February 6, 2026 • 37 mins
Gravensteins are The Best Apple. The bullets were smaller than I thought.
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
The Red Weather is a work of fiction, and the
resemblance to actual persons or events reflects the adaptation of real,
publicly available materials for creative and legal reasons. The content
of this podcast is the sole responsibility of Red Weather
LLC and does not reflect the views of responsibilities of
iHeartMedia or its affiliates. Previously on The Red Weather in
nineteen ninety five, my neighbor and a trainer disappeared from
(00:24):
the commune and a trainer was at a party in
downtown Sebastpoll She had a fight with her boyfriend. Oh man,
my boy, Mick, kid got a pass.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
You got a pass.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
Even if Mick managed to meet up with Anna then
murder her. Couldn't have getting rid of the body and
driven her car all the way to SFO. Not without hope, right,
not without help? And we know he was with the
rest of the night, Chris, they're here. When I finally
got the transcripts of el Rick's interrogations, I realized Maldonado
(00:55):
wasn't giving me the whole story. And look at that.
Oh who said that? That's Maldonado? Man, And you're going
to go meet this guy Sandals size six. I was
reading the evidence catalog for Anna Tranner's case, long sleeve shirt, necklace.
(01:18):
It was a list of objects recovered in the course
of the investigation, but the descriptions were vague, too vague,
like when it said sandals, did that mean birkenstocks or
flip flops? Or most frustrating, this three compact discs. I
think it doesn't even say what they are. I was
dying to know what albums it was Anna listening to
(01:40):
Smashing Pumpkins or Tory Amos. I mean that would say
something about her, wouldn't it. I wanted to read everything,
hold everything, but I also knew I couldn't help but
give my own history and my own emotions to these details.
And I was reminded of something maldon Auto said to
me a few days earlier.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
You got to let the evidence tell the story, even
if it's not the one that you like or the
one that you want to get.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
There's a big difference between finding meaning and giving meaning,
between understanding and fetishizing. And actually, the most important thing
I was looking for wasn't an object. It was a
few lines in the witness log gave three interviews. This
was more important than the CDs, the sandals, even the
(02:23):
small swift bullets in a plastic bag. But while I
was sitting there making this discovery, I couldn't react.
Speaker 3 (02:31):
Yeah, lives like.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
What not sure, even though he was sitting right next
to me and he was helping me. I couldn't let
Sheriff Maldonado know how much of a game changer this
was because after the last week, I wasn't sure I
could trust him. I am actor and filmmaker writer Strong.
This is the red weather. I was two weeks into
(03:48):
reviewing the disappearance of Anna Trainor and getting nowhere new Elrich,
the leader of Anna's intentional community, the Tender Hearts, had
an alibi, but this only brought me up to speed
with where the investingation turned cold in nineteen ninety five.
To get any further, I wanted access to the official
case file. Hi, it's Ryder Strong calling that again for
Sheriff Laughlin. Okay, uh yeah, okay, that'd be great, Thank you. Ooh,
(04:18):
I mean she is blowing you off, giving you the
cold shoulder. Yeah, but I don't. I'm I can't take
it personally, and at least Maldonada's talking to me. You
shouldn't even meet that guy. My friend Chris, who'd come
home to help me with the podcast, had good reason
to be wary. The day before, he had heard back
from Sparks, which I know sounds like a code name
I made up, but he called himself that for real.
Speaker 4 (04:39):
Though.
Speaker 5 (04:39):
You want to talk and a trainer, you got to
talk about those fuckers detecting that shit. Maldonado.
Speaker 2 (04:45):
Come on, man, he.
Speaker 1 (04:47):
Left this right after we saw the transcripts of Maldonado's
interrogations of el Rick. They had uncovered that Elrick was gay,
and Maldonado, talking to his deputies, had thrown out, oh
so casually an anti gay slur, your shocks that you
knew best palace sheriff is a homophobic Nazi fascist. Okay,
but I know it's awful, Yes it is. But that's
(05:10):
the way people talk back then, are you justifying it? No? No,
but well here, let me I don't cut this out
if you want me to. But didn't you use the
F word back then? That F word? I don't think
I did it. I probably did, and I didn't. I
didn't even think of it. Literally, It was just like, motherfucker.
It's just something I do it. Never even crossed my
(05:30):
mind until I was older, right, But when you got older,
you wised up. They were older back then, they were
grown up. And the problem was Maldonado was an essential
source if I wanted more information on this case. I
knew I was going to have to make compromises. So
the sad fact of the matter was I need his help. Fine,
(05:52):
but asking about it, I wasn't sure I could do that.
Ma wanted to meet at a fruit stand down the
road from my parents. You find these kinds of places
on the back roads of some on the county, a
cart or a little wooden structure, sometimes a truck where
farmers sell produce. They can develop into institutions that draw
(06:14):
hardcore fans acolytes, and Maldonado claimed that this one Little
Seed was the strawberry spots. Hey, how you doing, Hey,
good to meet you.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
As legends. Family has been here for what decades?
Speaker 1 (06:30):
Andres is the owner of little Seed? So how long
you've been here? Or I guess your family, you guys always.
Speaker 3 (06:36):
Well, my family, my grandfather, he had the west side
of the valley, the whole hill actually before they put
in the fence and all that shit, and the grapes.
Speaker 1 (06:45):
Actually, there weren't any grapes.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
It was all orchards back then.
Speaker 1 (06:47):
That's what I remember. My hometown used to be famous
for its apples, specifically the Gravenstein apple, and Maldonado had
a bit to say about that.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
You lost the basketball guys name man.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
It was from Russia, right Sebastopol and rushing some like
argument with a shop owner or something that he doesn't know,
andres rolled his eyes and I could tell he'd heard
this one before. Don't listen to this.
Speaker 3 (07:08):
It was when they grew the first graven Stains and
Johnny Apples say, you know he was, of course, yeah, yeah,
well Johnny was coming to the area.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
You really, you really don't know that. You can tell
him to stop though before it gets to you.
Speaker 3 (07:21):
Okay, So Johnny's wandering the country barefoot, planting trees.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
He's the apple guy, the apple prophet. So when he
came to town, that's a big deal.
Speaker 3 (07:33):
Everyone wants to know what's old Johnny gonna think of
the grave Steam?
Speaker 2 (07:36):
Well, he like it. People would play some bets. Andre's
your grandfather was there? That's your story?
Speaker 3 (07:42):
Anyway, they bring him a gravity stea well for first
they got to decide which orchard they're.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
Gonna take it from. There's a lot of.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
Back and forth about this.
Speaker 1 (07:51):
I only have so much time per episode, so suffice
to say Maldonado walked me through a classic shaggy dog story.
Speaker 3 (07:58):
They were in this few Cooper's and the Martinelli's hate
e joke. People says because one of the Cooper boys
has run off with Martinelli's daughter. But everyone in that
fight was really about the golden tree.
Speaker 1 (08:09):
One of those Mark Twain yarns that goes on way.
Speaker 3 (08:13):
Too long actually gets on his dog and gallops to
the golden tree. Now, shots are fire bullets, wizm pass
his head.
Speaker 1 (08:20):
To reach a very very underwhelming punchline.
Speaker 2 (08:23):
Finally, Johny takes a bite of this fee.
Speaker 3 (08:26):
He says, this is the best apple they've been sebastable
ever since.
Speaker 1 (08:35):
That's that's horrible.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
Well that's five minutes of your life and never get back.
Speaker 1 (08:39):
Yeah, dad jokes. Aside, apples did define the area for decades.
Nowadays it's all cannabis and grapes, wine and weed. There
are only a few old school family spots like Andres
making do Oh, you gotta try this strawberry.
Speaker 3 (08:54):
He's never added, Oh well, okay, oh yeah, right, that's right,
sevest Barry.
Speaker 1 (09:03):
See you get it.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
All right, let's take a work.
Speaker 1 (09:08):
We went to the edge of the Tender Hearts property
where Anna was last seen.
Speaker 2 (09:11):
This is where the guys on the engine passed her.
Speaker 1 (09:14):
I had told Maldonado that Willow started the fire that
night after she found cannabis in the barn, which looking
back now, I think was an act of rebelling against
her mom. Yeah, she was totally pissed at Laney. My
buddy Connor and I talked about this. Willow was being
raised by her mom and all these other women on
the Tender Hearts property, and they were supposed to be
(09:36):
spiritual idealists. But when she found a barn full of weed,
she knew the rumors were true. They were dealing drugs
and she lit it up, so you knew where it started.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
Oh yeah, we would smell the pot too, but it
was gone. And connecting those dots to Anna, well we
had nutty.
Speaker 1 (09:55):
There's an irony here. By burning the weed she found,
Willow actually prevented Elrick and her mom and the Tender
Hearts from being charged with anything. There was no cannabis left,
so there was no evidence. But in terms of Anna,
even after Elrick's alibi, Maldonado and his team focused on
(10:15):
the Tender Hearts.
Speaker 6 (10:16):
Okay, but that see, that doesn't make any sense to me. Right,
they were a cult, but they weren't not really. Well, look,
we know that now, I know that, you know that.
But at the time, I mean, that was part of
the zeitgeist.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
That's Monica Tremblaine, a reporter who was helping me.
Speaker 7 (10:31):
I mean, I guess you know about satanic panic, right,
or wasn't that the eighties?
Speaker 2 (10:36):
No?
Speaker 1 (10:37):
I mean at the West Memphis three all that that
was the nineties. This was a good point. In ninety five.
There were still rampant fears of cults, ritualistic killings. I
even did a somewhat infamous episode of Boy Meets World
where my character joined a cult. I believe that I
finally found a place where people let me be who
I am, you know, without trying to change me or
(11:00):
or need to know what my goals are in life.
I mean, why do I need that? Sean? What do
you believe? What do you believe?
Speaker 8 (11:06):
In Corey?
Speaker 1 (11:07):
The transcripts and the message from Sparks were weighing heavily
on me. Was Sheriff Maldonado biased in this investigation, too
obsessed with weed and focused on the Culti commune, maybe
even targeting Elric personally. It took me almost an hour
before I could bring it up.
Speaker 3 (11:24):
The search party started in groups from here and then
fanned out.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
Well, I'll show you so.
Speaker 1 (11:36):
Yeah. Lachlan sent me the transcripts and I went through
the interviews with Elric.
Speaker 3 (11:44):
He played coy what a take three or four sitting
downs before he finally broke broke.
Speaker 4 (11:51):
I mean, he didn't admit that anything happened to do
with Anna Man had secrets.
Speaker 1 (11:56):
Okay, but you know it wasn't There's one part in
the transcripts where you refer to him as a fagot?
Speaker 2 (12:07):
Did I?
Speaker 1 (12:08):
Yeah, it's the full quote. Is the Swami turned out
to be a fagot?
Speaker 2 (12:17):
Damn? Well know it's different times back then.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
It's a slightly awkward moment because on one hand he
was acknowledging the thing, but then on the other not really.
But then what do I expect an apology to? Who? Did?
I want him to break down and cry and shame
and admit to some deep seated bigotry. Well, but so
I've been thinking about in general with the tender hearts community. Sure,
(12:48):
but you know what they were doing, what they were
actually doing, that it'd be legal now. Maldonado only nodded.
They were, you know, living off the land, selling cannabis.
Speaker 2 (13:02):
They were breaking the loan, right.
Speaker 9 (13:05):
But.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
Knowing now laws have changed, I mean, doesn't has it
changed the way that you feel?
Speaker 2 (13:15):
How I feel about what?
Speaker 1 (13:19):
Well, you know, investigating, interrogating him, arresting him if you
could hindsight's easy. Yeah, but you were I mean, you
had the authority.
Speaker 2 (13:33):
Should I have called him a name?
Speaker 7 (13:36):
No?
Speaker 3 (13:37):
But I've said a lot of stupid shit in my dear,
a lot of stupid ship.
Speaker 2 (13:43):
Look, there's there's there's no excuse. But the job is
always the same. I'm not I'm not making the laws. Okay,
I know what you're saying. I do.
Speaker 3 (13:55):
But but guys get in trouble if they start thinking
that they can decide which laws to care about, which
one's not to. You can't decide what evidence you like
or don't like, which suspect or which witness. If I'm
doing my job, I'm letting the evidence tell the story. Okay,
it speaks for itself. I'm more like a reader a listener,
(14:19):
So you gotta let the evidence tell the story, even
if it's not the one that you like or the.
Speaker 2 (14:24):
One that you want to hear.
Speaker 5 (14:26):
That guy is utterly.
Speaker 1 (14:27):
Full of shit. The next day, when I met up
with Sparks, he had a different take.
Speaker 5 (14:31):
Mall and I was barely a cop, totally a dickhit.
Speaker 1 (14:52):
Oh he picked up. Hey, it's Chris Delveccio. Chris got
Sparks to agree to meet with me. I do know
his real first name, but I'm going to stick with
Sparks for legal reasons, but also it fits. No no
no no no no no. No cameras. It's a podcast.
They'll have like a microphone. You won't even know it's there.
I actually won't be there. I got to get back
(15:12):
to LA, but it'll be you and Rider, and you
remember writer. Chris was catching a flight home, and I
was sad to see him go. It felt like a
sign that I wasn't getting anywhere.
Speaker 10 (15:22):
Don't beat yourself up if you don't solve anything.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
This would be cool to at least have this stuff recorded, right,
And you got the box with the pager. Yes, great,
we found a pager on my parents' property. It was
mostly a random relic from the nineties, but I wanted
to see if we could extract numbers from it. All Right,
so there are private investigators who specialize in old technology,
but they no, they're pricey as hell.
Speaker 3 (15:46):
What are we talking about.
Speaker 1 (15:47):
It's like four thousand dollars just a look, I know,
I have a guy. Surprisingly, this is an area where
Hollywood connections came in Handy. Chris is a TV writer
and he's worked on some big shows, including one that
needed outdated technology props. Okay, man, so you've got to
buy email, writer's email, my number, writer's number. You are
in the loop.
Speaker 3 (16:07):
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Speaker 1 (16:08):
Ranking Lyle Rinkin runs a tech consulting company for art departments.
When you're making a show with medical machines or computers,
especially period pieces, you need someone who has all that
stuff and knows how to run it.
Speaker 7 (16:21):
Okay, there you go.
Speaker 1 (16:22):
He's gonna try it, my boy, rinking He's got you. Yes,
he is actually a next level order, way worse than
your parents. He has two warehouses, just like wall to
wall Ark of the Covenant.
Speaker 11 (16:36):
He has that.
Speaker 1 (16:37):
Yeah, in the valley, God, I would love to see that.
We boxed the pager up and Chris took it to
the post office on his way to the airport. He
was heading back to his normal life, normal work, which
made me feel like maybe I should too. I did
have a script I was supposed to be writing, after all,
but for now I went to meet Sparks. I suddenly
(16:58):
felt very alone. Sparks had sent a Google Maps pin
deep in West County, but there was no service. Once
I got close. I ended up going down this dirt
road for ten minutes. I didn't even see any houses.
There were some rusty cars, farm equipment. I had to
turn around a few times. Finally I found a gravel
(17:19):
driveway that dead ended. There was a garage. Hello, Hello, fuck.
I got or Die up as soon as I saw him.
I knew I had met Sparks in the nineties, but
(17:41):
he remembered Chris better. He brought him up while I
was setting up my mics.
Speaker 5 (17:45):
Christo that yeah, man, I couldn't believe getting a call
from his ass. While You remember Danny Carino, Yeah yeah,
he was like a big tall guy. Oh yeah, man,
he's the massive Delatio constantly really yeah, you remember the
whole fancy pants.
Speaker 1 (18:02):
Thing I actually did. Chris had Warren suspenders to the
eighth grade dance. He never lived that down.
Speaker 5 (18:08):
Yeah, I thought it was normal. I called him fancy
pants he did. Oh dude, he lost his shit really?
Oh yeah, I went up on top of coffee cats.
He was throwing chairs.
Speaker 1 (18:17):
What yeah, Chris? Yeah, bro, I think I would have
heard about my best friend throwing chairs around, which maybe
was my first indication that I should take everything that
Sparks said with a grain of salt. But then he
had a lot of interesting things to say about Anna's case.
Speaker 11 (18:35):
And over a fact, mcsorted bullshit.
Speaker 1 (18:37):
He meant, Mick Bowden and his ex boyfriend. Okay, so
what do you mean, Oh.
Speaker 5 (18:41):
He's suddenly not with his girlfriends, like vanishes into the
thin air. He's with a new chick he.
Speaker 1 (18:46):
Was talking about. After Anna page Mick, he tried to
pick her up at the payphone, but she never showed,
and so Mick said, he then spent the night.
Speaker 5 (18:54):
With Here's nobody remembers it was Halloween, right, but there's
school in next day.
Speaker 1 (18:59):
Was true. It was easy for me to forget because
I wasn't in a normal school situation. I was still
traveling back and forth to work in LA and going
to a tiny alternative school in the woods.
Speaker 5 (19:10):
Oh, you know, I used to post up a gad
flies you know that spot get some coffee before driving
up to Rosa. I saw it come to school that morning.
Speaker 1 (19:19):
And she was by herself.
Speaker 5 (19:22):
Jie said, Nick was with it.
Speaker 1 (19:23):
Later, guess you got brand new Jetta? Oh for that? Yeah,
I do.
Speaker 11 (19:29):
Actually the next month.
Speaker 5 (19:30):
Dude, are you saying she full on't changed his story?
Suddenly she's dating Mick.
Speaker 1 (19:35):
Oh so they dated for real?
Speaker 5 (19:37):
Yeah, six months and then she's driving that sweet sweet Jedda.
Speaker 1 (19:41):
Cars were a big deal when we were teens, a
big marker of identity. We knew who everybody's car was.
We knew everybody's mom's car. We could tell who was
that Coffeecats or Round Table Pizza or any parking lot
by driving by and seeing their car. So it's not surprising.
Even my brother Shiloh remembers the Jetta uh purple uh
(20:04):
nineteen ninety five Volkswagen Jetta stick shift tinted windows. Yeah,
I mean it's a stretch, I know. I know, in
situations like this, you really got to ask yourself how
reliable is your source, as in, can I trust a
drug dealer? Well, come on, and somebody that's not a
(20:26):
huge fan of cops to begin with. That was true.
Sparks spent a lot of time giving me his opinion
of law enforcement.
Speaker 11 (20:33):
Let's talk about Moll the not God, dude, I mean
he's a cop.
Speaker 5 (20:36):
Cops are dicks.
Speaker 11 (20:38):
The thing about that most of the cops is like
they would just be a dick to your face. And
like him to your face, he's all cool, like mister,
you know, I your buddy, you know, right, your pal,
And then you know he was really not.
Speaker 5 (20:48):
He was like trying to play a game, and like
you know with me, he knew, he knew where I ran. Like, yeah,
we had this little spot called Swamp of Vania. You
ever hang out there?
Speaker 1 (20:57):
No?
Speaker 5 (20:58):
Really? Yeah, oh yeah, I guess you're going.
Speaker 6 (21:01):
Yeah.
Speaker 11 (21:01):
I was cool man, Like we just sit, we were
chill and drink.
Speaker 7 (21:04):
You know.
Speaker 11 (21:04):
It was like this in this little kind.
Speaker 1 (21:06):
Of like ravine water, like a culvert.
Speaker 5 (21:09):
Yeah yeah, yeah, And you know he knew about it
and like let us have it because you know, he'd
come to me every once in a while and like,
you know, watch some intel.
Speaker 1 (21:18):
You so you're you were like an informant.
Speaker 11 (21:22):
Oh yeah, he wishes.
Speaker 1 (21:25):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (21:25):
Anyway, one time we went out to went out to
the spot Swamplvania and shit was trashed, couch was all
ripped up. Oh dude even put like barbed wire across
the path we used to get out there.
Speaker 1 (21:38):
How do you know that it was him?
Speaker 7 (21:40):
Oh?
Speaker 5 (21:40):
Because it was the day after he came to me
and he wanted to know about some meth thing going
on in Forestville or something I did or anything. I
didn't know anything about it, so he wanted to intel.
Speaker 11 (21:51):
I had nothing for him.
Speaker 5 (21:52):
And uh yeah, he took our shanger laf fucking bitch.
Speaker 11 (21:58):
Dude's a villain, bro of.
Speaker 1 (22:01):
It was hard to take this seriously, but then again,
maybe I didn't want to for an obvious reason.
Speaker 2 (22:10):
She pulled the bullets and this this tree over here,
one of these trees.
Speaker 1 (22:15):
Yeah, and where they end up there inevidently in a
walker somewhere at the Violent Crimes.
Speaker 2 (22:20):
Unit investigating unit.
Speaker 1 (22:23):
Man, I would I'd love to see that stuff.
Speaker 4 (22:26):
Talked a lot on man mm hmm. She got to
the transfer. Yeah, but then she hasn't called me back.
Speaker 2 (22:34):
Tell you me, That's what I'll miss.
Speaker 3 (22:37):
Red tape typing reports, filing reports of dating reports.
Speaker 2 (22:44):
You want me to get a recall? I think if
I came in with you, she might give us a film.
Speaker 1 (22:47):
Yeah no, I'd be grayer.
Speaker 2 (22:49):
Yeah yeah, thanks man.
Speaker 7 (22:51):
Well, poor Robert Maldonado can enjoy his retirement.
Speaker 1 (22:54):
And it worked. It's a situation. Or I'm just playing
catch up.
Speaker 7 (23:01):
Yeah, me too, trust me, me too. Uh And I
have a full case load as it is. You know,
this office is responsible for all of Sonoma County.
Speaker 1 (23:10):
Lachlan explained that they didn't have the resources to reopen
the case because.
Speaker 7 (23:13):
They're not there.
Speaker 1 (23:14):
I'm not there.
Speaker 7 (23:14):
And that's when you're talking new testimony, new evidence.
Speaker 8 (23:17):
Well, I mean doesn't like me coming forward? Isn't that
new testimony? Or I mean it's a new information and after.
Speaker 7 (23:25):
I'm making a podcast. Ouch, there's never been anything to
move the needle on this, okay, nothing from a missing
person to homicide or kidnapping anything. There's no body, no
new witness, so.
Speaker 8 (23:38):
Okay, you know, okay, well, actually there is a witness
that I'm talking to.
Speaker 1 (23:45):
Who is this?
Speaker 8 (23:48):
Well, I'm not I'm trying to still gather, you know,
all the background and but basically what they're saying there
are some contradictions. Contradictions maybe or you know, maybe it's
easy to clear up, but I really can't do that
unless I can see the evidence.
Speaker 7 (24:05):
Okay, is this person on the record.
Speaker 1 (24:06):
It was a good question. I had a phone number
for Sparks, the Google pin to a garage, but I
didn't even have a last name.
Speaker 8 (24:13):
Yeah, I mean, I have them recorded, but I still
need to get par officials.
Speaker 7 (24:16):
All right, Look, if you're serious, I'll put someone on
this all right.
Speaker 8 (24:21):
Yeah, you mean like a detective, like a liaison.
Speaker 7 (24:27):
Okay, this person will be our contact from now on.
So you give them what you've got and they will
coordinate access.
Speaker 1 (24:33):
Did you hear how she slipped in? You give them
what you got? Was I expected to hand over my
recordings for accents? I wasn't ready to do that because
Sparks didn't just accuse Maldonado of slashing up a couch
and blocking his chill spot. And he wasn't only saying relied.
He took aim at Maldonado in the entire Sheriff's department.
Speaker 11 (24:55):
You want to talk about how this guy could look
the other way when it comes to Nick.
Speaker 5 (24:58):
You got to talk.
Speaker 11 (24:59):
About his can pay the next year and paid for
that shit.
Speaker 1 (25:12):
Okay, so what do you mean, Like, is Maldonado like
stealing from crime scenes or.
Speaker 5 (25:16):
Something, no legit money. He was a sheriff.
Speaker 11 (25:19):
That's an elected position.
Speaker 5 (25:20):
Right, Mick definitely got a pass Daddy promises Samoolah. They
half asked their investigation. It goes away.
Speaker 1 (25:29):
That's a big allegation. I know, I know, and it's
kind of paranoid, but also not impossible. Mixed. Dad was wealthy,
well connected, and it was weird to me that Maldonado
fixated on Elric and the tender hearts. Okay, what about
the smaller stuff because this car thing, it's interesting that
(25:49):
Mick bought a car, a Jetta and she changed her story. Right,
you could try the DMV or maybe if she read
stood for new insurance. But if you get access to
the files, this just gets a little bit easier. I
had no idea what my chances were now that Lachlan
had passed me off to a new liaison, someone named
(26:10):
Thomas Greer. It seemed obvious that Lachlan was trying to
get me off or back let someone else stonewall me.
I needed more information from Sparks like to start his
full name, but he didn't show up for our second meeting.
(26:48):
While I sat in my car, I called Chris, so,
I'm back here at the garage. Nada. How much do
you know about this guy? Waited for over an hour.
I was a little nervous. Greer had set a time
for us to meet at the Sheriff's department. I invited
Maldonado to hoping he could vouch me, but in terms
(27:11):
of intel to offer, I felt like I had nothing.
I just knew I didn't want to be an actor
making a podcast. How is this? Yes, that's a giant Yes, okay,
I think to wear glasses good? Yes, So I put
on the one sports code I had packed and my glasses.
I wanted to look serious smart, which yes, means that
(27:35):
in order to not be an actor, I dressed in
a costume, literally the most actor thing in the world. Yeah, hi,
U Raderstrong, I'm here to Thomas Greer. Turns out I
couldn't have been more wrong in how to prepare to
meet officer career mister Sean Hunter, because he was a
(27:57):
boy meets World super fan, like I know you, Oh
cool dude, I grew up on you. I used to
hate being recognized, especially in my hometown. When you're a kid,
anything that makes you stand out is just mortifying. But
these days people tell me that they know who I am,
or that they liked the show, and it's great. It's
wholly positive. N percent of the time, Greer might be
(28:21):
the other one percent. You know, you actually met my cousin.
I did, Susan Lacy, you remember, I know? Yeah, you
were taking her to prom.
Speaker 10 (28:28):
Really, of course you don't remember, and you were probably
told every girl that you were going to prom.
Speaker 1 (28:35):
Man, you were the man. It was awkward, but suddenly
I was optimistic you might open the case file.
Speaker 3 (28:41):
Oh tapanga, dude, topanga.
Speaker 1 (28:45):
Oh she was hot, that good and you didn't hit
that luckily. When Maldonado arrived, Greer shifted into a more
professional mode.
Speaker 4 (28:58):
Yeah you too, Yeah, I've seen a lot of Maldonado
tags around here.
Speaker 1 (29:02):
Oh yeah. He walked us past the lobby and into
the building, which, if I was honest, I wanted to
be like a James Bond facade that once we walked
through the doors, there would actually be a high tech
storage facility. People in lab coats standing over beakers, metal
shelving a gun range, but it was just more office building.
(29:23):
The two of them went into a room and left
me in the hallway. I sat on a chair waiting,
and suddenly it felt like every audition I've ever been on.
And then Monica called, Hey, what's up? Hey? So maybe
the drug dealer isn't that so crazy after all? What
do you mean?
Speaker 6 (29:41):
Registered her Jenna on November eighteen, nineteen ninety five.
Speaker 1 (29:46):
So she had a new car within two weeks.
Speaker 9 (29:49):
Yeah, I gotta go, gotta go.
Speaker 1 (29:54):
Maldonado and Greer took me into an evidence review room.
Let me now you want to pull, which is how
I found myself looking at an evidence catalog like a
menu with too many options. What did I want to see?
The CDs, bullet fragments, none of it really. The most
important thing was checking out making stories, but Maldonado was encouraging.
Speaker 2 (30:17):
I don't never know, might not something loose that?
Speaker 10 (30:20):
Okay, well it's a little superficial, but I would love
to see some of this stuff, like this book maybe,
And then could I see the bullets?
Speaker 1 (30:32):
I held the three bullets from the tree in my hand. Wow,
I'm actually smaller than I thought. They were tiny flattened
bits of metal, and Anna's copy of the book The
Way of the Peaceful Warrior by Dan Millman was well worn.
It was it was like, I don't know a lot
of kids read it. It's like this.
Speaker 10 (30:53):
New age philosophy book. What's this other note?
Speaker 1 (30:57):
Here in the catalog after the Way of the Peaceful
Warrior was a line that said damage heart spelled hart.
Speaker 3 (31:06):
That might be a note that the book is damaged,
or could be a type of damaged art.
Speaker 1 (31:13):
Couldn't help it. I kind of love the poetic value
of the line damage Heart, but I had already made
career go back to the storage too many times. I
was only treading water and binding time because I'd already
seen the list of interviews. Can I just look at
these transcripts with Mick and.
Speaker 4 (31:29):
You got it?
Speaker 2 (31:29):
Boss?
Speaker 1 (31:34):
What do you think? I'm just wondering about the timeline
that night? No more the investigation power most. At this
point I had my notebook out on the table, which
was a mess of scribbles. But right around here I
realized I had written notes about Sparks, including the words
(31:56):
Maldo is a villain circled. I covered it up with
my arm. Well, yeah, because Mick stopped talking to you,
but hate lawyered up, and you never thought about her
rescue it for what we didn't have crime.
Speaker 3 (32:12):
We're still hoping, I mean actually mostly expecting that she
might call up in a month or two and say, hey, Mom,
so I had to golf.
Speaker 1 (32:18):
Greer came back with the transcripts. I'm pretty sure these
are the ones you wanted. A rich yep, oh wow.
Speaker 7 (32:31):
So.
Speaker 1 (32:33):
Comes in. But it's not until this interview, which is
her third one, that she says that she was with
Mick but correct. That was right after Elrick's alibi, right
at the moment when attention would have focused on Mick.
I pulled out my phone to take a photo of
the pages, but Greer stopped me.
Speaker 2 (32:52):
No photos?
Speaker 1 (32:53):
Really? Yeah, do you can write down what you want?
Speaker 3 (32:56):
I can go back to Lachlan.
Speaker 1 (32:57):
It's probably not a big deal.
Speaker 4 (32:59):
But I got to get a clue.
Speaker 1 (33:01):
How long is that without it? Donna Maldonado threw his
hands up. He was also frustrated. I'm not proud of
what I did. Next, I excuse myself to the bathroom.
There's a story everyone knows about somebody famous. You've heard
it about someone It's a story where a famous person
(33:22):
can't get into a restaurant or a club, or they
get pulled over for a speeding ticket, and they say,
don't you know who I am? It's probably never true,
but the point of the story is, look at this
sad famous person. Look how desperate they are and pathetic,
how much they expect, how much they demand, how much
(33:42):
they rely on status. These stories haunt me. I guess
they haunt anyone who gets recognized. It's a story about
how not to be if you're famous. And yet here
I was making a phone call. Hey, all right, I
have a really big favor. I know this is super annoying,
(34:04):
but do you have a second right now? Hey, I
thought you might want to say hi to a friend
of mine. I had called Danielle Fischel, my old cast
made from Boybeat's World. Yes to Panga on FaceTime?
Speaker 5 (34:19):
Oh no, no, no, you didn't.
Speaker 1 (34:23):
Is this he did? Now Here's where I realized I
hadn't thought any of this through at all. I had
distracted career got him out of the room, but in
doing so, I had also just let my phone, the
very thing I needed to take photos of the pages,
walk out the door. You hear that sound right there.
(34:49):
That's mal Donado dropping his phone on the table right
in front of me, and then he gave a little
go ahead wave with his hands.
Speaker 9 (34:58):
So I picked up his phone and I took photos
of every page I could.
Speaker 1 (35:12):
All right, well, thanks for this, Yeah, no problem. I
hope you got something good for the podcast.
Speaker 5 (35:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (35:19):
Yeah. It was a confusing moment because I was thankful
I needed copies of these documents, and Maldonado had helped me,
So on one hand, makes me feel like he's a
good guy. On the other, doesn't this lend credence to
the idea that he's willing to bend the rules, that
he's corruptible? Hey, uh, thanks for that.
Speaker 3 (35:42):
Of course, I told you the one thing I don't
miss red tape.
Speaker 1 (35:51):
Maybe I'm naive, but I've always wanted to believe that
people do the right thing for its own sake. But
so much of life as a series of trade offs.
You help person because they've helped you. You have your
friend Danielle talk to a fan for you. You give
information or withhold information from the police, and sometimes you
(36:11):
end up with a slash couch. Other times you get
the evidence you need. Now, I had copies of the
interviews with Mick and I was able to build a timeline,
and sure enough, between their interviews with the Sheriff's Department,
both Mick and had changed her story. Whether he paid
(36:31):
her off with the Sweet Sweet Jetta or not, it
certainly looked like they coordinated, like they could have worked
together to secure mixed alibi. And if Maldonado was a
villain wanted to look the other way, that might have
been enough, more than anything I needed to hear from Instead.
As insane as this sounds, I heard from Ana. The
(37:15):
Red Weather is an iHeart podcast hosted by River Straw.
Sound engineering, editing and mixing by Bow milkis produced by
Tess Bartholomey. Executive producers at iHeartRadio Trevor Young and Matt Frederick.
Associate producer Bo milkis original score by Kyle Morgan. If
you're enjoying the show, please remember to leave a review
(37:36):
in rating. Thanks for listening,
The Red Weather is a work of fiction, and the
resemblance to actual persons or events reflects the adaptation of real,
publicly available materials for creative and legal reasons. The content
of this podcast is the sole responsibility of Red Weather
LLC and does not reflect the views of responsibilities of
iHeartMedia or its affiliates. Previously on The Red Weather in
nineteen ninety five, my neighbor and a trainer disappeared from
(00:24):
the commune and a trainer was at a party in
downtown Sebastpoll She had a fight with her boyfriend. Oh man,
my boy, Mick, kid got a pass.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
You got a pass.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
Even if Mick managed to meet up with Anna then
murder her. Couldn't have getting rid of the body and
driven her car all the way to SFO. Not without hope, right,
not without help? And we know he was with the
rest of the night, Chris, they're here. When I finally
got the transcripts of el Rick's interrogations, I realized Maldonado
(00:55):
wasn't giving me the whole story. And look at that.
Oh who said that? That's Maldonado? Man, And you're going
to go meet this guy Sandals size six. I was
reading the evidence catalog for Anna Tranner's case, long sleeve shirt, necklace.
(01:18):
It was a list of objects recovered in the course
of the investigation, but the descriptions were vague, too vague,
like when it said sandals, did that mean birkenstocks or
flip flops? Or most frustrating, this three compact discs. I
think it doesn't even say what they are. I was
dying to know what albums it was Anna listening to
(01:40):
Smashing Pumpkins or Tory Amos. I mean that would say
something about her, wouldn't it. I wanted to read everything,
hold everything, but I also knew I couldn't help but
give my own history and my own emotions to these details.
And I was reminded of something maldon Auto said to
me a few days earlier.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
You got to let the evidence tell the story, even
if it's not the one that you like or the
one that you want to get.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
There's a big difference between finding meaning and giving meaning,
between understanding and fetishizing. And actually, the most important thing
I was looking for wasn't an object. It was a
few lines in the witness log gave three interviews. This
was more important than the CDs, the sandals, even the
(02:23):
small swift bullets in a plastic bag. But while I
was sitting there making this discovery, I couldn't react.
Speaker 3 (02:31):
Yeah, lives like.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
What not sure, even though he was sitting right next
to me and he was helping me. I couldn't let
Sheriff Maldonado know how much of a game changer this
was because after the last week, I wasn't sure I
could trust him. I am actor and filmmaker writer Strong.
This is the red weather. I was two weeks into
(03:48):
reviewing the disappearance of Anna Trainor and getting nowhere new Elrich,
the leader of Anna's intentional community, the Tender Hearts, had
an alibi, but this only brought me up to speed
with where the investingation turned cold in nineteen ninety five.
To get any further, I wanted access to the official
case file. Hi, it's Ryder Strong calling that again for
Sheriff Laughlin. Okay, uh yeah, okay, that'd be great, Thank you. Ooh,
(04:18):
I mean she is blowing you off, giving you the
cold shoulder. Yeah, but I don't. I'm I can't take
it personally, and at least Maldonada's talking to me. You
shouldn't even meet that guy. My friend Chris, who'd come
home to help me with the podcast, had good reason
to be wary. The day before, he had heard back
from Sparks, which I know sounds like a code name
I made up, but he called himself that for real.
Speaker 4 (04:39):
Though.
Speaker 5 (04:39):
You want to talk and a trainer, you got to
talk about those fuckers detecting that shit. Maldonado.
Speaker 2 (04:45):
Come on, man, he.
Speaker 1 (04:47):
Left this right after we saw the transcripts of Maldonado's
interrogations of el Rick. They had uncovered that Elrick was gay,
and Maldonado, talking to his deputies, had thrown out, oh
so casually an anti gay slur, your shocks that you
knew best palace sheriff is a homophobic Nazi fascist. Okay,
but I know it's awful, Yes it is. But that's
(05:10):
the way people talk back then, are you justifying it? No? No,
but well here, let me I don't cut this out
if you want me to. But didn't you use the
F word back then? That F word? I don't think
I did it. I probably did, and I didn't. I
didn't even think of it. Literally, It was just like, motherfucker.
It's just something I do it. Never even crossed my
(05:30):
mind until I was older, right, But when you got older,
you wised up. They were older back then, they were
grown up. And the problem was Maldonado was an essential
source if I wanted more information on this case. I
knew I was going to have to make compromises. So
the sad fact of the matter was I need his help. Fine,
(05:52):
but asking about it, I wasn't sure I could do that.
Ma wanted to meet at a fruit stand down the
road from my parents. You find these kinds of places
on the back roads of some on the county, a
cart or a little wooden structure, sometimes a truck where
farmers sell produce. They can develop into institutions that draw
(06:14):
hardcore fans acolytes, and Maldonado claimed that this one Little
Seed was the strawberry spots. Hey, how you doing, Hey,
good to meet you.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
As legends. Family has been here for what decades?
Speaker 1 (06:30):
Andres is the owner of little Seed? So how long
you've been here? Or I guess your family, you guys always.
Speaker 3 (06:36):
Well, my family, my grandfather, he had the west side
of the valley, the whole hill actually before they put
in the fence and all that shit, and the grapes.
Speaker 1 (06:45):
Actually, there weren't any grapes.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
It was all orchards back then.
Speaker 1 (06:47):
That's what I remember. My hometown used to be famous
for its apples, specifically the Gravenstein apple, and Maldonado had
a bit to say about that.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
You lost the basketball guys name man.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
It was from Russia, right Sebastopol and rushing some like
argument with a shop owner or something that he doesn't know,
andres rolled his eyes and I could tell he'd heard
this one before. Don't listen to this.
Speaker 3 (07:08):
It was when they grew the first graven Stains and
Johnny Apples say, you know he was, of course, yeah, yeah,
well Johnny was coming to the area.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
You really, you really don't know that. You can tell
him to stop though before it gets to you.
Speaker 3 (07:21):
Okay, So Johnny's wandering the country barefoot, planting trees.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
He's the apple guy, the apple prophet. So when he
came to town, that's a big deal.
Speaker 3 (07:33):
Everyone wants to know what's old Johnny gonna think of
the grave Steam?
Speaker 2 (07:36):
Well, he like it. People would play some bets. Andre's
your grandfather was there? That's your story?
Speaker 3 (07:42):
Anyway, they bring him a gravity stea well for first
they got to decide which orchard they're.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
Gonna take it from. There's a lot of.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
Back and forth about this.
Speaker 1 (07:51):
I only have so much time per episode, so suffice
to say Maldonado walked me through a classic shaggy dog story.
Speaker 3 (07:58):
They were in this few Cooper's and the Martinelli's hate
e joke. People says because one of the Cooper boys
has run off with Martinelli's daughter. But everyone in that
fight was really about the golden tree.
Speaker 1 (08:09):
One of those Mark Twain yarns that goes on way.
Speaker 3 (08:13):
Too long actually gets on his dog and gallops to
the golden tree. Now, shots are fire bullets, wizm pass
his head.
Speaker 1 (08:20):
To reach a very very underwhelming punchline.
Speaker 2 (08:23):
Finally, Johny takes a bite of this fee.
Speaker 3 (08:26):
He says, this is the best apple they've been sebastable
ever since.
Speaker 1 (08:35):
That's that's horrible.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
Well that's five minutes of your life and never get back.
Speaker 1 (08:39):
Yeah, dad jokes. Aside, apples did define the area for decades.
Nowadays it's all cannabis and grapes, wine and weed. There
are only a few old school family spots like Andres
making do Oh, you gotta try this strawberry.
Speaker 3 (08:54):
He's never added, Oh well, okay, oh yeah, right, that's right,
sevest Barry.
Speaker 1 (09:03):
See you get it.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
All right, let's take a work.
Speaker 1 (09:08):
We went to the edge of the Tender Hearts property
where Anna was last seen.
Speaker 2 (09:11):
This is where the guys on the engine passed her.
Speaker 1 (09:14):
I had told Maldonado that Willow started the fire that
night after she found cannabis in the barn, which looking
back now, I think was an act of rebelling against
her mom. Yeah, she was totally pissed at Laney. My
buddy Connor and I talked about this. Willow was being
raised by her mom and all these other women on
the Tender Hearts property, and they were supposed to be
(09:36):
spiritual idealists. But when she found a barn full of weed,
she knew the rumors were true. They were dealing drugs
and she lit it up, so you knew where it started.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
Oh yeah, we would smell the pot too, but it
was gone. And connecting those dots to Anna, well we
had nutty.
Speaker 1 (09:55):
There's an irony here. By burning the weed she found,
Willow actually prevented Elrick and her mom and the Tender
Hearts from being charged with anything. There was no cannabis left,
so there was no evidence. But in terms of Anna,
even after Elrick's alibi, Maldonado and his team focused on
(10:15):
the Tender Hearts.
Speaker 6 (10:16):
Okay, but that see, that doesn't make any sense to me. Right,
they were a cult, but they weren't not really. Well, look,
we know that now, I know that, you know that.
But at the time, I mean, that was part of
the zeitgeist.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
That's Monica Tremblaine, a reporter who was helping me.
Speaker 7 (10:31):
I mean, I guess you know about satanic panic, right,
or wasn't that the eighties?
Speaker 2 (10:36):
No?
Speaker 1 (10:37):
I mean at the West Memphis three all that that
was the nineties. This was a good point. In ninety five.
There were still rampant fears of cults, ritualistic killings. I
even did a somewhat infamous episode of Boy Meets World
where my character joined a cult. I believe that I
finally found a place where people let me be who
I am, you know, without trying to change me or
(11:00):
or need to know what my goals are in life.
I mean, why do I need that? Sean? What do
you believe? What do you believe?
Speaker 8 (11:06):
In Corey?
Speaker 1 (11:07):
The transcripts and the message from Sparks were weighing heavily
on me. Was Sheriff Maldonado biased in this investigation, too
obsessed with weed and focused on the Culti commune, maybe
even targeting Elric personally. It took me almost an hour
before I could bring it up.
Speaker 3 (11:24):
The search party started in groups from here and then
fanned out.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
Well, I'll show you so.
Speaker 1 (11:36):
Yeah. Lachlan sent me the transcripts and I went through
the interviews with Elric.
Speaker 3 (11:44):
He played coy what a take three or four sitting
downs before he finally broke broke.
Speaker 4 (11:51):
I mean, he didn't admit that anything happened to do
with Anna Man had secrets.
Speaker 1 (11:56):
Okay, but you know it wasn't There's one part in
the transcripts where you refer to him as a fagot?
Speaker 2 (12:07):
Did I?
Speaker 1 (12:08):
Yeah, it's the full quote. Is the Swami turned out
to be a fagot?
Speaker 2 (12:17):
Damn? Well know it's different times back then.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
It's a slightly awkward moment because on one hand he
was acknowledging the thing, but then on the other not really.
But then what do I expect an apology to? Who? Did?
I want him to break down and cry and shame
and admit to some deep seated bigotry. Well, but so
I've been thinking about in general with the tender hearts community. Sure,
(12:48):
but you know what they were doing, what they were
actually doing, that it'd be legal now. Maldonado only nodded.
They were, you know, living off the land, selling cannabis.
Speaker 2 (13:02):
They were breaking the loan, right.
Speaker 9 (13:05):
But.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
Knowing now laws have changed, I mean, doesn't has it
changed the way that you feel?
Speaker 2 (13:15):
How I feel about what?
Speaker 1 (13:19):
Well, you know, investigating, interrogating him, arresting him if you
could hindsight's easy. Yeah, but you were I mean, you
had the authority.
Speaker 2 (13:33):
Should I have called him a name?
Speaker 7 (13:36):
No?
Speaker 3 (13:37):
But I've said a lot of stupid shit in my dear,
a lot of stupid ship.
Speaker 2 (13:43):
Look, there's there's there's no excuse. But the job is
always the same. I'm not I'm not making the laws. Okay,
I know what you're saying. I do.
Speaker 3 (13:55):
But but guys get in trouble if they start thinking
that they can decide which laws to care about, which
one's not to. You can't decide what evidence you like
or don't like, which suspect or which witness. If I'm
doing my job, I'm letting the evidence tell the story. Okay,
it speaks for itself. I'm more like a reader a listener,
(14:19):
So you gotta let the evidence tell the story, even
if it's not the one that you like or the.
Speaker 2 (14:24):
One that you want to hear.
Speaker 5 (14:26):
That guy is utterly.
Speaker 1 (14:27):
Full of shit. The next day, when I met up
with Sparks, he had a different take.
Speaker 5 (14:31):
Mall and I was barely a cop, totally a dickhit.
Speaker 1 (14:52):
Oh he picked up. Hey, it's Chris Delveccio. Chris got
Sparks to agree to meet with me. I do know
his real first name, but I'm going to stick with
Sparks for legal reasons, but also it fits. No no
no no no no no. No cameras. It's a podcast.
They'll have like a microphone. You won't even know it's there.
I actually won't be there. I got to get back
(15:12):
to LA, but it'll be you and Rider, and you
remember writer. Chris was catching a flight home, and I
was sad to see him go. It felt like a
sign that I wasn't getting anywhere.
Speaker 10 (15:22):
Don't beat yourself up if you don't solve anything.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
This would be cool to at least have this stuff recorded, right,
And you got the box with the pager. Yes, great,
we found a pager on my parents' property. It was
mostly a random relic from the nineties, but I wanted
to see if we could extract numbers from it. All Right,
so there are private investigators who specialize in old technology,
but they no, they're pricey as hell.
Speaker 3 (15:46):
What are we talking about.
Speaker 1 (15:47):
It's like four thousand dollars just a look, I know,
I have a guy. Surprisingly, this is an area where
Hollywood connections came in Handy. Chris is a TV writer
and he's worked on some big shows, including one that
needed outdated technology props. Okay, man, so you've got to
buy email, writer's email, my number, writer's number. You are
in the loop.
Speaker 3 (16:07):
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Speaker 1 (16:08):
Ranking Lyle Rinkin runs a tech consulting company for art departments.
When you're making a show with medical machines or computers,
especially period pieces, you need someone who has all that
stuff and knows how to run it.
Speaker 7 (16:21):
Okay, there you go.
Speaker 1 (16:22):
He's gonna try it, my boy, rinking He's got you. Yes,
he is actually a next level order, way worse than
your parents. He has two warehouses, just like wall to
wall Ark of the Covenant.
Speaker 11 (16:36):
He has that.
Speaker 1 (16:37):
Yeah, in the valley, God, I would love to see that.
We boxed the pager up and Chris took it to
the post office on his way to the airport. He
was heading back to his normal life, normal work, which
made me feel like maybe I should too. I did
have a script I was supposed to be writing, after all,
but for now I went to meet Sparks. I suddenly
(16:58):
felt very alone. Sparks had sent a Google Maps pin
deep in West County, but there was no service. Once
I got close. I ended up going down this dirt
road for ten minutes. I didn't even see any houses.
There were some rusty cars, farm equipment. I had to
turn around a few times. Finally I found a gravel
(17:19):
driveway that dead ended. There was a garage. Hello, Hello, fuck.
I got or Die up as soon as I saw him.
I knew I had met Sparks in the nineties, but
(17:41):
he remembered Chris better. He brought him up while I
was setting up my mics.
Speaker 5 (17:45):
Christo that yeah, man, I couldn't believe getting a call
from his ass. While You remember Danny Carino, Yeah yeah,
he was like a big tall guy. Oh yeah, man,
he's the massive Delatio constantly really yeah, you remember the
whole fancy pants.
Speaker 1 (18:02):
Thing I actually did. Chris had Warren suspenders to the
eighth grade dance. He never lived that down.
Speaker 5 (18:08):
Yeah, I thought it was normal. I called him fancy
pants he did. Oh dude, he lost his shit really?
Oh yeah, I went up on top of coffee cats.
He was throwing chairs.
Speaker 1 (18:17):
What yeah, Chris? Yeah, bro, I think I would have
heard about my best friend throwing chairs around, which maybe
was my first indication that I should take everything that
Sparks said with a grain of salt. But then he
had a lot of interesting things to say about Anna's case.
Speaker 11 (18:35):
And over a fact, mcsorted bullshit.
Speaker 1 (18:37):
He meant, Mick Bowden and his ex boyfriend. Okay, so
what do you mean, Oh.
Speaker 5 (18:41):
He's suddenly not with his girlfriends, like vanishes into the
thin air. He's with a new chick he.
Speaker 1 (18:46):
Was talking about. After Anna page Mick, he tried to
pick her up at the payphone, but she never showed,
and so Mick said, he then spent the night.
Speaker 5 (18:54):
With Here's nobody remembers it was Halloween, right, but there's
school in next day.
Speaker 1 (18:59):
Was true. It was easy for me to forget because
I wasn't in a normal school situation. I was still
traveling back and forth to work in LA and going
to a tiny alternative school in the woods.
Speaker 5 (19:10):
Oh, you know, I used to post up a gad
flies you know that spot get some coffee before driving
up to Rosa. I saw it come to school that morning.
Speaker 1 (19:19):
And she was by herself.
Speaker 5 (19:22):
Jie said, Nick was with it.
Speaker 1 (19:23):
Later, guess you got brand new Jetta? Oh for that? Yeah,
I do.
Speaker 11 (19:29):
Actually the next month.
Speaker 5 (19:30):
Dude, are you saying she full on't changed his story?
Suddenly she's dating Mick.
Speaker 1 (19:35):
Oh so they dated for real?
Speaker 5 (19:37):
Yeah, six months and then she's driving that sweet sweet Jedda.
Speaker 1 (19:41):
Cars were a big deal when we were teens, a
big marker of identity. We knew who everybody's car was.
We knew everybody's mom's car. We could tell who was
that Coffeecats or Round Table Pizza or any parking lot
by driving by and seeing their car. So it's not surprising.
Even my brother Shiloh remembers the Jetta uh purple uh
(20:04):
nineteen ninety five Volkswagen Jetta stick shift tinted windows. Yeah,
I mean it's a stretch, I know. I know, in
situations like this, you really got to ask yourself how
reliable is your source, as in, can I trust a
drug dealer? Well, come on, and somebody that's not a
(20:26):
huge fan of cops to begin with. That was true.
Sparks spent a lot of time giving me his opinion
of law enforcement.
Speaker 11 (20:33):
Let's talk about Moll the not God, dude, I mean
he's a cop.
Speaker 5 (20:36):
Cops are dicks.
Speaker 11 (20:38):
The thing about that most of the cops is like
they would just be a dick to your face. And
like him to your face, he's all cool, like mister,
you know, I your buddy, you know, right, your pal,
And then you know he was really not.
Speaker 5 (20:48):
He was like trying to play a game, and like
you know with me, he knew, he knew where I ran. Like, yeah,
we had this little spot called Swamp of Vania. You
ever hang out there?
Speaker 1 (20:57):
No?
Speaker 5 (20:58):
Really? Yeah, oh yeah, I guess you're going.
Speaker 6 (21:01):
Yeah.
Speaker 11 (21:01):
I was cool man, Like we just sit, we were
chill and drink.
Speaker 7 (21:04):
You know.
Speaker 11 (21:04):
It was like this in this little kind.
Speaker 1 (21:06):
Of like ravine water, like a culvert.
Speaker 5 (21:09):
Yeah yeah, yeah, And you know he knew about it
and like let us have it because you know, he'd
come to me every once in a while and like,
you know, watch some intel.
Speaker 1 (21:18):
You so you're you were like an informant.
Speaker 11 (21:22):
Oh yeah, he wishes.
Speaker 1 (21:25):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (21:25):
Anyway, one time we went out to went out to
the spot Swamplvania and shit was trashed, couch was all
ripped up. Oh dude even put like barbed wire across
the path we used to get out there.
Speaker 1 (21:38):
How do you know that it was him?
Speaker 7 (21:40):
Oh?
Speaker 5 (21:40):
Because it was the day after he came to me
and he wanted to know about some meth thing going
on in Forestville or something I did or anything. I
didn't know anything about it, so he wanted to intel.
Speaker 11 (21:51):
I had nothing for him.
Speaker 5 (21:52):
And uh yeah, he took our shanger laf fucking bitch.
Speaker 11 (21:58):
Dude's a villain, bro of.
Speaker 1 (22:01):
It was hard to take this seriously, but then again,
maybe I didn't want to for an obvious reason.
Speaker 2 (22:10):
She pulled the bullets and this this tree over here,
one of these trees.
Speaker 1 (22:15):
Yeah, and where they end up there inevidently in a
walker somewhere at the Violent Crimes.
Speaker 2 (22:20):
Unit investigating unit.
Speaker 1 (22:23):
Man, I would I'd love to see that stuff.
Speaker 4 (22:26):
Talked a lot on man mm hmm. She got to
the transfer. Yeah, but then she hasn't called me back.
Speaker 2 (22:34):
Tell you me, That's what I'll miss.
Speaker 3 (22:37):
Red tape typing reports, filing reports of dating reports.
Speaker 2 (22:44):
You want me to get a recall? I think if
I came in with you, she might give us a film.
Speaker 1 (22:47):
Yeah no, I'd be grayer.
Speaker 2 (22:49):
Yeah yeah, thanks man.
Speaker 7 (22:51):
Well, poor Robert Maldonado can enjoy his retirement.
Speaker 1 (22:54):
And it worked. It's a situation. Or I'm just playing
catch up.
Speaker 7 (23:01):
Yeah, me too, trust me, me too. Uh And I
have a full case load as it is. You know,
this office is responsible for all of Sonoma County.
Speaker 1 (23:10):
Lachlan explained that they didn't have the resources to reopen
the case because.
Speaker 7 (23:13):
They're not there.
Speaker 1 (23:14):
I'm not there.
Speaker 7 (23:14):
And that's when you're talking new testimony, new evidence.
Speaker 8 (23:17):
Well, I mean doesn't like me coming forward? Isn't that
new testimony? Or I mean it's a new information and after.
Speaker 7 (23:25):
I'm making a podcast. Ouch, there's never been anything to
move the needle on this, okay, nothing from a missing
person to homicide or kidnapping anything. There's no body, no
new witness, so.
Speaker 8 (23:38):
Okay, you know, okay, well, actually there is a witness
that I'm talking to.
Speaker 1 (23:45):
Who is this?
Speaker 8 (23:48):
Well, I'm not I'm trying to still gather, you know,
all the background and but basically what they're saying there
are some contradictions. Contradictions maybe or you know, maybe it's
easy to clear up, but I really can't do that
unless I can see the evidence.
Speaker 7 (24:05):
Okay, is this person on the record.
Speaker 1 (24:06):
It was a good question. I had a phone number
for Sparks, the Google pin to a garage, but I
didn't even have a last name.
Speaker 8 (24:13):
Yeah, I mean, I have them recorded, but I still
need to get par officials.
Speaker 7 (24:16):
All right, Look, if you're serious, I'll put someone on
this all right.
Speaker 8 (24:21):
Yeah, you mean like a detective, like a liaison.
Speaker 7 (24:27):
Okay, this person will be our contact from now on.
So you give them what you've got and they will
coordinate access.
Speaker 1 (24:33):
Did you hear how she slipped in? You give them
what you got? Was I expected to hand over my
recordings for accents? I wasn't ready to do that because
Sparks didn't just accuse Maldonado of slashing up a couch
and blocking his chill spot. And he wasn't only saying relied.
He took aim at Maldonado in the entire Sheriff's department.
Speaker 11 (24:55):
You want to talk about how this guy could look
the other way when it comes to Nick.
Speaker 5 (24:58):
You got to talk.
Speaker 11 (24:59):
About his can pay the next year and paid for
that shit.
Speaker 1 (25:12):
Okay, so what do you mean, Like, is Maldonado like
stealing from crime scenes or.
Speaker 5 (25:16):
Something, no legit money. He was a sheriff.
Speaker 11 (25:19):
That's an elected position.
Speaker 5 (25:20):
Right, Mick definitely got a pass Daddy promises Samoolah. They
half asked their investigation. It goes away.
Speaker 1 (25:29):
That's a big allegation. I know, I know, and it's
kind of paranoid, but also not impossible. Mixed. Dad was wealthy,
well connected, and it was weird to me that Maldonado
fixated on Elric and the tender hearts. Okay, what about
the smaller stuff because this car thing, it's interesting that
(25:49):
Mick bought a car, a Jetta and she changed her story. Right,
you could try the DMV or maybe if she read
stood for new insurance. But if you get access to
the files, this just gets a little bit easier. I
had no idea what my chances were now that Lachlan
had passed me off to a new liaison, someone named
(26:10):
Thomas Greer. It seemed obvious that Lachlan was trying to
get me off or back let someone else stonewall me.
I needed more information from Sparks like to start his
full name, but he didn't show up for our second meeting.
(26:48):
While I sat in my car, I called Chris, so,
I'm back here at the garage. Nada. How much do
you know about this guy? Waited for over an hour.
I was a little nervous. Greer had set a time
for us to meet at the Sheriff's department. I invited
Maldonado to hoping he could vouch me, but in terms
(27:11):
of intel to offer, I felt like I had nothing.
I just knew I didn't want to be an actor
making a podcast. How is this? Yes, that's a giant Yes, okay,
I think to wear glasses good? Yes, So I put
on the one sports code I had packed and my glasses.
I wanted to look serious smart, which yes, means that
(27:35):
in order to not be an actor, I dressed in
a costume, literally the most actor thing in the world. Yeah, hi,
U Raderstrong, I'm here to Thomas Greer. Turns out I
couldn't have been more wrong in how to prepare to
meet officer career mister Sean Hunter, because he was a
(27:57):
boy meets World super fan, like I know you, Oh
cool dude, I grew up on you. I used to
hate being recognized, especially in my hometown. When you're a kid,
anything that makes you stand out is just mortifying. But
these days people tell me that they know who I am,
or that they liked the show, and it's great. It's
wholly positive. N percent of the time, Greer might be
(28:21):
the other one percent. You know, you actually met my cousin.
I did, Susan Lacy, you remember, I know? Yeah, you
were taking her to prom.
Speaker 10 (28:28):
Really, of course you don't remember, and you were probably
told every girl that you were going to prom.
Speaker 1 (28:35):
Man, you were the man. It was awkward, but suddenly
I was optimistic you might open the case file.
Speaker 3 (28:41):
Oh tapanga, dude, topanga.
Speaker 1 (28:45):
Oh she was hot, that good and you didn't hit
that luckily. When Maldonado arrived, Greer shifted into a more
professional mode.
Speaker 4 (28:58):
Yeah you too, Yeah, I've seen a lot of Maldonado
tags around here.
Speaker 1 (29:02):
Oh yeah. He walked us past the lobby and into
the building, which, if I was honest, I wanted to
be like a James Bond facade that once we walked
through the doors, there would actually be a high tech
storage facility. People in lab coats standing over beakers, metal
shelving a gun range, but it was just more office building.
(29:23):
The two of them went into a room and left
me in the hallway. I sat on a chair waiting,
and suddenly it felt like every audition I've ever been on.
And then Monica called, Hey, what's up? Hey? So maybe
the drug dealer isn't that so crazy after all? What
do you mean?
Speaker 6 (29:41):
Registered her Jenna on November eighteen, nineteen ninety five.
Speaker 1 (29:46):
So she had a new car within two weeks.
Speaker 9 (29:49):
Yeah, I gotta go, gotta go.
Speaker 1 (29:54):
Maldonado and Greer took me into an evidence review room.
Let me now you want to pull, which is how
I found myself looking at an evidence catalog like a
menu with too many options. What did I want to see?
The CDs, bullet fragments, none of it really. The most
important thing was checking out making stories, but Maldonado was encouraging.
Speaker 2 (30:17):
I don't never know, might not something loose that?
Speaker 10 (30:20):
Okay, well it's a little superficial, but I would love
to see some of this stuff, like this book maybe,
And then could I see the bullets?
Speaker 1 (30:32):
I held the three bullets from the tree in my hand. Wow,
I'm actually smaller than I thought. They were tiny flattened
bits of metal, and Anna's copy of the book The
Way of the Peaceful Warrior by Dan Millman was well worn.
It was it was like, I don't know a lot
of kids read it. It's like this.
Speaker 10 (30:53):
New age philosophy book. What's this other note?
Speaker 1 (30:57):
Here in the catalog after the Way of the Peaceful
Warrior was a line that said damage heart spelled hart.
Speaker 3 (31:06):
That might be a note that the book is damaged,
or could be a type of damaged art.
Speaker 1 (31:13):
Couldn't help it. I kind of love the poetic value
of the line damage Heart, but I had already made
career go back to the storage too many times. I
was only treading water and binding time because I'd already
seen the list of interviews. Can I just look at
these transcripts with Mick and.
Speaker 4 (31:29):
You got it?
Speaker 2 (31:29):
Boss?
Speaker 1 (31:34):
What do you think? I'm just wondering about the timeline
that night? No more the investigation power most. At this
point I had my notebook out on the table, which
was a mess of scribbles. But right around here I
realized I had written notes about Sparks, including the words
(31:56):
Maldo is a villain circled. I covered it up with
my arm. Well, yeah, because Mick stopped talking to you,
but hate lawyered up, and you never thought about her
rescue it for what we didn't have crime.
Speaker 3 (32:12):
We're still hoping, I mean actually mostly expecting that she
might call up in a month or two and say, hey, Mom,
so I had to golf.
Speaker 1 (32:18):
Greer came back with the transcripts. I'm pretty sure these
are the ones you wanted. A rich yep, oh wow.
Speaker 7 (32:31):
So.
Speaker 1 (32:33):
Comes in. But it's not until this interview, which is
her third one, that she says that she was with
Mick but correct. That was right after Elrick's alibi, right
at the moment when attention would have focused on Mick.
I pulled out my phone to take a photo of
the pages, but Greer stopped me.
Speaker 2 (32:52):
No photos?
Speaker 1 (32:53):
Really? Yeah, do you can write down what you want?
Speaker 3 (32:56):
I can go back to Lachlan.
Speaker 1 (32:57):
It's probably not a big deal.
Speaker 4 (32:59):
But I got to get a clue.
Speaker 1 (33:01):
How long is that without it? Donna Maldonado threw his
hands up. He was also frustrated. I'm not proud of
what I did. Next, I excuse myself to the bathroom.
There's a story everyone knows about somebody famous. You've heard
it about someone It's a story where a famous person
(33:22):
can't get into a restaurant or a club, or they
get pulled over for a speeding ticket, and they say,
don't you know who I am? It's probably never true,
but the point of the story is, look at this
sad famous person. Look how desperate they are and pathetic,
how much they expect, how much they demand, how much
(33:42):
they rely on status. These stories haunt me. I guess
they haunt anyone who gets recognized. It's a story about
how not to be if you're famous. And yet here
I was making a phone call. Hey, all right, I
have a really big favor. I know this is super annoying,
(34:04):
but do you have a second right now? Hey, I
thought you might want to say hi to a friend
of mine. I had called Danielle Fischel, my old cast
made from Boybeat's World. Yes to Panga on FaceTime?
Speaker 5 (34:19):
Oh no, no, no, you didn't.
Speaker 1 (34:23):
Is this he did? Now Here's where I realized I
hadn't thought any of this through at all. I had
distracted career got him out of the room, but in
doing so, I had also just let my phone, the
very thing I needed to take photos of the pages,
walk out the door. You hear that sound right there.
(34:49):
That's mal Donado dropping his phone on the table right
in front of me, and then he gave a little
go ahead wave with his hands.
Speaker 9 (34:58):
So I picked up his phone and I took photos
of every page I could.
Speaker 1 (35:12):
All right, well, thanks for this, Yeah, no problem. I
hope you got something good for the podcast.
Speaker 5 (35:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (35:19):
Yeah. It was a confusing moment because I was thankful
I needed copies of these documents, and Maldonado had helped me,
So on one hand, makes me feel like he's a
good guy. On the other, doesn't this lend credence to
the idea that he's willing to bend the rules, that
he's corruptible? Hey, uh, thanks for that.
Speaker 3 (35:42):
Of course, I told you the one thing I don't
miss red tape.
Speaker 1 (35:51):
Maybe I'm naive, but I've always wanted to believe that
people do the right thing for its own sake. But
so much of life as a series of trade offs.
You help person because they've helped you. You have your
friend Danielle talk to a fan for you. You give
information or withhold information from the police, and sometimes you
(36:11):
end up with a slash couch. Other times you get
the evidence you need. Now, I had copies of the
interviews with Mick and I was able to build a timeline,
and sure enough, between their interviews with the Sheriff's Department,
both Mick and had changed her story. Whether he paid
(36:31):
her off with the Sweet Sweet Jetta or not, it
certainly looked like they coordinated, like they could have worked
together to secure mixed alibi. And if Maldonado was a
villain wanted to look the other way, that might have
been enough, more than anything I needed to hear from Instead.
As insane as this sounds, I heard from Ana. The
(37:15):
Red Weather is an iHeart podcast hosted by River Straw.
Sound engineering, editing and mixing by Bow milkis produced by
Tess Bartholomey. Executive producers at iHeartRadio Trevor Young and Matt Frederick.
Associate producer Bo milkis original score by Kyle Morgan. If
you're enjoying the show, please remember to leave a review
(37:36):
in rating. Thanks for listening,
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