Sword and Scale - Episode 242

Episode Date: June 11, 2023

An unexpected crime in central New York state by the unassuming David Renz would send a town into a frenzy and a man named Bill Cregg on a mission. When he cradled Lori Bresnahan in his arms as she lay dying he made her a promise to protect her little girl.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Sword and Scale contains adult themes and violence and is not intended for all audiences Listener discretion is advised Hello and welcome. This is season 10 episode 242 of Sword and Scale, to show that reveals that the worst monsters are real. Alright, you got me. You got me pissed off. You did it. You went and did it. You got me all pissed off. I'm flustered, people. Listen, I know that figuring out how things work in the world is hard to do, especially for the dim-witted.

But let me explain something to you. I started this podcast 10 years ago when there were no other true crime podcasts at all, period. I'm not about to start to listen to all of them to make sure they haven't covered a story we're about to cover before we cover it. You get it? Do you? Have you figured it out yet? No? At some point in your life, you can't just go to the movies, but you can't just go to the movies, but you can't just go to the movies, but you can't just go to the movies, but you can't just go to the movies, but you can't just go to the movies, but you can't just go to the movies, but you can't just go to the movies,

but you can't just go to the movies, but you can't just go to the movies, but you can't just go to the movies, but you can't just go to the movies, but you can't just go to the movies, but you can't just go to the movies, At some point in your life, you may find yourself tested. In storytelling, it's a call to action. It's when the hero finds themselves in a situation that could change their whole lives. They could do nothing, ignore the situation and take the easy path, and everything would stay the same. Or they could take the hard path, overcome the situation, and set off on a hero's journey, culminating in a great triumph forever altering the character. But all too often, in our society, we find ourselves in situations such as this and take the easy path, letting unknown villains run rampant. March 14, 2013, was a cloudy and cold day in Clay, New York, a city central in the state.

At 8pm, the sun had already set, and the waxing crescent moon had yet to rise. Bill Craig found himself on an unfamiliar road to a life-changing event. I can't tell you why I was on Verplank Road that night, except for the fact that I took some back roads to go by lottery tickets. I would have never ever gone down that road to get to my home. I would have went in front of the mall." On a whim, he took a different route home that evening. While close to a major shopping center,

Verplank Road was quite remote. You know, I'll send something caught my eye on the side of the road. It wasn't just something. It was someone, a young girl on the side of the road. She was underdressed, considering it was 30 degree weather. And there was snow on the ground. My thoughts went from maybe someone setting me up to stop for to do something to myself, or maybe there's been an accident,

but it just, the dots didn't connect. Something wasn't right. As I stopped my car, I put it in park, I left it running, it opened the door, and immediately after I opened that car door, things weren't right. There was a young girl. There's absolutely in hysterics on the side of the road. Basically, start a call in 911.

911, Mandy wears same urgency. Yeah, shuttling, no, Clay. I don't even know if there's a little girl tied up on the side of the road. Okay, a woman bleeding. Where are you guys? I need to work. I understand, ma'am. I'm just trying to. I don't usually take this road. Bill had stumbled on a fresh crime scene. A little girl running down the road was partially tied up and her mother collapsed covered in blood. Nearby their car And that is the name of the road.

Do you see any house numbers or anything by you? I'm more towards the cemetery. You couldn't be sure what was going on. The girl and the woman were obviously in distress and needed help, but Bill had no idea why. What's going on? It's three-gl up. I'm excited to run. I'm going to run. I'm going to run.

I'm going to run. I'm going to run. I'm going to run. I'm going to run. I'm going to run. I'm going to run. I'm going to run. I'm going to run.

I'm going to run. I'm going to run. I'm going to run. I'm going to run. I'm going to run. I'm going to run. I'm going to run. I'm going to run.

I'm going to run. I'm going to run. I'm going to run. I'm going to run. I'm going to run. I don't drive this. There's another gentleman here. There's a woman that is bleeding, she may be dead. And then there's a little girl tied up on the side of the road. She says somebody beat her. If you couldn't make out what the little girl was yelling in the background, she said, he strangled her. And he hurt me. He asked for what the actress is where you are. me. Bill was trying to figure out the nearest crossroad. The little girl yelled, he's up there.

He stole my car. That's when Bill realized this might not be over. Luckily for this little girl, Bill was the perfect person to stumble upon a crime. Yeah, I spent four years active duty with the United States Army and the soldier biological and chemical command. This is one of the things that I used to do in the military to protect people, and it just, my training took over. This little girl was scared, and she didn't want to leave her mother.

But now that Bill knew there may still be someone lurking nearby, he had to put her at ease to ensure her safety. Honey, honey, get in the car. No, ma'am, I'm not going to hurt you. I'm out with 9-1-1, okay? Honey, and this is a child that said this? I'm not sure, no, but we're not leaving your mom. I want you to get warm, honey.

Okay, you get can hear, okay? Not knowing who or what or how many. I basically approached the young girl and my goal was to get her secure and safe. Understandably so, she was concerned about who was even approaching her. And I just kept trying, you know, I just, I told her that I was a friend. I just kept repeating I'm a friend, I'm a friend. And after the first couple of times and she trusted me, and I don't know why,

but she did. And basically what I did at that point is I secured her in my vehicle, still the phone with 9 1 this whole time. Yes, you should be sure what your mom is name. Laurie, present. Okay, sir, can you see the mother at all? Can you see? Yes, you really? I'm going to check right now. I'm going to. I am a friend, okay? I'm not going to hurt breathing? I'm going to check right now. Honey, I'm

going to, I am a friend, okay? I'm not going to hurt you. I'm going to close the door. We need people immediately, but this guy could be on the loose here. I do. I have everybody notified at this point. So I can get a light on her. Now that the girl was safe or as safe as he could make her, Bill needed to check on the mother. Another passerby had already stopped to help. Bill instructed him to watch the little girl while he tried to help Lori. I'd say she's about 35, man. Is she away from talking to you? She is talking to me. She's lost a lot of blood.

Can you tell me if she's bleeding from her head? Were you stabbed, ma'am, or anything? Or just beating? Just beating. Does she know who did this for the car? Do you know who did this to you? Did you know the man? No.

No. She said they were a car jacked. Okay, you're doing good. You're doing super. Just keep there you go. Just keep stay with me. OK, honey? You're doing super.

OK, ask her if she can give you a description of the guy who did this. Can you tell me what this guy looked like, ma'am? Would he black? Would he white? Would he Hispanic? Lori Bresnahan lay on the side of the road, losing a lot of blood. She was able to give Bill some info, but she was fading fast.

Perhaps she didn't realize during the struggle that the man was holding a knife and not simply beating her. Or maybe she was already too far gone to convey that information. Regardless, Bill tried to keep her awake even though he knew it was likely already too late. Before she lost consciousness, Bill swore to her that he would keep the little girl safe. And that I would not let anybody touch her arm or any more. And she was, she was aware in cognizant of that before she passed. Laurie was a librarian at a local elementary school.

She devoted herself to the betterment of children. She was unmarried, but adopted the little girl when she was about three months old from China. Needless to say, her little girl was her whole world. I'll be honest with you, I think that I think Lori continued to fight for the little girl until she knew she was safe. With police and first responders still on the way Bill needed more information to help catch who did this.

Once again he directed the other man who stopped to stay with Laurie while he talked of a little girl. I wasn't leaving her side. I stayed with her. I tried to comfort her. And also, I'm still on with 9-1-1 through the attempt to get first aid to Laurie now back into the vehicle with a little girl. Now training takes over again. Two types, daddy, trying to be a good father and comfort a scared little girl. But interweaving, getting information from her about who, what, where, and when, what was going on.

If you're doing really good, sweetheart, I want you to go slow. Would you wipe? Would you black? No, it's white. It was a white male. Do you remember about, would you mind life? Probably. About five, ten now. Okay.

After I see the same medium large felt, would you be a bit, would you be heavy? Would you skinny? Well, just skinny. It was skinny. Okay, just remember what he was wearing. More about how he was wearing. Should we go. So we had hair over his ears, honey. Okay, I'm gonna give her my jacket. Hold on, please. And he has glasses. He has glasses. Okay. As Bill

asked the little girl questions, they quickly got the description of an average height skinny white guy with hair over his ears who wears glasses. Can you add a little girl where this all happened where they were picked up? Where the guy got an air vessel? Where did this happen? Where did you get picked up on it? We're going to come to the house. We can't look in on it.

We're going to come to the house. We're going to come to the all. We can't put him on the... ...and he's gonna have to go on the... ...and he's gonna have to go on the... ...and fix it at all. Okay, he had a gun, man. She said she was leaving her gymnastics class at the Great Northern Mall when the man pulled out his gun and pushed his way into their car behind the little girl. And he threatened to kill him.

The guns were out and pointed at him. Okay, was it just one male asked them? One money? One person or two? One person with one gun. Can you ask for what he was wearing? You remember what he was wearing? All black jacket, maybe from sports authority.

You're my doing science media, okay? It was then that the paramedics arrived, followed by the state police. I'm sorry, you guys, maybe you're in here. I just know that you're going to get a little girl. You got it. I'm going to help. I'm going to help. I'm going to go ahead and let you go, okay? The police arrived and assessed the situation before pursuing the suspect. Laurie was clinging to life and wouldn't make it through the night.

The culprit was still on the loose but Bill had kept the little girl safe. This whole ordeal, however, was far from over. Now I have a loamy, and it's changed the way I think about my food waste. Loamy transforms my garbage into gold at the push of a button. Loamy is a countertop electric composter that turns food scraps to dirt in under four hours. For our listeners, Loamy wants you to turn your food waste into dirt with this special offer. Use code Monsters to save $50 at lomi.com slash Monsters.

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The little girl's hands were bound behind her back. She claimed a man stole their car at gunpoint and hurt them. Bill relayed as much information to 911 as he could get from a wounded lorry and a traumatized little girl. Once the state police arrived, Bill felt a little bit of relief, like the situation was out of his hands, but that's when he realized what the little girl meant when she said he hurt me. I know when I looked at the male paramedic that I asked to get out, it was almost like sorrow. I mean, when I said, I think that, you know, she's been assaulted, it was like, are you

kidding me? Not only had this man forced his way into the Breznerhan's car, brandishing a gun and eventually stabbed Laurie, but he had also sexually assaulted the little girl. Trooper Jeff Sikora would be the first officer to arrive on the scene. He was another perfect person to respond to such a tragedy. After 9-11, he went to ground zero to do his duty and help. And when he learned that the little girl had been assaulted, he knew this was a significant

situation. Initially, I thought that the call which came out as a car-jacking, sexual assault and stabbing was a hoax. The information that we initially got just didn't make sense. You know, that doesn't happen up here. It doesn't happen in our county. The information was that there was a young victim. There were weapons and there were injuries.

He rushed to the scene hoping it was just a hoax. I rolled up right behind the first rescue rig,, ran around the truck, and then I found Lori laying right about here. She was bleeding heavily. I got right down to her and I asked her, who did this to you? And she's still conscious and breathing, and I know she's alive and she's looking at me, but she just didn't have the strength to answer. That's when Trooper Sikora met Bill.

The sillies this may sound in a chaotic situation like that. I saw confidence in his eyes, and it made me feel that we're going to be okay. Bill tells me that there is a little, there's a female victim, and he tells me that she's been sexually assaulted. I said okay where is she? And we opened his car door to find a little girl sitting in the back seat. She stood bound behind her back. She was severely injured but she was still able to tell me the details of her assault and she gave me a description of the suspect. She gave me a description of the weapons that were used. He told me to stay with the girl,

and I wasn't leaving her anyways. So if he would, well, I shouldn't say that. If he would have told me to go, I probably wanted to, or at least I would have resisted a little bit, but I was not leaving her side. She and I, in the small amount of time, had developed a trust bond, and she didn't want me to leave her side. Witness and protector Bill stayed with the little girl as officers began to search for the suspect, and paramedics tried to save Laurie.

The way he approached this scene, secured this scene, did an assessment of everything that was going on, and that was able to go ahead and relay information, and then hand off the information he had to another team member and then he led the pursuit and the woods. Officer Sakura just happened to be the canine officer in the area so he was primed to pursue the man into the woods at night. I was able to get my canine partner out, along with Chupra House and Chupra Hunt and Deputy Joe Strom and Deputy Bloodgood.

They provided cover for me because we knew that this guy was still armed. We knew that this guy was desperate. We knew what he was capable of and I'm sure any one of these guys would tell you that we fully expected to be shot at that night. Even with the assumption of danger, those officers felt the necessity for the suspect to answer for what he had done. So the three officers took off into the woods. It's pitch black out here.

We're using flashlight so he knows we're coming. We just don't know where he's at. We don't know if he's going to jump out and start shooting. It's dark and the officer can't see past the end of their flashlight beams, but the night is still, and the dog caught a scent immediately. They tracked the man through the high brush woods and over a railroad. Occasionally, they could see footprints in the snow and mud, so they knew they were on the right track. By this time, every police officer, deputy and trooper is converging on the area.

We end up tracking through the woods and then we come down to our plank road. As we're coming down, investigator Darsang seized the subject running down the road. At which point he turns around and follows him down route 57. Not catching him was an option. We knew what he had done, we knew what he was capable of, and chances are he would do it again. So we knew how important it was to catch him. So at this point, as we come out into to this field not only is my dog right down the scents but now I can see some footprints

in some of the mud and snow and whatnot. And the footprints come right down to the mailbox. It's right here in front of us. 734 control. I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, A officer in an unmarked police car saw a man matching the description running down Route 57, not far from Verplank Road. He turned around, raced back to the man, stopped the car, blocking his way forward, dived out of the vehicle and tackled him without incident. Other officers arrived quickly to find the man face down in the snow. His hands cuffed behind his back. The man was quiet and calm. Too calm for having just been slammed to the ground. He claimed he was just coming from the friend's house down the road. It was an obvious lie as he couldn't tell them where his friend's house was or where he was going.

Also, he fit the description given by the little girl to a T and even had scratches across his face. Did he have a... Where'd he hurt? I just heard a 30-day, a 50-year-old, a 40-year-old, a 30-year-old,

a 30-year-old, a 30-year-old, a 30-year-old, a 30-year-old, a 30-year-old, a 30-year-old, a 30-year-old, a 30-year-old,

a 30-year-old, a 30-year-old, a 30-year-old, a 30-year-old, a 30-year-old, a 30-year-old, a 30-year-old, a 30-year-old, a 30-year-old, He except monosilobically to answer the questions of officers. They searched him to find him empty handed except for some car keys. He was unarmed with no gun, no knife, no phone, no wallet, and no ID. So you have anything else I can tell the Turkish? Who's your wallet? Who's your wallet at?

I don't have a lot. So, you can see the... If you couldn't hear what he said in that inordinate pause, he said, a friend's. But they were actually the keys to Lori's car. He was caught red-handed, but still he didn't want to cooperate. He refused to give the officers his name. I'm pretty sure we talked before. We met before, so why? Because I've always been in this area. I've seen before. I don't know where, maybe, 57, but I've seen you. I don't know, I have nothing I have to do. Sorry, you may name it, I can name it.

His face was hard to forget. He kind of had a perpetual dumb look on his face, but it wasn't his fault. He had a birth defect that left him with a rather large bump or hump on the right side of his face. One of his eyes was noticeably lower than the other and his mouth was well off center. In the back of the car, he barely spoke for a long time. He kind of answered questions, but none that were actually important, like, what's your name? I mean, he knew them his name. David John Rennes.

He was a 29-year-old man who lived with his mom. Why is that a common thing? He was dressed in all black, he was light-complexed, and had hair down to his ears. And he was skinny, but he differed from the original description in height. He was quite short, only about five foot four inches tall. Also, he was clearly Asian, not white. But when officers showed a picture of him to the little girl, she began to sob. She was sure it was the man who hurt her. No, we're going to rescue for Roger. Uh, yes, it is. Hi, we're launching motion emergency. Yes, I'm calling because I'm trying to wait for him as a colleague. He has one of the areas where he was supposed to get 9.5. He has one of the monitoring devices on his leg.

Can we track it? Can we find out where he is? You know, Kathleen Ren. When Kathleen Ren's got home from work, she was worried that her son Can we find a way here? You know? Jacqueline Ren. When Kathleen Ren's got home from work, she was worried that her son wasn't already there. Mrs. Panman? David.

Ren. How old is it? 29. Is he right now? I think it's right now. Is he right now? A white girl. She's half-way at all. Is he late now? A white male. He's having an attack.

He's at the Asian. Do you know how long he's been gone for? Yeah, I don't know. I can't call him. He was found. He was found. The car was found. There's health on his still here.

Here, the ankle hung on with the car. He was arrested by FBI agents, so he's supposed to be online at the clock. Is that a house or a phone or? It's not really how traditional women, but you want, you know, but he's not supposed to be within certain facilities and stuff with kids and all that. Not supposed to be in certain vicinity and stuff with kids and all that. This vague statement from his mother was an understatement. Not only was David Renn's prohibited from being around kids, he had to quit his job at

a local grocery store because kids were sometimes customers, and his computer usage was monitored by federal software. You see, he had been arrested in January of that year by the FBI for, you guessed it, child pornography. He was released to await trial after two days in custody. The only thing keeping him honest was a GPS monitor on his ankle, something that was supposed to account for dangerous people. But before that, he was by all accounts a good person.

He graduated from East Syracuse, Manoa High School, and attended several colleges, eventually graduating Summa Cum Laude, with a Bachelor in Arts in Computer Science, from the State University of New York. He even rose to the level of front-end supervisor before having to quit the grocery store. He did have a couple of setbacks in his life, grocery store. He did have a couple of setbacks in his life, though. His father died when he was nine, a hard thing to deal with at any age, but also Rens had been born with a birth defect. His jaw was fused at birth, and he had undergone several surgeries in his life to correct it. Yet his face remained noticeably disfigured. Later, the Onondaga County District Attorney would reveal details about his crimes during a press conference, informing

the public of the Grand Jury indictment. This morning, an Onondaga County Grand Jury has returned returned a 37 count indictment in front of Judge Anthony Alloy against 29 year old David Ranz. 47 year old Laurie Brezenahan and 10 year old Jane Doe, a child whose identity is known to the Grand jury, left age gymnastics practice class at the Great Northern Mall in the town of Clay. David Ranz, it is alleged, followed Laurie and the child to their car in a parking lot. At that point he brandished what appeared to be a pistol and forced his

way into Laurie's car and directed her to drive to a remote area of the parking lot behind the mall. In the parking lot, he used twist ties to bound Lori's hands behind her back and then he made the 10-year-old child remove her clothes and put on a pair of pantyhose that he had brought with him. He then tied her hands as well behind her back. It is further alleged that Rennes cut a hole in the pantyhose and began a sexual assault on Jane Doe. Jane Doe, as the little girl was referred to, suffered extensive injuries from the assault and needed a blood transfusion and surgery to repair the damage. It is further alleged by the grand jury that the defendant drove the victim's car out of the parking lot and eventually stopped on for plank road, which is just north of Great More than mall, and the car became stuck

in the snow on the side of the road. The grand jury found that at that point, Mr. Ren's attacked Laurie, began to strangle her with his hands and then attempted to tie her head to the headrest of the passenger seat of the car with cable ties. Laurie put up an extensive struggle that ties broke several times and at this time Laurie told Jane Doe to run and get out of the car. Although Jane had her hands tied behind her back she was able to open the back door. It was a very extraordinary young girl, and she ran away. As she ran away, she noticed that Laurie was able to break free and escape from the car, and at that point Jane observed Ren's chasing Laurie around the car. Laurie's

cause of death was six stab wounds to the chest and head with a contributory cause of strangulation. Thankfully, Jane hadn't witnessed Laurie being stabbed. She had already suffered so much. The defendant had the keys to the victim's car in his pocket. He had blood on his pants, on his underwear, and on his genitals. The New York State Police executed a search warrant and Rennes's home and found several CDs and DVDs that contained child pornography. The pornography they found depicted the same violent act that Rennes carried out against little

Jane. Also, among the discs of child porn, officers found a package of children's pantyhose and a receipt for zip ties. Also a receipt for a Beretta-style pellet gun. The gun he used wasn't even real. There are numerous murder counts to be clear. They allege intentional murder in the first degree. And that requires an intentional murder along with the commission of another felony. There are four counts of murder in the first degree. The four underlying felonies are kidnapping,

rape, criminal sexual act, and sexual abuse. There are also murder second accounts contained in the indictment. There are charges of kidnapping, rape, criminal sexual act and sexual abuse. There are also possession of weapons charges. The only thing that could even be considered good news out of this situation was the little girl's fortitude and the kindness of two men who stopped to help. The one thing that I did take away from it is that Laurie died really saving Jane though. There's no question that she attempted to distract her

and so that little Jane could get away She is she she was a she was an outstanding witness and she will be an outstanding witness of trial She has a she has a very very good recollection of What happened? She's an extraordinary little girl. I Don't have any doubt in my mind that we would be here discussing an indictment for the murder of Laurie Presonahan and the murder of Jane Doe, or not for those two gentlemen. I have spoken to the state police, my office, and the state police will both present those as small a token as it seems with an award next month.

Needless to say, the reveal of the details of the case did little to quell the fear and outrage the public was feeling. They rightfully didn't understand how someone already charged with possession of child porn was allowed to commit murder. And more importantly, how someone like him was allowed probation in the first place. Have you checked up on the decisions

your elected officials are making lately? You might wanna do that. Then to make matters even worse, a woman came forward with information about Renz's past. A woman who wishes to remain anonymous says Renz and an accomplice sexually molested her in 1999 when she was nine years old. Because Renz was 15 at the time, the case was handled in family court and the records were sealed.

And criminal trials, the judge often considers a defendant's past criminal record when making judgments, but crimes committed while a minor are often sealed. And therefore, inaccessible. No, I can't comment specifically on the details, but there was a juvenile record at the time which was sealed, and it was sealed at the time of the bail hearing, and to get those records unsealed, usually takes some time and motions before a court to obtain that information. What's that? A pete? Time of that hearing.

No. No, in the time frame of the hearing, it would not have been, and that's not uncommon to have juvenile records that are sealed that come up with respect to defendants. Well, when it comes to a case where, you know, you're dealing with a child predator, okay, even if it's pornography, you know, should those juvenile records be automatically unsealed so that prior to adhering in this nature, a judge and everybody has a full awareness of the situation? Jim, that's a good question. And one, perhaps that the state legislature should take up

in terms of modifying the current procedures. I want to weigh in on a couple of things. First of all, in America, you have a constitutional right to be a knitwear, all right? And some of the things that I read about Judge Andrew Baxter were completely inappropriate and not aligned. He made a judgment call based on all of the evidence. And he didn't just say, okay, Mr. Rennes, walk out of the courtroom and promise to come

back. He listened to both sides. He made the guy wear an ankle bracelet. He restricted him. But to criticize, judge Baxter for what he did in this case. If someone has a crystal ball and know that someone's going to go from Defcon 5 to Defcon 1 in three weeks, please share that with me so that I can take it over to federal court and I can give it out to all the judges in Anandaga County as well. Okay, here's the crystal ball. You ready? You ready? Here it is. Don't let pedos out of prison, okay?

An alternative is why don't you just shut up and let us do our job and let the facts come out. You cannot read the facts of this case and not start crying. You just can't. There's no reason in the world why the DA's office, state police, US attorney, should jump through hoops to find out about what somebody did when they were the precious age of 14, 15 or 16. The realization that REN's committed such heinous crimes, less than nine weeks after being released

from jail, awaiting trial for federal child pornography charges, didn't sit well with the public at large. Especially when they learned that he had previously been charged with molesting a 9-year-old with an accomplice. But all that outrage aside, how did this person under 24-hour GPS monitoring by a federal agency. A federal agency, by the way, that monitors you and me every day, drive miles from home to stock, kidnap, assault Jane, and murder Laurie. How was he not stopped? Well, the answer to that question will piss you off all over again.

You see three years earlier the federal probation officers in Syracuse are trying to get used to the new Executrack 1 ankle bracelet. As you might expect the device reported the wearer's location all the time, but it also reported tampering. It used an infrared beam in the locking mechanism to detect tampering. If someone removed the bracelet, the beam would be broken and officers would be alerted. The problem was that they weren't all that great and actually quite fragile and alerts were going off all the time.

Too many alerts to respond to, especially when a lot of them were false alarms. Probation officer Mark Walker called the manufacturer in 2010 asking for advice. I was my office. I was getting frustrated with it. What do I do? What do you do here? What I did for another district, because these are favor objects. I put in a parameter for the open closed-step. If they don't restore in three minutes or five minutes, then they would get notified. Tell me for five minutes. Yes. Okay.

He's in mind that after maybe we can say the straps figured out maybe you might want to take out that five minute buffer. Now, those on probation were not aware of this, but what that five-minute buffer meant was that there would not be an alert sent to officers unless the infrared beam was broken for longer than five minutes. Typically, an alert would be sent anytime the beam was broken. Of course, after Ren's arrest, Mark Walker called the manufacturer back to figure out how this could have happened. I'm just trying to, I guess, revert or try to evaluate what happened here. We could have the widow both hands when you hit the mouth, and then my flight might have hit the wound the mouth, put it back in and away with.

Looks like the guy probably disconnected it, reconnected it within a minute, and that's why it was took away again. Yeah, it was a huge, it was a strong possibility that we could have done it with the two. What was that, in the pen or something? Yeah, I mean, anything that would hold that, I mean, even if it's with the clothes enough, and you know, sometimes you don't knock out,

if it needs a pen to keep the clothes, even if he did that, it wouldn't have to have a pin back in it just so the light goes through that buckle. I mean, he could put a toothpick through the safety pin, whatever. Or if he didn't stay in the actual pin if you mentioned, it's what that back is. Right. Did anything that holds that buckle close so the light goes through? In an attempt to mitigate false alarms, they had extended the amount of time before a

tamper alert was sent to probation officers. In theory, an offender with determination could disassemble the ankle monitor, remove it from their leg, and reassemble it without alerting the authorities as long as they did it under five minutes. And that is exactly what Rennes did, just not at first. It all started on his release date when he was first outfitted with the monitor. When this was device was first put on your ankle, were you able to watch him do it? Yes. You would think that you wouldn't let someone you were trying to track watch exactly how to install the monitor, but they did.

A short time later, Ren's accidentally damaged the device. The next morning, I called the probation department spoke with Mr. Avalano. Told them the events, who told me to come into the office to get it basically repaired, which I did. I stepped in a narrow place and got it caught. Did Mr. Avalano make a repair? Yes. Did you watch him do it?

Yes. After witnessing the installation and repair Yes. Did you watch him do it? Yes. After witnessing the installation and repair of the GPS monitor, this computer science major started trying to figure out how to disassemble it himself. He couldn't work, so he had a lot of time to figure it out while his mother was at work. The first time was just a test. Did you ever receive a call from the federal government, the US probation department? No.

After his successful first attempt, he began doing it more and more. When you went into Walmart to purchase the air pistol on February 28, 2013, were you wearing the ankle bracelet? I was not. Where was the ankle bracelet located? It was located in my house. You purchased these items that we've marked, the receipts, the zip ties, the tights or any hose I think you call them before March 14, 2013, correct? Correct. Those items they were all involved in the commission of the crimes we're here about.

Correct. All were purchased without his monitor. The more he did it, the more he tested the system, and the more the system failed. How many times in total would you say that you took the bracelet off? I can only get an estimate, but I think there's probably 10 to a dozen. Did you feel that you could take the bracelet off whenever you wanted to and not risk having probation? Call you? Yes.

His only worry was how long he could go with it off. Alerts were also sent if the device was stationary for too long. Since I didn't know the operational limit, I kept it to a short time as possible. Even with this unknown limit, Rennes began living at his leisure. Was there any role that probation played by the fact that they were not contacting you when the tamper's would happen or anything like that? That emboldened you to go forward with what eventually happened on March 14th. I would say yes because of a lack of response to certain actions that I knew that or assumed that there was an greater freedom. He felt he had greater freedom.

When the probation officers checked the temporal alerts that were less than five minutes, Rens had nearly 50. And when they found his reassembled monitor at his home, it was held together with an oversized screw and duct tape. David Renns had been caught trying to fulfill his sick fantasy, the one he fostered through violent child pornography. All because he thought he could get away with it, even under the watchful eye of probation

officers. The only questions that remained were how he would plead and whether or not he would get the death penalty or just life in prison. I'm George Sotin, 2013, I, who in 29 years old, drove my car to the parking lot of Green Northern Wall in the town of play on a dog Italian. There, I left my car and entered into another car, occupied by a lawyer lawyer's breast and hand and a tenor or two more shots. I struck and both were due occupants of the car with a tall gun that looked like a real hand gun. I dropped a lawyer's breast and hand to drive to a remote part of the parking lot.

Once there, I restrained both lawyer's breast and hand and a child's hand without her consent so that they can not escape or resist. I used a knife to cut a hole in the child's clothing and her student to hand her into the jattice, sexually enforcement or whatever. Immediately after, I drilled some cars out of the mall parking lot and eventually ended up on her flight to road in the town playing under the tele. Under flight to road I intentionally paused the death of where we'd run the hand but I repeatedly sat in here and in the head and chest which was nice and attacking the strangler while she was restraining. I do not fully understand what led me to commit Walter Walsh, the ledger, the stripper. I do not fully understand what led me into convinced crimes, but even as I did, an explanation is done justification,

nor does it last night or responsibility for what I've done. I am truly sorry for my actions, and I am prepared to accept a cost of cost and store others. I hope that my spending is going to, And I am prepared to accept the cost of classes for nothing. I hope that by spending his guilt on it, I will be able to bring closure for the victim and their family and stare at them to reveal the trial. He pleaded guilty to avoid trial and spare young Jane Doe and the rest of the Breznahan family,

the trauma of reliving that event. It was a generous plea, even though he claimed he didn't know why he actually carried it out. He could have pleaded not guilty and made everyone involved go to trial, but he knew that his only chance at life in prison rather than death was to throw himself at the mercy of the court. As mother Kathleen emotionally expressed her remorse for what had happened because of her son. My heart goes out to the brisk and hand family. We are praying for God's comfort,

healing and restoration for everyone who's been affected by this tragedy that, especially the younger one. I pray that your hearts will be filled with God's peace, that surpasses all understanding. And as lawyer reinforced that sentiment. His family is remorseful, he is remorseful, and this is a terrible that, and that's our whole goal here, is to demonstrate that he's remorseful for what happened. We're hopeful that they'll see that it's not necessary that Mr. Renz will be in prison

for the rest of his life, and that trying to seek the death penalty for this event has no real purpose. When people saw Renzen court, they couldn't imagine how he could be responsible even though they knew he was. I did get to know him. And I got to interview and learn about a lot of other people who've known David for a long time. And as I got to know him, I understood why anyone I talked to about him were shocked by the activity. This conduct of this day was not what most

people thought David Renz. You know, I do have this feeling of you're kidding me, this is the guy that committed this horrible, horrible act, plus so much heartache for Lori's family and has scarred this little girl for the rest of her life and, you know, has affected everybody in this community. Nobody's ever going to go to a place with their daughter at a mall the same way for the foreseeable future? And you look at him, I don't know what does he cry for, he's obviously has some serious physical disfigurement. It just doesn't, it's almost beyond description. I think that when you have someone who is as evil as that individual, I mean, I don't think it really matters

if you're five foot four or six foot four or 200 pounds or a hundred pounds. I mean, when you're that committed to commit such heinous acts, you're gonna do whatever you can no matter what you're built. Child pornography is clearly becoming an epidemic in our country and we need to wake up. Everything learned about rents would be taken

into consideration at a sentencing, but also on the pain he caused. Thoughts of Lori's love and spirit wore my heart, but the picture of Lori's smile increased to my eyes every time I see it. His act was so horrendous that Judge confessed his trust in God was shaken. A 30-year-old veteran court reporter, You saw the little girls in us and you robbed her. You robbed her of our youth. A 30-year-old veteran court reporter who happened to be Laurie's cousin said for the first time in his career,

did he truly understand the pain of victims' families. This today closed the book on a criminal court proceeding. It doesn't provide one eye out of closure for the sorrow and the grief that we're going through. And I'm not sure that that'll ever go away. Rennes would be sentenced to life in prison without parole. And because he waved his right to appeal, that would be forever his fate. I just want to say that we're really glad that a final decision was made and that we're pleased with the decision to not pursue the death penalty. It's a great burden lifted,

not only for the sake of my son, but more importantly for Gindo, who now won't have to testify and relive that her herfix experience. I want to say that it's been brought to a close. As far as state court is concerned, the defendant has waved the appeal. He will be sentenced to life without parole. There is no equivocation about that.

There's no games. There is no equivocation about that. There's no games. There's no gimmicks. There's no way he can ever appear in front of a parole board. He will come out of prison in a pine box. Little Jane was well taken care of after that. The Breznerhan family filed a lawsuit against the U.S. government for their clear lack of due diligence and was awarded a $5 million settlement.

$3.7 million went into a trust for little Jane. Right now, she is surrounded by an incredibly nurturing, loving, supportive environment. There are numerous people, some of whom were in court this morning, that love her and are caring for her, making sure that she gets proper counseling if necessary. I am told that she's very, very energetic, that she's resilient, that she is one incredible resilient, bright, tough individual. And I would be remiss if I didn't mention to the people in this room. I know that most of you, if not all of you know who she is. And I don't know that another community's media would have reacted this way that somebody might have tried to sneak up on her and get a picture or an interview. You have been very, very festitious in protecting her identity. And I appreciate that very much.

And I think she'll do okay. I think she'll do okay. I think she'll do okay. Now, over 10 years later, she is more than 20 years old. And this whole time, Bill has been fighting to keep his promise to Lori and make sure nothing like this ever happens again. If you remember where you were on March 14th, as the scrolls on the bottom of the news or your show or whatever you were watching, talk about card-jacking and clay, or you watch the 11 o'clock news and you see how bad this is.

And then the next day, you hear even how much worse it is. And then the following days, you hear how horrific and heinous this was. I think Laurie deserves to know why an individual like this was given an electric monitoring device. And also, what could as a program like that, if you're going to have 46 alerts go off, what could as a program like that, if you're gonna have 46 alerts go off, what could as a program like that, if you're not gonna follow up on it? If the alerts were sent, and the probation officers would have done their job,

they would have even checked on them at his house. I'm not even saying that night that they could put an electric fence around this man, but they would have seen that that device had been tampered with. What I want from state lawmakers is I want them to provide an opportunity for district attorney's offices, judges to be able in certain cases, we're not going to broad brush everybody, but in cases of sexual offenders, violent crimes, they should have the right to call up your family courts where these are sealed and say, does this individual have this type of offense in their background? And until we as a community together push this agenda forward, it may go on deaf ears. And we can't let that happen. That happened.

Bill is still advocating for change in how the government handles pretrial release. Unfortunately, Trooper Sikora, who had become friends with Bill, never got to see this progress. He retired in 2017 and in 2019 he succumbed to lung cancer he developed after his exposure at ground zero. David Rennes was sick and had been from a young age. His obsession for child pornography, likely stemming from what can be assumed was his only sexual encounter when he molested a nine-year-old, fueled his unrequited urges as an adult. Sure, he was otherwise a good student and a decent employee, but only because he kept the darkest part of his secret from everyone. If the courts had been allowed to see his sealed juvenile record, maybe he would have not been given probation. If the probation office had paid attention to the alerts and checked on

him, maybe he would have never entertained the idea. But they didn't, because of laziness. If the ankle monitor manufacturer had focused on building a decent product instead of the cheapest one they could for the most profit. Perhaps none of this would have happened, but they didn't because of incompetence. David Renn said he did what he did only because he thought he could get away with it, But he did only because he thought he could get away with it. But we all know better than that. David Rennes was a monster all along, and the only reason he did what he did was because we, as a society, allowed him to. Alright, that's gonna do it. If you like the show, join plus.

sordanscale.com slash plus. If you don't, fuck off. and stay safe. Hey Mike, I just wanted to let you know that I definitely enjoy your little opinions that you disperse throughout the show don't look at the store that call and complain about it because they have literally every other true crime podcast to listen to if they want their little opinions echoed they also have the corporate media and the stupid government to agree with them. So let us have this one podcast and yours is the best. Thank you. Bye. you