Sword and Scale Nightmares - Sugar

Episode Date: October 26, 2023

18-year-old Aprina Paul was a nursing student following her dreams when she mysteriously went missing. Her mother Alice Larrue never gave up hope, even when Aprina’s killer continued to harass her.This show is part of the Spreaker Prime Network, if you are interested in advertising on this podcast, contact us at https://www.spreaker.com/show/5863198/advertisement

You begged for more. So now, Blink 182 are coming again one more time. Live at Roger Center, August 15th, with special guests Alexis on fire and Pierce the Veil. Get tickets this Friday at 10am at ticketmaster.ca, Blink 182, the brand new album One More Time It was late October of 2013 and 33-year-old Alice LaRue was sitting at her kitchen table surrounded by friends and family. On the table, cell phones, snacks, and paperwork were strewn about. This was the search team. Alice's eldest daughter, 18-year-old Aprena Paul, had been missing for over 72 hours. Alice sat in a daze as her friends buzzed about, talking about the recent trips from the hotline

they had set up while simultaneously crunching snacks. Alice was feeling lost. What else could they do? The police were on the case. Every day the family handed out missing flyers, with Alice's cell phone number. The pretty photo of Aprina, in her periwinkle graduation cap and gown, had been blasted through the local news and all over social media. The message was out and tips had been flooding in. Alice wrote everything down.

She scribbled furious notes for the detectives and listened to every tip. No matter how crazy they seemed. As I was trying to shut her eyes for a moment to breathe through the chatter, her phone rang. She flipped it over, the screen lit up. The incoming call was from Aprena's cell phone. Her heart stopped. She swallowed nervously and picked up. Hello? She croaked.

The line was silent for a moment, a pregnant pause that seemed to last a decade. I have a tip. A man's voice said, Check Rock County. What? Alice choked on her words. Who was calling from her daughter's phone? As she started to speak again, the line went dead. The man was gone. Alice threw her phone

down on the table. Her friends stared at her, wide eyed. Where is Rock County? Alessast. She had to know. Welcome to Sword and Scale Nightmares, True crime for bedtime. When nightmare begins now. Alice Lourou had always been proud of her oldest daughter, Apprina. Alice was a single mother who found out she was pregnant with Apprina when she was only 15 years old. But Alice struggled to be a teen mother. So after Apprina became a toddler, Alice turned over custody of her daughter to her mother

so that she could finish school and get back on her feet. Alice stayed in Chicago while Aprena went to live her childhood in Miami. Down in Florida, under the loving care of her grandmother, Aprena thrived. Aprena was a bright young girl who found a lot of joy in school. She loved learning and was a happy social butterfly. Soon Alice relocated to Madison, Wisconsin. She was doing great. It was time for ten-year-old Aprina to come home and resume life with her mother.

The adjustment from Florida to Madison was easy for Aprina. She made tons of friends at her new school. She announced a strong bond and Aprina loved being a step sister to her siblings. As Aprina grew from a girl into a teenager, she started showing a serious interest in caregiving, particularly nursing. Aprina loved kids, but she was also fascinated with the medical world. One day, when her younger brother Elijah became sick with a stomach bug, Aprina insisted on going with her mom to the hospital. There in the ER she watched carefully, as the nurses and doctors tried to figure out what was wrong.

Everyone noticed how intently Aprina was studying the nurse's protocol. And how many questions she asked. Over the next few weeks Aprina showed even more fascination with medicine, and she told Alice she wanted to be a pediatric nurse. After she graduated from high school, Apprina enrolled in the nursing program at Madison College to help pay for her studies, Apprina got a job at an elementary school, assisting with extracurricular activities.

Apprina was on her way to becoming exactly what she wanted to be. But then on October 27, 2013, in the early evening, Alice was resting in her bedroom when her son, Elijah, knocked on the door. He wanted to know if Alice had talked to Apprina today. Alice thought for a moment, then realized she hadn't received a call or text from her daughter in a few hours. This wasn't too unusual. Apprina was living at her grandmother's house in Fitchburg, and she didn't contact Alice

every day. However, Apprina did talk to her grandmother, the one who brought her up in Florida every single day, but she had not heard from Apprina at all that day. The family drove to the school Apprina worked at, but no one had seen her. Something wasn't right. When Alice and her mother called the police, they said a preno wasn't technically missing, not yet. It hadn't been 24 hours, and she was a legal adult. They couldn't start a search just yet. But as the hours ticked by and Aprena couldn't be located, Alice knew in her heart that something was wrong.

The next day she decided to go to the local news station. Alice insisted and Aprena's story got out Alice made missing flyers and put her phone number on the bottom She posted them all over the city on social media and Accepted any call that came in even if it was just another distraught parent with a missing child Telling Alice not to give up hope. The next day, the police showed up at Alice's house and decided to open an investigation. The search for a prena had begun. you

You begged for more so now blink 182 are coming again one more time Live at Roger Center August 15th with special guests Alexis on fire and Pierce the veil Get tickets this Friday at 10 a. ticketmaster.ca. The link of 182, the brand new album, one more time, is available everywhere now. Visit For the first few days of searching, Alice remained hopeful. She worked closely with the detectives and did as much media as she could. She talked to anyone and everyone about her daughter, hoping she'd magically show up with her, pink makeup bag and slice-smile saying, hey mom, I'm back! But after three days of waiting, Alice started to give up hope. On the third night of the search Alice was laying in her bedroom going over her notes and tips. She felt hopeless and heartbroken.

Everyone in the house said finally quieted down. So she tried to rest her eyes for a moment. That's when she felt a cold breeze wrap around her shoulders. She shot up and opened her eyes. None of the windows were open. The room was still. Then she felt it. Again, a chilly crisp wind that wrapped around her shoulders like a shawl.

She started to cry. She could feel her daughter. That breeze was a prena. Alice still had a pretty little room. She started to cry. She could feel her daughter. That breeze was a prena. Alice stood up and followed the icy ghost to the bathroom, a prena's favorite place. As she told everyone, a prena lived in the mirror. Alice stood in the bathroom feeling her daughter's spirit amongst the chill, and she knew. Aprina wasn't coming back.

The next day, when the family got up to hand out more missing flyers, Alice told her mother what she had felt the night before. The elder woman brushed it off and told Alice she was being crazy. She's okay. A prena's grandmother said. We're going to find her. Don't think like that. But it was only a few days later when Alice looked out her window to see a crew of rock county police officers walking towards her front steps. Her heart stopped. She knew Alice told her aunt to get the door.

She couldn't do it. She knew what the officers were there to tell her. We think we found Prina, they said. Did she have a pink makeup bag? Yes, Alice whispered. We're so sorry, ma'am. Alice's heart sunk into the pit of her stomach as she collapsed into the couch. She let the weight of her cushions hug her body and her brain buzzed. She couldn't even hear what the officers

were saying anymore. Nothing mattered. Aprina was gone. Aprina's aunt took over at the conversation asking the police if they could see her body. No, they said, there is nobody. What do you mean there's nobody? A prenaissance screen. What do you mean? Alice couldn't understand. The rage inside of her boiled up like a volcano,

and she exploded. She screamed at the police, waving her hands helplessly as she stood up. All the emotions of the past week were bubbling over and out into her living room. The police explained that Apreena's body had been burned so badly that there was nothing left but fragments and charred bits. She'd been found in a fire pit on a residential property in Evansville,

which was about half an hour from a prena's house in Fitchburg. The person who owned the property was a 29 year old man named Nathan Middleton. Nathan had a fiance, a baby on the way and lots of secrets. The first secret was that he liked to sleep with women he would hire from Craigslist, but Aprena had secrets too.

Aside from working at the elementary school, she had started answering sex ads on Craigslist to make a little extra cash. No one in her family knew about this secret part of Aprena's life. She used to fake name and didn't tell any of her friends what she was doing, either. In 2013, many young girls in Aprena's shoes were doing the same thing. I wonder how many of them still are. The phenomenon of sugar babies had exploded. Everyone had an iPhone and selling companionship

for the evening was an easy way for a pretty young college girl to make a killing next to her minimum wage job at Forever 21. That is. The allure was there and it all seemed pretty safe, kind of like getting into a stranger's car to take you to the airport. Like I go wrong. In this brave new world of technology. Besides, these were just mostly older men that just wanted a little company, or a little sex. On the morning of October 27, 2013,

Nathan had placed an adult Craigslist ad looking for a young girl to spend the evening with. Maybe smoke a little weed and talk. A Prina answered the ad, and after some texts back and forth, Nathan agreed to pick her up in Fitchburg that evening. On his way to Fitchburg later that day, Nathan dropped his fiance at work, then he swung around and picked up a prena. Once they arrived at his modest white house in Evansville, the two had sex in the shower, smoked some pot, and then had sex again in his bedroom. The Nathan claimed he and a prena fell asleep.

The next morning he woke up to find a prena was not breathing. He claimed that he tried to revive her, but a prena was dead. That's when he decided not to call 911, but to instead wrap her body in a bedsheet and shove it in his garage. As you do. He threw her cell phone in a ditch down the street and then went to a local hardware store to get some Kerosene and a shovel. He was going to make a bonfire in his backyard and burn the evidence.

He started the fire. Nathan watched the smoke rise and the flames grow. He tossed in a Prna's clothes and purse, buying the items as they became engulfed in flames. He kept the fire going, and when his fiance arrived home, she suggested s'mores. I'm not fucking kidding you. This is a true story.

While Nathan's allegedly clueless fiancee collected graham crackers, chocolate and marshmallows, Nathan folded up a prena's body into the fetal position and threw all 160 pounds of her into the deep, raging fire pit. Then he covered her up with slats of wood. He told the police that he and his fiance tended the fire until 1130pm, meaning smores and snuggling together near the warmth of the crackling flames. As they poked the fire with their little, you know, smore sticks, kind of like you did at camp. Maybe Nathan would have gotten away with all this, but for one mistake. Nothing was connecting Nathan Middleton to a prena Paul, except for those

messages on her cell phone. Nathan burned everything a prena had in that fire, except her cell phone. fire, except her cell phone. After he placed that fateful call to Alice telling her to check Rock County, he threw the phone in a ditch. Well, that phone panged and panged and panged, leading the police right to Nathan's door. That's when they found the burn pile, the bone fragments and what was left of the pink makeup bag. When they showed Nathan a photo of a prena and asked if he knew her, he said flatly, I know her. I burned her. What was left of a prena Paul's charred bones was sent to experts out of state to try to determine how she had died, but nothing could be determined. The wreckage was too severe. She'd become dust. Nathan Middleton never admitted that he killed a Prina. He swore that she just Athena. He swore that she just died unexpectedly.

He also claimed that Aprina had been using cocaine while they were together that evening. But Aprina's mother told police that that was impossible. Aprina had a medical condition that caused her to have large polyps inside her nostrils. One was so big it was practically coming out of her nose. She was unable to breathe properly, and was due to go into surgery soon to have them removed. Blowing her nose was tough, so snorting any drug would have been impossible. Even a prena's doctor corroborated the story. But none of this really mattered because in a court of law, there wasn't enough evidence

to charge Nathan with murder. He could only be charged with two felonies, hiding and mutilating a corpse. He pleaded guilty to both counts and the judge who was appalled and disgusted by the crime gave Nathan the maximum sentence of 20 years. Nathan also had prior felonies for burglary and was on probation at the time of a prena's homicide. It was a known criminal with a shady past. You know, the kind we keep letting out over and over again.

Sorry, I said I wasn't going to do that. It's also alleged that his father has been in jail since the 1970s for a crime almost identical to Nathan's. He raped and murdered a young black girl in her home. Her spread that Nathan had told people his crime would be bigger and better than his fathers, and that he'd never get caught. Now, I bet you're wondering what happened to Nathan's fiance. Well, she claimed she knew nothing of a preno or her death. She was completely unaware that the fire she roasted her chocolatey smores in contained the body of an 18-year-old nursing student.

Yeah, sure. Believe... oh, I'm not even going to say it. Needless to say, believe, oh, I'm not even going to say it. Needless to say, they couldn't even charge Nathan, so there was no way they were going to charge his fiance. They had no actual proof that you could use in court of her involvement. Later, Alice told media outlets that she took a screen grab of a post from Nathan's fiance, which read that N word got what she deserved. After Nathan was sent to prison, Aprina's family tried to revel in the small victory of his conviction. But since he was never actually charged with her murder, Aprina's case remains open to this day. No files or police records can be released to the public. You never know when a piece of evidence could lead to a murder

conviction for Nathan, and they wouldn't want to mess up any chances of finally bringing him to justice. On the anniversary of aprena's murder, Nathan sent Alice an eight-page front and back letter from his cell. In the letter, Nathan wrote an intricate story professing to Alice that he was innocent. He claimed that another man who owed him money He claimed that another man who owed him money actually killed Apprina. Nathan said he really loved Apprina. In fact, she could have been carrying his baby. They were more than friends and he wouldn't have done anything to harm her. But Alice knew this was all lies.

The police had told her that the way Nathan spoke about Aprina during his confession was despicable. He talked about her as though she was nothing more than garbage on the side of the road. In the letter, Nathan wrote out all the disgusting, shameful details of how this mystery man murdered Aprena. As Alice told the media, Nathan told me that this person did this and did that to my daughter. But I really think that he was trying to tell me what he did.

If I was a weak-minded person, I would have been in a straight jacket after that letter. But the craziness with Nathan didn't stop there. In December, he tried to escape from prison. Yeah, the story's wild. According to court documents, Nathan bragged to other inmates that he was going to get out, and he told his mother to buy explosives online so he could bomb his way out of jail. Despite all his haphazard planning, Nathan actually managed to escape, but was quickly arrested and thrown back in jail.

Today, Alice LaRue mourns for her daughter. And though she was angry for years about Apprina's risky behavior, which led to her death, she's forgiven her. She couldn't let that resentment and anger hold her down any longer. Apprina was like any other college student who dabbled in the sugar baby world. She clicked on the wrong ad, on the wrong day, on the wrong website, and she ended up with the wrong person. She wasn't meant to cross paths with a deviant, like Nathan Middleton.

Alice Larue has spent the last decade of her life telling her daughter's story in the hopes that other girls in Aprena's position can learn from what happened. In a heartfelt interview, Alice said that the one thing she regrets is not telling Aprena how much she loved her how much she loved her every single day and how proud she was of her daughter. The way Apprina was taken from this world did not reflect how much good she did in her short life. So tell your daughters you love them. Remind them of the monsters that walk amongst us, teach girls and women to

live defensively in a dangerous world. Because the predators are out there in every city, in every block, and more often than not, they are hiding in plain sight. If you enjoyed the show, please consider joining plus at swordandscale.com slash plus. But if you can't, consider leaving us a positive review on your preferred listening platform. Sweet dreams and good night.