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Speaker 1: Body bags with Joseph Scott Morgan. I love walking through graveyards.

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Speaker 1: People find that strange, I know, but there's a certain

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Speaker 1: solemnity about it. They're peaceful, they truly are. And then

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Speaker 1: there's a certain beauty in it.

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Speaker 2: You know.

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Speaker 1: They're always placed or they've grown, I think, with beautiful trees, landscaping,

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Speaker 1: and then you have the artistry that goes into the

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Speaker 1: design of headstones or memorials that are there. There are

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Speaker 1: even little benches many times where you can kind of

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Speaker 1: sit back and contemplate things. It's always peaceful to me.

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Speaker 1: There are a couple near where I live, and one

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Speaker 1: in particular I've taken my students to every year, it

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Speaker 1: says an adjunct to a class I teach, call clandestine graves.

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Speaker 1: There is a piece there, and for years and years

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Speaker 1: and years, people have had family graveyards where they have

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Speaker 1: taken their dead and buried them on their property so

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Speaker 1: that they could watch care over them as the decades passed. However,

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Speaker 1: one thing that you don't expect to find in a

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Speaker 1: residential area is a grave, a truly clan DestinE grave

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Speaker 1: in the backyard of a home that had been there

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Speaker 1: for almost a decade. Until somebody finally revealed what was

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Speaker 1: truly buried in the backyard. I'm Joseph Scott Morgan and

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Speaker 1: this is body Bags. Some people call me jaded. I know,

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Speaker 1: I don't know if jaded is the right term.

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Speaker 2: Cynical maybe, okay, but hey, very quickly, Joe. Today, on

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Speaker 2: this episode of body Bags, we're talking about Eric Mercado,

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Speaker 2: who has been living with Trista Spicer when he goes missing.

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Speaker 2: He's forty two years old and according to her, he

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Speaker 2: just left the house one day and didn't come home.

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Speaker 2: His family asked about I mean, they're talking to Trista,

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Speaker 2: where is he like to see him? Haven't seen him

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Speaker 2: in a while, and she goes, I don't know where

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Speaker 2: he is. He just left. So over the years, you know,

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Speaker 2: she moves on with her life and he moves another

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Speaker 2: man into the house, same house. They are ready to

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Speaker 2: move her and the new boyfriend, and before they can

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Speaker 2: do that, Trista says, they need a favor from you.

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Speaker 2: It involves my ex boyfriend. See, he actually didn't go missing.

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Speaker 2: I've known where he is the whole time. Matter of fact,

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Speaker 2: I need you to help me move him. That's the

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Speaker 2: story today, and we'll get into that in just a minute.

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Speaker 2: But all right, some people think you're jaded. How is that?

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Speaker 1: Let me kind of lay it out to you. When

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Speaker 1: my wife and I first started dating, my wife Kim,

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Speaker 1: you know Kim very well, she said that our dates

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Speaker 1: were unusual because when we would go on a date

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Speaker 1: in Atlanta, I could not help moss self but say

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Speaker 1: to her, as we're driving through the streets of Atlanta,

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Speaker 1: I had a homicide there. Suicide there, I worked a

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Speaker 1: we're actually driving over to the spot where I have

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Speaker 1: a pedestrian struck by a vehicle. And you know, it's

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Speaker 1: a it's a different kind of perception of the world.

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Speaker 1: And I don't know. She had mercy on me, I think,

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Speaker 1: and decided to hang around and say, you know, this

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Speaker 1: guy is so odd. I got to figure out how

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Speaker 1: all of this ends. Wow, And I got to tell

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Speaker 1: you the kind of I don't know if it's cynicism

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Speaker 1: or maybe morbid my level of morbid curiosity, or I

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Speaker 1: don't drive by homes in neighborhoods and see good things.

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Speaker 1: When I drive by homes, I always think, I wonder

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Speaker 1: what's happened in that home, And that's a horrible way

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Speaker 1: to look at the world. But in our case today,

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Speaker 1: I think that the people that are living in this

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Speaker 1: town in California, going back and forth to their jobs

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Speaker 1: every day, going shop and hanging out with their kids,

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Speaker 1: taking the littleague games, or doing whatever it is. I

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Speaker 1: don't think they had any idea of what was going on,

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Speaker 1: you know, just down the street for them, Dave.

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Speaker 2: I think it happens more than you and I realize

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Speaker 2: that because we don't know what goes on. We talk

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Speaker 2: about this when somebody we read about that we think

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Speaker 2: we have an idea of who they are, does something

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Speaker 2: really stupid and ends up in jail, you know, and

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Speaker 2: you're going, I thought I knew him or her better

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Speaker 2: than that, And we really don't. We know what people

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Speaker 2: want us to see. Oftentimes they keep their private life private.

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Speaker 2: I know it's different with social media, but even then,

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Speaker 2: people only let you know what they want you to know,

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Speaker 2: even on social media.

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Speaker 1: So can I just say something, I don't want to

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Speaker 1: know about your surgeries. I don't want to see pictures

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Speaker 1: of your surgeries on social media. I just you know,

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Speaker 1: I'm sorry you had surgery. But you know, sometimes I

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Speaker 1: see some of the most gass and even by my standard,

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Speaker 1: I see some of the most ghastly, ghastly injuries on

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Speaker 1: the people take pictures of on social media and they

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Speaker 1: post them up, and I'm thinking, holy smokes.

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Speaker 2: You know, even today, I close my eyes when I

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Speaker 2: know that an NFL highlight reel is getting ready to

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Speaker 2: show thiesman's leg.

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Speaker 1: Oh my gosh. Yeah, I know.

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Speaker 2: I can't even say it.

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Speaker 1: I know.

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Speaker 2: So when I drive around and see a house, I

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Speaker 2: don't immediately go there, but I see how you would,

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Speaker 2: And I'm just really shocked that Kim staid. I'm surprised

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Speaker 2: she didn't make any excuse to use the ladies room

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Speaker 2: and ditch you the first night. But that's a different

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Speaker 2: story for a different day. In this case, Joe, I'm

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Speaker 2: always mindful when someone goes missing and the person they

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Speaker 2: are closest to doesn't seem to be involved in looking

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Speaker 2: for them. They don't seem to be engaged in discussing it.

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Speaker 2: They maybe show up at a candlelight vigil, but for

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Speaker 2: the most part, they're concerned about other things. I'm thinking

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Speaker 2: of everybody that we've ever covered that was guilty of

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Speaker 2: killing a spouse. We have a couple that's been living

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Speaker 2: together and the boyfriend goes missing. They've been living together

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Speaker 2: for three years, Joe and the boyfriend leaves and doesn't

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Speaker 2: come home. Tells you about a lot of things right there,

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Speaker 2: because who would be screaming the light is find my boyfriend.

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Speaker 2: Find the guy I'm living you know, spent three years

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Speaker 2: of our life together in this house. He's gone, He

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Speaker 2: never came home. Help me please.

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Speaker 1: How is it that people deflect attention away from themselves

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Speaker 1: in the midst of this? And isn't it interesting people?

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Speaker 1: I think that otherwise would be loud mouse in life, right.

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Speaker 1: Isn't it striking that it's like they crawl down in

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Speaker 1: a hole and they pull it in behind them, essentially

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Speaker 1: to kind of go beneath the radar. They don't make

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Speaker 1: any comments about it. They may have said, yeah, I

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Speaker 1: haven't seen him in a while. How many times have

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Speaker 1: we heard that? And then it's kind of nonchalant and immediately,

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Speaker 1: you know, as far as authorities go, you would think

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Speaker 1: that that would be the biggest red flag. I think

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Speaker 1: that externally, you have to have a big push on

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Speaker 1: the outside, pressuring, pressuring all of the actors in the

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Speaker 1: case to come forward with information. And if the police

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Speaker 1: aren't as engaged with it initially, it's going to lose

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Speaker 1: steam really quick.

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Speaker 2: Well, think about Lacy Peterson very quickly. When Lacy Peterson

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Speaker 2: went missing, she's eight months pregnant and her husband ostensibly

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Speaker 2: goes golfing. Oops, no change story. I went fishing and

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Speaker 2: my wife came home. My wife's gone. You know, it's

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Speaker 2: right around Christmas for crying out loud, and that was

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Speaker 2: a problem for me and that Scott Peterson is not

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Speaker 2: the one screaming and yelling look for my wife. It

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Speaker 2: was her family that did that. You know, he was

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Speaker 2: kind of in the background. We all know why now,

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Speaker 2: but at the time it struck me as odd that

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Speaker 2: he's not as engaged as he needs to be. He

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Speaker 2: seems to be in the First Family press conference, he

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Speaker 2: seemed to be pretty much, oh, we know that she's

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Speaker 2: probably you know, he was already in that mode because

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Speaker 2: he just wanted to move on. He knew where she was,

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Speaker 2: he knew they weren't going to find her. In his mind,

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Speaker 2: he's going to, please, can't we just move on? I

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Speaker 2: want to be six months from now. Remember the thing

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Speaker 2: that hits me, Joe for real selling her car. Yeah,

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Speaker 2: if i'm a you're eight months pregnant wife, you've already

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Speaker 2: named the baby to be, and she goes missing, nobody

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Speaker 2: is found, and you sell her car. You know she's

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Speaker 2: not coming back. What do you know that nobody else knows?

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Speaker 1: Right, And it's a total eradication or it well, certainly

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Speaker 1: a diminishment of that individual where you can kind of,

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Speaker 1: I don't know, make them kind of vaporize into the ether.

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Speaker 1: And if you're already thinking this thing out in your

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Speaker 1: mind that you're going to live a particular different way,

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Speaker 1: how much more so? And you know, we think about

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Speaker 1: this man and woman that have been living together now

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Speaker 1: for three years and he just kind of vanishes, doesn't

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Speaker 1: show up. And he's particularly close with his family. They

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Speaker 1: keep track of him. At least they have some indication

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Speaker 1: as to where he is.

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Speaker 2: And you know, Joe, we're not dealing with a really

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Speaker 2: young man or a really old man, those two extremes.

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Speaker 2: We're dealing with a guy that's in his early forties

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Speaker 2: and he goes. You know, police have a tough time

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Speaker 2: with that because well as adults were allowed to leave,

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Speaker 2: and we're allowed to leave without telling anybody anything, there's

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Speaker 2: no law against it. So when you call and in

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Speaker 2: this case, his family, they're the ones that created. And

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Speaker 2: going back to who would be creating the missing posters?

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Speaker 2: You know, if something happened to you, right, Kim would

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Speaker 2: be on the phone with everybody, help, I need posters,

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Speaker 2: we need to you know, meet me at the town square.

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Speaker 2: We're taking care of it. Of course she called the police.

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Speaker 2: She'd be organizing, you know that kind of thing. Oh yeah,

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Speaker 2: And in this case, his family had to create the

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Speaker 2: missing person's posters. They circulated them on Facebook that that

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Speaker 2: was dedicated to his disappearance. We're talking about Eric Israel Mercado.

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Speaker 2: His nickname was Nina. About five years after he was missing,

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Speaker 2: the San Bernardino Police Department issued a formal missing person's poster.

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Speaker 2: So it took five years before they even said, okay,

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Speaker 2: well I guess he really is missing.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, and I said, that goes to that element of age. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: you know, you're you know, you're you're grown man, you're worldly.

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Speaker 1: You know, certainly by the time you're in your forties

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Speaker 1: year year what is defined by worldly? And I don't

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Speaker 1: mean that like in a religious or I'm talking about

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Speaker 1: your season at that point from and so yeah, they're

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Speaker 1: they're not going to and unless okay, unless the police

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Speaker 1: officers have worked multiple domestic calls, or maybe there was

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Speaker 1: some kind of violence where there was an indication that

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Speaker 1: someone warned him out of the picture. They're not really

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Speaker 1: going to go into a frenzy over trying to track

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Speaker 1: this guy down.

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Speaker 2: Well, and again, you're talking about a grown man who

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Speaker 2: can leave, and they do have other things not that

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Speaker 2: are more important. It's just other things more pressing maybe,

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Speaker 2: And so I kind of I understand it from every angle, unless,

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Speaker 2: of course, you have one person that is your advocate,

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Speaker 2: that one person in your life that is devastated that

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Speaker 2: you're gone. You're the person you're sharing your life with,

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Speaker 2: the person you're living with, the person that is part

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Speaker 2: of your daily pattern of life. Oh yeah, and when

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Speaker 2: that person is not concerned, well there you go. Well,

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Speaker 2: I mean, if she's not going to lead the charge,

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Speaker 2: who is precise?

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Speaker 1: And you know, you have a And it goes without

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Speaker 1: saying that we have a very intimate understanding of those

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Speaker 1: that we are I love this term domiciled with. And

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Speaker 1: you you see that person day in and day out,

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Speaker 1: you're with them, you understand struggles that they're dealing with.

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Speaker 1: Maybe there's addiction, issues. Maybe there are real highlights and

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Speaker 1: certainly low lights in their life and you experience all

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Speaker 1: that with them. But I think that the reason that

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Speaker 1: Tristas Spicer didn't really get too excited about the disappearance

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Speaker 1: and absence of Eric Israel Mercado is that she had

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Speaker 1: kept him close all right. She knew precisely where he was,

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Speaker 1: and the answers that the police would find will be chilling.

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Speaker 1: I joke with my wife many times about, you know,

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Speaker 1: for me, and I know everybody views her spouse differently,

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Speaker 1: but for me, I know how good I have it,

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Speaker 1: and I always think, sometimes again back to the cynic

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Speaker 1: that's in me, there's got to be something there that's

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Speaker 1: just beneath the surface here. I keep I keep thinking

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Speaker 1: there's going to be some kind of sinister reveal when

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Speaker 1: it comes to my wife, and that she's gonna, you know,

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Speaker 1: tell me that she's, you know, committed some horrible crime

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Speaker 1: or been involved in something, because I keep thinking that,

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Speaker 1: you know, I'm gonna, you know, she's you know, I'm

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Speaker 1: going to find out something horrible about her and we

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Speaker 1: won't be together anymore. But after you know, decades of marriage,

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Speaker 1: now nothing has been revealed can Dave, can you imagine

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Speaker 1: being with someone who you say you care about and

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Speaker 1: the fellow we're gonna speak about in just a second,

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Speaker 1: that kind of enters onto the stage in this He

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Speaker 1: actually said that he loved her and cared for this woman.

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Speaker 1: She made a very big reveal to this guy, and

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Speaker 1: it's kind of the lynchpin in this entire case. And

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Speaker 1: you talk about sinister. I mean, we're about to go

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Speaker 1: to a very very dark space here, Dave, Well, all right.

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Speaker 2: Literally, yeah, Eric Israel, Nino Mercado, let's just call him.

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Speaker 2: Nino Mercado leaves his home October eleventh, twenty fourteen. No

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Speaker 2: one sees him return. It's important that's the last time

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Speaker 2: anybody saw him October eleventh, twenty fourteen. We mentioned before

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Speaker 2: that it didn't seem like anybody was looking for him,

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Speaker 2: and it took his family to create the missing person's

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Speaker 2: posters that they circulated online and out in the public.

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Speaker 2: It was five years later when the police issued a

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Speaker 2: missing person's poster. Now it boggles my mind when we

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Speaker 2: refer to people like as an ex girlfriend, because at

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Speaker 2: the time of his disappearance, Trista Spicer was not his

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Speaker 2: ex girlfriend. They were living together. They were boyfriend girlfriends.

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Speaker 2: So it's kind of like whenever you have a teacher

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Speaker 2: that is charged with an inappropriate relationship with a student,

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Speaker 2: by the way, that his child rape. Anytime a teacher,

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Speaker 2: they say the former teacher, the ex principal, whatever. He's like, No,

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Speaker 2: he was the principal at.

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Speaker 1: The time at the time.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, So anyway, so we got Trista Spicer, and

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Speaker 2: she doesn't seem to be too concerned about where her

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Speaker 2: ex boyfriend. Now. I guess maybe that was her story.

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Speaker 2: We broke up, he left, I don't know where he went. Now,

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Speaker 2: what do you do with that?

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Speaker 1: Joe?

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Speaker 2: You've been around investigations all your life or as an adult,

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Speaker 2: what do you do if somebody says, I don't know

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Speaker 2: where he is. He left, he didn't come home, he's

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Speaker 2: I don't have him chipped, he's not a dog. I

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Speaker 2: don't know how to find him. He just we had

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Speaker 2: a big fight. We haven't been getting along and he left.

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Speaker 2: Maybe he's decided to start a new life somewhere where

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Speaker 2: nobody knows his name, not only the opposite of cheers.

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Speaker 2: Where did he go? I don't know?

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Speaker 1: Yeah, Yeah, you look at an individual like that you

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Speaker 1: know that the subject has been missing for some time,

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Speaker 1: and think about, you know, go back to the family,

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Speaker 1: just so God bless him.

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Speaker 2: Man.

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Speaker 1: I mean, how frustrating would that be somebody that you're

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Speaker 1: you're connected to, not just biologically, but you know you

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Speaker 1: love this person. Yes, you have all these things you'd

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Speaker 1: like to say to them, and you're not getting anywhere

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Speaker 1: with the police. Again, you're talking about a guy that's

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Speaker 1: forty plus years old and you're the one that's having

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Speaker 1: to generate. There's you know, if there's probably no money,

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Speaker 1: you know, not that And I don't necessarily find that

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Speaker 1: reward money is as enticing as it can be. Sometime

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Speaker 1: I think everybody thinks that if you put out a

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Speaker 1: pile of cash, you're going to get answers. Yeah, But

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Speaker 1: every now and then, every now and then, it's like

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Speaker 1: you'll see that little thread as an investigator that's kind

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Speaker 1: of dangling right there, and by I don't know, maybe

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Speaker 1: it's tenacity as an investigator, or maybe it's just dumb

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Speaker 1: blind luck that somebody grows a conscience all of a

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Speaker 1: sudden and that thread is pulled and all of a sudden,

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Speaker 1: those things that were such a mystery for so long

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Speaker 1: suddenly become revealed in the twinkling of an eye, and

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Speaker 1: you know, and again you don't know how vested the

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Speaker 1: police art at that moment in time, but I can

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Speaker 1: tell you this. When the family would begin to hear

303
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Speaker 1: this and this news begins to kind of leach out

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Speaker 1: of what has happened to Israel, you think about this

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Speaker 1: and you think, wow. I bet that there was certainly sorrow,

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Speaker 1: but there was probably a bit of relief.

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Speaker 2: I looked at the actual poster Joe that San Berdanino

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Speaker 2: Police torment put out. I'm not knocking them, by the

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Speaker 2: way at all, I understand, but the circumstances for a

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Speaker 2: Nino leaving, it says. Eric was last seen October eleventh,

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Speaker 2: twenty fourteen, in the twelve hundred block of Heart Street

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Speaker 2: in the city of San Bernardino. Eric left his residence

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Speaker 2: and did not return the next day. He is a

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Speaker 2: local from the city of San Bernardino. Family and friends

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Speaker 2: have not seen or heard from Eric since he was

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Speaker 2: last seen. Now the kick here is he's from San Bernardino,

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Speaker 2: this is where his life has been forty two years old.

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Speaker 2: We expect him to be here. He's not. So here

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Speaker 2: we are the only connection we have to him now

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Speaker 2: is the girlfriend trist Spicer, and as she is moving

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Speaker 2: with her life now we are talking at the time

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Speaker 2: eight years in twenty twenty two, she has a new boyfriend,

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Speaker 2: Whalan with a double a way La n So Whylan

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Speaker 2: Gentry is Trista's boyfriend. She decides it's time to move

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Speaker 2: from southern California, but by the way, they live about

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Speaker 2: eighty miles east of Los Angeles. To give you an idea,

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Speaker 2: Trista tells Whylan Gentry, time to move. I want to

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Speaker 2: get out of here. But I got to tell you

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Speaker 2: something first. Now, if you have been with somebody for

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Speaker 2: a few years, you kind of know him, especially if

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Speaker 2: in this case, according to Waylan Gentry, he's a convicted felon.

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Speaker 2: By the way, I'm not sharing secrets about the man,

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Speaker 2: but you and I have said, somebody always talks. Whenever

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Speaker 2: a crime happens, somebody talks.

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Speaker 1: They do.

336
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Speaker 2: And Whylan Gentry finds out what Nino Arcado's family has

337
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Speaker 2: been looking for for years. Answers but it's not with

338
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Speaker 2: one of these I did this on this date and

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Speaker 2: here's all. It was a riddle. It was given to

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Speaker 2: him as well before we move, I got to do something. Okay,

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Speaker 2: turn the power the water. What you know.

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Speaker 1: Exactly, trim lawn.

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Speaker 2: So Trista Spicer says, before we move, I got to

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Speaker 2: take care of something. She then proceeds to tell Waylan

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Speaker 2: Gentry what she has to do.

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Speaker 1: When it comes down to it, and you have somebody

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Speaker 1: that you are living with and they ask you the

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Speaker 1: big question here, I need you to help me get

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Speaker 1: rid of my boyfriend's body. Would you respond? Tattoos are

350
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Speaker 1: interesting things. I guess people get them for any number

351
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Speaker 1: of reasons. But for me, I've always felt as though

352
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Speaker 1: that people that get them are trying to tell a story.

353
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Speaker 1: They're trying to tell a story of their life, almost

354
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Speaker 1: like a total them, if you will. And with this

355
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Speaker 1: fellow involved in this case by the name of Whalen Gentry,

356
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Speaker 1: he was described in court documents as being heavily tattooed

357
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Speaker 1: up and down his arms. And the reason I think

358
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Speaker 1: that probably he was is that you have a lot

359
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Speaker 1: of time in prison, and this guy has been inside

360
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Speaker 1: many many times. He's an admitted felon. As a matter

361
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Speaker 1: of fact, when he was asked about how many felonies

362
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Speaker 1: he had committed by a defense attorney. He says, I

363
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Speaker 1: don't keep track of him, so he's been inside for

364
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Speaker 1: a while. I submit to you that with a felon

365
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Speaker 1: in particular, and they're totem of tattoos that they have

366
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Speaker 1: running up and down their arms, I think with that

367
00:22:28,080 --> 00:22:31,880
Speaker 1: comes a certain degree of wisdom. And when you look

368
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Speaker 1: at this case, I think that whal and Gentry understood

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Speaker 1: Dave that if he goes along with this idea of

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Speaker 1: quote unquote getting rid of a boyfriend, he knows what

371
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Speaker 1: he is looking at. He's going in for, as they

372
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Speaker 1: used to say, you're going in for all day, boy,

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Speaker 1: and he does not want to revisit this. He knew

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Speaker 1: what he was faced with. So he's at a very

375
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Speaker 1: crucial point time here, Dave, where he could have used

376
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Speaker 1: this information to leverage her or do all this stuff.

377
00:23:05,800 --> 00:23:09,600
Speaker 1: He didn't. You know what he turned to. He turned

378
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Speaker 1: to his mama and he discusses this with his mama

379
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Speaker 1: and reveals all of this information. You know what mama said.

380
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Speaker 1: Mama said, you need to do the right thing. And boy,

381
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Speaker 1: when he did the damn burst, I got to tell

382
00:23:24,119 --> 00:23:26,399
Speaker 1: you something else about this guy. He I think he

383
00:23:26,560 --> 00:23:29,240
Speaker 1: wanted a place to stay, you know, he was living.

384
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Speaker 1: He was living in essentially one of her closets in

385
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Speaker 1: the house, which I was fascinated by. Yeah, he was

386
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Speaker 1: living like in a little closet within the house in

387
00:23:40,920 --> 00:23:43,760
Speaker 1: one of the reports, which you know, there's this kind

388
00:23:43,760 --> 00:23:49,919
Speaker 1: of separation between him and this woman, but yet they're

389
00:23:49,960 --> 00:23:54,879
Speaker 1: domiciled together, they're living in here, and I'm thinking, wow,

390
00:23:54,920 --> 00:23:57,600
Speaker 1: what's the connection. Well, the only connection that they really

391
00:23:57,640 --> 00:24:01,080
Speaker 1: have are the drugs that they're involved with, and they

392
00:24:01,200 --> 00:24:03,280
Speaker 1: like to get high together, and this is a safe

393
00:24:03,320 --> 00:24:04,880
Speaker 1: spot for him to do it. And look, I got

394
00:24:04,880 --> 00:24:07,879
Speaker 1: to tell you, I saw the Google Earth images of

395
00:24:07,960 --> 00:24:10,639
Speaker 1: this house. It's a nice neighborhood. I mean, it's it's not.

396
00:24:11,000 --> 00:24:14,000
Speaker 1: It doesn't look like a kill zone in this area.

397
00:24:14,160 --> 00:24:18,200
Speaker 1: It looks like the lawns look appear to be very

398
00:24:18,200 --> 00:24:21,639
Speaker 1: well manicured and maintained. You know, who wouldn't want to

399
00:24:21,720 --> 00:24:24,800
Speaker 1: live in that environment if you've if you've been you know,

400
00:24:25,520 --> 00:24:29,040
Speaker 1: cooling your heels in state penitentiary over a period of time.

401
00:24:29,920 --> 00:24:34,000
Speaker 1: But suddenly he's faced with this reality of what she's

402
00:24:34,040 --> 00:24:38,480
Speaker 1: telling him. She she actually related to him that and

403
00:24:38,840 --> 00:24:43,760
Speaker 1: this is probably uh, I can't imagine even as jaded

404
00:24:43,840 --> 00:24:46,280
Speaker 1: as he might be. You know how I talked about

405
00:24:46,280 --> 00:24:49,360
Speaker 1: how I'm jaded, you imagine how the level of jadedness

406
00:24:49,400 --> 00:24:55,040
Speaker 1: this guy has. He says that Spicer actually revealed to

407
00:24:55,119 --> 00:25:03,680
Speaker 1: him that as Mercado was leaping on her love seat,

408
00:25:05,040 --> 00:25:10,520
Speaker 1: she decides to go and grab this frying pan and

409
00:25:10,680 --> 00:25:15,200
Speaker 1: smash him in the face with it, and then if

410
00:25:15,240 --> 00:25:21,040
Speaker 1: that wasn't enough, she takes out a box cutter and

411
00:25:21,160 --> 00:25:25,640
Speaker 1: cuts his throat. Now I don't know how you would react,

412
00:25:25,760 --> 00:25:29,320
Speaker 1: but I gotta tell you, somebody's trying to convince me

413
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Speaker 1: to do something like get rid of a body, which

414
00:25:32,800 --> 00:25:37,840
Speaker 1: she also reveals to him has been entombed on her property.

415
00:25:38,520 --> 00:25:40,520
Speaker 1: You know, he's probably thinking, I want to get as

416
00:25:40,600 --> 00:25:45,720
Speaker 1: much distance between between her and myself as I possibly

417
00:25:45,720 --> 00:25:49,000
Speaker 1: can think about. You know, let's just kind of play

418
00:25:49,000 --> 00:25:51,320
Speaker 1: this out. Let's just say that they had been getting

419
00:25:51,400 --> 00:25:56,600
Speaker 1: high together for months, maybe a couple of years, and

420
00:25:56,680 --> 00:26:00,239
Speaker 1: depended upon what they're using, they go into this kind

421
00:26:00,280 --> 00:26:04,600
Speaker 1: of narcotic haze where either you shut down completely or

422
00:26:04,640 --> 00:26:08,080
Speaker 1: you just run out of energy. And maybe he has

423
00:26:08,240 --> 00:26:11,720
Speaker 1: a moment of lucidity where he's sitting there. Oh my god,

424
00:26:12,080 --> 00:26:16,200
Speaker 1: I could have wound up entombed right on the same

425
00:26:16,320 --> 00:26:19,400
Speaker 1: property with this guy. She's asking me to help get

426
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Speaker 1: rid of.

427
00:26:20,280 --> 00:26:22,800
Speaker 2: Well, Joe, he even said he didn't quite know what

428
00:26:22,840 --> 00:26:24,520
Speaker 2: she meant when she said get rid of him. I

429
00:26:24,560 --> 00:26:26,440
Speaker 2: have you know, we're moving to Illinois. I got to

430
00:26:26,480 --> 00:26:30,440
Speaker 2: get I need help, and it was I need help

431
00:26:30,480 --> 00:26:33,879
Speaker 2: to get rid of a next boyfriend. He said he

432
00:26:33,880 --> 00:26:36,639
Speaker 2: didn't quite know what she meant get rid of. I

433
00:26:36,640 --> 00:26:39,159
Speaker 2: mean he isn't He's a convicted felon, so you know,

434
00:26:39,200 --> 00:26:42,160
Speaker 2: it could mean any number of things. But he says, quote,

435
00:26:42,160 --> 00:26:44,920
Speaker 2: and this is in court. Whalen Gentry said, I didn't

436
00:26:44,960 --> 00:26:48,880
Speaker 2: know what she meant. She said he was buried under

437
00:26:48,920 --> 00:26:52,600
Speaker 2: the stairs. I did not believe her. So Joe, you said.

438
00:26:52,600 --> 00:26:54,560
Speaker 2: He called his mom first, Mom, what do I do?

439
00:26:54,680 --> 00:26:57,040
Speaker 2: She said, do the right thing? So he does. Whalen

440
00:26:57,080 --> 00:27:00,159
Speaker 2: Gentry protects himself by going to the police. Now, oh,

441
00:27:00,960 --> 00:27:04,280
Speaker 2: the police use his information, and it was interesting. The

442
00:27:04,359 --> 00:27:09,359
Speaker 2: police don't reveal who their tipster is, but they used

443
00:27:09,400 --> 00:27:12,320
Speaker 2: the information given to them by Gentry to make an

444
00:27:12,320 --> 00:27:14,800
Speaker 2: appearance over at the house, just looking around a few things.

445
00:27:14,960 --> 00:27:18,200
Speaker 2: They corroborate enough information from what he has told them

446
00:27:18,320 --> 00:27:20,359
Speaker 2: they can go get a search warrant, and it's with

447
00:27:20,480 --> 00:27:22,800
Speaker 2: the search warrant that they're able to go and look

448
00:27:22,920 --> 00:27:26,919
Speaker 2: and find exactly what they were looking for. And that is,

449
00:27:27,040 --> 00:27:31,640
Speaker 2: after eight years, they discover what really happened to Nino

450
00:27:31,720 --> 00:27:36,040
Speaker 2: Mercado and Joe, I have to ask you, what what

451
00:27:36,119 --> 00:27:40,840
Speaker 2: am I looking at when you mentioned she hit him

452
00:27:40,840 --> 00:27:42,320
Speaker 2: in the head with a frying pan and then cut

453
00:27:42,400 --> 00:27:46,040
Speaker 2: his throat. All right, so we know some physical stuff

454
00:27:46,119 --> 00:27:48,400
Speaker 2: was done in that moment, but that was twenty fourteen.

455
00:27:48,520 --> 00:27:52,000
Speaker 2: It was October of twenty fourteen. We I'm gonna assume

456
00:27:52,040 --> 00:27:55,000
Speaker 2: that because we just know the last time he was

457
00:27:55,040 --> 00:27:58,320
Speaker 2: seen it's October eleventh, twenty fourteen. For all I know,

458
00:27:58,840 --> 00:28:02,280
Speaker 2: she kept him shackled in the bathroom for eight years

459
00:28:02,280 --> 00:28:04,440
Speaker 2: and just got it tired of feeding him into offed him.

460
00:28:04,480 --> 00:28:07,760
Speaker 2: You know, doesn't seem likely. It seems more likely that

461
00:28:07,800 --> 00:28:10,399
Speaker 2: he was killed in October of twenty fourteen and she

462
00:28:10,440 --> 00:28:12,240
Speaker 2: got rid of the body. So what am I going

463
00:28:12,320 --> 00:28:14,760
Speaker 2: to find? Well, what are we looking at in terms

464
00:28:14,840 --> 00:28:18,080
Speaker 2: of he's been in toumb for eight years? What's his

465
00:28:18,200 --> 00:28:20,439
Speaker 2: body going to look like? Joe? How am I going

466
00:28:20,520 --> 00:28:22,920
Speaker 2: to know? How am I going to prove this is

467
00:28:23,000 --> 00:28:25,720
Speaker 2: a box cutter unless I have video, because I know

468
00:28:25,760 --> 00:28:29,399
Speaker 2: there's no soft tissue left right, No, what he's actually fine.

469
00:28:29,880 --> 00:28:33,040
Speaker 1: Yeah, And even if there was what we would normally

470
00:28:33,119 --> 00:28:37,240
Speaker 1: refer to as soft tissue, that tissue would take on.

471
00:28:37,520 --> 00:28:40,320
Speaker 1: And particularly we have to think about where where this is.

472
00:28:41,080 --> 00:28:43,280
Speaker 1: San Bernardino is right on the edge of the desert.

473
00:28:43,280 --> 00:28:46,520
Speaker 1: What do we know about the desert is dry. That

474
00:28:46,760 --> 00:28:51,800
Speaker 1: environment out there is lacking in a certain level of humidity.

475
00:28:52,640 --> 00:28:58,000
Speaker 1: And what happens with soft tissue in that kind of environment. Well,

476
00:28:58,280 --> 00:29:00,560
Speaker 1: every now and then you will find kind of a

477
00:29:00,680 --> 00:29:04,240
Speaker 1: natural mummification that takes place, and you will have a

478
00:29:04,360 --> 00:29:12,840
Speaker 1: residual tissue that's still overlying, you know, skeletal remains. It

479
00:29:13,080 --> 00:29:20,800
Speaker 1: looks dry, parchment like, shriveled in appearance. And the closest

480
00:29:20,840 --> 00:29:24,240
Speaker 1: I could really describe it to our friends would be

481
00:29:26,280 --> 00:29:30,280
Speaker 1: if you've ever seen the results of a food dehydrator,

482
00:29:30,480 --> 00:29:33,560
Speaker 1: like where people are making like a jerky for instance.

483
00:29:35,160 --> 00:29:38,120
Speaker 1: That's as close as I can really describe it to you.

484
00:29:38,360 --> 00:29:41,840
Speaker 1: As to the appearance of the skin, we don't get

485
00:29:41,840 --> 00:29:44,000
Speaker 1: that a lot here in the South because of the

486
00:29:44,080 --> 00:29:46,800
Speaker 1: level of humidity that we have. You know, bodies break

487
00:29:46,840 --> 00:29:50,160
Speaker 1: down a lot quicker in that sense, so there could

488
00:29:50,280 --> 00:29:53,400
Speaker 1: very well be some soft tissue left. But here's the

489
00:29:53,480 --> 00:29:55,880
Speaker 1: other thing that she decided to do. And I've had

490
00:29:56,200 --> 00:29:59,040
Speaker 1: a lot of cases over the course of my career

491
00:29:59,520 --> 00:30:04,880
Speaker 1: where you have these clandestine burials and the perpetrator always

492
00:30:04,960 --> 00:30:10,760
Speaker 1: makes a mistake by taking the body and cocooning the body.

493
00:30:10,920 --> 00:30:14,080
Speaker 1: And here's something I've never heard of before. I found

494
00:30:14,080 --> 00:30:18,320
Speaker 1: this fascinating, Dave, is that she had taken an air mattress.

495
00:30:18,360 --> 00:30:20,760
Speaker 1: You know, like when you go to Mamma and Papaul's

496
00:30:20,800 --> 00:30:22,280
Speaker 1: house and they got it, they don't have an extra bed.

497
00:30:22,280 --> 00:30:23,600
Speaker 1: They're going to blow it up and put you on

498
00:30:23,600 --> 00:30:24,360
Speaker 1: the floor.

499
00:30:24,120 --> 00:30:26,240
Speaker 2: Right, like sleeping in a funhouse.

500
00:30:26,560 --> 00:30:29,600
Speaker 1: Yeah, like sleeping in a funhouse. You're absolutely right. Well,

501
00:30:29,920 --> 00:30:32,560
Speaker 1: this thing had been slit open. I find that term

502
00:30:32,800 --> 00:30:35,840
Speaker 1: very interesting that they've used, because you know what I'm thinking.

503
00:30:35,880 --> 00:30:38,280
Speaker 1: I'm thinking that, well, that's not the only thing he

504
00:30:38,320 --> 00:30:40,440
Speaker 1: got slit. You know, his throat was slit with a

505
00:30:40,520 --> 00:30:42,719
Speaker 1: box cutter. How easy would it be to take that

506
00:30:42,760 --> 00:30:46,880
Speaker 1: same box cutter slit open an air mattress, which in

507
00:30:46,920 --> 00:30:51,040
Speaker 1: a way becomes kind of a body bag at that

508
00:30:51,160 --> 00:30:53,360
Speaker 1: point in time, and you place his body in it,

509
00:30:53,800 --> 00:30:57,520
Speaker 1: you wrap his body in it, and then to go

510
00:30:57,640 --> 00:31:01,719
Speaker 1: one step further, really dig in this case, David, I

511
00:31:01,720 --> 00:31:05,800
Speaker 1: think they they described the location where his body was

512
00:31:05,840 --> 00:31:09,040
Speaker 1: found as a tomb. Now I know that that's kind

513
00:31:09,040 --> 00:31:13,400
Speaker 1: of that's a term that a reporter would use because

514
00:31:13,520 --> 00:31:17,320
Speaker 1: it's it's kind of salacious, isn't it. The body was entombed,

515
00:31:17,320 --> 00:31:20,840
Speaker 1: and I guess, yeah, but the body was buried in

516
00:31:20,920 --> 00:31:24,840
Speaker 1: an area beneath the staircase. Again, to say that it's

517
00:31:24,880 --> 00:31:28,840
Speaker 1: beneath a staircase is kind of again, I think, kind

518
00:31:28,840 --> 00:31:31,440
Speaker 1: of a liberty that they're taking. There was in the

519
00:31:31,480 --> 00:31:35,560
Speaker 1: backyard adjacent to a building. There was an adjacent staircase.

520
00:31:36,040 --> 00:31:41,320
Speaker 1: But but David, yeah, I know because immediately when yeah,

521
00:31:41,360 --> 00:31:46,520
Speaker 1: I'm thinking crawl spakes. Absolutely, the dimensions of this thing

522
00:31:46,680 --> 00:31:50,080
Speaker 1: are are kind of impressive. And just let me let

523
00:31:50,080 --> 00:31:53,440
Speaker 1: me kind of tell tell everybody, you know what what

524
00:31:53,520 --> 00:31:56,640
Speaker 1: we're looking at here? And this the thing about it is,

525
00:31:57,440 --> 00:32:00,120
Speaker 1: I do know this about about that area out there,

526
00:32:00,200 --> 00:32:07,320
Speaker 1: It ain't easy to dig in. It's hard. She apparently

527
00:32:07,760 --> 00:32:13,240
Speaker 1: has dug let's use it a tomb for this guy

528
00:32:13,720 --> 00:32:14,520
Speaker 1: on her property.

529
00:32:15,440 --> 00:32:19,840
Speaker 2: It a makeshift tomb, which immediately immediately tells you, Okay,

530
00:32:20,000 --> 00:32:23,120
Speaker 2: she was attempting something here. It didn't work out the

531
00:32:23,160 --> 00:32:25,240
Speaker 2: way she had planned, but it served its purpose.

532
00:32:25,320 --> 00:32:29,840
Speaker 1: But boy made shift tomb. Yeah, the dimensions are are

533
00:32:29,960 --> 00:32:36,400
Speaker 1: kind of impressive. It's eight feet wide six feet in height,

534
00:32:36,920 --> 00:32:39,960
Speaker 1: which is kind of odd. I've never understood that the

535
00:32:40,080 --> 00:32:44,320
Speaker 1: terminology with this and three feet deep. Now, I don't

536
00:32:44,320 --> 00:32:48,560
Speaker 1: know how we really can do the mathematics on that

537
00:32:48,640 --> 00:32:51,680
Speaker 1: to understand the dimensions. But there's a lot of work

538
00:32:52,240 --> 00:32:54,640
Speaker 1: that has gone into this. So you've got a guy

539
00:32:54,760 --> 00:32:57,200
Speaker 1: who you've smashed in the face with a frying pan.

540
00:32:58,160 --> 00:33:03,000
Speaker 1: The medical examiner stated that the force that was rendered

541
00:33:04,520 --> 00:33:07,120
Speaker 1: and the destruction that they saw, and this gives me

542
00:33:07,120 --> 00:33:11,600
Speaker 1: an indication that they're looking at skeletal remains now, that

543
00:33:12,680 --> 00:33:17,479
Speaker 1: this gentleman would have been dead within minutes of the strike.

544
00:33:17,640 --> 00:33:20,400
Speaker 2: If not, what exactly did he see when they because

545
00:33:20,400 --> 00:33:23,920
Speaker 2: we know by her own admission, she used a frying

546
00:33:24,000 --> 00:33:27,840
Speaker 2: pan to mash his melon when she hit him. She

547
00:33:27,960 --> 00:33:31,000
Speaker 2: said with such force that it would have caused him

548
00:33:31,040 --> 00:33:34,200
Speaker 2: to die barely soon. What happened? I mean, what are

549
00:33:34,240 --> 00:33:36,320
Speaker 2: we dealing with the broken nose that? You know? We

550
00:33:36,400 --> 00:33:38,760
Speaker 2: always hear that story of if he's somebody in the

551
00:33:38,840 --> 00:33:41,240
Speaker 2: nose going up at jabs their brain and kills them.

552
00:33:41,320 --> 00:33:43,160
Speaker 2: They do that in movies all the time. Is that

553
00:33:43,200 --> 00:33:44,320
Speaker 2: what we're talking about here?

554
00:33:44,520 --> 00:33:48,239
Speaker 1: No, No, it's a directed force where let's let's just

555
00:33:48,600 --> 00:33:52,160
Speaker 1: everybody right now. Just imagine that you're laying on a

556
00:33:52,160 --> 00:33:54,880
Speaker 1: sofa and in this case, he was lying on a

557
00:33:54,920 --> 00:34:00,360
Speaker 1: love seat. He's asleep, so he's lying. Now. It's hard

558
00:34:00,360 --> 00:34:03,560
Speaker 1: to determine, and I don't know if the medical examiner

559
00:34:03,560 --> 00:34:06,160
Speaker 1: could necessarily make sense of this when you begin to

560
00:34:06,160 --> 00:34:10,040
Speaker 1: think about directionality what position his head was in, But

561
00:34:10,080 --> 00:34:13,160
Speaker 1: we do know this. He's lying there and he is sleeping,

562
00:34:13,440 --> 00:34:17,160
Speaker 1: so he's completely unaware of what's about to take place.

563
00:34:19,600 --> 00:34:25,560
Speaker 1: His head is essentially supported okay in the back, maybe

564
00:34:25,560 --> 00:34:27,879
Speaker 1: it's off to one side slightly. But when she comes

565
00:34:27,920 --> 00:34:31,040
Speaker 1: down with the force of the frying pan, the medical

566
00:34:31,040 --> 00:34:38,000
Speaker 1: examiner states that the nose and the eye socket were

567
00:34:38,080 --> 00:34:44,960
Speaker 1: completely obliterated. So what happens in that dynamic? What happens

568
00:34:45,000 --> 00:34:49,719
Speaker 1: when that occurs? Well, given the force behind this, and

569
00:34:50,200 --> 00:34:56,359
Speaker 1: unfortunately they haven't told us kind of the weight of

570
00:34:56,400 --> 00:34:59,960
Speaker 1: this frying pan, this has to have some mass to it,

571
00:35:00,360 --> 00:35:02,960
Speaker 1: and that mass that energy is going to be transferred

572
00:35:03,040 --> 00:35:07,200
Speaker 1: to this blunt object. And this is truly a blunt object, Dave.

573
00:35:07,960 --> 00:35:13,239
Speaker 1: So when his face and the bony structures as we

574
00:35:13,320 --> 00:35:16,520
Speaker 1: refer to them, they're very delicate in the face, I

575
00:35:16,560 --> 00:35:19,760
Speaker 1: don't know that people really appreciate it, those little bits

576
00:35:19,760 --> 00:35:27,040
Speaker 1: of bone fragment and you can't really say that they're shrapnel. However,

577
00:35:27,719 --> 00:35:34,200
Speaker 1: the way the bony structures of the face are designed,

578
00:35:36,360 --> 00:35:39,480
Speaker 1: they don't fracture in a way that say, in arm fractures.

579
00:35:40,239 --> 00:35:43,919
Speaker 1: First off, they're very thin, okay, and they developed these

580
00:35:44,080 --> 00:35:47,319
Speaker 1: there many times they'll have these really rough edges and

581
00:35:47,360 --> 00:35:51,520
Speaker 1: sometimes they can develop these bony shards. So they're traveling

582
00:35:52,239 --> 00:35:55,960
Speaker 1: into this guy's certainly the frontal lobe of his brain

583
00:35:56,080 --> 00:35:58,600
Speaker 1: because this is being crushed. He's being crushed at this

584
00:35:58,640 --> 00:36:02,360
Speaker 1: point in time, the back, the back of the head

585
00:36:03,200 --> 00:36:06,480
Speaker 1: is not going to have as much trauma. You might

586
00:36:06,480 --> 00:36:09,239
Speaker 1: get what's referred to as a concussive trauma, where you

587
00:36:09,280 --> 00:36:11,960
Speaker 1: know it kind of bounces back and forth. But those

588
00:36:11,960 --> 00:36:14,960
Speaker 1: shards are being driven into his frontal lobe. And I'm

589
00:36:15,000 --> 00:36:18,000
Speaker 1: sure that she witnessed him. This is why you know

590
00:36:18,120 --> 00:36:20,640
Speaker 1: the ultimate you know, the coup de gras, if you will,

591
00:36:23,520 --> 00:36:27,400
Speaker 1: she probably saw that he had agonal respirations. You imagine

592
00:36:27,440 --> 00:36:29,680
Speaker 1: how horrible this is because, let me tell you the

593
00:36:29,760 --> 00:36:34,200
Speaker 1: dynamics of it. He's still laying there, he still has

594
00:36:34,239 --> 00:36:36,080
Speaker 1: a bit of life in him. And one of the

595
00:36:36,080 --> 00:36:38,520
Speaker 1: first things that you're going to see production wise with

596
00:36:38,600 --> 00:36:41,759
Speaker 1: him is that there will be as a result of

597
00:36:41,800 --> 00:36:45,560
Speaker 1: the blood going into his nasal passages and into his mouth,

598
00:36:46,200 --> 00:36:48,959
Speaker 1: that's going to be regurged up and blown out from

599
00:36:49,000 --> 00:36:52,960
Speaker 1: his lungs. It's just a natural response. So he could

600
00:36:52,960 --> 00:36:55,000
Speaker 1: be spitting up blood at this point in time. It's

601
00:36:55,040 --> 00:36:59,120
Speaker 1: the most horrific thing you can imagine. And it's at

602
00:36:59,120 --> 00:37:03,200
Speaker 1: that moment time that maybe she had come armed with

603
00:37:03,600 --> 00:37:06,480
Speaker 1: not only a frying pan, but a box cutter. Box

604
00:37:06,520 --> 00:37:09,759
Speaker 1: cutter sends a chill up and down my spine, particularly

605
00:37:09,800 --> 00:37:12,239
Speaker 1: when I think back to nine to eleven, you know,

606
00:37:12,280 --> 00:37:16,560
Speaker 1: when we think about the cockpit, and she would have

607
00:37:16,600 --> 00:37:19,000
Speaker 1: slit his throat at that point in time, which she

608
00:37:19,040 --> 00:37:22,279
Speaker 1: apparently did. Now would there be evidence of that? You know,

609
00:37:22,320 --> 00:37:27,160
Speaker 1: sometimes even after these many years and a body is cocooned,

610
00:37:27,280 --> 00:37:29,560
Speaker 1: remember anything that was with him. We go back to

611
00:37:29,600 --> 00:37:33,040
Speaker 1: the cards, anything that was with him at that moment

612
00:37:33,080 --> 00:37:40,080
Speaker 1: in time, she wraps up in this slit slit air

613
00:37:40,120 --> 00:37:45,359
Speaker 1: mattress and puts him into it, so she's containing all

614
00:37:45,400 --> 00:37:49,080
Speaker 1: of that evidence. Dave. I mean it's like you're when

615
00:37:49,120 --> 00:37:55,760
Speaker 1: you're a forensic investigator. You see people that contain things

616
00:37:55,840 --> 00:37:59,799
Speaker 1: like this, You're thinking, Wow, jackpot, because this is this

617
00:37:59,880 --> 00:38:03,560
Speaker 1: is holding on. It freezes that moment in time. Even

618
00:38:03,600 --> 00:38:06,520
Speaker 1: after all these years. You know, the plastic might be diminished,

619
00:38:06,520 --> 00:38:08,680
Speaker 1: but it's not going to be completely gone. After all

620
00:38:08,719 --> 00:38:11,960
Speaker 1: this time, you know, the plastic of this mattress itself,

621
00:38:12,600 --> 00:38:17,120
Speaker 1: so it's all contained in there. Now with the soft

622
00:38:17,160 --> 00:38:21,640
Speaker 1: tissue around the throat, you're thinking, is there any evidence,

623
00:38:22,280 --> 00:38:28,760
Speaker 1: Is there any kind of dehydrated skin that is left behind,

624
00:38:29,000 --> 00:38:32,480
Speaker 1: any remnant at all? And sometimes you can take a

625
00:38:32,520 --> 00:38:36,920
Speaker 1: look at even these mummified presentations and you can appreciate

626
00:38:36,960 --> 00:38:41,759
Speaker 1: hemorrhage there. This goes back to this case is largely

627
00:38:41,840 --> 00:38:46,640
Speaker 1: I think circumstantial because when she's talking to her new

628
00:38:46,680 --> 00:38:48,840
Speaker 1: love interest that by the way, again we have to

629
00:38:48,840 --> 00:38:51,560
Speaker 1: say she's asking him to help her get rid of

630
00:38:51,600 --> 00:39:00,399
Speaker 1: her boyfriend. You know, he it might be where there

631
00:39:00,560 --> 00:39:04,600
Speaker 1: is something left behind that she doesn't want to be

632
00:39:04,719 --> 00:39:08,440
Speaker 1: found at that moment in Tom because she knows what

633
00:39:08,560 --> 00:39:14,640
Speaker 1: has occurred. So if you're going to disinter the body,

634
00:39:15,480 --> 00:39:16,759
Speaker 1: what are you going to do with it at that

635
00:39:16,840 --> 00:39:19,239
Speaker 1: point in Tom? Well, it never made it that far,

636
00:39:19,400 --> 00:39:19,919
Speaker 1: did it? Dave?

637
00:39:21,400 --> 00:39:25,320
Speaker 2: No, and Joe, I want to go back very quickly. Yeah,

638
00:39:25,440 --> 00:39:28,759
Speaker 2: the dimensions in the box that she had stored his

639
00:39:28,840 --> 00:39:32,760
Speaker 2: body eight by four by six okay, six feet tall,

640
00:39:33,280 --> 00:39:41,239
Speaker 2: four feet wide. No, it's four feet deep. Anyway, the

641
00:39:41,280 --> 00:39:45,040
Speaker 2: box was much larger than his body and he is

642
00:39:45,080 --> 00:39:48,200
Speaker 2: put in the match. Would the size of like if

643
00:39:48,200 --> 00:39:52,799
Speaker 2: the box was having other things packed in, like clothing

644
00:39:52,920 --> 00:39:56,000
Speaker 2: or other stuff, Okay, that made it a tighter fit.

645
00:39:56,400 --> 00:40:00,560
Speaker 2: Would that Would that help in preserving the body? Or

646
00:40:00,880 --> 00:40:03,160
Speaker 2: would that have no impact whatsoever? I guess. I mean

647
00:40:03,400 --> 00:40:05,160
Speaker 2: the box was a lot bigger than his body, and

648
00:40:05,160 --> 00:40:07,920
Speaker 2: I'm wondering, you know, would that extra error or whatever

649
00:40:08,000 --> 00:40:10,279
Speaker 2: in there help or hurt?

650
00:40:11,120 --> 00:40:13,520
Speaker 1: I think that it would probably help to a certain degree.

651
00:40:13,880 --> 00:40:16,320
Speaker 1: The way that it could hurt is that for every

652
00:40:16,400 --> 00:40:21,000
Speaker 1: item that you're placing in into this entumbement, if you will,

653
00:40:21,520 --> 00:40:25,680
Speaker 1: with him, it brings along its own biological baggage. So

654
00:40:25,800 --> 00:40:30,200
Speaker 1: you're introducing any kind of bacteria that might be growing. Say,

655
00:40:30,200 --> 00:40:33,320
Speaker 1: if you've got clothing adjacent clothing that's they're unwashed clothing,

656
00:40:33,320 --> 00:40:35,680
Speaker 1: dirty rags, or anything else that's placed in there, you're

657
00:40:35,760 --> 00:40:39,040
Speaker 1: dragging all of that. Well, when you have his body

658
00:40:39,080 --> 00:40:45,000
Speaker 1: in there that's already decomposing, you're introducing these other elements

659
00:40:45,000 --> 00:40:49,360
Speaker 1: into the body. Could it impact it? It could aid

660
00:40:49,440 --> 00:40:52,400
Speaker 1: in preservation, but it could also have a negative impact

661
00:40:52,440 --> 00:40:58,440
Speaker 1: because you're introducing this other element into this environment. Either way,

662
00:40:59,120 --> 00:41:03,880
Speaker 1: there was an enough there for the medical examiner to

663
00:41:03,920 --> 00:41:09,320
Speaker 1: take to be able to actually give a specific cause

664
00:41:09,360 --> 00:41:12,520
Speaker 1: of death in this case, which is just in and

665
00:41:12,520 --> 00:41:16,120
Speaker 1: of itself, is amazing. And then you have the circumstantial

666
00:41:16,400 --> 00:41:20,760
Speaker 1: information that's coming in from the boyfriend, the current You've.

667
00:41:20,600 --> 00:41:25,440
Speaker 2: Got a story being told by Trista. Trista Spicer tells

668
00:41:25,480 --> 00:41:29,440
Speaker 2: the current boyfriend what she needed help with, he tells police,

669
00:41:29,480 --> 00:41:31,879
Speaker 2: and everything he tells police is backed up by what

670
00:41:31,920 --> 00:41:33,000
Speaker 2: they find on the premise.

671
00:41:33,160 --> 00:41:37,120
Speaker 1: They yeah, and that's I think. Yeah for an investigation,

672
00:41:37,239 --> 00:41:40,920
Speaker 1: I think, isn't that the best of everything? You know,

673
00:41:41,120 --> 00:41:43,600
Speaker 1: as horrible as this is, but we're talking strictly as

674
00:41:43,600 --> 00:41:46,160
Speaker 1: an investigator here exactly, isn't that the best of it?

675
00:41:46,239 --> 00:41:49,279
Speaker 1: Because it's it's scientific, because it's like somebody makes a

676
00:41:49,280 --> 00:41:52,799
Speaker 1: statement and then can you verify it scientifically? And in

677
00:41:52,840 --> 00:41:57,440
Speaker 1: this particular case, when you're talking about a fellow who

678
00:41:57,719 --> 00:42:02,919
Speaker 1: has had his face smashed in with a frying pan

679
00:42:03,640 --> 00:42:11,640
Speaker 1: and his throat subsequently cut, it's verifiable scientifically. What's going

680
00:42:11,680 --> 00:42:15,319
Speaker 1: to become in this case still remains to be seen.

681
00:42:17,760 --> 00:42:21,520
Speaker 1: I'm Joseph Scott Morgan and this is body Backs