Episode 306

<v Speaker 1>Sword and Scale contains adult themes and violence, and is
<v Speaker 1>not intended for all audiences.
<v Speaker 2>Listener discretion is advice.
<v Speaker 3>So you're gonna let You're gonna let this little punk
<v Speaker 3>over here dictate your life.
<v Speaker 2>There's blood on your shoe.
<v Speaker 4>You're in the house a night that this murder happens.
<v Speaker 2>You can't play stupid.
<v Speaker 1>If you want to know what the most detrimental thing
<v Speaker 1>in a young man's life is, it's not having a father.
<v Speaker 1>You can be a father and still be absent, still
<v Speaker 1>leave a void in a young man's life. And since
<v Speaker 1>the majority of crime is committed by males, this should
<v Speaker 1>be a problem that we all focus on. When young
<v Speaker 1>men grow up without fathers, they're left searching for guidance,
<v Speaker 1>often pledging loyalty to the wrong people. In the absence
<v Speaker 1>of a steady, strict hand, they idolize whoever steps in,
<v Speaker 1>no matter how toxic they are. We've seen that, haven't
<v Speaker 1>we with a certain set of brothers over in Romania?
<v Speaker 1>Is it and their OnlyFans empire where they flash their
<v Speaker 1>fancy cars and homes and chains and things. It's all
<v Speaker 1>the eager young men out there that are desperate for
<v Speaker 1>a little taste of that life, and too rudderless to
<v Speaker 1>know how to get there, that end up screwing up
<v Speaker 1>their own lives because of bad advice. That misplaced loyalty
<v Speaker 1>can lead to devastating choices in life, the kind of
<v Speaker 1>choices that we talk about here on Sword and Scale.
<v Speaker 1>Sometimes those choices lead to murder. This is episode three
<v Speaker 1>oh six of Sword and Scale, a show that reveals
<v Speaker 1>that sometimes the worst monsters are fatherless and very real.
<v Speaker 1>It was a muggy Florida night. Yes, we're talking about
<v Speaker 1>Florida again in Palm Beach Gardens in early March of
<v Speaker 1>twenty seventeen. I mean, are you surprised, really at this
<v Speaker 1>point we're going to talk about either Florida or Ohio
<v Speaker 1>every week, So, I don't know, fix your own states people.
<v Speaker 1>On this particular night, the sky was black, the highway
<v Speaker 1>was eerily quiet, and the quiet was only broken up
<v Speaker 1>by the occasional whoosh of a car off to the
<v Speaker 1>side of the road. Flames flickered in a patch of
<v Speaker 1>overgrown weeds. Smoke curled up into the air as if
<v Speaker 1>trying to keep a secret. Fire trucks arrived, blazing their lights,
<v Speaker 1>slicing through the dark. It didn't take long to extinguish
<v Speaker 1>the flames, but what they uncovered left the responders frozen.
<v Speaker 1>Two bodies wrapped in sheets and plastic hidden within the
<v Speaker 1>dying fire. By morning, the discovery had been leaked to
<v Speaker 1>the local media. Helicopters swarmed overhead, and news cruise parked
<v Speaker 1>as close as they could to the team of investigators
<v Speaker 1>from the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office working the scene.
<v Speaker 5>That's right, and crime scene investigators have been busy all morning.
<v Speaker 5>You see them there behind me. They are on the
<v Speaker 5>northeast side of Beeline Highway. They have been focused on
<v Speaker 5>a twenty to thirty yard grassy area. They are looking
<v Speaker 5>for potential evidence and through this murder mystery, they discovered
<v Speaker 5>two burned, unidentified bodies. They were taken through the Medical
<v Speaker 5>Exabitor's office to try and figure out the cause of
<v Speaker 5>death and for positive identification. The Violent Crimes Division has
<v Speaker 5>taken over the investigation. Anyone the information about this homicide
<v Speaker 5>is asked to call the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office.
<v Speaker 1>The detectives would be starting from scratch. As news of
<v Speaker 1>the bodies traveled around the South of Florida, a woman
<v Speaker 1>named Alice Allen was at home watching the news and
<v Speaker 1>got a sick feeling in the pit of her stomach.
<v Speaker 1>Her nephews, Brian and Brandon Allen had not shown up
<v Speaker 1>to work at Chick fil A and were twenty two
<v Speaker 1>year old twin brothers living with their adoptive sister, Linda
<v Speaker 1>Allen in a condominium in Palm Beach Gardens. As soon
<v Speaker 1>as Alice hung up the phone with Chick fil A,
<v Speaker 1>something inside her questioned if these bodies on the highway
<v Speaker 1>could be them. Maybe she was thinking the worst, but
<v Speaker 1>maybe not. Alice was a worry wart, a naturally anxious person,
<v Speaker 1>so she called the boys sister and roommate, twenty two
<v Speaker 1>year old Linda Allen. In a way, Linda, Brian, and
<v Speaker 1>Brandon were like triplets. The Allen family adopted them all
<v Speaker 1>when they were small children in California. The Allen's then
<v Speaker 1>migrated to Florida, where Linda, Bryan, and Brandon were raised.
<v Speaker 1>The three siblings lived together in a newly renovated condominium
<v Speaker 1>in Palm Beach Gardens. Linda Allen came down to the
<v Speaker 1>police station willingly. She wanted to find out what was
<v Speaker 1>going on and to see if the dead boys were
<v Speaker 1>her brothers, all right.
<v Speaker 6>So thanks for coming in.
<v Speaker 7>I don't feel that you met my partners over there.
<v Speaker 6>Detective pie Check and Detective Drake.
<v Speaker 7>So I just wanted to get a little bit.
<v Speaker 6>Of information from you.
<v Speaker 7>And I saw a gentleman came here with you.
<v Speaker 6>Who is that?
<v Speaker 7>Who's not my god brother?
<v Speaker 6>Okay? Not a boyfriend?
<v Speaker 8>Got okay.
<v Speaker 1>Julian Catherell had accompanied Linda to the police station. She
<v Speaker 1>told the cops that he was her godbrother and he.
<v Speaker 7>Lives there with you like he doesn't like he comes
<v Speaker 7>over every now and then.
<v Speaker 9>Okay.
<v Speaker 1>Linda was big and soft around the edges, dressed in
<v Speaker 1>baggy cargo shorts, scuffed combat boots and a loose hoodie.
<v Speaker 1>Julian was tall, slick and handsome. They didn't make sense
<v Speaker 1>as a couple, but the detectives had to ask. They
<v Speaker 1>were like siblings. Linda expled.
<v Speaker 7>So who lives over a off mill brain court with you?
<v Speaker 7>It was me and my two brothers, okay, and I
<v Speaker 7>had let another friend move in, but he was moving.
<v Speaker 10>Out, okay.
<v Speaker 6>And your two brothers are Brandon and Brian, yes, okay?
<v Speaker 6>And how long have you lived there?
<v Speaker 7>Since? March thirty first?
<v Speaker 6>Of last year.
<v Speaker 7>Yeah, first it was me and Brian just.
<v Speaker 10>Staying there, okay.
<v Speaker 6>And then who else? When who else moved in? Was
<v Speaker 6>it Brandon or your other friend?
<v Speaker 7>It was Julian at first he came this thing for
<v Speaker 7>a while. Then he had to go to because briand
<v Speaker 7>and agree with him, okay. And then he wanted our
<v Speaker 7>brother to move in there because of a situation in Jacksonville.
<v Speaker 4>Okay.
<v Speaker 7>How long ago was that that Brandon lived in It
<v Speaker 7>was sometime in December, I know it was around Christmas time,
<v Speaker 7>recent this past Christmas.
<v Speaker 11>Okay, so only a few months he's going down.
<v Speaker 4>You say, situation in Jacksonville.
<v Speaker 6>What do you know about that?
<v Speaker 7>I wish they would have told me more. I felt
<v Speaker 7>like they weren't telling me the whole truth.
<v Speaker 1>Linda was the owner of the condominium. After mister and
<v Speaker 1>Missus Allen had passed away, Linda, Brian, and Brandon had
<v Speaker 1>inherited a nice little nest egg, and their parents had
<v Speaker 1>made sure that the executor of their will had set
<v Speaker 1>them up with a place to live. The executor bought
<v Speaker 1>Linda a newly renovated three story condo and Brian moved
<v Speaker 1>in as well. Brandon, who had always been a bit
<v Speaker 1>of a troublemaker, had stayed in Jacksonville, that is, until
<v Speaker 1>he came down and wedged his way into the house.
<v Speaker 1>Brian couldn't say no to his twin brother, his only
<v Speaker 1>blood relative, but Linda wasn't happy about it. Neither was
<v Speaker 1>their other roommate, Julian. Word around the house was that
<v Speaker 1>Brandon had enemies in Jacksonville who were after him.
<v Speaker 7>He wasn't telling Brian the whole truth and I wasn't.
<v Speaker 7>So it was like, since he wasn't getting Brian the
<v Speaker 7>whole truth, I didn't know need to, so I wasn't
<v Speaker 7>so sure, gotcha, Like it was just really a big
<v Speaker 7>cloud mystery, Like I don't know what was going on.
<v Speaker 1>Brandon only confided in his brother Brian. Brian filtered information
<v Speaker 1>to the rest of the house members until Linda overheard
<v Speaker 1>a phone call that scared her.
<v Speaker 7>Yeah, that's why when he moved down here, I told Brian,
<v Speaker 7>do you think it's a good idea? Do you think
<v Speaker 7>that him coming down here will cause a problem for us?
<v Speaker 7>Like I was only like more fearful for the fact
<v Speaker 7>that Brandon talked about getting a gun, like I overheard
<v Speaker 7>him on I don't know who he was on the
<v Speaker 7>phone with, but he talked about getting a gun, and
<v Speaker 7>it's like I just want Like I didn't get a
<v Speaker 7>chance to tell I even tried to tell him, like
<v Speaker 7>I don't want no gun in that house. How long
<v Speaker 7>ago was that? Do you think this was like two
<v Speaker 7>in to a mom He said that he was going
<v Speaker 7>to get his permit to carrying.
<v Speaker 12>He's going to have it regardless, Okay, But he didn't
<v Speaker 12>mention why.
<v Speaker 7>That's when I was trying to figure out, like what
<v Speaker 7>makes you feel like you need to get a gun?
<v Speaker 7>Do you want to talk about this? Do you need
<v Speaker 7>to call somebody?
<v Speaker 13>Or like.
<v Speaker 1>Tensions had been and rising in the home over Brandon's
<v Speaker 1>fear of his enemies in Jacksonville. Brandon had bipolar disorder
<v Speaker 1>and had gone off his medication when his adoptive parents
<v Speaker 1>passed away. But remember, folks, says, I'm often told to
<v Speaker 1>repeat verbatim, people with mental illness are more likely to
<v Speaker 1>become victims and they are perpetrators.
<v Speaker 2>Is that good?
<v Speaker 5>Can I go?
<v Speaker 7>Now? There was some nine o four number that called
<v Speaker 7>my phone and he said, hey, is Brandon there? And
<v Speaker 7>I was like yeah, sure, So I put the phone
<v Speaker 7>on speakers I'm like, I was trying to eat drop
<v Speaker 7>in that and it's just that, you know, And I
<v Speaker 7>knocked on do I'm like, Brandon, someone want to.
<v Speaker 8>Talk to you.
<v Speaker 7>So he just looked at the phone, was like he
<v Speaker 7>had that face like Dan, I did not want this dude,
<v Speaker 7>Like he just waited and then waited and then waited.
<v Speaker 14>In the.
<v Speaker 1>Suspicion that these bodies might be Brian and Brandon had
<v Speaker 1>spread through the Allen family after they hadn't shown up
<v Speaker 1>to work at Chick fil A, Linda said that, but
<v Speaker 1>she assumed they were just out with friends. Then twenty
<v Speaker 1>four hours turned into a few days and the fire
<v Speaker 1>appeared on the news.
<v Speaker 15>You hadn't seen them since Sunday and now it's it's Thursday.
<v Speaker 15>You didn't have any had they ever been done that long?
<v Speaker 7>No, That's why I was starting to worry, like and
<v Speaker 7>I just had Julius they like say, with me staying
<v Speaker 7>in the house by myself. It was like in PP
<v Speaker 7>I was like, do you know if they, like, if
<v Speaker 7>they talked to you or anything like, because I don't
<v Speaker 7>have none of their friends phone numbers. So I called
<v Speaker 7>Brian's phone and illustrate the voicemail. So are you biologically
<v Speaker 7>related to Brian and Brandon?
<v Speaker 2>You know, okay?
<v Speaker 1>The main thing that detectives had to do was figure
<v Speaker 1>out if the bodies were actually Brian and Brandon, but
<v Speaker 1>it would be tough seeing as they had no living
<v Speaker 1>blood relatives that anyone knew about.
<v Speaker 7>What I'd like to do is I'd like to I'm
<v Speaker 7>gonna do a consent to search.
<v Speaker 12>It's just to be have the other detective that brought
<v Speaker 12>you over here go and collect maybe their truthbrush or
<v Speaker 12>some spoons or something with their DNA on it so
<v Speaker 12>I can compare it and see if it is in
<v Speaker 12>fact the two people that we have because we have
<v Speaker 12>to since there's no there's no biological family, so I
<v Speaker 12>can't get DNA from you or.
<v Speaker 6>Any other family to compare.
<v Speaker 7>I don't have dental records because they don't know the.
<v Speaker 4>Dentist right now.
<v Speaker 1>Linda agreed to the search and gave samples of her DNA.
<v Speaker 1>She went into the hallway and waited while the police
<v Speaker 1>decided if they could extract any information from Julian, Linda's
<v Speaker 1>so called god brother. Unlike Linda, twenty two year old
<v Speaker 1>Julian exuded confidence and swagger. He sat down easing into
<v Speaker 1>the chair as though he was taking a seat at
<v Speaker 1>his favorite barber shop, smiling the whole time.
<v Speaker 4>I like this room, right It's my favorite color gloom.
<v Speaker 16>Yeah, I feel so uncomfortable with her right now.
<v Speaker 6>That's like a big thing.
<v Speaker 2>I love walls like this man nice and saw soul.
<v Speaker 1>In all of my years doing this, I've never heard
<v Speaker 1>someone compliment of police Department's hideous gray felt walls and
<v Speaker 1>rub them with his hand. Weird. Julian said that he
<v Speaker 1>and Linda had been like family since they met at
<v Speaker 1>a lab class while trying to get their GEDs together.
<v Speaker 1>Linda never completed hers. By the way, Julian also grew
<v Speaker 1>up in foster care, so he and Linda bonded over
<v Speaker 1>being children of the state. Unlike Linda, Bryan and Brandon,
<v Speaker 1>Julian hadn't been adopted into such a fortunate family and
<v Speaker 1>was on his own at age eighteen, no longer under
<v Speaker 1>the States guardianship. He had been staying part time with
<v Speaker 1>his girlfriend and part time with Linda. His relationship with
<v Speaker 1>the twins wasn't close.
<v Speaker 16>I personally, as far as Brian and Brandon, it's like
<v Speaker 16>a hind by type thing. They're very to themselves. That's
<v Speaker 16>all I really know about them. But I mainly you know,
<v Speaker 16>I mainly stick to.
<v Speaker 6>Hang Okay, how would you describe them? Not physically, but
<v Speaker 6>just they're just personality.
<v Speaker 16>They got very like from what I noticed just by
<v Speaker 16>seeing them with each other, they got very like goofy personality,
<v Speaker 16>very goofy personalities. Brian more friendly, Brandon more aggressive.
<v Speaker 12>Okay, so friends like the real nice kind of more
<v Speaker 12>social one and the other ones kind of Okay.
<v Speaker 4>Any issues that you've had with.
<v Speaker 16>Them, we've had, Like the only issue we ever had
<v Speaker 16>was a disagreement about dishes, normal roommate stuff, anything physical.
<v Speaker 1>But he said the same thing as Linda. Things got
<v Speaker 1>dicey when Brandon arrived and they'd all been worried about
<v Speaker 1>these enemies. He felt he needed protection from Ianna.
<v Speaker 16>Be honest, I've heard him like, not me trying to
<v Speaker 16>ease drop or anything like I've eased dropped on like
<v Speaker 16>probably like two phone calls Brandon and.
<v Speaker 2>It was just something about gunsay something about guns man,
<v Speaker 2>and I just just the type.
<v Speaker 16>Of how he has anger problems. He gets angry quicker
<v Speaker 16>than Brian. I just went, you know, that's that's just one.
<v Speaker 6>Thing that stuck out to you what.
<v Speaker 12>I know you're not gonna remember the conversation by heart,
<v Speaker 12>but like what verbiage did he use or what kind
<v Speaker 12>of what did he say?
<v Speaker 4>If you could remember, it was like he was on
<v Speaker 4>the phone with somebody.
<v Speaker 2>It's like he was trying to keep his voice down.
<v Speaker 2>He came from Jacksonville. And when he was in.
<v Speaker 16>Jacksonville, I guess he's had some problems with some people
<v Speaker 16>that ran him out of a condo, okay, like a
<v Speaker 16>hundred I was another condole and he was on the
<v Speaker 16>phone like just I guess I think it was somebody
<v Speaker 16>that was selling guns or something.
<v Speaker 1>The police were starting to get a clearer picture of
<v Speaker 1>Brandon and Brian, but again, the DNA had to be
<v Speaker 1>confirmed before they could go down this rabbit hole of
<v Speaker 1>what happened to Brandon and Jacksonville.
<v Speaker 15>So you know how you're sitting in that chair right now, Well,
<v Speaker 15>during our investigation, we may out come to a time
<v Speaker 15>that we need to eliminate you and people that belong
<v Speaker 15>in an area from an object or a place.
<v Speaker 2>Okay, so can we give a sample of your DNA? Yeah,
<v Speaker 2>all right? Cool.
<v Speaker 1>Julian and Linda gave DNA samples The analysts then collected
<v Speaker 1>Brian and Brandon's toothbrushes from Linda's condo and analyzed them.
<v Speaker 1>When the results came back, they called Levon Starks, the
<v Speaker 1>legal guardian and executor of the Allen family. Will Sark So,
<v Speaker 1>I know.
<v Speaker 6>You've been in contact with him.
<v Speaker 10>This is our first name speaking and loved to believe
<v Speaker 10>submit DNA and it came back.
<v Speaker 6>To Brian Brandon. I'm so sorry. Oh, we kind of.
<v Speaker 2>Figured as much.
<v Speaker 6>Yeah, things have been messing. It didn't come back.
<v Speaker 10>Yeah, I'd like to get some information if you have
<v Speaker 10>any for us, some backgrounds on them, what their daily
<v Speaker 10>activities are, or anything that maybe you could possibly think of.
<v Speaker 1>Leavn wasn't surprised. She, like the rest of the Allen family,
<v Speaker 1>had a feeling the twins were dead. She crossed her
<v Speaker 1>legs and sat back in her chair, preparing for what
<v Speaker 1>she knew would be a long conversation with detectives.
<v Speaker 8>When you heard this is or anything that we have
<v Speaker 8>popped in your head or something that you've been learned about, Well, Brandon, okay,
<v Speaker 8>he was living in Jackson and him coming down here
<v Speaker 8>and I'm not really sure why he was down here,
<v Speaker 8>but that really concerned me.
<v Speaker 1>Okay, Like Linda and Julian, levonn saw Brandon for what
<v Speaker 1>he was, a magnet for chaos. Trouble clung to him,
<v Speaker 1>swirling around and dragging others into its orbit, like a
<v Speaker 1>cloud of dust that never settles. Lavon explained that Brandon
<v Speaker 1>had his own apartment in Jacksonville, which had been purchased
<v Speaker 1>for him. The idea was to keep Brian and Linda
<v Speaker 1>as far away from him as possible. So when Levon
<v Speaker 1>heard through the family grapevine that Brandon was crashing with
<v Speaker 1>Linda and Brian, he was livid.
<v Speaker 17>Because Brandon was a bad and he was on both
<v Speaker 17>of them. He has been all their lives, you know,
<v Speaker 17>He's just been to bully all their lives. And so
<v Speaker 17>I say, he can't live. He's a stupid room. And
<v Speaker 17>if he wants to come back to as far, we're
<v Speaker 17>going to do two things. We're going to sell it
<v Speaker 17>there and Jacksonville and they're going to buy him something
<v Speaker 17>he buy himself. Yeah, because I definitely never wanted them
<v Speaker 17>ever together.
<v Speaker 1>Levon was the cousin of the kids adoptive aunt, although
<v Speaker 1>she wasn't emotionally close to them after their parents died,
<v Speaker 1>she became the default parental figure responsible for dividing the inheritance.
<v Speaker 1>She said that Brian was a good kid. He went
<v Speaker 1>to work, he was going to college, and he was
<v Speaker 1>level headed.
<v Speaker 6>He's definitely in the bystander and all of us. I
<v Speaker 6>just can't imagine, and we thought of in us.
<v Speaker 2>What do you think Linda would have anything to do
<v Speaker 2>with this?
<v Speaker 14>Not at all?
<v Speaker 17>Like I say, this is Mike pol believe that we
<v Speaker 17>said everything to do with Brandon.
<v Speaker 1>The cops kept hearing the same thing. Brandon was trouble,
<v Speaker 1>and his trouble stretched all the way to the north
<v Speaker 1>end of Florida. But as Levon sat in that interrogation room,
<v Speaker 1>her story started to expand. Little details, what you may
<v Speaker 1>call throw away comp started to nudge the investigation in
<v Speaker 1>a direction that no one could have expected. Twenty two
<v Speaker 1>year old twin brothers, Brian and Brandon Allen, had been
<v Speaker 1>found wrapped in plastic in bed sheets, then set on
<v Speaker 1>fire and left burning on the side of a highway
<v Speaker 1>in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. The twins shared a condo
<v Speaker 1>with their adoptive sister, Linda and another former foster kid,
<v Speaker 1>Julian Catherine everyone in the house agreed on one thing.
<v Speaker 1>Brandon was trouble. He had people in Jacksonville after him,
<v Speaker 1>and it got so bad that he abandoned his newly
<v Speaker 1>purchased apartment there and fled to Palm Beach. Linda had
<v Speaker 1>told the police that she overheard him talking about buying
<v Speaker 1>a gun. Even the Allen kids legal guardian and executor
<v Speaker 1>of their inheritance, Levon Starks, had agreed this murder had
<v Speaker 1>something to do with Brandon. As she sat with police,
<v Speaker 1>she offered more clarity into the lives of these former
<v Speaker 1>foster children.
<v Speaker 13>I just want to go all the way back to
<v Speaker 13>how you became the executor of their estates. You know,
<v Speaker 13>who are the parents are?
<v Speaker 7>You know?
<v Speaker 13>For the Oh my god, I don't get involved, but
<v Speaker 13>I mean, what was a relationship with them?
<v Speaker 6>My first cousin, My first cousin is who Florid Davis.
<v Speaker 2>Florid Davis. Okay, she's the one.
<v Speaker 6>That adopted them.
<v Speaker 2>Were they when they were adopted by and she got
<v Speaker 2>him at three? Okay?
<v Speaker 6>Okay?
<v Speaker 17>They lived in California, Okay, okay, And in nineteen ninety five,
<v Speaker 17>obviously she made this decision to make me the executor of.
<v Speaker 6>Her will, which I had no clue about. She passed
<v Speaker 6>away twenty eleven. There were twenty eleven.
<v Speaker 17>It was then when you know, right before death, she
<v Speaker 17>kind of explained to me, I want you to take
<v Speaker 17>care of my daughter.
<v Speaker 6>Is what she really said.
<v Speaker 1>On her deathbed. Missus Allen was most concerned about Linda.
<v Speaker 1>She wanted to make sure that she wouldn't be out
<v Speaker 1>there in the world alone. After Missus Allen died, Linda, Brian,
<v Speaker 1>and Brandon continued to live with their father, but Levonn
<v Speaker 1>became involved with the family.
<v Speaker 6>Well I kind of.
<v Speaker 17>Stepped in just a little weird to help him out
<v Speaker 17>because she did all the bills. Okay, so I kind
<v Speaker 17>of stepped in and Kenneth set up you know, direct deposit,
<v Speaker 17>I mean, you know.
<v Speaker 6>Making sure the bills got bad.
<v Speaker 17>I mean I've always kind of talked to them, kind
<v Speaker 17>of been in their lives in a sense. When they
<v Speaker 17>moved to Florida because I taught it, probably stayed up
<v Speaker 17>in Belgloide.
<v Speaker 6>So when on my way.
<v Speaker 17>Back, I was stopping lots agchi and kind of helped
<v Speaker 17>them out with their home works.
<v Speaker 6>And stuff that they had to do.
<v Speaker 17>But so I kind of always being the one that's
<v Speaker 17>went involved.
<v Speaker 1>Despite levon stopping by to help them with their homework
<v Speaker 1>and other things, they still went astray all their lives.
<v Speaker 17>They've really been on some type of medication, you know,
<v Speaker 17>like eighty eight or something that when their mom passed away,
<v Speaker 17>I think they all took themselves off toubely off. So
<v Speaker 17>I think at the time of adoption, I don't know
<v Speaker 17>if the parents were into drugs or drugs related.
<v Speaker 6>So they both Linda and.
<v Speaker 17>The boys were kind of in that situation when my
<v Speaker 17>cousin got them.
<v Speaker 1>Then mister Allen got sick and died. That's when Levonn
<v Speaker 1>became the sole parental figure in their lives, whether she
<v Speaker 1>wanted to or not.
<v Speaker 6>He passed away in twenty fifteen.
<v Speaker 17>Okay, So at this point, the log Box got a
<v Speaker 17>copy of The Wheel, so I kind of read it
<v Speaker 17>and muzzled over it, you know, tried to figure out
<v Speaker 17>what role am I going to play.
<v Speaker 7>In all this.
<v Speaker 1>Linda, Brian, and Brandon were all eighteen years old when
<v Speaker 1>both their adoptive parents died, the ones who had rescued
<v Speaker 1>them from foster care.
<v Speaker 6>Brandon dropped out at tenth grade. Linda dropped out I
<v Speaker 6>think ninth grade.
<v Speaker 17>Brian is on his way to graduation from high school,
<v Speaker 17>so the rest of them had not finished school.
<v Speaker 6>That was the long I mean to me, they just
<v Speaker 6>didn't do what it was supposed to.
<v Speaker 2>His finance.
<v Speaker 1>Levon had her opinions on how they were brought up,
<v Speaker 1>and she was clear the Allens were not good parents.
<v Speaker 1>Brian was the only one on track to finish high
<v Speaker 1>school under their watch, but this wasn't acceptable to Levon,
<v Speaker 1>so she helped coach Brandon, and with her guidance, he
<v Speaker 1>eventually got his ged. Brian was enrolled at Palm Beach
<v Speaker 1>Day College and Brandon was at college in Jacksonville studying aeronautics.
<v Speaker 1>But Brandon fell off the achievement wagon fast and soon
<v Speaker 1>he dropped out and started getting into trouble.
<v Speaker 17>So I said, well, here's the deal, Okay, you got
<v Speaker 17>to you gotta go to work.
<v Speaker 6>I mean there is no option, no other options. You
<v Speaker 6>gotta work.
<v Speaker 17>So for Brandon his condo that was purchased, I said,
<v Speaker 17>all you got to do is for your light bild.
<v Speaker 6>That's it.
<v Speaker 17>I'm taking of everything else, the taxes, everything else, the
<v Speaker 17>same care of Bovi, the estate.
<v Speaker 6>So I don't know what he did when I bought
<v Speaker 6>the congo. He was there. It was his. I mean
<v Speaker 6>I'm on the on the mortgage. I mean not the mortgage,
<v Speaker 6>but the deed. But it was his. Okay.
<v Speaker 17>Uh, you know he's called me a couple of times
<v Speaker 17>with issues, you know, like I need some money. I
<v Speaker 17>had some money set up for them. I set up
<v Speaker 17>each one of them account you know, separate accounts. It
<v Speaker 17>was eight thousand for each one of them. This is yours
<v Speaker 17>returns one Brandon.
<v Speaker 13>Eight eight thousand for eature when they turned twenty one.
<v Speaker 2>That was a year year ago.
<v Speaker 6>They just started last year they turned twenty one.
<v Speaker 11>Quick question, So was there anything if something happened to
<v Speaker 11>each one of them with that money that they.
<v Speaker 6>Have just go into an estate for the next whoever's lost.
<v Speaker 6>So Linda would get mean powers. Okay, Yeah.
<v Speaker 1>The Allen children had money, fully paid off condos and
<v Speaker 1>only their electric bills to manage. That's all. They had
<v Speaker 1>very little responsibility in life. But while you would think
<v Speaker 1>this would be a privilege, a upper hand, a starting
<v Speaker 1>point that was better than most, in this case it
<v Speaker 1>was a recipe for failure. To Brandon and Linda, who
<v Speaker 1>dropped out of high school and were only pushed to
<v Speaker 1>succeed when Levon stepped in without basic life skills, the
<v Speaker 1>money and homes were little more than fragile bandages. One
<v Speaker 1>wrong move and everything falls apart.
<v Speaker 6>The boys is that it's.
<v Speaker 17>Normal for you to not talk to them for a while, So.
<v Speaker 6>Stress for you life.
<v Speaker 18>I've want got you anything that's negative, and they were
<v Speaker 18>all they immediately save modis on me. Yea, I was
<v Speaker 18>not their parent, and I accepted that I did not
<v Speaker 18>ask for this. I'm going to honor your parents' wishes,
<v Speaker 18>but trust me, I am not going to be on
<v Speaker 18>one and daddy right now.
<v Speaker 1>Though Levin made it clear that she wasn't interested in
<v Speaker 1>babysitting them, there were a few stipulations with the condo
<v Speaker 1>set up for Linda and Brian. First off, Brandon was
<v Speaker 1>not allowed to live there period. Second, no other roommates.
<v Speaker 1>I mean, those are pretty clear instructions. So when Levn
<v Speaker 1>heard Brandon and Linda's friend Julian moved in, she was
<v Speaker 1>pretty pissed. She was pissed that they lied to her
<v Speaker 1>and pissed that she was stuck dealing with these irresponsible,
<v Speaker 1>stunted adults.
<v Speaker 6>Do you know what all the roommates they have there?
<v Speaker 6>Just found out yesterday? Okay, I am living Linda.
<v Speaker 2>Who does she say was living there with her?
<v Speaker 17>Well, I specifically asked the question because I went by
<v Speaker 17>there yesterday when I came in, and I found something
<v Speaker 17>belonging to But anyway, this friend that Linda has always had,
<v Speaker 17>I saw something belonging to him, and I was like,
<v Speaker 17>when was he there? Well, we let him Rent come
<v Speaker 17>in and Rent and I was very recifict.
<v Speaker 2>I mean when I moved them in there, they had.
<v Speaker 6>A checklist that they had to sign off on. No
<v Speaker 6>overnight guess.
<v Speaker 17>So I had to put rooles in place because I
<v Speaker 17>know they are not responsible, so I put rules in place.
<v Speaker 6>She violated that, and I told her I'm totally disappointed
<v Speaker 6>right now.
<v Speaker 1>The person she was talking about was Julian Levaughn was
<v Speaker 1>not a fan.
<v Speaker 6>I know the kid. I met the kid before, but
<v Speaker 6>I know he's not good for Linda. And I told
<v Speaker 6>her that, Juliet, have you met him before?
<v Speaker 1>Of course, Linda was heavily influenced by Julian. Maybe she
<v Speaker 1>had a bit of a crush on him, but whatever
<v Speaker 1>he said, she did, she really adored him more than
<v Speaker 1>she did her own brothers. She called him, her god brother,
<v Speaker 1>her broski. I know, I know, I'm sorry. I haven't
<v Speaker 1>cringed that hard in a while either.
<v Speaker 6>So Linda works too.
<v Speaker 7>She does?
<v Speaker 6>What does she working? She said, Marshals? She says that Marshall.
<v Speaker 4>She says Marshalls.
<v Speaker 2>Oh no, oh, no, no, no, which Marshalls is one?
<v Speaker 17>Yes, No, she been there for a while, yeah, yeah,
<v Speaker 17>but she's not working working, not that she's like part time,
<v Speaker 17>part time.
<v Speaker 13>Yeah.
<v Speaker 1>Linda had given up on her ged with only a
<v Speaker 1>few courses left.
<v Speaker 7>Now.
<v Speaker 1>She worked one day a week at Marshall's in the
<v Speaker 1>charity program and followed Julian around like a puppy dog.
<v Speaker 1>Sounds like a viable future.
<v Speaker 2>Does Linda have a Boyfriend's a girlfriend? Needs to be answered, though,
<v Speaker 2>I Does she have any significant she thinks?
<v Speaker 6>So she's a loner. I mean, I've always known her
<v Speaker 6>to be a loner.
<v Speaker 13>I mean the only reason we asked is, you know,
<v Speaker 13>we were at the house, and you know, we did
<v Speaker 13>look around and in her bedroom there's you know a
<v Speaker 13>lot of male male male male's correspondence. There was also,
<v Speaker 13>I mean I noticed there was two chargers plugged into
<v Speaker 13>the wall, into the you know, they were strong on
<v Speaker 13>an eath each pillow. They were different chargers, so it
<v Speaker 13>appears to me that somebody is sleeping in that bed
<v Speaker 13>with her.
<v Speaker 1>As Levon looked over her bi of the Alan children's documents,
<v Speaker 1>birth certificates, adoptive papers, inheritance records, and photographs, the detective
<v Speaker 1>asked a question that made her eyes bug out.
<v Speaker 6>Do you know anything about Darren Bird? That's another person
<v Speaker 6>that was living in the apartment. Didn't mean any thing
<v Speaker 6>that I never even heard that, namely her.
<v Speaker 1>Really, Levin had never heard of Darren Bird, but Linda
<v Speaker 1>told police he'd also been staying at the house. That
<v Speaker 1>meant that Linda had three people causing trouble, Brandon and
<v Speaker 1>Darren and Julian. The cops needed to dig deeper. Who
<v Speaker 1>was this Darren Bird and had he been staying in
<v Speaker 1>Linda's bedroom. Both Linda and Julian handed over their DNA
<v Speaker 1>and phones, but as the police interviewed them separately, cracks
<v Speaker 1>in their timeline began to appear. Insisted that they'd stayed
<v Speaker 1>at Julian's girlfriend's house on the Tuesday before Brian and
<v Speaker 1>Brandon were found burning on the road, but Julian claimed
<v Speaker 1>he'd been out with Friends without Linda.
<v Speaker 5>Then came the.
<v Speaker 1>Discovery of a cryptic text buried in Julian's phone. When
<v Speaker 1>the police confronted him about it, his easygoing attitude suddenly
<v Speaker 1>went cold.
<v Speaker 15>Your message in there, you've sent about your house.
<v Speaker 2>And that you were in danger. That's all about. Oh no,
<v Speaker 2>it was with like it was with some other guys
<v Speaker 2>that tell us, because it was just they not it's like,
<v Speaker 2>that's it's a dead situation. Well tell us, it's not
<v Speaker 2>really important. I really not.
<v Speaker 7>Let me just say say this.
<v Speaker 6>This is you're in the homicide unit right now.
<v Speaker 4>This is serious.
<v Speaker 1>When they pressed him about the text, his confidence fractured,
<v Speaker 1>replaced by a defiant it's that screamed louder than any lie.
<v Speaker 1>He could tell.
<v Speaker 2>My situation is on some other street stuff. Okay, you know,
<v Speaker 2>tell us about that because maybe it's related that you
<v Speaker 2>don't even know what it's related.
<v Speaker 16>It's basically somebody that I owed money, and you know
<v Speaker 16>I didn't pay him.
<v Speaker 2>The money back on time. So it was just like,
<v Speaker 2>you know, just threat that so much like one hundred
<v Speaker 2>and fifty one hundred and fifteen threats that you don't
<v Speaker 2>feel so and in the street is different, you know,
<v Speaker 2>what I'm saying.
<v Speaker 16>So when you know somebody has guns and stuff like that,
<v Speaker 16>you don't want to feel safe, you know what I'm saying.
<v Speaker 1>Julian tried to deny the severity, but the text on
<v Speaker 1>his phone said he was scared for his life because
<v Speaker 1>of the one hundred and fifty dollars he owed somebody.
<v Speaker 1>One hundred and fifty dollars. That is the price that
<v Speaker 1>some lives matter and some aren't even worth that much.
<v Speaker 1>Apparently anyway, it wasn't clear who he owed this money to.
<v Speaker 1>It was just somebody from the streets. He explained to
<v Speaker 1>the detectives that there was a code of conduct on
<v Speaker 1>the street, no snitching.
<v Speaker 16>I'm afraid that if I do say something about my situation,
<v Speaker 16>I'd rather pay my situation off than say anything and
<v Speaker 16>my life becoming danger.
<v Speaker 2>Because I hear what you're sold, I will Okay.
<v Speaker 15>I've watched the streets longer than you've been in the streets,
<v Speaker 15>and the fact is people do say shit every fucking day,
<v Speaker 15>depending on what's convenient or.
<v Speaker 2>Beneficial to them. They'll wrap people out, they will turn
<v Speaker 2>people in anything. So there is no street code. That's
<v Speaker 2>a bunch of bullshit.
<v Speaker 13>You may believe that.
<v Speaker 2>For The.
<v Speaker 1>Detectives kept pressing them, but Julian got tight lipped, locking
<v Speaker 1>up like the safety on a loaded gun.
<v Speaker 2>I'm not willing to give those names. Let me ask
<v Speaker 2>you this. Yeah, when those people came to the house
<v Speaker 2>and you just.
<v Speaker 15>Have to happen to be there and they decided they're
<v Speaker 15>they we have money out of your roommates instead, then
<v Speaker 15>you don't think it's your sue them.
<v Speaker 2>I'm just not willing to speak about it. I'm sorry.
<v Speaker 2>Respect is not weakness. Do you understand that? Of course?
<v Speaker 2>So what are you gonna say just now?
<v Speaker 16>No, I was saying, like normally, personally, I don't talk
<v Speaker 16>to police officers just because of my personal experience.
<v Speaker 7>Is sure?
<v Speaker 2>You know what I'm saying. So any light further questions, Man,
<v Speaker 2>I'm gonna just happy.
<v Speaker 4>I'm not saying anything without an attorney, president or anything
<v Speaker 4>like that.
<v Speaker 2>So you're gonna have to take off.
<v Speaker 1>And with that, Julian took back his phone and stopped talking.
<v Speaker 1>He wanted a lawyer. Before the male detective left. He
<v Speaker 1>had one more thing to say to Julian.
<v Speaker 2>You made me very concerned.
<v Speaker 1>Linda, on the other hand, was still talking. I guess
<v Speaker 1>she wasn't from the streets, you know. She explained that
<v Speaker 1>Darren was staying there temporarily.
<v Speaker 15>Evere else has been in the house lately, whether they're
<v Speaker 15>friends of them or friends of yours.
<v Speaker 2>Past few days, just me and.
<v Speaker 6>Came by to visit for a couple of hours.
<v Speaker 2>When then, you love, no one else has been by
<v Speaker 2>at the house at all.
<v Speaker 3>No, not that I know.
<v Speaker 2>You know, every time every time someone comes and goes,
<v Speaker 2>that's logged at the gate.
<v Speaker 7>Yeah, well there was Darren, but we all went to
<v Speaker 7>Julian's girlfriend's house.
<v Speaker 2>If Darren Darren come to the house, he didn't come
<v Speaker 2>inside and he came to the house. Yeah, okay, well
<v Speaker 2>I need to know that in my house. What con cardass?
<v Speaker 2>Darren troupe?
<v Speaker 7>He doesn't drive?
<v Speaker 2>How's he get there?
<v Speaker 17>Girlfriend? O?
<v Speaker 2>What's con Card's girlfriend? Drug?
<v Speaker 7>A red toyota.
<v Speaker 1>It's like pulling teeth with some people, interrogating though bad
<v Speaker 1>teeth with lots of cavities. Darren Bird was an eighteen
<v Speaker 1>year old kid who had grown up in foster care
<v Speaker 1>with Julian. He was also the only white kid living
<v Speaker 1>in the condo. Darren's biological father was a low life,
<v Speaker 1>deadbeat career thief with a record that was a mile
<v Speaker 1>long after a domestic violence episode in nineteen ninety seven.
<v Speaker 1>Court records allude that young Darren had been put into
<v Speaker 1>foster care. He'd been in the system his whole life.
<v Speaker 1>That's where he met Julian. Darren aged out of the
<v Speaker 1>foster care system at eighteen and enrolled in college. He
<v Speaker 1>used whatever little money he got from the state to
<v Speaker 1>pay for Linda's electric bill instead of rent. If you recall,
<v Speaker 1>Linda didn't have a mortgage, she was only responsible for
<v Speaker 1>the electric bill. Following the details of his girlfriend's red
<v Speaker 1>Toyota made it easy to find Darren. Darren met his
<v Speaker 1>girlfriend while studying at Palm Beach State College. Her father
<v Speaker 1>was a sheriff with the Palm Beach Sheriff's Department, which
<v Speaker 1>was investigating the Alan twins murder. Darren repeated the same
<v Speaker 1>story about Brandon that Julian and Linda had, I mean
<v Speaker 1>a lie.
<v Speaker 4>After I heard that that they were missing, Like, I
<v Speaker 4>tried not to go back, guys because I'm scared.
<v Speaker 6>Yeah, because you don't know, right, Like I.
<v Speaker 4>Said, like whatever, whatever's going on like that, this is
<v Speaker 4>not like it's not normal stuff, you know what I'm saying,
<v Speaker 4>and it kind of it freezed me out, you know
<v Speaker 4>what I'm saying. It's just an Like I said, it's.
<v Speaker 2>Not a movie.
<v Speaker 4>This isn't a movie. I haven't even went back to
<v Speaker 4>that because I don't know what's going on. I'm like,
<v Speaker 4>I'm afraid to get your clothes. You know what I'm saying.
<v Speaker 4>I've been wearing the same fucking clothes for like three
<v Speaker 4>days now.
<v Speaker 1>Okay, Linda's apartment was nice, so it was lined with
<v Speaker 1>cameras and a guard who worked the front gate. Darren's
<v Speaker 1>girlfriend's red Toyota had been seen backing into the garage
<v Speaker 1>on the night the police assumed that the twins had
<v Speaker 1>been murdered. The car waited for twenty one minutes, then
<v Speaker 1>took off. The police had towed Darren's girlfriend's car from
<v Speaker 1>the college for evidence. When she showed up to meet
<v Speaker 1>the police, she was not happy.
<v Speaker 3>You sort of telling me why your car is being told, Well,
<v Speaker 3>we believe your cars may have been used and used
<v Speaker 3>by Darren.
<v Speaker 2>To do something.
<v Speaker 3>You believe your car was used in a commission of
<v Speaker 3>a crime that Darren was present during. Okay, okay, so
<v Speaker 3>that's why your car is in our custody.
<v Speaker 7>Okay, So now I know the truth, can we believe
<v Speaker 7>you can.
<v Speaker 2>Do whatever you want? Okay?
<v Speaker 4>All right?
<v Speaker 6>The only to ask was for what call?
<v Speaker 3>Oh it's going to be here for a long long time.
<v Speaker 3>Why we believe it was used in a crime. So
<v Speaker 3>unless you can kind of help me figure some things out?
<v Speaker 2>But how am I supposed to?
<v Speaker 3>Because you know exactly when you talk to Darren, you
<v Speaker 3>know exactly where he was at on sus as such days.
<v Speaker 2>You can't tell me, you don't.
<v Speaker 1>Darren's girlfriend clinch her lips and sat down in a huff.
<v Speaker 1>The cop needed to know what happened last Monday night.
<v Speaker 3>Monday night, if you could look at your other, well,
<v Speaker 3>we text each other to do Okay, what I'm saying,
<v Speaker 3>If you're texting somebody at say ten o'clock on Monday night,
<v Speaker 3>obviously you're not with it right. So if you were
<v Speaker 3>to go back through your phone, you could say, oh, yeah,
<v Speaker 3>Monday night, I wasn't with him.
<v Speaker 2>I was texting him at ten o'clock. He must have
<v Speaker 2>been somewhere else. With that jog your memory if you
<v Speaker 2>were to do that. Problem not because I believe my.
<v Speaker 9>Phone phone numbers and my messages okay, like on a
<v Speaker 9>weekly basis.
<v Speaker 2>Okay, so right, no problem.
<v Speaker 1>What eighteen year old college student do you know, deletes
<v Speaker 1>their entire phone history on a weekly basis? Come on,
<v Speaker 1>I believe you're not telling me all the truth.
<v Speaker 2>That's what I'm just trying to sell right now. Well,
<v Speaker 2>I just feel like, do not understan.
<v Speaker 3>That would you have a problem letting us download your
<v Speaker 3>phone to get your deleted.
<v Speaker 13>Text messages from him?
<v Speaker 2>Yes, you would have a problem. Yes, okay.
<v Speaker 1>Darren's girlfriend refused to hand over her deleted texts, citing
<v Speaker 1>privacy concerns. She wasn't under any legal obligation to share
<v Speaker 1>her phone, so she didn't. But the cops had her
<v Speaker 1>car and they zeroed in on Darren. The red Toyota
<v Speaker 1>Corolla told them everything they needed to know, and when
<v Speaker 1>they opened the trunk, the blood they found was confirmed
<v Speaker 1>by DNA to belong to Brandon.
<v Speaker 15>Forensically, we've done a lot of investigation in this case.
<v Speaker 15>There are two people that are dead. This is not
<v Speaker 15>going to go away. We are confident that you are
<v Speaker 15>lying to us now and you know more. So let's
<v Speaker 15>go back to when you actually last saw the brothers
<v Speaker 15>and be honest.
<v Speaker 2>Okay, be honest.
<v Speaker 4>I told you the last time I saw the brothers
<v Speaker 4>because like I said, I didn't see them except the
<v Speaker 4>night like on Sunday, you know what I'm saying, and
<v Speaker 4>then Monday when I loved for school, is the last
<v Speaker 4>time I.
<v Speaker 2>Seen one of them.
<v Speaker 6>And that's not true.
<v Speaker 11>And I know that's not true, as forensically in other
<v Speaker 11>ways that we do things, we know that that's not true.
<v Speaker 4>So I need you you know the tree, I didn't
<v Speaker 4>because I'm trying to tell you what I know is I.
<v Speaker 6>Don't want to know the truth.
<v Speaker 2>I mean, did that picture of that truth?
<v Speaker 1>The police had searched Linda's house from top to bottom
<v Speaker 1>after using luminol. They found bloodstains in the foyer and garage.
<v Speaker 1>There were also a pair of sneakers in Linda's bedroom
<v Speaker 1>with blood on the bottom of them.
<v Speaker 15>Darren, I can't impart on you how important it is
<v Speaker 15>that you that you just come out with what you know,
<v Speaker 15>what you saw, not this distancing thing that you're doing.
<v Speaker 15>Right now, Let's show you some photos. I'm gonna show
<v Speaker 15>you a picture of a shoe, and so.
<v Speaker 1>Before we can go further than this, the detective leaned forward,
<v Speaker 1>gray hair disheveled, his frustration barely contained. He could have
<v Speaker 1>been Darren's father with that worn, determined look. But Darren
<v Speaker 1>sat there, arms crossed, stubborn as a mule. The detective
<v Speaker 1>pulled out a photo and slid it across the table.
<v Speaker 4>What's that shoes you were for me?
<v Speaker 9>Yeah?
<v Speaker 2>Nine and a half to ten?
<v Speaker 6>All right? Do you have a pair of shoes similar
<v Speaker 6>to that?
<v Speaker 4>Do you do?
<v Speaker 6>Okay?
<v Speaker 15>What would you say if I told you I had
<v Speaker 15>you on a video. I'm going to tell you this,
<v Speaker 15>I'm well, that would mean that would support us.
<v Speaker 2>Knowing that you have some more knowledge than you're saying.
<v Speaker 4>I would love to see that video.
<v Speaker 1>Then, the video they had showed Darren pulling up till
<v Speaker 1>Linda's condo gate and his girlfriend's read Toyota the day
<v Speaker 1>after the bodies were discovered. You saw a cluster of
<v Speaker 1>flashing police vehicles outside Linda's driveway, pulled a U turn
<v Speaker 1>and took off.
<v Speaker 15>So there was never a time you came through that
<v Speaker 15>gate and you saw law enforcement down in front of
<v Speaker 15>your house.
<v Speaker 2>That's not true.
<v Speaker 15>We saw you turn around in your girlfriend's car and
<v Speaker 15>go back out the gate, and you were checking hold on,
<v Speaker 15>hold on, I'm just gonna give you this a little
<v Speaker 15>east egg.
<v Speaker 2>You security told us that you were there. They were
<v Speaker 2>watching for you. They saw you come down, We saw you.
<v Speaker 2>I actually saw you turn around and go back out
<v Speaker 2>in the girlfriend's car.
<v Speaker 6>So you're not telling the truth, Darren. If you saw that, then.
<v Speaker 1>I know that didn't happen.
<v Speaker 9>Really, yes, I do know that didn't happen, because that
<v Speaker 9>I'm thinking about everything that never happened.
<v Speaker 1>Darren walked into the police station the day after the murders, unprompted,
<v Speaker 1>ready to give a statement. According to him, he tried
<v Speaker 1>to speak with someone but was told the detectives weren't
<v Speaker 1>available a few days past. By then, the police had
<v Speaker 1>already talked to Linda, Julian and Levn. They'd even told
<v Speaker 1>Darren's girlfriend's Toyota into evidence. That's when they showed up
<v Speaker 1>at the college to pick him up.
<v Speaker 9>If I'm going to go in and make a police statement, Darren,
<v Speaker 9>I have finish what I'm saying. Sorry to cut you off,
<v Speaker 9>but no, you're sitting there trying to put something. You're
<v Speaker 9>trying to say some crazy stuff right now, and I'm
<v Speaker 9>trying to help you.
<v Speaker 2>You know what I'm saying.
<v Speaker 9>If it was going to if I seen detectives, and
<v Speaker 9>I'm going to see a detective anyways, why wouldn't I
<v Speaker 9>just go and get that out of the lease so
<v Speaker 9>I'm not dragged out of school and maybe look like
<v Speaker 9>a fucking criminal.
<v Speaker 2>Hey, Darren, on a night these two guys were murdered,
<v Speaker 2>you were seen at a location. Okay, I will tell
<v Speaker 2>you that much.
<v Speaker 6>Where was I I want to know what happened that night.
<v Speaker 19>I do not know, I said.
<v Speaker 1>Darren wasn't going to crack. His fight against the evidence
<v Speaker 1>was as solid as the table between them. The blood,
<v Speaker 1>the sneaker, the car. It was all closing in. He
<v Speaker 1>had an excuse for everything. But Darren wasn't staying strong
<v Speaker 1>in an attempt to only save himself. He was protecting
<v Speaker 1>someone else, someone he loved way too much to betray.
<v Speaker 1>Brian and Brandon Allen had been found murdered and left
<v Speaker 1>to burn on the side of a highway in Palm
<v Speaker 1>Beach Gardens. The Allen twins lived with their adoptive sister, Linda,
<v Speaker 1>and two other products of the foster care system, Julian
<v Speaker 1>Catherell and Darren Byrd. Everyone, even the Allen Children's executor
<v Speaker 1>of the estate thought the murder had something to do
<v Speaker 1>with Brandon and his enemies in Jacksonville, but new evidence
<v Speaker 1>had pointed to Darren and Julian. Julian first played at
<v Speaker 1>cool with the cops, then they dug into his record.
<v Speaker 1>He was the only one with jail time under his
<v Speaker 1>belt and carried himself like a street wise, tough guy,
<v Speaker 1>a reputation he clearly enjoyed. In twenty sixteen, he'd been
<v Speaker 1>arrested for carrying a loaded gun without a license, and
<v Speaker 1>he was still on parole when the murders happened. But
<v Speaker 1>despite being on probation, Julian asked for a lawyer and
<v Speaker 1>that was it. They had nothing to tie him to
<v Speaker 1>the crime. Then Linda was called back to the station
<v Speaker 1>like a lost little child. She slumped her head and
<v Speaker 1>arms on the desk and spoke softly.
<v Speaker 2>So, you said you last spoke with Darren Lenz Saturday.
<v Speaker 2>Come on, give us a little more of that. You
<v Speaker 2>spoke about more than just a movie he watched.
<v Speaker 7>Yeah, because I was going to tell him that they
<v Speaker 7>I didn't like. So they say they identified the bodies,
<v Speaker 7>and then he just kind of ran going on about
<v Speaker 7>a movie and it kind of just pissed me off,
<v Speaker 7>like he just the way he is, he just made
<v Speaker 7>me mad, so I didn't really want to talk to
<v Speaker 7>him all long.
<v Speaker 2>Indians.
<v Speaker 15>I mean this is these are your brothers, and you
<v Speaker 15>didn't have a conversation with Darren that one of your
<v Speaker 15>roommates about.
<v Speaker 2>About your brothers. I mean, come on, straight up, come
<v Speaker 2>on the hold back.
<v Speaker 15>I mean you said you said you're down here on
<v Speaker 15>your own. You must be down here because you're concerned.
<v Speaker 15>You want to assist us, obviously in the murder of
<v Speaker 15>your brothers, right yeah or no?
<v Speaker 13>Yeah?
<v Speaker 15>Okay, So honestly, you know, I don't believe that you
<v Speaker 15>didn't talk to him about this.
<v Speaker 1>Linda was weak. The detectives could tell that someone had
<v Speaker 1>fed her a story to repeat, and somewhere along the
<v Speaker 1>way she messed it up. Now Here she was a
<v Speaker 1>ninth grade dropout who worked one day a week at
<v Speaker 1>Marshall's being questioned about her involvement in the murder of
<v Speaker 1>her twin brothers.
<v Speaker 10>And we went into your apartment and there is a
<v Speaker 10>a lot of evidence that we found in that apartment.
<v Speaker 6>And I need you to be honest with me what
<v Speaker 6>happened to your brothers, because.
<v Speaker 7>I know that you know.
<v Speaker 2>Hold on, okay, this is the situation.
<v Speaker 15>You're either part of what happened or you're simply someone
<v Speaker 15>that knows about what happened. Those are the only two
<v Speaker 15>things that I believe that you are. We don't tell
<v Speaker 15>you the evidence that we have, and I'm sure you
<v Speaker 15>know we went back in there. We got a search warrant,
<v Speaker 15>and we recovered an amazing amount of evidence.
<v Speaker 1>Linda pressed her hand to her forehead. She closed her
<v Speaker 1>eyes and shook her head like the information she knew
<v Speaker 1>would somehow magically fall out and disappear.
<v Speaker 2>Just talking to me, talking to everybody, going to discuss
<v Speaker 2>where are your phone?
<v Speaker 6>We have a search work, we.
<v Speaker 2>Have search I don't want to know, and I'm just
<v Speaker 2>going to explain how a searchment works. We can take
<v Speaker 2>everything that you deleted in this phone and it will
<v Speaker 2>be recovered. We do it all the time. We're not planned,
<v Speaker 2>We're not going away.
<v Speaker 1>Linda handed over her phone and the male detective left
<v Speaker 1>the room to extract what he could. Left alone with
<v Speaker 1>the female officer, Linda started to open up.
<v Speaker 7>I won't say that I know how this works, how
<v Speaker 7>what works? How would I say who did it? Without
<v Speaker 7>them saying that I told him, like, if you always
<v Speaker 7>do find out who didn't, can you just say you
<v Speaker 7>guys cleaned up really bad?
<v Speaker 6>And Linda doesn't know that I'm not. I don't tell well,
<v Speaker 6>I'm not going to tell them that you said anything.
<v Speaker 11>Okay, if you are in fear for your life, that
<v Speaker 11>something's going to happen to you, I'm not putting you
<v Speaker 11>in danger, because then guess who's homicide.
<v Speaker 6>I'm going to be working. I don't want anything bad
<v Speaker 6>to happen to you.
<v Speaker 11>I want to put these people away so they can't
<v Speaker 11>hurt you or anybody else, because what they did to
<v Speaker 11>your brothers is absolutely disgusting.
<v Speaker 1>Linda looked down at her hands and then sighed. She
<v Speaker 1>knew she was safe to talk, so she did.
<v Speaker 7>For a long time ago, after her parents died, Branding
<v Speaker 7>had on her dad's gun and listings things from years ago. Okay,
<v Speaker 7>I didn't know how the whole payment they meant, but
<v Speaker 7>Julian had bought the gun from Branding, I guess for
<v Speaker 7>one hundred and fifty dollars, and he never gave him
<v Speaker 7>the money for it, so he made like a payment
<v Speaker 7>plan or something.
<v Speaker 1>Along with the money and the apartments. Brandon also had
<v Speaker 1>inherited mister Allen's gun with his possessions. He sold it
<v Speaker 1>to Julian, who was eventually arrested for carrying it around
<v Speaker 1>without a license. But Julian never paid for the gun.
<v Speaker 1>So when brand and then came down from Jacksonville, he
<v Speaker 1>wanted his one hundred and fifty dollars, but Julian kept
<v Speaker 1>brushing him off he'd pay him. Soon, the tensions mounted,
<v Speaker 1>and Julian the.
<v Speaker 7>Nflrobation, the police, the Sheriff's to family, Damiser's, the house
<v Speaker 7>and na founding Darren refounder and Julian's back okay, and
<v Speaker 7>then like Julian went to jail for for five days
<v Speaker 7>and said it low Darren's calls and when he wasn't
<v Speaker 7>jelling me and shouldn't really the only ones concerned and
<v Speaker 7>trying to do something apparently, so Julie and Darren weren't
<v Speaker 7>trying to and it really because him off. He was
<v Speaker 7>supposed to be myself far brother.
<v Speaker 1>Julian was like Darren's older brother. They were four years apart.
<v Speaker 1>They'd been shuffled from Foster Home to Foster Home and
<v Speaker 1>tandem and they had stuck together through it all. Linda
<v Speaker 1>said that now there was even more tension in the house,
<v Speaker 1>and that's when Brandon asked Darren to help him buy
<v Speaker 1>a shotgun.
<v Speaker 7>Came to Darren to buy a shot then fifteen hundred dollars,
<v Speaker 7>so basically do off of Julian because he didn't give
<v Speaker 7>him money.
<v Speaker 1>Julian found out Brandon was trying to get a gun
<v Speaker 1>to hurt him, and this weird gossip chain brought Darren
<v Speaker 1>and Julian back together. That's when they decided that Brandon
<v Speaker 1>was actually the enemy in the house. Meanwhile, Brandon was
<v Speaker 1>not shy about his plan to kill Julian over one
<v Speaker 1>hundred and fifty dollars.
<v Speaker 7>Oh, I'll put a nigga throw and they sleep and
<v Speaker 7>new and this and that, and I'm like, wow, he
<v Speaker 7>used to try to do the same thing to mean
<v Speaker 7>when we were kids, okay, and then it's like and
<v Speaker 7>it's just like it kind of hit Julian there. It's
<v Speaker 7>like he put two and two together, like wow, he's
<v Speaker 7>really like that, and he's like it was only then
<v Speaker 7>like they they stopped fugling at Brandon like period because
<v Speaker 7>they saw how he was. And he eventually got three
<v Speaker 7>hundred and fifty dollars from Brian. He bought three hundred
<v Speaker 7>and fifty dollars from Brian to get the shot und
<v Speaker 7>of it. Yeah, okay, and it's like everything was starting
<v Speaker 7>to come to lif so and maybe even worse. When
<v Speaker 7>Julian overheard Brandon on the phone talking to somebody about
<v Speaker 7>doing something to somebody and threatening people's lives and inking
<v Speaker 7>the shopping at a dumb show.
<v Speaker 1>Darren and Julian thought that Brandon was going to kill
<v Speaker 1>them both, or at least that's what they told Linda. Meanwhile,
<v Speaker 1>Brandon steered clear of everyone and created fear in the house.
<v Speaker 1>Julian wasn't one to accept fear, especially from a kid
<v Speaker 1>his own age, another alpha male trying to take his
<v Speaker 1>place in the house. No, no way, ain't gonna happen.
<v Speaker 1>Julian texted a photo of the gun that Brandon had
<v Speaker 1>sold him to his girlfriend.
<v Speaker 6>And she wrote looks used as fuck.
<v Speaker 7>Lol, that'll work.
<v Speaker 1>Julian wrote back, it is lowell, but shit as long
<v Speaker 1>as it knocking nigga off his feet. It's a quote. Guys,
<v Speaker 1>try controlling your emotions for once, but testosterone, rage, resentment,
<v Speaker 1>and rumors swirled around Linda's condo until she just couldn't
<v Speaker 1>take it anymore. They called a roommate house meeting.
<v Speaker 10>I had on.
<v Speaker 7>Texted Brian told him, Hey, we need to have a
<v Speaker 7>talk in the garage and it's about Brandy.
<v Speaker 1>Linda, Darren, and Julian went into the garage and waited
<v Speaker 1>for the twins. Julian had the gun in his pants,
<v Speaker 1>Linda knew it, but said nothing. When the twins came in,
<v Speaker 1>the arguments started. Linda tried to play motherly mediator, but
<v Speaker 1>her desperate cries were ignored and things escalated between Darren,
<v Speaker 1>Julian and Brandon.
<v Speaker 7>You guys, please, I'm begging you to just listen to me.
<v Speaker 6>Please.
<v Speaker 7>I was begging God to let them just shut up
<v Speaker 7>and listen to me for once. You guys don't ever
<v Speaker 7>listen to me every time I tried to sell something.
<v Speaker 7>And then they just talked about how like whatever I say,
<v Speaker 7>doesn't he build his Billy Brian house to YadA yah yah.
<v Speaker 7>So I threw my hands up.
<v Speaker 1>Linda started to make her way to the door. Then
<v Speaker 1>Julian pulled out his gun and fired it at Brian.
<v Speaker 7>Julian of the pistol, and there, I did not believe
<v Speaker 7>shot my bill.
<v Speaker 1>Stomach Brian staggered backwards, his breath hitching as the bullet
<v Speaker 1>tore into him. He was the first to be shot.
<v Speaker 1>It was ironic, really, since he'd been the one man
<v Speaker 1>in this fight who barely had a voice.
<v Speaker 6>He got shot? How many times he got shot in
<v Speaker 6>the stomach? His stomach? Okay? And did he say did
<v Speaker 6>he die right away?
<v Speaker 20>Or you know?
<v Speaker 7>He was look scary. I couldn't even think straight after that.
<v Speaker 7>I just saw my brother get shot. I don't know
<v Speaker 7>what to do. And it's like I heard the second
<v Speaker 7>shot in Brandon got shut my arm, and I guess
<v Speaker 7>he tried to leave. I don't know how Darren got
<v Speaker 7>back inside, but Brandon tried to put back inside, and
<v Speaker 7>Daron pushed them back down there.
<v Speaker 4>And I felt like I was in a horror movie.
<v Speaker 7>I walked out the back door and I just kept walking,
<v Speaker 7>and I heard another gun shot, and I just kept walking.
<v Speaker 1>Paralyzed with fear, Linda burst out the back door and
<v Speaker 1>walked aimlessly through her condo complex. She walked and sobbed,
<v Speaker 1>pushing the tears angrily off her cheeks. She had nowhere
<v Speaker 1>to go, no one to run to. Brandon and Brian
<v Speaker 1>were dead. Julian was all she had left, so she
<v Speaker 1>turned around and walked back to her condo.
<v Speaker 7>I was barefoot that day was cold outside, and I
<v Speaker 7>didn't know where I was going. I just didn't want
<v Speaker 7>to be there. And then around the time I got
<v Speaker 7>to look on the door, everything was quiet, and.
<v Speaker 4>We and Darren came down.
<v Speaker 7>I was shaking. I couldn't think straight.
<v Speaker 13>And then.
<v Speaker 7>They said, come on, we have to get out of here.
<v Speaker 1>Linda followed Julian and Darren as they led her through
<v Speaker 1>the back of the complex over the gate. The three
<v Speaker 1>ran until they reached the back of the target. They
<v Speaker 1>waited until Julian said it was safe, and then they
<v Speaker 1>returned home.
<v Speaker 7>We went inside, but I didn't want to look inside
<v Speaker 7>the doorage. I went into the close the door and
<v Speaker 7>I upstairs. I felt sick to missed on.
<v Speaker 4>It, and I wanted to be asleep.
<v Speaker 2>I was really tired.
<v Speaker 7>I couldn't go to sleep. But they were going to
<v Speaker 7>try and clean it up, and they talked about getting
<v Speaker 7>all the bedspreads and everything, and they were getting gathering
<v Speaker 7>up the bedspreads. So they pulled wrapped the bodies up
<v Speaker 7>and bring them upstairs. I didn't want anything to do
<v Speaker 7>with it. After that, I was just praying to gather
<v Speaker 7>to make the pain out of my head.
<v Speaker 1>Julian and Darren told Linda to close her bedroom door
<v Speaker 1>and stay put. The boys worked together, stripping bed sheets
<v Speaker 1>to wrap the twins' lifeless bodies. One by one, they
<v Speaker 1>dragged them upstairs, the weight of their actions heavier with
<v Speaker 1>each step, and dumped them on top of each other
<v Speaker 1>in the master bathtub. Brandon and Brian's bodies mirrored how
<v Speaker 1>their lives started. Two brothers tangled together as they had
<v Speaker 1>been in the womb.
<v Speaker 7>As I was coming in the room with the stissy
<v Speaker 7>the bat them to open. Darren looked at me and
<v Speaker 7>saw how hard I was, so he closed the door.
<v Speaker 7>I was really angry, Like I couldn't even express how angry.
<v Speaker 1>I was, although she was angry. Linda let Darren and
<v Speaker 1>Julian into her room after they had finished cleaning up
<v Speaker 1>the crime scene. The three curled up in Linda's bed
<v Speaker 1>together and fell asleep, knowing they would have to take
<v Speaker 1>this to the grave.
<v Speaker 7>Not bris with all I had left, And to be honest,
<v Speaker 7>I'm still kind of holding a grudge against.
<v Speaker 14>Him for that.
<v Speaker 1>The one hundred and fifty dollars that Julian owed Brandon
<v Speaker 1>was the alleged street business that Julian would not elaborate on.
<v Speaker 1>For the detectives in the vague text on his phone,
<v Speaker 1>they had discovered his motive for murder, and he knew it,
<v Speaker 1>so he shut his mouth and pleaded the fifth. Julian
<v Speaker 1>was the only seasoned criminal in the bunch. When the
<v Speaker 1>murder was done, he told Linda and Darren to delete
<v Speaker 1>all their messages. He instructed them to use WhatsApp to
<v Speaker 1>text about anything having to do with Brandon or Brian.
<v Speaker 1>He thought he was clever enough to get away with murder.
<v Speaker 1>He scared Linda into silence, convincing her that if any
<v Speaker 1>of them went down, they'd all go down together. He
<v Speaker 1>thought she'd never talk, but when the cops gave her
<v Speaker 1>the option, she told the truth. Julian was never her godbrother.
<v Speaker 1>He was just an opportunistic user who took advantage of Linda.
<v Speaker 1>Whether she saw this or not, the goodness still left
<v Speaker 1>in her made her tell the truth. Finally, So you.
<v Speaker 15>Told us all this because it's true, and this because
<v Speaker 15>your two brothers are murdered and you want the people
<v Speaker 15>that did it to come to justice. Yes, Why are
<v Speaker 15>you telling this because we've maybe you tell tell you no, it's.
<v Speaker 7>Not fair to Brandon and Brian that they lived like that.
<v Speaker 2>So you're saying this because you're terrible. I can see
<v Speaker 2>it's just.
<v Speaker 7>But like nobody understands how I feel right now.
<v Speaker 15>I don't know what you're feeling because my brother's not
<v Speaker 15>that it must be horrible. I don't know what you're
<v Speaker 15>going through. It's got to be terrible. And these are
<v Speaker 15>people that you more or less trusted. You feel betrayed,
<v Speaker 15>don't you.
<v Speaker 7>I didn't know he was going to do that.
<v Speaker 15>You've been scared for a little bit, haven't you?
<v Speaker 7>After that? I barely had talked to him and Darren
<v Speaker 7>I didn't even want anything.
<v Speaker 2>Have they contacted to today either of them?
<v Speaker 7>No, not Darren, but Julia just act like said his
<v Speaker 7>usual he good morning.
<v Speaker 2>Does he know you're going to come down here today?
<v Speaker 2>Did you tell him?
<v Speaker 7>I don't recall, and he hasn't added, So don't.
<v Speaker 2>Don't tell him that you came down here today.
<v Speaker 1>Linda said she was afraid Julian would kill her if
<v Speaker 1>he knew she told the truth. The detectives promised to
<v Speaker 1>get her on a plane to Georgia to be with
<v Speaker 1>Levaughn as soon as possible, Linda said, shaking as the
<v Speaker 1>detectives took her phone again extract the deleted evidence. Then
<v Speaker 1>she piped up with a question.
<v Speaker 7>But if you guys do recover anything, you guys aren't
<v Speaker 7>gonna make it be deleted. You guys can recover because
<v Speaker 7>there's some stuff that I deleted.
<v Speaker 2>And want it back. Yeah, recover everything.
<v Speaker 7>You had texted me on my birthday and told me something.
<v Speaker 2>Well, you tell you on your birthday.
<v Speaker 7>You know you're getting older and you've done a lot
<v Speaker 7>for this family and how much they appreciated it. Me
<v Speaker 7>and Brian we went three years about talking to each
<v Speaker 7>other in the house ones.
<v Speaker 1>You know, stuff like that makes me happy with Linda.
<v Speaker 1>Brian and Brandon may not have had the best upbringings
<v Speaker 1>or parental figures, or they may not have even come
<v Speaker 1>from the same bloodline, but they were family. Now Linda
<v Speaker 1>would be out in the world alone. With Linda's confession
<v Speaker 1>and hand, the detectives turned to Darren. They needed him
<v Speaker 1>to unravel enough to pin the murders on Julian, but
<v Speaker 1>Darren was as unyielding as he was devoted to the
<v Speaker 1>only brother he'd ever truly had. Maybe it was the
<v Speaker 1>guilt Julian palinum over those five measly days in jail,
<v Speaker 1>or the endless need to prove he was worthy of
<v Speaker 1>Julian's respect. Maybe it was their age, their skin, or
<v Speaker 1>maybe something deeper. They were two fatherless boys lost in
<v Speaker 1>the shuffle, fumbling through life and trying to figure out
<v Speaker 1>how to be men in all the wrong ways. It's
<v Speaker 1>tough out there for young men in twenty twenty five.
<v Speaker 1>And don't you forget about it. Don't minimize it, don't
<v Speaker 1>laugh about it, don't pretend it isn't a problem.
<v Speaker 6>It is.
<v Speaker 16>So you could just.
<v Speaker 12>Step up and be honest with us, because you're going
<v Speaker 12>to go down for somebody else's shit.
<v Speaker 6>Have a criminal record you do not have. You're not
<v Speaker 6>a bad person, You're not a bad kid.
<v Speaker 2>You're saying you didn't do something. Tell me what you saw.
<v Speaker 8>I didn't see.
<v Speaker 17>I was not I was not there.
<v Speaker 1>Three detectives question Darren for over six hours. He denied
<v Speaker 1>knowing anything. His ability to lie under pressure was impressive
<v Speaker 1>for an eighteen year old, but the detectives played Linda
<v Speaker 1>and Julian against him, saying those two had agreed that
<v Speaker 1>Darren committed the murders.
<v Speaker 2>They have done this to you.
<v Speaker 15>You got put in a position by this guy here,
<v Speaker 15>and you're.
<v Speaker 6>Not the bad You're not the bad kid.
<v Speaker 2>You're the loyal one. He brought you in here, and
<v Speaker 2>you're misplaced loyalty.
<v Speaker 15>You're screwed. You're not giving yourself an out. Hey, I'm
<v Speaker 15>just being giving you fatherly advice. If it was my son,
<v Speaker 15>I want him fighting for himself in this, not sticking
<v Speaker 15>up for somebody else.
<v Speaker 1>Just saying, But Darren knew it wasn't true. He was
<v Speaker 1>loyal to his promise to Julian. The truth goes to
<v Speaker 1>the grave. Darren was free to go, and in the meantime,
<v Speaker 1>they found his girlfriend and served her a warrant for
<v Speaker 1>her cell phone.
<v Speaker 3>All right, is that your cell phone?
<v Speaker 13>M still warrant for your cell phone?
<v Speaker 2>Okay, here you go.
<v Speaker 1>There's a copy of it.
<v Speaker 13>We're taking your cell phone once we get it downloaded.
<v Speaker 1>I don't know if we're keeping it or not.
<v Speaker 14>What it is is.
<v Speaker 2>I think after we copy it fully then we'll be
<v Speaker 2>able to get it back to you. I'll have to.
<v Speaker 3>Consult with the attorney and see what's going on.
<v Speaker 2>But well, I'll do my best to get it back
<v Speaker 2>to you.
<v Speaker 1>Darren's girlfriend stood dumbfounded as the police confiscated her phone.
<v Speaker 7>You didn't come here and give me a warn.
<v Speaker 17>If you never give me a heads up and say, hey,
<v Speaker 17>we're gonna take your life, like who am.
<v Speaker 7>Supposed to car?
<v Speaker 14>Would you like me to call your dad and say, hey, Joe,
<v Speaker 14>because I.
<v Speaker 12>Think he's an asshole, and I don't know what you
<v Speaker 12>told him, but he's really bitching about like thinking, I'm
<v Speaker 12>like the same thing that you told me.
<v Speaker 6>Okay, I'm telling the truth. He thinks I'm not telling
<v Speaker 6>the truth to be asked and telling him to keep
<v Speaker 6>his nose out of the investigation because it's not his place.
<v Speaker 1>Darren's girlfriend's phone revealed that she actually had no involvement.
<v Speaker 1>The night that the bodies were dumped, she was texting
<v Speaker 1>Darren crazy messages that read like novels, so angry that
<v Speaker 1>he was late returning her car with the blood evidence,
<v Speaker 1>video footage, DNA and Linda's confession Darren and Julian were
<v Speaker 1>looking at murder and tampering with evidence. Only fourteen days
<v Speaker 1>after Brian and Brandon were murdered, Darren and Julian were
<v Speaker 1>separately arrested. Julian stayed quiet, but Darren asked to talk
<v Speaker 1>to a detective one more time.
<v Speaker 2>Was go on, if you asked to.
<v Speaker 7>Talk to me?
<v Speaker 2>Yes, right, I have a question.
<v Speaker 4>So I know all the shows are and stuff, but
<v Speaker 4>how does witness protection actually work?
<v Speaker 6>Why?
<v Speaker 2>Just can I just ask you? Why have you been threatened?
<v Speaker 4>Or I'm to this out of the question right now,
<v Speaker 4>I'm asking how does witness protection work?
<v Speaker 2>And hey, let's say I did have something to say.
<v Speaker 2>I need assurance. I need assurance.
<v Speaker 1>The detective sat in his chair while Darren stood before
<v Speaker 1>him like a subordinate, getting the courage to ask his
<v Speaker 1>boss for a raise that he knew he didn't deserve.
<v Speaker 2>Do you understand that you're being charged with murder? Correct?
<v Speaker 2>You understand that? Okay, so you're not You're not going
<v Speaker 2>to be outside of the jail at all. Okay, Okay,
<v Speaker 2>you're going to jail.
<v Speaker 4>All right.
<v Speaker 2>So you've been charged with murder.
<v Speaker 1>But it hadn't done on Darren. He thought that if
<v Speaker 1>he finally told the truth, there may be some golden
<v Speaker 1>ticket of freedom for him. On the other side that
<v Speaker 1>was never on the table. Darren was going to trial
<v Speaker 1>and possibly life in prison. He was still terrified to
<v Speaker 1>tell the truth for one reason. Julian, I'm scared to.
<v Speaker 7>Talk to.
<v Speaker 6>Nothing's going to happen to you.
<v Speaker 2>Oh, I know, all right, nothing's going to happen to you.
<v Speaker 13>You know, we're we're going to arrest Julian just like
<v Speaker 13>we arrested you.
<v Speaker 6>All right, So he's going to be he's gonna be.
<v Speaker 14>Also, you know, in jail, not able to get to
<v Speaker 14>anybody or do anything like that. Okay, you guys will
<v Speaker 14>be separating and nobody'll be next to each other.
<v Speaker 2>You're going to be in your own little area.
<v Speaker 13>He'll be in his own little so you're not going
<v Speaker 13>to be anywhere close to each other.
<v Speaker 6>There's no way he's going to get to you.
<v Speaker 1>Julian had put the fear of God in Darren, and
<v Speaker 1>it showed. Sitting with the detective. Darren let the detail
<v Speaker 1>of murder slip. He knew the type of gun, he
<v Speaker 1>helped clean up, he moved bodies, and even drove his
<v Speaker 1>girlfriend's Toyota to the burn side. Toyota's a great car,
<v Speaker 1>by the way, not just saying that because they're a sponsor,
<v Speaker 1>although they have been quite generous. Good preservation of your
<v Speaker 1>car's value there on resale, usually with a Toyota, just
<v Speaker 1>saying all right, anyway, sorry, Getting back to the story,
<v Speaker 1>he didn't drive that Toyota to the burn site and
<v Speaker 1>did a whole bunch of other stuff, but he just
<v Speaker 1>couldn't tell the whole story. Every few minutes he stopped,
<v Speaker 1>his words, catching in his throat, as if two voices
<v Speaker 1>were warring inside his own head, his own conscience and
<v Speaker 1>Julian's looming presence.
<v Speaker 2>Where did you clean the car out?
<v Speaker 3>You didn't come back to the apartment that night?
<v Speaker 6>Did you in that car?
<v Speaker 2>Where'd you go after? I mean her car back? Where
<v Speaker 2>did you take it to give her a car back?
<v Speaker 13>I met her?
<v Speaker 2>Where we were at? Where's where's that.
<v Speaker 7>We were hanging out?
<v Speaker 4>You know, out of park?
<v Speaker 2>Okay, well park?
<v Speaker 4>I can't keep doing what because man, I need some insurance.
<v Speaker 4>Like I'm already scared, bro, I've told you, I've done.
<v Speaker 6>I told you, ma'am, I'm gonna be fine.
<v Speaker 1>But things wouldn't be just fine. And Darren knew it
<v Speaker 1>as he sat in jail awaiting trial and paralyzed with
<v Speaker 1>fear that Julian would be friends some goons to come
<v Speaker 1>kill him in his cell. He had a change of heart.
<v Speaker 1>All that time alone to think in his cell really worked,
<v Speaker 1>and on April fourth, twenty seventeen, Darren was taken out
<v Speaker 1>of jail to get in a police car and drive
<v Speaker 1>to the corner of Windsor Avenue in Thirteenth Street in
<v Speaker 1>West Palm Beach.
<v Speaker 2>Out here at the time, on the right, down on
<v Speaker 2>the right, this one right here.
<v Speaker 1>In the storm drain, the police pulled out the old
<v Speaker 1>semi automatic pistol that Brandon had sold Julian, the same
<v Speaker 1>one he used to murder the Allen twins. It was
<v Speaker 1>wrapped in a plastic bag and thrown in the gutter.
<v Speaker 1>They found pictures of the gun in the deleted images
<v Speaker 1>on Julian's cell phone.
<v Speaker 20>You know what he did with the SHELFA.
<v Speaker 19>Actually, I may know where one is. Holy shit, I
<v Speaker 19>also may know where one of their cell phone lose.
<v Speaker 1>Darren led police to a spot on Martin Luther King
<v Speaker 1>Junior Boulevard where Julian had thrown Brandon's cell phone. Despite
<v Speaker 1>his cooperation, Darren was still charged with murder and a
<v Speaker 1>slew of other felonies. Julian's trial went first in twenty
<v Speaker 1>twenty two. He was sentenced to life in prison for
<v Speaker 1>the deaths of both Brandon and Brian Allen. Darren's trial
<v Speaker 1>took place in twenty twenty four. He'd grown a thick,
<v Speaker 1>blonde beard on his babyish face. Darren was sentenced to
<v Speaker 1>life in prison for tampering with physical evidence and second
<v Speaker 1>degree murder for Brandon Allen. He was acquitted of the
<v Speaker 1>murder for Brian Allen. There's one last piece of this puzzle,
<v Speaker 1>and we need your help to solve it. A video
<v Speaker 1>was recovered from the night the bodies were burned. That's
<v Speaker 1>just six seconds long. In the background, you can hear
<v Speaker 1>the fire crackling consuming what was left of the twins.
<v Speaker 1>Then a voice cuts.
<v Speaker 7>Through the night woo yeah or fire a dare.
<v Speaker 1>The detectives can't figure out whose voice this was. It
<v Speaker 1>didn't quite match Darren's girlfriend, or Julian's girlfriend who had
<v Speaker 1>a low voice, or Linda.
<v Speaker 5>But who am I to say?
<v Speaker 1>I'm not a forensic voice analyst. I don't know is
<v Speaker 1>that a job? Not sure where you would even go
<v Speaker 1>to get a degree for that, But it sounds like
<v Speaker 1>a woman was there watching as the bodies were unloaded
<v Speaker 1>and set a blaze. Was it Linda was her entire
<v Speaker 1>story of fabrication or is it someone who has yet
<v Speaker 1>to face justice. The only female owned cell phones the
<v Speaker 1>police had warrants for were Darren's girlfriend and Linda. You've
<v Speaker 1>heard both of their voices on this episode. Without knowing
<v Speaker 1>which phone the video came from, We'll never know, and
<v Speaker 1>detectives could not tell us when we asked for clarification,
<v Speaker 1>So I'll leave it up to you, the listener whose
<v Speaker 1>voice was on that tape?
<v Speaker 6>Ooo, yeah never fire.
<v Speaker 1>Dan, Brian, Brandon, and Linda were rescued from foster care
<v Speaker 1>when the Allen family adopted them, But as Levaughn had said,
<v Speaker 1>their parents failed them where it mattered most. They gave Linda, Brandon,
<v Speaker 1>and Brian condos and bank accounts in their death, but
<v Speaker 1>neglected to instill basic life skills while they were still alive.
<v Speaker 1>But Darren and Julian were entirely abandoned by the system.
<v Speaker 1>Left defend for themselves, they lacked the guidance every kid needs.
<v Speaker 1>Maybe things would have been different if his father had
<v Speaker 1>been a dad who knows, but instead he had only
<v Speaker 1>Julian to love and fear like a father. Brian also
<v Speaker 1>looked to Brandon with a certain authority, but I don't
<v Speaker 1>think it had anything to do with fatherlessness, more so
<v Speaker 1>wanting to keep the connection to his twin. No matter
<v Speaker 1>how flawed Brandon was, he was still Brian's twin, and
<v Speaker 1>in the end, siding with Brandon was the reason he
<v Speaker 1>lost his life. Be careful where you place your loyalty.
<v Speaker 1>Sometimes the ones you idolize her just as misguided as you,
<v Speaker 1>may be, still searching for their destiny, good or evil.
<v Speaker 1>Well I tried. I tried to make Sword and Scale
<v Speaker 1>television available on other platforms like Facebook for example, and YouTube,
<v Speaker 1>but I don't think I can you see all this
<v Speaker 1>woke shit got me canceled, and there you are. You
<v Speaker 1>could just be on Patreon and avoid the whole thing.
<v Speaker 1>I mean, I don't think you guys realized how much
<v Speaker 1>money it costs to build your own app, not to
<v Speaker 1>mention how complicated it is. You never please everybody, but
<v Speaker 1>you know we're doing the best we can here. So
<v Speaker 1>if you like sort Scale, head on over to Swordinscale
<v Speaker 1>dot com, check out our website, download our app, and
<v Speaker 1>check out our TV show. I mean, there's a whole
<v Speaker 1>lot of it right now, sixteen episodes. I believe all
<v Speaker 1>very good, very very good. So here's your chance to
<v Speaker 1>be part of something. Help us fund it, help us
<v Speaker 1>create it from scratch. Eventually, we'd like to have multiple
<v Speaker 1>seasons spanning many years that we can broadcast to you
<v Speaker 1>in some way, the general public.
<v Speaker 2>That is.
<v Speaker 1>I'm not sure if it's going to be on TV
<v Speaker 1>because the future of TV doesn't look very bright, you
<v Speaker 1>know what I mean. But thanks for joining us once again,
<v Speaker 1>and until next time, stay safe.
<v Speaker 20>Sill Span stations spots, station s