Crime Weekly - S1 Ep15: The Murder of Krystal Beslanowitch (Part I)

Episode Date: March 19, 2021

Subscribe to our new YouTube Channel!: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_NhRiyowalHnbKjveNQxxA On December 16th, 1995, the body of 17 year old Krystal Beslanowitch was found along the Provo River near Midway, a mountain town 38 miles southeast of Salt Lake City Utah. She was found lying face down and completely naked, surrounded by large river rocks which were covered in blood. She had been beaten savagely to the point where she was unrecognizable, and police knew that whoever had murdered Krystal had done so with a lot of rage, utilizing one of the river rocks lying nearby to hit Krystal in her head and face at least a dozen times. Today on Crime Weekly we are going to discuss this case, and how it went cold for over two decades before improved technology and a dedicated police force were able to finally uncover who killed Krystal Beslanowitch. Website: CrimeWeeklyPodcast.com Instagram: @CrimeWeeklyPod Twitter: @CrimeWeeklyPod Facebook: @CrimeWeeklyPod

On December 16, 1995, the body of 17-year-old Crystal Beslanowicz was found along the Provo River near Midway, a mountain town 38 miles southeast of Salt Lake City, Utah. She was found lying face down and completely naked, surrounded by large river rocks which were covered in blood. She had been beaten savagely to the point where she was unrecognizable, and police knew that whoever had murdered Crystal had done so with a lot of rage, utilizing one of the river rocks lying nearby to hit Crystal in her head and face at least a dozen times. Today on Crime Weekly, we are going to discuss this case and how it went cold for almost two decades before improved technology and a dedicated police force

were able to finally uncover who killed Krystal Beslanowicz. Hello everybody, I'm Stephanie Harlow. And I'm Derek Levasseur. And this is Crime Weekly. We are back after a week break or a week's break, but we're back regardless. And you want to talk a little bit about why we decided to take a week off? Well, some of you may be seeing it right now. There's a few things going on. First and foremost, we were with Main Event Media, great company, loved working with them. But without getting into the weeds, there's definitely

some things that happen when you're working with a larger company. There's more people involved, lawyers, et cetera, things like that. And anything that Stephanie and I wanted to do, it just had to go through a more extensive process. And it really slows up our ability to research and include certain things that we want to include in the episode. So we mutually agreed to go and do our own thing. They were great about it. They gave us no issues. Plus, as some of you can see now, we want to do a YouTube channel. I think we have one of the best true crime YouTubers in the game. And we wanted to take advantage of it. And a lot of you were asking for it. So

we took that week off to kind of make that happen. Yes. So and we, like Derek said, we kind of just wanted to do our own thing. And a lot of people were commenting that we were constantly qualifying, saying that's just my opinion or saying, what else are we saying? Allegedly, things like that. And we really had to do that because we were working with a large company that had a legal team and everything was run through the lawyers. But now we're going to, you know, we get to be a little bit less obnoxious about it, I guess. So I'm excited to see where it goes. We definitely saw your comments. And I cringe sometimes when I see it because sometimes we're forced to do it.

I will say there are going to be occasions when we do it because we have to. We're talking about cases that in some situations are unsolved. And we have to make sure we're qualifying our statements because, listen, there are people out there, lawyers included, who are looking for an opportunity to sue someone. And so we're not going to give them that chance. Yeah, so it's going to be great. Thank you to everybody who's been joining us on the podcast. Thank you to everybody who's been giving us great reviews.

And if you haven't given us a great review yet, you definitely should. Also, thank you to everybody who's followed us on social media, Instagram and Twitter and gone to our website. We really appreciate you guys. And we're only going to grow from here and you'll be growing with us. So thanks for being here. Yeah. I love all your comments. Some of you guessed what we were doing. I guess it wasn't

that big of a surprise, but a lot of you were like, it's a YouTube channel. I know it. And I'm like, we're coming by the way, shout out to my, whoever's watching this for the first time, shout out to my neighbor, Matt, for helping me install this wall behind me. I had nothing. I saw Stephanie's background and I felt really inferior because I'm like, she looks all professional with the high big lens and all this stuff. And I'm like, well, I'm just going to build a wall then. So that's what we did. So shout out to Matt. Thank you. It looks great. Thank you, Matt. I also heard you're very attractive. He's a good looking kid. I said, we got to make a TV show with him. I told him he's going to be

the next Bob Vila. See me on HGTV. Yes. Yes. We're working on it for sure. All right. Well, today we're talking about Crystal Beslano. And for those of you out there who were saying, you know, cover lesser known cases, this is one of those. So Crystal was originally from Spokane, Washington, and she had a hard life since she was a child. Her father had drowned when she was just four years old, and although she was bright and she held promise, wanting to become a writer when she grew up, according to her mother, Linda Torrison, everything went downhill when Crystal got mixed up with the wrong crowd at Spokane Junior High School.

Crystal's stepfather, Jeff Beslanovich, told reporters that she'd been involved in prostitution since she was 12, even though a lot of other sources online claimed that she was involved with prostitution since she was 15. Jeff also claimed that Crystal had been using crack cocaine, and she'd given birth to a child that had been removed from her custody. Before the age of 17, Crystal had already been arrested for theft, prostitution, assault, and drugs. And Jeff Beslanowich told the Desiree News, quote, I feel so sorry for Crystal. She never had a chance in hell, end quote. Apparently, it was Crystal's lack of supervision that allowed her to go down the wrong path, according to Jeff. So we have Crystal's mother, Linda, who blamed Crystal's school and the crowd that she was hanging out

with. And then you've got Jeff saying that it was a lack of supervision. And I interpret this as Jeff sort of pointing the finger at Linda Torres and his ex-wife. So it looked like Jeff and Linda had gotten married in the 70s, but they were only married for a very short time, just six months before going their separate ways. But it has been reported that Jeff attempted at least to raise Crystal as his own. And Crystal has an older stepsister named Tracy, and Tracy Bislonowicz is Jeff's biological daughter. And I mean, we all know, right, there's three sides to every story, his side, her side, and the truth. So it's pretty difficult to determine what exactly happened in Crystal's life that set her down the wrong path. And I'm sure you see this all the time in police work. People involved have their own theories about what's happening.

No matter who you talk to, they're like, oh, it was this person's fault or it was this situation that triggered her to kind of go down the wrong path. And you don't really know what really happened. You don't really know who's to blame or what went wrong. See it all the time. And I don't know if it was the case here. I'm just speaking in generality. There are a lot of situations where it's the home environment. There's something going on in the household where the child is not getting whatever they need. In many cases, there's no supervision. The kids have a lot of freedom. They're able to go out all hours of the night, hang with whoever they want, and there's really

no accountability. There's nobody checking up on them, calling them, et cetera. And once they get on that path, it's hard to get them off of it. And I've seen so many young kids out there, again, in prostitution, selling drugs, doing things like this, because it's all they know. And the people that they're surrounded by, whether it's other prostitutes or gang members or drug dealers, it really does become their family. So that's their friend, that's their father, that's their mother. So it's more than just a way to make money. It's a lifestyle. And once they're in that, it's really hard to pull them out of it. And it seems to me like that's kind of what happened with Crystal. I mean, 12 years old, you think about that for a second. I hope that is wrong. I know

that some said it was 15, but no age is good. But to think 12 years old out there doing that, it's really hard. I mean, even 15. And we also have to keep in mind that Crystal's father died at a very young age. So her mother, Linda, was probably faced with a life that she hadn't planned. Nobody expects that to happen. So she was probably dealing with mental health issues of her own, depression, just sadness trying to cope with this. And being a mother is hard enough when you're not doing it alone or when you're not doing it in the aftermath of losing a spouse. So that could have kind of triggered it. Yeah. She was like, I think Crystal was like four years old, right? Very young. And he drowned from what I understood. Yeah. That can't be good on a son or daughter not having that father presence in there. I mean,

even if he's not dead, just not in their life, it can really hurt their evolution as they become an adult themselves, as they grow to not have that father figure in their life. And it definitely must have had an effect on Crystal. And of course, there's less supervision because you only have one parent now instead of two. And the one surviving parent has to work to provide for the family. So they probably have to work harder and longer, more hours. And so that happens. And you mentioned earlier, you know, the whole issue of prostitution and how you hope it's not 12, but even at 15. But I did want to talk about that, her involvement in prostitution. I do have a hard time referring to it as sex work, right? Even though I know that's what the acceptable term

now. Yep, sex worker. Yeah. For women and men who willingly engage in the act of sex for money. But Jeff Beslanowich said that Crystal was doing this at the age of 12. And even at the age of 15, she's still a minor, right? So I don't really want to call what she was doing sex work because she was 12 or 15. She's not of the age where she can give consent. Yeah. She can't consent to such things. So I don't know why it said, you know, before she was 17, she'd gotten arrested for prostitution. Like what kind of police officer is arresting a minor for prostitution? Isn't this another issue? Like shouldn't, you know, social services be called? Shouldn't something happen apart from arresting her, help her get out of that at that young age?

Yeah. I would like to think that the social services report on her was lengthy and that DCYF was involved and probably working with her on numerous occasions. She was probably a runaway. There was clearly some things going on there because the child was taken from her. Her child was taken from her. So there was clearly a documented history of her having run-ins with the law. But as far as if she was 12 or 13, whatever it was, 12, 13, 14, 15, it's a felony. It's one crime to pay for sex. It's a whole different issue to pay for sex from a minor.

That's child molestation. So it's a bigger deal. And it does raise some questions like if they knew she was in this business, you know, why weren't they, you know, going after the guys who were even picking her up for a ride? Well, that's what I'm saying. You know, I feel like, yeah, bring her in. But the real people who should be under arrest are the men who are who in the house, her mother Linda didn't know what she was doing, what she was up to. But Crystal also had a boyfriend. Now, he's been identified as Chris. His last name has been given in some articles, but I don't want to give it now. So we're just going to call him Chris. And it's reported that Chris was not only her boyfriend, but her pimp as well. In mid-1995, Crystal and Chris together left Spokane and they traveled to Utah where Chris had family. This was not Crystal running away. Her mother knew that she

was going to Utah. Her mother, Linda, has also said that no matter what Crystal did, what she got into, whether it be sex work or drugs, that she had made it a point to let Crystal know that the door was always open, that she could return home and be greeted with open arms no matter what she had done. It just looked like Crystal didn't really take her up on that offer. Yeah. And I'll tell you what, I'm not saying it's the case here, but most of the time, in my experience, the boyfriend is usually the pimp. And there's no way based on, it looks like they were living in a hotel at the time or whatever when this occurred. There's no way Chris didn't know what she was participating in because according to

what I've read, she was the sole financial provider for them. Yeah, he knew. He wasn't working. So he had to know where she was getting this money from. And maybe he's one of the rarities where he was just turning a blind eye. But I think it's more likely in my experience that that guy's usually the one facilitating it. He's their security. He's facilitating it. He's their security. He's their organizer. He's their planner. He's the one setting these things up.

So a lot of the stuff that I saw didn't get into that detail because at the end of the day, that's not what we're here for. But it's a reality that this person more likely than not was enabling her. Yes, I think he knew exactly what she was doing and he was financially benefiting from it. And as far as her mother, Linda, goes, I think at this point, she'd been kind of out of the house for so long that Linda felt kind of helpless to stop her from moving out of the state or convince her not to leave Spokane. So she just sort of stepped back and then allowed her daughter to leave the state, knowing that she had no control over the situation.

And it was also alluded to that the reason Crystal had wanted to move out of the state was because she kind of wanted to take a step in the right direction of getting her life back on track and making an attempt to start over. Once in Utah, Crystal and Chris began living at a motel in North Temple, and this is an area of Salt Lake City that's known for drug activity and prostitution. While residing in Utah, Crystal went by the name Tracy Beslanowich, her older sister's name. Now, it seems that before she left Spokane, Crystal had either taken Tracy's ID or Tracy had let her have it. I get the impression that she had stolen it. But either way, it's suspected that 17-year-old Crystal wanted to be perceived as older, and Tracy, her stepsister, was 20.

It also appears that while in Utah, Crystal did not get her fresh start. And either immediately after moving there or shortly after, she began engaging in prostitution again. On the evening of December 15, 1995, Crystal had finished up with a client and she was at the motel where she and Chris lived. And she told her boyfriend Chris that she was hungry. So she was going to walk to the Circle K that was nearby and get some food. So she put on his brown leather jacket before leaving. She said goodbye. She left. And this was at about 8.30 p.m. And she never came back. Allegedly, when Crystal didn't return, her boyfriend, Chris, went to the Circle K at around 11 p.m. And he was like, you know, how long ago did she get here?

How long ago did she leave? And they informed him that she'd never made it there. Yeah. And there's a couple of things that you can take away from this, because obviously now this is the preliminary information we have about Crystal. We have a time. But again, as an investigator, you're looking at this like the source of this information is someone who is also your primary suspect at the time, right?

It's just the way it works. You know, you have this young woman. She's in a relationship with this man. He may possibly be her pimp. He may not be. Regardless, he's definitely aware. It would be impossible for him not to be aware of what's going on with her. So you have this individual giving you this information about her last known whereabouts, where she was possibly heading and what possible time. And as you're taking in this information, you're also putting it through this filter by putting a flag on it saying, hey, by the way, this is coming from the only person who, our only suspect at this point. So it's the preliminary information. But when I was first reading this, not knowing the details of it, as I was learning about it, my first thought was, I'll be surprised if this was actually the timeline and this is where she was going. So I won't go where it happens with it, but that was my initial thought when I heard it. Is this accurate? And I think as a police officer, you probably also have to

keep in mind that these people are involved in illegal activity. So they may not always be completely upfront and tell you everything from the get, you know? Yeah. And you think about it again, we're going to be saying it a lot. We all, we have been, you know, means motive opportunity. I think the first thing from this is, you know, you have someone who is financially reliant on this individual. Chris was financially reliant on, on crystal. So that's one thing where it might be like, well, why would he, why would he kill someone who's putting a roof over his head? So that would be a couple of my preliminary thoughts going into it. But I think before we go to the next part, we should probably take a quick break because the story is going to

turn really fast. Let's take a moment and talk about Daily Harvest. Daily Harvest is one of my favorite things in the world. It's been a lifesaver for me. Usually during the day, I'm so busy researching, writing, recording, editing. I completely forget to eat. I've noticed that I haven't been taking care of myself. And then by like five or six at night, I'm exhausted because I haven't been fueling my body. So I honestly feel so great that I found Daily Harvest because they deliver delicious food, all built on organic fruits and vegetables right to your door.

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added sugar or artificial anything. And that includes in their recently launched almond milk Speaking of almond milk you mentioned your favorite. My new thing right now is the chocolate chocolate hazelnut Put that in there with some almond milk. I won't lie I don't have any of the of the daily harvest almond milk right now I need to get some of that or daily harvest. You can send us some that'd be great, too But no, it's it's delicious it does fill me up it does give me energy especially on a late night tonight where we're going to be recording for a while it definitely there's definitely a benefit to it and it's not too

shabby that it tastes good too it's funny the way you say almond milk almond milk hi how do you say you said almond milk it's funny yeah almond milk's funny. Yeah, almond milk. Yes. How do you say it? Almond. Almond. Okay, so at 8 a.m. on December 16th, 1995, a rancher and his son, who were feeding their cattle on their property, discovered Crystal's body on the banks of the Provo River. The first officer on scene was Sheriff's Deputy Todd Bonner,

and for the next two years, he would become the lead investigator on Crystal's case. He said when he was on his way to the call, he assumed it was going to be a sort of routine case. Maybe someone had passed away from natural causes while they were fishing on the river. And it's important to keep in mind that before 1995, there hadn't been a murder in Wasatch County for six years. And Wasatch County is where her body was discovered. And that year, Crystal's murder was the third. But Todd Bonner, he is currently now in the position of Wasatch County Sheriff.

But back then, he was pretty new to the police force. And this was actually his first homicide investigation. And he claims what happened to Crystal has haunted him for his entire career. He was never able to forget about it. And he never stopped trying to solve it. He said, quote, it's always in the back of your mind. All the investigators that I still associate with who were part of this, it's always in the knew that this wasn't some accidental kind of death, right? The scene was very bloody.

He knew he had to call for backup immediately because this was not a routine call. So I.D. actually covered this case on Murder Decoded and Todd Bonner was interviewed for it. And you can really tell when you're hearing him talk how much it got to him. He said he was sitting there or standing there waiting for backup. And he just stood there looking at Crystal's body, hearing the sound of the river. And he got this feeling that he couldn't explain to someone if they hadn't been there and seen the kind of hell that Crystal had been subjected to. I watched the documentary as well. And first off, I loved Deputy Bonner, Sheriff Bonner, I should say. You could tell he's one of those guys that if you had something happen to you or a family member, he's the type of guy you want. And I say this a lot because my record as a detective,

we didn't have a lot of homicides. So I haven't done a lot of homicide investigations while I was a detective, but that doesn't mean you wouldn't want me because I promised I would give you everything I had to find the killer. And that's kind of the case with Bonner. It was his first one, but it didn't matter because who he was as a person wasn't going to allow him to stop until he solved it. So that's the guy I'd rather take that guy over the guy who's done a hundred homicides, but it's completely complacent and really just looks at it as another number. As far as what he said about never forgetting about it, it's so funny how your senses take over when you're on a scene like that. Cause I've had, I've had multiple, multiple, not even just homicides, but just, you know, accidental

deaths or, or even just natural causes where you never forget them. And the other things that you pick up on the, the, the sounds, the smells, you, you, you never forget it. And I remember my first, you know, first dead body that I walked in on it. It was, it's funny because in the documentary, they say that the people thought it was like a mannequin and that's how it does. It's honestly how it looks. And in your mind, me as a 20 year old kid, I had a hard time processing what I was seeing. Like I saw, I knew what I was seeing, but I couldn't, from the movies, that's, this isn't real, right? This person's going to get up in two seconds. No. And then

they don't. And then you start to, like I said, the sights and the smells, and it's not like you think it's going to be when you hear about it. And it is not something you never forget. So I really brought me back to my days on the job because he, I can promise you, he wasn't saying it for story purposes. You really don't forget. And now when you have a young girl like this who was brutally beaten, it magnifies it tenfold. Yeah, it's always a mannequin. I hear that constantly in these cases where somebody finds the body. The Black Dahlia is one of the first that brings to mind where the woman who was walking by this lot with her child saw the body of Elizabeth Shore and said, I thought it was a storm mannequin. And this has happened

so many times. I really think it's the brain's way of protecting you from the reality of the situation. I'll also say this without going too much in detail. When you expire, the body loses its color and it almost looks like a plastic or like it looks fake. Waxy, right? Kind of waxy. Waxy. Yes. Yes. The body loses its pigment very quickly and it gives the sheen of like a mannequin. So that's part of it as well. Because when you pass away, you don't look like you did before you passed away. So your skin color changes dramatically and you almost look fake. That's the only other way I can say it. It almost looks fake.

And then on top of that, there's injuries. It's tough for any reasonable, normal person to process. I don't care how many you've seen. You never get used to it. You should never. I feel like there are people, though, like you said, these kinds of cops in these really dangerous high crime areas, they probably see the dead bodies so much that it's almost like just another day now. And that's terrifying. A lot of people on here know, like Joe Kenda and stuff.

I mean, they've done over 200, 300 homicide investigations. I'm sure at some point it does become something where it's just like it's just another day at work for you. And I understand that as well if it's that often. But I guess I'm fortunate where I was never in that situation. Well, because this was the scene of a homicide. Now, the medical examiner in the crime lab came out to help process it. Sheriff Bonner said that crime scenes in general are tough typically to process,

but because this one was outside, it was even more difficult. So with inside crime scenes, you can sort of seal off the room or the house, contain everything. You can watch who comes in and out. But with the outdoor crime scene, you've got wind, the elements,

you know, you're trying to collect evidence. There's no way to seal it off. It's much more challenging. And let's talk about the scene for a moment. So this specific area of the Provo River, it had been lined by the Bureau of Reclamation with these large granite rocks. And this is often reported as, you know, these were river rocks sitting near her body. But these were not normal or, you know, naturally occurring rocks. They were actually put there. And these were ginormous rocks. These were the kinds you would need both hands to pick up.

They ranged in size from as small as like a softball to as big as over 50 pounds. And not far from her body, police found a pair of socks. They were neatly folded, and they were placed over one of these rocks, and there was a hole in the bottom of one of the socks. When officers arrived on the scene, Crystal was lying face down, and there was blood spattered down her back. Defensive wounds in the form of bruising and scraping were found on her hands, specifically the back of her right hand. And on her left hand, the entire top layer of

skin was missing from her fingertips. So what does this tell you about her attack? Well, let's backtrack a little bit. There's a lot to unpack in this section, right? Like, first off, Bonner's spot on. Any crime scene, I don't care what it is. Henry Lee told me this in person, when you walk into a crime scene, no matter how good it is, it's immediately contaminated because you're there. And so that's, that's the trouble we deal with no matter how good of a crime scene preservation technique you use. Um, so as you alluded to with the outside elements, time is of the essence because if you get a good rainstorm or snow or whatever, Utah snow, it's going to wash away a lot of your evidence, a lot of your DNA evidence. Or even animals, right? You got animals

running around. I was just going to say that. Animals, they start to eat certain things in the area. They eat things that could be of value. So he's right. You got to really get on it. And they did a great job of doing that. And as far as the actual crime scene itself, you have the granite rocks. There was blood on multiple rocks in that area. I believe they ended up collecting, you might be getting into this, don't let me steal your thunder, but I believe they ended up collecting six of those rocks that had blood on it. Six rocks that had blood on it. The socks were really perplexing because again, going into this research, I know the outcome of the case, but I try to go through it chronologically right. And to get my natural reactions to what I hear in the socks being folded on the, on one of

the rocks was really perplexing to me because she was nude. And so it's like, how do you get in a situation where you're nude and yet you, you make the decision to fold your socks? Why wouldn't you just take them off and throw them? And my first reaction was, was this a consensual sexual encounter at one point? And when she was outside the vehicle, you know, whatever transporter there, did she take the socks off, you know, voluntarily and fold them up to put them back on later? That was my first reaction. But then you have the hole in the sock and I'm like, well, could she have been running from someone?

And if she was running from someone, why would she take the time to sit down and fold them? It was really confusing to me. The two scenarios didn't line up. And then finally the defensive wounds. I, you know, I don't, I think everyone out there watching or listening knows what that means. It means she put up a fight. It means she refused to be a victim as much as she could. And whoever her offender was, you know, this wasn't going to happen easily for him. She wasn't someone who sat there and probably begged for her life. She was putting up a fight. And unfortunately, this person was able to take control of the situation and ultimately

had to be a coward and use the granite rocks nearby. So it's always tough for me to realize that. I wonder as a family member if it would make me feel better or worse to know that she put up a fight in her last moments and she wasn't sitting there pleading for her life? Or is it worse to see the damage that she took to her hands? I don't know. I think either way it's tough. But personally, for me, I would rather know that my loved one went out putting up a fight. That's just me. Yeah. I don't think you can even gauge how you would feel in that situation unless you were in that situation. So yeah, I mean, it's horrible either way, but you want to know that at least this person that you cared about went out fighting. Yeah.

I agree. And do you think that the flesh being missing from her fingertips, do you think that was as a result of her holding up her hand and the granite rock, which is rough, maybe like slowing off the flesh on her fingertips? Well, I thought about it a couple of ways. I could have been from her, you know, scraping at the rock as they as this person was hitting her with it. I also thought because she was found face down and so could it have been a moment where I've got to phrase this the right way, but could it have been a moment where she was scraping as the, at the rocks while trying to pull away while trying to crawl away. And that's where the final blow came because she did, you know, does appear with

the cast off on her back that the final blow, there was definitely multiple blows to the face and you're going to get into that. I'm sure. But there, there was definitely at least one blow to the back or two because you have cast off. Um, and so that could have been her scraping at the granite rock to try to get away. It could be a combination of things, but the skin being removed from the hand means this, this attack attack was it was violent. It was violent. It was it was incredibly violent. And besides the socks, though, there was no other articles of Crystal's clothing found anywhere. There was no identification found. And then obviously, you know, they have to turn her over and they have to turn her over to attempt to record some physical characteristics since there's no identification, so they have to identify her. And when they did that, they were able to see the full extent of

the damage that had been done to Crystal. The amount of damage that had been done to her face was so bad that Sheriff Bonner said it looked like she didn't even have a face. It was really bad. And without being able to see what she looked like, obviously, you know, what color her eyes were, etc., all the police had to go on was the fact that she had red hair and two tattoos. One tattoo was kind of like, it's like a star made out of arrows that was on her left shoulder. And I looked it up, Usually a tattoo like this with arrows that are crossed, it's supposed to signify a truce or friendship. And then usually when someone gets a tattoo like this, they're getting it because, you know, someone they love or someone they're close to has the same tattoo. And her other tattoo was on her left breast, and it featured two hearts with the name Chris written above them.

And as we know, Chris was her boyfriend slash pimp. An officer with Wasatch County Police also happened to be a talented artist, and he was able to draw Crystal's tattoos so that they could be released to the media in attempt to identify her. There was also another investigator, and this gentleman worked for the medical examiner. His name was Rudy Reit. And this guy was instrumental in this case. So we're talking about 1995 DNA technology. It was being used, but it wasn't being used in all police investigations, especially in a small town police force who didn't deal with a lot of homicides. They don't necessarily have the funds to access this technology, which at that time was considered cutting edge. So Rudy Reid knew that one day DNA technology would catch up. It would be paramount to police work. So he actually encouraged

the detectives on the scene to collect a lot of evidence, more than they probably would have without his encouragement. And as you said earlier, this included the six large rocks that had blood on them. And Rudy was also responsible for instructing the detectives, you know, on how to collect them, like how to properly collect them so that nothing would be contaminated, how to store them so that when this DNA technology did become available to them, they could use it on this well-preserved evidence. Rudy Reid also made sure that the medical examiner collected more than just fingerprints and blood from Crystal, which at that time would usually be all that they would collect.

Her hair samples were collected, her fingernails were clipped, and her bodily fluids were collected and stored. Yeah. If I had to, obviously it was a team effort, but if basically what you just said, if you're to pinpoint the success of this story on one person, it's Rudy Reid, because Rudy Reid had the foresight to see what potentially could happen over time. He knew the science and technology was coming and he was ahead of his time, frankly. And what a great job by him because, you know, as you'll see in this investigation, this information is going to be pivotal to solving it. So really great job by him. And it's people like Rudy, which is why we have some of these cases being

solved years later, because they took the time to collect this evidence, even though in 1995, it was kind of useless. But he knew eventually at some point, maybe even after he was gone, they would be able to use it. So great job by him and the team to do that. And we need innovative minds like that, because there was a point in history when fingerprints weren't even considered to be scientifically being able to use for investigations. And there's this British show I watch called Ripper Street on Netflix.

It's the most underrated show ever. But it's about kind of Jack the Ripper and the police officers who were searching for Jack the Ripper. And so this is before even 1900. And in the show, you see these police officers kind of grow with the technology. So they didn't used to use fingerprints. And now they're kind of getting into it and they're seeing how you can match it. And they're looking at it. And that's exactly what we need, because there was people back in like the 1800s who, when

the police were using fingerprints, these people were like, what are you doing? You know, this isn't how you run an investigation. That doesn't make any sense. But they pushed forward with it. And because of these trailblazers in law enforcement and technology and the judicial system, we have, you know, a pretty good forensic sort of understanding now of how little things like fingerprints and hair or touch DNA or saliva can really solve a crime, a murder, a rape. And that's amazing. Yeah. Kudos to him, the team, everyone involved. And again, it wasn't just him. They all made the decision collectively to do that. And as we will see, it paid off tremendously. And for a police force that wasn't really used to dealing with homicides, I'm very impressed.

Absolutely. Again, some take the time to do it right. And again, it could be a small... Sometimes, you know, when you have a smaller department that only gets like one to three murders a year, they take those investigations a lot more seriously because that's like what you sign up to be a cop for, you know, for a lot of us is to work that homicide case and to give that family closure. And so when they get the opportunity, they don't mess it up and they don't leave. No pun intended here.

No stone unturned. Right. They're going out there and they're going to they're going to do their thing and they're going to make sure that they collect every single piece of evidence that can be used now or maybe later. And that's clearly what they did. They really did do a great job. So I want to get into the autopsy. But before we launch into that, let's have a quick break. So an autopsy was done on Crystal's body and a large hole was found in the back of her skull.

The doctor who performed the autopsy gave the cause of death as cranioscerebral injuries or blunt force injuries to the head. A bloody fingerprint was also found on Crystal's wrist, and a puncture wound was found on the bottom of one of her heels. There was no obvious sign of sexual assault, but male semen was found in Crystal and this was collected as well. Crystal's fingerprints were entered into the police database, but no match was found. So they still had no idea who she was and they ended up submitting what little information they had on Crystal, including her tattoos, what they looked like and where they were placed on her body. They submitted that to the FBI's National Crime Information Center. So I do want to talk about no signs of obvious sexual assault because we we dealt with this in in the Faith Hedgepeth case a little bit. So male semen was found inside of Crystal. So we know she had sex most likely that evening, right? Right. So when they say no sign of sexual assault, it doesn't mean that this woman didn't have sex. It

means that it doesn't appear that the sex was forced. Am I correct? Yeah, that's really it. And it's a totality of things. It could be signs of strangulation or I'm sure there's also scientifically there's signs of tearing that can be found internally to suggest this was forced and not necessarily voluntary. So, yeah. And again, that's where the medical examiners come in because they have seen millions of autopsies where they can discern the difference between someone who's having consensual sex and someone who's having sex against their will. And also just to talk about NCIC, because NCIC is a great, great tool. I was thinking about this.

First and foremost, the autopsy, it appears that Crystal was struck at least 16 times, which when you really think about that, let's take that in for a second. That's someone who's clearly upset and filled with rage to strike someone 16 times with a rock that's excessive. Um, and, and that's why the, the crime scene was the way it was as far as, um, her, her face being in the condition it was as far far as the NCIC database not having much, basically what happened is her being a juvenile, she either A, didn't have her prints taken, which a lot of juveniles, we didn't take their prints, or B, her arrest reports were more internal and not sent anywhere. So any data on her wouldn't be uploaded to a system because

with juveniles, we usually don't send that information out because when they turn 18, it all goes away. Right. Unless it's a serious offense. So with NCIC, when you're arrested, what we do, whether it's a serious crime or a minor infraction, we always take that information. You know, where were you born? Do you have any scars, marks, tattoos, you know, any identifiable, you know, things that would be specific

to you? And when we load up your arrest report, all of that information is on there as well. And I can tell you a lot of times people who are in for minor infractions are like, why are you asking me all this stuff? I'm a criminal. I got arrested for a suspended license or a warrant for a failure to appear. Why are you asking me about these things like I'm a murderer? It's like, hey, listen, man, it's the formality. This is why you do it. Now, they didn't have a lot of luck in

this particular case, but when you have a situation where the victim is unrecognizable, that tattoo or that mark that's specific to them may be something that hits an NCIC where you get a hit. Again, in this case, they didn't, but that's why it's so important to have that unified database that is used on a national level. That makes sense, because I was wondering if she'd been arrested multiple times before, as they'd reported, why wouldn't it have hit? But you're right, she was a minor. So the police department in where she was from probably was like, why should we even bother sending this out nationally when her record will be wiped in a year or two years? And I can tell you there's even been times where we bring in a juvenile for a runaway situation.

If it happens within a couple hours, we'll do a quick documentation of it in our dispatch log and we release them to the parents. Although in this situation, I can see the value and the merit in collecting this information, even on a minor, because Crystal lived a high risk lifestyle. She was involved with sex work. She was involved the situation that she was living in, yeah, she she was at a higher risk for for being the victim of a violent crime. So I think that having her stuff in the system would have would have helped to identify her. And maybe, you know, police departments, if you're dealing with a runaway or somebody who's living a high risk lifestyle like this, maybe they should start putting that stuff into the database just in case anything happens to them. I don't think they can legally. Really? I think that's happens to them? I don't think they can legally. Really? I think that's what it is.

I don't think they can legally because they're not an adult. And the thing is, it's definitely in a database, just not in the unified national database. So I apologize. Where was she originally from? Washington State, I believe. Washington State. So my question would be, had she ever been arrested in Utah? In one of these, more specifically, one of these two departments?

And I think the answer is no, right? So she might have an extensive juvenile record at a place in the state of, wherever she was living in Washington State. Tacoma, I think it was, yeah. Tacoma. So Tacoma PD might have an extensive juvenile database on her where it says photos and tattoos and everything. But when you don't upload it to the national database, which they wouldn't, they wouldn't have any knowledge that this occurred in Utah without someone giving them a call. And Utah wouldn't have a clue that she's from Tacoma. Would you say Toledo?

Tacoma. Tacoma. Tacoma. I apologize. Tacoma, unless they knew who she was and they didn't. So it was kind of like what came first. You don't know. So, but I do agree with you in this sense. Juveniles today are committing, some of them are committing heinous acts. And the fact that we don't have a unified database to connect these individuals who are fully capable of killing someone or

committing really, I mean, think about some of the mass shootings we've had. I mean, there's a lot of juveniles out there who are committing crimes and being tried as adults. So that whole, that whole ideology where it's like, oh, well, they're under 18. We can't upload them because you know, they're juveniles. They have protection, they have right protections and all these things. Maybe we need to relook at that, not only for something like this, but just so there's a database throughout that's connected throughout the country, maybe different from NCIC, but something that's specific to juveniles that maybe less people have access to, you know, like as far as like law enforcement, people being able to look up this information, because that's the real concern is any cop being able to look up

your son or daughter's one mistake they made when they were 16. You get what I'm saying? That's the issue that comes up. So they don't want that following them forever or leaking out. But again, there has to be a common ground and I think we're maybe too far to the to one side right now. could just go from one state after having, you know, robbed banks and stolen cars. You know, I'm talking about the 1920s Bonnie and Clyde kind of stuff, but then they just go on to the next state and do it all over again. And there's no talking between the law enforcement agencies. So I think it would be helpful. And also it would proactively help protect people, I think. I agree. You and I are on the same mindset on that. It's a matter of

getting the individuals who are there to protect juveniles who make those momentary lapses in judgment. And as a result, that's where you got to find the commonality. So probably a bigger discussion for a bigger for another day, but definitely some good points. All these side discussions that we like table while we're doing the podcast. I mean, I think if we like followed up on them, we could save the world. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Just with our little podcast. Changing the game.

Well, back at the motel in North Temple, Chris had still not found his girlfriend, Crystal. But he was watching the news when he saw a report about a murdered Jane Doe. And he also saw the artist rendering of her tattoos. So Chris called the Salt Lake City police, and he told them that he believed the woman who was found dead in Wasatch County was his girlfriend, but he did not give them the name Crystal Beslanowich. He told them that her name was Tracy Beslanowich. So obviously Salt Lake City police contacted the Wasatch County Sheriff's Office to inform them of the possible identification of their murder victim. And deputies were sent to the North Temple Mattel to question Chris.

Because at this point, you know, as you mentioned earlier, he would have been at the top of the suspect list because he's her boyfriend, her pimp. He's really the only person that she knows well in Utah. And it's no offense to them, by the way. You know, it's no offense to the person, the individual, the boyfriend, the husband, whoever it is, could be a great guy. But the reality is when you have a female like this who's brutally murdered and appears to be an emotional murder, right?

And the last person seen with them was said boyfriend. It's just common sense that that person is going to be the prime suspect until proven otherwise. So it's nothing personal. It's just the way it goes. And every investigation has to start someplace. You can't just take a – Pull it out of the air. Yeah, pull it out of the air.

You have to start with a suspect. You have to start with somebody, and he was the one that they started with. So they sit down with him, and he starts telling them a little bit about his girlfriend. He said that she was a creature of habit. She never left this seven block area where they lived and where she worked. She never stayed out late and she never stayed out all night. Chris also revealed an idiosyncrasy that Crystal had. He said that she hated being barefoot. She always wore her socks. The only time she took her socks off was when she was taking a shower. And at that point, she would remove her socks very carefully. She would fold them very neatly and she would set them down also very carefully. And Chris would sometimes tease her about this. So there's our answer, right? There's our answer about the

socks. Yeah, there's the answer. I still, and even as this case unfolds, I still think it's a question we may never have the answer to, but I still wonder what the situation was where she felt she had time to fold her socks. I know she, it could be simply explained as she was a creature of habit. It was a muscle memory thing, but I would, I would think that if she was running for her life or she could, you know, she was nude and, and realized how much danger she was in, the socks wouldn't have been that big of a concern. But again, I wasn't there. But that is a question that even as we sit here today knowing the outcome, I still wonder about just because that's how my mind works.

So there is a theory that law enforcement had, but we will talk about that later. Yes. Yes. Yes, yes, yes. So, you know, Chris is being talked to. And like I said, here's the thing that really bugs me. He did not identify his girlfriend by the name Crystal. He said her name was Tracy Beslanowich. And when the police questioned the other sex workers in the area, they all knew Crystal, but they knew her as Tracy or Baby Tracy or Baby

T. These women said that Baby T, she took care of herself, right? She still went out on the streets with her hair and makeup done. And this was an indication to them that she was sort of new, not necessarily to, to sex work, but to the area. So she would, would keep, you know, making herself up to go out. And I guess after you do this for a while, you just are like, whatever, I'm not gonna, you know, try his, try so hard to make myself look good anymore. Yeah. And you know, the thing about Chris is there's a couple of things. There's a red flag that you just put out. He gives the cops the wrong name. I will say I didn't find anything that suggested maybe he only knew her as Tracy. I don't think that was the case.

I think he knew her real name. I don't understand why he would, why he would lie to the cops about her name when they're clearly going to figure it out. The second thing, again, we go back and you guys can always apply this methodology when you're looking at potential suspects means motive opportunity. First and foremost, the means we know that that Crystal was found approximately 40 miles away from where she was last seen by

Chris. That would suggest that more than likely she was in a vehicle. One thing we didn't mention, I don't think we did. If we did, you can stop me, but they were able to determine a pot, you know, a time of death window based on rigor mortis. And they had said, let me make sure I get my notes right here. Time of death from the time she was found was approximately eight to 10 hours earlier, putting the time of death around 11 PM to 1 AM. So not only did she have to get 40 miles away from 830, but in a reasonable amount of time, she couldn't have walked there is what I'm getting at. And Chris, from what we've discovered,

didn't have a vehicle. So it's still possible in 1995, there were taxis, but there weren't really Ubers or anything like that. So Chris didn't have a means to get her there. And then we go back to motive. And I had said this earlier in our conversation, she was the breadwinner. She was the one providing for herself and Chris financially. He kills her. There's no more money coming in. And I hate to

say this and, you know, maybe it wasn't the case, but it appears that Chris might've been, you know, was her pimp. And if that's the case, why would he take out someone who's producing money for him as basically his employee? So he, to Chris's defense at this point, yes, he lied about her name, but means and motive are not really lining up for him. So as an investigator, I'd be looking at him like, yeah, I got to keep an eye on him, but this doesn't really make sense. His means and motive and opportunity don't really seem to be jiving with the person that we're looking for. Yeah. He knew her name was Crystal because her mother, Crystal's mother knew about Chris. So I assume that they had probably at least met once or twice.

They were both from the same area that Crystal grew up in, right? So people around are going to know her as her real name. So he knew her real name. Now, I think that his motivation for lying about her identity may have been the fact that she was 17 and he was her pimp. Good point. He was putting her out there to have sex with men so that he could benefit off of that. And I'm sure that there's multiple things that are illegal and wrong about that. And, you know, her sister Tracy was 20. So that wouldn't have been such an issue, I suppose.

But, you know, I don't know what the laws in in Utah are as far as age of legal consent. But I'm sure it's like, you's like most other places, maybe 18. Regardless, I think that's- Or 16 even. Yeah. Yeah. That's probably the reason that he was not super upfront with them. No, you make a great point.

But once police believed that they had their Jane Doe's identity, they called Jeff Bislonowicz to give him the difficult news that his daughter was dead. When they got him on the phone, Jeff was like, that's not possible. My daughter, Tracy, she's here with me now. I'm looking at her right now. And then obviously, there had to be a conversation. And as soon as Jeff heard about the tattoos, he was like, yeah, I think I know who this is. This is probably my stepdaughter, Crystal. And he said he lost touch with her a while back, but he knew that she sometimes used Tracy's name. And it turned out, we had talked about this earlier, what was going on, but Crystal

didn't have the best relationship with her mother. And after she'd gotten involved with sex work and drugs and things like that, Crystal began running away constantly. And she spent a lot of time in youth homes and shelters. And during the ID episode on this, I think it wasn't Todd Bonner, but it was one of the other detectives. He said something like he felt Crystal didn't feel cared about, like she wasn't getting enough attention at home, that she felt that she was just kind of in the way. And so she eventually said, well, nobody wants me here anyways. I'll just leave. Do you remember that part? Yeah. You know, it's unfortunate because there's usually a common story that you hear with these situations and it never, it's never easy to hear because there's always things that could, could have changed to make it different. And you

always kind of Monday morning quarterback it. Right. But but um no it's i do want to take a second um to kind of go over what we've gotten so far you know you usually have some type of pattern that is very it's it's familiar even though it involves a different person and it's always unfortunate to hear about because as you always wonder what you could have done differently not only as the family members but also as police police officers. We're there to help the community. What could we have done differently? Maybe we've had interactions with this person before. I really want to break down how we've gotten to this point so far, but let's take a break. We'll save it to after that. So just as a quick note, before we continue, we said Spokane,

that Crystal was from Spokane earlier in the episode when we were first talking about her childhood. But then when we were talking about the FBI database, we couldn't remember where she was from and we were saying Tacoma. Or Toledo. Or Toledo, which is in Ohio. At least Tacoma is in Washington State. You're in the right state.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. My bad. She was from Spokane. And sorry, I don't know why Tacoma came up. But let's talk about what the police have so far now that they have Crystal's real identity. Yeah. You know, I really want to double back. And this is how we'll probably wrap up this episode because we've covered a lot. And there's no moment in this case where up to this point where you're like, wow, what incredible, cool police work was done. No, this was just a lot of little things that were done right that got us to this point. So think back about where we came from.

We start off with two people out in the woods finding what they initially thought was a mannequin. You have a sheriff who's never had a homicide investigation before flipping over a body as they're examining it and not even having a face. And so there's really not much to go off of. You have an unidentified woman out in the middle of nowhere with two tattoos and a pair of black socks with a hole in it and red hair. That's it. That's it. That's all you got to work off of. And from there, we got to where we are. So let's break that down. So they do the medical examination. They do the autopsy, you know, and they don't really have much. They run her in the database. No dice. Maybe for some, that's where you stop. Hey, can't do anything with it. They take it a step further.

They're lucky enough to have a sheriff deputy on staff who's a good artist. That's creative thinking. That's genius, right? You may not want to release that information in some cases, but in this one, you have no choice. So they draw those two tattoos up. Clearly, they were pretty good. And they call on the public for help because at that point they have nothing and sure enough the drawings are good enough they're on enough television out you know

networks and outlets where it gets to someone who can identify those tattoos and chris and even though chris lied he gave them just enough to get to the next breadcrumb, which was Crystal's father. Stepfather. Stepfather. I apologize. Stepfather, who then put the pieces together, who got them in touch, who got the sheriffs in touch with her mother. And now they have a backstory. So again, it sounds really simple like, oh, this is what they're supposed to do, right?

They're detectives. I can tell you it doesn't always work like this. There's a lot of mistakes that are made along the way. And maybe she's still a Jane Doe if another department's investigating this case. If they don't care as much as this department did, or they don't do as good of a job, maybe she's still a Jane Doe and we're still trying to figure out who she is. But because of their police work, because of everyone involved, they know who she is now. And now it's a whole new game. Yeah. And this wasn't even the state that she lived in. She'd only been there for,

I think, five or six months. So just imagine if Chris hadn't been watching the news that night. You know, this is like you said, a Jane Doe. There's not much to go on. How often are they going to keep broadcasting these pictures of the tattoos? They're not going to do it for weeks. They might do it for a day or two before they move on to the next thing. And Chris happened to be watching the news. The one person in Utah who knew her well enough to know her tattoos, he noticed it. He called.

And because of that, they were able to put more pieces of the puzzle together. And the detective work just continues to get better in this case. And it also doesn't hurt that DNA technology within the following years is going to improve rapidly. Because I think when DNA came on the scene, when it started to gain traction, it did so very, very quickly. So that's what we're going to talk about next time. Yeah, this was great. I do want to apologize if there's any mistakes in it as we're doing the YouTube for the first time. I know for one thing I can already tell I'm doing a lot. I'm doing it right now is I'll look at you instead of the camera. I got to get better at that. So don't critique us too hard, especially me. Stephanie's a professional at this.

I'm looking at you instead of the camera too. Are you? It doesn't, I can't tell as much though. Your camera must be more in line with your eyes. Well, also I am going to be editing the podcast this week. So that's also, you know, kind of why I didn't want it to go too long this week, because I know sometimes we'll give you an episode and it's like an hour and a half. But I do hours, two hours. But I wanted to go easy on myself since I've never edited a podcast before.

So I want to make sure that, you know, it's not going to be too much of an undertaking. But we will finish this case next time. And the information that comes out after and the way that they figure this out. It's incredible. It's incredible. So interesting. It's great stuff. If you're into true crime, which I assume you are because you're here, you are going to love hearing about this.

And you're also going to love seeing that Crystal does eventually get her justice. Absolutely. And as far as, correct me if I'm wrong, Stephanie, this episode, if you're listening to it, it comes out on Friday and the YouTube video will actually come out. What are we looking at? We're saying Sundays to do that because we're just starting and we really want to build the podcast because we think it's great and we love everyone who's been listening so far. We want to continue to do that. But as we start to bank these episodes, you'll have more YouTube videos to watch over the long term. So again, if you're not already subscribed to us, we'd really appreciate it.

Check out the YouTube channel, subscribe. And I can't believe we're saying that now. And then also, you know, check out our social media handles, Crime Weekly Pod on all our social media handles. And if you haven't already, because again, Stephanie and I are running the ship now on our own. If you like what you're hearing, please take the time to go and, you know, rate the show and also write a review.

From what I'm understanding as I'm learning, it really helps the algorithm where, you know, it really helps move us up in the chart. So we'd appreciate it. More people that are listening, the better for the show, the more we can bring you guys and the more in depth we can go. Absolutely. Thank you guys for being here. We'll see you next week. See you guys later.