transcript
Speaker 1:
[00:02] The Red Weather is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual persons or events reflects the adaptation of real, publicly available materials for creative and legal reasons. The content of this podcast is the sole responsibility of Red Weather LLC and does not reflect the views or responsibilities of iHeart Media or its affiliates. Previously, on The Red Weather. In 1995, my neighbor, Anna Trainor, disappeared from a commune.
Speaker 2:
[00:25] Anna Trainor was at a party in downtown Sebastopol. She had a fight with her boyfriend.
Speaker 3:
[00:30] Oh, man, my boy Mick, kid got a pass.
Speaker 4:
[00:32] He got a pass.
Speaker 2:
[00:34] Even if Mick managed to meet up with Anna, then murder her, could he have gotten rid of the body and driven her car all the way to SFO?
Speaker 1:
[00:44] Not without help.
Speaker 2:
[00:44] Right, not without help. And we know he was with d*** for the rest of the night.
Speaker 1:
[00:48] Chris! They're here. When I finally got the transcripts of Elric's interrogations, I realized Maldonado wasn't giving me the whole story.
Speaker 5:
[00:56] Look at that.
Speaker 3:
[00:57] Ooh, who said that?
Speaker 1:
[00:58] That's Maldonado, man.
Speaker 5:
[01:00] That really sucks.
Speaker 6:
[01:01] And you're gonna go meet this guy.
Speaker 1:
[01:10] Sandals, size six. I was reading the evidence catalog for Anna Trainor's case. Long-sleeved shirt, necklace. It was a list of objects recovered in the course of the investigation, but the descriptions were vague, too vague. Like, when it said sandals, did that mean Birkenstocks or flip-flops? Or, most frustrating, this. Three compact discs. It doesn't even say what they are. I was dying to know what albums. Was Anna listening to Smashing Pumpkins or Tori Amos? I mean, that would say something about her, wouldn't it? I wanted to read everything, hold everything. But I also knew I couldn't help but give my own history and my own emotions to these details. And I was reminded of something Maldonado said to me a few days earlier.
Speaker 5:
[01:56] You got to let the evidence tell the story, even if it's not the one that you like or the one that you want to hear.
Speaker 1:
[02:03] There's a big difference between finding meaning and giving meaning, between understanding and fetishizing. And actually, the most important thing I was looking for wasn't an object. It was a few lines in the witness log. **** gave three interviews. This was more important than the CDs, the sandals, even the small squished bullets in a plastic bag. But while I was sitting there making this discovery, I couldn't react.
Speaker 5:
[02:31] Yeah, looks like it. Why?
Speaker 7:
[02:36] I'm not sure.
Speaker 1:
[02:39] Even though he was sitting right next to me, and he was helping me, I couldn't let Sheriff Maldonado know how much of a game changer this was. Because after the last week, I wasn't sure I could trust him. I am actor and filmmaker, Rider Strong. This is The Red Weather. I was two weeks into reviewing the disappearance of Anna Trainor and getting nowhere new. Elric, the leader of Anna's intentional community, the Tenter Hearts, had an alibi. But this only brought me up to speed with where the investigation turned cold in 1995. To get any further, I wanted access to the official case file. Hi, it's Ryder Strong calling again for Sheriff Laughlin. Okay. Yeah, okay, that'd be great. Thank you.
Speaker 6:
[04:16] Ooh, man, she is blowing you off, giving you the cold shoulder.
Speaker 1:
[04:20] Yeah, but I don't, I can't take it personally. And at least Maldonado is talking to me.
Speaker 6:
[04:25] You shouldn't even meet that guy.
Speaker 1:
[04:26] My friend Chris, who'd come home to help me with the podcast, had good reason to be wary. The day before, he had heard back from Sparks, which I know sounds like a code name I made up, but he called himself that.
Speaker 4:
[04:38] For real though, you want to talk Anna Trainor, you got to talk about those fuckers detecting that shit. Maldonado? Come on, man.
Speaker 1:
[04:46] He left this right after we saw the transcripts of Maldonado's interrogations of Elric. They had uncovered that Elric was gay, and Maldonado, talking to his deputies, had thrown out, oh so casually, an anti-gay slur.
Speaker 6:
[05:00] You're shocked that your new best pal, the sheriff, is a homophobic Nazi fascist?
Speaker 1:
[05:04] Oh, okay, but I know, it's awful. Yeah, it is. But that's the way people talked back then.
Speaker 6:
[05:11] Are you justifying it?
Speaker 1:
[05:12] No, no, but, well, here, let me, I'll cut this out if you want me to, but didn't you use the F word back then, that F word?
Speaker 3:
[05:20] Ah, I don't think I did.
Speaker 7:
[05:21] I probably did, and I didn't even think of it literally. It was just like motherfucker.
Speaker 1:
[05:27] It's just something, it never even crossed my mind until I was older.
Speaker 6:
[05:31] Right, but when you got older, you wised up. They were older back then. They were grown up.
Speaker 1:
[05:38] And the problem was, Maldonado was an essential source. If I wanted more information on this case, I knew I was going to have to make compromises. So the sad fact of the matter was...
Speaker 3:
[05:50] I need his help.
Speaker 6:
[05:51] Fine, but ask him about it.
Speaker 1:
[05:54] I wasn't sure I could do that. Maldonado wanted to meet at a food stand down the road from my parents. You find these kinds of places on the back roads of Sonoma County, a cart or a little wooden structure, sometimes a truck, where farmers sell produce. They can develop into institutions that draw hardcore fans, acolytes. And Maldonado claimed that this one, Little Seed, was the strawberry spot.
Speaker 5:
[06:21] Ryder, come meet Andres.
Speaker 1:
[06:25] Hey, how you doing?
Speaker 5:
[06:25] Hey, good to meet you. You guys are legends. Family's been here for, what, decades.
Speaker 1:
[06:30] Andres is the owner of Little Seed. So, how long you been here, or I guess your family, you guys always find?
Speaker 3:
[06:37] My family, my grandfather, he had the west side of the valley, the whole hill, actually, before they put in the fence and all that shit and the grapes. Actually, there weren't any grapes. It was all orchards back then.
Speaker 1:
[06:47] Yeah, that's what I remember. My hometown used to be famous for its apples, specifically the Gravenstein apple. And Maldonado had a bit to say about that.
Speaker 5:
[06:55] You know, it's the basketball guy's name, right?
Speaker 1:
[06:57] It was from Russia, right? Sevastopol in Russia, there was some argument with a shop owner or something.
Speaker 8:
[07:02] No, he doesn't know.
Speaker 1:
[07:03] Andres rolled his eyes, and I could tell he'd heard this one before.
Speaker 3:
[07:07] Oh, don't listen to this.
Speaker 5:
[07:08] It was when they grew the first Gravensteins. Johnny Appleseed, you know he was, right?
Speaker 1:
[07:14] Of course, yeah.
Speaker 5:
[07:15] Yeah, well, Johnny was coming to the area. You really don't know this?
Speaker 3:
[07:19] You can tell him to stop now before he gets to, but okay.
Speaker 5:
[07:22] So Johnny's wandering the country barefoot, planting trees. He's the apple guy, the apple prophet. So when he came to town, that's a big deal. Everyone wants to know, what's old Johnny going to think of the Gravenstein? Will he like it? People were placing bets. Andres, your grandfather was there, wasn't he?
Speaker 3:
[07:41] That's a good story.
Speaker 5:
[07:42] Anyway, they bring him a Gravenstein. Well, first they got to decide which orchard they got to take it from. There's a lot of back and forth about this.
Speaker 1:
[07:51] I only have so much time per episode, so suffice to say, Maldonado walked me through a classic shaggy dog story.
Speaker 5:
[07:58] They were in this feud. Coopers and the Martinellis hate each other. People say it was because one of the Cooper boys had run off with Martinelli's daughter, but everyone knew that fight was really about the golden tree.
Speaker 1:
[08:09] One of those Mark Twain yarns that goes on way too long.
Speaker 5:
[08:13] Actually gets on his dog and gallops to the golden tree. Now shots of fire, bullets whizzing past his head.
Speaker 1:
[08:20] To reach a very, very underwhelming punchline.
Speaker 5:
[08:23] Finally, Johnny takes a bite of this Gravenstein. He says, hmm, this is Sebastopol. We've been Sebastopol ever since.
Speaker 1:
[08:36] That's horrible.
Speaker 3:
[08:37] Well, that's five minutes of your life and then we get back.
Speaker 5:
[08:39] Yeah.
Speaker 1:
[08:40] Dad jokes aside, apples did define the area for decades. Nowadays, it's all cannabis and grapes, wine and weed. There are only a few old school family spots like Andre's, making do.
Speaker 5:
[08:51] Oh, you gotta try this.
Speaker 1:
[08:52] I gotta try the strawberry.
Speaker 5:
[08:54] He's never had this.
Speaker 3:
[08:54] Oh, well, okay.
Speaker 1:
[08:58] Oh, yeah.
Speaker 3:
[08:59] Right? Right? It's the best berry.
Speaker 5:
[09:03] See? You get it. All right, let's take a walk.
Speaker 1:
[09:08] We went to the edge of the Tender Hearts property, where Anna was last seen.
Speaker 5:
[09:11] This is where the guy's on the engine past her.
Speaker 1:
[09:14] I had told Maldonado that Willow started the fire that night after she found cannabis in the barn, which, looking back now, I think was an act of rebelling against her mom.
Speaker 8:
[09:25] Yeah, she was totally pissed at Laney.
Speaker 1:
[09:27] Right. My buddy Connor and I talked about this. Willow was being raised by her mom and all these other women on the Tenderhearts property, and they were supposed to be spiritual idealists. But when she found a barn full of weed, she knew the rumors were true. They were dealing drugs, and she lit it up. So you knew where it started?
Speaker 5:
[09:47] Oh, yeah. We could smell the pot too, but it was gone. And connecting those dots to Anna, well, we had nothing.
Speaker 1:
[09:55] There's an irony here. By burning the weed she found, Willow actually prevented Elric and her mom and the Tender Hearts from being charged with anything. There was no cannabis left, so there was no evidence. But in terms of Anna, even after Elric's alibi, Maldonado and his team focused on the Tender Hearts. Okay, but that, see, that doesn't make any sense to me.
Speaker 2:
[10:19] Why did they wear a cult?
Speaker 8:
[10:20] But they weren't.
Speaker 1:
[10:22] Not really.
Speaker 2:
[10:23] Well, look, we know that now. I know that. You know that. But at the time, I mean, that was part of the zeitgeist.
Speaker 1:
[10:28] That's Monica Tremblayne, a reporter, who was helping me. I mean, I guess.
Speaker 2:
[10:32] You know about Satanic Panic, right?
Speaker 1:
[10:35] But wasn't that the 80s?
Speaker 2:
[10:36] No. I mean, West Memphis III, all that, that was the 90s.
Speaker 1:
[10:40] This was a good point. In 95, there were still rampant fears of cults, ritualistic killings. I even did a somewhat infamous episode of Boy Meets World, where my character joined a cult.
Speaker 7:
[10:53] I believe that I finally found a place where people let me be who I am. You know, without trying to change me or need to know what my goals are in life. I mean, why do I need that? Strong, what do you believe in? What do you believe in, Corey?
Speaker 1:
[11:07] The transcripts and the message from Sparks were weighing heavily on me. Was Sheriff Maldonado biased in this investigation? Too obsessed with weed and focused on the culty commune, maybe even targeting Elric personally? It took me almost an hour before I could bring it up.
Speaker 5:
[11:25] The search party started in groups from here and then fanned out.
Speaker 1:
[11:29] I'll show you. So yeah, Lachlan sent me the transcripts, and I went through the interviews with Elric.
Speaker 5:
[11:43] Mm, you played a coy. What a dig. Three or four sit downs before you finally broke? Broke?
Speaker 1:
[11:51] I mean, he didn't admit to anything having to do with Anna.
Speaker 5:
[11:53] No, man had secrets.
Speaker 1:
[11:57] Okay, but you know, it wasn't... I mean, there's one part in the transcripts where you referred to him as a faggot.
Speaker 5:
[12:07] Did I?
Speaker 7:
[12:08] Yeah.
Speaker 1:
[12:10] The full quote is, the Swami turned out to be a faggot.
Speaker 5:
[12:17] Damn. Well, you know, it was different times back then.
Speaker 1:
[12:23] It's a slightly awkward moment because on one hand, he was acknowledging the thing, but then on the other, not really. But then what do I expect? An apology? To who? Did I want him to break down and cry in shame and admit to some deep-seated bigotry? Well, but so I've been thinking about, in general, with the Tender Hearts community...
Speaker 5:
[12:46] The skin.
Speaker 1:
[12:47] Sure. But, you know, what they were doing, what they were actually doing, that would be legal now. Maldonado only nodded. They were, you know, living off the land, and selling cannabis.
Speaker 5:
[13:01] Well, they were breaking the law.
Speaker 1:
[13:03] Well, then, right? But knowing now, laws have changed. I mean, doesn't... Hasn't changed the way that you feel?
Speaker 5:
[13:15] How I feel? About what?
Speaker 1:
[13:19] Well, you know, investigating them, interrogating him, arresting him, if you could.
Speaker 5:
[13:25] Hindsight's easy.
Speaker 1:
[13:26] Yeah, but you were, I mean... You had the authority.
Speaker 5:
[13:33] Should I have called him a name?
Speaker 8:
[13:36] No.
Speaker 5:
[13:37] But I've said a lot of stupid shit in my day. A lot of stupid shit. Look, there's no excuse. But the job is always the same. I'm not making the laws, okay? I know what you're saying. I do. But guys get in trouble if they start thinking that they can decide which laws to care about, which ones not to. You can't decide what evidence you like or don't like, which suspect or which witness. If I'm doing my job, I'm letting the evidence tell the story, okay? It speaks for itself. I'm more like a reader, a listener. So you got to let the evidence tell the story even if it's not the one that you like or the one that you want to hear.
Speaker 4:
[14:26] That guy is utterly full of shit.
Speaker 1:
[14:28] The next day, when I met up with Sparks, he had a different take.
Speaker 4:
[14:31] Maldonado is barely a cop, totally a dick, 100% horse shit.
Speaker 8:
[14:49] And one, two, three.
Speaker 6:
[14:52] Oh, he picked up. Hey, it's Chris Del Vecchio.
Speaker 1:
[14:55] Chris got Sparks to agree to meet with me. I do know his real first name, but I'm gonna stick with Sparks for legal reasons, but also it fits.
Speaker 6:
[15:04] No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no cameras. It's a podcast. They'll have like a microphone. You won't even know it's there. I actually won't be there. I gotta get back to LA, but it'll be you and Ryder, and you remember Ryder.
Speaker 1:
[15:15] Chris was catching a flight home, and I was sad to see him go. It felt like a sign that I wasn't getting anywhere.
Speaker 6:
[15:22] Don't beat yourself up if you don't solve anything.
Speaker 9:
[15:26] This would be cool to at least have this stuff recorded.
Speaker 1:
[15:28] All right, and you got the box with the pager? Yes. Great. We found a pager on my parents' property. It was mostly a random relic from the 90s, but I wanted to see if we could extract numbers from it. All right, so there are private investigators who specialize in old technology, but they're, no, they're pricey as hell.
Speaker 8:
[15:46] What are we talking about?
Speaker 1:
[15:47] It's like $4,000 just to look. Sheesh.
Speaker 8:
[15:50] I know.
Speaker 6:
[15:51] I have a guy.
Speaker 1:
[15:52] Surprisingly, this is an area where Hollywood connections came in handy. Chris is a TV writer, and he's worked on some big shows, including ones that needed outdated technology props.
Speaker 6:
[16:02] Okay, man, so you've got my email, writer's email, my number, writer's number, you are in the loop. Thank you, thank you, thank you, Rincon.
Speaker 1:
[16:09] Lyle Rincon runs a tech consulting company for art departments. When you're making a show with medical machines or computers, especially period pieces, you need someone who has all that stuff and knows how to run it.
Speaker 8:
[16:21] Okay, there you go.
Speaker 6:
[16:22] He's going to try it. My boy Rincon, he's got you.
Speaker 5:
[16:24] Yes.
Speaker 6:
[16:25] He is actually a next level hoarder way worse than a prince. He has two warehouses, just like wall to wall, Ark of the Covenant, like the scene in Red as a Lustre. He has that in the Valley.
Speaker 5:
[16:38] God, I would love to see that.
Speaker 1:
[16:40] We boxed the pager up, and Chris took it to the post office on his way to the airport. He was heading back to his normal life, normal work, which made me feel like maybe I should too. I did have a script I was supposed to be writing after all. But for now, I went to meet Sparks. I suddenly felt very alone. Sparks had sent a Google Maps pin deep in West County, but there was no service once I got close. I ended up going down this dirt road for 10 minutes. I didn't even see any houses. There were some rusty cars, farm equipment. I had to turn around a few times. Finally, I found a gravel driveway that dead ended. There was a garage. Hello? Hello? Oh, fuck.
Speaker 4:
[17:32] Ride or die. What's up?
Speaker 1:
[17:37] As soon as I saw him, I knew I had met Sparks in the 90s. But he remembered Chris better. He brought him up while I was setting up my mics.
Speaker 4:
[17:45] Chris dove at you.
Speaker 1:
[17:46] Yeah.
Speaker 4:
[17:47] Man, couldn't believe getting a call from his ass.
Speaker 8:
[17:51] Been a while.
Speaker 4:
[17:52] You remember Danny Carino?
Speaker 8:
[17:54] Yeah.
Speaker 7:
[17:54] He was like a big tall guy.
Speaker 4:
[17:56] Oh, yeah, man. He used to mess with Deleccio constantly.
Speaker 1:
[17:59] Really?
Speaker 4:
[17:59] Oh, yeah. You remember the whole fancy pants thing?
Speaker 1:
[18:03] I actually did. Chris had worn suspenders to the eighth grade dance. He never lived that down.
Speaker 4:
[18:09] I thought it was normal. I called him fancy pants once.
Speaker 1:
[18:11] You did?
Speaker 4:
[18:11] Oh, dude. He lost his shit.
Speaker 1:
[18:14] Really?
Speaker 4:
[18:14] Oh, yeah. Went up on top of coffee cats. He was throwing chairs. What? Yeah. Chris? Yeah, bro.
Speaker 1:
[18:20] I think I would have heard about my best friend throwing chairs around, which maybe was my first indication that I should take everything that Sparks said with a grain of salt. But then he had a lot of interesting things to say about Anna's case.
Speaker 4:
[18:35] I know for a fact, Mick started bullshit.
Speaker 1:
[18:37] He meant Mick Bowden, Anna's ex-boyfriend. Okay, so what do you mean?
Speaker 4:
[18:41] Oh, he's suddenly not with his girlfriend. He's like, vanishes into thin air. He's with a new chick.
Speaker 1:
[18:46] He was talking about d***er. After Anna paged Mick, he tried to pick her up at the payphone, but she never showed. And so Mick said he then spent the night with d***er.
Speaker 4:
[18:55] Here's what nobody remembers. It was Halloween.
Speaker 1:
[18:57] Right.
Speaker 4:
[18:58] But there's school the next day.
Speaker 1:
[18:59] That was true. It was easy for me to forget because I wasn't in a normal school situation. I was still traveling back and forth to work in LA and going to a tiny alternative school in the woods.
Speaker 4:
[19:10] Oh, you know, I used to post up at Gadfly's, you know, that spot, get some coffee before driving up to Rosa. I saw a bitch come to school that morning.
Speaker 1:
[19:19] And she was...
Speaker 4:
[19:21] By herself. She only said Mick was with her later. Guess who got a brand new Jenna.
Speaker 1:
[19:27] Oh, were that... Yeah, I do, actually.
Speaker 4:
[19:29] Next month, dude.
Speaker 1:
[19:31] Are you saying...
Speaker 4:
[19:32] She full-on changed her story. Suddenly, she's dating Mick.
Speaker 1:
[19:35] Oh, so they dated for real.
Speaker 4:
[19:37] Oh, yeah, like six months. And then she's driving that sweet, sweet Jenna.
Speaker 1:
[19:41] Cars were a big deal when we were teens, and a big marker of identity. We knew who everybody's car was. We knew everybody's mom's car. We could tell who was at Coffee Cats or Round Table Pizza or any parking lot by driving by and seeing their car. So it's not surprising. Even my brother Shiloh remembers the Jetta.
Speaker 8:
[20:02] Uh, purple. Uh, 1995 Volkswagen Jetta. Stick shift. Uh, tinted windows.
Speaker 2:
[20:11] Yeah, I mean, it's a stretch.
Speaker 1:
[20:13] I know. I know.
Speaker 2:
[20:15] In situations like this, you really gotta ask yourself, how reliable is your source?
Speaker 1:
[20:21] As in, like, can I trust a drug dealer?
Speaker 2:
[20:24] Well, come on. Somebody that's not a huge fan of cops to begin with.
Speaker 1:
[20:28] That was true. Sparks spent a lot of time giving me his opinion of law enforcement. Let's talk about Maldonado.
Speaker 4:
[20:34] Oh, dude. I mean, he was a cop.
Speaker 1:
[20:36] Cops were dicks.
Speaker 5:
[20:37] Right.
Speaker 4:
[20:38] The thing about it, most of the cops is, like, they would just be a dick to your face. And, like, him to your face, he was all cool. Like, Mr., you know, I'm your buddy, you know. I'm your pal. And then, you know, he was really nice. He was, like, trying to play a game. And, like, you know, with me, he knew where I ran. Like, yeah, we had this little spot called Swampylvania. You ever hang out there?
Speaker 2:
[20:57] No.
Speaker 4:
[20:58] Really?
Speaker 2:
[20:58] Yeah.
Speaker 4:
[20:59] Dude, oh yeah, I guess you were going there a little bit.
Speaker 2:
[21:01] Yeah.
Speaker 4:
[21:01] No, it was cool, man. Like, we'd just sit at, we'd chill and drink, you know. I was like this, in this little kind of, like, ravine, water area.
Speaker 1:
[21:08] Yeah, like a culvert?
Speaker 4:
[21:09] Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And, you know, he knew about it and, like, let us have it because, you know, he'd come to me every once in a while and, like, you know, wants some intel, you know.
Speaker 1:
[21:19] So you were, like, an informant?
Speaker 4:
[21:22] Oh, yeah, he wishes, but yeah, anyway, one time we went out to the spot, Swampylvania, and shit was trashed. Couch was all ripped up. Oh, a dude even put, like, barbed wire across the path we used to get out there.
Speaker 1:
[21:38] How do you know that it was him?
Speaker 4:
[21:40] Oh, because it was the day after he came to me and he wanted to know about some meth thing going on out in Forestville or something. I didn't do meth or anything. I didn't know anything about it. So, he wanted to know, I had nothing for him. And yeah, he took our Shangri-La. Fucking bitch. Dude's a villain, bro.
Speaker 5:
[21:59] A villain.
Speaker 1:
[22:01] It was hard to take this seriously. But then again, maybe I didn't want to for an obvious reason.
Speaker 5:
[22:10] We pulled the bullets from this tree over here, one of these trees. Oh yeah.
Speaker 1:
[22:16] And where'd they end up? They're inevitably in a locker somewhere at the Violent Crimes Unit.
Speaker 5:
[22:20] The Investigative Unit, BCI.
Speaker 1:
[22:23] Man, I would love to see that stuff.
Speaker 5:
[22:26] Talked to Lockwood, right? She got you the transcript?
Speaker 1:
[22:29] Yeah, but then she hasn't called me back.
Speaker 5:
[22:34] I tell you, man, that's what I'll miss. Red tape, typing reports, filing reports, updating reports. You want me to give her a call? I think if I came in with you, she might give us some help.
Speaker 1:
[22:47] Yeah, that'd be great.
Speaker 5:
[22:49] Yeah?
Speaker 1:
[22:50] Yeah, thanks, man.
Speaker 10:
[22:51] Well, poor Robert Maldonado can't enjoy his retirement.
Speaker 1:
[22:54] And it worked.
Speaker 8:
[22:56] I know.
Speaker 1:
[22:58] It's a situation where I'm just playing catch up.
Speaker 10:
[23:01] Yeah, me too. Trust me, me too. And I have a full caseload as it is. You know, this office is responsible for all of Sonoma County.
Speaker 1:
[23:10] Loughlin explained that they didn't have the resources to reopen the case.
Speaker 10:
[23:13] Because we're not there. I'm not there. And that's when you're talking new testimony, new evidence.
Speaker 1:
[23:17] Well, I mean, doesn't like me coming forward, isn't that new testimony? Or, I mean, it's new information.
Speaker 10:
[23:25] An actor making a podcast?
Speaker 5:
[23:28] Ouch.
Speaker 10:
[23:29] There's never been anything to move the needle on this, okay? Nothing from a missing person to homicide or kidnapping anything. There's no body. No new witness. So, okay, you know.
Speaker 1:
[23:39] Okay. Well, actually, there is a witness that I'm talking to.
Speaker 10:
[23:45] Who is this?
Speaker 1:
[23:48] Well, I'm not, I'm trying to still gather, you know, all the background and, but basically what they're saying, there are some contradictions.
Speaker 10:
[23:56] Contradictions?
Speaker 1:
[23:58] Maybe. Or, you know, maybe it's easy to clear up, but I really can't do that unless I can see the evidence.
Speaker 10:
[24:05] Okay. Is this person on the record?
Speaker 1:
[24:06] It was a good question. I had a phone number for Sparks, the Google pinned to a garage, but I didn't even have a last name. Yeah, I mean, I have them recorded, but I still need to get their official...
Speaker 10:
[24:16] All right, look, if you're serious, I'll put someone on this.
Speaker 2:
[24:20] All right?
Speaker 1:
[24:21] Yeah. You mean like a detective?
Speaker 10:
[24:26] Like a liaison. Okay? This person will be our contact from now on, so you give them what you've got, and they will coordinate access.
Speaker 1:
[24:33] Did you hear how she slipped in, and you give them what you got? Was I expected to hand over my recordings for access? I wasn't ready to do that because Sparks didn't just accuse Maldonado of slashing up a couch and blocking his chill spot. And he wasn't only saying Jennifer lied. He took aim at Maldonado and the entire sheriff's department.
Speaker 4:
[24:55] You want to talk about how this guy can look the other way when it comes to Nick? You got to talk about his campaign the next year. Who paid for that shit?
Speaker 1:
[25:12] Okay, so what do you mean? Like, is Maldonado like stealing from crime scenes or something?
Speaker 4:
[25:17] No, legit money. He was sheriff, that's an elected position. Mick definitely got a pass. Daddy promises some moolah, they half-ass their investigation. It goes away.
Speaker 10:
[25:29] That's a big allegation.
Speaker 1:
[25:30] I know, I know, and it's kind of paranoid. But also, not impossible. Mick's dad was wealthy, well connected, and it was weird to me that Maldonado fixated on Elric and the tender hearts. Okay, what about the smaller stuff? Because this car thing, it's interesting that Mick bought a car, a Jetta, and she changed her story.
Speaker 2:
[25:55] Right. You could try the DMV. Or maybe if she registered for new insurance. But if you get access to the files, this just gets a little bit easier.
Speaker 1:
[26:05] I had no idea what my chances were now that Loughlin had passed me off to a new liaison, someone named Thomas Greer. It seemed obvious that Loughlin was trying to get me off her back, let someone else stonewall me. I needed more information from Sparks, like to start his full name. But he didn't show up for our second meeting. While I sat in my car, I called Chris. So, I am back here at the garage. Nada. How much do you know about this guy? I waited for over an hour. I was a little nervous. Greer had set a time for us to meet at the sheriff's department. I invited Maldonado, too, hoping he could vouch for me. But in terms of intel to offer, I felt like I had nothing. I just knew I didn't want to be an actor making a podcast. How is this?
Speaker 8:
[27:21] Yes, that's a good jacket. Yes. I think you wear glasses. Good call.
Speaker 1:
[27:25] Oh, my God. So I put on the one sports coat I had packed, and my glasses. I wanted to look serious, smart. Which, yes, means that in order to not be an actor, I dressed in a costume. Literally the most actor thing in the world. Yeah, hi. Ryder Strong, I'm here to Thomas Greer. Turns out, I couldn't have been more wrong in how to prepare to meet Officer Greer.
Speaker 9:
[27:54] Mr. Sean Hunter.
Speaker 1:
[27:56] Because he was a Boy Meets World super fan.
Speaker 9:
[27:59] I feel like I know you.
Speaker 1:
[28:01] Oh, cool.
Speaker 6:
[28:02] Dude, I grew up on you.
Speaker 1:
[28:03] I used to hate being recognized, especially in my hometown. When you're a kid, anything that makes you stand out is just mortifying. But these days, people tell me that they know who I am or that they liked the show, and it's great. It's wholly positive, 99% of the time. Greer might be the other 1%.
Speaker 9:
[28:22] You know, you actually met my cousin?
Speaker 1:
[28:24] I did.
Speaker 9:
[28:24] Susan Lacey.
Speaker 1:
[28:25] You remember? No.
Speaker 9:
[28:26] Yeah, you were taking her to prom.
Speaker 1:
[28:28] Really?
Speaker 9:
[28:29] Of course you don't remember. And you were probably, you told every girl that you were going to prom. Man, you were the man.
Speaker 1:
[28:36] It was awkward, but suddenly I was optimistic. You might open the case file.
Speaker 9:
[28:41] Oh, and Topanga, dude.
Speaker 7:
[28:43] Topanga!
Speaker 3:
[28:45] Oh, she was hot back in the day.
Speaker 9:
[28:49] And you didn't hit that?
Speaker 1:
[28:52] Luckily, when Maldonado arrived, Greer shifted into a more professional mode.
Speaker 5:
[28:56] Hi, good to meet you.
Speaker 9:
[28:57] Yeah, you too. Yeah, seen a lot of Maldonado tags around here.
Speaker 5:
[29:02] Oh, yeah.
Speaker 1:
[29:03] He walked us past the lobby and into the building, which, if I was honest, I wanted to be like a James Bond facade, that once we walked through the doors, they would actually be a high-tech storage facility, people in lab coats, standing over beakers, metal shelving, a gun range. But it was just more office building. The two of them went into a room and left me in the hallway. I sat on a chair waiting, and suddenly it felt like every audition I've ever been on. And then Monica called. Hey, what's up?
Speaker 2:
[29:36] Hey, so maybe the drug dealer is not so crazy after all.
Speaker 5:
[29:39] What do you mean?
Speaker 2:
[29:41] Registered her Jenna on November 18, 1995.
Speaker 1:
[29:46] So she had a new car?
Speaker 2:
[29:48] Within two weeks, yeah.
Speaker 8:
[29:50] Let's go.
Speaker 5:
[29:51] I gotta go. I gotta go.
Speaker 1:
[29:54] Maldonado and Greer took me into an evidence review room.
Speaker 9:
[29:57] Let me know where you want to pull.
Speaker 1:
[29:59] Which is how I found myself looking at an evidence catalog, like a menu with too many options. What did I want to see? The CDs? Bullet fragments? None of it, really. The most important thing was checking out Mick and ***'s stories, but Maldonado was encouraging.
Speaker 5:
[30:17] I never know. It might knock something loose up there.
Speaker 1:
[30:20] Okay. Well, it's a little superficial, but I would love to see some of this stuff. Like, um, this book, uh, maybe, and then could I see the bullets? I held the three bullets from the tree in my hand.
Speaker 3:
[30:36] Oh, wow.
Speaker 5:
[30:37] They're actually smaller than I thought.
Speaker 1:
[30:39] They were tiny, flattened bits of metal. And Anna's copy of the book, The Way of the Peaceful Warrior by Dan Millman, was well-worn.
Speaker 5:
[30:47] What was this?
Speaker 1:
[30:48] It was like, I don't know, a lot of kids read it. It, um, it's like this new age philosophy book. What's this other note here? In the catalog, after The Way of the Peaceful Warrior, was a line that said, Damage Heart, spelled H-A-R-T.
Speaker 9:
[31:06] That might be a note that the book is damaged.
Speaker 5:
[31:09] Or it could be a type of damaged art.
Speaker 1:
[31:13] Couldn't help it. I kind of love the poetic value of the line, Damage Heart, but I had already made Greer go back to the storage too many times. I was only treading water and buying time because I'd already seen the list of interviews. Can I just look at these transcripts with Mick and...
Speaker 5:
[31:29] You got it, boss. What do you think?
Speaker 1:
[31:35] I'm just wondering about the timeline.
Speaker 5:
[31:38] What, that night?
Speaker 1:
[31:39] No, more the investigation.
Speaker 5:
[31:44] Our investigation?
Speaker 1:
[31:45] At this point, I had my notebook out on the table, which was a mess of scribbles, but right around here, I realized I had written notes about Sparks, including the words, Moldo is a villain, circled. I covered it up with my arm. Well, yeah, because Mick stopped talking to you.
Speaker 5:
[32:04] He fired up.
Speaker 1:
[32:06] And you never thought about arresting him?
Speaker 5:
[32:09] For what? We didn't have a crime. We were still hoping, I mean, actually mostly expecting, that she might call up in a month or two and say, hey, Mom, sorry I had to go off.
Speaker 1:
[32:19] Greer came back with the transcripts.
Speaker 3:
[32:23] I'm pretty sure these are the ones you wanted.
Speaker 4:
[32:24] Okay, cool.
Speaker 7:
[32:26] Great. Yep.
Speaker 1:
[32:32] So comes in, but it's not until this interview, which is her third one, that she says that she was with Mick Bogan.
Speaker 5:
[32:40] Correct.
Speaker 1:
[32:41] That was right after Elric's alibi, right at the moment when attention would have focused on Mick. I pulled out my phone to take a photo of the pages, but Greer stopped me.
Speaker 9:
[32:50] Sorry, my man. No photos.
Speaker 1:
[32:53] Really?
Speaker 9:
[32:54] Yeah, you can write down what you want. I can go back to Loughlin. It's probably not a big deal, but I got to get it cleared.
Speaker 1:
[33:01] How long is that going to take?
Speaker 9:
[33:03] I don't know.
Speaker 1:
[33:04] Maldonado threw his hands up. He was also frustrated. I'm not proud of what I did next. I excused myself to the bathroom. There's a story everyone knows about somebody famous. You've heard it about someone. It's a story where a famous person can't get into a restaurant or a club or they get pulled over for a speeding ticket and they say, don't you know who I am? It's probably never true, but the point of the story is, look at this sad, famous person. Look how desperate they are and pathetic. How much they expect, how much they demand, how much they rely on status. These stories haunt me. I guess they haunt anyone who gets recognized. It's a story about how not to be if you're famous. And yet, here I was making a phone call. Hey. All right, I have a really big favor. I know this is super annoying, but do you have a second right now? Hey, thought you might want to say hi to a friend of mine. I had called Danielle Fishel, my old castmate from Boy Beats World. Yes, Topanga, on FaceTime.
Speaker 9:
[34:19] Oh, no, no, no, you didn't.
Speaker 10:
[34:21] Hi, you must be Tom.
Speaker 9:
[34:23] Is this the Danielle Fishel?
Speaker 2:
[34:27] Yeah, Ryder says you're a big fan.
Speaker 1:
[34:29] Now, here's where I realized I hadn't thought any of this through at all. I had distracted Greer, got him out of the room, but in doing so, I had also just let my phone, the very thing I needed to take photos of the pages, walk out the door. Do you hear that sound right there? That's Maldonado dropping his phone on the table right in front of me. And then he gave a little go-ahead wave with his hands. So, I picked up his phone and I took photos of every page I could. All right, well, thanks for this.
Speaker 9:
[35:14] Yeah, no problem. Hope you got something good for the podcast.
Speaker 1:
[35:18] Yeah. Good to meet you. Yeah. It was a confusing moment, because I was thankful. I needed copies of these documents, and Maldonado had helped me. So on one hand, it makes me feel like he's a good guy. On the other, doesn't this lend credence to the idea that he's willing to bend the rules, that he's corruptible? Hey, thanks for that.
Speaker 5:
[35:42] Of course. I told you, the one thing I don't miss, red tape.
Speaker 1:
[35:51] Maybe I'm naïve, but I've always wanted to believe that people do the right thing for its own sake. But so much of life is a series of tradeoffs. You help a person because they've helped you. You have your friend, Danielle, talk to a fan for you. You give information or withhold information from the police, and sometimes you end up with a slashed couch. Other times, you get the evidence you need. Now, I had copies of the interviews with Mick and J***er. I was able to build a timeline. And sure enough, between their interviews with the sheriff's department, both Mick and J***er had changed their story. Whether he paid her off with the sweet, sweet Jetta or not, it certainly looked like they coordinated, like they could have worked together to secure Mick's alibi. And if Maldonado was a villain, wanted to look the other way, that might have been enough. More than anything, I needed to hear from J***er. Instead, as insane as this sounds, I heard from Anna. The Red Weather is an iHeart podcast hosted by Ryder Strong. Sound engineering, editing and mixing by Bo Milkes. Produced by Tess Bartholomew. Executive producers at iHeart Radio, Trevor Young and Matt Frederick. Associate producer, Bo Milkes. Original score by Kyle Morton. If you're enjoying the show, please remember to leave a review and rating. Thanks for listening.