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GameChanger [Music] welcome to True Crime garage wherever you are whatever you are doing thanks
00:01:43
for listening I'm your host Nick and with me as always is a man who is a dear dear friend of the famous poet JB Joy he
00:01:51
is the captain JB Joy don't know me it's good to be seen and it's good to see you
00:01:57
thanks for listening thanks for telling a friend [Music] this week we are very happy to be
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business all right everybody gather around grab a chair grab a beer let's talk some true crime
00:03:31
[Music] [Music] May May 14th 2015 at 1:24 p.m. the Washington DC fire department received a
00:04:09
call that a large home in the city's most exclusive neighborhood was on fire neighbors saw smoke and Flames
00:04:19
coming from the home's Second Story and called authorities the fire department quickly
00:04:27
descended on the home a firefighter kicked in the front door and the firefighters entered the
00:04:37
downstairs the house rre of gasoline firefighters searched for occupants on the ground level but saw no
00:04:46
one then firefighters braved the upstairs which seemed to be the epicenter of the conf
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floration and saw one bedroom in a bathroom area were completely engulfed in Roaring
00:05:03
Flames the temperature made the room impenetrable in an adjacent bedroom firefighters crawled blindly along
00:05:12
trying to avoid the smoke dodging slate tiles from the roof falling through the ceiling on top of
00:05:21
them one firefighter bumped against a chair lying tipped on its back he tried to move it out of the way
00:05:31
but to his horror with his hands he felt a body in the chair the firefighter dragged the body
00:05:42
into the hallway and saw what he called a blood bath then they found another body then a third lying on the
00:05:52
floor one of the victims still had a heartbeat and the firefighters extracted her and rushed her to an
00:06:01
ambulance despite life-saving efforts by doctors at Georgetown University Hospital sadly she soon
00:06:11
died when firefighters managed to extinguish the incredibly hot flashover fire in the adjacent bedroom which was
00:06:19
burned down to the beams new horrific sights awaited them a firefighter entered the blackened
00:06:28
still smoking room he couldn't see very well and he started to fall on the buckled
00:06:35
floor he grabbed onto what was left of the bed which was so badly burned that it was Bare Down to the charred Springs
00:06:44
and frame and had melted into the floor the floor had partially collapsed into the room
00:06:52
below the firefighter accidentally grabbed a body on the bed a child's body which had no discernible features or
00:07:03
arms or legs an adjacent bathroom was also burnt to a crisp clearly the fire started in this
00:07:13
bedroom and it did not appear to be an accident several people were dead and someone burnt this house
00:07:21
down after the fire police arrived on the scene observing the removal of several bodies by par
00:07:30
Medics law enforcement quickly observed victims that appear to have suffered extensive trauma to their
00:07:39
bodies the fire did not kill these people who was responsible for the unimaginable Horrors that took place
00:07:50
inside this home this is true crime garage and this is the case of the DC mansion murders
00:08:07
[Music] before we get into this case we need an understanding of the sopis family Sava
00:08:19
sopis was 46 years old he was born in a suburb of DC his father Phillip and a partner started up a very successful
00:08:28
company American Iron Works SAA went to Springbrook High School in Silver Spring
00:08:34
Maryland this is where he started dating Amy Marton who would later become his wife Amy says she was an Army brat born
00:08:43
in Massachusetts she spent her childhood moving around Europe in the US Sava and
00:08:49
Amy both went on to the University of Maryland Sava was good-looking popular and outgoing Amy was blonde pretty and
00:08:58
more res deserved in SAA yeah they're going to get married in 1994 after he graduates from law school
00:09:06
instead of practicing law SAA went on to the family business headquartered in nearby Hyattsville his father Philip
00:09:14
eventually stepped down and Sava took over the company American Iron Works thrived under his Direction the company
00:09:22
was involved in building the National Stadium yeah that's Washington's baseball stadium they also revitalized
00:09:29
the DC Center and were involved in rebuilding the Pentagon after 911 that's a big contract right there
00:09:36
Sava also headed up a hedge fund Sigma investment strategies located in Puerto Rico where he often traveled Sava and
00:09:45
Amy were doing very well in 2001 they purchased a $3.5 million 8,000 foot mansion on woodlon Drive in DC's Woodley
00:09:57
Park neighborhood this is a very exclusive residential neighborhood the average home cost about $4 million the
00:10:05
neighborhood is considered extremely safe Sava was a good businessman with a strong work ethic by most accounts he
00:10:13
was a wonderful boss a gentle soul and a good friend he had an open door policy for his employees and often wore jeans
00:10:21
to work Amy was a stay-at-home mom to the couple's three kids sisters Abigail and Katarina were followed 7 years later
00:10:30
by a baby boy named Phillip after sava's father all three kids were educated at DC's most exclusive private schools and
00:10:39
they were both involved in the Greek Orthodox Church they did a lot of charity work they hosted fundraising
00:10:44
Gallas and donated generously yeah everyone describes both SAA and Amy who was age 47 at this time as lovely people
00:10:53
a golden couple devoted to each other and their family in 2012 SAA and Amy and their young son Phillip took a year off
00:11:02
and moved to their second home in the US Virgin Islands just enjoying life in the
00:11:07
tropics when they got back to DC in 2013 Sava continued to enjoy the fruits of his labors by collecting some of the
00:11:15
Finer Things in life they had a very expensive wine collection a renowned art collection well we have a very nice beer
00:11:24
collection well Sava loved collecting automobiles too that's when you know that you're doing very well when you
00:11:30
collect Automobiles and some of these were like race cars well it depends it depends on on what kind of car and where
00:11:38
are they parked are they in a garage or they in your front yard well and Sava was really into martial arts he had a
00:11:45
samurai sword collection in his home and was scheduled to open up his own Dojo savador Kate like many wealthy women Amy
00:11:54
took on a pet cause that was near and dear to her heart after after her daughter suffered concussions on the
00:12:01
sports playing fields she became something of an expert in concussions and became a major fundraiser for the
00:12:08
National Children's medical centers concussion education project yeah a very wealthy family very successful family we
00:12:16
know the conclusion of the fire but let's start with the details of the day before the fire yes this was Wednesday
00:12:24
May 13th uh SAA went to check out the process at the new Dojo he was planning to open
00:12:32
yeah Amy and little Phillip 10 years old were both at home they have two housekeepers one who worked for the
00:12:38
family for like 20 years this is Nelly Gutierrez she was not at the home that day she was working at the new Dojo
00:12:46
cleaning and preparing for the grand opening the following weekend housekeeper ver
00:12:54
figura who worked for the family for about 5 years was at the house house when either Vera or Nelly worked at the
00:13:02
home their routine was to finish up and leave for the day around 3 or 3:30 in the
00:13:08
afternoon Amy took Phillip to a 9:30 a.m. doctor's appointment Amy's car entered the parking garage at Chevy
00:13:16
Chase Center at 9:09 a.m. there is video footage of Amy and Phillip near the doctor's office Amy is wearing white
00:13:24
pants and a blue top her Range Rover left the parking garage at 11:08 a.m. at 3:14 p.m. the director of
00:13:35
reservations at a local Doggy Daycare place called the sopis family regarding an upcoming Memorial Day Weekend
00:13:43
appointment for the family's dogs bear and ginger what she said was unusual was she called the house phone as always but
00:13:53
got the indication that the phone had been disconnected since the sopis were regular customers they had Amy's cell
00:14:00
phone she said she called the number at 4:20 p.m. and left a voicemail Amy called back twice once right after the
00:14:09
voicemail but there was no sound on the call and it quickly disconnected then Amy called back about 10 to 15 minutes
00:14:17
later so likely around 4:40 p.m. Amy said she would be keeping the appointment for the dogs later it is
00:14:25
said that Amy didn't sound like herself she sounded tired groggy or under the weather and she rushed through the call
00:14:33
when she would normally be very friendly and chatty yeah she sound like the captain a friend of Amy's told police
00:14:40
that she saw Amy walking in their neighborhood heading toward her home around 3:25 p.m. now Amy was a coffee
00:14:47
lover and it's believed that based on her friend's sighting of her that she went on a Starbucks run around that time
00:14:55
yes but we are noting here that she was not in the house at 3:25 p.m. right according to Nelly Gutierrez who was
00:15:05
with Sava at the dojo Amy called SAA at 5:30 p.m. and asked that he come home to
00:15:11
stay with Phillip because she had plans about a half an hour later Sava packed up and left the dojo for home he asked
00:15:19
Nelly to close up for him once she was finished he didn't act in any way like this was an
00:15:26
emergency at some point that evening Sava made a call to the family's home security company the sopis they had a
00:15:35
new system installed 6 months earlier that included surveillance cameras outside the home and glass Brak sensors
00:15:41
in the kitchen this system sent the surveillance footage and records of alerts directly to a computer that was
00:15:49
stored in a utility room on the third floor of the home so this security footage was not live monitored but it
00:15:57
was stored for review if an alert was sent right although the system would of course alert the family if the alarm was
00:16:05
set and was triggered but this system was brand new and it had some bugs that they were trying to work out and because
00:16:13
of this the system was not fully activated and according to the vice president of the security company on the
00:16:20
13th the system was not armed yeah SAA is going to make a phone call about 8:00 p.m. to Debbie masser somebody that
00:16:28
works for him this call comes from his cell phone he wanted her to figure out a way to get him cash for a construction
00:16:37
equipment auction that was being held the next day this was actually common for Sava he would he would go and buy
00:16:44
Machinery at a discount at these auctions so Sava wanted 35 to $50,000 in cash a bit of Cold Hard Cash well the
00:16:55
request for cash was actually the unusual ual part of the request as he normally would just get a cashier's
00:17:02
check so Debbie wait hold on I just want to go over this again so at the auction
00:17:08
you could use a check you don't have to use cash and that was normal protocol right so so he's he's not normally
00:17:15
calling her saying I want 40 50 grand in cash right so Debbie and Ted Chase made
00:17:22
arrangements for Sava to electronically draft and sign a check that Ted would then collect at the bank the following
00:17:31
morning Debbie said Sava sounded totally normal on this phone call sometime around 8:00 p.m. Sava called Jordan
00:17:40
Wallace this is his driver and general assistant and left a voicemail sava's message told Jordan there was a change
00:17:49
of plans for the next day and instructed Jordan to meet Ted chase at the American
00:17:55
Iron Works office first thing the next morning to pick up a package in his message Sava almost sounded jovial and
00:18:03
at 8:30 p.m. Jordan texts Sava I'll call you when I get the package and around 900 p.m. Amy is going to order Domino's
00:18:13
Pizza yeah she ordered two pizzas and a soda Amy paid over the phone with a credit card and said that she was
00:18:20
nursing a sick child and that the delivery man was to place the pizzas on the front stoop when the delivery driver
00:18:27
got to the house they say all the lights were off except for the one over the front door and the house was silent very
00:18:35
strange he rang the doorbell left the pizzas and then drove off Sava sopis left a voicemail that evening for the
00:18:43
regular housekeeper Nelly his voicemail said it's Sava I hope you get this message Amy is in bed sick tonight and
00:18:51
she was sick this afternoon and Vera offered to stay and help her out so she's going to stay the night here he
00:18:59
went on to explain that Vera's phone was dead and they didn't have a compatible charger for it you can hear part of this
00:19:06
voicemail online sava's voice sounds totally normal on this call Nelly didn't listen to this voicemail immediately I
00:19:14
point that out because she might have questioned it as she heard earlier from Sava that Amy had plans that night which
00:19:22
didn't mesh with what she was being told now of Amy being ill yeah and just going
00:19:28
back to the cash getting ordering the cash the that night and telling people to get it in the morning to go to the
00:19:36
bank and ask for 40 to 50 grand in cash is a big deal and the and sometimes Banks don't have that cash on hand
00:19:46
because they don't they can deal with somebody coming in and robbing a teller and getting a couple thousand bucks but
00:19:54
they don't carry that much cash on them anymore cuz they're afraid of taking overs mhm well and remember we mentioned
00:20:02
that at some point on that evening SAA got in contact with his security company asking questions about the security
00:20:10
camera footage and so on well later that evening this was after 11:00 p.m. the security company texts Sava back stating
00:20:20
I believe your outdoor surveillance camera records are motion you know he was asking how the cameras were
00:20:27
activated so he he was in contact with this security company during this time now that leads us to Thursday May
00:20:37
14th at 711 a.m. Sava called Jordan his assistant and the two spoke just going back over the plan for the package
00:20:46
pickups and Delivery at an unknown time on the morning of the 14th Sava again spoke
00:20:53
with Eric he's from the home security company trying to get a handle on how his system stored
00:21:00
recordings now Eric later said that these phone calls were strange because he had already gone over with Sava how
00:21:06
the system worked at approximately 9:00 a.m. the Sprinkler Company showed up at the sopis home the sprinkler guy knocked
00:21:15
on the door but when no one answered he went on to his next appointment at 9:09 a.m. Amy called to cancel the sprinkler
00:21:23
maintenance appointment because her son she said got injured and she had to go to the hospital now sometime early this
00:21:33
morning it's not clear when Debbie Mass again talked to Sava he told her to draw
00:21:41
up the check for $40,000 and that Ted would collect the cash and give it to Jordan his assistant
00:21:48
and Jordan would deliver it to him once the check was drafted impr printed Debbie sent Sava an email confirming
00:21:55
that it was ready sometime between 8 and 9:00 a.m. on the morning of the 14th SAA
00:22:01
called his business banking specialist at Bank of America sava's company American Iron Works was one of their top
00:22:10
clients so this person was very familiar with his voice and recognized it right away Sava told them of this unusual
00:22:20
request for $440,000 in cash right so they had to find a bank branch that had that much cash on hand where Ted Chase
00:22:30
could cash the company check yeah and sometimes they wouldn't do this for certain clients but you're talking about
00:22:37
he is a huge client yes yeah and somebody that they want to keep happy right so they locate a branch that's
00:22:45
able to fill the request and called Sava back and at this point he seemed Rush on
00:22:51
the rushed on the phone and he told her that his CFO Ted Chase would go pick up the money using a stamp of sava's
00:23:00
signature Nelly Gutierrez tried to call her friend Vera at 8:30 a.m. and then again at 8:46 a.m. but her calls went
00:23:09
straight to voicemail now meanwhile around 9:30 on the morning of the 14th Vera's husband Bernardo showed up at the
00:23:18
house on Woodland Drive it was not only unusual but unheard of for Vera to stay over with the family and further Nelly
00:23:27
never listened to the voicemail from Sava explaining that Vera was staying over so as far as Bernardo was concerned
00:23:34
his wife just never came home the night before he had no success reaching her on
00:23:40
her phone it continually went straight to voicemail even though he had called her nine times between the previous
00:23:47
night and Thursday morning he knocked on the door and even though no one answered
00:23:53
he said that he got like a really strange feeling that someone was standing on the other side of that door
00:23:59
yeah he thought he heard a noise like a chair scraping the floor he started to walk toward a window to look in when his
00:24:07
phone rang and it was Sava calling Sava apologized for not calling him earlier he told him that Amy was ill and ver
00:24:16
went with her to the hospital in his car meanwhile Vera's daughter Claudia was waiting and while she killed time she
00:24:25
took a picture of the family's blue Porsche parked in the driveway and she sent it to her boyfriend who was into
00:24:32
cars so we know that the Porsche was at the home around 9:30 a.m. right around 9:40 a.m. Jordan Wallace and Ted Chase
00:24:43
went to the Bank of America in kennworth Chase and the bank manager signed some paperwork while Jordan hung in the
00:24:50
background the bank manager handed Chase $40,000 in $100 bills once in the parking lot Chase handed the cash over
00:25:00
to Jordan who placed the bills in a red backpack then the two men went their separate ways yeah Jordan is actually
00:25:08
going to take a picture of the bag of cash open and then he sends it to his girlfriend yeah and he he later would
00:25:17
delete these text now Jordan drove to 3201 Woodland Drive right at 9:51 a.m. he called sava's cell and informed him
00:25:28
that he had the package he had the cash Sava said great call me when you're 10 minutes away and I'll give you
00:25:35
instructions at 9:56 a.m. Amy texted her housekeeper Nelly telling her not to come to the house that day at 10:15 a.m.
00:25:45
Jordan called Sava again to tell him he was approaching the home Sava told Jordan that he would be on a conference
00:25:52
call and not to knock he instructed Jordan to enter the garage which would be left open for him and placed the
00:25:59
money on the driver's seat of the red sports car that was parked inside the garage he then was to leave and Sava
00:26:07
would be right behind him per his words Jordan found that the right side garage Bay was opened as promised and he put
00:26:16
the money in a manila envelope placed it on the driver's seat exited the garage closed the door and left he sent Sava a
00:26:25
text around 10:26 that said package delivered no response ever came this was the last communication anyone had with
00:26:36
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2023 all right cheers mates cheers to you Captain well the next thing that we know the house was in Flames a
00:28:55
contractor who was parked on the street saw the the flames and pounded on the front door and said that he could hear
00:29:00
dogs barking and the smoke alarm going off he called 911 Jordan Wallace the assistant received a phone call from an
00:29:09
American Iron Works employee notifying him that the house was on fire he was told to head over to the House Pronto
00:29:18
then Debbie received a call from a reporter for the Washington Post asking her if she could confirm that four
00:29:26
people were dead now poor Debbie did not know what was going on at this time and she had just
00:29:32
spoke to SAA that morning Jordan Wallace then called her dist Strat saying the house was burned and he wasn't being
00:29:39
allowed inside now we've already discussed the horrific murder scene that the fire
00:29:45
department discovered when they busted into the home but moving on to the investigation and some further things
00:29:52
that were found the furniture in the room that Philip was found in was completely incinerated this indicating
00:29:59
that the fire was ignited with some type of accelerant it's believed that the bed
00:30:05
was where the fire started a special accelerant canine was brought into the scene and indicated that an accelerant
00:30:14
was present on the stairs and in the two bedrooms upstairs where the victims were
00:30:18
found these bedrooms were those of the two daughters who were away at school matches were discovered at the top of
00:30:26
the stairs speaking of dogs dog lovers will be happy to hear that the family's dogs
00:30:32
were discovered by firefighters unharmed after autopsies on all four victims the medical examiner report
00:30:40
indicated as follows this according to the initial arrest affidavit filed by detectives the three adults had been
00:30:48
killed by blunt force and sharp force trauma they were beaten and stabbed to death specifically Sava had been stabbed
00:30:56
through the back of the neck Philip's cause of death was thermal and sharp force injuries further there was
00:31:03
evidence that all three adults had been restrained adhesive tape residue was found on Amy's wrist and ankles and on
00:31:11
Vera's wrist it was believed that sava's wrist and ankles were bound with something with an edge like a zip
00:31:19
tie Sava and Amy were both beaten with a baseball bat and stabbed and Sava also showed signs of strangulation
00:31:28
Philip likely was stabbed with a sword probably one of his fathers kept as part of his martial arts collection Amy's
00:31:36
right middle finger was bruised injuries consistent with her attacker trying to pull a ring off it was later speculated
00:31:44
by authorities Vera had been stabbed in the neck but had the fewest injuries the
00:31:50
medical examiner concluded that she had also been strangled and that she had a history of heart disease and probably
00:31:56
suffered heart attack during the incident now from the get-go this case was a big deal in DC within hours of the
00:32:05
fire the mayor and police chief were both at the house the Metropolitan Police Department's homicide unit was
00:32:12
called in to start their investigation assisted by the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and
00:32:18
Firearms Jeffrey Owens was the lead detective from the Metropolitan PD assigned to the case investigators began
00:32:26
the process of ing through the house to try to determine who could have done this and sorting through the fire debris
00:32:32
for evidence here are some of the more significant things that they discovered the phone lines to the house visible
00:32:39
coming out of the utility boxes outside of one of the back doors of the home were cleanly
00:32:45
severed there was evidence of a struggle in the main entry foyer and you talked about amyan Starbucks they have a
00:32:52
picture of her Starbucks is placed on a sideboard in the entry hallway away her Louis Vuitton handbag was on a chair a
00:33:01
red wheelie briefcase was on its back with papers spilling out of it this belonged to Sava a book bag belonging to
00:33:08
Philip was spilled open and its contents was like folders notebooks and papers were scattered about a letter opener was
00:33:16
near the front door the computer drive that stored the security system footage was gone right the casing remained but
00:33:24
the important stuff was taken and the seven blue wires that powered it were cut Amy and sava's iPhones were gone
00:33:33
investigators subpoena their cell phone records and those of the people they were known to have been in contact with
00:33:39
in order to reconstruct what had happened as far as phone activity goes a bloody baseball bat was recovered
00:33:48
in the room where the three adults were found the blood was both Amy's and Savas
00:33:54
a second bloody bat was found downstairs a bloody plastic bag and a large amount
00:33:59
of blood were found in the room where the adults were also in the room investigators discovered a bloody shoe
00:34:05
print and the two pizza boxes delivered by Domino's the night before right some of the pizza was gone consumed but there
00:34:14
was one partial chewed piece of crust still left in one of the boxes a large sharp samurai sword was
00:34:22
recovered traces of Philip's blood were found on it now there was a noticeable lack of foreign fingerprints or DNA
00:34:30
found in the home so whoever had done this they did it wearing gloves they did find two foreign hairs and they're going
00:34:37
to send those off for testing duct tape was found ceiling shut the doggy door that led from the kitchen to the
00:34:43
basement and one small piece of duct tape was found in the driveway none of the duct tape ma matched any of the
00:34:49
rolls found inside the home mhm a kitchen knife was found propping open a basement window this is the kind of
00:34:57
window that tilts open and closed yeah and the window well is going to be covered by a great it kind of reminds me
00:35:04
just from hearing about it very similar to the John Benet Ramsay case where you have the window well it's covered by
00:35:11
that grate you have to open that up to get to the window now a Frisbee and a screwdriver were also propping up other
00:35:19
windows in the basement it's unclear why these windows were propped open in this
00:35:24
manner but one key piece of evidence is something that was missing from the house so investigators quickly noted
00:35:32
that the blue Porsche primarily driven by Amy you remember the vehicle that was photographed by Vera's daughter right
00:35:39
was missing but it turned up quickly it would and they found it engulfed in flames this was around 5:30 p.m. on the
00:35:47
14th m in a church parking lot in new Carolton inside the car they found a neon green construction vest on the vest
00:35:56
was a hair that was sent for testing as law enforcement located Witnesses and surveillance video a couple of
00:36:03
additional things came to light one a witness reported seeing the Porsche around 1:30 p.m. on the day of the fire
00:36:11
which was being driven erratically by a short-haired African-American male wearing a neon green vest this sighting
00:36:18
was on New York Avenue in Northeast DC heading out of town toward Maryland in the direction of where the Porsche was
00:36:26
eventually found second surveillance footage from the church parking lot camera showed an African-American male
00:36:34
wearing a dark hoodie and jeans and carrying a large construction type bucket walking in the church parking lot
00:36:41
so they have two hairs from the house they have the hair from the car we know that there was a accelerant used in the
00:36:49
house the car was burning so we're I'm assuming there's a accelerant there mhm and and those are probably going to be
00:36:58
tested to match those so this is you know a a wealthy family powerful in the community so this is going to be a very
00:37:09
thorough investigation yeah massive investigation and they want to talk to investigators want to talk to and
00:37:16
interview everyone that they could possibly think of well and with the delivery of the money we have an idea of
00:37:23
what the motive could be or the wealth of the family the power of the family we have an idea of what the motive could be
00:37:31
and but that you have to cast a very wide net because there's a lot of people that are
00:37:37
motivated by money well going off of that they are going to very quickly come to the conclusion that the family and
00:37:48
Vera were the victims of a home invasion extortion plot and held hostage for up to about 22 hours investigators actually
00:37:58
believe that whoever done this was likely familiar with the family's routines and must have been watching the
00:38:03
house at least that day or possibly previous days leading up to it right investigators thought that the attack
00:38:10
started once Amy left to walk to Starbucks and Vera and Phillip were home alone now the question here becomes no
00:38:18
one knows whether the per knew that Philip who would normally be at school was actually in the home invest skaters
00:38:26
knew that the phone lines were cut by the time the Doggy Daycare Center had called at 3:15 and also that Amy was
00:38:34
seen alive and well walking back toward her home at 325 after Starbucks they knew that Jordan
00:38:40
delivered $40,000 to the home on Thursday and that the money was gone it was impossible to determine whether any
00:38:48
other money was missing one thing investigators found was a file cabinet drawer in the office containing four
00:38:55
handguns and $13,000 in cash now they could only speculate that Sava hadn't give given the money to the per because
00:39:04
it would draw attention to these Guns located in the same spot this looked like a well-planned targeted plot to
00:39:11
hold a family hostage for ransom right clearly Sava had been forced to request the cash from his CFO one thing that
00:39:20
police found interesting the home was full of expensive jewelry and artwork and these items were untouched
00:39:27
whoever did this was after one thing cash right was that the only motive if that were the case why killed the family
00:39:35
after the money was delivered so investigators did not have a lot to go on there were no
00:39:41
fingerprints on the baseball bat or anything else that it seemed that the per might have touched right like you
00:39:47
said probably used gloves yeah and the perpetrator removed the security system and he took with him anything used to
00:39:54
bind the victims well this is a big house and there's multiple victims so then you start questioning is it just
00:40:00
one perpetrator or multiple perpetrators right now he did leave behind the duct tape on the doggy door and one piece of
00:40:07
duct tape that was reportedly found in the driveway but they didn't have any prints on them so cops did have one
00:40:15
thing one very important thing the pizza crust found in the box of leftover pepperoni pizza there was a partially
00:40:22
consumed piece but leaving behind the crust it could have been one of the family or Vera of course right or it
00:40:30
could have been left by a perpetrator well that's going to give us possible DNA but also possible bite Impressions
00:40:38
yeah the chewed part of the crust was carefully swabbed before the evidence was even bagged and tagged and delivered
00:40:44
to the ATF forensic lab for expedited testing when the lab ran the swab they got a complete single Source male DNA
00:40:55
profile law enforcement ran that profile through cotus and boom they got a direct hit
00:41:03
Darren Dylan went date of birth November 27th 1980 the chances that this DNA did not belong
00:41:13
to him were 1 in 10 quintillion as for the hair found on the vest in the burned out Porsche there
00:41:20
were two DNA contributors one was Savas and one was Darren went Darren went was also found to be the
00:41:29
contributor of DNA found on the handle of the knife that was propping open the basement
00:41:34
window now it's believed that Darren went whoever he was had taken the money and evidence from the home and drove off
00:41:42
in Amy's Porsche which he had then torched in the parking lot where it was found the church it turned out was just
00:41:50
a few hundred yards from the apartment that Darren W's sister Samantha lived in and in Prince George's County Maryland
00:41:59
which went had listed as his home address and where he had actually lived for a brief period of time police pulled
00:42:06
out all the stops in the search for this man they found evidence that he also torched a minivan that he owned hash
00:42:14
banthan yeah so who is this Darren went right that's what we want to know other than giant piece of [ __ ] well he's a man
00:42:21
that was recently kicked out of his mother's apartment this after losing it in argument over some dirty dishes and
00:42:29
threatening everyone in the apartment including his brother Stefan who also lived there went was taken in by his
00:42:36
father and stepmother Pamela although this is not a long-term solution he had been told he needed to be out by the end
00:42:44
of the month Pamela told investigators and testified at trial that that every day was pretty much the same went would
00:42:53
get up and he would go look for work at 5:00 a.m. leaving the home right he would come home at 10:00 a.m. eat go to
00:43:01
the gym and then he would spend the rest of the day on his phone Secret Service analysts poured over his phone in social
00:43:09
media history went was found to have been active on social media over 70 times a day between Facebook post
00:43:16
Facebook instant messages and Facebook voice messaging in the months leading up to the murders but went went completely
00:43:26
inactive online for a 36-hour period starting at 6:00 a.m. on May 13th continuing until 5:59 p.m. on the 14th
00:43:37
right during the time of the murders and the fire Pamela later testified that he
00:43:42
left the house on the 13th and never came home that night which was very concerning to her and his father since
00:43:49
he never stayed out W's sister and girlfriend both tried to contact him repeatedly during during this time
00:43:56
period with no response he reappeared at 600 p.m. on the 14th driving his blue Minivan and seemed stressed out but did
00:44:04
not say where he had been his social media blackout ended with a brief puzzling post at 733 p.m. that evening
00:44:14
just five letters BT duu Z he called his girlfriend wait say those again BT BT du Z yeah that's that's very
00:44:26
strange any clue on what that means maybe it's just a butt dial or a butt text or I I think that this
00:44:35
was this was um intended for whatever reason it could have been some type of typo I'm very I'm kind of Clueless on
00:44:44
what this means or what it could mean you've studied um computer forensics so you figured I figured you'd know what
00:44:51
this means that's right um after this he does call his girlfriend and he went out
00:44:57
there's security footage of him and his brother Daryl at a Walmart at 1024 p.m. where went paid for purchases in $100
00:45:08
bills then they left but went later returned at 11:28 p.m. for more purchases what did they buy do we know I
00:45:18
think it was probably a bunch of insignificant items because I couldn't find a list of what was purchased it
00:45:26
could have just been somebody out on a bit of a spending spree is what what I'm guessing Pamela said that went stayed
00:45:33
home on the 15th and then disappeared late that evening this time the blue minivan that he owned did not come home
00:45:42
with him on the 15th on the night of the 15th the kennworth fire department found
00:45:47
it in Flames after midnight on May 16th and determined that it was arson now police didn't put together that this
00:45:56
vehicle belonged to went until May 20th this is a week after the home invasion yeah sometime after the 17th now we got
00:46:06
to keep in mind here that meanwhile while all this movement is going on by by went police have figured out who they're
00:46:15
looking for yeah because of the DNA testing so sometime after the 17th Darren went left for New York to visit
00:46:23
his girlfriend Vanessa Pamela knew that he was there because he left her a phone
00:46:30
number where he could be reached he was anxious to hear whether he was going to get his green card which had expired and
00:46:37
he was attempting to renew so he wasn't even legally here while in Brooklyn he waved around $100 bills and told Vanessa
00:46:45
that he had won $2,000 in the lottery and sold his van for cash oh [ __ ] he treated her to shopping meals and even
00:46:54
gave her 15 $100 in cash and bought her a new iPhone around this time he also paid $1,100 to an immigration attorney
00:47:04
this was paid in cash on the night of May 20th W and Vanessa were lying in bed in her apartment when W's wanted photo
00:47:13
which was an old mug shot popped up on the screen while they're in bed yes she's trying to cuddle on them on the TV
00:47:20
screen on his dirty ass and she's trying to cuddle on him and the his ugly face face pops up on the screen well when
00:47:28
they see this they quickly left her apartment and they went to a hotel uh this so they could not be found right
00:47:35
now working with New York police DC authorities tracked went to Brooklyn and arrived at Vanessa's apartment they just
00:47:42
missed him eventually went called his father a DC homicide detective was at W's father's home at that very moment
00:47:52
and actually got on the phone with W he informed W that that there was a warrant
00:47:56
out for his arrest and went asked what for the detective replied murder well I just think that he's lying in bed with
00:48:04
this girlfriend quote unquote and she has to be such a scumbag that she ends up going to a hotel with him like oh
00:48:12
well let's uh you're wanted for something but hey let's go to the hotel and hang out MH it's ridiculous well
00:48:18
went left Brooklyn late on Wednesday May 20th or early on the 21st this this is not really clear we don't have an exact
00:48:27
time here uh but we do know that he paid a private company $900 in cash to drive
00:48:32
him back to Maryland he left behind one of his phones which police had used to locate him in New York this was left
00:48:40
behind in possession with his girlfriend Vanessa she told police that she believed went planned to turn himself in
00:48:47
once he arrived back in Maryland police were able to trace went to a Howard Johnson Express Inn located at College
00:48:54
Park the capitol Area Regional fugitive task force staked out the parking lot and watched went and some others leave
00:49:02
the hotel around 11: p.m. now went was carrying a bag and got into a 2012 Chevy Cruise which left the hotel
00:49:12
accompanied by a box truck 20 undercover Vehicles pursued the two vehicles as they drove into DC well and at some
00:49:21
point the US Marshals are actually going to be able to get in between both of the
00:49:25
vehicles causing them to stop and they're actually going to be able to make the rest then yes they took went
00:49:32
and two other men one of whom was his brother Daryl yeah who was on the phone with detectives at the time he warned
00:49:41
the other car's passengers that they were about to be pulled over W's cousin George who owned the box truck and two
00:49:49
women who were with went in the Chevy Cruise they took all these people into custody without incident in the car in
00:49:57
which went was a passenger the bag went was carrying was found to contain money orders worth
00:50:04
$10,000 one of the women in the car her name is Chelsea who was there to hang out with the guys and buy pot from Daryl
00:50:12
whom she knew only by his pot dealer name goo told police that goo had directed the purchase of the money
00:50:20
orders and had given Chelsea money to buy them in the truck authorities saw in plain view
00:50:29
$738 in cash mostly in $100 bills and more money orders for $13,300 now I want to point something out here Captain
00:50:40
because I do believe this is important and we will see why later okay the arrest warrant issued for Darren went in
00:50:47
May of 2015 it specifically states that the officer submitting the affidavit in support for arrest believes that Mr went
00:50:58
and others right held the sopis family captive and then we have public statements made by authorities
00:51:06
investigating the case indicating that the family was targeted but police did not believe that went was solely
00:51:13
responsible for the slaughter of the family and for their housekeeper Vera police including the chief said
00:51:21
repeatedly that the elaborate crime probably required the presence and assistance of more than one person and
00:51:29
that there were possibly other suspects yet they only arrested one that they charged with murder none of the other
00:51:37
people in the Chevy Cru or the box truck were arrested for murder so Darren who is this ball puffer Darren went was 34
00:51:48
years old at the time of this arrest he was born in Guyana um he is 5' 8 in is tall 155 lb
00:51:58
he has six siblings three brothers and three sisters he moved to the United States in 2000 when he was nearly 20
00:52:05
years old and he became a permanent resident after obtaining his green card which was up for renewal in
00:52:13
2015 in the US went also had two half Brothers this is Daryl and Stefan Stefan and went shared a mother Daryl and went
00:52:26
shared a father does that make sense yes so went tried to be a marine for a while
00:52:32
but that didn't really pan out and neither did PG County Community College went found himself bouncing from job to
00:52:40
job but he was trained as a welder so he did manage to find a job from May of 2003 to April of 2005 this was at
00:52:50
American Iron Works Sava savopoulos was his boss at one time so you know but you
00:52:59
have to keep in mind Sava is the CEO of this company and went would have been a welder it's very likely that they may
00:53:08
have never have known each other went was fired from American Iron Works in 2005 and Sava had apparently refused to
00:53:19
take him back despite two follow-up attempts by went to get his job back one of W's cousins also worked at American
00:53:27
Ironworks and was fired in 2005 as well this cousin had then threatened to burn the place
00:53:34
down American Iron Works went on to obtain a restraining order barring this person from the premises right
00:53:42
co-workers who remembered went from American Iron Works told investigators that went hadn't gotten along with
00:53:49
anyone that he worked with well he argues with everybody argued with his family about dirty dishes W's paperwork
00:53:57
indicates that he was terminated for missing work went went on to work just sporadically after that well that's
00:54:05
great you know hey I don't show up for work and I want you to take me back please take me back I want to come back
00:54:12
to work but you didn't show up to work oh please take me back it's ridiculous but not only that it sounds like he was
00:54:19
like impossible to get along with when he did show up and then when he shows up everybody's going hey look the [ __ ]
00:54:25
showed up well yeah we would have rather you not show up yeah it wasn't like he's
00:54:29
going hey take me back and then they're going hey when he shows up he's a hard worker all his co-workers like working
00:54:35
with him it's like he doesn't show up and when he does show up n he's a douchebag so went actually had a
00:54:42
somewhat long and somewhat violent criminal history so this is why his DNA was registered in cotus and came up
00:54:51
right away when law enforcement ran his DNA in the database after after the murders the stuff that was found on the
00:54:57
crust in 2009 he was convicted in New York of assaulting a girlfriend in 2010 he plad guilty to malicious destruction
00:55:06
of property after he threatened to kill a woman and her infant breaking into her apartment
00:55:12
stealing a TV and vandalizing her car he told the woman that he was quote good with a knife and he was not afraid of
00:55:21
police he was sentenced to 60 days plus probation seems like a little bit of a light sentence there yeah you think also
00:55:29
in 2010 he was arrested for sitting on a dumpster while holding a twoot long machete and a BB gun this at a gas
00:55:37
station this was pled down to possession of an open container of alcohol I think
00:55:43
the way that this story goes is he was drunk and being I you can't say being violent but being very threatening to
00:55:50
people in the area as he sat on this dumpster refusing to leave went ALS also had four previous arrests from New York
00:55:57
State including multiple cases of assault harassment and violating an order of protection records in Maryland
00:56:04
show that in the mid 2000s he punched a housemate over loud music and threatened
00:56:09
to drop a woman over a parking spot this is a this is a this is a violent aggressive guy this guy's an
00:56:19
awful piece of [ __ ] you get out of the car hey that's my parking spot I'll drop
00:56:24
you well and then in uh March so this is March 23rd 2015 the same year as the murders right went was arrested in DC
00:56:34
for receiving stolen property he was pulled over in a blue minivan that wasn't registered at the time of that
00:56:41
arrest he provided a false name to police and he used the name of one of his half Brothers Stefan
00:56:50
went can't even just make up a name you have to use one of your brother's name that's
00:56:56
awful so it's easy to see a couple of items that are important to this case one he had a lengthy record and that's
00:57:06
why his DNA was already listed and registered with cotus that's how they made the match when they found his DNA
00:57:14
at the crime scene of the quadruple homicide right the other thing that we should point out here too is that given
00:57:22
his arrest record they weren't going to renew his green [Music] card join us back here in the garage
00:57:36
tomorrow for more of the DC mansion murders until then be good be kind and don't
00:57:42
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