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[Music] welcome to True Crime garage wherever you are whatever you are doing thanks
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for listening I'm your host Nick and with me as always is a man who loves guitars Cadillacs and hillbilly music he
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is my friend the captain yeah but beer never broke my heart it's good to be seen and it's good to see you thanks for
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Stout from high water brewing in sunny California garage grade four and a quar bottle caps out of five they used
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and also our old episodes are exclusively on the Stitcher app and that is enough of the all right everybody
00:03:25
gather around grab a chair grab a beer let's talk some true crime [Music] I must honestly say after reading the
00:04:02
Bible and the Holy Quran I started to wonder on the Battle of good versus evil on Heaven and Hell In which many believe
00:04:14
is a spiritual battle within oneself and not an actual physical presence some believe that evil resides
00:04:23
in all people the yin and yang for example certain things happened to me in life that I considered evil yet they
00:04:34
were perpetrated by those who were supposed to be the good guys and Role Models the things they did are
00:04:42
considered wrong to their own way of thinking so why did these things happen did I do anything to these people
00:04:52
no but I am crucified while they are accepted and this is taken as a consequence of
00:05:01
life so I looked at life in the ruling class and the so-called powers that be I began to read books and studied them
00:05:14
keeping thoughts to myself until I could no longer keep it in I came across what
00:05:20
many would find such as conspiracy theories and secret societies but this again crucified me as
00:05:27
a paranoid or even worse shouldn't these people be suffering a state of hell and
00:05:33
not me these are quotes from an ebook titled the luciferian theory this is true crime
00:05:43
garage and this is the case of the Malibu Creek [Music] murder [Music] on Thursday June 21st
00:06:09
2018 Tristan bodette and his two daughters set out for a weekend camping trip they were accompanied by Tristan's
00:06:17
brother-in-law Scott mccartie and Scott's two young Sons their destination the Malibu Creek Campground located
00:06:26
inside Malibu Creek State Park this is a huge Park of 8,200 Acres the park has 15
00:06:34
M of trails and is located in beautiful low crime Malibu California just 25 miles from Los Angeles the park itself
00:06:44
is pretty famous it contains the set for the iconic TV show MASH and was also the
00:06:50
site for filming of the original Planet of the Apes and many famous movie stars live in the area Will Smith's 43 Mill
00:06:59
million doll compound is nearby and the Kardashians are also not far from here all right can jiggy with it the
00:07:07
campground in the park is located near Los Virginia Road which connects Calabasas and Malibu the campground has
00:07:15
63 campsites each with a picnic table and Fire Ring rented by the night to people looking to enjoy the great
00:07:23
outdoors in this Scenic area yeah so on that Thursday morning Tristan and Scott and the kids they headed up to Malibu
00:07:31
Creek Park arriving by early afternoon they were assigned a campsite at the gate but upon arriving there they
00:07:39
decided that they could do better they scouted around found a different area that they preferred and requested a
00:07:45
change at the gate they set up their tent cooked dinner and put the kids to bed in their sleeping bags Tristan and
00:07:53
Scott talked late into the night and according to Scott they then retired in their separate tents where their kids
00:08:00
were already sleeping there are reports out there that on the night of Thursday June 21st
00:08:08
2018 60 60 of the 63 campsites were occupied so the campground is almost full yeah at 4:44 a.m. on Friday morning
00:08:20
now June 22nd a 911 call came into the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department reporting shots fired in the 19 00 block
00:08:30
of Los Virginia Road we don't know who called 911 although I've seen reports that it was Scott who heard the shots
00:08:39
then found Tristan bleeding and called the police when the police and paramedics arrived they found Tristan
00:08:47
bodette he had been shot now the early report says he suffered a gunshot wound to his upper
00:08:55
torso unfortunately there was very little that paramedics could do for him and just a short time later he was
00:09:03
pronounced dead at the scene at 5:21 a.m. the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Lieutenant Rodney Moore told
00:09:13
the media that the man who was shot had been inside a tent with his two daughters when he was struck the girls
00:09:20
thankfully are unharmed they were taken to the Lost Hills sheriff station in the company of
00:09:28
their Uncle Scott sheriff's deputies woke other campers in the campground inspecting their tents
00:09:34
for weapons and asked whether anyone had heard or seen anything strange many didn't have anything to report a few
00:09:44
reported hearing three or four loud bangs which they thought were from some distance and then going back to
00:09:51
sleep investigators closed the park so they could conduct a thorough investigation of the events of that
00:09:59
early morning they did not have a lot to go on and they told reporters that no other information was available to give
00:10:06
them at this stage they had no suspect and no known motive but one thing they did know this was a homicide what a
00:10:15
strange set of circumstances here's a father he's 35 years old he's a young father he's camping with his daughters
00:10:24
and and the fact that he has murdered nobody else in the campsite seems to be affected yeah not even an injury as far
00:10:33
as we could find yeah it's like what's the motive there's no signs of robbery doesn't make any sense yeah his
00:10:41
so his two girls they were sleeping with him in that same tent their ages at the
00:10:48
time were two and four but from what I could find their names have not been released to to the public or to the
00:10:54
media MH now Tristan what we know about him he met his wife Erica woo when they were in high school in Fresno Tristan
00:11:04
was cleancut and solid he loved cooking Ultimate Frisbee I guess he played on a team called the air squids which is a
00:11:12
pretty cool name n he loved nature outdoor activities obviously he's out camping with his young daughters he
00:11:19
likes snowboarding and biking and Science in fact he was a scientist for his profession After High School he took
00:11:27
a year to study in Switzerland and then he matriculated at UC San Diego while Erica was at Stanford well it seem like
00:11:38
I said it seems like a allaround pretty cool guy and then fact that he's taking his daughter's camping yeah cool guy uh
00:11:45
good father and smart obviously is what we can see here right once he graduated he was awarded for the highest GPA in
00:11:53
his graduating class that is an award I've not received uh he was enrolled at The Graduate School at Berkeley where he
00:12:02
received his PhD in chemistry so as you pointed out Captain as I pointed out one
00:12:08
bright dude the two got married in 2008 and settled in San Francisco but moved to Irvine Erica began an OBGYN residency
00:12:18
and Tristan took a job at a pharmaceutical company in June of 2018 so just shortly before this murder the
00:12:29
couple was one week away from a move back to the San Francisco area this would be so that Erica could begin her
00:12:37
tenure as a practicing doctor and Tristan actually accepted a job with a Bay Area pharmaceutical company so they
00:12:45
had plans plans to move Erica all she had to do was pass her medical boards and then she was good to go this is the
00:12:55
reason why Tristan took the girls camping Erica needed to be alone and focused she need to study needed to
00:13:03
study for these medical boards well with no clear motive you got to think that law enforcement is wondering where where
00:13:11
she was during these events and was there any type of relationship outside of the marriage well here's what we do
00:13:19
know on Friday June 22nd this is at 6:45 a.m. so the 911 call comes in at 4:44 a.m.
00:13:29
Tristan is pronounced dead at 5:21 a.m. and this is now 6:45 a.m. Erica woo was up and getting ready to go and actually
00:13:39
take her boards take the test to her surprise even at this very early hour she found her sister Priscilla at her
00:13:48
door Priscilla was there as she had the unfortunate job of delivering the terrible news right after they spoke
00:13:56
Erica and her sister made the long drive to Malibu to the Lost Hills sheriff station this was to retrieve her two
00:14:05
daughters Erica of course was in a days she could not wrap her head around what had happened it was just supposed to be
00:14:14
a short fun camping trip and this wasn't in some remote treacherous or even threatening environment this was a
00:14:21
public park with some of the priciest residential areas in the world nearby well like you said it was almost
00:14:30
completely full that day yeah 60 of the 63 campsites were occupied to everyone this murder seemed totally random and it
00:14:40
seemed very bizarre the whole the whole public opinion in theories they were starting to get
00:14:48
tossed around pretty quickly okay here's what we were thinking in the very beginning one there was a thought that
00:14:55
this could be an accidental shooting by one of the daughters or a possible suicide mhm now this was a theory but
00:15:06
this was ruled out almost immediately because the police found no gun inside the tent with the girls and Tristan no
00:15:15
gun at their campsite really no gun anywhere for that matter right another thought was this could be a hunting
00:15:24
accident there we should note though no hunting is all in this area at all right there are some
00:15:32
more complicated theories that were tossed out there and some of these well we'll go through them first was
00:15:41
Tristan's murder was somehow related to the marijuana growing Farms operated by the Mexican cartels in this area this
00:15:50
was tossed out there this was a theory though that there's there's just really no evidence to carry this Theory any
00:15:58
further wait are there actual marijuana Fields out there there there are farms that are operated by
00:16:05
Mexican cartels in that general area yes the other thought was as you kind of hinted towards Tristan was killed by a
00:16:16
family member or someone he knew well it just seems so odd to have three people in a tent and only one of them is
00:16:24
murdered I agree and with the thought too that there's no other injuries no other
00:16:33
attacks it seems like this would be a very pinpoint uh targeted attack one also seems too like when you think about
00:16:42
stranger motive we could assume it's not sexual because he's a he's a male but then they're they're camping so what are
00:16:52
they stealing if the motive is robbery and then there's the other possibility that I would think think that oh well he
00:16:59
here's this man uh camping with his daughters that maybe kill the father and and kidnap one of the kids but that
00:17:08
didn't happen either well regarding this Theory they were able to prove very quickly in their investigation that
00:17:18
Erica his wife was nowhere in the area at the time and they were also able to rule out Scott now we know Scott is
00:17:27
Along on this camping trip but we don't know publicly they've never stated why they just simply stated Scott did not do
00:17:35
this I believe that that you got to several things one no evidence that Scott had any type of firearm there's no
00:17:42
evidence that he had any kind of gunpowder residue on him right I think that'd be the first test that they would
00:17:48
give him and as we said it's believed that Scott was the one that called 911 that found Tristan that that that made
00:17:57
life saving efforts yeah but we've seen it in the P brother-in-law where where somebody's actually responsible for the
00:18:04
murder but they're the ones that called 911 so that wouldn't rule him out right this other portion is quite complicated
00:18:13
and this would be a targeted hit with Tristan being the target this Theory really started to gain some traction
00:18:22
Tristan's work at allergen was thought to be a possible motivating factor Tristan I show him as working on a
00:18:33
protein based anti-cancer vacines and Drug Delivery Systems mhm people wanted to know could this be
00:18:42
why he was killed it was reported that he held numerous patents as well maybe somebody wanted the rights to his
00:18:52
discoveries right or perhaps he was working on something top secret you know your mind really starts to
00:19:00
wander when you hear these things here because you could we could be talking about the rights to lucrative
00:19:07
medications at stake yeah I understand that and I don't have the knowledge firsthand but I would assume that if
00:19:13
somebody owns a patent on something on something they discovered that that would go to like next of Ken like
00:19:21
transfer over you would think for a time period yeah you you would think maybe even for the amount of the the patent
00:19:27
itself right um so these conspiracy theories were really making their way around the internet people wanted to
00:19:35
know did someone see killing him as a way to personally benefit MH the theory here like some of the others that we
00:19:47
that we've already discussed is not Ironclad obviously we mentioned several different versions of
00:19:53
the same Theory but one major problem is something we've already pointed out in the story with with it being a targeted
00:20:01
hit right the fact that the brothers the brother laws together they switched assigned campsites at the the
00:20:09
Guard Station it doesn't really build in well then I guess you could look at it on the
00:20:15
other side was there somebody out to kill Scott and got the wrong guy no they I don't mean that they switched with
00:20:24
each other they switched completely to a whole another campsite okay so what I'm
00:20:30
getting at is for this to be a targeted hit a couple things would have to takeen
00:20:35
place one the offender would need to know that they were in fact going camping M would
00:20:43
then need to know that they switched campsites basically what I'm saying is if somebody I think the better word is
00:20:51
moved Camp moved thank you you're correct if somebody If This Were to be a targeted hit everything to me points to
00:21:01
that somebody would have had to have been watching him watching his movement stalking Tristan yeah and I'm no
00:21:08
professional but I I think to it doesn't make a lot of sense if you're going to have a hit to play it out this way I
00:21:17
mean I understand that the park might make a little more sense to carry out a hit but being with his daughters and
00:21:24
being with you know his his brother I mean that doesn't make a lot so as the investigation into Tristan's
00:21:31
murder continued there was more information that was coming out Tristan's brother Dylan bodette was
00:21:38
named by LA's KCBS TV news as the source for its report that Tristan's tent was found to have two holes in it one on the
00:21:50
top of the tent and the other on the side of the tent police would not publicly acknowledge that these were
00:21:58
bullet holes but that's where your mind goes right Captain yeah so here is where
00:22:07
I start going well maybe there is something to this targeted hit theory if someone I knew he was going camping it
00:22:15
wouldn't be difficult to watch him this is an area where you you could probably blend in I don't know how you're staying
00:22:24
there without the without bringing the proper equipment with you in advance or or remaining to blend in even late into
00:22:31
the night possibly having Rangers there you know knowing that you shouldn't be on the property yeah and so the thing is
00:22:39
with these holes with the bullet holes well they're not saying that they're bullet holes
00:22:45
there are two holes in the tent one on top one on the side you think if somebody is trying to
00:22:51
hit a target from any kind of distance that it becomes very tricky to actually hit your target when you have
00:23:00
three people inside of a enclosed tent you may you're not going to be able to see your target you're not going to be
00:23:06
able to distinguish your target from the other two people in this tent so so any
00:23:12
shot from a distance seems very strange and it makes it seem like it it's a random act that it's not
00:23:19
a targeted hit the other problem though is when we see the hole on top of the tent that to
00:23:28
me looks like it could be a targeted event I don't know the specifics the the very details of this tent but just
00:23:39
thinking about tents I've owned in the past there are some that have like mesh tops right or or an opening up at the
00:23:45
Top If This Were a smaller tent you could walk up look down inside and aim at your
00:23:55
target especially even if at night you could you could use a flashlight to assist you in this well I I think of
00:24:02
these holes we'll say they're bullet holes if they were coming from similar directions I could see maybe the idea of
00:24:13
you know an accidental shooting right or a hunting accident or even maybe a craz hunter that decided to
00:24:22
shoot into tents but the fact that they're coming in from different angles that's strange to me well and I think
00:24:31
that's why it's important that police did not publicly say that these were bullet holes we don't know for certain
00:24:39
that that they were we're assuming that one of them had to be unless he was shot
00:24:45
from inside the tent but the the issue here being that we don't know exactly how fast Scott responded to what he
00:24:55
heard but it sounds like he acted very quickly after hearing the noise he found Tristan very quickly we don't have him
00:25:05
as seeing anybody fleeing from Tristan's tent so again this is it's just a very weird situation in a weird investigation
00:25:16
and I don't want to go too C CSI on everybody but you would think they would be able to do ballistic tests to see if
00:25:24
the roughly what range possibly the the bullet went through the tent yeah well and I I believe they would be able to
00:25:32
determine that they were in fact bullet holes or if only one of them was that that that would be the case so this is
00:25:40
this is a perfect way to lead us into some more information that that would come out and this was big for the case
00:25:49
this came directly from the LA County coroner's office from assistant chief Ed winter he said Tristan was killed by by
00:25:57
a single gunshot so if the holes are thought to be bullet holes unless one missed their Mark only one could
00:26:06
actually be a bullet hole the twist in the story here Captain is the assistant chief winter says the single shot was to
00:26:16
the Head not the Torso as was previously [Music] reported this show is sponsored by better help do
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lowercase shopify.com podcast free shopify.com SLP podcast free [Music] all right we're back cheers me matey
00:28:11
cheers to you Captain cheers to everybody out there listening I do want to point out before we get too far along
00:28:17
that really great coverage for this case was conducted by the Los Angeles Times and by a long form article in GQ
00:28:24
Magazine by Zack Baron we have relied heavily on these sources and putting together this week's case now everyone
00:28:34
agreed everyone publicly agreed that Tristan's murder was a bizarre incident not easily explained and early on
00:28:42
thought to be an isolated incident but just 5 days after the murder that was going to change because on June 27th
00:28:52
2018 a story in the Los Angeles Times by Richard Winton would change everything the B1 page article headline was five
00:29:03
Park shootings in 2 years but no warning the article cites five separate shootings all in the Malibu Creek State
00:29:14
Park in just a 2-year time period all before Tristan was shot and killed of course yeah the other shootings in which
00:29:24
at least one person was injured got little it at the time but now prompted fears that they might somehow all be
00:29:33
connected and the story got worse on June 30th the times reported that there were even more shootings and then again
00:29:43
this information was largely unreported to the public MH the Los Angeles sheriff's department the the paper said
00:29:51
had identified seven other shootings in the Malibu Creek State Park area since 200
00:29:57
16 three of the seven were in Los Angeles Sheriff Department's jurisdiction and the remainder were in
00:30:06
the state parks jurisdiction a LD spokesperson issued a statement saying quote homicide
00:30:14
detectives are aware that there have been other shootings near the location in the past however there is no evidence
00:30:23
that suggests this incident is related to any prior shootings end quote the times stated that the Los
00:30:31
Angeles sheriff's department acknowledged these previous shootings only after the times went ahead and
00:30:39
published stories regarding two of the shootings the sheriff's department announced that the campground area would
00:30:46
be closed indefinitely for a safety precaution sounds like they were a little late to the game and closing the
00:30:55
park right and yeah and they just it seems like they kept this quiet because of the area it's in um it's an area that
00:31:05
people have some power it's area where people have some money especially with so many being in inside the park you
00:31:13
would think there would be some kind of um warning to the public that this is happening be on the lookout a swim at
00:31:21
your own risk kind of situation at the very least and there's not like you said there's not a lot of injuries right
00:31:29
there was at least one injury well we're going to go through these okay so we can
00:31:35
try to determine actually what's going on here you know is there a sniper hiding in the Hills taking aim at
00:31:42
unsuspecting Park goers so the dates of the previous shootings were published by the LA Times
00:31:50
and are as follows November 3rd 2016 then three then 6 days later November 9th 2016 January 1st 2017 June 8th 2017 July
00:32:05
22nd 2017 July 30th 2017 June 18th 2018 this last one June 18th just four days before Tristan was shot and killed
00:32:21
yeah the tricky thing here for me Captain is I understand that this falls into two different jurisdictions but
00:32:28
some of these are so close together in time frame that it's hard to believe that that somebody wouldn't have
00:32:35
recognized that there's a problem here that that there's a very big underlining we don't understand what's going on
00:32:43
problem here yeah let's go through the ones that we have detailed information on the the first incident was on
00:32:51
November 3rd 2016 this is when a young wildlife biologist James R rers was sleeping in his camping hammock in the
00:33:01
nearby Tapia Park area this is not a campground it's about 200 yard from Malibu Canyon Road he says
00:33:13
he quote heard a loud bang and then felt a burning sensation in his arm this is quoted in the LA Times he didn't see
00:33:22
anyone around but his arm was wounded and after a Time pets started leaking out of the wound oh God James noted that
00:33:33
when his hammock he you know he when he's in his hammock he sleeps with his arm or arms up over his head yeah if if
00:33:44
he hadn't been positioned this way he would have been shot in the head or the face in the face yeah in the face he
00:33:53
required surgery to remove the many pellets embedded in his arm then just 2 months later in January of 2017 a woman
00:34:02
named mise tatangelo she was camping with her boyfriend in her Honda SUV inside the
00:34:11
Malibu Creek State Park the two were asleep in the vehicle when she heard a loud noise this is around 5 a.m. they
00:34:20
stayed inside the vehicle but later got up around 6:00 a.m. they're going to go out and get some coffee take a drive
00:34:28
while they're driving they can hear something rattling around in the back of the
00:34:33
vehicle when they got out they found a hole through the back hatch of the vehicle someone fired a shot at the SUV
00:34:43
and part of a shotgun shell was in the back of the car right near where she was sleeping that night wow heavy heavy
00:34:52
sleepers mie she she said that if the bullet had been an inch or two higher than she would have been hit the
00:35:01
campground host said that others reported what sounded like a gunshot sound around 5:00 a.m. now the Los
00:35:10
Angeles sheriff's department deputies they guessed that the shot was fired from about 20 ft away from the vehicle
00:35:17
maliss later told GQ magazine that the sheriff's department deputies were called to the scene of her
00:35:24
shooting they didn't really pay any regard to forensic evidence they were walking all over the place on potential
00:35:34
footprint evidence right they didn't take any photos they weren't wearing gloves she never heard from any of those
00:35:41
deputies again after filing the report that's pretty ridiculous she says and and it seems
00:35:49
this way to me that no one was really interested in her story until after ch's murder four other shootings occurred now
00:36:01
there's less information available regarding these but we'll go through what we have according to the times on
00:36:08
November 9th 2016 this is just 6 days after James Rogers shooting someone shot at a person sleeping inside a car at the
00:36:19
Malibu Creek State Park campground six months after that on June 8th 2017 a car driving down Malibu Canyon Road was
00:36:30
struck by a bullet another car was hit on July 22nd then on July 30th the times reported quote deputies investigated
00:36:40
another report of shots fired but were unable to determine what happened end quote then on June 18th 2018 a Tesla
00:36:51
driving traveling along Malibu Canyon Road around 4:30 a.m. was hit someone shot at the car no one was
00:37:00
injured Tristan bodette brought his daughters to that Campground just 3 days later the troubling thing here Captain
00:37:10
for me is not only are we seeing some of these occurring some of these shots fired
00:37:16
occurrences within a relatively quick succession of time period that you should be able to realize that there is
00:37:24
something bad going on here something very dangerous to the public going on here but we also have
00:37:31
similar occurrences right we have people that say I'm I was sleeping and I was shot at or I'm driving my car down this
00:37:41
same road that somebody else was driving their car down and they were shot at a couple things that we can
00:37:49
assume is that if it is the same person this person knows the area pretty well it's not that afraid to
00:37:59
get that close to the victim you know some of the shots only being what do they say 20 ft away away yeah the one
00:38:07
that we have evidence of public statements of would be 20 ft from the vehicle itself you're you're almost
00:38:14
close enough especially if the shooter walked past the vehicle the shooter very likely knew somebody was inside the SUV
00:38:23
right it might might a crep up to the vehicle or a tent and then backed away from it uh but this person also hates
00:38:34
naps he hat and cars hates naps and cars yeah well and this is to put it very lightly needless to say residents in the
00:38:45
area were super troubled by the notion that it appeared that there was a random shooter stalking around the park based
00:38:54
on what I know on like the we had a 270 shooter here yeah which 270 is our outer
00:39:00
Bel around Columbus and so to me there there's a there's a mental thing going on here there's mental illness possibly
00:39:09
and so that's what that's what's scary well we can somewhat understand what the people in
00:39:17
the area were were going through and what they were feeling yeah because you know these people are telling the Press
00:39:23
once they figure this all out once it's all reported that they're afraid to hike they're in
00:39:29
the area they're afraid to go to the park they're afraid to ride horses they say some of them saying they felt like
00:39:35
sitting ducks now we felt similar when there were shots being fired at random cars on
00:39:44
270 here in Columbus when you're traveling along in your in your vehicle MH there were there were injuries there
00:39:51
was at least one murder that I can remember yeah what was interesting was you had all these shootings going around
00:39:57
270 but it's mainly the southwest side and all those exits or the exits that I would take to go to friend's house go to
00:40:07
work come home so it was very scary and and then there was several I think it's uh shootings that happened uh when
00:40:20
people were going uh on the onramps mhm so you want to talk about going you have
00:40:26
to take this exit and as you got on on that on onramp then your your nerves were shot you know you'd be sweating
00:40:35
well and I remember when that was going on people would jokingly say to one another oh don't go on 270 or oh I stay
00:40:43
off of 270 but in reality even though they're trying to put on a a hard shell for everybody they were avoiding 270
00:40:51
they were avoiding these areas yeah at one point there was they believe like a crosssection and um a little bit before
00:40:59
they caught the guy but it was 270 and State Route 23 and I remember Mi missing my exit one
00:41:07
time and having to take that exit you worked right in that area you and so I was I was going a different way home and
00:41:15
you know to and from work I was going a different way because they said here's this cross-section so it was just like
00:41:21
one why take the chance right yeah and so I was going a different way I but I mix
00:41:28
I what what do they call it your your your muscle reflex like I I just wasn't paying attention and and didn't go my
00:41:37
alternate way that day and I I remember driving down 23 and just like sweating going oh my God am I going to
00:41:47
get shot and and then I could just see the interview uh I was taken a different way and I just forgot that day and then
00:41:54
that's when I was shot right so I mean we know firsthand what what the public the general public here what their fears
00:42:01
were but their fears in this situation were only going to get worse because after Tristan's murder the shootings
00:42:09
that the public is now aware of they continued media reports emerged that in mid July so this is just a this is a
00:42:18
month after Tristan was killed there were at least two reports of shots fired in the area on July 9th and then again
00:42:27
on July 12th both occurring at night and since June 22nd there had been several other reports of possible shootings
00:42:35
according to the Malibu times as many as nine reports of gunfire but Sheriff's Lieutenant James Royal said deputies did
00:42:46
not find any proof that those were actual shootings three of the reports turned out to be something other than
00:42:53
gunfire including a backfire one was was a Transformer explosion well but at least you have people on the the alert
00:43:01
now right right which which you didn't afford the public that that safety net before right and now they're on high
00:43:09
alert some of these were in fact shootings but this is how aware everyone is now any loud noise could be a shot
00:43:19
yeah and and don't fall asleep and don't take a nap and my clap there was not very loud that was supposed to be much
00:43:25
more theatric than that it sounded like a finger snap and every time you hear a loud noise Lieutenant Royal emphasized
00:43:35
that the public needed to stay vigilant saying quote I strongly encourage you to
00:43:40
trust your instincts he said this at a town hall meeting that took place in August saying that if you see something
00:43:50
that doesn't feel right if you have a gut feeling please trust it the Malibu city council advised residents to avoid
00:43:59
the area in the early hours of the morning since it seemed the shootings were occurring in the hours between
00:44:06
midnight and Dawn right complicating things further was the discovery of two additional Bodies In the Park area on
00:44:15
May 16th 2018 the body of Francisco Ronaldo Cruz age 52 turned up in a ditch on Los Virginia Road this is near the
00:44:26
campground close to the Malibu Hindu temple he died of blunt force trauma to the head and sharp force injuries to the
00:44:36
neck and chest according to sources who spoke with The Hollywood Reporter Cruz's
00:44:43
body showed signs of torture in the form of drill marks then on July 27th where were the
00:44:52
drill marks I don't know it say yeah well we we do know that the report states that
00:44:59
there was sharp force injuries to the neck and the chest drill marks on the neck and the chest that's so that would
00:45:07
be my guess yes wow on July 27th 19-year-old Roger Chavez baranas his decomposed body was
00:45:16
recovered on an embankment in the 24,000 block of Puma Road he died of multiple gunshot wounds
00:45:25
the Sheriff's Department Representatives said that these homicides after their investigation were Gang Related and were
00:45:33
not were not connected to Tristan's murder officials specified that the remote Canyon
00:45:41
roads unfortunately have been dumping grounds for bodies for a very long period of time but keep in mind people
00:45:51
in the area you're not very trusting of your public servants right now are you yeah
00:45:58
you you weren't you don't feel that you were adequately warned about safety potential injury or or homicide
00:46:07
due to Flying bullets in the park or campgrounds so you can imagine that these people are not going to feel super
00:46:16
great about you coming forward and going well they this is not connected yeah don't worry guys don't worry it's it's
00:46:23
Gang Related don't you have nothing to worry about basically what you have here is hysteria in the
00:46:30
area at least as far as some media sources were concerned in touch which is a weekly
00:46:38
gossip magazine questioned quote is there a new serial killer terrorizing the affluent community of Malibu
00:46:47
Canyon another mainstream media pointed out that a 21-year-old man named Matthew Weaver had
00:46:54
vanished on August 10th 2018 this is not far away in Malibu his four-door BMW was found quote hanging
00:47:05
off the edge of the Topanga mountain Motorway another disturbing case was the 2017 disappearance of Elaine Park the
00:47:15
20-year-old was last seen leaving her boyfriend's home in Calabasas and her car and personal
00:47:21
belongings were found on the Pacific Coast Highway near Coral Canyon Road in Malibu and of course one of the area's
00:47:31
most well-known unsolved deaths was still fresh in the Resident Minds this is of matrice Richardson in 2009 right
00:47:41
matrice as you might recall was a case we covered in episodes 75 and 76 she was detained at the Lost Hills Sheriff's
00:47:50
Station only to be released into the night with no car no purse no no phone it was never seen alive again right just
00:47:59
it's another example of the incompetence of law enforcement in this area her body
00:48:05
was found 7 miles away down a wooded Hillside her cause of death could not be determined in August of
00:48:14
2018 officials from five different law enforcement agencies held a town meeting of sorts Lieutenant Moore acknowledged
00:48:24
that they had no Theory no suspect or answers regarding Tristan's murder the $35,000 reward for information did not
00:48:33
serve to bring anyone forward the Los Angeles sheriff's department would not even address whether they believed that
00:48:41
the shooting of Tristan bodette was targeted or random or whether there were any perceived patterns to the shooting
00:48:50
crimes themselves the autopsy results were sealed and detectives would not disclose whether any of the other
00:48:58
shootings involved the same type of weapon they would not discuss ballistics at all they stated that they didn't see
00:49:06
any connection between these crimes and the matrice Richardson and Elaine Park cases Sheriff Jim mcdonal told the San
00:49:16
Francisco Chronicle that the pattern at this point certainly is not clear if there is one at all after all close-
00:49:24
range shootings like mise and Tristan are quite different from Tesla's being shot on Canyon Road and that in turn is
00:49:33
quite different from missing persons and drug cartel [Music] hits if you're looking at your podcast
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that out on Stitcher premium until tomorrow everybody out there be good be kind and don't
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