February 11, 2026 • 36 mins
I can accept that someone my age is a grandmother, but "choco-little-latte" keeps me up at night.
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
The Red Weather is a work of fiction. Any 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
(00:25):
a commune.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
They looked at Mick.
Speaker 3 (00:26):
He had somebody with him every step of the way,
and we know he was with you for the rest
of the night.
Speaker 4 (00:31):
She full won't changed his story.
Speaker 5 (00:32):
Suddenly she's dating Mick.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
Oh so they dated for real though?
Speaker 6 (00:36):
Yeah?
Speaker 7 (00:36):
Six months.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
Registered Harjenna on November eighteen, nineteen ninety five. So she
had a new car within two weeks. Yeah. But it's
not until this interview, which is her third one, that
she says that she was with Mick Boten.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Correct.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
Let's talk about Moldinata.
Speaker 4 (00:52):
You want to talk about how this guy can look
the other way when it comes to Mick. You got
to talk about his campaign the next year. Who paid
for that shit?
Speaker 1 (00:59):
I knew about him?
Speaker 2 (01:00):
A mixtape, A Haunted tape.
Speaker 8 (01:12):
It was many and many a year ago in a
kingdom by the sea.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
This is Anna Traynor's voice, which I hadn't heard in
thirty years. It's the infamous Haunted tape. It turns out
it's a mixtape that Anna made in nineteen ninety five.
So there's music, of course, songs like Sour Times by Portoishead,
(01:38):
songs she must have loved or felt compelled to share,
but also, like a lot of us did back then,
Anna recorded herself talking, and mostly she sounds like a
teenager intents. At times, like when she reads ed Garland Poe,
I was.
Speaker 8 (01:55):
A child and she was a child in this kingdom
by the sea. But we loved with a love that
was more than love. I and my Annabelle Lee, with
a love that the winged serifs of heaven coveted her
and me.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
Other times she's completely irreverent, like when she records herself
going through a drive through at McDonald's.
Speaker 8 (02:16):
Yeah number two, no pickles, but a coke two cops.
Speaker 9 (02:22):
Please, no, no, no, m.
Speaker 6 (02:28):
It is so good. No no. Never mind that she
would drinks like a glass or wood or like not
even like a glasshoul drink like a bottle of wine
like every night, which is poison every day. Oh but
god forbid, I have a fucking Coca Cola. Well you
(02:50):
know what, Lany, this sons for you.
Speaker 7 (02:56):
I'm gonna have to choco a little latte.
Speaker 8 (03:00):
Wait one to chalk a little latte, talk a little
l that's you.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
I have no idea what's going on here? Some kind
of in joke.
Speaker 8 (03:09):
Wait that look on the lady's face.
Speaker 3 (03:12):
I can believe you said that.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
I can understand why the rumors started that this was
a voice from beyond the grave. There are moments that
feel eerie, especially not knowing what happened to her, Lucky,
I really do you. It felt like a window cracked
through time, a direct connection. I thought for sure it
(03:35):
would open up a whole new line of investigation, but
actually it had the opposite effect. I am actor and filmmaker,
right or strong? This is the red weather last week
(04:41):
had changed the way I was thinking about Anna's disappearance.
I was talking with Sheriff Maldonado, the lead investigator from
nineteen ninety five, and starting to wonder why he chose
to focus on some suspects and ignore others.
Speaker 4 (04:53):
I know he got Crechateu story got Maldo to look
the other way.
Speaker 1 (04:57):
And I had sat down with Sparks, an old acquaintance
who was convinced, convinced that Maldonado and the Sheriff's department
were thoroughly corrupt.
Speaker 4 (05:05):
Isn't it a little bit weird that they obsess over
hippies in the woods and not the obvious boyfriend who
was all pissed because their girls sleeping around.
Speaker 1 (05:12):
I kind of agreed. I got in the vibe that
Tender Hearts was a boogeyman for Maldonado. But why would
they wanted to not be Mick? Well, one reason might
be Mick's family. His dad, Thomas Boden, was an early
Microsoft investor back in the pre dot com boom. Mick
grew up on a big house with its own vineyard.
(05:33):
My brother remembers.
Speaker 5 (05:34):
It, and it kind of stuck out like in the field. Yeah,
it was like open vineyards and then it's just this
big yeah like PLoP down. Yes, Well it's like that
faux like Italian Tuscan wannabe vibe.
Speaker 6 (05:50):
You know.
Speaker 5 (05:51):
So it's like just a huge it's a mansion, big
mansion house, but it's trying to like be like classy
at the same.
Speaker 4 (05:59):
Time rich perfect football play. And yeah, stud, you.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
Know Mick was rich on track. He already had early
acceptance to Stanford. In other words, Mike and his family
were good, upstanding folks, while Anna and the Tender Hearts
was a sleazy, creepy commune. But in real terms, Sparks
was sure that Mick's family had actually contributed to Maldonado's
campaign for County sheriff the next year.
Speaker 4 (06:25):
Daddy promises Samullah. They half asked their investigation goes.
Speaker 3 (06:30):
Away journalism one all one, follow the money.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
That's Monica Tremblaine, the reporter who covered the case. So
when I was in there with the evidence, Maldonado did
this weird thing. I told her that Maldonado helped me
sneak photos at the Sheriff's department, which felt to me
like a sign of his corruptibility. No, I wouldn't read
too much into that. I mean, I have sources all
the time, back channel sources. So yeah, I guess you're right.
Speaker 10 (06:54):
It's not like this one little move means that he's
a crooked cop.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
I mean, but helping you, helping a lad, that's what
you want, right, Like, how do you think we got
the Pentagon papers Watergate?
Speaker 1 (07:11):
I mean, as a journalist, that's the goal. I'm hardly
a journalist. What are you waiting for information? She said
she would look into the campaign contributions. All right, Well, really,
what we need to do is get a hold of Mike.
I had been trying to reach Mick from the moment
I started this podcast to no avail. I tried every
number I could find. Hi, is this luke No? I
(07:35):
even tried to track him down through his brother, who
had been a friend of mine for a brief moment
in second and third grade. Okay, sorry about that. Thanks,
And since our first sit down, Sparks was Mia, the
mailbox is full and cannot accept any messages at this time. Goodbye,
which was worrisome. If I was going to use any
(07:56):
of his information, I would need him. He's not getting
back to me either. My buddy Chris was the one
who connected me to Sparks in the first place. Well,
it's just shitty because he said so many things, and
you know, I can try and confirm this stuff, but
if I can't find him, I can't. It makes you
look bad. Monica had actually interviewed in the nineties. She
never went on record, but Monica still had her contact info.
(08:20):
Hey did you know she's a grandmother? Now what this
idea rocked my world? Yeah? I guess if she had
a kid when she was twenty or something. Oh, come out, writer,
it's not that crazy.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
A lot of people have kids young.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
The main feeling that this gave me was embarrassment. Here
I am running around with a microphone and trying to
call her about her teenage boyfriend, and she's a grandmother.
Her life had moved on in every way. Well, if
not me, then will she talk to you?
Speaker 10 (08:52):
I don't think so. On record.
Speaker 1 (08:53):
After my experience with Malton Otto and Thomas Greer, the
Sheriff's Department liaison, I was feeling more common with the
idea of reciprocity of making deals. Can you do me
a favor? Could you send her something and then ask
her again if she might talk to me. I was
talking about a copy of the transcript I had smuggled
out of the Violent Crimes Investigative Unit. I'd noticed something
(09:16):
from Mick's first conversation with Maldonado. And then this is
you asking about here?
Speaker 10 (09:22):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (09:23):
Yeah, harsh I sent Monica a screenshot that I'd collected
with Maldonado's phone.
Speaker 10 (09:31):
Oh naw, yeah right.
Speaker 1 (09:33):
In their first interview, Maldonado wanted to know why Mick
was getting paged by Anna, and yet he spent the
night with you, and here's what he said. Maldonado asks,
so what about why are you showing up at her
place so late? Mick says, likes me. Maldonado asks, she's
your girlfriend, Mick. No, no, Maldonado says, so what a hookup?
(09:59):
She's Mick? Not even Maldonado says, not hot, Mick. She's there?
All right? Is there a guy like you? Has a
lot of these? I do all right? You score, I
do all right? This was a Mick that I.
Speaker 10 (10:18):
Remembered, and maybe if she knew what Mick had said
to the cops might change her mind about talking to me.
You know, right, you're better at this than you think.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
Two days later, Monica called me back, she's gonna talk
to me. No, she's not gonna talk to you.
Speaker 3 (10:33):
But you know, Mick left something in her car years ago,
and that was.
Speaker 1 (10:38):
How I got the mixtape. Monica didn't have a tape player,
but my parents did. In their garage. The day the
tape arrived, Monica had a trial she was covering, so
I met her in the parking lot outside the courthouse.
Believe it or not, this was our first time meeting
in person. Up until now, everything had been over zoom
(11:00):
on the phone. All right, finally zoom. Sorry I do
not have a tape player. Yeah no, yeah, would you?
I just my parents never threw anything away.
Speaker 2 (11:11):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (11:11):
Look, I'm down to hear this, So give me an
update on this tape the second that you listen to
it will yeah, you never.
Speaker 1 (11:17):
How to digitize it or whatever, and then I'll send
you topics. What's uh? What's this? I meant the trial
that's now murder? Oh really yep? Drugs death death drug
you know, doesn't get out.
Speaker 3 (11:29):
Okay, gotta get back.
Speaker 9 (11:32):
Recess is probably over.
Speaker 10 (11:34):
Talk soon yeah yeah, okayay.
Speaker 1 (11:36):
Thanks, thank you. I watched her hurry into the courthouse.
It was really hard for me to imagine her job
covering multiple cases, the crime beat in general. I was
only looking into one case, and I was overwhelmed. I
got home, dusted off my parents' old tape player, and
got it working. Anna's mix is one hundred and twenty
(11:57):
minutes and it's.
Speaker 10 (11:59):
Full okay, but you have to listen to the whole thing.
Speaker 11 (12:02):
You can't fast forward it.
Speaker 1 (12:05):
Take The first song was Nick Cave's Red Right Hand,
which launches Anna into a rant about society.
Speaker 7 (12:17):
I think you just like need it to be true
that like you like me and that I like you.
But it's not okay. It like isn't okay for society.
That's what I'm saying, So I say, fuck society.
Speaker 1 (12:31):
Then there's the really unnerving presence of Concrete Lawns Tomorrow
Wendy with it's chorus.
Speaker 8 (12:44):
And now for your listening pleasure, some more chick music.
Speaker 1 (12:52):
Saints by the Breeders was a song I didn't know.
It definitely has a manic nineties energy. What she was
saying didn't make sense, but one thing was clear. It
put Mick front and center again.
Speaker 8 (13:06):
You're may sailor you're my relife, Nicky, because you are
so cool.
Speaker 1 (13:15):
I sent Monica a digital copy that I made by
running the line to my laptop. I was excited. It
felt like real progress. There was no way the Sheriff's
department wouldn't revisit Mick as a suspect now. But then
I mentioned sharing it with them to Monica.
Speaker 3 (13:30):
Wait, no, no, no, no, no, no, don't do that.
Speaker 1 (13:32):
I would not do that, not yet. What really, why writer,
you got.
Speaker 3 (13:36):
A source telling you they buried this case. They're corrupt,
they took bribes.
Speaker 1 (13:40):
Okay, well that's Maldonado maybe, but Lachlan, like.
Speaker 3 (13:44):
They're gonna ask you where you got the tape.
Speaker 1 (13:48):
Look, don't mention my name. Why not.
Speaker 3 (13:51):
I've earned your trust. I gave you the tape because
she told me that was all right. She chose not
to turn it into the cops for thirty years.
Speaker 1 (14:00):
But they told me that if there's new evidence that
could they could open up the case. You believe them,
you want that? Well maybe?
Speaker 4 (14:08):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (14:08):
The greer, the guy, the liaison that they put me,
he loves me. He's like he's actually ridiculously he's a fan.
Speaker 3 (14:16):
Oh wow, Okay, look, don't fall for that.
Speaker 1 (14:19):
Okay, these are not your friends.
Speaker 3 (14:23):
Every cop, every team, law enforcement team that I have
worked with, given a choice between something that makes them
look bad and the truth.
Speaker 1 (14:32):
They never choose the truth. The more I thought about it,
I didn't feel right not sharing evidence, so I didn't
heed her advice. I wish I had the day I
(14:52):
got Anna's tape, I listened to it three times all
the way through. There was this girl, You'll Be a
Woman Soon, which was from the pulp fiction soundtrack Pearl
Jam's Daughter. There was some of the hip hop that
everyone listened to in Sebastopol at the time Diggable Planets
(15:13):
tribe called Quest. The one that really brought me back
personally was a song by Annie DiFranco out of Range.
The second that opening riff started, a memory rushed in Willow,
cranking the song up while we drove around, bouncing and
thrashing in her seat the way that only teenagers can do.
(15:35):
Willow must have been introduced to Anno DiFranco by her sister.
Some of the most interesting parts of the mix are
when Anna included movie clips. I remember doing this too.
The audio is terrible. She must have been holding her
recorder right up to the TV world Clown's stupid Jetty.
Speaker 9 (15:58):
Day And for me, it's a civil mind.
Speaker 5 (16:01):
Individuality in malawis the personal freedom.
Speaker 1 (16:08):
Asshole that's from Wild at Heart. And this, of course
I Keebo's singing from My Day.
Speaker 5 (16:16):
He and they had to fit it.
Speaker 2 (16:17):
Since Kim was ten years old and the name came
in alongside of.
Speaker 1 (16:20):
The trays so called, which I recognized from bad Lands,
one of my favorite movies. All in all, Anna had
good taste, and apparently Nick did not. On this tape.
Speaker 8 (16:32):
There will be no Billy Joel, Fuck the Eagles, Fuck
Hotel California, Fuck your dad's music.
Speaker 1 (16:40):
This is how she talks to him a lot, taunting him,
teasing him.
Speaker 8 (16:44):
Is this torture?
Speaker 3 (16:45):
What does it hurt?
Speaker 8 (16:46):
Does it make you want to cut your ear off?
Speaker 1 (16:48):
And if you caught that? That's the first of many
Vincent van goh references.
Speaker 8 (16:53):
Get used to it because I'm picking all the music
in Operation van go I'm gonna make you camp. You're
gonna hate it.
Speaker 1 (17:01):
She even reads from a book at one point. It's
an encyclopedia.
Speaker 11 (17:04):
I guess.
Speaker 8 (17:05):
Vincent van Gogh was a Dutch painter whose vivid colors
and expressive fresh work blah blah blah blah, love okay here.
Van go suffered from severe emotional and psychological problems and
died in France the age of thirty seven. Thirty seven,
severe emotional and psychological problems. That's what happens when you
let society tell you how to feel, which, by the
(17:28):
way you do it, you do it all the time
because you're scared.
Speaker 1 (17:33):
All in all, it sounds like she and Mick had
a pretty strange dynamic.
Speaker 8 (17:37):
Everyone.
Speaker 11 (17:38):
Thanks, you're the man, but.
Speaker 1 (17:40):
I need you.
Speaker 11 (17:46):
And here's why.
Speaker 1 (17:51):
And this is really fucked up about you and your brain.
Speaker 10 (17:56):
You like it when I mean to you.
Speaker 1 (18:03):
There's no way the Sheriff's department wouldn't find this helpful.
I called my liaison, Thomas Greer, mister Hunter. Yeah, also
seemingly could only think of me as the guy from
Boy Meets World. Dunt, dunt, dun. Do you remember that
Halloween episode which was better than Lachlan who had openly
(18:24):
dismissed me as an actor? With a podcast like a
cassette mm hmm old school, Yeah, it's it's got songs
and then she has movie clips, but she also talks
a lot to Mick. I was surprised, though, by Greer's
reaction to the tape. And how do you know it's
from the real girl, the Hannah? Yeah? Well, I mean
I don't know for sure, but yeah it's her. I
(18:46):
mean it's and who gave it to you? I'd rather
if can I keep that confidential? You know it's your
tape you called me, But it does doesn't mean that
much unless it's real. No, it's definitely, I mean it's
it's a direct source. I thought he would have been
more excited.
Speaker 7 (19:06):
All right, well, uh, why don't you bring it over
and we'll give it a listen.
Speaker 1 (19:15):
Hi, this is for Thomas Queer. Yeah, I can take that.
The next morning, I dropped the tape off and Greer
didn't even come out to get it. I left it
at the front desk and I met Monica for lunch.
We met at the Pine Cone Diner and went over
the tear answer right, I mean, yeah, I don't. It's
(19:38):
not like I remember her voice perfectly, but it totally fits,
even though I have no idea what she's talking about
half the time, more like all his van.
Speaker 10 (19:49):
Go stuff this idea, Yeah, I have no idea.
Speaker 1 (19:52):
The fact that Anna had made this tape for Mick
and that he'd never brought it forward was not a
good look for him. But then I have to be
careful because I went into doing this podcast with a
chip on my shoulder. Nick Bowden, going all the way
back to when we were kids, was I don't know
how to put this delicately not my favorite person. He
was arrogant, condescending. I was friends with his brother for
(20:15):
a little bit, and I remember going over to the
house and Mick would torture us, lock us in a room.
He was just a dick. Yeah, I just remember him
just always, yeah, just being a dickhead. Chris in particular,
was picked on relentlessly by Mick and his friends. Chris
was a goofy, funny kid with a slightly off sense
of humor, exactly the kind of kid someone like Mick
(20:35):
would target. He'd strut around everywhere he went, anywhere he
went like he owned the place, which maybe served him well.
Christmas came early for Monster Clicks this week, when the
new startup was acquired by Pullman Hendrix in a deal
reportedly in the three to five. Mick did the smart
Northern California thing and moved into tech out of Stanford.
(20:55):
He was part of that first dot com boom. He
sold an ad integration company in two two thousand and two,
and apparently that sold to a bigger company, which sold
to a bigger company, and on and on. Do you
have any idea how much he's worried? It's a lot
I mean this one. He just invests. He does very
well with his investment firm, Jaylight. You know he started
(21:17):
off rich, Yeah, it must be nice, and you said
that is if you were in a different situation.
Speaker 3 (21:25):
I was really.
Speaker 1 (21:30):
Yeah, my dad was a firefighter, my mom like Tom
class at the JC, and you were on TV as well,
so working Okay. This was one of the first times
I got a sense of how good Monica is at
her job. She was comfortable with conflict and not in
(21:51):
an aggressive way. She would just let a moment sit there.
Speaker 9 (21:55):
I was just confused because she said must be nice,
like you wouldn't make We're in totally different world.
Speaker 1 (22:01):
Well, I I grew up in Oakland, so Bronse Park. Yeah,
that's that is different. We had spent the last few
weeks talking obsessively about my childhood and my friends, and
yet I didn't even know if Monica was married or
(22:22):
had kids. Before I could ask, she moved right on, yeah, mixed.
Dad he died. But I do still think it might
be worth checking out those contributions for right okay right
the ninety six campaign, she was pounding on her phone.
It looked like she was writing four different stories at once,
(22:43):
so I'm gonna go to the registrar in person because
there's nothing digital, and if that does not work, check
with the FPPC. She sucks glove.
Speaker 3 (22:52):
Legally they're supposed to respond in ten days, but you
you see, all it works.
Speaker 2 (22:56):
So okay.
Speaker 1 (23:01):
I paid the bill with sparks off the grid, the
tape with the Sheriff's department, and having interviewed most of
my family and friends already, I started to feel like
I should probably head home. How's Indie? I called my wife, Alex.
Speaker 7 (23:16):
Oh, he he's.
Speaker 11 (23:17):
Okay, you know, already crying about having to do the
conservatory on Saturday, even though yet it's five days away.
Speaker 1 (23:25):
Alex had been holding down the fort back at home
for almost three weeks now. She's in the business too,
and like most of us these days, she's a multi
hyphen it writer, director, producer, actor. When you're married and
both of you work this way where everything is freelance,
you have to take turns. Whoever's got a job, whoever's
got a project. The other one becomes a single parent.
(23:45):
And the truth was going back to my hometown and
looking into Anna's case was a little different. Not an
actual job. She would never say so but I was
pretty sure Alex's patience was wearing thin been able to right. No,
I was supposed to be writing a script, an actual job.
It was due in a matter of weeks, but I
(24:07):
hadn't even written a word yet. I know, I know
you think I should come home. I don't say that, no,
but I can. I can feel it.
Speaker 11 (24:16):
It just that is a job that you have, right,
I know you're supposed to be writing. That's all you
ever want to do is write, and you're not doing that.
Speaker 1 (24:27):
It's fine, I'll come home.
Speaker 10 (24:28):
I mean, there's nothing happening here and I can't just
keep sitting around.
Speaker 1 (24:33):
Right then, though, an email came through. Oh wait, I
actually just got a note from the Sheriff's office.
Speaker 10 (24:40):
Can you come in and meet me at nine am tomorrow?
Speaker 1 (24:43):
Yeah, I guess.
Speaker 10 (24:45):
They listened to the tape.
Speaker 1 (24:53):
The next morning, I went to the building and waited
to see Greer. I couldn't wait to hear his thoughts
on the tape. Finally, I was no longer begging for
access or evidence or a return phone call. The Sheriff's
department was taking me seriously. And this is really painful
to admit, But while I sat there, I actually had
(25:15):
a fantasy. I mean, I know it's ridiculous, but I
couldn't help it. It was me embedded with Greer and
a team of cops, like a swat team, I guess,
And I'd have my mike and my headphones, so I'm
recording audio while we jumped out of the vans and
marched into this big office building. It's jaylight, mixed company,
(25:37):
shock faces of employees. Mick protested while Greer cuffed him,
and then Mick would catch my eye. But then, while
waiting in the lobby, I got a text from Monica.
It said Sparks may have been right. I texted her
back about what She replied with three dollar bills follow
(25:59):
the money. I called Monica back from the lobby.
Speaker 6 (26:13):
Right.
Speaker 3 (26:13):
There are two contributions to the nineteen ninety six Maldonado campaign.
These two companies, Free Flow and Overture Holdings. Thomas Bolden
was on the board for both.
Speaker 1 (26:23):
That would be mixed. Dad, Well, jesus, I'm walking into
Greer right now.
Speaker 6 (26:29):
Strong.
Speaker 1 (26:30):
Wait, is he gonna let you were born? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (26:32):
Okay, well then well you got to ask him about this,
just get his response in real time.
Speaker 1 (26:37):
No, I'm not sure. I can do that write a
strong Yeah, no, I got I gotta go, I gotta.
Speaker 7 (26:43):
Go forget it.
Speaker 1 (26:44):
When Greer walked me down the hallway, I tried to
give him something that I had found at my parents'
house while digging out the tape player. Hey, so I
guess what I found? M what's this? It was a
Boy Meets WorldScript from the nineties. My parents had kept
a box of them, and I thought he'd appreciate it. Oh,
(27:06):
uh cool, Yeah, I can sign.
Speaker 7 (27:10):
For you if you.
Speaker 8 (27:13):
Come on in.
Speaker 1 (27:16):
We walked into a bare room with a metal table.
Sheriff Grace Laughlan was waiting.
Speaker 11 (27:21):
Hi.
Speaker 1 (27:22):
Oh hi, yeah, nice to meet. Take a seat. Was
this an interrogation room? I sat down for your state standing.
They got right to the tape, but not in the
way that I hoped.
Speaker 9 (27:33):
Yeah, it's uh, compelling stuff. But see here here's the
real thing. It's a serious chain of custody issue.
Speaker 1 (27:42):
How what does that mean?
Speaker 9 (27:43):
You hand over a tape but you won't tell us
who gave it to you.
Speaker 1 (27:48):
Oh yeah, well, I I'm sorry. Does that even matter?
Speaker 5 (27:53):
I mean, it's if it's real, it matters.
Speaker 1 (27:56):
Well, it's definitely real. Well, come on, writer, you're an actor.
Speaker 9 (28:00):
You make movies, right for a living, you're working with
audio equipment.
Speaker 1 (28:04):
Okay, Well, then can you it's like tested?
Speaker 9 (28:08):
I mean, I'm sure, yeah, yeah, we have a forensic
scheme processing it. But I uh, I don't understand the
hesitation here?
Speaker 1 (28:16):
What hesitating it?
Speaker 4 (28:17):
Tell us where you got it?
Speaker 9 (28:19):
So can you tell us the name of the person
who give you this?
Speaker 1 (28:22):
I'm sorry? Right, So they just they want to remain.
Speaker 9 (28:25):
You see how that's not helping us help you. You
said you have a new witness.
Speaker 1 (28:29):
Who's that? I I okay? And that I can if
with that one, I can get back to you, you know,
probably in a couple of days. I just I need
to get his Okay.
Speaker 9 (28:38):
We're all for journalists, obviously, we invited you in here, right,
we're letting you record right now. All we want is
more eyes and ears on any case. We want everyone
to come forward, tell us, tell us what they know.
Speaker 2 (28:51):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (28:52):
But then this wasn't just about me.
Speaker 9 (28:54):
We heard you've been talking to Monica Tremaline. H You
know her history, right.
Speaker 1 (29:00):
She's got a bit of a reputation for what.
Speaker 9 (29:04):
She has had to retract more than one story published,
some things before she gets all the facts, and then
other times not publishing things, not sharing information that could help.
Speaker 1 (29:16):
If you listen, you can hear my phone going crazy.
Speaker 9 (29:19):
Do you need to get that.
Speaker 2 (29:20):
No.
Speaker 9 (29:22):
No, we're the ones who can solve this case. We
have the people, we have the resources. We are the professionals,
not Monica Trimbling, not you.
Speaker 1 (29:33):
It does sound like you're going to reopen the case.
When I asked that, they looked at one another.
Speaker 9 (29:40):
If we verify the tape, then it could move up
the chain and career. He'll put it on his active rotation.
But we need full transparency. Anything you find, any information
you have, anybody that comes forward, that's yeah.
Speaker 1 (29:57):
Of course I'd walked into this building with this fantasy
that I would help crack the case and join the
SWAT team take down a criminal. And I'd love to
tell you that this was the moment that I did
the right thing, did the bold thing. But unlike Monica,
I am incredibly uncomfortable with conflict. It turns out I
(30:23):
am just an actor with a podcast. So I didn't
tell them how I got the tape. I didn't tell
them about the pager I found. I didn't mention sparks,
and I didn't confront them on the campaign contributions.
Speaker 11 (30:38):
You didn't say anything.
Speaker 1 (30:39):
Monica wasn't happy.
Speaker 10 (30:41):
No, I mean they wanted to know where we got
the tape.
Speaker 1 (30:44):
You have to push back, Well.
Speaker 10 (30:46):
I mean maybe eventually. I'm right now, I'm not in
the position. I don't feel like I'm the right person
to do that.
Speaker 1 (30:51):
Right. If you're not gonna go for this, then what
are we doing?
Speaker 10 (30:54):
Okay, well, I will go for it. I'm just right now,
you know, I want to get all the information. I'm
looking at these people and they're they're helping me. They're
probably going to reopen the case, and I'm looking at them,
so I don't want to No.
Speaker 1 (31:07):
You're just you're tiptoeing around. You're just not trying to
piss anybody off. Well, yeah, why should I have?
Speaker 10 (31:12):
I don't, you know, I don't want to piss them
off unnecessarily.
Speaker 1 (31:16):
But they're not your friends.
Speaker 10 (31:18):
Okay, I know, but they might be reopening the case, right,
and if I pissed them off, then they don't talk
to me. That nobody wins in that scenario.
Speaker 1 (31:27):
Writer, You've only been doing this for a few weeks now, right.
They have had this case for thirty years, and you
have done more on it than they have.
Speaker 6 (31:39):
Doesn't that tell you everything you need to know?
Speaker 1 (31:42):
All right, I'm off like I left my parents and
drove back to LA that day. Yeah, guys, I listened
to Anna's mix on the way, justifying the fact that
I hadn't confronted Lachlan and career. I'm not a journalist,
(32:05):
I'm not a detective. Maybe I'd done some good, kicked
over a few stones, and I found the tape. Hopefully
they would reopen Anna's case. I could go home, get
back to my writing job while they looked into it more.
Speaker 11 (32:23):
Well.
Speaker 1 (32:24):
And this idea that the Sheriff's department might be corrupt
or had been corrupt, that was important, of course, but
was it my battle. Monica's the professional. She could keep digging.
If she found something solid well, then she could bring
it to me or her editors or whomever, and maybe
get something published. Turns out Monica didn't have to wait
(32:47):
for me or anyone. Like most writers these days, Monica
runs her own sub stack, and by the time I
woke up, the news had already broken and Missing Person's
investigation from nineteen ninety five. Okay, whenever reviews come out
for something that I've worked on, I have Alex read
it first. For some reason, it feels better to have
(33:08):
a human buffer. I did that with Monica's article too.
Speaker 11 (33:13):
It's about contributions to a campaign.
Speaker 1 (33:15):
Oh she put it all in there.
Speaker 11 (33:18):
Sure for Robert Maldonado did not respond to call, of.
Speaker 1 (33:21):
Course, not for a moment, one brief shining moment. I
hope that Monica might have put this out there without
involving me.
Speaker 11 (33:30):
The allegations came to light because right Or Strong, the
actor best known for his role in Boyman's World, has
been revisiting the case for a podcast.
Speaker 1 (33:38):
Shit, and suddenly this project, before I'd even finished editing
my very first episode, was out in the world, and
I had a bad feeling it was not going to
make things easier. That day, the deluge messages and emails,
(34:03):
news outlets wanting comments and stuff like this happens anybody
who represents me, or ever once represented me, starts fielding
requests old agents from when I was still acting, publicists
I worked with years ago. Anywhere somebody can find contact
info for me, they try. And the whole morning I
watched phone calls come in from unknown numbers. But then
(34:26):
there was one that I recognized, and I knew I
had to answer.
Speaker 9 (34:29):
Well, congratulations, you've got the clicks.
Speaker 10 (34:32):
No, I had no idea.
Speaker 1 (34:33):
It wasn't ever anything that I was in. None of
this means right, This makes it harder.
Speaker 9 (34:37):
This is exactly why we need to control the flow
of information.
Speaker 6 (34:41):
This is the kind of thing that we cannot have.
Speaker 1 (34:43):
I tried to explain myself to distance myself from Monica,
but I could barely get a word in.
Speaker 9 (34:47):
Okay, look, I don't need the state and the district
attorney suddenly banging on my all. We were trying to
help you, and now we're fielding conspiracy theories.
Speaker 1 (34:54):
I know, and I appreciate your help.
Speaker 9 (34:55):
And I aponoized Robert Maldonado to no longer speak with you,
and officer career is under orders to keep us for control.
Speaker 1 (35:04):
At that point, I was cut out of the case,
no more access to the evidence or the sheriff's office.
I thought this was it, that there was no way
I could put anything together without help or new leads,
without more evidence. I didn't realize that my biggest breakthrough,
(35:25):
what I really needed to push the case forward. I'd
already heard it was right there on the tape. The
(35:45):
Red Weather is an iHeart podcast hosted by River Strong.
Sound engineering, editing and mixing by Bou milkis produced by
Tess Bartholomey. Executive producers at iHeartRadio Trevor Young and Matt Frederick.
Associate producer Beau milkis original score by Kyle Morten. If
you're enjoying the show, please remember to leave a review
(36:06):
and rating. Thanks for listening.
The Red Weather is a work of fiction. Any 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
(00:25):
a commune.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
They looked at Mick.
Speaker 3 (00:26):
He had somebody with him every step of the way,
and we know he was with you for the rest
of the night.
Speaker 4 (00:31):
She full won't changed his story.
Speaker 5 (00:32):
Suddenly she's dating Mick.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
Oh so they dated for real though?
Speaker 6 (00:36):
Yeah?
Speaker 7 (00:36):
Six months.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
Registered Harjenna on November eighteen, nineteen ninety five. So she
had a new car within two weeks. Yeah. But it's
not until this interview, which is her third one, that
she says that she was with Mick Boten.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Correct.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
Let's talk about Moldinata.
Speaker 4 (00:52):
You want to talk about how this guy can look
the other way when it comes to Mick. You got
to talk about his campaign the next year. Who paid
for that shit?
Speaker 1 (00:59):
I knew about him?
Speaker 2 (01:00):
A mixtape, A Haunted tape.
Speaker 8 (01:12):
It was many and many a year ago in a
kingdom by the sea.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
This is Anna Traynor's voice, which I hadn't heard in
thirty years. It's the infamous Haunted tape. It turns out
it's a mixtape that Anna made in nineteen ninety five.
So there's music, of course, songs like Sour Times by Portoishead,
(01:38):
songs she must have loved or felt compelled to share,
but also, like a lot of us did back then,
Anna recorded herself talking, and mostly she sounds like a
teenager intents. At times, like when she reads ed Garland Poe,
I was.
Speaker 8 (01:55):
A child and she was a child in this kingdom
by the sea. But we loved with a love that
was more than love. I and my Annabelle Lee, with
a love that the winged serifs of heaven coveted her
and me.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
Other times she's completely irreverent, like when she records herself
going through a drive through at McDonald's.
Speaker 8 (02:16):
Yeah number two, no pickles, but a coke two cops.
Speaker 9 (02:22):
Please, no, no, no, m.
Speaker 6 (02:28):
It is so good. No no. Never mind that she
would drinks like a glass or wood or like not
even like a glasshoul drink like a bottle of wine
like every night, which is poison every day. Oh but
god forbid, I have a fucking Coca Cola. Well you
(02:50):
know what, Lany, this sons for you.
Speaker 7 (02:56):
I'm gonna have to choco a little latte.
Speaker 8 (03:00):
Wait one to chalk a little latte, talk a little
l that's you.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
I have no idea what's going on here? Some kind
of in joke.
Speaker 8 (03:09):
Wait that look on the lady's face.
Speaker 3 (03:12):
I can believe you said that.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
I can understand why the rumors started that this was
a voice from beyond the grave. There are moments that
feel eerie, especially not knowing what happened to her, Lucky,
I really do you. It felt like a window cracked
through time, a direct connection. I thought for sure it
(03:35):
would open up a whole new line of investigation, but
actually it had the opposite effect. I am actor and filmmaker,
right or strong? This is the red weather last week
(04:41):
had changed the way I was thinking about Anna's disappearance.
I was talking with Sheriff Maldonado, the lead investigator from
nineteen ninety five, and starting to wonder why he chose
to focus on some suspects and ignore others.
Speaker 4 (04:53):
I know he got Crechateu story got Maldo to look
the other way.
Speaker 1 (04:57):
And I had sat down with Sparks, an old acquaintance
who was convinced, convinced that Maldonado and the Sheriff's department
were thoroughly corrupt.
Speaker 4 (05:05):
Isn't it a little bit weird that they obsess over
hippies in the woods and not the obvious boyfriend who
was all pissed because their girls sleeping around.
Speaker 1 (05:12):
I kind of agreed. I got in the vibe that
Tender Hearts was a boogeyman for Maldonado. But why would
they wanted to not be Mick? Well, one reason might
be Mick's family. His dad, Thomas Boden, was an early
Microsoft investor back in the pre dot com boom. Mick
grew up on a big house with its own vineyard.
(05:33):
My brother remembers.
Speaker 5 (05:34):
It, and it kind of stuck out like in the field. Yeah,
it was like open vineyards and then it's just this
big yeah like PLoP down. Yes, Well it's like that
faux like Italian Tuscan wannabe vibe.
Speaker 6 (05:50):
You know.
Speaker 5 (05:51):
So it's like just a huge it's a mansion, big
mansion house, but it's trying to like be like classy
at the same.
Speaker 4 (05:59):
Time rich perfect football play. And yeah, stud, you.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
Know Mick was rich on track. He already had early
acceptance to Stanford. In other words, Mike and his family
were good, upstanding folks, while Anna and the Tender Hearts
was a sleazy, creepy commune. But in real terms, Sparks
was sure that Mick's family had actually contributed to Maldonado's
campaign for County sheriff the next year.
Speaker 4 (06:25):
Daddy promises Samullah. They half asked their investigation goes.
Speaker 3 (06:30):
Away journalism one all one, follow the money.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
That's Monica Tremblaine, the reporter who covered the case. So
when I was in there with the evidence, Maldonado did
this weird thing. I told her that Maldonado helped me
sneak photos at the Sheriff's department, which felt to me
like a sign of his corruptibility. No, I wouldn't read
too much into that. I mean, I have sources all
the time, back channel sources. So yeah, I guess you're right.
Speaker 10 (06:54):
It's not like this one little move means that he's
a crooked cop.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
I mean, but helping you, helping a lad, that's what
you want, right, Like, how do you think we got
the Pentagon papers Watergate?
Speaker 1 (07:11):
I mean, as a journalist, that's the goal. I'm hardly
a journalist. What are you waiting for information? She said
she would look into the campaign contributions. All right, Well, really,
what we need to do is get a hold of Mike.
I had been trying to reach Mick from the moment
I started this podcast to no avail. I tried every
number I could find. Hi, is this luke No? I
(07:35):
even tried to track him down through his brother, who
had been a friend of mine for a brief moment
in second and third grade. Okay, sorry about that. Thanks,
And since our first sit down, Sparks was Mia, the
mailbox is full and cannot accept any messages at this time. Goodbye,
which was worrisome. If I was going to use any
(07:56):
of his information, I would need him. He's not getting
back to me either. My buddy Chris was the one
who connected me to Sparks in the first place. Well,
it's just shitty because he said so many things, and
you know, I can try and confirm this stuff, but
if I can't find him, I can't. It makes you
look bad. Monica had actually interviewed in the nineties. She
never went on record, but Monica still had her contact info.
(08:20):
Hey did you know she's a grandmother? Now what this
idea rocked my world? Yeah? I guess if she had
a kid when she was twenty or something. Oh, come out, writer,
it's not that crazy.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
A lot of people have kids young.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
The main feeling that this gave me was embarrassment. Here
I am running around with a microphone and trying to
call her about her teenage boyfriend, and she's a grandmother.
Her life had moved on in every way. Well, if
not me, then will she talk to you?
Speaker 10 (08:52):
I don't think so. On record.
Speaker 1 (08:53):
After my experience with Malton Otto and Thomas Greer, the
Sheriff's Department liaison, I was feeling more common with the
idea of reciprocity of making deals. Can you do me
a favor? Could you send her something and then ask
her again if she might talk to me. I was
talking about a copy of the transcript I had smuggled
out of the Violent Crimes Investigative Unit. I'd noticed something
(09:16):
from Mick's first conversation with Maldonado. And then this is
you asking about here?
Speaker 10 (09:22):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (09:23):
Yeah, harsh I sent Monica a screenshot that I'd collected
with Maldonado's phone.
Speaker 10 (09:31):
Oh naw, yeah right.
Speaker 1 (09:33):
In their first interview, Maldonado wanted to know why Mick
was getting paged by Anna, and yet he spent the
night with you, and here's what he said. Maldonado asks,
so what about why are you showing up at her
place so late? Mick says, likes me. Maldonado asks, she's
your girlfriend, Mick. No, no, Maldonado says, so what a hookup?
(09:59):
She's Mick? Not even Maldonado says, not hot, Mick. She's there?
All right? Is there a guy like you? Has a
lot of these? I do all right? You score, I
do all right? This was a Mick that I.
Speaker 10 (10:18):
Remembered, and maybe if she knew what Mick had said
to the cops might change her mind about talking to me.
You know, right, you're better at this than you think.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
Two days later, Monica called me back, she's gonna talk
to me. No, she's not gonna talk to you.
Speaker 3 (10:33):
But you know, Mick left something in her car years ago,
and that was.
Speaker 1 (10:38):
How I got the mixtape. Monica didn't have a tape player,
but my parents did. In their garage. The day the
tape arrived, Monica had a trial she was covering, so
I met her in the parking lot outside the courthouse.
Believe it or not, this was our first time meeting
in person. Up until now, everything had been over zoom
(11:00):
on the phone. All right, finally zoom. Sorry I do
not have a tape player. Yeah no, yeah, would you?
I just my parents never threw anything away.
Speaker 2 (11:11):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (11:11):
Look, I'm down to hear this, So give me an
update on this tape the second that you listen to
it will yeah, you never.
Speaker 1 (11:17):
How to digitize it or whatever, and then I'll send
you topics. What's uh? What's this? I meant the trial
that's now murder? Oh really yep? Drugs death death drug
you know, doesn't get out.
Speaker 3 (11:29):
Okay, gotta get back.
Speaker 9 (11:32):
Recess is probably over.
Speaker 10 (11:34):
Talk soon yeah yeah, okayay.
Speaker 1 (11:36):
Thanks, thank you. I watched her hurry into the courthouse.
It was really hard for me to imagine her job
covering multiple cases, the crime beat in general. I was
only looking into one case, and I was overwhelmed. I
got home, dusted off my parents' old tape player, and
got it working. Anna's mix is one hundred and twenty
(11:57):
minutes and it's.
Speaker 10 (11:59):
Full okay, but you have to listen to the whole thing.
Speaker 11 (12:02):
You can't fast forward it.
Speaker 1 (12:05):
Take The first song was Nick Cave's Red Right Hand,
which launches Anna into a rant about society.
Speaker 7 (12:17):
I think you just like need it to be true
that like you like me and that I like you.
But it's not okay. It like isn't okay for society.
That's what I'm saying, So I say, fuck society.
Speaker 1 (12:31):
Then there's the really unnerving presence of Concrete Lawns Tomorrow
Wendy with it's chorus.
Speaker 8 (12:44):
And now for your listening pleasure, some more chick music.
Speaker 1 (12:52):
Saints by the Breeders was a song I didn't know.
It definitely has a manic nineties energy. What she was
saying didn't make sense, but one thing was clear. It
put Mick front and center again.
Speaker 8 (13:06):
You're may sailor you're my relife, Nicky, because you are
so cool.
Speaker 1 (13:15):
I sent Monica a digital copy that I made by
running the line to my laptop. I was excited. It
felt like real progress. There was no way the Sheriff's
department wouldn't revisit Mick as a suspect now. But then
I mentioned sharing it with them to Monica.
Speaker 3 (13:30):
Wait, no, no, no, no, no, no, don't do that.
Speaker 1 (13:32):
I would not do that, not yet. What really, why writer,
you got.
Speaker 3 (13:36):
A source telling you they buried this case. They're corrupt,
they took bribes.
Speaker 1 (13:40):
Okay, well that's Maldonado maybe, but Lachlan, like.
Speaker 3 (13:44):
They're gonna ask you where you got the tape.
Speaker 1 (13:48):
Look, don't mention my name. Why not.
Speaker 3 (13:51):
I've earned your trust. I gave you the tape because
she told me that was all right. She chose not
to turn it into the cops for thirty years.
Speaker 1 (14:00):
But they told me that if there's new evidence that
could they could open up the case. You believe them,
you want that? Well maybe?
Speaker 4 (14:08):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (14:08):
The greer, the guy, the liaison that they put me,
he loves me. He's like he's actually ridiculously he's a fan.
Speaker 3 (14:16):
Oh wow, Okay, look, don't fall for that.
Speaker 1 (14:19):
Okay, these are not your friends.
Speaker 3 (14:23):
Every cop, every team, law enforcement team that I have
worked with, given a choice between something that makes them
look bad and the truth.
Speaker 1 (14:32):
They never choose the truth. The more I thought about it,
I didn't feel right not sharing evidence, so I didn't
heed her advice. I wish I had the day I
(14:52):
got Anna's tape, I listened to it three times all
the way through. There was this girl, You'll Be a
Woman Soon, which was from the pulp fiction soundtrack Pearl
Jam's Daughter. There was some of the hip hop that
everyone listened to in Sebastopol at the time Diggable Planets
(15:13):
tribe called Quest. The one that really brought me back
personally was a song by Annie DiFranco out of Range.
The second that opening riff started, a memory rushed in Willow,
cranking the song up while we drove around, bouncing and
thrashing in her seat the way that only teenagers can do.
(15:35):
Willow must have been introduced to Anno DiFranco by her sister.
Some of the most interesting parts of the mix are
when Anna included movie clips. I remember doing this too.
The audio is terrible. She must have been holding her
recorder right up to the TV world Clown's stupid Jetty.
Speaker 9 (15:58):
Day And for me, it's a civil mind.
Speaker 5 (16:01):
Individuality in malawis the personal freedom.
Speaker 1 (16:08):
Asshole that's from Wild at Heart. And this, of course
I Keebo's singing from My Day.
Speaker 5 (16:16):
He and they had to fit it.
Speaker 2 (16:17):
Since Kim was ten years old and the name came
in alongside of.
Speaker 1 (16:20):
The trays so called, which I recognized from bad Lands,
one of my favorite movies. All in all, Anna had
good taste, and apparently Nick did not. On this tape.
Speaker 8 (16:32):
There will be no Billy Joel, Fuck the Eagles, Fuck
Hotel California, Fuck your dad's music.
Speaker 1 (16:40):
This is how she talks to him a lot, taunting him,
teasing him.
Speaker 8 (16:44):
Is this torture?
Speaker 3 (16:45):
What does it hurt?
Speaker 8 (16:46):
Does it make you want to cut your ear off?
Speaker 1 (16:48):
And if you caught that? That's the first of many
Vincent van goh references.
Speaker 8 (16:53):
Get used to it because I'm picking all the music
in Operation van go I'm gonna make you camp. You're
gonna hate it.
Speaker 1 (17:01):
She even reads from a book at one point. It's
an encyclopedia.
Speaker 11 (17:04):
I guess.
Speaker 8 (17:05):
Vincent van Gogh was a Dutch painter whose vivid colors
and expressive fresh work blah blah blah blah, love okay here.
Van go suffered from severe emotional and psychological problems and
died in France the age of thirty seven. Thirty seven,
severe emotional and psychological problems. That's what happens when you
let society tell you how to feel, which, by the
(17:28):
way you do it, you do it all the time
because you're scared.
Speaker 1 (17:33):
All in all, it sounds like she and Mick had
a pretty strange dynamic.
Speaker 8 (17:37):
Everyone.
Speaker 11 (17:38):
Thanks, you're the man, but.
Speaker 1 (17:40):
I need you.
Speaker 11 (17:46):
And here's why.
Speaker 1 (17:51):
And this is really fucked up about you and your brain.
Speaker 10 (17:56):
You like it when I mean to you.
Speaker 1 (18:03):
There's no way the Sheriff's department wouldn't find this helpful.
I called my liaison, Thomas Greer, mister Hunter. Yeah, also
seemingly could only think of me as the guy from
Boy Meets World. Dunt, dunt, dun. Do you remember that
Halloween episode which was better than Lachlan who had openly
(18:24):
dismissed me as an actor? With a podcast like a
cassette mm hmm old school, Yeah, it's it's got songs
and then she has movie clips, but she also talks
a lot to Mick. I was surprised, though, by Greer's
reaction to the tape. And how do you know it's
from the real girl, the Hannah? Yeah? Well, I mean
I don't know for sure, but yeah it's her. I
(18:46):
mean it's and who gave it to you? I'd rather
if can I keep that confidential? You know it's your
tape you called me, But it does doesn't mean that
much unless it's real. No, it's definitely, I mean it's
it's a direct source. I thought he would have been
more excited.
Speaker 7 (19:06):
All right, well, uh, why don't you bring it over
and we'll give it a listen.
Speaker 1 (19:15):
Hi, this is for Thomas Queer. Yeah, I can take that.
The next morning, I dropped the tape off and Greer
didn't even come out to get it. I left it
at the front desk and I met Monica for lunch.
We met at the Pine Cone Diner and went over
the tear answer right, I mean, yeah, I don't. It's
(19:38):
not like I remember her voice perfectly, but it totally fits,
even though I have no idea what she's talking about
half the time, more like all his van.
Speaker 10 (19:49):
Go stuff this idea, Yeah, I have no idea.
Speaker 1 (19:52):
The fact that Anna had made this tape for Mick
and that he'd never brought it forward was not a
good look for him. But then I have to be
careful because I went into doing this podcast with a
chip on my shoulder. Nick Bowden, going all the way
back to when we were kids, was I don't know
how to put this delicately not my favorite person. He
was arrogant, condescending. I was friends with his brother for
(20:15):
a little bit, and I remember going over to the
house and Mick would torture us, lock us in a room.
He was just a dick. Yeah, I just remember him
just always, yeah, just being a dickhead. Chris in particular,
was picked on relentlessly by Mick and his friends. Chris
was a goofy, funny kid with a slightly off sense
of humor, exactly the kind of kid someone like Mick
(20:35):
would target. He'd strut around everywhere he went, anywhere he
went like he owned the place, which maybe served him well.
Christmas came early for Monster Clicks this week, when the
new startup was acquired by Pullman Hendrix in a deal
reportedly in the three to five. Mick did the smart
Northern California thing and moved into tech out of Stanford.
(20:55):
He was part of that first dot com boom. He
sold an ad integration company in two two thousand and two,
and apparently that sold to a bigger company, which sold
to a bigger company, and on and on. Do you
have any idea how much he's worried? It's a lot
I mean this one. He just invests. He does very
well with his investment firm, Jaylight. You know he started
(21:17):
off rich, Yeah, it must be nice, and you said
that is if you were in a different situation.
Speaker 3 (21:25):
I was really.
Speaker 1 (21:30):
Yeah, my dad was a firefighter, my mom like Tom
class at the JC, and you were on TV as well,
so working Okay. This was one of the first times
I got a sense of how good Monica is at
her job. She was comfortable with conflict and not in
(21:51):
an aggressive way. She would just let a moment sit there.
Speaker 9 (21:55):
I was just confused because she said must be nice,
like you wouldn't make We're in totally different world.
Speaker 1 (22:01):
Well, I I grew up in Oakland, so Bronse Park. Yeah,
that's that is different. We had spent the last few
weeks talking obsessively about my childhood and my friends, and
yet I didn't even know if Monica was married or
(22:22):
had kids. Before I could ask, she moved right on, yeah, mixed.
Dad he died. But I do still think it might
be worth checking out those contributions for right okay right
the ninety six campaign, she was pounding on her phone.
It looked like she was writing four different stories at once,
(22:43):
so I'm gonna go to the registrar in person because
there's nothing digital, and if that does not work, check
with the FPPC. She sucks glove.
Speaker 3 (22:52):
Legally they're supposed to respond in ten days, but you
you see, all it works.
Speaker 2 (22:56):
So okay.
Speaker 1 (23:01):
I paid the bill with sparks off the grid, the
tape with the Sheriff's department, and having interviewed most of
my family and friends already, I started to feel like
I should probably head home. How's Indie? I called my wife, Alex.
Speaker 7 (23:16):
Oh, he he's.
Speaker 11 (23:17):
Okay, you know, already crying about having to do the
conservatory on Saturday, even though yet it's five days away.
Speaker 1 (23:25):
Alex had been holding down the fort back at home
for almost three weeks now. She's in the business too,
and like most of us these days, she's a multi
hyphen it writer, director, producer, actor. When you're married and
both of you work this way where everything is freelance,
you have to take turns. Whoever's got a job, whoever's
got a project. The other one becomes a single parent.
(23:45):
And the truth was going back to my hometown and
looking into Anna's case was a little different. Not an
actual job. She would never say so but I was
pretty sure Alex's patience was wearing thin been able to right. No,
I was supposed to be writing a script, an actual job.
It was due in a matter of weeks, but I
(24:07):
hadn't even written a word yet. I know, I know
you think I should come home. I don't say that, no,
but I can. I can feel it.
Speaker 11 (24:16):
It just that is a job that you have, right,
I know you're supposed to be writing. That's all you
ever want to do is write, and you're not doing that.
Speaker 1 (24:27):
It's fine, I'll come home.
Speaker 10 (24:28):
I mean, there's nothing happening here and I can't just
keep sitting around.
Speaker 1 (24:33):
Right then, though, an email came through. Oh wait, I
actually just got a note from the Sheriff's office.
Speaker 10 (24:40):
Can you come in and meet me at nine am tomorrow?
Speaker 1 (24:43):
Yeah, I guess.
Speaker 10 (24:45):
They listened to the tape.
Speaker 1 (24:53):
The next morning, I went to the building and waited
to see Greer. I couldn't wait to hear his thoughts
on the tape. Finally, I was no longer begging for
access or evidence or a return phone call. The Sheriff's
department was taking me seriously. And this is really painful
to admit, But while I sat there, I actually had
(25:15):
a fantasy. I mean, I know it's ridiculous, but I
couldn't help it. It was me embedded with Greer and
a team of cops, like a swat team, I guess,
And I'd have my mike and my headphones, so I'm
recording audio while we jumped out of the vans and
marched into this big office building. It's jaylight, mixed company,
(25:37):
shock faces of employees. Mick protested while Greer cuffed him,
and then Mick would catch my eye. But then, while
waiting in the lobby, I got a text from Monica.
It said Sparks may have been right. I texted her
back about what She replied with three dollar bills follow
(25:59):
the money. I called Monica back from the lobby.
Speaker 6 (26:13):
Right.
Speaker 3 (26:13):
There are two contributions to the nineteen ninety six Maldonado campaign.
These two companies, Free Flow and Overture Holdings. Thomas Bolden
was on the board for both.
Speaker 1 (26:23):
That would be mixed. Dad, Well, jesus, I'm walking into
Greer right now.
Speaker 6 (26:29):
Strong.
Speaker 1 (26:30):
Wait, is he gonna let you were born? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (26:32):
Okay, well then well you got to ask him about this,
just get his response in real time.
Speaker 1 (26:37):
No, I'm not sure. I can do that write a
strong Yeah, no, I got I gotta go, I gotta.
Speaker 7 (26:43):
Go forget it.
Speaker 1 (26:44):
When Greer walked me down the hallway, I tried to
give him something that I had found at my parents'
house while digging out the tape player. Hey, so I
guess what I found? M what's this? It was a
Boy Meets WorldScript from the nineties. My parents had kept
a box of them, and I thought he'd appreciate it. Oh,
(27:06):
uh cool, Yeah, I can sign.
Speaker 7 (27:10):
For you if you.
Speaker 8 (27:13):
Come on in.
Speaker 1 (27:16):
We walked into a bare room with a metal table.
Sheriff Grace Laughlan was waiting.
Speaker 11 (27:21):
Hi.
Speaker 1 (27:22):
Oh hi, yeah, nice to meet. Take a seat. Was
this an interrogation room? I sat down for your state standing.
They got right to the tape, but not in the
way that I hoped.
Speaker 9 (27:33):
Yeah, it's uh, compelling stuff. But see here here's the
real thing. It's a serious chain of custody issue.
Speaker 1 (27:42):
How what does that mean?
Speaker 9 (27:43):
You hand over a tape but you won't tell us
who gave it to you.
Speaker 1 (27:48):
Oh yeah, well, I I'm sorry. Does that even matter?
Speaker 5 (27:53):
I mean, it's if it's real, it matters.
Speaker 1 (27:56):
Well, it's definitely real. Well, come on, writer, you're an actor.
Speaker 9 (28:00):
You make movies, right for a living, you're working with
audio equipment.
Speaker 1 (28:04):
Okay, Well, then can you it's like tested?
Speaker 9 (28:08):
I mean, I'm sure, yeah, yeah, we have a forensic
scheme processing it. But I uh, I don't understand the
hesitation here?
Speaker 1 (28:16):
What hesitating it?
Speaker 4 (28:17):
Tell us where you got it?
Speaker 9 (28:19):
So can you tell us the name of the person
who give you this?
Speaker 1 (28:22):
I'm sorry? Right, So they just they want to remain.
Speaker 9 (28:25):
You see how that's not helping us help you. You
said you have a new witness.
Speaker 1 (28:29):
Who's that? I I okay? And that I can if
with that one, I can get back to you, you know,
probably in a couple of days. I just I need
to get his Okay.
Speaker 9 (28:38):
We're all for journalists, obviously, we invited you in here, right,
we're letting you record right now. All we want is
more eyes and ears on any case. We want everyone
to come forward, tell us, tell us what they know.
Speaker 2 (28:51):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (28:52):
But then this wasn't just about me.
Speaker 9 (28:54):
We heard you've been talking to Monica Tremaline. H You
know her history, right.
Speaker 1 (29:00):
She's got a bit of a reputation for what.
Speaker 9 (29:04):
She has had to retract more than one story published,
some things before she gets all the facts, and then
other times not publishing things, not sharing information that could help.
Speaker 1 (29:16):
If you listen, you can hear my phone going crazy.
Speaker 9 (29:19):
Do you need to get that.
Speaker 2 (29:20):
No.
Speaker 9 (29:22):
No, we're the ones who can solve this case. We
have the people, we have the resources. We are the professionals,
not Monica Trimbling, not you.
Speaker 1 (29:33):
It does sound like you're going to reopen the case.
When I asked that, they looked at one another.
Speaker 9 (29:40):
If we verify the tape, then it could move up
the chain and career. He'll put it on his active rotation.
But we need full transparency. Anything you find, any information
you have, anybody that comes forward, that's yeah.
Speaker 1 (29:57):
Of course I'd walked into this building with this fantasy
that I would help crack the case and join the
SWAT team take down a criminal. And I'd love to
tell you that this was the moment that I did
the right thing, did the bold thing. But unlike Monica,
I am incredibly uncomfortable with conflict. It turns out I
(30:23):
am just an actor with a podcast. So I didn't
tell them how I got the tape. I didn't tell
them about the pager I found. I didn't mention sparks,
and I didn't confront them on the campaign contributions.
Speaker 11 (30:38):
You didn't say anything.
Speaker 1 (30:39):
Monica wasn't happy.
Speaker 10 (30:41):
No, I mean they wanted to know where we got
the tape.
Speaker 1 (30:44):
You have to push back, Well.
Speaker 10 (30:46):
I mean maybe eventually. I'm right now, I'm not in
the position. I don't feel like I'm the right person
to do that.
Speaker 1 (30:51):
Right. If you're not gonna go for this, then what
are we doing?
Speaker 10 (30:54):
Okay, well, I will go for it. I'm just right now,
you know, I want to get all the information. I'm
looking at these people and they're they're helping me. They're
probably going to reopen the case, and I'm looking at them,
so I don't want to No.
Speaker 1 (31:07):
You're just you're tiptoeing around. You're just not trying to
piss anybody off. Well, yeah, why should I have?
Speaker 10 (31:12):
I don't, you know, I don't want to piss them
off unnecessarily.
Speaker 1 (31:16):
But they're not your friends.
Speaker 10 (31:18):
Okay, I know, but they might be reopening the case, right,
and if I pissed them off, then they don't talk
to me. That nobody wins in that scenario.
Speaker 1 (31:27):
Writer, You've only been doing this for a few weeks now, right.
They have had this case for thirty years, and you
have done more on it than they have.
Speaker 6 (31:39):
Doesn't that tell you everything you need to know?
Speaker 1 (31:42):
All right, I'm off like I left my parents and
drove back to LA that day. Yeah, guys, I listened
to Anna's mix on the way, justifying the fact that
I hadn't confronted Lachlan and career. I'm not a journalist,
(32:05):
I'm not a detective. Maybe I'd done some good, kicked
over a few stones, and I found the tape. Hopefully
they would reopen Anna's case. I could go home, get
back to my writing job while they looked into it more.
Speaker 11 (32:23):
Well.
Speaker 1 (32:24):
And this idea that the Sheriff's department might be corrupt
or had been corrupt, that was important, of course, but
was it my battle. Monica's the professional. She could keep digging.
If she found something solid well, then she could bring
it to me or her editors or whomever, and maybe
get something published. Turns out Monica didn't have to wait
(32:47):
for me or anyone. Like most writers these days, Monica
runs her own sub stack, and by the time I
woke up, the news had already broken and Missing Person's
investigation from nineteen ninety five. Okay, whenever reviews come out
for something that I've worked on, I have Alex read
it first. For some reason, it feels better to have
(33:08):
a human buffer. I did that with Monica's article too.
Speaker 11 (33:13):
It's about contributions to a campaign.
Speaker 1 (33:15):
Oh she put it all in there.
Speaker 11 (33:18):
Sure for Robert Maldonado did not respond to call, of.
Speaker 1 (33:21):
Course, not for a moment, one brief shining moment. I
hope that Monica might have put this out there without
involving me.
Speaker 11 (33:30):
The allegations came to light because right Or Strong, the
actor best known for his role in Boyman's World, has
been revisiting the case for a podcast.
Speaker 1 (33:38):
Shit, and suddenly this project, before I'd even finished editing
my very first episode, was out in the world, and
I had a bad feeling it was not going to
make things easier. That day, the deluge messages and emails,
(34:03):
news outlets wanting comments and stuff like this happens anybody
who represents me, or ever once represented me, starts fielding
requests old agents from when I was still acting, publicists
I worked with years ago. Anywhere somebody can find contact
info for me, they try. And the whole morning I
watched phone calls come in from unknown numbers. But then
(34:26):
there was one that I recognized, and I knew I
had to answer.
Speaker 9 (34:29):
Well, congratulations, you've got the clicks.
Speaker 10 (34:32):
No, I had no idea.
Speaker 1 (34:33):
It wasn't ever anything that I was in. None of
this means right, This makes it harder.
Speaker 9 (34:37):
This is exactly why we need to control the flow
of information.
Speaker 6 (34:41):
This is the kind of thing that we cannot have.
Speaker 1 (34:43):
I tried to explain myself to distance myself from Monica,
but I could barely get a word in.
Speaker 9 (34:47):
Okay, look, I don't need the state and the district
attorney suddenly banging on my all. We were trying to
help you, and now we're fielding conspiracy theories.
Speaker 1 (34:54):
I know, and I appreciate your help.
Speaker 9 (34:55):
And I aponoized Robert Maldonado to no longer speak with you,
and officer career is under orders to keep us for control.
Speaker 1 (35:04):
At that point, I was cut out of the case,
no more access to the evidence or the sheriff's office.
I thought this was it, that there was no way
I could put anything together without help or new leads,
without more evidence. I didn't realize that my biggest breakthrough,
(35:25):
what I really needed to push the case forward. I'd
already heard it was right there on the tape. The
(35:45):
Red Weather is an iHeart podcast hosted by River Strong.
Sound engineering, editing and mixing by Bou milkis produced by
Tess Bartholomey. Executive producers at iHeartRadio Trevor Young and Matt Frederick.
Associate producer Beau milkis original score by Kyle Morten. If
you're enjoying the show, please remember to leave a review
(36:06):
and rating. Thanks for listening.
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