Criminal - La Brea Dave

Episode Date: March 20, 2020

Sgt. David Mascarenas was the Dive Supervisor for the Los Angeles Police Department. He’s been diving his whole life, and prides himself on never refusing a dive, no matter how treacherous. At least until the summer of 2013, when a murder investigation led him into the unusually murky waters of the La Brea tar pits. We first spoke with Sgt. Mascarenas in 2015. This week, we’re adding to the story with information about the crime he couldn’t tell us before. In 2011, a man named Alonzo Ester was shot and killed in LA. The LAPD received a tip that some evidence was at the bottom of the La Brea tar pits. Say hello on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Sign up for our occasional newsletter, The Accomplice. Follow the show and review us on Apple Podcasts: iTunes.com/CriminalShow. We also make This is Love and Phoebe Reads a Mystery. Artwork by Julienne Alexander. Check out our online shop.  Episode transcripts are posted on our website. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Back in 2015, we did an episode about an investigation that led LAPD Sergeant Dave Mascarenas to dive into the La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles. It became one of our most popular episodes. Because the investigation was still happening, there was a lot the LAPD couldn't tell us about the crime they were investigating. Since then, we've learned what happened, and we wanted to let you know. First, here's the original episode, Deep Dive. What are you most often diving for, looking for weapons or bodies or? Our basic search is for bombs, bodies, narcotics, and evidence. Dave Mascarenas is a sergeant with the LAPD.

He's also the supervisor for their underwater dive unit, where he's been diving for the last 18 years. Our diving aspect is not like what most people think, that you go down recreationally and you can see 100 feet and the water's warm and all that good stuff. Our average dive, the waters are cold off our coast, so we're wearing 7-millimeter, seven millimeter, quarter inch wetsuits, and most of the time our visibility is less than a foot. He started scuba diving in high school, performed waterborne operations in the military, and then joined the LAPD, where he's worked in a

lot of different units. The crash unit, anti-gang unit, bike patrol in Hollywood, but no matter what department he was working with, he could be called away at any time to go on a dive. I have been in underground watersheds that are about 100 feet wide by 200 feet long by almost 100 feet deep that are completely enclosed in cement and had to be lowered in by a rope to get in there and do investigations. That's kind of troubling when you know that there's no escape if you have an issue i have been uh in dams you know on top of mountains i have been in the la river searching for bodies i've had to be deployed by helicopter you know into the ocean and do giant strides off the piers, we pretty much do everything in our department

because we try not to say no to an investigation if at all possible because then we're sending a message that, hey, this is a good idea to dump evidence here. But in the summer of 2013, the LAPD dive unit got a call that sounded so unreasonable, it had to be a joke. Detectives had gotten a tip on a high-profile murder case, a case they still aren't releasing many details about. The murder happened in 2011, and the investigation had gone cold, until they got word that evidence may have been thrown in the La Brea tar pits. It was like being asked to scuba dive in a pit of toxic, cold molasses. How could you even see in it, let alone breathe? And at first, you know, we were joking about it.

I was like, yeah, that's not really going to happen. There's no way we could pull that off. But once we receive a request from a detective to do an investigation, my job is to see if that's something that we can do. I would feel like that would be something to just say, I'm sorry, that is absolutely nothing we can do. Well, keep in mind that yes, we're the underwater dive unit, but there's a lot of things that we can do that might not necessarily mean we have to do a dive investigation. We have remote operated vehicles.

We have accessories and equipment that we can deploy sometimes. And nobody knew if anything would function or not. Everybody's best guess was no, nothing would work. When he says everybody's best guess was no, he means everybody. This was an all-hands-on-deck analysis. The L.A. Fire Department, port police, beach police, geologists, archaeologists, diving experts, and even the people who design the underwater search equipment. Their concern was that those remote-operated vehicles emit small electric sparks. Even when they're supposed to be airtight to go underwater, no one could be certain they

wouldn't let off sparks that might cause an explosion and set the whole tar pit on fire. They tried other options, hooks and grabbers, magnets, nothing worked. But they were able to use a sonar system to confirm that the pieces of evidence were in fact down there in the tar. So now we were in a situation where we have identified items that need to be looked at, and we can't retrieve them via equipment, so we decided that maybe we would try to put a diver into the tar. I mean, did you stand around and pick straws or did you think, you know, this is my call? I mean, how did you get chosen to do this? Well, at that time, I was the OIC, the officer in charge of the investigation. If this is a scenario where

I could be asking somebody to go in harm's way and most likely they're not going to come back from it, how would I feel being the person that makes a phone call and says, I told my officer to do that and he did it and knowing he's most likely going to get hurt and he does. And then I have to deal with the family. So I decided if anybody was going to do it, it was going to get hurt and he does. And then I have to deal with the family. So I decided if anybody was going to do it, it was going to be me. And that way nothing could possibly come back. If I get injured or I don't come back, well, it was my decision. Did you stop and, I mean, are you married? I am married. 29 years.

29. And you have kids? I have two sons, 31 and 25. So did you call your wife and say, listen, I have to do this kind of crazy thing. What do you think? Or you decided better not to tell her? No, that was one of those scenarios where you beg for forgiveness later and not say anything. I looked at it like this. I've had a good life.

I've had a great career. I've had a great career. I've done a lot of things. My kids are older. If something bad happened, my wife's going to be taken care of. And when I talked to my lieutenant at the time, who's now retired, he basically said, Dave, do we want to send the message that we can't do this? There's somewhere a bad guy can go and get away with something. And so he and his colleagues started planning and preparing for the dive.

But most of that planning went straight out the window as soon as he got underwater. I'm Phoebe Judge. This is Criminal. There's actually three pits. The main pit that most people see, it looks just like a big, small lake of black tar. The consistency of like pudding, it looks like to me. Tens of thousands of years ago, tectonic pressure started forcing oil up to the surface of the earth,

and it pooled in these small lakes in what is now Los Angeles. And the reason there's something of a tourist attraction is because prehistoric animals would wade in and get stuck. They couldn't escape and would eventually die, and their bones were perfectly preserved by the oil. They're still there today. There's a saber-toothed tiger that's thought to be 44,000 years old and a coyote that's 46,000 years old. It looks like something that you would walk into and just disappear forever. Yes, you see bubbles coming up. That's the methane gas from coming through and some are bigger and smaller so you're always hearing popping noises. But it basically, yeah, it looks looks like uh you know once you step in you're not you're not coming

back in fact they even have a couple of uh prehistoric dinosaur um creatures you know that are fake ones that they have on the side some of them are halfway in the the pit showing depicting them what happened in the past On June 6, 2013, Dave and his team arrived at the tar pits very early in the morning. Dave wore a hazardous materials suit. The suit manufacturers said they thought it should hold up in the tar, but also that if too much time passed, the suit could dissolve and eventually burn itself up. So Dave took extra precautions. He put duct tape on all the seals.

For his breathing, air was pumped down from the surface, and they'd set up a radio system so Dave could hear instructions from people on land. I asked him if he was nervous. I don't know about being nervous. My more thought was, I've got to pull this off. We're probably only going to get one shot at this. And now everybody's there, the media and everywhere else. And I have, you know, all my peers there. I want to do the best job that we can. And I want to do it as safely as possible. And at the end of the day, I kind of wanted to be able to go back

home. The first step was to bring in a fire truck to use the high-powered hoses to clear away the top layer of tar until the surface was something more, as Dave says, liquidy. Then they rigged safety lines in two different directions going across the pit and lowered a rowboat into the tar. And then Dave waded in. As soon as I got in, as soon as my face passed through the first layer, went to the second layer and third layer, all you see is like a dull green, like avocado-covered hue. Some parts of the tar were like pudding where you could basically kind of pat it and feel it and you would be okay. And other parts you touched and you immediately got stuck and it was like a cartoon commercial where your gloves would stretch like a foot until it would finally give away.

The plan was that people on land would monitor the sonar. They would then guide Dave through his radio on where to look, or in this case, where to put out his hands and try to grab at something. However, it was very difficult. You can't like swim normally in tar. You can't really kick. So what we came up with is we had a 30 or 40 foot pole that the the guys from the boat put in the tar and once I submerged I grabbed onto that pole and I would use that to pull myself down and to pull myself and then keep moving it forward a foot at a time into the directions that the radio man was giving me. We need you to move three feet to your right, two feet to your left, that kind of thing.

Because my gauges and equipment, I couldn't see them. Nothing was working. So, so you'd get to, you'd be, they'd be radioing to you and saying, it's there, it's there, put your hand down. You'd put your hand down, you'd feel the object, whatever this evidence is, and you'd grab it. And then you'd put it somewhere in a pocket or? Well, it's not, I wish it was as easy as that. Now you have a dry suit on, you have a glove on. Have you ever put on like two or three layers of gloves when it's real cold in the wintertime for the snow and you can't really grab very well,

that's kind of the same situation. So you had to say, okay, that's not basically shape or size of what I'm looking for. This is basically shape or size of what I'm looking for. And there was no way of putting it in an evidence bag or container. So what I basically did is once I found that item, I brought it up to the guys in the boat, and they put it in an evidence container. You mean you could have had your hand on a million-year-old crocodile jaw? I could have. Yeah, there were some weird things down there. It was supposed to be a nine-minute dive.

That's what they'd planned. It wasn't safe to be down there longer. First off, it was very hot. But also, because the longer his hazardous material suit was exposed to the tar, the more likely it was to dissolve. But then, Dave got stuck. I got my whole arm and hand and shoulder stuck and all of it came up to my face mask. And I started grabbing on the pole and pulling as hard as I could and let them know that I'm stuck and to start pulling with the ropes and then my left

leg got stuck and my fin got stuck and uh I I thought well you know I gave it a good shot you know I can feel like you know the pressure on my uh I'm wearing a harness system so I could feel the pressure on my... I'm wearing a harness system, so I could literally feel it pulling on my chest and ribs. And finally, I got out. He got unstuck and pulled himself to the surface to hand the recovered object to the men in the rowboat. He could have called it a day. But he knew that there was more evidence down there. The job wasn't done.

And in spite of that close call, Dave went back down and immediately got stuck again. And that time, I don't even know how I didn't lose my fin. I felt it like coming off and I went to reach down with my hand and when my hand got stuck, the glove felt like it stretched about a foot to two feet. You know, my fingers and everything, and it finally snapped out. And, you know, I thought, okay, well, I'm not going to make it this time. Somebody's going to have to make that phone call. And I got out, so.

This is a good commercial for duct tape. Duct tape actually works. What was supposed to be a nine 9 minute dive ended up being 77 minutes because none of his dive equipment functioned, no one knows how deep Dave went, but the estimate is anywhere from 7 to 17 feet what did it look like when you emerged

you must have just been quite a sight What did it look like when you emerged? You must have been quite a sight. I was mostly full of tar. My suit had to be trashed. The mask was full of tar. My gloves were full of tar, trashed. The fins, actually, whatever the material were, they were partly melted and deformed. And when we took off the gloves, my hands were full of tar. And then somehow my hood had to

have moved because when they took off the mask, one side of my face and my ears and my neck were full of tar. He was nauseated and lightheaded, but after being checked up by the EMTs and monitored for a couple of hours, they gave him an all-clear. So, what did you say when you got home that night to your wife? I actually didn't get a chance to say anything. I don't like to come home and talk about my work because the different units I've been in, I've been in a lot of specialized units,

I've had some very bad experiences. I mean, some of the stuff you've seen on TV I've been involved in kind of thing. So I would just come home and normally I have my clothes in a plastic bag and say, here, take this to the cleaners and don't touch it because it's got, you know, biohazard on it or something. And just this day I was coming in, I walk in the door, and my wife was standing there, and she had a mean look in her face, and I said, hi, honey. And the first thing she did is she punched me, and she punched me hard. I mean, she works out, so she hit me pretty hard.

And then she burst out in tears, and then she hugged me, and she said, you almost died, and you didn't even tell me. I'm like, well, what are you talking about? She said, it was all over the news. We were watching it at work. I wasn't happy. Dave's wife, Leslie Mascarenas. I walked through the door and I walked up to him and I punched him in the chest, not hard. And then I hugged him and I said, don't ever do that again. And he said, okay. He just kind of, I think he was shocked because I've never hit him like that. I just, I was just so angry, but then just so happy that, you know, he was still standing there and he wasn't, you know, dead or, you know, in the hospital, seriously injured or something with the methane gas.

So I was kind of mad and happy at the same time and scared. You said that you didn't punch him hard, but he says that you did. And he said you punched him hard because you work out. Well, for a girl, I guess it was hard. But I do try to take care of myself. What is it like to live with someone who is actually doing a job and has this mentality and mindset of, you know, I care about my job, I love my job so much, that, yeah, I'll risk my life.

And that's funny because people ask me that all the time, like, aren't you nervous, or don't you get nervous every time you go to work? And I said, no, he's one of those people that, you know, you just know he can take care of himself, You know, that's just who he is. And I knew that marrying him, so you just have to take it in stride. If I worried about it every day, I would probably have ulcers or something. The evidence Dave recovered in the tar pits did help the detectives bring suspects into custody.

We checked in with him one more time last week to see if he could give us any update on the case. And he wrote in an email that the investigation is still open and at least one individual is outstanding. He says his fellow officers have a nickname for him now, La Brea Dave. And while you'd think this would give him a free pass on the next weird job, it hasn't.

Now people know what he can do. Support for Criminal comes from Apple Podcasts. Each month, Apple Podcasts highlights one series worth your attention, and they call these series essentials. This month, they recommend Wondery's Ghost Story, a seven-part series that follows journalist Tristan Redman as he tries to get to the bottom of a ghostly presence in his childhood home. His investigation takes him on a journey involving homicide detectives,

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Baldwin Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles. He was 67 years old, a real estate entrepreneur and night club owner. Early in the morning of May 13, 2011, Alonzo Esther was leaving his club for the night. He asked a security guard to follow him part of the way home because he thought he'd seen a suspicious car outside. Alonzo Esther was driving a white Rolls Royce. He pulled into his driveway and was shot twice, still sitting in the driver's seat. It was 2.30 a.m. Police believe

that the shooter then got into the car and searched Alonzo Esther's pockets. A woman inside Alonzo Esther's house called the police to report the shooting, and witnesses reported that they'd seen a man leaving the neighborhood in a sedan. Alonzo Esther was taken to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead, at 3.13 a.m. Homicide detectives determined that it had been a robbery. Witnesses said that Alonzo Esther's money clip was found on the ground, empty. But his ex-wife, Patricia Esther, said she didn't think it was a robbery, because whoever shot him didn't take the $300,000 car. She told

the LA Times that her ex-husband had talked about wanting to move to the suburbs because he was so concerned about crime. The LAPD had very little information about the person who shot Alonzo Esther and decided to offer a $50,000 reward. The reward notice said, the person or persons responsible for this crime represent an ongoing threat to the safety of the people of Los Angeles. At this point, people began coming forward with information. Dave Mascarenas told us last week that this was how the LAPD even got the idea they should look in the La Brea tar pits.

I recovered three items. I was not sure at the time what they were. According to the evidence paperwork, one of them may have been a firearm, one of them may have been like a bone, and the other one may have been some other type of object used to build something regarding other evidence. And what we know now is that these items that you were pulling from the tar pits, a handgun,

a bone, this was all related to the murder of Alonzo Esther. Is that right? Yes, that is correct. That's my understanding. He was known for carrying a large amount of currency on him at all times. He's also known as having a lot of jewelry and expensive items. And the case had kept getting into different twists and turns. My understanding was that originally they thought it was a hit, and then it was a robbery, and then it was a stage robbery.

But at the end, the suspect confessed to committing a robbery. So that's what he got convicted of. That suspect, a man named Dennis Brown, pled guilty to charges of manslaughter and attempted robbery and was sentenced to 16 years in prison. So the gun, the items that you pulled from the tar pits were then used as a, I don't want to say bargaining chip, but they were used, presented to the suspect who then confessed to being involved in the murder. Yes. The detectives use a variety of techniques and one of them is producing evidence and other factors and statements. And all of that went into play. A witness came up that was ready to testify in the court case

that the suspect did indeed commit the crime. So with our evidence recovery, the suspect decided to take the plea deal and confess of the crime. We requested an interview with the homicide detective assigned to Alonzo Esther's murder, but the LAPD declined. A public information officer wrote in an email, quote, Although one defendant was convicted in this case,

there are still two or three uncharged suspects of the underlying conspiracy, and this matter could conceivably return to a courtroom someday. Dave Mascarenas says it's still one of the most interesting investigations he's ever been part of. The tar pits was one of those that was right up there pushing our limits. Normally when we have a witness or a suspect that says that they have dumped evidence or witnessed evidence being thrown in a search area such as a body of water, we would have them respond to the location and do a reenactment, if you will, of what they saw all the way down to if it was throwing a gun or a bomb or something like that into the water, we would get an object that was similar in weight or shape

and have them reenact the actual toss. Was it a toss? Was it a throw? Everybody's concept of doing something is different. So we try to have them do an actual reenactment. And we were not able to do that because it was such a highile case and they were getting information from all over the place. Have you done anything as wild as diving in the La Brea Tar Pit since we spoke last? One of the craziest ones that I've been on was we searched a moving ship, a super tanker full of liquid propane. And I believe it was the Coast Guard had gotten information that there might be something below the ship that was being either smuggled in or a possible ordinance.

And while the Coast Guard boarded the ship and had it all shut down, we formulated it in the water and basically had to do a search as the ship was passing over us. And you're in high seas, the water column is moving up and down 6, 8, 10 feet, and now a ship's passing over you and you're trying to do a search and kicking up to stay with the ship when it goes up and then trying to brace yourself when the ship comes back down on you. That was pretty crazy.

He says that in 23 years of being an LAPD diver, he's seen some truly wild things. Recovering an entire plane for the DEA, having a body disintegrate in his hands, seeing a body standing upright looking at him underwater. This is his last week of work. After a couple of body part replacements and some torn ACLs and hernias, I'm thinking that it's time. And I feel like that I've done enough and I deserve to experience life and actually be home for the wife and the puppies.

His wife, Leslie Mascarenas, is retiring too. A lot of people don't realize that as a policeman, you don't get a Monday through Friday schedule. Your Friday may be a Tuesday Tuesday and your days off might be Wednesday and Thursday. So we've never had a real set schedule. So we're looking forward to actually being able to take a normal week, two weeks off and have a vacation. And if somebody calls and says, hey, let's go to dinner on Friday or Saturday night, we're going to be able to actually say yes.

How is she doing, your wife? She was almost as much of a star in our previous episode as you were. She's still not happy with me about that caper or any of the other ones that have happened over time. I hear that you're now part of the official La Brea Tar Pits tour. I have heard that they actually talk about our operation. Somebody has told me that they mention my name, but I haven't been there yet. You haven't just been curious and put a hat on, disguised yourself, and head on down and hear what they have to say about you.

Well, I'm definitely going to have to do it before I leave Los Angeles. The wife definitely wants to go down there and check it out. Apparently she's never been there, and now I can say I've been on top and underneath. Well, Dave, I want to wish you all the best in your retirement, and I hope you and your wife have the most wonderful next couple of Friday nights and Saturday nights all to yourselves. Well, thank you very much. I appreciate that. She's going to be looking forward to that, I think. Well, take care and maybe we'll check up with you again after you go to see yourself on the La Brea Tar Pits tour. I'm definitely going to do that.

Criminal is created by Lauren Spohr and me. Nadia Wilson is our senior producer. Susanna Robertson is our assistant producer. Audio mix by Rob Byers. Julian Alexander makes original illustrations for each episode of Criminal. You can see them at thisiscriminal.com or on Facebook and Twitter at Criminal Show. Criminal is recorded in the studios of North Carolina Public Radio, WUNC. We're a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX, a collection of the best podcasts around.

Shows like Everything is Alive, hosted by our friend Ian Chilock. Everything is Alive is an interview show, but all the subjects are inanimate objects talking about themselves, about us and each other. A chainsaw, an Oxford shirt and leather pants who live in a closet together, a Sharpie pen and cap who are working through issues in their marriage, and more. Time magazine says it's laugh-out-loud funny, surprisingly informative and often moving, a profound pleasure.

Here are a few of the objects you'll meet. Well, why don't we have you introduce yourself for us? Well, what's your name? My name is Ian. My name is Ian. I'm a mirror. I'm Louise. I'm a shirt. I'm William and I'm a pants. You're just pants. You're not a pants. Right. I'm pants, and you are shirt. So, my name's Josh. I am a chainsaw. I don't think I have any friends. I mean, when a chainsaw shows up at a party, you know, something has gone awry.

Are you just saying your name is Ian because my name is Ian? Well, I'm not sure what my name would be otherwise. What if no one is standing in front of you? Then I wouldn't be talking. Do you like being ironed? Do I like being ironed? Yeah. People don't really get ironed.

Yeah, people don't get ironed, William. That's why people wrinkles never go away. You should try getting ironed. I think you'd look great. Subscribe to Everything is Alive wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Phoebe Judge. This is Criminal.

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