00:00:00
Sword and Scale contains adult themes and violence and is not intended for all audiences.
00:00:06
Listener discretion is advised. This woman needs immediate attention. Can you ask her where the male ran to, where he went?
00:00:17
I don't think this woman's going to have any idea where she went. Hello and welcome.
00:00:25
This is Season 10, Episode 242 of Sword and Scale. The show that reveals that the worst monsters are real.
00:00:48
Alright, you got me. You got me pissed off. You did it. You went and did it. You got me all pissed off.
00:00:55
I'm flustered, people. Listen, I know that figuring out how things work in the world is hard to do, especially for the dim-witted.
00:01:10
But let me explain something to you. I started this podcast 10 years ago when there were no other true crime podcasts at all, period.
00:01:21
I'm not about to start to listen to all of them to make sure they haven't covered a story we're about to cover before we cover it.
00:01:29
You get it? Do ya? Have you figured it out yet? No? At some point in your life, you may find yourself tested.
00:02:13
In storytelling, it's a call to action. It's when the hero finds themselves in a situation that could change their whole lives.
00:02:23
They could do nothing, ignore the situation and take the easy path, and everything would stay the same.
00:02:32
Or, they could take the hard path, overcome the situation, and set off on a hero's journey, culminating in a great triumph, forever altering the character.
00:02:44
But all too often, in our society, we find ourselves in situations such as this and take the easy path, letting unknown villains run rampant.
00:03:14
March 14, 2013, was a cloudy and cold day in Clay, New York, a city central in the state.
00:03:32
At 8 p.m., the sun had already set, and the waxing crescent moon had yet to rise.
00:03:40
Bill Craig found himself on an unfamiliar road. to a life-changing event. I can't tell you why I was on Verplank Road that night,
00:03:50
except for the fact that I took some back roads to go buy lottery tickets. I would have never, ever gone down that road to get to my home.
00:03:58
I would have went in front of the mall. On a whim, he took a different route home that evening.
00:04:04
While close to a major shopping center, Verplank Road was quite remote. And all of a sudden, something caught my eye on the side of the road.
00:04:12
It wasn't just something. It was someone. A young girl on the side of the road. She was underdressed considering it was 30 degree weather and there was snow on the ground.
00:04:26
My thoughts went from maybe someone set me up to stop to do something to myself,
00:04:32
or maybe there's been an accident, but the dots didn't connect. Something wasn't right.
00:04:39
As I stopped my car, I put it in park, I left it running and opened the door, and immediately after I opened that car door, things weren't right.
00:04:46
There was a young girl that was absolutely in hysterics on the side of the road.
00:04:52
Basically started calling 911. 911, Mandy, where is the emergency? Yes, I'm in Clay. I'm on, I don't even know.
00:05:04
There's a little girl tied up on the side of the road and a woman bleeding. Where are you guys? I need a location.
00:05:13
I understand, ma'am. I don't usually take this road. Bill had stumbled on a fresh crime scene.
00:05:20
the little girl running down the road was partially tied up and her mother collapsed
00:05:26
covered in blood nearby their car was stuck in the snow in a ditch i'm gonna stay on the phone
00:05:34
with you do you have them in your car now or are they still out no i just it's kind of a spooky
00:05:39
thing i'm trying to figure out what's going on here okay i'm showing you on verplank road and
00:05:44
that is the name of the road okay do you see any house numbers or anything by you i'm more towards
00:05:49
It's a cemetery. He couldn't be sure what was going on. The girl and the woman were obviously in distress and needed help but Bill had no idea why What going on
00:06:07
I'm on with 911. There's a woman out here. What kind of vehicle are you in, sir?
00:06:13
I'm in a white. Sir, you're going to stick around here? I'm going to get out. What kind of vehicle?
00:06:20
I'm in a white. I don't drive this. There's another gentleman here. There's a woman that is bleeding.
00:06:25
She may be dead. And there's a little girl tied up on the side of the road. She says somebody beat her.
00:06:32
If you couldn't make out what the little girl was yelling in the background, she said he strangled her and he hurt me.
00:06:40
He's not there. He's so much. Ask her what the address is where you are. There is no address, man.
00:06:47
Okay. And I'm not being short with you here. I'm sorry. No, no, that's fine. I completely understand.
00:06:51
We're more towards Bennett Road and Verplank. They said they've been carjacked. Bill was trying to figure out the nearest crossroad.
00:07:04
The little girl yelled, He's up there. He stole my car. That's when Bill realized this might not be over.
00:07:13
Luckily for this little girl, Bill was the perfect person to stumble upon a crime.
00:07:19
Yeah, I spent four years active duty with the United States Army in the Soldier Biological and Chemical Command.
00:07:26
This is one of the things that I used to do in the military is protect people. And it just, my training took over.
00:07:35
This little girl was scared and she didn't want to leave her mother. But now that Bill knew there may still be someone lurking nearby, he had to put her at ease to ensure her safety.
00:07:48
Honey, get in the car. No, ma'am, I'm not going to hurt you. I'm out with 911, okay, honey?
00:07:56
And this is the child that said this? We're not leaving your mom. I want you to get warm, honey.
00:08:02
Okay, you get in here, okay? Not knowing who or what or how many, I basically approached the young girl,
00:08:12
and my goal was to get her secure and safe. Understandably so. she was concerned about who was even approaching her. And I just kept trying, you know, I just,
00:08:26
I told her that I was a friend. I just kept repeating, I'm a friend, I'm a friend. And
00:08:33
after the first couple of times and she trusted me, I, and I don't know why, but she did. And basically what I did at that point is I secured her in my vehicle,
00:08:44
still on the phone with 911 this whole time. Yes, she should be scared. What's your mommy's name?
00:08:56
Lori Bresnaghan. Okay. Sir, can you see the mother at all? Can you see if she's breathing?
00:09:02
I'm going to check right now. Honey, I am a friend, okay? I'm not going to hurt you.
00:09:07
I'm going to close the door. We need people immediately because this guy could be on the loose here.
00:09:12
I do. I have everybody notified at this point. Can you pull back so I can get a light on her?
00:09:18
Now that the girl was safe, or as safe as he could make her, Bill needed to check on the mother.
00:09:25
Another passerby had already stopped to help. Bill instructed him to watch the little girl while he tried to help Lori.
00:09:32
Ma'am? Yeah, I'm here. Okay, she is breathing. She is breathing. Okay. Okay, how old does she look about, sir?
00:09:39
I'd say she's about 35, ma'am. Is she awake? Is she talking to you? She is talking to me. She's lost a lot of blood.
00:09:48
Can you tell where she's bleeding from? In her head. Were you stabbed, ma'am, or anything, or just beaten?
00:09:55
Just beaten. Does she know who did this to her? Do you know who did this to you? Did you know the man?
00:10:01
No. No. She said they were carjacked. Okay, you're doing good. You're doing super.
00:10:07
Just keep... There you go. Just keep... Stay with me, okay, honey? You're doing super.
00:10:12
Okay, ask her if she can give you a description of the guy who did this. Can you tell me what this guy looked like, ma'am?
00:10:20
Was he black? Was he white? Was he Hispanic? Lori Bresnahan lay on the side of the road, losing a lot of blood.
00:10:29
She was able to give Bill some info, but she was fading fast. Perhaps she didn't realize during the struggle
00:10:36
that the man was holding a knife and not simply beating her. or maybe she was already too far gone to convey that information.
00:10:47
Regardless, Bill tried to keep her awake even though he knew it was likely already too late.
00:10:56
There was too much damage. There was very little that could have been done. Before she lost consciousness, Bill swore to her
00:11:03
that he would keep the little girl safe. And that I would not let anybody touch her armor anymore.
00:11:09
and she was aware and cognizant of that before she passed. Lori was a librarian at a local elementary school.
00:11:19
She devoted herself to the betterment of children. She was unmarried but adopted the little girl
00:11:26
when she was about three months old from China. Needless to say, her little girl was her whole world.
00:11:34
I'll be honest with you. I think that, uh, I think Lori continued to fight for the little girl until she knew she
00:11:43
was safe. With police and first responders still on the way, Bill needed more information to help
00:11:50
catch who did this. Once again he directed the other man who stopped to stay with Lori while he talked to the little girl Sir will you stay with her I going to talk to the little girl I wasn leaving her side I stayed with her
00:12:07
I tried to comfort her. And also, I'm still on with 911. Through the attempt to give first aid to Lori,
00:12:17
now back into the vehicle with the little girl. Now training takes over again. two types. Daddy, trying to be a good father and comfort a scared little girl, but interweaving,
00:12:35
getting information from her about who, what, where, and when, what was going on.
00:12:41
You're doing really good, sweetie. I want you to go slow. Was you white? Was you black?
00:12:45
I was white. He was a white male. Do you remember about, was he my height? Probably.
00:12:50
About five times, ma'am. Okay, as soon as he was thin, medium, large belt? Was he a bit, was he heavy, was he skinny?
00:12:59
No, he was skinny. He was skinny. Okay, does she remember what he was wearing? So he had hair over his ears, honey?
00:13:09
Okay, I'm going to give her my jacket. Hold on, please. And he has glasses. He has glasses, okay.
00:13:16
As Bill asked the little girl questions, they quickly got the description of an average height, skinny white guy with hair over his ears who wears glasses.
00:13:46
Okay, he had a gun, ma'am. She said she was leaving her gymnastics class at the Great Northern Mall
00:13:55
when the man pulled out his gun and pushed his way into their car behind the little girl.
00:14:02
And he threatened to kill him. The guns were out and pointed at him. Okay, was it just one male asked them?
00:14:09
One person or two? One person with one gun. Can you ask for what he was wearing?
00:14:16
Do you remember what he was wearing? All black, a black jacket, maybe from sports authority.
00:14:27
Your mom's doing fine, sweetie, okay? It was then that the paramedics arrived, followed by the state police.
00:14:36
Are you serious, guys? Stay here. I can't believe we're going to pick up the little girl.
00:14:42
You got it. We're going to go back to the car. Yep. My name is Bill Craig. I found the code running at me.
00:14:52
Bill, it was your code. You got it. I'm going to pick up my code. All right, I got the deputy.
00:14:57
All right, I'm going to go ahead and let you go, okay? Okay. All right, sir, thank you.
00:15:02
Bye-bye. The police arrived and assessed the situation before pursuing the suspect.
00:15:08
Lori was clinging to life and wouldn't make it through the night. the culprit was still on the loose
00:15:16
but Bill had kept the little girl safe this whole ordeal however was far from over
00:15:43
Bill Craig stumbled upon Lori Bresnahan stabbed and bloody with her daughter on the side of a
00:16:05
rural road after sunset. The little girl's hands were bound behind her back. She claimed a man
00:16:13
stole their car at gunpoint and hurt them. Bill relayed as much information to 911 as he could get
00:16:20
from a wounded Lori and a traumatized little girl. Once the state police arrived, Bill felt a little
00:16:28
bit of relief, like the situation was out of his hands, but that's when he realized what the little
00:16:35
girl meant when she said, he hurt me. I know when I looked at the male paramedic that I asked to get
00:16:43
out, it was almost like sorrow. I mean, when I said, I think that she's been assaulted, it was
00:16:50
like, are you kidding me? Not only had this man forced his way into the Bresnahan's car brandishing
00:16:57
a gun and eventually stabbed Lori, but he had also sexually assaulted the little girl.
00:17:06
Trooper Jeff Sikora would be the first officer to arrive on the scene. He was another perfect
00:17:13
person to respond to such a tragedy. After 9-11, he went to Ground Zero to do his duty
00:17:20
and help. And when he learned that the little girl had been assaulted, he knew this was a
00:17:27
significant situation. Initially, I thought that the call, which came out as a carjacking,
00:17:36
sexual assault, and stabbing was a hoax. The information that we initially got just didn't
00:17:43
make sense. You know, that doesn't happen up here. It doesn't happen in our county.
00:17:47
The information was that there was a young victim, there were weapons, and there were injuries.
00:17:53
he rushed to the scene hoping it was just a hoax I rolled up right behind the first rescue rig ran around the truck and then I found Lori laying right about here She was bleeding heavily I got right down to her and
00:18:09
I asked her, who did this to you? And she's still conscious and breathing, and I know she's alive
00:18:15
and she's looking at me, but she just didn't have the strength to answer. That's when Trooper
00:18:20
Sikora met Bill. As silly as this may sound in a chaotic situation like that, I saw confidence in
00:18:28
his eyes and it made me feel that we're going to be okay. Bill tells me that there is a little,
00:18:35
there's a female victim and he tells me that she's been sexually assaulted. I said, okay,
00:18:42
where is she? And we opened his car door to find a little girl sitting in the back seat.
00:18:47
She's still bound behind her back. She was severely injured, but she was still able to tell me the details of her assault.
00:18:58
And she gave me a description of the suspect. She gave me a description of the weapons that were used.
00:19:04
He told me to stay with the girl and I wasn't leaving her anyways. so if he would have well i shouldn't say that if he if he would have told me to go i probably
00:19:16
wouldn't have or at least i would have resisted a little bit but i was not leaving her side she and i
00:19:20
in the in the small amount of time had developed a trust bond and um she didn't want me to leave her
00:19:32
side witness and protector bill stayed with the little girl as officers began to search for the
00:19:39
suspect, and paramedics tried to save Lori. The way he approached this scene, secured this scene, did an assessment of everything that was going on, and then was able to go ahead
00:19:56
and relay information and then hand off the information he had to another team member,
00:20:01
and then he led the pursuit in the woods. Officer Sikora just happened to be the canine officer in the area,
00:20:12
so he was primed to pursue the man into the woods at night. I was able to get my canine partner out,
00:20:18
along with Trooper House and Trooper Hunt and Deputy Joe Strom and Deputy Bloodgood.
00:20:25
They provided cover for me because we knew that this guy was still armed. We knew that this guy was desperate.
00:20:30
We knew what he was capable of. And I'm sure any one of these guys would tell you that we fully expected to be shot at that night.
00:20:38
Even with the assumption of danger, those officers felt the necessity for the suspect to answer for what he had done.
00:20:46
So the three officers took off into the woods. It's pitch black out here. We're using flashlights, so he knows we're coming.
00:20:54
We just don't know where he's at. We don't know if he's going to jump out and start shooting.
00:20:58
It's dark, and the officer can't see past the end of their flashlight beams, but the night is still, and the dog caught a scent immediately.
00:21:10
They tracked the man through the high brush, woods, and over a railroad. Occasionally, they could see footprints in the snow and mud, so they knew they were on the right track.
00:21:23
By this time, every police officer, deputy, and trooper is converging on the area.
00:21:31
We end up tracking through the woods, and then we come down Verplank Road. And as we're coming down, Investigator Darsine sees the subject running down the road,
00:21:41
at which point he turns around and follows him down Route 57. Not catching him wasn't an option.
00:21:49
we knew what he had done we knew what he was capable of and chances are he would do it again
00:21:56
so we knew how important it was to catch him so at this point as we come out into this field
00:22:01
not only is my dog right on the scent but now i can see some footprints in in some of the
00:22:08
uh mud and snow and whatnot and the footprints come right down to the mailbox that's right here in front of us
00:22:16
An officer in an unmarked police car saw a man matching the description, running down Route 57.
00:22:45
not far from Verplank Road. He turned around, raced back to the man, stopped the car blocking his way forward,
00:22:54
dived out of the vehicle and tackled him without incident. Other officers arrived quickly to find the man face down in the snow,
00:23:03
his hands cuffed behind his back. Are you walking behind you? No. Are you coming from?
00:23:11
We're coming down the road. The man was quiet and calm. Too calm for having just been slammed to the ground.
00:23:21
He claimed he was just coming from a friend's house down the road. It was an obvious lie, as he couldn't tell them where his friend's house was or where he was going.
00:23:32
Also, he fit the description given by the little girl to a tee, and even had scratches across his face.
00:23:39
Do you think anyone? No. Are you hurt? I love it. I'm not a service. I'm not a service.
00:23:46
I'm not a service. Did you get bit by a dog or scratch? I didn't scratch. I didn't scratch.
00:23:50
I didn't scratch. I didn't scratch. Did you get bit? Is that a bite? No. He didn't speak except monosyllabically to answer the question.
00:24:00
of officers. They searched him to find him empty-handed except for some car keys.
00:24:11
He was unarmed with no gun, no knife, no phone, no wallet, and no ID. if you couldn't hear what he said in that inordinate pause he said a friend's but they
00:24:41
were actually the keys to lorry's car he was caught red-handed but still he didn't want to
00:24:49
cooperate he refused to give the officers his name i'm pretty sure we talked before we met before
00:24:55
somewhere because i'm always in this area i've seen you before i don't know where maybe 57 but
00:24:59
I don't know. I don't recognize you. Sorry. Sir, are you going to give me a name or not going to give me a name?
00:25:06
His face was hard to forget. He kind of had a perpetual dumb look on his face, but it wasn't his fault.
00:25:15
He had a birth defect that left him with a rather large bump, or hump, on the right side of his face.
00:25:23
One of his eyes was noticeably lower than the other, and his mouth was, well, off-center.
00:25:31
In the back of the car, he barely spoke for a long time. He kind of answered questions, but none that were actually important,
00:25:40
like, what's your name? I mean, he knew that they knew what he had done. Let's use the alphabet. What's the first letter?
00:25:50
It's Y. David? David, was it uneasy? David, we'll show you my daughter. John. David John?
00:25:59
Yep. Sir, your last name? Renz. Spell that. R-E-N-A-N-T-E-Z-E-N-T-E-R. Finally, he gave them his name.
00:26:15
David John Renz. He was a 29-year-old man who lived with his mom. Why is that a common theme?
00:26:24
He was dressed in all black, he was light complected, and had hair down to his ears.
00:26:32
And he was skinny, but he differed from the original description in height. He was quite short, only about five foot four inches tall.
00:26:43
Also, he was clearly Asian, not white. But when officers showed a picture of him to the little girl, she began to sob.
00:26:52
She was sure it was the man who hurt her. You never got a rest before, right, sir?
00:26:59
Yes, I have. Hi, Lin-Wan. Can we have an emergency? Yes. I'm calling because I'm friends that my son is at home.
00:27:08
He has one of his, of course, he was supposed to be at 9 o'clock. He has one of those monitoring devices on his leg.
00:27:15
Can we track it? Can we find out where he is? Your name? Kathleen Wren. When Kathleen Renz got home from work, she was worried that her son wasn't already there.
00:27:50
His car was gone. His cell phone is still here. He has an anchor on him? Yes. He was arrested by FBI agents, so he's supposed to be home by 9 o'clock.
00:28:07
Did he get a house arrest? It's not really a house arrest. He can go wherever he wants, you know,
00:28:14
but he's not supposed to be within certain vicinities and stuff with kids and all that.
00:28:20
Not supposed to be in certain vicinities and stuff with kids and all that. This vague statement from his mother was an understatement.
00:28:32
Not only was David Renz prohibited from being around kids, he had to quit his job at a local grocery store because kids were sometimes customers,
00:28:42
and his computer usage was monitored by federal software. You see, he had been arrested in January of that year by the FBI for, you guessed it, child pornography.
00:28:56
He was released to await trial after two days in custody. The only thing keeping him honest was a GPS monitor on his ankle,
00:29:07
something that was supposed to account for dangerous people. But before that, he was by all accounts a good person.
00:29:15
He graduated from East Syracuse Minoa High School and attended several colleges, eventually graduating summa cum laude with a Bachelor in Arts in Computer Science from the State University of New York.
00:29:31
He even rose to the level of front-end supervisor before having to quit the grocery store.
00:29:37
He did have a couple of setbacks in his life, though. his father died when he was nine a hard thing to deal with at any age but also
00:29:47
Renz had been born with a birth defect his jaw was fused at birth and he had undergone several surgeries in his life to correct it yet his face remained noticeably disfigured Later the Onondaga County District Attorney would reveal details about his crimes during
00:30:09
a press conference, informing the public of the grand jury indictment. This morning, an Onondaga County grand jury has returned a 37-count indictment in front
00:30:20
of Judge Anthony Alloy against 29-year-old David Renz. 47-year-old Lori Bresnahan and 10-year-old
00:30:28
Jane Doe, a child whose identity is known to the grand jury, left a gymnastics practice class at
00:30:35
the Great Northern Mall in the town of Clay. David Renz, it is alleged, followed Lori and the child
00:30:41
to their car in a parking lot. At that point, he brandished what appeared to be a pistol and forced
00:30:47
his way into Lori's car and directed her to drive to a remote area of the parking lot behind the mall.
00:30:56
In the parking lot, he used twist ties to bound Lori's hands behind her back, and then he made
00:31:02
the 10-year-old child remove her clothes and put on a pair of pantyhose that he had brought with him.
00:31:10
He then tied her hands as well behind her back. It is further alleged that Renz cut a hole in
00:31:17
the pantyhose and began a sexual assault on Jane Doe. Jane Doe, as the little girl was referred to,
00:31:26
suffered extensive injuries from the assault and needed a blood transfusion and surgery
00:31:32
to repair the damage. It is further alleged by the grand jury that the defendant drove the victim's
00:31:37
car out of the parking lot and eventually stopped on Verplank Road, which is just north of Great
00:31:43
Northern Wall, and the car became stuck in the snow on the side of the road. The grand jury found
00:31:51
that at that point, Mr. Renz attacked Lori, began to strangle her with his hands, and then attempted
00:31:57
to tie her head to the headrest of the passenger seat of the car with cable ties. Lori put up an
00:32:04
extensive struggle. The ties broke several times, and at this time, Lori told Jane Doe to run and
00:32:12
get out of the car. Although Jane had her hands tied behind her back, she was able to open the
00:32:19
back door. It's a very extraordinary young girl. And she ran away. As she ran away, she noticed that
00:32:26
Laurie was able to break free and escape from the car. And at that point, Jane observed Wrens
00:32:31
chasing Laurie around the car. Laurie's cause of death was six stab wounds to the chest and head
00:32:38
with a contributory cause of strangulation. Thankfully, Jane hadn't witnessed Lori being stabbed.
00:32:47
She had already suffered so much. The defendant had the keys to the victim's car in his pocket.
00:32:53
He had blood on his pants, on his underwear, and on his genitals. The New York State Police executed a search warrant and rents his home
00:33:02
and found several CDs and DVDs that contained child pornography. The pornography they found depicted the same violent act that Renz carried out against Little Jane.
00:33:15
Also, among the discs of child porn, officers found a package of children's pantyhose and a receipt for zip ties.
00:33:26
Also a receipt for a Beretta-style pellet gun. The gun he used wasn't even real.
00:33:34
There are numerous murder counts. To be clear, they allege intentional murder in the first degree, and that requires an intentional murder along with the commission of another felony.
00:33:48
There are four counts of murder in the first degree. The four underlying felonies are kidnapping, rape, criminal sexual act and sexual abuse.
00:33:58
There are also murder second accounts contained in the indictment. There are charges of kidnapping, rape, criminal sexual act, and sexual abuse.
00:34:09
There are also possession of weapons charges. The only thing that could even be considered good news out of this situation
00:34:17
was the little girl's fortitude and the kindness of two men who stopped to help.
00:34:24
The one thing that I did take away from it is that Lori died really saving Jane Doe.
00:34:34
There's no question that she attempted to distract Wrens so that little Jane could get away.
00:34:41
She was an outstanding witness, and she will be an outstanding witness of trial.
00:34:48
She has a very, very good recollection of what happened. And she's an extraordinary little girl.
00:34:57
I don't have any doubt in my mind that we would be here discussing an indictment for the murder of Lori Bresnahan and the murder of Jane Doe were it not for those two gentlemen.
00:35:08
I have spoken to the state police, my office and the state police will both presenting those as small a token as it seems with an award next month.
00:35:18
needless to say the reveal of the details of the case did little to quell the fear and outrage the
00:35:26
public was feeling they rightfully didn't understand how someone already charged with
00:35:33
possession of child porn was allowed to commit murder and more importantly how someone like him
00:35:41
was allowed probation in the first place. Have you checked up on the decisions your elected officials are making lately?
00:35:50
You might want to do that. Then to make matters even worse a woman came forward with information about Renz past A woman who wishes to remain anonymous says Renz and an accomplice sexually molested her in 1999 when she was nine years old
00:36:08
Because Renz was 15 at the time, the case was handled in family court, and the records were sealed.
00:36:15
In criminal trials, the judge often considers a defendant's past criminal record when making judgments,
00:36:22
but crimes committed while a minor are often sealed and therefore inaccessible. No, I can't comment specifically on the details, but there was a juvenile record at the time which was sealed.
00:36:38
And it was sealed at the time of the bail hearing. And to get those records unsealed usually takes some time and motions before a court to obtain that information.
00:36:49
Was that obtainable? time of that hearing? No, no. In the time frame of the hearing, it would not have been. And that's
00:36:56
not uncommon to have juvenile records that are sealed that come up with respect to defendants.
00:37:00
Well, when it comes to a case where you're dealing with a child predator, okay, even if it's
00:37:08
pornography, you know, should those juvenile records be automatically unsealed so that
00:37:13
prior to a hearing of this nature, a judge and everybody has a full awareness of the situation?
00:37:19
Jim, that's a good question and one perhaps that the state legislature should take up in terms of modifying the current procedures.
00:37:27
I want to weigh in on a couple of things. First of all, in America, you have a constitutional right to be a nitwit.
00:37:33
All right. And some of the things that I read about Judge Andrew Baxter were completely inappropriate and out of line.
00:37:40
He made a judgment call based on all of the evidence. And he didn't just say, OK, Mr. Renz, walk out of the courtroom and promise to come back.
00:37:47
He listened to both sides. He made the guy wear an ankle bracelet. He restricted him. But to criticize Judge Baxter for what he did in this case, if someone has a crystal ball and know that someone's going to go from DEFCON 5 to DEFCON 1 in three weeks, please share that with me so that I can take it over to federal court and I can give it out to all the judges in Onondaga County as well.
00:38:11
Okay, here's the crystal ball. You ready? You ready? Here it is. Don't let pedos out of prison. Okay?
00:38:22
An alternative is, why don't you just shut up and let us do our job and let the facts come out.
00:38:28
You cannot read the facts of this case and not start crying. You just can't. There's no reason in the world why the DA's office, state police, U.S. attorney,
00:38:39
should jump through hoops to find out about what somebody did when they were the precious age of 14, 15, or 16.
00:38:46
The realization that Renz committed such heinous crimes less than nine weeks after being released from jail awaiting trial for federal child pornography charges didn't sit well with the public at large.
00:39:03
Especially when they learned that he had previously been charged with molesting a nine-year-old with an accomplice.
00:39:11
But all that outrage aside, how did this person under 24-hour GPS monitoring by a federal agency, a federal agency by the way that monitors you and me every day, drive miles from home to stalk, kidnap, assault Jane, and murder Lori?
00:39:35
How was he not stopped? Well, the answer to that question will piss you off all over again.
00:39:46
You see, three years earlier, the federal probation officers in Syracuse were trying to get used to the new Executrack 1 ankle bracelet.
00:39:58
As you might expect, the device reported the wearer's location all the time. But it also reported tampering.
00:40:06
It used an infrared beam in the locking mechanism to detect tampering. If someone removed the bracelet, the beam would be broken, and officers would be alerted.
00:40:20
The problem was that they weren't all that great, and actually quite fragile, and alerts were going off all the time.
00:40:30
Too many alerts to respond to, especially when a lot of them were false alarms. Probation officer Mark Walker called the manufacturer in 2010, asking for advice.
00:41:06
another district, because these are fiber optics, I put in a parameter for the open-close strap.
00:41:15
You know, if they don't restore in three minutes or five minutes, then they would get notified.
00:41:22
Can I put something in for five minutes? Yes. Okay. Keep in mind that after maybe we get the
00:41:30
straps figured out, maybe you might want to take out that five-minute buffer. Now, those on
00:41:35
probation were not aware of this, but what that five-minute buffer meant was that there would not
00:41:42
be an alert sent to officers unless the infrared beam was broken for longer than five minutes.
00:41:50
Typically an alert would be sent any time the beam was broken Of course after Renz arrest Mark Walker called the manufacturer back to figure out how this could have happened Hello this is Mark Walker again with U Corv
00:42:05
Hello, Mark. Thank you. I'm happy to, I guess first I should let you know, unfortunately we had a pen that last night that nobody wants.
00:42:13
David Renz, he's alleged to have committed a murder and rape. I'm just trying to, I guess, try to evaluate what happened here.
00:42:24
He could have whittled those tips where you get them out, and then last night might have flipped them out, put them back in, and away he went.
00:42:33
Looks like this guy probably disconnected it, reconnected it within a minute, and that's why there was a delay.
00:42:43
Yeah. Because of the strong possibilities that we could have done it was to put it back into a plan or something.
00:42:52
Yeah, I mean, anything that would hold that. I mean, even if you could squeeze it close enough,
00:42:56
and sometimes you don't actually need the pin to keep it closed, even if he did that, it wouldn't have to have the pin back in it
00:43:03
just so the light goes through that buckle. I mean, he could put a toothpick through it, a safety pin, whatever.
00:43:08
Or if he didn't damage the actual pin too much, he could put that back in. Right.
00:43:15
Just anything that holds that buckle close so that the light goes through. In an attempt to mitigate false alarms,
00:43:21
they had extended the amount of time before a tamper alert was sent to probation officers.
00:43:28
In theory, an offender with determination could disassemble the ankle monitor, remove it from their leg, and reassemble it without alerting the authorities,
00:43:39
as long as they did it under five minutes. And that is exactly what Renz did. Just not at first.
00:43:49
It all started on his release date when he was first outfitted with the monitor.
00:43:56
When this device was first put on your ankle, were you able to watch him do it? Yes.
00:44:03
You would think that you wouldn't let someone you were trying to track watch exactly how to install the monitor, but they did.
00:44:12
A short time later, Renz accidentally damaged the device. The next morning I called the probation department, spoke with Mr. Aquilano, told him the events,
00:44:23
he told me to come into the office to get it basically repaired, which I did. I stepped in a narrow place and got it caught.
00:44:35
Did Mr. Aquilano make a repair? Yes. Did you watch him do it? Yes. After witnessing the installation and repair of the GPS monitor,
00:44:46
this computer science major started trying to figure out how to disassemble it himself.
00:44:52
He couldn't work, so he had a lot of time to figure it out while his mother was at work.
00:44:57
The first time was just a test. Did you ever receive a call from the federal government, the U.S. Probation Department?
00:45:05
No. After his successful first attempt, he began doing it more and more. When you went into Walmart to purchase the air pistol on February 28, 2013, were you wearing the ankle bracelet?
00:45:23
I was not. Where was the ankle bracelet located? It was located at my house. You purchased these items that we've marked, the receipts, the zip ties, the tights, or pantyhose, I think you called them, before March 14, 2013, correct?
00:45:48
Correct. Those items, they were all involved in the commission of the crimes we're here about?
00:45:52
Correct. All were purchased without his monitor. The more he did it, the more he tested the system.
00:46:01
And the more the system failed. How many times in total would you say that you took the bracelet off?
00:46:10
I can only get an estimate, but I figure probably 10 to a dozen. Did you feel that you could take the bracelet off whenever you wanted to and not risk having probation call you?
00:46:23
Yes. His only worry was how long he could go with it off. Alerts were also sent if the device was stationary for too long.
00:46:35
Since I didn't know the upper limit, I kept it to as short a time as possible. Even with this unknown limit, Renz began living at his leisure.
00:46:45
Was there any role that probation played by the fact that they were not contacting you when the tampers would happen or anything like that, that emboldened you to go forward with what eventually happened on March 14th?
00:47:01
14th? I would say yes, because of the lack of response to certain actions that I knew that,
00:47:14
or assumed anyways, that there was, I had greater freedom. He felt he had greater freedom.
00:47:26
When the probation officers checked the tamper alerts that were less than five minutes,
00:47:31
Renz had nearly 50, and when they found his reassembled monitor at his home, it was held together with an oversized screw and duct tape.
00:47:45
David Renz had been caught trying to fulfill his sick fantasy, the one he fostered through violent child pornography.
00:47:55
All because he thought he could get away with it. and under the watchful eye of probation officers.
00:48:04
The only questions that remained were how he would plead, and whether or not he would get the death penalty,
00:48:12
or just life in prison. On March 4, 2013, I, a student, 29 years old, drove my car into the parking lot of the Green
00:48:51
Northern Mall in the town of Clay, Onondaga Town. There, I left my car and entered into another car occupied by Lori Dresdahan and a 10-year-old
00:49:02
female child. I threatened both of the occupants of the car with a telegun that looked like a real
00:49:09
handgun and directed Lori Dresdahan to drive to a remote part of the parking lot.
00:49:16
Once there, I restrained both Lori Dresdahan and the child's hands without their consent
00:49:23
so that they could not escape or resist. I used a knife to cut a hole in the child's clothing
00:49:30
and proceeded to have tunic's vagina, sexual enforcement art. Immediately after, I drilled the car out of the mall parking lot
00:49:40
and eventually ended up on Verslank Road in the town of Clay, Onondaga County. On Verslank Road, I intentionally caused a doubt
00:49:49
with Lori Dresdahan by reputably standing her in the head and chest with a knife and attempted to strangle her while she was restrained.
00:50:00
I do not fully understand what led me to commit these crimes. The reason that I did an explanation is not a justification nor does it lessen my responsibility
00:50:12
for what I have done. I am truly sorry for my actions and I am prepared to accept the consequences
00:50:19
He pleaded guilty to avoid trial and spare young Jane Doe and the rest of the Bresnahan family the trauma of reliving that event.
00:50:41
It was a generous plea, even though he claimed he didn't know why he actually carried it out.
00:50:49
He could have pleaded not guilty and made everyone involved go to trial, but he knew that his only chance at life in prison rather than death
00:50:57
was to throw himself at the mercy of the court. His mother, Kathleen, emotionally expressed her remorse
00:51:06
for what had happened because of her son. My heart goes out to the Brissman family.
00:51:13
We are praying for God's comfort, healing, and restoration for everyone who's been affected by this tragic event, especially the young girl.
00:51:26
I pray that your hearts will be filled with God's peace that surpasses all understanding.
00:51:33
And his lawyer reinforced that sentiment. His family is remorseful. He is remorseful.
00:51:40
And this is a terrible event. And that's our whole goal here was to demonstrate that he's remorseful for what happened.
00:51:48
We hopeful that they see that it not necessary that Mr Renz will be in prison for the rest of his life and that trying to seek the death penalty for this event has no real purpose
00:52:01
When people saw Renz in court, they couldn't imagine how he could be responsible, even though they knew he was.
00:52:10
I did get to know David, and I got to interview and learn about a lot of other people who've known David for a long time.
00:52:17
And as I got to know him, I understood why anyone I talked to about him were shocked by the activity.
00:52:28
This conduct of this day was not what most people thought David Renz. You know, I do have this feeling of, you're kidding me.
00:52:40
This is the guy that committed this horrible, horrible act. Caused so much heartache.
00:52:47
for Lori's family and has scarred this little girl for the rest of her life and, you know,
00:52:54
has affected everybody in this community. Nobody's ever going to go to a place with their daughter
00:52:58
at a mall the same way for the foreseeable future. And you look at him, I don't know,
00:53:03
what is he, 5'4"? He obviously has some serious physical disfigurement. It just doesn't,
00:53:10
it's almost beyond description. I think that when you have someone who's as evil as that individual,
00:53:19
I mean, I don't think it really matters if you're five foot four or six foot four or 200 pounds or
00:53:25
100 pounds. I mean, when you're that committed to commit such heinous acts, you're going to do
00:53:30
whatever you can, no matter what you're built. Child pornography is clearly becoming an epidemic
00:53:35
in our country, and we need to wake up. Everything learned about Renz would be taken into consideration
00:53:41
at his sentencing, but also all the pain he caused. Thoughts of Lori's loving spirit warm my heart,
00:53:52
but the picture of Lori's smile brings tears to my eyes every time I see it. His act was so horrendous that Judge confessed his trust in God
00:54:04
was shaken. I think people are still struggling to understand or explain the unimaginable horror
00:54:12
that you quite obviously have done to this family. You stole that little girl's innocence
00:54:18
and you robbed her. You robbed her of her youth? A 30-year-old veteran court reporter
00:54:25
who happened to be Lori's cousin said for the first time in his career did he truly understand the pain
00:54:33
of victims' families. This today closed the book on a criminal court proceeding.
00:54:41
It doesn't provide one iota of closure for the sorrow and the grief that we're going through.
00:54:51
And I'm not sure that that'll ever go away. Renz would be sentenced to life in prison without parole.
00:55:00
And because he waived his right to appeal, that would be forever his fate. I just want to say that we're really glad that a final decision was made
00:55:11
and that we're pleased with the decision to not pursue the death penalty. It's a great burden lifted, not only for the sake of my son,
00:55:19
but more importantly for Gene Doe, who now won't have to testify and relive that horrific experience.
00:55:27
I want to say that it's been brought to a close. As far as state court is concerned, the defendant has waived appeal.
00:55:36
He will be sentenced to life without parole. There is no equivocation about that.
00:55:40
There's no games. There no gimmicks There no way he can ever appear in front of a parole board He will come out of prison in a pine box Little Jane was well taken care of after that The Bresnahan family filed a lawsuit
00:55:57
against the U.S. government for their clear lack of due diligence and was awarded a $5 million
00:56:04
settlement. $3.7 million went into a trust for little Jane. Right now, she's surrounded by
00:56:14
an incredibly nurturing, loving, supportive environment. There are numerous people,
00:56:22
some of whom were in court this morning, that love her and are caring for her, making sure that she gets proper counseling if necessary.
00:56:32
I am told that she's very, very energetic, that she's resilient, that she is one incredible, resilient, bright, tough individual.
00:56:46
And I would be remiss if I didn't mention to the people in this room, I know that most of you, if not all of you, know who she is.
00:56:55
and I don't know that another community's media would have reacted this way, that somebody might have tried to sneak up on her and get a picture or an interview.
00:57:07
You have been very fastidious in protecting her identity, and I appreciate that very much.
00:57:16
And I think she'll do okay. I think she'll do okay. now over 10 years later she is more than 20 years old
00:57:26
and this whole time Bill has been fighting to keep his promise to Lori and make sure nothing like this
00:57:35
ever happens again if you remember where you were on March 14th as the scrolls on the bottom of the news
00:57:43
or your show or whatever you were watching talk about carjacking and clay or you watch the 11 o'clock news and you see how bad this is.
00:57:55
And then the next day you hear even how much worse it is. And then the following days you hear how horrific and heinous this was.
00:58:03
I think Lori deserves to know why an individual like this was given an electric monitoring device.
00:58:13
and also what could is a program like that if you're going to have 46 alerts go off
00:58:20
what could is a program like that if you're not going to follow up on it if the alerts were sent
00:58:28
and the probation officers would have done their job they would have even checked on him at his
00:58:34
house not i'm not even saying that night that they could put an electric fence around this man
00:58:38
but they would have seen that that device had been tampered with What I want from state lawmakers is I want them to provide an opportunity for district attorneys' offices, judges, to be able in certain cases.
00:58:58
We're not going to broad brush everybody, but in cases of sexual offenders, violent crimes, they should have the right to call up your family courts where these are sealed and say, does this individual have this type of offense in their background?
00:59:23
and until we as a community together push this agenda forward it may go on deaf ears
00:59:32
and and and we can't let that happen Bill is still advocating for change in how the government handles pre-trial release.
00:59:56
Unfortunately, Trooper Sikora, who had become friends with Bill, never got to see this progress.
01:00:02
He retired in 2017 and in 2019 he succumbed to lung cancer he developed after his exposure at Ground Zero.
01:00:15
David Renz was sick and had been from a young age. His obsession for child pornography, likely stemming from what can be assumed was his only sexual encounter when he molested a nine-year-old,
01:00:31
fueled his unrequited urges as an adult. Sure, he was otherwise a good student and a decent employee,
01:00:42
but only because he kept the darkest part of him secret from everyone. If the courts had been allowed to see his sealed juvenile record,
01:00:53
maybe he would have not been given probation. If the probation office had paid attention to the alerts and checked on him, maybe he would have never entertained the idea.
01:01:07
But they didn't, because of laziness. If the ankle monitor manufacturer had focused on building a decent product instead of the cheapest one they could for the most profit, perhaps none of this would have happened.
01:01:27
But they didn't because of incompetence. David Wren said he did what he did only because he thought he could get away with it.
01:01:39
But we all know better than that. David Renz was a monster all along. And the only reason he did what he did was because we, as a society, allowed him to.
01:02:09
All right, that's going to do it. If you like the show, join plus. Swordandscale.com slash plus.
01:02:18
If you don't, fuck off and stay safe. Hey Mike, I just wanted to let you know that I definitely enjoy your little opinions that you disperse throughout the shows.
01:03:00
Don't listen to these dorks that call and complain about it because they have literally every other true crime podcast to listen to if they want their little opinions echoed.
01:03:15
They also have the corporate media and the stupid government to agree with them.
01:03:20
So let us have this one podcast. And yours is the best. Thank you. Bye. you