March 25, 2024 • 63 mins
A group of kids playing with a mysterious app called Randonautica follow its directions to Alki Beach in West Seattle. There they find a strange black suitcase on the rocks below the pier. Intrigued, they open the case to reveal a putrid smell. Responding officers would find other bags and reveal the suitcase was filled with the dismembered body parts of two people, Jessica Lewis and Austin Wenner. Seattle would be gripped in fear until their killer was caught.
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(00:00):
Sword and Scale contains adult themes andviolence, and is not intended for all
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of people with a history of toxicor unhealthy past behavior, and prioritize your
own well being Otherwise someday it mightfind yourself trapped. It was a beautiful
(03:54):
summer day in Seattle. A groupof kids were eager to get out and
go do something anything. It wasa nice day out, so we just
went to on Kay Beach for awalk. After what felt like an eternity
in COVID lockdown. They decided togo to the al Chaive Beach Park.
(04:15):
If you stand on the pier,the view of the Seattle skyline is unmatched.
Natalie Castillon was in that group ofkids. I was with my friend
Henry and my other friend Keaviy.We already knew what we kind of wanted
to do for the day, butwe just randomly selected a location. They
randomly selected a location using a newapp that was trending on social media,
(04:41):
Random Nautica. Our original plan waswe wanted to see the statue's like a
fake statue of liberty at the endof the strip of Al Kay, but
we also wanted to rando not.It was like a trend that was going
on on TikTok at that time.We just basically like, down with this.
Ob you a random location, andI guess when you get to those
locations you see like random things.I guess, And yeah, it's like
(05:06):
our first time doing it. RandomNautica is an app that gives you random
GPS coordinates that may or may notlead you to whatever you intended when you
prompted the app. Yeah, Iknow it sounds weird. It just basically
gives you a settle locations and yougo there and maybe there's something there,
(05:27):
maybe there isn't fill in your ownimagination, but on this day it led
the group to al Kai Beach onDuwamish Head, overlooking Elliott Bay on the
Puget Sound with the skyline of Seattlein the background. I'd say it's a
good amount of people on the sidewalkwalking just because it was a hot summer
day, so it's pretty typical togo to al Kai. The park was
(05:50):
busy that beautiful summer day, withpeople walking and admiring the view from the
pier. We all notice that thoughas a sit down by the rocks on
the overlooking I think it was justlike a coincidence that we saw that we
were talking about. I think onthe drive there, we were talking about
random nodding, and we were talkingabout like traveling and we wanted to get
(06:14):
money or something like that. Itwas like a weird conversation. So when
we saw it, it was justlike a like an aha moment, like,
Oh, that's such a coincidence.We're talking about traveling in the car
and then we're talking about random nodding, and people find crazy stuff on randomnot
so we were like, let's justsee what's down there, and we were
like, this could be something funto record. At that time, guys
(06:38):
were kind of On the drive toal Chai Park, the group talked about
travel and coming into a lot ofmoney right before prompting the app for coordinates.
When they saw the black suitcase onthe rocks beneath the pier, they
thought it couldn't be a coincidence.They joke with each other that it was
(07:00):
probably a suitcase full of money.We were curious, so we went to
go see what it was. Itwas just like a suitcase. We started
on tipping it, pretty normal suitcase, no tear anything to it, just
(07:24):
how like a weird smell the closeryou got to it. Obviously didn't really
think too much of it. There'sa lot of garbage out there A lot
of the times. I didn't reallythink it was going to be what it
turned out to be. But yeah, it was just a normal suitcase.
They dismissed the odd odor because itwas obviously floating in the bay before being
(07:45):
washed onto the rocks with other piecesof garbage. We were curious. We
actually opened it up. Thanks y'all, Just like a really foul odor,
so we stopped opening it halfway.We left it there, and then we
were kind of still in this weirdchildish fog of just like pretending it's not
(08:09):
what we think it could be.We were just joking on saying it's probably
just like garbage and a suitcase thatjust washed up, and we stopped and
we were kind of talking about whatif situations, and then stopped for probably
like a good five minutes six minutes, just sitting there fighting the morbid idea
that this was a suitcase filled witha dead body. They hesitated to open
(08:31):
it, but of course, justlike a cat, their curiosity got the
better of them, and we sawa black plastic trash bag and it was
wrapping something. It was trash bags, and then they're just in the suitcase.
(08:54):
We could see that they were tightlyplaced on where something was inside of
the bags that were making them verytight, But there were bags in there.
The trash bags inside the suitcase werestuffed full of large, heavy objects,
pulling the plastic bag taut around them. Undeterred or perhaps overly curious,
(09:18):
they continue to investigate the rancid bag. So there was a stick that we
had and Gabby was very curious aboutwas in the bags, and we were
already hesitant because of the smell,and we found like a little it wasn't
a huge tearry. It was justlike some a good soft spot for a
(09:39):
stick to get in there, andGabby just kind of twisted a little bit
moved it in. The smell immediatelygot ten times worse. It was just
very pungent, very strong, evenwith like a face mask. I was
wearing a face mask. It wasvery strong. It's just like it just
takes you off your feet a littlebit. Couldn't really, I don't know.
(10:01):
It's pretty harsh, so I don'tknow. It definitely wasn't money in
this bag. With a hole pokedthrough the outer bag, they caught a
glimpse of what was inside. Sleeklike me and I thought it was like
(10:22):
food or any something like that.With the dissatisfying discovery that the bag was
not full of money, the groupwanted to leave, but Natalie called the
police. Okay, so she's callingthe police, so we can't see if
it's actually a dead body or it'sjust food. What is your emergency?
(10:43):
Hi? You know, we founda suitcase on uamash in upide beach and
it has a pretty bad mouth andit's a black trash bag, so yeah,
there's something in it. Okay,where where did you find it?
Exactly? Man? Not knowing theaddress to the park itself, Natalie's eyes
(11:07):
darted from building to building across thestreet, searching for an address. Eleven
fifty Alkai perfect one one five zeroAlchai Avenue Southwest. Is that the number
on the building? Yeah, okay, perfect. So you're on the on
the across the street, on theside of the water, is that correct?
Yeah? And the suitcases on therock okay, okay. Did you
(11:28):
open the suitcase and there was ablack trash bag inside? Yeah, So
me and my friends were interested inwhat was in it, so we opened
it up that there was a blackclass by and we just called okay,
so it was on the rocks bythe water, and he said, there's
a pretty foul smell. Yeah,okay, I have a call in.
We're going to try to be therejust as quickly as we can. I'll
(11:50):
let officers know you and we're standingby with your friends. Okay, okay,
all righty, thank you, thankyou nice. The group waited for
the police to arrive but the PDwas overwhelmed or understaffed, and a call
about a weird smelling suitcase on thebeach wasn't really the highest priority. They
(12:11):
waited and waited, but nobody evershowed up. What did your emergency?
Hi? So I called about anhour and a half ago, Okay,
and we found a suitcase that's likereally just it's like in a black bag
(12:31):
and it smells really Badness flies allaround it. Okay, So has anything
changed since you last called? Whathas anything changed since you last called?
No, but the water is risingand the suitcase is about to get covered.
Okay, I'll go ahead and makethat notation. How long do you
(12:52):
think it is until the point helpus arrive? Oh? I don't know.
Yeah, we don't have that information. I wouldn't be able to tell
you, Okay. Elliott Bay isdirectly connected to the Pacific Ocean and as
such is subject to the tides.In the time since Natalie's first nine one
(13:13):
one call, the tide had comein and started pulling the suitcase into the
open water. Well one, whatis your emergency? Hi? We were
saying that some people were done atAlcai and they were just really hyper alert.
We're at like the historical point ofinterests with Little Park and Alke in
West Seattle, and they said theyrecorded a couple of hours ago a suitcase,
(13:37):
and we just went and they werelike pointing it out for us that
they seem I guess they looked atit and are convinced that there's human remains
in there. Honestly, I didn'tgo down and look at it, but
they're genuinely concerned. Okay, yeah, it looks uick. We have a
call. We are aware that they'rewaiting. We're going to get somebody out
there. We're just waiting for anofficer become available, clear up from a
(13:58):
previous nine lum one call, sowe'll be in hand. Okay, all
right, thank you, ma'mby bye. When the police finally showed up,
the kids had already gone hello.Did hear me? Yeah? I kind
of okay. Are you still inthe area or did you have to leave?
I waited for a while, butwe had to leave too long.
(14:22):
I'll let you know to check itout. Thanks Officer Terrell with this.
Seattle PD was the first to arriveon the scene, nearly two hours after
the original call. Now the rockskind of right off the pier, there
was a loved bag kind of likea black roller bag. I could clearly
(14:43):
see that it was open and itwas empty. He took the little path
to the side of the pier downto the rocks to get a closer look
at the bag, and that's whenI saw a black treshe that was floating
in the water, just several notparticularly far, just a couple of feet
(15:05):
away from the rocks. The blacktrash bag the kids saw inside the suitcase
was now bobbing in the tide.I wouldn't say that I identified exactly what
was kind of protruding out of thebay, but I remember thinking that it
looked like the upper chest of aperson, specifically the pectoral region. I
(15:31):
saw what appeared to be a nipple, and I remember thinking it looked like
a human torso, but wasn't surecould have been an animal or something like
that. So at the time Iwanted more resources and more assistants, so
(15:54):
I requested the assistance of fire departmentbecause they had like tools that could reach
out there. And I kind ofmade the inclination on the radio to describe
it as like something organic. Ithink I said organic matter because I didn't
want to kind of jump the gunand say what I thought it might be
(16:15):
erring on the side of caution.He didn't want to claim something that wasn't
true. He needed to get thebag out of the water to confirm what
was inside. Hello, radio,where would you guys be able to send
some resources down to one one fivezero al Chiavenue Southwest. Basically, we
(16:40):
went down there. We found asuitcase that they're trying to retreat it from
the rocks down there, and ithas a foul smell coming from it,
and it looks like to be anorganic matter in it. Okay, alrighty,
I'll send a truck down there,all right, thank you? Yep.
Byway, waiting for the fire departmentto arrive, he made another discovery
(17:02):
when that would cement his fear.I saw on the rocks kind of further
east, closer to the road,was another black bag looked like a Duffel
bag. It was close enough thatthere was a stick or kind of a
(17:22):
log nearby that I could kind offish it, like push it towards me.
When I was picking up I couldthe light kind of highlight of what
was inside the trash rag wasn't entirelyseen through, but it was clear enough
that I could instantly recognize that insidethe trash rag was afoot. The call
(17:45):
not prioritized would now spark a frenzyof activity. The police, fire department,
and even the harbor Patrol would descendon al Qai Beach and the surrounding
waters. After the report of foundhuman and remains in a suitcase. A
(18:29):
suitcase and duffel bag discovered on alQai Beach were found to contain human remains,
authorities scrambled to investigate. A callthat took forever for the police to
respond to ended up being the beginningof a huge investigation. The medical examiner
came to the scene to start heranalysis. It was immediately clear they were
(18:55):
dealing with much more than a simplemurder. Some bags can two heads,
hands, feet, an arm.It was obvious that they were dealing with
at least a double murder and dismemberment. It was clear that there were two
(19:15):
people in the bags. She foundtwo severed heads, part of a torso,
a female pelvis identified by the ovaries, and uterus, two feet and
three hands, one still attached tothe forearm. There was a lot missing,
(19:36):
but there was hopefully enough to identifythe remains. They released a statement
to the public to try to getahead of the probable media storm, but
it was already too late. Werebasically want to do a trend to post
on random notting, and it wasthe summer, during a pandemic. We
didn't really have a lot of optionsof entertainment, and that was just the
(20:02):
source of it. And I don'tknow, maybe I was just very into
the idea of showing this and like, I'm like, I had such a
very crazy, surreal experience, Iwanted to just like document it first.
We want to be give us somebreaking news. Seattle police are investigating after
several bags filled with human remains werefound near the water on Alke Avenue this
(20:25):
afternoon. Police are saying they gotthe call about a suspicious bag on the
beach and another one was located inthe water. Police determined the contents to
be human remains. Police say bagscontaining human remains were discovered first. A
viral social media video claims to showthe discovery of human remains near Alcai.
It appears a group of young peoplemade a video of that discovery. So
(20:48):
we just found this suitcase and we'regoing to get it. It's basically opening
it up with the sticks. Theyadded music and graphics and put it on
TikTok. It has got a couplemillion views. With the news reports and
more specifically the viral TikTok post,the story of the suitcase full of human
remains spread pretty quickly social media doesthat Seattle was gripped with fear and reports
(21:17):
came pouring in. He had apolice operator thirty one I have. This
is unfortunate to say that. Ijust wanted to make sure that it wasn't
relevant. Were at park this morningand there was the suitcase. She had
a police for you reporting. Hi. I am Diane Cargner, live in
West Seattle. The reason I'm callingis I saw a man walking down Harbor
(21:45):
Avenue the beach thing with a blackbag on wheels. I don't know if
that black bag that had the humanremains that stretch of Alcoho, I don't
think I've ever seen anybody walking witha rolling bag. He had a police
upper or went out by. Hi. I am calling because I saw something
(22:07):
last week, but I just takeit out of my mind and I wanted
to let you guys know there werethe car parks and on the side of
the road, heading each with theirtrunk open and their cold open, and
there a car there, and thena man came out of the woods dragging
(22:30):
a big black bag. Reports ofmysterious luggage and strange trash bags spotted in
the days and weeks leading up tothe discovery came in. One man,
an active rower, spotted trash bagsfloating down the river. I was out
along one day and a single,rowing with a couple of friends, and
(22:53):
you know, I basically ran overtrash bag in the river, and it
was pretty it down. It wasn'tlike, you know, the bulk of
it, like an iceberg or something. The bulk of the thing was below
the water, so I didn't seeit, and I actually kind of ran
over it, and I thought thatwas weird, But I was in a
(23:14):
single and there's no good way tolike explore something or so left it alone.
And then I forget if it was. The day after or two days
after, I was coaching with theyouth and we saw a trash bag again
about the same area, but itwas a different trash bag. It was
clearly not the same one I sawthe other day, and it was floating
higher in the water, but abig, black, kind of hefty trash
(23:38):
bag, like an industry you know, it's a big and I remember one
of the youth throwers was joking like, oh, you should go open it
up and see what's in there,and I was like, no way,
we're not doing that. You seeoccasional debris, maybe a drink bottle or
something, but you don't see trashbags ever. It's just not something you
(23:59):
see floating down the river. Withthe story's exposure, everyone was taking notice
of strange bags, especially near thewater. A couple of days after the
case hit the news, they gotanother strange call, leading to yet another
bag upriver. We arrived at thearea and we were doing our usual dog
(24:22):
walk and we made our way tothe southeastern corner where the river accesses,
and our dogs were down by thewater. And when we looked down there,
we noticed there was a suitcase floatingat the water's edge. Well,
(24:45):
it seemed odd, and I thoughtit was suspicious the suitcase would be floating,
that there was something buoyant inside ofit. I went down to the
water's edge and the suitcase was floatingon a couple of feet off of the
(25:06):
bank. So I grabbed a stickthat was nearby, and I pulled the
suitcase to shore. Once I pulledthe suitcase to shore, I opened it
partially to see what was inside ofit, and I observed some trash bags.
(25:27):
Once I saw those trash bags,I used that same stick to tear
open one of the bags and seewhat was inside, and I observed a
piece of what I interpreted to behuman skin that was unidentifiable as to what
(25:47):
part of the body I was lookingat, but it didn't have a tattoo
on it. The medical examiner hurriedto the scene. The CFBs were the
missing pieces to her two bodies.So there are multiple mingled remains once again,
including legs, arms, and multipleplastic bags. In addition, there
were other miscellaneous items, including clothesand a knife. So these body parts
(26:15):
were the body parts that belonged tothe same individuals that I had examined that
day, and so with the additionalbody parts, I was able to add
them to each of the respective bodies. So there were some tattoos. There
were pieces of skin that had tattoosthat were not attached to the body part
that fit other body parts that werelater recovered. Also, the way the
(26:41):
bones were dismembered, were able tosort of fit the pieces together, sort
of like a puzzle piece. Themedical examiner used tattoos and saw marks to
piece the bodies back together. Allin all, she had one male head,
one female head, one male uppertorso, one female lower torso,
(27:06):
three hands, two legs, twomale arms, four feet, and one
arm with a hand attached quite thejigsaw puzzle. Two hands and two feet
were determined to belong to the femalebecause the nails were painted pink. The
female hand attached to its forearms stillhad two rings on the fingers. Luckily,
(27:30):
they were able to pull prints fromthe water saturated hands and come back
with an identification. The two victimswere twenty seven year old Austin Winner and
thirty five year old Jessica Lewis.Besides being dismembered, their actual cause of
death was bullet wounds. After theidentification, the police had the daunting task
(27:55):
of informing the families. Here's Jessica'saunt, Gina, remembering her. She's
like a raised sunshine. She helpedto develop me disabled people she worked when
was a caregiver like that, anda lot of patients that I don't have.
Austin and Jessica had been together fornearly a decade. The other girlfriend
(28:18):
Jessica. Yes, I'm not completelysure, but I know it was a
number of years. Austin and Jessicawere eight years apart, but despite their
age difference, they were incredibly close, inseparable. They loved each other as
a couple. They experienced a seriesof trials and tribulations in life, but
(28:42):
they always stuck together. I mean, they had their struggles like we all
do. That just shows how muchthey did care for each other. They
didn't never leave each other when thingsgot hard or rough, and they always
stuck it out or the ups anddowns. When Jessica's aunt Gina first heard
(29:04):
the news, she was absolutely broken. Everyone, however, was told they
were both shot. They didn't mentionwhat else happened. My brother's shock when
he told me what happened, andjust their hurt. Of course, the
(29:26):
families of Austin and Jessica had seenthe news and perhaps the viral video.
I mean it was everywhere. Icouldn't even believe that was their story because
I'd seen it trying to look forhim. I don't want them to be
remembered for the brutality. I don'twant them to be remembered in any violent
way. I want them to beremembered for the you know, their humanity
(29:52):
and their kindness. Accepting that bothJessica and Austin suffered horrible ends the family,
little solace, I want to believethat they didn't suffer. They were
people, They were real people andwho were loved. The investigation was far
from over doing their due diligence.The police interviewed family and friends, and
(30:15):
sub peanut phone records. The lasttime either of them had been seen by
Austin's parents was three weeks to amonth prior. Jessica was weeding and she
was planting her son's strawberry plant thathe got. It was a reward,
(30:37):
and so she planted that for himfor me, and then Austin would do
all the weed eating, and hewould mow the lawn and I mean it
offered to eat, feed them,you know that sort of thing. And
then he was going to be doinghelping flatten some area for a shed that
(31:03):
I had gotten. Austin and Jessicaoften helped his mother with her yard.
Austin tried to see his mom atleast once a month. He kept in
contact with his dad on a nearlydaily basis, daily or every other day
it was. It was often.By mid June, Austin's father realized he
(31:25):
hadn't heard from his son in afew weeks and tried to contact him,
and I actually went over to theplace he was staying and looking for him.
They lived together in a room theyrented in the city of Burien.
When Austin's dad went there and talkedto the landlord, he told him something
unexpected, just that they had leftin a hurry and left a mass.
(31:49):
He noticed something strange, however,some of my son's clothing were at the
trash cam. At the base oftrash cam. He thought that was odd,
but knew that Austin and Jessica,while they always stuck together, moved
often. I asked him that ifhe heard from them, would he please
(32:13):
have them contact me, because Iwas worried and hadn't heard from him in
a while. The police investigation revealedsome disturbing information about Austin and Jessica.
There were reports that in the nottoo distant past, Austin and Jessica had
been assaulted by a group of Samoansaffiliated with the Islander Bloods who burst into
(32:37):
their home with guns wanting money.According to conflicting reports, this was over
a credit card scam gone wrong,or a twelve hundred dollars COVID voucher or
some check thing, who the hellknows. Another person said that the last
time he saw the two, theywere in fear for their lives because they
(33:00):
had done something quote bad. Anotherreport said that Austin had discovered a bullet
in the mailbox that literally had hisname on it. Other reports said that
two men, one described as quoteChinese black guy and the other guy named
t Mac came looking for Austin knockingon doors in the neighborhood. The investigation
(33:25):
was all over the place until theKing's County Sheriff's Office made an arrest on
an unrelated matter. They picked upJennifer Leon for carjacking. During the investigation,
she denied jacking any car and insistedthat she borrowed it with permission.
(33:45):
Eventually, she just burst into tearsand uttered a confession Alian like I said,
if I wanted to toss you injail with no question to ask,
you had already been there. Jen. She would go on to tell them
(34:09):
she had a reason to believe theman that owned the house she was staying
at murdered two people. The deputiesasked a few more questions before realizing she
had information about the recent bodies discoveredon Al Chai Beach. They contacted the
PD and got in touch with DetectiveCooper. This is regarding the case I'm
(34:30):
investigating up in Seattle and there's acouple of people in it, two victims,
and it's a homicide case. Firstof all, did you know that
my two victims? I did notknow them personally, and I had never
seen them personally. I just knowthat they were residences in the bedroom that
I now I am a residence atOkay And who's your current landlord? His
(34:53):
name is Michael Dudley d U DL E y Okay. I thought he
was a great guy. He's reallysoft spoken, older man, had a
huge house. Jennifer found herself ina bit of a domestic violence situation and
went to stay with Michael Dudley.He had a householl to himself before COVID,
(35:16):
he rented rooms on Airbnb, butsince he relied on word of mouth,
so Mike old landlord and Mike Michael, my current landlord are friends.
So that's how I came about meMike. So he moved me out of
June eighth because I was in avalid situation, and he brought all my
items over there. However, Idid not technically show up at his house
(35:40):
until like the ninth of June.Was anybody else there? No, it
was super super quiet. My friendKimberly wasn't even there. But this Mike's
glasses had been broken and he hadlooked like he had been in a scuffle.
He had like what I would callit, scratches and everything. She
(36:02):
was concerned about his condition. She'dseen him less than twenty four hours earlier
and he was fine. Now hehad scratches and the glasses were broken.
As I asked him if he's okay, that's when he turns to the computer
and starts texting me and telling meweird things. Apparently, the two residents
were rending in the room upstairs.He had told me he had to try
(36:27):
to lock him out of his housetwice the day, and that people are
trash and they steal from me,and YadA, YadA, YadA. He
used to come over to Dave's houseand complain what piece of shits so that
they are that they don't pay himrent, they don't move out. Yeah,
ok so you know they already hadlike a that he already had bad
(36:49):
jiju with him at that point.He emailed me a couple of weird things.
I got kind of spooked out,and I left and and he'd come
back for a couple of morning.She asked him if he was okay.
Rather than tell her face to face, he chose to email her while she
was in the same room. Ifthat wasn't weird enough. The cryptic answer
to her question, which amounted tolittle more than bitching about tenants, creeped
(37:14):
her out. She laughed, buteventually had to go back. Me and
Kim both came home to take ashower. It came, took a shower,
left, I took a shower andopened the fucking door. After taking
a shower, she opened the doorto the room formerly occupied by Austin and
Jessica. She immediately regretted what shesaw. I opened the door, and
(37:37):
right here on the ground is heapsof clothing. I can see the figure
of a body like he'd like,and then the hands sitting up. Okay,
and it's just mumber, bloody Ann. That's it officially. You don't
know it's Austin. No, Idon't know. I don't even see a
face. All I saw was abody and a bloody Anne. Fearing that
(38:00):
she may be in a worse situationthan she was previously, she ran downstairs
and tried to play off the sightingas a joke. Her only chance for
survival was to play along with Dudley. Now my has cameras and computers everywhere
because he's directly underneath me. Heknows everything, every creek. So I
(38:23):
immediately shut the door Juel Mary andwalk down the stairs and go tell him
I did a fuck up. Andhe looked at me. He's like,
why said I did something in yourhouse? I shouldn't have it? Did
right now? I just opened thedoor and he looked at me. Then
I, my dumb ass, sayssomething like to the fact that, well,
(38:47):
don't worry, Halloween's my favorite holitayand I love props, And he
started laughing his ass off. Okay, and then that was it. A
couple hours later he told me,is there somewhere he can drop me because
he needs to clean up the messDudley offered her his truck keys to get
her out of the house. WhileI'm doing this, he's getting plastic and
(39:08):
where the wash basin is and theWashington dryer is there. He covered everything,
the ceiling, every part of thatpart of the downstairs with thick,
clear plastic. I wouldn't let himgo back there. I couldn't tell her
why, but I just I kepther with me most of the time,
and I told her, just pleasedon't go back there. I can't say
(39:30):
anything, but just don't go backto the house. He's not happy with
you. I was trying to makeBenny excuse so pretty much. No.
She stayed gone for seven days,but with nowhere else to go, she
eventually went back. So after Icame back after seven days, because I
started thinking, I got somebody's killedsomebody for you know, and I'm sitting
(39:53):
away in seven days and then comeback and he might be mad, But
he wasn't mad with me because ittook now much longer to clean up.
When I did come back the dayafter, I wasn't even talking about this
is origin because I don't want totalk about it. And he kept saying,
your room's ready for you. Yourroom's ready for you. I said,
why are you having me go andmoving that room? Because Kim's not
(40:15):
there no more? He goes,why do you think Foustin's name is still
on my brokeo TV? Every timeI turn it off? It psychot really
fucked me up every day? Whydon't you turn on TV up? Fuck
me up? Every day? Fuckme up? For some reason, I
said, what happened? And hesaid, let's just put this way.
His gun is fired and minded itokay, Magic Mike. I call him
(40:40):
Magic Mike because he makes things thatdisappear. He thinks as funny other than
some strange email correspondence with Dudley,Jennifer claimed to have more proof anything else
in that room besides what you sawafter he cleaned up. I mean,
it's the room, furniture in itnow or anything like that. Yeah,
yeah, And I just looked downand ordered something yesterday. You're gonna freak
(41:02):
out. Looks like a bullet hole. Actually, and at the foot of
the bed that looked like a bulletwas grace too. I've opened a nice
tend a million times, and forsome reason, I was looking at it
yesterday and it's a round hole andit looks like a straight blow hole.
At that point, I couldn't reportto anybody because I was scared for my
(41:22):
you know what I'm saying. Butafter I found out that that girl was
shot multiple times, they have kids, I couldn't. Jennifer had pictures of
what appeared to be bullet holes inthe furniture from the room Austin and Jessica
used to live in. She claimedto have seen a body and a bloody
hand poorly hidden under a pile oflaundry, and she had saved emails between
(41:47):
her and Dudley providing a timeline forthe murder and dismemberment. June ninth,
twenty twenty, when they checked withBeryon PD for the police history at the
house, they found another clue,quite a big one one one what are
you recording? Hi? My husbandand I believe that we just heard guy
(42:10):
class next door and now we canhear somebody screaming for help. It's it's
directly, it's kind of in ourbackyard to the right. It's like our
next door neighbor. What they're inthe guards So they're technically like not on
our street, okay, but ourhouse borders with their backyard, okay,
and just feel like a man ora woman screaming, or tenny too,
(42:32):
it sounds like a man. Okay, you didn't see anything. You just
heard the press and then nob yelling. Correct. On the evening of June
ninth, before the sun was evenall the way down, the gunnersons heard
could only be gunshots coming from insidetheir neighbor's house, but the neighbor wasn't
(42:54):
on the same street. It facedthe street behind them. Jory Sates and
Honora six South one six sixthen toAbas house starts one to zero three South
one six sixth street. Happy said, the house out of her backyard,
(43:15):
and I heard what's kind of likea couple of shots, and now a
man's only yelling. Can't see anythingthat's going on two zero three South one
six sixteen units were dispatched quickly.Shots fired was a far more urgent called
than a stinky bag on the beach. And when what are you reporting?
(43:35):
All right? My wife called justa minute ago about possible gunshots next door
and someone screaming for help. Theactual address for our neighbor's house, because
it's our backyard neighbor is one sixfour six six and bomb bulevardself. Have
you heard any additional disturbance since then? Yeah, the the kind of they
(43:59):
yelling, kind of can can.Dan's just asking for help, saying please
stop, don't do this. Letme just leave, Let me just leave,
Let me just leave. Oh,I athleet they're arriving now, I
wann't sure to go talk to them, like if I want to tell them
where they're going. They're getting myupdates all right, thank you, sir.
Officers showed up in minutes. Somany officers got this fast because it
(44:22):
was a serious call out. Itwas an allegation of gunshots at the neighbor's
house and somebody yelling Helen, isthat correct? Periand's a dangerous city.
Shot calls are frequent, so anytimesomething like that happens, if people are
available as many goals can for oursafety. After checking in with the gunnersons,
(44:49):
they raced through the backyard and overthe fence. They searched the entire
property. They knocked on the door, but no one answered. They checked
o every window, every door,every opening. Nothing was broken and they
couldn't see inside. The detached barnwas empty, The grounds were quiet.
(45:14):
There was no indication anything was goingon. I didn't find any gunshots,
didn't find anything broken, a brokenglass, no one in distress, no
one injured, nothing to indicate thatthere was a need to enter the residence.
They called me and they just theysaid that nobody was answering the door,
(45:39):
and so since they didn't have asearch one, they couldn't go inside.
So that was the extent of whatthey could do at the time.
Yeah, they stopped by and saidthat they didn't they didn't see anything or
hear anything, and nobody answered.If only they had found owned a reason
(46:00):
to go inside, they would haverealized that Dudley had just murdered Austin and
Jessica. In the days and weeksto follow, the Gunnersons noticed something else
unusual. No, I mean,the only thing that I remember smelling from
(46:22):
the Dudley property was an extremely pungentand overwhelming smell of rotting. It was
the smell of when you forget thatyou had left meat and your refrigerator and
(46:44):
it turns bad and you open upthe package and it's just rotten. It
smelled like that, but a milliontimes more powerful. The police investigation into
(47:23):
the human remains found in bags alongthe Alkai Beach and the Duwamish River land
to Michael Dudley. The discovery ofthe nine one one calls about gunshots and
the eventual horrendous smell emanating from hishome, combined with the witness statement from
Jennifer Leon and Jessica's phone records,gave the police enough for a search and
(47:50):
a rest warrant. The last timeJessica's phone was on was the ninth and
the last tower it connected to wasin the area the home. Dudley was
lured away from his home by theKing County Sheriff's Office claiming they had a
development in the case of Dudley's recentlypoisoned chickens, and he was swarmed and
(48:13):
taken into custody. Okay, mydetective Pole, I did not charge myself,
So you have no idea what it'sabout. Am I under arrest?
You said, Tanning, you're anarrest that's why you're where. Am I
under a rose? Well, we'reinvestigating to death and so a couple of
(48:37):
people that's supposed to have been seeingat your face? Are you talking about
lots? So yeah, so technicallyto bring you in here, you're under
arrest for further relate to their deathinvestigation of homicide? Are you know your
mind? You're saying I film,Well that's what I want to talk to
you about. If you didn't doit, then I didn't good Okay,
(49:01):
my friends, Okay, then okay. People are saying you had something to
do with it. It was sayingI just need to ask questions, that's
all you have. Well, Igot a question, people, Why are
you think you're come and ask methis? Like a month ago? I
would think that if they have beenliving there, you would just come to
(49:21):
talk to me first. Well,and who are these people? A number
of people? Okay, did yousee anything about them in the news about
uh yeah, okay, So whatdo you see all about the news?
I've heard something about the Alakaye beach, you know and worship and suitcase full
of derbage? Answer okay. Anddid you hear anything about it cause of
(49:45):
death or anything like you know they'vebeen sean or anything like that. I've
read something about that. Yeah,okay. So with that being said,
people were like pointing the finger atyou. I go out there, I'm
getting a hold on with the fingerof it. People that know you that
maybe don't like you, Okay,so I'm just woo who doesn't like it?
(50:06):
Well? Again, well we allthey're not everybody likes everybody. Okay,
there's people that don't like that.Well, I can't again, I
told you, but I'm gonna tellyou who it is. I can't do
that. Dudley played the part ofan old man. Well, he fell
asleep while waiting for detectives to questionhim, and when they finally did,
(50:27):
he tried to place the blame onthem. Why did you call police?
Always went for you guys to callman, I figured you'd be right there
when we did call White, Whydidn't you you? Uh, there's really
nothing to report, and I figured, you know, you'd be there.
I thought there isn't that part ofyour standard procedure. Yeah, but he
(50:49):
was kind of sitting there like,wonder what you know, where the hell
you guys have been? And nowI started wondering what the hell was going
on? I mean there were peoplethat knew them. Listen, you did,
I mean you you pretty much roomwith him, They lived with him.
I had a guy from Eachreshan thathadn't talked to him for four years
and called us. So, Imean, do you see why you were
(51:14):
kind of perplexed. Well, Iwas perplexed too, I mean, you
know, Dudley claimed he expected tobe interviewed after he heard the news of
Austin and Jessica's untimely demise, butwhen it didn't happen, he didn't bother
involving himself. I mean, whywould you so when Austin and Jessa were
(51:37):
staying there? I mean, anybodyelse standing there when you guys are you
guys were just on lockdown. Wewere on lockdown. Okay, did you
have any problems with Austin at all? I mean, uh, very frog
I had with him was sealing it. Everybody says he would steal anything if
it wasn't long. He was afreaking prolific Steve. But yeah, again,
(51:59):
we were quarantine together, and youknow, you know, uh got
to know him pret good and hergot to know him both pretty good.
And he he said that's what hedid. He you know, he would
(52:22):
prefer to do that over work.There's a lot of people that probably would
have wanted him to that way.When Dudley was asked to elaborate on the
other people that would want Austin dead, he brought up the same false leads
from earlier in the investigation. Youknow, he would go on and on
(52:45):
about you know, his conspiracies andthis and that, and but then he
said, oh no, no,it wasn't messmotives. If I got this
right, you know, he robbedthe simoons, who robbed the Mexicans,
who owed money to some curtail.Well, then say what he what he
(53:12):
robbed from this moment, said itwas like the douppel bags full of dove
beyond the stories about Samoan drug dealinggang members. Quite a new one for
me, and I've been doing thisfor a while. Detectives wanted to know
about Dudley's relationship with the two.So you didn't have a beef with them
at all? Oh, it's alittle beast with him, you know.
(53:35):
I was always you know, well, I mean like a beef my friend
with my friend. He claimed tobe their friend, but was upset about
the stealing and not paying rent.I gotta ask you, do you ever
shoot your gun in your house?Uh? I have occasionally, Uh uh
(54:00):
I have a miss fire. Okaysometimes Can you explain that to me?
What are your friends with people finding? I mean, well, they're in
the blue room and they there's theysaid, there's a bullet there's two bullet
strikes on the wooden bed frame.So I'm like, yeah, okay,
(54:22):
so can you I mean, yeah, can you explain that I've had that.
I got that from my friend Tom, and you know, I'm there
for a walk one high. Hehad an excuse for everything, and no
one has anybody ever been injured inthat room or anything, because I would
be in Dover's blood in the roomtoo. Well. Yeah, Jessica cut
(54:45):
her eighteen stitches in her thigh andshe was walking around with one of these
uh what do you call them?Pressure washers? You come on, oh,
yeah, that'll do it. Heplaying the bed frame was used,
and he didn't know anything about bulletstrikes. If they found any blood,
(55:06):
it could have been from the timeJessica cut her leg and required stitches.
I also have cadaver dogs out there. You know what a cadaver dog is,
right, okay, And they're they'relurning down in the basement and stuff
like that to stuff, and there'ssome scenes down there and stuff like that.
I'm asking if there's a reason whyhe's in I was dead. Body's
(55:29):
in my BASI, I'm sure ofthat. Okay, that way, even
in the chicken coop or anything likethat, you can go have a look
and they're about to cut a holein the wall to retrieve a bullet.
Sudley feigned ignorance to everything the detectivebrought up. I mean, Austin and
Jessica lived at your place. Thatwas the last place saying with that,
and they actually told people if somethingbad happened to me, you know this
(55:52):
Mike motherfucker did shit to me.I'm just telling you, well, his
mom told me that. They said, if anything bad ever happened to us,
look at Mike. Why would theyI don't know. That's why I'm
asking you. Why would they sayto her? I mean, I'm trying
to get to your side of thestory. If something happened to them there
(56:14):
and you know something about it,this is probably the time you want to
tell us. I I said,I didn't kill him, and I don't
know what happened to them. Dudleydenied at all, even with all the
little pieces of evidence that pointed inhis direction. He maintained that they just
(56:37):
moved out suddenly, and the nextthing he knew, they were all over
the news. Michael Dudley was arrestedand charged with the murders of Austin Winner
and Jessica Lewis after the forensic teamfound evidence in their former bedroom. A
hole in the wall that was recentlypatched and paid it over revealed a bullet.
(57:02):
They also found a minute drop ofblood that matched Austin. He would
plead not guilty and proceed the trial. After a long two month trial and
a day and a half of jurydeliberations, he was found guilty of two
(57:22):
counts of second degree murder. Thefamilies of Austin and Jessica wept when the
verdict was read. I'm so overwhelmedright now, it's hard to even come
up with the words. But myson is shining down from up above and
saying, you got a mom,And I just want to think the detect
(57:51):
us for letting us be one ofthe lucky ones that hopefully this animals off
the streets. Now the world isa safer place without Michael Dudley in it.
Everybody can rest easy tonight because ofthat. On December sixth, twenty
(58:13):
twenty two, Michael Dudley was sentencedto a little less than forty seven years
in prison. Michael Dudley killed AustinWinner and Jessica Lewis. His reason was
simple. He didn't want them inhis house anymore, and the laws made
it hard for him to get ridof them. They didn't pay, they
(58:37):
lied, they cheated, and theystole. They brought drama, negativity,
and stress along with them, andthat's always bad. Michael Dudley was trapped.
But what Austin and Jessica didn't realizewas that they were trapped also.
(59:00):
Cure would be worse than the disease. They all collectively ignored all of the
red flags, waving furiously, andthen one evening, when Dudley had had
enough of them, he decided toremove them from his life and the planet
(59:22):
altogether. Rather than go through thecomplex and expensive process of eviction, magic,
Mike just tried to make them disappear. All right, that's gonna do
(59:53):
it. Thanks again for supporting Swordand Scale. We can't say this enough.
You guys are awesome. Thank youfor being patient with us. Well,
we get this new app roll outgoing, and uh look there's a
lot more updates coming. We're gonnaadd auto play, we're gonna add offline
downloads. We're gonna add a shuffleall that stuff, so just calm down,
(01:00:14):
it's coming. Oh yeah, let'sstay safe. Hi. I just
(01:01:29):
wanted to say that I love thepodcast so much that it is the very
first time I have ever paid orput money towards the podcast. Maybe I
shouldn't be proud of that, butI know other people identify with me when
they get the notification that Apple hittheir bank and took a charge out,
(01:01:49):
and you go in thinking what didI forget to cancel? Which free subscription
did I forget? But it's thispodcast, so Story of Scale is worth
it. Not gonna ask for arefrom on that, And I can't wait
to hear the next stop. Soman,
Sword and Scale contains adult themes andviolence, and is not intended for all
audiences. Listener discretion is advice.Like I said, right, if I
wanted to toss you in jail withno questions to ask, you had already
been there would so. How youliking that new app? This is episode
(00:27):
two hundred and sixty of Sword andScale, a show that reveals that the
worst monsters are real? Well,here we are. We've launched, and
(01:03):
I have a cold because I've beenworking way too hard. But it's here,
the app, the website, it'sbeautiful and of course if you go
there to sortinscale dot com that isyou will see the making of That is
the title of our documentary about themaking of Sword and Scale television. It's
(01:26):
free to watch. I highly highlysuggest doing so. It's what we've been
working on for the last year anda half or so. And while we're
on the topic of paying for things, we are still having some issues with
a few customers not being able tolog into their accounts. If you do
have an issue, please email supportat Sword and Scale dot com. Gerdie
(01:49):
at Customer Support will be happy tohelp you log into your active account.
We asked that Before you do so, though, you make sure you know
what your login is, and youcan do that by searching the email you
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then that's probably not the email youused. That'll help us a lot because
(02:09):
we have a very small support staff. In fact, it's just curty.
It's just curty, so be niceto it. Please be careful of who
(02:35):
you let into your life. Relationships, even casual ones, can have a
profound effect on you. Building meaningfulrelationships takes time. You have to build
trust, set boundaries, and havehonest communication. Without patience and time,
no relationship has a chance. Sowatch out for the red flags, avoid
(03:02):
those that bring any negativity or dramaor stress along with them. Be cautious
of people with a history of toxicor unhealthy past behavior, and prioritize your
own well being Otherwise someday it mightfind yourself trapped. It was a beautiful
(03:54):
summer day in Seattle. A groupof kids were eager to get out and
go do something anything. It wasa nice day out, so we just
went to on Kay Beach for awalk. After what felt like an eternity
in COVID lockdown. They decided togo to the al Chaive Beach Park.
(04:15):
If you stand on the pier,the view of the Seattle skyline is unmatched.
Natalie Castillon was in that group ofkids. I was with my friend
Henry and my other friend Keaviy.We already knew what we kind of wanted
to do for the day, butwe just randomly selected a location. They
randomly selected a location using a newapp that was trending on social media,
(04:41):
Random Nautica. Our original plan waswe wanted to see the statue's like a
fake statue of liberty at the endof the strip of Al Kay, but
we also wanted to rando not.It was like a trend that was going
on on TikTok at that time.We just basically like, down with this.
Ob you a random location, andI guess when you get to those
locations you see like random things.I guess, And yeah, it's like
(05:06):
our first time doing it. RandomNautica is an app that gives you random
GPS coordinates that may or may notlead you to whatever you intended when you
prompted the app. Yeah, Iknow it sounds weird. It just basically
gives you a settle locations and yougo there and maybe there's something there,
(05:27):
maybe there isn't fill in your ownimagination, but on this day it led
the group to al Kai Beach onDuwamish Head, overlooking Elliott Bay on the
Puget Sound with the skyline of Seattlein the background. I'd say it's a
good amount of people on the sidewalkwalking just because it was a hot summer
day, so it's pretty typical togo to al Kai. The park was
(05:50):
busy that beautiful summer day, withpeople walking and admiring the view from the
pier. We all notice that thoughas a sit down by the rocks on
the overlooking I think it was justlike a coincidence that we saw that we
were talking about. I think onthe drive there, we were talking about
random nodding, and we were talkingabout like traveling and we wanted to get
(06:14):
money or something like that. Itwas like a weird conversation. So when
we saw it, it was justlike a like an aha moment, like,
Oh, that's such a coincidence.We're talking about traveling in the car
and then we're talking about random nodding, and people find crazy stuff on randomnot
so we were like, let's justsee what's down there, and we were
like, this could be something funto record. At that time, guys
(06:38):
were kind of On the drive toal Chai Park, the group talked about
travel and coming into a lot ofmoney right before prompting the app for coordinates.
When they saw the black suitcase onthe rocks beneath the pier, they
thought it couldn't be a coincidence.They joke with each other that it was
(07:00):
probably a suitcase full of money.We were curious, so we went to
go see what it was. Itwas just like a suitcase. We started
on tipping it, pretty normal suitcase, no tear anything to it, just
(07:24):
how like a weird smell the closeryou got to it. Obviously didn't really
think too much of it. There'sa lot of garbage out there A lot
of the times. I didn't reallythink it was going to be what it
turned out to be. But yeah, it was just a normal suitcase.
They dismissed the odd odor because itwas obviously floating in the bay before being
(07:45):
washed onto the rocks with other piecesof garbage. We were curious. We
actually opened it up. Thanks y'all, Just like a really foul odor,
so we stopped opening it halfway.We left it there, and then we
were kind of still in this weirdchildish fog of just like pretending it's not
(08:09):
what we think it could be.We were just joking on saying it's probably
just like garbage and a suitcase thatjust washed up, and we stopped and
we were kind of talking about whatif situations, and then stopped for probably
like a good five minutes six minutes, just sitting there fighting the morbid idea
that this was a suitcase filled witha dead body. They hesitated to open
(08:31):
it, but of course, justlike a cat, their curiosity got the
better of them, and we sawa black plastic trash bag and it was
wrapping something. It was trash bags, and then they're just in the suitcase.
(08:54):
We could see that they were tightlyplaced on where something was inside of
the bags that were making them verytight, But there were bags in there.
The trash bags inside the suitcase werestuffed full of large, heavy objects,
pulling the plastic bag taut around them. Undeterred or perhaps overly curious,
(09:18):
they continue to investigate the rancid bag. So there was a stick that we
had and Gabby was very curious aboutwas in the bags, and we were
already hesitant because of the smell,and we found like a little it wasn't
a huge tearry. It was justlike some a good soft spot for a
(09:39):
stick to get in there, andGabby just kind of twisted a little bit
moved it in. The smell immediatelygot ten times worse. It was just
very pungent, very strong, evenwith like a face mask. I was
wearing a face mask. It wasvery strong. It's just like it just
takes you off your feet a littlebit. Couldn't really, I don't know.
(10:01):
It's pretty harsh, so I don'tknow. It definitely wasn't money in
this bag. With a hole pokedthrough the outer bag, they caught a
glimpse of what was inside. Sleeklike me and I thought it was like
(10:22):
food or any something like that.With the dissatisfying discovery that the bag was
not full of money, the groupwanted to leave, but Natalie called the
police. Okay, so she's callingthe police, so we can't see if
it's actually a dead body or it'sjust food. What is your emergency?
(10:43):
Hi? You know, we founda suitcase on uamash in upide beach and
it has a pretty bad mouth andit's a black trash bag, so yeah,
there's something in it. Okay,where where did you find it?
Exactly? Man? Not knowing theaddress to the park itself, Natalie's eyes
(11:07):
darted from building to building across thestreet, searching for an address. Eleven
fifty Alkai perfect one one five zeroAlchai Avenue Southwest. Is that the number
on the building? Yeah, okay, perfect. So you're on the on
the across the street, on theside of the water, is that correct?
Yeah? And the suitcases on therock okay, okay. Did you
(11:28):
open the suitcase and there was ablack trash bag inside? Yeah, So
me and my friends were interested inwhat was in it, so we opened
it up that there was a blackclass by and we just called okay,
so it was on the rocks bythe water, and he said, there's
a pretty foul smell. Yeah,okay, I have a call in.
We're going to try to be therejust as quickly as we can. I'll
(11:50):
let officers know you and we're standingby with your friends. Okay, okay,
all righty, thank you, thankyou nice. The group waited for
the police to arrive but the PDwas overwhelmed or understaffed, and a call
about a weird smelling suitcase on thebeach wasn't really the highest priority. They
(12:11):
waited and waited, but nobody evershowed up. What did your emergency?
Hi? So I called about anhour and a half ago, Okay,
and we found a suitcase that's likereally just it's like in a black bag
(12:31):
and it smells really Badness flies allaround it. Okay, So has anything
changed since you last called? Whathas anything changed since you last called?
No, but the water is risingand the suitcase is about to get covered.
Okay, I'll go ahead and makethat notation. How long do you
(12:52):
think it is until the point helpus arrive? Oh? I don't know.
Yeah, we don't have that information. I wouldn't be able to tell
you, Okay. Elliott Bay isdirectly connected to the Pacific Ocean and as
such is subject to the tides.In the time since Natalie's first nine one
(13:13):
one call, the tide had comein and started pulling the suitcase into the
open water. Well one, whatis your emergency? Hi? We were
saying that some people were done atAlcai and they were just really hyper alert.
We're at like the historical point ofinterests with Little Park and Alke in
West Seattle, and they said theyrecorded a couple of hours ago a suitcase,
(13:37):
and we just went and they werelike pointing it out for us that
they seem I guess they looked atit and are convinced that there's human remains
in there. Honestly, I didn'tgo down and look at it, but
they're genuinely concerned. Okay, yeah, it looks uick. We have a
call. We are aware that they'rewaiting. We're going to get somebody out
there. We're just waiting for anofficer become available, clear up from a
(13:58):
previous nine lum one call, sowe'll be in hand. Okay, all
right, thank you, ma'mby bye. When the police finally showed up,
the kids had already gone hello.Did hear me? Yeah? I kind
of okay. Are you still inthe area or did you have to leave?
I waited for a while, butwe had to leave too long.
(14:22):
I'll let you know to check itout. Thanks Officer Terrell with this.
Seattle PD was the first to arriveon the scene, nearly two hours after
the original call. Now the rockskind of right off the pier, there
was a loved bag kind of likea black roller bag. I could clearly
(14:43):
see that it was open and itwas empty. He took the little path
to the side of the pier downto the rocks to get a closer look
at the bag, and that's whenI saw a black treshe that was floating
in the water, just several notparticularly far, just a couple of feet
(15:05):
away from the rocks. The blacktrash bag the kids saw inside the suitcase
was now bobbing in the tide.I wouldn't say that I identified exactly what
was kind of protruding out of thebay, but I remember thinking that it
looked like the upper chest of aperson, specifically the pectoral region. I
(15:31):
saw what appeared to be a nipple, and I remember thinking it looked like
a human torso, but wasn't surecould have been an animal or something like
that. So at the time Iwanted more resources and more assistants, so
(15:54):
I requested the assistance of fire departmentbecause they had like tools that could reach
out there. And I kind ofmade the inclination on the radio to describe
it as like something organic. Ithink I said organic matter because I didn't
want to kind of jump the gunand say what I thought it might be
(16:15):
erring on the side of caution.He didn't want to claim something that wasn't
true. He needed to get thebag out of the water to confirm what
was inside. Hello, radio,where would you guys be able to send
some resources down to one one fivezero al Chiavenue Southwest. Basically, we
(16:40):
went down there. We found asuitcase that they're trying to retreat it from
the rocks down there, and ithas a foul smell coming from it,
and it looks like to be anorganic matter in it. Okay, alrighty,
I'll send a truck down there,all right, thank you? Yep.
Byway, waiting for the fire departmentto arrive, he made another discovery
(17:02):
when that would cement his fear.I saw on the rocks kind of further
east, closer to the road,was another black bag looked like a Duffel
bag. It was close enough thatthere was a stick or kind of a
(17:22):
log nearby that I could kind offish it, like push it towards me.
When I was picking up I couldthe light kind of highlight of what
was inside the trash rag wasn't entirelyseen through, but it was clear enough
that I could instantly recognize that insidethe trash rag was afoot. The call
(17:45):
not prioritized would now spark a frenzyof activity. The police, fire department,
and even the harbor Patrol would descendon al Qai Beach and the surrounding
waters. After the report of foundhuman and remains in a suitcase. A
(18:29):
suitcase and duffel bag discovered on alQai Beach were found to contain human remains,
authorities scrambled to investigate. A callthat took forever for the police to
respond to ended up being the beginningof a huge investigation. The medical examiner
came to the scene to start heranalysis. It was immediately clear they were
(18:55):
dealing with much more than a simplemurder. Some bags can two heads,
hands, feet, an arm.It was obvious that they were dealing with
at least a double murder and dismemberment. It was clear that there were two
(19:15):
people in the bags. She foundtwo severed heads, part of a torso,
a female pelvis identified by the ovaries, and uterus, two feet and
three hands, one still attached tothe forearm. There was a lot missing,
(19:36):
but there was hopefully enough to identifythe remains. They released a statement
to the public to try to getahead of the probable media storm, but
it was already too late. Werebasically want to do a trend to post
on random notting, and it wasthe summer, during a pandemic. We
didn't really have a lot of optionsof entertainment, and that was just the
(20:02):
source of it. And I don'tknow, maybe I was just very into
the idea of showing this and like, I'm like, I had such a
very crazy, surreal experience, Iwanted to just like document it first.
We want to be give us somebreaking news. Seattle police are investigating after
several bags filled with human remains werefound near the water on Alke Avenue this
(20:25):
afternoon. Police are saying they gotthe call about a suspicious bag on the
beach and another one was located inthe water. Police determined the contents to
be human remains. Police say bagscontaining human remains were discovered first. A
viral social media video claims to showthe discovery of human remains near Alcai.
It appears a group of young peoplemade a video of that discovery. So
(20:48):
we just found this suitcase and we'regoing to get it. It's basically opening
it up with the sticks. Theyadded music and graphics and put it on
TikTok. It has got a couplemillion views. With the news reports and
more specifically the viral TikTok post,the story of the suitcase full of human
remains spread pretty quickly social media doesthat Seattle was gripped with fear and reports
(21:17):
came pouring in. He had apolice operator thirty one I have. This
is unfortunate to say that. Ijust wanted to make sure that it wasn't
relevant. Were at park this morningand there was the suitcase. She had
a police for you reporting. Hi. I am Diane Cargner, live in
West Seattle. The reason I'm callingis I saw a man walking down Harbor
(21:45):
Avenue the beach thing with a blackbag on wheels. I don't know if
that black bag that had the humanremains that stretch of Alcoho, I don't
think I've ever seen anybody walking witha rolling bag. He had a police
upper or went out by. Hi. I am calling because I saw something
(22:07):
last week, but I just takeit out of my mind and I wanted
to let you guys know there werethe car parks and on the side of
the road, heading each with theirtrunk open and their cold open, and
there a car there, and thena man came out of the woods dragging
(22:30):
a big black bag. Reports ofmysterious luggage and strange trash bags spotted in
the days and weeks leading up tothe discovery came in. One man,
an active rower, spotted trash bagsfloating down the river. I was out
along one day and a single,rowing with a couple of friends, and
(22:53):
you know, I basically ran overtrash bag in the river, and it
was pretty it down. It wasn'tlike, you know, the bulk of
it, like an iceberg or something. The bulk of the thing was below
the water, so I didn't seeit, and I actually kind of ran
over it, and I thought thatwas weird, But I was in a
(23:14):
single and there's no good way tolike explore something or so left it alone.
And then I forget if it was. The day after or two days
after, I was coaching with theyouth and we saw a trash bag again
about the same area, but itwas a different trash bag. It was
clearly not the same one I sawthe other day, and it was floating
higher in the water, but abig, black, kind of hefty trash
(23:38):
bag, like an industry you know, it's a big and I remember one
of the youth throwers was joking like, oh, you should go open it
up and see what's in there,and I was like, no way,
we're not doing that. You seeoccasional debris, maybe a drink bottle or
something, but you don't see trashbags ever. It's just not something you
(23:59):
see floating down the river. Withthe story's exposure, everyone was taking notice
of strange bags, especially near thewater. A couple of days after the
case hit the news, they gotanother strange call, leading to yet another
bag upriver. We arrived at thearea and we were doing our usual dog
(24:22):
walk and we made our way tothe southeastern corner where the river accesses,
and our dogs were down by thewater. And when we looked down there,
we noticed there was a suitcase floatingat the water's edge. Well,
(24:45):
it seemed odd, and I thoughtit was suspicious the suitcase would be floating,
that there was something buoyant inside ofit. I went down to the
water's edge and the suitcase was floatingon a couple of feet off of the
(25:06):
bank. So I grabbed a stickthat was nearby, and I pulled the
suitcase to shore. Once I pulledthe suitcase to shore, I opened it
partially to see what was inside ofit, and I observed some trash bags.
(25:27):
Once I saw those trash bags,I used that same stick to tear
open one of the bags and seewhat was inside, and I observed a
piece of what I interpreted to behuman skin that was unidentifiable as to what
(25:47):
part of the body I was lookingat, but it didn't have a tattoo
on it. The medical examiner hurriedto the scene. The CFBs were the
missing pieces to her two bodies.So there are multiple mingled remains once again,
including legs, arms, and multipleplastic bags. In addition, there
were other miscellaneous items, including clothesand a knife. So these body parts
(26:15):
were the body parts that belonged tothe same individuals that I had examined that
day, and so with the additionalbody parts, I was able to add
them to each of the respective bodies. So there were some tattoos. There
were pieces of skin that had tattoosthat were not attached to the body part
that fit other body parts that werelater recovered. Also, the way the
(26:41):
bones were dismembered, were able tosort of fit the pieces together, sort
of like a puzzle piece. Themedical examiner used tattoos and saw marks to
piece the bodies back together. Allin all, she had one male head,
one female head, one male uppertorso, one female lower torso,
(27:06):
three hands, two legs, twomale arms, four feet, and one
arm with a hand attached quite thejigsaw puzzle. Two hands and two feet
were determined to belong to the femalebecause the nails were painted pink. The
female hand attached to its forearms stillhad two rings on the fingers. Luckily,
(27:30):
they were able to pull prints fromthe water saturated hands and come back
with an identification. The two victimswere twenty seven year old Austin Winner and
thirty five year old Jessica Lewis.Besides being dismembered, their actual cause of
death was bullet wounds. After theidentification, the police had the daunting task
(27:55):
of informing the families. Here's Jessica'saunt, Gina, remembering her. She's
like a raised sunshine. She helpedto develop me disabled people she worked when
was a caregiver like that, anda lot of patients that I don't have.
Austin and Jessica had been together fornearly a decade. The other girlfriend
(28:18):
Jessica. Yes, I'm not completelysure, but I know it was a
number of years. Austin and Jessicawere eight years apart, but despite their
age difference, they were incredibly close, inseparable. They loved each other as
a couple. They experienced a seriesof trials and tribulations in life, but
(28:42):
they always stuck together. I mean, they had their struggles like we all
do. That just shows how muchthey did care for each other. They
didn't never leave each other when thingsgot hard or rough, and they always
stuck it out or the ups anddowns. When Jessica's aunt Gina first heard
(29:04):
the news, she was absolutely broken. Everyone, however, was told they
were both shot. They didn't mentionwhat else happened. My brother's shock when
he told me what happened, andjust their hurt. Of course, the
(29:26):
families of Austin and Jessica had seenthe news and perhaps the viral video.
I mean it was everywhere. Icouldn't even believe that was their story because
I'd seen it trying to look forhim. I don't want them to be
remembered for the brutality. I don'twant them to be remembered in any violent
way. I want them to beremembered for the you know, their humanity
(29:52):
and their kindness. Accepting that bothJessica and Austin suffered horrible ends the family,
little solace, I want to believethat they didn't suffer. They were
people, They were real people andwho were loved. The investigation was far
from over doing their due diligence.The police interviewed family and friends, and
(30:15):
sub peanut phone records. The lasttime either of them had been seen by
Austin's parents was three weeks to amonth prior. Jessica was weeding and she
was planting her son's strawberry plant thathe got. It was a reward,
(30:37):
and so she planted that for himfor me, and then Austin would do
all the weed eating, and hewould mow the lawn and I mean it
offered to eat, feed them,you know that sort of thing. And
then he was going to be doinghelping flatten some area for a shed that
(31:03):
I had gotten. Austin and Jessicaoften helped his mother with her yard.
Austin tried to see his mom atleast once a month. He kept in
contact with his dad on a nearlydaily basis, daily or every other day
it was. It was often.By mid June, Austin's father realized he
(31:25):
hadn't heard from his son in afew weeks and tried to contact him,
and I actually went over to theplace he was staying and looking for him.
They lived together in a room theyrented in the city of Burien.
When Austin's dad went there and talkedto the landlord, he told him something
unexpected, just that they had leftin a hurry and left a mass.
(31:49):
He noticed something strange, however,some of my son's clothing were at the
trash cam. At the base oftrash cam. He thought that was odd,
but knew that Austin and Jessica,while they always stuck together, moved
often. I asked him that ifhe heard from them, would he please
(32:13):
have them contact me, because Iwas worried and hadn't heard from him in
a while. The police investigation revealedsome disturbing information about Austin and Jessica.
There were reports that in the nottoo distant past, Austin and Jessica had
been assaulted by a group of Samoansaffiliated with the Islander Bloods who burst into
(32:37):
their home with guns wanting money.According to conflicting reports, this was over
a credit card scam gone wrong,or a twelve hundred dollars COVID voucher or
some check thing, who the hellknows. Another person said that the last
time he saw the two, theywere in fear for their lives because they
(33:00):
had done something quote bad. Anotherreport said that Austin had discovered a bullet
in the mailbox that literally had hisname on it. Other reports said that
two men, one described as quoteChinese black guy and the other guy named
t Mac came looking for Austin knockingon doors in the neighborhood. The investigation
(33:25):
was all over the place until theKing's County Sheriff's Office made an arrest on
an unrelated matter. They picked upJennifer Leon for carjacking. During the investigation,
she denied jacking any car and insistedthat she borrowed it with permission.
(33:45):
Eventually, she just burst into tearsand uttered a confession Alian like I said,
if I wanted to toss you injail with no question to ask,
you had already been there. Jen. She would go on to tell them
(34:09):
she had a reason to believe theman that owned the house she was staying
at murdered two people. The deputiesasked a few more questions before realizing she
had information about the recent bodies discoveredon Al Chai Beach. They contacted the
PD and got in touch with DetectiveCooper. This is regarding the case I'm
(34:30):
investigating up in Seattle and there's acouple of people in it, two victims,
and it's a homicide case. Firstof all, did you know that
my two victims? I did notknow them personally, and I had never
seen them personally. I just knowthat they were residences in the bedroom that
I now I am a residence atOkay And who's your current landlord? His
(34:53):
name is Michael Dudley d U DL E y Okay. I thought he
was a great guy. He's reallysoft spoken, older man, had a
huge house. Jennifer found herself ina bit of a domestic violence situation and
went to stay with Michael Dudley.He had a householl to himself before COVID,
(35:16):
he rented rooms on Airbnb, butsince he relied on word of mouth,
so Mike old landlord and Mike Michael, my current landlord are friends.
So that's how I came about meMike. So he moved me out of
June eighth because I was in avalid situation, and he brought all my
items over there. However, Idid not technically show up at his house
(35:40):
until like the ninth of June.Was anybody else there? No, it
was super super quiet. My friendKimberly wasn't even there. But this Mike's
glasses had been broken and he hadlooked like he had been in a scuffle.
He had like what I would callit, scratches and everything. She
(36:02):
was concerned about his condition. She'dseen him less than twenty four hours earlier
and he was fine. Now hehad scratches and the glasses were broken.
As I asked him if he's okay, that's when he turns to the computer
and starts texting me and telling meweird things. Apparently, the two residents
were rending in the room upstairs.He had told me he had to try
(36:27):
to lock him out of his housetwice the day, and that people are
trash and they steal from me,and YadA, YadA, YadA. He
used to come over to Dave's houseand complain what piece of shits so that
they are that they don't pay himrent, they don't move out. Yeah,
ok so you know they already hadlike a that he already had bad
(36:49):
jiju with him at that point.He emailed me a couple of weird things.
I got kind of spooked out,and I left and and he'd come
back for a couple of morning.She asked him if he was okay.
Rather than tell her face to face, he chose to email her while she
was in the same room. Ifthat wasn't weird enough. The cryptic answer
to her question, which amounted tolittle more than bitching about tenants, creeped
(37:14):
her out. She laughed, buteventually had to go back. Me and
Kim both came home to take ashower. It came, took a shower,
left, I took a shower andopened the fucking door. After taking
a shower, she opened the doorto the room formerly occupied by Austin and
Jessica. She immediately regretted what shesaw. I opened the door, and
(37:37):
right here on the ground is heapsof clothing. I can see the figure
of a body like he'd like,and then the hands sitting up. Okay,
and it's just mumber, bloody Ann. That's it officially. You don't
know it's Austin. No, Idon't know. I don't even see a
face. All I saw was abody and a bloody Anne. Fearing that
(38:00):
she may be in a worse situationthan she was previously, she ran downstairs
and tried to play off the sightingas a joke. Her only chance for
survival was to play along with Dudley. Now my has cameras and computers everywhere
because he's directly underneath me. Heknows everything, every creek. So I
(38:23):
immediately shut the door Juel Mary andwalk down the stairs and go tell him
I did a fuck up. Andhe looked at me. He's like,
why said I did something in yourhouse? I shouldn't have it? Did
right now? I just opened thedoor and he looked at me. Then
I, my dumb ass, sayssomething like to the fact that, well,
(38:47):
don't worry, Halloween's my favorite holitayand I love props, And he
started laughing his ass off. Okay, and then that was it. A
couple hours later he told me,is there somewhere he can drop me because
he needs to clean up the messDudley offered her his truck keys to get
her out of the house. WhileI'm doing this, he's getting plastic and
(39:08):
where the wash basin is and theWashington dryer is there. He covered everything,
the ceiling, every part of thatpart of the downstairs with thick,
clear plastic. I wouldn't let himgo back there. I couldn't tell her
why, but I just I kepther with me most of the time,
and I told her, just pleasedon't go back there. I can't say
(39:30):
anything, but just don't go backto the house. He's not happy with
you. I was trying to makeBenny excuse so pretty much. No.
She stayed gone for seven days,but with nowhere else to go, she
eventually went back. So after Icame back after seven days, because I
started thinking, I got somebody's killedsomebody for you know, and I'm sitting
(39:53):
away in seven days and then comeback and he might be mad, But
he wasn't mad with me because ittook now much longer to clean up.
When I did come back the dayafter, I wasn't even talking about this
is origin because I don't want totalk about it. And he kept saying,
your room's ready for you. Yourroom's ready for you. I said,
why are you having me go andmoving that room? Because Kim's not
(40:15):
there no more? He goes,why do you think Foustin's name is still
on my brokeo TV? Every timeI turn it off? It psychot really
fucked me up every day? Whydon't you turn on TV up? Fuck
me up? Every day? Fuckme up? For some reason, I
said, what happened? And hesaid, let's just put this way.
His gun is fired and minded itokay, Magic Mike. I call him
(40:40):
Magic Mike because he makes things thatdisappear. He thinks as funny other than
some strange email correspondence with Dudley,Jennifer claimed to have more proof anything else
in that room besides what you sawafter he cleaned up. I mean,
it's the room, furniture in itnow or anything like that. Yeah,
yeah, And I just looked downand ordered something yesterday. You're gonna freak
(41:02):
out. Looks like a bullet hole. Actually, and at the foot of
the bed that looked like a bulletwas grace too. I've opened a nice
tend a million times, and forsome reason, I was looking at it
yesterday and it's a round hole andit looks like a straight blow hole.
At that point, I couldn't reportto anybody because I was scared for my
(41:22):
you know what I'm saying. Butafter I found out that that girl was
shot multiple times, they have kids, I couldn't. Jennifer had pictures of
what appeared to be bullet holes inthe furniture from the room Austin and Jessica
used to live in. She claimedto have seen a body and a bloody
hand poorly hidden under a pile oflaundry, and she had saved emails between
(41:47):
her and Dudley providing a timeline forthe murder and dismemberment. June ninth,
twenty twenty, when they checked withBeryon PD for the police history at the
house, they found another clue,quite a big one one one what are
you recording? Hi? My husbandand I believe that we just heard guy
(42:10):
class next door and now we canhear somebody screaming for help. It's it's
directly, it's kind of in ourbackyard to the right. It's like our
next door neighbor. What they're inthe guards So they're technically like not on
our street, okay, but ourhouse borders with their backyard, okay,
and just feel like a man ora woman screaming, or tenny too,
(42:32):
it sounds like a man. Okay, you didn't see anything. You just
heard the press and then nob yelling. Correct. On the evening of June
ninth, before the sun was evenall the way down, the gunnersons heard
could only be gunshots coming from insidetheir neighbor's house, but the neighbor wasn't
(42:54):
on the same street. It facedthe street behind them. Jory Sates and
Honora six South one six sixthen toAbas house starts one to zero three South
one six sixth street. Happy said, the house out of her backyard,
(43:15):
and I heard what's kind of likea couple of shots, and now a
man's only yelling. Can't see anythingthat's going on two zero three South one
six sixteen units were dispatched quickly.Shots fired was a far more urgent called
than a stinky bag on the beach. And when what are you reporting?
(43:35):
All right? My wife called justa minute ago about possible gunshots next door
and someone screaming for help. Theactual address for our neighbor's house, because
it's our backyard neighbor is one sixfour six six and bomb bulevardself. Have
you heard any additional disturbance since then? Yeah, the the kind of they
(43:59):
yelling, kind of can can.Dan's just asking for help, saying please
stop, don't do this. Letme just leave, Let me just leave,
Let me just leave. Oh,I athleet they're arriving now, I
wann't sure to go talk to them, like if I want to tell them
where they're going. They're getting myupdates all right, thank you, sir.
Officers showed up in minutes. Somany officers got this fast because it
(44:22):
was a serious call out. Itwas an allegation of gunshots at the neighbor's
house and somebody yelling Helen, isthat correct? Periand's a dangerous city.
Shot calls are frequent, so anytimesomething like that happens, if people are
available as many goals can for oursafety. After checking in with the gunnersons,
(44:49):
they raced through the backyard and overthe fence. They searched the entire
property. They knocked on the door, but no one answered. They checked
o every window, every door,every opening. Nothing was broken and they
couldn't see inside. The detached barnwas empty, The grounds were quiet.
(45:14):
There was no indication anything was goingon. I didn't find any gunshots,
didn't find anything broken, a brokenglass, no one in distress, no
one injured, nothing to indicate thatthere was a need to enter the residence.
They called me and they just theysaid that nobody was answering the door,
(45:39):
and so since they didn't have asearch one, they couldn't go inside.
So that was the extent of whatthey could do at the time.
Yeah, they stopped by and saidthat they didn't they didn't see anything or
hear anything, and nobody answered.If only they had found owned a reason
(46:00):
to go inside, they would haverealized that Dudley had just murdered Austin and
Jessica. In the days and weeksto follow, the Gunnersons noticed something else
unusual. No, I mean,the only thing that I remember smelling from
(46:22):
the Dudley property was an extremely pungentand overwhelming smell of rotting. It was
the smell of when you forget thatyou had left meat and your refrigerator and
(46:44):
it turns bad and you open upthe package and it's just rotten. It
smelled like that, but a milliontimes more powerful. The police investigation into
(47:23):
the human remains found in bags alongthe Alkai Beach and the Duwamish River land
to Michael Dudley. The discovery ofthe nine one one calls about gunshots and
the eventual horrendous smell emanating from hishome, combined with the witness statement from
Jennifer Leon and Jessica's phone records,gave the police enough for a search and
(47:50):
a rest warrant. The last timeJessica's phone was on was the ninth and
the last tower it connected to wasin the area the home. Dudley was
lured away from his home by theKing County Sheriff's Office claiming they had a
development in the case of Dudley's recentlypoisoned chickens, and he was swarmed and
(48:13):
taken into custody. Okay, mydetective Pole, I did not charge myself,
So you have no idea what it'sabout. Am I under arrest?
You said, Tanning, you're anarrest that's why you're where. Am I
under a rose? Well, we'reinvestigating to death and so a couple of
(48:37):
people that's supposed to have been seeingat your face? Are you talking about
lots? So yeah, so technicallyto bring you in here, you're under
arrest for further relate to their deathinvestigation of homicide? Are you know your
mind? You're saying I film,Well that's what I want to talk to
you about. If you didn't doit, then I didn't good Okay,
(49:01):
my friends, Okay, then okay. People are saying you had something to
do with it. It was sayingI just need to ask questions, that's
all you have. Well, Igot a question, people, Why are
you think you're come and ask methis? Like a month ago? I
would think that if they have beenliving there, you would just come to
(49:21):
talk to me first. Well,and who are these people? A number
of people? Okay, did yousee anything about them in the news about
uh yeah, okay, So whatdo you see all about the news?
I've heard something about the Alakaye beach, you know and worship and suitcase full
of derbage? Answer okay. Anddid you hear anything about it cause of
(49:45):
death or anything like you know they'vebeen sean or anything like that. I've
read something about that. Yeah,okay. So with that being said,
people were like pointing the finger atyou. I go out there, I'm
getting a hold on with the fingerof it. People that know you that
maybe don't like you, Okay,so I'm just woo who doesn't like it?
(50:06):
Well? Again, well we allthey're not everybody likes everybody. Okay,
there's people that don't like that.Well, I can't again, I
told you, but I'm gonna tellyou who it is. I can't do
that. Dudley played the part ofan old man. Well, he fell
asleep while waiting for detectives to questionhim, and when they finally did,
(50:27):
he tried to place the blame onthem. Why did you call police?
Always went for you guys to callman, I figured you'd be right there
when we did call White, Whydidn't you you? Uh, there's really
nothing to report, and I figured, you know, you'd be there.
I thought there isn't that part ofyour standard procedure. Yeah, but he
(50:49):
was kind of sitting there like,wonder what you know, where the hell
you guys have been? And nowI started wondering what the hell was going
on? I mean there were peoplethat knew them. Listen, you did,
I mean you you pretty much roomwith him, They lived with him.
I had a guy from Eachreshan thathadn't talked to him for four years
and called us. So, Imean, do you see why you were
(51:14):
kind of perplexed. Well, Iwas perplexed too, I mean, you
know, Dudley claimed he expected tobe interviewed after he heard the news of
Austin and Jessica's untimely demise, butwhen it didn't happen, he didn't bother
involving himself. I mean, whywould you so when Austin and Jessa were
(51:37):
staying there? I mean, anybodyelse standing there when you guys are you
guys were just on lockdown. Wewere on lockdown. Okay, did you
have any problems with Austin at all? I mean, uh, very frog
I had with him was sealing it. Everybody says he would steal anything if
it wasn't long. He was afreaking prolific Steve. But yeah, again,
(51:59):
we were quarantine together, and youknow, you know, uh got
to know him pret good and hergot to know him both pretty good.
And he he said that's what hedid. He you know, he would
(52:22):
prefer to do that over work.There's a lot of people that probably would
have wanted him to that way.When Dudley was asked to elaborate on the
other people that would want Austin dead, he brought up the same false leads
from earlier in the investigation. Youknow, he would go on and on
(52:45):
about you know, his conspiracies andthis and that, and but then he
said, oh no, no,it wasn't messmotives. If I got this
right, you know, he robbedthe simoons, who robbed the Mexicans,
who owed money to some curtail.Well, then say what he what he
(53:12):
robbed from this moment, said itwas like the douppel bags full of dove
beyond the stories about Samoan drug dealinggang members. Quite a new one for
me, and I've been doing thisfor a while. Detectives wanted to know
about Dudley's relationship with the two.So you didn't have a beef with them
at all? Oh, it's alittle beast with him, you know.
(53:35):
I was always you know, well, I mean like a beef my friend
with my friend. He claimed tobe their friend, but was upset about
the stealing and not paying rent.I gotta ask you, do you ever
shoot your gun in your house?Uh? I have occasionally, Uh uh
(54:00):
I have a miss fire. Okaysometimes Can you explain that to me?
What are your friends with people finding? I mean, well, they're in
the blue room and they there's theysaid, there's a bullet there's two bullet
strikes on the wooden bed frame.So I'm like, yeah, okay,
(54:22):
so can you I mean, yeah, can you explain that I've had that.
I got that from my friend Tom, and you know, I'm there
for a walk one high. Hehad an excuse for everything, and no
one has anybody ever been injured inthat room or anything, because I would
be in Dover's blood in the roomtoo. Well. Yeah, Jessica cut
(54:45):
her eighteen stitches in her thigh andshe was walking around with one of these
uh what do you call them?Pressure washers? You come on, oh,
yeah, that'll do it. Heplaying the bed frame was used,
and he didn't know anything about bulletstrikes. If they found any blood,
(55:06):
it could have been from the timeJessica cut her leg and required stitches.
I also have cadaver dogs out there. You know what a cadaver dog is,
right, okay, And they're they'relurning down in the basement and stuff
like that to stuff, and there'ssome scenes down there and stuff like that.
I'm asking if there's a reason whyhe's in I was dead. Body's
(55:29):
in my BASI, I'm sure ofthat. Okay, that way, even
in the chicken coop or anything likethat, you can go have a look
and they're about to cut a holein the wall to retrieve a bullet.
Sudley feigned ignorance to everything the detectivebrought up. I mean, Austin and
Jessica lived at your place. Thatwas the last place saying with that,
and they actually told people if somethingbad happened to me, you know this
(55:52):
Mike motherfucker did shit to me.I'm just telling you, well, his
mom told me that. They said, if anything bad ever happened to us,
look at Mike. Why would theyI don't know. That's why I'm
asking you. Why would they sayto her? I mean, I'm trying
to get to your side of thestory. If something happened to them there
(56:14):
and you know something about it,this is probably the time you want to
tell us. I I said,I didn't kill him, and I don't
know what happened to them. Dudleydenied at all, even with all the
little pieces of evidence that pointed inhis direction. He maintained that they just
(56:37):
moved out suddenly, and the nextthing he knew, they were all over
the news. Michael Dudley was arrestedand charged with the murders of Austin Winner
and Jessica Lewis after the forensic teamfound evidence in their former bedroom. A
hole in the wall that was recentlypatched and paid it over revealed a bullet.
(57:02):
They also found a minute drop ofblood that matched Austin. He would
plead not guilty and proceed the trial. After a long two month trial and
a day and a half of jurydeliberations, he was found guilty of two
(57:22):
counts of second degree murder. Thefamilies of Austin and Jessica wept when the
verdict was read. I'm so overwhelmedright now, it's hard to even come
up with the words. But myson is shining down from up above and
saying, you got a mom,And I just want to think the detect
(57:51):
us for letting us be one ofthe lucky ones that hopefully this animals off
the streets. Now the world isa safer place without Michael Dudley in it.
Everybody can rest easy tonight because ofthat. On December sixth, twenty
(58:13):
twenty two, Michael Dudley was sentencedto a little less than forty seven years
in prison. Michael Dudley killed AustinWinner and Jessica Lewis. His reason was
simple. He didn't want them inhis house anymore, and the laws made
it hard for him to get ridof them. They didn't pay, they
(58:37):
lied, they cheated, and theystole. They brought drama, negativity,
and stress along with them, andthat's always bad. Michael Dudley was trapped.
But what Austin and Jessica didn't realizewas that they were trapped also.
(59:00):
Cure would be worse than the disease. They all collectively ignored all of the
red flags, waving furiously, andthen one evening, when Dudley had had
enough of them, he decided toremove them from his life and the planet
(59:22):
altogether. Rather than go through thecomplex and expensive process of eviction, magic,
Mike just tried to make them disappear. All right, that's gonna do
(59:53):
it. Thanks again for supporting Swordand Scale. We can't say this enough.
You guys are awesome. Thank youfor being patient with us. Well,
we get this new app roll outgoing, and uh look there's a
lot more updates coming. We're gonnaadd auto play, we're gonna add offline
downloads. We're gonna add a shuffleall that stuff, so just calm down,
(01:00:14):
it's coming. Oh yeah, let'sstay safe. Hi. I just
(01:01:29):
wanted to say that I love thepodcast so much that it is the very
first time I have ever paid orput money towards the podcast. Maybe I
shouldn't be proud of that, butI know other people identify with me when
they get the notification that Apple hittheir bank and took a charge out,
(01:01:49):
and you go in thinking what didI forget to cancel? Which free subscription
did I forget? But it's thispodcast, so Story of Scale is worth
it. Not gonna ask for arefrom on that, And I can't wait
to hear the next stop. Soman,
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