Speaker 1: Please be advised this story contains adult content and graphic language.
Speaker 1: It's called it being recorded and made monitored. Baby, are
Speaker 1: you sitting down? Yeah? You don't think any left to
Speaker 1: me after I tell you this good That is not
Speaker 1: a good story, Okay, but you need to know. I
Speaker 1: called them and head looked good down to the theater
Speaker 1: on the bay and I had my dad done fully loaded,
Speaker 1: and when I took him up into the attic, I
Speaker 1: shot him two times in the back of the head.
Speaker 1: It's a horrifying story that drew national media attention, and
Speaker 1: it grabbed me unlike any other murder case I had
Speaker 1: covered as an investigative reporter. It all started in the
Speaker 1: spring of two thousand ten Buffett and wasn'tiac Both community
Speaker 1: theater actors were starring in the play nine, but police
Speaker 1: say on the same day the couple performed in the
Speaker 1: play Wasniak Lord his neighbor, twenty six year old college
Speaker 1: student Sam Hair, who had recently returned from a tour
Speaker 1: in Afghanistan, into the theater and shot him. Wosniak allegedly
Speaker 1: then dismembered the body. The motive for the killing reportedly
Speaker 1: to steal hair savings account The night of the murders,
Speaker 1: Hair's father went to his apartment. He found the body
Speaker 1: of twenty three year old Julie Cabawishi, a friend and
Speaker 1: classmate of Harrors. She had also been shot and there
Speaker 1: was evidence of a sexual assault. Welcome to sleuth. I'm
Speaker 1: Linda Sawyer. It was winter and I was in Long Beach, California,
Speaker 1: covering a new story for a TV show called Crime
Speaker 1: Watch Daily. It was a profile piece on a psychologist
Speaker 1: who's patients, believe it or not, were some of the
Speaker 1: most infamous serial killers in the eighties. After my interview
Speaker 1: with Dr von der Pelto, she invited me to stay
Speaker 1: for a Christmas gathering at her house that evening. It
Speaker 1: was Friday, December four, and rather than face the l
Speaker 1: A traffic at rush hour, I thought, why not have
Speaker 1: a little eggnog and some holiday cheer. The guests arrived,
Speaker 1: and soon the word was out that I was a
Speaker 1: crime reporter. And when that happens, people inevitably love to
Speaker 1: tell me some local story or an unsolved mystery. But
Speaker 1: I couldn't have been less prepared for what I was
Speaker 1: about to hear from a gentleman who once owned the
Speaker 1: Liberty Theater, which was located on a local military base
Speaker 1: in Los Alamitos, California. Dan Wasniak was in some of
Speaker 1: our Liberty Theater musicals. He was a friend of our
Speaker 1: daughter Alison, and definitely someone we trusted. We liked him,
Speaker 1: everybody liked them, so I have no idea why he
Speaker 1: would have killed his friend that dismembered him in the
Speaker 1: attic of my theater. There were two shows that I
Speaker 1: did there. One was Charlie's Aunt and the other one
Speaker 1: was Arsenic and Old Lace. I played Carrie Grant's character,
Speaker 1: so a lot of fun. It was the case of
Speaker 1: a real life Phantom of the Opera on MA Daniel Wazniak,
Speaker 1: a Southern California community theater actor, in between stage performances,
Speaker 1: killed his friends and chopped up their bodies in the
Speaker 1: attic of the theater prior to and after his showtime.
Speaker 1: And his reason he wanted to drain his victim's bank
Speaker 1: accounts so he could finance his upcoming honeymoon with his fiance,
Speaker 1: Rachel Buffett. Rachel was also an actress and a former
Speaker 1: Disney princess who often played alongside Dan in musicals. You see,
Speaker 1: his role was made for you. I don't want to
Speaker 1: play an I have not as you have three downright
Speaker 1: loss but those are is aren't exactly knocking down my goal.
Speaker 1: I lost something, but I don't know what. I know.
Speaker 1: You can help me finds. I was never that is
Speaker 1: what you imagine, but it was always you. He would
Speaker 1: get a lot of roles, do a lot of theater,
Speaker 1: much more than I ever did. There's a gazillion movies
Speaker 1: made about the blonde that comes from Oklahoma to be
Speaker 1: a famous movie star. It's a dime a dozen in
Speaker 1: l A, you know, but it's still something I like
Speaker 1: to do, so I continue doing it. Listen to Daniel
Speaker 1: the actor speak about his young victims. The two victims
Speaker 1: were two of my close friends, um Sam and Julie.
Speaker 1: Sam lived in the same complex that me and my
Speaker 1: fiance I lived out. The helped me out on several occasions.
Speaker 1: Just he was there for me when you know I
Speaker 1: needed him. And Julie was just a friend in the group,
Speaker 1: just very to the nicest people, to the nicest people
Speaker 1: that I've ever known. So wait he kills them. He
Speaker 1: talks about how great they were, and then he kills
Speaker 1: them for money. Who is this guy? I had to
Speaker 1: know more. I was stunned to learn that while the
Speaker 1: murders took place five years earlier, the trial itself was
Speaker 1: about to begin that following Monday, December seven. Fast forward
Speaker 1: to and I haven't left Orange County since. So I
Speaker 1: started seeking out his high school friends that knew Daniel
Speaker 1: was nia prior to his time with his fiancee Rachel.
Speaker 1: It was a time. Friends tell me that Daniel didn't
Speaker 1: do drugs, he didn't steal for food, he didn't really
Speaker 1: do too much of anything that didn't make his parents
Speaker 1: really proud. Everyone that talked to me about him from
Speaker 1: his high school years said, he's really a totally decent guy.
Speaker 1: Pre Rachel, Daniel was often referred to by those that
Speaker 1: knew him as this happy, go lucky theater geeky, this goofy,
Speaker 1: friendly guy who you know, didn't have his act together.
Speaker 1: You know, I literally I just saw him as this
Speaker 1: this sweet kid who um, you know, trying to make
Speaker 1: something doing his bass. How is this man that I
Speaker 1: watched in court every day at his murder trial? How
Speaker 1: is he the same guy that his friends described to
Speaker 1: me as this fun, generous, kind person that always made
Speaker 1: them laugh. And those same friends said to me, there's
Speaker 1: no way they can reconcile it either that it was there, Dan,
Speaker 1: who was the kind of person that could murder and
Speaker 1: mutilate friends while not missing a mark on stage. I
Speaker 1: knew I had to stick around and find the answers,
Speaker 1: so I moved in and spent time getting to know
Speaker 1: the various people of interest in this story. I mean,
Speaker 1: after all, it's these people who are in the know.
Speaker 1: They had the answers, and like pieces of a very
Speaker 1: intricate puzzle, I was hoping to connect them all. On January,
Speaker 1: Daniel Patrick Wozniak was sentenced to death, and today he
Speaker 1: sits on San Quentin's death row. But my investigation only
Speaker 1: grew deeper. Why Because I suspected there were other accomplices
Speaker 1: that were walking free, accomplices that the courts knew about,
Speaker 1: that the police knew existed, and I had to find
Speaker 1: out why they weren't being charged. I wondered, what kind
Speaker 1: of justice is this for the victims families? You Dan
Speaker 1: are coward. My only regret that in this state won't
Speaker 1: let me kill this coward myself. You took my daughter's beautiful, caring,
Speaker 1: loving daughters precious left to cover up your highness and
Speaker 1: planned crime. During the trial, Daniel was Sniak reached out
Speaker 1: to me on a call from his jail cell. It
Speaker 1: was during the penalty phase of his trial, and he
Speaker 1: told me that one of his victims, Julie Kibuishi, was
Speaker 1: supposed to be killed while he was still performing on stage.
Speaker 1: So who was supposed to carry out this murder? I
Speaker 1: had to find out, And after spending time at some
Speaker 1: pretty shady local haunts where Daniel and his older brother
Speaker 1: Tim was Nia hung out, I found evidence I couldn't
Speaker 1: ignore and I just talked to him and I need
Speaker 1: to make a phone called the detective now because Kin's involved.
Speaker 1: I need to call the detective first, because I need
Speaker 1: to call him and by him now before they catched
Speaker 1: me on this recording device, because it looks like I'm
Speaker 1: not trying to tell him right away. Him said he
Speaker 1: has evidence with them or there he knew where it
Speaker 1: was or something. Yeah, do you know that Tim had
Speaker 1: some evidence? Oh good, oh god, oh god. Okay, that's
Speaker 1: a ridiculous, And I have to go tell the detectives
Speaker 1: in here. Um Kim Kim good speak up only to
Speaker 1: me so far, and it was in casting. I thought,
Speaker 1: I'm going to believe taking right now. Danny's interrupted and
Speaker 1: he starts freaking out, and he's really frantic, and he
Speaker 1: said something, and something slips that he had evidence, so
Speaker 1: I have to I don't, don't, don't, don't, can't get done. No, babe,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna do it. All of Daniel's friends tell me
Speaker 1: he changed ever since she entered his life, and everyone
Speaker 1: that knew them as a couple say Rachel was in
Speaker 1: charge and she called the shots. Yet Daniel was still
Speaker 1: obsessed to be with Rachel no matter what. If I
Speaker 1: was given the opportunity to talk to my fiance right now,
Speaker 1: I'd either say can I be with you out there?
Speaker 1: Can you be with me in here? I mean the bond.
Speaker 1: I just love her like that's that's the hardest part
Speaker 1: about getting through my day. It's just no one that
Speaker 1: I can't be with her period. It's you know, it's
Speaker 1: it's it says absence makes the heart group, wonder does
Speaker 1: it really does? Yet all indications were that Rachel did
Speaker 1: not return that same love, not at all. She actually
Speaker 1: told police early Thursday morning after Daniel's arrest the night before. Now,
Speaker 1: remember this is just two nights before their wedding was
Speaker 1: supposed to take place. She told police that Daniel was
Speaker 1: a lousy lover and furthermore, he didn't have much to
Speaker 1: work with down below. What a thing to say about
Speaker 1: your future husband. He actually fell for me first, and
Speaker 1: um at the time he was he had already kind
Speaker 1: of become my best friend, and I was hanging out
Speaker 1: with them so often. I wasn't head over heels in love,
Speaker 1: but I was okay with him. Halfway through the trial,
Speaker 1: I learned from a source about the existence of a
Speaker 1: letter written by a notorious Orange count, a Gelhouse informant
Speaker 1: named Fernando Perez. Perez was housed next to Daniel Waznia Excel.
Speaker 1: He said he had a conversation with Daniel and he
Speaker 1: wrote about that conversation to Detective Jose Morales, telling him
Speaker 1: that in this conversation with Daniel, Daniel confided in him,
Speaker 1: saying that Rachel knew about the plan to murder Sam
Speaker 1: for his money, and her alleged response to Daniel was
Speaker 1: do whatever you have to do to make us happy.
Speaker 1: So with any good true crime saga, this one has
Speaker 1: it all. Intrigue, greed, lust, love, jealousy, and of course
Speaker 1: the sex tape with an old flame who came back
Speaker 1: into Dan's life for one last fling. The story opens
Speaker 1: with a father's discovery of a dead body in his
Speaker 1: missing son's apartment. That father is Steve Hare. He's a
Speaker 1: retired teacher who has a very special relationship with his
Speaker 1: only son, Sam. What I would do is I would
Speaker 1: go over Sam's apartment once or twice a week after work.
Speaker 1: I drive over there because it was closer to his place.
Speaker 1: We will go to the gym and we would work out.
Speaker 1: After workout, Sam, who was known for his volumeless appetite,
Speaker 1: we'd go out and gets on the eat and then
Speaker 1: we go back to his place and just kick back
Speaker 1: and watch him TV. Father son time. We were best
Speaker 1: friends as well as dad and son. And don't forget
Speaker 1: once he got out of the army, he's not a
Speaker 1: kid anymore. You're able to talk to your child a
Speaker 1: man to man and these are very very important times,
Speaker 1: but fun times. So boy, I could just tell you
Speaker 1: that Sam and I were best buddies. On Sam Hair's
Speaker 1: return from his three year military tour in Afghanistan, he
Speaker 1: decided to move into the Camden Martinique apartments, a complex
Speaker 1: right us from the Orange Coast College. Sam enrolled there
Speaker 1: so he could earn a diploma with the hopes that
Speaker 1: he would someday become a military officer. The Camden apartments
Speaker 1: in Coasta Mesa, California were very much like a dorm,
Speaker 1: with nearly all of Sam's neighbors enrolled into college across
Speaker 1: the street. It was there he met his newest friend,
Speaker 1: Reuben Menacho, who himself was a former Marine, and the
Speaker 1: two of them hit it off. Damn told me that
Speaker 1: he was going to do something that Friday. The night
Speaker 1: before we went out to dinner, Sam, Julie and I
Speaker 1: and so we went out to dinner. After dinner, we
Speaker 1: had a great time. He took some price from me,
Speaker 1: which how you really don't like people take photo eight
Speaker 1: out of my bake. But that wasn't given to Sam. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's he didn't. He used to do that just to
Speaker 1: piss me off to people would say he would literally
Speaker 1: order it, would never order an entree. He'd ordered just
Speaker 1: like a side of fries and then would wipe up
Speaker 1: every body else's place. You're going to eat that? Are
Speaker 1: you gonna finish that? Like the flour? They even thought
Speaker 1: about being done. It's like you're done with that, you know,
Speaker 1: And and all of a sudden he had a full meal,
Speaker 1: and I was he paid for some friends. Yes, he is.
Speaker 1: After Sam's night out with his friends, he mentioned to
Speaker 1: Reuben that he promised someone he'd helped them with an
Speaker 1: errand the next afternoon and Ruben had to remind him
Speaker 1: that their mutual friend Dave Barnhard was hosting a beach barbecue.
Speaker 1: Sam assured him that he'd make it after he was done.
Speaker 1: Friday came, we went to the beach day was having
Speaker 1: a barbecue with his family, UM a couple of friends.
Speaker 1: And when I started asking for Sam, nobody knew where
Speaker 1: he was at. So Sam was invited to this barbecue.
Speaker 1: He was supposed to be there, Yes, I believe so.
Speaker 1: I mean if I was there, then he must have
Speaker 1: been invited, because they never invited me to something without Sam.
Speaker 1: So and I did ask the guys about Sam, so
Speaker 1: they said, oh, I think Dave told me that he
Speaker 1: was helping out a friend. Even that night we went,
Speaker 1: we went out and had some drinks with the guys,
Speaker 1: and Sam was not found when we were at cam Then.
Speaker 1: I think it was either Jake or Dave that went
Speaker 1: to knock at his door and then nobody was there.
Speaker 1: They came back and said, okay, it was a normal day.
Speaker 1: You know, Sam is not answering the phone. But that
Speaker 1: afternoon when he wasn't showing up for the barbecue, you
Speaker 1: were calling him, you were texting, you were trying to
Speaker 1: reach out, and at one point did did someone inswer
Speaker 1: the phone? Yes, there was another person in Lyne that
Speaker 1: answered the phone. And when they answer, it was very windy.
Speaker 1: And I said if he was driving a car or
Speaker 1: standing outside because it was a windy day. But I
Speaker 1: asked him where, I said Sam, and he goes yes,
Speaker 1: And I'm like, they didn't sound like Sam. I was like,
Speaker 1: where are you? What do you sound weird? And he goes, oh, no,
Speaker 1: I'm just having some issues. And he made the mistake
Speaker 1: to say that he was having issues with his father.
Speaker 1: So that was a flag to me because Sam him
Speaker 1: has a great relationship with his father and mother. So
Speaker 1: that immediately gave you pause automatically, and I questioned him.
Speaker 1: When I questioned it more, he hung up and then
Speaker 1: I called again, no answer. I texted, no answer, so
Speaker 1: and that that's when I got a little bit more
Speaker 1: worried and asked, I started asking the guys more question,
Speaker 1: but since they say no, I don't know, so I
Speaker 1: just let it go. But the idea that you know,
Speaker 1: you did kind of press this person and they hung
Speaker 1: up on you really must have heightened your your concern
Speaker 1: at that point, Yes, and hand my concern, but since
Speaker 1: I didn't see it from the other guys, it lowered
Speaker 1: it again. While Reuben was uneasy over the whereabouts of
Speaker 1: his friend Steve Hair, Sam's father was still expecting his
Speaker 1: son to arrive at their home that weekend. It's Friday
Speaker 1: when you had an expectation that your son at some
Speaker 1: point that Friday was going to head up to your
Speaker 1: and your wife's home in Anaheim Hills. Well, what it was.
Speaker 1: Raquhel had spoken to Sam around twelve twenty on Friday afternoon,
Speaker 1: that was the afternoon of one, and they had mentioned
Speaker 1: Raquel wanted to speak to him, and he said, Mom,
Speaker 1: I'm busy, I'm helping somebody, But we were anticipating Sam
Speaker 1: to come over for the weekend. However, knowing Sam, I
Speaker 1: probably I was not expecting him really until Saturday. It
Speaker 1: looks Sam was in a war zone. He was a
Speaker 1: decorated combat veteran. He was an a war zone. He
Speaker 1: would call every two or three months when he got
Speaker 1: off the hill, his observation posts and what have you.
Speaker 1: So I certainly not really overly concerned, saying I wonder
Speaker 1: where he is. I wish he'd dropped me a line
Speaker 1: let us know if he's coming or not. By Saturday
Speaker 1: early evening, there's still no word from Sam, So Steve
Speaker 1: decides it's time to get in his car and drive
Speaker 1: down to Sam's place in Coasta Mesa. I had a
Speaker 1: key to his place, so that wasn't an issue. So
Speaker 1: I arrived there approximately nine o'clock and I knocked at
Speaker 1: the door. There was no response. I said, okay, I
Speaker 1: have got the key, and I let myself in. I
Speaker 1: opened the door, turned on the lights, livering was fine,
Speaker 1: Everything looked very neat in place. Peeked into the bedroom.
Speaker 1: That's going on, sirs? What once I went into the
Speaker 1: apartment and then I saw the body. That's when my
Speaker 1: whole world changed. Dead body? Are you sure, sir? Does
Speaker 1: your son know who it is? Okay, we're standing people, sir.
Speaker 1: I've got someone on the way. Okay, I'm just gonna
Speaker 1: get information from you. Are right on Friday May, Julie Kibuishi,
Speaker 1: Sam's close friend and tutor, also went missing. Julie's friends
Speaker 1: were texting her frantically. It was text after text coming
Speaker 1: in her phone. Hey, Julie, your mom called, Can you
Speaker 1: call me please? Is everything okay? By the next day,
Speaker 1: Julie's mom was desperate. This kind of thing never happened
Speaker 1: to my daughter. So we called it police and I said,
Speaker 1: I don't care. I don't care where you find her,
Speaker 1: but I need to find her. It's cose to MASA
Speaker 1: detective Michael Cohen who arrives at the crime scene. As
Speaker 1: we walked in, you know, the kitchen look clean. Everything
Speaker 1: looked very clean inside until we went into the bedroom
Speaker 1: or a male. Once we were in the bedroom, we
Speaker 1: had seen a lone female slumped over the bed that
Speaker 1: appeared to have a gunshot wound to the back of
Speaker 1: her head. Initially, we saw blood and it appeared to
Speaker 1: us that it looked like some type of either blood
Speaker 1: force object had hit her or it could have been
Speaker 1: a gunshot, when we weren't sure initially at first from
Speaker 1: our initial investigation until we found more later. She was
Speaker 1: bent over the bed actually with her knees partially on
Speaker 1: the ground. Her torso was slumped over on top of
Speaker 1: the bed, almost like in a kneeling position. Her pants
Speaker 1: were somewhat ripped and pulled down. It appeared to us
Speaker 1: like maybe there was a sexual assault that had gone bad. Yes,
Speaker 1: in the bedroom, but there's some such activities. There's the
Speaker 1: one call was from Sam, her father, and he was
Speaker 1: looking for his son also, so we felt that Sam
Speaker 1: was on the run and had maybe had some involvement
Speaker 1: with this homicide. For June and Massa Kabuishi, they both
Speaker 1: feared that fateful knock at their door. It's any parents
Speaker 1: worth nightmare, and it was Detective Michael Cohen's job to
Speaker 1: deliver the news. My partner and I when we had
Speaker 1: to make the death notification to Kibayashi family, it was
Speaker 1: tough because we had a young girl who was twenty
Speaker 1: three years old, and now we had to make contact
Speaker 1: with her parents. My partner and I drove over to Mr.
Speaker 1: And Mrs Kubayashi's home, knocked on the door and made
Speaker 1: contact with her and her husband. Once we walked in,
Speaker 1: they had to sit down on a couch, which I
Speaker 1: remember still to this day. They sat down. I then
Speaker 1: proceeded to tell Mr. And Mrs Kubyashi that we had
Speaker 1: located their daughter and an apartment complex in Costa Mesa,
Speaker 1: and that she had been basically murdered. When I made
Speaker 1: that statement, two Mr and Mrs Kubayashi, Mrs Kubyashi basically
Speaker 1: just broke down and started crying. Her husband tried to
Speaker 1: calm her down, and we we tried to calm her down,
Speaker 1: which we finally were able to after a few minutes.
Speaker 1: And it was just a very tough situation. When you
Speaker 1: see the pairs become so emotional, and as detectives, and
Speaker 1: not only as detectives, but as fathers of having our
Speaker 1: own children, you start thinking about how you would react
Speaker 1: to that type of situation. Julie was loved by everyone
Speaker 1: who knew her. She was a talented dancer and a
Speaker 1: budding fashion maven, and she was also really smart, which
Speaker 1: is why Sam's parents said. Julie would help Sam often
Speaker 1: with his studies as his tutor. She looked up to him,
Speaker 1: and she was very good at tutor and him in
Speaker 1: anthropology and he got in a in that class. I said,
Speaker 1: sim is there anything going on with you and Julie?
Speaker 1: And he says absolutely not that she's like my kid's sister.
Speaker 1: Steve realized that he knew very little about Sam's friends
Speaker 1: at the Camden apartments, but he was certainly determined to
Speaker 1: find out more and to find his son. Okay, I
Speaker 1: got the list of names by calling those few numbers
Speaker 1: that I had on my phone of Sam's friends. The
Speaker 1: first two I called were Ruben Menatro and Dave Barnhardt.
Speaker 1: I spoke eventually Dan Moseniack. I spoke to a number
Speaker 1: of people, and each one of those people were telling
Speaker 1: me while when the last time they saw Sam, what
Speaker 1: did they hear? What do they know? And I took
Speaker 1: it from there and I called for a few hours
Speaker 1: speaking to people, and then I got a few hours sleep,
Speaker 1: and then on Sunday was this was Saturday evening, Saturday night,
Speaker 1: Sunday morning when this was all occurring, got a few
Speaker 1: hours sleep, awoke, and then was out searching again. Steve
Speaker 1: had a feeling that finding Julie's body in Sam's apartment,
Speaker 1: combined with Sam's military background and his knowledge of handling guns,
Speaker 1: would certainly make Sam a person of interest for the authorities.
Speaker 1: But the other news Steve was about to tell police
Speaker 1: would leave little doubt for them that Sam was their
Speaker 1: reasonable prime suspect and could very easily be on the run.
Speaker 1: We put all points Bolton out for him because we thought,
Speaker 1: you know, right now, he's our loan suspect. There's nobody
Speaker 1: else that we should be looking for other than him,
Speaker 1: because we can't find him and his father is trying
Speaker 1: to call him and answering his phone. So we felt
Speaker 1: at that point in time he was the initial suspect
Speaker 1: of interest and we need to find the situation at hand. Lawrence,
Speaker 1: you got to speak to the police. What have you
Speaker 1: fill them in on what you know. So they took
Speaker 1: me down to the station and took me to an
Speaker 1: interview room, and of course your whole world is crashing
Speaker 1: around you, and then they started questioning common senses. There's
Speaker 1: a dead body in your child's apartment and your child
Speaker 1: is not there. The first thing I thought, they're gonna
Speaker 1: suspect him, understandably. So so as they were questioning me,
Speaker 1: I said, look, before you find out, I'll let you
Speaker 1: know he was involved before. When I say involved, he
Speaker 1: was charged with a murder. So I let them know
Speaker 1: that there was a situation at wouldn't look good for him,
Speaker 1: but I also emphasized that he wouldn't do that. And
Speaker 1: it goes back to I knew he would not harm
Speaker 1: a woman. One name on Steve's list of Sam's buddies
Speaker 1: gave Steve his first warning sign it didn't seem right,
Speaker 1: changed his story a little bit, and then I asked him, hey,
Speaker 1: you know, have you seen Sam? How was his disposition?
Speaker 1: And and Dan Bosniak said, well, I was nervous, but
Speaker 1: he said no, Sam was even nervous. He was upset.
Speaker 1: And I said, really, like what? And Dan Mosniak said,
Speaker 1: Sam told me he had girl problems and he had
Speaker 1: family problems. If you want to see red flags, lightning bolts,
Speaker 1: shooting cannons firing off in Monday night, I went through
Speaker 1: the list with Raquel and we looked and since everything
Speaker 1: was being purchased from Long Beach, we looked at the
Speaker 1: list and on that list of about fifteen, there was
Speaker 1: one prefix with a Long Beach prefix on a cell
Speaker 1: phones I had the only prefix with Long Beach belonged
Speaker 1: to Dan mos n Steve was always very coopertive and
Speaker 1: had given us information as to when it was being
Speaker 1: taken out, what banks they were being taken out, so
Speaker 1: he was very credible. In fact, Steve mentions that he
Speaker 1: can recall you saying to your partner on the way out, gee,
Speaker 1: maybe we do have the wrong guy. I think that
Speaker 1: gave him some level of hope, at which point you
Speaker 1: guys went out and got some warrants right for some
Speaker 1: bank statements and yeah, and on those bank statements were
Speaker 1: purchases from Echoes, pizza and Long Beach that were being
Speaker 1: made by whomever had possession of Sam's card at the time.
Speaker 1: That was kind of the breaking of the case. I
Speaker 1: would say, um, and I think a lot of the
Speaker 1: other guys would say the same, because we were able
Speaker 1: to track where the pizza was being delivered. We actually
Speaker 1: eventually raided that house and was able to talk to
Speaker 1: a young kid and I don't remember his name, with yes,
Speaker 1: he mentioned he definitely said that Daniel Wasniac gave the card.
Speaker 1: From what I recall, I guess they had an agreement
Speaker 1: with each other to go. Wesley was going to get
Speaker 1: money out and give him the money. And but Wesley
Speaker 1: really had no clue as to what was going on
Speaker 1: that all. He knew that he was gonna get a
Speaker 1: little something out of it. From Dan Wassniak, and that
Speaker 1: was it. Yeah, he got he got something, all right.
Speaker 1: As I look closer at those bank records, I realized
Speaker 1: that he in fact took four hundred dollars out over
Speaker 1: the weekend himself, even though he told Dan I couldn't
Speaker 1: get to it on Saturday. I couldn't get to it
Speaker 1: on Sunday. So yeah, there's there was more to his story.
Speaker 1: But you know, he was young and and naive, I
Speaker 1: guess enough to think that he could get away with
Speaker 1: what he did. So you know, he's not as innocent
Speaker 1: as people think he is. But you guys needed him, right,
Speaker 1: You needed him for the for the trial, Yes, yes,
Speaker 1: we needed him so and he was you know, he
Speaker 1: cooperated with us and it worked out really well for us,
Speaker 1: so having him as a witness on the stand. And
Speaker 1: how did Dan get Sam's pin number to give to
Speaker 1: Wesley for the A t M withdrawals? Well, earlier that
Speaker 1: week of the murders, Dan and Rachel faced yet another
Speaker 1: eviction and Sam offered to help with the rent, so
Speaker 1: he brought Dan to his bank a t M. It
Speaker 1: was there Dan focused in and watched while Sam entered
Speaker 1: his pin um. When Adam help me pay for the round.
Speaker 1: I forgot a glance but his bank account number. At
Speaker 1: this point in the investigation, Dan Wozniak was still only
Speaker 1: a suspect that police believe was helping Sam, still on
Speaker 1: the run, but the police wanted to bring him in
Speaker 1: for questioning because Dan was their best lead at the time.
Speaker 1: And I believe it was Hose that called him to say,
Speaker 1: we'd like you to come in and talk at Ed's directive,
Speaker 1: and I think Daniel told Jose, well, he's heading off
Speaker 1: to Tsunami Sushi over in Huntington's Beach because it was
Speaker 1: his bachelor party, right, Yes, that was his bachelor party
Speaker 1: at the sushi place. Just having a great old time
Speaker 1: over there. That's where we contacted him a little bit
Speaker 1: more than contacted. Yeah, yeah, yeah, we um actually, you know,
Speaker 1: relocated there. I initially went inside the bar, just kind
Speaker 1: of playing clothes, walked around. I saw him sitting way
Speaker 1: in the back of a kind of like a banquet room.
Speaker 1: As he's in there enjoying life and having fun. You know.
Speaker 1: I get on the radio and I trying to call
Speaker 1: I think at the time it was at Everett believe
Speaker 1: m was Keith Davis with a learner, other sergeants and
Speaker 1: lieutenants at the time, and they ended up coming in
Speaker 1: the back door, making contact with him and arresting him
Speaker 1: right there at his bachelor party. Police scort Dan back
Speaker 1: to the station, where they hope to unravel the mystery
Speaker 1: of where Sam is still hiding. At this point, they
Speaker 1: want to learn what role, if any, Dan Wozniak has
Speaker 1: played in Sam's disappearance, and that's when Dan's story was
Speaker 1: first tested. He's like, I'm not good. I did something that.
Speaker 1: What did you do? It's like, there's a dead body
Speaker 1: in my party. I shot somebody. It was a fit
Speaker 1: of rage. You're not thinking of we both, you know,
Speaker 1: after we took a little break a partner and are
Speaker 1: looking at you and going, wow, you know this guy
Speaker 1: he thinks he's acting in front of us, you know,
Speaker 1: with this story. And same with her when we interviewed her,
Speaker 1: when Detective more Alice interviator and when I actually did
Speaker 1: the voice stress analyzer test on her. You know, she
Speaker 1: just trying to be utilizing their acting persona on us.
Speaker 1: And it was terrible, it really was. They were pretty inseparable,
Speaker 1: they were always together. I don't know how she could
Speaker 1: not have known what was going on. You know, we
Speaker 1: can't use it in quote. I did a voice what
Speaker 1: we call a voice tress analyzer. It's kind of like
Speaker 1: a lie detective test, and she failed it. She failed
Speaker 1: all three of them, from what I understand, Yeah, I
Speaker 1: had to. Initially I did the first test. I couldn't
Speaker 1: get any good valuable graphs from her comments because it's
Speaker 1: just yes and no answers, because there's time to disguise
Speaker 1: her voice, you know. So then I had to do
Speaker 1: it again, and by it's the third time, I think
Speaker 1: I finally got some decent patterns. The patterns show that
Speaker 1: she was she's not truthful. I'm a big advocate of
Speaker 1: that machine, you know, I was trained on. It gives
Speaker 1: me a lot of investigative tools to go further. And
Speaker 1: so when I got all the information, I was able
Speaker 1: to tell Detective to hey, you know, she's not telling
Speaker 1: the truth. At this point in Detective Cohen's interview, he
Speaker 1: tells Daniel that he wants a sample of his DNA,
Speaker 1: and Dan's reaction reveals quite a lot to the detective
Speaker 1: slow for he said, you guys interesting. So I remember
Speaker 1: very specifically when I asked him to do a DNA sample,
Speaker 1: and I pulled out the little kid. He just sat
Speaker 1: backed up in his chair and you could tell his
Speaker 1: wheels for spinning. And next thing you know, he's like, well,
Speaker 1: you know, I've been in Sam's apartment before, and you
Speaker 1: might find my DNA in the bathroom and you might
Speaker 1: find it over here. And he starts telling me all
Speaker 1: these places you might now find I knew at that
Speaker 1: point in time he was lying. You know, he's not
Speaker 1: telling the truth. Now. I was in Sam's apartment Friday afternoon.
Speaker 1: Dan's next version of events, where Sam is the suspect
Speaker 1: on the run, leads Dan into making a critical error
Speaker 1: and he totally loses his cool. Okay, fine, you know what.
Speaker 1: He didn't come down. He came down and said, helped me.
Speaker 1: I went upstairs and yes, I saw the gandham body
Speaker 1: is that what want to end? We want to hear
Speaker 1: the truth. That is the truth. Okay, and tell us
Speaker 1: what happened? How did that? How did that play out?
Speaker 1: So how did you get honor that? I don't DNA
Speaker 1: doesn't just fall off. I don't know. I didn't touch her,
Speaker 1: I didn't do anything. What did you see? Two gunshots
Speaker 1: in and that was Dan Wasniak's undoing. He thought he
Speaker 1: was the smartest guy in the room. He thought he
Speaker 1: could outwit and act his way out of a situation
Speaker 1: he found himself in. But this wasn't a play, this
Speaker 1: was no joke. This was a murder investigation, and these
Speaker 1: detectives were narrowing in on his blunders. Lieutenant Ed Everett
Speaker 1: was in the room with Dan at the time and
Speaker 1: describes what he felt was the break in their case
Speaker 1: because when we were in the apartment and we all
Speaker 1: looked in, it was only one visible to our eyes.
Speaker 1: And then when he had mentioned he saw two gunshot wounds,
Speaker 1: I said, well, was there when she was shot. He
Speaker 1: was there when she was killed. And we all kind
Speaker 1: of simultaneously when we're in that interview when he said
Speaker 1: to my partner and I, we kind of looked at
Speaker 1: each other. And then that's when Lieutenant Evert said the
Speaker 1: two shots and you could see wosniacs face, you know, like, oh,
Speaker 1: I guess my acting job just went down the toilet.
Speaker 1: And and because as you said earlier, you couldn't tell
Speaker 1: on the scene if there were two wounds to Julie's head,
Speaker 1: you could, you could not. And there's no way you could.
Speaker 1: You know, there's too much excess blood that's intermingled within
Speaker 1: the hair, and and even if you tried to move
Speaker 1: the hair around, you're not gonna be able to tell
Speaker 1: the wards two it looks like just one blood spot.
Speaker 1: Until the body goes to the corner's office and actually
Speaker 1: an autopsy is performed, you're not going to know at
Speaker 1: the time. I don't even think that from what I recall,
Speaker 1: the corner didn't even make a determination as to anything
Speaker 1: until the autopsy came back officially for Wosnia to say
Speaker 1: two shots. We knew right then and there that he
Speaker 1: was totally involved, and now we've got him. You you
Speaker 1: can't even keep your life straight. His story kept changing.
Speaker 1: I think he thought that his acting ability was going
Speaker 1: to carry him through this, this performance, so to speak,
Speaker 1: and it wasn't doing it. Dan is ushered back to
Speaker 1: a holding cell in the jail. There, Dan has access
Speaker 1: to a phone. As the pressure mounts, he really needs
Speaker 1: to talk to his fiancee. It ends up being the
Speaker 1: call that will take down the curtain for Dan's last performance.
Speaker 1: What please you realize you're recording the song conversation anyways,
Speaker 1: You're being an absolute ask to try and lie again. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I am, because they're the bad um. You're talking about
Speaker 1: their credit card theme. They already know all about it,
Speaker 1: no more than that that. What I'm saying is that
Speaker 1: if they can't find up, they can't I know. But well,
Speaker 1: I don't know what that is. I thought it was
Speaker 1: a murder weapon. I don't know what you're talking about
Speaker 1: other evidence. I don't know what Kim how decides that
Speaker 1: then said he had a murder weapon. So that's exactly
Speaker 1: what Kim told me. So I'm gonna go tell the
Speaker 1: detective now, So what do you want me to do?
Speaker 1: I don't want you to tell the detective anything, and
Speaker 1: I don't want them involved like that. I mean, now
Speaker 1: I'm now I'm dead. Now I'm really dead. Maybe you're
Speaker 1: already dead. You said you wanted to talk to me.
Speaker 1: What's going on? I'm crazy and I did it. You
Speaker 1: did what they killed Julia and I killed Sam. Okay,
Speaker 1: tell me how you you killed Sam two shots using
Speaker 1: my father's gun that I had, and you're motored behind
Speaker 1: Uh killing Sam was money and it's in money. And okay,
Speaker 1: tell me about the same incident on what you did.
Speaker 1: I told him that I needed to move some stuff
Speaker 1: from the theater. I said, you need to bend down
Speaker 1: and help me lift this thing up. And when he
Speaker 1: bent down, I grabbed the gun. I never really fired
Speaker 1: the gun before, so I pulled it back and I
Speaker 1: shot him. Term Is there anything that you said to
Speaker 1: Julie Pryor sharing her? No? I didn't. I had I
Speaker 1: got her in. I was downstairs in my apartment. I
Speaker 1: was still text messaging. That was Sam's phone. You were using. Yes,
Speaker 1: what what sort of text precage on where you're doing that? Before?
Speaker 1: I was saying you need to come over tonight, You
Speaker 1: need to come over tonight. What what did you say
Speaker 1: to Julie? Tally was wearing like a crown tr She
Speaker 1: had just come from her brother's eye. Had said like, um,
Speaker 1: Sam just called me and he was going through some stuff.
Speaker 1: She said, yeah, me too. When I said, adm key,
Speaker 1: let's go in, opened the door. I listen. I just
Speaker 1: went to the bathroom and quick, because I was really
Speaker 1: nervous into gun again. I went back out into the
Speaker 1: hallway and then said, oh, by the way, did you
Speaker 1: see this in sam Stead? And I said, rasinging over
Speaker 1: look at it right there? When she was lead over
Speaker 1: and put two mills in the back of around. Okay,
Speaker 1: when did you feel you have to kill Joey? What
Speaker 1: was the rationale behind? Man was called crazy? But seriously,
Speaker 1: seriously to cover up Sam and so well, why how
Speaker 1: would that cover up? To make it look like he
Speaker 1: was on the run and he did? Why could you
Speaker 1: try and cover for him? We needed the money, No,
Speaker 1: we never need money. We need to be good people
Speaker 1: and you have each other. Sorry, on that call, you
Speaker 1: hear Rachel lecturing Dan on being good people. Meanwhile, Rachel
Speaker 1: knew Dan kept a sex tape of a former girlfriend
Speaker 1: in their heartment safe she found that tape, which was
Speaker 1: located right next to Dan's father's gun. Rachel confronted Dan,
Speaker 1: and he told her he filmed it with the purposes
Speaker 1: of planning to extort money from his ex girlfriend and
Speaker 1: her family. Rachel actually told police this explanation of the
Speaker 1: sex tape the night Dan was arrested after his bachelor party,
Speaker 1: as if it was a matter of fact, because that
Speaker 1: was part and parcel with her lifestyle with Dan. It
Speaker 1: was that lifestyle that we now know included stealing, lying, cheating,
Speaker 1: and conning people out of money. So the idea that
Speaker 1: she's telling him, we have to be good people and
Speaker 1: we don't need money. Because Rachel knows the police are
Speaker 1: recording her, she knows about the sex tape. It was
Speaker 1: in the apartment, she knows what Dan planned to do
Speaker 1: with it, and she seemed to have have no problem
Speaker 1: with it. I was able to get some calls that
Speaker 1: were made that happened between Dan and Rachel, and he
Speaker 1: seems to be sort of taking her through the murders
Speaker 1: just so that she's up to speed on the details
Speaker 1: of how much he's told you, guys, did you feel
Speaker 1: that way? Would you listen to the call? She knows
Speaker 1: a lot more than she's saying. I think he's telling
Speaker 1: her piece by piece, each detail as to what's going on.
Speaker 1: And I don't know if he's doing that to protect her,
Speaker 1: to make it look like he's the only one involved. Again,
Speaker 1: in my opinion, I know she knows a lot more.
Speaker 1: There's no doubt in my mind that she probably knows
Speaker 1: every detail. This caller is being recorded and maybe monitored.
Speaker 1: They are you sitting down? They don't think any left
Speaker 1: me after I tell you this good This is not
Speaker 1: a good story, Okay, but you need to know I
Speaker 1: called Pam and Ted look go down to the theater
Speaker 1: on the baby and I had my dad done at it,
Speaker 1: and when I took him up into the attic, I
Speaker 1: shot him two times in the back of the head.
Speaker 1: And Rachel continues to profess her innocence to the media
Speaker 1: as yet another victim of Daniel Wozniak. After I'm finding
Speaker 1: all this out, I'm starting to question if I've ever
Speaker 1: known him. I absolutely feel like I was stuped by Dan.
Speaker 1: Rachel says she was duped by Dan, but let's start
Speaker 1: with the Fernando Perez letter, where he writes that Rachel's
Speaker 1: response to Dan when he tells her of the plan
Speaker 1: to kill Sam for their honeymoon money, is to do
Speaker 1: whatever you have to do to make us happy Dan.
Speaker 1: Rachel claims that Dan hid their debt from her, but
Speaker 1: based on former friends of Rachel's, they all agree she
Speaker 1: was completely aware of their financial status. Sources shared with
Speaker 1: me that Rachel and Dan stole nearly on a daily basis.
Speaker 1: A bridesmaid of Rachel's said Rachel stole their bridesmaid's dresses
Speaker 1: for the wedding. Rachel and Dan stole furniture for their apartment,
Speaker 1: along with food and alcohol. Chris Williams said on the
Speaker 1: day Sam was murdered. When Dan and Sam left the apartment,
Speaker 1: he stayed back with Rachel and she got on Craigslist
Speaker 1: looking for stripper jobs and nude model jobs. Why would
Speaker 1: Rachel do this if she thought they had money? Neither
Speaker 1: Dan nor Rachel held a steady job, so I'm not
Speaker 1: sure where Rachel thought the money was coming from. She
Speaker 1: said she didn't realize that Dan was a prolific liar,
Speaker 1: but Rachel told police that he was an absolute pathological liar.
Speaker 1: So it's all Rachel's lies and inconsistencies that serve as
Speaker 1: the blueprint to the truth in this case. And you're
Speaker 1: absolutely right about Rachel Buffett. How could you not know?
Speaker 1: You know, you're counter over gone, you're into red, You're
Speaker 1: constantly borrowing money from everybody, and all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: your husband to be comes up with money from somewhere.
Speaker 1: It's not from working hard as a starving actor. It's
Speaker 1: like he's got four or five hundred bucks in his pocket,
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, Where'd that come from? In an
Speaker 1: effort to clear her name, Rachel appears on the Dr.
Speaker 1: Phil Show, and it's confronted by Steve Hair because of
Speaker 1: how much these people are hurting and they think that
Speaker 1: I had anything to do with that. It's bringing up
Speaker 1: a lot of pain for me. Do you believe she
Speaker 1: belongs in prison? Yes? I didn't. You're lying and you're
Speaker 1: covering it up. My son and his friend, his tutor,
Speaker 1: they're both dead. He was cut up into pieces. And
Speaker 1: you to come on here and go on the TV
Speaker 1: stations pour me? That offends me. And how does Steve
Speaker 1: Hair feel about Rachel Buffett's claims of innocence. There's fifty
Speaker 1: a hundred different times you you lie to the police.
Speaker 1: You came out and like out and right, So just no,
Speaker 1: you're gonna have to live with this and you're gonna
Speaker 1: have to live through social media now. Is that every
Speaker 1: time your name comes up, you're going to be associated
Speaker 1: with the murder? And more importantly, is that you lied
Speaker 1: about it? That says volumes about you? Baby? Where are you?
Speaker 1: I don't hear they won't mean they already told them, no, no, no,
Speaker 1: What was what on your line when you were just
Speaker 1: remember you buy it? Just Rember his hands water, laughing.
Speaker 1: Why do you think you're doing? I don't know. I
Speaker 1: don't know, and the heartbreak for Steve Hair continues. The
Speaker 1: police called to Steve. Before you find out from the TV,
Speaker 1: we have to tell you that Sam was dismembered. That's
Speaker 1: when I lost it. That's when I lost it. They
Speaker 1: were looking for body parts at a park. That was Friday. Saturday,
Speaker 1: May twenty nine was Sam's birthday. And I'll never forget,
Speaker 1: but on my son's birthday, I was praying that day
Speaker 1: would find his head. This was a boy, a man
Speaker 1: who had on a tattoo on his chest, huge tattoo
Speaker 1: on his chest of flowers and hearts with mom and
Speaker 1: dad in the middle of it. That's how they identified
Speaker 1: my son's body because he didn't have a head, needed
Speaker 1: some arms. What Daniel wasny I did to that body,
Speaker 1: the way he left him there with just no regard
Speaker 1: for human life was so disgraceful. And I swore that
Speaker 1: I was going to promise Sam that I wasn't going
Speaker 1: to stop until I found out what happened to him.
Speaker 1: Over the next ten episodes of Sleuth, we will discover
Speaker 1: whether Dan wasnia committed these murders on his own well
Speaker 1: here from countless witnesses, and reveal more evidence that points
Speaker 1: to others who may have helped Dan Wozniak plan and
Speaker 1: execute the murders of our victims. Sam Hair and Julia
Speaker 1: Kibuishi will learn of possible accomplices that authorities decided either
Speaker 1: to ignore or chose to overlook because they needed their
Speaker 1: testimony in the prosecution of Daniel Wasniak's death penalty case.
Speaker 1: There's no statue in homicide. So you know, even though
Speaker 1: we have one guy in prison right now on death row,
Speaker 1: there's still funny more room for others to follow. And
Speaker 1: so this odyssey that I've been on for the last
Speaker 1: two years has really been not only about answering the
Speaker 1: questions for me on a personal level, but more importantly
Speaker 1: helping these victims families, helping them understand what really happened
Speaker 1: to their loved ones. That hoping that the rest of
Speaker 1: the people involved are found guilty of the crimes they
Speaker 1: committed as well, because it wasn't just Daniel Wasniak, It
Speaker 1: just wasn't There's no doubt in my mind she might
Speaker 1: be the mastermind of this whole thing, and Dan's just
Speaker 1: taking a hit on his own. Theyb are you sure
Speaker 1: you're not making this up? Because you're under pressure. Don't
Speaker 1: have to God, truth time, it can be truthful. And
Speaker 1: now all I want to do this dietause my life
Speaker 1: is over. Why baby, because I don't want to live. No,
Speaker 1: I mean why we'll get that back? What I really got? Bad?
Speaker 1: Why did it back? Feel bad? Not have anything money
Speaker 1: for him? Next week, on Sleuth, victim Sam Hare's father,
Speaker 1: Steve Hair, returns to share the details regarding the three
Speaker 1: felony counts Dan wazne x X fiance Rachel Buffett faces
Speaker 1: in her upcoming trial for accessory after the fact. To date,
Speaker 1: prosecutor Matt Murphy has only been willing to charge Buffett
Speaker 1: with the lesser crime of accessory, as he suggests he
Speaker 1: can only prove she aided in covering up the murders,
Speaker 1: Yet his own police who investigated the case, feel Buffett,
Speaker 1: the former Disney princess, should have been charged with murder.
Speaker 1: Matt Murphy has offered Rachel a deal to plead guilty
Speaker 1: to a misdemeanor with no jail time and in one year,
Speaker 1: he says, the entire charge will be dismissed, but Rachel
Speaker 1: has turned down the offer because she says she wants
Speaker 1: her day in court. Next week, here with Steve and
Speaker 1: I learned in our investigation and decide for yourselves Rachel's
Speaker 1: role in the murders. If you enjoyed this episode of Sleuth,
Speaker 1: share with the friend and be sure to leave a
Speaker 1: rating or review. Follow Sleuth on I Heart Radio, or
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