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Before we begin, just a trigger warning. The following episode contains references to graphic physical violence
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and suicide. Please listen with care. [Music] >> Hi, this is Corpal Allen. >> Hello,
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>> this is Corporal Allen. Who am I speaking with? >> Uh, I want to remain anonymous. Is that
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okay? [Music] For 2 months, police had relentlessly searched for the killer of Chip Northup
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and Claudia Mppen. Officers had interviewed the family and people who knew the couple. They'd set up a hotline
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to receive tips, but nothing had panned out. And then late on the evening of June 15th, 2013,
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911 Dispatch received an anonymous call. They transferred it to the Davis Police
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Department. >> Okay. Uh, what are you calling to report, sir? >> Um, the double homicide that happened in
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April this year. To determine if the caller was a crank or not, Corporal Scott Allen asked the
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person to share details about the crime. And then he introduced the caller to Corporal Kirath Breznik, who knew more
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about the continuing murder investigation. >> Would you mind kind of giving me the
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details of of the information that you have? >> Yeah. Um, the person who did it, he told me
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everything. He told me everything he did step by step. >> The caller clearly knew a lot about the
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murders and had information that the police hadn't shared with the public or even the victim's family.
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[Music] He told me he stabbed her in like the stomach area like 20 to 40 times. He was
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telling me he was just going at it and um well he said he he did that and she was screaming.
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For weeks the authorities have been looking at friends, family, anyone who had crossed paths with Claudia and Chip
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trying to piece together who might have brutally murdered this beloved couple. >> Uh I grew up with this person
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>> here in Davis. >> Yes. And I've known him I knew him better than anyone else.
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>> But what this caller revealed was beyond anything they had imagined. The person the anonymous caller knew
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better than anyone else. Was named Daniel Marsh. He was 15 years old. >> He's a I think the word is psychotic.
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Basically, he's the kind of person that likes to see something hurt. [Music] >> I'm 48 Hours correspondent Aaron Morardi
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and this is 15 Inside the Daniel Marsh Murders, episode 3, A Strange Tip. After spending hours on the phone with
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police, the clearly nervous anonymous caller finally agreed to come down to the police station to talk in person.
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>> Can I get some water? >> Uh, yes, please. Water. >> The teenage tipster was Alvaro Garbe. He
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arrived at the station early the following morning. there. Police led him into a small room and offered to grab
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him some snacks. Alvaro was skinny with long black hair that was pulled up into a ponytail. He
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wore dark frame glasses. A camera in the room captured Alvaro as he nervously rubbed his hands together and tapped on
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the table next to him until the officers came back into the room. >> How old are you? I'm 17.
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>> 17. Okay. Um, since we just met, do you mind if uh you spell me your name again?
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>> A L V A R O. >> At first, investigators weren't sure what to make of Alvaro's phoned in tip.
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Given his intimate knowledge of the crime, they had to consider the possibility that he himself could have
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been involved. So they read him his rights. >> So um you have the right to be a found
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anything you say can will be used against you in court of law. You understand that?
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>> Yeah. Can't write your attorney um before during questioning if you can't afford one will be appointed to you no
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cost. Do you understand that? >> Okay. >> Well I don't really but I've heard that
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tons of times on TV. >> I later sat down with Alvaro Garab in 2018. 5 years after Chip and Claudia were
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killed, Alva was then 22 years old with a full beard. They thought you were involved.
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>> Yeah. Oh, yeah. I mean, I I mean, I retrospect, I totally get it. I mean, I'm like some random kid saying that
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this person committed a crime. I'm like, you know, kind of freaked out at the time.
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>> The story that he had shared with the police still haunted him. the story of his once close friendship with a teenage
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boy named Daniel Marsh. [Music] When I first met him, he was very shy and very quiet.
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>> Avaro met Daniel in seventh grade at Holmes Junior High School. Both of them were lonely, self-described outcasts who
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bonded over their mutual love of the heavy metal band Disturbed. Like we just hung out a lot.
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>> What would you do when you'd hang out? >> Just like play video games and then just
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like watch music videos and go on YouTube. Like watch like the dumbest YouTube videos ever. And we just sit
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there and laugh for like hours, you know, like those like like like can't breathe kind of laughing.
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>> Alo said that he and Daniel became fast friends, almost family. Daniel would talk to him about his rocky
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home life. When Daniel was 10 years old, his parents separated and his mother had
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an affair with a woman. When his parents divorced shortly after, Daniel said he felt abandoned. Alvaro told me that the
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situation infuriated Daniel, who over time directed his anger at the woman that his mother was involved with. He
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hated her like abs. Like cuz he would tell me that I know this woman was involved in my parents' divorce and I
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just want to like strangle her to death. I remember him saying that to me. >> Did you think he was serious when he
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talked about wanting to kill her? >> No. I mean, I knew Okay. Well, I kind of empathize cuz I'm like, okay, I guess if
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this one if there's a person individual that was was responsible for my parents divorce, I would hate them too, you
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know, >> but enough to kill them. >> No. Well, he didn't kill her, but you know.
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>> No, but he talked about it. >> Talked about it. Yeah. >> The conversations disturbed Alvaro, but
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he remained close with Daniel. In high school, they smoked marijuana together, played guitar, and watched YouTube
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videos. But eventually, Alvaro said Daniel started spending hours watching very disturbing content, videos of
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torture and beheadings. As I warned you earlier, what you're about to hear is disturbing.
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There was this one torture video that really like hit me that made me feel like more more uncomfortable and more
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unsettled, which was a a video of this person um uh drowning somebody. They have like a video of somebody like, you
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know, like a scarf on their face and just like putting them under a tub and just drowning them.
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>> Alvaro was upset by what he saw, but he said that Daniel seemed to enjoy the videos.
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He just sat there, you know, just kind of like, whoa, what's going on? I think like fascinated by it.
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>> When we spoke, Alvaro explained that he thought Daniel's interest in violence
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and hurting people was just a way to destress, not something he'd try to replicate.
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>> That's how I took it. I never thought in reality this person was actually going
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to go do something about it. You know, after Daniel's parents divorced, things became even more tense between Daniel,
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his parents, and his mother's new partner. According to Alvaro, Daniel, then 14 years old, became fixated with
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his weight. How thin did he get? I mean, was it really a problem? >> He got really thin. I think I have a
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couple photos of him and I hanging out, and he looks like like bones. >> Daniel would starve himself for extended
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periods of time, and he regularly talked about death. And was he taking medications? He was
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taking anti-depressants. >> Did he talk about what was going on in his head and his thoughts?
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>> He would tell me a lot about suicide. >> Daniel was sent to various therapists
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according to Alvaro and doctors tried to deal with his behavioral and health issues.
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In 2012, Daniel told a school guidance counselor that he fantasized about killing people. The counselor called
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police who hospitalized Daniel because of the danger he posed to himself and others.
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When Daniel would go through these depressive episodes, writing became an outlet for him.
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>> And he was like, "Yeah, I've been doing a lot of writing lately." And I was like, "Oh, cool. What are you writing?"
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I was like, "Uh, just stuff." And I was like, "Oh, okay. Like lyrics." And I was
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like, "Nope." I was like, "Oh, okay." The police had shared with me pages copied from Daniel's personal journal
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from this time period, and I showed them to Alvaro. >> You want me to go through this? Crazy
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stuff. >> I know. Well, tell me why you say it's crazy stuff. >> Cuz it's like it's just just random
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streams of consciousness. What the hell is this? >> Hard to read at all. That looks like
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someone with a gun. >> Yeah. >> In his mouth. >> I pulled out one page that Alvaro had
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already seen. Daniel himself had shown it to him. The page was covered with drawings of skulls mixed with references
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to serial killers Ted Bundy and Jeffrey Dawnmer and song lyrics about sex and murder.
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This is kind of scary when you look at it, it >> Oh my gosh. Like, you don't even Okay,
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so when I first saw this, I didn't think too much about it. Now I'm like 22 looking at this. It blows my mind that I
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like didn't even like think about what like could happen. >> Another page was covered in expletives.
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>> There's one that's uh like kill Daniel seemed able to keep much of that anger bottled inside.
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In high school, he and Alvaro dated girls, and they all started hanging out together as a group.
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But then over time, Daniel's girlfriend also observed troubling behavior. She called Alvaro.
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I remember her just being like kind of panicky and just very like I don't think Dan's okay, you know? Like I I think
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he's like messed up or like he's got like something going on where he's like he just like snapped at me.
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Some of Daniel's journal entries involved his girlfriend. And these ones didn't just talk vaguely about murder.
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They showed just how seriously Daniel was thinking about killing. Okay. Wow. >> What is that?
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>> This is him planning to kill uh her ex-boyfriend. He keeps keeps writing, "I am ready."
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In his original interview with police, Alvaro described the weekend of April 13th, 2013.
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It was the weekend of Alvaro's 17th birthday, the same weekend that Chip and Claudia were murdered.
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Alvaro spent the time playing video games. He went to Guitar Center with his family. His friend Daniel didn't join
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him, but he did invite Alvaro to hang out that Sunday to talk about something important.
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He said, "I want to tell you something important." >> Yeah. And he told me he had a he had an
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interesting night and he wanted to talk about it. >> Avoid Daniel wanted to tell him about
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the interesting night he had had hours earlier. >> Like he started off by like telling me
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that he killed two people and then they told him, "I don't want to hear about it. I want to know about it."
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According to Alvaro, Daniel said he killed two people. Alvaro didn't know what to make of what Daniel just told
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him, and he didn't want to hear anymore, so he left. But Alvaro told me that the
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next day, Daniel still wanted to talk to him. >> And then on Monday, uh, I go to school,
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go to lunch, and I, uh, sit down with my friend group. Dan comes up to me, walks up to me, and
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he like he's like, "Hey man, I need to talk to you." I'm like, "Oh, okay. What about?" And he's like, "Just just come
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with me." And then like brings me up to the side by a locker room, and he's like, "Hey man, I made the news." And
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I'm like, "Okay, what do you mean by that?" You know, like what do you mean you made the news? Oh, okay. Well, I'll
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just talk to you about it later. [Music] Later on in social studies class, someone told Alvaro about a story they
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had read in the newspaper. It was about a double homicide that had taken place over the weekend.
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>> And I was like, "Oh, snap. All right." And then that's when everything kind of
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just like turns into a movie. Alvaro began connecting the dots. Later, he received a text from Daniel to come
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over to his house. And then when I go to his room, like, you know, like I just walk in, he's
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sitting on on the on his um, you know, rolling chair, you know, by his computer and I sit on the side of his bed and
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then he starts telling me like, you know, he's like, "So, uh, I actually did it." And then
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I I don't like talking about this too much. >> I know, but tell me what you can just
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describe what he told you he had done. >> So when uh he gave me basically I'd say like a
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rundown of what he did. And this is what Daniel told him. That on Saturday, instead of attending
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Alvaro's birthday celebrations, Daniel had put on all black clothing and a ski mask over his face. He told Alvaro
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that he had grabbed his mother's 6-in hunting knife and then left his home in the darkness of the night.
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>> He showed me the knife, the weapon. Um, uh, >> his shoes. >> Yeah, his shoes.
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>> Daniel had thought of everything, Alvaro said, even wrapping the bottom of his
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boots in duct tape so he wouldn't leave any footprints. >> In his rundown, he told me how he broke
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into the house and then the entire act of uh, of killing those two people, like step by step, like every move.
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>> Did it seem real at that point? No, no. Everything just didn't make any sense.
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>> And why did he do this? Why did he tell you he was doing this? I >> I I have no idea. I honestly I think
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about that a lot. >> Did he seem proud of what he had done? >> Yeah. Oh, yeah. He seemed very like
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content and, you know, took a lot of I mean, it sounded like he took a lot of pleasure out of it. Did you get the
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impression he was kind of bragging to you about what he had just done? >> Yeah, he was chuckling. He was laughing
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about, you know, putting in objects in their body. >> The details were so upsetting to Alvaro,
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so difficult to absorb, he didn't know how to respond to Daniel's story. >> I felt like throwing up, felt like
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I couldn't feel anything. Felt very numb. And I just walked out. My head's just running, spinning, and then I'm
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like looking at the door and I'm like, "Oh my gosh, like I need to get out of here." And like I I had this feeling
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that the police are going to break in here and like I need like shaking. [Music]
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Alvaro had told me that he was shaking and he felt like throwing up after hearing Daniel confess to the crimes.
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But still, Alvaro didn't immediately go to the police. >> You knew he had just killed two people.
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Why didn't you tell >> anybody? I I don't know. >> But you knew he might hurt somebody
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else. >> It was just like one of those things that you just kind of I just wasn't facing it.
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>> So, help me understand why not. Um, >> the two of you know, both of you, you both know.
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>> Well, okay, you're in high school. How do you How do you approach this? >> You call the boys.
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>> Yeah. Well, I mean, that's obviously that's easier said than done. I'm like freaking out about what's going to
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happen. What if I call the police? How's that how's this going to affect me? Is this going to follow me all my whole
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life? You know, is there any way I can do this anonymous? After Daniel told Alvaro about the
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murders, Alvaro was too scared to go to the police. But the one thing he did do was cut off all contact with Daniel.
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That's when I des like stopped talking to him, stopped texting him. I told him I needed space. Hey man, like hey, I
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just like I need a moment, man. like I I can't just you know I didn't I tried my
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best to not let him feel like I was disowning or like you know making him feel like I you're unfriending him. Try
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my best I was just like hey man like I just need space you know like I didn't tell him why
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>> he didn't want to call the police at first. Instead, Alvaro said he reached out to Daniel's father, Bill.
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>> And, you know, I texted him. I was like, "Hey, man. Daniel was involved with that
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with the the the double homicide. Uh, I don't know what to do. I'm thinking about calling the police or something."
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Something along the lines of that. Bill and Alvaro's accounts of this differ, but according to Alvaro, Bill
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was stunned by the accusation and refused to believe that Daniel could have committed such a crime.
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And so Dan's dad said, "You're overreacted. He wouldn't do this." >> Yeah, >> he didn't believe you.
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>> I mean, it's his son and it's just like, "No, of course he didn't believe me."
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You know, >> so Alvaro kept his mouth shut and tried to go on with his life while police
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began investigating the murders. But a few weeks later, Daniel approached him at school.
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>> He came up to me and he was like, "Dude, like what what are you doing?" Like, you
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know, like how come you're not talking to me? like why are you and I told him I I just I remember having just like this
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like public you know just hey man I I don't want to be your friend you know like don't talk to me and then you know
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he just like starts yelling at me and I'm like yeah whatever and I just like walk out of the school
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at that point Alvaro had become scared of Daniel fearful to be around him he knew that Daniel regularly carried a
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knife around so he told a guidance counselor that Daniel had one at school. Alvaro said that got Daniel expelled.
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Afterwards, Daniel wasn't supposed to return to the campus, but he did. And while there, he approached Alvaro again.
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And he's just like uh threatened to like attack me if I don't like, you know, talk to him. He wants to
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know what's going on. Why is he why am I not speaking to him? You know, uh, that's basically it. And I just kind of
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like freaked out and like ran. >> Soon after, Alvaro was on the phone with Daniel's girlfriend and suddenly she
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started panicking >> and she's like, "Hey, uh, I think I think someone's in my house." You know,
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cuz she hears noises in the backyard and, uh, and she's like, "I got to go." And she hangs up, right? She texted me,
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"Dan, uh, Dan just broke into my house." I'm like, "How do you get in?" I'm like,
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"Through the doggy door." And I'm like, "Whoa, okay." Uh, I'm like freaking out now. I'm like panting in my room. I'm
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like, "I got to do something. I got to do this." You know? I'm like, "Uh, what am I going to do? What am I going to
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do?" And that's when Alvaro grabbed a phone, called 911, and became that anonymous caller that
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you heard at the top of the episode. Over the course of several more phone calls, he was eventually connected with
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corporals Scott Allen and Kirth Breznik. Alvaro didn't want to give them his name, but eventually he became more
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comfortable and started calling Corporal Breznik KB. Officer KB, she's very nice. She was
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like, "Okay, well, in order for me to follow up with you, I need you to actually give me your name." And I'm
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like, "Okay, all right. I'm going to come over to your house and we're going to talk about this." And I'm like, it's
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like it's like 2:00 in the morning. I'm like, "Okay, gotcha." And like she comes
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over, then we have a chat and then she takes me to the uh police department. Alvaro spent hours with police in that
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interrogation room. He told them about what Daniel had confessed to him about his actions on the weekend of April
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13th. He told me he got a Yeah. He got duct tape to put under his shoe. So then you
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guys would like find his footprints or shoe prints or something like that. Mhm. >> He went there. Uh he uh he went to the
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back of the house. >> It was the first real break in the case. Investigators had closely guarded the
00:25:03
details of Chip and Claudia's murders. And now inside that interrogation room, Alvaro was sharing gruesome details from
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the crime scene. You cut both of them open just to see the insides or something.
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[Music] >> Alvaro had told the investigators everything he knew. The police were
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going to allow him to go home, but first they wanted to try something. They asked
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Alvaro if he could call Daniel and ask him about the murders while police recorded the call.
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>> Going back to uh a possible phone call or talking to Daniel. >> Yeah, I can do that.
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>> Alvaro tried contacting Daniel, but Daniel didn't answer any calls or texts. And that's when investigators decided it
00:26:04
was time to bring Daniel Marsh in for questioning. That that you were there, that you did
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those murders. Me? That's ridiculous. Why is it ridiculous? I'm a kid. [Music] Coming up next on 15. Inside the Daniel
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Marsh murders. This series was reported by me, Aaron Morardi. Alan Pang is our producer. Mora
00:26:51
Walls is our story editor. and Jamie Benson is a senior producer. Megan Marcus is the vice president of podcast
00:27:00
editorial for CBS. Special thanks to 48 hours executive producer Judy Tyiggard along with 48
00:27:09
hours producers Judy Ryback, Stephanie Slifer, and Greg Fiser from Goat Rodeo. This podcast was written and produced by
00:27:19
Carara Schillin, Max Johnston, Jay Venibals, Isabelle Kirby McGawan, Megan Nadulski, and Ian Enright.
00:27:30
Additional reporting and recording by Cara Schillin. Our executive producers at Goat Rodeo are Megan Nadulski and Ian
00:27:39
Enright. Original theme in music by Hans Delshi with additional music from Paramount. Final mix by Rebecca Sidell.
00:27:50
Vendel Fulton is our fact checker. Our production manager is Carara Schillin. I'm Aaron Morardi. If you're enjoying
00:27:59
this show, be sure to give it a rating and review. It helps more people find it and hear our reporting. If you liked 15
00:28:09
Inside the Daniel Marsh Murders, check out the rest of our 48 hours podcasts by searching 48 Hours on your favorite
00:28:19
podcast app. Thanks for listening. [Music]