May 30, 2023 • 56 mins
When a taillight leads to a hostage recovery, and mom notices the DIY graveyard, it all starts to come apart for the urban creeper.
Sources:
https://www.wwlp.com/news/crime/stewart-weldon-accused-serial-killer-expected-to-plead-guilty/
https://www.cbsnews.com/boston/news/stewart-weldon-pleads-guilty-springfield/
https://www.masslive.com/news/2018/06/police_records_detail_searches.html
https://www.nj.com/essex/2018/06/stewart_weldon_springfield_multiple_bodies_montcla.html
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Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Marcy (00:00):
When Constance opened the front door, the officers
immediately smelled an odor thatevery experienced cop knows.
They will never forget theunmistakable smell of decaying
flesh.
Welcome to Crime Raven; truecrimes, real life stories from
law enforcement and issues crimefighters face.
(00:20):
This podcast highlights crimesresearched by retired Detective
Sergeant Mark Rein, usingpublicly available information,
court records and personalrecollections.
Content may be graphic,disturbing, or violent.
Listener discretion is advised.
Suspects are considered innocentuntil found guilty in a court of
law.
(00:42):
One of the places that you canlisten to Crime Raven is on
Audible.
With an Audible membership, youcan access podcasts, audiobooks,
and original content.
To support Crime Raven, Audibleis allowing our listeners to try
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(01:02):
That's free access for 30 daysat audibletrial.com/crimeraven.
We'll also put the link in theshow notes.
Mark (01:26):
There was nothing particularly special about the
way the creep looked.
He wasn't a big guy.
More average in terms of heightand weight.
He wasn't the guy that wouldattract attention in a room full
of people.
His insecurity about a lack offormal education caused him to
avoid complicated conversations.
He preferred simplicity and thecompany of people he could
(01:47):
control.
The creep wasn't a stupidperson, per se.
What he lacked in book smarts.
He made up with cunning.
He took advantage of hisordinary facade.
Those who encountered himconsistently underestimated him.
It was also a benefit when heran afoul of the law.
(02:07):
He wasn't one of the usualsuspects that spring to local
cops minds.
even though the creep fit neatlyinto the"black male adult,
average height, average build"description, that was so
unhelpful in actually solving acrime, particularly in the area
of the city he called home.
The creep had always liked theladies, and in the waters he
fished.
(02:27):
The ladies liked him.
Carrying that analogy further,the creep wasn't the northern
pike or bass of the lake.
He was more the catfish lookingfor action in the murky depths
of the pond.
An opportunist and omnivoresifting the debris and detritis
until he chanced to cross atasty morsel.
(02:49):
One chilly evening, the creepmade his way over to High
Street.
Living close to his favoriteopen air drug market was like a
surfer living on the beach ofhis favorite break.
Simultaneous agony and ecstasy,all packed into the same quarter
mile.
He loved the action Dealers andtheir touts pacing the corners
as hordes of patrons from acrossthe city converged like seagulls
(03:11):
on a Cape Cod fishing trawler.
The creep threaded his waythrough the high street fraukus,
pushing past people as theyscurred around him.
He kept a watchful eye on thestreet ahead as cars pulled to
the curb for stops that lasted15 seconds.
He was on the prowl.
It wouldn't be good to getcaught up in a drive by or some
stupid cop shit.
Seeing nothing but the usualneighborhood pharmaceutical
(03:33):
commerce.
He continued to walk, scanningthe sidewalks and alleys.
The girl the creep was searchingfor would be easy to spot
because she was a fellow hunter.
Having little money, she'd belooking to make the cheapest
deal she could.
The creeps aim was to be theanswer to her prayers.
The problem was he had highstandards.
(03:55):
Most of the ladies he saw weretoo far gone, burned out, eyes
vacant, staggering from tout totout.
Those were the women who got theharshest rebuke because they
were vermin who would not goaway.
A few nights prior, he hadfinally had to slap the shit
outta one that had followed himdown the street, propositioning
him.
He yelled at her.
"I wouldn't let your lipsanywhere near my cock.
(04:16):
Get the fuck outta here, bitch."The creep wasn't looking for a
zombie.
He wanted a girl who wasreasonably cute and pliable.
Luckily for him, he was a decentlooking guy considering the
rough surroundings.
None of the women who werewalking down here were doing so
by choice.
They all had a need.
(04:37):
He had cultivated his approachover time to maximize his
chances of success.
To the girl, the creep exudedstreetwise, confidence.
He could be extremely charmingwhen he wanted to be and
forceful when necessary.
On that night, the creep hadalready walked for several
blocks, passing people anddealers he knew.
They recognized him as a homeboyand they weren't threatened by
(04:58):
him.
In the past, he had boughtretail from all of them, and the
creep had never sold the kind ofweight that anyone would give a
shit about.
some of them knew he what he waslooking for, and they pushed the
broke ass ones towards him.
The word was that he was a kinkyfuck.
So the regular girls who stilllook good, gave him a wide
birth.
The creep spotted the girl hewanted from a half block away.
(05:19):
He had never seen her before.
She was Latina, maybe 30.
Her tight clothes advertised adecent body.
Like she'd been taking care ofherself before addiction had
pulled her in.
Her long, dark hair shifted inthe breezes as she walked toward
him.
The girl had the inquisitivesseeking look of an addict, but
didn't have the gauntdesperation and the dead eyes of
(05:40):
the veteran fiends.
She made eye contact with himand held it.
In this part of town, that wasthe invitation, but also the
question.
The creep didn't waste any time.
He confidently shredded towardsher, keeping her eyes.
When the two stood face to face.
The creep laid down his rap.
First confirmation that hehadn't misread the situation.
(06:03):
He hadn't.
One time the woman he was tryingto scoop up turned out to be a
social worker.
She had all kinds of solutionsto street life.
No thank you.
This time he wasn't mistaken.
She had all the right answers.
The creep felt fortunate.
These brief words wouldn't havebeen adequate for a pickup
anywhere but a place like HighStreet.
The important part was that hesaid he had what she needed.
(06:26):
There were far worse options.
She'd endured some real freaks,but he had a pleasant smile.
By the time they made it to thecreeps place, it was already
dark.
The sodium vapor street lampsilluminated the small house.
Light blue in the daylight, theyellow light they cast gave the
cottage a sickly green hue.
With some prompting, the girlfollowed the creep down the worn
(06:48):
dark stairs into the basement.
As they descended, she couldsmell the pungent odor of earth,
moldy damp decay.
She tried to talk to the creepto lighten the mood as he
fumbled the door lock.
But he shushed her motioningthat the landlord was upstairs.
The girl felt better once thecreep opened the door, and he
snapped on the lights.
(07:09):
Inside was a sparse, wobblytable, rickety chairs, a tiny
clothing piled shelf, and asmall bed covered by a single
stained blanket.
The creep dropped into onechair, pulled a bottle of brandy
from the table, unscrewed it,took a wig, and held it out.
The girls' dark eyes went fromsurveying the scene to
(07:30):
scrutinizing the bottle.
There was dust on it.
The label peeled back.
It looked like it'd been kickingaround for a while.
"Sit down and have a drink." Thecreep nodded at the only other
chair.
The girl did as she was told.
The creep made small talk withthe girl, asking her about where
she was from, where her familywas.
None of it made a bit ofdifference to him, but he wanted
(07:51):
her at ease.
She was attractive.
The girl was attentive.
Every move was like a dogwaiting for a master to
magically produce a treat.
He loved her neediness.
He loved to be needed.
No other aspect of his life madehim feel so successful.
After a few minutes of watchingthe girl jitter in her chair,
(08:12):
impatiently sipping the brandywith increasing urgency.
The creep pulled out the pipeand torch.
She perked up.
She leaned forward.
She spoke louder.
Excited.
The creep frown.
"Yeah, baby.
We're gonna smoke, but you gottabe fucking quiet." His emphasis
on quiet.
"I'm not gonna get kicked outtahere because of you.
My landlord is a bitch." Thegirl sat back a little nodding
(08:36):
urgently.
They smoked.
For a minute the only sound wasthe click of the butane torch.
The crack of the burning rockand sucking inhalation.
After her rock was gone, thegirl smiled.
She leaned back in her chairlooking at the ceiling.
She wrapped her arms as ifgiving herself a hug and started
giggling uncontrollably.
(08:56):
creep also felt the usualwelcoming rush.
His inhibition and anxietydropped away as he rode the
euphoric wave.
He'd always felt bulletproof asthe cocaine hit the brain.
He owned this world andeverything in it.
The girl's giggling, brought himback, focused his attention on
her.
"Shut up." He said almost tohimself.
(09:17):
She persisted.
The creep a little louder,angrier,"shut the fuck up." But
she still wasn't payingattention.
Giggling at the ceiling.
The creep leaped out of hischair, fist balled and closed
the two paces between them.
He leaned over the girl, hisface, a mask of rage.
The girl smile, fled her eyeswide, then confused.
(09:39):
The creep, broke the quiet witha scream.
"I said, shut the fuck up,bitch.
"He punched her in the face, aright hook followed by the left.
The chair pitched backwards.
The creep followed it down.
The girl led out a screech thatwas cut off as the creep landed
on her, compressing her chestand face with his body.
The man didn't pause movement asthe cocaine superpower kicked
(10:00):
in, springing to a crouch.
He grabbed the girl by her longhair and dragged her up onto the
bed.
The creep began ripping thegirl's clothes off.
She was stunned beneath him,barely struggling as her mind
tried to make sense of thesudden assault.
She tried to rally, cry out.
The creep, pressed the towelover her mouth, repeating his
order to shut up, adding,"orI'll fucking kill you." The girl
(10:21):
mind swimming was trappedbetween compliance, or fight as
the man continued to attack.
She felt his blows.
And they subsided only as heprogressed in ripping her
clothes, then more torture.
Then he was raping her.
The girl wanted to relent to letit happen, but her body did
something else.
It rebelled.
It fought.
It screamed.
The creeps fury grew as thebitch refused to obey him.
(10:43):
He was raping her, choking her,hitting her, but she was still
struggling, crying out, and thatwas against his rules.
The creep reached under the bedand pulled out one of his toys,
prepositioned for just such anoccasion.
It was a club.
really just a piece of two byfour spiked with nails jutting
outta one end.
The creep held it up for asecond to look at it.
Smiled, shrugged.
She asked for it.
(11:04):
With each swing, the clubconnected with a satisfying
slap.
He felt the nails drag rippedthrough the flesh as he pulled
for another hit.
The girl thrashed and squealedas he hit her.
The creep was suddenly overcomewith his own uncontrollable
laughter.
The louder she cried, thefunnier it was.
Marcy (11:36):
Springfield, Massachusetts with a population
of 160,000 is the state's thirdlargest city behind Boston and
Providence.
It's the largest city in theeastern part of the state.
Away from the Atlantic Coast, itsits up in the Connecticut River
Valley.
The city has a rich history aspart of the birth of our nation
(11:59):
and has grown to host a diverseeconomic base.
It's headquarters for manycompanies with prominent
representation from theeducation, finance, business,
and manufacturing sectors.
Springfield has a densely packedurban population center with all
the benefits and challenges ofsimilar regional centers.
(12:21):
One challenge which has grown inrecent years is that Springfield
experiences a relatively highcrime rate with almost twice
that of the statewide averages.
This holds true for relativelyminor offenses as well as
violent crimes like assault,robbery, rape, and murder.
(12:41):
The criminal case against StuartWeldon started as a simple
traffic stop on May 27th, 2018.
The car he was driving had ataillight out.
A patrol officer tried to pullhim over and Weldon tried even
harder not to stop.
He drove desperately wrong way,one way, caroming off civilian
(13:03):
vehicles and crashing intopolice cruisers.
The difference was the cops hada plan.
Weldon didn't.
After a brief pursuit, theyboxed in Weldon's car on
Wilbraham Road in Springfield'spine Point neighborhood.
After he was subdued andhandcuffed, officers discovered
(13:23):
the 40 year old Weldon had alarge knife hidden in his
clothing.When they ran his namethrough the state computer, it
turned out that Weldon was afugitive from a pending criminal
assault case.
A few weeks prior, he had cutoff a court ordered GPS ankle
monitor.
The old charges compounded bythe new eluding vehicular
(13:44):
assault mishmash were enough toensure him a lengthy stay in
jail.
But there was more.
That day weldon had a passengeror rather a prisoner with him in
the car.
At the scene of the car pinningand arrest, after Weldon was
taken into custody, officerswere surprised to discover a
(14:06):
woman tied up in the backseat.
As they carefully removed herfrom the car, the badly injured
woman said, thank you for savingmy life.
I thought I would never getaway.
An ambulance transported thewoman to the hospital where they
treated her for injuriesdescribed as grotesque and
violent.
It turned out that she was themother of one of Weldon's two
(14:28):
children.
Held against her will for theprior month, she reported Weldon
had repeatedly raped her andassaulted her with his fists and
various weapons.
She had stab wounds, a fracturedjaw, and bruises all over.
There were pattern injuries frombeing hit with what the victim
claimed was a hammer and a metalpipe.
(14:52):
There were strangulation markson her neck.
She described one of Weldon'sweapons.
She didn't know what a wireconnected between two wooden
handles was called, but theinvestigator recognized that she
was describing a garrot On May30th, three days after Weldon
(15:12):
was remanded to the HamptonCounty Correctional Center,
constance White, Weldon's 72year old mother called the
police.
She wanted officers toinvestigate a strange smell
coming from her son's area inthe basement.
The house was at 1333 PageBoulevard.
Weldon's mother had allowed himto live underneath the thousand
(15:35):
square foot House since she'dbought it in 2016.
The officers who responded tothe call didn't have all the
background information onWeldon.
It was a fairly common categoryof police response referred to
as suspicious circumstances.
It could literally be anything.
(15:55):
They found the small, blue grayhouse with white trim, a little
rundown with overgrownlandscaping.
Otherwise, the house wasunremarkable.
When Constance opened the frontdoor, the officers immediately
smelled an odor that everyexperienced cop knows.
They will never forget theunmistakable smell of decaying
(16:17):
flesh.
As officers descended into thebasement backtracking the smell,
they swatted away, flies headedin the opposite direction.
They tracked to the bathroombarely larger than a closet.
With the door open the odor wasalmost unbearable.
Tucked back in a corner, therewas a box.
(16:39):
A reddish brown liquid wasleaking from the box, spread
across several squares oflinoleum.
The officers did just enoughinvestigation of the box to
confirm that the rotting remainsinside looked human.
Then they got the hell out ofthere.
Back in the zone of breathableair.
They called for assistance.
(17:02):
By the time the firstinvestigators arrived, they knew
more about the house and Weldon.
It gratified them to find out hewas still in custody at the
county lockup.
Weldon was the father of twochildren.
A young son and a six month oldbaby girl.
Its mother had taken the babyaway when she was released from
the hospital.
(17:24):
Officers took the son who wasthere with the old lady into
protective custody as the crimescene investigation cranked up.
Weldon's mother was not a fontof information.
Other than generalization, suchas her son had a drug problem
and noticing the suspiciousodor, she claimed to have little
(17:44):
other knowledge about what he'dbeen up to.
She did not know who the body inthe basement could be.
Investigators combed inside andout.
It was a double lot room enoughfor a grassy yard and two small
out buildings.
It was on the floor of one ofthese, the detached garage.
(18:05):
Where they found a second bodywrapped in a tarp.
These remains were in slightlybetter condition than the first.
This new discovery sent ashockwave through the police
department that echoed acrossthe city.
The processing of the 1333 pageBoulevard crime scene would last
(18:26):
for more than a week.
By the end ground penetratingradar scans found several
subsurface anomalies that had tobe excavated.
They found one additional set ofhuman remains and a hole under
the shed.
The scene gained unwantednotoriety is media and
rubberneckers converged.
(18:47):
The neighbors up and down thestreet grew tired of answering
their front doors, weary ofsuccessive interviews as initial
police canvassing becameinvestigator follow-up questions
became public interest pieces byvarious media outlets.
It seemed that everyone waslooking for the juicy scraps.
(19:07):
In that regard, the neighborswere a disappointment.
Nobody had anything significantto say about that specific
house.
Loud disturbances were notuncommon in that area.
No one claimed to know anythingout of the ordinary was
happening in their neighbor'sbasement.
The publicity had one positiveeffect.
(19:28):
Several women came forwardclaiming that Weldon had
attacked them in the recentpast.
Investigators interviewed all ofthem.
Some were merely attentionseekers who were easy to weed
out, but many gave corroborateddetails.
The stories were all eerilysimilar variations on a theme.
(19:48):
While the police were busyprocessing the crime scene,
tracking down leads and talkingto witnesses and victims, many
families across Springfield heldtheir collective breaths.
Every city in the United Stateshas people who go missing.
Many of them are women whoclinging to the fringes of
society.
(20:09):
Poverty goes hand in hand with ahost of other issues, drugs,
mental health domestic violence.
As the facts of the situationwith Weldon leaked out across
Springfield.
Those who had missing loved onesfound themselves in an
unenviable club and a week longvigil was beginning.
(20:32):
Investigators hadn't gottenaround to taking a hard look at
Weldon after the car chaseassault, kidnapping incident
three days prior.
Now, that initial arrestcompounded by a growing body
count and new victims seeminglycrawling out of the woodwork.
Weldon had Springfielddetectives complete attention.
(20:54):
He was born in Jamaica, Queens,New York and was raised in
Montclair, New Jersey.
His father died during histeenage years.
Weldon was the farthest thingfrom an outstanding student.
In fact, he didn't attend muchschool after the first grade,
and he didn't graduate highschool.
He was functionally illiterateand had never held down a steady
(21:15):
job.
Weldon found support in adotting mother, street crime and
low level drug dealing.
Springfield investigators didnot have access to Weldon's
juvenile record, but his adultyears were documented in lengthy
court records, including asexual assault kidnapping in
1997 when he was 19, illegalweapons possession, multiple
(21:40):
burglary charges, a 2005 felonyassault with a weapon, a 2006
attempted theft and burglary,and an October, 2008 burglary
and probation violation.
Some of these netted him shortstints In jail.
He served two years for a 2010burglary and felony assault.
(22:02):
The regular police contacts andfrequent arrests for low end
crimes continued until October14th, 2017, near Forest Park in
Springfield, Massachusetts, whenpolice stopped him for reckless
driving and he subsequentlyearned bonus charges of assault
with a deadly weapon, resistingarrest, and assaulting a police
(22:23):
officer.
Weldon's documented pass tolddetectives they were dealing
with a career criminal.
They wanted to know if Weldonwas the kind of guy who was
always destined to killsomebody, or if something had
recently changed.
Some of Weldon's relatives,while acknowledging he was a
criminal, said he hadn't alwaysbeen a violent person.
(22:45):
His aunt was certain thatsomething had just snapped in
him, asserting that perhapsdrugs had driven him crazy.
In contrast, other associates,some going way back, weren't
surprised when they found outWeldon was a murderer.
They said Weldon consideredhimself a ladies man, always on
the prowl.
(23:05):
He didn't like to be turnedaway, and he was very quick to
anger.
Five days after the bodies wererecovered, as the detectives
worked to bring facts abouttheir suspect into focus, the
identities were publiclyreleased.
Three Springfield families foundout that they had won the
(23:26):
Nightmare lottery.
The woman in the box from thebathroom turned out to be Kayla
Escalante, 27 years old.
Kayla had been missing sinceDecember, about five months.
Only partially clothed, herwrists and ankles were tightly
bound.
She also had tape wrapped aroundher head and mouth.
(23:49):
The body had clearly sufferedtrauma and sexual assault.
They ruled the cause of death tobe strangulation.
She still had an electric cordwrapped around her neck.
The remains discovered, wrappedin a tarp on the garage floor,
turned out to be 47 year oldernestine Ryans, missing since
(24:11):
March 8th, 2018.
Autopsy showed that she died byviolence, including sexual
assault.
When Ernestine disappeared, herbrother filed the missing person
report and started searching.
Her silence was unusual.
As time passed, they all assumedthat she had relapsed and had
returned to her former citybecause that's where she had
(24:34):
connections.
American Canals- Liden, 34 yearsold, had been missing since
June, 2017.
Americans remains werediscovered during the backyard
excavation, buried in a holeunder the shed.
The arms and legs of her nowskeletal remains were still
bound with cord and bundled inbedding.
(24:56):
With the identifications,complete investigators could
look at victimology, which toldthem more about their suspect.
The obvious common themes werecrushing poverty, drug
addiction, and repeatedvictimization.
Each victim had family memberswho had tried to help them out
of their situation, and whenthey went missing, had tried to
(25:17):
locate them.
Families put up missing flyers.
The community was stillplastered with photos that
American's sister had printed,scrolled with the prescient
words"missing and could be indanger." Springfield, major
crimes unit detectives hadworked with the families
attempting to track down thesewomen in some of the city's most
(25:39):
drug addled and violentprecincts.
They combed through theshelters, the hospitals, and old
hangouts.
They interviewed friends, evensome in jail, and they
documented these efforts ininvestigator's notes, and
despite their work, the nameWeldon never came up.
As the dust settled on themurder investigation, they added
(26:01):
a host of additional charges tothose that Weldon was already
facing.
There were three counts of firstdegree murder, eight for
strangulation, nine foraggravated rape, two for rape,
five for aggravated kidnapping,and four counts of kidnapping.
These new charges includedcrimes against some of the
(26:24):
surviving victims.
Weldon initially pled notguilty, and his bail increased
to$2 million.
They set the trial for April,2020, but had to be postponed
several times because of thepandemic.
During the delay, weldon's teamsaid they were considering an
insanity defense, so the judgeordered a psychiatric
(26:46):
evaluation.
A few months later, Weldon wasruled mentally competent.
Three years after that fatefultraffic stop, on the brink of
trial, Weldon pled guilty to 39counts of various crimes,
including murder, rape, andassault on 11 victims.
At the sentencing hearing, adetective was called to
(27:09):
summarize Weldon's crimes.
In reference to the kidnappingand murder victims, the officer
referred to Weldon's Mo aschoreography.
He enticed them with dope.
He took them home to hisbasement where they used drugs,
and then he would attack them asif a switch flipped.
He raped them.
He choked them all.
(27:29):
The detectives described"theycould not breathe, they could
not scream, they could not makeany noise.
It was personal, slow andagonizing." three of the women's
survivors testified atsentencing.
Several more were tootraumatized to speak publicly of
(27:50):
the ordeal.
One victim described a brutalrape and beating, turning to the
judge tearfully and emphasized"Ireally thought I was gonna die
on that day." another victimdescribed Weldon becoming angry
that she was bleeding all overthe floor.
He made her clean up all theblood before he let her go.
(28:12):
Family members of the threemurder victims described how
Weldon's crime had robbed themof hope.
Hope that they would ever seetheir child, sister, mother or
friend again, hope that shewould beat the addiction that
was holding her back in life.
They talked about their regretsand they talked about how the
victims were people who shouldnot be summed up by their
(28:35):
addiction or the circumstancesof their death.
America Canals, Liden is dearlymissed by two daughters and her
family and friends.
Marie Canals said her sisterstruggled with addiction, but
was a good human being.
She was kind, sweet, generous,loving, and good natured.
(28:57):
Ernestine ryan's had parents,siblings, two daughters,
grandchildren, and many friendsthat mourn her loss.
Her brother Anthony, is rackedwith guilt and he said she was a
very good person.
This happened to be the timewhen she needed me the most.
He said, and I'll have to livewith that regret for the rest of
(29:17):
my life.
If she were here now, I wouldstart by telling her I'm sorry,
and I love her.
I want my big sister back.
One of Ernestine's daughterstold the judge"For three months,
I wondered every single daywhere my mom was and if she was
okay.Then to find out she waslying alone in a dirty, dark
(29:38):
garage.
Kayla Escalante's familyincluded parents, grandparents,
brothers, sisters, cousins,aunts, uncles, and one young
daughter.
Kayla's mother spoke on behalfof the family expressing their
grief and heartache.
She said, her daughter willnever know how wonderful her
(29:58):
mother was or how much she lovedher." kayla was a woman who
struggled with opioid addiction.
She had been through cycles ofrehab, had tried to kick the
habit with methadone.
It had not been effective.
Kayla was honest with Facebookfollowers about the daily ups
and downs of a life withaddiction.
(30:18):
People sent Kayla words ofencouragement over social media,
cheered even the smallestprogress, and supported her on
her down days.
The Hampton District AttorneyAnthony Giluni gave emotional
thanks to the policeinvestigators, to the families,
and to the living victims fortheir courage.
Weldon sat expressionlessthrough the lengthy emotional
(30:41):
testimony.
His sentence, three consecutivelife terms with no possibility
of parole.
(31:04):
So Mark, let's talk about howthe start of this all began with
a traffic stop.
Mark (31:09):
Yes.
A simple taillight out.
Marcy (31:12):
Is that all it was?
Or do you think that there wasactually more?
Mark (31:15):
So the simple answer is that it was all about the
equipment violation, but themore complicated answer is about
why a traffic stop in thatparticular area for such a
relatively minor violation
Marcy (31:29):
because it was actually a high crime area.
Mark (31:32):
Yeah.
So police officers in cities areusually deployed in numbers
based on anticipated call loadsin each area.
Basically, the more reportedcrime, the more officers are
assigned to any given area.
And this is particularly truewhere there are higher rates of
violent crime.
Not only are those officersavailable to respond to crimes
in progress, but they're alsodeterrent to additional crime.
(31:55):
Police officers have what'sreferred to as unallocated time
where they're not busy or, on acall.
And that at that time,especially in high incident
areas, they're often encouragedto conduct traffic law
enforcement.
Marcy (32:09):
But when they stopped him for a taillight out, they
weren't really just looking fora taillight out, were they?
Mark (32:17):
They, no, they weren't.
When an officer, especially inan area like this, makes a
traffic stop on a violation,They're also looking for other
collateral crimes common to thearea, and that's what's called a
pretext stop.
The area Weldon was stopped inor the where they tried to stop
him has a high level of narcoticsales.
(32:38):
And it's very possible, and I'dsay probable that the real
motive for that traffic lawenforcement at that time was was
for the drugs.
Marcy (32:47):
Is that legal to do it that way?
Mark (32:48):
Yeah.
Yes.
Pretext stops had been ruledlegal by the US Supreme Court.
On patrol many crimes aredetected on traffic stops.
Particularly in those high crimeareas.
Once I stopped an armed robberbased on a vague vehicle
description when I spotted thatvehicle, it's, late at night, it
seemed to be like the vehicle,but I wasn't sure it was the
(33:09):
right one.
So I waited, 30 seconds and Ispotted a traffic violation, it
turned out to be the right guyand it turned out to be a very
intense takedown.
Marcy (33:19):
And if it hadn't been the right car?
Mark (33:20):
Yeah, it would've been, sir, ma'am, I'm not gonna write
you a ticket for the trafficviolation.
Be careful and have a goodnight.
And that happens all the timefor every correct identification
of a suspect vehicle we'relooking for.
There are many of those kind ofstops.
For the listener, if you arepulled over and the officer
seems to be checking you out,doesn't really take action, ask
(33:40):
you a couple questions andyou're on your way, it's likely
you weren't the droids they werelooking for.
The Weldon traffic stop is agood example of a stop for a
small reason that turns into alegitimate, huge criminal case.
Marcy (33:55):
You worked in an area like the one that you described
as patrons from across the cityconverging like seagulls on a
fishing boat.
Mark (34:03):
Yes.
And I also described it as agonyand ecstasy all in the same
quarter mile.
The ecstasy is making easymoney.
Scoring drugs that are gonnamake you feel, however you want
to feel.
The agony is the violence thatgoes with it.
The people out of their mindsdoing all kinds of crazy things.
When the high is over.
Depression, paranoia, anger,suicides, homicides.
(34:28):
I'll give you an example that isrepresentative of this area,
town I'm talking about.
And this area town isrepresented in across major
cities in this country.
From time to time, I'd be out onpatrol and I'd be flagged down
by a person who had a loved oneor somebody they knew that was
missing.
Just like in the welding case itwas usually parents or sometimes
(34:50):
spouses or friends.
And, the person they're lookingfor often has an addiction, and
these people are out searchingthe streets.
So one night I'm out getting gasand a young military guy
approaches me.
He's looking for his wife whohas a drug problem and he thinks
she's somewhere in the area.
So I talk to him for a fewminutes, give him some advice,
wish him well, and then go on tomy next call.
(35:13):
Later on in the night, I'm sentto a suicidal person at a
well-known kind of low endhotel.
I don't wanna name it, buteverybody in Anchorage would
know this hotel in the Spenardarea.
And when I arrive, the same guythat I talked to earlier at the
gas station is standing outsidethe, that hotel's office.
He says his wife has lockedherself in her room.
(35:35):
She won't leave with him, saysshe wants to die, and she wants
him to leave her alone.
So I go in and check with thedesk clerk, who of course I
know.
He confirms the room is rentedout to the guy's wife.
I get a key, I tell the guy,their limits to what I can make
her do, but I'll talk to her.
So I go to the room.
It's a familiar room for reasonsI'll get into in a minute.
(35:58):
This young lady, like latetwenties is laying on the bed
crying.
She's real sad sack.
She's coming down from a high,has been heavily drinking.
In fact, she says she wants todrink herself to death.
Says she's a failure as a mom,wife, all that stuff.
She doesn't wanna leave with meor him, and she wants to die.
(36:19):
The husband wants her to leaveand says he has arranged
treatment for her.
I'm limited on what I can makeher do.
Psychiatric care in my city atthat time was only available to
somebody who was sober,ironically.
Almost everybody who isdepressed and wants to commit
suicide has had some kind ofsubstance on board.
So I can't take her anywhereexcept the drunk tank, and
(36:40):
that's not really where sheneeds to go.
So I play my ace as I'm talkingto her.
So I'd been in, I'd been in thatroom, that exact room, standing
above that exact bed about aweek prior for a guy who had
indeed drunk himself to death.
That poor guy had died on thatsame bed with a giant pile of
(37:00):
liquor bottles and beer canssurrounding him on the floor.
When I get there, the guy hadbeen dead for a couple days and
believe me, room cleaning wasnot a priority at this place.
His body had purged liquid ofall of its orifices, which is
not uncommon for somebody who'sbeen dead for a little while.
And those liquids had seepedinto the bedding and mattress
(37:24):
like an ink stamp.
The way I got that poor drunkhigh lady to get off the bed and
leave with her husband was totell her that story and point
out that purge liquid wasseeping back up out of that
mattress into the bed clothesthat she was currently laying
on.
And the stains were obvious toher as she looked around.
(37:46):
To me, that story representshitting bottom.
Unfortunately, I have no ideawhat happened to that lady, but
she got up and went with herhusband.
So that was a step in the rightdirection.
Marcy (37:57):
God, if somebody would just take that mattress and
throw it out the window ew.
Okay.
Mark (38:02):
I think what happened is they just flipped the mattress,
but there was so much therethat, you know that, there you
go.
Marcy (38:09):
All right, let's move along.
Mark (38:11):
I wanted to talk about the fact cops commonly could blame
for lots of circumstances thatare beyond their control.
Can you think of some examples
Marcy (38:20):
like why wasn't Weldon in jail for all of his crimes?
Mark (38:24):
Yes, we've talked about that.
He was good for several violentfelonies.
He was out on I ankle monitor.
There's not much that police cando about the revolving door.
That's decisions made by thecommunity community leaders and
corrections.
Marcy (38:39):
How about why didn't the cops arrest the victim and have
them undergo mandated treatment?
Mark (38:44):
Yeah, so we get that from, people involved with the
victims.
It's very hard to make a persongo to treatment and also very
expensive and also not up to thepolice.
In my state, we have Casey'slaw.
But it's a process that thefamily has to initiate, and it's
not an immediate solution.
Marcy (39:04):
How about why didn't the cops search day and night for
the victim when she was reportedmissing?
Mark (39:09):
We've discussed missing people quite a bit on, on other
episodes.
I'll just say that no departmenthas the staffing or funding for
that kind of extensive andcontinuous search for adults.
It comes down to communitypriorities, and nobody wants to
pay for that kind of staffing.
Another thing people commonlyblame police for.
Is the circumstances of a lovedone's death, even when the
(39:32):
police aren't directly involved.
Marcy (39:34):
Why do you think that is?
Mark (39:37):
There are a lot of reasons.
I think they don't want to facethe grief.
People want something to focuson other than the loss.
The most extreme example I'veseen with this as suicide cases
where family members refuse tobelieve that their loved one is
capable of taking their ownlife.
The result is something veryugly.
There's lashing out.
Sometimes they claim the policeare covering up for a murder.
(39:58):
I don't wanna get too much intothat.
There are instances where policedo make mistakes and miss
opportunities and should be heldaccountable.
But most of those angryaccusations or situations where
the police, in our free andprivate society had no way of
legally intervening beforetragedy struck.
So back to the point of mywanting to mention this is the
(40:19):
interviews I read with familymembers about the Springfield
Police.
In this case, I would'veexpected them to be very
negative about the situation ofthe missing not being found.
But the family and friendsinterviews were largely positive
and this is not the norm.
Marcy (40:36):
Why do you think it was different in this situation?
Mark (40:39):
Two things.
The first one is communication.
The police department inSpringfield had its detectives
talk to the families of themissing people as they went
along.
In so many missing person cases,families are pissed off and what
you hear is the cops aren'tdoing anything or they don't
think anything's being done.
And when in reality there may bethings being done, but the
(41:01):
families are never told aboutit, communication is very bad.
And what I've found is a littlecommunication goes a long ways,
and especially in these cases.
I've mentioned the civiliansearch team I was a coordinator
with.
They did searches to rule outpossible areas where they
thought people may have gonemissing.
Now you can't spend all yourtime searching all areas of the
(41:23):
city.
But, I would talk to familymembers of missing people about
the facts of the cases and, whatwe had done in areas we could
possibly search.
And some of those searches weredone, and usually the family
members were fine with justknowing that we were trying,,
it's when they hear nothing,they assume the worst and
they're unhappy.
(41:45):
The second thing Springfield PDhad going for it was that the
detectives documented theirefforts to find the missing
people.
So when this thing went down,the press asked for that
information and it was there andthey didn't get roasted in the
press that they had donenothing.
Marcy (42:02):
Those were two positives.
What are the negatives?
Mark (42:05):
Yeah, I can tell you as a former detective sergeant, one
huge glaring deficiency in thisinvestigation that I saw was
lack of follow up from theoriginal traffic stop was
conducted by patrol.
This organization should addsomebody, patrol follow up, or
detectives do the obvious followup for that traffic stop.
That was a kidnapping, rape,felony domestic violence assault
(42:28):
case.
There should have been a searchwarrant for the house right
away.
And what they should have beenlooking for was corroborative
evidence based on what thevictim said happened to her.
For example, hammer and pipe,the garat.
There's no better evidence forthat trial as showing that
garrot to a jury, and that waseven before they knew there were
(42:48):
any bodies involved.
Marcy (42:50):
You need to serve the search warrant fast in order to
protect the evidence
Mark (42:53):
Yeah, that's right.
You gotta get this evidence in areasonable amount of time so
that some of that evidencedoesn't disappear.
And the other thing is that I'mblown away.
There wasn't some follow up onwhat's the status of the kids.
You have a victim mom that wassent to the hospital and she was
interviewed at the hospital sothey could substantiate those
(43:14):
charges for his booking.
And that interview's gonna be adetailed interview.
He's a freak.
He's been holding her againsther, will torturing her at her
house.
And they're gonna get to, what'syour relationship with this guy?
Oh, you have a kid.
The next obvious question is,
Marcy (43:28):
where's the kid?
And who's the kid with?
Mark (43:31):
Yeah.
Where's that kid?
Who's the kid with?
That's exactly right.
So as a police officer, youlearn this pretty quick.
Any involvement with kids shouldbe ringing a bell.
Where's that kid?
This is a sit serious situation.
He almost beat you to death.
What's been going on with thatkid?
And is that kid safe?
And, they would've known he'sall got another kid and where's
that kid gonna be?
And these kids are with a motherthat's been in the house where
(43:52):
she's being tortured and there'sevidence of that torture.
And your kid and another kid ofhis is with her, it's a natural
thing and it's a thing thatwe're, obligated to do.
Go to that house, collect thatcorroborative evidence, check on
the kids, see what's wrong withthat suspect's mother that this
is going on and she's there.
I almost can't believe how badlythe ball was dropped on that.
(44:14):
It's almost like the mothercalled three days later to rub
their noses in the failure.
Marcy (44:19):
Do you think that it's the kind of thing where they
would've gotten around to iteventually?
Mark (44:24):
Maybe?
Gosh, I hope so.
Things fall through the cracksand have to be picked up later.
But the welfare of children is,pretty high priority.
Nobody wants to answer for thewhy didn't you get these kids?
You still could, why could, whydidn't you protect the children?
And also collection of thecorroborative evidence is very
important in serious felonycases.
(44:44):
And you can't go to court andexplain why you don't have the
evidence, because you justdidn't get to it.
And keep in mind, this guy'sbeen in, in and out of jail and
prison for a while.
Some of that may have been dueto not getting all the facts
together so that you couldhammer him.
one thing that's important thatyou learn right away as a
detective that doesn't reallymake the TV shows is
(45:08):
investigation doesn't end whenyou make the arrest.
That's actually something that'shard for.
You have detective sergeantsthat were never detectives prior
to becoming a sergeant.
And the making detectivesergeant, I had one and I loved
him, but he had a hard time withcase assignments because I'd
make an arrest and it's Hey,good, I'll load mark up with
some cases now and wait aminute, I gotta prepare for
(45:29):
trial on all these cases.
I just solved, but that's animportant thing to remember in
cases is you make an arrest andthere's a whole bunch of stuff
that has to come afterwards.
The better the follow-up, themore likely the defendant is
that he'll they'll acceptresponsibility.
If you've as a detective, havebuilt a bulletproof case against
him.
Marcy (45:48):
Do you think this guy's mom knew what was going on?
Mark (45:52):
Yeah, I think the mom knew some of it and maybe suspected
some of it, we did that episodethat what happened in St.
Louis, Missouri.
I talked about a case that hadstuck with me through the years
where a little girl was abductedand raped by an unidentified
young man who had kidnapped heras she walked to school.
There's an old lady at the housewhere the man took her and it
(46:13):
seemed like she turned a blindeye to the girl's victimization.
This case strikes me like thatkind of thing.
The son is a low life streetcriminal.
He's beating women, killingsome, holding some captive in a
thousand square foot house.
How can you have no indicationthat something really bad is
going down?
I know that some of the victimsare strangled, which could be, a
(46:34):
fairly quiet death.
But I put money on the mom beingaware of some of it and letting
it slide.
The other thing is how didWeldon get to be Weldon?
extreme domestic violence islearned behavior.
I'd bet money that in Weldon'searly life prior to his father's
death, he witnessed or wassubject to brutality at home.
Marcy (46:54):
And the timing of mom's call to police about the rotting
corpse body odor is suspicious.
By then she knows he's in jail.
So seems like she's trying toshift blame.
Mark (47:04):
Yeah, I think it's more than that.
He's been to jail before.
But at some time the victimslash baby mama came by to claim
her kid and probably laid it outfor Weldon's mother.
The mother waited a couple moredays waiting for the cops to
show up.
She knows that smell isn't gonnago over well with the cops when
they do arrive.
And maybe she called because shewanted to get it over with.
Marcy (47:25):
Yeah.
I don't think she called thepolice about the smell without
having any idea what was goingon.
He's in jail.
She can protect herself byCalling them before they just
show up.
And so she's distancing herselffrom this shit storm that's
under the house.
Did she ever say anything thatindicated that she knew about
the bodies or the murders?
Mark (47:46):
Not based on what I found.
Everything indicated she, sheclaimed ignorance to that kind
of, that, all that stuff.
Marcy (47:54):
So Weldon only went through the first grade at
school and he apparently haddiagnoses of bipolar, dyslexia,
adhd
Mark (48:05):
yeah he really had some strikes against him.
Marcy (48:07):
Yeah.
There's plenty of people thathave those diagnoses and don't
turn out to be serial killers.
I really think that's where theunfortunate mental health
stigmas come from.
Mark (48:15):
Yeah.
But in his environment, he wascertainly statistically more
likely to get involved in thedrug scene.
I really think that one of theelements of his violent side is
his inability to be anything butthe subsistence level dope
dealer who never got out of hismom's basement.
He never had a real job.
The drug dealing is just tofinance his own supply.
(48:36):
He reminds me of the guy fromthe Cynthia Hoffman case in
Alaska that we did a episode on.
He has no life.
What he does have is a viciousanger toward the world that
doesn't recognize him foranything, and he takes it out on
people he has access to.
He feels successful when he candominate and destroy them.
Marcy (48:56):
Which just seems like more about that really deep
poverty and exposure to violencein the neighborhood.
And violence within the home isprobably the biggest contributor
to how he turned out.
So if Weldon's mom hasn't reallysaid much about him, did he have
other family talking about him?
Mark (49:15):
Yeah, we mentioned it earlier.
There were some family membersthat said some stuff.
An aunt who thought Weldon musthave just snapped suddenly
because of the dope.
She said that he has some weirdquotes in, the media from her
like she felt sorry for thegirl.
And she referred to her as a sexslave.
She was also quoted as sayingwhen I saw what happened to that
(49:36):
girl, I said, that boy is sick.
He really is.
At least he gave her some waterto stay hydrated.
Marcy (49:43):
What a weird thing to say.
Mark (49:45):
Yeah.
Weldon also had some relativeswho tried to sell their
perspectives on him.
So he wasn't the only hustler inthe family.
He had a cousin who shoppedaround for me shopped around to
the major media sites demandingan outrageous paycheck.
Marcy (49:58):
It seems like all these serial killers end up trying to
plead insanity.
What do you think about thisguy's insanity defense?
Mark (50:04):
It seems like a great lifeline for a lot of these guys
who don't really want to explainwhy they did what they did.
It allows'em to shift blame tonot them.
But we've talked about thisbefore.
I'm not saying he's firing inall cylinders mentally and
emotionally, but if you look atwhat he did, his actions, he
Rico suave those girls inrepeated the same violent acts
(50:25):
with successive victims showingno remorse whatsoever.
He did things to evade detectionand capture.
I think he'd have a hard timewith insanity.
And under Massachusetts law, aperson is not guilty of a crime
if he lacked criminalresponsibility.
By definition, a person islacking criminal responsibility
if.
(50:46):
They suffer from a mentaldisease or defect and as a
result either are substantiallyunable to appreciate the
criminality of the act or thewrongfulness of the conduct, or
they're substantially un unableto conform the conduct, so the
requirements of the law.
So that's a mouthful.
In Weldon's case, the psycheevaluation found no mental
(51:07):
disease or defect.
They found that he was able toappreciate that his conduct was
wrong and there's no reason hewas unable to conform to the
law.
So that defense was dead beforethe trial was gonna get going.
Marcy (51:21):
So part of when Weldon pled guilty, one of his
conditions that he was able toget was that he would be
transferred to serve in a prisonin Florida.
Why would he do that?
Mark (51:33):
Yeah, simple answer is that his mom sold the house and
moved to Florida.
Marcy (51:37):
Really?
Mark (51:38):
Yeah.
I laugh at that now and I laughwhen I read that.
In a life full of poordecisions, this might turn out
to be the one he regrets most.
Massachusetts has a very lowincarceration rate.
It also has high taxes that payfor things like safe prisons.
If you don't believe me, Googleit.
Look at the shit show thatFlorida prisons are.
Florida's incarceration rate iscomparatively high.
(52:01):
Its prisons are notoriouslyovercrowded, underfunded and wet
Hot sweltering in the summerHeat, you can count me out.
I did find the real estatelisting for the Page Boulevard
House.
It sold for$137,000 on March18th, 2020.
It looks like well below themarket value.
It's tiny, but it is a doublelot near the downtown area.
(52:24):
let me ask you this, Marcy, ifyou looked at that house and you
liked it, would you buy itknowing what had happened there?
Marcy (52:31):
I'm gonna say no.
I don't wanna take the chancethat there might be bad juju
there.
I've never seen a ghost, but Ihaven't totally ruled them out,
and I don't want my firstencounter to be with spirits
that have been so poorly treatedand tortured.
Mark (52:48):
My concern wouldn't be haunting or karma or anything.
My concern would be that thehouse might attract people
interested in the murder scene,who could show up at any time
for whatever reason.
Marcy (53:00):
In the wake of this case, there were a lot of questions
about how these murders happenedand why there were victims that
had not previously come forward.
Mark (53:10):
One of the responses that I think was a good one by the
mayor of Springfield, DominicSarno who basically placed the
blame for some of this on thejudiciary.
He said,"this neighborhood isfilled with good and diverse
working class individuals andfamilies who like me, ask, why
was this guy out on the streets?
(53:31):
Weldon is another choir boy.
Let go by our judicial system.
When will some of our judgesrealize that animals like this
have no respect for life or ourcourts or GPS devices?" he went
on to praise the police saying,"I firmly believe the proactive
actions of our SPD saved thisyoung lady's life, and to those
(53:53):
affected families of thisincident.
My thoughts and prayers go outto them." I agree with them
about the good work of thepolice.
I wish that some of the victimsthat survived had come forward
to expose Weldon earlier in thisseries of crimes.
Marcy (54:07):
What do you wanna say about the victims and street
life?
Mark (54:11):
I feel like I had a long learning curve over the course
of my career.
When I first hit the street, Icould hardly believe what I was
seeing.
I couldn't understand thecruelty and the violence.
I didn't understand how peoplecould end up living lives of
such depravity like I wasseeing.
I admit I was judgmental and hada low patience or tolerance for
some of the human weakness.
(54:32):
And what changed over time was Italked to these people, I
started identifying with themand relating to them.
I started realizing that whilethese people are responsible for
their actions, almost all ofthem have grown up in
situations, have been caught upin situations and problems
beyond their control.
That didn't mean when I wasinvolved in drug enforcement, I
(54:53):
didn't still have a job.
That was sometimes at odds withan addict's self-interest.
But it does mean that Irecognize the need for patients
and the need for systemicchange.
Drug addiction is not a problemthe police officers are equipped
to solve, and we can't arrestour way out of this.
Society benefits when people inaddiction recover.
(55:13):
The point I wanted to make as wewrap this up is that these
victims did not deserve to diebecause they experienced
addiction.
Their lives had value and theyshould have lived and had the
opportunity to recover.
Marcy (55:28):
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(55:52):
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(56:15):
hosted by Mark Rein and MarcyRein is written and directed by
mark Rein and edited andproduced by Marcy Rein And it's
a 3 Little Birds, LLCproduction.
When Constance opened the front door, the officers
immediately smelled an odor thatevery experienced cop knows.
They will never forget theunmistakable smell of decaying
flesh.
Welcome to Crime Raven; truecrimes, real life stories from
law enforcement and issues crimefighters face.
(00:20):
This podcast highlights crimesresearched by retired Detective
Sergeant Mark Rein, usingpublicly available information,
court records and personalrecollections.
Content may be graphic,disturbing, or violent.
Listener discretion is advised.
Suspects are considered innocentuntil found guilty in a court of
law.
(00:42):
One of the places that you canlisten to Crime Raven is on
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With an Audible membership, youcan access podcasts, audiobooks,
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(01:02):
That's free access for 30 daysat audibletrial.com/crimeraven.
We'll also put the link in theshow notes.
Mark (01:26):
There was nothing particularly special about the
way the creep looked.
He wasn't a big guy.
More average in terms of heightand weight.
He wasn't the guy that wouldattract attention in a room full
of people.
His insecurity about a lack offormal education caused him to
avoid complicated conversations.
He preferred simplicity and thecompany of people he could
(01:47):
control.
The creep wasn't a stupidperson, per se.
What he lacked in book smarts.
He made up with cunning.
He took advantage of hisordinary facade.
Those who encountered himconsistently underestimated him.
It was also a benefit when heran afoul of the law.
(02:07):
He wasn't one of the usualsuspects that spring to local
cops minds.
even though the creep fit neatlyinto the"black male adult,
average height, average build"description, that was so
unhelpful in actually solving acrime, particularly in the area
of the city he called home.
The creep had always liked theladies, and in the waters he
fished.
(02:27):
The ladies liked him.
Carrying that analogy further,the creep wasn't the northern
pike or bass of the lake.
He was more the catfish lookingfor action in the murky depths
of the pond.
An opportunist and omnivoresifting the debris and detritis
until he chanced to cross atasty morsel.
(02:49):
One chilly evening, the creepmade his way over to High
Street.
Living close to his favoriteopen air drug market was like a
surfer living on the beach ofhis favorite break.
Simultaneous agony and ecstasy,all packed into the same quarter
mile.
He loved the action Dealers andtheir touts pacing the corners
as hordes of patrons from acrossthe city converged like seagulls
(03:11):
on a Cape Cod fishing trawler.
The creep threaded his waythrough the high street fraukus,
pushing past people as theyscurred around him.
He kept a watchful eye on thestreet ahead as cars pulled to
the curb for stops that lasted15 seconds.
He was on the prowl.
It wouldn't be good to getcaught up in a drive by or some
stupid cop shit.
Seeing nothing but the usualneighborhood pharmaceutical
(03:33):
commerce.
He continued to walk, scanningthe sidewalks and alleys.
The girl the creep was searchingfor would be easy to spot
because she was a fellow hunter.
Having little money, she'd belooking to make the cheapest
deal she could.
The creeps aim was to be theanswer to her prayers.
The problem was he had highstandards.
(03:55):
Most of the ladies he saw weretoo far gone, burned out, eyes
vacant, staggering from tout totout.
Those were the women who got theharshest rebuke because they
were vermin who would not goaway.
A few nights prior, he hadfinally had to slap the shit
outta one that had followed himdown the street, propositioning
him.
He yelled at her.
"I wouldn't let your lipsanywhere near my cock.
(04:16):
Get the fuck outta here, bitch."The creep wasn't looking for a
zombie.
He wanted a girl who wasreasonably cute and pliable.
Luckily for him, he was a decentlooking guy considering the
rough surroundings.
None of the women who werewalking down here were doing so
by choice.
They all had a need.
(04:37):
He had cultivated his approachover time to maximize his
chances of success.
To the girl, the creep exudedstreetwise, confidence.
He could be extremely charmingwhen he wanted to be and
forceful when necessary.
On that night, the creep hadalready walked for several
blocks, passing people anddealers he knew.
They recognized him as a homeboyand they weren't threatened by
(04:58):
him.
In the past, he had boughtretail from all of them, and the
creep had never sold the kind ofweight that anyone would give a
shit about.
some of them knew he what he waslooking for, and they pushed the
broke ass ones towards him.
The word was that he was a kinkyfuck.
So the regular girls who stilllook good, gave him a wide
birth.
The creep spotted the girl hewanted from a half block away.
(05:19):
He had never seen her before.
She was Latina, maybe 30.
Her tight clothes advertised adecent body.
Like she'd been taking care ofherself before addiction had
pulled her in.
Her long, dark hair shifted inthe breezes as she walked toward
him.
The girl had the inquisitivesseeking look of an addict, but
didn't have the gauntdesperation and the dead eyes of
(05:40):
the veteran fiends.
She made eye contact with himand held it.
In this part of town, that wasthe invitation, but also the
question.
The creep didn't waste any time.
He confidently shredded towardsher, keeping her eyes.
When the two stood face to face.
The creep laid down his rap.
First confirmation that hehadn't misread the situation.
(06:03):
He hadn't.
One time the woman he was tryingto scoop up turned out to be a
social worker.
She had all kinds of solutionsto street life.
No thank you.
This time he wasn't mistaken.
She had all the right answers.
The creep felt fortunate.
These brief words wouldn't havebeen adequate for a pickup
anywhere but a place like HighStreet.
The important part was that hesaid he had what she needed.
(06:26):
There were far worse options.
She'd endured some real freaks,but he had a pleasant smile.
By the time they made it to thecreeps place, it was already
dark.
The sodium vapor street lampsilluminated the small house.
Light blue in the daylight, theyellow light they cast gave the
cottage a sickly green hue.
With some prompting, the girlfollowed the creep down the worn
(06:48):
dark stairs into the basement.
As they descended, she couldsmell the pungent odor of earth,
moldy damp decay.
She tried to talk to the creepto lighten the mood as he
fumbled the door lock.
But he shushed her motioningthat the landlord was upstairs.
The girl felt better once thecreep opened the door, and he
snapped on the lights.
(07:09):
Inside was a sparse, wobblytable, rickety chairs, a tiny
clothing piled shelf, and asmall bed covered by a single
stained blanket.
The creep dropped into onechair, pulled a bottle of brandy
from the table, unscrewed it,took a wig, and held it out.
The girls' dark eyes went fromsurveying the scene to
(07:30):
scrutinizing the bottle.
There was dust on it.
The label peeled back.
It looked like it'd been kickingaround for a while.
"Sit down and have a drink." Thecreep nodded at the only other
chair.
The girl did as she was told.
The creep made small talk withthe girl, asking her about where
she was from, where her familywas.
None of it made a bit ofdifference to him, but he wanted
(07:51):
her at ease.
She was attractive.
The girl was attentive.
Every move was like a dogwaiting for a master to
magically produce a treat.
He loved her neediness.
He loved to be needed.
No other aspect of his life madehim feel so successful.
After a few minutes of watchingthe girl jitter in her chair,
(08:12):
impatiently sipping the brandywith increasing urgency.
The creep pulled out the pipeand torch.
She perked up.
She leaned forward.
She spoke louder.
Excited.
The creep frown.
"Yeah, baby.
We're gonna smoke, but you gottabe fucking quiet." His emphasis
on quiet.
"I'm not gonna get kicked outtahere because of you.
My landlord is a bitch." Thegirl sat back a little nodding
(08:36):
urgently.
They smoked.
For a minute the only sound wasthe click of the butane torch.
The crack of the burning rockand sucking inhalation.
After her rock was gone, thegirl smiled.
She leaned back in her chairlooking at the ceiling.
She wrapped her arms as ifgiving herself a hug and started
giggling uncontrollably.
(08:56):
creep also felt the usualwelcoming rush.
His inhibition and anxietydropped away as he rode the
euphoric wave.
He'd always felt bulletproof asthe cocaine hit the brain.
He owned this world andeverything in it.
The girl's giggling, brought himback, focused his attention on
her.
"Shut up." He said almost tohimself.
(09:17):
She persisted.
The creep a little louder,angrier,"shut the fuck up." But
she still wasn't payingattention.
Giggling at the ceiling.
The creep leaped out of hischair, fist balled and closed
the two paces between them.
He leaned over the girl, hisface, a mask of rage.
The girl smile, fled her eyeswide, then confused.
(09:39):
The creep, broke the quiet witha scream.
"I said, shut the fuck up,bitch.
"He punched her in the face, aright hook followed by the left.
The chair pitched backwards.
The creep followed it down.
The girl led out a screech thatwas cut off as the creep landed
on her, compressing her chestand face with his body.
The man didn't pause movement asthe cocaine superpower kicked
(10:00):
in, springing to a crouch.
He grabbed the girl by her longhair and dragged her up onto the
bed.
The creep began ripping thegirl's clothes off.
She was stunned beneath him,barely struggling as her mind
tried to make sense of thesudden assault.
She tried to rally, cry out.
The creep, pressed the towelover her mouth, repeating his
order to shut up, adding,"orI'll fucking kill you." The girl
(10:21):
mind swimming was trappedbetween compliance, or fight as
the man continued to attack.
She felt his blows.
And they subsided only as heprogressed in ripping her
clothes, then more torture.
Then he was raping her.
The girl wanted to relent to letit happen, but her body did
something else.
It rebelled.
It fought.
It screamed.
The creeps fury grew as thebitch refused to obey him.
(10:43):
He was raping her, choking her,hitting her, but she was still
struggling, crying out, and thatwas against his rules.
The creep reached under the bedand pulled out one of his toys,
prepositioned for just such anoccasion.
It was a club.
really just a piece of two byfour spiked with nails jutting
outta one end.
The creep held it up for asecond to look at it.
Smiled, shrugged.
She asked for it.
(11:04):
With each swing, the clubconnected with a satisfying
slap.
He felt the nails drag rippedthrough the flesh as he pulled
for another hit.
The girl thrashed and squealedas he hit her.
The creep was suddenly overcomewith his own uncontrollable
laughter.
The louder she cried, thefunnier it was.
Marcy (11:36):
Springfield, Massachusetts with a population
of 160,000 is the state's thirdlargest city behind Boston and
Providence.
It's the largest city in theeastern part of the state.
Away from the Atlantic Coast, itsits up in the Connecticut River
Valley.
The city has a rich history aspart of the birth of our nation
(11:59):
and has grown to host a diverseeconomic base.
It's headquarters for manycompanies with prominent
representation from theeducation, finance, business,
and manufacturing sectors.
Springfield has a densely packedurban population center with all
the benefits and challenges ofsimilar regional centers.
(12:21):
One challenge which has grown inrecent years is that Springfield
experiences a relatively highcrime rate with almost twice
that of the statewide averages.
This holds true for relativelyminor offenses as well as
violent crimes like assault,robbery, rape, and murder.
(12:41):
The criminal case against StuartWeldon started as a simple
traffic stop on May 27th, 2018.
The car he was driving had ataillight out.
A patrol officer tried to pullhim over and Weldon tried even
harder not to stop.
He drove desperately wrong way,one way, caroming off civilian
(13:03):
vehicles and crashing intopolice cruisers.
The difference was the cops hada plan.
Weldon didn't.
After a brief pursuit, theyboxed in Weldon's car on
Wilbraham Road in Springfield'spine Point neighborhood.
After he was subdued andhandcuffed, officers discovered
(13:23):
the 40 year old Weldon had alarge knife hidden in his
clothing.When they ran his namethrough the state computer, it
turned out that Weldon was afugitive from a pending criminal
assault case.
A few weeks prior, he had cutoff a court ordered GPS ankle
monitor.
The old charges compounded bythe new eluding vehicular
(13:44):
assault mishmash were enough toensure him a lengthy stay in
jail.
But there was more.
That day weldon had a passengeror rather a prisoner with him in
the car.
At the scene of the car pinningand arrest, after Weldon was
taken into custody, officerswere surprised to discover a
(14:06):
woman tied up in the backseat.
As they carefully removed herfrom the car, the badly injured
woman said, thank you for savingmy life.
I thought I would never getaway.
An ambulance transported thewoman to the hospital where they
treated her for injuriesdescribed as grotesque and
violent.
It turned out that she was themother of one of Weldon's two
(14:28):
children.
Held against her will for theprior month, she reported Weldon
had repeatedly raped her andassaulted her with his fists and
various weapons.
She had stab wounds, a fracturedjaw, and bruises all over.
There were pattern injuries frombeing hit with what the victim
claimed was a hammer and a metalpipe.
(14:52):
There were strangulation markson her neck.
She described one of Weldon'sweapons.
She didn't know what a wireconnected between two wooden
handles was called, but theinvestigator recognized that she
was describing a garrot On May30th, three days after Weldon
(15:12):
was remanded to the HamptonCounty Correctional Center,
constance White, Weldon's 72year old mother called the
police.
She wanted officers toinvestigate a strange smell
coming from her son's area inthe basement.
The house was at 1333 PageBoulevard.
Weldon's mother had allowed himto live underneath the thousand
(15:35):
square foot House since she'dbought it in 2016.
The officers who responded tothe call didn't have all the
background information onWeldon.
It was a fairly common categoryof police response referred to
as suspicious circumstances.
It could literally be anything.
(15:55):
They found the small, blue grayhouse with white trim, a little
rundown with overgrownlandscaping.
Otherwise, the house wasunremarkable.
When Constance opened the frontdoor, the officers immediately
smelled an odor that everyexperienced cop knows.
They will never forget theunmistakable smell of decaying
(16:17):
flesh.
As officers descended into thebasement backtracking the smell,
they swatted away, flies headedin the opposite direction.
They tracked to the bathroombarely larger than a closet.
With the door open the odor wasalmost unbearable.
Tucked back in a corner, therewas a box.
(16:39):
A reddish brown liquid wasleaking from the box, spread
across several squares oflinoleum.
The officers did just enoughinvestigation of the box to
confirm that the rotting remainsinside looked human.
Then they got the hell out ofthere.
Back in the zone of breathableair.
They called for assistance.
(17:02):
By the time the firstinvestigators arrived, they knew
more about the house and Weldon.
It gratified them to find out hewas still in custody at the
county lockup.
Weldon was the father of twochildren.
A young son and a six month oldbaby girl.
Its mother had taken the babyaway when she was released from
the hospital.
(17:24):
Officers took the son who wasthere with the old lady into
protective custody as the crimescene investigation cranked up.
Weldon's mother was not a fontof information.
Other than generalization, suchas her son had a drug problem
and noticing the suspiciousodor, she claimed to have little
(17:44):
other knowledge about what he'dbeen up to.
She did not know who the body inthe basement could be.
Investigators combed inside andout.
It was a double lot room enoughfor a grassy yard and two small
out buildings.
It was on the floor of one ofthese, the detached garage.
(18:05):
Where they found a second bodywrapped in a tarp.
These remains were in slightlybetter condition than the first.
This new discovery sent ashockwave through the police
department that echoed acrossthe city.
The processing of the 1333 pageBoulevard crime scene would last
(18:26):
for more than a week.
By the end ground penetratingradar scans found several
subsurface anomalies that had tobe excavated.
They found one additional set ofhuman remains and a hole under
the shed.
The scene gained unwantednotoriety is media and
rubberneckers converged.
(18:47):
The neighbors up and down thestreet grew tired of answering
their front doors, weary ofsuccessive interviews as initial
police canvassing becameinvestigator follow-up questions
became public interest pieces byvarious media outlets.
It seemed that everyone waslooking for the juicy scraps.
(19:07):
In that regard, the neighborswere a disappointment.
Nobody had anything significantto say about that specific
house.
Loud disturbances were notuncommon in that area.
No one claimed to know anythingout of the ordinary was
happening in their neighbor'sbasement.
The publicity had one positiveeffect.
(19:28):
Several women came forwardclaiming that Weldon had
attacked them in the recentpast.
Investigators interviewed all ofthem.
Some were merely attentionseekers who were easy to weed
out, but many gave corroborateddetails.
The stories were all eerilysimilar variations on a theme.
(19:48):
While the police were busyprocessing the crime scene,
tracking down leads and talkingto witnesses and victims, many
families across Springfield heldtheir collective breaths.
Every city in the United Stateshas people who go missing.
Many of them are women whoclinging to the fringes of
society.
(20:09):
Poverty goes hand in hand with ahost of other issues, drugs,
mental health domestic violence.
As the facts of the situationwith Weldon leaked out across
Springfield.
Those who had missing loved onesfound themselves in an
unenviable club and a week longvigil was beginning.
(20:32):
Investigators hadn't gottenaround to taking a hard look at
Weldon after the car chaseassault, kidnapping incident
three days prior.
Now, that initial arrestcompounded by a growing body
count and new victims seeminglycrawling out of the woodwork.
Weldon had Springfielddetectives complete attention.
(20:54):
He was born in Jamaica, Queens,New York and was raised in
Montclair, New Jersey.
His father died during histeenage years.
Weldon was the farthest thingfrom an outstanding student.
In fact, he didn't attend muchschool after the first grade,
and he didn't graduate highschool.
He was functionally illiterateand had never held down a steady
(21:15):
job.
Weldon found support in adotting mother, street crime and
low level drug dealing.
Springfield investigators didnot have access to Weldon's
juvenile record, but his adultyears were documented in lengthy
court records, including asexual assault kidnapping in
1997 when he was 19, illegalweapons possession, multiple
(21:40):
burglary charges, a 2005 felonyassault with a weapon, a 2006
attempted theft and burglary,and an October, 2008 burglary
and probation violation.
Some of these netted him shortstints In jail.
He served two years for a 2010burglary and felony assault.
(22:02):
The regular police contacts andfrequent arrests for low end
crimes continued until October14th, 2017, near Forest Park in
Springfield, Massachusetts, whenpolice stopped him for reckless
driving and he subsequentlyearned bonus charges of assault
with a deadly weapon, resistingarrest, and assaulting a police
(22:23):
officer.
Weldon's documented pass tolddetectives they were dealing
with a career criminal.
They wanted to know if Weldonwas the kind of guy who was
always destined to killsomebody, or if something had
recently changed.
Some of Weldon's relatives,while acknowledging he was a
criminal, said he hadn't alwaysbeen a violent person.
(22:45):
His aunt was certain thatsomething had just snapped in
him, asserting that perhapsdrugs had driven him crazy.
In contrast, other associates,some going way back, weren't
surprised when they found outWeldon was a murderer.
They said Weldon consideredhimself a ladies man, always on
the prowl.
(23:05):
He didn't like to be turnedaway, and he was very quick to
anger.
Five days after the bodies wererecovered, as the detectives
worked to bring facts abouttheir suspect into focus, the
identities were publiclyreleased.
Three Springfield families foundout that they had won the
(23:26):
Nightmare lottery.
The woman in the box from thebathroom turned out to be Kayla
Escalante, 27 years old.
Kayla had been missing sinceDecember, about five months.
Only partially clothed, herwrists and ankles were tightly
bound.
She also had tape wrapped aroundher head and mouth.
(23:49):
The body had clearly sufferedtrauma and sexual assault.
They ruled the cause of death tobe strangulation.
She still had an electric cordwrapped around her neck.
The remains discovered, wrappedin a tarp on the garage floor,
turned out to be 47 year oldernestine Ryans, missing since
(24:11):
March 8th, 2018.
Autopsy showed that she died byviolence, including sexual
assault.
When Ernestine disappeared, herbrother filed the missing person
report and started searching.
Her silence was unusual.
As time passed, they all assumedthat she had relapsed and had
returned to her former citybecause that's where she had
(24:34):
connections.
American Canals- Liden, 34 yearsold, had been missing since
June, 2017.
Americans remains werediscovered during the backyard
excavation, buried in a holeunder the shed.
The arms and legs of her nowskeletal remains were still
bound with cord and bundled inbedding.
(24:56):
With the identifications,complete investigators could
look at victimology, which toldthem more about their suspect.
The obvious common themes werecrushing poverty, drug
addiction, and repeatedvictimization.
Each victim had family memberswho had tried to help them out
of their situation, and whenthey went missing, had tried to
(25:17):
locate them.
Families put up missing flyers.
The community was stillplastered with photos that
American's sister had printed,scrolled with the prescient
words"missing and could be indanger." Springfield, major
crimes unit detectives hadworked with the families
attempting to track down thesewomen in some of the city's most
(25:39):
drug addled and violentprecincts.
They combed through theshelters, the hospitals, and old
hangouts.
They interviewed friends, evensome in jail, and they
documented these efforts ininvestigator's notes, and
despite their work, the nameWeldon never came up.
As the dust settled on themurder investigation, they added
(26:01):
a host of additional charges tothose that Weldon was already
facing.
There were three counts of firstdegree murder, eight for
strangulation, nine foraggravated rape, two for rape,
five for aggravated kidnapping,and four counts of kidnapping.
These new charges includedcrimes against some of the
(26:24):
surviving victims.
Weldon initially pled notguilty, and his bail increased
to$2 million.
They set the trial for April,2020, but had to be postponed
several times because of thepandemic.
During the delay, weldon's teamsaid they were considering an
insanity defense, so the judgeordered a psychiatric
(26:46):
evaluation.
A few months later, Weldon wasruled mentally competent.
Three years after that fatefultraffic stop, on the brink of
trial, Weldon pled guilty to 39counts of various crimes,
including murder, rape, andassault on 11 victims.
At the sentencing hearing, adetective was called to
(27:09):
summarize Weldon's crimes.
In reference to the kidnappingand murder victims, the officer
referred to Weldon's Mo aschoreography.
He enticed them with dope.
He took them home to hisbasement where they used drugs,
and then he would attack them asif a switch flipped.
He raped them.
He choked them all.
(27:29):
The detectives described"theycould not breathe, they could
not scream, they could not makeany noise.
It was personal, slow andagonizing." three of the women's
survivors testified atsentencing.
Several more were tootraumatized to speak publicly of
(27:50):
the ordeal.
One victim described a brutalrape and beating, turning to the
judge tearfully and emphasized"Ireally thought I was gonna die
on that day." another victimdescribed Weldon becoming angry
that she was bleeding all overthe floor.
He made her clean up all theblood before he let her go.
(28:12):
Family members of the threemurder victims described how
Weldon's crime had robbed themof hope.
Hope that they would ever seetheir child, sister, mother or
friend again, hope that shewould beat the addiction that
was holding her back in life.
They talked about their regretsand they talked about how the
victims were people who shouldnot be summed up by their
(28:35):
addiction or the circumstancesof their death.
America Canals, Liden is dearlymissed by two daughters and her
family and friends.
Marie Canals said her sisterstruggled with addiction, but
was a good human being.
She was kind, sweet, generous,loving, and good natured.
(28:57):
Ernestine ryan's had parents,siblings, two daughters,
grandchildren, and many friendsthat mourn her loss.
Her brother Anthony, is rackedwith guilt and he said she was a
very good person.
This happened to be the timewhen she needed me the most.
He said, and I'll have to livewith that regret for the rest of
(29:17):
my life.
If she were here now, I wouldstart by telling her I'm sorry,
and I love her.
I want my big sister back.
One of Ernestine's daughterstold the judge"For three months,
I wondered every single daywhere my mom was and if she was
okay.Then to find out she waslying alone in a dirty, dark
(29:38):
garage.
Kayla Escalante's familyincluded parents, grandparents,
brothers, sisters, cousins,aunts, uncles, and one young
daughter.
Kayla's mother spoke on behalfof the family expressing their
grief and heartache.
She said, her daughter willnever know how wonderful her
(29:58):
mother was or how much she lovedher." kayla was a woman who
struggled with opioid addiction.
She had been through cycles ofrehab, had tried to kick the
habit with methadone.
It had not been effective.
Kayla was honest with Facebookfollowers about the daily ups
and downs of a life withaddiction.
(30:18):
People sent Kayla words ofencouragement over social media,
cheered even the smallestprogress, and supported her on
her down days.
The Hampton District AttorneyAnthony Giluni gave emotional
thanks to the policeinvestigators, to the families,
and to the living victims fortheir courage.
Weldon sat expressionlessthrough the lengthy emotional
(30:41):
testimony.
His sentence, three consecutivelife terms with no possibility
of parole.
(31:04):
So Mark, let's talk about howthe start of this all began with
a traffic stop.
Mark (31:09):
Yes.
A simple taillight out.
Marcy (31:12):
Is that all it was?
Or do you think that there wasactually more?
Mark (31:15):
So the simple answer is that it was all about the
equipment violation, but themore complicated answer is about
why a traffic stop in thatparticular area for such a
relatively minor violation
Marcy (31:29):
because it was actually a high crime area.
Mark (31:32):
Yeah.
So police officers in cities areusually deployed in numbers
based on anticipated call loadsin each area.
Basically, the more reportedcrime, the more officers are
assigned to any given area.
And this is particularly truewhere there are higher rates of
violent crime.
Not only are those officersavailable to respond to crimes
in progress, but they're alsodeterrent to additional crime.
(31:55):
Police officers have what'sreferred to as unallocated time
where they're not busy or, on acall.
And that at that time,especially in high incident
areas, they're often encouragedto conduct traffic law
enforcement.
Marcy (32:09):
But when they stopped him for a taillight out, they
weren't really just looking fora taillight out, were they?
Mark (32:17):
They, no, they weren't.
When an officer, especially inan area like this, makes a
traffic stop on a violation,They're also looking for other
collateral crimes common to thearea, and that's what's called a
pretext stop.
The area Weldon was stopped inor the where they tried to stop
him has a high level of narcoticsales.
(32:38):
And it's very possible, and I'dsay probable that the real
motive for that traffic lawenforcement at that time was was
for the drugs.
Marcy (32:47):
Is that legal to do it that way?
Mark (32:48):
Yeah.
Yes.
Pretext stops had been ruledlegal by the US Supreme Court.
On patrol many crimes aredetected on traffic stops.
Particularly in those high crimeareas.
Once I stopped an armed robberbased on a vague vehicle
description when I spotted thatvehicle, it's, late at night, it
seemed to be like the vehicle,but I wasn't sure it was the
(33:09):
right one.
So I waited, 30 seconds and Ispotted a traffic violation, it
turned out to be the right guyand it turned out to be a very
intense takedown.
Marcy (33:19):
And if it hadn't been the right car?
Mark (33:20):
Yeah, it would've been, sir, ma'am, I'm not gonna write
you a ticket for the trafficviolation.
Be careful and have a goodnight.
And that happens all the timefor every correct identification
of a suspect vehicle we'relooking for.
There are many of those kind ofstops.
For the listener, if you arepulled over and the officer
seems to be checking you out,doesn't really take action, ask
(33:40):
you a couple questions andyou're on your way, it's likely
you weren't the droids they werelooking for.
The Weldon traffic stop is agood example of a stop for a
small reason that turns into alegitimate, huge criminal case.
Marcy (33:55):
You worked in an area like the one that you described
as patrons from across the cityconverging like seagulls on a
fishing boat.
Mark (34:03):
Yes.
And I also described it as agonyand ecstasy all in the same
quarter mile.
The ecstasy is making easymoney.
Scoring drugs that are gonnamake you feel, however you want
to feel.
The agony is the violence thatgoes with it.
The people out of their mindsdoing all kinds of crazy things.
When the high is over.
Depression, paranoia, anger,suicides, homicides.
(34:28):
I'll give you an example that isrepresentative of this area,
town I'm talking about.
And this area town isrepresented in across major
cities in this country.
From time to time, I'd be out onpatrol and I'd be flagged down
by a person who had a loved oneor somebody they knew that was
missing.
Just like in the welding case itwas usually parents or sometimes
(34:50):
spouses or friends.
And, the person they're lookingfor often has an addiction, and
these people are out searchingthe streets.
So one night I'm out getting gasand a young military guy
approaches me.
He's looking for his wife whohas a drug problem and he thinks
she's somewhere in the area.
So I talk to him for a fewminutes, give him some advice,
wish him well, and then go on tomy next call.
(35:13):
Later on in the night, I'm sentto a suicidal person at a
well-known kind of low endhotel.
I don't wanna name it, buteverybody in Anchorage would
know this hotel in the Spenardarea.
And when I arrive, the same guythat I talked to earlier at the
gas station is standing outsidethe, that hotel's office.
He says his wife has lockedherself in her room.
(35:35):
She won't leave with him, saysshe wants to die, and she wants
him to leave her alone.
So I go in and check with thedesk clerk, who of course I
know.
He confirms the room is rentedout to the guy's wife.
I get a key, I tell the guy,their limits to what I can make
her do, but I'll talk to her.
So I go to the room.
It's a familiar room for reasonsI'll get into in a minute.
(35:58):
This young lady, like latetwenties is laying on the bed
crying.
She's real sad sack.
She's coming down from a high,has been heavily drinking.
In fact, she says she wants todrink herself to death.
Says she's a failure as a mom,wife, all that stuff.
She doesn't wanna leave with meor him, and she wants to die.
(36:19):
The husband wants her to leaveand says he has arranged
treatment for her.
I'm limited on what I can makeher do.
Psychiatric care in my city atthat time was only available to
somebody who was sober,ironically.
Almost everybody who isdepressed and wants to commit
suicide has had some kind ofsubstance on board.
So I can't take her anywhereexcept the drunk tank, and
(36:40):
that's not really where sheneeds to go.
So I play my ace as I'm talkingto her.
So I'd been in, I'd been in thatroom, that exact room, standing
above that exact bed about aweek prior for a guy who had
indeed drunk himself to death.
That poor guy had died on thatsame bed with a giant pile of
(37:00):
liquor bottles and beer canssurrounding him on the floor.
When I get there, the guy hadbeen dead for a couple days and
believe me, room cleaning wasnot a priority at this place.
His body had purged liquid ofall of its orifices, which is
not uncommon for somebody who'sbeen dead for a little while.
And those liquids had seepedinto the bedding and mattress
(37:24):
like an ink stamp.
The way I got that poor drunkhigh lady to get off the bed and
leave with her husband was totell her that story and point
out that purge liquid wasseeping back up out of that
mattress into the bed clothesthat she was currently laying
on.
And the stains were obvious toher as she looked around.
(37:46):
To me, that story representshitting bottom.
Unfortunately, I have no ideawhat happened to that lady, but
she got up and went with herhusband.
So that was a step in the rightdirection.
Marcy (37:57):
God, if somebody would just take that mattress and
throw it out the window ew.
Okay.
Mark (38:02):
I think what happened is they just flipped the mattress,
but there was so much therethat, you know that, there you
go.
Marcy (38:09):
All right, let's move along.
Mark (38:11):
I wanted to talk about the fact cops commonly could blame
for lots of circumstances thatare beyond their control.
Can you think of some examples
Marcy (38:20):
like why wasn't Weldon in jail for all of his crimes?
Mark (38:24):
Yes, we've talked about that.
He was good for several violentfelonies.
He was out on I ankle monitor.
There's not much that police cando about the revolving door.
That's decisions made by thecommunity community leaders and
corrections.
Marcy (38:39):
How about why didn't the cops arrest the victim and have
them undergo mandated treatment?
Mark (38:44):
Yeah, so we get that from, people involved with the
victims.
It's very hard to make a persongo to treatment and also very
expensive and also not up to thepolice.
In my state, we have Casey'slaw.
But it's a process that thefamily has to initiate, and it's
not an immediate solution.
Marcy (39:04):
How about why didn't the cops search day and night for
the victim when she was reportedmissing?
Mark (39:09):
We've discussed missing people quite a bit on, on other
episodes.
I'll just say that no departmenthas the staffing or funding for
that kind of extensive andcontinuous search for adults.
It comes down to communitypriorities, and nobody wants to
pay for that kind of staffing.
Another thing people commonlyblame police for.
Is the circumstances of a lovedone's death, even when the
(39:32):
police aren't directly involved.
Marcy (39:34):
Why do you think that is?
Mark (39:37):
There are a lot of reasons.
I think they don't want to facethe grief.
People want something to focuson other than the loss.
The most extreme example I'veseen with this as suicide cases
where family members refuse tobelieve that their loved one is
capable of taking their ownlife.
The result is something veryugly.
There's lashing out.
Sometimes they claim the policeare covering up for a murder.
(39:58):
I don't wanna get too much intothat.
There are instances where policedo make mistakes and miss
opportunities and should be heldaccountable.
But most of those angryaccusations or situations where
the police, in our free andprivate society had no way of
legally intervening beforetragedy struck.
So back to the point of mywanting to mention this is the
(40:19):
interviews I read with familymembers about the Springfield
Police.
In this case, I would'veexpected them to be very
negative about the situation ofthe missing not being found.
But the family and friendsinterviews were largely positive
and this is not the norm.
Marcy (40:36):
Why do you think it was different in this situation?
Mark (40:39):
Two things.
The first one is communication.
The police department inSpringfield had its detectives
talk to the families of themissing people as they went
along.
In so many missing person cases,families are pissed off and what
you hear is the cops aren'tdoing anything or they don't
think anything's being done.
And when in reality there may bethings being done, but the
(41:01):
families are never told aboutit, communication is very bad.
And what I've found is a littlecommunication goes a long ways,
and especially in these cases.
I've mentioned the civiliansearch team I was a coordinator
with.
They did searches to rule outpossible areas where they
thought people may have gonemissing.
Now you can't spend all yourtime searching all areas of the
(41:23):
city.
But, I would talk to familymembers of missing people about
the facts of the cases and, whatwe had done in areas we could
possibly search.
And some of those searches weredone, and usually the family
members were fine with justknowing that we were trying,,
it's when they hear nothing,they assume the worst and
they're unhappy.
(41:45):
The second thing Springfield PDhad going for it was that the
detectives documented theirefforts to find the missing
people.
So when this thing went down,the press asked for that
information and it was there andthey didn't get roasted in the
press that they had donenothing.
Marcy (42:02):
Those were two positives.
What are the negatives?
Mark (42:05):
Yeah, I can tell you as a former detective sergeant, one
huge glaring deficiency in thisinvestigation that I saw was
lack of follow up from theoriginal traffic stop was
conducted by patrol.
This organization should addsomebody, patrol follow up, or
detectives do the obvious followup for that traffic stop.
That was a kidnapping, rape,felony domestic violence assault
(42:28):
case.
There should have been a searchwarrant for the house right
away.
And what they should have beenlooking for was corroborative
evidence based on what thevictim said happened to her.
For example, hammer and pipe,the garat.
There's no better evidence forthat trial as showing that
garrot to a jury, and that waseven before they knew there were
(42:48):
any bodies involved.
Marcy (42:50):
You need to serve the search warrant fast in order to
protect the evidence
Mark (42:53):
Yeah, that's right.
You gotta get this evidence in areasonable amount of time so
that some of that evidencedoesn't disappear.
And the other thing is that I'mblown away.
There wasn't some follow up onwhat's the status of the kids.
You have a victim mom that wassent to the hospital and she was
interviewed at the hospital sothey could substantiate those
(43:14):
charges for his booking.
And that interview's gonna be adetailed interview.
He's a freak.
He's been holding her againsther, will torturing her at her
house.
And they're gonna get to, what'syour relationship with this guy?
Oh, you have a kid.
The next obvious question is,
Marcy (43:28):
where's the kid?
And who's the kid with?
Mark (43:31):
Yeah.
Where's that kid?
Who's the kid with?
That's exactly right.
So as a police officer, youlearn this pretty quick.
Any involvement with kids shouldbe ringing a bell.
Where's that kid?
This is a sit serious situation.
He almost beat you to death.
What's been going on with thatkid?
And is that kid safe?
And, they would've known he'sall got another kid and where's
that kid gonna be?
And these kids are with a motherthat's been in the house where
(43:52):
she's being tortured and there'sevidence of that torture.
And your kid and another kid ofhis is with her, it's a natural
thing and it's a thing thatwe're, obligated to do.
Go to that house, collect thatcorroborative evidence, check on
the kids, see what's wrong withthat suspect's mother that this
is going on and she's there.
I almost can't believe how badlythe ball was dropped on that.
(44:14):
It's almost like the mothercalled three days later to rub
their noses in the failure.
Marcy (44:19):
Do you think that it's the kind of thing where they
would've gotten around to iteventually?
Mark (44:24):
Maybe?
Gosh, I hope so.
Things fall through the cracksand have to be picked up later.
But the welfare of children is,pretty high priority.
Nobody wants to answer for thewhy didn't you get these kids?
You still could, why could, whydidn't you protect the children?
And also collection of thecorroborative evidence is very
important in serious felonycases.
(44:44):
And you can't go to court andexplain why you don't have the
evidence, because you justdidn't get to it.
And keep in mind, this guy'sbeen in, in and out of jail and
prison for a while.
Some of that may have been dueto not getting all the facts
together so that you couldhammer him.
one thing that's important thatyou learn right away as a
detective that doesn't reallymake the TV shows is
(45:08):
investigation doesn't end whenyou make the arrest.
That's actually something that'shard for.
You have detective sergeantsthat were never detectives prior
to becoming a sergeant.
And the making detectivesergeant, I had one and I loved
him, but he had a hard time withcase assignments because I'd
make an arrest and it's Hey,good, I'll load mark up with
some cases now and wait aminute, I gotta prepare for
(45:29):
trial on all these cases.
I just solved, but that's animportant thing to remember in
cases is you make an arrest andthere's a whole bunch of stuff
that has to come afterwards.
The better the follow-up, themore likely the defendant is
that he'll they'll acceptresponsibility.
If you've as a detective, havebuilt a bulletproof case against
him.
Marcy (45:48):
Do you think this guy's mom knew what was going on?
Mark (45:52):
Yeah, I think the mom knew some of it and maybe suspected
some of it, we did that episodethat what happened in St.
Louis, Missouri.
I talked about a case that hadstuck with me through the years
where a little girl was abductedand raped by an unidentified
young man who had kidnapped heras she walked to school.
There's an old lady at the housewhere the man took her and it
(46:13):
seemed like she turned a blindeye to the girl's victimization.
This case strikes me like thatkind of thing.
The son is a low life streetcriminal.
He's beating women, killingsome, holding some captive in a
thousand square foot house.
How can you have no indicationthat something really bad is
going down?
I know that some of the victimsare strangled, which could be, a
(46:34):
fairly quiet death.
But I put money on the mom beingaware of some of it and letting
it slide.
The other thing is how didWeldon get to be Weldon?
extreme domestic violence islearned behavior.
I'd bet money that in Weldon'searly life prior to his father's
death, he witnessed or wassubject to brutality at home.
Marcy (46:54):
And the timing of mom's call to police about the rotting
corpse body odor is suspicious.
By then she knows he's in jail.
So seems like she's trying toshift blame.
Mark (47:04):
Yeah, I think it's more than that.
He's been to jail before.
But at some time the victimslash baby mama came by to claim
her kid and probably laid it outfor Weldon's mother.
The mother waited a couple moredays waiting for the cops to
show up.
She knows that smell isn't gonnago over well with the cops when
they do arrive.
And maybe she called because shewanted to get it over with.
Marcy (47:25):
Yeah.
I don't think she called thepolice about the smell without
having any idea what was goingon.
He's in jail.
She can protect herself byCalling them before they just
show up.
And so she's distancing herselffrom this shit storm that's
under the house.
Did she ever say anything thatindicated that she knew about
the bodies or the murders?
Mark (47:46):
Not based on what I found.
Everything indicated she, sheclaimed ignorance to that kind
of, that, all that stuff.
Marcy (47:54):
So Weldon only went through the first grade at
school and he apparently haddiagnoses of bipolar, dyslexia,
adhd
Mark (48:05):
yeah he really had some strikes against him.
Marcy (48:07):
Yeah.
There's plenty of people thathave those diagnoses and don't
turn out to be serial killers.
I really think that's where theunfortunate mental health
stigmas come from.
Mark (48:15):
Yeah.
But in his environment, he wascertainly statistically more
likely to get involved in thedrug scene.
I really think that one of theelements of his violent side is
his inability to be anything butthe subsistence level dope
dealer who never got out of hismom's basement.
He never had a real job.
The drug dealing is just tofinance his own supply.
(48:36):
He reminds me of the guy fromthe Cynthia Hoffman case in
Alaska that we did a episode on.
He has no life.
What he does have is a viciousanger toward the world that
doesn't recognize him foranything, and he takes it out on
people he has access to.
He feels successful when he candominate and destroy them.
Marcy (48:56):
Which just seems like more about that really deep
poverty and exposure to violencein the neighborhood.
And violence within the home isprobably the biggest contributor
to how he turned out.
So if Weldon's mom hasn't reallysaid much about him, did he have
other family talking about him?
Mark (49:15):
Yeah, we mentioned it earlier.
There were some family membersthat said some stuff.
An aunt who thought Weldon musthave just snapped suddenly
because of the dope.
She said that he has some weirdquotes in, the media from her
like she felt sorry for thegirl.
And she referred to her as a sexslave.
She was also quoted as sayingwhen I saw what happened to that
(49:36):
girl, I said, that boy is sick.
He really is.
At least he gave her some waterto stay hydrated.
Marcy (49:43):
What a weird thing to say.
Mark (49:45):
Yeah.
Weldon also had some relativeswho tried to sell their
perspectives on him.
So he wasn't the only hustler inthe family.
He had a cousin who shoppedaround for me shopped around to
the major media sites demandingan outrageous paycheck.
Marcy (49:58):
It seems like all these serial killers end up trying to
plead insanity.
What do you think about thisguy's insanity defense?
Mark (50:04):
It seems like a great lifeline for a lot of these guys
who don't really want to explainwhy they did what they did.
It allows'em to shift blame tonot them.
But we've talked about thisbefore.
I'm not saying he's firing inall cylinders mentally and
emotionally, but if you look atwhat he did, his actions, he
Rico suave those girls inrepeated the same violent acts
(50:25):
with successive victims showingno remorse whatsoever.
He did things to evade detectionand capture.
I think he'd have a hard timewith insanity.
And under Massachusetts law, aperson is not guilty of a crime
if he lacked criminalresponsibility.
By definition, a person islacking criminal responsibility
if.
(50:46):
They suffer from a mentaldisease or defect and as a
result either are substantiallyunable to appreciate the
criminality of the act or thewrongfulness of the conduct, or
they're substantially un unableto conform the conduct, so the
requirements of the law.
So that's a mouthful.
In Weldon's case, the psycheevaluation found no mental
(51:07):
disease or defect.
They found that he was able toappreciate that his conduct was
wrong and there's no reason hewas unable to conform to the
law.
So that defense was dead beforethe trial was gonna get going.
Marcy (51:21):
So part of when Weldon pled guilty, one of his
conditions that he was able toget was that he would be
transferred to serve in a prisonin Florida.
Why would he do that?
Mark (51:33):
Yeah, simple answer is that his mom sold the house and
moved to Florida.
Marcy (51:37):
Really?
Mark (51:38):
Yeah.
I laugh at that now and I laughwhen I read that.
In a life full of poordecisions, this might turn out
to be the one he regrets most.
Massachusetts has a very lowincarceration rate.
It also has high taxes that payfor things like safe prisons.
If you don't believe me, Googleit.
Look at the shit show thatFlorida prisons are.
Florida's incarceration rate iscomparatively high.
(52:01):
Its prisons are notoriouslyovercrowded, underfunded and wet
Hot sweltering in the summerHeat, you can count me out.
I did find the real estatelisting for the Page Boulevard
House.
It sold for$137,000 on March18th, 2020.
It looks like well below themarket value.
It's tiny, but it is a doublelot near the downtown area.
(52:24):
let me ask you this, Marcy, ifyou looked at that house and you
liked it, would you buy itknowing what had happened there?
Marcy (52:31):
I'm gonna say no.
I don't wanna take the chancethat there might be bad juju
there.
I've never seen a ghost, but Ihaven't totally ruled them out,
and I don't want my firstencounter to be with spirits
that have been so poorly treatedand tortured.
Mark (52:48):
My concern wouldn't be haunting or karma or anything.
My concern would be that thehouse might attract people
interested in the murder scene,who could show up at any time
for whatever reason.
Marcy (53:00):
In the wake of this case, there were a lot of questions
about how these murders happenedand why there were victims that
had not previously come forward.
Mark (53:10):
One of the responses that I think was a good one by the
mayor of Springfield, DominicSarno who basically placed the
blame for some of this on thejudiciary.
He said,"this neighborhood isfilled with good and diverse
working class individuals andfamilies who like me, ask, why
was this guy out on the streets?
(53:31):
Weldon is another choir boy.
Let go by our judicial system.
When will some of our judgesrealize that animals like this
have no respect for life or ourcourts or GPS devices?" he went
on to praise the police saying,"I firmly believe the proactive
actions of our SPD saved thisyoung lady's life, and to those
(53:53):
affected families of thisincident.
My thoughts and prayers go outto them." I agree with them
about the good work of thepolice.
I wish that some of the victimsthat survived had come forward
to expose Weldon earlier in thisseries of crimes.
Marcy (54:07):
What do you wanna say about the victims and street
life?
Mark (54:11):
I feel like I had a long learning curve over the course
of my career.
When I first hit the street, Icould hardly believe what I was
seeing.
I couldn't understand thecruelty and the violence.
I didn't understand how peoplecould end up living lives of
such depravity like I wasseeing.
I admit I was judgmental and hada low patience or tolerance for
some of the human weakness.
(54:32):
And what changed over time was Italked to these people, I
started identifying with themand relating to them.
I started realizing that whilethese people are responsible for
their actions, almost all ofthem have grown up in
situations, have been caught upin situations and problems
beyond their control.
That didn't mean when I wasinvolved in drug enforcement, I
(54:53):
didn't still have a job.
That was sometimes at odds withan addict's self-interest.
But it does mean that Irecognize the need for patients
and the need for systemicchange.
Drug addiction is not a problemthe police officers are equipped
to solve, and we can't arrestour way out of this.
Society benefits when people inaddiction recover.
(55:13):
The point I wanted to make as wewrap this up is that these
victims did not deserve to diebecause they experienced
addiction.
Their lives had value and theyshould have lived and had the
opportunity to recover.
Marcy (55:28):
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Also, if you email us ascreenshot of your review or
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(55:52):
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(56:15):
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