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subject to credit approval see store or ashley.com for [Music] [Music] details [Music]
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welcome to True Crime garage wherever you are whatever you're doing thanks for listening I'm your host Nick and with me
00:01:48
as always is a man who gets along fine with modern living here is the captain it's good to be seen and good to see you
00:01:55
thanks for listening thanks for telling a friend [Music] this week in the garage we are happy to
00:02:05
be featuring candy corn cheesecake sour ale by the Wild and fun folks over at weld Works Brewing Company in Greenley
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Colorado this is a sour ale with candy corn cream cheese graham cracker vanilla and milk sugar so quite complex my
00:02:23
friends garage grade three and 3/4 bottle caps out of five and how about a little happy Halloween to our friends
00:02:30
cheers to Mari young and Fort William Scotland and last but certainly not least we have Scott T Balmer a veteran
00:02:39
listening in very spooky Parts Unknown so a big shout out to Mari and Scott and a big cheers to all of our veterans yeah
00:02:48
BWW R you in be a run if you need more True Crime garage for your ear balls make sure you sign up to listen to off
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the record on patreon or through the Apple podcast app and that is enough of the business all right everybody gather
00:03:04
around grab a chair grab a beer let's talk some true [Music] [Music] crime according to several Publications but
00:03:35
specifically the encyclopedia for inpersonal violence familicide is a type of murder
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or murder suicide in which an individual kills multiple close family members in quick
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secession most often children spouses siblings or parents in half of the cases the killer
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lastly kills themselves in a murder suicide in cases where all members of a family are killed the crime may be
00:04:05
referred to as a family Annihilation according to experts cited in a 2007 San Francisco Examiner
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article of the over 900 victims of mass murder in the United States between the years of 1900 and 2000 defined as four
00:04:25
victims within a 24-hour period of those more than half occurred within an immediate
00:04:33
family although the familicide cases are relatively rare they are the most common
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form of mass killings but familicide differs from other forms of mass murder in that the
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murderer kills family members or loved ones rather than Anonymous people this has a different
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psychodynamic and psychiatric significance as stated in the book homicide a psychiatric
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perspective and finally the Howard Journal of Criminal Justice an academic Journal published on behalf of the
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Howard league for penal reform in the UK five times a year the authors of the journal divide familicide into four
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groups anomic disappointed self-righteous and paranoid in this typology the anomic killer sees his
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family purely as a status symbol when his economic status collapses he sees them as Surplus to
00:05:41
requirements or no longer needed or necessary the disappointed killer seeks to punish the family for not living up
00:05:50
to the ideals of family life the self-righteous killer destroys the family to exact Revenge upon on one
00:05:59
of the family members and often blames the act on that family member lastly we have the paranoid
00:06:08
killer who kills their family and what they imagine to be an attempt to protect them from something even
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worse some cases that we have featured here in the garage related to this type of killer are Charles Whitman the
00:06:25
University of Texas Tower shooter Jeffrey McDonald the Fatal Vision Fort Brag killer Bradford Bishop the Bethesda
00:06:35
Maryland man who killed his entire family and Still Remains at large darly roer who remains locked up in Texas for
00:06:46
killing two of her children the grant Amato House of whors case the Watts family murders and the
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Murda murders all come to mind I am probably blanking on one or two others this week's case takes us to
00:07:06
313 Carl Drive in Bloomington Illinois where a very similar crime may have taken place but yet here we sit years
00:07:17
decades later with questions it is not so much the what that happened inside of that home but
00:07:28
the why and by who what could be the motive for such a heinous and brutal set of crimes
00:07:36
multiple murders and who did this and will we ever know for certain this is an examination of the Hendrick family
00:07:48
murders case and this is true crime garage Susan Lois Palmer was born in Peoria Illinois on September 15th
00:08:18
1953 to Proud parents Charles and naen Palmer how do I know captain that Charles and naen Palmer were proud
00:08:26
parents well they had seven children together Charles who went by the name of Chuck served this great country in the
00:08:33
Army Reserves at Fort Hood Texas from 1949 to 1951 and then at the age of 18 Chuck was
00:08:41
saved and became a Christian he was associated with the Plymouth Brethren Fellowship in develin Illinois so he and
00:08:51
naen were and still are quite religious and raised their children to be so as well their wonderful daughter Susan grew
00:09:00
up religious as well and carried that with her into her adult life we also have David James hris he grew up in Oak
00:09:10
Park Illinois he and his family were members of the exclusive branch of the Plymouth Brethren Susan Palmer and David
00:09:19
Hendrick met at Oak Park River Forest High School so captain from my understanding here the way that this
00:09:26
works out both of these families are very religious in these this group called The Plymouth Brethren now the two
00:09:36
of them even though they're the same age and they're practicing the same very specific group of
00:09:45
Christianity they don't know one another because delin where Susan lives is about
00:09:51
35 minutes away from where David Hendrick is growing up so they meet at high school but that is because because
00:09:59
Susan was taking correspondence classes and what I think that means here Captain
00:10:04
is that she's probably homeschooled for a portion if not most of her childhood but it was required that she
00:10:12
actually go to and take an actual be present for in a classroom before she could graduate from high school so she
00:10:22
has to take this course at least one course or maybe several courses at the same High School as David Hendrick her
00:10:30
senior year she makes this achievement and she graduates but while there the two meet and from my understanding Susan
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was David's first real girlfriend and they became very close very quickly After High School the two got married
00:10:47
David went to school to learn Prosthetics and Orthotics he and Susan were blessed
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enough to have three wonderful children together we have Rebecca Karen Hendricks
00:10:58
born in 1974 Grace Esther Hendricks born in 1976 and Benjamin Caleb Hendricks born
00:11:07
1978 so all three children born 2 years apart so the two High School sweethearts
00:11:14
that get married husband goes off to school and then after school he is going to start his business yeah during this
00:11:22
time of new babies and raising young kids together David Hendrick started a prosthetic orthotic practice he also
00:11:29
invented a new orthopedic brace and started a successful business manufacturing and distributing spinal
00:11:36
braces this would be his claim to fame as it would seem so what he does here Captain is he starts up this practice
00:11:46
and during this time he's selling medical supplies as well as the spinal braces that is his speciality or his
00:11:56
expertise and he's quite successful he's a very smart individual and he's a very
00:12:02
good salesperson as well so he's smart with the business and sales come pretty easy to David
00:12:09
Hendrick now David had his what I believe is called a chairback brace that he patented he founded and operated a
00:12:20
highly successful and profitable business in Bloomington Illinois selling that Orthopedic back brace that he had
00:12:28
patented because of David's petted design his intelligence hard work and let's not
00:12:33
forget about his wife's support and dedication to their children David ends up being very successful making a lot of
00:12:41
money during this time period the mid to late 7s and early 80s due to his success
00:12:49
and his growing family and a desire to raise their kids in a nice neighborhood and Community the hendrix's bought and
00:12:57
moved into a large L house at a then new development in Bloomington Illinois so he's a very successful young man has a
00:13:06
young family and they move into a better I guess location for their kids for them
00:13:14
to raise their family yeah this was a newly developed neighborhood so when they move in there it's a new build it's
00:13:23
a very large home or or a larger home this is considered to be an upper middle class neighborhood
00:13:29
but when they're there Captain they are still building and developing this neighborhood so there are homes and
00:13:36
vacant Lots but there are also homes that are still being built around this time because this is going to take us up
00:13:42
to 1983 so all of this achievement by the hris is are is complete in done and all the success by a
00:13:55
relatively young age so now it's 198 three and Susan was just 30 years old David was 29 almost 30 the children we
00:14:06
have Rebecca who is now nine Grace is seven and the youngest Benjamin is just 5 years old well now that we get to
00:14:14
November of 1983 having talked about all of this everything should be peaches and cream
00:14:22
this should be Pie in the Sky type stuff here we have the Hendrick family of five
00:14:27
devout religious folks successful kids growing up plenty of money living in a larger home in a great
00:14:34
Community David has made enough money to not only provide to a high degree for his family but also for recreation as
00:14:44
well he has a motorcycle he has his pilot's license and owns a small airplane this is the white picket fence
00:14:54
American Dream playing out right in front of your eyes well that is until everything comes crashing down this is
00:15:03
because at approximately 10:30 p.m. on Tuesday November 8th 1983 Susan Hendrick a 30-year-old
00:15:13
housewife and her three children were discovered slain in the Hendrick family home by Bloomington Police the victims
00:15:22
were all bludgeon to death found in their beds the husband and father David hris was out of state in nearby
00:15:30
Wisconsin on a business trip a Bloomington Police Officer was at the Hendrick's house when according to the
00:15:38
Chicago Tribune the officer entered the house through a rear door this is a sliding glass door at the back of the
00:15:47
house I want to be very clear about something here Captain because there are several
00:15:52
accounts of the officer entering the home right so we have a sliding glass door at the back of the
00:16:00
house this door is inside of a screen and porch so the officer had to go into the screen and porch and then finds this
00:16:09
glass door either opened or unlocked what we do know is the door had to be unlocked because this is how the officer
00:16:17
made his way into the home I'm clarifying this because I do believe it has significant relevance to
00:16:26
the case and possibly some of the evidence in this case right the two different accounts are one that the officer found
00:16:34
the door unlocked the other account is that he found it unlocked and slightly open and both sources are very
00:16:42
respectable sources so I have a hard time figuring out which one is the most correct here but regardless we know that
00:16:50
he enters the screen and porch and he finds this back door unlocked he enters the home and in fact we already
00:17:00
have some of the Hendrick's relatives on the scene shortly after the police officer
00:17:07
arrives he's actually startled by the family members and he you know he turns and he
00:17:13
shines his flashlight who's there you know it's pitch blackout and he's responding to this
00:17:19
call at this home at 313 Carl drive and when he shines the flashlight he's looking at two individuals that are
00:17:26
shining a flashlight at him and one of them speaks up and says my sister lives here and with me is my brother-in-law we
00:17:33
came to check on them as well right so now we have a situation where this officer is there checking on this family
00:17:41
family members are also there at the same time checking on the family the officer tells the two individuals and
00:17:48
very rightfully so you don't if this is going to be a crime scene we don't know what we're walking into if this is going
00:17:54
to be a crime scene we don't want to contaminate this crime scene at all he very astutely tells those two
00:18:01
individuals you guys are going to have to stay out here I'm going inside and I'd like you to stay out here for fear
00:18:07
that you might see or encounter something that you wish you had not seen or encountered yeah we just need a back
00:18:14
up for one quick second because why is the police officer there in the first place the police officer is there
00:18:20
because he is doing performing a welfare check on the home the police station the
00:18:27
blooming police station has received multiple calls from different family members requesting that someone check or
00:18:37
look for Susan and the kids so some of these calls came from husband David Hendrick who's out of state on a
00:18:44
business trip and some of these calls came from their relatives so police are responding to
00:18:51
multiple calls to check on these individuals put yourself in the shoes of that law enforcement officer you're
00:18:58
doing doing a welfare check you're going around the house you either find that sliding glass door open or you find it
00:19:04
unlocked you go in the house and pretty quickly he discovers one of the family members have been murdered so he's going
00:19:12
to have to call that in to the station yeah he walks into a pitch black house and using his flashlight he
00:19:21
navigates his way through the home it's reported that he entered the master bedroom first after making his way
00:19:29
through the home while on his way there he does note that the the house appears to be messy maybe even potentially
00:19:37
ransacked but again he's simply just using his flashlight not flipping on any lights as he goes and when he makes his
00:19:44
way to the master bedroom he sees what he believes is somebody sleeping in the bed lying still in the bed and he's
00:19:50
shining his flashlight in and the officer when he gives us gives us his account of the events of that night he
00:19:59
says look I've responded on many of these welfare calls many of these welfare checks the overwhelming majority
00:20:06
of the time there's nothing wrong at all right right usually like somebody left a
00:20:10
phone off the hook or maybe there's a situation where one family member is mad at the other and is calling to try to
00:20:19
check on them and can't get a hold of them so sends the police to the house that's commonly what happens according
00:20:24
to this officer in this area bloomington's a very safe area and we'll get into crime
00:20:30
Trends here as we go but he says the the only thing he ever worried about on these welfare checks
00:20:39
when he finds himself actually entering the home was that he was going to encounter a sleeping individual that's
00:20:45
going to pull a gun or shotgun on him because they think he's an intruder right and so he's a little hesitant as
00:20:52
soon as he notices that there's someone in this bed but then by the time that he
00:20:56
shines his light and that beam of light makes its way up to the upper portion of
00:21:00
the the person or the figure that's lying in that bed he can see from afar that this individual has been been
00:21:08
physically attacked and very brutally attacked and is no longer alive it's that obvious to the
00:21:19
officer in that moment and so he Retreats outside calls in the backup everybody's now on scene and remember
00:21:27
that at 10:30 between 10:30 and 11:30 p.m. here's what goes down Susan Hendricks is
00:21:37
discovered killed slain in her bed the police are now on scene searching the property they're looking for evidence
00:21:45
they're trying to figure out what happened and who is responsible who could be responsible what they find
00:21:50
Captain is Unfortunately they find all three of the children dead as well so the daughters shared a bedroom
00:21:58
they each have their own bed in this bedroom the little boy has his own bedroom they find the two girls in each
00:22:07
of their beds and one and the boy is in one of the girls' beds they're all in very bad shape They're All Dead
00:22:16
upon arrival and now we have not only police there but we have detectives investigators there they are processing
00:22:25
the scene as it work the extended family Susan's brother who was on scene that we talked about and
00:22:35
brother in law have been notified as to what the police have found we now have Susan's
00:22:44
parents there as well and now David Hendrick arrives at the house so all of this happens very quickly between 10:30
00:22:52
and 11:30 p.m. on that cold November night in 1983 so sometime before 11:30 p.m. that night
00:23:01
Captain Mr David Hendrick arrives home shortly thereafter only to find police tape surrounding the property and his
00:23:11
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onward and upward cheers to you Colonel yes cheers to you Captain power to the people cheers to the people in the back
00:26:13
so what do we know right away from this situation what is the information provided to us by
00:26:21
police neighbors and family immediately after that horrific fine well we know this
00:26:28
Bloomington Illinois at the time is a city of about 40,000 people located about 130 Mi southwest of Chicago
00:26:37
Illinois and leading up to this event the crime trends that we were able to find statistics on in the 5 years prior
00:26:46
to 1983 Bloomington Illinois experienced 30 murders now this city and these officers
00:26:58
would go on to tell us not just in 1983 but even years later that none of them in their careers had ever experienced a
00:27:07
quadruple homicide right none of them in their decades experience as an officer or detective had ever experienced a
00:27:15
triple homicide and only a few of them had ever even experienced a double homicide so this is murder is is
00:27:24
somewhat rare but not unheard of in Bloomington Illinois at this time but this type of case this type of
00:27:32
investigation is extremely rare not just in Bloomington Illinois but thankfully everywhere according to the early
00:27:41
reports the Hendrick family was murdered either late Monday November 7th or early
00:27:48
morning Tuesday November 8th 1983 this is established easily due to several facts one we know that David
00:27:58
left for Wisconsin late Monday night he says his family were all in their beds when he left safe and sound they were
00:28:06
all found still lying in their beds with the exception of the boy who was in The Girls Room David and others
00:28:15
several others tried on several occasions on Tuesday to call and speak with Susan no one ever answered the phone we
00:28:26
learned that the kids did not attend school on that Tuesday the school principal says the kids did not attend
00:28:33
school but he was not concerned or alarmed by the absence as he assumed maybe they were
00:28:39
traveling this is what we need to discuss here Captain is business trips so David
00:28:47
hris had a business and at one point he had a practice where he's selling medical
00:28:55
supplies and specific specifically his back brace that he's designed he's he's the designer and the manufacturer of
00:29:02
this back brace right so he's a business owner but this is a business where you have to travel quite often correct at
00:29:10
one time he had he had a practice where you would come in and he would actually have patience and he would outfit you or
00:29:17
suggest hey you need these crutches or you may need this wheelchair or here's this back brace and he would not only
00:29:25
attempt to he's not a doctor per se but he would treat you and outfit you for whatever equipment medical equipment or
00:29:33
supplies that you may need to help you with your daytoday and at this point in 1983 he's
00:29:42
not only successful because of this back brace but that previous company was successful to which he was able to sell
00:29:48
that at a profit so somebody comes in and takes over that business buys it from him and they're running the old
00:29:54
outfit that he had at this point in his life this back brace is so successful that he is simply operating a
00:30:03
business where he is now a Salesman okay he doesn't take on any patience he doesn't see you don't come
00:30:10
in and talk to David Hendrick right you go to your local doctor you go to your local physician your family doctor and
00:30:18
he travels around to different states talking to these doctors talking to these medical practices and hospitals
00:30:25
and saying oh by the way my David David Hendrick I have this back brace that's really helpful it's really great
00:30:33
everybody's buying it and so he travels around and he is actually selling this back brace and notifying these different
00:30:42
practices in hospitals that look you don't have to get this from some middleman you can call me up and get it
00:30:50
directly from me you can place orders directly with me saving you and your patients and your clients money and time
00:30:56
and making me very successful as well so his business at this point Captain primarily is him
00:31:05
traveling around and networking and passing out business cards and pamphlets and letting people test out his
00:31:15
product so a business trip is relatively common for David Hendricks right on top
00:31:23
of that about half of the time he will take his family with him his wife is a housewife she's a stay-at-home mother at
00:31:31
this point the three children are still pretty young and as we can as we can infer here from what the principal of
00:31:40
their school is saying I will say this I'm a little clueless if the boy because he was only five if he was actually in
00:31:47
kindergarten at that time and attending that school but we do know the two daughters were and what we can infer
00:31:53
here from what the principal is saying he's saying well they didn't come to school
00:31:57
but we had no cause for alarm because I just assumed that they were traveling that they were out with Dad on the road
00:32:06
for a day trip or for two days on the road for one of these short trips now we should also talk about here David does
00:32:16
have a small plane that he owns and he will fly this in and out of a local plane hanger he did not take
00:32:24
this plane on this trip he would on some trips he would take the airplane and about half the trips he
00:32:30
would not take the airplane for this trip he left the night before and he took his vehicle his
00:32:38
personal vehicle so picture this within a 24-hour time period this guy leaves his house and now he's back at his house
00:32:46
the rest of the family has been killed and now he's surrounded by friends and family inside the home very much like
00:32:54
what we had with the John Benet case if people remember remember that one and police are now looking at this
00:33:00
guy saying well we want to talk to you so here's some other things that back up that timeline of of when they
00:33:08
were killed not only did the kids not attend school that day but we have neighbors who say that a neighbor kid
00:33:15
one of the one of their sons knocked on the front door of the Hendrick home around 11:00 a.m. on that Tuesday no one
00:33:22
answered the door David tried calling the house around 9:00 a.m. that morning cuz now he's in
00:33:31
Wisconsin when he didn't get through during a check-in phone call with his secretary so he's on the phone
00:33:40
with his secretary assistant who was back in Bloomington and the assistant after talking to David says oh
00:33:53
you didn't get a hold of your wife and he said no I tried calling her I wanted to tell her what hotel I was could have
00:33:59
been a motel hotel whatever wanted to tell her where I was staying so she could get a hold of me this is 1983 he
00:34:06
doesn't have a cell phone right hotel motel holiday in that's right so he's some of these calls he's going to
00:34:15
make multiple calls throughout the day and some of them will be to his home and we do know we have at least two times
00:34:23
that he's on the phone with his assistant some of these calls are going to come from his hotel room some of
00:34:28
these calls will come from a pay phone but his assistant who's worked for him for a very long time in fact in 1983 she
00:34:35
is the only full-time employee that works for very successful David Hendrick at this time right because he doesn't he
00:34:43
doesn't have a store he's just driving around selling his product well his expertise is making this product and
00:34:51
selling it to people yeah you need somebody else that can handle all the other day-to-day operations that's very
00:34:57
good and very smart at that stuff but also if you're traveling a lot you need somebody to help you with the the
00:35:02
booking and the exactly intinerary and then probably making uh arrangements to meet these different doctors and the you
00:35:10
know set up the different meetings at the different facilities and so she says you know
00:35:15
you're going to be out there on the road he's not going out there just to hit one
00:35:20
facility or go to One hospital or one practice and try to sell his product he's going to be out on the road hitting
00:35:26
several different practices and he's actually going to hit several different cities in the state of
00:35:33
Wisconsin so she says David don't worry about it I will get a hold of Susan I'll
00:35:39
get her on the phone and I'll let her know where you're staying and I will pass along your the phone number to the
00:35:45
hotel where you are staying so now that's her job for the day she says that she made multiple
00:35:52
attempts throughout the day to try to get Susan Hendricks on the phone phone to no
00:35:58
avail now to further things along here Captain Susan Hendrick and the kids were scheduled to go to Susan's brother's
00:36:05
house for dinner that Tuesday evening they never arrive now this is where people are starting to get concern so
00:36:14
David being out on the road having not been able to get a hold of his wife for the entirety of that day he's now
00:36:21
concerned and he thinks well no big deal something may have come up maybe she's running around what have you she'll be
00:36:27
at her brother's house I'll call there well what we see in all these cases is there's a big red flag moment and so
00:36:37
okay I can't get a hold of them there could be a reason they're definitely going to go to her brother's house later
00:36:45
and when they don't end up there boom that's your big red flag you know sound all the alarms and bells and whistles so
00:36:55
this is interesting because we have multiple people to confirm what time this takes place Susan and the kids were
00:37:02
you know hey come over at 5:30 and Susan says yes we'll be there at 5:30 David is
00:37:08
on the phone with his in-laws at 5:40 p.m. on that Tuesday in-laws say nope she's not here
00:37:17
yet and now both are immediately concerned because she was very prompt right Su Susan was very prompt and on
00:37:25
top of that d is now telling her family look I've been trying to get a hold of her all day and cannot and so now David
00:37:35
calls the Bloomington Police Department and from my understanding the the relatives on the other end of that call
00:37:43
that sounds the alarm they offered to call because he's in another state but I think David wanted to make sure that
00:37:50
nobody got confused as to his concern so he says no I'm going to call the police
00:37:57
myself so he's on the phone with Bloomington Police Department Bloomington Police they offer to go to
00:38:03
the Hendrick's home and check and he says well I don't think they're home I've been calling all
00:38:10
day and in fact by this point he says I've even talked to a neighbor who lives a couple doors down who told me that
00:38:20
they went over and knocked and nobody answered the door so I don't think that they're home and the police say well
00:38:27
what about the car was the car in the driveway he says well that wouldn't matter I think they've been in some kind
00:38:34
of accident is my concern a vehicle accident and that's why the cops ask about the car in the driveway and he
00:38:40
says it doesn't matter because she always parks in the garage so you wouldn't know if they were there based
00:38:45
off of that or not right so the police are saying well maybe we should go check the house David is saying I don't think
00:38:53
they're there I have other people telling me that they're not there I'm worried that they had an accident it's a
00:38:58
35 minute drive from our home to where they were going for dinner in delin I'm worried that something
00:39:06
happened to them along the way and so the police department says all right we're going to get in touch with the
00:39:11
Sheriff's Office the count you know because they operate the county is their jurisdiction and we'll see if there's
00:39:17
been any reported accidents in the area or if there are anybody at the hospitals
00:39:21
I I believe he even States like I think this is where they're head and I think this is the direction they
00:39:28
would have went yeah he says yes this is their destination and typically when we
00:39:34
go there we take string town right is the name of the the road that they are on for most of that trip so now that
00:39:41
gives police somewhere to look for these individuals however they very quickly know that there's not been any reported
00:39:49
accidents within that time period of when they would have been traveling so now we get to a point where we learn
00:40:00
that there's no accidents all of this conversation first starts at 5:40 with the in-laws so
00:40:07
several several minutes are going to go by by the time that he talks to everybody but what David says is that
00:40:14
once her family became that concern and once he finds out that there have been no reported accidents he decides he's
00:40:23
got to get home Pronto so David is is staying or attempting to stay at a motel in Madison
00:40:31
Wisconsin so he's about roughly a three-hour drive from Bloomington Illinois right he says upon this level
00:40:40
of concern and talking with the in-laws and after talking to police he checked out immediately he gathered his things
00:40:48
he loaded up the car and he's now headed back home we know that he arrives home and
00:40:55
finds the this horrific scene with police already on the scene police are telling us captain that there was no
00:41:02
sign of forced entry into that home in fact they say that Not only was that sliding glass
00:41:09
door at the rear of the home found unlocked possibly slightly a jar right but the front door was found unlocked as
00:41:18
well so they've checked the entire house uh police chief would he's addressing the local news
00:41:27
and he would not say if the house was robbed or if they had any idea as to motive for these horrific murders well
00:41:36
anybody that grew up with a sliding glass door knew that like those locks were finicky yeah and you could almost
00:41:43
like just keep messing with the door and sometimes it would just kind of come unlocked and so you have that unlocked
00:41:51
front door but that doesn't mean somebody entered that way but it could be that maybe somebody exited that way
00:41:57
exactly and sliding glass door people put like a broomstick or something down there for when you don't actually make
00:42:05
the connection to to lock that door so there's something to jam that door for people from the
00:42:10
outside now police do say that they found a sharp object in a bedroom so they're being they're they're giving us
00:42:19
some detail but being a little vague with it right we found a sharp object in a bedroom that could have been the
00:42:25
murder weapon but the police chief would not describe this item in detail to the news now the
00:42:33
the news on the other hand was telling the public saying that the murder weapon was an axe or that the at least the news
00:42:41
believed that the murder weapon was an axe right the County coroner would only say that the autopsies revealed quote
00:42:50
massive cerebral and various internal injuries on each of the victims it was done with a sharp object and just
00:42:59
quickly to back up to your point of the putting a stick or a broom handle into the sliding glass door I couldn't find
00:43:07
anywhere where they said whether they had something like that or not well what we do know and we're basing this off of
00:43:15
David Hendrick's right account he because he's question that night and in fact he's actually
00:43:22
questioned at length that night which is a little rough considering his situation
00:43:28
right the that he's walking into and the lack of sleep that he's had within the last 24 to 48 hours well and he spent
00:43:37
the last what 12 hours trying to get a hold of his family members so he's worrying and now he has a three-hour
00:43:43
trip back home he comes to this crime scene his wife has been murdered viciously murdered yes and then
00:43:51
his three children have been viciously murdered as well exactly and so he says you know they they don't ask him
00:44:00
specifically if they would ever wedge anything to stop the the door from opening right but they ask him about the
00:44:06
doors you know did you did you what happened when you left yeah did you lock the doors and and look as far as law
00:44:14
enforcement goes you know that there's you know there's a part of you that probably
00:44:23
goes hey it's in poor taste that we interview this guy or that we not not just interview him but we got to kind of
00:44:31
interrogate this guy because look he's the number one suspect because you he's the one that's closest to all of them
00:44:39
and you have to ask him now even though his emotions might not be intact because
00:44:46
he could be he could be the Killer and you you're losing time uh and also you don't want to give
00:44:52
somebody time to get their story straight yeah and I think of it as a a bit of a double-edged sword right so
00:45:02
what we have here is not only could this guy be your suspect right because the statistics would tell
00:45:10
you that when you have an entire family but one wiped out usually the one is responsible so that's the unfortunate
00:45:21
statistics so they would tell you that this is the guy you should probably be looking at but then on the other hand
00:45:29
you have this well even if this is not your suspect we have to talk to him and squeeze every detail out of him and
00:45:37
every bit of information we can out of him because even if he didn't kill them he
00:45:42
might be the last one to have seen them alive before the killer did but he is also the only surviving member of the
00:45:48
family so he has um information about the crime scene that nobody else would have exactly
00:45:55
exactly so when they're asking him about details of the night before he's saying
00:46:00
a couple things when I left the house and and I'm going based off of the questions they chose to ask him that
00:46:07
night did you lock the doors before you left because we found them unlocked you know they're probably not telling him we
00:46:13
found them unlocked but he's saying did you lock the doors before you leave right and he said well I believe that I
00:46:19
did that was my routine that when I would go on these trips that I would lock the doors or
00:46:26
even when I would go to work or anywhere I would lock the doors before I would leave the
00:46:32
house and he specifically references the back door first he says I think that I locked the back door the front door was
00:46:42
locked I got my car and left but I did not lock the door from the garage into the house I and I closed the garage door
00:46:51
behind me as I was pulling out and leaving the house yeah now the other thing that he tells them
00:47:00
is that his wife and children were in bed and that his wife was awake when he left
00:47:10
and the kids as far as he knew were asleep and so that he left and he went on this
00:47:19
trip now to further give detail to this regard about David Hendrick being talked to that night he was in
00:47:29
fact interviewed for approximately 8 hours some Reports say 8 and 1 half hours and we can question I think we
00:47:36
should question this because this information would later be coming from David Hendrick and
00:47:45
from the individual that he would hire as an attorney to represent him now of course he should have representation but
00:47:54
if your attorney's talking to the new newspaper and wants to get and gain sympathy for you his client he might
00:48:02
exaggerate a little bit how long that the distraught father who had just seen his whole family killed and just was
00:48:11
notified of that of how terrible and rude the police were to interview this guy and oh not only did they interview
00:48:19
him on his worst night life of his life ever but they kept him there for 8 and a
00:48:25
half hours hours can you imagine yeah they treated him like an animal so I I don't know that I fully believe that he
00:48:32
was there for 8 and a half hours um but the what it made its way to the newspapers according to David's attorney
00:48:40
is that he was interviewed for approximately 8 to 8 and a half hours after the bodies were found and
00:48:46
questioned very early on and a lot of this questioning took place at the actual police station and what we learn
00:48:55
here here is that very early on right away David is like yes no problem you search the house of course they probably
00:49:02
don't need his permission to search the house at this point but he's saying search my car search my motorcycle make
00:49:09
sure you search my airplane that's at The Hanger um and so police they search all of these locations and then on top
00:49:17
of that they even drive the route that they believe that he would have taken from
00:49:22
Bloomington out to Wisconsin and they drive it back to Bloomington as well they they check and search the
00:49:31
hotel room that he checked into and on the way back they're looking for if he would have discarded of
00:49:38
anything along the way so police are obviously on to this dude right away and they have doubts about David Hendrick
00:49:46
and his story right away we were talking about how he called and he was calling all day trying to get a hold of his wife
00:49:56
figure out where she was at and why wasn't she answering his phone calls but if you look at the transcripts of those
00:50:04
calls one of the things that I find strange if I'm law enforcement is how he keeps pointing out that he's out of town
00:50:14
yeah and but that's one of those things where it's like but if he is out of town
00:50:18
I guess it's not that strange that he keeps pointing that out yeah that's where so what we're going to see with
00:50:24
this case captain is that this this case is so interesting because of the evidence and also the lack thereof
00:50:31
evidence and then you you just mentioned it right there and then you hit the nail
00:50:36
on the head this is a double-sided coin almost every detail in the story is a double-sided coin is it heads or is it
00:50:44
Tails right David Hendrick is reminding the police I was I was out of state I was on business I would hit all these
00:50:50
different locations I spoke to my secretary I spoke to Extended family I tried to get
00:50:56
a hold of Susan well that is absolutely true every bit of that is absolutely true now is it Tails where he's trying
00:51:03
to establish an alibi it could it could be both and so you have this situation and
00:51:11
let's throw in another double-sided coin okay heads or tails the police say well
00:51:17
it's awfully suspicious that when we asked David hris did you lock the doors before you left and David goes right to
00:51:25
the sliding glass door with his answer I think I locked the back door I know the
00:51:30
front door was locked right and the door to the garage I did not lock and then I
00:51:35
left and the garage door closed as I was pulling out police go well we entered the home through the back door that's
00:51:43
suspicious that his mind went to the back door first rather than the front door and I agree with what police are
00:51:48
saying I think that most people's minds would go to the front door first of course but here's the problem we don't
00:51:55
know did police when they first start talking to him at his house before he even goes to the police station do they
00:52:01
say hey we came in through the back door and we found this scene we found your wife and then right so so if if that was
00:52:10
a conversation that was had or information that was given to him of course his mind would go to the back
00:52:15
door first right and that's what's difficult in a lot of these cases like when we hear a 911 call we we examine
00:52:23
and we start thinking well what we what would we say what would we do because if
00:52:30
I'm innocent then I'd do this if I was guilty I'd do this and like you said if I'm talking to law enforcement and
00:52:37
they're saying hey we entered through the back door and the back door was a jar where the back door was
00:52:45
unlocked I'd probably when question about did I lock the doors I'd probably start with the one that you enter here's
00:52:52
another one heads or tails the police say heads this is this is about 24 to 48 hours after finding the bodies the
00:53:02
police tell the local news we have some concerns about David Hendrick because he didn't seem to be
00:53:09
surprised shocked or incredibly upset we don't think that he behaved or acted the way
00:53:16
that we would anticipate one that one should act when discovering that their whole family's been
00:53:22
killed okay so that's heads the tail of that is the neighbors and his family this is David's family and Susan's
00:53:32
family the neighbors and the extended family say the exact opposite David was a wreck he was
00:53:40
destroyed these people know him better than the police do right but let's go back to but also it's
00:53:48
like it's also after the fact yes so it goes back to the whole thing well well my my client was I mean heck police had
00:53:58
him there for 8 hours and then the police go well you know what when we're talking to when we're talking to David
00:54:05
he didn't seem too upset about anything and then the people that are on his side
00:54:11
well upset he he wasn't just upset he he was destroyed and with all of these coin
00:54:21
flips you know one thing that I think would have really helped out this case that we just didn't have because it
00:54:26
wasn't typical protocol for 1983 is that period of time you're exactly right Captain what we have here
00:54:34
is we have several different Witnesses who have different opinions varying opinions of David in his emotional state
00:54:43
when he's at the home that night when he discovers that his family has been killed right we have the neighbors and
00:54:49
family saying oh he was he was a wreck he was destroyed the police saying he's not acting as as upset as we would think
00:54:56
one would act what we don't have is anyone but David's word versus the police's word once they are back at the
00:55:04
police station we don't have that's why it's so important that these interviews are now videotape these
00:55:11
days in almost every jurisdiction right because what we would have here with us today we would be able to play back
00:55:19
those recordings and be and be able to make our own observations and say yeah I think that detective is right Avid
00:55:25
doesn't seem to be he seems to be awfully casual when he's seated at the table with the police answering
00:55:31
questions during that 8 hours or whatever it was back at the police station or this man's a wreck he's
00:55:37
completely lost his mind is is gone he doesn't know how to answer these questions because of the situation what
00:55:44
he's just been through yeah but think about that though is like again and you're using the heads and tails analogy
00:55:51
and I think it's a really good one because if I'm law forc man you go man this guy this guy seems like he's losing
00:55:58
his mind it's like well that could be a guy that lost his family and knows that his family was brutally murdered and he
00:56:06
wasn't there to stop it he wasn't there to save them but on the other hand you could go well he's losing his mind
00:56:14
because he just killed his whole family it's you can it it's almost just like maybe the answers tell or what you
00:56:25
think your opinion tells us more about you than it does the actual suspect so heads or tails we have David Hendrick
00:56:33
who tells police yes I'll go to the police station with you yes I'll sit across the table from you and I'll
00:56:38
answer any of your questions and according to his attorney he's there for8 and a half hours that night after
00:56:44
discovering his family's been killed and after not having hardly any sleep from traveling and and working for 48 hours
00:56:53
but then the the flip of that D you know David before we get to the flip David says yes search the house
00:57:01
search my cars search my motorcycle the the airplane and and please search the hotel room that I checked into no
00:57:10
problem search whatever you need to I I you know I'm an open book The Flip to that is then he's asked if he would take
00:57:17
a polygraph and David says well I don't know if I trust the polygraph test this is 1983 keep in mind in 1983 and I don't
00:57:27
want to get an email because every time one comes up I get an email from somebody who goes you know it's not
00:57:31
admissible in court duh this ain't our first ain't our first garage show here yeah well you're going to get a reply
00:57:37
that says no [ __ ] Sherlock duh d um yeah but what we've said in the past and it's
00:57:46
true where's the plus side if I take one and I pass with flying colors then people are going to say yeah but we we
00:57:54
don't know if those tests are correct and then if I fail then it's nobody's going to come to
00:58:01
my rescue and say well those tests aren't always correct it's I think it's actually more difficult to say because
00:58:07
it's 40 years ago I think because it was 1983 that there's a good solid chance that if he would have taken the test and
00:58:15
passed with flying colors that they may have moved on from David Hendrick given the time period yeah but look at uh the
00:58:21
Ramsay case I mean they took three test and passed and they didn't move on but David tells
00:58:30
police that he has a reason for not trusting the polygraph exam and he says look a friend of mine remember this man
00:58:39
is very religious the Plymouth Brethren community that he's involved in very religious and he says this
00:58:47
individual that I know who's who I consider to be an extremely honest man and religious man had to take a polyg
00:58:55
exam for his work and failed the polygraph and lost his job because of the test the results
00:59:04
of that exam and so David is telling police I don't I don't feel comfortable taking the exam number one because of
00:59:13
this experience that I know of and so I don't trust these tests but I might consider taking it but I wouldn't do it
00:59:20
until I have an attorney so what we learned by that statement is he sat there with police according to his
00:59:27
attorney that he hires at a later time for 8 to 8 and 1/2 hours that night without any representation he's not
00:59:35
requested representation but he's sitting there with nothing in his Arsenal answering the police's
00:59:45
questions and so the police say well this we this is a tool that we that we will use to move move on from you and
00:59:57
David says well what if I fail or what if it's in inconclusive and the police tell him
01:00:04
well then we would probably focus our in investigation on you and to that he then
01:00:13
says I think I'm going to need to get an attorney which rightfully so I mean police are asking you these questions
01:00:20
and they they've even said look we might be Focus we might be moving in and focusing our investigation in on you
01:00:26
more as we proceed so what we have here Captain is a little bit of back and forth
01:00:33
because in the coming days in the coming weeks we will have the police chief and
01:00:41
the this is the County Attorney Ronald doer he's openly telling the newspapers after a couple weeks that
01:00:52
David Hendrick is not coopera op ating in the police's investigation into the murders and you have his now attorney
01:01:02
Harald Jennings who is telling the papers look my client cooperated fully in the early
01:01:12
stages of their investigation for eight hours and now that they the detectives seem to be honing in on him and refusing
01:01:21
to look at anybody else yes my client is reluctant to speak with the police yes I've advised he's not taking the
01:01:30
polygraph exam because I have advised him not to do so in fact his attorney Harold Jennings
01:01:38
who officially wasn't hired yet because he because David Hendricks has not been charged with anything but Harold
01:01:47
Jennings is still representing him as at least as far as PR goes or in relation to Communications with the police but
01:01:54
Jennings is saying look not only have I advised Hendrick to not take the polygraph exam I've advised him to not
01:02:03
speak with police at all unless I am present and I want them to submit the questions to me in advance yeah I mean
01:02:13
this is a common tactic for a lawyer and you pay a lawyer to protect you and protect your
01:02:21
rights we need to get through some of the EV of the night leading up to the murders right because the question still
01:02:29
is we know that they were killed either late Monday night or early Tuesday morning but we really need to be able to
01:02:37
hone in and isolate the time of death for these victims we know that David Hendrick was at the house until a
01:02:44
certain point that Monday night and what also makes this difficult for me I don't
01:02:49
care about all you other people what it does for me is if I'm law enforcement it's a three-hour
01:02:56
drive so it's very possible that David drives checks into the hotel makes some calls does some stuff and then drives
01:03:07
back home commits the murders drives back yeah but keep in mind we we have a couple things going on here he's hitting
01:03:15
multiple stops that's the intention for the sales pitch right to go into these different practices his first location
01:03:23
that he goes to is a little more than 6 hours away from his home he where he ends up when he drives back home is 3
01:03:31
hours away right but what I'm saying is since we can't we don't have a his a cell phone where we can track his uh
01:03:41
locations we can only track it when when he's uh entering a point where he's exiting a point right if people saw them
01:03:49
or didn't see them right so what I'm saying is there can be gaps and his travel that we could be unaware of does that
01:04:01
make any sense no it does but keep in mind we also have some markers along the way that are that should back up his
01:04:08
location so we know that he's making phone calls from um payones we also know that he's making a phone call at least
01:04:15
one phone call probably multiple phone calls from the motel room so all of that because it's long distance and because
01:04:22
it's a pay phone we can track that and we can confirm hey you said you were making this phone call at this time all
01:04:29
right well let's double check okay yes we see that you were making that phone call at this time plus we have him
01:04:35
checking in and speaking with other individuals it's not just I called Susan nobody answered it's I spoke with my
01:04:41
secretary at this time and at these different times on this day and also he was active he he was actively going into
01:04:52
different practices and giving his sales pitch and networking with these individuals throughout the course of
01:04:59
that Tuesday yeah cuz I understand if you're a law enforcement like we said he's the only Survivor of this family so
01:05:06
he would know critical information about the house and about the neighborhood about
01:05:12
uh their friends and families uh possible people that could be connected or possible people that law enforcement
01:05:20
should be looking into so you're going to question him on that but if you're law enforcement I think the first thing
01:05:26
that you have to do instead of trying to get him to confess or take a polygraph or whatever is to go did he have means
01:05:34
and opportunity to actually commit these crimes and here's one of the problems for your case if your case is to build a
01:05:44
case against David Hendricks this scene and I don't want to I don't want to dance in the details for
01:05:52
too long because it's horrific and heartbreaking to discuss this is an incredibly bloody
01:05:59
brutal scene what we would learn is that the victims were killed with at least two
01:06:07
weapons sharp objects one an axe this is not a hatchet this is a l handle axe they were also killed with a butcher
01:06:18
knife now both of those items belong to the Hendrix family the ax belonged to the family the
01:06:26
butcher knife came from the Butcher's Block in the kitchen the individuals had their some
01:06:33
of them had their throats slit and every single one of them were hit multiple times directly in the face with a l
01:06:42
handled axe not once not twice not three times not four times not five times we're talking individuals being struck
01:06:49
directly in the face while they lay there defenseless and silent 10 to 13 times each there was blood
01:07:01
everywhere at this scene whoever killed them should have blood on their person on their clothing
01:07:08
and on places that they cannot detect or disguise or hide the problem for the police with the
01:07:16
scientific evidence very quickly became this in David's motorcycle airplane his car that he drove to
01:07:27
Wisconsin zero victims blood found in any of those locations his clothing that he took with
01:07:36
him his luggage that he took with him the items for business purposes that he took with them zero blood on all of
01:07:45
those items the hotel room that he checked into and stay at briefly zero victims blood found at that
01:07:54
location as well and we're not talking about we're just testing it with the naked eye we're talking about 1983 they
01:08:03
are doing their damn best to try to find blood somewhere that the victims blood got
01:08:10
outside of this house because that's your trail to the killer they took that car
01:08:19
apart down to the nuts and bolts looking for blood in his vehicle they did not find
01:08:27
it they went through that motel room to the point that they were dipping and checking and taking apart the drains to
01:08:35
the sink and to the bathtub no blood found in those locations either no blood found in the traps or
01:08:45
the drains at the Hendrick home so they don't have anything indicating to a great degree that that
01:08:53
the killer completely cleaned themselves upon before leaving the crime scene they
01:09:00
they drove the route multiple times that he would have taken or they believed that he would have taken from
01:09:05
Bloomington to his destination roughly six hours away didn't find anything discarded along the
01:09:12
way could he have done a really damn good job maybe but the all the items that they
01:09:19
tested every location that they searched they did not find any victim's Bloods so
01:09:24
that is difficult for your investigation that's the physical evidence that was going to lead you to your killer they
01:09:30
find the axe they find the knife that was used to kill all four members of the family they find those two items lying
01:09:39
on the floor in the girl's bedroom where three of the victims were found now they have to interview David
01:09:49
Hendrick because the big part of their case in their invest investigation is simply
01:09:55
going to be this because we didn't find any blood evidence leading us to David Hendricks
01:10:02
but yet we don't believe him and we don't trust him he won't take our polygraph exam we need to figure out the
01:10:08
time of death that's going to be key here because if we can then prove that he was still at home during
01:10:18
the time of death then he had to be the one that killed his family there's no way around it
01:10:24
so scientifically you have the corner you have the experts medical examiners Pathologists
01:10:32
all trying to determine the time of death for these four victims right meanwhile you have the police getting
01:10:38
statements from David Hendrick on the night of the the the bodies are discovered getting a timeline from him
01:10:46
for that Monday because if they can prove that they were all killed late Monday night rather than early Tuesday
01:10:52
morning David Hendrick may still have been in the house when they were killed he's our killer so they talk to
01:10:59
David and they get some information from him the interesting thing from his story
01:11:05
of that Monday night is again we're going to have markers Witnesses people that can back up portions of his story
01:11:14
to be absolute fact agreed upon fact right so let's start off roughly around five 5:30 so
01:11:24
for this first marker on our timeline of events we don't have an exact time but what it is is it's a neighbor an adult
01:11:31
neighbor who says my kids were out playing with the Hendrick kids in the Hendrick front yard and around this 5 to
01:11:41
5:30 maybe even closer to 6:00 Susan Hendricks comes outside to the door and she calls her kids in for the evening
01:11:51
okay so kids and Mom alive and well at this time we don't have an exact time for it but what we do know that takes
01:11:58
place is that sometime shortly after that David Hendrick takes his three children to a mall they're at the mall
01:12:05
very briefly they were shopping for something I can't remember exactly what it was but after the mall they go to a
01:12:11
nearby chuckecheese restaurant for dinner now why is it just Dad and the three kids well mom Susan Hendrick is
01:12:21
attending a baby shower that evening so she's off and alive and well and visiting friends at the baby shower
01:12:29
that's not in dispute now one thing that will become very important to this case
01:12:34
will be that while there the family of four split a vegetable pizza thank you everyone for joining us
01:12:50
here in the garage today if you are a member of law enforcement or a first responder and you have a case from your
01:12:56
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contact information so much more to get to join us back here in the garage tomorrow and until then be good be kind
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