WEBVTT - Episode 9: Only Hope 0:00:02.800 --> 0:00:03.720 School of Humans. 0:00:05.440 --> 0:00:08.600 This show follows the investigation of serial murders and contains 0:00:08.680 --> 0:00:10.240 material that may be disturbing. 0:00:11.160 --> 0:00:12.640 Listener discretion advised. 0:00:25.239 --> 0:00:28.960 In June of twenty sixteen, while Mirinda and her two 0:00:29.120 --> 0:00:32.520 children were locked up in custody in krueger'stor the South 0:00:32.560 --> 0:00:37.559 African Police Service hastened its investigation. They had LaRue and 0:00:37.600 --> 0:00:41.680 Marcel on solid charges, including photographic evidence that showed them 0:00:41.720 --> 0:00:44.720 taking money out of accounts belonging to two of the 0:00:44.800 --> 0:00:51.120 murder victims, Anthony Schofield and Hanley Lattigan. Initially, Marinda coached 0:00:51.120 --> 0:00:53.440 them to keep feeding the cops the story that they 0:00:53.440 --> 0:00:56.640 had been working for drug dealers. The kids knew that 0:00:56.800 --> 0:00:59.520 not doing as they were instructed was a matter of 0:00:59.560 --> 0:01:05.000 life day. Eventually, Marinda and Cecilia decided that LaRue should 0:01:05.000 --> 0:01:05.559 take the fall. 0:01:06.120 --> 0:01:09.960 Le Rustain made a confession that he's the only person 0:01:10.319 --> 0:01:13.080 that killed the Appointment murders. 0:01:13.800 --> 0:01:16.960 LaRue and Marcel's statements were taken on June twenty fifth, 0:01:17.000 --> 0:01:22.480 twenty sixteen, two days after the arrest. Detective Ben Boysen 0:01:22.680 --> 0:01:26.480 was briefed on this interview and read LaRue's statement. The 0:01:26.520 --> 0:01:29.720 seasoned investigator wasn't buying his story for a second. 0:01:29.920 --> 0:01:37.400 With him being about sixty five sciety kilograms, it's impossible 0:01:37.640 --> 0:01:41.280 that they would have been able to kill The two 0:01:41.360 --> 0:01:45.399 men picked him up, loaded him in a vehicle, drove 0:01:45.440 --> 0:01:48.880 away with that vehicle is not strong enough to do that. 0:01:49.000 --> 0:01:50.760 It's totally not possible. 0:01:53.360 --> 0:01:57.120 Both Marcel and LaRue remained in custody, but the police 0:01:57.240 --> 0:02:01.480 needed more serious charges to keep Mirinda behind bars when 0:02:01.480 --> 0:02:04.120 there was no new evidence to report. After a few 0:02:04.200 --> 0:02:08.600 days in jail, Marinda had her day in court. The 0:02:08.680 --> 0:02:12.000 case involving the pot plant was delayed, making way for 0:02:12.040 --> 0:02:16.080 the larger claims against her like insurance fraud and murder. 0:02:17.400 --> 0:02:21.440 When she got out, Marinda immediately filed her third lawsuit 0:02:21.440 --> 0:02:25.680 against the police for wrongful arrest. This time she promised 0:02:25.720 --> 0:02:28.960 LaRue that she would push for resolution and use any 0:02:29.000 --> 0:02:32.160 award from the claim to bail him out. It was 0:02:32.200 --> 0:02:34.760 starting to look like the Kruger's door of killers would 0:02:34.800 --> 0:02:38.880 once again walk free, but detective Ben Boysen worked overtime 0:02:38.960 --> 0:02:42.280 to make sure that didn't happen. The case quickly took 0:02:42.320 --> 0:02:43.040 over his life. 0:02:43.480 --> 0:02:45.560 I took on one off my rooms in my house 0:02:45.600 --> 0:02:48.960 and I made that to wardroom and I start working 0:02:49.080 --> 0:02:52.800 day at night. I neverted it. You know, sometimes my 0:02:52.880 --> 0:02:54.840 wife will wake up two o'clock in the morning and 0:02:54.880 --> 0:02:56.600 I'm not in baten, so she comes in there and 0:02:56.760 --> 0:02:59.040 take me on my ear and take me back to 0:02:59.080 --> 0:03:01.320 bath and said, listen, need to go and freaking sleep. 0:03:02.200 --> 0:03:04.880 It didn't take long for Ben and Manny Victor's task 0:03:05.000 --> 0:03:08.600 team to connect the dots between LaRue, Marcel, Marinda, and 0:03:08.639 --> 0:03:12.880 Cecilia and recognized the mayhem that EPD had been adjacent 0:03:12.919 --> 0:03:16.720 to for the past four years. Digging a little deeper, 0:03:17.040 --> 0:03:21.200 they discovered the open claim with Discovery Life. Cecilia was 0:03:21.240 --> 0:03:24.360 waiting to collect Zach Valentine's insurance payout. 0:03:24.520 --> 0:03:28.360 And at that state, Zach Valentine was still missing because 0:03:28.520 --> 0:03:31.600 I told he was. They burned out in Pietre Steit. 0:03:31.960 --> 0:03:34.800 Which then led them to look into Jared Jackson's murder. 0:03:35.440 --> 0:03:39.480 The details surrounding his death also appeared immediately suspicious in 0:03:39.520 --> 0:03:40.080 Ben's eyes. 0:03:40.520 --> 0:03:43.920 His arms was full of cutting marks, he only had 0:03:44.040 --> 0:03:47.800 socks on, no shoes. It cannot be suicide. Something happened 0:03:47.800 --> 0:03:49.240 before this. 0:03:50.600 --> 0:03:53.840 Soon enough, there was a warrant out for Zach's arrest, 0:03:54.240 --> 0:03:57.640 and on June twenty sixth, just one day after LaRue's confession, 0:03:58.120 --> 0:04:02.400 the task team received in a non tip. Someone matching 0:04:02.520 --> 0:04:10.720 Zach Valentine's description had been spotted from School of Humans 0:04:10.800 --> 0:04:14.360 and iHeart podcasts This is Queen Havoc and her murder 0:04:14.400 --> 0:04:29.479 Cult I'm Your Host Kurt Kubachek episode nine, Only Hope. 0:04:29.520 --> 0:04:33.280 For the six months following Jared Jackson's murder, Zach Valentine 0:04:33.320 --> 0:04:37.280 had been in hiding when hotels got too expensive, especially 0:04:37.320 --> 0:04:41.120 without the insurance payout they'd been expecting. He sought shelter 0:04:41.240 --> 0:04:46.720 from a religious charity organization. Here's journalist and author Janna. 0:04:46.520 --> 0:04:49.680 Marx Zak has been lying low at kia Kaya, a 0:04:49.839 --> 0:04:51.200 Christian ministry. 0:04:51.279 --> 0:04:54.960 Since his arrival. Zach had been using an alias Michael 0:04:54.960 --> 0:04:59.159 de Villers. When law enforcement arrived at the ministry, they 0:04:59.160 --> 0:05:01.640 didn't find Zach right away, but they found his. 0:05:01.640 --> 0:05:05.839 Roommate, and at the time of his erased, he was 0:05:05.880 --> 0:05:09.200 busy camping at Kiakaya's camping grounds. It was on a 0:05:09.240 --> 0:05:10.760 farm near Machalisberg. 0:05:11.400 --> 0:05:14.960 Upon viewing a photo of the suspect, the roommate insisted 0:05:15.000 --> 0:05:17.560 that the man they were looking for was named Michael 0:05:17.560 --> 0:05:23.200 de Villers and that he was currently away camping. Two 0:05:23.279 --> 0:05:27.280 officers from Manny's war room headed to the location. Detective 0:05:27.279 --> 0:05:28.560 Herd Krueger was one of them. 0:05:29.080 --> 0:05:31.360 On the place where he was rased, he first gave 0:05:31.440 --> 0:05:33.719 up a name that not. 0:05:33.839 --> 0:05:36.400 He's the only nine the task team was prepared. 0:05:36.640 --> 0:05:38.640 He had just a lot of tattoos on his back. 0:05:39.400 --> 0:05:42.680 Now I had a photo of that and asked him 0:05:42.720 --> 0:05:46.800 to turn around. They checked the tattoos and then the 0:05:46.839 --> 0:05:47.560 game was over. 0:05:49.640 --> 0:05:53.880 They managed to id him as Zach Valentine. That's also 0:05:53.920 --> 0:05:57.080 when he then admitted that he was indeed Zach Valentine. 0:05:57.760 --> 0:06:00.719 He was arrested on charges of fraud for faking his 0:06:00.760 --> 0:06:08.960 own death. Then, in another suspicious twist, when Ben went 0:06:09.040 --> 0:06:12.680 searching for information on the suspects, the case files from 0:06:12.720 --> 0:06:16.480 the first four murders had mysteriously gone missing. 0:06:16.920 --> 0:06:21.720 The twenty twelve murdered casis that I eventually started investigation, 0:06:22.360 --> 0:06:25.640 all those dockets is missing. Built today it's missing. Nobody 0:06:25.640 --> 0:06:29.000 knows where it is. All the evidence that was taken 0:06:29.040 --> 0:06:33.560 into that twenty twelve investigations, everything's gone. So I had 0:06:33.600 --> 0:06:35.920 to restore that in twenty sixteen. 0:06:37.400 --> 0:06:41.160 So, after all that had happened in twenty twelve, Ben 0:06:41.200 --> 0:06:45.040 had only three case files one on the Jared Jackson murder, 0:06:45.360 --> 0:06:48.440 another on Joan and Peter Meyer being robbed and killed 0:06:48.480 --> 0:06:52.040 in their home, and after Zac's arrest, a clear attempt 0:06:52.160 --> 0:06:57.400 at an insurance scam. 0:06:57.560 --> 0:07:03.359 So I opened a throat case against Zach for trying 0:07:03.400 --> 0:07:08.120 to defraud Discovery, and then I started in mistigations all 0:07:08.200 --> 0:07:09.440 on those three docades. 0:07:10.240 --> 0:07:14.760 This fraud case was Ben's only real inroad, the only 0:07:14.840 --> 0:07:19.720 thing unquestionably linking all the perpetrators Zach, Cecilia, and Mirinda 0:07:20.280 --> 0:07:22.680 and eventually LaRue and Marcel too. 0:07:23.120 --> 0:07:27.440 Maranda Stein went to Pietre Stein saying that she's the 0:07:27.520 --> 0:07:31.760 sister of Zack Valentine, and she gave a false address, 0:07:32.400 --> 0:07:36.760 false information for the people at the mortuary, and Cecilia Stein, 0:07:36.760 --> 0:07:41.960 who was the sole beneficiary of that Discovery thing, and 0:07:42.000 --> 0:07:46.640 knowingly that Zach is now alive, they all were cursed 0:07:46.680 --> 0:07:48.120 to commit this fraud. 0:07:49.400 --> 0:07:54.400 On July twenty ninth, twenty sixteen, Cecilia Stein and Mirenda 0:07:54.480 --> 0:07:58.040 Stein were arrested for insurance fraud linked to the killing 0:07:58.080 --> 0:07:58.960 of Jared Jackson. 0:08:03.360 --> 0:08:07.360 So I luckily arrested them when I opened the fraud case, 0:08:07.400 --> 0:08:11.160 so nobody were on the street anymore except for John Barnard. 0:08:12.400 --> 0:08:16.960 Cecilia Stein was finally behind bars, and so was Mirinda. 0:08:17.280 --> 0:08:24.040 This time, as it turned out, for good. Ben wanted 0:08:24.040 --> 0:08:25.360 to interview them right away. 0:08:26.000 --> 0:08:28.520 They thought when I arrested them, I arrested him for 0:08:28.560 --> 0:08:31.720 the murders, but I never arrested him for the mergers. 0:08:31.840 --> 0:08:34.560 And then as soon as I started reading why I 0:08:34.640 --> 0:08:37.520 arrested them, you know, they changed. I couldn't believe that 0:08:38.000 --> 0:08:40.480 I now arrested in them for fraud because I didn't 0:08:40.480 --> 0:08:42.960 approve at that stage about the murders. 0:08:43.280 --> 0:08:45.640 They were being held in the precincts in Kruger's door. 0:08:46.360 --> 0:08:48.920 He brought Christelle with him, as he often did. 0:08:49.240 --> 0:08:53.080 On weekends and after hours when I arrested or I 0:08:53.200 --> 0:08:56.480 interview women, I always take my wife with because he's 0:08:56.480 --> 0:09:01.240 a police officer, and there's always stories when you interview 0:09:01.320 --> 0:09:05.360 women alone, your sexual harassment, or you know, you put 0:09:05.400 --> 0:09:07.679 praiser on him to say stuff. 0:09:10.080 --> 0:09:13.160 Cristelle and Ben very quickly got a taste of Cecilia's 0:09:13.240 --> 0:09:17.400 manipulation tactics. First, she went for pity. 0:09:18.000 --> 0:09:21.160 Cecilia Steins was a freaking clown. She came in with 0:09:22.480 --> 0:09:26.640 a bottle oxygen bottle, and she sat down and was 0:09:26.679 --> 0:09:30.760 a ute oxygen bottle, and as soon as I told 0:09:30.800 --> 0:09:35.880 her why I'm resting her, she suddenly start breathing difficult 0:09:36.080 --> 0:09:38.079 and I look at the bottle and I saw that 0:09:38.520 --> 0:09:41.760 the pipe from the mass to the bottle was not 0:09:41.920 --> 0:09:42.800 even connected. 0:09:44.000 --> 0:09:47.679 Then she went for ridicule. Ben and Cristelle got a 0:09:47.760 --> 0:09:50.280 front row seat to the way Cecilia gnashed her teeth 0:09:50.360 --> 0:09:54.600 when she felt vulnerable. At one point, Ben was taking 0:09:54.640 --> 0:09:58.000 a note trying to spell the word conspiracy, and he 0:09:58.120 --> 0:09:59.520 casually asked his wife for help. 0:10:00.000 --> 0:10:02.080 She said, how do you spell conspiracy? And she started 0:10:02.120 --> 0:10:04.760 laughing in my face and said, you're a fucking idiot. 0:10:04.800 --> 0:10:07.880 You can't even spell conspiracy, but you want to send 0:10:07.920 --> 0:10:10.240 me to jail. And I just told her, you know 0:10:11.360 --> 0:10:15.800 the person who laughed last laugh the loudest. 0:10:17.640 --> 0:10:21.600 Then they pressed Cecilia about Zach and his relationship to 0:10:21.640 --> 0:10:25.280 his wife, Michaela. They had learned about Zach and Cecilia's 0:10:25.360 --> 0:10:26.479 intimate relationship. 0:10:26.760 --> 0:10:30.800 Being tested her by saying that you found evidence that 0:10:30.920 --> 0:10:34.400 Zack and Michaela had intercourse the night she was killed 0:10:34.520 --> 0:10:37.920 or the night before she was killed, and Cecilia went like, 0:10:38.960 --> 0:10:43.600 it's fucking impossible. From this silly clown what she turned 0:10:43.600 --> 0:10:48.880 into a vicious person. She physically transformed in front of 0:10:48.960 --> 0:10:52.880 us from this you know, can't breathe and poor person. 0:10:52.960 --> 0:10:55.640 She said, it's fucking impossible. It won't happen. 0:10:55.720 --> 0:10:56.280 It sound. 0:10:58.000 --> 0:11:00.800 And then said, but why wouldn't they happened? They were 0:11:01.040 --> 0:11:04.319 happily married, and she said, and then she came forward 0:11:04.360 --> 0:11:07.640 to him and she says, I'm telling you it wouldn't 0:11:07.640 --> 0:11:08.240 have happened. 0:11:09.040 --> 0:11:12.319 Christelle chimed in, pushing Cecilia further. 0:11:12.080 --> 0:11:15.960 On this, and I said to her, but how would 0:11:16.040 --> 0:11:19.880 you have insight into what's happening in this marriage? And 0:11:19.920 --> 0:11:22.760 she turned to me again and she said, I'm telling 0:11:22.800 --> 0:11:25.880 you it fucking didn't happen. And then all of a sudden, 0:11:25.920 --> 0:11:27.959 someone else walked in. She went like this. 0:11:28.559 --> 0:11:31.720 Christelle shook her shoulders as she spoke, like a duck 0:11:31.760 --> 0:11:33.080 shaking water off its back. 0:11:33.800 --> 0:11:39.720 She you know, she like this, and next question, please, 0:11:41.120 --> 0:11:42.280 so we saw that. 0:11:42.720 --> 0:11:45.239 I saw it changed the transformation. 0:11:50.520 --> 0:11:54.319 Meanwhile, Zach was desperately trying to get out of jail. 0:11:55.080 --> 0:11:57.559 All three of them were. Actually they had the right 0:11:57.600 --> 0:12:00.280 to apply for bail since their only charge was odd, 0:12:00.720 --> 0:12:04.200 which is not a capital offense. But Ben kept fighting 0:12:04.200 --> 0:12:06.240 to keep them off the streets. 0:12:05.880 --> 0:12:09.320 And luckily I thought all of their bio application Zach 0:12:09.400 --> 0:12:10.640 brought about eight of them. 0:12:11.240 --> 0:12:15.160 Bail would mean Zach could walk free. Once released, he'd 0:12:15.160 --> 0:12:18.040 be a likely flight risk and the police might never 0:12:18.080 --> 0:12:20.960 see him again. They gotten lucky to find him the 0:12:21.000 --> 0:12:26.160 first time. Now, prosecutors were considering letting Zach walk. 0:12:26.520 --> 0:12:29.800 But because he was the clared date, it's impossible to 0:12:29.800 --> 0:12:33.640 give him battle because I'm going to blacklist him on 0:12:33.679 --> 0:12:37.079 the airports and stuff like that. So that was a fight, 0:12:37.280 --> 0:12:41.360 you know, between me and the prosecutor of the regional court, 0:12:42.720 --> 0:12:44.840 trying to keep him in jail. 0:12:46.720 --> 0:12:49.600 During this fight, this back and forth with the state, 0:12:50.400 --> 0:12:54.440 fate finally played a hand in Ben's favor. Ben and 0:12:54.480 --> 0:12:57.600 Cristelle are known as trusted cops in the community and 0:12:57.640 --> 0:13:00.160 got a number of tips from citizens of Kruger's were 0:13:00.440 --> 0:13:04.880 anxious to end the murders. One in particular, though, led 0:13:04.880 --> 0:13:05.679 to a windfall. 0:13:06.200 --> 0:13:08.200 So one of the people that found my wife's said, 0:13:08.760 --> 0:13:13.200 I must go to Arundos classroom to see what's happening 0:13:13.240 --> 0:13:25.080 in a classroom. 0:13:25.360 --> 0:13:30.040 On August ninth, twenty sixteen, Ben Christelle and a fellow 0:13:30.080 --> 0:13:32.960 officer from the Krugery store. Police headed over to the 0:13:33.040 --> 0:13:37.200 high school where Mirinda taught English. Turns out we were 0:13:37.240 --> 0:13:40.480 there interviewing Ben exactly five years to the day that 0:13:40.640 --> 0:13:41.240 this happened. 0:13:41.840 --> 0:13:45.800 I actually arranged it for today. That's Women's Day in 0:13:45.840 --> 0:13:49.040 South Africa today, exactly today, because there will be no 0:13:49.200 --> 0:13:50.120 children and at school. 0:13:50.880 --> 0:13:54.800 The headmaster was resistant at first, explaining that Mirinda was 0:13:54.800 --> 0:13:57.520 one of the best teachers at the school. The kids 0:13:57.520 --> 0:14:01.680 all loved her. Detective Ben boys and casually threatened the 0:14:01.679 --> 0:14:04.960 headmaster that if he didn't comply, Ben could return with 0:14:05.000 --> 0:14:07.640 a proper search warrant on a school day and conduct 0:14:07.640 --> 0:14:10.640 his search in front of all the kids. The principal 0:14:10.640 --> 0:14:13.400 didn't have to think long. He led them down the 0:14:13.400 --> 0:14:21.200 empty hallways toward Merinda's classroom. It's a large room with 0:14:21.320 --> 0:14:24.840 multiple sections and storage closets with stoves in them. 0:14:24.960 --> 0:14:26.680 I said, to the old place, but I didn't know 0:14:26.680 --> 0:14:29.160 what to look for. I look for laptops and I 0:14:29.160 --> 0:14:31.040 look for papers, I look for photos. I look for 0:14:31.120 --> 0:14:34.080 anything that I can link to what they were doing. 0:14:34.920 --> 0:14:38.880 Ben almost gave up. The headmaster was skeptical of the cops, 0:14:38.960 --> 0:14:41.160 and Ben certainly didn't want to waste anyone's time. 0:14:41.600 --> 0:14:43.720 I couldn't find anything, and eventual I went to sit 0:14:43.800 --> 0:14:46.160 down with the eight most of them, I said, it's Souri. 0:14:47.160 --> 0:14:49.280 It seems to meet. It's false information. 0:14:50.120 --> 0:14:54.120 But something was still nagging at Ben, so before he left, 0:14:54.480 --> 0:14:56.560 he decided to take one last look around. 0:14:56.960 --> 0:15:00.480 We all stood up and on the way out told 0:15:01.200 --> 0:15:03.280 another lady from Cruiser Detective Unit. 0:15:03.440 --> 0:15:04.120 It was with me. 0:15:04.240 --> 0:15:06.360 I just want to go through all the rooms again. 0:15:07.280 --> 0:15:08.920 And I went into the rooms and I checked and 0:15:08.960 --> 0:15:13.080 I checked, and eventually I went to the left front room. 0:15:13.400 --> 0:15:15.320 There was a lot of stuff laying around there, but 0:15:15.400 --> 0:15:18.440 there was these two stoves standing in the middle of 0:15:18.480 --> 0:15:21.680 the premises, and something just told me go and open 0:15:21.800 --> 0:15:22.440 the ovens. 0:15:23.400 --> 0:15:34.200 Merenda's room was a repurposed home economics classroom. 0:15:30.280 --> 0:15:32.080 And as soon as I opened the ovens, I found 0:15:32.080 --> 0:15:37.920 all this ammunition and machine to reload. Then they ate 0:15:38.040 --> 0:15:43.080 master also turned and was on outside there because it 0:15:43.200 --> 0:15:45.920 was not on the police side from the beginning. 0:15:46.880 --> 0:15:51.000 He continued his search and discovered a bullet reloading kit, 0:15:51.440 --> 0:15:56.200 shotgun shells, nine millimeter bullets and then red tipped rubber 0:15:56.200 --> 0:15:59.920 bullets only used by specially trained police officers, and sold 0:16:01.600 --> 0:16:05.000 what was Marnda doing with guns and AMMO, some of 0:16:05.040 --> 0:16:08.080 which was from the heyday of South Africa's violent apartheid 0:16:08.160 --> 0:16:12.200 passed and in a high school, no less, How did 0:16:12.200 --> 0:16:16.360 a school teacher wind up with military grade weaponry? When 0:16:16.400 --> 0:16:18.760 he was done, he lined up all the AMMO on 0:16:18.800 --> 0:16:23.600 a school desk. The principal was shocked to silence as 0:16:23.600 --> 0:16:27.240 the veteran cops stared at the amateur arsenal. He had 0:16:27.240 --> 0:16:32.320 a new concern. Were there cops helping these killers? The 0:16:32.360 --> 0:16:35.080 only people who have access to this kind of ordinance 0:16:35.760 --> 0:16:42.240 are people with a badge. The next domino fell that 0:16:42.280 --> 0:16:44.640 same day after he called the task team in to 0:16:44.720 --> 0:16:47.120 gather evidence from Mirenda's classroom. 0:16:46.800 --> 0:16:49.040 Packed it out and we took photos and stuff, And 0:16:49.080 --> 0:16:52.400 eventually I think it was his wife. She's working in 0:16:52.440 --> 0:16:54.640 the offices day. She came to me and she said, 0:16:55.480 --> 0:17:00.920 did I know that Maranda changed their will? I knew 0:17:00.960 --> 0:17:01.680 nothing about it. 0:17:02.240 --> 0:17:06.440 Mirinda had just recently changed her will. Things had unfolded 0:17:06.480 --> 0:17:10.720 so fast since Marinda's arrest, Plus the twenty twelve case 0:17:10.760 --> 0:17:13.800 files were all missing, so Ben was doing his best 0:17:13.800 --> 0:17:14.440 to catch up. 0:17:15.440 --> 0:17:19.360 Osta will you give me the will? Otherwise I must 0:17:19.400 --> 0:17:23.080 make a two or five application and force them to 0:17:23.080 --> 0:17:25.600 give me the will through the right channels. And luckily 0:17:25.600 --> 0:17:27.440 you said them, and I'll give you the will. 0:17:29.119 --> 0:17:31.840 Ben took a statement from the headmaster and his wife 0:17:32.440 --> 0:17:35.400 confirming that they were handing over this document of their 0:17:35.440 --> 0:17:39.600 own free will. As they signed the paperwork, Ben read 0:17:39.640 --> 0:17:40.200 over the will. 0:17:40.800 --> 0:17:44.280 While reading this will, I knew of good now something 0:17:45.160 --> 0:17:49.320 to approach LaRue, because in that will she just owned 0:17:49.359 --> 0:17:53.639 the children and she gave everything that is part of 0:17:53.680 --> 0:17:55.359 her life to Cecilia Stein. 0:17:56.480 --> 0:17:58.800 But before he had a chance to meet with LaRue, 0:17:59.320 --> 0:18:03.480 the task team made yet another breakthrough. They found the 0:18:03.520 --> 0:18:07.119 sort of hard evidence that would make prosecutors finally believe 0:18:07.240 --> 0:18:09.159 everything Ben had already suspected. 0:18:09.720 --> 0:18:14.920 Luckily, in the twenty fifteen sixteen murders, John Barnard took 0:18:14.960 --> 0:18:16.800 his cell phone to all the crime scenes. 0:18:19.880 --> 0:18:23.400 Detectives Krueger and Violent had been busy tracing the suspects 0:18:23.400 --> 0:18:27.000 and discovered that pings from John Barnard's cell phone matched 0:18:27.040 --> 0:18:30.360 the murder map to a t This was the smoking 0:18:30.440 --> 0:18:36.800 gun the cops needed. On August eighteenth, twenty sixteen, John 0:18:36.840 --> 0:18:39.800 Barnard was taken into custody in connection with the insurance 0:18:39.800 --> 0:18:42.920 fraud and his involvement in the murder of Glenn McGregor. 0:18:43.680 --> 0:18:45.120 Here's Commander Hert Krueger. 0:18:45.480 --> 0:18:50.840 We erased John Barnard at his work, the Mayers Printing Company, 0:18:51.240 --> 0:18:54.200 and while we were driving back like coldn SEMs, we 0:18:54.320 --> 0:18:57.560 stopped and John just started confacing. 0:18:58.320 --> 0:19:03.639 Barnard confessed to being part of all of the appointment Murners. 0:19:03.840 --> 0:19:08.840 I didn't got an officer to take his confession. It 0:19:08.880 --> 0:19:12.240 was his first confession that he might after debt the 0:19:12.240 --> 0:19:15.880 invasity guiding officer Captain Boisin's didn't just that he repeat 0:19:15.880 --> 0:19:18.439 the dead confession in front of him magistrate, just to 0:19:18.440 --> 0:19:21.880 give it more power. And John was the first one 0:19:21.880 --> 0:19:24.479 that was convicted and the first one who went to prison. 0:19:29.160 --> 0:19:33.040 Finally, on August nineteenth, the day after John Barnard's confession, 0:19:33.880 --> 0:19:38.919 Ben sat down with LaRue. He baited LaRue telling him 0:19:38.960 --> 0:19:41.760 that his mother, Marinda's claim against the police wasn't going 0:19:41.800 --> 0:19:44.520 to pay out. There was no way she'd be able 0:19:44.560 --> 0:19:48.360 to save him from a life behind bars. He let 0:19:48.400 --> 0:19:51.840 that sink in. Then he told LaRue that Barnard had 0:19:51.880 --> 0:19:56.440 made a full confession at his arraignment hearing, implicating everyone. 0:19:58.000 --> 0:20:01.160 It was a smart move. Ben told LaRue the confession 0:20:01.200 --> 0:20:05.440 would increase his chances of getting a reasonable plea deal. Still, 0:20:05.720 --> 0:20:08.480 LaRue stuck to his story and took to blame for 0:20:08.560 --> 0:20:11.560 all the murders. Then was still not buying it. 0:20:11.840 --> 0:20:14.720 For a young boy like that picking up a date 0:20:14.800 --> 0:20:19.960 person and llowed him into a vehicle, It's slutally not possible. 0:20:21.000 --> 0:20:24.800 Not only did Ben immediately recognize the improbability of this claim, 0:20:25.560 --> 0:20:28.640 but he could see through Laru, see the boy in him, 0:20:29.200 --> 0:20:31.520 a boy who was in way over his head. 0:20:32.560 --> 0:20:35.320 While I was speaking to him in prison. I've got 0:20:35.359 --> 0:20:39.840 the scenes that he is predicting the people around him. 0:20:39.880 --> 0:20:45.280 At first, Larux was agitated, tense, pacing like a cage tiger. 0:20:46.080 --> 0:20:48.800 Detective Ben Boyce and his a father. He thought of 0:20:48.840 --> 0:20:50.879 his own son and how he could reach him when 0:20:50.920 --> 0:20:56.080 he was combative. Here's Gristelle recalling his approach. She refers 0:20:56.119 --> 0:20:58.080 to LaRue by his nickname. Lex. 0:20:58.440 --> 0:21:00.840 Paine was friendly to next time, and he was kind 0:21:00.960 --> 0:21:03.800 to Lex, and he was talking, you know, to Lex 0:21:03.840 --> 0:21:08.920 with respect, and that turned ultimately turned Lex eventually to say, 0:21:08.960 --> 0:21:11.920 but listen, yeah, you are giving me more kindness and 0:21:12.000 --> 0:21:14.040 love than I ever experienced from my mother. 0:21:14.880 --> 0:21:17.800 Ben knew that if he was calm with the wayward 0:21:17.920 --> 0:21:20.240 son and asked him why he'd done what he'd done, 0:21:20.720 --> 0:21:23.200 rather than scream at him, he was more likely to 0:21:23.240 --> 0:21:26.080 hear the truth from LaRue. He was right. 0:21:26.840 --> 0:21:28.640 I talked to him a lot, and eventually I took 0:21:28.640 --> 0:21:30.400 too well out and I put it in front of him, 0:21:30.680 --> 0:21:33.560 but the words facing my way, and I asked him 0:21:33.560 --> 0:21:36.800 who's antwriting? And he said it's my mother, because she's 0:21:36.800 --> 0:21:41.200 got a very very nice antwriting neat and I turned 0:21:41.200 --> 0:21:43.679 the paper around and I said, listen, read how much 0:21:43.720 --> 0:21:44.480 your mother loved you. 0:21:46.480 --> 0:21:51.359 Harsh right, But Ben's instincts were guiding him. LaRue was 0:21:51.400 --> 0:21:55.480 apt to turn against his mother. Throughout his first couple 0:21:55.560 --> 0:21:58.480 of months in police custody, LaRue had been worried about 0:21:58.520 --> 0:22:02.119 his sister Marcel, who also in custody. He wrote her 0:22:02.119 --> 0:22:04.800 a series of letters pleading with her to come clean, 0:22:05.440 --> 0:22:08.159 not to take the rap for their mother, Cecilia or 0:22:08.200 --> 0:22:11.680 any of the others. When Cecilia and Marinda got word 0:22:11.720 --> 0:22:14.280 that one of their puppets was turning on them, they 0:22:14.280 --> 0:22:19.280 tried to kill LaRue. Journalist Maritzka Kotsayer was visiting him 0:22:19.280 --> 0:22:22.720 in jail around this time, reporting on the case, she 0:22:22.840 --> 0:22:26.280 recalled Larux telling her about when his mother brought him medication. 0:22:26.960 --> 0:22:30.440 There was one way she apparently took him medication for 0:22:30.520 --> 0:22:34.240 his stomach, and it was supposedly two step. So you 0:22:34.320 --> 0:22:36.760 know that is a poison that stab one. You take 0:22:36.800 --> 0:22:39.720 it in step till you die. Can you imagine living 0:22:39.760 --> 0:22:43.600 in fear that your own mother wants to kill it. 0:22:43.600 --> 0:22:47.160 It appears that even in jail, LaRue wasn't safe from 0:22:47.200 --> 0:22:54.160 Cecilia's wrath. In Mirenda's will, she attested, I'm Marinda stein laradim. 0:22:53.880 --> 0:22:56.720 Same mind and wished to recorde my last wishes as 0:22:56.800 --> 0:23:01.240 follows every sent and property that I and will become 0:23:01.280 --> 0:23:05.680 available at my death. I bequeathed to Cecilia stein nie 0:23:05.760 --> 0:23:10.040 seword Kniebrandt to use as she sees fit, whether my 0:23:10.080 --> 0:23:13.320 biological children are still in jail or not, whether she 0:23:13.359 --> 0:23:16.119 wants to spend it on them or not. It toutally 0:23:16.119 --> 0:23:17.240 becomes us. 0:23:23.080 --> 0:23:25.560 As soon as LaRue heard about the change in the will, 0:23:26.080 --> 0:23:31.440 he broke down. Ben's compassionate approach had softened the edges, eroded, 0:23:31.440 --> 0:23:33.880 the walls around the roots broken heart. 0:23:35.359 --> 0:23:37.679 And then at tisk started coming out here and his 0:23:37.800 --> 0:23:40.040 lip stopped going like this, and he stopped crying and 0:23:40.080 --> 0:23:42.200 then he said, FuG them. Now I'm going to talk. 0:23:42.880 --> 0:23:44.320 And then he told me a lot of stuff where 0:23:44.359 --> 0:23:48.000 the guns was hiding and stuff like that, and he 0:23:48.040 --> 0:23:50.560 told me about it. Twenty twelve meders. 0:23:52.240 --> 0:23:55.879 After the cathartic confession, Ben did his due diligence and 0:23:55.920 --> 0:23:58.240 got LaRue to repeat it in front of a magistrate. 0:24:00.200 --> 0:24:03.520 Back from the hearing to the jail, Larux is exhausted. 0:24:04.560 --> 0:24:07.720 He fell into this sort of paralyzing exhaustion that is 0:24:07.760 --> 0:24:12.680 specific to the fallout from a world crumbling realization. Once 0:24:12.760 --> 0:24:15.760 Laru stopped seeing the world through the lies, Secilia and 0:24:15.760 --> 0:24:18.720 his mother raised him to believe. Laru was free to 0:24:18.760 --> 0:24:21.520 face the truth of what his entire life had been 0:24:22.000 --> 0:24:26.320 and the grim future ahead. The silence hung heavy on 0:24:26.359 --> 0:24:30.879 the drive. Ben, a detective Herd Krueger, sat up front. 0:24:31.840 --> 0:24:33.960 They knew it would be a long time before Laru 0:24:34.080 --> 0:24:35.480 would ever see the world again. 0:24:36.040 --> 0:24:39.200 Ben ask him, is there anything you need? And he says, yes, Uncle, 0:24:39.240 --> 0:24:42.720 I'm hungry. And Ben asked him what would you like 0:24:42.800 --> 0:24:46.160 to eat? And Lex was very confused because he says 0:24:46.200 --> 0:24:49.360