0:00

Love this podcast? Support

0:02

this show through the Acast supporter feature.

0:05

It's up to you how much you give, and there's no

0:07

regular commitment. Just click the link

0:10

in the show description to support now.

0:13

Hey there, listeners. If you need

0:15

a new addition to your weekly true

0:18

crime lineup, there is a podcast

0:20

I want to tell you about called the

0:22

Generation Y Podcast. One

0:24

of the longest-running true crime podcasts

0:27

out there. Generation Y

0:30

digs into some of the craziest and most

0:32

notable murders, crimes, and

0:34

even some conspiracy theories. Every

0:37

week, hosts Aaron and Justin

0:39

sit down to discuss a new case or

0:42

crazy occurrence, and they cover

0:44

everything. From mysterious disappearances

0:47

and shady murders, to the mysterious

0:50

Skinwalker Ranch,

0:52

and the mysterious Pizzagate scandal.

0:54

Over at Generation Y, they

0:57

cover every angle and every

0:59

theory walking you through the forensic

1:01

evidence, and sometimes they

1:04

even interview those close to the

1:06

case. In our recent episode,

1:09

they cover the case of Thomas

1:11

Dinn Bowman, the

1:13

man arrested and charged for the murder

1:15

of Yancey Knoll. But

1:17

Dinn Bowman and Yancey Knoll were

1:20

strangers, so investigators

1:22

were tasked with figuring out

1:24

why Dinn Bowman would murder a man

1:27

he didn't know. I'm

1:29

about to play a clip from the Generation

1:31

Y Podcast. Follow Generation

1:34

Y on the Wondery app or wherever you

1:36

get your podcasts.

1:38

[♪ Music intro ♪

1:45

So Aaron, tonight's case, when I

1:47

first heard about this, and I think

1:49

you also, we

1:51

thought it was a road rage incident.

1:53

We thought it was a situation

1:55

where two drivers get angry with each other,

1:58

and one...

2:00

pulls out a gun and ends the

2:02

situation. But the

2:04

more you learn about this case, the

2:07

less it is about a road

2:09

rage incident. What

2:10

are we talking about tonight? Tonight we're

2:13

talking about a 29-year-old

2:15

named Thomas Den Bowman. We'll

2:17

probably refer to him as Den Bowman

2:20

throughout the episode.

2:21

But on September 21st,

2:23

he was arrested and charged with

2:26

murder

2:26

after he shot a man he didn't

2:29

know named Yancey Noll.

2:31

And that's what this episode is all about. We'll get into

2:33

it. So this was August

2:35

31st, 2012. So

2:38

who are the two people involved with this? Yancey

2:40

Noll had a fiancé

2:43

named Jody Wertz. And he

2:45

was described in the media as

2:47

an outdoorsy guy who enjoyed fine

2:49

wine. He also spent time

2:51

volunteering for Habitat for Humanity.

2:54

And one of his passions was teaching kids

2:56

how to rock climb. Ben

2:59

was 29 years old. His

3:01

mother was from Vietnam. And his

3:03

dad worked as a Boeing engineer. Now

3:06

he was kind of considered a genius.

3:10

He was homeschooled after third grade. But

3:12

he started college at age 12. And

3:15

he was featured in a Seattle Times article

3:18

in May of 1996. Now

3:20

get this. When you talk about genius,

3:23

he earned a BS in

3:26

electrical engineering from the University of Washington.

3:29

And when he was just 13, he was

3:31

nationally ranked in fencing. And

3:34

he even started an engineering

3:36

company titled Vague

3:38

Industries, which specialized in

3:41

robotics. This is when he was still

3:43

a young man.

3:44

In his early 20s,

3:46

he's acquitted of a burglary

3:48

and a first degree theft. He had been

3:51

accused of stealing ski equipment

3:53

from a store in Seattle. This

3:56

is weird because he's pretty

3:59

well off. or at least he portrays

4:01

himself as such. So yeah,

4:04

and he's, I know he's acquitted

4:07

of it, but what was he doing attempting

4:09

to steal some ski equipment?

4:12

Well, again, he was acquitted, Justin,

4:14

right? But the fact that this is on his

4:16

record, this isn't the person

4:18

that you would expect to see that happen

4:20

to, right? In 2007, though,

4:23

he met a woman named Jennifer Palm. She

4:26

was a dentist. They were at an education

4:28

seminar together, and they were married within

4:30

a year.

4:32

Yancey Knoll is 42 years old. He

4:35

had just gotten off work.

4:37

So Yancey's driving a red Subaru,

4:39

and witnesses at 7.26 p.m.

4:41

report gunshots. This

4:46

is at the intersection of 15th Avenue,

4:48

Ne, and Ne

4:50

75th Street in Roosevelt, Seattle. So

4:53

there were five shots fired. These

4:55

two cars were sitting at an intersection,

4:57

the red light, and then

5:00

shots ring out.

5:01

It's a 7.26 p.m. witnesses

5:03

hear these gunshots. They

5:06

say the shooter fired five times, and

5:09

was just a few feet from other drivers

5:11

in the intersection. Four of the shots

5:14

hit Yancey. One of them

5:16

actually traveled into a nearby

5:18

house. Witnesses then saw

5:20

a silver BMW convertible leaving

5:23

the area at a high rate of speed. The

5:26

BMW went through the red

5:28

light

5:29

into oncoming traffic, and was

5:31

traveling so fast that his car actually

5:34

caught air at the top of a hill.

5:36

And he sped off through a residential

5:38

neighborhood. Now, initially,

5:41

people see this scene, Aaron, and they

5:44

think possible road rage incident.

5:47

They call 911, and the police

5:49

show up, and they find Yancey Knoll

5:52

bleeding to death inside of his car.

5:54

He had four fatal gunshot

5:56

wounds to his head.

5:58

He still had his hands on the wheel.

6:00

So this is not something that's going to be survivable.

6:02

Now, there's a crazy story here

6:05

that CBS was told by

6:07

the woman who owned the house where that fifth

6:09

bullet went into. And

6:12

she said it sounded like a huge explosion.

6:15

Now, apparently, after she heard the noise,

6:17

she got up and went outside

6:19

and she found the

6:21

bullet. Apparently, when they checked

6:24

her house out, the bullet had gone through her fence,

6:26

through a window, through

6:28

a lampshade, down a hallway, hit

6:31

a picture, and then just dropped

6:33

on the floor.

6:35

Normally, it takes a lot more to recover

6:37

a bullet from a crime scene. So this is very

6:39

out of the ordinary and a huge stroke

6:41

of luck for them. They can recognize it

6:44

as a nine millimeter bullet.

6:46

There were some witnesses who were in a car. The

6:49

witnesses were Kevin Watts and Angelo

6:52

Rama. Now, when these gunshots

6:54

rang out, they saw this car

6:57

peel off and speed away. And

7:01

they noticed it went right through a red light.

7:03

So they thought, maybe we should follow

7:06

because this

7:07

might be the person who fired

7:09

their gun. So they chased

7:12

after this car. But like

7:14

we said, that BMW, it was

7:16

traveling at a high rate of speed and they just couldn't

7:18

keep up.

7:19

And they didn't want to keep up through a residential

7:21

neighborhood doing 80 miles per hour.

7:24

So they backed off.

7:25

So a couple of Seattle Police Department

7:27

detectives were assigned to the case,

7:29

Frank Clark and Dana Duffy.

7:32

One of the first things they do, because they know

7:34

the identity of the person who was shot, they

7:36

check their background. They see, do

7:39

they have a criminal record? What do we know about

7:41

them? And as you

7:43

always say right off the bat, no criminal

7:45

record. They have no record of him

7:47

doing anything. So he appears

7:50

to be just a regular law abiding citizen.

7:53

And later on, they're going to ask

7:55

his friends and family if he had any enemies.

7:58

And of course, they're going to say, no, everyone. he

8:00

was a really nice guy. And so

8:02

that's why they're going with this road

8:05

rage battle, this road rage incident.

8:07

But they even say he drove slowly,

8:10

like he drove like a grandma. He was very

8:12

careful with his driving. And

8:15

he just was not aggressive

8:18

in any way, whether it was behind the wheel or

8:20

in person. He was very careful

8:22

and very mindful when talking to others.

8:25

Now, these detectives saw that Yancey's

8:28

window was rolled down and

8:30

they knew the driver had fired shots through

8:33

the passenger window. So

8:35

this seemed a little odd because

8:37

they knew that the shooter's

8:40

passenger side window would be broken,

8:42

meaning whoever was in the BMW shot

8:46

into Yancey, but they

8:48

were like in the left lane and Yancey was in the

8:50

right lane. So whoever the shooter was

8:53

possibly shot through their own passenger window

8:56

or could have damaged their own car during the

8:58

shooting. And Rama noticed that he

9:00

had really nice silver rims

9:02

on this BMW, so not very conspicuous.

9:06

So Kevin Watts, the other witness,

9:09

he helps the police with a composite

9:11

sketch and they find surveillance

9:14

cameras all around the center section and

9:17

they release photos and

9:19

stills of this silver BMW

9:22

that sped away.

9:23

Now, there was a lot of cooperation from

9:25

the public, hundreds of tips poured

9:28

in. And it's no doubt

9:30

as a result of the police asking for help,

9:32

the sketch of the driver that was released

9:35

through the media. But yeah, this all

9:37

happens within two weeks. And

9:39

then a big break happens. September

9:42

14th, there was a woman who

9:44

left an anonymous tip. She

9:46

gave the police a name. The name was Din

9:49

Bowman. That's D-I-N-H Bowman.

9:52

And also provided an address which

9:55

was less than 10 blocks from that

9:57

crime scene. You

9:58

can listen to Generate.

9:59

Add 3 right

10:02

now by joining Wandry Plus in

10:04

the Wandry app

10:05

or on Apple Podcasts.