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hey weirdos I'm Elena I'm Ash and this is morbid [Music] yeah it is morbid in here it's it
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usually is yeah it's always very morbid it's your case so I'm sure it's pretty [ __ ] morbid this case is a really sad
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one it's gonna be in two parts because I want to do a little bit more to the second part and I think it's just a lot
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of information to take in okay um this is the murder of Denise Huber um I don't know if you guys have heard
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about you guys have probably heard about this case I remember hearing about it briefly but I didn't know the details
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that's pretty much where I'm at when I got into the details of it I was like holy [ __ ] this family I just want to
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like wrap my arms around this family because my goodness oh this is so senseless and
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so [ __ ] up I know like part of the end and I can't imagine what this family went through yeah I really can yeah and
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I've been in like this like I had to like step away from it and I didn't help myself because this will be coming out
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like weeks after this happened but like the whole submarine thing the missing submarine yes like we don't have to get
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too far into it but they just figured out that it was like a catastrophic implosion which is just like wild and
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I've been Super Hyper fixated on every detail of this thing just because it's like Fast the ocean is terrifying to me
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yeah and the Titanic is terrifying to me but so but so fascinating and it just took me on this ride of suddenly like
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starting to um starting to research like free diving as a competitive sport which I didn't
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know was a thing you're the randomest person yeah my brain goes into a lot of places once I start one place I can't I
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can't even make fun of you though because my brain is very is just chaotic in such a different way it's chaotic and
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like a very linear way like it just takes actually I don't know like It Goes Forth and then it's like but Branch off
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and go to this one yeah it's kind of connected and then from there which free diving is like you take a breath and you
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go down like 600 feet how is that possible I take a breath and I go to the deep end of the [ __ ] pool and I'm I'm
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not okay I just had to take a deep breath thinking about it I don't know if you just saw that I was like I literally
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just had and I couldn't my lung capacity could never no I feel like I also know what you're gonna say next and that
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makes me have to take a deeper breath yeah because then I got throat so once I started looking at free diving and I
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started becoming an expert on scuba diving and free diving because now I know everything uh I started rolling
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into because I got suddenly I came across something that was like oh have you heard of The Nutty putty cave
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incident and I was like gut wrenching excuse me because I started looking into it I'm not gonna explain it to you here
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because I'm going to cover it in an episode because the Nutty putty cave incident and caves in general are a
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whole different set of nightmares to me caves no spelunking is not for me spelunking
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is a no for me dog but The Descent was a great movie but also seen it did not help my aversion to spelunking I don't
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want anything to help your aversion to it I hope you stay averse I mean it's probably it's the easiest thing to avoid
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I feel like so I think I'm okay like I don't think I'll ever accidentally spelunk but like no this really pushed
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me further away from it uh but yeah we I will definitely be covering that but I just wanted to let you guys in on what I
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have been like obsessively telling Ash and John about for days and Mikey bikey's also been privy to all of this I
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walked in the house this morning and John was like is she doing the same thing to you and I was like oh yeah okay
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oh yeah I was like you were you were gone for a while yesterday yes I I heard all of it yeah you're like oh I've heard
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everything he was like yeah I'm back now and here I heard and she doubled down on
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it so but I know you guys are the same way you've said that before that you I've heard people message they've
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messaged me before and been like I do the same but this was one of those cases that I'm
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about to cover the first part of that I could not stop digging into because it's
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awful oh no and we always say like these you know the the victims always you're like what the [ __ ] like they would have
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done so much in this world and Denise is one of those people that you were just like ah and it just makes it all the
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more true like a light snuffed out truly so I want to begin this whole thing by talking about Denise Huber Denise Huber
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was born November 22nd 1967 in Modesto California she was the oldest child of two children born to Dennis and lone
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Huber very quickly she displayed a love of learning and real real intelligence like
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when she wanted to learn something she absorbed it all it's kind of funny that you were just
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talking about that they kind of made me think of her because she seems like one of those people that just love to learn
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and would just eat up any kind of knowledge she could get and it's she didn't just eat it up she was able to
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absorb it and use it like she's just a really intelligent person and she also loved making everyone around her laugh
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and was really like from a tiny age and she was like a tiny little stand-up comic for the adults in her life stop
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that reminds me of one of yours yeah and she loved watching I Love Lucy and the Three Stooges and she would act out
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sketches from the show for her family and friends that's adorable I love that and she was adventurous too and in the
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early years together the Hubers lived in Fair Oaks which was a neighborhood in Sacramento and while living there she
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would usually bring her younger brother Jeff Along on her adventures around the neighborhood you know like things that
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kids do like searching for very treasure and all that kind of stuff yeah he later
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said my sister was kind of a tomboy when she was a kid that included her clothing
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right up until she went to college she always wore jeans and a t-shirt and she was very athletic really good at
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baseball oh cool she sounds like such a cool girl and in 1973 her father Dennis Huber accepted a new job as a mortgage
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officer with a bank in the San Fernando Valley so the family had to pack up and move they did this a lot because he
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would have to be moved a lot for his job okay so they moved five and a half hours
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south and that was to a neighborhood where they settled into a house in North fields which was a suburban community
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just outside of downtown LA now the Hubers were religious but not overly strict with their practice or
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beliefs um and they just believed in the like you know the the practice of it and
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Denise and Jeff went to school at Valley Presbyterian school where their mother actually worked as a teacher
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and Jeff later described this saying Denise did very well and I got passing marks we couldn't get away with very
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much with mom teaching there so Denise continued to excel in her schoolwork and she really took pride in it she took
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pride in being a good student and by the time Junior High rolled around she was actually really interested in literature
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and she just ate up books she loved to write she loved to read and she really fell in love with the work of James
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Harriet in particular and one of his Works was a book called All Creatures Great and Small and it was about animals
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yeah um and it actually inspired Denise to want to become a Veterinary veterinarian when she got older I love
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that now Denise eventually transferred to Los Angeles Baptist School in seventh grade and she stayed there until about
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the end of high school actually and according to her best friend in high school Andrea luden I believe it's
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pronounced Denise was still a tomboy through high school she never really got out of that face yeah and really started
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expressing more of her passions like nature she loved being outside hiking hell yeah and she loved Sports
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especially it sounds like she was so multifaceted she was that's the thing because when like when you see her she's
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like this cool tomboy girl yeah but she's like beautiful and like she has This brilliant smile she's really smart
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she's really funny she loves the outdoors she's in the school but she's also a bookworm like she hits everything
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on the list she does and she's a Sagittarius so it makes sense that she's like an adventurer and like like a
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Wanderer always wants to find new things there you go I think Sagittarius people
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are really cool yeah and she was also a star on the basketball and softball teams at school star player it honestly
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felt like she could Excel pretty effortlessly effortlessly at everything she tried but the reality is she also
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put in the hard work she sounds like Mandy stavic yeah she really does I was thinking that too and it's like she made
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it look effortless but it was just she she had natural abilities of course but she really worked hard for stuff yeah
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like she put in the work yeah and outside of school Denise also loved the ocean and swimming like speaking of the
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ocean which and she was a very strong swimmer yeah she had like really practiced at home they had a pool at
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home and she made sure she was like she was like I could swim across the ocean if I wanted yeah now shortly after she
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entered her senior year at high school at Los Angeles Baptist her dad Dennis actually his company wanted to transfer
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him to Richardson Texas which is a suburb of Dallas the move didn't really seem to bother
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her brother Jeff he was like whatever that's fine I'll move but Denise was devastated by the idea of moving away
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her senior year from her friends that sucks yeah and so the family disgusted amongst themselves and although they
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were not super comfortable with the idea or happy with it they eventually agreed
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to allow Denise to remain in California for her final year of high school and stay with a family friend who was the
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Claudia Moreland in her family they knew them through their Church okay so and they agreed like we will absolutely take
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her for the year that's amazing and like what good parents to like make that decision even though they weren't
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necessarily comfortable with it that's the thing I'm sure it was really hard on both sides to be away from each other
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yeah but like they they did what was best for the other person and like that that's cool that they were that they
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were able to like come to that decision and have that kind of like love and respect for each other that's the thing
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it's a total that seems like a respect thing it is like the parent like her parents respected her enough to be like
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I understand where you're coming from yeah and they came up with a solution and although it was hard and not ideal
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they went with it yeah and it worked out that's great it worked out because after
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she graduated she went to Texas and moved in with back with her family so like it all worked out
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um and so that just like kind of shows you what kind of family this is and what who these parents are and Denise then
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did two semesters at Junior College and then applied and garnered acceptance to Covenant College in Chattanooga
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Tennessee uh while there she met someone who would become a very close friend of hers Deb
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Debbie detar and Debbie later said about Denise it was very easy becoming friends
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with Denise because she had such a bubbly personality and everyone liked her oh and their closeness LED them to
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become roommates as well they were rarely seen without the other and she said whenever I needed her she would
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always be there well yeah she just sounds like a really [ __ ] awesome girl right it's just like damn like
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these are always the ones where you're just like I want to know you yeah like I want to know you more than like because
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of what happened to you exactly and like I'm pissed that the world yeah this is such a gross disgusting place so that
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yeah animals walk among exactly now after two years at Covenant College Denise went back to live with her family
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who by then had actually moved back to Newport Beach California because of another transfer for Dennis's company oh
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man that must have been really stressful I know and Denise had no trouble like falling right back into Southern
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California life sweet um but once settled there she didn't really know she she had wanted to be a veterinarian but
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right now she was kind of like I don't know on the fence I don't know if that's what I want to do she had a passion for
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Animals still in nature like she still loved all that yeah but she was like ah I don't know if I want to like make that
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my job yeah it's hard when you're 18 and people are like hey what do you want to
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be for the rest of your [ __ ] life like I have no idea and so she was just kind of trying to figure out what her
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purpose was so she had also been dating a young man named Stephen Horrocks and was just settling in so she enrolled at
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the University of California in Irvine to finish out her degree and she got a job as a waitress at the Old Spaghetti
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Factory oh I think that place is haunted I think it is yeah didn't we talk about that
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with M we did yeah and that's why we drink go listen and that's why we drink it I think we talked about the one in
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Canada I think we did you're right it was like an old train car or something yeah you're right this one is in Irvine
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um and she she continued working there until the summer of 1991. 1991 was the year that the Hubers would find their
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lives turned upside down on Sunday June 2nd 1991 Denise had tickets to see Morrissey perform oh so she's the
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coolest ever the coolest thing yeah and he was performing at um The Forum in Inglewood and she had gotten two tickets
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weeks earlier for her and Steven her boyfriend and unfortunately Stephen couldn't get out of work to go at the
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last second and although Denise was bummed of course she offered that because he was like give the ticket to
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someone else like yeah like someone else you to go so she offered the second ticket to a co-worker of hers named Rob
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Calvert she was friends with him like they got along really well and he was psyched to go with her and later
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actually said about her she was everyone's dream date and he said he knew they were just friends and that was
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fine with him but he was just happy they could hang out together what a compliment right like she was everyone's
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dream date what a nice thing to say and Denise picked Rob up at his apartment in
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Huntington Beach and they drove to the theater and they didn't want to pay for all the stuff inside of the venue
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because it's crazy expensive yeah so they just drank vodka and orange juice in the parking lot before going inside I
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got the amount of time it's called pre-gaming called pre-gaming and during the show Rob went and bought a 20-ounce
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beer for the two of them to share and now they had a fun like dancing singing having a great time yeah
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um and they didn't want the night to end after the concert was over they were like this is too much fun and now we
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gotta like download and like debrief about the concert you know you always have to do that oh absolutely because
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you're on such like a high yeah like we have to talk about everything like the ghost concert poor John after that I
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just debriefed him the entire way home and he was like I was there at home by myself after that and I was just it was
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a wild experience it was a wild thing very quiet you did and I was like turn it on again I was like I think I'm gonna
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queue up some Harry yeah but Denise found a restaurant in Long Beach and they stopped in for a couple more beers
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ended up staying till closing time just chatting hanging out eating some food just reliving a probably a great show
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and after the bar had closed to Denise drove Rob back home dropped him outside his apartment a little after 2 A.M okay
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the next day lone Huber her mom discovered that Denise had not returned home no so she was concerned and she
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called her friend Tammy Brown to ask if she knew where she was and Tammy called around to their friends including Rob
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Calvert and none of them had seen or spoken to her since the night before um obviously this was very distressing
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to her parents and now to her friends too right so later that evening Tammy actually decided her friend decided to
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retrace the route that Denise and Rob would have taken to get to and from the Forum in Inglewood wow what a good
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friend yeah and as she's doing this around 10 p.m Tammy came across Denise's 1984 Honda Accord
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yeah it was pulled off to the side of the road on the Corona del Mar freeway just before the Newport Beach exit oh I
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really hate that that's always so haunted just the car oh I hate it the car's tire was flat and there were skid
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marks where it appeared Denise had likely come to a sudden stop after kind of blowing a tire sure but there was no
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sign of Denise still being there at all so she was nowhere around and Tanny went
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right to the Huber home told them what she had found and they immediately called the police yeah so Costa Mesa
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police officers were dispatched to the scene where Denise's car was located and there wasn't really a lot to tell them
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what happened right the keys weren't there Denise's belongings weren't there in the car there was no sign of a
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struggle or anything of that nature that they could tell and looking around they
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saw that the area was well lit there was several emergency call boxes around like
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within walking distance oh wow so if an emergency had occurred there was really no reason Denise wouldn't have been able
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to like quickly and easily call for help right officers also noticed a large opening in like a chain link fence and
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it was bordering the freeway but it was behind like there was like a gravel slope that led down to the street
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okay out inside of this hole and basically you could have gone down there and gotten to several gas stations
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hotels restaurants like somewhere to get help oh wow okay so they looked at the whole scene and they were like something
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just feels off here like where is she what happened right so they were concerned that she didn't take any of
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these obvious Avenues available for help and then like just sat back at our car and so Days Later Police Captain Tom
00:17:48
Lazar actually told reporters we have feelings about these things and this one doesn't feel good oh no so that night
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they brought sniffer dogs like Bloodhounds and they were able to track Denise's scent several yards Beyond
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where her car stopped but then it just stopped suddenly okay to them this indicated that she most likely got into
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another vehicle and was taken away yep now as it turns out Denise was not the only woman to go missing in the area
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that day so shortly before Denise disappeared another woman had dropped her children
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off with her ex-husband and then just disappeared so the next idea was that Denise maybe ran away but almost
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immediately that idea was dismissed as highly unlikely and yeah it just seemed very unlikely that she would have run
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away there was really no reason there was no reason she didn't show that was like a pattern of behavior at
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all she wasn't fighting with her parents she wasn't you know like she had a boyfriend she had a life and clearly
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like she and her parents could talk about things if she didn't want to do something or go somewhere exactly we
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have evidence of that that's the thing and I think it's showcased really well with what happened in her senior year of
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high school it's like she obviously has a very open line of communication with them exactly and they respect her her
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thoughts and feelings so exactly um detective Ron Smith also agreed he told reporters later I guess it's possible
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but we don't see any despondency she seemed to be by all accounts a very reliable young woman steady in her
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employment like nobody was worried and detectives began investigating Denise's disappearance as a missing person's case
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but there was very little evidence to work with and almost no leads it was just a car with nothing really to tell
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you about anything they were able to trace her movements up until she pulled off the freeway but after that it was
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like she just went poof like vanished I just vanished without so scary yeah that's the thing it's like because
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usually you'll see something you know blood evidence like evidence of a struggle and something just anything but
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it's just her car something left behind even that like why'd she leave that behind yeah and it's like she had just
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dropped her friend off like he was like I didn't see anything wrong like nothing
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was awry and without anything else to go on investigators tried to actually post
00:20:05
a car near the area where Denise's car was discovered and the officer in this posted car just sat and wrote down
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license plate numbers of commuters okay that they saw and then they later contacted these people to see if they
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had seen anything the day that Denise went missing because they take that road smart so if they saw anything of note
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meanwhile Denise's parents started their own search campaign from their house in
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Newport Beach they were calling Denise's friends people she had known before people in different everywhere states to
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try to talk to them and see if they knew anything just try to and also just to try to get the word out felt like it's
00:20:43
going on and yeah to be almost missing be on the lookout for her I apologize if you can hear
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um a lawnmower in the background it will it will stop in a second but our neighbor is mowing they're lawn
00:20:59
they were just trying to get the word out that Denise was missing right just get eyes on what was happening so from
00:21:05
the moment that Denise was officially considered missing the investigators were very honest and upfront with the
00:21:11
Hubers about the likelihood of finding her oh that's so awful to have to hear that and to have to deliver that news
00:21:17
exactly but they refused to accept that any odds were against them in fact her dad Dennis Huber told reporters we have
00:21:24
put the pressure on and in the three weeks since Denise had disappeared her parents were working 24 7 to keep
00:21:32
everyone aware of this case calling television and radio shows raising remote reward money making and
00:21:40
distributing thousands of Flyers they were talking to people they were calling people they were like everything they
00:21:45
could do and after all their hard work they did make stuff happen Okay their commitment
00:21:50
to their daughter and her case got them featured on America's Most Wanted oh and
00:21:55
that's exactly where they needed to be the program started generating tips immediately and they actually as far
00:22:01
away as like Pennsylvania and New Hampshire but none of them really produced any leads the family also got a
00:22:07
lot of Psychics calling them and claiming to know where Denise was um Dennis is not was not super into that
00:22:13
part of it but he said I don't put too much stock in that but even though he didn't necessarily believe them he
00:22:20
always passed their information to the Costa Mesa police for follow-up because it was like although I don't put stock
00:22:26
in it who knows what if I didn't what if I what if I don't pass it on exactly so
00:22:31
any information could potentially be valuable and they recognize that the hubris were very aware of that and the
00:22:37
Huber is even convinced and this was really impressive they convinced the local chapter of the Adam Walsh Resource
00:22:43
Center to Aid in the search for Denise holy [ __ ] and the thing is this organ organization typically works on cases of
00:22:49
missing children right but in the case of Denise they were willing to make an exception and Denise was 23 years old oh
00:22:55
wow yeah and the center director Lynn day said she's still their daughter she's still their child
00:23:02
absolutely now the search continued throughout the summer and by September nothing was really coming up no
00:23:10
investigators were not close to finding Denise God that must have been the longest summer of their entire life even
00:23:15
after all they had done like the America's Most Wanted the Adam Walsh Resource Center like they did all the
00:23:22
right they put out all the Flyers they did the searches and they weren't finding anything it's like she just
00:23:27
disappeared it's so scary that that can happen it's so scary and the attempt to contact commuters on the Corona del Mar
00:23:34
freeway that produced several tips but according to detective Jack Archer quote all the ones we've got in they've either
00:23:41
been the wrong week or the wrong location because it's hard yeah I don't remember
00:23:46
any days that I'm driving I wouldn't be able to help we've said that before and the lack of New Leads any information
00:23:53
any anything moving forward was really discouraging for investigators who are becoming less and less hopeful of
00:24:00
finding Denise alive at this point detective Archer told reporters unfortunately that's what history has
00:24:06
shown but you can't give up hope we've got to keep working on everything if we're fortunate we'll find her
00:24:12
now the Huber's really kept hope alive that they would find Denise but they were also really disappointed with the
00:24:17
lack of progress that was happening I would think so alone her mother actually told the LA Times I know the police are
00:24:23
still working on things but nothing really solid has come up they are never really very specific about anything but
00:24:29
they do say they're working on leads and that's hard too because the Hubers aren't getting a lot of information or
00:24:35
communication because a lot of times victims families get shut out of these things yeah a lot of times
00:24:42
and by the Fall the Huber said I've actually managed to raise ten thousand dollars as a reward fund from private
00:24:48
donations wow the fact that they did that just like themselves is incredible and I mean her the story was in the news
00:24:55
it was on National programs like inside edition it was everywhere and even despite their best efforts leads were
00:25:04
nowhere to be found it's nowhere in early September Dennis actually had to return his job at the bank too but he
00:25:12
found it incredibly difficult how do you go back and just just had to go back and
00:25:17
do like just had to go back to regular life and alone actually said she was nowhere ready to return back to work she
00:25:24
told one reporter that she was quote just kind of existing taking one day at a time and surviving I exactly that's
00:25:31
the thing it's like how do you put your mind elsewhere and be able to perform like you did before at your job exactly
00:25:38
like nothing's important anymore no like nothing would feel important at all no everything would feel actually so much
00:25:45
less important and once it became October and the investigation had pretty much stalled at this point just hit a
00:25:51
wall yeah the Huber's hired a private detective named Logan Clark who they were hoping
00:25:58
that maybe just a different set of eyes could look at it from a different angle yeah a fresh set and the so the theory
00:26:04
that had developed from the investigators in the case was that Denise had pulled off the road when her
00:26:09
tire blew out and she was abducted by a stranger as she walked possibly to the call boxes
00:26:15
now this would account for why the dogs lost her scent right near her car but Logan Clark the um special the private
00:26:23
investigator he thought something totally different he said that Denise was not a victim of random circumstance
00:26:29
he said that she was abducted by someone she knew in his opinion and why did he think that he said he was she was
00:26:37
abducted somewhere other than where her car was found and he believed that she had been murdered and that her abductor
00:26:42
abandoned the car on the side of the road on the side of Corona del Mar freeway to throw investigators off the
00:26:49
trail and like slashed the tire yeah had like made it look like she had pulled off so that they he said he thinks that
00:26:56
they were making it look like this was the crime scene so they would only focus on this scene and never look somewhere
00:27:01
else I mean it kind of it does kind of seem that way now that you say that he was quoted as saying if it happens to be
00:27:06
the wrong scene of the crime they'll never solve it right now Logan Clark's theory was based on something that like
00:27:13
was a little tenuous he was based on a up in time between when Denise dropped Rob Calvert off at 205 a.m and the
00:27:20
earliest report of her car being seen by commuters on the freeway which is a little after 5 a.m that's like that's a
00:27:27
big window it was during that time Gap that he thought that Denise was abducted and murdered and then the car was dumped
00:27:33
on the freeway later to be found by Tammy Brown detectives said that they welcomed his
00:27:39
cooperation in the search but they stopped a little short of confirming any of his assertions okay Sergeant Ron
00:27:46
Smith told reporters my Approach is to not go chase theories but to concentrate on facts and keep an open mind to all
00:27:53
possibilities yeah I mean yeah that's the best thing you can do exactly now as the months went by leads were becoming
00:28:00
fewer and fewer at this point it was like this happened and then nothing after this Theory there was nothing to
00:28:06
back either one up and it was starting to look like less and less like they were going to find
00:28:11
Denise alive and at the one year anniversary of Denise's disappearance lone Huber said you want to keep that
00:28:17
hope although I feel realistically the chances are pretty slim well and after a year of constant endless searching media
00:28:26
appearances family and friends like helping everything they were still rallying around the Hubers and they were
00:28:32
still as determined as ever to find that they were not resting it's not like they
00:28:37
were just resting and being like well we haven't found her so we have to like just go back to our lives because you
00:28:41
can never go back to your life they were going back to their responsibilities as
00:28:45
best as they could but they were dead setup this was their main focus and Denise's co-worker actually said as long
00:28:52
as you don't know you can't say that a person is dead but it's like giving up if we say Denise isn't alive
00:28:58
so Costa Mesa detectives kept pursuing any of the now fewer and fewer leads that
00:29:05
were just trickling in at this point but he was really getting tough because they
00:29:09
were hitting a lot of dead ends each time and in disappearances like Denise's there's usually some evidence if there
00:29:16
is a homicide or like sometimes as an attempt to extort the family for money or just anything
00:29:23
it's just virtually no evidence in this it's like banished and that must have been maddening for her truly
00:29:31
one thing just something anything but Sergeant Ron Smith remained committed to finding Denise and remained committed to
00:29:39
the idea that she didn't disappear voluntarily he was like that because people kept going back to that that must
00:29:44
have been so frustrating especially when you know your child yeah and you know your family member that's the thing and
00:29:50
luckily this guy Sergeant rone Smith said everyone pretty much sees her as an innocent victim in this there's a high
00:29:56
emotional involvement on the part of detectives yeah so for his part the private investigator Logan Clark and his
00:30:02
team of private investigators kind of gave up at this point oh so they were on this for very long their theory that
00:30:09
Denise was abducted and probably killed by acquaintances um was also connected to them saying
00:30:16
that he she was probably killed by acquaintances in the rock music industry okay so it's giving like the devil made
00:30:24
me do it it's giving the like rock music made someone murder her yeah I don't think so I don't usually think that's
00:30:30
the case strangely they were never able to bring any supporting evidence for this Theory so he just turned the case
00:30:37
back over to detectives and was like I'm good that's the thing because I was like
00:30:40
well what makes him think it was someone she knew like what is telling you that I
00:30:44
think it was to be honest and I'm this is just me speculating I think it was like he was looking at what the police
00:30:49
were doing and saying what is the exact opposite because we haven't looked at that side yet which I guess can be a
00:30:54
good time I think it's a good day you might as well look at it exactly and he did I guess he's doing the right thing
00:30:58
by saying I have no evidence to support this so I should just hand it back over yeah you know but later during the trial
00:31:04
his theory which again relied very heavily on that time gap of two to five a.m it was further undermined because a
00:31:12
newspaper delivery person testified that she saw Denise's car on the side of the
00:31:16
road at 2 25 a.m oh wow so she went missing very closely 20 minutes after dropping him off yeah and you made him
00:31:24
sound like he was good so so as one year turned into two the leads had become basically nothing they weren't even
00:31:33
coming in at this point no tips nothing it was really becoming inactive and that's the sad thing like these cases
00:31:38
take up so much like media attention right away and then like fizzle out and then it's like everybody and then people
00:31:44
forget and that's like but the family does that the family the family lives with it every day right and to make
00:31:50
matters worse in the fall of 1992 lone Huber was diagnosed with breast cancer oh my God and had to undergo very
00:31:58
aggressive treatment for it she told the LA Times whatever is going to happen to
00:32:02
me is going to happen and she said of the breast cancer in comparison to what we've been through it's no major thing
00:32:08
she must have just felt like life was just knocking her over and over again and it was it was a tough journey and
00:32:14
she found herself it was an emotional toll that was a very harsh reminder that their beloved daughter Denise was not
00:32:21
there for this like was not there to be an emotional like a certain a comfort you know and her kind and loving voice
00:32:29
was silent and something like this made it even more apparent because they said she was she made people feel better like
00:32:36
I wanted her there to make me feel better I mean she was a caretaker she wanted to be a veterinarian and lone
00:32:40
said as time goes on I realized Denise is probably not alive just to know and not have to wonder constantly wonder
00:32:47
what happened would be easier to handle than this mystery yeah because your mind
00:32:51
fills in the blanks with the worst exactly I was just gonna say our minds are the scariest thing we have
00:32:56
unfortunately in this case the reality is probably worse than what her mind could come up with oh God now more than
00:33:03
a year after this would pass but for the mystery of Denise's disappearance would
00:33:07
be brought to light and the story was more heartbreaking and bizarre than anyone could have imagined
00:33:14
now on a hot afternoon in early July Elaine canalia and Jack Court had an appointment with a man named John who
00:33:22
was supposed to be selling them some paint color and that they'd hoped to resell through their paint manufacturing
00:33:26
business random so they drove out to a new housing development in Dewey Arizona to meet him for this paint
00:33:33
Elaine had actually met John several weeks earlier at an outdoor market and that's when they like got to talking and
00:33:40
he told them that he had some product back at his house that he wanted to get rid of and if they were interested in
00:33:46
coming by to see it he had it for sale this is just what they did like you know history so sketchy and when they reached
00:33:53
John's house Elaine immediately questioned her decision to come out that far to buy something from this man yeah
00:33:59
there wasn't anything specific she said that made her like a little uneasy just a gut feeling she said it was just a
00:34:05
weird feeling that something about the situation was off but always listen to your guts but they carried on and when
00:34:10
they got there John led the couple back to the back of the house where he had a large Rider Truck rent like a rider
00:34:16
rental truck parked out back and it was covered a little bit by a blue tarp creepy and around it were unlabeled
00:34:23
paint cans and they noticed that there was also an extension cord running from the back of
00:34:29
the truck into the house so immediately they were freaked out they were like this is just a little
00:34:35
[ __ ] weird but Elaine was like you know what let's let's get these [ __ ] paintings let's get them in the truck
00:34:40
let's leave right so they do and as they're pulling out of the driveway Elaine noticed that the rider truck had
00:34:46
what she originally thought were Massachusetts plates oh [ __ ] and although it was you know it was common
00:34:52
that a that a moving truck would have plates from out of state yeah renters have to return the vehicle to the
00:34:58
company when they're done with it that truck looked as though it had been there for several months huh she's like that
00:35:05
was not a new truck like that was sitting in that spot for a long time so like she's like did he steal that and I
00:35:10
guess when they got in there Jack said I'll bet the doggone thing is stolen and I guess he said it like very like off
00:35:17
the cuff right and apparently they had dealt with some theft recently so Elaine was like sensitive she was
00:35:23
like that causes a lot of stress and aggravation being a victim of theft so like I'm gonna help these people out so
00:35:29
she grabbed a piece of scrap paper and she jotted down the license plate number of the truck and any words that were on
00:35:35
the sides any numbers that's my [ __ ] girl right Elaine she took she took charge and she was like I'm going to
00:35:41
mention this to the authorities like I just want to make sure now once they were back at the warehouse in Phoenix
00:35:45
she dropped the paper on a desk and kind of forgot about it a little bit because
00:35:49
she went back to like working and all that but a few days later a friend of theirs who happened to be a detective
00:35:55
with the Phoenix police oh [ __ ] came in the store to buy some paint and suddenly
00:36:00
she was like oh and she gave the scrap paper to him and was like here's the license plate I think it might be stolen
00:36:05
if this is what breaks the [ __ ] case Elaine forever Elaine forever and just like how Kismet and insane and she
00:36:15
trusted that gut she said something's not right about this I'm going to write down the information maybe it's nothing
00:36:21
but maybe it's something proof and evidence that you should always trust your [ __ ] gut yeah so
00:36:28
Elaine passed the information to detective Steve Gregory who later followed up with the local writer agency
00:36:33
to see what was up with this now at first the agent at Ryder was like yeah I don't have any information about that
00:36:39
like I don't know what you're talking about so detective Gregory was like can you just double check if this is one of
00:36:45
yours so a few hours later the agent called back and said actually that vehicle had gone missing it was stolen
00:36:52
from Orange County California okay California uh-huh now for some reason he said the agent was like this
00:37:00
it apparently went unnoticed by writer at first like it wasn't reported stolen they just didn't know it was gone that's
00:37:07
kind of wild like a whole last truck Rider like what the [ __ ] you guys must have a lot of trucks but detective
00:37:12
Gregory reported the stolen vehicles to deputies at the County Sheriff's Office and Deputy Joe
00:37:18
um dgacomo I believe it's how you say it was dispatched to investigate the truck
00:37:23
and speak to the man named John who was the homeowner yeah so Deputy digiacomo drove her on the neighborhood
00:37:31
where the truck had been seen and eventually he saw one in the driveway but the vehicle had Maryland plates okay
00:37:38
and he was like huh I thought they were supposed to be Massachusetts so he was like I don't want to like unnecessarily
00:37:43
disturb a family if I don't need to so he called detective Gregory and like reiterated the information and he was
00:37:51
like and Gregory asked what we all probably are asking right now wasn't it possible that whoever stole the truck
00:37:57
had switched the plates so like that could also be possible yeah or she got it wrong like Maryland Massachusetts
00:38:03
yeah similar so did Giacomo was like yeah it's probably a pretty decent possibility because he was like should I
00:38:09
bother these people like you know this is it so he went to the property and he checked the VIN number on the truck and
00:38:14
it did match for the vehicle stolen in Orange County there you go now with another sheriff's deputy by his side to
00:38:20
Giacomo came up to the house and knocked on the door but no one came to the door
00:38:24
okay now he looked around the property and he was like huh they both thought that this could maybe be some kind of
00:38:31
like drug lab or some other like Hub of illegal activity because it was very run
00:38:36
down and covered in empty paint cans and a lot of debris it just to them it looked like there was something weird
00:38:42
going on here it's giving meth lab because they also didn't know like that he had anything to do with painting or
00:38:48
professional painting so they're like what is all this paint Cannon like paint thinner and [ __ ] right like so what are
00:38:54
all so the deputies got back up from the Dewey area narcotics team which is called pant who arrived at the house
00:39:04
around 1 15 in the afternoon and they found no evidence of drug-related chemicals or paraphernalia when they
00:39:09
went but the truck appeared as though it was there for months okay and the extension cord coming from the back of
00:39:16
it suggested that there was something weird going on in there yeah like what the [ __ ] is that about unfortunately the
00:39:22
back of the truck had a padlock on it as well so they needed to wait for a warrant to get into it [ __ ] now smartly
00:39:29
Deputy digiacomo had planned ahead I just had a feeling he was a smart guy I just kind of fell away by the time the
00:39:36
warrant arrived on the scene he already had a locksmith ready to remove the lock
00:39:40
from the door okay like sitting there with a thing of bolt cutters just waiting for the word to come through and
00:39:45
then he was like snip let's go inside the truck investigators found a large number of paint cans other Contracting
00:39:51
materials they followed that extension Accord and they found a large chest freezer pushed all the way back to the
00:39:58
back of the cab and it was on the freezer also had a padlock on it and there were tons of pieces of heavy tape
00:40:07
placed at the point where the lid met the top of the free at the bottom of the freezer that's [ __ ] that's not
00:40:13
suspicious at all and sorry is the chest one it's like the long one like horizontal one yeah gotcha so they
00:40:19
carefully removed the tape and Detective Mike Garcia opened the freezer immediately they were hit with the very
00:40:26
recognizable odor of Decay coming from something that had been wrapped in black garbage bags and placed in the freezer
00:40:32
oh my God the bags were covered in Frost and had kind of obscured whatever was in
00:40:37
there so detective Garcia gently reached inside and felt along the outside of the
00:40:42
bag before pulling his hand away and saying it feels like a human arm oh God now immediately additional officers in a
00:40:50
forensic team were called to the scene to help with this whole thing and while officers were trying to get anybody from
00:40:56
inside the home because they felt like somebody was in there and clearly not answering on purpose yeah others were
00:41:01
removing the contents of the freezer and cutting away the black garbage bags after opening the bags they
00:41:07
unfortunately revealed the nude body of Denise Huber no her hands were secured behind her back with metal handcuffs oh
00:41:14
my God would the body removed from the freezer they could also see what was quote apparently Frozen blood body
00:41:20
fluids and ice crystals on the floor of the freezer the Frozen fluids and lack of any blood spatter anywhere else they
00:41:27
could see suggested that whatever Happened Here happened somewhere else and she was placed in here right kind of
00:41:34
later after she was killed okay also Denise's body did show some signs of decomposition which indicated that
00:41:42
she had been dead for at least a few hours before she was placed in the freezer and the truck and all of its
00:41:47
contents were towed to a forensic lab in Phoenix and Denise's body was taken to the medical examiner's office for
00:41:53
autopsy and she'd been missing for years at this point she was in that freezer this was three years at this point what
00:42:00
the [ __ ] is this person keeping her in a freezer for three years so they did come
00:42:05
to the conclusion that no one was inside the house at the time and so they went next door to talk to the neighbors and
00:42:11
they confirmed that the truck had shown up about six months earlier okay and while they had seen a man going in and
00:42:17
outside of the house they didn't know his name so officers ran the plates on the white Dodge parked alongside the
00:42:23
Ryder truck and it belonged to John fomalaro okay just as they received that information
00:42:30
John pulled into the house in a jeep [ __ ] himself oh yeah and a Jeep driven by his mother
00:42:38
and he was immediately placed under arrest for felony theft of the truck which would be enough to hold him while
00:42:45
they investigated the unidentified at this point body found in the freezer oh my God and that's where we're gonna
00:42:52
leave you for part one you're [ __ ] up I would like to tell you that part two is I mean this is very disturbing
00:42:59
anyways but we're going to go into the autopsy stuff and what happened to me Denise's [ __ ] awful
00:43:06
so and it doesn't seem like she knows this person no so we will be getting to that and stay
00:43:15
tuned for part two and yeah this is a Davis this is a story it's not a real tough one I knew about the freezer but I
00:43:23
didn't know all the strange Logistics nope like why did it just show up there six months that's what
00:43:29
I uh the whole thing is like so upsetting and when you find out more about you know there's a lot of things
00:43:37
that were found in his house like he kept a lot of connections to this really like a lot of trophies a lot of yeah and
00:43:44
do we know can I ask is this the only person that we know that he's killed I think yeah I believe so wow yeah
00:43:52
what the [ __ ] okay well yeah we hope that you keep listening and we hope you keep it weird
00:44:01
I yeah not not that weird no nope that's that's beyond weird [Music]