Small Town Murder - #464 - Mystery Of The Fake Dad - Sandpoint, Idaho

Episode Date: February 10, 2024

This week, in Sandpoint, Idaho, a true mystery is born, when a man appears to be missing, but is still paying his bills, and sending out birthday cards. The person who ends up having his boat, and money says he was given these things, but not by the missing man... by an imposter! His story is wild, but will DNA, a secret weapon room, and common sense be enough to hold someone responsible??Along the way, we find out that you need to eat chili when it's ten below zero, outside, that people tend to know their own father's voice, and that the sketch of a suspect, probably shouldn't look like the sketch artist!Hosted by James Pietragallo and Jimmie WhismanNew episodes every Thursday!Donate at: patreon.com/crimeinsports or go to paypal.com and use our email: [e-mail] to shutupandgivememurder.com for all things Small Town Murder & Crime In Sports!Follow us on...twitter.com/@murdersmallfacebook.com/smalltownpodinstagram.com/smalltownmurderAlso, check out James & Jimmie's other show, Crime In Sports! On Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, Wondery, Wondery+, Stitcher, or wherever you listen to podcasts!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. Hello, everybody, and welcome back to Small Town Murder Express. Yay, and choo-choo.

Oh, yay indeed, Jimmy. Yay indeed. My name is James Petrigallo. I'm here with my co-host. I'm Jimmy Westman. Thank you so much for joining us today on a really weird, wild, insane show today, I swear. Every Express is nuts nuts every regular episode never mind they're all crazy anyway moving on wild show for you check this out definitely go to shut up and give me murder.com yeah tickets for live shows all of 2024 is available actually not all of it because a couple of the shows are sold out now we're done yeah definitely get your

tickets immediately because one of the shows that sold out is in November. So people are scooping these up. Even like Boston and New York in December are selling fast. They're closing in. Minneapolis, you can be our biggest show ever. If this venue sells out, you can beat Chicago. Now, whenever anybody talks to us and they say, what's the biggest live show you've ever done? We can say Minneapolis.

So make that happen, Minneapolis. I think it's in september so do that get those tickets now shut up and give me murder.com also virtual live show going on sale soon 420 virtual live show it's going to be a tradition here we're going to tell a wild murder story just like a regular live show we're going to wear a funny outfit i know that we have we have a plan for that and i'm going to break out smoking apparatus that jimmy will be terrified of multiple things i got a whole bunch of fun stuff lined up for him so that's going to be a lot of fun make sure to get your tickets for that patreon.com slash crime in sports is where you get the bonus material anybody Anybody $5 a month or above, you get it all. Everything we give.

Everything. A couple hundred bonus episodes in the back catalog you can dip into whenever you want. And then two new ones every other week. One Crime and Sports, one Small Town Murder. This week, no different. This week for Crime and Sports, we're going to talk about the strangest injuries in sports history. Fantastic. They don't have to be on the field, by the way. There's a lot of weird guys shooting themselves by accident and strange things like that.

And then for small-town murder, we're going to talk about, back by popular demand, old-timey murders. Great. We dip back into the newspaper archives and hear about just the brutality of the early 20th century because it's hilarious how just frank they are about this stuff. And all the people would be dead anyway, so who cares? It's one of those. We have a good time. They'd be 150 now.

So it's a good time. We'll do all of that. Patreon.com slash Crime and Sports. And you get a shout-out at the end of the regular show. Also, little show update. Or not show update, kind of a program note. Program note. If you listen on Apple Podcasts, they did an update recently, and it canceled out the automatic download feature.

Ridiculous. So if you want your podcast to automatically download, you want your Small Town Murder there, when it's out, as soon as it's out, you can do that. Definitely go in there and manually adjust it and make it automatically download shit. So you can do all of that. That said, I think it's time, everybody. All right. Let's do this. I think it's time everybody all right let's do this i think it's all time to sit back let's all clear the lungs what do you say here yeah arms to the sky everyone and let's all shout shut up give me murder let's do this. What do you say, everybody? Let's go on a trip, shall we? Let's do it.

Let's do it. We're going all the way to Idaho this week. Between this and the Vermont episode, it's like we're barely in the United States. Both of these are very near the Canadian border. Yeah, very close up here. We're going to Sandpoint, Idaho.

Sandpoint, one word. There we go. Northern Idaho, up in the panhandle for sure after a bird right i don't i'm not sure maybe it's a location a lake or there's a sandpiper it's just north of the idaho panhandle national forest so yeah it's definitely the panhandle as we know panhandle behavior will surely follow, it's definitely the panhandle, as we know, panhandle behavior will surely follow. So it's about an hour 20 to Spokane, Washington over there to the west, and then about nine and a half hours down to Hazleton, Idaho, all the way at the bottom, which is our last Idaho episode. Episode 417. No body, no crime, except for that head. The original.

Messed up for that. This is in Bonner County. Median household income here is lower than the national average, $53,567. Really? Median home price, though, bonkers, $537,900, which is... How are there people here? I don't know. When the median home price is 10 times the median income, I don't understand how people.

What the fuck is that? This is people's second homes. This is ski stuff. It's shit like that. They don't live here. Some of the people do. Some of them don't. People kind of move here later if they have a lot of money.

History of this town. In the 1880s, the Northern Pacific Railroad brought in European and Chinese people in to settle the area. And Theodore Roosevelt, actually, in 1888, President Theodore Roosevelt, who was 29 years old and was a civil servant at the time, he went to Sandpoint on a caribou hunting trip. Is that right? Absolutely. He documented. Sub 30, Teddy. Yeah, he said that it was a rough and tumble environment

in sandpoint and that's what he said it was officially incorporated in 1898 it was a lumber was a big deal here for a long time the humbered lumber company operated from 1910 to 1944 now they took tons of trees out yes and then what they did is they sold stump ranches. What? A land full of stumps. That's what you got. Stump land. Yep.

So he would sell them cheap because the land was, you know, it's all fucked out already. You cut all the trees down. There's nothing there. Nothing for them to use. So they give it to people who then slowly clear much of the tree stumps. That's how they got people to do it. They sold land cheap and then people would clear the stumps themselves. And then farming and ranching became bigger and that sort of thing.

They had what they call the discovery of Lake Penned Oriel as a sports fishery. It's a lake. It doesn't seem like, how do you discover a lake? It's there. People have seen it before, I think. Is that the, yeah. So reviews of this town quickly. Reviews.

Five stars. A fantastically quaint small town nestled among the Cascade Mountains. Sprawling lake with wilderness abound are breathtaking. There are eagles everywhere you look and adorable shops downtown. Wow. It's like a little, the town's just like a little curio place. Everywhere you look, there's an eagle. Wow.

Just eagles. They land right on your hand, Jimmy. All over the place. You feed them like French fries. They're happy to fly away. It's a fucking predator, you guys. Don't fuck with that. Yeah, they're terrifying.

Here we go. Four stars. Sandpoint is a beautiful resort- resort like town everyone knows everyone and the views are spectacular our lake is one of a kind no matter which part are you are near you're sure to have amazing views if you're more of a mountain junkie which that can have multiple meanings we've west virginia we've encountered plenty of those in our stories. Schweitzer is where it's at. If you're a mountain junkie, there's meth in them NAR hills, buddy. Get on up there.

Two stars. Sandpointe's Lake is extraordinary, but the weather is very poor here. Poor. I mean, it's almost Canada. What do you expect? And it's in line with seattle they say sandpoints rainfall is only eight inches fewer than seattle those are their annual range jesus christ yeah specific northwest and the yeah the winters are dark and creepily long hey you're all

the way up there that's what happens yeah the geography yeah and the mountains alone for fuck that's it you're not gonna get you're not gonna have warm and beaches it's not gonna happen you're in idaho fucking what do you want some people say five months but it's more like seven months of cold if you love endless rainy days with no chance of sun this is your place no chance jesus christ no chance things to do here okay the winter carnival yeah oh they do it in the winter there winter dead of winter they say starts mid-february so it's coming up february 16th is the day one here yeah that's it let's freeze our balls off everybody i can vote in the ice queen well

this is how they put it too every year in the dead of winter since 1973, Sandpoint, Ohio, cooks up a sure antidote to cabin fever. Yeah, get out of your, I think that's the point, is come on out and mingle because you haven't been out in a while. It's the Sandpoint Winter Carnival, pure fun, celebrating the best of the snowy season. There's a whopping big 10 days of fun. 10 days of fun, Jimmy. Everyone, 10 days of fun. Don't you want to be there? It's oh fun 10 days oh fun jimmy everyone 10 days oh fun don't you want to be there it's oh fun how to get there oh my god um mark your calendars right now well i can't wait yeah there's the parade of lights walk down the street and look at lights that's the first day the great

winter carnival chili cook-off there we go that's what i'm talking about it's back for a second year in a row and uh yeah you come take part there's tastings and apparently there's a judge the golden ladle prize is 200 that's if you win that's the goal the coveted they call it quote the coveted golden ladle eat many bowls of chili and then shack back up in your cabin tonight with the rest of your family and shit your brains. It is going to be a farty time there, boy. I'll tell you what. Open a window. It's fucking negative 12 out.

I don't care. Live music with the paper flowers. Oh. Yeah. They'll be there. Remembering. Oh, my God. They're a Fleetwood Mac cover band.

Of course they are. There we go. Well, you know what? I'd rather hear that than the Paper Flowers originals. I don't really need to hear that. So fuck it, I guess. Play, you know. Whatever.

Play Lance White again. I don't give a shit. Do what you got to do. So there's live music all around town as well. They say solo artist Jason Perry will, quote, be bringing the funk and vibes all night. That's why I go to northern Idaho. The funk. It's just funky up there. You know what I mean?

There's also the funk. Do they mean he stinks? He's going to bring the funk. He hasn't showered in months. He's just been in a cabin with no shower. And he's terrible at this. Oh, my God. Then they have skiing, tubing, wine tasting, yoga, Adrian.

It sounds fun, but I got to tell you, that weather is fucking punishing. It's cold. It is cold. And they want you, the whole point of this is to walk around with a drink in the freezing cold and look at all this. And lose toes. It's the toe loser, everyone. It's the annual toe chopper. Let's get in there.

We're having our blue toe spectacular. It's going to be wonderful. That said, let's talk about a murder shall we let's do it oh boy this is the weather doesn't kill anybody is that not this is a non-weather related death we're going to talk about is the suspect uh 12 below small town non-weather related deaths this week this is what we have to talk about here small town town frostbite. Small town frostbite. So this is January 1994. Let's go back to it.

All right. And we'll catch up with a guy here. His name is Paul William Gruber, this man. He is born in 1940, and he's 53 years old at this point in time. He is originally from Wisconsin. He was born in Schofield, Wisconsin in 1941. I'm sorry. And he's a retired teacher.

That's what he did. And he also was a card dealer. Now, I think that means he was dealing in sports cards, if I'm not mistaken. Really? That sort of thing. Not a casino? Maybe at a casino. That's possible. Really? That sort of thing. Not a casino? Maybe at a casino. That's possible.

Yeah, he might be that. Like a dealer like that. That's possible. Either way, he made enough money to retire at this age. Fantastic young man. And he's got some decent scratch in the bank, too. Really? Yeah.

I mean, I don't know what he did, good investments or whatever, but he's able to move to this resort area and live on a lake and go boating and shit all the time after being a teacher for 20 years. So that's not bad. So he moves to Sandpoint, and he loves Muskrat Lake. That's his jam right there. Yeah. Yep, just muskrats that crawl right in the boat. Boy, it's just beautiful.

Tell you what. It's a lake full of muskrats. What is a muskrats they crawl right in the boat boy it's just beautiful tell you what are they mean lake full of muskrats what is a muskrat are they mean doesn't sound good uh no they're musk and rat are both weird you know what i mean musky is bad i don't know why they call them that because that's stinky right musk yeah like a muskrat it's it's a rat but really he's got an aroma to him they must got a stink sack somewhere a real manly smell, but really it's got an aroma to them. They must have got a stink sack somewhere. A real manly smell to them, though. It's a real masculine. If we could jar this.

I hate rats less than they smell real nice. You know, they smell like a nice cologne. I can rub it under my armpits and pick up a girl at the bar. Oh, that's going to be good. Come here, little. Come here, buddy. I keep one at home just to rub on me it's cheaper than buying deodorant a little help today so he moved there he's been

there maybe a year and a half or so so he's loving life you know this is great golly what a great fucking way to live paul gruber killing it right here uh so he spends christmas of 1993 in reno with his daughter shelly and her family she's got a husband and a son and all that sort of thing so he spends time with them spends christmas season with his daughter and then he comes back up to idaho so uh january 5th is the day he takes off to go back home now reno to here if it's nine hours and 30 minutes to Hazleton, which is at the south, very south tip, very southern tip of Idaho, it's got to be another few hours to Reno. So this has got to be a two-day trip, I would imagine. Absolutely.

You're stopping in Salt Lake or something. Yeah, especially if you're by yourself. Nobody's taking turns driving. So they wait a couple days, the requisite amount of time it would normally take him to get home. And then Shelly tries to call him and gets the answering machine and tries to call him and gets the answering machine and tries to call him and gets the answering machine. And this goes on for weeks. Listen, he's on a streak in Reno. Yeah, for weeks this goes on and she becomes concerned

but it takes a few weeks i guess i don't i don't understand why because i get like oh maybe he's maybe he decided to stay an extra day here he's yeah decided to take the fishing pole out over here sure i don't know what that's actually the middle of january so whatever he's doing yeah i'm not sure but i could see giving him an extra day or two but after a week of calling him and not getting a return phone call from your dad who normally calls you right back that seems like you'd be very concerned at that point no yeah he's just he was supposed to be just a couple of states away that yeah would not take three weeks to drive so exactly lesson he broke down and walked it that's uh he should be home by now yeah so she by february now a month goes by she didn't go by

and say hello well i mean it's a long trip she's got a family i don't know if she can but she can have a welfare check done maybe yeah hey go by the house and see if he's there at least so she called and left several messages like we said. And, you know, when she called, though, the problem was she's leaving all these messages. Her dad's message, outward message was changed. Oh, in the in the answering machine. Yeah. When when she started calling him when he got when he was supposed to be back there and they said it wasn't his usual friendly, humorous greeting. There was just a beep

so basically the the voice was taken off of it rather than going hey this is paul i'm not home right now give me a call it would just yeah you know you'd hear the answering machine kind of pick up and there'd be a beep and then you talk that's it so she said somebody unfamiliar is fucking with this voicemail that's possible or just well this is like this is 94 so this is a machine with a tape and everything i mean right so who knows she said quote when i called on josiah's birthday that's her her uh her kid and his grandson there was a voice on my father's answering machine that was not my father so then now there's a new voice on there. This is February 23rd. So this is almost a month and a half.

It is a month and a half. Yeah, that's six weeks. I'm calling the cops by now. I don't know about you. For sure. I'm either going there or calling. Somebody took over my dad's house. Something's going on here. Well, if he doesn't call me in a month, I'm going to see if he's alive or if he got home

and had a fucking heart attack and he's been rotting in his bathroom or something. He is a 50-something-year-old man. I mean, that's... Anything's possible. Anything's possible. Anything's possible. So finally, on February 28th, so she calls and gets a weird voice on the machine, still doesn't call the cops.

Really? Then on February 28th, 1994, Shelley finally files a missing persons report. Really? Yeah, I mean, like we said, we don't know, Paul, or how he might go off on flights of fancy for a week here or something like that but i gotta feel like oh after almost two months

a lot you gotta raise some flags here if he's normally in contact with you how much is he enjoying retirement you know yeah that's what i mean unless he found a lady like that's the only thing i can distract a man for a month and a half is new pussy. You know what I mean? Nothing else can do it. Right. By now he's bored of retirement and he's probably looking forward to a phone call from his kids or his grandkids. Unless, yeah, new pussy.

That would be the other distraction. Stop calling. I'm busy. New pussy or does he have like a terrible gambling problem and he's like he's on the lam right now i don't know what's going on here or a hot rod new parts in the garage just ready to burn through it so they sent officers the bonner county sheriff's department sent officers over to do a welfare check they didn't see any signs of a break-in so that's no door wasn't kicked open or anything like that.

So that's good. But it was evident that a lot of his belongings were not there. His house has been... That's the problem. It's disappearing? All of his clothes are gone. Really? Guns are missing that he used to have in his gun safe.

A computer, a TV, and also all of his personal papers are gone. Is anybody staying in the house? Not that they can see. Nobody's there. No one's there when they come in. It's empty and really empty. So these are the things that if you were leaving and moving, you would take. Clothes, TV, computer, guns, you know, personal papers.

Okay, I can get a new love seat somewhere else, but these are all the shit that I need to take. So that's one thing that they're like, okay, well, he's not here. No sign of there's not blood on the – And a bunch of his shit's gone. There's not blood everywhere or anything like that, so who knows. So then Shelly said that this is really weird. She said she got a card. We'll talk about this.

There's a card. And inside the note, inside the card, the note was very short and not very affectionate. It was not the normal what he would write. You know what I mean? So she went and pulled out the old birthday cards that she had saved to compare handwriting and signature and tone this doesn't seem like that does it and she went and she goes well that's not the same at all that doesn't look similar like everything looks wrong in the way do we know what it said his wrong no it was it didn't matter it was a birthday happy birthday it was just obvious it wasn't like oh to my great grandson you know

my it was awesome and i love him and blah blah. It was just kind of short and to the point. It wasn't. Happy birthday. Here's five bucks. Yeah, it wasn't normal for Paul. So then a little while later, a couple weeks go by. No Paul. He doesn't turn up. His new Ford pickup truck is found abandoned about an hour away from his house.

Brand new Ford truck. Brand new. Keys still in the ignition, by by the way we ain't doing that keys in the ignition miles from his house an hour away from his house just sitting there abandoned so that's different um and and then then in march they find someone walking finds paul's cell phone by the side of the road oh so okay no phone no car what's going on here then they so what was that they got the boner police department keeps not looking for anything well there there's no there's this gets them very curious when they just show up and he's not there okay he's a

grown man he's allowed to leave like yeah just because he didn't tell you and they don't know what's going on in families maybe they had a fight he doesn't want to talk to his fucking daughter they have no idea we don't we don't leave our truck with its keys and that's and us nowhere nearby that's where the suspicion came from was the car with the keys in the ignition and then also finding a cell phone on the side of the road now they're concerned before that they were literally like he might have taken off. Maybe he bought another cabin somewhere. Who knows? I don't want to break it to you like this,

but perhaps he hates you. Yeah, he might not like you. Did you do anything to piss him off, maybe? Is that possible? So then they find that huge transactions are being made from his bank account as well. Yeah, retirees don't do that. Yeah, which seems suspicious because shelly

said that he never like wouldn't use an atm did not like them and wouldn't use them and bank records show that over a two-week period over 22 000 was taken out for multiple atms holy they're like there's no way dad would be taken out 2222,000 in cash all over the place. And every ATM that were cash was withdrawn. None of them had cameras. Every single one was a non-camera one. It was just like, you know, standalones with no camera. Like somebody maybe knew. Which is interesting.

Yeah. Because they were like, oh, we could find out and make sure he's doing it by finding footage. None of them had cameras, which is very interesting. So the problem also is is his bills are getting paid really yes because they're like okay well someone's stealing his money but then they're like they contact the electric company they say no he's paid up to date he just made a payment on this day okay the gas company made a payment on this day huh truck payment made what the fuck yeah that's what i mean they're like well who the fuck would who would yeah who's murdering or kidnapping and then paying their bills and then

paying their bills with their money not stealing it actually paying bills that for a dead person that's ridiculous who would do that and then and then not ask for ransom or any reimbursement of that money makes no sense right that's why they're like that's where even his mail's being picked up from his po box so they're like what the fuck what is that where is he did he dig a hole in the ground and sit in it like what the fuck is this guy doing is he living amongst the muskrats what are we talking about just don't not don't need a shower when you rub them under your arms no No. So between the cops not having any answers and Shelly not being able to figure anything out, Shelly decides to try to set a trap for whatever's happening here.

We're just going to sit at the bank? No. She leaves a message on her father's answering machine, okay, reminding him to do something, reminding him to send money for her husband's birthday, which is coming up next week. Meanwhile, her husband's birthday is not next week. Yeah. And he wouldn't give him money anyway. So this is a test to see if this person goes, that's not your husband's birthday.

What the fuck are you talking about? So instead, she leaves the message. Five days later, a letter and card arrives in the mailbox addressed to her husband. Birthday. It's addressed to the husband. Birthday card with a check for $25 in it from her dad's checkbook. Yeah. Sign, whatever.

All that shit. So her father had never promised to send money. It wasn't her husband's birthday. Now she's like, okay, something's up. Something's up. So now she goes to the cops with this, and they're like, okay, that's something. That's something solid, tangible. Because when they saw his bills were getting paid, they go, at that point, they got to go, look, he might have fucking, who, you don't know.

He might be going to the fucking track every day. You have no goddamn idea what this guy's doing. This might be, you know, prostitutes and betting the horses he might have gotten bat shit for all you know and that's his prerogative and that's a 53 year old retired person's prerogative if they want to go bet the ponies all day and lose all their money if we if we go find him and he is knee deep in cocaine with hookers you realize we have to arrest him right yeah that's going to be a problem you're going to be very disappointed and let him smile for a little while yeah just leave him alone so she takes the cards to the police department and they get a handwriting analysis done

comparing the letter and the check with known handwriting of paul yeah okay investigators say they matched what so she's like what the fuck are you talking about it can't be my did he have a stroke and forget who he is and he's wandering around like mr magoo bumping into shit this is insane writing checks to people on yeah trust just paying electric bills like what's happening so they felt this wasn't right at all and the main reason was the peas on the in the letter just in all the words with a p yeah aren't like her father's peas she said oh he writes a specific p she said this person made the peas look like lollipops dad's peas never looked like lollipops so the police are launching a full-scale investigation of they don't know what because

a card has peas that look like lollipops these lollipies are killing us that's why they're investing like if you're the cops how many how often did the conversation between them when they're sitting in the car with a sandwich go this guy's just out like having a good time right like his bills are being paid never in the history of the world has somebody done a horrible thing and then paid the person's bills off for months she's a pain in our ass and we don't even know her right guys yeah like i don't blame this guy so they say tell you what we know where his post office box is let's set up a camera because this is before everywhere had cameras let's set up a camera on his po box and if someone comes and picks up the mail we'll see if it's him or not that's a good way to do it so they

let's leave a message and say make sure you check your post office box they sent you something it's being picked up regularly his mail oh okay yeah it's being picked up like they go to the post office they say no that box has been picked up all the time yeah no problem somebody's just living his life he's just living his life who knows he's living his life somebody something's living some somebody's living some shit here so march 1994 late march they decide to set up a sting operation with the with the camera so they cap someone comes and picks up his mail and it's captured on camera they can see clearly who it is oh many local residents knew who it was. It was an obvious thing. The guy's physical, you can see him. It's definitely him.

He's one of those guys here. spooky and part comedy. The stories we cover are well-researched. 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.

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His name is Daryl Robin Kuhl. K-U-E-H-L. So, that's the guy that is picking up his mail. So, they find out from around town that yes, it is Daryl, and Daryl does know Paul

because, according to a bunch of people in town, Daryl has been working as a handyman for Paul up at his house on and off. OK, now, Daryl Robin Kuehl, he's born in 1950. And he from what we understand, he's kind of a down on his luck guy. He's a Mormon who's known as a, has a good reputation around town as well. He's married with seven kids. So he's a married seven kids, Mormon guy who's been down on his luck a bit here. Yeah.

Him and his wife aren't getting along. So a guy with nine mouths to feed is having a hard go? Hard go. Well, also him and his wife are, he's not, he's living on couches right now. Oh. So he's separated on couches right now. Oh, at the house. Separated. He has no money. And he was trying to get, according to some friends, he was trying to get Paul Gruber to invest in one of his companies, which turns out to be just a bogus shit pile.

Just trying to steal money from him, scam him, basically. Just trying to steal money from him, scam him, basically. Sure. So they talk to Daryl, and Daryl says that he and Paul Gruber were involved in a business venture, and that's why he was picking up the mail. That's what he does, because there's business stuff in there for both of them. And he said, I saw Paul, last I saw him was February 18th, 1994. Okay. saw him was february 18th 1994 okay so which is a month and a half past when the daughter saw him but still you know well shy of now because now it's like late march so um then they said okay

just to make sure paul gruber and they show him a photograph and he said wait a second no the guy in the picture is not paul gruber okay what he said that's not paul the cops said what the fuck are you talking about that's his driver's license photo and he goes well that's not the that's not the paul i know he said the paul i know must be somebody else that must be i don't know but that's not fucking paul i know paul is a completely different face than that that's crazy okay what is going on? This is weird, right? All right. Shit's weird. Okay. April 17th. So they're like, he's saying, I dealt with an imposter, I guess.

I don't know what's going on. So April 17th, 1994. Okay. They go into Paul's house, the cops. They're just going in to look around every once in a while, basically. Three and a half months post, no Paul. Yeah. And they don't even know if he's

around if he's missing somebody else 90 days no one knows anything done work on smack on contractor work have been paid by now it's thawed we've gone from yeah fucking winter to spring for christ's sake oh my god birds are chirping leaves are blooming. This is insanity. It's flag day. It's fucking flag day, goddamn. You just paid your taxes two days ago. It went from New Year's Eve to fuck, did we file our taxes? He's still gone. Right now. Wow.

So this time they're walking around Paul's house, and there's a rug, and one of the investigators trips over the rug. And when you trip over a rug, not a carpet set in place, a nail, just a rug on the floor, the rug comes up with you. But it doesn't. It stays in place. Oh, it's stuck. So they figure out that it's glued to the floor. That's not how you use a rug.

Who the fuck ever glued a rug to the floor? I've never seen that before in all of... The point of a rug is it's portable. You can pick it up, beat it against something outside, clean it, put it back. Yeah. That's the point. That's the whole point of it. Yeah.

Otherwise, you get carpet. Maybe he was building up carpet eventually, but one square at a time. One of these days, we're going to get tax strips around here. I was telling you, man. It's going to be something. We're just gluing them down one square at a time a glued rug so they're like that's not right so they pull up the glued rug and they find a big gouge in the hardwood floor that the detectives say is very consistent with a bullet ricochet off a hardwood floor. Oh. That's the gouge type.

So they, you know, now it's a crime scene because they want to make sure of this. They test it all. The mark in the floor tests positive for gunshot residue. Yeah. So it's a bullet mark in the floor. So they're like, okay. Then they luminol this joint and conduct more tests because now they know where to look at least because before that you can't just luminol an entire house. That's not really a –

It's a lot of luminol. It's not really possible. So they find bloodstains at that point. Under the glued rug. Under and around in the room. Okay. So they bring in dogs at that point. Now they're like, okay, okay well let's make sure the

body's not anywhere here cadaver dogs they search the whole property the whole area around it everywhere the whole house nothing they don't come up with shit okay so there's been blood there's been a gunshot there's two different imposters we've at this point possibly at least so back to daryl now um they go we got this daryl guy there's something about this daryl kuhl guy here so they examine the bank accounts of both daryl and paul next to each other now okay and they uncover large deposits into daryl's account coinciding with corresponding amounts withdrawn from paul gruber's account the same amount of money coming out of paulie's account is going right into the same day yeah and kuhl said they asked him what up with

that and he goes i'm doing paul asked me to do this i'm paying his bills for him he told me to transfer money and pay his bills okay so he's paying the bill he said yeah he told me to well the guy not the paul gruber they know in the picture i mean a guy named paul gruber told me to yeah that guy with all this information with paul gruber's bank account so he said that um yeah he said that you know the he said he was going to canada and taking a trip up there place he always wanted to go he was finally going to go do it and he said would you ask would you pay my bills for me because i'm not going to be in a place where i could do that but i said sure why not because i was you know i'm a sandy man because i'm here yeah so then august 23rd 1995 here we go okay detective harvey thompson he has been walking around in the gruber's home with a contractor who

worked on the home oh this guy's familiar with it yeah it's the guy who who built it i think and so he says he's walking around with him this guy's got blueprints and shit and he's saying is there anything is this the way the house was when you built it is there an extra wall in or yeah literally false walls false anything anything like that and the guy goes no it's it's same structure it's the same as it is in the blueprints. This is my work. But then they walk into one room and go, whoa, that's weird. The floor really sinks in here for some reason.

The floor is sinking. It's a depression in the floor. And you step on it, it's soft. And he's like, that shouldn't be like that. I didn't do that. There should definitely be shit under this. I've got a better floor than that shit. Yeah. So they go, well, that shit under this. Better floor than that shit. Yeah.

So they go, well, that's not great. What's under here? So they decide, let's go ahead and dig that up. And when they dig that up, they find Paul. The real Paul. Real Paul. Really? Real Paul.

They find his badly decomposed body in the crawl space under his home, four feet beneath the floor. So the wood floor was soft? The wood floor was soft because the way this guy dug it out, basically, whoever killed him dug it out and didn't realize that when a body decomposes, it shrinks down. So then the floor settled down on top of the body. Wow. Because it was all flush when he put the floor back on. So the body is wrapped in a deflated air mattress, which is the saddest. Oh, that is fucked up.

That is the least, it's the most indignant end to a life, undignified, I should say, undignified end to a life that's ever happened right there. It's sad to be on top of that, let alone inside it, for Christ's sake. Wrapped up in a deflated air mattress? That's just sad. The body, from what they can tell, has suffered four gunshot wounds inflicted by a.22 caliber gun. Now, later they feel like it's possible that these are two different guns that shot him also. Really?

Okay, yeah. That's interesting. So after this, they found that when they're talking to Kuehl and they say, do you have a.22 caliber? And he says, yeah. They test it, and it doesn't match Kuehl's gun, the bullets, which is fine because you can't have another gun. There's so many of those. It's a.22. So then there's a woman who's friends with Kuehl.

He's friends with Kuehl and Kuehl's wife Christine. She says, yes, the couple knew Gruber. This woman says that she was asked to destroy Darryl asked this woman to destroy one of Gruber's gun cases. So she did.

She burned it. Okay. A gun case? A gun case, not a safe, a case. So it was probably wooden, you know, like a display case, not an actual case. Right, like a hunch. Yeah. Yeah. So at the request of Christine Kuehl, Daryl's wife, the woman also tossed Gruber's briefcase containing papers and a video camera into a local landfill as well.

At whose request? At Christine, who is Daryl's wife. Daryl's wife, who's closer to her than Daryl is, said, would you throw this in a landfill and burn this gun case? And said it was Paul's. So then they have to pay. The state has to pay a bunch. This landfill, between then and now, has been shut down. It's no longer in operation.

So, yeah, they have to go in there and they have to pay like $50,000 to reopen the landfill to be able to fucking get in there. So just to look for this briefcase cost them 50 grand. Wow. Just in that, and then all the man hours it takes to search through a landfill, which is, quote, the size of a football field, for a briefcase. And that's a $50,000 exploratory dig because even if they knew it was in there, it would be hard to do. They don't even know if it's 100% there.

Who knows if someone came and, you know, just scavenged through it to them. Said, oh, look at that, a perfectly good briefcase and grabbed it. People scavenged through landfills. So they do this, and with the help of the woman who did, who threw the briefcase out, said, this is the general area I threw it in. Oh, so she definitely put it in there. Oh, yeah, no, she did it.

She said, I did it for him. I burned the gun case. I threw the briefcase in there. And they find the briefcase. Wow. So that corroborates a lot. Now, that's Paul's personal briefcase with Paul's personal papers and his video camera. Don't out by this guy that says he doesn't know Paul.

This lady who doesn't, this lady who only knows Paul through Daryl. This guy who says he doesn't know him as that guy. Exactly, exactly. So then the landfill was permanently closed. So at that point, once they have this, the head prosecutor says, we were ready to take this case to court without a body there was plenty of indication gruber was deceased and of who did it this is he said that before they even found the body and then once they found the body in the briefcase

they're like okay you know not nobody no crime now yeah it's we got a body we got a crime so january 1996 and they still haven't arrested Daryl, by the way. No. This has been two years since this happened. Yeah, but he says he doesn't know him. He says he doesn't know him. So the officer conducts a photo lineup with the friend of Gruber's who claimed he might be able to identify a person who possibly is involved. So they're going to see.

And he identified Kuehl as the man he had seen in a videotape shown to him by Gruber when they were doing something. And Gruber identified him as Daryl. So he's like, that's the Daryl guy I know that knows the real Paul. Daryl definitely knows. He knows the real Paul because this guy knows Paul. So then the issue of the handwriting and the signed checks is unresolved. They initially,

the document examiner said that Gruber wrote the cards and the family said no. Then they get a different expert, kind of a more exalted expert here. He looks at everything and he found significant differences in the two samples determining that Gruber did not write the birthday cards. Yeah. So the handwriting instead, he said, matched Daryl Kuehl, who including on on several checks supposedly filled out by Gruber, too. That's the lolly man.

Now, bullets found in Gruber's body were fired through a silencer that they found in Kuehl's possession as well. What? Yes. There was a couple of bullets. He's fired. Why does he have that? That's scary. Well, he's got a whole.

That's dangerous, man. You want to talk about weird here? Okay. Four bullets were found in Gruber's body. Crime Lab report showed two of the bullets were deformed by being shot through a silencer and they it matched the one um so and also the 22 caliber pistol confiscated from kuhl had a silencer mounted on it at the time they they took it so yeah uh that's that's not wonderful then they they take the envelopes and the cards they got and search them for fingerprints.

Yeah. No fingerprints on them. But it's 1996-ish going in there. They say, there's a long shot, but we may be able to extract DNA from that stamp. This is like- Somebody licked something? Yeah. Right in the beginning of when that was possible to do that.

And right at the end of licking stamps. Yeah. And right at the end of licking stamps yeah and right at the end of licking right at the end of using stamps it's the last stamp you used so a bunch of them yeah no i got them i don't know what i got them for i don't know for what yeah so they take this and he might not even have known that was physically scientifically possible to do that at the time. It was such new technology. And so they do this and they match the DNA to Kewl as the stamp licker. Wow. Daryl is a stamp licker. So just in case, though, they go, you know what?

Tell you what, Daryl. You keep saying there's an imposter that you claim is that that's the gruber you know so set up a meeting let us let's do this um yeah sit you down with a sketch artist and let's get a picture of this imposter here yeah because it's just not daryl so he sits him down does the whole sketch the sketch looks exactly like the sketch artist how fucking great is that he described the sketch artist to him the sketch artist just drew a self he drew a self-portrait and then went they all went it looks like the fucking guy who drew it and laughed their asses off because daryl has the brain of spackling compound. He's a fucking idiot. What a dumb shit.

He just described the face he's looking at. Yeah, he didn't have any other. He couldn't imagine another face. He had no other reference. He couldn't imagine just a guy you went to fucking school with. A dude you used to work with. Just pick one out of your ass, a person you know. Here's a guy that's not me.

I'll just describe him yeah have him draw who know was it 96 who can't have him draw dan rather who gives a shit somebody that's not in the room would be helpful what a fucking dummy that's one of the dumbest things anybody's ever done on this show and that's saying something for this show that is panhandle behavior right there that is he didn't have any other thoughts in his head he couldn't think of another human face except for the one sitting before him how many people have you seen in your life i can't do the real paul i can't do me that'll look bad that guy that what about you how about just pick a guy from a job from 10 years ago you worked on and have him draw that guy they'd never know who that was some fucking

guy from the plant no i've been trying fucking gene wilder anybody oh my god what the fuck so then they get a search warrant now they're like let's search kiel's property they get a search warrant. Now they're like, let's search Kuel's property. They find a hidden door in his house. Oh, Kuel. They find a hidden room that contains, it's his weapon room. It's just full of weapons. Really? And throwing stars and handguns and fucking all sorts of shit in there like that, including a.22 caliber handgun with a homemade silencer on it as well. Also on his property, a ton of Paul's tools and furniture, Paul Gruber's tools and furniture, and all sorts of other shit. Most of his stolen belongings, including his boat and his money.

Really? Yes. So that's not great. So they go ahead and arrest Daryl here. That is May 20th, 1996 they arrest him. What was his end game? To just live his, till he drained his bank account, I'm sure. Then what?

Just pay his bills and then what? No one would know. You're not thinking of a forethought of eventually people are going to look for this guy. bank account i'm sure then what pay his bills and then uh no one would know like there's no you're not thinking of a forethought of eventually people are going to look for this guy never thought of it so may 20th 1996 is when he's finally arrested so two and a half years essentially yeah that's crazy uh he's arrested in washington actually in washington state which isn't far and he fights extradition he's fighting far. And he fights extradition. He's fighting everything. Nope.

While awaiting extradition though, he has a plan. He's like, okay, they're not going to extradite me because I'm going to escape this motherfucker. How? He said, when they're transporting him, that's when the escape's going to go down. So he attempts to escape from custody by offering other inmates $15,000 for killing the transporting officers. You kill them. What would be the interest? Holy shit.

Did they accept this? No, they didn't believe he would pay them and told the cops on him. Good. Yes. on him. Good. Yes. Two cellmates who bunked with him while he was awaiting extradition to Idaho said that he tried to arrange the deaths of three Bonner County deputies, including Thompson, the guy

who found the body. He's one of the guys that's going to pick him up. James Lawrence Connor was the prisoner here. He said he led Kuehl to believe that he would kill the three, and Kuehl offered him $5,000 for each person that he killed. So for helping in the escape, too, he was going to pay somebody else $1,000 and give him two vehicles as well. So this informer, who is now working for the cops, told him about this. When he gets released from jail he arranges a meeting with Christine,

Daryl's wife. She delivers $1,000 and the title to two vehicles. Oh no! Unfortunately the informer had two undercover officers in the car with him that then popped out and said

well that's fucked. You're done there. You're in trouble now, too. Yeah. So now they suspected that his wife had helped cover up the murder and was part of the escape plan, but she's never arrested or charged. Really? To me, that's an arrestable offense if you're paying off a bribe that has killing cops involved

in it. Yeah, that's conspiracy and murder involved together. Yeah, you're involved in that shit big time. That's conspiracy and murder involved together. Yeah, you're involved in that shit big time. Welcome to the small town of Chinook, where faith runs deep and secrets run deeper. In this new thriller, available exclusively on Wondery Plus, religion and crime collide when a gruesome murder rocks the isolated Montana community. Everyone is quick to point their fingers at a drug-addicted teenager, but local deputy Ruth Vogel isn't convinced. She suspects connections to a powerful religious group.

Enter federal agent V.B. Loro, who has been investigating a local church for possible criminal activity. The pair form an unlikely partnership to catch the killer, unearthing secrets that leave Ruth torn between her duty to the law, her religious convictions, and her very own family. But something more sinister than murder is afoot, and someone is watching Ruth. With an all-star cast led by Emmy nominee Sanaa Lathan and Star Wars' Kelly Marie Tran, Chinook is available exclusively and ad-free on Wondery+. Join Wondery in the Wondery app

or on Apple Podcasts. I understand that anybody who's paid attention to the media will have to come to the conclusion that I killed my wife. Hi, my name is

Zach Stewart-Pontier. I'm one of the filmmakers behind The Jinx, and I'm excited to bring you the official Jinx podcast. We'll be revisiting all six episodes of Part 1 and watching along with

part two as it airs on Max starting April 21st. Bye-bye. The official Jinks Podcast. Listen on Max or wherever you get your podcasts. It's all a lighthearted nightmare on our podcast, Morbid. We're your hosts. I'm Alina Urquhart. And I'm Ash Kelly. And our show is part true crime, part spooky, and part comedy. The stories we cover are well-researched. 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 motherfucker 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, or you love to hop in the Wayback Machine and dissect the details of some of history's most notorious crimes, you should tune in to our podcast, Morbid. Follow Morbid on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to episodes early and ad-free by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts.

So, anyway, there's another plan. That's not his only plan. Oh, really? His other plan was to, this is fucking awesome, he had a plan to find a homeless man, give him the details of the murder, and videotape a confession from him to clear daryl okay what the motivation this said homeless man would have to do this i have no fucking idea but um he went to he really tried to do this though this was his fucking thing that he was going to do he even has we'll talk about it later he's got a script for it and everything it's fucking amazing wow oh yeah he had a script that they found that was like you know i feel bad now

that this guy is in trouble i heard somebody got arrested for it and blah blah blah it's fucking ridiculous so he's extra uh extradited anyway out of here which is uh for the best so he's uh they pull him out here he goes uh pre-trial, the prosecutor says, as all of the evidence comes out as this case unfolds, it's just going to astound people. This has been one bizarre tale, which is – Yeah. Yeah. It's sticky, man. It's deep.

It's so weird. So the state asks for the death penalty. They say if he's found guilty, they're going to press for the death penalty they're gonna they say they're gonna if he's found guilty they're gonna press for the death penalty they say he exhibited utter disrespect for human life and was motivated by greed which makes sense they said it was less he had less than a normal amount of provocation for killing this guy which is none at all and it's obvious that the that the motive is robbery he's literally took all his shit. That's absolutely.

And they said also he tried to escape. They said this would have been done for the purpose of an attempt to escape. If the defendant had been successful, it would have triggered other aggravating factors as well. He would have killed other people. Now, one thing they're not going to let in is a taped interview with Kuhl that has terrible quality. You can't hear it. The judge likened it to Charlie Brown's parents. Wah, wah, wah, wah, wah, wah, wah.

That's what it sounded like. Yeah, underwater shit. Yep, the judge, after trying to understand it for a while, he said, you've had this tape for two years. It seems to me that you would know by now if it would be of some value. Like, you would know if it sounded like this, so why the fuck are you showing this to me? The prosecution in their opening says, as this case unfolds, you're going to find Mr.

Kuehl is a very together type of guy on how he went about this. Yeah, he was paying bills for Christ's sake. But he had made some small errors along the way that have become very significant through modern forensics. Some astounding things have been found. And then he said said points at that fucking daryl and says this is the fake paul gruber there he is there he is and the real murderer in this case after he killed paul he stole his car boat truck forged checks all this to keep the charade alive to keep looting the man that he killed yeah okay so the defense opening they described daryl as a run of the just

salt of the earth church going man with a large family he's a non-drinker he doesn't use drugs yeah nothing he has a day planner that he holds up but he says this is what daryl uses to religiously document his life he said this is going to vindicate my client. It doesn't say killed Paul anywhere in here. No. No. So, I mean, it didn't happen. He told the jurors that the next few days you are going to see a man

who nobody believed from the beginning. He said he was always the guy they were going to pin this on. He said, quote, you're going to hear mountains of testimony on what happened before January 5th and mountains of testimony on what happened before January 5th and mountains of testimony on what happened after that. There's a large space in between where we don't know what happened.

What the state is going to ask you to do is to make that leap in between the two mountains. Hmm. Well, we know you had all this shit and we're paying his bills. So right. And lying to his kids selling out sending out birthday cards so the defense's case is that someone else killed paul and was impersonating the teacher and he's the guy who loaned daryl the property so he's saying listen there's another imposter that's his argument is that listen the paul i knew for years yeah is a

different that's an impersonator so there's him his whole case is there are two different pauls and whoever that other paul is he's got to have been dead for years years who knows i never met that guy that's what he said i never met the real paul he said so there must have been someone else his attorney this guy's name is brett featherston poor bastard who has to say this out loud in the courtroom. He said that Kuehl met this guy more than three years ago. He's the guy who loaned him the truck and the boat and the money, and he must have been impersonating Paul. This is the lawyer said, quote, the state's case in a nutshell is that Paul Gruber disappeared and that Daryl Kuehl was found with some of Paul Gruber's property. We aren't going to dispute that.

What we are going to dispute is the fact that Daryl Kuehl ever even met Paul Gruber. Okay. So they have a trial. They present all the physical evidence and all the financial and all the evidence we just told you about. Yeah. So during the defense's closing arguments here, they maintain that he never met Paul. He said if it were. Yeah.

Never met him. Whoever did this is diabolical. I don't know this guy. He assumed his life and then framed this man by giving him all his shit. And that's exactly what they said. Framed this man by giving him all his shit. And that's exactly what they said. They said it's an imposter who gave Kuehl thousands of dollars, a boat, a truck, and other property belonging to Gruber.

It was all a big plan to frame Daryl Robin Kuehl for Gruber's death if and when the authorities found the body. Poor son of a bitch. He said Daryl and Paul did not associate with each other, and Daryl did not kill him. He said he must have been attacked by a burglar. Maybe there was that. And he said the police just focused on Kuehl, who has no criminal record, ignoring other perfectly good leads. Yeah. He said, quote, this case is riddled with questions. It's riddled with a lot of answers, really.

And they all lead to.dled with a lot of answers really and they all lead to there is there's a lot of questions like why did you describe the the artist to him here's a question why the how did you think you were going to get away with this in the end that was a question i'd like to know it's the only one i'd like to know why'd you make that poor man draw a self-portrait you son of a bitch look at himself he goes that looks familiar you evil bastard the prosecution they're closing there's a shitload of drama in this boy it's funny oh boy oh yeah he says this is the prosecutor this is was an intentionally deliberate act not an accident accidents don't get shot four times accidents don't get shot four times the funny line accidents don't get buried under the house was he was he was he the accident accidental killing i guess the evidence in this case is too strong not to convict the family is entitled to it the defendant deserves it and

justice demands it demands it you bet he said do you. He said, do you want to know who that fake Paul Gruber is? It's the person whose DNA is on the postage stamp, whose handwriting is on those checks. This is the real, this is the fake Paul Gruber and the real murderer in this case. It sounds like, this is like a TV show. This is the real man. He's not an imposter. This is like a Scooby-Doo and a Perry Mason

rolled into one. This is the real imposter. Wait, what? Hold on. As he said, this is the fake Paul Gruber and the real murderer in this case.

He points at Daryl. Daryl stands up and shouts, that's a lie! In the middle of closing arguments. In the middle of closing arguments. In the middle of closing arguments. Why do they do it? They said the jurors like jumped out of their chairs, scared the shit out of them. So you don't want to be terrified the jurors are about to vote for your guilt or innocence.

But you do want to trigger somebody like him because he will incriminate himself and sink his own ship. That's a lie. And the judge told him, you wanted to speak, you should have testified a week ago and you didn't want to, so sit the fuck down and shut up, basically, is what they told him. So then the prosecutor said, after he cold-bloodedly killed Paul Gruber, stole his car, boat, forged his check so he could keep this charade alive and loot him. And so it's a three-week trial. They had a lot of like financial records to go over that shit takes a while so the deliberations pop up it's a seven woman five man jury they deliberate for about four hours

uh one night and then they're sequestered for the night and then they come back the next day what the fuck is taking you four hours here i don't there's dna for god i mean there's dna which by the way back then still was people were shaky about yeah uh but how do they get that out of a stamp they'd say well they're scientists and you're not stupid that's how they get out of a fucking stamp when you flick the light when you turn a switch how does the light come on do you can you explain that either so do you believe in electricity? Get back and clean those carburetors. Jesus Christ.

So they do all of that. It's a day and a half of deliberations, which seems like a long time. He's up for five counts of forgery, first-degree murder, burglary, all sorts of shit. Oh, my. They find him guilty of all of the above here. Now, sentencing comes around. The judge does not agree with the death penalty for him though for some reason. And the judge says you sir

may fuck off 25 years to life. Wow that's interesting. 25 to life but not life without and not death penalty. So we'll find out when he'll be eligible for parole. I think it's when he's 84 years old he'll be eligible for his first parole. So he won't be impersonating a lot of people then.

He's going to be impersonating Orville Redenbacher. Yeah, he's going to be impersonating a corpse. He's going to really be impersonating Paul at that point. So on June 19, 1997, he wrote a letter to the Bonner County Daily Bee newspaper. Really? Where he said, quote, I was framed and false things have been used against me. Then he says the real killer or killers are indeed still free and among you. Indeed, yeah.

Yep. So just tell OJ he'll go find them along with his wife's real killers. He's looking. Everybody. So in 2001, it's actually on the Discovery Channel's New Detectives show, which was, like, new at the time and a big deal. Yeah, all those forensic shows and stuff, that was a new thing back then. Right, right.

They were hot shit. I mean, now they're ubiquitous. That's how popular they've gotten. 70 of them, yeah. And they all do great, you know what I mean? So this is where they do all this. They're going to have the cops that were in the show doing it. They said, this television program will tell the fascinating story of one of our most challenging criminal investigations while giving these Idaho law enforcement professionals the public recognition they so well deserve.

It seems like everyone's a little slow here, right? Yeah, it took three months, guys. Daryl's a little slow. I hate to say, because we say we don't make fun of the victims of the victim's family, but Shelly displayed both cunning. She waited a bit, yeah. She was slow on the uptake, but then after a while, then she's like setting up fucking traps and shit.

Stings and shit, yeah. You're smarter than to wait a month and a half to two months to get a welfare check on your dad. What the fuck's going on here? So, wow, she must have been busy or some shit. I don't know. So 2002, he's going to have an appeal. And his appeal is that pre-trial photographic lineup used to identify him should not have been used against him because it was unnecessarily suggestive suggestive suggestive uh also challenged hearsay mates uh hearsay statements made by the

paul gruber paul gruber said this is daryl on the videotape because his right to confront witnesses against him was undermined since paul gruber was dead well because you killed him he wants to confront paul gruber on tape saying that that was me yes because it's not me because it's not me okay and that's not paul or whatever it's not fair that yeah paul gets to say that and that's not even my paul that is ridiculous they went are you out of your fucking mind? Get back to prison, stupid. God, you dummy. So 2007-ish, he had another appeal that didn't go anywhere. And then he was like an appeal to that in 2008. And that one is mainly for ineffective assistance of counsel.

Yeah, that's the last ditch effort, right? He said he was planning to testify. Oh. Which we know could have only helped him, obviously. I was going to fix it, you guys. I was going to write this shit. I it you guys go up and fix it all i could explain everything what had happened was shut the fuck up and sit there that's not paul in the ground that's not paul and i didn't know him i mean i guess if you were the best actor in the world maybe you could convince people of that. Maybe you could pull it off. I don't know. But DNA and you have all this shit is tough. So anyway, he

said that the two attorneys took him into the judge's library for consultation away from, so they could have in private, where the counsel purportedly promised Daryl that if he would agree not to testify, because the lawyers were like please don't testify. You're an idiot.

Seriously. We can't give you to a district attorney. He's, please don't testify. You're an idiot. Seriously. We can't give you to a district attorney. He's going to eat you alive. Then the council would inform the jury of all the issues that they had withheld from the trial. So what he's saying is that his lawyers had evidence to free him. Yeah. But they were holding it back. Yeah.

Because they didn't put it out there because yeah that way they had a bargaining chip that when he wanted to testify they could say no no don't testify but then we'll give you the real evidence that frees you and he's claiming that his attorneys because uh he didn't testify then the attorneys didn't give this magical evidence that would have cleared him which isn't this sounds like a terrible appeal honestly yeah he said that they uh denied him right his right to testify through a false promise now the state says that regardless of his motives for not testifying there was a showing on the record that he voluntarily waived his right to testify not our fucking problem is what they said

that's him between him and his attorneys so they said also that Kuehl failed to show any prejudice as a result of the council's conduct to support an ineffective assistance claim, although not set forth in his allegation of ineffective assistance that that's the basis of the appeal. The evidence suggested or the evidence that he alleged was withheld from the jury is summarized in the other allegations of ineffective assistance. So here it is. Here's the theories that he said they should have pushed. One, someone else had access to his residence and the real Gruber and framed Daryl Kuehl. Did that imposter go to his daughter's house for Christmas, too, because he was still alive then? Three, Kuehl didn't have any motive to kill the real Gruber. Well, you stole from him a lot.

That's a motive. You got his boat, man. Jesus. To begin with, much of this evidence was presented to the jury, although perhaps not with the particular slant that Kuehl would have liked. Well, then he can get a fucking law degree and do it himself because that's just a matter of style how else are you gonna spin i've got his boat yeah and they said the defense council presented evidence in support of the imposter theory during cross-examination of everybody and through his his uh closing and openings as well so they said even if they made a false promise even if we assume that's true, it still falls below an objective standard of reasonableness.

Kuehl has not shown prejudice as a result of that promise and can therefore henceforth fuck himself, I believe is what they said officially in the documents here. 2007, they do an episode of the forensic files on this. Oh, really? Yes, it's season 11, episode 28 if i were you so that was on oh not bad 2007 god they're good at naming this they are they are let's see that well they can't put like words like horny and shit there yeah yeah so 2012 he has another appeal and is denied again um he is currently incarcerated at the Idaho Correctional Center in Kuna.

Kuna. K-U-N-A. Someone's going to say I pronounced that fucking wrong now. Because that matters to the story. Yeah. Who gives a shit? To the Idaho Department of Correction. He is eligible for parole in 2034 when he'll be 84 years old.

Holy shit. Not great. He is prisoner number 54471. And if you'd like to drop him a line here, Idaho State Correctional Center, Unit K, PO Box 70010, Boise, Idaho, 83707. So there you go. Up there in Boise. Up there in Boise there.

And we have his address and all that shit. So there you go. That, everybody, is sandpoint idaho and one fucking weird murder man that is what a story what a story mark that was crazy shit that was a wild fucking story so that said if you like that story you should tell people about it tell people the things and people love to review things they hate review things you like also. Tell everybody about it. Give a review on whatever app you're listening on. Like we said, if you listen on an Apple podcast, make sure it's automatically on download because otherwise they did a reset.

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