Episode 260

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Speaker 2 Sword and Scale contains adult themes and violence and is not intended for all audiences. Listener discretion is advised.

Speaker 3 Like I said, great, if I wanted to toss you in jail with no questions asked, you would have already been there.

Speaker 2 So, how are you liking that new app?

Speaker 2 This is episode 260 of Sword and Scale, a show that reveals that the worst monsters are real.

Speaker 2 Well, here we are. We've launched, and I have a cold because I've been working way too hard.
But it's here. The app, the website, it's beautiful.

Speaker 2 And of course, if you go there, to swordandscale.com, that is, you will see the making of.

Speaker 2 That is the title of our documentary about the making of Sword and Scale television. It's free to watch.
I highly, highly suggest doing so.

Speaker 2 It's what we've been working on for the last year and a half or so.

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So be nice to her, please.

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Speaker 2 Be careful of who you let into your life.

Speaker 2 Relationships, even casual ones, can have a profound effect on you.

Speaker 2 Building meaningful relationships takes time.

Speaker 2 You have to build trust, set boundaries, and have honest communication.

Speaker 2 Without patience and time, no relationship has a chance.

Speaker 2 So, watch out for the red flags. Avoid those that bring any negativity or drama or stress along with them.

Speaker 2 Be cautious of people with a history of toxic or unhealthy past behavior and prioritize your own well-being.

Speaker 2 Otherwise, someday

Speaker 2 you might find yourself

Speaker 2 trapped.

Speaker 2 It was a beautiful summer day in Seattle. A group of kids were eager to to get out and go do something.

Speaker 2 Anything.

Speaker 7 It was a nice day out, so we just went to Alkai Beach for a walk.

Speaker 2 After what felt like an eternity in COVID lockdown, they decided to go to the Alkai Beach Park.

Speaker 2 If you stand on the pier, the view of the Seattle skyline is unmatched. Natalie Castellon was in that group of kids.

Speaker 9 I was with my friend Henry and my other friend Gabby.

Speaker 10 We already knew what we kind of wanted to do for the day, but we just randomly just selected a location.

Speaker 2 They randomly selected a location using a new app that was trending on social media, Randonautica.

Speaker 10 Our original plan was we wanted to see the statue. It's like a fake statue of liberty at the end of the

Speaker 15 strip of Alkai.

Speaker 10 But we also wanted to randonaut. It was like a trend that was going on on TikTok at that time.

Speaker 10 You just basically like download this app, sends sends you a random location, and I guess when you get to those locations, you see like random things, I guess.

Speaker 10 And yeah, it's like our first time doing it.

Speaker 2 Randonautica is an app that gives you random GPS coordinates that may or may not lead you to whatever you intended when you prompted the app. Yeah, I know it sounds weird.

Speaker 2 It just basically gives you a set of locations and you go there and maybe there's something there. Maybe there isn't.
Fill in your your own imagination.

Speaker 2 But on this day it led the group to Alkai Beach on Duwamish Head, overlooking Elliott Bay on the Puget Sound with the skyline of Seattle in the background.

Speaker 10 I would say it's a good amount of people on the sidewalk walking just because it was a hot summer day so it's pretty typical to go to Alki.

Speaker 2 The park was busy that beautiful summer day with people walking and admiring the view from the pier.

Speaker 7 We all noticed that there was a suitcase down by the rocks on the overlook.

Speaker 10 I think it was just like a coincidence that we saw that we were talking about, I think on the drive there we were talking about random nodding and we were talking about

Speaker 10 like traveling and we wanted to like get money or something like that. It was like a weird conversation so when we saw it it was just like a like an aha moment like oh that's such a coincidence.

Speaker 10 We're talking about traveling in the car and and then we're talking about random nodding and people find crazy stuff on random.

Speaker 10 So we were like, let's just see what's down there. And

Speaker 10 we were like, this could be something fun to record at that time.

Speaker 20 Guys, we found a suitcase at the beginning.

Speaker 2 On the drive to Alkai Park, the group talked about travel and coming into a lot of money, right, before prompting the app for coordinates.

Speaker 2 When they saw the black suitcase on the rocks beneath the pier, they thought it couldn't be a coincidence. They joked with each other that it was probably a suitcase full of money.

Speaker 7 We were curious, so we went to go see what it was.

Speaker 10 It was just like a suitcase.

Speaker 18 We started on tipping it.

Speaker 10 Pretty normal suitcase, no tears, no anything to it.

Speaker 10 Just had like a weird smell the closer you got to it, obviously.

Speaker 2 Didn't really think too much of it there's a lot of garbage out there a lot of the times um didn't really think it was going to be what it turned out to be but yeah it was just his normal suitcase they dismissed the odd odor because it was obviously floating in the bay before being washed onto the rocks with other pieces of garbage we were curious we actually opened it up this thing's got

Speaker 10 just like a really foul odor so we stopped opening it halfway um we left it there and then

Speaker 16 we were kind of still in this weird, childish

Speaker 10 fog of just like pretending it's not what we think it could be. We were just joking around, saying it's probably just like garbage in a suitcase that just washed up.

Speaker 10 And um, we stopped and we were kind of talking about what-if situations, and then just

Speaker 10 stopped for probably like a good five minutes, six minutes, just sitting there.

Speaker 2 Fighting the morbid idea that this was a suitcase filled with a dead body, they hesitated to open it.

Speaker 2 But

Speaker 2 of course, just like a cat, their curiosity got the better of them.

Speaker 8 We saw a

Speaker 7 black plastic trash bag and it was wrapping something.

Speaker 10 It was

Speaker 15 trash bags and then

Speaker 15 They were just in the suitcase.

Speaker 10 We could see that they were tightly placed on where something was inside of the bags that were making them very tight.

Speaker 16 But there were bags in there.

Speaker 2 The trash bags inside the suitcase were stuffed full of large, heavy objects, pulling the plastic bag taut around them.

Speaker 2 Undeterred, or perhaps overly curious, they continued to investigate the rancid bag.

Speaker 10 So there was a stick that we had, and Gabby was

Speaker 10 very curious about what was in the bags. And we were already hesitant because of the smell.

Speaker 13 And we found like a little,

Speaker 10 it wasn't a huge tear, it was just like a good soft spot for a snake to get in there. And Gabby just kind of twisted a little bit, moved it in.

Speaker 2 The smell immediately got 10 times worse.

Speaker 16 It was just very pungent, very strong.

Speaker 10 Even with like a face mask, I was wearing a face mask.

Speaker 16 It was very strong.

Speaker 10 It just like it just takes you off your feet a a little bit.

Speaker 11 It couldn't really, I don't know.

Speaker 10 It's just

Speaker 24 pretty harsh. I don't know.

Speaker 2 It definitely wasn't money in this bag.

Speaker 2 With a hole poked through the outer bag, they caught a glimpse of what was inside.

Speaker 15 Just like

Speaker 25 meat and um

Speaker 11 thought it was um like food or any something like that.

Speaker 2 With the dissatisfying discovery that the bag was not full of money, the group wanted to leave, but Natalie called the police.

Speaker 2 Okay, so she's calling the police so we can see if it's actually a dead body or it's just food.

Speaker 26 911, what is your emergency?

Speaker 28 Hi, um, so we found a suitcase on Iwamish Point in Alkai Beach, and it has a pretty bad smell.

Speaker 29 And it's a black trash bag.

Speaker 28 So, yeah, there's something in it.

Speaker 26 Okay, where where did you find it exactly, Nan?

Speaker 2 Not knowing the address to the park itself, Natalie's eyes darted from building to building, across the street searching for an address.

Speaker 21 1150 Alkai.

Speaker 29 Perfect.

Speaker 26 1150 Alkai Avenue, Southwest. Is that the number on the building?

Speaker 29 Yeah.

Speaker 25 Okay, perfect.

Speaker 26 So you're on the on the across the street on the side of the water, is that correct?

Speaker 28 Yeah, and the suitcase is on the block.

Speaker 30 Okay.

Speaker 26 Okay, did you open the suitcase and there was a black trash bag inside?

Speaker 28 Yeah, so me and my friends were like interested in what was in it, so we opened it up, but there was a bar cross bag and we just called.

Speaker 26 Okay, so it was on the rocks by the water, and you said there's a pretty foul smell?

Speaker 25 Yeah.

Speaker 26 Okay, I have a call in. We're gonna try to be there just as quickly as we can.
I'll let officers know you're gonna be standing by with your friends, okay?

Speaker 6 Okay.

Speaker 26 Alrighty, thank you.

Speaker 25 Thank you. Bye.

Speaker 2 The group waited for the police to arrive, but the PD was overwhelmed or understaffed. And a call about a weird-smelling suitcase on the beach wasn't really the highest priority.

Speaker 2 They waited and waited, but nobody ever showed up.

Speaker 17 911, what is your emergency?

Speaker 21 Hi, so I called about an hour and a half ago.

Speaker 17 Okay.

Speaker 28 And

Speaker 28 we found a suitcase

Speaker 25 that's like really suspicious.

Speaker 21 It's like in a black bag and

Speaker 30 it smells really bad.

Speaker 26 There's flies all around it.

Speaker 17 Okay, so has anything changed since you last called?

Speaker 29 What?

Speaker 17 Has anything changed since you last called?

Speaker 28 No, but the water is rising and the suitcase is about to get covered.

Speaker 17 Okay, I'll go ahead and make that notation.

Speaker 25 How long do you think it is until the police officer arrives?

Speaker 31 Oh, I don't know.

Speaker 17 Yeah, we don't have that information. I wouldn't be able to tell you.

Speaker 25 Okay.

Speaker 2 Elliott Bay is directly connected to the Pacific Ocean, and as such, is subject to the tides.

Speaker 2 In the time since Natalie's first 911 call, the tide had come in and started pulling the suitcase into the open water.

Speaker 26 911, what is your emergency?

Speaker 25 Hi, um, we decided to some people were down at Alkai, and they were just really hyper-alert.

Speaker 29 We're at like the historical point of interest, this little park on Alkai in West Seattle.

Speaker 23 And

Speaker 25 they said they reported a couple hours ago a suitcase and we just went and they were like pointing it out to us. But they seem, I guess they looked at it and are convinced that there's

Speaker 23 human remains in there. Honestly, I didn't go down and look at it, but they're genuinely concerned.

Speaker 29 Okay, yeah, it looks like we have a call.

Speaker 26 We are aware that they're waiting. We're going to get somebody out there.
We're just waiting for an officer to become available, clear up from a previous 911

Speaker 25 So we'll be there as soon as we can.

Speaker 25 Okay, all right, yeah.

Speaker 27 Thank you, man. Bye-bye.

Speaker 2 When the police finally showed up, the kids had already gone.

Speaker 19 Hello? See you at the police. Can you hear me?

Speaker 19 Um, yes, I can now.

Speaker 31 Okay, are you still in the area, or did you have to leave?

Speaker 32 I waited for a while,

Speaker 32 but we had to leave.

Speaker 25 Okay,

Speaker 17 I'll let the officers know to check it out. Thanks.

Speaker 2 Officer Terrell with the Seattle PD was the first to arrive on the scene nearly two hours after the original call.

Speaker 15 On the rocks, kind of right off the pier there was

Speaker 15 a luggage bag, kind of like a black roller bag.

Speaker 15 I could clearly see that it was open and it was empty.

Speaker 2 He took the little path to the side of the pier down to the rocks to get a closer look at the bag.

Speaker 15 And that's when I saw a black trash bag that was floating in the water, just

Speaker 6 several,

Speaker 15 not particularly far, just a couple of feet away from the rocks.

Speaker 2 The black trash bag the kids saw inside the suitcase was now bobbing in the tide.

Speaker 15 I wouldn't say that I identified exactly what was kind of protruding out of the bag, but I remember thinking that it looked like the upper chest of a person, specifically the pectoral region.

Speaker 14 I saw what appeared to be a nipple

Speaker 14 and I remember thinking it looked like a human torso but wasn't sure could have been an animal or something like that.

Speaker 11 So at the time

Speaker 15 I

Speaker 16 wanted more resources and more assistance.

Speaker 15 So I requested the assistance of fire department because they have like tools I can reach out

Speaker 15 And I kind of

Speaker 15 made the inclination on the radio to describe it as like something organic.

Speaker 15 I think I said organic matter because I didn't want to kind of jump the gun and say what I thought it might be.

Speaker 2 Erring on the side of caution, he didn't want to claim something that wasn't true. He needed to get the bag out of the water to confirm what was inside.

Speaker 6 Hello, Radio.

Speaker 35 Would you guys be able to send some resources down to 1150

Speaker 35 Alkai Avenue Southwest?

Speaker 35 Basically, we went down there, we found a suitcase. They're trying to retrieve it from the rocks down there, and it has a foul smell coming from it, and it looks like to be organic matter in it.

Speaker 6 Okay,

Speaker 32 all righty, I'll send a truck down there.

Speaker 20 All right, thank you.

Speaker 6 Yep, all right, bye-bye.

Speaker 2 Waiting for the fire department to arrive, he made another discovery, one that would cement his fear.

Speaker 15 I saw on

Speaker 15 the rocks kind of further east, closer to the road, was another black bag.

Speaker 14 Looked like a duffel bag.

Speaker 13 It was close enough that there was a

Speaker 15 stick or kind of a log nearby that I could kind of

Speaker 15 fish it or like push it towards me.

Speaker 15 When I was picking it up, I could the light kind of highlighted what was inside.

Speaker 15 The trash bag wasn't entirely see-through, but it was clear enough that I could instantly recognize that inside the trash bag was a foot.

Speaker 2 The call not prioritized would now spark a frenzy of activity.

Speaker 2 The police, fire department, and even the harbor patrol would descend on Alkai Beach and the surrounding waters after the report of found human remains in a suitcase.

Speaker 1 Cozy up with fragrance that feels like fall and smells unforgettable.

Speaker 1 Pura's smart, app-controlled diffusers pair with premium scents from brands like Nest New York, Capri Blue, Anthropology, and more.

Speaker 1 Whether you're craving spiced pumpkin, warm amber, or nostalgic woody notes, there's a scent to match every mood in every space. Discover why Pura is the go-to for premium home fragrance.

Speaker 1 Start your fall refresh now at Pura.com.

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Speaker 2 A suitcase and duffel bag discovered on Alkai Beach were found to contain human remains.

Speaker 2 Authorities scrambled to investigate. A call that took forever for the police to respond to ended up being the beginning of a huge investigation.

Speaker 2 The medical examiner came to the scene to start her analysis. It was immediately clear they were dealing with much more than a simple murder.

Speaker 8 Some bags bags contained two heads,

Speaker 8 hands, feet, an armed.

Speaker 2 It was obvious that they were dealing with at least a double murder and dismemberment. It was clear that there were two people.

Speaker 2 In the bags, she found two severed heads, part of a torso, a female pelvis identified by the ovaries and uterus, two feet, and three hands, one still attached to the forearm.

Speaker 2 There was a lot missing,

Speaker 2 but there was hopefully enough to identify the remains.

Speaker 2 They released a statement to the public to try to get ahead of the probable media storm, but it was already too late.

Speaker 10 We were basically wanting to do a trend to post on random nodding, and it was the summer during like a pandemic. We didn't really have

Speaker 10 a lot of options of entertainment. That was just the source of it.
And

Speaker 10 I don't know, maybe I was just very into the idea of showing this and like

Speaker 10 I've like I had such a very crazy surreal experience I wanted to just like document it.

Speaker 39 First we want to begin with some breaking news. Seattle police are investigating after several bags filled with human remains were found near the water on Alkai Avenue this afternoon.

Speaker 2 Police are saying they got the call about a suspicious bag on the beach and another one was located in the water. Police determined the contents to be human remains.

Speaker 1 Police say bags containing human remains were discovered.

Speaker 22 First, a viral social media video claims to show the discovery of human remains near Alkai.

Speaker 2 It appears a group of young people made a video of that discovery.

Speaker 40 So we just found this suitcase and

Speaker 40 we're gonna get it. Okay, so they're like opening it up with the sticks.

Speaker 2 They added music and graphics and put it on TikTok. It has got a couple million views.

Speaker 2 With the news reports and more specifically the viral TikTok post, the story of the suitcase full of human remains spread pretty quickly. Social media does that.

Speaker 2 Seattle was gripped with fear and reports came pouring in.

Speaker 26 Seattle Police Operator 31.

Speaker 23 Hi, I have...

Speaker 27 This is unfortunate to say, but I just wanted to make sure that it wasn't relevant. We're at Looney Park this morning and there was a suitcase.

Speaker 20 Seattle police, what are you reporting?

Speaker 29 Hi,

Speaker 27 my name is Diane Cognera. I live in West Seattle.
The reason I'm calling is

Speaker 27 I saw a man walking down Harbor Avenue, the beach thing,

Speaker 27 with a black bag on wheels.

Speaker 26 I don't know if that black bag had the human remains.

Speaker 27 That stretch of alka, I don't think I've ever seen anybody walking with a rolling bag.

Speaker 26 Seattle Police operator 105.

Speaker 32 Hi, um, I am calling because I

Speaker 32 saw something last week that I just can't get out of my mind. And I wanted to let you guys know there was a car parked

Speaker 32 on the side of the road heading east with their trunk open and their hood open.

Speaker 32 And

Speaker 32 there was this car there. And then a man came out of the woods dragging a big

Speaker 31 black

Speaker 31 bag.

Speaker 2 Reports of mysterious luggage and strange trash bags spotted in the days and weeks leading up to the discovery came in.

Speaker 2 One man, an active rower, spotted trash bags floating down the river.

Speaker 8 I was out alone one day and a single rowing with a couple of friends and

Speaker 43 you know, I basically ran over a trash bag in the river and it was pretty weighted down.

Speaker 6 It wasn't like,

Speaker 24 you know, the bulk of it, like an iceberg or something, the bulk of the thing was below the water.

Speaker 35 So I didn't see it, and I actually kind of ran over it.

Speaker 41 And I thought that was weird, but

Speaker 34 I was in a single, and there's no good way to, like, explore something, or so left it alone.

Speaker 44 And then I forget if it was the day after or two days after, I was coaching with the youth

Speaker 44 and we

Speaker 24 saw a trash bag.

Speaker 41 Again, about the same area, but it was a different trash bag.

Speaker 11 It was clearly not the same one I saw the other day.

Speaker 24 And it was floating higher in the water, but a big black, kind of hefty

Speaker 43 trash bag, like an industrial, you know, big.

Speaker 41 And I remember one of the youth rowers was joking, like, oh, you should go open it up and see what's in there.

Speaker 42 And I was like, no way, we're not doing that.

Speaker 2 You see occasional debris, maybe a

Speaker 24 drink bottle or something, but you don't see trash bags ever. It's just not something you see floating down the river.

Speaker 2 With the story's exposure, everyone was taking notice of strange bags, especially near the water.

Speaker 2 A couple of days after the case hit the news, they got another strange call leading to yet another bag upriver.

Speaker 12 We arrived at the area and we were doing our usual dog walk,

Speaker 10 and

Speaker 16 we made our way to the southeastern corner where the river access is,

Speaker 16 and our dogs

Speaker 12 were down by the water and

Speaker 16 when we looked down there we noticed there was a suitcase floating at the water's edge.

Speaker 12 Well it seemed odd

Speaker 15 and I thought it was suspicious

Speaker 12 that a suitcase would be floating.

Speaker 16 that there was something buoyant inside of it.

Speaker 12 I went down to to the water's edge and the suitcase was floating a couple of feet off of the bank.

Speaker 12 So I grabbed a stick that was nearby and I pulled the suitcase to shore.

Speaker 12 Once I pulled the suitcase to shore, I opened it partially to see what was inside of it

Speaker 16 and I observed

Speaker 12 some trash bags.

Speaker 12 Once I saw those trash bags, I used that same stick to tear open one of the bags and see what was inside.

Speaker 12 And I observed a piece of what I interpreted to be human skin that was unidentifiable as to what part of the body I was looking at, but it did have a tattoo on it.

Speaker 2 The medical examiner hurried to the scene to see if these were the missing pieces to her two bodies.

Speaker 8 So there are multiple commingled remains, once again, including legs, arms, and multiple plastic bags. In addition, there were other miscellaneous items, including clothes and a knife.

Speaker 8 So these body parts were the body parts that belonged to the same individuals that I had examined that day.

Speaker 8 And so with the additional body parts, I was able to add them to each of the respective bodies.

Speaker 8 So there were some tattoos. There were pieces of skin that had tattoos that were not attached to the body part that fit other body parts that were later recovered.
Also

Speaker 8 the way the bones were dismembered, we were able to sort of fit the pieces together, sort of like a puzzle piece.

Speaker 2 The medical examiner used tattoos and sawmarks to piece the bodies back together.

Speaker 2 All in all, she had one male head, one female head, one male upper torso, one female lower torso, three hands, two legs, two male arms, four feet, and one arm with a hand attached.

Speaker 2 Quite the jigsaw puzzle. Two hands and two feet were determined to belong to the female because the nails were painted pink.
The female hand attached to its forearm still had two rings on the fingers.

Speaker 2 Luckily, they were able to pull prints from the water-saturated hands and come back with an identification.

Speaker 2 The two victims were 27-year-old Austin Winner and 35-year-old Jessica Lewis.

Speaker 2 Besides being dismembered, their actual cause of death was bullet wounds.

Speaker 2 After the identification, the police had the daunting task of informing the families. Here's Jessica's aunt, Gina, remembering her.

Speaker 46 She's like a ray of sunshine. She

Speaker 46 helped to develop me disabled people.

Speaker 46 She worked and was a caregiver like that.

Speaker 46 And a lot of patients that I don't have.

Speaker 2 Austin and Jessica had been together for nearly a decade.

Speaker 45 He had a girlfriend, Jessica, yes. I'm not completely sure, but I know it was a number of years.

Speaker 2 Austin and Jessica were eight years apart, but despite their age difference, they were incredibly close.

Speaker 8 Inseparable.

Speaker 8 They loved each other.

Speaker 2 As a couple, they experienced a series of trials and tribulations in life, but they always stuck together.

Speaker 47 I mean, they had their struggles,

Speaker 22 like we all do.

Speaker 46 That just shows how much they did care for each other.

Speaker 48 They didn't ever leave each other when things got hard or rough, and

Speaker 48 they always stuck it out together for the ups and downs.

Speaker 2 When Jessica's aunt Gina first heard the news, she was absolutely broken. Everyone, however, was told they were both shot.

Speaker 2 They didn't mention what else happened.

Speaker 29 My brother's shock

Speaker 19 when he told me what happened.

Speaker 19 And just the hurt.

Speaker 2 Of course, the families of Austin and Jessica had seen the news and perhaps the viral video. I mean, it was everywhere.

Speaker 48 I couldn't even believe that was their story.

Speaker 9 Because I'd seen it trying to look for them.

Speaker 48 I don't want them to be remembered for the brutality. I don't want them to be remembered in any violent way.
I want them to be remembered for,

Speaker 48 you know, their humanity and their kindness.

Speaker 2 Accepting that both Jessica and Austin suffered horrible ends left the family little solace.

Speaker 48 I want to believe that they didn't suffer.

Speaker 2 They were people.

Speaker 20 They were real people and who were loved.

Speaker 2 The investigation was far from over.

Speaker 2 Doing their due diligence, the police interviewed family and friends and subpoenaed phone records. The last time either of them had been seen by Austin's parents was three weeks to a month prior.

Speaker 8 Jessica was weeding and she was planting her son's strawberry plant that he got.

Speaker 8 It was a reward and so she planted that for him

Speaker 8 for me and then

Speaker 8 Austin would do all the weed eating and he would mow the lawn and

Speaker 8 I mean offered to feed him, you know, that sort of thing.

Speaker 8 And then he was going to be doing doing, um, helping flatten some area for a shed that I had bought in.

Speaker 2 Austin and Jessica often helped his mother with her yard. Austin tried to see his mom at least once a month.
He kept in contact with his dad on a nearly daily basis.

Speaker 45 Daily or every other day.

Speaker 6 It was often.

Speaker 2 By mid-June, Austin's father realized he hadn't heard from his son in a few weeks and tried to contact him.

Speaker 45 And I actually went over to the place he was staying at looking for him.

Speaker 2 They lived together in a room they rented in the city of Burian.

Speaker 2 When Austin's dad went there and talked to the landlord, he told him something unexpected.

Speaker 45 Just that they had left in a hurry and left a mess.

Speaker 2 He noticed something strange, however.

Speaker 45 Some of my son's clothing were at the

Speaker 45 trash can at the base of the trash can.

Speaker 2 He thought that was odd, but knew that Austin and Jessica, while they always stuck together, moved often.

Speaker 45 I asked him that if he heard from them, would he please have them contact me because I was worried and hadn't heard from them in a while.

Speaker 2 The police investigation revealed some disturbing information about Austin and Jessica.

Speaker 2 There were reports that in the not-too-distant past, Austin and Jessica had been assaulted by a group of Samoans affiliated with the Islander Bloods, who burst into their home with guns wanting money.

Speaker 2 According to conflicting reports, this was over a credit card scam gone wrong or a $1,200 COVID voucher or some check thing. Who the hell knows?

Speaker 2 Another person said that the last time he saw the two, they were in fear for their lives because they had done something, quote, bad.

Speaker 2 Another report said that Austin had discovered a bullet in the mailbox that literally had his name on it.

Speaker 2 Other reports said that two men, one described as, quote, Chinese black guy and the other guy named T-Mac,

Speaker 2 came looking for Austin, knocking on doors in the neighborhood. The investigation was all over the place until the Kings County Sheriff's Office made an arrest on an unrelated matter.

Speaker 2 They picked up Jennifer Leon for carjacking.

Speaker 2 During the investigation, she denied jacking any car and insisted that she borrowed it with permission. Eventually, she just burst into tears and uttered a confession.

Speaker 4 You guys, I didn't see no car, I didn't.

Speaker 6 Jennifer.

Speaker 3 Like I said, right, if I wanted to toss you in jail with no questions asked, you would have already been there.

Speaker 4 I don't live with somebody that murdered two people.

Speaker 6 Just kidding.

Speaker 2 She would go on to tell them she had a reason to believe the man that owned the house she was staying at murdered two people.

Speaker 2 The deputies asked a few more questions before realizing she had information. about the recent bodies discovered on Alkai Beach.
They contacted the PD and got in touch with Detective Cooper.

Speaker 13 This is regarding a case I'm investigating up in Seattle. And there's a couple people in it, two victims, and it's a homicide case.

Speaker 13 First of all, did you know my two victims?

Speaker 36 I did not know them personally, and I had never seen them personally. I just know that they were residences in the bedroom that I now am a residence at.

Speaker 13 Okay.

Speaker 36 And who's your current landlord? His name is Michael Dudley, D-U-D-L-E-Y.

Speaker 36 Okay.

Speaker 36 I thought he was a great guy. He's really soft-spoken, older man, had a huge house.

Speaker 2 Jennifer found herself in a bit of a domestic violence situation and went to stay with Michael Dudley.

Speaker 2 He had a house all to himself.

Speaker 2 Before COVID, he rented rooms on Airbnb, but since he relied on word of mouth.

Speaker 36 So my old landlord and Mike, Michael, my current landlord, are friends. So that's how I came about meeting Mike.

Speaker 36 So he moved me out of June 8th because I was in a bad situation and he brought all my items over there. However, I did not

Speaker 36 technically show up at his house until like the 9th of June.

Speaker 13 Was anybody else there?

Speaker 2 No, it was super, super quiet.

Speaker 36 My friend

Speaker 36 Kimberly wasn't even there, but this Mike's glasses had been broken.

Speaker 36 And

Speaker 36 he had looked like he had been in a scuffle. He had like what I would call defense wounds.
Right. Scratches and everything.

Speaker 2 She was concerned about his condition. She'd seen him less than 24 hours earlier and he was fine.
Now he had scratches and his glasses were broken.

Speaker 36 As I ask him if he's okay, that's when he turns to the computer and starts texting me and telling me weird things. Apparently the two residents were

Speaker 36 renting the room upstairs. He had told me he had tried to lock him out of his house twice that day

Speaker 36 and that people are trash

Speaker 36 and they steal from you and yada yada yada he used to come over to dave's house and complain what piece of shits that they are that they don't pay him rent they won't move out yeah okay so you know they already had like a bad he already had bad juju with them at that point he emailed me a couple weird things i got kind of spooked out and i left and i didn't come back for a couple more days

Speaker 2 she asked him if he was okay

Speaker 2 Rather than tell her face-to-face, he chose to email her while she was in the same room.

Speaker 2 If that wasn't weird enough, the cryptic answer to her question, which amounted to little more than bitching about tenants, creeped her out.

Speaker 2 She left, but eventually had to go back.

Speaker 2 After taking a shower, she opened the door to the room formerly occupied by Austin and Jessica.

Speaker 2 She immediately regretted what she saw.

Speaker 36 I opened the door, and right here on the ground is heaps of clothing. I can see the figure of a body, like,

Speaker 36 and then the hand sticking up. Okay.
And it's just, I just remember a bloody hand. That's it.

Speaker 13 Officially, you don't know it's Austin.

Speaker 36 No, I don't know. I didn't even see a face.
All I saw was a body and

Speaker 36 a bloody hand.

Speaker 2 Fearing that she may be in a worse situation than she was previously, she ran downstairs and tried to play off the sighting as a joke. Her only chance for survival was to play along with Dudley.

Speaker 36 Now Mike has cameras and computers everywhere, plus he's directly underneath me. He knows everything, every creek.

Speaker 36 So, I immediately shut the door,

Speaker 36 you'll hell Mary and walk down the stairs and go tell him I think I fucked up.

Speaker 36 And he looked at me. He's like, why? Said I did something in your house I shouldn't have done right now.
I just opened the door.

Speaker 36 And he looked at me.

Speaker 36 And then I,

Speaker 36 my dumb ass says something like to the fact that, well, don't worry, Halloween's my favorite holiday and I love props. And he started laughing his ass off.

Speaker 36 Okay.

Speaker 36 And then that was it. A couple hours later, he told me, is there somewhere he can drop me? Because he needs to clean up the mess.

Speaker 2 Dudley offered her his truck keys to get her out of the house.

Speaker 36 While I'm doing this, he's getting plastic.

Speaker 36 And where the wash basin is and the washer and dryer is there, he covered everything, the ceiling, every part of that part of the downstairs with thick, clear plastic.

Speaker 36 I wouldn't let him go back there. I couldn't tell her why, but I just kept her with me most of the time.
And I told her, just please don't go back there.

Speaker 36 I can't say anything, but just don't go back to the house. He's not happy with you.
I was trying to make many excuses.

Speaker 36 So pretty much, no.

Speaker 2 She stayed gone for seven days, but with nowhere else to go, she eventually went back.

Speaker 36 So after I came back after seven days, because I started thinking, I got somebody's killed somebody. Right.

Speaker 36 For, you know, and I'm staying away in seven days, and then I come back, and he might be mad. But he wasn't mad with me because it took him that much longer to clean up.

Speaker 36 When I did come back the day after, I wasn't even talking about that situation because I don't want to talk about it, right? And he kept saying, Your room's ready for you, your room's ready for you.

Speaker 36 I said, Why are you having me go and move in that room? Because Kim's not there no more. He goes, Why do you think

Speaker 36 Austin's name is still on my Goku TV every time I turn it off?

Speaker 36 Psychologically, fuck me up

Speaker 36 every day when I turn on the TV off. Fuck me up.
Every day, fuck me up.

Speaker 36 For some reason, I said, what happened? And he said, let's just put it this way. His gun misfired and mine did it.

Speaker 36 Okay.

Speaker 36 Magic Mike, I call him Magic Mike. Because he makes things disappear.
He thinks it's funny.

Speaker 2 Other than some strange email correspondence with Dudley, Jennifer claimed to have more proof.

Speaker 13 Anything else in that room besides what you saw after you cleaned up?

Speaker 36 I mean, has the room got furniture in it now or anything like that? Yeah, yeah. and I just looked down and noticed something yesterday, and you're gonna freak out.

Speaker 36 It looks like a bullet hole, actually. And then, and at the foot of the bed, it looked like a bullet was grazed, too.

Speaker 36 I've opened that nice hand a million times, and for some reason, I was looking at it yesterday, and it's a round hole, and it looks like a straight bullet hole.

Speaker 36 At that point, I couldn't report to anybody because I was scared for my life, right? Right, you know what I'm saying?

Speaker 36 But after I found out that that girl was shot multiple times,

Speaker 36 they have kids, I couldn't.

Speaker 2 Jennifer had pictures of what appeared to be bullet holes in the furniture from the room Austin and Jessica used to live in.

Speaker 2 She claimed to have seen a body and a bloody hand poorly hidden under a pile of laundry.

Speaker 2 And she had saved emails between her and Dudley, providing a timeline for the murder and dismemberment.

Speaker 2 June 9th, 2020.

Speaker 2 When they checked with Birian P.D. for the police history at the house, they found another clue.

Speaker 2 Quite a big one.

Speaker 50 911, what are you recording?

Speaker 50 Hi, my husband and I believe that we just heard gun cross next door, and now we can hear somebody screaming for help.

Speaker 50 It's directly, it's kind of in our backyard to the right. It's like our next door neighborhood they're in,

Speaker 50 so they're technically like not on our street.

Speaker 6 Okay.

Speaker 50 But our house borders with their backyard.

Speaker 50 Okay, and does it sound like a man or woman screaming, or can you tell?

Speaker 50 It sounds like a man.

Speaker 50 Okay. You didn't see anything, you just heard this house, and then now the yelling.

Speaker 34 Correct.

Speaker 2 On the evening of June 9th, before the sun was even all the way down, the Gunnersons heard what could only be gunshots coming from inside their neighbor's house.

Speaker 2 But the neighbor wasn't on the same street. It faced the street behind them.
Viewing cars are reroute processes.

Speaker 32 There was some progress in the North 6, South 166, and 2 Avenue South.

Speaker 32 Nora 17.

Speaker 32 Guards 1.

Speaker 32 203, South 166th Street.

Speaker 32 She heard what sounded like a couple of shots and now a man's voice yelling. Can't see anything that's going on.

Speaker 32 203 South 166th Street.

Speaker 2 Units were dispatched quickly. Shots fired was a far more more urgent call than a stinky bag on the beach.

Speaker 51 911, what are you reporting?

Speaker 52 Hi, my wife called just a minute ago about possible gunshots next door and someone screaming for help.

Speaker 52 The actual address for our neighbor's house, because it's our backyard neighbor, is 16466

Speaker 52 Ambaum Boulevard South.

Speaker 51 Have you heard any additional disturbance since then?

Speaker 52 Yeah,

Speaker 52 the yelling kind of continued and just asking for help saying please stop. Don't do this.
Let me just leave. Let me just leave.
Let me just leave.

Speaker 52 Oh, the police are arriving now.

Speaker 51 I want you to go talk to them. Fly to town and tell them where they're going.
They're getting my updates.

Speaker 25 All right.

Speaker 25 Thank you, sir.

Speaker 2 Officers showed up in minutes.

Speaker 13 So many officers got dispatched because it was a serious call out. It was an allegation of gunshots at the neighbor's house and somebody yelling, help.

Speaker 34 Is that correct?

Speaker 8 Purion's a dangerous city.

Speaker 10 Shot calls are frequent, so anytime something like that happens,

Speaker 10 if people are available, as many go as can for our safety.

Speaker 2 After checking in with the Gunnersons, they raced through the backyard and over the fence. They searched the entire property.

Speaker 2 They knocked on the door, but no one answered. They checked every window, every door, every opening.

Speaker 2 Nothing was broken, and they couldn't see inside.

Speaker 2 The detached barn was empty. The grounds were quiet.

Speaker 2 There was no indication anything was going on.

Speaker 14 I didn't find any gunshots.

Speaker 10 Didn't find anything broken.

Speaker 11 No broken glass.

Speaker 10 No one in distress. No one injured.
Nothing to indicate that

Speaker 10 there was a need to enter the residence.

Speaker 8 They called me and they just, they said that

Speaker 8 nobody was answering the door. And so since they didn't have a search warrant, they couldn't go inside.

Speaker 8 So that was the extent of what they could do at the time.

Speaker 11 Yeah, they stopped by and said that they didn't, they didn't see anything or hear anything and nobody answered.

Speaker 2 If only they had found a reason to go inside, they would have realized that Dudley had just murdered Austin and Jessica.

Speaker 2 In the days and weeks to follow, the Gunnersons noticed something else unusual.

Speaker 8 I mean, the only thing that I remember

Speaker 8 smelling from

Speaker 8 the Dudley property was an extremely pungent and overwhelming smell of rotting.

Speaker 8 It was the smell of

Speaker 8 when you

Speaker 8 forget that you had left meat in your refrigerator and it turns bad and you open up the package and it's just rotten. It smelled like that, but

Speaker 8 a million times more powerful.

Speaker 2 The police investigation into the human remains found in bags along the Alkai Beach and the Duwamish River led to Michael Dudley.

Speaker 2 The discovery of the 911 calls about gunshots and the eventual horrendous smell emanating from his home, combined with the witness statement from Jennifer Leon and Jessica's phone records, gave the police enough for a search and arrest warrant.

Speaker 2 The last time Jessica's phone was on was the 9th, and the last tower it connected to was in the area of the home.

Speaker 2 Dudley was lured away from his home by the King County Sheriff's Office, claiming they had a development in the case of Dudley's recently poisoned chickens.

Speaker 2 And he was swarmed and taken into custody.

Speaker 6 Hey, my county detective holds on. I did my charge myself.

Speaker 53 So, you have no idea what this is about?

Speaker 54 Am I under arrest?

Speaker 44 You said that.

Speaker 53 Technically you're under arrest. That's why you're here.

Speaker 6 When am I under arrest?

Speaker 54 Well, we're investigating a death.

Speaker 53 So a couple people that's supposed to have been staying at your place.

Speaker 55 Are you talking about Austin?

Speaker 34 Yeah.

Speaker 55 So technically to bring you in here, you're under arrest.

Speaker 41 For what?

Speaker 53 For their related to their death, investigation of homicide.

Speaker 42 Are you out of your mind?

Speaker 55 You're saying I killed him?

Speaker 33 Well, that's what I want to talk to you about.

Speaker 54 If you didn't do it then I didn't do it.

Speaker 20 Okay, they're my friends.

Speaker 53 Okay then Okay, people are saying you had something to do with it.

Speaker 54 Who's saying that?

Speaker 56 I just need to ask questions.

Speaker 53 That's all you have.

Speaker 54 I got a question too.

Speaker 56 Why did you come and ask me this like a month ago?

Speaker 20 I would think that if they had been living there, you would just come talk to me first.

Speaker 56 Well, and who are these people?

Speaker 20 A number of people.

Speaker 44 Okay, did you see anything about them in the news about uh yeah yeah okay so what you see all about in the news about that uh i've heard something about uh alkai beach anyway and uh washed up and suitcased garbage bags or something okay and did you hear anything about cause of death or anything like you know they've been shot or anything like that i read something about that yeah okay so with that being said

Speaker 20 People are like pointing the finger at you.

Speaker 54 I go out there. I'm getting hold on the finger at me.

Speaker 20 People that know you that maybe don't like you, okay?

Speaker 13 So I'm just.

Speaker 20 Who doesn't like you? Well, again, well, we all, not everybody likes everybody, okay?

Speaker 53 There's people that don't like you.

Speaker 13 Well, I can't, again, I told you, I'm not going to tell you who it is.

Speaker 53 I can't do that.

Speaker 2 Dudley played the part of an old man. Well,

Speaker 2 he fell asleep while waiting for detectives to question him. And when they finally did, he tried to place the blame on them.

Speaker 53 Why didn't you call the police?

Speaker 54 I was waiting for you guys to call me.

Speaker 44 I figured you'd be right there.

Speaker 56 Well, when we didn't call, why didn't you call?

Speaker 44 Well, there's really nothing to report.

Speaker 44 I figured, you know, you'd be there.

Speaker 44 Isn't that part of your standard procedure?

Speaker 53 Yeah, but I was kind of sitting there like wondering

Speaker 44 where the hell have you guys been?

Speaker 55 Now I started wondering what the hell is going on.

Speaker 44 I mean, there were people that knew them less than you did.

Speaker 34 I mean, you pretty much roomed with them.

Speaker 20 They lived with you.

Speaker 53 I had a guy from East Washington that hadn't talked to him for four years and called us.

Speaker 2 So I, I mean, do you see why we're kind of perplexed?

Speaker 22 Well, I was perplexed, too.

Speaker 20 I mean, you know.

Speaker 2 Dudley claimed he expected. to be interviewed after he heard the news of Austin and Jessica's untimely demise.

Speaker 2 But when it didn't happen, he didn't bother involving himself. I mean, why would you?

Speaker 53 So, when Austin and Jessica were staying there, I mean, anybody else staying there when

Speaker 53 you guys were just on lockdown?

Speaker 20 Uh, we were on lockdown. Okay.

Speaker 44 Did you have any problems with Austin at all?

Speaker 20 I mean,

Speaker 20 the biggest problem I had with him was stealing.

Speaker 20 Everybody says he would steal anything if it wasn't locked.

Speaker 44 He was a freaking prolific thief, but, you know, again, we were quarantined together and you know

Speaker 20 you know it

Speaker 42 got to know him pretty good

Speaker 44 and her got to know them both pretty good

Speaker 20 and

Speaker 34 he

Speaker 20 like I said he

Speaker 44 that's what he did. He stole.

Speaker 44 You know, he would prefer to do that over work.

Speaker 41 There's a lot of people that

Speaker 42 probably would have wanted him dead, but that way.

Speaker 2 When Dudley was asked to elaborate on the other people that would want Austin dead, he brought up the same false leads from earlier in the investigation.

Speaker 42 You know, he'd go on and on about, you know, his conspiracies and this and that.

Speaker 42 But then he said, oh, no, no, it wasn't Mexicans, it was

Speaker 33 Samoans.

Speaker 55 And if I got this right,

Speaker 42 he robbed the Samoans who robbed the Mexicans who owed money to some cartel.

Speaker 6 Wow, man,

Speaker 34 take it particularly off the bottom.

Speaker 53 Did he say what he robbed from the Samoans?

Speaker 15 He said it was like double bags full of dope.

Speaker 2 Beyond the stories about Samoan drug-dealing gang members,

Speaker 2 quite a new one for me. And I've been doing this for a while, detectives wanted to know about Dudley's relationship with the two.

Speaker 53 So you didn't have a beef with them at all?

Speaker 54 Oh, it had little beefs with him.

Speaker 55 You know, I was, you know, always, you know.

Speaker 54 Well, I mean, like a beef with him.

Speaker 54 He's my friend.

Speaker 2 He claimed to be their friend, but was upset about the stealing and not paying rent.

Speaker 53 I gotta ask you: you ever shoot your gun in your house?

Speaker 55 I have occasionally.

Speaker 56 had a misfire

Speaker 6 sometimes.

Speaker 56 Can you explain that to me?

Speaker 44 What are your friends or people finding?

Speaker 33 Well, they're in the blue room, and

Speaker 57 they said

Speaker 57 there's two bullet strikes on the wooden bed frame.

Speaker 57 So I'm like,

Speaker 33 yeah.

Speaker 34 Okay.

Speaker 34 So, I mean,

Speaker 57 can you explain that? I've had that.

Speaker 42 I got that from my friend Tom, and,

Speaker 33 you know,

Speaker 6 been there for a long time.

Speaker 2 He had an excuse for everything.

Speaker 57 And no one, has anybody ever been injured in that room or anything? Because I'm being told there's blood in the room, too.

Speaker 55 Well, yeah, I mean, Jessica cut her

Speaker 55 18 stitches in her thigh when she was walking around with

Speaker 55 one of these, what do you call them, pressure washers.

Speaker 33 Oh, yeah, that'll do it.

Speaker 2 He explained the bed frame was used, and he didn't know anything about bullet strikes. If they found any blood, it could have been from the time Jessica cut her leg and required stitches.

Speaker 54 I also have cadaver dogs out there.

Speaker 16 You know what a cadaver dog is, right?

Speaker 13 Yeah. Okay.

Speaker 13 And

Speaker 57 they're alerting down in the basement and stuff like that

Speaker 34 to

Speaker 57 stuff. And there's some stains down there and stuff like that.

Speaker 20 I'm asking if there's a reason why these

Speaker 55 dead bodies in my basement, basement.

Speaker 42 I'm sure of that.

Speaker 58 Okay.

Speaker 54 Even in the chicken coop or anything like that.

Speaker 55 You can go have a look.

Speaker 33 And they're about to cut a hole in the wall to retrieve a bullet.

Speaker 2 Dudley feigned ignorance to everything the detective brought up.

Speaker 53 I mean, Austin and Jessica lived at your place. That was the last place they lived at.

Speaker 57 And they actually told people: if something bad happened to me, you know, this mic motherfucker did shit to me.

Speaker 20 I'm just telling you.

Speaker 57 Well, his mom told me that.

Speaker 16 They said if anything bad ever happened to us,

Speaker 34 look at Mike.

Speaker 57 Why would they even? I don't know. That's why I'm asking you.

Speaker 55 Why would they say that to her?

Speaker 53 I mean, I'm trying to get your side of the story. If something happened to them there and you know something about it,

Speaker 13 this is probably the time you want to tell us.

Speaker 6 I

Speaker 33 said, I didn't kill them, and

Speaker 58 I don't know what happened to them.

Speaker 2 Dudley denied it all.

Speaker 2 Even with all the little pieces of evidence that pointed in his direction, he maintained that they just moved out suddenly, and the next thing he knew, they were all over the news.

Speaker 2 Michael Dudley was arrested and charged with the murders of Austin Wenner and Jessica Lewis after the forensic team found evidence in their former bedroom.

Speaker 2 A hole in the wall that was recently patched and painted over revealed a bullet.

Speaker 2 They also found a minute drop of blood that matched Austin.

Speaker 2 He would plead not guilty and proceed to trial.

Speaker 2 After a long two-month trial and a day and a half of jury deliberations, he was found guilty of two counts of second-degree murder. The families of Austin and Jessica wept when the verdict was read.

Speaker 59 I'm so overwhelmed right now, it's hard to even come up with the words.

Speaker 59 But my son is shining down from up above and saying,

Speaker 59 you got a mom.

Speaker 60 And I just want to thank

Speaker 60 the detectives for

Speaker 60 letting us be one of the lucky ones that

Speaker 59 hopefully this animal is off the streets now the world is a safer place without michael dudley in it

Speaker 59 everybody can rest easy tonight because of that

Speaker 2 on december 6th 2022 michael dudley was sentenced to a little less than 47 years in prison

Speaker 2 michael dudley killed Austin Wenner and Jessica Lewis.

Speaker 2 His reason was simple. He didn't want them in his house anymore.
And the laws made it hard for him to get rid of them. They didn't pay, they lied, they cheated, and they stole.

Speaker 2 They brought drama, negativity, and stress along with them.

Speaker 2 And that's always bad.

Speaker 2 Michael Dudley was trapped.

Speaker 2 But what Austin and Jessica didn't realize was that they were trapped also.

Speaker 2 and the cure would be worse than the disease.

Speaker 2 They all collectively ignored all of the red flags waving furiously,

Speaker 2 and then one evening, when Dudley had had enough of them, he decided to remove them from his life and the planet altogether.

Speaker 2 Rather than go through the

Speaker 2 complex and expensive process of eviction,

Speaker 2 Magic Mike just tried to make them

Speaker 2 disappear.

Speaker 2 All right, that's going to do it. Thanks again for supporting Sword and Scale.
We can't say this enough. You guys are awesome.

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We're going to add autoplay. We're going to add offline downloads.

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It's coming.

Speaker 2 Oh, yeah. And stay safe.

Speaker 49 Hi, I just wanted to to say that I love the podcast so much that it is the very first time I have ever paid or put money towards a podcast.

Speaker 49 Maybe I shouldn't be proud of that, but I know other people identify with me when they get the notification that Apple hit their bank and took a charge out.

Speaker 49 And you go in thinking, what did I forget to cancel? Which free subscription did I forget?

Speaker 34 But it's this podcast.

Speaker 6 So

Speaker 49 Story Scale is worth it.

Speaker 55 Not gonna ask for a refund on that,

Speaker 55 and

Speaker 49 can't wait to hear the next step. So