00:00:01
I don't care what you did. And I'm sorry about what I did. Just please come home.
00:00:11
Please. [laughter] Just please. This is Joseph Paul Dewise and his deteriorating relationship with his wife
00:00:22
Lauren is slowly ruining his life. I'm driving and I'm crying. I I don't want to go without you. I'm
00:00:34
sorry. I will do better. I promise. Over the years, Lauren had lost her feelings for Paul. But Paul's love for
00:00:44
her had only grown [music] stronger. And to cope with slowly losing the love of his life, Paul turned to drinking,
00:00:52
sending his mental state into a downward spiral. his love for Lauren would turn into hatred. And
00:01:01
all of a sudden, you're like, "Oh, I'm just an innocent victim now. Why don't you attack me in front of the
00:01:07
camera? Why don't you talk to me like you did a minute ago?" And that's what this is about.
00:01:14
And I'm angry and it's hard for me to live with. Paul could only bear the pain for so
00:01:20
long. His complex emotions turned into [music] obsession, leading him to stalk Lauren, where he soon discovered she was
00:01:28
going on dates with other men. Eventually, enough was enough. [snorts] Good night, Lauren. I hope you sleep
00:01:35
well. On the night of January 7th, 2018, Lauren Dewise would be found dead in her
00:01:43
bedroom. It was confirmed that Paul was responsible. Uh, I live at 1308. That's a next door
00:01:50
neighbor. She just came over in Paris and said somebody shot her roommate. What makes this case specifically so
00:01:57
interesting is that Paul recorded his entire mental downfall from the start of his issues with Lauren all the way to
00:02:04
the tragic end. For the past 6 months, I've worked with a handful of police stations, district attorneys, and news
00:02:11
networks to gather [music] the entire recorded life of Joseph Paul Dewise. This is his full story.
00:02:32
This was a letter to Lauren written by Paul on July 24th, 2017. It indicates the first real sign of Paul and Lauren's
00:02:40
relationship problems, but also Paul's [music] dark tendency of self-hatred. I have no excuse for what happened last
00:02:48
night. I am a very bad person for you right now. I hate myself. I do not deserve you. I have no reason to be
00:02:56
loved by you or the kids. I ruin everything. You deserve someone way better than me." Paul wrote this letter
00:03:03
just hours after a heated argument with Lauren where he lost his temper and screamed at her all in front of their
00:03:10
three children. This was likely one of many arguments that took place in the home because after this incident, Lauren
00:03:18
would leave their home, stating, "I'll only return for the kids." Looking at the letter, it's clear that
00:03:26
Paul felt immense guilt for screaming in front of his children, perhaps even more
00:03:31
than most would. And there's a very good reason for that. In his journal, Paul would often write
00:03:38
about growing up in an abusive household. In one entry, he described walking in on his father, screaming and
00:03:45
choking his mother, her face [music] turning purple from the strangulation. Perhaps Paul felt he had followed in his
00:03:52
father's footsteps by becoming aggressive towards Lauren in front of their children, something that likely
00:03:57
embarrassed him. But instead of apologizing for his outburst, he chose a different path. He would begin
00:04:04
manipulating his children, convincing them that he had done nothing wrong, even going as far as recording these
00:04:11
statements to show Lauren later on. How do you feel about what happened with Lauren?
00:04:16
I'm angry and sad and I don't know. I'm upset. I'm mad. I don't understand. It's overwhelming. Um, the only damage
00:04:30
that I feel that has been done by um is [music] honestly Lauren. I mean, everything was fine until [music] she
00:04:39
decided that she wanted to do what she did. Was it my fault? Was I a bad husband to
00:04:43
Lauren? No. Are you glad it's just going to be me, you, Jill, and Emma now? Why?
00:04:55
because mama moved away. Yep. Lauren had moved out of the house and Paul's attempts at manipulation only
00:05:04
pushed her further away. In turn, his abandonment issues worsened, spiraling into paranoia over the thought of Lauren
00:05:12
falling in love with someone else. There are numerous examples of Paul's paranoia, but certain examples are
00:05:20
particularly notable. One thing Paul would consistently do over these years was send relentless barges of text
00:05:26
messages. They would usually start out in a calm, collected way. I respected you and so did the community. Now you
00:05:34
are someone else. You aren't building love in the family anymore. Mostly insecurity and frustration and sadness.
00:05:42
But would quickly spiral into unintelligible rants of self-hatred and aggressive accusations.
00:05:49
Now I am depressed again. How can you not care? How can you make me deal with this by myself? Why won't you save us?
00:05:56
I'm sick again and my counselor had to cancel. I am a pathetic piece of crap now.
00:06:04
I am completely alone. My life is ruined. My money is gone. My body is broken. My wife doesn't care about me
00:06:11
except to hurt me. You are abusive. You You I'm crazy now. Great job. always ending with some type of accusatory
00:06:20
comment, likely to make Lauren feel guilt over not being there for him. Another thing he would regularly do was
00:06:26
contact people in Lauren's life. One notable example would be towards Lauren's female coworker, who Paul
00:06:32
suspected to be bisexual. I would appreciate it if you would stay away from my wife. You are not a good
00:06:39
influence for her and she is acting like a single woman. I don't not trust you as
00:06:44
I reached out to you and you ignored me. My wife needs familyoriented friends, not friends that married people [music]
00:06:50
and aren't friends enough to help in crisis. Paul's messages to Lauren and her friends continued for months, growing
00:06:57
increasingly emotional over time. But Lauren would rarely respond. Reading his diaries, it's clear this deeply upset
00:07:05
Paul. He felt like he was losing the woman he loved. Desperate for a reaction, he soon turned to sending her
00:07:13
videos instead, hoping that would finally grab her attention. I don't care what you did, and I'm sorry
00:07:20
about what I did. Just please come home. [laughter] I don't want to I don't want
00:07:27
to rest by myself. And I love you. Please, just [ __ ] please. [snorts] Please. I work two jobs. I won't do anything. I
00:07:48
won't be here. I'll be working all the time. Just come home. Please. Please come home.
00:07:56
I'm sorry. I Sorry. I was so angry. I have a new perspective now. Paul's emotional swings indicate a deep
00:08:06
fear of abandonment, likely stemming from his childhood. With Lauren, he was angry and controlling. Without her, he
00:08:14
was desperate [music] and self-pittitying. When she responded, it would briefly ease his distress, but
00:08:20
unfortunately for Paul, Lauren would [music] stop responding altogether. On November 14th, Paul's worst fears of
00:08:31
abandonment would come true. He would discover clues that Lauren had started going out again. And later that same
00:08:39
week, he signed up for VSync GPS tracking services and registered her phone to the system. Paul would start
00:08:46
stalking her. He would take pictures [music] of Lauren and the various bars she would go to and store them away to
00:08:53
confront her with later. But on November 14th, things took a dark turn when, while stalking her, Paul
00:09:01
discovered Lauren in her car with a c-orker named Kevin making out. It seemed to confirm his deep fear of being
00:09:10
abandoned as he stood there watching it all unfold. Kevin would eventually leave
00:09:16
the vehicle, allowing Paul to rush in and let Lauren know he saw everything that just happened. He'd pull out his
00:09:23
phone to record, but would only capture a few seconds. It was an accident. I'm sorry.
00:09:29
Paul would go on to take Lauren's phone, texting Kevin an array of angry messages. However, eventually Lauren
00:09:37
would escape the situation. Approximately 22 hours after this had taken place, Paul would find Lauren with
00:09:45
a different [music] man, Brian. The two were simply co-workers. But Paul wasn't going to take any chances. [music] So
00:09:52
again, he would go up to the car, this time confronting the man instead of Lauren. This man had absolutely no
00:09:59
intimate relationship with Lauren. So he retaliated against these claims, even punching Paul in the face.
00:10:17
There's another good-looking man. Paul was furious. However, instead of begging Lauren to get back together, he
00:10:26
would ask her to grab her final belongings from the house and never come back. This was a sharp distinction [music]
00:10:36
from the previous weeks and even months. It seemed like Paul's ongoing desperation for Lauren had bizarrely
00:10:44
turned into hatred. Lauren would oblige and go on to take her items from the house, but Paul
00:10:50
wouldn't [music] stop there. The next morning, he would take to Facebook, making a public post stating,
00:10:57
"Has anyone in Boseman not kissed my wife? Last night, I caught Lauren making out with this man in her car outside of
00:11:03
a bar. She is the best liar I have ever known." Paul had turned to retaliation and his
00:11:09
video recordings made that clear. Yes, I've been drinking. I'm having beer, but I'm not wasted. I'm very upset. I
00:11:19
put up the [ __ ] for years. I didn't realize it because I was blind. And that's what this is about.
00:11:27
And I'm angry. And my children are angry. My baby's angry. And it's hard for me to
00:11:35
live with. It's very difficult. It's all about shutting you down. But in Bosezeman, there's all these young
00:11:42
30somes with tons of money that Lauren's chasing. She loves that. And she's going
00:11:49
to step up from me and our family and get ahead. I'm angry. I don't want her to keep her job. I would like to protect
00:11:56
the community from her. I'm sure I'll be an outcast now because, you know, who tells the truth anymore, right?
00:12:04
Paul continued to bombard Lauren with texts, stalk her, and most of all, fuel his chronic alcoholism, which only
00:12:12
worsened his anger issues. At one point, even telling Lauren's friend at a local
00:12:17
bar, quote, "I've killed people before, and I'm not afraid to do it again." The final straw in Paul's downward
00:12:25
spiral came in an incident completely unrelated to Lauren. While out walking with his daughter, Paul would begin
00:12:32
threatening a homeowner who [music] his dogs were barking at him from behind a fence. When the man confronted him, an
00:12:38
enraged Paul pulled out a pocketk knife and stabbed him in the hip, and Paul would record the entire event.
00:12:46
Okay, we just got attacked by these people's dogs. This is my baby. Baby, did you
00:12:53
think that dog was going to get you? I did, too. And then this man attacked me behind the dog after this woman.
00:13:02
Baby, I'm sorry. I withdrew my line, my knife to defend myself against this man who took me down
00:13:11
with a single leg takedown. As a last resort, when my back was on the floor, I struck up with a knife. I struck the
00:13:19
man. You didn't put that knife. They pulled the dog away. Now the dog's gone. You okay, baby? Okay.
00:13:26
I'm so sorry. You stood here and antagonizing and see the dogs were still the aggression.
00:13:34
You stood here the dogs. Look at what you're doing to I'm blocking my baby from this woman.
00:13:41
Look what you're doing to This is the aggression these people have. They threatened us when we tried to walk
00:13:46
by. Are you crazy? Let's get out of here. Are you some type of driver? Are you crazy OR WHAT?
00:13:51
HEY, THE COPS are coming for you. You're crazy. You guys are going to be out of here.
00:13:56
I'm so glad you've been uncovered for what you are. You better chill the [ __ ] out.
00:14:02
That's right. I should. You kicked me and I PUT YOU ON THE GROUND. THAT'S RIGHT.
00:14:07
So that you can figure out what's going on. It's okay, baby. That's right. Don't run away.
00:14:13
Don't threaten me and [ __ ] come to my YARD AND [ __ ] DROP THE KNIFE. I DROPPED IT.
00:14:20
GET ON THE GROUND NOW. [screaming] DO NOT MOVE. It's okay. HAND BEHIND YOUR BACK. IT'S OKAY. HAND
00:14:28
BEHIND YOUR BACK. [screaming] DO NOT MOVE. It's okay, baby. Luckily for Paul, the homeowner had
00:14:35
technically put his hands on him first. So, the stabbing was considered self-defense. And while he would walk
00:14:41
away with no charges, this event would signify that Paul was not afraid of violence and in fact seemed to endorse
00:14:50
it. On January 6th, 2018, at 11:56 a.m., Paul would text Lauren inviting her over
00:14:59
for some soup. Lauren would never reply. At 3:36 p.m., Paul would text Lauren asking if they were still meeting for
00:15:07
tomorrow. Lauren would reply, "What for? I'd like to pick up my daughter and spend time with her." This seemed to
00:15:13
upset Paul, so he would go on his by this point usual rant to Lauren, sending messages such as, "I beg you, please
00:15:20
don't destroy us. I love you, and we'll do whatever it takes." Hours later, at 10:58 p.m., Lauren would reply, "No,
00:15:28
[music] thank you." A 2hour gap would proceed with no text messages between the two. However, Paul was completing
00:15:35
other tasks during this time. First, Paul can be seen on CCTV at the Town Pump gas station at 12:34 a.m.
00:15:45
Additionally, Paul would take a photo from his phone minutes after. While blurry, this photo shows Lauren's
00:15:52
current home in the distance, as well as a GPS tracking device inside the vehicle. Following this photo, Paul
00:15:58
would send a final text message saying, "I know I'm not supposed to text you now, but I can't sleep. Please, please,
00:16:04
please come home. I miss you and love you so much. Please, I love you. We all do. Please just come home. Please.
00:16:14
911. What's the address of your emergency? Uh Idaho Street, Belgrade. It's a next
00:16:18
door neighbor. She just came over in barracks and says somebody shot her roommate.
00:16:22
Should it just happen? Yeah, she said it just happened. She needs ambulance and police.
00:16:27
Okay. Where is the person that shot the neighbor? She who who shot who shot the guy's name
00:16:33
was Paul Dewise. The Paul Dewise is the one that shot the person. That's what she said. Yeah. She
00:16:38
said her roommate Ashley is the one that's still alive. Do we know where Paul is now?
00:16:42
She She doesn't know if he's still in the house. That's why she ran. Okay. All right. Is Ashley bleeding
00:16:47
seriously? Was she bleeding seriously? Yes. She said yes. Okay. Lauren and her roommate Ashley were shot
00:16:59
on the morning of January 6th. Their neighbors would hear the gunshot and rush to the home, finding what they saw
00:17:06
as a deceased Lauren and a severely wounded Ashley. Additionally, the neighbors would name Paul the Wise as
00:17:14
the shooter. Officers would waste no time and rush to the scene immediately. Where are we at?
00:17:24
What's going on? I I I walked over I stayed a friend last night and I just came in and I saw that my
00:17:32
back door had been broken in. So I went to the back and I could see footsteps in
00:17:36
the snow. So I ran up to my room to see if my roommate was okay. I have two roommates. One of them is dead and the
00:17:41
other one is in her room and she's still alive and she needs help. And I ran because I didn't know if he was still in
00:17:46
the house. Okay. So you you don't know if there's somebody else in the house. I don't think so. But I don't know.
00:17:51
Okay. She Lauren looks like she's been a while. Ashley said asked me for help and
00:17:55
I ran work the street. Is this door open? Yes. Okay. So, we have two people upstairs.
00:18:01
Is that what you're telling me? Okay. Thanks. Well, we don't know if there's anybody
00:18:04
else in the house. Is that correct? Okay. Ashley. Okay. One apparent dead, one still alive. She
00:18:13
said I ran out as soon as I saw that. I have no idea if there's still anybody else in there or not.
00:18:19
This is open. See any footprints in the snow leading up here? Okay. You ready? Yep.
00:18:25
BELGRADE POLICE. POLICE POLICE DEPARTMENT. ANYBODY INSIDE? COME OUT. I'M GOING THIS WAY.
00:18:31
OKAY. I got stairwell. Police. Where are you at? HOW MANY PEOPLE ARE INSIDE? WE'RE making
00:18:51
entry. How many people? Okay, we're coming. All right, PLEASE SHOW ME YOUR HANDS. We
00:19:05
got doors on the left and right. I'm in here. Police. Shoot me. Who shot you? No. PLEASE DON'T SHOOT ME.
00:19:24
I'm not going to shoot you. I'm behind you. We need medical in here now. Please don't shoot.
00:19:35
We're not going to shoot you, ma'am. MY NAME'S ASHLEY. ASHLEY, what's going on? Who shot you?
00:19:41
Nobody. Oh, what happened? I DON'T KNOW. PLEASE COME HERE. Who did? I hear the [screaming] police.
00:19:48
I'm the police right here. Where are you? I'm right here. CAN YOU SEE ME? WHERE ARE YOU?
00:19:53
I'm right here. Where? Ashley was temporarily blind with a bullet wound to the back of her head and
00:20:00
several others across her body. She had no idea where she was and [music] wasn't
00:20:05
even aware she had been shot. Are you the police? I'm the police. Yes. Show me your face then.
00:20:13
I'm right here. Can you see me? No. Can you see anything? No. No. No. Okay, ma'am. I'm right here. Can you
00:20:20
hear me? Where are you? I'm right here. Can you feel my hand? Shoot me. What? Don't shoot me.
00:20:26
I'm not going to shoot you. Where do you hurt? I don't hurt anywhere. You don't hurt anywhere?
00:20:31
No. Are you going to hurt me? No, I don't want to hurt you. Okay. Please help me.
00:20:41
We're going to help you, Ashley. Ashley was not in a communicative state at this point, making this about as
00:20:48
difficult a situation as you can get as a police officer. Regardless, this officer would do a heroic job of
00:20:54
remaining calm as he continued to talk to Ashley and ensure she stayed awake. Fortunately, medical staff arrived
00:21:00
quickly and Ashley would be rushed to the hospital. Whether or not she would survive remain to be seen, but the
00:21:07
officer can rest assured knowing that he did everything possible to keep her alive. The other victim, Lauren, would
00:21:14
be pronounced dead on the scene. While this is devastating, another problem still had to be solved and
00:21:22
solved fast as the shooter had not yet been located. Got the garage cleared. Yep, he cleared the garage.
00:21:31
We got tracks everywhere. Can you move that bed frame or the mattress? Got a man door. Can we go out that?
00:21:41
Yeah. Clear. We're clear. Is there tracks going over the top of the fence or anything?
00:21:52
No. Negative. How about this way? There's tracks going around that way. Okay. Is our gate open?
00:21:59
The house was clear, meaning whoever killed Lauren had fled immediately. And while he may have gotten away, several
00:22:06
clues would be left behind. The most obvious being a trail of bloody footprints leading from the east side of
00:22:12
the house over to the back door. At the time, this was a small, irrelevant detail. However, this would become one
00:22:19
of the leading pieces of evidence to solve the case later on. By nothing short of a miracle, Ashley would survive
00:22:26
the brutal attack. She would undergo multiple emergency surgeries, fracture treatments, and blood transfusions. This
00:22:33
was a blessing for not only Ashley and her family, but for the detectives working on the case. Because if Ashley
00:22:39
could recall what had happened and who shot her, solving this case would become a whole lot easier. But before we dive
00:22:46
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free trial. That's shipstation.com, code insanity. Now, let's get back to the video. So, after Ashley had briefly
00:23:55
recovered from her surgeries, detectives would sit down for a formal interview. The goal of the interview was to help
00:24:00
her recall crucial details about the incident by asking specific [music] targeted questions in hopes of
00:24:07
triggering memories that might have been buried [music] due to the trauma. So, obviously, you know, we're here to
00:24:12
talk to you. Yes, I do. And I know this is kind of a tough question, but can you tell me, do you
00:24:19
remember anything at all? When I got shot? Mhm. No. No. I do not remember being shot at all.
00:24:25
Well, yeah. You're, you know, you're a lucky doubt, but everything that I've heard, you know, you're a fighter.
00:24:30
It's a miracle I'm alive. I thank God every day. It's really a miracle. It is. The detective would continue asking
00:24:37
questions for another 30 minutes, but unfortunately, Ashley was unable to answer anything whatsoever. Again,
00:24:45
officers were left confused as to who this killer was and why this happened in the first place.
00:24:51
Due to the lack of physical evidence, detectives decided to talk to more witnesses in order to determine a
00:24:57
primary suspect. Audrea, the neighbor who called for help, had reported Paul as the potential killer during the 911
00:25:05
call. So, with this in mind, officers decided it was imperative to speak with Audrea to better understand why she
00:25:11
would make these claims, and she would waste no time letting officers in on Lauren's abusive relationship with Paul.
00:25:20
We went golfing once this summer. Okay. Well, she actually had worked out at my gym. I'm I'm a personal trainer at Big
00:25:25
Sky Barbell. And she had come in one day and I saw a bruise on her. And I remember saying, "Dude, what happened to
00:25:32
her leg?" And she said, "Oh, I just ran into something." And I said, "A 100 mph softball? What happened to your leg?"
00:25:40
She just dismissed it. Couple months later, we were golfing. And she said, they'd lived here about a year. And she
00:25:46
said, "I can't believe I've never told anybody this, but I think I need to leave Paul. He beats me all the time."
00:25:53
Mhm. And I used to contact me every day. And one day would be, "Thank you ruined my
00:25:59
life." to I can't believe you're [music] helping my wife to I'm so sorry. This is
00:26:04
all my fault. It has nothing to do with you. You did nothing. I mean, he's got a
00:26:08
schizophrenic chain of messages that I never responded to. Anyway, yesterday it's actually been
00:26:14
fairly cold. She went over to his house for the um heard their daughters. They have a three-year-old daughter. She
00:26:19
turned four on. Audrea was well aware Paul was an abusive and psychotic husband prior to
00:26:26
Lauren's death. Based on Audrea's claims, her suspicion of Paul's involvement would only grow stronger.
00:26:33
I left last night around 9:00. She had just gotten out of the bath and she had actually said something to me like, "I'm
00:26:39
just so happy here. I feel safer than I felt in years. And I remember leaving. [sighs and gasps]
00:26:45
I left around 9:30 and I got home this morning. I got home around 8. And when I walked in, I looked
00:26:53
down and the and my my back door frame, two pieces of wood were laying on the floor and I ran upstairs to see if
00:26:59
Lauren was okay. She was not okay. I I literally like well the door had been propelled and she always slipped with it
00:27:08
and it went I walked up and I could spear my I need to walk it all the way into her room. I just looked at her and
00:27:13
was like it looked immediately when I was there but I could I didn't even believe Ray went to gunshots because he
00:27:24
has like a [music] like a bicyclist pulled him and cut him off. I like got close to him in traffic once he pulled a
00:27:30
pedestal on bicycles. He pulled a pedestal on Lauren. He got banned from Airbnb. He pulled a
00:27:37
pistol Airbnb guess. Yeah. Based on Ashley's claims, Paul was not only an abuser, but also notoriously
00:27:46
threatened people with the same weapon used to kill Lauren. It was becoming more and more clear that Paul was who
00:27:53
detectives ultimately needed to speak with. Safely getting Paul to the police [music] station for questioning was
00:28:02
something that needed to be done with extreme precaution. Whoever killed Lauren was armed with a 22 caliber
00:28:08
pistol. And if Paul was responsible, a dangerous scenario could occur [music] if police contacted him directly. So, in
00:28:15
order to safely secure him, officers devised a complex plan for his arrest. Paul's house would be heavily surveyed
00:28:21
the day of the arrest. The moment Paul left his house, the surveillance team would notify the arrest team of his
00:28:27
direction of travel. In order [music] to leave his neighborhood, Paul would have
00:28:30
to exit either to the west on South 19th Avenue or east on South 3rd Avenue. Units would be blocking both streets and
00:28:38
a high-risk felony stop would be used to take Dewise into custody. With this plan, officers were granted an arrest
00:28:44
warrant for Paul and immediately the operation would go underway. At 9:00 a.m. the next day, Paul would
00:28:53
exit his house in his Chevrolet Suburban. He'd turn west onto South 19th Avenue, where an officer would be
00:28:59
waiting for him and quickly pull the vehicle over. [laughter] Go ahead, guy. Open up the
00:29:07
door. Both hands up. Okay, go ahead and get out. Get out. Put your hands up. Put your hands up.
00:29:21
Walk over here. Turn around. Look away from me. Walk backwards. Keep coming. Keep coming. Stop. Get on the ground.
00:29:32
Get on the ground. Do not move. Do you understand me? Take him to the back of my car. All
00:29:44
right. The plan had worked perfectly and Paul was quickly brought to the Boseman
00:29:56
Police Station for his first formal interrogation. At this point, Paul knows exactly why he's here. His wife had been
00:30:04
found murdered. He also knows that logically an innocent man wouldn't have that kind of information in the first
00:30:10
place. What makes this interrogation particularly interesting is that despite knowing this, Paul subconsciously steers
00:30:17
the conversation towards his wife. Hi, Paul. Yep. My name's Justin. I'm with the Belg
00:30:25
police department. Okay. Uh here. Remember, at this point, there has been no mention of Lauren whatsoever.
00:30:35
What do you do for work? Uh, I've been a stay-at-home dad for quite a while, man. Hardest job there is.
00:30:43
Had a couple accidents and I end up we end up switching roles and end up staying home.
00:30:48
Yeah. Yeah. We're going through transition right now, though. So, is that right?
00:30:53
Yeah. [clears throat] So, what kind of transition? Um, we're separated. Oh, yeah. And in fact, she was supposed to
00:31:00
get a baby today. So, it's it's been tough. I hurt my knee back in June and we had a lot of
00:31:07
problems since then and I had surgery in August and it's just it's just uh it caused a lot of problems.
00:31:14
The detectives still haven't mentioned Lauren. I've had a bunch of injuries in the last
00:31:18
few years and she's pissed off at me about that. Was it a workrelated What did you do
00:31:23
before you stayed at home? [clears throat] Um well I was a school teacher for 15
00:31:26
years. I taught science before I moved to Montana here. No, in Pensacola, Florida.
00:31:31
Oh, really? Mhm. Okay. So, I have a biology degree. Yeah. That's how my wife and I met.
00:31:36
Oh, really? Yeah. She was We both taught next door to each other. Yeah. She [snorts] liked my coffee. [laughter]
00:31:45
Once again, Paul brings up his wife unprompted. While this is interesting, it's not enough to serve as evidence.
00:31:52
So, the detectives decide it's time to apply more pressure. Um, so the reason that I wanted to talk to
00:32:02
you is there was some issues that happened uh over at Lauren's house last or this
00:32:07
morning and I just kind of wanted to touch base with you to see um if you were over there at all, if um
00:32:17
kind of where you were um this morning, that kind of thing. What happened? Well, um, someone broke into the back
00:32:29
door of her her place. And so, from what I understand, you guys were separated and working on a divorce. That's that's
00:32:39
kind of where we're at. Is she right? Well, uh, not not really. She hasn't. What happened?
00:32:51
Well, the the person that came in ended up shooting her, so she's dead. Yeah. So,
00:33:05
Oh my god. So that that's why we're talking to you because you guys are going through a
00:33:11
divorce and from what I understand and that's we need to kind of figure out what's going
00:33:19
on. This is new to me. I don't know anything about it. Well, let me let me just say right off
00:33:31
the bat, regardless of your relational issues, understand I love her. Lauren's very important to
00:33:37
you. I love her. And I'm so sorry that you're going through this right now. This is
00:33:44
[ __ ] If let's say for You think I did it. I didn't do it. We We got to We got to look at the big
00:33:53
Say you did it. I would never do anything. I'm asking you to give us any information that you can about anything,
00:33:59
whether it was you or not. It's hard to tell whether Paul is genuinely anxious over his wife's
00:34:05
passing or if he's simply putting on a convincing act, panicking, not over grief, but over the realization that the
00:34:11
detectives are closing in on him. Notably, Paul would quickly regain his composure and instead redirects the
00:34:18
[music] conversation towards Lauren, quickly painting himself as a victim of her actions. My hands are tingling.
00:34:25
And I've been having panic problems. I never had it before. Never. I didn't know what a real panic attack was like
00:34:31
just since you got here. No, since um since we started going through this crap, you know, it started
00:34:37
in like July. She's going through like a midlife crisis and you know, she's staying gone.
00:34:46
She's coming home late and drunk. Um I caught her cheating. Yeah. Two days in a row with two different
00:34:52
people in the car, you know. And uh and the second time I asked her to leave. While Paul may think that painting her
00:35:01
in a bad light is a smart move, in reality, it only establishes that he had a strong motive for revenge. At this
00:35:08
point, the detectives decide it's time to start constructing a timeline, hoping to pin Paul to a version of events they
00:35:14
can systematically dismantle. So, is there anything you can think of? Anything that would help us at all?
00:35:22
I can't think right now. Let's just start with a basic timeline. So start with let's say what you do during a
00:35:29
normal day yesterday was Saturday. Right. Right. So when you woke up, were your other
00:35:34
kids already awake? No. Were they all three still asleep or you said Jennifer? Jennifer woke me up.
00:35:40
Okay. But the teenagers were in bed. Mhm. That's what teenagers do. Yeah. Yeah. Um that's about it. Nothing exciting. I
00:35:51
mean, I was just in my chair all day. Okay. So, you didn't uh I [snorts] think you can
00:35:56
go to Walmart or go out to eat or anything like that? No. No trips outside? No. Didn't go anywhere.
00:36:03
The detective asks this question because they have CCTV footage placing Paul at a
00:36:08
gas station at 12:34 a.m. By outright denying that he left his home, it's clear that Paul is lying. However, when
00:36:16
detectives ask the question minutes later, Paul realizes they might be setting up a trap and changes his story.
00:36:23
So, if I'm understanding correctly, you didn't leave your house pretty much at all yesterday.
00:36:27
Mhm. Not last night. Certainly not after dinner. Mhm. What time do you think you went to bed?
00:36:35
Um gosh, it was late. Actually, it did go out. I went and got a six-ack of beer around midnight at uh Town Pong.
00:36:47
Going back to the timeline last night, you went to the town pump to get uh six pack
00:36:55
of beer. Mhm. And both of your oldest were still up. Mhm. And actually my son with me.
00:37:04
Oh, your son was okay. Um and you guys were gone for [music] from your house. That's what got to be 15 20
00:37:15
minutes maybe. That's like if you get the light maybe it's five times. The fact that Paul's son Joseph was with
00:37:24
him on that trip is actually a crucial detail. Detectives now have another potential key witness who can prove or
00:37:31
disprove Paul's movements that day. However, while this interview establishes that Paul has both a motive
00:37:37
and a timeline that aligns with Lauren's murder, it's not enough evidence for detectives to make an arrest. For now,
00:37:43
they have no choice but to let Paul go. While this is unfortunate and potentially dangerous, they were able to
00:37:51
obtain one of Paul's belongings, his iPhone. Quickly, officers discovered that Paul
00:37:57
was in fact at Lauren's house the day of the murder by locating a photo Paul took
00:38:02
in front of her house just hours before her death. By combining Paul's claim that he was with his son that night with
00:38:08
phone data placing him at Lauren's house, a crucial question can be made. Did Paul's son, Joseph, also go into
00:38:16
Lauren's house the night she was murdered? If what Paul said during the interrogation is true, then Joseph
00:38:22
should have been with Paul the entire night, which would include going to Lawrence house. This is a question that
00:38:28
detectives needed to solve and solve fast as both the potential suspects are roaming free and could cause further
00:38:35
damage if the case were to come to a standstill. So a few hours later, Paul's son, Joseph, would be brought to the
00:38:43
interrogation room. The plan for this interrogation was very straightforward. Simply get a timeline for where Joseph
00:38:49
was the day of his stepmom's death and see if Joseph will admit to him or at least his father going to Lauren's house
00:38:55
that night. Let's chat, man. Well, just see if all kinds of chair chatter out there. Uh, my name is Jeremy
00:39:06
Cop. I'm the detective sergeant for the sheriff's office. Okay. Obviously, you you know what happened to dad. Um, given
00:39:15
that, then I need to be able to sit down and be able to talk to you. Right. Right. Let's go to
00:39:26
Saturday and just walk me walk me through Saturday. Um, so Saturday, uh, I got up around
00:39:36
like maybe 12ish around 12. Is that kind of typical on a week? On the weekends or No,
00:39:44
usually get up around like 10:00 maybe. Okay. Okay. And then my daddy's not feeling the
00:39:49
best. So we don't [music] we usually would work on Saturday with all of them. Mhm. [clears throat]
00:39:53
We were wobbling in a trailer. Mhm. But um we are we were kind of sick and I didn't really feel like working here and
00:40:01
I was kind of run [music] down. Mhm. So we just we just hung out all day and we were up later than we we should have
00:40:07
been and then we stayed up for a while and then 12 came around and then me and my dad went on a beer run. We went I
00:40:17
went with him to the town pump. Okay. By Albertson's. Okay. And so he got a six-pack of Booty Ranger
00:40:27
of what? Blood what? IPA Booty Ranger. Voodoo Ranger. Okay. Joseph's timeline is almost identical to
00:40:35
that of both his father and sister who was also interviewed. This is troubling because the detective knows the story is
00:40:42
a lie. At some point during that time frame, Paul went to Lauren's house. That means someone isn't telling the truth.
00:40:50
The detective would notice this and pivot, starting to ask some more direct questions to Joseph.
00:40:56
Did you go? I just It wasn't because Yeah. Dang. You miss your dad quite a bit. Yeah.
00:41:03
Pretty tight. Yeah. So, we just Fair enough to say whatever we do, you know. Okay.
00:41:08
And then we came back to the house and then uh Natalie was up till around 11:00. I mean 1:00.
00:41:15
Okay. Baby went to sleep around like 7:30, 8. So, you don't recall hearing doors or
00:41:23
anything open when you go to bed, right? Nobody contacts you or anything. Okay. Despite the detectives tries, Joseph
00:41:34
doesn't seem to budge on his story. Additionally, the suspicion that he could have been implicated in Lauren's
00:41:39
murder at this point is fairly long-winded. So, the detective decides it's best to not confront Joseph any
00:41:46
further until more factual evidence can prove he's lying. Luckily, that evidence
00:41:52
wouldn't take long to present itself. Remember the bloody footprints found in the snow in Lauren's backyard? Well, a
00:42:01
few days after the initial interviews, detectives began analyzing the footprints to try and determine who they
00:42:07
could be from. Immediately, detectives noticed there were two shoe prints in the snow, one noticeably larger than the
00:42:15
other, meaning two people were implicated in Lauren's murder, one with bigger feet and one with smaller. When
00:42:22
the prints were further analyzed, they were confirmed to be from two different shoe models, the Walmart Interceptor
00:42:29
boots and the Merrill Reflex. And if we take a look at photos of Joseph taken from Paul's phone, we can see that
00:42:36
Joseph would commonly wear the Walmart Interceptor boots. Additionally, if we look at the CCTV from the Town Pump gas
00:42:44
station, we can see that Paul was wearing the Merrill Reflex. Paul had undoubtedly killed Lauren and Joseph had
00:42:52
come along with him. Detectives realized that Joseph was the key to all of this.
00:42:58
He had been there with his father when Lauren was killed, and now they were certain of it. In his last interview,
00:43:04
Joseph had stuck to the same timeline as his father. A timeline that investigators could now prove was a
00:43:11
complete lie. With this leverage, detectives believed that with the right amount of pressure,
00:43:17
they could break Joseph and force him to confess everything. Due to the intense nature of what
00:43:32
detectives are about to do, they would bring in Joseph's biological mother, Paul's ex-wife, to provide comfort,
00:43:38
hoping that her presence would further push him to finally tell the truth. Please, I hear you. Just tell the truth.
00:43:49
I did. just tell the truth. So, Joe, yesterday you and I um you and I kind of talked about what everybody had
00:44:10
done on Saturday. Well, I got our felt [music] like we gotish and dad and baby and Natalie were
00:44:23
already up. Mhm. And uh we were hanging in the living room. Daddy was in his chair. Dad was on the couch. Baby, she's
00:44:31
just whatever she was. As the interview progressed, Joseph's timeline remained largely consistent
00:44:38
with what he had stated the day before. The detective knew he wasn't getting the
00:44:42
full truth and that meant it was time to apply more pressure. That's pretty accurate to what you told
00:44:50
me yesterday. And I was hoping that today we could you and I could break through that and we could talk
00:45:01
about what actually happened. Because if I if I if I can't get you to be honest with me,
00:45:13
I I can't help you. But I'm not willing to give up on you. I think I think that we can get through it. I
00:45:25
can see the weight on you. And the only way I can help is if you and I are honest with each
00:45:35
other. [clears throat] Joe, I I can't I can't help I can't do anything if you and I aren't honest with each
00:45:47
other in here. Okay. Joe, please. Please, please, Joe. Okay. It seems to be working.
00:45:58
Slowly, Joseph's defenses are starting to crumble. At this point, all the detective can do is sit with him as the
00:46:05
reality of the situation closes in. Your dad took you. No, he didn't. [music] He wasn't alone.
00:46:18
Then he wasn't. I don't know. everyone. She goes, "I have no idea." [music] I had my boots on in my own house.
00:46:30
Joe, we've got to be honest with you. Completely honest with you. How [snorts] How did your boots [music]
00:46:40
that are at your residence? Those same prince end up at the crime scene. Joe, there's Be thoughtful. Be
00:46:48
truthful. I can't do anything if you and I can't be truthful. [music] Was it just your dad?
00:46:56
Say, son, Joe, come on, son. [music] Come on, man. Come on. Joe, I know you love your daddy, son.
00:47:07
Joe, [snorts] Joe, just come on. Come on, son. If you know something, just say it.
00:47:19
[snorts] So when when did he leave? Did he leave you? Did he he make you go? Is that why
00:47:30
[music] [snorts] did you go to Was it It was a before the beer. I meant to the beer. Sure.
00:47:40
Joe, help me understand. Help me understand that it was just him. Help me understand when he left. Help me
00:47:48
understand why I couldn't believe that you weren't there. Help me. Help me understand it. How far in the house did
00:47:55
you go? Did you just wait outside? No, I stayed in my house. Joe, why would he frame his own son?
00:48:07
[snorts] Why would he frame his own son, Joe? Your [snorts] boots are there. Help me.
00:48:20
Help me. Help me tell the story. Was it you or him? Tell me. It wasn't me. [snorts]
00:48:32
It was him. It was him. How do you know? He was what? He usually doesn't send me
00:48:42
to bed, but he us. So he sent you to bed. He said, "I love you, son." He doesn't usually use.
00:48:52
He said he loves your son. I didn't know he's going to do this. my sisters. I didn't know.
00:49:04
[snorts and laughter] The pressure had broken Joseph. After relentless questioning, he had finally
00:49:15
come clean about what transpired mere days earlier. Months later, when the detective recounted this moment with
00:49:22
Joseph, he would burst into tears, overcome by the weight of the situation. your mom just love you right now. Okay.
00:49:32
So, so it's your son. I'm sorry, baby. [laughter] My fault for letting you go. You couldn't be with me.
00:49:53
The detectives had what they wanted and there was nothing left to do but finally
00:49:58
wrap this case up. Paul's trial would be a long and drawn out process [music] stretching over 2
00:50:08
years after his arrest. During this time he remained in the Gallatin County Detention Center where he quickly became
00:50:14
a problem [music] inmate. On February 7th, roughly 1 month after his arrest, tensions escalated when Paul called out
00:50:21
another inmate. Buckley, accusing him of being a liar. Buckley responded with a warning. Don't [music] disrespect me
00:50:27
like that. But before he could say more, Paul threw a punch, hitting Buckley in the face and sparking a full-blown fist
00:50:34
fight. Paul would be charged [music] with assault following the fight, only adding to the array of charges against
00:50:39
him. Paul would eventually meet his fate on February 4th, 2020, nearly 2 years after his arrest.
00:50:47
[music] He'd be convicted of deliberate homicide, attempted deliberate homicide,
00:50:51
and tampering with evidence, and would be sentenced to 220 years in prison without the possibility of parole.