Episode 301

57m
It was a quiet Shabbat Saturday in Boca Raton, Florida. The Jewish community was shut off from the world for their holy day of rest, but inside Tzvi Allswang’s house on Larkspur Trail, one social worker was trapped in every woman’s worst nightmare.

Get instant access to all episodes, including premium unreleased episodes, commercial-free at swordandscale.com

Listen and follow along

Transcript

Sword and Scale contains adult themes and violence and is not intended for all audiences.

Listener discretion is advised.

And that's when

he grabbed me really fast to yank me back in there and I got really startled and scared and so I screamed.

Not as excited about episode 301.

Doesn't have that nice round number to it, you know?

Nevertheless, this is going to be a good one.

So, welcome to episode 301 of Sword and Scale, a show that reveals that the worst monsters

are real.

So, apologies for giving you the wrong description of the SNS-TV episode that's currently available.

I'm losing track of what's what because there's so much going on.

But, you know, we're just trying to produce as much true crime content as possible for you.

And it all starts to blend together at some point.

Regardless of my horrible salesmanship, you should go on over to swordandscale.com and check out Sword and Scale Television.

We have 15 full-length episodes.

They're each about an hour long and tell an incredible tale of murder and mayhem in only the way we can here at Sword and Scale.

It was July of 2022 in a little place we like to talk about a lot, called Florida.

This time, Boca Raton,

a place named after the mouth of a rat.

On a suburban street where crime was low and the Tesla count was high, along with a few vandals, I'm sure, a group of friends in their mid-20s were standing outside a big yellow stucco house in Larkspur Trail before sunrise.

One of the friends in the group was a woman, who we will refer to as Annie, and her girlfriend, who we will call Kate, had been missing for over 12 hours.

Annie had this feeling that Kate was inside the yellow house, and one of the things that clued her into that was the fact that her car was sitting in the driveway.

The night before, she had received some strange messages from Kate's phone that did not sound like her.

Maybe Kate was at a hotel like the text messages claim, but that didn't seem right, and Annie wanted to be sure.

The friends had rallied around the house in Larkspur Trail while the cops did their due diligence, knocking on doors and windows, announcing themselves to the property owners, but they are met with silence.

By the looks of it, no one was home.

It was hard to tell what was going on.

The house on Larkspur was in an Orthodox Jewish neighborhood, and the day in question was Shabbat,

which is the holy day of rest for the Jewish people.

Shabbat starts at sunset on Friday and ends 24 hours later at sunset on Saturday.

And during this time, Jewish people are not allowed to use any forms of technology.

Orthodox Jews take Shabbat very seriously.

And everyone in this neighborhood was on their day of rest, like the good Lord.

The cops continued knocking and calling out property owners, but no one responded.

Without cause, they couldn't just break in.

I mean, do you want cops breaking into your house without permission?

So, the police left.

But Kate's friends did not.

They were convinced that the police had made a big mistake.

So, one of them called the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office again.

There were officers outside of the house of the missing person, and they refused to go inside to retrieve her.

So, I'm just trying to get reconnected with those officers if possible because they literally hung up on me when I asked for their name and badge number.

And if you can't reconnect me, then I would like the officers who are dispatched to that call, and I would like their name and badge numbers, please.

Okay, hold on just a second.

I never spoke with you, so let me breathe.

I completely understand that you.

I'm just letting you know what's going on.

The scene was tense.

Annie had already reported Kate missing to the police department near their home, which was in another jurisdiction.

Okay, what's your name?

That's irrelevant, ma'am.

I just want to know the officers' name and badge numbers, please.

The ones who are dispatched to you are.

Okay, well, what is your name so I can verify that, or I can't give you any information?

Ma'am, ma'am, I'm sorry, but you don't need to ask me irrelevant questions.

I'm asking for the officers who are dispatched to that call.

You're a public servant.

I am a part of the public, and I'm asking you a question.

I need you to answer it, please.

I'm not answering any questions related to that address because I can't verify or know if you're the one who called.

The dispatch operator had a point, but so did the caller.

And things only escalated from there, as they tend to do when one party is emotionally charged.

Like I just said, man, we have a missing person who's sitting in front of that house with a mentally ill patient.

But if you want my name, my name is John Doe.

Now, please tell me the officers who were dispatched to 22147 Lakespur Trail.

And don't ask me another bullshit about the question.

Okay, I can't give you any information because I don't show that name listed on the person who called.

Oh, so

if I called them a SARS-87 number, you guys

got that on file, right?

Come on, man.

Let's not play this game.

I don't do this.

Like, there is a missing person right here.

This is our friend.

This is our loved one.

Okay, and I'm trying to help you.

Listen, no one's hearing you.

No, you're not.

No, you're not.

You're playing some

game with me.

Don't play the game with me.

22147, Lakesburg Trails.

Which officers were dispatched to that call?

Are you at the location right now?

Yeah, I am.

So which officers were dispatched?

Go ahead.

the officers that are on scene if you're there.

But the police had left.

However, this caller was too heated to relay that.

Ma'am, are you going to hang up on me, too?

Are you?

Is there anything else I can help you with?

I'm not giving you anything.

Absolutely there is.

Okay, you can contact the records division and badge numbers.

You can contact the records division during normal business hours to get that information.

I'm not going to give you anything.

Ma'am, ma'am, ma'am, ma'am, ma'am, ma'am, ma'am, ma'am, ma'am.

Ma'am, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, hold on, hold on.

Hold on, hold on, no, ma'am.

What are you doing right now?

You're acting like, like, I'm not calling with emotion and care right now because I care for one of my friends.

You're acting like I'm another fucking random robot in the world.

Like, can you please help me right now?

I'm like, I'm willing to help you out,

and we are trying to help her.

And the officers outside of her house, who refused to go in there and literally save her from this mentally ill person,

hung up on me.

So can you please help me?

Why not just say your name?

If it's the emergency you say it is, I mean, say your name, right?

The dispatch operator told the caller that she would contact an officer and have him call them back.

That was all she could do from the 911 line.

I mean, you can't just call up 911 and start obtaining personal information about prior calls.

There are rules and procedures for a reason, to protect the public.

That's when a calmer friend took over the phone and gave his number to the operator.

Then they waited.

As intense as it was, that 911 exchange worked because more officers were soon sent back to the scene.

This time, they heard something that made them second-guess if Annie and her friends had been right.

We were dispatched to this location at approximately 6.45 this morning, sometime, roughly,

in reference to assisting Lantana PD in recovering a missing person from their jurisdiction.

I arrived here with my trainee, deputy parent.

We arrived here and met with the complainant who filed the original missing persons report with Lantana Police Department.

I cannot recall her name right now.

She told us that she believes her girlfriend is inside that house.

And she did report her, in fact, meeting

with Lantana Police Department last night.

Asked her, how does she know she's in there?

She goes, well, her car is here.

Okay.

Originally, we're trying to gather as much information as we can.

Kind of things were not really that clear, but it became clear later on when other deputies arrived

that she is a therapist and she came here to meet a client.

Kate was a social worker who had been sent to the yellow house on Larksburg by her boss to check on a client.

Soon the officers found themselves walking around the perimeter of the house, knocking on doors and windows.

Repeatedly, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang.

Got no answer.

We did notice that the window to the door was obscured with something.

We didn't know the fact that that was our.

We had that conversation.

But anyhow, we went.

The window in the house?

So the front door.

Okay.

Because we're trying to look in the glass to see if we can see anything in the house.

obvious front windows had the blinds closed.

We continued around the outside of the house to see if we could look in, see if we could see anything that would indicate indicate people inside the house.

As we're going around the house, we're at the rear of the house now on the pull deck.

There is a big sliding glass.

It's a double sliding glass door.

We kind of pulled on that.

Hey, you know, Terry, see if it's open.

And when we were off the door, I don't know if it's at the moment we pulled it or let go or whatever.

We heard a very loud scream, female.

clearly from inside the house and that's all we heard and we confirmed we checked hey did you hear that?

Yeah, I heard that.

I heard that.

Came back to the front of the house.

The companion from who filed the missing person report.

I go, did you hear that?

She goes, I heard that.

Did you guys hear that?

So she heard the scream also from inside the house.

Kind of confirming we all heard something from the inside of the house.

I think it was before we came around the front of the house.

My trainee got on the radio and made an announcement that we heard a scream come from inside of the house.

Upon hearing the scream, the officers immediately called their sergeant, who drove to the scene.

As Annie and her friends huddled on the sidewalk watching, the officers briefed one another.

Tell me all the details they have.

And then they said, we've looked in all the windows, we can't see in the windows.

There's a section where they could see it, but you couldn't see anything.

I think it was a hallway or something.

We're looking for phone numbers, all that.

I said, all right,

let's, we're talking about the stream again.

So we're trying to hash out, is this a healthy stream?

Because now we have more information that there was something about a 22-year-old.

I don't think we had that.

This was a patient.

I don't remember what the time frame was, but I don't think we had that right away.

Because I think that's what we were trying to figure out:

who's the parents?

Where are they at?

There's two kids that live in the house.

It's a 26-year-old female, a 22-year-old male.

So we had that.

So the conversation we're having, where we're standing at the front door, is: hey, is this ain't fault final?

Or is this an affair she got caught and it's that?

Hours passed, and more details began to unravel as the day broke.

Kate was a 26-year-old social worker, and the client she had gone to meet was a 20-year-old man who lived on the house at Larkspur.

But the cop was right.

There were many ways this could play out, and one of them could have been an affair.

Still, something about this still wasn't right, and

there was another option.

It's a call for help, but you can write that shit up.

I said, we'll fucking kick the goddamn door out of you.

The officer who originally heard the scream confirmed that it sounded off.

So the sergeant called his lieutenant and the two decided to have fire and rescue come break the door.

That way, if it did turn out to be a false alarm, the homeowners would be left with minimal damage.

And then we start getting more details.

And one of the details was that the doctor who is caring for this kid.

So now we know it's the kid is the patient.

The 22 year old is the patient.

The doctor who's caring for the kid sent her here on assignment at 6 p.m.

last night.

And

I don't know if it was him or the girlfriend.

Somebody told us they got a text message saying, I made contact.

I think it was the doctor.

I made contact.

He let me in the house.

So now we have that information.

After realizing that Kate was potentially inside the house with a mentally ill patient, the cops knew they had to get in immediately.

we're getting fire rescued but the lock to what it wasn't been so that's what we're planning for lt cohen shows up so at this point we're pinging the phone so now we're we're kind of doing like the extra like hold on let's just make sure this isn't some 26 year old that ran off with a 22 year old so we're pinging phones we're getting trying to get everybody's number this whole time you know hey you

a deputy is being tasked with get the parents on the phone.

We can't get the parents.

We know the neighbor's close to parents are out of town.

And it's, I don't know what holiday, what

Saturday is to the Jewish religion, but something about on Saturday they can't use phones.

So we knew that.

Oh, they don't use electronics they don't use phones.

Okay.

Remember that it was Saturday of Shabbat.

So the All Swangs weren't permitted to use technology.

So no one could reach them on their cell phones.

And while we're paying the phone, K-9's on the way, throwing on the way, we get dispatched says her telephone number came at 7 a.m.

in Deerfield Beach.

So that kind of put the brakes on that switch.

I regret the people that I'm just mad that we waited.

And it's nobody's fault.

Just checking fucking boxes.

So they waited.

They followed the protocol.

Like the sergeant said, checking all the fucking boxes.

But time was ticking and Kate...

was potentially inside the house.

No one had heard a peep from inside since the first scream.

Then they received information that the cell phone ping was off.

Finally, it was time to go in.

So once everybody gets into the house, and I'll be honest, I don't even know how many people went in.

Cheers,

because it ended up being everybody.

Once they get into the house, myself and Sergeant Neguris go into the house.

So stick teams in front of us.

Okay, so you went in.

Yes.

And now I'm in the front door.

There was a room to the right.

I did not go into it.

At this point, I have my gun out.

We're kind of clearing behind them, you know, opening closet doors as they're making their way through.

The officers began thundering through the quiet house, opening closets and checking rooms with their weapons drawn and their shields ready.

And then I start making my way to the other side of the house, and they start saying, hey, we got a locked door.

We got a locked door.

At the back of the house, off a bedroom, the cops found a locked door and knew the scream had to have come from inside.

A female officer opened the door and was stunned at what she saw hiding in the back of the closet.

At first, I was like, okay, you kind of do that, like Lance, like, oh, it's clear, nothing in here.

Then I'm like, no, no, no.

Assessing, no, there's people in here.

I now see a man and a female.

When I saw them, I'm now trying to figure out what I got.

At first, it looked like he just was like choking her out.

At the back of the closet was C.

All Swing, the 20-year-old patient.

And he had Kate in his grasp.

C.

What a name.

I guess his parents didn't like vowels.

So they're, they're now talking to me.

What do you got?

What do you got?

What do you got?

I'm trying to access processing.

I'm like, okay, I see

he's got her, you know, and then I'm like, okay, now I'm seeing the knife.

I'm like, knife.

It's got a knife.

At this point, as I'm talking, Niger slides in.

Where was the knife?

She's shiny.

In relation to her body.

Neck.

He had it at her neck.

What was she doing?

Did she say anything?

No, she was dead silent.

She was staring at me like scared.

Did he say anything?

No.

No, he's just there not moving.

She has her hands up,

like chest, maybe like even in her throat, like kind of doing this.

And like

her thumbs are against her throat.

And the knife was either on the thumb or right above it.

It was right there.

And And Will starts giving him commands.

You don't want to do this.

You don't have to do this.

You know, there's a better way.

He's talking.

Drop a knife, drop a knife.

Then he starts to,

hey, come on, man.

Just talk to me.

Just talk to me.

Just talk to me.

And literally, as I'm behind him, I'm like, damn, I see the knife.

I mean, I'm thinking this to myself, I shouldn't.

I'm thinking this to myself.

I'm like, man, this fucking thing is going to cut the fucking throat.

And

shocked.

Okay.

Shot the guy in the head.

He dropped.

We go in.

It all happened in a flash.

the shot rang out a hundred times as loud in that tiny closet it hit z and he dropped to the ground kate was free uh she was uh grabbed taken out of the room a couple deputies took her out of the out of the house people moved in i handcuffed the subject At that time, he starts speaking.

I can't tell you what he was saying.

It's not because I don't know.

I just don't remember.

And it wasn't like it was gurgling.

He was actually communicating words.

He was saying something.

Then he starts hitting the ground.

An officer grabbed a towel and pressed it on Z's gunshot wound as they handcuffed him to the gurney and wheeled him out of his parents' $1.5 million bungalow.

Outside, Kate's friends rejoiced.

But now it was time to take her to the hospital and find out exactly what happened on Larksburg Trail.

So, when I started this podcast, I didn't realize I was actually starting a small business.

Yikes.

There's nothing small about a small business.

You're working all of the time.

Thankfully, though, I have a partner with all the tools that I need to be successful.

You may have heard of them.

Their name is Shopify.

Shopify's point-of-sale system is a unified command center for your retail business.

It brings together in-store and online operations across up to a thousand locations.

Imagine being able to guarantee that shopping is always convenient.

Endless aisle, ship to customer.

buy online, pick up in store.

All these things are made simpler to customers so they can shop how they want.

And staff have all the tools to close the sale every time.

And let's face it, acquiring new customers is expensive.

With Shopify POS, you can keep shoppers coming back with personalized experiences and first-party data that give marketing teams a competitive edge.

In fact, it's proven.

Based on a report from EY, Businesses on Shopify POS see real results, like 22% better total cost of ownership and benefits equivalent to an 8.9% uplift in sales on average relative to the market set surveyed.

So if you have a retail or online business, then I'll tell you what, Shopify is a fantastic partner to have on your side.

Get all the big stuff for your small business right with Shopify.

Sign up for your $1 a month trial and start selling today at shopify.com slash sword and scale.

All one word.

Just go to shopify.com slash sword and scale and sign up.

You'll thank me later.

You will.

Shopify.com slash sword and scale.

What if Juliet got a second chance at life after Romeo and Juliet, created by the Emmy-winning writer from Schitt's Creek and pop music's number one hitmaker, playing October 7th through 12th at the San Jose Center for the Performing Arts.

From Australia to San Francisco, Color Jewelry brings timeless craftsmanship and modern lab-grown diamond engagement rings to the US.

Explore solitaire, trilogy, halo and bezel settings, or design a custom piece that tells your love story.

With expert guidance, a lifetime warranty and a talented team of in-house jewels behind every piece, your perfect ring is made with meaning.

Visit our Union Street showroom or explore the range at cullinjewelry.com.

Your ring your way.

Palm Beach County Sheriffs had spent the early morning hours in a SWAT-style takedown at a home in a Jewish Orthodox neighborhood in Boca Rattan.

A missing 26-year-old social worker had been trapped inside with her 22-year-old client, Z Allswang, for the last 15 hours or so.

The social worker's girlfriend Annie had reported her missing the evening before, but it took until the next morning to find Kate and get into the Allswang's house.

When they did, the police found Kate trapped in a closet being held at knife point by Z.

When he refused to comply, an officer shot him and saved Kate's life.

It was an incredible and terrifying scene.

Now Kate was in the hospital recovering from the kidnapping and was ready to tell police what happened to her inside that house.

Kate's identity had been protected, and since we want to honor that, the details of her exact employment status will remain confidential.

Despite what you might have heard on certain forums where people who spend all of their time online hang out, we do not dox victims.

And if we do make a mistake, we typically correct it within 24 hours.

Anyway, back to the story.

You just need to know that she was finishing up her degree to become a counselor, and she worked for a mental health practice of all things that had Z allswang as a client.

She was tasked to help him find employment and to help him figure out how to exist in the adult world because obviously he was having trouble doing it.

Z wasn't a normal 22-year-old.

Despite his privileged upbringing and resources, he was floundering.

Kate had a big morning at work and the last client of the day was Z.

Everything was kind of smooth sailing.

Went through and saw the rest of the clients for the day.

And then I had

Sve scheduled for originally for 5.30.

Sve pushed it back to 6 p.m.

He didn't have a particular reason, but I was willing to be flexible because it's been a challenging start for him to accept therapeutic services.

And this is something that's not uncommon, especially in case management, to have some clients that might be really stuck in life or really struggling to need additional support in order to get them on track and everything.

Kate drove up to Z's parents' house like she had done for the last month she'd been working with them.

She met with Z there and they would have their session in the den while his parents stayed in the living room.

Kate only had about four or five sessions with him, so she didn't know him all that well just yet.

But what she did know was that he was socially off.

I guess what I would say that would be unusual with Sve was that he was a little off at times, meaning that Sve was not fully able to be present in conversation and engage.

And this was something that dad was particularly concerned about in terms of there being any cognitive deficits that might be present along with the clinical team.

In addition to that, Dad would always make remarks

to Courtney, who was his primary therapist, who is his primary therapist, and I was the case manager on the case, would mention to Courtney that Spee's dad was very scared of Spee and wouldn't necessarily give any context to it.

Then I started speaking with Dad a little bit more often because he's a very, you know,

over-protective and involved parent in Spee's life.

And he had disclosed that Spee had a history of sexual assault as a minor where he was convicted.

And the case was ultimately sealed.

and resolved in the sense that he did his service, he did his community service, that he did his, you know, time.

He went to court-mandated counseling,

and the therapist at that time had given him a clear bill of health.

Spee, however, had never opened up about that side of his history, even when directly asked about it.

So Z had a history of assault on his record, but it was sealed and obviously no one thought it was too big of a deal to deny him home visits.

Kate waited at the front door for someone to answer.

Z swung it open and let her inside the cool, air-conditioned Florida home.

So, you know, I go in with him and right off the bat he's a little bit more talkative than he normally is.

He's a little bit more engaged.

He's asking a lot more, Sve's asking a lot more questions about me to get to know me.

And

I looked at it from a perspective of, okay, we can focus on report building.

Kate was a little surprised by Z's new attitude, but saw it as positive.

Then they sat down for their usual meeting.

While we were meeting for a regular case management discussion, which was rapport building, job discussion,

and a little bit more about like getting to know each other, Sve had gotten up a few times, either citing that Sve needed to go to the bathroom, that Sve needed to go get some water,

and

I didn't think anything of it at the time.

So then when I got up to leave, when our time was over, he

kept trying to persuade me to stay and saying that he wanted me to help him with more things.

Kate kept it professional and told him that she had to go.

They could schedule another time to meet next week.

As she walked towards the door, she noticed that all the blinds in the house had been shut.

In that moment, her stomach flipped.

She picked up her pace towards the front door and realized that it had now been covered with black plastic and duct tape.

And as I was about to get to the door, which I never made it to,

he

put his arms around me and put his body weight on me.

He was squeezing me really tight.

And I kept saying, Sweet, what are you doing?

What are you doing?

And he was trying to kiss my neck.

He was trying to overpower me.

He started dragging me back into the living room.

And

and at that point

I was resisting

and he didn't like that

so he um

he started grabbing my hands like this with his really tightly

and I have

you know his hand hearts here from it

and I tried to struggle and break free multiple times to which was met with

his first round of beating me,

which included punches in the face,

being meat in the gut, just to get me to calm down and be compliant.

Kate fought as hard as she could, but Z was strong, tall, and overpowered her.

I bit his hand at one point.

You know, I tried to kick him.

and his scrodum.

I

tried everything I could and he

let me know that there wasn't anything you can do and that he was

much stronger than me.

Well there was this struggle going on and he was trying, putting his body weight on me and trying to subdue me and trying to

and hurting me.

He kept wanting me to sit on his lap.

And at this point he had obviously

he had a

hard penis.

And he kept wanting me to sit on his lap.

Good.

Pulling me on his lap.

It was so quiet in the house.

Just the sound of the air conditioner humming and Z's grunts and struggles as he yanked Kate back every time she tried to get away.

He would squeeze her towards his body and smack her anytime she fought.

So Kate dug into her social worker toolkit and tried another approach.

So I, that's when I switched to the rapport building.

you know, just to try to talk to him, get to know him or figure out what, you know, his game plan is here.

And then I moved next to him, which he let me do while he was holding.

When I was,

he was really, really angry at me.

And he seemed really odd at this point.

To a place where Spee was sounding, you know, delusional.

He was unable to listen to any logic.

He was unable to listen to any reason.

He couldn't comprehend or try to see see my perspective or engage in a rational discussion.

And he said that the reason he was so angry at me and was doing all of this

was because at our previous meeting, he had told me by accident that he had applied to a job in Pennsylvania.

So I reported to Dad that he had applied to a job in Pennsylvania.

And then Spee had corrected himself and said, oh, never mind, it wasn't a job in Pennsylvania.

And I had not followed up with Spee's dad about that.

But Spee's dad confronted Spee about this miscommunication about the location of jobs he was applying to.

And Spee thought that I was doing that to make him look bad, to steal his family's money.

and to ultimately try to make Spee need to spend more time with me.

He held Kate's wrists tightly like a human human handcuff and he explained all this to her.

She was terrified and she started pleading.

You know, if you need to, you can, you know, look at the text messages if that's what you want, you know, but that would require you to give me my phone.

Oh, at this sorry, it's okay, like,

so crazy pieces here.

It's okay.

You're telling Greg.

At this point, he had taken my phone.

Um,

and that was what much of the struggle ensued on

was when he originally was first dragging me into the room.

He was very methodical in wanting to take my bag and my phone away from me.

And that's where

he started calling me a dumb bitch

and telling me that I'm like, you know, just a hoe that wants money and asking me how much I make.

and asking me, you know, what I'd like to do with that money.

You know, at that point, I just, I really focused on a very calm and collective tone saying, Sweet, like, what you're talking about like that doesn't make sense,

like, that doesn't fit right now.

And he, like, couldn't hear any of that.

So, that was his reasoning.

He was mad that Kate had reported something he felt was incorrect to his father.

That's how sick and delusional this kid was.

Kate kept trying to talk to him, but it wasn't working.

He went to go grab duct tape

and

bond

me with my hands like this behind my back and he put a lot on

you know telling me that he didn't want me to be able to get loose and that he knows all the tricks i could pull

and that he thought this through

and at that point i was like

i'm gonna be in this for a while

And then after that, while I was bound, he got my phone

and was trying to convince me to

give him my phone password.

And I didn't want to give him my phone password.

So I, you know, I lied.

We tried to give him the wrong ones.

And tried to have him, you know, type in the wrong ones enough times so that it would disable my phone.

And

he told me he knew my tricks.

He knew what I was doing.

And...

And that's when he started to beat me again.

Z beat Kate again until she was face down on the floor.

Still want to be a social worker?

Yeah, I'm talking to you.

And when he had me overpowered on the floor, my knees were on the floor.

And he put my hand into the couch.

And he put his hand on the back of my head.

And he said, you know what would happen if I smashed this right here?

You know, you would be dead.

Throughout this process.

And throughout the struggle, he is trying to grope me.

He is rubbing me over my pants, on my vagina.

He is grabbing my ass.

All of this is mixed into the struggle.

So I knew at some point that that was most likely coming.

He was really well planned at times,

and other times just seemed like he didn't know what was going on, or he wasn't totally there, or things just weren't connecting or adding up.

It was really strange and scary because it was so volatile and unpredictable.

Part of his plan was to make sure that no one could reach Kate.

He wanted to wrap our phones in tinfoil and put them on airplane mode.

I noticed on his phone he was using this VPN.

He was saying, you know, strange things about how his location could be tracked or pinged.

He was talking about, you know, odd things related to people watching him and being able to see him and hear him.

Like, for example, like, he did let me go to the bathroom if he took me in there and watched me, but he wouldn't let me flush the toilet because that would make too much noise.

And he would cover my mouth if I started to speak any louder than a whisper.

Back at Kate and Nanny's house, Annie was beginning to become worried when Kate never came home.

She's supposed to be home by like 6.30, 20 to 7.30.

That's when I texted her, where are you?

And the message didn't go through.

It went straight to like the green text bubble.

So then I was sending just like question marks.

And then I was like, are you good?

Hello.

I'm concerned.

And then I'm like, what the fuck?

Hello?

Are you okay?

Where are you?

Are you okay?

And then I was like, I'm going to have to call her boss.

And then I was like, hello, please.

Are you okay?

And then

randomly it turned back to blue.

Like her phone went back on.

And then I got the text message.

quote oh my god i got pulled over on my way cop thought i was drunk taking me to to station.

I'm going to take blood tests there because the cop is a dick.

Love you.

See you later.

And what time was that at?

That was at 9.13.

At that point, he took me over into the bedroom closest to the front door.

And that was the first time

he forced me to have sex with him.

I convinced him.

Convinced him to wear a condom.

Thank God.

Tried to tell me his pull-out game was strong.

And then he put me on the bed and he put the condom on

and like I was dry.

Like I it hurt and I told him that.

I was like this is uncomfortable.

Like I don't like this.

This doesn't feel right.

You know, like I'm not into it right now.

And he like was fixated on me calling him daddy

and putting it in him anyway.

And putting it in me anyway.

Which he did

as I was lying down

and he was barreling over me with his full body weight on top of me.

And I remember just thinking, when is this going to be over?

When is he going to finish?

Because this isn't going to stop until he's done.

And so it did.

At this point, he was tired and he wanted me to go to sleep.

And I told him I was not going to go to sleep, that I was too scared, that I was too anxious.

That you know, I'm not hungry.

I don't he offered to give me like melatonin and like sleeping aids and I told him I don't want any of that.

i said like i can't sleep like when are you gonna let me go

and this was something that i kept reiterating the whole time he's mine when is he gonna let me go after he raped her z decided to follow up with annie on kate's phone so then i'm saying what the hell's happening only three messages got delivered and then the phone was turned back off um

And then nothing.

I just was like blowing up her phone, trying to see if anything got sent.

Okay.

And then I got a text message at 12.28 a.m.

Hey, sorry.

I never got back to you.

I'm fine.

They got me a hotel room for all the shit they put me through.

I'm still kind of shook.

I'm staying here tonight.

I'll see you tomorrow.

I'm going to sleep now.

Good night.

Which just did not sound like her.

That's not how she normally texts.

Not how she usually texts.

In five and a half years, we've had three nights apart because we were on vacation.

And also, a cop.

Like the whole thing about going for a blood test sounded sketchy to begin with because

she was coming from a client, you know, like, and she, if she did have one drink with someone and she was pulled over and she refused to breathalyzer, like it just didn't make any sense to me.

Um, and then when she said that the cops got her a hotel room for all the trouble she caused, that was a major red flag.

And I immediately called the police back.

And then that's when I, because before then, I was calling just to see if she had been arrested for drinking and driving or if anyone had got brought in for like a field sobriety test or something like that.

Did you call 911 or what number did you call for the police?

I was calling the Boynton Police Department.

I called the Del Rey Department.

I called the Boca.

I called the county office

and the sheriff's office and no one had any records of her.

Z thought that his pathetic messages to Annie would keep her at bay.

But Kate also did something smart.

She never let Z know that Annie...

was her girlfriend.

She told him that Annie was her roommate, which probably helped him underestimate how hard Annie would be looking for her.

I told him I wasn't going to go to sleep.

And we were back

on the living room couch at this point.

And he was ready for round two

with sex.

And I told him that I was still sore and in pain and that I wasn't in the mood.

And then he said again, if you ever want to get out of here,

if you want to be able to leave, then we're going to need to, you know, figure out something that works for us.

This guy is such an unbelievable monster.

Listening to this poor woman recount what undoubtedly is the most terrifying experience of her life is heart-wrenching.

This young man deserves to be locked away for the rest of his life,

regardless of any mental health issues he might have.

Because it ain't an excuse.

If you act like an animal, you belong in a cage.

And the same thing happened again, except this time he couldn't get it inside of me because I was just too dry and I was just wailing in pain.

I told him I didn't want it.

And then he said I needed to suck him off.

So I sucked him off,

you know, with his hands there.

And

then he came all over me.

In my hair, on my face, on my chest.

On my um

sports where I have it on here right now.

I got a map video.

And I'm a haircut.

And at this point, he wanted me to change into his clothes or shower.

And I told him that I was okay, that I wanted to stay in these clothes.

And then I really started after that to plead with him more about when he was gonna let me go.

You know, it's

hard for me to necessarily sequence because it comes in

flashes.

At some point within the beginning part of it though,

he had tried to use a

heavy-duty sex toy that he had on me to try to stimulate

brain.

And I told him it hurt.

And I told him, you know, that it hurt because he didn't, he didn't know.

While Kate was trapped in hell, Annie had rallied some support and was not giving up on finding her girlfriend.

Her boss, he's also like the rest of this community, Orthodox Jewish, so he does not use electronics.

So all night I knew that like she was with her client, so I was trying to get in contact with him to just find out like if he heard anything that there was an issue with her boss or the client?

The boss.

Okay.

But he was not answering the phone because he doesn't use electronics during Shabbat.

So but I didn't really care at that point.

So I was just continuously blowing up his phone.

And he finally called me back at 3 a.m.

And I explained the situation.

I was like, I need the address of the

last client she was going to see.

And he gave it to me and that's this house.

And then I called back the Lantana police department because at that point I had already filed a missing persons report.

All right.

So you did speak to Lantana.

Okay.

Yeah.

When her mom called Lantana, the police then came to my house, like my apartment, and we discussed everything.

They went down and checked all the files to make sure she wasn't in any systems anywhere and then came back up and then gave me the option to make a police uh a missing person report so that's what i did and what time was that at did they come in probably around like 1 a.m 1 30.

so at that point he started to express

how he's had like a history of suicide

and that he's not planning on letting me go

And I kept at this point trying to get him to turn on his phone just to maybe like see if, you know, if anyone's called or there's someone he can talk to and like figure out another way out of this like that it doesn't have to escalate this whole big thing and then he said he's fucked and that he's sorry

and at that point he didn't have any hope anymore and he wanted to take us down together

Annie was frustrated she had checked with every police station and filed a missing persons report There was nothing left to do except go to Kate's last-known address herself and knock on the door.

So Annie, along with some friends, drove over to Z's house on Larksburg Trail at 4 a.m.

and took matters into her own hands.

And what did you see or hear when you got here?

Nothing.

I saw her car in the driveway and I was just banging on the door and like walking around the house and my friend stopped me from using a rock to try to crack the window, even though I probably wouldn't have done anything.

Kate could hear the knocks and doorbell rings from inside the house.

But Z had grabbed a large butcher knife from the kitchen and told her that if she made a sound, he'd kill her.

So, when I started this podcast, I didn't realize I was actually starting a small business.

Yikes.

There's nothing small about a small business.

You're working all of the time.

Thankfully, though, I have a partner with all the tools that I need to be successful.

You may have heard of them.

Their name is Shopify.

Shopify's point-of-sale system is a unified command center for your retail business.

It brings together in-store and online operations across up to a thousand locations.

Imagine being able to guarantee that shopping is always convenient.

Endless aisle, ship to customer, buy online, pick up in store.

All these things are made simpler to customers so they can shop how they want.

And staff have all the tools to close the sale every time.

And let's face it, acquiring new customers is expensive.

With Shopify POS, you can keep shoppers coming back with personalized experiences and first-party data that give marketing teams a competitive edge.

In fact, it's proven.

Based on a report from EY, businesses on Shopify POS see real results, like 22% better total cost of ownership and benefits equivalent to an 8.9% uplift in sales on average relative to the market set surveyed.

So if you have a retail or online business, then I'll tell you what, Shopify is a fantastic partner to have on on your side get all the big stuff for your small business right with shopify sign up for your one dollar a month trial and start selling today at shopify.com slash sword and scale all one word just go to shopify.com slash swordand scale and sign up you'll thank me later you will shopify.com slash sword and scale

what if juliet got a second chance at life after romeo and Juliet, created by the Emmy-winning writer from Schitt's Creek and Top Music's number one hitmaker, playing October 7th through 12th at the San Jose Center for the Performing Arts.

Starting a business can be overwhelming.

You're juggling multiple roles.

Designer, marketer, logistics manager, all while bringing your vision to life.

But for millions of businesses, Shopify is the ultimate partner.

Shopify is the commerce platform behind millions of businesses around the world and 10% of all e-commerce in the U.S.

From household names like Mattel and Gymshark to brands just getting started.

Build a stunning online store with Shopify's ready-to-use templates.

Boost content with AI-powered product descriptions, page headlines, and enhance photography.

Marketing is easy with built-in tools for email and social media campaigns.

Plus, Shopify simplifies everything from inventory to shipping and returns.

If you're ready to sell, you're ready for Shopify.

Turn your big business idea into with Shopify on your side.

Sign up for your $1 per month trial today at shopify.com slash try.

Go to shopify.com slash try.

Shopify.com slash try.

Outside, Annie was calling Kate's name and waiting.

Of course, they couldn't break in, so they tried to talk to some neighbors.

Six o'clock, I knocked on the neighbor's door just because I noticed that he had a ring camera.

So I just wanted to know if, like, because it's facing the street, so you would have saw her car drive past that house.

So it's like, okay, we know she came here, but did she ever leave with the client like how they were supposed to?

Or did she only ever like get here?

And he told me it was Shabbat, and he could not help me.

I know religion is important to some people, but can you imagine if that was your loved one inside?

As the knocks knocks grew more frequent and police arrived on scene, Zeeb began to freak out and dragged Kate into his parents' closet, and that's when she let out that fateful scream.

But that was the one time

that kind of gave confirmation that it's like, hi, I'm here.

I screamed when he was taking me.

From the main part of the house with like the living room, area and the bedrooms we had been in over to his parents' bedroom and closet.

You know, at that point, the cops were around,

and he was starting to get rid of.

He himself was getting really scared.

At one point, he asked me to feel his heartbeat.

But he was also getting weirdly turned on.

And he kept asking me to fuck in the closet.

And I kept telling him, no, no, no, like I don't want this anymore.

And I still had to cuddle him, you know,

with his heartbeat up against me.

And every time I tried to move away while we were laying on the floor in the closet,

he would pull me back in.

As Kate was being held in the closet with Z trying to rape her again while the cops surveyed the perimeter of the house, Annie waited with her friends outside and talked with the officers.

She was getting fed up.

I waited here and then they got, when they got back here, two of them showed up and I explained the situation and they did their little walk around

and then they were in the back and then they came up and we me and all my friends heard it.

We all heard a scream and they came in and they said, you guys heard that too.

And we said yes and then it still took three hours for them to get inside that house.

So many things went wrong during those hours while the police figured out if they could get inside.

Like the sergeant at the top of the episode said, just check in all the fucking boxes.

But while they were handling protocol, Kate was stuck in a closet, being held at knife point by a deranged 20-year-old who had repeatedly raped her for the last 15 hours.

I mean, fuck protocol.

They laughed and they told me and my friends to go get breakfast while we were sitting out here begging them to go inside.

And then when I did get them, just

briefly for the two seconds, she was telling me that the only thing that kept her going was hearing me yell at the cops outside to do something.

So I just don't understand how this can be the correct way to handle this situation to have your deputies be telling us that we should be going for breakfast and brunch when this was happening and chit-chatting with the neighbors who were outside drinking their coffee, watching us have mental breakdowns on the road because no one's doing anything.

How could anyone have known what was happening inside that house?

The cops had to play it safe to avoid being liable, and Annie was emotional and frantic, her gut firmly telling her that her girlfriend was in trouble and was behind those doors.

But finally, they got in.

And eventually, as more and more knocks started to come more frequently,

and he eventually heard the drill of the door, or the saw of the door that was going to be knocked down,

he wouldn't give me any answers, but he just told me he was like, I need you to do exactly what I say, you know, and telling me, but I can't say a word, and then I say a word that I'm going to be dead.

So he holds me up in the closet, behind me.

with me in front of him yeah and he pulls out the knife and he has it up to his my neck and then he says wait a minute

and then he is going through his his mom's clothing and he picks out a dress of hers

and asks me to hold it up and hold it and I tried to put the hook of it you know over my neck so that he couldn't you know cut it but he picked up on that and he lowered my hand and then he held with this hand, this arm down

and put the knife up to my throat and waited for the cops to come.

And he had been saying how hopeless he was.

And at this point, I was shaking and crying and just saying, please let me go.

It doesn't have to be this way.

We can do something else.

Like, please, I'm scared.

Like, please don't hold the knife up to my throat.

That's when the female officer broke in the locked door and found Kate and Z huddled at the back of the closet.

The long silver blade held tightly against her neck.

Then all the police swarmed in.

Within a matter of seconds, a gunshot went off

and I heard it in this ear and then a ringing came on.

And I couldn't look back and I was shuffled out of there.

Z Oswang was shot in the front of the head.

The bullet hit him right above his left eyebrow.

It's not like it is in the movies.

If you give them an opportunity, they will shoot you dead.

If you're threatening someone with a knife.

This one was a near bullseye.

And the most shocking thing of all was he survived.

The 20-year-old rapist and kidnapper would have to face what he did on that horrible Shabbat Saturday.

Z showed up in court in a wheelchair with a plastic beige helmet on his head.

He was charged with first-degree attempted murder, kidnapping, and several sexual battery charges.

No one in his family attended his court appearances or spoke to the media on his behalf.

Remember how Kate mentioned that Z had a previous sexual assault charge that had been sealed?

It was also for rape, and he served not a minute of jail time because the victim's family did not press charges.

He was let out, back into the free world, a rapist.

Can you believe that?

Yeah, these are the court papers right here that detail a 15-year-old girl's accusation that Sve Allswang raped her.

Allswang was 16 at the time, and the victim's attorney told me tonight, because of Allswang's age and his lack of criminal history, they decided to give him a break.

It's a decision they'd all now like to have back.

Even Z's first victim's lawyer regretted underestimating how dangerous this man really was.

So because of his young age and the fact he had never been arrested before, Rodderman and the prosecutor agreed to ask the judge to go easy on Allswang.

That we would agree to probation with the special conditions that he undergo an evaluation and any kind of follow-up treatment.

The judge agreed, and Rodderman says even the victim's family was on board with Allswang only getting probation.

Z had planned Kate's attack out carefully.

The police were able to obtain video footage of him buying plastic bags and other supplies from Party City of all places before.

the kidnapping.

And check this out.

This is the part that should sound some alarm bells and teach a little bit of a lesson about how the world works.

Z Allswang, this rapist,

chose Shabbat, a religious holiday, because he knew that no one in the neighborhood would be using their cell phones, ring cameras, or any other electronic device.

Shabbat meant the Jewish world was turned off, so even Z's parents would be out of communication and out of town.

That bought him a lot of time, a lot of leeway, and he knew it.

Even Kate's boss was an Orthodox Jew.

Z

knew this too.

His sick plan would only work on this quiet, holy day.

What a sick fuck.

Remember, Z was angry with Kate for relaying the wrong information to his father about a job application.

Like, That was a justifiable reason for anything.

In his twisted mind, Z thought that this was the perfect excuse to kidnap, rape, and torture the woman who was assigned to help him.

The judge showed Z no mercy, and thank God for that.

He handed him down four life sentences for his crimes to make sure that he would never be able to hurt another woman ever again.

Kate lived through a woman's worst fear, but she survived.

I I have to think that her education and social work helped her survive this situation.

It must have.

She used her compassion to her advantage and was wise enough to trick her kidnapper into thinking that the girl he was texting was only a roommate, not her beloved girlfriend of five years.

So many things went wrong in this story between the cops and Kate's friends and family.

But the most important thing is that Kate should have never been allowed to be alone with Z.

He had a history of sexual violence and rape.

Men who do this are going to do it again.

Letting Z off so easily the first time only told his underdeveloped brain that he could possibly get away with this kind of behavior again.

But this time he took it too far.

and he underestimated Kate's prowess and Annie's devotion, despite the cops' missteps.

This truly is a story of love.

Annie saved Kate.

She never gave up, and she trusted her gut even when the cops were moving too slow or telling her that they just had to follow protocol.

This was simply not acceptable.

Annie's love for Kate is what saved her.

And that, in its own way, is what makes this tragic story

kind of beautiful.

Well, I hope that by the time you hear this story, we're done with all that replacing cops with social workers bullshit.

Perhaps we should stop listening to people that come up with really retarded ideas like that.

But I'm sure those of you that believe that sort of nonsense will just complain and whine instead, like you always do.

Maybe just leave the adulting to adults.

Adults have a way of being able to keep you safe.

Then again, the cops weren't really adulting, were they?

I don't know.

I don't know what the fuck I'm talking about.

But...

I do think we need to stop making excuses for those with mental illness.

Just because you have an illness doesn't mean you're not responsible for your actions.

I think we need to stop selling that lie.

Because even at the height of madness,

you still have choices to make.

And those choices say who and what you are, fundamentally.

So, sorry if you don't like that.

and your kid's mentally ill.

It's just the cost of living in a society the good of all outweighs.