Final Curtain

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Speaker 4 How am I doing right now? If I had to put it into one word, numb would be the closest.

Speaker 6 There's been a body discovered.

Speaker 7 What the hell? What's going on here? I freaked out.

Speaker 2 It's so hard.

Speaker 8 He shows 23.

Speaker 9 You've got a dead woman in his apartment. He's missing.

Speaker 10 Immediately when he saw me, he turned pale. You could see the blood just draining from his face.

Speaker 2 There is not a doubt. in my mind that Rachel knew.

Speaker 10 Rachel didn't tell us any of this the day before.

Speaker 4 I told the truth to the best of my capabilities.

Speaker 2 Rachel's kind of the last piece, correct.

Speaker 12 What did you do? I think you know what I did.

Speaker 9 This is as diabolical as any case I've ever seen.

Speaker 4 They're trying to say I'm somebody that I'm not. I'm innocent.

Speaker 4 This is my life. This is my entire future.

Speaker 11 Hello? Hi, baby.

Speaker 12 Hey, what's going on? What do you want me to do?

Speaker 12 I don't know.

Speaker 11 Leave me.

Speaker 2 The woman on the phone was just hours away from walking down the aisle to marry the man on the other end of this call.

Speaker 2 To pledge her love until death bid them part.

Speaker 13 I'm going to go do something right now, and you're not going to see me for the rest of your life.

Speaker 2 Instead, she found herself in the middle of a twisted murder plot that would change her life forever.

Speaker 12 What did you do?

Speaker 12 I think you know what I did.

Speaker 2 She knew.

Speaker 2 Or did she?

Speaker 2 Her name is Rachel Buffett. You may remember her from a story we first reported in 2016 about her then-fiancé, Dan Wozniak.
and about two families in search of the truth.

Speaker 14 I know a lot of answers now. A lot more than I had the last time we met.

Speaker 2 Tonight, the final curtain.

Speaker 2 I believe with all my heart they were trying to get me back. Dare to kill me.
New information.

Speaker 6 There's things that people need to know. There's things that need to be said.

Speaker 2 And a question. What would you do for love?

Speaker 2 We'll get to all of that. First, let's go back to where this story began.

Speaker 2 Orange County, California. Not too far from from the coast, you'll find the Candon Martinique apartments, occupied mostly by students from nearby colleges.

Speaker 6 We had the pools, we had the hot tubs. That's where everyone wanted to be.

Speaker 2 Back in 2010, Violet Randolph lived there with her then-husband. That's where they met a 20-something couple named Dan Wozniak and Rachel Buffett.
Violet's husband described them to her.

Speaker 6 There's finally a couple who's a little more mature, the wine drinkers as opposed to the hard liquor, and met them and thought, perfect.

Speaker 6 How could we go wrong?

Speaker 2 Rachel and Dan acted in community theater. That's how they met on stage.
Golden dreams.

Speaker 2 A few years later, they reconnected.

Speaker 4 He had already kind of become my best friend and I was hanging out with him so often.

Speaker 2 So he said, you know, I am following you. Give me a chance.
And you thought, what?

Speaker 4 I don't want to lose my best friend.

Speaker 5 Were you in love?

Speaker 4 Shortly after we moved in together, that's when I realized, oh yeah, I am in love with this person.

Speaker 2 And when he proposed, she said yes. They moved to Camden, Martinique, four months before their wedding date.
Life wasn't easy.

Speaker 4 Throughout our whole relationship, money was always somewhat of an issue.

Speaker 2 Rachel picked up work here and there. Once, she said, as a princess.
at Disneyland. Dan worked sometimes too, but nothing steady.

Speaker 6 They kind of seemed to struggle financially a lot. You know, if anything, you kind of felt sorry for them because they seemed like they were so excited to get married and start their life together.

Speaker 2 And at the apartments, they settled right in.

Speaker 4 It got to the point where everybody was hanging out with each other like every night.

Speaker 2 Part of that circle was 26-year-old Sam Hare. an Army veteran who'd fought in Afghanistan and made it home to California.

Speaker 4 There was a couple things that set Sam apart from the other guys there. He seemed more responsible.

Speaker 2 Sam was intent on earning his college degree, and that's how he met Julie Kibuishi. Julie helped Sam with his schoolwork.

Speaker 6 She got after him if he wasn't studying because his grade reflected her tutoring. So she took it very seriously.

Speaker 2 Julie's mom, June.

Speaker 15 She told me about Sam. He's like a big teddy bear and you know, he's always nice to everybody.
And that's why we get together at his place, you know, a lot of times.

Speaker 2 Julie, who lived at home, got to know everyone at the complex. And Rachel connected with Julie.
They were both dancers.

Speaker 4 We had like done some ballet moves in our bathing suits at the pool and talked about how we should go take a couple dance classes together.

Speaker 2 That chance never arrived.

Speaker 2 On Friday, May 21st, 2010, Julie was at home with her mom.

Speaker 15 I was cooking in the kitchen and she said, okay,

Speaker 15 bye, mom. I'm leaving.

Speaker 2 Sam had been texting Julie throughout the day. Can you come over tonight at midnight alone? Going out for a bit.
Very upset. Need to talk.
Then, please, no sex. I need to talk to someone.

Speaker 2 Julie texted back, LOL, you, Sam, we're like bro and sis. No sex.
And then Sam texted again. I'm hurting with some bad fam crap.
I can't be alone. No sex.
Please, I'm begging as a brother.

Speaker 2 As always, Julie was ready to help. She went to Sam's place.
The next morning, June realized Julie had not come home.

Speaker 15 I started to feel like, okay, this is something's wrong.

Speaker 2 Across town, Sam's parents, Steve and Raquel Hare, also worried because they couldn't get a hold of their son. I drove down there, knocked on his door, no answer, and I had the key to his apartment.

Speaker 2 So I walked in there and that's when he saw it.

Speaker 7 What the hell is just happening?

Speaker 7 What's going on here? I freaked out.

Speaker 2 What had happened in Sam's apartment?

Speaker 6 My phone rings and it's my husband asking me if I'm okay.

Speaker 2 And I guess, why?

Speaker 6 He said, track down everybody.

Speaker 2 But not everybody could be found.

Speaker 9 You've got a dead woman in his apartment, he's missing, and then you start thinking, okay, he's a train killer.

Speaker 9 He'd been accused of this before, and you think, okay, this guy is potentially very dangerous.

Speaker 16 There's a body in my son's apartment.

Speaker 2 There's a what? A body. A dead body.
A dead body? Is it someone that you know, sir?

Speaker 17 Oh, I have no idea who he is.

Speaker 2 Does your son know who it is?

Speaker 17 He's not hearing. He was like, okay.

Speaker 2 After Sam here's dad, Steve, called 911, the news spread quickly at Camden, Martinique.

Speaker 6 My phone rings, and it's my husband asking me if I'm okay.

Speaker 2 And I, yes, why?

Speaker 6 He said, there's been a body discovered in Sam's apartment. Track down everybody.

Speaker 2 Rachel and Dan had just returned from the theater where they were co-starring in a play.

Speaker 6 Dan's, you know, wondering, was was I the last one to see Sam? Oh my god, oh my god. And Rachel is sitting on the chair next to me and she's squeezing her head.
She's got a terrible headache.

Speaker 4 All of your new best friends that you hang out with every day, one of them's missing. A body was found in one of their apartments.
This is something that was affecting the whole atmosphere.

Speaker 2 Costa Mesa police detective Ed Everett responded to the call.

Speaker 10 We have a 20-something year old female on the bed and she's in a position that appears that she was sexually assaulted.

Speaker 2 Police soon ID'd the victim, Sam's tutor and friend, Julie Kibuishi.

Speaker 2 They had to tell Julie's parents.

Speaker 2 I think I was screaming like, no, no, that's not my daughter. You know, it's not my daughter.
It's just...

Speaker 2 Julie had been shot twice in the head. Her pants were down and someone had written on her sweatshirt the words, all yours, F-U.

Speaker 2 Police found Julie's phone in the apartment and saw those weird texts Sam had sent her. They learned about his combat tour and how Sam sometimes had night terrors.

Speaker 2 And when police searched his name in their database, they found something Sam's friends already knew.

Speaker 4 He had done some jail time.

Speaker 2 Back in 2002, at 18, Sam Hare was charged in the murder of another teenager. He was acquitted, but Sam's dad knew that, in hindsight, it didn't look good.

Speaker 2 That doesn't buy you a lot of rhythm from law enforcement.

Speaker 7 No, and I understood that.

Speaker 19 That's why it was imperative to start looking immediately.

Speaker 2 Steve wanted to find his son to prove he was innocent. Orange County prosecutor Matt Murphy also wanted to find Sam quickly for entirely different reasons.

Speaker 9 You've got a dead woman in his apartment, he's missing, and then you act her in Afghanistan and you start thinking, okay, he's a train killer.

Speaker 9 He'd been accused accused of this before and you think, okay, this guy is potentially very dangerous.

Speaker 2 The detectives and the dad hunted Sam independently, but on parallel tracks. Detectives spoke with Sam's neighbors.

Speaker 4 I saw Sam that day and I had a short conversation with Sam.

Speaker 2 Rachel and Dan said Sam was with another man they didn't know. a man in a black hat.
It seemed a potential lead.

Speaker 2 Meanwhile, Steve found there were recent transactions on the bank account he and Sam shared. The trail led to Long Beach, where Sam's ATM card was used to order a pizza.

Speaker 2 Cops staked out the delivery address.

Speaker 10 Guns out, ready to hit it like someone that committed a murder's inside.

Speaker 2 And that someone is Sam Herrick. Yes.

Speaker 2 Except it wasn't. Instead, the cops found this guy, 17-year-old Wesley Freilich.

Speaker 20 Sitting in front of officers of the law, handcuffed. I'm obviously

Speaker 20 literally, I'm sorry I can't say this the other G-rated, but my balls are inside of me. I was shitting myself and I was nervous as all hell.

Speaker 2 Wesley told police he had no idea who Sam Hare was. He got the ATM card, he said, from a guy he knew who told an elaborate story.

Speaker 20 that he worked for a bail bondsman agency and that he wanted me to withdraw money from an ATM

Speaker 2 for legal reasons.

Speaker 2 Wesley said he believed the guy because it was a fellow actor he looked up to, Rachel Buffett's fiancée, Dan Wozniak.

Speaker 2 Detectives want to talk with Dan.

Speaker 4 What's going through my head is shock. This is probably a huge mistake.
This is going to be dropped and everything in time for the rehearsal dinner tomorrow night.

Speaker 2 And Dan has quite a story to tell.

Speaker 7 He said no, and then he just shot her twice in the head.

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Speaker 2 Detectives on the hunt for their prime suspect, Sam Hare, traced his ATM card to Rachel Buffett's fiancé, Dan Wozniak.

Speaker 2 They found him at his bachelor party.

Speaker 10 Immediately when he saw me, he turned pale. You could see the blood just draining from his face.

Speaker 2 Detective Everett hauled Dan to the station and charged him with accessory to Julie's murder. Dan seemed eager to come clean.

Speaker 2 He told police Sam confessed to him that while drunk and on drugs, Sam asked Julie for sex.

Speaker 21 Said no, and then he just shot her twice in the head. I'm really like, you're totally f ⁇ ing with me right now.
Like, Julie,

Speaker 21 Julie's like a friend.

Speaker 2 And then Dan said Sam threatened him and his wife to be Rachel Buffett. So Dan agreed to help Sam escape.
According to Dan, Sam offered him money and Dan took it to help pay for his wedding.

Speaker 2 But as to the anonymous man in the black hat, Dan had a confession to make.

Speaker 21 He doesn't exist. That's a lie.
That's a 100% proof lie.

Speaker 2 Detectives went to the Camden apartments to tell Rachel Dan was in custody.

Speaker 4 What's going through my head is

Speaker 4 shock this is probably a huge mistake. It's going to be dropped and everything in time for the rehearsal dinner tomorrow night.

Speaker 2 Detectives didn't fully believe Dan's story, so they brought Rachel in to see him.

Speaker 2 She's on the side of the angels when you put her in that room thinking she's going to get Daniel to tell me everything.

Speaker 10 That was our goal.

Speaker 4 So when was the last time you really saw Sam?

Speaker 2 Dan told Rachel the same story he'd told detectives. Sam killed Julie, and then Dan helped Sam escape.

Speaker 4 There's nothing he can do at this point to

Speaker 21 make it better. Absolutely.
He can be truthful with us and truthful with you and truthful with everyone.

Speaker 2 Then, detectives spoke with Rachel alone. Rachel told them she and Dan had received an eviction notice.
Dan had to borrow money to make the rent.

Speaker 2 She said Dan had told her only recently that he'd borrowed the money from dangerous people.

Speaker 4 He told me the people were going to come break his legs and he was scared out of his mind.

Speaker 2 She said on the day Dan was supposed to pay the leg breakers $2,200 or else, Sam stopped by.

Speaker 4 He came down

Speaker 4 to the apartment because he was going to give Dan a ride.

Speaker 2 She said Dan and Sam left together. Then Dan came back alone, but with money.

Speaker 4 He had 400 somehow on Friday.

Speaker 2 Rachel said she couldn't believe that Dan was somehow mixed up in Julie's murder. Is that when you start to think to yourself, this this guy that I'm about to marry is somebody that I don't even know?

Speaker 4 I was still thinking that I knew his heart and those crimes that he was saying that he did.

Speaker 4 At least that still lined up with someone who would do anything to

Speaker 4 help somebody in need.

Speaker 22 Did he tell you about this? Did he tell you his involvement?

Speaker 2 Did he know anything about this?

Speaker 4 Hell

Speaker 4 no.

Speaker 2 In the early morning hours, detectives drove Rachel back to the apartments.

Speaker 4 I go to my friends

Speaker 4 and knock on the door and then at that point just start bawling.

Speaker 6 And she's shaking violently and she says Dan's been arrested and she's just a mess.

Speaker 2 With Violet at her side, Rachel went to her parents' home to tell them Dan was in jail and the wedding was off.

Speaker 4 And my mom's...

Speaker 4 She's lost it. She can't speak.

Speaker 2 The day was about to get a lot more traumatic. Back at the police station, Dan asked to speak with detectives again.
And this time, he said something that blew the case wide open.

Speaker 13 I'm crazy and I did it.

Speaker 2 You did what?

Speaker 21 I killed Julia and I killed Sam.

Speaker 2 You didn't see that coming?

Speaker 10 No.

Speaker 2 Dan Wozniak suddenly confessed that he didn't help Sam Hare. He killed him.
Dan said they drove to a theater where he'd performed, and Dan asked Sam to help move something from the attic.

Speaker 2 So Wozniak said he fired again.

Speaker 21 He started bleeding. He wasn't moving.
He wasn't talking.

Speaker 2 Dan then drove to a different theater later that evening to appear on stage with Rachel in the musical 9.

Speaker 2 In this video of the performance, Dan showed no signs of stress as he played the starring role.

Speaker 2 Dan told police that during the show, he texted Julie from Sam's phone, pretending to be Sam. After the play, Dan said he went to Sam's apartment and lured Julie into Sam's bedroom.

Speaker 21 I said, Ready to lean over and get it right there when she was leaned over and put two notes in the back of her head.

Speaker 2 Dan admitted scrawling those nasty words on Julie's back and to splitting her pants with a pair of scissors.

Speaker 2 The next day, he said he disposed of Sam's body and then gave another pitch-perfect performance, captured on videotape.

Speaker 16 Now, tell me, what is it about me that the church does not like?

Speaker 2 Detectives asked, why?

Speaker 21 And your motive behind

Speaker 21 killing Sam

Speaker 21 was...

Speaker 21 Money and insanity. Money and insanity.
Okay.

Speaker 2 Sam had more than $60,000 in the bank, his saved-up combat pay. And Julie Kibuishi, Dan said he killed her to cover his tracks and to frame Sam.

Speaker 9 This is as diabolical as any case I've ever seen.

Speaker 2 Police delivered the news to Sam's parents. Their son had been murdered.

Speaker 7 And for whatever reason, I said at least he wasn't dismembered.

Speaker 2 Okay?

Speaker 7 The next morning, I get a call to Steve, before you find out, we just want to let you know Sam was dismembered. And that's when I just lost it.

Speaker 2 Dan Wozniak was charged with two counts of first-degree murder. The news hit the wire.
And at the police station, the phone rang. The caller had a story to tell.

Speaker 2 One that cast a whole new light on Dan's leading lady, Rachel Buffett.

Speaker 2 A witness. Things were tense.
So that relationship was like a clenched fist. Yeah, I mean, something

Speaker 2 was terrifying in the

Speaker 2 feel of the room.

Speaker 2 I just wanted out of there. And a new suspect.
We were shocked to learn it.

Speaker 10 We went back and said, hey, you know, Rachel didn't tell us any of this the day before.

Speaker 10 In

Speaker 2 California draws people who want to perform. It sure does.
Everyone's kind of pursuing the same dreams.

Speaker 2 Chris Williams moved from Canada to California for school. I ended up falling in love with jazz music and falling in love with California.
So been down here 20 years and

Speaker 2 perform and

Speaker 2 love it. You inspire me.
In early 2010, Chris was undergoing some serious health problems. The working musician didn't have insurance, so his friends organized a benefit concert.

Speaker 2 A couple thousand people showed up. It was

Speaker 2 pretty amazing. Raising money to keep you healthy.
Yeah, yeah. And it worked.
Here you are. It did.
It sure did. And

Speaker 2 it changed my whole life.

Speaker 2 Chris, who'd been keeping to himself, began to socialize again. And he met two struggling young actors, Dan Wozniak and Rachel Buffett.
Dan was very charming. He was very open and personable,

Speaker 2 and I felt like we had a lot in common. And Rachel was obviously beautiful, and they were just very welcoming to me.

Speaker 2 Chris soon learned his new friends had financial troubles, and he offered to help by lending them money. All of my friends had just

Speaker 2 done this big benefit for me. Time to give back.
Yeah.

Speaker 2 Chris also wanted to make sure that he got his money back. So Chris told a story that was 100%

Speaker 2 false.

Speaker 2 So I said, well, I can't lend you the money personally, but I know people I could get it from, but they're not good people, so we got to get it back.

Speaker 2 He lent Dan and Rachel $2,000 cash. Dan promised to pay him back by the end of the week, Friday, May 21st.
On the appointed day, Chris drove to Dan and Rachel's apartment.

Speaker 2 Who's there besides Dan and Rachel and you? I didn't know his name at the time, but it was Sam. Dan left with Sam and told Chris to hang back with Rachel.

Speaker 2 And in my mind, this is going to be like a 10-minute, 10-minute thing. Meanwhile, said Chris, Rachel seemed stressed.
She's on the computer trying to look for other work and ways to get money.

Speaker 2 Three hours later, Dan Wozniak returned without Sam.

Speaker 2 And he throws his $400

Speaker 2 down right in front of me.

Speaker 2 And

Speaker 2 he's like shaking. There's this like wild look in his eyes.
He's like breathing almost like this like... giant panic attack and I'm sitting there and I go, hey,

Speaker 2 like, everything's okay, man. Like, everything's okay.
And he's he's like

Speaker 2 and he slumps down in the chair and

Speaker 2 and I said is this every penny that you have Chris says he handed Dan a $20 bill and he also noticed that Rachel was visibly angry

Speaker 2 things were tense so that that relationship was like a clenched fist yeah I mean something was terrifying in the

Speaker 2 feel of the room.

Speaker 2 And I just wanted out of there.

Speaker 2 He left. And around 20 minutes later, says Chris, Rachel called.

Speaker 2 And Rachel goes,

Speaker 2 I think you left a 20 here. I think you dropped some money.
You should come back.

Speaker 2 And I said, I'm not coming back. I didn't drop a 20.
I left a 20 so you guys could get dinner.

Speaker 2 And she goes, no, no, you should come back. Chris did not return.
A week later, as he was getting ready to attend Dan and Rachel's wedding, he heard heard about the murders of Sam and Julie

Speaker 2 and realized they happened on the same day as his weird meeting with Dan and Rachel. Chris immediately called police.
We were shocked to learn it.

Speaker 10 And again, we went back and said, hey, you know, Rachel didn't tell us any of this the day before.

Speaker 2 So detectives interviewed Rachel again, this time not as a witness, but as a suspect.

Speaker 16 Why don't you tell me why you forgot to tell me about this?

Speaker 4 Because

Speaker 4 honestly, I was afraid that if you knew that Chris had seen us that day, I don't know who Chris knows, and I don't know if he knows anybody that.

Speaker 16 You don't think we were going to find out?

Speaker 4 They'll come to me.

Speaker 16 Did you think we were not going to find out?

Speaker 4 I guess not. I don't know.

Speaker 16 I'm a little bit afraid for you. Well, I can tell you why.

Speaker 2 Remember, Chris had told Dan and Rachel the money he lent them came from other people, dangerous people. So was it her safety Rachel was worried about? Detectives didn't think so.

Speaker 10 She's giving herself more time to think about what she's going to tell us when she has to tell us that.

Speaker 2 And she's protecting Dan.

Speaker 10 She's protecting herself and Dan.

Speaker 2 They asked her to take a voice stress analyzer, a kind of lie detector. Rachel agreed and the cops hit her with an aggressive question.
Did you plan the murder with Dan?

Speaker 2 The results came quickly.

Speaker 10 You don't look at a Disney princess as a hardened, cold-blooded, callous murderer.

Speaker 2 Is the curtain about to close on Rachel?

Speaker 10 I think she may have been present when Julie was killed. I don't think Julie would have gone into the apartment with Daniel by himself.

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Speaker 2 A reluctant Rachel Buffett took a voice stress analyzer. The results were less than encouraging.
I gave you three tests today, okay?

Speaker 2 All three are deceptive.

Speaker 4 I know my stories and timelines are kind of juggled up because my mind's not there right now.

Speaker 4 I'm trying to remember everything I can. I've told you guys everything I know.
I'm completely innocent.

Speaker 2 Maybe.

Speaker 2 Now, detectives smelled blood. They circled back to that Friday when Dan left with Sam and came back without him.

Speaker 22 He's gone for three hours and he comes back having a heart attack. You know, he's out killing Sam at that point.

Speaker 4 I thought he was just overreacting because he thought he was afraid of loan sharks and getting hurt.

Speaker 2 Rachel insisted she had known nothing about the murders until Dan confessed to them.

Speaker 2 Everett had suspected otherwise from the moment he brought her into the interrogation room to see Dan.

Speaker 4 What happened?

Speaker 17 Why?

Speaker 10 It was almost like they were looking at each other, feeding off each other, and she was waiting for her next line.

Speaker 2 Remember, Rachel and Julie had been friends. Her reaction when she heard what Sam supposedly did to Julie did not seem to match that.

Speaker 4 I'm sorry that I am not the kind of person that just goes

Speaker 4 berserk and loses their mind when they hear this. I just

Speaker 4 weren't in shock and so get in. You weren't in shock.

Speaker 2 The young actress was not convincing her audience. Everett learned Dan had called Rachel from jail before his confession.
The jail, of course, recorded those calls.

Speaker 2 Babe, um, listen to me.

Speaker 11 I'm gonna go do something right now, and you're not gonna see me for the rest of your life. Do you understand that?

Speaker 11 No.

Speaker 12 No.

Speaker 10 She doesn't say, what is it? Her response is, no, no, no.

Speaker 10 I think she realizes that her world has the potential to come crashing around her.

Speaker 2 In other words, maybe Rachel already knew what Dan had done and what he might tell detectives. Or was it just that Rachel was figuring things out?

Speaker 12 What did you do?

Speaker 12 I think you know what I did. Were you the one that killed them?

Speaker 2 Dan didn't answer that. Instead, he asked Rachel to come down to the station so she could be present when he spoke with detectives.
As she drove, Dan continued to call her.

Speaker 11 I love you, baby.

Speaker 12 You are so insane and so stupid.

Speaker 12 but i know in your twisted little mind you were doing it

Speaker 11 because you wanted to be happy with me

Speaker 12 and i hate you for screwing it up

Speaker 2 as rachel got closer to the station she was in tears i love you study i'll be right there

Speaker 11 okay

Speaker 2 Before Rachel arrived, Dan sat down with detectives and confessed to the murders. Then he called Rachel again and told her what he'd done.

Speaker 13 I shot him two times in the back of the head.

Speaker 11 And then I grabbed his credit cards and I grabbed Wesley and we took money out of his account.

Speaker 12 How was Wesley involved? How did you get him involved and why?

Speaker 2 Rachel didn't seem to react. Instead, she asked about Dan's unwitting accomplice, Wesley.
And when Dan described killing Julie, Rachel continued continued to focus on details.

Speaker 13 I opened up the door of Sam's apartment and shot her twice in the back of the head.

Speaker 12 How did nobody hear the gun?

Speaker 11 I don't know.

Speaker 12 I got lucky.

Speaker 2 Detectives wondered, did Rachel know about the murders before they even happened? And more disturbing, did she participate?

Speaker 10 I think she may have been present when Julie was killed. I don't think Julie would have gone into the apartment with Daniel by himself.

Speaker 2 Hard even for a homicide detective to imagine.

Speaker 10 You don't look at a Disney princess as a hardened, cold-blooded, callous murderer.

Speaker 2 Of course, thinking it and proving it were two different things. And perhaps Rachel was just another victim of Dan's murder plot.

Speaker 2 There was no physical evidence placing her at the scene of either murder. And she and Dan both insisted.
She didn't know about them in advance.

Speaker 10 Two years into the investigation, we made a determination we didn't have enough to charge her for murder.

Speaker 2 Instead, on November 20th, 2012, Rachel was arrested and charged as an accessory to murder after the fact.

Speaker 2 The only case against her is that she didn't tell the truth. That's right.
According to the DA, Rachel lied about two important figures in the case.

Speaker 2 The man in the black hat, who wasn't there, and the jazz musician Chris Williams, who was.

Speaker 2 You did catch Daniel. You did find out about about Chris.
So

Speaker 2 what effect did Rachel's lies really have?

Speaker 9 So yes, in the end, we've got some heroic police officers who solve the case anyway. But is it okay for her to lie to the police? The law says no.

Speaker 2 Like police, Sam and Julie's parents also thought Rachel was more involved than she was letting on.

Speaker 15 They're like literally 24-7 together. How could you not know if your fiancé committed like kind of a crime? How could you not notice?

Speaker 14 I want them to charge her with murder.

Speaker 19 But I'm not the one who has to prove it to everybody.

Speaker 14 That's not my job.

Speaker 2 Rachel pleaded not guilty.

Speaker 2 She posted bail and was released.

Speaker 4 Yeah, I'm still

Speaker 2 shocked.

Speaker 2 Later that day, she held a press conference.

Speaker 4 Are you saying you're innocent or are you saying completely innocent?

Speaker 2 She was willing to bet that a jury would agree.

Speaker 2 Rachel on trial. Police and prosecutors don't believe you were honest with them.

Speaker 2 Were you honest with them?

Speaker 4 I was. I know my heart, and God knows my heart.

Speaker 2 You an honest person?

Speaker 4 I think so.

Speaker 2 There was not a doubt in my mind that Rachel knew. Ahead of time.
Not a doubt.

Speaker 2 In December 2015, five years after Sam and Julie's murders, the lives of two young actors were playing out not on stage, but here in court.

Speaker 2 Dan Wozniak went on trial first. It didn't take long for a jury to convict him of murder and sentence him to death.
Sam and Julie's parents confronted their children's killer.

Speaker 19 You, Dan, are a coward and a poster boy for the need of the effective death penalty in California. My only regret that in this state

Speaker 19 won't let me kill this coward myself.

Speaker 5 You took advantage of my daughter's kindness and your care, her care for her friend. You took her precious life, and then you disgraced her for pulling off her pants

Speaker 5 To you,

Speaker 2 my daughter was just a decoy.

Speaker 2 Nothing else.

Speaker 2 The spotlight then turned to Rachel Buffett. She faced a felony charge, accessory after the fact.
Police and prosecutors don't believe you were honest with them.

Speaker 2 Were you honest with them?

Speaker 4 I was. I know my heart and God knows my heart and that's my comfort is God's in control and God knows I'm innocent.

Speaker 2 You an honest person?

Speaker 4 I think so.

Speaker 4 To the best of my capabilities, I told the truth to try to help the police get to the bottom of things. My heart was always in the right place.

Speaker 2 Dan kills Sam. Dan disposes of Sam's body.
Dan lures Julie to Sam's apartment using Sam's phone. Dan kills Julie.

Speaker 2 During all that time, you never suspect a thing.

Speaker 4 Not a thing.

Speaker 2 In September 2018, eight years after the murders, the aspiring actress went on trial, accused of lying to protect the man she loved.

Speaker 4 This is my name. This is my life.
This is my entire future. And I have nothing to hide and I'm innocent.

Speaker 2 Some of her former friends did not agree. Violet testified against her.

Speaker 6 Knowing all the details that they unraveled and the lies over time and looking at her and going, how dare you.

Speaker 2 Violet told the jury that the night they learned Sam had disappeared, while Dan was wondering if he was the last person to see Sam.

Speaker 6 Rachel is telling Dan to shut up, shut up. That's not what happened, Dan.

Speaker 6 Your messed up memories are screwing up my story.

Speaker 2 The jury also heard from Chris Williams, the jazz musician who spent hours with Rachel the day of the murders.

Speaker 2 And And like detectives, Chris thinks Rachel was an accessory before the murders, not just after them. There is not a doubt in my mind that Rachel knew.
Ahead of time. Not a doubt.

Speaker 2 Chris also came to believe that when Rachel called him that day and asked him to come back to the apartment, it was not to return his $20.

Speaker 2 That's what the police told me. They said, if you would have gone back that day,

Speaker 2 they wanted to kill you. Because you're a loose end.
What I believe is that when Dean got back, Rachel said, Chris saw you with Sam.

Speaker 2 Of course, that was suspicion and not evidence. The trial focused on false statements Rachel made to detectives.
Statements her attorney, David Medina, argued were easily explained.

Speaker 26 Anyone who's ever experienced planning a wedding knows the extreme pressure and stress that goes along with that.

Speaker 2 Add murder to that equation, he said, and then an arrest of Rachel's soon-to-be husband.

Speaker 26 The incredible stress that she was under with all of these things occurring.

Speaker 26 Is it possible she's not entirely accurate about certain things?

Speaker 2 Of course it is. Rachel's actions could be explained, he said, but Dan Wozniak's could not.

Speaker 26 Wozniak is a monster.

Speaker 9 He's a psychopath. He's a pathological liar.

Speaker 26 What he did to those two is unthinkable, but Rachel had nothing to do with that.

Speaker 2 Yes, she did, said Prosecutor Matt Murphy. She lied

Speaker 2 trying to help Dan get away with murder.

Speaker 19 Everything that Mr.

Speaker 9 Medina just said about Danny Wozniak is accurate. He is a pathological liar.
He is a monster.

Speaker 2 But he's her little monster.

Speaker 9 She knows him, and all of this stuff goes on right under her nose.

Speaker 2 The jury took five hours to reach a verdict.

Speaker 6 We, the jury, in the above entitled action, find the defendant, Rachel May Buffett, guilty.

Speaker 14 When you heard the sounds of the clicks of the cuffs,

Speaker 14 to me it was a sweet sound because her arrogance and her lies are now caught up with her.

Speaker 2 Sam and Julie's parents spoke at Rachel's sentencing.

Speaker 19 As part of my son's body lie dead and dismembered in the attic of a Los Alamitas theater, Rachel Buffett was spreading lies.

Speaker 18 As Julie Kibiushi was lying in my son's apartment, Rachel Buffett was deliberately deceiving the police, attempting to throw them off the trail of her lover, Dan Bozniak.

Speaker 5 To me, you and that monster are two peas in the pot.

Speaker 8 You're both self-centered and truly heartless.

Speaker 5 And I hope you'll live every day regretting your disgusting decisions.

Speaker 2 The judge sentenced Rachel to 32 months behind bars. She was released after serving nearly 13 months.
It was the final scene of this real-life drama.

Speaker 2 Chris Williams always wondered, should he have seen the warning signs? Could he have stopped the murders from happening? I spent all those years wishing I could have done something.

Speaker 2 And then I walked out and went, I did, I did something, I did something to help.

Speaker 11 That's what I wanted.

Speaker 2 What two families wanted were some answers and some relief from their pain. Those answers finally came.

Speaker 14 I'm pretty much satisfied with the answers right now. Never prove everything 100%, Josh.

Speaker 14 But I'm not going to get much more.

Speaker 2 Unfortunately, the criminal justice system has never doubled as a grief therapist.

Speaker 2 Some wounds are too great to be healed healed in a courtroom.

Speaker 2 The day that she

Speaker 2 left the door, and then her voice, and what she was wearing, and

Speaker 2 yeah, I'm getting old, and you forget a lot of stuff, but those things that just

Speaker 2 don't want to forget her image and her voice, and

Speaker 2 it's hard

Speaker 2 no matter how many years pass by.

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