Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - Serial killer hunts for victims on Tinder dating app

Episode Date: August 3, 2018

Women say Danueal Drayton with a smooth talker and good with words, but he apparently also heard voices inside his head that told him to strangle his dates. Drayton is suspected of murdering as many as seven women, including a Queens, New York, nurse he met on the Tinder dating app and another woman he met during an Uber pool ride in Los Angeles. Nancy Grace digs into this horrific story with experts including Cold Case Research Institute director Sheryl McCollum, lawyer Ashley Willcott, psychologist Caryn Stark, and reporter Chcuk Roberts. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace on Sirius XM Triumph. He choked me like I still have the mark here to this day from him sticking his thumbs, like his thumbs so far in my throat. He was trying to kill me. He repeatedly kept saying, I'm going to kill you. I'm going i'm gonna kill you i'm gonna kill you i'm gonna kill you i'm scared for my life my mom and me we were living downstairs from a murderer that a great loss to me and my family you know so right now i am just trying to cope with this

terrible situation at this point in time any any comments that he's made to us about his participation in other crimes has not been verified yet. But there is a lot of work to do. He is just a sick individual. He never seemed like that type of guy. Right after he committed a gruesome murder, he destroyed my family. He went to California and almost did the same thing. Just caught him before he could destroy another family. A man who knocks out a nurse's teeth,

then strangles her dead in her home, responsible for up to seven other murders, and is the MO, the modus operandi, the method of operation, the use of the dating app, Tinder? I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. Thank you for being with us. Authorities say a 27-year-old man out of Connecticut could be responsible for up to seven murders. In fact, he says he, quote, may have killed at least seven people.

To Cheryl McCollum, Cold Case Research Institute director, Cheryl, how do you, you're not clear on that you may have killed seven people well he's you know kind of led them to believe that there's going to be more victims nancy and looking at his activity on the dating app are going to lead them to i think many many more victims i mean because here's the deal when When a woman says, I'm 30, you know what that means, right? She's at least 33, 34. So when he says, I may have killed seven people. Uh-uh.

Ashley Wilcott. That's not what that means at all. No, that's not what that means. I would agree with you. They're random victims. And I think there are many, many more than we know, but I think the advantage to him finding them on Tinder is that we can track that and find who the victims are. You know what else is interesting? With me, Cheryl McCollum, director of the Cold Case Research Institute, Ashley Wilcott, judge, lawyer, founder of childCrimeWatch.com. Renowned New York psychologist Karen Stark and Crime Stories investigative reporter Chuck Roberts.

You know what else is interesting about this? Well, there's so many things. Karen Stark, can you come from anywhere richer than New Haven, Connecticut? I mean, I just imagine all the rich people sitting around country clubs eating, let me see, honey-flavored almonds out of silver, little silver bowls and people bringing it to them.

I mean, New Haven, that always strikes me. When someone grows up with no opportunity and no education and no idea what they can possibly do to make a living I'm not surprised when they rob a 7-eleven and then the next time they do it with a gun and then the next time somebody's dead okay I'm not saying it has to be that way but I I get the person is without hope. And I'm not making an excuse because I want them in jail. I don't care where they come from.

But when you've got someone surrounded by opportunity and lifestyles that clearly show you don't have to resort to crime. There are other ways to live. To me, it makes the crime even worse. Well, I feel like it doesn't necessarily, Nancy, mean that you resort to that means to get to the same place as the people around you. But in certain circumstances, people who are born without any conscience, who can't see themselves as working hard to meet their goals, will go ahead and prey upon the people around them

and use any kind of means to get the things that they want. He also is somebody who's enjoying it. Oh, he's totally enjoying it. In fact, one of his quotes was, my body did this, not my mind. Nancy, I am glad you are sitting down because there's a lot more to tell you about. Daniel Drayton actually has talked to a reporter while locked up in the jail in Los Angeles for the Daily News. And listen to what he said. He said the voices made him do it. He says he remembers strangling Samantha Stewart, the Queen's nurse. He said he met her for a date,

visited at a racetrack with her, and then they even ate pizza. He said, quoting now, I really liked her. I didn't want to kill her. They told me she had to die. Talking about the voices, he says, I'm a passenger in my own body. It's mind control, he said. They use direct energy weapons on me to control my mind. Drayton says that he used bleach to clean up the crime scene, but that he intentionally left a huge clue for police to link to him, hoping that he would get caught. He left behind his Egyptian cologne.

He said, I wanted to get caught. I took some of her things with me and I used them. I kept my same phone. I knew they could track it. I didn't know her things with me and I used them. I kept my same phone. I knew they could track it. I didn't know how long it would take. I didn't want anyone else to get hurt, he said. And according to the Daily News reporter, he had tears in his eyes when he said that. Oh, my stars. You know, Cheryl McCollum on this theory that the guy is from New Haven Connecticut and I had uh didn't even know anything about New Haven Connecticut until I lived in New York for so many years

going up there to start the show with Johnny Cochran for Court TV and a lot of people that worked in the TV industry would commute. They would commute in from New Haven. And when I drove, well, took a train out there, and look, I couldn't believe it. Cheryl, am I making any sense? I mean, you and I have been immersed in fighting crime for so long. It always shocks me when somebody feels they don't they don't know how else to make a living they don't know how how else to survive they're surrounded by crime they grow

up in crime so they commit a crime right i'm not saying it's right i'm saying okay i understand that but when somebody comes from surroundings of the lapse of luxury it to me it's always another slap in the face because they knew better sure this kind of reminds me of the preppy murder like you look at this guy and you don't see how did you go from this this picturesque place in new haven where you've got yale and all these fabulous people with money and opportunities yeah you don't see them i don't know that i would say fabulous cheryl i would say rich and where you've got Yale and all these fabulous people with money and opportunities. Yeah, you don't see them all the time. I don't know that I would say fabulous, Cheryl.

I would say rich. Because, you know, rich people can get mean when you mess with their money. You know, I've never seen a stingier person than a rich person. You can, but when I say fabulous, I just mean like the parties and the homes and the surroundings. I mean, you know, it's just, it's wonderful. It's an opportunity that most people just walk past. You see it, but it's not a life that you can attain. But again, something went terribly wrong. And I don't think we have to go too much further than about 2010 to see a different side of this young man. If you go to high school, there's going to be

girls there that will tell you, yes, you know, we thought this of him or we knew he was going to end up being this way because by 2011, he's got his first strangulation case. 2012, incidentally, is when Tinder started. So the legwork was done for it and i got a feeling he's kind of a finesse type criminal like bundy you know it's interesting his hunting ground not only tender but plenty of fish um okay ladies we have a man amongst us and you know how sensitive they can be um chuck roberts crime online.com investigative reporter. I don't want to leave you out of the mix. Why don't you start at the beginning? Start at the beginning because Cheryl has gone back a couple of years saying his first strangulation victim was not this week or last

week or last month. It was years ago. Start at the beginning, Chuck. Let's figure this thing out. You're right. Chuck, 2011 for strangulation arrest in East Haven served two years for unlawful restraint, total of five years in custody. Wait a minute. How do you get two years for strangling somebody? How'd that happen? I don't know. Also violating a protective order in 2012. Wait a minute.

Did the person die when they see strangled them did they die no they didn't die okay oh that reminds me of something okay um cheryl let me go back to you ashy and karen you'll see why i don't know if you remember this guy i prosecuted um not too long before i left to go start the show with Johnny. And I had a Jane Doe out by a dump and we could we never did identify her. Actually, that is the case I should get back into and see if I can DNA or a familial DNA. Because it's really hard to prosecute a case when you don't know who your victim is because then you can't come up with relationships or who did she see last

or make any kind of connection. Anyway, I had a Jane Doe, and I had just bought a used car, and it was my favorite car ever. It was an old used Saab. I loved it. Midnight blue. Okay. And I was trying to put this case together, trying, trying, trying.

And somehow, I got hooked up with a woman in jail for some other offense. Went to go see her, and she was describing a man that strangled her and kept telling her how beautiful her neck was and my Jane Doe had been strangled dead we knew that much about her there was something about her that remind that somehow I got connected to this woman in in jail and she was describing the perp that molested her and strangled her but she lived and she was telling me the things he said during the strangulation and I was leaving the I think it was the Gwinnett County ladies jail coming back to inner city Atlanta and it was lightly raining outside very lightly saw a red light hit the brakes the car skidded totaled I was thinking about that woman the way she described him telling her how beautiful her neck was as he was strangling her I ran into a taxi cab parked at the red light totaled my car

all that happened to him was the button flew off his pants. Okay, that's all that happened to him. Anyway, that's why I remember that incident. Strangulations don't always end in death. But you're right. In that case, I'm telling you about, it was a precursor to a strangulation homicide, Cheryl, but that's how it started. You're right. That's how it started with this guy. Absolutely. Nancy, not only do I remember that case, I remember me and you would go in the bluff, in the cut,

and we would look for prostitutes that might have had a John pay them to pretend to be strangled. Do you remember that? Looking to see if anybody knows this guy. How do you remember all these details that I cannot remember? I just remember in court trying to strike the jury, and when I would look at the crime scene photos, it would actually make me sick to my stomach and I would go throughout throughout jury trials with never eating during the day

because handling all the guns and the bloody clothes and the I could not just run down to the juror cafeteria and tuck into a plate of steamed veggies. That just was not going to happen. You remember all these details. So my point is, Ashley, you know, you see a precursor here in this 2011 strangulation where the woman lived. That's right. I mean, and Nancy, if you think about a lot of the shows that America likes to watch, like Criminal Minds, they show this to be true. Profilers have identified that frequently crimes like this where people kill by strangulation and their multiple victims start out as less crimes but not murder

and then it escalates to this which is what happened in this case well this guy the dating murder suspect. You're right, Ashley, by the way. A quote, dream guy at first. A dream guy at first, says his ex-girlfriend. Let's hear what the girlfriend says. We talked about everything. He started to become our best friend in so little time. Okay, Chuck Roberts, CrimeOnline.com investigative reporter. Again, you know, it's Karen Stark. I just can't shut her up. She just, every time I ask you to tell me the facts, she just, there she goes on some case she tried a long time ago. Okay, go ahead, Chuck. Start at the beginning. Well, after his release from the Connecticut prison system, there were two incidents in June of this year. First, he was arrested for the strangulation of his girlfriend. She was they had dated for about five months.

They met on what you call the plenty of fish, another dating website back in November. And she was able to get away. And because she screamed loudly and there were construction workers nearby and he got scared and she ran off back to her home and he followed her to her home. And her brother was there and apparently subdued Dayton somehow. That was June 13th. And June 17th, a woman he'd met on Tinder reports Dayton strangled her until she passed out. And both of those incidents led to his court appearance in early July. But he was released by Nassau County because there was no record of his Connecticut convictions. So he's strangling women until they pass out. Right.

But he gets, it's a revolving door because nobody's dead yet. Exactly. Nobody is dead yet. Well, now there are up to seven women dead. Listen to this. This individual uses dating websites to meet women and then victimize these women. There's potentially more victims out there. Two independent investigations, as they progressed, led our detectives to one and the same individual.

That individual was tracked across the country. The common denominator in these two cases, one being a murder, one being a rape, is dating websites. You know what? It is so hard to work cold cases. I know. I have worked them myself. Especially when you know your co-workers and colleagues have already worked the case. But there's a former prosecutor named Kelly Siegler who is a true champion for justice, and she is on a mission across America. What I love about Oxygen's Cold Justice program

is that Kelly and her team of detectives take on real unsolved murder cases and get real answers for victims and their families. You will love how immersive this show is. You feel like you're right there with the team riding shotgun. They are passionate crusaders for justice, and I like that. That's what makes each case so personal to this team. Watch the new season of Cold Justice tomorrow at 6, 5 central on Oxygen.

A beautiful young nurse found in her home, her teeth knocked out, her tongue hanging out, covered in a white sheet. All because she went on Tinder or Plenty of Fish. This guy now saying he, quote, may have killed seven women. What are we, like paper cups? You use it, you just crumple it and throw it away. You know, I might have killed seven. What? And it all starts seemingly with dating apps, Tinder and Plenty of Fish. Okay, joining me in addition to Cheryl McCollum, Ashley Wilcott, Karen Stark, and Chuck Roberts,

Jackie Howard here in the studio, and Alan Duke. Alan, I'm just guessing out of all of us, you would be the dating app expert. No, you know. Not judging, not judging, not judging. I mean that. A lot of my friends have gotten married off dating apps I can't think of any off the top of my head but it does happen so okay tell me about plenty of fish well these are they all follow the same thing in that it's

easy to create a profile and it's relatively easy to be fake and anonymous. And, well, that's what social media seems to be all about these days, is fake. And no, I have never used one of these because I meet all of my wives in court. That's usually, that's actually, court and church. That's where I, the last one, my current and last wife,

and only wife now, is I met at a court trial. Okay, you know, Alan, I don't know that I would brag about that, And last wife and only wife now is I met at a court trial. Okay. You know, Alan, I don't know that I would brag about that, but that's you and your business. I'm butting out. I've got seven dead bodies I've got to think about. So Chuck Roberts, CrimeOnline.com investigative reporter, how do we go from a guy who was play acting at strangling women for seemingly years, starting in 2011, to at least seven dead bodies.

And if somebody admits to seven, I guarantee you there are more. Take me through that. Well, the first murder victim was brutally murdered at the strangulation death of Samantha Stewart, a 29-year-old Queens nurse. And the DNA from that event matched the earlier rape of the woman I just referred to, the Brooklyn woman, who, by the way, had taken a picture of Drayton at a pizza place. So they used both the DNA and the facial recognition technology from that picture to come up with the suspect, Daniel Drayton. And from that, they put out an arrest warrant.

They found that he had gone to JFK Airport, left his white Ford there, used Samantha Stewart's credit card to buy a one-way ticket to Los Angeles. And on July 24th, they tracked him down to an apartment in North Hollywood, where they found him with a bound and gagged woman. And she was freed. He was charged with attempted murder, forcible rape, false imprisonment by violence, and sexual penetration by a foreign object. This is all in the North Hollywood arrest. And he was taken to court and is being held on a $1.25 million bail. But at that point, you're right. With this woman bound and gagged at the apartment. He confesses to seven overall slayings, two in Connecticut, one each in the Bronx and Suffolk, and one more in either Queens or Nassau. Nassau County and Queens are adjoining.

You know, that reminds me so much of the case I was telling you about, Ashley Wilcott, because this woman survived to tell her story. She came that close to death. And when he is prosecuted for the murders, seven that we know of right now, she will be a witness as a similar transaction. Explain, Ashley, why similar transactions, you know, typically in our jurisprudence system, someone's past crimes are not allowed in court. We want a jury to determine guilt based on the facts surrounding the case in chief, not because of a bad reputation. But similar transactions are different, Ashley. Why? They're different because it goes directly to the MO, which you mentioned earlier, and that is what is his modus operandi. And it's exactly proof that this is his MO. And this is how he strangled one person and then did the exact same crime moving forward,

but actually murdering multiple victims. The other thing I have to say, Nancy, is what terrifies me. When you have someone who says, oh, about seven people, or I murdered maybe seven people, I think it potentially means he killed so many people, he himself can't even tell you the exact number. That's what I'm saying. That's what I'm screaming. Now, this guy, the Tinder app. Oh, wait, wait, wait. Jump in. I can't imagine that he does not remember the exact number of people because part of the MO, part of the profile of a person like this is that he remembers each one. If he doesn't have souvenirs in his head he relives them and plays them that's part of his

enjoyment okay that is sick Karen absolutely Nancy let me jump in too go not only that we know this guy is a planner using Tinder means he didn't just snatch somebody off the street of opportunity. He spent time finding these women, talking on the phone, and setting up dates. So if you look at what he could find out, he knew they were single. He knew whether or not they had a dog. He knew if they had a roommate, what hobbies they had, what they looked like, where they live. This is beyond a Bundy that would finesse you for 30 minutes or so. This is somebody that spent hours talking to you on the phone. He's almost like a cat and mouse person. When he strangled the one victim in the park, the girlfriend that he allowed to live because of the, you know, people that helped her, he was saying to her as he was strangling her,

I'm going to kill you, I'm going to kill you, I'm going to kill you. He, I guarantee you, remembers every single rape and every single murder. You know, this guy had previously been arrested for strangulation in Nassau County on June 30. He's got five priors, prior convictions in connecticut alone including that 2011 strangulation arrest we now believe he has at least at least seven other victims but those victims cannot come forward. Now, this is what we know. This guy used dating websites. So far we know of Tinder and Plenty of Fish. Are there others?

This is according to the NYPD Chief of Detectives, Dermot Shea. He told us that at a press conference in the last hours. How many more women are dead at his hands? We don't know. Right now, he's being held on $1.25 million bail in L.A., and he's got a hold on him in other jurisdictions. This guy is attacking women across the country. Take a listen to what one victim's dad has to say. I'm glad that they catch him before he committed this murder, you know, but he's a monster. My daughter, Samantha, is the daughter that every parents want to have. You can't let a person like this walk out of jail scot-free without a ban.

My daughter will be living today. It's hard, man. It's somebody who... People suffer through the hands of this guy. It makes me sick to my stomach. I can't believe somebody, a monster like that would be on the street. If he was locked up, my daughter would be still alive today. You know, I am shattered. Broken system for somebody like him to be released and released on his own to be roaming the street to kill my daughter. I have the courage to come out. Please do not hide behind the curtain. Please come step forward because my daughter, I don't want my daughter to die in vain. According to what we think right now, we're trying to piece the puzzle together.

Two victims in Connecticut, one in Suffolk, one in Queens, one in California, one in Bronx. How many more are there? Because these dating apps pop up victims all over the world. It's like going hunting for him. He can go hunt for women in any jurisdiction, any state, any locality that has the Internet. So back to you, Chuck Roberts. What do we know? What, if anything, do we know about his MO.

This guy who knocked out a nurse's teeth strangles her to death in her home. She is found with her teeth knocked out, her tongue hanging out, with a white sheet over her. Her little brother makes the horrific discovery. In a very nice neighborhood, you should see this woman. She's absolutely gorgeous. She just glows in her photo. 29-year-old Samantha Stewart.

I wonder if this was her dating app photo. Back to you, Chuck Roberts, CrimeOnline.com investigative reporter. What, if anything, do we know about his M.O.? Well, apparently he was a charmer because his girlfriend, his 26-year-old girlfriend, who was strangled and who reported it, called him a cool guy with a big vocabulary. He was able to fix cars. Apparently he was, they apparently fell apart back in April, and she was gradually trying to break off the relationship from April until the attack in June and was unable to do so. And he, you know, he he strangled her in that park, as we said. What happened in Connecticut, though, and why the Nassau County judge didn't hold him at that point

is beyond explanation. The only explanation apparently is that the record from Connecticut didn't make it to the courthouse in Nassau. The county says, and I quote, it would have been impossible for the judge at that time to foresee the allegations that are presently unfolding and coming to light. So they're trying to... Other than all the previous offenses he had under his belt already? Exactly right. I mean, it goes on and on and on. This is what we know, a cool, so-called cool guy with a big vocabulary that knew all sorts of trivia and facts how to fix a car you name it right now police in the process of unraveling the full extent of this killer's horrific deeds across the country this guy's name daniel drayton just, set to be extradited back home in connection with the murder of one woman, the rape of another.

And now the judge who let him walk saying, well, I had no idea. Cheryl McCollum, what about looking at his rap sheet? Every judge has the guy's rap sheet right in front of him. What about that? Wouldn't that be a good indicator? Don't let him out of jail. Not only that, Nancy, the prosecutor begged him, literally pleaded with him not to let this guy out. And not only does he do it, he lets him out on his own recognizance. Nancy. Whoa, wait,

I didn't know that part. Hold on, Karen. I'm bringing you right back in. Cheryl, whoa, I did not know the prosecutor begged the judge. Chuck Roberts, Alan Duke, see if you can dig up the name of the judge for me to let this guy walk. The prosecutor, Cheryl McCollum, begged the judge, don't let him out. The judge let him out. Not just let him out, but ROR. Please explain what that is, ROR. You can basically sign your own bond.

You don't have to put up any cash or any property. The judge says, hey, I believe you'll show back up for court, so you can go ahead and go. Nancy, this is Ashley. Can I interject? Please. This is part of what frustrates me sometimes about our justice system, and that is people, and in this case particularly the judge, get caught up in the appearance of a criminal defendant, right? And so they think, oh, they're articulate. They're a cool guy.

He's nice looking. Look at the picture on your website. He's nice looking. So what when it comes to justice? But it's like this judge decided he's got all these great attributes. I'm sure this was a one-time incident, which is not good. But wait, but it was a one-time incident of an attempted strangulation. So I don't understand.

We're talking about the fact that this leads to worse crimes. How a judge wouldn't understand that this is the beginning, just the start of something that will get worse over time, even if he thought it was a one-time incident. He should have. That's what I'm saying. The judge should have. The other reality is he was interrupted by Good Samaritan. He was strangling her to kill her. That would have been yet another dead body chalked up to him. Cheryl, here's a good indicator to me. I know it may not seem like a lot to you guys, but when they tried to bring him out of his cell to go to court,

he refused to go and started a fight with the sheriffs. He missed the bus. That's a big deal, and I'll tell you why. The inmates in the jail, the county jail, when they're brought over to court, they get up at like three o'clock in the morning because you have to feed them. You got to get them assembled. You got to get them all in a secure bus, a county bus that's tricked out to keep violent felons from getting out of it. They get to the courthouse. At my court, at my old courthouse, they had an underground entry. They were not up on the street coming in

and out the front door with the jurors and the judges. No. They go underneath the building. Then a gate would close down after them. And then they will come up a secure, or what we thought was a secure, elevator. So it takes a long time, and then maybe they'd be there on time for court, all right? So when you miss that bus, that means that you have created such an uproar and such a problem for the jail, for the sheriffs. My point is, Cheryl, it didn't bother him at all to take on a bunch of sheriffs and to delay justice, to delay everybody getting to the court, to delay the entire procedure. If he would do that with a bunch of burly male sheriffs? What would he do with a single woman after they'd

been out on a date? What do you think would happen with her? He'd knock her teeth out and kill her. Chuck Roberts, CrimeOnline.com investigative reporter. Seven dead women, at least, is what we're looking at

here. Other attempted strangulations, a criminal history back to 2011. And this judge, no problem. Yeah, you can go ROR with the DA begging, please, please don't let him out. So who's this judge? Who is the judge? The Nassau County judge that allowed Drayton free is Erica Prager. Judge Prager has been on the bench in Nassau County, Long Island, since May 2001, assigned to a criminal calendar, presiding over bench and jury trials, pleas, sentencing, hearings. She started as an assistant district attorney in Brooklyn,

presiding over criminal cases. She has worked in private practice, and she's appeared as a commentator on court TV. She apparently didn't realize that he was a man with a violent past who authorities had charged with felony strangulation to be released without bond. She initially set a bail at $1,000, according to the district attorney's office, but Drayton made a second appearance, and the prosecutor asked for a higher bail, $7,500, but for some reason, Judge Prager agreed to release him without bail, noting that he didn't pose any flight risk. Of course, it's normal practice for judges to have the arrest and conviction record of any defendant, any offender, in front of her before the ruling. But apparently, this judge ruled that Drayton had first offender status and would not be of significant imminent

harm to the community. There was a document presented to the judge during the hearing that indicated Drayton had no other criminal history. Again, this is according to the Nassau County Court spokesman, Dan Bugdula. He says, in this case, the judge carefully considered the facts before her and made her determination based on all the current relevant and factual information. So apparently there was a miscommunication or a breakdown in the communication between Connecticut authorities and the court in Nassau County, New York. So after rejecting the request by the DA's office to hold Drayton on a bail, Judge Prager released Drayton,

no conditions attached. Obviously, he had to make a later court appearance. Can you blame the court if the judge had no information about the five arrests and the convictions in Connecticut? I don't really, I don't know that, because when the prosecutor's begging, I don't believe that. I do not believe the judge didn't know. Are you telling me, Chuck Roberts, CrimeOnline.com investigative reporter, that the DA bet the prosecutor begged not to release the guy on bond? But the bond the prosecutor was asking for was well below $10,000. So I'm not sure that being from New Haven, Connecticut, he couldn't have posted bond. But don't forget, he was on trial. I don't care what it was.

When the DA's telling you, don't let him out, ROR, and the judge does it, the DA's saying that for a reason. Cheryl McCollum, please explain why, to me, that's impossible. When I would have a bond hearing and somebody would be assigned, it would rotate week by week. He was doing bond hearings we do them like twice a week it take all day into the evening to have bond hearings we wouldn't even do a bond hearing without a rap sheet and the arrest report i mean the the defense attorney

that was asking for the bond had to provide the police report and a bond application. So you'd have the police report in front of you. The DA would show up with either a witness and a rap sheet or a rap sheet. I mean, you don't do a bond hearing without a rap sheet. I know the DA had to have the rap sheet. I don't believe that for one minute. They had the rap sheet. They had the victim statement.

They had witnesses that came and said, look, it took three of us to get this guy off of her in a park. This wasn't a slap in the face. This wasn't a push. This was a violent strangulation where he potentially would have killed her if not for good Samaritan. Nancy, the reality, the reality is if that judge had given him a bond and it delayed him six hours, it could have saved somebody's life. A tender serial killer, now a rape and murder suspect, found with a captive date. Karen Stark, renowned New York psychologist, he has his, quote, date tied up, gagged, and bound.

That means that he's not going there because he's interested in dating. He's going there because he wants to enjoy violent crimes against these women. It's not even something that's passionate the way that we would think, oh, they have a sexual interest. He's violent. He enjoys the fact that these women are going to suffer.

That's why he talks to them. That's why he wants them to tell going to suffer. That's why he talks to them. That's why he wants them to tell him to stop. The more they tell him to stop, the more he's going to be interested in making them suffer. It's not like he wants to just immediately kill somebody. He enjoys the performance. Now, Chuck Roberts, just earlier before I followed that train of thought, were you saying something about parole? He was on parole from Connecticut. Yeah. He was still apparently showing up. But his parole officer had lost track of him. His Connecticut parole officer had no idea where he was.

So he was on the run from the state of Connecticut where he lived. And the judge, the only thing the judge said apparently was that Drayton posed no flight risk and rejected the DA's call to hold him on $7,500 bail. Now, this is after his parole officer can't find him? Yeah, but I'm not sure that that information got to the Nassau County Courthouse. It was another state. This is what I do know. Police used facial recognition technology to link him to the sex assault of a 23-year-old woman he met on Tinder. Now, in that case, the victim said he choked her unconscious, when she came to he was trying to rape her now before the assault she had snapped a photo of him at a pizzeria now cheryl mccollum how does facial recognition technology work they take the facial feature the cheekbones, the jaw, the nose, everything. And they will literally come up with this is the person.

So they use it now with airports. A lot of us have been, you know, even to other countries. Argentina uses it. So when you come in, what would your passport? Does this person match that photo? They ID you based on what you look like. And I'll tell you something, Nancy, this case is going to get broad. You're going to look at these spider web investigations. They need to look at

Rhode Island and Boston, as well as Connecticut and New York. Alan, what can you tell me about meeting one victim through Uber? Well, after he killed the nurse, he used her credit card to buy a one-way ticket to California, landing in Los Angeles. And that's when he met his last victim. She was a fellow passenger in an Uber pool out here in Los Angeles. Uber pool, it has become basically a social app on its own. I happen to have friends who say that they call an Uber pool in the Hollywood area simply so they can meet women or meet men, that it's a very social thing. You share a ride with somebody and chances are in Hollywood, it could be a beautiful young actress sitting next to you in that ride across over to Beverly Hills. And people actually hook up that way in Hollywood.

So long story short, it doesn't have to be an Uber ride where you or you and your children get in. You can be sharing the ride with other people. I mean, there are levels of Uber. There's like diamond, there's black, there's carpooling. You're paying like three bucks to go maybe four or five miles across hollywood and you're sitting next to an actor on a way to an audition that is a very normal thing out here and of course out here is where he was arrested and he said during the uber

ride they hit it off and they both went to her apartment in North Hollywood where he then choked her. Drayton then said he considered killing himself thinking about swallowing a whole bottle of Advil but by that time the police found him first. He says that when police finally arrested him he was relieved. You know to Ashley Wilcott I think that people that meet on dating apps or online are somehow looked down on and I really don't get it I know so many people that have met on apps um my nephew married someone they now have a baby they met on an app in our world it's it's hard in a big, it's hard to break the ice and meet people that you have anything in common with. And I wonder, Ashley, if there's not some sort of derision against these women, toward these women, because they were on dating apps. You know, so here's the thing, Nancy. I

think that, yes, there's a large part of society that looks down on dating apps. But the reality is, especially those who are younger, it is a way of life. It is a norm. So many people use the dating apps. The problem is not whether or not they're looked down on. The problem is that regrettably, they can become very, very easy targets for people like this heinous criminal. You know, another thing, Cheryl McCollum, director of the Cold Case Research Institute, is that several of these women have been quoted that he dated say that, and this is for months, say he was a, quote, cool guy. How can that be?

Well, it's absolutely true. Again, he's like a Bundy. He's attractive. He's smart. He's well-traveled. So when you meet him, you think, gosh, you know, this guy's awesome. And, you know, maybe even too good to be true. Again, he's a cat and mouse type killer.

He's playing with you. Yeah, he's going to get in the Uber and ride around with you. He's going to get on Tinder and look at your profile and call you repeatedly and set up a date with you. He's playing. He's getting off on all of this he's got a plan that you are so unaware of you just think oh my gosh i've met this great guy and we're going to go to dinner he's at home saying i've met the perfect victim i'm going to kill him you know it's interesting one woman that met him on plenty of fish quote there weren't any issues nothing

awkward she said she was smitten by his large vocabulary quote he was a cool guy he seemed nice he was a good listener i don't know if he was pretending but he would act like he was interested in what i was doing for a living they actually actually dated six months. And finally, his jealousy was the end of it. And she would begin to distance herself more and more, not answering the phone as much. She said he would sit outside her window and watch her and call her name, knocking on her door. Okay, that's freaky in itself, Karen Stark.

It sure is, and it's a very good indication that something is wrong with this guy. Unfortunately, these kind of killers, just as Ashley had said, Ted Bundy, they are very intelligent and smooth talkers, and it's easy for people to be impressed by them. They come across as your perfect date. And yet behind it, fortunately for this person, she was able to see that there is something that's very evil and frightening about him, this extreme jealousy, this insecurity that emerges. And they're insecure or else they'd be able to be regular daters. They wouldn't need to have to shower everybody with their fine vocabulary and their smooth talking.

Well, according to what happened in that scenario, compare this to the other Cheryl. The victim says, quote, I put my car in drive, my seatbelt was still on, the doors were still locked. I told him to go. He looked at me and said, so we're really not getting back together? You don't see a future?

And began strangling her, calling her an effing B. I'm going to kill you. I'm going to kill you. I told you it's just me and you okay the next day he keeps calling her and coming to her house like what happened didn't matter threatening to kill her son he slashes her car tires he threatened to set her car on fire. Finally, cops arrest him. That was June 30, and they release him five days later on July 5th. Hold on.

Allen, let's hear what the girlfriend says. I relive it every day, you know. Nobody pitches this in life, dating somebody, being with somebody, that this moment would happen. I just try to get away. He was like, so you really don't see us getting back together? I was like, no. And that's when he just looked at me in the car and then jumped across, had both of his knees on top of my knees while my seatbelt was still on,

and my car was, he somehow pushed my gear into park. And I'm sitting here, he got two of his, like, took two of his hands, stuck his whole thumb in my throat. And that's why I still have the mark to this day. He kept his thumb there and was like, I'm gonna kill you, I'm gonna kill you, I'm gonna kill you. At some point, did you think, this is it? When he was choking me, I can't even, like, describe the feeling.

That's when I kept feeling like, this is it. The guys that came to the scene, they describe the feeling. That's when I kept feeling like this is it. The guys that came to the scene, they called the police. If those three men didn't appear, I wouldn't be here. I felt guilty in the beginning because I kept feeling like, how can I not see the signs? Has this changed your outlook on those online dating apps? Completely. I deleted every single one. And it's just so scary because you just never know who somebody is at all.

You are hearing the former girlfriend, Zania Barney, describing what Drayton did to her, and that's courtesy of our friends at ABC. You know, when you hear her, I can't help but think, Cheryl McCollum, she was an inch away from losing her life leaving behind a little boy no question at all nancy i'm going to break this down any man will tell you they can treat a girlfriend differently than somebody they just dated or had a date with so in six months he could have had some real feelings for this young woman but it still comes

down to control he's gonna control her she is something that belongs to him somebody that he just met on tinder and is going to show up and rape her or kill her that night he doesn't have real feelings for so again btkK, Bundy, these people married. So they can separate their lives. Men can treat a wife fabulous and go to a prostitute that night and treat her not so great. Men can separate. This is what you see here in this case.

Right now, the search for those bodies goes on. Nancy Grace, Crime Stories, signing off. Goodbye, friend. This is an iHeart Podcast.