Episode 344

<v Speaker 1>Sword and Scale contains adult themes and violence, and is
<v Speaker 1>not intended for all audiences. Listener discretion is advised.
<v Speaker 2>I found my daughter and my wife. Somebody killed them
<v Speaker 2>in the apartment. They have been murdered.
<v Speaker 1>It's a little before six pm on a Saturday in Englewood, Colorado.
<v Speaker 1>It's sunny but still frigid. It's the end of March
<v Speaker 1>twenty twenty three, and two local Englewood, Colorado police deputies
<v Speaker 1>are sitting in their cruiser. They're just talking and looking
<v Speaker 1>over some paperwork. Really. Officer Alouise has been with the
<v Speaker 1>force for a few years now. Today he's got a
<v Speaker 1>trainee with him. Englewood is in the heart of the
<v Speaker 1>Denver metropolitan area. There are over thirty thousand residents and
<v Speaker 1>a typical crime rate which consists of basically two things,
<v Speaker 1>robberies and drug related incidents. Maybe a few traffic violations
<v Speaker 1>sprinkled in there as well. Neither Officer Aloise nor his
<v Speaker 1>trainee are expecting any crazy calls today, let alone a
<v Speaker 1>double homicide and a luxury apartment complex.
<v Speaker 3>Nineteerho one englel Parkway is going to be a unit
<v Speaker 3>and in the Nancy three eight right.
<v Speaker 1>He's got the cord to his radio wrapped around his finger,
<v Speaker 1>fidgeting with it as he listens to dispatch Go ahead.
<v Speaker 3>RV states his wife and daughter are deceased. He thinks
<v Speaker 3>they might have been hurtin to it. The wife is
<v Speaker 3>seventy years old and the daughter is thirty four. RV
<v Speaker 3>THINGSOS suspect and we're still getting further.
<v Speaker 1>They'll be heading to a complex called art Walk at
<v Speaker 1>City Center. Sounds fancy. There are one and two bedroom
<v Speaker 1>apartments that go upwards of two thousand dollars a month.
<v Speaker 1>It's usually pretty quiet over there.
<v Speaker 4>I think it's gonna be on the north.
<v Speaker 2>Then get a hold off is Kara.
<v Speaker 5>Hey, it's Chually from Inglewood. We're not sure what we have,
<v Speaker 5>but we need you to stage for right now. We
<v Speaker 5>might have two people that were killed inside of an
<v Speaker 5>apartment nine o one Inglewood Parkway. So this is like
<v Speaker 5>a homicide and it's like, yeah, well, I don't know.
<v Speaker 5>He thinks it's his nephew. He thinks they're both dead,
<v Speaker 5>seventy and thirty four. I have a ton of officers
<v Speaker 5>going as I'm sure.
<v Speaker 1>You know this is the nine to one one call
<v Speaker 1>that had come in just moments before.
<v Speaker 2>Nine one one.
<v Speaker 6>Where's your emergency?
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, yes, ma'am, this is Reggie McLaren. I'm calling from
<v Speaker 2>art Walk apartment. The apartment and Crew eight. I came
<v Speaker 2>around three o'clock and I phoned my wife and my
<v Speaker 2>daughter murdered. I'm sorry why I found my daughter and
<v Speaker 2>my wife. Somebody killed them in the apartment. They have
<v Speaker 2>been murdered.
<v Speaker 7>Okay.
<v Speaker 6>How do you know that they're dead?
<v Speaker 2>Well, I am here. They are dead, you know, because
<v Speaker 2>the guy who ever entered, he was trying to take
<v Speaker 2>them in a trash can or take away, but he
<v Speaker 2>couldn't do it. So I just your.
<v Speaker 6>Wife and daughter still inside the apartment.
<v Speaker 2>Inside the apartment, okay.
<v Speaker 6>How old are they?
<v Speaker 2>Wife is seventeen years old.
<v Speaker 6>Okay, and your daughter daughter.
<v Speaker 2>Is about thirty four years old. And what is your name, Reginald?
<v Speaker 6>That's your name.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, that's my name, Reginald McLaren.
<v Speaker 6>Okay, And are you in the hallway.
<v Speaker 2>No, I'm going in the holidacause I want to put
<v Speaker 2>on my jacket. It's very cool.
<v Speaker 6>Okay. My officers are there though, and they need you
<v Speaker 6>to not be in the apartment.
<v Speaker 8>Okay.
<v Speaker 1>Well, at the same time, officer Alouise and his trainee
<v Speaker 1>were running up the stairs to unit and three oh eight.
<v Speaker 9>Hey, Honnie, I think it's inside.
<v Speaker 1>Which where do you go?
<v Speaker 4>Do you go that way? Look out?
<v Speaker 2>Well?
<v Speaker 4>What are we going to?
<v Speaker 1>When they finally get to that unit, the hallway is
<v Speaker 1>absolutely silent. There isn't a person in sight. They cautiously
<v Speaker 1>approached the apartment door, hoping they won't have to break
<v Speaker 1>it down.
<v Speaker 10>To confirm me as an Ancyright, please.
<v Speaker 9>Tomorrow, it's your hands.
<v Speaker 4>Step outside, step outside.
<v Speaker 1>They're bracing themselves for a potential showdown with whoever murdered
<v Speaker 1>this man's family, but instead it's the caller himself who
<v Speaker 1>answers the door. He's still on the phone with dispatch.
<v Speaker 6>So let me know when you stepped out into the hallway,
<v Speaker 6>because my officers are going to meet you in the hallway. Welky,
<v Speaker 6>how long ago did you find them? What time did
<v Speaker 6>you come home and find them?
<v Speaker 2>I don't know. I don't know, Okay, I don't know.
<v Speaker 2>I have no idea.
<v Speaker 6>And you're in Nancy.
<v Speaker 11>You go.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah.
<v Speaker 1>The man who emerges is frail and hunched over, clutching
<v Speaker 1>his jacket. Reginald McLaren is eighty one years old, and
<v Speaker 1>the stress of this situation is making him look even older.
<v Speaker 1>He's a normal old man, except for the distant look
<v Speaker 1>in his eyes and a name that doesn't match his accent.
<v Speaker 1>He doesn't seem injured, just stunned. Officers help him out
<v Speaker 1>of the apartment and plan to take him back to
<v Speaker 1>the station to ask a few more questions.
<v Speaker 12>Yeah, who's the on call of the technics? Sergeant and
<v Speaker 12>on call staff? You pick a bad time to be
<v Speaker 12>on call, supervisor. It looks like a double homicide.
<v Speaker 1>The new trainee stands guard at the front door while
<v Speaker 1>Reginald gets a pat down in the hallway. Meanwhile, the
<v Speaker 1>handful of officers inside are getting a taste of what
<v Speaker 1>they'll be dealing with right away. They know it'll be
<v Speaker 1>more than their little police department can handle.
<v Speaker 4>Fuck Carver's cancer.
<v Speaker 13>Fine, yeah, Jesus, Jesus, Chris, there's a closet.
<v Speaker 10>Tell us it's like at this one confirm too? There's two?
<v Speaker 4>Do you want me to stay inside with?
<v Speaker 10>Inside?
<v Speaker 1>The apartment isn't chaotic? It looks like they're in mid move.
<v Speaker 1>Boxes are stacked neatly in corners, some are sealed, others
<v Speaker 1>are half packed with clothes. And books still visible inside
<v Speaker 1>long on their sides. In the living room are two
<v Speaker 1>oversized black roller trash cans. The lids are open. With
<v Speaker 1>his gun and flashlight drawn, one of the officers carefully
<v Speaker 1>steps over to one of the bins and leans down
<v Speaker 1>so he can see inside. Immediately you can see clothing, skin, limbs,
<v Speaker 1>and blood. Both of the victims are women. They've been
<v Speaker 1>stuffed inside head first. Their arms and legs are bent unnaturally.
<v Speaker 1>One of the women's legs hangs partially outside its plastic vessel.
<v Speaker 1>There's a towel covering part of the first victim's body.
<v Speaker 1>Blood is pooled beneath her. The second woman is positioned
<v Speaker 1>mostly face down. Neither is moving. The officers don't touch
<v Speaker 1>the bodies. They don't try CPR. It's already too late.
<v Speaker 12>Double homicide UH nine oh one in wood Parkway and
<v Speaker 12>is in Nora three zero eight in the apartment number.
<v Speaker 12>Sounds like husband came home, finds his wife and daughter deceased.
<v Speaker 12>They both have been shoved into a trash can a piece,
<v Speaker 12>so it looks like by all appearances, it looked like
<v Speaker 12>whoever did this was trying to put the bodies in
<v Speaker 12>a trash can and take them whoever. Husband seems to
<v Speaker 12>think he knows who did it. We're trying to talk
<v Speaker 12>with him. He's pretty shook up, obviously, but you might
<v Speaker 12>want to call the troops. Anouncer surveillance in a building number.
<v Speaker 1>They don't.
<v Speaker 10>They just definitely coming blood.
<v Speaker 4>Oh yeah, I saw that.
<v Speaker 10>Yeah, I saw that.
<v Speaker 12>And if you look underneath the those bed sheets and
<v Speaker 12>pillows covered in blood, and they probably not think they
<v Speaker 12>were hiding something as well.
<v Speaker 10>Just for our safety, I asked where the suspects could
<v Speaker 10>live here as to where I said they might aid
<v Speaker 10>seventy as Jefferson on the station. That's a little part it. Okay,
<v Speaker 10>they're all game bangers, according to him.
<v Speaker 1>Blood spatters fleck the walls, A pillow soaked in blood
<v Speaker 1>lays on the floor near the couch. In a utility
<v Speaker 1>closet behind the love seat, they find a knaxe and
<v Speaker 1>what looks like strains of black hair caught in the blade.
<v Speaker 1>A handsaw rests nearby. The kitchen sink has hair and
<v Speaker 1>blood in the basin. The rest of the unit looks
<v Speaker 1>oddly clean. Just before a deputy is about to drive
<v Speaker 1>Reginald to the police station to get a formal statement,
<v Speaker 1>he complains of chest pain. He explains that he has
<v Speaker 1>a history of heart attacks and has recently had open
<v Speaker 1>heart surgery. He's eighty one years old. After all, finding
<v Speaker 1>your wife and daughter brutally murdered is asking for another incident. Luckily,
<v Speaker 1>paramedics are just arriving. Out of caution, officers have him
<v Speaker 1>transported to Swedish Medical Center for evaluation. An officer is
<v Speaker 1>assigned to sit outside his room. If Reginald is right,
<v Speaker 1>if this really is about his gang banging nephews, then
<v Speaker 1>he might not be safe even in a hospital. On
<v Speaker 1>March fifth, twenty twenty three, year old Reginald McLaren called
<v Speaker 1>nine one one after discovering his wife and daughter murdered
<v Speaker 1>inside their Englewood, Colorado apartment. The police department and emergency
<v Speaker 1>dispatch were wholly unprepared to deal with this situation. Dispatch
<v Speaker 1>scrambled trying to figure out how to get in contact
<v Speaker 1>with the State crime scene Unit. Officer Aloise's Traynee frantically
<v Speaker 1>scribbled names into the crime scene log as personnel swept
<v Speaker 1>in and out of the apartment. A lot of these
<v Speaker 1>responders were newbies, doing their absolute best. The crime scene
<v Speaker 1>was now sealed. The victims had been officially pronounced dead.
<v Speaker 1>Reginald was under observation at Swedish Medical Center, and if
<v Speaker 1>Reginald's nephews were involved, then time was already working against them.
<v Speaker 1>As the investigation unfolded, neighbors started noticing it was dinner
<v Speaker 1>time for most people, and this group of cops who
<v Speaker 1>were jingling their keys and talking to the hall was
<v Speaker 1>starting to draw a little bit of attention.
<v Speaker 4>So the notes saying that wife and daughter, who's the
<v Speaker 4>guy who's king out of here?
<v Speaker 14>That's the wife or the husband and dad and said
<v Speaker 14>you think she knows who it is? Something about a hammer,
<v Speaker 14>So I gotta going back.
<v Speaker 4>To the station.
<v Speaker 12>We probably need to do at least a quick miranda
<v Speaker 12>on him and just talk to him and see what
<v Speaker 12>information we can give. If this suspects out, you know
<v Speaker 12>what about who's under days in the public, then you
<v Speaker 12>find that out as quickly as possible.
<v Speaker 4>How does he know this?
<v Speaker 10>You know, how does he know he knows who did it?
<v Speaker 4>That type of thing.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, but.
<v Speaker 10>Mirandizing really quick to see it.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, can come in.
<v Speaker 1>Have you guys.
<v Speaker 4>Hurt anything suspicious or anything.
<v Speaker 1>With your neighbors saw.
<v Speaker 6>Him that's around.
<v Speaker 9>Like, so when did I leave.
<v Speaker 15>I went to the liquor store around like three or four,
<v Speaker 15>and he was leaving. He locked his apartment and was
<v Speaker 15>locking in his car, and then I got in my
<v Speaker 15>car and then I saw him come back around like
<v Speaker 15>three o'clock, three or four.
<v Speaker 10>Whenever I have texted you, can we get that?
<v Speaker 4>Can we get that text?
<v Speaker 16>See?
<v Speaker 11>What was?
<v Speaker 10>Did you guys hear anything? And they're supposed to be
<v Speaker 10>moving soon.
<v Speaker 17>It's told me they're super nice.
<v Speaker 4>Okay. Did you know the daughter and the is he
<v Speaker 4>the husband?
<v Speaker 2>Yeah?
<v Speaker 10>I know there's a daughter, a husband, and what right
<v Speaker 10>I think?
<v Speaker 4>I don't they Have you ever seen any like disturbances?
<v Speaker 18>No?
<v Speaker 17>I heard talking a lot in the hall, and I've
<v Speaker 17>heard doors slam, but I thought that they were moving
<v Speaker 17>and it was just kind.
<v Speaker 9>Of okay, yeah, daughter, No, I don't know.
<v Speaker 10>I haven't seen them in a while.
<v Speaker 4>I only see him.
<v Speaker 9>I saw him and daughter. Okay.
<v Speaker 15>The last time I saw them, I can tell you
<v Speaker 15>exactly because the fire alarm went off here and I
<v Speaker 15>saw them.
<v Speaker 4>Leaving and I they were expressing like problems.
<v Speaker 16>Nothing.
<v Speaker 10>They've always been super nice.
<v Speaker 19>I ever thought, never said like watch out for a
<v Speaker 19>suspicious person.
<v Speaker 9>Okay, I saw them on Tuesday.
<v Speaker 10>I saw the daughter. Oh yeah, because you said.
<v Speaker 20>Yeah.
<v Speaker 21>They had their door open and they were cooking food
<v Speaker 21>and I started and it smelt really good, and so
<v Speaker 21>I looked in and I saw him.
<v Speaker 10>Assuming it's a daughter, she looked younger.
<v Speaker 1>Yep, this is what they heard on repeat from all
<v Speaker 1>the neighbors. No one knew the family, well, no one
<v Speaker 1>even knew their names, but they could always smell delicious
<v Speaker 1>food coming from their open door.
<v Speaker 4>I see them all the time.
<v Speaker 10>They've seen fairly friendly. They well, the guy speaks a
<v Speaker 10>woman not so much. See Maybey just kind of come
<v Speaker 10>in and out. I think he works an artid or
<v Speaker 10>i'd go to like like the light rail or something
<v Speaker 10>like that.
<v Speaker 4>He always on the archide or the light rail stuff. Okay,
<v Speaker 4>and the mom, I don't.
<v Speaker 10>Really see that much at times. They cook things and
<v Speaker 10>so I kind of think they have to hear out
<v Speaker 10>their apartment.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, that's your other neighbor said, like they lea their
<v Speaker 4>door open and you can smell it smell.
<v Speaker 10>Haven't heard any like issues or plants, or.
<v Speaker 4>You haven't heard anything non angines allowed or bang that
<v Speaker 4>I'm aware of. Okay, since Wednesday, you haven't seen anybody.
<v Speaker 9>No, Yeah, I hope they're okay, but well it.
<v Speaker 4>Could be one hundred percent honest with you.
<v Speaker 18>Mom and daughter are deceased, and so we're trying to
<v Speaker 18>figure out what is going on. So that's why I'm
<v Speaker 18>asking you so many Yeah, okay, oh yeah, yeah. I
<v Speaker 18>guess I could have let that before I started asking
<v Speaker 18>when are you coming back? Yeah, So we're trying to
<v Speaker 18>figure out what's going on.
<v Speaker 1>Police continued canvassing nearby units. One day, who lived just
<v Speaker 1>a few doors Dwan from the family, told officers he
<v Speaker 1>remembered running into Reginald in the parking lot.
<v Speaker 4>I don't even know dude's name, I says, Jim.
<v Speaker 22>Yeah, he uh sorry. He came over to me the
<v Speaker 22>other day. I was smoking in the garage and he
<v Speaker 22>was like, can you give me a favor? We're moving
<v Speaker 22>on on Saturday.
<v Speaker 11>I was like okay.
<v Speaker 10>He was like, if it's after hours, can I drop
<v Speaker 10>off the keys? See you? And I was like okay,
<v Speaker 10>I told my parking number. Then he saw him walking
<v Speaker 10>around this morning and I did hear all this ship?
<v Speaker 4>Did you ever make a plan to leave the keys
<v Speaker 4>of you need to put any points? He just said
<v Speaker 4>if he had.
<v Speaker 10>To drop them off.
<v Speaker 4>Okay, I can't say he was going overseas.
<v Speaker 18>I thought he was going to come back.
<v Speaker 2>And then.
<v Speaker 4>Did you ever see his wife and daughter? The last
<v Speaker 4>time you saw them.
<v Speaker 14>Yesterday and he never met Did he ever mention anything
<v Speaker 14>about that when he said they were moving overseas.
<v Speaker 22>But I did say I'm going overseas, so I didn't.
<v Speaker 4>Like I'm as in singular? Yeah, I said, okay.
<v Speaker 1>The women stuffed inside the trash cans were seventy year
<v Speaker 1>old Bethany McLaren and her thirty five year old daughter, Ruth.
<v Speaker 1>Bethany and Reginald moved to America in the eighties and
<v Speaker 1>really kept to themselves. Back at the hospital, some of
<v Speaker 1>these details were beginning to come up in conversation with
<v Speaker 1>the officer assigned a watch over Reginald's room. Apparently, Reginald
<v Speaker 1>was born in India and his wife, Bethany was from Nepal.
<v Speaker 1>Reginald had a strange son from another marriage, and then
<v Speaker 1>there was his daughter, Ruth.
<v Speaker 4>I said, back, is her heart feeling okay now?
<v Speaker 2>A little bit? Yeah?
<v Speaker 4>Okay?
<v Speaker 10>And then you just ensured, yeah, well, we'll give you
<v Speaker 10>you want a blanket for now? Is that okay? Yeah,
<v Speaker 10>I'll give you this.
<v Speaker 23>It's kind of a temporation until we can get you
<v Speaker 23>some mother clothes. Okay, but it's better than nothing. Okay.
<v Speaker 10>So next thing we're gonna do again your.
<v Speaker 23>Permission to so we get like a hand swab of
<v Speaker 23>the DNA in your hand to show that basically that's
<v Speaker 23>your DNA. So if we find other people DNA and
<v Speaker 23>we know that's not your DNA, you know what I'm saying,
<v Speaker 23>So like I'm touching this right, then you touch it,
<v Speaker 23>then I can compare your DNA to this DNA, so
<v Speaker 23>we won't say, like, who's this?
<v Speaker 4>So we have yours to show? Is that okay to do?
<v Speaker 11>Okay, thank you.
<v Speaker 1>It wasn't just as four prior heart attacks that had
<v Speaker 1>detectives worried. They wanted a full medical evaluation on Reginald
<v Speaker 1>because he told one of the officers that after he
<v Speaker 1>got home after three pm and found Betha and Ruth
<v Speaker 1>in the trash cans, he passed out. It wasn't until
<v Speaker 1>around six pm that he tried to call the apartment
<v Speaker 1>property management's office, and then after that he called nine
<v Speaker 1>one one. Here are the property managers, and you guys.
<v Speaker 4>Are all hiding back in here. Hi, Hi, I'm.
<v Speaker 9>Lindsay sure, Oh I do not look great?
<v Speaker 2>Thank you?
<v Speaker 4>Okay, how do I look for?
<v Speaker 1>Remember this is a Saturday night. Everyone, including some of
<v Speaker 1>these cops, had been relaxing at home before all this happened.
<v Speaker 4>That's my day off. So I'm like, I know, what
<v Speaker 4>are you gonna do? Your short staff? Right? I'm sure
<v Speaker 4>you guys, you guys were playing the same boat.
<v Speaker 1>Here's the voicemailed Reginald left.
<v Speaker 10>Of a Sudden that she was left at six or
<v Speaker 10>two pm.
<v Speaker 1>Okay, now let's swing back over to the hospital.
<v Speaker 4>It make sure you have no injuries on you, no
<v Speaker 4>arms and your legs.
<v Speaker 23>Okay, we're gonna take a picture to make sure that
<v Speaker 23>you have no injuries. You're gonna show that you had
<v Speaker 23>no injuries. Okay, can you put your arms up for me.
<v Speaker 23>I'll make sure that you're okay. Injuries if you weren't
<v Speaker 23>hurt at all.
<v Speaker 10>You weren't hurt at all. No, I wasn't hurt. Okay,
<v Speaker 10>make sure I.
<v Speaker 4>Heard that you you passed out, but you didn't hit
<v Speaker 4>your head or nothing like that.
<v Speaker 23>Okay, we'll take some pictures lit quick, just to make sure.
<v Speaker 1>Okay, imagine waking up on the floor three hours after
<v Speaker 1>finding your wife and daughter murdered. You've just come back
<v Speaker 1>to reality. You remember what happened. You're panicked and confused.
<v Speaker 1>Now listen to how Reginald mc claren sounds what he
<v Speaker 1>calls nine one one nine.
<v Speaker 6>Where's your emergency?
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, yes, ma'am, this is Greg McLaren. I'm going from
<v Speaker 2>art Walk, the apartment, the apartment and eight. I came
<v Speaker 2>around three o'clock and I phoned my wife and my daughter.
<v Speaker 24>I er my part.
<v Speaker 25>How do you know.
<v Speaker 3>My wife.
<v Speaker 10>Murder?
<v Speaker 26>So I'm going to call it the English right now,
<v Speaker 26>all of a sudden that she was left at six
<v Speaker 26>two hymns.
<v Speaker 1>Now that you've heard both the voicemail he left for
<v Speaker 1>the property manager and this nine one one call, don't
<v Speaker 1>they sound you really similar? Almost rehearsed. Here's the rest
<v Speaker 1>of the call?
<v Speaker 6>Okay, and how were they injured? Can you tell whence?
<v Speaker 2>Ma'am? I am very disturbed. I have no idea the.
<v Speaker 27>Hour is.
<v Speaker 2>Building. Okay, thank you? Do you know who this weapon?
<v Speaker 28>Yeah?
<v Speaker 2>Well, before I before I before I go further, I
<v Speaker 2>want to tell you that our security door in the
<v Speaker 2>gradualor is always open. I mean it's never.
<v Speaker 6>Lost answer my questions. Okay, I understand this is very
<v Speaker 6>hard and I'm getting lots of help. But how were
<v Speaker 6>they hurt? Were they shot? Where they stabbed?
<v Speaker 2>Can you tell me how they they were saved? Not
<v Speaker 2>to save this? Somebody use a hammer or I don't
<v Speaker 2>know you know?
<v Speaker 6>Where are you? Where are you?
<v Speaker 2>I am in my apart from them.
<v Speaker 6>I need you to step out. I don't want you
<v Speaker 6>to be in there.
<v Speaker 2>Okay, Oh step out? Okay, okay, have you matched anything? Well?
<v Speaker 2>I went into the rooms. Uh, I just looked like
<v Speaker 2>my wife first, my daughter's person. The ideas were gone.
<v Speaker 2>All the things are upset.
<v Speaker 4>Down, you know.
<v Speaker 2>So okay, so go to the office, to security buildings
<v Speaker 2>and they come in here still, Yes.
<v Speaker 6>We have lots of people come in or even have
<v Speaker 6>an ambulance coming. Okay, who did thank you?
<v Speaker 2>Who did it?
<v Speaker 1>Yeah?
<v Speaker 2>Well, we had a long enemity with our nephew Regin
<v Speaker 2>Ragina and the another one is Milan Kawas. They are
<v Speaker 2>both my wife's nephews.
<v Speaker 6>Is he there?
<v Speaker 2>Oh no, no, he's he ran away from our home
<v Speaker 2>and he just goes all over the places. He's in
<v Speaker 2>gangs and here and there, And I just want to
<v Speaker 2>make sure.
<v Speaker 6>So your wife and daughter are currently inside the apartment
<v Speaker 6>in which room?
<v Speaker 2>Oh, muster bedroom. They're in the bedroom, muster bedroom.
<v Speaker 6>Okay, do you have any weapons me?
<v Speaker 27>No?
<v Speaker 8>Okay.
<v Speaker 6>The wife and daughter are both in the master bedroom.
<v Speaker 2>No, they are not in the messy bedroom. They were speaking.
<v Speaker 2>I don't know what to explain, but they are in
<v Speaker 2>the living room right now.
<v Speaker 6>Okay, in the living room.
<v Speaker 5>Okay, thank you?
<v Speaker 1>Am I the only one disturbed by the way she
<v Speaker 1>says okay, thank you, Like it's just a routine checklist
<v Speaker 1>she's going through, like she's asking for the ingredients to
<v Speaker 1>make a batch of cookies. Maybe it's just me.
<v Speaker 6>And are you in the hallway?
<v Speaker 2>No, I'm going in the hallway because I want to
<v Speaker 2>put on my jacket. It's very cold there.
<v Speaker 5>Okay.
<v Speaker 6>My officers are there, though, and they need you to
<v Speaker 6>not be in the apartment. Okay, okay, So let me
<v Speaker 6>know when you stepped out into the hallway, because my
<v Speaker 6>officers are going to meet you in the hallway.
<v Speaker 2>Well, okay, okay.
<v Speaker 6>And when did how long ago did you find them?
<v Speaker 6>What time did you come home and find them?
<v Speaker 2>Okay, I don't know. I have no idea.
<v Speaker 6>And you're in Nancy.
<v Speaker 1>You go, yeah, did you catch any inconsistencies? I think
<v Speaker 1>Owood police were starting to rethink the idea that the
<v Speaker 1>suspects were on the loose somewhere. Now, let's rewind just
<v Speaker 1>a little bit. Remember this neighbor. She had mentioned earlier
<v Speaker 1>that she had seen Reginald that day, around the same
<v Speaker 1>time that he said he had discovered his wife and
<v Speaker 1>daughter's bodies.
<v Speaker 15>I went to the liquor store around like three or four,
<v Speaker 15>and he was leaving. He locked his apartment and was
<v Speaker 15>locking in his car, and then I got in my
<v Speaker 15>car and then I saw him come back.
<v Speaker 10>She tested me at three.
<v Speaker 4>That's where she left.
<v Speaker 9>Yeah, So I was like, you want to come over? Yeah,
<v Speaker 9>And I was at the liquor store when you texted
<v Speaker 9>me back, and.
<v Speaker 4>As you were leaving.
<v Speaker 9>Yeah, Well, he went to his car, Okay, I know.
<v Speaker 11>I saw.
<v Speaker 12>I was like hi.
<v Speaker 9>He didn't say anything.
<v Speaker 4>He just kind of an He said hi, and then
<v Speaker 4>kept walking.
<v Speaker 9>Normally he'll like stop and chat with me.
<v Speaker 3>Okay.
<v Speaker 4>So he locked his door and then he.
<v Speaker 10>Came.
<v Speaker 15>Yeah, and then he went to the parking lot and
<v Speaker 15>while I while I was going in the parking lot,
<v Speaker 15>he walked and asked me and didn't say anything, and
<v Speaker 15>then he came back, which I thought was kind of
<v Speaker 15>weird because then I was like, oh, he's probably leaving.
<v Speaker 9>That's why I saw you guys out there.
<v Speaker 12>I was like, I need to go talk to you.
<v Speaker 10>Yeah.
<v Speaker 1>Absolutely, So right after this officer leaves the woman's apartment,
<v Speaker 1>he tells his colleagues they'll be changing course.
<v Speaker 28>Thank you.
<v Speaker 10>You need to find it, are you good? You need
<v Speaker 10>to find a car. We need to find a car.
<v Speaker 19>Why Around three fifty five today she was going on
<v Speaker 19>the store. She saw him walk to the car. He
<v Speaker 19>locked the door, locked the car. Doesn't know what she
<v Speaker 19>did in the car, but he came back the car.
<v Speaker 19>It's a white sand possibly on the same floor that
<v Speaker 19>we're at. They have a gomacfart.
<v Speaker 1>So someone goes over to the adjoining parking garage to
<v Speaker 1>find Reginald's SUV, and when they do, everything kind of
<v Speaker 1>starts to make sense.
<v Speaker 16>The three fifty five the place was seen and then
<v Speaker 16>she doesn't know when he came back. I didn't see
<v Speaker 16>if there.
<v Speaker 4>Are any warmths of them Ornava I didn't either.
<v Speaker 29>So four, I don't think this was done in two
<v Speaker 29>outports on the sofa some of it, but there's a
<v Speaker 29>lot more missing.
<v Speaker 4>Did you see the stuff this one and then you
<v Speaker 4>see down in the front of the track can.
<v Speaker 26>So not yet, but we just were informed by Bryce
<v Speaker 26>that it sounds like he dad Dad left at three
<v Speaker 26>fifty five. Neighbor saw him driving at his car, and
<v Speaker 26>so Bryce is going to locate the car right now
<v Speaker 26>with the neighbor that saw it. That was around four,
<v Speaker 26>and he's saying, if I'm hearing what Bryce said correctly,
<v Speaker 26>he locked this door left of the car.
<v Speaker 4>And came back.
<v Speaker 10>That might be our Essentially, we're gonna see if Bryce
<v Speaker 10>has it the car. You guys, get here, stay here
<v Speaker 10>with the crime SYMGA.
<v Speaker 1>Detective Alouise walked to the parking garage and spots his
<v Speaker 1>colleague who's peering in through the windows of the s
<v Speaker 1>u V. Just tell it it's flat.
<v Speaker 4>Stay with this card and we touch it. Hey, who's
<v Speaker 4>a The suv is completely flat, so I'm probably sitting
<v Speaker 4>on it.
<v Speaker 1>The apartment complex has its own trash system, one that
<v Speaker 1>doesn't require any kind of rolling cans you'd leave on
<v Speaker 1>the side of the road. Could Reginald have flattened the
<v Speaker 1>back seats to make room for the new trash cans
<v Speaker 1>that were now in his apartment. With this possibility in mind,
<v Speaker 1>they have to find a neighbor with a doorbell camera.
<v Speaker 1>They need to get footage of whoever brought those trash
<v Speaker 1>cans into the apartment.
<v Speaker 4>Can I come in for a second?
<v Speaker 27>Ye go?
<v Speaker 4>Are you guys right?
<v Speaker 12>I'm brant with the police apartment obviously, I mean angle
<v Speaker 12>you see you guys might have some video or something.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, I have on the video doorbeller there. I'm not
<v Speaker 4>entirely sure what times.
<v Speaker 10>I think he said, like around three thirty.
<v Speaker 4>Was like one of them, okay, but it just catches clips.
<v Speaker 4>I think this was like one that they were like
<v Speaker 4>looking at.
<v Speaker 26>So you know what I'm looking for is someone dragging
<v Speaker 26>a trash can, A couple of trash cans they like
<v Speaker 26>the only.
<v Speaker 10>Ones, yeah, haven't like we hear that sometimes like at
<v Speaker 10>n I D.
<v Speaker 4>Guys get roll trash cans or you put your trash
<v Speaker 4>outside and they collect it.
<v Speaker 26>They collect it, but they have like a big like
<v Speaker 26>like one of those ones you see, like yeah, that
<v Speaker 26>they push and then come by and collect them.
<v Speaker 1>In this nine one one call, Reginald weirdly mentions that
<v Speaker 1>whoever did this must have started the cleanup process and
<v Speaker 1>couldn't finish it. Was he talking about himself? I mean,
<v Speaker 1>who breaks into a place, kills people and then tries
<v Speaker 1>to remove the bodies? Why would you do that unless
<v Speaker 1>you live there. The car discovery, paired with Reginald's claim
<v Speaker 1>that his wife and daughter's purses were empty, brought to
<v Speaker 1>a search of the big dumpsters on the ground floor
<v Speaker 1>of the apartment complex. Side they found an Exfinity bill
<v Speaker 1>addressed to Reggie McLaren, a credit Union bank statement for
<v Speaker 1>the couple, numerous SidD cards for Ruth, three of Bethanese
<v Speaker 1>driver's licenses, and both women's Social Security cards. All of
<v Speaker 1>these items had been cut up. They found bloody clothes too.
<v Speaker 1>This all wasn't looking very good. The next logical step
<v Speaker 1>was to find out which hardware store the rolling trash
<v Speaker 1>cans were from. Maybe they'd even be able to get
<v Speaker 1>security camera footage of Reginald buying the items. So the
<v Speaker 1>deputy went to nearly every store in the area. Finally
<v Speaker 1>he arrived at a particular home depot.
<v Speaker 10>Yeah, wed By, thank you.
<v Speaker 16>What can you do?
<v Speaker 2>Well done?
<v Speaker 24>What I could do is I could go back a
<v Speaker 24>footage of when he's he entered the store without items.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, if you can follow him from his car to
<v Speaker 4>where his car is.
<v Speaker 10>Most who they didn't go past this because.
<v Speaker 9>Forget what you're talking.
<v Speaker 13>Is that him?
<v Speaker 9>Yeah, that's him taking longs like his.
<v Speaker 30>Items while he's in the like in the twelve sections
<v Speaker 30>trash cans, trash cans, there is yes, so he's already
<v Speaker 30>picked the trash cans.
<v Speaker 9>It's crazy.
<v Speaker 21>I never thought like I would have come up to
<v Speaker 21>that because like I would always start because you see
<v Speaker 21>these people with these items, like you wonder what they
<v Speaker 21>use it with the last time when I was cashooting,
<v Speaker 21>I saw a guy in the tar shovel and like
<v Speaker 21>blulkins and gloves and I was like, oh my god,
<v Speaker 21>looks so sketchy and stuff.
<v Speaker 18>No.
<v Speaker 1>No, her enthusiasm is cute, isn't it. Bet you never
<v Speaker 1>thought she'd be in a real life episode of CSI. Anyway,
<v Speaker 1>This footage showed him not only purchasing the two trash cans,
<v Speaker 1>but also a Stanley brand handsaw good brand. He paid
<v Speaker 1>for all the items with cash. And remember that neighbor
<v Speaker 1>with the doorbell camera. He found footage from March ninth
<v Speaker 1>that showed Reginald wheeling his two brand new trash cans
<v Speaker 1>back to his apartment. Weird. Then there was that long
<v Speaker 1>handled axe. Footage showed Reginald and harbor Frate's checkout line
<v Speaker 1>with his axe in hand. Again he used cash. This
<v Speaker 1>was all on March ninth, just before four pm, shortly
<v Speaker 1>after he got home that day. Door bell footage showed
<v Speaker 1>the three of them, Reginald, Bethany, and their daughter Ruth,
<v Speaker 1>all leaving the apartment. Then they get back around seven
<v Speaker 1>to fifteen pm, having just gone on an outing with
<v Speaker 1>the man who would soon end their lives. While investigators
<v Speaker 1>rewound camera feeds and match timestamps, a sense of disbelief
<v Speaker 1>washed over everyone. How could eighty one year old Reginald,
<v Speaker 1>elderly and frail have done any of this?
<v Speaker 13>Named doctor? Okay, little bit, can you tell them what
<v Speaker 13>happened today? Ooh, I didn't sneaking.
<v Speaker 1>So the doctor asked him what happened, and Reginald said, oh,
<v Speaker 1>I made a mistake. And that's why the AUDI isn't perfect.
<v Speaker 1>It's from the body worn camera of the officer. Sitting
<v Speaker 1>in Reginald's hospital room. Reginald calls the doctor, Doc, that
<v Speaker 1>might help you follow it a little bit better.
<v Speaker 10>They were thinking and anything to get thistle. The doctor
<v Speaker 10>was saying something that you see I heard that you
<v Speaker 10>want one that you okay, well you know.
<v Speaker 4>I'm not trying to be No.
<v Speaker 10>I a lit here for forty years and and I
<v Speaker 10>give up basically and you.
<v Speaker 25>Because the animals of money and this same theme.
<v Speaker 10>No way.
<v Speaker 25>And if I'm messing me to dig an apartment, go there.
<v Speaker 10>And I had it, and then I had some money here.
<v Speaker 10>See I have a tolend dollar in my.
<v Speaker 2>Week.
<v Speaker 25>Is a move, but that was only for one month
<v Speaker 25>and from signing hest for fifteen. Anyone who predicts will
<v Speaker 25>be short after. I didn't want to see my family
<v Speaker 25>in the street Eddy. I don't want to see hope happens.
<v Speaker 25>But I just didn't because I see equal on the
<v Speaker 25>roles and.
<v Speaker 10>Mom guys and say the situation better and I so
<v Speaker 10>you killed them? And then and Leans passed out. Correct.
<v Speaker 1>Then the doctor asks him, so you killed them, both
<v Speaker 1>of them? And Reginald admitted that he had and great board.
<v Speaker 2>He was in.
<v Speaker 10>He didn't kid. I even love to see my student
<v Speaker 10>bending brand thee how my daughter even.
<v Speaker 1>After this shockingly calm admission, so creepy, really Reginald continued
<v Speaker 1>telling the doctor that he used to work for HSS
<v Speaker 1>Security Company in a hospital setting. During his time there,
<v Speaker 1>he saw the harsh reality of homelessness every day. He
<v Speaker 1>said that after he lost his job, he knew that
<v Speaker 1>he and his family would end up like these people
<v Speaker 1>begging on the side of the road. At his age,
<v Speaker 1>no one would hire him. To make matters worse, he
<v Speaker 1>said that they were being evicted. Bethany and Ruth were
<v Speaker 1>pressuring him to sign a lease on a new apartment,
<v Speaker 1>and Reginald said he was down to his last eight
<v Speaker 1>thousand dollars, which wouldn't be enough for first and last
<v Speaker 1>month's rent, plus us a security deposit in his daughter's medication.
<v Speaker 1>Thirty five year old Ruth lived with cerebral palsy and
<v Speaker 1>required constant monitoring. Her meds were eight hundred dollars a month,
<v Speaker 1>according to Reginald, who really emphasized that he'd been taking
<v Speaker 1>care of his wife and daughter for thirty five years.
<v Speaker 1>His family depended on him, relied on him. They couldn't
<v Speaker 1>survive without him. Apparently it had just become too much.
<v Speaker 1>He said he'd started planning about ten days prior. He
<v Speaker 1>just couldn't see any other way out. On March twenty fifth,
<v Speaker 1>twenty twenty three, from a hospital bed under police watch,
<v Speaker 1>eighty one year old Reginald McLaren calmly admitted he had
<v Speaker 1>murdered his wife and daughter. He said he'd spent decades
<v Speaker 1>supporting them, but when he lost his job and found
<v Speaker 1>out they were being evicted, he saw only one path
<v Speaker 1>forward everything.
<v Speaker 25>I'm sorry, I can dominate in life everything, you know,
<v Speaker 25>never time when he had her time and making bed
<v Speaker 25>sickness problems.
<v Speaker 10>But I think not see my said my heny.
<v Speaker 2>You know.
<v Speaker 1>According to Reginald, the plan had been in motion for
<v Speaker 1>a week. Here's what investigators believe happened that final day.
<v Speaker 1>Sometime in the early afternoon, he grabbed an axe, the
<v Speaker 1>one he bought at Harbor Freight. He set aside the
<v Speaker 1>hand saw that was for later. He purchased everything he
<v Speaker 1>needed using cash, Like the two rolling trash cans. He
<v Speaker 1>wheeled them through the parking lot by himself. They were
<v Speaker 1>now waiting in his living room, lids propped open. Bethany,
<v Speaker 1>his wife of nearly forty years, was likely sitting on
<v Speaker 1>the couch. He struck her first, hard enough to slice
<v Speaker 1>through a major artery causing a blood spray that painted
<v Speaker 1>the wall behind her. Then he turned on Ruth, hacking
<v Speaker 1>away at her. She was thirty five years old, and
<v Speaker 1>Reginald said she had cerebral palsy. Detectives believe she may
<v Speaker 1>have been standing near the kitchen at the time. Later
<v Speaker 1>they found the sink drain clogged with blood and hair,
<v Speaker 1>clear evidence of an effort to clean up what was
<v Speaker 1>becoming an unmanageably messy situation. After they were both dad,
<v Speaker 1>Reginald used a combination of the axe and the saw
<v Speaker 1>to remove one of his wife's legs. It was harder
<v Speaker 1>than he imagined it would be, so he abandoned that idea. Instead,
<v Speaker 1>he forcibly bent Bethany and Ruth's limbs at awkward angles
<v Speaker 1>so they'd fit. He draped a towel over his wife,
<v Speaker 1>but it didn't cover much. He looked down out of
<v Speaker 1>breath and knew he still had to get both of
<v Speaker 1>these bins to stand up so he could roll them
<v Speaker 1>down the hall and into his suv. One of Bethany's
<v Speaker 1>legs was still sticking out, lying on top of the
<v Speaker 1>open lid. Blood was starting to pool around each of
<v Speaker 1>the bins. Reginald panicked. His chest felt tight. He knew
<v Speaker 1>this feeling. Quickly, he cut up both of the women's
<v Speaker 1>identification cards, driver's licenses, and social security cards. He tossed
<v Speaker 1>the pieces down the track into the apartment's main dumpster,
<v Speaker 1>along with bloody clothes and other personal effects. Then he
<v Speaker 1>picked up his phone and called the property manager, followed
<v Speaker 1>by nine to one one. In his nine one one call,
<v Speaker 1>Reginald said to the dispatcher, whoever did this probably started
<v Speaker 1>the cleanup, but got tired and gave up, And that's
<v Speaker 1>exactly what he did. During the process of hauling bodies,
<v Speaker 1>cleaning blood, and lugging heavy plastic bins into position, Reginald
<v Speaker 1>over exerted himself. He began to feel the familiar warnings
<v Speaker 1>of a heart attack. He'd already suffered four and had
<v Speaker 1>recently undergone open heart surgery. He just got scared, scared
<v Speaker 1>that he was about to die. Getting medical attention for
<v Speaker 1>himself became the number one priority. I wonder how he
<v Speaker 1>was going to pay for that.
<v Speaker 20>A horrifying crime in Anglewood in the suspect talked about
<v Speaker 20>Colorado's housing crisis with investigators. The eighty one year old
<v Speaker 20>man told them he killed and dismembered his wife and
<v Speaker 20>daughter because he could no longer afford to pay the rent.
<v Speaker 20>They were murdered in an apartment building in the Englewood
<v Speaker 20>City Center just off Hampton Avenue in Santa Fe. Drive
<v Speaker 20>Karen Morphin on the story Tonight and Karen. The man
<v Speaker 20>told police he didn't want his family to suffer through homelessness,
<v Speaker 20>and during his.
<v Speaker 24>Arrest, he reportedly told police that he had no regrets
<v Speaker 24>because he felt like they were in a better place now.
<v Speaker 24>Police responding today pleading for anyone who may be struggling
<v Speaker 24>to ask for help. According to the arrest AFFI, David
<v Speaker 24>McClaren confessed to the murders, telling detectives he had recently
<v Speaker 24>lost his job and the family was about to be evicted.
<v Speaker 24>Having worked with the homeless population before, he told police
<v Speaker 24>he quote knew what a miserable life that was. Having
<v Speaker 24>planned for several days, he allegedly carried out those murders
<v Speaker 24>the morning they were to vacate.
<v Speaker 8>You know, he seemed distraught maybe, and I don't know
<v Speaker 8>what the reasons for his actions were or I mean,
<v Speaker 8>that's part of our investigation. We're trying to determine why
<v Speaker 8>he did what he did, but as far as our
<v Speaker 8>dealings with him, he was more than cooperative.
<v Speaker 24>Now McLaren is expected in court sometime later this week.
<v Speaker 24>We know the Rapahoe County Corner's Office will identify those
<v Speaker 24>victims once their family is notified.
<v Speaker 1>Notifying extended family about Bethany and Ruth's deaths was more
<v Speaker 1>difficult than expected. Who were these women? The family had
<v Speaker 1>lived in the same building for years, and yet no
<v Speaker 1>one seemed to know them beyond their friendly smiles and
<v Speaker 1>the smell of food wafting from their unit.
<v Speaker 7>Well, Jim and the sadness over this terrible, terrible crime
<v Speaker 7>is the realization that this family lived quietly in an
<v Speaker 7>Englewood apartment building. The mother and victim in this case,
<v Speaker 7>Bethany McLaren, was apparently from overseas, but without the help
<v Speaker 7>of her husband, the suspect, finding her family has been difficult,
<v Speaker 7>and so the coroner's office has reached out for help.
<v Speaker 1>There was no one to claim Bethany and Ruth's bodies,
<v Speaker 1>no one to plan their funerals or give them a
<v Speaker 1>peaceful sign off. When leaders at the Colorado Nepal Alliance
<v Speaker 1>found out about this situation, they couldn't let it end
<v Speaker 1>like this. There had to be someone who knew and
<v Speaker 1>loved these women.
<v Speaker 7>They knew Bethany McLaren first got a social Security number
<v Speaker 7>after arriving in the US somewhere in the eighties and
<v Speaker 7>a little bit more, but no one knew her relatives.
<v Speaker 7>The coroner's office called you.
<v Speaker 11>Yeah, they called me the Tuesday after the murders.
<v Speaker 7>Anne Hines and Sengita Schrotria are both part of the
<v Speaker 7>Colorado Nepal Alliance, and the coroner had found the mom.
<v Speaker 7>Bethany had another name.
<v Speaker 11>The fact that her name was Pavitra was a good
<v Speaker 11>clue that she might if she wasn't Napoli. That the
<v Speaker 11>ring of Napoli descent was likely.
<v Speaker 7>And so they set to work to find family to
<v Speaker 7>remember them and their past.
<v Speaker 1>They brought a photo of Bethany to a local funeral.
<v Speaker 1>Someone in the Engle Wooden, Nepaull community had passed away,
<v Speaker 1>and six hundred people were in attendance, all people who
<v Speaker 1>might know these women.
<v Speaker 7>Somebody has to mourn these women.
<v Speaker 11>Yeah.
<v Speaker 7>With a photo from Bethany McLaren's license, Sangita began to
<v Speaker 7>ask everyone she could in the ten thousand plus member
<v Speaker 7>Nepoli community.
<v Speaker 31>So I took the picture to the funeral and say
<v Speaker 31>that do you guys know her? And they were around
<v Speaker 31>like six hundred people and nobody could tell that they
<v Speaker 31>knew her.
<v Speaker 1>Eventually, a man in Kansas responded saying he remembered a
<v Speaker 1>woman named Pavitra. She'd helped him find a job back
<v Speaker 1>in Colorado years prior. When he saw her name and photo,
<v Speaker 1>he was pretty sure this was the same woman. So
<v Speaker 1>she was a kind woman, she was yeah.
<v Speaker 7>Then after a report of the name got out, a
<v Speaker 7>woman reached out from India. One who was a little
<v Speaker 7>girl once posed for a photo with Ruth McLaren.
<v Speaker 31>Then she opened up and it happened to be Pavitra's niece.
<v Speaker 1>The woman confirmed that she recognized both Bethany and Ruth. Apparently,
<v Speaker 1>Bethany was originally Pavitra Rana, born in northern India but
<v Speaker 1>of Nepali origin. She worked as a nurse and eventually
<v Speaker 1>moved to the United States, where she married Reginald after
<v Speaker 1>meeting him through a newspaper ad.
<v Speaker 31>Of all things, it looks like they had been in
<v Speaker 31>India for a few generations because both of Pavitrans her sister,
<v Speaker 31>were born in India. There are so many uncovered part
<v Speaker 31>of the stories that we don't know yet or about
<v Speaker 31>their life. I'm sure they have touched more life than
<v Speaker 31>we know.
<v Speaker 11>I'm sure they have to.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, they had succeeded in finding a needle in a haystack,
<v Speaker 1>one single member of Bethany's family, but they were too
<v Speaker 1>far away to help with the funeral. So these two
<v Speaker 1>women from the Colorado to Paul alliance took it upon themselves.
<v Speaker 11>You didn't have to do this, Yeah, I did have
<v Speaker 11>to do it because these women were so brutally murdered.
<v Speaker 28>Yeah, and so few people in the Denver metro area
<v Speaker 28>knew them, and I could not imagine.
<v Speaker 11>That there were people there that were grieving for them.
<v Speaker 1>There was no family statement, no recent photo, no custom obituary.
<v Speaker 1>Instead just a Bible verse. The Lord is my shepherd.
<v Speaker 1>I shall not want. He maketh me lie down in
<v Speaker 1>green pastures. He leadeth me beside the still waters. He
<v Speaker 1>restoreth my soul. He leadeth me in the paths of
<v Speaker 1>righteousness for his namesake. YEA, though I walk through the
<v Speaker 1>valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil,
<v Speaker 1>for thou art with me, Thy rod and thy staff
<v Speaker 1>they comfort me. Thou preparest a table before me, in
<v Speaker 1>the presence of mine enemies. Thou anointest my head with oil.
<v Speaker 1>My cup runneth over. Surely, goodness and mercy shall follow
<v Speaker 1>me all the days of my life, and I will
<v Speaker 1>dwell in the house of the Lord forever. No mention
<v Speaker 1>of her daughter. Her work is a nurse nothing. Bethany
<v Speaker 1>and Ruth mac laren lived quietly, but they died violently,
<v Speaker 1>and if not for the kindness of strangers, they would
<v Speaker 1>have been buried without any one to grieve them. Everything
<v Speaker 1>we know about them comes from the fragments they left behind,
<v Speaker 1>whether it be a neighbor's memory, a community sorrow, or
<v Speaker 1>a killer's version of events. And Reginald's side of the
<v Speaker 1>story was built entirely on his lies. Because here's the
<v Speaker 1>horrible truth, the McLaren family wasn't facing homelessness. Detectives recovered
<v Speaker 1>several documents addressed to Reginald in Bethany one of those
<v Speaker 1>documents was a statement from a credit union. It showed
<v Speaker 1>an account balance of over eleven thousand dollars. Keep in mind,
<v Speaker 1>this was just one of their accounts. In his hospital
<v Speaker 1>bed confession, Reginald had also mentioned a briefcase with eight
<v Speaker 1>thousand dollars in it. If that doesn't convince you that
<v Speaker 1>his entire excuse was a lie, maybe this will. There
<v Speaker 1>was no evidence that Reginald and his family were about
<v Speaker 1>to be evicted whatsoever. There was no eviction notice, no
<v Speaker 1>court order, and it was it's just that their lease
<v Speaker 1>was up, so that's it. It was all a lie.
<v Speaker 1>This wasn't a man pushed into a corner. Reginald had
<v Speaker 1>made a decision. He was done being the pillar of
<v Speaker 1>his family. He was done having a family altogether. It
<v Speaker 1>was on April third, twenty twenty three, that Reginald was
<v Speaker 1>formally charged with two counts of first degree murder, two
<v Speaker 1>counts of tampering with a deceased human body, and one
<v Speaker 1>count of false reporting. On January twenty third, twenty twenty four,
<v Speaker 1>he entered a not guilty plea. His trial began in
<v Speaker 1>June of twenty twenty four. It was a somber, quiet courtroom.
<v Speaker 1>No one sat in the gallery behind the defense table,
<v Speaker 1>and no one sat behind the prosecutors. Well, at least,
<v Speaker 1>there was no one in attendance that really knew the
<v Speaker 1>McLaren family and Hindes, the executive director of the Colorado
<v Speaker 1>Nepal Alliance, attended the entire trial, just like she'd help
<v Speaker 1>plan Bethany and Ruth's burial. She wanted to be there
<v Speaker 1>when justice was finally served and sounds like a nice person.
<v Speaker 1>We need more ants.
<v Speaker 28>This is Bethany when she was a nurse in the
<v Speaker 28>Indian Army. This is Ruth right here when she was young.
<v Speaker 28>The only pictures that the jury got to see of
<v Speaker 28>them were the pictures when they were dead. The hardest
<v Speaker 28>part for me was hearing how many times he had
<v Speaker 28>struck his daughter with an axe.
<v Speaker 1>The evidence shown at trial was convincing. After about a
<v Speaker 1>week in court, just a few hours of deliberation, a
<v Speaker 1>jury found him guilty on all charges.
<v Speaker 28>The prosecution had a very good case, and they just
<v Speaker 28>reiterated all the pre planning that had gone into these murders.
<v Speaker 28>He had purchased the acts, the saw, and the trash cans.
<v Speaker 28>I think I was hoping to try to understand why
<v Speaker 28>these two murders had occurred that I left without any answers.
<v Speaker 28>I thought maybe having him convicted might make me feel better,
<v Speaker 28>but I don't. Ruth and Bethany are still deceased.
<v Speaker 1>And who had been in contact with Bethany's family in India,
<v Speaker 1>told them about the guilty verdict. One of Bethany's friends
<v Speaker 1>ended up writing a letter for the sentencing hearing. She
<v Speaker 1>asked Aan to read it on her behalf.
<v Speaker 27>I have known Pavichrurana, also known as Bethany, for the
<v Speaker 27>last half a century. We both belonged to Kullimpong, a
<v Speaker 27>small hill town in eastern India. She was born, brought
<v Speaker 27>up and did her schooling in one of the famous
<v Speaker 27>missionary schools, the Kalimpong Girls High School. We worshiped in
<v Speaker 27>the same Presbyterian church. After her schooling, she did her
<v Speaker 27>diploma in nursing. In the late nineteen seventies, she joined
<v Speaker 27>the Indian Army as a nursing officer in the rank
<v Speaker 27>of lieutenant. She continued working and was promoted to the
<v Speaker 27>rank of captain. Around nineteen eighty six, she married Reginald MacLaren.
<v Speaker 27>After marriage, she resigned from the army and moved with
<v Speaker 27>her husband to Denver, Colorado and the US. In nineteen
<v Speaker 27>ninety six, she came to visit US in India with
<v Speaker 27>her husband and daughter. Thereafter, we were in occasional contact
<v Speaker 27>over the phone. Last I remember speaking with her was
<v Speaker 27>in twenty fifteen. After that I was unable to contact
<v Speaker 27>her despite trying many times. The tragic news came as
<v Speaker 27>a great shock, not only to me but to all
<v Speaker 27>of those who knew her here in India. I would
<v Speaker 27>like to remember her as a fine and humble human being,
<v Speaker 27>a dependable friend and a very helpful person. She liked
<v Speaker 27>to do embroidery in tatting laces in her free time.
<v Speaker 27>She was warm and friendly, but reserved Socially, she was
<v Speaker 27>observant and we shared many laughs at her impressions of
<v Speaker 27>friends and colleagues. May their souls rest in peace.
<v Speaker 1>Reginald, who is now eighty three years old, received two
<v Speaker 1>consecutive life sentences. On top of that, the judge tacked
<v Speaker 1>on two twelve year sentences for tapering with deceased bodies
<v Speaker 1>and one hundred and twenty day cents for false reporting,
<v Speaker 1>with credit for time served. In the end, no one
<v Speaker 1>remembered when they moved in. No one noticed the quiet
<v Speaker 1>lives of these women, and when they finally did, it
<v Speaker 1>was because the only person who ever saw them was
<v Speaker 1>the one who made them vanish. Well, we hope you
<v Speaker 1>enjoyed that horrible story. Weirdos. If you like this sort
<v Speaker 1>of thing, these tragic terrible stories, head on over to
<v Speaker 1>our YouTube channel, Sword and Scale TV. There you can
<v Speaker 1>get our visual version of Sworn Scale. Go get it.
<v Speaker 1>You can also find us at Swordinscale dot com, where
<v Speaker 1>you can subscribe for ten dollars two plus or twenty
<v Speaker 1>dollars two plus including Sword and Scale TV. I know
<v Speaker 1>it's a lot to ask, but this should ain't cheap
<v Speaker 1>to make, so you can keep free loading, or you
<v Speaker 1>can help out your favorite creator. It's up to you
<v Speaker 1>to decide. You know what a good person would do,
<v Speaker 1>what somebody like yourself would do. Don't let me guilty
<v Speaker 1>or anything. Guilt, guilt, guilt, all right, we'll see you
<v Speaker 1>next week. Stay safe, Say how to your mom m
<v Speaker 1>hing to live