48 Hours - The House: Home Renovation Homicide | My Life of Crime

Episode Date: February 22, 2023

On April 24th, 2018, then 39-year-old Shanti Cooper was found dead in a bathtub at home. Her husband, Dave Tronnes, had called 911 saying he found her floating in the tub when he got home. Dave speculates that Shanti had slipped or fallen in the tub, but detectives believe she was extensively beaten based on the injuries to her body. There was also the issue of their home renovation, which Shanti had fronted all the money for, despite Dave not including her on the property deed. Plus, detectives discover a second life Dave Tronnes had been living. 48 Hours correspondent Erin Moriarty takes you inside the investigation of the death of Shanti Cooper on her podcast, My Life of Crime. Based on the 48 Hours investigation, “Home Renovation Homicide”.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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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. It's Erin Moriarty, and we have a special episode for you today from my original podcast, My Life of Crime. I'm taking you inside true crime investigations like no one else, taking on killers and those

accused of crimes. Here's an all new episode of My Life of Crime that takes you deeper into home renovation homicide. Follow along as I go beyond the scene of each crime, behind prison walls, and into the killer's inner thoughts. It's all on this season of My Life of Crime. Aaron, this is Florida. Nothing strange here. When did you first meet Shanti and David? Dave just called me on the phone and asked if I'd come by and take a look at the project. He said that they had done some work. I wasn't at all prepared for what I saw when I got there. They had fully disassembled this house to a degree that I'd never seen before.

It was rather astonishing. It was largely wide open, like you're inside of a giant shoebox. Keith Horry met Shanti Cooper and her husband, David Tranez, because of their house, a massive structure in Orlando, Florida, that they were trying to turn into their dream home.

They had made a lot of mistakes and asked for help from Keith Horry, a home contractor featured on TV. Neighborhoods are under attack from zombie houses. What is zombie house flipping? Zombie house flipping is a house flipping TV show where we take houses that are the worst of the worst. The house sure seemed to fit that description. It was a mess. So Keith agreed to help them.

Not in his wildest dreams did he guess that before it was all over, one of the owners would be dead. Hello? Hello? I'm Erin Moriarty, 48 hours, and this is my life of crime. Buying a home and renovating it can be stressful, but can it lead to murder? David Tranis has now been charged with the death of his wife Shanti on April 24, 2018,

and will go on trial for killing her. He denies it and has insisted from the beginning that Shanti just collapsed in a bathtub and hit her head. But police say that finances and the couple's out of control home renovation caused David to snap. Or maybe it was because Shanti discovered a secret he was trying to keep from her. A jury will eventually decide, but in the meantime, you're about to hear one of the oddest stories I've encountered in a long time. And it began with a home located on 218 East Copeland Drive in an Orlando neighborhood known as Delaney Park.

This house became more than just a project to David Tronis. It was his life. He obsessed on it. This house is the center point to the story and ultimately led to Shanti's demise. That's Ryan Vessio. Is it possible that without this house, Shanti might still be alive? I think that's completely true. Vessio is now an attorney in private practice, but when Shanti Cooper died, he was an assistant state attorney leading the investigation into her death. This case all started with a call to 911, placed at approximately 3.51 p.m. on April 24, 2018, by Dave Tronis.

And Dave says that he came home and found Shanti floating in the bathtub. Did that story make sense? Absolutely not. Shanti was extensively beaten. Clearly, Dave Tronis, from the very beginning, is a suspect. Absolutely. Dave was asked to go to the station and voluntarily remain there for hours. Just have a seat there. It'll be a little bit. David Tronis certainly didn't act like a guy with anything to hide. Just hours after calling 911, he went voluntarily to the police station, didn't even ask for a lawyer, and sat there for hours answering their questions.

I've never been more in love. I'm so happy. Detectives Teresa Sprague and Barb Sharp tried their hardest to unnerve him. I told you she was murdered. Murdered. Someone took her life from her, and there's nothing. You can't even fake it. That's how much you could give it. I don't have any explanation for her, the severity of her injuries. It's time for a little background. Shanti Cooper was a successful businesswoman who seemed to have everything. A lucrative software business, a child from her first marriage, and lots of friends.

Everything but love. When she met David Tranez online, she thought she had found it. I didn't get a good feeling from him. When she met David Tranez online, she thought she had found it. I didn't get a good feeling from him. Cindy Dowell, Shanti's aunt, says she didn't trust David at first. I love her, so I grew to love him. We absolutely adored him. The first time we had lunch, he walked in and he said, how lucky am I, I get to have lunch with two of the most beautiful women that I know.

I mean, that's charming. David, who was also divorced, moved to Orlando just months after meeting Shanti. He seemed flush with money, paying $607,500 in cash to buy that home in Delaney Park, putting the house in trust for himself and his mother. After the couple moved into their new home with Shanti's son, they began to renovate. What did Dave do all day? It's a great question.

If you ask Dave, he says that he worked on the house and worked on the renovations and took care of the property and cleaned the pool. Shanti worked from home and paid most of the bills. She put a quarter of a million dollars into home renovations. And yet the demolitions and the costs kept rising. By early 2018, the house had literally become unlivable, forcing Shanti to move her son and her office into a small apartment over the garage. Where did Dave sleep?

I think he slept downstairs with the dogs. Maybe not all the time, but I'm pretty sure he was down there. That's when Keith Ory, the local home contractor, got involved. He couldn't believe what he saw. It was rather astonishing. They took away all the interior dividing walls, and basically what was left was a two-story shell. Weren't you tempted to just run for the hills? Yeah, but at the same time, you rarely come across a challenge that's that bold. Keith couldn't resist the challenge and agreed to feature the house on his television show.

The filming was scheduled to begin in early May 2018, but he ran into a slight hitch. into a slight hitch. Getting Dave and Shanti together to talk in person was proving to be really difficult. Keith needed to have both on board before he would begin work and the filming. Late April, he went over to the home. And they both said, yes, we understand. And then she took off immediately and left. I got a sense that she was pissed off at him. A major home renovation will stress any marriage, and Shanti apparently was at the end of her rope. Former assistant state attorney Ryan Vessio says that she had been pushing David to put her name on the trust, and David was dragging his feet. And it seemed like things just sort of culminated to a boiling point.

Shanti was the bankroll, the sole bankroll to almost a quarter million dollar renovation. What did she get for her $250,000? Well, a lot of headaches and heartaches. Just days after the couple agreed to go on zombie house flipping, Shanti is found dead in her home. And David Tranes was at the police station explaining to detectives why his 39-year-old wife collapsed and died in the bathroom. He didn't attempt to conceal anything. That's Richard Zaleski, an attorney that David Tran has hired after he had been charged with his wife's murder. Why did he agree to sit down and talk to these

detectives without an attorney? Because he had nothing to hide, and he didn't think that it would hurt him. Take a minute, okay? I know this isn't tough Tranis himself has never spoken publicly about his wife's death. But here's what he told detectives when they brought him in for questioning. So I could hear the water is running. I see her laying on her legs, just kind of sticking up and out a little bit. And it's just extremely awful. and it's just extremely awful. He said that his wife had recently undergone an appendectomy and had not been feeling well.

When he returned from walking the dogs, he says he found his Shanti, still in pajamas, floating in the tub. I think something went wrong. Either she slept or she fell or she blacked out. But a fall in the tub doesn't seem to explain Shanti's injuries, including a bloody cheek and a bruised eye. Ryan Vessio explains. Somebody who slips and falls doesn't receive the amount of blunt force trauma to focused areas in the head. Investigators also suspected, and Shanti's autopsy later confirmed, that she had been strangled.

Did you two argue? No, absolutely not. Did you fight? Absolutely not. Did you two argue? No, absolutely not. Did you fight? Absolutely not. Did you harm Shanti in any way? Absolutely not. There are serious problems with David's story. If she fell in the tub of water, as he claimed, why wasn't Shanti in her clothing soaked? There's no splashing of water anywhere in the bathroom. The inside of the tub is dry,

completely dry, and she's damp. She's not even wet. So you've got to help us. Can you do that? I'm so much good at everything. Did she catch you with another woman? Did she have a boyfriend? The questioning went on for hours. happened today because of there was no animosity between us whatsoever. And even when detectives belittled David, he stood his ground. She treats you like a landscaper, like a pool boy, probably because she's bringing in the money. What do you want your mom to think about you? And it became a war of wills in that room. And didn't David win that war of wills? He was not broken. Well, Dave didn't confess. David even agreed to take a polygraph, but by then it was the middle of the night, and investigators couldn't find anyone to administer it. They had to let him go at the

end of the interview. How did they feel about that? You always want to make the arrest right up front. You do. The detectives at that point didn't think they had enough to charge David Tronis with murder. But they were convinced that there was more to the story. And it didn't take them long to find it. Is it fair to say that Dave Tronis was living a double life? At least two lives. Is it fair to say that Dave Tranis was living a double life? At least two lives.

In April 2018, there wasn't enough evidence to arrest David Tranis, and he was soon seen back at the house he loved in Delaney Park, where Shanti's aunt, Cindy Dow, found him. I stood him up and turned him around and looked at his arms and there was not a scratch on him. There was nothing. Cindy, did you ever ask him point blank, did you have something to do with the death of Shanti? I did. What did he say? No. I would not kill the love of my life. And Cindy says she believed him. Are you kidding?

I bet my last dollar that it wasn't him. I thought he was innocent. You honestly did, Cindy. Why? I think it was just the growth of our relationship and how she adored him, absolutely adored him, and it looked very mutual to everyone. Cindy's husband, Dan. Did she ever express any concern or fear of Dave?

Never. Never. Dave told Cindy and others that he thought Shanti might have been murdered by an intruder. He said $5,000 in cash was missing from the house. And so was Shanti's diamond engagement ring. It was valued at approximately $15,000. Attorney Ryan Vestio again. That was highly, highly suspicious.

The detectives wanted to get to the bottom of it. Why couldn't it have been exactly as Dave said, that he leaves and someone breaks into the house, beats her, leaves her there, and Dave comes home? Why doesn't that fit? Well, the lack of forced entry. This scene did not have any sort of evidence of a struggle.

There's thousands of dollars of valuables that are left in plain sight. Vessio says that detectives chased other leads and checked out Shanti's ex-husband. Shanti had had a bad divorce. This was not an easy end of the marriage. Did you look at Jim Cooper? Yes.

Mr. Cooper was interviewed, and Jim Cooper was eliminated as a suspect very early on. He had an alibi. In an upscale neighborhood like Delaney Park, a mysterious death gets a lot of attention and a lot of tips coming in. A worker from Club Orlando called and shared that they knew of Dave Tronis

because he was a patron at the club. What is Club Orlando? Club Orlando is a same-sex bathhouse. Did Dave have a membership at Club Orlando? Several memberships. Every six months, Dave renewed his membership. Ryan Vesio says the caller said he had seen David Trana's at the club. This is from his recorded police interview.

I was just walking through, and I saw David. He was giving oral sex to this guy. That got the attention of investigators. Did Shanti discover David's secret life and confront him? Did she threaten to leave him and his treasured house? But she would be killed because of a house? Well, what would somebody do when they were about to lose the most important thing in their life?

Because in April of 2018, the most important thing in Dave's life was that house. But that's just speculation, according to David's attorney, Richard Zaleski. He believes that Shanti knew David was seeing other men. And why do you believe that? Because none of her family members seem to know anything about it. And her family members seem to indicate that if Shanti did know, she'd be upset. And I appreciate that. But what you tell your mom and dad about your sex life and what you do behind closed doors, you know, people are people, adults are adults, and life is messy.

But medical and crime scene evidence still contradicted David's account of what happened the night Shanti died. So four months after her death on August 29, 2018, David was charged with murder. And when detectives arrested David at his mother's house, guess what they found? Shanti's missing engagement ring. Ryan Vessio again. We searched the room at his mother's house where he was living and lo and behold, we found the rings in his suitcase in his bedroom. That discovery

seriously undermines David's theory that a thief killed Shanti and stole her ring. The ring is probably one of the most powerful and damning pieces

of evidence in this case. David is then sent to jail, but investigators still didn't have a solid motive for murder. He had no criminal history. And while he may have been leading a double life at the Club Orlando, he did seem to love his wife. But the case is about to get even stranger.

This was a case that had so many twists and turns, I would no longer make assumptions of anything. You don't learn this stuff in law school. 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 once they reach the age of 10 that would still have heard it. It just happens to all of them. I'm journalist Luke Jones, and for almost 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. As a kid growing up in Chicago, there was one horror movie I was too scared to watch. It was called Candyman. The scary cult classic was set in the Chicago housing project. It was about this supernatural killer who would attack his victims if they said his name five times 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 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 on Wondery Plus and the Wondery app. A new tip led investigators to Minnesota, where David had been living with his previous wife Carol. Carol's friends suspected that David had been poisoning her during their marriage. As soon as Carol got married to Dave, she started suffering a bunch of unknown health issues. And that made Ryan Vessia wonder about Shanti's health issues before she died. In Shanti's case, she had appendicitis and had to have an appendectomy. Shanti had had that operation eight weeks before her death.

And here's why it caught investigators' attention. Appendicitis and poisoning can have similar symptoms. If you remember, David had mentioned to investigators in his interrogation that Shanti was ill at the time of her death. She hasn't found, since the appendectomy, a diet that she can eat regularly and feel good. I have issues with chronic pain and immune system issues that are not necessarily definitive. That's Carol, David's first wife.

She was still living in Minnesota where Detective Sprague recorded this interview with her. living in Minnesota where Detective Sprague recorded this interview with her. Has it ever come into your frame of thought that your marriage to David Trumas or him cooking or making you drinks was making you sick? No. Have you ever thought that any of your issues related to your health problems was him poisoning you? No. Carol said her split with David was amicable. And in fact, she may not have completely cut ties with him. We saw a thousand pages of bank records belonging to Dave Tronis. One thing that we noticed was that Dave and Carol still had a joint bank account together.

That bank account at times contained hundreds of thousands of dollars. Carol said she simply had forgotten to take her name off the account. People who are divorcing each other don't leave assets on the table, and they sure as heck don't leave them together. While investigators don't know where the money came from, there's no evidence of criminality here. It's just strange. An ex-wife helping David manage his money while he's in jail.

I think that Carol is involved in David's finances and has some level of control. The more they look, the more potential evidence they find. And what was that evidence? They were a set of purported bloody sheets, and it literally, literally took my breath away. Months after the house was searched, bloody sheets from that apartment above the garage were recovered,

and later, a green cord. Investigators wondered if it could be the murder weapon. Is there any evidence to indicate that, in fact, that cord was used to kill Shanti? No, that cord did not have any DNA on it. A lot of smoke, but no smoking gun. Nothing that directly connects David Tranez to his wife's death, unless you believe this man, Edward Gismondi. He slept next to me and I slept next to him. Edward Gismondi was a cellmate of David Tranez, and he claims that the man who never gave an inch to detectives spilled it all to him. He says the two men bonded over shared interests in obscure hallucinogenics, including sapo, a poison derived from a South American frog. He said that you could use sapo to put in people's salsa

and kill them quietly. Why would David need a killer salsa? Gizmondi, who is no longer in jail, claimed that Shanti had uncovered David's extramarital activities and wasn't happy. He just said there was an app on his phone that there was messages on that she had found, apparently, that suggested he was having sex with men. And she was going to show everybody. And what did Dave say he did?

He snapped. He said he freaked out. And did what? He didn't specifically say what he did, but that he had killed his wife. The problem is, there's no proof of any such app on David's phone. I've read your statement, and at no point do I see anywhere where you had told them that David actually said, I killed my wife. But sitting here now, you said Dave told you, I killed my wife. Yes, ma'am. In jail, he said, I killed my wife.

Word for word is what he told me. But why wouldn't you tell the state's attorney's office that? I did. I told him that he had snapped. That's the word that I used. I don't remember if she had asked me, did he admit to murdering her? Like, word for word like that? Is Gizmondi telling the truth? After years of covering cases like this, I have my doubts about jailhouse informants.

Gizmondi is now a registered sex offender. David's attorney, Richard Zaleski, says you shouldn't believe his story. This individual certainly has credibility issues. It's now been more than four years since Shanti's death, and David Tranez has yet to go on trial. Ryan Vescio left the state attorney's office in 2019 and now represents Shanti Cooper's estate. He says he thinks he knows how Shanti died, but not why. We found one single earring was placed on the nightstand.

The other earring was in Shanti's ear. And what does that say to you? That tells me that Shanti was most likely sitting on the side of her bed, preparing for bed, taking those earrings out, and that's when the attack happened. Vecchio says there was some kind of argument. Was it over the house and the never-ending bills?

Was it over David's alleged affairs with men? Vessio doesn't know, but he says that Shanti never used her phone again after 11.30 p.m. on April 23, 2018, and that her sheets and the bed frame were sprinkled with her blood. The scene was consistent with this attack happening somewhere in the midnight to 2, 3 a.m. time period. But it's just a theory, not proof. David's attorney, Richard Zaleski, says there just isn't enough evidence to convict his client of murder. Raising doubt isn't going to be difficult here.

Is he scared? Oh, terrified. Terrified. He's locked up in isolation and his life is on the line. But David Tranas may have already lost in the court of public opinion. Most of Shanti's family and friends have turned against him, like Cindy Dow, Shanti's aunt, who once found David so charming. She feels very differently now. He has to be found guilty. He is guilty. He should be sentenced to death.

I want him to remember when he looks at me. I want him to remember every lie. Every lie. But as for me, I'm keeping an open mind. I've been covering murder mysteries too long to jump to easy conclusions. And you can be sure when David Trones goes on trial in early June, I'll be here to tell you the end of this story.

I'm Erin Moriarty, 48 Hours, and this is my life of crime. The podcast series is developed by 48 Hours in partnership with CBS News Radio. Judy Tigard is 48 Hours' executive producer. Steve Dorsey is CBS News Radio executive producer. Production and editing for this season of My Life of Crime is by Alan Pang. Daniel Levy is our coordinating producer. by Alan Pang. Daniel Levy is our coordinating producer. This episode was also produced by Paula Rosa and Charlotte Fuller of 48 Hours. Craig Swagler is vice president and general manager of CBS News Radio. And finally, a thanks to all of you, our listeners. We owe it all to you, the millions of 48 Hours fans. Don't forget to join me

online. I'm at EF Moriarty on Twitter, and we're at 48 Hours on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. See you soon. If you like this podcast, you can listen ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app. Before you go, tell us about yourself by filling out a quick survey at wondery.com slash survey. 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

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