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[Music] [Music] n [Music] welcome to True Crime garage wherever you are whatever you doing thanks for
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listening I'm your host Nick and with me as always is a man who gets along fine with modern living here is the captain
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it's good to be seen and good to see you thanks for listening and thanks for telling my
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friend this week in the garage we are happy to be featuring candy corn cheesecake sour
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ale by the Wild and fun folks over at weld Works Brewing Company in Greenley Colorado this is a sour ale with candy
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corn cream cheese gram cracker vanilla and milk sugar so quite complex my friends garage grade three and 3/4
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bottle caps out of five and how about a little happy Halloween to our friends cheers to Mari young in Fort William
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Scotland and last but certainly not least we have Scott T Balmer a veteran listening in very spooky Parts Unknown
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so a big shout out to Mari and Scott and a big cheers to all of our veterans yeah
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BW are you in be a run if you need more True Crime garage for your earballs make
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sure you sign up to listen to off the record on patreon or through the Apple podcast app and that is enough of the
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business all right everybody gather around grab a chair grab a beer let's talk some true
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[Music] [Music] crime according to several Publications but specifically the encyclopedia for
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interpersonal violence familicide is a type of murder or murder suicide in which an individual
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kills multiple Clos family members in quick secession most often children spouses
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siblings or parents in half of the cases the killer lastly kills themselves in a murder
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suicide in cases where where all members of a family are killed the crime may be
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referred to as a family Annihilation according to experts cited in a 2007 San Francisco Examiner
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article of the over 900 victims of mass murder in the United States between the years of 1900 and 2000 defined as four
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victims within a 24-hour period of those more than half occurred Within an immediate
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family although the familicide cases are relatively rare they are the most common
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form of mass killings but familicide differs from other forms of mass murder in that the
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murderer kills family members or loved ones rather than Anonymous people this has a different
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psychodynamic and psychiatric significance as stated in the the book homicide a psychiatric
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perspective and finally the Howard Journal of Criminal Justice an academic Journal published on behalf of the
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Howard league for penal reform in the UK five times a year the authors of the journal divide familicide into four
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groups anomic disappointed self-righteous and paranoid in this typology the anomic
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Killer sees his family purely as a status symbol when his economic status collapses he sees them as Surplus to
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requirements or no longer needed or necessary the disappointed killer seeks to punish the family for not living up
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to the ideals of family life the self-righteous killer destroys the family to exact Revenge upon one of
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the family members and often blames the act on that family member lastly we have the paranoid
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killer who kills their family and what they imagine to be an attempt to protect them from something even
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worse some cases that we have featured here in the garage related to this type of killer are Charles Whitman the
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University of Texas Tower shooter Jeffrey McDonald the Fatal Vision Fort Brag killer Bradford Bishop the Bethesda
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Maryland man who killed his entire family and Still Remains at large darly roer who remains locked up in Texas for
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killing two of her children the grant Amato House of [ __ ] case the Watts family murders and the
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murdog murders all come to mind I am probably blanking on one or two others this week's case takes us to
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313 Carl drive and Bloomington Illinois where a very similar crime may have taken place but yet here we sit years
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decades later with questions it is not so much the what that happened inside of that home but
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the why and by who what could be the motive for such a heinous and brutal set of crimes
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multiple murders and who did this and will we ever know for certain this is an examination of the Hendrick family
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murders case and this is true crime [Music] garage [Music] Susan Lois Palmer was born in Peoria
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Illinois on September 15th 1953 to Proud parents Charles and naen Palmer how do I know captain that
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Charles and naen Palmer were proud parents well they had seven children together Charles who went by the name of
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Chuck served this great country in the Army Reserves at Fort Hood Texas from 1949 to
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1951 and then at the age of 18 Chuck was saved and became a Christian he was associated with the Plymouth Brethren
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Fellowship in develin Illinois so he and naen were and still are quite religious
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and raised their children to be so as well their wonderful daughter Susan grew up religious as well and carried that
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with her into her adult life we also have David James hendris he grew up in Oak Park Illinois he and his family were
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members of the exclusive branch of the Plymouth Brethren Susan Palmer and David Hendrick met at Oak Park River Forest
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High School so captain from my understanding here the way that this works out both of these families are
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very religious in the this group called The Plymouth Brethren now the two of them even though they're
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the same age and they're practicing the same very specific group of Christianity they don't know one another
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because delin where Susan lives is about 35 minutes away from where David Hendrick is growing up so they meet at
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high school but that is because Susan was taking cour respondence classes and what I think that means here Captain is
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that she's probably homeschooled for a portion if not most of her childhood but it was required that she
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actually go to and take an actual be present for in a classroom before she could graduate from high school so she
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has to take this course at least one course or maybe several courses at the same high school as David Hendrick her
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senior year here she makes this achievement and she graduates but while there the two meet and from my
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understanding Susan was David's first real girlfriend and they became very close very quickly After High School the
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two got married David went to school to learn Prosthetics and Orthotics he and Susan were blessed
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enough to have three wonderful children together we have Rebecca Karen Hendrick born in
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1974 Grace Esther Hendrick born in 1976 and Benjamin Caleb Hendrick born 1978 so all three children born two
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years apart so the two High School sweethearts that get married husband goes off to school and then after school
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he is going to start his business yeah during this time of new babies and raising young kids together David
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Hendrix started a prosthetic orthodtic practice he also invented a new orthopedic brace and started a
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successful business manufacturing and distributing spinal braces this would be his claim to fame as it would seem so
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what he does here Captain is he starts up this practice and during this time he's selling medical supplies as well as
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the spinal braces that is his speciality or his expertise and he's quite successful he's
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a very smart individual and and he's a very good salesperson as well so he's smart with the business and sales come
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pretty easy to David Hendrick now David had his what I believe is called a chairback brace that
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he patented he founded and operated a highly successful and profitable business in Bloomington Illinois selling
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that Orthopedic back brace that he had patented because of David's patented design his intelligence hard work and
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let's not forget about his wife's support and dedication to their children David ends up being very successful
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making a lot of money during this time period the mid to late 70s and early 80s due to his success in his growing family
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and a desire to raise their kids in a nice neighborhood and Community the Hendrick's bought and moved into a large
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house at a then new development in Bloomington Illinois so he's a very successful young man has a young family
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and they move into a better I guess location for their kids for them to raise their family yeah this was a newly
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developed neighborhood so when they move in there it's a new build it's a very large home or or a larger home this is
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considered to be an upper middle class neighborhood but when they're there Captain they are still building and
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developing this neighborhood so there are homes and vacant Lots but there are also homes that are still being built
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around this time because this is going to take us up to 1983 so all of this achievement by the hris is are is
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complete and done and all the success by a relatively young age so now it's 1983
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and Susan was just 30 years old David was 29 almost 30 the children we have Rebecca who is now nine Grace is s and
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the youngest Benjamin is just 5 years old well now that we get to November of 1983 having talked about all of this
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everything should be peaches and cream this should be Pie in the Sky type stuff here we have the Hendrick family of five
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devout religious folks successful kids growing up plenty of money living in a larger home in a great
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Community David has made enough money to not only provide to a high degree for his family but also for recreation as
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well he has a motorcycle he has his pilot's license and owns a small airplane this is the white picket fence
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American Dream playing out right in front of your eyes well that is until everything comes crashing down this is
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because at approximately 10:30 p.m. on Tuesday November 8th 1983 Susan Hendrick a 30-year-old
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housewife and her three children were discovered slain in the Hendrick family home by Bloomington
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Police the victims were all bludgeon to death found in their beds the husband and father David hris was out of state
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in nearby wiconsin on a business trip a Bloomington Police Officer was at the Hendrick's house when according to the
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Chicago Tribune the officer entered the house through a rear door this is a sliding glass door at the back of the
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house I want to be very clear about something here Captain because there are several
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accounts of the officer entering the home right so we have a sliding glass door at the back of the house this door
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is inside of a screen and porch so the officer had to go into the screen and porch and then find this glass door
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either opened or unlocked what we do know is the door had to be unlocked because this is how the officer made his
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way into the home I'm clarifying this because I do believe it has significant relevance to
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the case and possibly some of the evidence in this case right the two different accounts are one that the
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officer found the door unlocked the other account is that he found it unlocked and slightly open and
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both sources are very respectable sources so I have a hard time figuring out which one is the most
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correct here but regardless we know that he enters the screen and porch and he finds this back door unlocked he enters
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the home and in fact we already have some of the hendrix's relatives on the scene shortly after the police officer
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arrives he's actually startled by the family members and he you know he turns and he
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shines his flashlight who's there you know it's pitch blackout and he's responding to this
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call at this home at 313 Carl drive and when he shines the flashlight he's looking at two individuals that are
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shining a flashlight at him and one of them speaks up and says my sister lives here and with me is my brother-in-law we
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came to check on them as well right so now we have a situation where this officer is there checking on this family
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family members are also there at the same time checking on the family the officer tells the two individuals and
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very rightfully so you don't if this is going to be a crime scene we don't know what we're walking into if this is going
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to be a crime scene we don't want to contaminate this crime scene at all he very astutely tells those two
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individuals you guys are going to have to stay out here I'm going inside and I'd like you to stay out here for fear
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that you might see or encounter something that you wish you had not seen or encountered yeah and we just need to
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back up for one quick second because why is the police officer there in the first
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place the police officer is there because he is doing performing a welfare check on the home the police station the
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Bloomington Police Station has received multiple calls from different family members requesting that someone check or
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look for Susan and the kids so some of these calls came from husband David Hendrick who's out of state on a
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business trip and some of these calls came from their relatives so police are responding to
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multiple calls to check on these individuals put yourself in the shoes of that law enforcement officer you're
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doing a welfare check you're going around the house you either find that sliding glass door
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open or you find it unlocked you go in the house and pretty quickly he discovers one of the family members have
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been murdered so he's going to have to call that in the station yeah he walks into a pitch black
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house and using his flashlight he navigates his way through the home it's reported that he entered the master
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bedroom first after making his way through the home while on his way there he does note that the the house appears
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to be messy maybe even potentially rans sacked but again he's simply just using his flashlight not flipping on any
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lights as he goes and when he makes his way to the master bedroom he sees what he believes is somebody sleeping in the
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bed lying still in the bed and he's shining his flashlight in and the officer when he gives us gives us his
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account of the events of that night he says look I've responded on many of these welfare calls many of these
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welfare checks the overwhelming majority of the time there's nothing wrong at all
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right right usually like somebody left a phone off the hook or maybe there's a situation where one family member is mad
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at the other and is calling to try to check on them and can't get a hold of them so sends the police to the house
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that's commonly what happens according to this officer in this area bloomington's a very safe area and we'll
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get into crime Trends here as we go but he says the the only thing he ever worried about on these welfare checks
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when he finds himself actually entering the home was that he was going to encounter a sleeping individual that's
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going to pull a gun or shotgun on him because they think he's an intruder right and so he's a little hesitant as
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soon as he notices that there's someone in this bed but then by the time that he
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shines his light and that beam of light makes its way up to the upper portion of
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the the person or the figure that's lying in that bed he can see from afar that this individual has been been
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physically attacked and very brutally attacked and is no longer alive it's that obvious to the
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officer in that moment and so he Retreats outside calls in the backup everybody's now on scene and remember
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that's at 10:30 between 10:30 and 11:30 p.m. here's what goes down Susan Hendrick is
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discovered killed slain in her bed the police are now on scene searching the property they're looking for evidence
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they're trying to figure out what happened and who is responsible who could be responsible what they find
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Captain is Unfortunately they find all three of the children dead as well so the daughters shared a bedroom they each
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have their own bed in this bedroom the little boy has his own bedroom they find the two girls in each of their beds and
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one and the boy is in one of the girls beds they're all in very bad shape They're All Dead
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upon arrival and now we have not only police there but we have detectives investigators there they are processing
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the scene as it were the extended family Susan's brother who was on scene that we talked about
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and brother-in-law have been notified as to what the police have found we now have
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Susan's parents there as well and now David Hendrick arrives at the house so all of this happens very quickly between
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10:30 and 11:30 p.m. on that cold November night in 1983 so sometime before 11:30 :30 p.m.
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that night Captain Mr David Hendrick arrives home shortly thereafter only to find police tape surrounding the
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property and his family dead all right we are back cheers mates onward and upward cheers to you Colonel
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yes cheers to you Captain power to the people cheers to the people in the back so what do we
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know right away from this situation what is the information provided to us by police neighbors and family immediately
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after that horrific fine well we know this Bloomington Illinois at the time is a city of about 40,000 people located
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about 130 Mi southwest of Chicago Illinois and leading up to this event the crime trends that we were able to
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find statistics on in the 5 years prior to 1983 Bloomington Illinois experienced
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30 murders now this city and these officers would go on to tell us not just in 1983
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but even years later that none of them in their careers had ever experienced a quadruple homicide right none of them in
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their decades experience as an officer or detective had ever experienced a triple
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homicide and only a few of them had ever even experienced a double homicide so this is murder is is somewhat rare but
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not unheard of in Bloomington Illinois at this time but this type of case this type of investigation is extremely rare
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not just in Bloomington Illinois but thankfully everywhere according to the early
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reports the Hendrick family was murdered either late Monday November 7th or early
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morning Tuesday November 8th 1983 this is established easily due to several facts one we know that David
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left for Wisconsin late Monday night he says his family were all in their beds when he left safe and sound they were
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all found still lying in their beds with the exception of the boy who was in The Girls Room David and others
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several others tried on several occasions on Tuesday to call and speak with Susan no one ever answered the phone we
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learned that the kids did not attend school on that Tuesday the school principal says the kids did not attend
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school but he was not concerned or alarmed by the absence as he assumed maybe they were
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traveling this is what we need to discuss here Captain is business trips so David
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hris had a business and at one point he had a practice where he's selling medical
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supplies and specific Al his back brace that he's designed he's he's the designer and the manufacturer of this
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back brace right so he's a business owner but this is a business where you have to travel quite often correct at
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one time he had he had a practice where you would come in and he would actually have patience and he would outfit you or
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suggest hey you need these crutches or you may need this wheelchair or here's this back brace and he would not only
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attempt to he's not a doctor per se but he would treat you and outfit you for whatever equipment medical equipment or
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supplies that you may need to help you with your daytoday and at this point in 1983 he's
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not only successful because of this back brace but that previous company was successful to which he was able to sell
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that at a profit so somebody comes in and takes over that business buys it from him and they're running the old
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outfit that he had at this point in his life this back brace is so successful that he is simply operating a
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business where he is now a Salesman okay he doesn't take on any patience he doesn't see you don't come
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in and talk to David Hendrick right you go to your local doctor you go to your local physician your family doctor and
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he travels around to different states talking to these doctors talking to these medical practices and hospitals
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and saying oh by the way my David David Hendrick I have this back brace that's really helpful it's really great
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everybody's buying it and so he travels around and he is actually selling this back brace and notifying these different
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practices in hospitals that look you don't have to get this from some middleman you can call me up and get it
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directly from me you can place orders directly with me saving you and your patients and your clients money and time
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and make me very successful as well so his business at this point Captain primarily is him
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traveling around and networking and passing out business cards and pamphlets and letting people test out his
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product so a business trip is relatively common for David Hendrick right on top of that about half of the time he will
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take his family with him his wife is a housewife she's a stay-at-home mother at this point the three children are still
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pretty young and as we can as we can infer here from what the principal of their school is saying I will say this
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I'm a little clueless if the boy because he was only five if he was actually in kindergarten at that time and attending
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that school but we do know the two daughters were and what we can infer here from what the principal is saying
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he's saying well they didn't come to school but we had no cause for alarm because I just assumed that they
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were traveling that they were out with Dad on the road for a day trip or for two days on the road for one of these
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short trips now we should also talk about here David does have a small plane that he
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owns and he will fly this in and out of a local plane hanger he did not take this plane on this trip he would on some
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trip trips he would take the airplane and about half the trips he would not take the airplane for this
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trip he left the night before and he took his vehicle his personal vehicle so picture this within
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a 24-hour time period this guy leaves his house and now he's back at his house the rest of the family has been killed
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and now he's surrounded by friends and family inside the home very much like what we had with the John Benet case if
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people remember that one and police are now looking at this guy saying well we want to talk to
00:29:33
you so here's some other things that back up that timeline of of when they were killed not only did the kids not
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attend school that day but we have neighbors who say that a neighbor kid one of the one of their sons knocked on
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the front door of the Hendrick home around 11:00 a.m. on that Tuesday no one answered the
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door David tried calling the house around 9:00 a.m. that morning because now he's in
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Wisconsin when he didn't get through during a check-in phone call with his secretary so he's on the phone
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with his secretary assistant who was back in Bloomington and the assistant after talking to David says oh
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you didn't get a hold of your wife and he said no I tried calling her I wanted to tell her what hotel I was could have
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been a motel hotel whatever wanted to tell her where I was staying so she could get a hold of me this is 1983 he
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doesn't have a cell phone right hotel motel holiday in that's right so he's some of these calls he's going to
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make multiple calls throughout the day and some of them will be to his home and we do know we have at least two times
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that he's on the phone with his assistant some of these calls are are going to come from his hotel room some
00:30:58
of these calls will come from a pay phone but his assistant who's worked for him for a very long time in fact in 1983
00:31:05
she is the only full-time employee that works for very successful David Hendrick
00:31:11
at this time right because he doesn't he doesn't have a store he's just driving around selling his product well his
00:31:19
expertise is making this product and selling it to people yeah you need somebody else that can handle all the
00:31:25
other day-to-day operations that's very good and very smart at that stuff but also if you're traveling a lot you need
00:31:30
somebody to help you with the the booking and the exactly itenerary and then probably making uh arrangements to
00:31:37
meet these different doctors and the you know set up the different meetings at the different
00:31:43
facilities and so she says you know you're going to be out there on the road he's not going out there just to hit one
00:31:50
facility or go to One hospital or one practice and try to sell his product he's going to be out on the road hitting
00:31:56
several different practices and he's actually going to hit several different cities in the state of
00:32:03
Wisconsin so she says David don't worry about it I will get a hold of Susan I'll
00:32:09
get her on the phone and I'll let her know where you're staying and I will pass along your the phone number to the
00:32:16
hotel where you are staying so now that's her job for the day she says that she made multiple
00:32:22
attempts throughout the day to try to get Susan Hendrick on the phone to no avail now to further things along here
00:32:32
Captain Susan Hendrick and the kids were scheduled to go to Susan's brother's house for dinner that Tuesday evening
00:32:39
they never arrive now this is where people are starting to get concern so David being out on the road having not
00:32:46
been able to get a hold of his wife for the entirety of that day he's now concerned and he thinks well no big deal
00:32:53
something may have come up maybe she's running around what have you she'll be at her brother's house I'll call there
00:33:00
well what we see in all these cases is there's a big red flag moment and so okay I can't get a hold of them there
00:33:09
could be a reason they're definitely going to go to her brother's house later and when they don't end up there boom
00:33:18
that's your big red flag you know sound all the alarms and bells and whistles so
00:33:25
this is interesting because we have multiple people to confirm what time this takes place Susan and the kids were
00:33:32
you know hey come over at 5:30 and Susan says yes we'll be there at 5:30 David is
00:33:38
on the phone with his in-laws at 5:40 p.m. on that Tuesday in-law say nope she's not here
00:33:47
yet and now both are immediately concerned because she was very prompt right Su Susan was very prompt and on
00:33:56
top of that David is now telling her family look I've been trying to get a hold of her all day and cannot and so
00:34:03
now David calls the Bloomington Police Department and from my understanding the the
00:34:10
relatives on the other end of that call that sounds the alarm they offered to call because he's in another state but I
00:34:18
think David wanted to make sure that nobody got confused as to his concern so he says no I'm going to to call the
00:34:27
police myself so he's on the phone with Bloomington Police Department Bloomington Police they offer to go to
00:34:33
the Hendrick's home and check and he says well I don't think they're home I've been calling all
00:34:41
day and in fact by this point he says I've even talked to a neighbor who lives a couple doors down who told me that
00:34:50
they went over and knocked and nobody answered the door so I don't think that they're
00:34:55
home and the police say well what about the car was the car in the driveway he says well that wouldn't matter I think
00:35:03
they've been in some kind of accident is my concern a vehicle accident and that's
00:35:07
why the cops ask about the car in the driveway and he says it doesn't matter because she always parks in the garage
00:35:13
so you wouldn't know if they were there based off of that or not right so the police are saying well maybe we should
00:35:21
go check the house David is saying I don't think they're there I have other people telling me that they're not there
00:35:26
I'm worried that they had an accident it's a 35-minute drive from our home to where they were going for dinner in
00:35:34
delin I'm worried that something happened to them along the way and so the police department says all right
00:35:41
we're going to get in touch with the Sheriff's Office the count you know because they operate the county is their
00:35:45
jurisdiction and we'll see if there's been any reported accidents in the area or if there are anybody at the hospitals
00:35:51
I I believe he even States like I think this is where they're heading and I think this is the
00:35:58
direction they would have went yeah he says yes this is their destination and typically when we go there we take
00:36:05
string town right is the name of the the road that they are on for most of that trip so now that gives police somewhere
00:36:13
to look for these individuals however they very quickly know that there's not been any reported
00:36:20
accidents within that time period of when they would have been traveling so now now we get to a point where we learn
00:36:30
that there's no accidents all of this conversation first starts at 540 with the in-laws so
00:36:37
several several minutes are going to go by by the time that he talks to everybody but what David says is that
00:36:45
once her family became that concern and once he finds out that there have been no reported accidents he decides he's
00:36:53
got to get home Pronto so David is staying or attempting to stay at a motel in Madison
00:37:01
Wisconsin so he's about roughly a 3our drive from Bloomington Illinois right he says upon this level of concern and
00:37:12
talking with the in-laws and after talking to police he checked out immediately he gathered his things he
00:37:19
loaded up the car and he's now headed back home we know that he arrives home and
00:37:25
finds this horrific scene with police already on the scene police are telling us captain that there was no sign of
00:37:33
forced entry into that home in fact they say that Not only was that sliding glass
00:37:40
door at the rear of the home found unlocked possibly slightly a jar right but the front door was found unlocked as
00:37:48
well so they've checked the entire house uh police chief would he's addressing the local news
00:37:57
and he would not say if the house was robbed or if they had any idea as to motive for these horrific murders well
00:38:06
anybody that grew up with a sliding glass door knew that like those locks were finicky and you could almost like
00:38:14
just keep messing with the door and sometimes it would just kind of come unlocked and so you have that unlocked
00:38:21
front door but that doesn't mean somebody entered that way but it could be that maybe somebody exited that way
00:38:27
exactly and sliding glass door people put like a broomstick or something down there for when you don't actually make
00:38:35
the connection to to lock that door so there's something to jam that door for people from the
00:38:41
outside now police do say that they found a sharp object in a bedroom so they're being they're they're giving us
00:38:49
some detail but being a little vague with it right we found a sharp object in a bedroom that could have been the
00:38:55
murder weapon but the police chief would not describe this item in detail to the
00:39:01
news now the the news on the other hand was telling the public saying that the murder weapon was an axe or that the at
00:39:10
least the news believed that the murder weapon was an axe right the County coroner would only say that the
00:39:18
autopsies revealed quote massive cerebral and various internal injuries on each of the victims it was done with
00:39:27
a sharp object and just quickly to back up to your point of the putting a stick or a broom handle into the sliding glass
00:39:36
door I couldn't find anywhere where they said whether they had something like that or not well what we do know and
00:39:44
we're basing this off of David Hendrick right account he because he's question that
00:39:50
night and in fact he's actually questioned at length that night which is a little rough consider considering his
00:39:57
situation right the that he's walking into and the lack of sleep that he's had within the last 24 to 48 hours well and
00:40:07
he spent the last what 12 hours trying to get a hold of his family members so he's worrying and now he has a
00:40:13
three-hour trip back home he comes to this crime scene his wife has been murdered viciously murdered yes and then
00:40:21
his three children have been viciously murdered as well exactly and so he says you know they they don't ask him
00:40:30
specifically if they would ever wedge anything to stop the the door from opening right but they ask him about the
00:40:36
doors you know did you did you what happened when you left yeah did you lock the doors and and look as far as law
00:40:44
enforcement goes you know that there's you know there's a part of you that probably
00:40:53
goes hey it's in poor taste that we interview this guy or that we not not just interview him but we gotta kind of
00:41:02
interrogate this guy because look he's the number one suspect because you he's the one that's closest to all of them
00:41:09
and you have to ask him now even though his emotions might not be intact because
00:41:16
he could be he could be the Killer and you you're losing time uh and also you don't want to give
00:41:23
somebody time to get their story straight yeah and I think of it as a a bit of a double-edged sword right so
00:41:32
what we have here is not only could this guy be your suspect right because the statistics would tell
00:41:40
you that when you have an entire family but one wiped out usually the one is responsible so that's the unfortunate
00:41:52
statistics so they would tell you that this is the guy you should probably be looking looking at but then on the other
00:41:58
hand you have this well even if this is not your suspect we have to talk to him and
00:42:05
squeeze every detail out of him and every bit of information we can out of him because even if he didn't kill them he
00:42:12
might be the last one to have seen them alive before the killer did but he is also the only surviving member of the
00:42:18
family so he has um information about the crime scene that nobody else would have exactly so
00:42:26
when they're asking him about details of the night before he's saying a couple things when I left the house and and I'm
00:42:34
going based off of the questions they chose to ask him that night did you lock the doors before you left because we
00:42:41
found them unlocked you know they're probably not telling him we found them unlocked but he's saying did you lock
00:42:46
the doors before you leave right and he said well I believe that I did that was my routine that when I would go on these
00:42:54
trips that I would lock the doors or even when I would go to work or anywhere I would lock the doors before I would
00:43:01
leave the house and he specifically references the back door first he says I think that I
00:43:09
locked the back door the front door was locked I got my car and left but I did not lock the door from the garage into
00:43:18
the house I I closed the garage door behind me as I was pulling out and leaving the house yeah
00:43:27
now the other thing that he tells them is that his wife and children were in bed
00:43:36
and that his wife was awake when he left and the kids as far as he knew were asleep and so that he left and he went
00:43:47
on this trip now to further give detail to this regard about David Avid Hendrick
00:43:56
being talked to that night he was in fact interviewed for approximately 8 hours some Reports say 8 and 1 half
00:44:03
hours and we can question I think we should question this because this information would
00:44:12
later be coming from David Hendrick and from the individual that he would hire as an attorney to represent him now of
00:44:21
course he should have representation but if your attorney's talking to the news paper and wants to get and gain sympathy
00:44:28
for you his client he might exaggerate a little bit how long that the distraught
00:44:36
father who had just seen his whole family killed and just was notified of that of how terrible and rude the police
00:44:46
were to interview this guy and oh not only did they interview him on his worst night life of his life ever but they
00:44:54
kept him there for 8 and 1/2 hours can you imagine yeah they treated him like an animal so I I don't know that I fully
00:45:02
believe that he was there for 8 and a half hours um but the what it made its way to the newspapers according to
00:45:08
David's attorney is that he was interviewed for approximately 8 to 8 and a half hours after the bodies were found
00:45:16
and questioned very early on and a lot of this questioning took place at the actual police station and what we learn
00:45:25
here is that very early on right away David is like yes no problem you search the house of course they probably don't
00:45:33
need his permission to search the house at this point but he's saying search my car search my motorcycle make sure you
00:45:39
search my airplane that's at The Hanger um and so police they search all of these locations and then on top of that
00:45:47
they even drive the route that they believe that he would have taken from Bloomington out to
00:45:54
Wisconsin and they drive it back to Bloomington as well they they check and search the hotel room that he checked
00:46:03
into and on the way back they're looking for if he would have discarded of anything along the way so police are
00:46:12
obviously on to this dude right away and they have doubts about David Hendrick and his story right away we were talking
00:46:19
about how he called and he was calling all day trying to get a hold of his wife figure out where she was at and why
00:46:29
wasn't she answering his phone calls but if you look at the transcripts of those
00:46:34
calls one of the things that I find strange if I'm law enforcement is how he keeps pointing out that he's out of town
00:46:44
yeah and but that's one of those things where it's like but if he is out of town
00:46:49
I guess it's not that strange that he keeps pointing that out yeah that's where so what we're going to see with
00:46:54
this case Captain is is that this this case is so interesting because of the evidence and also the lack thereof
00:47:01
evidence and then you you just mentioned it right there and then you hit the nail
00:47:06
on the head this is a double-sided coin almost every detail in the story is a double-sided coin is it heads or is it
00:47:14
Tails right David Hendrick is reminding the police I was I was out of state I was on business I would hit all these
00:47:20
different locations I spoke to my secretary I spoke to Extended family I tried to get
00:47:26
a hold of Susan well that is absolutely true every bit of that is absolutely true now is it Tails where he's trying
00:47:33
to establish an alibi it could it could be both and so you have this situation and
00:47:41
let's throw in another double-sided coin okay heads or tails the police say well
00:47:47
it's awfully suspicious that when we asked David hris did you lock the doors before you left and David goes right to
00:47:55
the sliding glass door with his answer I think I locked the back door I know the
00:48:01
front door was locked right and the door to the garage I did not lock and then I
00:48:05
left and the garage door closed as I was pulling out police go well we entered the home through the back door that's
00:48:13
suspicious that his mind went to the back door first rather than the front door and I agree with what police are
00:48:18
saying I think that most people's minds would go to the front door first of course but here's the problem we don't
00:48:26
know did police when they first start talking to him at his house before he even goes to the police station do they
00:48:32
say hey we came in through the back door and we found this scene we found your wife and then right so so if if that was
00:48:40
a conversation that was had or information that was given to him of course his mind would go to the back
00:48:46
door first right and that's what's difficult in a lot of these cases like when we hear a 911 call we we examine
00:48:53
and we start thinking well what we what what would we say what would we do because if I'm innocent then I'd do this
00:49:02
if I was guilty I'd do this and like you said if I'm talking to law enforcement and they're saying hey we entered
00:49:09
through the back door and the back door was a jar where the back door was unlocked I'd probably when question
00:49:18
about did I lock the doors I'd probably start with the one that you enter here's
00:49:23
another one heads or tails the police say heads this is this is about 24 to 48 hours after finding the bodies the
00:49:32
police tell the local news we have some concerns about David Hendrick because he didn't seem to be
00:49:39
surprised shocked or incredibly upset we don't think that he behaved or acted the way
00:49:46
that we would anticipate one that one should act when discovering that their whole family's been
00:49:52
killed okay so that's heads the tales of that is the neighbors and his family this is David's family and Susan's
00:50:02
family the neighbors and the extended family say the exact opposite David was a wreck he was
00:50:10
destroyed these people know him better than the police do right but let's go back to but also it's
00:50:18
like it's also after the fact yes so it goes back to the whole thing well well my client was I mean heck police had him
00:50:28
there for 8 hours and then the police go well you know what when we're talking to
00:50:34
when we're talking to David he didn't seem too upset about anything and then the people that are on his side well
00:50:42
upset he he wasn't just upset he he was destroyed and with all of these coin flips you know one thing that I think
00:50:52
would have really helped out this case that we just didn't have because it wasn't typical protocol for
00:50:59
1983 is that period of time you're exactly right Captain what we have here is we have several different Witnesses
00:51:07
who have different opinions varying opinions of David in his emotional state when he's at the home that night when he
00:51:16
discovers that his family has been killed right we have the neighbors and family saying oh he was he was a wreck
00:51:21
he was destroyed the police saying he's not acting as upset as we would think one would act what we don't have is
00:51:29
anyone but David's word versus the police's word once they are back at the police station we don't
00:51:36
have that's why it's so important that these interviews are now videotaped these days in almost every jurisdiction
00:51:44
right because what we would have here with us today we would be able to play back those recordings and be and be able
00:51:51
to make our own observations and say yeah I think that detective is Right David doesn't seem to be he seems to be
00:51:57
awfully casual when he's seated at the table with the police answering questions during that 8 hours or
00:52:03
whatever it was back at the police station or this man's a wreck he's completely lost his mind is is gone he
00:52:10
doesn't know how to answer these questions because of the situation what he's just been through yeah but think
00:52:16
about that though is like again and you're using the heads and tails analogy and I think it's a really good one
00:52:23
because if I'm law enforc man you go man this guy this guy seems like he's losing
00:52:28
his mind it's like well that could be a guy that lost his family and knows that his family was brutally murdered and he
00:52:37
wasn't there to stop it he wasn't there to save them but on the other hand you could go well he's losing his mind
00:52:44
because he just killed his whole family it's you can it's almost just like maybe the answers tell or what you
00:52:55
think your opinion tells us more about you than it does the actual suspect so heads or taals we have David Hendrick
00:53:03
who tells police yes I'll go to the police station with you yes I'll sit across the table from you and I'll
00:53:08
answer any of your questions and according to his attorney he's there for8 and a half hours that night after
00:53:14
discovering his family's been killed and after not having hardly any sleep from traveling and and working for 48 hours
00:53:23
but then the flip of that D you know David before we get to the flip David says yes search the house
00:53:31
search my cars search my motorcycle the the airplane and and please search the hotel room that I checked into no
00:53:40
problem search whatever you need to I I you know I'm an open book The Flip to that is then he's asked if he would take
00:53:47
a polygraph and David says well I don't know if I trust the polygraph test this is 19 1983 keep in mind in 1983 and I
00:53:57
don't want to get an email because every time one comes up I get an email from somebody who goes you know it's not
00:54:02
admissible in court duh this ain't our first ain't our first garage show here yeah well you're going to get a reply
00:54:07
that says no [ __ ] Sherlock duh d um yeah but what we've said in the past and it's
00:54:16
true where's the plus side if I take one and I pass with flying colors then people are going to say yeah but we
00:54:24
don't know if those tests are correct and then if I fail then it's nobody's going to come to
00:54:31
my rescue and say well those tests aren't always correct it's I think it's actually more difficult to say because
00:54:38
it's 40 years ago I think because it was 1983 that there's a good solid chance that if he would have taken the test and
00:54:45
passed with flying colors that they may have moved on from David Hendricks given
00:54:48
the time period yeah but look at uh the Ramsay case I mean they took three polygraph gra test and passed and they
00:54:56
didn't move on but David tells police that he has a reason for not trusting the polygraph exam and he says
00:55:07
look a friend of mine remember this man is very religious the Plymouth Brethren community that he's involved
00:55:14
in very religious and he says this individual that I know who's who I consider to be an extremely honest man
00:55:21
and religious man had to take a polygraph exam for his work and failed the polygraph and lost
00:55:30
his job because of the test the results of that exam and so David is telling police I don't I don't feel comfortable
00:55:40
taking the exam number one because of this experience that I know of and so I don't trust these tests but I might
00:55:48
consider taking it but I wouldn't do it until I have an attorney so what we learned by that statement is he sat
00:55:55
there with police according to his attorney that he hires at a later time for 8 to 8 and 1/2 hours that night
00:56:03
without any representation he's not requested representation but he's sitting there with nothing in his
00:56:11
Arsenal answering the police's questions and so the police say well this we this is a tool that we that
00:56:22
we will use to move on from you and David says well what if I fail or what if it's in
00:56:32
inconclusive and the police tell him well then we would probably focus our in investigation on
00:56:39
you and to that he then says I think I'm going to need to get an attorney which rightfully so I mean
00:56:48
police are asking you these questions and they they've even said look we might be FOC we might be moving in and
00:56:54
focusing our investigation in on you more as we proceed so what we have here Captain is a little bit of back and
00:57:02
forth because in the coming days in the coming weeks we will have the police chief and
00:57:11
the this is the County Attorney Ronald doer he's openly telling the newspapers after a couple weeks that
00:57:23
David Hendrick is not cooperating in the police's investigation into the murders and you have his now attorney
00:57:32
Harold Jennings who is telling the papers look my client cooperated fully in the early
00:57:42
stages of their investigation for eight hours and now that they the detectives seem to be honing in on him and refusing
00:57:51
to look at anybody else yes my my client is reluctant to speak with the police yes I've advised he's not taking the
00:58:00
polygraph exam because I have advised him not to do so in fact his attorney Harold Jennings
00:58:08
who officially wasn't hired yet because he because David Hendricks has not been charged with anything but Harold
00:58:17
Jennings is still representing him as at least as far as PR goes or in relation to Communications with the police but
00:58:25
Jennings is saying look not only have I advised Hendrick to not take the polygraph exam I've advised him to not
00:58:34
speak with police at all unless I am present and I want them to submit the questions to me in advance yeah I mean
00:58:43
this is a common tactic for a lawyer and you pay a lawyer to protect you and protect your
00:58:51
rights we need to get through some of the events of the night leading up to the murders right because the question
00:58:58
still is we know that they were killed either late Monday night or early Tuesday morning but we really need to be
00:59:06
able to hone in and isolate the time of death for these victims we know that David Hendrick was at the house until a
00:59:14
certain point that Monday night and what also makes this difficult for me I don't
00:59:19
care about all you other people what it does for me is if I'm law enforcement it's a three-hour
00:59:26
drive so it's very possible that David drives checks into the hotel makes some calls does some stuff and then drives
00:59:37
back home commits the murders drives back yeah but keep in mind we we have a couple things going on here he's hitting
00:59:45
multiple stops that's the intention for the sales pitch right to go into these different practices his first location
00:59:53
that he goes to is a little more than 6 hours away from his home he where he ends up when he drives back home is 3
01:00:01
hours away right but what I'm saying is since we can't we don't have a his a cell phone where we can track his uh
01:00:11
locations we can only track it when when he's uh entering a point where he's exiting a point right if people saw them
01:00:19
or didn't see them right so what I'm saying is there can be gaps and his travel that we could be unaware of does that
01:00:31
make any sense no it does but keep in mind we also have some markers along the way that are that should back up his
01:00:38
location so we know that he's making phone calls from um payones we also know that he's making a phone call at least
01:00:46
one phone call probably multiple phone calls from the motel room so all of that because it's long distance and because
01:00:53
it's a pay phone we can can track that and we can confirm hey you said you were making this phone call at this time all
01:00:59
right well let's double check okay yes we see that you were making that phone call at this time plus we have him
01:01:05
checking in and speaking with other individuals it's not just I called Susan nobody answered it's I spoke with my
01:01:11
secretary at this time and at these different times on this day and also he was active he he was actively going into
01:01:22
different practices and giving his sales pitch and networking with these individuals throughout the course of
01:01:29
that Tuesday yeah because I understand if you're a law enforcement like we said he's the only Survivor of this family so
01:01:36
he would know critical information about the house and about the neighborhood about
01:01:43
uh their friends and families uh possible people that could be connected or possible people that law enforcement
01:01:50
should be looking into so you're going to question him on that but if you're law enforcement I think the first thing
01:01:56
that you have to do instead of trying to get him to confess or take a polygraph or whatever is to go did he have means
01:02:04
and opportunity to actually commit these crimes and here's one of the problems for your case if your case is to build a
01:02:15
case against David Hendricks this scene and I don't want to I don't want to dance in the details for
01:02:22
too long because it's horrific and heartbreaking to discuss this is an incredibly bloody
01:02:29
brutal scene what we would learn is that the victims were killed with at least two
01:02:37
weapons sharp objects one an axxe this is not a hatchet this is a l handle axxe they were also killed with a
01:02:48
butcher knife now both of those items belong to the Hendrix family the ax belonged to the family the
01:02:56
butcher knife came from the Butcher's Block in the kitchen the individuals had their some
01:03:03
of them had their throat slit and every single one of them were hit multiple times directly in the face with a l
01:03:12
handled axe not once not twice not three times not four times not five times we're talking individuals being struck
01:03:20
directly in the face while they lay there defenseless and silent 10 to 13 times each there was blood
01:03:31
everywhere at this scene whoever killed them should have blood on their person on their clothing
01:03:38
and on places that they cannot detect or disguise or hide the problem for the police with the
01:03:46
scientific evidence very quickly became this in David's motorcycle airplane his car that he drove to
01:03:57
Wisconsin zero victims blood found in any of those locations his clothing that he took with
01:04:06
him his luggage that he took with him the items for business purposes that he took with them zero blood on all of
01:04:15
those items the hotel room that he checked into and stay at briefly zero victims blood found at that
01:04:24
location as well and we're not talking about we're just testing it with the naked eye we're talking about 1983 they
01:04:34
are doing their damn best to try to find blood somewhere that the victim's blood got
01:04:40
outside of this house because that's your trail to the killer they took that car
01:04:49
apart down to the nuts and bolts looking for blood and his vehicle they did not find
01:04:57
it they went through that motel room to the point that they were dipping and checking and taking apart the drains to
01:05:05
the sink and to the bathtub no blood found in those locations either no blood found in the traps or
01:05:16
the drains at the Hendrick home so they don't have anything indicating to a great degree that the
01:05:24
killer completely cleaned themselves upon before leaving the crime scene they they drove the route multiple times that
01:05:33
he would have taken or they believed that he would have taken from Bloomington to his destination roughly
01:05:37
six hours away didn't find anything discarded along the way could he have done a really damn
01:05:45
good job maybe but the all the items that they tested every location that they searched
01:05:51
they did not find any victim's blood so that is difficult for your investigation
01:05:56
that's the physical evidence that was going to lead you to your killer they find the ax they find the knife that was
01:06:04
used to kill all four members of the family they find those two items lying on the floor in the girls
01:06:12
bedroom where three of the victims were found now they have to interview David Hendrick
01:06:20
because the big part of their case in their investig ation is simply going to be
01:06:27
this because we didn't find any blood evidence leading us to David hris but yet we don't believe him and we don't
01:06:34
trust him he won't take our polygraph exam we need to figure out the time of death that's going to be key here
01:06:43
because if we can then prove that he was still at home during the time of death then he had to be the
01:06:51
one that killed his family there's no way around it so scientifically you have the corner
01:06:56
you have the experts medical examiners pathologist all trying to determine the time of
01:07:04
death for these four victims right meanwhile you have the police getting statements from David Hendrick on the
01:07:10
night of the the the bodies are discovered getting a timeline from him for that Monday because if they can
01:07:18
prove that they were all killed late Monday night rather than early Tuesday morning David H may still have been in
01:07:24
the house when they were killed he's our killer so they talk to David and they get some information from
01:07:32
him the interesting thing from his story of that Monday night is again we're going to have markers Witnesses people
01:07:41
that can back up portions of his story to be absolute fact agreed upon fact right so let's
01:07:51
start off roughly around five5 5:30 so for this first marker on our timeline of events we don't have an exact time but
01:08:00
what it is is it's a neighbor an adult neighbor who says my kids were out playing with the Hendrick kids in the
01:08:07
Hendrick front yard and around this 5 to 5:30 maybe even closer to 6 o' Susan Hendricks comes outside to the door and
01:08:17
she calls her kids in for the evening okay so kids and Mom aive and well at this time we don't have an exact time
01:08:26
for it but what we do know that takes place is that sometime shortly after that David Hendrick takes his three
01:08:33
children to a mall they're at the mall very briefly they were shopping for something I can't remember exactly what
01:08:38
it was but after the mall they go to a nearby chuckecheese restaurant for dinner now why is it just Dad and the
01:08:48
three kids well mom Susan Hendrick is attending a baby shower that evening so she's off and alive and well and
01:08:57
visiting friends at the baby shower that's not in dispute now one thing that will become very important to this case
01:09:04
will be that while there the family of four split a vegetable pizza thank you everyone for joining us
01:09:20
here in the garage today if you are a member of law enforcement or first responder and you have a case from your
01:09:26
jurisdiction that you would like for us to feature here in the garage please go to truecrime garage.com and look up our
01:09:32
contact information so much more to get to join us back here in the garage tomorrow and until then be good be kind
01:09:39
and don't [Music] [Applause] litter [Music]