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Hi, crime junkies. I'm your host, Ashley Flowers. >> And I'm Brit. >> And the story I have for you today is my
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[music] eenth reason to stay out of Washington. This twisty and gut-wrenching tale
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includes a double murder, a historic [music] landslide, a trail of evidence, and a manhunt to Mexico. And listen
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closely, because in this story, there are two central themes. Details matter, and the truth never dies. This is the
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story of Patrick Shun [music] and Monnique Patnot. Snowomish County Major Crimes Detective
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Dave Fontineau walks into his office in Everett, Washington on April 13th, 2016 with plans to drop his stuff and go home
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and rest. He and the rest of the homicide squad had just wrapped up about 40 hours of work at a murder scene and
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they were beyond tired. But before he can walk out the door, a notice lands in his hands from the patrol unit about a
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missing couple up in the Oso area. That's about 45 minutes northeast. The notice says it's a missing husband and
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wife who were last seen the day before. Their cars are missing. No one can get a
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hold of them and there is no activity [music] on their socials. Is this report just coming in or is this just like the
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official handoff to major crimes here? >> That's the latter. So the report actually came in the day before. So day
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one of this case started April 12th. That's when the first call about the missing couple came into Snowomish
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County 911 dispatch. [music] And that actually came from the couple's neighbor friends, Mike and his wife Suzanne.
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Basically, the reason he called, the four of them were supposed to go to an Iron Maiden concert on the night of the
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11th, but Patrick and Mo'Nique were a no-show. Red flag number one. Now, Mike had gone to their house to see what was
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up. Sees their beloved dog, Cairo, running loose. Red flag number two, which is what prompted Mike to call
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Patrick's work on the 12th, and they told him that Patrick was a no-show at the office.
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>> Another red flag. >> Yeah, that's when he calls police. So, patrol deputies had gone up there to do
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a welfare check. They get Mike's official statement and they see that the couple's cars are still missing, which
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I'm sure to a lot of people would give the impression that everything's fine. They'd be like, "Oh, they just like went
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somewhere. >> They're just not here." >> Yeah. But Mike can just like feel whatever this is in his bone. So much so
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that he told the deputy he actually grabbed the SD card out of Patrick's trail camera and he was going to check
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it himself to see like when they were last on it cuz it's kind of like near the entrance of their long driveway. But
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he's like, "You know what? Since police are here, like here, I'll just give it to you guys." And the conviction in his
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voice, his actions, like that's being picked up on by patrol deputies [music] who then passed this notice off to
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Detective Dave Fontineau in major crimes on day two. and the official criminal investigation kicks off. Now, his first
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move is to put in expedited requests for their cell phone data, which comes back
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pretty fast. It shows that Patrick and Mon'nique's phones both stopped transmitting at 8:32 a.m. on April 12th.
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But the activity before that is odd. Now, most of the activity from the 11th looks normal. It has Mo'Nique kind of
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out and about running errands. Patrick is placed at work. Mon'nique's phone shows that she arrived home to where
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their driveway gate was at 11:04 a.m. And then Patrick's phone shows him arriving home at that same spot at 3:07
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p.m. Now, their phones don't seem to move for a long time, as if they are home. But remember, the 11th is when
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they're supposed to go to that concert. And Mike said that he actually went over
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to the house on the 11th at about 4:30 p.m. Their card's already gone then. So, if they both arrived home earlier that
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day, where are they? >> Mhm. The next activity Detective Fontau [music] sees on the phone data is at
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3:26 a.m. when both of their phones travel up an old logging road. And then they both stop transmitting 5 hours
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later at 8:32 a.m. Now, the 3:26 a.m. time is strange in and of itself, right? Like, where are you going? Why are you
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going up this logging road in the middle of the night? It's super weird. >> Yeah.
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>> But where this road is is like the weirdest part of all. You see, two years before this, Oso, Washington was home to
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one of the deadliest landslides in American history. I mean, some 40 houses got buried and 43 people died. Patrick
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and Mo'Nique's house was spared, but barely. I mean, the aerial photos of this landslide are bonkers. It took out
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an entire mountainside along with houses and roads and so much of it poured into
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the North Fork Stillwamish River that the whole river damned and caused even more houses to flood. I mean, this was a
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huge tragic mess that ended up in FEMA like basically having to buy out much of the properties. So, all that to say,
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where their phones were traveling was like even higher up the mountain than where this landslide had been. There is
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nothing there. Certainly not at 3:00 or 3:30 in the morning. >> And were the phones in that same
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location when they stopped transmitting at like what 8:30ish? >> Same general area. Now, another super
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weird thing about the phone activity is that friends and family are telling detectives that the messages that
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they've been sending to Patrick and Mo'Nique on the 11th, like between the time they got home to them moving up the
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mountains at 3:30, those were all getting actively read. Like they can tell from read receipts, No one's
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opening the phone and seeing the messages. >> Yeah. They just don't think that it's
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Patrick and Mo'Nique because no one's responding and the read receipts stopped completely that morning at around the
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same time that the phones just totally stopped transmitting. So, it would seem that something happened to them after
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they got home. if they were in fact the ones in possessions of their phone when they got home to begin with.
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>> That SD card from the trail camera that Mike took could come in real handy now.
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Except when they look at the files, the card was completely full. So, it had stopped recording before all of this.
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[laughter] >> Ashley, >> it's like how >> I had gotten my hopes up. I thought maybe we could like trust trail cams
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more than like business. say I have no no faith in business surveillance, but like
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>> but like this like I felt >> even the trail cam. >> I'm once again I'm disappointed.
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>> Upgrade your SD card gigabytes to those trail cam people like need it. >> So yeah, this could have shown if it was
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them, who they were with, when and where they got home. All of that is stuff they
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need to know. It's going to be important. But [music] first things first, they need to try and find Patrick
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and Mo'Nique. And the best place to start is where the phones were pinging on the morning of the 12th. By day three
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of the investigation, this is now April 14th, major crimes detectives are pretty
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sure they're dealing with foul play, and they put eagle-eyed searchers up in a helicopter. And when I say eagle-eyed,
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like just you wait, I'm going to be testing your eyesight in a minute. And while they're up in the air, detectives
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work to search the wooded area on the ground while they wait for their search warrant on the house to go through that.
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And Brett, this terrain is wild. And I mean that in the literal sense of the word. I mean, yeah. I'm picturing
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western Washington, like mountains, rivers, woods, beautiful, but like really vast, really dangerous scenery.
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>> Yeah, it is rugged on the ground. There's like also huge canopies of trees up above from the sky, like covering all
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of that. Plus, remember, add the whole OSO landslide debris stuff on top of this. I actually have some footage if
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you want to take a look at it over here. That's from Snowhawk 1's camera for those listening. And I'm going to have
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this up on the website as well. >> Oh, wait. That looks like a car. >> Yeah. So, that's their first sighting of
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Patrick's missing Land Rover. Once the Heli folks radio major crimes, they get out there on foot, but it's a struggle
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just to get down to where the car is because it's a steep treed hillside and the Land Rover is fully like nose down
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90° and it's stuck on a stump. It's immediately clear that someone tried to cover the car up with like brush and
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debris. Also, a camouflage tarp. >> Oh, okay. >> Yeah. And guess what else they see below
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the car? Exactly 268 ft further down is Mon'nique's Jeep laying on its side. So,
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both cars look as though someone pushed them over the upper cliff's edge and just like let them tumble down like a
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game of Hot Wheels or dominoes or something. But Patrick's car, the Land Rover, that's the one that got stuck on
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the stump. So, interestingly, there is this wooden 4x4 post weirdly positioned, but it looks like someone was trying to
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like use it as a jack to get the car unstuck from the stump that it's dangling from. Oh my god. I mean, this
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scene is obviously no good, but I'm I'm kind of bracing myself for what they're going to find inside the cars. What
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detectives are bracing themselves, too, but what they find is not what they or you probably expected.
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>> [music] >> Detectives run out of daylight, so the cars don't get processed until the next
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day. [music] On day four of the investigation, detectives on the ground are expecting that when they open the
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doors of the Land Rover that they're going to find the bodies of Patrick and Mo'Nique, but they don't. Instead, they
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just find loads of suspicious items that just adds [music] to the mystery of what
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could have happened to them. I mean, in Patrick's car, there's rope, plastic sheeting, tarps, some towels,
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and blood in the back of the rover. and fallen out near Mo'Nique's Jeep. They find her wallet with her driver's
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license, a bag of dog food, a bag of chicken feed, a roll of unopened paper towels, some black plastic gloves,
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cables, a McDonald's receipt dated for April 11th at 10:41 a.m. They also find some spent shell casings and a shopping
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list that's covered in blood. Now, all of that stuff that fell out of her car actually matches the shopping list and
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her phone activity because one of the errands that she was going to run was to a co-op grocery store where she bought
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all that food for her animals. And the McDonald's receipt lines up, too, which all that stuff still being in her car
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means like she likely never made it back inside her house after arriving like on
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back on the property at home, >> right? But to be triple sure, they even send someone out to the McDonald's just
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to check the security footage to make sure that it actually was her who was there. Make sure that she was alone. And
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when they look, sure enough, it's her in the drive-thru with her dog, Cairo, in the passenger seat at the same exact
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time and date as the receipt [music] and matching what the cell phone data shows.
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So, with all of this evidence, especially the blood in the shell casings, [music] detectives are now
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certain that whatever happened to Patrick and Mo'Nique, they probably didn't make it out alive. As the car
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scenes are being processed, neighbor and family interviews are also happening. And this theme begins [music] to emerge.
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There is one name that almost everyone mentions when asked the age-old question, "Can you think of anyone who
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would want to hurt Patrick and Mon'nique?" John Reed. >> Who? John is Patrick and Mo'Nique's
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neighbor and there is a nasty dispute going on between them. Patrick and Mo'Nique had accused Jon of trespassing
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and essentially being a bad steward of the land. And again, the theme of this episode is landslide. So John's property
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is one parcel closer to where the landslide destruction was. His house was barely missed. So he had been using a
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road easement that was more or less Patrick and Mo'Nique's driveway. But here's the thing. John actually took a
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massive payout from FEMA to allow authorities to seize his house and property. And part of that deal meant
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that Jon had to move out and he wasn't allowed to access that property anymore without a government official present.
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But he was still like coming and going as if he still lived there. Basically squatting on a property that was no
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longer his. And Patrick and Mo'Nique accused him of illegally cutting down trees and like all of this other stuff
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that they didn't like. The dispute had even escalated to each party calling the cops on each other in the past. So, this
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little neighbor spat had gotten pretty ugly. >> And has their relationship with John
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like been rocky the whole time they've been neighbors? >> I mean, it like off and on for like a
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few years, but uh Patrick's niece Aaron told us that there was a time after the landslide when Patrick felt like sorry
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for John. I mean, he like the guy lost like his property. He showed Patrick showed him a lot of compassion, giving
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him permission to use their driveway gate, all of that. But then it reached a point where he felt as if John was
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abusing their kindness. And Patrick and Mo'Nique ended up putting locks on their
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gate. And then that's why they actually put up the trail camera because by that time they were like, "This is it. We
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need evidence of him trespassing so we can sue [music] this guy." So I mean, leading up to this, things had hit a
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boiling point. And when I say boiling point, I want to make it clear. None of Patrick and Mon'nique's relatives are
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like, "Oh, John definitely murdered them." It's more like, you know, they had zero enemies except for this one
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neighbor. >> Yeah. This one guy who seemed to hate their guts. But everything is now like
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starting to click into place for detectives. [music] All the stories are merging into one
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>> because remember neighbor Mike who reported them missing? Yeah. So his wife Suzanne told detectives that on April
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13th, so this is going on 2 days with no sightings of their friends. She had gone
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over there to check [music] on things. And as she's approaching the gate, she sees John Reed in his red pickup truck
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exiting the gate. And John's brother Tony is with him. Now Suzanne doesn't know Tony, but he's wearing a hoodie
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with the hood like pulled up. He's like wearing sunglasses. Like let's just say the vibes were off. And Suzanne stops to
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talk to John and she glances in the back of his truck and she sees in the back are some cables and a 4x4 wooden post.
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And based on Suzanne's description of these things, they are a perfect match for the items found by the vehicles up
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on the mountain. And not even knowing any of that at the time that Suzanne is like talking to them and seeing this,
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she is already so suspicious of John that she actually rolled some video on her phone during this interaction just
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in case something went down. >> That is such a crime junkie move. >> I know. Like props to the girlies out
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there who are basically citizen detectives. So this is enough for detective Fontino to do some John Reed
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homework. He runs a background check on John and sees that he actually is a convicted felon, but not for anything
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violent, for an old felony marijuana conviction. But brother Tony also a convicted felon. And his past is
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violent. So this is when police roll over to John's house. >> John's house that he doesn't technically
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own anymore where he's not really supposed to be. >> Correct. [music] And at least in that
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moment, he is following the rules. He and Tony are nowhere to be found. >> Okay. So, while they figure out how to
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track them down, they start knocking on doors of other neighbors to ask if anyone had any information or security
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footage. And oh boy, does this pay off. Police obtain video from two different houses that are on the road that goes
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above the landslide. And one of them, which actually you can see here, that shows Patrick's Land Rover followed
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by Mon'nique's Jeep driving up the road, one right after the other on April 12th
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at 3:31 a.m. It is the exact route and timestamps as the cell phone data. Now, the other video shows John Reed's red
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truck taking [music] the same route nearly 6 hours later at 9:21 a.m. And sticking out of the back of his truck is
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that 4x4 wooden post. Detective Fontineau told our reporter Emily Mureer that at least for him, these videos were
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the evidence that changed everything. I mean, in his words, from that moment forward, the hunt for Jon and Tony Reed
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was quote, "On like Donkey Kong," is what he told her. Now they have enough to serve search warrants at John's house
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or his former property. And even more physical evidence is found there. Shell casings, plastic sheeting, a camo tarp,
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guns, more 4x4 posts, zip ties in the closet. I mean, there's blood in the bathtub. And that's just evidence that
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was collected from inside. by his garage. They find a trash barrel that is full of clothes, not burnt, just soaking
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in diesel fuel. And they find not one but two secret underground bunkers. >> Um, I think the only thing worse than
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finding one secret underground bunker >> is a second one >> is finding two secret underground
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bunkers. And listen, he said that like each time they were like stumbling across these because like they weren't
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expecting to find them. >> They're literally thinking like, "Oh my god, we're going to find Patrick and
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Mon'nique either like tied up and bleeding and injured or worse." >> But just like the cars, both of the
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bunkers are empty. Basically, Detective Fontino told us he thinks that those were actually just former grow rooms for
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John's marijuana operations. But anyways, they collect everything. They send it off to the crime lab and bolos
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are officially issued for John and Tony Reid. The US Marshall Service also sticks some agents on John and Tony's
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parents' house in Ellensburg, Washington to do surveillance just in case they showed up there.
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>> And do they find anything suspicious inside Patrick and Mon'nique's house? >> No, not really. So, their house is like
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kind of immaculate. There's no signs of a struggle. And detectives even had relatives come look around to see if
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anything looked out of place or were missing or whatever. And interestingly, there were only two things that they
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could note. One, they said Patrick's computer was missing. And like the other one is so small. They said that the
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wrong cat bowl was out. >> What What exactly does that mean? The the wrong cat bowl.
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>> Um they said that there was like a certain cat bowl that Patrick and Mo'Nique used for like their cat with
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like food or whatever, and like the one that was sitting out >> was not it. >> Yeah. I mean, it must have been so
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distinct that all of them knew or whatever. Yeah. >> And it's so interesting because this is
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one of the things that Detective Fontineau admitted to us. He's like, I kind of just dismissed this as nothing
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at the time, but it becomes a learning moment for him later on because that different couple it was a clue.
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>> The details matter. >> The details matter. Now, it's not until day five, April 16th, that detectives
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get word from those agents who are on the stakeout at Jon and Tony's parents house. But on day five, they've spotted
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Jon's red truck in the garage. Snowomish County detectives drop everything. They
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drive the three hours away to Ellensburg to serve search warrants on the parents
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house and on Jon's truck. They didn't get there quick enough to intercept Jon or Tony. Like they are already gone by
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then. And their parents, Clyde and Fay, are pretty unhelpful. They're basically like, "Yep, our sons were here, but
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we're not going to tell you where they went." >> Oh, cool. Great. Yeah. Uh, not at all
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concerning. So, in the garage, they find more tarps, more plastic sheeting that match everything found at the crime
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scene. And inside John's truck, detectives find a small spot of what looks like blood near the passenger side
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door. Now, this is tiny compared to the blood that they found in Patrick's Land Rover, but it still gets swapped
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anyways. And they also find some recent US bank receipts for like big cash outs and a 7-Eleven receipt from Arlington,
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Washington dated on April 11th, just before midnight. [music] And that just before midnight, that's
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like square in the missing time frame we have for Mon'nique and Patrick. Right. So detectives decide to take this. They
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go to the 7-Eleven and sure enough on surveillance video that was working. Praise be. They actually see John and
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Tony buying energy drinks and chips at midnight wearing guess what? The clothes that were found at John's in that barrel
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soaking in diesel fuel. >> So, the evidence is just piling up against these guys.
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>> Yeah. And they just keep collecting more and more. Searchers find Mon'nique's
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keys and glasses like 7 miles away from where the cars were dumped. [music] And they now have help of a cadaavver dog
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who finds Patrick's jacket which is covered in blood. So 5 days in, they've basically solved their case and
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Detective Fontineau and his team go ahead and make their case to the prosecutor to get arrest warrants issued
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[music] for John and Tony Reed for a nobody homicide. But now the manhunt begins. Abolo got put out on their mom's
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car, which is the only car that was missing from their house when Jon left his truck. And they get cell phone data
00:21:02
for Jon and Tony. Both investigative avenues are fruitful. Not only do they get a hit on FA's license plate, but
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cell mapping is showing exactly where the Fugitive Brothers are when they go looking for them on day five, and it's
00:21:16
nowhere near Washington. By April 16th, the Reed brothers have made it all the way to Phoenix, Arizona. That is a solid
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20our drive. But before cops can descend on them down south, their phones just go
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dark and they are just completely off the grid. Now all authorities can do is hope for a sighting or another license
00:21:40
plate catch or for the brothers phones to come back online or something even better. And [music] something even
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better happens on day 35 in miday. A call comes in from an attorney in Ellensburg, Washington. He
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says that he's calling on behalf of his client Tony Reed. and Tony wants to turn
00:22:04
himself in on one condition. They must agree to take the death penalty off the table. Now, the thing is the death
00:22:15
penalty hasn't even been discussed because back then there was a moratorum on executions in the state of
00:22:22
Washington. And while the Snomish County prosecutor technically could have called
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for the death penalty or charge and whatever or ask for it, they had no plans to bring any capital charges
00:22:32
during the moratorum. But like whatever, detectives just see this as an opportunity. So they're like,
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>> "Deal of a century. Yeah, happy to agree." And they do that so they can arrest and interrogate Tony.
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>> So deal gets done. And on May 16th, again, same day, day 35 of their case, detectives [music]
00:22:52
fly down to the Mexico San Diego border and Tony surrenders to Washington authorities. They get him back to
00:22:59
Washington. And by May 22nd, day 40 of this [music] saga, Tony's ready to talk. Now, he says he didn't kill them. His
00:23:06
brother did, but he did try to help his brother cover his tracks. He said that uh he shot those people and
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uh he told me it was self-defense. He said that the that they that they came down that they came to
00:23:27
the gate with the gun and that he started wrestling with one of them and the gun went off.
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>> Tony says that he's been in Mexico this whole time, but John suggested that he
00:23:39
go home and surrender. He's he's he's the one that talked me into turning myself in because if something was to
00:23:46
happen to me over this, he would not be able to live with himself. Detectives asked Tony [music] to walk them through
00:23:55
exactly what happened. And he does. Tony says that his brother John killed Patrick and Monnique on April 11th and
00:24:01
that John basically called him to help get rid of the cars and the bodies. >> What does he tell you? What's the plan?
00:24:07
>> We're going to take the cars up and dump them. Okay. Did you stop and look in the
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cars? >> That at that first time? >> No. >> Okay. When's the first time you saw the
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bodies? >> When I got in the car to drive away. >> Okay. Which car did you drive?
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>> Black and white one. >> So, you drove a Jeep. And where was she? Uh or who was in that car?
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>> She was. >> Okay. Describe that for me. Had to be had to be pretty. >> It was bruises inside.
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>> Yeah. I covered it up with black plastic cuz I didn't want to look at it. >> As Tony goes on to describe how they
00:24:43
tried to cover their tracks, all the little puzzle pieces that detectives had been getting, the ones that made sense
00:24:49
and even the ones that didn't, they start coming together. He says that they noticed a trail camera on a tree at the
00:24:57
gate, which is right where John killed Patrick and Mo'Nique. So, I'm sure he was like, "Oh crap, like my crimes might
00:25:04
be on [music] video." So, they ended up taking the trail cam, not realizing that
00:25:08
the SD card was [music] missing. And Tony says that John goes inside Patrick and Mon'nique's house to take Patrick's
00:25:16
computer, thinking that the trail cam footage might like automatically upload straight to it. But before John left,
00:25:23
after he took the computer, he stopped to feed Patrick and Mo'Nique's cat >> with the wrong cat bowl. Their cat was
00:25:31
apparently like meowing and just seemed very hungry. So Tony says that John stops their murder cover up efforts to
00:25:39
feed the victim's cat. And I don't even know what to make of that. After [music]
00:25:43
that, Tony says they drive the victim's cars up to the OSO landslide road with the bodies in the backs of the cars and
00:25:50
they find a spot for a grave at the base of this uprooted tree. >> Did you guys have to dig a hole?
00:25:57
>> Yeah. >> Did you bring shovels with you? >> Yeah. They dispose of the bodies, cover them,
00:26:03
and then push the cars over the cliff's edge and watch them just tumble down. The only issue was that the Land Rover
00:26:11
got caught on that stump [music] and was kind of like out in the open. So, they decided to come back later and try to
00:26:16
pry it loose or to cover it better. Tony says that he and John then walked a trail back down to John's garage. And
00:26:22
along the way, Patrick and Mon'nique's phones were just like blowing up with messages from their friends and family.
00:26:29
and Tony's reading them, trying to gauge if anyone had called the police yet. >> The read receipts.
00:26:34
>> Mhm. But down the trail, Tony decides to toss the phones into a spring along with
00:26:39
Patrick's wallet. Now, he's telling them in this interview, cut to one of the detectives stepping out of the interview
00:26:46
to tell Search and Rescue to go out to this trail, see if they can recover the phones from the mud. They're probably
00:26:52
not going to need a whole lot more evidence, but like anything to corroborate this confession is going to
00:26:56
be helpful. And sure enough, they are right where Tony described, soaked in mud right next to Patrick's wallet. Now,
00:27:03
back in the interview room, Tony is still yapping away. He says they destroyed and tossed Patrick's computer
00:27:10
and trail camera out in the woods, which searchers later find as well. And after,
00:27:14
he says they get back down to John's garage and toss their blood soaked clothes in a burn barrel and just like
00:27:20
douse them in fuel. Why? because they were supposed to burn them, but they forgot. Whoops. Stay stupid, criminals.
00:27:30
>> Stay stupid. So, they drive back up to the cars the next day. They try to like
00:27:36
use that 4x4 as a jack to get the rover off that stump. But the reason that they
00:27:40
just leave it in there before they actually do is because they start seeing helicopters circling above. So, that's
00:27:47
when they like give up. They're like putting branches the tarp over it because they're like, "We got to get out
00:27:51
of here." and they know that they've got to make a run for it. So, they head to mom and dad's house in Ellensburg to
00:27:56
switch cars, get some cash, [music] and off to Phoenix they go. Tony says that in Phoenix, they meet up with a buddy to
00:28:03
switch cars again, and that's when they headed to Mexico in that car. Now, when asked about the murder weapon, he says
00:28:09
they took it to Mexico and he thinks John still has it. >> You got right across the border with the
00:28:14
gun. >> They don't trust you in Mexico. The only one that cares about anything is
00:28:18
America. Yeah. So, you're going to be able to come back with it. >> The one thing that Tony won't [music]
00:28:24
give the cops is his brother's location. But Tony does agree to take law enforcement to Patrick and Mon'nique's
00:28:32
bodies. On day 41, Tony gets booked and charged for first-degree murder, and investigators start the 2-day process of
00:28:40
recovering Patrick and Mon'nique from the hole that they were left in about a mile from the cars under this uprooted
00:28:46
tree. And detectives said that this was like very emotional for them. I mean, they had been going nonstop for 6 weeks.
00:28:54
And along the way, they felt like they'd really gotten to know Patrick and Mo'Nique through their loved ones. And
00:28:59
Brett, they sounded like legit the coolest couple. They met at Burning Man. They loved their little slice of
00:29:06
paradise on the river where they had a hobby farm and just like woripped their animals. And I know I mentioned
00:29:13
Mon'nique was like buying chicken feed. So, they had chickens and roosters. They're not for butchering or eating.
00:29:17
Those were Mon'nique's pets. They also loved fly fishing and hiking and camping. And they were just like this
00:29:24
very calm and steady presence within their families. Now, when investigators find Patrick and Mo'Nique, they're in
00:29:32
the same grave wearing the same clothes that they were last seen in. And both family members that we interviewed for
00:29:38
this episode, that was Mo'Nique's foster sister, Vi, and Patrick's niece, Aaron.
00:29:42
They said the same thing [music] that after they saw the crime scene photos that it looked like they were cuddling
00:29:49
when they were found. And while they can never unsee that image, they said it actually brought them some peace to know
00:29:55
that they were together till the very end. Now, word about what they were finding spreads faster than you can dig
00:30:02
up two bodies. So, while this painstaking work was happening, news choppers were circling. And Brit, if you
00:30:09
look at the aerial news footage from the scene at this time, it's so interesting.
00:30:14
And this is like my favorite behind the scenes moment of this case. All of the cameras of like the footage that day,
00:30:19
they're all focused on this big blue tarp with a bunch of huge branches like laid out in order, smallest to biggest.
00:30:28
>> What's that have to do with anything? >> Absolutely nothing. This was a tactic that Detective Dave
00:30:36
Billy used to make the news camera focus on something besides the bodies. >> Oh, that is brilliant. Like it looks
00:30:43
important because they're all in order, >> right? It it look like Right. You're immediately crime like as a crime
00:30:48
junkie. I'd be like, "What does it mean?" It was like these sticks are important. They were used in like the
00:30:52
what >> and they're coming out in like an order and they're all lined up like >> I mean it was it was brilliant and it
00:31:00
worked. I mean, there's a King Five news story where the close-ups are all of this tarp and sticks.
00:31:07
>> So, do you think the news stations know that they got duped or are we going to
00:31:11
be the bearer of bad news here? >> Oh, I actually don't I I bet they're finding out for the first time.
00:31:15
[laughter] So, anyways, like it was again behind the scenes a little bit. It was so
00:31:20
interesting to me. This works. They're able to get the bodies out of there, do the autopsies where it's confirmed that
00:31:26
gunshot wounds are the causes of death. Now, Patrick's single wound to the head was fatal and had to have been a
00:31:32
surprise close-range ambush from behind. Now, the medical examiner can't say in what order Mo'Nique shots came. She had
00:31:39
multiple, three actually, uh, her arm, neck, and head, but the speculation is that she rolled up to the gate that
00:31:45
morning after running errands with her groceries, her dog in the car. She came upon John Reed where there was some sort
00:31:52
of confrontation, and then Jon snapped. Detective Fontineau believes Mo'Nique was in her car when Jon first pulled out
00:31:58
his gun and that maybe she like put up her arm in defense when the first shot landed. And then again, I don't know
00:32:03
what the order of the other shots, but he kills her. And then he thinks that Jon like paced around for a few hours
00:32:11
just waiting for Patrick to get home and then he shot him in the same spot. Now,
00:32:16
since they had locks on the gate, you had to actually stop your car, put it in park, get out before you could drive
00:32:21
through. So John must have known that he'd have the perfect opportunity to sneak up on Patrick either as he
00:32:27
approached the gate on foot or as he stopped his car at the gate. >> And was there blood outside by the gate
00:32:33
or just in the cars? >> Just in the cars. I mean at the gate there was one lone shell casing left
00:32:38
behind. So investigators think that John was like laying in weight and then shot
00:32:42
Patrick the moment that he pulled up and just stopped there or he shot him as he
00:32:46
approached the gate on foot. [music] But again, there wasn't enough blood to like
00:32:50
see an obvious, like anything obvious in the dirt. >> But what I will say is that most of
00:32:55
Patrick's blood was found soaked into that jacket that they found in the woods and inside the Land Rover. Now, in late
00:33:00
May, after the autopsies, all they're still missing for this investigation to be wrapped up is John Reed. They know
00:33:06
he's likely still in Mexico, so they are constantly bugging international and federal authorities to be on the lookout
00:33:13
for him. or the guy's car that they took from Phoenix to Mexico. They also put up
00:33:18
wanted flyers with his photo in areas that they think he might be hiding. And as they wait, they continue just
00:33:24
building their case against both Reed brothers. By June, they analyze Tony and John's cell phone data, which actually
00:33:30
shows Tony was in Ellensburg when Patrick and Mo'Nique likely died. So, they dropped the murder charges against
00:33:37
Tony, and they just charge him with assisting in the crime. They also arrest and charge the Reed parents, Clyde and
00:33:43
Fay, for rendering criminal assistance [music] because further follow-up revealed that the elderly couple
00:33:48
actually went to the bank and got additional cash for their fugitive sons, essentially helping in their escape. As
00:33:54
if like giving them the getaway car wasn't enough. And about a month later in July, the final breakthrough comes
00:34:01
when international authorities call Detective Fontineau and say, "We have found John Reed." Detective Fontino said
00:34:10
he was skeptical. He says like, "Send me a picture of him." And sure enough, this
00:34:15
is the guy that Snomish County cops have been chasing for, count them, 100 days now. The authorities in Mexico say they
00:34:23
spotted John's getaway car outside a barber shop in Puerto Pasco about 62 mi south of the Arizona border. They'd gone
00:34:31
to this apartment above the barber shop where they thought he lived. John wasn't
00:34:36
there, so they leave. And what do you know? Who is walking right towards them on the sidewalk outside?
00:34:43
>> Stop it. [laughter] Like all this time he's been like 2 days ahead, just out of
00:34:47
their reach, running on like what seems like pure luck. >> Yeah. >> And he's just there.
00:34:52
>> And he doesn't try to run. Luck is now on detective sides. He is arrested. He's
00:34:56
taken back to the US, back to Washington. But unlike his brother Tony, John's lips are sealed. Does he know his
00:35:04
brother confessed and is like already arrested and charged and everything? Unclear. We asked Detective Fontau and
00:35:10
he said that again like Jon just refused to talk. So, it's hard to say what he did or didn't know at the time. But if
00:35:16
what Tony said was true, it was Jon who suggested that he turn himself in. So, who knows? But detectives had a mountain
00:35:23
of evidence against him. So John still gets charged, put behind bars, and though he's not talking to them, word
00:35:30
gets out that his defense is going to be self-defense. >> Okay. How >> I know what
00:35:39
>> the prosecution knows that all they have to do, all they have to do, I say it
00:35:43
like it's easy. All they have to do is prove that Mon'nique and Patrick got home and died at different times. And if
00:35:51
they can do that, it's going to be so hard for John to claim that they pulled guns on him first,
00:35:55
>> right? Cuz then it would have had to have happened like two separate times, >> right? Snomish County digital forensics
00:36:00
detectives James Hedrickk and Tyler Quick. They take another look at John Reed's cell data. And it confirms John
00:36:08
was in Oso on the day of the murders from at least 10:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. He then drives to Ellensburg to pick up his
00:36:17
brother Tony and they arrive back in Oso at around 3:30 a.m. >> Okay, so so far all of that matches up
00:36:25
with the other evidence, [music] >> right? They also analyze the health app data on Mo'nique and Patrick's phones,
00:36:32
which essentially confirms their last movements alive in a few different ways. They can see on Mo'nique's phone that
00:36:37
the last time the power or like that home button was pressed was at 11:07 a.m. Patrick's phone, same deal. Last
00:36:45
time those buttons were used was on April 11th at 3:07 p.m. Then there is no health app activity again until their
00:36:53
phones start moving up that old logging road toward the landslide. just before 3:30 a.m. The health apps also confirmed
00:37:00
the moment that their phone stopped working after Tony Reed tossed them into that spring at 8:30 a.m. on the 12th.
00:37:06
And listen, you are never guaranteed a slam dunk case. But man, like when the investigation is done right, it is good
00:37:16
to see. Yes, [music] everything is buttoned up come the spring of 2018 when Snowomish County presents 43 witnesses
00:37:24
[music] and about 750 exhibits. And as expected, John claims self-defense and even takes the stand. John must not
00:37:34
have known about the state's evidence showing Mo'Nique and Patrick getting home separately because his story was
00:37:40
that they both got home and they both came at him and they pulled guns on him first. John testified that he shot them
00:37:47
both and considered calling 911, but says he panicked. He even said if he had to do it over again, he would call
00:37:55
police. He got destroyed on cross-examination and ultimately he was found guilty of aggravated first-degree
00:38:02
murder for Patrick and seconddegree murder for Mo'Nique. He remains in prison in Washington. Now, we did send
00:38:09
him a letter back in September to try and give him plenty of time to do an interview or to provide us a statement,
00:38:15
but we never heard back. >> So, John's locked up, but what about the brother? Like, did he or the parents go
00:38:21
to prison, too? [music] >> They did do some time in the county jail, but all three are out now. And we
00:38:27
tried reaching them, too, but we didn't hear back from any of them either. >> This story is is so bonkers, but like at
00:38:33
the end of the day, I don't really I don't really get it. Like what made John >> resort to killing Patrick and Monique?
00:38:41
Like I feel like neighbor disputes are just common. Like they end up worst case it's like civil court or maybe like
00:38:48
>> Yeah. >> neighbors taking sides, some over the fence smack talk, whatever. >> What's the difference between your
00:38:53
unhinched neighbor who might yell at you and your unhinged neighbor who might kill you?
00:38:58
>> Yeah. Like how do you know or like what made this time the time that it escalated to double homicide? Well, I
00:39:05
mean that was something that I kind of wondered about too. And when we talked to Detective Fontineau, he told us
00:39:10
basically he thinks this whole thing came down to like who John Reed was like his personality and that basically he
00:39:17
got overwhelmed and just snapped. He says that because of how the homicides played out, which he calls disorganized.
00:39:24
Now, they have zero evidence that Jon was under the influence when he killed Patrick and Mo'Nique, which is another
00:39:29
interesting factor because Detective Fontau also told us he's like, "Listen, typically homicides boil down to three
00:39:34
things: sex, drugs, money." So, he called this case atypical. I mean, sure, there were high emotions. There was
00:39:41
animosity between the households, but what did [music] John gain by killing them?
00:39:46
>> Yeah. Like, that's what I'm trying to think of. like the hope of not being sued maybe like making the civil laws
00:39:53
like >> or were you just so angry like >> Yeah, it just seems like extreme choices
00:39:59
to avoid kind of small things like civil lawsuits. >> But you could have avoided the civil
00:40:05
lawsuits by just like not doing the thing too, right? Like >> just like not being in that sort of like
00:40:10
elevated conflict in the first place. >> He seems like an angry man. like where I
00:40:13
get like things had happened to him like the the you know he lost his property but you got paid for the property like I
00:40:18
don't know like I just can't it's hard to like distill and boil down and I like it's motive for me that's always so
00:40:25
interesting because so many of our cases I'm like trying to figure out >> what's the why do you what's like how do
00:40:30
you protect yourself what do you look for and like >> it's hard to pinpoint that here
00:40:34
>> now for Patrick and Mo'Nique's family seeing John convicted and sent to prison
00:40:39
was a form of justice [music] but like also it doesn't bring them that nothing brings them back. Losing them was
00:40:44
extremely difficult and nothing has replaced the hole that their absence has created. Vi told us that Mo'Nique used
00:40:50
to cuddle her chickens and her roosters. And when they got sheep, she raised the
00:40:55
babies inside their house, which like as a farm girl, >> I saw so many animals in your home.
00:41:02
>> And Patrick's niece, Aaron, said that her uncle was like a father figure to her. He stepped in to make sure that she
00:41:08
had school clothes when she was little. and he was a huge jokester. She said he once put um potatoes in her stockings on
00:41:15
Christmas morning just to make her laugh. After all was said and done, Vi got a rooster tattoo in honor of
00:41:21
Mo'Nique and Aaron got the truth never dies tattooed on her collarbone. She said that throughout the investigation,
00:41:29
Detective Fontineau kept telling her that and it stuck with her and it's a reminder that even in a whirlwind 100day
00:41:37
investigation, it pays to never give up. And the tiniest of details that you gather along the way might be what puts
00:41:45
the killer behind bars. You can find all the source material for this episode on
00:41:49
our website, crimejunkie.com. >> And you can follow us on Instagram at crimejunkie [music] podcast.
00:41:54
>> We'll be back next week with a brand new episode. Grime Junkie is an audiochuck
00:41:58
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