Murder With My Husband - 54. Lindsay Cutshall and Jason Allen – The Beach Murders

Episode Date: March 29, 2021

On this episode of MWMH, Garrett and Payton discuss the murders of Lindsay Cutshall and Jason Allen. LIVE ONLINE SHOW TICKETS HERE! https://www.moment.co/murderwithmyhusband Visit www.takecareof.com and enter code "MWMH50" at checkout. Case Sources: https://www.sfgate.com/crime/article/jenner-murders-shaun-gallon-cutshall-allen-14096891.php https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Sonoma-County-man-gets-3-life-sentences-for-14096944.php https://www.timesreporter.com/news/20190716/california-man-who-killed-lindsay-cutshall-jason-allen-sentenced-to-life-in-prison https://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/article/inside-the-disturbing-mind-of-jenner-beach-killer-shaun-gallon/?sba=AAS Link: https://linktr.ee/murderwithmyhusband Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/murderwithmyhusband) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey everybody welcome back to our podcast. This is murder with my husband. I'm Peyton Moreland. And I'm Garrett Moreland and he's the husband. I'm the husband. Thank you guys so much for being here whether you're on YouTube or listening to us on podcasts. We appreciate you guys. If you are watching on YouTube, go ahead and turn on notifications for us so you guys get notified every single time we upload a new video. And if you are listening on podcasts, please leave us a review. and rate us it really helps us out so much. And if you are seeing right now that my mic looks a little bit differently than Garrett's mic on YouTube it's

because I have a habit of popping my peas and so to make this easier to edit I had to get this fancy little mic cover so if it looks weird and chunky that's why. I should probably get this fancy little mic cover. So if it looks weird and chunky, that's why. I should probably get one too, but we'll get there. We'll get there. Pig, where do you have 10 seconds? I do have 10 seconds. So some of you might find it a little cringey, but I'm gonna say it anyways.

Peyton and I, he don't even give no idea what he's saying. I have no idea what you're gonna say. So Peyton and I spent the longest time apart that we've ever spent apart, which was six days. Yeah. Anyways, that's about it. apart, which was six days. Yeah. Anyways, that's about it. Yeah, it was kind of hard. It was kind of hard.

Don't make fun of us. We spent a lot of time together. We spent every day together. We're so blessed to be able to be together every single day. And yeah, we went six days this last week without seeing each other and it was brutal. I guess that's my 10 seconds. That's a good 10 seconds.

Other than that, I mean it's getting warmer outside. It is getting warmer. I'm excited to start grilling some food. Okay, so our case was suggested this week by Emily Matthew from Ohio. So thank you, Emily. you Emily and our sources are sfgate.com sfconical.com times reporter.com and press Democrat.com. Our case starts on August 18, 2004 in Jenner, California. Jenner is known as a sleepy town in northern California. The Sonoma County Sheriff's Department gets a 911 call this morning that there was a man stuck on a cliff that needed help.

They dispatched a chopper to locate and further understand the predicament that incited this 911 call. But once up in the air near the beach, the helicopter pilots spot something else. Down on the beach, there appeared to be two bodies wrapped in sleeping bags that hadn't moved. The whole time they were up there scoping out the man that was stuck on the cliff. Suspicious police are called in to check out the other site that was spotted from the air that morning. And that is how the bodies of 22 year old Lindsey cut shawl and 26 year old Jason Allen are discovered. They had both been gruesomely shot in the head while what appeared to be sleeping on the beach. Whoa. So the guys up on top of the cliff, you stuck, you need to suck in the helicopter spots to people below. So they're like, oh, they're just sleeping there. But the whole time they're up there, you know,

surveil and seeing the situation with the man, they're like, those people have not moved. They haven't got out of the sleeping bag. So look at what we're doing. I mean, they're low enough to the ground that they can definitely see these people. Okay. 22 year old Lindsey Cutshell had grown up in Ohio,

26 year old Jason Allen had grown up in Michigan. They had met at a Bible College in West Virginia and fell in love getting engaged soon after. They were a long way from home this summer night having just finished up working as river guides together for a Christian summer camp in El Dorado County. Colleagues at this camp stated that Lindsey and Jason were going to take a three-day road trip down the coast since they were in California already and thought it would be fun. So they go down here, they're engaged, they're in love.

They go down to teach at this summer camp in California. And after the summer camp finishes, they are like, you know what? Let's just take a road trip. We're a long way from home. We're here already. We'll make it three days. It'll be so fun. We'll see some sites we've never seen. Their credit card receipts show that they had in fact

been visiting tourist sites as they made their way down, stopping at the Golden Gate Bridge and Fisherman's Wharf before this dreadful day at the beach. Okay. Earlier that night, they had stopped to get a room at a motel and Fisherman's Wharf before this dreadful day at the beach. Earlier that night, they had stopped to get a room at a motel near the beach, but there was no vacancies. And although sleeping on the beach on this specific stretch of land was prohibited, Jason and Lindsay must have decided, you know, what the heck.

We're on vacation. When are we going to get the chance to do this again? We have some camping gear. Let's just take park our car, go down and sleep on the beach for the night. They made their way down to fish head beach for one single night of sleep. Jason and Lindsay left their red Ford tempo along a pull-off on Highway 1. Together they discovered an entry visitor log that was kept on the beach and Jason wrote, as I stir this mac and cheese,

I think to myself what a wonderful life. That's what he wrote on the log. Yeah, so there's like a little book down on the beach that's like, hey, if you're coming here and you're visiting, write your name, write whatever message you want, they come across it and he writes this message. And this actually kind of breaks my heart because it appears from this message

I'm getting out of it that they were just so blissfully happy, so fun loving, playful, soon to be married, just two kids having time of their life doing a stir on the, you know, what a wonderful life I think myself and actually saying as I stir this mac and cheese, I think to myself what a wonderful life. And it just makes me sad, because I'm like, we were just having fun. Like they were just being silly and goofy together and totally in love. So what year are we in again? So we are in 2004.

Okay, thank you. Yeah. So it wasn't until three days later that their bodies would be discovered by that helicopter. Upon first glance, it appears as if someone had approached them, either late Saturday night or early Sunday morning as they were sleeping in separate sleeping bags on the sand. They had both been shot in the head.

Police had quickly ruled out murder suicide. There was no sign of sexual assault on either body and jewelry and money were left at the scene. And their car was still pulled off where they had left at that night. So it's not robbery. Yep. It's not sexually motivated. It's not murder suicide based off of how the shots had gone in.

And it's just two shots to the head. It wasn't even, you know, torture. It wasn't murder motivated. How long did the police say they thought they were there for before they found them? Re days. Okay. I mean, it is a long time on the beach, but also you see two sleeping bags on a beach. It's not that weird to see people laying out on the beach, you know, like you're not

going to go up and check on them. Hey, are you okay? Okay. So this seems to police like it was a hit. Like these two kids had been specifically targeted by someone they knew and killed because the two shots to the head in and out, nothing taken, you know, like it's just weird.

Which seems so weird because they're traveling. Yeah, they're not from where they're at. They're not from Jenner, California. Who would have it out for them? Had someone from their camp that they had been teaching out, followed them there. I mean, they had been honest that they were going on a road trip, had someone from home traveled out here to hurt them.

Police are literally confused. After investigating, police conclude that the murder weapon that was used was a 45 caliber Marlin model 1894, which is a hunting rifle most commonly used by ranchers. And this gun is extremely unusual for the area. Police immediately began going door to door, looking for anyone who might have this gun, but it's a dead end. They're like, nobody here has this gun registered to them.

It does seem a little weird because it's not like they are in, I guess, in the country. Yeah, right. You're in the middle of a city, northern California, or the California, in some shops, someone with a hunting rifle that's used by ranchers. It's like a very old rifle. I guess you have to have specific like bullets for it. And so. Yeah, you said 18. 94. And so cops are like, nobody has this gun. This isn't really weird. As it seems like, no matter what police did, this case went cold and fast. They hadn't forgotten, but now this murder

seems completely random and they have nothing to go on. OK. On March 24, 2017. Now this murder seems completely random and they have nothing to go on. On March 24, 2017, so this was in 2004 and nothing it comes of it until March 24, 2017, Jason and Lindsay's murder is still unsolved at this point. But that day, Sonoma County officers respond to a 911 call from a town named Forestville. It seems as if there had been a brotherly dispute. They find a man named Shamis Gallen dead from gunshot wounds in the house. His older brother, 38-year-old Sean Gallen, had killed him.

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That's nativedeo.com slash husband or use promo code husband at checkout. Nativedo dot com slash husband or use promo code husband at checkout native D-O dot com slash husband and use promo code husband Police knew who Sean was He was a long time criminal in Sonoma County. He had gotten in trouble a lot So when they showed up they weren't too surprised to see that he had killed his brother our forest and Jenner correct are those close together. Yeah, so it's the same county both Sonoma County officers were dispatched to Jenner, correct, are those close together? Yeah, so it's the same county. Both Sonoma County officers were dispatched to Jenner and then also dispatched to this brotherly dispute

between the gallon brothers, which wasn't a dispute one murdered the other. So Sean Gallen, the kid who murdered his brother, he was a self-identified survivalist and had been convicted of assault in 2009 for shooting an arrow at a man. So I'm listing all these details because this is just a crazy ride we're about to go on with that is Sean Gallen's life. Sean had built an AR-15 which he used to kill his brother that day. He quite literally with no motivation or trigger walked out to his car that day, grabbed the gun that he made in AR 15, and went upstairs into his house and shot his brother unexpectedly

in the chest. So they weren't even arguing? They weren't arguing. There was no trigger. There was nothing. He just walked out, got the gun, walked back in and shot his brother. What the heck? His brother didn't immediately die from the first shot and this homemade gun jammed.

And while gasping for air, Sean unjammed the gun and then finished his brother off. So he had a chance to stop and call cops, but he didn't. He just unjammed the gun while his brother was suffering and shot him again. So confused why he would just grab his gun and shoot his brother. Right. Makes no sense.

So when police interview Sean about his brother's murder, he begins talking. He says that his brother held a grudge against him from the time they were a childhood because one time Sean punched him. And that's why he shot him that day. Literally no reason at all, like just completely dumb. Yeah. And although we don't know exactly what was said in this interrogation between police and Sean, police begin suspecting Sean

for the unsolved double homicide in general 13 years earlier. How I'm wondering what made them put out of 13 years later to into together. So I guess he confessed to a double homicide. He was like, Oh, I did a double homicide and they were like, well, maybe it's these gender murders. But Sean wasn't being like the most cooperative. So by 2018, they do end up charging Sean Gallon with the murder of his brother, the murders of Lindsey Cuttschall and Jason Allen, and the attempted murder via a home made package bombing meant for a man from a bar that Sean had gotten in a fight with in Montereo just two months before the beach murders So they can victim of the murder of his brother the murder of our two

Victims on the beach and then also with this a Yes, he made a homemade bomb put it at this dude's house and he said oh, I picked this dude because we got in a bar fight once and we forgave each other but I just never really let it go. He's insane. Insane. But this guy's wife went out to grab the package, not him. And so she was maimed in the accident. So she wasn't killed, but he like severely wounded and disfigured this woman.

And it wasn't even meant for her, it was meant for her husband, but like... What in the world? And all this just randomly comes out. Wait, I'm confused. So obviously, they didn't find the bomb maker for when the white got hurt. No, they never knew who was.

It was unsolved, yeah. Wow. They only know that this guy, Sean, had kind of been a criminal for just poaching and other crimes like that and also for attempting to shoot that guy with an arrow. That one time. But not making bombs and then once they arrested him for his brother's murder, they find out, okay, we're charging him with the double homicide. We're also charging him with this

bomb that was like, it's insane. I wonder why he confessed all this. Right? bomb that was like it's insane. I wonder why he confessed all this right? Sean pleads guilty to the three murders and was convicted by a judge to three consecutive life terms So he doesn't go trial because he pleads guilty and the judge said, you know There's no question that Sean should spend the rest of his life in prison And so he gets three life sentences. He's like, the judge is like, obviously, you're a danger to society. Oh, yeah.

You've been, you haven't even been provoked and you've killed people. So Sean's defense attorney told the court that in 2001, Sean had overdosed on LSD and was never the same person after that. They claim he had mental health issues and although this is completely unsatisfying, they say there is actually no motive to the killings other than unhappiness in his own life and being tortured by voices and demons.

Interesting, so that's why they're saying he killed those two people in gender. Yes, it's because, you know, they didn't actually do anything. There was no reason they hadn't bumped into each other. There was no like road rage situation. They just felt like killing people. Yeah. Cause he had demons. Which I mean, I think he probably did have demons, but we all have demons, right? Like we're not killing people. It comes out that a family friend had actually gone to police about her suspicions of Sean in this double homicide murder before he killed his brother. So she

had said that Sean killed animals for fun and police knew that because he had multiple charges of animal abuse and poaching. I'm not gonna go into detail about, but it was bad, like bad. I feel like whenever they start digging further, all the stuff comes out on this round the record. Yeah, like, oh yeah. This girl came and said that she actually thought he was the guy. And he actually was been killing animals for fun

for the X amount of years. Yeah, which is like a tell-tell sign, right? If not, I mean, they're not just hunting. I mean, he's been. Oh, yeah, like illegally torturing killing animals, not just hunting animals. So back in 2004, when these murders happened, weeks after the murder happened,

Sean had actually gone to gel for unrelated charges. So when they're like doing this investigation, he was already in gel for poaching charges, not for the murder. And so when this girl like doing this investigation, he was already in jail for poaching charges, not for the murder. And so when this girl comes in to say, hey, I think that it's him, she said, hey, Sean, I'm coming in to tell you this because Sean asked his dad to get rid of his guns

after this double homicide and before he went to jail. So she told people that in 2004? She told police this. In 2004. Yeah, she came in and said, hey, this guy kills animals for fun i know him and days after this murder his dad got rid of all of his guns when you guys were going around checking people's guns wow yeah nothing ever nothing ever came of it even

though she said this in two thousand four shan has two children and the mother of his second child had actually threatened via Facebook message to turn him in and collect the $50,000 reward that was set out there for Jason and Lindsay's murderer. So it kind of seems like a lot of people in his life knew that he did this. Yeah. knew that he did these murders, but nothing had really been done about it.

That's so crazy. So detectives had searched his property back in August of 2004 in hopes of finding evidence because of his criminal record, they did look into him for the murders, but for no reason, there was no evidence that led them to him. And they were in hopes of finding that evidence. They searched his property, but because his data got rid of the guns, they didn't find any guns.

There was no evidence. Sean had actually been a suspect early on because a week after the murders, he was found wearing a camouflage jumpsuit with a loaded gun in his pocket walking around the beaches. In California. In California, a week after these two were murdered, and that's why they like kind of initially, once they already knew who he was, they were like, okay, we're gonna look into this guy.

When he was released from jail during the investigation for the poaching charges, he shaved his beard off and died his hair. So he also changed the way he looked. Like everything was pointing to him. According to the press Democrat, two doctors evaluated Sean after his 2017 arrest for the suspicion of killing his brother and all of these other things, and they described

him as having schizel-type personality disorder, which often develops in early adulthood and involves anti-social behavior, paranoid thinking, and occasional psychosis. A psychologist who assessed Sean in 2011 when he had applied for disability benefits reported him as having loose associations and bizarre thinking and that his reality was really off, noting it would be difficult for this guy to keep a job so he should get the benefits or whatever.

It's noted that a social worker had actually tried to enter Sean's home in 2004 on suspicion that Sean would hurt his brother. So like, people had been called in and Sean's mom, Mrs. Gallen, wouldn't let the social workers in. And then Sean's dad, who hid his guns, ended up taking his own life after lying to police about where he put Sean's guns after the murders.

So he confesses and he's like, oh my dad hit him. In 2018. Yes, they go to his dad. They're like, hey, where'd you hide the guns that it done? He's like, oh, I don't know where I hid them. And then he commit suicide. In 2018, correct? Yes, yes.

So Sean repeatedly blamed his victims for his murders, stating that if they hadn't done this or they hadn't have done that, he wouldn't have done this. So his defense attorney's like, oh, he just had demons. That's why he killed them. But when they asked Sean, Sean said, no, it was illegal to sleep on the beach So I killed them if they wouldn't have been illegally sleeping on the beach. They wouldn't have died Why in the world that's so messed up. Yes, so that night

Sean noticed the couple making their way down to the beach earlier He returned later that night already deciding earlier that he was going to kill them. So he walked them, he watched them walk down to the beach, get ready to camp out and he's like, I'm gonna kill them. He scaled a 200 foot cliff in the dark with a small flashlight found where the couple ended up being asleep and then walked back up

to his car and grabbed his rifle. So he hikes down, finds where they had ended up being asleep and then walked back up to his car and grabbed his rifle. So he hikes down, finds where they had ended up sleeping, goes back up, bags back up to get his rifle, skills the cliff again, comes back down and walks over and kills them. He had actually sawd about a foot off of the barrel on his gun to easily can still the weapon. And according to Matthews Gaffney with the San Francisco Chronicle, Sean himself said, I saw two people asleep in sleeping bags just laying there asleep.

I just made myself do it. Like, I don't know, I don't know what I was thinking. He said a voice told him that he'd regret his action, but he went ahead. He shot Jason first from about seven feet away. He said, the girl then sat up, looked at her boyfriend, and by that time I had already cocked and shot her behind the ear. As the audio played to the crowd a courtroom during this, Lindsay's mother sobbed in the front row as her husband rubbed her back.

They had never heard these details of the murder. They didn't know that Lindsay had sat up at the sound of the gunshot to Jason and looked at Jason and then gotten shot as well. Like it's just devastating. Oh my god. This is horrible. Yeah. So Lindsay's father says, I'm a man with a broken heart and I always will be and I'm okay with that. Lindsay's worth it. This man is not going to have any power in my life. This man doesn't deserve to have any control over me and he doesn't. And so Emily Matthew from Ohio, the girl who suggested this case into us, she said that Lindsay was from my hometown and her father was a well-known and loved pastor in the community.

It rocked the world of our small town and left father was a well-known and loved pastor in the community. It rocked the world of our small town and left so many questions. The parents of the victims handled this trial with such grace. So what was the conviction? He three life sentences, remember? So that was the act of conviction. Like he went to court but he didn't go to trial because he pled guilty. But there's also like you have to get witness statements and you know, Lindsay and Jason's family had to get up and talk about them before the judge would sentence him. And he did sentence him to three life sentences.

Well, it's interesting that he said a voice told me that I would regret it. And he still did it. So obviously he was aware that, hey, killing someone is not a good thing to do. And I think obviously, you know, they even like a professional doctors diagnosed him saying that he has some mental illness. Yeah. He has psychotic episodes. He has all

of this. But it's just sad that like nothing was done by all of the morning signs. Yeah. Like there was so much warning signs before he had to go and kill all these people. That's horrible. So the hearing ended with Lindsay's mother asking Sean if he had a Bible. So this whole hearing ends, she looks over and says, do you have a Bible to this guy who killed her daughter? And he said yes, and she replied, please read it. And then that's how it ended. Dang.

Yeah, but that is the story of Lindsey and Jason Allen, the Beach Murders. Dang, that one's crazy. I think because it was also so just, I guess what happened in, they found the person. And it's just, it would have probably been cold forever. Had he not actually come in and been like, oh, I did a double homicide.

You know what I mean? And I think having Emily Matthew, our listener, is a pinion and just first person account of this murder, kind of just makes it crazy. Like she said, it just impacted our small town and her parents handled this with such grace. And I just kind of think, you know, these stories are real. These people are real.

Jason and Lindsay Lindsay this was tragic What happened? They were just starting their life This is just a horrible situation so keep their family in your prayers keep these people in your thoughts Just had a nowhere. They literally were killed no reason which is so crazy the worst I know the worst Yeah, so if you are listening on podcast all of the imagery that goes along with this case will be posted on our social media Go ahead and follow us there. It's murder with my husband on everything. We're also on tiktok I know we have a lot of people who have found us on tiktok who are now watching our listening so hi We love you. Thank you for joining our little family. We will see you guys next week with another episode. I love it and I hate it. Goodbye

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