Small Town Murder - #16 - A House Of Horrors in Lino Lakes, Minnesota

Episode Date: May 3, 2017

This week, we look at the town of Lino Lakes, Minnesota, where a family did their best to try to help one of their own, with the result of 5 senseless murders, that this town will never forget. Along the way, we find out where wild rice grows, how similar a heron is to a flamingo, and exactly how hearing voices is affected by massive consumption of vodka!!Hosted by James Pietragallo & Jimmie WhismanNew episodes every Thursday!!Please subscribe, rate, and review!Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you listen to podcasts!Head to shutupandgivememurder.com for all things Small Town Murder!For merchandise: crimeinsports.threadless.comCheck out James and Jimmie's other show: Crime in Sports Follow us on social media!Facebook: facebook.com/smalltownpodInstagram: instagram.com/smalltownmurderTwitter: twitter.com/MurderSmall Contact the show: [e-mail] See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can listen to Small Town Murder early and ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. What if you married the love of your life and then stood by them as they developed 21 new identities? What would you do? This Is Actually Happening is a weekly podcast that features extraordinary true stories of life-changing events told by the people who lived them. Listen to the newest season of This Is Actually Happening on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. This week, we look at the town of Lino Lakes, Minnesota, where a family does their best to help one of their own through a tough time with deadly results. Welcome to Small Town Murder. Hello, everybody.

Welcome back to Small Town Murder. Yay! Yay! My name is James Petragallo. I'm here with my co-host. I am Jimmy Wissman. Thank you, folks, so, so much for joining us this week. And thank you again.

Yeah. We do it every week, but we have to thank you so much for your abundance of iTunes reviews. Overabundance. That was crazy. Thank you, guys. Oh, my God. It's the best. We're approaching 800.

We're so grateful. It's not even funny. It's amazing. Thank you. Thank you for everybody that's done that. Anybody who hasn't, if you're a new listener or whatever, please get on iTunes. Give us five stars. You can say anything you want.

Anything. That's the beauty of it. Ice cream is cold. And we'll be like, yeah, that's fine. It's true. The five stars help us out so much on the business end. So if you like us and you like what we do, that really, really, really helps us. And we cannot tell you how much we appreciate it.

And if you like us even more than that, if iTunes review, you're like, that's not enough. I need to do more. You can. You can do more. There's two more things you can do. Yes. You can go on Patreon.com slash Crime and Sports, which is our other podcast, which you should also be listening to.

But all that goes to us and you can give a donation. There's some cool prizes or not prizes or give away whatever rewards. That's what they're called. Yes. Rewards on there for you. If you do that, if you don't feel like doing that, but you want to give us money, but you don't like Patreon, you can go to PayPal or PayPal. There is a Crime and at gmail.com.

That's the one. And we are so appreciative of anything and everything that everybody does for us. But if you don't want to do any of that, iTunes reviews, that's what you can do, and we'll be so thrilled with that. It's huge. It's huge. And if you don't want to do anything, well, then sit back and enjoy a crazy story. And that's cool, too.

We're all right with that. That's fine. But iTunes reviews are nice. If you want to do any of that, and you want to sit back and enjoy a crazy story and that's cool too we're all right with that that's fine but if you don't want to do any of that and you want to sit back and enjoy a great uh story without comedy go fucking somewhere else yeah because there's going to be comedy that's the thing this is a comedy podcast the facts are all real the cases are real the research is real now we don't make stuff up for comedic purposes but there are jokes in it so none of them are ever at the expense of the victim or the victim's families we don't do do that. That's not what we're all about. The humor mainly comes from small town fuckery, basically, for lack of a better term.

Small town bumbling, you know, police department that does things wrong. A killer who's a complete idiot that we want to make fun of because he's an asshole. He's a killer. So why not make fun of him? You know what I mean? So that's how we do things here. If you don't think the comedy and true crime go together ever, then this probably isn't for you. And we thank you for trying us.

And we part ways and shake hands and say, have a good one. It's been our pleasure. It's been our pleasure. But we're going to keep doing what we do and hope you enjoy it. And we hope you enjoyed last week's episode. What the hell, man? The soap opera gets deep in that one. That was a soap opera.

That was so weird. We had an heiress. We had an olive-skinned Lothario. Oh, he was beautiful. That was a soap opera. That was so weird. We had an heiress. We had an olive-skinned Lothario. Oh, he was beautiful. We had a twin sister living at the estate. Like, it was insane. That was the most insane soap opera story that we had. And a rich fucktard prom.

And that's right, yes. If you didn't listen to that, go back and listen to last week and find out what that prom means because it's interesting and funny. It's a rich fucktard prom. That's what it is. Yes, it's rich people are going and it's like a ball. We'll call it a debutante ball for adults basically. We'll explain it in that episode. Lots of Beauregards and extra billies there.

Absolutely. Extra billy and Skeeter, I believe, is the one guy's name. We had an actual Skeeter in the last episode. So that's what small town murder is all about. This week, though, we're heading a little bit north. And by the way, folks, we've had a lot of people ask us about doing stuff outside the U.S. And we are going to do something. We're going to do next week.

Next week's show will be a U.K. town. Terrific. It's going to be a crime in the U.K. And then a few weeks down the road, I have one set off for Canada. And then a little bit further down the road, maybe about 10 weeks, we're going to do Australia. We're travelers. We're going to travel. We wanted to get our feet firmly on the ground and know what we were doing

before we start traveling out and screwing up other people's cultures. We screw up our own enough here in the U.S. So, you know, we wanted to just make sure it was there. We want to spread the love. We're going north this week. North to Minnesota. Oh, Minnesota nice. We're going to Leno Lakes, North to Minnesota. Oh, Minnesota nice. We're going to Lino Lakes, Minnesota.

Okay. Very kind people up there in Lino Lakes, Minnesota. Let's talk about Lino Lakes and find out what goes on there. It's in the eastern central part of the state. It's over on the eastern border pretty much near Wisconsin in the central area. It's about 35 minutes from Minneapolis. Okay. So it's basically kind of a suburb of Minneapolis, but it's out on its own a little bit also.

It's not just like all these little towns connecting. It's kind of out there on its own, a little bit away from there. And it's got a small town feel from everything that I could gather in my research here. It's in Anoka County. Zip code there is 55014, area code 651. It's a big town in terms of mileage. It's 33 square miles, 5 on water, 28 on land. So it's a big spread out town.

Big houses, big yards, that sort of thing. A lot of family, as we're going to get into here. But let's talk about the history for a second here. It is in the area. This is the whole area is formed by where four lakes come together. The Reshanan, Baldwin, Rice, and the Marshawn Lakes come together. And this is the area in the middle of this. And this is the land of a thousand lakes, right?

There's so many lakes. There's lakes everywhere. And it's 10,000 lakes. That's right. Yeah, 10,000. It's 10,000. It's not so impressive when there's only a thousand, is it? Yeah, you were selling these people short, Jimmy.

No, they have 10,000 lakes. Do they really have 10,000, though? I don't know who counted them. That seems like a ridiculous number. What would a lake count for, really, too? Could you just dig a hole down the water in your backyard and fill it with your hose? Could you spit and call that one? Yeah.

I feel like you could dig out a hole and put a garbage bag in it and fill it with water. Call out a lake. Put your trashy kids in there and say, there's a lake. Throw your koi fish in and call it a fucking lake. Lake Skeeter. There it is. in there and say, there's a lake. Throw your koi fish in and call it a fucking lake.

Lake Skeeter. There it is. So the first white settlers were Americans and French that started settling in the area in about 1850. Jimmy, one guess why they settled this area? Not oil. I promise you. There's no oil. Is there minerals in the land?

Small game and wild rice is what they were attracted to here. Wild rice? I was like, wild rice? Really? I had to read that in five different places before I believed it. Seriously. I was like, there's no wild rice there. I'm barely believing you right now.

That's fascinating. I promise you there's wild rice. Wild rice is a small game. In 18, in small games. What's small game? Rabbits and squirrels? Squirrels. I don't know why you'd go to a place for that, but I think beaver too, probably.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. That sort of thing. For trapping. Right. That was a big deal back then. It's not the meat, guys. Yeah, it's probably not the think beaver too, probably. That sort of thing. That was a big deal back then. It's not the meat, guys. It's probably not the stinky beaver meat. Not much of a beaver steak griller on the weekend.

I'll cook up a squirrel like nobody's business, though. You get me a possum, I am all over that bad boy. Throw a quail in there. I'm in. Get some quail egg and some quail breast. Hey, come down. Come on down to Jimmy's house for some quail and possum. We're having a beaver grill, everybody.

The first local schools came to the area. First local school came in the 1860s. They held it in the courthouse down there. It was a small town. They didn't have a schoolhouse yet. And then in 1865, they finally decided to build a schoolhouse. Once you do that, that's kind of when you're starting to settle in a little bit here. A guy named Charles Pelletier built a sawmill on Clearwater Creek.

So, yeah, let's get this cranking. Saw some shit up. Let's do it. He's going to start. He wants to have a business and have people working for him and have a big thing going on. You know what I mean? Sawmill. That's like kind of, that's nowhere near like what the town was founded for in the first place.

Now they've run out of small game. They picked all the wild rice. Now they got to cut shit down. I was going to say, he had a wild rice picking operation before that, but it went under. So he said, I'm going to sawmill. His last name is Peltier. Is that French? Man of pelts, I would think that would be.

Yeah, that's what I'm guessing. The pelt man. I don't know. He killed all the beaver and now he's got to start logging. Now he's got a sawmill and he's going to make something happen here, but he abandons the business after five years, and that's it for the sawmill. So, you know, first local governments formed in Centerville, which is nearby, in 1857. There's a population of about 300 people at this point in this area, and they're basically

broken up into three different settlements, known as the German settlement, the French settlement, and the Swede settlement. So they're breaking them up by ethnic. Yeah, segregating. They're segregating. Keep the Swedes over there. They're segregating the shit out of white people. This is the first time this happened.

We all know what happens when you let Swedes interact with everybody. You've got to keep the Swedes separated. That's how it works here. The word lino in lino lakes means absolutely nothing. It has no native meaning or no – it means nothing. They literally made it up when they named the town. The town of Lino Lakes, when they made this name up, was incorporated in 1955. So they didn't actually make a town out of it until 1955.

It's away from that Centerville area. There was about 2,000 people there at that point in 1955. The population now today, and it's been going up like crazy. This is about as big a town as we'll do. I usually set my limit for a small town at 25,000. Yeah. If I look and it says 35, I'm like, that's not a small town. No.

I mean, it is, but it's not what we're doing. No. It's a different thing. You've got some downtown metropolis with 35,000 people. It's different, but this has 21,050 people, and it's spread out through a decent-sized area, so it's got the real small-town feel. And that population has really, really risen. It's up 139% since 1990. Holy shit.

It only had 8,800 people in 1990. Good grief. So it's really got some growing pains here. And I assume, I don't know much about Minneapolis, but it's commutable to Minneapolis, and I assume as Minneapolis would get more expensive, people would move out to the suburbs for a bigger house and more area, more land. The stats here, the people, it's about 52.5% male, which is above, it's usually about 51% female is the average here. Median age is almost right on the norm. It's 38.6. The average is 37.4. So more kids 10 to 17-year-old age group than average. Only one quarter of the average population of 75 are older people. So it's a young, skewing, young.

There's not a lot of old. You don't retire here. I feel like this is a place you raise your kids, you have a family, then you retire to Florida or something. Or retire back to Minneapolis where they're safe for you. Well, I feel like a lot of people, as we know, we live in Arizona. There's a lot of people from Minnesota here. There is.

Just a ton. You look, there's a ton of Minnesota license plates. I don't blame them. It's freezing there in the winter. If I was 80 years old and retired, I'm not shoveling four feet of snow. I'm getting the hell out of there. The people who live directly across the street from me bought the house three years ago. They've been there for a total in that three years for about eight weeks.

They just come down during the winter and then go the fuck back. They need a break. You know what I mean? So 22% of the people are between the ages of 45 and 54, which is way like twice the norm for that. So we get a lot of that, like parent age. They have some teen kids. It's a very family kind of a place. Did I say that those people that bought that house are from Minnesota?

Yes. Okay. I just want to make sure I read it. I would hope they would be, yeah. Why else would you bring them up? They brought a place. Did I say that those people that bought that house are from Minnesota? Yes. Okay. I just want to make sure I read it. I would hope they would be. Yeah. Why else would you bring them up? They brought a house. Where are they from?

Georgia? What the hell are we talking about? Did I just say that they're from Minnesota or did I just leave that part out? No, no. They come down for the winter. I think it was implied anyway. I think in the context of it, we could all go. It's all good.

We get it. Hilarious. No worries. So it's about 61% of the population there is married, which is way above the 50% average. That's what I mean. This is, you're not going there to party. No. You're not going there to retire.

You're going there to get your kids some extra room. Right. That's all it is. There's less single people. There's less never married people, less divorced people than normal. Okay. All of these are way below average. 44% of the people, not only, this is a high stat, 44% of the people are married with children.

31% is average. So this is very much, you have some damn kids in Lena Lakes. You go there and you bang it out and you make some. Single with no children, people who are single with no children, usually it's about 10% is the average. 2.3% here. So good luck if you live in Lena Lakes and you're single and you want to find another single person with no child because you are screwed. There's like four people in the whole town. Good luck.

Enjoy. It's very difficult. The bars there do horribly. Yeah. Except when the Vikings game is on. Other than that, they do terribly all the time. As long as Adrian Peterson's beating kids. Actually, he's signed somewhere else now, didn't he?

That's right. The Saints. For another thing, though, here. Now, race and religion of this town, as you might expect, it's pretty white in Minnesota. That's pretty normal here. It's 89.93% white, so 90% white, 62% is the average. Only 2.16% black, 12% is the average. 2.13% Asian, 5% is the average, which is lower than I thought

it would be because if you go to Minneapolis, Minneapolis is teeming with Asians. Not that that's fine. You can have as many Asians as you feel like in your town, but I'm just saying it's fascinating that there's a lot of Asians in Minnesota. It's really strange. They don't move out there, the Asians, apparently.

Only 2.64% Hispanic. 17% is the average. I think they made an ordinance in this town. All minorities under 3%. Right. We're not taking any of this. No. That's it.

Sorry. You guys have to leave. No, there's already too many of you here. Go back to Minneapolis. Yeah. Hispanics, 2.64%. We're really getting up to that. We're pushing the bar.

We're pushing the envelope here. 50% are people there identify themselves as religious, which is actually right on average. 50% is right on average? Really? It's like 49.6% U.S. average. 50% here religious. 23% Catholic, which is a little above the average. 13% Lutheran, which is way above the average.

Anybody seen Drop Dead Gorgeous? We all know that. And for up there, that's interesting. Well, Lutherans are up there. Is that where they're at? Yeah that's a big. If you ever watch Drop Dead Gorgeous everything's like that. I never saw it. Really it's hilarious. Good God it's amazing. But everything's like the Lutheran this and the Lutheran center and it's

all Lutheran up there. But it's 0.0% Jewish which is not shocking. We're doing small town murder. We've had like two Jews in the history of our show. We've had two Jewish, two Jews in the history of our show. We've had two Jewish people, I think, that lived in these towns. It's insane. Jewish people like big cities.

Yeah, 0.19% Muslim. So there's a couple of Muslims there, which is, I guess, they moved over from Michigan. I know the Dearborn area, Detroit, there's a lot of Muslims. Maybe that's it. They decided that this was a better place. As far as the jobs go, 4% unemployment, which is below the average of about 5.2. Median household income here is high. Median household income is $103,000.

Really? Yeah, which is way above the $53,000 average in the U.S. So they're married, but I guess that means that there are two people working, and that's what it is. Two people. They move out there because they make a decent living, and they want to buy a bigger house. That's why I feel like they move out there and have more land and more space.

Kind of like where I live here. It's kind of like a suburb. Way the hell out there. Way the hell out there, yeah. All of the income levels that are under $75,000 are all well below average. Really? Yeah, people make money there. 30% of the people there make between $100,000 and $150,000 a year.

Wow. Which is about almost three times the norm. That's incredible. That's a lot. Almost three times as many people make over 150,000 as normal, too. It's like a frozen Silicon Valley. Yeah. There's a lot of as we get into the jobs here, like the jobs are mainly there's a lot of business and finance jobs. That's about 24 percent of them, which is well above average, above average in engineering jobs. OK. So they're white collar jobs. There's less construction and average in engineering jobs. Okay. So they're white collar jobs. There's less construction and production and extraction jobs. Okay.

So there's not as much blue collar going on here. Is there a lot of headquarters up there? Is that what this is? I don't know. That's possible. That's interesting. Like corporate offices. You know what I'm saying?

I know they have a Cisco, because we'll get into that later, of a gentleman who worked there. That's in our story. So I know they have that. That might be what it is. That's possible. It's a lot of headquarters. It might be, yeah. I get into that later, of a gentleman who worked there that's in our story. So I know they have that. That might be what it is. That's possible. It's a lot of headquarters. It might be, yeah.

I can see that. Yeah, I can too. I'll bet taxes are cheap. They're about average up there. Okay. Yeah, they're about average. I don't know. I feel like maybe it's if someone's from Minnesota.

Minnesota's like Oregon, and when people are from there, they want to bring things back there. Yeah, they want to bring it back there, you know? It's weird. And Minnesota's a nice place. Like, I've been there. The want to bring things back there. They want to bring it back there. It's weird. And Minnesota's a nice place. I've been there. The people are phenomenally nice. It's just like you would think. It's stereotypical. There's a stereotype for a reason

because they are really nice people out there. It's a nice place. It's a little weird. It's a little on the weird side, but it's nice. That's what it is. When people are nice, it feels weird. It feels weird, and it's very flat there also, which is a strange thing. It's just a strange place.

That seems strange. Nice people, though. It's 95% of the people there are high school graduates. That's well above the average of about 85%. 39% are four-year college graduates, which is well above the average there. Also more master's degrees than average. It's a white-collar kind of a place pretty much. Now, cost of living,

if we normally always say 100 is the average for cost of living, just as a base, Lino is 117. It's a little higher in the cost of living. Everything's a little bit higher, but housing is very high, 142. That's a lot higher. 60% of the houses are built after 1990 because their population exploded. Yeah, they needed that. The median home cost here is $263,000. Jesus. Which is above the 185 national average. Yeah. 62% of the houses there are a sell for between $200,000 and $400,000.

Yeah. So that's what we're looking at here. It's not affluent, affluent, like, you know, off the charts rich like last week. You're not having, no one's starting a polo team. Right. But it's very comfortable, 30 to 40-year-old people. They're sending their kids to college, these people. It's that sort of thing.

Now, if you are interested, if we have convinced you that Leno Lakes, Minnesota, is for you and you need to move there, we have the Leno Lakes real estate report for you right now. We have a two-bedroom apartment, the average for that in the country being about $1,027. In Leno Lakes, that'll cost you $1,170. It's a little more for an apartment. I have some houses here that you might want to take a look at. You can come on this way. This one's a – look at the curb appeal on this one.

Unbelievable. I'm taking you guys on a tour. Nice. Really nice landscaping. Three-bedroom, three-bath, 1,777-square-foot townhouse for this one is $197,000. That's the cheapest I could really. For a townhouse. It's a three bedroom, three baths, 1,700, almost 1,800 square feet.

It's attached to other places. It's attached. That's so weird. And that's the best I could find in terms of like a value property. Really? 200 grand? That's about it. Otherwise, you're looking at four bedroom, four bath, 3,800 square foot.

This is like a really nice house. That's a big one. On Sherman Lake Road for $535,000. Wow. It's pricey. Or three bedroom, two bath, 2,000 square foot house on Otter Lake Road. Everything is Lake Road, something Lake Road for $350,000, which seems pricey. And also if you just want to pitch a tent in the cold Minnesota winter, you can do that and get a nice two acre lot for about $85,000 in this town. That's steep, too. There's no cheap living.

No, there's no cheap living up in this part of the particular town. You better have some decent cash. Yeah, this is a town I feel like the schools are good. The schools are good, actually. The schools are better than 95% of the schools nationally and 90% of the schools in Minnesota they're ranked by. So I was impressed by that. That sounds great.

It sounds like a real nice place to raise a family if you don't like ethnic food. Or you're an officer at a company. You're an officer at a company and you just like to sit in your house and watch direct TV at night. That sounds amazing. That's not a bad plan. That's not a bad plan. Now, things to do in Lena Lakes.

You're out there. What are you going to do? You've bought a nice $535,000 house. You don't know what to do with yourself. Lots of campgrounds and lakes and that's mainly all there are things to do. Outdoorsy shit. Fishing, hunting. Outdoorsy and fishing. You can go to this campground,

campground, campground, campground. That's all it is. The number 11, now I looked on their Facebook page for their things to do. That's a good place to find. Their number 11 thing to do on their Facebook page is Lino Lakes Recycling. It's a recycling plant. I don't know what you do there, but there's, and they show pictures and it's just a building, like a manufactured looking shitty government building looking thing.

And like some, some, some literal recycling bins outside. What is it? Why is that exciting? I don't know why. There has to be more things. That's the 11th best thing you have? I seriously doubt that. There has to be more shit that you're doing there.

It has to be. But whatever. And now in August is the annual Blue Heron Days. It's a festival. A blue heron is a fish? It's a bird. It's a bird. Yeah, it's a bird.

It's that big bird with that. It's like a crane almost. Yeah, I was going to say. It's like a non-pink flamingo right right a crane is a better way to put it because non-pink flamingo sounds like a moron said it so we'll go with your thing here at least you didn't just say you can donate to a patreon and write it off for taxes yeah that's true i don't think you can do that asshole i am well whatever you're trying to sell it i'm doing my best like hey come on help us out here we're. We work our asses off here.

All right. So a non-pink flamingo. Non-pink flamingo day in August. There's a parade. There's street dancing. Yeah. A petting zoo. And even, Jimmy, an open house at the fire station.

Bring the kids on down to Lino Lake's Blue Heron Days and let's get in there. For a fucking tour of the firehouse. Tour of the firehouse. And now, if the kids are really good, Jimmy, don't spoil them. Don't spoil them. But if the kids are really good, you can take them from the firehouse on over to the recycling plant where they can really get it on, have a good time and really rip it up. What do you do in the recycling center?

I don't know. Bring all your cans. Besides recycle? I bring all my cans down there and boy, I tell you, it's exciting. They put it in this machine, it squishes them down, and I go, whoo-hoo, boy. I go home, and I just have a warm glass of milk, and I go right to sleep. Watch them chip them up, and what do you do? Too much excitement for me, guys.

I'm sorry. I can't handle it. Turn it all into an aluminum mess, and then you just go on your way? You go home, and you tell your friends the next day. Tell everybody, yeah. Head on down. Film it with your phone, post it on Facebook. Fuck yes.

Yeah, be like, look what I'm doing. Look at this. Facebook live it. Facebook live it. You're damn right you do. So let's get into the crime, our area of interest here. The crime, property crime.

And by the way, if you're one of those people, knock that shit off. Yes. Nobody cares about your video. No, please stop doing that. Please stop Facebook living. Put it up there.

If we want to watch it, we'll click play. If not, we don't have to have it just in our feed. Facebook needs to stop alerting me that some asshole did it because I can't unfriend you or unfollow you fast. No, stop doing it. Stop. Especially comedians. Stop.

Yeah. We don't care. Nobody gives a shit about your opinion. Backstage at your stupid shitty bar show. Okay. Moving along here. The crime in this town. The crime. Property crime. Burglary, larceny, theft, that is less

than half the average of national average of crime. Yeah. So they're doing, it's a very safe town, violent crime, murder, rape, robbery, assault, the big ones, the big ones, all the four musketeers of murder, rape, robbery, and assault. It's about half the average there. So you are less than half as likely to be murdered, raped, or robbed or assaulted in this town and have shit stolen from you also. How about that? Not a bad place.

So if you have money, you don't have to be robbed. It's not just a thing that happens. I mean, I've always been scared to have cash on me because I got robbed at gunpoint, but that proves right there that just because you've got money, people aren't going to do it. Move to Leno Lakes. That's what it is. It's way the fuck up there in the frozen tundra of Minnesota. Would you like me to show you that three-bedroom, three-bath town home? Because I think I can make an appointment and get you in there.

We may need to see if I'm pre-qualified. I've got to pick up the key to the lockbox, and then we'll swing by. Okay, we'll do that. Now, let's get into our people of the town here, the Dame family. The Dame family, we'll start out with a Larry Dame. This is Lawrence Scott Dame, and we'll call him Larry. He is born on September 16th, 1972. He's got a sister named Donna Dame, who was born in 1971.

She's a year older than him. They have a younger brother named Walter, who was born in 1977, so about five years younger than Larry. They have two other siblings, but they don't really feature much in the story. So let's not confuse everyone and talk about that. Larry grows up and has some problems. Larry's always a problem guy, basically. It starts in his mid-teens.

He's like 14 and he's already having issues, adult issues. He's expelled from the Christian school that he goes to, that all of his siblings go to. So they have a nice family. They're trying to send their kids to a nice private school, and he's getting booted out of it. All the other four kids did fine. They went to the school. They graduated. Not him.

He has to enroll in public school for a private school kid his whole life. Black sheep. Yeah, for a private school kid, too. That had to be a rough transition for him. He goes to Centennial High, which is in that area. Centennial High is like a big high school. They take kids from all these different little towns. Lena Lakes, I think Centerville, there's a couple other ones in there.

Larry begins drinking in high school. Oh, God. Which is a bad thing, usually, when kids start drinking excessively. Kids have beers. They have a couple of things at a party. I drank in high school, but I didn't fucking drink in high school. He's making it a hobby. He does poorly in school. He's doing it a hobby. Okay. He does poorly in school.

I mean, he's doing it every day. His father, Jeremiah, dad's name is Jeremiah. So biblical. He's about 175 years old, I believe. He said, quote, I got letters every day saying he skipped school. That's an aggressive notification policy right there. Just letters every, Jesus Christ. All right, I get it.

He's skipping. Can you call me next time? How many fucking letters do I need? Save some trees. Jesus. Imagine that just every day. Kill the kid. Make them stop mailing me things, please. Jesus. I don't care if you shit out of him. We're going to have to go down to the recycling center with all

these letters. All this paper. We're going to go down there. But you know what? It's so exciting down there. It's the number 11 thing to do in the town. That's probably why he kept cutting. I need a weekend event with my family. At least with Dad. We've got to bond. Let's do it, Dad. Come on.

Let's recycle those cut class letters. Unbelievable. He starts hanging out with a bad crowd, which he's drinking, skipping school, bad crowd. This is a cocktail. This is a cocktail for having a poor job that won't be able to afford one of these houses in Lena Lakes when you're older. And you know, that's fascinating, too. Like, you think about, like, a bad crowd. You figure, like, in a rough neighborhood or whatever, there's a bad crowd.

But in these neighborhoods, they have them, too. And they're even worse because they're spoiled fucking rich kids that are shitty. Shitheads are shitheads. Yeah. I mean, there's shitheads everywhere. I like shitheads that are broke over the ones that are rich. Like we've said previously. Yeah, white trash is better.

That's why I like white trash better. You're right. Or any color trash. Yeah. Trash is better. I like white trash better. You're right. Or any color trash. Trash is better. I just like trash better. Less shame. There's less shame and less hiding. They're more creative.

More creative. That's a really good way of putting it. He hangs out with these friends, this bad crowd. Does not speak of them with his family. Will not bring them home to meet his family. He's just like, I'm out with my friends. He's like that kid in Parenthood, the Steve Martin movie. He's like, I'm just going out.

He's got that bag of pornos. Another 80s movie. Another 80s. That's actually 1991, Jimmy. So come on, give us some credit here. But it's going to happen, every goddamn show. I'll tell you that much. We're Drop Dead Gorgeous.

We're in the 90s this week. All right, so we're getting better. All right. So he drops out of high school. Oh, my God. Drops out in junior year, I believe. So now he's on a bad path. How did he drop out of high school? I know it happens, my God. Drops out in junior year, I believe. So now he's on a bad path. How did he drop out of high school?

I know it happens, but Jesus. He shouldn't here. He's got every advantage in the world. Every advantage. His family's trying to help him. He stays at home until he's 18. As soon as he turns 18, moves out of the house, moves in with friends, of course. I've done that.

We know that's going to go well for him, obviously. Oh, clearly. Oh, it's going to be great. Now, in May 1991, Larry's 18 years old. He's out with his bad crowd friends. He's out of the house. Living it up. None of this school shit. None of that shit.

I don't need that. No more letters to dad. No more letters to dad. No more trips to the recycling plant. Let's do it. He's living in an apartment in Osseo, which is nearby, with friends. One night Larry and one of these idiot friends, they go outside with a.22 rifle. Oh, Jesus. They're in an apartment in Osseo, which is nearby, with friends. One night, Larry and one of these idiot friends, they go outside with a.22 rifle. Oh, Jesus. They're in an apartment complex, by the way.

They're not in the woods. No. This is not in the woods. They were drunk and began, quote, firing randomly, is the way it was put. So that's why. Why are you doing that? How drunk can you be to start firing randomly? Here's the other thing.

We want these rights to own guns. One bad apple spoils the bunch, you guys. This is your fucking bad apple. This is the guy. This is the asshole. Get him. Get him. If you like guns, get him.

Yeah, if they go away, don't blame whoever takes them. Blame this fuck for making it happen. And if you don't like guns, then blame this asshole because he's the guy. He's the reason you don't like guns. Well, no, he's the reason you don't like them. Well, no, he's the reason you don't like them. Right, exactly. Either way, everyone should hate him. Right.

Everyone hate Larry, guys. Come on. Larry's a dick. Larry, you're a dick. Let's find out what dickhead Larry did now. He is a dick, too, as we'll find out. Larry is arrested, duh, obviously, and admits in court to being drunk and firing into a parked van.

He said, oh, there's a parked van. What? I'll start shooting at it. Do you know how many times I've sat in a parked vehicle and just sat? This was just a, well, yeah, he's like, I'm going to fire some shots into it. Some asshole just starts firing rounds into my fucking truck. Unbelievable. So he pleads guilty to felony property damage, which seems about appropriate.

Gets three months in county in a county workhouse, which sounds amazing. County workhouse. County workhouse. That sounds like a, I don't even know. What do they do there? Like a big factory? Yeah. Maybe it's a recycling plant.

It might be. You go there and recycle some shit. He's running tours through the fucking fire station. That's part of it. You get to see prisoners recycle things. That's part of the allure, I think, of this recycling plant. That I would want. That's different.

I'm in. Let's do it. Plus three years of probation, which I'm sure he won't follow properly. No. Plus he's ordered not to use drugs or alcohol. Oh, I'm sure that's going to go great. Yeah, you know he's not going to. He also must seek treatment for drugs and alcohol

and pay restitution for the van that he shot up. I've got another penalty, Your Honor. How about no guns in your possession? How about, yeah, you can't have any more guns. I'm going to take that from him for a while. Jesus. Nice job. Yeah, well, they're trying anyway. That's a start. Jesus. Nice job. Yeah.

Well, they're trying. That's a start. That's a start. I don't know if they can take. Well, if he's a felon, felony property damage. You betcha. So he can't have a gun. No guns. He's a felon.

So that goes without saying. There we go. There it is. The judge was smart after all. RuPaul. He does not seek treatment or pay restitution, obviously, because he's a complete jackass. In both 1993 and 1994, while on probation, he spends a few weeks in jail in both years for probation violations for not seeking treatment.

He's just waiting it out. He's like, I'll do a couple stints and then it'll be over in a couple of weeks, a little while here. Hoping they'll forget. Yeah, they'll forget about me. Here's a tip. They never forget. No, then September of 1994, he's off of probation because it's over. It's a three-year thing. So he just, he's like, yeah, I'll do a thing here. He never paid restitution. He never sought treatment. He never did anything.

And we all should wish he sought treatment, really, because of what's going to happen here. 1995, in July 1995, he's arrested for slashing a man's throat. Doesn't kill him, but slashes a man's throat with a knife. Yes, tries to kill him, clearly. He's obviously aiming for it. Yeah, slashing his throat. They had gotten into an earlier argument that evening in a town called Little Falls.

And then later on, he ran into him again and slashed his throat with a knife. Wow. So we're dealing with this. That's the next step. That's what I mean. Drop the knife and fight like a man. We're not dealing with a stable individual here is the premise of what we're going on here. He's convicted of first-degree assault and sent to prison for that.

Good. Good. This guy needs prison. This is a guy where you go, yes, you need prison. But first-degree assault, that kind of seems like was he drunk and just wasn't good at the fight or some shit like that? Probably, I'm sure. That assault, though, sounds like attempted murder to me. It sounds like, well, maybe he pled.

It just says convicted. That's all I could get on it. So I don't know if maybe he murder to me. It sounds like that. Well, maybe he pled. Okay. It just says convicted. Okay. That's all I could get on it. Gotcha. So I don't know if maybe he pled to that. All right. That seems like a, hey, first degree assault rather than attempted murder. And you go, okay, fine. Right.

I'll take the four years that they sentenced him to. Okay. And he serves, or I think they sentenced him to six, but he serves four. Okay. So he serves four years in prison now. Much easier than 15 to 25. Absolutely. So he's going to be in, now it's 1995.

Okay. He's released from prison in February of 2000. He's out on the streets again. We can try and make a fresh start here, not be such a disaster. What do you think, Jimmy? Is he going to do it? Is he going to pull it together? Yeah.

No. Fuck no. I'm not rooting for this dick. I'm hoping that he drives his car off a cliff and hurts nobody. That's what I'm hoping. Let's find out. But this is called small-time murder. This is a problem. That's what I'm hoping. Let's find out. But this is called small-time murder. This is a problem.

That's what I'm thinking. This is going to be a problem. He's released from prison, like I said, February 2000. He moves into his family and his parents' house in Leno Lake. So he's back in his old bedroom. He's sleeping. He's got like a race car bed. Yeah.

You know what I mean? He's sitting there. That's depressing. Yeah. He's like, I need a drink. He's got like, you know, mega death posters on the wall because I figure that's about the time. Yeah. When he need a drink. He's got like, you know, Megadeth posters on the wall because I figure that's about the time when he was a teenager. He's got a Pantera poster at least. Yeah, he's got a sweet

Dee Snider Twisted Sister from when he was like 10, you know, one of those. So yeah, he moves in and also younger brother Walter lives there, obviously, because he's a little younger. Conditions of the release include not drinking alcohol, which this guy should not be drinking alcohol. He does bad things because he was drunk when he slashed the guy's throat.

Now, Walter, his younger brother, says that Larry was fine for about a week once he got home and then he started drinking again. And now it starts unraveling. That's when the freedom, like the novelty of freedom, it wears the fuck off. Quickly. So he often hangs out a few blocks away at his sister Donna, who we mentioned earlier, who's one year older than him, at her family's house. She lives a few blocks away from her parents. Nice suburban thing there.

They can see each other often. Her husband Todd, they're the Todd Mimbeck. So they're the Mimbecks. That's her last name now, not Dame. So Todd and Donna Mimbeck and their kids. They have three children as well. So she's married. She's got kids. They have three children as well. So she's married. She's got kids.

And he's going there to hang out more often, hopefully seeing what it's like to keep your life on fucking track. Yeah. And having like a mentor or at least some guidance. And everybody said Todd was very good to him. Everybody said Todd, give him the shirt off his back. He's a very steady guy. Todd is a couple. I think Todd is 32 at this point.

They're 29 and 28. Todd feels a little bad for him. Yes. Todd's a very steady guy. Todd is a couple. I think Todd is 32 at this point. They're 29 and 28. Todd feels a little bad for him. Yes. Todd's a steady guy, too. Todd is a very steady guy. He's got a steady job. We'll get into it in a second here. Now, in May or June of that year, of 2000, Larry gets a job at night.

He finds a job. Okay. So this is good. He finds a job loading trucks at Cisco, which is a big company in Moundsview, Minnesota. Not the best job, but you're an ex-con. Yeah. You just got out. You got to be thankful for what you've got.

It's a job at night, and it probably is not minimum wage, I'm sure. He's probably making decent living. Enough to get an apartment and that sort of thing, and he moves out of his parents' house in August and gets an apartment. So that's what we do. Doing well right now. Right now, he's a success story. Right.

He got out of jail. He got a job. I mean, after being a complete screw-up. A complete disaster. A complete screw-up. Instead he got a job. He moved out of his parents' house. This is the path you would want a prisoner to go on.

Get out, go to someone's house, get a job, move out on your own, start being a productive member of society. So Larry moves into his own place. It's a cottage unit at the Circle Court Apartments in Circle Pines, Minnesota. So he lives in a little cottage. That sounds lovely. It sounds nice, right? A little cottage. Not a bad thing for a single guy. Single guy living in a cottage loading trucks at night. That's a decent

little life. He's doing great. Yeah, except for around this time he starts to I love how I set you off to think it's he starts to tell people he's hearing voices. Oh no. Now he's drinking and hearing voices and sitting in his cottage. He loses his job in September of this year but doesn't tell his family. He tells his family he's just on leave to get treatment for the voices that he's hearing.

He's not shy about telling people. You tend to believe that. Yeah, they'd go, you know what? That's probably a good idea. They probably paid his rent for a couple months. You go get treatment for your voices and we'll take care of your shit. You bet. You can go back to Cisco when you're done.

Everybody's happy. He does not get treatment at all for his voices. Instead, he drinks more. Yeah. That's his treatment. Try to drown him. That's what it is. A friend of his said, quote, the voices talk to him at the cottage.

Amazing. And his brother Walter said, this is, wow. He said, quote, he drank to get rid of the voices. He said, they don't come to me when I'm drunk. Okay. If you do Facebook Live, you can only do it in this circumstance. If the voices are going, Facebook Live that. Yeah, Facebook Live that.

I want to see that and then go get help. I want to hear what that is. And then go to a hospital. Please, we beg of you. I want to see how that goes. That's fucking hilarious. Facebook Live from the waiting room at the hospital. That's what we'll say.

He would drink about two liters of vodka a day, which is a lot of vodka in the September, October 2000 area. He is a mess. A day? A day. Oh, my God. His guts are disgusting. Oh, God.

But he's got, I mean, he has to be hammered to not hear the voices, apparently, which is insane here. But then he's just shitting everywhere. Oh, it's got to be awful. Because you know he's not eating well either. And it's not good booze. No. It's cheap vodka.

It's so bad. You know he's eating that terrible, like, Carl Budding lunch meat. Yeah. And now it not good booze. It's cheap vodka. It's so bad. You know, he's eating that terrible, like, Carl Budding lunch meat. Yeah. The thin ones that are gray. That's not meat. Why is the ham gray? Why is that? How did this happen?

That's what he's eating. Not even on bread. Just handfuls of it, I'm sure. Not even cold. It's all warm. Handfuls of gray ham. After shots of gross, terrible vodka. In September, things are so bad in the vodka

and the gray ham that he is suicidal. I would be too. At this point, I think I'm suicidal too. I'm just listening to this. They're reading about this. In September, police respond to a suicidal call at Larry's place. He calls. He calls the cops or someone called the cops. I don't know. Who knows if he was outside

going, I'm going to kill myself. I hear the voices. He's going to kill himself. Let's get someone here for Larry. What do't know. Who knows if he was outside going, I'm going to kill myself. I hear the voices. And they're like, he's going to kill himself. Call him. Let's get someone here for Larry. What do you say? What do you say we talk about Larry? So the family is concerned about the voices, obviously. Yeah.

This is odd. This is different. This behavior doesn't add up. We get drunk. We get in prison. We get unemployed. But voices are out of my area of expertise. I'm thinking if you're the family.

And right now, Dad's digging through those stacks of kid cutting class going, there's nowhere in here that says voices. What the fuck? When did this happen? There was no indication. Yeah. Walter, the little brother again, said, quote, all these voices were saying his family was out to kill him. So this is dangerous. What?

He's hearing voices. The voices are now telling him that his family is out to kill him. I don't know. They're voices. That's what Fleischmann's's vodka does to you don't drink that shit this he had the voices before the vodka yeah that's true vodka swells quells the voices like that's what we're dealing with fleishman's is a is the medicine agent that's the agent uh so early october larry is arrested for stealing one of todd and donna's cars his sister and his brother-in-law todd and donna mimback he steals one of their cars we don't, his sister and his brother-in-law, Todd and Donna Mimbeck.

He steals one of their cars. We don't know why. He just does it. He's out there. I don't know if the voice has told him to. He's held in jail for a couple weeks as they figure out. So they caught him. Yeah, they try to figure out what to do with him.

Yeah, because he just took it, and they were like, we got it. Well, we want the car back. We have to call the cops on Larry. What else are we going to do? Now, while in jail, his family is begging the state to help him. Like, look, he needs help. He hears voices. He's in there now. Let's begging the state to help him. Yeah. Like, look, he needs help. He hears voices. Right.

But he's in there now. Let's figure out how to help him for a minute. So his mom and his mom's name is Hannah Lore, which is Hannah Lore and Jeremiah are his parents. They are from the 1600s. He better call her Hannah. Don't don't say that name. H-A-N-N-E.

It's not even Hannah Lore. It's Hannah Lore. So this is like, I don't even know. They're Amish, I feel like. Yeah. That's so weird. Comes from a nice Mennonite family. With that weird beard.

Yeah, you know he's got the C. Everett Koop beard. Another 80s reference. Yeah. No, so his mom said, quote, we told probation for the past few weeks that something is terribly wrong with him. Yeah. They're like, they're trying to. Scream it from the is terribly wrong with him. Yeah. They're trying to. Scraping it from the mountaintop.

They're begging. They are, too. So October 18, 2000, Larry is getting out of jail for the car incident. His family is now scared of him. Yeah. They're now frightened. He stole from you. Not just stole from you, but Grand Larson.

He stole, or what is that? Grand Theft Auto, I guess. I think they're more concerned with voices telling him that they're trying to kill him. Right. Like, that seems unstable. And he's acting out by stealing your property. And he's also slashed

a guy's throat one time. So he's got potential for violence. He's a bit reckless. They're worried. Yeah. The only person who would pick him up from jail was Todd Mimbeck.

Really? He's the only one who would help, the brother-in-law. That's so nice. His friends and coworkers told Todd not to pick Larry up because they were scared for his safety.

And Todd, being the good guy that he is, he said, quote, I need to pick him up because nobody else will. Oh, that's nice. That's a man right there. Minnesota nice. Or whatever. He's a nice guy. That's a family person that I'm with.

He's got a goddamn heart. Yeah. He's a steady guy. He worked for the same company, Information Technology Partners, for over 10 years. He's Mr. Steady. He's a senior computer technician. So he's got responsibilities. He knows how to do things.

I'm sure he's taking continuing education classes to keep up with stuff. He's a steady guy. They still help Larry, even though they have their concerns. They're still going to help him. Donna and Todd, they have their own problems, too. This is not their only problem. They have three children. Todd, they have their own problems, too.

This is not their only problem. They have three children. They have a 22-month-old son named Daniel who had to have heart surgery after birth to correct some things. Have you ever seen that? It's horrible. He had a heart defect. One of my really good friend's kid had a heart defect. He had a hole in the wall in the middle. And when he was born, they had to do surgery right away and put mesh in there.

Oh, it's terrible. And he's in the hospital for like the first six or eight months of his life. It's miserable. This is a similar situation. And he's a 22-month-old kid. 22 months old. Oh, Jesus. So you know they're protective of him, obviously.

Also, Donna, that's Todd and Donna's only child together. Also living with them is Donna's nine-year-old daughter from a previous marriage named Amber. And she needed back surgery to help her walk. What the fuck? She had a messed up back, and she had a big back surgery just so she could walk. Wow. So they have kids with issues, and also they have Todd's son from a previous relationship,

a 12-year-old John. So they all live in the house. What the hell's wrong with him? He's fine. He's fine from all I know. Jesus. I'm getting... We have John 12.

My heart's broken for them. They're such heroes. And Todd's keeping it together. And through all this, he's even helping the schmuck brother-in-law. You'd think he'd be like, fuck your brother-in-law. I'm not picking him up from anywhere. I got a female Forrest Gump I'm trying to raise. I got this kid with a heart problem.

I got problems. Thank God this one's okay. Yeah, and who knows, though? He's 12. He's jerking off on everything. He's 12 years old. This is a disaster. And the two of us can't stop fighting.

This is bullshit. Yeah, this is tough. And now I've got to pick this idiot up. And I've got to go get this asshole from jail. So we have John, 12, Amber, 9, and Daniel, 22 months living in this house. Yeah. So Donna and Todd are called to a meeting with Larry's probation agent, is what they call it, at Anoka County Courthouse.

This is for the release. Donna and Todd are asked by probation to pick Larry up from court. Yeah. They said they're going to set up an appointment to drop him off, take him to Mercy Hospital in Coon Rapids, which is the name of the town is Coon Rapids. Jesus, sounds like a southern town. Yeah, it does. So they're supposed to drop him off over in Coon Rapids. The most racist people on earth.

Exactly. They didn't name it because of the raccoons. So at Mercy Hospital. Because all the torture that was ensued down there. So they were supposed to take him there to be admitted for his mental issues. Thank God. Mainly voices, I think, would be his main engine. They shouldn't say that.

They should just say the voices. When we figure the voices out, then we'll get everything else going. So he's released from jail at 4.20 p.m. Donna and Todd pick him up. They drop Donna off at the Lino Lakes home, their home. So Todd said, you know what? You go home with the kids. I'll take him to the hospital.

I'll take care of it. This is on a weekday. This is a goddamn Wednesday. Guy's got shit to do tomorrow. He worked all day, got out of work, and went and picked his brother-in-law up from the jail. And then you know what he does? He doesn't just take him and drop him off at the hospital. He goes in with him and waits for several

hours while Larry gets a mental evaluation. This guy's got to go to work in the morning. This is his whole evening. He's had no dinner. I guarantee you Todd has had no dinner. He's going to have to eat McDonald's on the way home. He's ate out of the vending machine. He had some pretzels or a shitty Danish and he's sitting there while this guy's being questioned about

shit going on in his head. Now the hospital refuses to admit Larry. What? They said that he was not making suicidal threats or saying anything crazy enough to be admitted over a several hour period. Yet. Yet. I figure he didn't want to be admitted and knew how to play it. That's the only way this has happened.

So they don't admit him. So Todd Lake takes Larry back to the Mimbach's home, back to their house, back with Donna. Where else is he going to take him? He has nowhere else to put him. Yeah. takes Larry back to the Mimbach's home, back to their house, back with Donna. Where else is he going to take him? He has nowhere else to put him. So there is – once Donna finds out that they're on the way home, Donna makes a call to 911 to ask them what to do. She has no idea what to do with him and she said – I have a big – this is a big statement here. The 911 call.

She's like, what do I do with this guy? It's an emergency. She says exactly this. Quote, it's regarding – OK, my brother got discharged from the jail today, and the consequences were that he was supposed to go to the hospital because he hears voices and he stole my car and all this stuff. My husband brought him to the hospital, and the hospital will not take him, and so my husband's bringing him back here because we can't get a hold of his parole officer. Well, I can't have him stay here.

He has to go back to jail or something. Yeah. That's what she's like. I don't know what to here. He has to go back to jail or something. Yeah. That's what she's like. I don't know what to do. I got kids. Now, what happens is the officer on the 911 call tells her that basically you can say that you want him removed from your property and they'll come and remove him and take him to jail for trespassing.

That's what they can do. Donna doesn't want Larry taken back to jail for another charge. She's got it hard enough. And she's like, Jesus, he just got out. Right. And she probably being his sister, being his older sister too by a year, she looks out for him. She probably felt bad

about turning him in about the car. She probably felt terrible for that. Even worse though, she's going to call the police and tell them to remove him. He's not there yet. So the cops are going to beat them to the place. They're going to be sitting there. He's going to pop out of the car and they're going to arrest him for trespassing. He was delivered there. That's what I mean. It's not even his choice. That's what sitting there. He's going to pop out of the car and they're going to arrest him for trespassing. I feel like he was delivered there.

That's what I mean. It's not even his choice. That's what I mean. He wasn't there causing a scene. She was just like, I don't want that to happen. So basically she says, look, all right, I'll let him spend the night and we'll figure it out tomorrow. Right.

Thanks, officer. You talked me into it. It seems fair. The system seems shitty. Seems shitty. And it is shitty. Todd and Larry arrived back at the Minbeck's home. Little brother Walter's over there hanging out.

He heads home about 10.30 back to his house, p.m., and says that Larry seemed okay for the hour he saw him. Okay. Everything seems good with Larry. So night goes by. Nobody hears anything. 6.30 a.m., Larry is seen leaving the Minbeck's house. Okay. As the morning progresses, Todd doesn't show up for work.

Oh, boy. Clients are calling for him. His employer's paging him and calling him. No one can reach Todd. They're all very worried. The family goes over to the house. They can't get in the house. It's all locked up.

Yeah. So they call the police to check on the family just to make sure what the hell's going on here. So Leno Lake's police chief, Dave Pettia, said his quote on this as he entered the house. He said, quote, The police chief showed up? The police chief shows up here. That's what we're talking about here. We'll get the chief involved.

The only time you get the chief involved in our town is when there's been a murder and he's got to talk to the press. He's on TV doing it. That's the only reason. This is about the seventh case we've dealt with in Small Town Murder where the chief himself is on the scene.

So Chief Dave Pettius says, quote, It's the worst scene I've seen in 24 years of law enforcement because of the violence. Oh, Jesus quote, it's the worst scene I've seen in 24 years of law enforcement because of the violence. Oh, Jesus. And it's a bad one. Lead investigator Tony Hagelson said, quote, this was a horrific crime. And any time you have a crime scene involving children, it's difficult. Oh, fuck.

There was no sign of a struggle by the victims. So this is bad here. What ended up going down, the whole family goes to sleep that night. Larry went around at this point. He stayed awake. Everybody else went to sleep. Larry had picked up a couple things in the kitchen and goes around to each family member, including the three children, and bludgeons them numerous times in the head with a hammer.

Wow. With a hammer. That is so— While they slept, Jimmy. Oh, good God, that's a mess. While they slept, they slept he did this The cast off has got to be So messy

Just the scene And you're talking about children A 22 month old that has a heart problem He did that Then he's got the 9 year old that has the spinal problem He does that To do that more than The first hit with a hammer

That doesn't snap you back into coherency. And you're just like, I can keep doing this. But he wasn't done with the hammer, though. That wasn't enough. He had to make sure he did it. So he went around and cut their throats with a kitchen knife as well. Wow. With a kitchen knife he did this.

Yeah, it was as horrific as can be. A medical examiner said that Todd and the three kids all died from multiple blunt force and sharp force head and neck injuries. Donna did not have her throat cut. Donna was the only one that only had blunt force trauma. So for some reason, he couldn't cut his sister's throat. He could bludgeon her with a hammer just fine, but he couldn't cut his sister's throat. So there's something to that as far as his mental condition goes. Yeah, there's some psychosis there.

After the killings, Larry goes into the laundry room and cleans up in the laundry room sink. He wipes the blood off of him that's left over with a towel. Then he takes the towel, the clothing that he wore, the knife that he used, and the hammer that he used, and he puts them all in a bag. Which, not that fucking crazy. If you're cleaning up crime scene shit, you're not that crazy at this point. Maybe he's going to head them down to the recycling center. That's true. It's Bloody Hammer Thursday now coming up tomorrow.

He loads the bag up in Todd's gold 1999 Saturn station wagon, Minnesota license plate, DDY957, and drives to Rockford, Illinois. Really? Drives there. They don't know. They just see that he's gone, got out. He's hearing voices, gets out of jail, family's dead, car's gone. They assume that he's a guy they're interested in talking to. Love to have a chat.

Hey, Larry, love to talk. Love to talk. Meet me down at the recycling center. Bring your voices and come on down. Let's do it. Let's talk to everybody you got in there. What do you say? So Larry dumps the bag in a dumpster near a motel in Rockford and stays there for Thursday and Friday night.

Now, there's a massive manhunt at this point. Oh, I'm sure. As you can imagine, there's three dead kids. He's likely seen it on that hotel TV. Yes. Dame is considered armed and dangerous, Larry, because obviously he's murdering people. Now, Saturday, October 20th, two days after the murder, in Coon Rapids, Minnesota, where the hospital was, where the Mercy Hospital was, a man recognizes Larry at a video store.

First of all, there were still video stores in 2000, which is a little nostalgia. That's weird. Yeah, he was renting Parenthood. No, he wasn't renting Parenthood. So this man calls police on Larry because he recognizes him from TV. Larry is arrested without incident in the parking lot. They find him. Larry immediately confesses once they get down to the station.

He says that he didn't know why he killed them. There's no explanation. He says he didn't know why he went to Rockford or came back either. That's not an excuse, sir. That doesn't do anything for me. Police in Rockford recover the bag with the bloody clothes, towels, and weapons. Good police work here. Not bad.

Good interdepartment communication. Investigators say that he was, quote, lucid and he was calm during his confession. Wow. So he's just sitting there. He's sitting there recounting calmly and lucidly with no, also says express no remorse whatsoever. The horrible, violent murders of his sister, his brother-in-law, and their three small children. I mean, I don't even know what to say to that. So small.

It's insane. So the bail for him is set at $3 million. Good. Don't think he's raising that at the loading dock. Judge Stephen Askew orders a psych evaluation, no shit, and sets the next hearing for December. So psych evaluation, kind of you knew that was coming. Yeah. Now the mother, the mother Hennelore, that we've spoken of before, she comes out and says in the previous weeks Larry told her, quote,

the spirit said your family is going to kill you. Well, I better kill everyone before they kill me. That's what he told his mother. And that's why she was saying, help this guy in county jail. Help him. Fuck. What are you doing? The system is such a mess. Please help him. So that's what I mean.

And Police Chief Dave Pettia of the whole thing said, quote, we did everything legally possible to assist Donna Mimbach on the night of October 18th. Fuck legal. It's never mind legal. Well, then again, too, what was he supposed to do? I understand that he's a law enforcement officer.

He said, I'll come arrest him if you want. That was his only legal option. He couldn't just come and knock him in the head with a nightstick and say, go get a hotel room. And all that's going to do is keep those people alive until the next time he gets out. That's the thing. How long do you hold somebody for trespassing? It's not his fault. I mean, you would have liked him in jail over the few weeks.

I'm sure he displayed some signs of crazy. Gotta be. And the family talked. But he also knows how to play this, and we'll get into that in court and our psychiatrist evaluation of him. Pre-trial, in this case, 78 crime scene and autopsy photos were reviewed for admittance. 78? 78.

Lots of them. Brutal ones, too. Oh, I'm sure. 42 are excluded as being too inflammatory for the jury. And you're like, well, they see that. Yeah, and autopsy photos of when they're cleaned off and split open and shit like that. I can't even imagine. That's insane.

So the court would later exclude another 12 altogether. So that's the way that goes. Now, Dame goes for the mental illness defense. So there's only like 20? That's basically it, yeah. He goes for the mental illness defense, which I don't know what the hell else you would go for. He confessed.

Dame has an expert. His legal team has an expert that testifies that Larry was a paranoid schizophrenic. He testified that although Larry knew what he was doing, he didn't know it was wrong at the time. Okay. Which he wouldn't have done that with the evidence probably. Right. Probably wouldn't have bagged it up.

That's right. If he didn't know it was wrong, he would have just made a sandwich and sat in the living room and turned the TV on. Here's the other thing. You were clearly thinking at least a little bit while it was going on because you cut everybody's throat that's not blood to you. And then the one that is, you couldn't do. There's a lot.

So there's something there. Absolutely. So the state's experts, and there's two other experts, there's the state expert for the prosecution and there's the court-appointed third party, you know, I'm not being paid by either side guy. Both of them agree together

that they both testify that he was not suffering from any mental illness, just general psychopathy. He's just a psychopath. He's not mentally ill. He's just a crazy person. He's just a sick person. He's been like that for a long, long time. Yeah. They testify that he did know what he was doing and that he did know that it was wrong,

mainly because he tried to hide the evidence, which is the first thing they look at. If you try to hide your crime, that means you know what you're doing. Right. You know it was wrong. If it wasn't wrong, then why are you hiding the shit? You wouldn't hide it. You'd go outside all bloody and just sit on the front porch and wave to the neighbors at that.

Hey, guys, go to the plant. I'll see you at the recycling plant. I'm crazy as shit. Hey, how you doing? Look at this. I'm crazy as shit. You need a towel? Oh, sorry.

Not that one. This one's a mess. Anybody need any nails hammered? So, yeah, they testify that he didn't know what he's doing. Like I said, they diagnosed him also as malingering. Now, do you know what that term is psychologically? I do, but I don't at the moment. Okay, well, let's give you a definition as malingering. Now, do you know what that term is psychologically? I do, but I don't at the moment. Okay, well, let's give you a definition of malingering.

It's the intentional production of false or grossly exaggerated physical or psychological symptoms motivated by external incentives, such as avoiding military duty, avoiding work, obtaining financial compensation, evading criminal prosecution, or obtaining drugs. So you go in and say that you hurt to get drugs or you act like Clinger from MASH. That's my favorite character of all time. Clinger's a malingerer. That's what he is. That's what they would say. You're malingering. So they say he's malingering.

Basically, he's full of shit. He's been going to psychiatrists. He's lying for benefit of himself. He's been going to this shit from prison and everything else for a long time and he knows how to play this stuff. Right. He's not stupid, Larry Day. Manipulative as fuck. Yes.

Nobody ever called him stupid. Right. May 31st, Friday, May 31st. It's important that it's a Friday of 2002. Closing arguments are given in the case. A juror in the case had a previous engagement and was excused ahead of time for that weekend. Okay. So they said, we're not going to have, no matter what happens, the jury's not doing

anything that weekend. It was a single person. It was like, look, I've got a date. You've seen the numbers. There's nobody else here. I've got to take this date. I think it was a wedding is what they said. So they said that the jury deliberations and jury instructions will not begin until Monday,

June 3rd, when they come back. The jury rejects his mental illness defense when they come back. They convict him of five counts of first-degree murder. Wow. Showing no mercy there. On June 3rd, 2002, same day, Larry is sentenced to five consecutive life terms. Not concurrent, consecutive. That's

deep. That's long. One after the other. On his profile, I found his inmate profile, and that was a tough dig at, but I found it. It says that he is, his like come meet me profile. No, no. It's the write to me one, right? No, no, no.

Not that. It's just his like state. Oh, fantastic. Here's our prisoner. Here's how long he's in for. Here's what he's in for. It says on there that he's in for 97 years. Okay.

35,521 days. That's probably what a life sentence breaks because I think a life sentence starts at 20 years. It's probably five. It was probably 100 and this is. So he breaks because I think a life sentence starts at 20 years. It's probably five. It was probably 100. And this is. So he's got three years in.

He's got. Yeah. At that point. So, yeah. But over 35,000 days. So that's a lot. He appeals in 2003. Loses the appeal. Good.

I'll tell you what he did here. Doesn't even question the sanity of the argument. Doesn't even question the sanity argument. He doesn't say like, no, I was insane. Right. That didn't happen at all. What he does is he appeals on the grounds that number one, the crime scene photo shouldn't He doesn't even question the sanity argument. He doesn't say like, no, I was insane. That didn't happen at all. What he does is he appeals on the grounds that, number one, the crime scene photos shouldn't have been seen during that particular phase of the trial where they were seen.

But the prosecution contends that they were seen when a forensic pathologist showed the jury the pictures to explain injuries. So you can't get any more reason to show them than that. Dame also argues that the delay of the jury for after closing arguments, he said deliberation should have started right that minute, not Monday. So he said that was prejudicial. Not only was that one was prejudicial against him. What, it gave him opportunity to look for, to look up the case or something? I don't even know. The prosecutor asked a psychologist about whether Larry was on medication or not.

And this was previously ruled irrelevant. So that was his third contention. But the dame's attorney, Larry's attorney, objected, and the guy never answered the question anyway. So it doesn't matter. So on October 23, 2003, the Supreme Court of Minnesota rejects Larry's appeal, and conviction and sentence are affirmed. You, sir, can take a fucking hike. You betcha.

That's a long walk. Stay where you are, pal. And where he is is Minnesota Correctional Facility at Oak Park Heights. He is inmate number 185895 if you want to write to him and call him an asshole for killing a 22-year-old baby. 22-month-old baby. 22-month-old baby, sorry. And he, at this point, looks like a crazy person.

I saw his mugshot. He has a completely bald head and a gigantic beard. Really? Huge beard. Looks like a crazy guy. Awesome. Looks like a lumberjack head and a gigantic beard. Really? Huge beard. Looks like a crazy guy. Awesome. Looks like a lumberjack. I love it.

That's where he is. Right now, his victims, Todd, Donna, John, Amber, and Daniel are all buried together. Oh. Which is, it's heartbreaking to see. They're all buried together on the same headstone. They're all lined up on the same headstone, reading Mimbach on top, all under the same name, in the St. Joseph's Catholic Cemetery in Leno Lakes, Minnesota. Very, very sad story.

At least they get to rest together. Yeah, I saw that. I thought that was nice that they're all buried together anyway. But good God, the fact that that all happened. Jesus, man. What a heart that man has, though. A horrible person. Yeah, the Todd was a great guy.

Todd is an amazing person. He really was. He was a great guy. That's the kind of guy you want to marry your sister. Yeah, you want him to marry your sister and take care of her and your nieces and nephews. No, not this guy. And this guy's a chicken shit because

everybody was asleep. That's the other thing. That's asleep, he waited until. That's the most cowardice behavior ever. I don't know if he got drunk or I don't know what the deal is. That never came up in the case at all. He never blamed a voice? He didn't even blame. Well, I mean, he was trying to say that he was a paranoid schizophrenic.

That's what his expert said. He was saying, I'm a paranoid schizophrenic. They have voices, voices. And they were like, no, you knew what you were doing. Voices or not, you tried to hide evidence. Did the voices tell you to hide evidence, too? Did the voice tell you to go to that shithole town in Illinois? Did the voices say, hey, guys, when the crime scene unit comes in, you're going to want to have this all cleaned up.

I don't think the voices get that into the details of the whole thing. I think the fine salt is in the bottom cabinet. Let's get to work. So that's Lino Lakes, Minnesota. That's a horrible crime in the poor Minback family. Heart goes out to you guys. The whole family there, even Jeremiah and Hannah Lohr. They lost a daughter and lost a son, too, here.

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He claimed and confessed to officially killing up to 28 people. With a touch of humor. I'd just like to go ahead and say that if there's no band called Malevolent Deity, that is pretty great. A dash of sarcasm and just garnished a bit with a little bit of cursing. This mother f***er lied. Like a liar. Like a liar. And if you're a weirdo like us and love to cozy up to a creepy tale of the paranormal.

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