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Israel’s Son /// Part 1 /// 663

November 16, 2023 / 52:09

This episode covers the brutal murders of the Bassett family in McClary, Washington, committed by teenagers Nicolas McDonald and Brian Bassett. The hosts discuss the events leading up to the murders, including the troubled backgrounds of the perpetrators and the details of the crime itself.

On August 11, 1995, 17-year-old Nicolas McDonald walked into a police station in Grants Pass, Oregon, to confess to witnessing and participating in the murders of Brian Bassett's family. The episode details how McDonald and Bassett planned the attack, which resulted in the deaths of Brian's parents, Michael and Wendy, and his younger brother, Austin.

The hosts describe the chilling confession McDonald gave to the police, including the premeditated nature of the crime and the horrific actions taken against the Bassett family. They discuss the dynamics between the teenagers and the Bassett family, including Brian's troubled relationship with his parents.

The episode also touches on the aftermath of the murders, including the police investigation and the community's reaction to the tragic events. The hosts reflect on the psychological aspects of the case and the factors that may have contributed to the boys' violent actions.

Listeners are left with a deeper understanding of this tragic case, the motivations behind the crime, and the impact it had on the small community of McClary.

TLDR

Teenagers Nicolas McDonald and Brian Bassett commit a brutal triple murder of Brian's family in 1995, leading to chilling confessions and community shock.

Episode

52:09
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welcome to True Crime garage wherever you are whatever you are doing thanks for listening I'm your host Nick and
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garage and that is enough for the business all right everybody gather around grab a chair grab a beer let's
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talk some true [Music] [Music] crime on the morning of Friday August 11th 1995 in Grant's Pass Oregon a young man
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walked into the police station he was disheveled he appeared to be very tired and dirty he said to the attendant at
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the for service desk that he needed to speak with the police officer he then took a seat in one of those chairs near
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the little window that separates wkins from the nice lady at the desk on the other side he waited briefly and then an
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officer appeared and asked the young man what is it that you would like to report
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what the young man had to say was going to take much more work than just another
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incident report he started to tell the officer about last night the officer quickly walked the young man back into
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the office portion of the police station he took the young man to a small interview room inside there was a small
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table three chairs and nothing else the officer gestured toward one of the chairs and told the young man to have a
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seat then he asked him if he would like something to drink maybe a water or soda
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or perhaps something stronger like a coffee the young man replied soda followed by a simple thank you the
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officer left the room and closed the door by behind him the young man could hear the door click in a manner that
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suggested that he would not be able to just stand up and walk out of the room this door would need to be opened from
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the outside there were no windows to the outside world in this little room but instead one small reinforced window that
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looked out into the small white hallway that the two had just passed through on their way to the interview room the
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young man could see the officer talking with two men through the shatterproof window the two men were not in uniform
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they were in suits both sporting big wide Ties That stretched the length from their necks down to their belt buckles
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at first the men in the suits look confused and then they both nodded their heads
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simultaneously the group of men then quickly broke from their huddle the officer and one of the suits turned and
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moved in the direction that the young man had just come from the other suit turned turned toward the door then the
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young man heard the click of the door and it opened up a tall man in a suit introduced himself he's a detective and
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said that the officer will be back in a minute with a soda followed by I hope Dr
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Pepper is okay the detective closed the door he moved one of the chairs so now there is
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a chair on each of three sides of the small table the detective sat down directly across from the young man and
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said sir I understand you are here to tell us about something that happened the young
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man agreed the door clicked again and opened this time it was a woman entering the room the room seemed to shrink
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smaller every time someone entered the woman was wearing a pants suit she was holding a clipboard and a
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can of Dr Pepper she handed the soda can to the young man and sat down in the chair on the side at the table that
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separated the young man from the already seated tall male detective she said so tell us about last
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night the young man was 17-year-old Nicolas McDonald he repeated the statement that he had made to the
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officer just minutes earlier that led him to where he was now seated and nervous in a tiny room with two
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detectives he said that last night he witnessed and participated in a murder and everything that he was going to tell
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them took place just a few hours before the 17-year-old would go on to tell detectives how he watched and
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participated in three murders three brutal murders that were committed by he and his best friend and
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now Blood Brother Brian this is Israel son the beset family murders and this is true crime
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garage [Music] where we pick up our story Captain it's Friday morning between the hours of 8:00
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a.m. and 9:00 a.m. going into the afternoon the police at Grant's Pass are going to have their hands full here we
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have this young man who sits ready to open up one horrific can of worms and the story that 17-year-old Nicolas
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McDonald had to tell went something like this it all started late Thursday night
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with a plan for premeditated murder he implicated his 16-year-old best friend Brian bassette as The Mastermind for
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this plan in fact he had not known that Brian would be even capable of such evil
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Deeds he said his friend had been kicked out of his parents house for some time this was due to several reasons but for
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now we will call it behavior problems he continued saying that he and Brian bassette went to Brian's parents home
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this was at approximately 12:30 in the morning the plan was to break into Brian's parents house this is a
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two-story home McDonald said that they cut the phone lines to the house and this was planned before they got there
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then he watched as Brian climbed a ladder up to the second story where Brian would gain access to the house via
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a second floor bedroom window I believe this may be Brian's old bedroom that he's climbing into this is meant to be a
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home that would be occupied by five people so we have Brian's parents which are 42-year-old Michael bassette
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40-year-old Wendy bassette and one of Brian's older sisters 18-year-old Stephanie and Brian's brother which is
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5-year-old Austin but on this night there would only be three people occupying that house as we said Brian he
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had been kicked out of the house and his sister Stephanie who's 18 she was away thankfully she was out of town for a
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softball tournament so on this night there were three members of the bassette family occupying the home and one member
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of the family climbing up a ladder seeking revenge in its coldest of forms McDonald says that he waited
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anxiously outside where he heard shouting then he heard gunshots then silence and then he heard more gunshots
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then once again silence seconds later his friend Brian was outside in a voice that could only be described as some
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kind of hushed shouting Brian explained that he needed McDonald to come inside saying I shot him meaning his dad I shot
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him my dad but he is still alive I'm not sure about my mom but I need you to go inside and finish them off Nicolas went
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into the home as he was walking through the home he saw blood and he could smell
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the gunpowder Brian told him that after he entered the house his father Michael confronted him they argued before Brian
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fired shots at his father Brian said he was able to hit his father with several of these shots Michael the father
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staggered outside of the room and then fell the shots must have alerted his mother because his mom Wendy came
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charging up the stairs with the baseball bat in her hands without even one single
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second thought he then turned the gun on her and fired several times now Brian and McDonald reach the room where
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Brian's parents Lay Dying to their surprise Brian's brother Austin was in the room he was kneeling with his hands
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pressed up against the bodies of his parents he was attempting to shake them he must have thought that they were
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sleeping or something of course Austin is crying and he's now covered in blood it's hard for me to decide here Captain
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if Brian had thought this part through right I think that he and McDonald went there went to the home with the
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intention of killing the parents and a general plan to carry that out but I wonder and could not find confirmation
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of such did they know going to the house or did they know when they were creating
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this plan that they were just going to kill whoever else was there it seems like the conflicts that he was having
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was just with his parents not his family and obviously his brother is very little
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so what kind of conflicts would you be having with him anyways right and then you have to wonder too Stephanie's not
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there that night did right did he go there on this night because he knew his sister was gone or because he had been
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kicked out of the house he's been out for some time there's conflicting reports on how long he had been kicked
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out of the house you have to have then wondered would he have even known this Stephanie would not be home that night
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and again whoever happens to be there is who could end up being a victim that night right because there are some pre-
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offense behaviors that suggest that maybe the only intent was to kill mom and dad but
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there are some post- offense behaviors and actions of the killers that I believe indicate otherwise and we can
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get into that post- offense Behavior after we get through the rest of McDonald's confession here now one of
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the pre- offense behaviors is the attempt to muffle the sound of The Gunshot so this is an
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indicator to me there there there's conflicting reports okay one thing I could not figure out and even after
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going through the trial and some of the transcripts that were available for the actual trials that that would take place
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much later some information states that they went there with the intention to kill the parents
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and to steal belongings and one of those items may have been a gun possibly the gun that was used to kill the parents to
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shoot the parents that night other sources state that they went there with the gun now one thing that is not in
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question is the this little fact that they were going to use a soda bottle as some type of silencer or
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suppressor so this would be to muffle the sounds of the gunshots yeah the fact that they're going to use some man-made
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concoction to try to silence the gunfire and makes it seem more likely to me that
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they would have done this elsewhere and then brought the gun to the crime scene the way that this is typically done is
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you take a 2 L plastic bottle or one of those 20 oz plastic soda bottles yeah little sod
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pop and you cut the bottom of it off and you can fasten the bottle to your gun to
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the barrel at the end of the barrel of your gun and a lot of times what I saw online pictures online where people had
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just duct taped the the bottle to the gun I mean this sounds like something out of the Anarchist Cookbook here but
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from the videos that I viewed on YouTube when people would do this because it's always been some kind of myth that this
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actually works as a silencer which you know from our our episode when we talked about the the still unsolved murder up
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in in Michigan right that the the killer comes in with a suppressor we had suggested maybe that was linked to a
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case that took place about five or six months prior where somebody stole suppressors and guns from a a local
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Sporting Goods store right we learned when we covered that case that in order to get a silencer or a suppressor you
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have to request one you have to buy what it's it's a stamp right and you buy the
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stamp from the uh ATF so you get the stamp and then it's it's you you have to purchase the
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silencer but you also have to purchase basically a license to have that particular silencer meaning that at any
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time the ATF can knock on your door and say we want to see your silencer produce
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it now because you're not allowed to just gift it to somebody or sell it to somebody and we thought in that case
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maybe if you could find the gun or if if that killer believed that a silencer was
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needed to carry that out because he goes into a business shoots the attendant they're connected to other businesses
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they're sharing walls at this Plaza right so here you have people that are trying to sidestep that right they don't
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want to be tied to a silencer they don't want the government knowing that they purchased a a suppressor and a lot of
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times you have to wait a a long a lengthy period of time before you're granted permission to buy the
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silencer so people have tried to figure out how can they build their own and I'm
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sure there's other ways to create one but this is a seem to be some kind of popular method probably amongst the
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Dumber parts of our communities um because from what I could see Captain on YouTube it doesn't work at all it does
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not suppress the sound of The Gunshot at all well yeah the the Dumber part of the
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community or just the naive part of the community again we have to remember that
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it's a 16 and 17year old that are planning to take out one of their families and and this is not even a
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tragedy aside this is not even really that great of a plan in in in my humble garage opinion here okay back to back to
00:19:07
the scene as said upon entering the home with Brian McDonald found bassett's parents lying there with their child
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Austin he's crying he's touching the parents in an apparent effort to Rouse them Brian told the little boy his his
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little brother that because he was all dirty covered in blood that he would need to take a bath so Brian convinced
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the boy to leave the room but before he left Brian points to his father and said
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look he's still breathing so McDonald says that he could hear something something faint it sounded like air a
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breath in and a breath out but the noise was not coming from where I guess McDonald would
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expect it to he then says that the the noise was coming from Michael's chest yeah probably coming from a bullet hole
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so he's still alive he's still breathing the air going in and out through a hole
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in his chest nicholos McDonald says to the detectives that he shot Michael once in the head with Brian bassett's gun but
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claiming that he did so only to end Michael's suffering and he also states that Wendy
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was not breathing now how many times do we get a confession well we get multiple
00:20:27
confessions from McDonald so he he's going to confess in Grant's Pass he'll have to be shipped back to the state of
00:20:37
Washington for charges there you know this and and the listeners know this a lot of times when somebody goes to
00:20:43
confess they try to distance themselves from from the actual crime well and you know that's one reason why when we
00:20:52
review unsolved cases and it's clear to us that more than than one person was involved that's
00:21:00
why I always go on that I stand up on the soap box and shout it from the Mountaintop and tell people out there
00:21:07
listening if you're listening to this and you were involved you were one of the people involved you should be be
00:21:13
smart be the first one to pick up the phone or to walk into a police station and tell them what happened because you
00:21:20
know just like with our history books you know when there's when there's a war guess who gets to write the history of
00:21:26
that war the winner the the Victor gets to write the history books and that's how it was and that's how it is you get
00:21:36
their perspective and they can sugarcoat things however they want well same in this scenario if you speak first and law
00:21:46
enforcement believes you and you can you can back up some of your statements what you say becomes how it
00:21:54
went down and that's why I always say if you're involved in something especially nowadays we're talking about
00:22:01
the the Golden Age of DNA and solving cases cold cases a lot of times if they got the evidence what we're seeing today
00:22:08
is that it's it's only a matter of time before they make the arrest and charge you be the first one to to create The
00:22:14
Narrative of how it went down and who's responsible for what right because this is how it goes down the criminal then
00:22:20
goes to detectives or law enforcement they strike up a deal or basically say hey confess to us and then
00:22:29
we'll work this out the detectives are the ones that feed the information to the
00:22:34
prosecution so then to feed that information to the prosecution they will tend to protect
00:22:41
the person that gave the confession obvious I mean obviously if there's more than one more than one
00:22:49
perpetrator well this is a very intriguing case and a very intriguing True Crime Story But as the listeners
00:22:57
have already figured out there's not a ton of mystery here and what we're going to see is when this does go to trial
00:23:06
we're going to have two guys committed these crimes together these murders together but one will be charged
00:23:13
differently than the other right we can get into some of the confession stuff and the the way that that's going to
00:23:19
work and play out as after we get through the confession here so we now have according to our Confessor
00:23:28
where we're at in our story is that that unfortunately Michael and Wendy have both been killed McDonald implicating
00:23:36
himself as being involved directly involved in Michael's death if you're sensitive you're probably not listening
00:23:42
to this show but if if if you are you might want to skip ahead about 30 seconds or 40 seconds well I'm very
00:23:49
sensitive you pray because this is when this horrible horrible situation just gets even worse
00:23:57
if you can even imagine imagine it getting worse it it here here it goes um Nichol McDonald said that when he left
00:24:04
the room uh he believed that both of the parents were dead by this point and then
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he walked he went into the bathroom this is where he finds Brian with his little
00:24:14
brother Austin Brian according to McDonald had filled up the bathtub with with water Austin had stripped off his
00:24:23
bloody clothes and according to McDonald now Brian has the gun and it was he McDonald that was going to have to kill
00:24:33
the boy McDonald told the detectives that quote he then went into the bathroom and that bassette was waiting
00:24:40
just outside the door and that he feared Basset would shoot him so he held the boy under the water face down until he
00:24:48
drowned horrific stuff what do we think of this confession so far here Captain like I was saying before normally when
00:24:54
the person is confessing they start and and you can see in his initial part of the story I well I didn't even enter
00:25:03
the house I entered the house after the crime and the murders already were taken
00:25:11
place and then he obviously shows his involvement with the killing of the father but this is where I think you'd
00:25:21
have to believe him more is because he then tells you well I I drown the little brother and um but I mean just it's
00:25:33
horrific let's just be honest we we're all teenagers at one point we all struggle maybe not all of us but I know
00:25:45
me and you did you struggle with authority figures a little bit and who's the number one authority figures in your
00:25:51
life your parents and there's a part of you that it's like just get off my back don't tell me what to do I don't I don't
00:25:59
need your advice I'm going to live my life I want to hang out with my friends but and I've known friends of mine that
00:26:08
it's gotten really intense and and and over the line as far as their relationship with their
00:26:16
parents G I was lucky that that never took place never got to that level with with my parents where they kicked me out
00:26:25
of the house or that I was basically like living on my own or living on the streets but you could understand why
00:26:32
somebody would be upset with their parents but to want to harm them to want to murder them it
00:26:41
just it doesn't make a lot of sense no no sense at all it's incredibly difficult to try to wrap your head
00:26:48
around this situation and of course this confession that they've heard so far is
00:26:55
going to spring board several actions in into play that will have a domino effect
00:27:00
right first things first there is one fast way you you need to confirm if this story is true because it's not every day
00:27:09
thank God that some kid just walks into a police station and says hey me and my friend we just killed three people so
00:27:16
now you have to do two things that you need to sort out really quickly one he's saying that he did not do this alone so
00:27:23
you need to go find the other killer two you need to locate the people that he is
00:27:29
talking about to see one if either they are perfectly fine and this kid is lying
00:27:35
or or just out of his mind or locate their bodies and go through the crime scene and build a case against the the
00:27:45
Confessor McDonald tells the police that he drove off on his own with the bodies of
00:27:54
Michael and Austin and that he hid their bodies along a Logging Road which was about 3 miles from the home from the
00:28:02
murder house he also helped Brian hide Wendy's body in the pump house that was adjoining their home I believe this was
00:28:11
for a well and that both of them clean the house after the murders to try to conceal evidence of the
00:28:19
killings then they take Brian's parents van and they take off [Music] this show is sponsored by better help do
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[Music] 2023 all right we are back thanks for joining us here in the garage thanks for
00:31:24
sharing these cases on social media it keeps the show going Colonel cheers to you cheers to you captain and cheers
00:31:33
to all the people that have already bought their tickets for The Brew doog live event coming up April 29th my
00:31:40
birthday bash yeah if you're going to be attending this is the captain's Birthday
00:31:45
Bash we will be celebrating together and the event includes your ticket includes
00:31:52
a beer tasting with yours truly with the colonel and the captain so we'll all get
00:31:56
a a little crispy together make sure you have a meal beforehand don't have a bunch of drinks before you sit down
00:32:03
because we'll have some drinks during the show and we can't wait to see all of you April 29th yeah and if you haven't
00:32:09
been to this Brew dog location it's absolutely fabulous and you're going to love the location so you might want to
00:32:16
get there early you can eat there you can have dinner there uh it's a incredible location you'll want to hang
00:32:22
out there there's games to play my favorite recreational game pin they got plenty of good pinball machines there
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and we will well do you know why you like pinball because I'm a pinball wizard cuz you're a pin head that's
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right uh and we and we want to hang out after the show and have a beer with you guys as well so hope to see you there
00:32:41
April 29th if you're looking for a ticket I believe there's still some available on our website on the store
00:32:49
Page wouldn't that be mean if we said hey come join us and then they go all sold out if it is my apologies later
00:32:56
that morning th see this is what's strange to me there's a lot of a lot of strange parts of this case but
00:33:04
thankfully this Nicolas McDonald seems to to grow a a heart you know like the Grinch
00:33:13
he's got a tiny little heart and then it grew bigger it's a normal size and he he
00:33:17
feels some remorse obviously because he walks into the police station confesses to what just took place hours before and
00:33:27
keep in mind the reason why the confession I think is it's it's a complete 180 you know life turns on a
00:33:33
dime sometimes without notice and what we have is just just hours earlier he and his friend are going to
00:33:41
Great Lengths and great efforts to conceal the triple homicide that they just committed and now he's walking into
00:33:49
the police station in Grant's Pass Oregon and implicated his 16-year-old friend Brian bassette in the shooting
00:33:56
deaths of of Brian bassett's parents so Grant's Pass police they then notify Gray's Harbor County the the two killers
00:34:08
are not from this area where he's at confessing right so they notify Grace Harbor County Sheriff's officers who
00:34:16
then discover the bodies on Friday afternoon that afternoon his accomplice Brian bassette police find Brian
00:34:24
bassette exactly where McDonald tells them they will find him he leads police to Brian who is sleeping in the van in
00:34:33
his parents' van that they stole after committing the murders at a gas station that is basically across the street from
00:34:40
the the police station I was hoping that you're going to say that he was sleeping
00:34:43
in the van down by the river but like you said they're confessing to this crime but not where the crime took place
00:34:50
locally so they're going to have to call in the local law enforcement to handle this case yeah that's right they are
00:34:57
from some tiny city called mlar which is in Gray's Harbor county or gray Harbor County excuse me Washington
00:35:05
the population there in 1995 when our case took place is roughly 1,200 people and this is like a beautiful small
00:35:16
wonderful Community Law Enforcement and now this profess and confessed killer are sitting in a room at Grant's Pass
00:35:25
police station about 300 70 miles south of McClary in the great state of Oregon that's a six-hour drive from where they
00:35:34
committed these crimes mlar is a small City not just in population but in size as well it's described as a western
00:35:41
Washington town just a few blocks long right from what I could find Captain it looks like McClary is just
00:35:48
2.05 square miles and to give you an idea of the location McClary is about 80 miles Southwest of Seattle following I5
00:36:00
Brian and McDonald were brought back from Oregon to Washington on that Saturday so they commit the murders very
00:36:09
early Friday morning by 8 to 9:00 a.m. McDonald's in the Grant Pass police station confessing to the crimes they
00:36:20
arrest Brian they find the bodies and by Saturday the following day they are trans exporting the two suspects back to
00:36:31
Washington following this unfortunately we have the funeral for three members of
00:36:37
the betet family most people in the town of 1200 knew the besets and more than half
00:36:45
of the city turned out for the funeral again both murderers are young 16 and 17 so you have the 17-year-old confessing
00:36:54
then they bring in Brian the 16 16-year-old it's it was his family that they killed you'd think that they'd be
00:37:02
it'd be pretty easy for them to get him to confess as well well and that's why I
00:37:07
think that we have multiple confessions from McDonald because when they arrest Brian you know they're telling him like
00:37:18
look your friend told us everything that that you guys did right and oh yeah we found the gun we found the bodies uh we
00:37:25
found the the we gone through the scene and so I'm sure Brian told them some other version of the same story right
00:37:35
and then you go back to McDonald and say okay well you know a lot of what you're
00:37:39
saying checks out but some of it does not uh let's go through this again and so you go through it a few times with
00:37:46
each of the suspects to try to sort out what in the end you believe ultimately happened and how and what the
00:37:54
prosecutors are going to attempt to charge and convict both of these people with well and it gets more complicated
00:38:03
too again because of their age for our victims here we have Austin who was remembered as a bright and Charming
00:38:09
little boy who helped his grandmother plant zucchini in the summer leading up to the
00:38:15
night in question and he was known to jump from lap to lap at ball games when he was in attendance watching uh ball
00:38:25
games because we have older siblings who participated in sports after the funeral
00:38:30
service 18-year-old Stephanie bassette who lived at the at the betet family home and through the grace of God just
00:38:38
happened not to be there that night she held a rose and a flag at the after the service as she
00:38:46
cried and smiled graciously accepting condolences and hugs from dozens and dozens of family friends the only direct
00:38:55
mention of Brian at the funeral or at the services came when someone read a list of survivors I
00:39:03
thought you going to say when somebody read a list of pieces of [ __ ] so other than that he was not discussed at this
00:39:09
service and rightfully so the bassette family they were buried in wooden caskets with Austin sharing a casket
00:39:17
with his his mother the victims as we said were Michael Allen Basset born 1951 Wendy Gil lamb bassette date of birth
00:39:26
August 12 1954 so she was killed by her son the day before her 41st birthday and
00:39:34
we have the little boy Austin Edward bassette born in 1989 he was just 5 years old the bassets had been together
00:39:42
and experienced over 20 years of marriage together and it sounds like they were still very much in love they
00:39:49
wrote little love notes to each other often Michael worked for the Simpson Timber Company in Shelton he was very
00:39:59
active in Youth Sports he coached t-ball and little league over the years he refereed grade and high school
00:40:05
basketball games he played slow pitch softball he was a graduate of Elma High School this is where he met his future
00:40:13
wife Wendy Wendy was a former dental hygienist before being a homemaker she sold crafts and babysat for extra money
00:40:22
they had five kids three daughters we mentioned Stephanie 18 who was out of town for a softball tournament at the
00:40:29
time of the killings two older girls two older daughters who were grown women and
00:40:35
out of the house by 1995 and did not live with them little Austin loved Barry picking and named his
00:40:43
this is like heartbreaking and sad and cute all at the same time he named his dogs and cats after friends of his uh
00:40:51
from from school yeah I mean in these cases it's it's when you have um whether it's a school shooter or you
00:41:01
have a teenager that harms a friend or harms his family the question always becomes
00:41:07
nature or nurture and in this situation you have a family that had five children
00:41:16
and it seems like all the other children other than Brian were were good people yeah and what it looks like to me is you
00:41:26
have this kind of snake eating itself situation right the snake eating its tail where it looks to me like when
00:41:35
Brian would get in trouble for some like he was starting to go down the wrong path and when he would get in trouble
00:41:40
for something his his reaction was to push back against mom and dad for punishing him and this creates this
00:41:51
this scenario where he's always in trouble and elevating the consequence quences for his actions because he's
00:41:58
he's just constantly fighting back against the authority right so our perpetrators Brian Michael bassette age
00:42:09
16 and Nicolas James McDonald age 17 some sources say that McDonald was 18 I believe that is because he was 18 by the
00:42:18
time this thing went to trial friends and family say Brian was a quiet and shy kid average student he went to Elma High
00:42:27
School where his parents went faculty there say that they saw no evidence of anger with this kid but he did drop out
00:42:35
of of high school so there there would be a period of time that they The Faculty would not have known or had
00:42:43
interaction with with Brian the principal at elah high said that he checked Brian's records and found no
00:42:51
disciplinary actions except truancy and he said said he didn't seem to enjoy school and dropped out last
00:42:59
April the the homicides took place in August Michael keading this was Brian's biology teacher said that Brian was a
00:43:08
decent student quote I was amazed he could keep up with his studies despite his treny problems end quote so he he
00:43:16
didn't sounds like he didn't show up a lot but when he did he was able to do the work get passing grades right about
00:43:23
a year before the murders Brian started Chang ing this is according to friends of the family mhm and according to
00:43:30
Wendy's brother-in-law Brian's mother's brother-in-law Ed Olen he said that Brian started hanging out with the wrong
00:43:38
crowd and this wrong crowd included McDonald Michelle Brown dated Brian for about a month this was about a year
00:43:46
before the murders she's quoted in some newspaper articles as talking about Brian one thing she said that she broke
00:43:55
up with Brian when he started getting into alcohol and she says that he got into alcohol real
00:44:01
bad so bad that on one occasion Brian had to be hospitalized for alcohol poison we also wonder what's going on
00:44:07
with his mental state you know again chicken or the egg is he having some mental issues that he starts
00:44:14
self-medicating or just oh I'm I'm a teenager I'm going to experiment with uh drugs or alcohol and then that causes
00:44:25
mental issues and and sometimes it's both right and uh and the person doesn't even know what they're doing but again
00:44:34
this is this is interesting here I think because she says that they broke up about a year before I don't know how
00:44:42
much interaction or what their relationship was after the breakup but she does state that he had a lot of
00:44:51
anger towards his parents but she says she never knew why never understood why so this is somebody that likely met his
00:44:59
parents and does not agree with whatever Brian you know the the the anger and we
00:45:05
can even say the word hate toward his parents I think that he was expressing to her and to others yeah I think hate
00:45:13
would be the appropriate term Wendy's brother-in-law Ed Olen said that Brian's Behavior had gotten so violent in the
00:45:20
weeks leading up to the murders that Wendy started sleeping with a baseball bat next to her bed well you know like
00:45:27
you said when the conflict was was happening evidence of this evidence of his story being true is she came after
00:45:37
her son with a baseball bat yeah and Wendy's mom said that quote they tried to get help they tried to get counseling
00:45:44
and even asked the sheriff's department if they could put him meaning Brian in juvenile hall right nothing was working
00:45:51
so they kicked him out of the house now there are some conflicting reports here Captain some say that the parents kicked
00:45:57
Brian out of the house about a week before the murders because of his increasingly violent Behavior but other
00:46:05
reports state that he was kicked out weeks before and one statement that was made this is according to several
00:46:14
friends and family that Brian actually threatened to kill his parents the week before the actual murders right not
00:46:21
knowing the story firsthand experiencing any of this firsthand I think Brian likeley was kicked out several weeks in
00:46:29
advance and you know how these things were I think he was actually kicked out multiple times yeah I sometimes you're
00:46:35
kicked out and then you're let back in and then you're kicked out again um this is what we' call uh escalation as uh
00:46:41
Dave Chappelle would say a habitual Lin stepper right so well and it's weird though too because I I don't know if
00:46:48
you've saw this in reports but it seemed like Brian occasionally was like staying
00:46:54
in their shed like when he couldn't figure out where to go and not wanting to deal with his parents or not knowing
00:47:02
how to deal with his parents he would just camp out in their shed well and I'm using air quotes here uh he would break
00:47:10
into the house that's why I think he might have been out for multiple weeks leading up to the murders because
00:47:17
there's a report that the week prior the week before the murders he broke into his parents' home this was when so the
00:47:27
family went on a vacation that week that would make sense because there's no school at this
00:47:33
time they go on vacation but his sister who's 18 stayed at the house I don't know if she had things to do with
00:47:41
softball or with friends or what have you but she stays at the house and that's how they know that he broke into
00:47:47
the house because she's able to report that that he broke into the house the week before and so this method of using
00:47:54
the ladder to climb up to the Second Story window I think was something that he had done multiple times now when we
00:48:01
talk about how long had he had been kicked out of the house or Outdoors I'm wondering if part of this stemmed from a
00:48:08
report that I found that said that he broke into his grandmother's house and stole a gun and remember we're talking
00:48:14
about the parents the the parents are telling people like we kick him out because he's violent he's hostile we're
00:48:20
afraid of him are they afraid of him because they know that he stole a gun from one of their one of their parents'
00:48:27
homes yeah and like you said he was making threats I mean this is this would be a very difficult situation for any
00:48:33
parent you want to protect your kid but now you have to protect your wife you got to protect your youngest son or
00:48:39
you're going to try to because your teenage son is threatening everybody but how very Joey Potter of him to have that
00:48:46
ladder go up to the Second Story and so he can climb into Dawson's window right and I mean you can kind of take a look
00:48:54
at this and see it from his perspective he probably thought that he was unjustly kicked out of his parents' home
00:49:01
which I mean nobody wants violence in their home but you don't want to be looking over your shoulder in your own
00:49:08
house because you're afraid of your violent teenage son yeah you're your violent douche muffin Vienna Seymour
00:49:16
this is a friend of the betet family she was asked about Brian's increasingly outof control behavior and she had this
00:49:24
to say quote it was a known fact he was a little out of control but there's out of control and then there's killing your
00:49:32
parents end quote Nicolas McDonald aged 17 moved to the town of McClary from Illinois I believe it was a year or two
00:49:44
before the murders took place so I don't think he was there a great deal of time
00:49:48
but I could not confirm when he when he moved to McClary he too was a high school drop out Mark keading biology
00:49:58
teacher said of McDonald quote he was a good kid and I liked him I saw him about
00:50:04
a week ago and he had a job in a local restaurant and talked about saving money to buy a car he seemed happy end quote
00:50:11
he had gone to an alternative school after he dropped out and earned his high school equivalency diploma Pat Boden a
00:50:20
betet family friend who used to work with McDonald said quote Nicolas was a strange kid with a bad reputation in
00:50:28
town some Reports say that the two were friends and some Reports say that they were boyfriends that there was something
00:50:35
else going on with the relationship between McDonald and Brian [Music] B so much more to get to in this case
00:50:52
please join us back here in the garage same B time same B Channel and until then be good be kind and don't
00:51:00
[Music] [Applause] litter is it possible to predict the unpredictable could surgeons use a
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Badges

This episode stands out for the following:

  • 90
    Most heartbreaking
  • 85
    Most shocking
  • 80
    Most intense
  • 80
    Most unpredictable

Episode Highlights

  • A Young Man's Confession
    17-year-old Nicolas McDonald confesses to witnessing and participating in a murder.
    “I shot him, my dad, but he is still alive.”
    @ 11m 36s
    November 16, 2023
  • A Confession Unfolds
    Nicolas McDonald confesses to a horrific crime, implicating his friend Brian Bassette.
    “He walked into the police station and confessed.”
    @ 33m 21s
    November 16, 2023
  • Family Tragedy
    The funeral for the Bassette family draws a large crowd, highlighting their community ties.
    “More than half of the city turned out for the funeral.”
    @ 36m 45s
    November 16, 2023
  • Escalating Violence
    Brian's violent behavior leads to family turmoil and ultimately, tragedy.
    “They tried to get help, but nothing was working.”
    @ 45m 44s
    November 16, 2023
  • Brian's Troubled Behavior
    Friends and family describe Brian's increasingly violent and out-of-control behavior before the murders.
    “It was a known fact he was a little out of control.”
    @ 49m 24s
    November 16, 2023
  • Nicolas McDonald's Background
    Nicolas McDonald, a recent arrival in town, had a troubled past and was a high school dropout.
    “He seemed happy.”
    @ 50m 08s
    November 16, 2023
  • Complex Relationship
    Reports suggest a complicated relationship between Nicolas McDonald and Brian, with rumors of friendship or more.
    “Nicolas was a strange kid with a bad reputation in town.”
    @ 50m 25s
    November 16, 2023

Episode Quotes

  • Every day we're doing what's never been done.
    Israel’s Son /// Part 1 /// 663
  • I shot him, my dad, but he is still alive.
    Israel’s Son /// Part 1 /// 663
  • He's still breathing, the air going in and out through a hole in his chest.
    Israel’s Son /// Part 1 /// 663
  • He walked into the police station and confessed.
    Israel’s Son /// Part 1 /// 663
  • They tried to get help, but nothing was working.
    Israel’s Son /// Part 1 /// 663
  • It was a known fact he was a little out of control.
    Israel’s Son /// Part 1 /// 663

Key Moments

  • Murder Plan09:10
  • Confession11:36
  • Horrific Scene19:10
  • Horrific Confession24:48
  • Family Funeral36:41
  • Escalating Conflict46:41
  • New Arrival49:48
  • Strange Reputation50:25

Words per Minute Over Time

Vibes Breakdown