Speaker 1: The following podcast contains explicit descriptions of violence, including sexual violence,
Speaker 1: that some listeners may find upsetting. Continue at your own risk.
Speaker 1: It was in August nineteen ninety six, writing between the
Speaker 1: bombing of Centennial Park during the Atlanta Olympics in July
Speaker 1: and the September shooting of Tupac Shakur in Las Vegas,
Speaker 1: when Connord Langford went on trial for murder. My name
Speaker 1: is Courtney Barnes, and I'm an author and a journalist
Speaker 1: who was living in Domino Beach, California during the nineteen
Speaker 1: nineties when a serial killer was preying on our quiet
Speaker 1: little beach communities, residents and visitors. In September nineteen ninety two,
Speaker 1: I wrote the very first article about the killer's very
Speaker 1: first victim, nineteen year old Via Kendrick, which, by the way,
Speaker 1: was my very first professionally published article. Lots of firsts there.
Speaker 1: A little over two years later, in November of nineteen
Speaker 1: ninety I interviewed and wrote the story of Angela Bowers,
Speaker 1: as far as we know, the first and only person
Speaker 1: to ever escape from the killer with her life. Not
Speaker 1: long after that, I received two letters from someone claiming
Speaker 1: to be the killer and In both he threatened to
Speaker 1: turn me into one of his victims, and in nineteen
Speaker 1: ninety six, Connor Langford went on trial charged with the
Speaker 1: murders of Vera Kendrick, twenty eight year old singer songwriter
Speaker 1: Trudy Masterson, and eighteen year old Juan Costas, three of
Speaker 1: the seven people who had been murdered in Domino Beach
Speaker 1: over the past four years. It seemed that finally, finally,
Speaker 1: our year's long nightmare was coming to an end. This
Speaker 1: is the Murder Years, Episode seven. Who will Save your soul?
Speaker 2: So you want to talk about the trial? Now?
Speaker 1: That's Connor Langford, the man now known as the Domino Beachkiller.
Speaker 1: In August nineteen ninety six, Connor was twenty eight years old.
Speaker 1: Just a few short years earlier, he had been Domino
Speaker 1: Beach's favorite son, a handsome, laid back surfer and musician,
Speaker 1: son to the rich and powerful city councilman Greg Langford.
Speaker 1: Everyone in town loved him, but by the beginning of
Speaker 1: nineteen ninety six, his Golden Boys status had decidedly tarnished.
Speaker 1: He had become a washed up drug addict who was
Speaker 1: sitting in jail charged with three murders and suspected of
Speaker 1: four others, as well as the attempted kidnapping of Angela Bowers.
Speaker 2: What's the point. The trial was a goddamn farce.
Speaker 3: I was pretty much convicted before I even set foot
Speaker 3: in the courtroom.
Speaker 4: You don't think you got a fair trial.
Speaker 3: How could it have been fair? I'm here rotting in
Speaker 3: prison for some shit I didn't do.
Speaker 1: It's been twenty eight years since Connor Langford was sentenced.
Speaker 1: He's been in prison for half his life. Let's back
Speaker 1: up a bit and talk about how he got there.
Speaker 1: Here's retired Delsoul County Sheriff Damon Stokes.
Speaker 2: As I remember, it went down more or less like this.
Speaker 5: California Highway Patrol located the van belonging to Connor Langford
Speaker 5: just off the Pacific Coast Highway, roughly one hundred and
Speaker 5: fifty miles north of Domino Beach. This is about thirty
Speaker 5: hours after the body of Trudy Masterson was seen by
Speaker 5: Henrietta Jones. The homeless woman being pulled out of the
Speaker 5: van by an adult white male. Some of Trudy's hair
Speaker 5: and blood were found in the back of the vehicle,
Speaker 5: and Henrietta confirmed that the van they found was indeed
Speaker 5: the van she saw the night in question.
Speaker 1: What about Langford? Was she able to identify him?
Speaker 4: She was not.
Speaker 5: It was dark, he was wearing a hooded sweatshirt or
Speaker 5: something similar, and she really only saw him from the back,
Speaker 5: but she did see the way he lifted Trudy's body
Speaker 5: out of the van and said that, you know, he
Speaker 5: moved like someone who was very fit, reasonably young.
Speaker 2: The fuck does that even mean?
Speaker 3: How the hell would some ancient homeless woman even though
Speaker 3: how someone who was very fit and reasonably young move Besides,
Speaker 3: I was far from what you'd call fit, and I
Speaker 3: arguably wasn't reasonably young either.
Speaker 4: Connor, you were twenty eight, and I.
Speaker 3: Always looked on heroin, I looked and moved like I
Speaker 3: was older than I am now, for Christ's sake.
Speaker 4: Yes, I remember. That was part of your lawyer's argument that.
Speaker 2: Guy was a goddamn moron.
Speaker 6: My fucking father hired him, should have taken the public defender.
Speaker 5: At that point, we had no choice but to arrest Connor,
Speaker 5: and I went to his father first before I did anything,
Speaker 5: really any public statement.
Speaker 1: And how did that go? Better than I thought it would?
Speaker 5: Sure, he made a stink, but it felt pretty obligatory
Speaker 5: to me, like he was just going through the motions
Speaker 5: on it. Remember, Connor had been making the councilman's life
Speaker 5: hell for at least the past six or seven months,
Speaker 5: probably going back.
Speaker 2: Even before that.
Speaker 5: I think on some level the councilman was happy to
Speaker 5: have his son quieted down and out of the way,
Speaker 5: which I know sounds crazy, But.
Speaker 1: Do you think the councilman thought Connor was guilty?
Speaker 7: No?
Speaker 2: Well, I don't know.
Speaker 5: Look, I have kids of my own, and it would
Speaker 5: be pretty hard to believe them capable of such terrible
Speaker 5: things unless I saw it with my own eyes, and
Speaker 5: maybe not even then. Greg and Connor Langford, they had
Speaker 5: their differences, I mean, lord knows, but as long as
Speaker 5: Connor maintained his innocence, his father did the same thing.
Speaker 3: My dad knew I wasn't guilty. I mean, he wasn't
Speaker 3: my biggest van, but he knew I wasn't a killer.
Speaker 3: And you know what, with all the influence he had
Speaker 3: in that town, all the times he'd gotten the cops
Speaker 3: or the press or whoever to do whatever the fuck
Speaker 3: he wanted, he could have gotten the sheriff to release
Speaker 3: me into his custody while I waited for my trial.
Speaker 3: I know he could have, but he didn't let me
Speaker 3: sit in a goddamn jail cell for months, fucking months.
Speaker 4: Man, are you sure about that? That your father could
Speaker 4: have had you released? The evidence against you was pretty damning,
Speaker 4: wasn't it.
Speaker 6: Your van was stolen?
Speaker 2: You know this.
Speaker 6: It had been missing for like, I don't know, two
Speaker 6: weeks three.
Speaker 4: Yet you never reported it stolen.
Speaker 3: You're talking about a time when I was so messed
Speaker 3: up on drugs I barely even knew what day it was.
Speaker 3: And I sure as hell wasn't trying to invite the
Speaker 3: cops into my life. I mean, I did illegal drugs
Speaker 3: every day, multiple times every day. Why would I ask
Speaker 3: the cops to come sniffing around. Besides, it wasn't like
Speaker 3: that van was my primary mode transportation. You know, I
Speaker 3: used it a lot when Brodie and I were still playing,
Speaker 3: you know, to houl my guitar and Brodie's drum kid
Speaker 3: back and forth from gigs, and I carried our surfboards
Speaker 3: in it when we go to the beach. Ben I
Speaker 3: wasn't playing music or surfing by fall of ninety five,
Speaker 3: I mean, I get it. Those are the true things
Speaker 3: I was known for. But at that time, the only
Speaker 3: thing I cared about was scoring drugs. I couldn't have
Speaker 3: given two shits about that van.
Speaker 4: But you understand how it looked, right, Your van was
Speaker 4: used to commit a murder, and your excuse is that
Speaker 4: you forgot to report it stolen.
Speaker 6: I didn't forget. I just didn't care.
Speaker 3: Anyone who knew me back then would tell you, Okay,
Speaker 3: I didn't give a fuck about anything.
Speaker 8: No, that's not true at all. He cared about a
Speaker 8: lot even then.
Speaker 1: That's Maya Morales Connor Langford's former girlfriend.
Speaker 8: I mean, yeah, he was going through a rough time
Speaker 8: even before he was accused of murder. But I know
Speaker 8: he cared about me one thing. No matter what he
Speaker 8: and I have been through, no matter what he did
Speaker 8: to me, or why we broke up or anything, We've
Speaker 8: never stopped caring for each other.
Speaker 6: Never.
Speaker 8: No, Connor cared, not about that van, but not about
Speaker 8: nothing either.
Speaker 4: Oh.
Speaker 5: I remember his excuse about the van. It was awfully convenient.
Speaker 5: But even if anyone believed him, and I don't think
Speaker 5: anybody did. I mean, not the judge, the jury, not me,
Speaker 5: not you. Right, Am I wrong about that?
Speaker 1: No? You're not wrong. I didn't believe him either.
Speaker 5: Yeah, you know, it wasn't like that was the only
Speaker 5: evidence we had against him.
Speaker 1: The trial took place at the Del Soul County Courthouse,
Speaker 1: about five miles inland from downtown Domino Beach, right next
Speaker 1: door to city Hall, where Connor's father, the councilman, had
Speaker 1: an office. It lasted five days. The prosecution began by
Speaker 1: focusing on Vera Kendrick Garrick.
Speaker 8: Hendrick was a pretty lovable free spirit.
Speaker 1: The Domino Beach Killer's first victim back in September nineteen
Speaker 1: ninety two. She was painted as a fun, pretty lovable
Speaker 1: free spirit, which she was, and it was refreshing to
Speaker 1: hear her spoken about in that way instead of as
Speaker 1: a homeless hippie who probably had it coming due to
Speaker 1: her unconventional lifestyle. As counselman, Langford preferred, the fact that
Speaker 1: Connor had had a sexual relationship with her and the
Speaker 1: fact that Connor found her body was called too coincidental
Speaker 1: to be coincidence.
Speaker 8: Connor having a sexual relationship with Vera and finding her
Speaker 8: body is just too coincidental to be coincidence.
Speaker 1: And you could tell the jury agreed even that early
Speaker 1: on in the trial. It seemed Connor's defense attorney had
Speaker 1: his work cut out for him. Although there wasn't enough
Speaker 1: evidence to charge him with the murders of the three
Speaker 1: asust udents from April of nineteen ninety four, the prosecution
Speaker 1: did manage to get a witness to testify that Connor
Speaker 1: was partying at the girl's house the night they were murdered.
Speaker 4: I did see Connor Langford at the party that night.
Speaker 1: This was met with an objection by the defense and
Speaker 1: an admonishment by the judge. But the jury heard what
Speaker 1: they heard, and to be honest, by that point, I
Speaker 1: think they already decided he was the killer, and not
Speaker 1: just the killer of the victims he was charged with
Speaker 1: the jury and probably anyone else following the trial, believed
Speaker 1: he was the killer of all seven victims, and they
Speaker 1: were just waiting for the opportunity to go back into
Speaker 1: that little room, address the formality of deliberations, and then
Speaker 1: come back and deliver a guilty verdict. Connor's lawyer tried
Speaker 1: to get the judge to declare a mistrial, but the
Speaker 1: motion was denied and it would later be considered not
Speaker 1: strong enough grounds to warrant an appeal.
Speaker 2: That was when I knew for sure the deck was
Speaker 2: stacked against me.
Speaker 3: Anytime I called the jury looking at me, I felt
Speaker 3: like I was something they scraped off their shoes, you know.
Speaker 2: I mean. I hadn't give it up, I hope yet.
Speaker 1: But the prosecution was a little more elegant when they
Speaker 1: tried to tie the murder of Billy Boy Reeves to Connor,
Speaker 1: mainly by focusing on his drug problem. They managed to
Speaker 1: get Connor's dealer to take the stand in exchange, of course,
Speaker 1: for all sorts of immunity. During the dealer's let's call
Speaker 1: it colorful testimony.
Speaker 6: He sold all sorts of drugs to Connor.
Speaker 1: The prosecutor asked him if he had ever seen Connor
Speaker 1: and Billy boyd together. It was very slick and definitely
Speaker 1: a dirty trick, and the judge was quick to shut
Speaker 1: it down before the witness could answer.
Speaker 2: And how the fuck was that guy?
Speaker 3: A credible source of information Oliver had was skunk weed
Speaker 3: and heroin that had been stepped on so many times
Speaker 3: you had a double or triple dose to get off.
Speaker 2: They had enough on him to put him away for years.
Speaker 6: He would have said anything they wanted him to say.
Speaker 1: They went pretty hard trying to pin the murder of
Speaker 1: Juan Costas on Connor, but that was the weakest of
Speaker 1: the charges he was facing. The prosecution's theory was that
Speaker 1: Connor murdered one in a misguided effort to get his
Speaker 1: ex girlfriend, Maya Morales to come back to him.
Speaker 8: It was just so stupid. If Connor really wanted to
Speaker 8: be with me, there are a million ways he could
Speaker 8: have gone about it.
Speaker 1: Because Maya had been something of a surrogate sister to Juan,
Speaker 1: the prosecutor argued, Connor knew his death would upset her
Speaker 1: enough that in her grief he might somehow find a
Speaker 1: way to weasel himself back into her good graces.
Speaker 8: Oh yeah, he did try to contact me after Hauan's
Speaker 8: body was found, but I didn't return its calls, and
Speaker 8: then after a couple of days he stopped calling. Don't
Speaker 8: you think that's a lot of trouble to go through
Speaker 8: to just give up like that.
Speaker 1: This theory pretty much fell apart when the defense started
Speaker 1: calling witnesses. Maya was one of the first witnesses called,
Speaker 1: and in spite of the fact that she and Connor
Speaker 1: had been broken up for a year and a half,
Speaker 1: she was adamant that she didn't believe he killed one
Speaker 1: or anyone else.
Speaker 8: In some ways, I still loved him. In some ways
Speaker 8: I still do even now.
Speaker 1: Do you ever regret breaking up with him or not
Speaker 1: giving him a second chance?
Speaker 8: I had given him a second chance, third orth and
Speaker 8: fifth two. It wasn't my cheating on me with that
Speaker 8: girl was the first thing he'd ever done wrong. It
Speaker 8: was the last, and I deserved better. But even so,
Speaker 8: if he really wanted to be back with me again,
Speaker 8: I think he probably could have convinced me to come back.
Speaker 1: You don't think he wanted to be with you anymore.
Speaker 6: I think.
Speaker 8: I think by the time that happened, by the time
Speaker 8: I caught him without wanna be groupie, he was, he
Speaker 8: was already lost. And I think he knew. He knew
Speaker 8: if he and I were together. He just dragged me down.
Speaker 8: I'm not saying it was like a deliberate choice if
Speaker 8: he made or anything, but I think on some level
Speaker 8: he was trying to set me free. He was giving
Speaker 8: me the reason I needed to cut him loose forever,
Speaker 8: because he knew he wasn't good for me. He released me,
Speaker 8: He let me go.
Speaker 1: Since the one cost discharge was falling flat in front
Speaker 1: of the jury. The prosecutor moved on to the strongest
Speaker 1: case they had, with the rape and murder of Trudy Masterson.
Speaker 1: The prosecutor discussed how Connor worked as a bar back
Speaker 1: at Triple B's, the bar where Trudy played her final gig.
Speaker 1: He was one of the last people to see her alive,
Speaker 1: and he left the bar minutes after she did. A
Speaker 1: theory was presented about how Connor caught up with Trudy
Speaker 1: and offered to walk her back to her motel, and
Speaker 1: on the way suggested they go to the beach to
Speaker 1: have a beer and maybe smoke a joint. They got
Speaker 1: to his van, he slipped to a roofee then raped
Speaker 1: and strangled her. Henrietta Jones identified Connor's van in her testimony,
Speaker 1: and although she admitted she couldn't say for sure Connor
Speaker 1: was the man she saw that night, at that point
Speaker 1: it didn't really matter. The prosecution was presenting a strong case,
Speaker 1: but so far it probably wouldn't have been strong enough
Speaker 1: to convict him. That's where I came in.
Speaker 5: The letters The killer sent you with the strongest evidence
Speaker 5: we had, stronger than his van. Even maybe if Henrietta
Speaker 5: had been able to id him, I mean that would
Speaker 5: have been enough. But those letters, he might as well
Speaker 5: have signed his name to the murders. I mean, without them,
Speaker 5: I don't think we ever could have put him away.
Speaker 1: So the reason I wasn't given the assignment of covering
Speaker 1: Connor Langford's trial for the so Cal Journal wasn't because
Speaker 1: of my issues with Connor's father, the Councilman. You know,
Speaker 1: those issues were many. No, the reason I wasn't given
Speaker 1: the trial is because I was a witness for the
Speaker 1: prosecution because of those letters and what was in them.
Speaker 1: When I got up on the witness stand, I had
Speaker 1: to testify about my entire history researching and writing about
Speaker 1: the Domino Killer, beginning with my very first assignment covering
Speaker 1: the murder of Vera Hendrick. I talked about the lyrics
Speaker 1: from the Nirvana song Polly that were found at the
Speaker 1: crime scene and the fact that the song is sung
Speaker 1: from the point of view of a rapist. And because
Speaker 1: the author of those letters referred to the two songs
Speaker 1: associated with Billy Boy Reeves and the ASU students, Pretend
Speaker 1: We're Dead and Cornflake Girl, I talked about them too.
Speaker 1: I talked about the murder of Jan Costas, which I
Speaker 1: had covered for the paper and happened right before I
Speaker 1: got the killer's second letter, the one that quoted a
Speaker 1: lyric from Soundgarden's Black Hole Sun, and I talked about
Speaker 1: Connor singing a cover of that song a few weeks later.
Speaker 1: The defense tried to clean that up, bringing in a
Speaker 1: member of the cover band. Connor briefly fronted Or, who
Speaker 1: said they'd been working on Black Hole Sun for weeks
Speaker 1: and it was far from the first time they'd played
Speaker 1: it in public. It was a popular song, after all,
Speaker 1: but it didn't seem to help. It was another piece
Speaker 1: of Connor's everything is a coincidence defense that was clearly
Speaker 1: not resonating with the jury. Before I left the witness stand,
Speaker 1: I talked about how the author of those letters wrote
Speaker 1: about how much he wanted to rape and kill me,
Speaker 1: and although I didn't like admitting it, I was under oath,
Speaker 1: so I had to. I had to admit how much
Speaker 1: that scared me. I know that's something I haven't been
Speaker 1: completely honest about during this whole thing. When I look
Speaker 1: back at this time in my life, I mean, I
Speaker 1: was just a kid. I was twenty five years old,
Speaker 1: when I testified at Connor Langford's trial, twenty five, barely
Speaker 1: old enough to rent a car, and there I am
Speaker 1: being asked to help a jury decide the fate of
Speaker 1: a guy just a few years older than me, a
Speaker 1: guy who once upon a time I had a massive
Speaker 1: crush on. But that wasn't even the hardest part. I
Speaker 1: had been threatened. Someone had expressed their desire to rape
Speaker 1: and murder me, someone who had already raped and murdered
Speaker 1: other women. I was terrified, but I don't know. I
Speaker 1: had to pretend I wasn't. I had to pretend it
Speaker 1: didn't FaZe me. Why Why did I feel that way?
Speaker 1: I was too scared to let it show how scared
Speaker 1: I was.
Speaker 4: A few years.
Speaker 1: Later, when I was promoting my book and making the
Speaker 1: rounds on all the talk shows, I was asked over
Speaker 1: and over again, weren't you scared? And I would say
Speaker 1: something along the lines of I was too focused to
Speaker 1: be scared, or the fact that I was covering all
Speaker 1: these stories gave me distance. All I wanted to say was,
Speaker 1: of course, I was fucking scared. A serial killer had
Speaker 1: targeted me. It was over a year between when I
Speaker 1: received that first letter and when Connor was a rest
Speaker 1: one year. One year feeling like I could be attacked
Speaker 1: any second of any day. One year sleeping with the
Speaker 1: lights on in a baseball bat under my bed, as
Speaker 1: if that would have done me any good. One year
Speaker 1: without going on so much as a date with a guy,
Speaker 1: because there was always that chance that I was wrong
Speaker 1: about Connor, and any guy allowed myself to be alone
Speaker 1: with just might end my life. So was I scared, Yes, very,
Speaker 1: I'm sorry. I just I needed to get that off
Speaker 1: my chest. It's been weighing me down for a long time.
Speaker 1: Oh okay, So after I left the stand, I learned
Speaker 1: that my testimony, as hard and painful as it was,
Speaker 1: was just setting the stage.
Speaker 5: So the faulty watermark.
Speaker 1: You may remember from previous episodes that there was a
Speaker 1: unique watermark on the paper the killer's letters were written on.
Speaker 1: There was a misspelling of the paper company's name, and
Speaker 1: as a result, most of it was recalled. There were
Speaker 1: not that many reams of that paper that had made
Speaker 1: it into circulation.
Speaker 8: So after your testimony, the prosecution introduced a new piece
Speaker 8: of evidence of the court. It was a flyer I
Speaker 8: had made for Connor's band, slapping bones back in like
Speaker 8: early summer in nineteen ninety four, and it had the
Speaker 8: same watermark that was on your letters.
Speaker 1: As it turned out. Back in happier times, when Connor
Speaker 1: and his friend Brody were in a band together and
Speaker 1: he and Maya were still dating, Maya would design flyers
Speaker 1: promoting the band's gigs and post them around town or
Speaker 1: pass them out at the record shop where she worked.
Speaker 8: I one of the greatest artists in the world, but
Speaker 8: I wasn't body either. Sometimes I'd hang out while they practiced,
Speaker 8: and to be hot it with you, it could get
Speaker 8: a little boring, So I killed the time by drawing pictures,
Speaker 8: and sometimes I turned those drawings into flyers for the bands.
Speaker 8: I remember buying that paper too, because it was half price.
Speaker 8: It was at this little office supply store just passed downtown.
Speaker 8: I got I don't know, four or five reams. Maybe
Speaker 8: it was a really good deal. I didn't care that
Speaker 8: it was copy paper, not you know, proper sketching paper
Speaker 8: or whatever. And I didn't know a thing about watermarks
Speaker 8: back then.
Speaker 1: So this paper you bought, where did you keep it?
Speaker 8: At the band's rehearsal space, it was a warehouse heading
Speaker 8: out towards Riverside where you could rent a little room.
Speaker 8: It wasn't exactly sound proof, but it was good enough.
Speaker 8: I guess there were maybe three or four bands practicing
Speaker 8: on the property at any moment. And there was this
Speaker 8: copy machine in the office there and they didn't mind
Speaker 8: you using it, but you had to bring your own.
Speaker 1: Paper, so Connor had access to it.
Speaker 8: Yeah, I mean, it's just paper. It wasn't like it
Speaker 8: was locked up or anything.
Speaker 1: And even with that evidence, even with that same watermark
Speaker 1: that was on your flyers and the letters that the
Speaker 1: killer sent me, you never thought it was Connor.
Speaker 8: No, And I still don't.
Speaker 6: Look.
Speaker 8: I know it looked bad. Okay, I'm not stupid and
Speaker 8: I'm not naive, and I just I do not believe
Speaker 8: for one second that Connor had it in him to
Speaker 8: kill anyone. Yeah, he could get angry and yees, he
Speaker 8: was messed up on drugs for a little while, but
Speaker 8: he was He is a gentle person. He is not
Speaker 8: a killer.
Speaker 1: The jury disagreed and Connor was found guilty for the
Speaker 1: murders of Vera Hendrick and Trudy Masterson after just four
Speaker 1: hours of deliberations.
Speaker 8: Connor Langford guilty for the murders of Vera Kendrick and
Speaker 8: Truty Masters.
Speaker 1: He wasn't tried for the murders of Billy boy Rieves
Speaker 1: or the three ASU students, but the Court of Public
Speaker 1: Opinions certainly found him guilty. The same thing went for
Speaker 1: Juan Costas, even though the state failed to prove its
Speaker 1: case there and he received a reluctant not guilty verdict
Speaker 1: from the jury.
Speaker 5: Look, we felt like justice had been served. I closed
Speaker 5: all the cases from Vera Kendrick to Trudy Masterson, and
Speaker 5: I felt good about doing that.
Speaker 1: Likely because of Councilman Langford's urging the state was not
Speaker 1: seeking the death penalty. But practically all of Domino Beach
Speaker 1: and every member of the press in southern California showed
Speaker 1: up on the day the judge was going to hand
Speaker 1: down his sentence.
Speaker 3: So before sentencing, they brought me into this little room
Speaker 3: on the side of the courthouse, and I could.
Speaker 2: Hear all the people outside. Sounded like a party. You know.
Speaker 2: One thing I remember is hearing this woman playing guitar
Speaker 2: and singing.
Speaker 3: I found out later it was a friend of a
Speaker 3: friend of Trudy Masterson's. Anyway, she was out there singing
Speaker 3: that song by Jewel, and I realize I'm kind of
Speaker 3: singing along under my breath, and then she goes into
Speaker 3: the chorus where she says.
Speaker 6: Like, who is save your soul?
Speaker 3: I kind of laughed at myself and thought, no one,
Speaker 3: No one's going to save my soul if I even
Speaker 3: had one left to save.
Speaker 1: Minutes later, Connor was sentenced to two consecutive life sentences
Speaker 1: without the possibility of rule.
Speaker 2: And I've been here ever since.
Speaker 4: So, for the record, do you still.
Speaker 3: Maintain my innocence one hundred percent? If you're serious about
Speaker 3: re examining this whole thing, and if you really think
Speaker 3: there's even the slightest chance I might be innocent, please
Speaker 3: do something, because I've already done everything I can.
Speaker 1: It's hard to hear that. I don't know if I
Speaker 1: think Connor might be innocent. All I do know is
Speaker 1: that something happened very recently that inspired me to do
Speaker 1: this podcast and revisit this time in my life. Okay,
Speaker 1: so here it is. I received a third letter from
Speaker 1: someone claiming to be the Domino Beach Killer, and it
Speaker 1: sounds exactly like the person who wrote the first two
Speaker 1: nearly thirty years ago.
Speaker 7: Maybe my did court me, We're not done after all.
Speaker 1: The Murder Years is a production of AYR Media and iHeartMedia.
Speaker 1: Executive producer Elisa Rosen for AYR Media. Written by Tim Huddleston,
Speaker 1: directed by Alisa Rosen, Editing and sound designed by Tristan Bankston,
Speaker 1: Consulting producer Jean Chandil coordinator Olive Goldberg. Audio engineering and
Speaker 1: mastering by Justin Longerbeing studio engineer Josh Hook. Original concept
Speaker 1: developed in partnership with Anne Margaret Johns and Greg Spring,
Speaker 1: Executive producer for iHeartMedia. Maya Howard. Performances for this episode
Speaker 1: by Erica Leniac as Courtney Barnes, Tom Virtue as Sheriff,
Speaker 1: Damon Stokes, Alex Salem as Connor Langford, Melon Faxus as
Speaker 1: Maya Morales