March 4, 2024 • 40 mins
Destiny shares how she discovered a rental property that appeared to be the perfect living arrangement. But not long after moving in, she found herself descending into a nightmare of violence and bloodshed.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Hey guys, it's Chris here. If you're a fan of the podcast
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(00:22):
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(00:47):
Before we start this episode, I wanted to give a low heads up.
The story contains graphic descriptions of violence, so if
you're sensitive to that, listener discretion is advised.
Some of the names in this case have been changed to protect
their identities. Enjoy the episode.
(01:09):
He kept telling us that he was dangerous, that he was capable
of, like, terrible things or something of the sort.
Is that who attacked Ghani earlier?
Like, what's going on? She tells me.
That Blake killed Phillip. My heart sank.
I'm like what from HV Studio this is.
(01:29):
Unnerved. Welcome back to the Unnerved
(01:52):
podcast. It's where normal people share
their abnormal stories, and if you enjoy true stories of the
strange and terrifying, then you're in the right place.
I'm your host, Chris Fricke. At some point in your life,
(02:14):
you've likely had a roommate. Whether you're in a college dorm
or renting an apartment, sharingthe cost of a living space is
ideal with someone that is trustworthy and makes you feel
safe in your shared home. Perhaps you've lived with a
roommate who at first seemed to be the perfect fit, but as time
(02:39):
went on, that person wasn't whatyou expected.
In today's story, Destiny shareshow she discovered a rental
property that appeared to be theperfect living arrangement.
But not long after moving in, she found herself descending
(03:02):
into a nightmare of violence andbloodshed.
This is her story. My name is Destiny.
I'm from Austin, TX. I've lived in Austin since 2006.
At the time of the event, I was living in Cedar Creek, which is
(03:23):
about 20 minutes outside of Austin.
I had landed a job at a resort in Cedar Creek.
The place that I was living at the time was in that area.
Things didn't work out with my roommate and I had to find a
place like very quickly. So I was kind of in a rush to
find a place. I ended up finding a house on
(03:46):
Craigslist. It was a six bedroom house.
The landlord, he rented out rooms to individuals, so we all
had our own lease. It was a mix of people,
different personalities on a piece of property that was, it
was like 20 acres, right by the river by the Creek.
I could go fishing. There was a pool.
It just seemed too good to be true and it was about 10 minutes
(04:07):
from where I was working, which was too good to be true.
It seemed like a dream. I went and looked at the place,
decided to go ahead and sign a lease and move in, and things
were things were good at first. There were definitely like signs
of concerning things that arose upon moving in.
(04:29):
There was a variety of people living there.
Having so many people living in one house that don't know one
another, the social dynamics there can be a little funny.
And it turned out that some of the people living there, they
were just questionable characters, very slighty.
It didn't seem like the landlordwas very thorough in his
evaluation of these people before they moved into the
house. You know, I put a lock on my
(04:52):
door. I definitely appreciate my
privacy at home, so I tried to maintain that in this kind of
somewhat chaotic living environment.
Shortly after moving into the house, about a month or two
after moving in, one of my roommates had moved back in.
She had a long history living onthe property, and she knew the
landlord for a number of years, but she had moved out of town
(05:15):
and moved back into the house. We ended up falling in love and
dating. We'd got engaged.
It was like a it was kind of a fast track romance.
I was in love, close to work, you know?
It seemed too good to be true, kind of at first.
So as time goes on living in thehouse, there's people moving in
and out of the house. Like frequently.
(05:37):
At one point there was a guy named Blake that moved in and I
remember the day that Blake camewith his family to to look at
the room. His family had come with him.
He was raised by his grandmotherand and grandfather as far as I
know, but they had come with himthat day.
They were really nice people. Christians like, very church
(06:00):
driven, very friendly, super friendly.
And Blake was actually a very nice guy.
He was kind of emotional, but very perceptive.
I remember the first time that Imet him, he was like, he
complimented me and my energy because I'm kind of an outgoing
person and he just, he was very like, gave me many compliments.
(06:22):
Just a really nice guy. You could tell that he was a
little sheltered. It seemed like it was the first
time he had moved out of his family's house.
Like it was one of the first times he had lived, you know,
alone as an adult. I was 30 and we were around the
same age. So Blake moves into the house,
he decides to move in and he he kept to himself a lot.
(06:46):
He was kind of you could tell that he also appreciated
privacy. There was 3 levels to the house.
It was three stories. His room was on the 1st floor.
I lived on the 2nd floor. And then my girlfriend, Sage,
she lived on the third floor. So Blake moves in and he kind of
was the type of guy that played a lot of video games.
Again, he was a really emotionalguy.
He was kind of constantly struggling internally with
(07:09):
something. I remember there was a pool
outside of the house and you know, one day we were sitting
out there enjoying the pool and he comes outside to talk to me
and Sage and he's just telling us about how he's just
struggling internally and we're trying to identify like what
what the problem was, like what's wrong.
You know, it was really hard to like to pinpoint what the the
(07:32):
actual problem was. You could just tell that he was
having a hard time emotionally. Me and Sage planned a trip out
of town. We were going to go visit
somewhere that's kind of remote,go camping and just get away for
a little while and trying to be nice and help him.
We invited him to come with us, and I remember he declined the
offer and he kept telling us that he was dangerous, that he
(07:54):
was capable of, like terrible things or something of the sort.
He declines coming with us and me and Sage just didn't
understand why he would say that.
We kind of laughed it off at first.
We thought it was just kind of like a ridiculous notion.
He really did seem like a like anice guy, like a sweet guy.
(08:27):
Paul owns the owns the property.There was two houses on the
property that he owned. We called our house the pool
house that he rented out, all the rooms and then their house.
Him and his wife had a house that was probably about 500
yards away, but they only live there part time.
As time progresses, there's justcertain things happening in the
house that made me feel uncomfortable, that other people
(08:52):
that I'm living with just didn'tseem to think that it was a big
deal. Things that were unacceptable
and in your home were happening that nobody else was addressing.
Like they weren't saying anything about it.
For example, our landlord, Paul,had put in cameras.
Like he put in cameras everywhere, like outside, you
know, on the porch facing outwards.
(09:14):
But then he had placed cameras inside of the house, like on top
of the refrigerator. And whenever he started
installing cameras all over the property and inside of our home,
like I addressed it, I was very surprised that no one else was
addressing it with me. But I just felt like it was
necessary. So I told him, Paul, you can't,
you can't have a camera inside of our house.
(09:35):
Like, that's unacceptable. I think it's illegal.
You know, you need to take it down South.
Events like that were happening and I just increasingly was
uncomfortable in my home, like the living environment.
It wasn't healthy, very chaotic.It was almost like our landlord,
Paul, would kind of fuel the drama.
He would employ some of the tenants to do like odds and ends
(09:58):
jobs around the the property. He would take off some of, you
know, some of your rent if you helped out with certain chores.
And he would use those as opportunities to kind of, like
stir up drama. There was a handful of times
that things like that caused problems between me and my
girlfriend. It was just irritating.
It was uncomfortable. I didn't like it.
I was very vocal about how I felt about it.
(10:20):
And somehow, you know, the result was that that I was the
problem and that maybe I should find another place to live.
And Paul suggested that I look into moving out and finding
somewhere else to live. As time goes on and things get
worse and worse and they're kindof, you know, climaxing and
progressing, I ended up agreeingwith him.
And I wanted to move out, but I needed to find another place to
(10:40):
live. So around this time, Blake had
moved out of the house. There was some trip that he
wanted to go on, somebody special he wanted to go see, and
he had decided to go ahead and move out of the house.
I think he had been there for maybe a month or two.
So he leaves, and another of theroom was rented out to somebody
else, a really sweet girl named Liberty.
She moves into his old room and there's no vacancies in the
(11:03):
house. The landlord, he allowed people
to move their RV's onto the property, like right outside of
the house. There was one RV that was like
in front of the house, parked right out front.
You know, they were given permission to come in and use
the restroom facilities in the kitchen, which, you know, it's
already 6 people living in one house.
And again, personalities that are just very just causing a lot
(11:26):
of drama, causing problems. It's driving me crazy just
because I'm trying to like have a stable life and I'm with
someone who is affected by the drama and she's being sucked
into all of this drama and it's causing problems between us.
He had let another person put their RV around the backside of
the house, which we had no idea who this person was, who these
people were. I didn't know what was going on,
(11:48):
so that made me feel uncomfortable.
I'm complaining about it. I'm being very vocal.
People agree with me that it's kind of crazy and weird and
uncomfortable, but I'm the only one really saying anything about
it. Things are just getting to the
point where it's unbearable for me to be there.
Blake's trip had, he was wrappedup.
He was, you know, the trip was was over.
(12:09):
He contacted Paul asking if he could move back into the house.
Paul lets him know. Well you know your room has been
rented out to someone else. I I don't have a room.
There's nowhere for you to live to move into.
But that could change soon. So let's stay in touch and and
(12:29):
I'll let you know if we can accommodate somehow he seemed
like very eager to let Blake move back in like he really
wanted him to to be back. So he comes up with this idea to
to transform the living room andand kitchen den area.
He wanted to build a wall in that room so that the living
(12:49):
room would be shut off for Blaketo live in.
And the first floor, whenever you first walk in the door, like
to the right was 2 bedrooms, oneof which was was Blake's old
bedroom that Liberty is now living in.
And to the left, it opened up into a big area, vaulted
ceilings, like it was the livingspace.
(13:11):
And then there was a bar with the kitchen.
So it's just one big area where it was kind of a communal space.
So Paul has this idea to build awall.
There was a maintenance man thatlived on the property that put
up this makeshift wall. It was super janky.
It was just like multiple different doors and like just
random building materials that were leftover from something
(13:32):
else, probably that were pieced together to create this wall.
He tells us that this is happening and everybody's like,
what? You're going to do what?
Paul's building a wall in the living room.
Are you serious? This is outrageous.
So we're just kind of, like, standing back, like, watching
the construction go down and wondering what this is all
about. I'm like, I've got to get out of
here. I need.
(13:52):
But I didn't have another place to move to.
I wasn't going to, like, put in my 30 days and start packing up
if I didn't have a place to live.
That's ridiculous. So we knew that Blake was going
to be coming back. He lets us know that he has a
friend named Phillip. He called Phillip the Prophet
for some reason. I'm I'm not sure why.
(14:14):
And I guess it's important for me to mention that Blake, I
believe he was schizophrenic. I don't know that for a fact.
He never told me that himself. I did know that that he had a
disability check. His income was sourced from, you
know, a disability of some kind.He didn't work.
That was that was kind of how hepaid his bills.
It was something mental. I believe that he was
(14:35):
schizophrenic. You know, he would just kind of
say kooky things, like off the wall, things like calling his
friend Phillip the prophet. And we're like, OK, so Blake's
coming back and I guess he's bringing his friend with him.
So whenever he gets back and Phillip is with him, he's
introducing Phillip to everyone,which is there's a large group
of people. It's like a whole social network
there. And whenever he was introducing
(14:57):
Phillip to everyone, it kind of comes out that not only is he
just his friend, he was like hispseudo brother.
I'm not exactly sure what Blake's background and
upbringing was, but it it may have been kind of rocky,
something along the lines of being raised by Phillip's
family. Like at one point Phillip's
family had taken Blake in so they know each other from being
(15:20):
children. They grew up together and that's
kind of how he was in his life. Blake was my age, so 30 at the
time, but he was a little immature.
He kind of acted childish at times, had this boyish attitude
to him. Phillip was just young.
He's a young man. I think he was 20 or 21 and you
could definitely tell from his physical, you know, like
(15:40):
physically he looked like a young man, like possibly even a
teenager, and behaved like that as well.
I think that Phillips just like manners, were different than
Blake's. Since Blake had lived in the
house and kind of knew all of usand had like established
relationships with us. He was very courteous.
(16:01):
And you know, he would never eatour food out of the kitchen or
you know, he was very mindful and and wanted to maintain those
relationships. And when Phillip arrived with
him, Phillip, he had a differentattitude about things.
He just kind of just like a teenager would kind of just
expecting things to be OK and you know, and not being
courteous, not paying attention to certain things that he's
(16:23):
doing that might affect other people.
Definitely not very self aware. And like I mentioned before,
there was a Creek on the property.
There's a Cedar Creek runs through the property and one of
the residents of the property that lived in an RV, I'm going
to call him Ronnie. Ronnie had lived on the property
for about 5 years. He lived on the Creek pretty
(16:44):
much. He was always fishing the day of
the incident. Ronnie comes up to the house and
you can kind of tell he's like, out of it, like, not himself.
And we're like, what's up? He tells us that he had went to
go fishing on the Creek earlier that day and he can't recall
(17:05):
what happened. He has no idea what happened,
but he just woke up. He blacked out.
(17:27):
He blacked out. He woke up on one of the trails
leading to the Creek. He can't recall what happened
and his things had been rummagedthrough.
He didn't have anything of valueon him.
He didn't have a lot of things of value, I don't think, but he
said that all of his things had been rummaged through, like his
backpack had been gone through, but it was all still there and
he just has. He doesn't know how long he was
(17:48):
there. He has no idea like what made
him black out or what happened. He just woke up on a trail pass
the day before. That is whenever the wall was
built in our living room. Blake comes back and there's so
much activity going on with everybody that is just strange.
I feel I felt uncomfortable, like I felt like I didn't want
(18:08):
to be in my house. I'm just like, this is
ridiculous. So Donnie tells us that he
blacked out on a trail path. And, you know, we think that
maybe he was attacked. It sounded like he was attacked
is what it sounds like. When this happened, I was like,
you know what? I can't be here anymore.
And I told Sage, I'm like, look like if you love me, you will
come with me. I just want to leave for
(18:29):
tonight. Let's just go get a hotel room.
I just, I can't be here anymore.This is so chaotic.
Like, it's really affecting me. Like, please come with me.
Let's just pack a bag and let's get out of here.
We were both financially, not really in a position, like, we
didn't have enough money to go get a hotel room.
We were kind of hurting financially.
I made such a big deal about it that she wouldn't pawn some of
(18:49):
her valuable things so that we would just have enough to get a
room and I would feel safe and be OK.
She was like, doing it for me. We'd get enough money to get a
hotel room. I just like, threw a pile of
laundry, like, whatever, just ina bag.
Got in the car and checked into the hotel room.
I guess everything that was happening didn't.
She didn't seem as concerned about it as I did.
(19:11):
You know, she had a history on the property.
She had been there for like 5 years, and I think the chaos and
Paul's creepiness and the weird things he would do, she was just
used to it, like she'd been there for so long.
It did. It wasn't as big of a deal to
her as we're in the hotel room. She's messaging some of the
(19:34):
people that were living there. She was messaging Genevieve.
Genevieve had the RV right outside of the front of our
house. I could tell by the expression
on her face that something had happened.
You know, she looks like she's about to start crying, like
something's up. I'm like, what?
Like, what happened? She won't answer me at first,
(19:55):
And I'm like, what's going on? She tells me.
Genevieve just told me that thatBlake killed Phillip.
What? She's kind of like, in shock.
She literally saying that he killed him.
I grabbed her tablet and I looked at the text message and
I'm like, that's exactly what itsays is Blake killed Phillip.
(20:20):
This heavy feeling just sunk through me.
You can't help but wonder, like you know what happened.
What do you mean he killed Phillip?
Like, was there an incident? Is that who attacked Donnie
earlier? Like, what's going on?
There's so many things I don't understand at that time, like
just trying to figure it out. It was just this really like
(20:52):
being stuck on an island, just cut off from things that are
happening. But it's all happening in real
time, so we can't get answers. Not being there, I knew that.
My intuition told me that this isn't like, I can't be here, It
shouldn't be like this. This isn't normal.
I just. I knew that I had that feeling
(21:13):
for a reason. And then it turns out that
something like that happened andI'm just blown away that a place
that I call home is an environment for something so
terrible to happen. She got that text message and
that was pretty much the only communication that we had.
She was kind of like trying to reach out to different people as
time went on. That night, obviously the police
(21:35):
arrived and there's an investigation.
A lot of the the roommates were taken in for questioning.
There was a lot that I didn't know until two weeks after just
how bad it was. Like when you hear that someone
has been killed in your home, that's just shocking, right?
It's unbelievable. I talked to Sage about it and
(21:57):
I'm like, look like I can't be there.
Like I couldn't be there before,but I really can't be there now.
There's no way. I don't know where I'm going to
go. I'm going to have to just, like,
figure it out and stay with a friend or in hotel rooms until I
do. I wanted to get a storage unit.
I couldn't really do it at the time, so she'd agreed to let me
put all of my things in her roomso that Paul could be satisfied
(22:19):
because he had been at telling me that I probably needed to
find another place anyways. He was eager for me to leave
when we were at the hotel that morning that we were going to go
back and I was just. I was going to stay focused on
my packing up my things, gettingeverything up to her room.
I didn't want to. I didn't want to pay attention
to all the things that were happening inside of the house
(22:40):
after something like that happened.
You know, like I was scared. I was scared to go back.
We finally decided to go back tothe house.
We're very nervous approaching whenever we get there.
(23:01):
The landlord, Paul, was the first person that we saw as we
walked through the door. When you first walk into the
house, directly in front of you is the staircase that leads to
the second floor in the room. On the second and third floor,
Paul was sitting in a chair likedead center of the of the
doorway, like of the threshold. The roommates are kind of like
active in the house behind him, like you see people coming in
(23:23):
and out of the living room wherethe murder happened with
cleaning supplies and stuff. And Paul's just sitting in the
chair front and center. And he looks at us and says
welcome to my nightmare and throws his hands up.
I could not believe that that's what we walked into after that
after someone was murdered in our home.
(23:45):
This guy who contributes to so much chaos and just an unhealthy
living environment. There he is sitting dead center
telling me welcome to my nightmare.
Are you kidding me? That that put me in a weird
headspace to begin with. Being back there, the roommates
were cleaning up all of the blood from the living room
because police, I guess after they come investigate and all
(24:08):
the red tape, once they take thebody, they don't clean up the
mess. So we had a very brave roommate
that took on that task of, of cleaning up all of the blood.
I was so dead set on getting outof there and just just getting
myself out of this situation. I was hyper focused on that,
just getting out, leaving, moving out.
I didn't ask a lot of questions I guess, so I moved out.
(24:33):
Sage had decided she decided to stay, which I thought was crazy.
So I stay with a friend here andthere and I couldn't like live
there all the time. But they they would let me crash
at their place from time to time.
And I was renting hotel rooms from day-to-day.
It was not a healthy day-to-day life.
(24:56):
So I decided to go visit my family, trolling Facebook and
you know, looking around online this and that, there's a news
article that I had found describing what had happened,
describing the murder. That was the first time that I
that I had read or found out howbrutal this murder was.
The article said that Blake had killed Phillip by bashing his
(25:22):
head in with a rock and then proceeding to to try and cut his
head off with a knife and ultimately like shoving a sock
or like suffocating him with something.
Somehow, like that's what had happened.
He had pretty much tried to decapitate him.
I just remember sitting on my grandmother's couch and reading
this news article and my heart sank.
I'm like what? In a horrific murder in Bastrop
(25:46):
County, a warning on this one, the details are graphic.
According to an affidavit, 29 year old Blake Vetter killed his
roommate at the home they sharedon Shiloh Rd.
Near Cedar Creek on May 31st. Sheriff's officials say Vetter
admitted to hitting him in the head several times with a large
rock, smothering him, stabbing him with multiple knives, then
trying to cut off his head. Vetter now faces a murder
(26:08):
charge. In a house just off of Shallow
Rd. In Cedar Creek is where the
attack happened. Early Friday morning, Bastrop
County deputies found Phillip Presbolak beaten and stabbed to
death. Sheriff Maurice Cook told me the
victim's roommate, Blake Vedder,was later found and taken into
custody it. Appears that they were friends
(26:29):
up to this point. Of course you don't want friends
like this, but nevertheless, ourindication are that they were
roommates and they were friends.Investigators say the odor of
the house where the attack happened rents it out to several
different people. Neighbors tell me the property
is somewhat of a communal compound.
I heard things are a little screwy back in there.
He he takes in some homeless people, I believe, but it's it's
(26:52):
close to home, you know, I'm, I'm a little worried now, but I
can take care of myself. Vedder was taken to the Bastrop
County Jail and charged with Presbylac's murder.
A court date has not yet been set for Vetter and a grand jury
review is not expected to take place until next month, if not
later. That will give investigators
more time to go through the bizarre details involving this
(27:14):
incident. The arrest affidavit was filed
with the Justice of the Peace inElgin.
According to court documents, Vetter allegedly confessed
saying he hit his roommate with a rock, tried to suffocate him
by putting a cloth in his mouth,stabbed him with two kitchen
knives, breaking one, and then tried to cut his head off with a
third knife. He has told us why he did it,
(27:34):
but we are examining the truth of that.
Vetter allegedly told investigators he got upset
because Presbilac was snoring ashe slept on a couch.
Was someone taking drugs or using drugs?
It's not a drug deal gone bad, though.
Was he high? Well, that's something that we
are yet to determine that we do have some blood tests.
(27:54):
When the case eventually goes tocourt, deputies are expected to
testify that as they took Veteran to custody, he allegedly
expressed concern for his roommate, saying there was no
way he survived the attack. I'm shocked at at the brutality.
I can't believe that Blake is capable of something like that.
(28:15):
Like, I I couldn't believe. Also, I'm angry.
I was so angry that like, no onetold me how bad it was.
Like, how is it that I was living with a whole group of
people? They knew they'd had, they knew,
they had to have known. How is it that I was in love
with someone? We were engaged and no one tells
me these details, something thathappened to my house.
(28:36):
So I was angry, I was shocked, Iwas in disbelief.
And at that point, I started asking more questions.
Like I started texting out of the roommates.
I start asking Paul questions, Istart asking sage questions like
I'm looking for more news articles.
I I need to know what happened in in my home the night before
the murder. Me and Sage were in the kitchen.
(28:59):
Sage is known for her cooking. So it's always like a treat when
she makes something for you. Like everybody's always excited
to eat a meal that she made. And we were in the kitchen and
she was making sandwiches and I just remember Phillip coming
into the kitchen and he was he was super meek.
It was really sweet, actually. He asked Sage.
Like, you know, will you make mea sandwich?
(29:22):
And it was almost like he was afraid to ask.
And she's like, yeah, of course I'll make you a sandwich.
Like, no problem at all. And Blake had come into the room
as he's asking that question. And you could tell that he was,
like, irritated with him for even asking for a sandwich.
You know, Sage just tries to, you know, reassure.
I mean, she's like, oh, no, it'sno big deal.
Like, we're eating, like, let's have, let's have a meal.
(29:44):
And I just remember standing there and eating that sandwich
with him. And then it's like the next day,
like, wow, this. He was so young.
Like, it's it's really sad. Nobody deserves that.
(30:08):
I was told that. The summary of that night goes
as follows. Blake was increasingly
frustrated with Phillip for being disrespectful at the
house. He felt like he was being
disrespectful towards the roommates, not being courteous
enough and it was just like progressively getting worse
throughout the day. Apparently after we had left, I
(30:30):
I guess everybody kind of like split up.
It was getting late. So from what I understand all of
the roommates were home. I know that Liberty was in her
room and then whenever it happened, they were in the
makeshift room. Phillip was asleep and I guess
he was snoring loudly or something like that.
(30:50):
And Blake just like snaps and starts attacking him and starts
beating his face in with rock and grabs a knife out of the
kitchen and proceeds to, you know, try to decapitate him.
And Liberty overheard everything, like she heard weird
noises and she was afraid and like didn't come out of her
(31:11):
room. So Blake commits the murder and
proceeds to walk over to Paul's house, which again is about 500
yards from our house. He's covered in blood and he
knocks on Paul's door and he tells him like, look, I like I I
just, I think I may have just killed Phillip.
My friend Phillip. And Paul decides to just put him
(31:32):
in the truck and drive him to his grandmother's house.
Like that's how he decided to handle the situation so he
doesn't call the cops. And his grandmother lived about
15 or 20 minutes from where where our house was.
And Paul just takes him over to his his family's house and drops
him off covered in blood. And Blake, he tells his
grandmother what he's done and the grandparents contacted the
(31:54):
police. So by the time all gets back to
the property from taking him over there, the cops are there.
Everything's taped off. It's lit up and and like that's
how everything kind of transpired.
(32:14):
So let's say that I hadn't freaked out and and convinced my
girlfriend to leave with me thatnight.
Like, what would have happened, the sounds that are that my
roommates described of it happening.
Like, if I had heard that, I would have come downstairs to
see what's going on. Like, I know myself.
And if something weird like that, If I heard something like
that, I would definitely try andfind out what's going on in my
(32:35):
house. Like, who knows what could have
happened if I had walked into that?
And I'm just so thankful that, yeah, that I avoided that.
I definitely will never questionmy intuition ever again.
If my gut tells me something's wrong, I listen to it no matter
what. That fateful night, Destiny was
(33:10):
fortunate enough to listen to her instincts and leave the home
that quickly became a crime scene.
Blake's bitter rage reached its boiling point, which led him to
attack Philip, unleashing A brutal assault that left his
friend's lifeless body on the floor of their shared room.
(33:34):
Once considered a brother, Lake was now a cold blooded killer
with his hand stained with the blood of his former friend.
Destiny was not the only person disturbed by what happened that
night. Due to the trauma of the
(33:56):
incident and reckless actions ofthe landlord, Destiny's former
roommate Liberty, who was there the night of the murder, took
legal action to sue Paul on the popular courtroom TV show Judge
Judy. This episode aired nine months
(34:17):
after the murder. Paul Wallace owes for the return
of rent and security deposit. And hospital bills after she.
Witnessed a roommate murder another roommate.
Now it was one of those men who killed his cubby mate that
caused you ultimately to move. Yes, ma'am.
(34:38):
And what you want back is your security deposit and your
prorated rent for the month thatyou had already paid?
Yes, ma'am. And what was your security
deposit? $420.00.
And on what date did you move out?
I moved out on June 2nd. Had you paid for the month of
June? Yes.
How much? $420.00 and I have the check
(35:00):
stub and everything. You acknowledge that she paid
the month of June? Your honor.
Now, there's no question that you are entitled to your deposit
back. You understand that.
You understand that you can't run a crazy house.
You may be able to rent rooms, but you can't run a crazy house.
You cannot cut a room in half, akitchen, which is a communal
(35:23):
room, moving a cot and let people sleep there.
You can't do that. Respectfully, your Honor, it was
not a kitchen. It was a portion of the living
room. And it was not a bookshelf.
It was a wall. We built a wall.
I don't care what you built. I don't care if you built
another Berlin Wall if what you're trying to do is stuff as
many people in your house as possible to make your mortgage.
(35:44):
And that was not what this tenant bargained for.
She had a right to move out, especially when she says you
also had someone living on the property in a trailer, yes.
And when you had the most peoplein the house, how many people
live there? 6.
How many bedrooms are there? There's there are 7. 7 bedrooms.
(36:05):
Yes, it's a very large. House.
Do you occupy one? No.
You don't live there at all? No.
Even better, now she's entitled to her $420.00 deposit back and
she doesn't have to live in a house where people are murdered.
But I don't understand your lawsuit for $5000.
Do you understand? Yes.
(36:25):
Especially since you have no witnesses here, yes.
Do you understand? I do understand.
I've been diagnosed with PTSD since the incident.
What you have to do, if that's what you want, is you have to
have an expert witness, Yes, ma'am, Which you don't have.
I have a diagnosis and my therapy bills.
You lived there for a relativelyshort time?
(36:46):
Yes, ma'am. How long?
Less than a month. And where had you lived right
before that? With my.
Parents. So at any time during the course
of this, you could have gone home.
I mean, I did as as soon as it was over, but my parents wanted
me to deal with it on my own. So you would have difficulty at
home. I got.
So you don't have to go any further.
You have to give her her $840 back.
(37:06):
Judge me for the plaintiff. We're done.
I heard somebody being beaten todeath, so it was very, very
emotional for me. Took me 9 minutes to get to the
house. I arrived.
When I walked past the kitchen, I heard him.
I heard Phillip snoring. And I immediately removed the
(37:27):
person. But later when I read the
article, I realized that was himchoking on his own blood.
And I I had to take care of the business of removing the the
person from the premises. They asked all of the roommates
to go out on the porch. They basically, they processed
the scene through the night and they stood out on the lawn.
And then they went and investigated it and came out and
(37:50):
told us that Philip had passed. In the end, the evidence against
Blake was overwhelming and he was ultimately convicted of
first degree murder. But the scars left from his
heinous act would linger long after that fateful night,
(38:14):
casting a dark shadow over everyone who lived in that
house. The homicide that Blake
committed is a haunting reminderto not only examine those around
you, but to listen to your instincts when danger is near.
(38:55):
Thanks again for listening to Unnerved.
If you enjoyed this episode, as always, please share it with
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(39:19):
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bonus content, visit patreon.com/unnerve Podcast.
Special thanks to Ivan Brykovic for mastering this episode.
Until next time, take care. None.
Hey guys, it's Chris here. If you're a fan of the podcast
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(00:22):
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(00:47):
Before we start this episode, I wanted to give a low heads up.
The story contains graphic descriptions of violence, so if
you're sensitive to that, listener discretion is advised.
Some of the names in this case have been changed to protect
their identities. Enjoy the episode.
(01:09):
He kept telling us that he was dangerous, that he was capable
of, like, terrible things or something of the sort.
Is that who attacked Ghani earlier?
Like, what's going on? She tells me.
That Blake killed Phillip. My heart sank.
I'm like what from HV Studio this is.
(01:29):
Unnerved. Welcome back to the Unnerved
(01:52):
podcast. It's where normal people share
their abnormal stories, and if you enjoy true stories of the
strange and terrifying, then you're in the right place.
I'm your host, Chris Fricke. At some point in your life,
(02:14):
you've likely had a roommate. Whether you're in a college dorm
or renting an apartment, sharingthe cost of a living space is
ideal with someone that is trustworthy and makes you feel
safe in your shared home. Perhaps you've lived with a
roommate who at first seemed to be the perfect fit, but as time
(02:39):
went on, that person wasn't whatyou expected.
In today's story, Destiny shareshow she discovered a rental
property that appeared to be theperfect living arrangement.
But not long after moving in, she found herself descending
(03:02):
into a nightmare of violence andbloodshed.
This is her story. My name is Destiny.
I'm from Austin, TX. I've lived in Austin since 2006.
At the time of the event, I was living in Cedar Creek, which is
(03:23):
about 20 minutes outside of Austin.
I had landed a job at a resort in Cedar Creek.
The place that I was living at the time was in that area.
Things didn't work out with my roommate and I had to find a
place like very quickly. So I was kind of in a rush to
find a place. I ended up finding a house on
(03:46):
Craigslist. It was a six bedroom house.
The landlord, he rented out rooms to individuals, so we all
had our own lease. It was a mix of people,
different personalities on a piece of property that was, it
was like 20 acres, right by the river by the Creek.
I could go fishing. There was a pool.
It just seemed too good to be true and it was about 10 minutes
(04:07):
from where I was working, which was too good to be true.
It seemed like a dream. I went and looked at the place,
decided to go ahead and sign a lease and move in, and things
were things were good at first. There were definitely like signs
of concerning things that arose upon moving in.
(04:29):
There was a variety of people living there.
Having so many people living in one house that don't know one
another, the social dynamics there can be a little funny.
And it turned out that some of the people living there, they
were just questionable characters, very slighty.
It didn't seem like the landlordwas very thorough in his
evaluation of these people before they moved into the
house. You know, I put a lock on my
(04:52):
door. I definitely appreciate my
privacy at home, so I tried to maintain that in this kind of
somewhat chaotic living environment.
Shortly after moving into the house, about a month or two
after moving in, one of my roommates had moved back in.
She had a long history living onthe property, and she knew the
landlord for a number of years, but she had moved out of town
(05:15):
and moved back into the house. We ended up falling in love and
dating. We'd got engaged.
It was like a it was kind of a fast track romance.
I was in love, close to work, you know?
It seemed too good to be true, kind of at first.
So as time goes on living in thehouse, there's people moving in
and out of the house. Like frequently.
(05:37):
At one point there was a guy named Blake that moved in and I
remember the day that Blake camewith his family to to look at
the room. His family had come with him.
He was raised by his grandmotherand and grandfather as far as I
know, but they had come with himthat day.
They were really nice people. Christians like, very church
(06:00):
driven, very friendly, super friendly.
And Blake was actually a very nice guy.
He was kind of emotional, but very perceptive.
I remember the first time that Imet him, he was like, he
complimented me and my energy because I'm kind of an outgoing
person and he just, he was very like, gave me many compliments.
(06:22):
Just a really nice guy. You could tell that he was a
little sheltered. It seemed like it was the first
time he had moved out of his family's house.
Like it was one of the first times he had lived, you know,
alone as an adult. I was 30 and we were around the
same age. So Blake moves into the house,
he decides to move in and he he kept to himself a lot.
(06:46):
He was kind of you could tell that he also appreciated
privacy. There was 3 levels to the house.
It was three stories. His room was on the 1st floor.
I lived on the 2nd floor. And then my girlfriend, Sage,
she lived on the third floor. So Blake moves in and he kind of
was the type of guy that played a lot of video games.
Again, he was a really emotionalguy.
He was kind of constantly struggling internally with
(07:09):
something. I remember there was a pool
outside of the house and you know, one day we were sitting
out there enjoying the pool and he comes outside to talk to me
and Sage and he's just telling us about how he's just
struggling internally and we're trying to identify like what
what the problem was, like what's wrong.
You know, it was really hard to like to pinpoint what the the
(07:32):
actual problem was. You could just tell that he was
having a hard time emotionally. Me and Sage planned a trip out
of town. We were going to go visit
somewhere that's kind of remote,go camping and just get away for
a little while and trying to be nice and help him.
We invited him to come with us, and I remember he declined the
offer and he kept telling us that he was dangerous, that he
(07:54):
was capable of, like terrible things or something of the sort.
He declines coming with us and me and Sage just didn't
understand why he would say that.
We kind of laughed it off at first.
We thought it was just kind of like a ridiculous notion.
He really did seem like a like anice guy, like a sweet guy.
(08:27):
Paul owns the owns the property.There was two houses on the
property that he owned. We called our house the pool
house that he rented out, all the rooms and then their house.
Him and his wife had a house that was probably about 500
yards away, but they only live there part time.
As time progresses, there's justcertain things happening in the
house that made me feel uncomfortable, that other people
(08:52):
that I'm living with just didn'tseem to think that it was a big
deal. Things that were unacceptable
and in your home were happening that nobody else was addressing.
Like they weren't saying anything about it.
For example, our landlord, Paul,had put in cameras.
Like he put in cameras everywhere, like outside, you
know, on the porch facing outwards.
(09:14):
But then he had placed cameras inside of the house, like on top
of the refrigerator. And whenever he started
installing cameras all over the property and inside of our home,
like I addressed it, I was very surprised that no one else was
addressing it with me. But I just felt like it was
necessary. So I told him, Paul, you can't,
you can't have a camera inside of our house.
(09:35):
Like, that's unacceptable. I think it's illegal.
You know, you need to take it down South.
Events like that were happening and I just increasingly was
uncomfortable in my home, like the living environment.
It wasn't healthy, very chaotic.It was almost like our landlord,
Paul, would kind of fuel the drama.
He would employ some of the tenants to do like odds and ends
(09:58):
jobs around the the property. He would take off some of, you
know, some of your rent if you helped out with certain chores.
And he would use those as opportunities to kind of, like
stir up drama. There was a handful of times
that things like that caused problems between me and my
girlfriend. It was just irritating.
It was uncomfortable. I didn't like it.
I was very vocal about how I felt about it.
(10:20):
And somehow, you know, the result was that that I was the
problem and that maybe I should find another place to live.
And Paul suggested that I look into moving out and finding
somewhere else to live. As time goes on and things get
worse and worse and they're kindof, you know, climaxing and
progressing, I ended up agreeingwith him.
And I wanted to move out, but I needed to find another place to
(10:40):
live. So around this time, Blake had
moved out of the house. There was some trip that he
wanted to go on, somebody special he wanted to go see, and
he had decided to go ahead and move out of the house.
I think he had been there for maybe a month or two.
So he leaves, and another of theroom was rented out to somebody
else, a really sweet girl named Liberty.
She moves into his old room and there's no vacancies in the
(11:03):
house. The landlord, he allowed people
to move their RV's onto the property, like right outside of
the house. There was one RV that was like
in front of the house, parked right out front.
You know, they were given permission to come in and use
the restroom facilities in the kitchen, which, you know, it's
already 6 people living in one house.
And again, personalities that are just very just causing a lot
(11:26):
of drama, causing problems. It's driving me crazy just
because I'm trying to like have a stable life and I'm with
someone who is affected by the drama and she's being sucked
into all of this drama and it's causing problems between us.
He had let another person put their RV around the backside of
the house, which we had no idea who this person was, who these
people were. I didn't know what was going on,
(11:48):
so that made me feel uncomfortable.
I'm complaining about it. I'm being very vocal.
People agree with me that it's kind of crazy and weird and
uncomfortable, but I'm the only one really saying anything about
it. Things are just getting to the
point where it's unbearable for me to be there.
Blake's trip had, he was wrappedup.
He was, you know, the trip was was over.
(12:09):
He contacted Paul asking if he could move back into the house.
Paul lets him know. Well you know your room has been
rented out to someone else. I I don't have a room.
There's nowhere for you to live to move into.
But that could change soon. So let's stay in touch and and
(12:29):
I'll let you know if we can accommodate somehow he seemed
like very eager to let Blake move back in like he really
wanted him to to be back. So he comes up with this idea to
to transform the living room andand kitchen den area.
He wanted to build a wall in that room so that the living
(12:49):
room would be shut off for Blaketo live in.
And the first floor, whenever you first walk in the door, like
to the right was 2 bedrooms, oneof which was was Blake's old
bedroom that Liberty is now living in.
And to the left, it opened up into a big area, vaulted
ceilings, like it was the livingspace.
(13:11):
And then there was a bar with the kitchen.
So it's just one big area where it was kind of a communal space.
So Paul has this idea to build awall.
There was a maintenance man thatlived on the property that put
up this makeshift wall. It was super janky.
It was just like multiple different doors and like just
random building materials that were leftover from something
(13:32):
else, probably that were pieced together to create this wall.
He tells us that this is happening and everybody's like,
what? You're going to do what?
Paul's building a wall in the living room.
Are you serious? This is outrageous.
So we're just kind of, like, standing back, like, watching
the construction go down and wondering what this is all
about. I'm like, I've got to get out of
here. I need.
(13:52):
But I didn't have another place to move to.
I wasn't going to, like, put in my 30 days and start packing up
if I didn't have a place to live.
That's ridiculous. So we knew that Blake was going
to be coming back. He lets us know that he has a
friend named Phillip. He called Phillip the Prophet
for some reason. I'm I'm not sure why.
(14:14):
And I guess it's important for me to mention that Blake, I
believe he was schizophrenic. I don't know that for a fact.
He never told me that himself. I did know that that he had a
disability check. His income was sourced from, you
know, a disability of some kind.He didn't work.
That was that was kind of how hepaid his bills.
It was something mental. I believe that he was
(14:35):
schizophrenic. You know, he would just kind of
say kooky things, like off the wall, things like calling his
friend Phillip the prophet. And we're like, OK, so Blake's
coming back and I guess he's bringing his friend with him.
So whenever he gets back and Phillip is with him, he's
introducing Phillip to everyone,which is there's a large group
of people. It's like a whole social network
there. And whenever he was introducing
(14:57):
Phillip to everyone, it kind of comes out that not only is he
just his friend, he was like hispseudo brother.
I'm not exactly sure what Blake's background and
upbringing was, but it it may have been kind of rocky,
something along the lines of being raised by Phillip's
family. Like at one point Phillip's
family had taken Blake in so they know each other from being
(15:20):
children. They grew up together and that's
kind of how he was in his life. Blake was my age, so 30 at the
time, but he was a little immature.
He kind of acted childish at times, had this boyish attitude
to him. Phillip was just young.
He's a young man. I think he was 20 or 21 and you
could definitely tell from his physical, you know, like
(15:40):
physically he looked like a young man, like possibly even a
teenager, and behaved like that as well.
I think that Phillips just like manners, were different than
Blake's. Since Blake had lived in the
house and kind of knew all of usand had like established
relationships with us. He was very courteous.
(16:01):
And you know, he would never eatour food out of the kitchen or
you know, he was very mindful and and wanted to maintain those
relationships. And when Phillip arrived with
him, Phillip, he had a differentattitude about things.
He just kind of just like a teenager would kind of just
expecting things to be OK and you know, and not being
courteous, not paying attention to certain things that he's
(16:23):
doing that might affect other people.
Definitely not very self aware. And like I mentioned before,
there was a Creek on the property.
There's a Cedar Creek runs through the property and one of
the residents of the property that lived in an RV, I'm going
to call him Ronnie. Ronnie had lived on the property
for about 5 years. He lived on the Creek pretty
(16:44):
much. He was always fishing the day of
the incident. Ronnie comes up to the house and
you can kind of tell he's like, out of it, like, not himself.
And we're like, what's up? He tells us that he had went to
go fishing on the Creek earlier that day and he can't recall
(17:05):
what happened. He has no idea what happened,
but he just woke up. He blacked out.
(17:27):
He blacked out. He woke up on one of the trails
leading to the Creek. He can't recall what happened
and his things had been rummagedthrough.
He didn't have anything of valueon him.
He didn't have a lot of things of value, I don't think, but he
said that all of his things had been rummaged through, like his
backpack had been gone through, but it was all still there and
he just has. He doesn't know how long he was
(17:48):
there. He has no idea like what made
him black out or what happened. He just woke up on a trail pass
the day before. That is whenever the wall was
built in our living room. Blake comes back and there's so
much activity going on with everybody that is just strange.
I feel I felt uncomfortable, like I felt like I didn't want
(18:08):
to be in my house. I'm just like, this is
ridiculous. So Donnie tells us that he
blacked out on a trail path. And, you know, we think that
maybe he was attacked. It sounded like he was attacked
is what it sounds like. When this happened, I was like,
you know what? I can't be here anymore.
And I told Sage, I'm like, look like if you love me, you will
come with me. I just want to leave for
(18:29):
tonight. Let's just go get a hotel room.
I just, I can't be here anymore.This is so chaotic.
Like, it's really affecting me. Like, please come with me.
Let's just pack a bag and let's get out of here.
We were both financially, not really in a position, like, we
didn't have enough money to go get a hotel room.
We were kind of hurting financially.
I made such a big deal about it that she wouldn't pawn some of
(18:49):
her valuable things so that we would just have enough to get a
room and I would feel safe and be OK.
She was like, doing it for me. We'd get enough money to get a
hotel room. I just like, threw a pile of
laundry, like, whatever, just ina bag.
Got in the car and checked into the hotel room.
I guess everything that was happening didn't.
She didn't seem as concerned about it as I did.
(19:11):
You know, she had a history on the property.
She had been there for like 5 years, and I think the chaos and
Paul's creepiness and the weird things he would do, she was just
used to it, like she'd been there for so long.
It did. It wasn't as big of a deal to
her as we're in the hotel room. She's messaging some of the
(19:34):
people that were living there. She was messaging Genevieve.
Genevieve had the RV right outside of the front of our
house. I could tell by the expression
on her face that something had happened.
You know, she looks like she's about to start crying, like
something's up. I'm like, what?
Like, what happened? She won't answer me at first,
(19:55):
And I'm like, what's going on? She tells me.
Genevieve just told me that thatBlake killed Phillip.
What? She's kind of like, in shock.
She literally saying that he killed him.
I grabbed her tablet and I looked at the text message and
I'm like, that's exactly what itsays is Blake killed Phillip.
(20:20):
This heavy feeling just sunk through me.
You can't help but wonder, like you know what happened.
What do you mean he killed Phillip?
Like, was there an incident? Is that who attacked Donnie
earlier? Like, what's going on?
There's so many things I don't understand at that time, like
just trying to figure it out. It was just this really like
(20:52):
being stuck on an island, just cut off from things that are
happening. But it's all happening in real
time, so we can't get answers. Not being there, I knew that.
My intuition told me that this isn't like, I can't be here, It
shouldn't be like this. This isn't normal.
I just. I knew that I had that feeling
(21:13):
for a reason. And then it turns out that
something like that happened andI'm just blown away that a place
that I call home is an environment for something so
terrible to happen. She got that text message and
that was pretty much the only communication that we had.
She was kind of like trying to reach out to different people as
time went on. That night, obviously the police
(21:35):
arrived and there's an investigation.
A lot of the the roommates were taken in for questioning.
There was a lot that I didn't know until two weeks after just
how bad it was. Like when you hear that someone
has been killed in your home, that's just shocking, right?
It's unbelievable. I talked to Sage about it and
(21:57):
I'm like, look like I can't be there.
Like I couldn't be there before,but I really can't be there now.
There's no way. I don't know where I'm going to
go. I'm going to have to just, like,
figure it out and stay with a friend or in hotel rooms until I
do. I wanted to get a storage unit.
I couldn't really do it at the time, so she'd agreed to let me
put all of my things in her roomso that Paul could be satisfied
(22:19):
because he had been at telling me that I probably needed to
find another place anyways. He was eager for me to leave
when we were at the hotel that morning that we were going to go
back and I was just. I was going to stay focused on
my packing up my things, gettingeverything up to her room.
I didn't want to. I didn't want to pay attention
to all the things that were happening inside of the house
(22:40):
after something like that happened.
You know, like I was scared. I was scared to go back.
We finally decided to go back tothe house.
We're very nervous approaching whenever we get there.
(23:01):
The landlord, Paul, was the first person that we saw as we
walked through the door. When you first walk into the
house, directly in front of you is the staircase that leads to
the second floor in the room. On the second and third floor,
Paul was sitting in a chair likedead center of the of the
doorway, like of the threshold. The roommates are kind of like
active in the house behind him, like you see people coming in
(23:23):
and out of the living room wherethe murder happened with
cleaning supplies and stuff. And Paul's just sitting in the
chair front and center. And he looks at us and says
welcome to my nightmare and throws his hands up.
I could not believe that that's what we walked into after that
after someone was murdered in our home.
(23:45):
This guy who contributes to so much chaos and just an unhealthy
living environment. There he is sitting dead center
telling me welcome to my nightmare.
Are you kidding me? That that put me in a weird
headspace to begin with. Being back there, the roommates
were cleaning up all of the blood from the living room
because police, I guess after they come investigate and all
(24:08):
the red tape, once they take thebody, they don't clean up the
mess. So we had a very brave roommate
that took on that task of, of cleaning up all of the blood.
I was so dead set on getting outof there and just just getting
myself out of this situation. I was hyper focused on that,
just getting out, leaving, moving out.
I didn't ask a lot of questions I guess, so I moved out.
(24:33):
Sage had decided she decided to stay, which I thought was crazy.
So I stay with a friend here andthere and I couldn't like live
there all the time. But they they would let me crash
at their place from time to time.
And I was renting hotel rooms from day-to-day.
It was not a healthy day-to-day life.
(24:56):
So I decided to go visit my family, trolling Facebook and
you know, looking around online this and that, there's a news
article that I had found describing what had happened,
describing the murder. That was the first time that I
that I had read or found out howbrutal this murder was.
The article said that Blake had killed Phillip by bashing his
(25:22):
head in with a rock and then proceeding to to try and cut his
head off with a knife and ultimately like shoving a sock
or like suffocating him with something.
Somehow, like that's what had happened.
He had pretty much tried to decapitate him.
I just remember sitting on my grandmother's couch and reading
this news article and my heart sank.
I'm like what? In a horrific murder in Bastrop
(25:46):
County, a warning on this one, the details are graphic.
According to an affidavit, 29 year old Blake Vetter killed his
roommate at the home they sharedon Shiloh Rd.
Near Cedar Creek on May 31st. Sheriff's officials say Vetter
admitted to hitting him in the head several times with a large
rock, smothering him, stabbing him with multiple knives, then
trying to cut off his head. Vetter now faces a murder
(26:08):
charge. In a house just off of Shallow
Rd. In Cedar Creek is where the
attack happened. Early Friday morning, Bastrop
County deputies found Phillip Presbolak beaten and stabbed to
death. Sheriff Maurice Cook told me the
victim's roommate, Blake Vedder,was later found and taken into
custody it. Appears that they were friends
(26:29):
up to this point. Of course you don't want friends
like this, but nevertheless, ourindication are that they were
roommates and they were friends.Investigators say the odor of
the house where the attack happened rents it out to several
different people. Neighbors tell me the property
is somewhat of a communal compound.
I heard things are a little screwy back in there.
He he takes in some homeless people, I believe, but it's it's
(26:52):
close to home, you know, I'm, I'm a little worried now, but I
can take care of myself. Vedder was taken to the Bastrop
County Jail and charged with Presbylac's murder.
A court date has not yet been set for Vetter and a grand jury
review is not expected to take place until next month, if not
later. That will give investigators
more time to go through the bizarre details involving this
(27:14):
incident. The arrest affidavit was filed
with the Justice of the Peace inElgin.
According to court documents, Vetter allegedly confessed
saying he hit his roommate with a rock, tried to suffocate him
by putting a cloth in his mouth,stabbed him with two kitchen
knives, breaking one, and then tried to cut his head off with a
third knife. He has told us why he did it,
(27:34):
but we are examining the truth of that.
Vetter allegedly told investigators he got upset
because Presbilac was snoring ashe slept on a couch.
Was someone taking drugs or using drugs?
It's not a drug deal gone bad, though.
Was he high? Well, that's something that we
are yet to determine that we do have some blood tests.
(27:54):
When the case eventually goes tocourt, deputies are expected to
testify that as they took Veteran to custody, he allegedly
expressed concern for his roommate, saying there was no
way he survived the attack. I'm shocked at at the brutality.
I can't believe that Blake is capable of something like that.
(28:15):
Like, I I couldn't believe. Also, I'm angry.
I was so angry that like, no onetold me how bad it was.
Like, how is it that I was living with a whole group of
people? They knew they'd had, they knew,
they had to have known. How is it that I was in love
with someone? We were engaged and no one tells
me these details, something thathappened to my house.
(28:36):
So I was angry, I was shocked, Iwas in disbelief.
And at that point, I started asking more questions.
Like I started texting out of the roommates.
I start asking Paul questions, Istart asking sage questions like
I'm looking for more news articles.
I I need to know what happened in in my home the night before
the murder. Me and Sage were in the kitchen.
(28:59):
Sage is known for her cooking. So it's always like a treat when
she makes something for you. Like everybody's always excited
to eat a meal that she made. And we were in the kitchen and
she was making sandwiches and I just remember Phillip coming
into the kitchen and he was he was super meek.
It was really sweet, actually. He asked Sage.
Like, you know, will you make mea sandwich?
(29:22):
And it was almost like he was afraid to ask.
And she's like, yeah, of course I'll make you a sandwich.
Like, no problem at all. And Blake had come into the room
as he's asking that question. And you could tell that he was,
like, irritated with him for even asking for a sandwich.
You know, Sage just tries to, you know, reassure.
I mean, she's like, oh, no, it'sno big deal.
Like, we're eating, like, let's have, let's have a meal.
(29:44):
And I just remember standing there and eating that sandwich
with him. And then it's like the next day,
like, wow, this. He was so young.
Like, it's it's really sad. Nobody deserves that.
(30:08):
I was told that. The summary of that night goes
as follows. Blake was increasingly
frustrated with Phillip for being disrespectful at the
house. He felt like he was being
disrespectful towards the roommates, not being courteous
enough and it was just like progressively getting worse
throughout the day. Apparently after we had left, I
(30:30):
I guess everybody kind of like split up.
It was getting late. So from what I understand all of
the roommates were home. I know that Liberty was in her
room and then whenever it happened, they were in the
makeshift room. Phillip was asleep and I guess
he was snoring loudly or something like that.
(30:50):
And Blake just like snaps and starts attacking him and starts
beating his face in with rock and grabs a knife out of the
kitchen and proceeds to, you know, try to decapitate him.
And Liberty overheard everything, like she heard weird
noises and she was afraid and like didn't come out of her
(31:11):
room. So Blake commits the murder and
proceeds to walk over to Paul's house, which again is about 500
yards from our house. He's covered in blood and he
knocks on Paul's door and he tells him like, look, I like I I
just, I think I may have just killed Phillip.
My friend Phillip. And Paul decides to just put him
(31:32):
in the truck and drive him to his grandmother's house.
Like that's how he decided to handle the situation so he
doesn't call the cops. And his grandmother lived about
15 or 20 minutes from where where our house was.
And Paul just takes him over to his his family's house and drops
him off covered in blood. And Blake, he tells his
grandmother what he's done and the grandparents contacted the
(31:54):
police. So by the time all gets back to
the property from taking him over there, the cops are there.
Everything's taped off. It's lit up and and like that's
how everything kind of transpired.
(32:14):
So let's say that I hadn't freaked out and and convinced my
girlfriend to leave with me thatnight.
Like, what would have happened, the sounds that are that my
roommates described of it happening.
Like, if I had heard that, I would have come downstairs to
see what's going on. Like, I know myself.
And if something weird like that, If I heard something like
that, I would definitely try andfind out what's going on in my
(32:35):
house. Like, who knows what could have
happened if I had walked into that?
And I'm just so thankful that, yeah, that I avoided that.
I definitely will never questionmy intuition ever again.
If my gut tells me something's wrong, I listen to it no matter
what. That fateful night, Destiny was
(33:10):
fortunate enough to listen to her instincts and leave the home
that quickly became a crime scene.
Blake's bitter rage reached its boiling point, which led him to
attack Philip, unleashing A brutal assault that left his
friend's lifeless body on the floor of their shared room.
(33:34):
Once considered a brother, Lake was now a cold blooded killer
with his hand stained with the blood of his former friend.
Destiny was not the only person disturbed by what happened that
night. Due to the trauma of the
(33:56):
incident and reckless actions ofthe landlord, Destiny's former
roommate Liberty, who was there the night of the murder, took
legal action to sue Paul on the popular courtroom TV show Judge
Judy. This episode aired nine months
(34:17):
after the murder. Paul Wallace owes for the return
of rent and security deposit. And hospital bills after she.
Witnessed a roommate murder another roommate.
Now it was one of those men who killed his cubby mate that
caused you ultimately to move. Yes, ma'am.
(34:38):
And what you want back is your security deposit and your
prorated rent for the month thatyou had already paid?
Yes, ma'am. And what was your security
deposit? $420.00.
And on what date did you move out?
I moved out on June 2nd. Had you paid for the month of
June? Yes.
How much? $420.00 and I have the check
(35:00):
stub and everything. You acknowledge that she paid
the month of June? Your honor.
Now, there's no question that you are entitled to your deposit
back. You understand that.
You understand that you can't run a crazy house.
You may be able to rent rooms, but you can't run a crazy house.
You cannot cut a room in half, akitchen, which is a communal
(35:23):
room, moving a cot and let people sleep there.
You can't do that. Respectfully, your Honor, it was
not a kitchen. It was a portion of the living
room. And it was not a bookshelf.
It was a wall. We built a wall.
I don't care what you built. I don't care if you built
another Berlin Wall if what you're trying to do is stuff as
many people in your house as possible to make your mortgage.
(35:44):
And that was not what this tenant bargained for.
She had a right to move out, especially when she says you
also had someone living on the property in a trailer, yes.
And when you had the most peoplein the house, how many people
live there? 6.
How many bedrooms are there? There's there are 7. 7 bedrooms.
(36:05):
Yes, it's a very large. House.
Do you occupy one? No.
You don't live there at all? No.
Even better, now she's entitled to her $420.00 deposit back and
she doesn't have to live in a house where people are murdered.
But I don't understand your lawsuit for $5000.
Do you understand? Yes.
(36:25):
Especially since you have no witnesses here, yes.
Do you understand? I do understand.
I've been diagnosed with PTSD since the incident.
What you have to do, if that's what you want, is you have to
have an expert witness, Yes, ma'am, Which you don't have.
I have a diagnosis and my therapy bills.
You lived there for a relativelyshort time?
(36:46):
Yes, ma'am. How long?
Less than a month. And where had you lived right
before that? With my.
Parents. So at any time during the course
of this, you could have gone home.
I mean, I did as as soon as it was over, but my parents wanted
me to deal with it on my own. So you would have difficulty at
home. I got.
So you don't have to go any further.
You have to give her her $840 back.
(37:06):
Judge me for the plaintiff. We're done.
I heard somebody being beaten todeath, so it was very, very
emotional for me. Took me 9 minutes to get to the
house. I arrived.
When I walked past the kitchen, I heard him.
I heard Phillip snoring. And I immediately removed the
(37:27):
person. But later when I read the
article, I realized that was himchoking on his own blood.
And I I had to take care of the business of removing the the
person from the premises. They asked all of the roommates
to go out on the porch. They basically, they processed
the scene through the night and they stood out on the lawn.
And then they went and investigated it and came out and
(37:50):
told us that Philip had passed. In the end, the evidence against
Blake was overwhelming and he was ultimately convicted of
first degree murder. But the scars left from his
heinous act would linger long after that fateful night,
(38:14):
casting a dark shadow over everyone who lived in that
house. The homicide that Blake
committed is a haunting reminderto not only examine those around
you, but to listen to your instincts when danger is near.
(38:55):
Thanks again for listening to Unnerved.
If you enjoyed this episode, as always, please share it with
your friends and leave a review wherever you get your podcast.
It really helps the show out andI truly appreciate it.
And as always, if you guys want to see photos related to each
episode, including this one, be sure to follow our Instagram at
(39:19):
Unnerved Podcast. And for AD free episodes and
bonus content, visit patreon.com/unnerve Podcast.
Special thanks to Ivan Brykovic for mastering this episode.
Until next time, take care. None.
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