48 Hours - The Country Club Murders

Episode Date: March 14, 2024

In March 2008, Charlene and Ernest Scherer were murdered in their Castlewood Country Club home in Pleasanton, California. Their son, Ernie Scherer III, was a professional poker player and the chief suspect. Police suspected Ernie killed his parents to inherit money to pay off his gambling debts, but with no forensic evidence to tie him to the crime, they were unable to arrest him. Later, when new evidence came to light, Ernie had vanished. “48 Hours" correspondent Peter Van Sant reports. This classic "48 Hours" episode last aired on 2/8/2014. Watch all-new episodes of “48 Hours” on Saturdays, and stream on demand on Paramount+.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can listen to this podcast ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app today. Even if you love the thrill of true crime stories as much as I do, there are times when you want to mix it up. And that's where Audible comes in, with all the genres you love and new ones to discover. Explore thousands of audiobooks, podcasts, and originals, with more added all the time. thousands of audiobooks, podcasts, and originals, with more added all the time. Listening to Audible can lead to positive change in your mood, your habits,

and even your overall well-being. And you can enjoy Audible anytime, while doing household chores, exercising, commuting, you name it. There's more to imagine when you listen. Sign up for a free 30-day Audible trial, and your first audiobook is free. Visit audible.ca. I'm Erin Moriarty of 48 Hours, and of all the cases I've covered, this is the one that troubles me most. A bizarre and maddening tale involving an eyewitness account that doesn't quite make sense. A sister testifying against a brother. A lack of physical evidence. Crosley Green has lived more than half his life behind bars for a crime he says he didn't commit. Listen to Murder

in the Orange Grove, the Trouble Case Against Crosley Green, early and ad-free with a 48-hours-plus subscription on Apple Podcasts. Castlewood Country Club is located in Pleasanton, California. It's an upper-middle-class community. It's a beautiful place to raise a family. For lack of a better word, very hoity-toity.

Most crime we have is an out-of-hand cocktail party. My mom and dad were wonderful adventurers. They loved to travel. In March 2008, we were planning to go to Hawaii, my husband, my two children, and myself, with my two parents. I had been calling my mother several times a day for four, five, six, seven days. Continues to go to voicemail every day.

And so I call my brother. Hey, have you heard from mom or dad? We're supposed to be going to Hawaii on Saturday. And he says to me, no I haven't heard from dad. I finally called the country club to see if all was well at the home, but it was not. An exclusive address did not stop murder. There was blood splatter on the ceilings of the home, on the walls of the home, on the doors of the home that truly spoke of the violent nature of

this crime. The Shears were inside the house. Both of them were in their pajamas, and they were brutally murdered. Ernest, I believe, was the first victim. He suffered multiple blunt force trauma wounds to his head. Charlene's injuries were much more dramatic. She suffered 20 blunt force trauma injuries to her head, cut wounds to her wrists, her carotid arteries, and her jugular vein.

Mr. Shear fought so hard that his wedding ring flew off his hand. I mean, he fought until he could fight no more. I sat there with tears just coming down my face. What do I do now? I called my brother. You need to plan to drive to Northern California. I just found out that Mom and Dad are dead. And there was pause.

And he said, Oh, my God, what are we going to do? This was not a burglary. This was not a robbery. There was something else afoot here. There's money. There's women. There's greed. There's lies. There's deceptions. There's money, there's women, there's greed, there's lies, there's deceptions, there's poker. When you can't imagine in your wildest dreams that someone could do this, it becomes clear that really anyone could do it.

I'm Peter Van Sant. Tonight on 48 Hours, Charlene and Ernest. It's horrible. I hope that no one ever has to endure it. It's horrible. Catherine watched as her brother Ernie helped carry their father's casket. His wife, Robin, offered support. Ernie and my son and I were all standing, holding the flower, and I'm just sitting there crying and crying. My son's like sitting there right with me,

and he doesn't know why we're there. I'll know someday. I want to make sure he knows who they were. There was a point in which someone told you how they died. Oh boy, that was a hard moment. I kept seeing it in my head. While no weapons were found at the scene, police told Catherine her parents were bludgeoned to death. The killer then used another weapon to cut their throats and wrists to make sure they were gone. Her mother suffered the worst damage. Her face was unrecognizable. It was, it was horrific. I remember closing my eyes and crying and wishing that I could have taken it from her so she didn't have to suffer. And who could do something like that? I don't know.

Word of the murders rocked the quiet, upscale Castlewood Country Club community in Pleasanton, California. We have our homicide detectives here, and they're meticulously going through the home and the surrounding area and neighborhood to find any clues in this case. Before they moved to Castlewood, Charlene and Ernest Shearer raised their family in San Ramon, not far from San Francisco. They had a passion for traveling. We had family vacations.

We would go to Big Sur. We would go to Yosemite. And one of my mom's favorite things, I used to say, why do you put in all of this effort and tolerate all of the whining and the complaining from us kids? You know, why bother? And she said, because you don't understand history until you can live in it, until you can see it and touch it and experience it. Charlene was an accounting professor for 31 years. She was also a devout Mormon who expected

hard work and tried to instill ethical values in her son and daughter. She wanted us to do the best that we could 100% of the time. And it wasn't that she was harsh or critical, just that she wanted us to achieve our biggest potential. Ernest Shearer had made his fortune in real estate. He also got involved in politics, becoming a member of the San Ramon School Board in the late 80s. Mayor Abram Wilson says

Ernest could rub people the wrong way. A lot of people were very uncomfortable says Ernest could rub people the wrong way. A lot of people were very uncomfortable around Ernest. He was the one that was always the one that voted against. Ernest's confrontational style eventually got him ousted from the board, an event that led him to carry a grudge against his opponents for almost 20 years. They recalled him. And as it turned out, he continued to fight them. In fact, Ernest was scheduled to have a meeting with Wilson

to reveal what he thought was corruption on the school board. Just days before that meeting, he was found beaten to death. The first thing that came to my mind was that Ernie ticked off the wrong person. Ernie was digging too deep. Do you believe that Ernest and Charlene knew their attacker, that they opened the door and let that person in? There's no doubt in my mind that they knew who the person was inside their house. Detective Scott Dudek spearheaded the investigation for the Alameda County Sheriff's Department.

When we arrived at the scene, it was March 14, 2008. Based on the decomposition of the bodies, we felt that the murder had occurred several days before, and it appeared to us that the last newspaper that was picked up was March 7th. The last time the Shearers were seen was on the night of March 7th. They had gone out to dinner around 6 30 p.m. at the Castlewood Country Club restaurant before heading home. When their bodies were found by police a week later, they were in their pajamas, and their home was turned upside down. As I walked through the house, it looked like a person had watched the TV show to say, well, this is what a burglary is supposed to look like. It wasn't ransacked. It was just, okay, I'm going to take a piece of linen out and

throw it on the thing so it looks like it's ransacked. But the home showed no signs of forced entry. And even though Ernest was a bit of a gambler, who just that day won a large sum of money, this burglar wasn't interested in any of it. There was $100 bills sticking out of the jeans that you could see from 50 feet away looking into the bedroom. What burglar is going to leave, ultimately, it was over $9,000, sticking out of somebody's jeans? And police discover another odd clue, one they think the killer wanted them to find. Oh, wow. Wow, that looks like it happened yesterday.

This is the entryway floor to the Castlewood home. We took the whole floor, not only the tile, but we took the entire floor. Detective Mike Norton believes these bloody footprints were intentionally made the night of March 7, 2008, as part of a staged crime scene. These footprints were made maybe slow and methodically where the suspect wanted us to know what kind of shoe made this and how big the shoe size was. We were able to determine that there's a Nike swoosh. You can make out a swoosh right here. Correct. There's no way that a professional killer would have left that type of evidence at the scene unless it was an attempt to sort of throw authorities off the track. Prosecutor Michael Nieto was assigned to the case.

Where must you turn next? You go inside. You look at everybody in the family. And in this case, who are you looking at? In this case, they looked at Catherine Shear and Ernest Shear III. They looked at Catherine Shear and Ernest Shear III. Police were quickly able to eliminate Catherine as a suspect. She'd been at her home in Utah the night of the murders. I was at the Alameda County Sheriff's Office for questioning, and I said, so where are you going with this? I said, well, there's only one person we can't rule out. Well, who, you know?

I said, well, there's only one person we can't rule out. Well, who, you know? I said, well, your brother. My brother? Really? In 2014, Laura Heavlin was in her home in Tennessee when she received a call from California. Her daughter, Erin Corwin, was missing. The young wife of a Marine had moved to the California desert to a remote base near Joshua Tree National Park. They have to alert the military.

And when they do, the NCIS gets involved. From CBS Studios and CBS News, this is 48 Hours NCIS. Listen to 48 Hours NCIS ad-free starting October 29th on Amazon Music. Hot shot Australian attorney Nicola Gaba was born into legal royalty. Her specialty? Representing some of the city's most infamous gangland criminals. However, while Nicola held the underworld's darkest secrets, the most dangerous secret was her own.

She's going to all the major groups within Melbourne's underworld, and she's informing on them all. I'm Marsha Clark, host of the new podcast, Informants Lawyer X. In my long career in criminal justice as a prosecutor and defense attorney, I've seen some crazy cases, and this one belongs right at the top of the list. She was addicted to the game she had created. She just didn't know how to stop. Now, through dramatic interviews and access, I'll reveal the truth behind one of the world's most shocking legal scandals.

Listen to Informant's Lawyer X exclusively on Wondery+. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. And listen to more Exhibit C True Crime shows early and ad-free right now. We were able to eliminate close circle of friends. We were able to eliminate political enemies. It just constantly would come back to we couldn't eliminate their son. Investigators began to focus in on Ernest and Charlene Shearer's son, Ernie, who traveled the country as a professional poker player. Why would my brother do it? There's nothing to gain from that.

Killing my parents, that's ridiculous. But there was something to gain. Ernie stood to inherit more than two million dollars from his parents' estate. Cops say he was desperate to see the will. Who asked to see your parents' will on day two of a murder? If you sit right there for me. Just four days after his parents' bodies are discovered, Ernie agrees to be questioned by police. Once we can either rule you in or rule you out as a suspect, then we can move on to other people. Ernie tells police that on the night of March 7th, the date cops believe his parents were murdered, he was fast asleep at his home in Brea, California, hundreds of miles south of the crime scene.

Drive time from my house to my parents' house was roughly six and a half, seven hours. So it's kind of unrealistic for me to have driven from my house all the way up to their house, killed them, ransacked the house, drive all the way back. Ernie tells police he was home alone. His wife Robin was away visiting family. But he assures cops they can easily verify his story. What car were you driving? My Camaro.

Your Camaro. My Camaro. And you'll be able to track me almost all the way to my door on my cell phone. I wanted to have him clear himself so they can move on and focus on what I thought would be more important, finding the real person who I thought was responsible. Ernie Shearer had been married to Robin for nine years, and the two had a three-year-old son, Ernest IV. I'd like to think I've always been a good wife. Robin even supported her husband when the economics major she married decided to leave a promising career in business

for the unpredictable world of professional poker. Give me a sense of what life is like with a professional gambler. What are the highs? What are the lows? Gosh, you're all over the map. What are the highs? What are the lows? Gosh, you're all over the map. You have good days where there will be wads of cash that come home, and the next day you could lose $15,000, $20,000. And what's it like living that roller coaster? Stressful. Very stressful.

At the height of his gambling career, Ernie made more than $100,000 in a single year and even played in the World Series of Poker. He was doing so well, his father agreed to loan Ernie $616,000 to buy his dream home. What were the terms of this loan from Ernie's parents? It was for a five-year loan, and every month we owed them a payment of $38.50. Did this loan create tension between Ernie and your mom? Yes. She didn't think that supporting him in any way with his poker was a good thing and would bring good things in any way. Charlene was unrelenting in her criticism of Ernie's chosen profession. You can't be a professional gambler. That's like saying I'm a professional nose picker. At the time that she died, what was their relationship like? Were they close?

No, no. When he became a professional poker player, it was like, snip, that relationship just severed. that relationship just severed. And Charlene's intuition that Ernie's gambling could lead to trouble came true. We met at a craps table in the Rio in Las Vegas. Adrienne Solomon was living in North Carolina in 2006 when a business trip led her to a chance encounter with Ernie Shearer. I liked that he was tall. He had beautiful blue eyes. I do remember looking at his left hand to see if there's a ring, and he didn't have one. So I said, okay, this is a guy I can talk to for a little while. Adrian was in the dark about Ernie's wife and young son in California,

and Robin had no idea her husband was on the prowl in Las Vegas. How did the casinos treat Ernie? Was he comped? Oh yeah, he was a high roller. Show tickets, restaurants, everything. He felt like a rock star being able to treat me to these things. Are you getting kind of famous in the poker world? I'm very well known in the poker world. Did the two of you talk about a future together? We did. I remember going into Tiffany's

and looking at engagement rings. He talked to my mother about marrying me. But Adrian soon saw a side to Ernie that made her think twice about getting serious. Throughout our time dating, his betting went from maybe $75, $50, $75 for his initial bet up to like $500 for his initial bet. He increased his betting dramatically. I routinely carry $5,000 to $10,000 in cash and then maybe another $40,000 in chips.

Police wondered if Ernie's volatile, risky lifestyle might have created a motive for murder. They confront him. But let me ask you bluntly, did you have any involvement in your parents' death? No. Did you hire anybody, or did you pay anybody to kill your parents?

No. Investigators have their suspicions, but without solid evidence, Ernie is free to go. Thank you for doing your job, guys. But just one week later, they would unearth a chilling lead. This building here is called Lower Castlewood Country Club. Up there, you can see a surveillance camera. That surveillance camera points the street out there.

After combing through hours of video, police spotted images of a red convertible with a black top entering Castlewood Country Club at 827 on the night of the murders. It left four hours later. Could this blurry image be Ernie's red Camaro? Armed with this new information, cops want to confront Ernie. But he has vanished.

He said goodbye to me, and I said, when am I going to see you again? And he said, I don't know, I'll be in touch. Just five days after his interrogation, Ernie Shearer hit the open road for parts unknown. Did he say where he was going? No, he just said he had to grieve. Ernie took off in his dad's car, leaving behind the red Camaro cops believe is seen on this surveillance video.

When cops search Ernie's Camaro for evidence, they learn he is one step ahead of them. He had a full detailing done of both the exterior and interior of his Camaro. Police discover just days after the murder, Ernie spent $140 having his car scrubbed at this car wash, even following it in on foot. What a bizarre scene. He's a bizarre individual. And this was his way of sanitizing the

car. With no trace of evidence left in the car, cops pour over crime scene photos searching for clues, starting with those bloody footprints. Investigators conclude the size 12 Nike shoe prints left behind at the crime scene were part of a grand deception. This isn't CSI Miami. Ernie normally wears size 10. And I believe that's why he left those shoe prints intact, in an attempt to throw off investigators. In the event that they did come to him with questions about those bloody shoe prints,

he would simply be able to say, I wear size 10. Is this being taped? Yeah, it is. And there was another intriguing blood trail that always troubled police. There were footprints that led from Charlene to Ernest and then continued on to a linen closet. Why would the attacker go to a linen closet? It was clearly somebody who had personal knowledge of the contents of that closet.

Someone like Ernie. Ernie knew his dad stored his decorative sword collection in that closet. After the murders, when family was allowed inside the Shearer home, Ernie led his wife, Robin, directly to the closet. He reaches in. He pulls out the sword. Takes the sheath off the closet. He reaches in. He pulls out this sword, takes the sheath off the sword, and he's looking at it.

And he said, isn't this a beautiful sword? And he's putting it back in the closet. Under his breath, he says, I wonder where the second one went. Remember, both parents had been savagely slashed. After Ernie fled, Robin thought about that missing sword. And then just something clicked, and I thought, oh my gosh. There wasn't a doubt in my mind that he had something to do with it.

As soon as I thought of that, the first thing I did was call the police. Ernie is now the number one suspect, but cops don't have the concrete forensic evidence they needed to arrest him. All they could do was watch Ernie, and he made that easy. He posted Craigslist ads all over the country looking for women, and I'm talking from Oregon all the way to upstate New York. What was his typical ad like on Craigslist? His typical ad, 29-year-old man looking for someone who can carry on a conversation, is up for fun

whenever the moment grabs you, enjoys a good bottle of wine, and the nauseating comments went on from there. How many women on the side do you think he had over the years? You know, it would be difficult to say, but I would probably say it's easily 100. 100? Yeah. Ernie met this woman,

who asked we not reveal her name, in New Orleans during the city's annual Jazz Fest celebration. Seemed like a nice guy. He was a gentleman. He was very non-threatening. Ernie now had a new identity. He said his name was Bill Franks and he was writing a novel. The plot was a poker player in Vegas finds out that his parents are murdered. And he essentially ends up going on the run. After telling her his work of fiction, the two head to a casino near Bourbon Street,

where Bill Franks suddenly became Ernie again. We would walk up to the craps table and they would call him Mr. Shearer. And I looked up and I'm like, well, what? Hello, what? Ernie explained that Bill Franks was just a pen name. And this isn't getting weird yet? Uh, you know, um, no. It wasn't.

I mean, Blonde Roots didn't, didn't ding at all. So what did you start calling him? Ernie. Ernie's behavior then took an even stranger turn as the two walked into his hotel room. And then I turned back around, and he had basically taken all of the furniture that was not bolted down, and he had it against the door with some bungee cords, and it was like a ninja. And I turned around, and I looked at him, and I said, what the f*** is this? He's basically barricaded the door to keep you in or keep someone out.

Keep someone out. She then pointed at a second bungee cord. And I said, could you please explain? And he said, well, it's for a quick getaway. Out the window? Out the window. And you're thinking what to yourself at this point? I'm barricaded in a room with a guy with a bungee cord

whose name was Bill, but now it's Ernie. Lights don't even go off. I felt this guy has some kind of emotional BS going on with him. That's how I explained it away. But after Ernie left New Orleans, this woman decided to Google his name. That's when I found out he was indeed a professional gambler and that his parents' murder had happened a month and a half before. And the more I read, the more I researched, literally physically, the sicker I got. I met Ernie Scherr on Craigslist. Pamela Nichols, who lived in Las Vegas, had already been on two dates with Ernie when he

called the day his parents' bodies were found to cancel their dinner plans for that night. He had just gotten a call saying that his parents' house was broken into and burglarized and both of them were murdered. If I had received that news, I wouldn't even be able to talk on the phone, let alone make a phone call to somebody I hardly knew. talk on the phone, let alone make a phone call to somebody I hardly knew. Phone records reveal Ernie told Pamela about the killings before he informed his own wife. This had to be a jaw-dropping moment when they gave you all this information about your husband's secret life. Oh, yeah.

He had secret credit cards, secret P.O. boxes, secret everything. Secret lovers. Oh, yes. It's sad. Not just for me, but all the women who, they had no idea. They had no idea that he was married, that he had a son. They say there's nothing worse than a scorned woman, you know, and once she became that scorned person, she was my third detective on this.

Investigators laboring to build an airtight case against Ernie Shearer weren't ready to arrest him. Evidence was still being gathered. That's why I said it's never too late to discover the truth. But they would soon use Robin to turn the tables on her husband. I was just too long to do what I needed to do to catch him and get him locked up. Either people loved your dad or they hate him. Have you ever wondered who created that bottle of sriracha that's living in your fridge? Or why nearly every house in America has at least one game of Monopoly? Introducing The Best Idea Yet, a brand new podcast from Wondery and T-Boy about the surprising origin stories of the products you're obsessed with

and the bold risk takers who brought them to life. Like, did you know that Super Mario, the best-selling video game character of all time, only exists because Nintendo couldn't get the rights to Popeye? Or Jack, that the idea for the McDonald's Happy Meal first came from a mom in Guatemala? From Pez dispensers to Levi's 501s to Air Jordans, discover the surprising stories of the most viral products. Plus, we guarantee that after listening, you're going to dominate your next dinner party. So follow The Best Idea Yet on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to The Best Idea Yet early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus.

It's just the best idea yet. It's just the best idea yet. into a bathroom mirror. Candyman. Candyman? Now, we all know chanting a name won't make a killer magically appear, but did you know that the movie Candyman was partly inspired by an actual murder? I was struck by both how spooky it was, but also how outrageous it was. We're going to talk to the people who were there, and we're also going to uncover the larger story. My architect was shocked

when he saw how this was created. Literally shocked. And we'll look at to uncover the larger story. My architect was shocked when he saw how this was created. Literally shocked. And we'll look at what the story tells us about injustice in America. If you really believed in tough on crime, then you wouldn't make it easy to crawl into medicine cabinets and kill our women. Listen to Candyman, the true story behind the bathroom mirror murder, early and ad-free, with a 48-hour plus subscription on Apple Podcasts. Ernest Shearer Jr., six blows to the head, six stab wounds.

As your son is born, you go, oh God, I hope my son is just perfect. Charlene, 20 blows to the head, 12 stab wounds. What this individual ended up being was your worst nightmare, as far as a son could be. Three months into Ernie Shearer's cross-country joyride, police get a tip he's gambling in Vegas. A detective secretly places a GPS tracker on his car to keep closer tabs on him. His sister was a number one concern, and she knew that.

If this person, who is my brother, could willingly and knowingly walk into my parents' house and beat them and slice them until they were dead, he'd have no qualms walking into my house and doing that to my family. Catherine Shearer, living in Utah, was now afraid of her brother. It was a very tense time for me. My family's hiding. I'm hiding. She was warned every time Ernie was nearby. It was horrible. Gotta get out. Gotta leave. Were you living in fear of Ernie? Yeah. I didn't know if he was going to come get me or my son or my family. Where I was staying, the blinds were shut, doors were locked, the alarm was on.

The blinds were shut. Doors were locked. The alarm was on. Ernie's movements were being tracked. So, too, were his finances, giving cops a motive for murder. He ran out of money, just plain and simple. You believe that he killed his own parents just for some cash? Absolutely.

Police learned Ernie had gambling debts approaching $90,000 and carried more than $40,000 in credit card debt. Did it get to a point where you couldn't pay the bills? Yeah, it did. I kept saying, I need you to give me some money, because every month we owed his parents. Around that same time in 2008, the real estate market was collapsing. Ernie's mom and dad suddenly wanted their loan back. Now. The noose was tightening around his neck. He had no reliable stream of income,

and he decided to act. Investigators say Ernie wanted a gun. The day before his parents were murdered, Ernie came here to the Master at Arms inArms in Pahrump, Nevada, owner Robert Brentlinger. They were acting very strangely. Ernie brought his friend, piano player Billy Krause, to help. One was very stoic, quiet, didn't say much. The other was bouncing off the walls, all over the shop. He made me very nervous. As a Nevada resident, Billy could purchase the weapon

and leave with it the same day. Did Krause ever say why Ernie wanted this gun? He actually asked Ernie why he wanted the gun, and Ernie said that he wanted it for self-protection. When Brentlinger let Krause know that buying a gun for Ernie, an out-of-state resident, was illegal, Krause told Ernie the deal was off. He wanted it right now, and I wouldn't do it. The failed gun purchase, cops say, didn't deter Ernie. The following day, they believe he drove west out of Las Vegas

with murder in mind. We have him at Prynne, Nevada at a Chevron station based on gas receipts. We have him at a McDonald's where he charged $5 worth of hamburgers at McDonald's and mysteriously his cell phone records stopped. In the early afternoon of March 7, 2008, Ernie Scherer's cell phone went dead. He was driving along this stretch of road, Interstate 15, which runs from Vegas to Los Angeles. 17 hours passed before his cell phone came back to life. His cell phone was off because he didn't want to be tracked to Pleasanton when he was committing the murders of his parents. want to be tracked to Pleasanton when he was committing the murders of his parents. Ernie's cell phone was off, but the surveillance camera near his parents' home was on. Police build a timeline. We believe that he arrived in the evening of March 7, 2008, after 8 p.m.,

and that he entered the home sometime after that. home sometime after that. He's on the lower level of the home and confronts his mother first. And then she's able to run up the stairs in an attempt to flee. And then he catches her at the very top of the stairs. Nieto believes Ernie then turns on his father, inflicting six fatal blows with an unknown weapon before grabbing a sword from the linen closet to complete his violence. A vicious, inhumane... I can't come up with the words for this, can you? It's difficult to put in the words.

At 12.42 a.m., police say that's Ernie's car leaving Castlewood Country Club. By the time Ernie's cell phone comes back on, he is at his home in Brea, 390 miles away. How long does it take to drive from his parents' house to his home in Brea? Members of the Alameda County Sheriff's Department did exactly that, departing at the same time shown on this surveillance video. And they arrived at the vicinity of his Bray home at 2900 Primrose at exactly 636 a.m., the exact minute that his cell phone came back to life. The exact minute? Correct.

Is that the closest thing for you in this case to a fingerprint? It's close. case to a fingerprint? It's close. But investigators wanted to find a way to get Ernie to admit it's his car on that surveillance tape. Robin received a phone call from detectives asking for her help. He'd asked if I'd be willing to do a recorded phone conversation with Ernie, and it was arranged. with Ernie, and it was arranged. Hello? Hi. Hi, how are you?

Oh, I'm so glad to be talking to you. How are you? Robin had not spoken to her husband for weeks since the day he disappeared. She tries her best to act like nothing is wrong. Where are you? Northern California. Northern California. Northern California. I'm not really trying to hide myself.

I think that they think you're trying to hide. Robin was about to play one of the most important cards in this investigation and bluff her poker-playing husband. They're trying to build a circumstantial case against me because there is no physical evidence that I committed this crime, so I didn't commit the crime. They have a police video with something that looks like your car and you in it. You can see the face of the driver?

Yes. Were you there? It was a lie. You can't see a driver on this surveillance tape. But Ernie didn't know that. Were you there? Because I thought you were driving back home. And there's this video that they have, and it clearly looks like it's your car. Hello? What else can you tell me about the video? I'm here. I'm just thinking.

That long pause convinced cops it was Ernie's car and him in it. What did that pause tell you? Oh, that was just the moment where I'm like, he was there. And on February 23rd, 2009, nearly one year after the bodies were found, Ernie Shearer is arrested in Las Vegas for the murder of his parents. I want to advise you, you have the right to remain silent. Do you understand that? Yes. Despite his arrest, Ernie tells a friend in a jailhouse conversation he'll soon be out. I will never have to worry about this again for the rest of my life. I can just go on and live my life and never give it another thought.

In the Pacific Ocean, halfway between Peru and New Zealand, lies a tiny volcanic island. It's a little-known British territory called Pitcairn. And it harboured a deep, dark scandal. There wouldn't be a girl on Pitcairn, and it harboured a deep, dark scandal. There wouldn't be a girl on Pitcairn once they reach the age of 10 that would still have heard it. It just happens to all of us.

I'm journalist Luke Jones, and for almost two years, I've been investigating a shocking story that has left deep scars on generations of women and girls from Pitcairn. When there's nobody watching, nobody going to report it, people will get away with what they can get away with. In the Pitcairn Trials, I'll be uncovering a story of abuse and the fight for justice that has brought a unique, lonely Pacific island to the brink of extinction.

Listen to the Pitcairn trials exclusively on Wondery Plus. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. Awaiting his trial, a confident Ernie Shearer mocked the case against him. That was one of his statements to me. I want to be free by Christmas. Hey, come on. Prosecutor Mike Nieto admits his evidence is circumstantial.

I want you to tell me about the witness who saw Ernie enter his parents' home that night. There is no witness that saw Ernie enter his home. There is no witness. Are there any fingerprints? There were no fingerprints. So no witness, no fingerprints, and you can't verify the car? Yes.

That's a strong case? It is. When you consider everything together, everything points to Ernie being responsible. The defense counters with solid forensic evidence saying foreign DNA found mixed in with the victim's blood does not match Ernie. That's your killer, isn't it?

That's what the defense would have you believe. Just because someone's DNA is present doesn't mean that they're the responsible party. Could have been one of the first responders at the scene. It could have been anyone that had been in the Shearer home prior to March 7, 2008. Looking for anything to bolster his case, Niero took a second look at those crime scene photos. Something caught his eye. I'm getting chills just telling you the story now. He made a startling discovery.

This bloody piece of paper, which turned out to be a warranty card from a Nike youth baseball bat. I called my investigator and I said, you got to get up here. We found the murder weapon. These two people, 57 and 60 years old, have no reason to have a youth baseball bat in their home. Never mind a warranty card that's affixed to the barrel of the baseball bat with dad's blood on it. You don't have a physical murder weapon,

but you essentially have a murder weapon, don't you? With this little piece of paper. Yes. More than two years after the murders, investigators finally knew the instrument used to kill Ernest and Charlene. Now they needed to find a way to put the bat in Ernie's hands. So I focused on Prim because he had used the McDonald's and the Chevron station as the starting point for his alibi. So I said, let's see what else is in Prim. And just like that, the dominoes started to fall into place.

Standing just footsteps away from the McDonald's, a Nike outlet store. That led us to a particular cash transaction in which an individual purchased three items. The baseball bat, a pair of Nike Tomahawk Impact shoes, size 12, and a pair of youth soccer goalie gloves. Those three items might as well be a 101 kit for how to commit murder. They were purchased on March 7, 2008. And what are the chances on the day of the homicide that a person buys a bat and buys the exact same size shoe that we find in the crime scene? The sage words of my grandmother, one too many coincidences is not a

coincidence. On January 4th, 2011, with cameras banned from the courtroom, the murder trial of Ernie Shearer would begin. The prosecution would take the jury through the surveillance video. Were you there? Because I thought you were driving back home. Robin's phone call, Ernie's lies. I was not in Northern California.

And of course, that bloody warranty card. Ernie Shearer decides to take the stand. Why do you think he's doing that? I think it's consistent with his narcissistic personality. I think he is persuaded that he can convince at least one member of that jury to either find a reasonable doubt or to find that he's completely innocent. And there was one female juror that gave Prosecutor Nieto cause for concern. Ernie appeared to be flirting with her.

Exchanges of smiles, glances. And she appeared to flirt back. And then once the juror left the courtroom, he would look at me and laugh and make comments about essentially how he had this one juror in his corner. As they await the verdict, Robin and her son serve as a reminder of just what is at stake. Would he be willing to hurt me or hurt Ernest? It's really scary. But would this professional gambler win his final hand?

After an exhaustive three-month trial, Ernie Shearer is found guilty of murdering his parents. It is an overwhelming feeling to know that all of that hard work, all of that sacrifice comes to that moment. And knowing that the right thing happened, there is no other feeling like it. What was it like for you to hear guilty? Emotional. I was shaking. And I wanted to make sure that I looked at him and saw his reaction.

What'd you see? He put his head down, and then when he lifted it back up at one point and I saw his eyes, he had that look like I got caught. Robin lives each day knowing she will eventually have to explain to her young son just how his father murdered his grandparents. Does he have a living memory of his father? He doesn't really know him.

He just remembers that we used to live with somebody who had this red convertible. It's horrible to look at your brother and say, why would you do that? Where is there any logic, any love, any anything? Where is there any logic, any love, any anything? And to feel like not only have you lost your parents, but you've just lost effectively your entire family. Ernie Scherer is serving two consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole.