Speaker 1: Pushkin. There has been a major development in the investigation
Speaker 1: into the murder of a father who was killed while
Speaker 1: camping with his two young daughters in California last June.
Speaker 1: On the first Monday in January twenty nineteen, while he's
Speaker 1: still finishing out his sentence for the probation and weapons violations,
Speaker 1: Anthony Rawda is charged with this series of crimes in Malibu.
Speaker 1: Anthony Rauda was charged yesterday with one count of murder.
Speaker 1: He also faces ten counts of attempted murder and five
Speaker 1: counts of burglary over string of shootings that date back
Speaker 1: to twenty sixteen. I expected this, you could see it
Speaker 1: coming a mile away, but it's still pretty shocking. For months,
Speaker 1: the cops have been saying that they can't connect the
Speaker 1: various crimes, all those near misses, the murder, the armed burglaries.
Speaker 1: Now they're saying not only that they're connected, but that
Speaker 1: they were all committed by the same person, Anthony Rowda.
Speaker 1: So that's one count of murder Tristan Bodett, ten counts
Speaker 1: of attempted murder, including Bodette's two young daughters, and all
Speaker 1: the victims of the near misses. The charges don't say
Speaker 1: much about the weapons or ammunition used in the crimes,
Speaker 1: but news reports confirm the rumor. I've been hearing that
Speaker 1: Bodette was killed with a nine millimeter round the same
Speaker 1: kind of ammunition that Rouda was arrested with. Rowdah pleads
Speaker 1: not guilty at the arrangement, and he's confident he wants
Speaker 1: to proceed to trial as quickly as possible. Every time
Speaker 1: I see Rowdah's father, Ozzie, he says, I hope he
Speaker 1: didn't do this, but he also repeats what Rowdah's telling him.
Speaker 1: He's saying he's innocent. Ozzie tells me he said I
Speaker 1: didn't even want to be around people. People cause problems,
Speaker 1: so how can they say I did this. I try
Speaker 1: to schedule a visit with Rowdah, but it's abruptly canceled.
Speaker 1: The only thing I can do is write him a letter.
Speaker 1: I tell him I'll leave money with the cashier at
Speaker 1: the Twin Towers Jail. It's for pencils, stationary and stamps
Speaker 1: so he can write me back. Finally, he does. I
Speaker 1: do appreciate your care and diligence in contacting me. I've
Speaker 1: wanted to talk to you but could not get your
Speaker 1: contact info. He writes, I feel wronged. I'm not someone
Speaker 1: who kills innocent people. In subsequent letters, he writes, I
Speaker 1: know people must feel I'm guilty, but I suffer every day.
Speaker 1: I suffered sometimes when I was free. I know I'm innocent,
Speaker 1: but I can't prove that because of the emotions that
Speaker 1: are involved. There's nothing I can say to clear my name.
Speaker 1: There's nothing I want to say. Okay, fine, But I
Speaker 1: notice something about his writing, a kind of parallel he's
Speaker 1: setting up between himself and, of all people, Tristan Boudette.
Speaker 1: He refers to Boudette as an innocent person, and he
Speaker 1: says that he Anthony Rowda, is also an innocent person.
Speaker 1: They're both victims in his view. He writes, if you
Speaker 1: feel the family of mister Boudette needs some closure, I
Speaker 1: can try to help that. That's definitely a surprise, and
Speaker 1: so is this quote. The Baudette family and friends can
Speaker 1: blame the Sheriff's department for his death. That's where the
Speaker 1: justice is at. I'm Dana Goodyear and this is Lost Hills,
Speaker 1: episode three. Lost. Ever since her husband Tristan Boudette died,
Speaker 1: Erica Wu has felt like she's trapped inside a never
Speaker 1: ending dream. You know, the moment my sister told me
Speaker 1: what had happened, I feel like I was just watching
Speaker 1: myself for the rest of the day in a way,
Speaker 1: you know, live out this horrible sort of nightmare. And
Speaker 1: I still feel that way sometimes, like it's so unbelievable,
Speaker 1: this isn't real, that this is some sort of dream
Speaker 1: or nightmare or movie or something that I'm just watching
Speaker 1: happening to my family, to myself and to my family.
Speaker 1: She woke up alone that morning at home in Orange County,
Speaker 1: getting ready to take her medical exam, the whole reason
Speaker 1: why Tristan had taken the girls camping and she'd stayed back.
Speaker 1: Then somehow her oldest sister was at her door then
Speaker 1: driving her to Malibu. I mean it it's such a blur,
Speaker 1: but they told me what little they knew at the
Speaker 1: time was that Tristan had been shot and that he
Speaker 1: was dead, but that the girls were safe. And you know,
Speaker 1: in the hours that it took me to get there,
Speaker 1: I was not believing any of it, you know, I
Speaker 1: didn't believe that he was really you know, like it
Speaker 1: was just so unbelievable to me, and I remember arguing
Speaker 1: on the phone just how do you know that he's dead?
Speaker 1: Like why why isn't he at the hospital? Like who
Speaker 1: who said he was dead? Like how do they? How
Speaker 1: do they know? And then when they told me the
Speaker 1: girls were safe, I mean I just remember thinking like
Speaker 1: what if they're not? Are you just saying that? Are
Speaker 1: you just waiting until I get there to tell me? Um?
Speaker 1: It was just I mean, like it just gosh, it
Speaker 1: just really messes with your mind, you know, hearing that
Speaker 1: that information. So I think I was all over the place.
Speaker 1: I tried to go to the campground, and I think
Speaker 1: it was one of the rangers or somebody there that
Speaker 1: said something like that to me that this never happened,
Speaker 1: you know, this kind of stuff never happens here, which
Speaker 1: just you know, at the time, it was sort of like, Okay,
Speaker 1: well that's good to know that that kind of stuff
Speaker 1: never happens here, but also just happened, you know, we
Speaker 1: could just happened like yeah, and it would come out
Speaker 1: that in fact, many similar things without being anywhere near
Speaker 1: catastrophic in the way that it was with Tristan. But
Speaker 1: there's been a lot of near misses. People knew, yeah,
Speaker 1: and that was something that I didn't I didn't find
Speaker 1: out until much later on. Yeah, I'm at Erica's new
Speaker 1: house in the Bay Area. This is not the home
Speaker 1: she and Tristan were going to move into. It's a
Speaker 1: different place that he never saw, a townhouse in a
Speaker 1: row of identical townhouses near the medical center where she works.
Speaker 1: She asked me to come here for a reason. She
Speaker 1: doesn't want to talk about the night of Tristan's death,
Speaker 1: the investigation, the charges against Anthony Rawda, or the impending
Speaker 1: criminal trial. The words Rauda and Malibu feel like they
Speaker 1: exist on some other planet, light years away from her grief.
Speaker 1: I want to tell tristan story, she says. I want
Speaker 1: to tell our story. This neighborhood is so friendly and nice.
Speaker 1: It's lovely. Are you guys settling? Ye? Yeah, we're settled,
Speaker 1: settled as it can be. I didn't know before we
Speaker 1: get started. She shows me around. Do you want to
Speaker 1: leave our shoes down here? That's fine. There's a tiny kitchen,
Speaker 1: a breakfast nook, a cozy living room. Every inch of
Speaker 1: the house down to the balcony is filled with kids toys.
Speaker 1: One wall is devoted to framed paintings that Clara made
Speaker 1: with Tristan, isn't this the best? My favorite? So she
Speaker 1: would do this thing where she would draw, just like
Speaker 1: do this like freehand draw, how she would fill in
Speaker 1: all the colors. Interesting, got her to do it on
Speaker 1: a canvas. So this was actually Mother's Day last year.
Speaker 1: They gave me this and that coffee machine and everywhere
Speaker 1: they're pictures of Tristan smiling on a hiking trail at
Speaker 1: Yosemite at Glacier National Park, carrying Clara in his arms
Speaker 1: and Ev and a frame pack on his shoulders. I'm
Speaker 1: really happy. Yeah, you guys went out into the wilderness
Speaker 1: a lot. Yeah, yeah, good, Yeah, I mean that was
Speaker 1: old Tristan. He loved to do that stuff. Took me
Speaker 1: a long time to be able to put up the
Speaker 1: pictures of him, but yeah, you know, obviously, sorry, it's
Speaker 1: a balance between still wanting to see pictures of him
Speaker 1: and wanting the girls to be able to see pictures
Speaker 1: of him. But balancing that was just still being really
Speaker 1: hard for me. Yeah. I mean we have a ton
Speaker 1: of like family pictures and stuff like that that I
Speaker 1: haven't been able to put up yet. Yeah. Sorry, Yeah,
Speaker 1: the pictures are painful, but she knows they're important and
Speaker 1: that pretty much captures her reason for talking to me.
Speaker 1: She wants to create a portrait of Tristan that is
Speaker 1: something other than his violent death. Erica and Tristan both
Speaker 1: grew up in Fresno, California, in the Central Valley, a
Speaker 1: midsize city in the middle of farm country where the
Speaker 1: credit card was invented and the modern landfill. Erica was
Speaker 1: the fourth of five girls, serious, a little bit reserved.
Speaker 1: In her senior year, she met Tristan, this happy, exuberant guy,
Speaker 1: bursting with confidence. We met because we had a mutual
Speaker 1: friend who was trying to find him a date for
Speaker 1: a winter formal. So it was January of our senior
Speaker 1: year in high school that we met. And did you
Speaker 1: do you have an impression from that night or something
Speaker 1: you remember? He was yeah, I mean he was a
Speaker 1: happy guy, and he was very sort of just uncomplicated,
Speaker 1: you know, like he sort of just wore everything on
Speaker 1: his sleeve. I think it's a testament to both of
Speaker 1: you that that was not a super awkward I was
Speaker 1: probably awkward. I'm sure it was awkward, but he was
Speaker 1: definitely like first serious boyfriend. I mean, yeah, After high school,
Speaker 1: Erica went to Stanford, Tristan went abroad for a year
Speaker 1: and then do you see San Diego. At his graduation,
Speaker 1: he surprised everyone he had the highest GPA in his college.
Speaker 1: He was one of those it just like came very
Speaker 1: easily to him, kind of every you know what he
Speaker 1: was good at in terms of the chemistry, Like I
Speaker 1: feel like for me, like I've always you know, like
Speaker 1: I have to study a lot to know what I know.
Speaker 1: But he just like knew it and it would click
Speaker 1: and he was Yeah, he was the smartest person I knew. Then.
Speaker 1: He was at Berkeley for grad school and chemistry and
Speaker 1: she was in San Francisco for medical school. They moved
Speaker 1: in together and then got married in two thousand and
Speaker 1: eight when she was twenty six and he was twenty five.
Speaker 1: Right away, Tristan made himself an indispensable part of Erica's family.
Speaker 1: Tristan's personality was just you know, he got along with everybody.
Speaker 1: You know. He was one of those people where he
Speaker 1: had like zero social anxiety. With four sisters, Erica had
Speaker 1: a pack of brothers in law, and Tristan became their ringleader.
Speaker 1: He loved to plan a twenty person family dinner, a
Speaker 1: trip to Hawaii, and especially any kind of outdoor adventure,
Speaker 1: and once he became a father, his love of nature
Speaker 1: took on a whole new dimension. Clara or would ask
Speaker 1: a question like how you know where are the cloud
Speaker 1: come from? Or where is a rain coming from? And
Speaker 1: he would give like a scientifically accurate answer that she
Speaker 1: could understand, you know, at three or four. One of
Speaker 1: the things I loved was that he used to teach
Speaker 1: the girls stuff like that, you know, like he knew
Speaker 1: that kind of stuff. The days before Tristan died are
Speaker 1: bright in Erica's memory, super saturated. First there was Father's Day,
Speaker 1: so it was just a couple of days before he passed.
Speaker 1: We went to the beach because that's what he said
Speaker 1: he wanted to do, and I remember we It was
Speaker 1: like a really beautiful day and it was super sunny,
Speaker 1: and Tristan set up like a little sunshade, and the
Speaker 1: girls were playing in the waves. They were letting the
Speaker 1: waves chase them, and I remember running after them and
Speaker 1: Tristan running after them, and I remember sort of looking
Speaker 1: at them, the three of them, and just thinking how
Speaker 1: lucky I was to have them. After Father's Day, they
Speaker 1: started getting ready for their move up to the Bay Area.
Speaker 1: Erica was really busy. She had her big exam on
Speaker 1: June twenty second and was studying non stop in between
Speaker 1: shifts at the hospital. So he was he was like, oh,
Speaker 1: you know, it's perfect. I'll get them out of the
Speaker 1: house Thursday night. You'll have you know, you'll be able
Speaker 1: to focus on the test, do whatever you need to do.
Speaker 1: I'll be able to take. But Ivie was a little
Speaker 1: sick that week, and Erica was secretly hoping they would
Speaker 1: just stay home. She hated it when they left. She
Speaker 1: always worried they waffled into the last minute, but it
Speaker 1: was their last week in southern California, maybe their last chance.
Speaker 1: Tristan decided to go for it. We all woke up
Speaker 1: a little bit late and he made the girl's breakfast,
Speaker 1: and I remember were sort of helping them get out
Speaker 1: the door, getting the girls dressed and braiding their hair,
Speaker 1: you know, like I remember, the one thing Tristan couldn't
Speaker 1: do was anything with their hair. So we we braiding
Speaker 1: both of the girls hair and be like, okay, just
Speaker 1: leave it like this un till you guys get back.
Speaker 1: And you know, he was just in such a good mood.
Speaker 1: He you know, like I said, his The trip for
Speaker 1: him started as soon as he started planning it. So
Speaker 1: he was getting all the gear together and um pet
Speaker 1: loading up the car, and I remember he put the
Speaker 1: bikes on the roof, you know, and we both thought
Speaker 1: it was super cute that m that my daughter's bike
Speaker 1: was next to his. I remember girls putting their shoes on,
Speaker 1: and um, my older one helping the little one put
Speaker 1: her shoes on so that they could get out the door.
Speaker 1: And they were just so excited to, you know, to
Speaker 1: go on this trip with daddy. Yeah, and I know
Speaker 1: it's like in retrospect, but I think part of me
Speaker 1: that like had, was a little bit anxious saying bye
Speaker 1: to them. And I remember feeling that way as they
Speaker 1: were leaving. Um, when he loaded the girls first, and
Speaker 1: then he came back and sort of held open the
Speaker 1: garage door to say bye to me, and UM, I
Speaker 1: just remember saying telling him to be careful. Um. I
Speaker 1: was always worried about the girls. Again, I just thought
Speaker 1: he was so untouchable. UM, but I remember just saying,
Speaker 1: you know, be careful with them, drive safe. You've precious
Speaker 1: cargo in your back seat. Um, come back. I would
Speaker 1: always say stuff like that, you know, like I said,
Speaker 1: I was like worried. L right, did something like bring
Speaker 1: them back to me. You can all come back, you know,
Speaker 1: you come back together. Um. You know, he just you know,
Speaker 1: did what he always said to be, like Erica, don't worry,
Speaker 1: We're gonna be fine. You know, nothing can happen, you know,
Speaker 1: being out there, that was like his sanctuary, you know,
Speaker 1: like he didn't think something. He would never believe that
Speaker 1: something like that could have happened. And I just remember
Speaker 1: him saying, yeah, I just go study, take your test.
Speaker 1: By the time you're done, will be back. We'll celebrate. Um.
Speaker 1: Then he just you know kissed me on the chicken.
Speaker 1: He was gone, gosh, And I feel like I can
Speaker 1: still remember what what he felt like standing there. You know,
Speaker 1: he was just so there one minute and then so
Speaker 1: god the next. Tristan sent her texts and pictures throughout
Speaker 1: the day. The last one was late just before bed. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I think he's he said Evie was maybe halvy hard times.
Speaker 1: I mean she was too, but he would send me
Speaker 1: like thumbs up. You know. I think he sent me
Speaker 1: like a thumbs up, And he said, you know, study hard.
Speaker 1: You know what he would always say, losing Tristan. Erica
Speaker 1: feels she lost everything, not just her husband, but herself.
Speaker 1: That Erica, the Erica that was Tristan's wife, is gone,
Speaker 1: and the girls who they were when their father was alive,
Speaker 1: they're gone. To the family as it was, it disappeared forever.
Speaker 1: God losing him in front of them. How that what
Speaker 1: kind of impact that has on them? You know in
Speaker 1: a way, I feel like, uh, that sort of family
Speaker 1: that I had died too, you know, like part of me,
Speaker 1: part of them. Life with Tristan was in full color.
Speaker 1: Now the three of them are surviving in the grade
Speaker 1: out time after. From the minute Erica set foot in
Speaker 1: Lost Hills Station on the morning of Tristan's death, she
Speaker 1: says she struggled to get information about the case. The
Speaker 1: Sheriff's department keeps sighting the ongoing investigation, telling her only
Speaker 1: the bare minimum. There was only one way to get answers,
Speaker 1: she tells me. A few months before I met her,
Speaker 1: she filed a ninety million dollars claim with the county.
Speaker 1: She names Anthony Rowda as liable in her husband's death,
Speaker 1: but he's almost an afterthought. The Sheriff's department in California
Speaker 1: State parks. She alleges they acted with deliberate indifference and negligence.
Speaker 1: They willfully created the conditions for the shooting to occur.
Speaker 1: There was a danger, they knew about it, she claims,
Speaker 1: and they didn't tell anyone. It's their fault. She says
Speaker 1: that her husband is dead. History is made in the
Speaker 1: race for La County Sheriff. In winning, Vienneueva ousted the
Speaker 1: incumbent sheriff, Jim McDonald, a feat that has not been
Speaker 1: accomplished and more than one hundred years. The upstart, the outsider,
Speaker 1: Alex Viennueva retired at the rank of lieutenant. He never
Speaker 1: even ran a station, and in November of twenty eighteen,
Speaker 1: he's elected the new sheriff. Here are the basics about
Speaker 1: the La County Sheriff's Department. It's not the lap LAPD
Speaker 1: wears dark blue. Sheriff's deputies wear the khaki shirts and
Speaker 1: green pants and have a big star on their chests
Speaker 1: Old West style. The LAPD polices the city of La Well.
Speaker 1: The Sheriff's department patrols the dozens of cities in the
Speaker 1: county that don't have their own forces, like Malibu and
Speaker 1: Calabasas as well as the town. These unincorporated areas like
Speaker 1: where Malibu Creek State Park is in all, it has
Speaker 1: something like ten thousand deputies who cover an area of
Speaker 1: nearly three thousand square miles. They also worked the jails
Speaker 1: and the courts. One more thing. For decades, the La
Speaker 1: Sheriff's Department has been mired in scandal. Maybe you heard
Speaker 1: of Lee Baca, two Sheriff's back. He's in prison now,
Speaker 1: as is his under sheriff, Paul Tanaka, for obstructing an
Speaker 1: FBI investigation into the treatment of inmates in the jail system.
Speaker 1: Alex Via Nueva says he's going to clean it all up.
Speaker 1: That sounds ambitious and frankly all consuming, and you wouldn't
Speaker 1: think it would have much to do with sleepy, old,
Speaker 1: fancy old Malibu. Please give a more round of applies.
Speaker 1: But here he is at Duke's, a surfer themed restaurant
Speaker 1: on the beach side of Pacific Coast Highway, talking about
Speaker 1: fixing Malibu's problems too. Everyone Cecie Woods and the mayor
Speaker 1: and everyone were coming for a tendency. It's all thanks
Speaker 1: to Cecie Woods, the Malibu activist who broke the story
Speaker 1: of the near misses and has been calling out the
Speaker 1: Lost Hills cops for as she sees it, lying to
Speaker 1: the community. She was a vocal cheerleader for Vienneueva during
Speaker 1: his outsider campaign. She used her social media feeds and
Speaker 1: her website, The Local, to celebrate him and run down
Speaker 1: his opponent, who she blamed for the problems at Lost Hills.
Speaker 1: And we had the occasion just a few weeks ago
Speaker 1: to do a town on the Lost Hills stationary for
Speaker 1: aolve all the cities. But now we're here specifically for
Speaker 1: the Malibu community and your particu Garne, which were slightly
Speaker 1: different from the ones that are sitar the other side
Speaker 1: of the hill range. And now it looks like Ceci's
Speaker 1: support is being rewarded. There she is in the front
Speaker 1: row in a leopard print dress, thing to Viennueva expert.
Speaker 1: He sits back down and I see she wasn't kidding.
Speaker 1: She has the sheriff's ear. Literally she's leaning over whispering
Speaker 1: into it. I wonder what this all means. Will Cecie,
Speaker 1: with her access to the new sheriff, be able to
Speaker 1: find out what no one seems to know what really
Speaker 1: happened in Malibu. How the shootings could go on for
Speaker 1: so long unchecked until finally someone got killed. Anthony Rowda's
Speaker 1: case is creeping through preliminary hearings, and the prosecutor says
Speaker 1: that the Sheriff's department is still working on ballistics. Also,
Speaker 1: they discovered seven electronic devices in Rowdas's camp. That's a
Speaker 1: lot of self and computers and kindles for hermit who
Speaker 1: doesn't want to talk to anyone. They all need to
Speaker 1: be analyzed, which is going to take even more time.
Speaker 1: But Cecie Woods doesn't need to wait. She's getting a
Speaker 1: constant stream of information about the investigation, not just from
Speaker 1: her new highly placed friends in law enforcement, but from
Speaker 1: her tea leaf reader. No no, no, I used to
Speaker 1: go like every six months, and then there was like
Speaker 1: a year and a half break maybe higher, and then
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, the last city council election and
Speaker 1: my marriage going down the tubes. I'm like time to
Speaker 1: call Monica, like everything was going to Monica source Ceci's
Speaker 1: psychic source. Ceci doesn't think Routa did it, and she
Speaker 1: wants to find out who did, and more important, what
Speaker 1: the cops did wrong. And I have literally had more
Speaker 1: than forty nine readings since, which is so not the norm.
Speaker 1: But now since she's seen that, every time I have
Speaker 1: a reading, new information comes up. Now she doesn't ignore me.
Speaker 1: She knows shit's going down, and so she better. It's
Speaker 1: tax Monica emergency, it's urgent. Shit's going down. So I've
Speaker 1: got to see this one day, Cecie lets me tag along.
Speaker 1: My psychicness started in through dreams. I do have a
Speaker 1: spirit guide that works with me. He's actually the one
Speaker 1: who does the reading and he speaks to me. He's
Speaker 1: a virgo. He's very you know, because he's kind of quirky.
Speaker 1: And sometimes it's like a riddle, you know, and you
Speaker 1: have to kind of figure it out, or it comes
Speaker 1: up in a quirky way. You know, it'll show up, like,
Speaker 1: for instance, one time I said to somebody, I see
Speaker 1: Howard Stern in your cup and they're like what, And
Speaker 1: then a couple of weeks, a couple of weeks later,
Speaker 1: she bumped into him in a seven to eleven. But
Speaker 1: I mean quirky, it's like, it's yeah. Monica Source lives
Speaker 1: with a roommate in a cookie cutter stucco house on
Speaker 1: a four lane road in Burbank She does her readings
Speaker 1: in a time knee paneled room. There are owls everywhere,
Speaker 1: big small, ceramic, stuffed, perched, peering, sharp beaked, like the
Speaker 1: world's creepiest bed and breakfast. Her two dogs, Wolfman and Bandit,
Speaker 1: suffer from anxiety, she says, so during readings she holds
Speaker 1: them in her lap. Cecie, pick your tea and put
Speaker 1: two tea spoons in your cup. The table is set
Speaker 1: with a red checked tablecloth, blue and white china, and
Speaker 1: glass jars filled with loose leaf tea. And then when
Speaker 1: she gets her tea in there and drinks it, she's
Speaker 1: gonna stir it three times. Three's a magic number. Three's
Speaker 1: a magical number. Cecie has two cell phones out, one
Speaker 1: for taping, one for taking notes. She's on the edge
Speaker 1: of her seat. Okay, you done, good man? Do you
Speaker 1: remember what to do? Cecie puts the saucer on the
Speaker 1: cup and inverts it like she's flipping a cake out
Speaker 1: of a pan. One hand on the cup, the other
Speaker 1: spinning the saucer. Am I at three, yeah, I embrace it,
Speaker 1: Embrace it. Monica. Source lifts the returned cop off the
Speaker 1: saucer and stares into the drags left on the plate.
Speaker 1: It looks like Tea leaves to me, but she starts
Speaker 1: channeling her spirit guide. The dogs get anxious. Gotcha, Okay,
Speaker 1: here we go. Um, I'm getting some initials around you.
Speaker 1: Of course, I'm getting the j's, I'm getting the s is.
Speaker 1: It is actually spelling out cops. Um, so you're definitely
Speaker 1: going to be around cops. She's getting Italian energy and
Speaker 1: Celtic energy and some Hispanic energy and some strong Asian energy.
Speaker 1: She's getting a Rob and a Joe. Is he bad
Speaker 1: bad coped? Good copy yet? Okay? Because I'm getting morals,
Speaker 1: m could be okay, And then it's simply spelling out proof.
Speaker 1: So there is going to be proof. You are going
Speaker 1: to prove some things that are going down, and you
Speaker 1: have the proof. So we'll find the prof. And this patrol.
Speaker 1: Do they do patrol by horses around there? Two? Malibu
Speaker 1: Creek State Park? Because that's what I'm getting. The patrol
Speaker 1: is like by someone on a horse. Okay, so that
Speaker 1: could still be involved with Malba Creek State Park because
Speaker 1: Rouda did not do it. I'm telling you Rowda did
Speaker 1: not do it. Josh. I don't know if we got
Speaker 1: Josh before. But I'm getting like a Josh or Okay, yeah,
Speaker 1: we got that. I just actually heard an issue with
Speaker 1: a Josh today. CC does not observe the psychic firewall,
Speaker 1: So sitting in on her session with Monica sources an
Speaker 1: opportunity for me to hear what she's picking up from
Speaker 1: her other sources in law enforcement about what's going on
Speaker 1: inside Lost Hill Station. You're kidding a cop. Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: something's coming in with the cop for sure, for sure. Okay,
Speaker 1: And I'm also getting Tuesday or Thursday being oh my god, CIA,
Speaker 1: I have to admit she's losing me. Yeah, but it
Speaker 1: doesn't CIA like globe bullshit. Tuesday Thursday, the CIA. Why
Speaker 1: would they call it the CIA? Yeah? Who knows. I
Speaker 1: could stumble upon something that maybe I mean right now,
Speaker 1: the tea people. Who are the tee people, Well, there's
Speaker 1: a couple tea people. There is Sergeant Twee right, but
Speaker 1: now I snapped to attention Sergeant Twee Wright. He's the
Speaker 1: guy who took me on the helicopter ride. Good cop,
Speaker 1: bad cop. I think Twee is a bad cop. She
Speaker 1: thinks Sergeant Writes a bad cop. Yeah, because one of
Speaker 1: them looks like it's not looking too good for them either.
Speaker 1: I'll read it with that. After the session's over. I
Speaker 1: sit in the car with Ceci for a minute. It's
Speaker 1: clear how little she thinks of the Lost Tail Sheriff station.
Speaker 1: But now I find out something new and alarming. Alex
Speaker 1: wouldn't even know this ship was going on if we
Speaker 1: didn't tell hold on a second Alex, Alex via Nueva,
Speaker 1: the new La County Sheriff arftural loss mopos that need
Speaker 1: some direction, Well, hopefully they're gonna get it now from Alex.
Speaker 1: I mean, and that's why we voted for him, because
Speaker 1: we want him to succeed. We want him to turn
Speaker 1: this damn department around. Yes, Lost Souls is a perfect
Speaker 1: name for him. It sounds like Cecy's feeding the sheriff information,
Speaker 1: possibly from her tea leafreetings. And just like him, she's
Speaker 1: gone from being a total outsider to a total insider.
Speaker 1: CEC and I don't share methods, not at all, But
Speaker 1: there are ways of finding out if someone is a
Speaker 1: bad cop. The Sheriff's department doesn't like to share personnel records.
Speaker 1: You basically have to sue to get them. I put
Speaker 1: in a public records request and they tell me essentially
Speaker 1: get in line. But the District Attorney's office does keep
Speaker 1: files on cops with histories of misconduct, cops they've been
Speaker 1: asked to investigate, and they're supposed to keep these records
Speaker 1: even if they never file charges. That's because if a
Speaker 1: cop is called on to testify in court and has
Speaker 1: a history of misconduct, the defense is entitled to know
Speaker 1: that it's considered exculpatory. So I submit a series of
Speaker 1: requests to the DA asking about every name I can
Speaker 1: find involved with the Malibu case. I also try to
Speaker 1: get to know Sergeant Twoey Wright, the Lost Hills detective
Speaker 1: who seems to be the center of the ROUTA investigation.
Speaker 1: All right, are you ready? Can you say who you are?
Speaker 1: I remember you, I'm hard to hear. Right. After hounding
Speaker 1: him for months, I got him to give me that
Speaker 1: helicopter tour of Malibu's killing zone, and today he's sitting
Speaker 1: down with me to do an interview. Sergeant Wright is,
Speaker 1: by his own description, not totally at home in the
Speaker 1: culture of the Sheriff's department. He's an ex marine and
Speaker 1: a vegan and a bow hunter who grew up into
Speaker 1: Panga Canyon a hippie trippy enclave in Lost Hill's jurisdiction.
Speaker 1: He's also gotten dozens of awards and commendations, especially for
Speaker 1: his work leading the Malibu Search and Rescue team. He's conflicted.
Speaker 1: He loves the Sheriff's department devoted his life to it,
Speaker 1: but he says he wants to tell me the real story,
Speaker 1: the truth about what went on behind the scenes at
Speaker 1: Lost Hills Station before and after Tristan Boudatt was killed.
Speaker 1: I've got so many questions. There were three shootings in
Speaker 1: Malibu Creek State Park in late twenty sixteen through January
Speaker 1: twenty seventeen. I'm imagining because it is a small community
Speaker 1: and Malibu Last Hills Sheriff Station is just a few
Speaker 1: miles from the park, that you would have heard about
Speaker 1: those shootings in the park, right. Well. I did eventually
Speaker 1: hear about those shootings. I had only heard about them
Speaker 1: when the state park supervisors called Lieutenant Royal and told
Speaker 1: them that they had a series of crimes that they
Speaker 1: wanted him to weigh in on near Missus one through three.
Speaker 1: Sergeant Wright tells me all happened on state park property,
Speaker 1: so it was the rangers respon ability to investigate. California
Speaker 1: State Parks is a separate law enforcement agency. They investigate
Speaker 1: the majority of their own crimes, and they make arrests
Speaker 1: their full peace officers in the state of California. The
Speaker 1: shootings were in State Parks jurisdiction, but they didn't get solved,
Speaker 1: and the problem didn't seem to be going away. When
Speaker 1: you have three shootings in a particular period of time,
Speaker 1: in the same area and with the same type of
Speaker 1: weapon at the same time of day, it makes you think,
Speaker 1: I mean, these are unknown an unknown assailant that fired
Speaker 1: from the dark and disappeared into the night, always one shot.
Speaker 1: Lieutenant Royal was Sergeant Right supervisor, and they were both concerned.
Speaker 1: But when they took the information to their bosses at
Speaker 1: the station, Sergeant Right says, the bosses blew them off.
Speaker 1: I was told by the captain that it was a
Speaker 1: State Parks problem, and obviously Lieutenant Royal told talked to him.
Speaker 1: I talked to him about it, and there was concern
Speaker 1: on our part because it's right down the street. It
Speaker 1: might technically be in the State Parks jurisdiction, but who's
Speaker 1: to say it couldn't spill out into ours. It just
Speaker 1: didn't seem like there was much interesting at the supervisory
Speaker 1: levels above us. Five months after Sergeant Right and Lieutenant
Speaker 1: Royal learned about the three near misses in the park,
Speaker 1: there was another shooting, this time in Lost Hills jurisdiction,
Speaker 1: the white Porsche on the Canyon Road at four thirty am.
Speaker 1: That was the one where the driver had to drive
Speaker 1: himself to the station to make a report, even after
Speaker 1: calling nine one near miss number four. Six weeks after
Speaker 1: that near miss number five, a teenager driving her mother's
Speaker 1: white BMW on her way to a surf competition with
Speaker 1: a friend, same road, same time, something hit the car,
Speaker 1: blowing out a back window. Fearing for their lives, the
Speaker 1: teenagers sped away and when they got to Sir Frider Beach,
Speaker 1: they saw that the back of the car was riddled
Speaker 1: with holes, pellets from bird shot lodged in the rear lights.
Speaker 1: We went out and investigated that, and I personally went
Speaker 1: out and looked at the scene, and we searched for evidence,
Speaker 1: and I found a shotgun wadding that I believe came
Speaker 1: from the shot, and I believe it gave me an
Speaker 1: indication or where the shot was fired from. By then,
Speaker 1: July twenty seventeen, eleven months before Tristan Boudatt was killed,
Speaker 1: there had been five near misses, three in the park
Speaker 1: and two on the road. There was a puzzling if
Speaker 1: distinct pattern, location, time, ammunition, a single shot. Well certainly
Speaker 1: the crimes the shootings occurred in the we morning hours,
Speaker 1: just before dawn, so that was one one thing that
Speaker 1: was consistent in his m A. The other was, of course,
Speaker 1: as you know in the beginning, a shotgun was used,
Speaker 1: so same weapon and one shot fired. That was pretty consistent.
Speaker 1: And the location was a huge issue inside the state
Speaker 1: park and one particular campground. The state park is huge,
Speaker 1: but one particular campground not spread all over one spot,
Speaker 1: within a few camp spaces of another, and then finally
Speaker 1: on the highway adjacent to the campground in the same spot.
Speaker 1: So those were consistent patterns that I think indicated a
Speaker 1: serial shooter. I think there's only common sense to be
Speaker 1: able to see that. Sergeant Wright says he and Lieutenant
Speaker 1: Royal were frustrated and fearful. When Wright told me in
Speaker 1: the helicopter that it was quote our greatest fear that
Speaker 1: the shooter would kill someone, he meant it was his
Speaker 1: and Lieutenant Royal's greatest fear. But they couldn't get traction
Speaker 1: with their theory to be told by other investigators or
Speaker 1: the department. There was no evidence or there was not
Speaker 1: enough information to link these crimes. I just thought it
Speaker 1: was ridiculous. It wasn't my opinion. But while the investigation
Speaker 1: was sputtering along, word of a shooter got out among
Speaker 1: the deputies. We all knew where the shooting grounds, and
Speaker 1: I had heard rumors at patrol cars. Some patrol cars
Speaker 1: would go by at high speed with their guns out
Speaker 1: the window pointed in that direction, and I believe people
Speaker 1: that knew warned their family members not to drive by there.
Speaker 1: This might be the most outrageous thing. Sergeant Wright has
Speaker 1: told me. The threat was real. The deputies knew there
Speaker 1: was a shooter in the area and that he might
Speaker 1: kill someone. They were scared, but the department still didn't
Speaker 1: warn the public, and then the shooting stopped for the
Speaker 1: next eleven months. There was a lull, which, if anything,
Speaker 1: Sergeant Wright says, made him more nervous. We were wondering
Speaker 1: during the gap what the heck was going on. And
Speaker 1: I had told Lieutenant Royal that I believe we had
Speaker 1: a serial shooter. I actually told him I thought we
Speaker 1: had a serial killer that had not killed yet in
Speaker 1: our area, that we knew of a serial killer in Malibu.
Speaker 1: The lull in the shootings was shattered in June twenty
Speaker 1: eighteen when the white Tesla was hit on the Canyon
Speaker 1: Road near Miss Number six. Four days later, Tristan Boudett
Speaker 1: was killed in his tent after the murder. The detectives
Speaker 1: from Homicide and Major Crimes showed up after the murder.
Speaker 1: Obviously the department was taking note and there was more interest.
Speaker 1: Sergeant Wright says that his search and rescue team was
Speaker 1: told to keep assisting with the investigation. They knew the area,
Speaker 1: they could be helpful, and as far as he's concerned,
Speaker 1: they were. We were there the day of the murder,
Speaker 1: and later Homicide went back with one of their volunteer
Speaker 1: teams to try and find shellcasings and they were unable
Speaker 1: to do so. When I heard that they found nothing,
Speaker 1: I asked them if they wanted me to take a
Speaker 1: crack at searching with my team, and they stood by
Speaker 1: all means, so we went back a week after Boudette
Speaker 1: was killed. He says his search and rescue team used
Speaker 1: metal detectors and found five nine millimeter shell casings in
Speaker 1: the campground. It looked like multiple rounds had been fired,
Speaker 1: though it was hard to say for sure. Two of
Speaker 1: the casings were so rusted their headstamps were illegible. And
Speaker 1: that was a great farm. Homicide was ecstatic. He came
Speaker 1: out to the scene. They were very happy. Later, Sergeant
Speaker 1: Wright decided to go looking for the actual bullets. Only one,
Speaker 1: the one that killed Tristan Boudette, had ever been found,
Speaker 1: lodged in his right shoulder blade, but the tent showed
Speaker 1: a second entry hole and an exit hole. Sergeant Wright
Speaker 1: and one of his search and rescue guys went out
Speaker 1: to the campground. Their idea was to position themselves where
Speaker 1: the nine millimeter casings had been found and aim a
Speaker 1: laser towards Bodette's campsite. The laser beam pointed at a
Speaker 1: small hill in the distance. Sergeant Wright and his team
Speaker 1: member dug into the hill and pulled out a spent
Speaker 1: nine millimeter bullet. Sergeant Wright says he also helped Major
Speaker 1: Crimes investigate the rash of burglaries that happened around the
Speaker 1: park after Bodette was killed. Major Crimes certainly came in
Speaker 1: at some point after the burglary started, and they do
Speaker 1: specialize in burglary serial burglary investigations, and there seemed to
Speaker 1: be more interest in that than the shootings, which is strange.
Speaker 1: But we worked closely with Major Crimes. Major Crimes expected
Speaker 1: that help and they deserved that help from the locals
Speaker 1: that know the area. He says that after he and
Speaker 1: one of his trackers found those bootprints leading up into
Speaker 1: the hills, he was the one that proposed a search.
Speaker 1: Major Crimes was not doing anything in that particular spot
Speaker 1: or area, so it was off the radar. Everything else
Speaker 1: they were doing was sort of random, you know, stumbling
Speaker 1: around looking for clues. I was able to convince Detective
Speaker 1: Berry that we needed to go back there, and he said,
Speaker 1: okay too. We tie Berry the Major Crimes detective Gray
Speaker 1: hair Beard Chick Kickers. He's the guy I saw at
Speaker 1: one of Rout's early hearings for his probation and weapons violations.
Speaker 1: So it was a combined Lost Hills team with two
Speaker 1: Major Crimes guys added, and they went back there. We
Speaker 1: stumbled upon Routa and we captured him. Lieutenant Royal was
Speaker 1: on that team too, part of the route to capture,
Speaker 1: and I would expect that even though it was late
Speaker 1: in coming, and even though it came after a terrible tragedy,
Speaker 1: this was a great victory for Lost Hills to have
Speaker 1: arrested this suspect. It was a great victory. And I
Speaker 1: mean we had captured an on burglar. But I happened
Speaker 1: to start to believe that Router could be the suspect
Speaker 1: and the murder at that point because of the particular
Speaker 1: firearmy had. And it was such a great victory that
Speaker 1: the station captain bought dinner for everybody. In the beginning,
Speaker 1: he says, the department was treating him and Lieutenant Royal
Speaker 1: like heroes. I was told at some point that some
Speaker 1: of those involved in the arrest and the investigation, we're
Speaker 1: going to get a medal. I was supposed to get
Speaker 1: a medal, and Royal was supposed to get a medal
Speaker 1: along with others involved. I don't know who. In January
Speaker 1: of twenty nineteen, when Rota was charged with the murder,
Speaker 1: the near misses and the burglaries, Sergeant Wright and Lieutenant
Speaker 1: Royal's efforts to solve the case were vindicated. Their theory
Speaker 1: that the crimes were connected, was seemingly now validated by
Speaker 1: the Sheriff's Department and the DA. The suspect they had
Speaker 1: tracked and helped capture in the Hills he turned out
Speaker 1: to be the one. It was right around that time,
Speaker 1: Sergeant Wright tells me that everything changed. No medal for him,
Speaker 1: no medal for Lieutenant Royal, kind of the opposite. Suddenly
Speaker 1: they were under investigation. I've never had an internal affairs
Speaker 1: investigation before that, certainly that I know of. I've never
Speaker 1: been in trouble, and all of a sudden in January,
Speaker 1: we get told that we're the subjects of an internal
Speaker 1: affairs investigation. Sergeant Wright was transferred out of Lost Hill station, expelled,
Speaker 1: given freeway therapy along commute, a loss of seniority, public shame,
Speaker 1: his new job patrolling CityWalk at Universal Studios out of
Speaker 1: the West Hollywood station. Finally, he just retired, which is
Speaker 1: why he was willing for a little while at least
Speaker 1: to talk to me and Lieutenant Royal, sergeant right supervisor,
Speaker 1: the same thing happened to him. He got transferred out
Speaker 1: of Malibu, demoted, shamed. This is all very strange, is
Speaker 1: Sergeant Wright telling me the truth? Because if he is.
Speaker 1: If he basically solved this case, then why would he
Speaker 1: be under investigation. I asked the DA about every Sheriff's
Speaker 1: Department name I could find associated with the Router case
Speaker 1: to see if any of them had a history of misconduct.
Speaker 1: Sergeant twey Wright and Lieutenant James Royal don't. But two
Speaker 1: of the detectives who took over the case from them
Speaker 1: they're dirty. Daniel Morris, the homicide detective who oversaw the
Speaker 1: chain of custody on the murder evidence and was a
Speaker 1: witness at Bodet's autopsy, He's got a record of dishonesty.
Speaker 1: And Ty Berry, the major crimes detective. He's been accused
Speaker 1: of planting evidence, fabricating police reports, and lying. It's so
Speaker 1: bad that the Sheriff's department fired him for dishonesty back
Speaker 1: in two thousand and three. He only has his job
Speaker 1: because he sued to get it back. So the Hamis
Speaker 1: detective and the major crimes lead both have histories of dishonesty.
Speaker 1: And the two local guys who had been trying to
Speaker 1: solve the case when their bosses didn't seem to believe
Speaker 1: there was anything to solve, they are under investigation. Is
Speaker 1: there anyone here I can trust? I know what I
Speaker 1: need to do. I need to go see it for myself.
Speaker 1: I need to go out there where it all happened.
Speaker 1: Malibu Creek State Park,