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GameChanger [Music] [Music] welcome to True Crime garage wherever you are whatever you're doing thanks for
00:01:43
listening I'm your host Nick and with me as always as a man who will bring them roses and sing them blues here is the
00:01:50
captain yeah every rose has its thorn it's good to be seen and good to see you thanks for listening thanks for telling
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not following us on Twitter do so @ True Crime garage or follow the colonel at tcgn on Twitter or X or whatever you
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want to call it and that's enough of the business all right everybody gather around grab a chair grab a beer let's
00:03:18
talk some true [Music] crime the key to this case is going to be the timeline of events and David Hendrick's
00:03:37
accountability and what his family was doing on that night that Monday night in November of 1983 when we left off
00:03:46
yesterday we talked about David taking the three kids to Chuck-E-Cheese they got some pizza they got a vegetable
00:03:53
pizza the kids of course enjoyed the play area you get some tokens you have a good time the kids were running around
00:04:00
having a great time that evening one thing that's very strange in this timeline to me Captain and I get it it
00:04:07
was a different time in 1983 but you know you do your parenting I'll do mine David says that he leaves the
00:04:15
Chuck-E-Cheese leaving the three kids there to go gas up his vehicle remember he's he knows that he is going to be
00:04:23
going on this trip that night and he wants to have a full tank or close to full tank of gas ass when he's going to
00:04:31
be leaving so the kids are busy playing at the Chuck-E-Cheese he says I went to the gas station across the street he has
00:04:37
a receipt for that so we know that he went there right and he gasses up the vehicle he tells the police I was only
00:04:45
gone about 5 minutes okay well maybe that works for David Hendrick however I have the kids
00:04:52
ages listed at 57 and N to me that's too young to be leaving them at the Chuck-E-Cheese unattended by by an
00:05:00
actual parent of theirs and it doesn't make a lot of sense because he seems to be an overprotective parent anyways
00:05:07
that's and I can't make we talked about heads or tails yesterday I can't make heads or tails of of him leaving to gas
00:05:13
up the vehicle but maybe this is something that he's done in the past maybe he's done this because they are on
00:05:20
record as going to Chuck-E-Cheese a lot to frequenting the Chuck-E-Cheese a lot and maybe this was something maybe he
00:05:27
would leave his wife there to monitor the kids and just kind of got used to that regardless he's back at the
00:05:33
Chuck-E-Cheese the kids play for a while they go home now we also have everybody
00:05:38
accounted for 815 this is because a bookmobile was traveling through the neighborhood and he and his wife would
00:05:45
allow his kids to go on the bookmobile pick out some books um this is like a traveling Library setup that they used
00:05:53
to do they may still do this in some neighborhoods so his kids go to the bookmobile at 8:15
00:06:00
and then they are back at their home the bookmobile pulls up to their street Carl
00:06:05
drive so they walk back to the house now another thing that we have that can tell us who is alive and well and when
00:06:15
on that Monday night is remember Susan Hendrick his wife is at a baby shower and there's lots of people in
00:06:23
attendance at this baby shower several other people so she gets home according to David Hendrick he puts his children
00:06:30
to bed sometime between 9 and 9:30 has to get them ready for bed reads to them for a little bit they're in bed by
00:06:38
sometime between 9:00 and 9:30 his wife according to David Hendrick gets home sometime between 10
00:06:45
and 10:30 and we would be able to back that information up based off of other guests at the baby shower and roughly
00:06:54
her drive time from the shower back to her home right David hris depending on who you talk
00:07:03
to says that he left his home at 11 11:30 or midnight that night now in none of these situations
00:07:14
does anyone claim that he gives an exact time this is going to be something that
00:07:20
we will Circle back to here in just a little bit so he leaves the home and then as we
00:07:28
know un fortunately when he returns the next day after cause of concern finds the entire family
00:07:35
dead police are trying to establish the time of death for these four individuals
00:07:40
because they now have David on record as telling them what time he left police are going to tell us the general public
00:07:49
David Hendrick told us that he left his home that night around midnight and everybody was alive and well his wife
00:07:55
was even awake in bed covered up he kissed her goodbye the kids were asleep he may or may not have checked
00:08:04
the door locks and he left through the garage drove his vehicle on down the road David
00:08:11
Hendrick says that he shortly after leaving the home he stopped at a Perkins restaurant to pick up a Togo coffee and
00:08:20
then he made his way on the 6h hour or so drive to Wisconsin police tell us well were awfully
00:08:30
suspicious why would seems like an odd time for somebody to leave leave the home in the middle of the
00:08:37
night well the secretary assistant can back up David Hendrick's information by saying that was pretty
00:08:45
routine David Hendricks would often leave in the middle of the night to beat either Beat the Traffic or take his
00:08:51
plane which we know he did not take on this trip right so that he was at the location that he wanted to be first
00:08:59
thing in the morning okay well that explains that way the next thing that the police were
00:09:06
curious about they said you didn't have any scheduled appointments with any of these
00:09:11
stops for that Tuesday so we think you killed your family and decided you know what I better hight tail it out of here
00:09:19
I can go on this air quotes business trip and be gone conveniently be gone right and somebody else discover my
00:09:26
family dead yeah well the assistant and David Hendrick both have an answer for that as
00:09:34
well they say most of the time these are not scheduled appointments why because and this makes
00:09:41
sense we're we're talking to a guy who's very successful at making these sales he's saying one tactic that they learned
00:09:49
early on or that he learned early on was not to schedule appointments because if
00:09:53
he called practice a and practice B and practice C and practice d all in one location that he's going to have to
00:10:01
travel a great distance to get to and tries to set up appointments all for the same day all around the same
00:10:08
time so he can hit one after another he would often get people saying oh well we're too busy on that day we're
00:10:14
going to be too busy we can't schedule anything where he found if he just dropped in they weren't too busy that
00:10:22
they could talk to him for 5 10 15 20 30 minutes however long that they were not
00:10:27
busy for that day they would entertain and listen to David Hendrick give his Spiel so he is saying in his
00:10:37
assistant are saying look we would go to a location and we would purposely not arrange or make appointments if we had
00:10:45
an appointment it was often because they called that practice would call us and ask for an appointment which would bring
00:10:52
us to the area and then we would hit other practices in the area and try to make the sales or at least network with
00:10:58
them while we were there so this is starting to make sense and then on top of that we know because police go and
00:11:05
they talk to all these practices and say they all say yeah we spoke to David Hendricks that day yeah he came and he
00:11:11
talked to us about his back brace he told us how we could uh order it and that we could get it directly from him
00:11:16
and some of these practices had even met David Hendrick prior on a previous business trip a pre previous visit the
00:11:24
police say well we still think that you killed your family and just decided to hight tail it out of there in the middle
00:11:28
of the night the assistant says no protocol this is how it usually worked about a week before David would take a
00:11:38
trip to another state another city he would tell the assistant on this day I want to be in these
00:11:47
locations I'll probably leave and drive the night before so I can hit pavement first thing in the morning this arrange
00:11:54
this was the arrangement because what the assistant one of her job duties was was to find all of the practices in
00:12:01
those areas and give him the addresses and the phone numbers so that he could map out where he was going to go and
00:12:08
sometimes she would map out his route for him in advance and then once he's there he would call and say oh by the
00:12:16
way I'm going to be staying at this hotel I found one down the street from this practice keep in mind it's 1983
00:12:23
he's not hopping on the internet and logging into his IHG holiday in rewards members account to find the nearest
00:12:32
holiday in so all of this is playing out exactly how his typical business trips would take place with the one exception
00:12:41
the one big major horrific exception of his family being killed either right before he leaves or after he's left his
00:12:47
home well no and that's the problem I have with law enforcement on this is I don't understand why sometimes
00:12:56
people get so hellbent on their story oh well we think that you murdered your family then you decided to
00:13:04
do this impromptu trip you don't need to convince the public that that's how it happened what
00:13:11
you can what you simply could do is you knew that this trip was planned so that was your opportunity to kill
00:13:18
your family and then go on to the the trip right and I think that that's the hurdle that they were slow to get over
00:13:26
now eventually they would get over that Hur because you know one of the other questions they had for him was like well
00:13:32
why wouldn't you take your plane instead of making a a more than 6-hour drive and
00:13:37
he goes look the plane is great for some of these trips but for a trip like this
00:13:43
it doesn't make any sense yes hopping a plane would save me a bunch of time to getting to that first
00:13:50
destination which is more than 6 hours away however I'm going to be hitting all these stops on the way back you're not
00:13:57
going to f fly the plane from stop to stop to stop to stop he needed a vehicle to travel and hit all those locations on
00:14:07
the way back right he's hitting multiple cities I want to say it was somewhere I
00:14:13
I don't I can't find it in my notes at the moment Captain but I want to say he was hitting like four or maybe even as
00:14:20
many as six different cities and a couple of locations in each City while he was going to be on this Wisconsin
00:14:27
trip keep in mind he his intention was not to come home that Tuesday night he came home as he says because he's
00:14:36
concerned about his family and their whereabouts right so it's not out of bounds for law enforcement to be
00:14:43
suspicious of the husband I mean heck most of the time the husband did it right and so all all this is going to be
00:14:52
leading up to the fact that they're going to arrest David and charge David with the murder of his whole
00:14:59
family yeah and he's going to be waiting for this trial for a good period of time
00:15:05
he's actually not tried until the following year um and this is not to deny him the right to a speedy trial
00:15:13
this is going to be a complicated case a complicated trial and everybody knew that it was going to be a lengthy trial
00:15:22
th the problem here too Captain was this case before he was even arrested was already highly
00:15:31
publicized so the following year this is how publicized the case was in the state
00:15:36
of Illinois there were kids teenagers and even adults that were dressing up as David as
00:15:46
a as a fake David hendris for Halloween the following year where they would simply walk around dressed like a
00:15:54
regular middle class white guy with an axe and say you know put on a a name tag or
00:16:01
something that says I'm David Hendrick and so that's how publicized this case was which one would expect so
00:16:08
this is a horrific crime and unimaginable crimes that took place quadruple homicide in America's Heartland in in
00:16:19
1983 so they had to arrange to move the trial to another venue and they settled on Rockford Illinois there was some back
00:16:29
and forth for a while but they settle on Rockford Illinois the the prosecution and the defense are both and the judge
00:16:36
all happy with Rockford Illinois which is about 135 miles away from Bloomington and at the
00:16:46
trial here's what we're going to be faced with we're going to be faced with you know we talked about yesterday
00:16:53
how it's a coin flip heads or tails to me man I reviewed this trial at length spent
00:17:01
days on the examining this trial and to me everything was gray everything was gray as could be but you
00:17:11
look at all these situations that are in the gray and on one side you have the prosecution saying nope it's black and
00:17:20
the defense saying nope it's not gray it's white and both making good strong cases to sway you one way or the other
00:17:30
on this information that is not really anything that you can put your finger on so when the best way to describe this
00:17:39
this trial that that I I think is to say both the prosecution they did a and the
00:17:45
defense both did a good job but the prosecution's case against David Hendrick it was a
00:17:52
pig what are we going to do we're going to slap some lipstick and some makeup on
00:17:56
that pig and make it look beautiful and we're going to trot that pig around in front of you for days and weeks and
00:18:01
you're going to have to determine if you like this pig that we brought in here or
00:18:04
not cuz we made it so beautiful and appealing and then on the flip of that you have the defense that did the same
00:18:09
thing our defense when you get down to it it's just a pig but we dressed it up really good to try to confuse
00:18:18
you the pizza becomes the Crux of this whole damn trial because what happens here captain when the police could not
00:18:29
find any blood evidence connecting David Hendrick to the murder of his family they had pathologist who said
00:18:38
well wait a second we put the time at time of death at 9 to 9 to 9:30 that night by David
00:18:48
Hendrick's own admission to the police he was still at home at 9: to 9:30 and police act asked the EXP
00:18:58
experts they're experts well how do you know that well the emptying of the stomach and the stomach contents are
00:19:05
telling us that the children were killed approximately 2 hours after they consumed this pizza here became the
00:19:14
problem the for the delay in arresting David Hendricks remember he would not submit by advice from his counsel to a
00:19:26
second round of questioning with the police the police wanted to question him a second time because now they're armed
00:19:33
with this information from the air quotes experts that tell them the kids were killed roughly 2 hours after they
00:19:39
ate that pizza well let's just be clear the lawyer was saying you could present questions to us and we'd answer those
00:19:47
questions but that he wasn't going to agree to a a sit down interrogation correct you submit the
00:19:55
questions to us and we will answer we can pick and choose which ones we're going to answer correct if we answer any
00:20:01
of them at all you have the problem here of the the investigators don't want to show their hand because the information
00:20:08
that they need from David Hendrick as far as their case is concerned is did the kids eat again after the time you
00:20:16
already told us 7:15 is the time that you told us that you guys were eating the pizza at chuckecheese right did you
00:20:24
take any leftovers did you finish the pizza did you did they eat anything once that they got home because the police
00:20:30
the experts aren't saying without a doubt they were killed 2 hours after they ate the pizza they're saying
00:20:36
roughly they were killed 2 hours after the last time they had a meal right so if they ate again
00:20:44
later and let's say they ate right before they went to bed he says that I put the kids to bed between 9:00 and
00:20:49
9:30 what if they ate something at 9:15 well now that those experts opinions are going to put us closer to
00:20:56
11:00 11:30 12: :00 around the time he said he left what if they ate after that now it could be 1:00
00:21:06
2:00 they wanted David Hendrick to tell them no they never ate again the kids didn't eat again the rest of that night
00:21:13
we ate at 7:15 we were done eating the pizza at 7:15 and we went home shortly afterward they wanted to get his words
00:21:21
to convict him on this quadruple homicide they could never get that sit down again and so now we're in court and
00:21:29
we're trying to figure out and put and convince a jury of 12 of David Hendrick's peers of what time these kids
00:21:37
were killed the problem Captain was one expert is not going to be enough the jury sat through days and
00:21:48
days and days 10 air quote expert Witnesses giving their opinions these are all doctors some of them from
00:21:59
other states who viewed and examined the evidence some of it based off of photographs some of it based off of
00:22:09
vials of food contents that were taken from the bodies and for days the jury had to sit
00:22:16
through and listen to all of these experts give different and varying opinions on the time of death and it
00:22:23
wasn't so much a time on a clock 8:00 9:00 10:00 11 :00 it was how many hours after they consumed the
00:22:32
food until they were killed you had some of the experts saying as early as 9 9:30 which would be two two and a half
00:22:43
hours you know 1 and 1/2 to 2 and 1/2 hours after they consumed their last meal you have other experts saying that
00:22:49
well I would have put it more between the two and 4H hour window other experts saying you can't really narrow this down
00:22:57
it's probably more like like 3 to four maybe 3 to 5 hours another expert takes the stand and tells you it's probably in
00:23:04
the 4 to 6 hour range a couple of experts telling the jury that well I can tell you this with certainty they were
00:23:12
killed prior to 5 hours after they consumed their last meal but I don't know when they consumed their last
00:23:20
meal what we would end up learning is that this is a little bit of it's science but it's a little junk science when it
00:23:30
comes to the fact of trying to convict somebody and 100% conclusively determine a time of death but isn't that crazy 10
00:23:38
experts that's a lot of experts well I to me when you have 10 different experts and you have 10 different opinions
00:23:45
there's really no opinion at all there's no expert at all and but what we do learn from these experts and and God
00:23:52
bless the ones that that do tell us this because they're saying like look I I can
00:23:57
give you a rain I can't give you I can't pinpoint it down to an exact hour right I can give
00:24:03
you a range well what do you feel comfortable with telling us the court well I feel comfortable with saying
00:24:08
three to five hours and then there the prosecution saying well that doesn't really tell us anything or the the
00:24:15
defense arguing oh no it can't be to out what we end up learning is this the reason why it's not a great indicator it
00:24:22
can be a good indicator but you can all you also need to base that around some other evidence to narrow down that time
00:24:29
of death if you're going to use stomach contents what we learned through this trial is and I'll put it in its simplest
00:24:36
form because as said this was days and days of testimony is that there are too many variables
00:24:44
involved to come to a conclusive opinion on stomach contents in relation to the time of death in this specific
00:24:54
situation so there are things like emotions behaviors exercise yeah things of that nature that can speed up and
00:25:06
slow down digestion or the stomach the stomach emptying and there are also things like
00:25:15
with your health and how active of a person you typically are what else did you consume that day what were your
00:25:21
activities of that day and not only can there be variables with inside of one person to a great degree but it also
00:25:29
varies from person to person to person now the prosecution had a great answer for that they said well look we have
00:25:35
three persons here who are all related and we know their medical histories and we have their father who
00:25:43
is telling us when they had their last meal so doesn't that limit the variables and then the experts say not
00:25:52
exactly because the variables within one individual could even change dayto day so there is according to these
00:26:03
opinions these experts opinions at this trial there really is no conclusive opinion on when they were killed or how
00:26:13
many hours after con consuming that meal they were killed [Music] this show is sponsored by better help do
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slmp podcast the Angie's List you know and trust is now Angie and we're so much more than just a list we still connect
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the app [Music] today all right we are back you filthy animals make sure if you need more true
00:29:21
crme garage for those precious earballs to follow us on on patreon or you could subscribe through the Apple podcast app
00:29:34
Colonel cheers to you cheers to you captain and here's where I wager Franklin I will wager Franklin that the
00:29:41
jurors in this trial who sat through multiple days of stomach content testimony from 10 different experts and
00:29:50
that viewed stomach contents from four deceased murdered individuals yummy I bet you they lost some weight over the
00:29:59
course of those few days who wants to eat after visiting that and and and frankly when we're viewing the court
00:30:05
transcripts in the trial at length over the past few days not so hungry myself my friends but this case as said it's a
00:30:15
lot of gray area and then one side telling you something's black and the other side telling you that something's
00:30:20
white right and I don't know I think that both sides did a did a damn good job however I don't know that either
00:30:28
side was overly convincing in this case now let's talk about something else one other cause that they believe was
00:30:36
possible motive here in this case is the religion or the group that this family belong to and how this group really
00:30:47
looked down upon divorce like divorce is is one of the worst things that you could do in your lifetime and so the
00:30:55
prosecution wants to present this Theory that well this was David Hendrick get out of jail card kill his whole family
00:31:02
so he can have this better life or or or this life that he wants to have right that he he's had all this success he's
00:31:11
had all this money and now he doesn't want to be a husband anymore maybe he doesn't want to be a father anymore but
00:31:17
he can't get a divorce because he won't be able to have his good upstanding position with his religious group that
00:31:23
he'll be shunned and shut out they actually call it shut up and shut out in the Brethren and to me I think that that
00:31:32
is going to be difficult to sell that to a jury right it's like you're going to say
00:31:38
that for religious purposes he murdered his whole family just to avoid the divorce like I think he's probably going
00:31:44
to be shut up and shut out for the murder as well in this case so I think that was less than convincing to the
00:31:53
jury but one thing that we're going to find that is difficult for David Hendrick and his defense team a hurdle
00:31:59
that's going to be extremely difficult for them to get over is he was hiring models for to model his back brace and
00:32:09
for advertisements and pamphlets and things of that nature for his back braces and he's hiring these young
00:32:16
attractive women and during these sessions he would hire them and he would he would schedule AN hourlong fitting
00:32:25
and during the fitting process he would explain that we need this to be skin tight we need it to to uh be right up on
00:32:34
the person we want it to look good for the pictures so I need to actually customize and outfit you for this
00:32:42
specific brace so I'm going to have to take all these measurements and markings I'm going to have to draw diagrams and
00:32:49
create a brace that's specifically for you to wear in these advertisements right this he says requires these young
00:32:58
women to remove portions of their clothing and in some cases be completely nuded from the waist up yes seems a
00:33:07
little ridiculous not only that the device that he designed patented and is selling
00:33:14
to these practices when he goes out and he sells them to the practices or says hey you can order them from me he's not
00:33:23
these aren't customizable braces these are more of a one size fits-all situation right so why not just use a
00:33:31
one siiz fits-all for the models the prosecution very smartly they put they put a several of several different
00:33:40
businesses on the stand who have who have reoccurring orders with David Hendrick and
00:33:48
the the person on the stand saying look I've outfitted a number of patients with
00:33:52
this brace that I've purchased from David Hendrick I've never had to have anyone take off their shirt maybe maybe
00:34:00
if somebody's wearing a a a coat or a very bulky sweater they might need to remove it but this apparatus is designed
00:34:08
to wear over top of the clothing Not underneath of the clothing not skin tight in fact there are things
00:34:15
on this brace that would be rather uncomfortable if you walked around and did your dayto day in this brace skin on
00:34:23
the brace yeah it's funny though cuz it's I mean I know this goes to character but
00:34:29
so we got to prove that this guy I mean it proves he's a creep pervert you know old pervert
00:34:36
Roundup not not not hard to find this guy um but just because you're a pervert doesn't mean you're a murderer of your
00:34:46
wife and and your kids this was not one woman this was like like multiple women I don't remember how many but it was
00:34:54
seven8 n and I'm with you Captain just just if he's a if he's a weirdo he's a weirdo but it it doesn't mean that he's
00:35:02
killing his whole family the thing is though David hendris I'm gonna give his give him some credit
00:35:09
here Captain he's he is very smart and he's able to Pivot pivot based off of the information that's being presented
00:35:18
pivot so that he can explain things away in in a very smart believable manner so
00:35:25
David Hendrick does take the stand at his trial and at the trial he says no I was actually in the process of Designing
00:35:33
a new brace okay very very believable no he why wouldn't you believe him he's made thousands and thousands and
00:35:42
thousands of dollars off of this brace that that he currently is selling well I'm not believing him because a bunch of
00:35:48
women came forward and said he's a creep and so if you're a creep I don't put it
00:35:52
past you that you are willing to lie to make yourself we need to be clear about something we don't have women saying on
00:36:01
the stand that David Hendrick is a creep what we have is probably people in the jury that are making that assumption
00:36:08
based off of their testimony so these individuals are saying yeah I might have felt a little uncomfortable and other
00:36:16
women that are saying yeah I just it was part of the process there was nothing that was uncomfortable about it to me
00:36:23
right so you have varying degrees of if persons felt that they were un comfortable none of them ever saying
00:36:28
that they felt that they were being victimized but we here's the thing you can say I
00:36:35
think that he's a liar that's great you can say that you think he's a pervert but at the same time you had just said
00:36:42
just because he's a pervert or a weirdo that doesn't mean he killed his whole family same thing with the lying now
00:36:48
here's the situation there's no way for me to sit here as a juror and prove yes or no this
00:36:56
guy wasn't designing a new brace in fact if it were me being asked I would go well that seems somewhat likely I mean
00:37:03
this is how this guy's made his fortune if you want to call it that or made his success built his business and he's he's
00:37:12
30 years old he's got 29 years old it's not like he's going to retire tomorrow but here's where people start to call
00:37:19
this into question and this is where I think you're going with it Captain if you're designing a new
00:37:25
brace are you designing a brace that is only for young physically fit women right uh
00:37:34
what about men what about a person who may be overweight what about a large man what
00:37:40
about a child but also if this is for people with back problems I would assume that more men at this time period have
00:37:48
back problems than women do and you have no male models yeah if to me I I'm thinking like if you're designing a
00:37:56
brace unless it's specifically for this body type which doesn't seem like a good
00:38:01
business model to me that you would be hiring all different types of shapes and sizes of people to take all these
00:38:10
measurements the markings and diagrams and everything that you're doing to help you design this new brace now what's
00:38:18
what's interesting though he does admit on the stand that he was only designing that new brace after he had already
00:38:25
hired a few of these models so his his interaction with these earlier models just now seems
00:38:33
inappropriate because he doesn't seem to be doing anything professional with that
00:38:37
information after it's proven that he didn't need any of that information that he was trying to get based off of those
00:38:44
fittings yeah he just comes off to me as a little douchy well you're not the only
00:38:49
one that would state that because ultimately David Hendrick would be found guilty on the four
00:38:58
homicides now one thing that happens in this case that doesn't happen and I've seen it one or two other times but this
00:39:06
is very a very rare occurrence the judge after the jury gives their verdict the judge then says
00:39:15
look my personal opinion based off of the EV evidence presented in this courtroom and my courtroom is
00:39:24
that I would not have found David Hendrick guilty Beyond A Reasonable Doubt and I think that in some ways I
00:39:32
agree with the judge I think this guy's guilty but I agree with what the judge was saying after having
00:39:38
reviewed that trial at length now we're going to have to speed some things up here Captain because yeah
00:39:46
but let's let's stay on a point for a second because like you said the Crux of this becomes really this pizza and when
00:39:53
the kids ate last yeah but by his own Omission he's saying well I left I don't know 11:30 12:00 and a lot of these
00:40:02
experts if you take the majority of these 10 experts they're saying well I think uh they were killed within
00:40:14
2 hours of eating some say well within three some say maybe within five well five still puts it some are saying four
00:40:22
to six and others are saying that they cannot give a definite range at all right but what I'm saying is like even
00:40:28
if you go well maybe within four to six it still puts it in that time range of him still being at the house that's why
00:40:36
I go back to the some of the problems with this investigation and it's not the police's fault it's just the time period
00:40:44
and we'll get into some things that I think that need to be done or should have been done in this case that could
00:40:48
have firmed up guilt or innocence because I can't I cannot sit here and say to you or anyone that I believe
00:40:55
Beyond uh shadow of a doubt that this guy killed his whole family I cannot s sit
00:41:00
here and feel good about saying that I can say if you if you need me to give you a 90% answer I feel very good
00:41:07
telling you that David Hendrick is responsible for the murders of his family but what you have here is when
00:41:12
you have 10 different experts almost giving you completely different answers you have really no opinion at all and
00:41:19
then on top of that go back to the idea that the interview with him at the police station was not recorded it just
00:41:25
wasn't back in 1983 the police on the stand are telling the jury look he told us he left the
00:41:33
house around midnight those kids according to him ate their dinner at 7:15 well when David Hendricks is on the
00:41:41
stand he's telling the jury I left my home at 11:00 well there's it's a it's a now it's his word against his word
00:41:50
there's no proof that he ever told police that I left at midnight because had we had proof now we can have the
00:41:57
prosecutor saying David Hendrick okay are you were you lying then at the police station or are you lying now on
00:42:02
the stand because again he was able to Pivot or he's giving the truth as he sees it or
00:42:12
recalls it on the stand we don't have any way to verify that and simply that one hour could mean
00:42:19
a big difference in this case especially when you're really having 10 different people giving an opinion on maybe the
00:42:25
time of death for these individuals but here's one thing that I I thought was a big
00:42:33
Miss and maybe they attempted to get this information and just could not but I we also don't see the
00:42:40
defense visiting this aspect of the case either remember David Hendrick said that
00:42:46
after leaving his house shortly afterwards he stopped at a Perkins to pick up a tog go coffee yeah where's
00:42:52
that receipt where's the eyewitnesses could we get a receipt or an eyewitness are both to
00:42:59
dispute that time right we we can easily go all right I traveled the speed limit
00:43:06
from David Hendrick's home to this Perkins it took me 10 minutes to get there if David Hendrick left his home at
00:43:13
11:00 he should have been at that Perkins at 11:10 if he didn't leave his home until 12:30 or 1 a.m. well then if
00:43:22
he went to that Perkins like he said he would be there at 12:4 or 1:10 a.m. right so that I think was a
00:43:32
big misstep and one and I wonder this is what I wonder about if they were not able to obtain that information or know
00:43:39
good eyewitnesses because that part of the case is not presented by either side now it could mean that they did the due
00:43:48
diligence and they did track down that information and it wasn't advantageous to their case and so they purposely left
00:43:56
out and that could work both ways for both the defense and the prosecution but that information never came up in any of
00:44:04
the trial records and so I think that that's a bit of a Miss if you're trying to prove guilt or even innocence the
00:44:11
other thing that I think is a big miss too and this is one thing where I think the the judge was not completely sold
00:44:20
on Hendrick's guilt Beyond A Reasonable Doubt and why he made that statement right what we do know we find no blood
00:44:29
evidence that traces us back to David Hendrick being involved what does the physical evidence
00:44:35
at that house tell us the physical evidence that we find at the home is that they
00:44:41
found identifiable but unidentified fingerprints inside the home they found identifiable but unidentified Footprints
00:44:51
or shoe prints inside the home okay this crime scene based off of the injuries that we discussed to put it
00:45:02
as short as I can is a damn bloody mess the individual that that committed these crimes or individuals that
00:45:11
committed these crimes should have been a bloody mess themselves they would have
00:45:15
left bloody shoe prints in the home they would have likely left bloody fingerprints
00:45:21
now the ax handle wiped clean butcher knife wiped clean left right there on the floor in the girl's bedroom the
00:45:30
prosecution would tell us that the lack of evidence in this case is suggestive that David Hendrick committed the
00:45:38
crime the defense is going to tell you the same thing the lack of physical evidence in this case is suggestive that
00:45:46
David Hendricks did not commit this crime there's no way to sort that out there's no way to sit here and come up
00:45:53
with a great feeling about your conclusion based off of the lack of physical evidence well it must have been David
00:45:59
because he cleaned everything up well no they checked the drains and they checked
00:46:03
the traps and they checked his car they took his car apart they checked his hotel room they found no blood right
00:46:10
what they did find is identifiable but unidentified fingerprints identifiable but unidentified
00:46:17
shoeprints okay why is that so important the routine of the Hendrix family home remember Susan Hendrick
00:46:27
stay-at-home housewife the routine was that when the kids would go off to school on Monday
00:46:33
she would clean that house they were killed either late Monday night or early Tuesday
00:46:40
morning we can make an assumption that the house would have been relatively clean by the time that they were
00:46:48
killed reducing the number of fingerprints and shoe prints that would be found inside the home right so where
00:46:55
one could could make an argument that maybe those shoeprints or fingerprints what one thing that that is not
00:47:00
discussed at the trial is were those shoeprints or fingerprints found with blood because if they were found with
00:47:07
blood we know that they were they were left there during or shortly after the commission of these murders all we are
00:47:13
told is that they are identifiable but unidentified fingerprints I would love man here we
00:47:21
sit 40 years later could you tell me please has anybody bothered or did they secure that physical evidence and
00:47:29
continually check those against aphys yeah because what if you check those one day and you're like
00:47:36
oh this comes back to some guy that's murdered six other people right well now you're going what the hell was he doing
00:47:43
in that home you're saying Bingo dingo yeah Bango Jango Bango Jango or whatever Bingo Jingo but so there's never any
00:47:54
talk about that check those against aphis that's another misstep now the other thing we want to talk about expert
00:48:00
opinions you had crime scene experts on the stand take the stand at the trial where David Hendrick is found guilty
00:48:07
that said look most of the time when more than one weapon is used to kill an individual it's more than one
00:48:14
perpetrator there is blood evidence inside the house that is suggestive that possibly two killers were inside the
00:48:22
home there were things at the crime scene that you had crime scene experts telling the
00:48:31
jurors there are parts of this robbery burglary that looked to me like a sophisticated criminal committed these
00:48:40
so like let's talk about this for a second when you view a crime scene if you look at a dress or drawers right
00:48:48
oftentimes it's three four sometimes five or six drawers when you have an unsophisticated
00:48:55
ated person who who's not used to coming in and committing these types of crimes
00:48:59
that's looking for valuables rans ransacking the house they will come in and you will
00:49:06
usually only find the bottom drawer open why is that because they are not efficient they don't know what they're
00:49:14
doing when you see a crime scene where all of the drawers are open you have an efficient experienced
00:49:23
criminal why because because when you one opens the top drawer if you are going to look at
00:49:29
something in the next drawer you have to close that top drawer and then open the
00:49:33
next one then close it then NE open the next one then close it then open the next one and so on so often times not
00:49:38
all the time often times you will only find the bottom drawer left open here at the Hendrick home we find
00:49:45
all of the drawers open suggestive that the criminal knew what they were doing and they were
00:49:52
efficiently ransacking the house so you start at the bottom and work your way up
00:49:56
because now you don't have to close any drawers after the fact you open the bottom then the next one then the next
00:50:01
one the next one all the way to the top could you have something that's completely happened stance where
00:50:06
somebody comes in there and stages a crime scene and gets lucky and opens up all the drawers yes that's not out of
00:50:12
the realm of possibility but expert crime scene uh experts on crime scenes will tell you that fact with the dresser
00:50:20
drawers the other thing that's weird about this situation Captain is was anything missing from the home
00:50:27
David Hendrick says at a conference to news people well they said that some cash was missing from the house right
00:50:37
and police say well now he's planting something in the heads of the public and and in the news that oh he must be
00:50:44
innocent because someone stole cash from the home um the problem with with cash being
00:50:50
the only thing missing how verifiable is it that it was ever even in the house to
00:50:55
begin with but we don't ever have police ever saying no nothing was missing from
00:51:00
the home they've never gone on record and said no nothing was missing from this house I don't understand why David
00:51:06
hasn't pushed for them to identify these fingerprints so he does fight this conviction on appeal right and in fact
00:51:17
he ends up getting a a retrial trial seven seven or so years later he gets non-guilty verdict at the
00:51:27
second trial and he's released right and he actually goes back into business he got married while he was in
00:51:35
prison I guess there was nobody else available for this woman but poor lady gets married while he's in prison and
00:51:42
they get a divorce shortly afterward um he lost his religion a little bit he says while he was in
00:51:48
prison that he came out a bit of a changed man you'll be uh R said their hit song was written about David well
00:51:57
you will be happy to know that he moved to and lived in Sania Ohio for a good period of time and had a very successful
00:52:04
medical supply business here in Ohio for years and then he eventually moved down
00:52:09
to Florida where he still resides to this day he had a practice or or business in Florida in the greater
00:52:16
Orlando area for a good deal of time and so here we sit here today Captain 40 years later and he is out he's a free
00:52:26
man he's an older man at this point he's 69 years old and as far as the police and the
00:52:34
prosecution's concerned David Hendrick killed his family as far as David Hendricks and many others are concerned
00:52:41
he's an innocent man who did a few years did seven years in prison plus a year waiting for the trial in jail and the
00:52:49
real killer or Killers is still out there I still want to know who these fingerprints belong to that's exactly
00:52:56
correct because they don't belong to David Hendrick and the shoeprints don't belong to David Hendricks as well and
00:53:02
here's the thing though is the people that think he's guilty even if they were able to identify these fingerprints and
00:53:09
say well it's of this known killer or this known thief or whatever I think a lot of people that think he's guilty
00:53:16
will just be like well then he was in cahoots with somebody yeah but that's the difficult thing right like there's
00:53:23
also ways that you could say that the fingerprints do not help David or that he wasn't in cahoots with
00:53:31
somebody what if the fingerprints came back to someone you check them today and you say oh yeah we we've now identified
00:53:40
who those fingerprints belong to it it's a a a man who lived down the street from
00:53:46
them and he is 47 years old meaning he was s years old when they were killed it's not likely that a seven-year-old
00:53:55
went in there with an axe killed four family members and wiped down the place and left so you're right I think that I
00:54:03
just don't like when there are things that are out there that could be tested and they're not tested or in this
00:54:07
situation where you have something that is identifiable you've just not identified it right it it leaves too
00:54:15
much it does it leaves that room for Reasonable Doubt and in in this case um the
00:54:22
Reasonable Doubt is the unknown killer or killers right you have those crime scene experts that are saying there are
00:54:27
some things suggestive that there's more than one perpetrator here but they also
00:54:33
said at the same time that you cannot conclusively determine that there was more than one
00:54:38
perpetrator you also cannot conclusively determine that it was a sophisticated robber or or somebody that is used to
00:54:48
and has experience burglarizing homes so again it's all unfortunately the case against David Hendrick is all
00:54:57
gray very little black and white in this case now we do have a rare situation here where a man is convicted and then
00:55:06
later he's retried and found not guilty he gets out of prison he does write he wrote a book and not about his case he
00:55:13
wrote about a a book about an individual that he knew while he was serving time it's called a confession of a killer I
00:55:22
think it's called John Henry Confessions of a killer and this was a man that he became friends with and that he's just
00:55:30
chronicling his story he's not saying this guy's innocent he's not taking up a fight for this John Henry person in fact
00:55:37
he's just chronicling the story as it was told to him with this man's permission this individual that he wrote
00:55:45
the book about is now out of prison I don't know if they've stayed in touch or what have you but what the unique
00:55:50
situation is is that David Hendrick started a website to help sell and promote this book remember he's what is
00:55:58
he at his core what made him so successful he's a good salesman so on his website he opened it
00:56:06
up to a Blog in a Q&A and so people very rightfully so wanted to ask him some questions about
00:56:14
his case forget about John Henry's case we want to know about your case David Hendrick are you guilty did you kill
00:56:19
your family and so one of the questions that is featured on this website is is who do you suspect of murdering your
00:56:28
family if you are innocent and you didn't kill them who killed them right this is a very interesting answer he
00:56:35
says while I was in prison Susie's younger sister made a shocking Revelation she said that shortly after
00:56:41
the murders her then husband had given her surgical scrubs to wash they were splattered and covered in blood she
00:56:49
washed them saying nothing she said that he was angry and jealous of our family and that he knew where she kept her key
00:56:58
to the home so that's one thing that I failed to mention captain and this is something the police were aware of and
00:57:05
it was an angle that they pursued the Hendrick family kept a spare key outside of the home on their
00:57:13
property right so you could one could use that and get into the home so when you find the house unlocked no signs of
00:57:20
a struggle and they're killed in the middle of the night that's also more reasonable out did somebody know about
00:57:26
that key mhm nobody could prove one way or the other if the key was used to enter the house that night David
00:57:32
Hendricks in his answer here to this question is saying well my brother-in-law he goes on to say that
00:57:38
Susie's younger sister told him that shortly before the murders that her husband her then husband took the
00:57:46
5-year-old Benjamin or Benji as he went by to a walk through a cemetery and asked him if he was prepared to die so
00:57:54
so David says on this website that that person is his number one suspect he says
00:58:01
that the problem with applying that to his case that information to his case is that she did not say a word about any of
00:58:07
that until uh or report this evidence until their divorce which means she then covered up
00:58:16
evidence relating to the murders of her sister nieces and nephew for years and he goes on to say I know that's hard for
00:58:26
people to believe um there are plenty of there there are statements out there I don't
00:58:32
know that they came directly from the police but what we do know is the police are on record saying we believe David
00:58:38
Hendricks killed his family so that would imply that they don't believe that this other in individual is
00:58:46
responsible what's weird here too is that divorce word they're all the same family they're
00:58:53
all the same religion and how horrible and how difficult shut up and shut out you could be for getting a divorce
00:58:59
inside of that Community he says she did not say until after the divorce about this information
00:59:09
mhm does she have a dog in the fight to throw this guy under the bus maybe she doesn't want to be excommunicated from
00:59:16
her community and said well look this is a good reason to get rid of this guy this
00:59:21
is why it didn't work out he's a monster he probably killed some my family members the people that say that David
00:59:27
Hendrick is innocent they they point to the fact that the Palmers Susan's family
00:59:32
believe David was innocent all along forever and as far as I could tell still to this
00:59:38
day that to me it does mean something I don't know that they're right maybe they're just too
00:59:45
trusting I worry here captain that this guy just got lucky right how the hell is
00:59:50
he leaving his house at such close of a time to when they were killed regardless
00:59:55
of how you want to argue the stomach contents of the victims it seems very much of a
01:00:02
coincidence that he would be leaving the house at such a close proximity to when the killer would have arrived and
01:00:09
then killed the whole family yeah I think that's why this is a case that gets talked about a lot because like you
01:00:14
said the whole trial has gray area so you can make an argument either way and I could be persuaded either way I mean
01:00:22
if you give me enough drinks and you make a good enough argument I probably could be saded either way in this one if
01:00:28
anybody wants to do some further investigating on their own the Susie sister's name is Martha Neils um so he
01:00:37
the ex-husband was I believe an orderly at a hospital that's why he's turning in
01:00:41
these scrubs as her story goes or at least as David Hendrick story goes but a couple of things that really
01:00:49
rub me the wrong way about David hris and one fact that I cannot get over is at no point in 40 years not when
01:00:59
he's interviewed that night not when he was denying an interview later not when he was on the stand at his trial not
01:01:07
while he was in prison and not when he was released from prison and not today on his website this has never happened
01:01:14
he has never said go find the killer of my family right when he was asked by the
01:01:22
police within 24 hours after finding his family dead they said what do you think
01:01:26
should happen to the person that killed your family he said well I'm a very religious
01:01:32
man I hope that they would be forgiven I hope that they would be saved and I hope
01:01:36
that they will go to heaven that's a weird that sounds what that sounds like what a killer asks for for their family
01:01:45
to forgive them I know that I strive to be a better more evolved individual a more peaceful individual
01:01:53
sure there's no way I'm saying that man and in part I wonder if he if that's him
01:01:59
saying in a hopeful manner well that's how I would treat the killer it's because I sympathize with
01:02:06
the killer I'm hoping that one day I will be forgiven right and I will be saved and that I could go to heaven even
01:02:13
though I killed my entire family at no point does he ever say find the killer of my family and I love there
01:02:20
was an article that came out on the 20th anniversary of the slangs remember David
01:02:27
Hendricks is now out of prison at this point 20 years after the slangs and the headline was still no new
01:02:37
suspects the only suspect that they ever had right or wrong was David Hendricks 40 years later there's no new
01:02:46
suspects that night the next day the next week the next month at his trial after he's released from prison while
01:02:52
he's in prison and to this stay 40 years later on that website I have never witnessed him say in
01:03:01
print verbally or otherwise go find the person or persons that killed my family he didn't even pull the OJ move
01:03:14
where once I get out of prison you know once we clear this up I can I can look for and help and assist and find the
01:03:21
killer of my loved one and that seems very odd to [Music] me you could be anywhere and you join us
01:03:46
here in the garage that's cuz you're awesome and we love you for it colonel do we have any recommended reading for
01:03:52
the beautiful listeners yes we we do Captain this week we are recommending Reasonable Doubt a shocking story of
01:03:58
lust and murder in the American Heartland by Steve vogle David Hendrick is the husband and father to suie and
01:04:08
the three slain children who was away on a business trip accused and later charged and convicted of the killings
01:04:15
police believe he methodically murdered his wife and children before he left but
01:04:20
why David Hendrick has the total support of his extended family but police paint
01:04:26
a darker picture check out this New York Times bestseller and True Crime classic
01:04:31
Reasonable Doubt Reasonable Doubt is a testament to the fact that truth is Stranger Than Fiction the book has also
01:04:38
been used in college level criminal justice courses to explain and illustrate the legal concept of
01:04:44
reasonable doubt you can find Reasonable Doubt in many other great true crime books TV shows documentaries and podcast
01:04:52
on our recommended Page by going to True Crim garage.com make sure you're following us on all social media
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platforms Facebook Twitter Instagram at True Crime garage until next week be good be kind and don't
01:05:08
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