Episode 239

Sword and Scale contains adult themes and violence, and is not intended for all
audiences. Listener discretion is advised. I'm almost at the end of my career
and I want to stop helping people one emergency at a time. I want
to get out there and be a catalyst in changing people's lives. And if
this helps you, you're welcome to it. And that's this. Don't take
this life too seriously, but don't ever take it for granted. This is
season ten, episode two hundred and thirty nine of Sword and Scale, a
show that reveals it the worst monsters are real. We have a great show
for you today and we're gonna get right into it. But if you haven't
already, consider joining Plus. It's our premium service with over one hundred and
thirty five exclusive episodes you simply will not hear on the regular feed. It's
available right now at Sword and Scale dot com, slash plus live, and
let Live. It's much easier said than done. The premise is extremely simple.
Live your own life and stay the hell out of the way of others
so they can live theirs, presumably the way they want to, as long
as they're not hurting anyone. The premise may be simple, but practicing this
concept can be altogether different because it requires self regulation, control of ourselves rather
than our environment. Ironically, sometimes we can't control ourselves, we lash out,
and we project this need onto others closest to us and begin controlling them
instead of letting them live their lives the way they want to have. You
ever woken up in the middle of the night, like round three or four
in the morning, and you just can't go back to sleep. Happens to
me all the time. Maybe you were just startled during a bad dreamer.
Maybe the zequill or ambient wore off, and now you're wide awake and plagued
with intrusive thoughts that just will not go away, like an endless sloop.
Why does that particular time frame seemed to be so common for people being disturbed
from their slumber. Folklore would suggest that the time period between three and four
in the morning is the witching hour or the devil's hour. This is the
early morning time slot when evil roams of the earth. In Colbert, a
rural area just northeast of Spokane, Washington, deputies and firefighters were awakened on
May twenty fifteen when they were summoned to the scene of a fiery house and
barn at twenty East Chattaroy Road. The chaos and carnage were quickly attributed to
arson, the handiwork of an unknown demon prowling the area. Responders continued pouring
in and one noticed something in the grass lying just outside the burning home and
red flames. The green grass nestled an object every fire person is familiar with
a flash of reflective tape on a firefighter's helmet. It appeared they had already
lost one of their own. This fire was suspicious from the time that firefighters
arrived on scene. When they got here, they found separate structures on fire,
including a barn. Neighbors started noticing that something was going on across the
road when they awoke two noises and saw a large volume of smoke. One
neighbor rushed to the scene to offer his help. He said, about a
quarter to two, he heard popping noises, looked out, saw the fire
got over there, the barn was in fleeing and the house had start on
fire. Naturally, he was alarmed, so the neighbor began urgently knocking on
the door to wake anyone in the home. He even tried to kick the
door in, but it would be trained personnel who discovered the first body.
This was the body of Lisa Canfield. She was a mother and wife and
lived in the home. Her slim corpse was lying in the back bedroom and
would not be easy to retrieve. Fireman first needed to cut a hole in
the bedroom from outside the house before dragging Lisa's mostly intact body through the hole
and onto the grass. One of the deputies reported the grim scene. Upon
arrival, I received limited information about a deceased female victim, Lisa Canfield,
found by fire personnel in the burning house. I was told Lisa peared to
have been stabbed several times. Lisa's body was lying in the backyard with a
yellow blanket covering her up. I was also told Lisa's husband, Terrence Terry
Canfield, was missing. I went over to examine the body and saw the
female victim. She had a piece of cloth stuffed into her mouth. She
had what appeared to be knife wounds to her hands and wrist and bruises to
her chest area. There were punctured wounds on her chest below her neck.
There were also burn marks covering the body. Lisa was found completely nude,
lying on her back. Telltale defensive wounds covered her hands and wrist, and
although severe burns damaged her lower legs and feet, Lisa did not seem to
have died by fire, but by unnatural and violent causes. As for the
firefighter's helmet lying in the yard, it belonged to Lisa's husband, Terry Canfield,
and together they owned the barn, the home, and the property in
general, as well as some horses and several dogs. Terry was still missing,
but detectives would soon discover a badly charred body in the barn, along
with a third victim. We do know that the fire occurred at Lieutenant Canfield's
residence, and we do know that we're not able to contact Lieutenant Canfield.
So I think the community at this point is really holding their breath to see
if a result from the autopsy today determines whether or not any of the three
bodies belonged to a Lieutenant Canfield. He had a lot of tenure on the
department, had a lot of experience like the sharer's experience. He was an
instructor. He did a lot of things off duty like that, he was
out in the community doing programs. He was actually even a comedian. Fifty
nine year old Terry was very active in the community and allegedly had no enemies.
Questions arose with regard to his marriage, and Lisa and a female neighbor
and friend had some answers. She explained that she and Lisa were best friends
of ten years. Just the night before the fire, she was at the
home of Lisa and Terry having a few drinks. She not only insisted there
had been no arguments that night between husband and wife, but that Lisa and
Terry were madly in love with each other. There was no way anything bad
happened between them. At that point, the neighbor walked away, sobbing and
attempted to regain her composure. The search for Lieutenant Terry Canfield continued. Police
were sharing what little information they had about the victims. He said Terry just
recently had major shoulder surgery and he knew Terry wouldn't be at work. I
asked if he or anyone else might know where Terry was, but he answered
no. By this time, the barnet was on fire was mostly burnt to
the ground. The house was still being put out by firefighters. Lieutenant being
said they did an initial sweep of the house and didn't find any other bodies,
but they said that they needed to do another more thorough search. He
also stated it may be possible that Terry may have been in the barn and
it would be a while before they could go through that debris. Later that
afternoon, when the flames were doused and the smoke subdued, the remains of
two other victims appeared from the ashes, Terry Canfield and his twenty four year
old stepson, John, who also lived in the home. District four firefighters
were actually the first people noticed this blaze was no accident when they stumbled upon
the first two victims. As crews fought the fire, they wondered why the
residents hadn't been able to escape. Some parts of their home, like this
bedroom, never even filled with smoke. Unfortunately, Spokene firefighter Terry Canfield may
have not been able to use one of those guns to defend himself because of
the lieutenant's recent shoulder surgery. Terry had just undergone shoulder surgery, making him
an already wounded target for the killer. All three bodies betrayed gunshot wounds,
indicating they had not died from smoke in elation and further confirming suspicions that a
killer was roaming Spokane. Was this killer a stranger looking for valuables or money
or was this someone familiar, some monster with a vendetta. It had been
a long time since Spokane was spooked quite like this, and in fact,
the last time something this horrible happened there, Sword and Scale put out an
episode about it. Well, you know, the stranger murders are very rare
and Spokane, I think what Joseph Duncan did to the Grony family was the
last time we saw a stranger the stranger killing of this magnitude. If this
was just a home invasion robbery, that it's likely those weapons that you saw
being taken out of the house would have been stolen, So for at least
for now, it appears that these victims somehow knew their killer. The fires
were winding down when someone very unexpected pulled up to the property. While deputies
continued to extinguish blazing flames from two fires, cordon off the area as a
probable crime scene, and take pictures of the buildings, carnage and rubble,
a fourth resident of the Canfield home frantically approached wearing a nurse's uniform. This
was Amanda Constable, Lisa's other child and stepdaughter to Terry. She immediately quizzed
officers as to the whereabouts of her parents, begging to find out if they
were still alive. Since the bodies of her stepfather and brother were reduced to
gray powder and ashy bone fragments, they had not yet been found and identified.
That left the mother of females deceased body had been carried outside the home.
Reality set in and Amanda crumpled to the pavement, where she sat on
the wet asphalt soaked with water from the fire trucks. Stunned and in shock,
Amanda was sure she knew what had happened. Her immediate explanation was that
the fire occurred due to a faulty or out of date electrical system that was
reminding them with blown circuit breakers. The maintenance was long overdue. Queasy and
unsettled, she couldn't provide herself with the answer to how the barn caught on
fire. She didn't yet know Arson was suspected, but when given this information,
she also could not explain who would want her parents dead in the early
morning of May twenty sixth in Spokane, Washington, twenty nine year old Amanda
Constable just finished working an extra shift as a nurse. Amanda was tired and
anticipated that she'd climb into bed as soon as she arrived home, where her
parents and brother also lived. Instead, she was greeted with sirens, lights,
and smoldering flames. There was no bed for Amanda because it was burned
in the fire along with her family. She wanted to believe faulty electrical wiring
caused the fires, but Amanda had to face facts after being told the bodies
had been shot to death. The Major Crimes detectives did apply for search warrant
and that has been processed and they are now going through the scene here to
collect evidence and with the forensics unit to make sure that we get all the
information to find out what happened here. Today, detectives asked Culbert area residence
to be on the lookout for any possible evidence that may have been discarded around
their property or to recall any cars they may seen in the area the night
of the fire. So now detectives think that their suspects are on the run
and maybe trying to discard some of the evidence that ties them to the crime
scene, including burn clothing or some of the things they may have stolen from
this home. Detectives are asking that if you've noticed something suspicious, particularly if
you live in this area. I've seen people dumping things in dumpsters. No
one could have predicted that evidence would lead them to a politician. Roy Murray,
thirty year old, tall and skinny, was a clean cut veteran with
a brown haired, buzzcut, and nondescript face, wearing typical man type glasses.
Frankly kind of nerdy looking, not necessarily what you would think of when
conjuring the image of an army vet. We served with valor, earning the
Bronze Star for helping a VIP escape from a complex ambush. He was severely
wounded at the time. After serving in Iraq, Murray was active in politics
for a number of years. In twenty eleven, he was nominated to run
for an open state Senate seat. He lost. Murray just happened to be
Amanda Constable's husband. Only three weeks earlier, Amanda moved back into her parents'
home due to a change in job location from Lewiston the town her husband still
lived in. Amanda's brother had moved back in after a breakup with his girlfriend.
Amanda's brother was staying at the house and the last text message that he
set was at zero zero sixteen, and the shots rang out fourteen minutes after
that. And then there was another neighbor that actually heard the fires set when
they went off, as he testified that it sounded like very loud moosh type
of a sound, like a big bonfire being lit, and he heard two
of them about thirty seconds apart at two in the morning, and then he
went down the driveway and looked and saw that there was fire over there,
and then he ran back up called nine one one, and then he proceeded
out to the property to try to see if anybody was inside the house and
tried to get an answer, but it didn't get one, but the fire
department showed up shortly after that. This was Prosecutor Larry Haskell as he recalls
details of this triple homicide to put it into perspective. The shots were heard
at twelve thirty two am, but the booms of explosive fire were not heard
until two in the morning. The night of the fires Amanda should have been
home, except a worker called in sick, leaving Amanda to cover for the
next shift. She got home at three thirty in the morning. As it
was she had worked in overtime. The fires didn't get set until two o'clock
in the morning. So the state's theory, and I used it in closing
argument, was nobody hangs around a scene in which they've committed three murders and
waits ninety minutes before they set fire to the house and leave unless they're waiting
for somebody. After moving from the wet pavement to an ambulance, Amanda was
given a blanket and her thoughts began to collect and make sense. Just then
a weird look came over her. She hated to have this thought, but
officers should check in with her husband, the husband she was trying to divorce.
He was never physically abusive with her, but her parents didn't like him
very much, and that feeling was mutual with Roy. She added that he
had a history of several arrests and tends to get very angry very fast.
In fact, Murray was arrested just after he lost the state Senate race.
He was one of three candidates contending for a vakaged State Senate seat. Murray
had just been arrested the months before in Las Vegas on gun charges and was
addressing the ordeal with County commissioners decisionist dependability. Murray didn't get the position,
and months later he was arrested again. According to court documents, Murray took
a gun into the walla Walla. Va. Kanzovitch says that, to his
knowledge, every time Murray has had contact with law enforcement, he has been
armed. Murray had a veritable obsession with weaponry. When Amanda was interviewed,
she confirmed he owned several guns, included the much feared AAR fifteen style rifle,
which he named Puppy. Now, there's nothing wrong with having weapons guns
to protect yourself and your family, even the AR fifteen, But if you
give it a name, then you're kind of a weirdo. Just putting that
out there, folks. Amanda said that he would never touch his ammunition and
instead would wipe each round off prior to loading them in the magazine. Now
that's very weird, isn't it. Murray told her this helped him shoot and
scoot, leaving no DNA. When she met Murray, Amanda thought he was
cute and tried to ignore his extreme opinions about the government. Awkward and sometimes
angry, Murray sometimes needed Amanda to act as a buffer between him and her
parents. She recalled one night her mother playfully tried to push Murray over.
His response was to put her in a headlock. He was very goal driven
and very hopeful. He just had big dreams. I would try to buffer
his jokes or make excuses for them being inappropriate. He had very strong opinions
and felt the government would eventually fall and the preparations were needed to come out
on the right side of that. Things kind of came and went. Guns,
Body Armor Magazine's Vestute put equipment on, tactical gear, goggles, gloves,
gun cleaning supplies. We went camping one time, and it was like
practice for if you ever had to survive. Survive was what Amando was able
to do, and her family was not. On the night they were obliterated,
and that was only because she graciously took an extra shift, something she
rarely had to do. She quickly fingered her estranged husband, Roy Murray as
the culprit, and evidence at the scene seemed to corroborate her suspicions those two
deliberately set fires did not destroy. The twenty two caliber slugs found in the
victim's bodies were the bullet casings painstakingly recovered in the debris. Detectives on the
scene also used trained canines to sniff out any possible sources of arson. Gasoline
was concluded to be the accelerant. Interestingly, Murray had a Facebook page.
Well that's not interesting since just about everybody has one or had one, but
Murray posted a few songs there on May twenty fifth, twenty fifteen. One
of them is acute Spanish lullaby. Look it up on YouTube if you want.
It's called Gasolina Leaning. It is actually a song recorded in Spanish,
and if you translate the lyrics, they talk about gasoline and defeating and controlling
people and Interestinging, enough, detectives now believe that a container of gasoline was
used to start these fire in the hopes of concealing these crimes. Now,
the media may have been making a huge leap by connecting this song to the
fires. I mean, if you were to look up gasolina in Urban Dictionary,
you'd get a whole different take on the song. Anyway, whether posting
this song as a deliberate precursor to the fires or not, it was weird,
and the song itself is weird. Not only was gasoline part of the
equation, but a minuscule detail about gun lube would later prove to be monumental
in this case. The most pertinent and specifically in this case, was the
science surrounding the discovery of the nanoparticulates from a new generation of gun lubricant that
was being tested by an inventor at the time that was shared with mister Murray
and also was discovered on some of the shell casings that were recovered at the
crime scene. They met at a conference that puts together inventors and potential marketers,
and I'm not sure exactly when that happened, but they got together and
got to talking, and the inventor he had indicated to us that he was
originally thinking of the lubricant for really large engines, like jet engines or generators
and that sort of thing, and Roy Murray, who was much more interested
in firearms, convinced him that it would work well, possibly as a gun
lubricant. And so that's why and kind of how that conversation got started on
top of the evidence collected and any hints Roy Murray may have given the suspect,
whoever he or she was, was spotted. We spoke with a deputy
on the scene. He was unable to commit to an interview with us,
but he did agree to record his account of what happened three days later.
On a stakeout on twenty fifteen, I was assigned a crime scene protection at
twenty East Shadow Right between eighteen hundred and zero hundred hours. At twenty two
forty hours, while I was observing the house, I observed a shadow figure
in the garage at the address, approximately fifty feet from where the initial crime
had occurred. Initially, I thought that the light from my spotlight had hit
a tree incasted the shadow in the garage. As I started to shift my
spotlight back towards the front of the house, my finger hit the switch and
the light turned off. Momentarily, when the officer's light came back on,
he was stunned to see a shadowy figure wearing all black running east toward the
neighbor's driveway. I announced my presence and drove my patrol car up to the
neighbor's driveway to attempt to cut the subject off. I exited my vehicle and
attempted to locate the subject in the open field to the south of the residence
using my flashlight. After all surveys in the field and no subject being seen,
I started back from my vehicle. Upon reaching his car, he decided
to give one last look. Shining his light into the pitch black field,
he witnessed a dark figure emerging from the grass. The subjects started running southbound.
I announced my presence once again in radio for backup. I told dispatch
that I was in foot pursuit of the subject. The mail appeared to be
around six ft two inches tall in between one hundred and thirty and one hundred
and forty pounds. The tall, skinny fugitive was wearing all black and seemed
to know the area fairly well, since he was running through a field much
faster than your average person would. The terrain of the field was very rough
and uneven. I stumbled multiple times while attempting to catch up to the subject.
It appeared that he was very familiar with the area, as if though
he had been there at time or two. Unfortunately, the officer was unable
to keep up with the agile suspect and ultimately lost sight of him. With
only circumstantial evidence but a strong lead in the direction of Murray, investigators collected
what they had and called him in. When it came time for detectives to
interview Murray, he told investigators the night of the fire, he was camping
with friends near the Police River, but wouldn't give the names to collaborate his
alibi. There was much more to come, though. It now looked possible
that one or more of Murray's camping buddies may have been the murderer, or
even that politics was once again at play. Then on Saturday, detectives asked
Murray to drive from Spokane to Lewiston for a second interview inside the Sheriff's office,
and that's when Murray told deputies that Culbert murders were actually committed by committed
by someone other than Murray, of course, but we're gonna let you hear
for yourselves in this interrogation audio. It started with a female professional partner and
her snitch, so um they had a pretty good day. How he used
to work for Yeah, you guys got for um? So I worked with
Haley Gentry. There's a j sent that has been too. I thought it
was JTF two. He's been to the house where many and we said Terry
l Um and he's also been to her lace or ever I think she is
right now. I haven't talked to every soon that I can call it right
now, pursued Haley Gentry. Yeah, I don't. I know she is
she loves in or I know I know she's your girlfriend because you guys are
working together some sort of relationship like who is a partnership? Who is humor
appreciation? Okay, And you think that he thinks she thinks she's like you
know, or you think she's a I don't know, in your concern for
her cities over your concern for him. And because this other person that was
a snish has been at her house into Terry and Lisa's house, and who
is this other person was a snish? Um armond Ermond I asked around,
supposed that he was jo He uh, I'm guessing a little Eastern guy.
Yeah, he's about sixty four, Lauren Trump supposed to. Okay, and
your concern is that he may be mold. Now that's a lot of intelligence
to get my dumb brain around. But Roy went even deeper, bringing none
other than Russian spies into play. It's because, yeah, I'm pretty sure
Russian Okay, telling so exciting. Actually, Thus six that was a rect
this guy and I've now now how let me go. I got the NFL
I think I'm supposed to be. So I got multiple for another Russian targets
that have been involved in this calm work heater. Again, there's teams,
there's multiple liss termentth list. Um, you guys can deal with some of
it, on to all the handle. Um, some of that I've got
to give art intelligence I've got to give like FBI, this is got ms.
You've heard the term red herring, I take it in forensic debate.
A red herring is a statement or piece of information unrelated to the actual subject
and is meant to throw the opponent off track. Well, Roy Murray was
slinging a whole net full of red herrings at detectives. I mean, the
guy was practically a fisherman and at stink of rotten seafood. He was probably
hoping that his intelligent gibberish would intimidate them, and he was wrong. Next
up was the Mandy was a secret operative getting intel on me explanation. This
dude watches a lot of Louder with Crowder. Apparently I was first approached.
Fact well, I believe that I was tarreted by many. I don't think
she knows it. Targeted. It means became an intelligently if forgot involved in
politics, um um. I think I think her mommy and also been involved.
Um. And which would explain why I don't think exactly from one by
her nurse that she happen to be working for her time. It moved at
Mandy that I did the house a subjective Mrie meandered his way through the interrogation
as he sat in a long table in a forest green T shirt and jeans,
always giving the proper gesticulations to accompany his many details, even if they
didn't make sense. At times he couldn't configure any more scenarios and would say
things like, sorry, I'm racking my brain. Things are just starting to
click. I think it was somewhat, you know, since they worked in
intelligence and he seemed to know something about a Soviet group or Russian group called
the FSB, it never really made a lot of sense to detectives, and
made even less sense after the fact. That. You know, the story
changed as it went along, so they never bought into it. They did
go to where he said he was camping, and they did some investigation there,
and they couldn't find any evidence with a park path or anything like that,
or anybody that's seen anybody that looked like Roy Murray. So there wasn't
a lot of credence given to the notion that he was down there at a
campsite. And of course they were never able to talk to anybody else that
would be able to confirm that. He began naming agents who may be involved,
all of whom, in one way or another, were somehow connected to
the slaughtering of Amanda's family and decimation of her home. What made it difficult
for detectives was that Murray actually had a background in the military, and some
of this just might be true. So they kept sifting through the debris,
this time sorting fact from fiction coming from Murray's scrambled mind. Who were you
working for? Selected So he told her that you've been I mean, I
don't mean went very well. It was in around with this one, so
it's it's not someone I don't trust. Um, he's never gonna be open
before back to secret Agent Amanda Murray's wife. Murray was of course concerned about
her in more than one way. So how would many be involved? If
exactly? I mean it's say, say your cruise someone builds you know,
you can gain a trust and get him, get him to feed you certain
information for whatever reason. You give them this framers and their moral construction,
um, you know, but um, and then they bringing that back to
you. And then before you actually work for the man idea and the things
you work for someone mass but nobody doesn't chose this versus so um, who
would many have had contact with it? You know that may have recruited her
or being well maybe why would she recruited her? If what the information would
a what if you will kind of ask that information? Would she'd be able
to divide? I'd just gotten started getting known in politics. Within about a
year after we met, I was I went through PCO election district leader and
was on the slafety Consentatorum I was like target for political operations. So if
they would have used her scase direct information about you to watch you, and
there were a couple of operations set up like things, I'm not sure if
that was my guys with them. Does somebody wanted me either burned like pressure
or even trying to herve you from politics? Fascinating as Murray's geopolitical saga was,
detectives needed to accomplish the goal. They were instead allowing Murray to take
them down a long and winded tail, and they desperately wanted this terrible movie
to end. You know how you invest a lot of time into watching a
movie that you know from the start isn't grabbing you, but you can't stop
watching until almost the end when you finally say, fuck it, this is
dumb, and by then you've lost at least an hour of your life that
you're never getting back. It's kind of like listening to Lore. The detectives
were getting to that point with Murray, all right, so we get into
that because you're still worried about the two of them. Yeah, if she
isn't involved or she doesn't know she's involved, she's listening to me, and
we definitely want to get into that reason around wither. Then, what I
want you to do is as much you want to still your guys alve this
so we can hear us out of it. I mean to you all the
way or because you're hearing our office established comings. Let me standish you drow
up here this morning from Lewis and voluntarily to meet with us right now,
and you know you're not in custody at this time. Okay, UM,
you know what your rights are when you tell us, tell us from the
beginning. Let's go over twenty where you're, what you're doing, who you're
with, those kind of things. Twenty fifth, twenty twenty fifth, the
day before TESTI memorial, TESTI memorially. That's more more elthly Monday in twenty
fifth. Uh, well up in all the wilder, Um, I want
to move my computer or I was finding on kind of setting up in Lewison,
but UM got over there in late nineteen I think I went to UM
date Ninja Dave Riser shop, H went to Safe Way and then right about
two Mandy Colby, UM and haital conversation. We've been dancing around doing the
people were kind of divorce. UM, so we talked about that to do
a mutual non not. Yeah, it's pretty easy to say so and I
feel for her so um we yeah, she's like he's not better thing,
he's not hearing better too, and we're healthier apart. So m hmm.
Now they were getting somewhere divorce, you say, amicable, healthier apart,
you say, perhaps maybe sounds like a live and let live situation according to
Murray. That is, he continued laying out the day, saying that after
talking to Amanda, he went and hung out with his friends before heading home.
He then diverted the topic to someone else who could be the culprit,
a militia extremist he described as shit, but Murray didn't feel he had the
capability to carry out something like the killings and the fires. They were getting
somewhere. But it definitely seemed like Murray was constantly usurping control, deliberately distracting
and confusing the detectives. I mean, he's the smartest guy in the room,
don't you know. They're a higher archy of structure for the people are
like, don't conculate nobody's to charge of or working for the other. Now,
clear, So I understood there. So he got Bobby here, and
then you're telling me that Bobby's got some snishes and one of those is armored.
Yeah, and who's the other one? You said, Well, it
was so difficult to get a goddamn straight answer and sort through the twisting timeline
that the detective resorted to a whiteboard. At least he didn't have a map
with the pins and ropes connecting everything. I guess like a teacher trying to
establish dominance in the classroom, pay attention students. That only lasted for a
few minutes before the whiteboard was no longer effective at all. Frankly, he
ran out of space on it, and detectives were running out of time.
Since you talked to us, or even before, there is anything SUSI was
sufficious and happening with you being table where you can follow, where you follow
your universe, that's prettyful. Was following me for a while, but I'm
pretty sure was going to be. It wasn't pretty sure. Um, somebody
followed me to WSU on Tuesday. It's all I'm about to do. Jerry
left WUIs Tanker many talk to me and I came up this way. Yeah.
I had had a white Dutch van that parked right from the old book
between there and ky House. Um, so you hole, Uh now I
had before that. I mean, I don't worry about everything much gas,
so it's not really a problem. I didn't know anybody's day. I did
keep the face least enough that if somebody was, it was stuck out.
So anything else didn't have any around you concerning the US city SS the point
three point four pots you talk to me. Anything else is the most suspicious
thing. That what really confirms this. FSB has been a moment in this,
either trying to intimidate me or trying to type their loose ends. It's
totally like an action movie. White Van FBI being followed, attempts at intimidation,
fires, families annihilated, but every possible lead had to be ascertained as
fact or fiction. So detectives went to the site. Murray said he was
camping just before the fires, and there was no evidence that anyone whatsoever had
been there. Next, they started tracking down people matching the names Murray gave
them. This chase was ridiculous. One male named Bobby said that his brother
Lucas had information of value, but Bobby didn't want to give out Lucas's phone
number. He wanted to be in control, so he contacted Lucas. While
speaking with Bobby, they learned that he had in fact lived in Russia and
was part of the Russian military. After finally locating Lucas, Lucas's mother came
onto the scene and informed police that Lucas and Bobby were not others, but
had known each other since pre high school. She added that Robert is a
little bit mental and never had anything to do with Russia. When detectives checked
Murray's phone, no calls had ever been made to either one of these contacts,
and after the interview, it was found that there was enough probable cause
for arrest mister Murray for three counts of first murder in reference to Staffs.
So what would make someone wipe out an entire family of his wife, even
if he didn't want a divorce? Was he crazy like his wife Amanda emphatically
stated the night she pulled into her home to find everything she loved was gone.
Was it simply an act of control? Murray was unable to let go
of Amanda and decided to wipe out everything that stood in the way of their
marriage? Or did PTSD cause Murray to lose it after being triggered by something
or someone, whatever it was, this scrawny, nerdy killer already had a
reputation to know him was to be terrified of him now. A lot of
people have been reluctant to testify because right now there's no guarantee that Murray is
going to be convicted. Friends and even ex family described Murray as a man
obsessed with guns, someone who had often contemplated the steps he would need to
take to get away with murder. Murray called it shooting and scooting a man.
A constable is so afraid of Roy Murray that today she asked the judge
to let her take shelter in the witness stand before Murray was let in a
court, and a lot of people were They were actually very afraid of Roy
Murray. All the witnesses that testified were very afraid of Roy Murray. I
believe most of them said it. And they said that if you guys don't
get him the first time, don't be thinking you're going to be calling me
for another because you'll never find me. It is no wonder witnesses didn't want
their faces shown in court. If this well armed doomsday prepper could take out
an innocent family because things weren't going his way, what else was he capable
of. Residents of Colbert were in fear for their lives. Amanda and Roy
Murray were married only a few years before Amanda began noticing controlling and obsessive behaviors.
She also maintained that y had PTSD from his war experience in Iraq.
As a veteran, he suffered injuries and was in fact diagnosed with PTSD.
Amanda wanted out of the marriage, and her parents were encouraging her to follow
through with a divorce. She moved back home with her mom, dad,
and brother, not realizing that she should cherish every moment of the days leading
up to May twenty fifth, twenty fifteen, because those days would be her
last ones with them. That morning, she finished an extra shift as a
nurse and arrived home to a chaotic scene. The home and barn were on
fire, a woman's shot up corpse now covered in a yellow blanket, a
deceased male found in the barn, and another found in the house, all
of which were her family members. She immediately pointed to Roy Murray between twelve
thirty and two o'clock, but fires didn't get set until two o'clock in the
morning. So the state's theory, and I used it in closing argument,
was that mister Murray, who did not know that his wife. She normally
gets home about twelve thirty in the morning from her shift, and on this
particular case, and she wasn't there, and she got home at three thirty
in the morning. As it was, she had worked in overtime and mister
Murray didn't know that. So the state's theory was nobody hangs around a scene
in which they've committed three murders and waits ninety minutes before they set fire to
the house and leave unless they're waiting for somebody. Roy Murray lay in wait
as if he were still at war, ready to ambush the enemy, but
in this case the enemy consisted of three in a victims. Speculation suggested that
Roy's PTSD was to blame, but Spokane veterans we're not happy about this conclusion.
Here. Doctor Quinn Bastion, Navy veteran and Chief of Behavioral Health Services
at Man Grand Staff VAMC addresses misconceptions about PTSD. PTSD structs with a trauma,
something so horrifying, something so awful, that it just won't leave you
alone. I want to be really clear about one thing. PTSD does not
cause violence. As someone who works for the VA trying to help veterans every
day. It deeply disturbs me when PTSD is brought up whenever there's a tragic
event in the community. PTSD does not cause violence. We know that there
are risk factors that cause violence, and PTSD is not high on the list.
At the top of the list for violent behaviors is evil, pure evil.
Prosecutor Larry Haskell told us that detective's close to the case voiced their opinions.
Well, the only thing that I can say, and it wasn't brought
up at trial or anything like that, but of course, you know,
we have a lot of discussions with law enforcement as we prepare for a trial,
and we had talked about, you know, some of these behaviors and
some of these allegations by mister Murray, about the involvement of you know,
secret agents and the FSB and that sort of thing. And one of the
detectives told us that in his opinion, and again he's not a trained medical
person or anything like that, he said, you know, Roy is just
diabolically evil. With all the paranoid ramblings by Roy suggesting secret government involvement,
Russian spies and snitches, it would seem reasonable to assume that Roy may have
had other mental health issues. Prosecutor Larry Haskell explained why this was probably not
the case. Well, you know, I only get to know what the
defense allows me to know about that I ever heard mister Murray speak, other
than from the interviews that were recorded that we're played for the jury. There
wasn't any obvious indications to a lay person anyway, or certainly to the police
that he was suffering from any mental disabilities. And what the defense knew they
kept to themselves. But I know I've been doing this job type of work
now since nineteen ninety eight, and I can say that they will not hesitate
to bring a revised Code of Washington ten Dot seventy seven mental Health stay if
they suspect that their client is disabled to the point where they can't assist in
their defense or possibly didn't know right from wrong at the time of the commission
of the crime. There you haven't. Roy Murray is very likely a scene
but controlling an evil monster. Despite his attempts to manipulate the narrative, the
evidence was everywhere pointing directly at him. After getting a search warrant from Murray's
car, detectives found a Walter P twenty two semi automatic handgun, a box
of twenty two caliber cartridges, and bloodstains on the driver's seat and floor mat
at his house and in a shed on Murray's property, more guns, a
dozen cell phones, flares, gas, and many more pieces of evidence,
making him the culprit. Although this case was largely circumstantial, two items were
essential in linking Roy Murray to the scene of the crime. Number one,
the special gun lube that no one but the inventor and Murray had access to,
and number two, a gift from Murray to Amanda, the estranged wife
actually couldn't remember the name of the inventor, but remember the name of the
inventor's wife, and she was also to determine what items were missing from the
house, and it was determined that there was one, only one item that
was missing from the house, which was also helped to tie the case to
Roy Murray. It was a Taurus thirty eight revolver that he had given as
a gift to his wife and he had expressed displeasure with her on a previous
occasion that she didn't take good care of it and he was missing from the
house. Interesting that this was never about the money, given that three thousand
dollars was not missing, but because Murray was pissed off about the way Amanda
treated the gun he gave her, he stole it right after luring her father
to the barn and shooting him, returning to the house to shoot her mother
and brother, and torching the place. Thanks to some good detective work,
investigators were able to uncover Roy Murray's deep, dark secrets. For a while
there, it looked like Roy Murray had committed the perfect crime, three innocent
people executed in and around their home, the killer setting a fire to cover
as tracks with no DNA or fingerprints. Murray's public defenders asked the jury to
acquit their client in what was a very circumstantial case, but prosecutors said everything
about this divorce gone bad implicated Murray as the sole suspect. Despite hearing four
weeks of testimony, it only took twelve hours of deliberations for the jury to
find Murray guilty, including attempting to murder his now former wife Amanda. She
was in court today and embraced the detective who brought her ex to justice.
Murray killed her little brother and today John Constable's father thanked prosecutors for their hard
work. This same jury also found the existence of aggravating factors and all three
of these murders, which means Roy Murray will now spend the rest of his
life in prison. Murray sentencing now scheduled for January twelfth. The trial took
place in November of twenty sixteen, and it couldn't have come soon enough for
Amanda Constable. Murray sat motionless and showed little emotion as the judge handed down
three life sentences. Friends and families of the victims cried as they learned the
man convicted of killing their loved ones will spend the rest of his life behind
bars. Amanda could not have known that her decision to save herself from Roy
Murray would cost her her whole family the fear that my family and the people
around us experienced, wondering if the monster was just around the next corner,
trying to find places to hide. Terry and Lisa Canfield's family found themselves together
again, with their two adult children returning to the nest after failed relationships.
Terry Lisa were said to be madly in love with each other. According to
everyone who knew them. Terry was an outstanding human being and role model,
which made the irony of finding his firefighter's helmet on the ground beneath flickering flames
all the more bitter sweet. On the night of his death, Terry was
able to leave a legacy and his daughter Amanda, and he also left a
legacy through his wisdom in a video he made about his personal philosophy. Hi,
Terry Canfield here. I was watching a video by Brendan Burchard at the
High Performance Academy and he challenged us to make a video that might help change
lives. And so here's my video. And just to give you a little
background on me, I've been in the Fire Service since nineteen seventy nine.
I'm a fire lieutenant. I've been a paramedic since nineteen eighty one. And
I don't see that to impress, but to let you know that before the
Fire Service, I'd never seen a dead body. And since I've been in
the Fire Service, I have literally been in the presence of thousands of people
dying. And that makes an impact on you, and I wanted to share
what impact it's made on me, and that's to remind me reinforce that We
are multidimensional beings. We live in the physical world, our physical bodies.
Everything on this side of death is in this body. And I've been in
the transites trying to deal with injuries and illnesses for thirty years. We're also
mental creatures. We need to exercise our minds as much as we exercise our
bodies. That's what separates us from most of the other animals. We're emotional
beings and I put these on a scale of ascending order. Emotionally, that's
more important to me than physical or mental because that's the color of life.
That's what makes life what it is to us. That's the depth. And
if life to you is just a black and white movie or sepia, you
need to stop dying and start living. And lastly, is we're spiritual beings.
There is something on the other side of death. I believe that with
every atom in my body. I'm almost at the end of my career and
I want to stop helping people one emergency at a time. I want to
get out there and be a catalyst in changing people's lives. And if this
helps you, you're welcome to it. And that's this. Don't take this
life too seriously. But don't ever take it for granted. Roy Murray took
life for granted, not only the lives of the family he stamped out with
no remorse, but his own life as well. He survived war and the
severe physical and mental injuries that it caused, only to end up in prison.
That's because he could not exercise control over his anger and his need for
vengeance. If he couldn't have Amanda, no one could. Not only did
he refuse to allow Amanda and her family to move on with their lives and
the way they wanted, but he refused to allow them to live at all.
The family's ashes were buried, and Amanda's life will forever be altered.
That's gonna do it. Thank you for joining us. We have a new
show called Sword and Scale Nightmares. It's available on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
Please check it out if you can. Thank you so much in Stay Safe.
Hey Mike, this is Tony calling from Costa Mesa, California, and
I wanted to leave this voicemail not really for you, but for all the
other listeners out there of your show. I've got a couple points that I
want to make, but for all you guys out there, who are listening
to sordon Scale and listening to it any other app other than the Sword and
Scale app. You're doing it wrong. Go to the app store downloads to
Sword and Scale app. These guys is an amazing job building this App's got
all of the features inside the app. It's it's amazing and lead me to
my next point. Get Sorden Scale Plus Sorden Scale Plus. Get them guys,
need to get it. It's so worth it. It's one of the
best subscriptions a million subscriptions that I have right now. Go get Sorden Scale
Plus. Don't eat anytime. Love you, Mike, He's doing what you're
doing. Can wait to hear more stories? All right, all right,