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Bodies in the Basement /// Part 1 /// 466

November 16, 2023 / 01:05:13

This episode of True Crime Garage covers the investigation into the disappearances of two teenage boys, James Regani and Michael Dennis, in Hammond, Indiana. The episode features K9 detective Dale Bach, who was involved in the search for the missing boys, and the eventual discovery of their bodies buried in concrete. The episode discusses the role of David Edward Mouse, also known as Crazy Dave, who was implicated in the murders.

The investigation began when the boys' parents reported them missing on September 10, 2003. They left vague runaway notes, which raised suspicions among law enforcement. Detectives learned that the boys had been hanging out with David Mouse, a man with a criminal history.

Detective Bach and his K9 were called to search a basement where the boys were believed to be. The dog indicated a specific area, leading to the discovery of concrete covering the bodies. The investigation revealed that Mouse had a history of violence and had previously been convicted of murder.

Mouse was arrested and confessed to the murders, claiming he acted alone but later implicated others. He was sentenced to three consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole. The episode highlights the tragic fate of the boys and the failures in the system that allowed Mouse to operate freely.

Listeners are encouraged to reflect on the importance of vigilance in their communities to prevent such tragedies from occurring.

TLDR

Two missing teens are found murdered in concrete, linked to David Mouse, a convicted murderer with a history of violence.

Episode

1:05:13
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called off the Record and that is enough of the business all right everybody gather around grab a
00:03:35
chair grab a beer let's talk some true [Music] [Music] crime [Music] [Music] I was working a giant schneer by the
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name of ammo and uh he was a cross train to be a cadabra dog was contacted by the Hammond
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Police Department and they took me to a house and they said that they uh had a suspect and they had several missing
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children in in the area missing boys in the area and they wanted to know if my dog could go into the basement of this
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house and conduct a search for him so I put the dog into the basement gave him this command to
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search and he went to a corner of the house in the back corner of the basement and he was trained to do what's called
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an aggressive response which is to scratch and you know like he's digging yeah and he didn't he didn't do that he
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went to the far corner of the house and just stood there and barked so I pulled him back out and I redirected him again
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to do a search and he went back to that corner and did nothing but bark so I uh told the hammer detective he's not
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trained to do that he's trained to give a an aggressive response however Prudence would dictate we better bust up
00:05:28
some concrete here and take a look because there's a reason why the dog won't leave the
00:05:32
spot so I cleared the area and about a week later I was contacted by the Hamond police to come back again went back to
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the exact same residence and what they had done is they had taken a drill and started tried to drill through the
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concrete and they discovered that they went down about 10 Ines and there was absolutely they were still solid
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concrete so uh they went back to the other side of the basement and did the same thing started a bore hole there
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went down about 68 inches and gave up so they asked me to send the dog again so I
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did and this time the dog went to the hole in the it would have been the uh southwest corner and he started
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scratching very aggressively so I pulled him off and the detective told me he said man I didn't get that on videotape
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can you do it again and I said sure so I got the dog back he got the videotape up
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I sent the dog and the dog instead of going back to that hole went to the other hole which would have been about
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halfway along the west wall and started scratching there so they got that on videotape so after that I told them that
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uh they should break up they have to break up the concrete now you know that we've got an an aggressive response so I
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cleared and I don't know about 3 Days Later 4 days later they contacted me again and sent me back
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to the same house this time when I got there they had a concrete expert who had determined
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that this guy had whoever the guy was who put this concrete in the basement had used bags and this was David MOS and
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he had used he had to use like some phenomenal amount like 80 bags of concrete or some phenomenal
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amount they also brought in a forensic entomologist who found evidence of coffin flies in the spiderwebs in the
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basement coffin flies are a species of fly that's indicative of Rotting Flesh but it doesn't have to be human it could
00:07:38
be chickens pigs beef anything like that but they did Def find they did find evidence of coffin flies in the
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spiderwebs in the basement okay the uh they also brought in a pathologist out of
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Indianapolis and what they had done is they determined that all across the back of the basement the concrete was 16 to
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18 in thick so they moved out out to where they could uh get a little bit the concrete was thinner where the older
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concrete was which only several inches and they broke a hole probably about the a circle about as big as a garbage can
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okay and uh they had me S the dog well as soon as I sent the dog the dog dove into the hole and started throwing dirt
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like crazy digging very aggressively so he pulled him out of the hole and uh once I got him up then the pathologist
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knelt down and started feeling underneath into the dirt and he felt he said what feels like a human leg joint
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knee joint encased in a plastic bag so they broke up the the concrete on the Southwest end and they discovered
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two bodies there that were wrapped in plastic and buried under 16 to 18 inches of
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concrete they then went to the west end where the or the North End of the West wall where the dog had made this second
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alert on the different hole and they broke that one up and they discovered the third body the third body was uh
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this guy had apparently had to fill a a bathtub full of a blue lead based paint and he had just had to continually dunk
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this body in this blue lead based paint because the the body was completely encased in paint about a half inch thick
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and then it was wrapped in plastic also I don't maybe that was something to try to keep this the smell down I have no
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idea idea what the what the paint was for and and I do remember that they found uh when they did x-rays they found
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things inserted into the bodies through the rectum like bottles or coat hangers or something I don't recall exactly
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what and up in the room they did discover a map with uh x's on it where he had we don't know but assumed that he
00:09:54
had gone to various places across the country on his way up from Texas and these is we don't know what they
00:10:04
[Music] meant the voice you just heard there in today's trailer is that of K9 detective
00:10:24
Dale Bach as you heard he was brought in to help a local law enforcement agency in Hammond Indiana to have his K9 search
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a home more specifically the basement of an apartment in this particular situation the K9 is acting in a cadav
00:10:44
search role brought in because the search for some missing teens led a Hammond Police Department detective to
00:10:53
that apartment so how exactly did we end up here in the basement of an apartment
00:11:00
in Northwest Indiana well the investigation started on September 10th 2003 when the phone rang at the police
00:11:09
department in Hammond Indiana a woman named Lynn Smith reported her 16-year-old son James regani was missing
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and I apologize if I did not pronounce that correctly it's Regan or regani I believe oddly enough another mother
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Holly gilkinson had also called and reported that her son too was missing her son is 13-year-old Michael Dennis he
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had not come home the night before okay we have two missing teens here Captain a
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guy James 16 another guy Michael he's 13 most of the time what this is going to say to Small Town Police is well we have
00:11:51
a situation where a teenage boy got fed up at home or maybe he's super rebellious and decided to run off for a
00:12:00
little bit yeah or he stayed over at a friend's house and forgot to tell his parents the problem with this situation
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is we have runaway notes that were left for the family to find the other problem
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that we have for law enforcement is look they're no dummies they're going wait a
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second two kids run away on the same day these two kids were friends and from what I could find there was no mention
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of oh I'm running away with James or I'm running away with Michael right but that's a possibility that law
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enforcement has to look at of course they're going to look at that situation and they're also going to wonder if in
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fact these two were runaways as said the boys's parents produced runaway notes from their sons which said that they had
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run off but these notes were very vague about where they were going there were a
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few different places listed in the short notes some people say runaway letter letters I've reviewed some of these
00:13:00
these are very short notes the Rani parents also received a voicemail from a phone number that was later traced back
00:13:09
to a rest area off of I65 near roson I do not have any details about what that voicemail was or who they believe the
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the voice was I I have to believe captain that they the voicemail came from their son or else it would have
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been highly suspicious from the get right now these notes we said they were vague
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well they were so the notes were simple they were as such I'm tired with the way
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things are at home I'm leaving I'm heading to Chicago sh Town um one note said I'm moving out to either California
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or maybe Washington State haven't decided yet I'll come back when I turn 18 so when you get your freedom you're
00:14:02
going to come back well if you are to believe that these kids ran away they're they're leaving the notes to make sure
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Mom and Dad don't think that they're dead and murdered right uh that they're showing enough care for their parents to
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let them know hey I took off here's the reasons why and here's some places that I might go one of the notes said that
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they were going to Texas the weird thing here Captain is I do not know how many notes were in the possession of the
00:14:32
parents when they made the calls that their sons were missing to begin with but what I do know happened was there
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were multiple notes left by both boys short little notes that they seem to like kind of hide around their homes
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like an Easter egg hunt that you know Mom would find one and then maybe a couple days later find another one
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that's that's very strange very strange and then second of all like let's to for
00:14:58
for sake of confusion do you know if these were like actual like full Pages or again these were very short notes
00:15:05
maybe a maybe a paragraph a couple sentences at at best but what I found incredibly strange and I'm sure this
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weirded out the parents big time is let's say that James left three different notes for his parents to find
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or that Michael left three different notes for his parents to find so to save everyone the confusion we'll just say
00:15:29
runaway notes a b and c right in each situation well when Mom would find runaway no a it would say hey i' I've
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been fed up I can't take it at home I don't like school I maybe I'm going to Chicago I'll call you in a couple months
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well then a few days later she finds runaway note B it kind of contradicts everything that
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was said in runaway note a where it's you know the the next note may say hey I've got a job out on the
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west coast all lined up I'm running way out there and I'll reach out to you when
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I turn 18 or I'll come back when I turn 18 so this is going to be weird one for the parents they got to be highly
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alarmed and two for law enforcement because if you are going to try to figure out where these boys went
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especially a situation with the 13-year-old Michael Dennis well law enforcement knows that these guys know
00:16:31
each other so I think once you find multiple notes at one location and then you find multiple notes at the other
00:16:37
location then you go hey these are connected somehow right and so then you now have to determine one did either of
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these boys go where they said they were going which there was communication sent
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from the Hammond PD out to these other jurisdictions but again it's very vague you can't just it's it's not easy to
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reach out to every jurisdiction in California or Washington State and say hey do you got anybody that matches this
00:17:04
description running around there right but we also don't know if the locations match up with each other what will be
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easier for the Hammond Police Department to determine is are these boys still in the area for
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any reason at all when kids are not getting along with parents they say that they're running away the first people
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you want to talk to in your investigation are these kids friends because kids tell their friends more
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than they tell Mom and Dad so police start asking around trying to determine whether these two boys were in fact
00:17:41
runaways or if something maybe happened to them or if they were still in the area they came across some kids who were
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buddies with the two missing boys they told them that Michael and James spent some time hanging around with an older
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guy in the neighborhood that summer this was a guy known as Crazy Dave locally in the neighborhood he's
00:18:06
known as Crazy Dave so not someone you want to hear your kids are hanging out with if you're parents of Dennis or
00:18:14
Michael yeah and is he like really crazy and spells it with a K what they are able to determine is these kids are
00:18:21
hanging out with this dude named Crazy Dave of course detectives want to figure out who the hell is Crazy Dave they
00:18:27
start asking ing around and they learned that crazy Dave's real name was David Edward
00:18:34
mous Michael Dennis had met Mouse at a community pool that summer oh my God no kid should ever meet a doll at a pool
00:18:44
well yes weird weird weird weird but the other thing that we need to teach our kids even and remind our
00:18:51
teenagers is there's no reason for adults and children to be friends there's no reason for adults and
00:19:00
children to for adults to give gifts to Children there's no reason for adults to
00:19:06
ask help from a child there's no reason for adults to ask a child to keep a secret these are all huge red flags now
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if we're talking about somebody that's friends with Mom and Dad you know there are some some ways to get around that
00:19:22
but in this specific situation get around that it makes seem like the person's trying to do something bad
00:19:28
there's plenty of people that are become mentors to you know younger but that's all stuff that you should share with Mom
00:19:36
and Dad right this isn't things that you should keep from your parents if if an adult is is a friend with a child or
00:19:45
asking a child for help asking a child to keep a secret or giving them gifts that needs to be shared with Mom and Dad
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because that's not something that should happen it's not something that's normal
00:19:56
right so what we have here is now detectives are going to return to the families of these missing boys and say
00:20:05
hey look this is what we've come up with so far some of the other kids have said
00:20:09
that they may have been hanging out with this older guy that that we know is Crazy Dave and we've now figured out his
00:20:16
real name is David Edward Mouse he spells crazy with a K and Dennis's mom Michael Dennis's mom Holly confirmed
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that her son did spend a lot of time with mouse she was aware of this saying that her son spent time with him and on
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one occasion he came home with a pair of new shoes that he said Dave gave to him
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and another time he came home with some stereo equipment maybe she was hopeful that it was like a Daniel Son Mr Miyagi
00:20:48
type relationship like they're just sitting around learning karate so these detectives learned that the boys like to
00:20:54
hang out at Mouse apartment this was on the second floor of a house located at 4933 Ash Street in Hammond
00:21:04
Indiana the people they spoke to said that they had been there six or seven times that the boys had been there about
00:21:12
six or seven times these other teenagers are telling police that Mouse would give
00:21:17
them beer cigarettes and money you know other teenagers had gone to this guy's apartment detectives ran David mous name
00:21:28
through the system and discovered that he had a record surprise surprise so they decided to pay a little visit to Mr
00:21:36
Crazy Dave Mouse and stopped by his apartment so detective Ron Johnson of the Hammond PD visited this David Mouse
00:21:46
at his place on September 18th he found Mr Mouse in the backyard smoking a cigarette and enjoying a beer Mouse did
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not seem nervous at all at the appearance or the arrival of the officer well to be fair he was buzzed and he
00:22:04
didn't feel nervous at all answering any questions in fact detective Ron Johnson
00:22:10
said mouse was extremely friendly and very courteous to the detective so much so that he permitted the detective to
00:22:19
look through his apartment you know a guy shows up with no warrant he says sure I got nothing to hide I can answer
00:22:25
all your questions go ahead and look through my apartment so the the detective is in there he's asking Mouse
00:22:30
questions opening closets and checking under beds and such but there was no sign of either of the missing boys at
00:22:39
the apartment well if you take a look at David he he looks like if you take Nick
00:22:44
NTI Nick NTI and the Ultimate Warrior had a baby that came out a little disheveled maybe drinks too much smokes
00:22:52
too much how could that baby not come out disheveled right that's that's what he looks like though so nevertheless
00:22:59
police fat neck he has a big fat neck too police remain suspicious of David Mouse who had just finished parole for a
00:23:07
previous crime and detective Johnson says he was even though this guy was nice answered all of his questions and
00:23:15
such he said I was suspicious of him right away and this is a judge a book by its cover situation because the
00:23:23
detective says straight out mouse was quote different and that boy's different when asked later well what do you mean
00:23:31
by different he says if you would have seen him you would have said he's different yeah almost looks like he's
00:23:38
stuck in the 80s well police staked out his place hoping to see some sign of these missing boys right that maybe
00:23:47
they're coming back and returning to his apartment maybe they're just running around having a good time and this is
00:23:52
somebody that they could either crash with on occasion or go back to his apartment to party yeah that makes sense
00:23:59
they contacted the other jurisdictions that had been mentioned in the runaway notes we already discussed the
00:24:05
complications with that asking if anybody had seen these missing boys now you have a situation where you probably
00:24:12
are believing that the two boys left together so that helps you a little bit when you reach out you're not just
00:24:20
looking for one teenage boy you're looking for two teenage boys at this point which may be a little easier
00:24:28
meanwhile local prosecutors I love when people do good work I love when people say you know
00:24:35
what we're we're going to do our jobs we have a a service a community to take care of and to protect this guy even if
00:24:43
he doesn't know anything about these runaway boys he's a problem so the prosecutor local prosecutors filed a
00:24:51
misdemeanor charge of contributing to the delinquency of a minor against David mous this was on October 2nd this was
00:25:02
because of what the other kids told the police about the underage beer drinking pot smoking and things that were going
00:25:10
on at Mouse place you know he's providing underage kids with beer and marijuana and they're hanging out at his
00:25:18
place so Mouse posted the $300 Bond and he was released he continued to talk casually with the detectives about the
00:25:30
missing boys but not really admitting anything at the time the police contacted the landlord and the owner of
00:25:39
the house where mouse was a tenant right they found out from this owner his name
00:25:44
was Bill Hinton that mouse was employed he was an employee at a trophy shop that
00:25:51
the homeowner owned as well he also told them a second cuz David looks exactly like a guy that works at a trophy shop
00:26:03
like what's his job he works at a trophy shop he also told them that mous had done some work in the basement of the
00:26:11
home that he had repaired some seepage on the floor so detective Johnson went back to the home to inspect this work
00:26:23
that mous had done on the basement floor when he went to the basement he discovered a new concrete pad in the
00:26:30
southwestern corner of the basement this is interesting and I know a lot of people are probably saying well why
00:26:37
wouldn't the detective have searched the basement to begin with I think it the situation here is the way that it was
00:26:44
explained to me is that there were multiple tenants living in this house in these different apartments that were
00:26:52
broken up through this house when the detective was first questioned Mouse in in the backyard of this property and
00:27:01
mouse said yeah sure go ahead look through my apartment I I'll be happy to take you inside and show you everything
00:27:06
come on in it's a nice place he's simply showing him his apartment there are spaces throughout this home that are
00:27:14
common spaces that are shared amongst the tenants yeah shared by the other pedos and so the detective probably
00:27:22
didn't check the basement because either a he wasn't suspicious of the basement because it was a common place or B he
00:27:29
didn't feel that he had permission to do so because there were multiple tenants and mouse was not the owner of the home
00:27:37
itself it's not like when the police officer comes up and starts talking to David and and they go hey do you mind if
00:27:43
we search your apartment and he goes come on in it's a nice place it's not like you can just spend days in there
00:27:50
well not only that I was having this discussion with somebody a week or so ago and had to point out that a really
00:27:56
good detective and a really good officer especially if they're in a situation where they're suspicious of the
00:28:03
individual that they're talking with or suspicious of a crime scene or potential
00:28:08
crime scene right a good detective and a good police officer is always working with the knowledge of knowing that the
00:28:16
most important thing here is that I secure a conviction that whatever my actions are will later hold up in a
00:28:25
court of law and so if I step over the line at any point and this guy is my guy like I believe him to be well I might
00:28:34
run the risk of losing that conviction in the court of law so what good have I done none with the permission from the
00:28:42
homeowner now detective Johnson is in the basement and he he's checking out this new concrete pad that was poured in
00:28:51
the southwestern corner of the basement I found a source that said that the the P was determined to be approximately 8T
00:29:00
by 5T and 12 in thick or 12 in deep and the homeowner did consent to not just a a quick look see at the basement but he
00:29:12
also consented to a detailed search of the basement as well and this comes about because detective Johnson says
00:29:20
look I was down there in this area it would be very common in this area of the state of Indiana it would be very common
00:29:27
for people to repair their basements in this way to pour additional concrete and
00:29:32
that is so that you have if you have a washer and dryer in the basement that you are placing it on an elevated
00:29:40
platform on a platform so that if you were to have your basement floods then these items are not getting wet because
00:29:48
they're elevated yeah that makes sense so at first he says he wasn't suspicious of the concrete pad but then knowing
00:29:56
what he knows from living in the the area he applied that to oh wait a second the water hookup is way over here so if
00:30:04
that was the purpose of this concrete pad it made no sense at all because you would want to create that platform as
00:30:14
close as you could to the water hookup he's super suspicious of this so the police decide that on November 20th this
00:30:22
is detective Johnson and Commander Dale Bach of the Lake County Sheriff's Department again he's the one that you
00:30:29
heard in today's trailer they come back on the 20th of November to search the basement again at 4933 Ash Street more
00:30:37
like Ash Street this is with the trained kadaver dog now the dog showed considerable interest in the one end of
00:30:47
the basement and this is the corner with the concrete pad the dog is telling you
00:30:54
you've trained me to find cadavers yeah I'm telling you I believe that there's a
00:30:59
dead body underneath this concrete in this corner of this basement well like you said with this K9 unit like he's
00:31:06
trained to be a Cav dog but he's also trained to search for people's sense so it I wonder if they thought maybe he was
00:31:14
confused well every canine unit is different it it all goes to training some have the ability to be trained in
00:31:21
different areas some don't I I don't know the specifics of this particular dog um but in this situation we do know
00:31:29
he's being used to find a cadaver he's not he's not being brought in there to find a missing
00:31:40
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plan offered by T-Mobile in Verizon May 2023 [Music] all right we're back cheers everybody
00:34:09
cheers to you Colonel he's back I'm back everybody's back everyone's in the face
00:34:16
all right uh the dog again the K9 Officer showing considerable amounts of signs that hey he's detecting something
00:34:25
underneath the concrete in the corner of this basement yeah but he's not acting as normal right right he's
00:34:33
supposed to he's trained to give a very aggressive response to when he finds when he's hitting on something and
00:34:41
that's not the response he's giving here you have to wonder if in fact if the K can9 unit if the officer is
00:34:50
correct people are getting confused cuz some people are like you know I'm I'm referring to the dog as the officer he
00:34:57
is an officer so we'll pay him his respects um if he is well and we want to be respectful just in case he's
00:35:04
listening that's right um just in case he's listening um but if in fact the the K9 Officer is correct that he that there
00:35:14
is something underneath that concrete I don't again I don't know this particular dog I do not know the
00:35:21
training is he giving a different response because it's a faint right you know is is the detection faint I I think
00:35:29
we we can just move past that because whatever the dog was doing to indicate that there was something there and that
00:35:37
they should do further searching of this area it was enough for them to bring in
00:35:44
technicians and they're going to drill some sample holes in the pad you don't want to go in there and Jackhammer the
00:35:50
whole thing up if you don't have to you can just drill some holes and see if there's anything down there this this
00:35:57
portion of the search was conducted on December 5th when they drilled holes into this concrete pad Captain coffin
00:36:06
flies flew out of these holes coffin flies coffin flies are indicative of there being a
00:36:14
decaying body now it doesn't have to be human it can be animal or or something else but they would not be there if
00:36:22
there was nothing for them to be is pretty gross living off of mhm so on December 9th after hold on one second
00:36:32
let me finish my lunch now the police have probable cause to to tear up the place right so on December 9th Just 4
00:36:43
days later police brought in equipment to take up the concrete pad or concrete slab very quickly into this search they
00:36:54
found two bodies which is two more bodies than are supposed to be there they were able to determine almost
00:37:01
immediately that the the bodies were that of teenagers or young men right these two bodies that were found were
00:37:11
wrapped in plastic and tied with cord and tape but one second I mean we have to applaud the officer both officers I
00:37:18
guess the the dog is Officer but you have to applaud where your dog is trained to make a certain
00:37:26
reac action he doesn't react like he's supposed to gives you a odd reading but you go hey better safe than sorry right
00:37:36
mhm might as well dig this up and and yes yeah nobody wants to find anything but at the end of the day when you have
00:37:44
these missing kids you're trying to find answers so right away you're looking for
00:37:49
two missing teens and you find the bodies of what you can determine to be either teenage boys or young men right
00:38:00
so when you think about it Captain these other teens the the ones that told police and
00:38:06
detectives that these kids were hanging out with some guy named Crazy Dave these
00:38:11
other kids were in fact quite lucky that they did not end up killed yeah you know
00:38:17
these were teens that hung out with this crazy Dave as well or at least one had been to his apartment these kids knew
00:38:24
about Crazy Dave knew about the activity going on at Dave's apartment with him providing alcohol and such to the teens
00:38:32
one of the teens in particular says that he was with James and Michael on what is believed to be
00:38:41
the last night that the two were alive he told the detective that he went with James and Michael to Dave Mouse
00:38:48
apartment and he left at some point in the night and he he said that when he left James and Michael stayed there and
00:38:58
they were alive of course when he left the apartment so immediately we have Dave Mouse who we we we need to arrest
00:39:06
this man so he was in fact arrested on that same day this is again December 9th 2003 they pick him up while he's riding
00:39:14
his bicycle home from work but here's the troubling part I think finding the two bodies in the basement is the
00:39:20
troubling part but riding a bike to work is kind of Rich Man Poor Man rich man uses it for EXT exercise poor man uses
00:39:27
it as a vehicle look nothing against this hint in character but I can't imagine that the job at the trophy shop
00:39:34
pays very well and he's living in a rundown apartment this is not a guy that's riding a bicycle for exercise
00:39:41
yeah but you could always like use the line when women came in like why do you work at the trophy store I'm looking for
00:39:47
my trophy wife but here's the troubling thing Captain this uh you mean the two dead teenage bodies bar buried in
00:39:56
concrete is not troubling enough it is not oh the troubling part here is the two that were found in the
00:40:05
basement were identified via dental records one was the missing Michael Dennis that we were looking for you know
00:40:12
as anyone would expect but the other was identified as 19-year-old Nick James W so not the other kid that they were
00:40:20
looking for Nick had been missing since May of 2003 this is December of 200 and three when they find the bodies the more
00:40:29
you study True Crime the more you just see similarities and so many things uh look at the type of victim is teenage
00:40:38
boys gayy would put them in the crawl space this guy seems to just be putting them into concrete Nick had been missing
00:40:46
since May of 2003 he in fact worked at the trophies R Us shop with David mous and Nick was reported missing by his
00:40:56
girlfriend but you said Nick was 19 correct because you'd think okay look law enforcement has two missing kids
00:41:04
that you'd think that they would go oh yeah there's also another missing kid from the trophy shop oh they hang out
00:41:11
with Crazy Dave where does Crazy Dave work the trophy shop You' think they'd be putting this all together but maybe
00:41:18
they what I'm saying is maybe they didn't put it together in that manner because he was
00:41:24
19 right that that's where my head went immediately but the other thing too is maybe they did put it together it's just
00:41:31
now you're looking for a 19-year-old as well I don't know that you're announcing
00:41:36
that to anyone uh when you're surveilling David mous So Paul goded was Nick James's best friend the 19-year-old
00:41:45
that was found in the basement he said that the two of them spent a lot of time with David mous and he said that David
00:41:53
was generous giving them cash and beer and said quote he never asked for anything I just thought that he being
00:42:01
you know David was being a nice guy this is what Paul told the monster Indiana Times newspaper yeah he only asked for
00:42:09
hand jobs so then police excavated a third body it was proved to be James Rani the other missing teen now the
00:42:20
cause of death for the three victims this is per the the times again quote Lake County coroner David Pastrick said
00:42:30
he had not ruled out Suffocation and strangulation as a cause of death for bani and for Dennis the two that police
00:42:39
initially started off looking for right they said that Nick James died of blunt force trauma to the skull David mouse
00:42:47
was charged with three counts of murder they also charged him for having a fat neck the Hammond neighborhood when went
00:42:56
into an uproar over this crazy Dave guy right because David Mouse is living in their small town and unbeknownst to them
00:43:10
he's he's living there but the reason why they're in an uproar is it turned out that David Mouse had a very serious
00:43:18
criminal record right in fact he was a twice convicted murderer living in the neighborhood wait wait
00:43:28
wait he's been convicted twice of murder correct and he has he lives in an apartment with other people and has the
00:43:36
Stellar job at the trophy shop yeah this this highly desirable job say I'm just saying that he's he's living better than
00:43:45
some people living better than the colonel I wonder if he gets unlimited trophies like unlimited free Trophies
00:43:51
the idea that this dude was out free living in the small town and hanging out with kids terrified the
00:44:00
residents many of whom said that they planned to move away from the area even though David mouse was now behind bars
00:44:09
in all fairness eventually the state of Indiana would pass a law requiring that convicted murderers must register with
00:44:16
local officials when they moved to a new location so David mouse was not from this area well thank God they corrected
00:44:24
that if sexual offenders have to register her on a sexual offender's website or whatever murders should have
00:44:30
to do the same so Mouse now in handcuffs well he was in for a 6-hour interview session with detectives Mouse
00:44:41
confessed to The Killing saying that others had helped him commit the murders even naming his landlord as one of the
00:44:50
accompli again again I I the comparisons with this individual and and gasy are very similar I mean
00:45:01
gayy once he was arrested was saying hey it wasn't just me there was multiple people involved mous also implicated his
00:45:09
old cellmate from time served in the state of Illinois and he implicated another neighborhood teen saying he
00:45:19
helped as well I don't think that he's sitting there saying the four of us killed these three guys
00:45:26
I think what he's saying is is a situation where he's telling a story and it's changing as we go along here yeah
00:45:34
I'll give him a trophy for being a douche but in the end Captain he admitted to all three of the murders and
00:45:40
he said that he did all three of them on his own now for some reason we have a written statement pertaining to James
00:45:49
rani's murder but not the other two so the details are a little tricky on some of these murders here yeah David Mouse
00:45:59
signed a confession stating that on September 9th 2003 at his apartment James orani had been drinking
00:46:07
beer and doing shots and got sick and at 11:45 p.m. David Mouse took a rope and put it around James's neck and strangled
00:46:19
him until he was dead he then wrapped his body in plastic and took it to the basement and later put cement over his
00:46:28
body but he was as said I mean he he's telling these stories but it's very obvious to
00:46:35
detectives that this dude's responsible for all three of the murders a Lake County prosecutor Bernard Carter said
00:46:43
quote basically he drugged them with alcohol and the date rape drug and then strangled them the first one the first
00:46:51
victim he means Nicholas James he hit in the head with a baseball bat and then strangled
00:46:57
him he said meaning David mous that the first one was too bloody of an attack so
00:47:04
he decided to strangle the others so he he's saying that he killed all three of them the same day no okay so at
00:47:13
different times Nicholas James was a separate situation altoe right that when he went missing back in May that's when
00:47:21
Nicholas James was killed right the other two boys were killed SE setember 99th of that same year but what mouse is
00:47:29
explaining to detectives in his confession that look I I I hit the one over the head with a baseball bat and
00:47:38
realized later that's not a good method of killing because now I got all this blood everywhere that I have to deal
00:47:45
with yeah everybody listen to that statement we have a murderer telling you that if you hit somebody in the head
00:47:52
when their heart is still beating there's blood everywhere it's two blood bloody of a scene again con connect the
00:47:59
dots in other cases like Shan Benet Ramsey if she was hit on the head first there would have been blood everywhere
00:48:07
David Mouse admitted to detectives that he would on occasion visit the basement to continue to talk to his victims after
00:48:15
they were buried in the floor what you heard me right so he's drinking yeah I'm going to go down to the
00:48:24
basement I'm going to go talk to the concrete cuz he's missing one of his buddies that he
00:48:31
killed I'm reading between the lines here Captain but what I think actually went down is I believe that they found
00:48:37
all three victims at the same time when they were digging up that slab because as said it's determined or reported that
00:48:45
it was 8T by 5T by 12 in deep that's not that big of a concrete slab and we have
00:48:51
three victims in that concrete slab where I think that we have the speed bump in the investigation is that two of
00:49:02
the bodies were wrapped in plastic that was tied with rope or some type of cord right the third body
00:49:11
for reasons only David Mouse could explain was completely dipped or you know I guess it
00:49:19
wouldn't be dipped but uh covered in lead based paint blue lead ba base paint and mouse said basically that he took
00:49:31
the body of this victim placed it in the bathtub covered it in this paint and we're talking about uh an inch thick
00:49:42
covering the body at all points he states that uh he did this so that it would conceal the odor of the body that
00:49:50
nobody would be able to smell or detect the dead body I guess uh the smell of paint is better than dead body as for
00:49:58
the runaway notes detectives believe that mous led the uh L the boys to his apartment of course with Promises of
00:50:07
some kind of trip okay remember we talked about them leaving notes for their parents this misdirecting the
00:50:15
investigation or hoping that the parents don't go looking for the kids they figured out that mous was the he
00:50:23
spearheaded them leaving these notes for their parents this was all his idea so to me this is looking more and more like
00:50:31
a premeditated murder situation right what he said to these these boys is that look I I have access to a
00:50:43
lot of money I have access to a lot of drugs I need you to run some errands for me and you can make a lot of money in
00:50:50
the process and hold on a second any young teenage boy is listening and you hear this from somebody remind yourself
00:51:00
that he he rides a bicycle to work he works in a trophy shop and he lives in an apartment with multiple people and
00:51:07
his only friends are the friends that he's giving booze to and those individuals can't buy booze I wouldn't
00:51:14
really believe that he has connections to a bunch of money somewhere cuz if he did he probably would have called in
00:51:20
those favors by now well if you go off of what I said earlier you're already in the clear adults and children do not
00:51:26
need to be friends for any reason at all yeah my motto is no friends okay um so what they were able to determine is that
00:51:36
Mouse told them that hey I'm going to give you a vehicle and I've set up this vehicle so that we can conceal drugs in
00:51:46
this vehicle and then you're going to drive it out to the West Coast basically you're going to make a delivery for me
00:51:53
and the people there are going to to pay for all these drugs that you deliver you're going to bring the money back to
00:51:59
me and then you're going to get a big Hefty cut of everything right and this is how he enticed them and talked them
00:52:08
into leaving these notes for their parents so this was all very much planned out on his end and even planned
00:52:16
out by the kids themselves because they go over there thinking all right well we're friends with this guy we're going
00:52:23
to go on this trip yeah it's it's sophisticated for such a disheveled individual the
00:52:30
other interesting thing too is that he told investigators that he took the two boys with him to breakfast at the
00:52:40
rosand I'm sorry Ros laon truck stop on September 9th classy and this was they were talking more about the trip at this
00:52:50
breakfast so you can piece this together this is where that voicemail came from right this is the same location that
00:52:59
they traced it back to so while they're there he had them so convinced that he had one of the kids call home and leave
00:53:05
a voicemail at that time so so we have three bodies and we know that David was in prison before for two other killings
00:53:16
mhm so we have a total of five victims correct I still don't understand how he got out of prison well that's a great
00:53:24
segue cuz that's what I'm going getting to right here so the Indiana prosecutors
00:53:30
knew that mous was a suspected serial killer right he's eligible for capital punishment so the prosecutor prosecutor
00:53:39
Carter requested that the death penalty be on the table for the three murders so
00:53:46
on October 31st 2005 Mouse took a plea deal and admitted guilt for all three murders
00:53:55
So Crazy Dave mouse was sentenced in December of 2005 to three consecutive life sentences without the possibility
00:54:04
of parole and in his guilty plea Mouse requested that he be held in isolation away from the general population of the
00:54:14
prison now as the captain just mentioned this monster had killed twice before so
00:54:21
who was David mous and why was a convicted murderer out living in a nice Community David mouse was the second of
00:54:31
four children born to Ava and George mous on April 5th 1954 in the state of Pennsylvania PA in
00:54:42
1961 the family relocated to Chicago that next year Mouse father left the family David was only 8 years old at
00:54:52
this time right there's a lot of uncertainty about Mouse's early life and exactly how screwed up it was so how
00:55:01
screwed up he was right so he was eight when his father leaves but do we have any indication that there was physical
00:55:09
abuse or sexual abuse or or verbal abuse that we don't know of as far as the ages
00:55:15
from ages 0 to 8 but again it's very difficult in this situation to figure out how screwed up his family life was
00:55:23
or how screwed up he was and if who was responsible for that his his parents were both I feel very fine and confident
00:55:34
with saying that both of his parents were dysfunctional according to the times George mous was orphaned at age 12 and
00:55:43
spent the rest of his life rest of his juvenile years I should say in foster homes some that were described as
00:55:50
sexually abusive Ava mous his mother spent a month and a Mental Hospital in Pennsylvania this right after David
00:55:58
Mouse birth hospital records describe her as quote psychotic her upbringing took place on a Georgia Farm
00:56:08
and has been reported as miserable and depraved according to her son's later defense team in court writings his
00:56:19
mother was beaten by a stepfather with boards and chains and treated as a slave by her mother that sounds awful with his
00:56:28
father gone and a mother that there's no more simple way to put it a mother that either did not want him
00:56:37
or could not handle him his mother David's mother requested that he be institutionalized at the age of eight or
00:56:46
I'm sorry at the age of nine yeah so per the times quote Chicago State Hospital records show that David Mouse ear
00:56:55
yearned for a relationship with his mother but she showed little interest in him when the staff at the state hospital
00:57:03
pressured her to take David Mouse swimming with a sibling and a later stepfather she told the hospital I'm not
00:57:13
taking him I wish he would drown burn so whether Ava loved David and did the best that she could
00:57:21
for him or whether she was the reason that he was screwed up depends on who you're talking to or where you're
00:57:28
getting your information because Ava his mother gave a lot of interviews over the
00:57:34
the years and in some she says that David mouse was a pretty good kid and that she loved him she told the Chicago
00:57:41
Tribune that she loved her kid and says that when David's father left the family
00:57:47
David started acting out things got bad pretty quickly his little brother Jeffrey recalls David Mouse beating a
00:57:55
squirrel to death with a bat in front of his younger siblings there's also a report that that
00:58:03
David Mouse is a little kid set his three-year-old brother's crib on fire and tried to drown him in the park maybe
00:58:11
when your kid does that you just lock him in a cage and forget about it it's a very difficult situation Captain because
00:58:19
as said was he the actual problem or was his childhood that was not carved out by
00:58:27
him the actual problem yeah it's the chicken of the egg because well but it goes back to who you talk to and where
00:58:36
you get your information from and even with Ava who gave multiple interviews over the years she gives a different
00:58:44
story in different interviews he was a good kid he was a normal kid and it wasn't until he was nine that he started
00:58:51
acting up and I had to get rid of him in other stories he was born bad and he was
00:58:56
trying to kill his little baby brother and and drown his baby brother from a very very early age it's
00:59:05
not both it's it's one or the other yeah I don't think she's getting an award anytime soon for mother of the year it
00:59:12
can't be both these are her words these are words she chose to to give to these people that he was fine he was
00:59:19
completely fine until his dad left then he went off the rails and I had to get rid of him and other interviews she says
00:59:25
that he was born bad that he was evil from day one and that he was trying to kill his little brother at a very early
00:59:35
age that's not the same story so when I say it can't be both we don't know the true story maybe
00:59:42
it maybe it was both I'm saying these are her words she pick a story Lady it's one or
00:59:49
the other because they're two very different stories the other thing that you have to keep in mind too is is back
00:59:56
then yeah if you just didn't want a child for any number of reasons you could institutionalize him
01:00:04
I'm glad that wasn't around when I kid I I wouldn't say it was a common thing but
01:00:09
it was not it it wasn't that unheard of yeah and the reason why I question some of this is that we have the look he's at
01:00:21
9 years old David Mouse is sent to the Cook County mental institution and he describes this
01:00:30
location as he called it this the snake pit and the situation was this that he's he's in this state institution
01:00:42
or the County mental institution there was another child that was there at the same time as David that
01:00:50
would be dropped off in the summer months and then picked up by Mom and dad at the end of
01:00:57
summer yeah and what's believed is that they simply dropped them off said the kids crazy and dangerous and we can't
01:01:04
handle him so that they could vacation or not have to deal with this kid when he's not in school people do this I know
01:01:11
it's I know it's sad but uh and it's something you know that nobody wants to talk about but what kind of people do
01:01:18
this pieces of [ __ ] but it's very possible that his mother was a piece of [ __ ] and decided for whatever reason
01:01:26
willy-nilly or or something very serious that she didn't want her her son we have
01:01:32
the I look look you look we have the the statement from the hospital that when they were trying to encourage mom to
01:01:42
spend time with her son that was institutionalized on one occasion she's taking her current family on a swimming
01:01:53
trip and when asked by the hospital well why wouldn't you take check David out and
01:02:00
take him with you she says I don't want to be around him I wish he would drown that's not the response of a
01:02:10
loving caring parent the other thing that's weird and we do know that some of these types
01:02:16
Captain behave a different way in a in a very structured environment where there's set rules and uh and we can
01:02:23
imagine that that probably what was going on when young David was institutionalized by his mother but we
01:02:30
also have the his time spent there is well documented so these reports say that David mous had no incidence of
01:02:40
serious misbehavior during his years at the hospital he has no documented incidents of lying stealing or out of
01:02:50
control behavior all stuff that sh that her his mother reported to the hospital as the basis for committing her son the
01:03:02
hospital described David as generally generally described David in their reports as an appealing sensitive and
01:03:08
reliable child but he was deeply disturbed by his parents rejection yeah you think and preoccupied with the
01:03:16
threat of Abandonment his father left the family when he was just eight and then his mother [ __ ] drops him often
01:03:24
has him institutionalized at the age of nine when his mother was asked to be specific about the trouble she claimed
01:03:32
David Mouse caused during his occasional home visits she became evasive and stated that quote she just doesn't want
01:03:41
him at [Music] home all right so much more to get to tomorrow for everything true crime check
01:04:06
us out at true Crim garage.com click on that store Page and check out our be good be kind and don't
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Litter shirt and make sure you join us back here in the garage tomorrow until then be good be kind and don't
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Badges

This episode stands out for the following:

  • 85
    Most shocking
  • 80
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  • 80
    Most surprising
  • 75
    Most dramatic

Episode Highlights

  • Ashley Mattress Financing
    Snooze now and pay later with Ashley's special financing options!
    “Snooze now and pay later!”
    @ 00m 08s
    November 16, 2023
  • Rosetta Stone Language Learning
    Dive into 25 languages with immersive lessons that feel intuitive!
    “I've tried others, but Rosetta Stone's immersive lessons are gamechangers!”
    @ 00m 38s
    November 16, 2023
  • True Crime Garage Introduction
    Join Nick and the Captain for a thrilling true crime discussion!
    “It's good to be seen and it's good to see you!”
    @ 01m 56s
    November 16, 2023
  • Zombie Dust Beer Review
    This intensely hopped pale ale is a must-try after the zombie apocalypse!
    “This pale is hoppy, clean, and smooth!”
    @ 02m 25s
    November 16, 2023
  • K9 Search and Discovery
    A K9's aggressive response leads to the discovery of buried remains.
    “He started throwing dirt like crazy!”
    @ 08m 17s
    November 16, 2023
  • Discovery of Human Remains
    A forensic pathologist uncovers a human leg joint during an investigation.
    “What feels like a human leg joint!”
    @ 08m 30s
    November 16, 2023
  • Discovery of Bodies
    Police found two bodies in a basement, leading to a murder investigation.
    “They found two bodies which is two more bodies than are supposed to be there.”
    @ 36m 54s
    November 16, 2023
  • David Mouse's Arrest
    David Mouse was arrested after the discovery of the bodies, raising community fears.
    “The idea that this dude was out free terrified the residents.”
    @ 43m 57s
    November 16, 2023
  • Confession of Murders
    David Mouse confessed to the murders, implicating others in the crime.
    “He admitted to all three of the murders and said he did them on his own.”
    @ 45m 38s
    November 16, 2023
  • David Mouse's Confession
    David Mouse details his gruesome methods of murder and the aftermath.
    “I realized later that's not a good method of killing.”
    @ 47m 34s
    November 16, 2023
  • Premeditated Murder
    Mouse orchestrated the boys' disappearance with promises of money and drugs.
    “This was all very much planned out on his end.”
    @ 52m 14s
    November 16, 2023
  • A Troubled Childhood
    David Mouse's early life was marked by dysfunction and rejection from his parents.
    “He was deeply disturbed by his parents' rejection.”
    @ 01h 03m 11s
    November 16, 2023

Episode Quotes

  • He started throwing dirt like crazy!
    Bodies in the Basement /// Part 1 /// 466
  • What feels like a human leg joint!
    Bodies in the Basement /// Part 1 /// 466
  • I love when people do good work.
    Bodies in the Basement /// Part 1 /// 466
  • The more you study True Crime, the more you see similarities.
    Bodies in the Basement /// Part 1 /// 466
  • What you heard me right, he's drinking.
    Bodies in the Basement /// Part 1 /// 466
  • I wish he would drown.
    Bodies in the Basement /// Part 1 /// 466

Key Moments

  • Language Learning00:31
  • True Crime Intro01:42
  • Community Service24:31
  • Bodies Discovered36:54
  • Arrest of Mouse43:57
  • Confession45:38
  • Chilling Confession47:34
  • Dysfunctional Family1:03:11

Words per Minute Over Time

Vibes Breakdown