Hey, not only is she not here, she also went dark on me too. She never showed up to hang out with me as we had planned. Now, knowing this was completely out of character for her, the two decide to call police. Now, of course, like any of us would in those first few hours, they're hoping for the best, right? Like Cassandra just lost her phone, maybe her car broke down somewhere, she didn't have money, someone was helping her out. Really any scenario that could explain

that she's safe out there somewhere and this is just all a big misunderstanding. But the police are like, okay, it's been a few days now. We have a young woman who was seen on a neighbor's security camera driving away from her home on the morning of August 25th around 830 AM. And then she's never seen returning on that footage. So interesting.

And I feel like we're in a day and age where you don't have your phone with you. It's a little weird. And you don't answer for honestly like two days and your location's on on and people can't see where you are something's going on I think especially for a 33 year old woman who isn't known to go spend nights places like she lives at home she's pretty consistent I do think this is worrisome so police start speaking with Cassandra's family and friends now when they talk to her twin brother, Rob, they learn he's especially distressed and not only because his sister is missing, but because the two of them had had an argument

just before she disappeared. I'm not sure what the fight was about, but I know it was still ongoing the morning that she left and never came back because Cassandra texted him before she left the house asking if she could come by later to clear the air. Only seemingly still tender from the fight, Rob never replied to his sister. Now I need to state, Rob is not a person of interest in this case, but it does create a problem. Because if Rob had replied to Cassandra, it's possible he would have known what else was on her agenda that day. He might have been the last person to talk to her.

It might have offered some sort of timeline to her case. But since that wasn't what happened, no one was certain where Cassandra drove off to that morning. All she told her mom was that she was planning on going shopping, so there's not a ton to work off of here. But on the following day, August 28th, police get their first major clue. Cassandra's car is found parked downtown on East 25th Street near an event venue called the Tacoma Dome.

Now nothing seems off about her vehicle itself. There's no damage, there's no blood. The weird part is though, this isn't a place that Cassandra would ever really go, let alone park her car and leave, according to her mother. Plus, there's no sign of Cassandra inside. I mean, her car is basically just abandoned. There's no purse, her cell phone,

or any clues to indicate where she might have gone. Police figure this is probably just another dead end. So what they focus on next is actually the lack of clues. Because this case happened in 2020. We are in the height of the pandemic. Everyone is glued to their cell phones. That's true. I didn't think about that. So they're like, Cassandra's got to be no different. Also, no one's really outside doing anything.

No. Like, everyone was kind of inside, ordering DoorDash, ordering Instacart. We didn't have toilet paper, yada yada yada, you know? So police actually order an emergency trace on her cell to see if they can find her last known location. And it's definitely not where you'd expect. Her phone last pinged two towers around the

Puget Sound, which is an area and when they triangulate it, they find it was most likely on the shores of Point Defiance Park, okay, which is that far from them. I mean, it's a hundred mile stretch of water. Oh, so it's not looking good that this is where her phone last. No, that's not good at all. So when police get there, because they're like, well, we're going to go search. Their first instinct is someone probably threw her cell phone in the sound, which is what they call this body of water. So they have to decide, is it worth it to get a diving team down here and try to find a cell phone or are we looking for a body? First, they don't even know for sure if it's in the water. This is just where it pinged the towers last. Second, even if it is in these waters, it's gonna be like finding a needle in a haystack

if they're looking for a cell phone. But they decide, yeah, I mean, we have nothing to go on. We have no clues and this woman's life is on the line and it is definitely worth it. So thankfully it's low tide when they go out there, which makes things a little easier on them, but still they know what a long shot this is. And one of the detectives has this pretty smart idea.

He says, let's throw stones out into the water from the dock to see how far someone could have thrown this cell phone if they threw it. So he's like, let's just grab some stones and throw it. And then we'll search that area, which is like such old school detective work, but also smart. I mean, I guess it could work

because you just take the average, right? Like it's probably not a professional baseball player who can throw it extremely far. It's probably some average guy, probably below average, probably not athletic, probably a freaking loser. You know what I'm saying? Anyways, I'm sure didn't go that far. So good idea. What did you say? I think I sold out and then all I heard you say was a freaking loser. Whoever did this obviously killed her or oh, you're not talking about the police

during the rock. You're talking about the police throwing the rock you're talking about the phone correct correct i'm following i was like wait why is the cop a loser now it makes you feel better i zone out all the time while you're talking it's because i was reading in my next i was prepping for the next part i'm sorry that's okay the listeners heard it and that's all that matters yes okay well it turns out that the cop is not a loser and he's actually super smart because they start searching the area. They get divers into the water. They start dragging nets along the bottom of the sound and lo and behold, after only about an hour searching the water, they scoop up a phone with a glitter case and it's Cassandra's.

Miller Lite, the light beer brewed for people who love the taste of beer and the perfect pairing for your game time. When Miller Lite set out to brew a light beer, they had to choose great taste or 90 calories per can. They chose both because they knew the best part of beer is the beer. Your game time tastes like Miller time. Learn more at MillerLite.ca. Must be legal drinking age.

Now police send Cassandra's phone out to a specialist for processing. But in the meantime, Marie, Cassandra's mom, has been doing some sleuthing of her own. She went through Cassandra's phone bills and found some mystery number that just kept popping up. Cassandra had been calling and texting with this number for months. Most importantly, it was the last number Cassandra had corresponded with before her disappearance on the morning of August 25th. which I mean, this is a major clue. So when police searched the number, they find it belongs to a 37 year old man named Colin

Dudley. Now it turns out Colin and Cassandra had known each other for years. They met back in 2006 when she was just 18 years old. It was through that local theater group. I told you she participated in as a teenager. Okay. Both were in a production of the Rocky Horror Picture Show together and they really hit it off at first. They dated briefly, pretty casually, but then Colin broke it off after just a few short

months. Now from what I can tell, this was maybe one of the closest things that Cassandra had to a serious relationship. So over the years, even into her thirties, she kept thinking about Colin. And then in 2020, when the pandemic hit, a friend said she likely got lonely and reached out to Colin to reconnect. But Colin says differently. So police show up at his doorstep. They're like, Hey, this girl Cassandra is missing and we have got ahold of her phone records and see that you guys have been texting and calling for a bit. And it's, it's a lot. So how do you know her? You were the last person she talked to, at least

over the phone. But the weird thing is, Colin says he hasn't seen or spoken to Cassandra in years. Well, actually he says there was this one time that he ran into her at the mall, but other than that, they'd had zero contact. The day she disappeared, he says he was at home doing some spring cleaning. He put some gas in his truck, took the trash to a dumpster, got his bike fixed, went to Costco.

He said it was a pretty uneventful day. What he doesn't know is that the police have Cassandra's cell phone data, putting her at his house. So not only have Cassandra's cell phone data putting her at his house So not only have they been talking her phone pings at his house This is the same house they're questioning him in at this moment on the morning. She disappeared and he's saying I've had no contact with her. I will never understand. I mean You'd think by now. I mean I get it. I guess you have to lie, right? Like he Like like you have to lie like if? Like he, like, like you have to lie. Like if you're, if you actually did a crime. Yeah. But if you know that there's cell phone data, I know, I think it's just human nature to be like, well, I, I have to get out of

this. Like I have to lie. Well, so look, Colin doesn't have a criminal history. He actually has a squeaky clean record. So they take that into consideration, but they know this guy is lying about seeing and talking to Cassandra. So that doesn't look great, which is probably why they even were able to get a search warrant for Colin Dudley's cell phone, which they seized from him that day. And what they find is more evidence that Colin knew Cassandra a lot better than what he told police. So one of the first things they notice is that Colin doesn't have Cassandra's number saved as her name. Cassandra is actually listed as Velma in his phone. So first red flag, right?

Second. Velma like from Scooby Doo? Yes. An analyst after comparing Colin's records to Cassandra's notices that he's deleted some text messages from her. Once from the morning, Cassandra disappeared. So Cassandra texted him and it said, I'm a bit early, is that okay?

And then Colin replies to Cassandra and says, yep, come on down. So he's deleted those, but her phone then spends the next few hours at Colin's house, after which Cassandra's cell phone ends up in the Puget Sound. It's funny that I guess people just aren't aware. Deleted messages. They're there.

It doesn't mean they're deleted everybody. I mean, yes, maybe you can delete them from friends seeing a significant other seeing yada yada yada, but it doesn't mean they're gone. Well, I also think it's important to note that there's a couple of reasons that Colin could have deleted these messages. One, because he did something to her and doesn't want proof that she was with him. And two, he actually lives with his girlfriend

and has been living with her for years. Oh. So it's a woman named Rebecca Fisher. Oh no. So suddenly Velma makes a little sense because, of course, he's not going to save her contact is Cassandra, as does the lying about when he last saw Cassandra. But police don't think that's quite enough to pin a murder on him. Not yet, but they have an idea of what to do next. Remember how I told you the

police found Cassandra's car near the Tacoma Dome? Yeah. Well, there happens to be a train that runs right along the street there next to where her vehicle was parked. And those trains and the train stations in 2020. Closed. Have cameras. Oh, that's what I was gonna say. So police get all of the footage from August 25th

to see if they can spot when her car arrived and who might've parked it there. And they get lucky because on tape from 11 50 a.m. that morning, they spot a man getting out of the driver's side of Cassandra's car, clearly not her and walking away. It's pretty hard to make out the guy's identity though because he's wearing all black.

He has black shoes, black t-shirt, black pants, a black rim hat. It sounds like you, babe. A mask. Oh. Obviously it's the pandemic. Oh yeah, 2020. And blue surgical gloves, which, yeah, people also wear those in the pandemic. So it might not be that weird in public, but

also for a killer to have a mask and surgical gloves. But the footage continues. The guy crosses the street over to the train stop and actually takes a seat on a bench there for about four minutes, almost like he's catching his breath. He looks a little exhausted, he's composing himself. So he waits there on that bench for four minutes and then he gets up and he keeps walking. And surveillance footage captures him next in another parking garage just down the street. He walks in that garage, he gets into a truck

and he exits the parking garage sometime before 12.30 PM. This is clearly the person of interest. Oh, 100%. But the next thing is identifying who this person of interest is, which ends up being pretty easy for police because not only does that person have a familiar build, they're wearing that black hat.

It's a fedora to be specific. And Colin Dudley, well, he had a nickname. He liked to be called the hat man. Why nothing? I'm not gonna say anything. Why are we wearing nothing? Mainly because one of his favorite movies was a clockwork orange.

It's a dystopian Stanley Kubrick film about a gang that goes on this violent crime spree. But let me just say, if that hat wasn't a dead giveaway, the plates on Collins truck would have done the trick because this is his own truck that he's driving out and the plates match. So I mean, it's open and shut. Yes. Officers get a clear view from the footage and once they run those plates, the truck is registered to call in. Now here's where it gets even worse. Colin seemed to have

Cassandra's phone on and with him this entire time because from that parking garage, police realize it moves to the Puget Sound, to Owen Beach where it last pinged those towers at 12.45 PM. Why? Is it because he had a girlfriend? Like, why did he do this? Motive, right?

I mean, you just answered my next question. Obviously police know Colin Dudley was the one to get rid of the cell phone. They had their guy, but why? What did he do to her and why? So about a month before Cassandra disappeared, she pulled her friend Alexandra aside and told her a secret. She said that she had just taken a pregnancy test

and it was positive. So the day after Cassandra disappeared on August 26th, Alexandra was supposed to meet Cassandra, remember, for their little hangout? She never showed. Well, they were actually going to an ultrasound appointment together. That's where Alexandra was meeting Cassandra.

This is something Cassandra definitely wouldn't have wanted to miss, which is why it was very alarming. Cassandra had also told her mother about the pregnancy that July, but when her mom asked her who the father was, Cassandra was like, it was a one night stand. I met him on a dating app. So she was pregnant. Yes. Because Sandra was like, I don't care though, mom, like I'm excited to be a

mother. I'm more than happy to do it on my own. I don't care that it was a one night stand. She was already thinking of baby names. She was assembling her online baby registry. There was just one problem though. She was already thinking of baby names. She was assembling her online baby registry. There was just one problem though. She wasn't being honest about who the father was because it was actually Colin Dudley, her high school boyfriend who has a living girlfriend. Now Alexandra knew that,

Cassandra told her friend everything. She's like, it's Colin's baby, including the fact that she and Colin had started seeing each other back around February. Colin would sneak off from his girlfriend, Rebecca, to go meet Cassandra at a movie or dinner, but it didn't seem like he had any plans to leave Rebecca for her. In his mind, and seemingly in Cassandra's, this was just casual. That was until she found out she was pregnant with his child on July 16th, 2020. Just casually having sex.

When Cassandra's OB-GYN was questioned, she said Cassandra had listed Colin as the father during her initial appointment. The notes also included the pregnancy was not planned, the patient was feeling overwhelmed, the father of the baby was supportive of pregnancy, but not planning to be involved with the raising of the child. He and the mom were on good terms. So yeah, this paperwork proves Colin knew about the baby. So motive, obviously she was pregnant.

He didn't want to break up with Rebecca. Didn't want anyone to find out. So he's like, I'm going to kill her. Insane. So Cassandra actually told Colin about the pregnancy August 12th. This would be 13 days before she disappeared. She must have been pretty nervous about this though, because Cassandra had hypothetical conversations

with Colin before the matter. And allegedly he told her he never wanted kids. So she was kind of like putting fillers out about it. He said he never wanted kids. He even went as far to say, if any girlfriend of mine got pregnant and wouldn't get an abortion, I would sue to get full custody just to spite the mother

for having the child. Oh my gosh, what what that's pretty Monstrous thing to say you're not gonna get full custody. What an idiot So you can see why Cassandra was probably dreading breaking the news to him. She wanted to do the right thing She felt like he had a right to know Cassandra, man And maybe he would change his mind if the situation became a reality So she went to call in and told him he didn't need to be involved I'm pregnant. I don't care if you're involved. I am going to have the baby though. She even said you can like sign over your parental rights. Like

I won't pressure you for child support. And her surprise, it went better than expected. At least that's what she told Alexander when she called her after the meeting. He said not to worry about it, that they would talk more about it soon. Then two weeks later, Cassandra vanished. My gosh. By this point, the police don't have a weapon. They don't have a body. All they have is a lot of digital evidence. But in this day and age, that is enough to get a search warrant,

which is exactly what happens on September 1st, 2020, about a week after Cassandra's disappearance. They show up to Colin and Rebecca's house with a SWAT team, the FBI and a canine unit. They search his truck and his home for any sign of her and the dogs immediately lead them to the basement, particularly to a brown sofa. Oh man. They don't find any concrete signs of her though. What they do learn is remember how Colin said on the day of the 25th, he didn't do much really

than go to Costco? Well, the police found out that at Costco, he bought 50 gallon trash bags. Not a great thing to buy in the hours before your pregnant mistress girlfriend goes missing. But that means this wasn't a spur of the moment decision. Something that's confirmed further when police learn after that Costco run, he went to the parking garage and dropped his truck off there.

This is before he met up with her before he meets up with her that morning. He goes to Costco and buys 50 gallon trash bags and drops his truck off in the parking garage that he's later going to obviously premeditated. Yes, first degree murder. I mean, everything's there. Yes. He then biked out of the garage and made the 20 minute trip back home.

So he thought this plan, he thought it out well in advance. Now, during the search of his property, police also asked Colin's current girlfriend, Rebecca, to come down to the station. Because here's the thing. She was supposedly home the afternoon he met up with Cassandra, which makes you wonder if A, she knows about the affair,

B, she knows if Cassandra was pregnant, C, she knows about the murder. Well, when detectives question her and ask if she thinks Colin is capable of hurting Cassandra, she doesn't answer right away. She actually sits there quietly for 13 seconds. So they say, do you think he could have killed her? 13 seconds go by.

Was she just in shock maybe? And then she says, physics would say, yes, he's got size and strength on her. I don't think he would. No, he would not. Dude, that what? No, police don't have- That's freaking weird. That's weird. No. They don't have any evidence to assume Rebecca's involved, but this answer definitely raised eyebrows.

I don't even care if Rebecca hears this. That's weird. That is a weird answer. And really they need a body before they want to arrest Colin because they know he's guilty, but is it murder? Is it kidnapping? It's hard to say until they find her,

which is why their next move is pretty genius. Now technology has been proving pretty fruitful throughout this entire investigation. It's definitely been Collins Achilles heel. So they figure, let's keep down this path. Now newer cars like the one Colin owned all have this essentially black box inside of them now. Those dashboard computers that have Apple CarPlay,

calling capabilities, GPS, you've seen them. And while you might be able to turn off your cell phone, there's no easy way to turn those bad boys off if your engine is running. So in the same way you can track a cell phone, you can actually track those little computers that's in a car. And so they get it and they send it off to Analysis and here's what they find. The day after Cassandra's disappearance, August 26th, Colin's car drove out to a wooded area eight miles from his house around six in the morning and it stopped there. Now it takes a few weeks to get this information back from specialists but on September 22nd, 2020, hours after they get these details, police race down to this location where Colin's truck went the morning after she disappeared.

And after only minutes of scouring the area, They find her body, sorry. In a ravine, there is a body wrapped in trash bags. Oh, gosh. A search and rescue team actually has to use what they call a high angle ropes operation to get down, because it's a very steep ravine, and recover the body.

And when they open up the bag, they found a distinctive mark that proves it was Cassandra. It was that quote, that tattoo she had. We don't stop playing because we grow old. We grow old because we stop playing. So now there's more than enough to arrest 37 year old Colin Dudley, which they do later that evening.

He's charged with first degree murder of 33 year old Cassandra Cantrell. Now, when they do the autopsy, they find that she had been stabbed several times. She had sustained multiple injuries to the head and her cause of death was ultimately ruled as blunt force trauma. They believe he killed her in his basement,

kept her body there overnight and then dumped her the next morning. But that brings us back to Rebecca, Collin's girlfriend. I mean, I don't know how you can sleep in a house with a dead body and not know it's there, but it is in the basement. Police have no indication of if she knew or not. So police just assume because of lack of evidence, Rebecca has no idea that any of this happened.

So after months of back and forth postponements and COVID delays, there was finally some movement on the case on November 14th, 2022. This is two years after Colin was arrested. Prosecutors felt they had an extremely strong case in terms of the digital evidence, but they decide to work out a plea deal with Colin. He ultimately accepted. In exchange for his plea,

he was given only 26 years behind bars for his murder. Now, Cassandra's family did not agree with any of this. They felt the digital evidence was extremely strong and I have to agree with them. I think if this case went to trial, Colin Dudley would have gotten what he deserved, which is a heck of a lot more than 26 years behind bars. He'll be in his 60s when he's released.

That could be 2044 on good behavior. That's a lot of life left to live, a life that Cassandra will never get to have and her unborn child won't get to have either. We can't forget 26 years for killing a pregnant soon to be mother. So I don't blame Cassandra's family for being upset about this deal. Moral of the story is I think we need to trust that digital evidence is just as, if not better than the evidence we had 30, 20, even 10 years ago. Sometimes it's even better than a murder weapon.

And I think we need to get used to digital evidence being the new smoking guns in a courtroom, because right now it's considered circumstantial evidence. The way I see it, technology is only making these cases stronger. And I remain optimistic that more cases will get solved because of it. But you know who else was an optimist? Cassandra. In a rocky and unknown time in her life, she chose to have hope, to see a bright and happy future for herself.

And she seized it. She didn't care what anyone else was going to think of her. And her courage is something to be remembered and admired. And that is our case for this week. I think we can all learn a thing or two from Cassandra and I hope we can spend the day thinking about her and her family. Yeah I just think I mean I guess a lot of these cases are pointless but it's just pointless. She's pregnant too. She said he could sign his parental rights away. Also too like you were the one dude you were the one that was cheating like what? Yeah. Like, what?

Yeah. Like take some freaking responsibility. Yeah. Yeah. It makes you mad. All right, you guys, that is our case for this week and we will see you next time with another one. I love it.

And I hate it. Goodbye.