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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 about a woman who
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was attacked as she lay in bed in her own home in just a 20 minute window while her husband ran out for fast food
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she is beaten so severely that she has no memory of the attack when she first wakes up but then one day she's sitting
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in the dentist office like flipping through magazines waiting for her mom and she comes across this picture of a
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baby and it makes all of her memories come rushing back she knows who attacked her that night and it was the same man
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she was living with now while she recovers her husband except that's not the whole
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story and it would take over a decade for the full truth to come out a truth that led police to a serial killer this
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is the story of Diana Dello [Music] so let me set the scene we're in Tustin California September 30th 1979 it's
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around 2:00 in the morning when a 19-year-old named Judy is startled awake by the sound of a voice calling her name
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and it takes her a second to like get her bearings like she even wonders if she is dreaming but it sounds like her
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downstairs neighbor 20-year-old Diana green so she goes to the window to see if she can like see anything out in the
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yard but she doesn't see anything it's like too dark so she crawls back into bed next to her husband and what feels
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like 15 minutes later she hears another voice this time a man's voice and she hears the man say something like I leave
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you alone for 10 minutes half an hour this is what happens to you so she kind of just lays in bed and listens in
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silence probably holding perfectly still and not wanting to even breathe too loud
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just trying to figure out what's going on and it's the man she hears again next Judy Judy please wake up and this time
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she knows she's heard it so she goes to the window again and outside she sees Diana's husband 21 y- old Kevin green
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and he's running like in and out the back door of the Green Apartment just in this Panic crying out for help and at
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one point she looks through the Green's open kitchen door and she sees him making a phone call now Judy's first
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thought must likely be oh this must be the baby because you see Diana is pregnant two weeks past her due date
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with her and Kevin's first child together a girl that they plann to name Shantal Marie so Judy and her husband
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both quickly get dressed they Rush downstairs to help and that's when Kevin screams that Diana has been attacked and
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what he says next makes Judy's blood run cold he says that Diana has been shot in
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the head Kevin found her when he got home from a late night fast food run and though she is still alive she needs help
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right away if she's going to make it so Judy jumps into like go mode to flag down the ambulance that Kevin called
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because it keeps like passing by the complex and when she leads paramedics inside the apartment Judy is stunned by
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what she sees there is blood everywhere Diana is laying in bed naked in a pool of her own blood and she is struggling
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to breathe and I mean Brett it is so bad literally her brain is exposed so paramedics Rush Diana to the hospital
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where her family is waiting cuz Kevin had called them too and he's probably like chomping at the bit to get there as
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well but the officers who also responded to the apartment say they need him to stay behind because you know like they
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got to talk to him he's clearly distraught but he cooperates cuz he wants police to do their jobs and find
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whoever did this to his wife so police asked Kevin to walk them through his day leading up to finding Diana and we
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actually got to speak with him and he gave us the full rundown of that day too which we kind of cross reference with
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case records Diana's held on to that she shared with us and according to police records Kevin and Diana were home
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watching TV with his brother who actually lived with them until around 6 when a friend of Kevin's came over with
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his wife around 7:45 Kevin told us that he and his friend went to go buy weed and the friend's wife stayed behind with
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Diana and then they got back at around 10:30 how far did they have to go for this weed run so like 20 minutes or so
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and it's worth noting Kevin told us like he didn't smoke weed that day like it just took so long he said because they
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got lost so exactly who is the weed for if not for Kevin he claims it was for that friend who came over so I don't
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know they go on this long weed run anyway Kevin came home his friends leave Kevin left again to take his brother to
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go meet friends which only took like 15 minutes or so and then he came back at around 10:45 and then he and Diana laid
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on the couch and watched a movie on the TV now before midnight he says that he and Diana had sex then they moved the TV
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into their bedroom so that they could finish the movie in bed and after about an hour Kevin left to go get cheeseburg
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From a Jack In The Box across the street like thinking he'd be right back he said
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that he just left the kitchen door unlocked but then when he got to the Jack in the Box it was packed Kevin told
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us he was in a hurry to get back home he didn't want his wife to wait so he went
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to the next closest one which was like 3 miles away now arriving back home he noticed that the front door was open a
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crack so he pushed it open with his foot went inside and that's when he found Diana and then he makes note of
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something something that stood out to him and stands out now to investigators in an episode of on the case with pazan
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a detective remembers Kevin telling him that on the way out like when he was going to Jack In The Box he noticed
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quote a Blackman standing next to a black van now he didn't think much of the guy at the time but he was still
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there standing by the van when Kevin got back and found Diana so now Kevin is thinking that maybe that that guy could
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have hurt his wife and is that guy still there like did he go out and try to get
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a hold of the guy after he found Diana I don't know if he makes the connection that this guy could have been the
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attacker like in that moment I don't think he's like really thinking about it until he's talking to police and in the
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moment he was probably so frantic trying to like tend to Diana and get her help he's not like that guy goes completely
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out of his mind right now all in all he says he was gone for about 20 minutes tops and Kevin's story seems to check
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out because the bag of warm food is literally still like sitting on the table that he just went and got now when
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he found Diana lying in bed it was dark he said that she was making a sound almost like she was fake snoring so at
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first he thought she was just like kind of messing around with him but when he turned on the lights he saw this just
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massive hole in her forehead which is what made him think that she'd been shot with he says he thought it was like a
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large caliber weapon at close range like was exactly what he said that feels really specific how would he know that
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well because Kevin is a marine Corporal who serves at a local helicopter station
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in the tool shops I mean he probably like knows his way around a gun and what he eventually realizes that like fake
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snoring sound was actually her trying to breathe through pooling blood so Kevin says he forced her mouth open to help
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her breathe better but she like bit down on his fingers when he did and that is when he called police he says that she
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was moaning which to Kevin meant that she was still breathing so looked around to the apartment to see if anything was
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missing he didn't notice anything like while he's waiting for police but here's what's so interesting police don't agree
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with Kevin that Diana was shot cuz to them they're like neighbors would have woken up to a like the sound of a
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gunshot right and about 20 minutes after Diana is rushed to the hospital police get a call confirming that they're right
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doctors say that Diana was hit in the head with a blunt heavy object something like a m maybe a baseball bat and and
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they're saying someone broke in and did that in this 20 minute window yeah according to Kevin that's all she was
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alone for so police start searching for something that could be the weapon they don't find anything though so they do
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finally let Kevin go to the hospital to be with his wife and there all Diana's family can do is stare at two heart rate
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monitors one for Diana one for her baby and they're just they're both fighting for their lives I can't imagine being in
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that head space where you know in the days leading up to this you're like oh like I can't wait to go to the hospital
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to see their new baby their new grandchild and now they're wondering you know their first granddaughter too oh my
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God and now they're at the point where like are we going to have one or both of them right they could lose both of them
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it had to have been like a very surreal moment and doctors tell them that they're actually holding off on
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performing an emergency C-section to deliver the baby which is normally what they would do if it were just the baby
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in danger but with Diana's head trauma like both her and the baby could die if they put her body under any more stress
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and for right now the baby's heart rate is steady and they're working to stabilize Diana they do this for about
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12 hours but at about that point after she's admitted one of the monitor's flatlines Kevin and Diana's parents are
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by her side when doctors rush into the room they Usher the family out and when doctors come back out they have a
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heartbreaking update they lost Shantal Marie and now they have to rush Diana into emergency surgery to stop the
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swelling in her brain so when police arrive at the hospital Kevin fills them in on everything that has happened and
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they brace themselves now not just for an investigation into an assault but an assault and now a homicide and it's a
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homicide charge for Shan Paul yes so that's the charge that they hope to eventually hit someone with but they
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they got to find that someone first though as Diana goes on to make a slow recovery cuz she does get out of surgery
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she is stable police begin to wonder if the person who did this to her the one that
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they're looking for is right there in her hospital room because Kevin is like saying and doing just some weird like
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first right when they get to the hospital Kevin tells police that Diana's doctor told him that she was sexually
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assaulted but when they go talk to that doctor he actually can't confirm this and in his opinion he says he doesn't
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think she was second when Diana does eventually wake up this is about 10 days after she's in this coma her significant
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brain damage leaves her unable to speak she has what's called Aphasia and her memory is just wiped completely gone she
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doesn't remember her friends her family she doesn't even remember Kevin and officers who had been at the hospital
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throughout her coma noticed Kevin's reaction to this like he almost seems relieved that Diana can't remember
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anything and then finally Diana and Kevin's friends tell cops that at one point someone said they hoped that Diana
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recovered enough to name whoever attacked her and Kevin's response was I don't now to be fair Kevin went on to
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say that he didn't want d to have to relive the trauma again and that friend took that to mean that he was concerned
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for her wellbeing so I I don't even think at the time they necessarily were like concerned by it but like couple all
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of this together especially with what they were learning in the field as they were investigating and Kevin starts
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looking real bad hi crime junk I'm your host Ashley flowers and I'm Brit and every week we
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cover all kinds of True Crime cases from the most infamous to mysterious deaths and disappearances even cases you've
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never heard anywhere else if you can't get enough of all things True Crime well you found your people and if you're like
00:12:42
us and want to make a real impact in these cases you're definitely a crime junkie so join us every Monday for new
00:12:48
episodes you can find crime junkie wherever you get your podcasts so the night of Diana's attack
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neighbors say that they heard yelling in the complex followed by a woman screaming and this was around 2:00 a.m.
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they couldn't say for sure that the sound was coming from The Greens Apartment but they assumed that it was
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an argument between Kevin and Diana because apparently that was a pretty common occurrence and it's worth noting
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that Kevin told us and police said in an on the case with paulaz on episode that
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police had gotten domestic violence calls to The Greens Apartment pretty regularly leading up to the night of the
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attack so after some kind of argument screaming whatever a few people heard a door slam then a car speed away which is
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not quite the peaceful night in watching TV that Kevin had originally told police
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about if all of that commotion was Kevin but I mean it's possible that Kevin did
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leave quietly and then what they heard was her attacker but I keep coming back to
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remember that thing Judy heard I leave you alone for 10 minutes half an hour and this is what happens to you well
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another neighbor remembers hearing that same exact thing and they thought it was
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Kevin who said it which if so would be like a pretty weird response to have if you come home you find your spouse in a
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actual pool of blood you're like upset that they're hurt yeah this is what happened I leave you alone like yeah and
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that doesn't seem to be lost on police because in their notes they wrote down that quote like or what people heard him
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say like word for word twice and more and more the people they speak with who knew the couple say that
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there was a known history of domestic violence according to their statements Kevin is a heavy drinker so much so that
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one of his friends considered reporting him to his commanding officer for alcoholism and his drinking caused
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tension throughout their roughly year-long relationship is that what they fought about or did the drinking lead to
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fighting about other things I don't really know I mean probably all of the above like Kevin chalked some of their
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fighting up to just them being really young and their story never really having a like fairy tale beginning you
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see they met at a bar when Diana was 18 and Kevin was 19 and then soon after they started dating Diana moved in with
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Kevin and got pregnant now Diana told us that she didn't know at the time but Kevin was still married to another woman
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who she said she eventually actually became friends with but it was really messy before that now we talked to that
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ex-wife and even though Kevin told us the relationship was over she was very much under the impression it was not so
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you got like both women saying kind of the same thing so things were very Rocky especially as Diana's pregnancy went on
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and Kevin's abuse got worse and friends tell police that at one point Diana actually asked them to help her move out
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and when she did she had a bruise over her right eye that extended down her cheek but that same night that her
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friends helped her move her stuff so she could get out she must have had a change
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of heart she convinced herself that Kevin was going to change once the baby was born so she went back to the
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apartment but here's the wild part when she goes back to the apartment that night she found Kevin with his ex-wife
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no yes and his ex told us that they were still legally married when Diana found her there she was actually pregnant with
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Kevin's child around the same time that Diana was and she gave birth to to a girl about a month before Diana was
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attacked now according to an LA Times article by HG Reza at some point in March of 1979 so this is when Diana was
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already pregnant Kevin divorced his previous wife and then married Diana Now Kevin says he didn't abuse Diana that
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the only time he ever laid a hand on her was when she came home and found his ex
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there he said that she had kicked him in the head as he was sleeping on the floor
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he like jumped up he didn't know it was her he fought back but that seems to be contradicted by his own words cuz in an
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episode of on the case with paulon and in an episode of Forensic Files he told those producers that at some point in
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her pregnancy he had slapped Diana hard enough to leave bruises so now that they know all of
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this police bring Kevin in for an interview to sus out what he knows about the weapon used in Diana's assault I
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think they're probably hoping he's going to say too much but he stays calm through the whole thing later he even
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agrees to take a polygraph that he passes but police can't shake this feeling that something isn't adding up
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but does that mean he tried to kill her the idea that a roaming psychopath just happened upon their apartment in the
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exact small window that Kevin went out to get food seems almost unbelievable except for the fact that at this very
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time there was a roaming psychopath attacking women in almost the exact way that Diana had been attacked and just a
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week into the investigation of Diana's case police get word of another brutal attack a 24-year-old named Deborah
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Kennedy is found by her sister bludgeon to death inside their shared apartment now authorities determined in that case
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that Deborah had been sexually assaulted and the similarities in the victim profiles are hard to ignore both Diana
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and Deborah are young white living in the same neighborhood attacked the same way both in first floor apartments and
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these two attacks actually fit a much larger pattern because for 2 years police have been responding to assaults
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all across Orange County California and at least 10 other women who lived in first floor apartments with either
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unlocked windows or unlocked doors had been attacked in the middle of the night they'd all been beaten with some kind of
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blunt object mostly fatally and some were sexually assaulted now police believe that they all the work of a
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serial killer that they're calling the bedroom Basher and for some reason it takes until Deborah's murder for police
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to finally form a task force to investigate this is Diana the only Survivor no so there are others
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definitely one that we know of who was attacked in July of 1979 she she had to have like a
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tracheotomy because of her injuries and has difficulty speaking and all she remembers about her attack is hearing
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noises in her apartment hallway before a man grabbed her told her to shut up and
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it doesn't seem like any description of her attacker was ever shared by police so I'm not sure if she couldn't remember
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what he looked like if her because of her injuries maybe she never saw him I don't know so for a while again Diana's
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still recovering she doesn't remember anything so they're like really trying to dig into this line of inquiry hunting
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down a potential serial killer but along the way they get hundreds of tips with conflicting information which kind of
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leads them to wonder if they're right like is this a serial killer or are these a bunch of different people
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because to them it seems so farfetched like really how could one guy commit all of these horrible assaults so closely
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together and just fly completely under the radar I mean it's 1979 this is literally like the time to do that I'm
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with you like I don't think it's that wild but at the time it was and then there's another attack on October 21st
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17-year-old Deborah Senor is found dead by her roommate after leaving a party that they both went to earlier in the
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night again Deborah's Costa Mesa apartment is on the first floor and there are no signs of a Breakin but even
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with new evidence from this murder I mean they actually have handprints on the window sill and a seaman sample
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police don't find any solid leads and they do end up disbanding the bedroom Basher task force by the end of October
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they only give it a month less than that like from what I can tell like which I couldn't believe what's the point of a
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task force for five minutes exactly and there's no real reporting explaining why
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it was disbanded so quickly I don't feel like you could like get through all the
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materials in that time or get on the same page as a task force yeah retire Detective Tom Tarpley who was with the
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tus and PD he took over the Cold Case investigation he told us that bet in that time basically the task
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force just like ran its course and with no new information coming in and like possible Staffing shortages like that
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one seems most likely to be they just had to return the cases back to like their local jurisdictions and everyone
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had to kind of work them separately so in Diana's case their last real remaining hope is that Diana will be the
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one to solve her own case maybe she heals maybe her memory will come back and she'll be able to tell them who did
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this to her and sure enough out out of the blue one day late in November they get a call from Diana's dad he says
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Diana remembered something something really big so apparently Diana had tagged along to her mom Pat's dentist
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appointment earlier that day and while waiting for her mom Diana is sitting in the lobby just kind of like flipping
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through some magazines and as she's doing that she comes across this picture of a baby and that's when all of a
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sudden the pieces start clicking into place I mean again at this point she remembers nothing but she sees this baby
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and all of a sudden she remembers that she'd been pregnant and from there images of her Attack start appearing in
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her mind and when Pat came out of her dentist office Diana was trying to tell her something but she was struggling to
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find the words cuz again remember she was having to learn how to talk all over again it's not just her memory's gone
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her basic skills are so she said something like Ivan hit me Ian hit me and to her mom Pat it sounds
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like she's trying to say Kevin instead of Ivan so what they do is they take Diana to a speech therapist before
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anyone even confronts Kevin with this because this is huge and when that person asked Diana who hurt you Diana
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points to her wedding ring and the therapist asks her if she means Kevin and Diana says yes and that's all police
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need to hear detective Tarpley believes that this is when they pulled Diana's out of the bigger bedroom Basher
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investigation like in that moment I mean again they're all worked separately at that point but in that moment they're
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like oh clearly this is something else and they like pull it out cuz they're like okay our surviving victim has just
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told us who did this and there's no chance that it's all one in the same right like Kevin can't be the bedroom
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Basher no they've ruled Kevin out on those other attacks based on his work schedule on loan so it was always just
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two options either she was part of this serial killer spree and Kevin was innocent or Kevin attacked his wife and
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her case nothing to do with the rest of them and it's clear to them now it is the ladder police believe they have
00:24:05
their guy he's been right there in front of them this whole time and on November
00:24:09
30th exactly 2 months after Diana was attacked they send a squad of patrol cars out to track Kevin down they find
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him leaving a 7-Eleven and he is completely caught off guard when police arrest him on charges of murder
00:24:23
attempted murder and assault but 5 days after Kevin's arrest he's [Music] released two branches of the same
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tree two pieces of a soul where one sister goes the other will be for she is but
00:24:53
half of the whole the missing half pre-order order your copy at Ashley flowers.com
00:25:01
now the da doesn't file charges against Kevin because of concerns about Diana's ability to testify against him at least
00:25:10
right now but they aren't just throwing in the towel to them it just means that they need to get more so while Diana
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divorces Kevin and begins to work with her speech therapist to put words to what happened to her that night police
00:25:22
work on buttoning up their case they go back to the hospital and they find another nurse that they hadn't spoken to
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to before who has even more stories about Kevin's strange Behavior while his wife was in the hospital she says that
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after Diana woke up Kevin said what if she wakes up and doesn't remember who did this and thinks it was me which is
00:25:45
like not a great choice of words but the next thing that the nurse reports is even more disturbing at least to me the
00:25:52
nurse tells police that there was this time when Diana was restrained using a posy vest that's like this jacket used
00:26:00
for trauma patients so they don't like pull out their tubes or hurt themselves and the nurse left Diana alone with
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Kevin while she checked on another patient and when she looked back through the window into Diana's room she saw
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Kevin pulling the ties on Diana's vest so that when she stepped forward she would be like pulled backward and have
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to sit down and the nurse claimed that Kevin was laughing while this was happening but Diana who was still
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getting her speech back at this point seemed like completely frustrated which yeah that feels
00:26:32
so cruel and like unnecessarily cruel but that still just proves he's a shitty husband they need something more and
00:26:43
they might have the Ace in the Hole so there was a lot of speculation early on about whether or not Diana had been
00:26:51
sexually assaulted everyone seemed to have an opinion everyone was hearing different things from different people
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in the early days but they had done a forensic exam while she was in the hospital just to be sure
00:27:03
and they had found semen now initially this wasn't a huge deal because part of Kevin's story to police was that he and
00:27:10
Diana had had sex that night to try and induce labor right so when they did antibody tests on the seen and found
00:27:18
that it came from someone with Kevin's O negative blood type it didn't really do
00:27:23
anything to prove or disprove his guilt about 7% of people are O Negative Kevin's in that 7% but still he's not
00:27:30
denying that they had had sex that night right but that totally changes when Diana is able to speak enough to tell
00:27:38
police her version of events that night because Diana told us that her speech wasn't all the way there yet when she
00:27:45
talked to police but they understood what she was trying to get across she communicated that Kevin was drinking and
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smoking weed that Saturday which upset her because she was so close to her due date we talked to her she claimed she
00:27:59
even called him while he was out on that like long ass weed run because she was having contractions Now Kevin denies
00:28:07
this he's like you know if she was having contractions we would have gone to the hospital either way by the time
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he got home Diana says they fought about this cuz she was upset she went into their bedroom slammed the door Kevin
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came in apologized he wanted to have sex but Diana says she said No and when she
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resisted Kevin violent sexually assaulted her and the last thing she remembers is Kevin picking up his key
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caddy and striking her in the head with it which she believes knocked her out what's a key caddy um it's basically
00:28:42
like this key ring that sometimes like R tracks you can like put it on your belt
00:28:45
loop or whatever okay and I hate to ask this but with the head trauma how reliable is A's memory at this point and
00:28:54
you mentioned earlier that she had had some memory loss this is part of the theme right so told us he remembered
00:28:59
doctors warning him that Diana was pretty suggestible but the police reports that Diana sent us contain a
00:29:06
statement from her doctor saying that she only has issues with her speech now at this point not her memory now based
00:29:15
on the police reports her friends remember her telling them what she told police at the time that sex had gotten
00:29:22
too painful for her by that point and she was bleeding so she didn't want to have sex anymore though there is one
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friend who remembers Diana saying that she and Kevin tried having sex to induce labor that day but it hurt too much so
00:29:36
she wanted to stop but that was even earlier in the night like it doesn't line up with Kevin's story and when he
00:29:42
claimed they had sex now Kevin claims they never even found any blood on his key caddy but none of the case files
00:29:49
that we have even mentioned the key caddy one way or another so I don't know about that part so they don't have any
00:29:54
kind of weapon we don't know if it's the key caty doesn't seem like it would be a
00:29:57
key CAD again remember her brain's exposed right but the da believes Diana and that means finding Sean that's
00:30:05
likely Kevin to them means he attacked her so in March of 1980 Kevin is arrested a second time and this time the
00:30:14
charges stick police add a spousal rape charge making Kevin one of the first people to be tried for that after
00:30:21
California had previously passed a law against it which is like why I bet you have to pass a law against it but they
00:30:27
did now in the months leading up to Kevin's trial Diana is determined to get Justice
00:30:33
for her daughter that she'd never got to see grow up the states case which has become Front Page News by this point
00:30:41
rests on her shoulders without much other evidence is Diana's account enough and what about the emotional and
00:30:48
physical demands of a trial is Diana up to testifying in court I me these are the questions hanging over investigators
00:30:55
who seem to have concerns about the strength of the case because according to an article in the Hanford Sentinel
00:31:01
they end up dropping the spousal rape charge at some point leading up to the trial I don't know exactly why but from
00:31:09
those records Diana sent us it seems like it was tough to establish whether or not
00:31:15
the sex was concentral or not like every rape case I mean like but they they're not they're not taking on that fight so
00:31:23
in October of 1980 just over one year after her attack d Diana takes the stand in front of Kevin and devastatingly
00:31:32
details an abusive marriage that culminated in an assault that caused permanent life-altering damage I mean
00:31:39
still she is partially deaf in one ear fully deaf in the other she's lost her sense of smell she has a plastic plate
00:31:47
in her head and she has had to relearn basic language skills from scratch Reading Writing speaking communication
00:31:54
that was once as easy as breathing is now a daily struggle for her after her emotional testimony Kevin's defense is
00:32:02
up next they can't introduce the polygraph that he passed into evidence the judge won't allow it so they put all
00:32:08
of their focus on discrediting Diana's memories they point out that in pre-trial hearings she said that her
00:32:15
attacker took off all his clothes but then at the trial she said he was fully clothed they have Kevin take the stand
00:32:22
in his own defense and he points the finger at the man who was standing outside the apartment someone he says
00:32:27
that police didn't look at hard enough especially while this bedroom Basher was roaming the streets and after a grueling
00:32:35
week and a half long trial the jury only deliberates for 3 hours before coming back with a verdict Kevin is found
00:32:43
guilty of Diana's attempted murder and the second degree murder of their daughter shant tal Marie and the judge
00:32:49
sentences him to 15 years to life in a Maximum Security Prison and to be clear no one's happy about any of this I mean
00:32:57
to Diana this verdict is a tragedy but I'm sure Kevin sentence finally makes her feel safe I mean she told us that's
00:33:03
when she could move on with her life that's when she got a job she went to beauty school and then two years after
00:33:09
Kevin's conviction she met someone new that someone she'll end up having a daughter with and
00:33:13
meanwhile Kevin's not exactly a model prisoner according to an article in the Deseret News he deals drugs he starts
00:33:23
fights which he told us is how he survived in prison now come 1989 Kevin is up for parole for the first time and
00:33:31
Diana remembers him showing up in Chains and she does she attends every single one of his parole hearings to make sure
00:33:39
he stays behind bars but in the DA's eyes Kevin seals his own fate at those parole hearings because he never takes
00:33:46
responsibility for the crime that he was convicted of he still claims that he's innocent and he still claims that the
00:33:52
guy outside his apartment is the one responsible for attacking Diana so not seeing any signs of remorse the DA's
00:33:59
office opposes Kevin's release but then a few years into his time in prison Kevin seems to turn his life around he
00:34:08
gets sober that same article in Deseret news reports that he earns a degree in computer science he gets a job as an
00:34:14
office clerk in the prison and that's actually where he meets his third wife and he and his daughter with his first
00:34:21
wife both told us that from that point he stays on track and he actually tries to be as present of a dad as he can be
00:34:28
from prison she and her mom told us they always believed in Kevin's innocence and
00:34:33
that he was never capable they didn't think he was capable of attacking Diana so brutally and actually a detective
00:34:41
working on one of those bedroom Basher cases in 1996 is about to find out that they're
00:34:50
right when you think of New England you don't think of this I'm Kylie low I'm an
00:34:57
investigator journalist and Storyteller each week I share homicides in missing persons cases from across the state of
00:35:03
Maine and greater New England this is my home these stories are my passion and this podcast is my platform to help
00:35:10
friends and families keep the memories of their loved ones alive long after the attention Fades this is dark down
00:35:21
east so with advances that come in DNA testing in like mid to late '90s Detective Tom Tarpley of the Tustin PD
00:35:29
starts taking a second look at all those murders that had once been attributed to
00:35:33
this elusive bedroom Basher those cases are all still unsolved and they were hoping to make progress on them years
00:35:40
later and one of those cases that he's looking into stands out Deborah Kennedy she's the one who was killed just a week
00:35:47
after Diana's attack so detective Tarpley submits a DNA sample that they have on file from Deborah's case to
00:35:54
codus and so soon he gets ahead the sample matches 41-year-old Gerald Parker who detective Tarpley learns has
00:36:04
been serving time in a prison for a parole violation and thank freaking God he did this testing when he did because
00:36:12
Gerald was scheduled to be released the next month his DNA was in codus because he was convicted of sexually assaulting
00:36:20
a 13-year-old girl after abducting her like he had grabbed her and thrown her into his van on on her way home from her
00:36:29
dad's funeral what I know so in June of 1996 detective Tarpley visits Gerald in prison and he's not alone police in
00:36:38
Costa Mesa have been looking into Gerald too cuz his DNA matched samples from three of their unsolved murders so the
00:36:47
Costa Mesa police go at him first were these cases known bedroom Basher cases or are they outside of that all three of
00:36:54
the Costa Mesa murders were and then we've got uh the and those include um Deborah senior so they were part of that
00:37:00
original task force so Gerald says he did have violent urges he heard voices but he says he's been prescribed
00:37:08
medication for those mental health issues and he can't remember assaulting anyone let alone he says he can't
00:37:15
remember the four women that they're talking to him about and at the time of the murders in Costa Mesa um he was
00:37:21
living at a Marine Corps Airbase working nights in a helicopter Squadron working
00:37:28
around helicopters like Kevin did Bingo and at the same time at the same base in
00:37:36
Tustin yeah and this is when like all the feelers go up because apparently so many years on even the
00:37:45
da had started making some rustlings like by this point he wasn't so sure that Kevin was their guy anymore I don't
00:37:54
think anything specific was being done yet in Diana's case to prove or disprove that feeling but a case that they once
00:38:01
thought was connected to Diana now being solved the killer having a connection to
00:38:06
where Diana's husband worked was just like a little too weird to write off yeah so when Costa Mesa police don't
00:38:14
really get anywhere with Gerald detective Tarpley goes in and tries his hand at questioning him and he shows
00:38:21
Gerald first a picture of Deborah and ask why would your DNA be at the scene of This Woman's murder but Gerald claims
00:38:28
he doesn't recognize her says he has no idea why his DNA would be there but he does admit that he had been in that area
00:38:35
where her apartment was and that's when detective Tarpley runs Gerald through Diana's attack and reminds him that
00:38:44
Kevin is serving time for it and Gerald not only admits that he read about the case but he gives up details only
00:38:53
someone who had been in the apartment should know like the street it was off of the layout of the bedroom Diana was
00:38:59
attacked in the fact that the door to the apartment was on the side of the building detective Tarpley is actually
00:39:05
Amazed by how much Gerald remembers after 16 years so he asked him if he knew Kevin while they were in the
00:39:12
Marines but he says he didn't I mean how I don't know I have no idea how many people served on that base or worked
00:39:19
like in that Squadron but it was like a 4700 acre facility so mean we're not talking something small but still it
00:39:26
feels like big coincidence like massive anyway Gerald asked detective Tarpley if
00:39:32
Kevin is on death row and detective Tarpley says he's not sure but hearing about Kevin's conviction seems to flip
00:39:41
some kind of switch in Gerald he's like lost in thought and detective Tarpley thinks that he's on a verge of a
00:39:50
confession so he makes one last plea for Gerald to do the right thing and that hits Gerald hard
00:39:57
he finally asked for Costa Mesa police to come back in because he's ready to talk and when everyone is back in the
00:40:04
room he says he believes an innocent man meaning Kevin green is on death row for
00:40:09
something that he did and out of all the murders all the assaults all the horrible things he's
00:40:16
done that's what's been eating away at him for almost two decades that's the only thing that's been eating away at
00:40:23
him that's all not concerned about the women he killed or left fighting for their lives this man who was in prison
00:40:31
for something he didn't do and though to even be clear like it's not like he did
00:40:35
anything once he saw that Kevin had been arrested and convicted right this has been decades on now it's when he's
00:40:41
confronted but now at least he is finally telling something resembling the truth Gerald likely was the man that
00:40:48
Kevin saw by the van when he left the apartment that day because Gerald says after a night of drinking he parked his
00:40:54
van near The Greens Apartment Complex and he was walking past their apartment when he heard Kevin and Diana arguing
00:41:01
and then he heard a door slam he heard a car drive away so Gerald says that he went back out for a drink for what he
00:41:09
thinks was an hour before coming back to the apartment now this is where like things don't totally add up because we
00:41:16
know that Kevin was only gone for like 20 minutes so the timeline is weird but Gerald does admit that he was high
00:41:23
during all of the murders so my only thought is that maybe what felt like an hour to him was 20 minutes or he even
00:41:28
got that wrong because I don't even know how he'd have time to go and come back anyway someone's timeline isn't quite
00:41:33
adding up but Gerald says he comes back to the apartment at some point and by that time he had gotten in the habit of
00:41:39
just checking if doors or windows were unlocked and Kevin remember had left that kitchen door unlocked so he says he
00:41:46
picks up a board like some kind of 2x4 piece of plywood that he found outside he went inside to where he found Diana
00:41:53
in the bedroom and he says that she actually like when he when when he walks in she like sits up in bed and like
00:41:59
stared at him before laying back down and Gerald says he thinks Diana this is why she thought it was Kevin she like
00:42:08
didn't realize it wasn't him I don't know if he was like backlit or something and like put the pieces together if
00:42:12
someone's in my room it's got to be Kevin yeah the guy that just like left and came back but as soon as she like
00:42:17
gets up lays back down Gerald says he rushed at her with the board striking her in the head before sexually
00:42:23
assaulting her so hold up Kevin has been telling the truth that this whole time yes he's telling the truth about
00:42:31
not being the one who attacked her okay the thing is like there's no version of Kevin's story that he's ever told where
00:42:40
him and Diana fight before he leaves but like that seems like that's what happened right like based on what
00:42:47
neighbors heard based on Diana's own account based even on what Gerald said that he witnessed do they ever try to
00:42:53
say that Kevin hired Gerald no I think they just take Gerald his word when he says that him and Kevin didn't know each
00:42:59
other and I mean after all this time like Gerald has never said that and it would have helped him right to say that
00:43:04
right and listen while it might be easy for someone to argue with this confession of a man who is a serial
00:43:10
killer like what you can't argue with is DNA and luckily the sexual assault test
00:43:16
kit that was done in Diana's case has not been thrown out yet and it hadn't been ever tested for DNA remember just a
00:43:23
blood type right cuz it was back in like the late 70s yeah and in another just like weird coincidence Gerald and Kevin
00:43:29
have the same blood type but PCR tests confirmed that the DNA was Gerald's not Kevin's and just so like we're on the
00:43:39
same page these tests that prove that Kevin didn't attack Diana that Kevin wasn't the one who killed their daughter
00:43:47
those by this point had been available for like 12 of the 16 years he'd been in prison and did Kevin's defense ever try
00:43:53
to get these tested before Kevin said they tried he said they reached out to or he did at one point reached out to a
00:43:59
lawyer who was like one of the first in California to successfully defend a client using DNA but it wasn't feasible
00:44:06
that lawyer wanted like 10 grand to just look into whether there was DNA to test
00:44:11
and then like another 10 grand to actually do the test which he just didn't have but now all in all Police
00:44:18
use DNA to tie Gerald to seven bedroom Basher cases including five murders besid Shan Talmer
00:44:27
those are Sandra fry Kimberly Rollins Marilyn Carlton Deborah Kennedy and Deborah Senor and he's also identified
00:44:35
as a man who attacked a woman named Jane Pettingill who she's the one who is the
00:44:40
other Survivor who tried to describe him back in like 1979 to police but even though he's identified is that he's not
00:44:48
charged for that because the statute of limitations on that assault ran out which is always so wild to me that like
00:44:55
especially when the intent was to kill someone attemped murder like just because you failed like you get to
00:45:02
there's a there's a time limit on being able to be charg right so on June 20th 1996 this is nearly 16 years after Kevin
00:45:11
was sent to prison the New Evidence is brought in front of a judge and there a DA recommends that Kevin be declared
00:45:18
innocent the judge agrees with the recommendation and apologizes to Kevin for all the years he's lost to
00:45:25
imprisonment so finally Kevin's a free man but it takes time to sink in his ex-wife remembers him calling her from a
00:45:34
hotel terrified that police were going to send him back to prison like he can't even believe he's out now he has to
00:45:40
enter also a completely different world than he left I mean he spent almost half
00:45:46
his life behind bars but eventually the state of California passes a bill to compensate him $100 a day for each day
00:45:54
he served which comes out to about 600 $20,000 so when he leaves Kevin he flies to Salt Lake City then he goes to the
00:46:02
Midwest to reunite with his family to start over and finally he gets to be present for his daughter who goes on
00:46:09
actually to get a criminal justice degree and in most of the reporting that's where this story ends but Diana
00:46:17
told us that's not where it ended for her she tells the media how shocked she was by these Revelations I mean she's
00:46:25
like at the time struggling to reconcile her memories with Gerald's confession she ends up actually meeting with police
00:46:33
who show her a photo of Gerald but she has no idea who the guy is I honestly can't imagine how difficult that would
00:46:40
be to process like you said to reconcile what you feel like you know versus what
00:46:47
is known right and it has to feel I mean you went to trial you believe it in your
00:46:51
soul like something that happened to you and now she's like also in this place where she's having to like go through
00:46:59
that attack again and again trying to make sense of it but every time she's like sure she didn't mix up she is sure
00:47:07
she didn't remember another instance where Kevin had hurt her like he like had done so many times before so I mean
00:47:13
I'm sure someone was like oh maybe you're conflating this with something else and she's like no like I remember
00:47:17
what happened and as everything does slowly start to sink in police drop another bombshell they let her know that
00:47:27
Kevin has already been released so like as she's learning this she probably thinks he's like it's something that's
00:47:32
going to happen and she still has a sense of like safety or security as she's processing all this and then
00:47:36
that's just gone and then she has to jump into survival mode in an LA Times article by Renee Lynch and Dexter filk
00:47:42
and she says she is considering filing a restraining order against him at that point like that's truly just how scared
00:47:49
she was and she said like she kept I don't know like the way it was for her she kept calling police and like
00:47:56
asking them about specific details about the investigation like she's just keeps
00:48:01
trying to make things add up and she said finally police tell her like listen like we've told you everything like you
00:48:09
know what might be a good idea is for you to go straight to the source like maybe you should go talk to Gerald
00:48:16
before he goes on trial so they tell her to just talk to the serial killer who attacked her yeah and she does she goes
00:48:25
and talks to the serial killer who attacked her with her mom right by her side our world is full of natural
00:48:33
wonders but what happens when human Predators visit these Serene Landscapes with evil in
00:48:40
mind I'm taking you beyond the beauty of some of the most unique places on Earth
00:48:45
to explore the chilling stories that devastate these picturesque destinations because sometimes the most
00:48:52
beautiful places hide the darkest secrets listen to park Predators wherever you get your
00:49:00
podcasts Diana shared with us her mom Pat's super detailed handwritten account of that visit to Gerald which is dated
00:49:08
August 25th 1996 in a room divided by glass with one seat and a phone on one side and another
00:49:16
seat and phone on the other Gerald sat down across from Pat and Diana and Pat told Gerald that they wanted to confront
00:49:23
him and to get answers about what happened and according to this letter Gerald told them even more than they
00:49:30
expected he said that he was wandering around Diana's apartment complex when he heard Kevin and Diana arguing he didn't
00:49:36
know what caused the argument but he stood outside the window and watched Kevin and Diana and according to Pat's
00:49:43
account Gerald claimed that he couldn't make out what it was but that he saw Kevin reach over pick something up from
00:49:51
the dresser and hit Diana a few times did Gerald mention that in his original confession not that I could tell like we
00:49:59
weren't able to get the full transcript before the recording but Pat wrote that Gerald said when he went inside and he
00:50:06
found Diana she was like in this days remember this is when she like lifts her head looks at him before like flopping
00:50:13
back down and then the rest is what he told police but this meeting with Gerald is what reinforces Diana's belief that
00:50:21
Kevin hurt her before Gerald attacked her like in her mind both can still be true so while Diana leaves believing
00:50:30
that Gerald is responsible for attacking her she feels more convinced than ever that so did Kevin and it is incredibly
00:50:38
hard for her to wrap her head around the outpouring of public support that he's getting Diana and Kevin have never
00:50:46
spoken in the years since this Diana told us that he's never tried to reach out to apologize or to make amends and
00:50:55
she firmly believes that he does have something to apologize for it's the reason that she's never been able to
00:51:02
forgive him while she says she has been able to forgive Gerald because he at least
00:51:07
apologized Now Kevin told us that he never reached out to her because he doesn't want to make things harder for
00:51:12
her but things were already pretty freaking hard for her I mean lingering effects of her physical attack itself
00:51:19
aside now that Kevin has been exonerated the media all but blames Diana for his wrongful conviction
00:51:27
so after Kevin's convictions overturned his lawyers say in that LA Times article
00:51:31
that nothing Diana says should be believed because her testimony at Kevin's trial has proven that she's not
00:51:38
reliable but if there's one thing that this story has taught me it's that memory is a complicated thing no matter
00:51:44
if you've suffered a brain injury or not like for example A friend told police that Kevin said that the reason he went
00:51:50
out for that cheeseburger at the Jack In The Box was because Diana was craving one Diana remembers it that way too but
00:51:57
when Kevin talked to us he said that he'd never craved anything in his life like that cheeseburger and Kevin told us
00:52:03
he didn't drink anything the night of the attack but multiple Witnesses remember him drinking that day and again
00:52:08
clearly there was some fight that took place that night but that's never been part of Kevin's
00:52:13
story and is it memory or is it trying to change our memory to make the truth better for certain people easier
00:52:25
now just to be clear nobody ever believes that Kevin is responsible for the crime he was wrongfully convicted of
00:52:31
he has been completely cleared and and my by cleared I mean ultimately exonerated of it he was proven factually
00:52:37
innocent in a court of law Kevin claims that some police officers called Diana and her mom the crazy ladies when the
00:52:44
story like really went public and I've said it before we as Society are quick to write women off as crazy but while
00:52:51
Diana has had to work hard to communicate her thoughts she speaks powerfully when she refle
00:52:56
on what she went through and she does just that when she takes the stand again this time to testify against Gerald when
00:53:03
he goes to trial in 1998 for the murder of her daughter and the murders of five other Orange County women ones that his
00:53:11
DNA was tied to and in that case the jury deliberates for less than two hours before returning a verdict of guilty on
00:53:18
all six counts of first-degree murder with a recommendation of the death penalty Diana told us that she felt a
00:53:25
sense of relief when Gerald was convicted of her daughter's murder because he's where he should be in
00:53:31
prison where he can't hurt anyone else but she still says she wouldn't call it closure she said that when she got our
00:53:38
call about speaking about her perspective of this she felt some hope that maybe talking about it talking
00:53:45
about what she went through like the real full story of what she went through maybe that will bring closure I mean
00:53:51
since the attack her life at times has been difficult and frustrating when she was in high school English was her
00:53:57
favorite subject and before the attack she loved writing poetry to put her innermost thoughts to paper but since
00:54:03
then she has had to work hard to find the right words to even express herself even in everyday
00:54:09
conversations but she has also surprised herself she recovered better than she ever hoped that she would like she only
00:54:15
had I don't know if you know this a 10% chance of survival in the hospital and now she is like the pillar of support
00:54:22
for her friends she drives them to doctor's appointments and keeps busy and goes on vacation with her grandkids and
00:54:27
she raised her daughter from a place of hope and never a place of fear so she lived she lived and we asked Diana what
00:54:35
she wants crime junkies to take from her story and she told us that she hopes that we'll look at her case in a
00:54:41
different way than everyone has in the past that there is more to her story than people think and more to her than
00:54:48
what she survived and there's no doubt in my mind that no matter what happened that night in 1979 Diana is a survivor
00:54:56
that is who she is at her core she survived a volatile relationship a heinous attack by an evil stranger
00:55:03
waiting in the shadows and the death of a child I mean her world was turned upside down again and again and again
00:55:10
she is strong and she is never stopped living so if you crime Junkies you or someone you know are experiencing
00:55:18
domestic violence you can reach out to the National Domestic Violence Hotline and 1
00:55:23
1800799 safe we're also going to link link to more resources in our show [Music]
00:55:32
notes you can find all the source material for this episode on our website crime junky podcast.com and you can
00:55:38
follow us on Instagram at@ crimejunkiepodcast make sure you hit subscribe so you see all of our video
00:55:44
episodes but know that we do have new episodes every week in our RSS feed wherever you get podcasts
00:55:52
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