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Our episodes deal with serious and often distressing incidents. If you feel at any time you need support, please
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contact your local crisis center. For suggested phone numbers, for confidential support, and for a more
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detailed list of content warnings, please see the show notes for this episode on your app or on our website.
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At around 2:00 a.m. on Tuesday, March [music] 19, 1985, 32-year-old David Brown got out of bed, put on some
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clothes, and then headed outside to his Honda Prelude, which was [music] parked in the driveway.
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David got into the car and backed out into Ocean Breeze Drive, the wide residential street in Garden Grove,
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Southern California, where he lived with his family. The mood at the Brown residence had been
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somewhat tense that evening. David's parents had come over to have dinner with David and his 23-year-old wife,
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Linda. David and Linda had argued about how best to parent their 8-month-old daughter, Ashley, not her real name, as
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she had been crying a lot lately. David didn't think this was normal and he wanted Linda to rock Ashley to sleep
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to prevent her crying at bedtime. Linda wanted Ashley to learn how to self soothe and said it would be fine to let
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her cry herself to sleep. This had resulted in a quarrel between the couple. When David asked his parents whether
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Ashley's crying was normal, they reassured him that it was, and he subsequently apologized to Linda.
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[music] That hadn't been the only unpleasant aspect of [music] the evening. David had a 14-year-old daughter named
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Cinnamon from a previous relationship who lived with him and Linda. Lately, Cinnamon had been butting heads with her
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stepmother, and she'd been in a particularly bad mood that night, squabbbling with Linda and being
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disobedient. [music] Cinnamon was off school that week for spring break and spending more time at
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home, which only heightened the tense atmosphere. To make matters even more difficult,
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Linda's 17-year-old sister, Patty Bailey, had also [music] moved in with the young family.
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Their three-bedroom ranchstyle house didn't feel big enough to accommodate all the issues related to having a small
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infant and two teenagers living in the same space. David, a successful man with his own
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computer [music] business, was having trouble sleeping and decided to go for a late night drive.
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First, he headed to a convenience store for a snack. He bought a single serve apple pie and a Dr. Pepper soft drink as
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well as four comic books. David then headed back to the highway and drove aimlessly for a while.
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The roads were pleasantly quiet due to the lateness of the hour. Eventually, he turned onto Newport
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Boulevard and made his way to a Denny's Chain restaurant to use the bathroom there.
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When he was done, David made his way back home. He parked his car in the driveway, then quietly went inside.
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As he walked into the living room, [music] he was met by an alarming sight. His sister-in-law, Patty, stood there
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holding 8-month-old Ashley, trembling violently and sobbing loudly. While David had been out, something
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[music] terrible had happened. At 3:25 a.m., a call came through to a 911 dispatcher at the Garden Grove
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Police Department. A caller identifying himself as David Brown blurted out, "Either my daughter
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or my wife, or both, I don't know, are dead." [music] He explained that he'd just
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returned home to find his wife's sister in a state of distress. David said that Patty had been sleeping
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when all of a sudden, she was startled awake by the sound of a firearm going off.
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14-year-old Cinnamon had been standing at the foot of Patty's bed holding a handgun.
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She'd fired a single shot into the wall behind Patty's bed. Cinnamon then left [music] and Patty
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heard two more shots fired from the direction of the main bedroom. Baby Ashley cried out from her nursery,
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which sat between Patty's room and the main bedroom. Terrified, [music] Patty said she raced
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into the nursery and scooped Ashley up before barricading the two of them in her room until she heard David return
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home. She and David then briefly tried looking for Cinnamon, but there was no sign of
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her. David told the 911 dispatcher he was worried she might have harmed her stepmother and herself. [music]
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He'd glanced into his bedroom and noticed his wife lying in bed in an unnatural position.
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He couldn't bring himself to go in and take a closer look, too scared of the grizzly sight that might be waiting.
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Within minutes, a patrol officer arrived at the Brown residence. Ocean Breeze Drive was a pleasant,
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well-kept street in a nice part of town. [music] Home to professionals, middle-aged couples, and young families.
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It was the last place anyone would expect a murder. "The officer was met at the front door
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by David, who was visibly distraught. "I'm afraid to go in there and look, officer," he said [music] in a shaky
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voice. The officer headed through the living room and [music] den towards the main
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bedroom. Its door was closed, so the officer pushed it open, shining his torch into
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the dark space ahead. Its beam landed on the bed, casting light across Linda Brown, who was lying
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on her back. Her lower half was covered by a blue blanket, but her torso was visible.
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Both her t-shirt and the sheets beneath her were soaked with blood. Her right arm was extended while her
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left hand was holding her left ear. Lying on the gold shag carpet next to the [music] bed was a Smith and Wesson
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38 caliber snub-nosed revolver. From the doorway, the police officer could hear Linda gurgling.
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She was still alive. Paramedics were urgently summoned. They found that Linda still had a pulse,
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though it was weak. She also drew a short, shallow breath. Linda was transferred to the dan where paramedics
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administered CPR, then rushed her to the Fountain Valley Community Hospital. Meanwhile, more police officers arrived
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at the property. Some began to secure the crime scene while others inspected the house.
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Overall, the place was a mess. Clothes and other objects were strewn throughout the residence. All of the rooms were
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cluttered, and waste paper baskets were overflowing. A dresser had three of its drawers open,
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revealing various women's clothes, prescription pill bottles, and an empty gun holster. [music]
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Beneath Linda and David Brown's bed was a box of 12- gauge shotgun shells. There was a bathroom adjacent to the
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main bedroom. Police checked to see if Cinnamon was in there, possibly injured as well, but
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there was no sign of her. Other officers began to search the property's exterior in case Cinnamon was
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out there. The front yard was entirely empty. In the backyard was a garage, a trailer,
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and a secured kennel with two dogouses inside, home to the family's three dogs. But there was no sign of Cinnamon.
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An officer radio dispatch with the description of the missing girl. Brown hair, brown eyes, short at a little over
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5 ft tall, and weighing about 120 lb. A police helicopter was sent to Ocean Breeze Drive to see if Cinnamon could be
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spotted from above. It hovered low over the houses, shining a spotlight into their yards.
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Police trolled the street on foot, using their flashlights to look for Cinnamon [music] and door-nocking neighbors to
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find out if they'd heard anything. One man who lived directly across the street said he'd been woken by a loud
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thud at around 3:30 a.m. but heard nothing further. No one else reported hearing or seeing
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anything. Meanwhile, Linda Brown's sister, Patty Bailey, began filling in the gaps via a
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police interview carried out at the house. Patty had moved in with Linder and David
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6 years earlier when she was 11. She'd been having some issues at home, and the newlyweds had welcomed her in.
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David's daughter, Cinnamon, had only just moved in with them 6 months earlier in September 1984.
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Cinnamon hadn't been getting along with her mother, so moved in with her dad. At first, everything seemed great.
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Cinnamon adored her father, was content to share a bedroom with Patty, and appeared excited to be a big sister to
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baby Ashley. She even helped Linda out with the baby where she could. But Patty said that within a few months,
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cracks began to show. Around Christmas, Cinnamon had become very moody and withdrawn.
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She started arguing with her father and stepmother about household rules and the
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chores she was expected to perform. Cinnamon seemed resentful of how much attention her infant sister received in
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comparison to her and became increasingly rebellious and sarcastic. Patty recalled that a few weeks earlier,
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Linda had finally lost her patience. She requested that Cinnamon move out of the house and into a trailer they kept
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in the backyard. Even though the trailer was properly furnished and had its own stereo and TV,
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this banishment only increased tensions. Cinnamon started dividing her time between the Brown residence and her
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mother's place again, and she blamed Linda for her increasingly unsettled situation.
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When the officers asked Patty for an account of that evening's events, she explained that David's parents had come
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over for dinner and to play cards, leaving at around 9:30 p.m. [music] After that, Linda had a shower and went
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to bed while David, Patty, and Cinnamon had watched television in the living room.
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At one point, Linda got up for a drink and saw Cinnamon still up and sitting on the couch.
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She reminded the 14-year-old to go to bed, but Cinnamon ignored her. At about 11 p.m., David went to bed, and
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Patty and Cinnamon went to Patty's room, where there was a trundle bed that Cinnamon often slept on.
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As Patty got ready to go to sleep, she couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong with Cinnamon.
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Patty didn't know what it was, but she could sense that Cinnamon wanted to tell her something.
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Patty offered to stay up a bit longer and watch MTV and offer Cinnamon accepted.
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As they sat together in front of the television, Patty said she tried to encourage Cinnamon to open up [music] to
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no avail. Eventually, Patty decided to go to bed. A few minutes after she went to her
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room, Cinnamon followed. She asked Patty to explain something to her before going to sleep.
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Cinnamon then revealed she was carrying a small handgun and [music] asked, "How do you work this?"
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Patty asked why. Just in case, Cinnamon replied. When Patty asked, "In [music] case of
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what," Cinnamon stated, "In case someone breaks in." [music] Patty tried to reassure the girl
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that their home's alarm system would prevent intruders, but Cinnamon was adamant that she wanted to know what to
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do in case of an emergency. Patty eventually told her, "I'm not positive. I've just seen this on TV. You
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just [ __ ] it back and pull the trigger. Cinnamon thanked Patty and left. Then Patty went to sleep.
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The next thing she knew, she was being woken up by Cinnamon firing a single shot into the wall of her bedroom.
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David Brown gave a similar account of the evening's events, though he explained that he hadn't been home when
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the shooting unfolded. After going to bed beside his already sleeping wife, he'd read a few comic books but
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struggled to doze off. His mind troubled and racing due to the recent discord in
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his home, he decided to go for a drive to clear his head. He described how when he returned home
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more than an hour later, he'd found a distraught Patty holding his baby. Patty told him what had happened before
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going out to the backyard to look for Cinnamon, checking in the trailer where she usually slept, but Cinnamon had
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vanished. While Patty looked for Cinnamon, David called his parents in a state of shock.
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They told him to call the police, and that's when he phoned 911. David told officers that the family
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owned eight rifles as well as two handguns that were always loaded. While some of the firearms were kept in
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a safe, he kept his blue steel revolver wrapped in a Kmart shopping bag in the bottom drawer of his nightstand.
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The other handgun belonged to Linda, and David said he didn't know where she kept
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it. Gunshot residue tests were carried out on Patty and David to see if either of
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them could have fired the weapon. Both tests [music] came back negative. David was visibly distraught, shaking
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and chain smoking as he spoke with the police. His parents soon arrived at the residence and took baby Ashley into
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their care. At 4:26 a.m., almost exactly an hour after David first called 911, a call
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came through from the hospital. Linda Brown had died. The case was now a murder investigation,
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and the suspect [music] was still missing. By 6:00 a.m., daylight was beginning to
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break. During a search of Cinnamon's trailer, [music] police officers had found a
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small Daxund puppy which belonged to the 14-year-old. They decided to place it in the kennel
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in the backyard where the family's other dogs, two cockaspananiels and a Pomeranian, were kept.
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Detective Fred Mlan and two other officers entered the kennel and set the puppy down.
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As they did so, Detective Mlan noticed something poking out of one of the two doghouses that sat at the back of the
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pen. It was a white tennis shoe. Detective Mlan walked towards the doghouse and bent down.
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Peering inside, he saw a small figure curled up in the fetal position. It was a young girl whose long brown
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hair had fallen across her face. Cinnamon, [music] Detective Mlan called. The girl muttered unintelligably in
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response. The detective reached inside the doghouse and took Cinnamon's hand in his, pulling her up and out of the small
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space. She wore a sweatshirt and pants which were covered with what looked to be
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bright red vomit. Vomit also coated the floor of the doghouse Cinnamon had been lying on,
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dotted with what looked to be pill capsules. The smell of [music] urine permeated the
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air. Cinnamon's hair was disheveled. She was shaking and appeared [music] barely
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conscious. Clutched in one of her hands was a piece [music] of pink cardboard paper wrapped
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with a red ribbon. Detective Mlan took [music] the paper from Cinnamon. Written on it in messy childlike
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handwriting were the words, "Dear God, please [music] forgive me. I didn't mean to hurt her."
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Detective Mlan guided Cinnamon into a waiting police car to be driven to the station.
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On the way, Cinnamon asked the two officers accompanying her if her father was all right. They told her he was. "Is
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Patty [music] all right?" Cinnamon asked. "Yes," they answered. "How about Linda?" Cinnamon said. "How's
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Linda?" The two officers didn't reply. When they reached the police station, Cinnamon was photographed, underwent a
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gunshot residue test, and was checked by paramedics. Still as groggy as she'd appeared at
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home, [clears throat] Cinnamon drifted between lucidity and unconsciousness. It appeared that she was either
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intoxicated or under the influence of a drug. Her blood pressure was low, but she
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wasn't in any danger and could still answer questions. At 8:00 a.m., Cinnamon Brown was
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interviewed by Detective Mlan. "Do you know why you're here?" Detective Mlan asked.
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"Because I hurt Linda," Cinnamon replied. "How did you hurt Linda?" he asked. "I
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shot her," came the response. Detective Mlan informed the teenager that Linda was dead and then read
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Cinnamon her rights. While Cinnamon said that she felt sick, she agreed that she understood her
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rights and would proceed with questioning. She told Detective Mlan that she'd moved
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out of her mother's home because her mother yelled too much and it made her nervous.
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Cinnamon got along well with her father, so she'd thought living with him would be better, but she and Linda soon began
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to clash. Cinnamon said she disapproved of Linda's parenting, especially her use of a self
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soothing method for the baby, which Cinnamon saw as neglectful. [music] She also accused Linda of sometimes
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hitting her baby, which angered Cinnamon. She said that Linda was tired of her and
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didn't like her, adding that Linda had said she no longer wanted Cinnamon in the house, so she'd moved out to the
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trailer in the backyard. But that hadn't resolved matters. Cinnamon said that the previous evening
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she and Linda had had a big fight. She told me that she hated my guts, and I go, "I guess I hate you, too,"
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Cinnamon recalled. Detective Mlan asked if Linda had said why she hated her. No, Cinnamon replied. She wouldn't tell
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me. Cinnamon believed Linda was jealous of her close bond with David, adding, "I'm
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my daddy's daughter." Though she struggled at points to answer the questions, Cinnamon managed to
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continue. She said that the previous night's argument had culminated in Linda threatening to kill Cinnamon if she
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hadn't left the house by the time Linda woke up the following morning. Detective Mlan asked Cinnamon [music]
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whose gun she had used to shoot Linda. Cinnamon said it was her father's and that she'd found it in an office drawer,
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explaining, "I shot three shots. One of them was in my room with Patty and the other two
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were with Linda. Cinnamon hadn't planned to shoot Patty. That shot had only gone off due to
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Cinnamon trying to figure out how to operate the weapon. She said that no one had shown her how
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to use the revolver, but she'd had some experience firing little guns before. As the interview went on, Cinnamon
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became increasingly drowsy and her speech slowed with each answer. At one point, she murmured under her
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[music] breath, "Please don't let them get away with murder." When Detective Mlan reminded her that
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she had to answer his questions to ensure she didn't get away with it, Cinnamon replied in a dazed divorce,
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"I'm trying to, but I can't keep my eyes open." Realizing Cinnamon was on the verge of
00:23:15
passing out, Mlan ended the interview after just 30 minutes. By this stage, she could barely hold her
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head up. Just as they were about to leave the interrogation room, Cinnamon explained
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why she was so tired. Earlier that morning, she'd taken about 80 capsules of some kind of drug.
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Testing revealed that she'd taken a massive overdose of Darviset, a prescription painkiller, and Diozide, a
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diuretic used [music] to treat high blood pressure. Cinnamon was admitted to the Garden
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Grove Medical Center for treatment. After arriving at the hospital, Cinnamon told another police officer there how
00:24:03
she'd shot Linda before falling asleep. She was subsequently transferred to the jail ward of another hospital where she
00:24:11
confessed twice more to a physician and a psychiatrist. Cinnamon was monitored carefully over
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the following days. All up, she had consumed three bottles of prescription medication that had
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belonged to her father, and it was a miracle she had survived. The dose she'd taken contained more than
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six times the fatal amount of propoxifene, an opioid, and a key ingredient in Darviset.
00:24:42
During an interview with the police, Cinnamon's father, David Brown, said this was not the first time his daughter
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had selfharmed. Just two weeks earlier, she had overdosed on aspirin. David said he blamed himself for Linda's
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murder because he hadn't realized how deeply troubled Cinnamon was, and he therefore hadn't encouraged her to seek
00:25:06
therapy sooner. He said he'd forgotten to set the house alarm before his late night drive. Had
00:25:14
he done so, Cinnamon [music] might have triggered it and Linda might still be alive.
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Regardless of Cinnamon's actions, David vowed to stand by his daughter, insisting she needed him now more than
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ever. "I just love her to death," he said. An autopsy confirmed that Linda Brown
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had died from two gunshots to the chest, one of which had pierced her superior venneava, the large vein that carries
00:25:46
blood from the upper body to the heart. One shot had been made from 12 to 18 in away, while the other had been closer at
00:25:55
a distance of 3 to 6 in. 3 days after the murder, a memorial service was held for Linda with a
00:26:04
viewing of her body, which was [music] dressed in a blue lace dress, her head resting on a burgundy colored pillow.
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Mourers approached the casket in [music] turn, each placing a red rose inside as
00:26:16
they paid their respects. Linda was subsequently cremated and her ashes were interred in the base of a
00:26:24
fountain at Pacific View Memorial Park. A plaque was added that read, "Your love, kindness, [music]
00:26:33
caring, and beauty will shine forever. Love Ashley and David." Meanwhile, [music] Cinnamon Brown was
00:26:42
formally charged with firstdegree murder. She was booked into Orange County Juvenile Hall in Absentia [music]
00:26:50
while she remained hospitalized. Cinnamon Brown's trial began less than 6 months after Linda's death. Due to her
00:27:03
age, California law dictated that she could not be prosecuted as an adult and that she would be tried by a judge
00:27:10
alone. In a curious development, Cinnamon pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, claiming that she had no
00:27:19
memory of the shooting. A psychiatrist testifying on her behalf stated that she was suffering from
00:27:26
psychoggenic amnesia, disassociative disorder, and recurrent depression, which prevented her from recalling any
00:27:34
details of the crime. As each new witness took the stand, from police investigators to the medical
00:27:42
personnel who had treated her, Cinnamon insisted they were all strangers. The prosecution completely rejected the
00:27:51
insanity plea, arguing that Linda's death was a cold-blooded murder carried out by a quote, "Depressed and angry
00:27:59
girl who had carefully planned the crime." Their most damning evidence came from
00:28:05
the testimony of their first witness, Patty Bailey. Cinnamon appeared stunned, confused, and
00:28:13
somewhat betrayed as Patty took the stand. Patty detailed Cinnamon's behavior leading up to the murder, including her
00:28:21
moodiness, depression, and suicidal thoughts. She described how Cinnamon's misunderstandings with Linda escalated
00:28:30
into full-blown arguments so intense that Patty would have to leave the room. She also recounted her memories of the
00:28:38
night of the shooting, including how Cinnamon had shown her the revolver and asked her how to use it.
00:28:46
Yet Patty's testimony was not as critical of Cinnamon as many had anticipated. She stated that she had never heard
00:28:54
Cinnamon say she hated Linda and she had even seen the pair hug on occasion. Patty defended Cinnamon against claims
00:29:02
of drug use and refused to state definitively that she was the figure she'd seen standing over her bed after
00:29:10
the first gunshot or the one she later glimpsed slipping out the back door. Patty was accused of trying to protect
00:29:19
Cinnamon, which she denied. Cinnamon watched the trial in a bleak state, her expression perplexed as she
00:29:30
struggled to follow the police jargon, medical terms, forensic science, and expert analysis.
00:29:37
All the while, she kept scanning the room for familiar and supportive faces. Among them was her mother, Brenda. But
00:29:46
there was one very noticeable absence. David Brown didn't attend the trial as either a witness or supporter, citing
00:29:55
illness related to a liver disorder. His testimony was presented via stipulations, agreements between the
00:30:03
prosecution and the defense about certain facts or evidence, meaning neither side had to prove them with
00:30:09
additional testimony. Both sides stipulated that David Brown believed Cinnamon was guilty.
00:30:19
After hearing the closing arguments, [music] the judge declared a 15-minute recess.
00:30:26
Upon returning, he announced that he had reached a verdict. He concluded that Cinnamon Brown had
00:30:33
killed Linda Brown with premeditation and deliberation, finding her guilty of murder.
00:30:41
Cinnamon shook her head faintly, her face downcast. It was then up to the judge to determine
00:30:49
Cinnamon's state of mind at the time of the killing, a decision that would decide whether she ended up in a
00:30:55
hospital or a prison cell. Multiple witnesses were called to assess her mindset, specifically whether she
00:31:03
was able to distinguish right from wrong during the shooting. Psychiatrists found Cinnamon too
00:31:11
grounded to be psychotic and too sincere, remorseful, and upset to have an antisocial personality.
00:31:18
She showed no signs of psychosis or hallucinations and appeared to function intellectually in the average to above
00:31:26
average range. The only possible explanation they could find for her actions was intermittent
00:31:33
explosive disorder, [music] a condition characterized by impulsive aggression and regular verbal and
00:31:39
physical outbursts. However, this couldn't be definitively concluded as Cinnamon refused to fully
00:31:47
cooperate with the doctors. One psychiatrist who tried to examine Cinnamon said, [music]
00:31:55
"She wouldn't let me in. I had the feeling that there is a tremendous amount of chronic emotional turmoil in
00:32:02
this young woman and [music] with the assumption that she indeed did what she is accused of. In my opinion, this
00:32:09
represents severe interpersonal and emotional difficulties. [music] After reviewing reports from doctors,
00:32:18
investigators, and Cinnamon's friends and family, the judge concluded that she was sane at the time of Linda's murder.
00:32:27
Cinnamon was sentenced to [music] 27 years to life in a juvenile correctional facility where she would receive
00:32:34
psychiatric treatment. Given her age at the time of the offense, she could be eligible for early
00:32:40
release in as little as 6 years, provided [music] she remained a model inmate and made progress in her
00:32:47
treatment. Before being led away, Cinnamon burst into [music] tears. >> [music] >> Following her trial, Cinema Brown
00:33:03
settled into life at the California Youth Authority Prison [music] in Ventura, about 2 hours drive north of
00:33:09
where she'd lived with her family. After missing Cinnamon's trial entirely, her father visited her regularly,
00:33:17
telling her he was working hard to have her case reopened and secure her release. David's visits always lifted
00:33:25
Cinnamon's spirits. He funded her commissery account, allowing her to buy food and personal care items, and even
00:33:32
letting her charge his business accounts to order items by mail. Around his daughter, David remained his
00:33:40
characteristically fun and upbeat self. He was optimistic about Cinnamon's situation, reassuring her, "You'll be
00:33:48
out of here soon." David also updated Cinnamon on life outside. He spoke of major changes,
00:33:57
notably his purchase of a new home in Anaheim Hills. Though he admitted it wasn't ideal,
00:34:04
calling the neighborhood shoddy and a step down from Garden Grove, [music] he said he couldn't bring himself to stay
00:34:10
in the house where Linda had been killed. David's parents moved in to help [music]
00:34:16
raise baby Ashley, while Patty Bailey was remaining temporarily until she could arrange a more permanent living
00:34:23
situation. David told Cinnamon that she wasn't missing out on much as the family spent
00:34:29
most of their days at home. Over time, David's visits grew less frequent. He cited his declining health,
00:34:38
which [music] made the drive to the facility difficult. David had a liver disorder and sometimes
00:34:45
struggled with his breathing. On phone calls, Cinnamon [music] begged him to come up to visit, saying she
00:34:51
missed him and feared she might never see him again. It was difficult to get hold of David.
00:34:58
Most of the time when Cinnamon called the house, her grandparents answered and told her David wasn't around.
00:35:05
When he did visit, [music] their meetings were brief and often ended before Cinnamon could voice her worries
00:35:11
about her predicament. If she managed to open up, [music] David either ignored her concerns or offered
00:35:18
vague assurances, like saying he was contacting lawyers to have her case reopened and working on securing her
00:35:25
release. He always wanted to know exactly what she was telling those overseeing her
00:35:31
care, instructing her not to disclose anything and [music] to keep insisting that she didn't remember the night of
00:35:38
the shooting. Without David's visits, Cinnamon found other ways to pass the time. Her
00:35:46
behavior in detention was exemplary. Though she mostly kept to herself, she was cooperative and friendly, and she
00:35:53
adjusted well. She attended high school classes and earned good grades while also working a part-time job to save
00:36:01
money. She got along with the other incarcerated teens and even sang in the facility's church choir. She
00:36:09
participated in nearly every program offered except counseling, which she consistently refused.
00:36:17
Despite undergoing numerous psychological examinations in an attempt to understand what drove her to kill,
00:36:24
Cinnamon remained markedly guarded and unwilling to let anyone inside her mind. Then one day in December 1986,
00:36:35
14 months into Cinnamon's sentence, she made a peculiar remark to her examiners.
00:36:42
Four weeks earlier, Cinnamon had been visited by her paternal grandfather, Arthur Brown.
00:36:49
Arthur was a devoted family man who loved Cinnamon deeply and was profoundly distressed [music] to see her spending
00:36:56
her youth incarcerated. According to Cinnamon, Arthur had made a significant comment during his visit.
00:37:05
He'd claimed he knew who had really killed Linda and that when the time was right, he would reveal it.
00:37:17
Word of Arthur Brown's peculiar remark reached detectives Jay Newell and Fred Mlan, the investigators who had worked
00:37:25
Linda Brown's case. Although Linda's murder had technically been solved, Newell and Mlean had been
00:37:33
unable to shake the unsettling feeling that the story was incomplete. There were some curious aspects to the
00:37:40
crime that had left them scratching their heads despite its seemingly clear-cut nature.
00:37:47
For starters, David's actions in the wake of his wife's murder had been odd. After returning home to find Patty
00:37:54
Bailey distraught and talking about gunshots, David had refused to even enter the bedroom to check on Linda.
00:38:03
He'd called his father before calling 911 and told first responders he was too afraid to see Linda.
00:38:11
This behavior was at odds with the way family members of victims typically responded by rushing to check on their
00:38:17
loved one and administer first aid. When police had interviewed David in the aftermath of Linda's murder, he'd made
00:38:26
some emotional outbursts and seemed more concerned with complaining to detectives
00:38:31
about having a bad headache. [music] David had told detectives that earlier that night, after going to bed, he and
00:38:38
Linda had sex. Yet, her autopsy revealed no evidence that she'd recently had intercourse.
00:38:46
David had also mentioned how he'd asked Patty to go out in the backyard to look for Cinnamon when he first arrived home.
00:38:54
This struck detectives as bizarre. At the time, Cinnamon had been a potentially armed fugitive who'd just
00:39:02
[music] killed her stepmother and fired a shot into Patty's bedroom. Why would David ask a 17-year-old to
00:39:10
look for his [music] daughter outside in the middle of the night instead of looking for her himself?
00:39:17
Some strange [music] things had happened at Linda's funeral, too. During the service, the minister
00:39:23
presiding over the ceremony spoke about how David and Linda's marriage was sometimes rocky.
00:39:30
This prompted David to start hissing at the minister and [music] gesturing for him to stop speaking.
00:39:37
The minister paused the memorial and went to speak to [music] David before returning to the pulpit and telling the
00:39:43
audience that he'd been mistaken. David and Linda's marriage had been almost perfect.
00:39:52
Despite outwardly supporting Cinnamon, [music] David hadn't attended her trial except to hear the verdict.
00:39:59
At that time, he'd acted [music] oddly, flirting with his ex-wife and Cinnamon's
00:40:04
mother, Brenda, by playfully pulling her hair. He hadn't looked somber or concerned
00:40:11
about his daughter's fate at all. All of these strange things left Detective Jay Newell wondering if there
00:40:22
was more to the case than met the eye. In his experience, a murder of this kind within a family was usually the result
00:40:30
of a slow buildup of grievances over a long period of time. But according to Cinnamon and the other
00:40:38
family members, Cinnamon's decision to shoot her stepmother had been impulsive, springing up almost out of nowhere.
00:40:46
Detectives had recovered diaries and other documents that Cinnamon had kept. Nothing she had written expressed any
00:40:54
animosity or resentment toward her stepmother. They were breezy, light-hearted scribblings about pastimes and music she
00:41:02
liked and activities she was doing with friends. Arthur Brown's alleged comment to his
00:41:09
granddaughter, Cinnamon, only reinforced [music] the detective's belief that Linda Brown's murder was not the open
00:41:16
and shut case the courts had been led to believe. Detective Newell had spoken with Arthur
00:41:22
during the initial investigation and found him to be skittish and nervous. After reports surfaced that Arthur had
00:41:30
told Cinnamon he knew who had really killed Linda, Detective New decided it was time to pay him another visit.
00:41:38
Arthur had recently moved in with David in his new home in Anaheim Hills. While David had told Cinnamon their new
00:41:47
neighborhood was shoddy and a downgrade from their previous home, this couldn't be further from the truth.
00:41:54
The lavish blue green stucco and fieldstone manor sat on a quiet treelined street in the county's most
00:42:01
exclusive neighborhood. It featured a large manicured lawn, a triple garage, a balcony with
00:42:08
picturesque views, and a swimming pool with a hot tub. It was a massive upgrade from David's
00:42:15
modest bungalow in Garden Grove. Detective New discovered that the Anaheim Hills house had been paid for in
00:42:24
cash thanks to several life insurance payouts that David had received following Linda's murder.
00:42:31
He had also used the payout to purchase multiple high-end cars and fund a lavish
00:42:36
lifestyle that included gambling trips to Las Vegas. The discovery of these payouts was of
00:42:43
particular interest to Detective New. Early in the investigation, David had told the authorities that Linda only had
00:42:51
one small life insurance policy. It turned out that he'd actually taken out three policies with a fourth in
00:42:59
progress at the time that Linda was killed. In total, he'd collected more than $842,000
00:43:07
from his wife's death, [music] the equivalent of more than $2.5 million in today's money.
00:43:15
Detective Newell discreetly watched the property, scanning for any sign of Arthur, and more importantly for David.
00:43:22
[music] He suspected the only way he could get Arthur to open up was to speak to him
00:43:28
privately away from the prying ears of his son. When Nule spotted Arthur in the yard and saw that David's car wasn't in
00:43:36
the driveway, he seized the opportunity. Arthur was immediately wary of the detective's unexpected presence, though
00:43:46
agreed to speak briefly. >> [music] >> Newell explained that Cinnamon had been upset by something Arthur had recently
00:43:53
told her. Arthur immediately went on the defensive, insisting he didn't know what
00:43:59
he could have said to cause concern. Still, his affection for Cinnamon was evident as he referred to her as a
00:44:06
darling little girl. Arthur revealed that he had only ever visited Cinnamon when David was present,
00:44:14
[music] except for the one meeting 4 weeks earlier. He had gone alone after Cinnamon called him, saying she wanted
00:44:22
to talk. Arthur claimed that Cinnamon had simply wanted to tell him how much she loved
00:44:29
him and that she had managed to get 6 months off her sentence for the good work she'd been doing.
00:44:35
Arthur told Detective New that the juvenile correctional facility was no place for Cinnamon. He then added
00:44:43
nervously, "I don't believe she had anything to do with it, and I still don't. I never
00:44:50
will." The detective asked what he had said [music] to Cinnamon. Arthur replied, "I told her that I was
00:45:00
sure I knew who planned the whole thing. New advanced cautiously, sensing Arthur's apprehension to speak. It was
00:45:11
clear to him that the older man was genuinely frightened. When New suggested that Cinnamon might
00:45:19
not bear the full weight of guilt, Arthur nodded silently in agreement. He then [music] said,
00:45:27
"I told Ciney that I felt like I knew who planned it [music] because I heard her say she was going to do something to
00:45:34
save David." Detective New pressed for clarification. Heard who say? Arthur went quiet and glanced anxiously
00:45:45
over his shoulder before continuing. Patty. Arthur claimed that two weeks before
00:45:57
Linda's murder, he had been driving to a picnic with Linda, David, and Linda's sister, Patty Bailey.
00:46:05
During the drive, Linda got out of the car to use the bathroom. At this point in his recounting to
00:46:12
Detective Newell, Arthur [music] spat on the ground to emphasize his disgust as he described the then 17-year-old Patty
00:46:19
as a quote foul-mouthed [ __ ] Arthur said that while Linda was away, he overheard Patty talking about wanting
00:46:29
to get rid of Linda in order to save David. Patty allegedly claimed that Linda was
00:46:35
plotting with her twin brother Allan to kill David and to take over his business.
00:46:42
Arthur said it took him more than 5 months after the murder to recall this conversation in the car due to the shock
00:46:49
he was experiencing at the time. He told Detective New he hadn't liked Patty since and that he might have told
00:46:57
Cinnamon what he'd heard, though he couldn't be certain. Still, Arthur was adamant that Cinnamon
00:47:05
wasn't fully responsible for Linda's murder, declaring, "I'd bet my life on that."
00:47:14
Detective New was left in a difficult position. Arthur Brown's story would likely never hold up in court, and he'd
00:47:22
only agreed to speak with New on the condition that his comments remain confidential.
00:47:28
But even if New couldn't act on Arthur's allegations, he still wanted to know everything about them. He asked Arthur
00:47:36
if he was fabricating the story out of dislike for Patty. Arthur staunchly denied this, saying he
00:47:44
simply hoped that by confiding in Nule about the incident, it might help Cinnamon.
00:47:51
At that moment, a car suddenly pulled into the driveway. It was David Brown. Panic flashed across Arthur's face. As
00:48:01
he muttered, "If I stick my neck out too far, I'll lose my son, my granddaughter,
00:48:07
and another granddaughter." Newle quickly reassured him that wouldn't happen. All he wanted was the
00:48:15
truth. As David approached, Newell stuck out his hand [music] and thinking on his
00:48:22
feet, introduced himself as a real estate agent named Jerry Walker. Arthur stood beside him, lips pressed
00:48:30
shut, sweat dotting his forehead. "How you doing?" David asked casually, shaking New's hand.
00:48:39
It seemed that David didn't recognize New as one of the detectives who had investigated his wife's murder nearly 2
00:48:46
years earlier. The three men shared a friendly conversation about property in the area
00:48:53
before New quietly took his leave. The allegation that Patty Bailey had wanted her older sister dead [music] was
00:49:04
startling. Patty had never told the police that she'd felt any animosity toward Linda,
00:49:10
speaking of her only with fondness. When Patty had been 11 years old and having troubles at home, it was Linda
00:49:19
who had suggested that she move in with her and David until things improved or until she turned 18.
00:49:26
Linda had told Patty, "I'd love to have you." When Patty was formally interviewed for
00:49:33
the first time after Linda's murder, she was asked point blank, "Did you kill your sister?"
00:49:41
Without hesitation, she replied, "No, I didn't." After Cinnamon's sentencing hearing,
00:49:48
Detective Fred McClan ran into Cinnamon's paternal aunt, Susan, in the courthouse parking lot.
00:49:55
She revealed that the last time she spoke with Linda, it was clear she was miserable because she and David were
00:50:02
fighting a lot. However, according to Susan, Cinnamon wasn't the source of the family's troubles.
00:50:10
The problem was Patty. Susan explained that Cinnamon's move into the trailer wasn't punishment to
00:50:19
appease Linda, but done because Patty didn't want to share her room. Despite Patty's claims, Susan said her
00:50:28
relationship with Cinnamon was [music] distant at best. Patty had little sense of humor and
00:50:34
became irritated whenever Cinnamon was having fun. Linda had also noticed Patty's [music]
00:50:40
smug expression whenever Cinnamon was in trouble. In the end, Patty got what she wanted,
00:50:48
and Cinnamon was sent to live in the trailer. Patty always got her way with David.
00:50:54
Susan told Detective Mlan. Linda had allegedly confided in Susan that she felt Patty was dangerous,
00:51:04
admitting she never let Patty care for her baby alone for fear she might cause harm.
00:51:10
Susan told Detective Mlan. Linda was very worried about Patty's behavior. She said Patty was acting
00:51:19
strange. There was another worrisome observation that Susan had made. Ever since Linda's death, Patty and
00:51:29
David had become inseparable. Susan's revelations highlighted a major challenge for investigators.
00:51:42
During their initial inquiry, they had tried to uncover as much as possible about the Brown family, but they'd been
00:51:48
hindered by David's fiercely guarded privacy. David was especially protective of his
00:51:55
family, a trait he had instilled in Cinnamon, Patty, and Linda. The family spoke little, if at all,
00:52:02
about their home life. It wasn't until investigators revisited the case after Cinnamon's conviction
00:52:09
that the most troubling stories emerged, and it became clear why they hadn't surfaced earlier.
00:52:17
The truth was, David's marriage to Linda hadn't been the almost perfect union that he had described, and their
00:52:25
relationship had some problematic origins. The couple had met about a decade earlier when David was in his 20s and
00:52:34
Linda was in her early teens. Life hadn't been easy for Linda's family when she was growing up. Her mother,
00:52:42
Ethel, had been left to raise her 11 children by herself while struggling with alcohol addiction.
00:52:49
Ethel depended on welfare payments for support. The family was close but dysfunctional
00:52:56
at times and they always struggled to get by. There were also allegations that some of
00:53:02
the girls in the family were sexually abused by a relative. The family's luck seemed to shift one
00:53:10
day when they met David Brown, a young computer specialist who lived next door to their home in Riverside.
00:53:18
David explained that he'd heard about the family's dire financial situation and thought he might be able to help.
00:53:26
David was extremely ill with cancer [music] and doctors had only given him 6 months to live. He could no longer
00:53:34
perform basic household chores and wondered [music] if the Bailey girls that he'd seen walking to and from
00:53:40
school would be able to help. David was happy to pay them in exchange for their housework.
00:53:48
Ethel Bailey agreed, later saying, "How do you say no to a dying man?" From then on, Linda and her teenage
00:53:59
sisters [music] had started spending time helping David out around the house. His home became something of a fun
00:54:06
hangout spot with David inviting the girls to play games and chat with him. He soon began dating Linda's older
00:54:15
sister, Pam, who was then 15 or 16 years old. The relationship didn't last long,
00:54:22
and David turned his attention to Linda, [music] who was even younger at 14. The two soon became a couple.
00:54:32
Linda seemed smitten with David, who was soft-spoken and romantic, penning love letters and sending Linda flowers.
00:54:41
Despite the fact that he was a divorced adult with a young child, Ethel Bailey wasn't concerned by David's interest in
00:54:48
either Pam or Linda. She saw David as a safe person and a successful businessman with means and
00:54:56
opportunities that they [music] didn't have. As the months continued to pass, David
00:55:04
shared some good news with the Bailey family. His cancer had miraculously been cured.
00:55:11
In 1979, he proposed to the then 17-year-old Linda, who said yes. [music] Due to her age, she needed her
00:55:21
mother's signature so the two could marry in Las Vegas. Just one month later, they divorced and
00:55:28
David married another woman. He continued having an affair with Linda throughout this other marriage, which
00:55:35
also ended quickly. David then went back to Linda [music] and the pair remarried.
00:55:44
Privately, many saw the relationship as highly inappropriate. It was skewed in David's favor with him
00:55:52
being the much older, dominant, and respected breadwinner. Almost overnight, [music]
00:55:58
Linda went from being a regular teenager to a wife and a stepmother who was expected to be a homemaker.
00:56:06
She was also responsible for handling the administrative work at David's successful and thriving computer firm.
00:56:14
Early into her and David's second marriage, Linda's younger sister, Patty, moved in with them [music] to escape the
00:56:21
chaos of the Bailey family home. Then Linda became pregnant with Ashley [music] and David's daughter, Cinnamon,
00:56:29
arrived as well. Outside of the home, Linda was isolated. [music] She had no friends and no social
00:56:38
life to speak of. Neighbors said they only ever saw her when she was mowing the lawn.
00:56:45
Inside the home, she was juggling the difficult task of raising two teenage girls who weren't much younger than she
00:56:52
was, in addition to being a new mother. Moreover, Linda's mother-in-law was somewhat overbearing, and David tended
00:57:02
to side with her, which led to arguments between the couple. Patty and Cinnamon often squabbled and
00:57:08
competed for David's attention, further increasing tensions. All things considered, Linder and
00:57:16
David's marriage hadn't been the fairy tale he had tried to portray it as. While the life insurance policies that
00:57:24
David had neglected to mention along with Arthur Brown's claims about Patty Bailey were undoubtedly suspicious,
00:57:32
detective Jay Newell didn't have any evidence to tie either of them to Linda's murder.
00:57:39
Before Cinnamon had lawyered up and claimed to have no recollection of Linda's murder, she had been adamant
00:57:45
that she had acted entirely alone in the killing. Detective New was if Cinnamon revealed it herself.
00:57:57
Because she was still underage, the detective was not permitted to approach her for a conversation without
00:58:03
permission from her guardian, David Brown. Instead, [music] Detective New beded his time.
00:58:13
For 3 years, he kept track of David Brown's business and personal affairs while also monitoring Cinnamon's
00:58:20
activities at the youth prison. As soon as she turned 18, [music] he planned to tell her everything he'd
00:58:28
discovered. Although Arthur Brown was unwilling to talk to the authorities any further,
00:58:38
[music] he continued to speak with Cinnamon. Sometimes he let small details slip,
00:58:44
such as how nice David's new home was and how much more expensive it was than his previous one.
00:58:51
Arthur also mentioned that Patty Bailey was still living with David. [music] In early 1987, she became pregnant to a
00:59:00
man named Doug, who took off after finding out about the pregnancy. Patty gave birth to a girl in September
00:59:08
1987 and the two continued to live with David. Another year went by and on Sunday, July
00:59:18
3, 1988, Cinnamon celebrated her 18th birthday. [music] Investigators finally had their chance.
00:59:28
Now she was no longer a minor, they could approach her as an adult. Detective Jay Newell called Cinnamon and
00:59:36
laid out what they had discovered. Her father's massive insurance payout and the life of luxury he was now living.
00:59:45
And that wasn't all. During one surveillance visit to the Anaheim Hills home, Detective New had
00:59:53
observed something that cemented his concerns. [music] David Brown locked in a passionate kiss
01:00:00
with Patty. At first, Cinnamon Brown refused to believe what the detective was telling
01:00:08
her. She loved her father deeply and believed he was fighting for her freedom. But Detective New kept visiting, [music]
01:00:18
bringing proof that what he said was true. He showed Cinnamon the four life insurance policies David had taken
01:00:25
[music] out against Linda, as well as photographs of David and Patty in an embrace.
01:00:31
He also had proof that the pills Cinnamon had taken after shooting Linda should have killed her.
01:00:39
Gradually, Cinnamon's perspective began to shift. This information, combined with the
01:00:46
details her grandfather had revealed, painted her father in a terrible light. And the truth was, a few months before
01:00:55
Linda's murder, Cinnamon had witnessed a [music] kiss between David and Patty for
01:01:00
herself. This had left her incredibly upset and confused, but she tried to forget about
01:01:07
it. There was also the undeniable fact that David's visits had tapered off, and several years had gone by with no
01:01:16
evidence that he was working to have her released. On Wednesday, August 10, 1988, Cinnamon
01:01:25
called Detective New and said she wanted to talk in person. Cinnamon was the only child of David
01:01:39
Brown and his first wife, Brenda. The couple had met when they were teenagers and married when Brenda became pregnant.
01:01:47
They were both just shy of their 18th birthdays and barely scraping by when their healthy baby girl arrived.
01:01:54
They wanted to give her a name that was unique and memorable, [music] one that would stand out if she ever
01:02:00
became famous. They chose Cinnamon Brown. David was immediately smitten with Cinnamon, whom he affectionately called
01:02:10
Ciney. While Brenda took on the role of the steady parent, managing the daily routine and discipline, David cast
01:02:18
himself as the fun parent. He showered Cinnamon with affection and indulgences from trips to Disneyland to
01:02:27
rides on his motorcycle. In turn, Cinnamon grew to adore her father. After David and Brenda divorced when
01:02:36
Cinnamon was four, she began living with Brenda full-time while seeing her father
01:02:42
on weekends. Over the following years, Cinnamon went back and forth between her parents as
01:02:48
they built new lives. They both remarried, relocated, and had other children. David earned a technical degree and
01:02:58
built a successful career in the computer industry, eventually founding his own data recovery business and
01:03:04
amassing considerable wealth. Cinnamon remained in the primary care of her mother. But as she got older, their
01:03:12
relationship became strained. As tensions with her mother grew, she increasingly saw her father as her hero.
01:03:22
Family members later said that Cinnamon had always seemed desperate for her father's affection.
01:03:29
David cultivated this devotion, competing with Brenda for Cinnamon's love. When Brenda remarried and had another
01:03:37
daughter, David used this to his advantage, encouraging the now teenaged Cinnamon to break the rules while in her
01:03:45
mother's house. And while David could be all fun and games in some ways, he also had a
01:03:52
controlling side. He forbade Cinnamon from having friends over or giving out their phone number.
01:04:00
As she grew older, he refused to allow her to date or even socialize with boys. He wanted Cinnamon's life to revolve
01:04:09
around him and the family he built. Sometimes he tested Cinnamon's loyalty by seeing if she would shoplift for him,
01:04:18
a tactic he [music] had also used with the Bailey sisters. Although Brenda considered Cinnamon a
01:04:25
good kid, and Cinnamon loved her mother, the two clashed over rules and boundaries.
01:04:32
After one particular argument escalated into violence, Brenda decided that Cinnamon might benefit from spending
01:04:38
more time with her father. In September 1984, 14-year-old Cinnamon moved in with David at his Garden Grove
01:04:47
home where he lived with his new wife, Linda, and Linda's younger sister, Patty.
01:04:56
One day after moving in, Cinnamon was sitting in the living room watching television with her father and Patty. At
01:05:04
one point, Patty got up to go to the kitchen. Once she reached the door, she suddenly
01:05:10
froze and appeared to be listening intently to something. Patty told the others that she'd
01:05:17
overheard a conversation Linda was having on the phone with her twin brother, Alan.
01:05:22
They were talking about killing David [music] with Linda saying she needed to get him out of the way.
01:05:30
Cinnamon dismissed this as a joke Patty was playing on them, but Patty was adamant that it had really happened.
01:05:38
In the days and weeks that followed, David seemed to become paranoid. He repeatedly approached his 14-year-old
01:05:46
daughter, saying, [music] "Linda is going to try to kill me." When Cinnamon asked why he thought that,
01:05:54
David replied, "Don't worry about it. I just know she is." He said that Linder and Allan wanted him
01:06:02
gone so they could seize control of his company and the multiple properties he owned.
01:06:09
Cinnamon gradually began to believe there was some truth to what her father was saying, and she suggested that David
01:06:16
get a divorce. David refused this idea, stating that even if he divorced Linda, she would
01:06:23
still come after him. He also said that Linda knew too much about his computer business and
01:06:30
understood their proprietary methods. If they divorced, [music] she would just set up a competing
01:06:36
business and steal his clients. David told Cinnamon, "I'll just leave you guys. I'll leave you guys with
01:06:45
everything and take off and start over again." Upset by this suggestion, Cinnamon
01:06:53
repeatedly begged her father not to leave. David replied, "I have to. Either that
01:07:01
or we have to get rid of Linda." Convinced [music] that her father was in mortal danger and facing a kill or be
01:07:09
killed situation, Cinnamon began to talk seriously with David about what to do next.
01:07:16
Over the [music] next few months, what started as seemingly hypothetical discussions about getting rid of Linda
01:07:23
turned darker. David encouraged Cinnamon and Patty to compete [music] for his approval by
01:07:30
coming up with the different ways they could kill Linda. They discussed various scenarios,
01:07:37
[music] running her over with their van, pushing her out of it, or hitting her over the head.
01:07:43
They even joked about electrocuting her in the bath until someone remembered that Linda only took showers.
01:07:52
On Monday, March 18, 1985, the day before Linda was killed, [music] the family intended to drive out to the
01:07:59
desert to go target shooting, but the trip was called off on account of rain. Had they made it out there, the plan was
01:08:08
for someone to take a running charge at Linda and shove her up a cliff. Whenever Cinnamon expressed a doubt or
01:08:16
faltered in these conversations, David asked her, "Do you love me? Would you do anything for me?"
01:08:25
Other times, he talked wisfully about how he was thinking of leaving. The prospect of her father abandoning
01:08:32
her was always enough to bring Cinnamon back to the plan. She told David she would do anything for
01:08:39
him. There was only one way to prove just how much she loved him. She had to kill his
01:08:47
wife. [music] David explained to Cinnamon that she was the perfect person to carry out
01:08:57
the murder because at 14 years old, she couldn't be charged as an adult. He insisted that if she staged a suicide
01:09:06
attempt afterwards, the juvenile justice system would simply send her to a psychiatrist for evaluation before
01:09:12
releasing her home. He had cinnamon practice writing a suicide note. On the evening of Monday, March 18,
01:09:22
David [music] invited his parents over for dinner. After the meal, Cinnamon helped Linda
01:09:28
with chores while the others played cards and watched TV. When David's parents left, Linda went to
01:09:36
take a shower, leaving David alone with the [music] two teenagers. He told Cinnamon that she had to kill
01:09:43
Linda that night. He explained that the situation had become urgent as Linda was
01:09:50
planning on killing him any day. Cinnamon began to cry as she grappled with the idea.
01:09:58
Linda and David soon went to bed. As the house's alarm system [music] had been activated, Cinnamon couldn't go outside
01:10:06
to her trailer without setting it off. So, she and Patty [music] both went to Patty's room.
01:10:13
They dozed off only to be abruptly woken by David telling them to get up. Get up.
01:10:20
We have to do it now. He'd turned the alarm system off so they could move freely through the property,
01:10:27
then took Cinnamon to the back of the house where he had prepared a cocktail of pills for her to take.
01:10:34
Cinnamon was somewhat concerned by how many there were, two or three bottles worth.
01:10:41
David reassured her it was just enough to make her [music] sick and to make it look like a genuine suicide attempt.
01:10:50
Putting her trust in him completely, [music] Cinnamon swallowed them. The previously complicated plants had
01:10:59
been replaced by one to simply shoot Linda. David handed Cinnamon a small brown pillow and showed her how to use it to
01:11:07
muffle the sound of his handgun. He told Cinnamon to shoot Linda twice in case the first shot didn't work, warning
01:11:16
that Linda would separate the family if she survived. He also suggested that Cinnamon shoot
01:11:23
herself in the head afterwards, [music] not anything fatal, just a small injury to add further weight to the staged
01:11:31
suicide attempt. David then left the home, [music] telling Cinnamon and Patty, "You girls
01:11:39
take care of business while I'm gone." Patty handed Cinnamon the loaded gun, and [clears throat] Cinnamon headed to
01:11:48
the main bedroom where Linda was fast asleep. She held up the gun and fired it through
01:11:54
the pillow, just like David had instructed. But the gun's hammer became caught in
01:12:00
the pillow. Cinnamon panicked. [music] She raced back into Patty's room where the two of them managed to free the
01:12:08
weapon, but it discharged in the process. From the main bedroom, they heard Linda
01:12:14
moaning. Patty told Cinnamon to go in there again. Cinnamon returned [music] and fired a
01:12:22
third time before dropping the gun on the floor. By this [music] point, the pills were
01:12:28
kicking in, and she started to feel dizzy and nauseated. She went outside and laid down in the
01:12:36
doghouse with a pre-prepared [music] suicide note gripped in her hand, just like David had told her to.
01:12:43
She had no idea that the dose of pills he'd prepared was potentially lethal. Only her body's rejection of the drugs
01:12:52
through repeated vomiting had saved her life. Detectives [music] Jay Newell and Fred
01:13:01
Mlan sat horrified as they listened to Cinnamon Brown tell her story. While they had always suspected something more
01:13:09
had been at play, the gravity of David's deception and callousness towards his own daughter was staggering.
01:13:16
They knew they had to expose David for the manipulative predator that he was. They just had to figure out how.
01:13:24
After giving it some thought, they presented Cinnamon with a plan. Cinnamon agreed to help.
01:13:33
When David failed to visit her on her 18th birthday, she called him and asked him to come and see her, saying she had
01:13:40
something urgent to discuss. David was reluctant, claiming that on top of his many ailments, he was now
01:13:48
prone to panic attacks and simply wasn't well enough to make the trip. He pressed her to explain over the
01:13:56
phone, but she refused. In the end, [music] he agreed to visit that coming weekend.
01:14:05
On Saturday, August 13, 1988, David drove up to the Youth Authority prison in Ventura.
01:14:13
The father and daughter headed out to a small yard and sat across [music] from each other at a picnic table beneath a
01:14:19
pine tree. Other inmates and visitors milled about nearby while guards kept a close watch
01:14:26
on the scene. The two made small talk for a while before Cinnamon revealed the reason
01:14:32
she'd requested the visit. She wanted to tell authorities the truth about Linda's
01:14:38
murder. David desperately tried to calm his daughter. When Cinnamon asked what was the purpose
01:14:47
of it all, David offered a scattered, unsubstantiated story about Linda being deep into drugs and owing money to
01:14:55
dangerous people. He said that if Cinnamon really wanted to leave prison, Patty would confess to the crime and
01:15:03
take her place instead. At the mention of Patty's [music] name, Cinnamon asked if David was really the
01:15:10
father of Patty's baby, which was a possibility. the detectives had suggested. David evaded the question with awkward
01:15:19
jokes before Cinnamon returned to the subject of Linda's murder. David cast all of the blame on Patty,
01:15:27
saying she was the one who'd believed Linda was plotting with her twin brother to kill him and that murdering Linda had
01:15:34
been her idea. Patty's the one, David said. You and I didn't plan anything. Patty's the one
01:15:42
who heard it. Patty's the one who did it. Isn't it logical that if Patty did it, then Patty should be punished for
01:15:50
it? I didn't want it to happen. You should remember that. Cinnamon started crying, saying, "But
01:16:01
before that, you wanted it." "No, I didn't," David [music] replied. "I wanted to live."
01:16:10
He claimed he was now living in fear that Patty was going to kill him, just like she'd done to Linda.
01:16:18
Cinnamon then brought up the pills that David had given her that night. "What kind of pills were those?" she asked.
01:16:26
"Those things really had me knocked out." David replied, "I have no idea." Cinnamon reminded her father that he had
01:16:37
handed her pills to take, but he deflected, stating, "Patty said, "You didn't take what I mixed because it was
01:16:44
too gross." Without denying that he'd provided the drug cocktail, he urged Cinnamon to
01:16:52
maintain that she couldn't remember what happened on the night of Linda's murder.
01:16:57
David warned, "You can't tell the true story because everyone who knew beforehand would be imprisoned."
01:17:06
David promised Cinnamon that he would convince Patty [music] to take the blame so that Cinnamon could be released,
01:17:14
but he himself could never go to jail. "I can't survive in prison," he [music] whined.
01:17:21
I would kill myself before I'd let myself die a slow and painful death in a cell.
01:17:29
What David didn't realize was that his meeting with Cinnamon was being closely monitored by detectives [music] and was
01:17:36
entirely recorded via a wire that Cinnamon wore beneath her blouse. While David had made some incriminating
01:17:47
comments, the detectives wanted more. Two weeks later, Cinnamon phoned her father and requested that he and Patty
01:17:56
both visit that day. David agreed and he and Patty made the trip to Ventura. This time it was two against one [music]
01:18:06
as Cinnamon repeatedly asked them about Linda's murder. The pair denied any knowledge of it. Patty and David also
01:18:15
claimed not to remember many of the events Cinnamon described from the night of the crime.
01:18:21
Cinnamon asked the David why he told her to write a fake suicide note if he didn't want her to harm Linda.
01:18:28
David said he had no memory of this and neither did Patty. The more David and Patty tried to
01:18:37
manipulate Cinnamon into thinking she was crazy or confused about what had happened, the [music] more she stood
01:18:43
firm in her convictions. Finally, towards the end of the visit, Patty offered to take the blame.
01:18:51
She told Cinnamon, "If you didn't do it and they've stuck you in here for what you didn't do, the least I can do is the
01:19:00
same thing for you. If you're in here for nothing, I'll go back in for nothing because I love you to death."
01:19:10
Although the pair didn't outwardly admit to planning Linda's murder, they did make some incriminating statements.
01:19:18
Of particular interest were David's comments about the pills he gave to Cinnamon and his imploring of her to
01:19:25
pretend she couldn't remember the night in question. Detectives spoke to Linda's twin
01:19:31
brother, Alan, about the allegations made against him. Alan was surprised by the claim and insisted he had never
01:19:39
threatened David's life, not even in jest. He recalled that Cinnamon had once considered him her favorite uncle. But
01:19:48
after her personality shifted around Christmas of 1984, she grew to dislike him.
01:19:55
He'd had no idea why and was unaware of just how unstable she had become. On Thursday, September 22, 1988,
01:20:07
Detective Jay New led a team to David's luxurious Anaheim Hills home and arrested both David and Patty, taking
01:20:15
them to the police station for questioning. For 2 hours, David maintained his ignorance about Linda's murder. He
01:20:23
denied ever discussing the crime with Patty or Cinnamon and said he never gave his daughter drugs.
01:20:30
He also continued to deny having any romantic relationship with Patty. But David's web of lies began to unravel
01:20:39
when detectives revealed they had photos of him and Patty in an embrace as well as recordings of his conversations with
01:20:46
Cinnamon at the prison. His demeanor shifted instantly and he immediately began spinning a new tale.
01:20:55
David said he was terrified of Patty and that he'd always believed she was the one who really killed Linda.
01:21:04
He claimed [music] the only reason he told Cinnamon to take the blame was because he was afraid of Patty and her
01:21:10
family. While David had admitted that Cinnamon and Patty were convinced that Linda and
01:21:17
her twin brother were conspiring to kill him, he insisted he never believed the two young women would really kill Linda.
01:21:30
Meanwhile, 20-year-old Patty Bailey was being questioned in another room. The investigators laid out the evidence
01:21:38
piece by piece, showing her how David had used both her and Cinnamon as pawns. They told her what David was saying in
01:21:46
his interview and how he was throwing her under the bus. For the first time, Patty began to see
01:21:53
clearly how David had manipulated her for over a decade. David had entered Patty's life when she
01:22:02
was just 8 years old when he lived next door to the Bailey family and ingratiated himself by offering to pay
01:22:08
the girls to clean his house. David would have Patty sit on his lap while telling her how pretty and
01:22:15
intelligent she was. Given the troubles in the Bailey home, Patty was in a vulnerable position.
01:22:23
She had also been sexually abused by a close relative. The positive attention from David made
01:22:30
Patty feel special. What started as inappropriate touching by David escalated to sexual abuse.
01:22:39
When Patty moved into the Brown household at the age of 11, David had complete access to groom and manipulate
01:22:46
her. He convinced her that if she wanted to develop into a woman one day, she needed
01:22:53
to perform oral sex on him. He said [music] it was the only way she would grow up and assured her that it
01:23:00
was entirely natural. When Patty's chest later started developing, she thought to herself,
01:23:08
"Hey, this guy is God." By the time Patty was 15, David started raping her. These assaults happened
01:23:18
during drives to school or whenever Linda was out sleeping or in the shower. If Patty ever resisted, David told her a
01:23:27
million other girls would love to take your place. When she outright refused, David threatened to send her back to her
01:23:35
mother's house. He undermined Patty's sense of self by telling her, "No one's [music] going to
01:23:41
like you for you. If she did as he said and behaved the way he told her to, then people would
01:23:49
like her." With nothing else to compare his behavior to, [music] the young girl gradually came to believe this was the
01:23:57
way things went in every home. David [music] promised Patty he would marry her when she was old enough,
01:24:05
despite the fact he was already married to her older sister. He had started planting seeds about
01:24:12
killing Linda shortly after Patty had moved in with them. The first instance was when the family
01:24:19
was driving home from a shooting expedition in the desert and a gun was laying in Patty's lap. They had stopped
01:24:26
at a fast food restaurant and Linda went inside to get a drink. It was then that David said, "Wouldn't
01:24:34
it be funny if the gun in your lap went off and shot Linda?" Patty assumed he was joking, but over
01:24:42
the years he made other similar comments, such as suggesting Patty shove Linder off a cliff.
01:24:50
After Cinnamon moved into the home, David started pitting Linda, Patty, and Cinnamon against each other. He
01:24:57
encouraged them to v for his attention and to turn against one another. While Cinnamon and Patty had initially
01:25:05
shared a room, the real reason that Cinnamon had been forced [music] to move from the house into a trailer wasn't
01:25:12
because of Linda. It was so that David could sneak into Patty's bedroom at night.
01:25:23
Over time, David [music] succeeded in convincing both Patty and Cinnamon that Linda was plotting to murder him. Given
01:25:31
that David was everything to Patty, this possibility left her distraught. Initially, David attempted to convince
01:25:40
Patty to kill Linda before Cinnamon had even moved in with them. One night, he woke Patty, handed her a
01:25:48
gun, and told her to shoot a sleeping Linda at close range through a pillow. Patty went to Linda's room. But as she
01:25:57
stood in the doorway with the gun, looking at her sleeping sister, she realized she loved her and [music]
01:26:03
couldn't pull the trigger. Regardless, David convinced her to go along with other parts of his plan,
01:26:11
roping her into manipulating Cinnamon instead. Patty admitted to the detectives that in
01:26:19
July 1986, just 16 months after Linda was killed, she and David had secretly married in Las Vegas. [music]
01:26:28
At the time, he was 34 and she was 18. It was David's sixth marriage. They kept the true nature of their
01:26:39
relationship a secret, not even telling David's parents who lived in the same house.
01:26:45
When Patty became pregnant, David concocted an elaborate lie that she had met a man named Doug who had abandoned
01:26:52
her. This allowed David to play the role of kind benefactor, [music] generously allowing the pregnant
01:26:58
teenager to continue living in his home. After their daughter was born, David refused to be named as the father on the
01:27:06
birth certificate. He convinced Patty to go along with his ruse, telling her that if people knew
01:27:13
they were together, they might judge them, or worse, suspect they played a hand in Linda's death.
01:27:22
For Patty, the realization that she'd gone along with so much only for David to sacrifice her as readily as he'd
01:27:29
sacrificed Cinnamon and Linda, shattered the last remnants of her loyalty. In October 1988, just a month after her
01:27:39
arrest, Patty Bailey made the crucial decision to confess and cooperate with authorities.
01:27:47
Her choice was influenced by multiple factors. David's betrayal in trying to blame her entirely for the murder, her
01:27:54
growing understanding of how he had manipulated her throughout her life, [music] and the crushing weight of guilt
01:28:00
over her role in her sister's death. The details she provided about events leading up to the murder and the night
01:28:10
in question matched those Cinnamon had shared. The police were elated. Patty's decision
01:28:17
to break her silence was crucial in exposing the full scope of David Brown's murder plot, [music] and both she and
01:28:25
David were charged with firstdegree murder. Because Patty [music] had been a minor
01:28:31
when Linda was killed, she would face juvenile court. But David was looking at serving hard time.
01:28:42
In January 1989, nearly 4 years after Linda Brown's murder, the preliminary hearing for David Brown began in the
01:28:50
Orange County Municipal Court. Not only would the hearing determine whether there was sufficient evidence to
01:28:56
proceed to trial, it would also be the first time that both Cinnamon Brown and Patty Bailey publicly testified [music]
01:29:03
against him. Deputy District Attorney Jeffrey Robinson painted a picture of David
01:29:10
Brown as a master manipulator who orchestrated his wife's murder to collect her life insurance money.
01:29:15
[music] The hard work of detectives Newell and Mlan had revealed that David's reputation as a devoted family man was
01:29:24
far from the truth. In reality, he was intimidating, charming, [music] and adept at twisting situations to his
01:29:32
advantage. He also used his wealth and status to gain favor. David had told others that he was the
01:29:41
black sheep of his family and that he had endured corporal punishment from a young age.
01:29:47
As a teenager, he developed a fixation on his health and told others that he suffered from numerous ailments.
01:29:55
His bedside drawers were full of various medications and vitamins. He spoke of enduring everything from
01:30:02
high blood pressure and serious gastrointestinal issues to mental health afflictions and suicidal ideiation
01:30:10
throughout his life. He repeatedly claimed to have [music] terminal cancer from which he somehow always managed to
01:30:17
recover. In addition to Linda and Patty, David had been married to three other women
01:30:24
with his previous partners recounting episodes of controlling behavior, violent clashes, psychological abuse,
01:30:31
sex addiction, and extrammarital affairs. Of particular concern was his reported
01:30:38
proclivity for underage girls. David sat emotionless as Deputy District Attorney Jeffrey Robinson described how
01:30:48
he had twisted the loyalty and love of the young girls in his family to do his bidding.
01:30:54
In contrast, David's defense attorney suggested Cinnamon and Patty were setting David up as a fall guy,
01:31:00
attempting to shift blame for their own actions onto an innocent man. Cinnamon Brown was the first witness to
01:31:09
take the stand. now 18, she testified about how her father had convinced [music] her that Linda and her brother
01:31:16
were plotting to kill him. He had assured her that because of her age, she would face no real consequences
01:31:23
if she was the one who ended Linda's life. She described her desperate need for her
01:31:30
father's love and approval [music] and how he had used that need to manipulate her into murder.
01:31:37
Patty Bailey testified despite not being offered immunity and knowing she could face serious consequences.
01:31:45
The 20-year-old described how David had sexually [music] abused her since she was 11, grooming her with attention and
01:31:52
gifts while isolating her from others. Her testimony corroborated Cinnamon's account of how David had convinced them
01:32:00
both that Linda needed to die. She revealed the careful planning that had gone into the murder, David's
01:32:06
[music] specific instructions, and how he had orchestrated the cover up afterward.
01:32:14
Despite the defense's attempts to paint Cinnamon and Patty as unreliable witnesses seeking revenge, the judge
01:32:21
found there was more than sufficient probable cause to believe David Brown had masterminded Linda's murder.
01:32:28
The judge ordered David bound over for trial. As he was led from the courtroom, David
01:32:35
maintained the same emotionless expression he had worn throughout the hearing. While in jail awaiting trial, David
01:32:48
Brown met a fellow inmate named Richard Steinhard. [music] Steinhardt was a former member of an
01:32:54
outlaw motorcycle gang who was in custody on a parole violation related to a previous cocaine conviction.
01:33:01
The two men quickly developed a rapport when David discovered that Steinhardt was a martial arts expert with a long
01:33:08
criminal history and ties to the underworld. He was also due to be released shortly.
01:33:17
These factors were appealing to David as he was putting together a new plan. Rather than face court for Linda's
01:33:25
murder, he had decided to simply eliminate those who were trying to put him behind bars.
01:33:32
The three people David saw as the greatest threats to his freedom were Patty Bailey, Detective Jay Newell, and
01:33:39
Deputy District Attorney Jeffrey Robinson. He reasoned that if Newell and Robinson
01:33:45
were out of the picture, new personnel would have to be assigned to the case. If David argued his right to a speedy
01:33:52
trial, this would put the prosecution at a disadvantage, while getting rid of Patty meant the prosecution would lose
01:33:59
their star witness. He wasn't too worried about Cinnamon, believing that she could be discredited
01:34:06
as unreliable and willing to do anything to get herself out of prison. David told Richard Steinhard that he had
01:34:15
$500,000 buried in the desert and offered to pay him $10,000 per victim as well as $200,000 for expenses if he'd
01:34:24
carry out these three murders. David also wanted his own house and motor home burned down to make it appear
01:34:32
like he too was being targeted. Steinhard agreed. He later said, "The idea of killing somebody or hiring
01:34:42
someone else to do the killing didn't matter to me. I just wanted the money for drugs."
01:34:50
To prove he was serious, David arranged for $600 to be placed in the glove compartment of his car so that
01:34:57
Steinhardt could purchase guns after he was released. Steinhardt agreed that after the
01:35:03
killings were complete, he would also help David escape from jail. Richard Steinhard was released in early
01:35:11
February 1989. David authorized his attorney to pay his brother Tom Brown large installments of
01:35:19
money which would be passed on to Steinhard as he carried out different parts of the plot.
01:35:24
David didn't tell Tom what the payments were for. He simply said that he needed a favor.
01:35:32
On Monday, February 13, David phoned Steinhart from prison. Steinhardt told him that he had killed
01:35:40
both Jeffrey Robinson and Detective Jay Newell, stating, "Bang bang." Right in the back of their head.
01:35:49
David's response was simply, "All right." David had his brother deliver $11,000 in
01:35:57
cash to Steinhardt within the hour. Soon after, Steinhardt told David that he had arranged for a hit woman to be
01:36:06
arrested so that she would be placed in the same prison as Patty. She had agreed to kill Patty in exchange
01:36:13
for $10,000. David was elated, telling Steinhard, "Wonderful. You're a good man. You did
01:36:22
great. To further cement his plan, David contacted another inmate from Patty's prison named [music] Sally Jacobs.
01:36:32
In the wake of Patty's death, he offered to pay Sally if she told the authorities
01:36:37
that Patty [music] had admitted to lying in her story against David. What David didn't know was that one of
01:36:50
his earliest conversations with Steinhardt had been overheard by a fellow prisoner who had gone straight to
01:36:57
authorities with the details of the plot. When they confronted Steinhardt with the information, he quickly agreed
01:37:04
to turn informant. Police set up recording equipment capturing every detail of David's
01:37:11
murderous scheme. Between early January and early February 1989, investigators taped 25 to 30 phone
01:37:20
calls between David Brown and Richard Steinhard. The recordings revealed David discussing
01:37:27
the planned murders of his wife and two law enforcement officials as casually as
01:37:32
one might discuss the weather. Just as damning was David's use of his own brother as an unwitting accomplice.
01:37:41
Tom Brown had no idea that he was facilitating a murder for higher plot when David asked him to deliver $11,000
01:37:48
in cash [music] to Steinhard. He was simply doing a favor for his incarcerated brother.
01:37:55
"Upon learning the true purpose of the money he delivered," Tom was devastated. "As far as I'm concerned, I don't have a
01:38:03
brother anymore," he told investigators. Anyone who could screw his family like this isn't [music] part of the family.
01:38:12
We trusted him. Sully Jacobs was also an undercover police officer. The fact that David had tried to have
01:38:22
her claim Patty was lying only strengthened the case against him. Prosecutors subsequently filed several
01:38:30
new charges against [music] David. Conspiracy to commit murder, arson, and perjury.
01:38:37
When Patty was told about the charges, she said, "I expected something like this from him. I don't put anything past
01:38:45
him." Now, as David Brown faced these new charges, attention turned to the fate of the now
01:38:55
21-year-old Patty Bailey. Her position was unique and troubling. She was both a victim and a perpetrator,
01:39:05
a child who had been sexually abused, groomed, and manipulated. Yet, she had also been an active
01:39:12
participant in the plot that led to Linda's death, [music] even attempting to kill her sister herself before losing
01:39:18
her nerve. Because Patty was 17 at the time of Linda's murder and cooperated fully with
01:39:25
prosecutors, testifying against David without any promise of immunity, she was allowed to proceed in juvenile court.
01:39:34
On May 11, 1989, Patty pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and was sentenced to
01:39:40
4 years in prison. Despite her age at sentencing, she would serve her time in the California Youth
01:39:48
Authority, the same facility as Cinnamon. It was a stark contrast to the 27-year
01:39:55
sentence that had been handed to Cinnamon Brown 4 years earlier. The difference lay not just in their
01:40:01
relative culpability, but in timing. Patty's testimony had helped to break the case that would finally bring David
01:40:09
Brown to justice. For Patty, the sentence marked both an end and a beginning. Although she would remain in custody
01:40:19
until she was 25, she had broken free from David Brown's influence. Patty would have 4 years to come to
01:40:27
terms with everything that had happened to understand how thoroughly David had twisted her perception of normal family
01:40:34
life and to prepare for whatever life might hold when she emerged. While incarcerated, Patty truly began to
01:40:43
grapple with what had happened to Linda and the role she played in her death. As described in the book, A Killing in
01:40:51
the Family by Steven Singular and Tim [music] and Danielle Hill, Patty spoke to visitors about her deep regret and
01:40:58
pain and her desire to somehow go back in time and change what had happened. If I'd have said something, none of this
01:41:07
would have happened, she said. I could have told a teacher at school or told Linda even before I moved in that David
01:41:14
was doing funny things. If I talk about Linda in therapy and to deal with her death, I'll start to
01:41:22
forget about her. I don't want to do that. So, I won't. I just don't want to forget her.
01:41:31
I took my sister's life. I'm out here on this pretty day and she's not. David Brown's trial began in the Orange
01:41:44
County Superior Court in spring of 1990. The prosecution's case was built on the
01:41:51
recorded conversations between David and Cinnamon, testimony from Cinnamon and Patty, and recordings and testimony by
01:41:58
Richard Steinhard about David's subsequent attempt to have witnesses [music] killed.
01:42:04
They painted a picture of a man driven by greed and control. The defense called very few witnesses,
01:42:12
and [music] David didn't testify at all. Throughout the trial, he maintained the
01:42:18
same emotionless demeanor that had characterized his behavior since Linder's death.
01:42:25
During closing arguments, [music] Deputy District Attorney Jeffrey Robinson heaped scorn on David, calling him a
01:42:32
classical sociopathic personality and a poor excuse for a human being. On June 15, 1990, after less than 7
01:42:42
hours of deliberation, the jury returned with their verdict. David Brown was found guilty of
01:42:49
first-degree murder with special circumstances for financial gain and conspiracy to commit murder.
01:42:57
At his sentencing hearing the following month, the judge told David, "Mr. Brown, [music]
01:43:04
you're a scary person. Look what you did to your own children, to your sister-in-law.
01:43:11
It's scary to think you can manipulate people and to do all this and to not bat an eye.
01:43:19
He sentenced [music] David to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Cinnamon [music] and Patty both heard
01:43:28
the verdict while incarcerated at California Youth Authority. After learning of David's fate, they
01:43:35
found each other, sat down together, and cried. Linda Brown was just 23 years old when
01:43:47
she died. The tragedy of her murder rippled through multiple lives. A young woman dead, her infant daughter left
01:43:56
without a mother, a 14-year-old girl manipulated into killing her stepmother, and an 11-year-old child groomed and
01:44:04
sexually abused before being drawn into her own sister's murder. The case inspired two books, both
01:44:12
published in 1991, as well as a killing in the family. There was true crime author Anne Rules,
01:44:20
If You Really Loved Me. NBC aired a 4-hour miniseries titled Love, Lies, and Murder based on Rule's
01:44:29
book. The dramatization of the tragic story brought national attention to the case.
01:44:35
And in 1992, after serving 7 years of her 27-year sentence, Cinnamon Brown was parrolled at the age of 21.
01:44:45
After her release, assistant district attorney Jeffrey Robinson remarked, "The real story is the courage of this
01:44:53
kid who was abandoned by her family. A 14-year-old kid who was completely brainwashed for a number of years by her
01:45:01
father, who herself has been the victim of terrible crimes and has now paid her debt to society, maybe even more of a
01:45:09
debt than she should have." Robinson acknowledged the challenges that lay ahead for Cinnamon.
01:45:16
Her battle will be a very, very tough one because her case is of such a high profile, a girl who has been earmarked
01:45:24
as a killer for the rest of her life. Cinnamon's first ever television interview was on the Oprah Winfrey show.
01:45:32
Appearing via video link, Cinnamon looked like a deer in the headlights as she struggled to answer questions and
01:45:39
describe how her father had manipulated her into killing Linda. The power that David still held over her
01:45:46
emotions was evident. He's always going to be my father and I love him, she [music] said.
01:45:55
David Brown unsuccessfully appealed his conviction and on March 22, 2014 after more than two decades in prison, he died
01:46:04
of natural causes at the age of 61. He passed away without ever expressing remorse for his [music] crimes.
01:46:15
David and Linda's infant daughter, Ashley, was raised by her paternal grandmother and has no memory of ever
01:46:21
meeting her father despite seeing him regularly until the age of five. As a young child, Ashley was told that
01:46:29
her mother was killed in a car accident, only to later learn that Linda had actually been murdered.
01:46:36
Initially, [music] Ashley was told that her father had been framed by her older halfsister, Cinnamon, until some friends
01:46:43
helped her uncover the truth by finding a book about the case at a library. Today, Ashley is married with children
01:46:51
of her own. She has spoken about how hard it was growing up without a mother and how [music] her kids can't have the
01:46:59
quintessential grandmother who loves and spoils them the way other children do. After Patty Bailey was released at the
01:47:08
age of 25, she changed her name and eventually remarried, fighting for and winning custody of the daughter she
01:47:15
shared with David. She attempted to reconnect with Cinnamon after their releases, but Cinnamon
01:47:22
declined, saying she wasn't ready and needed to focus on re-entering society. Cinnamon found work in the travel
01:47:30
industry and married in 1994. She expressed deep remorse for Linda's murder. Despite Linda's young age, she had cared
01:47:41
for Cinnamon like a mother, even standing up for her and defending her when David [music] put her down.
01:47:48
Speaking to Anne Rule for her book, If You Really Loved Me, Cinnamon said, I feel very ashamed of what I did to
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Linda. It's [music] very painful knowing I took her life and she'll never have a
01:48:03
chance again. I cry and pray for her often because I loved her. That's what hurts more than anything.
01:48:11
[music] I loved her and still believed my father's lies [music] and I killed her.
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If there was one wish given to me and it could be anything, I'd wish Linda her life back.
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>> [music]