Episode 260

Sword and Scale contains adult themes and violence, and is not intended for all
audiences. Listener discretion is advice. Like I said, right, if I
wanted to toss you in jail with no questions to ask, you had already
been there would so. How you liking that new app? This is episode
two hundred and sixty of Sword and Scale, a show that reveals that the
worst monsters are real? Well, here we are. We've launched, and
I have a cold because I've been working way too hard. But it's here,
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we have a very small support staff. In fact, it's just curty.
It's just curty, so be nice to it. Please be careful of who
you let into your life. Relationships, even casual ones, can have a
profound effect on you. Building meaningful relationships takes time. You have to build
trust, set boundaries, and have honest communication. Without patience and time,
no relationship has a chance. So watch out for the red flags, avoid
those that bring any negativity or drama or stress along with them. Be cautious
of people with a history of toxic or unhealthy past behavior, and prioritize your
own well being Otherwise someday it might find yourself trapped. It was a beautiful
summer day in Seattle. A group of kids were eager to get out and
go do something anything. It was a nice day out, so we just
went to on Kay Beach for a walk. After what felt like an eternity
in COVID lockdown. They decided to go to the al Chaive Beach Park.
If you stand on the pier, the view of the Seattle skyline is unmatched.
Natalie Castillon was in that group of kids. I was with my friend
Henry and my other friend Keaviy. We already knew what we kind of wanted
to do for the day, but we just randomly selected a location. They
randomly selected a location using a new app that was trending on social media,
Random Nautica. Our original plan was we wanted to see the statue's like a
fake statue of liberty at the end of the strip of Al Kay, but
we also wanted to rando not. It was like a trend that was going
on on TikTok at that time. We just basically like, down with this.
Ob you a random location, and I guess when you get to those
locations you see like random things. I guess, And yeah, it's like
our first time doing it. Random Nautica is an app that gives you random
GPS coordinates that may or may not lead you to whatever you intended when you
prompted the app. Yeah, I know it sounds weird. It just basically
gives you a settle locations and you go there and maybe there's something there,
maybe there isn't fill in your own imagination, but on this day it led
the group to al Kai Beach on Duwamish Head, overlooking Elliott Bay on the
Puget Sound with the skyline of Seattle in the background. I'd say it's a
good amount of people on the sidewalk walking just because it was a hot summer
day, so it's pretty typical to go to al Kai. The park was
busy that beautiful summer day, with people walking and admiring the view from the
pier. We all notice that though as a sit down by the rocks on
the overlooking I think it was just like a coincidence that we saw that we
were talking about. I think on the drive there, we were talking about
random nodding, and we were talking about like traveling and we wanted to get
money or something like that. It was like a weird conversation. So when
we saw it, it was just like a like an aha moment, like,
Oh, that's such a coincidence. We're talking about traveling in the car
and then we're talking about random nodding, and people find crazy stuff on randomnot
so we were like, let's just see what's down there, and we were
like, this could be something fun to record. At that time, guys
were kind of On the drive to al Chai Park, the group talked about
travel and coming into a lot of money right before prompting the app for coordinates.
When they saw the black suitcase on the rocks beneath the pier, they
thought it couldn't be a coincidence. They joke with each other that it was
probably a suitcase full of money. We were curious, so we went to
go see what it was. It was just like a suitcase. We started
on tipping it, pretty normal suitcase, no tear anything to it, just
how like a weird smell the closer you got to it. Obviously didn't really
think too much of it. There's a lot of garbage out there A lot
of the times. I didn't really think it was going to be what it
turned out to be. But yeah, it was just a normal suitcase.
They dismissed the odd odor because it was obviously floating in the bay before being
washed onto the rocks with other pieces of garbage. We were curious. We
actually opened it up. Thanks y'all, Just like a really foul odor,
so we stopped opening it halfway. We left it there, and then we
were kind of still in this weird childish fog of just like pretending it's not
what we think it could be. We were just joking on saying it's probably
just like garbage and a suitcase that just washed up, and we stopped and
we were kind of talking about what if situations, and then stopped for probably
like a good five minutes six minutes, just sitting there fighting the morbid idea
that this was a suitcase filled with a dead body. They hesitated to open
it, but of course, just like a cat, their curiosity got the
better of them, and we saw a black plastic trash bag and it was
wrapping something. It was trash bags, and then they're just in the suitcase.
We could see that they were tightly placed on where something was inside of
the bags that were making them very tight, But there were bags in there.
The trash bags inside the suitcase were stuffed full of large, heavy objects,
pulling the plastic bag taut around them. Undeterred or perhaps overly curious,
they continue to investigate the rancid bag. So there was a stick that we
had and Gabby was very curious about was in the bags, and we were
already hesitant because of the smell, and we found like a little it wasn't
a huge tearry. It was just like some a good soft spot for a
stick to get in there, and Gabby just kind of twisted a little bit
moved it in. The smell immediately got ten times worse. It was just
very pungent, very strong, even with like a face mask. I was
wearing a face mask. It was very strong. It's just like it just
takes you off your feet a little bit. Couldn't really, I don't know.
It's pretty harsh, so I don't know. It definitely wasn't money in
this bag. With a hole poked through the outer bag, they caught a
glimpse of what was inside. Sleek like me and I thought it was like
food or any something like that. With the dissatisfying discovery that the bag was
not full of money, the group wanted to leave, but Natalie called the
police. Okay, so she's calling the police, so we can't see if
it's actually a dead body or it's just food. What is your emergency?
Hi? You know, we found a suitcase on uamash in upide beach and
it has a pretty bad mouth and it's a black trash bag, so yeah,
there's something in it. Okay, where where did you find it?
Exactly? Man? Not knowing the address to the park itself, Natalie's eyes
darted from building to building across the street, searching for an address. Eleven
fifty Alkai perfect one one five zero Alchai Avenue Southwest. Is that the number
on the building? Yeah, okay, perfect. So you're on the on
the across the street, on the side of the water, is that correct?
Yeah? And the suitcases on the rock okay, okay. Did you
open the suitcase and there was a black trash bag inside? Yeah, So
me and my friends were interested in what was in it, so we opened
it up that there was a black class by and we just called okay,
so it was on the rocks by the water, and he said, there's
a pretty foul smell. Yeah, okay, I have a call in.
We're going to try to be there just as quickly as we can. I'll
let officers know you and we're standing by with your friends. Okay, okay,
all righty, thank you, thank you nice. The group waited for
the police to arrive but the PD was overwhelmed or understaffed, and a call
about a weird smelling suitcase on the beach wasn't really the highest priority. They
waited and waited, but nobody ever showed up. What did your emergency?
Hi? So I called about an hour and a half ago, Okay,
and we found a suitcase that's like really just it's like in a black bag
and it smells really Badness flies all around it. Okay, So has anything
changed since you last called? What has anything changed since you last called?
No, but the water is rising and the suitcase is about to get covered.
Okay, I'll go ahead and make that notation. How long do you
think it is until the point help us arrive? Oh? I don't know.
Yeah, we don't have that information. I wouldn't be able to tell
you, Okay. Elliott Bay is directly connected to the Pacific Ocean and as
such is subject to the tides. In the time since Natalie's first nine one
one call, the tide had come in and started pulling the suitcase into the
open water. Well one, what is your emergency? Hi? We were
saying that some people were done at Alcai and they were just really hyper alert.
We're at like the historical point of interests with Little Park and Alke in
West Seattle, and they said they recorded a couple of hours ago a suitcase,
and we just went and they were like pointing it out for us that
they seem I guess they looked at it and are convinced that there's human remains
in there. Honestly, I didn't go down and look at it, but
they're genuinely concerned. Okay, yeah, it looks uick. We have a
call. We are aware that they're waiting. We're going to get somebody out
there. We're just waiting for an officer become available, clear up from a
previous nine lum one call, so we'll be in hand. Okay, all
right, thank you, ma'mby bye. When the police finally showed up,
the kids had already gone hello. Did hear me? Yeah? I kind
of okay. Are you still in the area or did you have to leave?
I waited for a while, but we had to leave too long.
I'll let you know to check it out. Thanks Officer Terrell with this.
Seattle PD was the first to arrive on the scene, nearly two hours after
the original call. Now the rocks kind of right off the pier, there
was a loved bag kind of like a black roller bag. I could clearly
see that it was open and it was empty. He took the little path
to the side of the pier down to the rocks to get a closer look
at the bag, and that's when I saw a black treshe that was floating
in the water, just several not particularly far, just a couple of feet
away from the rocks. The black trash bag the kids saw inside the suitcase
was now bobbing in the tide. I wouldn't say that I identified exactly what
was kind of protruding out of the bay, but I remember thinking that it
looked like the upper chest of a person, specifically the pectoral region. I
saw what appeared to be a nipple, and I remember thinking it looked like
a human torso, but wasn't sure could have been an animal or something like
that. So at the time I wanted more resources and more assistants, so
I requested the assistance of fire department because they had like tools that could reach
out there. And I kind of made the inclination on the radio to describe
it as like something organic. I think I said organic matter because I didn't
want to kind of jump the gun and say what I thought it might be
erring on the side of caution. He didn't want to claim something that wasn't
true. He needed to get the bag out of the water to confirm what
was inside. Hello, radio, where would you guys be able to send
some resources down to one one five zero al Chiavenue Southwest. Basically, we
went down there. We found a suitcase that they're trying to retreat it from
the rocks down there, and it has a foul smell coming from it,
and it looks like to be an organic matter in it. Okay, alrighty,
I'll send a truck down there, all right, thank you? Yep.
Byway, waiting for the fire department to arrive, he made another discovery
when that would cement his fear. I saw on the rocks kind of further
east, closer to the road, was another black bag looked like a Duffel
bag. It was close enough that there was a stick or kind of a
log nearby that I could kind of fish it, like push it towards me.
When I was picking up I could the light kind of highlight of what
was inside the trash rag wasn't entirely seen through, but it was clear enough
that I could instantly recognize that inside the trash rag was afoot. The call
not prioritized would now spark a frenzy of activity. The police, fire department,
and even the harbor Patrol would descend on al Qai Beach and the surrounding
waters. After the report of found human and remains in a suitcase. A
suitcase and duffel bag discovered on al Qai Beach were found to contain human remains,
authorities scrambled to investigate. A call that took forever for the police to
respond to ended up being the beginning of a huge investigation. The medical examiner
came to the scene to start her analysis. It was immediately clear they were
dealing with much more than a simple murder. Some bags can two heads,
hands, feet, an arm. It was obvious that they were dealing with
at least a double murder and dismemberment. It was clear that there were two
people in the bags. She found two severed heads, part of a torso,
a female pelvis identified by the ovaries, and uterus, two feet and
three hands, one still attached to the forearm. There was a lot missing,
but there was hopefully enough to identify the remains. They released a statement
to the public to try to get ahead of the probable media storm, but
it was already too late. Were basically want to do a trend to post
on random notting, and it was the summer, during a pandemic. We
didn't really have a lot of options of entertainment, and that was just the
source of it. And I don't know, maybe I was just very into
the idea of showing this and like, I'm like, I had such a
very crazy, surreal experience, I wanted to just like document it first.
We want to be give us some breaking news. Seattle police are investigating after
several bags filled with human remains were found near the water on Alke Avenue this
afternoon. Police are saying they got the call about a suspicious bag on the
beach and another one was located in the water. Police determined the contents to
be human remains. Police say bags containing human remains were discovered first. A
viral social media video claims to show the discovery of human remains near Alcai.
It appears a group of young people made a video of that discovery. So
we just found this suitcase and we're going to get it. It's basically opening
it up with the sticks. They added music and graphics and put it on
TikTok. It has got a couple million views. With the news reports and
more specifically the viral TikTok post, the story of the suitcase full of human
remains spread pretty quickly social media does that Seattle was gripped with fear and reports
came pouring in. He had a police operator thirty one I have. This
is unfortunate to say that. I just wanted to make sure that it wasn't
relevant. Were at park this morning and there was the suitcase. She had
a police for you reporting. Hi. I am Diane Cargner, live in
West Seattle. The reason I'm calling is I saw a man walking down Harbor
Avenue the beach thing with a black bag on wheels. I don't know if
that black bag that had the human remains that stretch of Alcoho, I don't
think I've ever seen anybody walking with a rolling bag. He had a police
upper or went out by. Hi. I am calling because I saw something
last week, but I just take it out of my mind and I wanted
to let you guys know there were the car parks and on the side of
the road, heading each with their trunk open and their cold open, and
there a car there, and then a man came out of the woods dragging
a big black bag. Reports of mysterious luggage and strange trash bags spotted in
the days and weeks leading up to the discovery came in. One man,
an active rower, spotted trash bags floating down the river. I was out
along one day and a single, rowing with a couple of friends, and
you know, I basically ran over trash bag in the river, and it
was pretty it down. It wasn't like, you know, the bulk of
it, like an iceberg or something. The bulk of the thing was below
the water, so I didn't see it, and I actually kind of ran
over it, and I thought that was weird, But I was in a
single and there's no good way to like explore something or so left it alone.
And then I forget if it was. The day after or two days
after, I was coaching with the youth and we saw a trash bag again
about the same area, but it was a different trash bag. It was
clearly not the same one I saw the other day, and it was floating
higher in the water, but a big, black, kind of hefty trash
bag, like an industry you know, it's a big and I remember one
of the youth throwers was joking like, oh, you should go open it
up and see what's in there, and I was like, no way,
we're not doing that. You see occasional debris, maybe a drink bottle or
something, but you don't see trash bags ever. It's just not something you
see floating down the river. With the story's exposure, everyone was taking notice
of strange bags, especially near the water. A couple of days after the
case hit the news, they got another strange call, leading to yet another
bag upriver. We arrived at the area and we were doing our usual dog
walk and we made our way to the southeastern corner where the river accesses,
and our dogs were down by the water. And when we looked down there,
we noticed there was a suitcase floating at the water's edge. Well,
it seemed odd, and I thought it was suspicious the suitcase would be floating,
that there was something buoyant inside of it. I went down to the
water's edge and the suitcase was floating on a couple of feet off of the
bank. So I grabbed a stick that was nearby, and I pulled the
suitcase to shore. Once I pulled the suitcase to shore, I opened it
partially to see what was inside of it, and I observed some trash bags.
Once I saw those trash bags, I used that same stick to tear
open one of the bags and see what was inside, and I observed a
piece of what I interpreted to be human skin that was unidentifiable as to what
part of the body I was looking at, but it didn't have a tattoo
on it. The medical examiner hurried to the scene. The CFBs were the
missing pieces to her two bodies. So there are multiple mingled remains once again,
including legs, arms, and multiple plastic bags. In addition, there
were other miscellaneous items, including clothes and a knife. So these body parts
were the body parts that belonged to the same individuals that I had examined that
day, and so with the additional body parts, I was able to add
them to each of the respective bodies. So there were some tattoos. There
were pieces of skin that had tattoos that were not attached to the body part
that fit other body parts that were later recovered. Also, the way the
bones were dismembered, were able to sort of fit the pieces together, sort
of like a puzzle piece. The medical examiner used tattoos and saw marks to
piece the bodies back together. All in all, she had one male head,
one female head, one male upper torso, one female lower torso,
three hands, two legs, two male arms, four feet, and one
arm with a hand attached quite the jigsaw puzzle. Two hands and two feet
were determined to belong to the female because the nails were painted pink. The
female hand attached to its forearms still had two rings on the fingers. Luckily,
they were able to pull prints from the water saturated hands and come back
with an identification. The two victims were twenty seven year old Austin Winner and
thirty five year old Jessica Lewis. Besides being dismembered, their actual cause of
death was bullet wounds. After the identification, the police had the daunting task
of informing the families. Here's Jessica's aunt, Gina, remembering her. She's
like a raised sunshine. She helped to develop me disabled people she worked when
was a caregiver like that, and a lot of patients that I don't have.
Austin and Jessica had been together for nearly a decade. The other girlfriend
Jessica. Yes, I'm not completely sure, but I know it was a
number of years. Austin and Jessica were eight years apart, but despite their
age difference, they were incredibly close, inseparable. They loved each other as
a couple. They experienced a series of trials and tribulations in life, but
they always stuck together. I mean, they had their struggles like we all
do. That just shows how much they did care for each other. They
didn't never leave each other when things got hard or rough, and they always
stuck it out or the ups and downs. When Jessica's aunt Gina first heard
the news, she was absolutely broken. Everyone, however, was told they
were both shot. They didn't mention what else happened. My brother's shock when
he told me what happened, and just their hurt. Of course, the
families of Austin and Jessica had seen the news and perhaps the viral video.
I mean it was everywhere. I couldn't even believe that was their story because
I'd seen it trying to look for him. I don't want them to be
remembered for the brutality. I don't want them to be remembered in any violent
way. I want them to be remembered for the you know, their humanity
and their kindness. Accepting that both Jessica and Austin suffered horrible ends the family,
little solace, I want to believe that they didn't suffer. They were
people, They were real people and who were loved. The investigation was far
from over doing their due diligence. The police interviewed family and friends, and
sub peanut phone records. The last time either of them had been seen by
Austin's parents was three weeks to a month prior. Jessica was weeding and she
was planting her son's strawberry plant that he got. It was a reward,
and so she planted that for him for me, and then Austin would do
all the weed eating, and he would mow the lawn and I mean it
offered to eat, feed them, you know that sort of thing. And
then he was going to be doing helping flatten some area for a shed that
I had gotten. Austin and Jessica often helped his mother with her yard.
Austin tried to see his mom at least once a month. He kept in
contact with his dad on a nearly daily basis, daily or every other day
it was. It was often. By mid June, Austin's father realized he
hadn't heard from his son in a few weeks and tried to contact him,
and I actually went over to the place he was staying and looking for him.
They lived together in a room they rented in the city of Burien.
When Austin's dad went there and talked to the landlord, he told him something
unexpected, just that they had left in a hurry and left a mass.
He noticed something strange, however, some of my son's clothing were at the
trash cam. At the base of trash cam. He thought that was odd,
but knew that Austin and Jessica, while they always stuck together, moved
often. I asked him that if he heard from them, would he please
have them contact me, because I was worried and hadn't heard from him in
a while. The police investigation revealed some disturbing information about Austin and Jessica.
There were reports that in the not too distant past, Austin and Jessica had
been assaulted by a group of Samoans affiliated with the Islander Bloods who burst into
their home with guns wanting money. According to conflicting reports, this was over
a credit card scam gone wrong, or a twelve hundred dollars COVID voucher or
some check thing, who the hell knows. Another person said that the last
time he saw the two, they were in fear for their lives because they
had done something quote bad. Another report said that Austin had discovered a bullet
in the mailbox that literally had his name on it. Other reports said that
two men, one described as quote Chinese black guy and the other guy named
t Mac came looking for Austin knocking on doors in the neighborhood. The investigation
was all over the place until the King's County Sheriff's Office made an arrest on
an unrelated matter. They picked up Jennifer Leon for carjacking. During the investigation,
she denied jacking any car and insisted that she borrowed it with permission.
Eventually, she just burst into tears and uttered a confession Alian like I said,
if I wanted to toss you in jail with no question to ask,
you had already been there. Jen. She would go on to tell them
she had a reason to believe the man that owned the house she was staying
at murdered two people. The deputies asked a few more questions before realizing she
had information about the recent bodies discovered on Al Chai Beach. They contacted the
PD and got in touch with Detective Cooper. This is regarding the case I'm
investigating up in Seattle and there's a couple of people in it, two victims,
and it's a homicide case. First of all, did you know that
my two victims? I did not know them personally, and I had never
seen them personally. I just know that they were residences in the bedroom that
I now I am a residence at Okay And who's your current landlord? His
name is Michael Dudley d U D L E y Okay. I thought he
was a great guy. He's really soft spoken, older man, had a
huge house. Jennifer found herself in a bit of a domestic violence situation and
went to stay with Michael Dudley. He had a householl to himself before COVID,
he rented rooms on Airbnb, but since he relied on word of mouth,
so Mike old landlord and Mike Michael, my current landlord are friends.
So that's how I came about me Mike. So he moved me out of
June eighth because I was in a valid situation, and he brought all my
items over there. However, I did not technically show up at his house
until like the ninth of June. Was anybody else there? No, it
was super super quiet. My friend Kimberly wasn't even there. But this Mike's
glasses had been broken and he had looked like he had been in a scuffle.
He had like what I would call it, scratches and everything. She
was concerned about his condition. She'd seen him less than twenty four hours earlier
and he was fine. Now he had scratches and the glasses were broken.
As I asked him if he's okay, that's when he turns to the computer
and starts texting me and telling me weird things. Apparently, the two residents
were rending in the room upstairs. He had told me he had to try
to lock him out of his house twice the day, and that people are
trash and they steal from me, and YadA, YadA, YadA. He
used to come over to Dave's house and complain what piece of shits so that
they are that they don't pay him rent, they don't move out. Yeah,
ok so you know they already had like a that he already had bad
jiju with him at that point. He emailed me a couple of weird things.
I got kind of spooked out, and I left and and he'd come
back for a couple of morning. She asked him if he was okay.
Rather than tell her face to face, he chose to email her while she
was in the same room. If that wasn't weird enough. The cryptic answer
to her question, which amounted to little more than bitching about tenants, creeped
her out. She laughed, but eventually had to go back. Me and
Kim both came home to take a shower. It came, took a shower,
left, I took a shower and opened the fucking door. After taking
a shower, she opened the door to the room formerly occupied by Austin and
Jessica. She immediately regretted what she saw. I opened the door, and
right here on the ground is heaps of clothing. I can see the figure
of a body like he'd like, and then the hands sitting up. Okay,
and it's just mumber, bloody Ann. That's it officially. You don't
know it's Austin. No, I don't know. I don't even see a
face. All I saw was a body and a bloody Anne. Fearing that
she may be in a worse situation than she was previously, she ran downstairs
and tried to play off the sighting as a joke. Her only chance for
survival was to play along with Dudley. Now my has cameras and computers everywhere
because he's directly underneath me. He knows everything, every creek. So I
immediately shut the door Juel Mary and walk down the stairs and go tell him
I did a fuck up. And he looked at me. He's like,
why said I did something in your house? I shouldn't have it? Did
right now? I just opened the door and he looked at me. Then
I, my dumb ass, says something like to the fact that, well,
don't worry, Halloween's my favorite holitay and I love props, And he
started laughing his ass off. Okay, and then that was it. A
couple hours later he told me, is there somewhere he can drop me because
he needs to clean up the mess Dudley offered her his truck keys to get
her out of the house. While I'm doing this, he's getting plastic and
where the wash basin is and the Washington dryer is there. He covered everything,
the ceiling, every part of that part of the downstairs with thick,
clear plastic. I wouldn't let him go back there. I couldn't tell her
why, but I just I kept her with me most of the time,
and I told her, just please don't go back there. I can't say
anything, but just don't go back to the house. He's not happy with
you. I was trying to make Benny excuse so pretty much. No.
She stayed gone for seven days, but with nowhere else to go, she
eventually went back. So after I came back after seven days, because I
started thinking, I got somebody's killed somebody for you know, and I'm sitting
away in seven days and then come back and he might be mad, But
he wasn't mad with me because it took now much longer to clean up.
When I did come back the day after, I wasn't even talking about this
is origin because I don't want to talk about it. And he kept saying,
your room's ready for you. Your room's ready for you. I said,
why are you having me go and moving that room? Because Kim's not
there no more? He goes, why do you think Foustin's name is still
on my brokeo TV? Every time I turn it off? It psychot really
fucked me up every day? Why don't you turn on TV up? Fuck
me up? Every day? Fuck me up? For some reason, I
said, what happened? And he said, let's just put this way.
His gun is fired and minded it okay, Magic Mike. I call him
Magic Mike because he makes things that disappear. He thinks as funny other than
some strange email correspondence with Dudley, Jennifer claimed to have more proof anything else
in that room besides what you saw after he cleaned up. I mean,
it's the room, furniture in it now or anything like that. Yeah,
yeah, And I just looked down and ordered something yesterday. You're gonna freak
out. Looks like a bullet hole. Actually, and at the foot of
the bed that looked like a bullet was grace too. I've opened a nice
tend a million times, and for some reason, I was looking at it
yesterday and it's a round hole and it looks like a straight blow hole.
At that point, I couldn't report to anybody because I was scared for my
you know what I'm saying. But after I found out that that girl was
shot multiple times, they have kids, I couldn't. Jennifer had pictures of
what appeared to be bullet holes in the furniture from the room Austin and Jessica
used to live in. She claimed to have seen a body and a bloody
hand poorly hidden under a pile of laundry, and she had saved emails between
her and Dudley providing a timeline for the murder and dismemberment. June ninth,
twenty twenty, when they checked with Beryon PD for the police history at the
house, they found another clue, quite a big one one one what are
you recording? Hi? My husband and I believe that we just heard guy
class next door and now we can hear somebody screaming for help. It's it's
directly, it's kind of in our backyard to the right. It's like our
next door neighbor. What they're in the guards So they're technically like not on
our street, okay, but our house borders with their backyard, okay,
and just feel like a man or a woman screaming, or tenny too,
it sounds like a man. Okay, you didn't see anything. You just
heard the press and then nob yelling. Correct. On the evening of June
ninth, before the sun was even all the way down, the gunnersons heard
could only be gunshots coming from inside their neighbor's house, but the neighbor wasn't
on the same street. It faced the street behind them. Jory Sates and
Honora six South one six sixthen to Abas house starts one to zero three South
one six sixth street. Happy said, the house out of her backyard,
and I heard what's kind of like a couple of shots, and now a
man's only yelling. Can't see anything that's going on two zero three South one
six sixteen units were dispatched quickly. Shots fired was a far more urgent called
than a stinky bag on the beach. And when what are you reporting?
All right? My wife called just a minute ago about possible gunshots next door
and someone screaming for help. The actual address for our neighbor's house, because
it's our backyard neighbor is one six four six six and bomb bulevardself. Have
you heard any additional disturbance since then? Yeah, the the kind of they
yelling, kind of can can. Dan's just asking for help, saying please
stop, don't do this. Let me just leave, Let me just leave,
Let me just leave. Oh, I athleet they're arriving now, I
wann't sure to go talk to them, like if I want to tell them
where they're going. They're getting my updates all right, thank you, sir.
Officers showed up in minutes. So many officers got this fast because it
was a serious call out. It was an allegation of gunshots at the neighbor's
house and somebody yelling Helen, is that correct? Periand's a dangerous city.
Shot calls are frequent, so anytime something like that happens, if people are
available as many goals can for our safety. After checking in with the gunnersons,
they raced through the backyard and over the fence. They searched the entire
property. They knocked on the door, but no one answered. They checked
o every window, every door, every opening. Nothing was broken and they
couldn't see inside. The detached barn was empty, The grounds were quiet.
There was no indication anything was going on. I didn't find any gunshots,
didn't find anything broken, a broken glass, no one in distress, no
one injured, nothing to indicate that there was a need to enter the residence.
They called me and they just they said that nobody was answering the door,
and so since they didn't have a search one, they couldn't go inside.
So that was the extent of what they could do at the time.
Yeah, they stopped by and said that they didn't they didn't see anything or
hear anything, and nobody answered. If only they had found owned a reason
to go inside, they would have realized that Dudley had just murdered Austin and
Jessica. In the days and weeks to follow, the Gunnersons noticed something else
unusual. No, I mean, the only thing that I remember smelling from
the Dudley property was an extremely pungent and overwhelming smell of rotting. It was
the smell of when you forget that you had left meat and your refrigerator and
it turns bad and you open up the package and it's just rotten. It
smelled like that, but a million times more powerful. The police investigation into
the human remains found in bags along the Alkai Beach and the Duwamish River land
to Michael Dudley. The discovery of the nine one one calls about gunshots and
the eventual horrendous smell emanating from his home, combined with the witness statement from
Jennifer Leon and Jessica's phone records, gave the police enough for a search and
a rest warrant. The last time Jessica's phone was on was the ninth and
the last tower it connected to was in the area the home. Dudley was
lured away from his home by the King County Sheriff's Office claiming they had a
development in the case of Dudley's recently poisoned chickens, and he was swarmed and
taken into custody. Okay, my detective Pole, I did not charge myself,
So you have no idea what it's about. Am I under arrest?
You said, Tanning, you're an arrest that's why you're where. Am I
under a rose? Well, we're investigating to death and so a couple of
people that's supposed to have been seeing at your face? Are you talking about
lots? So yeah, so technically to bring you in here, you're under
arrest for further relate to their death investigation of homicide? Are you know your
mind? You're saying I film, Well that's what I want to talk to
you about. If you didn't do it, then I didn't good Okay,
my friends, Okay, then okay. People are saying you had something to
do with it. It was saying I just need to ask questions, that's
all you have. Well, I got a question, people, Why are
you think you're come and ask me this? Like a month ago? I
would think that if they have been living there, you would just come to
talk to me first. Well, and who are these people? A number
of people? Okay, did you see anything about them in the news about
uh yeah, okay, So what do you see all about the news?
I've heard something about the Alakaye beach, you know and worship and suitcase full
of derbage? Answer okay. And did you hear anything about it cause of
death or anything like you know they've been sean or anything like that. I've
read something about that. Yeah, okay. So with that being said,
people were like pointing the finger at you. I go out there, I'm
getting a hold on with the finger of it. People that know you that
maybe don't like you, Okay, so I'm just woo who doesn't like it?
Well? Again, well we all they're not everybody likes everybody. Okay,
there's people that don't like that. Well, I can't again, I
told you, but I'm gonna tell you who it is. I can't do
that. Dudley played the part of an old man. Well, he fell
asleep while waiting for detectives to question him, and when they finally did,
he tried to place the blame on them. Why did you call police?
Always went for you guys to call man, I figured you'd be right there
when we did call White, Why didn't you you? Uh, there's really
nothing to report, and I figured, you know, you'd be there.
I thought there isn't that part of your standard procedure. Yeah, but he
was kind of sitting there like, wonder what you know, where the hell
you guys have been? And now I started wondering what the hell was going
on? I mean there were people that knew them. Listen, you did,
I mean you you pretty much room with him, They lived with him.
I had a guy from Eachreshan that hadn't talked to him for four years
and called us. So, I mean, do you see why you were
kind of perplexed. Well, I was perplexed too, I mean, you
know, Dudley claimed he expected to be interviewed after he heard the news of
Austin and Jessica's untimely demise, but when it didn't happen, he didn't bother
involving himself. I mean, why would you so when Austin and Jessa were
staying there? I mean, anybody else standing there when you guys are you
guys were just on lockdown. We were on lockdown. Okay, did you
have any problems with Austin at all? I mean, uh, very frog
I had with him was sealing it. Everybody says he would steal anything if
it wasn't long. He was a freaking prolific Steve. But yeah, again,
we were quarantine together, and you know, you know, uh got
to know him pret good and her got to know him both pretty good.
And he he said that's what he did. He you know, he would
prefer to do that over work. There's a lot of people that probably would
have wanted him to that way. When Dudley was asked to elaborate on the
other people that would want Austin dead, he brought up the same false leads
from earlier in the investigation. You know, he would go on and on
about you know, his conspiracies and this and that, and but then he
said, oh no, no, it wasn't messmotives. If I got this
right, you know, he robbed the simoons, who robbed the Mexicans,
who owed money to some curtail. Well, then say what he what he
robbed from this moment, said it was like the douppel bags full of dove
beyond the stories about Samoan drug dealing gang members. Quite a new one for
me, and I've been doing this for a while. Detectives wanted to know
about Dudley's relationship with the two. So you didn't have a beef with them
at all? Oh, it's a little beast with him, you know.
I was always you know, well, I mean like a beef my friend
with my friend. He claimed to be their friend, but was upset about
the stealing and not paying rent. I gotta ask you, do you ever
shoot your gun in your house? Uh? I have occasionally, Uh uh
I have a miss fire. Okay sometimes Can you explain that to me?
What are your friends with people finding? I mean, well, they're in
the blue room and they there's they said, there's a bullet there's two bullet
strikes on the wooden bed frame. So I'm like, yeah, okay,
so can you I mean, yeah, can you explain that I've had that.
I got that from my friend Tom, and you know, I'm there
for a walk one high. He had an excuse for everything, and no
one has anybody ever been injured in that room or anything, because I would
be in Dover's blood in the room too. Well. Yeah, Jessica cut
her eighteen stitches in her thigh and she was walking around with one of these
uh what do you call them? Pressure washers? You come on, oh,
yeah, that'll do it. He playing the bed frame was used,
and he didn't know anything about bullet strikes. If they found any blood,
it could have been from the time Jessica cut her leg and required stitches.
I also have cadaver dogs out there. You know what a cadaver dog is,
right, okay, And they're they're lurning down in the basement and stuff
like that to stuff, and there's some scenes down there and stuff like that.
I'm asking if there's a reason why he's in I was dead. Body's
in my BASI, I'm sure of that. Okay, that way, even
in the chicken coop or anything like that, you can go have a look
and they're about to cut a hole in the wall to retrieve a bullet.
Sudley feigned ignorance to everything the detective brought up. I mean, Austin and
Jessica lived at your place. That was the last place saying with that,
and they actually told people if something bad happened to me, you know this
Mike motherfucker did shit to me. I'm just telling you, well, his
mom told me that. They said, if anything bad ever happened to us,
look at Mike. Why would they I don't know. That's why I'm
asking you. Why would they say to her? I mean, I'm trying
to get to your side of the story. If something happened to them there
and you know something about it, this is probably the time you want to
tell us. I I said, I didn't kill him, and I don't
know what happened to them. Dudley denied at all, even with all the
little pieces of evidence that pointed in his direction. He maintained that they just
moved out suddenly, and the next thing he knew, they were all over
the news. Michael Dudley was arrested and charged with the murders of Austin Winner
and Jessica Lewis after the forensic team found evidence in their former bedroom. A
hole in the wall that was recently patched and paid it over revealed a bullet.
They also found a minute drop of blood that matched Austin. He would
plead not guilty and proceed the trial. After a long two month trial and
a day and a half of jury deliberations, he was found guilty of two
counts of second degree murder. The families of Austin and Jessica wept when the
verdict was read. I'm so overwhelmed right now, it's hard to even come
up with the words. But my son is shining down from up above and
saying, you got a mom, And I just want to think the detect
us for letting us be one of the lucky ones that hopefully this animals off
the streets. Now the world is a safer place without Michael Dudley in it.
Everybody can rest easy tonight because of that. On December sixth, twenty
twenty two, Michael Dudley was sentenced to a little less than forty seven years
in prison. Michael Dudley killed Austin Winner and Jessica Lewis. His reason was
simple. He didn't want them in his house anymore, and the laws made
it hard for him to get rid of them. They didn't pay, they
lied, they cheated, and they stole. They brought drama, negativity,
and stress along with them, and that's always bad. Michael Dudley was trapped.
But what Austin and Jessica didn't realize was that they were trapped also.
Cure would be worse than the disease. They all collectively ignored all of the
red flags, waving furiously, and then one evening, when Dudley had had
enough of them, he decided to remove them from his life and the planet
altogether. Rather than go through the complex and expensive process of eviction, magic,
Mike just tried to make them disappear. All right, that's gonna do
it. Thanks again for supporting Sword and Scale. We can't say this enough.
You guys are awesome. Thank you for being patient with us. Well,
we get this new app roll out going, and uh look there's a
lot more updates coming. We're gonna add auto play, we're gonna add offline
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to hear the next stop. So man,