WEBVTT - The Cheaters, The Family Affair and the Fallen Star 0:00:01.240 --> 0:00:03.520 Falling in love is the best feeling in the world. 0:00:04.040 --> 0:00:07.560 You see stars, you feel giddy, but sometimes that makes 0:00:07.560 --> 0:00:12.960 you do crazy things, and sometimes that means murder. Just 0:00:13.080 --> 0:00:15.840 because the story starts out with Once upon a Times 0:00:16.200 --> 0:00:20.160 doesn't mean it ends happily ever after. Welcome to Crazy 0:00:20.200 --> 0:00:23.480 and Love, a production of Katie Studios and I Heart Radio. 0:00:24.280 --> 0:00:27.800 Today's guests are true crime producer Jeff Shane and journalist 0:00:27.880 --> 0:00:32.400 and podcast host Connor Powell. Connor is a journalist and 0:00:32.479 --> 0:00:36.479 podcast host whose latest podcast is Lords of Soccer, How 0:00:36.560 --> 0:00:39.839 FIFA Stole the Beautiful Game and the Largest corruption scandal 0:00:39.960 --> 0:00:44.640 in the World. He's also host of Katie Studio's upcoming podcast, 0:00:44.960 --> 0:00:50.519 Death Island. You can follow Connor on Twitter at Connor M. Powell. 0:00:51.520 --> 0:00:56.280 Episode forty four, The Case of the Cheaters, The Family Affair, 0:00:56.920 --> 0:01:05.400 and the Fallen Star. At six ft seven, Gavin Smith 0:01:05.480 --> 0:01:09.679 was a strikingly handsome man with blonde hair and a 0:01:09.760 --> 0:01:12.720 killer smile. When he walked into a room, all eyes 0:01:12.760 --> 0:01:16.280 were on him. Women wanted to be with him and 0:01:16.400 --> 0:01:20.920 men wanted to be him. But despite the attention, Gavin 0:01:21.000 --> 0:01:25.200 remained humble. He was a generous and kind man who 0:01:25.200 --> 0:01:29.440 would give you the shirt off his back. In January, 0:01:30.680 --> 0:01:33.000 at twenty three years old, he was working as a 0:01:33.040 --> 0:01:38.440 waiter at an upscale restaurant in Los Angeles. That's when 0:01:38.480 --> 0:01:42.800 he met Lisa. Lisa, like Gavin, had blonde hair and 0:01:42.880 --> 0:01:47.800 tan skin. They looked like kenn and Barbie. Gavin was 0:01:47.840 --> 0:01:50.760 immediately attracted to Lisa and flirted with her as he 0:01:50.800 --> 0:01:54.160 served dinner. By the time the check came, he got 0:01:54.160 --> 0:01:58.640 her number and her heart. The couple had a fast romance, 0:01:58.680 --> 0:02:01.440 getting engaged as five months later and were married in 0:02:01.480 --> 0:02:08.079 November the same year. Lisa owned her own accounting firm 0:02:08.160 --> 0:02:11.720 and was the breadwinner for the couple, while John served 0:02:11.720 --> 0:02:14.320 as golf caddy and acted in bit parts in movies. 0:02:14.960 --> 0:02:17.880 Lisa worked full time and gave birth to three sons. 0:02:18.800 --> 0:02:22.000 By the time baby number three came, Gavin was thirty nine, 0:02:22.160 --> 0:02:24.600 and Lisa demanded that her husband get a real nine 0:02:24.639 --> 0:02:26.760 to five jobs so that he could help support their 0:02:26.800 --> 0:02:31.000 growing family. Gavin obliged, and, working a connection from the 0:02:31.080 --> 0:02:34.000 Ritzy golf course he caddied at, got an entry level 0:02:34.040 --> 0:02:37.519 position at twentieth Century Fox, making forty dollars a year, 0:02:38.720 --> 0:02:41.520 but his affability helped him rise in the ranks. Quickly, 0:02:41.600 --> 0:02:44.840 and he soon was a high powered, well respected film distributor. 0:02:45.840 --> 0:02:48.320 Lisa was able to sell her business and become a 0:02:48.360 --> 0:02:52.160 stay at home mom. Despite all the new responsibilities, Gavin 0:02:52.240 --> 0:02:55.560 still made time for his family. His boys, who were 0:02:55.600 --> 0:02:58.320 every bit as handsome and athletic as their dad, were 0:02:58.360 --> 0:03:01.920 the center of his universe. Living in a beautiful mansion 0:03:01.960 --> 0:03:05.919 in a Los Angeles suburb, Gavin Smith almost had it all. 0:03:07.120 --> 0:03:11.240 Here's Jeff. His job at Fox wasn't the first time 0:03:11.280 --> 0:03:14.280 Gavin had success. In college, she played basketball under the 0:03:14.440 --> 0:03:19.680 iconic coach John Wooden, and he was on the championship team, 0:03:19.760 --> 0:03:22.280 and you know, for anyone who knows basketball like this 0:03:22.360 --> 0:03:25.040 was a big deal. And it's no surprise that Gavin 0:03:25.400 --> 0:03:28.040 dreamt of playing in the NBA. But when he wasn't 0:03:28.120 --> 0:03:32.360 drafted after college, he was crushed and he ended up 0:03:32.440 --> 0:03:34.359 running off to the mountains for five or six days 0:03:34.360 --> 0:03:36.640 to cool off, and during this time no one knew 0:03:36.680 --> 0:03:40.200 where he was. But when he got back, he was 0:03:40.280 --> 0:03:42.120 flying back to his old self. So he really just 0:03:42.160 --> 0:03:44.880 needed that time to kind of decompress. And back in 0:03:44.960 --> 0:03:47.840 present day, it seemed that Gavin and Lisa really weren't 0:03:47.840 --> 0:03:51.080 doing as well as outside appearances may have led you 0:03:51.120 --> 0:03:54.360 to believe despite earning a hundred and eighty thousand dollars 0:03:54.360 --> 0:03:56.440 a year, the couple had bought their home at the 0:03:56.440 --> 0:03:59.120 height of the housing market, and the two thousand and 0:03:59.160 --> 0:04:03.040 eight financial really hurt them. They were living beyond their means. 0:04:03.480 --> 0:04:06.720 The market value of their home plunge to less than 0:04:06.760 --> 0:04:09.720 the balance ode on the mortgage, which meant they were 0:04:09.800 --> 0:04:13.560 completely underwater financially. So it's not a surprise that Gavin 0:04:13.600 --> 0:04:15.400 and Lisa were in the midst of trying to sell 0:04:15.440 --> 0:04:19.040 their house, Yeah, Connor, And to make matters worse, Gavin 0:04:19.080 --> 0:04:23.080 also wanted to retire from his cushy job at Fox 0:04:23.360 --> 0:04:26.839 and pursue acting again. His wife Lisa, though, was concerned 0:04:26.880 --> 0:04:30.720 that they literally couldn't afford to do that, and not surprisingly, 0:04:30.720 --> 0:04:33.000 the financial issues were causing a rift in the once 0:04:33.000 --> 0:04:36.039 idyllic relationship. Gavin and Lisa were in a bit of 0:04:36.040 --> 0:04:38.760 a dark place in their marriage and constantly getting into fights, 0:04:38.920 --> 0:04:42.360 and Gavin had even talked about being depressed. So Connor, 0:04:42.400 --> 0:04:46.200 in your podcast Lords of Soccer, you explore kind of 0:04:46.200 --> 0:04:49.920 the underbelly of soccer and how crime and corruption kind 0:04:49.920 --> 0:04:54.360 of has fallen into this world and in thinking about 0:04:54.440 --> 0:04:58.840 Gavin and his mediorc rise in college basketball and not 0:04:58.880 --> 0:05:01.159 being able to be draft it, what can you tell 0:05:01.240 --> 0:05:05.120 us about athletes frame of mind and their psyche after 0:05:05.320 --> 0:05:08.599 you know, being kind of celebrities in the college world 0:05:08.640 --> 0:05:11.800 and then falling into nothing after not getting drafted and 0:05:11.839 --> 0:05:13.640 going back to the start. Yeah, I mean, it's not 0:05:13.680 --> 0:05:17.000 a guess as surprise that Gavin, you know, serve entered 0:05:17.040 --> 0:05:19.279 a dark period of his life after not getting drafted. 0:05:19.320 --> 0:05:21.440 He had played at u c. L A, which I 0:05:21.440 --> 0:05:24.640 mean in the nineteen seventies that was the epitome of sports, 0:05:24.680 --> 0:05:27.280 not only college sports, but just really sports in America, 0:05:27.360 --> 0:05:31.160 playing for John Wooden and not to get drafted. I mean, 0:05:31.160 --> 0:05:32.840 that would have been the end of his entire career. 0:05:32.839 --> 0:05:35.600 He had probably been playing basketball since he was a kid, 0:05:35.640 --> 0:05:39.040 practicing year round, being recruited by the top schools in 0:05:39.080 --> 0:05:42.679 the country, plane on a championship team, and then literally 0:05:43.000 --> 0:05:44.960 in the blink of an eye, you know, snap of 0:05:45.000 --> 0:05:47.159 the finger, it's over. There's no place to play if 0:05:47.200 --> 0:05:50.680 you don't get drafted out of college. So I'm not 0:05:50.720 --> 0:05:53.359 surprised he went dark and probably tried to have to, 0:05:53.640 --> 0:05:56.680 you know, reevaluate his life, and you know, he sounds 0:05:56.680 --> 0:05:59.080 like he stumbled into acting is something that he wanted 0:05:59.120 --> 0:06:02.480 to pursue, probably to try to grab onto that sort 0:06:02.520 --> 0:06:06.880 of rush of celebrity and fame and being held up 0:06:06.880 --> 0:06:11.160 on a pedestal. To make matters worse, Gavin had been 0:06:11.200 --> 0:06:14.360 dealing with a long standing back injury from his basketball days. 0:06:15.360 --> 0:06:19.120 Plagued with chronic discomfort, he was prescribed painkillers, which he 0:06:19.200 --> 0:06:22.960 soon got addicted to. While Gavin still managed to get 0:06:22.960 --> 0:06:26.000 to work every day, his addiction became out of control 0:06:26.200 --> 0:06:29.320 and Lesa begged him to go to rehab. Wanting to 0:06:29.360 --> 0:06:32.400 save his marriage, Gavin obliged and had its treatment in 0:06:32.440 --> 0:06:36.240 two thousand seven. Like most things in his life, Gavin 0:06:36.279 --> 0:06:42.760 succeeded and was able to kick the habit. Here's connor. However, 0:06:42.839 --> 0:06:45.000 when he was in rehab, he picked up a new addiction, 0:06:45.360 --> 0:06:49.159 a thirty three year old woman named Shandrica Creech. Fifty 0:06:49.160 --> 0:06:51.480 seven year old Gavin had become a group leader at 0:06:51.480 --> 0:06:56.280 the rehab facility in Shandrica enrolled there for her alcohol problem. 0:06:56.400 --> 0:06:59.279 Always wanting to help others, Gavin took a liking to 0:06:59.400 --> 0:07:01.960 the assualt re Burnette, and by two thousand and eight, 0:07:02.360 --> 0:07:06.600 their rehab relationship was getting hot and heavy. When Gavin 0:07:06.640 --> 0:07:11.280 got out of rehab, he continued seeing Shandraka behind Lisa's back. However, 0:07:11.320 --> 0:07:13.840 in July of two thousand and nine, Lisa became aware 0:07:13.840 --> 0:07:17.040 of the relationship and confronted her husband Gavin. The couple 0:07:17.080 --> 0:07:19.960 decided to go to counseling, and Lisa truly believed the 0:07:20.000 --> 0:07:23.640 affair was over. However, despite all of that, things really 0:07:23.640 --> 0:07:26.000 just weren't working in the marriage, and Gavin moved out 0:07:26.040 --> 0:07:28.840 of the family home. While Lisa was holding firm with Gavin, 0:07:29.240 --> 0:07:31.640 she was telling friends behind his back that she felt 0:07:31.640 --> 0:07:34.240 like they would ultimately get through their issues and for her, 0:07:34.720 --> 0:07:36.760 this move out was more of a scare tactic to 0:07:36.840 --> 0:07:39.560 put Davin back on the right track. Despite all that, 0:07:39.840 --> 0:07:43.400 the eldest son in the family was distraught, tweeting publicly 0:07:43.840 --> 0:07:46.800 quote thoughts and prayers out to my amazing mom and bros. 0:07:46.840 --> 0:07:49.440 Please my dad decided to leave the family last night. 0:07:49.600 --> 0:07:53.640 Real family sticks together end quote. And there was another problem, 0:07:53.640 --> 0:07:56.760 a big problem. Schandrica was also married to a man 0:07:56.920 --> 0:08:01.000 named John Creech. Now John was a former dealer turned 0:08:01.080 --> 0:08:04.120 steroid taking bodybuilder. It's not really the type of guy 0:08:04.120 --> 0:08:06.560 you want to mess with. John found out about the 0:08:06.600 --> 0:08:09.600 affair after seeing his wife's cell phone bill and was 0:08:09.720 --> 0:08:13.760 less forgiving. John got physical, roughing up Shandraka, shoving her 0:08:13.800 --> 0:08:16.160 and pushing her. It was bad enough that she had 0:08:16.200 --> 0:08:19.040 to end things with Gavin, and aside from being a 0:08:19.040 --> 0:08:22.000 wife beater, John was also not faithful to his wife. 0:08:22.160 --> 0:08:25.120 At the time Schandrico was with Gavin, forty two year 0:08:25.160 --> 0:08:27.880 old John was dating an eighteen year old Tye school senior. 0:08:28.800 --> 0:08:31.920 He was basically obsessed with this girl and would send 0:08:31.960 --> 0:08:34.199 her love sick texts like I don't want to come 0:08:34.200 --> 0:08:36.000 off with that guy to other people, you know, the 0:08:36.040 --> 0:08:39.520 older perv or something. Even though my slash our intentions 0:08:39.520 --> 0:08:41.840 are genuine, a lot of people won't see it that way. 0:08:41.880 --> 0:08:44.199 I like you because of you, not your age. I'm 0:08:44.240 --> 0:08:46.559 not giving up, I mean to me, Connor, this sounds 0:08:46.600 --> 0:08:49.920 like grooming at its finest. What do you make of 0:08:50.320 --> 0:08:54.680 kind of this weird sick love square because it's involving 0:08:54.679 --> 0:08:57.160 four people instead of three. I mean, John sounds like 0:08:57.200 --> 0:08:59.480 exactly the type of person you don't want to mess with. 0:08:59.600 --> 0:09:03.400 Right and and he's been a drug dealer, he's on steroids, 0:09:03.520 --> 0:09:07.040 he's grooming a young girl for a relationship that she 0:09:07.160 --> 0:09:10.200 probably isn't ready for, and he shouldn't be in not 0:09:10.240 --> 0:09:12.240 only because of his age, but also more importantly because 0:09:12.280 --> 0:09:15.080 he's married. So this is just not the type of 0:09:15.120 --> 0:09:17.640 situation that, if you are Gavin, that you want to 0:09:17.640 --> 0:09:20.320 get tangled up with. But it doesn't appear that he 0:09:20.360 --> 0:09:23.240 was willing to give up Shandrica, even despite all the 0:09:23.240 --> 0:09:26.560 baggage that she brought to the relationship, right, I mean, 0:09:26.600 --> 0:09:28.680 I guess it's like they met and rehab, which maybe 0:09:28.800 --> 0:09:31.600 is a time when they were feeling especially vulnerable, and 0:09:31.679 --> 0:09:34.520 so they kind of lashed onto each other as kind 0:09:34.520 --> 0:09:37.440 of trauma survivors of we gave up this addiction and 0:09:37.440 --> 0:09:39.640 now we found each other, and that kind of seems 0:09:39.679 --> 0:09:42.120 like their new vice. Yeah, it was definitely a vice. 0:09:42.360 --> 0:09:45.320 And you know, I think anyone listen knows this isn't 0:09:45.320 --> 0:09:47.480 going to end well for anyone. And do you know anything, 0:09:47.480 --> 0:09:51.160 Honnor about steroids. I mean, having worked on a true 0:09:51.160 --> 0:09:53.360 crime podcast called Lords of Soccer about people in the 0:09:53.440 --> 0:09:57.120 sports world, I imagine you know, steroids come up and 0:09:57.240 --> 0:10:00.240 I've heard that it changes your personality. Can you tell 0:10:00.320 --> 0:10:03.600 us anything about what taking stories might do to someone's 0:10:03.760 --> 0:10:08.320 psyche or the way they handle rage. Yeah, steroids, Um, 0:10:08.400 --> 0:10:11.920 you know impact your body physically, presumably in a better 0:10:11.960 --> 0:10:14.679 way to make you stronger, fitter, faster, but they also 0:10:14.840 --> 0:10:18.079 mess with your chemical in your mind as well. And 0:10:18.600 --> 0:10:21.800 people who tell steroids are prone to anger, prone to 0:10:21.920 --> 0:10:26.559 fits of instability. And if you add that on to 0:10:26.640 --> 0:10:29.840 somebody who already has a criminal background, you know you're 0:10:29.840 --> 0:10:33.760 talking about a personality that is really not a stable 0:10:33.800 --> 0:10:40.160 personality and probably tends towards violence. On May second, Gavin 0:10:40.200 --> 0:10:42.000 was supposed to pick up his son and drive him 0:10:42.040 --> 0:10:45.680 to school, but he never showed up. Despite all the 0:10:45.760 --> 0:10:48.520 drama Gavin and Lisa had been through, he was always 0:10:48.520 --> 0:10:52.880 a present father. Bailing was just not like him. The 0:10:52.920 --> 0:10:54.840 boy had to get to school, so he called a 0:10:54.880 --> 0:10:57.240 friend and got a ride. By the end of the 0:10:57.280 --> 0:11:00.199 school day, Gavin was still not answering, so as son 0:11:00.240 --> 0:11:04.199 told Lisa, Lisa called Gavin's office, who told her he 0:11:04.240 --> 0:11:08.240 hadn't been at work. Now officially concerned, Lisa filed a 0:11:08.280 --> 0:11:13.679 missing person's report To understand what was happening with Gavin's disappearance. 0:11:13.720 --> 0:11:16.200 We should go back a couple of years. In December 0:11:16.200 --> 0:11:18.720 of two thousand and ten, Lisa and Gavin were trying 0:11:18.760 --> 0:11:21.439 to deal with his infidelity. Lisa had thought he had 0:11:21.440 --> 0:11:25.000 broken things off with his mistress, Sandrica, but Gavin broke 0:11:25.080 --> 0:11:27.120 the news to her that that was not in fact 0:11:27.120 --> 0:11:30.520 the case. He had recently rekindled things with the young woman, 0:11:30.880 --> 0:11:34.920 but it got worse. Shandrica's husband, John, also knew about 0:11:34.960 --> 0:11:37.760 the affair, and to say it was unhappy, it's probably 0:11:37.760 --> 0:11:41.400 a mild statement. Gavin showed Lisa some of the emails 0:11:41.400 --> 0:11:43.880 he had received from John. One of them read, I'm 0:11:43.880 --> 0:11:46.640 gonna get you, Gavin, your wife is getting a copy 0:11:46.640 --> 0:11:51.160 of all these emails. Your fuck You'll prick. Gavin was pissed. 0:11:51.360 --> 0:11:53.720 Gavin told Lisa that John was a dangerous drug dealer 0:11:53.760 --> 0:11:56.720 who had threatened him. Gavin agreed to change his phone 0:11:56.800 --> 0:11:59.840 number and his email addresses. So let's just get this 0:12:00.040 --> 0:12:01.560 because there's a lot of different names and a lot 0:12:01.600 --> 0:12:04.800 of different players. Gavin and Lisa are married for a 0:12:04.840 --> 0:12:07.720 long time and have children together. Gavin goes to rehab 0:12:07.760 --> 0:12:10.400 and meets Sandrica and they start having an affair. It 0:12:10.440 --> 0:12:13.160 turns out Shandrica is married to a man named John 0:12:13.720 --> 0:12:18.240 who is this kind of would be criminal and Gavin 0:12:18.240 --> 0:12:21.600 tells his wife Lisa about the affair. She attempts to 0:12:21.600 --> 0:12:25.120 forgive him. John finds out about his wife Shandrica's affair 0:12:25.160 --> 0:12:28.240 and is pissed and starts texting Gavin the other man 0:12:28.920 --> 0:12:32.000 all these threatening things, and so at this time, Gavin 0:12:32.040 --> 0:12:35.040 then has to tell his wife Lisa about his affair 0:12:35.240 --> 0:12:38.640 and this threatening husband. I almost feel bad for Lisa's 0:12:38.679 --> 0:12:41.160 not only she finding out about the affair, which is 0:12:41.200 --> 0:12:44.280 bad enough and crushing, She's also finding out that the 0:12:44.520 --> 0:12:48.600 husband of the woman who her own husband is having 0:12:48.640 --> 0:12:51.480 an affair with seems to be a psychopath and is 0:12:51.520 --> 0:12:56.160 not stable and is threatening her husband John Yeah Connor. 0:12:56.160 --> 0:12:58.400 And it seems that she was maybe not thinking straight 0:12:58.440 --> 0:13:01.880 because what she did next is a little debatable. Lisa 0:13:01.960 --> 0:13:05.080 told her three sons about their father's infidelity and the 0:13:05.120 --> 0:13:09.000 situation with John. So what happened next was Lisa, her 0:13:09.080 --> 0:13:11.280 nineteen year old son, and her fourteen year old son 0:13:11.320 --> 0:13:13.880 decided to confront the situation and talk to John face 0:13:13.960 --> 0:13:16.160 to face. They were thinking that perhaps if they showed 0:13:16.240 --> 0:13:17.920 him that they too were hurt by this whole thing, 0:13:17.920 --> 0:13:20.200 that John would come down and leave the family alone. 0:13:20.600 --> 0:13:22.880 Who could be angry with two teenage boys. I mean, 0:13:23.000 --> 0:13:26.040 this is the definition of not thinking clearly. Lisa tells 0:13:26.080 --> 0:13:29.120 your sons about the affair, which is understandable, but then 0:13:29.160 --> 0:13:31.920 she brings them to meet with John to try to 0:13:32.000 --> 0:13:34.920 stop him. This is the guy who's a drug dealing, 0:13:35.240 --> 0:13:39.720 steroid using and presumably very violent guy. This seems like 0:13:39.800 --> 0:13:43.439 a horrible choice in a series of bad decisions by 0:13:43.440 --> 0:13:46.520 several people. Lisa and her two teenage sons drove to 0:13:46.600 --> 0:13:49.440 John's house, and as Lisa waited in the car, the 0:13:49.440 --> 0:13:52.719 two boys knocked on his door, and according to these 0:13:52.720 --> 0:13:55.800 two teenagers, when they first introduced themselves to John, he 0:13:55.880 --> 0:13:58.439 was very angry. John told them he was furious with 0:13:58.480 --> 0:14:01.520 Gavin for sleeping with his wife Andrika. The two boys 0:14:01.679 --> 0:14:04.760 both cried, and the fourteen year old begged John not 0:14:04.840 --> 0:14:07.160 to hurt his dad. He allegedly told him, I'm in 0:14:07.200 --> 0:14:09.560 eighth grade. I'm too young to lose my dad. He 0:14:09.600 --> 0:14:11.920 went on to apologize for his dad's behavior at least 0:14:12.040 --> 0:14:14.480 a hundred times and pled for John not to hurt 0:14:14.640 --> 0:14:18.160 his family. John allegedly told the boys that he had 0:14:18.160 --> 0:14:20.000 been following Gavin and he knew where the kids went 0:14:20.040 --> 0:14:23.040 to school, but Towards the end of the conversation, John 0:14:23.080 --> 0:14:25.360 began to calm down a little bit, and he told 0:14:25.400 --> 0:14:27.720 the boys that by coming over and having this conversation, 0:14:28.000 --> 0:14:32.320 they had saved their father's life. We're going to take 0:14:32.320 --> 0:14:48.640 a break. We'll be back in just a moment. Back 0:14:48.680 --> 0:14:52.200 in two thousand twelve, Gavin was missing. His family was 0:14:52.240 --> 0:14:54.680 hopeful that his disappearance was similar to when he went 0:14:54.680 --> 0:14:57.960 off the grid after not making the NBA, but things 0:14:58.000 --> 0:15:01.080 felt different this time. Aavn was now a father of 0:15:01.160 --> 0:15:05.440 three and had a good job. He wouldn't abandon his responsibilities. 0:15:06.160 --> 0:15:10.680 Lisa informed the detectives about his affair with Chandraca. They 0:15:10.720 --> 0:15:14.400 soon went to speak with her. When detectives arrived at 0:15:14.400 --> 0:15:17.800 her house, Sandrico wouldn't let them inside, but would speak 0:15:17.840 --> 0:15:20.840 to them on the porch. She admitted to the affair, 0:15:20.960 --> 0:15:23.160 but told them she had no idea where Gavin was. 0:15:24.080 --> 0:15:27.560 Detectives had a feeling that Shandrico wasn't being completely upfront 0:15:27.600 --> 0:15:30.840 with them, so they had an undercover informant bade her 0:15:30.840 --> 0:15:36.440 into telling the full story. It turns out Chandrika really 0:15:36.520 --> 0:15:39.920 wasn't honest with the police. During their first meeting, she 0:15:40.040 --> 0:15:43.880 told the informant a completely different story. According to her, 0:15:44.040 --> 0:15:46.760 on the last night Gavin was seen alive, on May first, 0:15:46.800 --> 0:15:49.760 two thousand and twelve, they had decided to meet up 0:15:49.800 --> 0:15:52.480 around eleven pm in a remote area of town to 0:15:52.720 --> 0:15:56.280 fool around. She got into Gavin's black Mercedes and sat 0:15:56.360 --> 0:15:59.360 on his lap on the passenger side of the car. Now, 0:15:59.400 --> 0:16:02.400 according to her, what happened next was that suddenly John 0:16:02.600 --> 0:16:05.520 showed up and pulled the door open. He had tracked 0:16:05.520 --> 0:16:08.480 her using the map function on their phones Family plan. Now, 0:16:08.520 --> 0:16:11.360 according to Chandrika, she jumped off of Gavin and the 0:16:11.400 --> 0:16:13.920 two men began yelling at each other. Before she knew it, 0:16:14.000 --> 0:16:16.480 John was on top of Gavin in the car, punching 0:16:16.560 --> 0:16:19.280 him repeatedly in the face, too many times to count, 0:16:19.320 --> 0:16:22.120 she said. As the beating continued, she could hear Gavin moaning, 0:16:22.280 --> 0:16:25.640 but he wasn't really moving. She allegedly yelled at John 0:16:25.680 --> 0:16:27.920 to stop and that he was going to kill Gavin, 0:16:28.240 --> 0:16:30.760 but he didn't, and so at this point, Schandrika was 0:16:30.880 --> 0:16:33.880 very scared, and she ran towards John's car and drove off. 0:16:34.080 --> 0:16:36.720 As she sped off, John allegedly yelled towards the car, 0:16:36.960 --> 0:16:41.080 you're next so Sandraca then went home, and later John 0:16:41.160 --> 0:16:44.280 showed up. He was covered in blood, his knuckles were 0:16:44.280 --> 0:16:47.680 all scratched up. John apparently told Schandrika they needed to 0:16:47.720 --> 0:16:51.560 go back to get Gavin and drive him to the hospital. Terrified, 0:16:51.600 --> 0:16:54.840 Chandrika listened, but when they arrived back at the scene, 0:16:54.920 --> 0:16:58.520 Gavin was dead. The couple drove back to their house 0:16:58.800 --> 0:17:01.440 and John started calling friends who thought would help them 0:17:01.440 --> 0:17:05.680 clean up the murder. Shandraca told the informant that somehow 0:17:05.760 --> 0:17:08.159 blood had gotten on her clothes, so she burned them 0:17:08.160 --> 0:17:11.359 in the fireplace along with John's and John ended up 0:17:11.400 --> 0:17:13.760 finding a friend who would let them part the car 0:17:13.760 --> 0:17:17.359 in his garage while Gavin's body was still inside it. 0:17:17.640 --> 0:17:19.720 So five days go by and John and Schondrica knew 0:17:19.760 --> 0:17:22.320 that they needed a better long term plan for the 0:17:22.359 --> 0:17:26.119 car and Gavin's body, so they ended up recruiting Shandrica's 0:17:26.160 --> 0:17:30.280 grandmother's home care aid to rent a storage unit and 0:17:30.320 --> 0:17:32.960 a U haul truck for them. The aid, for some reason, 0:17:33.000 --> 0:17:35.159 decided to go along with this and got them the 0:17:35.200 --> 0:17:38.520 storage unit and the truck, and John took Gavin's body 0:17:38.560 --> 0:17:40.760 about an hour and a half outside of Los Angeles 0:17:40.760 --> 0:17:43.119 to bury it. He then told the Mercedes with his 0:17:43.160 --> 0:17:45.960 truck to the storage unit and locked it up. So 0:17:46.040 --> 0:17:49.240 police had all this information from their undercover informant, but 0:17:49.280 --> 0:17:52.479 they needed the physical evidence before making any arrest, so 0:17:52.520 --> 0:17:55.240 they sat on the story, meaning that while they were 0:17:55.280 --> 0:17:59.080 investigating Gavin's family was still hoping he might be found alive, 0:17:59.480 --> 0:18:03.120 they were out searching form hanging up missing posters, pleading 0:18:03.160 --> 0:18:06.000 with a public for information. Almost a year went by 0:18:06.080 --> 0:18:08.640 and the police ended up getting a tip from Shandrica's 0:18:08.680 --> 0:18:11.680 grandmother's aid, the one who had rented the storage facility 0:18:11.720 --> 0:18:13.960 and the U haul. She told the cops about the 0:18:14.000 --> 0:18:17.119 storage facility and the bloody car inside of it. Perhaps 0:18:17.160 --> 0:18:20.840 she felt guilty about helping cover something up, but she 0:18:20.960 --> 0:18:23.520 also ended up getting full immunity before the information, so 0:18:23.560 --> 0:18:25.919 that probably helps offten the blow. Honnor, what do you 0:18:25.960 --> 0:18:29.919 make of the informants information? I mean, how much in 0:18:29.960 --> 0:18:33.320 your experience can police trust what an informant tells them 0:18:33.359 --> 0:18:37.000 about a possible criminal So, as I learned doing the 0:18:37.040 --> 0:18:41.240 Lords of Soccer podcasts about FIFA's corruption, um, you know, 0:18:41.359 --> 0:18:45.400 informants played a huge role in bringing this massive criminal 0:18:45.400 --> 0:18:49.000 corruption case against the guys who run global soccer, And 0:18:49.040 --> 0:18:52.160 it literally started with a guy named Chuck Blazer who 0:18:52.200 --> 0:18:55.280 didn't pay his US taxes. And when the prosecutors and 0:18:55.320 --> 0:18:57.480 the FBI went to Chuck Blazer and basically said, we 0:18:57.480 --> 0:18:59.480 know you're not paying taxes. We want you to flip 0:18:59.480 --> 0:19:02.520 on everybody and uh FIFA and basically tell us how 0:19:02.560 --> 0:19:05.240 they're all doing things dodgy. He was the key to 0:19:05.280 --> 0:19:09.040 that case. And in most cases, some type of informant 0:19:09.080 --> 0:19:12.280 or somebody flipping somebody who knows what's going on and 0:19:12.400 --> 0:19:15.480 gets a deal from a prosecutor. You know, that's really 0:19:15.520 --> 0:19:17.760 what ends up making a lot of these big cases 0:19:17.800 --> 0:19:20.399 and their key because you've got to have somebody who 0:19:20.560 --> 0:19:24.160 literally knows where the bodies are buried, and an informant 0:19:24.160 --> 0:19:28.159 like the grandmother's homemade you know, that's probably more valuable 0:19:28.200 --> 0:19:30.879 to the police in this situation than anything else. I 0:19:30.920 --> 0:19:33.560 guess with informants, it's kind of like the ends justify 0:19:33.640 --> 0:19:37.160 the means, and so if they can give a criminal 0:19:37.600 --> 0:19:40.359 some leeway and he or she provides the information, then 0:19:40.400 --> 0:19:42.480 the police can get an even bigger criminal who's committed 0:19:42.480 --> 0:19:47.000 to even worth crime. In March two thousand thirteen, police 0:19:47.040 --> 0:19:49.800 located the storage facility, and when they opened it, they 0:19:49.840 --> 0:19:54.760 found Gavin's blood soaked Mercedes. The car was a gruesome 0:19:54.800 --> 0:19:59.040 crime scene. Detectives found Gavin's skins stuck to the car's 0:19:59.119 --> 0:20:03.439 leather seat. They also identified bloodstains inside the Mercedes and 0:20:03.480 --> 0:20:07.679 on the rear bumper that matched Gavin's DNA. Despite the 0:20:07.720 --> 0:20:12.320 heartbreaking ending, Gavin's family could finally declare him dead. When 0:20:12.359 --> 0:20:16.280 Lisa found out, she was inconsolable, crying for ninety minutes straight. 0:20:17.240 --> 0:20:20.000 Even though their marriage had been crumbling, she still had 0:20:20.040 --> 0:20:24.240 love for him. Police still hadn't located Gavin's remains, which 0:20:24.240 --> 0:20:26.040 for them was the last piece of the puzzle they 0:20:26.080 --> 0:20:31.919 needed to charge John with murder. On October, two and 0:20:31.920 --> 0:20:35.399 a half years after disappearing, a hiker stumbled upon the 0:20:35.480 --> 0:20:40.399 skeletal remains of Gavin Smith. The medical examiner determined that 0:20:40.480 --> 0:20:44.600 the former movie executive had been badly beaten. The damage 0:20:44.640 --> 0:20:47.280 to his skull was equivalent to falling from a second 0:20:47.359 --> 0:20:53.879 story building face first. Finally, in January of two thousand 0:20:53.960 --> 0:20:57.160 and fifteen, John Creech was charged with first degree murder. 0:20:57.680 --> 0:21:00.439 Cops had an easy time finding them because he was 0:21:00.480 --> 0:21:04.920 already incarcerated for dealing drugs. Despite the damning evidence against him, 0:21:05.200 --> 0:21:09.360 John pleaded not guilty. All of his cohorts, including Shandrica, 0:21:09.480 --> 0:21:12.080 had made deals with the district attorney in exchange for 0:21:12.119 --> 0:21:15.640 their testimonies against John, they would receive full immunity. When 0:21:15.640 --> 0:21:18.480 Shandraka took the stand, she recounted the moment she watched 0:21:18.520 --> 0:21:21.840 her husband beat her lover Gavin to death. How many 0:21:21.920 --> 0:21:28.760 times did the definist strike John? Honestly too many times 0:21:28.760 --> 0:21:34.240 to count, doesn't She was asked why she didn't come 0:21:34.280 --> 0:21:37.320 forward with the information earlier. This was her answer, why 0:21:37.320 --> 0:21:40.480 didn't you go and tell anybody about it? Because I 0:21:40.480 --> 0:21:45.080 thought I'd get in trouble for telling them later instead 0:21:45.080 --> 0:21:48.560 of immediately. So, Connor, I mean, do you buy the 0:21:48.600 --> 0:21:51.040 fact that she says she was afraid. What's your take 0:21:51.080 --> 0:21:54.080 on her testimony. I don't doubt that she was afraid. 0:21:54.160 --> 0:21:56.080 It seems like she may have been more of a 0:21:56.080 --> 0:21:59.199 willing participant than she said on the stand. You know, 0:21:59.359 --> 0:22:01.600 she did help cover up the murderer. She did help 0:22:01.720 --> 0:22:06.439 hide it. She also appears to have basically worked with 0:22:06.480 --> 0:22:08.560 him over a long period of time to make sure, 0:22:09.160 --> 0:22:12.399 you know that the body stayed covered up, you know, 0:22:12.480 --> 0:22:14.679 and hidden and that the vehicle stayed hidden and they 0:22:14.760 --> 0:22:18.800 cleaned up. She burned her own clothes and burned John's clothes, 0:22:18.800 --> 0:22:21.080 So she was a much more active participant than she 0:22:21.160 --> 0:22:23.440 likes to say. But I don't doubt that she was 0:22:23.480 --> 0:22:27.080 also scared for her life. What is the line between 0:22:27.080 --> 0:22:32.160 being scared for your life and helping cover something up willingly? 0:22:32.400 --> 0:22:34.679