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1:00

A word of warning: This podcast

1:02

explores graphic and disturbing stories and

1:04

include some strong language. It therefore

1:06

may not be suitable for our

1:08

young listeners or other folks who

1:10

may find it disturbing. Hello and

1:12

welcome to True Crime Daily The

1:14

podcast covering high profile and under

1:16

the radar cases from across the

1:18

country. Every week I'm your host

1:20

Anna Garcia. Our cases this week

1:22

their murder cases that have. One.

1:25

Thing and Com and the

1:27

accused killers here have allegedly

1:29

kept notebooks detailing their heinous

1:31

acts. Mexican authorities have arrested

1:33

a potential serial killer who

1:35

media outlets are calling the

1:37

Mexican Jeffrey Dahmer because police

1:39

say he had body parts

1:41

in his apartment. If

1:44

he's been killing women for twelve

1:46

years, families are the victims are

1:48

asking? how could the police not

1:50

have known that there was a

1:52

serial killer likely responsible for all

1:54

of these murders? But first, police

1:56

responding to a woman's attempted suicide.

1:59

Well. that leads them to uncover

2:01

a murder. As police read through

2:03

her journal, they realized she may

2:06

have killed her boyfriend, which she did.

2:09

The complication was that no one knew

2:11

the man was missing because she sent

2:13

text messages to his family and friends

2:16

pretending to be him, so no one,

2:18

not even his own mother, knew that

2:20

he was gone. We are recording this on

2:22

Thursday, May 2nd of 2024. Our

2:24

guest today is Danny Smith, a

2:26

former homicide detective and an author

2:28

of the Dickie Floyd detective series.

2:32

You are a prolific author. You

2:35

just came out with a new book, didn't you? I

2:38

did, Anna, and thank you. Yes,

2:40

I just published the eighth book in the

2:43

Dickie Floyd series, the eighth novel, and it's

2:46

called The First Felony and it's been doing

2:48

great. And then I have the one spin-off

2:50

series that I need to get back to

2:54

and the memoir. So, a total of ten published

2:56

now. Amazing, amazing.

2:58

So, it's kind of perfect that we're talking

3:00

to you because here you are taking all these

3:02

notes and you started writing, as we've

3:04

shared many times before for those who

3:06

are new to the podcast, you started

3:08

writing as a form of therapy to

3:11

deal with your PTSD from the horrific

3:13

crimes that you investigated. So,

3:15

it's interesting to me that in

3:17

these two cases, the notebooks

3:20

and the journals kept by the

3:22

accused killers paramount

3:24

and central to the

3:27

investigation. Yeah, I

3:29

mean, it's great when people leave evidence like

3:31

that. It's terrific. But

3:33

yeah, very, very interesting cases that you're going

3:36

to talk about today. So,

3:38

you know, both our cases are international.

3:40

And the first one is out of

3:42

Northampton, England, where a school teacher who

3:45

journaled the details about murdering her boyfriend

3:47

has now been convicted. She had two

3:49

trials. The first one had

3:52

to be tossed out on illegal technicality and then

3:54

she finally went back to trial again and finally

3:56

pleaded guilty. I mean, this drama has been going

3:58

on for quite a few years. years. The

4:00

killer here is 50-year-old Fiona

4:03

Beale and she has

4:05

pleaded guilty to murdering her boyfriend, Nicholas

4:07

Billingham, who was 42 at the time.

4:09

Police say that she lured him with

4:12

the promise of sex and then convinced

4:14

him to wear an eye

4:16

mask in order to help him relax.

4:19

Therefore, he could not see the knife coming

4:22

his way. So very... Ant

4:25

Tied him to the bed. Ant Tied

4:27

him to the bed to keep him in

4:29

position. Exactly. He thought he was going to

4:31

have a night of, you know, adventurous sex

4:35

and she had different plans for him.

4:37

So we never saw coming. Yeah.

4:41

All right. So let's get to this. Now, for

4:45

me, the backstory here is how they discovered

4:47

the murder, that they figured out that someone

4:49

had been killed because prior to this, no

4:51

one was investigating the case. So I just

4:54

find that fascinating. A little bit of history

4:56

on the two of them. And then I

4:58

kind of want to go back in time

5:00

because the revelation of what could be a

5:02

man buried in the backyard only

5:05

happened because she was

5:08

suicidal several months later with the

5:11

presumably all of the guilt troubling her.

5:13

So prior to the murder, Fiona was

5:15

working as a school teacher instructing

5:18

year six, as they say,

5:20

in Eastville Academy. And Nicholas was a builder

5:22

by trade. Fiona and Nicholas had been dating

5:24

for like 17 years. I mean,

5:27

this is a very long relationship. Fiona

5:30

said that the relationship had deteriorated

5:32

around the COVID lockdown in 2020

5:35

and that she claimed that he

5:37

was abusive and very cruel, especially

5:40

during sex. She

5:43

said that he would spit on her

5:45

and this is

5:47

both what she said to the police and also what would

5:50

be in her journals. So

5:53

the final straw for her apparently was that

5:55

she thought he was having an affair with a woman

5:57

down the street. And

6:00

all of this is explained in her journal.

6:02

But what's also interesting is a lot of

6:04

the journal, Danny is rambling

6:07

and she also writes in

6:10

a third person, somebody named Tulip

6:12

22. Do

6:16

you ever? Yeah, it's like

6:18

an alter ego for her that

6:21

she created this other

6:23

individual and that individual journaled

6:25

everything that happened with the

6:27

murder. And like you said, it's

6:29

a good thing that, you know, ultimately when

6:32

she was having her mental breakdown, finally,

6:34

because initially after this, people

6:36

said that she was fairly normal when she came back

6:38

to work and said that, you know,

6:40

he had left and was gone, ran off with

6:42

another woman that she was fairly normal.

6:44

But apparently, like what

6:47

tends to happen in these things, it

6:49

started to bother her enough that she

6:51

started having some mental

6:53

issues over it. And at

6:55

one point contemplated and even maybe

6:57

attempted suicide. Sounds like kind of

6:59

a hesitation type deal. But

7:02

anyway, yeah, otherwise, I don't know.

7:04

They may never have come upon

7:06

it. I don't know. It

7:08

was a well thought out

7:10

case on her part truthfully.

7:13

Yeah. And what she did was

7:15

she bought herself almost

7:18

two weeks time because she

7:20

called in sick and said,

7:23

we both have COVID, therefore we must

7:25

isolate. And then she

7:27

told all her friends and family,

7:29

we have COVID. So therefore no

7:31

one's going to come calling. No one's going to come

7:33

around. And since she

7:35

had her boyfriend's cell phone

7:38

and was pretending to be him messaging,

7:41

you know, nothing seems suspicious in that time

7:43

period. And it was during that precious time

7:45

period where you see her, for

7:47

example, at a local hardware store

7:51

with like some bags and

7:53

bags, you know, the really big ones that

7:55

are very hard to carry of compost and

7:57

other items. You

7:59

know. if she's got COVID, what

8:01

is she doing with so much gardening? And

8:03

what she's doing is she's building a makeshift

8:06

grave in the backyard, in

8:08

the backyard. I mean, that's the amazing thing. And

8:11

it's not like it's a big house and a

8:13

big yard. Right. Well,

8:15

I mean, her efforts on this were pretty

8:17

phenomenal from the start. Not well thought

8:20

out because when you stab someone in the

8:22

throat, when you cut their throat, the

8:25

potential for blood spraying, you know, as far as 20,

8:28

30 feet is realistic. So I'm

8:32

sure the scene was just an absolute mess and it

8:34

took her a long time

8:36

to clean up. I mean, she needed,

8:38

she had to buy the time because

8:40

Anna was upstairs. She had to get

8:42

this man's body downstairs and buried. And

8:44

I mean, she did all this by

8:46

herself. And I mean, that's commitment. She

8:49

had a lot of work to do. That's none

8:51

of that is easy. No,

8:54

and she writes in

8:56

the journal that it was not easy. It's not as

8:58

easy as it looks on television. And the

9:01

difficulty of trying to get him down

9:03

the stairs and then outside, she ended

9:05

up breaking part of her banister.

9:09

And yeah, the bed, the sheets, this

9:11

is the part that doesn't make much

9:13

sense is while she replaced those items

9:15

and she even used, you

9:17

know, the poor dead man's Amazon

9:19

account to buy some of these

9:21

cleaning supplies and also the repair

9:24

or the replacement items, she

9:27

left that bloody stuff,

9:29

the mattress and all that in the basement

9:31

because I guess she hadn't figured

9:33

out how to get rid of it. Right. That

9:36

too is a big item. Yeah.

9:38

Yeah. Parts of parts of, I mean, she,

9:40

she was definitely committed. She, she, she certainly

9:43

worked hard to accomplish her goal,

9:46

but yeah, it wasn't

9:48

real well thought out. Clearly

9:50

it's premeditated, but as far as

9:52

the actual planning, you know, I

9:55

Mean, just, just the fact that she killed him in

9:58

her own home, you know, created a lot. A

10:01

difficulty this she obviously did not foreseen.

10:04

So Nicholas was murdered in November of

10:06

Twenty Twenty One, but his body was

10:08

not scabbard until March of Twenty Twenty

10:10

two. Mrs Important because this is the

10:13

time period where she's missing, but nobody

10:15

knows that he's missing Center be looking

10:17

for. And then it would

10:19

be in February. So he's discovering a

10:21

March from February. Fiona is having. A

10:24

mental health crisis and I'm see.

10:26

Took a break from a regular

10:28

life and rented a cabin in

10:30

Cumbria which is about hundred thirty

10:32

miles away from her home. Her

10:34

family very worried about her son

10:37

acting right. something's wrong and so

10:39

see at the family s the

10:41

police. Please do a welfare check.

10:44

And and that is when police discovered

10:46

that Fiona was in a true state

10:48

of distress. On that had some would

10:50

look like suicide notes. I said

10:53

superficial wounds. Ah I'm like see have

10:55

been trying to harm herself so. She

10:57

was taken to hospital and detained under.

11:00

The English Mental Health Act, which

11:02

is. You. Know a version of of what

11:04

we. Have here. So as officers are

11:06

trying to figure. Out. What's going on with

11:08

this Woman? They discovered the journal's. The.

11:11

Basically. The murder outline and.

11:14

She had written about how she had

11:16

murdered a boyfriend. Disposed

11:18

of the body how long it took

11:20

her. And when she was questioned

11:23

about this is the i don't remember a

11:25

thing even though everything's. In detail in her

11:27

book, so on. The journals are also

11:29

confusing to investigators. That's why it took

11:31

a little time to figure this all

11:33

out because Fiona wrote under a different.

11:35

Name Top Twenty Two and ah

11:37

she also claimed to police's I

11:40

guess if starting to zero in

11:42

on Harper and what really happened

11:44

since she claims said multiple personalities

11:46

and Tulip was one of i'm

11:49

so I'm. You

11:51

know, That. One of the quotes from

11:53

the book. Signing. A body was bad.

11:55

moving a body as much. More difficult than it

11:57

looks on Tv. Though

12:00

it was. Be disturbing

12:02

journal entries that triggered the

12:04

police investigation. Now toward a

12:07

murder investigation, or the very

12:09

least, a missing persons investigation.

12:11

I remember Nicholas has not been. Seen

12:13

seen since November first of

12:16

Twenty Twenty One so. Police

12:18

contacted the owners employer and then they

12:20

found out that she was absent from.

12:22

November first to the twelfth. That's when

12:24

she called out with to you know

12:26

claim me she had covered. Ah I'm

12:28

some. Alliance. So now police like A

12:31

If you have this, I'm I'm curious

12:33

Danny, if you are presented with the

12:35

spark and half of it doesn't. Make

12:38

sense And then you're making these

12:40

inquiries and your realizing cheese. Nobody's

12:42

seen this man and a while

12:45

and I'm. That. Kind of

12:47

weird. Ah, how how does

12:49

this trigger the next part of

12:51

the investigation? Will. You

12:53

know, typically it is something like this.

12:55

You know that the first thing you

12:57

do is recognize that the. The. Boyfriends

13:00

no longer living it's he owed

13:02

it. Be like a nobody case

13:05

where. He first

13:07

I would for your efforts it is proving

13:09

that the person no longer lives. Not that

13:11

they just ran off with a woman or

13:13

the day you know get tired of her

13:15

life and checked out. And

13:17

there's there's a you know variety of

13:19

ways a you do that admits his

13:21

daschle important for you know the future

13:24

court case if if a bodies never

13:26

discovered it it in a nobody type

13:28

prosecution and I've I've been involved into

13:30

those but done anyway. You.

13:33

Know you. You with you would first

13:35

do that in the if she says his

13:37

cell phone a means he had I don't

13:39

know she still using it at this point

13:41

or not but desk for the becoming the

13:43

oh it's exceptionally I'm important because they'll be

13:46

able to see where the activity has been

13:48

generated from on the phone you know when

13:50

it come right back to her home. But

13:52

for those are the things that you do.

13:54

You'd first started to say okay something's wrong

13:56

something's clearly not right with her journal and

13:59

the things issues. He's talking about clearly

14:01

there's been a a death. The most

14:03

likely person would be the boyfriend. So

14:05

let's let's first. Try to figure

14:08

out rather not he is your is not living

14:10

in in. That would be a starting point. So.

14:13

The book again written from the

14:16

perspective of this tool of twenty

14:18

two on one entry. Said quote.

14:20

I have to confess. Okay, here goes

14:23

October: Twenty Twenty One He spat on

14:25

me and threatened me during sex. I

14:27

thought about leaving. The things he said

14:29

and did fuelled my dark side. I

14:31

call her to Look Twenty Two. Says

14:34

Reckless, fearless and efficient.

14:37

Ruthless. So

14:39

she also wrote about planning

14:41

this crime quote. I started plotting

14:43

is to look twenty two. After

14:45

he'd gone to bed, I could

14:47

no longer sleep. In. The bed

14:50

due to my breathing being too loud

14:52

or that I moved so much that

14:54

I snored so apparently he know there

14:56

was a lot of complaining here. This

14:59

was not happy couple. This is

15:01

now become right on him

15:03

so. See appears

15:05

to have started the plotting a

15:08

few days beforehand are purchasing the

15:10

utility. Nice. It sizzles some cable

15:12

ties. All of these things before.

15:14

Ah, Nicholas was even. Killed.

15:17

According to prosecutors in the evening

15:19

hours of November first Twenty Twenty

15:21

one Fiona Lord Nicholas with the

15:23

promise. Of sex after a bath. That's

15:25

when she got him in this vulnerable

15:27

position, tie them all up, and then

15:29

put to sleep mask over him and

15:32

then she stabbed him in the neck

15:34

at about one am. the clean up.

15:36

And. The cover up started as

15:38

she was quite brazen again. Making.

15:41

These purchases on his Amazon

15:43

account. so it's like. Has

15:46

she is not done with the

15:48

disrespect here? So. i'm after stabbing

15:50

nicholas the owner wrote that see wrapped

15:52

her dead partner up and dragged him

15:55

down the stairs the difficulty of carrying

15:57

that man's because it was so heavy

16:00

again, broke a lot of the

16:02

banister and that she

16:04

then wrapped his body and created a makeshift

16:07

grave in the garden, and that

16:09

is where she put him. So

16:13

at this point, of course, only Fiona knows

16:15

that Nicholas is dead, and she had gone

16:17

ahead and texted all her friends

16:20

that they were sick. Then she

16:22

starts texting her friends saying, you know what, we broke

16:24

up and he left. And

16:26

then she, pretending to be him,

16:28

sent a text message to Nicholas's

16:31

mother. Nicholas's mother

16:33

believed that he had left town, had

16:35

found a new woman, and was very happy.

16:38

And so her feeling was, well,

16:41

it's a little unusual, but I hope that

16:43

my son's happy. Guess what I'm trying to

16:45

say is these signs may not have seemed

16:48

completely atypical for Nicholas.

16:51

Right. However he lived his life and his relationship

16:53

with his mother. And the

16:55

amazing thing is that at Christmas time,

16:57

you know, the mother ends up later

16:59

recounting how Fiona invited her

17:01

over for a drink and she sat there

17:04

having a drink. Meanwhile, her son is just

17:06

a few feet from her in the garden. Right.

17:09

And how vicious that feels. Yeah,

17:13

no, it's the whole story is pretty amazing.

17:15

And interestingly enough, you

17:18

know, they still had some

17:21

difficulty initially prosecuting. And

17:24

I'm sure you're going to talk about that. But

17:26

it reminded me of a

17:28

case that I handled where

17:31

a woman and her then

17:33

husband killed their mother. And

17:38

while researching this woman, we

17:40

found out that 20 some years

17:42

earlier, she had killed her husband, shot

17:44

him while he was sleeping in his bed. And

17:48

then the investigation was kind of

17:51

botched. It was a

17:53

Northern California agency. And

17:56

they had Thought it was a

17:58

suicide. They had taken her word for it. The

18:00

autopsy want. My whole point is that

18:02

eventually they they give her this manslaughter

18:04

case as she does eighteen months for

18:06

murdering her husband my sleeping in them

18:09

later goes on to kill grown mother

18:11

So in this case the norm and

18:13

the reminded about because of the the

18:15

there was a time in this in

18:18

this instance where she was going to

18:20

just get a voluntary manslaughter and be

18:22

out in no time. Sell.

18:25

On there were some after they finally

18:27

found the body and of course they

18:30

notified the family, the mother and said

18:32

you know necklaces and just missing he's

18:34

he's been murdered on The first trial

18:37

began. In June of Twenty Twenty Three

18:39

and there were multiple complications involving a.

18:41

Witness who apparently it's was connected

18:43

to Fiona and one that was

18:45

finally revealed. I'm a making this a

18:47

simple as possible because we could go down a rabbit

18:50

hole there. The judge had to

18:52

dismiss the case. so then. They

18:54

had a second trial

18:56

and. In. That second

18:58

trial. Which began April nineteenth

19:01

of this year of Twenty

19:03

Twenty Four. Days

19:05

into it, she stopped the

19:07

proceedings. And see

19:09

decided that she would plead guilty

19:11

to Nicholas murder and then when

19:13

the judge confirms the on his

19:15

plea imports T told her that

19:17

the charge would. Carry a life

19:19

sentence in c on tearfully. Move.

19:22

Forward. With her.

19:25

Fully. So. She

19:27

is now scheduled for today sentencing

19:29

hearing. I guess that's when they're

19:31

going to bring in, you know, mitigating factors

19:33

for see indeed mentally. Ill com.

19:37

And then of course the family and

19:39

friends can speak up for necklace and

19:41

say and home this this was pretty

19:43

cruel and this was not just you

19:45

know a moment of insanity this this

19:48

with a long. Long

19:50

term. The other

19:52

premeditation changes everything about the case

19:54

and ends in doubt that will

19:56

factor and heavily during sentencing. Thankfully.

20:00

Yeah, very, very interesting case.

20:02

I do think that her

20:04

taking the plea probably made this

20:07

easier on everyone because the details

20:09

that come out during these trials are very

20:12

hard on the survivors

20:15

of the victims, the victim's family. It's

20:17

just so, so hard for them. So

20:19

it's a case that has gripped the

20:22

United Kingdom for some time. It's

20:24

also gotten some headlines here because

20:26

of all the different parts to

20:28

this, you know, and who suspects the

20:31

school teacher. Yeah. Well,

20:34

that's the thing though, these types of cases,

20:37

they're, they're unforeseeable to most

20:39

of us. It just, you know,

20:41

it's one of those typical

20:43

deals where the media's out talking to neighbors

20:46

and everyone's shaking their heads saying, we never

20:48

could have imagined. Yeah. I also

20:50

found it interesting at one point that when she

20:52

came back from her whole away

20:54

for COVID that people

20:57

were remarking, this was for a short

20:59

period of time, how well she looked.

21:01

She had apparently lost some weight, pulled

21:04

herself together and looked like, you know,

21:06

a better version of herself immediately following

21:08

this, you know, horrific, almost

21:10

too weak exercise

21:13

of a murder that she went

21:15

ahead and plotted. And then

21:17

it was later that she started

21:19

deteriorating. Then, then she started falling apart.

21:22

I just found that part of it very

21:24

interesting. Yeah. Well, it's a lot to

21:26

wear, you know what I mean? It's

21:28

a heck of a lot to take on and

21:31

she's basically living a lie in

21:33

this facade and you know, she

21:35

ultimately cracked. Yeah. Inviting

21:38

the mother over for a

21:40

Christmas cocktail, you know, that

21:42

takes a lot of balls. I don't know

21:44

if that's weird or cruel or what. I mean, it's

21:46

such an interesting thing that she would do that. And

21:49

you have to wonder, well, is it just the

21:52

cockiness? Is it being cruel? Is

21:54

it just some strange, weird thing

21:56

that she gets off on?

21:58

I mean, it's hard to It's hard to understand

22:01

that but it certainly wouldn't

22:03

be what most people would do. I

22:05

mean, most people wouldn't do this anyways but... No,

22:07

no. And I think maybe there

22:09

could have been part of a cover-up that maybe she knows

22:12

that Nicholas is dead. She's

22:14

been with him for 17 years, maybe

22:16

has a close relationship with the mother and

22:19

do not have her over. Might

22:22

have seemed weird but you know what? If

22:24

you break up with someone, I don't think

22:26

any, you know, the parents expect you to

22:28

continue relationship with them. So, I'm kind of

22:31

siding more with you than with this part

22:33

of the cover-up portion. Yeah,

22:36

I mean, it's hard to say for sure but you

22:39

know, I mean, it could be just as simple as

22:41

that she thought that this would be another step in

22:43

looking, you know, appearing as

22:45

if everything is normal. Yeah,

22:48

well, looks like Fiona's going away for the rest of

22:50

her life. ...selling

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25:47

Our next case is out of Mexico City where police

25:49

say a suspected serial killer allegedly

25:51

kept the bones of six different women

25:55

in his apartment. The serial killer has

25:57

been dubbed the Mexican Jeffrey

25:59

Dahmer. by the media there. And

26:02

ABC7 in Los Angeles has

26:04

identified him as Miguel Ortiz,

26:07

but in the Mexican legal system,

26:09

I guess, suspects are only referred

26:11

to publicly by their first names.

26:14

So they keep referring to him

26:16

as suspect Miguel, but ABC7 has

26:18

spoken with friends and family members of

26:20

his alleged

26:22

victims, and so they have named him.

26:25

According to the Daily Mail, Miguel

26:27

was a pharmaceutical chemist at a

26:29

local hospital, fluent in three languages.

26:31

Okay, so the kind of guy,

26:34

right, work, can

26:36

talk to anybody in an international city,

26:38

right? So in his spare

26:40

time, he loved to travel. Makes

26:43

sense. Prosecutors have said

26:45

that, now this bugs me,

26:48

they said, and everything has to be translated,

26:50

but that he didn't show any signs of

26:52

violence or aggressive behavior in his

26:54

daily life that would make anyone

26:57

ever suspect him. Now,

27:00

that seems to me like such a

27:02

cop out for the police to say,

27:04

well, of course we weren't looking at him there. You

27:06

know, he was so normal. I'm just

27:09

like, most

27:11

people are. Right?

27:14

Yeah. And I mean, I don't, you

27:16

know, what they said probably was true,

27:20

you know, kind of like a Ted Bundy that

27:22

who can just go through life and everyone thinks

27:24

he's the greatest person on earth. So with

27:27

serial killers, that's not a surprising

27:30

attribute, but yeah,

27:33

and how the authorities presented that,

27:35

I think is a little bit of pushback on,

27:37

you know, people saying, man, how many bodies have

27:39

to pile up before the cops down here figure

27:41

things out? So. Dr.

27:43

Mary Gamba Yes. And there's

27:46

been a lot of pushback from the families

27:48

of victims and the community at large, very

27:51

critical of the police department for letting this

27:53

go on for as long as it apparently

27:55

did. And again, for

27:57

not, you know, looking at the clues

27:59

here. and connecting the dots and

28:01

saying, well, hold on a second. These

28:03

women have been murdered in a similar

28:06

manner, in a similar area. Could

28:08

there be a serial killer?

28:10

Because that would have been a

28:12

warning for the public. And the

28:15

police have defended themselves and said, well, you know

28:17

what? We're not that well trained because we don't

28:19

have enough money, and we are understaffed, and the

28:22

guy looked normal. You know what? That is not

28:24

a good enough answer. They may all be

28:26

true. But that's just not a good

28:28

enough answer. Yeah. Yeah,

28:31

and I can't speak to their

28:33

level of training or their professionalism

28:36

or anything else. I truly

28:38

don't know anything about the police in

28:40

Mexico City. The job itself is not

28:44

a coveted position. You know, they don't get

28:46

a lot of people that want to be

28:48

cops down there because it is a very,

28:50

very dangerous thing to be because of the

28:52

cartels. The cartels kill cops and chiefs of

28:54

police and mayors and everyone else. So

28:57

I would venture to say that it's true, that they probably

28:59

don't have some very well-trained or

29:01

experienced investigators that would jump onto

29:03

this and be able to work

29:05

it. But

29:08

once they have it, you would think that

29:11

they would be able to muddle their way through

29:13

it. Well,

29:16

one would think, but no. So

29:18

here's how the suspect was caught.

29:20

He broke into the apartment of

29:24

a neighbor. So his crime, according to

29:26

police, was committed in the same building

29:28

in which he lives, making

29:30

it fairly easy to track him down

29:33

also. The fact when I think

29:35

when someone starts killing so close

29:37

to home, I don't

29:41

know. What does that indicate to

29:43

you, what's changing about the

29:45

MO? Confidence.

29:50

A lot of times, a serial killer will also

29:52

start killing more frequently as time goes

29:54

on. And a lot of

29:56

that's built on confidence. And a lot of it's

29:58

also driven by this. this need, you

30:01

know, this desire to,

30:03

to, uh, to do it

30:05

again, you know, the act of, of killing,

30:08

especially, you know, these serial killers and if

30:10

there's sexual components to it, um,

30:12

it's a bloodlust and, and they need more of

30:14

it. So he

30:16

was caught when he broke into the apartment

30:18

of a neighbor identified by family members, Cassandra

30:22

Callis. And on April

30:25

16th, that would be of last month, Miguel

30:27

reportedly waited for the neighbor to

30:29

leave before entering the apartment where

30:31

he sexually assaulted and killed her 17 year

30:34

old daughter. So his target was the

30:36

daughter. He waited for the mother to leave.

30:39

Um, and the daughter has been identified

30:41

as Maria Jose Castillo. So

30:43

when Cassandra, this would be the mother returned

30:46

to the apartment, she just went to the corner

30:48

store. See, that's the thing that he didn't plan

30:50

on. He didn't know where she was

30:52

going and how long she'd be gone.

30:55

She wasn't gone very long. She

30:57

saw, she does what she

30:59

told police and what she told her relatives

31:02

here in the U S that she saw

31:04

Miguel standing over her daughter's body and

31:06

that then he approached her and,

31:10

um, he stabbed the mother and

31:12

then he took off. The

31:15

mother survived the attack, but the teen

31:17

did not, the teen did not. So

31:19

Cassandra's sister here in Santa Ana told

31:21

Fox 11 that the mother

31:23

was stabbed multiple times. These wounds reportedly included

31:26

a puncture to the leg, the

31:28

pelvic area, the neck. I mean, just really,

31:30

he really went at the mother. Now he

31:32

was quickly identified by neighbors and

31:35

then they held him down until

31:37

the police could get there. Authorities searched

31:39

the man's apartment and they claimed they

31:42

recovered evidence to clearly indicate that they're

31:44

looking at a serial killer of

31:46

women. Investigators claim that they recovered

31:48

biological material and they're

31:50

not really elaborating, but there's

31:53

speculation that that would mean what, like

31:56

very specific body parts, like

31:59

of the. flesh as opposed to some of the bones

32:01

that they found. Yeah,

32:03

it, it, I didn't

32:06

understand exactly what they were saying either,

32:08

but between that, the reference to Jeffrey

32:10

Dahmer, it makes you wonder if

32:12

there weren't, you know, parts that

32:14

were saved and frozen or, or whatever.

32:17

Yeah. Pieces of flesh. They

32:19

also found the ID cards of

32:23

the missing women, along with

32:25

the cell phones that belonged to

32:27

the missing women. Those were

32:29

his trophies. So of course,

32:31

in some ways that made it possible for

32:35

them to contact the families as

32:37

quickly as possible. Prosecutors are

32:40

now claiming that it's six fatalities

32:42

that they seem barely

32:44

certain of and an attempted seventh

32:46

victim, which would be the mother that broke

32:49

in on him and that his

32:51

killing spree went back 12 years. So,

32:55

um, on top of

32:58

everything else, right? As if there's not

33:00

enough here, he kept a journal on

33:03

what he did. Allegedly, this is what

33:05

police are saying. He had to journal about what he did

33:07

and who he did it to. Yeah,

33:12

it's very helpful. I mean, as an investigator, you

33:14

just love that. Um, but it'd

33:17

be interesting to see if, if when,

33:19

when those things are, are, you know,

33:21

brought to light in a court of law or

33:24

wherever, if, if it

33:26

truly is limited to the, to the six

33:28

that they're now claiming, you know, as victims,

33:31

because right away, the first thing I think

33:33

of is, you know, this guy's, um, he's

33:35

good. He's able to fit in with any,

33:37

any, you know, environment setting.

33:40

Um, he's a world traveler and he speaks several

33:42

languages. And, and I would like, you know, if

33:44

I were the investigator, I'd certainly be looking

33:47

at that trail of places that he's

33:50

visited and, and see what kind of

33:52

a body count, you know, the

33:54

unsolved cases are, are there that are similar

33:56

in the MO. Yeah.

33:59

I mean, And some of these women,

34:01

you know, they were the fact

34:03

that he has bones and

34:05

perhaps pieces of flesh. What

34:07

is unclear is where the rest of

34:10

the victim is. Like

34:13

did he destroy the rest of the

34:15

body? Are they buried? Because

34:17

it's, from my understanding, what we have here

34:19

is a bunch of families who have loved

34:23

ones who have just disappeared. Right.

34:26

As opposed to trying to figure out who killed their

34:28

loved one, they're trying to figure out

34:31

what happened to their loved ones. Like they just vanished.

34:34

Yeah. And,

34:37

you know, who knows if they'll ever be able

34:39

to identify, you know,

34:42

even parts is helpful. You

34:44

know, if there's even parts that are recovered so that

34:46

a family can, you know, have a

34:48

service and say that, you know, we

34:50

brought her home, you know, that's helpful.

34:53

But in a case like this, I wouldn't expect it.

34:56

Now, one of the victims, police

34:59

say that Frida Sofia

35:01

Lima had actually dated

35:04

Miguel before her disappearance in

35:07

2015. So one

35:09

would think if they were dating,

35:11

and I don't know if they were just casually dating or

35:13

they were in a relationship, if she

35:16

disappears in 2015, who are

35:18

they going to speak to besides relatives

35:20

and friends? The boyfriend or

35:22

the guy she was dating? Right.

35:26

Yeah. And again, I mean,

35:28

that's where I can't really

35:30

speak to, you know, the

35:33

investigators down there. I just

35:35

don't know, you know, what they, what training

35:37

they have, how far they look into

35:39

things and, you know, if they have

35:41

the experience to work those types of

35:43

cases. But it seems as

35:46

if there was ample

35:48

evidence in some of these other cases that could

35:51

have and should have at

35:54

least put this guy on a radar. Yes,

35:57

one would think certainly when his girlfriend

35:59

disappeared. Miguel is currently

36:01

being held for trial on charges related

36:03

to the murder and then the attempted

36:05

murder of the two most recent victims

36:09

while the police figure out and positively

36:11

identify the others and I guess build

36:14

a case because if you

36:16

can get him on these two and the

36:19

victim who survived can positively

36:21

identify him, you know,

36:23

that will certainly weigh very strongly with

36:26

the DNA evidence will be the freshest.

36:29

So but I am by no

36:31

means suggesting that if

36:33

they're fortunate enough to get a conviction on

36:38

these last two victims that that shouldn't

36:40

like be enough for everyone, that

36:42

that shouldn't be like well, he's gonna be in prison

36:44

for the rest of his life. So you know, no,

36:47

no, no, I think he should be tried on

36:49

every single possible victim that they can tie him

36:52

to. Yeah, I'm

36:54

with you on that Anna. It's

36:56

not good enough. It's not good enough for the

36:58

family members, the loved ones of the other victims

37:01

who want their piece of flesh, so

37:03

to speak and it's not

37:05

good enough because you know, I'm sure

37:09

their legal system is as flawed as ours

37:11

is. So if you can stack life after

37:13

life after life on a person, then

37:16

you know, that's what I

37:18

as a former homicide detective, that's what I

37:20

prefer. I don't like

37:23

senses being commuted later when you

37:25

have truly evil people that need

37:27

to stay in, you know, away

37:30

from society. Agreed, agreed and

37:32

certainly in this case. Now

37:34

since Miguel's arrest, family

37:36

members of missing women have

37:38

gone to the apartment building where he

37:40

lived and they've started putting photos

37:42

and posters up their loved

37:45

ones all over the building with

37:47

the hopes that people there either in the neighborhood or in

37:49

the building might recognize one of their loved ones and say,

37:51

wait a minute, I think I may have seen her with

37:54

him. So We'll be

37:56

following this case and we hope that there's

37:58

justice for all these victims. Arma.

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39:29

Well. It is time for our comments section.

39:31

These are the crime cases that you all are

39:34

talking about on social media and here's our producer

39:36

Will Updike A Will our yeah. good

39:38

good has a going good thank you

39:40

good to see danny ah so the

39:42

i will i had to this week

39:45

we had a case of a mannequin

39:47

morning commutes this case comes out a

39:49

santa fe springs california where a driver

39:51

trying to be clever with the carpool

39:53

lane ended up in double trouble after

39:56

of after they were pulled over by

39:58

california highway patrol ah Now, so according

40:00

to California Highway Patrol, an

40:02

officer with the division officer

40:04

Kaplan made a stop on a

40:07

vehicle in question here for crossing solid

40:09

double lines, only to realize

40:11

that the driver was in the car

40:13

with a dummy trying to pass this

40:15

off as a passenger so

40:18

they could use the car pool

40:20

lane to avoid heavy traffic. Now,

40:22

I'll show the viewers here a

40:24

picture of this dummy. It's pretty

40:26

good looking. Yeah, pretty life like.

40:28

Yeah, yeah. So it's, you know,

40:30

it looks very human like it's got a it's got

40:33

a hood up, some sunglasses on.

40:36

One thing that the officers pointed out that they

40:38

noticed though was that the goatee on the dummy

40:40

looks like a little too sharp, like the facial

40:42

hair was just like, it's a little too clean.

40:45

So I you know, obviously, this was pretty easy to

40:48

point out and the driver was issued

40:50

a citation for multiple car

40:52

pool violations. And CHP gave

40:55

some advice, they said, just remember to plan

40:57

ahead. Know you're out of travel and the

40:59

general challenges of your drive to avoid being

41:01

in a rush or tempted to push your

41:03

luck. And they also

41:05

just had some general advice for people asking, you

41:08

know, if a mannequin is in the passenger seat,

41:10

is that a second occupant? No,

41:13

roundly, no. But

41:15

they did hang on now hang on in the

41:17

drivers in the driver's defense, the cops have been

41:20

doing this for a long time, right? They said

41:22

a radio car, a patrol on the side of

41:24

the road put a mannequin in there. I

41:26

think the driver ought to take that to court and say,

41:28

hey, they do the same thing, man, they think that with

41:31

their mannequins. Yeah,

41:34

for safety reasons, like not safety,

41:36

but for like deterrence of crime,

41:40

like to slow down because the

41:42

vehicle is parked there, especially on the side

41:44

of the highway or something like that. But there's

41:46

nobody in there. Like they even do it here at

41:48

the Grove, like they'll just park a car, you

41:51

know, police car, but usually there's not a mannequin in

41:53

there. But that's kind of funny. I like

41:56

that day. And I really like that thinking. But

42:01

they did commend the driver on their efforts here.

42:03

They said, we got to give it to him

42:05

the appearances next level modeling. But at the end

42:07

of the day, plastic is plastic. Unclear

42:09

what's going to happen with this driver. Do

42:12

you think well, do you think that he

42:14

would have been caught had he not done that

42:16

stupid move? No, absolutely

42:18

not. If he just entered, I

42:21

don't think anybody would have caught him. No, no,

42:23

I don't. I think if you hadn't, if you

42:25

hadn't done both things, but I, I feel like

42:28

if you're, if you're bold enough to maybe have

42:30

the full time mannequin in the car to use

42:32

a carpool lane, you

42:34

might be pushing your luck in other areas. You know what I'm saying?

42:37

It might just be the tip of the iceberg. But we

42:39

got a lot of comments on this one. Jules

42:42

then actually commended this driver. They said, I

42:44

love this as someone who lives in a

42:46

high traffic area. I completely understand. I mean,

42:48

we've all been there. I in that carpool

42:50

lane moving much more

42:52

quickly than wherever we're stuck in traffic.

42:56

Sheeros V actually commended the safety of the

42:58

mannequin. They said, at least he's safe. He

43:00

is wearing his seatbelt, which yeah, if you

43:03

see the picture, they did, they did

43:05

put the dummy in a seatbelt, which is a good move. I

43:07

don't know if that's something the cameras could pick up.

43:09

I wonder. Yeah. Can they issue you a ticket for

43:12

not wearing your seatbelt from a camera? I

43:14

don't know. That part I don't know, Danny.

43:16

Do you know? No,

43:18

I've never been a traffic cop. So I

43:20

don't know. Yeah. Because

43:22

here, you know, we have those metro passes. So

43:24

when you go into the carpool lane, like if you

43:26

have it, you can pay extra if you're a single

43:29

driver. You just have to click it

43:31

to one, but you'll be either not

43:33

charged anything or far less if

43:35

you click it to two or three

43:37

people, which some people either do intentionally

43:40

as to not be charged or

43:42

they do it because they forgot. Like last time they

43:44

used it, they had three, you know, you're driving and

43:46

you're trying to like with me with my glasses on, like, what

43:49

does that say? Is that one, two or three? And

43:51

then if the, as

43:53

you can tell, I drive the carpool lane a

43:56

lot with this device. And then if, you

43:59

know, so somehow how it reads how many people

44:01

you claim to have in the car and then

44:03

the traffic cop will come up

44:05

right beside you and double check how many

44:07

are in the car like that has happened

44:09

to me. Yeah, I feel

44:12

like people sometimes think in the carpool lane

44:14

too. They like can't get pulled over. You

44:16

know what I mean? Like sometimes in that

44:18

carpool lane there's people going like 90 which

44:20

I mean, you know, whatever but uh, it's

44:23

like you can still get pulled over there.

44:25

Yeah, it is a fast fast but it's

44:27

not it's not international waters

44:29

or something. Alicia

44:32

say I had some comments on how to actually improve

44:34

this act. They said they should have put a hat

44:36

on them then we'd be in business. Maybe the hat

44:38

with a little bit of shade would have would have

44:40

covered up the goatee a little bit more. I'm not

44:42

sure. Maybe they should have gone clean shaven on the

44:44

mannequin. I'm not I'm not positive on that one. Apple

44:47

Asha pointed out like another case of this

44:49

that I was unfamiliar with they said somebody

44:51

did this in the 90s and the judge

44:54

made them hold a mannequin with a sign

44:56

saying carpool lanes are not for dummies, which

44:59

I sort of just like a poetic justice

45:01

thing. I guess I kind of like that

45:03

idea. Bring it back then bring it back.

45:05

Well, yeah, yeah, something like that. Just something

45:07

like that and Cola my and in this

45:09

one out they I like their comment. They

45:11

said which one is the Demi which well,

45:14

I have to agree because again, had

45:16

he not gone over the double lines, the

45:18

cop wouldn't have bothered him. Yeah,

45:21

you're probably sailing along in the

45:23

damn carpool lane, but you know, but no,

45:26

I mean, it's not as serious but

45:28

it's like some of the cases we cover

45:30

on here where somebody has a body in

45:32

the trunk but they're pulled over because their

45:34

registration tag is out of date or something.

45:37

It's like yeah, they failed to stop at

45:39

the stop sign. Yeah, you got a body

45:41

in the car. Yeah, if you're already like

45:43

committing a crime, maybe,

45:45

you know, maybe don't stack other ones on top of

45:47

it. Maybe, you know, maybe just try to fly

45:49

under the radar. But that is going

45:51

to do it for this week's comment section. I want to thank

45:54

everybody who sent those and you can do that over on our

45:56

YouTube community page. You can also reach out

45:58

to us anytime or over on Facebook, Instagram. X

46:00

and tick-tock but until next

46:03

week. Thank you so much. Danny. Thank

46:05

you so much for coming back So it's such a

46:07

pleasure to have you And

46:10

your insight is always fascinating in the fact that

46:13

you know, you've morphed into this other

46:15

career the second career Which is

46:17

quite successful as an author. I just

46:20

think it's so cool. You know, it's so cool

46:23

Thank you, man. I appreciate it. Yeah, it's always a

46:25

pleasure. Where can people find you your books and all

46:27

that good stuff? Well

46:30

on most social media Danny R

46:32

Smith I've got a website murder

46:34

memo calm or dicky Floyd novels

46:36

calm and All

46:38

my books are available on Amazon Orange

46:42

and noble There's a few

46:44

audible books But most of them are available

46:47

in print or all of them are

46:49

available in print and an ebook form Excellent.

46:52

Excellent. You can find me at Anna

46:54

Jean use and and

46:56

you can find this episode all our

46:58

episodes of True crime

47:01

daily the podcast to wherever you get your

47:03

podcasts also subscribe to our YouTube channel

47:05

You can either listen to us you can

47:07

watch, you know, however you want to Consume,

47:10

I think we got

47:13

you covered. We even have a newsletter for you

47:15

at true crime daily comm so until next week

47:17

I'm your host Anna Garcia. This is true crime

47:19

daily the podcast and as we always say to

47:21

go to crime