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[Music] [Applause] [Music] welcome to true crime garage wherever you are whatever you were doing thanks
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for listening I'm your host Nick and with me as always is a man who is a dear dear friend of the famous poet JB Jovi
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round grab a chair grab a beer let's talk some true crime [Music] [Music] may 14th 2015 at 1:24 p.m. the
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Washington DC Fire Department received a call that a large home in the city's most exclusive neighborhood was on fire
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neighbors saw smoke and flames coming from the homes second-story and called authorities the fire department quickly
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descended on the home a firefighter kicked in the front door and the firefighters entered the downstairs the
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house wreaked of gasoline firefighters searched for occupants on the ground level but saw no one
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then firefighters braved the upstairs which seemed to be the epicenter of the conflagration and saw one bedroom and a
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bathroom area were completely engulfed in roaring flames the temperature made the room
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impenetrable in an adjacent bedroom firefighters crawled blindly along trying to avoid the smoke dodging slate
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tiles from the roof falling through the ceiling on top of them one firefighter bumped against a chair lying tipped on
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its back he tried to move it out of the way but to his horror with his hands he felt a body in the chair the firefighter
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dragged the body into the hallway and saw what he called a bloodbath then they found another body
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then a third lying on the floor one of the victims still had a heartbeat and the firefighters extracted her and
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rushed her to an ambulance despite life-saving efforts by doctors at Georgetown University Hospital
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sadly she soon died when firefighters managed to extinguish the incredibly hot flashover fire in the adjacent bedroom
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which was burned down to the beams new horrific sights awaited them a firefighter entered the blackened still
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smoking room he couldn't see very well and he started to fall on the buckled floor he grabbed on to what was left of
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the bed which was so badly burned that it was bared down to the charged springs and frame and had melted into the floor
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the floor had partially collapsed into the room below the firefighter accidentally grabbed a body on the bed a
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child's body which had no discernible features or arms or legs an adjacent bathroom was also burnt to a crisp
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clearly the fire started in this bedroom and it did not appear to be an accident
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several people were dead and someone burnt this house down after the fire police arrived on the scene
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observing the removal of several bodies by paramedics law enforcement quickly observed victims that appeared to have
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suffered extensive trauma to their bodies the fire did not kill these people who was responsible for the
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unimaginable horrors that took place inside this home this is true crime garage and this is a case of the DC
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mansion murders [Music] [Music] before we get into this case we need an understanding of the Savalas family
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Savas of Ovilus was 46 years old he was born in a suburb of DC his father Philip
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and a partner started up a very successful company American ironworks Sava went to Springbrook high school in
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Silver Spring Maryland this is where he started dating Amy Martin who would later become his wife
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Amy says she was an army brat born in Massachusetts she spent her childhood moving around Europe in the u.s. Saba
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and Amy both went on to the University of Maryland Sabo was good-looking popular and outgoing amy was blond
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pretty and more reserved than Saba yeah they're gonna get married in 1994 after he graduates from law school instead of
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practicing law Sava went on to the family business headquartered in nearby Hyattsville his father Phillip
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eventually stepped down and Sava took over the company American ironworks thrived under his direction the company
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was involved in building the National Stadium yeah that's Washington's baseball stadium they also revitalized the DC
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Center and were involved in rebuilding the Pentagon after 9/11 yeah that's a big contract right there Sava also
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headed up a hedge fund sigma investment strategies located in Puerto Rico where he often traveled Saba and Amy were
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doing very well in 2001 they purchased a 3.5 million dollar 8,000 square foot mansion on Woodlawn Drive in DC's
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Woodley Park neighborhood this is a very exclusive residential neighborhood the average home cost about 4 million
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dollars the neighborhood is considered extremely safe Saba was a good businessman with a strong work ethic by
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most accounts he was a wonderful boss a gentle soul and a good friend he had an open door policy for his employees and
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often wore jeans to work amy was a stay-at-home mom to the couple's three kids sisters Abigail and
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Katharina were followed seven years later by a baby boy named Philip after Savas father all three kids were
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educated at DC's most exclusive private schools and they were both involved in the Greek Orthodox Church they did a lot
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of charity work they hosted fundraising galas and donated generously yeah everyone describes both Sava and Amy who
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was age 47 at this time as lovely people a golden couple devoted to each other and their family in 2012 Sava and Amy
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and their young son Philip took a year off and moved to their second home in the US Virgin Islands just enjoying life
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in the tropics when they got back to DC in 2013 Sava continued to enjoy the fruits of his labors by collecting some
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of the finer things in life they had a very expensive wine collection a renowned art collection well we have a
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very nice beer collection well Sava loved collecting automobiles too that's when you know that you're
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doing very well when you collect automobiles and some of these were like race car it depends it depends on what
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kind of car and or where they parked are they in a garage or then your front yard
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well and Tsavo was really into martial arts he had a samurai sword collection in his home and was scheduled to open up
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his own dojo sabado karate like many wealthy women Amy took on a pet cause that was near and dear to her heart
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after her daughter suffered concussions on the sports playing fields she became something of an expert in concussions
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and became a major fundraiser for the National Children's Medical Center's concussion education project it's a very
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wealthy family very successful family we know that conclusion of the fire but let's start with the details of the day
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before the fire yes this was Wednesday May 13th Savva went to check out the process at
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the new dojo he was planning to open yeah Amy and little Phillip 10 years old were both at home
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they have two housekeepers one who worked for the family for like 20 years this is Nellie Gutierrez she was not at
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the home that day she was working at the new dojo cleaning and preparing for the
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grand opening the following weekend housekeeper Veera Figueroa who worked for the family for about five years was
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at the house when either Veera or Nelly worked at the home their routine was to finish up and leave for the day around
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3:00 or 3:30 in the afternoon Amy took Phillip to a 9:30 a.m. doctor's appointment Amy's car entered the
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parking garage at Chevy Chase Center at 9:09 a.m. there is video footage of Amy and Phillip near the doctor's office Amy
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is wearing white pants and a blue top her Range Rover left the parking garage at 11:08 a.m. at 3:14 p.m. the director
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of reservations at a local doggie daycare place called the Cevallos family regarding an upcoming Memorial Day
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weekend appointment for the family's dogs bear and ginger what she said was unusual was she called the house phone
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as always but got the indication that the phone had been disconnected since the cevapi Lass's were regular customers
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they had a me cell phone she said she called the number at 4:20 p.m. and left a voicemail Amy called back twice once
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right after the voicemail but there was no sound on the call and it quickly disconnected then Amy called back about
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10 to 15 minutes later so likely around 4:40 p.m. Amy said she would be keeping the appointment for the dogs later it is
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said that Amy didn't sound like herself she sounded tired groggy or under the weather and she rushed through the call
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when she would normally be very friendly and chatty and she sounded like the captain a friend of Amy's told police
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that she saw Amy walking in their neighborhood heading toward her home around 3:25 p.m. now Amy was a coffee
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lover and it's believed that bass on her friends sighting of her that she went on a Starbucks run around that time
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yes but we are noting here that she was not in the house at 3:25 p.m. right according to Nelly Gutierrez who was
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with Sava at the dojo ami called Sava at 5:30 p.m. and asked that he come home to
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stay with Philip because she had plans about a half an hour later Saba packed up and left the dojo for home he asked
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Nellie to close up for him once she was finished he didn't act in any way like this was an emergency at some point that
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evening Sava made a call to the family's home security company the Savalas they had as new system installed 6 months
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earlier that included surveillance cameras outside the home and glass break sensors in the kitchen this system sent
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the surveillance footage and records of alerts directly to a computer that was stored in a utility room on the third
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floor of the home so this security footage was not live monitored but it was stored for review if an alert was
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sent right although the system would of course alert the family if the alarm was
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set and was triggered but this system was brand-new and it had some bugs that they were trying to work out and because
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of this the system was not fully activated and according to the vice-president of the security company
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on the 13th the system was not armed yeah Sava is gonna make a phone call about 8:00 p.m. to debbie Masur somebody
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that works for him this call comes from his cell phone he wanted her to figure out a way to get him cash for a
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construction equipment auction that was being held the next day this was actually common for Sava he would he
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would go buy machinery at a discount at these auctions so Sava wanted 35 to $50,000 in cash a bit of cold hard cash
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well the request for cash was actually the unusual part of the request as he normally would just get a cashier's
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check so Debbie well Don I just want to go over this again so at the auction you
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could use a check you don't have to use cash and that was normal protocol right so so he's he's not normally calling her
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saying I want 40 50 grand in cash right so Debbie and Ted chase made arrangements for Sabo to electronically
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draft and sign a check that Ted would then collect at the bank the following morning Debbie said Sava sounded totally
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normal on this phone call sometime around 8:00 p.m. Saba called Jordan Wallace this is his driver and general assistant
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and left a voicemail Savas message told Jordan there was a change of plans for the next day and
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instructed Jordan to meet Ted Chase at the American Iron Works office first thing the next morning to pick up a
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package in his message Sava almost sounded jovial and at 8:30 p.m. Jordan Tex Sava I'll call you when I get the
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package and around 9 p.m. Amy is gonna order Domino's pizza yeah she ordered two pizzas and a soda
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Amy paid over the phone with a credit card and said that she was nursing a sick child and that the delivery man was
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to place the pizzas on the front stoop when the delivery driver got to the house they say all the lights were off
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except for the one over the front door and the house was silent very strange he rang the doorbell left the pizzas and
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then drove off Sava Savalas left a voicemail that evening for the regular housekeeper Nellie his voicemail said
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it's Sava I hope you get this message Amy is in bed sick tonight and she was sick this afternoon and Vera offered to
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stay and help her out so she's going to stay the night here he went on to explain that Vera's phone was dead and
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they didn't have a compatible charger for it you can hear part of this voicemail online Saba's voice sounds
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totally normal on this call Nellie didn't listen to this voicemail immediately I point that out because she
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might have questioned it as she heard earlier from Sava that Amy had plans at night which
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didn't mesh with what she was being told now of Amy being ill yeah and just going
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back to the cache getting the ordering the cache then that night and telling people to get it in the morning to go to
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the bank and ask for 40 to 50 grand in cash it is a big deal and and sometimes banks don't have that cash on hand
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because they don't they can deal with somebody coming in and robbing a teller and getting a couple thousand bucks but
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they don't carry that much cash on them anymore because they're afraid of takeovers mm-hmm well and remember we
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mentioned that at some point on that evening Sava got in contact with his security company asking questions about
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the security camera footage yeah so on well later that evening this was after 11:00 p.m. the security company text
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Sava back stating I believe your outdoor surveillance camera records our motion you know he was asking how the cameras
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were activated so he he was in contact with this security company during this time now that leads us to Thursday May
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14th at 7:11 a.m. Sava called Jordan his assistant and the two spoke just going back over the plan for the package
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pickups and delivery and an unknown time on the morning of the 14th Sabha again spoke with Eric he's from the home
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security company trying to get a handle on how his system stored recordings now Eric later said that these phone
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calls were strange because he had already gone over with Sava how the system worked at approximately 9:00 a.m.
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the sprinkler company showed up at the Savalas home the sprinkler guy knocked on the door but when no one answered he
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went on to his next appointment at 9:09 a.m. Amy called to cancel the sprinkler maintenance appointment because her son
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she said got injured and she had to go to the hospital yeah sometime early this morning it's
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not clear when Debbie Masur again talked to Sava he told her to draw up the check
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for $40,000 and that Ted would collect the cash and give it to Jordan his assistant and
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Jordan would deliver it to him once the check was drafted and printed Debbie sent Saba and email confirming that it
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was ready sometime between 8:00 and 9:00 a.m. on the morning of the 14th Saba called his business banking specialist
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at Bank of America Savas company American ironworks was one of their top clients so this person was
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very familiar with his voice and recognized it right away Saba told them of this unusual request
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for $40,000 in cash right so they had to find a bank branch that had that much cash on hand where Ted Chase could cash
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the company check yeah and sometimes they wouldn't do this for certain clients but you're talking about he is a
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huge client yes yeah and somebody that they want to keep happy right so they locate a branch that's able to fill the
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request and called Sava back and at this point he seemed rush on the rushed on the phone and he told her that his CFO
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Ted Chase would go pick up the money using a stamp of Savas signature Nellie Gutierrez tried to call her friend Vera
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at 8:30 a.m. and then again at 8:46 a.m. but her calls went straight to voicemail
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now meanwhile around 9:30 on the morning of the 14th Vera's husband Bernardo showed up at the
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house on woodland drive it was not only unusual but unheard of for Vera to stay over with the family and further Nellie
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never listened to the voicemail from Saba explaining that Vera was staying over so as far as Bernardo was concerned
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his wife just never came home the night before he had no success reaching her on
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her phone it continually went straight to voicemail even though he had called her nine times
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between the previous night and Thursday morning he knocked on the door and even though no one answered he said that he
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got like a really strange feeling that someone was standing on the other side of that door yeah he thought he heard a
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noise like a chair scraping the floor he started to walk toward a window to look
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in when his phone rang and it was Sava Kali Sabha apologized for not calling him earlier he told him the ami was ill
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and Veera went with her to the hospital in his car meanwhile Vera's daughter claudia was waiting and while she killed
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time she took a picture of the family's blue Porsche parked in the driveway and she sent it to her boyfriend who was
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into cars so we know that the Porsche was at the home around 9:30 a.m. right around 9:40 a.m. Jordan Wallace and Ted
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case went to the Bank of America and Kenilworth Chase and the bank manager signed some paperwork while Jordan hung
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in the background the bank manager handed chase $40,000 in $100 bills once in the parking lot chase handed the cash
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over to Jordan who placed the bills in a red backpack then the two men went their
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separate ways yeah Jordan is actually gonna take a picture of the bag of cash open and then he sends it to his
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girlfriend yeah and he later would delete these texts now Jordan drove to three 2:01 woodland drive right at 9:50
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1:00 a.m. he called Savas cell and informed him that he had the package he had the cash Sava said great call me
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when you're 10 minutes away and I'll give you instructions and 956 am ami texted her housekeeper Nellie telling
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her not to come to the house that day at 10:15 a.m. Jordan called Sava again to tell him he was approaching the home
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Sava told Jordan that he would be on a conference call and not to knock he instructed Jordan to enter the garage
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which would be left open for him and placed the money on the driver's seat of the red sports car that
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was parked inside the garage he then was to leave and Sabo would be right behind
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him per his words Jordan found that the right-side garage bay was opened as promised and he put the money in a
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manila envelope placed it on the driver's seat exited the garage closed the door and left
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he sent sava a text around 1026 a.m. that said package delivered no response ever came this was the last
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all right cheers mates cheers to you captain well the next thing that we know the
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house was in flames a contractor who was parked on the street saw the flames and pounded on the
00:29:35
front door and said that he could hear dogs barking and the smoke alarm going off he called 911 Wallace the assistant
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received a phone call from an American Iron Works employee notifying him that the house was on fire he was told to
00:29:52
head over to the house pronto then Debbie received a call from a reporter for The Washington Post asking her if
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she could confirm that four people were dead now poor Debbie did not know what was
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going on at this time and she had just spoke to Saba that morning Jordan Wallace then called her distraught
00:30:13
saying the house was burned and he wasn't being allowed inside now we've already discussed the horrific murder
00:30:20
scene that the fire department discovered when they busted into the home but moving on to the investigation
00:30:26
and some further things that were found the furniture in the room that Philip was found in was completely incinerated
00:30:34
this indicating that the fire was ignited with some type of accelerant it's believed that the bed was where the
00:30:42
fire started a special accelerant k-9 was brought into the scene and indicated that an accelerant was present on the
00:30:51
stairs and in the two bedrooms upstairs where the victims were found these bedrooms were those of the two daughters
00:30:58
who were away at school matches were discovered at the top of the stairs speaking of dogs dog lovers will be
00:31:06
happy to hear that the family's dogs were discovered by firefighters unharmed after autopsies on all four victims the
00:31:15
medical examiner's report indicated as follows this according to the initial arrest affidavit filed by detectives the
00:31:23
three adults had been killed by blunt force and sharp force trauma they were beaten and stabbed to death
00:31:30
specifically Saba had been stabbed through the back of the neck Phillips cause of death was thermal and
00:31:36
sharp force injuries further there was evidence that all three adults had been restrained adhesive tape residue was
00:31:44
found on Amy's wrists and ankles and on Vera's wrist it was believed that Savas wrists and ankles were bound with
00:31:52
something with an edge like a zip tie Saba and Amy were both beaten with a baseball bat and stabbed and sava also
00:32:01
showed signs of strangulation Phillip likely was stabbed with a sword probably one of his father's kept as part of his
00:32:09
martial arts collection Amy's right middle finger was bruised injuries consistent with her attacker trying to
00:32:17
pull a ring off it was later speculated by authorities Vera had been stabbed in the neck but had the fewest injuries the
00:32:27
medical examiner concluded that she had also been strangled and that she had a history of heart disease and probably
00:32:32
suffered a heart attack during the incident now from the get-go this case was a big deal in DC within hours of the
00:32:42
fire the mayor and Police Chief were both at the house the Metropolitan Police Department's homicide unit was
00:32:48
called in to start their investigation assisted by the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms jeffrey owens was
00:32:56
the lead detective from the metropolitan PD assigned to the case investigators began the process of combing through the
00:33:04
house to try to determine who could have done this and sorting through the fire debris for evidence here are some of the
00:33:11
more significant things that they discovered the phone lines to the house visible coming out of the utility boxes
00:33:17
outside of one of the back doors of the home work cleanly severed there was evidence of a struggle in the main entry
00:33:25
foyer and he talked about a Meegan's starbucks they have a picture of her starbucks
00:33:30
is placed on a sideboard in the entry hallway her Louis Vuitton handbag was on a chair hey red wheelie briefcase was on
00:33:39
its back with paper spilling out of it this belonged to Sava bookbag belonging to philip was spilled
00:33:45
open and its contents was like folders notebooks and papers were scattered about a letter opener was near the front
00:33:53
door the computer drive that stored the security system footage was gone Ryan the casing remained but the
00:34:01
important stuff was taken and the seven blue wires that powered it were cut Amy and Savas iPhones were gone
00:34:09
investigators subpoenaed their cell phone records and those of the people they were known to have been in contact
00:34:15
with in order to reconstruct what had happened as far as phone activity goes a bloody baseball bat was recovered in the
00:34:25
room where the three adults were found the blood was both Amy's and Savas a second bloody bat was found downstairs
00:34:33
a bloody plastic bag and a large amount of blood were found in the room where the adults were also in the room
00:34:40
investigators discovered a bloody shoe print and the two pizza boxes delivered by Domino's the night before right some
00:34:48
of the pizza was gone consumed but there was one partial chewed piece of crust still left in one of the boxes a large
00:34:57
sharp samurai sword was recovered traces of Philips blood were found on it now there was a noticeable lack of foreign
00:35:04
fingerprints or DNA found in the home so whoever had done this they did it wearing gloves
00:35:11
they did find two foreign hairs and they're gonna send those off for testing duct tape was found sealing shut the
00:35:17
doggy door that led from the kitchen to the basement and one small piece of duct
00:35:21
tape was found in the driveway none of the duct tape net matched any of the rolls found inside the home mm-hmm a
00:35:28
kitchen knife was found propping open a basement window this is the kind of window that tilts open and closed yeah
00:35:36
and the window well is going to be covered by a grate it kind of reminds me just from hearing about it very similar
00:35:43
to the JonBenet Ramsay case where you have the window well it's covered by that great you have to open that up to
00:35:50
get to the window now a frisbee and a screwdriver we're also propping up other windows in the
00:35:56
basement it's unclear why these windows were propped open in this manner but one key
00:36:03
piece of evidence is something that was missing from the house so investigators quickly noted that the blue Porsche
00:36:09
primarily driven by a me you remember the vehicle that was photographed by Vera's daughter right was missing but it
00:36:17
turned up quickly it wasn't they found it engulfed in flames this was around 5:30 p.m. on the 14th hmm in a church
00:36:25
parking lot in New Carrollton inside the car they found a neon green construction
00:36:30
vest on the vest was a hair that was sent for testing as law enforcement located witnesses and surveillance video
00:36:39
a couple of additional things came to light one a witness reported seeing the Porsche around 1:30 p.m. on the day of
00:36:46
the fire which was being driven erratically by a short-haired african-american male wearing a neon
00:36:52
green vest this sighting was on New York Avenue in Northeast DC heading out of town toward Maryland in the direction of
00:37:02
where the Porsche was eventually found second surveillance footage from the church parking lot cameras showed an
00:37:09
african-american male wearing a dark hoodie and jeans and carrying a large construction type bucket walking in the
00:37:17
church parking lot so they have two hairs from the house they have the hair from the car we know that there was a
00:37:24
accelerant used in the house the car was burning so we're I'm assuming there's a
00:37:30
accelerant there and those are probably going to be tested to match those so this is you know a wealthy family
00:37:42
powerful in the community so this is going to be a very thorough investigation yeah massive investigation
00:37:50
and they want to talk to investigators want to talk to and interview everyone that they could possibly think of born
00:37:56
with the delivery of the money we have an idea of what the motive could be or the wealth of the family the power of
00:38:03
the family we have an idea of what the motive could be and but that you have to cast a very wide net hmm
00:38:12
because there's a lot of people that are motivated by money well going off of that they are going to very quickly come
00:38:21
to the conclusion that the family and Veera were the victims of a home invasion extortion plot and held hostage
00:38:29
for up to about 22 hours investigators actually believe that whoever done this was likely familiar with the family's
00:38:38
routines and must have been watching the house at least that day or possibly previous day's leading up to it right
00:38:45
investigators thought that the attack started once Amy left to walk to Starbucks and Veera and Phillip were
00:38:51
home alone now the question here becomes no one knows whether the perp knew that
00:38:57
Phillip who would normally be at school was actually in the home investigators knew that the phone lines were cut by
00:39:05
the time the doggy daycare center had called at 3:15 and also the ami was seen alive and well walking back toward her
00:39:13
home at 3:25 after Starbucks they knew that Jordan delivered $40,000 to the home on Thursday and that the money was
00:39:21
gone it was impossible to determine whether any other money was missing one thing investigators found was a file
00:39:29
cabinet drawer in the office containing four handguns and $13,000 in cash now they could only speculate that Sabah
00:39:37
hadn't give given the money to the perp because it would draw attention to these
00:39:42
guns located in the same spot this looked like a well-planned targeted plot to hold a family hostage for ransom
00:39:50
right clearly Sabah had been forced to request the cash from his CFO one thing that
00:39:57
police found interesting the home was full of expensive jewelry and artwork and these items were untouched
00:40:03
whoever did this was after one thing cash right was that the only motive if that were the case why killed the family
00:40:11
after the money was delivered so investigators did not have a lot to go on there were no fingerprints on the
00:40:18
baseball bat or anything else that it seemed that the perp might touch Riley he said probably use gloves
00:40:25
yeah and the perpetrator removed the security system and he took with him anything used to bind the victims well
00:40:31
this is a big house and there's multiple victims so then you start questioning is
00:40:36
it just one perpetrator or multiple perpetrators right now he did leave behind the duct tape on the doggy door
00:40:43
and one piece of duct tape that was reportedly found in the driveway but they didn't have any prints on them so
00:40:50
cops did have one thing one very important thing the pizza crust found in the box of leftover pepperoni pizza
00:40:57
there was a partially consumed piece but leaving behind the crust it could have been one of the family or veera of
00:41:05
course right or it could have been left by a perpetrator well that's going to give us possible DNA but also possible
00:41:12
bite impressions yeah the chewed part of the crust was carefully swab before the
00:41:18
evidence was even bagged and tagged and delivered to the ATF forensic lab for expedited testing when the lab ran the
00:41:27
swab they got a complete single source male DNA profile law enforcement ran that profile through CODIS and boom they
00:41:37
got a direct hit Darren Dylan went date of birth November 27th 1980 the chances that this DNA did not belong to him were
00:41:50
1 in 10 quintillion as for the hair found on the vest and the burned-out Porsche there were two DNA contributors
00:41:58
one was Savas and one was Darren went Darren went was also found to be the contributor of DNA found on the handle
00:42:07
of the knife that was propping open the basement window now it's believed that Darren went whoever he was had taken the
00:42:16
money and evidence from the home and drove off in Amy's Porsche which he had then torched in the parking lot where it
00:42:23
was found the church it turned out was just a few hundred yards from the apartment that Darren went sister
00:42:30
Samantha lived in in Prince George's County Maryland whyn't had listed as his home address
00:42:37
and where he had actually lived for a brief period of time police pulled out all the stops in the search for this man
00:42:45
they found evidence that he also torched a minivan that he owned hashtag banned the van yeah so who is
00:42:52
this Darren went right that's what we want another nun giant piece of [ __ ] he's a man that was recently kicked out
00:42:59
of his mother's apartment this after losing it in an argument over some dirty dishes and threatening everyone in the
00:43:07
apartment including his brother Stephane who also lived there Wendt was taken in
00:43:12
by his father and stepmother Pamela although this is not a long-term solution he had been told he needed to
00:43:20
be out by the end of the month Pamela told investigators and testified at trial that that everyday was pretty much
00:43:28
the same wint would get up and he would go look for work at 5:00 a.m. leaving the home right he would come home at
00:43:36
10:00 a.m. eat go to the gym and then he would spend the rest of the day on his phone Secret Service analysts pored over
00:43:44
his phone and social media history Wendt was found to have been active on social
00:43:49
media over 70 times a day between Facebook posts Facebook instant messages and Facebook voice messaging in the
00:43:57
months leading up to the murders but went went completely inactive online for a 36 hour period starting at 6:00 a.m.
00:44:08
on May 13th continuing until 559 p.m. on the 14th right during the time of the murders and the fire
00:44:17
Pamela later testified that he left the house on the 13th and never came home that night which was very concerning to
00:44:24
her and his father since he never stayed out whence sister and girlfriend both tried to contact him repeatedly during
00:44:32
this time period with no response he reappeared as 6:00 p.m. on the 14th driving his blue minivan and seemed
00:44:40
stressed out but did not say where he had been his social media blackout ended with a brief puzzling post at 7:30 3
00:44:49
p.m. that evening just five letters bt d uz he called his girlfriend to those again
00:44:58
bt bt d uz yeah it's very strange and any clue on what that means maybe it's just a butt-dial or a but text or i
00:45:09
think that this was this was intended for whatever reason it could have been some type of typo I'm very I'm kind of
00:45:20
clueless on what this means or what it could mean you've studied computer forensics so you figured I figured you'd
00:45:27
know what this means that's right after this he does call his girlfriend and he went out there
00:45:34
security footage of him and his brother Darrell at a Walmart at 10:24 p.m. where
00:45:41
went paid for purchases in $100 bills then they left but went later returned at 11:28 p.m. four more purchases what
00:45:52
did they buy do we know I think it was probably a bunch of insignificant items because I couldn't find a list of what
00:46:00
was purchased it could have just been somebody out on a bit of a spending spree is what what I'm guessing Pamela
00:46:07
said that went stayed home on the 15th and then disappeared late that evening this time the blue minivan that he owned
00:46:17
did not come home with him on the 15th on the night of the 15th the Kenilworth fire department found it in flames after
00:46:24
midnight on May 16th and determined that it was arson now police didn't put together that this vehicle belonged to
00:46:33
wint until May 20th this is a week after the home invasion yeah sometime after the 17th now we got to keep in mind here
00:46:43
that meanwhile while all this movement is going on bye-bye wint police have figured out who they're looking for
00:46:52
yeah because of the DNA testing so sometime after the 17th Darren went left for New York to visit his girlfriend
00:47:00
Vanessa pamela knew that he was there because he left her a phone number where he could
00:47:07
be reached he was anxious to hear whether he was going to get his green card which had expired and he was
00:47:14
attempting to reduce so he was even legally here while in brooklyn he waived around $100 bills and told Vanessa that
00:47:22
he had won $2,000 in the lottery and sold his van for cash [ __ ] he treated her to shopping meals and even
00:47:31
gave her $1,500 in cash and bought her a new iPhone around this time he also paid
00:47:37
$1,100 to an immigration attorney this was paid in cash on the night of May 20th went in Vanessa were lying in bed
00:47:46
in her apartment when Wentz wanted photo which was an old mugshot popped up on the screen why there in bed
00:47:54
yes she's trying to cuddle on him on the TV screens dirty ass and she's trying to
00:47:58
cuddle on him and that his ugly face pops up on the screen well when they see this they quickly left her apartment and
00:48:06
they went to a hotel this so they could not be found right now working with New York police DC authorities tracked went
00:48:15
to Brooklyn and arrived at Vanessa's apartment they just missed him eventually went called his father a DC
00:48:24
homicide detective was at Wentz father's home at that very moment and actually got on the phone with wint he informed
00:48:31
went that there was a warrant out for his arrest and went asked what for the detective replied murder well I just
00:48:38
think that he's lying in bed with this girlfriend quote-unquote and she has to be such a scumbag that she ends up going
00:48:45
to a hotel with him I got all Wallis uh you're wanted for something but hey let's go to the hotel and hang out it's
00:48:53
ridiculous well went left Brooklyn late on Wednesday May 20th or early on the 21st
00:49:00
this this is not really clear we don't have an exact time here but we do know that he paid a private company nine
00:49:07
hundred dollars in cash to drive him back to Maryland he left behind one of his phones which police had used to
00:49:14
locate him in New York this was left behind in possession with his girlfriend Vanessa she told police
00:49:20
that she believed went planned to turn himself in once he arrived back in Maryland police were able to trace went
00:49:27
to a Howard Johnson express in located at College Park the Capital Area Regional Fugitive Task Force staked out
00:49:35
the parking lot and watched went and some others leave the hotel around 11:00 p.m. now Wendt was carrying a bag and
00:49:43
got into a 2012 Chevy Cruze which left the hotel accompanied by a box truck 20 undercover vehicles pursued the two
00:49:54
vehicles as they drove into DC one at some point the US Marshals are actually going to be able to get in between both
00:50:01
of the vehicles causing them to stop and they're actually gonna be able to make the arrest then yes they took went and
00:50:08
two other men one of whom was his brother Darrell yeah who was on the phone with detectives at the time he
00:50:17
warned the other cars passengers that they were about to be pulled over whence cousin George who owned the box
00:50:24
truck and two women who were with went in the Chevy Cruze they took all these people into custody without incident
00:50:32
in the car in which went was a passenger the bag went was carrying was found to contain money orders worth $10,000 one
00:50:41
of the women in the car her name is Chelsea who was there to hang out with the guys and buy pot from Darrell whom
00:50:48
she knew only buy his pot dealer named GU told police that GU had directed the purchase of the money orders and had
00:50:58
given Chelsey money to buy them in the truck authorities saw in plain view seven thousand three hundred and eighty
00:51:06
one dollars in cash mostly in $100 bills and more money orders for thirteen thousand three hundred dollars now I
00:51:14
want to point something out here captain because I do believe this is important and we will see why later okay the
00:51:21
arrest warrant issued for Darren went in May of 2015 it specifically states that
00:51:27
the officers omitting the affidavit in support for arrest believes that mr. wint and others
00:51:35
right held the Savalas family captive and then we have public statements made by authorities investigating the case
00:51:43
indicating that the family was targeted but police did not believe that went was
00:51:49
solely responsible for the slaughter of the family and for their housekeeper vera police including the chief said
00:51:57
repeatedly that the elaborate crime probably required the presence and assistance of more than one person and
00:52:05
that there were possibly other suspects yet they only arrested one that they charged with murder none of the other
00:52:13
people in the Chevy Cruze or the box truck were arrested for murder so Darren who is this vault puffer Darren went was
00:52:23
34 years old at the time of this arrest he was born in Guyana he is 5 foot 8 inches tall 155 pounds he has 6 siblings
00:52:35
3 brothers and three sisters he moved to the United States in 2000 when he was nearly 20 years old and he became a
00:52:43
permanent resident after obtaining his green card which was up for renewal in 2015 in the u.s. went also had two
00:52:53
half-brothers this is Darrell and Stefan Stefan and went shared a mother Daryl and went shared a father does that make
00:53:04
sense yes so went tried to be a marine for a while but that didn't really pan out and neither did PG County Community
00:53:13
College went found himself bouncing from job to job but he was trained as a welder so he did manage to find a job
00:53:21
from May of 2003 to April of 2005 this was at American Iron Works Sava Savalas was his boss at one time so you know but
00:53:35
you have to keep in mind Sava is the CEO of this company and went would have been
00:53:42
a welder it's very likely that they may have never have known each other went was
00:53:49
fired from American Iron Works in 2005 and Sava had apparently refused to take him back despite two follow-up attempts
00:53:59
by went to get his job back one of Wen's cousins also worked at American Iron Works and was fired in
00:54:05
2005 as well this cousin had then threatened to burn the place down American Iron Works went on to obtain a
00:54:14
restraining order barring this person from the premises right coworkers who remembered went from American Iron Works
00:54:22
told investigators that went hadn't gotten along with anyone that he worked with well he argues with everybody
00:54:29
argued with his family about dirty dishes whence paperwork indicates that he was
00:54:35
terminated for missing work went went on to work just sporadically after that well that's great you know III don't
00:54:43
show up for work and now I want you to take me back please take me back I want to come back to work but you didn't show
00:54:49
up to work oh please take me back ridiculous but not only that it sounds like he was like impossible to get along
00:54:57
with right when he did show up and then when he shows up everybody's going hey look the [ __ ] showed up no yeah yeah
00:55:03
we would have rather you not show up yeah I wasn't like he's gonna hey take me back and then they're going hey when
00:55:08
he shows up he's a hard worker all his co-workers like working with him it's like he doesn't show up and when he does
00:55:14
show up yeah he's douchebag so when actually had a somewhat long and somewhat violent
00:55:21
criminal history so this is why his DNA was registered in CODIS and came up right away when law enforcement ran his
00:55:29
DNA in the database after the murders the stuff that was found on the crust in 2009 he was convicted in New York of
00:55:37
assaulting a girlfriend in 2010 he pled guilty to malicious destruction of property after he threatened to kill a
00:55:44
woman and her infant breaking into her apartment stealing a TV and vandalizing her car he told the woman that he was
00:55:54
quote good with a knife and was not afraid of police he was sentenced to 60 days plus probation
00:56:01
seems like a little bit of a light sentence yeah you think also in 2010 he was arrested for sitting on a dumpster
00:56:08
while holding a two-foot-long machete and a BB gun this at a gas station this was pled down to possession of an
00:56:17
open container of alcohol I think the way that this story goes is he was drunk and being I can't say being violent but
00:56:25
being very threatening to people in the area as he sat on this dumpster refusing
00:56:29
to leave went also had a four previous arrests from New York State including multiple cases of assault harassment and
00:56:36
violating an order of protection records and Maryland's show that in the mid-2000s he punched a house mate over
00:56:44
loud music and threatened to drop a woman over a parking spot that's this is a this is a this is a violent aggressive
00:56:54
guy this guy's a awful piece of [ __ ] yeah the car hey that's my parking spot I'll drop you well and then in March so
00:57:04
this is March 23rd 2015 the same year as the murders right went was arrested in DC for receiving stolen property he was
00:57:12
pulled over in a blue minivan that wasn't registered at the time of that arrest he provided a false name to
00:57:20
police and he used the name of one of his half-brothers Stefan went just can't even just make up a name you have to use
00:57:30
one of your brother's names that's awful so it's easy to see a couple of items that are important to this case one he
00:57:40
had a lengthy record and that's why his DNA was already listed and registered with CODIS that's how they made the
00:57:48
match when they found his DNA at the crime scene of the quadruple homicide right the other thing that we should
00:57:55
point out here too is that given his arrest record they weren't going to renew his green card
00:58:09
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then be good be kind don't [Music] [Applause] [Music]