Episode Transcript
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(00:04):
When Casey returned home, his girlfriend's car was parked in
the driveway, her belongings were in the bedroom and her
beloved dog was running around the house barking.
But Rebecca herself was nowhere to be found.
Where could the young student who had come home for the
weekend have disappeared to? Could her beloved boyfriend have
(00:24):
been involved? What could have happened in the
house between the couple? What caused her to vanish
forever? Or was everything not as it
seemed at first glance? Friends, please support these
videos with your activity. Subscribe to the channel, put a
like on this video and write a comment when you watch the
video. Your activity is very valuable.
Thank you. Rebecca Gould was born on April
(00:47):
28th, 1982 in the small Americantown of Melbourne, Arkansas.
She had three sisters, but shortly after the youngest was
born, their parents divorced. The girls stayed with their
mother but continued to see their father.
At first they struggled with their parents separation, but
ultimately it brought them closer together.
(01:10):
After graduating high school, Rebecca enrolled in Northwest
Arkansas Community College and moved to Fayetteville.
One of her sisters was already studying at the same college, so
they had the chance to see each other nearly every day.
Although their home was only 40 kilometers from the college, the
students sometimes found it hardto make time between classes.
(01:31):
Still, the sisters always found a way to visit their family.
In September 2004, when Rebecca was 22, she was looking forward
to the start of a new semester at her college.
For some time she had been considering transferring to the
University of Arkansas, and soonan opportunity arose.
However, before moving, Rebecca plan to complete one more
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semester before the start of classes.
On Sunday, September 19th, the sisters went home for the
weekend to visit their loved ones.
Rebecca's boyfriend lived in a nearby town, so she wanted to
spend time with her family and then with him.
The next day, she was supposed to pick up her sister and return
to college together, as they haddriven in Rebecca's car.
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However, at the appointed time, the student didn't show up.
Her sister tried calling her several times but got no
response. The Gould family wasn't too
worried at first. Rebecca was grown enough, and if
she was delayed, there must havebeen a reason.
But by evening, when the girl still hadn't appeared, her
family began to worry. They held on to the hope that
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Rebecca had simply decided to stay in town for another day and
would return home tomorrow. But the next day, their concern
reached its peak. Rebecca still hadn't shown up,
hadn't contacted any relatives, and none of her friends had seen
her. That's when her mother decided
to contact the police, as such behavior was out of character
for her daughter. The police tracked down
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Rebecca's boyfriend, Casey, and learned that she had stayed at
his place the previous evening. Around 8:30 AM, she dropped him
off at the cafe where he worked and planned to return to his
house to collect her things and her dog.
Casey added that Rebecca had promised to pick him up from
work that evening but never showed up.
He waited for her in the parkinglot to no avail, then called his
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friends and went to a party withthem.
The police listened to Casey's story and asked permission to
search his home. The first thing they noticed was
Rebecca's car still parked outside the house.
Inside, the officers found her dog and her purse with her ID
Casey also mentioned that Gould had a small suitcase with
clothes, but it was nowhere to be found in the house.
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The situation was starting to seem unnatural.
No one had seen Rebecca all day,yet her purse, car, and beloved
pet were still at Casey's. There were other oddities as
well. One of the officers noticed that
the bed had no linens and the mattress was misaligned.
Lifting it, the police found large red stains that resembled
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blood. Then the officers searched the
house more thoroughly and found several more brownish stains on
the floor and walls. In the washing machine, they
found crumpled bed linens with red streaks, and under the
bathtub there were several bottles of bleach, which is
sometimes used to destroy evidence.
All of this looked suspicious and suggested that Rebecca Gould
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might no longer be alive. The investigators couldn't yet
say with certainty whether the blood belonged to the missing
girl, as DNA analysis took several days.
While a team of forensic expertsworked in the house, detectives
began questioning Rebecca's boyfriend.
He could have been the last person to see Gould before her
disappearance, and a significantamount of blood was found in his
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home. Casey claimed he had nothing to
do with the girl's disappearance.
According to him, the last time he saw her was that morning
before work, and she hadn't beenin touch since.
He mentioned that after spendingthe night with friends, he
stopped by the house to change before his next shift, but
insisted he hadn't noticed any blood splatter on the floor or
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walls or smelled any bleach. Casey also didn't think much of
Rebecca's car parked outside or her belongings left in the room.
The police weren't quick to takethe young man's word, but at
that point, they had no substantial evidence to suspect
him of foul play. The officers decided to question
all of Casey's friends he had spent Tuesday night with.
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The guys confirmed that he was indeed with them the entire time
until morning. Since Casey had an alibi, the
detectives continued searching for other leads.
The police still had no idea what had happened to Rebecca or
when exactly she had disappeared.
All they knew was that she stopped communicating on Monday
morning. Soon the detectives got another
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lead. Reconstructing the timeline of
events on the day of Gould's disappearance, they learned that
she had stopped at a gas stationnear Casey's workplace, bought a
sandwich for breakfast and coffee, and headed to his house.
The store employees recognized her from a photo and confirmed
that the student had come in after 8:30 AM, which matched
Casey's story. Later, the detectives found the
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same sandwich untouched in his house.
This suggested that Gould had returned to her boyfriend's
house and something happened to her shortly after.
Given that Casey was at work at the time, as confirmed by other
employees, it was unlikely that he had anything to do with his
girlfriend's death. Soon, the police received the
results of the blood analysis from Casey's house.
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It was indeed Rebecca's blood. The experts found no traces of
foreign DNA. The detectives continued their
efforts to solve the crime, interviewing all of the missing
girl's relatives and friends. They believed that if Rebecca
had been attacked, it could havebeen someone close to her with a
personal motive. However, their conversations
(07:08):
with her loved ones yielded no results.
On September 27th, 2004, a week after her disappearance, Rebecca
Gould's body was found on a highway in Ezard County, about
19 kilometers from her boyfriendCasey's house.
It was lying at the base of an embankment to a passing driver.
It was barely visible from the road.
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Whoever left the girl's body there didn't even try to hide or
bury it. Apparently, the perpetrator
simply pulled over to the side of the road and discarded
Rebecca like unwanted trash in aditch near the highway.
After the autopsy, the coroner concluded that the victim had
received multiple blows to the head with a heavy object.
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The cause of death was strangulation and there were no
defensive wounds on the body. It seemed the attacker caught
the girl off guard and she didn't even have time to realize
what was happening. The experts also found no signs
that Gould had been assaulted. The body had been exposed to the
elements for about a week. The exact time of death couldn't
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be determined. However, the detectives
identified a possible murder weapon used by the perpetrator.
In Casey's house, there was a piano missing one of its legs.
Experts confirmed that the victim's head injuries matched
the shape of the piano leg. The homeowner explained that the
comprehending the gravity of thesituation, the police were
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unable to find the suspected murder weapon either in the
house or near the location wherethe body was discovered.
Now they had to determine the motive.
The investigators immediately ruled out the possibility of a
failed robbery. Nothing was missing from the
house except the piano leg and Rebecca's suitcase.
A motive of a sexual nature was also dismissed.
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That left a personal motive. The perpetrator likely knew the
girl's schedule and was aware that her boyfriend would be at
work that morning. It was unlikely that he had been
stalking her and waiting for theright moment to strike.
It was also highly probable thatRebecca knew the perpetrator.
Since there were no signs of a break in, she might have let him
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inside herself. After the attack, the assailant
spent several hours in the houseattempting to clean blood stains
with bleach. Then he carried the body out and
loaded it into a vehicle to dispose of it along the way.
Despite all this, the police hadno physical evidence, and the
investigation stalled. Detectives considered the
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possible involvement of hundredsof people, including
acquaintances and relatives of both Rebecca and Casey.
They checked neighbors and even residents of nearby towns.
The police received numerous tips, but none proved useful.
In most cases, locals simply voiced suspicions about others
without backing them up with anyreal facts.
(10:01):
Ultimately, Rebecca Gould's casewent cold.
Over the following years, the investigation was reopened
several times and handed off to new teams of detectives, but no
progress was made. The problem lay not only in the
complete lack of evidence, but also in the inability to
understand the perpetrators motives.
(10:21):
Eventually, the mysterious nature of this strange case
caught the attention of the truecrime community.
The murder of Rebecca Gould became the subject of various TV
shows and podcasts where people tried to uncover the truth.
One such person was a journalistnamed George Jared, who had
followed the case from the beginning.
(10:42):
Jared even wrote a book about itand launched his own podcast.
For many years he tried to find out who took Rebecca's life.
One day, George Jarrod met Jennifer Buchholz, a former
police investigator from Colorado who was also interested
in the case. They joined forces and created a
social Media Group where they shared their thoughts on the
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investigation, discussed them with followers and built
hypotheses. After a few months of running
the blog, George and Jennifer started noticing 1 subscriber
named William Miller. His interest in the old unsolved
case was, to put it mildly, surprising.
First, Miller lived in the Philippines, and his intense
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interest in a crime in a small American town on the other side
of the world seemed unnatural. He was also one of the most
active subscribers, leaving numerous comments and constantly
reaching out to the group's administrators through private
messages. He wanted to help solve the
crime, shared his thoughts on some controversial and unclear
points, and proposed his own theories.
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Moreover, Miller demonstrated a high level of familiarity not
only with specific details of the case but also with the local
area where it happened. So George and Jennifer found the
subscribers behavior too suspicious, but kept quiet,
fearing they might scare him off.
The blog's authors wanted to extract as much information as
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possible from this person, but tried to do so discreetly.
They were fortunate that one of the group's members was a
genealogy expert. After conducting a simple
analysis of his background, she uncovered A surprising fact.
William Miller turned out to be Casey's cousin Rebecca's
boyfriend. After this discovery, George and
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Jennifer decided to contact the detectives working on the Gould
case and share their concerns about his activities.
The police reviewed the case files and realized that Miller's
name had come up from the very beginning.
It turned out that the young manhad visited the town around the
time the attack occurred in 2004.
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Miller had already been questioned and stated that he
had come from Texas to help a relative.
He mentioned that he had visitedhis cousin twice before
Rebecca's disappearance. The second time, Miller didn't
even enter the house and just talked to Casey outside.
In 2004, Miller didn't raise anysuspicions, but now the
detectives took a keen interest in him.
(13:12):
Digging deeper, they learned that William had been a suspect
in several cases. In 2002, he faced charges for
assaulting a minor girl and later for attacking his ex-wife.
He had broken into her house andattacked her with his fists.
However, in neither of these cases was Miller punished.
Later, the man moved to the Philippines, got married, had
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children, and started working onoffshore oil rigs.
The investigators wanted to speak with Miller again to ask
questions regarding the attack on Rebecca Gould, but since he
was on the other side of the world, it was nearly impossible
to do so. They also couldn't contact him,
so they had to wait until he returned to the US.
This happened only in 2020. Customs officials informed the
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detectives that Miller had returned to Oregon, where his
mother lived. They knew William was in town,
but when the investigators called his mother, she claimed
she hadn't seen her son in a long time.
Realizing the mother was lying, the detectives traveled to
Oregon to speak with her son in person.
Since there was no solid evidence against Miller, the
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police needed to get a confession from him at all
costs, and the detectives decided to play a sort of game
with him. One of the officers leading the
investigation began the questioning casually.
He stated that they were simply re interviewing everyone
involved in Rebecca Gould's case.
Miller responded that he was ready to cooperate because he
had nothing to hide. Then, as if in passing, the
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officer asked if William would mind taking a polygraph test
when he returned to Arkansas. Miller agreed without
hesitation. The detective pretended to call
the local police chief to ask ifthere were any polygraph
specialists in town. Miller, overhearing the
conversation about the lie detector, noticeably grew
nervous and tried to change the subject.
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He didn't yet know that a specialist was already waiting
for him in the next room. Although polygraphs are a
controversial tool and their results are not admissible in
court, the police had other goals.
Any unexpected turn of events could catch a suspect off guard
and ultimately lead to a confession.
Miller continued to act nervous but agreed to the test,
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understanding how suspicious A refusal would look.
He asked whether the polygraph results were admissible in
court, but didn't receive a clear answer.
The detective vaguely explained that there were special
circumstances but didn't specifywhat they were.
As expected, William failed the test.
The polygraph examiner concludedthat the man had lied on all key
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questions, including his involvement in Rebecca's murder.
The detectives kept pressing andtold Miller that experts had
reanalyzed all the available evidence and found Rebecca's DNA
in samples taken from his car. In reality, the police had
searched Miller's car back in 2004 but found nothing, and no
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samples were taken for further analysis.
The investigator deliberately misled the suspect.
By law, the police were allowed to use such tactics during
questioning to elicit a confession.
Sometimes criminals did confess under the weight of non
existent, irrefutable evidence. In this case, it was the
detectives only hope. Fortunately, it worked.
(16:32):
Upon hearing about Rebecca's DNAin his car, Miller fell silent
and then began to talk. According to the suspect, he
didn't harm Rebecca but merely stumbled upon her lifeless body.
That morning, he went to his cousin Casey's house and found
an unknown man in a mask standing over the girl's
bloodied body. Of course, the detectives didn't
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believe this story and insisted that William tell the truth.
Finally, Miller abruptly interrupted the officer and said
he sincerely regretted what he had done 16 years ago.
On the morning of September 20th, 2004, William went hunting
in the woods near Casey's house.For some unknown reason, he
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wanted to talk to his cousin's girlfriend, whom he had seen the
day before. Miller knew Casey had already
left for work, so he boldly knocked on the door and told
Rebecca he needed to make a phone call.
Gould let him in, and William pretended to dial A number.
Meanwhile, Rebecca returned to the bedroom so as not to disturb
his conversation. At that moment, an
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uncontrollable rage and desire to kill the girl overcame
Miller. He broke off a piano leg, which
was barely attached, and strode decisively into the bedroom.
When William flung open the door, Rebecca was lying on the
bed. He struck her on the head
several times before strangling her.
Then he wrapped the body in a sheet, placed it in his pickup
(18:01):
truck, and tried to clean the blood from the floor, walls and
bed linens with bleach. Driving onto the highway, the
man simply dumped the dead body under the embankment.
Miller confessed that for no apparent reason, an overwhelming
urge to take Rebecca's life arose and he couldn't control
it. He said he had regretted his
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actions all these years and now had to take responsibility.
After that, William Miller was arrested and extradited to
Arkansas. But there he suddenly retracted
his confession and claimed innocence, which could have
jeopardized the entire case. Fortunately, the judge deemed
the videotaped confession admissible.
Despite the lack of physical evidence, Miller had the
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opportunity to commit the crime.He knew his cousin's work
schedule, and his statements matched all the details of the
crime. It's worth noting that Miller
initially had a way to avoid punishment.
He could have simply not shown up for questioning in Oregon,
refused, or left the police station at any moment.
Since there was no evidence against him, William could have
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boarded a flight to the Philippines and left the US
forever. To avoid prosecution, the
investigators would have had to accept that they might never
solve the case. But most likely, Miller had a
strong desire to confess to the crime he had committed long ago.
His activity in the online group, where he left numerous
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comments and communicated with the administrators about
Rebecca's case suggested as much.
If he had stayed silent, it's likely no one would ever have
found out what happened to the girl, but apparently William was
tired of battling what was weighing on him from within.
Ultimately, Miller made a plea deal and in 2022 received a 40
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year prison sentence. However, the story didn't end
there. Once behind bars, the man
suddenly confessed to several other serious crimes.
It turned out that over his lifetime, Miller had taken the
lives of five other women whose names he didn't even know.
He lured them into his car, drove them to secluded places,
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and then killed them. William chose his victims based
on their appearance. He was drawn to young, slender,
short blondes. The detectives immediately
realized that this description perfectly matched Rebecca
Gould's appearance. Meanwhile, the investigation
into Miller continues. If you have finished watching,
you are a real fan of true crime.
(20:33):
Subscribe to the channel, turn on the bell notifications and
put the like. See you in the next video.
Devon County in England, historically known as
Devonshire, is renowned for its stunning natural beauty.
It boasts numerous beaches, fishing towns and resorts along
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the coast. The inland areas of the county
are mostly rural, hilly and sparsely populated compared to
the rest of England. 30 year oldLorraine Cox loved Devon, it was
her homeland. Her family and many friends
lived in the city of Exeter thatwas her home.
She never planned to leave the place until one day she fell in
(21:16):
love with a woman named Eliza Fellows.
It so happened that Lorraine hadexperienced A traumatic incident
in her life, after which she could no longer look at men.
Eliza lived in Scotland, which was quite far away.
Their relationship began long distance and was limited to
short trips to see each other onweekends and holidays.
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But by 2020 they had been together for two years.
The women were planning a futuretogether, a vibrant wedding
attended by all their close relatives and friends.
They even discussed having children.
Their views on the matter aligned.
So overall, Eliza and Lorraine were happy.
Neither of them, nor indeed the rest of the world, expected that
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a pandemic would strike in the spring of 2020.
People in different countries were forced to stay home 24
hours a day, seven days a week. The worst part was that no one
knew how long the lockdown wouldlast.
A week, a month, or six months. Nobody understood how the
situation would unfold. It was a difficult time for
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everyone, but especially for people separated by distance.
Lorraine didn't want to spend the entire pandemic away from
her beloved. After waiting for some time, she
eventually traveled to Scotland to stay with Eliza, completing
all the necessary paperwork. In late summer or early fall,
when strict virus related restrictions began to ease,
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Lorraine decided to return to Exeter, at least for a month or
two. Things were going well with
Eliza, but Cox missed her familyand friends and wanted to visit
them. She hadn't been able to see them
during the quarantine. Devon County was her home, her
place of strength. Lorraine longed for everything
that had once been an important part of her life.
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Her father, Tony, couldn't wait for his daughter to return home,
even briefly, so he could hug her.
At that time, restrictions were still in place in the UK, but
small gatherings were allowed. Of course, there were curfews,
masks, gloves and other precautions, but friends were
thrilled that they could at least meet and talk in person,
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not over the phone. On September 1st, 2020, Lorraine
planned to go out and spend sometime with friends.
They hadn't seen each other in along time, so they arranged to
meet and spend the evening in the city.
The group went to a local bar, had a few drinks, chatted and
laughed, trying to catch up on lost time.
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Lorraine shared stories about her time in Scotland, her plans
for the future and her desire tohave children, even though her
partner, Eliza Fellows already had a child from a previous
relationship. Eventually, the evening came to
an end and it was time to say goodbye and part ways.
Lorraine hugged her friends and once again said how much she had
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missed them and how happy she was to see them.
Then she left the establishment,heading toward her father's
house and vanished. After that, no one saw her
again. The next day, September 2nd,
2020, Lorraine logged into her social media account and posted
a very unexpected message. She wrote that she was moving
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and starting a new life. From the context, it was clear
she wasn't referring to Scotland, where she had spent
the past six months. The statement made no sense at
all. Everyone who knew Lorraine said
she wouldn't take a single step without planning her actions
thoroughly. She had already outlined clear
goals for a potential pregnancy,even though specific discussions
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about having a child hadn't yet taken place.
She and Eliza had only talked about the possibility.
The social media post was completely unlike anything
Lorraine would write. The only spontaneous decision
she had ever made was moving to Scotland to be with Eliza during
the pandemic. But that was more of an
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exception, driven by extraordinary circumstances as
she had to act quickly and decisively.
Either stay home with her familyor be with the person she loved,
and Cox chose the latter. Her friends and loved ones knew
she planned to move to Scotland permanently, but in Lorraine's
post, she mentioned a place called Plymouth, located in
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Devon County, about 43 miles from her father's house.
This post caused serious concernamong the young woman's friends.
Imagine sitting in a cafe the previous evening, talking for
hours about all sorts of topics,discussing future plans, and
then the next day your close friend announces on social media
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that she's moving to a new placewithout mentioning it the night
before or giving any hint of such an unexpected turn in her
life. It was possible, of course, but
it raised questions, especially considering how close Lorraine
was to her friends and family. Cox never hid anything from them
and was always quite open. Eliza, upon reading the post,
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was even more shocked. Lorraine had taken a small bag
of belongings and gone to visit her family.
Everything was fine. They hadn't argued and suddenly
fellows read that her partner had decided to start her life
anew without even warning her. In short, the situation with the
post on Cox's page caused worry and alarm among everyone who
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knew her. The second suspicious fact was
the messages in messaging apps. Naturally, after the post about
moving to Plymouth, many people started asking what had happened
and Lorraine responded, but her friends felt as though they were
communicating with a completely different person.
All those emojis, periods at theend of sentences, and similar
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details carry unique significance for each person.
The language of communication was in principle similar, but
there were nuances only close friends would notice.
Part of the doubt stemmed from the fact that Cox's messages
were rude, with an unmistakable tone of anger.
For example, in response to a barrage of questions from Eliza
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about her sudden decision, Lorraine didn't even try to
explain what happened. Where are you moving?
What did I do wrong? Fellows tried to reach her
partner but received only curt replies.
At one point, she even got an emoji of a raised middle finger.
This crude gesture signaled a demand to be left alone, to back
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off. This was the response from a
woman who had maintained a long distance relationship for two
years, initiated the romance herself, and upon learning of
the pandemic, moved to Scotland without hesitation.
Though her friends and Eliza were worried and confused,
Lorraine's father, Tony was the only one truly alarmed for his
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daughter. The man hadn't seen Lorraine for
two days when he left for work. She was still asleep in her room
when he returned. Her bedroom door was also
closed. Tony was surprised that his
usually cheerful, lively daughter had suddenly locked
herself in her room and didn't come out for breakfast or
dinner. Her father always respected his
(28:35):
adult daughter's wishes and never pressured her.
He assumed Lorraine was sitting at her laptop chatting with
friends throughout the day. Tony waited for his daughter to
appear and explain, but she never did, so he decided to have
an honest conversation and find out the reason for her strange
behavior. Tony approached his daughter's
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room, knocked and getting no response, pushed the door open.
What he saw convinced him something was terribly wrong.
Lorraine had type 1 diabetes andalways carried a blood sugar
testing kit, a glucometer, a Lancing device, a container for
test strips and spare lancets. It was an essential part of her
daily life. Cox needed to test her glucose
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levels several times a day to monitor them.
When Tony looked into the room, his daughter wasn't there, but
her open diabetes kit was on thetable.
There were no notes indicating Lorraine would be back soon.
It appeared she hadn't spent thenight at home at all.
That's when Tony realized his daughter's life was in danger.
He immediately went to the police station and reported her
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missing. At first, many thought Lorraine
had simply gone out on errands and felt unwell.
Her friends saw she had been online the previous day, so no
one suspected Cox might have been abducted or worse, killed.
Though no one had seen her sinceshe left the bar, her friends
have been messaging her on social media, and we're
(30:01):
convinced she was fine. Only after learning that
Lorraine was missing did her friends print Flyers with her
photo and distinguishing features and posted them around
the city, especially near the bar where she was last seen.
During an interview, one friend directly addressed Cox on
television, asking her to reach out if she was in trouble.
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People had no real reason to think something bad had happened
to Lorraine. Meanwhile, the police considered
the possibility that the missingwoman might have been a victim
of a crime. Detectives investigated the
details of Lorraine Cox's life to determine if there were any
past incidents or if someone from her past could have harmed
her. Eventually, investigators
(30:44):
discovered that in May 2018, Coxhad endured something horrific.
She had been brutally assaulted by a 35 year old man named
Robert Prout. This man had already been
convicted of attacking another woman, and he was soon to face
trial for his actions. Lorraine disappeared just before
the hearing. Once this information became
(31:06):
public, it sparked numerous theories.
One theory suggested that Roberthad abducted Lorraine to prevent
her from testifying against him,or that she had gone into hiding
fearing threats from her assailant.
The police's top priority was tofind Lorraine and ensure she was
safe. Investigators began reviewing
(31:26):
surveillance footage, starting with the bar where Cox was last
seen. It was a laborious task.
The police had to review an enormous amount of footage from
cameras on various buildings near the bar and along the route
she would have taken home. Specifically, they had about
11,000 hours of video from over 400 cameras.
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The process took considerable time.
Slowly, from different angles, experts track the movements of
the missing woman until they stumbled upon something
significant. It turned out that after
spending time with friends at the bar, Lorraine didn't head
straight home to her father's house.
She stopped by an establishment called Badrum Kebab, bought take
(32:11):
out food and sat on a nearby bench to eat.
Then things got strange as laterthat night, Lorraine returned to
the building where the restaurant was located, but
through a different entrance. She wasn't alone.
At 2:45 AM, Cox entered the restaurant building with a man
or young person. Earlier, around 2:00 AM, cameras
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captured the same man going for a walk in the direction where
Lorraine was sitting. She had finished her late night
meal and was heading toward her father's house.
The man followed her for severalblocks.
Perhaps this person, like a predator, was sizing up his
potential victim, assessing her condition.
The nighttime streets were deserted.
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There was no one around except Cox and her pursuer.
At some point, the man caught upwith Lorraine and a brief
conversation took place, after which they both turned and
headed toward the Bodrum Kebab establishment.
The most chilling detail was that after entering the
building, Lorraine never came out.
Detectives reviewed the footage repeatedly, hoping they had
(33:15):
missed something, but the missing woman never reappeared
on the recordings. This discovery was critical, but
it came eight days after Cox's disappearance, so the police had
to act quickly. Detectives printed an image of
Lorraine's random companion and showed it to the staff at Badrum
Kebab. The restaurant owner told
(33:36):
investigators that the young manin the photo lived in the same
building as the cafe. The establishment occupied the
ground floor, while apartments were rented out upstairs.
However, the owner didn't know the man's name as he had only
moved in five weeks earlier. His housing was paid for by his
employer, whose name appeared inthe documents.
(33:57):
Since the rent was paid by someone else, the landlord had
no idea who the actual tenant was.
That same evening, police entered through a side entrance,
climbed the stairs and knocked on the apartment directly above
the diner. A young man opened the door upon
entering. The investigators were somewhat
puzzled by what they saw. Perhaps they expected to walk
(34:19):
into a serial killer's lair and find the missing woman's body,
but they were greeted by a cozy,neatly cleaned apartment.
There were no signs of Lorraine Cox's presence.
The young man introduced himselfas Christopher Mayer and showed
his ID. The officers explained the
purpose of their visit and showed surveillance footage of
(34:40):
Mayor and Lorraine entering the building together, but the man
denied it was him in the footage.
He also claimed he would never let a stranger into his
apartment late at night because he wasn't interested in women.
He was attracted to men. Somehow, the detectives gained
access to Christopher's phone. Experts discovered that
(35:01):
Lorraine's SIM card had been used in the device at some
point. This immediately raised
suspicions that this man might have been messaging the missing
woman's friends from her social media account.
All this remained to be confirmed.
Christopher Mayer was arrested on suspicion of abducting
Lorraine Cox. The police immediately cordoned
(35:23):
off the building and called in aforensics team to search the
apartment and surrounding area for evidence.
They found plenty in the apartment, but the most
horrifying discovery was in the trash bins not far from the
building. It was a narrow alley between
houses where containers were kept.
Local residents, as well as employees from nearby shops and
(35:45):
cafes dumped their waste there. In one of the bins, among other
garbage, police found a plastic bag containing human body parts.
It wasn't an entire body, so identifying the remains
immediately was impossible. In any case, Cox's disappearance
case was now reclassified as a serious crime investigation.
(36:05):
Her close friends took the news very hard.
Eliza Lorraine's partner was in Scotland.
She couldn't come to assist withthe search.
While Cox was considered missing.
Everyone held on to a faint hopefor a positive outcome.
But on September 9th, that hope vanished.
Later, Eliza Fellows admitted that her life ended when she
(36:26):
learned of Lorraine's death. She was breathing, her body was
functioning, but Eliza no longerfelt alive, reduced to a mere
shell of a person. From that day, Fellows cut off
all contact and became a recluse.
She even considered following her beloved.
The only thing holding her back was her child from a previous
relationship whom she couldn't abandoned.
(36:48):
That was the only reason she gotup in the mornings.
Soon five more men, aged 22303343 and 71 were taken into
custody. All 5 lived in apartments above
the restaurant. They were all in the building
the night Lorraine Cox entered and never left.
Although Christopher was the only one caught on surveillance,
(37:11):
the police didn't want to focus solely on one person.
They decided to investigate all potential suspects to identify
the real perpetrator. Unlike Mayer, the other five
cooperated willingly, answered the detectives questions clearly
and voluntarily provided DNA samples for analysis.
In the end, all the men were released and no charges were
(37:34):
filed against them. But Christopher was silent and
seemed entirely unwilling to cooperate with the police.
However, this didn't stop investigators from discovering
that his real name wasn't Christopher Mayer, it was Azam
Mangori. As soon as the officers learned
the man's true identity, they called him in for questioning
(37:55):
and confronted him about deceiving the authorities.
If he lied about his name, he could have lied about everything
else. The suspect immediately began
making excuses. According to Azam Mangori, he
grew up in a very strict Kurdishfamily in Iraq.
In their culture, it wasn't acceptable to openly discuss
(38:15):
personal preferences. If anyone learned of his non
traditional orientation, he could have been stoned to death.
When Azam left Iraq at 18, he feared people from his hometown
might somehow discover his secret.
To make it harder to track him, he started using the name
Christopher Mayer. In December 2018, he applied for
(38:37):
asylum but was denied. Technically, he wasn't even
supposed to remain in the UK, but he stayed as an illegal
immigrant working as a market vendor.
Azam used a fake ID to make it harder for Immigration Services
to find and deport him. He tried to stay under the radar
and avoid drawing attention. After sharing his back story,
Azam fell silent again. But the police didn't need his
(39:01):
confession. They already had enough evidence
to hold him accountable. First, DNA from the human
remains found in the trash bin matched Lorraine Cox's.
Second, no matter how much Azam tried to clean his apartment, he
couldn't eliminate all the evidence.
In the kitchen trash can, investigators found a hand saw
and two large knives wrapped in plastic.
(39:23):
They also found Lorraine's driver's license, part of her
debit card, and her wallet, all cut into pieces.
Apparently, Azam thought that inthis state, the police wouldn't
be able to identify the owner ofthe items.
Blood stains wiped clean were found throughout the apartment.
Tests confirmed the blood belonged to the missing woman.
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Biological traces remained on the saw, knives and plastic.
In eight days, the man hadn't bothered to dispose of such
obvious evidence. And that was just what the
police found in Azam's apartment.
Behind the restaurant, in the same trash bins where Lorraine's
remains were found, experts uncovered another garbage bag
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containing a men's T-shirt and abed sheet with brownish stains.
The woman's phone was in anotherbag and her SIM card was found
in a sewer drain. Detectives reviewed surveillance
footage again to track Azam Mangori's movements.
The day after Lorraine's disappearance, cameras caught
him in a store buying items needed to dispose of a body,
(40:29):
garbage bags, tape and air freshener.
He then took a taxi to another store, where he purchased a
large duffel bag. Later, footage showed Azam
leaving his home with the bag stuffed full, getting into
another taxi and heading somewhere.
Naturally, he returned empty handed.
Detectives concluded that the rest of Lorraine's body was in
(40:50):
that duffel bag, which Azam had discarded somewhere.
Notably, the footage of the suspect carrying the large
sports bag with unknown contentswas recorded just hours before
the police arrived. Mangori had barely managed to
cover his tracks before law enforcement showed up.
Using the cameras, detectives identified the number of each
(41:12):
taxi the suspect used to move around the city and spoke to the
drivers. They learned that Azam had
travelled to the Tin Pit Hill area.
That's where Lorraine's head andtorso were later found, barely
covered, lying under a pile of logs.
The T-shirt Cox was wearing the night she disappeared was
stuffed in her mouth. Police also discovered that a
(41:34):
piece of skin had been cut from her back.
It's unknown why this was done, but it was believed Azam wanted
to keep a trophy. Perhaps he derived some perverse
satisfaction from mutilating hisvictim's body.
Unfortunately, some parts of Lorraine's body were never
found. Her head, torso, legs, and other
(41:54):
remains were so badly decomposedthat determining the cause of
death was nearly impossible. According to the coroner, the
woman likely suffocated due to the T-shirt found in her mouth,
but this was merely A hypothesis.
Despite overwhelming evidence, Azam continued to deny his
guilt. He insisted he hadn't seen
(42:15):
Lorraine and didn't know what happened to her.
The trial began in the spring of2021.
For the first time since his arrest, Azam Mangori shared his
version of the events of that night.
Of course, his story didn't align with many details, but it
was the first time the suspect spoke about the crime.
(42:35):
On September 1st, 2020, LorraineCox said goodbye to her friends,
left the bar and headed home. Along the way, she stopped at
Badrum Kebab, bought food and sat on a bench to eat.
Around the same time, Azam left his apartment above the
restaurant to get some fresh airand take a walk before bed.
(42:57):
He and Cox met by chance on the street and a conversation
started. According to Azam, the
conversation smoothly turned into flirting.
This was an odd development considering Lorraine was in a
serious relationship with Eliza Fellows from Scotland.
Moreover, both Cox and Mangori identified as having non
(43:17):
traditional orientations. Seemingly forgetting his earlier
claims, Azam stated in court that he was equally attracted to
women and men. He and Lorraine first went into
an alley between buildings wherethey were intimate.
Then they decided to go up to his apartment.
They drank, smoked some weed andwent to bed.
(43:38):
After intimacy, Lorraine offeredto try a prohibited substance
she had with her. Azam's head spun and he blacked
out. When he came to, he found the
woman unconscious on the bathroom floor.
There was a puddle of urine nextto her body, so Mangori assumed
Lorraine had overdosed. He tried to perform CPR but
didn't know how to do it properly.
(44:00):
Azam had only seen people being saved with mouth to mouth
resuscitation in movies and had never tried it himself.
At some point, he realized his efforts were futile.
Mangori claimed he couldn't callfor help because he didn't know
the emergency service number. Emergency numbers do vary by
country, but Azam's excuses sounded absurd, as he had lived
(44:23):
in England for several years andsurely knew how to contact
emergency services. The next part of his story was
utterly fantastical. Mangori said that while sitting
in the bathroom next to Lorraine's unconscious body, he
saw strange creatures crawling out of her mouth.
Perhaps he was trying to suggesthe was still under the influence
(44:43):
of drugs and hallucinating. In any case, Azam panicked and
stuffed Lorraine's T-shirt into her mouth to keep the creatures
from escaping. The scenario sounded absurd and
implausible. Another reason it was hard to
believe Azam was high panicking and making mistakes was that
police found a video he recordedshortly after Lorraine's death.
(45:05):
Mangori filmed himself listeningto music and blowing smoke at
the camera. He appeared calm and collected.
Azam claimed he believed Lorraine was still alive even
though he had stuffed AT shirt down her throat.
He said he wanted her loved onesnot to worry, so he hacked her
social media accounts and used her SIM card to send messages to
(45:28):
her friends and family. This didn't align with his
supposed goal. Why message people if you
believed Lorraine would wake up soon and explain her absence
herself? The true horror of the situation
was that Azam kept Lorraine's body in his apartment for eight
days before finally trying to dispose of it.
(45:50):
He admitted those days were hellfor him.
He developed mental health issues when he decided to cut
the body into seven parts to remove it from the apartment.
He claimed he didn't understand what he was doing.
It felt to him as if he were cutting grass, not human
remains. Overall, Azam's story was
convoluted and full of lies. The prosecution's version,
(46:12):
however, was far clearer, more straightforward and well
supported. A toxicology report showed no
prohibited substances in Lorraine's blood.
She had indeed been drinking with friends that evening, but
she was perfectly coherent when she left for home.
So all the tales of overdoses and creatures crawling out of
(46:32):
her mouth were nothing but the fabrications of a criminal.
Trying to justify his actions, the prosecution suggested that
Azam's initial plan was to take someone's life.
He had no personal motive, he simply needed a victim.
Lorraine was the unfortunate 1 he managed to lure to his
apartment. An intimate motive wasn't ruled
(46:55):
out either. The young man went out that
night with the sole purpose of finding a woman for the night.
Spotting a slightly intoxicated Lorraine, he decided to follow
her and ensure no one would interfere.
Seizing the right moment, he approached her and somehow
convinced her to go up to his apartment.
Most likely, he made advances, but she rejected him.
(47:17):
Her relationship with Eliza satisfied her completely.
Cox wasn't the type to casually sleep with a stranger,
especially a man. She likely started screaming and
struggling, prompting Azam to stuff AT shirt in her mouth.
After Lorraine stopped breathing, he panicked and
didn't dare remove the body fromthe apartment.
(47:37):
For nearly a week. Lorraine's family and friends
endured 8 days of desperate hopeand fruitless searches while he
sat on his bed figuring out how to best avoid responsibility for
the murder. Because Mangori refused to take
accountability for the crime until the end, it's unknown what
truly drove him to take Lorraine's life.
(47:58):
What were his real motives? One thing is clear, Azam acted
deliberately and methodically. His Google search history that
night showed he looked up how todig a grave.
This meant he was fully aware hehad a dead body he needed to
dispose of. In the end, the 24 year old
Iraqi native was found guilty ofmurdering 32 year old Lorraine
(48:18):
Cox and desecrating her remains.Azam Mangori was sentenced to
life imprisonment with the possibility of parole after 20
years. To this day he remains silent
and hasn't revealed what really happened.
If you have finished watching you are a real fan of true
crime. Subscribe to the channel, turn
(48:38):
on the bell notifications and put the like.
See you in the next video. Not everyone is lucky enough to
have neighbors who don't make noise or cause irritation.
Finding common ground with thoseliving nearby can sometimes be
very difficult, but you can consider yourself fortunate
(48:59):
because you've never lived next to Pazuzu Algarad.
In this unremarkable single story house at 2749 Knollwood
Dr. in Clemens, North Carolina, a single woman lived for a long
time with her son John. Looking at the skinny boy often
returning from school with tearsin his eyes, neighbors had no
(49:21):
idea that he would later become a monster, feared even by the
police. Click on the like button,
subscribe to the channel and turn on the bell notifications
and we start. Pazuzu Ila Algarad was born on
August 12th, 1978. In reality, his real name was
John Alexander Lawson. At the age of 24, this man
(49:44):
simply decided to legally changehis name.
He was born in California to Cynthia and Timothy Lawson and
was their only child. When the boy was 2 years old,
the entire family moved to Winston Salem, NC.
Pazuzu grew up as a fairly happychild, curious, cheerful, and
full of life. However, things soon took a turn
(50:07):
for the worse. It started with his parents
divorce, after which his father Timothy returned to California.
He simply packed his things and left.
After that, he never appeared inhis child's life again.
Cynthia, his mother, moved with her son to the small town of
Clemens, North Carolina with a population of just over 20,000.
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Almost immediately after the divorce, she remarried a man
named Johnny James. Thus, Pazuzu got a stepfather
instead of a father. The boy blamed Johnny for his
parents separation and as a result deeply resented him.
Johnny, Cynthia's new husband, wasn't particularly fond of the
(50:50):
disobedient child either. Constant arguments arose between
them and they clashed over everylittle thing.
It reached a point where the boycompletely isolated himself
coming home from school. He wouldn't talk to anyone and
would immediately lock himself in his room.
Instead of trying to smooth things over or talk to her son.
(51:12):
His mother preferred to ignore his tantrums.
She didn't want to acknowledge that her son didn't get along
with her new husband. She decided that she would never
deny the boy anything to ensure he didn't feel deprived.
In Pazuzu's upbringing, the concept of the word no didn't
exist. His mother aimed to give her
(51:32):
child everything he wanted, ultimately creating a skilled
little manipulator. When Pezuzu turned 13, his
mother and stepfather took him to a psychologist to address his
behavior. But even at a young age, the boy
managed to turn the situation inhis favor, making the consultant
see the problem not in him, but in his stepfather.
(51:54):
Naturally, believing the teenagers stories, the
psychologist spoke to his motherand Cynthia in turn began
pressuring her husband. This tension led to the
stepfather effectively leaving the family, leaving the woman to
deal with her son's issues alone.
From then on, Cynthia's life began to spiral downward.
(52:14):
She started drinking heavily andwould disappear from home for
days at a time. She completely stopped caring
not only for Pazuzu, but also for herself.
Then came a period when she stopped going outside
altogether. At the same time, random men
began appearing in the house, and their interactions typically
ended in bed. Cynthia wasn't the least bit
(52:37):
ashamed that her son was in the next room.
By virtue of his age, the boy fully understood what was
happening, and it caused significant trauma to his
psyche. From that moment, problems in
Pezuzu's teenage life only continued to pile up because his
mother completely neglected him.He stopped showering, wore dirty
(52:58):
clothes, and didn't use deodorant.
Naturally, his appearance changed for the worse.
The lack of basic hygiene led his classmates to notice the
unpleasant odors emanating from Pazuzu's unwashed body.
As a result, he faced a great deal of bullying at school.
No one wanted to sit next to him.
He was mocked and humiliated notonly by classmates but also by
(53:22):
teachers who made remarks. Pazuzu didn't like this.
He often got into fights, which led to him losing all his
friends and becoming an outcast.He deliberately started dressing
differently from everyone else, shaved his head and withdrew
into himself. The bullying, loneliness and
lack of support caused Pazuzu todevelop severe anxiety.
(53:45):
Without psychological help, the teenager's condition worsened.
Eventually, he stopped leaving the house, talking or attending
school. When Cynthia finally noticed her
son's problems, she took him to a psychiatrist.
The doctor diagnosed Pazuzu withpsychotic disorder and
schizophrenia. The doctor also noted signs of
(54:07):
developing agoraphobia. People with agoraphobia fear
crowded places and open spaces. They are terrified of leaving
the house and facing situations beyond their control.
Pezuzu was strongly recommended to undergo treatment to
alleviate his condition. However, the treatment was quite
expensive and Cynthia simply couldn't afford it.
(54:29):
No one seriously addressed the young man's mental health.
Eventually, Pezuzu returned to school but became a true
nightmare for both teachers and classmates.
This was largely because Cynthiawas far from the best mother.
Not only did she fail to raise her son properly, but she did
everything to ruin his life completely.
The boy couldn't cope with his mental health issues on his own.
(54:52):
To make matters worse, starting at age 13, Pazuzu became
addicted to illegal substances and alcohol.
To cope with his situation, he simply began escaping reality.
Worst of all, Cynthia enabled this behavior.
She bought her son beer just to keep him from getting on her
nerves. At 13, he drank about 12 cans of
(55:13):
beer almost every day. In a state of intoxication, the
boy became even more withdrawn and went into denial.
There was another thing Pezuzu turned to in order to deal with
his anxieties. It was black magic.
From early childhood, the boy was obsessed with horror movies.
A Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the 13th, The Evil Dead,
(55:35):
Hellraiser, and others. Not just on Halloween, but
throughout the year, Pezuzu dressed up as characters from
these films and scared neighbors, appearing before them
as a vampire or werewolf. From age 13, Pezuzu began
studying black magic and witchcraft.
At some point, he genuinely believed he possessed
supernatural powers. He told his classmates he could
(55:58):
move objects with his mind, control the weather, and curse
people he didn't like. Naturally, his stories only gave
other students more reasons to mock him.
No one believed him. Pazuzu, however, took it very
seriously. He read books about magic,
learning how to cast spells on people, control their minds and
(56:18):
exert influence. The teenager began performing
rituals, making animal sacrifices to dark forces.
He even tried drinking blood to connect with the darker side of
reality. Soon, Pazuzu became the talk of
the town. The community he grew up in was
deeply religious. A teenager who dressed as
(56:40):
monsters, was obsessed with black magic and killed animals
provoked condemnation and outrage among upright
Christians. Everyone was horrified, which
only worsened his mental health issues.
By the age of 14, Pazuzu droppedout of school entirely.
His agoraphobia attacks became so severe that he literally
(57:01):
couldn't leave the house. He hid from the world in his own
room and tried not to leave it unless necessary.
Over the next few years, the teenager withdrew completely.
All he did was drink, take illegal drugs and occasionally
the medications prescribed by his psychiatrist.
The volatile mix of prescriptiondrugs and alcohol could only
(57:22):
lead to disaster. The only person Pezuzu
occasionally interacted with washis mother, Cynthia.
This period of seclusion lasted until he was 18, after which the
young man slowly began to emergefrom his shell.
Due to his mental health issues,Pezuzu was granted disability
benefits. These were small payments, but
(57:43):
the young man wanted more money,so he decided to sell illegal
drugs. This activity forced him to
leave the house and interact with others.
Soon, Pazuzu realized that nearly all his clients were very
similar to him. They were all societal outcasts
struggling with various issues and seeking support.
(58:05):
The young man got along well with such people, which gave him
confidence. Pazuzu finally felt he had found
the people he was looking for. This realization prompted him to
legally change his name. He no longer wanted to be John
Lawson, the boy who was bullied at school, pointed at by
neighbors, and who felt his own worthlessness in this world.
(58:26):
Only among people like him did Pazuzu Algorod feel significant.
He wanted to create a new identity to escape the state he
had been in for years. When changing his documents, he
stated that the name change was due to religious reasons.
Pezuzu is a demon in Assyrian and Babylonian mythology.
(58:47):
A powerful and malevolent figure, Pezuzu represented the
southwest wind and was considered a bringer of storms
and drought in ancient culture. It was also the name of the
demon in the movie The Exorcist.This is how the young man saw
himself. His surname, Ila Algarad,
translated from Arabic as Lord of Locusts.
(59:08):
He created a terrifying persona and wanted to become the most
frightening version of himself. Under this guise, his name alone
scared devout Christians, and Pezuzu took pleasure in it.
To amplify the effect of his name, he got several tattoos
that offended the true faith of the people in his town.
For example, he tattooed Luciferand the number 666, a special
(59:32):
number mentioned in the Bible associated with the Beast of the
Apocalypse. He enjoyed it when people looked
at his tattoos with disapproval,crossed to the other side of the
street, or openly feared him. This reaction intensified
because Pazuzu completely stopped caring about personal
hygiene. He didn't shower, brush his
teeth or bathe. Or rather, he did so once a
(59:56):
year. In Algorad's opinion, washing
stripped the body of its naturalprotection against diseases and
infections. And where have you ever seen a
clean rosy cheeked demon? Pazuzu also filed his teeth into
sharp fangs. He had loved vampires since
childhood and wanted to emulate them in every way.
(01:00:17):
Moreover, sharp fangs made it easier to bite animals, to drink
their blood, and possibly even people.
He filed his teeth while under the influence of illegal drugs
so he didn't feel pain. The pain came later.
Algarad also split his tongue down the middle, making it
resemble a snakes. The young man, consumed with the
(01:00:39):
idea of turning himself into a demon, began inventing various
stories about his origins to seem more intimidating and
resemble a real villain, like a mythical character.
He told people his mother worshipped the devil and his
father was a high priest from Iraq.
Pezuzu claimed he was Muslim, though of course he never was.
(01:01:00):
After the events of September 11th, 2001 in the United States
when the twin towers of the World Trade Center were
destroyed, Americans were wary of people of other religions.
This is why Pazuzu told everyonehe was a follower of Islam to
stir up even more panic around himself.
His main spiritual teacher and inspiration was the infamous
(01:01:22):
Charles Manson. Algorad admired how this man
controlled his followers and made them commit crimes for him
in the style of a true cult leader.
Pazuzu created his own religion based on a mix of various
beliefs, which included monthly animal sacrifices during the
dark moon. Pazuzu Ila Algarad dreamed of
standing out from the crowd, attracting outcasts like himself
(01:01:46):
from childhood, and commanding an army of followers.
After changing his name and adopting A terrifying image, he
turned the family home where he still lived with his mother into
a place for parties and meetingswith future fans.
Pazuzu invited almost everyone he knew to hang out at his
house, and later this place became known as Knollwood House.
(01:02:09):
First, because it was located onKnollwood Dr. and second,
because the building later turned into a House of horrors
that drove neighbors insane. His mother, Cynthia, as she did
in his childhood, allowed her son to do whatever he wanted.
So Pezuzu turned the entire house into a party venue, and
she didn't care. There were 20 to 30 people there
(01:02:29):
at once. They partied, drank and took
psychedelic drugs. Algorod wanted to create an
environment where people felt free, where they wouldn't be
judged. They could dress however they
wanted, say whatever they pleased, and do anything that
came to their clouded minds. Guests could act out their
deepest and darkest fetishes andfantasies.
(01:02:52):
If they wanted to do something illegal, there were no issues.
Want to smash ATV? Here's a hammer.
Feel like trashing the house? Go ahead.
Tempted to smash a beer bottle over someone's head?
Be my guest. Pezuzu's guests were free in
their choices. They could engage in intimacy in
front of everyone, urinate on the carpet or defecate in the
(01:03:14):
corner of the room. There were no rules in this
house, and no one cleaned up. Soon, Knollwood House began
attracting dozens of people, andover time their numbers grew.
The situation spiraled more and more out of control.
Many newcomers didn't even know the host, so Pazuzu greeted
them, told his fabricated originstory, spoke of supernatural
(01:03:37):
powers, and in front of them sank his sharpened fangs into
animals and drank their blood. Then he might bite his own hand
and let someone taste him, or conversely, offer guests to
share their blood, and people willingly let him do it.
Suddenly, wild bacchanals would begin with partners swapping
each other. In one corner, someone was
(01:03:59):
urinating, someone was vomiting,and someone was sleeping on the
floor. Gradually, the house began to
fall apart because no one cared for it, no one cleaned, and no
one made repairs. Visitors literally trashed the
place. The walls were smeared with
blood, covered in pentagrams, inverted crosses, and images of
(01:04:21):
the devil. Everything was damp and moldy.
Human feces reeked in the corners.
Carpets and sofas were wet with urine.
The space was filled with an indescribable stench of filth.
Besides people, five dogs lived in the house, also defecating
everywhere. Rats, larvae, flies, all were
(01:04:42):
permanent residents of KnollwoodHouse.
The carcasses of dead animals, which no one ever thought to
clean up, littered both the inside and outside of the house.
A dead cat hung from a tree in the backyard.
The entire facade was covered ingraffiti and signs reading no
Entry and gang members not allowed were nailed to the
(01:05:03):
fence. It was clear to anyone that no
sane person could stay in the house for even a minute, so it's
easy to understand what kind of people spent their free time at
Knollwood House 24 hours a day. Black metal music blared at full
volume in Pazuzu's house. Neighbors suffered from the
constant noise and stench spreading across the street and
(01:05:24):
kept their windows closed. However, none of them dared to
call the police and report the disturbances first.
People were genuinely afraid of Algorad.
Some believed he had powers and could cause harm, while others
simply didn't want to deal with an unhinged neighbor.
It was unclear what his disturbed mind was capable of.
(01:05:46):
During this period, Cynthia and her son Pazuzu switched roles
when he was a child. His mother held intimate
rendezvous in the house, and he was an unwilling witness to
these drunken parties, forcing him to lock himself in his room.
Now Cynthia locked herself in her bedroom and was afraid to
step into the hallway. She believed that as long as
(01:06:08):
Pazuzu and his friends didn't barge into her room, they could
do whatever they wanted. Their roles had reversed.
Most likely, in this story, the mother is to blame for failing
to raise her only son as a normal person.
If Cynthia had controlled her child and addressed his
treatment in time, this story might not have happened.
(01:06:30):
Over time, people from across the country began flocking to
this crazy party house. Mostly, they were outcasts,
ignored by society. They love the freedom and
attention provided by the host of Knollwood House.
Now they finally felt they belong to a community, something
they've never had before, and began to exalt Pezuzu, worship
(01:06:51):
him, and look up to Algorad. It resembled A cult and Pezuzu
undoubtedly enjoyed all this attention.
It gave him confidence in his own abilities.
The young man grew up an outcast, never had close friends
and was very lonely and isolated.
Now all these people worshipped him and were ready to follow his
(01:07:12):
orders. And Pazuzu truly felt unique.
His perverse charisma attracted certain minds, losers, outcasts,
people living on the edge, or those who wanted to live on the
edge. Since Algorod had power over his
followers, he began manipulatingand controlling them to see how
far they would go for him. Sometimes Pazuzu was very
(01:07:35):
charming when he saw some opportunity.
If he wanted someone to commit acrime for him, they would gladly
do it because Algarad had power over the people who came to his
house. Pazuzu didn't just have male
followers, he also attracted many women.
By then, Algarad was over 30, while his admirers were barely
out of their late teens, aged 18to 20.
(01:07:57):
The girls were much younger, farmore vulnerable and naive,
making them easy to manipulate. Moreover, the fans he interacted
with at Knollwood House fell head over heels for him, despite
his disregard for showers and basic hygiene.
In the typical manner of a cult leader, Pazuzu decided to make
several of his followers his brides.
(01:08:19):
He wasn't officially married to any of them.
It wasn't necessary for him. He simply called them his
spiritual wives or brides. One such bride was a young woman
named Amber Birch, born in January 1990 to an ordinary
family. Amber had a happy childhood,
excelled in school, and her greatest passion was horses,
which her family owned. She often rode with friends and
(01:08:43):
spent time in nature. In 2008, Birch graduated high
school and that's when she firstmet Pazuzu Algorod.
She was 18 and he was 30. A relationship developed between
them and Amber changed literallyovernight.
She stopped caring about herself, stopped showering,
tried illegal drugs for the first time and began drinking
(01:09:05):
alcohol. She even turned her teeth into
fangs as Pazuzu had done on social media.
Birch's status claimed she was legally married to Algorad.
Her entire life revolved around worshipping her so-called
husband as she completely cut off her friends and family.
Pezuzu's second wife was a youngwoman named Crystal Matlock.
(01:09:26):
She met him when she was 20. Her situation was very similar
to Amber's. Crystal was completely consumed
by Algorad, calling him her heroand savior, worshipping him, and
forgetting about her family and close friends.
Besides Crystal and Amber, therewere other girls who considered
themselves Pezuzu's brides, but little is known about them.
(01:09:48):
The parties at Knollwood House continued, and with the rise of
social media, rumors of the wildbacchanal spread quickly.
In 2009, things at the house took an increasingly darker
turn. If Pazuzu previously boasted
about supernatural powers, he now began showing everyone his
weapon collection, consisting ofnumerous knives and several guns
(01:10:10):
stored in the dishwasher. Because Algarad got away with
his criminal activities for years, including using illegal
drugs, killing animals, and disturbing the peace, he felt
untouchable and began revealing an even crueler side of his
personality. Now, when new guests came to the
house, Pezuzu bragged that he could easily kill someone.
(01:10:32):
He claimed he had killed severalhomeless people just for fun and
then sent a couple of prostitutes to their deaths.
He told tales that several bodies were buried in his
backyard. When someone expressed doubts
about these stories, Pazuzu saidthat similar skeptics were lying
in his basement and the smell inthe house supposedly came from
the decomposing bodies down there.
(01:10:54):
The host warned new guests that if they didn't follow his
orders, they'd end up in that basement.
The scariest part was that this didn't scare or repel people
from Knollwood House. It attracted even more.
Most likely people simply turneda blind eye to what Pazuzu was
doing. They just needed an environment
where they could freely use illegal drugs and connect with
(01:11:18):
like minded individuals. In 2009, two men visited
Algorod's house for the first time, Joshua Wetzler and Tommy
Dean Welch. Joshua Wetzler was 32 at the
time. He was born in North Carolina
and after graduating high school, met a girl named Stacy
at a music festival. They bonded over their love for
(01:11:40):
horses. The two hit it off immediately
and a romance sparked. In 2002, the couple bought a
small plot of land, turning it into a small rehabilitation
Center for horses. Soon, Josh and Stacy had a son.
As construction on the property progressed, the couple began
facing financial difficulties. To earn some money, Josh started
(01:12:03):
a business, trimming hooves. Things seemed to be looking up,
at least enough to stay afloat. But one day, Josh made the
mistake of ordering hallucinogenic mushrooms by
mail. He was caught, and he was
charged with a criminal offense.After that, his life fell apart
completely because clients stopped coming to him.
(01:12:24):
Josh was fired from his job and couldn't find another.
Soon Stacy left him, taking their son and gaining full
custody. The father was only allowed to
see his son under supervision. Due to 1 foolish mistake, his
life went off the rails. Joshua Wetzler became a societal
(01:12:44):
outcast. He faced financial struggles and
was forced to sell illegal drugsto support himself.
This activity brought him into contact with unsavory people.
That's when he first met the host of Knollwood House, Pazuzu
Algarad. In the summer of 2009, Josh went
to visit his son. He, Stacy and the boy had a
(01:13:08):
great time together. They made pizza, played and
planned their next meeting. But that visit was the last.
Stacy and her son never saw Joshua again.
At first, the woman thought Wetzler had violated his
probation and was sent to prison.
Or perhaps he had fled to another state to avoid the
police. But it later turned out that
(01:13:30):
Josh had simply vanished from the face of the earth and no one
knew where he went. The second man was Tommy Dean
Welch. He was about 30 years old.
Tommy was the eldest of three brothers.
He grew up in Arkansas. His passion was cars, he was
skilled with engines and could fix any breakdown.
(01:13:50):
Tommy was devoted to his family,where he had two young nephews.
The man never used anything illegal, he rarely even drank
alcohol. Somehow in 2009, Tommy met
Pazuzu and it led to devastatingconsequences for Welch.
On October 3rd, 2009, a few months after Joshua Wetzler's
(01:14:11):
mysterious disappearance, Tommy Welch spent the day with his
family. That evening, they planned to
meet for dinner at his brother'shouse to continue catching up,
but Tommy never showed up. His relatives tried calling him,
but Welch didn't answer. His brothers went to the house
where he had been living recently, but he wasn't there
(01:14:32):
either. This behavior was unlike Tommy.
He cared too much about his family's feelings to just leave.
Without warning. The family reported him missing
to the police. Days turned into weeks.
Tommy's brothers scoured the area, searched the woods, and
questioned countless people, butfound no leads.
(01:14:52):
Tommy Welch, like Joshua Wetzler, had simply vanished
into thin air. Regardless, one person stood at
the center of both disappearances, Pazuzu Algorod,
and he continued to throw wild parties at his house.
The only difference now was thathis stories about captives
locked in the basement walls were joined by a tale that he
(01:15:14):
had killed two men he had disagreements with.
Then, with the help of his two wives, Amber Birch and Crystal
Matlock, he dismembered the bodies and buried them in the
backyard. Pezuzu told this story to almost
everyone who entered his house, but none of the listeners did
anything about it, didn't dig into details about these men,
(01:15:35):
and didn't go to the police. Many assumed it was just another
of Pezuzu's fabrications, as he loved shocking people.
Months passed, but no one knocked on the doors of
Knollwood House to inquire aboutthe missing men.
During this time, Algorad of course, had run insurance with
the law, but they didn't involveTommy or Joshua.
(01:15:56):
He was accused of assaulting a woman, but received only
probation. Additionally, Pezuzu attacked
his mother, who continued to live in the house.
Once, Cynthia somehow angered her son so much that he grabbed
her by the throat and began choking her.
She was so frightened that she reported the assault to the
police. Algorod was arrested later.
(01:16:20):
Cynthia dropped the charges and Pazuzu got away with it again.
There was also an incident whereone of his wives, Amber, was
arrested for repeatedly beating Cynthia, but Cynthia didn't
press charges again and Amber escaped punishment.
No matter how many times Pezuzu had issues with the law, he
managed to walk away unscathed. He only received probation in
(01:16:43):
early 2010. About six months after Joshua
Wetzler's disappearance, the police found his abandoned car.
His former girlfriend didn't yetknow that Josh was missing.
She thought Wetzler was on the run, but she increasingly heard
rumors that the father of her child was dead, and someone
named Algorad was to blame. One day, a close friend called
(01:17:07):
Stacy and said Josh was buried in Pazuzu's backyard.
Not knowing who Pazuzu was, Stacy still went to the
authorities. Though she didn't believe the
rumors, her friend's words made her worry.
It turned out the police had also heard about Knollwood House
and the supposed remains of two men buried in the backyard, but
(01:17:27):
they couldn't act on rumors alone.
Stacy's report prompted the authorities to take action.
Finally, on February 23rd, 2010,the police arrived at Algarad's
house with a search warrant. They headed straight to the
backyard, but there was a problem.
The detectives didn't have the proper equipment to search for
(01:17:48):
bodies underground. Officers walked the yard, moved
a few rocks, but naturally foundnothing.
They had a canine unit with them, but the dogs were thrown
off by the strong smell coming from the house, so they didn't
pick up anything either. The stench of death wasn't just
in the backyard, the entire building was saturated with it.
(01:18:10):
As foolish as it sounds, the investigators concluded there
were no bodies on the property and Pazuzu had nothing to do
with Joshua and Tommy's disappearance.
Both investigations stalled for several more months until
another tragedy struck on June 7th, 2010.
The body of Joseph Chandler was found on the Bank of a river
(01:18:30):
where Pazuzu often performed rituals.
The man died from a gunshot wound.
His mother had reported him missing to the police a few days
earlier. She described her son as the
kindest person in the world. She was devastated when she
learned his fate. Since Pazuzu was a well known
figure in the area, it didn't take long for the police to link
(01:18:52):
Joseph Chandler's death to Algorad.
Somehow, three men ended up on the riverbank.
Pazuzu, Joseph Chandler, and a man named Nicholas Rizzi.
It's unclear what connected them.
Most likely, a dispute broke out.
Algarrod pulled a gun from the car, but Nicholas Rizzi beat him
to it, firing 1st and shooting Chandler point blank.
(01:19:14):
Afterward, both men fled the scene, and Pazuzu allowed
Nicholas to hide in his house when the police raided the house
with a search warrant. Both were arrested and charged
with the killing. During interrogation, Rizzi
claimed the shooting was an accident and the detectives
believed him. Nicholas admitted he
accidentally pulled the trigger and pleaded guilty to
(01:19:35):
involuntary manslaughter. He was sentenced to 13 months in
prison. That's how much a human life was
worth, according to the judge. Joseph Chandler's mother wasn't
even allowed into the courtroom,so one can only guess how fair
the verdict was. It's safe to say there was no
justice in the Chandler case. For some reason, the detectives
(01:19:57):
immediately believed it was an accident and didn't investigate
further. But considering Algorod's power
over people, he could easily have convinced Ritzy to take the
blame for the crime. Nevertheless, Pezuzu was charged
with aiding and abetting involuntary manslaughter and
withholding information from investigators by allowing the
suspect to hide in his house. However, Algorod received only
(01:20:21):
probation again in 2011, Pezuzu's mother, Cynthia, who
had put up with her son's madness for years, decided she'd
had enough and wanted to put an end to it.
For years, she had lived in a locked room in the trashed
house. Afraid to step into the hallway,
she went to the police and told investigators she had witnessed
(01:20:41):
a crime. She saw with her own eyes how
her son shot a man and then withhis wife, Amber buried the
remains in the backyard. When the authorities asked
Cynthia for permission to searchthe house, she categorically
refused. The thing was, she was terrified
of her son. If Pazuzu found out his mother
(01:21:02):
had gone to the police, he wouldhave been furious.
And who knows how it would have ended in the end.
Her trip to the Sheriff's Officewas pointless.
The detectives recorded Cynthia's statement and that was
it. They didn't try to obtain a
search warrant on their own, didn't question Algarad, and
took no action whatsoever. 3 more years passed.
(01:21:25):
Pazuzu continued to live by his own rules, or rather the
complete lack thereof, and ruin the lives of those around him.
He still bragged to everyone that he had killed several
people. Those crimes went unpunished.
Neighbors feared Algorad, his own mother feared him, and it
seems even the police feared him.
How else to explain their inaction for so many years?
(01:21:49):
However, one person wasn't intimidated by the grim image of
the self-proclaimed demon. Long ago, before Pazuzu truly
lost his mind and began going insane, he had a friend.
Perhaps this was the only personwho managed to resist Algorad's
negative influence. His name was Matt Flowers.
(01:22:10):
Matt realized that if he stayed any longer, he wouldn't escape
the pit he and Pazuzu were digging for themselves.
Flowers wasn't going to let illegal drugs ruin his life, so
he mustered his willpower and joined the US Army, later
serving in Iraq for a long time.In October 2014, when Matt was
(01:22:31):
back home, he started hearing rumors that his former friend
had gone so far as to kill people and bury them in his
backyard. Flowers, now a veteran, wasn't
going to turn a blind eye to such lawlessness.
He went to the police and asked them to investigate what was
happening at Knollwood House. Surprisingly, this time the
(01:22:52):
police took the report seriouslyand finally decided to do their
job. Detectives obtained a search
warrant, experts brought all thenecessary equipment, and five
years after the disappearance ofthe two men, 2 shallow graves
were found in Pazuzu's backyard.The skeletal remains were later
(01:23:12):
identified as those of the missing Joshua Wetzler and Tommy
Welch. If the police had shown some
diligence the first time, they would have found the remains
sooner and then perhaps Joseph Chandler would still be alive.
The most horrific part is that Pazuzu never hid what was buried
in his garden. Algorad was finally arrested
(01:23:34):
along with his two wives, Amber Birch and Crystal Matlock.
After the arrest, detectives thoroughly searched the house.
Photos of the interior of Knollwood House made it to the
media. The public was shocked by the
horror taking place in the house.
Garbage was everywhere, furniture was broken, and walls
(01:23:54):
were smeared with blood and covered in spray painted
graffiti. Fortunately, the photos couldn't
convey the stench that filled the house and its surroundings.
During the investigation, detectives had to interview
countless people who visited Pazuzu's house, but they never
fully figured out how Josh and Tommy ended up at Knollwood
House. Algorad and his wives said
(01:24:17):
almost nothing. In the summer of 2009, Pazuzu
got into an argument with Josh Wetzler, pulled out a gun and
shot his rival 7 times in the head and torso.
Then he dragged the body to the basement to dismember it.
With the help of the two women, Amber and Crystal, he buried the
remains in a shallow pit in his backyard.
(01:24:38):
The reason for their argument couldn't be determined.
After the killing, Pazuzu took ablood soaked bandana from Josh
and wore it. He even appeared in that bandana
in an adult home video. This served as another piece of
evidence against him. In October 2009, Tommy Welch was
sitting on a couch in Pazuzu's house.
(01:25:01):
He was sent to the afterlife with a shot to the back of the
head. The men had also argued
beforehand. However, this time it wasn't Al
Gorad who fired the shot, but his wife Amber.
Tommy met the same fate as Wetzler.
It remains a mystery how Tommy and Pazuzu met.
Welch didn't use illegal drugs, didn't suffer from depression
(01:25:24):
and wasn't an outcast. How did a man who spent the day
with his family end up at Knollwood House?
His relatives never found out. Pazuzu, Algorad and Amber Birch
were charged with intentional murder.
Crystal Matlock was charged withaiding and abetting.
All three were behind bars awaiting trial.
However, the dark worshipper never faced trial.
(01:25:47):
Early in the morning on October 28th, 2015, thirty six year old
Pazuzu Algorod was found dead inhis cell at the Central Prison
of North Carolina. His death was ruled a suicide.
He bled to death from a deep cuton his left arm.
The tool he used remains unknown.
(01:26:07):
Some speculated he bit his own arm with his sharpened teeth,
others suggested prison staff aloud or even helped him take
his life. But these are only unconfirmed
rumors, as the autopsy couldn't determine the exact cause of
death. The worst part of his death is
that Pazuzu was the only one with answers to many questions.
(01:26:29):
Now, much will remain a mystery for the families whose loved
ones died at Algarad's hands. The mother of one victim said
the dark worshipper cowardly escaped, unwilling to take
responsibility for his actions. She hoped he was burning in
hell. Later in an interview, Cynthia
James, Pezuzu's mother, said herson was by no means an Angel,
(01:26:52):
But he wasn't a bad person or what people called him.
Amber and Crystal also didn't face trial, having fully
admitted their guilt. In March 2017, Amber Birch was
sentenced to a minimum of 30 years in prison.
Crystal Matlock received three years for aiding and abetting.
Pazuzu Algarad's house was deemed unfit for habitation.
(01:27:16):
Knollwood House, which had become a haven for a crowd of
outcasts, was demolished on April 24th, 2015.
The lot was put up for sale. Neighbors were overjoyed that
the self-proclaimed devil would never return to their St.
If you have finished watching, you are a real fan of true
crime. Subscribe to the channel, turn
on the bell notifications and put the like.
(01:27:38):
See you in the next video. This charming Gray haired man
somewhat resembling Santa Claus was adored by all his colleagues
and neighbors. He worked as an obstetrician
gynecologist and treated all hispatients with fatherly care.
But when Robert was alone with awoman in his office, depraved
(01:28:01):
horrors began to unfold. Robert Haddon was born in 1959.
He grew up in Long Island, New York, along with his three
siblings. The boy did not receive proper
upbringing, and his childhood could hardly be called happy.
Robert felt no parental love anddesperately craved attention and
approval. He was born blind in one eye,
(01:28:23):
additionally hadn't was hard of hearing in one ear.
Congenital health issues led to isolation and constant bullying
from peers. The boy's mother was an
alcoholic. When she drank, she would fall
asleep immediately. When sober, the woman was very
distant and emotionless. She was completely unconcerned
with her children's struggles. Often, Robert would come home
(01:28:47):
from school to find his mother lying on the couch in the same
position. Robert's father was rarely home,
and even when he was, he was cold and indifferent, never
offering his son any support. So it's understandable why
Haddon grew up craving the attention and affection he never
received at home. However, this wasn't the worst
(01:29:07):
thing that happened to him in childhood.
Starting at age 11, Robert was molested by his older brother.
The relationships among all fourHaddon children were quite
strange. The main aggressor was the
eldest brother, William. Whenever their parents were
away, he forced Robert to engagein intimate acts with him.
(01:29:29):
Naturally, the older brother's molestation affected the
teenager's psyche. As a result, his boundaries of
acceptability became blurred. Robert didn't understand what
healthy intimacy was, and he truly had no one to turn to for
help. As Haddon grew older, he became
even more withdrawn. The teenager wanted to fade into
(01:29:49):
the background at school and become invisible.
Apparently, he succeeded, as many classmates barely
remembered him. At home, however, Robert became
a sort of primary caregiver. Out of all the children, he was
the one who looked after their mother.
When she was hungover, he would lift her off the floor and drag
her to bed, clean up after her, and pour out bottles with
(01:30:13):
leftover alcohol. The boy also always stood
between his mom and dad when they argued.
He did everything he could to prevent conflict.
Soon, Robert became his mother'sfavorite child.
The woman repeatedly told him how smart he was and how she
wanted him to grow up to be a doctor because the teenager
(01:30:33):
desperately needed love. He took his mother's words
literally. Meanwhile, the Haddon family was
becoming increasingly dysfunctional.
The older sister, Elizabeth, followed in her mother's
footsteps. She began drinking too often,
and her hobby quickly turned into an addiction.
The girl also had an abusive boyfriend, whom Robert
(01:30:54):
occasionally had to protect her from.
The older brother, William, became addicted to illegal
substances. He often stole money from the
house to buy drugs. Because of his addiction,
William got into trouble with criminals.
Once, when Robert was 15, his mother suddenly disappeared from
home. For several weeks, no one knew
(01:31:16):
where she was. All household responsibilities
fell on the teenager's shoulders, as his older siblings
had enough problems of their own.
Eventually, the mother returned,her wrists bandaged.
It turned out the woman had grown tired of her life and
attempted suicide. This situation deeply
traumatized Robert. He was confused and genuinely
(01:31:38):
didn't understand what he had done wrong.
All the boy wanted was for his mother to be proud of him and
love him. Her suicide attempt profoundly
affected the teenager's fragile mind.
He took it personally, believingit was likely his fault.
After graduating high school, Robert decided to fulfill his
(01:31:58):
mother's dream to become a doctor.
He earned a medical degree in Florida, began practicing, and
gained experience. Around this time, something very
significant happened in Haddon'slife.
He met his future wife, a woman named Carol.
Robert and Carol were inseparable.
They fell in love and got married sometime later.
(01:32:20):
The couple had two children, a daughter named Emily, and then a
son, Alex. Nevertheless, Robert's life
continued to test his resilience.
Alex was born with a disability requiring round the clock care
because he couldn't do many basic things on his own.
The boy could barely move and hehad to be bathed, fed and tended
(01:32:41):
to. The main burden was that Alex's
condition was incurable. He would never be able to live a
full life without assistance. Naturally, the birth of a child
with a severe illness had a tremendous impact on the
parents, especially the father. Robert had to become the primary
caregiver for his son, as his wife Carol, the boy's mother,
(01:33:04):
suffered from a chronic illness herself, hadn't took on the
responsibility of fully caring for his son, supporting his wife
and simultaneously completing internships at various clinics
and advancing his knowledge to adequately provide for the
family. This period vividly reminded
Robert of his childhood, when hewas the only one who cared about
(01:33:25):
his mother's condition, though the man remained strong for his
family. During this time, he suffered
from depression and heightened anxiety, but he carefully hid
all of this, never telling anyone about his struggles.
As a result, his psychological issues remained unresolved.
By age 30, Robert had completed his medical education and landed
(01:33:48):
his first real job as a doctor at the Columbia University
Hospital, located in upper Manhattan.
At this Irving Medical Center, thousands of patients from
across the city were treated. Columbia University had a
reputation as one of the best universities in America and
beyond, so in this prestigious institution, Haddon took a
(01:34:09):
position as an obstetrician gynecologist in the early 1990s.
During his first few years of work, Robert became so popular
among his patients that some even traveled from other states
for appointments with him. Women loved him because he was
genuinely an excellent doctor while also being friendly and
compassionate. Robert made his patients feel
(01:34:32):
valued. He always listened carefully to
their complaints and wishes. No one could ever say a bad word
about him. Haddon was also popular among
other staff at the Irving Medical Center.
Most considered him a wonderful person.
Robert was quiet, even a bit awkward, but kind and
understanding. He was always happy to help his
(01:34:54):
colleagues, never caused a fuss,and never complained about
anything. Working with him was easy and
pleasant. However, people had no idea that
behind his modest smile and agreeable demeanor, something
sinister was lurking. Friends, please support these
videos with your activity. Subscribe to the channel, put a
(01:35:15):
like on this video and write a comment when you watch the
video. Your activity is very valuable.
Thank you. One day, Robert was going about
his usual business, conducting aroutine patient examination.
Also in the room was a nurse assistant, a woman named Terry.
Terry had participated in hundreds, if not thousands of
(01:35:35):
gynecological exams. She was an experienced employee
and knew exactly how everything should proceed that day.
The appointment went as usual. Terry was taking notes in the
chart and recording Doctor Haddon's recommendations.
When the examination was over, the patient got off the exam
table, and at that moment, Terryleft the room to give the doctor
(01:35:58):
a chance to speak with the womanprivately, discuss test results,
and so forth. As the nurse walked down the
hallway, she remembered she forgot to grab a document, so
she had to return to the office for it.
She approached the door and knocked softly so as not to
startle the patient. When no one answered her knock,
(01:36:19):
Terry opened the door to see if anyone was in the office.
What she saw horrified her to the core.
The patient was lying back on the exam table, though the
examination was already over. Her legs were covered with a
sheet, and Doctor hadn't stood nearby.
With his left hand he was holding the woman's leg, and
with his right hand he was making some up and down
(01:36:42):
movements under the sheet. Robert's eyes were closed, his
face red from exertion, and his head tilted toward the ceiling.
The man was clearly experiencingsexual satisfaction.
There was no medical purpose or innocent explanation for what
Robert was doing. He blatantly used the patient to
fulfill his own intimate fantasies.
(01:37:03):
Of course, this could have endedthat very day and hour as Terry
fully realized what had happenedin the examination room.
But instead of preventing further actions by the doctor by
reporting to the police, the nurse quietly closed the office
door and went to the staff room.Terry was traumatized by what
she saw and didn't say a word toanyone, believing that her
(01:37:25):
assumptions wouldn't be taken seriously against the doctor's
testimony. This was in the early 1990s, and
perhaps no one would have believed her back then.
However, this is no excuse for why the assistant didn't report
the doctor's suspicious actions to the center's higher
management. Terry was a nurse, and it was
her duty to care for her patients.
(01:37:47):
Her silence, to some extent, gave Haddon free reign.
It's not certain that this was the first time such a thing
happened, but it was the first time someone witnessed the
doctor's inappropriate behavior.As soon as the assistant left
the room, Robert immediately told the patient that another
examination was needed and askedher to lie back on the table.
(01:38:08):
He had likely done similar things before, many times, and
always got away with it. From that moment, Robert began
committing assaults again and again.
But how could this happen? Didn't the women realize that
the doctor's actions went far beyond a standard examination?
The thing is, Robert had a specific plan of action that he
followed and perfected, hadn't knew exactly what to do and say
(01:38:32):
to avoid punishment for his inappropriate actions.
Initially, his victims were young women and girls who had
never visited A gynecologist before, so they didn't know what
to expect or how to react. Robert used this to his
advantage. He also took liberties with
women experiencing their first pregnancy, but hadn't didn't
target every patient at first. He was very selective with his
(01:38:56):
victims, identifying the most vulnerable clinic visitors.
The doctor did everything possible to build close
relationships with them and gaintheir trust.
Due to the doctor's gentle and kind demeanor, many women
blindly trusted him and believedthat if he was performing
certain actions, it must be necessary.
Hadn't made sure they felt comfortable asking questions
(01:39:19):
about their personal lives and listening attentively.
Sometimes he talked about his wife or children, presenting
himself as an exemplary family man.
Often the doctor gave patients his personal phone number and
told them they could call anytime, day or night, if they
needed anything. During non working hours, Robert
(01:39:40):
spent hours talking on the phonewith women who reached out to
him for help. He likely got immense excitement
from this, imagining what he would do with them at the next
appointment. After gaining his patients trust
by their third or fourth visit, he began to get handsy, stroking
or massaging intimate body parts.
If any of the girls questioned these actions, Robert easily
(01:40:02):
dismissed it as necessary using medical terminology.
In short, the doctor abused his position and authority to
manipulate patients into thinking it was normal.
If anyone had further doubts about the legitimacy of the
doctor's actions, they simply left the clinic and never
returned. And Robert got away with
sexually assaulting his patientsagain.
(01:40:25):
The number of victims of the unscrupulous Dr. grew year by
year. The count was no longer in the
dozens, but in the hundreds throughout the 1990s.
Hadn't regularly molested women who came to him for examinations
or treatment. Here are a few real stories told
by the victims themselves. A 16 year old girl from the
(01:40:47):
Bronx was 5 weeks pregnant. She had never visited an
obstetrician gynecologist beforeand had no idea what went on
there. She only knew by hearsay, making
her an ideal victim for Robert. However, even an unaware
teenager suspected that the doctor was behaving improperly.
First, the examination in DoctorHaddon's office was
(01:41:09):
unjustifiably long. Second, the man was incredibly
rough with her, and when the girl said he was causing her
pain, he didn't even stop. In fact, this patient filed A
complaint with Columbia University, where Robert
practiced. In the end, she was simply
shuffled from one department to another, ignored and not
(01:41:30):
listened to. The girl had to switch clinics,
achieving nothing. Another of Doctor Haddon's
patients was even younger. During a medical examination,
when the nurse left the room, Robert ordered the girl to climb
onto the exam table and get on all fours.
In reality, there was no medicalreason for this.
(01:41:50):
The doctor did it solely for hisown intimate pleasure.
Then he began groping the girl'sbreasts, pinching her nipples,
calling it all standard procedures, and worse, he
penetrated her from behind with his fingers.
The next victim was also a minor, a 15 year old student.
To gain her trust, the man begancourting the girl and using his
(01:42:14):
position, asked her completely inappropriate questions, hadn't
inquired about the patient's intimate life, asking for the
smallest details of her relationships with boys.
At the same time, Robert complimented her on her
appearance and youthful body. All this happened while the
nurse was in the room. As soon as the nurse left hadn't
(01:42:36):
escalated to the next level, he told the girl he needed to
conduct another examination and removed his gloves.
He asked the patient to undress completely in front of him
before running his hands up and down her body.
He fondled her breasts, spread her buttocks, and examined all
her intimate areas. Afterward, Robert managed to
(01:42:58):
convince the high schooler that this was a normal gynecologist
visit experience. The most horrific thing was that
such actions destroyed teenagerstrust in normal doctors and
negatively impacted the fragile psyches of his young patients.
The doctor calmly continued attacking his patients and no
one did anything. Nurses working alongside Robert
(01:43:20):
were fully aware of his suspicious behavior as he now
easily began performing inappropriate actions and
groping women without any medical justification, even in
their presence. Later, 1 nurse named Rosalina,
who worked with Robert for a long time in the 1990s,
repeatedly witnessed Haddon rubbing his patients intimate
(01:43:41):
areas with his fingers without any need.
Rosalina had extensive experience working with various
gynecologists and knew perfectlywell how examinations should be
conducted. It's unknown whether the nurse
reported her observations to higher management or if she was
also ignored. Another nurse complained that
(01:44:01):
Robert always sent her out of the exam room during
appointments, which was a protocol violation.
Despite all the complaints, thissame nurse, when she became
pregnant, went to Doctor Haddon herself.
The full extent of what had happened earlier hit her when
the obstetrician gynecologist, during her examination, began
(01:44:22):
rubbing his aroused genitals against her hand.
Robert's former colleague was sostunned and shaken by this that
after the appointment, she went straight to the administrator
and declared that this man was apervert, to which the
administrator only shrugged sympathetically.
It turned out that everyone who worked with Doctor Haddon was
(01:44:43):
aware of his unacceptable behavior, but no one did
anything and no one tried to stop Robert.
Haddon continued attacking innocent patients throughout the
1990s and 2000s. He did so with impunity for over
a decade. To grasp the scale, it's worth
noting that on average, the doctor saw 25 to 40 women daily,
(01:45:06):
totaling thousands of patients each year.
Only the stories of a few victims became public knowledge,
as many were too ashamed to speak out.
It's estimated that the number of victims of Doctor Haddon's
assaults reached hundreds, if not thousands.
In 2005, a woman named CharlotteBrooks began seeing Robert, and
(01:45:26):
he was her doctor for two years.During those two years, Haddon's
behavior became increasingly strange and alarming.
The doctor increasingly used a tactic he called intimate
conversations. During these talks, Robert asked
whether Charlotte reached climaxduring intercourse, how many
times, and how it happened. He was trying to get the patient
(01:45:48):
to trust him this time. He played the long game.
In December 2007, when the womanhad grown accustomed to the
strange conversations, Robert finally moved from words to
actions. Alone in the office, he first
thoroughly and prolongedly palpated her breasts, then
inserted his fingers into her vagina and began rhythmic
(01:46:11):
movements. Charlotte was in shock and
horror. The only thing she remembered
was quickly pulling on her clothes and bolting out of the
office. The woman wanted to erase this
unpleasant episode from her memory as soon as possible, so
she went home and didn't tell anyone.
Thus, Robert escaped punishment for assault yet again.
(01:46:32):
At that time, the 45 year old Doctor Haddon was still married.
His children had grown up. His daughter was a teenager, the
same age as some of Robert's victims.
His son, who required constant care, was still under his
father's guardianship. The monster who, day after day,
week after week, year after year, undressed his patients,
(01:46:54):
went home and played the role ofa caring husband and parent.
Since his assaults on patients went unpunished for over a
decade, it's no surprise that hebecame bolder now.
The man developed a system that ensured his victims would return
to him again and again. He encouraged them to schedule
their next appointment with him before the current one was over.
(01:47:16):
He kept the time between appointments shorter and shorter
to get his victims back into hisoffice as soon as possible.
Robert also scheduled patients for examinations without any
reason. Eventually, the doctor even
began blackmailing women with free contraceptive pills, which
they could only get in his office had, and dispensed the
pills in small batches to force patients to come to him more
(01:47:39):
often. The doctor used free medications
to lure and retain his victims who may not have been in the
best financial situation. As a result, many girls
continued seeing Robert for years.
One patient named Sarah Stein, began visiting Doctor Haddon in
1998. She grew up in a conservative
(01:47:59):
Jewish family and knew almost nothing about her own body or
intimate relationships between men and women.
When the girl first went to an obstetrician gynecologist who
happened to be Robert, she had no idea what was supposed to
happen and fully trusted the doctor.
As a result, Haddon was Sarah's doctor for the next 12 years.
(01:48:20):
During this time, he committed intimate acts against Stein over
60 times, including fondling herbreasts and massaging intimate
areas during so-called vaginal examinations.
Another of Robert's victims was a woman named Emily Anderson.
She began seeing the doctor in 1999 and he was her first
gynecologist. The young girl had many Women's
(01:48:42):
Health issues. First and foremost, Emily
trusted Haddon because he workedat the prestigious Irving
Medical Center of Columbia University.
Second, Robert allowed her to call him with any questions at
any time of day or night. He wanted Emily to trust him
unconditionally. As a result, when Anderson moved
from New York to Nevada in 2005,she still stayed in touch with
(01:49:06):
her doctor and even flew in fromanother state for appointments.
Robert conducted perverse examinations of Emily for 13
years, each time making her undress and lie on the
gynecological chair even when there was no need.
At some point, considering that Robert had been offending
hundreds of patients with his indecent actions for over a
(01:49:26):
decade, complaints against him began pouring in.
First, nurses and colleagues in the obstetrics and gynecology
department called Doctor Haddon's examination methods
inappropriate and improper. However, the administration was
in no hurry to address these complaints, thereby enabling the
(01:49:47):
gynecologist's actions. Then, the number of complaints
from patients about Robert increased.
However, Columbia University's hospital had no clear policy on
documenting letters, so they were simply ignored, often not
even reaching the medical center's top management.
Every patient who complained about Robert was either ignored,
(01:50:09):
distracted with something else, or shuffled from one office to
another, making them think that what happened in the
specialist's office was normal. By the end of 2007, Doctor
Robert Haddon's personnel file remained spotless, despite the
enormous number of complaints from staff and patients.
At some point, the man moved to the maternity ward, where young
(01:50:31):
mothers were waiting in their rooms.
For one of the most significant moments of their lives.
Robert assaulted them. He often neglected medical
gloves, touching the intimate areas of women in labor with
bare hands, not out of necessity, but for his own
satisfaction, taking advantage of the fact that the women
couldn't escape the hospital. The most outrageous and perverse
(01:50:54):
thing Robert hadn't did during examinations was touching his
patients intimate areas with histongue, and not just touching,
but performing various manipulations.
He was so emboldened by his impunity that he began molesting
women almost openly. If hadn't had previously tried
to mask his actions with medicalterminology, now it looked like
(01:51:17):
blatant abuse and patients were horrified.
Robert's behavior had completelyspiraled out of control. 22
years had passed since the firstknown assault.
How did the prestigious ColumbiaUniversity allow such things to
happen within its walls? Why did the administration
pretend not to notice the criminal behavior of one of its
(01:51:40):
doctors? Why did they protect him so
diligently? The Medical Center was afraid of
tarnishing its reputation. A breakthrough in the case came
in 2012. A woman named Lori Kayak was
under the care of Doctor Robert Haddon.
In the past, Lori was a professional dancer.
Now she was 38 years old and eight months pregnant.
(01:52:02):
Previously, Lori had been unableto carry a pregnancy to term,
and she had recently undergone spinal treatment, so she was now
in a high risk group. The woman was worried about
possible complications during her current pregnancy, so she
chose a reputable Medical Centerand ended up with Doctor Haddon.
At first, Lori really liked Robert.
(01:52:23):
He came across as a very friendly, polite person.
The doctor treated Lori almost like a father, and she even
described him to her friends as a kind Santa Claus.
However, Lori gradually began tonotice that strange things were
happening during examinations. Sometimes the doctor would pinch
her breasts, massage her buttocks and penetrate inside,
(01:52:43):
or seemingly accidentally press against her naked body.
The woman even thought Robert was making sounds like those
during intercourse. Since Lori's only concern at the
time was giving birth to a healthy baby, she decided not to
dwell on it, attributing it to Doctor Haddon's possible quirks
and her own wild imagination. The expectant mother couldn't
(01:53:05):
even entertain the thought that this kind Santa Claus was
molesting her. The delivery went perfectly.
Kayak gave birth to a girl, and everything was fine.
If only the story had ended there.
But shortly after giving birth, the woman went to Doctor Haddon
for a routine checkup. First, he squeezed a drop of her
breast milk and tasted it, then asked her to lie on the exam
(01:53:29):
table. Robert was conducting the
examination while Lori scrolled through her phone's news feed.
Suddenly, she felt something wetdown below.
The woman looked up and saw the doctor's red and agitated face.
Only then did she realize what he was actually doing.
While Haddon, caught off guard, nervously tried to justify his
actions, Lori texted her boyfriend and told him
(01:53:51):
everything. That same day, a call came into
911 where Lori Kayak's partner reported to the operator that a
gynecologist had orally touched his fiancee's genitals during an
examination. Soon, police arrived at Lori's
home. Officers took her statement and
brought her for an examination. Dr. Haddon was arrested that
(01:54:14):
same day. It was a Friday evening.
Robert's superiors at the hospital were informed that an
investigation into the doctor's illegal actions would be
conducted. However, the next day, Saturday,
Haddon was released and by Tuesday he returned to work as
if nothing had happened. Despite the hospital leadership
being aware of the accusations against him, For some reason,
(01:54:38):
Columbia University did not suspend Robert from conducting
examinations. All they did was require that
the doctor not be left alone with patients.
One might think Haddon would lielow, stop or be scared, but he
didn't care. He was too confident in himself.
Not only did the Medical Center allow Robert to return to work,
(01:54:59):
but they also ensured that the accusations against him never
saw the light of day. The university allowed the
doctor to escape punishment. It turned out that for a very
long time, they were complicit. One of Doctor Haddon's patients
was a woman named Evelyn Yang, who was seven months pregnant.
During one appointment, Robert pulled the same trick on her as
(01:55:21):
he did with most of his patients.
He didn't know that Evelyn Yang was the wife of prominent
businessman Andrew Yang, who later ran in the Democratic
primary for the US presidential candidacy in 2020.
Realizing the potential consequences, Haddon wrote a
resignation letter and negotiated with the university
for an early retirement. At 54, this man planned to enjoy
(01:55:45):
a well deserved retirement with his wife and two children after
physically assaulting his vulnerable patients for over 2
decades. An official investigation into
Robert's misconduct was conducted, but the case was
quickly closed due to a lack of evidence.
Columbia University meticulouslyhid the enormous number of
(01:56:06):
complaints about Doctor Haddon over the years.
Several months passed and nothing was done.
Laurie Kiak, who started this entire process, was horrified
and desperate. She wanted Robert to answer for
all the assaults. She continued to sue Haddon and
the university in civil court, but it was nothing compared to
the scale of his crimes. One day, Lori decided to go
(01:56:30):
further, publicizing the issue she faced in the media.
Her story didn't attract much attention.
It was a small article on the 10th page of a New York
newspaper. However, the article sparked a
chain reaction because other victims of Doctor Haddon saw it.
The story triggered a flood of traumatic memories of what the
women had endured, and they began contacting Lori.
(01:56:54):
Now, Lori Kayak was not alone. The accusations against the
gynecologist were corroborated by several more victims.
The investigation could no longer be ignored, so the case
moved forward. But strangely, obstacles arose
here too, as District Attorney Cyrus Vance Junior had a genuine
aversion to prosecuting sexual assault cases, especially those
(01:57:17):
that would be hard to win. As soon as Haddon's case
surfaced, Cyrus invited Robert'slawyer to his office for a talk.
It turned out the two were good friends.
In their conversation, they agreed that Haddon should enter
a plea deal in which he would plead guilty to 1 felony and one
misdemeanor of his choice. He would be listed in the sex
(01:57:38):
offender registry and stripped of his medical license.
But most importantly, he wouldn't spend a single day in
prison, couldn't be retried for this case, and once again, the
doctor would get away with it. The story could have ended
there. Robert pleaded guilty and calmly
spent time with his family. Laurie Kayak continued fighting
(01:58:00):
through a civil lawsuit and ultimately received a settlement
of $475,000. However, after such a long
battle, the woman was so exhausted that she fainted in
the middle of the street. Four years passed after the plea
deal. It was 2020.
Evelyn Yang, one of Doctor Haddon's last victims, was
(01:58:22):
married to presidential candidate Andrew Yang.
Over the past few years, due to her high profile status, Evelyn
had supported the accusations against the gynecologist
anonymously. But as the Me Too movement
gained momentum and more women came forward with statements
about various assaults, Evelyn made a very bold decision to
(01:58:42):
finally publicly declare that she too was a victim of Doctor
Robert Haddon. With the help of the Me Too
hashtag, which spread across social media in October 2017,
women expressed condemnation of sexual violence and harassment.
This was an incredibly difficultdecision for Evelyn Yang because
she was somewhat of a public figure.
(01:59:04):
In the midst of her husband's election campaign, the woman
organized an interview with CNN and for the first time, publicly
shared her story. After that interview, everything
changed. Once the story aired, it gained
national attention and drew the focus of hundreds more of
Robert's victims, dozens of whombegan publicly sharing their
(01:59:24):
painful experiences. It was then that this case
finally forced the US Departmentof Justice to take action.
However, after the plea deal, Haddon couldn't be held
accountable for the crimes again, but the authorities could
no longer sweep it under the rug.
The Department of Justice wantedto bring new federal charges
against Robert, which would carry harsher penalties.
(01:59:47):
When the second investigation began, Columbia University's
massive cover up came to light. Not only did they fail to inform
patients that their doctor was under investigation for sexual
assault, but they also hid critical documents, deleted
emails, and concealed important parts of Robert's personnel
file, leading to a criminal caseagainst Columbia University.
(02:00:10):
Ultimately, settlements were reached with 200 victims for a
total of $230 million. Yet not a single person from the
Medical Center was charged with a crime or faced any punishment,
even though the clinic was obligated to care for its
patients and protect them from doctors like Robert.
(02:00:31):
Only in early 2023, seven years after the effective plea deal,
did Doctor Robert Haddon finallyface trial.
At that time, he was 64 years old.
In his defense, the man stated that he was the primary
caregiver for his ill son and needed to return home to care
for his family. At that moment, the judge gave
(02:00:53):
the floor to his numerous victims.
Their voices were finally heard properly.
The testimony shared by the women were truly horrifying.
Each story was worse than the last.
Robert Haddon was found guilty on all counts.
He was sentenced to the maximum penalty of 20 years in prison
for each charge to be served concurrently.
(02:01:14):
The consequences of this case are still felt today.
Currently, lawyers are still working on behalf of the
victims, trying to secure compensation.
Over 500 women have come forward, but surely these are
far from all the victims of the depraved Dr. Recently I found
out that many people watch true crime stories before going to
(02:01:35):
bed to fall asleep. So we made a new channel where
every day there are 4 hour videos with a black screen where
a calm voice tells true crime stories with the sound of rain.
So if you like to fall asleep tothat go to the video.
Thank you. Friday, September 2nd, 2016 at
(02:01:57):
McNeil Middle School in Wichita Falls, TX.
Classes had ended and the students were released for the
weekend. The children poured out of the
school in a crowd. Some rushed to the cars waiting
for them while others headed home on foot.
What should have been an ordinary day soon turned into
chaos when screams echoed through the neighborhood.
(02:02:18):
Schoolchildren ran and hid in nearby yards while adults darted
around the street, unsure of what was happening.
The 911 service received severaldesperate calls, but no one
could say exactly what had occurred.
Some swore they heard gunshots and even saw someone with a
weapon. Others mentioned something about
a car accident. No one could say with certainty
(02:02:40):
how many people were injured, but one thing was clear.
In an alley near Kingston Dr., aseverely wounded teenager lay on
the ground amid the flood of calls, overwhelming emergency
dispatchers. It was difficult to make sense
of the situation. However, the heartbreaking truth
soon came to light. Two young girls had been
(02:03:03):
brutally shot, and no one was prepared for what would follow.
This tragedy traumatized an entire city, parents and
children who witnessed the horror that ended with the loss
of an extraordinary schoolgirl with a bright future.
Friends, please support these videos with your activity.
Subscribe to the channel, put a like on this video and write a
(02:03:24):
comment when you watch the video.
Your activity is very valuable. Thank you.
Lorraine Lavandazzo was born on October 14th, 2002.
The arrival of the little girl was a true surprise for her
parents. Lorraine was more than 10 years
younger than her two older brothers.
Her father, Vern, had dreamed ofhaving a daughter from the very
(02:03:47):
beginning. The birth of two sons initially
shocked him because he was certain he and his wife would
have a girl. Lorraine's mother, Bianca, also
imagined a baby girl with brightblue eyes during her pregnancy.
When two boys were born one after the other, she couldn't
shake the feeling that somethingwas missing.
(02:04:07):
That's why the couple decided totake a chance and have another
child. Lorraine's birth was a gift of
fate for them. From the moment she was born,
Lorraine was something special. Of course, this sounds cliche,
as most parents feel this way, but it was true.
Lorraine was wise beyond her years.
(02:04:28):
Despite her age, she had a deep sense of empathy, A remarkable
ability to sense the moods of those around her, and a
readiness to help. It's no surprise that as she
grew up, Lorraine became the life of the party.
She had countless friends. Lorraine didn't care about their
family background, whether they were poor or rich, straight A
(02:04:49):
students or struggling academically.
She accepted everyone and considered everyone's interests.
Most people believed her callingwas to make others happy.
Lorraine's ability to care for others played a huge role in why
so many saw her as a vibrant personality.
Lorraine was happy every minute of her short life.
(02:05:09):
A radiant smile never left her face.
Personal Stage While she cherished the time spent with
friends, family always came first.
Lorraine spent all holidays and weekends at home, even though
most teenagers her age were eager to distance themselves
from their parents. Between amusement parks,
beaches, class trips, and time with family, she always chose
(02:05:32):
the latter. Lorraine was a wonderful person.
She was a true treasure to this world.
But on September 2nd, 2016, a senseless and brutal attack
ended the life of the 13 year old schoolgirl.
When screams rang out in the alley near the school, Lorraine
Lavandazzo's parents rushed out of their home.
(02:05:55):
Bianca ran down the street toward the noise while Verne,
without hurrying, got into the car, hoping it would help him
figure out what was happening faster.
They didn't even consider that it could have anything to do
with their daughter as dozens ofchildren typically walked home
from school. Just to be safe, Vern called
Lorraine's phone to make sure she was OK.
(02:06:17):
A few seconds later someone answered, but it wasn't Lorraine
on the other end of the line. There was chaos followed by a
blood curdling scream. Vern would have recognized that
voice out of a million. It belonged to Bianca, his wife,
and Lorraine's mother, who had just reached the alley and found
her daughter lying on the groundin a pool of blood.
(02:06:39):
Lorraine's beautiful blue eyes were wide open, seemingly
looking at her mother. The girl was still clutching her
school backpack to her chest. The scene around her was the
embodiment of chaos. Police cars arrived one after
another. The perimeter wasn't secured.
Children were screaming and parents were trying to calm
(02:07:00):
them. No one yet understood what had
happened or what needed to be done.
Two women who happened to be nearby, both nurses, noticed
Lorraine had multiple gunshot wounds across her body and tried
to help her. But deep down, both understood
the grim reality. The schoolgirl's life was
hanging by a thread and saving her was unlikely.
(02:07:23):
That's why the women soon shifted their attention to the
other victim, Lorraine Lavandazzo's best friend, 13
year old Michaela Smith. The police were trying to make
sense of the situation as the girls were loaded into
ambulances and rushed to the hospital.
Lorraine's family wasn't allowedto approach her at the scene.
Now Vern sat in the front seat of the ambulance, constantly
(02:07:46):
looking back, trying to make outthe paramedics words.
He heard a paramedic say that a pulse was faintly detectable and
believed his little girl would be OK.
But Bianca, who had been by her daughter's side, looked into her
eyes and knew Lorraine was gone.She was no longer there.
Michaela's family also hurried to the emergency room, not fully
(02:08:09):
understanding what had happened.All they could do was pray that
the girls would be all right. Michaela Smith had been shot in
the chest. Fortunately, the bullet didn't
hit any vital organs. After some time, the schoolgirl
recovered. Lorraine, however, didn't
survive. Lavandazo had sustained 14
(02:08:31):
gunshot wounds to various parts of her body, including her head.
Some of the wounds were fatal and there was simply no chance
of saving her. Lorraine's family was devastated
by grief. They had lost their little girl
who had brought so much joy, happiness, and love into their
lives. Her parents felt as though their
(02:08:52):
hearts had stopped along with their daughters and their own
end seemed near. They genuinely believed they
couldn't go on living, that the loss of their daughter had
drained all their strength. Michaela Smith had endured the
most traumatic event of her life.
She had witnessed the death of her best friend and was injured
herself. This tragic experience forever
(02:09:15):
changed the girl's life and the lives of her family.
The single bullet that struck Michaela Smith remained in her
body. Doctors said it was better.
Not to operate. Yet, and to let her body
naturally expel the foreign object, they hoped that over
time the bullet would move to anarea where it could be safely
removed. Amid this grief, devastation,
(02:09:38):
confusion and anger, there was only one question.
Who could do this to 213 year old schoolgirls walking home
from school? The authorities immediately
launched an investigation and fortunately, Michaela had a lot
to share. She described in detail what
happened from the moment she andLorraine left school until the
(02:09:59):
shooting began. Smith was even able to describe
the person who shot at her and Lorraine and the vehicle he was
driving because Michaela had looked the man straight in the
eyes. Smith and Lavandazo had been
friends since elementary school when they both joined the same
cheerleading team. The girls were in different
(02:10:20):
classes on Friday afternoon. After classes ended, Michaela
set off for home with a friend and spotted Lorraine walking
across the school stadium. The girls caught up with
Lavandazo and decided to walk together.
They took their usual route home, chatting the whole way
about how they wish they had classes together.
They gossiped about boys and discussed their weekend plans.
(02:10:43):
These were typical teenage conversations.
The schoolgirls were walking through an alley between a
residential complex and private homes fenced off by a barrier.
Many students took this shortcut.
Lorraine was walking slightly ahead as they reached the
intersection. The girls were about to go their
separate ways when the nightmarebegan.
(02:11:06):
Right at the intersection, a gold SUV stopped in front of
them, driven by a man in his. 20s with.
Shaggy dark blonde hair and a prominent nose, Michaela locked
eyes with the driver but didn't recognize him.
She didn't even think a young man in the middle of the day
could pose any danger to them. To Smith's horror, however, the
(02:11:27):
driver pulled out a rifle and aimed it directly at them.
Before anyone could react, shotsrang out and Michaela felt a
bullet hit her in the chest. In reality, she didn't yet
realize she'd been shot. It felt like a sudden blow to
her solar plexus as Smith suddenly couldn't breathe.
Somehow, the schoolgirl found the strength to turn and run in
(02:11:49):
the opposite direction, shoutingto the other children walking
home the same way to hide somewhere safe.
Michaela heard gunshots behind her, but Lorraine was nowhere.
Insight. When everything finally went
quiet, Smith collapsed to the ground, unable to stand any
longer. She felt blood running down her
chest to her stomach. From where Michaela sat, she
(02:12:11):
could only see Lorraine's legs motionless on the asphalt.
She shouted her friend's name over and over, but there was no
response. Then Michaela saw the gold SUV
speed off toward a nearby St. The injured schoolgirl pulled
out her phone and called her mom, saying that Lorraine had
been shot and that she was wounded, too.
(02:12:32):
At that moment, dozens of witnesses stood nearby, watching
in horror. Many of them were the girls,
classmates walking home from school.
People who heard the commotion came out of their homes.
Some called the police and ambulance, while others called
friends and acquaintances. But no one could tell Michaela
whether Lorraine was OK, and shewas too injured and frightened
(02:12:54):
to approach her friend and check.
She asked the paramedics, as they placed her on a stretcher
and loaded her into the ambulance, how badly her friend
was hurt. That's when she saw Lavandazo
covered with a white sheet. At that moment, Michaela wasn't
thinking about herself. She begged God for Lorraine to
survive. Witnesses to the shooting told
(02:13:17):
the authorities what had happened.
Some were just a few meters fromthe scene.
If any of the bullets had veeredleft or right, there could have
been more victims. Many schoolchildren saw Lorraine
fall to the ground. Some also remembered the gold
SUV and the weapon sticking out of the driver's window.
All the accounts matched Smith'sstory.
(02:13:38):
Though only two people, Lorraineand Michaela, were physically
harmed by the gunfire, dozens ofschoolchildren were
psychologically traumatized. Rumors of the shooting spread
quickly. A friend of Bianca, Lorraine's
mother, called her and said thatstudents from McNeil School had
been shot nearby. The shocked woman immediately
(02:14:01):
dropped everything, told her husband about the shooting on
the way, and ran to the alley while Verne started the car.
The search for the perpetrator began immediately.
The authorities released a description of the man suspected
of the shooting and his vehicle to the media, hoping for leads
from the public. They also thoroughly examined
the crime scene and found 15 shell casings indicating that a
(02:14:24):
.22 caliber semi automatic riflewas used in the attack.
Although Michaela said she had never seen the shooter before,
detectives leaned toward the theory.
That the attacker was. Someone Lorraine knew, as this
was statistically more likely given the number of wounds.
It seemed clear that Lavandazzo was the intended target, and
(02:14:46):
Smith was hit by chance. Investigators confiscated
Lorraine's iPad and phone, searched her room, and checked
all her social media accounts. They were looking for any sign
of a potential perpetrator amongher acquaintances.
Perhaps someone was angry with her or had expressed
dissatisfaction. Surprisingly, the police found
(02:15:07):
nothing of the sword on the schoolgirls devices.
Everyone who knew Lorraine had nothing bad to say about her.
While the desperate search for the perpetrator continued, the
community came together to create an.
Impromptu memorial. For Lorraine in the alley, a
place where people could mourn the sudden and horrific loss of
a girl who meant so much to those who knew her.
(02:15:30):
Around the same time, an autopsywas performed on Lorraine,
revealing the brutality of the attack.
All the shots were fired from atleast a meter away. 2 bullets
hit her head, one piercing the brain stem.
There were also several wounds to her shoulder and chest.
Another shot struck her liver. A bullet lodged in her spine,
(02:15:51):
likely paralyzing her. Lorraine's body was riddled with
bullets. It was impossible to determine
which wound was fatal. The attack was clearly carried
out with extreme malice and rage.
Someone wanted to take the youngschoolgirl's life and did so
with exceptional cruelty. The crime against Lorraine
Lavandazzo was clearly planned, but the police couldn't find.
(02:16:14):
Anyone among her? Acquaintances who harbored such
overt hostility toward her. There were no leads, and the
investigation stalled. By Sunday, the authorities had
created a sketch of the suspect based on Michaela's description
and aired it on local news. Soon, the police received a call
from a witness in the residential complex near the
(02:16:36):
alley. The caller was a young woman who
said she and her boyfriend were heading to Lorraine's impromptu
memorial to leave flowers when they noticed something
suspicious. A gold SUV matching the police's
description pulled up to the memorial, lingered for a few
seconds, then drove toward the residential complex.
The couple decided to follow theSUV.
(02:16:58):
The vehicle pulled into the complex's parking lot and a
young man in his 20s with long dark blonde hair stepped out.
He had a prominent nose that immediately stood out.
The man then retrieved a long object about the size of a rifle
covered with a cloth from the SUV.
The stranger went into an apartment for a few minutes and
(02:17:19):
returned empty handed. He got back behind the wheel and
drove off in an unknown direction.
The couple managed to write downthe vehicle's license plate and
relate it to the dispatcher. The police immediately rushed to
the scene, hoping to apprehend the suspect.
Patrol officers dispatched to the call spotted a gold SUV
(02:17:40):
driving in the opposite direction.
They turned around and followed it.
Soon, they saw a vehicle with the reported license plate stuck
in traffic. The officers trailed the car for
a while and eventually pulled itover for a traffic violation.
The man behind the wheel identified himself as Cody Lott.
The officers tried to act as if it was a routine check, but they
(02:18:03):
immediately noticed how nervous the driver was.
He was so tense that the knuckles of his fingers gripping
the steering wheel turned white.Otherwise, the young man seemed
talkative and cooperative. He even offered to let the
officer search his vehicle, which the officer gladly did,
hoping to find incriminating evidence to detain the driver.
(02:18:25):
The SU VS interior looked spotless, cleaned from top to
bottom, but almost immediately law enforcement found something
to detain the young man for. On the passenger seat lay a set
of brass knuckles, which at the time was considered illegal
weaponry in Texas. They also found a .22 caliber
(02:18:45):
glass shell casing on the floor.The young man casually claimed
the casing must have been left in the car from a coyote hunting
trip he took with a friend a year earlier.
Cody was arrested and taken to the station, charged with
possessing a dangerous weapon. During the interrogation, the
young man acted relaxed, was quite forthcoming, and eagerly
(02:19:07):
participated in the conversation, laughing and
smiling. He seemed happy to share his
story with the officers, though there wasn't much to brag about.
Gradually, the detective steeredthe conversation toward the day
of the shooting. They asked what he had been
doing over the weekend. The young man tried not to show
that the question rattled him. He provided a wealth of details
(02:19:29):
about his activities on Friday. However, he deliberately skipped
over the time period when the attack in the alley occurred,
likely hoping the officers wouldn't notice.
But this vagueness had the opposite effect.
At the 45th minute of the conversation, the police finally
brought up the shooting and Codyacted as though it didn't catch
him off guard. The young man told the
(02:19:51):
authorities everything he'd heard in the news about the
crime. Additionally, his mother had
texted him shortly after the shooting asking if he knew
anything about the attack on theschoolchildren.
That day, Cody was at his parents apartment while his
mother and stepfather were out of town.
In reality, he lived elsewhere but spent a lot of time in the
(02:20:13):
residential complex located in the area where the shooting took
place. The detectives mentioned that
Cody matched the suspect's description and his SUV looked
exactly like the vehicle severalwitnesses saw at the crime
scene. The young man admitted he was
initially nervous when he heard the details of the case, but
then deciding he hadn't done anything wrong and had nothing
(02:20:36):
to fear, simply ignored the coincidence.
This also caught the investigators attention as
anyone whose description so closely matched that of a wanted
criminal would likely go to the police to clear their name,
especially if they frequently visited the area where the
brutal attack occurred. If someone was truly uninvolved,
(02:20:57):
they wouldn't stay silent, acting as if everything would
resolve itself without their involvement, as mistakes in
investigations that could lead to tragic outcomes are never
ruled out. When the detectives directly
asked Cody about the shooting, he began shifting blame to
others, trying to steer the conversation away from himself.
(02:21:18):
In his opinion, his stepbrother,who also had access to his
parents apartment and their vehicles, could have been
involved in the attack. He had no evidence that his
brother was in the complex on Friday afternoon, so he
abandoned that theory and offered another.
Lott mentioned that he had an ex-girlfriend whose new
boyfriend was supposedly harassing him, but Cody couldn't
(02:21:40):
explain why this alleged harasser would suddenly target a
group of teenagers walking home from school and start shooting
at them. The detectives kept pressing and
finally the young man broke. He said it was a long story and
he'd need time to explain everything to the officers.
Cody Lott had never been popularwith the opposite sex.
(02:22:02):
Girls simply didn't notice him and didn't give him a chance to
prove himself. Instead, as if conspiring, they
mocked him, watching his pathetic attempts to win them
over. Cody had been in relationships
in the past, but none lasted long.
This led him to despise women ingeneral, believing they were
only capable of humiliating men without offering anything in
(02:22:24):
return. It seems this was how Lot sought
to justify the massacre of the schoolgirls.
One day, from the window of his mother and stepfather's
apartment, the young man saw. Lorraine Lavandazzo.
Walking home from school, her beautiful blue eyes struck him
and for a year Cody sat by the window every day waiting to
(02:22:46):
catch even a glimpse of the 13 year old schoolgirl.
He lived elsewhere, but made special trips to his parents
place just to see Lorraine. He never spoke to her, didn't
know her name, and only saw her from a distance.
But he fell in love at first sight, believing she was the
most beautiful girl he had ever met.
(02:23:07):
One day, all his dreams shattered as usual.
Sitting by the window, Cody saw Lorraine holding hands with a
boy her age. He was furious at how she smiled
sweetly at her boyfriend and considered it the ultimate
betrayal. What angered him even more was
that Lorraine had a boyfriend while he had no girlfriend.
(02:23:28):
Jealousy consumed Lot entirely. The young man confessed to the
officers that the mere sight of this 13 year old boy sparked a
fit of rage in him. He called him a jerk, criticized
his appearance and couldn't understand what Lorraine saw in
him. Cody wanted to hurt this pimply
kid who had managed to win the attention of the prettiest girl
(02:23:50):
in school. It was at that moment that Lot
decided he had to make Lorraine regret ever crossing his path.
When the detectives asked why heneeded to take the life of a
schoolgirl who didn't even know he existed, the young man
explained that he wanted a girlfriend and Lorraine was
supposed to be the one. Cody continued to watch
(02:24:11):
Lavandazo. He claimed that one day, their
eyes met for the first time. He compared the schoolgirl's
eyes to precious gems and decided at that moment that he
had to ensure no one else could enjoy her beauty.
If she didn't belong to him, shewouldn't belong to anyone else.
Cody Lott was an emotionally immature person with unrealistic
(02:24:32):
expectations. His own behavior pushed all his
girlfriends away. Unable to maintain healthy
relationships, he descended intoa distorted reality where
Lorraine, whom he considered perfect, was devoted to him and
him alone. The day he saw the schoolgirl
with another boy, his delusionalvisions crumbled and he.
(02:24:55):
Decided Lorraine had. To pay a plan formed in Lot's
mind. On Friday, September 2nd, 2016,
Cody's parents left for the weekend out of town, unwittingly
giving him free access to their apartment, all their vehicles,
and his stepfather's gun safe. For Cody, this was the perfect
(02:25:16):
moment. Lot decided to act after a
conversation with his accomplicewho was pulling the strings.
According to Cody, this accomplice was the devil
himself. The young man believed he was
communicating with dark forces that approved his plan.
This became the decisive factor in crossing the line.
(02:25:37):
Cody then confessed to the detectives that he had several
weapons to choose from. He deliberately chose a .22
caliber rifle because he didn't want to disfigure Lorraine,
wanting her to remain as beautiful in death as she was in
life. After selecting the weapon, he
put it on safety and waited for the girl to walk home from
(02:25:58):
school. Lorraine usually walked home
alone. Cody panicked slightly when he
saw her with two friends, but the panic didn't last long as
the other girls were black and he didn't care if they got hurt.
Covering the rifle with a blanket, Lot got into his
parents gold SUV and drove to the alley.
To wait for Lorraine. When the schoolgirls approached
(02:26:20):
the intersection, they both looked at the vehicle and Cody
inside. Michaela's gaze infuriated him
the most. She was smiling as if she didn't
take him seriously. He then pulled out the rifle and
fired several times at Lorraine.The second girl ran away, but
Michaela froze in place. This enraged Lot even more.
(02:26:41):
Why wasn't she scared? The young man aimed the weapon
at Michaela and fired again. Then he turned his attention
back to Lorraine as she was still alive and making strange
sounds. Cody was upset.
He didn't want Lavandazo to suffer or be left crippled.
For him, taking her life was acceptable, but he absolutely
(02:27:02):
didn't want her to endure pain or suffering.
So Lot shot her several more times, aiming for her head.
Once Lorraine went silent, he knew he had accomplished what he
came for. Next on Cody's plan was to
finish off Michaela as she was awitness to the crime.
At the same time. He was still angry at Lorraine
(02:27:23):
for being friends with black girls.
In Lot's opinion, a girl like Lavandazo should have had better
friends. The only reason Smith survived
was that the perpetrator ran outof ammunition.
After emptying the magazine, Cody moved on to the next phase
of his plan. He began covering his tracks to
ensure no one would find out what he had done after the
(02:27:46):
massacre. Lot intended to forget the girls
ever existed and go on living asif nothing had happened.
The young man had preemptively downloaded a police scanner app
on his phone, allowing him to monitor police communications
and follow the investigation's progress.
He immediately fled the scene, heading to a location where he
(02:28:07):
planned to dispose of the weapon.
Then he intended to leave for another city to indulge in
illegal drugs and establish an alibi.
Cody even left a note for his parents in advance so they could
later confirm he wasn't in town during the attack on the
schoolgirls. During the interrogation, Lot
acted defiantly. He told the officers he was who
(02:28:29):
he was and had no intention of pretending to be a nice guy, as
girls simply ignored and disrespected him while speaking
with the detectives. He was essentially bragging,
convincing himself he was a herowho selflessly saved Lorraine
from the dangers she would surely face later in life.
In his warped imagination, Lavandazzo's death at such a
(02:28:52):
young age spared her from aggressive men and other
troubles. Lot fully justified his actions
to himself and even took pride in what he had done.
The young man seemed to revel inevery detail of his story.
It was as if he had been waitingfor the chance to tell the world
about his heinous crime. Learning from the media that the
(02:29:13):
investigation was stalled, Cody grew bolder on.
Sunday he. Returned to the field where he
had discarded the rifle and decided to return it to its
place before his stepfather noticed it was missing.
He also visited Lorraine's social media page multiple
times, now knowing her name. He even had the audacity to
(02:29:33):
visit the impromptu memorial in the alley several times.
Lot's behavior during the interrogation, laughing, joking,
and vividly describing his crime, prompted the police to
dig deeper into his background. It turned out that Cody had
started using illegal drugs as ateenager, beginning at age 14.
(02:29:55):
A year earlier, in 2015, he was diagnosed with schizoaffective
disorder, a mental illness combining symptoms of
schizophrenia and mood disorders.
It typically manifests as episodes of delusional States
and hallucinations coupled with pathological mood changes,
either depressive or manic. Naturally, Cody's mental state
(02:30:19):
was heavily influenced by his prolonged use of illegal.
Drugs. He was placed in a
rehabilitation program but had no intention of giving up his
harmful habits and escaped from the facility.
After Lot engaged in a shootout with police holding his
grandmother hostage and threatening to take other lives,
he was placed in a rehabilitation center.
(02:30:40):
Again, the number of missed red flags was staggering, and his
parents, preoccupied with their own issues, inadvertently
enabled his destructive addiction and negative behavior.
Due to the lack of treatment forhis disorder, Cody couldn't hold
a job for long. He found work a couple of times
but quit after no more than a month without any substantial
(02:31:02):
reason. Despite his initial claims that
he committed the crime out of jealousy and anger, some aspects
of his background painted a different picture.
Once the young man veered off course, drawn to illegal drugs,
it was as if he rapidly spiraleddownward.
He didn't have his own apartment.
The one he lived in was registered in his mother's name.
(02:31:24):
His mother likely covered all the housing expenses.
She also gave Cody money, which he spent on buying illegal
substances. She even had to hide her savings
to keep him from getting to them.
This suggests she was aware of her son's criminal tendencies.
Cody Lott told the detectives hewas caught up in a cosmic battle
between good and evil. He felt he was collaborating
(02:31:47):
with the devil, so he tried to do something to get God's
attention. While under the influence of
drugs, he began studying occultism and Satanism.
When his mind was clear, Cody regularly attended church and
prayed. He was drawn to figures like
Charles Manson and Richard Ramirez, convicted American
(02:32:08):
criminals. Lot was impressed by what these
monsters did. At the same time, he believed he
was sacrificing himself for the sake of his beloved girl,
sparing her from the cruelty of the world.
Cody saw Lorraine as an Angel and himself as her savior.
Then he started spouting nonsense about how his birth
date contained the numbers 9 and6, which symbolized the colors
(02:32:32):
red and blue. To him, the combination of red
and blue made purple, Lorraine'sfavorite color.
He learned this from her social media posts.
People wore purple clothing in her memory.
When Cody put all this together,he concluded that saving the
girl from the evils of the worldwas his destined fate.
(02:32:52):
The police listen to this nonsense, pretending to
understand. The detainee lot kept talking
about himself and his emotions. It felt as though he was basking
in the moment of fame he had created for himself.
During the interrogation, he wasin high spirits.
The only time he got genuinely angry was when he recalled the
(02:33:13):
media calling his actions senseless.
Cody himself described his act as a sophisticated execution he
had worked on for a year and genuinely didn't understand why
it was deemed absurd. The young man likely didn't
realize at that moment that he had confessed to a serious crime
and would face consequences. He was far more concerned about
(02:33:35):
whether the police would confiscate the weapons from his
stepfather's safe and what wouldhappen to the car he borrowed
from his parents. The fate of the property worried
Cody more than the horrific deeds he had just described.
By then. The detectives had heard enough,
and Cody Lott was charged with murder and aggravated assault
with a deadly weapon. Despite his full confession, he
(02:33:58):
refused to accept guilt. A search of his electronic
devices revealed numerous imagesof teenage girls engaged in
sexual acts on his phone. Another charge was added to his
crimes related to the distribution of adult videos
involving minors. The police also spoke with
Cody's ex-girlfriend, who told them that in a fit of rage, he
(02:34:21):
once tried to strangle her with a seat belt.
When she ended the relationship,he kidnapped her and her young
son and abused them for several days.
The young woman was too afraid to report it to the police due
to his threats. When she learned Lot had been
arrested, she felt safe enough to tell the authorities about
the incident. The entire community was in
(02:34:43):
shock when the media revealed the details of the case.
No one knew who this guy was or why he shot the schoolgirls.
The idea that a complete stranger could cause so much
harm was unbearable. Everyone who knew Lorraine said
that if she had known about Lot's problems, she would have
tried to help him. Her sincerity, care for others,
(02:35:06):
compassion, and belief in the best in people could work
miracles. Unfortunately, Cody didn't even
give her that chance. Lorraine's funeral took place on
September 8th. Many people donated money to the
Lavandazo family, but in the end, Lorraine's parents urged
the public to redirect those funds to causes she would have
(02:35:28):
supported, like animal protection organizations or the
local homeless shelter. Vern and Bianca believed the
best way to honor her memory wasto spread love, which is what
their daughter would have wanted.
Those who knew Cody described him as a spoiled and troubled
teenager who believed the world should bend to his needs.
(02:35:49):
He was hot tempered and demandedmuch while giving little in
return. He was an outcast in society but
managed to function in it, balancing on the edge between
acceptable behavior and madness.Cody was temporarily placed in a
psychiatric facility the Lavandazo family had.
Nearly lost hope. Of achieving justice for their
(02:36:10):
daughter when after a second evaluation, Cody was deemed
competent. Throughout the trial, Cody
showed no signs of remorse. On September 19th, 2018, after
deliberating for 40 minutes, thejury found Cody guilty.
He was sentenced to life imprisonment plus 20 years for
(02:36:33):
the aggravated assault on Michaela Smith.
Under Texas law, he will be eligible for parole in 2048 when
he is 52 years old. But should this man be released,
will he ever fully comprehend what he has done?
And most importantly, will he repeat his madness?
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(02:36:55):
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